Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy Honors Cancer Pioneer Dr. Carl June at its Award Gala April 18, 2019

This story has been published on: 2019-04-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.

Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy (ACGT), the nation's only nonprofit dedicated exclusively to funding cancer cell and gene therapy research, is celebrating its 18th anniversary with a very special Award Gala. The event will be held at 6:45 p.m., on April 18, 2019, at the Harvard Club of New York City. The 2019 ACGT Award Gala: Accelerating the Momentum of Early Pioneers, will honor Dr. Carl H. June with The Edward Netter Leadership Award. Dr. June will be honored for his lifesaving CAR T-cell treatment for leukemia and lymphoma, which was the first-ever FDA-approved gene therapy for cancer. Dr. June was one of ACGTs first grant recipients for his work with CAR T-cells and the collaboration helped support Dr. Junes breakthrough work at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is now the director of their Center for Cellular Immunotherapy. He was named one of TIME magazines Most Influential People of the Year in 2018 and is now a member of ACGTs Scientific Advisory Council. To learn more about the ACGT Gala or to reserve a ticket, please call 203-358-5055 or email agoldman@acgtfoundation.org.I am beyond thrilled to present The Edward Netter Leadership Award to Dr. Carl June, said Barbara Netter, co-founder of ACGT and honorary chairman of the Board. My husband Edward Netter was one of the primary promulgators of gene therapy  before anyone else was interested. He was always thinking about gene therapy and knew that it was the key to unlocking better and more effective treatments for cancer. My only regret is that my husband Edward did not live to see the fulfillment of his vision, as he sadly passed away in 2011, only months before Dr. Junes research was published.ACGTs funding of Dr. Junes work was crucial and came at a time when other organizations were not ready to fund this type of work. ACGT funded it before the NIH and before pharmaceutical companies got involved. Dr. June has often noted that, the funds from ACGT sustained us and kept the research alive. And without them, we may not have been where we are today.This is an exciting time in the field of cancer gene therapy, noted Kevin Honeycutt, CEO and president of ACGT. We continue to see promising gene therapy treatments being green-lit by the FDA and addressing a variety of different cancers. Each success begins with rigorous research, which is dependent on funding like that of ACGT. ACGT is proud to be aligned with the most promising scientists who are paving the way for new and more effective life-saving cancer treatments.Dr. Carl June is the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Penns Perelman School of Medicine, the director of the Center for Cellular Immunotherapy in the Abramson Cancer Center, and the director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at Penn. Clinical trials of CAR T therapy began at the University of Pennsylvania in 2010, and two of the first three patients to receive the therapy, for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) remain in remission nearly nine years later. Dr. June has published more than 350 manuscripts and has received numerous prizes and honors, including election of the Institute of Medicine in 2012, the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize, the William B. Coley award, the Karl Landsteiner Memorial Award from the AARB, the Richard V. Smalley Memorial Award from the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, the Philadelphia Award, the Hamdan Award for Medical Research Excellence, and the Novartis Immunology Award for Cancer Cell Therapy Development. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2014. In 2017, he was named a fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research Academy and received the David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, as well as Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He received graduate training in immunology and malaria at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, and post-doctoral training in transplantation biology at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He is also a member of the ACGT Scientific Advisory Council.About Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy (ACGT)Established in 2001, ACGT is the nations only nonprofit dedicated exclusively to funding cell and gene therapy research for all types of cancer. One hundred percent of contributions go directly to research. Since its inception, ACGT has funded some of the underlying science that has resulted in the formation of either licensing agreements or biotech companies including Novartis, Ziopharm, Juno, Tmunity and Turnstone Biologics, all of which are in various stages of bringing new treatments to patients. ACGT has funded 58 grants in the U.S. and Canada to conduct and accelerate critically needed innovative research. 36 of those grants have been awarded to Young Investigators for basic research and 22 grants to Clinical Investigators, totaling more than $29 million in funding. ACGT is located at 96 Cummings Point Road, Stamford, Connecticut 06902; 203-358-5055. To learn more, visit acgtfoundation.org or join the ACGT community on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube at @acgtfoundation.# # #Contact: Jenifer HowardAlliance for Cancer Gene Therapy (ACGT)acgtfoundation.org203-273-4246jhoward@jhowardpr.comRelated Link: http://www.acgtfoundation.org
ChiccoDodiFC/iStock(LOS ANGELES) -- A police officer was shot in Los Angeles Sunday morning and transported to a local trauma center, police said.



The Hawthorne Police Department confirmed that one of its officers was shot in the leg, and is expected to make a full recovery.



"Officer down," the department tweeted. "We had an officer involved shooting at Rosecrans and Aviation."



"Still working to secure the area," it added. "We have possible 1 suspect detained."



At a news conference, Michael Ishii, the chief of Hawthorne police, said that the department received a call about a domestic dispute at around 9:20 a.m. at a local Marriott hotel. When officers responded, the suspect ran across the street into a shopping center. Officers confronted him, after which he shot at them and fled.



Officials have not released the name of the officer, but said the male suspect is in custody.



The suspect, who hasn't been named, either, was formally arrested Sunday afternoon, police said. The suspect also suffered a gunshot wound.



"No other suspects," according to Hawthorne Police Department's Twitter account.



"HPD Officer who was shot is awake and alert," it added.



The tweet said the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department will be leading the investigation.



The LA County Sheriff's Office warned people in a tweet to avoid the area of Rosencrans Ave and Aviation Boulevard.



Copyright  2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
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.
Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: With voting for the first phase of 2019 LS polls just two days away, the stage is set with war lines running deep in eight seats of western UP. While political bigwigs are focusing last minute energies through back to back rallies, voters might have made up their minds by now.

While issues like unemployment, nationalism, law and order, farmers distress are finding an echo in poll arena, four Cs --- Caste, Community, Cane dues, and Cow (stray cattle) -- seem to be ruling the ground zero across eight constituencies -- Saharanpur, Kairana, Bijnor, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Meerut, Gautam Buddh Nagar and Ghaziabad  going to vote on Thursday.

FOLLOW OUR ELECTIONS COVERAGE HERE

The central theme, however, is likely to be the Modi factor. Those voting for BJP would do so because of him. And those not would also do so be because of him. While 2014 Lok Sabha saw a clean sweep by the saffron bandwagon winning all eight seats of the first phase, in 2019 the opposition is sitting cautiously tight. The fight is assured to be piquant three-cornered with SP-BSP-RLD and Congress strengthening their armours to stop another surge of the saffron.

The demographics of key constituencies, the arithmetic of the alliance, and the popularity of strong local candidates are set to make BJPs battle tough. However, lack of a strong narrative, inner contradiction of alliance dynamics, absence of leaders capable of being presented as an alternative to PM Narendra Modi and nationalism could even make the BJP breach the SP and BSP vote bank partly. Otherwise also, the saffron strategists will target non-Yadav, non-Jatav Hindu vote bank to accrue maximum gains in a politically hostile situation.

Meanwhile, the Congress, out of alliance, is depending on the charisma of its leaders (Priyanka Gandhi Vadra) and its status of being the only other national party against the BJP to salvage some pride.

Despite a soaring vote share, the BJP is likely to find it formidable to surmount SP-BSP alliance challenge in seats where Muslims, Yadavs and Jatavs are in substantial numbers, supplemented with the Jat support of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) especially in Mazuaffarnagar, Baghapt, Meerut and Kairana.

READ: Can Muslims voters swing electoral fortunes of Western Uttar Pradesh?

The seat-by-seat stock of issues dominating the discourse throws up an interesting scenario with a likely dent to the ruling partys prospects.

1. Saharanpur: In a keenly-poised three-cornered contest, division in Muslim votes would impact the outcome. While the BJP has repeated its sitting MP Raghav Lakhanpal who had won the seat with a margin of 65,000 votes against his nearest rival and Saharanpur strongman Imran Masood of Congress. Imran is again in the fray and interestingly, BSP, with a formidable presence in Saharanpur has fielded Fazlur Rehman. Prospective division of Muslim votes necessitated BSP chief Mayawatis Sunday vote appeal to Muslims.

2. Kairana: With imprints of exodus post-2013 communal riots, Kairan served as the laboratory where SP-BSP-RLD alliance was consolidated during 2018 bypoll which BJP lost despite enjoying the legacy of strong Gurjar leader late Hukum Singh. The sitting BJP MP, whose demise resulted in Kairana bypoll, had won the seat with a margin of around two lakh votes drubbing Nahid Hasan of Samajwadi Party in 2014. In 2019, while alliance has repeated Tabassum Hasan, the actual fight would be between Congress and BJP. Congress has fielded popular jat leader Harendra Malik and BJP Pradeep Chaudhury, also a popular Jat leader, many time MLA from Gangoh assembly seat. Over 42 per cent upper caste votes would decide the outcome.

3. Muzaffarnagar: Muzaffarnagar had decided the BJP sweep in western UP in 2014 with 2013 riots a major issue. In 2019, the air has a different tinge as BJPs prominent Jat leader and sitting MP Sanjeev Balyan is facing the challenge from none other than RLD chief Ajit Singh himself as the alliance candidate. While Balyan is believed to have promising clout among backwards, upper caste and also jats, Ajit Singh, 80, fighting his last election, is depending on the support bases of SP, BSP and Muslims along with jats the caste he belongs to. The battle is tough as nationalism, Modi and development factors are dominating the discourse, but the caste arithmetic backs Ajit Singh who had lost the last election from his own bastion Baghpat and was pushed to the third spot.

4. Baghpat: Baghpat, also known as the Jat land with around 30% jats, is caught between legacy and faith. While RLD vice president Jayant Chaudhary is the alliance candidate fighting to save the legacy of his grandfather and ex-PM Chaudhury Charan Singh, BJPs sitting MP and Modi minister Dr Satyapal Singh is depending on his good work of five years, his popularity among all the communities and also Modi factor to sail through yet again.

5. Bijnor: Bijnor seems to be set for a three-cornered contest with all the three candidates depending on the polarisation of votes. However, on the face of it, Congress candidate Nassemuddin Siddiqui, a former aide of BSP chief Mayawati, may decide the outcome. HE may play a spoilsport for alliance candidate Malook Nagar (BSP) by creating a division in Muslim vote bank (over 30 %). Spread across both the sides of Ganges, Bijnor may be having issues galore but BJP has once again reposed faith in its sitting MP Chaudhury Bhartendra Singh, who is depending too much on Modi factor and division of Muslim votes.

6. Meerut: The land of mutiny may pose a tough challenge for the BJP this time. Here the sitting BJP MP Rajendra Agarwal is locked in a direct fight with Congress candidate Harendra Agarwal. However, the alliance candidate Haji Yaqqob Qureshi (BSP), the muscleman and meet exporter, may stand benefitted by the division of votes between both Agarwals.

7. Ghaziabad: As a parliamentary constituency, Ghaziabad came into being in 2009. The real challenge on this eat is for Gen VK Singh who has been repeated here by the BJP. In 2014, Gen Singh was one of those candidates who has won the election with the largest margin. With Dolly Sharma of Congress and former MLA Suresh Bansal (SP) if alliance in the fray, Gen Singh has to salvage his partys pride cashing in on development, nationalism and Modi factor in a three-cornered fight.

8. Gautam Budh Nagar: Here also a triangular fight is on the cards. While BJP has repeated Dr Mahesh Sharma also a Modi minister, alliance has fielded Satvir Nagar (BSP) and Congresss Arvind Kumar Singh are in the fray in the VIP NCR constituency. The challenge for the BJP candidate is to repeat 2014 for his party riding on Modi magic and development.


By PTI

BHOPAL: The Income-Tax Department Monday said it has detected a "widespread and well-organised" racket of a collection of unaccounted cash of about Rs 281 crore during raids against close aides of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath and others.

It said the sleuths have recovered Rs 14.6 crore of "unaccounted" cash and seized diaries and computer files of suspect payments made between Madhya Pradesh and Delhi.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said the department has also detected a trail of Rs 20 crore suspect cash allegedly being moved to the "headquarters of a major political party in Delhi" from the house of an important person who lives on Tughlaq Road, home to many VIPs.

"Rs 14.6 crore of unaccounted cash has been found so far, besides 252 bottles of liquor, few arms and tiger hide-skins," the CBDT said in a statement issued late night.

The CBDT frames policy for the I-T Department.

"Searches in Madhya Pradesh have detected widespread and well-organised racket of collection of unaccounted cash of about Rs 281 crore through various persons in different walks of life, including business, politics and public service.

"A part of the cash was also transferred to the headquarter of a major political party in Delhi, including about Rs 20 crore, which was moved through hawala recently to the headquarter of the political party from the residence of a senior functionary at Tughlak Road, New Delhi," the CBDT said.

It, however, neither identified the political party nor the senior functionary. The statement added that records of collection and disbursement of cash "in the form of hand- written diaries, computer files and excel sheets were found and seized and it corroborates the above findings".

ALSO READ | Madhya Pradesh: Congress-BJP at war as I-T raids at CM Kamal Naths close aides' premises continue for second day

It added that the searches in Delhi in the group of a close relative of the senior functionary have further led to the seizure of "incriminating evidence, including cash book recording unaccounted transactions of Rs 230 crore, siphoning off money through bogus billing of more than Rs 242 crore and evidence of more than 80 companies in tax havens."

The CBDT said several unaccounted/benami properties at posh locations in Delhi have also been detected. It said these "instances of violations of the model code of conduct are being brought to the notice of the Election Commission".

The searches, on charges of alleged tax evasion and hawala transactions during the ongoing poll season, continued Monday at various premises in Bhopal, Indore, Goa, Delhi and the national capital region.

The department had Sunday launched pre-dawn raids at 52 locations of people and associates linked to Nath by involving about 300 tax sleuths.

Sources had told PTI that there is a "strong possibility" of the cash recovered during the operation 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 also been shared by the department with the CBDT and the Election Commission in Delhi.

A cash van with large-sized trunks has been sent by the department at a location in Bhopal to seize and collect the cash found during the raids, they said.

Those searched included Nath's former Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Pravin Kakkar, former adviser Rajendra Miglani, Ashwani Sharma, Paras Mal Lodha and executives linked to his brother-in-law's firm Moser Bayer and a company of his nephew Ratul Puri. Nath had reacted late Sunday to the development.

"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," he had said.

"These institutions were used to scare people. When they do not have anything to say on development and their work, they used these kind of tactics against their opponents," the CM's statement had said.
Prasanta Mazumdar By

Express News Service

GUWAHATI: The Manipur High Court on Monday ordered for the release of journalist Kishorechandra Wangkhem, detained under National Security Act (NSA) since last November for his alleged offensive remarks in a video uploaded on Facebook.



The honourable high court has today ordered for his release. We are awaiting a copy of the courts order. We are hopeful that he will be released soon, Wangkhems wife, Ranjita Elangbam, said.



Earlier, she had filed a petition in the court with a prayer for his release. The court completed the hearings of the petition on March 4 but reserved the judgment.



On November 21 last year, Wangkhem was arrested under Sections 294 and 500 of the IPC in addition to Section 124 A, which deals with sedition, for his criticism of Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh and the BJP-RSS and later, sentenced to one years detention by a local court.



He had uploaded a video on Facebook two days ahead of his arrest wherein he used expletives several times to slam the BJP-RSS and the state government. He had described the CM as a puppet of Modi and Hindutva. He was miffed with the state government for organizing a function to mark the birth anniversary of Rani Lakshmibai. He said she had nothing to do with Manipurs freedom movement.
By Bloomberg

Prime Minister Narendra Modis ruling Bharatiya Janata Party pledged spend Rs 100 lakh crore on infrastructure to boost the economy and raise living standards, in a bid to match its main rivals populist promises.

The BJP, which is seeking a retain power in elections starting April 11, released its manifesto in New Delhi on Monday, reiterating its pledge double farmers income by 2022, improve the GDP share from the manufacturing sector and double exports. It will also scrap Article 370 of the Indian Constitution which grants special concessions to the disputed state of Kashmir.

Indias 263 million farmers are a key voting bloc in the worlds largest democracy. The main opposition Congress Party has promised to write off farm loans throughout the country. To match it, BJP committed to invest 25 trillion rupees ($359 billion) in rural development and said farmers will receive 6,000 rupees per year in income support.

"The essence of the manifesto is to deplete poverty to single digits in next five years and then eventually eliminate it," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. "This manifesto has been prepared with a strong nationalist vision."

FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE

It also promised to take its flagship programs -- providing toilets, electricity connections, houses, cooking gas, crop insurance and loans for small businesses -- to more beneficiaries by allocating additional resources.

BJP, which is leading in opinion polls, is offering giveaways to stave off a challenge from Congress, led by Rahul Gandhi. Congress has promised in its manifesto to rid India of poverty by 2030 by providing income support to the poor, waiving farm loans and creating jobs.

New India

"With this document we are committed to moving toward a new India," said Rajnath Singh, Home Minister and head of BJPs election manifesto committee. "We will work on improving Indias ranking in ease of doing business," Singh said. "We will try to double exports."

The BJP is banking on the support of around 220 million Indians who have benefited directly from the governments flagship programs, as well as a 750 billion rupees ($10.8 billion) income support program for small farmers and lower taxes for middle-class.

Modi has been criticized by the opposition for not fulfilling his promise of creating 10 million jobs each year -- a pledge that helped him win over Indias youth in the 2014 election. The ruling party denies this charge.

The boost to infrastructure will also "lead to creation of a large number of jobs and livelihood opportunities," the manifesto reads, noting the government would target "untapped employment-generation of potential of sectors such as defense and pharmaceuticals."


By PTI

NEW DELHI: 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 in-charge 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.

FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE

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.''
Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

Giving a final push to the prospects of alliance candidates in fray in the first phase on April 11, BSP chief Mayawati on Monday condemned BJP for releasing manifesto for 2019 saying the ruling had no moral right to release manifesto.

"They should rather have brought out the Action Taken Report (ACR) explaining how far did they fulfil the promises made in 2014," she said.

Mayawati was addressing a public rally in Meerut. After cheating and misguiding people by making hollow promises in 2014, the BJP has come out with another manifesto to befool people yet again. Lekin kath ki handi bar bar nahi chadhti (But in a wooden pot, food cant be cooked again and again), she said implying that the truth will always prevail.

ALSO READ | PM Modi pledges Rs 100 lakh crore on infrastructure in re-election bid

The BSP chief made a strong pitch for a government led by UP alliance at Centre. She also warned people against trying national parties like Congress again and again. She promised voters employment instead of cash on coming to power at the centre.

In a veiled attack on Congresss NYAY (minimum income scheme) promise of Rs 72,000 per annum, Mayawati said: I will give you facilities instead of Rs 6000 per month. With an eye on 2022 UP assembly polls, Mayawati exhorted people to vote out BJP both from Delhi and Lucknow. Taking the manifesto issue further, Mayawati sought to justify her partys stand of not believing in the manifesto.

While SP chief Akhilesh Yadav had released his party's vision document last week, Mayawati said she did not believe in making hollow promises but in the delivery of welfare. Addressing a rally at Hapur road jointly with RLD vice president Jayant Chaudhury, Mayawati referred to the Deoband joint rally as the one to have rattled BJP leaders.

However, the appeal for minority vote by Mayawati at Deoband on Sunday had come under EC scanner. The four-time UP CM said, People chanting Jai Bhim in western UP will defeat BJP, which has only served the cause of capitalists and big industrialists. The saffron party has also launched a misleading campaign along with the media against opposition parties.

ALSO READ | RJD releases manifesto, promises reservation, caste-based census

On SARAB jibe of PM Modi, Mayawati claimed that he was under the influence of sharab (alcohol) as he was not able to see the ground reality. I am sure people would ensure the victory of alliance candidate with a huge margin. No matter how much BJP leaders shout NaMo NaMo, people chanting Jai Bhim would chase them out of power.

FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE

However, she accused the Congress party of lacking will to defeat the BJP saying Congress was fielding candidates to weaken fight of alliance. Mayawati said Modi government was helping a few capitalists only ignoring poor and deprived. During the Congress rule, there was Bofors scam and now, there is Rafale. The countrys borders are not safe, she said while downplaying the BJP rhetoric over nationalism. She also flayed the ruling party over issues like stray cattle, demonetisation, GST while accusing it of misusing agencies like CBI and ED to target political opponents.

ALSO READ | LJP manifesto promises job reservation in private sector

Mayawati played Dalit and minority card to woo voters from both sections claiming current regime failed to stop atrocities against Dalits and minorities in last five years. According to the pre-poll alliance, the BSP candidates will contest from 38 seats, while the SP has contenders in 37 constituencies. The RLD has fielded its nominees on three seats, while the two seats of Amethi and Rae Bareli were left for the Congress.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Eyeing another stint in power, the BJP on Monday made a string of promises, including expeditious construction of a Ram temple, a firm hand in dealing with terrorism and doubling farmers income in the next three years.

The party also promised to make India the third largest economy globally by 2030 and scrap Article 370 that gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir if it comes back to power.

FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE

Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the manifesto, titled 'Sankalpit Bharat, Sashakt Bharat' (Determined India, Empowered India), in the presence of BJP chief Amit Shah and other top leaders, including Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley.

In the manifesto, the BJP also resolved to annul Article 35 A of the Constitution which says no outsider can own property in Jammu and Kashmir.

READ MORE | BJP manifesto not prepared by 'tukde tukde' mindset but with nationalist vision: Jaitley

On the economic front, the BJP said it aspired to make India the third largest economy of the world by 2030.

"This implies that we commit to make India a USD 5 trillion economy by 2025 and USD 10 trillion economy by 2032," it said.

The party promised it will continue with the simplification of the GST process by engaging in dialogue with all stakeholders.

The party said purchase of defence equipment will be fast tracked to strengthen the armed forces, adding that the BJP government will continue with its approach of zero tolerance towards terrorism if voted to power.

Security forces will continue to get a free hand to deal with terrorism, the document stated The party said it will implement NRC (National Register of Citizens) in a phased manner in various parts of the country.

About Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP said, "We reiterate our position since the time of the Jan Sangh to the abrogation of Article 370. We are committed to annulling Article 35A of the Constitution of India as the provision is discriminatory against non-permanent residents and women of Jammu and Kashmir."

"Let us work towards building a strong and inclusive India, whose citizens are assured of dignity, prosperity, security and opportunity," Modi wrote in the preface of the manifesto.

In his write up in the manifesto, Shah said, "In its tenure of five years, the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been able to take many decisions which are historic and has ushered in a comprehensive and fundamental transformation.

He also referred to various schemes and decisions of the government, including Swachh Bharat Mission, Ujjawala Yojana, Saubhagya Yojana, demonetisation, GST, surgical strikes and air strikes.

In his remarks at the event, Shah said Modi has done justice to every sector of the society, with cooking gas connections in rural areas, housing and affordable healthcare for all and welfare schemes for farmers.

Calling the BJP's manifesto for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls a "vision document", head of the party's manifesto committee Rajnath Singh on Monday said the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was fully committed on nationalism and zero tolerance towards terrorism.

"Our 'Sankalp Patra' is a vision document that lists the expectations of 130 crore Indians," Singh said.

"We are fully committed on nationalism and zero tolerance towards terrorism," the Union home minister added.

He said the BJP was committed towards implementing a Uniform Civil Code in the country and all alternative options will be explored for the construction of a Ram temple at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh in the most conducive manner.

The saffron party would ensure the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Bill in Parliament with utmost respect to every state's cultural values, Singh said.

Salient points of BJP's manifesto
Sana Shakil By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The Centre is likely to challenge a Delhi High Court order which said there should be uniformity in the retirement age of all paramilitary forces, such as BSF, CRPF, ITBP, SSB, CISF and Assam Rifles, sources told this newspaper.

The Delhi High Court had termed the difference in the retirement age among paramilitary forces as discriminatory, and had asked CAPF to fix 60 as the retirement age for all the forces.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is likely to file an appeal against the order, sources said, adding that the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) had raised serious concerns about the courts decision.

Currently, only the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and Assam Rifles (AR) have fixed the retirement age at 60 years. For the remaining four forces - CRPF, Border Security Force (BSF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) - personnel in the ranks of constable to commandant (senior superintendent of police) retire at the age of 57, while those above them retire at 60.

The CRPF, Indias largest paramilitary force, has told MHA that 80 per cent of its personnel are deployed in difficult areas, and they need a younger profile.

The force is at the forefront of anti-Naxal operations in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand and is fighting militants in Kashmir. The CRPF, which has a sanctioned strength of 3,24,093, has also conveyed to MHA that an increase in retirement age would lead to stagnation in the force because there wont be any promotions for three to four years, and that could cause frustration among the ranks.

Sources said the CRPF had also told MHA that if the retirement age was increased, the force should be given more static duties. The court order came in January when it gave four months to MHA to take all consequential steps for implementing the courts judgement.

BSF differs

While the CRPF has expressed reservations on the issue, the other paramilitary forces have agreed with the courts view. The BSF has said the personnel retiring at the age of 57 are fit and alert.
By PTI

PATNA: The Rashtriya Lok Samata Party, a constituent of opposition "Mahagathbandhan" in Bihar, suffered yet another setback Monday with its sitting MP Ram Kumar Sharma floating his own faction and lambasting the party's founder Upendra Kushwaha for allegedly ignoring committed workers while distributing tickets.

The Sitamarhi MP, who has been the party's "chief whip" in the Lok Sabha and the chairman of the parliamentary board, made the announcement at a news conference here, saying, "I am going to write to the Election Commission to recognize RLSP (Ram Kumar Sharma) as a separate group".

"Like a feudal oligarch, Kushwaha decided on the candidates for all five seats he was allotted in Mahagathbandhan, without consulting me. Jittery over his prospects in his sitting seat of Karakat, he is contesting from Ujiyarpur as well," Sharma alleged.

The disgruntled leader, the only sitting MP in the RLSP other than Kushwaha, also said that the party's founder had falsely accused Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of using foul language against him.

"He denied me a ticket because I tried to stop him whenever he took suicidal decisions like falling into the trap of the Congress and Sharad Yadav and quitting the NDA. He falsely accused Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of using foul language against him," Sharma claimed.

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"The most brazen example of his shenanigans was on display in Motihari (Purvi Champaran). He took money for the seat from former general secretary Pradeep Mishra and reneged on his promise when he got a bigger price from Madhaw Anand. In the end, he sold the ticket to Akash Prasad Singh who turned out to be the highest bidder. Singh was not even a party member before his candidature was announced," he said.

Singh is the son of former Union minister Akhilesh Prasad Singh, who won Purvi Champaran seat - earlier known as Motihari - in 2004 and was the runner up in 2009 as a Congress nominee.

The former minister currently heads the campaign committee of the Bihar Congress.

Sharma also alleged "the candidate for Pashchim Champaran, too, has been imported from the JD(U) for a price. Brajesh Kushwaha's candidature left us all wondering when he acquired the primary membership All through, Kushwaha has functioned in an undemocratic manner. He made righteous noises about the need for representation of lower castes in the judiciary and used the metaphor of kheer (rice pudding) to hoodwink the people with the claim that he wanted to take all sections along. Whenever somebody raised objections about the near absence of non-Kushwaha OBCs, he was eased out," Sharma alleged.

All RLSP members in the bicameral state legislature had turned their backs on him when he walked out of the NDA, the sitting MP claimed.

"He stands isolated today, even though he may be feeling high over getting five out of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar. Our Jehanabad MP Arun Kumar had parted ways long back. Now our group will work to ensure that he loses all the five seats," Sharma asserted.

A former JD(U) leader, Kushwaha floated his own party in 2013 after having voted in favor of the bill for introducing FDI in retail brought by the then Congress-led UPA government, defying the party whip.

When Nitish Kumar, the de facto leader of the JD(U), pulled out of the NDA, Kushwaha cosied up to the BJP.

His fledgling party won all the three seats it contested - riding the Modi wave.

The BJP - which needed an OBC face to compensate for the exit of Kumar - promptly rewarded him with a ministerial berth at the Centre.

Kushwaha, however, grew uneasy following Kumar's return to the NDA in 2017.

The BJP insisted that all NDA partners make sacrifices in order to accommodate the new ally and asked him to settle for two seats.

He ultimately walked out of the NDA in December last year.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: After skipping the first two summons of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in a terror funding case, moderate separatist leader and Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq appeared before the agency on Monday, officials said.

Mirwaiz, who was provided security upon his arrival at the Indira Gandhi International airport, was accompanied by separatist leaders Abdul Gani Bhat, Bilal Lone and Maulana Abbas Ansari.

Mirwaiz was asked to appear before the NIA on March 11 and March 18 but expressed his inability to do so, saying he feared for his security in view of conditions of hostility. In its third summons, issued last week, the NIA promised him security. Sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) termed the development significant and said it would pave the way for a thorough investigation.

Mirwaiz had tried to evade the questioning by NIA by resorting to various stratagems - not responding initially to NIA summons at all, and later saying he was ready to be examined by NIA in Srinagar. However, eventually he had to follow the summons and travel to New Delhi to answer questions from NIA, a senior MHA official said.

The official added that Mirwaizs questioning was in line with the governments firm stance that separatist leaders will be held accountable for the laws of the land.

Terror funding

The NIA probe seeks to identify the chain of players behind the financing of terrorist activities, pelting of stones on security forces and burning of schools in J&K
Photo taken on April 16, 2018 shows cargo containers of China Railway Express at Duisburg Intermodal Terminal (DIT) in Duisburg, western Germany. Duisburg, Germany's biggest inland port and one of the important slots of China Railway Express (CRE), has witnessed fruitful results of the Belt and Road Initiative over the past few years and harvested its own urban economic growth. [File Photo: Xinhua]

AMMAN, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Li Chengwen, ambassador for China-Arab States Cooperation Forum Affairs of China's Foreign Ministry, refuted on Sunday the criticism that China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will create so-called "debt trap" for some participating countries.

"China is trying to find mechanisms to avoid the 'debt trap,'" Li said during a session on the second day of the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa 2019 held in the Dead Sea area of Jordan.

The Chinese envoy was responding to the criticism directed at the BRI by some people in the United States and Europe ahead of the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, due to be hosted by China later this month in Beijing.

The initiative, proposed by China in 2013, aims at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes of the Silk Road to seek common development and prosperity.

As of July 2018, more than 100 countries and international organizations had signed Belt and Road cooperation documents with China, extending the initiative's scope from the Eurasian continent to Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the South Pacific region.

Li pointed out that no participating country has complained of falling into the so-called "trap" of Chinese loans.

"The Belt and Road Initiative aims to increase the economic prosperity of a country. It does not aim at expanding the political and geographical authority of China in the world," he said.

Many participants at the forum in Jordan agreed with Li's comments.

"If you keep your interest first, you will not find China an unfair partner," said Shandana Gulzar Khan, Pakistan's parliamentary secretary for commerce. "But it depends on how well you do your homework."

In Pakistan, a major BRI participating country, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has created tens of thousands of jobs and revived the economy of an entire region, Khan noted.

Speaking at the session, He Wenping, a research fellow of the Institute of West-Asian and African Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, echoed Li's remarks.

"The biggest worry on the 'debt-trap diplomacy' should come from China's side, not from outside. It is tax payers' money," the Chinese professor said.

"China is not waving the 'China First' flag," she said.

The upcoming Belt and Road forum to be held in Beijing later this month could be an opportunity to kickstart a "second phase" of the initiative, she added.
By PTI

JAIPUR: Two persons from Rajasthan's Banswara district died due to food poisoning and 21 others were taken ill after consuming 'prasad' at a temple in Madhya Pradesh, an official said on Monday.

Nearly 40-50 people of Danpur village in Banswara area had visited the temple in Sera village of the neighbouring state's Ratlam district.

They returned home after eating meat with 'dal baati', a local cuisine, on Sunday, Deputy Chief Medical and Health Officer Ramesh Chandra Sharma said.

Later, a few of them complained of vomiting and diarrhoea.

Bahadur, 30, died while undergoing treatment, whereas Asha, 25, passed away on the way to a hospital, the official said.

A total of 21 patients were being treated in different hospitals.

Samples of the food have been sent for examination, the official said.

A case has been registered under Section 174 (unnatural death) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

The bodies were handed over to the families after post-mortem, Danpur police station incharge Gajveer Singh said.
By ANI

NEW DELHI: Congress on Monday said that BJP should issue an apology letter instead of a manifesto.

The Congress statement came the day BJP released its manifesto."BJP should issue maafi patra (apology letter) for injecting a lethal injection of unemployment, farmers suicide, closing of businesses and putting youth towards unemployment," party's national spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill said.

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He added, "BJP has cheated people; they should answer on the promises they made in 2014".

Taking a jibe at the BJP, Shergill said that the party has pushed the youth of the country towards "pakoda employment", linking it to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's comment in an interview that a person earning Rs 200 per day by selling pakodas is also employed.

Addressing the media, Congress leader Ahmed Patel said the difference between the BJP manifesto and Congress manifesto can be seen firstly from the cover page.
Piyush Roy By

The drivers of the Ayodhya movement may have lent the crusade a masculine momentum in popular imagination, but the epics core beats with a feminist heart led by fierce women and gentle men who drive the plot to make the Ramayana one of human civilisations earliest odes to the utopias of feminism.

Feminism is defined as organised activities for womens rights and interests, guided by theories of political, economic and social equality of the sexes.

A feminist is a person who supports the belief that women should have the same rights and opportunities as men. But these post-mid-nineteenth century noun insertions and their parameters are increasingly getting used for modern re-imaginations of leading lady characters in the Ramayana, like Kaikeyi, Sita, Tara, Surpanakha or Mandodari. How inspiring are these women as reclaimed icons for contemporary feminism? Can their societies and male counterparts be termed feminists-in-retrospect?

The Ramayana unfolds across a robust landscape led by multiple women characters, beyond its heroine Sita. The epic imagines a society where choicesocial, marital, political and spiritualwas as much an area of access for a desiring woman, as the man, irrespective of whether she lived in a hermits abode or a palace.

Kaikeyi, Sita, Tara and Mandodari stand alongside their powerful husbands, never blind followers, heeding the counsel of their mind alwayswrong or right. It is Rama who conducts the Ashvamedha Yagna in the shadow of his abandoned wifes gold statue to lend the sacrifice sanctity and spectacle. Kaikeyi, a warrior queen, as the charioteer of her husband King Dasharatha, steers him to safety in a ferocious battle between the Devas and the Asuras. The act gets her the two boons that trigger

the events leading to the epics first dramatic eventRamas exile.

Ramas confrontation with Ravana, the epics second major turn, is triggered by another warrior princess Surpanekhas lust of a married Rama. The third major catalyst event leading to the eventual finding of Sita and the climactic Rama-Ravana battle was possible because the queen of Kishkindha, Tara, had advised her husband Bali to only banish and not kill Sugriva in their duels for the monkey kingdom. Before dying, Bali insists upon Sugriva to consult Tara on all decisions of statecraft as her advice never goes without effect. Like a heros wife, Tara mourns Balis death and refuses the Kishkindha throne when offered to succeed her dead husband. She opts for Sugrivas kingship with her son, Angad, as the heir apparent. Her tact comes to the fore again when Sugriva sends her to pacify a raging Lakshmana, upset over the latters forgetting his promise to start searching for Sita.

Mandodari too, never shies away from giving sane counsel to the ferocious Ravana, constantly urging him to return Sita with honour. But when the war comes upon their Lankan capital, she doesnt abandon her husband, as his blood brother Vibhisana did.

Marriages, though facilitated by fathers, be it of Sita or her sisters, or Mandodari (the daughter of Asura-king, Maya)the daughters willingness is always sought. Ramayanas womenwhether driven by love, lust or high-purposenever shy away from articulating choice and are rarely restrained by their male counterparts. Rama indulges Sitas silly wish for the golden deer while knowing that it was a trap. Of the three males who try coveting women against their will, Ravana and Bali get killed, and Indra is cursed.

Though the Ramayana effects categorical punishments against any violation of woman, none of the women, from queen Kaikeyi to ascetic Anasuya show any need for male protection or incapability for self-defence. Sita, is acknowledged in Valmikis Ramayana for her ability to reduce Ravana to ashes through the fire of her chastity alone. She, however, resists the power to not deprive Ramas arrow from its legitimate glory. Equal opportunities and a warriors disposition are evidenced, to greater degree among men and women in the Asura community, where women soldiers are neither a rarity nor a surprise. The gatekeeper of Ravanas golden city at its sea frontier is a woman called Lankini; the caretaker of his most precious possession, Sita in the Ashokvan, is the brave and compassionate, Trijata; while Ravanas grandmother, demoness Tadaka, lorded over forests bordering his empire.

Beyond the epics politico-royal landscape, its spiritual scape of forests and ashramas too features strong-willed women in the ascetic-like Anasuya, Shabari and Swayamprabha. The latter two lead single, independent and fulfilling lives by choice.

Unlike their counterparts from subsequent epico-literary creations from the Indian subcontinent or other cultures, Ramayanas women, while covering the entire spectrum of female needs, roles, aspirations and identities get rarely judged, if their wants are not unfair or in conflict with the fundamental rights of another. Most importantly, they are skilled in areas that later came to be seen as male-exclusive, such as physical combat and austerity.

The essentials of the feminism movementequality of rights and opportunitieswere a choice available, exercised and enjoyed by each of the epics women characters. This right to equality and opportunity, a naturally accorded choice to men and women in the epic, is perhaps the essence edge that made their age a Yuga of Satya or Truth.

Piyush Roy

Author, Critic and Associate Professor in

Liberal Studies at Jain University, Bengaluru

Email: criticpiyushroy@gmail.com
Kalyan Tholeti By

Express News Service

Nara Lokesh faces a tough challenge in Mangalagiri where the TDP hasnt won since 1985. In an interview with Kalyan Tholeti, he says it is an opportunity for him to turn around the partys fortunes there. On Pawan, he asks how could the TDP tie-up with him when the actor attacked him

Why did you choose Mangalagiri because after 1985 TDP hasnt won from here and even last time, TDP lost by 12 votes?

Where there is a crisis, there is an opportunity. Everyone typically goes to the stronghold of their party but I wanted to take a constituency and make it a stronghold. Thats why I chose Mangalagiri. Now that am here, I want to turn this around and make it a stronghold of TDP.

But this is your electoral debut? Is this a time for you to take on a challenge like this?

Challenge is an opportunity. People support you when you know that you are going to deliver good results. You have seen today the kind of overwhelming support I have received. They believe Lokesh will make a difference.

The YSRC appears to be targeting Mangalagiri deploying its star campaigners too

Everyone seems to be targeting Mangalagiri. They all come, they criticise me and go but they havent set any agenda for Mangalagiri. What are they going to do for Mangalagiri? I have a bold vision. I have given a direction of what I, as an MLA, will do for Mangalagiri. It is all that matters. We sort of looked through the larger party manifesto and what fits into Mangalagiri. We have given a manifesto and are taking that agenda to the people

Mangalagiri being the home to weavers, how do you propose to help them?

Handloom sector has been in trouble for various reasons. The government has done a lot of work on input subsidy but a lot more needs to be done. I am looking at, you know, why should they make the same old sarees as they have limitations in terms of sales, and price. We can actually work with them and make more high value products and take them to the international market. That will have a major impact. We are also looking at the entire maggam, as we call it in Telugu, the instruments they use and to centralise it to a certain extent, get inputs from modern retailers on what they need and how to reduce the role of middlemen.

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Why didnt you do all of this in the last five years?

We have done three things in particular. We have done a waiver of ` 511 crore. We have given pensions and we have also worked with them on power supply. Technically, 100 units power is free now. Earlier, nothing was free. We have done a bit but now that I am here, I can take the Mangalagiri brand to the international level.

Reports say a lot of money is going to be pumped in Mangalagiri by TDP and YSRC?

People are not talking about Kuppam and Pulivendula anymore. The hot topic seems to be Mangalagiri. The Opposition wants me to lose for obvious reasons. Look at me, am going door to door, trying to meet as many voters as I can, clicking 2,000-2,500 selfies a day. It is generating a tremendous amount of goodwill on the field. If YSRC is spending money, it is their prerogative. I am sure the returning officer will not allow that. We are here with a clean conscience.

YSRC says TDP-Jana Sena are acting in tandem. What do you make of the Pawan Kalyan factor?

My humble view is Pawan Kalyan garu and Jagan Mohan Reddy are fighting for the Opposition leaders space. Pawan Kalyan has hit out at me personally. I challenged him to prove the allegations. When he personally attacked me, how is it possible that we can have anything to do with him?

If there is a hung Assembly, will you be open to an alliance with Pawan?

I strongly believe Andhra will never go to hung. It has never done it. It will never do it. TDP will get a clear, decisive mandate.

Why does the TDP say time and again that I-T raids are politically motivated?

If you look at all over India, central agencies are being used for political gains. TDP leaders are being harassed again and again. I know leaders who have been raided twice in a month. It is very sad that such strong institutions are falling prey to this kind of political manoeuvring. I have never seen that. Irony is they found nothing at the end of it. If this is the case, the Finance Minister of India should apologise. Because every politically important person is raided with the knowledge of the FM. These raids happened even in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and other States. They dont touch parties which are aligned with the BJP. YSRC is fine because Prashant Kishor is there. He seems to be carrying information here and there. People of Andhra are watching.

Is there any evidence to back up your allegations of an understanding between the YSRC and TRS?

Absolutely. I will give you two examples. The Praja Rathas that have come here are of TRS. They came with pink seat covers. YSRC forgot to change the seat colours. Quite a few of our MLAs have received calls from KTR himself not to contest or else, that their properties in Hyderabad would be attached. They were asked to withdraw or join YSRC. KCR himself said he has no problem working with Jagan. Jagan also said the same.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: The first phase of election to 14 Lok Sabha seats in the state is barely 10 days away, but the Congress is still grappling with internal rebellion in the Old Mysuru region, particularly Mandya.

The situation for the candidates of ally JDS was so dire that AICC general secretary in-charge of the state, KC Venugopal, had to rush in and read the riot act to the dissenting leaders on Sunday.

In the garb of a campaign review meeting, Venugopal went into a huddle with 10 top state Congress leaders in a private hotel in Bengaluru, where he apparently have told them: Everybody has to go to every seat and campaign aggressively for the coalition candidates. Theres no scope for dissent or a perception that the (Congress-JDS) alliance is crumbling.

Sources present at the meeting revealed that the high command was disappointed with Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah, for not resolving the crisis, and it was conveyed to him.

Apparently, it took a hot-line call from the CM to the Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, for the stern action will be taken warning to be issued.

It seems, Venugopal conveyed it to Siddaramaiah that the Congress leaders need to bury their hatchets before Rahuls next round of Karnataka rallies, April 13 and 19.

After the Congress-JD(S) joint rally on March 31, Rahul had given the state leaders one week to stem the rebellion at the grassroots level in Mandya, Mysuru, Hassan and Tumakuru, to little avail though.

Venugopal also reviewed the progress of the campaign, but there wasnt much to talk about, said a source privy to the discussion. State party leaders, however, expressed confidence of winning 17 out of 28 seats in alliance with JD(S).

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Discussions were held on how to boost the campaign in three-five more seats to target a tally of 20 seats, the source added.

With Sumalatha Ambareesh independently taking on the alliances candidate Nikhil Kumar, a majority of Congress workers have been showing sympathy and quietly campaigning for her.

Soon after the meeting, Siddaramaiah rushed to meet local leaders of Mandya Congress unit at his official residence Cauvery. Despite his attempts to pacify them, Siddaramaiah is said to have failed to gain their confidence.

We will discuss what Siddaramaiah told us with our workers and decide if there is a need to campaign or not, said Cheluvarayaswamy, a former Congress MP from Mandya, after meeting Siddaramaiah.
S Lalitha By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: In a bid to ensure that even a single postal ballot does not get lost, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has initiated steps to make sure that they get sent through speed post for the Parliamentary elections. It has given the Department of Posts an in principle approval for the same to be adopted for in absentia voters.

The Karnataka Postal Circle implemented this mode of dispatching numerous items for an organisation through speed post in two of its projects - one for South Western Railway and another for Kuvempu University in Shivamogga.

Chief Post Master General, Karnataka Circle, Charles Lobo said, Any item sent through speed post can be tracked both by the sender and the recipient. This will ensure that there is no misplacement or loss of ballot papers. There have been occasions when postal ballot reached after the counting day. Speed post will ensure fast delivery, he added.

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Surya Singh, Joint Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka, said there are 43,337 service votes in the state. This includes votes of personnel of the Ministry of External Affairs and Defence.

The ECI has introduced a major change in the conventional postal ballot by launching the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System, he added. Under this, the postal ballot is sent by the Returning Officer electronically to the service voter and replaces the physical letter.
By Express News Service

RAYAGADA/PARLAKHEMUNDI: Chief Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik trained guns on the BJP-led Central Government for adopting a step-motherly attitude to Odisha during his campaign for party candidates in Koraput and Berhampur Lok Sabha constituencies on Sunday.

Addressing public meetings at Gunupur, Bissamcuttack and Rayagada Assembly segments under Koraput LS seat, Naveen said the Centre has no sympathies for the poor and women of the State. Odisha suffered huge losses due to cyclone Titli but the Central Government did not provide any immediate relief or financial assistance to the State. On the other hand, the Centres response was quick in case of Andhra Pradesh which was also hit by the cyclone, Naveen said.

We had sought the Centres assistance for implementation of Aahar Yojana, a scheme meant for the poor. But the Centre did not pay any heed. Similarly, many poor families were left out of the Rs 1 subsidised rice scheme after our repeated requests for assistance were turned down by the Centre, the CM said.

Naveen said, the State Government has spent Rs 20,000 crore to provide better irrigation facilities to farmers while the Centres contribution has only been Rs 1,950 crore for the same. Highlighting his Governments achievements, he said, Under Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana, we have earmarked Rs five lakh for males and Rs seven lakh for women. Besides, the State Government has spent Rs 12,000 crore to provide drinking water facilities for people whereas the assistance of the Centre is a mere Rs one thousand crore.

It is unfortunate that the Centre has stopped scholarships for tribal students, he said and requested the public to vote for BJD candidate for Koraput LS seat Kausalya Hikaka, Rayagada MLA nominee Lal Bihari Himirika, Jagannath Saraka for Bissamcuttack and Raghunath Gomango for Gunupur.

On the day, Naveen also addressed public meetings at Makapada in Mohana and Parlakhemundi under Berhampur LS constituency and attacked the Centre. He assured that despite the Centres non-cooperation, the State Government will continue all the schemes for the benefit of the people of Odisha.

The CM also urged people to vote for BJD candidate for Berhampur LS seat Chandra Sekhar Sahu and other nominees for Assembly seats under it.
B Anbuselvan By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: A few mobile users in Chennai and neighbouring areas were surprised after they received text alerts asking them not to vote for anti-Hindu DMK in the upcoming elections.

Hindu Mathathai Izhivupaduthi Vaakku Ketkum Thimukavirkku Vakkalikaatheer, (Don't vote for DMK which degrades Hinduism while seeking votes) read the message which was received in the name of Airtel with alert code Bz-Alerts.

IT employee Raj Panneerselvam of Kelambakkam, who received the alert at around 3.30 pm Friday to his IDEA mobile, has lodged a complaint with the Election Commission through its online portal.

I couldn't believe Airtel sent such an inflammatory message against a political party, which is why I lodged a complaint, Raj tells Express.

When contacted, Bharti Airtel denied sending any such message from its network and attributed it to unscrupulous elements.

On Saturday, the company filed a police complaint at the Mylapore station for alleged misuse of its brand name by unknown elements.

According to industry sources, bulk messages starting with BZ are sent from the BSNL network.

We suspect the message have been sent by a telemarketing company based in Maharashtra. The company could have been hired by any political party or campaigners to send the texts, sources said, adding that the texts could have been sent to consumers across mobile networks.

Despite repeated attempts, Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo could not be contacted for comments. But, sources in the poll panel said complaints filed online are being investigated by the media monitoring team.

Suitable action will be recommended after a thorough probe, an official said. As per TRAI rules, service providers can no longer send bulk texts to users.
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Jawaharlal Nehru is the first leader in India who wanted to decentralise powers to States and did a lot for this, says KS Alagiri, TNCC president. He shares various issues in election campaign and alliance during his chat with Express: Excerpts.

Q: What do you realise in your campaign?

During the last two weeks of my campaign across the State, I witnessed an anti-Modi wave among the people. Whether it is a farmer, trader, youth, woman and all quarter have expressed their displeasure against the Modi government and also on Edappadi K Palaniswamy government that is dancing to the tune of Modi. Hence, there is no need to campaign. We have been touring the State to elaborate our election manifesto and nothing else.

Q: What is your poll plank during the campaign?

Unlike Modi, we havent made any individual attack. We have explained the ill effects of demonetisation, GST, attack on RBI, CBI, ED, EC and Supreme Court. Voters are well aware of these issues. They recall the days how they had suffered during the demonetisation and they want to give a fitting lesson to the Union government for its failures. Particularly, the youth are angry for their unemployment-related sufferings.

Q: In Sholinghur Assembly constituency, Congress contested in 2016 elections. Now DMK is contesting in the by-poll for the Assembly seat. Has it created any displeasure among the Congress cadre?

No, we have shared the constituencies after discussing the gravity of the situation and the strength and weakness of every party in the alliance and particular constituency. Hence, there is no disappointment and all partners in our alliance are fully satisfied. We are working together to win all the 40 parliamentary seats and 18 Assembly seats.

Q: Your alliance is claiming that you are the well-wisher of minorities. But, in your alliance candidate's list, there is no significant number of minorities. How can you convince them to favour your alliance?

Seats have been given to candidates in our alliance, based on winnability, experience and seniority within the party. Various predominant communities have also been not given a ticket as we have only limited seats. We are considering their (minorities) grievance as our grievance and they (minorities) also know very well about our performance on their grievances. No other party except Congress, DMK and left parties has raised its voice for the betterment of minorities in the country. Our affection towards minorities is equal to mother's affection. Due to political compulsion of the particular parliament constituency in every region, we could not offer enough seats not only to minorities, but also to many predominant communities. But, they know that working for their well being is better than merely offering a seat to contest.

Q: Congress has now assured that school education will be brought in the State list from the Central list. But, Congress is the party which centralised many powers from the State including education and forest. How do you see the change of Congress mindset?

Jawaharlal Nehru is the only leader who carved out States in the country. In order to decentralise powers, he took steps to establish States on linguistic lines as he understood that only a Union government cannot rule the country. Congress could have administered the country like Russia or Germany. If Congress had governed the country like that, the country would have been shattered like how Pakistan got divided into two countries. But, various rights were given to the States following the demands of Chief Ministers like M Karunanidhi and NT Rama Rao. Unlike BJP, Congress is the only party that has decentralised powers to states. Hence, the announcement on education should be welcomed.
Ranjitha Gunasekaran By

Last week, Chennai had its hottest March day in six years with the Meenambakkam station recording 39.2 degrees Celsius, 4.5 degrees higher than normal. It could be tempting to succumb to the cliche that the campaign to the 18 Assembly and 39 Lok Sabha seats in the state is similarly heating up, but the fact is otherwise. Blame it on the rollercoaster ride of Tamil Nadu politics over the past two years, or the deaths of late DMK chief M Karunanidhi and AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa, but this poll season is practically boring.

Mind you, there have been some developments. Political rhetoric, for instance, has hit a new low. Observers will note that since AIADMK founder M G Ramachandrans departure from the DMK, political attacks have often been charged, with Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi having made particularly vitriolic attacks against each other. However, the current campaign attacks are shocking in their crudeness. The leaders of both Dravidian parties, born of lofty values of social justice, have called one another liars, useless, good for nothing, murderers and worse. Both have interesting things to say in their manifestos but their speeches rarely reflect that. Perhaps, they hope to shock the voters to make up for the absence of the charismatic leaders, but it is a downward spiral: What happens when you hit the bottom?

The demise of two clever, witty, persuasive politicians has also ripped a veil of cynicism to some extent. In the past, regardless of how much they were believed, politicians constructed a facade or rationale to justify their decisions. Consider, for instance, the national coalition of parties coming together against the BJP. Some of them, opponents at the state level, claim to be coming together for a larger cause. In Tamil Nadu, parties are not even trying this. For instance, Anbumani Ramadoss of the PMK, to justify his partys alliance with the AIADMK after attacking the ruling party for months, said, We tried everything. We went it alone in polls. Everyone appreciated us, but we didnt get votes. Senior AIADMK leader Thambi Durai, for long a critic of the BJP, similarly explained the alliance between the two parties as not an alliance of ideology, but an alliance to win. The honesty is practically refreshing.

Meanwhile, cash-for-votes has again entered the spotlight. DMK treasurer Durai Murugans residence in Vellore was raided last week and over Rs 11 crore found on the premises of a party functionary close to him. Close to Rs 2 crore was found packed in the doors of a vehicle in which a VCK functionary was travelling and, and close to Rs 4 crore was found unclaimed on a government bus.

However, cash-for-votes has become so common that it almost seems quaint how shocked everyone was 10 years ago when the DMK perfected what is now known as the Thirumangalam formula in the bypolls to the constituency by that name. Over Rs 100 crore was seized by the Election Commission during the 2016 Assembly elections. In 2017, T T V Dhinakaran, the AIADMK rebel who started the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam, is alleged to have taken voter bribery to a whole new level in the bypoll to RK Nagar. Close to 10 days before the polls this year, the EC has seized well over Rs 100 crore. But the people of

Tamil Nadu are so accustomed to voter bribing that actor-politician Kamal Haasans campaign speeches assuring that his Makkal Needhi Maiam eschews the practices are sometimes greeted by silence.

For their part, voters who received cash are divided on whether it binds them to vote for that party. Many appear to be of the view that cash distributed by politicians at poll time is simply public money being returned to the public, more so given the sub-par performance of most politicians once they are elected.

In fact, the views of voters in Sivaganga, as expressed to this newspaper, were reminiscent of Kamals famous dialogue from Nayagan: Avangala nirutha sollu, naan niruthuren. Tell them to stop (being corrupt), we will stop (taking their money).
Chinas air conditioner giants are putting increased importance on their role in the global market to raise their international influence amid fears of slowing growth in the domestic market.

(Photo/pixabay.com)

The countrys top air conditioner manufacturer Haier held a groundbreaking ceremony for its industrial park at Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh, India, on March 29.

It is Haiers second manufacturing base in India, and will become the companys largest overseas factory.

AUX, another Chinese AC producer, established a research and development (R&D) center in Japan, which is the companys first overseas R&D center.

Our air conditioners have been sold to over 100 countries and regions, and we have ranked the first in Chinas air conditioner exports for five consecutive years, said Zheng Jianjiang, chairman of AUX Group, adding that the R&D center in Japan is a crucial step for the Groups international strategy.

Reports confirm that AUX had five R&D centers and 10 manufacturing bases by the end of March 2019, and its total production capacity for air conditioners has now exceeded 28 million units.
By Express News Service

NIRMAL: Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday came down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for dividing the nation on communal lines with an intent to reap the political benefit in the ensuing general elections.

The Chief Minister, addressing an election rally here, said that for the nation to move forward, it should get rid of those who pit one community against the other as communal strife always impeded the growth of a nation.

"Whenever elections arrive, the BJP brings to the fore issues relating to Pakistan, Muslims and Hindutva. Even the Prime Minister talks about Hindus and Muslims. Why should he do that? Why is he inflaming passions? A leader should promote harmony and not discord? We are living happily and why should someone tell us to be true Hindus. We are all following our respective faiths and yet we are living together happily," Chandrasekhar Rao pointed out.

FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE

The Chief Minister said that time has come for him to set the agenda for the nation. "The present-day politics should change. I want to provide a direction with the nation needs," he said and pointed out that the quintessence of the concept of Federal Front was to promote harmony among all communities. "The Federal Front would be a secular formation in the true sense of the term where all religions and castes get the respect they deserve. If the TRS gets all the 16 seats in Telangana, I would be able to work in that direction with renewed vigour," Rao said.

He pointed out that one of the major factors that had impeded the country's growth for decades has been its inability to get out of religious and community politics. "In China, a committee constituted by the government to study possible economic threat from India, had advised it that one should not worry as, despite the fact that India has 130 crore population, it would never be able to rise above religious and communal conflicts," Rao said and pointed out that the rulers who had been at the helm till now are responsible for this mess.

ALSO READ | Mahbubnagar: Where it all changed for CM K Chandrasekhar Rao and Telangana

"The leaders do not know how to tap natural resources or make use of the installed capacity of the power stations. We have an installed capacity of 3.44 lakh megawatts but we are using only 2.20 lakh megawatts," he said.

He described BJP as a shameless party for seeking votes now after going back on its promises made to the people in 2014. The party had promised 10 crore jobs but it did not provide even for one crore jobs. On the promise of flushing out black money, the party had promised `15 lakh to each individual but it had not paid even `15.

Though he had asked for setting up turmeric board in Nizamabad, the Centre had not done it so far but now the BJP leaders are saying that if they elect them, they would get the turmeric board in three days, Rao said

The Chief Minister said that he was happy to announce that Telangana stood first in the country in per capita power consumption. About five years ago, the farmers of Telangana were going through an agonising ordeal with erratic or lack of power supply. "The power problems are behind us now," he said.

The chief minister pointed out that Adilabad is for Telangana what Kashmir is for the country. In Nirmal and Mudhole areas, 50,000 acres of land would soon get irrigation facility from Sriram Sagar Project (SRSP) which gets water supply from Kaleswaram.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Continuing his trade against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Sunday said that Modi has ruined Jammu and Kashmir and turned it into jail to for the people. Speaking at an election campaign rally in Malakpet, he also accused Modi of using Balakot for his gains. People of Kashmir cant leave their house and venture out, he said.

This is true that we support the government of India for its stand on Balakot, but tell me Modi, is it not true that if we go to the war, we only have arms and ammunition to sustain for just 10 days, he said.

Modi will disappear into Himalayas

FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE

Meanwhile, AIMIMs Chandrayangutta MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi predicted that after BJPs defeat in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections Modi will disappear into the Himalayas like he had reportedly done in his youth.

Speaking at a public rally near Hakeempet Road under Karwan Assembly constituency, Akbaruddin said: Look at his life. When he was in trouble he had disappeared into the Himalayas for many years at a stretch. Inshalla, after 2019 elections, he would again disappear and will be anonymous.

My prediction is that after the elections, his condition will be worse than former prime ministers (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee and (PV) Narasimha Rao and BJP senior leader (LK) Advani, Akbaruddin said.

NRI supporters campaign for AIMIM

AIMIMs NRI supporters have been holding meetings and competitions in Gulf countries like UAE and Kuwait to urge Hyderabadi residents to return to the city and vote for party chief Asaduddin Owaisi. For instance, AIMIM supporters held a meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Saturday and encouraged the people to return home on April 11 to exercise their franchise. A few days ago, the Jeddah wing of AIMIM also organised a kite-flying competition with teams formed based on Assembly constituencies. In a video message, Yousuf Uddin Amjad, the general secretary of Bazm-e-Ittehad said: In Oman, there is a city named Salalah, in its heart there is a dargah from where I appealed to Hyderabadis to vote for Asaduddin Owaisi.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Utilising his latest trip to the State to slam CM K Chandrasekhar Rao, BJP leader and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath likened Raos rule to that of the Nizams.Even while training his guns at the TRS, Adityanath did not spare the Congress either and accused the two parties of jeopardising the nations security.

Addressing back-to-back political campaign meetings in Peddapalli and Zaheerabad, Adityanath summed up the five-year rule of the TRS as one that was marred by mafia. In the last five years, it looked like TRS wanted to establish the Nizams rule again and make people suffer, he said in Peddapalli. Accusing the TRS chief of establishing a family rule, Adityanath said the biggest mafia of TRS was to collude with AIMIM and attempt to jeopardise the national security.

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After TRS has come to power, there has been a family rule (in the State), which is engulfed by land and various another mafia. The biggest mafia is of TRS teaming up with the Owaisi brothers, who try to jeopardise the nations security, Adityanath said during his speech in Zaheerabad. While stating that a vote for TRS is a vote for AIMIM, Adityanath said that TRS has become the party of Owaisis. This, he felt, will make the mafia rule to take centre stage in the State and compromise the national security.

Taking on the Congress, the saffron party leader said that the hand of the Congress is with the hand of those who want to betray the nation. Congress has made it evident in its manifesto, he said adding that if you vote for Congress, then it will strengthen Naxalism.

Adityanath also accused Congress and TRS of resorting to appeasement politics. Citing the example of the proposed 12 per cent reservation for the minorities, he said the TRS is indulging in appeasement. Stating that a large number of All India Muslim League activists waved the flags after AICC chief Rahul Gandhi submitted his nomination papers to contest from the Wayanad constituency in Kerala, he said it is a clear indication that Congress is indulging in appeasement politics.
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.
By IANS

KABUL: At least 99 Taliban fighters and 12 troopers have been killed in a fierce battle in Afghanistan's Badghis province, the Defence Ministry said on Monday.

The fighting has been raging since Saturday in the ala-Murghab district and has also left 25 insurgents and 34 security personnel injured, Efe news reported.

On Saturday, government forces launched a major counter-attack against militants to push them back from the centre of the district days after the Taliban overran several security checkpoints in the area on April 4.

Security forces had retreated to their headquarters to avoid civilian casualties as the Taliban were using residential houses as their fighting positions, the Ministry said.

"Heavy fighting is currently underway," it added.

Bala-Murghab district of Badghis is strategically important as it shares a border with Turkmenistan. The district connects the western and northwestern provinces of the country.
By PTI

COLOMBO: The European Union is urging Sri Lanka not to end its four-decade moratorium on the death penalty, saying capital punishment is not an effective deterrent to counter illicit drugs and related crimes.

Monday's statement from the EU comes a week after Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena announced that dates have been set for the country's first executions in 43 years amid rising alarm over drug-related crimes.

Sri Lanka last executed a prisoner in 1976. Currently, 1,299 prisoners are on death row, including 48 convicted of drug offenses.

Drug trafficking is a capital offense in Sri Lanka, where authorities have intensified a crackdown on narcotics to deter smugglers from using the Indian Ocean island nation as a transit point for distribution in the region.

While acknowledging that combatting the proliferation of drugs is a serious challenge for countries around the world, and that action to counter the illicit drug trade is important and necessary, the EU said "the evidence does not support the argument that the death penalty is an effective deterrent.

" "The death penalty is an unacceptable denial of human dignity and integrity," the EU said.

Sri Lanka is predominantly Buddhist, a religion that advocates nonviolence.

Sirisena has said that the country has had positive influences from all religions, but that tough law enforcement is necessary to curb crime and maintain order.

Prison authorities have begun interviews to recruit two hangmen as two people previously recruited quit without executing anyone.

Rights groups including Amnesty International have criticised the move by Sirisena, who has modeled his country's drug fight after the Philippines.

Sirisena visited the Philippines in January and praised President Rodrigo Duterte's drug crackdown as "an example to the world".

Thousands of suspects have been killed since Duterte took office in 2016, and rights groups have denounced the killings as extrajudicial executions.

Last week, Sri Lankan police publicly destroyed 770 kilograms (1,695 pounds) of drugs seized in 2016 and 2017.

Police have seized 731 kilograms (1,608 pounds) of heroin, 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of cocaine and 1,607 kilograms (3,535 pounds) of marijuana so far this year.

Marijuana is the most widely used illegal drug in Sri Lanka, followed by heroin and cocaine. Drug-related arrests rose 2 percent in 2017 from the previous year to 81,156.
By ANI

ISLAMABAD: A fire broke out on the sixth floor of the Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's office on Monday.

Evacuation from the Prime Minister's office is underway, reported Geo TV. The Prime Minister was holding a meeting inside the building when the fire broke out.

Quoting sources, Geo TV reported that Imran Khan continued with his meeting despite the fire. When the Prime Minister was informed again about the fire, he asked the staff to be evacuated first.

The rescue teams on the spot are working on extinguishing the fire.

Further details are awaited.
By Online Desk

An Indian origin doctor has gone missing from her home in Herefordshire, West England, since April 3.

The police have issued a missing persons appeal for Dr Uma Kulkarni in the area of Bristol-north Somerset. Police suspect that she travelled to Bristol area from her home in Herefordshire.

As per records, 42-year-old Kulkarni completed her MBBS in Nagpur University in 1999. She got her name registered with the General Medical Council to practise in the United Kingdom in 2015.

The Avon and Somerset police website describes Kulkarni as an Asian woman, five feet tall with a slim built, black hair and both ears pierced.

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.

"She normally wears earrings. It is not known what Uma was wearing when she went missing according to The Avon and Somerset police.

The police have made inquiries in the surrounding areas. They have also inquired in Severn Bridge, which links England and Wales, according to the police website.

Doctors that come from India constitute the largest country group currently enrolled in the National Health Service (NHS) of the United Kingdom.
By Associated Press

LAS VEGAS: Declaring "our country is full," President Donald Trump on Friday insisted the US immigration system was overburdened and illegal crossings must be stopped as he inspected a refurbished section of fencing at the Mexican border.

Trump, making a renewed push for border security as a central campaign issue for his 2020 re-election, participated in a briefing on immigration and border security in Calexico before viewing a 2-mile (3.2-kilometer) 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.

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.

Trump, who earlier in the week threatened to shut down the border over the high numbers of migrants trying to enter the US , 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.

"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 US 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."

Trump, as he so often does, mixed fact with fiction when warning of the threat at the border. When complaining about the Flores legal settlement that governs treatment of migrant children and families, he blamed "Judge Flores, whoever you may be." But Flores was an unaccompanied 15-year-old girl from El Salvador.

He also downplayed the claims of people seeking asylum at the border, declaring without evidence that many are gang members while comparing some of their efforts to find safety in the US to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 elections.

"It's a scam, it's a hoax," Trump said. "I know about hoaxes. I just went through a hoax."

As the president showed off the renovated section of the barrier to reporters, a balloon depicting Trump as a baby floated further down the border. And as Trump landed in California, the state's governor ripped the president's push for Congress to pass legislation that would tighten asylum rules to make it harder for people to qualify.

"Since our founding, this country has been a place of refuge  a safe haven for people fleeing tyranny, oppression and violence. His words show a total disregard of the Constitution, our justice system, and what it means to be an American," said Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Trump has been increasingly exasperated at his inability to halt the swelling number of migrants entering the US , including thousands who have been released after arriving because border officials have no space for them. 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.

The southern border is nearly 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) long and already has about 650 miles (1,050 kilometers) of different types of barriers, including short vehicle barricades and tall steel fences that go up to 30 feet (9 meters) 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. His administration so far has only replaced existing fencing. Construction for that small chunk of fencing cost about $18 million, began in February 2018 and was completed in October. Plans to replace that fence date back to 2009, during President Barack Obama's tenure.

Administration officials had been studying ways to minimize the economic impact of a potential border closure in case Trump went through with his threat, including keeping trucking lanes open or closing only certain ports.

But even absent that extraordinary step, delays at border stations have been mounting after some 2,000 border officers were reassigned from checking vehicles to deal with migrant crowds.

After the border visit, Trump traveled to Los Angeles for a pair of fundraisers in the deeply liberal city. He then traveled to Las Vegas for another re-election fundraiser and an address to the Republican Jewish Coalition, which is backed by GOP mega-donor Sheldon Adelson.
By PTI

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Asad Umar said on Monday that Pakistan's economy was out of the crisis phase even as the cash-strapped country's economic growth is projected to slump further to 3.9 per cent in fiscal year 2019 from 5.2 per cent in 2018.

"The crisis phase for the economy is over, however, we are still in the stabilisation phase," Umar was quoted as saying by Geo TV.

He said this stabilisation phase would continue for the next one and a half years as he compared Pakistan's economy to a patient in the ICU who had been treated and now brought back to a normal ward, the channel reported.

"The situation right now is that we are not taking loans to pay off past loans, but to pay off interest," he said.

Umar said Pakistan was facing three main problems on the economic front.

"We are stuck with the fiscal deficit, current account deficit and saving and investment gap," he said.

He called on the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to simplify the tax return system with easier forms and lesser questions.

"The amount of questions FBR asks you for your returns is more than those asked when you are accepting a marriage proposal for your daughter," Umar said.

He said Pakistan's talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a financial package were in its final stage.

On March 16, Umar had hinted that bailout package talks with the IMF are in their final stages and the government will have further negotiations with the newly appointed IMF mission chief before reaching an agreement.

Cash-strapped Pakistan is seeking USD 8 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to bail itself out from a severe balance-of-payments crisis that threatens to cripple the country's economy.

With the generous Chinese assistance, Pakistan has so far received a total of USD 9.1 billion in financial aid packages from friendly countries during the current fiscal year.

While China has pumped-in USD 4.1 billion, Pakistan has got USD 3 billion from Saudi Arabia and USD 2 billion from United Arab Emirates (UAE).

In its flagship economic publication titled "Asian Development Outlook 2019," the Manila-based Asian Development Bank said Pakistan's economic growth decelerated in fiscal year 2018 despite revived agriculture.

Pakistan's GDP growth is forecast to decelerate further to 3.9 per cent in FY2019 as macroeconomic challenges continue and despite steps to tighten fiscal and monetary policies to rein in high and unsustainable twin deficits.

Continued fiscal consolidation in FY2020 will keep growth subdued at 3.6 per cent, the ADB said.
NEW YORK, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The Committee of 100 (C100), a prominent Chinese American organization, on Sunday condemned the growing racial profiling against Chinese Americans in the United States.

The C100 members are compelled to stand up and speak out against the "increasingly common" racial profiling in the country, where "Chinese Americans are being targeted as potential traitors, spies, and agents of foreign influence," said a statement issued by the organization.

The New York-based nonprofit, which is celebrating its 30th founding anniversary, is deeply concerned about the fact that the Chinese community in America is under attack again as a few representatives from the U.S. government and media outlets as well as some opinion leaders have stated or suggested that all Chinese persons in America should be suspected of wrongdoing.

For example, Chinese students and researchers have been finger-pointed as a potential threat, and Chinese American organizations have been suspected of conducting illicit activities, said the C100 statement.

"Such targeting of individuals based on their ethnic heritage or national origin violates our shared American ideals. It simply has to stop," it stressed.

As the baseless charges keep mounting, negative impacts have been forced upon Chinese Americans in scientific, business, political, academic and government circles, noted C100, adding that Chinese Americans are reporting being subject to greater scrutiny and discriminatory treatment in their work and daily lives.

"It is imperative that those who are committed to the civil rights of all Americans disavow this kind of broad-brush racial stereotyping and fear-mongering," it said.

The organization also vowed to continue fighting for Chinese American equality, and to facilitate Chinese Americans' constructive engagement in bridge-building between the United States and China.

Consisting of some 150 outstanding Chinese Americans in business, government, academia and arts, C100 is committed to the twin missions of a constructive U.S.-China engagement and the full equality and inclusion of Chinese Americans.
By PTI

COLOMBO: 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.
By Associated Press

LONDON: Britain's foreign minister says he is "concerned" about a UK woman arrested in Dubai for allegedly insulting her ex-husband's new wife on Facebook.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Monday that Laleh Shahravesh "is getting the best possible service" from British diplomats.

The group Detained in Dubai says Shahravesh was arrested at Dubai Airport on March 10 as she arrived for her ex-husband's funeral.

Authorities there had received a complaint about Facebook posts that she allegedly made in 2016 calling her ex's new wife "a horse."

The United Arab Emirates has strict laws about what can be posted online.

Detained in Dubai, which helps people who fall foul of the Gulf state's legal system, says Shahravesh faces a maximum sentence of two years in prison and a 50,000-pound (USD 65,000) fine.
Ramananda Sengupta By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: An appeal filed by liquor baron Vijay Mallya challenging the extradition order passed against him in December by the Westminster Magistrates Court in London has been rejected by Justice William Davis of the High Court of England and Wales.

Mallya, wanted in India on charges of cheating and money laundering to the tune of `9,000 crore, can now apply for an oral hearing before a High Court judge within five days. If that is accepted, the hearing will determine whether a full hearing should take place. Legal experts said a full hearing is usually considered only when fresh evidence is presented in the case.

READ HERE | From Rs 17 lakh to Rs 7 lakh per week: Broke Mallya to cut down expenses by 60 per cent

In December, the Westminster Magistrates Court in London had ruled that Mallya could be extradited to India to face fraud charges, mostly pertaining to loans taken for the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines. This was signed off by the Home Secretary Sajid Javed.

ALSO READ | Vijay Mallya fights Indian banks' attempt to recover dues in UK

On March 31, following an interview by Prime Minister Narendra Modi where he claimed that, Properties worth Rs 14,000 crore belonging to Vijay Mallya have been seized even though total liability against him stands at Rs 9,000 crore, Mallya tweeted: I humbly submit that my assertion that I am a poster boy is fully vindicated by the PMs own statement about me (by name) that his Govt has recovered more than what I allegedly owe the Banks. Fact that I have been a UK resident since 1992 ignored...

...So the highest authority has confirmed full recovery. Why do BJP spokesmen continue their rhetoric? he asked. Mallya has reportedly been residing in the UK since his departure from India.

ALSO READ | Vijay Mallya cites PM Modi's remark to affirm recovery of all bank dues

Setback

The latest ruling marks a fresh legal setback for the UB Group chief, who just last week offered to curtail his lavish lifestyle in a bid to recoup some of the money he owed to the Indian banks. Mallya is required by the UK court order to live within an ordinary living expenses allowance of a maximum of 18,325.31 pounds a week, which he offered to cut down to 29,500 pounds a month during a hearing last week.
By Associated Press

WASHINGTON: The United States on Monday designated Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps a foreign terrorist organization, an unprecedented declaration against a foreign government that may prompt retaliation and make it harder for American diplomats and military officers to work with allies in the region.

It is the first time that the US has designated an entity of another government as a terrorist organization, placing a group with vast economic resources that answers only to Iran's supreme leader in the same category as al-Qaida and the Islamic State.



READ | Iran Guards terror designation: Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu thanks US

"This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a state sponsor of terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft," President Donald Trump said in announcing the measure.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the designation is intended to increase pressure on Iran, isolating it further and diverting some of the financial resources it uses to fund terrorism and militant activity in the Middle East and beyond. But, in addition to the potential for Iranian retaliation, it complicates a delicate balance for US personnel in at least two key countries.

No waivers or exceptions to the sanctions were announced, meaning 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 had also raised concerns about the impact of the designation if the move did not allow contact with other 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.

Critics of the hardline policy also see it as a prelude to conflict.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo | AP

"This move closes yet another potential door for peacefully resolving tensions with Iran," said Trita Parsi, the founder of the National Iranian American Council. "Once all doors are closed, and diplomacy is rendered impossible, war will essentially become inevitable."

The designation could also open hundreds of foreign companies and business executives to US travel bans and possible prosecution for sanctions violations.

It blocks any assets that IRGC entities may have in US jurisdictions and bars Americans from any transactions with it. When it takes effect next week, it will allow the US to deny entry to people found to have provided the Guard with "material support" or prosecute them for sanctions violations. That could include European and Asian companies and businesspeople who deal with the Guard's many affiliates.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps | AP

"It makes crystal clear the risks of conducting business with, or providing support to, the IRGC," Trump said. "If you are doing business with the IRGC, you will be bankrolling terrorism."

Pompeo said the action should serve as a warning to corporate lawyers to ensure any business their companies do in Iran is not with any entity affiliated with the Guard. "If you're the general counsel for a European financial institution today, there is more risk," he said.

The IRGC is a paramilitary organization formed in the wake of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution to defend the government. The force answers only to Iran's supreme leader, operates independently of the regular military and has vast economic interests across the country. The US estimates it may control or have a significant influence over up to 50% of the Iranian economy, including non-military sectors like banking and shipping.

The State Department currently designates more than 60 organizations as "foreign terrorist organizations." But none of them is a state-run military.

Iran immediately responded to the designation with its Supreme National Security Council designating the US Central Command, also known as CENTCOM, and all its forces as terrorist, and labeling the US a "supporter of terrorism."

The Council denounced the US decision as "illegal and dangerous" and said the US government would be responsible for all "dangerous repercussions" of its decision. It defended the IRGC, which has fought Islamic State fighters, as being a force against terrorism.

American military commanders were planning to warn US troops remaining in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere in the region of the possibility of retaliation. 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.

The US special envoy for Iran, Brian Hook, and the State Department's counterterrorism coordinator, Nathan Sales, said the decision was reached after consultation with agencies throughout the government but would not say in a news conference if the military or intelligence concerns had been addressed.

"Doing this will not impede our diplomacy," Hook said, without elaborating.

Reaction from those who favor tougher engagement with Iran was quick and welcoming.

"Thank you, my dear friend, US President Donald Trump," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a tweet, a day before what could be a close election. "Thank you for answering another of my important requests that serves the interests of our countries and of countries in the region."

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called the action an "overdue" but essential step that should be followed by additional sanctions.

Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the designation "ends the facade that the IRGC is part of a normal military."

Pompeo said the move is part of an effort to put "maximum pressure" on Iran to end its support for terrorist plots and militant activity that destabilizes the Middle East. Speaking to reporters, he rattled off a list of attacks dating to the 1980s for which the US holds Iran and the IRGC responsible, beginning with the attacks on the Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, Lebanon in 1983.

"With this designation, the Trump administration is simply recognizing a basic reality," he said.
Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Cloudy. Periods of light rain early. Low near 50F. Winds S at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Cloudy. Periods of light rain early. Low near 50F. Winds S at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 90%.
Photo courtesy of McFly

Agriculture in China no longer means sickle and pickaxe. Now it is ABC technology: A for AI, B for big data, and C for cloud computing, which is reshaping the way the nation does agriculture.

ABC technologies made a splash after the rural revitalization strategy was set as a key plank of the nations economic modernization push in 2018.

This year, smart agriculture outperformed other items at the press conference of priorities for agricultural development on Feb. 20, a day after Rain Water, the second solar term in the Chinese lunar calendar, indicating the time for early spring planting in southern China.

Smart agriculture, to some, means being precise, as the nations agricultural production has been haunted by pesticide overuse and residue for ages.

China feeds 22% of the worlds population with 8% of the worlds arable land, but also uses 47% of the worlds pesticides, which looms large on Chinese agricultural development. It is time to seriously reconsider the overuse of pesticide, said Kang Le, dean of the Beijing Institute of Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, at a round table of the Third Understanding China Conference held in Beijing in December 2018.

Founded in 2016, McFly, a Chinese agriculture technology startup, completed series A funding of over a 100 million yuan on Mar. 27, marking the latest injection to the companys smart solution to tackle the pesticide issue.

The company provides precise disease monitoring and pesticide spray services for farmers to better protect crop health and control pest infestation in a targeted way. With hyperspectral remote sensing technology, data collected by monitoring drones is be uploaded to Baidu Cloud, a cloud platform developed by Chinas tech giant Baidu Inc., where a solution is simultaneously generated for adjusting the speed of spray and amount of pesticide via drone, which can cut chemical usage in field in half.

Farmers and agricultural entities from Hubei, Jiangsu, and Liaoning provinces have applied the technology over their land of more than 240 million mu, and an average 80% repurchase rate is solid evidence that pesticide control has gained the attention of people working in the modern agricultural industry.

Chinas agricultural production still depends on agricultural chemistry, but the low penetration rate of technology in rural areas is stifling agricultural modernization, so it stands to reason that an increasing number of Chinese scientists will go out of the ivory tower and search for solutions in the field. We are scientists who sow in the cloud and walk barefoot on the ground, Gong Huaze, CEO of McFly, told Peoples Daily Overseas Social Media, without any mince in his words on the nations lack of application scenarios in the agricultural industry.

The time of acting based on weather conditions and the experience of famers is long gone. Ag-tech companies not only learn from nature, but from the internet. An array of mature operation models on the internet have been applied to agricultural innovation, and pragmatic solutions have been found to adapt to diverse agricultural scenarios, forming a strong bond between farmers and cutting-edge technologies.

Last April Fools Day, Chinese tech giant Tencent launched an AI goose farm project, which was not a practical joke. In fact, Tencent farmers monitor the living condition of poultry with facial recognition technology.

The agricultural cycle is a stable yet slow form of return on investment. Chinese investors still have faith in the rural revitalization strategy, as the Chinese government has spared no effort in vitalizing the agricultural market via the implementation of ABC technologies.

China has suffered from pesticide residue for years, especially in food security matters. McFly discovered a new path to address the pain point and act as a responsible player to deeply combine technology with an online way of thinking. We are looking forward to seeing more competitive performers in the agricultural sector, said Zhang Chi, investor of Riverhill Fund, who just helped McFly with the series A funding.

Modern farmers has cottoned on the implication of ecological farming as they benefit from ecological-friendly agricultural products, and it is more other than being lucrative.

For example, Chinas Peking University established the modern agricultural college in December 2017 to better serve Chinas smart agriculture. Dubbed gold with a coupon, modern agriculture with ABC technologies are able to personally train farmers with a passion for agriculture, but also data analysts with an in-depth knowledge of market chains and price volatility.




Zimbabwean intelligence officers reportedly foiled a meeting by a Botswana politician, Dr Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi and her colleagues  including former President Seretse Khama Ian Khama  which sought to topple Botswana President Mokgwetsi Masisi.





An American diplomat, Andrew Young, is also named by the Sunday Standard as part of the plot.





The plot involved laundering P60 million to Botswana via Zimbabwe and the money, according to reports, had been brought by Ms Bridgette Motsepe, sister of South African billionaire from South Africa who was tracked from Lanseria Airport by Botswana newspaper the Sunday Standard up to Victoria Falls.





It is believed that former president Khama, who is backing Dr Moitoi, was expected to attend the meeting.





According to reports by the Sunday Standard, the money was meant to buy votes for Dr Moitoi who intends to challenge President Mokgweetsi Masisi for BDP presidency.





It is understood that Dr Moitoi and her delegation were detained and subjected to interrogation by Zimbabwean intelligence officers in Victoria Falls after a tip off.





On the day that Ms Motsepe flew to Victoria Falls, Mr Khama also chartered a flight to Victoria Falls in the company of Dr Moitoi, Kabelo Binns, Daphne Kadiwa and Isaac Kgosi.





The Sunday Standard reports that Zimbabwes intelligence got the information that the plane that Ms Motsepe was travelling in was ferrying US$5,5 million that was supposed to be handed to Mr Khama.





Zimbabwean officials, according to the Sunday Standard did not search Motsepes plane but sent it back to South Africa.





It is understood that Dr Moitois delegation and that of Ms Motsepe were expected to meet American politician Mr Andrew Young.





Mr Moitois delegation stayed behind for the meeting in Victoria Falls while Ms Motsepe and her team were deported to South Africa.





Reports say that according to the initial plan, Dr Moitoi and Ms Motsepes teams were to be airlifted by two helicopters to a secret meeting at a farm in Botswana.





The US$5, 5 million purse was to be used to buy votes for Dr Moitoi in her BDP presidential bid against President Masisi.





The Sunday Standard reported that they had some audio tapes were Ms Motsepe was discussing with Binns saying the money was ready.





Binns is heard in the same conversation as saying they were aiming for 850 votes at next weeks congress.





They also discussed that they should hire vehicles in Botswana for the campaign fearing use of South African registered ones would expose them to scrutiny.








FIRST Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa has joined her husband in hiring pricey private jets - which cost taxpayers thousands of United States dollars.





The First Lady returned home from Dubai on Tuesday last week aboard a private jet Airbus A318-112 (CJ) Elite chartered for her and her travelling party. She had gone to Dubai for a meeting hosted by the Merck Foundation for purposes of dealing with the stigmatisation of women with infertility problems. Ten other first ladies attended the meeting.





The First Lady chartered the aircraft, registered as A6-CAS and operated by Constellation Aviation of Dubai. It spawned questions why she did not just hop into the first class cabin of a regularly scheduled Emirates flight operating between Dubai and Harare daily.





This comes as her husband, President Mnangagwa, is coming under sharp criticism from members of the public for the expensive practice. Apparently, the plane chartered by the first lady is the same aircraft flown into Harare a fortnight ago to fly her husband from Harare to Bulawayo, a trip the president could have embarked on using a military Mil Mi Russian-built Air Force of Zimbabwe helicopter.





Reached for comment, deputy Information minister Energy Mutodi said: "What the first lady does is her own private business. She is a free citizen, free to travel and do as she pleases. The public and media should leave the first family alone on their private business; it has nothing to do with the State or government."





Mnangagwa has defended his penchant for big-ticket private planes, with his spin-doctors saying it was the only mode of transport that could easily accommodate his busy schedule. Mnangagwa's spokesperson George Charamba brushed off criticism of his boss' excessive foreign travel as trivia.





Charamba said Mnangagwa is not so much fond of flying but is rather working around the clock to restore the country's lost glory. Since coming to power in November 2017, Mnangagwa has travelled over 25 trips.





He has been to countries such as Russia, Rwanda, Belarus, Guinea, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Switzerland, Angola, Zambia, Namibia, Ethiopia, Botswana, Mozambique, Mauritania, Tanzania, Botswana, the United States, the Democratic Republic of Congo and China, among others.





His office has been chartering the Comlux Boeing 767-200ER (Boeing Business Jet or BBJ), which charges in the region of US$50 000 per hour in flight time. On average, the trips are about five hours per leg for his foreign trips on these large VIP jets.





Charter companies, which the first lady is now also using, charge for flights on an hourly basis, based on what they call Total Time, which is basically the period during which an aeroplane flies with actual passengers other than just the crew.





Nonetheless, his immoderate expenditure, including his wife's now, is ironic given his government's austerity mantra.








Human rights lawyer and political activist Mr Dewa Mavhinga has distanced himself from any attempts at regime change in Zimbabwe, saying he was a law-abiding citizen with no such intentions.





Mr Mavhinga who is the Southern African director for Human Rights Watch said allegations that he was involved in attempts to topple the Government were false.





The statement by Mr Mavhinga followed a story by The Herald a fortnight ago based on a leaked Whatsapp chat between fugitive former Cabinet minister Walter Mzembi and South African-based businessman, Mr Mutumwa Mawere in which the duo discussed several strategies to salvage their waning fortunes.





In the chats which went viral, one of the suggestions made by Mr Mzembi was to call for regime change in Zimbabwe adding that Government must compensate Mr Mawere for the loss of his business entities as a pre-condition for removing sanctions by the United States.





The duo also proposed to rope in political activist, Ms Miriam Mutizwa and an individual they identified as Dewa whom they described as key in engaging the international community such as the United States and the European Union on Zimbabwe.





I have been going through the information you sent. My summary is a regime change in Harare is part of the solution if not the ultimate solution . . . We have to place your issue before the USA in a manner where it becomes topical politically and linked to removal of sanctions. Equally EU. So Dhewa will be key if we package it properly, said Mr Mzembi.





But in a new turn of events, Mr Mavhinga, speaking through his lawyer, Mr Mose Mackenzie-Ndebele of Zimudzi and Associates vehemently denied any involvement of a plot to topple the Government.





Our client is a trained lawyer and a law abiding citizen who has never plotted the ouster of any government . . . Our client is a reputable human rights lawyer who works for a highly reputable international human rights institution, said Mr Ndebele.





Mr Mavhinga accused The Herald of being malicious through writing an article that he said was defamatory.




"They did not invite us, that's why you did not see any war veteran at the function. On the other hand you should also know that some of the leaders are lost due to lies being peddled by Gono. He is a lost war veteran and we can't attend a function of people who do not work with others," said Makuni.
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From left to right: Alaska House of Representatives Republicans Tammie Wilson, Bart LeBon and Democratic Rep. Adam Wool. Wilson and LeBon are members of the House Finance Committee, which is holding budget meetings across Alaska to discuss Gov. Mike Dunleavys proposed budget. Sundays meeting in Fairbanks featured more than four hours of testimony, with the vast majority opposing Dunleavys plan. March 24, 2019. Robin Wood/News-Miner
Ethan Troxel and Breland Kiefer wore duct tape attire to prom this year and hope they can turn that homemade effort into a college scholarship. Photo courtesy Beth Norman.
Caption: In 2018 an I-beam failed inside the new combined head and power plant at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. It was one of multiple set backs that has delayed commercial operations of the plant by approximately six months. The beam helped support a sand and ash hopper, and is believed to have failed because of a design flaw and the use of lower-grade steel than originally called for. Photo courtesy UAF
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Yao women comb their long hair. (Photo/Chinanews.com)

A Long Hair Festival was held in the Yao ethnic village of Longji Town, Multinational Autonomous County of Longsheng, in south Chinas Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on April 7, to mark Chinas traditional Sanyuesan Festival, which is celebrated on the third day of the third lunar month, Chinanews.com reported on April 8.

A variety of activities took place during the festival, including hair combing, folk customs and Yao-style textiles, as well as a display of Yao-style costumes and accessories.

The Long Hair Festival was first held in this Yao village in 2016.

Yao women show their long hair. (Photo/Chinanews.com)
(Photo/Hubei Daily)

86-year-old Ma Xu, who donated 10 million yuan to education and public welfare on March 3, 2018, was recently named one of 10 people awarded "People Who Inspired China 2018."

The donation of $1.56 million was made up of Ma's lifelong assets, including her income from scientific research and patent transfer. It was sent to Mulan county in northeast Chinas Heilongjiang province, the veterans hometown, as she believes that better education can change lives.

Ma was among the first female paratroopers to be employed after the foundation of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949. She was admitted by the then Northeast Chinas Military and Political University in 1947 at the age of 14, and joined an infantry division as an army doctor in 1958.

In 1961, the soldier started her career as a paratrooper, which continued for more than two decades, during which time she created many national invention patents, including the inflatable ankle guard, as well as some other devices to enhance safety in parachuting.

Now, Ma and her husband are furthering their education in a Wuhan-based university for seniors, despite retiring many years ago.

They are living a simple life, where vegetables can be seen growing in their small courtyard.
No fewer than 12,000 women develop new cases of Vesico Vaginal Fistula (VVF) annually in Nigeria with 5,000 VVF cases treated, according...

No fewer than 12,000 women develop new cases of Vesico Vaginal Fistula (VVF) annually in Nigeria with 5,000 VVF cases treated, according to the National Obstetric Fistula Centre, Babbar-Ruga, Katsina.









Dr Aliyu Muhammad El-ladan, Medical Director of the centre, made the disclosure on Monday, when the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) capital projects verification team for 2016/2017, North West, visited the centre.









According to him, the Federal Government intends to establish at least one VVF centre in each of the six geopolitical zones in the country for effective treatment of the disease.









El-ladan said that the country needed more midwives, particularly at primary health care facilities at local government areas in Nigeria, to effectively check the condition.









Having enough qualified midwives at rural facilities will assist to stop obstructive labour which is the major cause of the disease.









Government should also do more on the training of personnel as well as sensitise the public on the importance of Ante Natal Care to stop obstructed labour, he said.









He further explained that the centre treated an average of about 500 women with VVF cases annually.









Earlier, the FRC team leader, Hajiya Maryam Mohammed, a Director in the commission, said the team was at the centre to ascertain the physical and financial performances of the projects.









She said the team would also find out whether the projects were executed within the budget cost and see whether the completed capital projects meet approved specifications, among others.









After the verification, the director said the team was satisfied at what they saw at the centre, though there was a need for some corrections.









The team leader said though the centre followed due process, the documents were poorly coordinated.









She, however, called for proper training of procurement officers to enable them do their work effectively.









It was gathered that some of the capital projects the team inspected include the new administrative block, maternity ward, Ante Natal Care facilities, theatre room, and laboratory, among others.








The Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomole, has laid to rest media reports suggesting that the party has zon...





The Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomole, has laid to rest media reports suggesting that the party has zoned the position of Deputy Senate President to the South-South.





He said the party was yet to zone Senate key offices, including the office of Deputy Senate President.





Oshiomole also denied reports that he was planning to zone the position of Deputy Senate President to Edo North senatorial district.





Through his media aide, Mr. Simon Egbebulem, Comrade Adams Oshiomohole said, Nothing has been done. Nobody has said this is the person for that position. But the party is working on how to share the position so that every part of the country will have a sense of belonging.





They have started the process and the party is backing Gbajabiamila and Ahmed Lawan for the position of Speaker and Senate president but other positions, the party is still working to sort out these positions.





This development has thrown up high level lobby amongst the three regions, South-East, South-West and South-South, jostling for the position of Deputy Senate President.





Responding to the report, media aide to senator representing Ekiti North senatorial district, Senator Duro Faseyi, Mr. Adedeji Daramola said Senators from the South-west were working round the clock to get the DSP slot.





His words: Though my boss is not returning, the Senators from the Southwest are pushing for the DSP slot in the 9th Assembly.





Top contenders for the office of Deputy Senate President are Senator Francis Alimekhena, Senator Robert Ajayi Boroffice, Senator Oluremi Tinubu and Senator Ovie Omo-Agege.





Senator Francis Alimekhena

The Edo born lawmaker is representing Edo North senatorial district. He is the Deputy Chief Whip of the 8th Senate. He is returning to the 9th Senate as a second timer and he hails from the same zone with the APC National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomole.





The Deputy Chief Whip has been subject of criticisms by APC members and groups. He was accused of failing to promote and defend the interests and policies of the APC-led Federal government in the 8th Senate.









Senator Robert Ajayi Boroffice

He represents Ondo North senatorial district. He is returning to the 9th Senate as a third timer. He is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Science and Technology. He is a member of parliamentary support group for President Muhammadu Buhari.





Boroffice was recently endorsed by a group of Northern senators-elect for the position of Deputy Senate President.









Senator Oluremi Tinubu

She is the wife of the National leader of All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu. Representing Lagos Central Senatorial district, she is returning to the 9th Senate as a third timer.





The main factor working against her ambition is the reported endorsement of Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila by the party to succeed Hon. Yakubu Dogara as Speaker of Federal House of Representatives. Femi is a political godson of Oluremis husband, Ahmed Bola Tinubu. Both Femi and Oluremi hail from the same senatorial district, Lagos Central.









Senator Ovie Omo-Agege





He represents Delta Central Senatorial district. He is returning to the 9th Senate as a second timer. He was an active member of parliamentary support for President Muhammadu Buhari in the 8th Senate. His candidature was recently nullified by the Federal High Court in Asaba.




Senator representing Katsina South District in the National Assembly, Abu Ibrahim, has hinted that the All Progressives Congress (APC)...





Senator representing Katsina South District in the National Assembly, Abu Ibrahim, has hinted that the All Progressives Congress (APC) may expel Senators Mohammed Ali Ndume and Danjuma Goje, if they go against the partys decision on the election of the next Senate President.





Speaking to reporters on Sunday in Abuja, Senator Ibrahim said any member of the APC who dares the partys decision and connives with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to sabotage the party on who becomes Senate President will be shown the way out of the ruling APC.





Though he did not specifically mention the names of the two ranking federal lawmakers, Ndume, on one hand, has declared his intention to contest the position of Senate President in defiance of APCs endorsement of Senator Ahmed Lawan as its preferred candidate for the job.





Goje, who has been working underground to realise his ambition of leading the ninth National Assembly, is yet to publicly declare his intention.





Gojes body language also gives him out as willing to go against the partys choice of Senator Lawan.





However, Senator Ibrahim who is Chairman, Senate Committee on Labour and Productivity noted that, if the APC 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.





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.





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.




American news agency, Bloomberg, has described President Muhammadu Buharis record over the last four years as discouraging. The N...





American news agency, Bloomberg, has described President Muhammadu Buharis record over the last four years as discouraging.





The New York-based international news agency further stated that it wonders if Baba Go Slow is up to the task of reviving the economy in his second term.





The news agency noted that in the year 2000, over 1.4 billion people lived at or below the global poverty line of $1.90 a day.





In its editorial published on April 7, 2019, Bloomberg stated that one of humanitys most hopeful developments in recent decades has been the dramatic drop in extreme poverty, adding that Nigeria needs growth to defuse poverty time.

It added, Today, the number is about 600 million. This remarkable change is mainly due to growth in China and India. Much of sub-Saharan Africa, particularly Nigeria, has failed to share in the success.





A decade ago, Nigeria had far fewer people in extreme poverty than either China or India; today, according to data compiled by the World Data Lab, it has more than both combined. The count stands at more than 90 million, and has risen both in absolute terms and as a share of the total.





Nigerias young and fast-growing population is projected by the United Nations to double in size by 2050, making it the worlds third-biggest. Even assuming that the proportion of Nigerians living in extreme poverty stops rising as quickly as it has in recent years, its on course to remain extraordinarily high for the foreseeable future.





Nigerias success or failure in confronting extreme poverty will be pivotal for the rest of Africa, too  partly because of its huge population but also because of its outsize influence over its neighbors.





The government led by President Muhammadu Buhari, recently re-elected to a second and final four-year term, bears a grave responsibility. One wonders whether a politician known as Baba Go Slow is up to the task.





His record over the last four years is discouraging. Economic growth has barely recovered following the 2014 crash in the price of oil, which remains Nigerias biggest export and source of government revenue.




Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Monday met behind closed doors with the former Senate Leader, Ali Ndume. The meeting started aroun...





Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Monday met behind closed doors with the former Senate Leader, Ali Ndume.





The meeting started around 3.20pm when Ndume arrived the Vice Presidents office.





Ndume has been aspiring to be President of the 9th Senate in June.





He had declared his intention to run for the number three highest political office despite endorsement of the current Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan for the post by the ruling All Progressives Congress.





The meeting with Osinbajo was still in progress at the time of filing this report.




Suspected armed robbers raided the only commercial bank in Ido-Ani community in Ose local government area of Ondo state on Monday afte...





Suspected armed robbers raided the only commercial bank in Ido-Ani community in Ose local government area of Ondo state on Monday afternoon, killing six persons.





A resident of the town revealed that the armed men invaded the bank around 2:30pm.





He said they used dynamites to force the security doors open before attacking customers and bank workers.





The source said four persons were killed at the ATM point while two bank workers were shot dead inside the banking hall.





When contacted, Femi Joseph, Ondo state police spokesman, promised to get back to us.





More to follow




President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday arrived Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the ninth edition of the Annual Investment Meeting (...

President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday arrived Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the ninth edition of the Annual Investment Meeting (AIM).









The president arrived the country from Amman, Jordan, where he had participated in the World Economic Forum (WEF) on the Middle East and North Africa held at the Dead Sea resort, Jordan.









He was invited by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice-President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai.








President Muhammadu Buhari has reassured Nigerians that ending banditry remains a key priority of his administration. Buhari said ...

President Muhammadu Buhari has reassured Nigerians that ending banditry remains a key priority of his administration.









Buhari said that he would do whatever it takes to ensure the countrys security system confronts these public enemies with merciless determination, a statement by Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, quoted him as saying yesterday.









Buhari was reacting to the recent spike in reported incidents of banditry and kidnappings in some parts of the country.









The president condoled with all those affected by the unfortunate events.









Buhari described as ridiculous allegation of indifference being levelled against him in some quarters.









How can I be happy and indifferent to the senseless killings of my fellow citizens by bandits?









I am human and I understand the pains of the victims and their families who have been traumatised and impoverished by constant ransom demands by bandits.









The politicisation of tragedy reveals the darkest sides of our primitive politics. Almost every week, I summon my security chiefs to get an update on the strategies being devised to defeat these mass murderers.









There is no issue that dominates my mind every 24 hours like security, because as an elected President, protecting life and property remains primary function of my administration.









I constantly listen to our security personnel in order to understand their problems and needs, and I have never hesitated to attend to those needs in terms of motivating and equipping them to respond effectively to our security challenges.









It is therefore ridiculous to suggest that I am indifferent to these killings.









I have ordered rapid and robust deployment of troops to all the areas currently under attack from bandits and we are determined to tackle this challenge ferociously until these remorseless killers are crushed and utterly defeated, Buhari said.









He however, called on communities affected by banditry to support and cooperate with the security agencies, particularly the recently launched Operation Puff Adder to battle bandits and kidnappers.









The President said it was regrettable that bandits had informants within some communities and utterly reprehensible that certain communities had signed protection deals with bandits at the expense of other communities, thereby creating complications and frustrating governments intervention









He appealed to communities to report suspicious movements of the bandits into their areas within the shortest available opportunity, especially considering the fact that intelligence is critical to detecting, frustrating, neutralising and defeating the criminals.








GUANGZHOU, April 8 (Xinhua) -- A baby white rhinoceros met with the public in Guangzhou, capital of southern China's Guangdong Province.

The baby white rhinoceros, named Da Zhuang, is the son of Little Prince, the first southern white rhinoceros bred at the Chimelong Safari Park.

Da Zhuang was born on June 19 last year while his father Little Prince was born on March 3 in 2009. Da Zhuang's mother, named Nan Feng, was introduced from South Africa in 2015.

Nine months after his birth, Da Zhuang now weighs 445 kg, while he only weighed 48 kg when he was born, said Chen Siming, an animal expert with the park.

"Da Zhuang is now learning survival skills with his mother such as looking for food, mud bathing, rubbing and scratching, as well as how to get along with other rhinoceros," Chen said.

The park started to introduce rhinoceros from South Africa since 1997. Now the park has 24 southern white rhinoceros and 13 black rhinoceros.

The white rhinoceros is listed as "near threatened" on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and consists of two subspecies, namely southern white rhinoceros and northern white rhinoceros. Last year, the world's only remaining male northern white rhinoceros died, leaving just two female northern white rhinoceros on the planet.

"The special body structure and the low fertility rate of the white rhinoceros make it difficult for the species' population to increase," Chen said.

Experts at the park have made a lot of efforts to help the species mate and reproduce in recent years, and two other white rhinoceros are pregnant and the babies are expected to be born in November this year and the first half of 2020 respectively, the park said.
Nigerian Afro-beat star, Femi Kuti, has called for broad reform of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) which he said requires a complete reor...

Nigerian Afro-beat star, Femi Kuti, has called for broad reform of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) which he said requires a complete reorientation.









Kuti stated that he believes the Police Force is important to decreasing crime but must work for law-abiding Nigerians, not against them.









Femi made this known yesterday while addressing the media at the New Afrika Shrine, Lagos where a protest against Police brutality took place.









The protest was in reaction to the fatal shooting of Kolade Johnson, a 36-year-old who was killed on Sunday, March 31, 2019, by operatives of the Special Anti-Cultism Squad (SACS) in Lagos State in the Mangoro area of Lagos.









According to Kuti, the protest was not an effort to undermine or scrap the Police Force but to demand a reform of the system thatll make it work in the interest of the people and not kill them unlawfully.









Describing Kolades fatal shooting as one of the too many sad extremes of the Force that should not be condoned, Kuti said a change was important.









Were not against the Police. Were saying the complete orientation of the Police must change into positiveness.









The Police works for us and must defend its citizens. The Police cannot go and kill its citizens. We pay our taxes so the Police must defend us.









Were not saying scrap the Police Force, of course, therell be crime. If Police is properly equipped then Police can protect us against crime, he said.









In addition, Segun Segalink Awosanya, an activist and major campaigner against Police brutality, called for the scrapping of all killer Police squads in the country.









While addressing the group of protesters yesterday, Awosanya said killer squads in the Nigeria Police Force have been working against the interest of the Nigerian people for too long and must be stopped.









When our country is saddled with a Police Force that operates outside the bounds of law, without operational restraint, what we get are not only killer squads that reign supreme but a Police Force that has gone rogue killing and maiming defenceless citizens.









The lives of all citizens matter and we must continue to demand that men and women of the Police Force respect the sanctity of life and the lives of all Nigerians.








Widow of the late Igbo leader, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Bianca, has said Igbo fallen heroes are not properly honoured. She sai...

Widow of the late Igbo leader, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Bianca, has said Igbo fallen heroes are not properly honoured.









She said such personalities should be immortalised in such a way that would reflect their ideals and philosophies.









Bianca expressed this in a funeral tribute to a former President General of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Dozie Ikedife in Nnewi, Anambra State.









While calling for proper immortalisation of Ikedife, Bianca asked the Ndigbo to brace for such occasions by working out good immortalisation schemes for their people.









She said, It has always been an issue on how to immortalise great men, especially of Igbo extraction.









I think individuals; organisations and institutions should sit down and think of enduring monument for such great people. Such a monument should not just be in making statutes to remember the dead.









It should involve setting up of projects that show the persons philosophies, ideologies and all the things he believed in life. Such beliefs, philosophies, ideologies should have a place they are discussed, espoused, promoted and investigated, she stated.









She described Ikedife as an extraordinary man whom she said spent time with her late husband, Ojukwu, to tackle issues that promoted Igbo cause.









He was a true Igbo man who advanced the warfare and cause of the Igbo nation. He was always there to fight for their rights, she stated.









Ikedife died on December 11, 2018, and was buried the next day according to his wish.












Prof. Itse Sagay SAN, Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, PACAC, has insisted that the militarys invo...





Prof. Itse Sagay SAN, Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, PACAC, has insisted that the militarys involvement in the just-concluded Rivers State elections saved people of the state from bloodbath.





Sagay stated this while rubbishing claim by Buba Galadima, spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Presidential Campaign Organisation, on the militarization of the recent elections.





Dismissing Galadimas claim, Sagay stressed that the conduct of elections in Rivers State would have been difficult if not for the involvement of the military.





Speaking with Vanguard, Sagay said: Sincerely, I dont seem to understand what befell Buba Galadima at his old age that made him to continually talk recklessly and becoming irresponsible. You know it is a shame that he has become totally irresponsible and indiscipline in his language. It is very sad. I dont know what he lost or didnt get in APC that affected him mentally that he is talking childishly and embarrassingly.





What Galadima said is pure nonsense. Militarisation of the election, was it the military that was voting? The military didnt stop anybody from going to vote. So what does he mean by militarisation? I wish he could go to Rivers State to vote without the military, and see if he would come back alive.





The military saved us from bloodshed, especially in Rivers and Akwa-Ibom where no election has ever been free. Rivers particularly, they always write results. In 2015, Governor Nysome Wikes result was just written by hand.





The card reader read total votes cast as 229,000, and Wike claimed to have 1.2 million votes. There has never been an election in that place and if the military had not been involved, there would be no election. So, without the military in many parts of this country like Zamfara and most parts of the North-East and volatile areas, there would be no election.




The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said it wont join the African Action Congress (AAC) to protest the second term victory of Riv...





The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said it wont join the African Action Congress (AAC) to protest the second term victory of Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, in the just concluded gubernatorial election in the state.





APCs National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, made this known during the weekend while fielding questions from reporters in Abuja.





He noted that although some local government area results were questionable, the APC would not challenge them at the Election Tribunal because the party had nothing to do with the polls.





Issa-Onilu said: It is not true that APC felt hurt over PDPs victory. We dont have anything to do with the Rivers State election. APC didnt have candidates in the election and that is why, from the beginning, we didnt throw ourselves so much into it.





You knew that the Supreme Court ruled that we were not qualified to contest. So, on that basis, whatever what happened in Rivers, whether at the local government that gave 80,000 votes during the presidential election and suddenly produced 320,000 votes 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 action if they find it necessary but for us at APC, we didnt have the opportunity to contest unfairly in Rivers State, he said.




Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha, Monday gave hint why he wants to go to National Assembly as Senator representing Imo West Senator...





Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha, Monday gave hint why he wants to go to National Assembly as Senator representing Imo West Senatorial zone.





He said he wants to build a strong political bridge between the Southeast and other geopolitical zones of the country.





The governor also hinted that he would pursue the policy of Free Education at the National Assembly so that the children of the poorest in the society would have hope of survival in Nigeria.





According to him, I also want to use the opportunity in the Senate to rebuild the Political Bridge that has linked the South East with the rest of Nigerians. The Political Bridge is somehow faulty and it is dutifully incumbent on me to rebuild this bridge so that Igbos will play a recognized role in the Politics of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.





He continued that I am going to the Senate top promote the course of ordinary Nigerians. These are some of the things I am going to the Senate to do. Otherwise, I have no business there.





Okorocha who spoke when he received the new Commander, 34 Field Artillery Brigade (FAB) Obinze Brigadier-General Yusuf Tukura when he came on Courtesy Call at the Government House Owerri, also disclosed that he is leaving behind a viable and secured State.





that his administration in the State from 2011 to 2019 saw the disappearance of kidnapping, armed robbery, ritual killings, baby factories, militancy and other organized crimes in the State, adding that he would not be happy to hear that these crimes are back to the State when he has left. He saidthat his administration in the State from 2011 to 2019 saw the disappearance of kidnapping, armed robbery, ritual killings, baby factories, militancy and other organized crimes in the State, adding that he would not be happy to hear that these crimes are back to the State when he has left.





He said We have enjoyed a very good working relationship with all the past Army Commanders and we are hopeful it will continue. Imo is a peaceful State. It was made peaceful through the efforts of the rescue mission government, in partnership with other Security Agencies in the State.





The transformation you have seen in Imo State eight years down the line is as a result of Sacrifice. A leader who does not make sacrifices has no business with leadership. What you are seeing in Imo is a product of sacrifice. Sacrifice of self, Sacrifice of Comfort and personality, denial of yourself who you are, that you might serve your people well.





He continued, I will advise you Brigadier general to set a target for yourself on what you want to achieve in Imo State as the Commander in the State. You have brought us message of peace and so we want you to maintain peace and tranquility. You should serve Imo people as your own home. Today you are in Igbo land as a Brigade Commander so you are automatically an Igbo man now; it is the attitude that will guarantee peace in Nigeria.





Earlier in his speech, the Army Commander, said he had come on the courtesy call to inform the governor that he has assumed the Command of the Brigade, and to familiarize himself with the governor.




Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State has said that recent protests by the youths in Abuja, Kaduna and London could not be unconnec...





Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State has said that recent protests by the youths in Abuja, Kaduna and London could not be unconnected with the sheer overzealous desire of Zamfara politicians to hijack power without due process.





A press statement issued and signed by his press secretary, Hon. Magaji Dosara, claimed that Zamfara state citizens did not paticipate in the protests, saying that power-drunk politicians in the state hired none Zamfara citizens to satisfy their selfish ambition.





The governor stressed that those who agreed to be paid for the unholy protests have no idea of the security situation in the state, stressing that the desperate politicians just wanted to make him a scapegoat in the process.





He maintained that the people used in the protests didn't understand how much of the state resources his government and the federal government have committed to resolving the security challenges in the northwest state.





I am not in any way saying that the Protestants have done anything wrong by making their grievances known to the public because it is their constitutional rights, he said.





Continuing, the Governor noted that no responsible government would fold its hands while terror attacks continue to ravage the state without finding any lasting solution to the problem.





He stressed that taken the protests to London in the United Kingdom was to tarnish the reputation of the whole country before the whole world.




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.

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Former US assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs Mark Kimmitt has said Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi's upcoming visit to the US is very important, given the strong relations with Egypt.

Speaking to Extra News channel on Monday, the Bush-era official said El-Sisi and US President Donald Trump are expected to discuss bilateral relations and cooperation in the fight against terrorism.

One-on-one meetings are very important, Kimmitt said, adding that it is good that El-Sisi will be in Washington for talks with Trump.

El-Sisi is beginning a three-day visit to the US on Monday.

It will be his second official visit to Washington and his seventh to the US since he assumed office in 2014.

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ABC News(NEW YORK) -- Still reeling from the sudden death of her 10-year-old daughter, a South Carolina mom said she complained about her child being bullied multiple times before she died after a fight with a classmate at school.



Raniya Wright, a fifth-grader at Forest Hills Elementary School in Walterboro, South Carolina, died two days after getting into a fight with a another fifth-grade girl who Raniya's mother, Ashley Wright, said she'd complained about "numerous times."



"I'm very upset with the school system, starting out, only because of the fact that I've been complaining about the person that she fought numerous times to them," Wright said in an exclusive interview with ABC News' Good Morning America airing Monday. "That's what really breaks me down and makes me question to myself why nothing was never done up until now with this happening."



"I'm thinking they got it handled, and they failed me."



Paramedics said Raniya was unconscious on March 25 when they found her inside the school nurse's offices and transported her to a local hospital. Her condition was so severe that she was airlifted to another hospital nearly 50 miles away in Charleston, where she died two days later.



A student was suspended after the altercation and the school said it plans to release more information when the Colleton County Sheriffs Office completes its investigation. Police said no weapons were used in the fight.



Wright said she believes her daughter was the victim of school bullying, but authorities have not confirmed that. She said she notified the school and spoke with Raniya's teacher about her ongoing problems with the classmate.



"I've been having problems with her since fourth grade," Wright told GMA, referring to the student involved in the fight. "I can't speak about third, because I'm not sure, but I've been hearing her name before she got in the fifth grade."



Wright said she didn't speak with her daughter the morning before the fight, but that her mother, who normally sees off the children while Wright's working, said Raniya had been asking to stay home from school more lately.



"My momma said that she did not want to go to school. She told me later on that day, when I was on lunch before the school called, that she didn't want to go to school," Wright recalled. "And the last couple of weeks she's been feeling like that. When I say, 'You got a half a day tomorrow.' She'll be like, 'Yes, can I just stay home?' She did not want to go to school these last couple of weeks. ... I felt like the situation at school was getting worse."



Raniya said the girl was picking on her every day, making fun of her nose, saying that her hairstyles were "for little girls," according to her mother. Wright said she offered to go to the school, but her daughter declined, believing that would make things worse.



Wright called the school instead.



"I'd normally call and talk to her teacher about it, and she'll say, 'Well, Raniya never said anything to me about it.' And I'm saying, 'Well, I'm letting you know she comes home to me about it every day,' and I'm leaving it in her hands to do something about it," Wright recalled. "So when Raniya gets home I'm like, 'Well, did she talk to you, did you talk to her about what happened? Is she holding a parent conference? Is she supposed to call me?' She said 'No, momma, nothing.'"



Wright said she's frustrated because police and school officials haven't revealed details about the ongoing investigation.



"My frustration is really towards the school system because I sent my child to school feeling like she can be protected while she's not in my care anymore," Wright said.



The Colleton County School District said it plans to release a full public report about the tragic incident after authorities conclude the investigation.



"We know that members of our community may have questions and concerns as we try to sort out the details surrounding this tragedy. We realize and appreciate that people want to know exactly what happened in this incident," the school said in a statement last Wednesday. "However, it is important for our school district to make sure that the Colleton County Sheriff's Office's thorough investigation, relying on all of the facts available, is concluded before we comment publicly."

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Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi will travel to Washington DC on Monday for the second time since he assumed office in 2014.

El-Sisi will meet with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, to discuss bilateral and regional issues.

Besides bilateral relations, El-Sisi's meetings in Washington will focus on the latest developments in the Middle East, especially the Palestinian cause and peace process, according to a State Intelligence Service news report.

The pair will also discuss the situation in Syria, Libya and Yemen, as well counter-terrorism efforts.

The visit is El-Sisi's second to Washington and his sixth meeting with Trump.

El-Sisis first visit to Washington was in April 2017. It heralded a new phase of bilateral ties at the strategic, political and economic levels.

El-Sisi has also been to New York for five times, to attend UN General Assembly (UNGA) meetings 69, 70, 71, 72 and 73.

During his visits to the US, the Egyptian president has always stressed the importance of Cairo's strategic relations with Washington.

El-Sisi left Cairo on Sunday on a tour that will see him visit Guinea, Ivory Coast and Senegal prior to his trip to the US, presidential spokesman Bassam Rady said in a statement.

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The Egyptian Nuclear Plants Authority (NPPA) was granted a site permit for the building of Dabaa nuclear power plant, said head of the Nuclear Power Plants Authority Amged el Wakil on Monday.

The move comes as part of preparations for setting up Egypt's first of its kind nuclear plant, he added.

He said the permit is based on reviews carried out by Egyptian Nuclear and Radiological Regulatory Authority (ENRRA) of the site in terms of design of structures and systems and environment impact assessment.

The ENRRA also invited a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency to examine the location of the plant in terms of Site and External Events Design Review Service (SEED), taking into consideration site-specific external and internal hazards.

The permit is step one before attaining a construction license.

The Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation (ROSATOM) will develop El Dabaa nuclear power plant, which will be owned and operated by the Nuclear Power Plant Authority (NPPA) of Egypt.

With a nameplate capacity of 4.8GW, the plant is expected to account for up to 50% of Egypts power generation capacity to meet the countrys increasing demand for electricity.

It is expected to boost the countrys economy and industrial development by creating up to 50,000 jobs.

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Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi arrived in Washington DC on Monday for the second time since he assumed office in 2014, and is set to meet US president Donald Trump the next day.

El-Sisi will meet Trump to discuss bilateral and regional issues, including the situation in Syria, Libya and Yemen, as well as counterterrorism efforts.

This will be El-Sisi's sixth meeting with Trump, which comes at the invitation of the US president.

A group of Egyptians living in the United States organised a rally in front of the US Capitol on Monday to welcome the Egyptian president.

According to the organisers of the rally, the Egyptian expats aim to show support for El-Sisi in the face of the Muslim Brotherhood's attempts to defame Egypt in front of the Congress.

El-Sisi left Cairo on Sunday on a tour that started with Guinea, the Ivory Coast, and Senegal, before heading to the US.

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Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday it was impossible for the opposition candidate to claim victory in Istanbul by a margin of 13,000-14,000 votes in a city of 10 million voters, as his party seeks a full recount.

Last week's initial results showed a narrow victory for Turkey's main opposition party CHP. Erdogan's party has already appealed the initial results in all 39 districts of Istanbul, leading to partial or full recounts across Turkey's largest city.

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The European Union's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, called on Monday for a truce in Libya and a return to political negotiations as fighting intensified between rival factions.

Mogherini, who chaired a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg, said Europe's 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".

Mogherini, who also spoke to U.N. special envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame early on Monday, said EU ministers were united on echoing the G7's call for eastern Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar to halt his advance on Tripoli.

Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) said on Friday its forces had moved into Tripoli's southern outskirts and taken its former international airport, threatening the internationally recognised government based in the capital.

The offensive by the LNA, which is allied to a parallel administration based in the main eastern city of Benghazi, intensifies a power struggle that has fractured the oil-producing country since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

"We must try to do everything to stop the military operation so there is no civil war in Libya," Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn told reporters.

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Observers are expecting that Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir will be stepping down "soon," and that it is only a matter of time before the army decides who will be the transitional leader of the Arab African country, which has been witnessing massive protests for the past four months.

Informed sources in Sudan who talked to Ahram Online on condition of anonymity said that after Sundays meeting of the National Defence and Security Council headed by Al-Bashir, it has become clear that the army has picked its side.

After the meeting, the council said in a statement published by the Sudanese official news agency that the protesters represent a segment of society that must be heard. 

However, according to two different sources, a large faction in the army insists that the Sudanese Minister of Defence Awad Ibn Ouf, who is also the presidents deputy, cannot be the one to lead the transitional period after Al-Bashir steps down.

The council is currently looking for someone with a military background, respected by middle and high rankingofficers, and with no political affiliations. Someone not wanted by the International Criminal Court, one source added. 

Among the names that are being circulated behind closed doors at the moment, according to observers, is retired Armed Forces Chief of General Staff Lieutenant-General Emad Al-Din Mustafa Adawi. 

Meanwhile, Sudanese soldiers intervened to protect demonstrators on Monday after security forces tried to disperse a sit-in by thousands outside the defence ministry in central Khartoum that started on 6 April, the anniversary of the military coup that forced Jaafar Nimeiri to step down in 1985 after massive protests.

Sudanese activists shared videos showing the armys intervention to stop police violence against protesters while demonstrators chanted one people, one army.

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Sudan's armed forces will not allow the country to "fall into chaos," Defence Minister General Awad Ibnouf said Monday as thousands of anti-government protesters demonstrated outside the military's headquarters in Khartoum for third straight day.

"Sudan's armed forces understand the reasons for the demonstrations and is not against the demands and aspirations of the citizens, but it will not allow the country to fall into chaos," Ibnouf said at a meeting of the top brass, according to the official SUNA news agency.

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According to the Post, polls say 28% of US men age 18-30 report not having sex in the last year, almost 3 times as many as a decade ago. Women that age show a much smaller increase, and other ages dont show noticeable changes:

Even if much of this change is due to random polling error, Id bet there is still a real effect here to explain. I asked via a Twitter poll if the young women switched to sex with older men, or with more desirable younger men, and by 3-2 (out of 11,456!), they favored the latter theory. Yes, in principle women could be switching to sex with other women, but Id bet thats not the biggest effect here.

So theres probably a real effect here to explain: regarding heterosexual sex, over the last decade many more young men are having no sex, compared to other ages and genders, and with their potential partners switching to more desirable young men and older men. Thats a pattern we might want to explain.

If we think of sex as a mating market, using simple supply and demand concepts, then the (quality weighted) quantity of sex that each person gets should depend on 1) how much they value sex, 2) how much they have to offer potential partners, and 3) how much those partners value them. In addition, 4) search and other deal frictions can make it harder to find and sustain pairings.

So the young men who have less to offer, relative to average young men, might get even less sex over time because they become even less desirable in the eyes of women, because those women now find other options more attractive, because these young men are less eager for sex, or because of increased costs to find and proposition well-matched women.

These are categories of proximate causes, and are consistently with many distal causes. For example, longer lifespans could cause changes in youthful desire, or changes in outside options. Yes, each of these categories can be broken down further. For example, young men might be less eager for sex either because young women have changed and become less desirable to them, or because those men now find other activities more enjoyable.

In one of my most popular Twitter polls to date (with 4940 responses), I asked people to pick from three cause categories:

% of young men w/ no sex in year has doubled in 10 years to 28% in 2018. Which factor contributes most: they want sex less, they are objectively less desirable, or potential partners have raised their standards?  Robin Hanson (@robinhanson) March 30, 2019

While there is no strong consensus, respondents did favor pickier young women by almost 2-1 over each of the other two options (less male desire and less desirable men). The stories of pickier women and less desirable men will in practice be pretty hard to distinguish, especially as there can be feedback loops, such as where men who succeed less get discouraged and try less hard. So let us just bundle these stories together into: PW+LDM. In my poll, that bundle is favored 3-1 over the men want sex less story.

While my poll induced many commenters to offer theories, most did not think very carefully about how to explain social changes. So let me elaborate here on that. If real, this particular pattern is regarding one particular subset of people, less-desirable young men (LDYM), who are losing out over a particular decade to another particular subset, young more-desirable men, for a particular thing, sex. So any explanation of this pattern needs to be specific to these two groups, this outcome (sex), and this time period.

Thus it wont at all do to point to effects that are constant in time, such as people not always telling the truth in polls, or men having lower standards for sex partners. It also wont do to point to changes over this time period that effected all ages and genders similarly, such as obesity, porn, video games, social media, dating apps, and wariness re harassment claims. They might be part of an answer, but cant explain all by themselves. To explain an unusual burst over the last decade, it is also problematic to point to factors (e.g., computing power) that changed over the last decade, but changed just as much over prior decades.

A good theory instead needs to identify why its favored effect was much stronger in this past decade, especially for the package of LDYM. Consider the explanations mentioned by the Post:

There are several potential explanations  Labor force participation among young men has fallen, particularly in the aftermath of the last recession.  54% of unemployed Americans didnt have a steady romantic partner, compared with 32% among the employed.  Young men also are more likely to be living with their parents than young women: In 2014, for instance, 35% of men age 18 to 34 were living in their parents home, compared with 29% of women in that age group.  One final factor that may be affecting Americans sexual habits at all ages is technology. There are a lot more things to do at 10 oclock at night now than there were 20 years ago, Streaming video, social media, console games, everything else. (more)

But streaming video and social media effect all ages, genders, and desirability levels, not just LDYM. The other two effects are at least specific to LDYM, but theres no mention of just how much living at home has changed among young men, and the drop in labor force participation (e.g., 79.6-73.0% for men age 20-24 from 06-16) seems much less than increase in the sexless.

A related effect the Post didnt mention is women going further in school than men now, and women being reluctant to date men with less school. Theres been a big change in that over the last 15 years:

Note that these 3 possible causes, schooling differences, labor force participation declines, and living at home, all more plausibly act through the PW+LDM channel, relative to less male desire or higher deal frictions channels.

In December, the Atlantic outlined a great many possible theories:

Fisher, like many other experts, attributes the sex decline to a decline in couplehood among young people. For a quarter century, fewer people have been marrying, and those who do have been marrying later.  But this doesnt explain why young people are partnering up less to begin with.  It might be a consequence of the hookup culture, of crushing economic pressures, of surging anxiety rates, of psychological frailty, of widespread antidepressant use, of streaming television, of environmental estrogens leaked by plastics, of dropping testosterone levels, of digital porn, of the vibrators golden age, of dating apps, of option paralysis, of helicopter parents, of careerism, of smartphones, of the news cycle, of information overload generally, of sleep deprivation, of obesity. Name a modern blight, and someone, somewhere, is ready to blame it for messing with the modern libido.  Rates of childhood sexual abuse have decreased in recent decades, and abuse can lead to both precocious and promiscuous sexual behavior. And some people today may feel less pressured into sex they dont want to have, thanks to changing gender mores and growing awareness of diverse sexual orientations, including asexuality. Maybe more people are prioritizing school or work over love and sex, at least for a time.  In more recent decades, by contrast, teen romantic relationships appear to have grown less common.  Unless you are exceptionally good-looking, the thing online dating may be best at is sucking up large amounts of time.  Tinder  logs 1.6 billion swipes a day, and just 26 million matches.  overwhelming majority of matches dont lead to so much as a two-way text exchange, much less a date, much less sex.  #MeToo movement  less healthy reactions, like avoiding romantic overtures for fear that they might be unwelcome. In my own conversations, men and women alike spoke of a new tentativeness and hesitancy.  Online daters, he argued, might be tempted to keep going back for experiences with new people; commitment and marriage might suffer.  porn may be contributing to some particularly unpleasant early sexual experiences.  Learning sex in the context of one-off hookups isnt helping.  Millennials dont like to get nakedif you go to the gym now, everyone under 30 will put their underwear on under the towel, which is a massive cultural shift  Designs for master-bedroom suites were evolving for much the same reason: They want their own changing rooms and bathrooms, even in a couple.  May also be newly worried about what they look like naked.  Social-media use is correlated with body dissatisfaction.  a lot of men who would like to perform oral sex but are rebuffed by their partner.  Women will say  Its the ugliest part of my body.   There may be such a thing as waiting too long. Among people who are sexually inexperienced at age 18, about 80% will become sexually active by the time they are 25. But those who havent gained sexual experience by their mid-20s are much less likely to ever do so. (more)

Note that many of these channels result in women being less interested in or open to male sex proposals, and are thus within the PW+LDM channel. These include less child sex abuse, feeling less pressured, prioritizing careers, women feeling more anxious about their bodies, and more #MeToo disapproval of sex proposals. (Though that last one can also be seen as higher deal frictions.) Overall, both my polls and MSM stories seem to agree that PW+LDM is the most likely channel of change here.

Note also that the waiting too long problem can contribute to cohort specific sex cultures. That is, age cohorts often generate distinct tastes in music, food, and hobbies, tastes which can last a lifetime. Similarly, age cohorts can generate distinct lasting sex cultures, cultures that are especially sensitive to the conditions around when that cohort first started to have sex. In general, age cohorts seem eager to change from the fashions of prior cohorts, to define themselves via distinct music, etc. And in addition, dramatic events like 9-11, the great recession, and #MeToo could help push a new age cohort to switch to a new cultural equilibrium, which might then stick around for a while, at least until the next such disruption.

It seems that, whether due to recent cultural events or random cultural drift, the latest age cohort has switched to a new sex culture wherein the less desirable half of young men are now seen as even less desirable by young women than previous cohorts would have seen them. And within this culture it is seen as more acceptable for young women to share the more desirable half of young men, relative to the higher (but never maximal) priority previous cohorts put on more monogamous ties.

Random future cultural changes could of course move back the other way. But my increasing-wealth-induces-farmer-to-forager story about the direction of modern cultural changes predicts otherwise for the long run. Via marriage, foragers were more promiscuous and less monogamous than farmers, and this recent age cohort sex culture change continues this predicted farmer-to-forager movement.

Added 10p: Some evidence against the porn story.

Added 10Apr: TGGP reviews data & concludes:

Between the two explanations, I would thus conclude that a shift toward older men relative to the 18-29 group fits better than an increase in variance within 18-29.

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Connor Franta is one of the most online people in the world, but he defies a lot of internet stereotypes. Whether making videos or writing books, Franta favors layered discussion over hot takes, longform over short. Think of his latest project, LOUD & CLEAR, as an antidote to social media  a roundtable talk show that aims to tackle the big issues in depth.

Streaming live on Fox's Caffeine platform then uploaded to YouTube, episodes of LOUD & CLEAR will feature Franta and a rotating trio of guests. The first, out tomorrow, tackles the ultimate internet buzz topic: burnout. Franta's panel will include fellow internet personalities Gabbie Hanna, Scotty Sire and Eva Gutowski.

"It's curated, but we open it up to a discussion and go beyond those 30 seconds you usually get in an interview typically," Franta tells PAPER. "Here people will have a platform to actually speak, versus a quick tweet."

The premiere episode is definitely buzzword-y, but also remains true to Franta's personal experiences  he's been public with his own mental health struggles for years now, as have his panelists. "We'll be talking about what that's like, to live a life of anxiety," he explains. "Uploading every single day while still struggling with personal satisfaction and happiness. I've been uploading content for over eight years now coming up on nine, so after a while doing anything over and over, you fall into that burnout cycle and go back into it." Even those of us with average follower counts can relate.

Franta says there's a long list of potential future LOUD & CLEAR episodes, tackling every big internet topic imaginable  from racial inequality on YouTube to the rise of influencer entrepreneurism. "I want to gather all the top creators of YouTube currently, and see what content is hitting, and what types of humans are making that content, and what it says of society as a whole," he says. "I'd love to get that group of people in a room together."

He's also hoping to do what he calls "the big boss interview," picking the brains of social media personalities who have major businesses on the side  Jeffree Star, Lilly Singh. "And definitely I'd love to get a group of queer people in, and talk about being LGBTQ+ in a global sense and in our current political situation as well."

"We'll be talking about what that's like, to live a life of anxiety."

It's clearly Franta's dream project, and the timing is perfect. "In recent years I've been leaning as a viewer and consumer into longform discussion of topics, especially those that are more political, and things that actually have weight," he says. "We always need more of that in 2019."

LOUD & CLEAR streams live on Tuesday, April 9 at 4PM PT/ 7PM ET.
Female Activist in "Very Poor" Health after Nine Months and Counting of Solitary Confinement in Iran

04/08/19

Source: Center for Human Rights in Iran

Political activist Hengameh Shahidi is in poor health after a nine-month stint in solitary confinement, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has been informed. Arrested on June 26, 2018, Shahidi has since been held in isolation in Ward 241 under the control of the judiciary's Security and Intelligence Center in Tehran's Evin Prison.

Shahidi is awaiting a decision on her appeal against a 12.9-year prison sentence issued on December 10, 2018, primarily for her public criticisms of former Judiciary Chief Sadegh Larijani.

"Hengameh's physical and mental state has been described as very poor and one of the reasons is the long-term solitary confinement," a former colleague told CHRI on April 4, 2019. "All this heavy-handed treatment is because she sharply criticized the judiciary chief and demanded a performance report on his nine-year tenure."

"It's rare that a prisoner is held in solitary confinement after being interrogated and prosecuted," said the source who requested anonymity for security reasons. "But months have gone by and Hengameh is still being kept isolated."

On March 16, 2019, Shahidi's attorney Mostafa Tork Hamedani took to social media to complain about the repeated postponement of her appeal hearing.

The first and second hearings, scheduled in January and March 2019, were canceled because she was not transferred from the prison to the courtroom. The next is due to take place on April 17, 2019.

Addressing Iran's new Chief Justice Ebrahim Raisis, Hamedani tweeted: "Mr. Ebrahim Raisi! I went to several courthouses and other judicial offices in the last week of the [Persian] year... But the head of one particular court was not only absent on numerous occasions but also ordered that the case of an imprisoned woman in solitary confinement be postponed for one more month."

The attorney was referring to Judge Abolqasem Salavati of Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court, who is known in Iran for bending to the wishes of security agencies in dealing with political prisoners.

In addition to sentencing her to 12.9 years in prison, Salavati also banned Shahidi-a former advisor to former presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi (under extrajudicial house arrest since February 2011)-from membership in political groups and activities on social media for two years as well as prohibited her from leaving the country for two years.
Note: Although the alleged shooter has been identified, he will not be named or pictured in this article. The New York Times published an article regarding this issue. You can read it here.

On Friday, March 15, a gunman entered the Al Noor mosque  and later the Linwood Islamic Center  in Christchurch, New Zealand and opened fire on innocent worshipers inside the two locations. The shooter killed at least 50 individuals, and injured at least 49 others.

The goal of the shooters attack  according to his 73-page manifesto  was, among other things, to directly reduce immigration rates to European lands by intimidating and physically removing the invaders themselves.

This terrifying sentiment reads eerily similar to a multitude of tweets and statements by President Donald Trump. In fact, the intent of this statement is almost a direct copy of one of Trumps campaign promises leading up to the 2016 election.

In December 2015, Trump called for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.

Trumps goal was to dramatically reduce the rate of Muslim immigration from around the world to the United States, much like the shooter.

Days later, Trump tweeted, The United Kingdom is trying hard to disguise their massive Muslim problem.

Considering his blatant Islamophobic remarks, its no surprise that Trump has refused to label the New Zealand shooter as a terrorist since the attack, even though the Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern identified the shooter as a terrorist the same day.

This mans racist history is indicative of a more substantial issue: Donald J. Trump has emboldened white supremacists around the world.

On countless occasions, Trump has refused to condemn white supremacy, leading many to believe that he actually supports this disgusting ideology.

One painfully clear example is Trumps response to the attack in Charlottesville, Va. that resulted in the death of a counter-protestor at the hands of a white supremacist.

We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides, said Trump in response to the death in Charlottesville on August 12, 2017. I think theres blame on both sides, he later clarified.

With this statement, Trump implied that the blame of this attack should be shared among white supremacists and opposers alike. He refused to identify the real cause of the attack: hatred, bigotry and violence in the form of white supremacy.

Most reasonable politicians shared the view of Sen. Cory Gardner, (R  Colo.), who  on the day of Trumps disgusting victim-blaming speech  tweeted, We must call evil by its name. These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism.

Trump is a symbol of victory and progress for white supremacists globally.

The New Zealand shooter identified Trump as a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose, in his previously mentioned manifesto.

And for this reason, Trump has blood on his hands.

This egregious act of terror is an indirect  or possibly direct  result of Trumps continuous acts of racism, bigotry, manipulation, hatred and incitement of violence against those whom he feels are not worthy of compassion.

This Trumpian belief holds especially true for those whom the shooter described as not ethnically and culturally European.

The U.S. has becoming a dumping ground for everyone elses problems, Trump said when announcing his presidency in 2015.

But Trumps white supremacist views are the real problem being dumped on us.
Ghana has joined the league of nations that allow their citizens to file their tax returns online following the launch in Accra of the Ghana Revenue Authority's Integrated Tax Application Preparation System (iTaPS).



The development and launch of the application comes a year after the Vice-President of the Republic, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, challenged the management of the GRA to come up with a simplified electronic filing system that will enable taxpayers file their tax returns using their phones or computers at their convenience.



The app is an e-services platform that enables taxpayers to prepare, apply and receive GRA services online.

With this, individuals, and soon companies, will be able to file their annual tax returns at their own convenience.

The app allows electronic access to Tax Clearance Certificate (e-TCC), as well as Withholding Tax Credit Certificate (e-Tax Credit) and VAT Withholding Tax Credit Certificate (e-VAT Credit)



The iTaPS also seeks to assist taxpayers to keep the records required to fulfil their tax obligations, with the GRA also aiming to improve its performance of Tax Administration Diagnostic Tools (TADAT) ranking under voluntary compliance.



As well, the digital app will improve the quality of tax returns submitted by the payers.

According to the GRA, issues surrounding revenue assurance, convenience and simplicity have also been addressed by the app.

As a result, taxpayers have the option of either filing their returns via mobile money or online.



Launching iTaPS, Vice-President Dr Bawumia charged the GRA to widen the tax net and rope in the informal sector and other professionals onto the tax system.



He commended the GRA, especially the Commissioner-General, for taking up the challenge and delivering as expected.



This software has been carefully designed and developed to give the taxpayer an easy and convenient way of fulfilling his or her civic responsibility of filing and paying taxes. I am happy to say that I have personally filed my 2018 returns through iTaPS, and so has the Senior Minister, the Minister of Finance, and the Majority Leader, he disclosed.



The Vice-President was confident that the widespread use of the application would further widen the tax net, from the present 2.1 million taxpayers bringing in the revenue needed to develop the nation and keep essential programmes like the Free Senior High School running.

Noting that Ghanas development would have to be undertaken with Ghanaian taxes and resources, Vice-President Bawumia urged all to take advantage of the convenience provided by the iTaPS to fulfil their civic obligations.



Government is fully committed to its goal of moving the economy from one of taxation towards production. It is worth noting that this means allowing production and profits first before taxation but not a complete turn away from taxation.



As a matter of fact, now is rather the time for us as Ghanaians to contribute our quota to the national coffers. This will enable the country to have enough resources to provide for the Free SHS for our children, national health insurance, revamp our railway sector, construct new roads, improve existing ones and meet all other legitimate demands of our compatriots. These we must do with our own resources because that is the surest and most reliable motor for sustainable development, he noted.



By filing our tax returns and paying the appropriate taxes, we will be acting as our brothers keeper. I, therefore, call on all income-earning persons to obey the tax laws, file their annual tax returns and pay the appropriate taxes on due dates because our taxes are our future.



He hinted that the GRA would soon launch an electronic payment platform for operators in the informal sector, particularly commercial transport operators and tax stamp payers for the small-scale self-employed, and commended the GRA and the Ministry of Finance for the initiative and collaboration.



He expressed satisfaction and happiness that the commissioner-general had risen up to the challenge and developed the tax returns filing software.

The Commissioner-General of the GRA, Mr Emmanuel Kofi Nti, said the payment of taxes and the filing of tax returns were statutory and constitutional requirements which must be adhered to by all.



He said the staff of GRA were anxious to meet this years revenue target and would, therefore, fully apply the necessary sanctions on defaulting taxpayers and those who had refused to honour their tax obligations.



The development and launch of the application comes a year after the Vice-President of the Republic, Dr Bawumia, challenged the management of the GRA to come up with a simplified electronic filing system that will enable taxpayers file their tax returns using their phones or computers at their convenience.





Source: The Finder









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.

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The National Democratic Congress calls on the President of the Republic of Ghana, H. E. Nana Akufo-Addo, to without any delay, publish in full, the report of the Emile Short Commission of Enquiry which was set up by the President to investigate the circumstances surrounding the violence that broke out during the bye-election at Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency on 31st January, 2019.



We recall that the Short Commission presented its report to the President on 15th March, 2019, and yet till date - almost a month, the President for some unknown reason, is sitting on the said report. This is a blatant disregard for the principles of transparency and accountability that the President swore to uphold. In spite of the fact that the NDC boycotted the proceedings of the Commission, we believe that the Ayawaso West Wuogon issue is a matter of intense national and international interest, and that the people of Ghana deserve to know the findings and recommendation of the Commission.



What makes this demand imperative is the fact that till date, the perpetrators of the violence at the bye-election who were captured live on videos, are still free and walking the streets of Ghana. What is even more disturbing is that we still do not know the status of the police investigation into the said matter, despite assurances to the country.



In the circumstances, we call on the President to cause to be published the full report of the Emile Short Commission immediately.



Signed.







SAMMY GYAMFI

National Communication Officer

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The World-Meets-In-Ghana Investors Forum and Executive Dinner Ball is billed to take place in Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional capital, as part of the official programme of the 20th anniversary celebration of the coronation of His Majesty, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, King of the Ashanti Kingdom of Ghana.



The Manhyia Palace, which is the seat of the Asantehene, Ministry of Business Development, Ministry of Aviation, Ghana Investment Promotion Centre, Ghana Free Zones Authority, Association of Ghana Industries, Ghana Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the UAE-Africa Mentoring Development Consortium (UAMDC) and some key media partners are collaborating to bring big-time investors to Ghana.



It is being organized under the theme, Ghana, a promising investment destination in Africa, and the main organizer, E ON 3 Group, has indicated in a news release that it is determined to use Otumfuos 20th anniversary celebration to create a platform to share Ghanas tremendous investment opportunities with investors.



Sharing Ideas



The E ON 3 Group is also seeking to create a platform of engagement among investors from around the world and the local business community as well as project Ghana to investors as the most attractive investment destination in Africa.



The group further said it is seeking to highlight promising areas of the Ghanaian economy to the world and create networking opportunities among businesses, investors and government representatives.



According to the release, the event has been divided into two parts - the Executive Dinner Ball - which takes place on 3rd May, 2019 at the Manhyia Palace at 7:00 pm and the Investment Forum the following day at the Golden Tulip Hotel, Kumasi, at 9:00 am.



Executive Dinner Ball



The Executive Dinner Ball is expected to attract about 750 participants, most of who are accomplished investors and public officials. The occasion will be graced by high dignitaries, including President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo; former President J.A. Kufuor; Ministers of State; high-profile public sector officials; members of the Diplomatic Corps and both local and foreign industrialists, according to the release.



E ON 3 Group pointed out that, The Executive Dinner Ball will be for high-profile personalities. It is meant for the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the enstoolment of His Majesty Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, as well as an occasion for the government to present its vision of attracting investments into the country.







E ON 3 Group stressed that attendance at the event is by invitation only.



The Investors Forum It continued, H.E. Professor Dr. Ambassador Tal Edgars, a global multi-award winning, well known business mogul, mentor, erudite speaker, senior diplomat and advisor to many heads of state and

presidents of Fortune 500 firms, is expected to be the Keynote Speaker at the Executive Dinner Ball. H.E. Professor Dr. Ambassador Tal Edgars is Group Executive Chairman, GBSH Consult Worldwide, a multi-award winning strategic foresight and management consulting firm.



The release also disclosed that Professor Napoleon Moses, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Alcorn State University in the United States, is expected to speak at the Forum. In addition to his consultancy, Professor Moses served as a tenured faculty member and Dean of Applied Sciences, Provost, Vice Chancellor and Chief Operating Officer for universities in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Chicago, IL.



His consulting also includes advocating for the concerns and interests of a select group of clients before Members of the U.S. Congress. Prof is currently Chairman of Access Global, Inc.



The Ashanti Regional Minister will make a presentation on investment opportunities in the region; and the Minister for Finance will deliver an address on the topic, Providing the Good Economic Governance and Macro-economic Framework to Underpin the Take-off of the Ghanaian Economy.



President Akufo-Addo, the release stated, will cap it up with a brief address on the topic, Providing an Enabling Environment for Private Investment to Thrive: A Case of Ghana. Organizations and individuals who have contributed significantly to the cultural and socio-economic development of the country shall be honoured during the Executive Dinner Ball, especially those impacting lives.



E ON 3 revealed that more than 20 embassies and high commissions as well as top business entities had confirmed their participation in the event.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Its turning out that one of the men suspected to have shot and killed Ahmed Hussein-Suale, an operative of Anas Aremeyaw Anas Tiger Eye Private Investigation Team, was indeed arrested but let off the hook by a police patrol team.



Circumstances under which the man was released by the police are a subject which has put the integrity of the patrol team and the law enforcement agency in general on the spot.



The two suspects were arrested by the team put together by the deceaseds family, the second having been released by the patrol team on the way to the police station after he was handed over to a four-man squad.



A family spokesman, Alhassan Yunus, made the startling revelation in a narration which has provoked myriads of questions  the contrast between the familys version and that of the police raising eyebrows.



First Arrest



The first arrest was made at Ritz Junction in Accra at a location on the Madina-Adenta Highway after the Madina Police had been told about the plans, Yunus told DAILY GUIDE.



Following the murder of Hussein-Suale, he said, the family put up a group to assist the police in unraveling the conundrum, adding that a tip-off revealed that the suspect had been frequenting the location.



He said the police had told them about how dangerous the place was.



We eventually arrested the suspect based on the intelligence we received, but the Madina Police told us that the case was beyond them and so the suspect should be taken to the Police Headquarters, he revealed.



He said both arrests were made between 15 and 17 March, 2019.



Another Tip-off



We received another tip-off about a second suspect at a place called Polo Park near Kotobabi and not the location the CID chief put out in her briefing, he continued.



A four-man patrol team from the Kotobabi Police Station, he disclosed, was notified about the groups intended operation to arrest the suspect at the location.



They looked on as we undertook the operation leading to the arrest of the suspect. Some young men charged upon us but when we told them that he had murdered somebody, they allowed us to take him away, he said.



The suspect had shaved off his hair to disguise himself, the family member told DAILY GUIDE.



Patrol Teams Role



The patrol team, he said, headed towards the Kotobabi Police Station with the suspect in their vehicle.



Alhassan Yunus said that he and the others proceeded to the Kotobabi Police Station to wait for the arrival of the patrol team and the suspect.



We waited for a long time and when the patrol team arrived, the suspect was not with them. When we demanded the whereabouts of the suspect, the policemen said the suspect made a call after which they were asked to release him which they obliged. They claimed that there was an order from above for the release, he said.



When I asked why a suspect in a murder case would be allowed such a courtesy of a phone call and an eventual release, they could not give a convincing response, he said.



Abronye Vs Kotobabi Police



The First Vice Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Bono Region told Oman FM that a suspect in the murder of the Ahmed Suale-Hussein was arrested but allowed to go by the Kotobabi Police after receiving money.



Abronyes allegation was denied by the Nima Divisional Crime Officer Chief Superintendent/Mr. William Daah after the paper had made a call to the Kotobabi Police Station Crime Office to authenticate the story.



Kotobabi District Police Command falls under the Nima Divisional Command.



According to him, the Crime Officer told him that there was no entry about an arrest of that nature.



Of course, there could have been an entry when the suspect was not even brought to the Police Station, having been left off the hook after the strange call and order from above as the patrol team alleged, a security expert told DAILY GUIDE yesterday.



Police Debriefing



The family spokesman recalled the CID debriefing which sought to debunk the fact that a suspect was arrested which he found surprising because it was a true picture of what happened.



He also found it surprising that the CID claimed there was only one policeman at the time the family demanded a team to support them to make the arrest.



The police version is not true, he said with a shrug.



CID Chief



Its amazing that after dealing with me since the murder, the Director-General would turn round and claim that I am not part of the family, Yunus said.



Who took her round when she came to find more about what happened? he asked rhetorically, adding today you are saying that I am not a family member.



Family Interest



According to him, the family wants to know the person(s) that hired the killers for the murderous mission at Madina.

Source: Daily Guide









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The National Union of Ghana Students has threatened to embark on a hunger strike over governments delay with the disbursement of students loans funds for the 2018/2019 academic year.



According to the students union, all beneficiaries of the student loan aside embarking on the hunger strike will march to the office of the Finance Ministry, Education Ministry and the Students Loan Trust Fund office if government refuses to release the funds immediately.



The President of NUGS, Tinkaro Asare Osei in a statement questioned why government has delayed in the payment of the loan especially when it promised an educationally friendly environment for students prior to the 2016 elections and upon assumption in office.



Lamenting on how bad the situation is, NUGS executives said these irate students depend on the funds for their survival in school and delay in disbursement deals a big blow to them".



"The Union has also stated that it will be forced to declare a hunger strike among all beneficiaries of the loan and also to march all beneficiaries of the loan to the office of the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education and the Students' Loan Trust Fund in the coming days if all avenues to ensure the immediate release of the funds prove futile, they added.



Read the full statement below



NUGS PETITIONS GOVERNMENT OVER DELAY IN THE RELEASE OF STUDENT LOAN TRUST FUND



The Executives of the National Union of Ghana Students has petitioned the Government through the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education and the Students' Loan Trust Fund Secretariat. The petition seeks to call for the immediate release of the students loan funds. This action is in response to the agitation of students over delay in the disbursement of the funds. These irate students depend on the funds for their survival in school and a delay in disbursement deals a big blow to them.



The Executives in the petition stated that their outfit cannot understand why there should be a delay in the payment of the loan especially when the government is aware of how important this loan is to students at the tertiary level and is taken aback since the government pledged an educationally friendly environment for Ghana students.



The Union has also stated that it will be forced to declare a hunger strike among all beneficiaries of the loan and also to march all beneficiaries of the loan to the office of the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education and the Students' Loan Trust Fund in the coming days if all avenues to ensure the immediate release of the funds prove futile.



The Union is therefore calling on all students to come together to support this cause.



Below is the petition signed by the President of the National Union of Ghana Students, Mr. Tinkaro Asare Osei to the Government of Ghana.



April 5, 2019



The Minister

Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning

Box M 40

Accra-Ghana



RE: DELAY IN THE RELEASE OF FUNDS APPORTIONED TO STUDENT LOAN TRUST FUND.



The students loan scheme has over the years supported many students at the tertiary level. Recently the delays in the payment of funds is negatively affecting the academic lives of many students, an ordeal the National Union of Ghana Students finds unacceptable. The Union on 22nd February, 2019 in partnership with the Students Loan Trust Fund organized a forum to discuss the recent challenges the Trust Fund is faced with and we realized that the funding for the Student loan Trust Fund has still not been released

by the Ministry of Finance. It is becoming increasingly clear that the sole intent of the Trust Fund is significantly diminishing and gradually causing the beneficiaries a major challenge in their academic life.



We are therefore calling on the Ministry to release the fund to enable the Trust Fund to execute their responsibilities. The reality is that most students have abandoned their programs and some are still home waiting for their funds to be able to return to their lecture rooms. Unfortunately, the Union had to plead on behalf of some students before being allowed to write their end of semester exams. We call on Government through the Ministry of Finance to intervene. With the budget allocations for the year 2019, we believe this is the year to address funding shortfalls and correct all glaring inequalities faced by the Student Loan Trust Fund . We are calling on you to release the funds.



We demand that you take keen interest in approving all budgets alloted for education in the country.



We call on Government to come to the aid of students on issues affecting quality education.



Cc

Ministry of Education

Students Loan Trust Fund

Parliamentary Select Committee on Education



ENDORSED



National Executive Officers

National Executive Council



Signed



Kobby Otchere Marfo

Press and Information Secretary, NUGS

0240852651

[email protected]



Tinkaro Asare Osei

President, NUGS

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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Nigeria's government has ordered foreign nationals to leave mining sites in north-western Zamfara state within 48 hours, blaming them for an upsurge in banditry and kidnappings.



It also announced a suspension of mining activities in Zamfara and other affected states with immediate effect, warning that mining operators who defied the order would have their licences revoked.



In a series of tweets, President Muhammadu Buhari's office said intelligence reports had "clearly established a strong and glaring nexus between the activities of armed bandits and illicit miners" in Zamfara.



"All foreigners operating in the mining fields should close and leave within 48 hours," it added.



Some residents of Zamfara protested in the capital, Abuja, on Saturday to urge Mr Buhari to take decisive action to end criminality in the state.



Mr Buhari denied that he was ignoring the violence.



"How can I be happy and indifferent to the senseless killings of my fellow citizens by bandits?" he said.



Dozens of people have been killed in Zamfara this year.



The police and military have launched Operation Puff Adder to end the banditry, the president's office said in a tweet.



Zamfara has significant deposits of gold, with artisanal miners smuggling it to neighbouring Niger and Togo, Reuters news agency reports.

Source: BBC









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Sudanese soldiers intervened to protect several thousand demonstrators calling for an end to President Omar al-Bashir's rule on Monday after security forces tried to break up the sit-in, witnesses and activists said.

For the first time in some three months of unrest, a group of prominent opposition leaders joined protesters outside the defence ministry in Khartoum. They addressed demonstrators who have been massed for two days outside the ministry compound and repeated their demand for Bashir and his government to step down immediately, witnesses said.

The compound also includes Bashir's residence and the secret service headquarters.

The interior minister told parliament that six people had been killed on Saturday and Sunday in disturbances in the capital, and one in the western region of Darfur.

Frequent protests have been staged in Sudan since December, when the government tried to raise bread prices, building into the most sustained challenge yet to Bashir, a former army general who came to power in a military coup in 1989.

On Saturday, protesters marched towards the defence ministry hoping to deliver a memorandum urging the army to side with them. They reached the ministry compound despite attempts by security forces to stop them, and set up a camp.

Numbers outside the compound continued to grow on Monday despite the closure of all roads leading there, witnesses said.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged all parties to "exercise utmost restraint and avoid violence", and called for the release of detained protesters, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

WARNING SHOTS

Early on Monday, witnesses and activists said riot police and secret service personnel charged the demonstrators with pickup trucks while firing tear gas, trying to disperse a crowd estimated at 3,000 men and women.

But witnesses and activists said soldiers guarding the compound had come out to protect the demonstrators, firing warning shots in the air.

The security forces retreated without firing back and soldiers deployed around the area, while demonstrators chanted "The army is protecting us" and "One people, one army", witnesses said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Information Minister Hassan Ismail, who is also the government spokesman, contradicted the reports.

"The crowd in front of the (military) general command has been cleared completely, in a way that resulted in no casualties among all parties."

Previous attempts by security forces have failed to disperse the protesters, who have vowed to stay until Bashir steps down.

Addressing a meeting of military commanders, Bashir's defence minister and vice president said security forces would not permit attempts to divide them, state news agency SUNA reported.

ECONOMIC CRISIS

Bashir is wanted by international prosecutors for alleged war crimes in the western Darfur region, and demonstrators accuse him of presiding over years of repression and promoting policies that devastated the economy.

The government denies any connection with atrocities in Darfur and blames U.S. sanctions for the economic hardships.

Bashir has acknowledged that the protesters have legitimate demands but says they must be addressed peacefully, and through the ballot box.

Security forces have used tear gas, stun grenades and mass arrests, and have sometimes fired live ammunition.

Authorities have also blocked social media. Facebook and WhatsApp, the most popular platforms in Sudan, have been inaccessible without a virtual private network since Sunday, residents said.

In his address to parliament, Interior Minister Bishara Jumaa said 39 people had died since the onset of the protests, including three members of the security forces.

He said 10,000 protesters had gathered outside the defence ministry compound on Saturday, the first time authorities had provided such a crowd estimate.

Activists put the death toll at more than 60 since the protests began. They chose Saturday for their march to coincide with the April 6 anniversary of a 1985 military coup that forced long-time autocrat Jaafar Nimeiri to step down after protests.

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The Member of Parliament for Assin South Constituency Hon Rev John Ntim Fordjour on Friday 5th April 2019, donated 10 Laptops and 20 units of LED streetlightsto to his alma mater (UMaT) in Tarkwa.



This kind gesture according to the soft-spoken politician and entrepreneur, is in support of the universitys innovation and entrepreneurship program dubbed the Incubation Hub, which nurtures brilliant and groundbreaking innovations and inventions of students of the University.



Hon Rev Ntim Fordjour is so far the first and only alumnus of the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT), to have been voted into the Parliament of Ghana as a legislator. Having graduated with a second class Upper degree in Mineral Engineering from UMaT in 2007, Rev Ntim Fordjour returns twelve (12) years on, to give back to his alma mater he so proudly touts as the best publicly funded university in Ghana. In his presentation, Hon Ntim Fordjour indicated that



It is most gratifying to give back, within my modest means, to a great institution which imparted me with unique values of excellence, the fear of God, and selfless leadership.



As the Main Speaker at the 5th Innovation and Career Fair of the University, and speaking to the theme Think Smart, Be Innovative, Hon Ntim Fordjour challenged the students to devise creative and innovative solutions for the numerous problems and challenges evident in health, Education, agriculture, industry, and environmental sectors and by so doing, create opportunities of commercial scales in pursuit of the Ghana Beyond Aid Agenda. He also called on the government, corporate bodies and donor partners to support UMaT Incubation Hub and to provide the needed funding to convert the brilliant innovations and inventions into commercially viable products and services.



In his expression of appreciation, the Vice Chancellor of UMaT, Prof Jerry S. Y. Kuma who received the donation on behalf of the University, thanked Hon Ntim Fordjour for his trailblazing gesture and commended him for the advocacy taken to rally support for the financing of the ultimate UMaT Master Development Plan which is estimated at $600 million. He assured the alumnus and Member of Parliament that whereas the laptops will be very helpful for the Incubation Hub, the LED streetlights donated will also provide illumination and improve the security of the campus and residential areas.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament [MP] for Tema West constituency, Carlos Kingsley Ahenkorah has cautioned Ghanaians to be very mindful of the Economic Team Members they choose to manage the economy.



Speaking on UTVs Adekye Nsroma panel discussion segment, Carlos Ahenkorah indicated that the crop of personalities the largest opposition party introduced as their Economic Team Members depicts how they will manage the economy should they be given the opportunity to lead this country again.



Again, he said they [NDC economic team] are of no match to the NPP's economic team, when economic brains are to be compared to seek a better development for Ghana.



Indeed I can say on authority that Ghana will be the worst place on earth should NDC be given the chance to lead Ghana again, because they have made us aware of their next batch of economy experts . . . he said.



Members of the NPP economic team comprises of its Chair, Vice-President Bawumia and Senior Minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo as its Vice-Chair.



Other members are; Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister for Finance; Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Minister of Food and Agriculture; John Peter Amewu, Minister of Energy; Professor George Gyan Baffour, Minister for Planning; Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, Minister of Trade and Industry and Dr Anthony Akoto Osei, Minister for Monitoring and Evaluation with Professor Joe Amoako-Tuffour as the team's Secretary.



And on the side of the NDC as presented during their forum are; Former Deputy Minister of Energy and Petroleum, John Abdulai Jinapor; Prof, Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang, Former Education Minister; Member of Parliament for Ketu South, Fifi Fiavi Kwetey; Former Deputy Finance Minister, Cassiel Ato Forson and former Deputy Minister of Finance, Mona Quartey.



However, Member of Parliament [MP] for Lower Manya Constituency in the Eastern Region, Ebenezer Okletey Tei-Larbi, on the same platform rubbished his comments and said Those members are not the finance and economic team members of the NDC, rather they just chaired the state of the economy meeting organized by a pressure group of the party and as well to respond to some issues raised by Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Vice President of the Republic of Ghana during the governments Maiden Town Hall Meeting.

Source: Elizabeth Semiheva Bedi/Peacefmonline.com









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Exclusive Events Ghana, organiser of Miss Ghana pageant, has assured it will continue to empower young women with the pageant to achieve their best.



Mariam Inna Patty, who is the CEO of the organisation, made this revelation on Friday when the 2019 edition of the pageant was launched at the Tang Place Hotel in Accra.



Potential contestants watching or reading, we would like to reiterate that the Miss Ghana brand symbolises beauty with a purpose and as we have tried to showcase during the reign of Miss Ghana brand ambassadors each year. It has been and still is all about hard work, commitment and service to country. After all, at the end of the hard work, we all get to have lots of fun, she also stated.



We dont believe in winner takes it all. Every young lady who comes close to the brand  be it a contestant/ regional queen, eventual queen or runner up is a winner. Remember, heavy it is that wears the crown, Inna Patty added.



The Miss Ghana pageant is the oldest and the longest running annual beauty contest in Ghana which crowns queens who take up various projects through the Miss Ghana Foundation to support society. It also takes winners through a lot of mentorship exercises to make them better persons.



This years event will take place in July. Prior to that, there will be one audition in the Greater Accra Region in May to search for potential winners.



Also with a quest to engage all stakeholders of Miss Ghana brand in Ghana and abroad, the Miss Ghana Organisation is introducing Miss Ghana voting app this year. This is being developed in partnership with Mobile Content Ghana. Voting will constitute 50 per cent of the qualifying criteria to selecting the eventual 10 contestants and final winner of Miss Ghana 2019 competition.



The Fridays launch was attended by Dr. Idi Ziblim, Deputy Minister of Tourism Arts & Culture; Cynthia Morrison, Minister of Gender, Children & Social Protection, other dignitaries, as well as Miss Ghana 2018, Nana Ama Benson and her runners-up  Laila Issaka and Elizabeth Mary Maclean.



Nana Ama described her experience with the Miss Ghana brand as incredible.



To be Miss Ghana is not only about glitz and glamour but also the ability to assist others in need. The past few months have been incredibly awesome working with the Miss Ghana foundation. I have been taught so many useful things and experienced so much dedication of which I am thankful, she added.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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The pandemic is (hopefully) winding down, and slowly but surely, we can all start getting back to our regular lives. For some people, that means going out drinking with friends again. For others, that means organizing hookups without needing to
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Egypt is seeking to establish a gelatine factory, which would be the biggest such factory in the Middle East.

On Monday, Undersecretary of Agriculture Mona Mehrez and advisor to the trade minister Yasser El-Maghrabi met with representatives of a German company that is hoping to establish a gelatine factory in Egypt.

Mehrez said Agriculture Minister Ezzedin Abu Steit fully supports the project, which would help create jobs for youth and open new export markets.

A joint committee of the agriculture and trade ministries will be formed to implement an executive plan for the project, Mehrez said.

She added that the committee will also offer support for partners wishing to invest in Egypt.

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Tennessee Bureau of Investigation(ATLANTA) -- A Tennessee man allegedly killed his 76-year-old mother over the weekend and asked his co-workers to take pictures of him at work to help form an alibi, according to police.



John Ralph, 51, was attempting to flee the country on Saturday when U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents and the U.S. Marshals Service cornered him at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, nearly 300 miles from the Tennessee home he shared with his mother.



He was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Edith Betty Ralph, who, he'd said repeatedly, was "driving him crazy."



"Ralph lived with his mother and had already made numerous statements to friends and family that his mother was driving him crazy," the Clayton County Sheriff's Office said in statement.



Police discovered the woman's body on Saturday at their shared home in northeast Tennessee. She died from severe head trauma and several gunshot wounds, police said.



John Ralph previously had asked co-workers to photograph him at work in case something "happened to his mother."



"The night of Mrs. Ralphs murder, John asked co-workers to take pictures of him at work saying that if anything happened to his mother he would need an alibi," the sheriff's office said.



Police in Carter County, Tennessee, where the Ralphs lived, said they were proud of authorities' quick work in capturing the suspect.



"We quickly found evidence that led us to suspect John Ralph," County Sheriff Dexter Lunceford told the local news outlet, Johnson City Press. "We learned that he had purchased an airline ticket for Amsterdam that departed Atlanta at 10:20 that evening.  I dont even know if we have extradition with Amsterdam."



John Ralph is being held in Georgia on a $1 million bond and awaits extradition to Tennessee. It's unclear if he's obtained an attorney.



Copyright  2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Ambassador of Egypt to Serbia Amr Aljowaily delivered this week the opening speech of the 20th International Festival of Archaeological Films on the occasion of Egypts participation as guest of honour

Egypt is participating as guest of honour in the 20th International Festival of Archaeological Films in Belgrade.

Ambassador to Serbia Amr Aljowaily delivered the opening speech at the festival.

Aljowaily highlighted that the devotion of both the opening and closing ceremonies to films provided by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities at the St Antonious Monastery, the oldest in the world, as well as the Sound and Light Show at the Pyramids and the temples of Abu Simbel, Philae and Karnak, is evidence of the unique archaeological heritage of Egypt, and the extent to which Serbian society is interested in ancient Egyptian civilisation.

For her part, director of the National Museum of Serbia, Bojana Boric Breskovic, praised the participation of Egypt for the first time in the festival, noting that the museum dedicated an important place to an ancient Egyptian mummy in cooperation with the Faculty of Archaeology at the University of Belgrade.

She referred to ongoing cooperation to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Antiquities Restoration Centre at the Grand Egyptian Museum.

Assistant Minister of Culture and Information for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, Mrs Daniel Danijela, also delivered an opening speech.

Zahi Hawass

Ambassador Aljowaily pointed out that the "#EgyptALLogy" campaign launched in Belgrade a year ago is still receiving interest in all segments of Serbian society, soon to be emulated elsewhere in the world.

He praised the participation of films by the Sound and Light Show in the Belgrade Festival, in continuation of its ongoing cooperation in directing antiquities shows, especially at valuable Roman sites in Serbia.

The first activity of the National Museum after its reopening last July was a symposium on the science of Egyptology in Serbia, and a high level delegation representing the director of the Egyptian Museum and the general supervisor of the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation participated in its official opening in June 2018.

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San Francisco, CA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 04/08/2019 --To stay in business over the next one hundred years, companies should think of how to serve their customers over competing against others in the industry. This was one of the statements made by On Air Parking CEO Patrick Murray during the Spring conference of the Airport Ground Transportation Association (AGTA) held at the Astor Crowne Plaza Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana last March 24 to 27, 2019.



AGTA is an association of ground transportation operators, airport authorities, and industry suppliers dedicated to the continuous improvement of airport ground transportation services for the traveling public. The Spring conference's theme was "Technology & Human Factors For Airport Ground Transportation".



Murray led the successful launch of the popular off-airport parking website OnAirParking.com which sells Atlanta Airport parking for $2.75/day, Denver Airport parking for $3.90/day, Columbus Airport parking for $3.49/day, and Dallas Fort Worth Airport parking for $3.99/day among its best-selling parking deals.



As one of the invited panelists for the "New Technologies for Managing Airport Ground Transportation Options" segment on the first day of the conference, Murray discussed how his company was competing directly against Uber and Lyft on four key points: price, service, product, and advertising.



"I am honored to be part of this conference and to share what I've learned about the parking industry," said Murray, who was one of the National Parking Association's 40 under 40 Class of 2016.



"Together with our partners, we have given millions of travelers the best prices for off airport parking across major airports in the country. We are gaining back those travelers that have been lost to Uber and Lyft."



Under Murray's leadership, On Air Parking continues to grow its customer base, helping travelers save on expensive on-airport parking fees. Recently, the company launched Los Angeles Airport parking for $5.99/day and San Francisco Airport parking for $12.99/day, with more launches in the pipeline.



"We want to replicate our success in the airport parking vertical to the cruise port and urban parking market," said Murray.



"Our goal is to disrupt urban parking and put an end to ridiculous parking fees. A pilot launch is already in the works this April and in one of the most expensive cities to live in, so please stay tuned on April 22."



About On Air Parking

On Air Parking is an airport parking reservation company that aims to disrupt the airport parking vertical. Present in 35 markets, the San Francisco-based startup guarantees the cheapest rates at five star parking facilities, with free cancellations and free shuttle services to get to and back from the airport. To purchase guaranteed off airport parking near your local airport, visit onairparking.com.
Solingen, Germany -- (ReleaseWire) -- 04/08/2019 --From the city of blades, Solingen in Germany, the company Sternsteiger Stahlwaren is releasing their latest creation, the Germanicum Arminius Series. These unique Damascus knives are hand-forged with 440 layers of folded steel, creating unique Damascus patterns, called Raindrop and Twist, that stand out in any kitchen.



The series consists of three knives: A regular western Chef's knives, a bread knife inspired by the blade of a Japanese saw and a small vegetable knife inspired by a Japanese Santoku knife.



Sternsteiger Stahlwaren has fronted all the R&D and prototyping costs and is now looking for support from the crowdfunding community to fund production and the launch to market for this unique combination of modern technology and traditional craftsmanship.



The Germanicum Arminius crowdfunding campaign is scheduled to launch on April 10th, interested parties can find more information at www.arminius-knife.com where they can also sign-up to get notified upon the campaign starting.



About Sternsteiger Stahlwaren GmbH

Sternsteiger Stahlwaren is a young brand in household and Kitchen goods. Their product portfolio contains shears for professional hair artists, high durable chef knives, kitchenware and cutlery.



Sternsteiger's primary manufacturing and logistics facility is in the "city of blades" Solingen, Germany. It also has spread its wings throughout the world with offices in the Canada, France, and the United Kingdom.
The film is directed by Hady El-Bagoury and written by Ibrahim Eissa

The Egyptian film Al-Deif (The Guest) will be released in Jordans commercial cinemas starting 11 April.

Directed by Hady El-Bagoury with a script by journalist Ibrahim Eissa, the film was released in Cairo cinemas in late 2018 to mixed reviews and commercial success.

Starring Khaled El-Sawy, Ahmed Malek, Sherine Reda and Gamila Awad, the film centres on a young man attending a dinner party with a family, until their dialogue takes an unexpected turn.

The Guest has been shown at international festivals, premiering at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia, where it won the audience award.

The film marked the first ever Egyptian participation in the official selections of the festival.

It also screened at the Rotterdam Arab Film Festival and the Tetouan Mediterranean Film 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

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Yemen calls on free world to condemn Sunday's saudi-led air attack on Sanaa [08/April/2019] SANAA, April 8 (Saba) - The Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned the continuation of the US-saudi aggression coalition in committing war crimes in Yemen, the most recent of which was bombing of the saudi-led warplanes on Sunday targeting a school and a residential area in Sawan area, in the capital Sanaa, which resulted in the death and wounding dozens, most of them students.







The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement obtained by Saba that the air force of aggression troops launched more than a quarter of a million raids since 26 March 2015 targeting civilians and civilian objects, resulting in the death and injury of more than 41 thousand citizens, including women and children, and the destruction of tens of thousands Of economic and social facilities and public and private property, in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and international human rights law.







The statement stressed that the silence of the international community on these crimes and the continuation of some countries in supplying weapons to the countries of aggression, in addition to not naming the party obstructing the peace efforts, all those factors served as the green light for the troops of coalition to continue their crimes against the Yemeni people and to obstruct the implementation of the agreement concluded in Stockholm and the peace efforts of the UN envoy.







The statement called on the international community, particularly the Security Council, the Human Rights Council and human rights organizations to take responsibility and condemn the crimes committed by the Saudi-led aggression coalition , press to end the aggression and blockade imposed on Yemen, during the last years and implement the Stockholm agreement.







The statement reiterated the call of the National Salvation Government to establish an independent international commission to inquiry and investigate all war crimes against humanity and violations that the countries of the aggression coalition continue to commit and to bring the perpetrators to justice to achieve accountability and justice.







The ministry called on the world's free governments, organizations, parliaments, people, activists and the media to join hands with the oppressed people of Yemen and condemn this crime and to call and press to stop all forms of dealing and arms deals with countries of aggression coalition, as regimes that pose a threat to humanity and international peace and security.











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By SA Commercial Prop News

Although quite a few African economies offer good growth opportunities, there are ongoing regulatory and fiscal challenges, says Ortneil Kutama



While Hyprop investments (JSE HYP) plans to exit its investment in sub-Saharan Africa, Grit Real Estate (JSE: GTR) remains committed spreading itself across the continent.

JSE-listed Hyprop which owns the likes of Rosebank Mall, Clearwater Mall and Canal Walk wants to sell its stake in AttAfrica. This comes after its Nigerian and Ghanaian property portfolio displayed lacklustre performance in the half year results which ended December 2018.

"Although quite a few African economies offer good growth opportunities, there are ongoing regulatory and fiscal challenges. Lower commodity prices have also impacted the economies relying on these to generate foreign inflows. This has made accessing foreign currency in these markets a challenge," Kutama said.

But Grit Real Estate, the JSEs only Africa-focused property play remains committed to the continent and wants to invest as much as... TO GET THE FULL STORY, CLICK HERE FOR MORE




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.
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.
When the hall is crowded and attendance is high, you cant miss the way to advocate of Islam and peace Sheikh bin Bayyah. Youll find him wearing his chic white jalabiya and carrying his famous stick. Youll know him by these crowds of disciples and admirers surrounded.

In Abu-Dhabi, the sheikh founded the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies (FPPMS), which is a global foundation viewed with great international respect. The sheikh and the forum succeeded in imposing the peace discourse in Islam on several venues in the East and the West.

Sheikh bin Bayyah is one of the great scholars in the Islamic world and I was honoured to get to know him and his family in the past years. I was happy to meet him several times in Abu Dhabi and Nouakchott. Each time my admiration increases due to his balanced vision and vast knowledge.

The sheikh draws worldwide attention. His famous phrase, We should declare war on war so the outcome will be peace upon peace became quite known after President Barack Obama quoted it in a speech before the U.N. General Assembly. This phrase is the essence of the intellectual project of Sheikh bin Bayyah. He is an advocate for security and peace. He unites and doesnt alienate; illuminates and doesnt instigate. According to the sheikhs own description of his project, we should agree on being different.

The issue of Islamic unity is a very thorny issue. Political Islam movements, for many centuries, reduced it to the idea of caliphate and establishing a central state for all Muslims. It was said that any Muslim state that isnt part of the caliphate project must be fought. This idea has led to the spilling of seas of blood throughout Islamic history and the caliphate banner, as a matter of fact, wasnt anything except the banner of civil war within Islam. As a result, Muslims became enemies to each other.

Sheikh bin Bayyah issued a fatwa that the national state is an Islamically legitimated entity and not an un-Islamic innovation.

He cites the proof for this from the Muslim state in Abyssinia that was ruled by the King Negus, which wasnt a part of the Islamic state in the Medina at the time. However, Muslim Arabs didnt demand this kingdoms inhabitants migrate, and the Muslim state in Abyssinia gained the respect of the Muslim state in the Arabian Peninsula. Nobody requested that the two states be merged in one state or within one caliphate.

Sheikh bin Bayyah says: The caliphate banner which the extremists carry is a false banner and isnt founded on the basis of sharia.

The caliphate state is a non-binding form of government and it isnt permissible to delegitimise the national state.

The caliphate state is an illusion and killing people for its sake isnt justified in Islam.

Thats what I heard from the sheikh in Abu-Dhabi. In Nouakchott he added: Some people yearn for Islamic unity while others view it with fear.

Islam is founded upon the centrality of justice and charity. As the Prophet says, Love is the basis of faith and Believers in their affection, mercy and compassion for each other are that of a body when any limb aches, the whole body reacts with sleeplessness and fever.

Unity doesnt mean that all Muslims should be living within one political entity. The national state is an Islamically legitimated entity and Islam forbids fighting for the sake of establishing one entityIslam has decreed that Muslims blood, money and honour are inviolable.

Sheikh bin Bayyah is engaged in dismantling the new Kharijites claims.

He goes on to say: Dividing the Islamic world into two houses, the House of Islam and the House of Unbelief, had its cultural context when Mongols were raiding Muslim lands and Muslim countries. Now, all this must be reconsidered in the light of political changes.

The Sheikh Ibn Taymiyyahs fatwa concerning the inhabitants of Mardin, Turkey, issued 700 years ago, was distorted and became the base for the fatwas of jihad, loyalty and enmity. The distortion was made on printing the text. Before the distortion, the text was: Any deviation from Islam should be treated for what its worth while after distortion it became: Any deviation from Islam should be fought for what its worth. The word treated was deleted and the word fought was inserted instead.

Sheikh bin Bayyah expressed his doubts about the contemporary Arab revolutions and criticised some of them saying: The revolutions before us are destructive wars; severing family ties and disintegrating the ummah (nation).

The sheikh called for the return of security and peace. He recalled a hadith that hasnt been circulated in spite of being mentioned in Al-Bukhari: It is part of the faith to establish peace in the world.

According to Sheikh bin Bayyah, the world is everything except Allah. Thus, the world is an all-inclusive term. Islam implies peace to the world; for human beings and the environment together.

The intellectual project of the Mauritanian scholar needs to be profoundly studied. Confronting terrorism through security cant be sustained without an intellectual confrontation. The intellectual confrontation also cant be sustained without religious confrontation. It isnt enough to say to the extremists, Youre agents. Their conceit should be destroyed completely. They should realise that they are ignorant. Science is the solution.

Stupidity is big crime against religion and earthly life. Science is the solution.

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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.
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 and New Delhi, including the residence of Chief Minister Kamal Nath's officer on special duty (OSD) Praveen Kakkar and seized a huge amount of cash.

A senior I-T department source told IANS: "About 300 I-T Department personnel from New Delhi were given the task after receiving 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 officials also identified luxury cars reportedly belonging to Sharma.



When asked about his links with the Chief Minister and Kakkar, Sharma only said, "I'm a BJP man."



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.



Commenting on Sunday's developments, Congress spokesperson K.K. Tiwari said the 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.



Former state Minister and BJP leader Narottam Mishra alleged that "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.
Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/08/2019 -- Transparency Market Research (TMR) has published a new report titled "Addiction Treatment Market  Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 20172025". According to the report, the global addiction treatment market was valued at approximately US$ 4.0 Bn in 2016 is projected to expand at a CAGR of over 6.0% from 2017 to 2025. The report suggests that growing abuse of prescription drugs and favorable reimbursements for smoking cessation therapy are likely to spur demand for addiction treatment market in the near future (2017 to 2025). North America and Western Europe are likely to account for dominant share of the global addiction treatment market due to introduction of new drugs by key players. Government initiative to spread awareness about drug addiction in emerging markets such as China and India is likely to boost the addiction treatment market in Asia Pacific. The market in the region is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of around 7.0% from 2017 to 2025.



Tobacco/Nicotine Addiction Treatment Dominates the Market Followed by Opioid Addiction Treatment



The report offers detailed segmentation of the global addiction treatment market based on treatment type, drug type, treatment center, and distribution channels. In terms of treatment type, the tobacco/nicotine addiction treatment segment accounts for a leading share of the global market during the forecast period. Higher share of the tobacco/nicotine addiction treatment segment is attributed to high adoption and wide availability of various over-the-counter nicotine replacement products used to combat tobacco and nicotine addiction. Opioid addiction treatment segment is likely to expand at a comparatively higher growth rate during the forecast period due to increase in usage of illicit drugs.



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Varenicline Drugs to Lose Market Share



The report offers detailed segmentation of the global addiction treatment market based on drug type. The nicotine replacement products segment is poised to account for a leading share of the global market during the forecast period. Expansion of the segment is due to rise in the number of smokers across the globe and this has increased concerns about health risks for both smokers and passive smokers. The Varenicline drug segment is anticipated to lose market share during the forecast period due to side effects such as stomach pain, sleep disorder, and diarrhea. The segment accounted for market share of approximately 21.3% in 2016 and is expected to reach 21.2% by 2025.



Outpatient Treatment Center & Inpatient Treatment Center: Top Two Treatment Center of Addiction Treatment



Based on treatment center, the outpatient treatment segment is projected to hold a dominant share of global addiction market during the forecast period. It is likely to expand at a CAGR of more than 6.0% from 2017 to 2025. Outpatient treatment centers less restrictive and less expensive. These factors are likely to drive the segment during the forecast period. Additionally, in outpatient center, an addiction patient usually requires to spend less time in the center for treatment. This helps those who unable to give extended time for treatments. In terms of value, the inpatient treatment center segment accounted for more than 18.0% share of the global addiction treatment market in 2016. It is anticipated to account for approximately 19.0% share of the market by 2025.



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Asia Pacific to Resister Exponential Growth and Offer Huge Incremental Opportunity



In terms of value, North America dominated the global addiction treatment market in 2016. Rise in awareness regarding different opioid treatment programs and increase in government initiatives to raise awareness about substance abuse, ill effects of drug, and importance of abuse treatment are propelling the addiction treatment market in North America. Rise in health care spending in emerging markets such as China and India is fueling the addiction treatment market in Asia Pacific. Economic growth in countries such as Brazil in Latin American is boosting health care expenditure through rise in private health insurance, entry of international drug manufacturers, and health care providers in the region. This is likely to propel the addiction treatment market in Latin America to expand at a CAGR of 7.1% from 2017 to 2025.



Key Players such as Pfizer Inc., Cipla Ltd., and Alkermes plc. are Likely to Continue to Lead the Global Addiction Treatment Market



The report also provides profiles of leading players such as Allergan plc, GlaxoSmithKline plc, Purdue Pharma L.P., Mallinckrodt, Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC, Orexo AB, and Reckitt Benckiser (Indivior PLC) that operate in the global addiction treatment market. Expansion of addiction treatment portfolio through improving existing drugs and developing new drug molecules is one of the key strategy adopted by many key players. Moreover, company's focuses on strategic partnership to expand their business in various regions. For instance, recently, Orexo AB plans to launch Zuvsolv in new markets through its partner MundiPharma.



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Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMR's syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.



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Edison, NJ -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/08/2019 -- Global Automatic Vehicle Location System (AVL) Market Size, Status and Forecast 2019-2025 is latest research study released by HTF MI evaluating the market, highlighting opportunities, risk side analysis, and leveraged with strategic and tactical decision-making support. The study provides information on market trends and development, drivers, capacities, technologies, and on the changing capital structure of the Global Automatic Vehicle Location System Market. Some of the key players profiled in the study are Power System Engineering, Inc. (PSE), Grounds Maintenance, Atlanta Systems Private Limited, Clevest, C3LS, Gforce Systems & Technology, Intelect Corporation & Descartes.



Enquire for customization in Report @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/1742451-global-automatic-vehicle-location-system-1



This report focuses on the global Automatic Vehicle Location System (AVL) status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players. The study objectives are to present the Automatic Vehicle Location System (AVL) development in United States, Europe and China.



Automatic Vehicle Location System Market Overview:



If you are involved in the Automatic Vehicle Location System industry or intend to be, then this study will provide you comprehensive outlook. It's vital you keep your market knowledge up to date segmented by Transition Inside Factories & Logistics Outside the, , Radio Navigation, Dead-reckoning Technologies & Others and major players. If you have a different set of players/manufacturers according to geography or needs regional or country segmented reports we can provide customization according to your requirement.



Automatic Vehicle Location System Market: Demand Analysis & Opportunity Outlook 2023



Research study is to define market sizes of various segments & countries in previous years and to forecast the values to the next 5-8 years. The report is designed to comprise each qualitative and quantitative elements of the industry facts including: market share, market size (value and volume 2012-17, and forecast to 2023) with admire to each of the areas and countries concerned inside the examination. Furthermore, the report additionally caters the detailed statistics about the vital elements which includes drivers & restraining factors which will define the future growth of the market.



You can get free access to samples from the report here: https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/1742451-global-automatic-vehicle-location-system-1



Furthermore, the years considered for the study are as follows:

Historical year  2013-2017

Base year  2018

Forecast period**  2018 to 2023 [** unless otherwise stated]



**Moreover, it will also include the opportunities available in micro markets for stakeholders to invest, detailed analysis of competitive landscape and product services of key players.



The designated segments and sub-section of the market are explained below:



The Study is segmented by following Product Type: , Radio Navigation, Dead-reckoning Technologies & Others



Major applications/end-users industry are as follows: Transition Inside Factories & Logistics Outside the



Some of the key Manufacturers Involved in the Market are  Power System Engineering, Inc. (PSE), Grounds Maintenance, Atlanta Systems Private Limited, Clevest, C3LS, Gforce Systems & Technology, Intelect Corporation & Descartes



For each region, market size and end users are analyzed as well as segment markets by types, applications and companies. If opting for the Global version of Automatic Vehicle Location System Market analysis is provided for major regions as follows:

- North America (USA, Canada and Mexico)

- Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)

- Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)

- South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)

- Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)



Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/1742451-global-automatic-vehicle-location-system-1



Key Answers Captured in Study are

Which geography would have better demand for product/services?

What are the strategies adopted by big players in the regional market?

Which country would see the steep rise in CAGR & year-on-year (Y-O-Y) growth?

What is the current & expected market size in next five years?

What is the market feasibility for long term investment?

What opportunity the country would offer for existing and new players in the Automatic Vehicle Location System market?

What is risk involved for suppliers in the geography?

What factors would drive the demand for the product/service in near future?

What is the impact analysis of various factors in the Global Automatic Vehicle Location System market growth?

What are the recent trends in the regional market and how successful they are?



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There are 15 Chapters to display the Global Automatic Vehicle Location System market.

Chapter 1, About Executive Summary to describe Definition, Specifications and Classification of Global Automatic Vehicle Location System market, Applications [Transition Inside Factories & Logistics Outside the], Market Segment by Regions United States, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India & Central & South America;

Chapter 2, objective of the study.

Chapter 3, to display Research methodology and techniques.

Chapter 4 and 5, to show the Overall Market Analysis, segmentation analysis, characteristics;

Chapter 6 and 7, to show the Market size, share and forecast; Five forces analysis (bargaining Power of buyers/suppliers), Threats to new entrants and market condition;

Chapter 8 and 9, to show analysis by regional segmentation[United States, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India & Central & South America ], comparison, leading countries and opportunities; Regional Marketing Type Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis

Chapter 10, focus on identifying the key industry influencer's, overview of decision framework accumulated through Industry experts and strategic decision makers;

Chapter 11 and 12, Market Trend Analysis, Drivers, Challenges by consumer behaviour, Marketing Channels and demand & supply.

Chapter 13 and 14, describe about the vendor landscape (classification and Market Positioning)

Chapter 15, deals with Global Automatic Vehicle Location System Market sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.



Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia or Oceania [Australia and New Zealand].
Rockville, MD -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/08/2019 -- This research report titled "Automotive Fuel Tank Market Indicates Notable Revenue growth at (US$ 30 Bn) until 2022 | Key Players - Compagnie Plastic Ominum SA, Yachiyo Industry Co. Ltd., Hwashin Co. Ltd., etc." focuses on the global automotive fuel tank market trends, published to the vast repository managed by FactMR. The analysis focuses on the prime geographical regions based on their market size, revenue and attractiveness factors. Furthermore, the research discusses various segments from the Automotive Fuel Tank Market to examine future lucrativeness and spot growth prospects during 2017-2022. Readers can even access information such as key developments, technologies, innovations, etc., concerned to the automotive fuel tank market.



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A shift from metal automotive fuel tank to plastic automotive fuel tank has been witnessed since the recent past. Plastic automotive fuel tank offers flexible design using which customizations can be made according to customer requirement. Moreover, features such as light weight, high durability and high corrosion resistance of plastic automotive fuel tank have fuelled the adoption of plastic automotive fuel tank as a sought after, reliable fuel carrying source. However, steel automotive fuel tank still remains an ideal option while using bio-diesel and diesel owing to its low evaporative emission requirements coupled with high stiffness and inherent strength during changing pressurized applications.



Key stakeholders in the automotive fuel tank market are focusing on developing novel products in a bid to achieve sustenance in the competitive marketplace. Manufacturers are actively engaged in manufacturing of self-sealing automotive fuel tank that can self-seal during damage, avoiding leakage of flammable liquids. Self-sealing automotive fuel tank contain multiple membranes that absorb fuel. These layers swell and expand after coming in contact with fuel in turn causing the broken layer to swell consequently sealing the puncture. This promising safety feature of self-sealing automotive fuel tank is likely to witness high customer demand in the years to follow.



Significant rise in sales and manufacturing of vehicles continue to remain instrumental in driving sales of automotive fuel tank. BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries are witnessing a substantial growth in their automotive sector on the back of growing demand from customers for passenger cars. Moreover, rising trading activities coupled with growing industrialization have spurred the demand for commercial vehicles, in turn providing potential avenues of growth for automotive fuel tank manufacturers. Moreover, stakeholders are targeting China, one of the world's biggest automotive market owing to its enormous fiscal stimulus. Likewise, OEMs are entering India and China in a bid to seize massive growth potential offered by these countries. This is likely to fuel sales of automotive fuel tank in the emerging revenue pockets of Asia Pacific in the coming years.



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Increasing government regulations on carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles in a bid to reduce environmental damage has resulted in rising manufacturing and growing adoption of electric vehicles. According to the report by International Energy Agency (IEA), more than one million electric vehicles were sold in 2017 that represents a 56 percent increase from 2016. Under the IEA New Policies Scenario, the number of electronic vehicles are estimated to touch 125 million by end of 2030. The increase in number of electric vehicles is expected to limit the sales of automotive fuel tank, in turn restricting the growth of the automotive fuel tank market in the years to follow.



The report on "Automotive Fuel Tank Market Forecast, Trend Analysis and Competition Tracking  Global Review 2017-2022" offers unbiased intelligence on various market segments including assessment on tank types, tank capacities, sales channels and vehicle types. The extensive report on automotive fuel tank market provides in-depth analysis on various market trends, drivers and restraints influencing the growth of the market. Moreover, the report includes historical data analysis along with current market scenario and forecast projections for a period of five years, starting from 2017 till 2022.



Automotive fuel tanks are chambers used to carry flammable liquids. During fuel combustion in the fuel tank, the energy released is propelled into the engine to run the vehicle. Automotive fuel tanks are made from plastic material, or aluminum and steel. They are corrosion free, heat resistant, recyclable, less bulky, and durable and can withstand weight, internal and external erosion.



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Northbrook, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/07/2019 -- The report "Blow Molding Resins Market by Type (Polyethylene, Polypropylene, Polyvinyl Chloride, Polyvinyl Terephthalate), Application (Packaging, Automotive & Transportation, Construction & Infrastructure), and Region - Global Forecast to 2022", The blow molding resins market is estimated at USD 36.67 Billion in 2017 and projected to reach USD 51.95 Billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 7.2% from 2017 to 2022.



Browse 156 Tables and 43 Figures spread through 164 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Blow Molding Resins Market - Global Forecast to 2022"



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The growth of the blow molding resins market can be attributed to the increasing consumption of blow molding resins in the packaging, food & beverages, and pharmaceutical industries. Blow molded products possess excellent stiffness and Environmental Stress Cracking Resistance (ESCR), high load melt strength, and excellent rigidity. Such properties enable the use of these resins for blow molding applications.



Among types, the polyethylene segment of the blow molding resins market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period from 2017 to 2022

Based on type, the blow molding resins market has been segmented into polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene terephthalate, and others. Among types, the polyethylene segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period from 2017 to 2022. The increased use of blow molding resins in various applications can be attributed to their high stiffness and Environmental Stress Cracking Resistance (ESCR), high load melt strength, and excellent rigidity.



The packaging application segment of the blow molding resins market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR between 2017 and 2022

Based on the application, the blow molding resins market has been segmented into packaging, automotive & transportation, construction & infrastructure, and others. The packaging segment is projected to be fastest-growing application segment during the forecast period. The growth of the segment is attributed to the increasing use of blow molded products to package pharmaceutical, food & beverages, cosmetics, and industrial products, such as chemicals, acids, and lubricants.



Automotive & transportation is projected to be the second largest market for blow molding resins during the forecast period. High demand for blow molding resins to produce automobile parts, such as panes and railings, bumper supports, fenders, mudguards, door locking systems, consoles, garnish pillars, cockpit systems, and fuel tanks is expected to fuel the growth of the segment.



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The Asia Pacific blow molding resins market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period

Based on region, the blow molding resins market has been segmented into Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, South America, and Middle East and Africa. The Asia Pacific blow molding resins market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The growth of the Asia Pacific blow molding resins market can be attributed to the presence of the leading blow molding resins producers in the region. Moreover, the growing demand for blow molding resins in packaging applications, such as pharmaceutical and food & beverage products in countries, such as China, Japan, and India also contribute to the growth of the Asia Pacific blow molding resins market.



Exxon Mobil (US), LyondellBasell (Netherlands), DowDuPont (US), SABIC (Saudi Arabia), INEOS (Switzerland), Solvay (Belgium), Formosa Plastics (Taiwan), Chevron (US), Eastman (US), China Petroleum (China), and Reliance Industries (India), among others are the key players operating in the blow molding resins market.



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Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model  GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve.



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New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/08/2019 -- The Top key vendors in Epoxy Powder Coating Market include are AkzoNobel ,Axalta Coating Systems ,BASF ,Berger Paints ,Carpoly ,Chugoku Marine Paints ,Diamond Vogel ,Evonik ,Hempel ,Jotun ,KCC ,Nippon Paint ,PPG ,Rohm & Haas ,Sherwin Williams ,SolEpoxy ,Solvay ,Wacker Chemie



Download Report Overview Free Sample Copy of Epoxy Powder Coating Market at https://www.marketgrowthinsight.com/sample/37057



Apart from this, the valuable document weighs upon the performance of the industry on the basis of a product service, end-use, geography and end customer.



The industry experts have left no stone unturned to identify the major factors influencing the development rate of the Epoxy Powder Coating industry including various opportunities and gaps. A thorough analysis of the micro markets with regards to the growth trends in each category makes the overall study interesting. When studying the micro markets the researchers also dig deep into their future prospect and contribution to the Epoxy Powder Coating industry.



A high focus is maintained on factors such as demand and supply, production capacity, supply chain management, distribution channel, product application and performance across different countries. The report not only offers hard to find facts about the trends and innovation driving the current and future of Epoxy Powder Coating business, but also provides insights into competitive development such as acquisition and mergers, joint ventures, product launches and technology advancements.



A quick look at the industry trends and opportunities



The researchers find out why sales of Epoxy Powder Coating are projected to surge in the coming years. The study covers the trends that will strongly favour the industry during the forecast period, 2019 to 2025. Besides this, the study uncovers important facts associated with lucrative growth and opportunities that lie ahead for the Epoxy Powder Coating industry.



#If You Want Order This Report Now here @ https://www.marketgrowthinsight.com/checkout/37057



On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into

- Protective Coatings

- Other Coating Types



On the basis of the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate for each application, including

- Aerospace

- Automotive

- Building & Construction

- Energy

- Marine

- Oil & Gas



Region wise performance of the Epoxy Powder Coating industry



This report studies the global Epoxy Powder Coating Market status and forecast, categorizes the global Epoxy Powder Coating Market size (value & volume) by key players, type, application, and region. This report focuses on the top players in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia India and Other regions (Middle East & Africa, Central & South America).



Key points from TOC



7 Company Profiles and Key Figures in Epoxy Powder Coating Business



7.1 AkzoNobel

7.1.1 AkzoNobel Epoxy Powder Coating Production Sites and Area Served

7.1.2 Epoxy Powder Coating Product Introduction, Application and Specification

7.1.3 AkzoNobel Epoxy Powder Coating Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2014-2019)

7.1.4 Main Business and Markets Served



7.2 Axalta Coating Systems

7.2.1 Axalta Coating Systems Epoxy Powder Coating Production Sites and Area Served

7.2.2 Epoxy Powder Coating Product Introduction, Application and Specification

7.2.3 Axalta Coating Systems Epoxy Powder Coating Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2014-2019)

7.2.4 Main Business and Markets Served



7.3 BASF

7.3.1 BASF Epoxy Powder Coating Production Sites and Area Served

7.3.2 Epoxy Powder Coating Product Introduction, Application and Specification

7.3.3 BASF Epoxy Powder Coating Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2014-2019)

7.3.4 Main Business and Markets Served



7.4 Berger Paints

7.4.1 Berger Paints Epoxy Powder Coating Production Sites and Area Served

7.4.2 Epoxy Powder Coating Product Introduction, Application and Specification

7.4.3 Berger Paints Epoxy Powder Coating Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2014-2019)

7.4.4 Main Business and Markets Served



Continue..



Browse Full RD with TOC of This Report @ https://www.marketgrowthinsight.com/37057/epoxy-powder-coating-market



This Epoxy Powder Coating Market report holds answers to some important questions like:



- What is the size of occupied by the prominent leaders for the forecast period, 2018 to 2025? What will be the share and the growth rate of the Epoxy Powder Coating Market during the forecast period?



- What are the future prospects for the Epoxy Powder Coating industry in the coming years?



- Which trends are likely to contribute to the development rate of the industry during the forecast period, 2018 to 2025?



- What are the future prospects of the Epoxy Powder Coating industry for the forecast period, 2018 to 2025?



- Which countries are expected to grow at the fastest rate?



- Which factors have attributed to an increased sale worldwide?



- What is the present status of competitive development?



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Pure Epoxy Powder Coatings Market Insights - Global Trends, Opportunities, Analysis and Forecast by 2025 @ https://www.marketgrowthinsight.com/24825/pure-epoxy-powder-coatings-market



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Rockville, MD -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/08/2019 -- Annatto seeds and extracts have been in use for over a century in Europe and North America to impart a yellow to red color to foods, especially dairy products such as cheddar and Colby cheeses. Today, annatto ranks second in economic importance worldwide among all natural colors and it is the most frequently used natural colorant in the food industry. Besides the food industry, the Annatto Market has been slowing gaining traction in the cosmetic world as well. Cosmetic chemists have drawn inspiration from the use of annatto by the Amazonians for sunless tanners. While popular as a colorant, annatto is widely used in skin care products, especially brands that use all-natural ingredients as well. Annatto in its various forms, such as extract, oil and powder, is witnessing demand in large-scale food, cosmetic and retail sectors as well.



Request TOC of this Report- https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1193



The global market has witnessed a rise in the demand for natural food ingredients and colorants, which can be attributed to the increasing consumer demand for naturally-derived and safer food ingredients. Color additives reinforce the colors already present in the food and ensure uniformity of the food from season to season and batch to batch. Over the years, the natural colorant market has evolved and has come up several new natural food colorants such as anthocyanins, beet colorants, carotenoids and annatto. Annatto colorants are derived from annatto seeds that grow on a tree called Bixa Orellana. The Bixa Orellana tree is known as Annatto or as 'Achiote' in large parts of South America and as 'Urucum' in Brazil.



Beta-carotene and annatto together comprise more than 70% of the carotenoid segment, which is being considered as the dominant segment. Moreover, the market is expected to gain traction in natural food colorant dominant regions such as Asia Pacific and North America.



Global Annatto Market: Key Players



Some of the key players operating in the global annatto market include BioconColors, Amerilure Inc., Kalsec Inc., Sensient Technologies Corporation, D.D. Williamson & Co. Inc. and ADM (Wild Flavors), among others.



To know more about the Annatto Market Visit the link- https://www.factmr.com/report/1193/annatto-market



Global Annatto Market: Key Trends



Major shareholding companies in the annatto market have been executing strategic collaborations with peer companies to come up with innovative products.



Global Annatto Market: Key Developments



In 2018, FMC Corporation and Hansen, announced a five-year extension of their collaboration to develop and commercialize natural solutions for the agricultural industry

In Feb 2018, Sensient Technologies Corporation announced that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire the natural color business of GlobeNatural, a leading natural food and ingredient company, based in Lima, Peru, owned by the Michell Group

Opportunities for Annatto Market Participants



The global natural food colors market incorporates coloring foodstuffs and minimally processed pigments derived from micro-lags, plant parts, fruits and vegetables for imparting color to various foods and beverages. North America is among the prominent regions for natural food colors owing to technological advancements in the natural color extraction process, economical and intense colors. The Asia Pacific is another considered dominant region for natural colorant market due to rise in consumption rate of the product. Hence these two regions are being considered as the opportunistic factor for annatto market in order to gain traction and accordingly generate sales.



Brief Approach to Research



The company will follow a modeling-based approach and triangulation methodology to estimate data covered in this report. A detailed market understanding and assessment of the applications, types, forms, and end uses of the product segments covered in the study is followed by carrying out a demand-side approach to estimate the sales of target product segments, which is then cross-referenced with a supply-side assessment of value generated over a pre-defined period. The statistics and data are collected at a regional level, consolidated and synthesized at a global level to estimate the overall market sizes.



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Edison, NJ -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/08/2019 -- HTF Market Intelligence released a new research report of 25 pages on title 'Vietnam Renewable Energy Policy Handbook 2019' with detailed analysis, forecast and strategies. The study covers important players such as EnBW, Duke Energy, Southern Company, Exelon Corporation, Hawaiian Electric, RWE Group, Vattenfall Europe, Iberdrola.



Request a sample report @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/1740227-vietnam-renewable-energy-policy-handbook-2019



Summary

"Vietnam Renewable Energy Policy Handbook 2019", is among the latest country specific policy report from GlobalData, the industry analysis specialist that offers comprehensive information on major policies governing renewable energy market in the country. The report provides the current and future renewable energy targets and plans along with the present policy framework, giving a fair idea of overall growth potential of the renewable energy industry. The report also provides major technology specific policies and incentives provided in the country. The report is built using data and information sourced from industry associations, government websites and statutory bodies. The information is also sourced through other secondary research sources such as industry and trade magazines.



Scope



The report provides the renewable framework of Vietnam. Its scope includes -

- Key policies and regulations supporting the development of renewable energy in Vietnam.

- Information on strategy, roadmaps and other programs to achieve the renewable targets and goals.

- Financial incentives including Feed-in-tariff, Feed-in-premium, rebates, loans, grants and other tax credits and exemptions to support the implementation of the renewable energy.



Get Customization in the Report, Enquire Now @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/1740227-vietnam-renewable-energy-policy-handbook-2019

Reasons to buy



The report will enhance your decision making capability in a more rapid and time sensitive manner. It will allow you to -

- Develop business strategies with the help of specific insights about policy decisions being taken for different renewable energy sources.

- Identify opportunities and challenges in exploiting various renewable technologies.

- Compare the level of support provided to different renewable energy technologies in the country.

- Be ahead of competition by keeping yourself abreast of all the latest policy changes.



Buy this report @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-now?format=1&report=1740227

Companies Mentioned in the Report

EnBW, Duke Energy, Southern Company, Exelon Corporation, Hawaiian Electric, RWE Group, Vattenfall Europe, Iberdrola



1 Table of Contents

1.1 List of Tables

2 Introduction

2.1 Renewable Energy Policy

2.2 GlobalData Report Guidance

3 Renewable Energy Policy, Vietnam

3.1 Renewable Energy Market, Overview

3.2 Introduction of Competition in Power Market

3.3 Power Master Plan VII

3.4 Revised Power Development Plan VII

3.4.1 Targets for Renewable Energy

3.4.2 Targets for Energy Efficiency

3.5 Renewable Energy Development Strategy 2016-2030 with outlook until 2050 (REDS)

3.6 Vietnam National Energy Efficienc

....Continued



View Detailed Table of Content @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/1740227-vietnam-renewable-energy-policy-handbook-2019



Thanks for reading this article, you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.
Edison, NJ -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/08/2019 -- HTF MI released a new market study on Global Industrial Automation Motion Control System Market with 100+ market data Tables, Pie Chat, Graphs & Figures spread through Pages and easy to understand detailed analysis. At present, the market is developing its presence. The Research report presents a complete assessment of the Market and contains a future trend, current growth factors, attentive opinions, facts, and industry validated market data. The research study provides estimates for Global Industrial Automation Motion Control System Forecast till 2025*. Some are the key players taken under coverage for this study are Siemens, Rockwell Automation, Automation World, Parker Motion, Servotronix , ACS Motion Control, B&R Automation, ORMEC, Galil Motion Control, Motion Control Products, Valin, PK Controls, National Instruments, Electromate, Control Design, Pilz & Kollmorgen.



Click to get Global Industrial Automation Motion Control System Market Research Sample PDF Copy Here @: https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/1742499-global-industrial-automation-motion-control-system-market-1



Important Features that are under offering & key highlights of the report :



1) What all companies are currently profiled in the report?

Following are list of players that are currently profiled in the the report "Siemens, Rockwell Automation, Automation World, Parker Motion, Servotronix , ACS Motion Control, B&R Automation, ORMEC, Galil Motion Control, Motion Control Products, Valin, PK Controls, National Instruments, Electromate, Control Design, Pilz & Kollmorgen"



** List of companies mentioned may vary in the final report subject to Name Change / Merger etc.



2) Can we add or profiled new company as per our need?

Yes, we can add or profile new company as per client need in the report. Final confirmation to be provided by research team depending upon the difficulty of survey.

** Data availability will be confirmed by research in case of privately held company. Upto 3 players can be added at no added cost.



3) What all regional segmentation covered? Can specific country of interest be added?

Currently, research report gives special attention and focus on following regions:

United States, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India & Central & South America

** One country of specific interest can be included at no added cost. For inclusion of more regional segment quote may vary.



4) Can inclusion of additional Segmentation / Market breakdown is possible?

Yes, inclusion of additional segmentation / Market breakdown is possible subject to data availability and difficulty of survey. However a detailed requirement needs to be shared with our research before giving final confirmation to client.



** Depending upon the requirement the deliverable time and quote will vary.



Enquire for customization in Report @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/1742499-global-industrial-automation-motion-control-system-market-1



To comprehend Global Industrial Automation Motion Control System market dynamics in the world mainly, the worldwide Industrial Automation Motion Control System market is analyzed across major global regions. HTF MI also provides customized specific regional and country-level reports for the following areas.



- North America: United States, Canada, and Mexico.

- South & Central America: Argentina, Chile, and Brazil.

- Middle East & Africa: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Turkey, Egypt and South Africa.

- Europe: UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and Russia.

- Asia-Pacific: India, China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Singapore, and Australia.



2-Page profiles for 10+ leading manufacturers and 10+ leading retailers is included, along with 3 years financial history to illustrate the recent performance of the market. Revised and updated discussion for 2018 of key macro and micro market influences impacting the sector are provided with a thought-provoking qualitative comment on future opportunities and threats. This report combines the best of both statistically relevant quantitative data from the industry, coupled with relevant and insightful qualitative comment and analysis.



Global Industrial Automation Motion Control System Product Types In-Depth: , Hardware & Software



Global Industrial Automation Motion Control System Major Applications/End users: Semiconductor and Electronics, FPD, Medical and Bioscience & Others



Geographical Analysis: United States, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India & Central & South America



In order to get a deeper view of Market Size, competitive landscape is provided i.e. Revenue (Million USD) by Players (2013-2018), Revenue Market Share (%) by Players (2013-2018) and further a qualitative analysis is made towards market concentration rate, product/service differences, new entrants and the technological trends in future.



Competitive Analysis:

The key players are highly focusing innovation in production technologies to improve efficiency and shelf life. The best long-term growth opportunities for this sector can be captured by ensuring ongoing process improvements and financial flexibility to invest in the optimal strategies. Company profile section of players such as Siemens, Rockwell Automation, Automation World, Parker Motion, Servotronix , ACS Motion Control, B&R Automation, ORMEC, Galil Motion Control, Motion Control Products, Valin, PK Controls, National Instruments, Electromate, Control Design, Pilz & Kollmorgen includes its basic information like legal name, website, headquarters, its market position, historical background and top 5 closest competitors by Market capitalization / revenue along with contact information. Each player/ manufacturer revenue figures, growth rate and gross profit margin is provided in easy to understand tabular format for past 5 years and a separate section on recent development like mergers, acquisition or any new product/service launch etc.



Buy Full Copy Global Industrial Automation Motion Control System Report 2018 @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-now?format=1&report=1742499



In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Global Industrial Automation Motion Control System are as follows:

History Year: 2013-2017

Base Year: 2017

Estimated Year: 2018

Forecast Year 2018 to 2025



Key Stakeholders/Global Reports:

Industrial Automation Motion Control System Manufacturers

Industrial Automation Motion Control System Distributors/Traders/Wholesalers

Industrial Automation Motion Control System Subcomponent Manufacturers

Industry Association

Downstream Vendors



Browse for Full Report at @: https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/1742499-global-industrial-automation-motion-control-system-market-1



Actual Numbers & In-Depth Analysis, Business opportunities, Market Size Estimation Available in Full Report.



Thanks for reading this article, you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.



About HTF Market Report

HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the "Accurate Forecast" in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their "Goals & Objectives".
Edison, NJ -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/08/2019 -- Global Insect Pest Control Market Status and Future Forecast 2015-2024 is latest research study released by HTF MI evaluating the market, highlighting opportunities, risk side analysis, and leveraged with strategic and tactical decision-making support. The study provides information on market trends and development, drivers, capacities, technologies, and on the changing capital structure of the Global Insect Pest Control Market. Some of the key players profiled in the study are BASF SE, Bayer AG, Syngenta AG, FMC Corporation, Rentokil Initial plc., Ecolab, Inc., The Terminix International Company LP, Rollins, Inc., Bell Laboratories Inc., Arrow Exterminators Inc., MGK.



Enquire for customization in Report @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/1678805-global-insect-pest-control-market-8



Summary The report forecast global Insect Pest Control market to grow to reach xxx Million USD in 2019 with a CAGR of xx% during the period 2020-2024. The report offers detailed coverage of Insect Pest Control industry and main market trends. The market research includes historical and forecast market data, demand, application details, price trends, and company shares of the leading Insect Pest Control by geography. The report splits the market size, by volume and value, on the basis of application type and geography. First, this report covers the present status and the future prospects of the global Insect Pest Control market for 2015-2024. And in this report, we analyze global market from 5 geographies: Asia-Pacific[China, Southeast Asia, India, Japan, Korea, Western Asia], Europe[Germany, UK, France, Italy, Russia, Spain, Netherlands, Turkey, Switzerland], North America[United States, Canada, Mexico], Middle East & Africa[GCC, North Africa, South Africa], South America[Brazil, Argentina, Columbia, Chile, Peru]. At the same time, we classify Insect Pest Control according to the type, application by geography. More importantly, the report includes major countries market based on the type and application. Finally, the report provides detailed profile and data information analysis of leading Insect Pest Control company.



Insect Pest Control Market Overview:



If you are involved in the Insect Pest Control industry or intend to be, then this study will provide you comprehensive outlook. It's vital you keep your market knowledge up to date segmented by Chemical Control, Biological Control, Mechanical Control,, Commercial, Industrial, Residential, Agricultural and major players. If you have a different set of players/manufacturers according to geography or needs regional or country segmented reports we can provide customization according to your requirement.



Insect Pest Control Market: Demand Analysis & Opportunity Outlook 2023



Research study is to define market sizes of various segments & countries in previous years and to forecast the values to the next 5-8 years. The report is designed to comprise each qualitative and quantitative elements of the industry facts including: market share, market size (value and volume 2012-17, and forecast to 2023) with admire to each of the areas and countries concerned inside the examination. Furthermore, the report additionally caters the detailed statistics about the vital elements which includes drivers & restraining factors which will define the future growth of the market.



You can get free access to samples from the report here: https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/1678805-global-insect-pest-control-market-8



Furthermore, the years considered for the study are as follows:

Historical year  2013-2017

Base year  2018

Forecast period**  2018 to 2023 [** unless otherwise stated]



**Moreover, it will also include the opportunities available in micro markets for stakeholders to invest, detailed analysis of competitive landscape and product services of key players.



The designated segments and sub-section of the market are explained below:



The Study is segmented by following Product Type: Chemical Control, Biological Control, Mechanical Control



Major applications/end-users industry are as follows: Commercial, Industrial, Residential, Agricultural



Some of the key Manufacturers Involved in the Market are  BASF SE, Bayer AG, Syngenta AG, FMC Corporation, Rentokil Initial plc., Ecolab, Inc., The Terminix International Company LP, Rollins, Inc., Bell Laboratories Inc., Arrow Exterminators Inc., MGK



For each region, market size and end users are analyzed as well as segment markets by types, applications and companies. If opting for the Global version of Insect Pest Control Market analysis is provided for major regions as follows:

- North America (USA, Canada and Mexico)

- Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)

- Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)

- South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)

- Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)



Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/1678805-global-insect-pest-control-market-8



Key Answers Captured in Study are

Which geography would have better demand for product/services?

What are the strategies adopted by big players in the regional market?

Which country would see the steep rise in CAGR & year-on-year (Y-O-Y) growth?

What is the current & expected market size in next five years?

What is the market feasibility for long term investment?

What opportunity the country would offer for existing and new players in the Insect Pest Control market?

What is risk involved for suppliers in the geography?

What factors would drive the demand for the product/service in near future?

What is the impact analysis of various factors in the Global Insect Pest Control market growth?

What are the recent trends in the regional market and how successful they are?



Buy this research report @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-now?format=1&report=1678805



There are 15 Chapters to display the Global Insect Pest Control market.

Chapter 1, About Executive Summary to describe Definition, Specifications and Classification of Global Insect Pest Control market, Applications [Commercial, Industrial, Residential, Agricultural], Market Segment by Regions North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific etc;

Chapter 2, objective of the study.

Chapter 3, to display Research methodology and techniques.

Chapter 4 and 5, to show the Overall Market Analysis, segmentation analysis, characteristics;

Chapter 6 and 7, to show the Market size, share and forecast; Five forces analysis (bargaining Power of buyers/suppliers), Threats to new entrants and market condition;

Chapter 8 and 9, to show analysis by regional segmentation[North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific etc ], comparison, leading countries and opportunities; Regional Marketing Type Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis

Chapter 10, focus on identifying the key industry influencer's, overview of decision framework accumulated through Industry experts and strategic decision makers;

Chapter 11 and 12, Market Trend Analysis, Drivers, Challenges by consumer behaviour, Marketing Channels and demand & supply.

Chapter 13 and 14, describe about the vendor landscape (classification and Market Positioning)

Chapter 15, deals with Global Insect Pest Control Market sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.



Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia or Oceania [Australia and New Zealand].
Edison, NJ -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/08/2019 -- Global IoT Antennas in Electronic Devices Market Insights, Forecast to 2025 is latest research study released by HTF MI evaluating the market, highlighting opportunities, risk side analysis, and leveraged with strategic and tactical decision-making support. The study provides information on market trends and development, drivers, capacities, technologies, and on the changing capital structure of the Global IoT Antennas in Electronic Devices Market. Some of the key players profiled in the study are Molex, Laird, Pulse Electronics, Antenova, Taoglas & Linx Technologies.



Enquire for customization in Report @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/1742184-global-iot-antennas-in-electronic-devices-market



The IoT Antennas in Electronic Devices market was valued at xx Million US$ in 2018 and is projected to reach xx Million US$ by 2025, at a CAGR of xx% 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 IoT Antennas in Electronic Devices.



This report presents the worldwide IoT Antennas in Electronic Devices market size (value, production and consumption), splits the breakdown (data status 2014-2019 and forecast to 2025), by manufacturers, region, type and application.

This study also analyzes the market status, market share, growth rate, future trends, market drivers, opportunities and challenges, risks and entry barriers, sales channels, distributors and Porter's Five Forces Analysis.



IoT Antennas in Electronic Devices Market Overview:



If you are involved in the IoT Antennas in Electronic Devices industry or intend to be, then this study will provide you comprehensive outlook. It's vital you keep your market knowledge up to date segmented by Consumer Electronic Devices & Industrial Electronic Devices, , Chip Antennas, Wire Antennas, Whip Antennas, PCB Antennas & Proprietary Antennas and major players. If you have a different set of players/manufacturers according to geography or needs regional or country segmented reports we can provide customization according to your requirement.



IoT Antennas in Electronic Devices Market: Demand Analysis & Opportunity Outlook 2023



Research study is to define market sizes of various segments & countries in previous years and to forecast the values to the next 5-8 years. The report is designed to comprise each qualitative and quantitative elements of the industry facts including: market share, market size (value and volume 2012-17, and forecast to 2023) with admire to each of the areas and countries concerned inside the examination. Furthermore, the report additionally caters the detailed statistics about the vital elements which includes drivers & restraining factors which will define the future growth of the market.



You can get free access to samples from the report here: https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/1742184-global-iot-antennas-in-electronic-devices-market



Furthermore, the years considered for the study are as follows:

Historical year  2013-2017

Base year  2018

Forecast period**  2018 to 2023 [** unless otherwise stated]



**Moreover, it will also include the opportunities available in micro markets for stakeholders to invest, detailed analysis of competitive landscape and product services of key players.



The designated segments and sub-section of the market are explained below:



The Study is segmented by following Product Type: , Chip Antennas, Wire Antennas, Whip Antennas, PCB Antennas & Proprietary Antennas



Major applications/end-users industry are as follows: Consumer Electronic Devices & Industrial Electronic Devices



Some of the key Manufacturers Involved in the Market are  Molex, Laird, Pulse Electronics, Antenova, Taoglas & Linx Technologies



For each region, market size and end users are analyzed as well as segment markets by types, applications and companies. If opting for the Global version of IoT Antennas in Electronic Devices Market analysis is provided for major regions as follows:

- North America (USA, Canada and Mexico)

- Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)

- Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)

- South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)

- Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)



Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/1742184-global-iot-antennas-in-electronic-devices-market



Key Answers Captured in Study are

Which geography would have better demand for product/services?

What are the strategies adopted by big players in the regional market?

Which country would see the steep rise in CAGR & year-on-year (Y-O-Y) growth?

What is the current & expected market size in next five years?

What is the market feasibility for long term investment?

What opportunity the country would offer for existing and new players in the IoT Antennas in Electronic Devices market?

What is risk involved for suppliers in the geography?

What factors would drive the demand for the product/service in near future?

What is the impact analysis of various factors in the Global IoT Antennas in Electronic Devices market growth?

What are the recent trends in the regional market and how successful they are?



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There are 15 Chapters to display the Global IoT Antennas in Electronic Devices market.

Chapter 1, About Executive Summary to describe Definition, Specifications and Classification of Global IoT Antennas in Electronic Devices market, Applications [Consumer Electronic Devices & Industrial Electronic Devices], Market Segment by Regions United States, Europe, China, Japan, South Korea & Other Regions;

Chapter 2, objective of the study.

Chapter 3, to display Research methodology and techniques.

Chapter 4 and 5, to show the Overall Market Analysis, segmentation analysis, characteristics;

Chapter 6 and 7, to show the Market size, share and forecast; Five forces analysis (bargaining Power of buyers/suppliers), Threats to new entrants and market condition;

Chapter 8 and 9, to show analysis by regional segmentation[United States, Europe, China, Japan, South Korea & Other Regions ], comparison, leading countries and opportunities; Regional Marketing Type Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis

Chapter 10, focus on identifying the key industry influencer's, overview of decision framework accumulated through Industry experts and strategic decision makers;

Chapter 11 and 12, Market Trend Analysis, Drivers, Challenges by consumer behaviour, Marketing Channels and demand & supply.

Chapter 13 and 14, describe about the vendor landscape (classification and Market Positioning)

Chapter 15, deals with Global IoT Antennas in Electronic Devices Market sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.



Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia or Oceania [Australia and New Zealand].
Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/08/2019 -- According to a new market report published by Transparency Market Research titled 'Mobile Photo Printer Market  Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 20192027,' the global mobile photo printer market is expected to reach US$ 2,922.0 Mn by 2027, expanding at a CAGR of 5..5% from 2019 to 2027. North America held a significant share in the mobile photo printer market in 2017.



The global mobile photo printer market is projected to expand due to dynamic aspects such as increase in penetration of smart devices and growth in the tourism industry. However, the market is facing a challenge from the presence of substitutes. Nevertheless, investment in research and development to make innovative products is likely to offer attractive opportunities to the market. Increasing preference for zero ink technology paper has led to the increase in demand for mobile photo printers. Smudge free print, water resistance, and tear resistance are advantages of using mobile photo printers.



Browse The Report: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/mobile-photo-printer-market.html



In terms of product type, the compact photo printer segment constitutes a dominant share of the global mobile photo printer market. This is due to preference of people to carry small sized mobile photo printers. Pocket size photo printer is easy to carry and fits into the pocket of jeans and trousers. Based on connectivity, the Wi-Fi connectivity segment constitutes a share of over 42% of the global mobile photo printer market. In terms of ink usage, ink based mobile photo printer dominates the market due to its ability to print more photos at less cost as compared to ink less photo printers. In terms of application, the individual segment dominates the market due to extensive use of photo printers for self-use. Based on distribution channel, the offline channel dominates the market since consumers want to physically know about the product. The mobile photo is only a decade old and consumers are keen to inspect the product before buying it. Various companies have innovated with the product to ensure a strong presence in the market. This in turn is expected to boost the growth of the mobile photo printer market. In terms of region, North America accounts for dominant share of the mobile photo printer market.



North America accounts for more than 33% share of the global mobile photo printer market. It is expected to continue to dominate the market during the forecast period due to high disposable income of the population. The market in the U.S. is likely to expand at a rapid pace. The U.S. constitutes a prominent share of 70% in the mobile photo printer market in North America. Instant photos without connecting to a computer or laptop is the major factor driving growth in the U.S. market. Canada is expected to account for 12% of the mobile photo printer market in North America during the forecast period.



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China is a dominant country in the mobile photo printer market in Asia Pacific. Chinese companies manufacturing mobile photo printers quote lower price compared to other companies in the market.The market in China is mainly driven by the availability of low-cost mobile photo printers. The market in China is followed by Japan and India in the Asia Pacific region. The market in China is expected to expand at a rapid growth rate during the forecast period due to changing lifestyles and rise in disposable income.



GCC is a leading sub-region of the mobile photo printer market in Middle East & Africa. It is estimated to dominate the market during the forecast period. The market in South Africa is expected to be driven by a favorable political environment which is enabling the setting up of more factories and resulting in higher sales of mobile photo printers. Brazil accounts for more than 40% of the mobile photo printer market in South America and is expected to continue to dominate the market in the next few years. The market in Brazil is likely to be driven by acceptance of technological productsby the population.
Pune, Maharashtra -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/08/2019 -- The Graphical Research report titled "North America Machine Translation Market" that represents the broad information comprising methodology and scope, industry insights, growth drivers, applications insights, company profiles and industry background, business trends, porter's analysis, pestel analysis, product landscape, swot analysis to 2024.



North America Machine Translation Market (2017  2024) size anticipated to exceed USD 600 million by 2024.



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North America is the leading machine translation market globally owing to the abundant demands from the IT sector of the U.S. North America's IT sector holds more than 60% of the regional market demand. This is attributed to the presence of IT technology giants in the region. IT companies are one of the major adopters of this technology for meeting the requirements of global customers. This is one of the major reasons for the North America machine translation market.



Machine translation is mainly used by large enterprises as the deployment of these systems requires high initial cost and resource allocation. Machine translation tools are used as content localization tool and are common in larger organizations. With smaller firms and organizations in North America, the trend of outsourcing such services has been observed. However, when faced with enormous volumes of data, organizations may deploy machine translation as an on-premise business activity.



Moreover, the presence of several providers in the region backed by supportive government policies is driving the North America machine translation market. The increasing investments and developments in artificial intelligence and machine learning by technology giants will bolster the North America machine translation market.



Browse key industry insights from this report North America Machine Translation Market in detail along with the table of contents @

https://www.graphicalresearch.com/industry-insights/1071/north-america-machine-translation-market



Major companies in the machine translation market in North America are IBM, Microsoft, and Google. In October 2017, Google launched Pixel Buds, a real-time translator that connects web search and connectivity incorporated with a built-in Google Assistant and Google Translate capable of translating 40 different languages.



On the basis of technology, the SMT segment has shown a lucrative growth over the forecast period in this region. Google translate and Microsoft translation use SMT machine translation technology for its online services and applications. Recently, when Google Translate was first launched, Phrase-Based Machine Translation (PBMT) was used as a key algorithm. PMBT algorithm works by splitting sentences into phrases and words that can be translated mainly autonomously. This is considered as the simplest and most popular version of SMT.



Segments We Cover:



North America Machine Translation Market Forecast, By Technology

RBMT

SMT

Others



North America Machine Translation Market Statistics, By Application

Automotive

Military & defense

Electronics

IT

Healthcare

Others



Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @ https://www.graphicalresearch.com/request/1071/inquiry-before-buying



The above information is provided for the following countries:

U.S.

Canada



Browse Related Reports:



1. Europe Machine Translation Market Size By Technology (SMT, RBMT), By Application, Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (Germany, UK, France, Spain), Growth Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2017  2024



https://www.graphicalresearch.com/industry-insights/1072/europe-machine-translation-market



2. Asia Pacific Machine Translation Market Size by Technology, By Application (Automotive, Electronics, IT, Military & Defense, Healthcare), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (China, India, Japan), Growth Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2017  2024



https://www.graphicalresearch.com/industry-insights/1073/asia-pacific-machine-translation-market



About Graphical Research

Graphical Research is a business research firm that provides industry insights, market forecast and strategic inputs through granular research reports and advisory services. We publish targeted research reports with an aim to address varied customer needs, from market penetration and entry strategies to portfolio management and strategic outlook. We understand that business requirements are unique: our syndicate reports are designed to ensure relevance for industry participants across the value chain. We also provide custom reports that are tailored to the exact needs of the customer, with dedicated analyst support across the purchase lifecycle.
London, UK -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/08/2019 -- Nursing Personnel was founded with the primary objective of ensuring that the healthcare sector in the United Kingdom has a trusted agency for all nursing staffing requirements. The NHS framework-approved agency has over the years proven their ability by continuously going the extra mile when it comes to meeting and exceeding their mandates. Nursing Personnel is proud of building a national brand and offering all professional nursing personnel a platform where they are guaranteed quality.



Talking about what it means to work as an agency nurse, the Company Spokesperson said, "The primary motivation why most people choose agency nurse jobs is the flexibility of working hours and the ability to schedule your own days off. However, flexibility is not the only benefit that comes with registering with our agency as we seek to ensure you get value when working with us. It is why we have stopped at nothing to ensure that we offer you the highest pay rates which instantly give us an edge over other agencies."



Individuals after an NHS approved nursing agency in Leicester that will open the door to endless job opportunities should look no further than Nursing Personnel, a team they can trust for all seasons. The agency has developed deep networks in the region which has consequently seen them always have numerous job opportunities for their agency workers. Nursing Personnel has a record for working with some of the top hospitals in the region including Glenfield hospital, Leicester Royal hospital, and Leicester General hospital among other healthcare sectors that present exciting career opportunities.



Speaking further, the Company Spokesperson added, "At Nursing Personnel we are always looking to go that extra mile on quality and help our nurses. One of the reasons why you should register with us as we take your personal requirements seriously. Top on the list of the elements that define us is guaranteed work hours in many locations.



Registered nurses have in Nursing Personnel a trusted nursing agency in Boston that will provide them with access to the latest jobs in the region. The massive capacity of the agency means that for all ranges of specialties and qualifications, there are always ready jobs for specialized nurses. Nursing Personnel works to the highest standards demanded by the industry ensuring you are equipped with the appropriate training and occupational health screening before you start working.



About Nursing Personnel

Nursing Personnel has for the past two decades been committed to supplying nursing and healthcare staff to the NHS and private hospitals across the United Kingdom while guaranteeing their members the highest pay rates.



Contact Details

Company Name: Nursing Personnel

Great West House, Great West Road, Brentford, TW8 9DF

Telephone Number: 033 3043 6779

Fax: 033 3043 4190

Website: https://www.nursing-personnel.com/
Philadelphia, PA -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/08/2019 -- This April, Saints & Sinners, one of Philadelphia's lifestyle spots, is helping locals get into the swing of things  and in more ways than one.



On Saturday, April 6th, Saints & Sinners will be hosting Throwback Saturday with DJ Giggity and Secret Society of New York and New Jersey. Participants will be able to take a trip down memory lane to the heyday of the New York club scene with The Old School Saturday Party. They will be flashing back to the days of New York's mega clubs such as Palladium, Limelight, and Sound Factory, featuring old-time hip hop, freestyle, and EDM.



Saturday, April 20th will be the Saints & Sinners Bad Bunnies Party. This event will be calling on all bad bunnies to make their appearance and be bad with the sinners.



As usual, Wednesdays this April will be Women's Choice Wednesday, which means that it's a night for ladies. Couples, single ladies, and select single males are invited to come to stimulate their senses with a dose of sensuous variety. Only the most select of males with certifications will be admitted. Ladies who love men, ladies who love ladies, ladies who swim both sides of the river, or ladies seeking to be a third for a pair of two are all welcome.



Saints & Sinners is the premier lifestyle party location in Delaware County, PA, and surrounding areas, for those who would rather run with the Sinners than walk with the Saints. Interested individuals and parties are encouraged to call 215-203-8060 or email today at snsphilly@saintsandsinnersac.com to discover a whole new lifestyle.



About Saints and Sinners

Saints and Sinners is the newest Couples' Lifestyle Members' Only Club in Philadelphia, PA. The club offers the best swinger parties where couples will have the most exciting and erotic times of their lives. The club offers free on-site parking with a separate entrance into Saints and Sinners. They also have a bar where they provide all the mixers for the swingers, and have liquor lockers that people can rent to store their alcohol for the next party. Erotic movies are shown throughout the night to get people in the mood for a good time. Food is always provided throughout the night.



For more information on how to be a part of the best swinger parties in Atlantic City, visit http://www.saintsandsinnersac.com.
Pennsauken Township, NJ -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/08/2019 -- Small business owners and independent contractors know firsthand just how annoying it can be to allow a pile of excess scrap metal to take up real estate in their workspace. However, devoting an entire day to haul the metal to a scrapyard can cause a business owner to waste both time and money. Sgt. Scrap is now offering roll-off container services in Camden County that are perfect for busy contractors and business owners who need to get rid of scrap metal on their schedule.



Mobile scrapyard services are ideal for business owners who don't have the time, strength, or the vehicle access necessary to bring their scrap metal to Sgt. Scrap's yard, or who have a large piece of metal that's too heavy for one person to lift. No matter where they're located, Sgt. Scrap's team is committed to visiting business owners' and contractors' locations to haul off excess metal in exchange for cash.



Sgt. Scrap offers the same rates for mobile scrap pickups as they do for exchanges at their yard, and they're known for their reliable service and fast pickups. With some of the best rates in the industry and new extended business hours, it's never been easier to take advantage of Sgt. Scrap's mobile services.



Now that spring has arrived, it's the perfect time for business owners and contractors to do some "spring cleaning" in their workspace  and enjoy a heavier wallet as well. Anyone who'd like to schedule their roll-off container service in Chester County is encouraged to make the call to Sgt. Scrap today at 800-833-6983.



About Sgt. Scrap

Sgt. Scrap has been in business since for over 10 years. Since their inception in 2006, the company has expanded to have four locations. Sgt. Scrap is an authority on eco-friendly scrap metal purchasing and prides itself on empowering its partners and customers. They offer both onsite services and offsite pickups that rid clients of unwanted metals in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Delaware.



For more information, visit https://sgt-scrap.com.
Edison, NJ -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/08/2019 -- The qualitative research study accompanied by HTF MI titled "Smart Toys Market Insights 2019, Global and Chinese describing about the Product / Industry Scope and elaborates market outlook and status to 2023" provides primary data, studies, scope of the product and vendor briefings. The market Study is segmented by key regions which is accelerating the marketization and study is segmented by products type, application/end-users. The research study provides estimates for Smart Toys Market Insights 2019, forecast till 2025. Some of the Major Players Included in the study are Spin Masters, Mattel, Hasbro, WowWee, Lego & Sony.



Get Access to Sample Pages Instantly @: https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/1701691-smart-toys-market-insights-2019-global-and-chinese-analysis



1) Can we add or profile new players as per our need?



Yes, we can add or profile new company as per client need in the report. Final confirmation to be provided by research team depending upon the difficulty of survey.



** Data availability will be confirmed by research in case of privately held company. Up to 3 players can be added at no added cost.



2) Can inclusion of additional Segmentation / Market breakdown is possible?

Yes, inclusion of additional segmentation / Market breakdown is possible subject to data availability and difficulty of survey. However a detailed requirement needs to be shared with our research before giving final confirmation to client.



** Depending upon the requirement the deliverable time and quote will vary.



3) How Research Report is an Interesting One?



This report covers the current scenario and growth prospects of Smart Toys Market Insights 2019, Global and Chinese for the period 2019  2025. The study is a professional and in-depth study with around n- no. of tables and figures which provides key statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the domain.



The titled segments and sub-section of the market are illuminated below:



The Smart Toys Market Insights 2019, Global and Chinese market has been divided into, application, type and region.



On The Basis Of Type: , Product Type I, Product Type II & Product Type III



On The Basis of Application: Children & adults



On The Basis of Key Players: Spin Masters, Mattel, Hasbro, WowWee, Lego & Sony



Major Geographies Covered: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific etc



***Sub Regions Included: North America [United States, Canada, Mexico], Asia-Pacific [China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam], Europe [Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia, Rest of Europe], South America [Brazil, Argentina, Rest of South America], Middle East & Africa [GCC Countries, Turkey, Egypt, South Africa, Rest of Middle East & Africa]



*** Unless until specified in Original TOC



To know more about the table of contents, you can click @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/1701691-smart-toys-market-insights-2019-global-and-chinese-analysis



Furthermore, the years considered for the study are as follows:

Historical year  2013-2018

Base year  2018

Forecast period**  2019 to 2025 [** unless otherwise stated]



**Moreover, it will also include the opportunities available in micro markets for stakeholders to invest, detailed analysis of competitive landscape and product services of key players.



Major Key Features Covered in Smart Toys Market Insights 2019, Global and Chinese Market Report:



* To gain insightful analyses of the market and have comprehensive understanding of the Smart Toys Market Insights 2019, Global and Chinese and its commercial landscape.

* Assess the Smart Toys Market Insights 2019, production processes, major issues, and solutions to mitigate the development risk.

* To understand the most affecting driving and restraining forces in the Smart Toys Market Insights 2019, and its impact in the global market.

* Learn about the market strategies that are being adopted by leading respective organizations.

* To understand the future outlook and prospects for Smart Toys Market Insights 2019, Market.



Buy this research report @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-now?format=1&report=1701691



Queries we have tried to answered in Smart Toys Market Insights 2019, Global and Chinese Market Study:

Who are the Leading key players and what are their Key Business strategies in the Smart Toys Market Insights 2019, Global and Chinese?

What are the key consequences of the five forces analysis of the Smart Toys Market Insights 2019,?

What are different opportunities and threats faced by the dealers in the Smart Toys Market Insights 2019, Global and Chinese?

What are the strengths and weaknesses and business strategies of the key vendors?



Some Extracts from Table of Contents:

Chapter 1. Market Overview

Chapter 3. Market Dynamics

Chapter 4. Research Methodology

Chapter 5. Market Factor Analysis

Chapter 6. Smart Toys Market Insights 2019, Global and Chinese Market, By Delivery Mode

Chapter 7. Smart Toys Market Insights 2019, Global and Chinese Market, By Application

Chapter 8. Smart Toys Market Insights 2019, Global and Chinese Market, By Region

Chapter 9. Smart Toys Market Insights 2019, Global and Chinese Market, By Type

Chapter 10. Company Landscape

Chapter 11. Company Profiles

Chapter 12. Appendix



Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.
Rockville Pike, MD -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/08/2019 -- Fact.MR study on Taxifolin market reveals that the global market revenue is estimated to grow at a CAGR of over 5% between 2019 and 2027. In 2017, the global taxifolin market stood at US$1.4 Bn, where Europe was the largest market. Though the taxifolin market share of APEJ has been growing at a faster pace than other regions owing to the growth in consumption of nutraceuticals and food products containing taxifolin.



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Wide application areas of Taxifolin increases its demand



Taxifolin also known as dihydroquercetin is used in several applications including food and beverages, healthcare, cosmetics, and agriculture. Several studies and research papers prove taxifolin as a potent ingredient for several application areas. Taxifolin is used as an additive for food products as it stabilizes shelf life of the products by 12-36 months. Taxifolin being a natural antioxidant with antibacterial, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory properties, its applications has been further expanding. Even the smallest amount of taxifolin is able to prevent oxidative stress and shields the body from free radicals. The demand of taxifolin in food products is projected to grow at the fastest pace during the forecast period. The application areas of taxifolin in food and beverages industry include dairy products, meat processing, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, and confectionary.



Taxifolin demand have also been increasing at a significant pace in the field of medicine. Taxifolin has been observed to be a potent inhibitor of ovarian cancer cell growth. Taxifolin derivatives also have anti-proliferative effects on breast cancer cells as well as murine skin fibroblasts. The antioxidative activity of taxifolin is more than that of other common antioxidants such as tocopherols and carotenoids. Besides, taxifolin is also resistant to the impact of oxidation and light. These factors have been augmenting the taxifolin demand in the field of healthcare and cosmetics.



The other application areas of taxifolin includes cosmetics, cosmetics and agriculture. As a health supplement, the use of taxifolin based supplements has been observed to surge among the sportspeople. Especially during eth competition period, when the athletes need to perform beyond their regular limits, taxifolin is very useful as it boosts the cardiovascular system to bear the exercise load. In agriculture, taxifolin is used to boost plant growth. Several other health benefits associated with taxifolin includes protection of capillary and liver. The demand for cosmetics has been growing globally due to the up-liftment in consumers' lifestyles.



Taxifolin of purity level of ?95% set to register faster growth



Taxifolin are available in several purity levels, which can be categorized into less than 95% and greater than or equal to 95%. Taxifoiln with less than 95% purity is expected to contribute larger share over the one having ?95%. Though, taxifolin with ?95% purity level is projected to register the faster growth during the forecast period. The growing demand of taxifolin in dairy products and confectionary, where purity levels of 96% is required, is the key reason for the growth of taxifolin with ?95% purity level.



Access Detailed Report Summary: https://www.factmr.com/report/2801/taxifolin-market



Europe stands as the largest taxifolin market



Europe, especially Russia have been the largest producer of taxifolin, which is due to availability of conifers including Siberian larch, which is the key raw material for the manufacturing of taxifolin. Russia has one of the largest naturally available volumes of Siberian larch, with an estimated 60 Bn cubic meters. Dahurian larches is another raw material for taxifolin. The global demand of Taxifolin is many time more than its present supply, which has kept the prices significantly elevated. The Taxifolin prices also vary largely among the regions due to several factors including the availability of raw materials, processing companies and regional demand level. Though, the demand supply gasp has been narrowing down with the involvement of more number of companies into this business.



New entrants have been specifically been observed to enter in the Chinese market, due to availability of raw material, cheaper labor and high demand. The Taxifolin market in China is also projected to witness the fastest growth during the forecast period. There have been several application among which the Taxifolin demand has been observed to surge significantly in China, including cosmetics. Besides, the surge in investment by public and private sectors in China is encouraging the discovery of drugs with less toxic effect, thus translating into the growth of taxifolin market. Quercetin exists a potent substitute for taxifolin, thus it restraints the market growth to certain extent.



Low degree of competition in taxifolin market



The degree of competition is low in the taxifolin market, with the presence of fair number of players. Due to high demand and lower supply, all of the taxifolin volume that is produced is consumed, therefore each of the competitors have their defined set of customers. The taxifolin providing companies have also been increasing the number of their customers with the increase in production volume. The taxifolin market is moderately capital intensive, where raw material procurement stands as one of the key operating costs. Research and development is another important area of investment in the taxifolin market. Certification is essential for the processing and usage of taxifolin, which makes it tough to enter the taxifolin market. Taxifolin with Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) certification has high importance in the U.S. The procurement process of taxifolin also involves certain patented technologies that some of the companies have gained. The processors of taxifolin also focus on reducing the lead time for manufacturing with the involvement of latest technologies.



The key players in the global taxifolin market includes JW Health Products, Kingherbs Ltd, Kalenika Group, Cayman Chemical, Ametis JSC, Abcam plc, and Adooq Bioscience. There are several other taxifolin providers that include, Linjiang Jianwei Biotech Co. Ltd., and Hangzhou J&H Chemical Co., Ltd.



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Chan was speaking as a panellist at the 13th Singapore Maritime Lecture on Monday, held as part of the annual Singapore Maritime Week.

For China, the Belt and Road Initiative is its way to secure its supply and distribution chains as consumerism increases, and infrastructure is needed to meet this demand. Such developments will create growth opportunities for the shipping industry, Chan told the lecture audience.

Managing director of Pacific International Lines (PIL) SS Teo, who is also on the board of China Cosco Shipping and chairman of the Singapore Business Federation, recalled that Singapore was one of the first few countries to respond positively to the BRI when it was first announced in 2013.

For my company PIL, BRI actually resonates among us as in the very early days, we were the only foreign shipping line carrying personnel and project cargo when China was building the Zambia-Tanzania railway in the 60s. So we took part in the BRI long ago, only that now it is in a different form, Teo said.

Seatrade Maritime News is reporting Live from Sea Asia 2019

On the role that Singapore can play, Teo said the republic can help to bridge the gap between the Chinese and other countries. Singapore, for example, has set up a new government agency called Infrastructure Asia to help the Chinese BRI projects work together with companies especially those outside Singapore. Infrastructure Asia can provide project supervision, financing and even arbitration.

Id say BRI is inevitable and its not going to be 10-20 years project; itll be for over centuries and we should all look at it with a very open mind. The Chinese also have to learn how to better fine-tune the BRI, Teo said.

Minister Chan weighed in to say that China appreciates Singapores role as we bring in a certain way of doing business whereby we look at the projects objectively from market and commercial principles.

Chan said: They [China] appreciate our capabilities in the way that we are able to syndicate the loans and provide arbitration services. These are neutral, professional services that can complement the BRI, and increasingly both the Chinese central government and many of their businesses are finding Singapore as an attractive hub to use our capabilities in those areas to complement what they do in the physical mode.
It marks the first FPSO order CMIH has received and the two parties signed the contract for the construction of one plus three SBM Fast4ward FPSO MPFA hull. Jiangsu branch of CMIH will build the FPSO unit

Li Jianhong, chairman of China Merchants Group said it was a great opportunity for the company to enter into high-end FPSO construction sector. China Merchants will deepen the co-operation with SBM on FPSO and FLNG construction and capital investment, he added.

SBM Offshore, worlds largest FPSO provider, is pushing forward with its Fast4Ward programme, which had been designed to standardise the FPSO construction and delivery process and reduce the cost. The company signed the contract for a second Fast4ward hull with Shanghai Waigaoqiao shipyard in November 2018.

Read more: SBM Offshore confirms second FPSO hull contract at SWS

CMIH, wholly owned by China Merchants Group, is a leading offshore engineering equipment provider and service provider headquartered in Hong Kong. The company has two offshore production bases including Mazhou Island base in Shenzhen and Haimen base in Nantong, Jiangsu.
Press Release

April 8, 2019 De Lima seeks probe on escalating trend of farmers' killings Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima has sought a Senate inquiry into the alarming spate of killings of farmers in the country, the most recent of which involves 14 farmers who were killed in a joint military and police operations in Negros Oriental last March 30. In filing Senate Resolution (SR) No. 1034, De Lima said the escalating trend and spate of killings involving farmers in the country by state agents themselves, who are mandated to uphold their welfare, must be checked and stopped immediately. "These killings tend to prove the inability of the Philippine government to discharge its basic duty to preserve and maintain peace and order, and to hold accountable the perpetrators of crimes and abuses. They have cultivated a culture of impunity and lawlessness across the country," she said. "There is an urgent need to investigate this escalating trend and spate of killings victimizing our farmers, making it imperative for the government and law authorities and institutions to develop mechanisms which can hold these perpetrators accountable in order for justice and the rule of law to be restored and upheld throughout our lands," she added. Last March 30, 14 persons were killed in the joint military and police operations against illegal firearms targeting suspected communist rebels believed to be supporters and members of the New People's Army in different municipalities of Negros Oriental. While the operations were separated in different parts of Negros Oriental, the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) used the oft-repeated "nanlaban" narrative or "the suspect resisted" alibi as reasons to defend the killings. In fact, witnesses reportedly likened the spate of killings in Negros Oriental to the police's infamous "tokhang" style execution, which has commonly been used by the public to refer to the act of killing suspected offenders who were unarmed and helpless. "The recurring narrative of suspects having resisted arrest otherwise known as 'nanlaban', has long been serving as a wrongful justification for the targeted and continuous killings around the country," said the former justice secretary. At least 180 farmers have reportedly been killed since Duterte assumed presidency in 2016, 40 of which were from Negros Island. De Lima pointed out that as agents of the state, the PNP and the AFP "must observe both international and local operational procedures in order to enforce the law with respect to human rights-based policing, and reasonable rules of engagement." While PNP Chief Dir. Gen. Oscar Albayalde and Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo were convinced that the 14 farmers initiated the armed encounter that led to their demise, Negros Oriental Police Provincial Director Raul Tacaca and three other police chiefs have been relieved from their duties to allow for an impartial investigation into operations across the province.
Press Release

April 8, 2019 Dispatch from Crame No. 503:

Sen. Leila M. de Lima's Statement on "The Real Narcolist" "Time brings all things to light," says Willie Stark in the 2006 film 'All the King's Men.' And indeed the time of reckoning for the Dutertes has come. In the past couple of weeks, we have seen former anti-narcotics operative Eduardo Acierto and a certain "Bikoy," who claims to be a former member of a criminal syndicate, separately make serious allegations against the Dutertes and the people around them. "Bikoy" came up with an alternative narcolist, which he claims to be better, "the real" one, than the one issued by the President and his men. Legitimate grievance and sincere law enforcement would dictate that earnest actions should be taken to verify the allegations. Michael Yang should have been blacklisted and his operations monitored. Paolo Duterte should be investigated, as to his and his alleged dummy's bank accounts, and even his tattoo, examined to see whether the allegations are true or not. Both Michael Yang and Paolo Duterte are indubitably public figures with considerable influence. And the public interest for the investigation into their culpability and accountability far outweighs their right to privacy. What is interesting is how Pres. Duterte and his lapdogs reacted. Duterte called at the AFP and PNP to murder Acierto. Bong Go and Bato dela Rosa were quick to exonerate Michael Yang even before any bona fide investigation on the allegations were made. Duterte's men in the Senate, as if on clock work, immediately called for the arrest of Acierto and discouraged any Senate investigation on the matter. It is such a tragedy when we see how this Administration uses tax-paid resources to protect the President's family instead of protecting our country from the drug syndicates. Nakakatawa na lang isipin na ako pa ang inaakusahan nila na dahilan ng pagkalat ng iligal na droga samantalang ako ang nakapagpatigil ng operasyon ng mga druglord sa Bilibid. Sina Duterte naman ang nagbalik sa kanilang operasyon kapalit sa pagtestigo laban sa akin. I do not find it a coincidence that the illegal drug trade increased dramatically during this Administration. While the President spouts rhetorics on his "War on Drugs," billions worth of shabu continues to be smuggled into our country. The President's own recently-announced data on the no. of drug users, incredible as it may seem, contradicts any claim of success. All of these happened, and continue to happen, during Duterte's watch with his most loyal subordinates at the helm of the key agencies involved. Dela Rosa, Lapena, Faeldon all took turns running the New Bilibid Prison and the Bureau of Customs while the drug operations and smuggling became rampant. Yet they are not made accountable for their failures. Policy-wise, the Duterte Administration keep placing the blame on everyone other than the actual druglords: the opposition, the media, the drug-users, and even the children. The simple explanation for the monumental failure of Duterte's "War on Drugs" is that those responsible for the proliferation of illegal drugs in our country could very well be his own family, cronies and Chinese allies. This is also probably the reason why China is able to keep Duterte on a leash like their loyal dog. They know that he is the real coddler of druglords and protector of the drug trade in the Philippines. I call on our law enforcers and loyal countrymen to do the right thing. Stop the druglords, protect our country.
In a statement, Trump said this unprecedented step, "recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a state sponsor of terrorism, but that the [Iran Revolutionary Guards] IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft."



Critics have warned that the move could open U.S. military and intelligence officials to similar actions by unfriendly governments. The United States has already blacklisted dozens of entities and people for affiliations with the IRGC, but not the organization as a whole.



Experts have said it was unclear how much concrete difference the terrorist designation would make.

Donald Trump has announced that the United States now regards Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist organization, "marking the first time Washington has formally labeled another country's military a terrorist group."We may not know the exact consequences of this action, but what we do know with absolute certainty is that this action is a deliberately provocative move. We also know that National Security Advisor John Bolton is an advocate for war with Iran , having penned in 2015 an op-ed for thebluntly headlined: " To Stop Iran's Bomb, Bomb Iran ."I'm troubled by this development on its own, but I'm even more uneasy given the global environment in which it's happening: Fascism is on the rise and democracy in decline, Brexit is falling apart, Russia is landing troops in Venezuela, Israel is fixing to annex the West Bank, the U.S. is giving nuclear intel to Saudi Arabia and threatening to shut down our borders, etc.This is the sort of global whatthefuckery that presaged the two World Wars.Every bit of unnecessary provocation is setting my teeth on edge. I feel like I am suspended in a perpetual flinch, waiting for the horror that feels increasingly inevitable.If you feel the same way, you are not alone. If you need to talk about that, this is the place to do it.
Welcome to Shakesville, a progressive feminist blog about politics, culture, social justice, cute things, and all that is in between. Please note that the commenting policy and the Feminism 101 section, conveniently linked at the top of the page, are required reading before commenting.
The Reserve Bank proposal to almost double the amount of capital the big four banks have to hold was made without undertaking a cost-benefit assessment of the change.

This paper does not provide a cost-benefit assessment of the proposal to increase bank capital but has been prepared in order to provide further information to those who wish to provide feedback during the consultation process which ends on May 3, the bank says in a background paper released last week.

The Reserve Bank will carry out a full cost-benefit assessment for a Regulatory Impact Statement to help inform and describe final decisions in the review, it says.

The concepts discussed in this background note will be an important component of that cost-benefit assessment, it says. The full assessment will also consider any submissions received during the consultation period, as well as looking at alternative scenarios to look at risks around estimates of costs and benefits.

The Reserve Bank has estimated its proposals will mean the big four banks - ANZ, ASB, Bank of New Zealand and Westpac - which make up about 88 percent of New Zealands banking system, will have to find another $20 billion in capital over a five-year phase in period.

Former Reserve Bank official Ian Harrison, whose work is referenced in the latest background paper and who has already made public a lengthy critique of the central banks bank capital proposals, says the lack of any cost-benefit analysis is hilarious as it should have been the first thing the bank did.

Youre meant to do the cost-benefit analysis to find out what you want to do  thats how its meant to work.

Hes also surprised that the Reserve Bank keeps coming up with new information to support its original announcement of the bank capital proposals and release of consultation documents back on Dec. 14.

The Reserve Bank published an updated consultation document on Jan. 25 and then further documents on Feb. 22 as to why it wants to increase bank capital requirements. Deputy governor Geoff Bascand reinforced the banks messaging in a speech on Feb. 26.

If you say it often enough, people will believe it, Harrison said, arguing the proposals lack serious justification. The tree god is probably the main driver of this  the tree god just knows.

Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr has frequently likened the Reserve Bank to Tane Mahuta, the Maori god of forests and birds.

The Reserve Bank also asserted in its latest paper that bank shareholders "do not take the societal impacts of bank failure into account and thus banks have insufficient capital from a societal perspective.

While it may be true that bank shareholders dont take such matters into account, that doesnt necessarily mean that banks have insufficient capital.

All New Zealands banks have more tier 1 capital than the current minimum of 8.5 percent, with the Reserve Bank estimating it averages about 12 percent.

KPMG partner John Kensington, who heads the accounting firms banking and finance team, agrees the Reserve Bank should have included a cost-benefit analysis in the consultation document and that its significant the central bank hasnt done one yet.

You need to have that analysis there because the average person doesnt have the ability to do that," Kensington says.

If borrowing costs were only marginally increased by the proposals, most people wouldnt care, but if the impact is going to be substantial, as some analysts have calculated, that would certainly colour most peoples submissions, he says.

Without that information, its as difficult to argue with the central banks proposals as it is to argue against motherhood and apple pie.

You tell me a business that would not benefit from having more capital. Its a lay down misere that more capital is a good thing, Kensington said, using a card game analogy meaning an easy win.

But how much that additional capital would cost is crucial information.

The Reserve Bank has said its proposals would add between 20 and 40 basis points to borrowing costs and will get lost in the noise, but broking firm UBS has said the likely increase will be 86-to-122 basis points.

Thats enough to increase the interest bill on a $500,000 mortgage by as much as $6,100 a year.

While the central bank has rubbished UBS work as an outlier, UBS calculates that even if the RBNZs own much lower assessment proves correct, that would still raise the annual interest cost of a $500,000 mortgage by $2,000 a year.

A number of our clients when weve been talking to them have come up with numbers nearer to UBS, Kensington says.

KPMG audits New Zealands largest bank, ANZ Bank, as well as SBS, TSB, Co-operative Bank, Bank of India, Heartland and the Commercial Bank of China.

Kensington points to newspaper reports in Australia that the owners of the big four banks are contemplating floating or part-floating their New Zealand subsidiaries, should the Reserve Bank proposals go ahead in their current form.

He suggests another avenue to raise the additional capital would be for the banks to sell loan books, such as their rural loan books.

To be fair to the big four and all the New Zealand banks, they understand and have been very tolerant of farmers and have nursed customers through situations such as the recent dairy downturn, and the disease that hit kiwifruit orchards some years ago.

If they were to sell to US or Chinese banks, would those parties understand the cyclical nature of farming and would they be prepared to give farmers as much latitude? Kensington asks.

All the history and relationships the banks have built up from lending to farmers through generations would disappear if they sold their loan books to, say, Bank of Scotland, or any other international bank.

Kensington suggests lending to the construction industry, where banks have been hurt recently as firms including Arrow International, Orange-H and Ebert have gone into receivership, is another area that could be badly impacted by the Reserve Banks proposals.

The Reserve Bank is proposing that the big four banks should have to hold tier 1 capital equivalent to at least 16 percent of their risk-weighted assets.

It also wants Tier 1 capital to be pure equity, rather than hybrid-type securities that usually behave as debt but which can be converted into equity if required, and which are about a fifth of the cost of pure equity.

Since the global financial crisis, the minimum tier 1 capital has already been raised from 4 percent of risk-weighted assets to 8.5 percent.

The central bank is also proposing to limit the benefit the big four banks get from using their own internal models to calculate how much capital they need.

(BusinessDesk)

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Mercury NZ chair Joan Withers will step down in September after 10 years as a director.

Withers had some time ago signaled her intention to leave the company this year and no let-up is expected during her final six months with the company, chief executive Fraser Whineray told executives and officials at a Mercury function in Wellington last night.

Withers, who also chairs Warehouse Group and is a director of ANZ New Zealand, joined the board of then Mighty River Power in August 2009 when the company was wholly state-owned. She took over as chair two months later.

During the following decade, the company commissioned the worlds largest single-shaft geothermal turbine at its Nga Awa Purua site in 2010, consented two wind sites in the lower North Island, and commissioned the Ngatamariki geothermal plant in 2013. The same year it was the first of the SOE generators to list under the previous governments mixed-ownership model.

In 2015 the firm shut its gas-fired Southdown plant to focus on renewables and in 2016 it adopted the Mercury brand. Last year it bought into Tilt Renewables to gain exposure to wind and solar in Australia and last month announced a $256 million wind development at Turitea.

Whineray said Withers is one of the countrys hardest working directors and had made a tremendous contribution to the business, the rejuvenation of its board and its heightened focus on renewables.

Joan just hasnt led, or talked, she has walked the walk and driven it.

Earlier, Withers told guests what a privilege it was working with a company whose heritage on the Waikato River stretches back almost a century, and which now has almost 20 years experience in geothermal.

She cited the firms Turitea investment, and the $250 million it has spent to date its on-going refurbishment hydro programme, as an expression of the confidence the company has in the New Zealand electricity sector.

Everyone here, I think, really understands the importance of those sources of energy to a healthier, low-carbon future for our communities and our country, she said.

Confidence in the countrys socio-economic and regulatory and political environment is also of critical importance in making that scale of investment.

She commended the very constructive approach taken by the governments electricity price review panel and said she hoped it would take the opportunity to improve the sector and build on its reputation as a global benchmark for a well-functioning system that delivers secure, environmentally sustainable and equitable power supplies.

(BusinessDesk)

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New Zealand shares fell for a fourth day as the threat of a slowing property market was seen weighing on retirement sector stocks such as Summerset Group and Metlifecare.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index declined 49.97 points, or 0.5 percent, to 9,807.08. Within the index, 29 stocks fell, 15 rose, and six were unchanged. Turnover was $118.67 million.

Summerset led the market lower for a second day, down 4.9 percent at $5.77 on a bigger volume than usual of 790,000 shares. The retirement village operator and developer reported weaker unit sales last week, citing slowing property markets in Auckland and Christchurch for the decline.

Metlfecare fell 3.7 percent to $4.73, Ryman Healthcare decreased 0.5 percent to $12 and Arvida Group was down 0.8 percent at $1.30.

Craigs Investment Partners today recommended its clients sell Summerset, expressing a cautious view of the housing market to offset the sector's structural drivers such as an ageing population.

"Summerset updated the market with its unit sales last week . That disappointed, hence we've seen weakness in retirement village operators," said Peter McIntyre, an investment adviser at Craigs.

Infratil fell 1.6 percent to $4.23 after downgrading its earnings guidance after a sharp increase in the value of its portfolio triggered a bigger incentive fee for its manager, Morrison & Co.

McIntyre said the increased fee reflected how well Morrison & Co had managed the portfolio, given the incentive payment kicked in for performance in excess of 12 percent.

Companies paying reliable dividends were generally weaker, with most firms reporting in February having shed rights to those dividends. Port of Tauranga declined 3 percent to $5.45, Mainfreight fell 2.4 percent to $36.10, and Ebos Group decreased 2.1 percent to $20.80.

Mercury NZ was the most traded stock with a volume of 2 million shares. It rose 1.6 percent to $3.91. Contact Energy fell 1.7 percent to $6.81 on a volume of 1.8 million shares, and Spark New Zealand increased 1.4 percent to $3.695 on a volume of 1.8 million.

Of other companies trading on volumes of more than a million, Kiwi Property Group decreased 0.7 percent to $1.485, Meridian Energy was down 1.7 percent at $4.06, Auckland International Airport fell 1 percent to $8.05, Goodman Property Group slipped 0.9 percent to $1.705, and Sky Network Television declined 0.8 percent to $1.27.

Restaurant Brands New Zealand posted the biggest gain on the day, up 3.6 percent to $8.70. Mexico's Finaccess Capital wrapped up its partial takeover last week, where it secured a 75 percent stake in the fast-food operator.

McIntyre said a lot of money appears to have been recycled back into the company, with the new controlling shareholder continuing with the same growth aspirations and investors wanting to keep their exposure to that sector.

Air New Zealand rose 2.1 percent to $2.74, Gentrack gained 1.9 percent to $5.45, Heartland Group increased 1.9 percent to $1.65, and Tourism Holdings was up 1 percent at $4.96.

Outside the benchmark index, Green Cross Health jumped 11 percent to $1.15, the highest it's been since early February.

(BusinessDesk)

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One of the countrys smallest electricity network companies has urged the governments electricity pricing review panel not to invite politicians into the debate on transmission pricing.

Waipukurau-based Centralines says the panels suggestion that a government policy statement might help resolve the industrys decade-long debate over the allocation of transmission costs should be approached cautiously.

The company says it is up to the Electricity Authority to neutrally assess the different proposals against its statutory objectives. Whatever system is adopted some parties will be disaffected

Contrary to the panels view that the government is best placed to choose the beneficiaries of transmission pricing reform, Centralines view is that it is best not to politicise wealth distribution issues, the community-owned company said in a two-page submission.

If there is no change, Centralines will remain highly disaffected by the current approach, given the significant investments that have been made which benefit the upper North Island, the costs of which are currently socialised across all New Zealanders.

Centralines serves a relatively disadvantaged population, but since 2010 has seen a 50 percent increase in the transmission charges that it must recover from its consumers.

National grid operator Transpower will charge about $970 million for transmission in the coming year, a service that typically accounts for about 10 percent of a household power bill.

Transmission pricing includes a bundle of charges for different types of assets and services  some of which have already been changed in recent years to allocate costs more efficiently and to free up South Island generation.

But much of that cost is spread across all users, with the result that firms and households in most of the South Island and parts of the North Island are paying for  but getting little benefit from - more than $2 billion that was invested in the past decade upgrading the power link across Cook Strait, the lines around the Wairakei geothermal fields, the lines from Whakamaru into Auckland and the lines through Auckland into Northland.

The Electricity Authority wants to try and apportion charges based on the benefit consumers actually receive. It also wants to move away from charges that are based on peak-usage, which it believes will become easier for firms to avoid with the use of batteries and other technologies, in turn pushing a bigger share of those transmission costs onto other users.

The authoritys plan will increase costs for firms and households in much of the North Island, but particularly in Auckland and Northland. Others  particularly the Tiwai Point smelter in Bluff and Meridian Energy - will save money.

Transpower recognises the need for further change in transmission pricing but doubts, with many in the industry, that the authoritys proposals are workable.

The grid operator also wants to retain peak-based charges, which help flatten demand and make better use of assets, and to take a more incremental approach to any changes.

It says a circuit-breaker is needed in a process that has gone around in circles for seven years, with the ever-present threat of litigation.

The question of how assets are to be charged for, and down to what level, are essentially political, not regulatory, it says.

They go to the redistribution of wealth between regions in New Zealand and between groups of New Zealanders. It is not fair to ask a regulator to make them, let alone expect a regulator to achieve industry buy-in and consensus.

Most of the industry agrees that too much time has been spent on transmission pricing. But submitters are mixed on whether a government policy statement will actually help.

Many, like Contact Energy, are concerned that the time taken to develop a policy statement could result in further delays.

The authority, while not accepting the need for a policy statement, said that if there is one, it should be short, aimed at delivering efficient grid investment, and unambiguous.

We suggest that direction be provided on issues that focus squarely on policy aspects that may also have potentially controversial distributional consequences, such as the recovery of the cost of historical assets.

Tauranga-based Trustpower is part of the TPM Group, formed in 2016 to oppose the authoritys planned changes to transmission pricing. Other members include paper makers Norske Skog and Oji Fibre solutions, and network companies including Auckland-based Vector, Whakatane-based Horizon Networks, Whangarei-based Northpower and Kerikeri-based Top Energy.

Trustpower has proposed its own government policy statement. It would require grid efficiency to be tested on a national basis and would require power networks and directly connected loads to pay a standard nationwide charge for interconnection assets.

Trustpower says the authoritys benefit-based charges are overly complex, highly assumption-dependent, and may not send clear pricing signals. They would not cater well for the exit and entry of customers and their adoption would likely penalise firms that have invested on the current transmission rules, it says.

It supports Transpowers proposal that all generators should meet the cost of the high-voltage link across Cook Strait  as opposed to only the South Island generators at present  but otherwise doesnt think generators should face new costs.

We think that charging generators will only serve to delay investment in new generation. This is because wholesale prices would need to rise higher than they would otherwise before new investment becomes economic and development occurs.

Given that these transmission costs would be passed through to consumers via higher wholesale energy costs, it is more efficient to sheet them home directly to end-consumers  and to ensure they are not inflated in the pass-through.

The panel is due to report back to the government by the end of May.

(BusinessDesk)

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Mainzeal Property and Construction's liquidators want to double the amount of compensation the failed firm's directors, in particular chair Jenny Shipley, were ordered to pay, in cross-appealing a High Court ruling.

In late February, Justice Francis Cooke ruled that four directors of the failed construction company should pay $36 million to unsecured creditors. The Mainzeal directors had traded recklessly, Justice Cooke said, particularly by allowing the mostly loss-making company to trade for several years while technically insolvent.

The judge ordered Shipley, Tilby and Gomm were liable for up to $6 million each of the $36 million total. In the case of a fourth director, Richard Yan, who was also the founder and main shareholder of Mainzeals parent company, Shanghai-based Richina Pacific, Justice Cooke said he should be liable for the full $36 million. The four directors have already filed appeals.

In their cross-appeal, Mainzeal liquidators Andrew James Bethell and Brian Mayo-Smith said the court erred in applying a discount of two-thirds to the starting point for compensation of $110 million and limiting the directors' liability to $6 million each, or 5.45 percent of the total claims filed in liquidation.

They also said the court was wrong to order compensation from ex-Prime Minister Shipley at the same rate as Tilby and Gomm, "given her role as chairperson of Mainzeal, a director of other companies within the group... and her position as a director of, and her interest in, Richina Pacific Limited, Mainzeals holding company until 2009."

According to the cross-appeal, "her culpability was significantly greater than the culpability of Messrs Gomm and Tilby."

They want an order for the directors to be liable to the respondents for a percentage of the sum of $73.3 million, being two-thirds, as opposed to one-third of the total creditors' claims of $110 million.

Within that, they call for Shipley, Gomm and Tilby to be jointly and severally liable with Yan for no less than 20 percent of $73.3 million together with interest. It also seeks Shipley to be jointly and severally liable with Yan for an additional 30 percent of the sum of $73.3 million together with interest.

If other elements of their appeal are accepted they have suggested different calculations, all of which involved a higher amount in total and for Shipley in particular.

(BusinessDesk)

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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.

New Delhi: 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.

"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)
: Vijay Mallya's appeal against an extradition order passed by a magistrate in the United Kingdom late last year has been rejected by a High Court judge in the country.

He will now face an oral hearing on his appeal against the decision.

The Westminster Magistrate's Court had ruled against the 62-year-old businessman, who is wanted in India on charges of not paying back loans worth Rs 9,000 crore, on December 9 last year.
Muslims have become politically marginalized in the country over the decades. For many of the 200 million strong Muslim population in the country, this is a rather very depressing thought. There are many states within the country where, despite having a sizeable Muslim population, there was no political representation of Muslims in the state assembly. It was particularly true in states where the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) government was in power. In Madhya Pradesh where Muslims formed 7 percent of the population, there was only a single Muslim MLA in the state assembly. Similar was the condition in Chattisgarh, where there was no Muslim representation in the state assembly. The condition of Rajasthan and Gujarat was no better.

Similar is the case of Parliament where Muslim representation has nose-dived over the decades. From 49 Muslims in the Parliament in 1980, there were merely 22 Muslims MPs elected to the 16th Lok Sabha.

Madhya Pradesh is a case in point where Muslims despite making close to 7 percent of the population have become completely politically marginalized. Year after year and election after election, the representation of Muslims in the state where they once wielded power, has become dismally low. As many as fifteen assembly elections have been conducted in the state following the Independence, and mostly there has been negligible representation of Muslims in the Hindi heartland state. In the assembly election held in November last year, when the Congress roared back to power after remaining in political oblivion for fifteen long years, the state elected only two Muslim MLAs. In the previous election held in the year 2013, only a single Muslim was elected to the state assembly. The state sends 230 MLAs to the assembly and the state legislature must have at least 16 MLAs from the minority community.

The same is the condition of Muslims political representation in Gujarat. The state, under BJP, has seen complete political marginalization of the community. The representation of the Muslims in the state that has total strength of 182 seats has been rather negligible and steadily going down. In the year 2012 the state, where Muslims make at least ten percent of the total population, there were only two Muslim MLAs in the assembly. In the last assembly elections held in the state towards the end of the year 2017, condition remained similarly dismal with only three Muslims being elected to the legislature. Ideally, going by the Muslim population in the western Indian state, there should be at least 18 Muslims in the state assembly.

In the assembly elections held in Rajasthan in the year 2013, only two Muslims were elected to the state assembly. Earlier, the state had elected 12 Muslim MLAs in the state in 2008 assembly elections. In the assembly elections held last year, when the Congress party romped home, eight Muslims were elected, seven on Congress ticket and one on Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket.

The dwindling number of Muslim legislators in state assemblies can be attributed to the saffron surge across the country, particularly areas known as Hindi heartland. The marginalization is so clear and acute that it simply seems unbelievable. In the assembly elections held in five states in the year 2013, merely eight Muslims were elected out of a total of 589. Elections were held in In Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram. The number of Muslims in these five states is collectively around eight percent. Given their population in these states, at least 47 Muslim MLAs should have been elected there.

The same scenario played out in Uttar Pradesh, where Muslims make 20 percent of the states 200 million people. The saffron surge in the year 2017 saw the Muslims number go down to just 24 in the state assembly. It was almost one third compared to the number of Muslim legislators in the outgoing assembly. In the 2012 assembly elections, the electorates had sent as many as 68 Muslim MLAs to the state assembly.

Similar is the condition of Muslims in the Parliament. Their representation in the parliament has gone down over the years with 2014 Lok Sabha electing the lowest number of Muslims. Only 22 Muslim MPs were elected on different parties ticket to the Lok Sabha. There are 545 seats in the Indian Parliament. A balanced representation of Muslims should ensure that at least 81 Muslims are elected to the Indian Parliament. But this is a dream yet to be materialized. The highest number of Muslims elected to the Indian Parliament was in the year 1980 when as many as 49 Muslims were elected on different parties ticket. In the next Lok Sabha elections held in 1984 the number went down to 42. Since then the number has never gone beyond 34. It was in the year 2004. In the next Parliament only elections in the year 2009, only 30 Muslims were elected to the Lower House of the Parliament.

UP, the most populous state in the country from where 80 MPs are elected, not a single Muslim was elected to the Lok Sabha. The saffron surge that hit the state ensured that not a single Muslim could win from the state. Even from constituencies where Muslims are in majority including Rampur, Moradabad, Sambhal, Amroha and other constituencies, the division of Muslim votes among different political parties saw Muslim candidates lose elections to BJP candidates by small margins. Based on Muslim population, at least 16 Muslims should be elected to Parliament from Uttar Pradesh alone, but the state didnt elect a single Muslim candidate.

Gujarat that sends 26 MPs to the Lok Sabha, the representation of the Muslims, who make ten percent of the state population, is pathetic. For the last thirty years, no Muslim has made it to Lok Sabha from the state. Gujarat has not elected a single Muslim since 1989 when seasoned Congress leader Ahmad Patel tested defeat. Similar is the case of Madhya Pradesh where not a single Muslim has been elected to Parliament in eons. Ideally, given their ration in the population, at least two Muslims should have been elected from the state. But the increasing level of communalism and the resultant polarization means that this doesnt happen.

Christophe Jaffrelot, while writing in his book, 'Majoritarian State: How Hindu Nationalism Is Changing India' says, "The formation of a Hindu vote bank by the BJP, which in particular aimed to sideline minorities in the political arena, prompted other parties as well no longer to nominate Muslim candidates, except in areas with a high Muslim majority. This tactic was especially clear in the Congress case, which the BJP accused of cultivating a Muslim vote bank by showing concern for their social and economic condition  a false claim if one goes by the impoverishment of Muslims under the UPA regime."

He goes on to add, "This underrepresentation, linked to the boom in Hindu majoritarianism, was reflected at the government level by an unprecedented situation. Only two members in the first Modi government  or less than 3%  were Muslims in 2014. Both had come from the Rajya Sabha (the upper house), given that there was none among the BJP MPs in the Lok Sabha and that only MPs can be appointed as government ministers in India."

More columns by Syed Ubaidur Rahman:



Electoral arithmetic doesn't support BJP narrative

Will Dalit-Muslim-Yadav alliance stop BJP juggernaut in UP, Bihar?

BSP-SP alliance minus Congress party is an advantage for BJP

Why VHP's efforts to exploit Ram temple proved a dud this time

Asia Bi and the misuse of blasphemy law in Pakistan

Hashimpura massacre by police Finally, a semblance of justice

Will Owaisi-Ambedkar alliance in Maharashtra benefit the BJP?

Modi with Syedna: PM's Muslim outreach is a lost cause now

Mob lynching in India - The menace is growing
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Prime Minister Romeo Marlin also stated, Too much hindrance and obstruction over the past year has caused the airport and our economy to suffer and to lose precious time. In addition, negotiations for the financing of the Airport continues amongst stakeholders.





Last week, a delegation of the Government of Sint Maarten and Princess Juliana International Airport met with representatives of the holders of the Airports Fixed Rate Senior Secured Notes. The purpose of this meeting was to reinstate the much needed level of confidence and trust with all the bondholders. The other purpose of this meeting was to discuss, among other things, the plan of the Airport and the Government of Sint Maarten for financing the full reconstruction and rehabilitation of the airport with the support of the World Bank, the European Investment Bank and the Government of the Netherlands.





Important steps were taken towards a common and mutually acceptable approach among all of the stakeholders to bring the Airport back to its full operation and including improvements. Earlier this year, the Council of Ministers unanimously agreed to approve the proposal for financial assistance to the airport by the World Bank and the European Investment Bank. Under this proposal, 50 million US dollars will be provided as a grant from the World Bank Trust Fund to the Government of Sint Maarten, which will be loaned to the airport under favorable conditions. An additional 50 million US dollars will be become available as a loan from the European Investment Bank through the Government of Sint Maarten. This proposal, including its terms, was presented by the Prime Minister Romeo Marlin to the Parliament of Sint Maarten on January 21st and again on February 22nd, 2019.





Shortly thereafter, the Government successfully negotiated a bridge loan of 15 million US Dollars with the Government of the Netherlands in order to secure that the airport will continue to meet its operational expenses, including the salaries of its employees. During its meeting on Thursday April 4th, the Council of Ministers reiterated that this proposal remains the only viable plan to finance the reconstruction and full rehabilitation of the airport. The Council of Ministers took note that both the Holding Company (PJIAH) and the Operating Company of the Airport (PJIAE) have also formally endorsed this proposal, and that all stakeholders are fully committed to ensure the full reconstruction of the airport with the assistance of the World Bank, the European





Investment Bank and the Government of the Netherlands.





Looking forward, the Council of Ministers has emphasized the importance of full confidentiality in the discussions with the representatives of the bondholders of the Airport. In order to agree on a common and mutually





acceptable approach to finance the full reconstruction of the airport, this confidentiality should be respected at all times.





On April 4th the Prime Minister of Sint Maarten with the approval of the Council of Ministers filed an official complaint with the Landsrecherche. The Prime Minister has requested a full investigation on the leakage of information that became public on April 2nd 2019. This type of behavior is unethical, criminal and can cause irreparable damage to the rehabilitation of the main terminal at Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA) and the overall economy of our country, and will not be tolerated by the Government of Sint Maarten. All corners will be turned to ensure that the perpetrator is revealed and prosecuted, stated the Prime Minister Romeo Marlin.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Retired Army Capt. Bob Dole has been promoted to colonel.



President Donald Trump signed into law Monday a bill authorizing Dole's honorary appointment to the position.



The former senator, now 95 years old, registered for the Army Enlisted Reserve Corps in 1942, when he was a student at the University of Kansas. The following year, he was called to active duty.



Dole was severely wounded while deployed to Italy as an infantry lieutenant in the 10th Mountain Division, and went on to receive two Purple Hearts and two awards of the Bronze Star Medal with Valor for his service. Dole's injuries left him without the use of his right arm and limited feeling in his left arm. He resigned his Army commission at the grade of captain.



"It is, of course, an honor for me personally," Dole said in comments relayed by a spokesperson Monday. "Many of my comrades in the 10th Mountain Division never made it back here after World War II. While the wounds I sustained were life-changing, Ive never forgotten those brave soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice. God bless our men and women in uniform."



The Kansas politician and World War II veteran served in the U.S. Senate for 27 years, and was the Senate Majority Leader for 12 years.



The legislation authorizing Dole's promotion was pushed by two Republican colleagues from his home state of Kansas. Sen. Pat Roberts introduced the bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Jerry Moran.



"Kansas favorite son, Senator Bob Dole, is a true American hero and has earned this honorary promotion to colonel by his countless acts of valor and contributions to the U.S. military during his time at war and later while serving in Congress," Sen. Roberts said Monday in an email from a spokesperson. "Senator Dole has always been an advocate for our men and women in uniform, and Im proud the president signed this legislation to honor Dole with the promotion, which he has more than earned throughout his decades of service"



Dole has been known for his involvement with the nonprofit Honor Flight Network, which brings veterans from across the nation to visit The World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.



Dole was one of the few major Republicans and the only former presidential candidate to support Trump in the 2016 election.



Dole was Gerald Ford's running mate in his 1976 presidential campaign, which Ford lost to Jimmy Carter. Dole sought the Republican nomination in 1980 and 1988, finally winning it in 1996, an election he ultimately lost to incumbent Democrat Bill Clinton.

Copyright  2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Implications for Human Rights and National Reconciliation





by Laksiri Fernando





Application of human rights principles, when taken with necessary responsibilities, could play a major role in national reconciliation, but not limited to that. Human rights have a broader meaning and value when applied in a progressive and a realistic manner to improve not only peoples civil and political rights but also economic, social and cultural rights. This kind of a general upliftment of human rights across ethnic, religious, regional, class or gender distinctions can immensely contribute to the goal of national reconciliation.





When people have recognized rights, it is the duty of the government and the office holders (i.e. duty bearers) to fulfil them, while the people themselves should exercise these rights with responsibility.





Necessity of Elections





In the immediate context, the holding of provincial council elections without delay is a must to ensure peoples fundamental rights to elect their representatives (not rulers as some people define!) to the provincial councils. This is most important in the case of the Northern and the Eastern provinces. Otherwise, what is the point of devolution, provincial councils and the talk about reconciliation?





Sri Lanka is a representative democracy (Preamble to the Constitution); presently at three levels of national, provincial and local. According to Article 3 of the Constitution, In the Republic of Sri Lanka sovereignty is in the People and is inalienable. Sovereignty includes the powers of government, fundamental rights and the franchise. Therefore, franchise is most fundamental to peoples sovereignty, apart from government and fundamental rights.





Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) says Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives. When it says in the government, it means the government at various levels and the level of the province is most important in terms of devolution at present in Sri Lanka.





Article 21 (3) particularly says, The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will/shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures. Without the will of the people there is no proper authority for the provincial governments. To carry out this authority, there should be periodic and genuine elections.





Not holding elections to the provincial councils is a violation of all these norms and principles by the UNF government. If there were ambiguities or differences about the electoral system, and the law pertaining to holding elections, four years since the assumption of government in January 2015, even without a proper majority at the beginning, is a fair enough time to sort out these matters. Not doing so is either utter incompetence or callous disregard for democracy and will of the people.

Dismantling of Provincial Councils?





The term of the Northern Provincial Council expired in September 2018. Now what you have is direct Governors rule however mild it could be. The last provincial council, C. V. Wigneswaran as the Chief Minister, was the only elected council for the province, for the last 32 years. When the first elections for the council was about to be held in September 2013, Lisa Curtis of The Heritage Foundation said the following.





Tomorrow, for the first time in 25 years, Sri Lanka will hold elections to its Northern Provincial Council, a step that could facilitate reconciliation between the countrys majority (mostly Buddhist) Sinhalese and minority (mostly Hindu) Tamil populations.





One may consider the statement to be too optimistic, but there wasa significant truth in it. It is strange that the UN Human Rights Council or its High Commissioner has not noticed this aberration of human rights by not holding elections for the Northern Provincial Council for the last six months. Even a minister like Mangala Samaraweera, who pretend to be a champion of human rights, is mum about the matter.





Much worse is the case of the Eastern Provincial Council which had lapsed since September 2017, now for 18 months. Holding of elections for all other provincial councils is of similar importance because voting and elections are most treasured in peoples political rights. It is important for reconciliation itself as Lisa Curtis hoped.





The appreciation of devolution of power by the people in the South largely hinges on what they also receive as devolution. The considerable change of position on devolution by the JVP and certain sections of the SLFP depended largely on this factor. They opposed devolution at its introduction in 1987.





Repercussions of Not Holding Elections





Not holding elections, arbitrarily fixing them, or postponing them can have major repercussions on political frustration, emergence of rebellion, conflicts and violence. Even the local government elections that were finally held in February 2018 were conducted only after 7 years to majority of the councils (322).





Usual term of a local government institution is 4 years with the possibility of extending up to one year. The previous elections to these councils were held in 2011, and the terms expired in March 2015. Although the terms were extended to May 2015, since then all these were dissolved or dismantled. People in these areas were without local councils or peoples representatives for nearly two years or 21 months.





That was a major reason why the voters rebelled against the incumbent government, and its allies, and overwhelming supported a reconstituted new political party, Sri Lanka Peoples Front (SLPP),although under discredited old leaders. Similar political trends could be seen even in the North, going against the establishment and established political parties at the same elections.





The situation in the North was more damaging than in the South without holding elections to local councils for a very long period of time. A major reason undoubtedly was the war situation, but even after that, for example, local elections were not held in the Mullaitivu district in 2011. Therefore by February 2018, the vacuum was so vast.





When we look further back, not holding local government elections between 1977 and 1987, the ambiguous experiments of District Development Councils (DDC) coming in between, had major repercussions on the alienation, frustration and disillusionment of minority communities and the youth. More disastrous and despicable were the rigging of the DDC elections in Jaffna and burning of the Jaffna Library in 1981.





It is true that populist parties can utilize election processes to consolidate their political powers as we could witness from the Rajapaksa government during 2005 and 2015. This happens particularly when the other political parties are backward, lethargic or out of touch with the people. This is also not a reason for those parties to postpone or not holding elections when they come into power. Unfortunately, this is exactly the situation at present. Polarization on ethnic or religious lines also could happen under such circumstances, extreme political rhetoric and programmes gaining currency.





Holding of elections to the provincial councils without delay is a must for national reconciliation and ensuring the most important political right of the people in general and all over the country. If not, more polarization could be seen in the coming period and particularly at the unavoidable presidential electionsby the end of the year.





Present Measures on Reconciliation





There is no doubt that the present government has taken some important measures and steps towards national reconciliation in terms of addressing the past.(1) Release of the private land held by the military during the war to the original owners, (2) the establishment of the Office of the Missing Persons, and (3) the recent establishment of the Office on Reparation could be considered the most important three measures. However, addressing the current and the present requirements for reconciliation is also important.





Adraft on Counter-Terrorism Act is also now submitted to replace the existing Prevention of Terrorism Act (1978). There are serious concerns however that in certain areas, the proposed legislation could be more draconian than the existing one. If that is the case, it is a serious human rights issue that should be addressed. A concept paper has also been submitted to the Cabinet on a bill to establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the content of which is not yet known.





It has to be admitted that even the previous government also took some measures, within their own point of view, in addressing some of the issues of the war affectedand addressing the past. Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Reconstruction or the three Rs as they said were some of their pet topics. The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) was appointed within one year after the end of the war and the report was submitted within 18 months thereafter. But the implementation of the LLRC recommendations was terribly slow or hesitant. The present government is also slow although it has gone quite faithfully in line with the international community in selecting measures and in implementing them.Most controversial has been the co-sponsoring of all the resolutions submitted in the UNHRC since the most questionable resolution 30/1 in October 2015 drafted by the US.





Conclusion





The question is whether the above line of strategy would facilitate reconciliation in the country or trigger more controversies,if not future conflicts? Slow implementation or vacillations have already frustrated many sections of the Tamil community. Some are undoubtedly asking for the pound of flesh. It is almost 10 years since the end of the war. What we have seen recently at UNHRC is the second rollover.





There is also a strong opinion that the UNHRC resolutions are more of black mailinga strategically important small country than genuinely addressing human rights or reconciliation issues. It could be a combination of both. There is an apparent alignment between certain sections of the present government and those who execute this international strategy. A clear slant of all of them is a thrust against the previous government or the present opposition.





But to any independent observer, reconciliation requires the participation of all stakeholders, representatives of all communities, and political parties. Otherwise, it is not going to be sustainable. A major mistake of this government in their reconciliation strategy has been the side-lining of the representatives of the last government or the Joint Opposition.





As we have argued from the beginning, most important at present is the holding of provincial council elections without any further delay.
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Against the tide: Thai 'floating temple' defies coastal erosion



Samut Chin, Thailand, April 8 (AFP) Apr 08, 2019



As sea waters slowly rose around his temple and his neighbours fled inland, Thai abbot Somnuek Atipanyo refused to budge and is today a symbol of the fight to restore the country's fast-eroding coastlines.

A dangerous combination of climate change, industrial farming and rapid urbanisation are endangering the Gulf of Thailand's coasts, stripping away precious mangrove trees and leaving some buildings like Somnuek's surrounded by sea water.

In the 30 years since the waters started encroaching, most of his neighbours in the fishing village of Samut Chin moved several hundred meters inland to rebuild their wooden homes.

Standing in his saffron robes near his monastery on stilts -- dubbed the "floating temple" -- the 51-year-old monk points out to sea at the spot where the local school once stood.

"This temple used to be in the middle of the village," he tells AFP in Samut Chin, about an hour south of Bangkok.

"If we moved it, people wouldn't even know there had ever been one here," he says of the temple, accessible only by a small footbridge today.

These shores were once protected by extensive mangrove forests -- the Gulf of Thailand boasts some of the largest in the world -- a natural defence against coastal erosion thanks to their extensive roots that stabilise the shoreline.

But it's a been a losing battle to preserve them.



- Replanting in the 'heart' -



Mangrove forests have been cleared for extensive development of shrimp and salt farms, along with new houses and hotels that have popped up thanks to a development boom in recent decades.

Thailand lost almost one third of its vast coastal mangrove forests between 1961 and 2000, according to a report from the nation's Department of Marine and Coastal Resources and the UN Environment Programme.

Climate change is also having an impact: stronger waves and more ferocious monsoons have wiped out mangroves in the Gulf of Thailand, which is especially vulnerable because its waters are so shallow.

"The waves and tides are higher than before," said Thanawat Jarupongsakul, who advises Thailand's government on its policy to combat erosion.

Asian and Caspian coastlines are the two areas in the world most affected by coastal erosion, according to a study published last year in the scientific journal Nature.

It's a global problem: tens of thousands of square kilometres of land have been lost from coastal erosion around the world -- between 1984 and 2015 the equivalent of the surface area of Haiti was lost, the study said.

In Thailand a quarter of the country's shores -- or about 700 kilometres (500 miles) -- are eroding, some "severely", according to data shared with AFP by the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources.

Now there is a push to restore Thailand's precious mangrove ecosystem through a national voluntary tree replanting scheme, including near Somnuek's island monastery.

On a recent sunny afternoon, scores of people spent the day wading chest-deep in the sea to replant mangrove trees.

Clad in headscarves and hats, they gingerly reach down into the water to plant young saplings along lines of bamboo poles that help offer some protection against the waves.

"This project is called 'Planting a forest in people's hearts,'" said Wason Ditsuwan, who runs the program.

Set up in 2016 by Bangkok city authorities, the project has so far replanted 84 acres of mangroves across the country.



- Temple selfies -



Wason is hoping his project will succeed where others have failed.

Nearly 10 years ago, government adviser Thanawat helped residents in Samut Chin replant mangrove trees but some areas were too far gone to recover.

"Even if you plant a lot of mangroves, it cannot help," he said.

Another strategy is to drill pylons of cement into the seabed -- and on the shoreline itself -- to act as a substitute for the mangrove roots.

This has proven successful so far in the tourist town of Pattaya further along the coast, where the pylons have helped to reclaim several metres of beach.

But it's a race to keep up with rapid development along the shore, Thanawat said.

As for Somnuek's stretch of coast, though further erosion has stopped for now, there is little hope his temple will ever see dry ground again.

But the flooding has brought one unexpected advantage: dozens of tourists that flock to the so-called floating temple for Instagram-worthy selfies.

"The fight against coastal erosion has brought fame," village head Wisanu Kengsamut said.
Britain takes aim at social media bosses in world first



London, April 8 (AFP) Apr 08, 2019



Britain will make social media bosses personally liable for harmful content and shut down offending platforms under a government action plan published Monday -- the first of its kind anywhere.

The long-delayed and eagerly anticipated proposals lay the groundwork for legislation that could be passed in the coming months.

They were drawn up after consultations with social media moguls such as Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg and have faced little resistance from other platforms that have also been blamed for allowing the spread of hate and abuse.

Some of the proposals have sparked concerns from free speech groups.

"What we're proposing today is that companies that deal with user-generated content should take greater responsibility for keeping those users safe," culture and media minister Jeremy Wright told BBC radio.

"These are world-leading proposals. No one in the world has done this before."



- Punitive sanctions -



The proposed regulations would see social media companies accept "duty of care" obligations that require them to identify and remove "online harms".

Those that fail would be first issued warnings and then hit progressively with more punitive sanctions.

The government paper suggests that these include "the creation of new liability (civil fines or extended to criminal liability) for individual senior managers".

The most serious would see internet service providers block non-compliant websites and apps.

"This would only be considered as an option of last resort and deploying such an option would be a decision for the independent regulator alone," the plan says.

The regulations would only apply in Britain and should have no immediate impact on users elsewhere in the world.

But they may prompt other governments to take notice and follow suit.

Wright suggested the fines would be substantial.

He noted that those available to European Union authorities implementing the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules on data privacy reached "up to four percent of a company's turnover".

"We think we should be looking at something comparable here," Wright told BBC television.



- Minefield of problems -



Wright's office is navigating a minefield of problems regulating an industry that largely functions outside the bounds of existing legislation -- and whose harms are open to interpretation and remain undefined.

A joint letter sent by media executives to the British government in February stressed that legislation must be "technically possible to implement in practise... (and) "be targeted at specific harms".

The government paper lists both "harms with a clear legal definition" and "harms with a less clear legal definition".

The first include terrorist activity and a range of cyber-stalking and hate crimes.

The second lists disinformation and "violent content" as a whole.

What types of harm fall where would be established by a new regulator whose enforcement powers would be funded by the social media companies themselves.



- Proportionate response -



The social media boom was born in the spirit of a libertarian Silicon Valley ethos of innovation and non-interference from government.

But the industry is now facing a litany of dangers that range from the spread of state propaganda to promotion of teen suicide and -- most graphically last month -- the live broadcast of the slaying of 50 Muslim worshippers in New Zealand.

The techUK industry lobby group admitted Monday that platforms' attempts at self-regulation have fallen short.

But it also urged the government to avoid "creating discrepancies in law between the online and offline worlds".

"Government have said that this will apply to all user-generated content (and) not only to big tech firms," techUK policy chief Vinous Ali said.

"If we are going to throw the net out so widely we need to make sure the proposed regulator takes a risk-based and proportionate response."

Britain's Article 19 free speech group also warned that the proposed legislation "could violate individuals' rights to freedom of expression and privacy".

zak/ar/bmm/bmm
UK takes aim at social networks that fail to quash 'hateful' content



London, April 8 (AFP) Apr 08, 2019



Britain will make social media bosses personally liable for harmful content and shut down offending platforms under a "world-leading" government plan published Monday in response to the spread of online abuses and crimes.

The long-delayed and eagerly anticipated proposals lay the groundwork for legislation that could be passed in the coming months.

They were drawn up after consultations with social media moguls such as Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg and have faced little resistance from other platforms that have also been blamed for inciting harmful behaviour online.

But some of the proposals have sparked concerns from free speech groups.

"What we're proposing today is that companies that deal with user-generated content should take greater responsibility for keeping those users safe," culture and media minister Jeremy Wright told BBC radio.

"These are world-leading proposals."

Australia also fast-tracked legislation last week that threatened jailed time for social media executives who failed to enact the "expeditious removal" of footage of terrorism and other odious crimes.



- Punitive sanctions -



Australia's laws came in direct response to last month's live broadcast by Facebook and YouTube of the slaying of 50 Muslim worshippers in New Zealand.

Britain's initiative was born out of public anger over the 2017 suicide of a 14-year-old girl who followed social media accounts about depression and self-harm.

The proposed UK regulations would see social media companies accept "duty of care" obligations that require them to identify and remove "online harms".

Those that fail would be first issued warnings and then hit progressively with more punitive sanctions.

The government paper suggests that these include "the creation of new liability (civil fines or extended to criminal liability) for individual senior managers".

The most serious would see internet service providers block non-compliant websites and apps.

"This would only be considered as an option of last resort and deploying such an option would be a decision for the independent regulator alone," the plan says.

The regulations would only apply in Britain and should have no immediate impact on users elsewhere in the world.

But they may prompt other governments to take notice and follow suit.

Wright suggested the fines would be substantial.

He noted that those available to European Union authorities implementing the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules on data privacy reached "up to four percent of a company's turnover".

"We think we should be looking at something comparable here," Wright told BBC television.



- Minefield of problems -



Wright's office is navigating a minefield of problems regulating an industry that largely functions outside the bounds of existing legislation -- and whose harms are open to interpretation and remain undefined.

A joint letter sent by media executives to the British government in February stressed that legislation must be "technically possible to implement in practise... (and) be targeted at specific harms".

The government paper lists both "harms with a clear legal definition" and "harms with a less clear legal definition".

The first include terrorist activity and a range of cyber-stalking and hate crimes.

The second lists disinformation and "violent content" as a whole.

What types of harm fall where would be established by a new regulator whose enforcement powers would be funded by the social media companies themselves.



- Libertarian ethos -



The social media boom was born in the spirit of a libertarian Silicon Valley ethos of innovation and non-interference from government.

But the industry is now facing a litany of dangers that range from the spread of state propaganda to promotion of teen suicide and livestreaming or murders and serious crimes.

The techUK industry lobby group admitted Monday that platforms' attempts at self-regulation have fallen short.

But it also urged the government to avoid "creating discrepancies in law between the online and offline worlds".

Twitter UK public policy chief Katy Minshall said her platform would work with the government "to strike an appropriate balance between keeping users safe and preserving the open, free nature of the internet."

Britain's Article 19 free speech group also warned that the proposed legislation "could violate individuals' rights to freedom of expression and privacy".

zak/dt/boc

GOOGLE

Facebook
Students among 11 civilians killed in Yemen capital: UN



Sanaa, April 8 (AFP) Apr 08, 2019



The United Nations called Monday for an investigation into the deaths of 11 civilians including students in Yemen's capital, where rebels accused a Saudi-led coalition of carrying out a deadly air strike.

Scores more civilians were wounded in Sanaa on Sunday, according to a statement released by the UN that did not specify the cause of the casualties.

An AFP reporter on the ground said the injuries appeared to be the result of an explosion near a school in the city.

The coalition, which regularly carries out air strikes against the rebels, denied conducting any raids on Sanaa on Sunday.

Five students were among the dead, according to the UN, whose humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, Lise Grande, voiced alarm at the "terrible, senseless deaths and injuries".

"Every effort must be made to understand the circumstances that led to this tragedy," she said.

Yemen's Huthi rebels, locked in a war with Saudi Arabia and its military allies backing the government, on Sunday accused the coalition of bombing that they said killed more than 13 people and wounded 90.

The coalition, which has come under international pressure over its air strikes in Yemen, accuses the rebels of routinely using civilians as human shields.

The World Health Organization estimates nearly 10,000 Yemenis have been killed since 2015, when Saudi Arabia and its allies intervened to prevent the defeat of the government in the face of a rebel offensive.

Human rights groups say the real death toll is several times higher.

The conflict has pushed millions of Yemenis to the brink of mass starvation, in what the UN has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Sudan protesters seek talks with army on 'transition'



Khartoum, April 8 (AFP) Apr 08, 2019



The Sudanese group spearheading months-long protests against President Omar al-Bashir's rule Monday called on the army to hold direct talks with demonstrators about forming a transitional government.

"We call on the Sudanese armed forces to talk directly with the Alliance for Freedom and Change for facilitating the peaceful process of forming a transitional government," Omar el-Digeir, a senior member of the group, said in a statement outside the army headquarters where thousands of demonstrators have massed since Saturday.

Digeir said the protest organisers had also formed a council to initiate talks with security forces and the international community aimed at agreeing a political transition that gives power to a "transitional government that represents the wish of the revolution".

"We reiterate our people's demand that the head of the regime and his government have to immediately step down."

"We also call on the Sudanese armed forces to withdraw their support for a regime that has lost its legitimacy," Digeir said, reading from a statement issued by the alliance.

"We call on the Sudanese armed forces to support the Sudanese people's alternative for a transition to a civilian democratic government."

The Alliance for Freedom and Change is an umbrella group of political parties and unions representing doctors, engineers and teachers that has led the protest movement against Bashir since December.

The rally outside the army headquarters, now in its third straight day, has been the largest since protests began on December 19 in the central town of Atbara, quickly spreading to the capital and towns and cities across the east African country.

The protesters accuse Bashir's administration of economic mismanagement that has led to soaring food prices and shortages of fuel and foreign currency.
Radar images prove Pakistan F-16 shot down: Indian Air Force



New Delhi, April 8 (AFP) Apr 08, 2019



India's air force presented what it called "irrefutable evidence" Monday that it downed a Pakistan fighter jet in February, as the regional foes offer competing narratives over what happened in the dogfight.

Pakistan has repeatedly denied that it lost an F-16 over the skies in Kashmir while a US magazine, citing top defence officials, has also cast doubt on India's assertion that a jet was shot down.

India lost an MiG-21 Bison in the aerial skirmish and its pilot was captured by Pakistan and later returned, cooling one of the most serious military confrontations between the nuclear-armed rivals in decades.

But India has long maintained that its pilot first fired on an F-16, sending the damaged jet crashing into Pakistan-administered Kashmir -- something Islamabad says never happened.

In a press conference Air Vice Marshal R.G.K Kapoor repeated this assertion, reading out the evidence gathered by India and displaying radar images he said proved the Pakistan jet was struck and crashed.

"There is no doubt that two aircraft went down in the aerial engagement on 27 February 2019," Kapoor said Monday, reading from a prepared statement.

India's air force "has irrefutable evidence of not only the fact that F-16 was used" on the day of the dogfight, but that it was shot down by the Indian jet, he added.

Kapoor said further "credible information and evidence" backed this version of events but could not be released due to confidentiality concerns.

It comes just days after Foreign Policy magazine cited two unnamed senior US defence officials who said that US personnel recently conducted a count of Pakistan's F-16s and found none missing.

The magazine quoted one of the officials as saying that Pakistan invited the US to physically count its F-16 fleet.

The dogfight happened after Pakistani aircraft entered Indian airspace a day after Indian aircraft carried out an airstrike on what it said was a "terrorist training camp" in Pakistan.

That in turn was in response to a suicide bombing on February 14 in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 40 Indian troops and which was claimed by a militant group based in Pakistan.

Doubt has also been cast over the success of India's airstrike, which Amit Shah, president of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has claimed killed 250.

Pakistan denied that there was any damage or casualties.

Independent reporting by multiple local and international outlets who visited the site also found no evidence of a major terrorist training camp -- or of any infrastructure damage at all.

Pakistan said it shot down two Indian planes and lost none of its own, but India said that it lost only one aircraft.

Initially Pakistan said it had captured two Indian pilots but the military later clarified it had just one pilot in custody.
Air strike halts Tripoli flights as thousands flee Libya clashes



Tripoli, April 8 (AFP) Apr 08, 2019



Fighting raged around Tripoli and an air strike closed its only functioning airport Monday, as Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar defied international calls to halt his advance on the capital.

Thousands were also reported by the United Nations to be fleeing the capital city in face of Haftar's surprise assault which has left dozens dead.

The EU's foreign policy chief on Monday added her voice to those urging the eastern strongman to stop his offensive, in the wake of calls for restraint by the UN Security Council and the United States.

"I make a very strong appeal to Libyan leaders and in particular to Haftar to stop all military activities ... and to return to the negotiation table", Federica Mogherini said after talks with EU foreign ministers.

Dozens of people have been killed and thousands displaced in the fighting since Haftar's forces launched their onslaught against Tripoli and its unity government on Thursday.

A security source at Mitiga airport, east of the capital, said no side had yet claimed responsibility for Monday's air raid, which hit a runway without causing casualties.

The civil aviation authority decided "to suspend aerial traffic until further notice" to the capital, said Mohammed Gniwa, a spokesman for national carrier Libyan Airlines.

An airport source, who did want to be named, confirmed the suspension.

The oil-rich northern African country has been rocked by violent power struggles between an array of armed groups since the NATO-backed overthrow of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.

Haftar, a former Kadhafi military chief, has emerged as a major player, his self-styled Libyan National Army backing an administration in the country's east in opposition to the UN-backed Government of National Accord.

Having seized control of much of eastern Libya and buoyed by a series of victories in the desert south, Haftar turned his sights on Tripoli, vowing to "cleanse" it of "terrorists and mercenaries".



- 'Immediate halt' -



After a pause overnight, fighting resumed Monday morning around the capital's destroyed main airport, some 30 kilometres (18 miles) south of Tripoli, and the rural area of Wadi Rabi further east.

World powers have expressed alarm at the violence, saying it threatens to further destabilise Libya and derail UN-led efforts to find a political solution to the country's woes.

The US has appealed for an "immediate halt" to combat operations and the UN Security Council has called on Haftar's forces to stop their advance.

On Sunday Russia blocked proposals for the council to adopt a formal statement, instead insisting that all Libyan forces be urged to stop fighting, diplomats said.

Moscow is a key supporter of Haftar, along with Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

But the Kremlin on Monday urged "all sides to reject actions that could provoke bloodshed in battle and the deaths of civilians".

Fierce clashes Sunday near Tripoli saw Haftar's fighters and other powerful western Libyan armed groups exchanging fire including air strikes.

Forces backing the Tripoli-based GNA on Sunday announced a counteroffensive dubbed "Volcano of Anger".

Spokesman Colonel Mohamed Gnounou said it was aimed at "purging all Libyan cities of aggressor and illegitimate forces", in reference to Haftar's fighters.



- Civil war fears -



Unity government health minister A'hmid Omar told Libya's Al-Ahrar television station late Sunday that around 50 people had been wounded along with those killed.

His ministry on Monday put the death toll at 35.

Haftar's forces have said 14 of their fighters have died.

The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Libya, Maria Ribeiro, said Monday the fighting had displaced more than 2,800 people, blocked rescuers from reaching casualties and damaged electricity lines.

She again urged the warring parties to implement a temporary humanitarian ceasefire.

The previous day, fighting raged throughout a two-hour window set by the UN for a pause in hostilities for civilians and the wounded to flee.

Haftar's offensive has threatened to plunge the country into a full-blown civil war and once again thwart diplomatic efforts to find a solution to Libya's woes.

It was launched just days ahead of a planned UN 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.

The UN mission in Libya said on Twitter that Salame met Monday with unity government head Fayez al-Sarraj in Tripoli to discuss how to "assist at this critical and difficult juncture".
US designates Iran's Revolutionary Guards as terrorist organization



Washington, April 8 (AFP) Apr 08, 2019



The United States on Monday designated Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization, ramping up already far-reaching efforts to undermine the clerical government in Tehran -- which swiftly retaliated by calling US troops terrorists.

It is the first time that Washington has branded part of a foreign government a terrorist group, meaning that anyone who deals with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps could face prison in the United States.

President Donald Trump called the unit -- which has some 125,000 troops and vast interests across the Iranian economy -- Tehran's "primary means of directing and implementing its global terrorist campaign."

"This action will significantly expand the scope and scale of our maximum pressure on the Iranian regime," Trump said in a statement.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, addressing reporters, said that all businesses and banks around the world "now have a clear duty" to cut off all dealings that involve the Revolutionary Guards.

"The leaders of Iran are racketeers, not revolutionaries," Pompeo said.

The move comes on top of Trump's decision last year to pull the United States out of an international deal with Iran that was meant to lift crippling economic sanctions in return for the government allowing its nuclear technology to be restricted and kept under close supervision.

The United States has long debated the terrorist designation and has been encouraged to do so by Saudi Arabia and Israel, arch-rivals of Iran which enjoy close relationships with Trump.

The decision comes hours before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces re-election in tight polls. In a statement, he thanked his "dear friend" Trump.



- Swift retaliation -



Iran swiftly took retaliatory action. The Supreme National Security Council, in a statement carried by the official news agency IRNA, declared the United States to be a state sponsor of terrorism and both called the US Central Command and forces underneath it terrorist groups.

Part of America's vast military presence around the globe, CENTCOM's area of command covers multiple conflict zones and hotspots including Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and the Gulf.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who recommended the CENTCOM designation, denounced the move against the Revolutionary Guards as a way to sway the Israeli election.

"A(nother) misguided election-eve gift to Netanyahu. A(nother) dangerous U.S. misadventure in the region," Zarif tweeted.

The Revolutionary Guards were formed after the 1979 Islamic revolution with a mission to defend the religious regime, in contrast to more traditional military units that protect borders.

Abroad, the Guards' prized Quds Force, named for the Arabic word for Jerusalem, supports Iranian allies including Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Lebanon's Hezbollah and militias from Iraq's Shiite majority.

At home, the Guards have amassed sweeping political and economic influence, with Brian Hook, the State Department's representative on Iran, citing estimates that they control up to half of the Iranian economy.

Pompeo and Hook said that 603 troops killed in Iraq since the United States invaded in 2003 -- or 17 percent of the total US death toll -- could be attributed to Iran.

The Revolutionary Guards were also at the forefront of assisting Iraqi forces in defeating Islamic State extremists.

- Criminalizing contact with Guards -



The United States has long mulled designating the Revolutionary Guards as terrorists but held off, fearing threats to US troops and questioning whether the move would do much to pressure a force already under a raft of sanctions.

US officials said the terrorist label, which takes effect on April 15, would make it a criminal offense in the United States to provide "material support" to the Revolutionary Guards, with violators subject to up to 20 years in prison.

Pompeo set his sights directly on Qassem Soleimani, the major general who leads the Quds Force.

"We are sending... a clear message to Iran's leaders, including Qassem Soleimani and his band of thugs, that the United States is bringing all pressure to bear to stop the regime's outlaw behavior," Pompeo said.

The United States insists that its goal is not regime change but several of Trump's top advisers have long been close to Iranian exiles seeking to topple the Islamic republic.

Critics in the United States said that the Trump administration was seeking to stir up a crisis that could lead to confrontation or at least push Iran to violate the 2015 nuclear accord. Europeans strongly support preserving the agreement and UN inspectors say that Iran remains in compliance.

"This is yet another dangerous escalation of conflict with Iran that is disturbingly reminiscent of the lead-up to the failed war in Iraq," said Tom Udall, a Democratic senator from New Mexico.

"The Trump administration is ratcheting up confrontation, undercutting diplomacy and putting American troops at risk," he said.
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Pretoria, April 8, 2019 (SPS) - The African National Congress (ANC) has reaffirmed support for the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination and independence, in the statement of the Party for the year 2019 regarding international relations and cooperation.



The statement pointed out that Western Sahara is the only remaining colony on the African continent, reiterating the inalienable right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination and independence.



ANC also reiterated its commitment to strengthen and intensify South Africa's support for the Sahrawi people in their quest for self-determination and independence. (SPS)



062/SPS/TRA
The International Truth and Justice Project ( ITJP) and the US law firm Hausfeld have filed a civil damages case in Califonia against former Sri Lankan defence secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, on behalf of a Tamil torture survivor. Roy Samathanammade the complaint in the Central District of California against Mr. Rajapaksa, who is a dual US Sri Lankan citizen.





Notice was formally served on Mr. Rajapaksa on Sunday night at a Trader Joes parking lot in Pasadena. This was after the ITJP and Hausfeld hired private investigators to track down the whereabouts of Mr Rajapaksa who is currently on holiday in California. Notice was also served at the same time in a seperate case filed by another organisation on behalf of assasinated journalist Lasantha Wickrematunga.

Roy Samathanam



Roy Samathanam, who is a Canadian national, was detained in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo in September 2007 by the Terrorism Investigation Division of the Sri Lanka police, who reported directly to Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Roy Samathanam was physically and psychologically tortured and forced to sign a false confession before being released in August 2010 on a plea deal and payment of a fine. In 2016. Mr. Samathanam won a UN human rights committee case but Sri Lanka has failed to abide by the compensation ruling.





Mr Rajapaksa has to give up his US citizenship to be able to stand in presidential elections so this was probably the last chance for a long time to begin to hold him accountable, said ITJPs executive director Yasmin Sooka. We hope other survivors of torture will join the suit and make this a class action.
The Delegation of the European Union (EU) issues the following statement in agreement with the Embassies of France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Romania and the UK High Commission, the Embassies of Norway and Switzerland, as well as the High Commissions of Canada and Australia.





The Government of Sri Lanka has recently taken measures towards resuming executions and bringing an end to Sri Lanka's 43-year moratorium on the death penalty as part of its stepped up anti-drug policy. While acknowledging that combatting the proliferation of drugs is a serious challenge for countries around the world, and that action to counter the illicit drug trade is important and necessary, the evidence does not support the argument that the death penalty is an effective deterrent. We are ready to share our experiences in addressing the threat posed by drugs.





More than two-thirds of countries around the world, with a variety of legal systems, traditions, cultures and religious backgrounds, have either abolished the death penalty or do not practise it. The death penalty is an unacceptable denial of human dignity and integrity.





We call on the Sri Lankan Government to maintain its moratorium on the death penalty in line with its vote at the 73rd United Nations General Assembly in December 2018.
The identification and evaluation of talents, skills and the core competencies of journalists by Providing guidance and motivation to felicitate professional journalists will be an opportunity for young and energetic journalists to excel in the field of mass media





The Presidential Media Awards with a view to evaluate the mission carried out by journalists as well as their contribution to the field for establishing an excellent media culture in the country will be held on April 10, 2019 at the BMICH in Colombo under the patronage of the President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe.





The primary objective of organizing this award ceremony on annual basis is to evaluate skills, talents and special capabilities of journalists towards ushering in a media culture with social responsibility.





It is also aimed at encouraging the media in building up a well-informed civil society and to provide state sponsorship for journalists through evaluation of their performance covering the entire mass media field. Further, the identification and evaluation of talents, skills and the core competencies of journalists by Providing guidance and motivation to felicitate professional journalists will be an opportunity for young and energetic journalists to excel in the field of mass media





Applications submitted for awards should be a production of their own preferably sent through heads of the institution but it is also possible to submit it directly with the senders own certification.





Accordingly, only the creative work done within the period between 01.01.2017 and 31.12.2017 were considered for awards. The main criteria considered to be qualified for the awards were that the creative work should be their own and the relevant production must have been prepared as suitable to Sri Lankan viewers/ listeners. No foreign creations were considered.





The main committee was presented with nomination recommended for awarding through sub committees consisted of professionally qualified senior journalists appointed by the Ministry with the recommendations of media heads.





Following the advertisements published in the media on 13 July 2018, 1674 nominations were received within the specified period. It is expected to award to each field from all three languages. The numbers of awards to be given away are 51 covering all categories inclusive of the four life time awards.





In addition to selecting the award winners for their creations, the panel of judges have selected four distinguished media personnel for life time award. They are Dr. Edwin Ariyadasa in the field of Print Media, Mr. Karunarathna Amarasinghe in the field of Radio, Mr. Lucien Bulathsinhala in the field of Television media and Mr. Lakshman Jayawardene for the contribution in the field of web media.





This has been organized by the Ministry of Mass Media under the direction of Minister Ruwan Wijewardane and the supervision of the Secretary Ministry of Mass Media Mr. Sunil Samarweera.




Our people have carried an immense weight with little or no complaint. This has made us better and more united than ever before.





Following article based on the speech by the author at 25th Commemoration of the Genocide against the Tutsi, Kwibuka25





by Paul Kagame





I begin by thanking you. On a day like this, when language fails, the first words that come, are words of gratitude.





To you, the friends by our side on this heavy day, including the different leaders present, we say thank you. Many of you have been with us all along, and we cherish you for contributing to the healing and re-building of Rwanda.





I also thank my fellow Rwandans, who joined hands to recreate this country. In 1994, there was no hope, only darkness. Today, light radiates from this place.





How did it happen?





Rwanda became a family, once again. The arms of our people, intertwined, constitute the pillars of our nation. We hold each other up. Our bodies and minds bear amputations and scars, but none of us is alone. Together, we have woven the tattered threads of our unity into a new tapestry.

Sisters became mothers. Neighbours became uncles. Strangers became friends. Our culture naturally creates new bonds of solidarity, which both console and renew.





Rwanda is a family. That is why we still exist, despite all we have gone through.





There is no way to fully comprehend the loneliness and anger of survivors. And yet, over and over again, we have asked them to make the sacrifices necessary to give our nation new life. Emotions had to be put in a box.





Someone once asked me why we keep burdening survivors with the responsibility for our healing. It was a painful question, but I realised the answer was obvious. Survivors are the only ones with something left to give: their forgiveness.





Our people have carried an immense weight with little or no complaint. This has made us better and more united than ever before.





At a memorial event some years ago, a girl brought us to tears with a poem. She said, There is a saying that God spends the day elsewhere, but returns to sleep in Rwanda.





Where was God on those dark nights of genocide?, she asked.





Looking at Rwanda today, it is clear that God has come back home to stay.





To survivors, I say thank you. Your resilience and bravery represent the triumph of the Rwandan character in its purest form.

Joining us today are families from other countries, whose husbands, fathers, sisters, and aunts were claimed by the same deadly ideology.

The Belgian peacekeepers, murdered twenty-five years ago this morning.





Captain Mbaye Diagne from Senegal, who saved so many lives.





Tonia Locatelli, killed in 1992 for telling the truth of what was to come.





The only comfort we can offer is the commonality of sorrow, and the respect owed to those who had the courage to do the right thing.

Other people around the world also stood up and made a difference.





Ambassador Karel Kovanda from the Czech Republic joined colleagues from New Zealand and Nigeria to call for action to stop the Genocide, despite the indifference of more powerful states.





And my brother, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, as you have heard, knows where Rwanda is coming from, having served in an Ethiopian peacekeeping contingent after the Genocide, together with troops from elsewhere in Africa and beyond.

Thank you all for your presence.





Those among us who perpetrated the Genocide, or stood by passively, are also part of our nation. The willingness, in a number of cases, to tell the truth, pay the price, and re-join the community, is an important contribution.





The witness of perpetrators is irrefutable proof if any was still needed, that genocide happened.

Genocide hibernates as denial.





Both before the killing and after, there is a long chain of events which are interconnected. Revisionism is not merely demeaning, but profoundly dangerous.





The genocide did not begin on one specific day. It has a history.





Why were refugees Rwandas biggest export, for decades? Why were the same people repeatedly targeted for persecution and massacre, from the late 1950s to the 1990s? Why were bodies dumped into rivers, to send them back up the Nile, where they supposedly came from? Why did some parents even kill their own children, who looked a certain way?





None of that started with a plane crash. So where did it come from?





Through it all, we had guardians of virtue, Abarinzi bIgihango, and other righteous citizens. Our rebirth was seeded by their actions.

The young girl, portrayed in the play we just saw, who took it upon herself to care for a baby survivor despite the objections of her family. That is a true story and today both women are home and fine.





The Nyange students who refused to be separated into Hutu on one side, Tutsi on the other. It is clear that they never betrayed each other. Six were killed. Forty were wounded. All are heroes.





These are examples of the Rwandans who kept us from losing everything.





But most of us are neither survivors nor perpetrators. Three-quarters of Rwandans are under age thirty. Almost 60 percent were born after the Genocide.





Our children enjoy the innocence of peace. They know trauma and violence only from stories. Our aspirations rest in this new generation.

Mature trees can no longer be moulded, but seeds contain endless possibility. Rwandas young people have everything needed to transform our country. They have the responsibility to take charge more and more and participate fully in securing the Rwanda we want and deserve.

We are far better Rwandans than we were. But we can be even better still.





We are the last people in the world who should succumb to complacency. The suffering we have endured should be enough to keep our fighting spirit alive.





And here, let me say something that I hate to say, and that we shall, as much as we can, avoid. For those who think our country has not seen enough of a mess, and in defence of those children you saw, and others in this country, our nation  and by the way, we claim no special place, but we have a space to claim.





Those who think we have not seen enough of a mess, and want to mess with us, whether from here or from outside, I want to say: We will mess up with them big time. Big time.





So thats the fighting spirit, and it means what happened here will never happen again.





Our country cannot afford to live by twists of fate. We must be deliberate and decisive, guided by humility and the content of our hearts. Rwanda has to stay one step ahead. Otherwise, we are insignificant.





The facts are stubborn, but so are we. We really have to be.





Our nation has turned a corner. Fear and anger have been replaced by the energy and purpose that drives us forward, young and old.





Rwanda is a very good friend to its friends. We seek peace, we turn the page. But no adversary should underestimate what a formidable force Rwandans have become, as a result of our circumstances.





Nothing has the power to turn Rwandans against each other, ever again. This history will not repeat. That is our firm commitment.





Nothing is required from those who wronged us, except an open mind. Every day we learn to forgive. But we do not want to forget. After all, before asking others to repent, we first have to forgive ourselves.





As for the dishonourable who remain impervious to regret, it is not our problem. It does not stop Rwanda from making progress, even for one moment. It becomes their problem.





The decimation of Rwanda was more absolute than any known weapon of mass destruction. Not only bodies were destroyed, but the very idea of Rwanda itself. That shows the ferocious power of human sentiments and designs.





Our prayer is for no other people to ever endure the same tribulations, especially our brothers and sisters in Africa.





Never accept it. Confront the apostles of division and hatred who masquerade as saviours and democrats. Our commonalities are always infinitely greater than our differences. No society is above any other, much less immune to fragility.





In the end, the only conclusion to draw from Rwandas story is profound hope for our world. No community is beyond repair, and the dignity of a people is never fully extinguished.





Twenty-five years later, here we are. All of us. Wounded and heartbroken, yes. But unvanquished.





We Rwandans have granted ourselves a new beginning. We exist in a state of permanent commemoration, every day, in all that we do, in order to remain faithful to that choice.





I thank you and wish you strength and peace, all of you.





Paul Kagame is President of the Republic of Rwanda. He served a one-year term as Chairperson of the African Union until February 2019, and has been leading the institutional reform of the African Union since 2016.
Mr Goodwill, who took over the role recently following the resignation of George Eustice, toured two farms in Aberdeenshire with NFU Scotland Vice Presidents Martin Kennedy and Charlie Adam and North East Regional Chairman Davie Winton, alongside Director of Policy Jonnie Hall and Political Affairs Manager Clare Slipper. The meeting was also attended by Gordon MP Colin Clark, and Banff and Buchan MP David Duguid.



Within his role at Defra, the Minister is taking on responsibility for a wide range of issues impacting Scottish farmers and crofters  notably the UK Governments Agriculture Bill, and scenario-planning for various possible Brexit outcomes.

The meeting was facilitated by Richard Stephen at the arable Muirton of Barra unit, followed by a tour of the robotic milking facility at the nearby Mackies Farm. The meeting followed on from recent intensive engagement with politicians and key decision-makers at Westminster as the Brexit uncertainty continues.

During the meeting, NFU Scotland reiterated the importance of the UK Government finding a deal with the EU that ensures continued free and frictionless trade with the EU. NFUS highlighted that the ongoing uncertainty of the Brexit process has been hugely damaging to business confidence and it is vital the UK Government and MPs consider the needs of business in getting a Withdrawal Agreement over the line.

NFU Scotland officials also warned the Minister that the import tariff schedule the UK Government has put on the table in the event of a no deal does not provide fair protection across the agricultural sectors from market failure  urging a rethink.

The Union pressed for urgent and accelerated engagement from UK Government on what it is the whole agricultural sector will require if there is to be a no deal Brexit outcome in terms of preventing market failure in the first instance and mitigating the impact for the different agricultural sectors in the event of market upheaval.

On the UK Agriculture Bill, the Minister was pressed on clarification of the process and progress of this legislation. In order that the internal UK market is not compromised, certain elements contained within the UK Agriculture Bill must not be allowed to disadvantage or side-line Scottish interests.


Soldiers escort coffins containing the remains of Chinese People's Volunteers (CPV) soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War during a burial ceremony in Shenyang, Northeast China's Liaoning province, April 4, 2019. Remains of 10 Chinese soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War were reburied Thursday in China after they were returned from the Republic of Korea (ROK). [Photo/Xinhua]

ON THURSDAY, the remains of 10 Chinese soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War were reburied with a mourning ceremony in Shenyang, capital of Northeast China's Liaoning province. China Daily writer Zhang Zhouxiang comments:

More than six decades after they died on foreign soil, the soldiers have finally come home.

When China and the Republic of Korea negotiated on the issue in 2013, there were voices on social media platforms that doubted whether it was necessary to bring the remains of those who had died in the war home, saying the cost might be too high. Yet during the past years, with the remains of one soldier after another coming home, these doubts have been erased and there is consensus that the country should honor and pay tribute to them.

Actually, it is common practice for nations to honor and pay their respects to their war dead. The military profession is a highly risky one and those who join it face the possibility of being killed in action.

Even in peace, there are servicemen who die in missions such as training, peacekeeping and disaster relief. And it is not just military personnel who are honored for giving their lives in service to the country. Last month, 30 people died in trying to extinguish a forest fire in Muli county, Southwest China's Sichuan province, 27 of whom were professional firefighters. They were honored in a ceremony on Thursday.

By honoring those who die in service to the country, the nation is telling everyone it won't forget those who died for the public good.

The "no forgetting" means more than just spiritual comfort for the families of those who die, as the State has continually raised the subsidies for the families of those who die doing military service, so as to prevent them from falling into poverty after having already lost their loved ones.

And it is not just the dead who are remembered, but also for the living. In 2018, the Ministry of Veteran Affairs was established to provide assistance to veterans.

On Sunday, in Shenyang, the same city where the remains of the 10 Chinese soldiers who fell in the Korean War were buried, a mourning service was held to commemorate those who died fighting the invading Japanese forces (1931-45). No matter when they died, those who did so fighting for the country will always be remembered.


Long-range fire-extinguishing guns help fight a fire in Qinyuan county, Shanxi province, on Monday. The guns use shells containing a fire-suppressing powder. [Photo provided To China Daily]

Fire departments across China are on high alert each spring, when forests are prone to erupt in flames.

At least eight forest fires have occurred since the start of this year, with the deadliest killing 30 people who were fighting it.

In an attempt to improve the efficiency of firefighting operations and reduce safety risks, fire departments have begun to adopt machines such as specially modified artillery guns and tanks.

According to China North Industries Group Corp, commonly known as Norinco, eight long-range fire-extinguishing guns designed and built by the company arrived in Guojiaping village in Changzhi, Shanxi province, on Sunday at the request of provincial authorities to help quench the fire that had raged on a nearby mountain for several days.

The guns were used on Monday to launch shells containing fire-extinguishing agents onto the hill. With their assistance, firefighters were able to put out the blaze by afternoon, the State-owned defense conglomerate said on Wednesday.

Information from Norinco says the gun has a firing range of 8 kilometers, and each of its shells can scatter dry extinguishing agents over about 20 square meters. The gun features high mobility and accuracy, and is suitable for suppressing big fires, it said.

This is not the first time Norinco, the country's largest arms producer for land weapons, has entered the realm of firefighting. Before the gun, the company had developed and sold a series of firefighting tanks.

With the chassis and armor of a combat tank, the vehicles can protect crew members from fire, explosions and building collapses, and can cross half-meter-high obstacles or 2-meter-wide trenches. They have automatic spray devices and fireproof coatings that can keep scorching heat out of the vehicles' interiors.

The tanks can get closer to the scene than a fire engine for search-and-rescue missions, Norinco said.

Using 520-horsepower diesel engines and equipped with hydraulic devices, the tanks can clear away obstacles weighing up to 15 metric tons. Their metal tracks allow them to operate on slopes, in rocky terrain and in the debris of collapsed buildings.

The water cannon on the vehicles can spray water up to 65 meters.

Experts said that injuries to firefighters are mainly caused by close contact with flames or explosions, or by buildings collapsing as they enter a scene that fire engines have difficulty accessing.

Russia and Germany have also transformed old tanks into firefighting vehicles.
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http://vv.chinamil.com.cn/asset/category3/2019/04/08/asset_355798.mp4

An atmosphere of nostalgia hangs in the air in China this week as the country marks Qingming  a centuries-old festival traditionally observed by tending the graves of the departed and deeply missed, and making offerings to the ancestors.

The annual festival, widely known as Tomb-sweeping Day, however, has more profound meanings for Chinese people beyond honoring family heritage. It is a time to show respect and gratitude to those who have dedicated their lives to ensure the peace and happiness Chinese people enjoy today.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC). From the turbulent wartime period through the rise of an economic superpower, the Middle Kingdom has witnessed eras alternately bloody and boisterous, glum and glamorous.



Posters for classic Chines red movies. /Photos via Douban

Countless young men and women have sacrificed their lives on the battlefield, defending what they believed in. The majority of them are unsung heroes resting in peace at cemeteries, while others have become household names as their legends are passed down through word of mouth, textbooks and novels, as well as operas and dramas. Chinese filmmakers retell these legendary sagas with story-driven movies, bringing the viewers back to wartime sacrifices and days of political glory.



Posters for classic Chines red movies. /Photos via Douban

Putting the spotlight on the heroes and martyrs, these works are an important part of the Chinese "red movies"  a genre of films that features revolutionary spirits, heroism, and patriotism. On the day of remembering and mourning, check out this list of classic red movies that allowed the revolutionary spirits to shine again on the big screen long after their light had dimmed.

'Dong Cunrui'



A poster for the 1955 film "Dong Cunrui" /Photo via Douban

"For a new China!"  This is the last message left by Chinese communist soldier Dong Cunrui (1929-1948) and one of the most memorable lines in Chinese red films, reverberating through the following generations after the founding of the PRC. Dong was one of the millions of People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers during the Chinese Civil War. He lived a short but extraordinary life. To carry out the operation of destroying an enemy bunker, he crawled under heavy fire. After reaching underneath the bunker, he failed to find an effective spot to locate the explosives he'd carried. He decided to detonate the explosives by holding them high beneath the floor of the bunker, killing himself and the defenders in the bunker.

A still from "Dong Cunrui" (L) and a Soviet poster for the Chinese film. /Photos via Douban The 1955 biopic "Dong Cunrui" follows his story and brave acts, stressing his notable courage to protect the country, which has become a powerful spiritual force for the Chinese military. Dong was only 18 years old when he sacrificed his life. The young martyr was posthumously awarded three "Bravery Medals" and one "Mao Zedong Medal." Fulfilling his task to build a new China, he was inscribed into the 100 heroic model figures with outstanding contribution to the founding of PRC.

A poster for the 1956 film "Battle on Shangganling Mountain" /Photo via Douban The 1956 war epic "Battle on Shangganling Mountain" is a poster child for Chinese heroism movies. Depicting an especially fierce battle during the Korean War, the film showcases the persistence and sacrifice of Chinese People's Volunteers soldiers. With its theme song "My Motherland" overwhelmingly popular among Chinese people, the film is a testament to the courage and selflessness of the Chinese military, which is noted as "the spirit of Shangganling." Numerous war heroes emerged at the brutal battle with the heroic death of the martyr Huang Jiguang (1931-1952) being the highlight moment in the film. Huang hurled himself against a machine gun mounted on the enemy blockhouse, blocking its fire while sacrificing his life. He died at 21 years old. Given the title of "Combat Hero, Special Class" by the Chinese government, Huang has become a symbol of the fearless and selfless spirit of the Chinese military. 'Lei Feng'

Posters for the 1965 film "Lei Feng" /Photo via Douban Stories about Lei Feng (1940-1962), one of China's most memorable heroes, are a familiar topic among the Chinese, young and old alike. The biographical film "Lei Feng," which is based on his entire life, is widely considered as "the axis of the 1960s and 1970s movies." The 1965 film encapsulates the remarkable growth and exploits of the PLA soldier  an example of "selfless service" provided by the Communist Party of China (CPC), commemorating the model citizen, who died in an accident while on duty in 1962 at 21. Lei is well-known for his generous kindness, honesty and modesty, as well as his great sense of responsibility. He has been a role model for generations of Chinese with his personal qualities and distinguished public service, widely dubbed "Lei Feng Spirits," profoundly influencing his countrymen and women. Late Chinese leader Mao Zedong designated March 5 as "Lei Feng Day" in 1963, and it has been marked annually ever since by acts of public service such as picking up garbage and visiting the elderly. 'Sister Jiang'

A still from the 1978 film "Sister Jiang". /Photo via Douban Based on the renowned 1961 novel "Red Crag," the film "Sister Jiang" follows the ups and downs of the Communist revolutionary martyr Jiang Zhuyun (19201949), widely regarded as one of the most celebrated Chinese heroines. After her husband was killed by the enemy, Jiang took his role to lead a group of guerrillas, but was arrested and imprisoned. Despite being tortured during interrogation, she was determined to keep silent to protect her comrades and devoted her life to the liberation of southwest China's Chongqing in 1949. She died at the age of 29. In her last letter, now on display at Chongqing's Sanxia Museum, Jiang expressed her deep care and love for her then three-year-old son and her determination to fight. 'Zhang Side'

A poster (L) for and a still from the 2004 film "Zhang Side" /Photo via Douban Born in a poor family, Zhang Side (1915-1944) is an important model of the CPC-led armed forces, who sacrificed his life to save his fellow comrades. Set in the late period of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the 2004 film depicts the extraordinary revolutionary course of Zhang, as well as the stories between the ordinary soldier and CPC leader Mao Zedong. Zhang and his fellows were digging a cave to build a charcoal kiln in northwestern Shaanxi Province when the structure suddenly collapsed. Letting others leave first, the 29-year-old soldier was killed by the debris. After Zhang's death, Mao made a famous eulogy titled "Serve the People"  one of his most influential speeches, in which he spoke highly of Zhang's noble morality and selfless service, noting that "his death is indeed weightier than Mount Tai."
Pakistan presents computers, printers to Armys peacekeeping training centre View(s):

The Government of Pakistan through its High Commission has presented 15 computers and printers to newly established Peacekeeping Training Centre of Sri Lankan Army.

Pakistans High Commissioner Retd. Maj. Gen. Dr. Shahid Ahmad Hashmat handed over the computers and printers to Sri Lankas Army Commander Lt. Gen. Mahesh Senanayake at a ceremony held at Army Headquarters on Friday.

Pakistan appreciated the role of Sri Lankan armed forces in the UN Peacekeeping operations. He elaborated that relations between Pakistan and Sri Lanka are time-tested and based on mutual trust. He hoped that both countries will continue to make efforts for nurturing new vistas of cooperation in the years ahead.

He underscored that Pakistan has been the most significant and consistent contributor to the UN Peacekeeping operations, with the participation of over 150,000 troops since 1960.

Army Commander Mahesh Senanayake expressed the gratitude over the assistance. He said that it will help further improving the IT facilities at the Peace Keeping Training Centre.
The Bloomberg Health Index declared Spain the healthiest country in the whole wide world a few weeks back and it came as little surprise to those of us lucky enough to live here.

The study takes into account a variety of factors such as life expectancy at birth, sanitation and health services. Britain came in at nineteenth, presumably after factoring in our national passion for beating each others brains out on a Friday night and the quaint Scottish custom of deep fat frying unsuspecting Mars bars before consumption. Actually, nineteenth looks like a jolly high ranking when you begin to think about it.

Anyway, back to Spain. I had some salad the other day for reasons I still can't fathom and, to tell the truth, it wasn't half as bad as I recalled, having last pushed a bit of lettuce past my reluctant lips in about 1872. That's not to say it won't be a good while before I indulge in the rabbit food option again simply because there are so many more tasty options to enjoy. Let's face it, anyone who chooses water cress and sweetcorn over pie and chips might be healthy of body but is certainly not sound of mind.

That's the thing though, our fine Spanish hosts eat salad with everything, dousing it unmercifully in vast quantities of olive oil and vinegar. Clearly, you're going to live to be three hundred if you do this every day. Three times. That's not to say humungous slabs of meat aren't consistently present but the old salad/oil combo soon puts paid to any devious plans a steak might have to scupper a bloke's health.

The siesta has got to be one of the best inventions known to man and a massive contributory factor to Spain's number one health spot. I always indulge, even if I only got up at midday. It's a marvellous custom, made all the more enjoyable by the weird and wonderful dreams a good afternoon sleep inspires.

Compare and contrast with the ludicrous American offering of the power nap. No wonder the US came in at number 35 on the Bloomberg list. Their sandwiches the size of Vesuvius and farm buckets of Coca Cola may also have had some influence on their position.

Spain's health service is second to none. In my - thankfully - limited experience, I've been met with nothing less than the highest level of professionalism at all times. Hats off.

To recap, then. We live in the healthiest country in the world and this fact should grant us the liberty to keep all those intolerable salads at bay without having to worry too much about it.


Chinas second peacekeeping helicopter contingent to Darfur, Sudan sends a MI-171 helicopter to transport a wounded Senegalese soldier on October 13, 2018.

AL FASHIR, SUDAN, Apr. 8 (ChinaMil) --- Chinas second peacekeeping helicopter contingent to Darfur, Sudan, assisted in the rescue of a sick Pakistani peacekeeping soldier on April 5, 2019. This has been the third emergency medical rescue mission of this contingent since its deployment.

On the morning of April 5, the Operations Room of the helicopter contingent received a call from the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID), asking for a helicopter to transport a Pakistani peacekeeper who was suspected to have a heart attack from Kebkabiya to Al Fashir. The contingent took action without delay and fulfilled the transportation safely to Al Fashir three hours later, where the patient was transferred by a UN airplane to Khartoum for further treatment.

Were grateful for the kind assistance from the Chinese helicopter contingent. The outstanding performance of the rescue crew bought us time to relieve the pain and save the patients life. After the mission, accompanying Pakistani doctors shook hands with the Chinese crew members one by one to express their gratitude.

Since its deployment in Darfur, Sudan, Chinas second peacekeeping helicopter detachment has carried out several emergency rescue missions and received high acclaims from the UNAMID, the peers from other countries, and the Sudanese government and people.
The Spanish truffle-collecting season has just finished, but the relative lack of rain was a hindrance to the hunters and their excited dogs (they don't use pigs here, this being a French tradition). Many an early-riser returned home with an empty basket. Not a high price to pay for the disappointment, above all when the compensation prize is a clear morning with views up and down the coast. They were reasonably lucky. In other countries truffle hunting can be terminal.

WINE OF THE WEEK Tempranillo Blanco 2017 The title may strike some as oxymoronic. Everyone knows that Spain's flagship grape, Tempranillo, is red, so 'white'? Actually it is not the only unusual thing about this small Rioja bodega that produces just eight superb wines. Rioja Vega started making wine in 1882, before Rioja as a denomination even existed. There is also a Reserva 2014 - absolutely not to be missed. Around 13 euros (Birdie Wines).

Shortly before hostilities ceased entirely the other week, two Kurdish friends, Khogir and Goran, struck out into the no-man's land between the front lines of the Peshmerga and Islamic State, not far from Kirkuk. They wanted to find 'desert truffles' to trade for some other commodity hard to obtain in the war zone. It was nearly the last thing they ever did. With their gazes fixed firmly on the ground and absorbed in their task, they were easy prey to the figures that crept up unawares and captured them without a struggle. They became prisoners numbers 44 and 45 of Isis this year. But luck was on their side. Because they were Sunnis, they were set free after a ransom of around $10,000 had been paid by their families. Had they been Shiites, within hours of their seizure they would have been decapitated - not for truffle hunting but for being apostates. Money doesn't enter into the matter in such circumstance.

Anyway, the poor-quality truffles they were looking for are worth pennies not pounds, and like other so-called luxury items, their value appears to be based on dubious claims about mythical aphrodisiac properties. No chef is about to grate the rare tubers onto some delicate dish. They are cooked and consumed as kebabs, boiled to make a weak soup, or fried with raisins and rice. In fact, nothing to write home about, even if you are a captive of Isis at the time, and certainly not worth risking your life for.
Pattanaphong Khuankaew/iStock(WASHINGTON) -- Sam Patten, a veteran Republican lobbyist accused of illegally funneling foreign money into the Trump inaugural fund, is seeking no jail time after pleading guilty last year to foreign lobbying violations in a case referred to federal prosecutors by special counsel Robert Mueller, according to a new court filing.



Patten, 47, pleaded guilty in August for acting as an "agent of a foreign principal  without registering under the Department of Justice's Foreign Agent Registration Act, related to his work on behalf of a Ukrainian political party.



As part of his plea deal, Patten acknowledged accepting $50,000 to secure tickets to President Donald Trumps inauguration in January 2017 for a Ukrainian client through a "straw" purchaser, circumventing rules about the inauguration committee accepting money from foreigners. Patten also admitted to lying to the Senate Intelligence Committee during its investigation into Russian election interference. Patten has since been cooperating with investigators.



On Monday, Patten's lawyers wrote in a sentencing memo submitted on Monday that their client "simply did not think long enough or clearly enough about the significance of his decision at the time he made it."



"In Mr. Pattens mind, these were tickets to a post-election party and not an attempt to influence an election or politician," Patten's lawyers wrote. "More importantly, he was blinded by a desire to accommodate his client."



Patten's lawyers asked for a sentence of probation to including community service, instead of the maximum of five years of imprisonment and $250,000 fine Patten could face.



Patten also sought to distance himself from Trumps former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, with whom he worked in Ukraine and shared clients. Manafort last year was convicted of a slew of financial crime charges largely related to his unregistered lobbying work in Ukraine.



"Through it all, even in the face of media reporting that has falsely labeled Mr. Patten a lobbyist, or a Manafort's 'associate,' or a Trump-supporter, as well as the personal attacks and death threats he has received, Mr. Patten has quietly and without fanfare or attention, worked to improve himself and to make sure he understands what led him to act in a manner inconsistent with his own principles and character," his lawyers wrote.



The government, in response to Patten's defense, said prosecutors are seeking a "downward departure" in Patten's sentencing due to his extensive "cooperation and the substantial assistance he has provided to the government."



"Patten began cooperating with the Special Counsels Office shortly after being contacted by investigators, and well before his guilty plea, prosecutors wrote Monday."



ABC News has reported previously on the interest by federal investigators in the foreign guests at the inaugural event, and possible contributions by foreign nationals. Among those who attended were Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, who is now on the Treasury Department list of sanctioned oligarchs.



Prosecutors in in the Southern District of New York have also been looking into the president's inaugural committee, seeking information related to the committee's donors and attendees to the events surrounding the inauguration, including benefits to top-level donors such as photo opportunities with Trump.

Copyright  2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
China, the rising world superpower, said it was not a competitor with other economies in the global market, but rather a good friend that could help spur development in its neighboring countries.

Yujun Yang, former Ministry of National Defense Information Bureau director and spokesperson said China wants to be friends with all nations of the world.

China is a friendly nation. We want to make friends with everybody. We wont go into war with any country, said Yang when pressed if China would to war over the maritime disputes in the South China Sea.

But Yujun, now dean and senior research fellow at the Academy of Media and Public Affairs of the Communication University of China noted that while China maintains its claim over the disputed waters, it does not intend to use force to gain control of what it believes belong to the country.

A military official before his retirement from the Chinese government service, he said China will always opt for peaceful negotiations to settle disputes. He said it is better to sit down and talk than resort to destruction.

China will not destroy nations, but instead, will help build nations, help build infrastructure, help give jobs. China will always be a partner in nation-building and development, he said.

He also noted that Chinas continuing technological innovations should not be taken as a move of China to be competitive.

We are doing this not to compete, but to make life easier and more comfortable for all the people of the world and improve livelihood, said Yang in an interview during a dinner here with Shanghai municipal officials.

In particular, he said, the Chinese people are taking initiatives to make Shanghai and Beijing investment-friendly.

We want investors to come to us in Shanghai, Beijing and other cities of China and make investments, said Yujun, one of the speakers during the 10-day China-ASEAN Center Advanced Studies Seminar Workshop on New Media sponsored by CUC.

Disclaimer: This article was originally produced and published by manilastandard.net.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he will annex some Israeli settlements in the West Bank if he wins Tuesday's Israeli election. The move would mark a sharp departure from current Israeli policy.

In an interview with Israeli television Benjamin Netanyahu promised to annex at least some Jewish settlements in the West Bank. He said that every Jewish settlement in the West Bank is part of Israel, and he will not uproot one Jewish settler. That is in contrast to his challenger, Benny Gantz, who has said he could move some Israelis from the West Bank in a peace deal with the Palestinians.

Netanyahu's remarks come two days before a closely fought Israeli election that could challenge Netanyahu's 10 year run in the prime minister's office.
'Game of Thrones' boss making eco-disaster 'The Swarm' series



Cannes, France, April 8 (AFP) Apr 08, 2019



The executive producer of "Game of Thrones" said Monday he is making a new big budget TV series based on the eco-disaster bestseller "The Swarm".

Frank Doelger, who won five Emmys for the swords and dragons epic whose final season screens next week, said it is a chilling story of an "epic ecological disaster" in which "the oceans and their inhabitants" turn on mankind and exact revenge for the damage we have done to the planet.

He showed a chilling animated mock-up of one of the key early scenes from the series at MIPTV, the world's top TV and streaming market in the French Riviera resort of Cannes.

It showed how a group of "Humpback and Orca whales go kamikaze and attack a group of whalewatchers" off Canada in a scene that made "Jaws" look like a Sunday school picnic.

In the book, a tsunami in the North Sea devastates parts of northern Europe and leaves millions dead as scientists struggle to figure out a series of freak events in the world's oceans.

Even those living far from the sea may not be safe from the avenging wrath of the creatures of the sea, Doelger hinted.

"One of the ideas that we are working on is that the attacks start along the coast but eventually this intelligent life force will figure out a way to penetrate to the interior. It will be nature's revenge for the environmental crimes and atrocities we have committed."

Like "Game of Thrones", the show will rely heavily on special effects, he said, with new techniques allowing filmmakers to shoot "dry for wet" with so much action taking place in the sea.

Doelger revealed that the book's German author Frank Schatzing "has given us outlines for a second, third and possibly fourth series", with the first season likely to hit screens in 2021.

He described "The Swarm" as a scientific detective story.

"Frank wrote the book in 2003 and 2004 and unfortunately a lot of the things that he predicted and fantasised about the state of the world's oceans, and what mankind has done to them, have proved all too true."



- No diatribe -



Doelger said the strength of the book was that it wasn't preachy. "No one is ever giving a speech about environmental damage. That is something the scientists have been dealing with for decades and doesn't need to be discussed. We did not want to make it into a documentary or a diatribe against those crimes."

"It is an incredible journey with an extraordinary end," he added.

Alan Taylor, who directed key episodes of "The Sopranos", "Mad Men" and "Boardwalk Empire" will make half of the first eight-part season.

He said the story "really functions at an emotional level and is hugely relevant to what we are wrestling with today. It has the structure of a thriller that builds and builds towards an ending that I find thrilling, devastating and transcendant at the same time."

The show -- whose producers say is likely to be the most expensive European production ever -- is being backed by the German broadcaster ZDF, but US and other European channels are also getting on board.

"It is too big for just one," said producer Eric Welbers, who said that the main parts of the story will be set in Scandinavia, Canada and Shanghai.

Schatzing's book, which has been translated into 25 languages, was a "truly global phenomenon", he added.
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.


if the people of Biafra want Republic of Biafra, it will be a reality during my administration. ----Donald Trump Donald Trump I wi...
The story of the opioid epidemic that has captured the attention of the U.S. public over the past few years has been told in a particular way, which in turn has impacted the way resources and policies have mobilized around that crisis. This mostly white, mostly rural, mostly middle-America, mostly opioid-driven emergency of overdose deaths has increased the demand for an evidence base for effective substance abuse programs. It has also spurred a push for law and policy changes that permit syringe-exchange programs and create "alternative to incarceration" strategies that police departments can employ to reduce arrests.

But for many people, this current moment's attention to the opioid epidemic in white rural America can, so to speak, be a bitter pill to swallow. That's particularly true for black and Latinx advocates and providers who've been long committed to ending the drug war and addressing all forms of addiction outside of the criminal justice system. They've been working on these issues, and they see the criminal justice system and mass incarceration as a barrier not only to providing health care, but also to improving the public's health and wellness.

The Legal Action Center in New York City is trying to address these issues with a new national campaign, No Health = No Justice. The campaign's goal is to connect the work happening across states that aim to reduce participation of people in criminal justice systems, increase access to quality and affordable health care, and deal with the manifestations of racism in systems that impact health and wellbeing. The Legal Action Center held a day-long conference at Columbia University in New York City on April 3 to present their plan and the ideas that will shape this campaign.

"We have a lot of work to do to dismantle three decades of unjust public policy and begin to repair the enormous damage that it's brought," said Tracie Gardner, vice president of policy advocacy with Legal Action Center. "While there are many initiatives that are now underway to reform our criminal justice system, we cannot hope to reverse course without a cross-sector approach that recognizes the systemic racism, mass incarceration, and inadequate community health care systems."

We are seeing in places around the country that some of the overdose deaths among whites are decreasing, but they are increasing among blacks -- sometimes from opioids, but also from stimulants like cocaine and methamphetamine. During the conference, Mary T. Bassett, M.D., M.P.H., former New York City commissioner of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and now the director of the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, spoke about the fact that in both New York City and in Massachusetts, overdose deaths of blacks have begun to outpace those of whites. Bassett mentioned that she's seen the opioid epidemic from both sides, from her time working in Harlem Hospital in the early 1980s and witnessing the current crisis.

"We find ourselves here because of structural racism," she said. "At the root of the punitive response is the idea that substance abuse disorder represents a moral failure, a particular deficiency of people of African descent. That is what led people to think, quite implausibly, that white people would not become addicted to these prescription pain killers."

As Bassett and other panelists went on to discuss, while doctors were encouraged to prescribe opioids, many physicians also refused those new drugs to black patients, whom they viewed as either not vulnerable to experiencing the same kind of pain as white patients or as more likely to be lying about pain in order to get access to drugs to get high.

The first panel (which included Bassett) went on to tackle some difficult questions about where the national focus has shifted in the approaches to dealing with substance use since the current opioid epidemic began to be acknowledged. In the wake of increased efforts to provide alternatives to incarceration for drug users, this panel raised questions about whether many of the strategies deployed take us further away from policing and surveillance, or whether they further imbed the policing apparatus into public health and social services.

"They've co-opted our language, they've co-opted our strategies, and we have to be careful about using the term 'public health' as synonymous with equitable," said Keith Brown, M.P.H., director of health and harm reduction with the Katal Center for Health, Equity and Justice. Brown went on to describe the ways in which we as a society have "turfed" many services to aid people in need of help (overdose, mental health, etc.) to police departments or to very strict abstinence-based substance-use treatment programs, which increasingly claim to be using a harm-reduction approach.

"If we start with the premise that law enforcement needs to be at the table, we've already lost the argument," said Kassandra Frederique, M.S., New York State director of the Drug Policy Alliance.

The second panel focused on efforts created by and for people who have been in prison to support people who are being released back to their communities. This support mechanism is a strategy for decreasing the impacts of the trauma of prison, as well as the ongoing stigma and trauma that occur upon being released. All of the panelists discussed their efforts to reach different yet overlapping communities of formerly imprisoned people: women, people living with HIV, and former gang members.

Lamont Bryant, a community health worker who provides linkage-to-care support at Transitions Clinic in Brooklyn, N.Y., told the story of working with a client living with HIV to connect to health care once he'd been released from prison, and all of the barriers he had to accessing care. His barriers had less to do with having HIV, and more to do with the stigma and discrimination he faced when going to doctor visits for medical care because he was formerly incarcerated and in recovery from substance addiction Bryant recounted a story in which his client was denied medical care because he smelled of alcohol upon arrival.

"What does that have to do with his medical needs, if it's not going to interfere with what you're going to prescribe him?" he said.

There are a number of research studies that show that the days and weeks immediately after release from prison are when people are the most vulnerable to acquiring HIV and hepatitis C. For people living with HIV, studies have documented barriers to being linked to care upon release, despite the body of evidence demonstrating the value of health care continuity for people who are living with HIV. A 2007 study concluded that "former prison inmates were at high risk for death after release from prison, particularly during the first 2 weeks."

The conference expanded its view of the scope of the problems before addressing solutions. Mindy Thompson Fullilove, M.D. and Samuel K. Roberts, Ph.D., expertly cited the climate crisis we're facing as the lynchpin for all of the concurring crises in the economy, health care, housing, and criminal justice.

The final panel focused on the work being done by several advocates to build power among people who are most impacted by the criminal justice system. These advocates hope to change laws, policies, and programs, as well as create new visions for what health and health care can look like in the future. And while there was some discussion of the political realities that have created a false sense of distance between communities -- which has led to many white communities believing drug addiction, HIV, and premature death only exist in black and Latinx urban areas -- the final panel began to demonstrate that while racism persists, building solidarity across race, class, gender, and urban/rural divides will be critical in making systemic change.

"We have to transform ourselves and the world -- otherwise, there will be none," said Jawanza James Williams, lead organizer of VOCAL-New York.
A 4,500-ton U.S. Coast Guard cutter on Saturday arrived in the southeastern port of Busan after a week of joint exercises with the South Korean Coast Guard off Jeju Island.

Last week the Bertholf took part in the joint interdiction exercise targeting ships engaging in illegal ship-to-ship transfers of fuel and goods for North Korea.

The Bertholf's continued presence here sends a warning to both North Korea and neighboring countries that sanctions violations will not be tolerated.

But a South Korean Navy spokesman said the cutter's port call in Busan is "for crew to take a rest and replenish food, fuel and other materials" and no further joint drills are scheduled.

"The Bertholf itself symbolizes Washington's will to implement North Korea sanctions thoroughly," a diplomatic source said. "It's sending an indirect warning to Seoul over its attempt to ease them" like restarting the cross-border Kaesong Industrial Complex and package tours to the Mt. Kumgang resort.
Consumers see the beauty of retail therapy

From:ChinaDaily | 2019-04-08 07:27

Sales of cosmetics surge as buyers try a new look

Liu Meiyi occasionally treats herself to a little retail therapy by purchasing lipsticks.

Lipsticks are seen against the background of a Tmall logo. [Photo/IC]

The 26-year-old, who works for an internet company in Beijing, said she sometimes hesitates before buying clothes or expensive fruit, but never when it comes to lipsticks.

Her closets house dozens of lipsticks in a variety of colors that she wears for different occasions.

"Lipsticks help brighten my complexion, and buying them makes me feel less stressed," she said. "Moreover, the price of clothes can vary dramatically, which makes me doubt whether they represent true value, while prices for luxury-brand lipsticks are stable and they are not very expensive for me."

Lipsticks are a favorite cosmetics item for Chinese consumers. A recent report by major e-commerce website Tmall showed that last year more than 300 million consumers, about 50 million of them born after 1995, bought cosmetics from the platform. On average, each consumer bought 3.3 lipsticks on Tmall in 2018.

It is not just lipsticks, as an increasing number of consumers are willing to invest in beauty routines, resulting in cosmetics sales surging in China, analysts said.

George Ren, a senior partner with global consultancy Roland Berger, said Chinese consumers are attaching increasing importance to their appearance, with many people living more-exquisite lifestyles and asking more questions about quality, designs and brands. Consumers, mainly those born in the 1980s and '90s, are especially keen on improving their looks and are willing to pay for good-quality and high-end products.

"Many Chinese consumers have started to wear different makeup while attending different occasions," he said. "They have diversified requirements for cosmetics and prefer beauty products from high-end brands that have different functions."

Sales of beauty products on Tmall rose by more than 60 percent last year compared with 2017, with females comprising 67.7 percent of consumers, and 50.8 percent of the consumers born from the 1990s onward, the report said.

Major global cosmetics brands, which are dominating the Chinese market, saw outstanding performances last year.

French giant L'Oreal said its sales in China hit a 14-year record-high growth in 2018, with revenue in the country surging by 33 percent.

Stephane Rinderknech, CEO of L'Oreal China, said Chinese consumers are entering a new era with the ultimate desire for personalized beauty.

This era features new concepts such as "beauty is everything" and "one person can have 1,000 looks", he said, adding that consumers' demands usually evolve every time their desires are satisfied.

In early February, major Japanese cosmetics company Shiseido reported that its sales in China last year rose by 32.3 percent year-on-year, reaching about 191 billion yen ($1.72 billion). The figure comprised 17 percent of the company's sales, with growth in China outpacing that in many other markets worldwide.

In New York, Estee Lauder reported outstanding financial results for its second quarter, which ended on Dec 31. Sales in the Asia-Pacific region, mainly driven by the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, rose by 20 percent year-on-year, to about $1 billion.

Fabrizio Freda, CEO of Estee Lauder, said Chinese consumers' demands for "prestige beauty" have remained strong. The company's overall sales grew by 7 percent in the second quarter, resulting in it raising the target for the entire fiscal year to 8 to 9 percent year-on-year growth.

Chinese manufacturers are enjoying similar growth. The Marie Dalgar brand from Shanghai, which targets consumers in their 20s, has seen annual revenue growth of 57 percent on average in recent years.

Cui Xiaohong, founder of Marie Dalgar, said the key to the company's success lies in its dedication to providing creative products and a fun experience for consumers.

"China's main consumers are young people who persistently pursue beauty, novelty and enjoyable experiences, so it is important for cosmetics brands to look into their needs and innovate accordingly," Cui said.

Marie Dalgar opened China's first self-service cosmetics shop in Shanghai last year-in the shape of a colorful train. Apart from vending machines, on which consumers can play games to buy lipsticks, it uses robots to interact with customers and guide them in making purchases.

"The dynamism of the Chinese cosmetics market will continue, and more players will enter it," Cui said.

Jessica Jin, director of research at global marketing research company Mintel China Reports, said Chinese consumers' confidence in the cosmetics sector remains strong, despite the economic slowdown.

An important reason for this is that cosmetics brands have been cultivating the market, which helps consumers to access beauty products with various functions and to learn about the many ways to apply cosmetics, she said.

"Cosmetics brands have also innovated continuously to attract consumers who like to follow the latest fashion trends or reward themselves with beautiful items, try on new products or make repeated purchases," Jin said, adding that some 59 percent of consumers have many lipsticks that they have not used.

Zhen Xinwei, a researcher with the International Monetary Institute of Renmin University of China, said the "lipstick effect" being felt by some consumers in China has also partly helped to fuel rapid growth among cosmetics brands.

The "lipstick effect" refers to a slowing economy where people reduce consumption on expensive items such as cars, apartments or fur coats, turning instead to buy small luxuries, such as expensive lipsticks, to indulge themselves.

"For example, a luxury-brand handbag will be costly, but a lipstick from the same brand would be much more affordable to consumers," Zhen said.

While some people are feeling the "lipstick effect" and downgrading their consumption, others, especially consumers in third- and fourth-tier cities and below, want to upgrade, Zhen said.

China set its economic growth target for this year at 6 to 6.5 percent after reporting expansion of 6.6 percent last year.

Zhen said the economy still faces downward pressure, so some middle-class consumers in large cities, who have mortgages and other commitments, might lower their expectations for future earnings, or not have much disposable income. As a result, they would watch their spending more carefully.

About 70 percent of young people in lower-tier Chinese cities are willing to spend 80 percent of their salaries on daily consumption, and their annual spending is much higher than that of people in first-tier cities, according to recent research from global market consultancy Kantar Worldpanel.

Li Sainan, 34, who works for a company in a fourth-tier city in Jiangxi province, said she spends about half of her salary on clothes and cosmetics, and she particularly trusts high-end skincare and cosmetics items.

"Good clothes and makeup make me feel confident and also help me leave a good impression with others," she said.

As high-end brands have not yet opened stores in her city, she buys from online platforms.

Ren, at Roland Berger, believes the convenience brought by e-commerce has also been a main sales driver for cosmetics in China.

According to the China Internet Network Information Center, the number of online shoppers in the country reached 160 million by the end of last year, up by 14.4 percent year-on-year.

Even in small counties and villages, Chinese consumers can buy products online and have them delivered to their homes in just a few days.

"Beauty products feature in repeat purchases, and e-commerce makes the purchases so much easier," Ren said. "For example, if you try a lipstick in a physical store and want another one in the same color or in a different color, you can easily go online and avoid going to the store again."

Most cosmetics companies have opened online sites, with 22 brands produced by L'Oreal China setting up e-commerce stores.

Hu Weixiong, general manager for fast-moving consumer goods at Tmall, said the platform will help 1,000 cosmetics brands to open online stores this year.

Rinderknech, the L'Oreal China CEO, said he is confident in the long-term prospects for China's economy and its dynamic beauty market.

"We believe that beauty is an all-time pursuit and that consumers' aspirations keep evolving," he said.

"We are happy to see consumers becoming more sophisticated and valuing quality and efficacy over price, which is absolutely positive to us."

He said some other sectors will witness a similar trend to that being experienced by cosmetics. For example, the hair-styling market in China is one of the biggest in the world for the company.

Moreover, male attitudes toward beauty products have also become more positive, and some have started to try entry-level items such as foundation and lipsticks, Rinderknech said.

Wang Ziwei contributed to this story.
Apr 08 2019 1:15 pm

Dear Editor, There have recently been serious credible allegations of antisemitic bias, harassment, death threats, and intimidation in the Ocean County Jail among both staff and inmates made in a lawsuit filed by an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man from Jackson, who was held in the county jail for a short time as the result of an alleged marital dispute that resulted in a minor disorderly persons charge for harassment filed by his ex-wife.

In the lawsuit, the man noted antisemitic hate speech expressed by correctional staff, and threats made to his life by other inmates based on his religious affiliation.

But hey, who can really be surprised given the fact in 2015, the Ocean County Prosecutors Office refused to prosecute the Neo-Nazi daughter of a high-ranking New Jersey State Trooper Sgt. Steve McGuinness who discussed plots to murder members of the local Jewish community on Twitter, and even posted photos of herself, wearing her fathers police uniform with swastikas added saluting Hitler, and a photo of ultra-Orthodox Jews at a local Italian Ice restaurant with the terrifying caption, perfect bombing time? Law enforcement in Ocean County was sent the clear message that antisemitism, hate crimes, and even terrorism against Jews is of no concern to the authorities. Her name was Jill McGuiness for anyone interested. Jill McGuiness posted all of her garbage online identifying herself by name (okay it was the nickname Jilly McGilly, but she posted clear facial photographs of herself playing Nazi ), so even though she was a minor at the time of posting, no one owes her any right to anonymity as she chose to put herself out there. When Jill McGuinness (or her father, or one of his state police co-workers) goes and commits an atrocity, dont say there werent warning signs. The apple clearly doesnt fall far from the tree.

Ocean County has a large Jewish community, with ultra-Orthodox movements well represented. While the ultra-Orthodox community likely has lower crime rates than the New Jersey average, given the size of the community, it is inevitable that at least occasionally, someone ultra-Orthodox will find themselves in the county jail.

In the Monmouth County jail, a young Jewish man named Amit Bornstein died after being beaten by correctional officers back in 2010. Had he not been Jewish would they have assaulted him? The authorities blamed his death on alleged steroid use, but Amit Bornstein was only 22 years of age. Perhaps it was antisemitism, and not steroids that prompted his premature death? Dr. Michael Baden, a famous pathologist classified the death as a homicide, yet Amits killers still walk free and continue to work at the Monmouth County Correctional Institution, murderers protected by the state. I know personally of antisemitic comments being made by Monmouth County Sheriffs Officers, so this would not be a surprise.

For far too long, the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community of Ocean County has treated county and state politics as a spectator sport, but the answer to fighting antisemitism in our government is for ultra-Orthodox Jews to seek political office, to advocate civil rights for all, with a special understanding of the need for tolerance and respect of diversity, demonstrated by the historical Jewish experience of persecution and resilience. The ultra-Orthodox community must expand beyond generally only holding local offices in Lakewood.

In the meantime, the Israeli government should as a matter of policy refuse to extradite any Jews facing criminal charges in Ocean County, New Jersey, from Israel to the United States, as the Ocean County Jail is not a safe place for Jewish inmates.

Carol Kitty Hafner

Recent Candidate for U.S. Congress (D-Alaska) and retired NJEA/NEA union officer Higher Education Administrator at Brookdale Community College, Lincroft, NJ.
In case you missed the weekend social media buzz, the Lower East Sides new 14-screen multiplex is now open for business.

The Regal Essex Crossing made its debut on Saturday at 129 Delancey St. We checked it out on Saturday evening, and were not alone. In the theater showing Us, the new Jordan Peele film, the cinema was about one-quarter full. Tickets here will set you back $17.50. Current showings include big Hollywood releases like Captain Marvel, Pet Sematary, Shazam! and Avengers.

The theater is part of a 26-story rental tower on the southeast corner of Delancey and Essex streets. Its one of nine buildings being developed as part of the Essex Crossing project. A new Essex Street Market will be opening in this same building very soon.

In a press release, Regal notes that the theater includes luxury recliners, reserved seating and an expanded concessions menu. The Essex Crossing cinemas include about 1200 seats all together.

The neighborhood now has a big mainstream movie theater, something its been missing for decades. Landmark Theaters closed the Sunshine Cinemas on East Houston Street in January of last year (it was focused on indie films). That historic building is about to be demolished for a big office and retail complex. In addition to the Regal, the Lower East Side, fortunately, has the Metrograph, the art house cinema on Ludlow Street that just celebrated its third birthday.
No borders in campaign for cleaner water

From:Shanghai Daily | 2019-04-08 07:29

Expats in Shanghai often take active roles in their communities. Pakistani Aiza Kashif, a volunteer river inspector, is just one of many.

Kashif, 41, is part of a group working in Zhangjiang Town in the Pudong New Area. Once or twice a week, she checks out a stretch of the Chuangxin River.

The river chiefs program began in 2017 in a bid to improve city waterways.

Leading officials were appointed to take responsibility for cleaning up the waterways under their jurisdiction, aided by volunteer inspectors. Since 2018, more than 100 Zhangjiang residents have volunteered to help out.

Kashif spends a couple hours each week walking up and down the riverbank.

I visit many different parts of the river, she said. If I see any problems, I take photos and post them on the government online management system.

Kashif said the river was dirty and stinking prior to the launch of the program.

Factories and workshops poured chemical waste directly into the water. Sewage and garbage, especially plastic bags, did no one any favors.

Some of Kashifs photos show the river covered in fallen leaves and floating wood, not a problem in themselves, but with plastic bags floating all around.

Initially, her inspections required many photos to be taken, but that has gradually changed. On good days, her patrols are more like pleasant strolls along the river.

I dont know what officials do after I report illegal dumping, but I can see that the situation has improved a lot, she said. The water seems much cleaner than it did last year.

Her job is far from complete, however. On a recent trip to the river with Kashif, Shanghai Daily saw Styrofoam and milk cartons floating by. Kashif immediately took pictures to send to the river chief.

After she graduated from the University of the Punjab college of pharmacy, Kashif went to the United States where she obtained a license in pharmacy. In 2012, her husband got a job in Shanghai and the family followed him to the city.

Today, she stays at home taking care of her two children and working on her plans to open a Pakistani restaurant.

I am a good cook, she said, citing her specialty as biryani.

Kashif said shes happy her family supports her business plans and her volunteer work.

My husband often drives me to the river for my inspections, and my two children sometimes walk with me, she said.

Over the years, she has done voluntary work at Metro stations, airports and at the first China International Import Expo, where she helped foreigners find their way about.

Her local volunteer work began in 2016, when she was named Shanghais first foreign anti-drug ambassador.

She became involved after visiting her local service center to fill out some of the paperwork required of expats. When she was there, she saw a poster seeking ambassadors to help in an anti-drug campaign.

It occurred to me that I could easily do that, she said.

She said she saw high school students damaged by drug use during her stay in the US and that experience had stayed in her mind. Recruitment for the anti-drug program opened a window of opportunity.

The application form was in Chinese, which she cant read or write. So, she turned to a Chinese dictionary and sought help to complete her application. Her educational background made her stand out among applicants.

Her first contribution to the anti-drug crusade was to make a short film in 2016 as both screenwriter and actress. It tells the story of a young girl who is a promising musician but falls into the trap of drug abuse. It causes her great suffering, but her music teacher helps her get back on track.

The girl in the film was played by Huang Yiling, another anti-drug ambassador, while Kashif took the role of the music teacher.

The movie was first aired at a rock concert in June 2016, receiving positive feedback.

The atmosphere at the concert was great, Kashif said. We accomplished our goal of spreading the message.

To honor her and her familys contribution to local voluntary work, the Kashifs were named one of the 10 most beautiful families in Pudong in 2018.

We consider Shanghai our second home, she said.

We feel its our duty to keep the river as clean as we can and to create a good environment for our future generations.
As many fashion magazines begin to release their May covers, there's a whole host of strong, independent women at the heart of them - and championing female empowerment and erradicating stereotypes present themselves as common themes throughout.

From Vogue to Cosmo, we take a look at the cover stars of May's glossy prints so far:

Image credit: Charisse Kenion at Unsplash

Elle Magazine

View this post on Instagram A post shared by ELLE UK (@elleuk) on Apr 2, 2019 at 12:18am PDT

Villanelle Kicking it off is actress Jodie comer for Elle Magazine. The Killing Eve star was propelled into the high fashion scene thanks to her Molly Goddard-wearing character,- and as season two is about to hit screens, were not surprised to see a fresh-faced Jodie on the cover.

Styled in Pradas Spring 2019 collection, Comer is the perfect cover star for the magazines Modern Love issue.

Cosmopolitian

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Cosmopolitan UK (@cosmopolitanuk) on Apr 3, 2019 at 11:36pm PDT

From her ground-breaking documentaries and Strictly victory, to her on-trend fashion sense - it seems no one can get enough of Stacey Dooley. So, its no wonder Cosmo have jumped on the Dooley bandwagon too.

Refreshingly, the star revealed on Instagram that the shoot was done entirely using second-hand clothes from Oxfam  a move away from the traditional luxe fashion cupboard that comes with glossy print, with a nice nod to fashion sustainability. Well done Cosmo.

British Vogue

View this post on Instagram A post shared by British Vogue (@britishvogue) on Apr 1, 2019 at 7:18am PDT

Forever Kate couldnt be more true as modelling legend and Vogue contributing editor Kate Moss proves shes still a fashion muse as she poses for British Vogue.

Styled in 60s and 70s Anita Pallenberg Archive, stylist Kate Phelan pairs the ensemble with a stand-out Gucci hat with feather detailing. Showcasing a pastel colour palette, the cover oozes classic, soft, sophistication... and we love it.

Porter

After being hailed by Michelle Obama as the voice of the next generation, who better to front Porters second annual Incredible Girl issue than 19-year-old actress, producer and activist Yara Shahidi? The TV powerhouse is Porters first ever teen cover star as she fronts the magazines summer edition, which aims to celebrate Gen Z women across the world.

Yara looks radiant as she poses in SS19 Balenciaga on the standard edition of the magazine, while subscribers are treated to an entirely monochrome cover, featuring a metallic blazer from Michael Kors.

Harper's Bazaar

Girl power is in full throttle in magazine land this month and Harpers Bazaar is no exception. Game of Thrones star, Sophie Turner, styled in Givenchy Haute Couture and Louis Vuitton jewellery, graces the cover in a fairytale-like set up featuring spring sunshine and mythical creatures galore - including a unicorn.

The images are captured by photographer, Richard Phibbs, for the May edition, described by the magazine as where fashion meets fantasy. Game of Thrones may be ending but if this cover is anything to go by, Sophie Turner isnt leaving its fantasy land any time soon.

British Vogue 'non-issue' special

View this post on Instagram Apr 3, 2019 at 3:00am PDT A post shared by British Vogue (@britishvogue) on

What a woman is what many are saying after British Vogue released its ageless special supplement with no other than acting and modelling legend, Jane Fonda, 81, on the cover - styled by Simon Robins. The supplement, dubbed the Non-Issue issue, aims to dismiss the notion that age can hold a woman back.

Since Edward Enninful took over as editor-in-chief of the magazine, Vogue has been widely praised for the diversity of its cover stars, and with Jane Fonda now on the list, the magazine is continuing to pave the way for the breakdown of female stereotypes.

Marie Claire

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Marie Claire (@marieclairemag) on Apr 5, 2019 at 5:04am PDT

While Jodie Comer graced the front of Elle Magazine, her Killing Eve co-star, acting powerhouse Sandra Oh, is the latest of three cover stars for Marie Claires May issue. She joins Westworlds Thandie Newton and A Handmaids Tales Elisabeth Moss, who also feature on their own covers.

Titled Women of the hour, the issue aims to celebrate strong and powerful women in TV and they couldnt have a more perfect line-up. Sandra looks glowing on her cover, styled by Shiona Turiniand and rocking minimal makeup.
festis

Music, travel, exploring a new culture and meeting likeminded people from all over the world - it's a no-brainer, really. And we're willing to shell out for the experience, too. Be that from our weekend beer tokens or our student loan that's definitelyto go on rent. To make your lives easier and give you a bit of background on the location and the music on offer, we've compiled a list of the bestworth travelling for. Some have beautiful scenery, some are for real die-hard fans, and the others are just a really good excuse to party in a far-away land.

Image courtesy of EXIT Festival

Tukker

Imagine partying in a 17th-century fortress in Serbia, surrounded by beautiful summer sun and the sultry sounds ofand, among many others. At EXIT Festival, this is the reality. Originally opening its doors in 2000 as a student protest fighting for political change, EXIT has evolved into one of Europe's biggest music festivals. Spanning genres from death metal to hip-hop to techno, EXIT puts good music first, while still retaining an air of positive activism.

Image Credit: Liam Simmons

Glacier raves, midnight sunshine and blockbuster acts is what makes Secret Solstice worth travelling for. This isn't a festival for a fan of dark nights as the sun doesn't set for the whole 96 hours during the festival - so best gear up for midnight pool parties and invest in a decent eye mask. This summer welcomes the sounds ofandamong many others to a fully carbon-neutral site. The organisers really make use of Iceland's natural landscape to keep one of the most jaw-dropping festivals getting better and better.

Image courtesy of Outlook Festival

Croatia is a European oasis that's so simple and cost-effective to get to from most UK cities. Back for a final year at Fort Punta Christo, which has been the festival's home for the last ten years, is Outlook Festival. Boasting a mahoosive line-up includingand London hotshot, alongside boat parties and DJ mix classes, this is set to be one big farewell bonanza. The festival organisers recommend flying to either Pula (only 20 mins from the festival site) or Venice Marco Polo which is usually home to the best deals and gives you the option of extending your time in Europe with a visit to Italy's crowning glory.

Image courtesy of Sea Dance Festival

Sea Dance is an extension of the EXIT family, this time bringing sun, sea and dance music to the Adriatic Coast in Montenegro. Bottling some of the magic from EXIT's dance stages, Sea Dance transports its punters to the gorgeous golden beach of Budva where relaxation and fun are guaranteed. Recently listed by Skyscanner as the number one cheap holiday destination, Montenegro is the ultimate summer getaway that won't break the bank and boasts beautiful landscapes for biking, hiking and watersports. By night, enjoy dancing under the moonlight to spins from David Guetta, Robin Schulz and many more DJs to be announced soon.

Image courtesy of Spring Break Amsterdam

Amsterdam: home of beautiful bicycles, beautiful cobbled streets and now only a short train ride away from London. Spring Break descends on the beautiful Dutch city for another year, spreading its wings across two weekends with a stellar line-up includingand. Tickets are just under 100, giving you plenty of spare dosh to explore the Dam's student hotspots, from boat trips down the canal to museums, cafes and nightclubs.

Image courtesy of Full Fat PR

Set at the foot of Romania's Banffy Castle in the cultural city of Cluj, Electric Castle is like throwing Reading & Leeds slap bang in the middle of Versailles. Class and style, with a crafty edge and beautiful music fromand(among many other acts) the festival prides itself on its spectacular architectural concept and eclectic line-up. It's bound to be a hedonistic and immersive experience, and with flights from London starting from as little as 15 with Ryanair, why wouldn't you?!

Image courtesy of Full Fat PR

Marketed as 3 days of music, art and culture in the heart of Lisbon, Nova Batida is exactly that. Set in the peaks and troughs of Lisbon's seven hills, Nova Batida blends together the freshest elements of a metropolitan festival with the vibe of a summer beach party; take part in rooftop yoga and surfing classes before heading down to one of the cities many cultural hubs for music.andare just a handful of the eclectic artists travelling to the city in September. We'll see you there for a pastel de nata or two.

Image courtesy of OFF Festival

slowthai

rnb

Some of the hottest rising stars in music will be travelling to Poland this August to hit up OFF festival. The likes of wunderkindthe gorgeousandwill be mixing it up with live performance localsand. A unique, boutique festival that boasts experimentation and diversity above anything else, OFF takes place in the Valley of Three Ponds in Katowice - a stunning natural green hideaway in the industrial Silesia region. Sit back and relax in the stunning Polish countryside while soaking up the best in new jazz,, hip-hop, rock and post-punk.
I'll be honest. The Grand National was a day of great excitement once a year for my younger self. The elation of pouring over the jockeys' colours in the newspaper. The anticipation of giving my pound coin to my parents to place a bet for me. The adrenalin of the race, holding my breath as the horses took each jump, hoping mine wouldn't stumble and be put out of the running. We've all felt it.

Image Credit: caltatum on Pixabay

However, as I began to get older and the true horrors of horse-racing became apparent, I began to hold my breath for a different reason. It was no longer in the hope that my horse would be triumphant, rather that there would be no casualties.

My prime reason for tuning in was to check if all the animals were ok and had survived the race. The chances of fatality for the animal in a race is far higher than that of its rider. For a jockey who falls and sustains injuries, there is more often than not a chance of treatment and care. For the horse, ' a broken leg is a death sentence'

Over the years, various forms of animal racing and fighting-such as greyhound, dog and cockerel - have come to be widely seen as immoral and largely shunned, so why hasn't this happened to horse racing?

The Grand National is part of an extravagant three days of racing in the Aintree competition. All this is part of a huge

' ; an

empire. As always in the case of empire, there are casualties.

Due to selective breeding over centuries, horses' bones have become lighter to prevent their speed from being inhibited by thier own weight. Of course, the obvious consequences of such a forced evolution is that the bones on great impact just ' shatter '.

If you look closely you can see the broken leg of the white horse on the left of the picture/ Image Credit: Mike LaChance on Flickr

Speaking to The Guardian in 2011, Professor Tim Morris, director of equine science and welfare at the British Horseracing Authority, explained in more detail why such injuries are often impossible to come back from. He explains that when the bone shatters, 'it is not possible to repair the bone, and not just because it is now in lots of little pieces that won't heal together.

Chris Cook from the Guardian posed the possibility of amputation to Morris, replied:

Image Credit: ABC News

I find it somewhat ironic when the racehorse's 'quality of life' is discussed. It seems to me that a decision was made for the animals from the beginning: that they would spend their lives racing in order to generate a profit for the humans who owned them. These animals are the support for a huge money-making industry and yet take part under no free will of their own. How can you judge that quality of life to be good?

It's very easy for a member of the general public to turn a blind eye, saying it's only a bit of fun, and they only bet once a year. They will claim that they are not responsible for the maltreatment of these innocent horses. However, in betting and supporting racing, they are part of the infrastructure fuelling the industry. An industry that largely relies on the support of the public for its income.

Although progress has been made in recent years in technology, in some cases allowing a horse to recover, this does not strengthen the argument for horse racing. For me, this is something that just should not be happening in the first place.

It's not just broken bones that pose a risk to these animals. Horses are often forced beyond their abilities on the race course, whipped, suffering physical punishment if they try to slow.

So join me and many others this Saturday in not tuning in. The only way to truly stop such a cruel practice is to cut off the funds supporting it. Start by not supporting TV stations broadcasting the race, as well as not betting. Encourage others to stop turning their heads and open their eyes to these cruel practices. Boycott the Grand National.

Lead Image Credit: Stacey MacNaught // Flickr
Whether you love or loathe Drake, you cant deny the fact that he is fan of British Culture, whether that be trying to immerse himself in the Grime scene or through being an executive producer on the soon-to-come third season of Top Boy.



Image Credit : The Come Up Show // Flickr



I personally find his love for British Culture cringy, and to use a turn a phrase accustomed to my secondary school self, Drake to me is a bit of a beg. However, my like or dislike of Drake is not the debate I want to bring to light in this article, instead on want to focus on J Hus surprise appearance at Drakes gig at the O2 in London last week.

J Hus was arrested last June at the Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, East London. He was initially stopped by Police as they believed he smelt of cannabis, after which they asked if he was carrying anything he should not have been. This ultimately led to J Hus admitting to being in the possession of a 10cm folding knife. In response to the charge of being in possession of a bladed article, J Hus initially pleaded not guilty before changing his plea to guilty. He was sentenced to eight months in prison in December and only served four before being released last week.

I want to be clear that I do not have an issue with J Hus restarting his career, by all means he has served his time, recognised his wrongdoings and has taken responsibility for his actions. In a letter read out at his trial by his barrister J Hus said My decision to carry a weapon was careless, ill-advised and utterly stupid. Being a public figure that many look up to, I simply should have known better.

Six words resonate with me from the letter: I simply should have known better. I believe that Drake should have known better too. I believe for him to call J Hus' return to the stage a celebration of sorts is wrong. It is irresponsible, in light of the fact that J Hus was sentenced for carrying a knife, an object which is at the centre of a growing crisis in London and the UK, an object which has taken so many loved ones away from their families in needless violence.

J Hus and Drake have been lauded across twitter by various individuals. I believe this to be insensitive in the current social climate, but then again, I expect nothing less of Twitter.

Drake brought us top boy and Jhus back hes definitely earned that UK citizenships  fatima (@ovotima) April 5, 2019

Drake might as well help out with brexit  Ill be back 22/05 im mashing uni work to provide (@Hamzy44) April 6, 2019

One Twitter use hit the nail on the head:

why is everyone all for drake bringing out j hus on stage (fresh outta prison)... like HELLO, there is a worrying increase of knife crime in London and youre cheering on a guy who has contributed to the knife crime in London ??? #UnpopularOpinion   (@BiebertasticUK) April 6, 2019

Obviously knife crime is not all J Hus' fault, nor did he in fact stab anyone. However, he was carrying a knife and ultimately if he was carrying it out of fear as he stated at his trial, in a certain situation he may have been prepared to use it. I have nothing against J Hus trying to relaunch his career, but to call his return a celebration is in my opinion celebrating the very reason he was put in prison to begin with.
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Shanghai company provides innovative rural education

By:Zheng Qian | From:english.eastday.com | 2019-04-08 09:39

A report titled The Top 50 Cases of Chinese Enterprises in Targeted Poverty Alleviation was issued recently, in which is hjenglish, a Shanghai-based online education company known for its hu-plus project involving public welfare internet education.

Started in 2015, the program has been successful in exploring a low-cost, replicable and sustainable innovation path for education in small-scale schools in rural China.

Statistics from 2017 showed that there were 107,000 small-scale rural schools in China. Located in remote areas with inconvenient transportation, these schools have been suffering from a lack of teaching resources for a long time.

Since this large number of schools is widely distributed, the traditional education aid methods, such as making donations and organizing volunteer teachers for the poverty-stricken areas, are just a drop in the bucket. To deal with the situation, the government put forward the internet plus education plan in 2018.

Starting before the government initiative, the hu plus project has provided lots of rural schools with a dozen online courses including music, painting, science, poetry, reading, English, handiwork and financial planning, greatly enriching students minds.

According to Fu Cairui, the founder of the program, due to the new education aid mode, problems like the shortage of educational resources, high cost of traditional aid, and remoteness of rural schools are being gradually solved. In Fus view, the program has not only offered resources for rural students, but also developed the teachers involved, since it has made them more mature and enhanced their ability to mold students.
Home  Just In  Nepal Parliament has been promoting rule of law, says Mahara

Kathmandu, April 8

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Krishna Bahadur Mahara, has stated that Parliament of Nepal has been protecting and promoting rule of law, human rights, equality and other democratic values.

Addressing the 140th session of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Doha of Qatar on Monday, Mahara said, As a representative of the people, Parliament can establish positive changes through law formulation, budgetary control and inspection of the governments plan and programmes.

During the session, Mahara delivered a lecture on parliament as a forum to consolidate education, security and rule of law for peace.

Meanwhile, the leader of the lower house of the federal legislative also appreciated the role of IPU in the establishment of peace and democratic changes across the world.

Total 1,600 delegates representing 167 countries are taking part in the event that began this Saturday in Doha.
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MBABANE  Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade Manqoba Khumalo met with British High Commissioner to South Africa Nigel Casey to discuss the implications of Brexit on the Kingdom of Eswatini.

The meeting convened on Thursday was in light of on-going discussions in the United Kingdom regarding Brexit, where Prime Minister Theresa May was focused on a bid to avoid a no-deal scenario. The discussions have temporarily put a pause on the trade negotiations taking place with regard to the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), Mozambique and UK Economic Partnership Agreement (SACUM-UK EPA). The aim of the SACUM-UK EPA would be to deliver continuity in terms of trade between SACUM countries and the UK.

The minister learnt that the UK was ready to pick up on the negotiations as soon as a solution to the current Brexit deadlock was found. He was also briefed about a post-Brexit trade agreement with the UK; which was meant to spell out how the Kingdom of Eswatini will trade with the UK following Brexit. The main objective of the meeting was to ensure that trade relations between the two countries were not disrupted, particularly with regard to the countrys beef and sugar exports. In the event a solution to the deadlock leads to another Brexit delay, more time would be made available to attend to outstanding issues concerning the negotiations. Outstanding issues include sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures (i.e. health certificates for meat products and plant protection). The delay would also give exporters from Eswatini more time to prepare for any new trade requirements.

It should be mentioned that the Kingdom of Eswatini may be producing some of the most unique products in the world but they may not necessarily be of the required quality standards. Speaking during the recent signing ceremony of the E9 million Manzini Trade Hub project Khumalo said as a result of this substandardisation, the countrys products faced rejection in export markets. He listed poor packaging, labelling and several other standards as well as sanitary and phytosanitary issues as among the major impediments facing local products. Eswatini is involved in both local and domestic trade. In order to compete and fully exploit possibilities of the Eswatini industry, the country has to attain a demonstrable product and/or service quality offering demanded by global, regional and domestic markets reflecting evidence of compliance to international requirements, Khumalo said.

He said through the Manzini Trade Hub project COMESA and the European Union intended to strengthen national quality infrastructure institutions through providing the necessary support to produce competitive goods and services. Meanwhile, Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg said time had come for the upliftment of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). He said the EU and COMESA had a very specific mandate towards MSMEs and improving the lives of the poor. He said as a ministry they appreciated the support provided by the two entities to the Kingdom. Rijkenberg further justified the introduction of consumptive taxes; saying this was aimed at improving the livelihoods of the poor through MSME development.
MBABANE - Versatile!

The above word best describes the performance which was rendered by The Mill, on Saturday night, at the Jazz Gallery in the Swaziland Theatre Club in Mbabane. The jazz music ensemble, which is formed of instrumentalists from South Africa and Switzerland, did this while performing songs from their new album titled Where The Wind Blows which was released this year. In their performance, they elicited Swiss culture and African culture. The ensemble, played their saxophones, trumpets, bass guitar, piano and drums swiftly, such that it blended together and evoked emotion in the crowd.

Dance

Also, they managed to make the crowd dance with their African contemporary jazz songs. Their performance started just after 7pm and with each song they rendered, they gained momentum. They ruled the stage for close to two hours, engaging the crowd with each and every song rendered. While performing, they gave each other solo parts where they showed-off their skills with their instruments. Their song titled Inkululeko stole the show as attendees stood up and danced the night away. Nozipho Dlamini, who was one of the attendees, said she did not regret embracing the cold and attending the show. From their first song I had no doubt that it was going to be a mind-blowing rendition. I enjoyed every minute of them on stage, said Dlamini. Into Music Societys Nelisa Lawton, their host, said she was happy about the attendance.

Enrich

Our aim is to enrich people with organic music and I am honoured that that goal is being achieved. The Mill is amazing and they did deserve the opportunity to launch their album When The Wind Blows in the country, said Lawton. The Mill is formed of Marco Muller on bass guitar, Simon Nyivana on baritone saxophone, Florian Egli on alto saxophone, Mandla Mlangeni on trumpet, Siya Makuzeni on vocals, Yonela Mnana on piano and Kesivan Naidoo on drums. They are led by Mlangeni, who said they had been on tour for the past two weeks. Eswatini is home for us South Africans. We were obliged to launch our album here, he said on stage.




English PDF JOINT PUBLIC STATEMENT

6 September 2017



Indonesia: Government must make public the 2005 fact-finding report on Munirs case In commemorating the thirteen years after the killing of human rights defender Munir Said Thalib, 7th of September 2017, the undersigned regional and international human rights organizations call on the Indonesian President Joko Widodo to take decisive and concrete action to ensure those responsible  including those at the highest levels  are brought to justice. As a first key step towards establishing the truth, President Widodo must release the 2005 report prepared by an official fact-finding team into Munirs killing. Munir was a prominent Indonesian human rights campaigner who took up the cause of dozens of activists who had been subjected to enforced disappearances during the last months of the Suhartos regime in 1998. As a human rights defender, Munir played a significant role in uncovering evidence of security forces responsibility for human rights violations in Aceh, Papua and Timor-Leste. He received numerous threats as a result of his human rights work. In August 2003, a bomb exploded outside his home in Jakarta. In 2002 and 2003, the KontraS (the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence) office where he worked was attacked by a mob, who destroyed office equipment and forcibly took files containing information about ongoing human rights investigations. Our organizations believe that Munirs case cannot be seen in isolation, but is indicative of the wider culture of impunity surrounding attacks and harassment of human rights defenders in the country. The lack of full accountability in Munir's case contributes to an ongoing climate of fear among human rights defenders. Munir was found dead on a Garuda Airlines flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam on 7 September 2004. An autopsy carried out by the Dutch authorities showed that he died as a result of arsenic poisoning. In December 2004 the Indonesian authorities formed an official fact-finding team to investigate the murder. Although three Garuda Airlines staff were convicted of the killing, there are credible allegations that those responsible at the highest levels of government have not yet been brought to justice. In 2008, Muchdi Purwoprandjono, a former deputy director of the state intelligence agency, was acquitted of soliciting and assisting in the killing of Munir. Indonesian law scholars and human rights groups found that the trial was fundamentally flawed. Key prosecution witnesses retracted their sworn testimonies and failed to testify in court. In February 2010, the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) also identified flaws in the police investigation, prosecution and trial of Muchdi Purwoprandjono and recommended a new police investigation. In September 2016, President Widodo made a public pledge to resolve the case of Munir. But the Indonesian authorities have still not published the 2005 report of the independent fact-finding team on Munirs killing, whose finding reportedly implicated senior intelligence officers. This violates the Presidential Decree No. 111/2004 on the establishment of the fact finding team on Munirs killing which obliged the government to make the report public. In October 2016, the Public Information Commission ruled that the 2005 report should be made public after Suciwati, Munirs wife, filed a public information request to the Commission. However, in February 2017, the Administrative Court repealed the Commissions decision on the grounds that the current government under the administration of President Widodo had not received the report from the previous government and therefore did not possess the document. Subsequently, in August 2017, the Supreme Court upheld the Administrative Courts decision and the report has yet to be made public. Our organizations believe that Munirs case cannot be seen in isolation, but is indicative of the wider culture of impunity surrounding attacks and harassment of human rights defenders in the country. The lack of full accountability in Munir's case contributes to an ongoing climate of fear among human rights defenders. A s a human rights defender, Munir played a significant role in uncovering evidence of security forces responsibility for human rights violations in Aceh, Papua and Timor-Leste. He received numerous threats as a result of his human rights work.  Publish the 2005 report of the fact-finding team into Munirs killing as a key step towards establishing the truth;  Establish a new, independent investigation into the murder of Munir to ensure that all those suspected of being responsible, at all levels, are brought to justice in proceedings that adhere to international human rights standards;  Review the past criminal proceedings conducted by the Attorney General into Munirs killing, including alleged violations of international human rights law; in particular, investigate reports of witness intimidation and bring those suspected of committing them to justice;  Take effective steps to ensure that human rights violations committed against all human rights defenders are promptly, effectively and impartially investigated and that those responsible are brought to justice in fair trials; and  Create a safe and enabling legal environment for human rights defenders by enacting laws on the protection of human rights defenders. This joint statement is endorsed by: Amnesty International Indonesia AHRC (Asian Human Rights Commission) AFAD (Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances) AJAR (Asia Justice and Rights) ETAN (East Timor & Indonesia Action Network) OBS (The Observatory for Protections of Human Rights Defender OBS) FORUM-ASIA (Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development) Human Rights First Human Rights Watch Protection International TAPOL UK Watch Indonesia!



For more information on Munir, please see: https://hrdmemorial.org/hrdrecord/munir-said-thalib/ Indonesian version see also ETAN Urges Justice for Munir on 12th Anniversary of Assassination (September 7, 2016) ETAN Backgrounder: The Investigation of the Murder of Munir: Timeline and Recommendations SUPPORT ETAN! ETAN is "A voice of reason, criticizing the administration's reluctance to address ongoing human rights violations and escalating oppression in West Papua and against religious minorities throughout Indonesia." Noam Chomsky Donate Today!
MANZINI  The ongoing violent attacks on foreign truck drivers in Durban, South Africa is set to increase further the unemployment rate in the Kingdom of Eswatini.

This is because some of the scores of emaswati truck drivers, who are employed in the neighbouring country, have already been given a months grace period to obtain unattainable truck-driving work permits. The affected truck drivers revealed that the issuing of letters demanding that they acquire work permits, follows a door-to-door inspection exercise carried out by the South African Police Service (SAPS) in partnership with the Department of Labour and Ministry of Home Affairs on trucking businesses where they verify the employment of truck drivers, especially foreigners.

Debate

Majahonkhe Sukati of Mafutseni, one of the truck drivers from Eswatini who are based in Durban, said work permits for truck drivers were not issued in South Africa because there was a debate that truck-driving was not declared as a rare skill. The Ministry of Home Affairs argues that it only issues work permits for people with certain skills after a verification process was done to ascertain if the skill possessed by the individuals is really rare in South Africa, he said. It has been reliably gathered through some of the Eswatini truck drivers, who are working in the neighbouring country that as from last week, some trucking companies which employed truck drivers from foreign countries, including the kingdom, started issuing out letters warning them to acquire work permits, failing which they would be fired. The letters gave us one month grace period, they emphasised. They said the attacks on foreign truck drivers, which they viewed as xenophobic, had left most of them considering surrendering themselves into the pool of unemployed people in Eswatini. They argued that such was their better option compared to being burnt by the violent South Africans. It is clear that we are no longer welcome in that country (South Africa) as the attackers accuse us of taking their jobs. On the other hand, the work permits they are demanding are not issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, they said.

Attacks

On another note, they said as a result of the violent attacks on foreign truck drivers, a number of employers had ordered them to park the trucks in the companies premises for the safety of both the vehicles and the drivers. It is obvious that sooner or later we will be forced to go back home because the meeting between the ministers of Labour, Home Affairs, Police and Transport Federation has not yielded positive results in as far as a solution to the matter is concerned, they said. Following the blockade of the N3 road near Mooi River in KwaZulu-Natal Midlands about a fortnight ago, during which seven trucks were set alight; last week, the SAPS, Department of Labour, Ministry of Home Affairs together with the Transport Federation met.


MBABANE  The inquest into the death of Luciano Zavale has concluded that he died due to the alleged conduct of the investigating officers.

The officers are Detective Constable Nhlanhla Nkambule and Detective Constable Ndumiso Myeni, who were based in Manzini in 2015 when the Mozambican man died. Former Hhohho Principal Magistrate Nondumiso Simelane, who is now the Ombudsman at Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA), was appointed the coroner in the inquest into Zavales death after he died under questionable circumstances. The Mozambican ran a barber shop business at the Enterprise Building. At the time of his death, he was being investigated for purchasing an ASUS tablet from Sifiso Nzimandze, who had stolen it from an American Peace Corp member, Taroi Hopkins at the Manzini Bus Rank in June 2015. In her conclusion, Simelane said; I am satisfied that reasonable grounds do exist for suspecting that the death of Luciano Reginaldo Zavale was caused by the criminal act and/or culpable or negligent conduct of the two investigating constables, being 6432 D/Constable Nhlanhla Nkambule and 5709 D/Constable Ndumiso Myeni.

Simelane said she referred the matter to the director of public prosecutions (DPP) who, subject to Section 9 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act No.67 of 1938, shall take such action on it as he deems fit. According to the coroner, it was clear from the evidence that when Zavale died, he was allegedly in the custody of members of the Royal Eswatini Police Service, in particular the two detective constables, Myeni and Nkambule. What is again very clear and not in doubt is that such death was caused by the deprivation of air into the lungs (respiratory distress) through the outer orifices, being the mouth and nose.

Distress

What, however, could not be determined is how or by what means such respiratory distress was caused hence the medical practitioners conclusion that the cause of death is undetermined. said Simelane. These allegations are contained in the report of the inquest into the circumstances surrounding or involving the death of Zavale on June 12, 2015, whose veracity will be tested should the DPP act on the coroners recommendations. When Zavale died, the police took him to the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial (RFM) Hospital where they informed nurses that his body had been discovered by members of the public along the road at Coates Valley. In her report, Simelane stated that Myeni and Nkambule refused to give evidence before the coroner at the proceedings of the public inquest.
MBABANE  The story of female emaSwati employees who are allegedly sexually abused in some Asian shops has taken a twist.

This is because the whistleblower, Farooq Shazaib, has also been fingered as the one who allegedly sexually harassed numerous women employed at the shop. This was disclosed by one of the directors of Collection Centre, Muhammad Malik Azeem, who was among the three Asian businessmen accused by Shazaib of sexually abusing female workers. The other Asians who are implicated are Malik Sunny and Qaisar Malik, who are all of Pakistan origin. Azeem made these allegations in an affidavit where he is disputing the claims levelled against them by the whistleblower, one of which was that they had since left the Kingdom of Eswatini.

Shazaib had alleged that the businessmen were now fugitives to justice and claimed that after reporting the alleged sexual abuse and kidnapping cases to the police, the defendants learnt that they were about to be arrested for their alleged criminal activities and they fled the country. The defendants are no longer in the Kingdom of Eswatini as they are believed to be in South Africa, Shazaib had claimed. He further claimed that the ladies whom they are alleged to have sexually assaulted were in fact relieved of their duties after they were caught on camera. According to Azeem, the allegations started after Shazaib alleged that some of his countrymen, who worked at the shop, had raped his girlfriend, who is a liSwati, around November 2018. He asserted that police investigated and did not find any evidence and Shazaib apologised by writing a letter or affidavit in the presence of the police.

Shazaib is the one who was behaving in a manner that leaves a lot to be desired. He was the one who had a sexual relationship with one of the ladies at the shop, alleged Azeem. These are allegations contained in an answering affidavit whose veracity is still to be tested in court. To substantiate his claims, Azeem has annexed photographs of some of the ladies (alleged survivors of sexual assault) who were in the company of Shazaib in different eateries around Manzini. They would go to restaurants in Manzini and enjoy meals while sitting in a comfortable manner, he claimed. Giving a background of how the businessmen had come into contact with Shazaib, Azeem claimed the so-called whistleblower approached him and requested part- time employment as he was a student at the University of Eswatini (UNESWA). After the alleged rape incident, Azeem stated that they reached an agreement with Shazaib that it would no longer be good to have him as an employee and he stopped working for Collection Centre. The applicant (Shazaib), being angry with the directors decision to fire him as an employee of the shop, he again started on a campaign of trying to discredit us, submitted the respondent (Azeem).

Demonstrate

He narrated that they discovered in Shazaibs mobile phone communications that he was organising people to demonstrate against them. To this claim, Azeem annexed copies of a printout of Shazaibs WhatsApp messages. In the WhatsApp messages, which now form part of the evidence, Shazaib, in a conversation with a person called Khaya Cyprus University, spoke of organising about 40-50 people who would picket in front of the shop.


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The Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreement signed between the UAE and Saudi Arabia has come into effect at the beginning of this month, after both countries completed the necessary procedures in accordance with their regulations.



The UAE, represented by the Ministry of Finance, MoF, signed the agreement with Saudi Arabia on the avoidance of double taxation on income and capital and the prevention of tax evasion, at the Saudi Ministry of Finance in Jeddah in May 2018, reported Emirates news agency Wam.



The agreement aims to strengthen the cooperation in tax matters and consolidate the financial, economic and investment partnership between the two countries. This is in line with the UAE's efforts to increase investment opportunities, encourage trade, and meet the country's development goals through the diversification of sources of national income and full protection of goods and services.



Younis Haji Al Khoori, Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, affirmed that the agreement is an important step in enhancing bilateral relations between the two countries, especially in financial and economic spheres. "This agreement will contribute to a more flexible investment climate that will underscore the country's position as a key destination for Saudi investments. This agreement represents a qualitative leap forward in terms of the framework of financial, economic and tax cooperation between GCC countries," he added.



He further stated, "The Ministry of Finance aims to expand the network of bilateral double taxation avoidance agreements with various countries around the world to fulfil the vision of the wise leadership of the state in diversifying sources of income and advancing the development objectives of the state.



"These agreements contribute to the elimination of double taxation, facilitate cross-border trade and investment flows, and provide protection to taxpayers from direct and indirect double taxation. This in turn enhances the country's investment climate and makes it more attractive as a destination for foreign investment."



Investments of Saudi citizens and banks in the UAE were valued at Dh17.08 billion ($4.65 billion) in 2017, whereas the number of economic activity licenses granted to Saudi citizens in the UAE reached 12,451 by end of 2017. According to official statistics, the volume of trade between Saudi Arabia and the UAE reached Dh32.93 billion in 2017, and the number of Saudi shareholders in the UAE joint stock companies reached 118,878 during the same year. The value of real estate transactions for Saudi nationals in the UAE was Dh59 billion in 2017, while the total number of property owners in the UAE was estimated at 4,989 by end of 2017.



The UAE is ranked second worldwide and first in the Arab world in terms of the number of avoidance of double taxation agreements. The number of agreements concluded between 1989 and 2018 reached 210, including 123 agreements to avoid double taxation, as well as 87 agreements to regulate and encourage investment, highlighting the country's efforts in spreading knowledge related to double taxation issues in the region and worldwide.



The UAE is a strategic partner of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD, in raising awareness of the importance of tax treaty issues at a regional level. This partnership has been recently strengthened by signing the three-year (2019-2021) extension of the Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, between the UAE and OECD. The MoU aims to provide support and assistance to countries in the Mena region in terms of tax conventions, and stipulates mutual cooperation between both parties in developing a better understanding of the practical application of international tax principles.






GFH Financial Group (GFH) today announced that this years Top CEO Conference & Awards will be held on April 11 in Bahrains Al Areen Palace & Spa with the group acting as its country host.

With the support of the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB) and line with GFHs efforts to promote the kingdom as an investment, business and leisure destination, the group secured the move of the awards to Bahrain this year, where more than 500 regional CEOs and business leaders are set to gather.

The Top CEO Conference & Awards, now in its 5th year, is organised by the Dubai-headquartered multi-dimensional media firm Mediaquest. The event each year aims to gather business leaders from around the region and their international counterparts to look at the burning issues that CEOs in the Middle East, which continues to undergo rapid transformation, need to tackle today for sustainable growth and success.

Addressing the conference are a world-class line up of speakers and panellists. Kicking off the day will be keynote addresses by the chief executive of the Bahrain EDB, Khalid Al Rumaihi; and CEO of GFH Financial Group Hisham Alrayes. Other keynotes will be delivered by Jassim Alseddiqi, CEO of Abu Dhabi Financial Group (ADFG) and chairman of GFH Financial Group; and renowned economist and author Professor Nouriel Roubini, who is famed with predicting the 2008 global financial crisis and is set to speak on Building Knowledge Economies.

Other plenary, panel and breakout sessions will look at a ring of critical topics shaping the regional economies today including: Future of Growth Amid Volatility, Bahrains Growth Dynamics, Future of Women Business Leadership, Structural Reforms and Direct Investment, The Blockchain Opportunity and The Human Factor and Tech Innovation, among others.

Jassim Alseddiqi said: We are delighted with the opportunity to host some of the regions top visionaries in the Kingdom of Bahrain, a leading business, financial and investment hub for the region. We are at an important time of transition and change in the global economies and regional markets alike and the opportunity to share and exchange ideas and tackle the most important challenges and opportunities of the day together will help illuminate the path that we are on and the strategies being used by the regions top CEOs and their teams to maximise the vast potential that exists in the GCC and broader Middle East region. As a major investor in the Kingdom of Bahrain, we are particularly excited to help showcase and highlight Bahrains growth dynamics and the important strides being made in key areas of the economy including financial services, Fintech and other knowledge and technology-based advancements that GFH itself continues to invest in and support.

Alexandre Hawari, co-CEO of Mediaquest, commented: Our region is going through a digital transformation and is embracing the Fourth Industrial Revolution at a rapid pace. Despite global and regional challenges, there are several green shoots when it comes to reforms, innovation, entrepreneurship, women leadership, and digitization. In this context, the Top CEO Conference and Awards will highlight and discuss new business models, collaborative economic eco-systems, disruptive leadership, the impact of new technologies and innovative growth strategies. In order to highlight the importance of concepts such as design thinking and decision-making, the Conference will bring regional context to global challenges.

Similarly, the TOP CEO Awards, which will be presented at a gala dinner at Al Areen Palace & Spa following the conference, have been designed to be world class with selection and criteria decided with full transparency. The awards are being judged in collaboration with top-ranked global business school, Insead, as well as with the support of the Dubai-based corporate governance institute Hawkamah in addition to a leading external global audit firm.

Award categories are: Banking, Financial Services and Investment, Tech and Media, Insurance, Retail, FMCG and Consumer Care, Energy and Utilities, Malls, Real Estate and Construction, Mining, Metals and Chemicals and Shariah-Compliant Banks and Financial Services. - TradeArabia News Service
The Annual Investment Meeting (AIM) 2019, the ninth edition of the worlds biggest platform for foreign direct investment (FDI), opened today in Dubai under the theme Mapping the Future of FDI: Enriching World Economies through Digital Globalization.

Held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai and in the presence of Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, the AIM runs till April 10.

The event also witnessed the presence of four presidents, one deputy president and 40 ministers including Evo Morales, President, Plurinational State of Bolivia; Muhammadu Buhari, President of Nigeria; Rustam Minnikhanov, President of Tatarstan, Russian Federation; Ramzan Kadyrov, Head of Chechen Republic, Russian Federation; and Huchiev Muslim, Deputy Chairman of Chechen Republic, Russian Federation.

More than 20,000 corporate leaders, policymakers, businessmen, regional and international investors, entrepreneurs, leading academics, experts, and stakeholders from over 140 countries from Europe, North America, Latin America, Africa, Middle East, and Asia are participating in the three-day event.

In his opening speech, Dr Abdullah bin Mohammed Belhaif Al Nuaimi, Cabinet Member and Minister of Infrastructure Development, said: We are delighted to welcome all of you to the opening ceremony of the ninth edition of the Annual Investment Meeting. The forum, organized by the Ministry of Economy, has become a prominent event on the regional and international arenas as one of the largest investment

gatherings in the world. We are honored by the wide global participation in this year's edition, which includes delegations from more than 140 countries from around the world, who have gathered here to jointly explore the latest trends in foreign direct investment, as well as to exchange experiences and knowledge, explore business opportunities, and sign cooperation agreements and partnerships. As this edition of the meeting coincides with the Year of Tolerance in the UAE, this platform also presents us with another opportunity to emphasize the value of tolerance and its importance in promoting joint efforts that are essential for productive partnerships and development.

He further stated that the outlook for the future remains optimistic, given the 3.7 per cent global economic growth experienced in 2018 and with the International Monetary Fund estimating that the world economy will continue to grow in 2019 by 3.5 per cent.

At the national level, the UAE continues to rank first in the region in terms of FDI inflows, which in 2018 amounted to $10.4 billion according to the Central Bank of UAE estimates. For the past six consecutive years, the UAE has been leading the Arab countries in the Ease of Doing Business Index. IMF maintains positive economic forecasts in this regard, as the country's GDP growth is estimated at 3.7 per cent this year, added Dr Al Nuaimi.

The UAE has paid great attention to the development of infrastructure and roads, being aware of its importance in promoting investments. The country has also been able to achieve internationally high rankings on global competitiveness indicators in this domain. These include second place in satisfaction with streets and highways, which constitute one of the best infrastructures in the world. Furthermore, the UAE has accomplished some prestigious achievements through successful partnerships between the public and private sectors in the area of infrastructure projects, reflecting the importance of joint endeavors by both sectors and attracting more investors, stated Dr Al Nuaimi.

This edition of AIM also features AIM Startup and Future Cities Show. The AIM Startup has over 150 promising startup companies under one roof to help facilitate business interactions and investment partnerships with major investors, business leaders, representatives of international institutions, and government entities. The Future Cities Show, on the other hand, will focus on five leading future city solutions, namely AI, blockchain, smart infrastructure, smart mobility, and sustainability. According to Walid Farghal, the event unites leaders from various industries to interact, discuss, and showcase top-notch solutions for a smart sustainable future.

It has been noted that digital technologies particularly, artificial intelligence, renewable energy and other disruptive technology are all major and initiatives for FDIs. The UAE has the potential to increase 3.7 to 10.8 trillion mobile networks by 2025, where AI adoption will account for 45 percent of the total.

Policymakers worldwide are looking for ways to inject new energy to FDI flows given that international investments play a vital role in sustainable development of many states, especially for developing countries. Amidst these challenges, it is imperative that we continue our dialogues to come up with the best solutions. International leaders and decision makers from the government and private sectors are present in this years event to tackle these challenges as well as key opportunities that we can optimize, said Dawood Al Shezawi, CEO of Annual Investment Organising Committee.

In the UAE, which has embarked on intensive digital transformation efforts, FDIs play a visible role in the countrys economic diversification strategy and preparation for a post-oil future. The government has implemented key policies and programs to attract foreign investors according to UAE Vision 2021. These efforts have yielded positive results amidst growing confidence of the international community in the Arab nation, he said.  TradeArabia News Service
TAPOL and the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) condemn yet another wave of mass arrests[1] during the opening week of the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). The mass arrests clearly contradict the statement of the Republic of Indonesia in their first right of reply during the General Assembly that there are not frequent and systematic human rights violations in West Papua.[2] We also disagree with Indonesias claim that UN Resolution 2504 of 1969[3] has settled the issue of West Papuas political status

In late September, Indonesian security forces arrested 89 West Papuans and many more were beaten.[4] One West Papuan is being investigated for treason. Their alleged crime was to have peacefully demonstrated their support for the United Liberation Movement of West Papua and for the Republic of Vanuatu which planned to speak about human rights and the right to self-determination at the UNGA session. (An additional 39 Papuans were detained in Malang, East Java on 30 September for demonstrating in support of self-determination.[5]) This problematic trend of unlawful mass arrests of peaceful protesters was highlighted two years ago, when the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination delivered two early warnings to Indonesia.[6] These warnings arose from 5,361 unlawful arrests of West Papuan peaceful protesters in just one year alone.[7] No other group has suffered such treatment at the hands of the Indonesian state. Hence, there have been systematic human rights violations in West Papua in the past, but they continue.

The mass arrests clearly contradict the statement of the Republic of Indonesia in their first right of reply during the General Assembly that there are not frequent and systematic human rights violations in West Papua. A total of 221 West Papuans were arbitrarily arrested this past September.[8] Five people were tortured by Indonesias security forces,[9] including one killed while in police custody in the same month.[10]

West Papuans are not only discriminated against in their own ancestral territory of Papua, but in other provinces of Indonesia. There have been racially motivated attacks by state-backed gangs against West Papuan student dormitories in Surabaya,[11] Yogyakarta[12] and Malang,[13] as well as assaults by security forces in Manado and Tomohon.[14] West Papuans are routinely prevented from holding public discussions and peaceful protests in Java and other non-Papuan parts of Indonesia.

Those who seek to document violations and defend the victims of human rights in West Papua live in fear. These human rights defenders face a range of physical threats and other measures, aimed at obstructing their work. Indigenous human rights activist, seeking to protect ancestral lands in South Sorong[15] or Boven Digoel[16], expose illegal mining in Koroway, or publicising military sweeps, house-burnings and other severe human rights violations in remote villages in Mimika or Nduga risk criminalization by Indonesian authorities.[17]

Several past cases of serious human rights violations in West Papua have been highlighted by Indonesian President Joko Widodo for resolution. These have been investigated by Indonesias own National Commission on Human Rights, yet those responsible have gone unpunished. These include the 1998 Biak Massacre of more than 150[18]; the torture, rape and killing of 50 West Papuan in Wasior in 2001[19]; and the military sweeping of villages in Wamena in 2003[20].

Indonesia has also failed to protect the social, economic, and cultural rights of West Papuans. Five tribes in Papuas Keerom Regency were declared extinct in August.[21] Earlier this year, the Indonesian government reported that almost one hundred West Papuan children had died from malnutrition[22] and an estimated 15,000 West Papuans currently suffer from malnutrition.[23] A BBC journalist was expelled from West Papua while she was covering this tragedy.[24] Not long after that, an Australian student was blacklisted from entering Indonesia due to her previous study on West Papua.[25] A Polish tourist charged with treason is currently sitting in jail in Jayapura awaiting trial[26], and a West Papuan is facing the same charge merely for meeting him.[27]

Indonesia has still not fulfilled its promise to invite a team of UN Human Rights investigators to visit West Papua.

Self-Determination

It is long-overdue for the UN to revisit its unfulfilled obligation to ensure a proper decolonization of all peoples with regards to West Papua. Contrary to Indonesias delegate claim, the 1969 UN Resolution on West Papua[28]did not have universal support. It was debated at great length over three sessions and the final vote was marked by 30 abstentions. This was because the coerced Act of Free Choice[29] was recognised to have been It is long-overdue for the UN to revisit its unfulfilled obligation to ensure a proper decolonization of all peoples with regards to West Papua. procedurally flawed. UN members voted to acknowledge the agreement between Indonesia and the Netherlands regarding West Papua. The process allowed West Papuas fate to be dictated by two foreign colonising governments. The West Papuans were props in a charade; no real effort was allowed to ascertain their true wishes.

The UN has an obligation to revisit this morally unacceptable outcome, arrived at through an event in which only 1,026 handpicked West Papuans were pressured to raise their hands in assent to a proposition they had no hand in drafting. That deeply flawed process was a stark abrogation of the United Nations Temporary Executive Authoritys responsibility to oversee a just decolonisation. The UN should have ensured that process adhered to the universally recognised standard of one person, one vote.

TAPOL and ETAN take no official position on the political status of West Papua. We support the right and aspirations for West Papuan people to decide their own future.

TAPOL info@tapol.org

ETAN etan@etan.org

TAPOL - promoting human rights, peace, and democracy in Indonesia

86 Durham Road  London  N7 7DT  +44 (0) 20 7561 7485  www.tapol.org | facebook.com/TapolUK/ | twitter.com/TapolUK

East Timor and Indonesia Action Network - supporting human rights, justice and democracy

PO Box 1663. New York, NY 10035-1663 USA  +1-917-690-4391  www.etan.org | Facebook.com/ETANUSA | https://twitter.com/etan009
Bahrain Association of Banks (BAB) will hold its second open dialogue, under the patronage of Rasheed Al Maaraj, the governor of the Central Bank of Bahrain, on April 21 at Jumeirah Royal Saray Hotel, Seef.

The dialogue will bring together top banking professionals to acquire different insights and to share expertise on the latest occurrences in the banking sector.

It will also provide an opportunity for banking institutions to meet the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB), Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB) and Bahrain Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BCCI), and amplify the experience of participants and empower them to exchange their knowledge and expertise.

Adnan Yousif, chairman of the association, said that this meeting will be held concurrently with the 100th anniversary of the banking sector in Bahrain. He praised all efforts exerted by all partners to strengthen the sector's leadership, increase its contribution to GDP, enhance its ability to innovate, employ modern technologies and create quality employment opportunities for citizens.

Yousif noted that BABs objective is to strengthen the role of the association as a platform that brings together all of bankers to exchange experiences and expertise, and discuss the specific needs of the banking sector in terms of capacity building, training and researches, and to enhance BABs ability to meet the aspirations of its members.  TradeArabia News Service
Bahrain rolled out a new programme of support for the 100 Arab start-ups shaping the Fourth Industrial Revolution, at the recently concluded World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa in Jordan.



The special programme will include:

 Access to the Bahraini market for all companies that have been recognised under the 100 Arab Start-Ups banner  going back to those selected in 2017;

 Fast-tracking of applications to establish a presence in Bahrain;

 The creation of a special 100 Arab Start-Ups concierge service to help start-ups navigate and benefit from the local Bahrain ecosystem;

 Opportunity to pitch and access funding from Bahrains Sovereign Wealth Fund, as well as the VC partners of Al Waha Fund of Funds and family offices in the kingdom.



The structured programme will allow start-ups to rapidly scale up their businesses and access a broader spectrum of support in Bahrain, said a statement.



Khalid Al Rumaihi, chief executive of the Bahrain Economic Development Board, said: The 100 Arab start-ups shaping the Fourth Industrial Revolution is a great initiative and we need to collectively ensure it not just an annual celebration but a constant source of support to our most promising companies  so they can go on to become world-beaters.



These companies will define our futures and we want to open up the opportunities Bahrain offers with a special set of incentives that offers the most comprehensive support possible. With this programme, in partnership with the World Economic Forum, we really are offering the very best to the very best, he added.



With a 31 per cent increase in investments compared to 2017, a new record was reached for regional start-up funding last year, according to data from MagniTT, a company twice selected by the 100 Arab Start-Ups initiative.



Foreign investment remained stable in 2018 with 30 per cent from outside the Arab world, while fintech took over e-commerce as the top industry as a result of an 8 per cent increase in deals since 2017.



A selection committee of experts on the start-up ecosystem in the region worked with the World Economic Forum and the EDB to screen and select the 100 start-ups.



Abdulrahman Tarabzouni, chief executive officer and managing director, Saudi Technology Ventures (STV); Ahmed El Alfi, founder and chairman, Sawari Ventures; Amir Farha, co-founder and managing director, Beco Capital; Areije Al Shakar, director and fund manager, Al Waha Venture Capital Fund; Senior Vice-President, Bahrain Development Bank; Hala Fadel, founder and managing partner, Leap Ventures; Khaled Talhouni, Managing Partner, Wamda Capital; and Mirek Dusek, deputy head of the Centre for Geopolitical and Regional Affairs, member of the executive committee, World Economic Forum.



With the full support and presence of TM King Abdullah II and Queen Rania Al Abdullah, the meeting convened more than 1,000 key leaders from government, business and civil society, as well as leaders from Gulf Cooperation Council countries, the Levant and North Africa, and key international stakeholders from East Africa, Europe and the US.



Building on the forums Annual Meeting in January and its theme of Globalization 4.0, the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa took place under the theme, Building Platforms of Cooperation, it stated.  TradeArabia News Service
Despite the GCC corporate and infrastructure capital market activity being slow in the first quarter of 2019 due to volatility in the global capital market, issuance volumes are likely to pick up strongly in the remainder of the year, led by Saudi Aramco and Saudi Telecom, said S&P Global Ratings in a new report.



We have seen visibly lower issuance by GCC corporates in the first months of the year. Total bond and sukuk issuance in the year-to-date is around $1.1 billion, and largely from two issuersthe Saudi food and beverage group Almarai Company, which came to the market with its debut $500 million five-year 5.95 per cent sukuk, and a $600 million sukuk issued by Bahrain sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat, said S&P in the report.



This situation is likely to change in the coming days and months, with the likes of Saudi Aramco and Saudi Telecom lining up to tap the international capital markets. With average yields on GCC bonds and sukuk having falling in recent weeks to levels not seen since 2017, issuers see an opportunity to lock in lower rates on long-term borrowings, it added.



The regional real estate markets, notably in Dubai, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, remain under pressure due to a combination of continued oversupply and waning demand. We expect Dubai residential real estate prices to fall further in 2019, approaching levels last seen at the nadir of the 2009-2010 property crash, before a gradual stabilization in 2020, though without a meaningful recovery in 2021, the report said.  TradeArabia News Service
The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) recently presented the Global Champion Award to Egypts Minister of Tourism, Dr Rania al-Mashat, for Egypts efforts in promoting sustainable tourism.



The annual award recognises the efforts of countries or officials in countries that have succeeded, through their policies and initiatives, in raising the competitiveness of the tourism sector.



This is the first time for a country or a minister in the Middle East to receive such an award, the WTTC said, which was held during the 2019 Global Summit held in Seville, Spain, between April 2 and 4.



Under Al-Mashat's guidance, Egypts tourism sector recovered rapidly with the country's tourist numbers increasing 16.5 per cent in 2018, which is higher than the global average of 3.9 per cent.



Upon receiving the award, Dr Al-Mashat said: "The appreciation of the International Council for Tourism and Travel for the efforts of Egypt to promote the tourism sector is a certificate and a token we all cherish."



She explained that the Ministry of Tourism's main goal is to enable at least one member of each Egyptian family to work in the sector. - TradeArabia News Service
Anantara Eastern Mangroves, a luxurious hotel in Abu Dhabi, has appointed Khaled Sharabassy as the new general manager.



Sharabassy joins Anantara with more than 23 years of experience in the hotel industry, more than 14 of which were gained in the Middle East. Prior to this, Sharabassy worked extensively in hospitality in his native country of Egypt.



With a wealth of dynamic experience across a range of management roles, Sharabassy has enjoyed demonstrable success driving operational excellence and optimising hotel revenue. In his new position at Anantara Eastern Mangroves, he joins a team of more than 230 employees from 35 countries committed to the propertys continued success.



I am delighted to be embarking on this new experience and working with such a determined and enthusiastic team, said Sharabassy. Together, we will consistently strive to go the extra mile to deliver exceptional experiences that exceed our customers expectations.



Anantara Eastern Mangroves offers 222 rooms and suites of luxury and comfort, complemented by stunning views across the mangrove lagoon and Abu Dhabi city. Combining features that reflect the rich Arabian heritage and modern design elements, the spacious rooms and suites are ideal to immerse yourself in tranquil surroundings. - TradeArabia News Service
Dhaka, Apr 7 (UNI) Bangladesh Jatiya Sangsad Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury on Sunday reiterated that Bangladesh wanted safe, peaceful and permanent repatriation of displaced Rohingyas with the help of United Nations Organisation and other international agencies.

"Bangladesh wants a safe, peaceful and permanent repatriation of Rohingyas The IPU (Inter-Parliamentary Union) states should come forward to reach a quick and sustainable solution of the crisis of Rohingyas, who fled away here being victims of Myanmar military atrocities," the speaker said while delivering her speech in Qatar, quoting a statement.

Dr Chaudhury was attending IPU meeting on Consideration of requests for the inclusion of an emergency item in the agenda of the 140th assembly at Doha Sheraton Convention Centre in Qatar.
Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead(WASHINGTON) -- 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 ABC News' 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."



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 from 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.



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," This Week host George 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.



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.



"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 Stephanopoulos.



"Anybody who knows Donald Trump should be concerned about his abuse of authority," he added.



Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday, the president 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.



"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.



Copyright  2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
ETAN is an incredible organization. It was an important part of our struggle for self-determination, struggle for the permanent Maritime Boundary with Australia, and during the last 19 years, it has been part of Timorese struggle to reconstruct and to rebuild its country. At this critical juncture of Timor's development, it is critical to walk together with Timorese to achieve our dream for better life where every citizen has the conditions to meet its basic rights, including the economic and social rights to have a dignified life. --Gute Neves SUPPORT ETAN TODAY! Invest in justice, democracy and human rights Don't delay - donate to ETAN today! East Timor and Indonesia Action Network

PO Box 1663,

New York, NY 10035-1663 USA December 2018 Dear friend of ETAN, We write to urge you to support the work of the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network for the coming year. We are an organization funded almost entirely by the grassroots; we rely on you - and others like you - for support. ETAN is the only solidarity group which carries the mantle of upholding the rights of the people of Timor-Leste and Indonesia, working persistently and fearlessly to hold the world's governments, especially the United States, to account for complicity in rights violations. - Mica Barreto Soares ETAN is the only solidarity group which carries the mantle of upholding the rights of the people of Timor-Leste and Indonesia, working persistently and fearlessly to hold the world's governments, especially the United States, to account for complicity in rights violations. - Mica Barreto Soares ETAN has worked since 1991 to advance self-determination, democracy, and human rights for the peoples of Timor-Leste (East Timor), Indonesia and West Papua -- work that remains necessary. Please help us continue the struggle for justice by contributing to ETAN today There are exciting changes at ETAN: During this past year, we welcomed an impressive group of activists to our board. We are working with them to reinvigorate ETANs activism. Three new board members are Timorese who have studied in the U.S. and are now back in Timor-Leste helping to build their nation. Berta Antonieta interned in ETANs New York office in 2015. She is active in Dili with Grupu Feminista iha Timor and working for Lao Hamutuk. Policy analyst Gute Neves has worked as a journalist, a researcher with civil society, and adviser to the President of Timor-Leste. Mica Barreto Soares was active as a young student with RENETIL in opposing the Indonesian occupation. She is currently completing her doctorate on China-Timor-Leste Relations. With these new members among our leadership we look forward to strengthening our collaboration with Timor-Leste civil society groups. I have valued ETAN's work and contribution as a solidarity movement for Timor-Leste self-determination. Currently, I am working with La'o Hamutuk as economic and gender researcher. I am also interested in learning more about West Papua's current situation and want ETAN to help Timor-Leste and West Papua to connect and share experiences. -Berta Antonieta I have valued ETAN's work and contribution as a solidarity movement for Timor-Leste self-determination. Currently, I am working with La'o Hamutuk as economic and gender researcher. I am also interested in learning more about West Papua's current situation and want ETAN to help Timor-Leste and West Papua to connect and share experiences. -Berta Antonieta Our other new board members are scholars and seasoned activists with long histories of engagement in the region. Helen Hill has been involved in Timor activism since before Indonesia's invasion. An early scholar of Timorese nationalism, she moved to Timor-Leste after retiring from Australia's Victoria University. She is currently an Adjunct Professor of Community Development at Universidade Nacional Timor Lorosa'e. David Webster was active with the East Timor Alert Network (ETAN/Canada). He teaches history at Bishop's University and serves as a member of the international advisory council of Timor-Leste's Centro Nacional Chega! He recently edited Flowers in the Wall: Truth and Reconciliation in Timor-Leste, Indonesia and Melanesia. Brad Simpson has been active with ETAN since the early 1990s. He teaches history at the University of Connecticut and is Research Fellow and Director of the National Security Archive's Indonesia and East Timor Documentation Project working to declassify U.S. government documents. Please join me in welcoming them to ETANs leadership* by helping us meet an ambitious goal. We need 120 donors to contribute a total of $12,000 to help ETAN begin 2019 on a strong financial footing. Will you become one of them, joining others in investing in ETANs pursuit of justice and in the defense of democracy and human rights? This August 30, Timor-Leste, the UN, and ETAN will mark the 20th anniversary of the historic vote for independence. As we celebrate the Timorese peoples decision to break free of Indonesian occupation, we plan to remind the international community of its many unfulfilled pledges of justice. With your critical assistance, ETAN can continue its work supporting Timorese efforts to ensure accountability for Indonesias crimes as well as for the complicity of Jakartas partners-in-crime  such as the U.S. government. T he recent U.S. election offers opportunities to urge the new Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, with its many new members, to support human rights, accountability and justice in Indonesia, Timor-Leste and West Papua. Opportunities to do so have been severely limited under President Trump and the previous conservative Congress. The Indonesian army is not running Indonesia any longer, but it is still powerful. The architects of attempted genocide still walk free. Timorese people's struggle for fair and people-centered development goes on. The Indonesian army still carries out in West Papua some of the tactics it pioneered in Timor-Leste. Activism is still needed, solidarity is still needed and it can still make a difference to Timorese and Indonesian struggles. No group has made this point more persistently than ETAN, which needs and merits support. --David Webster The Indonesian army is not running Indonesia any longer, but it is still powerful. The architects of attempted genocide still walk free. Timorese people's struggle for fair and people-centered development goes on. The Indonesian army still carries out in West Papua some of the tactics it pioneered in Timor-Leste. Activism is still needed, solidarity is still needed and it can still make a difference to Timorese and Indonesian struggles. No group has made this point more persistently than ETAN, which needs and merits support. --David Webster During Indonesias April 2019 elections, we plan to evaluate the leading candidates human rights promises and records. And whoever wins, we will continue to support progressive Indonesian voices calling for justice, tolerance, and environmentally-sound development. Your help is crucial to ETAN's support for the rights of the people of West Papua, including their struggle for genuine self-determination. Repression is increasing in the territory, and we are working with Tapol and others to speak out against human rights violations and support fundamental solutions to this long-running conflict. Every day, ETAN compiles and distributes information about developments in Timor-Leste to an international list of more than 6800 people (1200 more subscribers than this time last year). Many of you are subscribers to this list and/or our similar lists on Indonesia and West Papua. Please donate to support this valuable service. With your support, ETAN continues to inform, educate, advocate, and organize in support of the Timorese, Indonesia and West Papuan peoples fundamental rights, including democratic governance, adequate nutrition and decent health care, and freedom of expression. We amplify their concerns and voices for a global. audience. A luta continua, John M. Miller

National Coordinator, ETAN

New York, NY * The continuing members of ETANs board are Craig Hughes (NY), the Rev. Elice Higginbotham (AZ), Chris Lundry (Mexico City), Karen Orenstein (DC), Charles Scheiner (NY), Pamela Sexton (Dili), Andrew Teixeira de Sousa (Jakarta, and Jeffrey Yoder (IL). How to Donate to ETAN

Donate safely by credit card below , or mail your donation to us. To support ETAN's political advocacy work, write a check made out to ETAN. For ETAN's educational efforts, U.S. tax-deductible donations of over $50 can be made out to A.J. Muste Memorial Institute/ETAN. Please mail contributions to: ETAN

PO Box 1663

New York, NY 10035-1663



Thank you for your support. Support ETAN and our work for justice, human rights and democracy. Please donate today! Join others in supporting ETAN by donating now! Our work is only possible with your generous support. Mail your checks to:

ETAN

PO Box 1663

New York, NY 10035-1663 USA make checks payable to East Timor Action Network, Inc.;

for U.S. tax-deductible donations of $50 or more,

make

put ETAN in memo field your check payable to AJ Muste Memorial Institute,put ETAN in memo field Donate by Credit Card To donate by credit card via Paypal. ( To support ETAN's political and advocacy work. These donations give ETAN the most flexibility, but are not tax-deductible. ): Become an ETAN sustainer Make a pledge to support ETAN

Amount : $10.00USD - monthly $5/month : $5.00USD - monthly $15/month : $15.00USD - monthly $25/month : $25.00USD - monthly $50/month : $50.00USD - monthly $75/month : $75.00USD - monthly $100/month : $100.00USD - monthly #125/month : $125.00USD - monthly

Your comments Make a one-time U.S. tax-deductible donation by credit card to support ETAN's educational work: Make a recurring monthly U.S. tax-deductible donation by credit card to support ETAN's educational work: Questions? Comments Email or call +1-917-690-4391

Make a non-tax-deductible donation by check. (best deal for ETAN with the fewest fees) Make a U.S. tax-deductible donation by check, make your check payable to AJ Muste Memorial Institute, and put ETAN in memo field. Mail your checks to ETAN, PO Box 1663, New York, NY 10035-1663. Thank you for your support! Gift Books Learn Tetum Order from ETAN New York residents may obtain a copy of ETAN's Annual Report by writing to the Department of Law Charities Bureau Registration Section, 120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271.

WWW http://www.etan.org


Kazakhstan lauds Bangladesh Development in social, economic sectors

Dhaka, Apr 8 (UNI) Kazakhstan Mazhilis of Parliament Chairman Nurlan Nigmatulin lauded Bangladeshs unprecedented development in the social and economic sectors as Jatiya Sangsad (JS) Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury paid a courtesy call on him at a hotel in Doha, the capital of Qatar.

During the meeting held on Sunday evening, they discussed bilateral issues and safe as well as peaceful repatriation of the Rohingyas to their homeland in Myanmar, said a press statement from Jatiya Sangshad public relation department, here.

In the meeting, Dr Shirin said Bangladesh has emerged as a role model of women empowerment in the world since the prime minister, speaker, deputy leader of the House and deputy leader of the opposition in the House are women.
How can you break the stereotypes society has imposed on men? How can you live a life that you know is true and honouring of yourself, knowing you will most probably be judged or ridiculed? Are there others out there feeling the same way I do and going through what I am experiencing and feeling?

These are some of the questions I was asking myself after returning from Vietnam in 2012, where I had just attended a Universal Medicine retreat. I had come to realise that I had been subscribing to models of men created by society that were not true. I was now struggling to live as a true man in a world that had other expectations. I also knew I couldnt be the only man on the planet feeling this.

60% Complete / What is a true man? Men have reinterpreted what it is to be a real man. They are innately tender, caring and nurturing, only different to a woman in their physicality.

It was around this time I had a strong impulse to initiate a mens group, something different to the existing models. I wanted to go deeper and discuss what I was feeling, I wanted men to be able to express what they were feeling deep inside but never had an opportunity or felt safe to do.

After taking counsel from Universal Medicine founder Serge Benhayon the first of these meetings was held in Brisbane in mid-2012. For those who attended it took a while for us to let down our guards. However there was no denying that we knew these meetings were beneficial in helping us explore and discuss what we had been experiencing in our lives.

We were able to come together as men, as equals, and discuss without judgement, without problem solving, without blame, our day-to-day experiences that we were all going through but were unable to share in other environments.

As men we were able for the first time to discuss and describe the tender man we felt inside, as well as receive and offer support to bring that tender man to the fore and not be afraid or ashamed to present him to the world.

The foundations had been set, and then from this one group other groups evolved around the world through and under the banner of Universal Medicine. Since then these groups have flourished and lives have been transformed. The men attending these groups have explored and discovered enough of who they are to be able to share this with others; they can now offer a deeper understanding on how life can be lived with and through the ageless wisdom.

Five years on  in 2017, after returning from my second Vietnam retreat  I felt a pull similar to that in 2012. This time the impulse was to have the men that had been attending the Universal Medicine mens groups to now host meetings that could support others unfold the protective layers so many of us accumulate over the years. To offer a model that supports men to be gentle and tender without the need to be hard and void of emotion. These new groups would offer a space where men could gather and share wisdom and realisations to help each other move along their path back to being a true man. It was then in Brisbane that the groups we now know as the Unfolding Men were established.

After consolidating a grounding for these groups, other men that had regularly frequented the Universal Medicine mens groups around the world started to feel the pull and Unfolding Men groups have now established themselves in Australian capital cities and regions, as well as the UK. Wisdom and lived experiences are being shared between the men for the benefit of all, as we are all forever learning and confirming as we travel our separate yet united paths.

I personally have benefited from these groups in a way that has given me an understanding of the world I live in through true communication and expression. My relationships with my wife, children, son-in-law, parents, friends, work associates and people I meet daily have blossomed due to what I have gained sharing experiences between myself and other men. What is also evident is how others that attend these groups are now living their lives and sharing their experiences with others.

It is beautiful to see men living their lives expressing out to the world their true selves, not being restricted by what society has dictated they should be. To see how these men are now living compared to where they once were is a true joy.

To find out more about Unfolding Men or to join a group, please click here.

Filed under

Ageless Wisdom, Awareness, Brotherhood, Communication, Expression
Colombia adopts comprehensive strategy to combat migrant smuggling

Bogota D.C, Colombia 8 April 2019 - Since 2017 UNODC, under the Global Action to Prevent and Address Trafficking in Persons and the Smuggling of Migrants ( GLO.ACT), has supported the national government in developing a comprehensive strategy to address the Smuggling of Migrants (SOM). These efforts recently culminated in the adoption of the countries' first ever strategy on SOM by the third Intersectoral Commission to Combat Smuggling of Migrants on 25 March 2019.

Over the course of the past three years, UNODC provided technical assistance in order to help develop a viable strategy. This included hosting workshops, discussions and validation roundtables with multiple State entities and institutions, thus ensuring that as a broad range of key stakeholders had inputted into the development of the strategy.

Speaking about the adoption of the strategy, Mr. Gilberto Zuleta, GLO.ACT's National Project Officer and thematic coordinator for human trafficking and migrant smuggling for Colombia, highlighted the effort made by the national government, in cooperation with UNODC, to strengthen the approach to combat this crime. He said, "UNODC commends the governments efforts to combat migrant smuggling and we reiterate our commitment to provide support, not only in the development of such key strategies but also in their implementation."

The Global Action to Prevent and Address Trafficking in Persons and the Smuggling of Migrants (GLO.ACT) is a four-year (2015-2019), 11 million joint initiative by the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The project is being implemented in partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). GLO.ACT aims to provide assistance to governmental authorities and civil society organizations across 13 strategically selected countries: Belarus, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Kyrgyz Republic, Lao PDR, Mali, Morocco, Nepal, Niger, Pakistan, South Africa, Ukraine. GLO.ACT works with the 13 countries to plan and implement strategic national counter-trafficking and counter smuggling efforts through a prevention, protection, prosecution, and partnerships approach. It supports the development of more effective responses to trafficking and smuggling, including providing assistance to victims of trafficking and vulnerable migrants through the strengthening of identification, referral, and direct support mechanisms.

For more information, please contact:

Gilberto Zuleta Ibarra

Gilberto.zuleta@un.org

www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/glo-act/

glo.act@un.org

Twitter: @glo_act
Vice President for Student Affairs Sam Gonzales with the 2019 Golden Feather recipients. Photo credit: Brandon Fletcher

(April 8, 2019) -- Shining a spotlight on the incredible contributions of UTSA students, faculty and staff, winners of the 2019 University Life Awards were announced during a special two night ceremony. UTSA President Taylor Eigmhy and several members of his leadership team, including Vice President of Student Affairs Sam Gonzales, were on hand to honor these students and organizations for their impressive accomplishments.

The University Life Awards recognize outstanding students, student organizations, staff and faculty for their contributions to the quality of student life at UTSA. The awards, coordinated by both the Council of Student Organizations and the Student Government Association, are presented annually during the spring semester.

More than 300 nominations from organizations and individuals were submitted this year for consideration in categories including Outstanding Registered Student Organization, Outstanding Program Celebrating Culture, Diversity and Inclusion, and Outstanding Students by Classification, among many others.

The highest honors for individual students go to the recipients of the Jane Findling Award, recognizing individual achievements over the 2018-2019 academic year, and the Golden Feather Award, recognizing students that have crafted a powerful legacy over the entire course of their academic careers at UTSA.

The Golden Feather Award winners:

Aileen Montana

Bharath Ram

Brittany Ashley Garcia

Cameron Nguyen

Jacob Mauceri

Joshua Guerra

Marielle Gaspar

Sanah Jivani

Simon Karottakuttu

Jane Findling Award winners:

Beanna Okeugo

Elvira Carias

Kelsey Bauers

Stephanie Opah

Yasemin Dinibutun

The full list of student organization winners include:

Outstanding Collaborative Program

Honors Alliance

Outstanding Community Activism Organization

Women in Leadership

Outstanding Community Service Program

Hunger and Homelessness Movement

Outstanding Educational Program

Rowdy Women in Physics

Outstanding Membership Development Program

Hunger and Homelessness Movement

Outstanding Performing Organization

Overly Chromatic

Outstanding Professional Development Program

Pre-Pharmacy Student Organization

Outstanding Program Celebrating Culture, Diversity and Inclusion

Iranian Students Association

Outstanding Religious/Spiritual Program

Voices in Praise

Fraternity Man of the Year

Nick Ng of Gamma Beta Fraternity

Sorority Woman of the Year

Rachel Jendrzey of Alpha Delta Pi Sorority

Diane Abdo Outstanding Advisor Award

Mary McNaughton-Cassill of Active Minds

Outstanding President

Osasu Ewansiha of the National Society of Black Engineers

Outstanding New Student Organization

PERIOD at UTSA

Outstanding Registered Student Organization

Hunger and Homelessness Movement

Outstanding Sponsored Student Organization

Honors Alliance

The full list of individual student, faculty, and staff winners include:

Outstanding Freshman

Anjali Shah

Karla Madrigal

Outstanding Sophomore

Lacee Barnes

Outstanding Junior

Denise Guerra

Outstanding Senior

Roxanne Rodriguez

Outstanding Graduate Student

Victoria Castellanos

Male Athlete of the Year

Jhivvan Jackson

Female Athlete of the Year

Julie Houston

Volunteer of the Year Award

Beanna Okeugo

Elvira Carias

John Kaulfus Outstanding Professional Staff Member

Jessica Dawson

Outstanding Faculty Member

Gilberta Turner

Nominations for the 2020 University Life Awards will open in December.
Wang is just one of two doctoral students from the U.S. chosen to participate in this research internship.

(April 8, 2019) -- Yangting Tina Wang, a doctoral student in the UTSA Department of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies, was recently selected to participate in a research internship this summer with the WIDA Consortium, the largest consortium in the country that develops language assessments. She was one of two doctoral students from across the United States chosen to participate.

I feel very excited to receive the internship offer, said Wang. The selection process is highly competitive. I am thrilled to be offered the opportunity to participate and collaborate with WIDA researchers to conduct rigorous research on k-12 language assessments.

For 10 weeks this summer, Wang will work on a special research project related to speaking assessments for English language learners (ELLs). She will work with Mark Chapman and Alicia Kim, research scholars at WIDA, on a study design, data analyses, literature review, and the presentation of findings.

I hope to learn more about WIDAs Access for ELLs and I wish to strengthen my research methods and enrich my working experience through this summer internship, said Wang. WIDAs mission in serving linguistically diverse populations is also my research passion. Since my research specialization is language assessment, the internship will greatly help me with my doctoral studies.

Her advice to students interested in pursuing similar opportunities is to be persistent.

"This was not the first time that I applied for the internship, said Wang. I applied last year and was on the short list. I was invited for an interview but was not selected. I did not give up and applied again this year.

Research experience, Wang said, is also important.

I had the opportunity to assist my advisor, Dr. Becky Huang with various research projects such as the Bilingual Childrens Language and Literacy project and the ETS TOEFL Junior project at the Language Learning and Assessment Laboratory, she said. The research experience greatly helped me with the WIDA interview.

This past month, Wang also received a 2018-2019 Whos Who award from the university.

I would like to thank Dr. Huang for her mentorship and the peer support I received from members of our Language Learning and Assessment lab, said Wang. I also thank Drs. Juliet Langman, Patricia Sanchez, and Lucila Ek for their wonderful support in my doctoral study and internship. I am very grateful to have these wonderful professors in the College of Education and Human Development to guide and support me. I am also thankful for the help I received from the UTSA Career Center.
Jim King Receives UWs George Duke Humphrey Distinguished Faculty Award

Jim King

For more than a quarter century, political science Professor Jim King has taught University of Wyoming students about the functioning of their government.

He teaches American and Wyoming Government, U.S. Presidency and seminars on American Political Institutions -- courses that form the bedrock of UWs Political Science Program. The polarizing nature of American politics, especially since 1994, makes these courses both more important as well as more difficult to teach, according to Kings colleagues.

That devotion to leadership attests to Kings talent and commitment to teaching these subjects, which have earned him the George Duke Humphrey Distinguished Faculty Award.

Named for UWs 13th president, who served from 1945-1964, the George Duke Humphrey Distinguished Faculty Award recognizes teaching effectiveness, distinction in scholarly work and distinguished service to the university and state.

As a challenging, yet caring instructor, he has influenced thousands of students for nearly 40 years. As a distinguished scholar, he has written some of the nations most important work on the executive branch of government, which continues to influence academics to this day, says Professor Stephanie Anderson, the head of UWs School of Politics, Public Affairs and International Studies.

King, who has been at UW since 1992, has literally written the book on Wyoming politics. His work with the Wyoming Survey and Analysis Center informs political analysis of Wyoming voters in state and national elections, and makes him a sought-after commentator for state and national publications.

His national service is equally impressive, having been voted the president of the Southwestern Political Science Association. He has been recognized with numerous awards for teaching, scholarship and service. He has received the UW College of Arts and Sciences Exemplary Faculty Award as well as the colleges Extraordinary Merit Award for Research. At the university level, he has won the Promoting Intellectual Engagement (PIE) Award and the Top Prof Award from UWs Mortar Board.

Jim is a model teacher, scholar, colleague and mentor. I have watched him carefully for more than two decades and consider him to be one of the most professional, smart, energetic and giving professionals that I have ever known, says UW Professor Robert Schuhmann. I have learned tremendously from him during my career. No question is too big or too small. When there is a need for a person to make an important professional contribution, Jim King is the person to whom I turn.

Kings student evaluations show that he is up to the challenge and consistently is able to deliver on UWs promise that it will inform successive generations of students of their civic duties and show them how U.S. democracy works, according to a former colleague.

Dr. King was an overall excellent professor. He was able to engage the students throughout the class and present it in an exciting manner so that it stuck with me as a student, one student writes. He presented the material effectively by providing examples to each so that there was a true understanding of the material.

Another student adds: Professor King has a very effective teaching style by remaining nonpartisan during class and simply presenting facts in a logical way.

One student recommends that all students take Kings classes because he encourages involvement.

Professor King is a very effective teacher and a strong advocate for student participation in local events, the student writes. He is an excellent speaker and makes the subject that he teaches very interesting to learn about.

King earned a B.A. degree in social science teaching (1974) from Michigan State University, East Lansing; an M.A degree in political science (1977) from Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo; and a Ph.D. in political science (1983) from the University of Missouri, Columbia.
UWs AHC Awards Teaching and Research Grants

The University of Wyomings American Heritage Center (AHC) recently awarded 2019 teaching and research grants to two UW faculty members and one faculty member at Northwest College in Powell.

The AHC is proud to offer support to university and community college instructors throughout the state, says Ginny Kilander, reference services manager of the AHC. These funds help facilitate research in AHC collections, which results in the knowledge being shared with broad Wyoming communities. It is always exciting to see the creative uses of the collections in the teaching curriculum, and we are happy to work with instructors and students in developing course content and research projects.

Grants are awarded to recipients to implement research projects, course development and symposia that use AHCs resource material. Grant awards range from $200 to $3,000, depending on the scope and type of project.

The grant recipients are:

-- Melissa Morris, an assistant professor in the UW Department of History. Her grant will support a one-day conference to showcase UW student research featuring AHC collections. The full-day symposium will be held in fall 2019 at the AHC with support from the Department of History and American Studies Program.

-- Cecelia Aragon, a professor in the UW Department of Theatre and Dance. Her grant will support her spring 2019 course, Teaching Theater Artists: Service Learning in the Community. Her students will read and explore childrens literature and stories found in the AHCs Toppan Rare Book Library. The class will meet weekly in the AHC to review the literature and story books.

-- Amy McKinney, an associate professor in the Department of History at Northwest College. Her grant will support a speaker series at Northwest College in the fall 2019 semester. The talks will focus on the 150th anniversary of womens suffrage in Wyoming and will highlight specific Wyoming women such as Mary Bellamy, the first woman in the Wyoming Legislature, as well as themes addressing womens issues in Wyoming. The speaker series will culminate with a special celebration Dec. 10, the official anniversary date of suffrage in Wyoming.

Additionally, scholars from across the country and beyond are encouraged to apply for UWs AHC travel grant program. Awarded annually with funding from permanent endowments associated with UWs world-class repository of manuscript collections, rare books and university archives, the grants can award up to $750 each to provide support for travel, food and lodging to researchers who wish to use the AHCs collections. The grant deadline is April 15. To find out more information and to apply, visit www.uwyo.edu/ahc/grants/index.html.
UW in the News

State, national and international media frequently feature the University of Wyoming and members of its community in stories. Here is a summary of some of the recent coverage:

Newsweek and Forbes Magazine interviewed UW Assistant Professor Corey Tarwater and colleagues about their research showing that Hawaiian native birds have almost totally been replaced by invasive species. Without native species, a brand-new ecological community composed of introduced plants and birds now inhabits the island. To read UWs release, click here.

UW economist Rob Godby commented on a Casper Star-Tribune (CS-T) article on the rapidly declining production of coal in Wyomings Powder River Basin, the largest coal-producing region in the country.

Nature World News published UWs release noting that UW researchers have published a study showing that reintroduction of top predators into an ecosystem doesnt necessarily return it to historical conditions.

David Jewell, UW associate vice president for budgeting and fiscal planning, told the UW Board of Trustees recently that, with more out-of-state students receiving tuition discounts, the university is not receiving as much tuition revenue as expected, reported The Laramie Boomerang.

EurekAlert!, a science distribution website, noted that researchers, including UW Assistant Professor Zoe Pearson, studied how efforts to curtail the flow of cocaine into the United States from South America have made drug trafficking operations more widespread, making it harder to eradicate. Medical News, Technology Networks and Phys.Org published similar articles.

UWs release highlighting UW researchers contributions to a study showing that arctic warming contributes to drought was published on the National Science Foundation website.

County 10 published UWs release noting Katie Li-Oakey, an associate professor in chemical engineering, and her team were among 20 semifinal entries for the 2018-19 Department of Energy Chain Reaction Innovations competition.

UW Board of Trustees member Wava Tully said the search for a suitable College of Health Sciences dean continues, noted The Boomerang. The college has not had a permanent dean for two years, and Tully says there is a shortage of candidates.

The Wyoming Tribune Eagle reported that Gov. Mark Gordon wants UW to be the economic driver for the future of Wyoming. He backs investing state dollars for research into technology at UW.

Composites World reported that UW researchers and Western Research Institute scientists are developing a research project that will turn coal, crude oil and biomass into low-cost carbon fiber.

This seasons harsh winter has been hard on deer and elk herds, according to data collected by UW scientists who are tracking the animals, according to goHUNT.

The CS-T noted a new UW study that shows elk are generally unconcerned with presence of wolves during feeding time.

Data produced by UWs Survey and Analysis Center suggested that opioid abuse, both prescription and illicit, has started to decline as related poisoning death rates stabilize in the state, according to The Wyoming Tribune Eagle.

The CS-T, Wyoming Business Report and Upton Economic Development Board published UWs release announcing the five student-led teams vying for seed prize money to get their business plans off the ground in the John P. Ellbogen $50K Entrepreneurship Competition later this month.

UW law Professor Ken Chestek was quoted in The CS-T about campaign finance reform discussed in the recent Wyoming Legislature.

UWs Helios Trio participated in the Casper Chamber Music Societys series last week, according to The CS-T. Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britains performance this week also was featured by The CS-T and the Boomerang.

Wyo4News reported that UW Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship CEO Jack Mason is the guest speaker this week at the Rock Springs Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

Ali Nejadmalayeri, the John A. Guthrie Endowed Chair in Banking and Financial Services, discussed with WalletHub cash-back credit cards and what type are the best rewards cards for consumers.

Wyoming Business Report notes that UWs Center of Excellence for Produced Water Management is part of a statewide project to help agriculture leaders launch an initiative to clean oil field wastewater for use in arid Western states. They hope to reduce the regions carbon footprint and improve the lives of ranchers and farmers.

The UW Board of Trustees recently approved new bachelors degrees in general studies; elementary and special education; and art education, reported The Boomerang.

County 10 published UWs release noting Fremont County schools third-grade students participation in the annual Engineers Week, a partnership between UW, and the Wyoming Board of Professional Engineers and Professional Land Surveyors.

UWs release announcing Susan Jerke as the recipient of UWs Marvin Millgate Engaged Staff Award was published on County 17s website. Jerke was honored for her work as a regional director of the Wyoming Small Business Development Center Network.

The CS-T interviewed UW Lecturer David Wilms about U.S. Sen. John Barrassos efforts to come up with a bipartisan agreement to make changes to the Endangered Species Act. Wilms was a policy adviser under Gov. Matt Mead.

UW Extension educators contributed to a Wildfire: Preparing the Ranch and Farm tips publication, according to High Plains Journal.

Brown Note Production, of Thornton, Colo., has installed a new enhanced L-Acoustics Kara sound system in UWs College of Arts and Sciences auditorium.

Members from the Wyoming NASA Space Grant Consortium at UW helped Gillette elementary school students launch weather balloons last week, reported The Gillette News Record.

Wyoming Public Radio interviewed UW saxophone student Mikayla Peterson, from Rock Springs, who won the annual Dorothy Jacoby Concerto Competition.
Fort Polk, LA (71446)

Today

Showers early, then cloudy overnight. Areas of patchy fog. Low 64F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Showers early, then cloudy overnight. Areas of patchy fog. Low 64F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.
By Apr. 08, 2019





The positive impact of Work Ready Communities will be the topic for a Paducah Area Chamber of Commerces Business Education Partnership luncheon on Tuesday, April 16. The featured speaker is Kristina Slattery, Executive Director of the Office of Workforce, Community Development and Research, with the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development.The meeting will begin at 11:30 am at the Commerce Center, 300 South 3rd Street, in the Paducah Bank Community Room. The luncheon is open to anyone wanting to learn more about the regions workforce and economic development efforts. There is a $15 fee to attend the catered luncheon.Slattery will provide an update on the states Work Ready program and the importance of the certification for a positive impact for economic development. Slattery has been with the states Economic Development cabinet for over three years, joining the Cabinet following a 10 year career in Human Resources and Operations Management with The Home Depot, where she was responsible for all customer facing, inventory management and staffing aspects of her store.A Kentucky Work Ready Community certification is a measure of a county's workforce quality. It is an assurance to business and industry that the community is committed to providing the highly-skilled workforce required in today's competitive global economy. Currently in Kentucky there are 41 counties who have achieved the certification including McCracken, Marshall, Graves, Ballard and Carlisle. Fulton and Hickman Counties are Certified Work Ready In Progress.Pre-registration is required to attend. Those interested in attending should register online at www.paducahchamber.org, email info@paducahchamber.org or call 270-443-1746 by noon, April 12.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff Apr. 08, 2019 | 11:29 AM | PRINCETON

The Princeton Police Department is asking for the public's help in identifying a woman suspected of several local break-ins.

Police say the woman is wanted for breaking into multiple vehicles and stealing purses, phones, and cash, among other items. The woman was captured in surveillance photos at a bank in Richmond, KY while attempting to withdraw money from a victim's account.

The woman was seen in a white SUV, with Florida tag AIF-I84. According to police, the tag is stolen and comes back to a trailer out of Florida. Police aren't sure if the woman is from Florida or just stole the tag while going through the state.

Anyone with information about the woman or the SUV, is urged to call the Princeton Police Department at 270-365-4657.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Apr. 08, 2019 | MURRAY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Apr. 08, 2019 | 04:13 PM | MURRAY

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet has selected the preferred alternate for reconstruction of U.S. 641 through southern Calloway County.



The westernmost route of four proposed alternatives was chosen by KYTC engineers, design staff, and project consultants based on public input gathered from a March 12 public meeting in Hazel that drew more than 500 citizens.



Among 180 comments received, two-thirds of the comments favored the westernmost route, while one-tenth preferred the easternmost option.



The project focuses on improving safety and mobility along U.S. 641 between the Kentucky-Tennessee state line and the Clarks River Bridge just south of Murray, about 5 miles away. Improvements from the bridge into the south edge of Murray are part of a separate project.



According to KYTC District 1 Chief Engineer Kyle Poat, drilling crews will start collecting sub-soil information along the preferred route almost immediately.



Real estate appraisals and right-of-way acquisition efforts could move ahead as early as June with utility work to start in early 2020, Poat said. We anticipate having the project ready to bid in the fall of 2020 with construction expected to begin along the Kentucky portion of the project in late 2020.



The Tennessee Department of Transportation is planning improvements in Tennessee from Paris northward to Hazel that are likely to advance on a different schedule.
By The Associated Press

By The Associated Press Apr. 08, 2019 | 05:38 AM | FORT CAMPBELL

Dozens of soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division are deploying to Ukraine this month for a scheduled nine month tour.

Fort Campbell said more than 150 soldiers assigned to 2nd Brigade Combat Team "Strike" will advise the Ukrainian Armed Forces with development of a combat training center.

The soldiers will replace the Tennessee National Guard's 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment, which arrived in Ukraine last summer.

Development of the training center has been continuing since 2015. Ukraine is expected to assume full training responsibility sometime in 2020.

The soldiers will conduct a colors casing ceremony Friday at Fort Campbell. The casing of the colors is an Army tradition that represents movement of the brigade to a new location.
The small train. [Photo provided by Shenyang railway bureau]

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.

A local waits for the train. [Photo provided by Shenyang railway bureau]

Local residents come to fetch water. [Photo provided by Tonghua railway]

Water rushes from a pipe to a cistern at the station. [Photo provided by Tonghua railway]

A local pours water into a basin at home. [Photo provided by Tonghua railway]

A local waits for the train to come. [Photo provided by Tonghua railway]

Workers prepare to run water from the train to a cistern at the station. [Photo provided by Shenyang railway bureau]

(Source: Xinhua)
[Photo/China Daily]

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.

(Source: China Daily)
[Photo/Tuchong]

Health authorities have issued an action plan pledging to make all hospital toilets clean, hygienic and tidy by the end of 2019.

The action plan, with a theme of jointly advancing the "toilet revolution" campaign and promoting health and wellness, was jointly initiated by the National Health Commission and the office of the National Patriotic Health Campaign Commission.

The action plan is meant to raise people's awareness of public sanitation and help them cultivate a healthy lifestyle, it said.

Efforts should be made to improve infrastructure and enhance sanitation management, with a focus on environmental protection, according to the action plan.

An alarm system should be implemented in hospital restrooms for the convenience of the elderly while barrier-free facilities should be provided in hospital toilets for the pregnant and children, it added.

(Source: Xinhua)
Men try out face masks on a beach in Jinshan District, Shanghai. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The seemingly odd coupling of men and makeup is quietly changing the definition of masculinity.

If you consider buying a gift for your father or better half, why not add facial masks or anti-aging cream to your gift list on top of razors and smart gadgets?

It turns out that the skin care market for men in China has enjoyed over 50 percent growth for two consecutive years from 2016 to 2018, according to Alibaba's Tmall platform.

Notably, last year, sales of cosmetics for men surged 89 percent year-on-year on Tmall, higher than that of facial lotions, fragrances and oral hygiene products, though those items also experienced tremendous growth, the company said in an annual report on beauty trends.

In a telling sign, last year, male-only skin care brands recorded a 56-percent increase in sales year-on-year, while skin care companies have expanded their product lineups to stoke the desires of increasingly face-conscious men, with cleansers, lotions, BB creams and masks.

This echoed a finding by market research house Euromonitor, which pointed out that the growth of men's beauty and fashion products has outpaced that of women's since 2010, suggesting that men are increasingly becoming interested in shaping their own appearance.

There are several factors driving the growth of the male skin care and cosmetics market in China. Lucus Wang, art director of hair salon and spa chain Amani in Shanghai, pointed to the improvement in quality of life and the popularization of skin care as key reasons.

"Around 99 percent of male customers lack knowledge of their skin type and how to protect their skin. As such, the market is producing products designed to address these factors," said Wang.

Queenie Lin, former general manager of Biotherm, a brand under L'Oreal, agreed. "Skin care is not limited to just looking good. It is also related to men's pursuit of confidence," she said.

According to L'Oreal, men are becoming increasingly interested in using products that are specifically designed for them and are no longer satisfied with sharing products with family members.

And the male skin care and cosmetics market is thriving in most first-tier cities in China, the company pointed out that there are still over 500 million potential customers in more than 200 emerging cities.

This also has to do with changing demographics. While Chinese men born in the 1980s can barely accept the idea of using foundation, the post-90s generation are more likely to use popular online products such as BB cushions and eyebrow powder, according to fashion commentator Mao Xun.

"Personal grooming, such as cutting fingernails, will help to give men a good image," he said.

"Not so many years ago, moisturizer was taboo, and it's now commonplace," Brendan Gough, professor of social psychology at Leeds Beckett University, was quoted by CNN as saying. "Makeup is one of the last bastions of femininity that men are encroaching upon," alongside other areas traditionally dominated by women, such as cooking and child care.

(Source: China Daily)
Qiu Meng, a senior student at Xi'an Polytechnic University, shows her hand-drawing works of Xi'an. [Photo by Huo Yan/chinadaily.com.cn]

Qiu Meng has been fascinated with hand-drawing ever since she started attending university in Xi'an, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

Qiu is a member of the post-1995 generation, and is a senior student at Xi'an Polytechnic University, where she specializes in visual communication design.

It was while studying that Qui was inspired to portray what she eats and sees in Xi'an.

"I happened to draw a bowl of Mao cai, a typical Sichuan dish, in water color and found it was amazing. Then it occurred to me, why not try the beautiful scenery of Xi'an?" she said.

A historical city, Xi'an boasts plenty of historical cultural relics and remains, including the world-famous Qin terracotta warriors and horses that were made in the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC).

Her hand-drawings of scenic spots like the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, the Bell Tower of Xi'an, as well as local cuisine like biangbiang noodles soon became popular online.

"Painting is my way to express my affection to the city, and I hope my creations may help people get to know this city better," said Qiu.

Qiu Meng, a senior student at Xi'an Polytechnic University, drawing Xi'an's scenic spots. [Photo by Huo Yan/China Daily]

One of Qiu Meng's hand-drawing works, the Bell Tower of Xi'an . [Photo by Huo Yan/China Daily]

One of Qiu Meng's hand-drawing works, the Dayan Pagoda of Xi'an. [Photo by Huo Yan/China Daily]

One of Qiu Meng's hand-drawing works, a local cuisine "Biangbiang" noodles. [Photo by Huo Yan/China Daily]

(Source: China Daily)
Huge task ahead with budget shortfall of nearly 10m expected over next two years

This article is old - Published: Monday, Apr 8th, 2019

A budget shortfall of almost 10 million is in the pipeline for the next two years, with the local authority warning of s the scale of the financial challenge ahead.

Wrexham Council has already made cuts of 63 million in recent years, resulting in the loss and reduction of some services and more recently an increase of 5.5 per cent in council tax.

Looking ahead to 2020/21 to 2021/22 things are looking to remain bleak financially, with estimates that Wrexham Council will face a projected shortfall of 9.8 million.

In an executive board report outlining the timescale for this years budget process, it is noted that the budget process must consider stopping discretionary and other services, efficiencies and raising income and fees.

It also warns that whilst Wrexham has one of the lowest council tax levels, there could be further increases on the horizon as the council looks to balance its books.

The report states: Realistically, unless the UK Chancellors Spring Statement or the UK Government Spending Review announces increases in resources then the Council needs to plan early for cuts/savings at this level, or, considers the possibility of raising income.

The other major factor in the financial resilience of local authorities, is the proportion of Welsh Government resource allocated to Council/Fire Services compared to the proportion provided to health.

During the Budget Workshops then Members will need to consider which discretionary and other services can be stopped.

There will also need to be the continuing efficiency savings factored in together with increased estimates of income through fees and charges.

In some cases then regional working or other collaborations may be considered. These could be included within the budget process if savings will be delivered within the two year window.

The budget for the 2019/20 financial year has already been agreed by councillors for this financial year, with Leader of Wrexham Council and Lead Member for Finance, Cllr Mark Pritchard warning last autumn of more savage cuts on the way.

Along with the 5.5 per cent council tax increase, this years budget also included a review of the boroughs library services.

Other proposals  including a review of transport to faith schools and an annual 30 charge for green bins  had also been put forward, but were later put on hold following a public consultation.

Tomorrow executive board members will be asked to approve a timetable of meetings and workshops that will take place ahead of the budget consultation / process starts in the autumn.

Cllr Pritchard said: Its a process we go through every year and each year has become increasingly difficult to balance the budget, set the Council Tax and not reduce services to an unacceptable level.

Next year will be no different and I am asking Executive Board to approve the dates for various workshops and consultations with stakeholders including the public at the end of the year.

We have, once again, a huge task in front of us. We are being asked to make cuts of over 9m to our budget which is in addition to the 63 million already cut since austerity measures started.

I am confident we will once again set a balanced budget in line with the expected cuts from Government.

The report will be considered for approval by executive board meetings tomorrow morning at 10am. The meeting will also be webcast live on the Wrexham Council website for those who want to view the debate from the comfort of their own home.



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Claims probation service in crisis as Wrexham MP waits for answers over Nicholas Churton murder

This article is old - Published: Monday, Apr 8th, 2019

Wrexhams MP says a damning report about probation services backs up his long-held belief that the system is in crisis and needs overhauling.

Ian Lucas has had serious concerns about how offenders are managed since the 2017 murder of one of his constituents, 67-year-old Nicholas Churton, by a man who was on licence from prison at the time.

Now a report by the Chief Inspector of Probation, Dame Glenys Stacey, has said that the current model for the delivery of probation services in Wales and England  which sees privately-run community rehabilitation companies (CRCs) monitor offenders  is irredeemably flawed.

Dame Glenys concluded that a major rethink is needed to create a system that is fit for the future, saying it would be safer if the supervision of criminals was taken back into public ownership.

Mr Lucas said the report, published on the 28th March, confirmed his worst fears about the present system, which was introduced in 2014 by Chris Grayling when he was Justice Secretary.

Mr Lucas also said he will continue to press for answers about the murder of Mr Churton. The former wine bar owner was killed by Jordan Davidson, who was arrested  and subsequently released  just days before the murder for possession of an offensive weapon.

This report underlines what I have been saying for some time about the probation system in Wales and England  it is flawed and in the midst of a major crisis, said Mr Lucas.

In the case of Mr Churton, there is still no public report in writing about the circumstances around his murder.

More than two years on from this terrible crime, we still do not know why Jordan Davidson was released from police custody when it seems clear he should have been sent back to prison.

We have a crisis in our criminal justice system and this is deeply worrying.

Davidson is now serving a minimum prison term of 30 years.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct has launched two investigations into the case, the first of which has led to two North Wales Police officers having to answer misconduct charges. The second IOPC investigation  into police contact with Davidson in the days prior to the murder  is still ongoing.

Mr Lucas led a Westminster Hall debate on probation in June 2018 when Home Office minister Victoria Atkins told him improvements were being made after significant failings were identified in a review by the Wales CRC into Mr Churtons murder. The full findings, however, have not been made public.

The MP for Wrexham also met justice minister Rory Stewart in December, when Mr Stewart accepted there had been deficiencies in how the CRC had handled Davidson but said changes had been made to how information is shared between the police and the probation services. He has so far rejected calls by Mr Lucas for a fresh, over-arching independent inquiry into the case.



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Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 01:14:30|Editor: yan

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SANAA, April 7 (Xinhua) -- A scheduled trip of the UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths to Yemen's rebel-held capital Sanaa on Sunday was delayed, a Houthi official said.

Griffiths was set to arrive in Sanaa on Sunday to discuss the implementation of Stockholm Agreement with the Houthi rebels.

However, a plane arrived earlier the day in Sanaa was carrying other UN officials, the official said on condition of anonymity. He declined to give further details.

The UN special envoy's office could not immediately be reached for comment.

Yemeni warring parties reached a peace deal in December last year in Stockholm as the first step toward ending the four-year-long civil war.

However, the deal has hit a deadlock as the warring forces have largely held the cease-fire deal but failed to withdraw from the port city of Hodeidah.

Griffiths has been shuttling between the rebels in Sanaa and the Yemeni government in the Saudi capital Riyadh to push the deal toward implementation.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 01:24:32|Editor: yan

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BEIRUT, April 7 (Xinhua) -- 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, local media reported.

"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.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 01:34:35|Editor: yan

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SOFIA, April 7 (Xinhua) -- To encourage Chinese language learning and cultural exchanges, the first Chinese singing contest was held here on Sunday.

As many as 17 solo performers and six groups from all over Bulgaria participated in the event, which was organized by the Confucius Institute in Sofia.

The ensemble "Heavenly Wind" won the group category while Danail Stoyanov came first among the individuals in the contest, which was also dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Bulgaria.

The 18-year-old Stoyanov has been experienced in various competitions related to China. He told Xinhua that he won the tenth "Chinese Bridge" -- Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign Secondary School Students, in 2017 and ranked third in the "Chinese Bridge" in 2016.

China's new ambassador to Bulgaria Dong Xiaojun was also present at the event. "This is the first public event I attend after I arrived in your beautiful country of the rose, Bulgaria," said the ambassador.

According to Dong, the exchange of students between the two countries has been increasing year on year.

Cultural exchange and education cooperation are important pillars in bilateral relations, said the ambassador.

Prof. Anastas Gerdjikov, rector of the Sofia University, said it was a great pleasure for him to attend the contest as always when the Confucius Institute organized cultural events.

"Today's event is just one of many examples of how culture can make two peoples come together," Gerdjikov said.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 03:50:06|Editor: yan

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AMMAN, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Participants in the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) 2019 concluded on Sunday, calling on stakeholders to increase collaboration on social, economic and climate issues to address regional challenges.

"Building new platforms of collaboration is about providing space for people to think through the economic and social model, the environment and humanitarian emergencies in a multistakeholder way," said Mirek Dusek, head of MENA region of the World Economic Forum.

"We should double down on bringing this region up," said Alain Bejjani, CEO of Majid Al Futtaim Holding. "We need to engage in more cooperation."

If the private and public sectors put forth a shared economic vision, he suggested, the region could double or triple its GDP, he added.

During the two-day event, 100 most promising start-ups of the Arab world participated in the event and engaged with industry and government leaders to discuss the future of their industries and how to add values to society.

At the meeting, Bahrain announced the roll-out of a new program to support the 100 Arab start-ups shaping the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The program will allow start-ups to rapidly scale up their businesses and access a broader spectrum of support in Bahrain.

The United Arab Emirates has announced it is granting five-year visas for the 100 start-ups.

The event, which attracted more than 1,000 government and private sector representatives from more than 50 countries, witnessed several discussions on mega projects in the MENA region and pressing challenges and issues facing the more than 400 million population of the region.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 04:00:11|Editor: Xiaoxia

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People visit the Ergon House during the Open House Athens event in central Athens, Greece, on April 7, 2019. The Greek capital hosted for the sixth consecutive year this weekend a two-day event of Open House Athens, which invites the public to explore the value of architecture through various landmarks. Historical monuments of the 19th century, ultramodern cultural centers, luxurious lofts and religious sites turned from former industrial spaces, all opened their gates to visitors. (Xinhua/Lefteris Partsalis)

ATHENS, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The Greek capital hosted for the sixth consecutive year this weekend a two-day event of Open House Athens, which invites the public to explore the value of architecture through various landmarks.

Historical monuments of the 19th century, ultramodern cultural centers, luxurious lofts and religious sites turned from former industrial spaces, all opened their gates to visitors.

"In the program this year there are 95 buildings, and 550 volunteers who have undertaken to guide the visitors," Renata Douma, Communications Manager at Open House Athens 2019, tells Xinhua.

For the first time this year, the Greek Parliament participated in the action, introducing the visitors to the building of the Former Public Tobacco Factory, designed in 1927.

Today it has many uses, including the City Library and the Benakeios Library of the Parliament and is proclaimed by the Ministry of Culture as a historical preserved monument.

Ergon House, consisted of a restaurant and a food market, as well as the first foodie hotel in Athens was constructed in 2019, is the concept of Ergon Agora and has a special place in the list.

"This hotel is unique because everything in its architecture reminds something from Greece. All the materials used, could be found in our grandmother's home, in many Greek homes," Douzis George, entrepreneur and co-founder of Ergon House, told Xinhua.

Open House Greece is an urban non-profit company with the aim of promoting architecture and culture in Greece and abroad through the annual Open House events in Athens and Thessaloniki. It was founded in 2012 and belongs to the wider family of Open House Worldwide.

"Through the personal experience we offer to the public we would like to introduce them to the concept of architecture and to understand the value it has in our everyday life. We want to offer a celebration of architecture, a celebration for the city, where everyone can admire for free buildings that they could not otherwise visit," Douma concludes.

A number of parallel actions enriched the main event this year, from special interest tours and "treasure hunts", to competitions and special parties. OHA visitors also had the opportunity to participate in a photo competition by uploading on social media photos taken during the event.

In 2018, 460 volunteers took part in the "Open House" project in Athens and guided the tours in 107 spaces, with a total of 35,000 visits.

The idea of the Open House began at London in 1992 and has since spread to many cities around the globe.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 08:06:06|Editor: Liu

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WASHINGTON, April 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump Sunday tweeted that Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen "will be leaving her position."

Ccurrent U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan will become acting secretary for the department, Trump said in another tweet.

The announcement came after U.S. news outlets reported that Nielsen was set to hand in her resignation letter Sunday evening at a meeting with Trump.

"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. I hope the next secretary will have the support of Congress and the courts," Nielsen said in her resignation letter.

It is not clear what was the immediate reason for Nielsen's resignation. U.S. news outlet CNN cited a government official as saying that Nielsen found it "untenable" on the position due to requests from Trump.

The New York Times reported that Trump had been unhappy with Nielsen as the number of illegal immigrants entering the United States crept up and blamed her for not doing enough to secure the border.

Nielsen's tenure "has at times been rocky," said CBS News.

Nielsen, 46, was appointed to the post on Dec. 6, 2017, after her predecessor John Kelly was elevated to be the White House's chief of staff.

Nielsen supported the Trump administration's tough stance on illegal immigrants, and oversaw controversial policies where immigrant children were separated from their parents for extended periods during detention and trials.

McAleenan, 47, served as the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection since Jan. 20, 2017.
"Ive been seeing hes been losing the weight. I have been watching him and Im here to let him know that Im ready to fight if he wants to fight at 54. I heard he wants to fight at 50; I can make 50. If they want to do it, get in touch with Marshall Kauffman and King Promotions and lets make it happen," stated jr. middleweight Tyrone Brunson, who talked about his latest win, his future plans, and much more. check it out!



PC: You are coming off of a 9th round TKO win over Jamaal Davis. A lot was made of the Philly vs. Philly matchup. What were your thoughts when this fight was offered to you?



TB: At first, I didnt even want to take the fight because, Im gonna be honest, I felt kind of disrespected because I felt that Jamaal didnt really earn a shot at my Pennsylvania State Title. But after the contracts got signed, everything was everything and it was what it was. I just went in the camp and it was on.



PC: What was the experience of being on The Contender like?



TB: That was a great experience. Being in a house with 15 other guys, because at the end of the day, we all know we are going to fight each other, but you start growing a bond with these fellas because youre there for so long. But you still have to take care of the business at hand and remember that we all have to fight each other. All and all, it was a good experience. I didnt win it, but it is what it is. Thats not really my style of fighting; the 5 rounds. I usually dont start rolling until the 4th or 5th round. Thats when I start picking it up. It was a great experience, like I said. I lost to Brandon Adams, who went on to win the whole thing and now he is in line to fight [Jermall] Charlo next, so I wish the best for him. Im back doing what I do and on this world-title tour.



PC: You were in there with Adams. How do you feel he will fare in the fight with Jermall?



TB: If the same Brandon shows up that beat Shane in the finals, I think he will do great with Charlo and I got him beating him. You think that lil' joker cant...he can punch and he can fight. He got good movement and his stamina is through the roof.



PC: I understand you want to be Marcos Maidanas comeback opponent in June.



TB: Please make this the headline, "Tyrone Brunson is ready and open to fight Maidana in June." Yeah man, Ive been seeing hes been losing the weight. I have been watching him and Im here to let him know that Im ready to fight if he wants to fight at 54. I heard he wants to fight at 50; I can make 50. If they want to do it, get in touch with Marshall Kauffman and King Promotions and lets make it happen.



PC: What is it about Marcos Maidana that makes you want to test those waters?



TB: Just because I feel that people are scared of him. They fear him and I think that I always been the underdog in my career and I got what it takes to beat him.



PC: He obviously has to lose the weight, but he still seems to carry big power and things like that. When you are watching these videos, do you think its realistic for him to be able to compete in the 150s by June?



TB: To me, I would say June is too early. I think hes training just to lose the weight. Hes not training to get in fight shape. Hes training just to lose weight. It would be a great opportunity for me to get in there and jump on him, but I think June is too early. If I was him, I would come back at the end of the summer.



PC: Im sure you have been training.



TB: Ah, come on, man. I live in the gym, man. Every day since the fight on March 1st, I have been in there. Im walking around at 161-162. After the fights, I usually go back up to 175-180. Since the Davis fight, I have been keeping my weight down, working hard, and staying ready. I can get that call any day for anybody and I just want to be ready for whatever. The best thing for me to do now is to stay ready and stay in shape. Marshall Kauffman has been doing a great job with me the way hes promoting me. Actually, Im signed with Marshall Kauffman and Im signed to The Contender too. So I can get a big call any day from either one of them and we can be fighting a top ten guy or hopefully a world title fight. Thats my ultimate goal, a world title, but right now I need a top ten guy on my resume. I think Marcos Maidana is the perfect candidate to get beat by me.



PC: You gotta love what you see going on in the 154-pound division, not only in terms of competition, but some of the fights being made; Hurd-Williams and Harrison-Charlo II just to name a few.



TB: Ah man, I love how the division is going right now. A lot of known guys are fighting each other and its an exciting division to be in right now. I cant wait to get in that top ten mix so I can be right there too. I showed everybody and proved myself to be battle-tested, so now its time to get what I deserve now.



PC: Good luck on your pursuit to trying to land a fight with Marcos Maidana and keep me posted on your next move. Is there anything else you want to add before I let you go?



TB: I just want to thank everybody thats been supporting Tyrone Brunson and thank everybody that doesnt support Tyrone Brunson as well. In 2019, we plan on getting a top ten guy, beating him, and hopefully by the end of the year or top of next year, we will be fighting for a world title.

[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 08:51:33|Editor: Liangyu

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Cambridge University women's crew celebrate winning the women's boat race between Oxford University and Cambridge University on the River Thames in London on April 7, 2019. (Xinhua/Stephen Chung)

LONDON, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Cambridge on Sunday beat Oxford in both the men's and women's Boat Races in west London. With double Olympic champion James Cracknell in the men's crew, Cambridge registered a double victory for the second successive year to win the competition.

Cracknell, 46, becomes the oldest winner of the Boat Race, which is in its 165th edition this year.

Holding off a late Oxford push, the Light Blues crossed the line in 16 minutes 57 seconds, just two seconds ahead of their opponents.

Earlier, Cambridge won the women's race by five lengths to seal their third victory in a row.

The win is Cambridge's 84th, which makes them four more victories ahead of their rivals, and it is the first time they have won back-to-back since their dominance between 1993 and 1999.

Cracknell, who is also six-time world champion, is pursuing a degree of Master of Philosophy in Human Evolution at Peterhouse College, Cambrige.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 09:16:47|Editor: Xiaoxia

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KHARTOUM, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Sudan's Minister of Information and Communications Hassan Ismail on Sunday warned against the possibility of a civil war due to the state of political polarization, Sudan's Ashorooq net reported.

Ismail accused foreign parties, organizations and communities associated with the Sudanese Professionals Association and opposition of collecting large funds to finance the protests in Sudan, the report said.

"The opposition, including the Sudanese Professionals Association (an opposition entity) and their allies in different fronts, have been working on high mobilization for their supporters and the citizens since about 10 days ago," Ismail was quoted as saying.

He also accused the opposition of rejecting dialogue with the government.

He noted that the opposition demands only the overthrow of the government, which is evidence of their rejection to dialogue without provision of visions and ideas.

"The only means to overcome the state of political polarization is to agree on partnership in the political arena, otherwise we will slide to a state of instability, non-recognition of the other and to a civil war," he said.

Since Dec. 19 last year, Sudan has been witnessing mass protests over the deteriorating economic conditions and price hikes of basic commodities.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 09:26:55|Editor: mingmei

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CHICAGO, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Lori Lightfoot, the newly elected mayor of Chicago, pledged on Saturday to do everything possible to strengthen the city's relationship with China.

Lightfoot made the remarks when she visited Chinatown in Chicago after she was elected the 56th mayor of Chicago, the third largest city in the United States.

"I think it's really important that we recognize Chicago, of course, is a global city and China has to be part of our future. We have a good, shared relationship for business and also cultural affairs," said Lightfoot, adding that she looks forward to working with the Chinese Consul General in Chicago on those missions.

Lightfoot said that the history of Chinese Americans in the United States is really the story of America.

"We have you come from far away. You toil under difficult circumstances and in challenging circumstances. But the thing that unites the (Chinese) community and makes it so important to the American story is the perseverance, the hard work in the commitment to forge a better life for your families, for your children and to really contribute to the American dream," said Lightfoot.

"I'm committed to making sure that the Chinatown will continue to grow and thrive. And let me underscore that we are far more responsive to the needs of this community. You are going to be reflected on in our administration," Lightfoot promised, adding that she will make sure that the Chinese community will get fair representation not only at the city level but the state level.

Born in 1962, Lightfoot had been president of the Chicago Police Board before announcing candidacy for Mayor of Chicago in the 2019 elections.

Lori Lightfoot won an overwhelming victory in Chicago's mayoral race on April 2, becoming the city's first openly gay mayor and the first African-American woman to serve as chief executive.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 10:12:36|Editor: Xiaoxia

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CARACAS, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza on Sunday lauded the Montevideo Mechanism as a viable way to address his country's political crisis and avoid armed conflicts.

"The Montevideo Mechanism ... is the most sincere and rigorous initiative that has been proposed," Arreaza said via Twitter.

"President Nicolas Maduro called for its activation yesterday. Dialogue and politics are always the way to go. War and violence have no place in Venezuela," the minister added.

Jointly proposed by Mexico and Uruguay and backed by Bolivia and the Caribbean Community, among other countries, the Montevideo Mechanism is a four-step plan to diffuse the rising tensions between Venezuela's ruling socialist party and the U.S.-backed opposition, and promote a negotiated solution.

On Saturday, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro called on Mexico, Bolivia, Uruguay and the Caribbean countries "to resume the initiative for dialogue decided on in Montevideo two months ago."

Venezuela has been plunged into political tension since Jan. 23 when opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself the Latin American country's interim president and was recognized by the United States and some other countries.

Washington has stepped up the pressure on Maduro by backing Guaido, and piling on financial and economic sanctions against Venezuela and its state-owned oil company.

Competing rallies on Saturday saw tens of thousands of government supporters and opponents take to the streets in a show of strength for their respective camps.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 10:22:41|Editor: Xiaoxia

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OTTAWA, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Canada's opposition Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer said on Sunday that a letter from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's lawyer threatened him with libel suit over SNC-Lavalin scandal.

"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 Sunday afternoon.

Scheer received the letter from Trudeau's lawyer Julian Porter on March 31.

The letter took issue with comments in a statement made by Scheer on March 29 in response to new documents tabled in the Justice Committee of House of Commons from former Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould.

Scheer's March 29 statement accused the prime minister of political interference, of lying to Canadians and of corrupt conduct.

"The statement contained highly defamatory comments about Prime Minister Trudeau," Porter said in the letter.

Porter said that it is "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.

He said it is 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.

Scheer challenged Trudeau to follow through on the threat to sue him over his assertion that the prime minister politically interfered with the criminal prosecution of Montreal engineering giant SNC-Lavalin.

The opposition leader called the threatened lawsuit "a bullying attempt" to prevent his party from holding the government to account.

Trudeau has been under fire for the last two months over allegations that there was pressure on Wilson-Raybould to interfere in criminal proceedings against Quebec construction giant SNC-Lavalin. In an appearance before the justice committee, she said top government officials asked her to help ensure a special legal deal was extended to the company.

She later provided emails, a written statement and a taped recording to the committee.

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. 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 resigned from cabinet in early March, citing a loss of confidence in the government's handling of the SNC-Lavalin case.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 10:47:59|Editor: Xiaoxia

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CANBERRA, April 8 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government is still trailing the Opposition before May's general election according to opinion polls.

The latest Newspoll and Fairfax/Ipsos polls, both of which were published on Monday, revealed that the governing Liberal-National Party Coalition (LNP) trails the Opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP) on a two-party preferred basis.

According to Fairfax the ALP leads the LNP 53-47, an improvement for the opposition from 51-49 recorded in mid-February.

However, according to Newspoll the government's position has improved from trailing 54-46 in mid-March to 52-48.

The polls were released about six weeks before a prospective general election, which Prime Minister Scott Morrison is widely expected to call for May 18, according to local reports.

"We're not taking anything for granted ... I'm not going to focus on the polls, what I'm going to focus on convincing people, one on one if I have to, about the superiority of Labor's vision," Tanya Plibersek, the ALP's deputy leader, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Monday.

"People who meet (ALP leader) Bill Shorten and are watching politics closely like him very much. And the difficulty of being Opposition Leader is that you're holding the government to account, and that's a very negative role.

"I would back Bill Shorten who's spent his working life in work places with ordinary people."

The polls were taken after Treasurer Josh Frydenberg delivered his proposed Federal Budget for financial year 2019/20, which included more than 100 billion Australian dollars' worth of tax cuts for 10 million workers earning up to 126,000 AUD per year.

In Shorten's budget reply speech on Thursday night, he instead proposed bigger tax cuts for 2.9 million workers earning less than 40,000 AUD per year.

Newspoll found that the net satisfaction with Frydenberg's budget, measured as the difference between those who rated it as good and bad, was the best for a budget since 2008.

It also received an "extremely good" rating from the highest proportion of respondents since Newspoll started asking about the budget in 1999.

The Fairfax/Ipsos poll revealed a similar result, with 41 percent of respondents saying the budget was fair compared to 29 percent who thought it was unfair.

Both polls recorded identical results in the better Prime Minister stakes, with 46 percent of respondents to both picking the incumbent Morrison as their preferred PM compared to 35 percent for Shorten.

Morrison was expected to call the election recently, telling reporters in Sydney on Sunday that he would not act with "haste", noting Shorten's "impatience."

"The election will be called in April, and the election will be held in May," he said.

"That impatience is born of arrogance. He believes he should have this election already and he believes he's already won it.

"He assuming of the Australian people their support, I assume nothing when it comes to that."
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 10:53:05|Editor: mingmei

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NEW YORK, April 7 (Xinhua) -- An open and inclusive China coupled with its dynamic development brings enormous opportunities to people from all walks of life, a renowned U.S. architect has said.

"I realized that my best work could be done in China because I could do bigger projects faster and affect more people," Ben Wood, a U.S. architect and founder of Studio Shanghai Architectural Firm, told Xinhua in an interview Saturday on the sidelines of an annual conference organized by the Committee of 100, a premier U.S. organization of Chinese-American leaders from different fields.

There are few places like China that your works can reach so many people, "so imagine how many people's lives you can make better," added the veteran architect, who designed Shanghai's landmark Xintiandi complex.

Wood said he first came to China at the invitation of Xintiandi developer about 22 years ago. After finishing the project, he was fascinated by the potential opportunities there. In 1998, he decided to open his office in Shanghai.

"I enjoy living and working in China...it's a wonderful place for architects," he said.

By far, Wood has been engaged in more than 100 projects across China, from Chongqing to Wuhan to Hangzhou.

The U.S. architect said bringing popular culture to China through the rapid rise of the middle class is among others behind his business success.

Thanks to rapid development, China is now home to the world's biggest middle-income group comprised of some 400 million people, and the number is still on the rise. The nation is evolving from the world's workshop to a major consumer of goods and services.

Wood said he has witnessed great changes in China over his 22 years' work and life there.

Besides the biggest visual change that young people became more trendy, the architect said he also found more and more creative ideas pioneered by the young Chinese generations.

"The mutual communication between Chinese and foreign architects is always a great thing, which benefits the development of the industry as a whole," he noted.

The Committee of 100 held its annual conference on April 5-7 in New York. Themed "The U.S. and China: New Visions," the event highlighted the economic importance of collaboration and the positive future that cooperation can bring to both countries.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 12:13:49|Editor: Liangyu

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CHENGDU, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of firefighters are battling forest fires that have been sweeping mountain forests in three different counties in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

A forest fire that killed 27 firefighters and three locals a week ago in Muli County, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, started to burn again Saturday afternoon.

In addition, the counties of Yuexi and Mianning, also in Liangshan, have been battered by forest fires since Sunday, according to the local government of the prefecture.

Firefighters are still battling to extinguish the fires at the three sites as of Monday morning.

The fire in Muli first broke out on March 30, which was initially extinguished April 2. Strong wind caused the fire to start up again.

The cause of the fires in Yuexi and Mianning are yet to be confirmed.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 12:23:54|Editor: Liangyu

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HANOI, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Border guard forces of Vietnam's central highlands Kon Tum province said Monday they have detained two Lao drug traffickers and confiscated nearly 40,000 pills of synthetic drug.

A 60-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman were caught red-handed on Sunday transporting the drug from Laos to Kon Tum, Vietnam News Agency reported on Monday.

According to the Vietnamese law, those convicted of smuggling over 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 kg of methamphetamine are punishable by death. Making or trading 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal drugs also faces death penalty.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 12:49:05|Editor: xuxin

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Injured people receive medical treatment at a local hospital after a bomb attack in Jalalabad city of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, April 8, 2019. One police officer was killed and seven people were wounded in a bomb attack in Jalalabad, a city in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, a local source said. (Xinhua/Saifurahman Safi)

JALALABAD, Afghanistan, April 8 (Xinhua) -- One police officer was killed and seven people were wounded in a bomb attack in Jalalabad, a city in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, a local source said.

"An improvised explosive device (IED) struck a police van running near the provincial Women Affairs Department and private Ariana University in Police District 3 roughly at 6:46 a.m. local time," the security source told Xinhua anonymously.

An investigation has been underway and further details will be shared with the media later in the day, he said. Among the wounded were six civilian and the injured were shifted to a regional government hospital in the city.

He blamed enemies of peace, referring to the Taliban militant group, for the attack.

Taliban militants, who ruled the country before being ousted in late 2001, have renewed armed insurgency in the country in recent years, killing government troops as well as civilians.

The city has been hit by serial bomb attacks within last week, in which four were killed, including a 22-year-old woman and two traffic police officers, and 31 others injured.
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Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 13:04:09|Editor: Xiaoxia

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ABUJA, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The Nigerian government on Sunday suspended all forms of mining activities in Zamfara, a northwestern state of the country.

The government also ordered all foreigners engaged in mining activities to leave the area within 48 hours, acting Inspector General of Police Muhammed Adamu told reporters in the capital of Abuja.

The order was part of measures to check banditry in the state, the police chief said.

The suspension, according to Adamu, followed intelligence reports that clearly established a "strong and glaring nexus between the activities of armed bandits and illicit miners."

The police chief assured the public, especially those in the affected areas, that the security services are doing their best to address the situation.

He said that as part of sustained efforts to flush out "banditry and criminality" in Zamfara in particular and the northwest in general, security services had started "Operation PUFF-ADDER," a full-scale security offensive against the armed groups.

"Our commitment to 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," Adamu told reporters.

The local government has decried the worsening security situation in the state.

The state of Zamfara, as well as neighboring Kaduna State, have witnessed a series of shootings in recent months.

There have been recurring incidents of livestock rustling and armed banditry in the northwest region of Nigeria.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 13:14:15|Editor: Xiaoxia

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VIENTIANE, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Laos' energy sector is set to boost its installed capacity to about 9,152.9 megawatts (MW) in 2019, once 12 more power plants kickstart commercial operations.

According to the Ministry of Energy and Mines, the 12 projects, which are currently under construction, will have an additional installed capacity of 1,959.94 MW. Of this, 1,575 MW will be sold to Thailand and the rest 384.94 MW will be used for local consumption, local daily Vientiane Times reported on Monday.

So far Laos has 57 power plants (1MW and larger) that are commercially operational with an installed capacity of about 7,193 MW, which generate about 36,935.23 GWh yearly.

The 57 plants include 49 hydropower plants, a lignite plant, five solar plants and two plants that generate electricity from waste.

The 57 plants include 10 that are the responsibility of state-owned Electricite du Laos (EDL), with an installed capacity of about 211.70 MW that can generate about 831,42 GWh annually.

Another 10 projects are under EDL-Generation Public Company (EDL-GEN), with 699MW of installed capacity that can generate about 3,145.5GWh annually.

The remaining 37 projects belong to independent power producers (IPP), and have an installed capacity of 6,282.40MW, and can generate about 32,958.31 GWh annually.

Laos expects to generate about 33,874 million kWh worth about 16,575 billion kip (some 1.9 billion U.S. dollars) in 2019. It aims to export about 25,625 million kWh worth about 1.45 billion U.S. dollars, while local consumption will be about 6,287 million kWh.

Export markets include Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Myanmar.

Thailand requires about 9,000MW by 2030, of which Laos can currently generate 4,000 MW, which will rise to 7,000 MW in 2020. Vietnam needs 5,000 MW, of which Laos can currently generate 300 MW, which will increase to 1,000 MW in 2020.

Laos exported 100 MW to Malaysia and will export about 300 MW in 2020. It exported 10 MW to Cambodia which will rise to about 200 MW in 2020. It also supplies about 5 MW to Myanmar and expects to push that up to 100 MW in 2022.

The energy sector has upgraded its installed and generating capacities with the completion of many new power plants in recent years. Most of the investment comes from foreign companies who make power purchase agreements with specific markets or buyers.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 13:24:21|Editor: mingmei

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LHASA, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region will offer subsidies up to 100,000 yuan (about 14,898 U.S. dollars) each year for medium and small tech companies and startups, according to the regional science and technology department.

The subsidies, called "innovation vouchers," aim to spur entrepreneurship and innovation and facilitate resource sharing in the region, the department said.

Startup teams can apply for 50,000 yuan each year. The vouchers for medium and small tech companies and startups can be used to cover up to 50 percent and 90 percent of the expenses respectively on buying services.

The companies applying for the vouchers should be registered in Tibet, the department said.

The region gained 2.02 billion yuan from the digital industry in 2018, up 25.1 percent year on year.

By 2018, Tibet had established 74 entrepreneurship and innovation entities, including makerspaces, sci-tech enterprise incubators, innovation and entrepreneurship bases for college students and bases for small and micro businesses. These entities have attracted 1,338 entrepreneurship teams and startups, according to a white paper on the region released in March.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 13:39:31|Editor: Liangyu

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BUENOS AIRES, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Knowledge exchange between Chinese and Argentine technicians spurs large-scale joint infrastructure projects within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), said Argentine workers at Chinese company Power China.

Chinese company Power China is currently helping develop Argentina's alternative energy sources by building a series of wind farms in Chubut, a province in the country's southern Patagonia region.

Known as Loma Blanca, the project's four wind farms are scheduled to be completed in December, supplying some 256 megawatts of power to the country's electric grid.

Betiana Caramelli, who is in charge of quality management at the wind farms, has been on the project since it began in July 2018.

Things were a little tough at the start, Caramelli told Xinhua, as the Chinese personnel had to quickly learn about Argentine norms while the Argentine staff had to become familiar with Power China's work procedures.

"It was all a learning process for both, because we had to explain things for them and they would have to tell us how they did things. It was a mutual learning process," she said.

Working on the project are professionals in the fields of electrical, civil, mechanical, electromechanical and topographical engineering, translators and machine operators, among others.

Electromechanical engineer Jose Luis Pintos underscored the "good relationship" that the Chinese and Argentine workers built day by day with a pragmatic approach to move the project forward.

"The Chinese company is adapting to us and I believe it is mutual: we are also trying to adapt to them," Pintos said.

"Here we have to strike a balance and seek common grounds. This is a project with a beginning and an end, and to which we all have to apply ourselves to achieve the goal," he added.

This interaction has led to "a mutual agreement where we learn their methods, their tendencies and their work procedures, and I believe they do the same with us," said Pintos.

"They come with an open mind and I think they seek ... to make this (project) turn out as best as possible," he said.

The BRI, first proposed by China in 2013, aims to drive global growth by promoting infrastructure, connectivity, financial mechanisms and public policies needed to spur trade, especially among the world's emerging and developing regions.

During interviews with Xinhua, workers said the BRI is not only to spur global growth through trade and promote infrastructure buildings and technological cooperations in projects like Loma Blanca, but also has been an important educational component and contributes to cultural exchanges.

Engineer Gabriel Hernandez, field manager at Loma Blanca, said it is an "excellent initiative," because it drives cooperation even between "two countries (that) are physically very far apart," such as Argentina and China.

It allows "us to know one another" and "to adapt to working together," deepening mutual understanding, said Hernandez.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 13:39:33|Editor: mingmei

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SYDNEY, April 8 (Xinhua) -- With Chinese visitor spending up significantly in 2018, Australia's Queensland State Minister for Innovation and Tourism Kate Jones said "We absolutely know that the future of our economy is 100 percent linked to China."

The Aussie state saw a record overall spend from tourists last year, who injected in 5.9 billion Australian (4.9 billion U.S.) dollars into the local economy, according to the latest figures from the 2018 International Visitor Survey.

The main reason for the dramatic increase was a 25.4 percent rise in Chinese visitor numbers from 2017, with the total spend from Chinese tourists last year standing at 1.4 billion Australian (1 billion U.S.) dollars.

"We're absolutely focused as a state government to build our relationship and collaboration with China," Jones told Xinhua recently

"That's why we've worked really closely with Chinese airlines and the Chinese Government to create those links."

"We've got links with universities, links with research (institutes), particularly in robotics and also as a Tourism Minister, we are welcoming more Chinese visitors to Queensland than ever before."

On top of the thriving tourism sector, exports to China in areas such as agriculture, resources and business were valued at 22.4 billion Australian (15.9 billion U.S.) dollars during the financial year to 2018.

Overall, this represents 30.3 percent of Queensland's total merchandise exports and 21.3 percent of Australia's total merchandise exports to China.

"Our future is very much linked and there is huge prosperity for both countries if we work together," Jones added.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 13:44:37|Editor: mingmei

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NEW YORK, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The Committee of 100 (C100), a prominent Chinese American organization, on Sunday condemned the growing racial profiling against Chinese Americans in the United States.

The C100 members are compelled to stand up and speak out against the "increasingly common" racial profiling in the country, where "Chinese Americans are being targeted as potential traitors, spies, and agents of foreign influence," said a statement issued by the organization.

The New York-based nonprofit, which is celebrating its 30th founding anniversary, is deeply concerned about the fact that the Chinese community in America is under attack again as a few representatives from the U.S. government and media outlets as well as some opinion leaders have stated or suggested that all Chinese persons in America should be suspected of wrongdoing.

For example, Chinese students and researchers have been finger-pointed as a potential threat, and Chinese American organizations have been suspected of conducting illicit activities, said the C100 statement.

"Such targeting of individuals based on their ethnic heritage or national origin violates our shared American ideals. It simply has to stop," it stressed.

As the baseless charges keep mounting, negative impacts have been forced upon Chinese Americans in scientific, business, political, academic and government circles, noted C100, adding that Chinese Americans are reporting being subject to greater scrutiny and discriminatory treatment in their work and daily lives.

"It is imperative that those who are committed to the civil rights of all Americans disavow this kind of broad-brush racial stereotyping and fear-mongering," it said.

The organization also vowed to continue fighting for Chinese American equality, and to facilitate Chinese Americans' constructive engagement in bridge-building between the United States and China.

Consisting of some 150 outstanding Chinese Americans in business, government, academia and arts, C100 is committed to the twin missions of a constructive U.S.-China engagement and the full equality and inclusion of Chinese Americans.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 14:35:03|Editor: mingmei

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CHENGDU, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of firefighters are battling forest fires that have been sweeping mountain forests in three different counties in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

A forest fire that killed 27 firefighters and three locals a week ago in Muli County, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, started to burn again Saturday afternoon.

In addition, the counties of Yuexi and Mianning, also in Liangshan, have been battered by forest fires since Sunday, according to the local government of the prefecture.

As of 10 a.m. Monday, three helicopters had been sent for fire detection and extinguishing work in Li'er Village, Yalongjiang Township of Muli. Over 1,000 ground forces, including firefighters and locals, were dispatched to the site.

The fire in Muli first broke out on March 30, which was initially extinguished April 2. Strong wind caused the fire to start up again.

As of 10 a.m. Monday, 490 people and a helicopter were dispatched to battle the fire in Mianning. The area burnt by the fire reached 19 hectares, according to the county government.

The meteorological department of the prefecture said that during the first three months of this year, parts of the prefecture have seen higher temperatures and less rainfall than previous years.

The prefecture will experience windy weather on Tuesday, with potential hazards for forest fires remaining high.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 14:40:05|Editor: mingmei

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BEIJING, April 8 (Xinhua) -- The following is a list of events you can enjoy in China on Monday to take in the country's rich cultural life in terms of shows, concerts, exhibitions amongst other events.

-- Listen to a theme concert featuring Shanghai Symphony Orchestra in celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China at the Concert Hall of the Shanghai Symphony Hall at 7:15 p.m.

Titled "My Motherland and I," the concert will mark the start of the 36th Shanghai Spring International Music Festival, the longest-running music festival of China.

The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra will be joined by a chorus from the neighboring Jiangsu Province and a youth art troupe with the China Welfare Institute, to perform classic works composed by noted Chinese composers over the 70 years. Chen Xieyang, a renowned senior Chinese conductor, will conduct the concert.

-- Enjoy a concert performed by Franz Welser-Most and the Cleveland Orchestra at the Poly Grand Theatre in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province.

Referred to as one of the "Big Five", the Cleveland Orchestra is one of the greatest American orchestras. The concert will include Richard Strauss's "Ein Heldenleben", which is one of the conductor Franz Welser-Most's specialities and the seldom-heard "Third Symphony" composed by Prokofiev when the composer was living in France.

-- British crossover violinist Daisy Jopling will continue her tour in China as she visits Shanxi Poly Grand Theatre in the northern Chinese city of Taiyuan.

Daisy's music blends a wide variety of musical styles including classical, pop, reggae, Irish folk, gypsy violin and rock, alongside her band's own arrangements of classical pieces. The repertoire on Monday will also include "Jasmine Flower" and "Kang Ding Qing Ge," two of the most famous Chinese folk pieces.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 15:05:22|Editor: xuxin

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WASHINGTON, April 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen resigned on Sunday amid a number of migrants from Central America entering the country through its southern border.

U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted on Sunday that Nielsen "will be leaving her position and I would like to thank her for her service."

Nielsen was appointed to the post on Dec. 6, 2017. It is not clear what was the immediate reason for her resignation.

The New York Times reported that Trump had been unhappy with Nielsen as the number of illegal immigrants entering the United States had risen and he blamed her for not doing enough to secure the border.

U.S. news outlet CNN cited a government official as saying that Nielsen found her position "untenable" due to Trump's requests, while CBS News said Nielsen's tenure "has at times been rocky."

"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. I hope the next secretary will have the support of Congress and the courts," Nielsen said in her resignation letter.

In another tweet, Trump announced that current U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan, 47, will become acting secretary for the department. "I have confidence that Kevin will do a great job!" Trump tweeted.

Nielsen has supported the Trump administration's tough stance on illegal immigrants, and has overseen controversial policies where immigrant children were separated from their parents for extended periods during detention and trials.

At the end of March, Trump criticized Mexico and several Central American nations for not halting illegal immigrants heading north to cross the U.S. border, and later threatened to close the nation's southern border with Mexico.

"Mexico is doing NOTHING to help stop the flow of illegal immigrants to our Country. They are all talk and no action," Trump tweeted.

"Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador have taken our money for years, and do Nothing," he added.

The president's remarks stood in contrast to those of Nielsen, who earlier has thanked Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador for their efforts to help the United States secure the border.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 15:10:26|Editor: xuxin

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JAKARTA, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad have inked a joint letter of refusal to the European Union over its plan to bar crude palm oil (CPO) from being used in raw materials for bio-fuel, a senior minister disclosed here on Monday.

The move came after the European Commission passed a delegated act classifying CPO as not a sustainable product, leading to exemption of the commodity from the list of raw materials for the eco-friendly transport fuel. The act will be brought to the European Parliament which will decide within two months whether to enforce it or not by 2030.

"Yesterday (Sunday) the president has jointly inked a joint letter of objection with Prime Minister Mahathir about our refusal to the European Union plan over ban on global CPO products," said Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan who also supervises and manages natural resources issues.

The letter has been sent to the EU over the weekend, Luhut cited.

The European Union has often accused palm oil plantations of threatening the habitat of several endangered species by deforesting.

Indonesia has denied the accusation, saying that the country's growers have applied a sustainable and eco-friendly way of cultivation of the commodity.

Indonesia has also threatened to boycott EU products and quit the Paris accord should the EU go ahead with its plan, the minister has said.

Along with Malaysia, Indonesia has also threatened to bring the dispute to the World Trade Organization.

Indonesia and Malaysia are the world's biggest producers of crude palm oil.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 16:00:48|Editor: xuxin

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MANILA, April 8 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Navy's anti-submarine ships Admiral Tributs and Admiral Vinogradov, and large sea tanker Irkut docked on Monday in Manila for a five-day goodwill visit.

This is the second visit by the Russian warships in the country this year as Manila and Moscow inked agreement to strengthen their military-to-military cooperation.

In January, the guided missile cruiser Varyag, the flagship of Russia's Pacific Fleet, the large anti-submarine ship Admiral Panteleev and the large sea tanker Bris Butoma also docked in Manila for a six-day "unofficial" visit.

"The arrival of our Russian Navy counterparts underscores the continuing efforts to further strengthen the relationship between our government and navies," Philippine Navy (PN) Staff Officer for Education and Training Capt. Constancio Reyes said, adding that the visit "will further enhance and sustain the promotion of peace and stability and maritime cooperation."

The head of the mission, Russian Navy Capt. Sergey Alantiev, will pay a courtesy call on PN Chief Vice Admiral Robert Empedrad.

"Such port calls make a tangible contribution to the peace and stability in the Asia Pacific region. We strongly believe that only by combining our resources and efforts can we cope with present-day threats and challenges," Alantiev said.

The visit of the Russian warships reciprocates last year's visit of the PN's BRP Tarlac to Russia's Pacific Fleet headquarters in Vladivostok. The visit also came less than a month after the visit of Russian Navy Chief Adm. Vladimir Korolyov in Manila in March.

The visit by the Russian Navy ships this month is the eighth to the Philippines and the sixth under Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who took office in June 2016.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 16:00:52|Editor: xuxin

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KAMPALA, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni on Monday assured tourists of their safety in Uganda, noting that the security in national parks will be enhanced.

The president tweeted that tourists should come and enjoy the beauty of the east African country.

"We shall deal with these isolated pockets of criminals," said Museveni. "However, I want to reassure the country and our tourists that Uganda is safe and we shall continue to improve the security in our parks. Come and enjoy the Pearl of Africa."

The president's comments came a day after security forces in the country rescued a U.S. tourist called Kimberly Sue Endicott and her tour guide, Jean-Paul Mirenge.

The two were kidnapped by unknown gunmen on Tuesday at Queen Elizabeth National Park in the western part of the country, and according to the police, the kidnappers had asked for a ransom of 500,000 U.S. dollars.

Experts expressed fears that the incident would hurt the country's tourism industry.

The country earns about 1.5 billion dollars annually from tourism and the figure is expected to double by 2020.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 16:31:14|Editor: xuxin

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MANILA, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Philippine security forces killed two leftist fighters in a five-minute firefight on early Monday in Masbate, an island province in the country's central Bicol region.

Capt. Joash Pramis, the spokesperson of the Philippine Army's ninth Infantry Division, said troops and policemen clashed with seven New People's Army (NPA) rebels at 1:55 a.m. (local time) in Mandaon town in Masbate.

He said the joint operation was launched after villagers tipped off their presence in the area.

"They clashed with about seven communist terrorists. Two of them died. We still don't have their identities but their bodies are now with the Mandaon police for proper disposition," Pramis said.

Also recovered at the scene were an M16 rifle, a cal. 45 pistol and personal belongings of the rebels, Pramis added.

He said no one was reportedly killed or injured on the government side during the brief firefight.

"Pursuit operation was immediately launched for the apprehension of the fleeing CTG (communist terrorist group) members involved in the said incident," Pramis said.

The NPA rebels marked the 50th anniversary of their rural rebellion on March 29. The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and their front organizations have been attempting to negotiate a peace pact with five Philippine presidents before the current leader, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, but a negotiated settlement remains elusive and peace talks have repeatedly stalled.

In 2017, Duterte decided to terminate his administration's peace negotiations with the insurgent group. Last month, he said he has no more plan to reopen the talks during his term which ends in 2022.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 16:41:27|Editor: xuxin

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WASHINGTON, April 8 (Xinhua) -- A deadly multidrug-resistant fungal infection under the scientific name of Candida auris (C. auris) is deemed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as an "urgent threat" to large segments of the population across the world.

C. auris, a germ that has become resistant against regular drugs, preys on crowds with immature or compromised immune systems, including newborns and the elderly, smokers, diabetics and people with autoimmune disorders, according to the CDC.

The bug is cause for concern for three reasons: It is resistant to major antifungal medications, easily misidentified using existing laboratory methods and has caused outbreaks in healthcare settings.

Now alarmingly, in merely five years' time, this tenacious germ has hit almost all inhabited continents, with cases found in Europe, Asia, Africa and North and South America.

But what prompted the CDC to issue a threat alert was its increasing presence in New York, New Jersey and Illinois.

Last May, a blood test on an elderly patient at the Brooklyn branch of Mount Sinai Hospital revealed the existence of a newly discovered lethal germ in his body, local media reported.

Despite timely isolation in the intensive care unit, the patient died after three months in the hospital.

The bug remained and seized hold of the whole room, and was so invasive that a mere clean-up was far from enough -- even ceilings and floor tiles were partly ripped out to eradicate the intractable fungus.

The emergence of the superbug C. auris is a reminder that other microbes out there can also become resistant to treatments provided by modern medicine. More efforts from world epidemiologists and fungal disease experts are urgently needed for quick identification, precautions and effective combating measures.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 16:51:35|Editor: xuxin

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Buses transporting Syrian refugees are seen upon returning from Lebanon at the Syrian border point of Jdeidet Yabous on April 8, 2019. Hundreds of Syrian refugees returned home on Monday from several areas in Lebanon including Tripoli, Saida, Nabatieh, Bekaa and Akkar, Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) reported. (Xinhua/Ammar Safarjalani)

BEIRUT, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of Syrian refugees returned home on Monday from several areas in Lebanon including Tripoli, Saida, Nabatieh, Bekaa and Akkar, the National News Agency (NNA) reported.

The Syrian refugees returned by taking buses provided by the Syrian Transport Ministry with the help of Lebanon's General Security, NNA said.

Representatives from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) supervised the return in the presence of the Lebanese Red Cross, it added.

In addition, a team from the health ministry gave vaccines to the children returning home in the presence of associations working within the framework of the United Nations.

More than 1 million Syrian refugees are registered with the UNHCR in Lebanon, while the Lebanese government estimated the true number of Syrians in the country at 1.5 million.

The flow of Syrian refugees to Lebanon has weighed heavily on the country's economy and infrastructure, prompting Lebanese officials to urge the international community for support in guaranteeing the return of refugees to Syria.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 17:01:43|Editor: xuxin

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SEOUL, April 8 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's unification minister in charge of inter-Korean affairs vowed Monday to create a virtuous cycle of strengthened peace through economic cooperation with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul said in his inaugural address that South Korea will solidify peace on the Korean Peninsula through economic cooperation with the DPRK, noting that the solidified peace will enhance inter-Korean economic cooperation.

Kim pledged to create and settle the virtuous cycle, saying the government should lay the firm foundation towards people's aspiration for the peaceful reunification of the two Koreas by developing and institutionalizing the inter-Korean relations.

The minister did not mention detailed economic cooperation projects, but the South Korean government has pushed for the resumption of two major inter-Korean projects -- the jointly-run industrial zone in the DPRK's border town of Kaesong and the South Koreans' tour to the DPRK's scenic Mount Kumgang.

The Kaesong Industrial Complex and the tours to Mount Kumgang have been suspended since 2016 and 2008 each.

Kim emphasized that what is important at the current point would be to advance the peninsula's peace trend, which started last year, into an irreversible stage.

He noted that the two Koreas should put an end to the unfortunate history of inter-Korean relations that stopped and went forward repeatedly.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 17:42:01|Editor: xuxin

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TOKYO, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Nissan Motor Co. shareholders on Monday removed Carlos Ghosn from its board following the automaker's former chief being arrested on several charges of financial misconduct.

Nissan made the decision at an extraordinary shareholders' meeting following Ghosn being ousted as chairman following his first arrest on Nov. 19 on charges of under-reporting his remuneration for years in Nissan's securities reports.

Ghosn, widely credited as the force behind Nissan's rapid turnaround from near-bankruptcy since 1999, currently no longer holds any posts at the automaker, bringing an end to a near two-decade relationship.

At the meeting, it was also decided that Ghosn's close aide Greg Kelly, also arrested last November for alleged financial misconduct, will be removed from the board, as per Nissan's proposal, and Renault SA Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard was officially appointed as a board member.

Renault SA and Mitsubishi Motors Corp., who comprise an alliance with Nissan, have said that Ghosn will step down as a director in June.

Nissan President and CEO Hiroto Saikawa, under fire about the protracted scandal regarding its former chief and the automaker itself who is also facing allegations of financial misconduct, said Monday he will not step down so as to restore public trust and stabilize the new alliance.

"I have the responsibility to stabilize the alliance and minimize the effect on our operations and distress among the employees. I will think about my future when I reach the point where I can hand over the baton to the next," Saikawa told the meeting.

Ghosn, who has been charged with violating the financial instruments law by under-reporting his remuneration, is also facing charges of aggravated breach of trust connected to allegations he transferred private investment losses to Nissan.

On April 4, Ghosn was rearrested by Tokyo prosecutors over new allegations of aggravated breach of trust, related to funds essentially being transferred through a Nissan dealership in Oman and back to himself, causing Nissan a loss of around 5 million U.S. dollars, according to prosecutors.

The 65-year-old, who after his first arrest spent 108 days at the Tokyo Detention House, has denied all charges, with his lawyer Junichiro Hironaka slamming Japan's judicial system as being akin to "hostage justice."

After his arrest, Ghosn was also dismissed as chairman of Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and replaced as chairman of Renault SA in the three-way alliance he created after he tendered his resignation while in detention in Tokyo.

In 1999, Ghosn was sent to Nissan and served as chief executive officer following the Japanese automaker's capital alliance made with Renault.

He served as Nissan president from 2000 and its chief executive officer from 2001 to 2017 and oversaw the auto group becoming the second-largest of its kind behind Volkswagen AG, according to figures for 2018.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 18:42:41|Editor: xuxin

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Suspected militants stand handcuffed after being arrested in Kandahar city, capital of Kandahar province, Afghanistan, April 8, 2019. Afghan security personnel had busted three terrorist groups in the country's southern province of Kandahar, authorities said Monday. (Xinhua/Sanaullah Seiam)

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Afghan security personnel had busted three terrorist groups in the country's southern province of Kandahar, authorities said Monday.

"Personnel of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) have busted three terrorist groups of Taliban outfit during recent operations within the past 14 days," provincial department of NDS, the country's primary intelligence agency, said in a statement.

"A total of 27 arrests were made during the raids in Zharay, Maywand, Khakriz, Shah Wali Kot and Miyanshin districts of Kandahar province," the statement said without providing details.

The arrestees are responsible for conducting suicide attacks and terror activities in the province. The three groups were involved in series of major attacks on the security forces in Kandahar, the statement added.

The statement added that the timely arrest of the men has foiled major terror attacks.

One car, three motorcycles, five AK-47 guns and three pistols were among the items seized from the arrested people, the statement noted.

Security situation has been improving in Kandahar, the former stronghold of Taliban, over the past months as security forces have conducted search and cordon operations across the province. But the militants attack government interests in the province from time to time.

The Taliban has not made comments on the report so far.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 18:47:45|Editor: huaxia

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MUMBAI, April 8 (Xinhua) -- India will host a two-day convention beginning Tuesday to mark the World Homeopathy Day, said a release by the Ministry of Ayush, which promotes Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy on Monday.

The convention, organized by the Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy, part of the Ministry of Ayush, will witness signing of two agreements with Homeopathic colleges and deliberate on linking education and clinical practice with research, the release said.

India's annual market size for Homeopathy is 516.9 million U.S. dollars with 100 million patients following it out of 500 million patients worldwide with a global market size of 3.73 billion U.S. dollars, according to industry experts.

The council is taking this as an opportunity to review the path undertaken so far, taking stock of the challenges faced and to formulate future strategies for development of Homoeopathy.

There is an imminent need to focus on improving the quality of education and enhancing the success rate of an average practitioner. There is also need to ensure the production and availability of high quality Homoeopathy drugs in the market, the release said. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 18:47:47|Editor: zh

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BEIJING, April 8 (Xinhua) -- The opera commission "170 Days in Nanking" commemorating the efforts of protecting lives during the Nanjing Massacre will be staged on the National Center for the Performing Arts on April 24.

The opera is set in 1937 when Japanese invaders began to bombard Nanjing indiscriminately in September of that year. John Rabe, representative of Siemens China Co., in Nanjing, established the International Committee for Nanjing Safety Zone with 20 other foreigners to provide the humanitarian relief to local civilians.

In the most difficult days since then, the committee negotiated with the Japanese embassy and the military and protected the lives of 200,000 refugees in the Nanjing Safety Zone.

Co-produced by Jiangsu Cultural Investment and Jiangsu Performing Arts Group, the opera's debut was in December 2016. The production team is comprised of artists from 16 countries and regions.

I wish that the audience can be touched by the brilliance of the humanity from this opera instead of the horror of killing, the composer Tang Jianping said.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 18:57:59|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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PARIS, April 8 (Xinhua) -- France's central bank, Banque de France (BdF), said on Monday it expects a 0.3-percent growth over the first three months of 2019, confirming a previous estimation.

At the end of March, industrial business gained momentum mainly due to "robust production in IT products and textile," while that of automobile and food processing industries was almost stable, the bank said.

Order books slowed in February, and the capacity utilization rate inched down to 79.6 percent last month compared to a month earlier, BdF data showed.

According to the survey, based on business leaders' appreciation, industrial activities were expected to maintain the same positive trend in the short term.

Over the period, services activities slowed in a majority of sectors. Meanwhile, improved performance was forecasted during this month.

The business sentiment indicator in industry and services was unchanged at 100 points and 101 points respectively.

The BdF has set France's 2019 growth at 1.5 percent, below a government target of 1.7 percent.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 19:18:30|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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BANGKOK, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Thailand's former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been stripped of the rank of Volunteer Defense Corps General after he had been earlier deprived of all royal decorations by Thai King.

According to a Royal Announcement released on the Royal Gazette on Monday, King Maha Vajiralongkorn on Sunday endorsed the Ministry of Interior's petition for the revoking of Thaksin's rank of Volunteer Defense Corps General.

The ministry sought the king's endorsement to revoke the rank on March 29.

Thaksin was sentenced to a two-year jail term by the Supreme Court in 2008 and he is facing several other charges and has fled Thailand.

Last month, another Royal Announcement also cited 2008's ruling of the Supreme Court to strip all royal decorations of Thaksin.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 19:28:37|Editor: zh

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BEIJING, April 8 (Xinhua) -- What protected the terracotta army bronze weapons from metal corrosion after being buried for over 2,000 years? A new article by Chinese and British researchers shows that the soil where the bronze was buried may have contributed to their good preservation.

Since the first excavation of the terracotta army in China in the 1970s, thousands of bronze weapons held by the warriors such as spears, lances and swords were recovered. Although the wooden components of the weapons were decayed, the preservation of the bronze parts is still good, with many of the weapons displaying shiny, almost pristine surfaces and sharp blades.

Published in the international journal Scientific Reports, the study challenges a widely held belief that the craftsmen of the Qin Dynasty (221 B.C.-207 B.C.) mastered an advanced anti-rust technology to prevent bronze from decaying, according to the China Science Daily reported Monday.

This belief was based on the detection of chromium traces on the surface of bronze weapons. Chromium is a chemical element, and it has been widely used as a metal that can be polished while resisting tarnishing.

Previous studies found that some weapons were coated with a layer of chromium dioxide before burial.

However, chromium presence was uncorrelated with bronze preservation. Researchers of this study analyzed 464 weapons and identified chromium only in 37 of them, confirming that the presence of this element on the metal surfaces was not universal.

Instead, they found that the lacquer used to cover warriors and wooden parts of weapons, such as shafs, handles and crossbow stocks were rich in chromium, demonstrating that chromium on the metals was contamination from nearby lacquer after burial.

Rather than the chromium on the weapon surface, it was the burial soil that played an important role in the good metal preservation.

According to researchers, the moderate basicity, small particle size and high chemical tin content of the soil within the site prevented the formation of acids that would attack metal integrity.

The Terracotta Army was built by Emperor Qinshihuang of the Qing Dynasty, who unified China for the first time.

The study was led by a team of researchers from the University of Cambridge, the University of Science and Technology Beijing and the Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 19:33:39|Editor: zh

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SAN FRANCISCO, April 7 (Xinhua) -- A group of ethnic Tibetan youths from a poverty-stricken village in China's Sichuan Province will make their first overseas trip to the United States to widen their horizons as part of a United Nations (UN) poverty-relief program, an organizer said Sunday.

Hwa A. Lim, a board member of Asian Hustle and Salsa Association (AHSA) World, a California-based nonprofit organization dedicated to skills development, literacy promotion and poverty alleviation, said six ethnic Tibetan youths from a village in Pingwu County, Sichuan Province will come to California in celebration of World Dance Day.

"They'll be visiting us for about 10 days. We'll take them to different schools, to different places, and even to visit some companies," he said.

The ethnic Tibetan youths will perform a Chinese intangible heritage "Yak Dance," a traditional ritual dance popular among ethnic Tibetan groups in Sichuan, at the 2019 AHSA World Dance Day Charity Night on April 28 in the San Francisco Bay Area, Lim said.

AHSA World held the event to mark World Dance Day, which falls on April 29, and this year's celebrations will focus on the theme of poverty-relief and quality education, said Lim, who is a bioinformatics expert at the UN Food and Agricultural Organization and a member of the International Dance Council (CID).

The CID is a non-governmental organization founded in 1973 within the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) headquarters in Paris, France.

"We encourage everybody to help out so that everybody can be on the same boat," Lim said. "This year we target those impoverished children of the ethnic Tibetans in remote areas of western China."

Carmelita Chao, president of AHSA World, said poverty relief is one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). "We are very happy to give opportunities to those ethnic Tibetan young people to help them come out of the mountains to see the wonderful outside world."

AHSA World is the sponsor of the project "When Creativity Meets Poverty Alleviation and Education" nominated for the 2018 UNESCO Literacy Prizes, which was later incorporated into the SDG4-Education 2030 agenda. Its aim is to help poverty-hit children become literate and develop skills for future careers.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 19:33:43|Editor: zh

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HEFEI, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese scientists have made progress in helping cut down the cost of driverless vehicles used in special areas like airports or scenic parks.

According to a research team at the Hefei Institute of Physical Science affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, cost-efficiency could be obtained by optimizing an environment-sensing algorithm and laser radars.

The technology can help reduce the price of a ferry vehicle to below 100,000 yuan (about 15,000 U.S. dollars) per unit.

Jiang Ruhai, who led the project, explained that the price of a driverless vehicle can go as high as one million yuan due to its expensive components, especially the sensors for the self-driving system.

The unmanned vehicle is able to automatically make safety decisions to stop or steer in case of emergency. Field tests prove it has good performance in sensing obstacles within 120 meters, steering clear of obstacles, remote control and parking.

The institute has signed a cooperation agreement with a local automobile manufacturer for the mass production of vehicles with the technology, which can be expected later this year.

Jiang said that currently the technology can only be applied on unmanned ferry vehicles used in factories and parks, schools and airports, as it only has a speed of 10 km per hour.

The developer has also made an app for passengers to call for the ferry vehicles.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 19:43:52|Editor: xuxin

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BERLIN, April 8 (Xinhua) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet British Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday to discuss a way out of the deadlock of the Brexit process, a German spokesman said Monday.

May is to meet Merkel in Berlin to discuss the state of the Brexit process, said German federal government spokesman Steffen Seibert on Monday's regular press conference.

Seibert emphasized that in these difficult times of transition, it is important to preserve the unity of the 27 remaining EU states, especially if a decision has to be taken on an extension.

Seibert said the main talks on the request for a delay would be with the EU member states in Brussels on Wednesday but that it made sense for Britain and Germany to talk before the summit.

Merkel reiterated for several times that she wants to avoid an unorderly Brexit, or a no-deal Brexit.

The two leaders may discuss an extension of the deadline for Britain's departure from the bloc, as the country is currently scheduled to leave on April 12.

Last week May requested an extension to Brexit to June 30 but there are strong signals of dissent in Europe over granting Britain more time. Britain is due to leave the EU on April 12 if the EU does not grant the country an extension to Brexit.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 19:48:54|Editor: zh

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BEIJING, April 8 (Xinhua) -- A job fair for Chinese students returning from overseas was held in Beijing Monday to facilitate employment of students by Chinese institutions.

The event, held by the Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange under the Ministry of Education, attracted 169 well-known domestic institutions, many of which take part in the Belt and Road Initiative.

Organizers provided consulting services for students visiting the fair, including on certification of overseas academic degrees, and procedures concerning employment and settlement.

The fair has been held 13 times since 2012, attracting over 2,000 enterprises and institutions, as well as nearly 40,000 students, and providing over 10,000 job positions.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 19:54:04|Editor: xuxin

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TOKYO, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) achieved an overall strong showing in the first leg of quadrennial nationwide local elections held Sunday, although crucial losses would need evaluating, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday.

Abe was referring specially to the closely watched Osaka gubernatorial and mayoral elections, which saw former Osaka City mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura and governor Ichiro Matsui effectively switching posts having beaten candidates backed by the LDP-led coalition.

"We will look seriously at the results and make sure we achieve victory in the second leg later this month," Abe said, in response to the ruling blocs' setback at the polls in Osaka.

Yoshimura and Matsui, members of Osaka Ishin no Kai, have been campaigning to reorganize Osaka City into a metropolis with wards similar to Tokyo.

Overall, however, the LDP won 1,158 or 50.9 percent of seats in 41 prefectures up for grabs in the nationwide elections, winning a majority in 25 assemblies, with its junior Komeito ally, retaining all 166 prefectural assembly seats that it campaigned for.

While support for the LDP is numerically steady ahead of the upper house election in July, recent LDP-linked scandals may have impacted results in some key constituencies, while the main opposition party fared better than expected.

The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan secured 31 more seats prior to the polls with 118, in a better-than-expected showing, while the Democratic Party for the People relinquished 59 seats, securing 83.

The Japanese Communist Party lost seven seats, meanwhile, with 99, while the Japan Innovation Party won 13 more seats than it had prior to the polls, ending with 67.

A favoritism scandal connected to Abe and Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso, which led to the resignation of a deputy land minister recently, may have taken its toll in Aso's home constituency of Fukuoka, which saw the LDP's voter base split at the polls on Sunday.

Political watchers said such scandal-linked fractures in the ruling party's base could see support chipped away ahead of the upper house election this summer.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 19:59:11|Editor: zh

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HONG KONG, April 8 (Xinhua) -- The Immigration Department of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government announced Monday a mutual extension of visa-free period with Belarus.

The period of visa-free entry for HKSAR passport holders to Belarus will be extended from up to 14 days to 30 days with effect from April 10. Likewise, the visa-free period for passport holders of Belarus to visit HKSAR will be extended from 14 days to 30 days with effect from the same date.

To foster cooperation and exchanges between Hong Kong and the Belt and Road countries, the HKSAR government has been in discussion with the authorities concerned, a spokesman of the Immigration Department said, adding that in the past two years a total of eight countries have granted visa-free access or visa-on-arrival to HKSAR passport holders.

"The relevant arrangements will bring greater travel convenience to travelers from Hong Kong and these countries, and strengthen the tourism, cultural and economic ties between the places," the spokesman said.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 20:04:15|Editor: xuxin

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COLOMBO, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Over 240,000 tourists arrived in Sri Lanka in March, growing 4.6 percent compared to the same period last year, statistics from the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority showed here Monday.

The leading markets for Sri Lanka tourism were India, Britain and China.

Chinese arrivals last month grew 12.6 percent compared to March 2018, with the arrival of 23,759 tourists.

China accounted for 10 percent of the total traffic, while India accounted for 14 percent and Britain 12 percent.

To date, this year, 78,212 Chinese tourists have arrived in Sri Lanka while the total number of tourist arrivals this year has been 740,600.

Tourism Development, Wildlife and Christian Religious Affairs Minister John Amaratunga said the government was on target to reach its total aim of three million tourists by the end of this year. He said China being one of Sri Lanka's main markets, the tourism industry was expecting at least 300,000 Chinese tourists to visit the island country by the end of this December.

Sri Lanka Tourism has emerged as one of the leading markets following the end of the country's civil war in May 2009.

This year the government said it is expecting a revenue of at least five billion dollars from its tourism industry.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 20:34:40|Editor: xuxin

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KIEV, April 8 (Xinhua) -- The agitation campaign for the second round of Ukraine's presidential election kicked off on Monday, the Ukrainian government-run Ukrinform news agency said.

During the agitation campaign, the two candidates that have advanced to the runoff will have the right to promote their image among the voters through and including April 19, said the report, citing data from the country's Central Electoral Commission (CEC).

Earlier, the CEC said that Ukrainian actor Volodymyr Zelensky and incumbent President Petro Poroshenko had advanced to the second round, which will be held on April 21.

Zelensky garnered 30.24 percent of the vote, while Poroshenko gained 15.95 percent in the first round of the election held on March 31, the CEC website showed.

A total of 62.8 percent of 29.8 million eligible voters cast their ballots in the first round of the election.

The results of the second round are set to be released by May 4, and the new president is expected to take office no later than June 3.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 20:39:42|Editor: zh

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SAN FRANCISCO CITY, the Philippines, April 8 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese government-financed drug treatment and rehabilitation center in southern Philippines' Agusan del Sur province was turned over to the local government on Monday.

The 6,750-square-meter facility on a three-hectare lot is the second Chinese government-aided drug rehabilitation center in the Philippines to support the Philippine government's anti-drug campaign.

"It is a strong demonstration that the Chinese government will accomplish every commitment to help the Philippines, our friendly neighbor," said Jin Yuan, Chinese embassy's Economic and Commercial Counsellor, adding that China firmly supports the Philippine government's effort in improving its people's health.

The newly-inaugurated drug rehabilitation center is a 150-bed capacity facility with an administration and clinic building. There is also a multi-purpose covered court, dormitory buildings, and visitors' house in the center. The whole project was undertaken by the China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC).

The drug rehabilitation center project, which broke ground in February 2018, was initially expected to be completed within 21 months. "Thanks to the cooperation between the two countries and the hard-working of Chinese, local workers, the term shortened to nearly 13 months," said Liu Wei, General Manager of CSCEC Philippine branch.

"Our construction company also hired more than 400 local workers and administrative staff to ensure that residents around the province benefit from the construction of the project, while the number of Chinese employees is only 35," Liu added.

Roger Tong-An, the undersecretary of the Philippine Department of Health, attended the inauguration and turn-over ceremony to unveil the facility along with Chinese officials.

"This is the first drug rehab center in Agusan del Sur province. Thank for the support from the Chinese government and we are really happy about this project," Tong-An said.

Edward Plaza, the governor of Agusan del Sur province, said this drug rehab center gives the local government a chance to solve the drug problem and to provide better help to the drug dependents in this province and provinces nearby. "We would like to cooperate with our counterparts in DOH to address this issue," he added.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 21:00:02|Editor: zh

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BEIJING, April 8 (Xinhua) -- China on Monday voiced its support for multilateralism after France and Germany jointly proposed an "Alliance for Multilateralism" during a recent session at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and his German counterpart Heiko Maas intended to officially launch the Alliance during the 74th session of the UN General Assembly scheduled for September.

"China has always staunchly upheld, supported and practiced multilateralism," spokesperson Lu Kang said at a press briefing while commenting on the proposed Alliance, adding that China supports the efforts of the international community including France and Germany in maintaining multilateralism.

Lu said China stands ready to work with all parties in preserving the international order and regime with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter at its core, and the rule-based multilateral trade regime with the World Trade Organization (WTO) at its core, with a commitment to multilateralism.

Against the backdrop of a surging trend toward economic globalization and multi-polarization as well as a constant increase in global challenges, the world needs multilateralism more than ever before, the spokesperson said.

Speaking of Chinese President Xi Jinping's remarks at a forum on global governance attended by French, German and EU leaders during Xi's recently-concluded European visit, Lu mentioned Xi's advocacy for safeguarding multilateralism, enhancing international dialogue and cooperation, and jointly addressing the deficits in governance, trust, peace and development, so as to improve global governance.

"China is ready to work with all parties in facilitating a new type of international relations featuring mutual respect, fairness, justice and win-win cooperation, to jointly build a community of shared future for mankind," Lu added.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 21:05:08|Editor: zh

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BEIJING, April 8 (Xinhua) -- China's SUS Environment Co., Ltd. on Monday signed an agreement with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for a loan of 100 million U.S. dollars.

The ADB loan will provide financing for the company's waste-to-energy (WTE) projects located in Taiyuan, the capital city of north China's Shanxi Province, and Zhuhai city in south China's Guangdong Province, according to Long Jisheng, chairman and CEO of SUS Environment.

The two projects will realize the harmless disposal of 1.75 million tonnes of household waste every year, generate 437.5 million kilowatt hours of green electricity, help reduce production of greenhouse gases by 1.17 million tonnes of carbon dioxide while creating 150 new jobs, Long said.

"The cooperation with ADB will help SUS accelerate the development of multiple projects and enable us to provide better services to the people and government where WTE projects are needed. SUS welcomes this unique opportunity to establish a long-term partnership with ADB," said Long.

"SUS is a pioneer in China's environmental protection industry. SUS's waste-to-energy facilities can meet stringent air emissions standards, recycle resources within the eco-industrial parks, and are community-centric with their onsite waste museums and artistic architectures," said Jackie Surtani, Infrastructure Finance Division Director for Southeast Asia, East Asia, and the Pacific at ADB's Private Sector Operations Department.

The loan showed ADB's confidence in China's bright future in developing a circular economy, according to Jackie Surtani.

More than 50 percent of solid waste in China's urban areas will be incinerated by the end of 2020, according to government instructions unveiled in 2016.

Established in 2008, SUS is a leading environmental protection company headquartered in Shanghai.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 21:25:18|Editor: zh

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Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan (R, front) meets with Chairman of the National Security Committee of Kazakhstan Karim Masimov in Beijing, capital of China, April 8, 2019. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao)

BEIJING, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan met with Chairman of the National Security Committee of Kazakhstan Karim Masimov Monday in Beijing.

Wang said China and Kazakhstan are good neighbors and partners, and have maintained close, high-level exchanges and solid political mutual trust thanks to the strategic guidance and leadership of Chinese President Xi Jinping and the first President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev.

The two countries have achieved fruitful results in the joint construction of the Belt and Road and in other fields. Their coordination on international affairs has been highly efficient and close, and they have firmly supported each other on issues concerning their core interests, Wang said.

The new President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has been an old friend and good friend of the Chinese people, said Wang, adding that he believes the China-Kazakhstan comprehensive strategic partnership will continue to maintain a vigorous development momentum under the guidance of the two heads of state, to benefit the two countries and the two peoples.

Masimov said Kazakhstan and China are good neighbors and strategic partners. Developing ties with China is a priority of Kazakhstan's foreign policy.

He said Kazakhstan is willing to work with China to promote the construction of the Belt and Road and constantly push bilateral ties forward.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 22:05:47|Editor: xuxin

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BEIRUT, April 8 (Xinhua) -- The visiting UN deputy chief said on Monday that the United Nations supports Lebanon's call for the establishment of an Arab bank for reconstruction and development, according to the website of the Lebanese presidency.

"The UN is supportive for the creation of such a bank which would help reconstruction efforts in countries that have witnessed military actions in the past years," Amina Mohammed, UN deputy secretary-general, said during her meeting with Lebanese President Aoun in the capital Beirut.

The suggestion can be summited to the UN Economic and Social Commission for West Asia for its support in the implementation of the project, she added.

Earlier this year, Lebanese President Michel Aoun called for establishing an Arab bank for reconstruction and development at the fourth Arab Economic and Social Development summit in Beirut, saying it would help all Arab states and people overcome their crises, and contribute to the sustainable economic growth.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 22:05:51|Editor: xuxin

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MANILA, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Two alleged Abu Sayyaf militants, including one of the "facilitators" of the Jan. 27 twin bombings in Jolo, Sulu, that killed 23 and injured more than 100, were killed in a clash between security forces and Abu Sayyaf militants in southern Philippines on Monday.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines' Western Mindanao Command said in a statement that fighting, in which three soldiers were injured, broke out around 3:45 p.m. local time in Bangkal, a village in Patikul town in the southern Philippine Sulu province on Monday.

"Firefight lasted for 40 minutes, supported by indirect fires and close air support, resulting in the neutralization of (an Abu Sayyaf bandit) Barak Ingog, one of the facilitators of the bombing of Jolo cathedral," the statement read.

The statement identified the other Abu Sayyaf militant who was also killed in the fighting as Nasser Sawajaan.

"An M16 rifle and personal belongings of the bandits were also recovered," the military said.

Monday's fighting is the latest in a series of military offensives launched in the wake of the fatal Jan. 27 twin bombings in Jolo.

Abu Sayyaf gained notice in the southern Philippines in the early 1990s. It acquired a worldwide notoriety with a series of kidnappings and beheadings.

Philippine authorities referred to the Abu Sayyaf group as nothing more than a collection of bandits.

The Philippine government has formed an army division to hunt down the militants blamed for a series of kidnapping and bombings in the southern region.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 22:10:57|Editor: xuxin

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Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad (R) shakes hands with his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong during a press conference in Putrajaya, Malaysia, April 9, 2019. Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong arrived in Malaysia on Monday for a working visit. (Xinhua/Chong Voon Chung)

KUALA LUMPUR, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong arrived in Malaysia on Monday for a working visit.

The visit is in conjunction with the 9th Malaysia-Singapore Leaders Retreat, an annual event held alternately in Malaysia and Singapore, and is the first between Lee and incumbent Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, the Malaysian foreign ministry said in a statement.

"During the retreat, the two premiers are scheduled to have a four-eyed meeting to be followed by a delegation meeting. They are expected to discuss issues of mutual concern, review progress of existing bilateral cooperation and explore new areas of cooperation for mutual benefits," it said.

The ministry added that trade between the two countries was estimated to be worth 59.92 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, with both countries closely cooperating in the areas of investment, education, defense, agriculture and transportation.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 22:10:59|Editor: yan

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Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, attends a tree-planting activity in Tongzhou District in Beijing, capital of China, April 8, 2019. Other Party and state leaders, including Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji, Han Zheng and Wang Qishan, also attended the activity. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

BEIJING, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday stressed efforts to carry forward the Chinese nation's tradition of loving, planting and protecting trees, and to involve the whole society in promoting afforestation.

Wide participation by everyone in China should be encouraged in pushing for large-scale afforestation of the country to achieve more tangible results, said Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission.

He made the remarks while attending a tree-planting activity in east Beijing's Tongzhou District and planting saplings of different types of trees.

Other Party and state leaders, including Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji, Han Zheng and Wang Qishan, also attended the activity.

Xi talked with school children who are also attending the tree planting activity, asking about their study and sport exercise, urging them to foster awareness about environmental protection starting in childhood, and encouraging them to build a more beautiful motherland with their own hands.

Xi said this year marks the 40th anniversary of National Tree Planting Day. In the past 40 years, China's forest area and forest stock volume have doubled, respectively, and China is home to the world's largest man-made forest. The proportion of China's contribution to the world's vegetation increase also ranked first.

At the same time, the lack of forests and vegetation, and fragile ecological environment are still problems that need tremendous efforts, said Xi.

Xi stressed that the Chinese nation has a good tradition of loving, planting and protecting trees. Wide participation by everyone in China should be encouraged and officials at all levels should set examples as volunteer tree planters.

Efforts should be taken to promote the high-quality development of afforestation, coordinate management of mountains, waters, forests, farmland, lakes and grassland, continuously advance the building of forest city and forest countryside, Xi said.

Xi called for solid efforts to improve people's living environment, develop a green economy, and strengthen forest management and protection to achieve more tangible results.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 22:11:00|Editor: xuxin

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CAIRO, April 8 (Xinhua) -- The Arab League (AL) called on Monday for an international decisive reaction against the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's latest remarks about annexing the West Bank settlements if he wins another term.

Saeed Abu Ali, AL assistant secretary general for the occupied Palestinian and Arab lands, warned that the remarks would result in "dangerous repercussions."

He demanded the International Criminal Court to open an immediate official investigation about the continuous settlement crimes on the Palestinian territories.

"Netanyahu uses the settlement issue as a winning card for guaranteeing the right wing loyalty in his election campaign," he added.

Netanyahu told an Israeli TV channel on Saturday that he would start extending Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank settlements if getting re-elected in the elections on Tuesday.

Israel seized the West Bank in the 1967 war and there have been about 435,000 Israeli settlers there by 2017, according to official Israeli figures.

The Palestinians are seeking to establish an independent state on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as the capital, though East Jerusalem has been under Israeli occupation as well.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 22:16:04|Editor: mingmei

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The UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths (C) arrives at the Sanaa International Airport in Sanaa, Yemen, on April 8, 2019. The UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths arrived in Yemen's rebel-held capital Sanaa on Monday to push Houthi rebels for implementing Stockholm Agreement. (Xinhua/Mohammed Mohammed)

SANAA, April 8 (Xinhua) -- The UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths arrived in Yemen's rebel-held capital Sanaa on Monday to push Houthi rebels for implementing Stockholm Agreement.

However, rebels prevent journalists from meeting the UN envoy at Sanaa Airport upon his arrival.

A peace deal reached between Yemeni warring parties in December last year has hit a deadlock, as the rebels refuse to implement the deal and withdraw from Hodeidah port city.

Hodeidah is the lifeline for Yemen's most commercial imports and humanitarian aid.

Griffiths has been shuttling between the Iranian-allied Houthi rebels in Sanaa and the Yemeni government in the Saudi capital Riyadh to end over four years of civil war, which erupted after the rebels seized much of the country's north in late 2014.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 22:31:27|Editor: yan

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ADDIS ABABA, April 8 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said Monday that 8.86 million Ethiopians need urgent humanitarian assistance in 2019.

"The 8.86 million people were affected by adverse humanitarian outcomes including chronic food insecurity, malnutrition, displacement and sickness from infectious diseases," the UNOCHA said in a statement.

Conflict, climate shocks and disease outbreaks are behind the humanitarian needs, it said.

In March, the Ethiopian government and development partners including UNOCHA said 1.3 billion U.S. dollars is needed to address food and non-food emergency needs of 8.3 million people in 2019.

Ethiopia was spared significant climate-related calamities last year, but spikes in conflict-induced displacements, which led to a near doubling of internally displaced population, contributed to high humanitarian response needs in 2019.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 22:31:30|Editor: yan

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BEIRUT, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin called upon European and Gulf countries on Monday to help in facilitating the return of Syrian refugees from Lebanon to their homeland, local media reported.

"We call upon all countries to facilitate the return of Syrian refugees to their homeland as it is a humanitarian issue and it should not be related to a political solution in the country," Zasypkin was quoted as saying by Elnashra, an online independent newspaper.

Zasypkin's remarks came during the opening of a Russian cultural center in Bekaa.

The Lebanese and Syrian authorities are working along with Russia to facilitate the return of Syrian refugees to Syria, but the international community also has a big role to play in this regard, said the ambassador.

More than 1 million Syrian refugees are registered with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Lebanon, while the Lebanese government estimated the true number of Syrians in the country at 1.5 million.

To facilitate the return of Syrian refugees to their homeland, Russia drafted a strategy and presented it to the Lebanese authorities, which aims at securing the return of 890,000 Syrian refugees.
Chinese doctors examine a Rwandan patient in Kigali, capital of Rwanda, on April 4, 2019. About 300 patients had been treated during the free health care service provided by the 19th China Medical Team in Rwanda in the past three days, and over 100 patients came on Thursday for the treatment.(Xinhua/Lv Tianran)

By Xinhua writer Lyu Tianran

KIGALI, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese doctor Zhao Shangjun was leading a puncture operation on the knee of a boy in a small consulting room of Gahanga Health Center in southern Kigali.

The boy, whose knee was swollen due to the water inside, had been suffering pain caused by the water for about a month after doing sports.

After four syringes of water were drawn out of his body, the atmosphere in the room finally became relaxed. While the orthopedics doctor was telling the boy's mother matters needing attention after the operation, other Chinese doctors called the next Rwandan patient to the room for a checkup.

Rwandan people wait to receive free health care from Chinese doctors in Kigali, capital city of Rwanda, on April 4, 2019.(Xinhua/Lv Tianran)

About 300 patients had been treated during the more recent free health care service provided by the 19th China Medical Team in Rwanda over three days.

"We want to provide support to the Rwandan people, especially to those poorer people who are not able to afford medicines and higher quality health care," said Yang Wenhui, chief of the medical team.

"People's health is highly important to a country. Only when people's health and basic life are guaranteed can the society be stable," said Yang.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the 1994 genocide against Tutsi. The annual commemoration of the genocide will be held from April 7 to July 4, which is in line with the period of the genocide.

All 12 medical workers including those working in southeastern Rwanda's Kibungo hospital joined the activity in the capital city.

Rwandan people wait to receive free health care from Chinese doctors in Kigali, capital city of Rwanda, on April 4, 2019.(Xinhua/Lv Tianran)

27-year-old Xavier Hagenimana had headache for around two months. He decided to come to see the Chinese doctors after hearing that they can heal serious diseases.

"They treated me well and I don't have headache now," the security guard said.

"Chinese doctors help people heal diseases that other doctors failed to resolve. Their treatment is so wonderful and so good," said Hagenimana with smiles.

"They are good people. I wish they can continue going around the country, healing our diseases," he said.

Primary school student Chantal Bamporineza had a severe facial pain before receiving acupuncture treatment from the Chinese doctor. The pain was much relieved, she said.

A Chinese doctor treats a Rwandan boy in Kigali, capital city of Rwanda, on April 4, 2019.(Xinhua/Lv Tianran)

"I feel ok now," said Bamporineza, who had suffered from the pain in the past two years and had never seen doctors before due to financial strain.

"Many thanks for Chinese doctors who treated me without charging me," the girl said.

Some patients in the area can not afford the transportation to the district hospital, a higher-level medical institution in Rwanda's health system, according to Emmanuel Habarurema, head of Gahanga Health Center.

"This activity is very important in our catchment area, as people live far from hospitals and many poor patients have no capacity to receive medication or consultation from the district hospital," said Habarurema.

Chinese doctors examine a Rwandan patient in Kigali, capital of Rwanda, on April 4, 2019.(Xinhua/Lv Tianran)

Habarurema added that the health center serves the Gahanga sector with the population of about 44,000 and other people living in neighboring sectors.

The health center currently has 29 workers in total, including paramedical staff, according to him. There is a shortage of staff, he said.

The medical team also plans to provide medical equipment to the health center.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 22:46:47|Editor: yan

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PARIS, April 8 (Xinhua) -- French President Emmanuel Macron would receive British Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday evening to further discuss how Britain would leave the European bloc after her failure to make the Brexit deal approved by the parliament, local media reported on Monday.

"The working meeting is scheduled as part of the preparation of the extraordinary European Council meeting over Brexit in Brussels on April 10," local broadcaster Europe1 reported citing a source close to the President's office.

The two leaders would hold talks on Tuesday at 18:00 local time (1600 GMT). That follows her visit to Germany where she will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel earlier in the same day.

Last week, the French president said Britain would have chosen a no-deal exit on its own, if its prime minister would not propose a credible alternative plan backed by the majority by April 10.

Under pressure to find majority support for her deal to leave the European bloc, May had to set out future plans to the EU this week, under the terms given by the bloc for the first Brexit extension which is set to end on April 12.

As no withdrawal agreement has been approved yet by British lawmakers, May asked for a second delay to June 30.

EU leaders will meet on April 10 to decide on whether to give Britain an extension and how long it could be.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 22:56:58|Editor: yan

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WASHINGTON, April 8 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said here on Monday that the United States designates Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a "foreign terrorist organization," a move that will further worsen U.S. -Iran relations and is expected to further complicate the Middle East situation.

"Today, I am formally announcing my Administration's plan to designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including its Qods Force, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act," Trump said in a statement issued by the White House.

"This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft," Trump said. "The IRGC is the Iranian government's primary means of directing and implementing its global terrorist campaign."

He added that "this designation will be the first time that the United States has ever named a part of another government as an FTO."

"If you are doing business with the IRGC, you will be bankrolling terrorism," Trump warned.

The 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.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 23:02:07|Editor: yan

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BEIJING, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese ambassador to Barbados Yan Xiusheng has called for efforts to promote China-Barbados cooperation to a new stage.

In the article, carried by Monday's People's Daily, Yan said the two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on jointly advancing the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in February, making Barbados the first new partner to join the BRI in 2019.

"The friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries have deepened in recent years, showing a good trend of upgrading quality and accelerating speed," Yan said.

Political mutual trust between the two sides has been strengthened, pragmatic cooperation has been steadily advancing and people-to-people and cultural exchanges have seen many highlights, he explained.

As an important partner of China in the Caribbean, Barbados attaches great importance to international cooperation within the framework of the BRI, the article read.

The signing of the MOU between the two countries has brought new opportunities for further development of bilateral relations and practical cooperation in various fields, Yan noted.

Under the framework of the BRI and guided by the principle of consultation, collaboration and benefit for all, both sides will give full play to their comparative advantages and tap into their potential for cooperation in the fields including shipping, aviation, infrastructure and modern agriculture, he said.

Efforts will be made to achieve high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and push China-Barbados friendship and cooperation into a new stage, said the article.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 23:12:17|Editor: Yamei

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A train stops at the Matara Railway Station preparing to depart for Beliatta in Sri Lanka, April 8, 2019. The Sri Lankan government declared on Monday to open a railway line constructed between Matara and Beliatta in the southern part of the island country which will hopefully boost passenger traffic into the deep south. The railway extension was financed by the Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim Bank) and the contract was awarded to China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation. A major portion of the construction was carried out by China Railway Group 5 (CR5) and Sri Lanka's Central Engineering Consultancy Bureau (CECB). (Xinhua/Guo Lei)

COLOMBO, April 8 (Xinhua) -- The Sri Lankan government declared on Monday to open a railway line constructed between Matara and Beliatta in the southern part of the island country which will hopefully boost passenger traffic into the deep south.

In the Matara railway station, a special train set off on its maiden journey on the newly-built railway around 9:00 a.m. local time, and arrived at the final Beliatta station an hour later.

The 26.75-km long Matara-Beliatta railway extension was declared open for the public by Transport and Civil Aviation Minister Arjuna Ranatunga in the presence of Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera and other parliamentarians.

The railway extension was financed by the Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim Bank) and the contract was awarded to China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation.

A major portion of the construction was carried out by China Railway Group 5 (CR5) and Sri Lankas Central Engineering Consultancy Bureau (CECB).

Ranatunga, speaking at the launching ceremony, said that the railway extension project was a victory for the country as it would immensely benefit the people, especially those living in Matara and Hambantota areas.

The minister expressed gratitude to the Chinese government for their assistance in the project.

"I am also glad to be able to open this railway line before the Sinhala and Tamil New Year so that it would benefit the people travelling from Colombo to Hambantota for the New Year," Ranatunga said.

The official said the remaining work of expanding the railway line from Beliatta to Hambantota and then to Kataragama, in the Uva province will also commence soon.

The Matara-Beliatta railway line is the first to be constructed in Sri Lanka since 1948 and it includes the longest and second longest railway bridges of 1.5 km and 1.04 km, respectively.

The railway line also includes one of the tallest railway bridges, the longest railway tunnel and the most modern railway station buildings in the country.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 23:17:22|Editor: yan

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CHANGSHA, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Central China's Hunan Province plans to build sewage treatment facilities in all towns by 2022, amid its efforts to promote the construction of urban and rural environmental infrastructure.

The information was announced at an infrastructure promotion conference Monday.

The conference proposed that each town should work out a tailored policy in terms of the construction of sewage treatment facilities, based on its sewage discharge capacity and the environment.

The province will introduce policies to levy sewage treatment fees in towns and provide fiscal support for the construction and operation of sewage treatment facilities.

Both public and private sectors are encouraged to participate in the construction of environmental infrastructure in urban and rural areas in the province.

Hunan has built 309 sewage treatment facilities in towns over the past five years, with the coverage rate at less than 20 percent. The province said it would pay more attention to environmental infrastructure and improve the operating efficiency of the existing sewage treatment facilities.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 23:37:35|Editor: yan

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DHAKA, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh's leading telecom operator Grameenphone has cemented its reputation as the country's largest cellphone operator in terms of users by welcoming its 10 millionth 4G registered customer.

Within 14 months of introducing 4G, using largely leading Chinese global telecom vendor Huawei's equipment, Grameenphone has become the first operator in Bangladesh to cross the 10 million customer mark of the fourth generation of mobile telecommunications services.

Since the launch of 4G in February 2018, Grameenphone crossed the threshold of 5 million 4G customers in November 2018 and the latter five million joined within only five months, said the operator in a statement on Monday.

Denoting this milestone, senior Grameenphone official Yasir Azman said, "Bangladesh is one of the fastest growing 4G market in Asia."

This shows how fast the country is moving towards digitalisation through mobile broadband and creating the opportunities to unleash potentials, he said.

Grameenphone has been continuing to expand its 4G coverage across the country and most recently became one of the first telecom operators in South Asia and the first operator in Bangladesh to introduce the NB-IoT network, it said.

Grameenphone, 55.8 percent owned by Norwegian telecom company Telenor and 34.2 percent owned by local Grameen Telecom, has a strong legacy of providing mobile services to all parts of the country.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 23:37:38|Editor: yan

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by Dana Halawi

BEIRUT, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese experts concern that the United States' decision of recognizing Israel's sovereignty over the occupied Syrian Golan Heights would also include the Lebanese occupied territories of Shebaa Farms.

"The Shebaa farms was occupied by the Syrians long before the Six-Day War of 1967. When Israel occupied the Golan Heights, they seized Shebaa Farms also. So the question of Shebaa Farms cannot be separated from the Golan Heights," Hilal Kashan, chair of the Political Studies Department at the American University of Beirut, told Xinhua.

Shebaa Farms are located on the border between Lebanon and the occupied part of Golan Heights.

Israel invaded and occupied southern Lebanon in 1978 and annexed the Golan Heights, including the Shebaa Farms, in 1981, a move never recognized by the international community.

There was a dispute over whether the farms belonged to Lebanon or Syria due to lack of official delineation between the two countries.

After the liberation of southern Lebanon and the Israeli withdrawal in 2000, Syria declared without formal documentation that Shebaa Farms belongs to Lebanon.

However, U.S. President Donald Trump signed in March a proclamation placing the Golan Heights under Israel's authority which was met with strong international condemnation.

It aroused fears among Lebanese officials about the possibility of a later decision by Trump to include Shebaa Farms in his equation.

"Trump's decision affects Shebaa Farms for sure because the Syrian regime has not been forthcoming in providing Lebanon with documents and maps to show that the farms belong to Lebanon," said Khashan.

However, Trump's decision to recognize Israel's authority over the Golan Heights is not very meaningful and a possible announcement of Shebaa Farms in the future would only be symbolic because Israel is not going to pull out anyway, he added.

Both Israel and Hezbollah do not have an interest in the liberation of Shabaa Farms, Khashan said.

"Israel wants an external source of threat, which is Hezbollah in this case, because the Israeli society is fragmented. If there are no external issues, then Israeli politics will become extremely divisive and it would be difficult to operate the Israeli political system," Khashan explained.

On the other hand, in the event that Israel pulls out from Shebaa Farms, the demands for disarming Hezbollah would accelerate.

"Hezbollah is interested in keeping Shebaa Farms with Israel, which gives the Shiite party a pretext to keep its armament in the name for the need of the resistance to continue the efforts to liberate the Farms," he said.

Khashan believes that in all cases, Hezbollah achieved its objectives in Lebanon and they do not want to go to war with Israel.

"They are reaping the fruits of their military activity against Israel. If they will go to war, they will compromise their achievements," he said.

Retired Lebanese Army Brigadier General Elias Farhat reiterated Khashan's remarks by saying that the U.S. decision of recognizing Israel's sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights would include Shebaa Farms, but such a move would only be symbolic and would not likely lead to military action.

He explained that the United Nations Security Council released the Resolution 497 in December 1981, declaring that the Israeli Golan Heights Law, which effectively annexed the Golan Heights, is "null and void and without international legal effect" and further calls on Israel to rescind its action.

"Therefore, Trump's decision is illegal and illegitimate," he said, ruling out the possibility of military action for the liberation of Shebaa Farms any time soon.

Likewise, Lebanese former Ambassador to the United States Riad Tabbarah told Xinhua that the U.S. announcement is not very meaningful because it comes from only one country.

The announcement is considered only as a gift for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of the elections, he said.

"The issue of Shebaa Farms should be solved between Lebanon and Syria. Syria must give documents to Lebanon, proving that Shebaa Farms are Lebanese which will enable Lebanon to submit a claim to the United Nations to restore its land," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 23:37:40|Editor: mingmei

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Rwandan President Paul Kagame speaks at a press conference in Kigali, Rwanda, April 8, 2019. Efforts made by French president Emmanuel Macron is "significant progress" towards investigating France's role in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, Kagame said on Monday. (Xinhua/Lyu Tianran)

KIGALI, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Efforts made by French president Emmanuel Macron is "significant progress" towards investigating France's role in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, Rwandan President Paul Kagame said on Monday.

Macron appointed a panel of experts comprising of a commission of historians and researchers to investigate France's role in the Rwandan genocide and produce a public report, French media reported last Friday.

The team of experts would look at state archives, including diplomatic and military documents, and produce a public report, according to reports.

"This is not to deny the fact that with president Macron's term of office even in a complicated environment of politics. There has been very significant progress," said Kagame while addressing a press conference following Sunday's commemoration of 25th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide against Tutsi.

There is a significant step in the way the archives are being treated because they contain the truth that people can interpret about France's role in the 1994's genocide, he said.

"People have asked whether what we need from France or anybody is an apology and our answer is no. For an apology to have a meaning, it has to come from someone who is apologizing," he added.

France's role during the April-July 1994 genocide in Rwanda has for years been the subject of intense scrutiny and much controversy, with both Paris and Kigali trying to pin responsibility on the other for the genocide.

While Rwanda has repeatedly accused France of backing the genocidal regime government, allegedly arming and training the Hutu ethnic group perpetrators responsible for the mass murder during genocide, France has denied the accusations of murder, insisting its forces worked to protect the civilians.

Rwanda severed diplomatic relations with France in 2006 following the issue by a French judge of nine arrest warrants against Rwandan officials in the case of the attack on the aircraft of former Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana in April 1994, which triggered the 100-day genocide.

The African country decided to restore diplomatic relations with France in 2009. The latter currently has no ambassador to Rwanda since the latest ambassador left the post in 2015.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 23:37:42|Editor: yan

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TEHRAN, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Judiciary chief said on Monday that the decision by the United States to put Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) on its blacklist of foreign terrorist organizations is doomed to fail, Press TV reported.

"This measure has no value either in political or legal terms in the eyes of the world's governments and nations," Ebrahim Raeisi was quoted as saying.

"The U.S. administration is a hated government that is responsible for grave crimes in the West Asia region and the rest of the world," Raeisi said.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday said that the United States designates IRGC as a "foreign terrorist organization," a move that will further worsen U.S.-Iran relations and is expected to further complicate the Middle East situation.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 23:37:45|Editor: yan

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HO CHI MINH CITY, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Guided missile corvette BNS Prottoy of the Bangladesh Navy arrived in here on Monday, beginning its four-day friendship visit to the city.

The visit aims to enhance cooperation, mutual understanding and trust of the Vietnamese and Bangladeshi armies and naval forces in particular, Vietnam News Agency reported on Monday.

During the trip, commanders of the ship, which has 23 officers and 116 sailors on board, are scheduled to pay courtesy visits to the citys leaders and Vietnams High Command of Navy Region 2.
File Photo: U.S. official J. Stapleton Roy, a former U.S. ambassador to China, Indonesia and Singapore, speaks during the first Meeting of the ASEAN-U.S. Eminent Persons Group (EPG) in Manila, the Philippines, on May 21, 2012. (Xinhua/Rouelle Umali)

NEW YORK, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Practical approach, which underscores the collaborative side in U.S.-China relations, is vital to maintaining 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.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 23:47:48|Editor: yan

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MOSCOW, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Russia is working hard to stop bloodshed in Libya, Russian authorities said Monday.

"Russia, of course, uses all opportunities it has to urge all parties to abandon any actions that could provoke bloody battles and civilian deaths," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"We are working with the UN (United Nations), with the special representative of the UN Secretary General for Libya, Ghassan Salame," Mikhail Bogdanov, Russian deputy foreign minister and the special envoy of President Vladimir Putin for Middle East and Africa, was quoted as saying by the TASS news agency.

He added that Russian officials have held phone conversations with all political forces of Libya. On Friday, he talked over the phone with Khalifa Haftar, head of the eastern-based army, and on Saturday with the Libyan Deputy Prime Minister, Ahmed Maiteeq.

Moscow has voiced its concerns to the United Nations Security Council over the recent situation in Libya and urged all parties to seek a political solution for emerging problems, Bogdanov said, adding that more efforts are still needed to combat terrorists.

The eastern-based military forces led by Haftar on Thursday launched a military operation attempting to take over western Libya, the capital Tripoli in particular, where the UN-backed government is based. The government forces there have fought back.

The Haftar-led army is allied with Libya's eastern-based government. The politically divided North African country has been struggling to make a democratic transition amid clashes and chaos since the fall of former leader Muammar Gaddafi's government in 2011.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 23:47:50|Editor: yan

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TAIPEI, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Taiwan's exports slumped for the fifth consecutive month in March as weakness in global demand weighed on its electronics products, according to the latest trade data.

Exports fell 4.4 percent year on year in March to 28.68 billion U.S. dollars, while imports rose 6.6 percent from the previous year to 25.56 billion U.S. dollars.

For the first quarter, exports fell 4.2 percent from a year earlier to 76.36 billion U.S. dollars, snapping a rallying streak of 10 quarters, while imports shed 0.8 percent to 67.41 billion U.S. dollars in the first three months, trimming trade surplus to 8.95 billion U.S. dollars.

Trade authorities warned of further decline in exports due to weak global growth.

In March, declines were reported in most of Taiwan's main export products -- ranging from electronic components, metals and their products, to plastic and rubber prodcuts.

The Chinese mainland and Hong Kong remained the biggest destination for Taiwan exports, followed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the United States, Europe, and Japan.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 23:47:52|Editor: yan

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BERLIN, April 8 (Xinhua) -- After several months of young people striking across Germany for more climate action, four representatives of the German "Fridays For Future" movement presented their central demands for the first time on Monday in Berlin.

Although German climate policy was in principle committed to the 1.5-degree target of the Paris Climate Agreement, the government had not been acting accordingly, the students argued during the presentation of their demands at a press conference in the Museum of Natural History in Berlin.

In order to meet the 1.5-degree temperature goal, the climate activists called on Germany to phase out coal by 2030. This would be eight years earlier than the date recommended by the German coal commission.

Germany should also acquire 100 percent of its energy from renewable sources and have "zero emissions" by 2035. The climate activists defined "net zero" as the amount of greenhouse gases emitted "that can be bound again by natural processes, such as the growth of plants".

The German Ministry for the Environment (BMU) would "not evaluate the claims" made by the climate activists, a ministry spokesperson told Xinhua on Monday.

Germany looks set to miss its climate protection targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent compared with 1990 levels by 2020.

Recent figures from the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) showed that greenhouse gas emissions in Germany had declined by 30.6 percent in 2018 compared to 1990.

In the short-term, the "Fridays For Future" representatives called for a quarter of Germany's coal-fired power plants to be shut down and subsidies for fossil fuels to be stopped by the end of 2019.

Germany should introduce a carbon dioxide (CO2) tax of 180 euros (202.4 U.S. dollars) per ton of CO2 on all greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the year.

While acknowledging that "these demands are ambitious", the students stressed that "if we do not act decisively now, we will miss the 1.5 degrees Celsius target. The resulting damage will not be repairable".
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 23:47:57|Editor: yan

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WASHINGTON, April 8 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said here on Monday that the United States designates Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a "foreign terrorist organization," a move that will further worsen U.S.-Iran relations and is expected to complicate the Middle East situation.

"Today, I am formally announcing my Administration's plan to designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including its Qods Force, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act," Trump said in a statement issued by the White House.

"This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft," Trump said. "The IRGC is the Iranian government's primary means of directing and implementing its global terrorist campaign."

He added that "this designation will be the first time that the United States has ever named a part of another government as an FTO."

"It underscores the fact that Iran's actions are fundamentally different from those of other governments," he noted. "This action will significantly expand the scope and scale of our maximum pressure on the Iranian regime. It makes crystal clear the risks of conducting business with, or providing support to the IRGC."

"If you are doing business with the IRGC, you will be bankrolling terrorism," Trump warned.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Twitter on Sunday denounced the move, which had been reported by the U.S. media earlier on Friday.

He said that "#NetanyahuFirsters who have long agitated for FTO designation of the IRGC fully understand its consequences for U.S. forces in the region. In fact, they seek to drag the U.S. into a quagmire on his behalf."

"@realDonaldTrump should know better than to be conned into another U.S. disaster," Zarif added.

The 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.

Also on Sunday, Heshmatollah Falahat Pishe, chairman of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, told Tasnim news agency that the parliament has prepared a motion in this regard, and "Iran will consider the U.S. army as a terrorist organization if the United States designates the IRGC a terrorist group."
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-09 00:03:10|Editor: Liangyu

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CHINGOLA, Zambia, April 8 (Xinhua) -- The Zambian government on Monday commended two Chinese construction firms for their commitment to the construction of mega projects on the Copperbelt Province.

Bright Nundwe, Copperbelt Province Permanent Secretary, commended AVIC International Corporation and China National Complete Engineering Corporation for the progress made in the construction of a modern international airport and a water supply improvement project.

He urged other contractors to emulate the two Chinese firms' commitment to duty on executing various projects.

"The two contractors are not just moving at a faster rate but also executing quality works which will stand a test of time," he said.

The permanent secretary said the provincial administration will not allow any delays in the completion of projects in region, adding that quality works should be executed by all contractors.

According to him, President Edgar Lungu wanted to ensure all projects in the province and the entire country are completed according to specified time frames.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-09 00:03:12|Editor: yan

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HARARE, April 8 (Xinhua) -- The Zimbabwe government will soon start paying interim advance payments to former white commercial farmers as compensation for improvements on their land that was taken over during the land reform program.

The government said Monday that an ad hoc compensation group comprising government officials and representatives of former farm owners is carrying out farm valuations to come up with compensation figures.

In the meantime, representatives of the affected farmers, the Commercial Framers Union and the Compensation Steering Committee are in the process of identifying and registering former farm owners who want to participate in the interim advance payments scheme.

"The registration process and the list of farmers should be completed by end of April 2019, after which the interim advance payments will be paid directly to former farm owners by the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Walter, Climate and Rural Resettlement," the ministries of lands and finance said in a joint statement.

The interim advance payments will be made only to former farm owners who are in financial distress, the statement said.

Compensation of the former white commercial farmers has been topical in the country over the years, and the government in recent years expressed its commitment to finalizing the issue by compensating the affected farmers, but only for farm improvements and not for the land.

In its 2019 budget, the government allocated 53 million RTGS dollars for the interim advance payments.

The RTGS dollar is a transitional currency launched in February.

"Consultations on sustainable options for mobilizing the requisite compensation resources are being explored in conjunction with the international financial institutions and other stakeholders," the ministries said.

Zimbabwe implemented the land reform program in the early 2000s under which it repossessed white-owned commercial farms to resettle land-less blacks.

The matter resulted in the straining of relations between Zimbabwe and its former colony Britain and the European Union, which both accused Zimbabwe of committing human rights abuses during the process of the land reform program.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-09 00:03:14|Editor: yan

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VIENNA, April 8 (Xinhua) -- According to Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, maintaining the unity of the 27 European Union (EU) member states is a top priority in the still uncertain Brexit process.

Speaking to journalists here on Monday, Kurz said this unity has so far been "better than expected," the Austria Press Agency (APA) reported.

"If we succeed in maintaining this unity, then we will have already achieved quite a lot. If we do not succeed, we will import chaos from Great Britain into the EU," he said.

It is of utmost importance to make certain that all 27 EU countries and related institutions can live with the eventual outcome of the Brexit process, he added.

The next two most important goals are preventing a "hard Brexit" and avoiding the United Kingdom taking part in this May's European Parliament elections.

He said he was "very optimistic" about the unity of the EU, and "still relatively optimistic" about avoiding a hard Brexit.

The chancellor also said he planned to consult with British Prime Minister Theresa May later on Monday.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-09 00:18:20|Editor: yan

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LONDON, April 8 (Xinhua) -- The British government on Monday sent another document to the opposition Labour Party to outline its latest position on the cross-party talks in order to break the current Brexit deadlock.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said that only a cross-party pact would see MPs agree a deal in parliament, which already rejected May's Brexit deal with the European Union (EU) three times since January.

May said on Sunday that her talks with the opposition Labour Party on Brexit, which started last Wednesday, would mean "compromise on both sides."

Talks between Downing Street and the Labour team were expected to be reopened Monday evening following a hiatus. But there was no sign of a breakthrough in talks between teams of negotiators for the prime minister and the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

Three days of talks ended on Friday without an agreement on how to push forward the Brexit process.

The talks have been taking place to try to find a proposal to put to British MPs which could break the Brexit deadlock in the House of Commons before an emergency EU summit on Wednesday.

May had hoped to put a deal to the House of Commons Tuesday night. But if nothing is agreed, Britain could either crash out without a deal on Friday or be forced to accept a longer extension and commit to holding the European elections, which May has repeatedly vowed to avoid.

May's deputy spokeswoman said that the government was aiming for "formal discussions" with Corbyn's team later.

"There has been further contact over the weekend," she said. "Our intention is to engage further with the Opposition today. And given the need for urgency we hope that will lead to further formal discussions"

Labour's shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer who is a key figure in the cross-party talks, said a way forward was eluding the teams so far.

"We haven't found that yet," he said, adding that it was down to the British government to make the next move.

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.

Tories are concerned about the prime minister singing up to a second referendum, but Corbyn is under pressure to insist on one.

Britain is currently due to leave the EU on April 12 and, as yet, no withdrawal deal has been approved by British lawmakers.

The Brexit date was already pushed back from March 29 to April 12. The prime minister wants to move the Brexit date from April 12 to June 30, but EU leaders will give her a longer extension, which she does not prefer.

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Monday May was leaving "no stone unturned" to try to resolve the Brexit problem.

Arriving in Luxembourg for a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council, Hunt said, "I can't tell you that I'm very confident or not confident. We are going into these talks sincerely and we have to see what the outcome is."

EU leaders are divided about what to do if the British politicians fail to strike a deal among themselves.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-09 00:23:24|Editor: yan

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JOHANNESBURG, April 8 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's power utility Eskom on Monday said it is working with major players in the electric vehicle (EV) market in the country to unlock the EV potential locally.

Eskom said that the drive to reduce fuel-powered cars is growing exponentially globally. It is estimated that 30 percent of all vehicle sales by 2025 would be EVs and hybrid EVs.

Eskom spokesperson Khulu Phasiwe said "Locally we have seen about 1,000 EVs being sold in South Africa since 2015 - the pace being much slower than Europe and China."

He blamed factors including the 45 percent import taxes and duties and access to charging facilities as the reasons for the slow development of EVs.

Phasiwe pointed out that Eskom is actively involved in the EV sector as the primary electricity supplier for vehicle charging.

"International experience is showing that EV manufacturing, charging stations and battery manufacturing are creating new job opportunities and new markets - often linked to the retraining of people who were working in the fuel car industries," he said.

Eskom said it is now working with car manufacturers, non-governmental organizations such as uYilo, EVRT Africa and GridCars.

"Electric vehicles will be the transport medium of the future and we as South Africa need to be part of the movement, or risk massive losses if we are not geared for this new wave of technology," Phasiwe added.

Phasiwe stated that they would like to craft special tariffs for EV owners to charge their vehicles at off -peak times, thereby helping to flatten the demand patterns outside peak periods and ensure affordable power for EV owners.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-09 00:28:29|Editor: yan

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DUBAI, April 8 (Xinhua) -- The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia will provide funding of 200 million U.S. dollars for urgent humanitarian assistance to Yemen, Reem Al Hashimy, UAE's minister of state for international cooperation, said on Monday.

During a press conference in Abu Dhabi, Al Hashimy said this funding, which is part of a 500-million-dollar donation announced in November 2018, aims to alleviate the suffering of the Yemeni people by meeting basic needs in the sectors of food, nutrition, health and livelihoods in Yemen during the upcoming weeks.

The minister pointed that this joint humanitarian initiative, in cooperation with United Nations agencies, plays significant humanitarian role in Yemen.

The minister stated that a large portion of this support will focus on women because of their prominent role in providing efficient assistance and promoting the building of the social structure.

She also pointed out the difficulties that hinder the delivery of aid to Yemen, mainly the obstacles put in place by the Houthis.

According to the minister, this initiative is in addition to the two countries' previous pledges of one billion dollars, and the 250 million dollars provided by Kuwait.

The pledges were announced at the UN's recent High-level Pledging Event for Yemen on February 26, 2019.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-09 00:33:31|Editor: yan

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TEHRAN, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Monday asked Iran's Supreme National Security Council to put U.S. Central Command forces in West Asia on the list of terrorist groups, official IRNA news agency reported.

Zarif's proposal is based on the law to deal with "U.S. human rights violations and provocative and terrorist acts in the region," Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said in a statement.

The proposal by Iran's foreign minister is a reaction to the U.S. decision on Monday which designates Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps a foreign terrorist organization.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-09 00:48:39|Editor: yan

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LONDON, April 8 (Xinhua) -- The British government announced on Monday it is going to introduce new tough measures in a bid to ensure online safety.

These measures include appointing an independent regulator to enforce new standards, and implementing the mandatory "duty of care", which will require companies to take reasonable steps to keep their users safe and tackle illegal and harmful activity on their services.

The regulator will have effective enforcement tools, and the government is consulting on powers to issue substantial fines, block access to sites and potentially to impose liability on individual members of senior management, according to a statement from the government.

"Online companies must start taking responsibility for their platforms, and help restore public trust in this technology," said British Prime Minister Theresa May in the statement.

The new proposed laws will apply to any company that allows users to share or discover user generated content or interact with each other online. This means a wide range of companies of all sizes are in scope, including social media platforms, file hosting sites, public discussion forums, messaging services, and search engines, according to the government.

A 12-week consultation on the proposals has been launched Monday, and once this concludes the government will then set out the action it will take in developing its final proposals for legislation.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-09 00:58:45|Editor: Liangyu

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Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrives in Brussels, Belgium, April 8, 2019, for the 21st China-European Union (EU) leaders' meeting. (Xinhua/Gao Jie)

BRUSSELS, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrived here Monday for the 21st China-European Union (EU) leaders' meeting.

China and Europe are two major forces and markets in the international arena, and are important cooperation partners to each other, Li said upon his arrival.

Li said he looks forward to having an in-depth exchange of views with the European side on bilateral ties and other issues of common concern on the basis of mutual respect, consultation, coordination and win-win outcomes.

China, he added, hopes that the two sides will reach broad consensus on practical cooperation and make substantial progress on their investment agreement negotiations, so as to further enrich the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership and steer their relationship towards higher levels, broader areas and deeper degrees.

China firmly supports the European integration process, the EU's unity and growth, and Europe's more important role in international affairs, said the Chinese premier.

In the current situation, China is willing to work with the EU to strengthen coordination and cooperation on international issues, uphold multilateralism and free trade, consolidate the global and strategic significance of their relations, and contribute to world peace, stability and prosperity, he added.

During his stay in Brussels, Li will co-chair the China-EU leaders' meeting with European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. They will jointly attend a signing ceremony and meet the press.

Li and Juncker will meet with representatives attending the fourth China-EU Innovation Cooperation Dialogue. Li will also meet with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel.

This is the first stop of the premier's five-day tour to Europe. After Brussels, Li is scheduled to pay an official visit to Croatia, where he will also attend the eighth leaders' meeting of China and Central and Eastern European countries.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-09 01:23:55|Editor: yan

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WASHINGTON, April 8 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said here on Monday that the United States designated Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as a "foreign terrorist organization" (FTO), a move that will further worsen U.S.-Iran relations and is expected to complicate the Middle East situation.

"Today, I am formally announcing my Administration's plan to designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including its Qods Force, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act," Trump said in a statement issued by the White House.

"This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft," Trump said. "The IRGC is the Iranian government's primary means of directing and implementing its global terrorist campaign."

He added that "this designation will be the first time that the United States has ever named a part of another government as an FTO."

"It underscores the fact that Iran's actions are fundamentally different from those of other governments," he noted. "This action will significantly expand the scope and scale of our maximum pressure on the Iranian regime. It makes crystal clear the risks of conducting business with, or providing support to the IRGC."

"If you are doing business with the IRGC, you will be bankrolling terrorism," Trump warned.

Later, the White House issued a separate statement, saying that the unprecedented designation, part of "a broader effort to counter Iran-backed terrorism around the world," will "increase the financial pressure and isolation of Iran and deprive the regime of resources it uses for its terrorist activities."

"This action puts other governments and the private sector on notice about the nature of the IRGC," it said.

In response, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that the U.S. designation is "a(nother) misguided election-eve gift to Netanyahu. A(nother) dangerous U.S. misadventure in the region."

Zarif has took to Twitter to denounce the move, which had been reported by the U.S. media on Friday.

He said on Sunday that "#NetanyahuFirsters who have long agitated for FTO designation of the IRGC fully understand its consequences for U.S. forces in the region. In fact, they seek to drag the U.S. into a quagmire on his behalf."

"@realDonaldTrump should know better than to be conned into another U.S. disaster," Zarif added.

The 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.

Also on Sunday, Heshmatollah Falahat Pishe, chairman of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, told Tasnim news agency that the parliament has prepared a motion in this regard, and "Iran will consider the U.S. army as a terrorist organization if the United States designates the IRGC a terrorist group."

U.S. media quoted analysts as saying that the U.S. move, together with possible retaliation from Iran and the Shiite forces in Middle East nations, would further escalate the regional confrontation, and complicate the mission of U.S. forces and diplomats in the region that have to engage with governments that may have close links with Iran.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-09 01:23:56|Editor: yan

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TEHRAN, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Supreme National Security Council on Monday announced U.S. Central Command forces in West Asia as "terrorist group," official IRNA news agency reported.

Iran's Supreme National Security Council considers the U.S. government as the "sponsor of terrorism" and announces the U.S. Central Command and its affiliated forces in West Asia as a "terrorist group," a statement by the council was cited as saying.

"Iran strongly condemns the illegal and dangerous move by the United States to designate the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization," said the statement.
File Photo: Members of Iranian Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) shout slogans in Iran's late Islamic revolution leader Ayatollah Khomeini's shrine, in Tehran, Iran, on Feb. 1, 2014. (Xinhua/Ahmad Halabisaz)

WASHINGTON, April 8 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said here on Monday that the United States designated Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as a "foreign terrorist organization" (FTO), a move that will further worsen U.S.-Iran relations and is expected to complicate the Middle East situation.

"Today, I am formally announcing my Administration's plan to designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including its Qods Force, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act," Trump said in a statement issued by the White House.

"This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft," Trump said. "The IRGC is the Iranian government's primary means of directing and implementing its global terrorist campaign."

He added that "this designation will be the first time that the United States has ever named a part of another government as an FTO."

"It underscores the fact that Iran's actions are fundamentally different from those of other governments," he noted. "This action will significantly expand the scope and scale of our maximum pressure on the Iranian regime. It makes crystal clear the risks of conducting business with, or providing support to the IRGC."

"If you are doing business with the IRGC, you will be bankrolling terrorism," Trump warned.

Later, the White House issued a separate statement, saying that the unprecedented designation, part of "a broader effort to counter Iran-backed terrorism around the world," will "increase the financial pressure and isolation of Iran and deprive the regime of resources it uses for its terrorist activities."

"This action puts other governments and the private sector on notice about the nature of the IRGC," it said.

In response, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that the U.S. designation is "a(nother) misguided election-eve gift to Netanyahu. A(nother) dangerous U.S. misadventure in the region."

Zarif has took to Twitter to denounce the move, which had been reported by the U.S. media on Friday.

He said on Sunday that "#NetanyahuFirsters who have long agitated for FTO designation of the IRGC fully understand its consequences for U.S. forces in the region. In fact, they seek to drag the U.S. into a quagmire on his behalf."

"@realDonaldTrump should know better than to be conned into another U.S. disaster," Zarif added.

The 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.

Also on Sunday, Heshmatollah Falahat Pishe, chairman of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, told Tasnim news agency that the parliament has prepared a motion in this regard, and "Iran will consider the U.S. army as a terrorist organization if the United States designates the IRGC a terrorist group."

U.S. media quoted analysts as saying that the U.S. move, together with possible retaliation from Iran and the Shiite forces in Middle East nations, would further escalate the regional confrontation, and complicate the mission of U.S. forces and diplomats in the region that have to engage with governments that may have close links with Iran.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-09 03:04:43|Editor: yan

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AMMAN, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Jordan said on Monday that Syria has made the decision to release eight Jordanian prisoners jailed in Syria.

The information was confirmed in an official memorandum from the Syrian embassy in Amman.

Sufian Qudah, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the eight were out of 30 Jordanians arrested by Syrian authorities since the reopening of the border crossing between the two sides in October 2018.

The Jordanian official voiced appreciation for Syria's decision, adding that it will continue its efforts to secure the release of the remaining prisoners.

Jordan on Thursday demanded Syria to release all Jordanian prisoners and detainees and to observe the relevant international laws.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-09 03:04:45|Editor: yan

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TIRANA, April 8 (Xinhua) -- The Head of European Union (EU) delegation to Albania Luigi Soreca encouraged Albanian authorities on Monday to engage more in the fight against corruption as a key priority for its EU integration process.

Soreca said that the EU supports the initiative launched by authorities to make changes in the public administration, emphasizing that this requires political will.

"Corruption damages Albania's reputation," Soreca said.

According to Soreca, fight against corruption is of crucial importance for all Albanian citizens and the country's economic development.

"Corruption has a big cost for the country and society. It has an effect on the administration and services which are offered. It also has a destructive effect for the economy of the country," Soreca said.

Soreca said that fight against corruption is one of Albania's key priorities for its EU integration path.

EU decided last June that membership talks with Albania and North Macedonia may open if the two countries continue with the progress of reform.

The Albanian government has voiced hope that the country would be able to open accession talks with EU in June this year.

Albania was given EU candidate country status in 2014.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-09 04:25:15|Editor: yan

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WASHINGTON, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Three U.S. soldiers and a contractor were reportedly killed in Afghanistan by an improvised explosive device on Monday.

The Sputnik quoted the NATO-led Resolute Support mission as saying in a statement that "three U.S. service members and one contractor were killed, and three U.S. service members were wounded by an improvised explosive device April 8 near Bagram Air Base."

The mission said that the three wounded soldiers were evacuated and were receiving medial care, without giving further details.

The U.S. Department of Defense hasn't immediately responded to Xinhua's email seeking confirmation.

Monday's incident marked the second deadly attacks on U.S. personnel in Afghanistan in three weeks. The Resolute Support said on March 22 that "two U.S. service members were killed while conducting an operation" that day.

More than 16,000-strong Resolute Support forces, with a majority of them made up of Americans, are stationed in Afghanistan to train, advice and assist Afghan forces in the war on militant groups including the Taliban outfit.

U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad said on March 13 that the peace talks between the United States and the Afghan Taliban have made progress after tough negotiations in Qatar and that conditions for achieving a peaceful settlement have improved.

However, it remains unclear if Taliban would be committed to a complete cease-fire and direct talks with the Afghan government.

Fighting between government forces and Taliban fighters often gets intense in spring as it is locally branded as the fighting season.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-09 04:30:18|Editor: Lu Hui

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WASHINGTON, April 8 (Xinhua) -- The United States on Monday designated Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as a "foreign terrorist organization" (FTO), an unprecedented move that will further heighten U.S.-Iran tensions, and complicate the Middle East situation.

"This designation will be the first time that the United States has ever named a part of another government as an FTO," U.S. President Donald Trump said in a statement issued by the White House.

"This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft," Trump said.

Iran immediately condemned the Trump administration's decision as "a dangerous U.S. misadventure in the region" and labelled U.S. Central Command forces in West Asia as "a terrorist group."

Iran's Supreme National Security Council considers the U.S. government as the "sponsor of terrorism" and announces the U.S. Central Command and its affiliated forces in West Asia as a "terrorist group," the official IRNA news agency reported, citing a statement by the council.

Tensions between the United States and Iran have escalated since the Trump administration withdrew from the landmark 2015 Iran nuclear deal in May last year and snapped back sanctions on Iran's "critical sectors" of energy, shipping, shipbuilding and finance.

The United States has already blacklisted dozens of entities and individuals affiliated with the IRGC, but not the entire force.

Trump said in Monday's statement that the new designation "will significantly expand the scope and scale of our maximum pressure on the Iranian regime. It makes crystal clear the risks of conducting business with, or providing support to the IRGC."

Moments later, the White House issued a separate statement, saying that the unprecedented designation, part of "a broader effort to counter Iran-backed terrorism around the world," will "increase the financial pressure and isolation of Iran and deprive the regime of resources it uses for its terrorist activities."

"This action puts other governments and the private sector on notice about the nature of the IRGC," it said.

For his part, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told a media conference held after Trump's announcement that "this designation will take effect one week from today."

"Businesses and banks around the world now have a clear duty to ensure that companies with which they conduct financial transactions are not connected to the IRGC in any material way," Pompeo said, noting that the U.S. designation will increase the risk of business cooperation between European financial entities and Iran.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that the U.S. designation is "a(nother) misguided election-eve gift to Netanyahu. A(nother) dangerous U.S. misadventure in the region."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also responded via Twitter on Monday, saying that "thank you, President @realDonaldTrump for your decision to designate the Islamic revolutionary guards as a terrorist organization."

"Once again you are keeping the world safe from Iran aggression and terrorism," he said.

After reports of the designation emerged late on Friday, the Iranian foreign minister has taken to Twitter to warn against such a move.

Zarif tweeted on Sunday that "#NetanyahuFirsters who have long agitated for FTO designation of the IRGC fully understand its consequences for U.S. forces in the region. In fact, they seek to drag the U.S. into a quagmire on his behalf."

"@realDonaldTrump should know better than to be conned into another U.S. disaster," Zarif added.

The IRGC on Sunday warned that "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."

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," Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari was quoted as saying by Press TV.

U.S. media quoted analysts as saying that the U.S. move, together with possible retaliation from Iran and the Shiite forces in Middle East nations, would further escalate the regional confrontation, and complicate the mission of U.S. forces and diplomats in the region that have to engage with governments that may have close links with Iran.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-09 04:50:35|Editor: yan

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JERUSALEM, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Israel on Monday praised U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to designate Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization.

The Israeli foreign ministry issued a statement, saying it was a "significant move" that marks a new phase in the U.S. efforts to pressure Iran. "Iranian terror is a threat that has to be fought," the statement read.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked Trump for the move. "Once again you are keeping the world safe from Iran aggression and terrorism," Netanyahu wrote on his Twitter account.

Netanyahu considers Iran as Israel's biggest enemy. He has been a vocal opponent of any negotiations with Iran, including the 2015 nuclear deal to curb the Islamic republic's nuclear program.

Trump's announcement is expected to further worsen U.S.-Iran relations.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-09 04:55:37|Editor: yan

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BAGHDAD, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi forces on Monday killed four Islamic State (IS) militants in the country's western province of al-Anbar, while a policeman and a child were killed in the central province of Salahudin, security sources said.

The Iraqi army, backed by paramilitary tribal fighters, clashed with IS militants at a desert area west of the town of Haditha, some 200 km northwest of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

It killed four of the extremist militants, said Qasim al-Mohammadi, commander of al-Jazira Operations Command in Anbar.

In a separate incident, a mortar round landed on a security checkpoint east of the town of Shirqat, some 280 km north of Baghdad, killing a policeman and an eleven-year-old school child, said Mohammed al-Bazi, from Salahudin Provincial Police Command.

The school child was in the checkpoint waiting for a car to take him to his village after he left his school, Bazi said.

In December 2017, Iraq declared full liberation from the IS after the security forces and the paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units, backed by the anti-IS international coalition, recaptured all areas once seized by the extremist group.

However, IS remnants have since melted in urban areas or resorted to deserts and rugged areas as safe havens, carrying out guerilla attacks from time to time against the security forces and civilians.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-09 05:00:41|Editor: mingmei

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RABAT, April 8 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) celebrated the World Health Day in the Moroccan capital Rabat on Monday.

Held under the theme "Primary health care: a path towards universal health coverage," the ceremony commemorating this day was chaired by WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus and the Moroccan Prime Minister Saad Eddine El Othmani.

In a message to the participants, King Mohammed V of Morocco said primary health care is critical to achieving universal health coverage.

He stressed that this goal represents a challenge not just for health systems, but also for the funding of health insurance plans, for which solidarity-based health insurance mechanisms need to be adopted to cope with growing health risks and costs.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-09 05:10:48|Editor: yan

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UNITED NATIONS, April 8 (Xinhua) -- As many as 11 civilians, including five students, have been killed in clashes in the capital city of Sanaa on Sunday, a UN spokesman said Monday, calling for safety for civilians.

"Preliminary reports from our team in Yemen indicate that as many as 11 civilians, including five students, were killed and scores of civilians injured in Shu'aub District in Sanaa City," said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

Dujarric said his office sent messages via social media Sunday evening "about our concern at the deaths in Sanaa and called on all parties to exercise utmost restraint and ensure the safety of all Yemenis."

Lise Grande, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, said that "these are terrible, senseless deaths and injuries and we offer our deep condolences to the families of the victims," Dujarric said. "She said that protecting people and protecting civilian infrastructure (are) core principles of international humanitarian law."

During 2018, humanitarian organizations reported an average of 45 incidents of armed violence each week in Yemen, the spokesman said. Thousands of civilians were killed last year, including more than 950 children.

For more than four years, Yemen has been grappling with a brutal conflict between supporters of Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and Houthi rebel groups. The war has plunged the Arab country into what the UN considers to be the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with four out of five Yemenis (24.1 million people) in need of some form of humanitarian aid and protection.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-09 05:30:57|Editor: Liangyu

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An artist from Jiangsu Women's Traditional Orchestra performs at the Cairo Opera House in Cairo, Egypt, April 8, 2019. At Egypt's renowned Cairo Opera House, a Chinese musical band played traditional Chinese and Egyptian music on Monday, winning applause of the audience. The show was part of the seventh edition of the Damanhour International Folk Festival, which lasts to April 11. (Xinhua/Wu Huiwo)

by Ahmed Shafiq, Zhao Jiasong

CAIRO, April 8 (Xinhua) -- At Egypt's renowned Cairo Opera House, a Chinese musical band played traditional Chinese and Egyptian music on Monday, winning applause of the audience.

The show was part of the sixth edition of the Damanhour International Folklore Festival, which lasts from April 6 to 11.

The festival, which hosts 26 Arab and foreign bands from 13 countries, extended for the first time from Beheira province in Delta to Cairo and Alexandria.

The open air theatre at the Cairo Opera House was packed with Chinese and Egyptian audiences who enjoyed the festive and famed Chinese folk melodies performed by artists from Jiangsu Women's Traditional Orchestra, which is the first professional women orchestra that performs traditional Chinese folk music.

The famous band has previously played in countries, including the Neitherlands, Australia, Lebanon, and Morocco.

Ghada Ahmed, 15-year-old student who plays piano, said it was her first time watching a live Chinese musical show.

"I'm a musician and I really admired what the Chinese band has performed," said the girl, who came to the concert with her parents.

Ahmed said there are many similarities between the Egyptian and Chinese music as they use similar instruments and musical scales.

Her father, Ahmed Mahmoud, who learns Chinese at the Chinese Cultural Center in Cairo, said he liked the performance of an old Egyptian musical piece.

"They Chinese artists played the piece skillfully. It was a pure Egyptian music with a Chinese soul," Mahmoud said.

The man added that the performance showed that music is a common language between different cultures and a strong bridge linking the people of the globe.

Cultural exchanges benefited from China and Egypt upgrading their relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2014, with artists, cultural and musical delegations paying mutual visits.

Through such moves, both countries want to boost friendly ties and enhance mutual understandings and future development.

Ge Chengli, deputy director-general of Lianyungang's Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism Bureau, said the orchestra's participation in the festival is meant to enhance cooperation between China and Egypt.

"We're able to know more about the Chinese culture and the Egyptian audience can know what Chinese folk music is like," he told Xinhua. "Through folk music, we can tell the story of China to the world."

He added that the performance is meaningful under China's Belt and Road Initiative, stressing that Egypt is one of the most important Belt and Road countries.

Yan Yan, chief performer of the orchestra, said the music and songs performed at the festival are well-known in China, such as the Jasmine Flower.

"We can feel the passion of the audience. We hope to study more Chinese folk music, in order to make our performance more joyful for the audience," she told Xinhua.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-09 06:11:15|Editor: mingmei

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European Union (EU) chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier (L) and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar pose for a photo before their meeting at Government Buildings in Dublin, Ireland, April 8, 2019. The European Union (EU) hopes that the ongoing cross-party discussions in Britain will produce a positive outcome, EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said here on Monday. (Xinhua)

DUBLIN, April 8 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) hopes that the ongoing cross-party discussions in Britain will produce a positive outcome, EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said here on Monday.

Barnier made his remark at a press briefing following his meeting with the Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar.

"As you all know, there are intensive cross-party discussions ongoing in London....We all hope these talks will produce a positive outcome," said Barnier.

He said that "the Political Declaration provides for a range of outcomes including a customs union. We are ready to make this clearer if it helps and its work can be done extremely quickly".

The Political Declaration is a legally none-binding document on the future relationship between the EU and Britain after Britain exits from the EU.

Barnier said that the most important aim of his trip to Ireland, the fifth of its kind for him as a chief Brexit negotiator of the EU, is to take stock of the latest developments in London and to discuss the summit meeting of the European Council convened by its president Donald Tusk in Brussels on Wednesday.

The upcoming EU leaders' meeting will decide whether the latest request by the British Prime Minister Theresa May to seek a further extension to the Brexit date to June 30 should be granted or not.

Barnier said that during his meetings with the Irish PM and other senior Irish officials they also discussed what would happen in Ireland in a possible no-deal scenario.

He said "our goal is to protect the Good Friday Agreement, peace on this island and integrity of the single market".

He admitted that to achieve such a goal is not an easy task, but he said that "We are confident that we will find operational solutions."

"One thing is certain whatever happens the EU will stand fully behind Ireland. You will have our full support," he said, adding that "the backstop is currently the only solution we've found to maintain the status quo on the island of Ireland."

The backstop refers to a temporary arrangement to ensure that no hard border will occur between Ireland and Britain's Northern Ireland after Brexit until and unless a better alterative is found.

"If the UK will have to leave the EU without a deal, let me (be) very clear, we will not discuss anything with the UK until there is an agreement for Ireland and Northern Ireland as well as for citizens' rights and the financial settlement," he warned, adding that the EU 27 member states will remain fully united as they have been from the very beginning of the Brexit negotiations.

Irish Prime Minister Varadkar, in his speech at the press briefing, expressed his thanks for the solidarity that Barnier and the EU have showed for Ireland over the Brexit issue.

He reiterated his government's stand that Ireland is open to extending the Brexit deadline to allow talks in the UK to reach their conclusions so long as Theresa May's government has a clear plan that is focused on a future relationship with the EU rather than trying to reopen the Withdrawal Agreement negotiations.

"What we want to avoid is an extension that just allows for more indecision and more uncertainty," he told the local media prior to his Monday's meeting with Barnier.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-09 06:16:17|Editor: Lu Hui

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LONDON, April 8 (Xinhua) -- As British Prime Minister Theresa May held individual phone talks with leaders of European Union states Monday, negotiations to find a Brexit breakthrough resumed between her Conservative government and the main opposition Labour Party.

The stakes have been raised in the quest to agree a deal between the two big political parties in Britain as a Friday departure deadline date looms.

Downing Street said government ministers had contacted the opposition Labour Party to pave the way for technical discussions Monday evening.

But Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn complained talks between both sides have so far yielded no change in May's so-called red lines. Labour wants May to agree a deal that keeps Britain linked to the European Customs Union.

Media in London quoted sources close to the government indicating May had not accepted Labour's customs union demand, while pro-Brexit Conservative politicians fear such a link would undermine Brexit.

Corbyn said: "The exchanges with the government have been serious, but our shadow cabinet expressed frustration that the prime minister has not yet moved off her red lines so we can reach a compromise."

An emergency summit of European Union member state leaders takes place in Brussels Wednesday where May is expected to detail fresh plans aimed at ending the impasse in the British parliament.

Her aim is to win support to agree to an extension of Britain's departure date until June 30.

On Tuesday May travels to Europe for separate talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron in Berlin and Paris respectively.

It is part of May's plan to speak with all 27 European leaders ahead of Wednesday's crunch summit meeting. May also spoke Monday with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

In the unelected House of Lords, politicians Monday night backed the bill introduced in the House of Commons by Labour MP Yvette Cooper to prevent Britain leaving the EU with no deal.

The leader of the House of Commons Andrea Leadsom told MPs that if the bill receives Royal Assent from Queen Elizabeth there will be a government motion Tuesday asking the British Parliament to approve the May's request to the EU to delay Brexit.

Across the Irish Sea, talks took place Monday in Dublin between Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar and the EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier.

Speaking later to journalists, Barnier said the EU could be much more ambitious in the future trade relationship if Britain were to drop its red lines.

Barnier welcomed May's decision to hold cross-party talks with the main opposition Labour Party, adding: "There are intensive cross-party discussions happening in London as we speak. We all hope these talks produce a positive outcome. I have said many times before that we can be much more ambitious in our future relationship with the UK."

"The political declaration allows for a range of outcomes, including a customs union. We are ready to make this clear if it helps and the work can be done extremely quickly."

Varadkar said he and Barnier exchanged views on the length of a possible extension for Britain.

He said: "I look forward to discussing it further with my EU counterparts at the European Council on Wednesday. There will be of course different views but I am confident we can reach agreement."

Britain also started making formal arrangements Monday for the country to take part in next month's European Parliament elections, but the government said it hoped a Brexit deal could be reached to avoid Britain having to elect Euro MPs (MEPs).
Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-09 06:56:32|Editor: yan

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MOSCOW, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Russia and Turkey will enhance investment cooperation and start more joint projects in various fields, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday.

"Much is being done to deepen the economic ties between Moscow and Ankara... Further activation of investment cooperation will be promoted by the launch of new joint projects in various sectors of the economy - industry, metallurgy, agriculture and the high-tech sector," Putin said following talks with visiting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

According to Putin, bilateral trade of the two countries in 2018 grew by over 15 percent and exceeded 25 billion U.S. dollars, while the volume of mutual investment is approaching 20 billion U.S. dollars.

"Our main goal is bringing the commodity turnover of Russia and Turkey to the level of 100 billion U.S. dollars from current 26 billion. From the strategic point of view, we will do everything possible to achieve the goals of bilateral cooperation in economy, trade and other fields," Erdogan said.

The presidents discussed various aspects of Russian-Turkish cooperation, including in the energy sphere.

Putin noted the construction of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant in Turkey is "one of the key energy projects."

He also stressed that the two sides need to speed up the construction of the terminal on the Black Sea coast of Turkey so that the Turk Stream becomes operational by the year end.

Russia is the largest supplier of natural gas to Turkey with 24 billion cubic meters being exported in 2018, which covers about half of the needs of the country, according to Putin.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan attend a news conference following their talks at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia April 8, 2019. (KREMLIN PHOTO)

MOSCOW, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Russia and Turkey will enhance investment cooperation and start more joint projects in various fields, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday.

"Much is being done to deepen the economic ties between Moscow and Ankara... Further activation of investment cooperation will be promoted by the launch of new joint projects in various sectors of the economy - industry, metallurgy, agriculture and the high-tech sector," Putin said following talks with visiting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

According to Putin, bilateral trade of the two countries in 2018 grew by over 15 percent and exceeded 25 billion U.S. dollars, while the volume of mutual investment is approaching 20 billion U.S. dollars.

"Our main goal is bringing the commodity turnover of Russia and Turkey to the level of 100 billion U.S. dollars from current 26 billion. From the strategic point of view, we will do everything possible to achieve the goals of bilateral cooperation in economy, trade and other fields," Erdogan said.

The presidents discussed various aspects of Russian-Turkish cooperation, including in the energy sphere.

Putin noted the construction of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant in Turkey is "one of the key energy projects."

He also stressed that the two sides need to speed up the construction of the terminal on the Black Sea coast of Turkey so that the Turk Stream becomes operational by the year end.

Russia is the largest supplier of natural gas to Turkey with 24 billion cubic meters being exported in 2018, which covers about half of the needs of the country, according to Putin.
Bogdan Cojocaru va fi noul prefect al Iasului

Bogdan Cojocaru va fi instalat prefect al Iasului in zilele urmatoare, dupa ce Executivul va da o hotarare de guvern in acest sens. Biroul Permanent Judetean al PSD Iasi l-a nominalizat cu putin timp in urma sa preia functia detinuta acum de Marian Grigoras. Presedintele PSD Iasi, Maricel Popa, s-a aratat multumit [citeste mai departe]
According to the results of the first tour of the presidential elections, Petro Poroshenko got 15,95% of the votes and entered the second tour, which will take place on April 21.

But only voters can decide whether Poroshenko is going to become the president for the second time. And we will talk about the First Lady, wife of Petro Poroshenko, Maryna Poroshenko.

We know much more about Mrs. Poroshenko than about Olena Zelenska; she was visible during these five years. However, we collected all the information that we know about Maryna Poroshenko in one article.

Maryna Poroshenko (birth surname Perevedentseva) was born in Kyiv on February 1, 1962). She is cardiologists on education and doctor of medical science.

She got acquainted with future husband during studies, at a student disco. According to Petro Poroshenko, he often was at night shifts with wife, who worked at Oleksandrivska Clinical Hospital in Kyiv.

Maryna Poroshenko and Petro Poroshenko Open source

Soon, Maryna Poroshenko had to end her medical carrier but, according to her, she has never regretted about this decision. The family is in the first place for Ukraine's first lady; by the way, she does not like such title.

I do not really like this expression (First Lady, - 112.international). It bears silos and isolation. The first means alone, aside. I am ready to help my husband and it is the most important things. All issues, which will appear daily, I am ready to solve rolling up my sleeves and stand with my husband side by side, Maryna said in one of her interviews.

Maryna Poroshenko is the Chairman of Council of Charitable Foundation of Petro Poroshenko and Chairman of Ukrainian Culture Foundation. Moreover, she has four children with her husband: two sons and two daughters.

Already in 2017, Maryna Poroshenko graduated from the National Academy of Managerial Personnel of Culture and Arts with a major in Fine, decorative and applied arts and was qualified as Art expert.

Maryna Poroshenko and Petro Poroshenko Open source

According to the declaration of Petro Poroshenko for 2017, his spouse owns 50% of Kyiv flat with the size of 80,66 square meters, 1900 square meters land plot, 344 square meters villa house, Hublot watch, jewelry of Cartier, Carrera y Carrera, Dior, a little collection of Chanel, Fend and Dior bags and Jaguar XF car.

Petro and Maryna Poroshenko are married for almost 35 years. According to her, the main rule of Poroshenko family is not to discuss politics at home.

Related video:
The Russian-backed militants violated the ceasefire regime eight times, using the Minsk-banned weaponry in Donbas conflict zone. The press service of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) HQ reports this on Facebook.

The enemy fired six times in Donetsk region: with 82 mm mortar, automatic grenade launchers, heavy machine guns, and small arms near Vodiane settlement; with 82 mm mortar and anti-tank grenade launchers near Pisky village; with anti-tank missile complex and anti-tank grenade launchers near Opytne settlement; with grenade launchers of various system near Avdiivka; with anti-tank grenade launchers and heavy machine guns near Verkhnyotoretske settlement, and with anti-tank grenade launchers near Kamyanka village.

The occupants fired the positions of Ukraine's Armed Forces in Luhansk region twice: with 82 mm mortar near Luhanske settlement, with 82 mm mortar and anti-tank grenade launchers near Zolote-4 settlement.

As a result of the attack, one soldier of the Joint Forces operation died and another two were wounded. The enemys casualties have been checking yet.
The Russia-backed militants used an anti-tank grenade launcher to shell the private sector of Zolote-4 settlement in Luhansk region. No casualties among the local inhabitants have been spotted. The press service of the National Police of Ukraine reported this.

On April 6, the enemy shelled the private sector of Zolote-4 settlement of Popasna district from the village of Zolote-5 (the temporarily occupied territory). As a result of a firing, the shell hit the house on Persha Vilna Street, it damaged the roof and a car parked nearby, the report said.

The incident is added to the Unified Register of the Pre-Trial Investigation, under Article 258 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (Terrorist act).

Earlier today, two Ukrainian servicemen died in the Donbas combat zone.

As a result of the shelling, two servicemen of the Joint Forces operation passed away, the report said.

According to the report, the pro-Kremlin militants violated the ceasefire regime 14 times.
The bank's ex-owner expects a fair and just trial in the case of Privatbank that he once owned - 'after the change of power', as he put it

Ihor Kolomoysky, the Ukrainian oligarch and former owner of Privatbank, demands to give him back two billion U.S. dollars of the bank's assets. He might, in turn, give up this financial institution. Kolomoysky said that in his interview with Ekonomichna Pravda.

'I don't get the government's position. Do they want to keep Privatbank? Let them. I don't need Privatbank. But there were 2 billion dollars of assets. Let them return it, and we're good,' Kolomoysky said.

The oligarch said he expected a fair and just trial in the case of Privatbank that he once owned - 'after the change of power', as he put it.

'As long as there's Poroshenko in office, there will be no fair trials in this country. And it's not just about my case (...) It's a matter of principle, not money', he said.

The decision to nationalize Privatbank was made in December 2017. 100 percent of its shares were handed over to the state. The IMF supported that decision, stating that it's an important step to secure Ukraine's financial stability.
Ukraine is seen in Moscow and in the Kremlin as a critical battleground in the global standoff between Russia and the United States. It all began in 2004 with the so-called Orange Revolution, when massive protests in Kyiv against alleged systemic vote rigging prevented the election of Moscow-friendly president Viktor Yanukovych

Petro Poroshenko, video message on April 5, screenshot YouTube/ScreenShot

President Petro Poroshenko may be the most Moscow-hated Ukrainian politician today. The Russian state-run propaganda machine has been lambasting Poroshenko for months ahead of the March 31 presidential election, and top officials publicly joined in. According to the secretary of Russias Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, Ukraine is ruled by Americans from Washington who support Poroshenko because he is their pawn. If Poroshenko stays in power through massive vote rigging, Patrushev insisted last month, it will be impossible to restore relations with Russia, the crisis in Ukraine will worsen and the country may disintegrate (Izvestia, March 25).

Ukraine is seen in Moscow and in the Kremlin as a critical battleground in the global standoff between Russia and the United States. It all began in 2004 with the so-called Orange Revolution, when massive protests in Kyiv against alleged systemic vote rigging prevented the election of Moscow-friendly president Viktor Yanukovych. Although eventually rising to the presidency in the election of 2010, Yanukovych was ousted in February 2014 by another popular revoltthe EuroMaidan Revolution (also known as the Revolution of Dignity). After the Orange Revolution, President Vladimir Putin and the ruling Russian elite dramatically changed Moscows strategic direction from cooperation and partnership with the West to rivalry and confrontation, combined with a massive military/nuclear buildup. The ouster of Yanukovych in 2014 was followed by the occupation and speedy annexation of Ukraines Crimea and the military conflict in eastern Donbas. In February 2019, Poroshenko initiated a constitutional amendment, approved by the Supreme Rada (Ukrainian parliament), proclaiming the countrys intent to integrate with the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, this constitutional amendment, signed by Poroshenko with so much pomp, was a provocation aimed at destroying the Minsk accords on conflict resolution in Donbas (Militarynews.ru, February 21). The codification of Ukrainian intent to join NATO is seen in Moscow as the ultimate proof of Western (i.e., US) long-term strategic intentions to transform Ukraine into a forward operational base: a gun aimed at the heart of Russia.

Poroshenko was elected in May 2014 with over 50 percent of the popular vote. But by 2018, he lost most of his support, which is typical for Ukraine. Since independence, in 1991, only one incumbent president ever succeeded in being reelected: Leonid Kuchma, in 1999. Still, by election day on March 31, 2019, Poroshenko, who ran a well-organized campaign, managed to make it into the runoff election, scheduled for April 21, by obtaining almost 16 percent of the vote. He came in second place to political satirist/comedian Volodymyr Zelensky (41), who was born to a Jewish family in the predominantly Russian-speaking industrial city of Kryvyi Rih, in central Ukraine. Since October 2015, Zelensky has played the role of high school professor Vasyl Holoborodko, who, by chance, is elected Ukrainian president as an anti-corruption (anti-oligarch) candidate in the popular television show Servant of the People, which runs on the Ukrainian channel 1+1 and is distributed internationally by Netflix. The 1+1 channel belongs to Ihor Kolomoyskyi, a powerful Jewish-Ukrainian oligarch, who was initially an ally of Poroshenko, but bitterly broke with him in 2015 and is now in self-imposed exile in Switzerland. In June 2018, Kolomoyskyi told journalists Zelensky could run and win the presidency despite lacking previous political/administrative experience. Zelensky has denied he is a Kolomoyskyi puppet or that his campaign is bankrolled by the oligarch (Moskovsky Komsomolets, April 2).

Poroshenko claims to have upset the Russian scenario of the election by making it into the runoff (Interfax, March 31). But on March 31, Zelensky won over 30 percent of the popular votetwice as much as Poroshenkoand currently looks unstoppable, which is seen in Moscow as a positive development. According to Kremlin-connected Senator Igor Morozov, Putin will not talk to Poroshenko, but is ready to talk to Zelensky (Ukraina.ru, April 1). Zelensky has called the NATO membership constitutional amendment electioneering politics and promised to call a referendum for the people to decide the matter, which could turn out to be a backdoor to reverse the NATO membership drive (Izvestia, March 21).

In Ukraine, the parliament has more power than the president. The next Rada elections are scheduled for fall 2019, and Zelensky, widely considered the favorite to win the presidency, has formed a Servant of the People party, apparently hoping to win enough votes to form a stable ruling coalition. Russian experts interpret Zelenskys election success as a protest vote, similar to Donald Trumps victory in 2016 or the electoral successes of Eurosceptics in Italy and other EU countries in recent years. Zelensky is seen as much better for Russia than Poroshenko. But it is not clear whether the former, if he wins, will be capable or willing to deliver the result Moscow wants: a nonaligned Ukraine that renounces NATO membership and shifts away from the US back into the Russian orbit. In their mutual desire to oust Poroshenko, Kolomoyskyi, Zelensky and Putin have become circumstantial allies for the time being, even though, in 20142015, Kolomoyskyi and Putin were bitter personal enemies. The Kremlin could eventually decide to declare the Ukrainian elections fraudulent and illegitimate, if it does not like their end result. Russian experts believe Poroshenko, together with his purported US masters and their North Atlantic Alliance minions, might provoke a military confrontation with Russia similar to the one from November 25, 2018, when a convoy of three Ukrainian naval ships attempted to cross from the Black Sea through the Kerch Strait into the Sea of Azov. The Ukrainian convoy was forcibly attacked by the Russian military; the ships and the men are still being held prisoner despite Western protests (Moskovsky Komsomolets, April 3).

On March 28, the Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 (SNMG2) entered the Black Sea to visit Georgia and Ukraine and hold naval exercises (Interfax, March 28). One day earlier, the Russian navy, air force and the Federal Security Service (FSB) Border Guards performed war games in the Black Sea to prepare to jointly attack, board and capture foreign naval vessels that attempt to enter the Kerch Strait (Militarynews.ru, March 28). According to the chair of the Duma defense committee, Colonel-General (ret.) Vladimir Shamanov, joint Russian forces are ready to repulse NATO ships using superior military force if they attempt to approach the strait (Interfax, April 3). Tension is building up in and around Ukraine, with election day less than three weeks away.

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The air carrier expects information from several authorities, which would let this type of aircraft in the company's fleet resume flights

American Airlines, one of the largest U.S. air carriers will extend the ground term for the use of Boeing 737 MAX until June 5.

'American continues to await information from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Department of Transportation (DOT), National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), other regulatory authorities and Boeing that would permit the 24 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in our fleet to resume flying. In an effort to provide more certainty and avoid last minute flight disruptions, American has extended cancellations through June 5. This will result in the cancellation of approximately 90 flights each day based on our current schedule. By proactively canceling these flights, we are able to provide better service to our customers with availability and rebooking options', reads the statement of the company.

In the FAQ section, the company explained that the decision will lead to cancelation of up to 90 flights daily.

Earlier, Boeing Aircraft Corporation recommended the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) the temporary suspension of operations of the entire global fleet of 371 737 MAX aircraft because of air crash in Ethiopia, as the companys statement says.

The company supports the relevant decision of the management.

The State Aviation Administration of Ukraine also postponed the flights of Boeing 737 MAX 8 and Boeing 737 MAX 9 due to the crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia.
Open source

Head of the Austrian Foreign Ministry Karin Kneissl claimed that her country supports the EU sanctions imposed against Russia since it violated international law. Interfax-Ukraine reported that, quoting the official.

'The sanctions were imposed in 2014 and continued ever since; recently, they were extended for another six months. We never left these because we respect the international law', Kneissl said.

She added that the annexation of Crimea is one of such violations of international law.

Previously, Kneissl said Austria supports the independence and sovereignty of Ukraine; on the other hand, she added that constant dialogue with Russia is important, too.

Previously, in October 2018, Kneissl reiterated that lifting sanctions against Russia 'is a non-issue currently as there is no process of implementing Minsk agreements'. 'Unfortunately, today we cant see any tangible success in Minsk agreement to enable lifting sanctions within the EU,' Kneissl said.
The event will be running until April 12

Open source

Strasbourg hosts the spring session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The respective data may be found at the PACE website.

The delegates are to consider the budget crisis issue in the Council of Europe.

Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze and his Armenian counterpart Nikol Pashynian will turn to the lawmakers with speeches.

Dunja Mijatovic, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights will deliver the annual report on her activity.

Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjrn Jagland will answer the questions of parliamentarians.

PACE will also hold the debates on stopping hate speech and violent acts in sport and the role of political leaders in fighting these phenomena.
Russia created a special working group to estimate the damage allegedly done by Ukraine in Russia-occupied Crimea. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry called this decision another crisis of genre

Open source

Head of Russias Government Dmitry Medvedev entrusted his ministries, including the Finance Ministry, to provide support for the activity of State Duma working group on damage assessment in Crimea over the period when it was a part of Ukraine, TASS reported citing Ivan Melnikov, the Head of the Group, First Vice-Speaker of the Lower House of the Parliament.

 The Chairman of the Government entrusted the present members of the Government to support the working group created in State Duma, Melnykov said.

According to him, the working group intended to seek necessary information to the relevant ministries. Melnikov stated that the support of the Head of the Government will influence the level of treatment of these requests and the quality of the expertise.

Melnikov also stated that they have agreed to involve the universities under the jurisdiction of the Government if needed.

We will invite the experts for specific meetings of the working group to the State Duma, the Head of the Group noted.

Earlier, Russian State Duma created a special working group to estimate the damage allegedly done by Ukraine in Russia-occupied Crimea. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry called this decision another crisis of genre.
It is about a coordinated campaign which has become significant in the run-up to PACE spring session

Germany is actively trying to lift the sanctions pressure from Russia in the Council of Europe and intends to reach it on the current session of PACE, as Pravda media outlet reported referring to some western diplomats and the representatives of the expert community.

The representatives of Germany never hid that they prefer dialogue with Russia even if it takes to weaken pressure on the country. Now it is about a coordinated campaign, which has become significant in the run-up to PACE spring session.

It should be noted that this activity is non-partisan  it embraces the representatives of both of the key powers of the government coalition CDU/CSU and social democrats. Recently, the members of these political parties have sent a letter to PACE President requesting to review the sanctions regulations by removing the right of the Assembly to impose sanctions on the delegations of offending states in approving their mandate.

At the same time, as the news agency reads, the German representatives raise awareness in PACE, convincing the other parliamentarians that Ukraines fight with Russia is a pre-election technology and Europe should not support it. The parliamentarians also assure that Angela Merkel supports the idea to forgive Russia.

The Chancellor has not revealed her position in this regard, but the German diplomats are negotiating the other members on the return of Russia to PACE without sanctions.

According to the resources, one of the options is the acceleration of the plan of de-facto elimination of sanctions mechanism for April PACE session.

As it was reported, PACE approved draft report on Azov crisis.
The mother of Crimean Tatar Enver Mamutov went to a solitary rally to support her convicted son

In annexed Bakhchisarai, occupied Crimea, the officers arrested the wife and the mother of a convict to 17 years high-security imprisonment concerning the Hizb ut-Tahrir case. Alie Mamutova, the wife of sentenced Enver Mamutov, stated this in her video stream on Facebook.

Today, April 8, Zarema Mamutova, the mother of Enver Mamutov, went to a solitary rally with the banner My son is not a terrorist. Why 17 years? The woman wanted to support her son, as she did not agree with the sentence of the North Caucasus district military court in Rostov-on-Don. The prisoner's wife stood near her mother-in-law and was live on Facebook.

After some time, the police approached them and told Alie that if she continues to stay near her mother-in-law, this action would be regarded as an unauthorized meeting. The wife of the convict went to the other side of the road and continued to film everything. In the meantime, the police ordered Envers mother to show her id and regarded her actions as a single picket.

Afterward, the mother and the wife were brought to the police station with the words, You have committed an unauthorized protest. Congratulations.

Earlier, the North Caucasus district military court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced four Crimean Tatars to 7 and 5 years in prison for having links with a terrorist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir.

Hizb ut-Tahrir is a radical, international, pan-Islamic political organization, which describes its "ideology as Islam," and its aim as the re-establishment of "the Islamic Khilafah (Caliphate)" or Islamic state. It is legal in Ukraine and in all western countries (except Germany where there was an administrative ban on forming a German branch, not a criminal ban).

Russias Supreme Court declared it terrorist in a 2003 judgment which was long kept secret, preventing the organization itself and rights NGOs from appealing against it.
Maksym Stepanov, Chairman of Odesa Region State Administration Open source

Maksym Stepanov, the dismissed Chairman of Odesa Region State Administration, refused to leave the post after the relevant decree of President Poroshenko was signed, Dumskaya reported.

At the briefing, Stepanov stated that he regards the decree illegal as chairmen od region administrations might be dismissed only under the request the Cabinet of Ministers.

This is a very weird document, Stepanov said and added that the President exceeded his authority.

According to Stepanov, Petro Poroshenko offered him to write an application to resign at his own request, but he refused.

Maksym Stepanov also admitted that he is friends with former Mayor Igor Palytsia, Kolomoyskys business partner.

I dont see anything bad in that, Stepanov stressed.

The President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko dismissed the Chairman of Odesa Region State Administration Maksym Stepanov and entrusted Sergiy Parashchenko to perform the duties of the acting governor. The relevant orders and No. 108/2019 were signed on April 6.

Sergiy Parashchenko was born in 1972 in Vynogradivka, Odesa region. He headed an agricultural production cooperative, then - farming enterprise. Since March 2019, he held the post of First Deputy Chairman of Odesa Region State Administration. The relevant data can be found on the website of Odesa Administration.

Stepanov might have ties with businessmen from Arseniy Yatsenyuks (ex-Prime Minister of Ukraine  February, 2014  April, 2016, - ed.) entourage. In 2015, Stepanov was recognized Person of the Year in a nomination Manager of the Year for his accomplishments on the post of printing and publishing integrated works Ukraine.

Sergey Parashchenko is believed to be appointed to this position in order to strengthen Poroshenko's position in Odesa region, as in the first round of the presidential elections Poroshenko has demonstrated quite modest results in Odesa region.
The operation 'Pirates' has started throughout the country and will continue until the end of the month

Cyber police cyberpolice

The cyber police of Ukraine have launched a special operation Pirates to counter violation in copyright. This was reported by the Department of Cyber Police of the National Police of Ukraine.

The operation 'Pirates' has started throughout the country and will continue until the end of the month, the message said.

Serhiy Demediuk, head of the Department of Cyber Police, said that pirates are not interested in providing citizens with free access to videos. Their main goal is to receive money for placing advertisements on pirate resources.

It is reported that such earnings can range from $ 500 per month from one site and there is no guarantee that this resource does not carry malware.

To effectively counteract piracy, the National Police is establishing a public-private partnership. For today, a number of memorandums of cooperation have been signed with media industry leaders and the public community.

According to the cyber police, in 2019, 100 pirate online cinemas were stopped. Administrators of these resources were exposed in Lviv and Zakarpattia regions and in Kyiv.

As it was reported earlier, Russian hacker groups like Fancy Bear, The Shadow Brokers, and others have become more active in Ukrainian cyberspace on the eve of the elections. Ukraines cyber police reported about modified harmful software, used during attacks on critical infrastructure, as well as new ones.
If the event is proved to be a political agitation, then one must pay to the TV channels for the broadcast, - Chairman of Ukraine's National Public Broadcasting Company

Zurab Alasania, the Chairman of the Board of the company 112 Agency

The debates between the presidential candidates on the Olympic stadium in Kyiv include the costs for renting, stage preparation, lighting, sound, and other technical issues. If one proves this is agitation, they will pay for the broadcasting of debates by the TV channels as well. Zurab Alasania, the Chairman of the Board of the National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine, stated this, as broadcasted by 112.Ukraine.

The main issue is the renting of the stadium, as it will take up to two days to equip the place with the stage. It depends on the stage, its location and the screens. It also includes cameras, lighting, and sound equipment, it will cost about $222,000. Moreover, if it is proved that this is a political agitation, then they must pay the TV channels for the broadcast as well, Alasania said responding to the question about the costs of the debates.

Alasania added that the TV channels and the Central Election Commission should be asked about the prices of the broadcast.

According to the Chairman of the Board of the company, the purchase of coverage for the field will cost half of the whole sum, as there is a lack of coverage for such an event.

The Olympic stadium can only partially provide the place with the guard of the event, and if we are talking about the president and the candidate, this process should involve the State Guard of Ukraine officers.

The issue with tickets has not been solved yet.

I think the NSK Olimpic could sell the tickets. However, as for me, it is ridiculous, Alasania added.
Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian President Belta

Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarus President, stated that he expects Poroshenko to win on the elections in Ukraine, as he said in an interview, Belta reported.

Earlier, on March 1, Lukashenko has already stated that he expected Poroshenko to win. Today, on April 8 he said that his opinion has not changed.

Nobody has won there. Zelensky leads, Poroshenko is lagging behind him. Nobody can predict the results of the second round. I think that Poroshenko will win this presidential run, he stressed.

He also noted that he does not want to compare two candidates, who to compete in the second round.

I know one really good. I have seen the second one in cinema, I dont know him as a politician. But I will tell you: Poroshenko and I used to have a mutual friend, Mikheil Saakashvili. When Saakashvili held elections, when he was the President of Georgia, he changed the Constitution, something else  began joking with the nation. This made him leave Georgia and was hiding in other countries. To prevent Poroshenko from climbing onto the roof and urge Ukrainians to protect him, he will do everything to make Ukrainians support him, Lukashenko stressed.

Answering the question what he thinks about a common position in Ukraines community not to vote for anyone and about voting for Zelensky as a protest, Lukashenko stressed that it is better not to vote at all.

Let the Ukrainians forgive me, but I want to tell them  if they dont have anyone to vote for, its better not to vote at all. Why should you vote for someone who you are not sure with? Ukrainians had such a hard political way over the past years. They have heard lots of unclear promises. Having risked a lot of times, they trusted the politicians and supported them. And it always resulted in something different. The experience of the last years shows that risks are not worth it, he believes.
Sergiy Parashchenko, the Chairman of Odesa Region State Administration Open source

The President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko dismissed the Odesa region Governor Maksym Stepanov and entrusted Sergiy Parashchenko to perform the duties of the acting Governor. The relevant orders and No. 108/2019 were signed on April 6.

Sergiy Parashchenko was born in 1972 in Vynogradivka, Odesa region. He headed an agricultural production cooperative, then - farming enterprise. Since March, 2019, he held the post of First Deputy Chairman of Odesa Region State Administration. The relevant data can be found on the website of Odesa Administration.

As it was reported, Poroshenko appointed Maksym Stepanov as a Chairman of Odesa Region State Administration in 2017.

Stepanov might be linked with businessmen from Arseniy Yatsenyuks (ex-Prime Minister of Ukraine  February, 2014  April, 2016, - ed.) entourage. In 2015, Stepanov was recognized Person of the Year in a nomination Manager of the Year for his accomplishments on the post of printing and publishing integrated works Ukraine.

Sergey Parashchenko is believed to be appointed to this position in order to strengthen Poroshenko's position in Odesa region, as in the first round of the presidential elections Poroshenko has demonstrated quite modest results in Odesa region.
March 22, Ukrainian MP Nadia Savchenko, previously illegally kept in the Russian prison, was deprived of parliamentary immunity. The Ukrainian MPs also allowed her detention and arrest

Ukraines member of parliament Nadiya Savchenko and the former leader of Officer Corps Centre Volodymyr Ruban Radio Liberty

The judging panel of Kyiv Appeal Court determined the jurisdiction of the case of MP Nadia Savchenko and Volodymyr Ruban, as court press office reported.

On April 8, 2019, by the regulation of the panel of judges of the Trial Chamber on consideration of the criminal cases of Kyiv Appeal Court, the submission of acting chairman of Solomensky District Court of Kyiv on determination of the territorial jurisdiction of the criminal proceeding on accusation of N. Savchenko and V. Rubana satisfied; the criminal proceeding sent for the consideration to Darnytsia District Court of Kyiv, the message said.

March 22, Savchenko was deprived of parliamentary immunity. The Ukrainian MPs also allowed her detention and arrest.

Yuriy Lutsenko, Prosecutor General, claimed that he had proof that Savchenko planned an armed coup d'etat, which would have led to mass civilian casualties. In particular, according to the information of the Prosecutor General's Office, she planned to shell Kyiv with a grenade launcher. Furthermore, together with earlier detained Volodymyr Ruban she is suspected of an organization of assassination of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

As we reported earlier, Savchenko took a polygraph testing. The Security Service of Ukraine claimed that the psychological forensic examination with the use of the polygraph of MP Nadiya Savchenko confirmed her intentions of committing the coup d'etat, particularly the commitment of the terrorist act in the governmental quarter and the Ukrainian Parliament.

December 13, Kyiv Court postponed the consideration of Savchenkos case due to her bad state of health. Savchenko stated that she had partial loss of hearing and vision.
According to National TV Companys representative, the debates should take place on April 19 in the studio of the company

Open source

The team of presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky and representatives of the National TV Company of Ukraine will negotiate on the official debates until the evening of April 8, as Ukrayinska Pravda reported citing Zurab Alasania, the Chairman of the Board of the company.

At about 4. p.m. we will have negotiations with Zelenskys headquarters. Only the law on debates and regulation of the Central Election Commission bears some stability, Alasania said, commenting words of Zelensky about debates at Olympic Stadium on April 19.

Candidate Poroshenko is ready to accept all the variants; he is definitely ready to be here (in the studio of the National TV Company, - 112.international). There will be the candidates, one or two, anyway, it is time for the debates, Alasania said.

He added that Countdown program would take place after 20 minutes of the break after the official debates and candidate Petro Poroshenko is ready to stay in the studio.

Alasania explained that the candidates will be able to talk freely during the program.

If candidates appeal to the Central Election Commission with a request to change the place of the debates in time, then they will take place, not in the studio of the National TV Company.

On April 3, Zelensky replied to the invitation and put forward his conditions. He wanted to hold debates at Olympic Stadium. Poroshenkos team said, the President does not perform at stadiums. A few hours later Poroshenko changed his mind and agreed to participate in the debates.

On April 7, Poroshenko stated that he waits for Volodymyr Zelensky on April 14 at Olympic Stadium.

In his turn, Zelensky reported that he wants to hold the debates with Poroshenko on April 19 at Olympic Stadium.

According to Alasania, the official debates on April 19 should take place in the studio of the National TV Company.

The National TV Company negotiates with the representatives of both campaign headquarters.

Related video:

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."
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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.
bedo/iStock(WASHINGTON) -- As Turkey moves forward with the controversial purchase of Russia's most sophisticated and advanced air defense systems, some State Department and Department of Defense officials are privately blaming President Donald Trump for failing to issue a tough ultimatum over the proposed sale, sources with knowledge of the matter tell ABC News.



For months, senior officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, have warned Turkey against choosing a Russian missile system that it is incompatible with the NATO defense systems. They expressed concerns that Turkey, a NATO ally, would purchase a Russian system over the U.S.-made Patriot system.



Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to meet in Moscow on Monday to discuss the sale of the S-400 system, according to Russian state-run press.



Since Erdogan has been personally negotiating the sale, there was hope that pressure from Trump could kill the deal.



But during a Feb. 22 call between the two leaders, Erdogan pushed back against Trump's threat of sanctions, suggesting Congress was infringing on the president's executive power by issuing sanctions against Turkey over the deal, according to three U.S. officials briefed on the conversation.



Erdogan allegedly told Trump that the possibility of sanctions from Congress under Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act or CAATSA, is "unconstitutional" because "it takes away your executive power," according to two officials briefed on the call.



Trump responded that he'd talk to Congress, according to two of the officials who had knowledge of the conversation and then moved on from the topic.



The president's response "wasn't framed so that Erdogan saw what was at stake," said another official about the call.



It was unclear whether the president could have stopped the deal because it's a sovereign country.



The White House did not respond to ABC News' requests for comment.



Ahead of Trump's call with Erdogan, sources tell ABC News there was a big effort by both State Department and Pentagon officials to prepare the president for the conversation and the potential ramifications.



Pompeo and Shanahan also have previously spoken with Erdogan but without any real progress.



"That's why Trump's role in this is so critical, because Erdogan isn't listening to the emissaries that he's met with," said an official involved in the matter.



Military experts worry the system could expose Western defenses to the Russians, since the S-400 potentially could threaten the F-35 fighter jet's stealth technology, in addition to other U.S. and allied aircraft, officials said.



The S-400 is capable of shooting down aircraft, drones and cruise missiles with a range up to 250 miles.



China was sanctioned under the same law for purchasing a Russian S-400 system.



I'm not suggesting that Turkey can't be trusted, but I am saying that you take another risk with your system -- with what is probably our most sensitive technology," said Gen Curtis Scaparrotti, NATO Supreme Allied Commander and the head of U.S. European Command.

Mixed messaging



Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu hinted at the mixed messages coming from the administration on Wednesday when he claimed that during the same phone call, Trump promised Erdogan he "would take care of the issue."



U.S. officials have warned Turkey that they would cancel their order of 100 F-35 U.S. fighter jets, but Cavusoglu said they're not concerned because of assurances from Trump.



"Different statements are coming from different institutions of the United States as well ... different and contradictory statements are coming," Cavusoglu said at an event to celebrate the 70th anniversary of NATO in Washington on Wednesday.



"Trump admitted himself on the phone that the U.S. made the mistake not to sell Patriots to Turkey and he promised Erdogan that he will take care of the issue," Cavusoglu added. "And he's the President of the United States. ... He promised that he will do his best to resolve this issue."



Since the phone call between the two leaders, Erdogan has made it clear that he's pushing through with the sale, telling Turkish TV Haberturk "Nobody should tell us to lick up what we spat."



But publicly, the arms standoff between the countries continues. It's the latest dispute between the U.S. and Turkey amid tension over American support of Kurdish forces in Syria and their refusal to extradite Erdogan's rival Fethullah Gulen.



The Pentagon last week announced it's suspending the delivery of equipment for F-35 jets that Turkey is in the process of procuring.



"The S-400 and the F-35, we've made it clear that those are incompatible systems," Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters on Tuesday, adding, "We haven't given up on trying to work our way through this."



Copyright  2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Check concentrate feeder accuracy

WITH the cost of dairy cow concentrates rising farmers have been urged to check the accuracy of their feeders to ensure they are not overfeeding, or indeed underfeeding, their livestock.
Presidente @MartinVizcarraC: Esta obra que realizamos hoy en #Ucayali, debe generar mas puestos de trabajo para las personas del lugar. Les pido a ustedes que hagan seguimiento y control al proyecto para que se realice con la mejor calidad posible. pic.twitter.com/BD8hQgHmfz
" " An artist's rendering of what the reptilian Euchambersia, the size of a small dog, could have looked like. Wits University

The word "venomous" conjures up a mental image of a coiled king cobra ready to strike, or perhaps of a young Elizabeth Taylor portraying an Egyptian queen committing suicide-by-snake in the 1963 film "Cleopatra." But you may be surprised to learn that the earliest known venomous vertebrate lived 93 million years before snakes show up in the fossil record, and that it was an ancestor not of snakes, but of mammals.

The creature in question is Euchambersia mirabilis, a reptilian ancestor of mammals that lived 260 million years ago during the Permian period, near what is now central South Africa. The earliest snakes don't show up in the fossil record until about 167 million years ago, and the first dinosaurs not until about 230 million years; Euchambersia predates them both.

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As detailed in a newly published study in the journal PLoS ONE, researchers used CT scans to study a pair of Euchambersia fossils  one found in 1931 and the other in 1966  and found evidence to support earlier scientists' suspicion that Euchambersia had the right anatomical equipment to deliver a poisonous bite.

"This is the first evidence of the oldest venomous vertebrate ever found, and what is even more surprising is that it is not in a species that we expected it to be," said Julien Benoit, a researcher at the Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research at the University of the Witwatersrand, and one of the study's authors, in a press release.

Euchambersia was just about 20 inches (50 centimeters) long, the size of a small dog. It had a blunt head with a wide, deep circular space in its upper jaw that scientists believe accommodated a venom gland, which was connected to its teeth and mouth by a fine network of bony grooves and canals. The scans Benoit and his colleagues created revealed a key, previously undiscovered detail: two incisors and a pair of large canines that all had a sharp ridge.

"Such a ridged dentition would have helped the injection of venom inside a prey," Benoit said.

" " The skull of the Euchambersia fossil shows a large space for the venom glands, in the top jaw, directly behind the front teeth. (The teeth are pictured on the right side of the photo, to the left of Dr. Julien Benoit's index finger.) Wits University

Unlike snakes, which actively inject venom through fangs, Euchambersia let its venom flow into its mouth and into the ridges on its teeth, so that it had to bite a victim to poison it. The researchers think the creature could have used its venom for hunting or as a self-defense weapon.

Now That's Interesting Several small mammal species exist today capable of producing and using venom, including the solodon, a creature found in Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
" " Researchers dredged a region of the mouth of the Amazon, discovering a massive coral reef. Rodrigo Moura

Sometimes science is a treasure hunt, and the only clues you have to guide you are a hand-drawn map and a brief, 40-year-old scientific paper that suggests something amazing might be found somewhere under the ocean. And then you go look, and you actually find that something amazing.

A recent paper published in the journal Science Advances describes the discovery of a 600-mile-long (966-kilometer-long) coral reef system in the Atlantic Ocean, under the muddy plume of the Amazon River. It was overlooked for so long because corals reefs are generally known for preferring shallow, clear water, and conditions at the mouth of the Amazon have more commonly been described as "turbid" or even "goopy."

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"You don't really look for things unless you think it's possible they could be there," says oceanographer Patricia Yager of the University of Georgia, one of the principal investigators on the study.

In 2012, Yager and her research team received funding to go to the mouth of the Amazon to study how the nutrient-rich plume of the world's largest river affects the ocean. In order to study the plume, she had to get permission from the Brazilian Navy, who required that she bring on several Brazilian scientists as collaborators. One of these was a reef ecologist named Rodrigo Moura, from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

"At the planning meeting for this cruise we were going to take around the mouth of the Amazon, I sat next to Rodrigo," says Yager. "When he told me what he did, I was a little confused. 'You're a reef ecologist? What are you going to do on this cruise?' It's really muddy out there, you know.' He smiled and handed me a paper from 1977. It's only about four pages long with a hand-drawn map. It said they found reef fish and sponges out there. The dot on the map where this stuff was found turned out to be about 20 miles across when I put it into Google Maps, but we decided to just take a look around."

Moura spent the cruise reading the conditions of the sea floor until he found a spot hard enough to support a coral reef. There, the team put a dredge down in the water and pulled up a sample of what was underneath the boat.

"When they pulled up the dredge and brought it on board, I was flabbergasted," says Yager. "It wasn't anything you'd imagine was down there. We pulled up some of the most amazing things I've ever seen on an expedition: coral, colorful sponges, fish, brittle stars."

" " Scientists examine specimens extracted from the ocean floor after dredging at the mouth of the Amazon. Yager : Landrum : Oikimura

As it turns out, a lot of the reason this amazing reef system was never discovered has to do with what's in oceanography textbooks. Because coral needs light to grow, conventional wisdom says that a big, muddy tropical river like the Amazon or the Congo in Africa blocks so much light a coral reef would be prohibited from growing.

While it's true that coral reefs need clear water, the plume pouring into the Atlantic from the Amazon is freshwater, and therefore more buoyant than the salty ocean water. Think of a bartender adding a bit of cream to float atop a cocktail, or the way oil and water separate  the fresh, muddy water floats on the surface.

" " A plume of muddy Amazonian freshwater floats atop salty ocean water, occluding the coral reef below. Lance Willis

So though the plume sometimes blocks light from reaching the reefs, the muddy section is only about 10 meters deep. The reefs sit between 160 to 295 feet (50 and 90 meters) below the surface in very salty, tropical  but clear!  water.

Due to the movement of the Amazon's plume during the year, the southern end of this reef system gets enough sunlight for corals to grow. The northern part of the reef is obscured by the plume almost year-round, which prohibits coral growth, but sponges, barnacles, and other filter feeders have attached themselves to an old coral substrate that grew 15,000 years ago. These animals and others use these reefs as protection and a place to feed. Some large, open-water fish even use it as a nursery ground for their young.

"The final piece of the puzzle has to do with human impact," says Yager. "We need to do a better job of describing what reefs are there before continuing with oil exploration and heavy-duty fishing, which is already happening."

Read this as an instance of science getting it wrong, or read this as an instance of science getting it just right by science being science: constantly searching for new knowledge, and readjusting when new revelations are discovered.

Now That's Interesting The reason a reef might want to grow in shadow of the Amazon's plume has to do with the nutrients coursing out of a big river. The Amazon is unbelievably productive, so a reef ecosystem would do well to put itself in the way of its plume, provided all its minimum sunlight requirements can be met and it's in no danger of being buried in mud.
YEREVAN, APRIL 8, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian, who is in Portugal on a working visit, participated in the annual global meeting of Horasis analytical center, the Presidents Office told Armenpress.

President Sarkissian delivered remarks as a speaker during the discussion titled Shaping our future.

The discussion participants talked about the challenges of the contemporary world and their solution ways. The Armenian President said each country has different approaches to the solutions of emerging problems. In Armenias case the formula is very simple. Small is beautiful. And that small can be very successful given the fact what is happening in the world today.

Armen Sarkissian touched upon the 4th industrial revolution, stating that we deal with a long-lasting process of constant revolution and evolution development. The huge number of scientific innovations and technological achievements, in combination with the great number of people involved in startups and other innovative processes, speak about the fact that these processes are going to be very dynamic and dramatic. We will soon witness how the management volumes of quantum modelling, new technologies and great information will grow, and of course the artificial intelligence will be in the pillar of all of these, which, I think, will be applied everywhere, the Armenian President said.

The President is confident there is no need to be afraid of the artificial intelligence. This is the same story when 30-40 years ago people were afraid of information technologies, thought they would lose their jobs by the appearance of computers. But no, new jobs will be created thanks to artificial intelligence. What is going to change is going to be the quality and type of the peoples activity. We are moving towards a more innovative world, he said.

Armen Sarkissian added that this revolution is taking place not only in the economy and technologies, but also in our human behavior. This is exclusively a new world which I call a quantum world.

One of the key topics of the discussion were the climate change and the damages caused to environment by human activity. We should not talk about the climate change, but the damage we cause to the nature. The reality is that the world is taking a lot of actions to fight this situation. The green technologies, renewable energy, hydro-energy, wind and solar energy, are the ways to go ahead. However, even in case of the best scenario, it will require from us decades in order to transition from our past, that was absolutely black, as we were burning the coal, to the green future, the Armenian President said. He added that in order to solve the problems, right technologies, political will and investments, and at the same time collective responsibility are needed. We need to seriously look at the reality we have, we need to make huge efforts around the world in order to have a green future, he noted.

Summing up his remarks the Armenian President highlighted the role and significance of technological achievements in peoples lives. He expressed confidence that they will dramatically change our social and political behavior. Large number of people will have an influence in politics just by using their online devices, posting on Twitter and Facebook. This is the new way of dealing with politics. We are facing an absolutely new world where the voices of individuals will be heard very loudly and they will have a serious influence on the decision-making, President Armen Sarkissian said.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 8, ARMENPRESS. Armenias Tourism Committee and the Federal Agency for Tourism of Russia on April 4 signed the 2019-2021 joint action plan within the framework of the session of the Armenian-Russian inter-governmental commission on economic cooperation held in Moscow, Armenias ministry of economic development and investments told Armenpress.

The document has been signed by deputy minister of economic development and investments of Armenia Albert Babayan and Deputy Head of the Federal Agency for Tourism Alexey Konyushkov.

The action plan aims at strengthening the friendly ties between the peoples of the two states and contributing to the economic development and tourism potential growth between the two countries.

One of the goals of the action plan is to increase the tourism flows between Armenia and Russia, facilitate the procedures linked with tourist visits and establish ties between the Armenian and Russian tour companies.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 8, ARMENPRESS. Anna Hakobyan, spouse of Prime Minister of Armenia, chair of the Board of Trustees of the City of Smile Charitable Foundation, attended the 34th anniversary gala celebration of the Armenian American Medical Society on April 6, her Office told Armenpress.

Mrs. Hakobyan was accompanied by Armenias Ambassador to US Varuzhan Nersesyan, CEO of the City of Smile Foundation Ester Demirchyan, Armenian Consul General in Los Argeles Armen Bayburdian.

The whole proceeds during the gala celebration have been transferred to the City of Smile Charitable Foundation.

Over 800 people participated in the event, including Congressman Adam Schiff, world-renowned rock musician Serj Tankian, Mayor of Glendale Ara Najarian, former mayor of Glendale, City Council member Zareh Sinanian and others.

Anna Hakobyan was invited to the event as a keynote speaker. In her speech she thanked the organizers of the event, the Armenian American Medical Society, doctor Shant Shakherdemyan who made a lot of efforts during these months for the event to take place.

This event has a very important mission  to help children suffering cancer in Armenia. Today we are uniting for one goal  to ensure healthy, peaceful and happy childhood for Armenian kids. 100 children in Armenia are diagnosed with cancer annually. We are here to assist these children. Together we can fight for the life of each child suffering cancer, and this is our duty not to allow their lives to stop due to absence of finance. You are more aware than me that today cancer is not the one as it was in the past. It is no longer that terrible and incurable disease as it was years ago. The humanity and you  the doctors, have found the ways of overcoming cancer. Today we mainly can win in the fight against cancer, but there are still cases when we fail, and medicine and science have not yet found the magical key against cancer for everyone, Anna Hakobyan said, adding that the main reason is that a lot of money is needed for the battle. According to her, today mostly in rich and developed countries, for example in US, cancer is just a disease, but in less developed countries cancer and death are synonyms.

After the Velvet revolution that took place in Armenia last year I am confident that our country will soon be included in the list of the worlds developed countries. But today, our children who suffer cancer now cannot wait for this development, our kids wait for treatment and they need our support. The City of Smile Foundation has been created to change lives, to take these lives to positive direction and return smile to children and their parents. We are starting to keep one smile at the same time bringing smile to a family because as I have once said  by saving ones life we save the world. Most of you have helped our homeland many times, I know this, and you have done it without any expectation, your only one concern was for your support to reach the right place, she said.

In this regard the Armenian PMs spouse assured that each money donated to the City of Smile Foundation will serve its goal  to treat a child suffering cancer, save the lives of these angels and return happiness to their families.

The worst thing in the world is when you imagine the parents who are sitting next to their kids who are sick in bed and are unable to help them. Today several hundreds of people gathered here and this means how many people stand together with these children and their parents. Once again thank you for being here, I want to thank the team that made this event a reality, thank you for the cooperation and standing with Armenia, Anna Hakobyan said.

The Armenian American Medical Society awarded certificates to Anna Hakobyan for the works conducted in the City of Smile Foundation and inspiring Armenian women all over the world.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 8, ARMENPRESS Jailed CEO of SPAYKA, a major exporting and freight company, has appealed to court to be set free on bail.

Ghazaryans attorney Karen Sardaryan told reporters his client hasnt yet testified.

The justification of the detention was that Ghazaryan couldve impacted people for testifying in his favor, he said.

Today, a Yerevan court approved the investigators motion to jail Ghazaryan for two-month amid an investigation into suspected tax evasion.

Sardaryan said theyve also requested the court to order an additional audit. He said the initial conclusion was prepared in unprecedented haste and they werent even aware of it.

According to tax authorities, Ghazaryans SPAYKA failed to pay nearly 14,5 million dollars in taxes.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 8, ARMENPRESS. Hundreds of employees of SPAYKA are demonstrating outside a Yerevan courthouse against the jailing of their CEO Davit Ghazaryan.

Ghazaryan is suspected in tax evasion and was placed under a two-month pre-trial detention period today.

The protesters had blocked the Tigran Mets Avenue in front of the courthouse, but after a while police officers cleared the area.

The demonstrators even blocked the vehicle that was transporting Ghazaryan to jail. Eventually officers were able to clear the street for the vehicle to pass through after a brawl.

Then, SPAYKA official Karen Baghdasaryan addressed the crowd, urging to maintain everything within the law.

According to Baghdasaryan, police detained several of their employees.

We arent blocking roads, we arent using violence, all instigators have nothing to do with us, he said.

He said that the protest doesnt have any political subtext.

The protest continues.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 8, ARMENPRESS. A crowd of protesters demonstrating against the arrest of SPAYKA executive Davit Ghazaryan are proceeding through the streets of Yerevan towards the governmental headquarters.

The protesters are employees of SPAYKA, a major exporting and agricultural company whose executive is suspected in tax evasion. Ghazaryan, the director of the company, was placed under a two-months pre-trial detention period today, sparking protests by his employees.

The employees first gathered outside the courthouse.

SPAYKA official Karen Baghdasaryan announced they are re-locating to Republic Square to protest outside the governments headquarters.

The demonstrators demand a meeting with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 8, ARMENPRESS. One of the citizens protesting against the arrest of CEO of SPAYKA LLC Davit Ghazaryan has been detained by the Police, the Police told Armenpress.

One citizen has been detained. He will be released after taking respective actions and preparing a protocol, the Police said.

The employees of SPAYKA LLC launched protests today early in the morning against the arrest of their CEO Davit Ghazaryan.

Davit Ghazaryan is suspected in tax evasion and has been remanded into a two-month custody.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 8, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of Parliament of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan on April 8 met with Speaker of Parliament of Iran Ali Larijani within the framework of the 140th session of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the Armenian Parliament told Armenpress.

The Iranian Speaker of Parliament stated that there are brotherly ties between the two countries, the evidence of which was the recent official visit of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to Iran.

Ali Larijani congratulated Ararat Mirzoyan on his election as Speaker of Parliament and touched upon the parliamentary cooperation and boosting the economic ties between the two states.

In his turn the Armenian Speaker of Parliament stated that the friendly ties between Armenia and Iran are based on centuries-old historical-cultural ties and expressed confidence that the mutual partnership will develop also at the parliamentary level.

During the meeting the sides touched upon deepening the cooperation in high technologies, energy, financial and other sectors.

Ali Larijani invited Speaker Mirzoyan to visit Iran which was accepted by the latter with pleasure.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 8, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian Parliament adopted the bill at the first reading presented by the government according to which last Saturday of April will be celebrated as the Day of the Citizen in Armenia.

92 MPs voted in favor of the bill, 3 voted against and 5 abstained.

The voting of the bill at the second reading will take place within 24 hours.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 8, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyans aide Nairi Sargsyan has approached the protesting employees of SPAYKA outside the government headquarters.

SPAYKA employees are demonstrating against the arrest of their director Davit Ghazaryan who is suspected in tax evasion.

Nairi Sargsyan told the crowd to clarify their expectations, emphasizing that the prime minister has numerously stated that he will never interfere in the process of criminal cases.

If there is anything else that you expect from the prime minister, I am ready to convey it, he told the demonstrators.

SPAYKA official Karen Baghdasaryan told the official they want the pre-trial detention of Ghazaryan to be cancelled immediately. Perhaps Id express myself inaccurately in legal terms but we assume that this is possible through personal guarantees of officials, Baghdasaryan said.

And we demand Mr. Prime Ministers personal guarantees in order for Mr. Ghazaryan to be released. We dont trust anyone, we trust only him and we ask for his personal guarantee for the court to cancel the decision on pre-trial detention.

Sargsyan repeated himself that the prime minister cannot interfere in ongoing criminal cases, but nevertheless said he will convey the demands. I will convey word by word your demand to the prime minister.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 8, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of Parliament of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan had a meeting on April 8 with Belgiums House of Representatives (lower house of parliament) President Siegfried Bracke within the framework of the 140th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the parliaments press service said in a news release.

During the meeting the sides discussed the political changes that took place in Armenia.

Speaker Mirzoyan briefed Bracke on the post-revolution developments in Armenia that are aimed at strengthening democracy, protecting human rights and guaranteeing the rule of law.

The sides also addressed the planned transitional justice agenda in Armenia.

Bracke, welcoming the democratic changes of Armenia, expressed the support of Belgian lawmakers.

The sides also agreed to organize exchange of experience programs for the staffs for strengthening institutional ties.

Mirzoyan attached great importance to the ratification of the Armenia-EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) by the Belgian parliament.

Siegfried Bracke expressed readiness to contribute to the speedy ratification of the document.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 8, ARMENPRESS. EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini calls for establishing humanitarian truce in Libya, Reuters reports.

Humanitarian ceasefire is needed in Libya to help the injured and civilians, she said at the meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg, adding that she has discussed the situation with the U.N. special envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame. It is necessary to stop the escalation of violence, and I am confident that today Europeans are united on this, she said.

The people of Libya no longer need military operations, they need peace and dialogue, EUs Mogherini said.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 8, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Ambassador to Kuwait Sarmen Baghdasaryan on April 7 met with chairman of the National Security Bureau Sheikh Thamer Al-Sabah, the Armenian foreign ministry told Armenpress.

During the meeting the two officials emphasized the mutual readiness to boost the bilateral relations, as well as agreed to take actions to develop possible formats for bilateral cooperation.

The sides also exchanged views on regional issues of mutual interest.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, 8 APRIL, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 8 April, USD exchange rate down by 0.10 drams to 487.32 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 0.42 drams to 547.70 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate stood at 7.45 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 1.30 drams to 636.29 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price up by 78.92 drams to 20187.05 drams. Silver price up by 1.67 drams to 238.07 drams. Platinum price up by 326.18 drams to 14147.93 drams.
YEREVAN, APRIL 8, ARMENPRESS. Permanent representatives of Armenia and Commonwealth of Dominica to the UN Mher Margaryan and Loreen Ruth Bannis-Roberts on April 5 signed a Protocol on establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries, Armenias foreign ministry told Armenpress.

During their meeting the sides expressed confidence that the establishment of diplomatic ties will contribute to promoting the partnership of the two states within the UN and expanding the cooperation in other international structures.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, APRIL 8, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan received newly appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Arab Emirates to the Republic of Armenia Mohamed AlZaabi, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister of Armenia.

Congratulating the Ambassador on assuming his diplomatic mission in our country, the Premier wished him every success in his future activities. Nikol Pashinyan stressed the need for continued development of Armenia-UAE relations and expressed the hope that during his tenure the Ambassador would help upgrade the bilateral relations.



The head of the Armenian government noted that economic cooperation between the two countries has intensified recently, and there is a good opportunity to give new impetus to business ties. Nikol Pashinyan expressed satisfaction at the fact that Armenia and the United Arab Emirates are developing cooperation in tourism, which fosters contacts between the two peoples.

Thankful for the warm welcome, Mohamed AlZaabi expressed his willingness to make every effort on the way to expanding and deepening bilateral relations. The Ambassador said his country keen to develop cooperation with Armenia in energy, information technology, agriculture, tourism and other sectors. He advised that the possibility of launching a third direct flight between the two countries is being discussed at this point of time in an effort to boost tourism and trade turnover. The Ambassador noted that the UAE government is ready to discuss joint investment projects with Armenia.

The parties stressed the need to hold a meeting of the intergovernmental commission in the near future. Prime Minister Pashinyan expressed the hope that targeted decisions would be made during the meeting, aimed at expanding economic relations between the two countries. The Premier attached particular importance to the cooperation in the field of information technology and expressed the hope that UAE companies would take an active part in the World Information Technology Congress, due this fall in Yerevan.

In a bid to give fresh impetus to relations between Armenia and the UAE, both sides noted the importance of organizing business forums and reciprocated high-level visits.

Taking the opportunity, Nikol Pashinyan thanked the UAE government for their balanced position on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
YEREVAN, APRIL 8, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian, who is in Portugal on a working visit, met with Prime Minister of Portugal Antonio Costa on April 8.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Presidents Office, referring to the warm historical interactions between the two peoples and the rich cultural heritage, President Sarkissian said that every Armenian remembers the name of one of the prominent Armenians, Galuste Gulbenkian, with pride.

The Prime Minister of Portugal also emphasized the activities and heritage of Galouste Gulbenkian and the role of Galouste Gulbenkian Foundation for Portugal.

The Armenian President and the Portuguese PM exchanged views on possible directions of partnership. Armen Sarkissian emphasized that the two countries have great potential for partnership in the spheres of education and science. In this context, President Sarkissian proposed to carry out exchange program of students, as well as joint scientific-research projects.

The interlocutors shared the opinion that Armenia and Portugal have great potential for partnership in the spheres of information technologies, natural sciences and artificial intelligence.

Armen Sarkissian added that tourism can also become an important sphere for the cooperation between the two countries. Armenia and Portugal are wonderful countries that need to discover each other, President Sarkissian said.

The interlocutors also spoke about the possibility of establishing direct flights, agreeing to further examine the issue.



Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan






YEREVAN, APRIL 8, ARMENPRESS. The European Union and Armenia held the 10th round of their regular Human Rights Dialogue in Brussels on April 8. The EU and Armenia referred to their readiness to continue implementation of the EU-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA), ARMENPRESS was informed from the EU Delegation in Armenia.

The statement runs as follows, After the latest elections in Armenia, the expectations among Armenian citizens regarding the strengthening of democracy and the rule of law, fight against corruption and protection and enhancement of human rights are high. The CEPA commits the EU and Armenia to strengthening respect for fundamental freedoms. At the meeting the EU and Armenia discussed freedom of assembly and expression, electoral reforms, gender equality, antidiscrimination policy, judicial and penitentiary reforms, as well as labour rights. Further amendments to Armenias media related legislation would ensure greater transparency and plurality.

Armenia confirmed its commitment to pursue justice reforms, notably to the principle of equality before the law, to an independent judiciary and to an effective mechanism of checks and balances. It is crucial that Armenia adopts a comprehensive anti-discrimination law in line with international standards and establishes a national equality body under the Human Rights Defender's office. The Human Rights Defender and his office have taken positive steps to set up round-the-clock helplines and rapid response teams. The EU and Armenia discussed the preparation of the draft National Strategy on Gender Equality 2019-2023. Both sides highlighted the importance of raising public awareness and promoting gender equality, especially through education, and reiterated its support to this end.

Close co-operation between the Armenian authorities and the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman and Degrading Treatment (CPT) would be beneficial. The Armenian National Prevention Mechanism should continue capacity building to better monitor and evaluate psychiatric institutions and the police and penitentiary and juvenile institutions.

In line with its policy, the EU met and consulted representatives of the Armenian and international civil society prior to the Human Rights Dialogue. The Dialogue meeting resulted in operational conclusions with concrete actions that will be monitored and followed up over the next year.

The Armenian delegation was headed by Mr Avet Adonts, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, while the EU delegation was led by Mr Richard Tibbels, Head of Division for bilateral relations with Eastern Partnership countries at the European External Action Service. Mr Arman Tatoyan, Armenian Human Rights Defender, and Ms Mara Marinaki, Principal Advisor for gender issues from the European External Action Service also participated in the meeting.
The change in attitude is obviously intended to win over Chinese and other voters. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australia is home to more than 1.2 million people of Chinese ancestry who comprise the largest ethnic group besides the white people.

However, it is believed that Canberra's apparent change in attitude is a tactical campaigning effort likely to serve electoral interests in the run-up to next months federal election. Whether this attempt can be sustained and come out as a sincere bid to improve relations remains to be seen.

SHANDONG, CHINA - The Australian government's recent attempt to improve its relations with China has been welcomed and supported by some Australian voters, especially those in business, agriculture, animal husbandry and mining.

As their political, economic and cultural influence grows, they become a major force to be wooed by political parties.

However, in the past two years, the ruling party has been catering to US and extreme right-wing forces, resulting in a rise in racist nationalistic sentiments in Australia.

Some right-wing politicians, media and racist organisations took the opportunity to advocate the racist fallacy of white supremacy, deliberately launched campaigns against espionage activity, allegedly conducted by Chinese, and made accusations that millions of Australian Chinese, overseas Chinese and Chinese students were spies sent by the Chinese government to Australia.

The ruling party's unwise move to connive with the right-wing forces' demonisation of China and overseas Chinese has poisoned the political environment, worsened the atmosphere for the sound development of China-Australia ties and upset overseas Chinese, thus hurting the election prospects of the ruling party.

The Australian public generally believes that the ruling party is likely to be driven out of office in the election. It changed its leadership in August 2018 with an eye on the vote. The new prime minister, Scott Morrison, addressed a Chinese-Australian community event in October 2018 to express his goodwill soon after taking office.

The Australian government's bid to mend fences with China is clearly driven by economic interests. According to the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, bilateral trade between China and Australia reached an all-time high of $183 billion in 2018.

Total export of goods and services from Australia to China amounted to more than $110 billion, an increase of 20% over 2017. Australia's services exports to China even exceed those to the UK and the US combined.

China has become Australia's largest trading partner, export destination, source of tourism revenue and foreign students and it is indispensable to Australia's sustained economic prosperity and employment.

The current government continues to restrict China-Australia people-to-people exchanges and Chinese investment and mergers and acquisitions in Australia on the pretext of national security and fending off foreign interference.

It not only insists on excluding Huawei from the 5G network construction, but also continues to veto the mergers and acquisitions of Chinese firms including Hong Kong-funded enterprises, such as Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings.

It also defined some normal commercial activities as acts against Australian national security and as moves to serve the Chinese government, forcing some pro-China politicians to resign and some Chinese businessmen to sue Australian government agencies and national media outlets, directly leading to a slump in China's recent investment in Australia.

While calling for improvement in Beijing-Canberra relations, the current Australian government has made every effort to strengthen its alliance with the US, promote the full implementation of the Indo-Pacific strategy and to strive to make Australia the most important military hub of the strategy.

Besides building joint military bases in partnership with the US in Australia and Papua New Guinea, it has repeatedly asked the UK, France and other Western countries to pay more attention to the "freedom of navigation" in the Indo-Pacific, especially in the South China Sea, and to increase their military presence in the region.

This analysis shows that the current Australian government's policy shift is an obvious tactic to serve the upcoming election and sustained economic recovery of Australia. One should pay heed to what the Australian government does, rather than what it says.

The author is chief research fellow at the Research Centre for Pacific Island Countries at Liaocheng University in Shandong Province
(Photo: Getty)

House prices in Australia has been falling for 17 consecutive months and are set to drop another $60,000 by the end of the year  but not all hope is lost for property investors.

New analysis from Sell Or Hold has revealed the five Aussie suburbs with average house prices of about half a million dollars that are estimated to grow in value by up to $150,000 by 2022.

The suburbs are located in NSW, Queensland, and South Australia  but no Sydney suburb made the cut due to the $500,000 benchmark.

Queanbeyan is the city forecast for the highest growth of 28.8 per cent, or $150,620. While technically located in NSW, its just a 20-25 minute drive from Canberra, making suburbs within Queanbeyan such as Karabar attractive for public servants.

Queenslands Toowoomba claimed second spot on the list and was described by Sell Or Hold head of research Jeremy Sheppard as a premier suburb.

[Its] located in a region with a strong local economy as well as a number of large infrastructure projects, including the Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport, which was Australias first privately funded major airport, he added.

Here are the five areas where property investors should be looking:

(Source: Sell Or Hold)

Sell Or Hold analysis also revealed the bottom five markets flagged to stagnate or dip over the next three years.

These areas are primarily located in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland.

(Source: Sell Or Hold)

Sheppard warned investors against holding onto properties that could lose value over time.

For example, Karabar in Queanbeyan is tipped to grow by $150,000 in three years, while a similarly-priced house in Darwins Rosebery will see a price drop of $3,150 over the same period.

Comparing the pair shows that holding on to an under-performing asset could potentially cost an investor $153,000 in lost capital growth in a relatively short period of time, Sheppard noted.

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Downtown Chicago. Chicago has been earmarked as the only megacity of the future that will be from a developed country. (Photo: Getty)

The trend of global urbanisation is showing no signs of slowing.

Since New York was dubbed the first megacity, several others have joined the list, many of which are in developing countries or regions such as Africa or Asia Pacific.

Whats a megacity?

Although definitions can vary, an urbanised city is considered a megacity when it has 10 million or more inhabitants. Its also often where the countrys major business centre is located, as well as where many of the wealthiest residents of the nation live.

It goes without saying that megacities  with its social diversity, economic growth, and innovation  are attractive to people for its work and business opportunities and higher quality education.

But theyre not without problems: megacities also suffer from urban planning challenges such as overcrowding, congestion, pollution and wealth inequality.

The first megacity in the world was designated New York in the 1950s, but this was overtaken by Tokyo in the 2000s.

These are the current megacities of the world:

(Source: Euromonitor International)

Developing megacities

With cities in developed countries already well on the map, the megacities of the coming decade will come from developing countries, according to Euromonitor International (EI).

The following six cities will join the megacity scene by 2030, housing a combined 9 per cent of the worlds population and contributing to 15 per cent of the worlds GDP:

Chicago, USA

The Windy City is the US third-most populated city and has been earmarked to be a megacity for quite some time. According to EI, Chicagos GDP  estimated to hit nearly 600 billion by 2030  will outcompete the other five cities GDP put together.

Bogota, Columbia

Bogota will be the latest newcomer to the growing list of Latin American megacities that include Lima, Mexico City, Rio di Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Buenos Aires. By 2030, Bogotas total GDP will reach 109 billion.

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Chennai, India

Chennai is one of the most visited cities by foreign tourists and has been termed Indias health capital. In 2010, Forbes named Chennai among its fastest-growing cities of the coming decade, and the city is part of a Smart City program that sees improvements to infrastructure sustainable living.

Luanda, Africa and Dar es Salaam, Africa

Africa continues to urbanise, with Luanda and Dar es Salaam set to be two of the fastest-growing cities by population between 2017-2030, with the former to see a 60 per cent increase in its population across that period.

But as overcrowding takes its toll, African megacities will be challenged by housing, public services, and sanitation.

Baghdad, Iraq

Iraqs capital city has a population of more than 8 million, but this figure is forecast to reach double digits by 2030 with its GDP to reach 34 billion by then.

Heres a snapshot of what GDP, population and disposable income will look like by 2030:

(Source: Euromonitor International)

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European capitals are increasingly worried that ongoing Brexit chaos will carry a political and economic cost to the continent, but despite warnings from Paris, most seem ready to accept a lengthy postponement to Britain's departure. British Prime Minister Theresa May still has meetings with the leaders of France and Germany before Wednesday's EU summit, the last before the next notional Brexit deadline at midnight on Friday. May has said she will ask for Brexit to be delayed only until June 30, but officials and observers here expect the other 27 EU leaders to study the idea of a longer "flexible" extension into 2020. As floated by EU Council president Donald Tusk's office last week, the delay could last up to a year but be cut short if May manages to get an orderly withdrawal deal past UK lawmakers. Tusk's Council represents EU member governments in Brussels, and he will host Wednesday's emergency Brexit summit -- but officials were clear he was proposing the "flextension" on a personal basis. "It's Mr Tusk's position, not the position of the council," one diplomatic source told AFP, after the former Polish leader's leaked initiative caught the other 27 EU capitals by surprise. In Paris, a diplomatic source dismissed Tusk's suggestion as a "clumsy trial balloon", as French President Emmanuel Macron's government continued to insist May must present a "credible plan" for orderly divorce. In public at least, France has struck a more strident tone in demanding British commitments in return for further extensions to a Brexit process that was due to have come to an end on March 29. Most of the 27 insist, for example, that Britain must be ready to take part in the European Parliament elections that start on May 23 if it is still a member, and May has reluctantly begun contingency planning for a vote. But other countries such as Germany and, most notably Ireland, are pushing for London to be given space to come up with a solution to avert a cliff-edge no-deal Brexit they fear would cause economic and legal chaos. "We'd need a strong political reason to delay," insisted a diplomat from the hardline camp, suggesting that London undertake to hold a general election or a second Brexit referendum to break the political logjam. "Otherwise, why would the European Union itself take on such a responsibility?", the source demanded, pointing to the risks posed by indefinite Brexit uncertainty or British eurosceptic mischief-making. Many EU capitals share the concern that an endless series of inconclusive postponements could undermine the election, the formation of a new European Commission after the vote or decision-making within EU institutions. - Veto 'extremely unlikely' - Nevertheless, "no-one is really opposed to Mr. Tusk's flextension," another diplomat who has attended high-level talks in Brussels between the 27 non-British representative delegations told AFP. "This option could be useful for May," she said, arguing that a flexible delay would allow the British premier to tell her own hardline eurosceptics that they can leave Europe any time they like, just by approving the deal. Ireland's Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, who was meeting EU negotiator Michel Barnier on Monday ahead of the summit, said at the weekend he thought it "extremely unlikely" that any member state would veto a Brexit delay. And thus far in the lengthening negotiations, Brussels has stood in strong solidarity with the position of Ireland, a continuing member that stands to lose out greatly in the event of its neighbour crashing out without a deal. Diplomats here, however, admit that they're following the news from London "three times a day" and that trust in May's ability to deliver on her undertakings is slipping. "The next few days or hours are going to be critical," Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell said Monday. European Council president Donald Tusk has personally proposed a "flextension" to Brexit, which could delay the UK's departure for up to a year, or shorter if British lawmakers manage to approve a deal


A Sydney father was having an affair with a teenager in the Philippines and experiencing money troubles when he died with his family from carbon monoxide poisoning in 2016, an inquest has heard.

The inquest into the October 2016 apparent murder-suicide of Fernando Manrique, 44, his wife Maria Lutz, 43, and their young autistic children, Elisa and Martin, began at the NSW Coroners Court on Monday.

In his opening address, counsel assisting, Adam Casselden SC, told the court the businessman was in a serious relationship with a 17-year-old girl in the Philippines at the time of their deaths.

The teenager told Australian police she met Mr Manrique at a bar where she worked.

Maria Lutz with children Elisa (left) and Martin (right), all found dead along with her husband, Fernando Manrique, in Davidson, in Sydneys north. Source: AAP

He told her to quit her job and that he would support her financially.

(She) said Fernando intended to buy her a property but never did so, Mr Casselden said.

Meanwhile Ms Lutz had asked for a divorce.

She had no awareness of or involvement in Fernandos plans to gas his entire family, with the businessman taking deliberate steps to hide the gas from her, Mr Casselden said.

Mr Manrique purchased two cylinders of carbon monoxide 10 days before the familys deaths and arranged for them to be delivered to a friends home.

He also made four visits to Bunnings in as many days, buying more equipment for his plan.

Mr Manrique (back left with his family) was in a serous relationship with a 17-year-old woman in the Philippines at the time of his and his familys deaths. Source: AAP

Detective Sergeant Timothy Pooley told the inquest Mr Manriques financials were in dire straits  including owing $15,000 to the tax office, $28,000 in credit card debts and two mortgages totalling more than $500,000, of which he was only paying the interest.

Ms Lutz, on the other hand, was excited about going back to work after finding out she would be getting $25,000 in support through the NDIS for their children, aged 11 and 10.

She was looking forward to life without Fernando, Det Sgt Pooley said.

Mr Casselden said it appeared Mr Manrique intended to die with his family, although they could not be certain.

He said the inquest would be looking into supply, delivery and storage of carbon monoxide.

Story continues

A real concern is the relative ease with which Fernando was able to source the carbon monoxide,Mr Casselden said.

The inquest continues before deputy state coroner Elaine Truscott.

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A British woman has been prevented from leaving Dubai, police in the Emirate said Monday, after her ex-husband's new wife pressed defamation charges over comments posted on Facebook. Dubai police confirmed a 55-year-old British woman was being tried for defamation under the UAE's cybercrime law. Police said the woman had never been held in custody, but had confessed to making the statements and refused attempts to settle out of court. While police would not disclose the woman's identity, the London-based group Detained in Dubai identified her as Laleh Sharavesh, saying she had described her ex-husband's new wife as 'a horse'. Dubai police said that following a complaint by a Portugese man and his Tunisian wife in 2017, a warrant had been issued requiring the woman to present herself to the police. "Upon her return to the country on 10 March 2019, the outstanding warrant prompted the immigration authorities at the airport to bring the matter to the British woman's attention," the police said in a statement. "She was requested to attend the nearest police station." Britain said it was in contact with the UAE about the case and offering help to the Sharavesh. "We are offering consular assistance to Ms. Sharavesh. We're very concerned about the situation," British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt told reporters in Luxembourg. "Our diplomats in the UAE have enormous experience in dealing with consular cases ... so she is getting the best possible service" from the British authorities, he added. The Detained in Dubai group said Sharavesh's Portuguese husband of 18 years divorced her to marry a Tunisian woman in Dubai. The man died last month and Sharavesh flew to Dubai with their daughter for his funeral, according to the group. While their teenage daughter was allowed to fly back, Sharavesh was not permitted to leave the country. The group said the charges are based on two comments Sharavesh posted under her ex-husband's new wedding pictures on Facebook in Farsi. "I hope you go under the ground you idiot. Damn you. You left me for this horse," she allegedly wrote. "You married a horse you idiot". Sharavesh's attorney could not be reached for comment. A British woman is facing defamation charges in Dubai after allegedly calling her ex-husband's new wife 'a horse' in a Facebook posting
A former French spy hailed as a genius for an engineering feat that made building the Sydney Opera House possible has died aged 97, officials said Monday. Joe Bertony -- one of the original engineers of Australia's most recognisable building -- handwrote 30,000 separate equations to create the "erection arch" or truss which held the concrete sails in place during construction. "Bertony was a remarkable man who will be remembered as the inventor of the Sydney Opera House's mobile erection arch," Sydney Opera House chief executive Louise Herron said in a statement. "Those calculations were checked by the only computer in Australia at the time with a large enough capacity to do so. Not a single error was found," she said. "Bertony was a genius. Without him, the spectacular sails might never have become a reality." He died at his home in Sydney on Sunday, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. Born on the Mediterranean island of Corsica, Bertony joined the French navy to study naval engineering and was recruited as a spy, according to author Helen Pitt, who has written a book about the Opera House. He was twice captured by the Germans during World War II and sent to concentration camps, but escaped both times and was later awarded the Croix de Guerre by the French government for his wartime actions, Pitt added. The Opera House, which opened in 1973, is billed as Australia's number-one tourist destination and is the country's busiest performing arts centre. The former French spy's calculations made it possible to build Sydney Opera House's spectacular sails
Snap-happy tourists could face the death penalty if they fail to adhere to stringent proposed laws which bans them from visiting a popular beach.

Mai Khao beach is just metres from Phuket Airport in Thailand, prompting herds of visitors every day, eager to land their latest social media photo of themselves perilously close to passing aircraft.

Photos like this will soon be banned. Source: Getty

But local authorities have had enough, and in a bid to crack down on the growing numbers, a safety zone on the beach near the airports runway is being developed, the Bangkok Post reported.

Airport chief Wichit Kaeothaithiam told the publication that stricter regulations are needed due to safety concerns and that violators must be subject to punishments under the Air Navigation Act.

People and tourists will not be allowed to enter this area to take photos, he said.

While fines and prison sentences are among punishments for those breaching the new laws, Kaeothaithiam said the consequences could be far more severe.

Story continues

The maximum penalty is the death sentence, he said.

The concerns come after a woman died on a beach on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin with a similar setting.

The 57-year-old woman was killed when a blast from a plane knocked her to the ground.

Another couple were heavily criticised when they posed for an acrobatic photo at the same beach.

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Japanese Emperor Akihito's historic abdication later this month has reignited concerns over the future of what is believed to be one of the world's oldest royal families, given its hereditary, male-only succession rules. As it stands, the fate of the Japanese imperial family rests on 12-year-old Hisahito, the son of Crown Prince Naruhito's younger brother and the last eligible male heir. Japan's centuries-old succession would be broken if Hisahito does not have a male child as the Imperial Household Law, in place since 1947, does not allow women to ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne. That means Naruhito's only child, 17-year-old Princess Aiko, is not in line to inherit the throne. While public attitudes seem to be shifting to change the succession laws to allow women to rule, the chance of concrete reform looks remote. According to a poll by the Yomiuri Shimbun daily between October and November, nearly two-thirds want the law revised to allow women to be the rightful heir. "I just wonder why Princess Aiko cannot ascend the throne," Mizuho, a Tokyo resident in her 30s who only gave her first name, told AFP. "If it's just because she's a girl, then I think it's out of place in the current era," she said. "Why don't we allow female heirs like Queen Elizabeth in the British monarchy?" Under the current rules, female imperial family members also lose their royal status upon marriage to a commoner, a point highlighted by the engagement of one of Akihito's granddaughters, Princess Mako, to her college sweetheart. - 'Sun goddess' - Traditionalists are vehemently opposed to any change in the law but there have been as many as eight empresses, with the last one, Gosakuramachi, on the throne about 250 years ago. And the imperial family, which has a myth-filled history dating back more than 2,600 years, is said to be descended from legendary sun goddess Amaterasu. When the parliament passed a one-off rule allowing the ageing emperor to step down in 2017, it also urged the government to "swiftly study" reforms that would allow the sons of royal women to become emperor. Tokyo has said these discussions will begin soon after May 1, when Naruhito ascends the throne. But the government has also decided that only male royal adults will attend the main abdication ceremony, during which the new emperor will inherit the traditional regalia such as a sacred sword and jewel. Politicians are dodging the looming issue of male-only succession because "they do not want to shoulder the responsibility", Yuji Otabe, professor of Japanese history at Shizuoka University of Welfare, told AFP. "If you think about the heredity system, a woman is also of imperial blood," he said, voicing concerns about the future of the Japanese royal line if the situation does not change. - 'Great pressure' - Another consequence of the male-only succession line is the enormous pressure to conceive boys to keep the line going. The future emperor and empress were under huge pressure to have a boy but their only child -- born in 2001 -- was Princess Aiko. The "crisis" was averted when Prince Hisahito was born in 2006 to the Crown Prince's younger brother Akishino, meaning the male blood line could continue. After Crown Prince Naruhito takes the throne, Akishino is next in line, followed by Hisahito. Crown Princess Masako, a former high-flying diplomat, has struggled for years with a stress-related illness after joining the tradition-heavy household, which some have put down to the pressure of producing a male heir. Hideto Tsuboi, professor of modern Japanese literature and history at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies, argued that Masako's illness epitomises the difference between Japanese and British royals. Japanese imperial family members "do not enjoy normal human rights due to too much emphasis on" the male-blood lineage succession system compared to the British monarchy, said Tsuboi. Analyst Otabe also pointed to the "great pressure" on any woman marrying into the imperial family to bear a son. "Who would want to marry (Hisahito)?" he asked. Tokyo resident Mizuho called for change, saying: "I really don't think it has to be a man." "As long as the person has the qualities needed to take over the throne, whether the heir is male or female doesn't matter to me." As it stands, the future of the Japanese imperial family rests on 12-year-old Hisahito, the son of Crown Prince Naruhito's younger brother and the last eligible male heir The Japanese royal family tree. Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito's only child, 17-year-old Princess Aiko, is not in line to inherit the throne Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito and his bride, Masako Owada, in full traditional Japanese Imperial wedding costumes at the Imperial Palace in 1993
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday vowed to spend more than $1.4 trillion on new infrastructure over five years to create much-needed jobs and to pursue his nationalist agenda if he wins an election that starts this week. Modi's right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also promised $300 billion for the country's hard-pressed farmers and rural development as it went all out to stop voters being tempted by opposition parties in the world's biggest election that runs from Thursday until May 19. The BJP's big-spending manifesto was accompanied by promises to keep its Hindu bedrock behind the party that won a landslide victory in 2014 but has lost key state elections in recent months. It made a new pledge to scrap a law that gives special privileges -- such as preventing outsiders from buying property -- to residents of Jammu and Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state. Modi's party also said it was committed to building a grand Hindu temple in place of a Muslim mosque demolished by Hindu mobs in the city of Ayodhya in 1992. The rights of outsiders in Kashmir and the temple promise have become flashpoint issues between Hindus and Muslims in recent years. Tens of thousands have died in an uprising lasting three decades against Indian rule in Kashmir, while the burning down of the five-century-old Ayodhya mosque led to riots in which more than 2,000 people, mainly Muslims, were killed. "Nationalism is our inspiration and inclusion and good governance is our mantra," the prime minister said at the manifesto launch. - 75 targets - Modi remains very popular in India, but his government has come under fire over its handling of the fast-growing economy, particularly the failure to create jobs for the millions of youths coming on the labour market each year and the severe debts hitting farmers. Facing criticism from the opposition Congress party, the BJP said more than $1.4 trillion would be spent during the next five-year term if it wins. It promised metro trains for 50 cities and to double the national highway network. On top of the rural development, each farmer would get an annual handout of 6,000 rupees ($86). Thousands of farmers have killed themselves in recent years because of crippling debts. The party set 75 targets -- divided between the economy and its longstanding aim to transform society -- to be reached by 2022 when India marks its 75th anniversary of the end of British colonial rule. "It (the manifesto) is multi-layered and multi-dimensional because our society is very diverse. We can't have a one-size-fits-all kind of policy," Modi said. While the BJP promises also included lower taxes for the middle-classes and more health facilities, the prime minister has built his reputation over the past five years as being a hawk on national security. Home Minister Rajnath Singh said Indian security forces would be given "a free hand" to rein in extremist violence. In February, India and Pakistan staged tit-for-tat air strikes as they faced off in their worst confrontation in years over Kashmir. The action appears to have bolstered Modi's standing. The vow to scrap a constitutional amendment providing special rights to Kashmir could also spike tension in Kashmir. The BJP has long supported ending Kashmir's special status, but its proposal is currently before the Supreme Court. Last week, the Congress manifesto promised a 72,000 rupee ($1,045) payment to each of India's poorest 250 million families. A Congress statement lambasted the BJP. "They had promised 20 million jobs every year. On the contrary the country has lost 4.7 million jobs," said Congress, which trails the BJP in opinion polls. "The youth are staring at a bleak future," it said. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi remains very popular, but his government has come under fire over its handling of the fast-growing economy As Modi unveiled his manifesto, supporters of the National Congress party (INC) rallied in Siliguri, West Bengal Graphic on the Indian general election, showing its seven-day voting schedule The BJP's big-spending manifesto was accompanied by promises to keep its Hindu bedrock behind the party
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. Ghosn has denounced his downfall as a Nissan "plot" and voiced fears he might not receive a fair trial Factfile on the arrest and charges against former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn. 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 Nissan headquarters in Yokohama. Nissan sacked Ghosn as chairman almost immediately after his initial arrest but an extraordinary meeting of shareholders is required to remove him from the board
South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Monday confirmed the appointment of a pro-engagement academic as his new point man on Pyongyang, despite controversy over his outspoken support for cooperation with the nuclear-armed North. The confirmation of Kim Yeon-chul as the new unification minister comes days before Moon flies to Washington for a summit with President Donald Trump as he seeks to rekindle dialogue between the US and North Korea after a failed summit in Hanoi in February. The dovish South Korean president brokered the talks process between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which led to their first landmark summit in Singapore last June. But at times security allies Seoul and Washington have appeared to diverge on their approach to Pyongyang, with Moon, a longstanding advocate of engagement with the North, regularly pushing inter-Korean cooperation projects. Moon faced a heavy backlash last month after tapping Kim Yeon-chul, chief of the state-run Korea Institute of National Unification, to head the unification ministry which handles inter-Korean affairs. Kim, also a vocal supporter of dialogue with Pyongyang and Moon's longtime confidante, has a record of challenging generally held views on highly emotive issues involving the North. In a 2010 newspaper column, Kim wrote that the shooting dead of a South Korean tourist by a northern guard at the North's Mount Kumgang resort was a "rite of passage" that Seoul had to undergo in the early stages of cross-border cooperation. All South Korean tours to the North were suspended following the 2008 killing. Kim is also a vocal critic of sanctions against Pyongyang. Shortly after Seoul's 2016 closure of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, where Southern firms used to be staffed by Northern workers, he told an interviewer that "sanctions and pressure was a failed approach". Moon has been pushing for the resumption of both projects, but doing so would fall foul of the current sanctions system. In spite of the collapse of the Hanoi summit, Moon said last month that Seoul would consult with the US on ways to resume South Korean tours to Mount Kumgang and restart operations at the joint factory park. Moon is able to override opposition parties' strong objections to Kim's appointment as cabinet ministers do not require parliamentary approval. South Korean President Moon Jae-in (L) backs a policy of engagement with the North and brokered the talks process between Kim Jong Un (R) and US President Donald Trump
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir came under mounting pressure Tuesday as three Western nations pushed for a political transition after months of unprecedented protests against his rule. Thousands of people remained at the army's headquarters on Tuesday night -- where they have been encamped since Saturday -- bathed in a sea of light as they held up their mobile phones as torches. Angry protesters chanting "overthrow, overthrow," have taken to the streets of the capital and towns and villages across the country since December, in the biggest challenge yet to Bashir's two-decade rule. The country's police on Tuesday ordered its personnel to avoid intervening against the demonstrators. "We call on God to preserve the security and calm of our country ... and to unite the Sudanese people... for an agreement which would support the peaceful transition of power," a police spokesman said in a statement. The protesters sang revolutionary songs and anti-government slogans at the facility, which also houses Bashir's residence. "Since April 6, I'm camping here every night," said businessman Ali Gamereddine. April 6 is the anniversary of a popular uprising that ousted the regime of Gaafar Nimeiri in 1985. "We want the army to support us to achieve our goal," Gamereddine added. Crowds of protesters waved flags, whistled and clapped as darkness fell. They blame Bashir -- who came to power in a 1989 coup -- for a worsening economic crisis. The protest movement had reached a new peak on Saturday when demonstrators braved volleys of tear gas to reach the military complex, urging the top brass to back them. Soldiers meanwhile foiled repeated attempts by the feared National Intelligence and Security Service's agents to disperse the demonstrators with tear gas, witnesses said. - 'Credible transition' urged - On Tuesday the United States, the United Kingdom and Norway for the first time threw their weight behind the protestors, calling for a credible political transition plan in Sudan. "The time has come for the Sudanese authorities to respond to these popular demands in a serious" way, the diplomatic missions of the three countries said in a joint statement. "The Sudanese authorities must now respond and deliver a credible plan for this political transition." Washington had imposed a trade embargo on Sudan in 1997 for Khartoum's alleged links to Islamist groups -- sanctions that were only lifted in October 2017. The protesters' Saturday move on the sprawling military complex has triggered the largest demonstrations seen yet in the nearly four-month-long movement. Security agents twice fired tear gas on Tuesday at the protesters in abortive bids to end their sit-in, protest organisers said. "There was heavy firing of tear gas after which army soldiers opened the gates of the compound for protesters to enter," a witness told AFP. "A few minutes later a group of soldiers fired gunshots in the air to push back the security forces who were firing tear gas." A second witness said soldiers had intervened against the security agents. The demonstrators have called on the army to protect them from the deadly crackdown by riot police and security agents during their four days camped outside its headquarters. On Tuesday, the crowds could be seen hoisting soldiers into the air on their shoulders, and dancing and chanting with them. Footage obtained by AFP in Paris showed security agents firing in the air to clear the sit-in on Monday, an operation which had to be abandoned after troops intervened. Troops can be seen firing machine-guns as protesters run in groups, some taking shelter behind army vehicles and chanting "Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest)". Late on Tuesday the scene at the army complex was celebratory. - 'No chaos' - Defence Minister General Awad Ibnouf has vowed the army would prevent any slide into chaos. "Sudan's armed forces understand the reasons for the demonstrations and is not against the demands and aspirations of the citizens, but it will not allow the country to fall into chaos," Ibnouf said on Monday, according to state media. The umbrella group spearheading the protests has appealed to the army for talks on forming a transitional government. Omar el-Digeir, a senior member of the group, said protest organisers had formed a council to open talks aimed at agreeing a "transitional government that represents the wish of the revolution". Officials say 38 people have died in protest-related violence since December. But the country's main opposition leader and a key protest organiser Sadiq al-Mahdi said 20 people had been killed by masked men in morning attacks on the sit-in since it began on Saturday. Bashir, who toppled Mahdi's government in the 1989 coup, is wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague on charges of war crimes and genocide connected with the suppression of an ethnic minority rebellion in the western region of Darfur. He has responded to the demonstrations with tough measures -- including imposing a state of emergency -- that have seen protesters, opposition leaders, activists and journalists arrested. Thousands of Sudanese protesters gather in front of the military headquarters in the capital Khartoum Protesters hold the national flag, after Sudan's police on Tuesday ordered officers to avoid intervening against protesters Sudanese protesters flash the victory gesture as they sit in the middle of a street in front of the military headquarters in the capital Khartoum A Sudanese protester outside army headquarters shows bullet cartridges he has collected -- the National Intelligence and Security Service and riot police have cracked down on demonstrators, but the army has not intervened Sudan's authorities say 38 people have died in protest-related violence since December
The British government said on Monday it will explore making social media executives personally liable for harmful content published on their platforms, in a raft of new online safety proposals. The plans unveiled in a policy paper, which also include creating an independent regulator, aim to tackle all kinds of harmful content from encouraging violence and suicide to spreading disinformation and cyber bullying. The issue has gained added urgency with Facebook's failure to immediately halt livestreams of a March 15 attack by a self-avowed white supremacist on two mosques in New Zealand that killed 50 people. Prime Minister Theresa May warned tech companies they had "not done enough" to protect users and that her government intended to put "a legal duty of care" on the firms "to keep people safe". "For too long these companies have not done enough to protect users, especially children and young people, from harmful content," she said in a statement. "That is not good enough, and it is time to do things differently. "Online companies must start taking responsibility for their platforms, and help restore public trust in this technology." The new laws envisaged will apply to any company that allows users to share or discover user generated content or interact with each other online. That will include file hosting sites and chat forums as well as the better known social media platforms, messaging services and search engines. Firms could face tough penalties for failing to meet the standards. "We are consulting on powers to issue substantial fines, block access to sites and potentially to impose liability on individual members of senior management," the government said. Under the proposals, a new regulator would have the power to force platforms and others to publish annual transparency reports. They would include the levels of harmful content disseminated on their sites and how they addressed the problem. The regulator will also be able to issue codes of practice, which could compel companies to meet certain requirements, such as hiring fact-checkers, particularly during election periods. "The era of self-regulation for online companies is over," Digital Secretary Jeremy Wright said, adding he wanted the sector to be "part of the solution". "Those that fail to do this will face tough action," he vowed. Proponents of tougher social media regulations welcomed the proposals. "For too long social networks have failed to prioritise children's safety and left them exposed to grooming, abuse, and harmful content," said Peter Wanless, head of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. "It's 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." Prime Minister Theresa May warned tech companies they had "not done enough" to protect users and that her government intended to put "a legal duty of care" on the firms "to keep people safe"
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is blaming weather events, especially a "significant" storm in late February, for bolt failures and sheet pile damage at the West Barrier Bar Pier in the village of Fair Haven.

The Army Corps of Engineers followed its initial damage assessment in mid-March with a site visit two weeks ago to inspect the pier. A technical team from the agency, with the help of the Coast Guard, examined the damage from the water.

Lex Barker, project manager for the Army Corps of Engineers, said in an interview with The Citizen that the damage was caused by bolt failures. The bolts that failed were from the last repairs made to the pier in the late 1970s.

While weather contributed to the damage, the bolts failed after a winter storm in late February.

"Those bolts were damaged heavily and that led to the steel sheet pile coming unraveled," Barker explained.

The section of damaged sheet pile along the pier juts out about 10 feet. It shouldn't affect marine traffic in and out of the channel. Barker said the Coast Guard is aware of the situation and will send a notice to mariners urging them to avoid the sheet pile.

A temporary barrier has been set up to block access to a portion of the pier. Not only were there bolt failures that led to sheet pile separating from the pier, but there is concrete damage.

Photos provided by the Army Corps of Engineers show the concrete damage. A section of concrete appears broken and is angled down toward the water. Because it's unstable and not safe for pedestrians, the public is asked to avoid the area.

Fair Haven Mayor Jim Basile said in March that the village isn't allowing vehicle traffic to access the pier, but he added that they "can't stop people from walking down there."

With the damage assessment completed, the Army Corps of Engineers is developing designs for temporary repairs. Barker said the repair work would include placing straps on the steel sheet pile that would extend to the other side of the pier. The straps would be bolted in to prevent further damage and brackets would be added to prevent the sheet pile from unraveling.

The project's cost is unknown. The Army Corps of Engineers has limited funds available and won't begin the temporary repairs until the fall. For a permanent solution, more federal funding is needed.

"We're committed to public safety and making sure that we have transparent communication between the (Army Corps of Engineers), the village of Fair Haven, congressional members and the community," Barker said. "We'll communicate the status of the project as soon as we have more information."

Online producer Robert Harding can be reached at (315) 282-2220 or robert.harding@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @robertharding.

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LOS ANGELESFormer California Superior Court Judge and author Herb Dodell will welcome adult entertainer/sex worker activist Ginger Banks tonight to his popular talk show, For the People, to discuss Aurora Snow's Daily Beast article in which Dodell was featured, "Porn Stars Find 2020 Democratic Candidates Extremely Depressing" at 7 p.m. EST/4 p.m. PST on 106.5 FM and 102.3 FM/I Heart Media in Los Angeles, or on KCAAradio.com.

Judge Dodell, who recently penned an autobiographical book on how the law works in laymens terms, From the Trench to the Bench: Navigating the Legal System & Finding Your Spiritual Path Along the Way, had the award-winning cam star and porn actress on his show back in January to discuss the legalization of sex work, and looks forward to going deeper into the SESTA/FOSTA debate.

The three keys are that the [FOSTA] statute is overbroad, and that it may violate the First Amendment and Equal Protection per the Constitution. This legislation violates the First Amendment in that it restrains speech and makes it criminal. It is akin to censorship, assessed Judge Dodell. I equate that with restraining orders because the reason we grant or not grant restraining orders, the government has to have a 'compelling interest'; those are the magic words. Im not sure the government has a compelling interest in the communications that may be taking place from these service providers or platforms. It certainly means they are saying this is not the right thing to do and who are they to say that? What is the compelling interest?

Ginger Banks, who has spoken to The Daily Beast on several occasions on sex work topics and who produced and released an open video letter to Senator Bernie Sanders about signing the FOSTA/SESTA bill, is also looking forward to guesting on For the People.

I respect a gentleman like Judge Dodell, who encourages an open discussion on human rights and freedoms of speech and expression, said Ginger. I look forward to returning to For the People and going farther with the topic, and hopefully opening minds and hearts about these fundamental issues.

Ginger presents an interesting perspective, and the problem is, there a stigmatization that takes place when people talk about the adult industry. Those people are diminished by others because of the business they are in. To me, this is censorship, stated Judge Dodell. You cant advertise, you cant say, you cant report the language, is very broad, anything considered prurient, and that is censorship. I dont want this country going towards censorship because that would be an Orwellian Nineteen Eighty-Four world. There are a lot of issues here and thats why I invited Ginger back.

Those interested may read what Judge Herb Dodell had to say to reporter Aurora Snow of The Daily Beast here.

To purchase a copy of From the Trench to the Bench: Navigating the Legal System & Finding Your Spiritual Path Along the Way, click here.

Those interested may follow Judge Herb Dodell on JudgeHerbDodell.us, on Twitter and on Facebook.

To watch Ginger Banks' video letter to Senator Bernie Sanders, go here.

Fans may follow Ginger Banks on Twitter and on Instagram.
LOS ANGELESThis Saturday, April 13, Mistress Cyan will be celebrating her birthday with a Club F.U.K. '80s-themed night at Sanctuary Studios LAX, 10914 S. La Cienega Blvd, near LAX.

Short for "Females Uniting Kink," the Club F.U.K. event is a Femdom BDSM play party hosted by Mistress Cyan, Miss Cassie, Mistress Mea and Goddess Moon. This event is for female identified dominants, switches and submissives. Those who identify as male must be submissive.

Whether its new wave with big hair, mullets and heavy metal, or Mohawks with punk rock, its welcome at Club F.U.K. this Saturday. There will be live '80s music by Re-Vampt and DJ Frankie will be spinning too. There will be live stage performances and a boot black to keep your fetish gear slick.

This is a "dress to impress" night. Leather, latex, and fetish clothing are always welcome. For men, coats and ties are always appreciated.

Doors open at 9 P.M. and discounts are available for arriving before 10 P.M. The evening will feature on-stage performances, refreshments, kinky play areas, a boot black, and fetish gear vendors.

Club F.U.K. '80s night is just one of many bodacious fetish and kink events happening at Sanctuary Studios LAX. Go to www.SanctuaryLAX.com to learn more.
Central Oregon Coast Under Flood Watch, Along with Eugene, Willamette Valley

Published 04/07/2019 at 6:33 PM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff

(Portland, Oregon)  Portions of the Willamette Valley, the Coast Range and most of the Oregon coast are under one kind of flood watch or another. Heavy rains have been hitting the western half of the state and will continue to do so through Monday, according to the National Weather Service (NWS) in Portland, causing the agency to issue a variety of flood watches. (Above: stock photo, flooding along the Salmon River, courtesy The Coho hotel in Lincoln City).

The largest is in effect now through Monday afternoon, covering the southern Willamette Valley (including Eugene), the Lane County foothills, parts of the Gorge and the central Oregon coast  from Lincoln City southward. For the Siuslaw River in Lane County and Florence, there is a flood warning.

The NWS said a flood watch means there is a potential for flooding based on current forecasts. The public should monitor later forecasts and be alert for possible flood warnings.

Those living in areas prone to flooding should be prepared to take action should flooding develop, the NWS said.

Look for more heavy rain through the morning, especially in the Cascades and the Lane County portions of both mountain ranges. There is a sizable possibility of streams flooding and urban flooding in many towns and cities.

Expect periods of heavy rain to continue through Monday afternoon in Northwest Oregon, the NWS said. Rainfall amounts of 1 to 4 inches have been observed in the past 24 hours. Many rivers are rising sharply, especially in Lane County. Additional heavy rain is expected this evening and overnight, with totals of 1 to 3 inches, highest in the Cascades and Lane County foothills.

The NWS said the rivers of greatest concern are: the Willamette between Harrisburg and Albany, the Marys in Benton County, the Luckiamute in Polk and Benton counties, the Pudding in Clackamas and Marion counties, and the Middle Fork Willamette and Mohawk in Lane County.

Slides are a distinct danger in the burn areas of the Columbia Gorge, especially Eagle Creek, as those soils are more prone to softening because of the soggy conditions.

There are no such warnings or watches issued for the north Oregon coast, from about Pacific City northward. That section of the state  as well as Portland  are not experiencing the same kinds of conditions.

Highways in the Portland area have been seeing a high number of hydroplaning problems during heavy periods, however. Caution is urged there.

Meanwhile, wave height along the Oregon coast will be somewhat large on Monday at almost 14 feet at times, but then tapering off to a little over ten feet for the rest of the week. Rain continues along the entire coastline through the week, with a few breaks in the clouds here and there. Friday looks to add a little more sun before the weekend drops back into cloudier territory again. More Oregon Coast Weather,

Oregon Coast Lodgings for this event - Where to eat - Maps - Virtual Tours

Sea Horse Oceanfront Lodging . Oceanfront rooms may start at special prices, depending on month. Vacation Rentals and Romance Suites. Fireplaces, and your pet is welcome.1301 NW 21st Street. Lincoln City, Oregon. 800-662-2101. 541-994-2101. www.SeaHorseMotel.com

























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Have Sheriff Offices in North Carolina, possibly even Beaufort County's Sheriff Office, become too political in the discharging of their sworn constitutional duties?

No, the sheriff is a constitutional officer.

Yes, the Sheriff Office, on strong occasion, often reverts back to political patronage in the dispensation of their sworn constitutional duties.
South Africa: DBE makes headway with learner access to libraries

A survey taking stock of the progress made in terms of service delivery has revealed that the Basic Education Department (DBE) is making headway in providing libraries or media centres to schools.

Commissioned in 2017 by the Department of Basic Education (DBE), the national survey, known as the School Monitoring Survey (SMS), sought to measure the progress of ordinary public schools towards achieving the key goals and indicators set out in the Action Plan 2019, as well as the Medium Term Strategic Framework 2014-2019.

The 2017 SMS builds on SMS 2011, which allows the department to track delivery progress.

Delivering a presentation on the findings of the survey at a briefing on Monday, the Basic Education Departments Director for Research, Stephen Taylor, revealed that learner access to libraries increased from 45% to 62%.

At a national level, learners access to libraries increased significantly from 45% in 2011 to 62% in 2017. It is encouraging to note that this increase has been largely pro-poor, with the largest improvements having been among Quintile 1 to 4 schools, said Taylor.

The survey focused on 13 indicators, most notable among them being the percentage of schools where all allocated teaching posts are filled; the percentage of teachers absent from school on an average day; the percentage of schools where the School Governing Body (SGB) meets the minimum criteria of effectiveness and the percentage of schools which comply with nationally-determined minimum physical infrastructure standards.

We use the survey results to improve our planning in a bid to turbocharge the system towards greater efficiency, said Motshekga.

A further accomplishment is a substantial increase in the percentage of schools where the SGB meets the minimum criteria of effectiveness, with the largest improvements seen among Quintile 1 schools.

Although not strictly comparable, the survey also suggests that there may have been improvements among the number of schools where all allocated teaching posts were filled.

In 2011, the percentage of schools where all allocated teaching posts are filled was at 69% and in 2017, improved to 78%.

But despite the progress made, the SMS also showed areas that require improvement and further support.

On infrastructure, the survey showed that only 59% of schools comply with nationally-determined minimum physical infrastructure standards.

Teacher absenteeism has also peaked by 2% from 8% in 2011 to 10% in 2017.

Finally, the 2017 SMS also provided insights on some interesting trends concerning school management practices, such as the increased practice of centralised procurement of textbooks by provinces, as well as the relative importance placed on various school management documents.

Concluding the briefing, Minister Angie Motshekga acknowledged that the survey presented a mixed bag, adding that more work needs to be done.

The information provided by the 2017 School Monitoring Survey will enable the department to fulfil its mandate of monitoring and evaluating education provision across provinces.

The survey will assist in informing the next administration where to focus and areas that require improvement, said Motshekga.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2019-04-08. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
I have not been updating this blog for years, but Im keeping it around because it has many of my posts from a decade ago! For the moment, heres why you c...

9 months ago
The endless drama of Brexit  which last week wrote yet another act with Parliament rejecting all possible options  should make many wonders about the future of representative democracy and the dynamics of power in modern society.

Does representative democracy  or its almost interchangeable synonyms like democracy or peoples sovereignty  have a future? The short answer is no, it does not. However, this question has many more nuances than a careless mind might notice. All political regimes will fail; this is part of the dynamics of the historical process. What we need to discover is how and when the process of institutional de-structuring and the reconstruction of a new socio-political model will take place.

1989 was the year in which Western elites declared the victory of a political model  liberal democracy  over the historical process. Francis Fukuyama, the high priest in the so-called New World Order, wrote  two years after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989  that the dialectical process that had governed human history until then had produced his final synthesis. Repeating Hegel and Marx, Fukuyama believed that historical events would not cease; however, from the intellectual point of view, the human mind would be incapable of producing a political regime superior to the Liberal Democrat.

Three years before the fall of the Berlin Wall and five before Fukuyamas end of history, Margaret Thatcher spoke at the Conservative Partys annual conference as triumphantly as no prime minister had ever done before. The Iron Lady told her audience that:

From France to the Philippines, from Jamaica to Japan, from Malaysia to Mexico, from Sri Lanka to Singapore, privatization is on the move, theres even a special oriental version in China. The policies we have pioneered are catching on in country after country. We Conservatives believe in popular capitalismbelieve in a property-owning democracy. And it works!

Fast forward 33 years, and we will see that no one is sure of anything. The gears of the historical process once again moved, making liberal democratic regimes a potential casualty of the inevitable changes. China did not become democratic, Cuba did not become capitalist, and nationalism did not die. Singapore  a strange mixture of free-market economics and mild political authoritarianism  may represent a viable alternative. The widespread feeling of malaise felt by Western man means the end of a cycle, but no one knows what is to come.

There is a perverse logic that has been commanding human history at least since the French Revolution: The growth of the states power. Regardless of the rhetoric employed, every political action has invariably been expanding the power of governing groups over individuals. The state  and the bureaucracy that accompanies it  has increasingly occupied a central role in social interactions and it has slowly replaced old institutions like the Church as mediators of social relations.

According to Bertrand de Jouvenel, the rise of representative governments created a political paradox that cannot be solved. The feudal political structure conferred the sovereignty or the power of political command to a restricted group of men. The political bodies that evolved into the modern legislative branches had as their primary role to counterbalance the power of those who ruled and restrain their action. Medieval parliaments had the power to deny but not the power to command. As the people became sovereign and their delegates came to rule, a vacuum was created in the structure of the exercise of power: If the people rule sovereignly, who will restrain the power of the people?

Commenting about Abraham Lincolns famous Gettysburg Address, the Italian political theorist Norberto Bobbio observed that a government of the people and for the people is certainly possible but a government by the people will never happen. Power, Bobbio recognized, will always be exercised by small groups or at least smaller than the whole of the political body.

The unequal distribution of power is a fact of nature, and it is neither bad nor good by itself. However, to believe that we live in a sort of society in which people have achieved the maximum of freedom and political control over their own lives is a nocive lie that works out pretty well inasmuch it ensures that people will be kept under control. And why are they kept under control? That is because throughout history every single ruling class needed a way to ensure its legitimacy. In our era, this legitimacy is an unfolding of the myth of democracy.

All nineteenth-century liberal political theory can be understood as an effort to compartmentalize the newly discovered popular sovereignty with the needs of a coherent political regime in which the power of command could be brought under control by itself  checks and balances, for example. Classical liberals like Benjamin Constant undertook a herculean intellectual effort to integrate to the political body social changes while denying democratic egalitarianism as a consequence of popular sovereignty.

The German legal theorist Carl Schmitt correctly understood the inability to reconcile the internal contradictions of a representative political regime in which individual freedom and popular participation coexist in harmony. According to him, parliaments were not made to exercise the power of command, and this reality ended up imposing itself on the material distribution of power within the representative regimes. Designed for the debate and not to rule, parliaments had to transfer their responsibilities to the bureaucracy that was free of possible electoral shocks. Voting might even guide the imperatives of the bureaucratic establishment, but it was impotent to change the essence of its power.

The paradox of democracy  in which the people namely rules and the bureaucracy effectively does  prevails despite the will of political agents. The construction of a bureaucratic authoritarianism under the excuse of democratic progress is not an ideological matter insofar as an ideology does not allow the existence of the bureaucracys power; on the contrary, it justifies its exercise for the masses. Ideology confers an emotional veneer and helps to break down resistances toward the relentless exercise of the power to govern. However, ideologies are not the engines of power. Power obeys a dynamics of its own that must be understood to be controlled.

The phenomenon that Schmitt and others observed within the representative democracys dynamic is not unique to this political system. Quite the contrary, the concentration of the power of command and its exercise by a ruling class is a constant in all human political associations. What is striking in the case of modern democracies is the accentuation of this phenomenon precisely at a time when the myth of the increase of both individual liberties and political participation has become universal. The more the reality of the exercise of power is covered by rhetorical layers that celebrate the achievements of human rights, the more relentless the control of the bureaucratic state over individuals becomes.

The Catechism of human rights  to use Edmund Burkes words  serves well to the expansionist objectives of the bureaucratic class. The core of the concept of human rights is the subjection of the whole social body to the needs and demands of the individual subjectivism. The I have the right fetishism has led to unprecedented expansion of government power to meet endless demand for rights. With each new right demanded and created, a new department or new agency will be designed to ensure compliance with this new standard. It is not surprising, therefore, that one of the characteristics of modern society is legal anarchy and managerial authoritarianism.

What we have is a widening division between the axis of rhetoric or the justification of political action on one side, and the axis of the exercise of the power of command on the other. The modern political regimes inability to answer who rules?, why rules? and how rules? produced an alienation between the ruling class and the rest of the population, or in a nutshell: a class with powers limited only by material reality, but without any responsibility  the very definition of despotism. With representative democracy reduced to a theater of shadows and the real power entrusted to a class far from the control of the polls, there are few incentives to solve the primary problem of the modern political regime.

Until now most of the means used to counterbalance the abuse of power practiced by the elites  and not so much constrain the power of the elites  has been through the electoral route. The different populist movements seek to increase popular participation in decision-making through referenda and other instruments that would enable grassroots pressure on the ruling class. Such policy does not seem to be working and will never work because the disorganized majority does not have the means to break the organized minority control system by playing according to the rules of that same system. As the institutions are established to enable the government  not necessarily despotic  of the ruling class, all the impacts produced by populism will be integrated into the power structure and neutralized by it.

Both Schmitt and the Italian thinkers Vilfredo Pareto and Gaetano Mosca explained why makes sense to be skeptical towards increasing democracy as an instrument to counterbalance the control exercised by the system. Schmitt, for example, believes that the only way the vote could shape the politics would be through a plebiscitarian dictatorship, in which a man would be entrusted with the power to reestablish the political-social order vis-a-vis the corrupt elites ruling.

Pareto and Mosca, by their turn, believed in the inevitability of elites, that is, elites are natural to human political organizations. History, according to them, can be explained through the succession of different elites ascending and falling  what Pareto called the circulation of the elites. No matter what happens, an elite has always emerged to govern. Mosca explained that every time a particular governing class is no longer representing the disorganized majority, it is replaced by the government of a new elite and not by the government of the disorganized majority  which would be a contradiction in terms.

The populist proposal  like Brexit  has little or no chance of success since it does not aim to overthrow the power structure and put a new one in place of it. In this sense, it is much more an explosion of incoherent feelings and a revolt against the system than the creation of a functional political proposal. If Schmitt, Pareto, and Mosca are right about the dynamics of power in human associations, then the process of political transformation must go through the construction of a new elite.

A ruling class cannot utterly be destroyed, it needs to be replaced. The dynamics of power will immediately neutralize any action aimed at the annihilation of a ruling class within the system in which elites rule sovereignty. All regular political action takes place through the same channels that enable the elites to govern; the political debate works according to terms written by those associated with the ruling class. No one had beaten the elites by playing by the rules they created. What must be done is to subvert the regime, subvert the power structure. And the only possible subversion of the power system is through the creation of a new elite.

Homepage photo: Wikimedia Commons
In his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul affirms that Gentiles have the law written on their hearts (Romans 2:15). Since then there has been a constant debate about what constitutes the natural law (i.e., a body of unchanging moral principles regarded as a basis for all human conduct) or whether it even exists.

A new study finds confirmation for the natural law and identifies seven of these laws that are related to cooperation.

Oxford University researcher Oliver Scott Curry led a team that studied ethnographic accounts of ethics from 60 societies across over 600 sources to test the theory of morality-as-cooperation, which argues that morality consists of a collection of biological and cultural solutions to the problems of cooperation recurrent in human social life.

In a new paper recently published in Current Anthropology, they report that seven cooperative behaviors are observed in the majority of cultures, with equal frequency across all regions of the world. Their candidates for universal moral rules based on cooperation are:

1. Help your family (allocation of resources to kin)

2. Help your group (coordination to mutual advantage)

3. Return favors (social exchange or reciprocity)

4. Be brave (resolving conflicts through contests which entail hawkish displays of dominance)

5. Defer to superiors (resolving conflicts through contests which entail dovish displays of submission)

6. Divide resources fairly (fairness)

7. Respect others property (property rights)

The rules do appear to be (almost) universal. In 961 out of 962 observations (99.9 percent), cooperative behavior had an intrinsic moral attractiveness. The one exception to the rule they found was among the Chuukese, the largest ethnic group in the Federated States of Micronesia. Among the Chuuk to steal openly from others is admirable in that it shows a persons dominance and demonstrates that he is not intimidated by the aggressive powers of others. The researchers conclude that it appears to be a case in which one form of cooperation (respect for property) has been trumped by another (respect for a hawkish trait, although not explicitly bravery).

There were 18 other examples of these seven moral values coming into conflict: nine examples of conflict between helping family and helping group; two of conflict between helping family and being brave; two of conflict between helping family and deferring to authority; and one example each of conflict between helping family and reciprocating, helping group and being brave, reciprocating and being brave, being brave and being deferential, and being deferential and respecting possession. But as the researchers note, in these cases the moral values were portrayed as being in conflict, rather than one being good and the other bad.

This findings contradicts the philosopher John Locke, who argued that, He that will carefully peruse the history of mankind, and look abroad into the several tribes of men . . . will be able to satisfy himself, that there is scarce that principle of morality to be named, or rule of virtue to be thought on . . . which is not, somewhere or other, slighted and condemned by the general fashion of whole societies of men.

In contrast, another Enlightenment philosopher, David Hume, argued that moral judgments depend on an internal sense or feeling, which nature has made universal in the whole species, and that as a result certain qualitiessuch as truth, justice, courage, temperance, constancy, dignity of mind . . . friendship, sympathy, mutual attachment, and fidelity are the most universal, established principles of morals, esteemed universally, since the foundation of the world, in all nations and all ages.

As Curry observes, In short, Hume was right, and Locke was wrong. When you look abroad into the several tribes of men there are some widely held morals that are not elsewhere slighted or condemned, and they include precisely those morals predicted by morality-as-cooperation.

Handshake by Aidan Jones is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
The international Left extols the European Union, because they see its ever-closer union as the prototype of a supranational government with a centrally planned economy. Former President Barack Obama expressed this sentiment this weekend, saying the EU represented the pinnacle of human well-being.

He told an audience in Berlin:

We live in uncertain times. Were confronted by big questions about how to organize our communities and our countries and the international order. Here in Berlin we have to recognize that this moment is full of contradictions, because Europe in 2019 in some ways has achieved the pinnacle of human well-being. Collectively in Europe right now on average you probably see the highest standards of living of any group of people in the history of the planet. Wealthier, healthier, better educated. The kind that has largely been at peace for 70 years. You have unprecedented information at your fingertips. You can travel freely across borders that once were closed. Our societies have made great strides to  extend opportunity and care for the sick and pursue equality no matter what you look like or how you worship or who you love. So, you would think that everybody would feel pretty good right now. And yet, what we also know is that powerful forces are threatening to reverse many of these trends. The democratic institutions that helped to bring these about oftentimes have been taken for granted. The planet that we live on is in danger. Some of the contradictions of our economies and how we produce and dispose of goods and services continually now doesnt appear to be as sustainable, particularly if understandably other parts of the world wanted to achieve the same kinds of standards of living as we have.

President Obamas reference to democratic institutions  an inexact reference to the EU and Brussels allied bureaucracies  intended to bolster the institution at a time when Eurocrats are buffeted by an interminable Brexit process and growing populist/nationalist forces in Eastern and Southern Italy.

Praising another nation during a foreign visit is de rigueur, and it is true that global living standards have reached such heights. (Our friends at the Cato Institute measure this regularly through their invaluable website HumanProgress.org.) In fact, life has improved so drastically, organically, that it should call into question the whole notion of economic intervention.

Nonetheless, his statement that the EU-27 represents the pinnacle of human well-being is misleading for at least three reasons:

1. The U.S. is far more economically prosperous than Europe. While Europe has a large middle class by its own standards, the average American earns far more money. That is to say, Europe has lower economic inequality and a lower standard of living. In most Western European countries studied, applying the U.S. standard shrinks the middle-class share by about 10 percentage points, according to the Pew Research Center. The median U.S. income was $60,884 in 2010, while most of Europe clustered in the low-to-mid-40s.

2. Europe is (literally) dying. During a global population boom, Europes population is shrinking and greying. Europes total fertility rate fell below replacement level in 1975 and has never recovered. Furthermore, European TFR is inflated by the high birthrate of Muslims and migrants. Europes aging non-Muslim population has a fertility rate of just 1.6 children per woman, well below what demographers call replacement-level fertility, while Muslims in Europe average a full child more per woman (2.6), Pew Research found. Muslims could make up between 11.2% and 14% of Europes population in 2050.

Europes native population has imploded so dramatically that Vatican leaders warn the continent faces extinction. If the West continues in this fatal way, there is a great risk that, due to a lack of birth, it will disappear, invaded by foreigners, just as Rome has been invaded by barbarians, said Cardinal Robert Sarah recently.

His warning encompasses the United States, as well, although our birthrate hit replacement level as recently as 2008. The U.S. also has dramatically higher levels of religious belief than Europe, from which one may infer the third issue.

3. Europe has no sense of self-identity. While Europe deserves praise for jettisoning narrow ethnic-based identities in the postwar era, its religious disbelief left a void where its self-conception should be. Christianity  the native religion of a region once dubbed Christendom  has been removed from EU documents and excised from its self-referential House of European History.

But vapid notions of European values are no match for the faith Europe has lost. Again, Cardinal Sarah linked the continents studied agnosticism with its demographic twilight. I want to suggest to Western people that the real cause of this refusal to claim their inheritance and this refusal of fatherhood is the rejection of God, he said. Simply put, people cannot be happy if they dont know who they are, and human dignity is inextricably linked to our understanding that we are all the children of God.

These are but a few of modern Europes maladies, but they surface the cavernous emptiness that lies at the heart of the human condition, which no measure of living standards can adequately grasp.

(Photo credit: vipflash / Shutterstock.com. Editorial use only.)
Pete Buttigieg is one of the prominent members of the progressive wing of the Democratic party who opposes free college tuition, on the ground that the "benefits" of college accrue to those who attain a degree and that it's unfair to ask the majority, who don't attend college, to subsidize the minority who do.



As sociologist (and economics critic) Elizabeth Popp Berman writes in the Washington Post, these objections only make sense in the context of two major, economics-driven shifts in how we think about education and public goods  changes that are relatively recent, dating back to the 1960s.





The first change is in how we evaluate the worth of public goods, like education: do we value them in and of themselves, or in terms of their cost-benefit? The triumph of cost-benefit framing for education led to the rise in both tuition and lending (and thus the student debt crisis); the argument had it that public college educations were "irrationally cheap" and that the predominantly better-off attendees should have to bear the cost of it. But consider J.W. Mason's rebuttal: "Suppose users of Central Park are higher-income on average; is progressive policy then to fence it off and charge admission?" In other words, if public goods disproportionately benefit the affluent, we can either strive to make them more inclusive or to recoup the cost of providing them, but not both.

The other shift is in the worth of an education: education can be seen as intrinsically beneficial, creating "citizens as well as economic actors," and publicly funded education "socialized the risk" of pursuing educational attainments that have uncertain individual upsides, fueling class mobility.

What I like about Berman's essay is how it highlights the extent to which our thinking is hemmed in by relatively recent pieces of economic orthodoxy, the ideas that public goods need to be subjected to cost-benefit analysis, and the idea that education's primary benefit is higher earning potential. Neoliberalism's most devastating move can be summed up in Margaret Thatcher's maxim, "There is no alternative" (which is really a demand framed as an observation; what Thatcher meant was, "stop trying to think of an alternative"). It's fine to examine policies and propositions through different frames and lenses, but once you forget that you're even using a frame or a lens, you become their prisoner.



Across the political spectrum, many Americans share the intuition that parks, fire stations, high schools and colleges are important for creating a good society. They will differ on just how prominent a role government should play in ensuring that such institutions thrive. But there is a debate among Democrats, too  over exactly what the purpose of college is, and how its benefits can best be achieved. Some see the effects of college as primarily economic. Others play up its integral civic and social role. Clarifying these underlying divisions can help us understand why self-styled progressives are still split on the question of whether "free college" should be the ultimate goal.



Analysis | Pete Buttigieg argues against free college. This is why progressives can't agree about subsidizing tuition. [Elizabeth Popp Berman/Washington Post]





(via Naked Capitalism)
COURT SKETCH: WILLIAM HENNESSY. Yujing Zhang, the Chinese woman who was arrested for illegally entering the president's Mar-a-Lago resort, appeared in court Monday.

Yujing Zhang was arrested in March for lying to Secret Service agents at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, to gain access to the private club. According to investigators, the 32-year-old Chinese national had malware on her person, and behaved more like a bumbling spy than anything else. So who is she?

Looks like we're about to find out.

"Yujing Zhang appeared in West Palm Beach court, after having been arrested March 30 for illegally entering Trump's resort and lying to a Secret Service agent," reports Jonathan Levin at Bloomberg News. "She may be formally indicted as early as this week, prosecutors said."

According to the feds, at the moment she was caught lying to Secret Service agents in March, Yujing Zhang was carrying on her person:

 Two Chinese passports

 Four (4!) cellphones

 One laptop

 One external hard drive

 One USB thumb drive containing malware.

 She had no swimsuit.

The Secret Service agents apparently believed her. She briefly gained access to the club during the President's visit there that weekend.

Excerpt from the new Bloomberg story:

In addition to the electronics she carried into the resort, Zhang also had a signal detector, five SIM cards and more than $7,600 in U.S. currency in her room at the Colony Palm Beach hotel, about two miles north of Mar-a-Lago, Garcia said. A signal detector is used to detect hidden video or audio-recording devices. Garcia noted that Zhang isn't facing espionage or related charges at this time, but the government continues to look into that possibility. Zhang entered the courtroom in handcuffs, wearing a navy blue prison-issued jump suit. She took notes during the hearing. Her lawyer, public defender Robert Adler, said there were innocent explanations for many of the allegations, including having two passports. Zhang's valid U.S. visa was stamped in an expired passport, which she needed to carry in addition to her valid passport, Adler said. She also showed all the electronics she carried when entering the resort, including when she went through a metal detector, Adler said. And he questioned the Secret Service's allegation that the USB drive was infected with malware. Secret Service agent Samuel Ivanovich testified Monday that another agent put the USB drive into his computer and it immediately began to install files. The agent shut down the computer to prevent a possible infection, but Ivanovich couldn't identify the malware. The device is still being analyzed, Ivanovich said.

Get a load of her everyday carry!

And what was a federal agent doing, testing out her likely malware on a government computer that wasn't airgapped?

More: Chinese Intruder at Mar-a-Lago to Stay in Jail Another Week [www.bloomberg.com]
If the past year has changed anything about our lives, it's how conscious we are of harmful particles in the air. Whether it's airborne viruses like COVID-19 or pollutants from wildfires thousands of miles away, it has become apparent that clean breathing air isn't as ubiquitous as it once was. This growing concern for safe, READ THE REST
President Donald Trump today instructed federal agents to break the law. "If judges give you trouble," the President instructed the armed men, "Say, 'Sorry, judge, I can't do it.'"

The news hits just as a related breaking news story crosses the wires: "Judge blocks Trump administration policy of returning asylum seekers to Mexico but won't immediately put order in place."

Trump doesn't like those judges.

Here's an excerpt from a longer piece by CNN's Jake Tapper about the ouster of Krjsten Nielsen and other Homeland Security and Secret Service officials today, leaving noted Santa Monica Nazi Stephen Miller the likely de facto head of DHS:

Told agents not to let migrants in Last Friday, the President visited Calexico, California, where he said, "We're full, our system's full, our country's full  can't come in! Our country is full, what can you do? We can't handle any more, our country is full. Can't come in, I'm sorry. It's very simple." Behind the scenes, two sources told CNN, the President told border agents to not let migrants in. Tell them we don't have the capacity, he said. If judges give you trouble, say, "Sorry, judge, I can't do it. We don't have the room." After the President left the room, agents sought further advice from their leaders, who told them they were not giving them that direction and if they did what the President said they would take on personal liability. You have to follow the law, they were told.

Below, observations from Twitter.

Trump adviser explained why Trump would dare discuss bringing back family separations as a policy. According to the adviser the president "thinks it's the best leverage point to force a compromise" with Democrats on immigration.  Jim Acosta (@Acosta) April 8, 2019

Interesting play-by-play here, from @jaketapper: Trump pushed to close El Paso border, told admin officials to resume family separations and agents not to admit migrants @CNNPolitics https://t.co/eq8FiIuP2K  Paul Farhi (@farhip) April 8, 2019

For those following the Trump attacks on asylum and our litigation in response, a quick recap of some things courts have blocked:  Family separation

 No-Parole policy

 Exclusion of domestic and gang-violence claims

 Asylum ban between POEs

 Forced return to Mexico  Omar C. Jadwat (@OmarJadwat) April 8, 2019

Among the many alarming things about this presidency, this might be the most terrifying: Turns out that Stephen Miller is probably the most powerful and consequential actor in the Executive branch save Trump himself.  Marty Lederman (@marty_lederman) April 8, 2019

"Miller thought Nielsen was a soft-on-the-border Bushy and she thought he was a egomaniacal lunatic who hated brown people. Needless to say, that made for awkward moments in the Oval [Office] and Cabinet Room," said a former senior Trump official. https://t.co/6dIxpzaMyd  Noah Shachtman (@NoahShachtman) April 8, 2019
News / National

by Staff reporter

The State is seeking to petition the High Court for a rescission of the judgment acquitting former minister Supa Mandiwanzira of criminal abuse of office charges that was delivered on Wednesday.The decision was granted in default after all the listed respondents - trial magistrate Mr Elijah Makomo, Prosecutor-General Mr Kumbirai Hodzi and the National Prosecuting Authority  failed to make representations on the matter.Mandiwanzira was facing criminal abuse of office charges after he allegedly awarded a US$218 million auditing contract to South African-based Megawatt Energy. The deal allegedly prejudiced NetOne of $5 million.Anti-Corruption Special Unit director Mr Tabani Mpofu last night confirmed to The Herald they were in the process of filing an application for rescission of decision, which he claimed was erroneous."We are going to court to seek a rescission of the default judgment granted against us," he said."It was erroneously granted because the Prosecutor-General's Office was not served with the notice of set-down. In fact, the notice was served on the Attorney-General's Office."Mandiwanzira approached the higher court challenging the trial court's decision dismissing his application excepting to the charges. Justice Nicholas Mathonsi granted a default judgment against the respondents in the matter that had been brought to court on the basis that it was unopposed."The application for review is hereby granted. The judgment of the first respondent dated 15th February, 2019 be and is hereby set aside and substituted with an order that count one of the charges brought against the applicant on the 7th of December, 2018 is hereby quashed," ruled Justice Mathonsi.Documents showed that none of the respondents were served with papers to make submissions. The court papers show that Mandiwanzira's lawyers served the Attorney-General's Office although he was not part of the proceedings.Mandiwanzira sued the trial magistrate after he threw out his application for exception of the criminal charges. He ruled that the former minister has a case to answer and should be put to his defence.Commenting on Mandiwanzira second charge in which he is accused of appointing his personal assistant to the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (Potraz) board, Mr Mpofu insisted the prosecution has a strong case against him.
News / National

by Staff reporter

A THREE-METRE-LONG cobra caused a stir in Nkulumane 12 suburb in Bulawayo after it slithered into houses near a bushy area on the outskirts of the residential area.Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority (Zimparks) rangers came to the residents' rescue after dispatching snake catcher, Ahmed Mohamed Esat, who took three hours to capture the venomous reptile, his fourth one in a week.The snake was first noticed on Tuesday night when it slid into a house close to the Roman Catholic Church, which has a large vegetable patch.However, it was driven away by dogs at the house.On Wednesday morning, the snake found its way into another house, three houses from where it initially appeared.It slipped into a heap of bricks and residents had to call the Zimparks after failing to lure the reptile out of its hiding place.Esat told Southern Eye that this was the fourth snouted cobra he had captured in a week."It's about three to four years old. This is the fourth snouted cobra I have captured within a week," Esat said.He said he had been working with Zimparks for a couple of years. "I have captured a lot of snakes. You can follow my works there (on Facebook). I have also plans to work with the media to conscientise residents about my work and snakes so that they stay out of danger," he said.Snouted cobra is a large specie and adult sizes range from 1,2 to 1,8 metres, but they can reach a length of 2,5 metres.
News / National

by Staff reporter

Industry and Commerce minister Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu on Wednesday warned industry that the incessant hikes in prices of basic commodities will push long-suffering Zimbabweans to revolt.The warning came as the consumer rights watchdog was calling on government to convene an urgent cost-of-living forum that would bring together business and consumers, among other stakeholders, in order to arrest the runaway prices.Zimbabweans are being subjected to regular price increases, usually tracking the exchange rate between the United States dollar and the real time gross settlement dollar on the black market, which currently stands at 1:4.3. In the past week alone, prices of some basic commodities rose by as much as 75%.Ndlovu told a Bulawayo provincial investment conference at the Zimbabwe International Exhibition Centre that business should exercise caution."They are pushing consumers to revolt We want to have candid discussions around this issue, which is killing our economy," Ndlovu said.Business cited an unstable exchange rate between the United States dollar and the RTGS dollar for the recent price hikes, but the Industry minister argued otherwise."I don't know whether our economy is a foreign exchange market or what, but this does not make sense," Ndlovu said.Speaking to Southern Eye, National Consumer Rights Association (Nacora) advocacy and campaign adviser Effie Ncube urged all stakeholders to convene a cost-of-living forum to address the crisis before the situation got out of hand."This rise in the cost of living cuts a deep wound in the lives of people, harming the young and old, employed and unemployed, in a profound way, even for people accustomed to pain in recent years," Ncube said yesterday."We call upon the government to urgently convene a cost-of-living forum in which government, business and workers and consumers will be represented. It must be remembered that not all consumers are workers, so the unemployed consumer must have a seat at the table as well," he added."Appropriate steps should be taken to cushion consumers, both employed and unemployed, from the unrelenting rise in the cost of basic commodities upon which day-to-day life depends. The forum must address the real root causes of the unabated rise in the cost of living."Ndlovu said there was need to avoid the recurrence of the January protests against steep fuel price hikes, which resulted in security forces killing 18 and injuring nearly 200, according to human rights groups.
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by newzimbabwe

President Emmerson Mnangagwa Thursday mocked the local RTGS currency saying it was not real currency as compared to the United States dollar.He said this in Ngangu, Chimanimani where he had visited together with leaders of some opposition political parties in the country to assess the impact of Cyclone Idai which killed hundreds and left more missing last month.RTGS is the now the country`s official currency after government devalued it against the United States dollar and added it to the multi-currency basket as a stand-alone medium of exchange.Mnangagwa made the comparison while thanking United States President Donald Trump for availing US$2, 5 million to Zimbabwe to assist survivors of the disaster.The Zanu-PF leader, who is under US imposed sanctions, said the donation "came as a surprise"."I received three letters of condolences from the Royal Family. I was so excited about this development but what excited me most was about Trump."Do you know Trump? President from which country?America. Eheeee. He imposed sanctions on us, yesterday he sent his ambassador with US$2, 5 million eheeeeeeeUS$2, 5 million from their country! Not maRTGS aaaah.No, I mean the real hard currency from their country (chaiyo chaiyo)," Mnangagwa said sarcastically, drawing laughter from the crowd.He added, "Hey things do change. Kuipa kwezvimwe kunaka kwezvimwe (life brings both good and bad)."Mnangagwa said in addition, the US has also offered material support to his government."They gave us US$2, 5 million but they told us that they can give us additional support through their station in South Africa. The ball is now in our court. Our only task now is just to come up with a list of our needs," he said.RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement) is originally an electronic money transfer system which was introduced by authorities following acute cash shortages in the country.When central bank governor John Mangudya delivered his monetary policy statement recently, he classified it, together with bond notes, as RTGS.Zimbabweans businesses are resentful of the currency whose value keeps fluctuating.In his comments Thursday, Mnangagwa said that he was impressed that the royal family wrote four letters to him paying their condolences following the Cyclone disaster."You know one thing, our relationship with the British turned sour over the land reform programme. Let me tell you what happened. This Cyclone kunoti zvimwe zvinoipa zvimwe zvichinaka (when some situations go bad, some turn positive)."Queen Elizabeth herself sat down and wrote a letter to Zimbabwe, saying she had heard about Cyclone and how can she render assistance."Her child, Prince Charles who will take over from her, the late Princess Diana's husband, the one who came and took over the Union Jack flag on our independence day also wrote his letter and we received it."Even Prince William and his wife also wrote a letter to us. Three letters came from the Royal family and that has never happened in a long time to receive such letters from the Royal family paying condolences to Zimbabwe."I said to myself "uuh zvinhu izvi (this occurrence). The letter also mentioned that the relationship between Zimbabwe and Britain should be strengthened."I was happy to receive such letters," said the President."
News / National

by Staff reporter

FORMER finance minister Tendai Biti has condemned the majority of deals signed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, describing them as unconstitutional and void as they were not approved by parliament in contravention of the standard procedure of acquiring national debt.Speaking at the launch of International Public Service Accounting System strategy and plan in Harare on Wednesday, Biti, who is also the chairperson of parliament's Public Accounts Committee and a lawyer, said there was need for transparency given some of the deals had resulted in loans which had ballooned the national debt.The country's total debt stood at US$17,6 billion as at December 31 2018, with the external debt at US$$8,16 billion, representing 33,2% of gross domestic product.This means the debt has risen significantly since Mnangagwa took over power in November 2017 via a military coup which toppled his former boss, Robert Mugabe."Debt has been contracted in Zimbabwe, oblivious to the requirements of Section 327 of the constitution that requires parliamentary approval. If it is not approved by parliament, then it is null and void. Meaning that, the large part of all debt that has been accrued in recent times which has not been approved by parliament is not only voidable, but is actually void ab initio (from the beginning)," said Biti.Biti wilfully highlighted that Mnangagwa has been violating Section 327 of the constitution, which stipulates that: "An agreement which is not an international treaty, but which (a) has been concluded or executed by the President or under the president's authority with one or more foreign organisations or entities; and (b) imposes fiscal obligations on Zimbabwe; does not bind Zimbabwe until it has been approved by the parliament."Biti expressed disproval of the current accounting systems, saying there was no transparency in government financial departments.The finance ministry had been using a cash-based accounting system which was condemned in 2017 by Auditor-General Mildred Chiri."Personally I am very excited by the migration from cash accounting, which I considered to be very dishonest to accrual accounting. The current situation, where if you talk to the Reserve Bank they don't know what the national debt is, if you talk to the Ministry of Finance they don't know what the debt is, that is unacceptable," Biti said."The 2019 budget had two blue books, up to now I don't know why there were two blue books, and then it had a budget statement. In the budget statement at page 33, the national debt was put at US$17 billion, but when we went to the fist blue book the national debt was put at US$9 billion, when we went to the second blue book the national debt was put at US$8 billion, you would really wonder what is going on."According to national budget figures, the foreign debt stood at US$7,5 billion as at December 2017, while the domestic debt was US$6 billion but during deliberations at the Zimbabwe-South Africa Bi-National Commission, the government revealed the debt had risen to US$18 billion, split in half between domestic and international creditors.Delivering a speech on behalf of Finance minister Mthuli Ncube, finance secretary George Guvamatanga said his ministry was failing to deliver the necessary paperwork to the Public Accounts Committee because the current accounting system was in a shambles."I used to run an institution which had a balance sheet of US$500 million. We had 17 chartered accountants in that institution. I come to government, and I am asked to run a US$10 billion balance sheet with one chartered accountant and that is when Honourable Biti calls me and says well you are not complying in this report. Honourable Biti, you should understand that it cannot be delivered with one chartered accountant," Guvamatanga said."We are also having ministries with $2 billion budgets, but no chartered accountants and you are actually expecting them to manage those huge funds. I could not tell you that Honourable Biti when you asked me in Parliament, but that is one on the major reasons."The biggest organisation in the land, the government of Zimbabwe has one chartered accountant."The head of the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID) in Zimbabwe and South Africa, Annabel Gerry, emphasised the need for transparency and accountability, saying corruption had taken a toll on countries like Zimbabwe."Countries such as Zimbabwe are losing precious public funds through corruption, which damages their government's ability to invest in desperately needed infrastructure, schools and hospitals," Annabel said."We know corruption is bad for people, bad for development, and bad for business. We know that corruption impairs economic growth, deters investment and erodes tax revenues. It holds developing countries back. The uncertainties of bribery stifle business development."Gerry added: "It is fair to say that Zimbabwe has room for improvement on the Open Budget Index. The latest survey found that Zimbabwe provides the public with minimal budget information. It scored just 23 out of 100 in the 2017 survey."Access to fiscal information is right that all governments should extend to their citizens so they know how their taxes are spent and how their economy is run. Journalists and civil society organisations are a critical bridge in interpreting and translating budget data- sharing it with citizens and parliaments in ways that are meaningful. The scrutiny can galvanise those with decision-making power to act and reduce malpractice."
News / National

by Staff reporter

PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa plans to appoint more opposition officials to key government positions notwithstanding his continuing brawl with MDC boss Nelson Chamisa - who has adamantly refused to recognise him as Zimbabwe's legitimate leader, the Daily News reported.This comes after the 76-year-old Zanu-PF leader appointed prominent former MDC legislator and spokesperson of the MDC's revered late founding father Morgan Tsvangirai, James Maridadi, as one of the country's new ambassadors - in a move which has surprised many in the country, including in Zanu-PF.Mnangagwa's spokesperson George Charamba told the Daily News yesterday that his boss would follow up on Maridadi's appointment by picking more opposition officials in important government positions."We are on a nation-building project. We are interested in national cohesion. We are no longer concerned about political affiliations."He (Maridadi) is Zimbabwean and he has the qualifications. He has the qualities of a diplomat. In fact, we are going to appoint more individuals from the opposition," he said.Maridadi was this week selected as part of a group of ambassadors-designate who are undergoing a special induction programme meant to acquaint them with the key role of envoys.He joined a group that included retired lieutenant generals Anselem Sanyatwe, Martin Chedondo and Douglas Nyikayaramba, as well as former vice air marshal Sheba Shumbayawonda - who are all set to take up ambassadorial roles having been retired by Mnangagwa earlier this year.Maridadi, a former popular disc jockey, began his political career with former Finance minister Simba Makoni's Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn in 2008, before he switched over to the MDC where he was appointed Tsvangirai's spokesperson.He later became an MDC MP and chief of protocol during the short-lived but stability-inducing government of national unity era.Last year, he was defeated in the MDC primary elections ahead of the July 30 national polls and subsequently also lost his long-held Mabvuku-Tafara constituency to James Chidhakwa.Yesterday, a stunned MDC described Maridadi's appointment as "shocking, considering tense relations between the opposition and Mnangagwa". "It's shocking. It's eyebrow-raising. One wonders what he (Maridadi) did to get rewarded at this stage. We understand that the struggle for democracy is hard and long. It's difficult for many to last the distance."We know that the system deploys spies to infiltrate the party, but they are going to be outed and we will always have these people that always try to get to our principals," MDC spokesperson Jacob Mafume told the Daily News.Chamisa has been brawling with Mnangagwa ever since he narrowly lost last year's hotly-disputed July 30 presidential election - whose result he vigorously challenged at the Constitutional Court (Con-Court). The youthful opposition leader even went to the extent of accusing the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) of manipulating the poll results in favour of the Zanu-PF leader.But Mnangagwa's victory was upheld by the Con-Court, which ruled that Chamisa had failed to provide evidence that he had won the election. So far, there has been no meaningful engagement between Mnangagwa and Chamisa despite the Zanu-PF leader having invited his political rivals to several meetings which the MDC leader has consistently snubbed.Political analysts said yesterday that while it was "normal in some countries" to appoint opposition figures into key government posts, it was surprising that Mnangagwa had picked Maridadi - given the strained relations between Zanu-PF and the MDC following last year's disputed elections."While it is Maridadi's right to take his career in any path that he so chooses, the appointment raises a lot of questions on how secure the opposition is from infiltration by people who do not believe in its struggle."It is normal in democracies for people to be appointed from across the floor and we had (former South African president Thabo) Mbeki appointing former DA leader Tony Leon as ambassador, but let's remember that Zimbabwe is far from being a democracy nor a politically normal country."Having someone appointed by a party in government that shot what I believe to be Maridadi's political mates on 1 August 2018 baffles the mind," political analyst Rashweat Mukundu said. "This appointment also raises questions on how political leaders can easily and seemingly abandon struggles they once stood for."One can imagine that if Ian Smith was as lucky as Zanu-PF, then the liberation struggle could as well have been abandoned as people jostled to take positions and goodies that come with that."I don't fault Maridadi for his decision. I only question how principled our politicians are," Mukundu added. This is not the first time that a member of the opposition has been appointed to head a foreign mission.Ousted former president Robert Mugabe appointed the late Trudy Stevenson, Hilda Mafudze, Hebson Makuvise and Jacqueline Zwambila as ambassadors during the GNU.While Makuvise and Zwambila's terms ended with the expiry of the GNU, Stevenson and Mafudze remained on tour of duty in Senegal and Sudan respectively well after the unity government.Stevenson died last year in August, while Mafudze is now returning home to make way for a new appointee.
News / National

by Staff reporter

An escape attempt by a prisoner serving jail time in Kwekwe for theft hit a snag after he was apprehended by alert members of the Zimbabwe Prison and Correctional Services (ZPCS).Brian Rungu (31), an inmate at Kwekwe Prisons where he is serving a nine-month jail term, was apprehended after he suddenly bolted from other prisoners as they were carrying out a clean-up exercise outside the prison complex.Rungu was convicted in January this year for stealing farming inputs from his employer. He will serve and additional one year after he was convicted for escaping from lawful custody when he appeared before Kwekwe magistrate Mr Storey Rushambwa.In his defence, Rungu told the court that he could no longer stand the challenging tasks given to him in prison."Your Worship, I cannot stand the menial jobs given to us in prison, so I wanted to run away and escape from doing such duties. We work hard in prison Your Worship, so I wanted rest. "I plead with the honourable court to be lenient with me," Rungu said.It is the State's case that, on March 1 at around 11.30am, Rangu was at Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) dumpsite just outside the prison complex where he, together with 19 other inmates, were cleaning up.Suddenly, the court further heard, Rungu left the other inmates and started running in an attempt to escape.After about 400 metres of running, the alert ZPCS members who were supervising the clean-up campaign gave chase and apprehended him. He was handed over to the ZRP, leading to his appearance in court.Mr Freddy Ndoro represented the State.
News / National

by newzimbabwe

BULAWAYO police on Friday, arrested four Mthwakazi Republic Party (MRP) officials and three foreign nationals for an as yet to be established offense.The four MRP activists were arrested in Cowdray Park, at party Bulawayo provincial secretary for security Andrew Dube's house.The party's parliamentary candidate for Gwanda North during last year's elections, Mcebisi Dube confirmed the arrest. Nikiwe Ncube Tshabalala, the lawyer representing the activists also confirmed the arrests."I have just been assigned to go to Bulawayo Central Police station to represent the arrested persons."Right now, I am preparing to go there and hear what charges are they facing," said Tshabalala in a telephone interview with newzimbabwe.com.According to Mcebisi Dube, a group of police some in uniform and others in plain clothes stormed Andrew Dube's house, arrested him along with Njabulo Ngwenya, the party's secretary for Foreign Affairs, Mthokozisi Mhlanga and the three foreigners one from Zambia and two from Namibia. It was not clear what the foreigners had been doing at the house.
News / National

by Staff reporter

MDC-Alliance Mpopoma-Pelandaba Member of Parliament Honourable Charles Moyo has appeared in court facing charges of assault.Hon Moyo is accused of assaulting the party's deputy chairperson of the gender representation structure - Miss Tsitsi Mutereki. Moyo initially appeared in court yesterday and was remanded out of court on his own cognisance to 15 April this year.It is the State's case that on 3 April this year that Moyo, during a party meeting held at the party headquarters in Bulawayo, assaulted Mutereki.It was stated that Moyo assaulted Miss Mutereki for defying an order for the youth wing not to interfere with an election process for Ward 10, EntumbaneEmakhandeni.It was further stated that Moyo together with Clr Mlandu Ncube of Ward 1 hijacked the election process, leading to the youth revolting against the decision for the pair to influence or impose a candidate they did not want.It was during the meeting that Miss Mutereki, after realising the intension of the pair that she left the boardroom, where the election process was being held. As she made her way to the exit she was restricted from leaving by Hon Moyo, resulting in a scuffle.It was during the scuffle that Hon Moyo is alleged to have pushed Miss Mutereki and then slapped her on the face.Soon after the assault Miss Mutereki is said to have lodged a complaint with the police, leading to Moyo's arrest. The matter was presided over by Mr Jechonia Ncube, while Mr Leonard Ncube presented the case for the State.
News / National

by Bloomberg

Zimbabwe plans to complete land valuations by the end of May to determine the level of compensation to be paid to former white commercial farmers who lost their properties during the government's land reform programme."Given the significant progress made to date, it is anticipated that that this comprehensive farm improvements valuation exercise will be completed by end of May," the government said in a statement on Sunday."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 toward closure of the land issue," according to the statement.The ad hoc group comprises government representatives and former property owners.In 2000, the government seized farms belonging to mostly white owned farms and replaced them with black farmers, saying the move was meant to address colonial imbalances.Zimbabwe has budgeted RTGS$53m this year as an interim compensation.The Commercial Farmers Union and former owners, which are represented by two groupings called Compensation Committee and The Valuation Consortium, have said the RTGS$53m shouldn't be distributed to a few but be open to all farmers.
News / National

by Staff reporter

GOVERNMENT is investigating leads that seem to suggest high-ranking officials could be involved in the disappearance of drugs from its warehouses into private pharmacies.Recently, three men employed by TICC Pharmaceuticals based in Waterfalls appeared in court after they were allegedly caught with a consignment of drugs worth $500 000.Amongst the consignment were drugs directed to the Health ministry, suspected to have been stolen from a government warehouse.They were also caught in possession of counterfeit and dangerous drugs.Counterfeit drugs which are smuggled into the country through the country's porous borders have flooded the black market of late.Health and Child Care permanent secretary Gerald Gwinji confirmed the development saying the ministry and police are working hand in glove to get to the bottom of reports there could be leakages in government's systems."We are saddened to note that some of the commodities found have indications of having originated at or diverted from government," Gwinji said, adding that the ministry will learn from findings of the investigation "to inform us to further tighten control measures in the supply chain."Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) CID drugs and Narcotics detective Majaha Mkwananzi was noncommittal after being contacted for comment, saying divulging information could jeopardise ongoing investigations."It is early days to comment because it will jeopardise the investigations," Mkhwananzi said.The Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ) could not be drawn to comment on how drug leakages are occurring out of fear of interfering with investigations."After some internal consultations, and with the ministry of Health and Child Care, all we can advise is that investigations are still ongoing," was all MCAZ spokesperson Shingi Gwatidzo could say.Meanwhile, drug shortages in the country have intensified owing to the worsening foreign currency shortages.Soaring cost of drugs, amid serious shortage of medicines in the country, has given rise to a thriving black market where all forms of drugs are readily available.This is largely because most drugs have been pegged at exorbitant prices, out of the reach of many, with most pharmacies charging in United States dollars.Owing to the steep prices, most people are resorting to purchasing medication on the black market, endangering their lives.Recently, Health and Child Care minister Obadiah Moyo appealed to members of the public to desist from purchasing drugs sold on the streets as they are being duped of their hard-earned money.Moyo told the Senate that it is "very dangerous" to ingest counterfeit drugs which he warned could lead to permanent conditions."Those are fake medicines and they are medicines which are not supposed to be given willy-nilly. Medicines have to be prescribed and we have to be absolutely careful on what we ingest as humans in terms of medicines," Moyo said.The Pharmaceutical Association of Zimbabwe (Paz) said local drug manufacturers are operating below capacity and need $45 million to retool.Paz also said it needs approximately $16 million a month for the importation of drugs, with local drug manufacturers only receiving between 10 to 20 percent of their monthly foreign currency requirements.
News / National

by Staff reporter

FIRST Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa has joined her husband in hiring pricey private jets - which cost taxpayers thousands of United States dollars.The first lady returned home from Dubai on Tuesday last week aboard a private jet Airbus A318-112 (CJ) Elite chartered for her and her travelling party. She had gone to Dubai for a meeting hosted by the Merck Foundation for purposes of dealing with the stigmatisation of women with infertility problems. Ten other first ladies attended the meeting.The first lady chartered the aircraft, registered as A6-CAS and operated by Constellation Aviation of Dubai. It spawned questions why she did not just hop into the first class cabin of a regularly scheduled Emirates flight operating between Dubai and Harare daily.This comes as her husband, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, is coming under sharp criticism from members of the public for the expensive practice. Apparently, the plane chartered by the first lady is the same aircraft flown into Harare a fortnight ago to fly her husband from Harare to Bulawayo, a trip the president could have embarked on using a military Mil Mi Russian-built Air Force of Zimbabwe helicopter.Reached for comment, deputy Information minister Energy Mutodi said: "What the first lady does is her own private business. She is a free citizen, free to travel and do as she pleases. The public and media should leave the first family alone on their private business; it has nothing to do with the State or government."Mnangagwa has defended his penchant for big-ticket private planes, with his spin-doctors saying it was the only mode of transport that could easily accommodate his busy schedule. Mnangagwa's spokesperson George Charamba brushed off criticism of his boss' excessive foreign travel as trivia.Charamba said Mnangagwa is not so much fond of flying but is rather working around the clock to restore the country's lost glory.Since coming to power in November 2017, Mnangagwa has travelled over 25 trips.He has been to countries such as Russia, Rwanda, Belarus, Guinea, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Switzerland, Angola, Zambia, Namibia, Ethiopia, Botswana, Mozambique, Mauritania, Tanzania, Botswana, the United States, the Democratic Republic of Congo and China, among others.His office has been chartering the Comlux Boeing 767-200ER (Boeing Business Jet or BBJ), which charges in the region of US$50 000 per hour in flight time. On average, the trips are about five hours per leg for his foreign trips on these large VIP jets.Charter companies, which the first lady is now also using, charge for flights on an hourly basis, based on what they call Total Time, which is basically the period during which an aeroplane flies with actual passengers other than just the crew.Nonetheless, his immoderate expenditure, including his wife's now, is ironic given his government's austerity mantra.While the rest of Mnangagwa's Cabinet use commercial flights, government now has to grapple with the new cost of the first lady's travel that now attracts competitive charter rates.
News / National

by Mandla Ndlovu

Vice President Retired General Constantino Chiwenga is set to appoint General Sibusiso Busi Moyo and Econet Boss Strive Masiyiwa as his two Vice Presidents in 2020 a ZANU PF source from Mashonaland East has alleged.The revelations come barely a month after there were reports that Chiwenga told China he will assume the Presidency in 2020."I can confirm that Number 2 is the incoming President and the plan is for him to get in power in 2020 as was agreed with Number 1 when the military intervention was implemented," The source said."What you must understand is that in the hierarchy of Dare re Chimurenga Number 2 is the next remaining highest leader in the country. So the plan that was made was to have Number 1 become a temporary President for two reasons. The first one was that after the military intervention there was a need for a civilian President in between Gushungo and the Incoming President."The second reason was that we were moving from a Zezuru President so there was also a need for a different ethnic group to be at the helm of the Party and country. When Number takes over we are likely going to see decorated ZIPRA cadre Rtd General Sibusiso Busi Moyo being appointed as a capable Vice President from Matabeleland and there are talks to rope in respected businessman Strive Masiyiwa to become co-Vice President. The aim is to have a balanced Presidency of technocrats and revolutionary luminaries."Recently there were online reports that a special delegation of senior military officials reportedly told Chinese Generals that President Emmerson Mnangagwa was an interim caretaker president political reign end in 2020.The source was not drawn to disclose how Chiwenga will assume Presidency when Mnangagwa's supporters have already endorsed Mnangagwa for 2023 elections."I am not at liberty to say how everything will be done but what I can say is that the elders in charge of the party will make it happen in their own way."The plan to catapult Chiwenga is alleged being planned by a Zezuru clique which is reported to be controlling ZANU PF since the days of the liberation struggle.In January 2017 Presidential Spokesperson George Charamba revealed that there is a clique that runs things behind the scenes when he was warning Prof. Jonathan Moyo not to dabble in succession politics."Chine vene vacho chinhu ichi (this country belongs to certain people) and you won't be there when great questions of the day are settled mumatare avo (in their courts)!"Charamba said then.
Opinion / Columnist

As Rwanda commemorates the 25th anniversary of the 1994 genocide by Hutu extremists against largely the majority Tutsi and Hutu moderates, one can not help but wonder whatever happened to the World War II determination to stop future atrocities - by any means necessary - before they get out of hand.What happened to that spirit that had emanated from the horrors of fascism and Nazism- that the world would never again tolerate tyrants and anyone who seeks to subjugate and terrorise other groups of people?As we watch the happenings in the world today, it is more than clear that that generation of strong leaders has since disappeared, leaving us with nothing but spineless self-serving weaklings - who would rather look aside, whilst atrocities take place, in the name of protecting business and strategic relations.Where was the international community when nearly a million innocent and unarmed people were being mercilessly butchered by hard-line Hutus in Rwanda in 1994?Yet, during that same year, those same leaders, who were supposed to be united against brutality and tyranny, fell over each other lauding South African hero Nelson Mandela for his fearless fight against apartheid.Was that not the highest form of brazen hypocrisy?As much as the international community shed some crocodile tears for its inaction against the Rwanda genocide, more atrocities have since been witnessed throughout the world.There were atrocities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Republic of Congo, Central African Republic (CAR), South Sudan, Myanmar, Syria, and of late in Libya - to name just a few examples.As I write this article, the Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar's militia are freely moving towards the capital Tripoli to confront the UN-backed government - whilst, the world meekly looks on without lifting a finger.The United Nations chief Antonio Gueterres was in the country whilst Haftar was sending his troops - and even had a meeting with him - yet, when the UN secretary general was told point blank by the warlord that he was pushing ahead with his attack, he could do nothing except go back home!Just as with the Rwandan genocide, what these world leaders are waiting for is the end of the bloodbath, then issue some pathetic statements of regret.But, where are they now when a bloodbath is clearly imminent in Libya?They are at the same place where they were in 1994 during the Rwanda genocide - the spectator stand!In Myanmar, similarly, thousands of Rohingya have been murdered by the military - not in just one genocide, but two.Between 9 October 2016 and January 2017 over a thousand Rohingya were killed; and then from 28 August 2017 over 10,000 were massacred by the military.Even the Myanmar regime knew the world leaders' weakness such that they dared conduct a second wave of genocide in the same year - this time insuring more ruthlessness.As predicted, the international community folded its arms, accompanied by the usual lame condemnation.Where world have provided a facade of action, such as in the CAR and DRC, the response has been nothing more than lackluster - with even some accusations of the so-called international peacekeepers being complicit in the atrocities.In South Sudan, thousands have been butchered in another senseless civil war, but all we have heard have been one useless 'peace agreement ' after another useless 'peace agreement'.The world is more than satisfied to act as cheerleaders, whilst witnessing the signing of what they clearly know is yet another ill-fated peace agreement.If the international community can be so lethargic in the face of grave atrocities, what then are we to expect from 'smaller' dictators who trample upon their citizens' human rights - and occasionally kill a score or two innocent people?Obviously nothing!What is Nicholas Maduro doing in Venezuela?And he is by far not the only one!If the massacring of thousands upon thousands of innocent women, children and men is meaningless to the international community, then what is the shooting of twenty or so unarmed protestors?The likes of Saudi Arabia can murder opponents willy-nilly, including the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in its own consulate in Turkey, knowing fully well that no one will do anything.Turkey itself can jail thousands of people, including journalists, on frivolous charges of attempting a coup, and get away with it.So many other despots have become lions in their own countries, ruthlessly devouring their fellow citizens with impunity - as the world watches.Does the United Nations serve any purpose at all?Are we not back to the appeasement days of the pre-World War II - whereby, the world chose to allow German Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler to do whatever he felt like doing?The world has now become a more dangerous place, as a result of this appeasement - as tyrants know that they can literally get away with murder.It has become so tempting for any leader to resort to brute force, and killing of perceived opponents in order to consolidate their hold on power.The world needs the spirit of those great leaders of old - who would not tolerate any form of oppression - to return!We need the world to return to those days whereby every little dictator knows that they are being watched, and any wrong move will be punished.Not by useless sanctions, empty condemnation, or the sponsoring of self-serving opposition parties - but, by concrete action!There should never be any special considerations, like business deals or strategic alliances - any violations of human rights should be met by real and concrete consequences.-----Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice activist, writer, author, and speaker. He can be contacted on zimjustice@gmail.com
Opinion / Letters

The Bulawayo Provincial Executive.Dated 05/04/2019Ref: Handing over the baton to new blood in Bulawayo Province.Att.The chairperson.I write this article full of happiness and pride that since 2005 until to date I have been either deputy or substantive Secretary for Information and Publicity of our revolutionary movement in Bulawayo. After serious consideration, I have resolved not to stand for any provincial party post in the forthcoming Congress this year.I honestly believe that in all these years I have performed to the best of my ability as the party spokesperson for Bulawayo province.As you know through my last communique to you I'm vying for a national post. If nominated I would be contesting to satisfy the democratic processes as espoused by our constitution. Whether I'm nominated or not I will remain a bona fide member of the party and a servant of the people.After the Congress, I Will dedicate my time and energy in marketing the elected President for both the Congress and 2023 national plebiscite. My only motivation is to see a victorious MDC come 2023.Technically, I'm still holding on to my provincial party post until the dissolution of the current executive.This article is intended to assist you the esteemed provincial assembly to find a suitable replacement for me in the provincial structures. It is therefore prudent for me to salute all of you whom I have worked closely with in my challenging role as the party spokesperson. I defended the party principles and its leadership without fear and favour.Last but not least, I would like to thank and acknowledge the media fraternity both national and international. Particularly I would like to mention Daily News, NewsDay, Zoom News, ZimEye and Bulawayo24 on the local front. On the international front I would like to appreciate Studio 7,BBC , CNN and Sky News for articulating our cause as MDC frankly and honestly without bias. These media houses have helped us as a movement to articulate our views and enabled us to expose counter-revolutionary gangsters masquerading as political formations or parties. They also helped us to articulate our views to the outside world.I remain grateful and humbled by the support you rendered to me during my tenure as the party's spokesperson for Bulawayo province.Yours sincerely*Felix Magalela Mafa Sibanda*(Bulawayo MDC Out going provincial Spokesperson)*Dated 05/04/2019*
- T. S. Eliot

Thoughts After Lambeth

"The World is trying the experiment of attempting to form a civilized but non-Christian mentality. The experiment will fail; but we must be very patient in awaiting its collapse; meanwhile redeeming the time: so that the Faith may be preserved alive through the dark ages before us; to renew and rebuild civilization, and save the World from suicide."
Roy Choi's Climb in the Culinary World: Lessons to Take From the Chef

How Chef Roy Choi Rebounded From Rock Bottom (and What You Can Learn From It)

Roy Choi has hit rock bottom a couple of times. Known as one of the founders of the food truck movement, the chef has become a culinary icon, but it took him a long time to get to the top.

I always use the George Clooney example: You may get your ER at 40, and then the next 20 years, youre the sexiest man in the world, the 49-year-old chef tells AskMen. Sometimes, st happens that way.

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Choi has always had a tough time fitting into conventional do-as-youre-told society, and it wasnt until he moved from traditional kitchens into food trucks that he found success. He breathed fire into a burnt-out concept, delivering creative flavors on wheels and revolutionizing fast food with his Korean taco truck Kogi. That brought him national acclaim and sparked a movement that many other chefs would follow.

From alcohol to gambling addiction, there were a lot of detours along his path to success. Now, the man who has been on the Time 100 list of most influential people twice (2011 and 2016) is a model that success can be found at any age, at any odds.

We were on-hand for the introduction of his restaurant Best Friend at the newly renovated Park MGM in Las Vegas, where celebrities including Katy Perry joined for the opening. We caught up with him to learn about his journey to get some lessons on how to rebound from rock bottom.

1. Clarity Can Come When You Least Expect It

Born in South Korea in 1970, Chois family moved to Los Angeles in 1972. It was challenging enough being a South Korean trying to fit in posh Orange County, but things got worse in his teens. His creative personality just didnt quite fit into the traditional go to school/get a job/work 9-to-5 box. The more that this path felt wrong to him, the more he searched for things to make him feel right.

It was really difficult. I went through a lot of drugs and gambling all the way into my mid-twenties, says Choi. I could never express myself in the traditional forms and it sent me spiraling into anxiety, depression, and addiction because I had to abandon my creative feelings and go and get a traditional job, try to go to school.

The gambling addiction led Choi into a five-year spiral where at the bottom, he lost friends, slept in motels, and was drinking every day. It wasnt until he just happened to be lounging on a couch one day when Emeril Lagasses cooking show came on the TV that Choi had an epiphany.

At my lowest point, I found cooking. I was watching TV and saw the Emeril show and it spoke to me. I went out and started researching the culinary world and chefs that I knew nothing about. Then I moved to New York and went to culinary school, and everything just fit like a glove. Its been on ever since.

2. Patience Counts as Much as Passion

Of course, theres that famous saying fall down seven times, get up eight. Its often easier said than done with a lot of these motivational quotes and thats how it was for Choi.

After he broke out of the gambling addiction, he got on track, went to cooking school, and eventually earned a good job. However, at the height of the recession in 2008, Choi lost his job and was again knocked backed down. It wasnt until a random phone call sparked the idea to start a food truck and sell tacos around the city that changed everything for him again.

I guess the moral of the story is sometimes, it takes 30 years to get there, but it doesnt mean you cant get there, says Choi. Sometimes people are lucky, and they get there at 16 or 17. But sometimes you get there at 36 or 38, and it opens up a whole new world.

3. Learn to Value Yourself

When it comes to your relationship with yourself, you can either be your own friend or your own enemy. The challenge is that when were struggling in life, its easy to be more of the latter and beat ourselves up for not being where we think we should be. That pattern only pulls you deeper.

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If youre constantly telling yourself, I cant afford this, I dont deserve that, life sucks, and youre only eating stty food and drinking the cheapest coffee, you are not valuing yourself, he says. Go out one day and treat yourself. Go out and have the best sushi you can find, or go to the best barista in your city and have just a cup of cappuccino, and tell yourself that you deserve this. I think that is very empowering. [T]hose little raindrops will start to fill the bucket to make you whole again.

4. Let Others in to Help

I think that a lot of times, we all want to help each other and be a part of each others lives. Its just we dont allow ourselves into each others lives, he says.

Thats even more the case when were down in the dumps. We may close ourselves off from the outside world and thats when things can spiral in the wrong direction as we try to sort things out ourselves. Choi recommends opening yourself up  even if it doesnt feel comfortable.

Allowing someone into your life doesnt mean you have to allow them fully in. Even little moments are important, Choi points out. I think back to Kogi street food on the street. Those were those little moments where someone would be standing in line and say to someone else, Hey, I read that book too, and then that opens up a small conversation. All of the sudden, youve shared a moment with someone. The more of those moments we have, the universe creates a better pathway for all of us.

Those brief bonding experiences can help you heal when youre at your low, and start getting you back to feeling better about yourself.

5. The Path to Success Isnt Always a Straight One

Many are taught to follow a linear life path: Go to college, graduate, get a job, get a better job, repeat until its time to retire. Choi paved a very different path for himself and now encourages others to question and resist rigid models of living.

Were in that structural hierarchy where were climbing the ladder, and everything is supposed to lead to the next thing, he says. We dont prepare ourselves for the fact that sometimes you have to go through some st and you may get a miracle when you least expect it  way down the line. We never encourage or support each other that that may happen.

We have to break this mold that if you dont succeed by 23 or 24, or if you dont do these specific things by a certain time, that everything else in your life is just worthless, he insists. Thats a really small pool to dive into from the top of a building.

6. Big Changes Can Begin Quietly

The idea of shifting gears and making huge life changes can be daunting, and as a result, many people remain stuck in careers and lifestyles that dont suit them. Choi relates, and now recommends starting small, with a receptive mindset.

I dont think its that easy to just abandon your life because you have to pay bills, but it shouldnt be the only thing that your life is beholden to, he says. Even if you are that square trying to fit in the round hole, then along the way, my advice is that you just continue to keep your sensors open and listen. Things might happen. Even if you dont know what it is, to just always to be open to whatever is coming your way. If its a phone call that says, Lets go sell tacos on the street, then its a phone call that might shift everything in your life. It happened to me.

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By Fergal Smith TORONTO (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar strengthened against its U.S. counterpart on Monday, performing better than most other G10 currencies as oil prices climbed to their highest this year and domestic data showed a 15.8% jump in March housing starts. The price of oil, one of Canada's major exports, rose to a five-month high on expectations of tightening global supplies. U.S. crude oil futures settled 2.1 percent higher at $64.40 a barrel. "For today it is very much an oil story," said Eric Theoret, a currency strategist at Scotiabank. "When you have got oil prices hitting fresh 2019 highs it is important from a terms of trade perspective." Rising export prices can help boost a country's terms of trade, making its economy wealthier. Canadian housing starts climbed in March to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 192,527 units after slowing to a revised 166,290 units in February. At 3:14 p.m. (1914 GMT), the Canadian dollar was trading 0.6% higher at 1.3312 to the greenback, or 75.12 U.S. cents. Among G10 currencies, only the Norwegian krone, which is also linked to the price of oil, performed better. The loonie, which touched on Friday a one-week low at 1.3403, traded in a range of 1.3305 to 1.3386. Gains for the loonie came as the U.S. dollar lost ground against a basket of major currencies. Investors squared positions before a European Central Bank meeting this week, boosting the euro. Data on Friday from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Reuters calculations showed that speculators have raised their bearish bets on the Canadian dollar. As of April 2, net short positions had increased to 44,323 contracts from 39,571 in the prior week. 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. Canadian government bond prices were lower across a steeper yield curve, with the two-year down 3.5 Canadian cents to yield 1.611% and the 10-year falling 25 Canadian cents to yield 1.729%. The 10-year yield touched its highest intraday since March 20 at 1.732%. (Reporting by Fergal Smith; Editing by David Gregorio and Marguerita Choy)
(Reuters) - Italian-U.S. carmaker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCA) has agreed to pay electric carmaker Tesla Inc hundreds of millions of euros to allow Tesla vehicles to be counted in its fleet to avoid fines for violating new European Union emission rules. The step will let the Italian carmaker offset carbon dioxide emissions from its cars against Tesla's, bringing down its average emissions of the greenhouse gas to a permissible level, according to the Financial Times, which was first to report the agreement. The report did not mention exactly how much Fiat Chrysler has agreed to pay Tesla. Tesla did not respond to requests for comment on Sunday. Tesla has made over $1 billion in the last three years by selling emissions credits in the United States, according to its annual report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Regulations allow a manufacturer of zero-emission vehicles to earn credits and sell excess credits to other manufacturers. The credits in the past have buoyed the Palo Alto, California company's earnings, allowing it to post quarterly profits when otherwise it would have posted a loss. Tesla recently began delivering its new Model 3 to international markets in China and Europe. However, the company's deliveries fell in the first quarter as it struggled with these shipments due to longer transit times. FCA formed an open pool with Tesla on Feb. 25, the FT said, citing a declaration with the European Commission. In a statement, Fiat Chrysler did not directly address the amount that it would pay but added it would "optimize the options for compliance that the regulations offer." "FCA is committed to reducing the emissions of all our products...The purchase pool provides flexibility to deliver products our customers are willing to buy while managing compliance with the lowest cost approach," FCA added in its statement. (Reporting by Stephanie Kelly in New York and Kanishka Singh and Mekhla Raina in Bengaluru; Editing by Jacqueline Wong, Mark Heinrich and Lisa Shumaker)
For 22 years, Anthony Harris has been fighting two battles: one against his badly damaged body and another against the federal government.

He will never recover from his spinal cord injury or his near constant pain, but he's won a victory against the Canada Pension Plan and has finally got what he's owed.

"It was a real shock I tell ya," said Harris, 60. "I was in a grocery store and I got a phone call. I couldn't believe she actually said I'd been accepted to Canada pension disability."

CPP offers disability benefits in the form of a monthly payment to people who are disabled and cannot work, and have made enough contributions to CPP.

The 1996 accident that changed everything

Harris paid into the plan for 19 years while he worked for his father's painting company in Berwick, N.S. He spent his days scrambling over scaffolding painting houses, then on Aug. 10, 1996, a car crash changed all that.

Now, Harris can hardly walk.

After an early morning stop at a burger joint in New Minas, N.S., Harris and a friend were driving down Highway 101 when a car slammed head-on into them. Harris's car spun around and flipped onto its side in a ditch.

"We had to push the door open and climb up like on a ladder to get out of the car," said Harris.

"I had a contused spinal cord. That's one of my injuries, but then there's other ongoing injuries in my neck."

David Burke/CBC

The day after the crash, Harris returned to work, using the walls of buildings to support himself as he moved. Harris could barely lift his legs to walk, let alone climb scaffolding.

His working life was over, but his struggle to survive was just beginning.

"It was an empty feeling to tell you the truth, because I was used to going to work with my dad every day," said Harris. "Everything just seemed to come to a halt, I wasn't able to do my daily functions anymore, my work or even to go party with my friends anymore.

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"It was very depressing."

'It was a nightmare'

On top of his health problems, Harris hardly had any money to live on. Since he could no longer work, he lived off a combination of income assistance and money awarded to him by his insurance company after the car crash.

Harris lives in a house in Berwick owned by his brother because he couldn't afford a place on his own.

"It was a nightmare, it really was," he said. "Some months I wondered if I was going to make it, make my bills, right. I had other things to do like buy food."

A few months after the crash, Harris applied for CPP disability, thinking his injuries and the years he paid into the program would allow him to get the benefit.

Harris's application was turned down because CPP said he didn't have a severe and prolonged disability.

David Burke/CBC

Harris requested the decision be reconsidered. That was turned down as well, so he appealed.

In 1999, a review tribunal was going to hear the case, but Harris's lawyer at the time decided to withdraw the appeal.

Despite that withdrawal, the review tribunal held the hearing without Harris or his lawyer present. Representatives for CPP were there though, and the tribunal decided there was not sufficient evidence Harris had a severe and prolonged disability, and denied him the disability benefit.

That was a legal mistake that wouldn't be noticed until 18 years later.

Harris applied for CPP disability payments in 2002 and 2011. He was denied both times.

Things started to turn around in April 2017 when Harris asked David Daniels for help. He's a lawyer who volunteers at the legal aid office in Kentville, N.S.

'It was wrong'

Daniels said the hearing before the review tribunal in 1999 should never have gone ahead.

"When you withdraw an appeal, the body hearing the appeal sort of loses their ability to move forward, loses jurisdiction, why they came to that conclusion that they could move forward," he said.

"I don't know. It was wrong."

Daniels took the case to Federal Court, which then sent him to the appeal division of the Social Security Tribunal of Canada, an independent body that makes decisions on CPP, among other things.

'There was an injustice'

They agreed Harris was disabled and entitled to the CPP disability payments.

"I suspect that they just realized that there was an injustice that occurred in the late 1990s when the review tribunal moved forward with the hearing without Tony or his lawyer being present," said Daniels. "That was unfair to say the least,"

A few weeks ago, Harris received $65,000 from the CPP disability plan, to make up for decades of missed payments.

But that payment didn't make Harris a rich man.

'It's a lot easier for me now'

He had to pay the majority of that money to the province's income assistance program, to help pay back the money he'd received from the system. In the end, only $28,000 found its way into his bank account.

It still makes a world of difference to him though.

"It's a lot easier for me, now I have my bills paid off and I still got a small bank account," he said, "I can pay my light bill and my cable bill and when they come in, I don't have to wait to pay it."

David Burke/CBC

Harris will continue to get the CPP disability payment until he turns 65 and then the disability payment will transform into a regular CPP payment.

Daniels said it's important for people to realize that Nova Scotia Legal Aid can offer people help when they're being treated unfairly by programs like CPP and income assistance. He said people should come to them for help as soon as they run into trouble.

Harris said he always knew things would work out.

"I just knew there was a bright and shiny day that this would all come to a close and I would have what I was aiming to get with my Canada disability in the end," he said.

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Provincial police are warning about a resurgence in the production and use of meth in Ontario as officers raided a lab at a rural residence over the weekend.

"Steadily since 2010, our number of seizures of methamphetamine for the OPP have been climbing," said Det. Insp. Jim Walker, deputy director of the OPP's organized crime enforcement bureau.

"The trends are indicating that it's here, and it's back in Ontario. It's concerning because of how addictive it is and how people react when they're taking that substance," he explained.

Walker spoke to CBC Toronto from a property in Eldorado, Ont., on Sunday. The rural community is about 50 kilometres north of Belleville, Ont, up Highway 62.

Adrian Cheung/CBC

Provincial police recently discovered a large-scale meth lab operating out of a house in the area. On Saturday, officers executed a warrant at the house. They simultaneously arrested three people in the Greater Toronto Area.

Accompanied by Health Canada chemists, police spent the day removing potentially dangerous chemicals and chemical waste from the home. Officers were outfitted in hazmat suits and self-contained breathing apparatuses.

"There is a lot of dangerous chemicals," Walker explained. "There are a lot of dangerous gases that are byproducts of that cooking process."

Adrian Cheung/CBC

According to Walker, meth labs are generally classified as either "addiction-based" or "economic-based." The former is generally less dangerous, and usually involves mixing chemicals together in a soda bottle.

The lab in Eldorado falls into the latter category, Walker said.

"They're making it here in a larger quantity solely for profit."

A garage on the property was being used to store bulk chemicals in metal and plastic drums.

The office of the Ontario Fire Marshal and paramedics were also on scene to assist police, as well as representatives from the ministry of environment.

"For every pound of finished product, depending on what substance they are making, it can be as much as six pounds of toxic waste produced and they usually like to get rid of that away from the property," Walker said.

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Adrian Cheung/CBC

"What we've seen in recent investigations, primarily with meth labs, are indications that individuals who are cooking are dumping toxic waste in the surrounding communities."

Police in the OPP's central region, based just north of the GTA, have found as many as a dozen chemical dump sites from nearby meth labs in recent months.

"I'm talking hundreds of pounds worth of toxic waste just dumped on side roads," Walker said.

Submitted by OPP

The problem doesn't show any signs of abating, he added. Police in the Prairies have been dealing with a meth epidemic for a number of years, and there are signs that it could be moving east.

"We've never seen meth as cheap as it is now," Walker explained.

And it's hardly a rural issue. Labs have been found in all sorts of places, including in downtown Toronto apartments and industrial complexes.
It's a long way from the killing fields of Kandahar to the laneways of Lviv, Ukraine  but for Lt.-Col. Pierre Leroux, the newer conflict carries some echoes of the older one.

When Leroux arrived in Afghanistan in the fall of 2010, the Canadian army was helping to train Afghan forces to fight in the middle of a shooting war with the insurgent Taliban.

In 2019, Leroux leads the Canadian task force training Ukrainian soldiers to fight an equally deadly, hot-and-cold conventional war with Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine's eastern regions.

There are important differences between the two wars  for starters, Canadians were on the frontlines in Kandahar and are not in Lviv  but in both conflicts Leroux arrived on the scene at a watershed moment, just as the war was about to evolve into something different.

His tour of Afghanistan as a company commander in the 1st Battalion Royal 22e Regiment came just after an American military surge had tamed the wildly dangerous Kandahar province, giving the Canadians an opening to finally help establish some semblance of governance.

Mykola Lazarenko/The Associated Press

Ukraine is on the cusp of a transformation of its own, with the possible election of a new president whose opaque platform has some international analysts worried that he is pro-Russian.

A runoff election in a few weeks will decide whether Volodymyr Zelensky unseats Petro Poroshenko, whose pro-Western outlook and dogged military campaign in two restive districts (known as 'oblasts') has worn thin with ordinary Ukrainian voters.

The Liberal government recently renewed Canada's military commitment of 200 training soldiers in western Ukraine until 2022.

Leroux said there's no shortage of work for them to do.

"There are so many things that we can improve," Leroux told the CBC in a telephone interview from the military training centre in Yavoriv, near Lviv. "It's pretty incredible. There's still a lot of doors open."

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Canadian troops first deployed to help train Ukrainian army units in advanced combat skills  including the detection and defusing of roadside bombs and booby traps, which presented a major problem in the early stages of the conflict.

Leroux said the Ukrainians have advanced to the point where they can train their own bomb disposal troops. The Canadians are now helping them with what's known as 'sapper' training: breaching fortifications, demolition and bridge-building under fire. They're also providing advanced courses to train snipers.

One of Canada's biggest contributions, however, has been in the field of advanced combat medical training.

When the Canadians arrived in September 2015, Ukrainian soldiers were only being given short, basic combat medic training by U.S. troops. In Canadian hands, that training has been expanded into a three-month course that delivers advanced life-saving skills.

A better chance of survival

It's important knowledge, given the Ukranian army's high attrition rate, Leroux said. Knowing the wounded have a better chance of survival has boosted the confidence levels of frontline troops.

Leroux said the politics of Ukraine is far removed from the work he and his troops are doing, but he's convinced the work has value.

"So I see this mission can keep on going for a while," he said.

The commander of HMCS Toronto, which is currently cruising the Black Sea off Ukraine and taking part in exercises with other NATO warships, expressed similar optimism in a ship-to-shore interview on Friday.

Commander Martin Fluet said that  unlike previous patrols, when his frigate and other allied ships faced low-flying Russian warplanes buzzing them  this latest foray into the region has been quiet.

Shadowed by the Russians

According to reports published in Moscow, two Russian warships  one of them an intelligence-gathering vessel  are shadowing the NATO task force.

Fluet confirmed those reports, but said it's all part of the routine.

"It is a very standoff approach, where they are following from a distance," he said. "There was nothing hostile directed towards us."

The U.S. has proposed sending even more ships into the Black Sea and stepped-up port visits along the coast in eastern Europe  partly in response to the capture of small Ukrainian naval vessels by the Russians in the disputed Kerch Strait last November.

After a meeting with alliance foreign ministers in Washington this week, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said he hopes allies "agree on new measures to improve our knowledge of the situation in the [Black Sea] region."

That's a signal that rotating naval deployments  which include Canadian ships  will also continue for some time to come.
EXCLUSIVE: Jack Reacher author Lee Child has teamed up with Fremantle-backed producer Dancing Ledge Productions to develop a Black Mirror-meets-Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri true crime anthology drama series.

Child has partnered with Dancing Ledge, which has worked on series including Netflixs Delhi Crime and HBO co-pro The New Pope, on Lee Child: True Crime, a series that dramatizes the stories of real-life men and women from around the world who have been driven to stand up and put their lives on the line, fighting for justice in the face of great danger.

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Laurence Bowen told Deadline that the project originated when he had just seen Martin McDonaghs Frances McDormand-fronted dark comedy, which itself was inspired by a real-life crime in Texas. He added that they wanted to find real-life Jack Reachers.

I had the idea of doing a true crime Black Mirror, a series where each episode is going to be connected by a strong brand, mood and tone. All of the episodes will end with a great sense of hope and redemption. A lot of true crime drama tends to be about the famous and infamous and thats great but Lee and I were fascinated by ordinary people, the people that dont get written about. If we can find them, theres something so interesting about those people who have been forced to find something inside themselves, theres nothing quite like that, he added.

Dancing Ledge, which is 25% owned by American Gods producer Fremantle, has put together a research team to comb through real-life crime stories from the U.S., Canada, El Salvador and Thailand and is now on the hunt for a showrunner to guide the project before taking it out to broadcasters in the U.S. and around the world.

Bowen said that anthology series are coming back in fashion, with the likes of Jordan Peeles The Twilight Zone, as people like to graze. The idea of tapping into what Lee Childs represents to a global audience is really interesting. Were taking him as a brand rather than simply adapting something he wrote, he added.

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Bowen said that he pitched the idea of the series to Child on a bench outside of the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival.

Childs Jack Reacher series has been published in over 100 territories and a Reacher book is sold globally every nine seconds with the stories being adapted into a Tom Cruise fronted franchise.

He appeals to such a cross section of people; hes got the mass market but also has the respect of the cross section of other writers, Bowen added.

In fact, Child actually started his career at Granada, which was part of UK broadcaster ITV, and was involved in series including Brideshead Revisited, Prime Suspect and Cracker. He was unexpectedly made redundant by Granada in 1995, which lead to the first Jack Reacher novel.

Child said, We all read thrillers and watch movies where an average person goes to extraordinary lengths, to defend family or tribe, or to seek justice. It turns out that reality goes even further  we have some amazing stories to tell, some of them barely believable, but theyre all true.

Child is repped by APA and the Darley Anderson Literary Agency.

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The leader of the Canadian Presbyterian churches has the responsibilities of being moderator, serving a local congregation, and travelling the country. Amanda Currie will be doing all of that from her home in Saskatchewan.

Currie said she has mixed feelings about it, with excitement and challenges ahead.

"A funny example is a member of my congregation who gave me two cards when she heard the news. One said congratulations. And the other one said in sympathy and just a reflection of knowing it will be a challenging year ahead," Currie told CBC's Saskatchewan Weekend.

The moderator's role includes overseeing the General Assembly national meeting in early June. They discuss topics like new congregations, mission work, and helping struggling congregations.

"After that, the year is full of travel, of visiting with congregations across the country and missions," she said. "And attending lots of other meetings in between."

During her leadership year, Currie will still be leading her own congregation in Regina at the First Presbyterian Church on Albert Street and 14th Avenue.

Heidi Atter/CBC

There are a number of issues Currie hopes to address this year, including inclusion of the LGBTQ community and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.

"We have a challenge in terms of our unity," she said.

"One of the issues for our national church over the last few years has been related to the full inclusion of LGBTQ community in our churches and we have a very broad diversity of perspective on that kind of issue," she said.

She said she wants to continue addressing the different perspectives.

"Making space for fuller inclusion as well as making space for those with a traditional perspective without pushing anyone out," she said.

Heidi Atter/CBC

On the topic of reconciliation, Currie has committed her own congregation to be more open, she said. She's had Blair Stonechild come to the church in the past to discuss Indigenous spirituality.

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"Living in Saskatchewan, my neighbours are Indigenous people," she said. "I've come to know many people over the years."

Currie said there's the Saskatoon Native Circle Ministry, which is run by an Indigenous man and serves a congregation at Mistawasis First Nation, and she's been involved with other Indigenous people in the past.

"I've developed relationships and friendships," she said. "I've heard their stories."

Currie has been told stories of children being taken away from their homes and said she recognizes the church was a part of that history.

"And I know people in the church who worked in those residential schools, and did so with open loving hearts and feeling like they were doing something good and now can look back and say 'No, we were stealing culture. We were stealing spirituality. We were taking away language,'" she said.

Currie said they have a responsibility with the federal government, Canadian people, and other churches to continue toward reconciliation.

"A big part of that is hearing the stories, walking with  not thinking that we can direct  the direction," she said. Currie doesn't want them to repeat the mistakes of the past with paternalistic thinking of knowing better.

Heidi Atter/CBC

Another one of Currie's commitments is interfaith dialogue. One reason is personal  her marriage.

While Currie is a Presbyterian minister, her husband is a Roman Catholic theologian. Currie and Nicholas Jesson have been married for almost 18 years. Jesson will attend Currie's church and she goes to worship at his.

"Those differences can be something that enriches our lives together," she said. "We have differences and we do our separate things  and sort of respect our differences."

Listen to Amanda Currie's interview on CBC's Saskatchewan Weekend:

Together, they work to show how people can co-operate with those who have different faith traditions, she said.

"I have a strong faith that people with differences can grow in unity together and that doesn't mean that we become the same as each other."

She hopes to encourage others to build connections with those who are different than them.

"We can build those connections and we can live together with difference."
ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which head an Arab coalition fighting Iran-aligned Houthi forces in Yemen, will provide $200 million in aid to the country for use during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the UAE said on Monday. The Saudis and Emiratis are working with humanitarian groups to distribute the aid within areas controlled by both sides in the four-year conflict, UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation Reem al-Hashimy told reporters in Abu Dhabi. The aid is part of a $500 million joint food aid program announced in November. The UAE plays a leading role in Yemen's conflict as part of a Saudi-led military coalition that intervened in 2015 against the Houthi movement to restore the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. The UAE donated $5.41 billion between April 2015 and December 2018 to support emergency food aid, energy supply, and health services, according to ministry statistics. Among international organizations, the biggest beneficiary was the U.N. World Food Program (WFP), which received $287 million in aid from the UAE. During the month of Ramadan, which this year begins in early May, devout Muslims fast during daylight hours. Yemen's war has killed tens of thousands of people - some of them from coalition air strikes - and driven 10 million to the brink of famine. The Arabian Peninsula country is also suffering its third major outbreak of cholera since the conflict began. In December, the warring parties reached a deal at U.N.-led peace talks for a ceasefire and troop withdrawal from the Red Sea port of Hodeidah, Yemen's lifeline for fuel and food. The truce has largely held but the withdrawal has stalled due to mistrust among the parties, calling into question the U.N. goal of further talks to agree a framework for political negotiations to end the war. Violence and displacement also continue in other parts of Yemen not subject to the ceasefire. On Sunday the Houthi news outlet Masirah reported from the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa that 11 people, including five students, were killed in a coalition air strike on a school and nearby houses. On Monday, the European Union's humanitarian service reported an air strike on a "hangar" in Sanaa that damaged civilian houses and a neighboring school. The spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition denied reports that its forces had targeted residential areas in Sanaa. Reuters was unable to independently confirm the attack or casualties. U.N. Yemen aid coordinator Lise Grande called for efforts to pinpoint the circumstances "that led to this tragedy". "Incidents of this kind undermine any positive steps taken toward reaching a political resolution for Yemen and must stop immediately," said Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council aid organization. (Reporting by Aziz El Yaakoubi in Abu Dhabi and Tom Miles in Geneva; Writing by Nafisa Eltahir and Lisa Barrington; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Ending violence against women starts with changing the culture of abuse, and an Inuit women's group has launched a novel approach to making that change with its search for role models for a new campaign.

The Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada are on the search for an Inuk to be a role model for others in their community. The group's violence and prevention department announced its national role model campaign on March 22 as part of its Pilimmaksarniq project.

"It's a three-year project that we're doing, dedicated to engaging men and boys and ending violence against women and girls," said Rebecca Kudloo, president of the Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada.

It's an important issue for Inuit communities in Canada. Indigenous women and girls experience violence at a much higher rate than that of other women in Canada, and many communities in remote and northern areas of the country lack shelters and victim services.

In 2017, the Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada received $900,000 in funding from the federal government for the Pilimmaksarniq project. Now they're encouraging people to nominate Inuit who demonstrate healthy relationships, gender equality and violence-free living, the group said in a release.

"I know there are men that are very supportive of ending violence in their communities," Kudloo said.

The goal is to find a role model to make the star of a campaign to end violence against women in the Inuit communities of Canada.

Tania Budgell

"We will be showing videos and photos of the role models until the end of 2019," she said.

"Right now thorough videos on Facebook and Twitter we're trying to reach as many people as possible."

The nomination process for role models is ongoing until April 14.

Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador
The animal residents of Kruger National Park in South Africa reportedly meted out their own kind of justice.

According to BBC, a suspected rhino poacher died at the park after allegedly being trampled on by an elephant and then eaten by lions.

A group of men looking to hunt rhinos entered the park on April 1, Police brigadier Leonard Hlathi told the The Guardian. One of these men was allegedly trampled to death by an elephant that suddenly attacked the group.

His accomplices claimed to have carried his body to the road so that passersby could find it in the morning, Hlathi added. They then vanished from the park.

After leaving the park, the group reportedly called the family of the deceased man to tell them what happened, according to a statement from Kruger National Park.

RELATED:Nearly 90 Elephants Killed by Poachers at the Borders of Botswana Wildlife Sanctuary

The family then called Skukuza Regional Ranger, Don English who, after assuring the family that he would do everything possible to recover the remains and bring them closure, arranged a search party, the statement continues. Rangers on foot, accompanied by members of the Kruger National Park Airwing flew over the area that was described by the family but due to failing light, could not locate the body.

According to CBS News, after the first search turned up nothing, rangers found a human skull and a tattered pair of pants, both of which they believe belonged to the suspected poacher, on Thursday.

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, the park service wrote in their statement.

As for the rest of the suspected poaching group, three men aged between 26 and 35 have been arrested in connection with the incident, according to the South African Police Service (SAPS).

RELATED:Pride of Lions Reportedly Attacks, Eats Rhino Poachers Trespassing on South African Reserve

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The trio appeared in court on Friday facing charges of possession of firearms and ammunition without a license, conspiracy to poach as well as trespassing, SAPS said in a statement.

The three men were remanded in custody and will appear in court again on April 12, pending a formal bail application.

Kruger National Park hopes this incident shows everyone the dangers that can accompany poaching and entering the park illegally for any reason.

Entering Kruger National Park illegally and on foot is not wise, it holds many dangers and this incident is evidence of that, Kruger National Park Managing Executive Glenn Phillips said in the parks statement. 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.
The Duchess of Sussex has appointed her own delivery team to oversee the birth of her first child, it has been claimed.

In a break from royal tradition, Meghan has reportedly opted not to use Royal House gynaecologists because she does not want "men in suits" supervising her birth.

According to The Mail on Sunday, the 37-year-old duchess has appointed an "unnamed female doctor" to lead the team instead of Alan Farthing and Guy Thorpe-Beeston.

The two gynaecologists attended the arrival of all three of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's children.

It is understood there will definitely be a role for the Queen's doctors in the birth, but it might not be a prominent one.

A Royal Family spokesman has declined to comment.

Harry and Meghan have entered the record books in the weeks leading up to the birth of their first child - and the baby is due to arrive late April or early May.

The duke and duchess gained one million followers in the fastest time yet on Instagram.

Harry and Meghan shared photos of their 2017 trip to Botswana on the social media account.

The African country holds a special place in their hearts as Prince Harry took the duchess on a romantic getaway there to celebrate her 36th birthday.
Police are searching for a driver who struck a teenage girl crossing a Brooklyn streetand then left the scene after getting out of her car to check on the girl. The victim said, "Im thankful for those people that called 911 and they didnt just leave me. I was scared."

The hit-and run happened on March 27th, around 4 p.m., in Sunset Park. Police say the 14-year-old was crossing the street at 47th Street and 9th Avenue when a woman driving a black Dodge Challenger hit her. Video shows the driver exiting the car to check on the girl, but then leaving while others help the girl.

The NYPD says a witnessed called 911, and the girl was taken to Maimonides Hospital with bruising to her torso and legs.

The victim, Xin Yi Wang, told the NY Post that the driver first asked her, "Are you OK? Do you need me to take you to the hospital? Or bring you home?" Wang didn't want a stranger (who just hit her with her car) taking her to the hospital, so she declined.

The Post reports that "other drivers were demanding that the driver move her car out of the way so their vehicles could pass. The hit-and-run driver did one loop around the block  then simply never came back, according to Wang."

Investigators describe the driver as being 35-40 years old, with a medium-heavy set and brown hair. The Dodge Challenger had Georgia license plates.

Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM, on Twitter @NYPDTips or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577. All calls are strictly confidential.
Photo credit: TOLGA AKMEN - Getty Images

From Town & Country

Earlier this morning, American President Donald Trump arrived at Stansted Airport, the first stop on his state visit to the United Kingdom. Here's everything you need to know about the trip.

Both the White House and Buckingham Palace confirmed the state visit in April.

"The President of the United States of America, President Donald J. Trump, accompanied by Mrs Melania Trump, has accepted an invitation from Her Majesty The Queen to pay a State Visit to the United Kingdom from Monday 3rd June to Wednesday 5th June 2019," reads a statement released by Buckingham Palace on April 23.

The White House released a similar statement, saying the trip "will reaffirm the steadfast and special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom.

The statement also incorrectly referred to the Queen as "Her Royal Majesty."

The President and FLOTUS will not be staying at Buckingham Palace.

As there are ongoing renovations happening at the Palace, they are staying elsewhere. More on why he won't be staying there, right here.



Photo credit: Leon Neal - Getty Images

The trip almost coincides with the 75th anniversary of D-Day.

On the third day of the visit, Trump will travel to Portsmouth for an event which will commemorate the anniversary.

The itinerary for the trip also includes a banquet at Buckingham Palace as well as a tea at Clarence House.

Over the course of the three-day visit, the U.S. president will attend a banquet at Buckingham Palace, a tea at Clarence House, and will visit with the Prime Minister at No. 10 Downing Street.

It has also been reported that during his time in the U.K. Trump will meet with not only the Queen, but also Prince Charles, Camilla, and Prince Harry. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will also attend the banquet, but the Duchess of Sussex will not meet with president, as she is still on maternity leave.

See a full schedule for the first day right here:

1pm lunch with the Queen & Prince Harry

2.15pm Queen shows Trumps items from Royal Collection

3.10pm Visit Westminster Abbey with Prince Andrew

4pm Tea at Clarence House with Charles & Camilla

8.30pm  State Banquet at BP (cant wait for the frocks!)#USStateVisit - Emily Andrews (@byEmilyAndrews) June 3, 2019

This will mark Trump's second meeting with the Queen over the course of his presidency.

Story continues

Photo credit: Chris Jackson - Getty Images

In July of 2018, Trump traveled to Windsor Castle to have tea with the Queen and to take in a military parade, but that engagement was considered a working visit and not an official state visit.

During his trip, Trump also toured Winston Churchill's birthplace Blenheim Palace, and visited Chequers, Theresa May's official country home, but his time in the U.K. was also notable for the number of local protests it inspired.

Photo credit: Jack Taylor - Getty Images

At this point, it's unclear if his return will once again prompt widespread demonstrations, but he's likely looking forward to the visit as he is an admirer of the British monarch.

"I think she represents her country so well," Trump said in an interview ahead of their meeting last year.

"If you think of it, for so many years she has represented her country, she has really never made a mistake. You dont see, like, anything embarrassing. She is just an incredible woman."

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh. blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work.

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..Algemeiner..08 April '19..Brexit is now dominating the headlines in Europe, bringing the European Union (EU) into more focus than ever before.But this much-lauded organization is not the paragon of virtue that it, and its supporters, suppose it to be. The EU is blatantly anti-Israel. Their support of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, and their veneration of Israels enemies, places them in this category. The EUs default position is that whatever is good for Israel must be condemned.There are several pro-Israel lobbying groups within the European Parliament whose work is admirable, but they dont make much of an impact. They are drowning in the EUs quagmire of systemic anti-Israel bias.
- Civilian Begin vs. the brass on developing and deploying Israeli spy satellites.

- Civilian Begin vs. the brass on the need to destroy (and the ability to destroy) the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981.

- Civilian Yuval Steinitz vs. the brass on the need to destroy the Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007.

IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis: Since 1992 providing news and analysis on the Middle East with a focus on Arab-Israeli relations

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh. blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work.

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..IMRA..07 April '19..There is nothing more frustrating for senior brass than to sit there and listen to some civilian challenge their recommendations - or even worse propose an alternative.And it is understandable.Behind the scenes the IDF is carrying out incredible operations that the brass is confident would humble the civilians to silence if only the shroud of secrecy could be lifted.Unfortunately, the IDF brass fails to appreciate that the ability to successfully plan and execute special operations doesn't give them a monopoly on smarts when it comes to the bigger picture.A reminder:The greatest achievement of the Second Lebanon War - Operation Specific Gravity - was thanks to the insistence of civilian DM Amir Peretz who overruled all the brass who thought he was an idiot for ordering that the IAF destroy the Fajr Rockets threatening Tel Aviv before they could be repositioned by Hezbollah. The brass wanted to start by pounding Lebanese infrastructure.Hear Peretz describe the decision in his own words:And it is worth listening to it as he describes the pressure he faced from the brass.Just a few of the many other instances that the brass was incredibly wrong:And of course - we would not be on the Golan today if the civilian leadership had bowed to the continuous vocal lobbying by the brass for theJewish State to trade the Golan for gizmos and a piece of paper.To be clear: our nation owes its great respect and appreciation to the the leadership of the IDF, past and present - including the generals heading Blue and White - for the many bold and heroic operations that they lead.Appreciate.Yes.Hand them the keys?Absolutely not!________________________________________
Are You Mapping Customer Journey?

Most businesses  at least those that are serious about being competitive  have made customer experience a key priority. Many are taking the concept of unified communications to the next level, integrating it into the customer engagement workflow to create a unified customer experience. But, while this helps deliver a better experience, it doesnt always help businesses understand why or how customers reached their purchasing decisions or what may have caused them to become frustrated. In order to fully understand what motivates customers and to be able to adjust processes, its important to look at and analyze the entire customer journey.

In todays digital environment, it may seem easy to attribute certain customer engagements and sales to individual marketing or sales activities. But, that doesnt necessarily tell you what steps the customer went through before deciding to conduct business (or not to). One way of accomplishing that, of course, is to simply ask them. But, even that isnt likely to give you the full scope of their decision process, especially if they saw multiple messages from you, or spent time navigating through many pages on your website, or made attempts to get more information from a representative.

What is a customer journey map?

Customers can initiate contact with your business is so many ways today, including different marketing programs, simple search engine results, advice from friends or colleagues, social media, and of course customer service departments. With the continued move from offline to online customer engagement, the number of potential customer touchpoints will only increase. The only way to effectively understand a customers holistic experience is through customer journey mapping, which details their experience from the initial engagement through purchase or abandonment. This information drives insight into specific triggers not only for individual customers, but also identifies broader trends that may be impacting your business success.

How and where customers interact with your brand?

How do customers needs vary in different stages of their journeys?

Have you created an efficient customer journey?

How do customer expectations compare with outcomes?

What gaps can you fill in the customer journey to expedite their process and deliver their desired experiences?

What are the most and least effective elements in your process in terms of impact on customer decision making?

A key to building successful journey maps is including data on every customer touchpoint. Naturally, that includes all live engagements and digital data from website analytics and CRM systems, but non-real-time or offline engagements as well, such as documentation that may have been including with a product, product packaging details, or delivery method.

Including every piece of available information helps solve any potential customer issues, but it also is key to understanding trends around whats driving customer satisfaction and what isnt. That included understanding which customers do not have any problems.

Perhaps there are slight variances in their journeys that are contributing to their satisfaction that can be injected into other processes and journeys. Understanding even the slightest differences in journeys can help deliver a consistent across all engagement mediums, both digital and physical.

The ultimate goal of customer journey mapping is not really about your technology and processes. Rather, its about uncovering what your customers are looking for and how well your systems processes are able to deliver on those expectations. Businesses that neglect customer needs in favor of their own can very easily end up delivering an inadequate experience. But, without the knowledge from mapping customer journeys, they may never know and may be missing opportunities for growth, both in the short and long term.

Edited by Erik Linask
La Aurora Cigars is a company that loves to commemorate a milestone. The company owns the oldest cigar factory in the Dominican Republic. In 2010, the company celebrated its 107th anniversary of the factorys operation by releasing a line called the La Aurora 107. This year, the company will begin a worldwide distribution of a 4 x 58 figurado to its La Aurora 107 line known as the Zeppelin.

The La Aurora 107 Zeppelin actually made its debut in China last year, but now the company will expand the distribution. Plans are for the Zeppelin to be released to the Spanish cigar market in June, with other locations in the future.

The Zeppelin brings the total number of regular production cigars available worldwide up to 12. Its the first new addition to the La Aurora 107 line since the 15 Minute Break size was added in 2016.

At a glance, here is a look at La Aurora 107 line.

Blend and Origin

Wrapper: Ecuador Sun-Grown Sumatra

Binder: Cibao Valley (Dominican Republic).

Filler: Cibao Valley (Dominican Republic), Brazil, Nicaragua, Peru.

Country of Origin: Dominican Republic

Factory: La Aurora SA

Vitolas Offered

Here are the regular offerings available in the 107 blend:

Zeppelin: 4 x 58

15 Minute Break: 3 1/2 x 42

Sumo Short Robusto: 4 x 58

Robusto: 5 x 50

Gran 107: 7 x 58

Belicoso: 6 1/4 x 52

Toro: 5 1/2 x 54

Robusto: 4.5 x 50

Lancero: 6 7/8 x 40

Gran 107: 7 x 58

Corona: 5 1/2 x 42

Salomon: 7 1/4 x 52/60

Photo Credit: La Aurora Cigars
This past weekend, the Governors of Washington and Illinois signed bills into laws raising the tobacco purchase age to 21. Washington and Illinois become the ninth and tenth states respectively to raise the age.

The movement to raise the tobacco purchase age to 21 has been spearheaded by the State Attorney General Bob Ferguson over the past five years. The bill was signed into law by Washington Governor Jay Inslee on Friday April 5, 2019 and goes into effect on January 1st, 2020.

Two days later on April 7, 2019, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed a bill into law that made Illinois the eleventh state to pass legislation to raise the tobacco age. The Illinois law will go into effect earlier than Washingtons bill as it takes effect on July 1, 2019.

The two states join Hawaii, California, New Jersey, Maine, Oregon, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Utah as states where the tobacco purchase age is now 21.

Recently a Federal bill has been introduced to raise the tobacco purchase age to 21 on a national level. Its a movement supported by Tobacco Free Kids, Tobacco 21, and most recently Altria has announced support for a federally-mandated minimum tobacco purchase age of 21. At the same time, its a movement the premium cigar industry has chosen not to fight. When the federal bill was introduced, the International premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers Association (IPCPR) issued a press release where they did not raise any objections to such legislation.
Facing increasing pressure from low-income housing activists over the fate of two shuttered East Village churches, the Catholic Church on Monday pledged to redevelop its existing properties to create nearly 2,000 affordable units over the next decade.

Nearly 1,500 units of affordable housing have been slated for church-owned properties in NYC, according to information provided by the churchs spokesperson. Of the six sites the church is currently developing, five are in the Bronx and one is in the Lower East Side. Another 500 would be developed in the coming years, according to the church.

Beginning with the official opening on Monday of a 112-unit complex at 1180 Fulton Street, the former site of a Bronx church, these projects mark a new phase in the churchs commitment to affordable housing, said Monsignor Kevin Sullivan, the executive director of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York, which serves as the social service and housing development arm of the archdiocese.

Its a really important recommitment of the church to doing affordable housing for low-income New Yorkers, Sullivan told Gothamist.

The Archdiocese of New York City is believed to be Manhattans largest landowner.

Among the list of six projects, some have already begun construction while others are still in the pre-construction phase, he said.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan was expected to speak on Monday afternoon about the churchs affordable housing plan at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Bronx complex. In addition to city housing officials, First Lady Chirlane McCray was also scheduled to be in attendance.

But notably absent on the church's list were two closed churches in the East Village that have been closely watched by downtown community activists: the Church of the Nativity, on Second Avenue between 2nd and 3rd Streets, and the Church of St. Emeric, on Avenue D between East 12th and 13th Streets.

The Cooper Square Community Land Trust has unsuccessfully tried to buy the two closed churches from the Archdiocese so as to develop the sites into low-income housing.

While we commend the church for the good they are doing, we remain opposed to the church disposing of properties in gentrifying neighborhoods that are in danger of luxury condo development, said Val Orselli, a project director with Cooper Square Community Land Trust. "The church has not merely an obligation to do good but it also has an obligation not to do harm."

Monsignor Sullivan said he was not aware of the plans for those two churches.

Cooper Square Community Land Trust is planning a Town Hall to discuss the fate of Catholic Church and other religious-affiliated properties on May 6th at 6:30 p.m. inside Cooper Union.

Below is the full list of Catholic Church affordable housing developments:

St. Augustine Apartments, 1180 Fulton Street, Bronx (112 units)

St. Vincent de Paul Senior Residence, 909 Beck Street, Longwood, Bronx (89 units)

Second Farms, 1932 Bryant Avenue, West Farms (319 units)

St. Philip Neri, 3054, 3069 Villa Ave., Bedford Park, Bronx (177 units)

Christopher Court, 2890 Park Avenue, Melrose, Bronx (160 units)

Grand Street Guild, 157, 179 Broome Street, New York (600 units)








1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.
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On April 2, 2019, Valentino Gonzato, an Italian reporter with the daily newspaper Il Giornale di Vicenza, was assaulted by a group of seven people while reporting in Fornaci Park in Vicenza, a city in Northern Italy, according to his employer.

The group threatened the reporter, spat on him, and punched and kicked him, according to Il Giornale di Vicenza; members of the group also stole his phone. The paper reported that Gonzato suffered injuries and was taken to a local emergency room. It did not specify the extent of his injuries.

According to regional news website Il Gazettino, police intervened in the assault and arrested seven people. The police also recovered Gonzatos phone, the website reported.

CPJ emailed questions about the investigation to the local police in Vicenza but did not receive a reply. CPJs emailed request for comment to Il Giornale di Vicenza also did not receive a response.

According to Il Giornale di Vicenza, Gonzato was documenting the presence of drug dealers and tent encampments in the park when he was attacked.
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On January 2, 2018, a court in Rabat, Moroccos capital, charged four local journalists with disclosing unpublished information concerning a parliamentary commission of inquiry, according to one of the journalists, Mohammed Ahdad, who spoke with CPJ. On March 27, 2019, the court gave each journalist a six-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 10,000 dirhams ($2,733), according to Ahdad and local news reports.

The journalists were charged under a provision in the criminal code barring the disclosure of unpublished work by a parliamentary commission of inquiry, according to Ahdad and the news reports.

Ahdad, a reporter with the independent daily newspaper Al-Massae, was charged and sentenced along with Abdelhak Belachger, a reporter at the daily Akhbar al-Yaoum, as well as two journalists from the news website Al-Jarida 24: Kawthar Zaki, a reporter, and Abdallah Sakhir, the Rabat bureau chief, Ahdad told CPJ.

The journalists were not detained while awaiting trial, Ahdad said.

The charges stemmed from a 2017 complaint filed the president of the House of Councilors, Moroccos upper house of parliament, concerning the journalists reporting on alleged corruption within a 2016 parliamentary commission investigating the bankruptcy of the nations pension fund, according to Ahdad and the news reports.

The Ministry of Justice did not respond to CPJs phone calls or messages sent to its official Facebook page requesting comment.

The journalists were charged by the Court of First Instance, a criminal court in Rabat, under Article 14 of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry law, which imposes a prison sentence of one to five years and a fine from 1,000 to 10,000 dirhams ($273 to $2,733) for disclosing information related to the unpublished work of any commission of inquiry within the parliament, according to the House of Representatives official website.

Ahdad told CPJ that he believes the journalists should have been tried according to the Journalism and Publication law, a civil code used in cases involving journalists, rather than under the criminal code. The journalists filed an appeal on March 28, and are waiting for the Rabat court to schedule a hearing, Ahdad told CPJ.

In a separate incident on February 15, 2019, authorities in the northern city of Berkane arrested freelance Dutch journalist Gerbert van der Aa and expelled him from the country, according to van der Aa, who spoke with CPJ, and news reports.

Van der Aa traveled to Berkane, in Moroccos northern Rif region, on February 14 to continue his reporting on protests in the region, which he has been covering since 2016, the journalist told CPJ. Authorities arrested him, said he was working illegally, and escorted him to the Spanish Melilla land border later that day, van der Aa told CPJ.

On February 17, van der Aa tried to return to Morocco through the Melilla border and was refused entry by immigration officials on the grounds that he had previously been expelled from the country, van der Aa told CPJ.

He told CPJ that Moroccan authorities have made it extremely difficult to report on the Rif protests or migration issues in the country. Since the Rif protests began in 2016, Moroccan authorities have jailed, arrested, and deported journalists in the region, according to CPJ reporting.

Editors Note: This text has been updated to correct the dates that van der Aa was in Morocco and to correct the spelling of his first name.
A cool concept could make minivans hot again, if the FF V9 people-mover makes it into production.That's a teaser photo from Faraday Future, a California-based firm that intends to manufacture and sell luxury electric vehicles in China and the United States. It describes the V9 as 'a new mobility luxury intelligent space that blends design, AI, and seamless cabin connectivity.'It's based on the FF 91, the company's flagship vehicle that it says is autonomous-ready, produces 1,050 horsepower, and can go 480 kilometres on a charge. But it's still only on 'reserve yours today,' as Faraday has struggled for funding  and has yet to sell anyvehicles in the five years it's been around.It recently entered into a joint venturewith Shanghai-based Internet gaming company The9 (yes, we think it sounds like a rap star, too), which is funnelling US $600 million into the venture.RELATEDPorsche's long-awaited electric Taycan has entered its final phase of testingFirst Look: 2020 Mercedes-Benz EQCDays before that partnership announcement, Faraday sold its head office in Los Angeles to raise some cash. Late last year, it sent hundreds of employees onto unpaid leave after a nasty split with Evergrande, the Chinese real estate company that had invested in it. It also faces some $80 million in lawsuits from suppliers who say they weren't paid for their contracts.The first FF 91 pre-production car was built last August, and is currently undergoing testing and validation in the U.S. The company hopes to start delivery later this year, and said its factory has the capacity to build 300,000 vehicles annually.The FF 91 will be the company's ultra-luxury flagship. Like Tesla with its Model 3, Faraday Future also plans to develop the mass-market FF 81. For now, the V9 appears to be for China only  but we'd sure like to drive one if it ever actually happens.
Unvaccinated children, many of whom had been staying at home since December because of an ongoing measles outbreak, returned to schools in Rockland County Monday, three days after a judge temporarily overturned the countys state of emergency.

But there were conflicting interpretations about how broad the judges order was. The county imposed the emergency order March 26th, banning children without the measles vaccine from visiting public places such as restaurants and shopping malls. This effectively prohibited all unvaccinated children from attending any schools in the county.

Earlier health department orders dating back to December prohibited unvaccinated children from attending schools with immunization rates lower than 95 percent. Rockland County officials over the weekend said that Judge Rolf Thorsens decision applied only to the emergency order, and that that earlier schools-specific order was still valid.

It is the countys understanding that the health commissioners previous order is still in effect, which bars unvaccinated students from schools that have less than a 95 percent vaccination rate, wrote Susan Meyer, a spokeswoman for the county. On Monday Rockland County Executive Ed Day reiterated the countys position that kids who attend schools with immunization rates less than 95 percent shouldn't go to class.

Meanwhile, Michael Sussman, an attorney for parents of unvaccinated kids, maintained that the order immediately allowed all unvaccinated kids in the country to return to class. And at Sussmans consultation, about 45 unvaccinated children were welcomed back to Green Meadow Waldorf School, said Vicki Larson, director of communications at the school.

We've been waiting to include them, as soon as it was legally possible to do so, so the teachers are really happy to have their students back, Larson said. Some of the older children looked a little more [like] they were carrying the seriousness of it a little more....the younger kids are just really happy to be back with their friends.

The confusion stemmed from Judge Thorsens Friday afternoon decision. Though he was asked to rule specifically on the countys emergency order  a separate lawsuit regarding the school regulations is under review by federal courts  his ruling went much further.

Rockland County, Thorsen wrote, was hereby temporarily enjoined from enforcing said order and petitioners children are hereby permitted to return to their respective schools forthwith and otherwise assemble in public places.

Judge Thorsens clerk hung up the phone when asked by a Gothamist/WNYC reporter to clarify the meaning of his order.

The Rockland County health department has confirmed 167 measles cases since last October. County Executive Ed Day said he imposed the emergency declaration after taking many other steps to contain the spread of the virus.

Parents of unvaccinated children sued the county in state court last week, arguing that the executive overstepped his powers because the current measles outbreak didn't qualify as an emergency. Judge Thorsen agreed with them, writing the current measles outbreak, does not appear, on the record before the Court, to rise to the level of an epidemic.

The filing was the second lawsuit by Sussman on behalf of parents of unvaccinated children. In March, the group had sued the county in federal court, arguing the countys exclusion of unvaccinated children at schools was unconstitutional. In that case, federal Judge Vincent L. Brinccetti denied the parents motion for a temporary injunction and refused to let kids return to class. The underlying case will continue.

The county and attorneys for parents of unvaccinated children are due back in state court April 19 to hear whether the judges temporary stay should become permanent.

Gwynne Hogan is an associate producer at WNYC. You can follow her on Twitter at @GwynneFitz.
Kevin Prince-Boateng produced the perfect reaction to a supporter who joked about the attacker's lack of playing time at Barcelona.Boateng joined the La Ligachampions on loan from Sassuolo in January but has made just two appearances so far.After posting a photo of his team-mates following their win over Atletico Madrid, the fan commented that Boateng was 'only in the team to make photos'.The 15-cap Ghana international responded swiftly, claiming they were 'very good pictures' and putting the heckler in his place.Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez struck late on to move the club 11 points clear of their opponents and a step closer to retaining their crown, with Boateng again an unused substitute.However, it appears the former Tottenham and Portsmouth man is more than happy with his role for the team.With his side set for the league and set to resume their Champions League campaign, Boateng's patience could be rewarded with plenty of silverware.
He has been cited by Rush Limbaugh, quoted in the New York Times, featured at Real Clear Politics and Lucianne.com and interviewed on radio, TV and in social media.





For many years he served as a Lecturer in Corporate Communication at Penn State University. A former President of the Philadelphia Public Relations Association (PPRA) he has lectured at Rowan University, Temple University, The College of New Jersey and Arcadia University. He has conducted workshops on public relations for thousands of participants throughout the nation and has taught countless others the art of public speaking. He has also advised numerous lawyers, judges, public officials and political candidates.





Cirucci is a prolific writer and his op-ed pieces have appeared in the Philadelphia Daily News, Philadelphia Inquirer, Courier-Post and other publications.



A native of Camden NJ, Cirucci is a former President of the Philadelphia chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators. Cirucci served as Associate Executive Director of the Philadelphia Bar Association for nearly 30 years. He served as Chair of Penn State University's Professional Advisory Board for the Corporate Communication major at Penn State Abington and on the Pennsylvania Bar Association's Judicial Selection Commission.



He received his MA degree from Rowan University and his BA from Villanova University. He has been named a Distinguished Alumnus of Rowan's public relations program and was inducted into the Philadelphia Public Relations Hall of Fame. He received the E. A. "Wally" Richter Leadership Award from the National Association of Bar Executives' Communications Section. The Award is the Section's highest honor. He has also been honored by numerous other local, state and national groups.









Cirucci's passions include politics, the popular culture, books and authors, art, communication, music, theatre, movies, dining and travel. In his hometown of Camden, Cirucci taught fifth grade at the Ulysses Wiggins Elementary School named for the founder of the Camden NAACP. He later served as editor of a local weekly newspaper, as Assistant to the Township Manager of Cherry Hill Township and as Associate Director of Communications at the New Jersey State Bar Association.

He's Dan Cirucci, the founder and editor-in chief of the Dan Cirucci Blog, Matt Rooney's sidekick on Save Jersey's weekly videocast and one of the most widely honored public relations professionals in his field. He's also been a public relations consultant to numerous organizations and individuals and hosted The Advocates on RVN-TV.
Political prisoner, activist, journalist, hymn-writer, emerging think tanker, aspiring novelist, hanger on of academia, parliamentary candidate for North West Durham, Shadow Leader of the Opposition, Speedboat, proudly banned from Twitter so officially more dangerous than the Taliban, eagerly awaiting the second (or possibly third) attempt to murder me.
India: Pakistan to release 360 Indian prisoners as tensions ease

April 08,2019 | Source: Gulf News

Pakistan will release 360 Indian prisoners this month, the foreign office said on Friday, as the nuclear-armed neighbours scale back from a confrontation that prompted world powers to urge restraint.



Tension has been running high since a suicide car bombing by Pakistan-based militants in Indian-administered Kashmir killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police on February 14, but the risk of conflict rose dramatically on February 27, 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. Pakistan has decided that 360 Indian prisoners having break-up of 355 fishermen and five civilians, who have completed their term of sentence, will be released, Mohammad Faisal, spokesman for the Pakistan Foreign Office, told reporters.



He said the prisoners would be released in four batches starting from April 8. Due to the rocky relations between the two sides, prisoners who have completed their jail terms often languish in each others jails for months, if not years, afterwards. According to the lists exchanged by both sides in January, there are 347 Pakistani prisoners in Indian jails, 249 of whom are what the spokesman described as civilians and 98 fishermen.



There are 537 Indian prisoners in Pakistani jails, 483 of whom are fishermen. "We hope that India will reciprocate this move, the foreign office spokesman said. Pakistans F-16 combat jets have all been accounted for, US-based Foreign Policy magazine said, citing US officials, contradicting an Indian air force assessment that it had shot down one of the jets in the February standoff.
Kerala: No reply to fishers call for communication gadgets in Kerala

April 08,2019 | Source: The New Indian Express

It has been eight months since Oceanic, a fishing vessel, sunk into the depths of the Arabian sea around 27 nautical miles off Kochi coast leaving three dead and nine fishermen missing. The fishermen community has been clamouring to regulate the ship traffic and provide communication gadgets to fishing vessels. Though the state government had promised to distribute Navic, a satellite-enabled communication gadget developed by ISRO, to all fishing vessels, the project is yet to be implemented. With incidents of mid-sea collisions occurring at regular intervals, the fishermen are in anguish. On March 30, three fishermen from Munambam fishing harbour were lucky enough to survive a mid-sea collision as an unidentified ship hit their boat snapping its bow.



The Fisheries Department has launched a project to distribute Automatic Identification System (AIS) to mechanised fishing boats. The equipment costs around Rs 50,000. There is another project to distribute satellite phones to fishing vessels. The cost of the gadget is Rs 6,000. Mechanised boats have to pay 50 per cent of the cost while traditional fishermen are eligible for a 90 per cent subsidy.



Around 100 AIS have been distributed already. Navic costs around Rs 9,000 and traditional fishermen will get it for Rs 1,500. Around 50 gadgets have been distributed, Fisheries Deputy Director S Mahesh told Express.The Union Government had introduced the National Marine fishing policy in 2017, providing guidelines to usher in Blue Revolution. The policy included recommendations for distribution of safety equipment and communication gadgets to the fishermen. Two years on, the fishermen are yet to get the equipment.



The Kerala Government had given a similar assurance to the fishermen community after Cyclone Ockhi claimed 60 lives on November 29, 2017. Though the project was launched with much fanfare only a few Navic gadgets were distributed. The ships entering Kerala coast have to inform the Coast Guard as per the code of conduct introduced by the International Maritime Organisation. There are around 35,000 fishing boats in Kerala which cross the shipping channel in the east-west direction. More than 500 cargo ships pass through the shipping channel close to Kerala coast everyday in the north-south direction. This increases the chances of mid-sea collision. On Saturday, the fishermen were casting their nets when the ship rammed the boat. The Mercantile Marine Department should ensure the ships follow the code of conduct, said Matsya Thozhilali Aikya Vedi president Charles George.



Assurance sought from candidates



The mid-sea collision on March 30, in which three fishermen sustained minor injuries, has prompted fishermen to release a 13-point charter of demands. The community members will cast their votes only if the candidates assure to implement the demands. We are demanding an assurance from the candidates to implement our demands if they are voted to power. We will cast our votes only in favour of the candidates who accept these demands, National Fish Workers Forum general secretary T Peter told Express.



Fishers demands



Formation of an independent Fisheries Ministry, scrapping of the Coastal Regulation Zone (2018) notification and steps for protection of coastal resources, protection of the livelihood of traditional fishermen, shifting of the shipping channel outside the continental shelf, ban on destructive fishing practices and distribution of safety equipment to fishermen.
Iraqs Nineveh Criminal Court on Sunday sentenced a man who reportedly worked as a lawyer for the Islamic State following the emergence of the jihadist group in Iraq and Syria in 2014.





The person held a prominent position within the groups hierarchy, according to a statement released by the Supreme Judicial Council of Iraq.





The convicted man confessed during his trial to having pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and receiving orders and instructions from the jihadist groups leadership while he was in Syrias Hajin area.





The statement mentioned he was responsible for identifying prominent figures in Nineveh for the Islamic State and threatening them of murder.





The sentence was handed down in accordance with the provisions of Article IV of the anti-terrorism law.





Human rights groups have long criticized inconsistencies in the Iraqi judicial process and the preponderance of flawed trials.





The Islamic State emerged in Iraq in 2014 and quickly occupied vast swaths of territory in the country.





In late 2017, Iraq declared final victory against it, but the extremist group continues to launch insurgency attacks, ambushes, and kidnappings across the country.

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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,

but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

kurdistan24.net, Staff, April 7, 2019
Attempts to implement the death penalty after 42 years may undermine much needed international support for the current counter narcotics campaign, experts caution.





The recent police and military successes in intercepting large shipments of narcotics was the result of shared intelligence, both domestically and internationally.





Sri Lankan law enforcement agencies also receive essential technical assistance, and specialised training from foreign states and international organisations.





However, many countries that have abolished the death penalty and international organisations that are duty bound to uphold humanitarian laws may have to restrict or rethink intelligence sharing, providing training and equipment or deporting wanted suspects, if Sri Lanka enforces the death penalty against those convicted of narco trafficking and distribution.





Sri Lanka has not carried out the death penalty since 1976. However, President Maithripala Sirisena, is pushing to remove the moratorium on the death penalty for selected individuals on death row. Last year, a list of names was finalised and the process to select a hangman is underway.





UNODC will not endorse the use of the death penalty as an effective deterrent to drug trafficking crime, in fact it is counter-productive to intelligence sharing on drug trafficking networks, said Shanaka Jayasekara of the United Nations office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Maintaining the moratorium on carrying out the death penalty is vital to ensure continued support and collaboration with foreign drug enforcement agencies.





Foreign drug enforcement agencies have so far been supportive of Sri Lankan efforts and have advanced technical capabilities to acquire valuable intelligence and corroborate information on drug trafficking networks, a senior police officer told the Sunday Times.





Several embassies and high commissions in Colombo declined to comment on whether the death penalty would change the current intelligence and supportive relationship with Sri Lanka.





In August 2018, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres in a letter to the Sri Lankan President called on the government to maintain the moratorium on the death penalty. And in March this year the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet Jeria said she was deeply concerned about the calls to reinstate the death penalty.





Last month, a UNODC initiative to establish a South Asia Regional Intelligence Coordination Centre in Colombo was postponed by the Presidential Secretariat even after the plans were approved by the Foreign Ministry and Cabinet.





Sri Lanka has not invested in the technological tools needed to identify and classify narcotics, President Maithripala Sirisena said during his budget speech in Parliament last week. He claimed that law enforcers had been successful in the counter narcotics drive through human efforts, initiative and without modern tools, which, he said, are on order from foreign sources.





The Human Rights Commission and Amnesty International have issued statements calling for the moratorium on the death penalty not to be removed.





In a letter addressed to President Sirisena in July last year, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka also expressed concerns and asked that the capital punishment decision be revoked. The Commission suggested a series of strong and long term policies (including strengthening of institutions and procedures) aimed at addressing serious crimes including drug trafficking).

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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,

but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

sundaytimes.lk, Staff, April 7, 2019
Former crime reporter Michelle Lyons, who witnessed nearly 300 executions in Texas, US, reveals the desperate acts of death row prisoners who refused to accept their fate





After spending years or often decades locked up in a tiny cell for 23 hours a day, most Death Row inmates go willingly to their executions. However, some refuse to die quietly - with officers forced to gas them out of cells, strap up their heads and even give chase across prison grounds.





Michelle Lyons, who has witnessed nearly 300 executions in Texas, US, exclusively tells Sun Online how certain inmates "fight like hell" in their last moments.





On most occasions, Michelle watched from the witness area, with the killers already on the gurney - the stretcher where they'd be given a lethal injection.





Seven prisoners once tried to escape from the Row in Huntsville - with one shoving magazines and newspapers under his clothes to help him roll over razor-wire fences.





Others have had to be gassed out of their cells with Mace-like spray, while one killer even stole a key to a set of handcuffs, which he spat out with his dying breath.





"I could tell immediately when I went into the witness room if they had fought," recalls 43-year-old Michelle, a former crime reporter and prison spokeswoman.





"Inmates would have five restraints on them - on each of their arms, each of their legs and their torso - but those who had fought had more restraints on their head.





"One inmate even said, 'I'm not going to walk so you'll have to carry me' - so they did."





Murderer Ponchai Wilkerson, the son of a retired police officer, is among those who fought to live.





Wilkerson, who shot dead a jewellery shop worker in Houston nearly 30 years ago, tried to escape from the Row on Thanksgiving night 1998 along with 6 other prisoners.





Dressed in prison garb dyed black with markers, the group carefully placed cushions and sheets in their beds before leaving their cells for dinner and hiding in a recreation yard.





Later that night, they used a hacksaw to cut a hole in the fence and scaled the roof. They then sprinted for freedom, but were spotted by officers who opened fire.





One inmate said 'you'll have to carry me' - so they did





Wilkerson surrendered during the shooting, but escaped from his prison cell 2 years later and took a female officer hostage, while armed with a sharpened piece of metal.





Fortunately, the guard was later released unharmed.





However, Wilkerson's resistance to death didn't end there - on the day of his execution, he had to be gassed out of his cell.





"He fought and they did have to gas him," recalls Michelle, who worked as a reporter for The Huntsville Item newspaper and as a Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman.





And even with his last breath, the killer proved defiant.





'His final breath was the moment this key came out his mouth'





Michelle says: "His execution was so unnerving because when he was making his last statement he was murmuring something.





"He was moving his mouth in a strange way. He timed it just right so his final breath was the moment this key came out of his mouth and rested on his chin."





Chillingly, the key was to a set of handcuffs.





"It was believed he had planned to try to escape but he hadn't anticipated being restrained with 2 sets," says the mum, who lives in Huntsville and has penned a book about her life as an execution witness, called Death Row: The Final Minutes.





"He had the key for one set but not the other."





Wilkerson was declared dead at 6.24pm on March 14, 2000, after spitting out the inch-and-a-half key at the Huntsville Unit execution chamber.





'He sunk like a rock in the river'





While he had surrendered during the attempted death row breakout 2 years earlier, one of his fellow prisoners - Latino murderer Martin Gurule - had not.





Gurule, the only 1 of the 7-strong group to keep going, stuffed magazines and newspapers under his clothing so he could roll over 2 razor-wire security fences.





Inmate Martin Gurule successfully escaped from prison, but ended up drowning in a river "The fences have these sharp razor blades," Michelle explains.





"He had wrapped himself in magazines and newspapers so he wouldn't get cut up."





Although Gurule successfully made it out of the Ellis Unit's grounds with bullets flying around him, his makeshift 'suit of armour' turned out to be his downfall.





A week after the escape, he was found drowned in a river.





"He was still wrapped up when he jumped in the river - he sunk like a rock," says Michelle.





The murderer had died - but not in the way the state had planned.





Banging his head until the end





Another Death Row inmate who fought in his final days was Gary Graham, who was 17 when he was sentenced to die for murdering a man outside a supermarket.





During his time behind bars, Graham drew support from the public and celebrities, with many claiming he was innocent of his crime.





Actress Bianca Jagger and civil rights activist Rev Al Sharpton were among the witnesses at his June 2000 execution.





"He had became a media darling," says Michelle.





"He had vowed he was going to fight and he did."





She adds: "When we came into the witness area he had been banging his head."





Kept in a cage to stop fighting





Killer Emerson Rudd, who was 18 when he shot dead a restaurant manager during a robbery, also proved difficult to get to the gurney.





Prison guards even put him in a cage to stop him from fighting. Like Wilkerson, he had to be gassed from his cell, with the spray leaving his skin "red raw".





She says of the gas: "It makes it hard to breathe - officers would have masks on to protect themselves. Inmates are given warnings before the gas is used."





Offering up his arm without hesitation





She also, surprisingly, says inmates "barely ever fight" as they prepare to die.





On 2 occasions, Michelle, who has a 14-year-old daughter, watched the executions from within the IV room, where an anonymous medically-trained team would administer the lethal drugs.





During one of these events, she watched through one-way glass as the inmate calmly walked into the death chamber, hopped on the gurney and held his arms out wide.





Within seconds, he had been strapped into a crucifix position by a tie-down team and fitted with IV lines, ready to carry a deadly cocktail of drugs through his veins.





Before long, he was dead, given the ultimate punishment for his horrific crime.





Michelle writes in her book that it "troubled me so much seeing the inmate walk unrestrained to the gurney, hopping up there and offering his arms with no hesitation".





Personal tragedy





Michelle witnessed her last execution in 2012 and now works in legal marketing.





While she felt no sympathy for some inmates, she says she had a harder time with other executions where she felt the prisoner wouldn't re-offend if they were released.





"I felt guilty - but it's easy to feel that way because they hadn't killed anyone I loved," she says.





But in 2016, Michelle was dealt her own heartbreak when her teen stepdaughter Kristine was shot dead.





Kristine, 17, was gunned down in the car park of a California shopping centre, with her killer, Cameron Frazier, later locked up for life for her murder.





Michelle feels the death penalty would have been the appropriate punishment for him.





"I really understood how one single crime could undo so many lives," she tells us.





"My marriage to Kristine's father ended the year after, and her mum's life of course was undone. Her siblings had a very difficult time. One act of violence shattered so many lives."





Which US states have the death penalty?





TEXAS is not the only US state with the death penalty.





Capital punishment is legal in a total of 30 states. These are: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming.





Death Row: The Final Minutes: My life as an execution witness in Americas most infamous prison by Michelle Lyons is available to buy on by Michelle Lyons is available to buy on Amazon





Source: thesun.co.uk , Sophie Jane Evans, April 7, 2019









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FOCUS ON DEFENSE CAPABILITY DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTHEAST ASIA AND OCEANIA
To find trees in the desert, we often have to go up in the mountains. I grew up in the Midwest, so every once in awhile I get a yearning to ...
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
In addition to the fact that limousine travel is very glamorous, it is also the most comfortable trip you can...
One day after the president's chief of staff vowed that Congressional Democrats would "never" get their hands on Trump's tax returns, state lawmakers in Albany have unveiled a workaround strategy to compel the New York version of the long-sought financial disclosures.

The plan hinges on the president's state tax returns, which are believed to contain much of the same insight into his sprawling, sketchy business empire as his federal filings. Under a new bill set to be introduced in the State Senate and Assembly on Monday, New York law would be amended to allow the release of any state tax return requested by three congressional committee leaders, assuming they serve a "specific and legitimate legislative purpose."

Although previous state-level legislation focused on the release of Trump's tax returns has stalled out, lawmakers in Albany say this iteration of the bill is "more tangible," and has support in both the State Senate and Assembly.

"It's up to New York to assist Congress with its oversight and responsibilities," State Sen. Brad Hoylman, the co-sponsor of the NY Truth Act, told Gothamist/WNYC. "It's important that the American people know if there are conflicts of interest in connection with any of our public officials, from Trump on down."

Indeed, in the aftermath of the election, roughly three-quarters of Americans said they wanted Trump to release his tax returns, as each president before him has done for the last forty years. That interest in the president's finances has only grown more urgent since his inauguration, as bombshell investigations have revealed Trump previously skipped out on hundreds of millions of dollars in owed taxes, and has continued to blur the line between his political and business life while in office.

But it remains unclear whether Congressional Democrats will be able to force the disclosures on the federal level. Earlier this month, the House Ways and Means Committee demanded the I.R.S hand over six years of the president's personal and business tax returns, citing a somewhat obscure tax provision that would seem to have been created for this exact purpose.

While the I.R.S. has not made any firm commitment yet, the reaction from the president's loyal foot soldiers in the Republican party has been about as expected, with the president's acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney vowing the disclosure would "never" happen, and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley deeming the request a "Nixonian" plot to "destroy" the president. (In the upside down logic of Trumpworld sycophancy, the fact that a president could be "destroyed" by the release of his own financial forms is apparently reason to keep those forms private).

Asked Monday if he was worried that the New York bill might be seen as a politicized piece of legislation  a "political stunt," as Mulvaney put it  Hoylman insisted this was not the case. "The current controversy around [Trumps] returns is created by him and him alone, he said. This is a self-created hardship by the White House.

Additional reporting by Katherine Fung.
A ballroom filled with aggressively right-wing Jews with "Make America Great Again" yarmulkas on, cheering loudly when America's very own would-be Hitler oozed how he would turn away refugees was horribly sickening to me. Most of my blood relatives are in Recife, Belem and Salvador in Brazil because, the U.S. turned them away as undesirables when they were fleeing for their lives from Czarist persecution. I wonder if pre-1932 Germany had anything like the Adelson Kapo Klub Konclave where Jews sat around cheering anti-Communism and law and order with yarmulkas embroidered with swastikas.





The interests of American Jews have long been allied with the Democratic Party . When the country was going all in for the corruption, narrow-minded bigotry and greed of the roaring twenties, Jewish voters were having done of it. Jews gave Warren G. Harding just 43% of their votes, splitting the rets between Socialist Eugene Debs (38%) and Democrat James Cox (19%). Almost all presidential candidates after Cox have gotten over 60% of the Jewish vote, exceptions being Jimmy Carter who still took a plurality in the 1980 three-way race and Mondale who only got 57% in his ill-fated attempt to prevent Reagan's reelection. The habit of Jewish voters giving landslide margins to Democrats began in a serious way in 1928 when Jews were among the first to recognize where Republican policies were taking the country. Jewish voters were all in for Al Smith (72%) against Herbert Hoover (28%) even before the Crash. And even Jewish Republican voters abandoned Hoover, whose share dropped from 28% to 18% when Roosevelt first ran. Jews gave Roosevelt 82% of their vote in 1932. That grew to 85% in 1936 and 90% in 1940 and 1944. That 90% of anti-Republicans didn't disappear with FDR. In 1948, Dewey (R) got 10% and Jews split their votes between Truman (75%) and the Progressive candidate, Henry Wallace (15%).





But America liked Ike and many Jewish voters did too, giving Adlai Stevenson just 64% in 1952 and 60% in 1956. After that, Jewish Americans have continued to support the Democrats ever since:

 1960- Kennedy (82%), Nixon (18%)

 1964- LBJ (90%), Goldwater (10%)

 1968- Humphrey (81%), Nixon (17%)

 1972- McGovern (65%), Nixon (35%)

 1976- Carter (71%), Ford (27%)

 1980- Carter (45%), Reagan (39%), Anderson (15%)

 1984- Mondale- (57%), Reagan (31%)

 1988- Dukakis- (64%), Bush (35%)

 1992- Clinton (80%), Bush (11%), Perot (9%)

 1996- Clinton (78%), Dole (16%)

 2000- Gore (79%), Bush (19%)

 2004- Kerry (76%), Bush (24%)

 2008- Obama (78%), McCain (22%)

 2012- Obama (69%), Romney (30%)

 2016- Hillary (71%), Trumpanzee (24%)

None of that has prevented Republicans, over and over and over from trying to woo Jewish voters. But George H.W. Bush's 35% was a highhmark in recent years. In 2016, Trump tried too but only managed 24%, six points less than Romney got 4 years earlier. In 2020, Trump is going for it again-- and in a big way . Mob-affiliated far-right Israeli citizen Sheldon Adelson will help bankroll a ten-million dollar effort to persuade American Jews that fascism isn't as bad as they think it is.





Although the Kapos say they're "at the intersection of a very unique moment in time," this is basically what they say every four years-- and then, as you can see above, fail miserably.





This time they think because Trump openly supports the right-wing Likud agenda-- most American Jews don't-- the GOP will be rewarded with Jewish votes. Alex Isenstadt wrote that "At a time when Trumps approval rating remains mired in the low-to-mid 40s, the offensive shows how Republicans are taking steps to contest any votes they can. Jews only account for about 2 percent of the U.S. population and have overwhelmingly supported Democrats in past elections. But GOP officials believe that siphoning off even a small portion the Jewish vote in a few battleground states could be critical in 2020. 'The Jewish vote will remain and largely loyal Democratic vote because of domestic issues largely, but if there was ever a cycle where Republicans could make inroads it is this cycle,' said Ari Fleischer, a former George W. Bush White House press secretary who now serves as an RJC board member. 'If you accept that there are sizeable Jewish populations in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, [and] Michigan, the Jewish vote-- if we can make additional inroads-- can be very helpful in putting you over the top. The White House knows that.' The administration is going all-in on the strategy. On Saturday, Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and three White House officials-- Jared Kushner, Jason Greenblatt, and Avi Berkowitz-- all made pilgrimages to the Venetian, where RJC (AKA- Adelson's Kapo Klub Konclave) members were gathered for the third day of their annual spring conference. Before a sea of supporters waving 'We are Jews for Trump' signs, the president accused Democrats of opposing Israel and 'advancing by far the most extreme, anti-Semitic agenda in history.'" Most Jews aren't poorly educated morons and they don't fall for Trump's ugly gaslighting. They know a fascist slob when they hear him.





Where do Jews live? Not in states Trump is likely to win. These are the states with over a quarter million Jews and each state's PVI:

 New York- 1,768,770 (8.9%)- D+12

 California- 1,182,990 (3.0%)- D+12

 Florida- 629,120 (3.0%)- R+2

 New Jersey- 545,450 (6.1%)- D+7

 Pennsylvania- 298,240 (2.3%)- [even]

 Illinois- 298,035 (2.3%)- D+7

 Massachusetts- 293,080 (4.3%)- D+12

The only other states where Jews make up over 2% of the population are Connecticut (D+6), Maryland (D+12) and Nevada (D+1).





The Jewish voters who have been most susceptible to Republican messaging are right-wing Russian immigrants and Hassidics who basically vote the way their rabbis tell them to. These Jews are already part of the 24% of Jews that backed Trump in 2016 and, with the exception of Pennsylvania, where a sizable community of right-wing Russians have settled-- they're primarily is blue states where they won't have a serious impact on the outcomes.

Prior to taking the stage, Trump met privately with Adelson and his wife, Miriam, who together gave over $120 million to Republican causes during the 2018 midterms. The 85-year-old Adelson, whos been undergoing cancer treatment, hadnt been expected to be in attendance. But those close to the billionaire said he was intent on making the Trump rally, and when he entered the auditorium on a motorized scooter and wearing a red Make America Great Again hat, he was greeted with a standing ovation.



Democrats are deeply skeptical that the GOP will succeed in making inroads with Jews. Since 1992, according to exit polling data, the Jewish vote has remained remarkably stable, with Democrats winning between 69 percent and 79 percent in each presidential election.



Halie Soifer, the executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, said that recent polling her group had conducted showed that Jews remained confident in the Democratic Partys posture on Israel and that they overwhelmingly disagreed with Trump on an array of domestic issues. And, she pointed out, Republicans had long vowed to make gains with Jewish voters only to fall short.



This is not new. Weve seen different iterations of this in previous elections either in midterm or presidential elections, and each time its kind of repackaged with a different narrative in an attempt by Republicans to chip away at the Jewish vote-- and every time it fails, Soifer said. And while the repackaging might make it look like there are different reasons behind it-- and certainly we are in a slightly different political context today than we have been in the past-- the result is the same.



...To some Republicans, highlighting issues surrounding Israel and anti-Semitism goes beyond simply appealing to the Jewish vote. Among those making the rounds at the Venetian this week was Dan Conston, who, as the president of American Action Network and Congressional Leadership Fund, the main pro-House GOP outside groups, has been arguing to major donors that portraying Democrats as unwilling to confront anti-Semitic forces in their party will help to boost Republicans with the suburban voters who abandoned them in 2018.



Ahead of this weeks conference, the group released digital advertisements tying swing-district House Democrats to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who has come under fire for using tropes widely viewed as anti-Semitic. While some senior Democrats have rebuked Omar, she has retained her seat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.



It's appalling that Democrats have stood by and tolerated openly anti-Semitic commentary from their own members, Conston said. If Democrats continue to stand by and do nothing, we think suburban voters across America will find it similarly appalling next election.



That Jewish Republicans have emerged as outspoken champions of Trumps reelection bid represents something of a turnabout. The RJC was torn over the president during the tumultuous opening days of his tenure, and broke with Trump over his handling of the violence in Charlottesville, when he equated white supremacists with counter-protesters.



Yet many key Jewish Republicans are now firmly in the presidents corner. That includes Fred Zeidman, a longtime GOP giver [and notorious Kapo ] who chairs a New York City-based investment banking firm. Zeidman, who backed Jeb Bush in the 2016 GOP primary, initially harbored concerns about Trumps position on Israel and was rankled by the White Houses failure to mention Jews in its January 2017 statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day.



But Zeidman, who met with Trump early in his White House tenure to discuss Israel, said he no longer had any doubts about Trump. The president, he said, had been incomparable in terms of how good hes been to Israel.



Zeidman, who helped to oversee Jewish outreach on the George W. Bush, John McCain, and Mitt Romney presidential campaigns, recalled a recent conversation with Houston oilman Harold Hamm. During the Bush years, Zeidman told Hamm, he had a T-shirt quoting the late Israeli leader Shimon Peres as saying that George W. Bush is the greatest president Israel has ever had.



I had, Zeidman told the billionaire oilman, to tear up my T-shirt.
Joe and Hunter Biden in 2009 (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Ukrainian to US prosecutors: Why don't you want our evidence on Democrats?



Ukrainian law enforcement officials believe they have evidence of wrongdoing by American Democrats and their allies in Kiev, ranging from 2016 election interference to obstructing criminal probes. But, they say, theyve been thwarted in trying to get the Trump Justice Department to act.



Kostiantyn Kulyk, deputy head of the Prosecutor Generals International Legal Cooperation Department, told me he and other senior law enforcement officials tried unsuccessfully since last year to get visas from the U.S. embassy in Kiev to deliver their evidence to Washington.

Evidence of foreign interference to help Democrats win the 2016 election

Democratic Party politicians being protected from investigation by Ukrainian prosecutors

The Trump administration refusing to act or help

Ukraine is infamous for corruption and disinformation operations; its police agencies fight over what is considered evidence of wrongdoing. Kulyk and his bosses even have political fights over who should and shouldnt be prosecuted. Consequently, allegations emanating from Kiev usually are taken with a grain a salt.



But many of the allegations shared with me by more than a half-dozen senior Ukrainian officials are supported by evidence that emerged in recent U.S. court filings and intelligence reports. The Ukrainians told me their evidence includes:

Sworn statements from two Ukrainian officials admitting that their agency tried to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election in favor of Hillary Clinton Paul Manafort



Contacts between Democratic figures in Washington and Ukrainian officials that involved passing along dirt on Donald Trump;



Financial records showing a Ukrainian natural gas company routed more than $3 million to American accounts tied to Hunter Biden, younger son of then-Vice President Joe Biden



Records that Vice President Biden pressured Ukrainian officials in March 2016 to fire the prosecutor who oversaw an investigation of Burisma Holdings and who planned to interview Hunter Biden about the financial transfers;



Correspondence showing members of the State Department and U.S. embassy in Kiev interfered or applied pressure in criminal cases on Ukrainian soil;



Disbursements of as much as $7 billion in Ukrainian funds that prosecutors believe may have been misappropriated or taken out of the country, including to the United States.

Ukraines evidence, if true, would mark the first documented allegation of Democrats receiving assistance from a foreign power in their efforts to help Clinton win the 2016 election. ... There is public-source information, in Ukraine and in the United States, that gives credence to some of what Ukrainian prosecutors allege.



A court in Ukraine formally concluded that law enforcement officials there illegally tried to intervene in the 2016 U.S. election by leaking documents of Manaforts business dealings after he was named Trumps campaign chairman. And a Ukrainian parliamentarian released a purported tape recording of a top Ukrainian law enforcement official bragging that he was responsible for the leak and was trying to help Clinton win.

U.S. banking records show Hunter Bidens American-based firm, Rosemont Seneca Partners LLC, received regular transfers into one of its accounts  usually more than $166,000 a month  from Burisma from spring 2014 through fall 2015, during a period when Vice President Biden was the main U.S. official dealing with Ukraine and its tense relations with Russia.



The general prosecutors official file for the Burisma probe  shared with me by senior Ukrainian officials  shows prosecutors identified Hunter Biden, business partner Devon Archer and their firm, Rosemont Seneca, as potential recipients of money.

In his own words, with video cameras rolling, Biden described how he threatened Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in March 2016 that the Obama administration would pull $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees, sending the former Soviet republic toward insolvency, if it didnt immediately fire Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin.



I said, Youre not getting the billion. Im going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: Im leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, youre not getting the money, Biden recalled telling Poroshenko.



Well, son of a bitch, he got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time, Biden told the Council on Foreign Relations event, insisting that President Obama was in on the threat.

Nonetheless, some hard questions should be answered by Biden as he prepares, potentially, to run for president in 2020: Was it appropriate for your son and his firm to cash in on Ukraine while you served as point man for Ukraine policy? What work was performed for the money Hunter Bidens firm received? Did you know about the Burisma probe? And when it was publicly announced that your son worked for Burisma, should you have recused yourself from leveraging a U.S. policy to pressure the prosecutor who very publicly pursued Burisma?

Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden may have leveraged the [2014] Maidan coup and war in East Ukraine to strike lucrative oil fracking deals in East Ukraine, along with a John Kerry family friend.



Limassol, Cyprus based energy firm Burisma Holdings, collected large energy contracts in the East of Ukraine, with Hunter Biden, Devon Archer and oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskyi, closely tied to the energy production company, which pushed for fracking exploration on land owned by East Ukrainian residents.

Wheels within wheels. This is from longtime investigative reporter John Solomon, writing in(emphasis mine throughout):Intrigued? Look at the elements:Here is some of what Ukrainian investigators have found. Solomon again:What should we make of this?The first two points above should frighten the "attack on our democracy" crew  looking at you, Adam Schiff , and you, Rachel Maddow  but so far, nothing from that quarter. It seems electoral attacks on our democracy and election matter only when Trump, Russians and Republicans are involved.And yet:Solomon notes a 2017 Politico report containing much the same information. One wonders why no one cares.The second two bullets above relate to something I've been privately aware of for a while, that Joe Biden has a Ukraine corruption problem and it's serious.For example, from an April 1, 2019 report by Solomon on Joe Biden, Hunter Biden and Burisma Holdings, the Ukraine's leading private natural gas producer , we find this:Yet in that same report we learn that Joe Biden not only got that prosecutor fired, he bragged about it with the cameras rolling:Which led Solomon to ask these questions:Joe Biden's Ukraine corruption problem is not just a recent one. The underlying story of how Hunter Biden and his company, Rosemont Seneca Partners, got involved with Burisma in the first place also raises questions Will anyone who matters in the U.S. talk about it?The last puzzle  after the alleged Ukrainian interference "in our democracy" on behalf of the Clinton campaign, and the Biden corruption allegations  is the lack of response by the Trump Department of Justice. As Solomon's story details, it's not like Ukrainian prosecutors haven't tried to raise the alarm. Yet so far nothing from the Trump administration. Ukrainian prosecutors are still being denied visas to visit the U.S. so they can present their case to U.S. prosecutors.There's not enough evidence to show why there's been no action on these charges, and, of course, action might still be forthcoming. But we can look at what the effect of burying this story and any potential prosecution might be by looking at who benefits.Burying this story and preventing prosecution benefits. A corruption prosecution of his son Hunter in either the U.S. or Ukraine, plus the knowledge that Biden used his position as vice-president to protect his son, might well be the finishing blow to his still-not-announced 2020 candidacy.Burying this story benefits, not just Joe Biden. Note that Biden said that Obama was in on the plan to blackmail Ukrainian officials to fire the prosecutor. The benefit to Obama's thus-far untarnished reputation would be undeniable.In addition, if indeed Joe Biden is the shining knight on which the Party, like a lady in distress, have pinned their ribbons and hopes , his fall could mark the end of those hopes. What do mainstream Democrats hope for from Biden? The defeat of Bernie Sanders in the primary, or anyone like him.In an odd way, burying the story benefitsas well. If 2020 will truly be another "change year" for the electorate, whom would Trump rather run against  an old school, been-around-too-long mainstream Party regular (with baggage), or a genuine change candidate like Bernie Sanders, a man whose crowds rival and surpass Trump's own?It's speculative, of course, to assess motives at this point, but the benefits to those listed are obvious and easy to divine.However this story develops, stay tuned. We'll learn a lot if it breaks into the mainstream. We'll also learn a lot if it doesn't.

Labels: 2016 presidential race, Corruption, foreign interference in U.S. elections, Gaius Publius, Hunter Biden, Joe Biden, methane, Thomas Neuburger, Ukraine




Friday evening, Bill Maher did what you would expect Bill Maher to do-- excused Joe Biden's behavior, with some cute jokes ("his hands have been part of an exploratory committee for decades"). Although he considers the whole #MeToo thing "a little nitpicky," he did acknowledge that "of course, no one likes to be touched unwantingly and women get a lot more of that than men but..." Yes, but. One of the best-- and most productive-- members of my senior management team at one of the companies I ran would go a little further than Biden did. He's gay and he would, in a very friendly way, grab men's crotches as a way of accessing if their penis was large enough for him to bother with; he's a size queen. Men didn't like that. Gay men didn't like it; straight men didn't like it. How do you think Bill Maher would feel about it? Especially if it was done by someone in a position of authority over him? Someone who could determine how much his bonus would be, for example? A little nitpicky?

A second Trump term make me feel gross and uneasy too, Bill. That's what Bernie's there for. Watch this. I agree with this guy on every call but two. The Omaha, Nebraska has one electoral vote and Bernie's going to get it in 2020. And Florida... I'm not as sure as he is that Florida is going to Trump. But that's a little nitpicky because it doesn't matter since Bernie will have already crushed Trump in the electoral college before all Florida's votes are counted.

not willing to apologize over. "I like that," Maher said to Castro, about Biden saying he's not sorry for feeling up women for 60 or 70 or 80 years or for however long he's been acting like a creep. And he ten that big a deal," said Maher, who has been making a career for himself as Mister-Anti-Politically-Correct. Enough of Bill Maher's Biden-isn't-so-bad jokes? "it's getting ridiculous." Is it? How about talking about Biden's actual record as a corporate whore and Wall Street shill? Or about his grotesque racism instead of the touchy-feely stuff? Still, later in the show, Maher brought on Julian Castro to say he likes that Biden finally found something he'swilling to apologize over. "I like that," Maher said to Castro, about Biden saying he's not sorry for feeling up women for 60 or 70 or 80 years or for however long he's been acting like a creep. And he ten launched into a disgusting attack on Castro for a statement he had made on Maddow's show about taking Biden's attitude towards women serious ("with great gravitas"). "I think he should joke about; I don't think it'sbig a deal," said Maher, who has been making a career for himself as Mister-Anti-Politically-Correct.





Castro killed him. Maher played the part of pig. Castro played the part of ethics teacher-- and Maher's audience agreed with Castro... loudly. Maher didn't like it when Castro used the word "bullshit-- twice-- to describe Maher's intention of laughing it off. Watch the exchange at the link above.





New York Magazine got a groups of their regular writers together for a chat about the Biden thing, Magazine got a groups of their regular writers together for a chat about the Biden thing, Is The Biden Appeal About To Fade? . I sure hope so, but many people-- mostly people over 70 who have lost their memories or who are very conservative Democrats-- disagree with me. The panel consisted of Benjamin Hart, Jonathan Chait, Margaret Hartmann, Ed Kilgore, Ezekiel Kweku, Eric Levitz, David Wallace-Wells, and Ben Williams. Kweku made the salient point right off that bat that he may not be the best candidate to beat Trump-- Biden's pitch, his calling card-- because "his high ratings are pure Obama nostalgia, and I have my doubts that they would carry him through both a primary and a general election. Chait and Williams seem to agree: "I likewise suspect his campaign performance would bring him back to Earth," said Chait. "People forget all the gaffes. He has run before and lost very badly!" and Williams added that he feels "its better to nominate someone without a decades-long record to attack. Anti-Trump sentiment is going to rally behind any candidate."
Central Vietnam steel plant to be auctioned for miniscule fraction of investment

The Van Loi Steel Mill in the central Ha Tinh Province has been left deserted for eight years. Photo by VnExpress/Duc Hung

The Van Loi Steel Mill, deserted for eight years, will be auctioned at 6.4 percent of its registered investment.

The plant in Ha Tinh Province is scheduled to be auctioned with a starting bid of around VND109 billion ($4.7 million), local authorities said recently.

The project, spanning an area of 26 hectares (64.2 acres), was licensed to operate in June 2007 with a registered capital of VND1.7 trillion ($73.3 million).

Its investors, Ha Tinh Steel Jsc and a few other companies and individuals, had set a target to produce its first steel billet in August 2010.

However, project construction failed to meet deadlines in the 2007-2010 period because investors lacked funds. They later borrowed over VND700 billion ($30.2 million) from three banks to carry on the project. With no substantial progress seen even after the loan, the provincial administration decided to revoke the project license in May 2015.

Since 2010, the unfinished plant has been left deserted, and the machinery and equipment rusted.

A third party evaluated the plants assets (not including land), which belong to the three banks at VND109 billion ($4.7 million). The banks will divide the proceeds of the auction.

After the auction, the projects land will be returned to Ha Tinh Province and be allotted to new investors who are interested in using it.
The fortune of Thai energy tycoon Sarath Ratnavadi jumped by a billion dollars after announcing his Vietnam investment plan.

Ratnavadis shares in Thailands third largest power producer, Gulf Energy Development Pcl, surged 50 percent after announcing last August that he would invest in solar and power ventures in Vietnam.

He owns about 73 percent of Gulf Energy. With a net worth of $4.8 billion, he is the third richest man in Thailand, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The surge in Gulf Energys share price since August 15 is the second-biggest among the 36 companies in the Bloomberg Asia Pacific Electric Index.

"Vietnam has a vast potential as higher economic growth and foreign direct investments will boost future electricity demand," Sarath said in an interview with Bloomberg.

At a meeting with authorities in Ninh Thuan Province in central Vietnam last month, Gulf Energy expressed interest in building a $7.8-billion liquefied natural gas (LNG)-fired power complex in Ca Na, a coastal commune in the province.

It will have four LNG-fired power plants with a combined capacity of 6,000 MW to be built under build-operate-transfer (BOT) or other modes.

Ninh Thuan recently sent to the Ministry of Industry and Trade a proposal to add the Ca Na power complex to its development plans for appraisal. The proposal will be submitted to competent authorities for approval later.

Pham Van Hau, the provinces Vice Chairman, said that once the proposal is approved, Ninh Thuan would release the criteria for choosing investors, with Thailands Gulf Energy being one of the candidates.

In addition to Ca Na, Gulf Energy is also eyeing a 5,000 MW gas power complex in the southern province of Dong Nai and said it is ready to supply gas-fired power technologies to companies in Vietnam.

Under the country's gas industry development plan by 2025, with vision to 2035, Vietnam plans to have six LNG terminals at a total cost of more than $6 billion.

The World Bank has estimated Vietnams electricity demand to grow by around 8 percent a year for the next decade, and said it would need to invest $150 billion by 2030 to develop its energy sector.
Workers of a state-owned bridge building company at a construction site in Hanoi. Photo by Reuters/Kham

S&P Global Ratings has raised Vietnams sovereign credit rating to BB from BB-, but maintained its outlook at stable, its first upgrade since 2010.

"The stable outlook reflects our expectation that Vietnam's economy will continue to expand rapidly, exemplifying gradual improvements in its policymaking settings and underpinning credit metrics," the rating agency said in a release.

The country's external settings, which feature broadly balanced external accounts, strong foreign direct investment inflows and a manageable external debt burden, provide further support to the rating, it added.

Vietnam, being a low-income country, has a rapidly growing economy -- 6.2 percent annual growth on average since 2012 -- and is estimated to grow by 5.7 percent on average until 2022, higher than most other countries with the same income level, said S&P.

GDP per capita has grown from $1,754 in 2012 to $2,752 last year, it added.

The countrys ranking in the World Bank's 2019 Doing Business index has surged to 69th now from 99th in 2013, with strong gains in contract enforcement and regulatory environment.

The ratification of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) last year reflects the governments willingness to adopt and implement necessary reforms, especially in the state sector, S&P said.

However, challenges remain for Vietnam as international trade tensions could undermine the export momentum of the country, which has a large share of trade relative to the size of its economy, it warned.

Domestically, elevated fiscal deficits and public indebtedness mean new sources of funding would likely be needed to continue to spur strong infrastructure investment, it said.

Relatively weak banks, characterized by low levels of capitalization and poor asset quality, also pose a degree of risk to the economic outlook, it added.

S&Ps move comes after two other global credit ratings agencies upgraded Vietnam last year. First Fitch raised the countrys long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating to 'BB' from 'BB-', with a stable outlook. Then Moodys upped the countrys ratings from B1 to Ba3, with a stable outlook.
Family-owned companies in Vietnam find it difficult to pass down leadership due to managerial entrenchment and lack of passion.

A recent study by Singapore's Business Families Institute revealed that only 30 percent of family businesses in the world made the successful transition to the second generation, 12 percent remained viable into a third, and 3 percent into a fourth or beyond.

But not so many Vietnamese companies succeeded beyond the second and third generations, experts said at a workshop titled "Developing the next generations - Best practices of international successful business families" and organized by the Vietnam Chamber Of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and Mentally Fit Global in early April.

The workshop gathered young Vietnamese entrepreneurs and foreign experts.

VCCI vice president Hoang Quang Phong said developing the next generation is considered the biggest hardship for family businesses. "The initial generation took time and effort to launch a business. However, the development depends on the generation taking over."

In a panel discussion, experts pointed out the reasons for the failure to transmit leadership in family businesses, including managerial entrenchment, conflicts of interests and the new generation's lack of passion.

Annie Koh, academic director of Business Families Institute, said research shows that 85 percent of Southeast Asian family businesses expect to hand over their management to the next generation, but are not well prepared for that. She suggested that preparations should be made 10 to 20 years beforehand.

Experts at a panel discussion on "How to bridge intergenerational leadership gap in business families".

Alain Goudmest, founder and director of Mentally Fit Global, said the Vietnamese culture is characterized by hierarchy and respect for elders. "The next generation needs to be empowered, listened to and motivated."

The speakers agreed that the succeeding generations should have a passion for the family business and be trained early to take over successfully.

Nguyen Duy, a third generation owner of Kova Trading, spoke about his eight-year experience after starting as a low-level employee to become CEO of the family-owned company.

"The experience of working as a low-level employee with a leadership mindset helped me overcome difficulties at work easily."

Pham Dinh Doan, chairman of Phu Thai Group and director of the VCCIs Family Businesses Council, noted that the first generation needs to adopt knowledge, technology and new models in family businesses.

He also stressed the importance of their modern management and innovation in developing human resources.
HCMC plans to spend VND8 trillion on 218 projects to combat flooding in downtown areas and part of the outskirts.

The projects will be carried out in six places covering 550 square kilometers (212 square miles) that are currently home to 6.5 million people.

They will upgrade water drainage systems, build ponds and fix flood-prone streets in 1, 7, Tan Phu, Tan Binh, Thu Duc and Go Vap districts.

The city will use its own budget and call for investment via public private partnerships to carry out the projects.

In related news, the city has also pledged to complete an anti-flooding project covering 100 hectares (250 acres) in districts 1, 4, 7, 8, Binh Chanh and Nha Be.

The VND10 trillion ($430 million) project was supposed to be completed this June, but it has been suspended since April last year after a supervising consultant found out that it had used steel from China instead of G7 countries as stipulated in the contract signed between the city and the domestic private investor. G7 is a group of seven largest and most advanced economies in the world.

As part of its efforts to stem urban flooding, the city has said it will also deal with blocked drainage areas such as canals and sewers.

Commenting on the plan to fight floods this year, experts say the number of projects is high, but given the tardiness of ongoing projects, it is difficult to imagine that residents will not suffer flooding misery during the rainy season.

Last month, HCMC passed a VND473 billion ($20.4 million) project for a 14-month comprehensive renovation of the highly flood-prone Nguyen Huu Canh Street.

But this project will need some time for all needed procedures to be completed, and no one can tell if this will be done to get the street ready in time for the rainy season of 2020.

Ngo Viet Nam Son, an architect with experience in urban planning, said HCMC should be rational and understand that even if it could afford all projects it has planned, it cannot save itself from flooding.

He said fighting floods does not totally depend on projects like drainage systems or ponds, because there are way too many concrete buildings in the city and water has no way to flow away. Therefore, mistakes in urban planning should be taken into consideration, he added.

"It needs a more comprehensive plan that involves urban planning and urban management. What the city has done so far has stopped at the response level, rather than looking at full-fledged solutions for the situation," Son said.

HCMC, a city of 13 million, including migrants, has suffered flooding for more than two decades now. Scenes of residents getting stuck or wading in deep floodwaters every time it rains or the tide rises are common.

Laurent Umans, First Secretary, Water and Climate Change of the Netherlands Embassy in Hanoi, told a meeting last August that it was possible that a major part of the city lies below sea level in 50 years, turning it into a swamp.
Japanese police have arrested two Vietnamese nationals suspected of being members of a major shoplifting gang that has struck at 70 drugstores.

On March 26, Bui Huy Hoang and a woman accomplice, whose name has not been revealed, entered a store in Kanuma City and allegedly stole cosmetics and other items valued around 130,000 yen ($1,166), the Tokyo Reporter said Sunday.

After committing the crime, the duo fled in a vehicle.

Later that day police in Tochigi Prefecture apprehended the pair following a complaint from the store owner that foreigners had stolen from his shop.

According to the police, the gang, comprising Vietnamese, targets drugstores in Tochigi and is believed to have carried out more than 70 robberies.

The reputation of Vietnamese living in Japan took a hit following a police report in 2017 that said they committed more crimes than any other foreign non-permanent residents in the country

They recorded 5,140 crimes by Vietnamese people in 2017, up from 3,177 the year before, accounting for 30.2 percent of all crimes committed by foreign nationals.

Shoplifting was their main crime, with 2,037 cases, while the number of burglaries they committed shot up to 325 from just 12 the previous year.

The number of Vietnamese living in Japan jumped by 26.1 percent from a year earlier to 330,835 in 2018, accounting for 8 percent of foreign nationals, the Japan Times reported.

Vietnamese have overtaken Philippine nationals as the third largest minority group behind China and South Korea.
Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, leader of the Future Forward Part,y flashes a three-finger salute to his supporters as he leaves at a police station after hearing a sedition complaint filed by the army in Bangkok, Thailand, April 6, 2019. Photo by Reuters/Athit Perawongmetha

Two weeks after the vote for Thailand's first general election since a 2014 army coup, results are still unclear and allegations of manipulation are mounting.

Since the March 24 vote, figures linked to a "democratic front" of opposition parties say they have come under increasing pressure from police and the military.

The Election Commission has also indicated it would use a complex allocation formula for 150 "party seats" in the House of Representatives in a way that would likely dilute the opposition alliance's seats in the 500-seat lower house.

The Election Commission has said it won't announce even provisional winners of the 150 party seats until May 9, saying it needs time to order by-elections and vote recounts as well as to disqualify candidates who broke election laws.

But critics say the time gap allows the military-royalist establishment to manipulate results and disqualify opponents of the pro-army Palang Pracharat party that seeks to keep junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha in power as an elected prime minister.

The leading opposition Pheu Thai party, made up of loyalists to army-ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, sees the delays and legal actions as an attempt to deny the "democratic front" enough seats in the House needed to block the main junta-linked party from unrestrained lawmaking power.

"After the election ... the majority of the people feels a sense of hopelessness and distrust for the election process," said Pheu Thai's secretary-general, Phumtham Wechayachai.

"People are talking about the Election Commission's part in supporting the extension of power by the National Council for Peace and Order," he said, using the junta's formal name.

The Election Commission's secretary-general, Jaroongwit Phumma, told Reuters the body is not helping the pro-military party.

"The election commission is neutral and adheres to the law. We don't take sides or help one particular party," Jaroongwit said.

Palang Pracharat said it does not gain any advantages over opposition parties.

"It's completely false to say that the election commission is helping Palang Pracharat. This is an attempt to discredit us," the party's deputy spokesman Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana told Reuters.

Sedition charge

However, opposition figures say they are being targeted.

Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, the leader of the youth-oriented Future Forward Party which did surprisingly well in the vote, was charged on Saturday with sedition on a junta complaint dating back to 2015 - a case that could see his party disbanded.

Online campaigns have also cast Thanathorn as anti-monarchy, a serious crime in Thailand, where the monarchy is revered without question.

Thanathorn denies being against the monarchy and all charges against him.

"It's the establishment's desire to stir hatred, fear, and mistrust among the people, creating legitimacy for the military to take over and stay on," Thanathorn said last week.

Winthai Suvaree, a spokesman for the junta, said the charges against Thanathorn were not aimed at weakening the opposition and were "entirely unrelated to current political events".

'Abnormal election'

The rules of the election were written in the 2017 junta-backed constitution, which critics said were aimed at ensuring military influence in Thai politics.

Among the new provisions is that the Senate, the 250-seat upper house of parliament appointed by the junta, must approve the prime minister in a combined vote with the House, which previously solely voted on the premier.

That means the junta-backed party and its allies have to gain only 126 seats in the House to install Prayuth as prime minister, while the opposition would need 376 votes for their potential candidate.

Still, days after the March 24 vote, the "democratic front" claimed through its own calculations that it would gain at least 255 House seats - not be enough to form a government but potentially allowing it to block the military-backed party from having free rein.

Last week, however, the election commission indicated the complex formula to calculate allocation of the 150 "party list" seats will round up decimals to give seats to 11 small parties although their popular votes did not meet a previously described threshhold required to earn even one seat.

"This is an irregularity that reflects an effort to block the democratic front from forming the next government," said Pheu Thai's spokeswoman Ladawan Wongsriwong.

Widening the list would cut seats from top popular vote getters and could reduce seats for Future Forward from around 87 to 80, potentially hurting the democratic front's claim of House majority.

"It's an abnormal election from the outset. It's a game where the junta wrote the rules and appointed the referee, who is also acting abnormally," said Yingcheep Atchanont, project manager at legal-monitoring group iLaw.

Palang Pracharat has repeatedly said it reaps no benefits from the constitution.

Sonthirat Sontijirawong, the Palang Pracharat secretary-general, has said the party would begin talks to form the next government only after the king's official coronation on May 4-6.

'Bad people'

The election comes after nearly 15 years of turmoil, during which conflicts between supporters of ousted former premier Thaksin and his establishment opponents manifested in street protests, violent clashes, and two military coups.

On the eve of the vote, King Maha Vajiralongkorn made an unexpected statement, recalling a comment made by his late father on the need to put "good people" in power and to prevent "bad people from ... creating chaos."

Six days later, the king revoked royal decorations that had been awarded to Thaksin, citing his 2008 corruption conviction and for fleeing the country to escape prison.

The military also stripped Thaksin of a pre-cadet school's achievement award as well as deleting his name from the school's hall of fame.

"Thaksin continues to be a threat to the position of power of the establishment," Pavin Chachavalpongpun, associate professor at Kyoto University's Center forSoutheast Asian Studies, told Reuters.
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.
As part of its clear strategy to internationalise its renewable energy business, EnBW Energie Baden-Wurttemberg AG also wants to create further growth in France. Accordingly, EnBW has submitted a binding offer to the owners of the Valeco Group, the French developer and operator of wind and solar farms, for acquiring 100 per cent of the shares in the company. Based on this offer, the owners have selected EnBW from a high-calibre field as exclusive bidder. In a next step, French law prescribes that the company's staff council has the opportunity to be consulted on the terms of the offer. Consequently, the company has now initiated this consultation process, which will have to be completed before entering into any binding agreement to sell. Both parties have agreed not to disclose any details of the offer.

We are delighted to be in exclusive talks for Valeco,' says EnBW CEO Frank Mastiaux. For EnBW, this is another important step on the way to making renewable energy a cornerstone of the company's business. We see good prospects for common growth in France.' CTO Hans-Josef Zimmer adds: Our declared common goal with Valeco is to break into the top five wind and solar players in France in the medium term. The employees' expertise, the project pipeline and the strong brand would provide an outstanding basis in this regard.'

Valeco is based in Montpellier and is one of the top ten operators of renewable energy farms on the French market. The company employs around 135 people in the onshore wind and solar business and is active along the entire value chain in France from developing trough construction to operation. With an installed output of 276 megawatts of onshore wind power and 56 megawatts of solar power in operation as well as a project pipeline of 1,700 megawatts, Valeco currently generates an annual turnover of around 50 million euros.

EnBW has invested around three billion euros to date in expanding its renewable energy business as part of its Strategy 2020. Until 2025 the company aims at investing another 5 billion Euros in Germany and in selected international markets. Since 2018, EnBW has already been active in France, developing the onshore wind and solar business with its subsidiary EnBW Energies Renouvelables SAS.

EnBW Energie Baden-Wurttemberg AG is one of the largest energy suppliers in Germany and Europe with a workforce of more than 21,000 employees. The company supplies around 5.5 million customers with electricity, gas, water and energy solutions and services.
ENN has signed a Heads of Agreement (HOA) with Woodside Energy for the procurement of 1.0 million tonnes of LNG per annum from Woodside's portfolio for a period of 10 years, commencing in 2025. ENN Group CEO Mr. Zhang Yesheng and Woodside Energy CEO Peter Coleman attended the signing ceremony.

The HOA remains conditional upon the negotiation and execution of a fully termed Sales and Purchase Agreement and obtaining all necessary approvals and a Final Investment Decision on Scarborough.

ENN is one of the largest private clean energy distributors in China, with 187 urban gas projects covering a population of 94.57 million. In 2018,the sales volume of natural gas of ENN reached 23.3 billion cubic meters, accounting for 8% of China's market share. In the same year, the first large-scale LNG receiving terminal invested and constructed by private enterprises in China - Zhoushan LNG receiving terminal was commissioned and started commercial operation. Meanwhile, based on the rapid development of the downstream market in China, ENN has entered into a number of medium and long term LNG supply agreement with international suppliers, and has formes its trade network initially.

China's natural gas consumption has been growing rapidly. In 2018, China consumed 280 billion cubic meters of natural gas, and imported 54 million tonnes of LNG, making it the world's largest natural gas importer and the second largest LNG importer and Australia ranks among the top sources of LNG imports to China.

Woodside Energy is Australia's largest independent oil and gas company with a global portfolio, recognized for its world-class capabilities as an integrated upstream supplier of Energy and Woodside has delivered over 5000 LNG cargoes to international customers since 1989 from its portfolio, including NWS, Pluto, Wheatstone, etc.

Contact:

Wang Jiecong, Tel.: +86 13810801163
Securing their place as a world leader in ocean conservation, the Labour Party of Norway has committed to permanently protect this critical area in the Norwegian Arctic from oil drilling and exploration.

Leading up to this historic achievement, SeaLegacy worked to galvanize global support for the ban, running a multi-faceted media campaign that inspired more than 53,000 ocean advocates from more than 160 countries to sign a petition calling for permanent protection. The signatures were delivered to The Labour Party of Norway at their annual meeting in Oslo today.

Through stunning video and photography, SeaLegacy brought the beauty and power of this essential ecosystem into the hearts and minds of an international audience. Known for its dramatic scenery and unique marine biodiversity, this archipelago in the Norwegian Arctic is home to the world's largest cod stock and cold water coral reef, the biggest seabird colonies in the European mainland, and thousands of species of fish, marine mammals, seabirds, and invertebrates that are critical to the ecological stability of the area. With this permanent ban, this area's scientific and cultural significance will be preserved for generations to come.

"This commitment is a testament to the power of global stewardship - a beacon to the world that change is upon us," said Paul Nicklen, Co-founder of SeaLegacy. A career National Geographic photographer, Nicklen has significant experience covering conservation issues in Norway. "It takes courage and vision to stand up for systemic change. The permanent protection from oil drilling and exploration in Lofoten in Northern Norway should serve as an example for the rest of the world."

Today's success is the culmination of decades of collaborative work by Folkeaksjonen, (People's Action for an Oil-Free Lofoten, Vesteralen, and Senja), Friends of the Earth Norway, and Labour Party Youth Norway (AUF), who spearheaded a multi-year campaign that secured a series of six temporary bans on petroleum activity in Vesteralen and Senja, the seas outside of Lofoten.

"For more than a decade we have been advocating for Arbeiderpartiet (Labour party in Norway) to stand on the right side of history and vote to protect one of the world's most vulnerable and unique marine areas against oil and gas development," says Ingrid Skjoldvaer, Deputy Chair, Folkeaksjonen. "Today's victory stands as a shining symbol of the sustainable future we are fighting for. A big thank you to everyone in the international community who have raised their voice for Lofoten!"

About SeaLegacy

Founded in 2014 by Cristina Mittermeier and Paul Nicklen, SeaLegacy is building a movement - using the power of imagery, storytelling, and community engagement - to drive transformational solutions for healthy and abundant oceans. Inspiring millions of people through its media networks, SeaLegacy catalyzes and amplifies solutions that promote sustainable fisheries and protect marine species and habitats around the world.

Attachments

Contact

Kait Burgan

SeaLegacy

+1 250 800 9802 kait@sealegacy.org

Ingrid Skjoldvr Folkeaksjonen (People's Action for an Oil-Free Lofoten,

Vesteralen, and Senja)

+47 977 02 181

ingrid@folkeaksjonen.no
The Supreme Court of Canada has rejected a request to review a decision of the Court of Appeal for Ontario that a $9.5 billion Ecuadorian judgment against Chevron Corporation cannot be enforced against Chevron Canada Limited, an indirect subsidiary. The Court of Appeal for Ontario's decision, which is now final, dismissed all claims against Chevron Canada Limited, holding that it is a separate entity from Chevron Corporation and that its shares and assets cannot be seized by those seeking to enforce the corrupt Ecuadorian judgment. The Ecuadorian judgment itself has already been found by U.S. courts and an international tribunal in The Hague to have been obtained through fraud, bribery and corruption.

"We are pleased that the highest court in Canada has put an end to the plaintiffs' lawyers' attempts to enforce their corrupt Ecuadorian judgment against Chevron's indirect subsidiary in Canada," said R. Hewitt Pate, vice president and general counsel, Chevron Corporation. "Canadian courts have rejected the plaintiffs' efforts to circumvent the determination by U.S. courts that the Ecuadorian judgment against Chevron was procured through bribery, fraud and other racketeering activity. Any further efforts by the plaintiffs' lawyers to continue this lawsuit in Canada would be an abuse of the country's legal system and a waste of its judicial resources."

Because Chevron Corporation has never had any assets in Ecuador, the plaintiffs, led by adjudicated racketeer and suspended lawyer Steven Donziger, are attempting to enforce the Ecuadorian judgment in other jurisdictions. Donziger and his associates had sought to enforce the judgment against both Chevron Corporation, which has no assets in Canada, and Chevron Canada Limited, which was not a party to the Ecuadorian lawsuit. Today's decision confirms once and for all that the fraudsters cannot pursue Chevron Canada Limited's shares and assets.

Last September, an international tribunal administered by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague issued an award in favor of Chevron and its indirect subsidiary, Texaco Petroleum Company, finding that the Republic of Ecuador violated its obligations under international treaties, investment agreements and international law. The tribunal in a unanimous ruling by a panel including an arbitrator chosen by the Republic of Ecuador held that a $9.5 billion judgment rendered against Chevron in Lago Agrio, Ecuador, in 2011 was procured through fraud, bribery and corruption and was based on claims that had been already settled and released by the Republic of Ecuador years earlier. The tribunal concluded that the fraudulent Ecuadorian judgment "violates international public policy" and "should not be recognised or enforced by the courts of other States." As a matter of international law, this award confirms Chevron is not obliged to comply with the Ecuadorian judgment.

In 2011, the plaintiffs obtained a $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron in an Ecuadorian court, but in 2014, a U.S. federal court found that the Ecuadorian judgment was the product of fraud and racketeering activity, including extortion, money laundering, wire fraud, witness tampering, judicial bribery, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations and obstruction of justice. The court prohibited enforcement of the Ecuadorian judgment in the United States. That decision is now final after having been unanimously affirmed by a U.S. court of appeals and denied review by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 2018, Donziger was suspended from practicing law in New York State and Washington, DC as a result of his unlawful conduct in procuring the Ecuadorian judgment.

The plaintiffs' other attempts to enforce the judgment in jurisdictions around the globe have also failed:

In November 2017, Brazil's Superior Court of Justice unanimously rejected an attempt to enforce the Ecuadorian judgment in Brazil. Brazil's Deputy Prosecutor General stated the judgment was "issued in an irregular manner, especially under deplorable acts of corruption."

This followed a ruling by a court in Argentina in October 2017, which also denied recognition of the Ecuadorian judgment. An Argentine appeals court upheld this decision in July 2018, citing a lack of jurisdiction.

In December 2015, the Supreme Court of Gibraltar issued a judgment against Amazonia Recovery Ltd., a Gibraltar-based company set up by the plaintiffs' attorneys and investors to receive and distribute funds resulting from the Ecuadorian judgment, awarding Chevron $28 million in damages. The Court also issued a permanent injunction against Amazonia prohibiting the company from assisting or supporting the case against Chevron in any way. The court issued a similar ruling in May 2018 against directors of Amazonia, Frente de Defensa de la Amazonia, and Ecuadorian attorney Pablo Fajardo for their role in attempting to enforce the ruling, this time awarding $38 million in damages to Chevron.

Chevron Corporation is one of the world's leading integrated energy companies. Through its subsidiaries that conduct business worldwide, the company is involved in virtually every facet of the energy industry. Chevron explores for, produces and transports crude oil and natural gas; refines, markets and distributes transportation fuels and lubricants; manufactures and sells petrochemicals and additives; generates power; and develops and deploys technologies that enhance business value in every aspect of the company's operations. Chevron is based in San Ramon, Calif. More information about Chevron is available at www.chevron.com.
Hilary Stern is washing walnuts as she recounts her story. Its one that begins 40 years ago at the University of Washington and ends in an unlikely Airbnb in Souto de Mogos, a tiny Spanish village nestled in the mountains on the border of Asturias and Galicia. The town is home to fewer than 20 people but one person is notably missing: Javier Gonzalez Alonso, the person who inspired Hilary to leave her life in the United States and move to a village where most residents have never traveled to the closest city.

Javier was completing his PhD at the University of Washington while Hilary was studying there. He was her Spanish teacher but soon became much more.

I fell in love with him, she says. We were a couple for a while and then broke up but he was always my soulmate and my best friend.

Hilary and Javier in Puerto de Lastres in 1979. Provided by Hilary

Hilary married and had children. But they were never out of touch. When Hilary got divorced, the two began a long-distance relationship that would last nearly 20 years.

As we got older, I decided that I would come out here [to Souto de Mogos]. He had retired and bought this house because he just wanted to be in a small village in Asturias and live, she says.

But on his last visit to the US, Javier started to feel sick. He had cancer and it had already metastasized. Hilary moved to Souto de Mogos and took care of him throughout his illness. During this time, she was supported not only by Javiers family but also by the villagers.

They were very very supportive of me and every morning I started going out walking with the women of the town. It was really great because before that the only people I knew were Javiers family, she says.

They were very taken with our relationship, she adds. In the beginning, because we were the only ones who didnt farm, they were very worried about us ... So they would share their harvest with us and every time we came to the house, there would be a bag of something they had picked.

During that time, Hilary and Javier got married. All the villagers were invited. They pooled together their money to pay for the champagne and to buy dinner for a group of folk musicians led by Nela de Bres, a legend of the area. The music group had at first declined to play at the wedding but changed their mind after hearing Hilary and Javiers story. According to Hilary, they played from the afternoon until the wee hours of the morning, animated by the dancing and singing of the wedding guests.

We thought it was just going to be a small thing but it turned out to be very romantic because we had loved each other all our lives, she explains.

Sadly, not long after, Javier passed away. Hilary felt lost. I didnt really know what to do because Id made this grand gesture and I was just out here now. I didnt feel alone but I didnt know where to go, what to do, she explains.

Hilary on a hike near Souto de Mogos.

In the end, she decided to finish the renovations Javier had begun on a guesthouse. It was slow work but last summer she finally opened the house on Airbnb, the short-term home-rental site which in many cities is criticized for pushing up the cost of rent and hurting communities. But in Souto de Mogos the reaction was the opposite. In a town where almost everyone has known each other since birth, visitors are more than welcome, says Hilary.

The villagers are very excited and are always asking whos coming now. They love meeting new people and the fact that Im here and I can introduce them makes it easier for them to relate, she explains.

Hilary says some locals have even taken it upon themselves to spruce up the village, with one setting up a park with a fountain. Its also been good for the local economy. Hilary encourages her guests to support the villagers, pointing out who has extra eggs or produce they may be willing to sell. And for Hilary, the venture is a fun way to meet new people and enjoy her adopted home as a tourist.

Its such a beautiful place, she says. Thanks to Javier, she is one of the remaining 15 or so people who live in Souto de Mogos. Its not the end though, just the beginning of another story.
More than two million people over the age of 65 live alone. Carlos Rosillo

According to a new study conducted by the National Statistics Institute (INE), more than two million people over the age of 65 live alone in Spain. Thats almost half the 4.7 million single-person households in the country. Of those two million, more than 850,000 are over the age of 80, and the vast majority are women (662,000).

More than two million people over the age of 65 live alone, and more than 850,000 are over the age of 80

While the data show that the trends between age groups have not varied significantly between 2013 and 2018 (the years for which data is available), it is indicative of the crisis currently facing Spain: people are older and increasingly alone.

Data from INEs Continuous Household Survey shows a decrease in the number of youths living by themselves. Last year, around 482,000 people between the ages of 25 and 34 did not share housing with anyone else, compared to 616,300 people who did six years ago. The survey also revealed that 53.1% of these youths still live with their parents, compared to 48.5% in 2013.

We shouldnt get used to these numbers. It would be a scandal in Scandinavian countries, says Albert Esteve, director of the Center for Demographic Studies at Autonoma University in Barcelona. Its almost a world record, the number of youths who are living [with their parents.] And it doesnt seem to be decreasing. The crisis was felt in unemployment, but now that there are more work opportunities we dont see the numbers improving. The precariousness of jobs has not stopped growing. The fact that the average number of household members has remained more or less stable around 2.5 people is due, in part, to the fact that many older children continue to live with their parents. This also affects fertility. Life with a partner and having children happens later in life.

The number of youths living with their parents is almost a world record. And it doesnt seem to be decreasing

Albert Esteve, Autonoma University

This means that fewer young people are able to lead independent lives, while the number of senior citizens living alone has increased. However, experts emphasize that it is important to differentiate between being alone by choice or by force. We come from a society in which taking care of the elderly was an obligation assumed by the children. And now this clashes with the desire for independence from parents, which has been rising over the years, says Antonio Abellan, a demographer of the Department of Population at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and an expert on old age. Technological advancements have also allowed elderly citizens to continue living alone. The development in home-care services and the adaptation of homes has allowed [the elderly] to be more self-reliant.

Living alone [is a trend that] will continue to grow. This is because marriages do not end anymore so much because of death, since life expectancy for men has increased, but because people divorce or choose to be single, adds Abellan.

Between 2013 and 2018, single-person households increased by 320,000, and last year they represented 25.5% of all households. Those over 65 make up three-fourths of this increase, says Merce Perez Salanova, who has a PhD in psychology and is a member of Psychologists Association of Catalonia. Living alone isnt a problem. The thing to look at is the conditions in which a person is living alone, and whether it is out of choice. The problem is when it is not.

The Spanish regions with the highest percentage of single-person households in 2018 were Asturias (30.2% of the total number of households), Castilla y Leon (29.3%) and La Rioja (28.5%).

English version by Asia London Palomba.
Spains leftist Podemos party filed a complaint on October 17 reporting that a security camera installed outside the family home of the groups leader, Pablo Iglesias, had been hacked, and that footage was being streamed live on a publicly accessible website.

The Interior Ministry, which was first alerted about the incident, has confirmed the report. The security camera had been installed by the Civil Guard on a property owned by Podemos chiefs Pablo Iglesias and his partner Irene Montero in Galapagar, northwest of the Spanish capital.

Details about the security operation had been leaked just a few days before the camera was hacked

The law-enforcement agency had to reset the camera and install new devices to prevent hackers from accessing the images again.

Investigators have traced the hackers back to a server in Singapore, but have been unable to identify the perpetrators, said a ministry spokesperson.

Three days before the complaint, the party had received an anonymous message with screenshots of the website broadcasting live images of the Galapagar property.

Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias walking out of the High Court where he testified in an espionage case. EL PAIS

Details about the security operation approved by the Interior Ministry to protect the politicians home had been leaked just a few days before the camera was hacked.

In recent weeks, Iglesias has denounced police operations carried out under the previous Popular Party (PP) administration aimed at spying on Podemos and creating fake evidence to support claims of illegal funding by the anti-austerity party. Iglesias also said that the current Socialist Party (PSOE) administration has not done enough to end such foul play, which he alludes to as the cesspit of the state.

Podemos was also apparently targeted by the so-called Patriotic Brigade, a group of police officers who allegedly engaged in irregular activities during ex-prime minister Mariano Rajoys first term in office in an attempt to damage the reputation of the PPs political rivals. Last week, Podemos sources said they will ask an investigating judge to accept as evidence several audio recordings revealed by the online dailies El Confidencial and Moncloa.com in which a police chief inspector named Jose Angel Fuentes Gago asks former Venezuelan minister Rafael Isea for help to prevent Podemos from coming to power in Spain.

Founded in March 2014 as a protest party during Spains economic recession, Podemos has been the target of several espionage operations, some of which were launched by the Spanish Interior Ministry. Attempts to find evidence that might damage the partys image began ahead of the general election of December 20, 2015, when Podemos was soaring in opinion polls. Spaniards ultimately made the party the third-largest political force in parliament, undermining the traditional two-party system dominated by the PP and the PSOE.

The Galapagar home Jose Marcos Pablo Iglesias and Irene Montero were heavily criticized in May 2018, when news emerged that the leaders of the anti-austerity party Podemos had purchased a 600,000 luxury property outside Madrid. Social media users dug up an old clip of Iglesias in 2015 criticizing politicians who "go to live in houses and isolate themselves." The party held a referendum on whether Iglesias and Montero should remain in their roles after the controversy. Grassroots members voted for them to stay.

Soon after that, the police circulated a report about Podemos that suggested illegal party financing through Iran. At this time, Iglesias was earning money from appearances on Hispan TV, an Iranian-owned TV station. Spains High Court (Audiencia Nacional) and Supreme Court have both shelved complaints made by third parties against Podemos on the basis of this report.

Later, another investigation by the Patriotic Brigade held that Iglesias had made $272,000 (242,400) from the Venezuelan government of Nicolas Maduro and that he was keeping the funds in a bank in the Grenadines, a tax haven. The Venezuelan informer who provided this unverified information was granted a special residency permit by the Interior Ministry.

English version by Susana Urra.
A group of high-ranking police officials working for the Spanish Interior Ministry carried out special jobs to damage the reputation of political rivals of the Popular Party (PP) during the administration of former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

This group, known informally as the Patriotic Brigade, was tasked with finding  or fabricating  evidence against political adversaries, particularly during election campaigns or periods of political turmoil. These operations are now being investigated by the courts.

After working for three years to erode the prestige of Catalan politicians, the Patriotic Brigade switched targets to Podemos

The release of these reports, many containing phony information, was timed to cause the greatest possible damage, and the police leaked them to the media before handing them to the judges.

Leaders of Podemos, one of the main targets of this covert action, say they feel victims of foul play by what they describe as las cloacas del Estado (the cesspit of the state) The party has asked the investigating judge to determine whether any journalists are also involved in the scheme.

Villarejo

Spains High Court, the Audiencia Nacional, is currently investigating these events as part of a sweeping spying case featuring former police chief Jose Manuel Villarejo. The latter is at the center of a case involving 20 years worth of phone taps, undercover recordings and other invasions of privacy against scores of politicians, business people, judges and journalists. Villarejo is thought to have ordered a trickle of recent leaks to the media, all of which have caused embarrassment to several high-profile individuals, including former Spanish King Juan Carlos I and Justice Minister Dolores Delgado.

But Villarejo is not the only member of this police network: around six police chiefs and inspectors have been targeted by the court investigation. The judge has also asked the National Polices Internal Affairs Unit to sift through all the documents that were confiscated from Villarejo in search of evidence of commercial relations or agreements [] with journalists or media outlets and payments or other forms of compensation linked to news involving information-intoxication projects, leaks of confidential data or media manipulation.

In other words, the judge wants to know whether, besides police officers and politicians, there were also journalists involved in the alleged scheme. The first investigations by the Internal Affairs Unit in connection with possible ties between Villarejo and the reporters Daniel Montero from El Espanol and Manuel Cerdan from Okdiario have not yielded any information that might suggest such a link. Queried by EL PAIS, Cerdan declined to comment and Montero merely expressed respect for the ongoing investigation.

Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias. David Zorrakino (Europa Press)

The police group under investigation has been in charge of several major operations, including the following:

Catalonia

The earliest known work by the Patriotic Brigade coincided with early elections in Catalonia in the fall of 2012. A police report with no date or signature, and which nobody at the Interior Ministry has ever taken responsibility for, listed several alleged crimes by politicians with pro-independence sympathies.

The report claimed that Jordi Pujol, who served for 23 years as the Catalan premier, was concealing 137 million is Swiss bank accounts, and that his successor Artur Mas shared part of that fortune, which came from illegal commissions.

A year later, the same police officers obtained evidence about the fortune held in Andorra by the Pujols, who made 40-million deposits for years. In January 2015, Pujol told a judge that the money was an inheritance from his father, but produced no evidence. The courts are still investigating the origin of that money.

Podemos

A new general election was held in December 2015, and the anti-austerity party Podemos secured 69 seats in Congress, becoming the third-largest force in Spain. After working for three years to erode the prestige of Catalan politicians, the Patriotic Brigade switched targets.

On January 16, 2016, the online dailies OKdiario and El Confidencial published information regarding alleged illegal party financing by Podemos, a story that involved funds from Iran. The investigation was begun by the polices Tax and Financial Crimes Unit (UDEF) a few days before the election, but the unit did not file a complaint with the Audit Court until two months after the news reports, following orders from their superiors.

Even before the UDEF had taken the matter to court, a far-right union called Manos Limpias and a small political party named Spanish Civic Union-Party for Peace, Reconciliation and Progress in Spain filed suits against Podemos in the Supreme Court and the High Court based on this report, which was named Informe PISA (informe meaning report, and PISA an acronym of Pablo Iglesiass initials and S. A., meaning limited company). The legal action was shelved in both cases.

Then, in April 2016, several police chiefs traveled to New York to meet with a former Venezuelan minister named Rafael Isea at the Spanish consulate. The Spanish delegation asked Isea, who had once served as finance minister under Hugo Chavez, for documentary evidence of illegal financing by Podemos. One inspector named Jose Angel Fuentes Gago said: If you can help us ensure that the Podemos folks dont reach [power], better for everyone.

A month later, just ahead of a new general election in Spain, this same group handed Okdiario fake documents obtained from a police informer in order to create a new scandal. According to this information, the Nicolas Maduro government had paid Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias $272,000 through a bank in the Grenadines in 2014.

The alleged bank statement was fake, as the lender itself has confirmed. It was created with online screenshots, and the names of Venezuelan ministries had been changed. The informer who provided this information was himself a Venezuelan citizen who was granted a special residency permit in Spain as a reward for his cooperation.

Former Interviu editor Alberto Pozas in court. GTRES

A top police official named Eugenio Pino has stated in Congress that officers flew to Venezuela and Miami in early 2016 to investigate this alleged illegal financing, but no legal proceedings stemming from this investigation ever prospered in the courts.

The pen drive

It did not end there. In July 2016, Okdiario revealed a private group conversation between Podemos leaders alluding to sexist comments made by Pablo Iglesias. The judicial investigation has determined that it was the police chief Villarejo who had passed that information along to selected journalists.

Villarejo has told the court that he himself obtained the information from a news magazine named Interviu, which had itself received an envelope with no return address containing the memory card of a cellphone stolen a few months earlier from a top aide of Iglesias at the European Parliament. Antonio Asenso, the chairman of Zeta Group, the parent company of Interviu (which ran its last issue in January 2018 after 42 years on newsstands) decided not to publish the contents of the card and had it returned to Iglesias.

But Villarejo, who had close ties with the magazine and often supplied it with useful information, asked reporters for the contents of this memory card. Alberto Pozas, the magazine editor at the time, was charged on Monday with disclosure of secrets by High Court Judge Manuel Garcia-Castellon, who is in charge of one of the separate investigations in the sprawling Villarejo case. Pozas, who had been called in as a witness, on Monday admitted that he gave Villarejo a pen drive with the information that he wanted. This pen drive was found in Villarejos home during a police raid.

English version by Susana Urra.
Irish comedian Dylan Moran. Andy Hollingworth

Irish stand-up comedian Dylan Moran will be returning to Spain this week, to make two stops on his Dr Cosmos tour. Having already racked up 42 dates in the United Kingdom in 2018, this weekends gigs in Madrid and Barcelona will be part of the 32 international dates he has lined up for this year.

Dubbed the Oscar Wilde of comedy, Moran is famed for his unique take on love, politics, misery and the everyday absurdities of life. Deadpan and hugely witty, the comic, actor and writer promises to take audiences on an unmissable journey through his interpretations of the world.

Morans last visit to Spain saw him break a record, with his gig at the Sala Apolo in Barcelona still standing as the biggest-selling English-language comedy show ever seen in the country.

His show at the Sala Apolo still stands as the biggest-selling English-language show ever seen in the country

Once named the greatest comedian, living or dead by Frances Le Monde newspaper, Moran was, at 24, the youngest ever winner of the Perrier Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Festival in 1996.

His film work includes roles in Shaun of the Dead (2004) and the Irish black comedy Calvary, in which he co-starred alongside Brendan Gleeson and Chris ODowd.

Dylan Moran. Dr Cosmos. Friday April 12, 9pm at Sala Galileo Galilee, Calle de Galileo 100, Madrid. Saturday April 13, 9pm at Casino LAlianca del Poblenou, Rambla del Poblenou 42, Barcelona. Visit www.comedyinspain.com for more information and tickets.
Ernst & Young is waiting for a spike in proposals to insure cybersecurity risks in Ukraine in 2019, according to a study by Ernst & Young Global Limited posted by the Ukrainian representative office of the company.

"The high level of damage to business from cybercrime around the world encourages companies to look for ways to manage these risks from the outside. One of the available options is to insure cyber risks, so similar offers from insurance companies are the expected trend of 2019 in Ukraine," Senior Manager of information technology and IT risk management department of EY in Ukraine Dmytro Lazuchenkov said.

According to EY Global Information Security Survey 20182019, Ukrainian businesses are still characterized by the active migration of large Enterprise IT solutions to cloud services and the performance of business-critical operations in public "clouds."

In a highly competitive environment, cloud solution providers are trying to reduce costs by reducing investment in technical tools and staff skills that are necessary to ensure the security of a cloud solution. This leads to the fact that cloud environments are becoming more susceptible to attacks by cybercriminals," the company said in a press release.

EY said that the state-run institutions of Ukraine also should not forget about countering cyber threats.

According to EY Global Information Security Survey 2018-2019, vulnerabilities with the most increased risk exposure over the past 12 months were careless/unaware employees (34%), Outdated security controls (26%), unauthorized access (13%), and related to cloud-computing use (10%).

Most organizations (82%) are not sure if they successfully identify cybersecurity incidents. Among organizations suffered from incidents over the past 12 months, less than one third (31%) say that the incident was revealed by the cybersecurity service of the company.

EY said that 60% of organizations say that the person directly responsible for information security is not a board member. Only 18% of organizations say that information security fully influences business strategy plans on a regular basis.
Odesa State Regional Administration's ex-head Maksym Stepanov has refused to step down from his post, saying incumbent President Petro Poroshenko's decree dismissing him is "illegal."

"The head of Odesa Regional State Administration is standing here in front of you. He has not said or written any resignation and does not plan to  Today, a couple of hours ago, a decree was published on the website of Ukraine's president about my dismissal. It is a very strange document, which I and my lawyers consider  has nothing in common with Ukrainian legislation. The document exceeds the grants of authority of the president as defined by the Constitution," Stepanov said in a video recording of a briefing at the Odesa Regional State Administration building on Monday posted by the Odesa-based Dumskaya ezine.
The headquarters of presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky has appealed to Ukraine's Interior Ministry to provide protection for its candidate, the ministry has said.

"Before the first round, during the campaign, we guarded nine presidential candidates. At present, the staff of presidential candidate Zelensky has requested protection," Interior Minister advisory Ivan Varchenko said during a briefing in Kyiv on Monday.

Varchenko said the National Police is in communication with the headquarters of both presidential candidates and communicates with all subjects of the electoral process.
One soldier of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) has been killed in action (KIA), two more were wounded in action (WIA) as a result of shelling by illegal armed groups on Monday as of 18:00, the JFO said on Facebook.

"During attacks, one soldier of the JFO has been killed, another two were injured. The JFO units adequately responded to the enemy's attacks. The enemy's casualties are being specified. The situation in the area of the operation remains under the control of the JFO's military," the report says.
On Wednesday, April 10, at 12.30, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host a press conference entitle "Three years of work of Groysman's government: what's next?", at which an expert survey assessing the work of the Cabinet of Ministers conducted by the Situations Modeling Agency will be presented. Participants: Director of the Situations Modeling Agency Vitaliy Bala and Deputy Director of the Situations Modeling Agency Oleksiy Holobutsky (8/5a Reitarska Street). Registration requires press accreditation.
The American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine represents over 600 Member Companies and affiliated parties - the biggest investors and largest multinationals operating in Ukraine which contribute greatly to the state budget and create new jobs. In March 2019 the following companies joined the AmCham family:

Luxoft Ukraine

Luxoft Ukraine is a leading IT service provider of innovative technology solutions that delivers measurable business outcomes to multinational companies in the automotive, financial, energy, telecom, and technology sectors.

Oleksandra Alkhimovych, Managing Director:

We are glad to be a part of an internationally oriented business community such as the Chamber. Uniting its members, it serves as a positive driver of change in the business environment and is a trustworthy platform for dialogue with the Government to discuss and promote the prosperity of Ukraine.

Air Force LLC

The AIRFORCE has experience in the areas of construction of compressor stations and cooling systems for turn-key reversible cycles - from design, selection of equipment, performance of design supervision to commissioning.

Mihails Sorokins, General Director:

We are pleased to join the Chamber. As a longstanding partner - supplier of equipment of American companies such as SPX Cooling Technologies (cooling towers, cooling systems), FS-Elliott (centrifugal compressors), we hope that cooperation with the Chamber will help to expand our business and give more inspiration to create major significant projects of modernization of industrial enterprises and nuclear energy.

EU-Trans

EU-Trans has been operating on the international rail market since 1998 and is the owner of 248 rail cars. For more than 20 years our company provides services for organization of rail transports.

Ievgen Balashov, General Manager:

Membership in the AmCham Ukraine offers us opportunity to keep on top of important, ever-changing issues and trends within rail transport reform in our country. Through the membership wed like to increase our visibility in the community, share our position on the discussion panel, stay in contact with politicians, officials, business leaders.

Sigma Software

Sigma Software provides cutting-edge IT solutions. Being a part of Nordic IT corporation, Sigma Group, we are a global player with 3700 employees in 12 countries and 950+ in Ukraine.

Valery Krasovsky, CEO:

We have been working with American companies across multiple business domains for over 17 years. We are glad to be a part of our Customers success whether they are a large international corporation or a promising startup. Joining AmCham is an important step towards furthering our contributions into American-Ukrainian relationship.

Operating in Ukraine since 1992, the Chamber cooperates closely with Ukrainian authorities to improve the business environment and attract foreign investments into the economy, advocates for predictable, transparent, equitable and stable rules of doing business.

For more information, please contact:

Tetiana Kravchuk, Communications Coordinator, American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine

+38 050 299 3201, tkravchuk@chamber.ua
LONDON, March 28 (Reuters) -

Iran welcomed on Thursday a Luxembourg court's decision to refuse to reinforce a U.S. ruling that would have helped families of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks claim Iranian assets held by a Luxembourg-based clearing house.

The court ruled on Wednesday that there were no grounds in international law to uphold in Luxembourg a 2012 U.S. court decision to strip Iran of sovereign immunity.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi (Ghasemi) said the decision showed the world still had courts that adopt independent decisions.

"The era of totalitarian and bullying behavior of America toward other countries is over and it can no longer raise such groundless accusations," Qasemi was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.

The governor of Central Bank of Iran, Abdolnasser Hemmati, called the decision "an important legal victory for Iran".

President's deputy for legal affairs Laya Joneidi was quoted by IRNA as saying that the lawyers won the case by arguing that Sept. 11 attacks were not related to Iran.

Seven years ago, a New York court found there was evidence showing that Iran provided "material support and resources to al Qaeda for acts of terrorism". The militant group carried out the hijacked plane attacks on New York and Washington.

That court awarded the plaintiffs damages of over $7 billion. Families of victims are seeking access to $1.6 billion of Iranian funds in Luxembourg, which were frozen as part of international sanctions over Iran's nuclear program.

However, the Luxembourg court said the plaintiffs could not continue their legal case to seize Iranian assets in the country.

Iran has denied any links to al Qaeda or any involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks.
Islamic Republic President Hassan Rouhani has promised to "swiftly compensate" losses to flood victims, in a cabinet meeting on April 7.

Meanwhile, Rouhani called all his cabinet members to prepare an accurate assessment of damages to people's houses, industrial units, agricultural lands, orchards, and livestock farms.

However, Rouhani's first deputy, Eshaq Jahangiri had earlier admitted regretfully that the government has failed to compensate the flood-hit city of Shushtar three years ago, in the oil-rich province of Khuzestan, southwest Iran.

At the Sunday meeting chaired by Rouhani, the Council of Ministers also agreed to provide grants and loans to the people who are hit by the floods in some provinces.

Based on the governments plans, households in villages will get about $2,000 in grants and $8,000 in loans. City residents will receive $2,100 in grants and $10,000 in loans. These dollar amounts are calculated based on the official exchange rate.

If the governments aid pledges in local currency are calculated based on free market currency rates, grants will come to $740 and loans to around $3,000. Loans to commercial units is almost the same amount as loans for households. There will also be compensation to farmers.

Based on a rough calculation, in the six worst-hit provinces of Iran with a combined population of 20 million, the grants and loans the government has pledged, will come to at least $4 billion, if we assume just 10 percent of the people in these provinces qualify to receive flood aid.

This number will be billions of dollars more if we add 20 other provinces hit with floods. In the current situation of economic crisis and U.S. sanctions, Iran has to struggle to come up with billions of dollars, keeping in mind that there has also been a lot of damage to infrastructure, which needs to be repaired. Hundreds of kilometers of roads, railways and government-related buildings have sustained damage.

More than 2,000 cities and villages have been affected by floods and exceptionally heavy rains that began on March 19.

Only in Golestan province 300 schools have been severely damaged and cannot be used any longer. Golestan is a relatively small province with less than 2 million population. The number might be much higher in Khuzestan with close to 5 million residents.

The floods, which have so far killed at least seventy people, have left rescue workers and relief agencies struggling to cope, with the government and military coming under criticism for their slow and seemingly disorganized efforts.

Early estimates put flood losses in agriculture sector at 47 trillion rials (approximately $900 million, based on the official exchange rate), the head of the Agriculture Ministrys Department of Crisis Management, Mohammad Mousavi was cited as saying by the government's official news agency IRNA.

While the government has assured citizens, and especially flood-stricken farmers, that all their losses will be compensated, the speaker of Majles (Iranian parliament), Ali Larijani, has acknowledged that this years budget would not suffice to pay for the losses.

This leaves Iran to dig into the national reserve fund, which has already been raided to supplement the inadequate government revenues and pay mostly for the military.

Given the past record of not fulfilling reconstruction pledges, such as in the case of the 2017 earthquake in western Iran and a previous flood in Khuzestan, the populace simply does not believe promises will be kept this time.

The government might be still thinking that making the pledge of cash assistance now will deflect public frustration until the disaster is somewhat forgotten and the danger of a political backlash is diminished.
After two weeks of heavy rains and unprecedented flood destruction in Iran, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif says U.S. sanctions impede humanitarian aid to victims.

In a tweet on April 1 Zarif condemns @realDonaldTrumps maximum pressure as a factor impeding aid efforts by #IranianRedCrescent to all communities devastated by unprecedented floods.

Zarif does not explain how exactly U.S. sanctions reimposed in 2018 has a direct bearing on Iranian domestic relief efforts.

Hours before Zarifs tweet Radio Farda published an article discussing why the international community seems to be indifferent towards the flood disaster in Iran.

Virtually no international assistance has been sent, at the same time when the Iranian government seems to have been unprepared for a large-scale disaster.

In the first few days of the floods, many conservative politicians and others in Iran criticized President Hassan Rouhanis absence from the scene, as he was said to be vacationing in the south of the country.

In his tweet, Zarif says U.S. policy isnt just economic warfare, its economic TERRORISM.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said in a statement that it was ready to offer help to Iran, but challenges caused by unilateral sanctions will affect the UN response and the accountability of UN to deliver the appropriate support.

At the same time, Iran is diplomatically isolated mainly because of its policies and long-lasting confrontation with the West.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 8

Trend:

Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops 26 times, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said April 8, 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 8

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

The incitement of hatred by Armenians seriously undermines the efforts and work of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to strengthen democracy, Head of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE Samad Seyidov said at a spring session of the organization in France, Trend reports April 8.

We see a lot of changes in our region, he said. But one negative factor remains - incitement of hatred from the Armenian colleagues. This seriously undermines our efforts as a democratic organization.

Speaking about the report regarding the work of PACE, Seyidov noted that this report doesnt reflect positive changes in Azerbaijan.

I cannot recall the case when some negative processes in regions such as ours, including Azerbaijan, wouldnt be mentioned during discussions of such reports on the progress of the Assemblys work, he said. There are a lot of positive things happening in Azerbaijan. The report should reflect this. Recently, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed a decree of pardon and much of what we heard today no longer exists.

More than 60 people have been released from the list we often hear about at the Assembly meetings, he noted. This is an extremely important fact. Recently, the president of Azerbaijan has also signed a special decree on the very important plan of reform in the judicial system of Azerbaijan, which completely fits into the values of the Council of Europe. These points arent reflected in the progress report on the PACEs work. However, this is an essential document.

The PACE spring session is taking place April 8-12 in Strasbourg (France).

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 8

Trend:

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed an order regarding measures to construct Shamkir-Zayam-Duyarli-Shishtapa-Bayramli road in Shamkir district.

Under the presidential order, the Azerbaijan Highway State Agency is allocated 14 million manats for the construction of the road connecting eight residential areas with a total population of 85,000 people.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 8

Trend:

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed an Order providing funding for the design and construction of Samukh District Central Hospital.

Under the presidential Order, Azerbaijans Ministry of Health is allocated 1 million manats for the design and construction of the hospital.
Title changed, details added (first version posted on 17:26)

Baku, Azerbaijan, April 8

Trend:

The information disseminated in some media outlets that "Azerbaijan closes the corridor passing through its territory for NATO member-states" is false, spokesperson for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Leyla Abdullayeva told Trend April 8.

Azerbaijan doesnt offer its territories to anyone, including NATO, she said. "The matter rests in providing members of the NATO-led Resolute Support Mission being carried out in Afghanistan, in which Azerbaijan is a participant, with the corresponding opportunities for cargo transportation within the mission through the countrys territory, via vehicles, planes and ships. There has been such a practice since 2001.

To ensure such capabilities, NATO on a bilateral basis is considering the issue of obtaining flight permits by NATO member-states, Abdullayeva said. These appeals are considered in accordance with the rules and procedures of the Azerbaijani side, as well as on the basis of the principles of mutual respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the countries which is the basis of cooperation and the principles of cooperation.

The information and charges leaked to the German press recently not only create misunderstanding, but also testify to someone's bias, she said.

"This information, which reflects the baseless accusations, is not based on concrete facts, Abdullayeva said. Once again we inform that Azerbaijan has cooperated and is currently cooperating with NATO member-states on the basis of the principles of partnership and in accordance with the norms of the international law. Azerbaijan is ready to continue this cooperation in the future."
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 8

Trend:

The international conference entitled "Impacts of Illegal Economic Activities in Conflict Areas on Human Rights" will be held at the UN headquarters in Geneva on April 9, Trend reports referring to the UN offices website on April 8.

The conference will be organized by the UN offices in Azerbaijan and other international organizations, as well as the UN University for Peace.

Hikmet Hajiyev, head of the Department of Foreign Policy Affairs of the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration, will make an opening speech at the conference.

The international conference on Illegality of Economic and Other Activities in and with regard to Territories under Military Occupation: Third-Party Obligations and Implications for Conflict Resolution was held in Baku with the participation of international experts in March 2019.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 8

By Matanat Nasibova - Trend:

Since the beginning of 2019, the sales of Alprof, an Azerbaijani company manufacturing aluminum and PVC profiles for door and window systems, has significantly decreased, a source at the company told Trend.

The decline in sales is 30 percent, the source noted.

"The company produces plastic profiles of different colors, the cost of which varies from 2.8 manats to 4.65 manats per linear meter. In general, plastic profiles are in the great demand because of their practicality and convenience when used at home," the source said.

Last year the decline in sales amounted to about 10-15 percent, the source added.

Further the source added that products of Alprof meet requirements of the construction market and Alprof is the first manufacturer in Azerbaijan to supply PVC profiles for door and window systems to the local market.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @MatanatNasibova
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 8

By Fakhri Vakilov  Trend:

Uzbekistan presented its halal products (food products allowed for Muslims) at the 16th International Exhibition of Halal Products MIHAS-2019 (The Malaysia International Halal Showcase - 2019) in Kuala Lumpur, Trend reports with reference to the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan.

Ministry of International Trade and Industry and the Malaysian Foreign Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) were the organizers of the largest exhibition in halal products field in Southeast Asia.

MIHAS exhibition has been held in the capital of Malaysia since 2004. This year, more than 800 well-known companies presented food, beverages, halal cosmetics, Islamic clothing, textiles and medicines, as well as services in the areas of tourism, finance, logistics and e-commerce. The exhibition was visited by more than 23,000 people from 80 countries of the world.

The Embassy of Uzbekistan in Malaysia also took part in this exhibition with the National Stand, where the food industrys products of such companies as Elite Food Group LLC and For Tea LLC were presented to the participants.

Businessmen from Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and China appreciated the taste and quality of halal food from Uzbekistan.

The attention of the world's leading airlines, hotels and fast food restaurants was attracted by the innovative packaging of disposable ketchup, mayonnaise, honey and other sauces.

The network of world famous coffee houses has expressed interest in purchasing various types of cookies from Uzbekistan for subsequent sale in the countries of Southeast Asia.

Following the results of MIHAS-2019, preliminary agreements were reached on the supply of Elite Food Group products to the Malaysian airline Air Asia and Batavia Indo Global PT for distribution in hotels and fast food restaurants in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

Moreover, the sale of oatmeal and chocolate cookies to the Old Town chain of coffee shops for sale on the Malaysian market, as well as their sales in Turkmenistan.

Follow author on Twitter:@vakilovfaxri
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 8

Trend:

The Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Agriculture of Azerbaijan have issued a joint statement on the rise in prices of some vegetable products, Trend reports.

In connection with the rise in prices of potatoes, onions and cabbage in the country, until April 30, an export duty is imposed on the supply of potatoes abroad, and until May 31 - for the export of onions and cabbage. Moreover, imports of onions are exempted from the specific duty.

This step serves to ensure price stability in the domestic market, as well as to satisfy the demand of the population for these types of products, the statement read.

The ministries also note that they will take all the necessary measures to eliminate possible difficulties for entrepreneurs associated with the sale of products.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 8

By Fakhri Vakilov  Trend:

Low-cost cars from Uzbekistan - Ravon - will soon arrive on the Russian market, Trend reports via mototrpage.ru.

National Automotive brand GM Uzbekistan was founded in 2015. In 2017, the large-unit assembly of Ravon cars began at the enterprise SaryarkaAvtoProm.

In 2018, the sales of Ravon cars were suspended not only in export markets, but also in Uzbekistan itself.

However, at the end of March, sales of Ravon cars were resumed in Kazakhstan, as well as they can be purchased in Belarus as well.

GM Uzbekistan supplies Kazakhstan with Ravon cars in the form of vehicle sets, at the local Saryarkaavtoprom plant. Belarus, in turn, gets fully finished cars.

Meanwhile, experts are of the opinion that the resumption of sales of Ravon in Kazakhstan and Belarus is a good sign for Russian fans of the brand, because these countries belong to the Eurasian Economic Union, where Russia is a member.

Logically, GM Uzbekistan should start supplying cars to Russia.

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Follow author on Twitter:@vakilovfaxri
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 8

By Rashid Shirinov  Trend:

All districts of Kazakhstan's Turkistan region will receive 1 billion tenge ($2.62 million), which will be aimed at solving the problems of the population that were not solved for many years, Governor of the region Umirzak Shukeyev said at a meeting of the regional representative body, Trend reports via Kazakh media.

He noted that this initiative will contribute to solving urgent problems in the districts.

"It is necessary to carry out work on the development of districts and settlements of the Turkistan region and to systematically solve the problems of settlements. For these purposes, funds in the amount of 1 billion tenge per year will be allocated within three years," Shukeyev said.

He added that the districts to effectively master these funds will receive 2 billion tenge next year, while the funding will be reduced for the districts not to master the funds.

The governor also noted that the Turkistan region's budget revenues are 53 billion tenge, whereas there is a potential to double them to 100 billion tenge.

"It is necessary to work systematically to increase the budget revenues," Shukeyev said.

(379.84 KZT = 1 USD on Apr. 8)

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Follow the author on Twitter: @ShirinovRashid
Tehran, Iran, April 8

Trend:

The Governor of the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran Abdoll Nasser Hemmati spoke about his upcoming visit to Iraq.

In particular, he said that it should be decided on how to continue the financial relations of the two countries, given the increasing exports from Iran to Iraq.

A significant share of Iraq's debts to Iran have been settled, Hemmati said in a statement published on his Instagram page, Trend reports.

Iran's electricity and gas exports will exceed $4 billion this year, Hemmati noted.

Recently, another meeting of the Joint Economic Commission of Iran and Iraq was held, with participation of Iraq's Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi.

The two sides agreed to complete the implementation of financial and banking agreements.

"The way to follow up and implement the agreements between two countries was reviewed, Hemmati wrote.

Last month, Hemmati traveled to Iraq to resolve the problem of repayment of Iraqs electricity and gas bills to Iran.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 8

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

Azerbaijan state oil company SOCAR is establishing a petrochemical research and development (R&D) center in the Aliaga peninsula in the Aegean province of Izmir, Turkey, Trend reports citing Daily Sabah.

Reportedly, businesspeople from Azerbaijan, the largest foreign direct investor in Turkey with $26 billion, have once again turned their route to Turkey.

Gathered under the invitation of Azerbaijani Businessmen Association (TAIB) Chairman Mehdi Nagiyev, the country's businesspeople said they aim to double this investment in the next few years. Nagiyev, on the other hand, stressed that approximately $5.5 billion of the $26 billion investment from Azerbaijan was carried out by the business circle, said the report.

Anar Mammadov, the general manager of SOCAR Turkey Real Estate and Administrative Construction, recalled that the company's investment in Turkey has reached about $15 billion to date.

"The total planned investment is around $20 billion. Therefore, we plan to invest the remaining amount in the next three to four years," he said.

Mammadov pointed to the ongoing oil and petrochemical R&D project realized in Aliaga, Izmir with an investment of $1.5 billion, adding they are currently in the project phase of the largest R&D center of the Aegean region.

"We aim to complete the project toward the end of 2020. Construction will start this year," he said.

It is reported that the R&D center will focus on the development of petrochemical products, materials, and energy efficiency, as well as wastewater treatment technologies.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 8

By Sara Israfilbayova - Trend:

About 56 percent of the contracts that Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR concluded from 2015 to February 2019 with subcontractors, manufacturers and suppliers account for Azerbaijani companies, SOCAR Vice President for strategic development Tofig Gahramanov told reporters in Baku, Trend reports April 8.

Commenting on the opening of the new website, where SOCAR will post information about the needs for equipment, services and materials for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), he noted that this is a great achievement.

From now on, support for local production will reach a new level, and local companies will participate more actively in projects, he said.

Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR and the Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communications signed a memorandum of understanding on April 8. The memorandum envisages creation of a new website for import substitution and support for SMEs in Azerbaijan.

As part of the memorandum, SOCAR will post on the new website requests for goods, equipment and services needed by the company.

Thanks to the website, representatives of SMEs will be able to participate in tenders that were previously available only for big companies. The website will be managed by the Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communications.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 8

By Sara Israfilbayova  Trend:

Azerbaijans state-owned SOCAR plans to build a new primary oil refining unit on the territory of Baku Oil Refinery named after Heydar Aliyev, Tofig Gahramanov, vice-president for strategic development at SOCAR, told reporters, Trend reports.

According to Gahramanov, as part of the modernization of the Baku Oil Refinery, it was planned to move the unit with a capacity of 2 million tons per year from the territory of the former Azneftyag refinery to the Baku Oil Refinery in order to increase the capacity of the primary oil refining unit to 7.5 million tons per year.

"Studies have shown that reconstructing the equipment of Azneftyag oil refinery is unprofitable, and it is more expedient to build a new unit. Reconstruction of the primary oil refining unit currently operating at the Baku Oil Refinery will cost more than $200 million, and another $130 million will be needed for building an additional unit," Gahramanov stated.

Gahramanov also pointed out that the construction of a new unit may last 3.5 years.

The modernization of the Heydar Aliyev Baku Oil Refinery, which will be completed by 2021, is currently being carried out. After the modernization works are completed, the operational life of the enterprise will increase to 2040.

The cost of upgrading the Heydar Aliyev Baku Oil Refinery is estimated at about $2.2 billion.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 8

By Azad Hasanli - Trend:

Azerbaijan's Radio-TV Broadcasting and Satellite Communications Production Association (Teleradio PA) has announced a tender to purchase TV signal monitoring systems.

Those willing to participate in the tender should send proposals and necessary documents before 18:00 on April 10, 2019.

Phone: (+994 12) 498 77 80

Address: 2 Abbasgulu Abbaszade street, Baku, Azerbaijan

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Hasanli_Azad
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, April 8

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

The Central Asian tour of the President of the Republic of Korea Moon Jae-in will begin on April 16 from Turkmenistan, Trend reports referring to the Korean media.

The Korea Times newspaper writes that the Korean presidents tour will begin with a 3-day state visit to Ashgabat, where he will meet with the Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov. The tour will then continue in Uzbekistan and end in Kazakhstan. President Moon Jae-in will visit the countries of the former Soviet bloc for the first time since taking office in 2017.

Among the key issues that will be discussed at the planned presidential summits are the potential economic benefits from cooperation within the framework of Seouls New Northern Economic Policy, according to the newspaper.

Seoul hopes for partnership with Turkmenistan in such spheres as the development of gas fields, the creation of petrochemical and gas infrastructure and modernization of industry.

According to the Turkmen side, the total trade turnover of Turkmenistan and South Korea has grown from $200 million to nearly $2 billion in recent years.

Earlier it was reported that Turkmenistan intends to expand cooperation with the Export-Import Bank of Korea (KEXIM) and the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (K-sure) in financing the projects to be implemented in Turkmenistan by the Korean companies.LG and Hyundai together with Japanese TOYO have recently implemented a project worth $3.4 billion to build a complex for the production of polyethylene and polypropylene in Turkmenistans Kiyanly settlement.

Prior to this, LG and Hyundai completed a large-scale project for the development of the Galkynysh field, which has the largest gas reserves in Turkmenistan, on service conditions. This consortium also received a large-scale project at a refinery in the city of Turkmenbashi.
Tehran, Iran, April 8

Trend:

Managing director of the power distribution company in Iran's Semnan province said the floods have inflicted damages worth $23 million to the Semnan power grids and utilities.

"Bad weather conditions caused damages to the power grid, as well as electrical equipment in various parts of the province," said Seyyed Mohammad MusaZadeh, Trend reports citing IRNA.

He stressed that the floods have caused damages within 109 kilometers of the network, as well as 52 power distribution stations in the province.

More than 40% of the Semnan province's electricity is consumed in the industrial sector and more than 20% in the agricultural sector.

As a result of floods in Semnan province, one man was killed, and damages worth some $16.5 million were inflicted in agriculture sector, infrastructure. A landslide in eastern Semnan province also damaged some of the infrastructure.

Since March 19, many roads in Iran have been affected by heavy rainfall that caused flash flooding. The deadly floods were caused by unusually heavy rainfall.
Tehran, Iran, April 8

Trend:

The Central Bank of Iran's governor Abdol Nasser Hemmati spoke to the directors of the country's banks and credit institutions, saying that despite the ups and downs the conspiracy of the enemies has been neutralized, Trend reports citing ILNA.

Iran`s enemies are focused on the monetary and currency market in order to achieve their goals, he said. The enemy had designed a special program to disrupt the currency market and banking system of Iran, which, the program didn't reach.

He expressed hope tha the CBI, along with the government will try to prevent the turmoil and fluctuations in the foreign exchange market.

He evaluated overall performance of the banking system in Iran over the past Iranian year (ended on March 21), and said that the banking system is expected to manage the bank interests, overdrafts and control liquidity.

Referring to the volume of flood damage to infrastructure, housing and assets of the people and the agricultural and livestock sectors, he said that the new year`s budget will not be able to compensate for the damages.

Along the use of bank facilities, use of resources from the National Development Fund will be necessary, he added.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 8

By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:

As many as 255 Iranian MPs in a joint statement on April 7 said that any action taken by the US administration against Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) will be responded with a countermeasure, Trend reports via ISNA.

The statement was read out by Iranian Parliament Presiding Board Member Ahmad Amirabadi at the plenary session.

Members of the Iranian parliament announce their full support to the Iranian armed forces, especially to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reads the statement. The national security of Iranian nation and its armed forces is the Parliaments redline. In case of any move taken by US President Donald Trump or any other entity against IRGC, Iranian Parliament will take retaliatory measures.
The Swedish government is investing about SEK 2 billion (215 million U.S. dollars) on climate and environment as part of its revised Spring budget, making it the area with the largest combined investment. The government outlined the investments in a press release published on Monday, Trend reported citing Xinhua.

"When we invest in our environmental and climate work, we invest in the future. Parliament's initial budget for 2019 entailed sharp cuts to environmental funding and it has had significant negative consequences. The government is now making extensive investments for ambitious environmental and climate work," said Environment and Climate Minister Isabella Lovin.

By 2045, Sweden plans to have zero net emissions of greenhouse gas, and hopes to achieve negative emissions thereafter. In order to achieve this and other climate goals, large technology investments are required. The bulk of the SEK 2 billion in funding will go to bolstering a national climate initiative called Klimatklivet.

Introduced in 2017 to support local and regional climate initiatives, Klimatklivet has made it possible to reduce emissions and to strengthen charging infrastructure throughout the country.

"Sweden needs to pivot towards fossil freedom," said Lovin. "Now we are adding funds so that more people can apply for support to begin their own climate conversion."

Millions of kronor are earmarked for other projects such as environmental monitoring; combating eutrophication; cleaning toxins from lakes, watercourses, coastlines and seabeds; reducing flood damage; purchasing high-conservation-value forest from private owners; investments in international rail traffic; carbon-neutral charging infrastructure; subsidies for solar panels; and investments to help municipalities prevent climate-related accidents.

In order to carry out these investments, the government will contribute SEK 10 million (approximately 1 million U.S. dollars) directly to administration of the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.

The spring budget revision also highlighted the need for greater long-term nature protection for ecosystems such as valuable forests and marine areas.

"We need to strengthen biodiversity and opportunities for a rich outdoor life," said Lovin. "We are now adding funds so that more valuable nature can be protected, and safeguarded for the future."
An aircraft of Hong Kong's Cathay Dragon airlines with 317 people on board made an emergency landing in southern Taiwan city of Kaohsiung due to smoke in the engine, Trend reports citing Sputnik.

Taiwan Central News Agency said that the jet was scheduled to fly from Kaohsiung to Hong Kong, took off at 8:02 a.m. local time (00:02 GMT) on Monday, however, returned shortly after takeoff due to smoke in the right engine.

The news agency said that after a fuel dump the plane landed safely at 8:31 a.m.

A cause of the incident is being investigated. Meanwhile, it has been suggested that a bird strike could be a cause.

Recently, the United Airlines plane also made an urgent emergency landing at greater Washington's Dulles International Airport because of the weird and nauseating smell. The incident occurred with the aircraft Boeing 737, en route from Baltimore-Washington Airport (BWI) to San Francisco.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 8

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

The work on the construction of a logistics center in Turkeys Kars province, implemented jointly with Azerbaijan, will be completed by the end of this year, a source in the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure of Turkey told Trend.

There are no delays in the construction of the logistics center, according to the source.

This center is one of the most important logistics centers in eastern Turkey, the source noted.

"The logistics center in Kars will also contribute to the development of the region," the source said.

A 300,000 square meter land plot was allotted for the construction of the logistics center.

Around 412,000 tons of cargo are expected to be transported through the logistics center annually.

An agreement on the creation of the logistics center was signed on July 19 last year, during the visit of Head of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC Javid Gurbanov to the Kars province.

On October 30, 2017, a solemn ceremony on the occasion of the opening of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway was held at the Baku International Sea Trade Port.

The BTK railway is built on the basis of the Azerbaijani-Georgian-Turkish intergovernmental agreement. At the initial stage, the volume of freight traffic will be at the level of 6.5 million tons of cargo, as well as up to one million passengers will be transported through this railway.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 8

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

The presidents of Turkey and Russia will also discuss the situation in the South Caucasus during their meeting in Moscow, a source in the Turkish government told Trend commenting on the visit of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Russia.

According to him, Turkey always keeps the issue of the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the agenda.

"Despite the talks mainly revolving around Turkish-Russian relations, the situation in the South Caucasus will also be on the agenda," the source stated.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Russia on April 8, during which a number of economic and political issues will be discussed.

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 8

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Russian-Turkish relations are becoming stronger, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters before his visit to Moscow, Trend reports referring to the Turkish media.

According to Erdogan, a strengthening of relations in all fields is currently being observed between the two countries.

The president noted that regional issues will be discussed during the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, including the situation in Syria and the supply of Russian S-400 air defense missile systems.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Russia on April 8, during which a number of economic and political issues will be discussed.

Initial reports of negotiations between Russia and Turkey on the supply of S-400 surfaced in November 2016. The signing of a contract was confirmed by the Russian side on September 12, 2017. Turkish National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said that the S-400 air defense systems will be deployed from October 2019. The supply of the S-400 air defense systems to Ankara cost $2.5 billion, head of the Rostec state corporation Sergey Chemezov said in December 2017. Turkey is the first country, a NATO member, which will receive the S-400 air defense systems from Russia.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 8

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

The municipal election results in Istanbul were almost completely rigged, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters, Trend reports with reference to the Turkish media.

He noted that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) appealed to the Turkish Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) to identify the perpetrators.

Meanwhile, the Justice and Development Party presented facts of falsification of 11,000 votes in Istanbul in favour of the candidate of the opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP) Ekrem Imamoglu.

Earlier, Bayram Senocak, head of the Istanbul branch of the Turkish ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), stated that the ruling party has evidence of the election results in Istanbul being falsified in favor of candidate of the opposition Republican People's Party Ekrem Imamoglu.

Imamoglu gained 4.159 million votes, while Yildirim got 4.131 million votes in Istanbul.

The coalition of the ruling party and the Nationalist Movement Party gained 51.67 percent of votes in the municipal elections throughout the country.

Following the elections, candidate of the Republican Peoples Party Mansur Yavas became mayor of Ankara.

Thirteen political parties took part in the municipal elections held March 31. These included the Felicity Party (SP), the Independent Turkey Party (Bagmsz Turkiye Partisi), the Communist Party of Turkey (Turkiye Komunist Partisi), the Patriotic Party (Vatan Partisi), the Great Unity Party (Buyuk Birlik Partisi), Free Cause Party (Hur Dava Partisi), Republican Peoples Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi), Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalknma Partisi), Democratic Party (Demokrat Parti), Nationalist Movement Party (Milliyetci Hareket Partisi), Iyi Party (IYI Parti), Peoples Democratic Party (Halklarn Demokratik Partisi) and Democratic Left Party (Demokratik Sol Parti).

Municipal elections are held every 5 years in Turkey.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 8

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

Last year, the trade turnover between Turkey and Russia grew by 15 percent, which is very important, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during the meeting with the Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Trend reports via Turkish media.

Turkey and Russia intend to increase trade turnover to $100 billion, Erdogan said.

The Turkish president noted that Ankara and Moscow are cooperating in various fields, including the field of combating terrorism.

He added that the steps taken by Turkey and Russia towards resolving the crisis in Syria are yielding results and are very important.

The Turkish president noted that as part of his visit to Moscow three important documents will be signed between the two states.

The total trade turnover of Turkey in March 2019 amounted to $34.5 billion, while Turkish imports from Russia in March 2019 decreased by 5.76 percent compared to March 2018, and amounted to $2.069 billion.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
It is Turkeys sovereign right to buy S-400 missile systems from Russia, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Trend reported citing TASS.

"We have already drafted a roadmap to implement the S-400 deal. We have made corresponding steps. Its all over now. With all this done, is someone going to be against it, to call to abandon the deal, not to recognize our opinion? Once we have reached an agreement and signed the deal, naturally, we will continue to move forward. It is our sovereign right. No one can demand we waive it," he stressed.

Also on Monday, the Russian capital city hosted a regular meeting of the Russian-Turkish High-Level Cooperation Council.

"I would like once again to thank Mr. Putin for the hospitality demonstrated to me and my delegation. I would like to invite President Putin to attend the next meeting of the High-Level Cooperation Council that will be held in our country," Erdogan said.

The media reported in November 2016 that talks were underway on possible sales of Russian S-400 systems to Turkey. The Russian side confirmed that the contract had been signed in September 2017. The Turkish president said back then that an advance payment had already been made. The United States has been trying to break down the deal.

Russias S-400 Triumf (NATO reporting name: SA-21 Growler) is the latest long-range antiaircraft missile system that went into service in 2007. It is designed to destroy aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles, including medium-range missiles, and surface targets. The system can hit aerodynamic targets at a range of up to 400 kilometers (249 miles) and tactical ballistic targets flying at a speed of 4.8 km/s (3 mi/s) at a distance of up to 60 kilometers (37 miles). Such targets include cruise missiles, tactical and strategic aircraft and ballistic missile warheads.

The systems radars detect aerial targets at a distance of up to 600 kilometers (373 miles). The systems 48N6E3 surface-to-air missiles can hit aerodynamic targets at altitudes of 10,000-27,000 meters and ballistic threats at altitudes of 2,000-25,000 meters.
President Donald Trump named James Murray as the new director of Secret Service, replacing Randolph Tex Alles, the White House said Monday, Trend reported citing Washington Examiner.

United States Secret Service director Randolph "Tex" Alles has done a great job at the agency over the last two years, and the President is thankful for his over 40 years of service to the country, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement. Mr. Alles will be leaving shortly and President Trump has selected James M. Murray, a career member of the USSS, to take over as director beginning in May.

Reports earlier Monday said Trump told acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to dismiss Alles a week ago, but he was still on the job.

The departure of Alles, a former Marine Corps major general, appears to be part of a Trump purge of top Homeland Security officials. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was ousted Sunday.
Three U.S. service members and an American contractor were killed in Afghanistan by an improvised explosive device on Monday, the NATO-led Resolute Support mission said in a statement, Trend reported citing Reuters.

Three U.S. service members were also wounded in the incident near Bagram air base close to Kabul, the statement said.

Violence has been relentless in Afghanistan even though Taliban militants have held several rounds of talks with U.S. officials about a peace settlement. The talks began late last year, raising hopes for an end to the conflict.

Colonel David Butler, a spokesman for U.S. Forces- Afghanistan, said a car bomb had detonated near the security convoy, which lead to deaths and injuries.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

The latest deaths bring the number of U.S. service member deaths in Afghanistan to seven in 2019, and a total of 68 U.S. military deaths since January 2015, according to U.S. government and NATO reports.

The death toll is one of the deadliest recent attacks against U.S. personnel. In November, a roadside bomb blast killed three U.S. service members near the central Afghan city of Ghazni.

Last month two U.S. service members were killed in Afghanistan while conducting an operation.

The war has taken a much larger toll on Afghan security forces and civilians.

President Ashraf Ghani, speaking at the World Economic Forum in January, said that about 45,000 Afghan security forces have been killed since he took office in September 2014, which works out to an average of 849 per month.

The Resolute Support Mission consists of 17,000 troops, about half of them from the United States. A smaller number of U.S. troops operate in Afghanistan under a counter-terrorism mission.
To share with friends and brethren The Gospel of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (the Everlasting Gospel), and to prepare a people to stand when He returns to redeem His remnant. Also, to share relevant information of current events, and to show how they relate to prophecy; By means of articles, editorials, opinions, scripture readings, and poetry.

Disclaimer

Endrtimes does not necessarily endorse or agree with every opinion expressed in every article/video posted on this site. The information provided here is done so for personal edification; It's up to the reader to separate truth from error, and to examine everything (like the Bereans) from a Biblical perspective. Let the Holy Scriptures be you guide! - - - FAIR USE NOTICE: These pages/videos may contain copyrighted () material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available to advance understanding of ecological, POLITICAL, HUMAN RIGHTS, economic, DEMOCRACY, scientific, MORAL, ETHICAL, and SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES, etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior general interest in receiving similar information for research and educational purposes.
New Delhi: On Monday, as per reported by sources India has once again turned down an official invite from the neighbouring country China to attend the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Forum meeting scheduled to take place this month. India boycotted the first BRI Forum in 2017 after protesting the controversial China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which is being laid through the PoK (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir) overriding New Delhi's sovereignty concerns.

also read On today morning, 5.0 Magnitude earthquake shaken India's this region

Here it is to be noted that China is considering that India will review its decision and participate in the forum, as evident from the principal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping in April last year. The invitation for participation was delivered to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) by Chinese officials but India responded by restating its concerns over CPEC. He replied to a question about whether India will participate in the second BRI forum "No country can participate in an initiative that ignores its core concerns on sovereignty and territorial integrity,". China Denies CPEC Projects Are Debt Trap for Pakistan. The Indian envoy said "However, it is also our belief that connectivity initiatives must be based on universally recognised international norms, good governance and rule of law. They must emphasise social stability and environmental protection and preservation, promote skill and technology transfers and follow principles of openness, transparency and financial sustainability,".

However, it is worth mention here that India's Ambassador to China Vikram Misri, last month, told the Global Times that "above all, connectivity initiatives must be pursued in a manner that respects the sovereignty, equality and territorial integrity of nations". CPEC Debt Repayment: Pakistan Will Pay Back China $40 Billion in Next 20 Years, Say Govt Documents. Misri said, reported "To be honest, we have made no secret of our views and our position on the BRI is clear and consistent and one that we have conveyed to the authorities concerned. India shares the global aspiration to strengthen connectivity and it is an integral part of our economic and diplomatic initiatives. We ourselves are working with many countries and international institutions in our region and beyond on a range of connectivity initiatives,".

also read A complaint filed against Urmila Matondkar for her this comment to insulting Hindus
Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif has vacationed in the Maldives with her friends. The actress shared the pictures of her vaction which are giving vacancy goals to the fans. Yesterday, Katrina returned to Mumbai and well, her latest Instagram post proves that she is missing her Maldives holiday.

Angrezi Medium's first Look out, Irrfan Khan is all set to entertain once again

Ek Tha Tiger actress shared a stunning picture from a beach as she enjoys sitting amid the sand. Wearing a yellow bikini, she truly looks like sunshine's own child. The actress captioned the photos as, "Sky above,sand below, peace within."

Bigg Boss 11 fame Priyank Sharma to feature in Khatra Khatra Khatra

On the work front, Katrina was last seen in Aanand L Rai's Zero alongside Shah Rukh Khanand Anushka Sharma. She essayed the role of an actress named Babita Kumari in the film which won her a lot of praises from the audiences and the critics. Now, Katrina Kaif will be seen alongside Salman Khan in Ali Abbas Zafar's Bharat. The actors finished shooting for the film last month. The trailer of Bharat will be out in the third week of April. The film also stars Disha Patani, Jackie Shroff and Sunil Grover . It will hit the screens during Eid this year.
Deriving passion from the broad requirements of clients, Mumbai based Spicetree Design Agency (SDA) is a leading agency offering an array of services that range from Digital Marketing, Web and Creative Communications. SDAs experience in Digital Marketing, Web and Creative Communications has helped it to carve a niche in the industry as one of the leading agencies to do business with. SDAs vision is to create marketing opportunities that will inevitably drive growth worldwide. Its mission is to push brands into unchartered yet engaging territories and to continue inspiring effective communications using advanced technology that create and stimulate our clients growth opportunities, says Shiraz Khan  Founder Director.Curating effective communication, SDA offers digital marketing solutions that include Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization, Search Engine Optimization, Mailers and Retargeting, Mobile Marketing, amongst others all of which ultimately help clients get more leads. Apart from helping startups to create their brand identity SDA also offers consultation to clients for any strategic decisions that help them take crucial decisions

for growth. Considering the technological advancements that have come about recently, we have taken a more divergent approach in terms of our marketing services. We constantly engage ourselves in understanding the emerging dynamics of consumer behaviour and the perpetually adaptive nature of the industry itself, informs Shiraz.



"What makes SDA detracting from the clutter is its core philosophy of deriving factual creativity viz. the perfect blend of creative thought and scientific analysis"



Sailing against the Wind

The current market scenario witnesses sky-high expectations of clients wherein they expect instant results. They somehow feel that their mere presence in the digital world is more than enough so the idea of spending on paid campaigns is not well accepted always. Our philosophy of analytics backed by scientific approach helps us to prove to them otherwise. We dont just talk to convince them but show them figures that can prove them the difference between organic and inorganic results, asserts Shiraz.



What makes SDA detracting from the clutter is its core philosophy of deriving factual creativity viz. the perfect blend of creative thought and scientific analysis. It is this strategic anomaly that allows the company to offer practicality through its creative solutions in a unique and unfound manner. We further ensure criticality and caution while managing each project and garnering effective communications for target groups, he says. The team at SDA works with a common goal to establish it as an integrated advertising and marketing agency in Mumbai. Our
ITHACA, N.Y. - Dr. Sunita Sah practiced general medicine for several years in the United Kingdom's National Health Service. When she came to the United States, she noticed something strange.

The U.K. guidelines for tests such as mammograms and colon cancer screenings drastically differed from those in the U.S. - even though they were based on the same medical evidence.

"Having colonoscopy at the age of 50 - that struck me as rather odd when I moved to the U.S., because you don't really hear about people having colonoscopies as a screening procedure in the U.K.," said Sah. "It's much less invasive to test for blood in the stool. It's also less costly and doesn't have the risks of undertaking a colonoscopy."

Now an assistant professor of management and organizations at Cornell, Sah and Ismail Jatoi of the University of Texas Health, San Antonio, say the treatment guidelines recommended by medical specialist organizations are more likely to call for greater use of health care services and exacerbate overdiagnosis, overtreatment and spiraling health care costs. Their commentary, "Clinical Practice Guidelines and the Overuse of Health Care Services: Need for Reform," appeared March 18 in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

The implications are significant, she said, because guidelines are supposed to provide standard evidence-based treatment practices for all doctors.

"The recommendations put out by specialty organizations - like the American College of Cardiology or the American College of Radiology - show specialty bias in recommending more aggressive and/or more frequent screening procedures," said Sah, an expert on conflict of interest. "In the U.S. in particular, where the fee-for-service compensation model dominates medicine, which is different from countries like the U.K., you see even more recommendations for greater use of health care services."

Specialty bias refers to the tendency of physicians to recommend the treatments in which they are trained to deliver. For example, localized prostate cancer can be treated with either surgery or radiation.

"If you go to a surgeon, chances are that they are more likely to recommend that you have surgery; if you go to a radiation oncologist, they are more likely to recommend that you have radiation," she said. "They each often believe that the treatment that they're trained in is the better one."

In the case of screening for colorectal cancer, the American College of Gastroenterology's panel - all of whom were gastroenterologists - recommended colonoscopy as the best strategy.

But the United States Preventive Task Force, with no gastroenterologists or gastrointestinal surgeons, recommended testing the stool, sigmoidoscopy (an exam of only the lower part of the colon) or colonoscopy as a last resort. Stool testing was also recommended by the European Society of Medical Oncology panel, which consisted of six medical oncologists, no gastroenterologists and one gastrointestinal surgeon. The panel said there was limited evidence that screening colonoscopy is effective.

"Colonoscopies are more invasive than stool testing and come with potentially greater risks and costs for patients - but increased clinical volume and profits for gastroenterologists," Sah said.

Specialty guidelines are also subject to fee-for-service bias, according to the commentary. Doctors who receive a payment for each treatment may tend to recommend that treatment more often, because they have a financial interest in it.

"The bias is not necessarily malicious or intentional," Sah said. "In a fee-for-service environment, they may be biased to do more rather than less, so it becomes a habit."

But more is not necessarily better, she said. "Sometimes the risks of those procedures are just not worth the benefits."

The authors call for a reduction in conflicts of interest in the fee-for-service model, and more professional diversity in the makeup of the guideline committees. "You need a variety of different voices on those committees," Sah said.

And patients could ask their doctors which guidelines they follow and why. "Ask them questions," she said. "Ask your doctor to explain their thought process in recommending the particular guideline and the advantages or disadvantages of one guideline versus another."

###

Cornell University has dedicated television and audio studios available for media interviews supporting full HD, ISDN and web-based platforms.
Description

Fifty miles north of New York City lies the town of Monroe, where one of the fastest-growing Hasidic communities in the country thrives deep within the Hudson Valley. As the 25,000+ population within the village of Kiryas Joel looks to expand their city, the neighboring villages of non-Hasids see the encroaching community as a burgeoning power grab, leading to an increasingly tense standoff between locals. Shot over several years with seemingly boundless access, Emmy-winning Director Jesse Sweets City of Joel Film observes the simmering tensions that have come to define the community of Monroe, and the myriad ways in which the towns divide echoes the countrys as well. The film is sponsored by Temple Isaiah of Stony Brook. Our guest speaker for the Q&A will be Emmy-winning director, Jesse Sweet.
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.'
Government Islamaphobia adviser Qari Asim (right) has previously backed a cleric who called for the execution of Asia Bibi. He met ex-prime minister David Cameron in 2016

An imam recruited to advise the Government on tackling Islamophobia has publicly supported a cleric in Pakistan who has campaigned for a Christian woman to be hanged for blasphemy.

Qari Asim, who is part of an 11-strong panel assembled by the Communities Department, supported preacher Khadim Rizvi, who demanded the death penalty for Asia Bibi, who was falsely accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad.

She spent nine years on death row until she was acquitted in October.

Mr Asims past emerged as part of a Mail on Sunday investigation into the Working Group on Anti-Muslim Hatred, which advises Ministers and senior civil servants on measures to combat anti-Muslim bigotry and hate crimes.

When Pakistans Supreme Court acquitted Ms Bibi last year, Rizvis group, Tehreek-e-Labbaik, caused nationwide riots, demanding that she be hanged.

Rizvi also endorsed the actions of Tanveer Ahmed, a British extremist who killed a shopkeeper in Glasgow, Asad Shah, because he belonged to a heretical Muslim sect known as the Ahmadis. After the murder in 2016, Rizvi praised Ahmed in his preachings, hailing him as a ghazi, or warrior.

Mr Asim speaking to Police Constable Plummer at an event in a Leeds mosque last month

Ahmed, 34, from Bradford, is now serving 27 years for murder.

Qari Asim did not publicly support Rizvis campaign against Ms Bibi, but issued a statement on his Facebook page in November 2017 in solidarity with the cleric, whose organisation at the time was behind protests in Islamabad, which were marred by violence.

Tehreek-e-Labbaik supporters were protesting after the Pakistani government changed the wording of the oath of office for politicians so they no longer had to say Mohammed was the last Prophet of God.

Mr Asim described the protesters, some of whom engaged in violence, as peaceful demonstrators, and said they had a democratic right to ask the government to expose people who have tried to amend the constitution.

The investigation also established that another member of the working group, Karim Sacoor, was once filmed manhandling Labour MP, Dr Rupa Huq, in 2015, when she was the Parliamentary candidate for her West London seat of Ealing.
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"Real talk: Daniel Rubin has a great little piece up wherein he chats with The Field Negro, the Philly-based blogger who sharply ponders all things black on a daily basis. (Seriously, if youve never checked in with TFN, you should: Its author, Wayne Bennett, is a fantastic read who can cut through bullshit like a hot knife through butter, which is a far grosser analogy than I wanted to make, but there you have it.)"

~Philebrity~



"One of the most precocious and hilarious Black political minds on the net. Ive been a long-time fan!" ~Asad Malik~









"..While most of what he writes is tongue-in-cheek, his space is a safe house for candid discussions about race, especially in the comments section, where people of all colors meet."



~~Daniel Rubin, "The Philadelphia Inquirer"~~



"To white people, Bennett's musings are like kitchen-table talk from a kitchen they may otherwise never set foot in. To African Americans, he is part of a growing army of black Internet amateurs who have taken up the work once reserved for ministers and professional activists: the work of setting a black agenda, shaping black opinion and calling attention to the state of the nation's racial affairs."



~~Richard Fausset, "L.A. Times"~~~











~Erik Hare, "The Twin Cities Daily Planet"~



"That's why I love the blog " Field Negro " so much. Field, as he's known to his fans, has the sense of reality that it takes to call out the ( CowPuckey ) of blame beating by those who are in positions of power and their lackeys. Because of his handle and his unabashed way of writing about racial issues, Field is often cited as a "Black blogger." What he is, however, is a first-class detector of blame deflection and an excellent student of history. If you want to write about the past and future of repression there's really no other perspective to take - which is why everyone should read Field."~Erik Hare, "The Twin Cities Daily Planet"~





411 On The Field field negro Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Raised in the house, but field certified. Jamaica is the land of my birth, but I consider myself a citizen of the world. I currently practice law in the city of "brotherly love". View my complete profile



"Half a century after Little Rock, the Montgomery bus boycott and the tumultuous dawn of the modern civil rights era, the new face of the movement is Facebook, MySpace and some 150 black blogs united in an Internet alliance they call the

AfroSpear.



Older, familiar leaders such as Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton and NAACP Chairman Julian Bond, are under challenge by a younger generation of bloggers known by such provocative screen names as Field Negro, thefreeslave

and African American Political Pundit. And many of the newest struggles are being waged online."



~Howard Witt-The Chicago Tribune~



"I had no idea, for example, of the extent of the African-American blogging world out there and its collective powers of dissemination.But now, after reading thousands of anguished, thoughtful comments posted on these blogs reflecting on issues of persistent racial discrimination in the nation's schools and courtrooms, what's clear to me is that there's a new, "virtual" civil rights movement out there on the Internet that can reach more people in a few hours than all the protest marches, sit-ins and boycotts of the 1950s and 60s put together." ~Chicago Tribune Reporter, Howard Witt~

IF YOU ARE BRAVE ENOUGH TO FLAUNT IT. Come visit my store on CafePress!




































South Korean police have made multiple arrests in connection with an online shopping website and token exchange labelled as an $18.7 million 'Ponzi scheme', Korea Joongang Daily reports.The post $18.7 million fake token fraud leads to 12 arrests in South Korea appeared first on The Block.

South Korean police have made multiple arrests in connection with an online shopping website and token exchange labelled as an $18.7 million 'Ponzi scheme', Korea Joongang Daily reports. The site began operating last May, involving approximately 56,000 victims; mostly elderly people in their 60s and 70s with limited knowledge of digital assets.

The website required a hefty membership fee but grew rapidly in numbers by offering members a cash reward for their first recruit. Members were also prompted into buying the site's unlisted token, M-Coin, after being promised it would rise significantly in value.

The police were assisted in their investigation by artificial intelligence (AI) taught to recognise scams, leading to the arrests of the two CEOs and 10 others. The program can also identify advertisement patterns and identified the enterprise in question, which [was traced] with evidence provided by an unnamed informant, said Hong Nam-ki, the police's section chief.
The fact that Boeing 737 MAX jets were involved in two fatal air crashes in different parts of the globe in a span of five months has invited criticism from all corners. While the first accident was in Indonesia during October 2018, the second one was the Ethiopian Airlines crash on Mar 10. Naturally, safety-related questions about the model are flying around.

Responding to the sentiments, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a directive on March 13 to ground all U.S.-registered Boeing 737 MAX jets. Consequently, carriers with Boeing 737 Max aircraft in its fleet experienced wide-spread cancelation of flights.

Confronted with such criticism, The Boeing Company BA has decided to trim its monthly production of the disputed jets by 20% from mid-April to 42. Moreover, Boeing is working hard to resolve the defects in this model under scrutiny. In this scenario, U.S.-based airlines, having Boeing 737 Max jets in the fleet, are adopting a cautious stance on this issue. On Mar 30, Southwest Airlines LUV and the union representing its pilots  Southwest Airlines Pilots' Association (SWAPA)  notified that Boeing 737 MAX jets will not operate at Southwest Airlines until the end of May 2019. Southwest Airlines has 34 such jets in its fleet.

Now, American Airlines AAL has joined Southwest in extending the period of the grounding of the disputed jets. This Fort Worth, TX-based carrier, which currently has 24 such jets in its fleet, announced that 737 MAX operations will remain suspended at American Airlines through Jun 5. While cancelling 90 flights per day the carrier had previously stated that 737 MAX jets would remain grounded until Apr 24.

American Airlines is awaiting further notifications on the issue from U.S. regulators. The company is aware that its latest decision to prevent the Boeing-made Max jets from flying for more than a month compared with the earlier projected date will increase its passengers harassment. To mitigate the harassments caused by the prolonged cancellations, the carrier stated that it will reach out to the affected customers with available re-bookings.

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American Airlines Group Inc. Price

American Airlines Group Inc. Price | American Airlines Group Inc. Quote

With two airline heavyweights extending their respective grounding periods for 737 MAX jets, we expect other airlines with these planes in their fleet to follow suit. Therefore, investors are anticipated to eagerly await updates on this burning issue going forward.

Zacks Rank & A Key Pick

American Airlines carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). A better-ranked airline stock is SkyWest SKYW with a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / April 8, 2019 / Aston Bay Holdings Ltd. (TSX-V: BAY; OTCQB: ATBHF) ("Aston Bay" or the "Company"), through its wholly owned subsidiary Blue Ridge Mining Inc. ("Blue Ridge" or "BRM"), is pleased to announce that in preparation for a planned 900 metre (m) diamond drill program on its Buckingham Gold Property located in Central Virginia, USA, a drill rig and all necessary equipment is being mobilized to site.

Drilling will be focused on an outcropping gold-bearing quartz vein with a strike length of over 150 m and an associated gold-in-soil anomaly that extends for over 900 m. Visible gold is present at surface in quartz vein outcrop and subcrop. Select rock chip grab samples from the outcropping quartz vein assayed up to 701 grams/tonne (g/t) Au (20.4 ounces per short ton). The associated gold-in-soil anomaly contains values up to 0.4 g/t Au in soil.

Three historical drill holes were completed over a strike distance of 80 meters along the vein outcrop area in 2016 (see March 4, 2019 Aston Bay press release). These yielded mineralized quartz vein intercepts of 15.57 g/t Au over 4.1m and 11.69 g/t Au over 3.1m (all drill depths and assay intervals are measured-down-the-hole depths and thicknesses; they do not represent true widths). The vein has been intercepted to a depth of 40 meters and mineralization is open along strike and down dip

In addition to the vein mineralization, a significant zone (27.4 m @ 0.4 g/t Au) of disseminated gold mineralization was intercepted in a metavolcanic rock below the quartz vein.

"The drill program is designed to confirm gold mineralization in the quartz vein, test the strike extent of the gold-bearing vein and also test other quartz veins subcropping on the property," stated Aston Bay CEO Thomas Ullrich. "In addition, we intend to target the disseminated gold mineralization encountered below the veins. This disseminated-style of mineralization has yielded significant economic deposits in similar aged rocks of the Carolina Island Arc terrain."

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QUALIFIED PERSON

As per National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, Michael Dufresne, M.Sc., P.Geol., P.Geo., a Director of and a consultant to Aston Bay, is the Qualified Person for the Company and has prepared, validated and approved the technical and scientific content of this news release. The Company strictly adheres to CIM Best Practices Guidelines in conducting, documenting, and reporting its exploration activities on the Company's Aston Bay and Blue Ridge Mining Projects.

ABOUT ASTON BAY HOLDINGS LTD.

Aston Bay is a publicly traded mineral exploration company exploring for large, high-grade, copper, zinc and precious metal deposits in Nunavut, Canada and Virginia, USA. The Company is led by CEO Thomas Ullrich with exploration directed by Chief Geologist Dr. David Broughton, the award-winning co-discoverer of Kamoa-Kakula and Flatreef, in conjunction with the Company's advisor, Don Taylor, the 2018 Thayer Lindsley Award winner for his discovery of the Taylor Pb-Zn-Ag Deposit in Arizona.

The Company is 100% owner of the 1,024,345-acres (414,537-hectares) Aston Bay Property located on western Somerset Island, Nunavut, which neighbours Teck's profitable, past-producing Polaris (Pb-Zn) Mine just 200km to the north. The Aston Bay Property hosts the Storm Copper Project and the Seal Zinc Deposit with drill-confirmed presence of sediment-hosted copper and zinc mineralization.

The Company has also acquired the exclusive rights to an integrated dataset over certain prospective private lands at the Blue Ridge Project, located in central Virginia. These lands are located within a copper-lead-zinc-gold-silver mineralized belt, prospective for sedimentary exhalative (SEDEX) and Broken Hill (BHT) type base metal deposits, as well as Carolina slate belt gold deposits. Don Taylor, who led the predecessor company to Blue Ridge and assembled the dataset, has joined the Company's Advisory Board and will be directing the Company's exploration activities for the Blue Ridge Project.

The Company's public disclosure documents are available on www.sedar.com.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Statements made in this press release, including those regarding the completion of the acquisition, management objectives, forecasts, estimates, expectations, or predictions of the future may constitute "forward-looking statement", which can be identified by the use of conditional or future tenses or by the use of such verbs as "believe", "expect", "may", "will", "should", "estimate", "anticipate", "project", "plan", and words of similar import, including variations thereof and negative forms. This press release contains forward-looking statements that reflect, as of the date of this press release, Aston Bay's expectations, estimates and projections about its operations, the mining industry and the economic environment in which it operates. Statements in this press release that are not supported by historical fact are forward-looking statements, meaning they involve risk, uncertainty and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. Although Aston Bay believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on these statements, which apply only at the time of writing of this press release. Aston Bay disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by securities legislation. We seek safe harbour.

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 news release.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION CONTACT:

Thomas Ullrich, Chief Executive Officer

thomas.ullrich@astonbayholdings.com

Telephone: (416) 456-3516

SOURCE: Aston Bay Holdings Ltd.





View source version on accesswire.com:

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Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 8, 2019) - Bayhorse Silver Inc (TSXV: BHS) ("Bayhorse" or the "Company") has, subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange, executed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to enter into an Option Agreement to acquire an 80% interest in the Brandywine precious metals-rich, volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit located near Squamish, British Columbia from Turnagain Resources of Richmond, British Columbia, Canada.

The readily accessible, 1,432 hectare, brownfield Brandywine deposit has undergone several exploration phases including bulk tonnage shipments to smelters, extensive drilling, and extensive geochemical and geophysical studies.

The Brandywine deposit conceptually falls within a class of high gold-silver volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits that include the Eskay Creek deposit of northern British Columbia; the Green's Creek deposit on Admiralty Island near Juneau, Alaska; the Bawdwin deposit in Myanmar; and the Rosebery deposit of Tasmania. This family of deposits is particularly silver and lead rich with important gold, zinc, copper and other metal values.

Terms of the agreement include a non-refundable deposit of $1,000 followed by payment of C$ 9,000 on signing of the Option Agreement, delivery of 100,000 shares of Bayhorse Silver on signing, and incurring C$ 3,000,000 of work over five years. An issuance of 200,000 shares will occur on the first anniversary; an additional cash payment of $40,000 and a further 300,000 shares will be issued on the second anniversary and 300,000 shares will be issued each on the third through the fifth anniversaries for a total of 1.5 million shares.

Work expenditures will be $500,000 in year one, $500,000 in year two, $500,000 in year three, and $1,500,000 on or before the 5th anniversary.

Initial grab samples have been taken from newly exposed mineralized outcrop and have been submitted to Mineral Solutions LLC, (Minerals) Coeur d Alene, Idaho, for assessment and assay. Additional samples will be submitted for assays in the coming weeks.

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A sample from the historic mining stockpile is planned to be shipped to the Company's Bayhorse Silver Mine for assessment through the Company's Ore-Sorter and upgrading circuit, that has recently been re-configured to meet the upgrade and concentration requirements for Mineral's processing of Bayhorse mineralization into refined silver.

The most definitive indications of the nature of the mineralization on the property are two smelter shipments as follows:

A 50 ton bulk sample in 1967 grading 83.1 g/t gold, 354 g/t silver, 9.9% lead, 7.4% zinc, 0.30% copper per ton to East Helena , Montana, smelter from the Silver Tunnel and Main Zone (Melling, 1994, Walus 2011) A 500 ton sample grading 14.2% lead, 12.5% zinc, 339 g/t silver, and 2.57 g/t gold per ton to the Cominco Smelter in Trail in 1977 (Walus, 2011, Melling, 1994).

Several historical resources have been published previously, including 112,000 tonnes reported to average 10 oz Ag/ton;.0.03 oz Au/ton; 0.19% lead and 0.34% zinc.

Additionally, the reports identify the presence of Pyrargyrite (Ruby Silver), as well as the rare silver specimen minerals, diasphorite, fizelyite, (rare silver-lead-antimony Sulfosalt) semseyeyite, miargyrite,(silver, antimony sulphide) and prostilpnite (Ag, Sb, S), all indicative of the presence of high grade silver, as well as the rare mineral hubernite, on the property. Samples of the rare specimen silver minerals can be found in the historic mine dumps.

The Company advises that the information presented is of a historic nature. Historic production estimates and grades reported have not been verified. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to verify the historical estimates nor classify the historic estimates as current mineral resources or mineral reserves, and the Company is not treating the historical estimates as current mineral resources or mineral reserves.

While the various historical tonnage calculations have not been verified by a Qualified Person, the detailed drill data available from extensive work by several exploration groups is preserved, and will serve as a basis for confirmation drilling of the known sulphide mineralization target areas.

Bayhorse CEO Graeme O'Neill comments "Brandywine is an excellent high grade silver and gold project that complements our high grade Bayhorse Silver Mine." "Historic reports are available for viewing on the Company's website at http://www.bayhorsesilver.com/brandywine-project-au-ag/

L. Sookochoff, P.Eng., compiled much of the previous work for an assessment report in October ,2018. Discussions include work undertaken on the Stan pit area, the Silver Tunnel, Zone 4, the Brandywine No. 1 Adit, the Brandywine No.2 Adit, and the Quartz Tunnel.

Bayhorse Silver plans to undertake a re-evaluation of all data available on the project and design an exploration program to confirm previously established mineralized zones, and explore extensively on the property.

This News Release has been prepared on behalf of the Bayhorse Silver Inc. Board of Directors, which accepts full responsibility for its contents. Dr. Stewart Jackson, P.Geo., a Qualified Person and Consultant to the Company has prepared, supervised the preparation of, and approved the technical content of this press release.

On Behalf of the Board.

Graeme O'Neill, CEO

604-684-3394

Bayhorse Silver Inc., a junior exploration company, has earned 100% interest in the historic Bayhorse Silver Mine, Oregon, USA. The Company has an experienced management and technical team with extensive exploration and mining expertise.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Corporate Logo

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/43937
HENDERSON, NV / ACCESSWIRE / April 8, 2019 / Investors are bullish on the long-term growth potential of marijuana. As per Lavery, the size of the potential market is somewhere between $250 billion-$500 billion over the long run globally. The near-term size has been estimated between $15 billion-$50 billion. This rapid growth is the primary reason that pot stocks have been on top of mind for the investing public for the past 36 months.

One company that could have upside is THC Therapeutics, Inc. (THCT). The US patent office has accepted ALL 20 claims for The dHydronator. Very recently, the company announced that it has received patent protection for the dHydronator, which can reduce moisture content of cannabis to 10% in only 10-14 hours, normally it takes up to 14 days. The dHydronator also destroys harmful surface contaminants & pathogens. The term of the patent provides 20 years of protection on the scalable intellectual property for the dHydronator. This is Big news from THCT.

Today we are highlighting: THC Therapeutics, Inc. (THCT), The Alkaline Water Company Inc. (WTER), Phivida Holdings Inc. (PHVAF), Shineco Inc (TYHT), and SOL Global Investments Corp. (SOLCF).

THC Therapeutics, Inc. (THCT) (Market Cap: $227.068M; Share Price: $17.00) has developed a sanitizing herb dryer, The dHydronator. Their laboratory-proven product is specifically designed for drying and sanitizing freshly harvested cannabis and herbs. THCT's product has been tested by two independent laboratories. The testing covered over 6 strains and 9 independent tests to confirm the findings.

As we mentioned earlier, the US patent office has accepted ALL 20 claims for The dHydronator. The company has received patent protection for the dHydronator. Start your research today on THCT.

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The Alkaline Water Company Inc. (WTER) (Market Cap: $84.038; Share Price: $2.14), a leading producer of premium bottled alkaline drinking water sold under the brand name Alkaline88, continues to expand its national retail footprint as regulations around hemp-infused products are ironed out. Not only did the company expand its distribution into 30 more Whole Foods stores (resulting in a total of 107 across the United States), but it formed an agreement with Jetro Cash and Carry-one of the United States' leading wholesale food and beverage suppliers. The agreement will provide over 5,000 independent retailers (i.e. restaurants, nonprofit organizations) in Southern California with access to the company's Alkaline88 1-liter, 700ml, and 500ml products. Jetro Cash and Carry is one of the nation's largest wholesale food and beverage suppliers. The company is optimistic that this new distribution channel will ultimately be as successful as its more established supermarket sales channel.

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The Alkaline Water Company Inc. produces, distributes, and markets bottled alkaline water in the United States. The company offers bottled alkaline water in various volumes under the Alkaline88 trade name. With its innovative, state-of-the-art, proprietary electrolysis process, the company produces healthy, all-natural and great-tasting alkaline water for a balanced lifestyle. It sells its products through brokers and distributors to retailers, such as convenience stores, natural food products stores, large ethnic markets, and national retailers. The company was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona.

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Phivida Holdings Inc. (PHVAF) (Market Cap: $37.657M; Share Price: $0.61), a functional food and beverage company that offers premium beverages and clinical products infused with active hemp extract, recently announced that leading supermarket chain, Safeway, would begin selling its Oki hemp-infused beverages in over 100 stores across Colorado. The agreement with Safeway marks the first major U.S. retailer to offer the Oki line of iced teas and waters, which will now come infused with 20mg of active hemp extract. Phivida aims to be in over 1,000 outlets in early Q2 2019. In February, it had also announced a new partnership with Flora Research Laboratories (FRL). The partnership is expected to focus on quality assurance and product testing of Phivida's active hemp extract infused premium beverages and clinical products.

Phivida Holdings Inc., a functional food and beverage company, engages in purchasing, packaging, and selling holistic hemp infused remedies in the United States. It focuses on providing custom formulated hemp oil extracts, as well as hemp oil infused beverages and nutraceuticals. The company offers hemp oil infused beverages under the OKI brand and tinctures and capsules under the Vida + that are distributed to health care professionals, as well as directly to consumers through the company's online storefront. The company was formerly known as Phytofarms Holdings Inc. and changed its name to Phivida Holdings Inc. in January 2017. Phivida Holdings Inc. was incorporated in 2015 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

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Shineco Inc (TYHT) (Market Cap: $33.85M; Share Price: $1.48) announced recently that the company through its wholly owned subsidiary Tenjove NewHemp Biotech Co., Ltd., entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with the Xingshan People's Government of Hegang City of Heilongjiang Province. Shineco, Inc is a producer and distributor of Chinese herbal medicines, organic produce, and various health-focused products in China.

Per the details of the agreement, both parties agree to actively promote the development of a complete industrial chain for industrial hemp including cultivation, harvesting, initial processing, and fine extraction to form a local industry integration model and to achieve a new industrial-scale economy. As part of the Agreement, both parties plan to develop a 20,000 mu (approximately 3,295 acres) high-quality industrial hemp project and expect to complete the cultivation of the first 500 mu in 2019. Besides conducting joint research and development on several new varieties of industrial hemp, both parties also agree to establish an industrial hemp farm, a CBD Extraction Industrial Park, an Industrial Hemp Research Center affiliated with the China's Academy of Science, and an Industrial Hemp Workstation sponsored by the City of Hegang of Heilongjiang Province.

Shineco, Inc., a holding company, through its subsidiaries, produces, distributes, and sells health and well-being focused plant-based products in China. It processes and distributes traditional Chinese herbal medicine products, as well as other pharmaceutical products directly to individual customers. The company also plants, processes, and distributes green and organic agricultural produce; and grows, cultivates, and sells yew trees that are used for the production of anti-cancer medication, as well as ornamental bonsai trees for purifying indoor air quality.

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SOL Global Investments Corp. (SOLCF) (Market Cap: $119.912M; Share Price: $2.54) recently announced its latest strategic investment, a significant position in premium hemp company Sacred Hemp. SOL Global has acquired a 10.3 percent stake in Sacred, the Chicago, Illinois-based manufacturer of premium hempseed oil-infused products including pain relief balms and oils, feminine products, massage oils, salt soaks, and personal lubricants. SOL Global will assign its position in Sacred to its hemp/CBD-focused international subsidiary, Heavenly Rx.

SOL Global is also in the process of acquiring 3 Boys Farms through its previously announced acquisition of CannCure Investments Inc. ("Canncure") pursuant to a binding share purchase agreement. Closing of the acquisition is expected to occur within the next week and remains subject to a number of closing conditions including receipt of all necessary corporate approvals. However, SOL Global has already been approved to acquire and own Canncure and 3 Boys Farms by the OMMU. Recently, 3 Boys Farms dispensed first Cannabis product to qualified Florida patient.

SOL Global is an international investment company with a focus on, but not limited to cannabis and cannabis related companies in legal U.S. states, the hemp and CBD marketplaces and the emerging European cannabis and hemp marketplaces. Its strategic investments and partnerships across cultivation, distribution and retail complement the company's R&D program with the University of Miami. It is this comprehensive approach that is positioning SOL Global as a future frontrunner in the United States' medical cannabis industry.

_________

Signed by

Priyanka Goel, CFA

Legal Disclaimer:

This article was written by Regal Consulting, LLC ("Regal Consulting"). Regal Consulting has agreed to a three-month term consulting agreement with THCT dated 2/14/18. The agreement calls for 50,000 restricted shares of THCT per month. All payments were made directly by THC Therapeutics, Inc. to Regal Consulting, LLC. to provide investor relations services, of which this article is a part of. Regal Consulting also paid one thousand dollars cash to microcapspeculators.com to distribute this article. Regal Consulting may have a position in the securities mentioned in this article at the time of publication, and may increase or decrease its position without notice. This article is based on public information and the opinions of Regal Consulting. THCT was given an opportunity to edit this article. This article contains forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any results predicted herein. Regal Consulting is not registered with any financial or securities regulatory authority, and does not provide or claim to provide investment advice.

http://www.regalconsultingllc.com/full legal disclaimer/

Full Legal Disclaimer Click Here.

Contact Information:

Company Name: ACR Communication LLC.

Contact Person: Media Manager

Email: info@microcapspeculators.com

Phone: 1-702-720-6310

Country: United States

SOURCE: ACR Communication LLC





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The Carlyle Group CG announced plans to acquire a significant minority interest in Compania Espanola de Petroleos, S.A.U (Cepsa) from Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Investment Company.

Cepsa is a Spanish-based integrated energy company that operates assets across the full petroleum value chain in more than 20 countries. It is also a significant oil producer in Algeria and operates in Central and South America, and South East Asia.

Per reports, Carlyle will acquire 30-40% of Cepsa, valuing the company at $12 billion. Markedly, the deal is expected to close by 2019-end. Notably, Mubadala will continue to be a majority shareholder in Cepsa, Europes largest privately-owned integrated oil & gas company.

Carlyle International Energy Partners I and II, Carlyle Partners VII, Carlyle Europe Partners V and co-investors provided equity to Carlyle for this investment.

Marcel Van Poecke, head of Carlyle International Energy Partners, said We are delighted to partner with Mubadala and Cepsas management team through our commitment to invest in Cepsa which offers such strong potential and future opportunities in the global energy sector.

Carlyle continues to evolve through a combination of organic growth and strategic acquisitions. In March 2019, the company acquired a 9% stake in India's SBI Life Insurance Ltd. from BNP Paribas. Further, in January, it completed the acquisition of a majority stake in Sedgwick, fully replacing its previous majority shareholder KKR, in a deal valued at about $6.7 billion. These inorganic efforts are expected to continue supporting Carlyles bottom-line growth.

The companys shares have gained 6.3% over the past three months, underperforming its industrys rally of nearly 14%.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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Some better-ranked stocks in the same space are Federated Investors FII,Franklin Resources BEN and Ares Management L.P. ARES, each flaunting a Zacks Rank #1.

Federateds Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings for the current year has been upwardly revised by 5.1% in the past 60 days. Also, its share price has increased 18.7% in the past three months.

Franklins earnings estimates for the current year have been revised 2.6% upward over the past 60 days. Further, the companys shares have jumped 15% in the past three months.

For the current year, Ares Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings has been revised 6.2% upward over the past 60 days. Moreover, its shares have gained 26.3% over the past three months.

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Zacks Investment Research
Carlyle Group to buy up to 40% stake in Spanish oil company from Mubadala

The Carlyle Group plans to buy a 30-40% stake in Cepsa, which it values at $12 billion.

Abu Dhabi's Mubadala will remain the majority shareholder.

The transaction's completion is expected by the end of 2019, subject to regulatory approvals.

Private equity firm Carlyle Group CG is set to acquire a significant minority stake in Europe's largest privately-owned oil and gas company, Cepsa, from Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala.

The Washington, D.C., based firm, one of the largest asset managers in the world with $216 billion in assets, plans to buy a 30-40% stake in Cepsa, or Compania Espanola de Petroleos, S.A.U, which it values at $12 billion. That means the stake could be worth as much as $4.8 billion.

Mubadala will remain the majority shareholder, and the transaction's completion is expected by the end of 2019, subject to regulatory approvals.

The news follows a cancelled IPO (initial public offering) last year by Mubadala of a 25 percent stake in Cepsa, which was shelved amid last October's stock market rout.

"We found Cepsa very attractive to invest in," Marcel van Poecke, head of Carlyle International Energy Partners, told CNBC's "Street Signs" on Monday.

"In general, IPO markets in Europe  especially for industrial companies like Cepsa, but also other companies  were not good last year."

"We invest private capital over many years in companies, so we have a very outspoken idea about value and how we can create more value  We are not susceptible to day-to-day or month-to-month movements in market prices and I think that is important," van Poecke said.

'Growing the business'

The planned acquisition is the latest step in the UAE capital's drive to diversify revenue sources and bring private capital and more commercial management into its wealth fund.

Abu Dhabi has been accelerating its sales of stakes to international private investors in recent months. In February, Wall Street investment giants BlackRock Inc. and KKR agreed to invest $4 billion in Abu Dhabi's oil pipelines .

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"We are thinking much more about growing the business  that is how to create our value and get to our returns," Carlyle Group's van Poecke said.

Musabbeh Al Kaabi, Mubadala's CEO for petroleum and petrochemicals, said in a statement that he was pleased to have Carlyle as a partner.

"This represents an important milestone in Cepsa's 90-year history. Mubadala has worked closely over the years with Cepsa's management team to build a world-class fully integrated energy company," Al Kaabi said. "We now look forward to working in partnership with Carlyle which has a significant track record and energy sector capabilities."

Cepsa operates in more than 20 countries and across the full petroleum value chain, including two refineries in Spain and a network of service stations along the Iberian Peninsula as part of its retail business. Its assets include significant oil reserves located offshore Abu Dhabi.

Abu Dhabi, home to 6% of the world's oil reserves, has leveraged Mubadala's $225 billion portfolio to invest in a range of sectors including energy, ICT, real estate, pharmaceuticals, agribusiness, mining, health care and more across five continents.









More From CNBC


FILE PHOTO: Chinese staffers adjust U.S. and Chinese flags before the opening session of trade negotiations between U.S. and Chinese trade representatives at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019. Mark Schiefelbein/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

BEIJING (Reuters) - China and the United States made "new progress" in the round of trade talks that wrapped up on Friday in Washington, China's official CCTV broadcaster reported late on Saturday.

The two sides discussed draft agreement text on issues including technology transfer, protection of intellectual property rights, services, agriculture, the bilateral trade balance, and an implementation system, and will continue to talk on remaining issues, the state broadcaster reported.

(Reporting by Yawen Chen and Tony Munroe; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
By Zandi Shabalala and Ernest Scheyder

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Global copper producers are converging in Chile this week as tightening supply buoys prices, even as the industry grapples with declining ore quality, project delays and worries the U.S-China trade war may hit long-term demand.

Despite these challenges, the industry is planning for substantial growth in the next decade thanks to an expected boom in production of electric vehicles, which use twice as much copper as internal combustion engines. Automakers are vowing to produce all-electric fleets.

With all that in mind, hundreds of investors, executives, analysts and regulators are gathering in Santiago, the Chilean capital, for the annual World Copper Conference.

"From a numbers perspective we have a deficit in copper, and it's expected to be a tighter market in 2019 relative to last year," said Eleni Joannides, a copper market analyst at consultancy Wood Mackenzie.

(GRAPHIC - LME cash copper price, https://tmsnrt.rs/2Vr2Qzw)

Relatively upbeat commodity prices since January have lifted producers such as Freeport-McMoRan Inc, Antofagasta Plc, BHP and Anglo American Plc out of the doldrums and presented them with a new problem: the hunt for high-quality assets at a time of geo-political uncertainty.

LME cash copper is expected to average $6,397 a tonne this year, a Reuters poll of 30 analysts shows, slightly lower than $6,437 on Friday.

"I think we're heading into a bull market for copper," said Jefferies mining analyst Christopher LaFemina.

A lack of new supply and steady demand this year for the metal, widely used in power and construction, should keep the 25-million-tonne market in a slight deficit and support prices, analysts said.

The industry is moving to bring new supply online, but it will take time. Freeport, the world's largest publicly traded copper producer, cut its 2019 output forecast at Indonesia's Grasberg mines by more than half as it transitions to underground operations, a costly process that will take years.

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But Freeport, BHP, Nevada Copper Corp and other miners are spending more than $1.1 billion to develop fresh copper projects in the United States, a country once seen as a laggard in the global mining industry.

Panama, not historically associated with a large mining industry, is also seeing investment dollars. First Quantum Minerals Ltd plans to spend $327 million to expand a copper mine, with the goal of increasing production by 375,000 tonnes annually within five years.

(GRAPHIC - Exchange stocks for copper, https://tmsnrt.rs/2VmZbmd)

Tightening supply this year was Freeport, due in part to the Grasberg mine plan, while miner Glencore halved its 2019 output from its Mutanda copper and cobalt mine in Democratic Republic of Congo to 100,000 tonnes.

Meanwhile, global visible inventory in the form of combined stocks held by the London Metal Exchange, Comex and the Shanghai Futures Exchange have nearly halved from a year ago to around 500,000 tonnes, data from the exchanges show.

(GRAPHIC - Mining companies vs Copper price, https://tmsnrt.rs/2Vs3xJ8)

Analysts said this has helped boost sentiment in copper and some other metals, which had been held down by the U.S-China trade dispute and hiccups in economic growth of top consumer China where stimulus has been promised.

Copper is one of the metals that will benefit the most from an expected boom in the use of electrical vehicles, but significant demand for the low-emission automobiles is expected to only ramp up in the middle of 2020's.

Roskill expects sales of electric vehicles powered by rechargeable lithium-ion batteries to rise to 17 million units, or 20 percent of the total, in 2025, and 32 million, or 37 percent, by 2030 compared with 3 percent, or 2.1 million, last year.

Still, some copper executives are concerned that aluminium may try to supplant copper's role in electronic equipment in the near future. Aluminium is a cheaper alternative to conduct electricity, although less efficient.

A large portion of the weeklong conference is devoted to research presentations from industry scientists studying new applications for the red metal, part of a plan to go on the offence against aluminium.

(GRAPHIC - Copper market deficit, https://tmsnrt.rs/2VoIGq5)

(Reporting by Zandi Shabalala and Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Veronica Brown, Leslie Adler and David Gregorio)
Investing.com - Prices of the top cryptocurrencies were mixed on Monday morning in Asia, but the overall crypto market remained bullish. Regulation is in play, with G20 countries soon meeting to discuss a framework to fight crypto-enabled money laundering.

Bitcoin rose 2.22% to $5,237.6 by 12:14 PM ET (04:14 AM GMT), after reaching as high as $5,299.4 in the morning. The coin is back in a bullish trend and has gained 28.8% over the past week.

Ethereum also went higher, adding 7.82% to $182.

However, XRP slid 0.26% to $0.35877 and Litecoin dropped 1.60% to $91.062. With that said, both tokens have surged 17.12% and 52.30%, respectively, over the past seven days.

The crypto market cap continued to rise to $184 billion.

The most notable news in the crypto space over the weekend was G20 meeting in June to discuss international crypto regulations to combat money laundering and terrorism financing.

G20 central bank governors and finance ministers will join the meeting to establish a framework to do so, and the countries are expected to reach an agreement over new regulations. They aim to enforce stricter identification of individuals transacting in crypto.

In Asia, South Korea is considering loosening its current crypto regulations to help the market grow and mature.

"The government has misunderstood the virtual currency and tried to meet the real currency standards, so there are various problems. The industry does not stand still while waiting for the regulatory sandbox authorization, so it is just like keeping it in the box, said Song Hee-kyong, co-president of the 4th Industry Forum of the National Assembly.

The Asian country has been known for its strict approach and tight control towards digital assets, reportedly calling initial coin offerings almost a gamble. The news has signalled a possible change in the crypto space in South Korea.

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As government doctors go on strike, the countrys poor suffer the most

Several state-run health facilities were overwhelmed on Sunday by patients, most of whom were visiting from outside of Kathmandu, only to be refused medical care.
FILE PHOTO: The logo of French gas and power group Engie is seen on the company tower at La Defense business and financial district in Courbevoie, near Paris, France. May 16, 2018. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo

By Sudip Kar-Gupta

PARIS (Reuters) - A consortium led by French utility Engie has won a bid for Petrobras' TAG pipeline arm with an $8.6 billion offer, in a deal that boosts Engie's presence in the fast-growing Brazilian market and helps Petrobras cut debts.

Engie said on Monday its successful offer for a 90 percent stake in TAG was made alongside Canada's state-owned financial and investment firm Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, with more than $310 billion under management.

Petrobras will keep the remaining 10 percent.

Engie said buying TAG, which accounts for 47 percent of Brazil's entire gas infrastructure and achieved core earnings of $1.14 billion in 2018, would provide a steady stream of profits.

It will add to Engie's presence in Brazil, where its unit owns assets including hydroelectric plants, thermoelectric facilities and renewable energy sources.

"Our acquisition of TAG is a significant milestone for Engie in Brazil, a key market for the group where we have been present for 23 years," said Engie Chief Executive Isabelle Kocher.

Under Kocher, Engie has been focusing investments on energy services, renewable energy and infrastructure, while selling out of coal-related assets.

"It is a good diversification for Engie," said Clairinvest fund manager Ion-Marc Valahu, whose firm owns Engie shares. "Also, Engie will benefit from growth expectations in Brazil."

Engie said the acquisition of TAG would result in its net debt increasing by around 1.6 billion euros ($1.8 billion). The consortium secured around $6 billion in financing to help fund the acquisition from 10 banks, three local and seven international. It did not name the lenders.

Engie shares edged up 0.6 percent in early trading on hopes the positive elements of the TAG deal would override any concerns over the rise in Engie's debts.

"TAG will allow Engie to accelerate its development in the gas sector in Brazil, where Engie is already present in terms of the country's electricity sector," said Roche Brune Asset Management fund manager Gregoire Laverne, who said Engie was a stock his firm was considering buying.

Story continues

The TAG divestment represents a victory for Petrobras' leadership and its Chief Executive Roberto Castello Branco, who is pushing to unload assets in a bid to cut debt and refocus on exploration and production.

In September 2016, Petrobras sold a larger gas network pipeline, Nova Transportadora do Sudeste, for $5.2 billion to Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP, which beat out a bid by Engie.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by David Holmes)
MIAMI, FL / ACCESSWIRE / April 8, 2019 / Global PoleTrusion Group Corp. (OTC PINK: GPGC) previously announced that its subsidiary, Los Santos Energy Corp., a Panamanian company that is 80 percent owned by GPGC, has signed a 10-year power purchase agreement (PPA) for biomass energy in Chiriqui, Panama.

GPGC is currently in the process of finalizing the financing for this project through Polaris Capital Power Inc. (www.polariscapitalpower.com). The initial cost of the biomass energy plant is estimated at $13 million USD; it is expected to provide gross annual revenues of $3.5 million with operating expenses of $1.1 million.

With an initial capacity of 5 megawatts (MW), the biomass power plant will generate electricity using palm oil extraction residues (biomass) from the Cooperativa de Productores de Palmas COOPEMAPACHI, R.L. (www.coopemapachi.com)

The project will include an upgrade to the palm oil production system at COOPEMAPACHI, R.L. to better comply with international environmental standards and agricultural best practices. The improvements will facilitate the production process, thereby increasing the availability of the material used for energy generation.

According a statement from the Board of Directors of COOPEMAPACHI, R.L, the development of this project will allow them to use biomass that until now was discarded, providing the cooperative with a new source of income and sources of employment for the community.

The PPA was signed with Generacion Solar, who provides solar energy to the Panamanian market and requires a secondary source of power to ensure uninterrupted service for its customers. Biomass is an ideal source of energy as it is renewable, makes good use of manufacturing waste products and is considered carbon neutral because it only releases CO2 into the atmosphere that was recently absorbed by the plants used as biomass.

"In addition to the contribution of clean energy, we are proud to participate in this project, as it provides jobs and improvements to the economy of one of the most economically depressed regions in the country," said Daniel Hernandez Rodriguez, CEO of Grupo Istmo Solar (www.istmosolar.com) which owns Generacion Solar.

Story continues

"We aim to have a positive impact on the local communities we serve while benefiting our shareholders with recurring revenue streams. Having secured a PPA for this renewable energy project and working closely with the agricultural producers that supply the biomass will allow us to meet that goal by building strong, long-term partnerships that are mutually beneficial, " said Ramiro Guerrero, President and CEO of GPGC.

Project AM (www.project-am.net), a Panama-based project management company, will oversee the construction and operation of the plant, which is expected to be operational within one year.

About Global PoleTrusion Group Corp.

GPGC provides composite utility poles and transmission structures that outperform their steel, wood and concrete counterparts. They are stronger, lighter, easier to install and environmentally safe. With its advanced engineering and manufacturing capabilities, GPGC is at the forefront of providing creative, effective, solutions to address the needs of utility companies.

PoleTrusion Canada is GPGC's engineering division. They create the latest state-of-the-art composite structures, custom-designed based on the needs of their clients. The company is part of the Advanced Composite Materials for Civil Structures Chair at the University of Sherbrooke. Dr. Benmokrane, a director of the Chair, is on the technical board at GPGC.

Contact:

Alice Hofmann

alice.hofmann@poletrusion.com

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains  forward-looking statements , as that term is defined in Section 27A of the United States Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Statements in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future.

SOURCE: Global PoleTrusion Group Corp.





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/541219/Global-Poletrusion-Group-Corp-Announces-Follow-up-to-Power-Purchase-Agreement-for-Panama-Biomass-Project




Gordon Caplan.

Gordon Caplan.



Every part of him was cool and wet moving swiftly through the water, nothing, nothing in his way.



Thats a quote from the yearbook page of ex-Willkie Farr & Gallagher co-chairman Gordon Caplan, who graduated from Trinity, an elite private school in Manhattan, in 1984. It turns out I know several of his classmates, who shared the yearbook.



I have reservations about mining high school yearbooks a la Brett Kavanaugh for insight into a man 35 years later. But this particular quotea standalone sentence on his page that's attributed to G.R.CCaplans initials is so striking in its imagery. His exact reference is unclear, but it suggests a slippery, stealthy person racing ahead without obstacles.



Not anymore.



Caplans attorneys on Friday said he plans to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraudcharges which carry a maximum of 20 years in prisonin connection with the college admissions scandal.



It's a spectacular downfall, from The American Lawyers Dealmaker of the Year in 2018 to being fired last week by Willkie Farr and facing certain disbarment as an admitted felon.



Caplan is certainly not the first Big Law partner to find himself on the wrong side of the law, but this is not your average, stole-from-an-IOLTA-account, bad lawyer story.



Its headline news: A heady mix of celebritiesother defendants include actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffmanplus wealth and privilege, all laid bare to confirm our worst suspicions that elites are gaming the system. The story, as they say in the news business, has legs. Its not going away, and people wont quickly forget it. Moreover, Caplan has the misfortune of having been recorded delivering one of the most damning and widely quoted lines in the 204-page affidavit: Its just, to be honest, Im not worried about the moral issue here.



Ouch.



So what will become of him now?





Daily Dicta Jenna Greene

His attorney Joshua Levy at Ropes & Gray did not respond to a request for comment, but I think its safe to assume Caplan will not be getting anything close to 20 years behind bars. Its even conceivable he wont get any time at all, maybe just supervised release, community service and a fine.



Because as much as we the nation are collectively disgusted and angry, Caplan has one of the more sympathetic criminal motives: He wanted to help his daughter get into a good college.



Yes, he demonstrated the ethical compass of shark (Cool and wet, moving swiftly through the water?), but still. Who doesnt want to help their kid?



By comparison, other ex-Big Law partners currently doing time share a far less laudable motive: Greed.



For example, former Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld partner Jeffrey Wertkin is currently incarcerated at a minimum security prison camp in Talladega, Alabama, where hes slated for release on January 24, 2020, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.



Wertkin pleaded guilty in late 2017 to stealing sealed whistleblower complaints from the Justice Department before he left his job there to join Akin Gump. He then attempted to sell one of the complaints for $310,000 to an undercover FBI agent.





Story continues

Gordon Caplan in the yearbook of Trinity School in New York, 1984.

Gordon Caplan in the yearbook of Trinity School in New York, 1984.



Or take Evan Greebel, Martin Shkrelis former attorney and co-defendant. The former partner at Katten Muchin Rosenman and Kaye Scholer is doing time at FCI Otisville in New York (named one of Americas 10 cushiest prisons by Forbes), where hes slated for release on Feb. 5, 2020. He was convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud, working with Shkreli on what prosecutors called an elaborate Ponzi scheme.



Keila Ravelo, a former partner at Hunton & Williams and Willkie Farr, admitted to cheating the firms and a former corporate client, Mastercard Inc., in a $7.8 million fraud involving dummy litigation support companies. Shes at FPC Alderson in West Virginia (the same prison camp where Martha Stewart did her time), scheduled for release on May 23, 2023.



Theres also Walter Chet Little, an ex-partner at Foley & Lardner and Bradley Arant Boult Cummings. He pleaded guilty in late 2017 to one count of conspiring to commit securities fraud, using confidential client information about mergers, earnings and other events to make stock trades. Little is doing his time at FCP Montgomery in Alabama (also on the cushy prison list), due to get out this year on December 13.



And then what happens? What do once high-flying ex-lawyers do with themselves after theyve served their time?



Theres no common answer.



Plaintiffs giant Melvyn Weiss, who pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy, retired to Florida and did a lot of fishing. He died last year.



His former partner William Lerach, who also went to prison, is mounting a comeback of sorts. The Financial Times reported in September that Lerach and his company, Pension Forensics, are acting as consultants to his lawyer wife, Michelle Ciccarelli Lerach, in a lawsuit against Blackstone and KKR in Kentucky state court over losses in one of the states largest pension plans. The FT reports that the suit is already being blamed for private equity and hedge fund managers pulling their business from Kentucky.



Likewise, former Greenburg Traurig lawyer/ lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who served 43 months in prison in connection with a bribery scandal, is back working as a political operative. EE news reported in February that Abramoff is now the honorary chairman of the Protect American Values political action committee and has been sending out fundraising emails attacking efforts to combat climate change.



Former DOJ official Robert Coughlin II, who was caught up in the Abramoff scandal for accepting meals and gifts in exchange for favors, was sentenced in 2008 to three years of supervised release. In 2016, he had his law license restored by the D.C. Bar.



But the most feel-good post-prison story is that of Dickie Scruggs, the legendary plaintiffs lawyer who made a fortune suing the tobacco and asbestos industries. In 2008, he pleaded guilty to attempting to bribe a judge and was sentenced to five years in prison.



Mississippi-based Oxford Magazine in 2017 ran a lengthy profile of Scruggs, where he spoke of his time behind bars.



Because of his wealth and the fact that he had a home in the Bahamas, he was considered a flight risk. No cushy minimum security prison for himhe did the first portion of his sentence with hardened criminals. It was like a casting call of The Walking Dead, he told David Magee writing for Oxford.



Eventually he was transferred to a lower-security facility and landed one of the most coveted prison jobsas a teacher, helping fellow inmates earn high school equivalency degrees.



The experience inspired in him a crusade to improve adult education. After Scruggs was released from prison in 2013, he founded a nonprofit dedicated to adult basic education called Second Chance Mississippi. It now has a formal relationship with Mississippis community colleges system and focuses on education and job training for adults.



Magee described dining out with Scruggs, who is now 72, in Oxford. It feels at times like being at the table with Archie Manning or Robert Khayat, since most everybody knows him and showers him with adoring affection.



Scruggs described himself as happier today than I have ever been before. And he quoted Rhett Butler (one of the books he had time to read in prison was Gone with the Wind): Until youve lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is.



Whether Caplan will come out on the other side a changed man is unknown, but at least theres the hope of finding something better in the end.



Read more:



Willkie Cuts Ties as Gordon Caplan Plans Guilty Plea in College Cheating Case



Willkie's Gordon Caplan Appears in Court to Face College Admissions Charges




Government of Niger to Acquire 10% stake in Madaouela Project for US$14.5 million. Madaouela Mining Permit to expand and include an additional 5.96 Million Pounds of Measured and Indicated Resources. Surrounding Madaouela Exploration Permits to be renewed for 9 years. Non-Brokered Private Placement Underway.

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 8, 2019) - GoviEx Uranium Inc. (TSXV: GXU) (OTCQB: GVXXF) ("GoviEx" or "Company") today announces the receipt of a letter (the "Support Letter") signed by the Honourable Hassan Braze Moussa, Minister of Mines, Republic of Niger supporting a commercial framework reached between GoviEx and the Government of Niger ("Government") during previously held high-level meetings. The Support Letter further directs GoviEx and the respective Ministry of Mines representatives to work together to finalize and document these commercial understandings, the intention of which is to rapidly progress GoviEx's flagship Madaouela uranium project in Niger (the "Madaouela Project").

GoviEx's Executive Chairman, Govind Friedland, commented: "This is the culmination of more than 12 years of relentless work and millions of man hours by GoviEx management and our Nigerien community. It takes time to get things done in a responsible, sustainable and professional manner. We welcome this meaningful partnership with our host Government and the people of Niger. Through these series of agreements, the Company and the Niger Government are laying the foundation necessary to develop the Madaouela Project in a fair and equitable way for the long-term benefit of all stakeholders, and we are grateful for the support of all who have contributed to our success."

The Honourable Hassan Braze Moussa noted the importance of continuing to develop Niger's mineral resources in partnership with the investment community, declaring: "Niger is a country with many mining investment opportunities and economic, social and political conditions that are conducive to the pursuit of development of a sector considered strategic by the Niger government." He added, "The government has instituted a mining policy aimed at a mutually beneficial balance, while safeguarding the interests of the nation and investors."

Story continues

The key commercial terms now agreed in principle between the Government and GoviEx will need to be finalised in definitive agreements and remain subject to Government, GoviEx Board of Directors, and other regulatory approvals. Notwithstanding, a summary of these key terms included in the Support Letter are listed below:

The Government will acquire a 10% working interest in the Madaouela Project, in addition to its 10% free carried interest provided under the 2006 Niger mining code.

The Government will purchase this additional 10% by electing to convert approximately US$14.5 million of requested payments comprised of the final 7 million acquisition payment and settlement of previously challenged area taxes (US$6.6 million) between GoviEx and the Government related to the Madaouela Project. Following finalization of this transaction the Company will be effectively debt-free.

Following conversion, GoviEx will also enjoy a tax abatement period up through to successful project financing for mine construction and project development, the terms of which will be more fully described in definitive documentation.

GoviEx will further retain a right of first refusal to acquire the Government's 10% working interest in the Madaeoula project on any proposed sale by the Government.

GoviEx's existing mining permit (the " Madaouela 1 Mining Permit ") will be expanded to include previous mineral resources discovered by GoviEx in the Agaliouk permit.

The expansion of Madaouela 1 Mining Permit will add a further 5.96 million pounds (Mlb) U 3 O 8 in the Measured and Indicated categories. 1

GoviEx will be granted renewed 9-year permit terms for its Madaouela 2, 3 and 4, and Anou-Melle exploration permits, which had reached the end of their exploration periods under the 2006 Niger mining code. These renewals allow GoviEx to maintain its highly prospective mineral exploration potential alongside its mine development program for the Madaouela Project.

The commercial understandings agreed in the Support Letter further positions GoviEx to advance the Madaouela Project as a fully permitted uranium project, currently with 60.54 Mlb U 3 O 8 in total Probable Mineral Reserves and a predicted 21 year mine life.1 GoviEx believes the factors influencing the uranium market fundamentals and the uranium price are improving and continues to prioritize completion of a feasibility study, and negotiations with debt providers and off-takers interested in the Company's long-term uranium development project.

The Company today also announces that a non-brokered private placement offering of up to approximately 15,882,353 units ("Units") at a price of C$0.17 per Unit (the "Private Placement") is being conducted, is nearly fully subscribed and expected to close on or about April 12th. Each Unit consists of one (1) Class A common share and one (1) Class A common share purchase warrant (a "Warrant") of the Company. Each Warrant shall entitle the holder to purchase one Class A common share of the Company for a period of 36 months at US$0.21 during the first 12-month period, the US$0.24 during the second 12-month period and the US$0.28 during the third 12-month period. A cash finder's fee of 6% may be payable on all, or a portion, of the Private Placement. All securities issued under this Private Placement will be subject to a hold period of four months plus one day from the date of issue.

Completion of the Private Placement will be subject to regulatory approvals, including the final approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

The net proceeds from the Private Placement will be used to fund continued exploration and development activities on the Company's assets, working capital and for general corporate purposes.

An independent NI 43-101 technical report was prepared for the Madaouela Project in 2015 to a prefeasibility level of confidence. The report titled "An Updated Integrated Development Plan for the Madaouela Project, Niger" has an effective date of August 11, 2015, and a revision date of August 20, 2015, and is available at GoviEx's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Qualified Persons

The scientific and technical information disclosed in this release has been reviewed, verified, and approved by Dr. Rob Bowell, a chartered chemist of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a chartered geologist of the Geological Society of London, and Fellow of the Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Materials, who is an independent Qualified Person under the terms of National Instrument 43-101 for uranium deposits.

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.

About GoviEx Uranium

GoviEx is a mineral resource company focused on the exploration and development of uranium properties in Africa. GoviEx's principal objective is to become a significant uranium producer through the continued exploration and development of its flagship mine-permitted Madaouela Project in Niger, its mine-permitted Mutanga Project in Zambia, and its other uranium properties in Africa.

Information Contacts

Govind Friedland, Executive Chairman

Daniel Major, Chief Executive Officer

+1-604-681-5529

info@goviex.com

www.goviex.com

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All information and statements other than statements of current or historical facts contained in this news release are forward-looking information.

Forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties concerning the specific factors disclosed here and elsewhere in GoviEx's periodic filings with Canadian securities regulators. When used in this news release, words such as "will", "could", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "may", "potential", "should," and similar expressions, are forward- looking statements. Information provided in this document is necessarily summarized and may not contain all available material information.

Forward-looking statements include those with respect to the anticipated finalization of definitive agreements to solidify the key commercial terms included in the Support Letter and as set out herein, which have been agreed to in principle between the Government and GoviEx; the Company's ability to raise funds under the Private Placement, the proposed closing date and anticipated use of the proceeds of the Private Placement.

Although the Company believes the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurances that its expectations will be achieved. Such assumptions, which may prove incorrect, include the following: (i) GoviEx and the Government will successfully enter into and complete definitive agreements to solidify the key commercial terms included in the Support Letter and as set out herein; (ii) GoviEx will be successful in its efforts to identify and secure subscribers under the Private Placement; (iii) the subscribers under the Private Placement will complete the subscriptions they have agreed to make under their subscription agreements; (iv) all necessary corporate and regulatory approvals, including TSX Venture Exchange acceptance, will be obtained; (v) the Private Placement will close on or about the date as anticipated; and (vi) the price of uranium will remain sufficiently high and the costs of advancing the Company's mining projects sufficiently low so as to permit GoviEx to implement its business plans in a profitable manner

Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations include (i) the inability or unwillingness of the Government to enter into or complete definitive agreements with the Company that solidify the key commercial terms included in the Support Letter and as set out herein; (ii) the Company's failure to make effective use of the proceeds of the Private Placement; (iii) the failure of the Company's projects, for technical, logistical, labour-relations, or other reasons; (iv) the Company's inability to obtain TSX Venture Exchange acceptance of the Private Placement; (v) a decrease in the price of uranium below what is necessary to sustain the Company's operations; (vi) an increase in the Company's operating costs above what is necessary to sustain its operations; (vii) accidents, labour disputes, or the materialization of similar risks; (viii) a deterioration in capital market conditions that prevents the Company from raising the funds it requires on a timely basis; and (ix) generally, the Company's inability to develop and implement a successful business plan for any reason.

In addition, the factors described or referred to in the section entitled "Financial Risks and Management Objectives" in the MD&A for the year ended December 31, 2017, of GoviEx, which is available on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com, should be reviewed in conjunction with the information found in this news release.

Although GoviEx has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements, there can be other factors that cause results, performance, or achievements not to be as anticipated, estimated, or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate or that management's expectations or estimates of future developments, circumstances, or results will materialize. As a result of these risks and uncertainties, no assurance can be given that any events anticipated by the forward-looking information in this news release will transpire or occur, or, if any of them do so, what benefits that GoviEx will derive therefrom. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this news release are made as of the date of this news release, and GoviEx disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise such information, except as required by applicable law.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of any of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful, including any of the securities in the United States of America. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933 (the "1933 Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for account or benefit of, U.S. Persons (as defined in Regulation S under the 1933 Act) unless registered under the 1933 Act and applicable state securities laws, or an exemption from such registration requirements is available.

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/43929
Nayak Paudel is a crime reporter for The Kathmandu Post. Since joining the Post in 2018, he has also written on health issues.
By Wilda Asmarini and Philip Blenkinsop

JAKARTA/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahatir Mohamad have signed a joint letter of objection to the European Union over its plan to phase out the use of palm oil in renewable fuel, and sent delegations to complain in Brussels.

The letter was sent to the EU over the weekend, said Luhut Pandjaitan, coordinating minister for maritime affairs, who also oversees natural resources issues. He declined on Monday to disclose the content of the letter.

Indonesia and Malaysia, the world's top producers of the vegetable oil, have both threatened a World Trade Organization challenge against the EU over its plan to phase out the use of palm oil by 2030 in renewable transport fuel.

Delegations from both countries arrived in Brussels for an official visit on Monday and Tuesday.

Indonesia's coordinating minister for economic affairs Darmin Nasution said the country would definitely file a WTO complaint once the new rules were adopted. Tan Yew Chong, secretary general for Malaysia's ministry of primary industries, said his country would do the same.

The joint mission of the Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries, which also includes Colombia, have a series of meetings with EU officials, lawmakers and national governments to convey their disappointment and to fight the act put forward by the European Commission.

It will become law unless a majority in the European Parliament or in the group of EU countries objects. So far, there are no indications that either will do so.

The EU plans to increase its use of renewable energy sources and to take into account deforestation when it determines what products can be labelled renewable.

Last month, the European Commission determined that palm oil has resulted in excessive deforestation and that it should no longer be considered a renewable transport fuel, albeit with some exemptions.

Indonesia, the world's largest palm oil producer, argues that rather than promoting sustainability in the vegetable oil sector, the regulation is more about protecting and promoting the European Union's home-grown vegetable oils, such as rapeseed and sunflower.

Story continues

Nasution said the EU was ignoring vastly higher yields of oil from palm and said 64 percent of his country was still covered in forest.

Indonesia would, he added, review its relationship with the EU. The two are currently in talks on forming a free trade agreement.

European spirits makers said last week they are facing difficulties exporting drinks to Indonesia as tensions over palm rise, but an Indonesian official denied that it was a retaliation against EU's renewable energy policy.

(Reporting by Wilda Asmarini, Maikel Jefriando; writing by Fransiska Nangoy; editing by Michael Perry, Christian Schmollinger and Jan Harvey)
The next phase of expansion for Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS) is here, and it couldn't have come from a better place: Singapore's government has agreed to allow an expansion to Marina Bay Sands that will add 1,000 hotel rooms and even more meeting and convention space.

Marina Bay Sands is the company's most profitable resort, so adding more space is a big deal. And with results at the resort declining in 2018, the expansion could bring a much-needed boost in demand.

Marina Bay Sands' expansion plans.

Image source: Las Vegas Sands.

Marina Bay Sands is growing

The agreement to expand Marina Bay Sands (seen on the left side of the image above) includes a 15,000 seat arena, meeting space, and a hotel tower with about 1,000 rooms. Las Vegas Sands' press release says the arena will attract "top entertainers", something the company has experience with given its arena in Macau.

The $3.3 billion cost of Marina Bay's expansion would make the expansion alone one of the most expensive resorts or casinos in the world. Interestingly, the casino isn't a key part of the expansion. The Straits Times reports that a casino expansion for high rolling tourists would be part of the project, but mass market gaming won't be included.

Each part of the expansion will generate revenue for Marina Bay Sands, but the hotel tower will be key. The original towers generated $404 in revenue per available room in the final quarter of 2018, which would equate to about $147.5 million in total. Based on performance at the rest of the resort, we should expect food, beverage, and convention space to generate somewhat less revenue than that. It'll be tough to justify a $3.3 billion price tag on non-gaming alone, but the investment may be needed anyway.

Why an expansion is needed

Make no mistake, this expansion is in part to the keep the government happy: The governments of Singapore and Macau view gaming as a necessary part of meeting their goal of being destinations for visitors around the world. That's why expansions in both regions are often based on non-gaming assets like arenas and convention space, not the casino floor.

Story continues

Marina Bay Sands may also need a jolt of energy given recent performance. In 2018 revenue was $3.1 billion, down 2.1% from a year ago, and property EBITDA was $1.38 billion. That's down from $1.72 billion of property EBITDA generated in 2014, the peak year for the resort.

Management expects the expansion to bring more conventions and tourists to the resort. And if a significant number of guests are high rollers, it could drive more revenue from the casino.

Las Vegas Sands sharpens its focus on Asia

There's no question Las Vegas Sands' management sees its future in Asia. And with gaming concessions in Macau and Singapore being its most valuable assets, it's important to make governments happy. Expanding Marina Bay Sands with mostly non-gaming assets is part of that strategy, and it may be the right move if it keeps the company's concession long-term.

More From The Motley Fool

Travis Hoium has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Motley Fool

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) shares closed 3.3% lower on Tuesday after the U.S. Department of Labor reported that producer price inflation hit a historic high in November, up 9.6% from a year ago. This news came on top of a reported 6.8% jump in consumer prices that came out yesterday -- the fastest rate of price growth in 40 years. Reporting on Microsoft's price decline, Bloomberg drew a direct line from the inflation data to the weakness in Microsoft's stock price. Think about it this way: Right now, analysts who track Microsoft stock are forecasting that the company will grow its earnings by about 15% annually over the next five years.
Louisiana-Pacific Corporation LPX was a big mover last session, as the company saw its shares rise more than 5% on the day. The move came on solid volume too with far more shares changing hands than in a normal session. This stock, which remained volatile and traded within the range of $23.74 $25.73 in the past one-month time frame, witnessed a sharp increase on Friday.

The company has seen one negative estimate revisions in the past few weeks, while its Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current quarter has also moved lower over the past few weeks, suggesting there may be trouble down the road. So, make sure to keep an eye on this stock going forward, to see if this recent move higher can last.

Louisiana-Pacific currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) while its Earnings ESP is negative.

Louisiana-Pacific Corporation Price

Louisiana-Pacific Corporation Price | Louisiana-Pacific Corporation Quote

Investors interested in the Construction sector may consider Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation GLDD, which has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Is LPX going up? Or down? Predict to see what others think:Up or Down

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MEXICO CITY, April 8 (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Monday that he will send to the Senate his proposal for three people to fill seats on the board of state-run oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex).

Lopez Obrador said he will propose as independent board members Edmundo Sanchez Aguilar, Juan Jose Paullada and Jose Eduardo Beltran Hernandez.

According to the Pemex website, there are three vacancies on the five-member independent board.

The Wall Street Journal reported on March 29 that three independent board members of Pemex were set to resign over conflicts with Lopez Obrador's strategy for managing the troubled oil company.

Lopez Obrador, who won a landslide election last year on promises that included strengthening Pemex, has favored public spending for the highly indebted company such as the recent authorization for a $3.9 billion capital injection from the government that included new tax relief.

But ratings agencies say that is not enough to stabilize Pemex and have put its credit rating at one notch above junk, increasing fears of a downgrade that could raise Mexico's sovereign borrowing costs.

Holding more than $106 billion in financial debt, Pemex owes more than any other oil company in the world, both private and state-owned, that file reports with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. (Reporting by Anthony Esposito; Editing by David Gregorio)
In a bid to focus on the core, profitable part of its business, Natus Medical Incorporated BABY recently decided to sell its wholly-owned subsidiary, Medix Medical Devices, which the company had acquired in 2010. Per this announcement, the company has signed a definitive agreement to divest Medix in an employee-led buyout.

Financial terms of the deal have been kept under wraps.

Going by the deal details, incubators, warmers and other Medix products will be divested. Under this new ownership, Medix will continue to distribute Medix products and the previously distributed line of Natus Medical products plus other third-party products in Argentina and Venezuela.

According to Natus Medical, this deal is strategically aligned with its business as apart from enabling it to refocus on the core products, this decision will permit it to plan investment in the high-growth markets.

We believe, this move is integral to the companys recent implementation of a new organizational structure, designed to improve its operational performance.

Financial Impact of the Sell-Off

Medix recorded approximately $7.6 million of revenues in 2018 and was expected to contribute approximately $6 million to its top line in 2019.

Natus Medical projects this divestiture to be accretive to its operating margin going forward. The company expects to incur $3-$4 million of transaction and disposal expenses as part of the divestment.

The company will provide an updated full-year revenue guidance after adjusting the impact of the divestiture during first-quarter 2019 earnings release.

Organizational Restructuring at a Glance

Natus Medical is progressing well with its new organisational streamlining process wherein it is working on consolidating its three business units, namely Neuro, Newborn Care and Otometrics into One Natus.

Per the company, this initiative creates a single, unified entity with the globally led functional teams in Sales & Marketing, Manufacturing, R&D, Quality plus General and Administrative departments. The company claims this structure to increase transparency, efficiency and cross-functional collaboration across common technologies, processes and customer channels.

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The new organization is expected to optimize Natus Medicals proven go-to-market strategies and leverage its common engineering, operations and supply chain infrastructure.

Share Price Performance

In the past year, Natus Medical has underperformed its industry. The stock has declined 22.4% against the industrys 12.2% rise.

Zacks Rank and Key Picks

Currently Natus Medical carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader medical space are Stryker Corporation SYK, Penumbra, Inc. PEN and Amedisys, Inc AMED, each currently carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Strykers long-term earnings growth rate is projected at 10%

Penumbras long-term earnings growth rate is estimated at 20.9%.

Amedisyss long-term earnings growth rate is forecast at 19.7%.

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With job creation still booming in March, as employers added 196,000 positions, marking the 118th month of straight gains, it seems like all states are seeing rapid job growth.

But according to a new study, thats not really the case.

Personal finance website GoBankingRates.com found that some states are actually flourishing more than others when it comes to job creation.

Researchers examined the employment and unemployment rate changes over the past five and 10 years across all 50 states and found that Colorado is the new place to be for job seekers.

According to the study, Colorados unemployment rates have stayed comparatively low over the past decade while its employment growth has increase by 17.2 percent during that same period.

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Whats more, its five-year employment growth has ballooned to 15.6 percent while its unemployment rate continues to fall below the national average at 3.6 percent.

The most popular jobs offered in Colorado include office and administration support and sales.

However, Colorado isn't the only state experiencing above average employment growth over the years. New Hampshire, Utah and Minnesota have also seen its employment rates increase over the last decade.

Alternatively, some states have seen slower growth over that same period. West Virigina, Alaska and New Mexico are among the worst states for job seekers.

The best and worst states to find a job

Best States

1. Colorado

2. New Hampshire

3. Utah

4. Minnesota

5. Idaho

6. Massachusetts

7. Texas

8. North Carolina

9. California

10. Georgia

Worst States

1. West Virginia

2. Alaska

3. New Mexico

4. Wyoming

5. Louisiana

6. Mississippi

7. Nevado

8. Arkansas

9. Kentucky

10. Alabama

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Royal Dutch Shell plans to invest $300 million over three years in reforestation projects, including in the Netherlands and Spain.

The initiative and others aim to offset the carbon emissions produced when customers consume the fossil fuels that Shell produces.

Shell is also creating a program to allow drivers to support the company's purchase of carbon credits from ecoprojects.

The CEO of Royal Dutch Shell RDSA-NL recently said the world needs to plant enough trees to essentially create another Amazon rainforest in order to combat climate change. On Monday, the Anglo-Dutch oil major announced plans to support a mass reforestation drive.

Shell will spend $300 million over the next three years on initiatives like planting more than 5 million trees in the Netherlands and Spain, supporting forest regeneration in Australia and potentially engaging in conservation in Malaysia. The company also revealed new investments in electric vehicle battery charging stations and a fuel program to help drivers offset carbon pollution from their tailpipes.

The investments in ecosystems are part of Shell's plan to reduce its net carbon footprint by 2% to 3% over the next three years. By shoring up forests, which absorb carbon dioxide, Shell aims to offset the CO2 emitted when its customers burn the petroleum products and natural gas that it produces  and which still account for the vast majority of its revenue.

In the Netherlands, Shell is partnering with Dutch forestry service Staatsbosbeheer to plant more than 5 million trees over 12 years. In northern Spain, it will work with Land Life Co. on a 300-hectare reforestation project with a goal of planting 300,000 trees by the end of the year.

Shell has also established an 800-hectare forest regeneration project in Queensland, Australia, and is jointly studying projects with the Sarawak state government in Malaysia.

"Our focus on natural ecosystems is one step we are taking today to support the transition towards a low-carbon future," Shell CEO Ben van Beurden said in a statement. "This comes in addition to our existing efforts, from reducing the carbon intensity of oil and gas operations to investments in renewable sources of energy."

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Shell has been investing in a range of new businesses, including household battery storage systems and electric vehicle charging infrastructure, as it seeks to get ahead of the transition to clean energy. Shell's director of integrated gas and new energies, Maarten Wetselaar, at a conference in New York last month described the strategy as buying pieces of a puzzle.

On Monday, the company said it will build another 200 rapid charge points for electric vehicles at filling stations in the Netherlands.

In another green initiative at the pump, Shell will offer drivers the opportunity to support its conservation efforts through fuel purchases.

Beginning this month, sales of Shell's enhanced V-Power gasoline and diesel in the Netherlands will fund the company's purchase of carbon credits from nature-based projects like the Cordillera Azul National Park Project in Peru and the GreenTrees Reforestation Project in the U.S. Dutch motorists who fill up on regular gasoline will be given the option of supporting the credits by tacking 1 cent per liter onto their bill.

Shell already gives business customers the option to offset carbon emissions from their fleets. It will expand the carbon credit program for individual drivers later this year, starting in the U.K.

The initiatives come as Shell and its big integrated oil peers face pressure to mitigate the impacts of climate change. An activist group said it has withdrawn a resolution calling for Shell to slash its investment in fossil fuels, following commitments by the company to set targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions.





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Armys plan for defence university stokes debate over who should pay for it

The Army says the primary objective of establishing the university is to produce manpower in national security and defence matters. Officials claim that such an academy will enable the national defence force to expand military and civilian diplomacy by attracting foreigners at the university.
Oil markets will see 'much more upside than downside,' Citi strategist says

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.

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.

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.

Story continues

"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.

Trump has taken to Twitter numerous times since entering the Oval Office to chastise OPEC and its largest producer, Saudi Arabia, for propping up oil prices via production cuts.

The 15-member organization reached a deal with non-OPEC producers including Russia to scale back oil output last December in response to falling prices. The production curbs by the so-called OPEC+ group have played a major part in the rebound in the oil market this year.

Trump's most recent jab at OPEC came late last month, asking that the cartel increase oil output because "World Markets are fragile, price of Oil getting too high."

Tweet 1

Fesharaki told CNBC that "never before has a president had so much impact on oil prices."









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Donald Trumps frustration over his inability to fulfill his signature 2016 campaign promise to curb illegal immigration led him to oust his second homeland security chief, as the president eyes his re-election prospects next year.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigned at Trumps request after a meeting with him on Sunday at the White House residence, according to people familiar with the matter. Her departure follows Trumps decision last month to give a larger say on immigration policy to a hard-line aide, Stephen Miller, who had complained that Nielsen was too weak, some of the people said.

Trump has been mulling for at least the last week the appointment of both a replacement for Nielsen and a possible immigration czar for his administration, the people said  an official who the president and his top advisers believe can accelerate his policies, including construction of more border wall.

The president named Kevin McAleenan, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, a component of DHS, as acting secretary of the department.

Trump won election in 2016 in part on promises to build a border wall and crack down on undocumented immigrants, pledges that are unraveling after lawmakers refused to give him all the money he wanted for a wall and a spike in border crossings. The U.S. apprehended more than 66,000 people in February after crossing illegally  an increase of more than 18,000 from a month earlier and Nielsen has said that apprehensions would approach 100,000 in March.

People Trump has discussed as hes considered filling high-ranking immigration positions include former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Thomas Homan, who is a favorite of the president and Miller, according to two people familiar with the matter. One person said former Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker has also been mentioned.

Story continues

Lightning Rod

Nielsen was a lightning rod for criticism within and outside the Trump administration over U.S. policies on the southern border. She came under heavy attack from lawmakers last year over administration policies that resulted in undocumented children being separated from their families and held in detention facilities after they crossed the border.

She was a protege of former White House chief of staff John Kelly, who preceded her as Homeland Security secretary. He left the White House late last year after repeated clashes with Trump. One person familiar with the matter said she met with Trump on Sunday hoping to persuade him to follow a plan to legally combat undocumented immigration.

Hampered by misstep after misstep, Kirstjen Nielsens tenure at the Department of Homeland Security was a disaster from the start, House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, said in a statement. The Trump administrations border security and immigration policies  that she enacted and helped craft  have been an abysmal failure and have helped create the humanitarian crisis at the border.

Miller, one of Trumps longest serving and most trusted aides, is considered anti-immigrant by some Democrats and has been blamed by some Republicans for the demise of bipartisan legislation to overhaul the immigration system. He regards many such proposals as amnesty for people in the country illegally.

Miller didnt respond to questions about Nielsen or his own elevation on immigration policy. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to comment on Nielsens resignation beyond Trumps tweets announcing her departure.

Policy Frustrations

The president and other White House officials have been frustrated by the slow, tangled process to move new immigration proposals through the government, which often involves as many as four different Cabinet agencies. Some administration officials lament that no single adviser has full authority over immigration policy or the clout to resolve internal disputes, the people said.

Officials with no direct role in immigration such as National Security Adviser John Bolton, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Chris Liddell and the presidents son-in-law, Jared Kushner, have occasionally tried to adjudicate, the people said.

Trump blamed Nielsen for delays in enacting some of his policies  even those over which she had little control, including building more border wall and re-assigning immigration judges at the Department of Justice, people familiar with the matter said.

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 Americas borders and which have contributed to discord in our nations discourse, Nielsen said in a resignation letter on Sunday.

Some of Trumps immigration policies have met with internal resistance because officials believed they were legally dubious, the people said. But Miller and Trump sometimes regard such concerns as nothing more than ideological opposition.

Other officials, though, consider Miller too ideological himself to be an effective leader on the issue, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Nielsen repeatedly drew Trumps ire over the last year but had avoided being fired. But Trump has recently shown increased frustration with the situation at the U.S. southern border. During a visit to the California border on Friday, Trump declared the U.S. full and said no more migrants from Central American could be accommodated.

Late last month, Trump threatened to close the U.S. border with Mexico to stop the spike in migration. He backed off after complaints by U.S. business groups and Republican lawmakers, but has not foreclosed the possibility.

Vitiello Withdrawn

Also on Friday, Trump withdrew his nominee to run Immigration and Customs Enforcement the acting director of the agency, Ronald Vitiello  in order to appoint someone he said would be tougher.

Trump, Nielsen, and McAleenan jointly participated in a roundtable discussion on border security at a border patrol station in Calexico during the presidents trip. In their remarks, Trump and Nielsen thanked each other for making the visit. They traveled to the state separately.

Nielsen, 46, had faced criticism from Trump over things she couldnt control, such as court rulings against his plan to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration program, his ban on refugees from predominantly Muslim nations, and a perceived inability to effectively stem or choke off border crossings.

Harshly criticized by the president during a cabinet meeting in May, Nielsen considered submitting her resignation at that time, according to the New York Times. Her office called the reports false.

McAleenan, 47, was sworn in March 2018 as commissioner of Customs and Border Protection after serving as acting commissioner at the start of the Trump administration and previously was deputy commissioner.
Companies to cooperatively develop client relationships and revenue models

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / April 8, 2019 / Pressland (pressland.com), a wholly owned subsidiary of Codebase Ventures Inc. ("Codebase" or the "Company") (CSE: CODE - FSE: C5B  OTCQB: BKLLF), today announced it has signed a Letter of Intent to form a commercial partnership with San Francisco-based OutVoice. The companies will consult on products that reduce inefficiencies and drive client engagement in the media-tech space.

OutVoice is the first freelance payment option for publishers that integrates directly into Content Management Systems. The service reduces the invoicing process to a single click. Payments are handled by OutVoice's proprietary enterprise platform.

Pressland is using artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) to analyze around-the-clock global news output and publish comprehensive, dynamic production data that can be used to identify misinformation before it spreads online.

This partnership will help accelerate Pressland's time-to-market for its SaaS offerings.

"It's not often that someone solves a longstanding pain point in media production, but that's precisely what OutVoice has done," said Jeff Koyen, Codebase's Chief Strategy Officer. "OutVoice has the potential to become a global leader in the media technology space, and Pressland is thrilled to call them a partner at this early stage."

As part of this arrangement, Codebase Ventures will use OutVoice to pay contributors to its wholly own subsidiaries ICO Ranker and Blockchain Ranker.

OutVoice was founded in 2018 by Matt Saincome, former freelance writer and editor-turned-publisher of The Hard Times. His work has been featured in Forbes, Billboard, LA Times and other major news outlets.

"Jeff and Pressland intimately understand the problem OutVoice is looking to solve," Saincome said. "I look forward to sharing resources and expertise as we develop tools that reduce inefficiencies and optimize the media production process."

Story continues

Pressland is led by Codebase's Koyen, a seasoned media executive, entrepreneur, technologist and journalist. His reporting has been published by The New York Times, The Guardian, Wired, Crain's New York, Adweek and many others. The company is based in Brooklyn, but team members are distributed globally from Belgrade to Vancouver. Pressland also publishes News-to-Table, a digital magazine dedicated to issues of media trust and transparency.

About Codebase Ventures Inc.

Codebase Ventures Inc. is a small, hands-on team of financial and technology experts who invest early in great ideas. We operate from the understanding that technology is always evolving, bringing early opportunities for strategic investments that can deliver the exponential returns to our shareholders. We seek out and empower the innovators who are building tomorrow's standards with platforms and protocols, not just products. We invest early, support our founders, take their ideas to market and work tirelessly to help them realize their vision.

For further information, please contact:

Brian Keane, Director

Investor Relations

Telephone: 1 (778) 806-5150 - TOLL FREE (877) 806-CODE (2633)

E-mail: IR@codebase.ventures

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding future financial position, business strategy, use of proceeds, corporate vision, proposed acquisitions, partnerships, joint-ventures and strategic alliances and co-operations, budgets, cost and plans and objectives of or involving the Company. Such forward-looking information reflects management's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to management. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "predicts", "intends", "targets", "aims", "anticipates" or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases or may be identified by statements to the effect that certain actions "may", "could", "should", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. A number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause the actual results or performance to materially differ from any future results or performance expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of the Company including, but not limited to, the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions and dependence upon regulatory approvals. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. The Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by securities laws.

SOURCE: Codebase Ventures Inc.





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You probably don't know how much your retirement paycheck will be. New technology is working to change that

If you're like most individuals, you have no idea how much income you will really have in retirement.

While you've probably heard of the retirement withdrawal strategies like the 4% rule, it's hard to know where to start.

New technology platforms are working to help you understand where you should withdraw your money from and when.

You know you need to save for retirement and you know how you need to do it.

But what happens when you get to your retirement years? Do you know how to turn your life savings into a steady, tax-efficient stream of income?

For many individuals, the answer is no.

And you're not alone. Most pre-retirees  66 percent  have not calculated how much money they will need to cover their expenses in retirement, according to the Alliance for Lifetime Income .

At the same time, just 38 percent of households can count on pensions or annuities for a steady stream of cash, the Alliance's October 2018 survey found.

That leaves many confused as to how much they should spend  and from which accounts  to augment their monthly Social Security checks.

Even the 4% rule  whereby you withdraw at that rate during each year of retirement  can leave people confounded.

"If I went to you and said, 'Hey, take out 4%,' you're scratching your head like, 'OK, where do I withdraw from?'" said Bill Meyer, founder and managing principal of Social Security Solutions and founder and CEO of Income Strategy .

The good news is that technology platforms are emerging to help you answer that question.

Kindur

A new platform called Kindur officially launched a feature last week that aims to help you create a check you can count on in retirement.

Kindur is led by founder and CEO Rhian Horgan, who started the company following a career that included almost two decades in asset management at J.P. Morgan.

Horgan was inspired by her personal experience in helping her father, now 69, decide how to draw down his assets. After spending hours poring over 300-page Social Security books, Horgan came to the conclusion that there had to be a better way.

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In her career, she keep seeing technology user-interfaces that presented complex financial information in a simpler way.

"I just fell in love with how easy these companies are making it to access these financial products," Horgan said.

Kindur's goal is to take out that complexity for its users looking at retirement.

To sign up, individuals must fill out a short questionnaire. That initial process does not require access to specific accounts. To start, just indicating about how much is in pre-tax versus taxable accounts is enough.

Ultimately, once users have fully onboarded, the platform's goal is to help automate how much you take and from which accounts. Those checks, which the company sends to you directly, augment the income you receive from Social Security and annuities.

The company has also partnered with American Equity to provide a custom annuity that requires two decisions from users: If they want to buy it and when to start receiving income. Importantly, the company has eliminated the commissions or brokers involved in other annuity sales, Horgan noted.

On the investing side, Kindur also has a portfolio of exchange traded funds it is running itself as a registered investment adviser in collaboration with firms such as Schwab and Fidelity. The platform's goal is to help you decide how much risk to take on based on the guaranteed income you have.

Kindur charges its users 0.5% per year. While the company typically charges a fixed $149 fee for the advice it provides, right now they are providing some promotions for users to try it out for free.

So far, Kindur's users have an average age of 59 and average net worth of $1.2 million.

The company, which plans to delve deeper into Medicare and health care going forward, has ample backing from investors. It recently completed a $10-million Series A funding round from investors, including Inspired Capital Partners, which is led by former LearnVest executive Alexa von Tobel; Anthemis; Point72 Ventures and Clocktower.

Income Strategy

When Meyer first came to the realization that there needed to be better coordination around retirement income 10 years ago, he first set out to develop a product around Social Security.

He teamed up with Dr. William Reichenstein, investment strategy chair at Baylor University, for what he thought would be a three-month project. Instead, it took years to sort through all of the rules.

The resulting product, SocialSecuritySolutions.com, helps individuals sort through claiming rules.

Now, Meyer is at it again with a new product, IncomeStrategy.com, which aims to help individuals decide from which accounts they should withdraw from when.

It might sound like a simple dilemma, but just one decision can have catastrophic consequences, Meyer said.

For example, one withdrawal from your individual retirement account could impact both your Social Security taxes and what you pay for Medicare.

"Just varying which account you draw down from can find tens of thousands of dollars more for someone," Meyer said.

On average, managing a withdrawal sequence correctly can make someone's money last for seven years longer, Meyer said.

That's different from the sequence traditional firms typically use, which go for taxable accounts first, followed by tax-deferred and then Roth accounts.

More from Personal Finance:

How much more you need to save for retirement, based on age

Health-care costs for retirees climb to $285,000

Boomers, heavily invested in stocks, put retirement savings at risk

Income Strategy, based in Leawood, Kansas, also aims to set its IncomeStrategy.com product apart from competitors that are developing similar platforms through the level of detail it considers.

Once a user has inputted all of their accounts, the site aims to make the process of withdrawals easy. A "Get Cash" button on the site allows you to input the amount you want to take out  say $40,000 for the next three months  and you will be presented with a list of what you should sell.

For a subscription fee of $20 per month, you execute those transactions yourself.

For $50 per month, you get access to a higher level of service, where those transactions are executed for you. There are also other perks, such as a mini call center with certified financial professionals available for advice or access to low-cost ETF models.

For $125, individuals can get a one-time advice session, which can be a general overview or just on Social Security claiming.

IncomeStrategy.com officially launched in January, but it has already managed to attract more than $1 billion in assets in nine months, Meyer said.

Part of that growth was helped by the financial advisors who used the engine and provided critical feedback in the year prior to the consumer launch.

IncomeStrategy.com is aimed specifically at consumers, who may be reluctant to pay a professional advisor a 1% fee. Those professionals often do not have the right tools to come up with the best drawdown strategies, Meyer said.

"I want it to be an alternative to advisors," Meyer said. "Advisors are great, but a lot of people don't have advisors."





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Civil servant, middlemen held on graft charge

Police arrested a government employee along with two middlemen on the charge of taking bribe from service seekers at the Labour and Employment Office in Janakpur.
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Royal Dutch Shell is seen at a petrol station in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, Belgium January 30, 2019. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo

LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell confirmed labour strikes started on Monday at its 404,000 barrel per day Pernis oil refinery in the Netherlands and that production would be affected.

"There will be impact on production but at this point we can't say exactly what the exact impact will be because we don't know yet," a spokeswoman said.

Dutch trade union FNV said production at the plant will be gradually reduced to 65 percent of capacity on Monday.

The reduction in capacity will last until Wednesday night, FNV spokesman Egbert Schellenberg said.

The Shell spokeswoman said a technical meeting with the unions was planned for Monday afternoon.

(Reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar; Editing by Mark Potter and Kirsten Donovan)
The current Zacks Consensus Estimate for Royal Dutch Shell's (RDS.A) Q1 EPS is pegged at $1.05 per share on revenues of $83 billion.

Royal Dutch Shell plc RDS.A and Tokyo Gas Company Limited recently inked a long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) deal, in accordance with an innovative purchase pricing formula that is partly based on coal indexation. Per the deal, the integrated energy super major, which carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), will supply 500,000 tons of LNG annually to the Japanese utility firm, Tokyo Gas,for a period of ten years starting April 2020. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Linking Gas Prices to Coal: First of its Kind

The deal is worthy of attention because of the usage of coal-index pricing for the LNG contract unlike the usual oil indexation or natural gas benchmark Henry Hub. Markedly, this move marks the first time a Japanese firm will be using a coal-based pricing formula for an LNG contract. While part of the supply will be based on coal indexation, the remaining will be priced off traditional oil and gas linked indexes.

The move of linking LNG contract to coal prices is more of a risk management strategy of Tokyo Gas. By diversifying its price exposure for LNG via coal indexation, the company will be able to better compete in its own power market that is dominated by coal. The deal allows Tokyo Gas to obtain a secured supply of LNG and stabilize the companys cost exposure.

While LNG was historically linked to oil prices, the traditional price link to crude oil remained challenged, given rising U.S. exports and pricing against Henry Hub. However, of late, Henry-Hub based deals are getting less popular among buyers in Asia and Europe as the prices dont reflect global LNG fundamentals and are driven by factors specific to North America.

Diversity in Pricing Options Gains Steam

The LNG2019 Shanghai meet saw increasing diversification of price indexation, with sellers coming up with novel ways to price the fuel. Notably, Tellurian Inc. TELL signed an agreement with TOTAL SA TOT to supply 1.5 million tons of LNG from its Driftwood project, at a price based on Japan-Korea as against the U.S. Henry Hub benchmark.

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The growing diversity of pricing options in the LNG contract was witnessed when Shell recently inked a 20-year deal with NextDecade Corporation to buy 1.5 million tons of LNG per year, based on Brent oil benchmark as against gas indexation.

With trade negotiations progressing between the United States and China, all eyes are on the Cheniere-Sinopec deal. Cheniere LNG, being the largest LNG exporter in the United States, is in talks to ink a 20-year LNG supply deal with Sinopec, once the trade spat ends.

Is Your Investment Advisor Fumbling Your Financial Future?

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FILE PHOTO: A view shows the Bonny oil terminal in the Niger delta which is operated by Royal Dutch Shell in Port Harcourt, Nigeria August 1, 2018. REUTERS/Ron Bousso/File Photo

By Noah Browning

LONDON (Reuters) - The rising tide of light U.S. shale oil has largely swept away comparable grades of Nigerian oil from American shores and is putting them under pressure in Europe.

But steady Indian and Indonesian demand has helped lift price indications for two of Nigeria's top grades to near five-year highs, according to traders and shipping data.

"It's only because India's economy has been growing, and to a lesser extent Indonesia, that there remains decent demand for Nigerian crude. Without those two countries, the European buyers would have dragged the market much lower," one seller said.

A projected rise in buying from European refineries, which supply fuel to the United States, is offering some support for now. Light Nigerian oil is easily processed into higher octane gasoline increasingly used in the United States, where the summer driving season looms.

As a result, sellers of Bonny Light and Qua Iboe crude are offering at and above a premium of $2.00 a barrel compared to dated Brent, the benchmark North Sea crude.

Graphic: Nigerian crude offered near five-year highs https://tmsnrt.rs/2I0p4p0

But European refiners are also driving a hard bargain, balking at higher Nigerian prices when one trader said the market was flooded by "a sea of cheap U.S. oil."

"We have many options that mean Nigerian won't work for us at these prices," another trader said, adding that in addition to U.S. oil, European refiners could turn to North Sea and Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) crudes.

CPC oil "costs us 50 cents less a barrel compared to the prices being asked for Nigerian, given the freight costs and market structure," he said.

Sellers of Nigerian crude are still learning to live with the surge in U.S. shale output, which has turned the United States into the world's top crude producer and dampened demand for imports in what had been a reliable market for Nigeria.

Story continues

"Nigerian crude has taken a beating for the last 10 years ever since the U.S. scaled back buying," the seller added.

Nigerian exports of crude and petroleum products to the United States plunged from 36.4 million barrels in July 2010 to just 5.6 million barrels in January 2019, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Graphic: U.S. imports of Nigerian crude https://tmsnrt.rs/2Vnk1SA

After Washington lifted a four-decade ban on exports of U.S. oil in 2015, shipments to Europe hit an all-time high of 25 million barrels in March 2019 from just 2 million barrels in February 2016, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.

This has put a squeeze on a prime Nigerian market.

U.S. oil is also heading to India, where it is increasingly competing with Nigerian crude. Indian Oil Corp, the country's top refiner, signed its first annual deal to buy U.S. oil in February, paying about $1.5 billion for 60,000 barrels a day up to March 2020.

Despite the pressure from U.S. barrels, Nigerian exports to Europe, India and Indonesia have held generally steady so far.

Consistent tenders from state buyers in India and Indonesia ensure these remain major destinations for Nigerian oil.

But one Asian buyer said Indian tenders were largely finished for the month, and that Nigerian cargoes for April and May would soon need to find buyers in Europe instead.

"Nigerian is facing stiff competition almost everywhere," a trading source said. "Sooner or later Nigerian oil is going to need to expand into new markets."

(Reporting By Noah Browning; Editing by Edmund Blair)
Delusion of democracy

Porn sites are banned using filtering and blocking mechanisms that prevent internet users from accessing a certain type of content. Blocking refers to preventing access to specific websites, domains, internet protocol (IP) addresses, protocols, and services that are blacklisted.
FILE PHOTO: 2019 Jeep Wranglers move to the Final 1 assembly line at the Chrysler Jeep Assembly plant in Toledo, Ohio, U.S., November 16, 2018. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook/File Photo

By Nick Carey and Ben Klayman

TOLEDO, Ohio (Reuters) - Lots of workplaces have a hot seat. At the Jeep assembly plant in Toledo, Ohio, there is a "sweet seat."

In the production line where Jeep Wrangler sport utility vehicles are made at the rate of about one a minute, a panel must be screwed into the bottom of the vehicle. It used to be back-breaking work for two union members to carry the panel and screw it on as the vehicle moved down the line.

Occasionally, they would miss screws.

Now two workers sit comfortably on adjacent chairs that follow the vehicle. Lasers point out where the screws go, reducing errors.

What is remarkable about the so-called "sweet seat" at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV's Toledo plant is that like many other innovations here, it originated with United Auto Workers union members on the factory floor.

Production workers here create proposals to simplify tasks that are "too heavy or too hard," said millwright Greg Harman, who is on a team of 10 UAW workers that implements those ideas. A handful of automakers have adopted aspects of a similar system, pioneered by Japan's Toyota Motor Corp.

The uncommon level of union collaboration with Fiat Chrysler (FCA) management in Toledo offers a road map for union negotiations this summer with Detroit's Big 3: FCA, General Motors Co and Ford Motor Co.

According to officials at the automakers, their key focus in this year's contract talks will be on productivity and profitability in the face of an anticipated downturn in vehicle sales and non-unionized competition from the likes of Toyota, Nissan Motor Co Ltd and Volkswagen AG.

That clashes with union demands to maintain healthcare benefits and boost job security, and comes on the heels of GM's warning that it could shutter a car factory in Lordstown, Ohio, along with three other UAW-represented plants. GM'S move drew harsh criticism from President Donald Trump, and prompted the UAW's new president to bulk up the strike fund - serving notice the union is not afraid of a fight over jobs.

At a time when national UAW membership fell 8 percent in 2018 after rising for nine consecutive years, and has failed to organise a single U.S. assembly plant owned by a European or Asian automaker, FCA's Toledo plant has more than tripled its workforce to 5,700 workers since 2009.

Story continues

For a graphic, click https://tmsnrt.rs/2I4S0wa

The biggest reason: Americans' love with the Wrangler and other high-margin SUVs.

The Wrangler became so hot that FCA started running the plant virtually round the clock. So UAW Local 12, which represents workers at the Toledo plant, pushed for a flexible system under which workers could choose to work between four and seven days per week - a first for any FCA plant.

Temporary workers fill in the gaps, and Local 12 sought more protections for those workers, including providing a clear path to full-time employment status.

"Our members went way, way, way beyond the call of duty to provide what the company's needs were," said Mark Epley, the plant's union chairman. "It's a competitive market out there and we know that any plant can be taken away at any time."

Thanks largely to its success at FCA, UAW Local 12 has hit a 40-year high in membership through organising workers at many other companies in the area, including a Dana Inc plant where workers make Wrangler axles.

SANTA ON THE ASSEMBLY LINE

Success at Toledo took years to build. A decade ago, when the former Chrysler Corp was going through its government-funded bankruptcy, Toledo had a reputation as the automaker's worst-run plant.

As Italian automaker Fiat S.p.A took control of the Chrysler, then-Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne turned to Fiat executive Mauro Pino with a challenge: which legacy U.S. Chrysler plant should they use as a proving ground for what Fiat called "World Class Manufacturing," a version of Toyota's lean production strategy but adapted to the Italian automaker's culture?

Pino chose Toledo with the idea of turning the worst performing plant into the best. He had two years to prove he could turn the plant around, he told Reuters in an interview outside Cleveland, where he now runs an Eaton Corp aircraft parts plant.

Pino found a workforce of around 1,700 people, demoralised by Chrysler's bankruptcy. The plant produced just over 140,000 vehicles in 2009.

He began working to win the workers' trust. He dressed as Santa Claus before Christmas 2010 and handed out candy canes to workers on the line, greeting each by name, workers at the plant recall.

Pino also pushed for more productivity but did so by asking workers how they would redesign their own cumbersome jobs.

"Usually you need to convince people to change, but when they saw what we were doing they started coming to us," he said.

"The new system gave everyone a voice," said Cheryl Reash, a 36-year worker at the plant.

Tracy Seymour, also at the plant nearly 36 years, said the team of 10 millwrights - a team started by Pino - came up with a system for parts kits that eliminated the need for vast amounts of inventory on the line. That made it possible for workers to build 10 different engine types without having to bend over, lift heavy objects or walk off the line in search of parts.

"I wouldn't run without their equipment," Seymour said. "It would be impossible."

RUNNING HOT

Over time, workers and managers at Toledo worked to unplug bottlenecks up and down the assembly line.

"Why we succeed and exceed is that union and management came together," Seymour said.

Soaring customer demand for sport utility vehicles also helped the Toledo plant. As workers cranked out around 500,000 Wrangler and Jeep Cherokee SUVs annually from 2014 to 2016, the plant's two production lines began running at well over 100 percent capacity, according to data from AutoForecast Solutions. This level of capacity utilization is rare in the industry.

Still, Fiat Chrysler could not keep up with demand in both the United States and in the 105 countries where the Toledo-made Wrangler is sold.

To ease the crunch, the company proposed moving the Cherokee to another factory so Toledo could make more Wranglers. In return, Local 12 was promised another new product. Baumhower said the local accepted the move based on that promise.

The plant is now ramping up production of the Gladiator pickup truck, which shares many parts with the Wrangler and is getting glowing reviews in the automotive media.

But while FCA's Toledo success shows what can happen when a Detroit automaker and its union work together, it also shows how a strong local can also punch back. In February 2018, for instance, Local 12 publicly protested an FCA plan to replace 88 UAW-represented truck drivers with contractors, forcing the company to back down.

"We're good at getting along if you want to get along," said Bruce Baumhower, who has been president of Local 12 for 26 years. "And we can fight all day if you want to pick a fight."

(Reporting By Nick Carey and Ben Klayman; Editing by Joseph White and Edward Tobin)
Orrick offices in Washington, D.C.

Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM



Carolyn Frantz, Microsoft Corp.'s deputy general counsel and head of the technology giant's corporate legal group, has joined Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.



Frantz joined Orrick's Supreme Court and appellate practice group Thursday as senior counsel, and as the group's only Seattle-based member, she said in an interview. While she said it's hard to predict what she'll be working on just two days into the new gig, she predicted she'll handle "a lot of matters involving technology ... and maybe some matters involving tax."



Her experience at Microsoft, where she most recently served as vice president, deputy general counsel and corporate secretary, gave her new insight when it comes to clients and legal approaches, Frantz said.



"Even when I look back at myself maybe four or five years ago, before I had the chance to work at Microsoft, I think there were just so many more things I didnt understand about how an in-house corporate department really works," Frantz told the Recorder. "I just have a much better, intuitive sense of what my clients care about now than I would have four or five years ago ... once you've lived it you develop a much better instinct of what may be important to a corporate client."



Frantz's latest move isn't the first time she's switched gears in her legal career. Along the way she's been a partner at Bartlit Beck, an assistant professor at the University Chicago Law School, an Alexander Fellow at New York University School of Law and as a U.S. Supreme Court law clerk for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.



She is also a Rhodes Scholar and graduate of University of Michigan Law School, where she graduated first in her class.



"I haven't been afraid to do something Ive never done before," Frantz said. "Which I do think is just incidentally great advice for young lawyers."



Microsoft was Frantz's first in-house role. She joined the Redmond, Washington-based tech company in 2016 as associate general counsel of litigation, according to her LinkedIn profile, after working as Microsoft's outside counsel. She was promoted to her most recent role in January 2018.



As deputy general counsel and head of Microsoft's corporate legal group, Frantz oversaw legal matters related to securities, insider trading compliance, compensation and benefits, real estate, subsidiary management and procurement law. On some matters she worked with outside counsel from Orrick, introducing her to members of the firm's Seattle office.



She most recently reported to Microsoft general counsel Dev Stahlkopf and, in her role as corporate secretary, the company's board of directors. Frantz said her role at Orrick will allow her to stay "closely connected" with Microsoft.



"Orrick is gaining an incredible lawyer and wonderful colleague," Stahlkopf said a statement. "Well certainly miss Carolyns leadership and expertise, but we couldnt be more excited to see what shell accomplish in the next phase of her career."



While Frantz's move to Orrick is a new step in her legal career, she described joining the appellate group as "coming back to my roots," due to her law clerk background. Josh Rosenkranz, the head of Orricks Supreme Court and Appellate Practice, said in a statement that Frantz is a "truly distinguished legal talent" who will help the firm grow its "bi-coastal team."





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Read More


















(Corrects timing of Belt and Road summit to this month, not next month, in paragraph 12)

WASHINGTON, April 8 (Reuters) - U.S. officials are "not satisfied yet" about all the issues standing in the way of a deal to end the U.S.-China trade war but made progress in talks with China last week, a top White House official said on Monday.

The United States and China have been embroiled in a tit-for-tat tariff battle since July 2018, roiling global financial markets and supply chains and costing both of the world's two largest economies billions of dollars.

U.S. officials are pressing China to make changes to address longstanding concerns over industrial subsidies, technology transfer and intellectual property rights.

The two sides wrapped up the latest round of talks in Washington late last week and will be resuming discussions this week remotely.

"We're making progress on a range of things, and theres some stuff where we're not satisfied yet," Clete Willems, a top White House trade official, told Reuters on the sidelines of a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event on Monday.

He declined to get into specifics on which issues remained unsettled. Last week, President Donald Trump said a deal could be reached in about four weeks.

Willems also declined to specify a timeline for the pact, noting: "It should be a good sign for people that we're not rushing into this we want to get it right and we need to nail down specifics." Willems said that the two sides were still trying to settle on how to handle existing tariffs. The United States has slapped tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods, and the Trump administration sees those as leverage to ensure Beijing keeps any promises made in the deal. Chinese officials want the levies removed.

The United States and China have agreed on an enforcement structure that would give Washington the right to retaliate if Beijing was not honoring the terms of the agreement, Willems said.

Story continues

European Union leaders did not take issues with Chinese trade policy as seriously as they should have in the past, but the United States and the EU are now "working hand in hand" at the World Trade Organization on China's non-market economic policies, Willems said earlier in remarks at the Chamber of Commerce.

The United States and the EU want to work together on joint projects that provide market-based alternatives to state-led initiatives "that can come with strings attached," he said.

This month China is hosting its second summit for its Belt and Road initiative, which envisions connecting China with Asia, Europe and beyond with massive infrastructure spending, but the United States will not be sending high-level officials to the event.

Washington views Beijing as a major strategic rival. The United States has said it views the initiative as a way of spreading Chinese influence overseas and saddling low-income countries with unsustainable debt using opaque projects.

Willems, who has been a key figure in negotiations with China, said last month he will be leaving the White House in the coming weeks to spend more time with his family after the birth of a new baby. (Reporting by Chris Prentice; Writing by Makini Brice Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Tom Brown)
Trump says he has not read the Mueller report, but has 'every right to do so'

President Donald Trump declared on Saturday that he has "every right" to read the extensive report submitted by special counsel Robert Mueller

Mueller delivered the conclusions of the investigation to Attorney General William Barr on March 22.

Trump added that he knows only "the conclusions, and on the big one, No Collusion."

President Donald Trump declared on Saturday that he has "every right" to read the extensive report submitted by special counsel Robert Mueller last month.

Mueller delivered the conclusions of the investigation, which looked into Russia's election interference and possible collusion with Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, to Attorney General William Barr on March 22.

"I have not read the Mueller Report yet, even though I have every right to do so," Trump said in a tweet.

@realDonaldTrump: 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.....

He added that he knows only "the conclusions, and on the big one, No Collusion."

The report is nearly 400 pages long, Barr said in a letter to Congress on March 29. Barr also said he expects Congress to receive a redacted version of Mueller's report by mid-April, "if not sooner."

Additionally, Barr said that "there are no plans to submit the report to the White House for a privilege review." Even though the attorney general said Trump has the right to assert privilege "over certain parts of the report," Barr believes Trump "intends to defer to me" when it comes to the contents of the report.

Barr sent a four-page summary of Mueller's findings to Congress on March 24. In the summary, Barr said that Mueller did not establish a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia and he did not reach a conclusion on whether the president obstructed justice.

Story continues

Some members of Mueller's team were reportedly dissatisfied with Barr's summary letter, however. The officials did not give specifics but told The New York Times that Barr did not include enough detail in his summary.





More From CNBC


Anup Ojha is a reporter for The Kathmandu Post primarily covering social issues and human interest stories. Before moving to the social beat, Ojha covered arts and culture for the Post for four years.
PHOENIX, AZ / ACCESSWIRE / April 8, 2019 / Uptick Newswire Stock Day Podcast welcomed Natural Shrimp, Inc. (SHMP) ("the Company"), a publicly traded AquaTech Company, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, with production facilities located near San Antonio, Texas. CEO, Chairman, and Co-founder, Bill Williams, joined Stock Day host Everett Jolly.

To start the interview, Jolly asked Williams to share some background information about the Company. Williams explained that over the past eighteen years the Company has developed a system to grow shrimp in an enclosed recirculating saltwater environment. Although the Company has faced many challenges throughout the development of this technology, it has been proven successful and is now patented.

Jolly then asked about the Company's next steps. Williams explained that now that their patent is in place and the technology is ready to use, the Company plans to expandtheir facilities and projects. Due to the nature oftheir technology, the Company is not limited to locations bordering saltwater.

Jolly asked Williams how the Company plans to use its current funds. Williams shared that the Company's current funds will be used to facilitatetheir expansion plan.

Williams then explained that the Company is actually able to grow a variety of aquatic species and is not limited to growing only shrimp. He further explained that the Company's patented technology allows them to create sushi-grade shrimp that is easily distinguishable against other available products on the market.

To close the interview, Williams explained that the Company has achieved something that its competitors have failed to do. Their technology allows them to create exceptionally high-quality aquatic species in an enclosed environment, regardless of their location in the United States. Based on their current projects and pending deals, Williams explained that the Company expects to grow rapidly. "This is going to change the nature of the seafood business.", stated Williams. He also added that the Company's first revenues are expected within twelve months.

Story continues

To hear Bill William's entire interview, follow the link to the podcast here: https://upticknewswire.com/interview-ceo-bill-williams-of-naturalshrimp-incorporated-otcqb-shmp-2/

Investors Hangout is a proud sponsor of "Stock Day," and Uptick Newswire encourages listeners to visit the company's message board at https://investorshangout.com/

About Natural Shrimp, Inc.

NaturalShrimp, Inc. is a publicly traded AquaTech Company, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, with production facilities located near San Antonio, Texas. The Company has developed the first commercially viable system for growing shrimp in enclosed, saltwater systems, using patented technology to produce fresh, never frozen, naturally grown shrimp without the use of antibiotics or toxic chemicals. NaturalShrimp systems can be located anywhere in the world to produce gourmet-grade Pacific white shrimp.

About F and T Water Solutions, LLC

Specialists in wastewater treatment providing Electrocoagulation, Solids Management, Desalination, and Heavy Metals, Absorbent solutions for use in Aquaculture, Food Processing, O&G Operations, MSW and Landfill Leachate.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements." The statements contained in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements give the Company's current expectations or forecasts of future events. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that are often difficult to predict and beyond the Company's control and could cause the Company's results to differ materially from those described. In some cases forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "may," "should," "potential," "continue," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," and similar expressions. These statements include statements regarding moving forward with executing the Company's global growth strategy. The statements are based upon current beliefs, expectations, and assumptions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict. The Company is providing this information as of the date of this press release and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends affecting the financial condition of our business. Forward-looking statements should not be read as a guarantee of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of the times at, or by, which such performance or results will be achieved. Important factors that could cause such differencesinclude, but are not limited to the Risk Factors and other information set forth in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-Q filed on February 14, 2019, and in our other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Contact:

Paul Knopick

Pknopick@eandecommunications.com

940.262.3584

About Uptick Newswire and the "Stock Day" Podcast

Founded in 2013, Uptick Newswire is the fastest growing media outlet for Nano-Cap and Micro-Cap companies. It educates investors while simultaneously working with penny stock and OTC companies, providing transparency and clarification of under-valued, under-sold Micro-Cap stocks of the market. Uptick provides companies with customized solutions to their news distribution in both national and international media outlets.Uptick is the sole producer of its "Stock Day" Podcast, which is the number one radio show of its kind in America. The Uptick Network "Stock Day" Podcast is an extension of Uptick Newswire, which recently launched its Video Interview Studio located in Phoenix, Arizona.

Uptick Newswire

602-441-3474

https://upticknewswire.com/

SOURCE: Uptick Newswire





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/541287/Uptick-Newswire-Hosts-Natural-Shrimp-Inc-on-The-Stock-Day-Podcast-to-Discuss-Its-Rapid-Expansion-Plan




US disengagement in the Middle East is 'a concern to all of us,' Dutch minister says

"I think the disengagement to the U.S. as a very important critical historical player in this region I think is of a concern to all of us," Sigrid Kaag, the Netherlands' minister for foreign trade and development cooperation, told CNBC's Hadley Gamble.

A disengagement from places like the Middle East was one of the key pledges that President Donald Trump had on the campaign trail.

And his order to withdraw 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria last December was seen as the president pushing through with that policy in the White House, even if it blindsided and concerned some allies in the region.

America's strategic move away from the Middle East may be concerning, but the region needs new leadership from within to deal with issues such as security and the refugee crisis, a prominent politician at the Dutch finance ministry told CNBC Saturday.

"I think the disengagement of the U.S. as a very important critical historical player in this region, I think is of a concern to all of us," Sigrid Kaag, the Netherlands' minister for foreign trade and development cooperation, told CNBC's Hadley Gamble in Jordan at the World Economic Forum (WEF) on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

"And it's important that we remain in dialogue," she added.

A disengagement from places like the Middle East was one of the key pledges that President Donald Trump had on the campaign trail. And his order to withdraw 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria last December was seen as the president pushing through with that policy in the White House, even if it blindsided and concerned some allies in the region.

Speaking on a CNBC-moderated panel about global geopolitical shifts affecting the region's security landscape, Kaag said that Europe wouldn't be able to fill any void left by the U.S. if the Middle East required major economic assistance. She said that the EU could invest in those countries and said it was already engaged in regional conflict and resolutions. But she admitted that it could do more.

Story continues

"Are we as superpower? Not in that sense. Are we an economic power? Yes. And in today's world, the 21st century, if we're talking the fourth industrial revolution I think there is a lot more that could be offered by Europe, But we do this in partnership with the region. I think that's extremely important," she said.

She further underlined that any leadership needed in the region should come from within. "We are not in a new colonial era, thank god. This is not the case, this is for the people of the region to determine," she said.





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In this article:

* Palm snaps five days of gains

* Market also down on technical correction - trader

(Updates with closing prices)

By Emily Chow

KUALA LUMPUR, April 8 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures

retreated from a six-week top on Monday evening, falling over 1

percent to snap five sessions of gains, tracking weaker soybean

oil prices on the U.S. Chicago Board of Trade and in a technical

correction.

The benchmark palm oil contract for June delivery

on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 1.1 percent

at 2,200 ringgit ($537.24) a tonne at the close of trade.

In the previous session, palm climbed to 2,235 ringgit, its

highest since Feb. 25.

"Soybean oil dropped this afternoon, and we saw a healthy

correction," said a Kuala Lumpur-based futures trader.

Another trader said earlier in the day the market was

bullish in the medium-term ahead of official data from the

Malaysian Palm Oil Board, which is forecast to show a decline in

March-end stocks.

Malaysia's palm oil stockpiles in March are likely to have

dropped by 6.4 percent from February to 2.85 million tonnes, its

lowest in five months, according to a Reuters survey, as a hefty

jump in exports outpaced production gains.

The Malaysian Palm Oil Board is scheduled to release March

data on Wednesday.

In other related oils, Chicago May soybean oil contract

was down 0.7 percent, and the May soyoil contract on the

Dalian Commodity Exchange rose 0.2 percent.

Meanwhile, the Dalian May palm oil contract gained

0.5 percent.

Palm oil prices are affected by movements in soyoil, as they

compete for a share in the global vegetable oil market.

Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1106 GMT

Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume

MY PALM OIL APR9 2151 -18.00 2145 2151 30

MY PALM OIL MAY9 2185 -18.00 2179 2203 1551

MY PALM OIL JUN9 2201 -24.00 2196 2225 17541

CHINA PALM OLEIN MAY9 4452 +20.00 4446 4516 172856

CHINA SOYOIL MAY9 5446 +8.00 5432 5474 63716

CBOT SOY OIL MAY9 28.96 -0.19 28.93 29.15 5317

INDIA PALM OIL APR9 546.80 -1.50 545.50 554.8 1054

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INDIA SOYOIL APR9 748.85 +3.95 743.5 750.5 9290

NYMEX CRUDE MAY9 63.40 +0.32 63.24 63.53 106736

Palm oil prices in Malaysian ringgit per tonne

CBOT soy oil in U.S. cents per pound

Dalian soy oil and RBD palm olein in Chinese yuan per tonne

India soy oil in Indian rupee per 10 kg

Crude in U.S. dollars per barrel

($1 = 4.0950 ringgit)

($1 = 6.7183 Chinese yuan)

($1 = 69.6330 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Emily Chow; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and

David Evans)
Government targets 50 percent insurance coverage in 5 years

The government has made mandatory to both life and non-life insurers to sell at least 5 percent of their sold policies in micro insurance. The scheme targets to minimise the financial risks associated with agriculture, livestock and other small rural businesses.
For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL  April 8, 2019  Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Facebook FB, Twitter TWTR, Weibo WB and Alphabets GOOGL.

Here are highlights from Fridays Analyst Blog:

How Social Media Giants Are Fighting the Fake News Menace

In recent times, the issue of fake content has taken epic proportions. Major social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Weibo and Alphabets Google have frequently come under fire for failing to combat the spread of fake news on their platforms.

Social media giants are playing an expansive role in connecting the world, thanks to the improvement in Internet speed and connectivity as well as solid penetration of mobile devices. Per a survey by Pew Research Center last year, 20% of American adults learn about current affairs through social media and only 16% through newspapers.

However, according to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2018, the usage of social media and aggregators for news is declining, primarily due to trust and privacy issues, and fake news concerns. The report, which surveyed more than 74,000 people in 37 markets, stated that only 23% of respondents trust the news they find on social media.

Fake News Proliferates Faster

Fake news is spread via bots and fake profiles that use cookies to track people's website visits. Based on that data, fake profilers and bots allure users to view fake content. Notably, this not only fans the flames of misinformation but also creates cybersecurity threats.

Fake news has been responsible for numerous sensitive situations, including terror propaganda and tampering with peoples sentiments about culture, religion and politics.

Per a BuzzFeed report, the top 50 fake news on Facebook was shared, liked and commented on for about 22 million times in 2018.

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A study by Campaign for Accountability revealed that Googles ad serving platforms generate large revenues by placing advertisements on websites responsible for fake news.

Another research by Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that a fake story spreads between 1,000 and 100,000 Twitter users six times quicker than it takes authentic news to reach 1,500 people.

Further, fake accounts reportedly comprise almost 40% of the total Chinese social media platforms, including Weibo.

How Social Media Companies are Responding

In 2018, Google realized the loopholes in its fake news detection system and launched Google News Initiative, a platform to strengthen quality journalism. The company also launched Subscribe with Google service to encourage subscriptions to media publishers.

Google was able to remove 2.3 billion bad ads that violated its ad policies. Reportedly, this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock has removed ads from 1.5 million apps and about 28 million pages promoting fake stories. It also plans to spend $300 million to combat the epidemic.

Facebook, another Zacks Rank #3 stock, announced a $300 million investment into three-year partnerships with local newspapers. This will not only encourage the display of quality content but will also boost the dwindling demand for local newspapers.

Facebook is now planning to launch a dedicated news tab, in collaboration with publishers. High-quality news from trusted publishers is likely to lower the proliferation of fake news and boost its brand image among users.

Reportedly, in January 2019, the company removed 783 pages, groups and accounts from the Facebook and Instagram platforms, which were propagating agenda-based news from Iran.

The Iranian propaganda had also led Twitter to suspend 2,617 accounts before the U.S. Midterm elections last November, along with 418 and 764 suspicious accounts originating from Russia and Venezuela, respectively. Twitter has a Zacks Rank #3 at present.

Facebook and Twitter have been actively collaborating and working with lawmakers of the United States and other countries to deal with the issue.

Chinas Piyao Fights Fake News

China has been fighting its own war against fake news by launching Piyao last year, which is a platform that identifies fake news across the Internet.

Apart from other social media sites, Piyao has an account on Weibo, helping the latter improve its content quality. Weibo also has its own official account where fake news from across the platform can be reported by users. Notably, it has a feature to tag misinformation since 2012, four years before Facebook took a similar initiative.

Currently, Weibo carries a Zacks Rank #3. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Zacks' Top 10 Stocks for 2019

In addition to the stocks discussed above, wouldn't you like to know about our 10 finest buy-and-holds for the year?

From more than 4,000 companies covered by the Zacks Rank, these 10 were picked by a process that consistently beats the market. Even during 2018 while the market dropped -5.2%, our Top 10s were up well into double-digits. And during bullish 2012  2017, they soared far above the market's +126.3%, reaching +181.9%.

This year, the portfolio features a player that thrives on volatility, an AI comer, and a dynamic tech company that helps doctors deliver better patient outcomes at lower costs.

See Stocks Today >>

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Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.



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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL  April 8, 2019  Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Pfizer PFE, Teva TEVA, Novartis NVS, Merck MRK and AstraZeneca AZN.

Here are highlights from Fridays Analyst Blog:

Pharma Stock Roundup: PFE, TEVA, NVS & More

This week Pfizer and Teva gained marketing approval from the European Commission for their new medicines. While Pfizer gained approval for its new lung cancer medicine, Vizimpro, Tevas CGRP injection, Ajovy was approved in EU. Meanwhile, Novartis announced plans to acquire IFM Tre, a subsidiary of privately held IFM Therapeutics. The acquisition will give Novartis full rights to IFMs two NLRP3 inhibitors. Meanwhile, Novartis blockbuster psoriasis drug, Cosentyx was approved in China while Mercks Keytruda was approved in the country for first-line lung cancer as a combination therapy.

Recap of the Weeks Most Important Headlines

Teva & Pfizers Medicines Get Approval in EU: Tevas CGRP injection, Ajovy was granted marketing approval by the European Commission for the prophylaxis of migraine in adult patients who experience at least four migraine days per month. Ajovy (fremanezumab), for prevention of chronic/episodic migraine, was approved in the United States in September last year and has been enjoying strong demand since launch.

Pfizer also gained marketing approval in EU for its new lung cancer medicine, Vizimpro (dacomitinib) that was approved in the United States last September. Vizimpro (dacomitinib), a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, is now approved in EU for the first-line treatment of metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in patients with EGFR activating mutations.

Novartis New Immunology Acquisition: Novartis announced plans to acquire IFM Tre, a subsidiary of Boston-based IFM Therapeutics, for an upfront payment of $310 million upfront. In addition, IFM will also be eligible to earn up to $1.265 billion in milestone payments. The deal will give Novartis full rights to IFMs two NLRP3 inhibitors - one clinical and two preclinical. These medicines target the NLRP3 inflammasome, a key component of the innate immune system, thereby providing a novel approach to preventing chronic inflammation that results in serious disease. The deal complements Novartis existing pipeline of anti-inflammatory medicines. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2019.

Story continues

Meanwhile, Novartis blockbuster psoriasis drug, Cosentyx was approved in China. Cosentyx, a first-in-class interleukin-17A (IL-17A) inhibitor, is the first biologic approved in China for moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis in adult patients who are candidates for systemic therapy or phototherapy.

Novartis generic arm, Sandoz announced re-submission of its regulatory application to the FDA looking for approval of its biosimilar version of Amgens neutropenia drug, Neulasta. Novartis had earlier in June 2016 received a complete response letter from the FDA for the same. Neutropenia is one of the most serious side effects of chemotherapy.

Novartis also notified of a dispute with Amgen relating to their collaboration agreement for the newly launched migraine medicine, Aimovig. Novartis said that Amgen issued a notice of termination of the agreement on Apr 2. Novartis strongly disputes the notice and has sued Amgen accusing the biotech of making an unjustifiable attempt to end the collaboration with Novartis.

Mercks Keytruda Gets Approval in China for First-Line Lung Cancer: Merck announced that the Chinese regulatory authority has granted conditional approval to Keytruda in combination with Lillys Alimta (pemetrexed) and platinum chemotherapy for the first-line treatment of metastatic non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with no EGFR or ALK genomic tumor aberrations. The approval was based on significant survival benefit demonstrated in a key late-stage lung cancer study, KEYNOTE-189. Notably, data from the KEYNOTE-189 study is already included in Keytrudas U.S. and EU label.

FDA Grants AstraZeneca/Mercks Selumetinib Breakthrough Therapy Status: AstraZeneca and Mercks MEK 1/2 inhibitor, selumetinib was granted Breakthrough Therapy designation by the FDA for the treatment of neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) related plexiform neurofibromas, an incurable genetic condition that affects newborns. Selumetinib is being evaluated in a phase II SPRINT study in pediatric patients with inoperable NF1-related PN, which formed the basis of the designation.

Pfizer/Sangmo Announce Promising Data on Gene Therapy Candidate: Pfizer and its partner, Sangamo Therapeutics announced encouraging interim data from a phase I/II study evaluating their gene therapy candidate, SB-525, for treating hemophilia A. Data from the study showed that patients treated with the highest dosage of SB-525 (3e13 vg/kg) achieved normal factor VIII levels. Dose dependent increase in factor VIII levels was observed in eight patients treated with SB-525 gene therapy across the four dosage cohorts. Excess levels of factor VIII increase blood clotting, which is a major symptom of haemophilia. Based on the data from the study, the Safety Monitoring Committee (SMC) recommended expansion of the 3e13 vg/kg cohort.

Meanwhile, Pfizers breast cancer drug Ibrance in combination with an aromatase inhibitor or fulvestrant gained FDAs approval for the treatment of men with HR+, HER2- metastatic breast cancer.

The NYSE ARCA Pharmaceutical Index declined 1% in the last five trading sessions.

Large Cap Pharmaceuticals Industry 5YR % Return

All the stocks were in the red in the last five trading sessions, except Pfizer, which rose 1.1%. AstraZeneca declined the most (5.7%).

(See the last pharma stock roundup here: AZN Inks Cancer Deal, ABBV, NVS & Others Get Drug Approvals)

What's Next in the Pharma World?

Watch out for pipeline and regulatory updates next week.

Zacks' Top 10 Stocks for 2019

In addition to the stocks discussed above, would you like to know about our 10 finest buy-and-holds for the year?

Who wouldn't? Our annual Top 10s have beaten the market with amazing regularity. In 2018, while the market dropped -5.2%, the portfolio scored well into double-digits overall with individual stocks rising as high as +61.5%. And from 2012-2017, while the market boomed +126.3, Zacks' Top 10s reached an even more sensational +181.9%.

See Latest Stocks Today >>

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Zacks Investment Research

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Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.



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MKS Instruments (MKSI) first-quarter 2019 results are dented by lower semiconductor spending despite contribution from Electro Scientific Industries that was acquired in the quarter.

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL  April 8, 2019  Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Xilinx, Inc. XLNX, KLA-Tencor Corporation KLAC, FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation FUJIY, Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. VSH and Intel Corp. INTC

Here are highlights from Fridays Analyst Blog:

Chip Stocks on a Roll: 5 Solid Buys

Following a dreadful 2018, chipmakers are hot again on encouraging trade talks and a rebound in Chinas manufacturing activity. Adding to the optimism is industry rationalization and slew of new technological trends like Internet of Things, high-end gaming and 5G wireless. At the same time, reports of smartphone market recovery are taking chip stocks higher.

Given the bullishness, investing in solid semiconductor stocks seems like a foolproof plan.

Trade Optimism, Stronger China Economy

The Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index, the benchmark for chipmakers, took a beating last year amid rising trade tensions between the United States and China. Also, Beijings weak economy was a serious headache for chipmakers as it could dent demand for semiconductor components. But, such worries have now ebbed significantly. This year, the index outpaced the broader S&P 500 on progress in U.S.-China trade talks and better-than-expected manufacturing numbers from the worlds second-largest economy.

Both the U.S. and Chinese trade officials have begun talks to bring an end to their prolonged trade dispute. Myron Brilliant, executive vice-president of international affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, recently said that ninety percent of the deal is done, but the last 10% is the hardest part, its the trickiest part and it will require trade-offs on both sides. Nonetheless, resolving most of the differences is a reassuring sign for chipmakers as they are heavily dependent on China for revenues.

Story continues

Chinas growth concerns, by the way, have dissipated to a great extent. Chinas official Purchasing Managers Index made a stellar comeback in March, rising to a six-month high of 50.5 from 49.2 in February. Beijing took adequate steps like tax cutting to stimulate manufacturing activities.

Encouraging Prospects

The prospects of chipmakers have improved substantially this year on initiatives to improve efficiency. In the DRAM market, the number of producers has now consolidated to just three  Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix Inc. and Micron. This structural change has improved efficiency and raised profit margins.

Equipment makers such as Lam Research are also producing chips of their own design. Such chips are much in demand from aircraft manufacturers to cloud computing behemoths like Alphabet and Amazon.

From high-end gaming, emergence of Internet of Things to automation, demand for chips continues to rise. Needless to say, e-sport, a multiplayer video game for professional gamers, needs thousands of semiconductor chips for production, while chips are an essential part of crypto mining as these provide the processing power needed for decoding blockchain algorithms. As long as investors continue to be bullish on the prospects of fifth generation of wireless connectivity or 5G, it is widely anticipated that demand for chips will improve.

Taiwan Semiconductor, in the meantime, has signaled that smartphone orders are picking up in Asia. Taiwan Semiconductor will ramp up its 7 nanometer production rates due to an uptick in orders for Android devices. Thus, Taiwan Semiconductor is particularly expected to witness a strong second quarter of 2019. Others have also predicted a recovery in the second half.

To top it, NVIDIAs nearly $7 billion purchase of Israeli chip designer Mellanox helped renew investors faith on the beaten-down sector. This is Nvidias biggest deal which has also strengthened its hold in the growing data center market.

5 Solid Choices

Banking on the strength, chipmakers are positioned to gain in the near term. We have, thus, short-listed five stocks that flaunt a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy).

Xilinx, Inc.designs and develops programmable devices and associated technologies worldwide. The company currently has a Zacks Rank #2. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has risen 0.3% in the past 30 days. The companys expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 23.7% compared with the Semiconductors - Programmable Logic industrys projected rise of 22.5%.

KLA-Tencor Corporationdesigns, manufactures, and markets process control and yield management solutions for the semiconductor and related nanoelectronics industries worldwide. The company currently has a Zacks Rank #2. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has climbed 1.1% in the past 60 days. The companys expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 5.4% compared with the Semiconductor Equipment - Wafer Fabrication industrys estimated decline of 17.7%.

FUJIFILM Holdings Corporationdevelops, produces, sells, and services imaging, information, and document solutions worldwide. The company currently has a Zacks Rank #1. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has moved 1% north in the past 90 days. The companys expected earnings growth rate for the current quarter is 102.9% compared with the Semiconductor Equipment - Photomasks industrys expected rise of 91.6%. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. manufactures and supplies discrete semiconductors and passive components in the United States, Europe, and Asia. The company currently has a Zacks Rank #1. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has risen 4.3% in the past 60 days. The companys expected earnings growth rate for the current quarter is 25% compared with the Semiconductor - Discretes industrys projected rise of 21.2%.

Intel Corp.offers computing, networking, data storage, and communication solutions worldwide. The company currently has a Zacks Rank #2. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for next-year earnings has moved 1.9% up in the past 90 days. The company, which is part of the Semiconductor - General industry is expected to record earnings growth of 5.1% next year.

Zacks' Top 10 Stocks for 2019

In addition to the stocks discussed above, would you like to know about our 10 finest buy-and-holds for the year?

Who wouldn't? Our annual Top 10s have beaten the market with amazing regularity. In 2018, while the market dropped -5.2%, the portfolio scored well into double-digits overall with individual stocks rising as high as +61.5%. And from 2012-2017, while the market boomed +126.3,

Zacks' Top 10s reached an even more sensational +181.9%.

See Latest Stocks Today >>

Media Contact

Zacks Investment Research

800-767-3771 ext. 9339

support@zacks.com

https://www.zacks.com

Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in thi



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Rural Minnesota, 1971

Hippies in the Heartland I

Hippies in the Heartland II

The trip was set up by my film-making teacher at the University of Minnesota.I had nothing going on in my life since returning to the U after a year at the community college . The chance to spend a weekend in the country appealed to me. There wasnt going to be any instruction (sort of like his class), this field trip was a chance to get away from my bleak home scene. We met Saturday morning at the old art building on campus and our caravan made its way to an old homestead farm located somewhere in southern Minnesota. There was a faction trying to make a soft-core porn flick but the rest of us of us just hung out. I took some pictures but was uninspired. I was in my militant sobriety days then which probably explained a lot. Including my lack of social skills. When night fell I set up my tent beside an idyllic burbling brook where I managed to get to sleep despite the friendly mosquitoes. A while later the sounds of footsteps and the glare of a flashlight outside the tent woke me up. The local sheriff had gotten the notion that a hippie invasion was taking place and was prowling around, looking for some heads to bust. I feigned sleep and he eventually left. His visit took the damper out of the festivities; the next day things just kind of petered out and we went back to the city.The Hippie movement didnt die at Woodstock, not even at Altamont. It lingered on into the degenerate 70s in various ways, mostly as a back to nature movement, even giving rise to a new form of consumerism . It didnt require much effort: let your hair grow, get some tattered second-hand duds, pick up a nickle bag and a pack of Zig-zags and you were all set. In a way, it still exists as a default. Kicking back on a week-end with in comfortable clothes, an adult beverage of choice and, maybe, even some cannabis if the laws where you live have changed to allow it.
Career British diplomat Nicholas Kay is currently serving as NATOs senior civilian representative in Afghanistan. In an interview with Radio Free Afghanistan, he said that any agreements with the Taliban on terrorism and counterterrorism or connections with international terrorist groups will need to contain verifiable and monitorable components.

Radio Free Afghanistan: The Taliban has so far refused to engage in direct talks with the Afghan government. What does it mean then for there to be an intra-Afghan dialogue?

Nicholas Kay: An intra-Afghan dialogue means a dialogue that involves all Afghan stakeholders, and that is definitely with Taliban but also with the central role for the government of Afghanistan and other political actors and civil society and womens groups and young people, as well. What we are hoping is that there will be a very inclusive dialogue between Afghans as they chart there future and agree their terms for peace.

Radio Free Afghanistan: Will any peace deal be reached without the participation of the Afghan government?

Kay: In the end, the Afghan government will need to agree on a peace deal. The Afghan government is the sovereign, elected government of this country. But its not exclusive to the government of Afghanistan, as well, and over the last few days theres been a lot of progress in Kabul, I believe, as political leaders of all persuasions from across the spectrum are sitting together with President [Ashraf] Ghani to try to put together what will be a united Afghan delegation for eventual talks with the Taliban.

Radio Free Afghanistan: Has any decision been made on troop withdrawals from Afghanistan?

Kay: Absolutely not. No decision has been made at all. We are very clear that NATO has come together united, and we will eventually make decisions about our future presence together, as well.

Radio Free Afghanistan: Given that the group had hosted the founder of Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, in the 1990s in Afghanistan, can any Taliban promise that Afghan soil will not be used by terrorists be trusted?

Kay: Obviously, the past gives rise to a lot of doubts and a lot of suspicions. And its not just in terms of Taliban connections to Al-Qaeda but across the spectrum there is a deficit of trust in this country. Thats a challenge which will need to be addressed in the future. Any agreement on terrorism and counterterrorism, connections with international terrorist groups -- those agreements will need to contain verifiable, monitorable components.

Radio Free Afghanistan: Speaking of terrorist groups, how big a threat is the Khorasan branch of the Islamic State in Afghanistan?

Kay: Its a threat that we should take seriously and absolutely are taking seriously. Their presence at the moment is limited to parts of [small] geographic areas really. But they are persistent, and they are responsible for some atrocious high-profile terrorist attacks against civilian targets in Kabul and elsewhere, so it is a threat and its something which is needed to be taken seriously.

Radio Free Afghanistan: Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said in late March that creating an interim government in Afghanistan would, as he described, smooth out peace talks between the United States and the Taliban. Whats your take on this?

Kay: I think itd be wrong to speculate about an interim government at all. This is now a period where elections for the president [are scheduled] for September 28 this year, and its a high priority to help the Afghans arrange and organize those elections on time.

Radio Free Afghanistan: If a peace deal is not reached this year, will there still be presidential elections?

Kay: Absolutely. We are very firmly committed to pursuing both the peace process and elections, and the worst possible scenario is to have no peace and no elections. So, the elections for September are our high priority. And we do believe that, at this moment, its possible to hold those elections.

Radio Free Afghanistan: Some segments of Afghan society, such as women and youth, are concerned that their hard-won rights for nearly two decades since the fall of the Taliban regime might be compromised in a future peace deal. How will NATO address such concerns?

Kay: Youre absolutely right. The Afghanistan of 2019 is not the Afghanistan of 2001, when the Taliban were in power in Kabul. We have to remember that, even in 2001, they were not in power across the whole country. Afghanistan is transformed, and womens right and girls education are just two of the very important parts of Afghanistans transformation over the last years. The free media, the institutions, the democratically elected parliament, and government: all of these are the achievement, which we believe [should be] built on if the peace needs to be sustainable. So, we advocate for that as NATO, and we absolutely encourage and support civil society groups, womens groups to make sure that they are fully represented in any kind of intra-Afghan dialogue.

Radio Free Afghanistan: What is NATOs long-term commitments to Afghanistan?

Kay: The mission that we came on is a mission that Afghanistans territory would never again be used for international terrorists to attack our homelands. That remains the mission, and NATO is absolutely committed to that mission and to achieving it. When that mission is no longer there, when there is a sustainable peace, and there are verifiable, monitorable agreements in place over terrorism, then I would imagine that our NATO governments will sit together and decide on the future presence of NATO.

There is a commitment at the moment to a very strong enduring partnership between NATO and the Afghan people. We are committed to our task of training and advising the Afghan national defense and security forces. It's a task which we anticipate will be required for some time to come.
The United States has designated Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) a foreign terrorist organization, U.S. President Donald Trump said on April 8.



Washington will continue to increase financial pressure and raise the costs on Iran "for its support of terrorist activity," Trump said in a statement.

The United States has already blacklisted tens of entities and people for affiliations with the IRGC, but not the organization as a whole.



"This designation will be the first time that the United States has ever named a part of another government as an FTO [foreign terrorist organization]," Trump said.



"It underscores the fact that Irans actions are fundamentally different from those of other governments."



Critics have warned that such a step could open U.S. military and intelligence officials to similar actions by unfriendly countries.



On April 7, Iranian officials reacted angrily after Trump's intention was first reported by U.S. media.



IRGC commander Mohammad Ali Jafari said the U.S. military will lose the security it enjoys in the region if Washington carries 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.



"We will answer any action taken against [the IRGC] with reciprocal action," said a statement signed by 255 of the 290 Iranian parliamentarians, the state news agency IRNA reported on April 7.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Farda, Reuters, AFP, and AP
City Editor

Tom Roeder is the Gazette's City Editor. In Colorado Springs since 2003, Tom has covered the military at home and overseas and has covered statehouses in Denver and Olympia, Wash. His main job, though, is being dad to two great kids.
When Ed Longfield became superintendent of Manitou Springs School District 14 a decade ago, it had no Advanced Placement classes, robotics, STEM programs, ballet lessons or orchestra instruction.

Now, as Longfield announces he will retire at the end of this school year, D-14 provides those opportunities and more.

Thats proved to be a big draw. Nearly half of Manitou Springs 1,500 students live outside district boundaries but choose to attend D-14 schools, he says.

But Longfield doesnt take credit for the improvements; he says he merely provided the impetus for what he considers his greatest accomplishment.

Im most proud of helping staff feel free to innovate and take some educational risks for kids to create a culture that allows them to be inspirational for children, he said. Im proud of creating a place where they felt big enough to dream big and go for it.

Longfield, who grew up in Monument and graduated from Lewis-Palmer School District 38, also took chances. The district weathered $13 million in state cuts not by laying off teachers and cutting programs, but by scaling back administration and adding programs.

We had to go on the offense rather than retract, he said. We were forward-thinking and inspired our people to do more instead of being afraid. Whatever people came up with, I was pretty much saying, Yes, lets try it.

The strategy worked.

Enrollment grew by 90 students in 2009-10 because of the new programs , and success bred success, Longfield said.

Manitou Springs got behind the district by passing a $1.8 million mill levy override in 2015. So the district moved compensation for staff from the bottom third of area districts to the top third, he said, and has one of the regions highest teacher starting salaries at $41,120.

D-14 became first in the region to provide students with iPads for school work. It won an award last year for its innovative after-school arts programs and received Gov. John Hickenloopers Platinum Award for Healthy Schools in 2016-17.

And for the first time, D-14 received the states Accredited with Distinction ranking last year, indicating high academic achievement and progress.

Because of the choice law in Colorado, we considered this a business; its really a competition for kids and amazing teachers to come to our district, and they have, Longfield said. We have 235 employees, and every one is a true gem. They work hard and do unbelievable things for our kids.

Longfield is the latest Pikes Peak region superintendent stepping down in June. Academy School District 20 Superintendent Mark Hatchell, Lewis-Palmer School District 38 Superintendent Karen Brofft and Carol Hilty, superintendent for the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind, also are retiring.

After 28 years in education, Longfield said, its time for him to travel with his wife, Elizabeth, serve the poor through Christian missionary work and possibly write a book.

Throughout his leadership, Longfield has called himself the head learner, instead of the superintendent.

What were trying to model is that learning happens every second of every day, no matter if youre in school or out of school. No matter if youre a 30-year veteran, the leader of a district should always be growing and innovating and pressing forward.

Contact the writer: 719-476-1656.
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Production, sale of hooch go unchecked in Rautahat

The District Police Office (DPO) in Rautahat has been seizing and destroying illegally produced hooch for the past one and a half decades, but the drive has done little to curb the production and demand for homemade liquor in the district.
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.
Trustees vote unanimously to make Monument a 'Second Amendment Preservation Town': Police Chief Jacob Shirk says Colorado red flag gun bill will be difficult to enforce
Ruling NCP leaders reaching out to Chand party leaders for talks

The KP Sharma Oli government, which has taken tough stance against the Netra Bikram Chand-led Communist Party of Nepal, is also reaching out to top leaders of the banned outfit in an attempt to bring them to mainstream politics, according to leaders of the ruling Nepal Community Party.
Spain Gets a Crash Course in a Former Colonys Art



By Maya Jaggi





The Marriages of Martin de Loyola to Beatriz Nusta and Juan de Borja to Lorenza Nusta de Loyola, is the first painting from colonial Latin America to be displayed at the Prado Museum in Madrid.CreditCreditFundacion Pedro y Angelica de Osma Gildemeister/Lima, Museo Pedro de Osma





MADRID  A painting from Peru on loan to the Prado Museum here captures an extraordinary moment in Spains colonization of the Americas. The anonymous 18th-century canvas portrays the wedding of an Inca princess and a conquistador, witnessed by Inca royals in gold regalia, and black-cloaked Spanish clerics.



Behind the apparent harmony lies a tale of defeat and devastation. Yet the union the painting depicts also signals the birth of a mixed culture, whose art is only now receiving its due.



This is the first time were showing a painting from colonial America, Miguel Falomir, the Prados director, said in a telephone interview. The Prado owns between 15 and 20 paintings made in Spains former colonies, he said, but they are kept by the ethnographic Museum of the Americas. They have never been shown alongside European old masters.



For centuries, weve considered this art as second-class, Mr. Falomir said. That, thank God, has changed.

The Marriages of Martin de Loyola to Beatriz Nusta and Juan de Borja to Lorenza Nusta de Loyola, an oil painting of the Cusco school of art, was made during the Viceroyalty of Peru. Starting in 1542, the viceroys ruled large stretches of South America in the name of the Spanish king for almost three centuries, until Peru declared independence in 1821.



It was a time of feudal exploitation and forced religious conversion, but also of cultural flourishing. Local artists learned to paint in styles popular in Europe, introducing Peruvian landscapes, maize, guinea pigs and parrots into biblical scenes, and blending Renaissance, baroque and Incan symbols.



The main wedding, in the foreground of the painting, is between the niece of the last Inca rebel, Tupac Amaru, and the Spanish captain who defeated him. Their marriage in 1572 followed her uncles execution in Cusco, the Spanish-occupied Inca capital. The second wedding, tucked in a corner, shows the couples daughter marrying in Spain almost 40 years later, suggesting a distortion of time and space.



The painting, which combines European and Amerindian perspectives, is on loan to the Prado from the Pedro de Osma Museum in Lima, Peru, through April 28. Its display in Spains national museum during the institutions 200th anniversary year suggests an important shift in the way Latin American colonial art is seen in Spain.



And it has coincided with a call by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of Mexico for an apology from the King of Spain and the Pope, for atrocities against indigenous peoples during the Spanish conquest of Latin America. The headline-grabbing move, rejected by the Spanish government, shows that imperial history remains bitterly divisive, on both sides of the Atlantic.



But art could help re-examine the conquests 500-year legacy with newfound respect, instead of rancor or political posturing.









Pedro Pablo Alayza, the director of the Pedro de Osma Museum in Lima, said by phone that art is of course a way to understand what happened in the colonial period.



Colonial history is traumatic, he said. But we cant go ahead into the future if we dont think again about our past.



The Prado is one of 12 major museums and galleries in Spain that opened shows of Peruvian art in February, in parallel with ARCOmadrid, the annual art fair, where Peru was guest country. These exhibitions provide what Fietta Jarque, their coordinator, called a crash course in Peruvian art.





Amauta, a shortlived but influential journal founded in the 1920s, fostered a spirit of openness and exchange between Latin Americas indigenous and Hispanic cultures.CreditJose Sabogal/Museo de Arte de Lima, Peru, via Reina Sofia, Madrid





Spanish audiences will rediscover a chapter that is missing from their own history, she added.



In Spanish schools they barely learn about three centuries of common culture, said Ms. Jarque, a Peruvian critic and curator who lives in Spain. She said a sense of guilt for the conquest was partly to blame.

The traces and techniques of pre-Columbian art were not wiped out by Spanish rule and remain raw material for Peruvian artists, according to Sharon Lerner, the contemporary art curator at the Lima Museum of Art.



For instance, the gigantic pre-Incan land drawings and ceramic designs explored in Nasca, an exhibit at the Telefonica Foundation through May 19, helped inspire the modernist artists on show through May 27 in The Avant-Garde Networks of Amauta, at the Reina Sofia museum.



That exhibition shows how the Latin American artists and intellectuals of Amauta, a short-lived but influential journal founded in Peru in the 1920s, opened up to Amerindian culture.



But Sandra Gamarra, an artist from Peru, said in a telephone interview that peoples minds were still shaped by past thinking.



The colonial system is still alive in Peru, she said. The idea of race, of different levels of humanity, is in our culture. We learn to see through categories, and through art.



Ms. Gamarras sepia-like family portraits, which were on show at the ARCOmadrid art fair, are painted in iron oxide and modeled on colonial-era paintings depicting the offspring of interracial unions. In those so-called caste paintings, people were classified: criollo (American-born to European parents), mestizo (Spanish and Amerindian), mulato (Spanish and African), and so on, showing Spanish colonial society as acutely race-conscious, yet rife with miscegenation.





Cosmovision Aimeni by Santiago Yahuarcani, is on show in the Amazonias exhibition at the Matadero Madrid.Creditvia Matadero Madrid





A legacy of stratification lives on in Peru. Mr. Alayza, of the Pedro de Osma Museum, said that diversity is both a source of the countrys richness and its problems with racism.



But, he added, to understand each other is the main goal.



Partly to this end, the Peruvian Culture Ministry has tentatively begun supporting contemporary art. The Madrid shows are driven by independent curators, but the government of Peru is supporting the exhibitions as part of a cultural program in the lead-up to the 200th anniversary of the countrys independence, in 2021.



Shows like Amazonias, an exhibition at Matadero Madrid through May 5, which places video installations next to hallucinogenic paintings evoking the spirit world, reflect how attitudes in Peru are changing.



Felix Lossio, an official with the Peruvian Culture Ministry, said that only a few years ago, Amazonian artists whose mother tongue is not Spanish sharing space with urban artists from Lima would have been unthinkable.



We wouldnt have recognized this as contemporary art, but exotic craft, he said.



Like the painting of the Inca princess and the conquistador, which the Prado now appreciates for its artistic value, the complex aesthetics of Perus indigenous art are gaining admirers.



Despite the cataclysm of conquest, that world, and its art, never entirely vanished.
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The province 3 government has introduced a bill to form a health science academy in the federal unit.
This San Francisco purveyor of graffiti has it right.When times are bleak -- when country and planet sink under the barely restrained sway of greed, raw power, and fear -- it's time to restate what matters. I write here to preserve and kindle hope for a national and global turn toward multi-racial, economically egalitarian, gender non-constricting, woman affirming, and peace choosing democracy that preserves the habitability of earth for all. There's a big order -- but what else is there to do but struggle for this? Not much.Topics range from the minuscule to the transcendent to the global, from dire to delightful. I am not an optimist, but I refuse to allow myself to wallow within the easy bias that everything is going to always be awful. Good also happens; love lives too.I've been yammering here about activism, politics, history, racism and other occasional horrors and pleasures since 2005.I intend to continue as long as the opportunity exists. In this time, that means activism and chronicling resistance. Perhaps it always has, one way and another.My other internet project: 596 Precincts-Walking San Francisco
The key is to let nature lead the way, says Jean-Eric Paquet, the European Commission's Director General for Research and Innovation
From making major deals to advancing future innovators, here are three Houston leaders to know this week. Courtesy photos
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The inventor of the world wide web wants to fix what he started and save your data.

Speaking at the Oktane19 conference in San Francisco, Sir Tim Berners-Lee  who created the web in 1989  discussed his latest project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Solid.

The Solid project is about turning the way the web works upside-down, Berners-Lee said. Its about separating the apps from the data.

Solid  which is derived from social linked data  gives users the ability to select where their data resides and who is able to access it.

By separating data from apps, users can avoid being locked in by specific vendors and enjoy more control over their data.

It has been the recent prevalence of data misuse that has created the need for something like Solid, Berners-Lee said, pointing to one notable example.

People didnt think about this very much until Cambridge Analytica, he said.

Maybe five to ten percent of people of the people out there on the street would have really thought about losing their privacy, and then when Cambridge Analytica happened that went up by a huge amount.

Just what are people worried about when it comes to their data and privacy?

Its not the risk that the photograph you took will end up being shown to the wrong person and end up on the front page of The New York Times, he suggested.

Privacy risk is more subtle  its realising that all of this user-generated data that I have typed in is being used to build profiles, not just of me but of everyone like me.

Living in a Fake News world

He also touched on some notable internet-enabled issues that have arisen in previous years, in particular the US Presidential Election of 2016 and the advent of fake news.

The moment you drive people by ad funding, then youll get the phenomenon like during the Trump campaign, where kids from Macedonia were putting up websites, tweeting stuff pointing to the website and getting funded.

In Macedonia theres not a lot for kids to do, so one of the things they do is just get ad revenue from Google ads.

Google ads would reward them every time they found something that people would click on  and they gradually learned to put in things about [Donald] Trump and Hilary [Clinton].

Sir Berners-Lee also made it quite clear this wasnt how he envisioned the web being used.

What he pictured was a hub of collaboration, which he is now hoping will one day be restored.

One of the things Id like to see come from the Solid world is really powerful collaboration, he said.

Twenty-five years ago I was hoping that the web would produce that. With the Solid project well be able to get it back to being a very collaborative medium.
Tools of impunity and political control

The recent appointments of five justices to the Supreme Court and 18 judges to the High Court display the extent to which our democratic system has broken down.
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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.

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Jordana Greenberg poses with her band Harpeth RisingJordana Greenberg, violinist in the folk band Harpeth Rising and Paoli, Indiana native, says everyone needs hometown heroes, people who inspire community members to achieve great things.

"Everybody should be able to believe that anything is possible for them, no matter where you are from," Greenberg said.

Through her work as the producer of Paoli Fest, an annual free music, art and film festival in Paoli Indiana, Greenberg found a hero in Paoli-born Margaret Hamilton, the computer scientist credited with writing the code for software used in the Apollo Space Program. Greenberg said many people are not aware that Hamilton hails from Paoli.

"I think it would have meant a lot to me as a young woman growing up in Paoli to know about her," Greenberg said. "Margaret Hamilton is proof that you can be from the smallest town in Southern Indiana and that the sky is not the limit."

Jordana Greenberg poses with her band Harpeth Rising (Photo: Daniel Motta)

In an effort to celebrate the history of Paoli and the health of the community, Greenberg organized an arts event called the HeARTland Hustle which will take place at 9am on Saturday, April 13 at Marea Radcliff Park. The event involves a five mile run/walk that will wind through Paoli and through outdoor works of art created specifically for the event.

"One of the most exciting things that is happening is that we are going to be unveiling a mural inspired by the life and work of Margaret Hamilton, which is being designed and created by an artist from New York named Thomas Gleisner," Greenberg said. "We will have a mural reveal ceremony on the evening of Friday, April 12th and then the route the next day for the HeARTland Hustle passes by that artwork."

During the mural reveal, Cincinnati-based songwriter Clay Gaddis will perform Paoli, a song he wrote for last year's Paoli Fest about the town, and about Margaret Hamilton.

"She grew up in a landlocked town, but the wind in her sails would set her free," Gaddis sings in Paoli, "Dear Margaret I'm listening."

In addition to celebrating the history of Paoli, the HeARTland Hustle will serve as a fundraiser for the non-profit groups Let Music Speak and Black Vulture Project . Let Music Speak, founded by Greenberg, promotes community connections and empowers youth through arts programing. Let Music Speak also produces Paoli Fest.

Black Vulture Project is an interdisciplinary, community arts project that hosted last year's Paoli Fest on the grounds of a 1910 warehouse that is being renovated.

Audience members listen to a 2018 Paoli Fest performance (Photo courtesy of Paoli Fest)

"It works to develop programming within the community of Paoli to bring the arts as a medium for social and economic development in rural Indiana," said Tim Schmidt, one of the founders of the project. "We've purchased three historic properties in Paoli and by turning them into cultural facilities rather than industrial facilities, we think we can attract tourists to stop in Paoli and spend money."

Schmidt said one of his favorite things about hosting art events through Black Vulture is seeing who attends.

"It seems like we are always surprised about who comes, weather it is people form the community that you just wouldn't image, like someone with different political views than you or people from out of town," Schmidt said. "It's always exciting when people from out of town show up; it shows that there is value in this place that we live."

Greenberg said one of the reasons she organizes arts events in Paoli is to show a side of the town that people do not always get to see. The HeARTland Hustle will give people a chance to enjoy both the arts and nature found in Paoli.

"It's an opportunity to see the identity of this town," Greenberg said. "Many of the things that are central to the identity of Paoli are music and an appreciation of the natural beauty of the area."
Now, the Pentagons latest casualty estimate finds that at least 608 American deaths in Iraq stemmed from Iranian activities between 2003 and 2011. This constitutes 17 percent of all US service members killed in Iraq during that period. In commenting upon the revised figures, the US State Departments special envoy for Iran, Brian Hook, emphasized that thousands of Iraqi military personnel and civilians were also killed by Iranian proxy forces, chiefly Shiite militias that were organized according to what has been described as the Hezbollah model.

Many such militias remain active in Iraq following the fight against ISIL forces in that country, and some have been reported to swear allegiance to the Iranian supreme leader, over and above the government of Iraq. This situation has naturally fostered resentment of the Iranian presence among some powerful Iraqi figures. But at the same time, Iran-backed paramilitaries have successfully fielded candidates for the national parliament in recent years, thus helping to solidify Iraqs position as a battleground for the competing influences of the Islamic Republic and the United States.

This fact was also underscored in Hooks commentary during a briefing on Tuesday, wherein he said the US was continuing to exert pressure on Iran through sanctions and other measures, with the specific goal of penalizing it for behaving as an outlaw expansionist regime. Yet that behavior is already entrenched, not just in Iraq but also in other parts of the region. In Syria, similar Iran-backed paramilitaries, along with the IRGCs Quds Force, have helped to preserve the rule of Bashar al-Assad during that countrys eight-year civil war. Meanwhile, the Iranians helped to instigate a civil war in Yemen, via the IRGC-backed Houthi rebel group.

The local consequences of these actions have been widely reported in their own right, but the revised Iraq War casualty numbers may help to underline the potential consequences for Western nationals, as well. Although Iranian forces have apparently not sought to engage US military advisers in Syria, the Houthi did fire Iranian-supplied missiles at US naval vessels in 2016. Although the attacks proved unsuccessful, they seemingly pointed to Irans persistent willingness to use asymmetrical warfare tactics such as the use of terrorist proxies to strike at Western assets throughout the world.

This phenomenon was further underlined in 2018 when it was reported that agents of the Islamic Republic had planned several terror attacks on European soil. In March of that year, two operatives were arrested for plotting against a Albanian compound that houses roughly 3,000 members of the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran. The residents had previously been relocated to the Balkan nation from Iraq, where they had resided first at the self-built community of Camp Ashraf and then at the former US military base, Camp Liberty, before being relocated under an agreement with the US, Iraq, and the United Nations.

Prior to the completion of this evacuation, over 100 Ashrafis were killed in direct attacks and from the effects of a blockade of medicine and essential services carried out in part by the same Iran-backed militant groups that have been deemed responsible for over 600 American deaths.

In June of 2018, the PMOI was targeted in another plot, even much closer to the heart of Europe. Under directions from an Iranian diplomat based in Austria, two would-be bombers attempted to carry explosives to the annual Iran Freedom rally outside Paris, but were captured at the Belgian border. The targeted event attracted an estimated 100,000 Iranian expatriates from around the world, plus hundreds political dignitaries and foreign policy experts. It is therefore possible that high-profile American and European figures would have been among the dead if the attack had been successful.

While these and the other thwarted terror plots reportedly involved Iranian nationals and ethnic Iranians only, a more recent incident highlights the potential for Irans presence in Iraq to function as a separate pipeline for terrorist activity targeting the West. On Tuesday, The Media Line reported that Swedish police had arrested an Iraqi journalist for spying on an Iranian opposition group at the behest of the government in Tehran. The group in question is either the same as or closely affiliated with a group that was the focus of Iranian assassination plots in Denmark in October.

Although The Media Line stops short of directly connecting the Iraqi journalist to terrorist planning, it bears mentioning that such planning is a known feature of other Iranian espionage activities. In August of last year, a criminal complaint was filed in a US district court for two Iranian operatives who had been observed spying on PMOI activists and Jewish groups, and relaying information back to Iran. The FBI special agent who authored the complaint explicitly stated that the information in question appeared tailored toward setting the stage for subsequent terror attacks.

With the exception of individual assassinations in the Netherlands and elsewhere, traditionally Iranian terror attacks have tended to prove unsuccessful in recent years. However, the regime may have a better track record with other tactics of asymmetrical warfare, which have become increasingly prominent features of its campaigns against the West.

Illustrating this, Voice of America News reported on Thursday that a hacking collective associated with the IRGC carried out at least two attacks on various British institutions in recent years and gained access to sensitive information. Similar reports have also emerged concerning other targets of Iranian aggression, and cyber security experts have repeatedly warned of the rising levels of sophistication and organization in illicit online activities connected to the Iranian regime.

The VOA News report quoted one expert as saying that it is possible Iran is merely testing its capabilities and hedging against future military threats, but it is also possible that recent breaches are aimed at gathering intelligence to set the stage for other, more dangerous activities.
Monday, April 08, 2019 The Plame Game: A Flame Out Or A Real Shot At The Northern Seat? We Weigh The Case, Plus: The Year Was 1982 Valerie Plame Can an Anglo or half-Anglo carpetbagger become the congressional representative from the northern congressional district of New Mexico, populated by families that trace their roots back hundreds of years and Native Americans who trace theirs back a thousand?



Well, ask



Now comes outed CIA spy



With this



Plame first floated a possible candidacy for the Senate seat but is backing off that as Lujan is the heavy favorite to take the Dem nod.



Plame, 55, is a classic high-rent liberal, the kind that nestle into the multi-million dollar homes on Santa Fe's east side, resting securely in the knowledge that their Volvos are safe for another night. And they vote. They were instrumental in electing Alan Webber, another NM outsider, as Santa Fe Mayor a year ago.



Plame's task would not be as easy, running as she is in one of the most sprawling and ethnically diverse districts in the USA. But her obvious hole card is already showing. The likelihood of a multitude of Hispanic candidates running for the seat and perhaps splitting that vote is high and getting higher.



Already two top possible Hispanic female contenders have emerged--Renee Villarreal of the Santa Fe City Council and Public Regulation Commissioner Valerie Espinoza. Plame is so far the sole prominent Anglo woman being mentioned as a possible contender while Villarreal and Espinoza already appear poised to split votes. Then there is the long parade of Hispanic male candidates starting to form that could further the vote splitting.



Ethnicity isn't the key factor in the June 2020 primary--qualifications are--but it's hard to see Plame avoiding a flame out if she doesn't get a demographic boost that would strengthen her base Santa Fe vote.



WHAT'S THE PATH?



The author of a book about the CIA leak scandal and the co-author of



But the pessimism about her having no real path to victory has subsided somewhat. Democrats have been electing women left and right and while there appears to be a push by the DC Dems for a Hispanic woman for the seat, Plame is halfway there.



Celebrity, even if fading, is a strong lure for voters in this hyper-media age. And it can help raise money on-line as we have seen from the presidential candidates. And it can attract big donors off line.



The bottom lines? Plame needs several Hispanic rivals and deep pockets to pull off what Richardson and Udall did and deliver the seat to an outsider. That it has been done before is of more than passing interest.



THE YEAR WAS 1982







The district was new and four brand name Democratic candidates emerged. Richardson was first among them, having in 1980 narrowly lost a spirited campaign against Republican Congressman Manuel Lujan, Jr, whose district then included ABQ and the entire north. When the redistricting took hold in '82 ABQ became the centerpiece of a new district and the north the centerpiece of what would be the state's third congressional district.



Richardson was joined in the primary by then Lt. Governor Roberto Mondragon, District Court Judge George Perez and Tom Udall, a 34 year old political novice but hailing from a famous Arizona political family.



It was not a cakewalk for Richardson who appealed to Santa Fe Anglo liberals, Hispanics and Native Americans. Thanks in large measure to Mondragon and Perez splitting the Hispanic vote newcomer Richardson took the prize, capturing 36 percent of the vote to Mondragon's 31. Perez received 17 percent and Udall got 14 percent.



Richardson went on to become one of the more accomplished politicians in state history. Mondragon never won another race after finishing his second term as lieutenant governor in 1982 but today, at 78, he is beloved in the north for his efforts to preserve Hispanic culture. George Perez of Bernalillo continued his legal career and retired. And Tom Udall learned from that 1982 defeat, eventually becoming the state's senior Senator in DC from which he will retire at the end of next year.



IN MY TIME







He was a close friend of Jeff Bingaman. and that night Jeff made history when he defeated GOP US Senator Harrison "Jack" Schmitt.



It wasn't very late in the evening when it became clear Bingaman would win. Glancing over at Francke he stunned me, saying that he had the Senator-elect on the phone from his ABQ hotel room and he was ready for an interview. I believe it was the very first one he gave that night--to his close friend Michael, and to my benefit.



That night was the last time New Mexicans would hear of the defeat of an incumbent US Senator. It hasn't happened since.



The year was 1982. I was there. And that's how I remember it.



This is the home of New Mexico politics.







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( c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2019 Can an Anglo or half-Anglo carpetbagger become the congressional representative from the northern congressional district of New Mexico, populated by families that trace their roots back hundreds of years and Native Americans who trace theirs back a thousand?Well, ask Tom Udall of Arizona who moved to New Mexico to go to UNM's law school in 1975 but eventually (in 1998) landed the northern seat. Or Bill Richardson (half Anglo) who came to the state in 1978 and four short years later found himself as the first representative in the then newly created northern congressional district.Now comes outed CIA spy Valerie Plame of Santa Fe with book smarts and movie star looks who wants to follow in their paths. Made famous by a 2003 CIA leak scandal that outed her as an intelligence operative and that made her a heroine of the left, Plame and her then husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson , moved to Santa Fe in 2006 to escape the whirl of publicity.With this fresh AP write-up that went national, she seems to be inching closer to running for the Democratic nomination for the US House seat being vacated by Rep. Ben Ray Lujan who is running for the senate seat that Senator Udall is retiring from next year.Plame first floated a possible candidacy for the Senate seat but is backing off that as Lujan is the heavy favorite to take the Dem nod.Plame, 55, is a classic high-rent liberal, the kind that nestle into the multi-million dollar homes on Santa Fe's east side, resting securely in the knowledge that their Volvos are safe for another night. And they vote. They were instrumental in electing Alan Webber, another NM outsider, as Santa Fe Mayor a year ago.Plame's task would not be as easy, running as she is in one of the most sprawling and ethnically diverse districts in the USA. But her obvious hole card is already showing. The likelihood of a multitude of Hispanic candidates running for the seat and perhaps splitting that vote is high and getting higher.Already two top possible Hispanic female contenders have emerged--Renee Villarreal of the Santa Fe City Council and Public Regulation Commissioner Valerie Espinoza. Plame is so far the sole prominent Anglo woman being mentioned as a possible contender while Villarreal and Espinoza already appear poised to split votes. Then there is the long parade of Hispanic male candidates starting to form that could further the vote splitting.Ethnicity isn't the key factor in the June 2020 primary--qualifications are--but it's hard to see Plame avoiding a flame out if she doesn't get a demographic boost that would strengthen her base Santa Fe vote.The author of a book about the CIA leak scandal and the co-author of two spy novels , Plame has kept her name in play on the national circuit, but skeptics say her fame is fading and that Plame is only toying with the idea of a congressional run to regain her stature on the speaking circuit. They say they will believe she is in only when she is in.But the pessimism about her having no real path to victory has subsided somewhat. Democrats have been electing women left and right and while there appears to be a push by the DC Dems for a Hispanic woman for the seat, Plame is halfway there.Celebrity, even if fading, is a strong lure for voters in this hyper-media age. And it can help raise money on-line as we have seen from the presidential candidates. And it can attract big donors off line.The bottom lines? Plame needs several Hispanic rivals and deep pockets to pull off what Richardson and Udall did and deliver the seat to an outsider. That it has been done before is of more than passing interest. The 1982 primary that Bill Richardson won and that catapulted him into the Congress in that November's election was one of the more interesting in state history.The district was new and four brand name Democratic candidates emerged. Richardson was first among them, having in 1980 narrowly lost a spirited campaign against Republican Congressman Manuel Lujan, Jr, whose district then included ABQ and the entire north. When the redistricting took hold in '82 ABQ became the centerpiece of a new district and the north the centerpiece of what would be the state's third congressional district.Richardson was joined in the primary by then Lt. Governor Roberto Mondragon, District Court Judge George Perez and Tom Udall, a 34 year old political novice but hailing from a famous Arizona political family.It was not a cakewalk for Richardson who appealed to Santa Fe Anglo liberals, Hispanics and Native Americans. Thanks in large measure to Mondragon and Perez splitting the Hispanic vote newcomer Richardson took the prize, capturing 36 percent of the vote to Mondragon's 31. Perez received 17 percent and Udall got 14 percent.Richardson went on to become one of the more accomplished politicians in state history. Mondragon never won another race after finishing his second term as lieutenant governor in 1982 but today, at 78, he is beloved in the north for his efforts to preserve Hispanic culture. George Perez of Bernalillo continued his legal career and retired. And Tom Udall learned from that 1982 defeat, eventually becoming the state's senior Senator in DC from which he will retire at the end of next year.I was living in Santa Fe in 1982 and found myself in November broadcasting the Election Night returns on radio station KAFE-AM 810 (now KSWV) with my guest expert, the late District Court Judge and NM Secretary of Corrections Michael Francke He was a close friend of Jeff Bingaman. and that night Jeff made history when he defeated GOP US Senator Harrison "Jack" Schmitt.It wasn't very late in the evening when it became clear Bingaman would win. Glancing over at Francke he stunned me, saying that he had the Senator-elect on the phone from his ABQ hotel room and he was ready for an interview. I believe it was the very first one he gave that night--to his close friend Michael, and to my benefit.That night was the last time New Mexicans would hear of the defeat of an incumbent US Senator. It hasn't happened since.The year was 1982. I was there. And that's how I remember it.This is the home of New Mexico politics. E-mail your news and comments. (jmonahan@ix.netcom.com) Links HOME

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Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham

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- Xian Gaza went viral on social media once again for claiming that he left the Philippines even if he was facing three warrants of arrest

- He narrated on social media how he allegedly sneaked out of the country

- However, the Bureau of Immigration, Department of Justice, and Philippine National Police have spoken regarding the controversy

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Businessman Christian Xian Gaza, who went viral for putting up a billboard to ask actress Erich Gonzales on a date, has buzzed the Internet once again.

KAMI learned that the businessman shared on social media his alleged escape from the Philippines with three warrants of arrest.

A THREAD: "PAANO LUMABAS NG BANSANG PILIPINAS NG MAY TATLONG WARRANTS OF ARREST AT LIMANG TAONG SENTENSIYA, he wrote.

However, he noted that his alleged escape happened on September 30, 2018.

Gaza shared that he booked three different flights going to Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taipei. The businessman checked-in his two decoy flights, and then went to his Hong Kong flight the last minute before boarding.

Even though the immigration officer warned Gaza that there was a red flag with his name and called the Philippine National Police, the businessman claimed that he was still able to sneak into the aircraft.

I chose the latter. New identity, new citizenship, new passport, new life. Thank you for the 25 years of memories my dear beloved Philippines, he said.

Here is the narration of his alleged escape:

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Gaza also made a follow-up post on how the authorities would handle his case. He said that as the authorities search for him, has already moved to a different country by that time and with a different identity.

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In a report by the ABS-CBN News (author Mike Navallo), the Department of Justice (DOJ) has been looking into the social media post of Gaza. They added that they asked the Bureau of Immigration to investigate the case.

As reported by the GMA News (author Anna Felicia Bajo), the Bureau of Immigration (BI) dismissed the claim of Gaza in his post.

His story sounds like it was taken straight out of an action movie. He said it to himself, his story is based on what happened, but sadly its not what actually happened," BI spokesperson Dana Sandoval said.

"The story is preposterous, similar to other claims he made in the past. If you know regular airport procedures, his story sounds silly," she added.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) said that they are still investigating the post of Gaza. They also urge the public to let them know if they have any information about him to arrest the businessman immediately.

Gaza was arrested in April 2018 over an investment scam, or for violating the Anti-Bouncing Checks Law.

Enjoyed reading our story? Download KAMI's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Filipino news!

Just ahead of Last Fool Show release, movie stars Arci Munoz and JM de Guzman answer tricky questions from HumanMeter. These two stars were extremely honest with their answers! Check out all of our exciting videos  on KAMI HumanMeter YouTube channel!

Source: Kami.com.ph
- Kris Aquino went to Japan with her sons and her kasambahay Bincai

- She uploaded photos of Bincai resting on a bed beside Kris, with both Josh and Bimby in the same room with them

- Netizens praised Kris for allowing her kasambahay to sleep beside her

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Kris Aquino showed on social media how humble and down to earth she is.

KAMI learned that the actress-host shared photos of her vacation in Japan with her sons Josh and Bimby and her kasambahay Bincai.

The photos show Bincai resting on a bed beside Kris, with both of their beds on the floor. Meanwhile, Josh and Bimby rested on the regular beds that are elevated from the floor.

Perfect bedroom setup for us, Kris wrote.

Swipe to the left to see the other photo on Kris viral IG post:

Many netizens were impressed that Kris allows her kasambahay to sleep beside her in the same room with her beloved children:

Anu kaya ang feeling ni bincai everytime kasama ka nya sa pagtulog madame..

Ang nanay nga naman. Inuuna talaga comfort & well being ng mga anak kesa sarili nya. Mga anak nasa kama. Ang nanay nasa futon

I love how you treated ate Bincai as if shes not your servant, and thats why I really like you with how generous you are

Bincai talaga belongs to the family

More family bonding when sleeping together with your sons.. bincai is so lucky

super down to earth ka ms kris!! Kaya tlgang u deserve everything in this world!

Even veteran actor John Arcilla praised Kris for being down to earth:

Kaka-amaze ka @krisaquino dko na-imagine na you can do that. Mahiga sa matress on the floor just to be with the people that u love. God bless u always

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KAMI previously reported about a viral video of Kris and Bimby shopping together in Japan.

Kris Aquino is known as the Queen of All Media due to her success as a movie star, TV actress, talk show host, brand endorser, and social media celebrity. Her son Bimby is her child with ex-husband James Yap. Her older son, Josh, is Kris child with former partner Philip Salvador.

POPULAR: Read more news about Kris Aquino!

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What is the Tagalog of bag? We took to the streets to ask ordinary citizens some tricky and hilarious trivia questions. The answers we got are even more hilarious! Check out all of our exciting videos  on KAMI HumanMeter YouTube channel!

Source: Kami.com.ph
- The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism questioned the growing wealth of the Duterte family

- However, President Rodrigo Duterte slammed the PCIJ and defended their wealth

- He added that they do not get money from the taxpayers money

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President Rodrigo Duterte criticized the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) over their report questioning the growing wealth of his family, including Paolo and Sara Duterte, even though their salary from public service is not that big.

KAMI learned that for the President, their earnings outside the government service is none of your business, while not dropping any name or organization.

What we earn outside (of government service) is none of your business actually, the President said, as reported by the Inquirer (author Nestor P. Burgos Jr.).

During the speech of President Duterte at the 25th National Convention of the National Federation of Motorcycle Clubs of the Philippines, the chief executive threw strong words against investigative journalism.

Makita mo yung mga utak ng investigative journalists. Pera-pera lang yon, he said.

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As reported by the ABS-CBN News (reporter Vivienne Gulla), the PCIJ claimed that the Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth of the Duterte family showed a tripled increase of their wealth from 2007 to 2017. The claim added that there was still undeclared wealth or properties in the Presidents SALN.

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"'Yong mag-advertise kami sa pangalan namin, well, there's nothing wrong as long as you do not practice and you do not help people get something from government that is illegal," he said.

"'Yan ang tingnan nila, hindi 'yang mga law office namin and what happened to our business partnership, the President added.

However, PCIJ said that it is the right of every Filipino to know the SALN of public officials.

POPULAR: Read more news about President Rodrigo Duterte!

Enjoyed reading our story? Download KAMI's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Filipino news!

Just ahead of Last Fool Show release, movie stars Arci Munoz and JM de Guzman answer tricky questions from HumanMeter. These two stars were extremely honest with their answers! Check out all of our exciting videos  on KAMI HumanMeter YouTube channel!

Source: Kami.com.ph
- Otso Diretso candidate Samira Gutoc warned President Rodrigo Duterte that not fully declaring his wealth is an impeachable offense

- She noted that the same case happened with former Chief Justice Renato Corona

- Gutoc also reminded the President that all public officials should be transparent and be truthful to their SALN

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Otso Diretso candidate and former member of the Bangsamoro Transition Committee, Samira Gutoc, has warned President Rodrigo Duterte about him not fully disclosing his wealth in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN).

KAMI learned that Gutoc insisted all public officials are required to be transparent with their wealth under the Philippine Constitution, as reported by the Inquirer (author Gabriel Pabico Lalu).

Failure to declare a public officials true wealth is a culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust, she said.

It is provided for in Art. XI, Section 17 of the 1987 Constitution that a public officer or employee shall, upon assumption of office and as often thereafter as may be required by law, submit a declaration under oath of his assets, liabilities, and net worth, Gutoc added.

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The senatorial aspirant noted that the same case already happened to former Chief Justice Renato Corona who was impeached for not declaring his dollar accounts in his SALN.

As previously reported by KAMI, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) released a report claiming that President Duterte, along with his children Sara and Paolo, have undeclared wealth that could explain the sudden increase in their riches.

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The President said that they are not doing anything illegal and they do not touch the taxpayers money.

POPULAR: Read more news about President Rodrigo Duterte!

Enjoyed reading our story? Download KAMI's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Filipino news!

Just ahead of Last Fool Show release, movie stars Arci Munoz and JM de Guzman answer tricky questions from HumanMeter. These two stars were extremely honest with their answers! Check out all of our exciting videos  on KAMI HumanMeter YouTube channel!

Source: Kami.com.ph
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White supremacist propaganda has been showing up at an alarming rate throughout Southern California, on college and high school campuses and in communities, according to experts, who say much of it is part of hate groups' efforts to find new members.

"There's been a major recruiting effort in the white supremacy, white nationalist movement over the past few years, especially in California," said Lowell Smith, a former terrorism liaison officer for the Orange County Probation Department.

Smith and other experts say California, with its increasingly diverse population and left-of-center politics, has become a breeding ground for hate groups reaching out to young people, particularly disaffected young men and boys who might be susceptible to fears stoked by anti-immigrant rhetoric.

But unlike the criminal skinheads that Smith once supervised as a probation officer, newer white supremacist groups are making a push to reach out to the mainstream, with softer messages that don't necessarily incorporate overt hate symbols or language.

"They're looking for the educated people, not the uneducated, and not the criminals," said Smith, who's now a criminologist studying extremist groups at La Sierra University in Riverside.

"You're talking about people who have legitimate jobs, or college students, college graduates," he said. "And then, they try to use that base to legitimize their movement."

CONCERTS, TUTORING AND HATE

Local college campuses like Saddleback College and UC Irvine are among those hit recently with white supremacist propaganda.

On the leafy Saddleback campus, where posters typically advertising things like concerts and tutoring hang along walkways connecting the campus, posters have shown up advertising two different hate groups in the past three months.

A few miles to the north, Brian Levin keeps tabs on local hate groups' social media feeds.

"I can't tell you how many times I've called up a local campus police department after looking at their feeds on social media, saying, 'You might want to check the campus square today,'" said Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, white supremacist propaganda has spiked sharply in recent years. The ADL reported last month that incidents of white supremacist posters, fliers, banners and other propaganda around the country increased from 421 in 2017 to 1,187 in 2018. The report also found a huge jump in the number of off-campus propaganda incidents.

A lot of that propaganda has turned up in Southern California: White supremacist social media feeds show posters put up recently on the streets of local cities like Anaheim and Orange, and on college campuses like Saddleback College and UC Irvine. There's been anti-Semitic propaganda found in and around high schools from the San Fernando Valley to Newport Beach, where last month a scandal erupted at Newport Harbor High School after photos on social media showed students at a party giving the Nazi salute over a swastika formed with plastic cups.

The next weekend, a series of Nazi posters were discovered on the Newport Harbor High campus.

"HEY, WE'RE NOT SKINHEADS"

While the posters at Newport Harbor contained overt Nazi images, including swastikas, newer hate groups are using more subtle messaging about "white identity" and "heritage" in their attempts to appeal to young people, experts say.

"They are trying to present themselves as more button-down: 'Hey, we're not skinheads, we're not people with swastikas carved into our foreheads,'" Levin said. "However, the bottom line is that for many of these groups, in private, that is exactly the lingo, exactly the kind of imagery they enjoy."

Hate groups that have been actively recruiting in Southern California lately include Patriot Front, which uses patriotic imagery and slogans like "Reclaim America."

Another had been known until recently as Identity Europa. It used images of European-style statues and an inverted triangular symbol referred to as a "dragon's eye" with slogans like "European Roots, American Greatness."

Both groups have hit local campuses and communities in recent months, documenting their propaganda drops on social media. Identity Europa, which was among those sued in the aftermath of the deadly 2017 "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, recently rebranded itself as "American Identity Movement" and has adopted a new look, using patriotic imagery.

According to watchdog organizations like the Anti-Defamation League, Patriot Front is a post-Charlottesville group that splintered from a different white supremacist group called Vanguard America, which was also sued over its involvement in Charlottesville.

It's important not to be fooled by hate groups' more subtle "identity" messages and imagery, said Joanna Mendelson of the Anti-Defamation League's L.A. office.

"Although they're repackaged their message and sugarcoated their hateful ideology, there's no difference between them and those before, those who wore Klan robes, and who would be heavily tatted with swastikas and white supremacist imagery," she said. "Same people, same ideology."

INDOCTRINATION IN THE VIRTUAL WORLD

Along with the jump in white supremacist propaganda targeting schools and communities over the last year, there's a lot more recruiting taking place online, Mendelson said.

"Young people are drawn online ... and these virtual spaces can be an indoctrination ground," she said.

It's easy to find hate-filled memes and videos on YouTube and Instagram. White supremacists post on bulletin boards like 4chan and the more extremist 8chan, and on the alt-right-friendly social media site Gab. They're also active on Discord, which is popular with gamers.

The nonprofit alternative media site Unicorn Riot recently posted leaked chatter from Discord between members of Identity Europa. Recruiting was a popular theme, like this message from January:

"Good morning guys! Friendly reminder that if everyone could channel their time and energy to online recruiting, that would greatly be appreciated!"





"Recruit from colleges, universities, libraries, tech companies, and law firms."





Another message read:Members also talked about trying to recruit students in college conservative groups.

TROLLING SCHOOLS TO RECRUIT "NORMIES"

Some campaigns that start online spread to the real world. For example, one night last fall, an intruder climbed over a locked gate at South Pasadena High School and posted fliers around campus that read, "It's okay to be white."

The fliers were part of what's referred to as a trolling campaign.

"Trolling tactics are the bread and butter of some of the white supremacist efforts," Mendelson said. "We see them using bigoted humor and memes in order to push their agenda, and to basically poke fun at the media, at liberalism, at authoritarian figures."

The "It's okay to be white" campaign sprang up on 4chan a couple of Halloweens ago. According to the instructions, volunteers were to print out the posters, don a costume and put them up on campuses around the country.

The goal was to trigger a negative reaction from media, campus officials and others suspicious of the posters, which could then be twisted to make them seem anti-white in the eyes of "normies," slang for "normal" people. The instructions continue:

"4. the next morning, the media goes completely berserk; 5. normies tune in to see what's going on, see the posters saying "it's okay to be white" and the media & leftists frothing at the mouth; 6. normies realize that leftists & journalists hate white people, so they turn on them; 7. credibility of far left campuses and media gets nuked, massive victory for the right in the culture war, many more /ourguys/ spawned overnight."





Students on the Saddleback College campus on a recent afternoon said they hadn't really noticed the white supremacist posters that appeared in late January and again in February.

Perhaps they blended in with all the other posters, said Jazel Garcia, a nursing student. But she found the idea unsettling.

"If it's related to hate, then yeah, it bothers me," she said. "I wouldn't be comfortable with a situation like that ... someone [should] take action, because that's not right."

Jason Rivas, a nutrition major and president of a campus conservative group, said he disagrees with hate group ideology, but that anyone should be allowed to post materials on campus.

"In my opinion, they are allowed to post where they want," Rivas said. "They are allowed to post as long as they do not harm other people or incite violence."

Journalism student Filip Pejcinovic said that while he didn't see the recent posters, he does remember hateful posters around campus during the 2016 presidential campaign.

"I saw photos that ... looked offensive to Muslims," he said.

The posters had been put up by a campus group, Young Americans for Freedom, to promote an event. Pejcinovic took a picture of one of the posters, which equated Islam with terrorism and displayed a photo that appears to be from an ISIS video of a mass beheading of Coptic Christian prisoners.

"I found the posters very disturbing," Pejcinovic said. "I think that particular group or cause could incite violence."

"WE CAN'T JUST SUDDENLY CLOSE THEM OFF"

Brenton Tarrant, the 28-year-old white supremacist accused of carrying out the attacks on two New Zealand mosques, frequented online platforms like 8-chan, where he posted his manifesto before killing 50 people. Tarrant live-streamed the massacre on Facebook. According to European officials, he also donated money to "white identity" groups in Austria and France.

Since the New Zealand attack, Facebook has said it will ban white nationalist content.

But experts say there's so much hate content already available, the best thing educators and parents can do is have open dialogue with their students and their kids about the images and messages they may encounter.

"We can't just suddenly close them off to all these influences, because that's just not realistic," Mendelson said. "We must challenge their thinking, what they are observing and help create proper context to understand the world and the complicated messaging that they are receiving."

Meanwhile, watchdog groups and some members of Congress are calling on digital companies to do more to halt the spread of hate propaganda online. Slack recently took action, announcing last month that it was removing "known hate groups" from its accounts after Unicorn Riot leaked Slack messages between members of Identity Europa.

The Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center have anti-bias educational resources on their websites.

Editor's note: A version of this story was also on the radio. Listen to it here on KPCC.
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29 (3) Jun 28 (4) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (5) Jun 25 (4) Jun 24 (5) Jun 23 (3) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (2) Jun 20 (4) Jun 19 (3) Jun 18 (3) Jun 17 (1) Jun 16 (5) Jun 15 (5) Jun 14 (2) Jun 13 (5) Jun 12 (4) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (2) Jun 09 (2) Jun 08 (2) Jun 07 (2) Jun 06 (2) Jun 05 (2) Jun 04 (2) Jun 03 (2) Jun 02 (4) Jun 01 (3) May 31 (4) May 30 (5) May 29 (3) May 28 (3) May 27 (3) May 26 (4) May 25 (4) May 24 (2) May 23 (4) May 22 (4) May 21 (5) May 20 (6) May 19 (4) May 18 (3) May 17 (4) May 16 (5) May 15 (6) May 14 (4) May 13 (9) May 12 (4) May 11 (5) May 10 (5) May 09 (4) May 08 (3) May 07 (5) May 06 (3) May 05 (4) May 04 (5) May 03 (1) May 02 (5) May 01 (7) Apr 30 (4) Apr 29 (5) Apr 28 (4) Apr 27 (1) Apr 26 (4) Apr 25 (4) Apr 24 (4) Apr 23 (4) Apr 22 (3) Apr 21 (4) Apr 20 (4) Apr 19 (3) Apr 18 (4) Apr 17 (3) Apr 16 (4) Apr 15 (3) Apr 14 (4) Apr 13 (3) Apr 12 (5) Apr 11 (6) Apr 10 (1) Apr 09 (4) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (4) Apr 05 (5) Apr 04 (1) Apr 03 (3) Apr 02 (4) Apr 01 (3) Mar 31 (1) Mar 30 (3) Mar 29 (4) Mar 28 (3) Mar 27 (4) Mar 26 (2) Mar 25 (4) Mar 24 (6) Mar 23 (5) Mar 22 (5) Mar 21 (4) Mar 20 (6) Mar 19 (5) Mar 18 (4) Mar 17 (4) Mar 16 (4) Mar 15 (4) Mar 14 (3) Mar 13 (4) Mar 12 (4) Mar 11 (5) Mar 10 (4) Mar 09 (5) Mar 08 (5) Mar 07 (5) Mar 06 (3) Mar 05 (4) Mar 04 (3) Mar 03 (3) Mar 02 (5) Mar 01 (4) Feb 28 (2) Feb 27 (3) Feb 26 (3) Feb 25 (3) Feb 24 (4) Feb 23 (4) Feb 22 (3) Feb 21 (4) Feb 20 (4) Feb 19 (3) Feb 18 (3) Feb 17 (3) Feb 16 (5) Feb 15 (4) Feb 14 (3) Feb 13 (4) Feb 12 (3) Feb 11 (3) Feb 10 (4) Feb 09 (4) Feb 08 (3) Feb 07 (4) Feb 06 (3) Feb 05 (3) Feb 04 (3) Feb 03 (5) Feb 02 (4) Feb 01 (3) Jan 31 (3) Jan 30 (3) Jan 29 (4) Jan 28 (3) Jan 27 (2) Jan 26 (4) Jan 25 (3) Jan 24 (5) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (4) Jan 21 (3) Jan 20 (3) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (4) Jan 17 (3) Jan 16 (4) Jan 15 (3) Jan 14 (4) Jan 13 (3) Jan 12 (6) Jan 11 (4) Jan 10 (4) Jan 09 (3) Jan 08 (4) Jan 07 (3) Jan 06 (4) Jan 05 (3) Jan 04 (4) Jan 03 (5) Jan 02 (4) Jan 01 (3) Dec 31 (2) Dec 30 (2) Dec 29 (2) Dec 28 (3) Dec 27 (3) Dec 26 (2) Dec 25 (2) Dec 24 (3) Dec 23 (3) Dec 22 (3) Dec 21 (3) Dec 20 (4) Dec 19 (4) Dec 18 (5) Dec 17 (3) Dec 16 (3) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (2) Dec 11 (6) Dec 10 (4) Dec 09 (4) Dec 08 (6) Dec 07 (5) Dec 06 (3) Dec 05 (3) Dec 04 (4) Dec 03 (3) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (4) Nov 30 (2) Nov 29 (3) Nov 28 (3) Nov 27 (2) Nov 26 (3) Nov 25 (5) Nov 24 (4) Nov 23 (6) Nov 22 (5) Nov 21 (4) Nov 20 (2) Nov 19 (5) Nov 18 (7) Nov 17 (5) Nov 16 (4) Nov 15 (6) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (4) Nov 11 (3) Nov 10 (3) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (3) Nov 07 (2) Nov 06 (2) Nov 05 (2) Nov 04 (4) Nov 03 (4) Nov 02 (4) Nov 01 (2) Oct 31 (3) Oct 30 (4) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (2) Oct 27 (3) Oct 26 (3) Oct 25 (2) Oct 24 (2) Oct 23 (2) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (2) Oct 20 (3) Oct 19 (3) Oct 18 (2) Oct 17 (2) Oct 16 (2) Oct 15 (2) Oct 14 (4) Oct 13 (2) Oct 12 (3) Oct 11 (2) Oct 10 (2) Oct 09 (4) Oct 08 (4) Oct 07 (4) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (4) Oct 04 (5) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (6) Oct 01 (6) Sep 30 (5) Sep 29 (3) Sep 28 (3) Sep 27 (7) Sep 26 (4) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (5) Sep 23 (8) Sep 22 (3) Sep 21 (3) Sep 20 (6) Sep 19 (3) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (5) Sep 16 (7) Sep 15 (3) Sep 14 (4) Sep 13 (3) Sep 12 (5) Sep 11 (5) Sep 10 (5) Sep 09 (7) Sep 08 (5) Sep 07 (2) Sep 06 (7) Sep 05 (4) Sep 04 (4) Sep 03 (2) Sep 02 (2) Sep 01 (2) Aug 31 (3) Aug 30 (3) Aug 29 (3) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (3) Aug 26 (4) Aug 25 (3) Aug 24 (3) Aug 23 (3) Aug 22 (4) Aug 21 (4) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (4) Aug 18 (3) Aug 17 (2) Aug 16 (2) Aug 15 (5) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (5) Aug 12 (10) Aug 11 (5) Aug 10 (4) Aug 09 (5) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (6) Aug 05 (5) Aug 04 (5) Aug 03 (3) Aug 02 (5) Aug 01 (7) Jul 31 (5) Jul 30 (5) Jul 29 (4) Jul 28 (3) Jul 27 (3) Jul 26 (5) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (5) Jul 23 (5) Jul 22 (7) Jul 21 (5) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (5) Jul 18 (6) Jul 17 (5) Jul 16 (5) Jul 15 (6) Jul 14 (4) Jul 13 (3) Jul 12 (2) Jul 11 (2) Jul 10 (2) Jul 09 (2) Jul 08 (2) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (2) Jul 05 (2) Jul 04 (4) Jul 03 (3) Jul 02 (2) Jul 01 (8) Jun 30 (6) Jun 29 (4) Jun 28 (6) Jun 27 (6) Jun 26 (6) Jun 25 (6) Jun 24 (6) Jun 23 (4) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (4) Jun 19 (5) Jun 18 (8) Jun 17 (6) Jun 16 (5) Jun 15 (5) Jun 14 (5) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (4) Jun 11 (6) Jun 10 (4) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (5) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (3) Jun 05 (3) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (3) Jun 02 (3) Jun 01 (4) May 31 (2) May 30 (2) May 29 (2) May 28 (2) May 27 (4) May 26 (4) May 25 (3) May 24 (2) May 23 (2) May 22 (3) May 21 (5) May 20 (4) May 19 (2) May 18 (3) May 17 (3) May 16 (3) May 15 (4) May 14 (5) May 13 (3) May 12 (4) May 11 (3) May 10 (4) May 09 (4) May 08 (4) May 07 (3) May 06 (2) May 05 (3) May 04 (4) May 03 (2) May 02 (3) May 01 (3) Apr 30 (3) Apr 29 (4) Apr 28 (2) Apr 27 (3) Apr 26 (4) Apr 25 (2) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (2) Apr 22 (2) Apr 21 (4) Apr 20 (4) Apr 19 (5) Apr 18 (7) Apr 17 (6) Apr 16 (10) Apr 15 (5) Apr 14 (3) Apr 13 (4) Apr 12 (5) Apr 11 (4) Apr 10 (4) Apr 09 (7) Apr 08 (4) Apr 07 (7) Apr 06 (4) Apr 05 (7) Apr 04 (5) Apr 03 (4) Apr 02 (5) Apr 01 (5) Mar 31 (5) Mar 30 (5) Mar 29 (7) Mar 28 (6) Mar 27 (5) Mar 26 (5) Mar 25 (6) Mar 24 (5) Mar 23 (5) Mar 22 (5) Mar 21 (4) Mar 20 (3) Mar 19 (6) Mar 18 (6) Mar 17 (2) Mar 16 (4) Mar 15 (5) Mar 14 (4) Mar 13 (5) Mar 12 (5) Mar 11 (4) Mar 10 (4) Mar 09 (2) Mar 08 (5) Mar 07 (4) Mar 06 (3) Mar 05 (4) Mar 04 (6) Mar 03 (4) Mar 02 (4) Mar 01 (5) Feb 28 (6) Feb 27 (4) Feb 26 (4) Feb 25 (6) Feb 24 (2) Feb 23 (3) Feb 22 (4) Feb 21 (6) Feb 20 (2) Feb 19 (6) Feb 18 (4) Feb 17 (2) Feb 16 (3) Feb 15 (6) Feb 14 (6) Feb 13 (6) Feb 12 (9) Feb 11 (5) Feb 10 (3) Feb 09 (4) Feb 08 (4) Feb 07 (7) Feb 06 (3) Feb 05 (4) Feb 04 (5) Feb 03 (4) Feb 02 (3) Feb 01 (3) Jan 31 (4) Jan 30 (4) Jan 29 (3) Jan 28 (2) Jan 27 (2) Jan 26 (3) Jan 25 (4) Jan 24 (4) Jan 23 (2) Jan 22 (2) Jan 21 (5) Jan 20 (4) Jan 19 (5) Jan 18 (4) Jan 17 (4) Jan 16 (3) Jan 15 (4) Jan 14 (3) Jan 13 (3) Jan 12 (3) Jan 11 (2) Jan 10 (8) Jan 09 (6) Jan 08 (2) Jan 07 (2) Jan 06 (3) Jan 05 (2) Jan 04 (2) Jan 03 (2) Jan 02 (2) Jan 01 (2) Dec 31 (2) Dec 30 (3) Dec 29 (3) Dec 28 (3) Dec 27 (2) Dec 26 (2) Dec 25 (2) Dec 24 (2) Dec 23 (2) Dec 22 (2) Dec 21 (2) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (2) Dec 18 (3) Dec 17 (2) Dec 16 (2) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (2) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (3) Dec 11 (3) Dec 10 (5) Dec 09 (3) Dec 08 (3) Dec 07 (2) Dec 06 (3) Dec 05 (3) Dec 04 (5) Dec 03 (4) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (3) Nov 30 (4) Nov 29 (4) Nov 28 (2) Nov 27 (2) Nov 26 (2) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (2) Nov 23 (2) Nov 22 (2) Nov 21 (2) Nov 20 (3) Nov 19 (3) Nov 18 (2) Nov 17 (2) Nov 16 (5) Nov 15 (5) Nov 14 (4) Nov 13 (2) Nov 12 (2) Nov 11 (2) Nov 10 (2) Nov 09 (2) Nov 08 (2) Nov 07 (3) Nov 06 (6) Nov 05 (4) Nov 04 (5) Nov 03 (5) Nov 02 (3) Nov 01 (5) Oct 31 (7) Oct 30 (5) Oct 29 (4) Oct 28 (3) Oct 27 (2) Oct 26 (4) Oct 25 (4) Oct 24 (4) Oct 23 (4) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (2) Oct 20 (3) Oct 19 (2) Oct 18 (2) Oct 17 (3) Oct 16 (5) Oct 15 (4) Oct 14 (2) Oct 13 (2) Oct 12 (4) Oct 11 (5) Oct 10 (4) Oct 09 (3) Oct 08 (3) Oct 07 (3) Oct 06 (2) Oct 05 (5) Oct 04 (5) Oct 03 (4) Oct 02 (4) Oct 01 (5) Sep 30 (2) Sep 29 (2) Sep 28 (3) Sep 27 (6) Sep 26 (2) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (3) Sep 23 (2) Sep 22 (2) Sep 21 (2) Sep 20 (2) Sep 19 (3) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (3) Sep 16 (2) Sep 15 (4) Sep 14 (3) Sep 13 (5) Sep 12 (4) Sep 11 (6) Sep 10 (2) Sep 09 (5) Sep 08 (5) Sep 07 (5) Sep 06 (4) Sep 05 (4) Sep 04 (3) Sep 03 (2) Sep 02 (3) Sep 01 (3) Aug 31 (2) Aug 30 (2) Aug 29 (3) Aug 28 (6) Aug 27 (3) Aug 26 (2) Aug 25 (2) Aug 24 (3) Aug 23 (2) Aug 22 (3) Aug 21 (5) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (3) Aug 18 (2) Aug 17 (5) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (5) Aug 13 (2) Aug 12 (2) Aug 11 (2) Aug 10 (2) Aug 09 (2) Aug 08 (5) Aug 07 (5) Aug 06 (6) Aug 05 (2) Aug 04 (5) Aug 03 (2) Aug 02 (3) Aug 01 (2) Jul 31 (4) Jul 30 (2) Jul 29 (2) Jul 28 (2) Jul 27 (2) Jul 26 (3) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (2) Jul 23 (3) Jul 22 (2) Jul 21 (3) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (2) Jul 18 (3) Jul 17 (4) Jul 16 (5) Jul 15 (2) Jul 14 (3) Jul 13 (2) Jul 12 (3) Jul 11 (2) Jul 10 (2) Jul 09 (2) Jul 08 (2) Jul 07 (2) Jul 06 (2) Jul 05 (2) Jul 04 (2) Jul 03 (2) Jul 02 (2) Jul 01 (3) Jun 30 (3) Jun 29 (7) Jun 28 (3) Jun 27 (2) Jun 26 (3) Jun 25 (1) Jun 24 (2) Jun 23 (3) Jun 22 (5) Jun 21 (3) Jun 20 (2) Jun 19 (2) Jun 18 (2) Jun 17 (2) Jun 16 (2) Jun 15 (2) Jun 14 (2) Jun 13 (3) Jun 12 (3) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (2) Jun 09 (4) Jun 08 (2) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (5) Jun 05 (3) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (2) Jun 02 (2) Jun 01 (4) May 31 (2) May 30 (3) May 29 (3) May 28 (3) May 27 (2) May 26 (2) May 25 (2) May 24 (2) May 23 (2) May 22 (3) May 21 (3) May 20 (2) May 19 (2) May 18 (4) May 17 (7) May 16 (2) May 15 (3) May 14 (4) May 13 (3) May 12 (4) May 11 (4) May 10 (4) May 09 (3) May 08 (2) May 07 (2) May 06 (2) May 05 (1) May 04 (2) May 03 (4) May 02 (3) May 01 (4) Apr 30 (1) Apr 29 (3) Apr 28 (2) Apr 27 (3) Apr 26 (2) Apr 25 (2) Apr 24 (4) Apr 23 (2) Apr 22 (2) Apr 21 (2) Apr 20 (3) Apr 19 (3) Apr 18 (4) Apr 17 (5) Apr 16 (4) Apr 15 (4) Apr 14 (3) Apr 13 (3) Apr 12 (3) Apr 11 (3) Apr 10 (4) Apr 09 (4) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (2) Apr 06 (3) Apr 05 (3) Apr 04 (1) Apr 03 (1) Apr 02 (1) Apr 01 (2) Mar 31 (2) Mar 30 (3) Mar 29 (2) Mar 28 (3) Mar 27 (3) Mar 26 (3) Mar 25 (3) Mar 24 (2) Mar 23 (3) Mar 22 (3) Mar 21 (4) Mar 20 (2) Mar 19 (3) Mar 18 (1) Mar 17 (2) Mar 16 (2) Mar 15 (1) Mar 14 (3) Mar 13 (1) Mar 12 (2) Mar 11 (1) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (2) Mar 08 (1) Mar 07 (1) Mar 04 (2) Mar 02 (2) Feb 28 (1) Feb 24 (1) Dec 31 (4) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (4) Dec 28 (5) Dec 27 (3) Dec 26 (3) Dec 25 (4) Dec 24 (3) Dec 23 (3) Dec 22 (4) Dec 21 (3) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (3) Dec 18 (3) Dec 17 (3) Dec 16 (3) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (3) Dec 11 (3) Dec 10 (3) Dec 09 (3) Dec 08 (3) Dec 07 (3) Dec 06 (3) Dec 05 (3) Dec 04 (3) Dec 03 (4) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (3) Nov 30 (3) Nov 29 (3) Nov 28 (3) Nov 27 (3) Nov 26 (3) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (3) Nov 23 (3) Nov 22 (3) Nov 21 (3) Nov 20 (3) Nov 19 (3) Nov 18 (3) Nov 17 (3) Nov 16 (2) Nov 15 (3) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (4) Nov 11 (3) Nov 10 (4) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (4) Nov 07 (3) Nov 06 (3) Nov 05 (5) Nov 04 (4) Nov 03 (3) Nov 02 (4) Nov 01 (4) Oct 31 (4) Oct 30 (3) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (2) Oct 27 (4) Oct 26 (4) Oct 25 (4) Oct 24 (3) Oct 23 (3) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (4) Oct 20 (4) Oct 19 (3) Oct 18 (4) Oct 17 (4) Oct 16 (3) Oct 15 (3) Oct 14 (3) Oct 13 (3) Oct 12 (3) Oct 11 (3) Oct 10 (4) Oct 09 (3) Oct 08 (3) Oct 07 (4) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (4) Oct 04 (3) Oct 03 (4) Oct 02 (5) Oct 01 (3) Sep 30 (4) Sep 29 (3) Sep 28 (3) Sep 27 (4) Sep 26 (3) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (3) Sep 23 (3) Sep 22 (3) Sep 21 (3) Sep 20 (3) Sep 19 (4) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (3) Sep 16 (4) Sep 15 (3) Sep 14 (3) Sep 13 (3) Sep 12 (4) Sep 11 (4) Sep 10 (4) Sep 09 (4) Sep 08 (4) Sep 07 (3) Sep 06 (3) Sep 05 (3) Sep 04 (3) Sep 03 (3) Sep 02 (4) Sep 01 (3) Aug 31 (3) Aug 30 (4) Aug 29 (3) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (3) Aug 26 (3) Aug 25 (4) Aug 24 (4) Aug 23 (5) Aug 22 (3) Aug 21 (3) Aug 20 (3) Aug 19 (3) Aug 18 (3) Aug 17 (3) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (3) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (3) Aug 12 (3) Aug 11 (4) Aug 10 (5) Aug 09 (3) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (5) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (3) Aug 03 (3) Aug 02 (3) Aug 01 (3) Jul 31 (3) Jul 30 (4) Jul 29 (3) Jul 28 (5) Jul 27 (3) Jul 26 (3) Jul 25 (3) Jul 24 (4) Jul 23 (4) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (4) Jul 20 (3) Jul 19 (3) Jul 18 (4) Jul 17 (4) Jul 16 (4) Jul 15 (3) Jul 14 (3) Jul 13 (4) Jul 12 (5) Jul 11 (4) Jul 10 (4) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (3) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (5) Jul 05 (3) Jul 04 (3) Jul 03 (4) Jul 02 (3) Jul 01 (6) Jun 30 (4) Jun 29 (4) Jun 28 (3) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (4) Jun 25 (5) Jun 24 (4) Jun 23 (3) Jun 22 (5) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (4) Jun 19 (4) Jun 18 (5) Jun 17 (4) Jun 16 (5) Jun 15 (5) Jun 14 (3) Jun 13 (3) Jun 12 (3) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (5) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (4) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (5) Jun 05 (4) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (4) Jun 02 (5) Jun 01 (3) May 31 (4) May 30 (3) May 29 (3) May 28 (3) May 27 (3) May 26 (4) May 25 (4) May 24 (4) May 23 (4) May 22 (3) May 21 (3) May 20 (4) May 19 (3) May 18 (3) May 17 (4) May 16 (3) May 15 (4) May 14 (3) May 13 (4) May 12 (1) May 11 (3) May 10 (3) May 09 (3) May 08 (3) May 07 (4) May 06 (3) May 05 (4) May 04 (4) May 03 (3) May 02 (3) May 01 (6) Apr 30 (3) Apr 29 (3) Apr 28 (3) Apr 27 (5) Apr 26 (3) Apr 25 (3) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (3) Apr 22 (3) Apr 21 (3) Apr 20 (3) Apr 19 (3) Apr 18 (3) Apr 17 (4) Apr 16 (3) Apr 15 (4) Apr 14 (3) Apr 13 (3) Apr 12 (3) Apr 11 (3) Apr 10 (3) Apr 09 (3) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (3) Apr 05 (3) Apr 04 (3) Apr 03 (3) Apr 02 (3) Apr 01 (3) Mar 31 (3) Mar 30 (3) Mar 29 (3) Mar 28 (4) Mar 27 (3) Mar 26 (3) Mar 25 (3) Mar 24 (3) Mar 23 (3) Mar 22 (3) Mar 21 (3) Mar 20 (3) Mar 19 (3) Mar 18 (3) Mar 17 (3) Mar 16 (4) Mar 15 (3) Mar 14 (3) Mar 13 (3) Mar 12 (4) Mar 11 (3) Mar 10 (4) Mar 09 (4) Mar 08 (3) Mar 07 (3) Mar 06 (4) Mar 05 (4) Mar 04 (3) Mar 03 (3) Mar 02 (3) Mar 01 (3) Feb 28 (3) Feb 27 (3) Feb 26 (3) Feb 25 (3) Feb 24 (2) Feb 23 (3) Feb 22 (3) Feb 21 (3) Feb 20 (3) Feb 19 (3) Feb 18 (3) Feb 17 (3) Feb 16 (3) Feb 15 (3) Feb 14 (3) Feb 13 (3) Feb 12 (3) Feb 11 (4) Feb 10 (3) Feb 09 (3) Feb 08 (3) Feb 07 (4) Feb 06 (3) Feb 05 (3) Feb 04 (4) Feb 03 (4) Feb 02 (4) Feb 01 (4) Jan 31 (3) Jan 30 (3) Jan 29 (3) Jan 28 (5) Jan 27 (4) Jan 26 (5) Jan 25 (5) Jan 24 (5) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (3) Jan 21 (4) Jan 20 (3) Jan 19 (5) Jan 18 (5) Jan 17 (4) Jan 16 (3) Jan 15 (4) Jan 14 (3) Jan 13 (5) Jan 12 (5) Jan 11 (4) Jan 10 (4) Jan 09 (3) Jan 08 (3) Jan 07 (3) Jan 06 (3) Jan 05 (3) Jan 04 (4) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (3) Jan 01 (4) Dec 31 (3) Dec 30 (3) Dec 29 (3) Dec 28 (3) Dec 27 (3) Dec 26 (3) Dec 25 (3) Dec 24 (3) Dec 23 (4) Dec 22 (3) Dec 21 (3) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (3) Dec 18 (3) Dec 17 (3) Dec 16 (4) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (3) Dec 11 (4) Dec 10 (3) Dec 09 (3) Dec 08 (3) Dec 07 (3) Dec 06 (4) Dec 05 (3) Dec 04 (3) Dec 03 (3) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (3) Nov 30 (3) Nov 29 (3) Nov 28 (3) Nov 27 (3) Nov 26 (3) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (4) Nov 23 (6) Nov 22 (4) Nov 21 (5) Nov 20 (4) Nov 19 (4) Nov 18 (4) Nov 17 (4) Nov 16 (3) Nov 15 (2) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (2) Nov 11 (3) Nov 10 (2) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (5) Nov 07 (3) Nov 06 (2) Nov 05 (2) Nov 04 (3) Nov 03 (2) Nov 02 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By Shamim Nateebwa.

The ministry of health says pharmacists and health workers that sale antibiotics and other strong drugs to people without doctors prescriptions are to be arrested.

According to the ministrys permanent secretary ministry of health, Doctor Diana Atwine,the operation is meant to address disease resistance to antibiotics.

Antimicrobial resistance globally contributes to 700,000 deaths annually and its projected to rise to 10 million by 2050 if no action is taken.
Monday, April 8, 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

As Bill Hing posted yesterday, Kirstjen Nielsen is out as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. President Trump announced it through tweet late yesterday.

Here is Nielsen's resignation letter. She explains that

"[d]espite our progress in reforming homeland security for a new age, I have determined that it is the right time for me to step aside. 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 Americas borders and which have contributed to discord in our nations discourse. Our country - and the men and women of DHS - deserve to have all the tools and resources they need to execute the mission entrusted to them."

As the administration seeks to address serious immigration issues, including a volatile environment along the US/Mexico border, President Trump's immigration enforcement bureaucracy is in turmoil. Late last week, President Trump abruptly pulled the nomination of Ron Vitiello to head Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Shortly after the announcement, Presidential candidate Julian Castro discussed Nielsen's resignation -- and "tortured legacy" of family separation -- on NPR. Stephen Collinson for CNN analyzes Nielsen's departure.

In response to Secretary Nielsens resignation, Democratic National Committee Deputy War Room Director Daniel Wessel released the following statement:

Secretary Nielsens legacy will be separating children from their families and lying to the American people about it -- yet even that was not cruel enough for Donald Trumps anti-immigrant agenda. Nielsen is the latest victim of a presidency marked by chaos, but as always, theproblem comes from the top and nothing will change. In fact, Trump has only begun to escalate his attacks on families and asylum seekers, and his latest proposals would actually make the humanitarian crisis at the border worse.

KJ

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2019/04/more-on-dhs-secretarys-departure.html
Monday, April 8, 2019

The Louisiana Supreme Court has permanently disbarred an attorney

The attorney's discipline history

In 2007, he received an admonition for engaging in a conflict of interest and in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice. Then, in 2008, the ODC commenced an investigation into allegations that respondent neglected legal matters, failed to communicate with clients, and failed to promptly refund unearned fees. Thereafter, respondent failed to cooperate with the ODC in the investigation. Respondent was placed on interim suspension pursuant to a joint motion of the parties. In re: LeBlanc, 08-1688 (La. 7/29/08), 987 So. 2d 248. Thereafter, we accepted a petition for consent discipline and suspended respondent from the practice of law for three years, retroactive to the date of his interim suspension, for the above misconduct. In re: LeBlanc, 12-1487 (La. 9/14/12), 98 So. 3d 288 (LeBlanc I). Respondent has not been reinstated and, thus, remains suspended from the practice of law.

The issue

On August 4, 2017, the ODC was contacted by law enforcement for the Jackson County Sheriffs Department in Pascagoula, Mississippi. The ODC was advised that respondent was the subject of an arrest warrant alleging that he had committed embezzlement and forgery.

The ODC opened an investigation into these allegations. The ODC learned that respondent had committed the alleged crimes while employed as an accountant with Premier Craneworks (Premier) in Pascagoula. Upon reviewing his bank statement, the president of Premier noticed that two checks  one in the amount of $1,955.83 and another in the amount of $1,956.38  had been written on the companys account but were issued out of sequence. An investigation by law enforcement established that respondent, without permission, consent, or authority, had taken the checks and made them payable to his girlfriend, who then cashed them. After the stolen checks were discovered, respondent left his employers office and fled the jurisdiction of Mississippi. Law enforcement described respondent as a fugitive from justice. Respondent was recently apprehended on an open warrant while in Florida and has been extradited to Mississippi.

He did not contest the bar charges

The record in this deemed admitted matter supports a finding that respondent stole approximately $4,000 from his employer. This misconduct is a clear violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct as alleged in the formal charges.

Sanction

This case falls squarely within the requirements of Guideline 9. Standing alone, respondents current misconduct, which is criminal in nature, constitutes serious attorney misconduct and warrants disbarment. This misconduct was preceded by LeBlanc I, wherein respondent received a three-year suspension for serious attorney misconduct.

Accordingly, we will accept the boards recommendation and permanently disbar respondent.

Genovese, J., would impose disbarment. (Mike Frisch)

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2019/04/the-louisiana-supreme-court-has-the-attorneys-discipline-history-in-2007-he-received-an-admonition-for-engaging-in-a-confl.html


The head of the United States Department of Homeland Security resigned on Sunday.

As Homeland Security Secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen was the government official responsible for border security. Her resignation comes at a time when President Donald Trump is angry over the number of Central Americans crossing the U.S. border from Mexico.

Trump announced on Sunday that U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan will be acting head of Homeland Security. McAleenan is well respected by many members of Congress and the presidents administration.

The decision to name a top immigration officer to the job shows how important the issue of border security is to Trump.

The Department of Homeland Security is a relatively new federal agency. It was created after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

It is the right time for me to step aside, Nielsen wrote in her letter of resignation. The Associated Press (AP) reports that her resignation was not expected.

Just two days before she resigned, Nielsen traveled to the U.S. southern border with Trump. They met with border officers and local law enforcement.

During the meeting, Nielsen agreed with Trumps comments that there was a crisis at the border. Later, she and the president visited part of a rebuilt barrier along the border. She returned to Washington immediately after the visit, while Trump continued on to California and Nevada.

Nielsen has been frustrated by what she saw as a lack of support from other government offices, The Associated Press reported. The AP story also said she was also angered by Trump aides interfering with her leadership decisions.

Nielsen went into the White House on Sunday to meet with Trump. At that meeting, she resigned. People speaking with the AP say she was not forced to resign. She has said she will leave her position on Wednesday.

Nielsen led Homeland Security since December 2017.

McAleenan has helped shape many of the Trump administrations policies on immigration. He is said to be liked by congressional leaders, the administration and Homeland Security officials. It is unclear, however, if he will have much more of an effect on issues at the border.

Efforts by the Trump administration to remake border security have been overturned by court rulings.

Representative Joaquin Castro of Texas, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, called McAleenans appointment deeply disturbing.

Castro, a member of the Democratic Party, said that McAleenans support for Trump policies hurt families and children at the border.

Arrests along the southern border have increased sharply over the past few months. Border agents are estimated to have made 100,000 arrests and denials of entry at the border in March. More than half were families with children.

Im Jonathan Evans.

The Associated Press reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for VOA Learning English. The editor was George Grow.

Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

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Words in This Story

frustrate v. to cause (someone) to feel angry, discouraged, or upset because of not being able to do something

disturb  v.to interfere with the normal operation of something
Just outside the city of Johannesburg, South Africa, a veterinary hospital is saving wild animals that live nearby.

Id love to be in the bush, but I get more cases here, said Nicci Wright, a veterinary rehabilitation specialist.

Wright and Karin Lourens, a doctor trained to care for animals, set up the hospital two years ago. Since then, they have treated about 4,000 creatures.

Both Johannesburg and Pretoria, the South Africa capital, are expanding. The growth of the two cities is squeezing out animals that are native to the area.

The wildlife hospital mainly treats small mammals and large hunting birds that are injured.

The hospital now has about 160 patients. They include six leopard tortoises, a toothless 12-foot python and an otter that was taken far from her natural surroundings when someone tried to keep her as a pet.

Many animals coming to the hospital have not only physical injuries. They show signs of stress from being hurt by people. Some creatures, like the endangered pangolin, become fearful when they hear a male human voice or smell cigarette smoke. That makes the animals remember the people who hunted them, said Wright.

Everything is terrifying for them, she said.

In a wooden cage on the hospital floor, a young pangolin begins to move around, rubbing against the box. It is feeding time at the hospital.

A volunteer will walk him on a nearby hill where the pangolin will search for ants to eat. Pangolins are one of the worlds most heavily trafficked animals because of demand for their scales in Asia.

Along with five full-time employees, the hospital gets help from volunteers like Lauren Beckley, who lives nearby. Beckley cares for young monkeys, who hug her. Their own mothers have been shot or killed in auto accidents.

When the animals are ready to return to the wild, Wright and her team work with nature centers around the country to take the animals to a new, safer home.

Im Jill Robbins.

This story was reported by the Associated Press. Jill Robbins adapted it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

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Words in This Story

veterinary  adj. relating to the medical care and treatment of animals

in the bush - expression (especially in Australia, Africa, and Canada) wild or undeveloped countryside

rehabilitate - v. to bring back to a normal, healthy condition after a sickness, injury, or drug problem

leopard tortoise - n. a large and tortoise marked with yellow and black found in the savannas of eastern and southern Africa, from Sudan to the southern Cape

python - n. a very large snake that kills the animals it eats by wrapping itself around them

otter - n. an animal that has dark brown fur and webbed feet with claws and that eats fish

pet  n. an animal that is kept for pleasure instead of usefulness

pangolin - n. a mammal that has a body covered with horny overlapping scales and a long sticky tongue for catching ants and termites

scales - n. small thin plates that cover the bodies of some animals

Do you ever see wild animals near your home? Who takes care of them when they are injured? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.
By Benjamin Jumbe.

Parliaments committee on Physical Infrastructure has applauded Uganda National Roads Authority for the announced planned repairs on the new Nile Bridge.

It follows the Authoritys travel advisory as it prepares to undertake restoration works on defected parts of the newly launched source of the Nile Bridge from 15th April to 10th July 2019.

Speaking to Kfm the committees chairperson Eng Kafeero Sekitoleko said following a tour of the facility, the committee had recommended to the authority to ensure they replace the asphalt and water proofing material on the entire bridge.

He further calls for patience from members of the public noting that no tax payers money is to be spent on the repairs.

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As Britain tries to withdraw from the European Union, the move is presenting complex problems for some in the financial industry.

Computer trading systems in the international currency markets are struggling to make sense of all the hourly information. This overload, some say, is making it more costly and risky to trade the British currency, the pound.

Prime Minister Theresa May has failed three times to get a deal approved by the British parliament to leave the EU.

Last week, she sent a letter to the European Council. She asked for a delay of Britains proposed withdrawal. European Council President Donald Tusk reacted by suggesting a delay of one year.

No one knows when, how or if Britain will truly complete Brexit, the British exit from the group.

Britains government is divided over the issue, and the number of people who can influence events has grown very large. This has caused problems for computers with reading algorithms, or algos. These algos are designed to consider the most recent words of important people before making investment decisions.

Usually computers evaluate peoples words by simply deciding how important they are, or how many times they have been spoken. Neil Jones is the head of currency sales at Mizuho, a Japanese bank in London. Brexit has so many people making important decisions and then talking about them that the computers are unable to keep up, he said.

News reading algos are a part of a revolution in investment banking and money management. Machines have replaced the humans who once decided what to buy and what to sell. Costs are lower and decisions are made more quickly by the computers.

At first, reading algos evaluated economic information or central bank policy. But they have grown more intelligent. For example, they can evaluate information that comes from Twitter in a matter of seconds and decide whether or not to invest in a currency.

The problem for the computers is that Brexit is simply creating too much information. Reuters has published up to 400 news stories on Brexit each day in recent weeks. Before Brexit, there were about 15 British political stories.

Bloomberg, another news group, has published up to 1000 stories a day, their spokesman said.

All of this proves that computers, which are logical, may never understand human beings, especially when they are foolish.

Im John Russell.

The Reuters News Agency reported this story. Susan Shand adapted this story for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

currency  n. the money that a country uses

algorithm  n. a set of steps that are followed to solve a mathematical problem or complete a computer process

evaluate  v. to judge the value or condition of something carefully or thoughtfully

logical adj. of or relating to the formal processes used in thinking and

Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.
The Philippines is making it easier for the public to visit a small island in the disputed South China Sea.

A boat ramp is being built on Thitu Island, which is controlled by the Philippines. The ramp is designed to help small boats be brought to shore. It is expected to be finished this year.

The move may signal a change in the way the Philippines is treating the territory in the sea that is the subject of an international dispute.

China also claims Thitu. It is developing three other small landforms in the area. Development of small islands into military bases has been a point of strong disagreement between China and many of its neighbors.

Australia, Japan, the United States and other countries that depend on the waterway for trade say putting bases in the sea threatens freedom of navigation there.

About 100 people live on Thitu. It is one of the few places in the South China Sea where the public can go more or less freely.

Currently, governments tightly control who can visit islands and landforms.

Some observers believe that permitting public visitors may increase claims to sovereignty by showing that the territories are actually being used by people. That is a requirement noted in international disputes over the territories.

China also has started permitting people to visit the area by cruise ship. But it carefully controls who goes there.

Yun Sun is an East Asia expert with the Stimson Center research group in Washington. She said the new policy shows that, By governing or managing the tourism in that area, it will be a piece of evidence to support sovereignty.

Many small islands, few visitors

There are about 500 small islands and landforms in the South China Sea, which covers 3.5 million square kilometers. Most of the islands do not have structures built on them.

National coast guards and navies watch the areas they claim. International shipping is permitted. But usually, the public is barred from entering these small islands.

That appears to be changing.

Layang Layang is a Malaysian naval base. It is also open to the public. People from any country can travel to the island and stay at its 85-room hotel. Many of the visitors come to go diving in the surrounding waters.

Taiwan organizes public trips to some small islands it controls. Reporters can visit Itu Aba on special trips. And marine research is permitted on the Pratas Islands.

China has said it is opening some of the Paracel islands to its cruise ships. And Vietnam operates trips for its own citizens to the Spratly Islands, which include Thitu.

Jonathan Spangler is director of the South China Sea Think Tank, a research group in Taipei. He said China might open its cruises in the Paracels to foreigners. He said if China did this -- and if Malaysia and the Philippines extended their public access -- it could change the current climate in the sensitive area. It could make it seem like less of a sensitive thing to visit, Spangler said.

China claims almost all of the South China Sea. Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia also claim large areas of the sea.

About one-third of the worlds shipping passes through the sea. It also holds valuable fisheries, gas and oil.

China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which has as members almost all the claimants, are negotiating a code for behavior in the sea. The goal is to prevent conflict.

Im Mario Ritter Jr.

Ralf Jennings reported this story for VOA News from Taipei. Mario Ritter Jr. adapted it for VOA Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

ramp n. a sloping structure that lets a person or vehicle get from one level to another

navigation n. the process of moving a boat or ship over an area of water

sovereignty n. power or control over a place or territory

tourism n. the business of providing for people who are traveling for pleasure

code n. a set of rules, laws or regulations
The president of Uganda says people should not be afraid to visit the country after an American woman and her driver were kidnapped.

Ugandan officials announced Sunday the two had been rescued and were unharmed.

Unidentified gunmen kidnapped American Kimberly Sue Endicott and her driver, Jean-Paul, last week near a wilderness camp inside Queen Elizabeth National Park. The kidnappers later demanded a $500,000 ransom in exchange for the safe release of the two.

Ugandan police said on Twitter the two had been freed in good health and were in the safe hands of security officials.

The Reuters news agency reported a deal had been reached with the kidnappers to free the pair.

A negotiated settlement was arranged with the assistance of the American government, a spokesman for the company that organized Endicotts trip told Reuters. The spokesperson did not provide additional details.

A Uganda police spokeswoman said she could not confirm whether a ransom had been paid.

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni wrote on Twitter Monday that his country is committed to finding and punishing those responsible. "However, I want to reassure the country and our tourists that Uganda is safe and we shall continue to improve the security in our parks. Come and enjoy the Pearl of Africa," he tweeted.

U.S. President Donald Trump also tweeted about the kidnapping. Uganda must find the kidnappers of the American Tourist and guide before people will feel safe in going there. Bring them to justice openly and quickly! he wrote.

Two other people were robbed but not seized and reported the kidnapping to police. The American and her driver were taken in the Ishasha part of the park, which sits near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Queen Elizabeth National Park is one of Ugandas most popular stops for foreigners. It contains many kinds of wildlife, including lions, hippopotamus and crocodiles.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from the Associated Press, Reuters and VOA News. George Grow was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

ransom  n. money that is paid in order to free someone who has been captured or kidnapped

arrange  v. makes plans or prepare for something

committed  adj. loyal and willing to give time and energy to something

tourist  n. someone who travels for recreation or pleasure
At an animal hospital in the Northeast United States, a biologist takes blood from a sick loggerhead sea turtle named Honey Bun.

This is one of the first steps scientists must take before treating and rehabilitating the turtle so that it can be returned into the wild.

Cape Cod, in the state of Massachusetts, may have some of the largest numbers of turtle strandings in the world.

The number of turtles that became trapped on Cape Cod beaches has risen over the past 10 years. That information comes from the Mass Audubons Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.

This year, volunteers found 829 turtles washed up on the sand. About half of them were dead, including some that were frozen solid. That number is nearly twice what workers found in 2016 and nearly 10 times more than 2008.

Some experts think the number of washed up turtles is related to climate change.

A paper published in PLOS ONE notes that there were more strandings of Kemps ridley sea turtles in years with warmer sea-surface temperatures. It added that of the threats to turtle populations, climate change may present the broadest threat for sea turtle conservation.

Over the past 10 years, many turtles have been moving north from the Gulf of Mexico into the warming waters of the Gulf of Maine. There, they feed on mussels, crabs and other sea creatures.

Cape Cod extends into the Atlantic Ocean, serving as a kind of trap for turtles. When the waters cool there, the animals start to have health problems, like developing pneumonia. They have problems moving and eating.

Bob Prescott is the director of Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary and helped to prepare the PLOS ONE paper. He notes that the sea turtles know how to leave, but the Cape is like a trap  a hook within a hook.

If the turtles survive, it can take months before they are fully recovered. Adam Kennedy is a biologist at New England Aquariums sea turtle hospital in Quincy, Massachusetts. He says that when the turtles arrive at the hospital they look like they are dead, especially in December.

Other experts argue that climate change alone cannot explain the increased number of turtle strandings.

Jeffrey Seminoff heads the Marine Turtle Ecology and Assessment Program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations National Marine Fisheries Service. He believes that the high number of strandings probably results from the simple fact that theres more turtles.

Seminoff said that the recovery of the turtle population and success of conservation efforts at the nesting beaches could explain the higher number of turtle strandings.

Kennedy, the biologist, said that he has mixed feelings when the turtles are released back into the wild. Its bittersweet, because you spend so much time with them but ultimately every one of these guys getting back to the ocean helps the population.

Recently, Honey Bun  the turtle we met at the beginning of our report  and other turtles were taken to Florida. They were released into the water.

Kelly Shaffer is with National Aquarium Baltimore, which worked with four other groups to organize the turtles release. She noted that she feels a sense of joy and accomplishment at being able to put them back out there.

I'm John Russell.

Michael Casey reported on this story for the Associated Press. John Russell adapted it for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

rehabilitate  v. to bring something back to a normal, healthy condition after a disease, injury or drug problem

strand  v. to leave a person or animal in a place without a way to escape

beach  n. a seaside area covered by sand and larger rocks

conservation  n. careful protection of something

pneumonia  n. a disease that affects the lungs and makes it difficult to breathe

hook  n. a curved device used for catching or holding something

nest  n. the place where an animal lays its eggs and takes care of its young

bittersweet  adj. combining sadness and happiness

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.
Scientists say two rare water frogs had a long-awaited first date and showed signs of mating, which could help save the species.

The two are critically endangered Sehuencas water frogs, native to Bolivia. The male, named Romeo, was considered the last known living member of the species when he was collected from the wild 11 years ago.

But that changed in January, when researchers announced that five additional Sehuencas water frogs had been found. That discovery was made by researchers from Global Wildlife Conservation and Bolivias Alcide dOrbigny Natural History Museum.

The find came after the team increased its search activities in an urgent effort to find a mate for Romeo.

Bolivia has a large number of amphibian species. But Global Wildlife Conservation reports that 22 percent of them - including 10 of 14 kinds of water frogs - face serious threats of disappearing from the planet. Experts blame several causes for the decrease in numbers, including destruction of habitat, the introduction of non-native species, climate change and a deadly disease called chytridiomycosis.

Among the five newly discovered frogs were three females, one of which was identified as a possible ideal partner for Romeo. Scientists named her Juliet.

After months of observation at the natural history museum, officials confirmed that Juliet was free of disease. Then, on March 1, she and Romeo were put into a tank that was new to both of them. After more observation, museum officials decided to move Juliet into Romeos former tank. They believed the move would improve conditions for mating.

Teresa Camacho Badani works with amphibians at the museum. She said in a statement that officials believed it was important to begin the mating process right away. When the fate of an entire species is on the line, theres really no time for taking it slow before committing to moving in together.

She added, Romeo has been really sweet to Juliet. For example, the male frog has been following her around the tank and sacrificing some of his food to her, Badani said. After hes been alone for so long, its wonderful to see him with a mate finally.

Museum officials say one of the first hopeful signs was a change in Romeos calling behavior. He had not been heard making calling sounds since the end of 2017. But he started making the noises again shortly after the pair got moved into Romeos tank.

Since meeting Juliet, Romeo has also been doing something that experts say has never been seen before in this species group. Romeo has been observed quickly moving the toes on his back feet when hes near Juliet. The experts say this species-specific performance is likely an attempt by the male to impress the female.

Although there are signs that Romeo is interested in mating, Badani says he still has some things to learn. The museum reports that so far, he has gotten himself in the correct mating position only a few times for a few minutes.

The mating process involves the male frog holding the female in a certain way, long enough to fertilize her eggs. Generally, mating can only be successful when both frogs stay in position for weeks, or even months. But wildlife experts admit they know very little about the reproductive behavior of this species.

Chris Jordan is head of Global Wildlife Conservations operations in Central America and the Tropical Andes. He said in a statement that it is not known how long the mating process would last for Sehuencas frogs. His team is also not sure how long the eggs would take to develop or how many might be produced.

For now were keeping them together, and observing them, he said. Which as simple as it sounds, is already revealing previously unknown behaviors and answering natural history questions about this relatively unknown species.

Jordan added that the experiment was another example of how little we know about a lot of the species with which we share this planet.

The public can follow Romeo and Juliets progress on Facebook.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from the Global Wildlife Conservation organization. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

Scientists Report Dating Progress between Rare Frog and Mate Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

species  n. group of plants or animals that share similar characteristics

amphibian  n. type of animal that lives both on land and in water

fate  n. the things that will happen to a person

commit  v. make a firm decision to do something

impress  v. make someone admire of respect you

certain  adj. completely sure about something

fertilize  v. to cause an egg to start to develop into a young animal or baby by combining it with a male cell

reveal  v. to make (something) known
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By Ritah Kemigisa.

Tour operators have asked Ugandan media to stop publishing stories that negatively impact the countrys tourism potential.

The call from the chairperson of Tour operators in Uganda follows the abduction of an American tourist and a Ugandan driver in Queen Elizabeth National park.

Joint security forces are still searching for the kidnappers who are demanding for ransom of more than shs 1 billion.

Everest Kayondo says widely publishing such a story directly impacts the number of potential tourists.

It is estimated that more than 2 million foreigners visited Uganda between 2017 and 2018 bringing in more than 4.2 billion dollars.
(Philip Grosser) Uncle Sam's Devil's Island : experiences of a conscientious objector in America during the World War. Published by a group of friends at the Excelsior Press, Boston, (1933?) 19cm, (8), 26, (2)pp, portrait. Original red marble-like wrappers. Prtovenance: Library of Congress, with their surplus stamp on front inside cover. Very crisp copy. Just about in FINE condition. $125

Philip Grosser (1890 in Slavuta  October 3, 1933 in Boston) was an anarchist and anti-militarist hailed by Alexander Berkman as "one of [my] finest comrades". He was imprisoned at the Federal Military Prison on Alcatraz Island, having refused the draft during the first World War. By the end of 1920, two years after the war ended, he was the only remaining conscientious objector at Alcatraz, and in poor health. Grosser is notable for writing one of the first exposes of Alcatraz Prison, the 32-page pamphlet Uncle Sam's Devil's Island, which told of his experience in the prison. He committed suicide in Boston, Massachusetts on October 1933 and was buried on October 20, 1933.--Wikipedia
A joint exhibition presented by the Macao Museum of Art and the British Museum will bring the original drawings of 42 Renaissance artists to Macau starting Thursday, presenting works from renowned figures including Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael. The exhibition will seek to highlight the achievements of Italian art during this period, according to organizers.

The exhibition is divided into six sections: The Human Figure, Movement, Light, Costume and Drapery, The Natural World and Storytelling. The sections combine to examine some of the themes that characterize Renaissance art, according to a statement from the Cultural Affairs Bureau, which oversees the Macao Museum of Art.

Starting from the study of the human form, it explores how artists brought life and dynamism to their compositions through the study of movement, light and shade, and costume, the Cultural Affairs Bureau wrote in its statement.

The exhibition is part of a series of activities being held to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Macao Museum of Art.

As 2019 also marks the 500th anniversary of the passing of the great Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci, the exhibition has been especially scheduled to open in April to coincide with the artists date of birth in April 1452. The artist died in May 1519, almost exactly 500 years ago.

On April 13, the Saturday after the exhibition unveiling, British Museum curator Sarah Vowles will hold a talk conducted in English for those interested in learning more about the works on display and the techniques used by the Renaissance artists.

A number of other exhibition activities have also been created by the Macao Museum of Art, including guided tours with the curator, hands-on tours to the 3D printing section of the exhibition, drawing workshops, courses, and special activities for children and the blind or visually-impaired.

The Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum is home to the national collection of Western prints and drawings. There are around 50,000 drawings and over two million prints dating from the beginning of the 15th century to present day. The collection is available to the public through a program of temporary displays, touring exhibitions and loans.

Italian Renaissance Drawings from the British Museum will be unveiled at the Macao Museum of Art at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday. Supported by the Faculty of Creative Industries of the University of Saint Joseph, as well as Jiangsu-based Suzhou Museum, the exhibition will run until June 30. DB
Portugals University of Evora will tomorrow hold a ceremony where it will bestow Macau businessman Chan Meng Kam with an honorary degree. According to the University, the honoris causa is being given to Chan in return for services rendered toward strengthening relations between the education institution and both Macau and China. It is also related to the Belt and Road Initiative, according to Lusa agency, which has had a huge impact, being economic [but] also cultural and technological. Chan currently chairs the board of City University of Macau, as well as controls the Golden Dragon group. He was formerly an influential lawmaker in Macaus Legislative Assembly, stepping down prior to the 2017 elections.

Health Bureau to monitor unauthorized products

The Macau government has notified in a statement that two healthcare products detected in Hong Kong to contain unauthorized Western medicinal substances were never permitted for import into the MSAR. The two products, LegStep and Bello Smaze, were found to contain substances such as the appetite-suppressant drug sibutramine. The government in the neighboring region has appealed to residents not to buy or consume these products. The products have never been authorized for import or distribution in Macau. Nevertheless, the Health Bureau says it will monitor the circulation of these products in the territory. The bureau said that if residents have purchased these products, they should not consume them and must deliver them to the Department of Pharmaceutical Affairs of the Health Services for proper monitoring.

Fire Services holds Open Day

The Fire Services (CB) organized the Fire Brigade Public Open Day yesterday at the entitys Sai Van Lake operations center located on Avenida Doutor Stanley Ho, inviting residents to gain a deeper understanding of the Services daily tasks. Through a series of activities, participants learned more about CBs coordination efforts, fire prevention work and emergency responses. The Open Day activities included a simulation rescue demonstration, as well as a tour of emergency vehicles and the equipment they contain.
The Nansha Bridge opened last week in Guangdong Province, becoming Chinas first bridge with a 5G network. As the latest major transport project in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, the 12.89-km bridge began to provide 4G and 5G services on the day it opened, according to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council. Also known as the Humen Second Bridge, the 40.5-meter-wide Nansha Bridge is the worlds widest steel box girder suspension bridge. Linking Guangzhou and Dongguan, two cities in the Greater Bay Area, the bridge is designed to relieve traffic pressure in the area.

Vehicle crashes into feast, killing 3 in Guangdong village

Three people were killed and eight others injured after a vehicle ploughed into a family feast on Thursday evening in south Chinas Guangdong Province. The incident happened around 7 p.m. when a villager, under the influence of alcohol, drove a sport utility vehicle into the crowd that was dining in front of a house in Pomeiling Village in the city of Lianjiang, municipal police said Friday. The crash injured 11 people, three of whom later succumbed to injuries. Police have detained the driver and are investigating the case.

Chinese software firm raises USD8.75m in IPO

Zhuhai-based Powerbridge Technologies, a Chinese trade software application and technology services provider, received gross proceeds of around 8.75 million U.S. dollars from its initial public offering (IPO), which the company closed on Thursday, two days after it went public in the United States. Proceeds from the IPO will be used for research and development, sales and marketing, strategic alliances and acquisitions, as well as working capital, and general corporate purposes, said the company. Founded in 1997 and based in southern Chinese city of Zhuhai, Powerbridge provides software application and technology solutions and services to corporate and government customers primarily located in China.
The fate of Wynn Resorts USD2.6 billion Encore Boston Harbor resort is now in the hands of Massachusetts gambling regulators after they wrapped up a series of public hearings into what company officials knew about allegations of sexual misconduct against company founder Steve Wynn last week.

Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chairwoman Cathy Judd-Stein said at the close of the three-day inquiry that the panel will now deliberate privately and take our time making a decision on whether the Las Vegas company is still suitable to hold a state casino license.

Wynn Resorts hopes to open their nearly complete resort on the Everett waterfront in June.

The inquiry opened Tuesday after the commission released a more than 200-page report from its investigative unit that concluded company executives concealed and failed to take action on allegations against Steve Wynn for years. The five-member panel then questioned company leaders and outside experts over the course of two days.

On Thursday, company co- founder Elaine Wynn defended her decision not to disclose to Massachusetts regulators a $7.5 million settlement her ex-husband Steve Wynn made to a former employee who accused him of rape.

Steve Wynn has denied the sexual misconduct allegations, which were made over the years by several former casino workers. He told investigators in a statement that his multiple relationships with company employees were all consensual.

Elaine Wynn, who co-founded Wynn Resorts and is now the companys largest shareholder, told regulators she relied on the companys lawyers to decide what should be disclosed as the company sought a casino license in 2013.

She maintained that she told the companys lawyer about the 2005 settlement in 2009 and had not been aware until recently about some of the other settlements her husband privately made, such as a $700,000 payment to a cocktail waitress in 2008.

Matthew Maddox, the companys new CEO and close confidante of Steve Wynn, told regulators he also did not know about the specifics of some private settlements his former boss reached with former casino employees who had accused him of sexual misconduct until those details became public years later.

Maddox took over after Wynn resigned last year following a Wall Street Journal story detailing the allegations. But hes been with the company since its founding and was best man in one of Steve Wynns weddings.

He said Wednesday he had been aware of the 2008 settlement as the companys then-chief financial officer. But he maintained he was told the payment was to help a financially struggling employee and was on behalf of both Steve and Elaine Wynn.

Maddox said he was also made aware of at least one of a number of complaints made by spa workers at Wynn Las Vegas about Steve Wynns conduct during massages. Maddox, who was company president at the time, said he told the then-president of the casino to tell Steve Wynn to discontinue the behavior.

Maddox acknowledged he should have informed regulators about the allegations in 2018 because he and other company officials were aware of The Wall Street Journals reporting weeks prior to publication.

Company board members testifying Wednesday acknowledged they failed to investigate after learning in 2016 about a $7.5 million settlement Steve Wynn had paid to a former employee in 2005.

Board member Patricia Mulroy said the settlement first came to the boards attention in 2016 during a lawsuit brought by Elaine Wynn, who was then in a bitter feud with Steve Wynn and the company board.

Mulroy said the companys then-legal counsel assured them the incident was an outlier and that Wynn had personally paid the settlement with no liability to the company.

She also maintained the companys legal counsel never told board members the allegation, from a former casino manicurist, involved a rape claim, and that company officials never made the board aware of other settlements.

The word rape was never said, Mulroy said. MDT/AP
Lawyer Jorge Menezes said that the current president of the Legislative Assembly, Ho Iat Seng, lacks political skills which could prevent him from being a good Chief Executive (CE).

I have serious doubts that the current president of the Legislative Assembly will make a good Chief Executive, Menezes said during an interview with TDM Radio, adding, he lacks political skills.

Menezes was commenting on the fact that Ho is seen as one of the most serious candidates in the election for the new CE, at least for the time being, as he is the first to publicly admit the possibility of candidacy.

The way Ho has handled several situations at the AL, such as the case of lawmaker Sulu Sou, or the dismissal of Portuguese legal advisors Paulo Taipa and Paulo Cardinal, is a clear indication of his lack of skill.

Menezes expressed sorrow at the way the two advisors had been dismissed as though it was political pruning, but noted his belief, contrary to others, that the dismissal of the two former advisors was not related to Sous case.

On the program which aired on Saturday, Menezes also added he found it strange that after their dismissal from the AL, the two experienced legal advisors could not find a job elsewhere in Macau, eventually having to return to Portugal. RM
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 Saturday [local time] 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.

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 on 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.

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.

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. Elliot Spagat, San Diego, AP
By Benjamin Jumbe.

Uganda Tourism Board has applauded the countrys security forces for a successful operation that saw the rescue of an American Tourist and her tour guide

A joint security operation last evening rescued an American tourist, Ms Kimberly Sue Endicott and her tour guide Jean Paul, who were last week kidnapped in Queen Elizabeth National Park.

Speaking to Kfm the Boards Executive director Lilly Ajarova says this very important and should give confidence to everyone that Uganda has the capacity to deal with any such incidence

She says tourists should not be afraid of anything

Last week, security forces embarked on a joint operation to hunt gunmen who had kidnapped the American Tourist and the Ugandan tour guide from Queen Elizabeth National Park.
A judge has ruled that an animal shelter can keep a tiger that was rescued from an abandoned Houston home.

The Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch in Murchison has looked after the tiger since February, when some people entered the house to smoke marijuana and found the big cat .

Authorities say the 160 kilogram tiger was improperly secured in a small cage, and was sitting on hay and its own waste.

Houston police believe Brittany Garza is the tigers owner and have filed a civil lawsuit accusing her of animal cruelty. She refuses to explain how she obtained the tiger.

The Houston Chronicle reports that the judge ordered Garza to pay about USD11,600 to cover the cost of the tigers care.

Garzas lawyer declined comment.
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. The remaining captives include a Dutch bird watcher, Elwold Horn, who was kidnapped by the militants 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.

The Malaysian, who was identified by the military as Jari Bin Abudullah, was shot by the militants 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.

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 militants dead and several wounded on both sides, the military said.

The Islamic State 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 the Islamic State group. 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. Jim Gomez, Manila, AP
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has described his dilemma in dealing with a more powerful China in territorial disputes in the South China Sea, saying he has few options other than to order troops to prepare for suicide missions if a Philippine-occupied island comes under threat.

Duterte reminded China in a speech of its closer ties with the Philippines under his leadership, but said if an island occupied by Filipinos in the disputed waters is threatened, things would be different.

Duterte has adopted a non-confrontational approach in territorial spats with Beijing while seeking Chinese infrastructure funds, trade and investment. He has often lashed out at the security policies of the United States, a treaty ally, while praising China and Russia.

Duterte has often had to walk a tightrope when discussing Chinas increasingly assertive actions in the disputed waters, where Manila and Beijing, along with four other governments, have wrangled for control of territory.

The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs on Thursday issued a rare public rebuke of large numbers of Chinese vessels near islands and islets occupied by the Philippines in the disputed waters, saying the Chinese presence was illegal. The Philippine military has monitored more than 200 Chinese vessels from January to March in a disputed area named Sandy Cay near a Philippine-occupied island called Pag-asa by Filipinos.

Im trying to tell China, Pag-asa is ours [] so let us be friends but do not touch Pag-asa Island and the rest. Otherwise, things would be different, Duterte said. This is not a warning, this is just a word of advice to my friends, because China is our friend.

I will not plead or beg, but Im just telling you [to] lay off [of] Pag-asa because I have soldiers there, he said. If you touch it, thats another story. Then I will tell my soldiers prepare for suicide missions.

When he first met President Xi Jinping in Beijing in 2016, Duterte said he told him, We are staking our claim in our economic zone and we will dig for oil in our territory. But Duterte said the Chinese leader replied that was better to hold talks first because if you insist on your position, there might be trouble.

I had no choice, Duterte said. If I send my navy and my soldiers there tomorrow and start to travel toward them, in a matter of seconds theyll all explode [] they will be slaughtered and the missiles that are parked there will arrive in Manila in about four minutes. Do you want a war?

Duterte said the Americans would comply with their obligations under their Mutual Defense Treaty with Manila but that they need congressional permission before going to war. Do I trust the Americans? Yes. But will that help be on time? Thats the problem, he said.

He raised anew his criticism of America for failing to stop Chinas transformation of seven disputed reefs into islands, some of them with runways, in the South China Sea. After he took office in 2016, Duterte said the Chinese islands had become military garrisons.

Why was it not stopped by America? Duterte asked. Jim Gomez, Manila, AP
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When Elyse Imamura's son was an infant, she and her husband, Robert, chose to spread out his vaccinations at a more gradual pace than the official schedule recommended.

"I was thinking, 'OK, we're going to do this,' " says Imamura, 39, of Torrance, Calif. " 'But we're going to do it slower so your body gets acclimated and doesn't face six different things all of a sudden.' "

Seven years later, Imamura says her son, Amaru, is a "very healthy," active boy who loves to play sports.

But delaying vaccines is risky. Many pediatricians will tell you a more gradual approach to vaccinations is better than no vaccinations at all, but they offer some hard advice to parents who are considering it.

"Every day you are eligible to get a vaccine that you don't get one, the chance of an invasive disease remains," says Dr. Charles Golden, executive medical director of the Primary Care Network at Children's Hospital of Orange County.

Recent outbreaks of measles, mumps and whooping cough have once again reignited a war of words over vaccinations.

The squabble is often painted as two-sided: in one camp, the medical establishment, backed by science, strongly promoting the vaccination of children against 14 childhood diseases by age 2. In the other, a small but vocal minoritythe so-called anti-vaxxersshunning the shots, believing the risks of vaccines outweigh the dangers of the diseases.

The notion that there are two opposing sides obscures a large middle ground occupied by up to one-quarter of parents, who believe in vaccinating their children but, like the Imamuras, choose to do so more gradually. They worry about the health impact of so many shots in so short a period, and in some cases they forgo certain vaccines entirely.

Alternative vaccine schedules have been around for years, promoted by a few doctors and touted by celebrities such as Jenny McCarthy. Donald Trump endorsed the idea during a 2015 Republican presidential debate.

The concept gained a large following more than a decade ago, when Robert W. Sears, an Orange County, Calif., pediatrician, published "The Vaccine Book," in which he included two alternative schedules. Both delay vaccines, and one of them also allows parents to skip shots for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), chickenpox, hepatitis A and polio.

Sears' book became the vaccination bible for thousands of parents, who visited their pediatricians with it in tow. But his ideas have been widely rejected by the medical establishment and he was punished by the Medical Board of California last year after it accused him of improperly exempting a 2-year-old from all future vaccinations. He declined to be interviewed for this column.

Imamura, who describes herself as "definitely not an anti-vaxxer," says she and her husband "followed Sears to a T." They limited the number of vaccines for their son to no more than two per appointment, compared with up to six in the official schedule. And they skipped the shot for chickenpox.

She concedes, however: "If there'd been outbreaks like now, it would have affected my thinking about delaying vaccines."

The ideas promoted by Sears and others have contributed to parents' worries that front-loading shots could overwhelm their babies' immune systems or expose them to toxic levels of chemicals such as mercury, aluminum and formaldehyde.

But scientific evidence does not support that. Infectious-disease doctors and public health officials say everyday life presents far greater challenges to children's immune systems.

"Touching another human being, crawling around the house, they are exposed to so many things all the time on a daily basis, so these vaccines don't add much to that," says Dr. Pia Pannaraj, a pediatric infectious-diseases specialist at Children's Hospital Los Angeles.

The same is true of some of the metals and chemicals contained in vaccines, which vaccination skeptics blame for autism despite numerous studies finding no linkthe most recent published earlier this month.

In the first six months of life, babies get far more aluminum from breast milk and infant formula than from vaccines, public health experts say.

"When you look at babies that have received aluminum-containing vaccines, you can't even tell the level has gone up," says Paul Offit, professor of pediatrics at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and director of the hospital's Vaccine Education Center. The same is true of formaldehyde and mercury, he adds.

(Offit co-invented Merck's RotaTeq vaccine for rotavirus, and CHOP sold the royalty rights to it for $182 million in 2008. CHOP declined to comment on what Offit's share was.)

Parents who are concerned about mercury, aluminum or other vaccine ingredients should avoid information shared on social media, which can be misleading. Instead, check out the Vaccine Education Center on CHOP's website at www.chop.edu by clicking on the "Departments" tab.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also provides a detailed breakdown of the ingredients in every vaccine at www.cdc.gov/vaccines.

If your child has a condition you fear might be incompatible with vaccinations, discuss it with your pediatrician. The CDC gives very specific guidelines on who should not receive vaccines, including kids who have immune system deficiencies or are getting chemotherapy or taking certain medications.

If your children are not among them, vaccinate them. That will help prevent outbreaks, protecting those who, for medical reasons, have not received the shots.

When parents resist, Pannaraj says, she emphasizes that the potential harm from infections is far more severe than the risks of the vaccines. She notes, for example, that the risk of getting encephalitis from the measles is about 1,000 times greater than from the vaccine.

Still, side effects do occur. Most are mild, but severe casesthough rareare not unheard of. To learn about the potential side effects of vaccines, look on the CDC website or discuss it with your pediatrician.

Emily Lawrence Mendoza, 35, says that after her second child, Elsie, got her first measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot at 12 months of age, she spiked a fever and developed a full body rash that looked like a mild version of the disease.

It took three visits to urgent care before a doctor acknowledged that Elsie, now almost 5, could have had a mild reaction to the vaccine. After that, Mendoza, of Orange, Calif., decided to adopt a more gradual vaccination schedule for her third child.

Yet Mendoza says Elsie's adverse reaction made her realize the importance of vaccinations: "What if she'd been exposed to a full-blown case of the measles?"

Explore further You're probably not allergic to vaccines

2019 Kaiser Health News

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
When the Rolling Stone's Mick Jagger underwent heart valve replacement surgery in New York recently, according to media reports the doctor in France who invented the technique took a modest bow.

"I am not especially a fan of the Rolling Stones but I am pleased with the outcome," Professor Alain Cribier told AFP. "What is moving is to think about all the patients who have benefited from the procedure."

"I'm feeling much better now and on the mend," Jagger, 75, wrote on Twitter.

Weighing his words carefully, the soft-spoken cardiologist who pioneered the technique in 2002 doesn't have the allure of a rock star.

But in his field, many colleagues see him that way.

Known as transcatheter aortic valve replacement, or TAVR, his method has gradually replaced open-heart surgery for repairing the valve that allows the delivery of blood through the aorta.

The most commonand seriousof valve diseases, age-related aortic stenosis occurs when the valve narrows and hardens with calcium deposits.

Valve replacement has historically been done by opening the chest surgically, stopping the heart, and placing the patient on a heart and lung blood machineall, of course, under general anaesthesia.

More than 200,000 such procedures are performed every year worldwide, according to NewHeartValve, in Britain.

Cribier's technique, done under local anaesthesia, is minimally invasive by comparison and has far shorter recovery times.

A surgeon or cardiologist accesses the femoral artery with an incision near the groin to insert a catheter fitted with a replacement valve inside a collapsed stent, and a balloon for inflating it.

The new heart valve, once expanded, pushes the old one out of the way and takes over the job of regulating blood flow.

"It has revolutionised patient care in this area," Montpellier-based cardiologist Stephane Cade told AFP.

'Brought tears to my eyes'

Since first performing the surgery in 2002, Cribier had trained dozens of doctors around the world. At first, TAVR was reserved for patients too weak or old to undergo open-heart surgery.

But over the last decade, its use has been expanded to those for whom the traditional approach poses an "intermediate risk".

Since 2009, 400,000 patients in 65 countries have undergone the procedure, Cribier said.

Those numbers could now expand rapidly.

A study based on clinical trials published in The New England Journal of Medicine last month concluded that TAVR is safer and yields better results for "low-risk patients" as well.

"I must say reading the the study brought tears to my eyes," said Cribier.

The idea first came to him in the 1980s.

"At the time, we let patients over 75 simply diewe didn't operate," he recalled.

After a first attempt to develop a new technique failed, finding one that worked become "an obsession," he said.

When he finally succeeded, the approach was greeted with scepticism.

"Heart surgeons were completely opposed. 'Who is this nutcase that's trying to undercut our work?'," they asked.

Today, TAVR is performed mostly by cardiologists, not surgeons. But that too could soon change.

"Surgeons are now confronted with the evidence," Cribier said. "They will start adopting it now."

One unknown is the lifespan of the new valves, which are made from bovine tissue.

"It has only been in use for a relatively short periodwe just don't know yet," commented Herve Douard, a cardiologist in Bordeaux.

 2019 AFP
Fluorescence microscopy image of the newly formed blood vessels after injection of our seaweed-derived hydrogel in a muscle. In green are the blood vessels and in blue the cell nuclei. Credit: Aurelien Forget, Roberto Gianni-Barrera, Andrea Banfi and Prasad Shastri, Author provided

When we have small wounds on our skin or muscles they can usually heal by themselves.

But in deeper wounds  such as those in diabetic patients or in muscle tissue after a heart attack  repair is more difficult. These sorts of issues often require more serious treatments, and may eventually need amputation or a transplant if healing is not complete.

While organ transplants save lives, we fall short in available organs for this procedure, and alternative methods are needed.

Technology such as bioprinting has been proposed to build fully functional organs outside the body. But what if we could boost our own regenerative capabilities? Would it be possible to create the organs inside the body?

In a recent publication we demonstrate that by a simple injection of a gel extracted from edible seaweeds, we can direct the body to create stable blood vessels in a muscle. These vessels are the key in helping tissue to live.

These results are an important step toward regenerative therapies based solely on biomaterials.

What are regenerative therapies?

Regenerative therapy (also called regenerative medicine) is an area of research that combines medicine, molecular biology, and biotechnology. It aims to engineer tissues or organs and restore normal function.

Process of biofabrication of patient specific organs. Credit: Steffen Harr

As an example, 3-D bioprinting has had some success, such as the creation of implantable corneas for the eye.

But this approach requires specialised manufacturing facilities. The cells must be isolated, grown in a bioreactor  a special vessel providing the right environment for tissue growth  and used to create artificial organs under controlled and sterile conditions.

A new approach emerged a couple of years ago. This uses the body to produce a particular type of tissue or cells, and is called the in vivo (in the body) bioreactor. This was initially developed to make bones.

To create tissue in the human body, we need to trigger and exploit our own regenerative capabilities. Unfortunately we are not as good as salamanders: we can't regrow a new limb.

But with some help, we could regenerate individual tissues. To achieve this, the help can come in the form of materials that:

reproduce the tissue properties needed, such as the stiffness of the tissues

carry chemical and biological signals that can direct the tissue growth

A tissue is defined as a group of cells working together for a specific function. As an example, muscle tissues are made of cells organised into fibres, forming the so-called muscle fibres.

Agarose powder used in the laboratory for the separation of DNA and agar used to make jelly cakes. Credit: Aurelien Forget

Materials that can talk with cells

Our body's tissues are made up of many different cell types, and also materials that exist outside the cells. These materials are known as the extracellular matrix (ECM).

The ECM is made up of several different elements. It holds water, and also stores vital information to help cells move, grow and organise into functional tissues.

We don't need to go into the details of what the ECM is made of here. But what we can say is that scientists can copy many of its functions using a gel-like material called hydrogel. This can be modified to pass specific biological information to cells.

Edible seaweed to create blood vessels

We have been developing a new class of injectable hydrogel.

The material making the hydrogel is called agarose, which is also used to make jelly cakes in the kitchen, and in biology laboratories to separate DNA.

Agarose is a polysaccharide  a long chain of sugar  that is extracted from red seaweed found in many oceans around the world.

Formation of new blood vessels induced by an injectable therapeutic material. Credit: Steffen Harr

In our lab, we can modify agarose by attaching a small molecule (a peptide) that will talk to the cells. Using this approach, we have created a unique formulation of the hydrogel that provides the ideal environment for certain cells to organise into blood vessels.

Now in our latest work with collaborators at the University Hospital of Basel, we show that this same hydrogel injected into muscle can "talk" to the body and initiate the formation of new blood vessels.

Previously, only cartilage or bone could be regenerated within the body.

Future therapies

This approach paves the way for the creation of a new class of therapies in which injectable materials could become as useful as pharmaceutical drugs.

We envision that in certain cases a patient with a defect organ might one day be able to get an injection of a material that will carry with it information to talk to cells and direct their organisation into new functional tissues.

This approach would let our body do most of the complicated tasks, in contrast to cell therapies or bioprinting of organs outside the bodywhere cells must be harvested, grown and re-implanted. Materials therapies would be highly valuable for patients in remote location where complex infrastructures are not available.

More speculatively, organ bioprinting is considered as one of the critical technologies for the expansion of the humans to other planets.

By using regeneration-triggering materials to overcome injuries or disease we could leave the critical repair task for our body. Perhaps one day a person living in space would be able to inject themselves with one of these materials.

Explore further Creating blood vessels on demand

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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, Ph.D., 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.

Explore further Bacteria responsible for gum disease facilitates rheumatoid arthritis

More information: Jan Potempa will present this research on Sunday, April 7, from 1-1:30 p.m. in Room W208A, Orange County Convention Center ( Jan Potempa will present this research on Sunday, April 7, from 1-1:30 p.m. in Room W208A, Orange County Convention Center ( abstract ).

Provided by Experimental Biology
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Using information from two national surveys, researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Guttmacher Institute have found that in some metropolitan areas, more than a quarter of young, African American men reported having sexual intercourse before age 13, and for about 45 percent of them, the sex was either unwanted or experienced with "mixed feelings."

The researchers caution that while self-reporting surveys have limitations, they say similar results drawn from multiple data sources suggest that rates of underage male sex in metropolitan areas are substantially higher than previously estimated using only national data.

They also find that race, ethnicity and location play a larger than appreciated role.

The researchers say their study, described in the April 8 issue of JAMA Pediatrics, points to the need for better and much earlier access not only to sex education, but also sexual health clinics, family planning and parenting services, and mental health counseling services for inner city male youth, particularly if they have experienced unwanted sex.

"Young men having sex before age 13 usually haven't received the appropriate sex education and services, and we need a better system to respond to their needs," says Arik Marcell, M.D., M.P.H., senior author of the study and associate professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins Children's Center. "The cultural double standard about sexual behavior in the United States, in which it is OK for young boys, but not girls, to be sexually active, has prevented us from effectively addressing male adolescents' vulnerabilities and their healthy sexual development," Marcell adds.

Currently, 24 states and the District of Columbia mandate sex education at some level. Although most adolescents receive some form of sex education between grades six and 12, with some as early as grades four or five, the researchers say what they learn is highly dependent on their region, school and parents' decisions to allow them in the classes. In 2014, fewer than half of high schools and only 20 percent of middle schools delivered sex education covering all 16 critical sexual education topics identified by the CDC, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

"I have heard boys and adolescents talking about their first sex encounters in a way that suggests they didn't anticipate, understand or know what was happening or what's appropriate and what's not," says Marcell, "I was concerned that such early sex experiences happening to boys could be unwanted and influence their future health. We used the data available to us in these surveys to attempt a better look at the scale and pattern of this problem across the nation."

Young men who reported in the national family growth survey that they first had sex before age 13 described a range of attitudes about this experience. Only 55 percent said that their first sexual experience was wanted, while 8 percent said it was unwanted and 37 percent said they had mixed feelings about it.

The investigators underscored the importance of recognizing young people's perspectives, and also noted that reports of whether a first sexual experience was wanted may be influenced by gender and race expectations, stereotypes, peer pressure and coercion.

"Too often, the sexual health needs of young men are overlooked," says Guttmacher Institute researcher Laura Lindberg. "Outdated attitudes and harmful gender stereotypes leave many young men without needed information and services."

Researchers say the study looked only at age at reported first sex, and that further efforts are needed to look at behaviors over time and how this affects their future sexual experiences.

Explore further Fewer American teens having sex, most using birth control
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Older adults and their families often wonder: Where's the best place to recover after a hip or knee replacementat home or in a rehabilitation facility?

Increasingly, the answer appears to be home if the procedure is elective, friends and family are available to help and someone doesn't have serious conditions that could lead to complications.

This trend is likely to accelerate as evidence mounts that recuperating at home is a safe alternative and as hospitals alter medical practices in response to changing Medicare policies.

The newest data comes from a March study in JAMA Internal Medicine of 17 million Medicare hospitalizations of people from 2010 to 2016. All the patients were older adults and went home or to a skilled nursing facility after a medical procedure or a serious illness. Knee and hip replacements were the most common reason for these hospitalizations.

People who were sent home with home health care services demonstrated the same level of functional improvement as those who went to a skilled nursing facility (assessments examined their ability to walk and get up and down stairs, among other activities), the study found. And they were no more likely to die 30 days after surgery (a very small percentage in each group). Overall, costs were significantly lower for patients who went home, while hospital readmissions were slightly highera possible signal that home health care services needed strengthening or that family caregivers needed better education and training.

"What this study tells us is it's certainly safe to send people home under many circumstances," said Dr. Vincent Mor, a professor of health services, policy and practice at Brown University's School of Public Health who wrote an editorial accompanying the study.

The new report expands on previous research that came to a similar conclusion. In 2017, experts from New York City's Hospital for Special Surgery published a study that examined 2,400 patients who underwent total knee replacements and were discharged home or to a skilled nursing facility for rehabilitation between May 2007 and February 2011. There were no differences in complication rates at six months or in functional recovery and patient-reported outcomes at two years.

"As a result of these findings, we are encouraging all of our patients to consider home discharge after TKA (total knee arthroplasty)," the authors wrote.

The year before, researchers at New York University reported in JAMA Internal Medicine that from 2009 to 2012 and 2013-14, discharges to rehabilitation facilities fell from 68 to 34 percent for patients undergoing hip and knee replacements, from 71 to 22 percent for patients with cardiac valve replacement surgeries, and from 40 to 30 percent for patients who'd had spinal fusion surgery. Instead, more people were sent home to recover. During this period, NYU Langone Medical Center assumed financial responsibility for "episodes of care" for joint replacements that include the post-hospital recovery perioda policy that Medicare is now promoting.

Diane Rubin, 67, who lives on Long Island, had a hip replacement at the NYU medical center in January. Before the surgery, she got a list of things she'd need to do to prepare for her recovery; afterward, a nurse and physical therapist visited her at home regularly for about three weeks. "I was more comfortable recuperating at home and I've had absolutely no complications," she said.

How do physicians decide where to send patients? "In general, we tend to send patients to skilled nursing facilities who are older, sicker, more deconditioned after surgery, and who have no spouse or caregiver, fewer resources and little social support," said Dr. Leora Horwitz, a co-author of that study and associate professor of population health and medicine at New York University School of Medicine.

Though it's widely believed that people who live alone might not do well going home, last year researchers at The Rothman Orthopaedic Institute at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia published research showing that isn't necessarily the case. At their institution, patients are assigned a nurse navigator who provides assistance before and after hip or knee replacements. Patients who lived alone stayed in the hospital longer and received more home health care services than those who lived with others.

When they recuperated at home, the Rothman Orthopaedics patients didn't have higher rates of medical complications, returns to the hospital or emergency room visits than those who went to rehabilitation facilities. Nearly 90 percent of people who lived alone said they'd again choose a home discharge.

Dr. William Hozack, a co-author of the study and professor of orthopedic surgery at Thomas Jefferson University Medical School, acknowledged that patients who go to rehabilitation are probably sicker and more debilitated than those who go home, potentially biasing research results. Still, practices have changed considerably. Today, he and his colleagues send 95 percent of patients who get hip and knee replacements home to recover, instead of directing them to institutions.

People shouldn't underestimate how much help they may require at home, especially in the first few weeks after surgery, said Carol Levine, director of the United Hospital Fund's families and health care project, who has had two hip replacements. The potential downsides to going home include a greater burden on caregivers and the possibility that complications won't be identified as quickly, needs will go unmet if friends and family can't pitch in, and people won't follow through on recommended rehabilitation regimens. And outcomes may not be as favorable if services that support people at home aren't readily available

Utah's Intermountain Healthcare, a health system that operates 23 hospitals and nearly 170 medical clinics, is bringing an array of servicespalliative care, dialysis, primary care and hospital careinto the home through its new Intermountain at Home program. Recovering at home after a hospital procedure is also a focus, and Intermountain has created standardized procedures for hip and knee replacements over the past few years, according to Rajesh Shrestha, the system's chief operating officer of community-based care.

Every joint-replacement patient going home after surgery now gets a thorough assessment to determine the resources that are needed. A care plan is created and a case manager, usually a registered nurse, makes sure that physical therapy, durable medical equipment and home health care are supplied. The case manager also coordinates postoperative care with orthopedic surgeons and makes sure that patients reconnect post-surgery with their primary care physicians. And a team of providers is available 24/7.

During the past few years, discharges to rehabilitation facilities have declined by half at most of Intermountain's Utah facilities, with no notable increase in complications or hospital readmissions, Shrestha said. During 2018, 85 percent of knee replacement patients and 88 percent of hip replacement patients went home after surgery, respectively.

At Kaiser Permanente, a health plan with more than 12 million members, a substantial number of patients who get elective hip and knee replacements are skipping a hospital stay altogether and going home the same day. In Kaiser's Southern California region, same-day joint replacement home discharges now total about 50 percent, according to Dr. Nithin Reddy, who oversees joint replacements for the region. (Kaiser Health News is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.)

Kaiser Permanente has made this possible by changing how procedures are done (an anterior approach for hip replacements, for example), introducing new protocols for pain management (opioids are used less frequently), altering anesthesia protocols (less general anesthesia and more regional anesthesia), reducing blood transfusions and hiring "total joint coordinators" (typically nurses) to help with the transition from the hospital to home. All patients go home with home health care, receive two outreach calls the week after surgery and get comprehensive handbooks with checklists of what to do before and after surgery and common concerns to look out for.

"We have very robust discharge criteria: Patients have to have well-managed pain and be able to get in and out of bed by themselves and in and out of the restroom by themselves. And they need to be able to walk 50 to 75 feet unassisted, using a walker," Reddy said. "If they can't do those things, they aren't safe for a home discharge and (rehabilitation at) a skilled nursing facility would come into play."

Magdalena Ritayik, 66, one of the doctor's patients, had a knee replacement last September after cortisone shots stopped working and pain became a constant companion. Six years before, her husband had both knees replaced, separately, and stayed in the hospital three days each time. By contrast, Ritayik went home the afternoon after her surgery, only to find a nurse and physical therapist waiting there for her.

"The nurse went over all the medications, when to take them and how much. The physical therapist showed me how to do bending and stretching with a chair in the living room and to raise (my leg) while I was lying on the bed," Ritayik said. "The first week you have to stay home. After the second week, I was walking almost like regular. A month after the surgery, I was at full extension and full bending."

Explore further No increased risk of complications for joint replacement in ambulatory surgery setting

2019 Kaiser Health News

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Escherichia coli. Credit: Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIAID, NIH

A team of investigators has identified a cluster of four patients harboring Escherichia coli carrying a rare antibiotic resistance gene, mcr-1. That gene renders the microbe resistant to colistin, an antibiotic of last resort against some multidrug-resistant infections. Three of those patients showed no symptoms, raising the risk of spread. The research is published in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

"Our findings were part of a prospective surveillance study of patients with a weakened immune system, and our characterization of these isolates had originally missed this type of resistance, since it is not identified by conventional drug susceptibility testing," said principal investigator Anne-Catrin Uhlemann, MD, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. "While mcr-1 has been described from other parts of the world, it has been very rare in the US."

Using whole genome sequencing, the investigators found that the bacteria in each patient, while closely related to each other, were not identical. "We then reviewed the clinical course of each individual and noted that the first patient had presented with an infection, whereas the other three only carried the bacteria in their feces," said Dr. Uhlemann. "None of these three patients developed an infection with these bacteria."

"The detection of this cluster demonstrates the potential for silent dissemination of mcr-1 in the US hospital setting, through asymptomatic colonization," said Dr. Uhlemann. "Our findings represent the earliest known documented healthcare-associated cluster of mcr-1 in the United States, and predates a recent report that occurred in 2017." However, Dr. Uhlemann emphasized that the team's molecular survey of more than 500 samples detected no additional cases, and that "colonization was not associated with clinical infection."

The research grew out of a concern with the growing prevalence of antimicrobial resistance, said Dr. Uhlemann, noting that current predictions suggest that by 2050 resistant infections might cause more deaths than cancer.

"We routinely examine the stool samples from patients undergoing liver transplantation for colonization with drug-resistant bacteria," said Dr. Uhlemann. "Our findings highlight the need for ongoing surveillance of mcr-1 and other forms of transferrable resistance to polymyxins [a type of antibiotic] in the US."

They further suggest that patients with a weakened immune system are at particular risk to acquire these types of bacteria, and are important to study. In order to stop further spread of emerging forms of polymyxin resistance, further surveillance approaches need to recognize that clinical isolates may only represent the tip of the iceberg of the burden of asymptomatic colonization.
Performance-enhancing steroid use could increase the risk of cocaine use and addiction in teens, according to a new rodent study. The combination of these drugs could also impair fertility in young women. The research will be presented today at the American Physiological Society's (APS) annual meeting at Experimental Biology 2019 in Orlando, Fla.

Athletes sometimes use anabolic steroids to boost performance. In addition to building muscle, performance-enhancing drugs have been found to affect mood and behavior, including risk-taking behavior. Previous research has shown that approximately one-third of young adults who use anabolic steroids also use cocaine. This rate is substantially higher than the roughly 5 percent of young adults who use cocaine but do not take anabolic steroids. Although there appears to be a link between anabolic steroid use and the tendency to use other addiction-forming drugs in adults, it has not been well-studied in adolescents.

Researchers from the University of Puerto Rico studied female rats, half of which were exposed to nandrolone, one of the anabolic steroids most commonly used by young adults. After 10 days of steroid exposure, the animals were divided into four groups:

One group was exposed to nandrolone only.

One group was exposed to nandrolone and cocaine.

One group was exposed to cocaine only.

A control group was exposed to neither nandrolone nor cocaine.

The researchers observed that the group exposed to nandrolone showed increased sensitivity to cocaine called locomotor sensitizationthan the other groups. The researchers also saw a reduction in ovary weight and the development of ovarian cystswhich can compromise fertilityin the nandrolone groups. The animals exposed to cocaine alone did not show the same level of drug-induced locomotor sensitization.

Exposure to androgens during adolescence "modifies the brain circuitry that regulates addictive behaviors, increasing the psychoactive properties of cocaine," the researchers wrote. In addition, anabolic steroids are also detrimental to the female reproductive system and may reduce fertility. A similar outcome in humans could significantly increase the risk of cocaine addiction and negatively affect fertility in teen athletes who use performance-enhancing steroids.

Explore further Anabolic steroids linked to higher rates of premature death in men

More information: Carlos Rivero, a graduate student at the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus, will present the poster "Nandrolone use during adolescence increases cocaine sensitization and impairs reproductive function in adult female rats" on Monday, April 8, in the Exhibit Hall-West of the Orlando County Convention Center.
Credit: University of South Australia

A South Australia startup, Lookinglass, based at UniSA's Innovation & Collaboration Centre has today released an artificial intelligence (AI) web app that can detect early-stage Parkinson's disease.

Users simply upload a video recording and while it uploads, the computer vision system simultaneously uses AI to track movement and compares it with known Parkinson's symptoms. A report is created almost instantly.

Newly appointed CEO Kelly Carpenter says the app comes as a welcome improvement to current telehealth technologies, especially for occupational therapists working with patients in remote areas.

"The problem for occupational therapists is in the ability to remotely assess patient movement using manual technology," she says.

"Our solution removes the manual effort for diagnosis and reduces error caused by ineffective communication technologies."

So far, the software platform has been tested with 16 occupational therapists and at nursing homes in South Australia.

Lookinglass made headlines in February, with the announcement of its upcoming smart mirror. The mirror acts as an extension of the app, which simplifies the assessment process for occupational therapists.

The software will be integrated with the smart mirror as a real-time video-based diagnostic tool, designed for ongoing interaction in the home and the monitoring of symptoms over time.

"We want to help communities that need it the most by removing the barrier to accessing expert healthcare," Ms Carpenter says.

Lookinglass' Chief Technology Officer, Simon Cullen says he created the app to reach older Australians with an easy solution.

"It's difficult for people in remote locations to access telehealth solutions and Parkinson's disease makes it especially difficult for users to be able to push a button or press a touch-pad," he says.

"Our mirror will remove these barriers to accessing expert healthcare."

The potential for this product has wide-reaching applications, especially for those who are isolated, living without assistance or in remote and regional areas.

Lookinglass' website shows a conceptual video of the mirror in use. The video demonstrates a range of potential applications in fitness, health and wellness beyond the product's initial purpose.

Mr Cullen indicated that as interest for the technology has grown, so too has the enthusiasm for the ways it could be used.

The Lookinglass team aim to have an advanced prototype of the mirror ready by the end of the year.

Access the application at app.lookinglass.co/.

More information on the recent addition of CEO Kelly Carpenter.

Kelly Carpenter recently joined the Lookinglass team as CEO alongside Cullen in March 2019. The pair met while working UniSA's startup incubator, the Innovation & Collaboration Centre (ICC).

"Kelly's unique background in screen development, industrial design and human-interaction design is a huge benefit to the business," says Mr Cullen.

"I've seen her leadership acumen first-hand here at the ICC."

Explore further Doctor video visits increase access to healthcare but could risk fragmentation
The findings of the new study, published on The Lancet's EClinicalMedicine, will now be incorporated by the NHS into the Saving Babies' Lives care advice information for pregnant women Credit: University of Huddersfield

Research spearheaded by a University of Huddersfield lecturer has shown that pregnant women can lower the risk of stillbirth by sleeping on their side and not on their back.

Now the finding forms part of official NHS guidance designed to bring about reductions in the number of babies who are stillborn in the UKamounting to nine a day, or one in every 225 births.

Dr. Tomasina Stacey is Reader of Midwifery Practice at the University. She carried out her doctoral research while based at Auckland University in New Zealand, investigating whether sleeping position was a factor in stillbirth. She concluded that the small proportion of pregnant women who sleep on their backs did run a higher risk, because the weight of the uterus can reduce blood flow to the baby.

Her findings from this initial exploratory study were described in an article published by the British Medical Journal. It was the first study to report maternal sleep-related practices as risk factors for stillbirth. It triggered further research, culminating in a large-scale international project that gathered data from New Zealand, the UK, Australia and the USA.

This study included 851 bereaved mothers and 2,257 women with ongoing pregnancy and has now resulted in a multi-authored article available in EClinicalMedicine, published by The Lancet.

The chief finding is that going to sleep lying on the back from 28 weeks of pregnancy increased the risk of stillbirth by 2.6 times. This heightened risk occurred regardless of the other known risk factors for stillbirth.

The UK charity Tommy's, which funds research into miscarriage, stillbirth and premature birth, has included Dr. Stacey's findings about sleep position in its advice to pregnant women. And now the NHS has incorporated them in its Saving Babies' Lives care bundlea dossier of advice issued as part of a push to halve the rate of stillbirths in the UK.

The care bundle states: "In later pregnancy (after 28 weeks), it is safer to go to sleep on your side than on your back". It advises practitioners to "encourage women to settle on their side when they go to sleep or have a day-time nap, rather than on their back. A woman who wakes up on her back shouldn't worry, but should settle to sleep again her side".

Sleeping position remains an important strand of Dr. Stacey's research. It originated when she and a team at the University of Aucklandincluding her Ph.D. supervisor Professor Lesley McCowanwere investigating the relatively high rates of stillbirth in New Zealand.

"We decided to look at a range of modifiable risk factors and this was one of them," said Dr. Stacey.

"The next phase is to ensure that there is consistent advice from healthcare professionals and we will be looking to see if there are ways of helping to support women to sleep in the side position.

"Only a small proportion of women will be affected," continued Dr. Stacey. "But the studies that we did following the first findings suggested that women were quite happy to change their going to sleep position if it was better for their babies."

Explore further Mega study confirms pregnant women can reduce risk of stillbirth by sleeping on their side

More information: Robin S. Cronin et al, An Individual Participant Data Meta-analysis of Maternal Going-to-Sleep Position, Interactions with Fetal Vulnerability, and the Risk of Late Stillbirth, EClinicalMedicine (2019). Journal information: British Medical Journal (BMJ) , The Lancet Robin S. Cronin et al, An Individual Participant Data Meta-analysis of Maternal Going-to-Sleep Position, Interactions with Fetal Vulnerability, and the Risk of Late Stillbirth,(2019). DOI: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2019.03.014
Documents show tobacco companies have marketed their products to young people. Credit: Canna Obscura/shutterstock.com

Big Tobacco is increasingly using social media to find new ways to hook young people on smoking, circumventing decades of laws restricting the marketing of traditional cigarettes to minors.

In major cities around the world such as Rio de Janeiro, Cairo, Jakarta and Milan, tobacco companies have been holding extravagant events with names like "K_Player" and "RedMoveNow" that were designed to connect with young people. Often featuring alcohol, live music and attractive hosts, these lavish events spare no expense as they seek find new buyers for their tobacco products.

The problem? Those party-goers are carefully targeted young influencers, who are encouraged to share photos of their glamorous tobacco-sponsored adventures with friends and followers on social media using appealing hashtags like #iamonthemove, #decideyourflow and #mydaynow. And although the influencers are over 18, their social media followers can be much younger.

This exploitation of social media's organic reach is one of the findings from a global research project I've been working on since 2016 with more than a dozen different scholars. The anti-smoking advocacy group Tobacco-Free Kids noticed a lot of photos of young people with cigarettes turning up in their online scans of global social media and asked me to look into it.

My own research focuses on how to rigorously research online culture using natural observational techniques, something that this study definitely required.

My team's task was to monitor, report upon and analyze the programs behind the hashtagged social media posts of young people smoking. What we learned about tobacco company's current advertising surprised us.

Skirting marketing restrictions

Tobacco companies have always had a knack for finding creative ways to skirt regulations intended to curb marketing to young people.

In 1971, the U.S. Congress banned tobacco ads from television and radio. In response, companies invested heavily in outdoor advertising and magazines. In 1997, the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement banned tobacco on outdoor and billboard ads. In response, tobacco money flowed into sponsorships of sports, music and other events. These type of event sponsorships were banned, with some exceptions, in 2010, at the same time wider restrictions on youth marketing were also introduced.

No matter the medium, the messaging was often the same: find ways to reach new and young potential smokers. As documents from the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library reveal, tobacco executives have long believed that the continued survival and success of their companies depends on one thing: convincing young people to buy their products.

In 2005, the World Health Organization banned tobacco advertising in 168 signatory countries. By 2010, the U.S. had closed a lot of Big Tobacco's favorite advertising and tobacco loopholes.

With conventional media mostly off-limits, what was Big Tobacco to do? Like the Marlboro Man, the unregulated Wild West of social media rode to the rescue.

The perfect marketing medium

Social media fits Big Tobacco's advertising needs to a tee.

At least 88 percent of American youth say they use social media apps like Facebook and Instagram regularly, and the technologies are notoriously difficult to regulate.

With Tobacco-Free Kids' financial support, I assembled a growing team of researchers to investigate. Our work is ongoing.

My team collected a plethora of social media data and also conducted interviews with a range of tobacco brand ambassadors, party attendees, influencers and industry insiders from around the world. What we found was an astoundingly effective use of social media by a range of different tobacco companies to connect with the next generation of potential cigarette smokers.

While tobacco companies were careful to abide by the letter of the law  the influencers involved in these posts were all of legal smoking age in their countries  social media has a public setting that makes it an effective and largely unregulated form of broadcast.

Legally, anyone age 13 or over can have an Instagram or Facebook account. Our "netnography"  a type of qualitative social media inquiry that focuses on cultural contexts, social structures and deeper meanings  only looked at public posts, images that any 13-year-old with an account could see.

Training camps and pop-up parties

Our investigation uncovered a range of promotional activities and a web of public relations and advertising agencies that cleverly leveraged the strengths of social media to keep tobacco advertising under the radar of existing regulation.

We found tobacco companies in countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines recruiting "nano-influencers" of just 2,000-3,000 followers on Facebook and Instagram and encouraging them to post about their tobacco-sponsored adventures.

In Indonesia, we found brand ambassador training camps that lasted two full weeks and were run by the domestic tobacco company Gudang Garam. At these camps, young nano-influencers were paid generous fees, taught about cigarette brands images and then provided lessons about how to better maintain their social media feeds.

Public relations agencies in Uruguay taught their influencers how to take pictures of cigarette packages in ways that best accentuated their brands, offering tips on lighting, hashtags and the best time to post them for maximum impact.

Some companies used Facebook pages to recruit young people to attend their parties. After answering a few questions on the Facebook page, for example, responders were enrolled in a mailing list resulting in invitations to cool pop-up "parties and edgier events."

At those parties, young people were greeted by attractive attendants who offered them cigarettes and encouraged them to pose with floor designs modeled after cigarette brand logos. After snapping pictures, they were encouraged to post them on their social media feed using the party's decisiveness and action-oriented hashtags. The result was unquestionably a new form of cigarette promotion.

These activities clearly violate the spirit of the existing agreements not to indirectly advertise to young people. You can call it stealth, undercover or guerrilla marketing if you wish. Whatever its name, this is 21st-century cigarette advertising that reaches millions of young people around the world.

Exploiting social media

Our research has not only helped shine a light on Big Tobacco's unchecked use of social media, it has also informed a recent petition to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission requesting it to investigate and enforce these novel forms of cigarette advertising.

Although it might be difficult for governments to keep on top of media in these rapidly changing times, they must do so if they hope to prevent global smoking rates and their consequent health problems from rising once again. Indeed, with leadership change in the Food and Drug Administration, new and tighter regulations on tobacco and vaping in the United States are already being cast into doubt.

Social media provide an incredible advance in communications that democratize communications in unprecedented ways.

However, that openness is easy to exploit by marketers with dubious motives.

Explore further WHO urges enforcement of tobacco ad bans at sporting events

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Lisa Kirk Wiese, Ph.D., senior author and an assistant professor in FAU's Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing pictured with a participant at one of the senior centers. Results of the study show that three-fourths of the participants knew that annual cognitive screening is recommended for older adults, but only one-fourth had been previously screened. Sociodemographic findings revealed that a majority of participants (86 percent) would partake in annual memory screenings if offered, regardless of their education or health literacy level. Credit: Florida Atlantic University

Many older adults live in ethnically diverse rural settings where they face a higher burden of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD) as well as delayed detection due to health inequities. Furthermore, cultural perceptions about aging could add to disparities in recognizing and treating AD in these populations.

According to the Alzheimer's Association, the 400 percent increase in Medicaid/Medicare and out-of-pocket spending for AD care of $259 billion in 2017 highlights the need for preventive care, especially among higher-risk underserved rural groups.

Research targeting AD in rural populations has been scant, and many research reports have not distinguished between urban and rural participants. There is a critical need to assess AD knowledge in people living in rural areas in a way that matches their socioeconomic, educational and cultural needs.

Researchers from Florida Atlantic University's Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing have addressed this need by developing a novel tool called the "Basic Knowledge of Alzheimer's Disease" (BKAD). The survey consists of 32 items used to measure and assess AD knowledge in rural and underserved communities, based on topics related to symptoms, risk factors, screening, prevention, treatment and care.

For the study, published in the journal Aging & Mental Health, the researchers put the BKAD to the test at senior centers in five underserved, rural communities in Florida (the Glades) and Appalachian Virginia, West Virginia, Alabama and North Carolina.

Results of the study show that three-fourths of the participants knew that annual cognitive screening is recommended for older adults, but only one-fourth had been previously screened. Sociodemographic findings revealed that a majority of participants (86 percent) would partake in annual memory screenings if offered, regardless of their education or health literacy level.

More than 75 percent of the participants believed that staying socially, mentally and physically active is important. They also believed that there is medication that could help (68 percent for Glades participants and 69 percent for Appalachian participants). Almost all of the participants (90 percent) agreed with the statement, "the sooner you get help for AD, the more chance you have to slow it down."

In contrast, the lowest scores were related to personal disease risk such as, "nothing can be done to reduce the risk of AD" (less than 70 percent answered correctly) or "people with a history of diabetes, high blood pressure or stroke are at greater risk of AD" (61 percent answered this correctly). Another low scoring question (about one-third answered incorrectly) was related to the new finding that sudden vision changes may indicate AD risk. Other knowledge gaps were related to symptoms such as, "people with AD could remember things if they just tried harder" or "people with AD always go through a violent stage."

"We must provide culturally effective Alzheimer's disease education to correct misconceptions, decrease stigma, and bring awareness to the need for routine cognitive screening in populations at risk," said Lisa Kirk Wiese, Ph.D., senior author and an assistant professor in FAU's College of Nursing, who developed the BKAD with co-authors Christine L. Williams, DNsc, a professor and director of the Ph.D. program, and Ruth Tappen, Ed.D., the Christine E. Lynn Eminent Scholar and Professor, both in FAU's College of Nursing.

Important sociodemographic findings show that almost all Florida Glades participants (99 percent) wanted to participate in memory screenings as compared to Appalachian participants (62 percent). Slightly more Florida Glades participants saw providers routinely (94 percent) as compared to Appalachian participants (88 percent). Yet, about the same number (22 and 25 percent respectively) reported previous memory screening by a provider. Interestingly, Appalachian participants had higher average years of education and health literacy compared to the Florida Glades participants. Only 66 percent of the Florida Glades participants graduated high school and only 20 percent attended school beyond the eighth grade.

"Results from our study confirm the positive fit, reliability, and validity of our survey in underserved populations and also provide insights about the impact of health literacy and education, the knowledge gaps that exist in two diverse rural settings, and the differences in reported willingness to be screened for Alzheimer's disease," said Wiese. "Determining these knowledge gaps in varied populations and settings is essential to designing effective educational and awareness programs."

Explore further Study of Appalachian adults reveals willingness to participate in research

More information: Lisa Kirk Wiese et al, An updated measure for investigating basic knowledge of Alzheimer's disease in underserved rural settings, Aging & Mental Health (2019). Lisa Kirk Wiese et al, An updated measure for investigating basic knowledge of Alzheimer's disease in underserved rural settings,(2019). DOI: 10.1080/13607863.2019.1584880
In this July 1, 2017 file photo, a man is treated for suspected cholera infection at a hospital in Sanaa, Yemen. An Associated Press investigation finds that Yemen's massive cholera epidemic was aggravated by corruption and official intransigence. The investigation has found that both the Iranian-backed Houthis rebels and their main adversary in the warthe U.S.- and Saudi-backed government that controls southern Yemenimpeded efforts by relief groups to stem the epidemic. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed, File)

In the summer of 2017, a plane chartered by the United Nations idled on the tarmac at an airport in the Horn of Africa as officials waited for final clearance to deliver half a million doses of cholera vaccine to Yemen. Amid the country's ruinous war, the disease was spiraling out of control, with thousands of new cases reported each day.

The green light for the plane to head to northern Yemen never came. The U.N. wasn't able to distribute cholera vaccines to Yemen until May 2018 and the outbreak ultimately produced more than 1 million suspected cholera casesthe worst cholera epidemic recorded in modern times and a calamity that medical researchers say may have been avoided if vaccines had been deployed sooner.

U.N. officials blamed the canceled flight on the difficulties in distributing vaccines during an armed conflict. But officials with knowledge of the episode told The Associated Press that the real reason was that the Houthi rebels who control northern Yemen refused to allow the vaccines to be delivered, after spending months demanding that the U.N. send ambulances and other medical equipment for their military forces as a condition for accepting the shipment.

The cancellation of the shipment was just one of the setbacks that aid agencies faced in battling the cholera epidemic, which has killed nearly 3,000 Yemenis.

Relief workers and government officials said they have seen repeated indications that insiders in both the Houthi government in the north and the U.S.-backed government in the south have skimmed off money and supplies for cholera vaccination and treatment and sold them on the black market. In some cases, treatment centers for people who had contracted cholera existed only on paper even though the U.N. had disbursed money to bankroll their operations, according to two aid officials familiar with the centers.

The AP's examination of the efforts to fight the disease in Yemen drew on confidential documents and interviews with 29 people, including aid officials previously based in the country and officials from health ministries run by both the Houthi rebels and the internationally recognized government in the south. Almost all of these individualsincluding six relief and health officials who say the Houthis were responsible for cancellation of the 2017 vaccine shipmentspoke on condition of anonymity because of fear of retaliation.

"Both the Houthis and the government of Yemen were trying to politicize cholera," an aid official told the AP.

"The Houthis are taking advantage of U.N. weakness," the official said. "Corruption or aid diversion and all of this are because of the U.N.'s weak position." Relief workers know that if the U.N. speaks out, the official said, "their visas will be denied and they would not be allowed back in the country."

Cholera spread across Yemen in late 2016 and throughout much of 2017 and 2018. It ebbed late last year, but has again picked up in 2019. A new surge in the disease has produced roughly 150,000 reported cholera cases and nearly 300 deaths since the start of this year. The first cholera vaccine drives in Yemen didn't start until May 2018 in the south and August 2018 in the north, aid and health officials told the AP.

Ali al-Walidi, the deputy health minister in southern Yemen, and Youssef al-Hadri, the spokesman of the Houthi-run Health Ministry in the north, both deny there were delays in getting cholera vaccines into Yemen at the start of the outbreak.

Al-Hadri said claims that the Houthis blocked the shipment of vaccines into Yemen are false.

"This is all baseless, and I challenge the agencies to say this officially," he said.

In this May 12, 2017 photo, released by UNICEF, a child is treated for suspected cholera infection at a hospital in Sanaa, Yemen. An Associated Press investigation finds that Yemen's massive cholera epidemic was aggravated by corruption and official intransigence. The investigation has found that both the Iranian-backed Houthis rebels and their main adversary in the warthe U.S.- and Saudi-backed government that controls southern Yemenimpeded efforts by relief groups to stem the epidemic. (UNICEF via AP)

Geert Cappelaere, the Middle East director for UNICEF, the U.N. children's relief agency, declined to blame any particular group for halting the 2017 shipment.

"What is important is that the vaccines that needed to get in have ultimately gone in and have reached the people who needed to be vaccinated," he said. "Has this been simple and easy? Absolutely not. Each shipment has been problematic to get in because of the long approval time" and because of "skepticism among the authorities on both sides" about the value of cholera vaccines.

A Ravaged Land

More than half of Yemen's hospitals and other health facilities have been damaged or destroyed since the war began in 2015, after Houthi forces overran much of the country and Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations, with backing from the United States, launched airstrikes and imposed blockades on rebel-held territory.

The conflict has killed more than 60,000 people and much of Yemen has been on the edge of famine. An AP investigation published in December revealed that factions on all sides of Yemen's war have blocked food aid from going to groups suspected of disloyalty, diverted it to front-line combat units or sold it for profit on the black market.

More than 19 million of Yemen's 29 million people don't have access to adequate health care, and more than 17 million don't have clean water, according to the U.N. Those are prime conditions for the spread of cholera, a disease caused by feces-tainted water and food. Cholera can kill swiftly if untreated, its victims drained by diarrhea, vomiting and fever.

The first significant cholera outbreak came in late 2016, leading to more than 25,000 suspected cases and killing at least 129. Soon after, in April 2017, the disease erupted again, this time spreading at an even more furious pace. Within two months, more than 185,000 suspected cases and 1,200 deaths were reported. One local aid worker in northern Yemen recalls house after house with dying children, their small bodies racked by severe diarrhea.

When U.N. officials tried to rush in oral vaccines to halt the spread, some Houthi officials claimed vaccines were ineffective. A few circulated messages on social media asserting that vaccines could be harmful to children. Four aid officials and a former Houthi health official said that some rebel leaders suggested that the vaccination plan was a plot by the U.S. and Israel to use Yemenis as guinea pigs.

A former senior official in the Houthi Health Ministry said the concerns over the vaccines' safety were a pretext. Rebel leaders had a list of demands and tried to bargain with U.N. officials for money and equipment, he said.

During weeks of negotiations over the vaccine program, the rebels demanded that U.N. officials send X-ray machines and other items they could use to treat their wounded fighters on the front lines, according to the former health ministry official and three aid officials.

Al-Hadri, the spokesman for the Houthi-run Health Ministry, denied that Houthi authorities demanded medicine and medical equipment to be used in treating front-line soldiers. Cappelaere, UNICEF's Middle East chief, said he had no knowledge of aid officials bargaining with authorities in Yemen in the effort to import cholera vaccines.

In this July 12, 2017 file photo, a woman fills a jerrycan with water from a well that is alleged to be contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholera, on the outskirts of Sanaa, Yemen. An Associated Press investigation finds that Yemen's massive cholera epidemic was aggravated by corruption and official intransigence. The investigation has found that both the Iranian-backed Houthis rebels and their main adversary in the warthe U.S.- and Saudi-backed government that controls southern Yemenimpeded efforts by relief groups to stem the epidemic. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed, File)

The Shipment

Finally, in July 2017, U.N. officials believed they had the go-ahead to bring in cholera vaccines. Half a million doses were loaded onto a plane in the tiny African republic of Djibouti.

At the last minute, hard-liners in the Houthi-controlled Health Ministry told the U.N. they would not allow the plane to land.

Publicly, the U.N. blamed the change of plans on security and logistical challenges involved in delivering immunizations across Yemen's conflict-torn landscape. A spokesman for the U.N.'s World Health Organization said at the time that delivering vaccines "has to make sense" in terms of the conditions on the ground, adding that the vaccine doses intended for Yemen would likely be re-routed to places that "might need them more urgently."

U.N. officials sent the shipment to South Sudan in central Africa, where the disease had recently erupted. The cholera outbreak in South Sudan left 436 dead but was declared over by early 2018, largely due to the introduction of vaccines during the outbreak's early stages.

The outbreak in Yemen went on unabated.

Hager Taher, a 27-year old mother of two, was one of hundreds who died from cholera in the months after the vaccine delivery into the country had been called off. Taher was in the last days of pregnancy, living in the village of al-Ghareb, an impoverished area in the Houthi-controlled northern province of Hajjah, when she began vomiting and showing cholera-like symptoms.

The only health center in the village of nearly 1,200 people was a building with two rooms and few beds. As the number of suspected cholera cases grew, local authorities used a school to receive patients, who had to lie on the floor in the empty classrooms.

Taher was sent to a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders in the city of Abs. She soon developed complications and was moved to another hospital nearby. It was there, in September 2017, that she died. Her child was born alive but died four days later.

"It's God's will," her husband, Mohammed Hassan, told the AP. "There's nothing to do."

Taher was one of 16 people reported to have died from cholera in her district in Hajjah. Hundreds more were infected.

In this July 26, 2017 file photo, a girl scavenges for recyclable items at a garbage dump in a street in Sanaa, Yemen. An Associated Press investigation finds that Yemen's massive cholera epidemic was aggravated by corruption and official intransigence. The investigation has found that both the Iranian-backed Houthis rebels and their main adversary in the warthe U.S.- and Saudi-backed government that controls southern Yemenimpeded efforts by relief groups to stem the epidemic. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed, File)

"The district was gulped up by cholera," said Ibrahim al-Masrahi, a health worker in charge of gathering epidemic surveillance reports.

By the end of 2017, the number of reported cholera cases in Yemen had surged past 1 million, with more than 2,200 deaths. The spread of the disease waned for a time, but rebounded again in the spring and summer of 2018, adding another 370,000 reported cases and 500 more deaths.

U.N. officials continued struggling to find a way to get cholera vaccines into the country.

Houthi officials held a succession of meetings throughout much of 2017 and into 2018 to consider the science and policy questions relating to vaccines. In the spring of 2018, after science panels approved bringing cholera vaccines into rebel territory, Health Minister Mohammed Salem bin Hafez gave U.N. officials the go-ahead to bring in nearly 900,000 doses of cholera vaccine, according to documents obtained by the AP.

Then two of his deputies, both of them well-connected within the Houthi leadership, said the shipment couldn't proceed, asserting that there were still more bureaucratic hurdles before the vaccines' "safety and security" could be assured, according to the documents.

As a non-Houthi, bin Hafez didn't have the power to overrule the decisions of the two deputies who supposedly were working under him. He wrote a letter to the prime minister of the Houthi-controlled government, Abdel-Aziz bin Habtour, detailing how the delivery of vaccines had been once again been put off.

"I am washing my hands of the consequences of these irresponsible actions," bin Hafez's letter said. He told the prime minister that he was "putting the matter between your hands" in the hope the government would "take the necessary measures to use aid in a proper way and create proper work conditions for international and local aid agencies."

A month later, bin Hafez left his post and fled Houthi territory.

Abdel-Aziz al-Daylami, one of the Health Ministry deputies that bin Hafez blamed for holding up the delivery of vaccines, denied that he had stopped the shipment.

"No, there was no rejection, but we had reservations," he told the AP. "We thought that the vaccines would be useless" if they were deployed without more efforts to ensure clean water and reliable sanitation systems.

"We worried that if the vaccine campaigns failed, people would turn against the use of vaccines and that would be disastrous," he said.

In this May 12, 2017 photo released by UNICEF, patients suffering from severe diarrhea and suspected of cholera, wait to receive treatment, at a hospital in Sanaa, Yemen. An Associated Press investigation finds that Yemen's massive cholera epidemic was aggravated by corruption and official intransigence. The investigation has found that both the Iranian-backed Houthis rebels and their main adversary in the warthe U.S.- and Saudi-backed government that controls southern Yemenimpeded efforts by relief groups to stem the epidemic. (UNICEF via AP)

Only On Paper

As Houthi authorities debated the use of vaccines in the north, the U.N. was also working to get cholera vaccines into the country via the government in the south.

But this plan was also marred by delaysand by questions about possible corruption.

After the U.N. was able to get a shipment of vaccines into the southern city of Aden in May 2018, the Health Ministry for the U.S.- and Saudi-backed government there put together teams to raise awareness and administer the vaccines.

But some of the vaccination teams existed only on paper and many workers on the teams never received the full stipends budgeted for them under the program, two aid officials told the AP. The two officials said authorities in the south prevented aid workers from visiting the districts where immunization campaigns were taking place, making it impossible for them to monitor what was happening on the ground and verify how aid money was being used.

In the wake the vaccination campaign in the south, the Houthis broke the logjam in the north. They agreed to allow cholera vaccines into some areas under their control. Immunization drives were launched in three rebel-held districts in August and September 2018.

A senior official who worked with the Houthi-run Health Ministry at the time noted the U.N. had agreed to some of the rebels' wish list of additional medical supplies and equipment, including the purchase of 45 ambulances for the ministry. The ambulances were then sent to the front lines for the military's use, the ex-official said.

Beyond vaccine drives, concerns emerged in both the north and south about whether patients who had already contracted the disease were getting medical treatment targeted for them.

Some centers set up to treat cholera victims weren't functional even though UNICEF and the WHO had provided funding to government authorities and nongovermental groups to cover costs of setting them up and running them, according to two aid officials familiar with the centers.

One of those two aid officials said he was told there were nine cholera treatment centers in Aden. He could find only two. "The rest didn't exist," he said.

Another concern in north and south was whether relief organizations were getting accurate counts of the number of people sickened with cholera in various parts of the country. Two aid officials and a former official with the Houthi-controlled Health Ministry said authorities exaggerated the number of cholera cases to increase the amount of international aid money.

A December 2018 study of the Yemen outbreak by researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that some overreporting was likely due to health workers whose livelihoods depended on money paid by the U.N. Many of the workers hadn't received their government salaries in years and believed that the cholera centers where they worked would be closed and aid money stopped if they didn't report enough suspected cases.

In this Sept. 16, 2017 photo released by UNICEF, children receive treatment for cholera at a hospital in Saada, Yemen. An Associated Press investigation finds that Yemen's massive cholera epidemic was aggravated by corruption and official intransigence. The investigation has found that both the Iranian-backed Houthis rebels and their main adversary in the warthe U.S.- and Saudi-backed government that controls southern Yemenimpeded efforts by relief groups to stem the epidemic. (UNICEF via AP)

Still, even with overreporting, the outbreak of cholera was "massive," Paul B. Spiegel, the lead author of the study and director of the university's Center for Humanitarian Health, told the AP.

Another study, published in December 2018 in the journal BMC Public Health, called the epidemic "the largest cholera outbreak in epidemiologically recorded history."

The report said the scale of Yemen's outbreak "most likely" could have been avoided or managed if enough cholera vaccines had been deployed earlier in the conflict. It added that even if a large shipment had come into the country early enough, getting the vaccine to those who needed it might not have been possible, given the "deeply chaotic situation" across war-torn Yemen.

More than 2.5 million doses of the cholera vaccine have been transported into Yemen by the U.N. since mid-2018. It's unclear how many of them have been administered to people in target populations. Two Houthi officials confirmed to the AP that nearly 1.2 million doses remain stored in warehouses in Sanaa, the rebels' capital. The Health Ministry there plans to distribute those doses soon in two northern districts, one of the officials said.

A senior aid official said the continuing cholera crisis remains a way for the Houthis rebels to cultivate global sympathy for their struggle against the U.S.-backed and Saudi-led coalition, whose bombing campaign has been blamed for helping to create the conditions that caused the outbreak.

"If you resolve cholera, what are the headlines?" he said. "They managed to control the narrative because it's easy to blame the coalition and not them and they always show up as victims."

Al-Hadri, the spokesman for the Houthi-controlled Health Ministry in Sanaa, called that nonsense. It is international aid officials, he said, who are raking in donations and benefiting from disease and suffering inside the Middle East's poorest country.

"They are profiting from the Yemen crisis and begging in the name of Yemen," he said. "They need the Yemeni crisis more than we need them."

Explore further Suspected cholera cases spikes in Yemen in 2019: UN

 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Last week, the Florida Police Chiefs Association came out in support of

Rep. Jamie Grants bill

, which would prohibit former felons from voting until theyve paid off all their fines, fees and restitution.
A bill that would require minors to have parental consent for abortions is now moving through the Florida Senate, after the Senate Health Policy committee voted Monday to advance the bill. The 5-4 vote was largely along party lines.

SB 1774, sponsored by Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, would add new requirements for minors to have abortions, requiring them to obtain either parental consent or a judicial waiver before the procedure can be done.

In Florida, if a minor is seeking an abortion, state law currently requires that a parent or guardian be notified, with exceptions in cases such as medical emergencies. The law also allows minors to obtain a judicial waiver from the notification requirement under certain circumstances, such as if they are already parents or have other extenuating circumstances.

The abortion measure has been gaining renewed attention against the backdrop of a changed state Supreme Court that some advocates on both sides have suggested might change past judicial precedent in the state of Florida, though other more restrictive bills that would shorten the period during which abortions can be performed have stalled in each chamber.

Stargel said current law means all a minor needs to do is "walk into the family and say, I have made this decision and I am notifying you, then they are on their way. She cast the legislation as a way to strengthen families by allowing the family to have a conversation.

But opponents have cast the bill as a blow to existing access to abortions, and pointed to a similar law requiring parental consent that was struck down by the state Supreme Court in 1989, citing a broad state constitutional right to privacy that the courts have asserted applies to a womans pregnancy. A law pertaining to parental notification was also struck down in 2003, though voters the following year approved a constitutional amendment to create a new notification law.

Dozens of pro-choice and pro-life advocates testified in committee, though the chair of the committee Sen. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, limited testimony, citing time restrictions, to a minute each.

Sen. Lori Berman, D-Lantana, who voted against the bill, called it blatantly unconstitutional and suggested that she expected the bill, if passed, to be re-litigated in the courts.

Berman also asked Stargel if the bill had been explicitly raised to bring the issue before the state Supreme Court, which has three new justices on the bench appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Though other lawmakers supporting abortion restrictions this year have suggested the new court could play a role, Stargel rejected the suggestion.

The bill mirrors an already-advancing House proposal that is poised to reach the House floor later this week, though it differs in some respects from its Senate companion. Among them is how the bill is written: Although the House measure rewrites existing law, the Senate version does not, which some suggested might require minors to apply twice for judicial waivers  one to exempt them from the existing notification requirement and one from the proposed consent requirement.

The Senate version is also missing a clause present in the House version that would increase the existing penalty for violating the states born alive law: The Houses bill would make not caring for an infant born alive during an abortion procedure punishable as a third-degree felony rather than a first-degree misdemeanor.

Stargel said after the hearing that she is open to amending the proposal to clarify the potential double waiver issue and open to the increased "born alive" penalty as well.
A bill moving through the Legislature has a nice idea: name roads after police officers killed in the line of duty.

Theres a stretch of I-10 that would be named after Highway Patrol Trooper Sherman Scott, who was shot and killed by an escaped convict in 1965.

A part of I-95 in Miami would be named after Trooper Owen Bender, who was struck and killed by a car while manning a roadblock during Hurricane Betsy in 1965.

And a bridge on Broward Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale would be named after former Democratic Sen. Chris Smith, a lobbyist for Florida Power & Light.

Wait, what?

Smiths name wasnt originally on the bill when it was filed by Sen. Lauren Book, a Plantation Democrat.

Rather, Smiths name was added by a Republican: Sen. Travis Hutson of Elkton, who is vying to become Senate president in 2022.

When Hutson amended the bill during a committee last month, it raised a few eyebrows, including from Sen. Tom Lee, R-Thonotosassa.

I thought we were trying to wait until people passed away until we did these designations, he said.

Hutson replied that the person didnt have to be dead. (Smiths name was not mentioned during the meeting.)

I think that this former senator has done a wonderful job for his community," Hutson said, "and I look to try and get his name out there so everybody remembers him and all the hard work hes done.

Smith is a former House and Senate minority leader  a rare distinction  but has been out of office since 2016. Hes also a longtime lobbyist for Florida Power & Light, and hes also registered to lobby for State Farm insurance this year.

When asked to elaborate on why Smith deserved a bridge be named after him, Hutson cited Smiths time in the House and Senate and that other senators had tried to name the bridge after him.

But Smith said theres a backstory to the potential naming, and it has nothing to do with his lobbying work. (He said hes never raised money for Hutson.)

The bridge in question is on Broward Boulevard, and it goes over the North Fork of the New River, a canal that reaches the intracoastal.

Smith said during his time in the Senate, he repeatedly asked FDOT to raise the bridge, because it was so low that people on the north side of the bridge  a predominantly black neighborhood  couldnt easily access the intracoastal by boat.

It was something that I pushed and pushed and pushed every year in the Senate, Smith said.

FDOT replaced the bridge last year and raised it three feet, according to the Sun-Sentinel . Now, boaters can cross under the bridge without having to wait for low tide, Smith said.

Those boaters include Smith himself: the dock off the back yard of his home is just 1,100 feet away  on the north side of the bridge.

Ive lived there since 98, and I guess for my homeowners group, it was a major issue for them, Smith said. Its become a thing now. Theyre talking about starting up a boat club for the first time in the black community.

If Books bill ( SB 100 ) passes, the new bridge would officially be known as the Senator Christopher L. Smith Bridge.
" " Lebanese entrepreneurs from different Internet startup companies work in the offices of accelerator Seeqnce in Beirut. The setup for startup accelerators is similar the world over. JOSEPH EID/AFP/Getty Images

At 20 years old, Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard to launch Microsoft. Mark Zuckerberg, also 20 years old, dropped out of Harvard after launching Facebook. Which makes you wonder, who's the next 20-year-old Harvard dropout who's going to change the world?

In global technology hubs from California's Silicon Valley to Bangalore, India, investors are searching for the next disruptive idea in technology, and the search often begins at tech startup accelerators. A tech startup accelerator is an organization created by experienced tech entrepreneurs to help early-stage tech companies develop their product, hone their business model, and  most importantly  connect with investors.

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At high-profile tech startup accelerators like Y Combinator and Techstars, dozens of aspiring Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerbergs huddle with tech industry veterans and business mentors to take ideas from the "rough concept" stage to "market ready." Examples of successful Web startups that were born at business accelerators include Airbnb, Dropbox, Reddit and Plated.

Competition is stiff at the world's top accelerators. Young companies have to apply for coveted residences that last three to five months. If chosen, the lucky entrepreneurs receive thousands of dollars in seed money, expert guidance, a free place to work, and a chance to present their finished concepts to eager investors during "Demo Day."

Of course, tech startup accelerators don't provide all of these services out of the goodness of their hearts. Most accelerators take a percentage of all profits earned by the companies they help to launch. Even if the accelerator only receives a 6 percent stake in a startup, it can add up quickly when the young company is scooped up by Twitter or Yahoo! for tens of millions of dollars.

Nevertheless, the perks that accelerators offer to startups make entrepreneurs want to use these companies as opposed to going directly to a venture capitalist, where they might get funding but nothing else.
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FNB has launched new functionality in its mobile banking app which allows users to shop from within the banking application.

Clients can now browse the eBucks Shop from the banking app  which FNB said is a first in South Africa.

Customers can also make purchases from the eBucks Shop in the app using FNB Pay, allowing them to pre-load debit and cheque cards for payment.

FNB said customers can expect to get up to 40% off on exclusive deals available in the eBucks Shop and the mobile app also allows them to track their purchases and view their order history.

We are very excited about offering this service to customers, because it adds to the helpful capabilities available on the FNB app, said eBucks Rewards CEO Johan Moolman.

Under the eBucks Rewards tab, customers are able to see how they can earn more eBucks to achieve their objectives, view their complimentary Slow Lounge visits, as well as register on the Entertainer app for free.

He added that in the near future, customers can expect more features to come to the eBucks tab in the FNB app.

Now read: How data rollover and transfers work on FNB
Proceedings have begun at the Competition Tribunals inquiry into CIVHs proposed takeover of Vumatel.

CIVH holds a large stake in Dark Fibre Africa (DFA), which builds and runs fibre infrastructure and then leases it to last-mile fibre providers such as Vumatel.

It currently owns 34.9% of Vumatel and has proposed to Vumatel shareholders that it purchase the remaining 65.1% of the companys shares.

The Competition Tribunal is investigating the deal to attain control of Vumatel, following a complaint by Octotel.

Octotel is a fibre infrastructure provider which is prominent in Cape Town  and is indirectly owned by Remgro.

It claims that DFA is the largest backhaul provider in South Africa, meaning that it being owned by the same company as Vumatel would be a vertical competition concern.

Additionally, it said that since Remgro would own Vumatel while also indirectly owning Octotel, the deal brings up horizontal competition concerns.

CIVHs portfolio would look as follows should the Vumatel deal be allowed.
The Huawei Eco Connect South Africa event, which recently took place at the Sandton Convention Centre, saw more than 1,200 delegates in attendance.

The event is one of the largest ICT events in South Africa held annually for channel partners and customers, where business leaders, global industry visionaries, opinion leaders, partners and potential partners meet for an in-depth update on what Huawei Enterprise has to offer within the South African market in 2019. This is according to Mr. Alex Du Min, Managing Director for Huawei Enterprise South Africa.

At the prestigious gala dinner awards ceremony, Huawei Enterprise awarded 16 partners in the categories of Networking, IT, UCC, Service capability, Certification, Training and development, distribution, SME, digital transformation, VAP, and Global partners of the year.

The sought after Huawei Champion of the Year award was won by Donna Mostert from Mustek who was awarded for her individual contribution towards growing the Huawei ecosystem.

I am so proud to be recognised by Huawei and it makes all the blood, sweat and tears worth it. Professionally it tells me I chose the right vendor  Huawei  and the right company  Mustek  to represent in the market space, she said.

Huawei Enterprises top partners for 2018/2019 are listed below.

Awards Awards Company Networking Partner of the Year Altron Nexus IT Partner of the Year Gijima UCC Partner of the Year EOH Capability Partner of the Year Pinnacle Service Capability Development Partner of the Year BCX 5 Star CSP Altron Nexus EOH Pinnacle T-systems XON ICT Academy of the Year Tshwane University of Technology Coastal Partner of the Year Altron Bytes SI Rising Star Partner of the Year Altron Bytes SI Huawei Champion of the Year Donna Mostert Digital Transformation Project of the Year Exxaro SITA Transnet SME Partner of the Year TrillCom Distributor of the Year Mustek Gold Partner of the Year Reflex VAP Partner of the Year Altron Global Partner of the Year Tech Mahindra

Mr. Daniel Liu, Director of the Channel Sales Department at Huawei Enterprise South Africa also exclaimed his pride in Huaweis success, which is he said is thanks to their trusted partners.

After 4 years of ecosystem development, Huawei Enterprise South Africa has more than 1,100 active partners. By the end of 2018, we had over 800 Huawei certified engineers who were able to install Huawei products and solutions national wide, combined with our 50+ service partners and 20+ solution partners, said Liu.

Huawei South Africa is truly so happy about the support and relationship that the channel has shown us. We will therefore continue to recognize their successful development  as Huaweis partner ecosystem is taking shape.

For more information, please visit Huawei online.

Huawei Enterprise Director of Channel Sales Department

Mustek

Mango Groove
Websites which primarily use a .ZA address may be at risk of domain hijacking attacks due to the convoluted transitive trust and domain name system (DNS) dependency hierarchies of the .ZA domain space.

Reports published by Cisco, FireEye, and Crowdstrike have highlighted an extensive domain hijacking campaign in Northern Africa and the Middle East.

According to the reports, attackers hijacked domains by changing their DNS records. The reports also stated that it is likely the attackers were entities sanctioned by at least one nation-state. Iran is the suspected source of the attack.

A detailed summary of the attacks may be found at Krebs On Security, which found that two large Internet organisations were compromised to execute the attacks.

Krebs confirmed with Netnod in Sweden and Packet Clearing House (PCH) in California that the attackers had compromised parts of their DNS infrastructure to hijack domains all over the Middle East and North Africa.

Domains were compromised in Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Egypt, and Lebanon.

After redirecting traffic destined for the hijacked domains via servers under their control, the attackers launched spear phishing campaigns against various government entities in the targeted countries.

Email passwords and other data taken from governments and private companies was affected. Krebs said that a huge volume of sensitive data was compromised.

Transitive trust

Following the attacks, Verisign explained how transitive trust between DNS servers enabled the domain hijacking.

It linked to a paper published in 2005 from the Department of Computer Science at Cornell University  titled Perils of Transitive Trust in the Domain Name System.

Essentially, if an attacker is able to gain control of one DNS server in the chain, every domain connected to DNS servers that depend on it may potentially be compromised.

The authors conservatively estimated that 17% of DNS servers they surveyed were not properly patched and vulnerable to documented exploits due to software bugs.

Verisign also provided an online tool which visualises the transitive trust and DNS dependencies of any top-level domain  and a selection of domains are shown below.

It should be noted that the same complex hierarchy afflicting the .ZA name space is also present in .africa, .capetown, .joburg, and .durban. Querying mil.za and gov.za raises similar concerns.

.ZA

.UK

.COM

Protecting against domain hijacking

To defend against domain hijacking, Krebs offered the following advice:

Use DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC).

Use features like Registry Lock that can help protect domains from having their records changed.

Use access control lists for applications, Internet traffic, and monitoring.

Use two-factor authentication.

Use unique passwords and consider password managers.

Review your accounts with registrars and other providers.

Monitor certificates.

While DNSSEC has been available for domains in the .ZA namespace since 2017, support and adoption is lacking.

Measurements taken by APNIC shows that there is only DNSSEC Validation for 46.25% of the domains it tested through DNS resolvers in South Africa.

Alarmingly, this is higher than the global adoption figure  which APNIC measures to be below 20%.

In addition to a lack of wide-scale support and adoption of DNSSEC, the .ZA domain space doesnt have a registry lock feature.

This means that two of the major mitigations for domain hijacking attacks are not readily available for .ZA domains.

ZACR  No comment

The ZA Central Registry was asked for feedback on this issue, but it did not respond to questions.

Now read: How the DNS key change will affect South Africans
Russ and Leona Aves of St. Helena celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on April 4. Russ is known around town for building several homes and wineries, including Yverdon (now Terra Valentine), and for restoring old cars, including the 1932 Ford coupe he bought as a teenager. Leona, along with her friend Linda Bertoli, won the St. Helena Chamber of Commerces Lifetime Achievement Award for their volunteer work with the St. Helena Community Food Pantry. The couple have two children, three grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
Within the pages of early 1900s Napa newspapers were some brief yet interesting stories about the human experience. Ranging in subject matter, from criminal to comical, these historical accounts provide glimpses into the life and times of long ago Napans as well as others.

The first article appeared in the Napa Daily Journal. It announced an upcoming example of the agony of defeat and the thrill of victory. Titled An Election Bet, the article reported, This afternoon at 5 oclock Arthur Parker will pay his election bet with Howard Roper by wheeling him from the Asylum to town in a wheelbarrow, and Frank Grigsby will march ahead of them beating a bass drum, to pay his bet with Sherman Gardner.

About two weeks later the Journal profiled the anxieties related to the consequences of multi-tasking and its accompanying forgetfulness. It said, A little piece of carelessness came near costing Harry Bernheim a pretty penny a few days ago. He received a package of jewelry by express and was in the act of unpacking it when a customer came into the store. Mr. Bernheim placed the package on a narrow shelf under the counter while he waited upon the customer. Other matters then occupied his attention and he forgot the package for the rest of the day.

The details continued, Beneath the shelf is the waste box. The package fell off the shelf into the box and was carried away by the scavenger (garbage collector). Fortunately some Mexican children found the package in the dump and it was restored to its owner.

The next story demonstrates that truth and justice eventually prevail. The article headline said, Couldnt Fool Dr. Stone. The Register reported, On last Christmas night Daniel Isom and a number of companions were boisterously celebrating in a saloon in Modesto. City Marshall R. D. Young heard the disturbance and attempted to quell it. Isom objected to the interference of the arm of the law and shot and seriously wounded the Marshal. Young also wounded Isom.

Luckily, both men recovered from their wounds. Oncehe was healthy enough, Isom was tried for attempted murder. However, he and his lawyer claimed Isom was insane and unfit to stand trial.

According to the Register, A special jury was impaneled to try the question of Isoms insanity. Ultimately, they declared him to be insane. Isom was there upon committed to the Napa State Hospital about two weeks ago.

But his fallacious plan quickly began to fall apart. The article continued, Isom had not been long at the Hospital before Dr. Stone began to doubt his insanity. He kept a close watch on the patient and the more he observed Isom, the more Stone was convinced that Isom was shamming. Finally, the Doctor took the man to task and on Tuesday Isom admitted that he was feigning insanity to escape punishment for his crime. Dr. Stone there upon notified the Judge of Superior Court of Stanislaus county to send for the prisoner. The Sheriff of Stanislaus county will come to Napa today to get Isom.

The final piece of this collection, with some modifications, still resonates within todays social and professional worlds. This story originated from Washington, D.C. The Journals reprint of that original article began with the headline, Good News for the Postman.

The article said, An official ruling on the subject of hugging was handed down yesterday by the Post Office Department. It is that hugging even if done without pulling down the blinds, is no cause for dismissal from the government service. It is decided, however, that the girl must be a sweetheart, and must consent to be hugged.

The report continued with the background issue leading to this ruling. It continued, William Belleman, a rural carrier at Keir City, Kan., hugged his sweetheart before taking the precaution to pull down the blinds. An envious old maid filed a complaint with the Post Office Department and demanded that young Belleman be dismissed.

The Journal added, The rural carrier was represented by able counsel in the persons of two Kansas Congressmen. They pointed out that if the rural carrier was dismissed because he hugged a girl when she wanted to be hugged, the Department would have to abolish the rural carrier service entirely. The Department took this view, but notified Belleman to confine his hugging to his own sweetheart and to be certain that she is willing.
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The Napa Fire Department has received a $15,000 grant to purchase new suits for fighting wildfires.

The grant was awarded by the California Fire Foundation and funded by a Pacific Gas & Electric Company donation. It allowed the department to purchase 38 new sets of suits. Thats enough to outfit two-thirds of Napa firefighters, said Batallion Chief Charlie Rhodes.

Fighting wildfires calls for a lighter type of gear thats easier on the body than the outfits used when responding to a building fire, he said. The new suits, known as Wildland Personal Protective Equipment, are brighter and feature reflective material that makes it easier to see firefighters. Crews may also wear the new gear in certain rescue situations.

The departments wildfire protective gear was out of date, but budgetary limits kept it from purchasing new equipment, fire officials said. The California Fire Foundation grant seemed like an opportunity to possibly get the new gear soon, ahead of the next wildfire season, Rhodes said.

That kind of helped us catch up a bit, he said.

The Napa Fire Department was one of 65 departments awarded the grant for wildfire prevention and mitigation efforts, said Brittany Trudeau, program manager of the California Fire Foundation. Most awardees were in Northern California and many bought new protective gear, like Napa Fire.

Others wanted money for items such as wood chippers or utility vehicles that can be driven to dense forest areas, she said. The Benicia Fire Department even proposed to rent goats to clear brush, Trudeau said.

The foundation aims to serve firefighters, and their families and communities, she said.

This was just really a perfect fit, and it covered two of our three main mission areas by helping firefighters do a better job of protecting their communities, Trudeau said.

This is not Napa Fires first time working with the foundation. The department is one of 86 that participate in California Fire Foundations Supplying Aid to Victims of Emergency, or SAVE, program that provides $250 gift cards to disaster victims. Last year, Napa Fire handed out SAVE gift cards to Butte County residents affected by the Camp Fire.

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 her 2003 book "Treason: Liberal Treachery From the Cold War to the War on Terrorism," conservative pundit Ann Coulter launched a full-throated defense of Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Hardly the witch-hunting monster of liberals' imagination, Coulter wrote, McCarthy was a patriot who protected his country from communists overseas and their apologists at home. Coulter's assertion reflected an enduring belief in McCarthy among the Republican faithful, who continued to lionize him long after the Senate censured the senator and ended his career in disgrace.

More than a half-century later, however, the party has abruptly changed course thanks to one man: President Donald Trump. Instead of praising McCarthyism, Republicans use the phrase "McCarthyism" to malign Democrats who dare demand answers about Trump's ties to Russia. Trump himself fired the first salvo in the summer, tweeting that special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference was "an illegal Joseph McCarthy style Witch Hunt." And just last week, two GOP congressional leaders compared House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif. - one of the investigation's key supporters - with, yes, McCarthy.

Liberals came quickly to Schiff's defense, noting that nothing in the Russia probe came close to the deceit and destruction of McCarthyism. But in a perverse way, these charges reflect a crucial concession by Republicans after seven decades of denial: McCarthyism was, in fact, a massive, unpardonable assault on freedom, fairness and the rule of law. And strange as it may seem, we owe that new consensus to Trump.

McCarthy's career as a redbaiter began on Feb. 9, 1950, in Wheeling, West Virginia, where he told a local Republican women's club that there were 205 communists employed by the State Department. (The next day, on the floor of the Senate, he changed the number to 57.) It ended in 1954, when the Senate censured him. All 44 Democratic senators voted to denounce McCarthy, but the Republicans were split down the middle: 22 for and 22 against.

Even as Republicans, leaders such as President Dwight Eisenhower turned against McCarthy, he remained a hero among the party's rank and file. When he died in 1957, 25,000 people gathered to view his body before it was laid to rest in his hometown of Appleton, Wisconsin. One local Republican newspaperman even compared McCarthy with Jesus, condemning the "thousand Pontius Pilates" who crucified McCarthy "because of his efforts to expose the communist conspiracy designed to destroy the United States."

Over the next few years, Republicans stepped up their hero worship of McCarthy. In the 1960s, as the Vietnam War triggered protests at home, Republicans hailed the senator as a brave opponent of communism around the world. Rep. Kenneth Merkel, R-Wis., insisted, "McCarthyism" should be a respected term instead of a mark of derision. "You and I are going to have to carry on the work of the great Sen. McCarthy," Merkel told a Republican gathering.

In 1975, when a bruised United States withdrew from Vietnam, some critics blamed the war's outcome on a failure to follow McCarthy's example. "If the warnings he gave had been heeded, we would have been spared many of the things happening today," declared a GOP speaker at a gravesite commemoration for McCarthy. "We would have a greater regard for patriotism, a willingness to defend our way of life and our freedom, and a better appreciation and love for our country."

In the 1990s, after the Soviet Union dissolved, the release of cables between its agents and their overseas operatives unleashed a new round of Republican praise for McCarthy. There really were spies and apologists for the Soviets in America, Republicans noted, and McCarthy should be celebrated rather than vilified for exposing them.

Witness William F. Buckley's 1999 historical novel "The Redhunter," which depicted McCarthy as reckless, impulsive and alcoholic - and right. Back in 1954, on the eve of McCarthy's Senate censure, Buckley and his brother-in-law Brent Bozell had published an entire book ("McCarthy and His Enemies") lauding McCarthy for attacking George Marshall, Dean Acheson and other members of the foreign policy establishment. Even if these targets weren't really communists, the argument went, they were undermining national security.

Nearly a half-century later, Buckley stood by that claim. In a 1999 interview, he insisted that McCarthy had exposed people who were "on the side of Moscow," whether or not they were spies. Here, Buckley included Johns Hopkins professor Owen Lattimore, whom McCarthy had falsely labeled "the top Soviet espionage agent in the United States."

The pro-McCarthy view would receive another shot in the arm after the 9/11 attacks, when Coulter charged that weak-kneed liberals were again doing the bidding of America's enemies. "Whether they are defending the Soviet Union or bleating for Saddam Hussein, liberals are always against America," Coulter wrote. "But we can't call them traitors, which they manifestly are, because that would be 'McCarthyism,' which never existed."

To be fair, responsible conservative scholars such as Ronald Radosh noted the exaggerations and distortions in Coulter's book. But her view still held traction on Fox News and other conservative media outlets, where McCarthy was glorified as a flawed but courageous figure.

No longer. In the past year, Trump and his supporters have engineered a sea change in Republican sentiments by invoking McCarthy - and McCarthyism - to stigmatize Trump's critics.

Never mind that Trump has displayed some of the same reckless and vindictive qualities as McCarthy, or that Trump was also a longtime friend and client of McCarthy lawyer Roy Cohn. Those details garner the headlines - and the laugh lines, for those who enjoy irony.

But the big development has largely escaped notice: The Republican Party has finally acknowledged the evil of McCarthyism, if only to attach it to Trump's enemies.

Mueller seems off the hook for the moment, since his investigation, according to Attorney General William Barr, didn't find criminal collusion between Trump campaign members and Russia. So the GOP has focused its charges of McCarthyism upon Schiff, the congressman from California. At a House Intelligence Committee meeting last week, Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, made the connection explicit. "With McCarthyism," a senator was "chasing after Russian Communists," Turner said. "Now we have Schiff chasing after Russian collusion."

It's too easy - and let's face it, a lot of fun - to mock this analogy. According to historian Ellen Schrecker, between 10,000 and 12,000 Americans, including university professors, union leaders and Hollywood screenwriters, lost their jobs and couldn't find new ones because of alleged communist affiliations. Most of them weren't communists, and almost none of them were spies. Their lives were destroyed. No matter what you think of the Russia investigation, it's absurd to compare an investigation of the president and his campaign to McCarthy's excesses.

But we shouldn't lose sight of the good news here: For the first time since the McCarthy era itself, the GOP stands united against McCarthyism. What McCarthy did was indefensible, and from now on, Republicans will be reluctant to defend it. It's too bad that it took Mueller's investigation, and Trump's bizarre charges against it, to make that happen.

But better late than never. The way we remember McCarthy will influence our way forward. And the new consensus on his misdeeds will make it harder for anyone, including Trump, to repeat them. At a moment of bitter partisan discord, that's something all of us should be able to celebrate.

Jonathan Zimmerman teaches education and history at the University of Pennsylvania and is the author (with Emily Robertson) of "The Case for Contention: Teaching Controversial Issues in American Schools." He wrote this for The Washington Post.
When he was in the White House, President John Kennedy kept a bronze plaque on his desk in the Oval Office that read, Oh, God, thy sea is so great and my boat is so small. It was a gift from Admiral Hyman Rickover.

This quote kept bouncing into my head as we traveled through the Magdalena Bay in Baja. A group of some 30 people, we were guests of Sven Lindblad, the president of Lindblad Expeditions, on his recon trip, as he planned a new journey in this haven for the gray whales in Mexico.

We had spent five days meeting whales, hiking sand dunes and exploring narrow channels of mangrove trees. Sven wanted to know what people thought, not just of the activities, but on a deeper question: what to give back.

One of Lindblads principles that guides its journeys into Earths remaining wild places is conservation, and another is to consolidate a friendship with the people who live in the places through which the expeditions travel. Lindblad supports schools and scientific research. Local artists works were for sale on our home base, the National Geographic Sea Bird. The pangueros, the fishermen who serve as guides, had come aboard with their families for dinner and mariachi music. But what else?

This was what was on the mind of many: plastic.

The Baja peninsula has been compared to the Galapagos in that, with a few exceptions (Cabo San Lucas being the most egregious) it has escaped the heavy footprint of humans. Manuel Vasquez, a traveler aboard from La Paz, said that two things, a lack of water and a complicated real estate situation, have preserved Baja from being turned into more Cabos.

But Baja and the sea around it have not escaped plastic. We had seen it everywhere: bags and bottles littered along the roads, containers floating in the sea, plastic jugs tangled in the mangroves, plastic water bottles tossed onto the otherwise pristine sand dunes. From every excursion, people returned bringing backpacks filled with plastic garbage, raising the question: where can it go?

What brought home the deadliness of all this plastic was one little sea lion. We were out on an early morning whale watch excursion when he popped up along side our Zodiac, a little pup peering at the humans with curious, velvet brown eyes.

All the cameras were raised to capture photos of the friendly creature, when we noticed tangled around its neck was a thick plastic string. It was twisted so tightly, it was already embedded in its skin. As he gazed at us, it was as if it was saying, Can you help me?

Could we?

Unfortunately, Sven Lindblad said, there wasnt anything we could do for the sea lion. Sven told us he had seen one attempt by wildlife experts trying on land to extricate a sea lion from a plastic trap, and theyd paid dearly for the attempt with cuts and gashes. We were eight people in the middle of the ocean in a rubber raft. After a moment, the sea lion swam away and disappeared under the water.

The sea lion, we understood, was doomed to strangle as he grew, but his presence lingered. He hovered over conversations about future excursions. This trip had yielded so much pleasure, adventure, camaraderie, the discovery of the mysteries that lay beneath the surface of the ocean; but this warred with the widely reported story (Washington Post, Jan. 20) from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, in partnership with the World Economic Forum that that by 2050, plastic in the oceans could outweigh fish.

The image of the little sea lion came along with me when I returned to Napa, and I told my daughter, Thats it. I am not going to buy anything in plastic  if I can help it. Even if you are only one person in the world, there were things you can do. The Sea Bird, for example, had used metal, reusable water bottles and coffee mugs for the rooms and eschewed the little plastic bottles of shampoo and shower soap for refillable containers. On buses, they didnt give out plastic bottles of water, but glass ones. When I told Ariel the story of the sea lion, she signed on and gave up her favorite plastic bags of Trader Joes bagels. Little steps, but they add up, right?

I spent the next few days in a state of shock realizing how much plastic one store in one town, like Napa, consumes. As I tried to figure out how to buy Parmesan cheese that was not pre-wrapped in plastic, John Kennedy and his old Breton prayer kept recurring to me, although this version was something like, thy sea is so big but there is so much plastic in it.

This is when I got an email from Lindblad.

After the Baja expedition, Lindblad and his fiancee, Kirsten Hettermann, had gone on to Hawaii. They were exploring the coastline of Lanai when they spotted a large mass of fishing net and plastic trash caught on a rocks. Snorkeling out to the spot to investigate, they discovered a mass of fishing net, a 30-foot long tangle of fishing and cargo nets, buoys and other plastic trash that they estimated weighed 1,500-2,000 pounds.

According to a report jointly produced by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the United Nations Environment Programme, fishing nets abandoned at sea remain in the marine ecosystem for hundreds of years, and can result in the accidental capture of dolphins, turtles and other marine animals, which can die trapped in the mesh.

They couldnt budge this floating ocean trash, but they also couldnt forget it. Hettermann said, It just didnt seem right to leave it there. Instead, they chartered a boat belonging to a Captain Jason Allen and, along with a free diver named, Skylar Fisher, they returned to capture the trash.

We had no idea how this was going to work, he said. It was a very difficult task, and our first attempt was to try to hook it with a large metal marine grade hook and use the boats 500-horsepower engine to drag the net back into the sea. The hook immediately bent.

When we were able to get line tied around the girth of the mass, the boat was powerful enough to drag it off the ledge and into the ocean. It took them two hours to tow the mass back to harbor, moving at a speed of 2 knots.

Lindblad and Hettermann said they hoped that their efforts would inspire others to do their part in cleaning up our ocean. If you imagine anyone with means  whether it be a boat, willing hands or monetary resources  viewing ocean trash as an obligation to act, citizens of all stripes could accomplish a lot to rid our oceans of this scourge, Lindblad said.

Does travel change you? When you begin to think about just how you move through the world, I think it changes not only you but people around you. Whether its Sven Lindblad and Kirsten Hettermann spending their holiday trying to drag trash out of the sea or my daughter deciding to learn how to bake her own bagels, these steps, little or big, can all add up.

That way when people venture out on their own adventures at sea, there will still be whales and free sea lions, too.

Need to get away? Start exploring magnificent places with our weekly travel newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.
Indias former deputy national security adviser Arvind Gupta says the country has got invaluable help from the Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh and the Myanmar government in fighting trans-border insurgency in recent years.

In his book How India Manages its National Security published by the Penguins, Gupta says that the shelter insurgents got in these two countries have now become untenable because their governments were determined not to allow their soil to be used by anti-Indian insurgents.

But Gupta, a former diplomat, strongly pitches for political solutions as opposed to military solutions.

Enduring peace in the Northeast can be restored only if the political and economic causes of insurgency are addressed and development is brought to the impoverished region, Gupta says in the book.

On development, Gupta points to a major problem  the lack of coordination between the Department of North East Region (DONER) in the Union Government and the North Eastern Council (NEC).

Often, synergy between the two is missing, Gupta observes in the book, which provides an insider view of the management of national security.

Gupta says that various provisions of the Constitution have been invoked to reach political settlements with rebel groups in the Northeast.

Such measures have led to significant reduction in violence although many groups still remain active, he says.

Gupta says the law and order situation in the Northeast has improved vastly and the intensity of fighting has come down significantly.

He says there is no easy solution to the Naga insurgency, although the Framework Agreement has been signed with the NSCN (I-M) in 2015.

Gupta does not elaborate on the problems faced by the Indian government as it tries to reach a final settlement of the Naga imbroglio, perhaps because he is not authorized to spell out details.

But his observation that there is no easy solution indicates a final settlement is not expected anytime soon.

Gupta stresses on better defence planning to reduce wastages and inefficiencies in handling the resource crunch faced by Indian military, even as he spells out the need to enhance defence allocations.
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)

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

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

Bloomberg: Turkey attempting to normalize Armenia relations to please Biden

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

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

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

Armenia NGO head detained

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

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

Armenia famous singer turns herself in to police

Ex-deputy PM Avinyan: Armenian National Airlines CJSC is registered

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

Iran, Turkmenistan stress measures to strengthen transit ties

Iran's and Saudi Arabia's representatives hold security meeting in Amman

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

Armenian Zartonk political party issues statement on apprehension of 3 members

Dollar falls after long rise in Armenia

Charles Michel to hold trilateral meeting with Armenia and Azerbaijan Presidents in Brussels on Dec. 14

Opposition 'Armenia' faction MP: Armenian parliamentary speaker elections were unlawful

Tovmasyan Foundation: Christmas fair is held

Ruling party MP: Armenian POWs' issue is an exclusively speculative one for opposition 'Armenia' Faction

Armenia Armavir Province deputy governor sacked

Armenia Parliament Speaker receives German MFA official Matthias Luttenberg

Armenia representative at ECHR considers International Court of Justice decision on December 7 a victory

Armenia Supreme Judicial Council examining issue of subjecting Yerevan judge to disciplinary liability

Ambassador to Armenia on Russia peacekeepers indefinite presence in Artsakh: Life will show

'With Honor' Faction MP: We will definitely vote in favor of draft for Armenia Parliament Speaker's resignation

Armenia ex-police chief Vladimir Gasparyan's health condition is stable

Armenia PM attends reopening of high school in Vagharshapat

Armenia representative at ECHR: Work on captives return from Azerbaijan continues

Armenia opposition MP: It is necessary to urgently solve issue of opening of aid station in Shurnukh

Opposition 'Armenia' Faction MP: Parliamentary speaker is making statements that pose danger to foreign policy

Russia envoy to Armenia: 3+3 format should have positive impact on relations between regional countries

Armenia ambassador presents her letter of credence to Cuba President

Armenia parliament opposition plans to nominate candidate for new speaker of legislature
Former commander of the Defense Army of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Samvel Babayan responded to questions regarding his relationship with the Sasna Tsrer (Daredevils of Sassoun) Party, Vitaly Balasanyans statement and the presidential elections of Artsakh and other questions in an interview with Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Armenian News-NEWS.am: Mr. Babayan, you say Artsakh has to be a part of Armenia, the Sasna Tsrer Party has launched a process to turn Artsakh into a province of Armenia. Vitaly Balasanyan has declared that whoever says Artsakh should be a province of Armenia should not cross the border.

Samvel Babayan: Artsakh has to be a part of Armenia in the future. As far as Zhirayr Sefilyans statement is concerned, I recommend that he and his supporters read the four UN Resolutions carefully. I have met with Sefilyan and clearly stated my opinion. The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict remains unresolved. By uniting Artsakh with Armenia, Yerevan will become fully responsible. The adversary might unleash a war and Armenia might make advancements, while the UN might convene a session and decide to punish Armenia. This is why I consider this subject closed for now. Nobody wants Karabakh to be a part of Armenia more than I do, but there are political issues that you cant publicly talk about. I dont think its right in this stage.

As far as Vitaly Balasanyans opinion is concerned, he is the one who believes he can speak on behalf of the people. Well hold a petition and see if the people want citizens of Karabakh and Armenia to have the right to get elected in Artsakh or not. If they say they do, then people like Vitaly Balasanyan and the rest can sit down and be quiet. Nobody can speak on behalf of the people.

Armenian News-NEWS.am: You said they were trying to hinder the petition that you had initiated to have an opportunity to run in the presidential elections. What are the authorities afraid of?

Samvel Babayan: We have addressed the electoral commission with this issue. Our actions will be clear when we receive a response. I dont recommend the authorities to have hopes that they can refuse to register me. I talk to the people and see that they are rebelling, and this will lead to a negative outcome. If the authorities are doing this, it means they have a serious problem. I want to be law-abiding, but the people might rebel. The people are ready for anything, but I dont want to see turbulence in our country.

Armenian News-NEWS.am: The presses wrote that a member of the Sasna Tsrer Party had met with you and offered to not run in the elections and endorse the partys candidate instead.

Samvel Babayan: Nobody has met with me, nobody has offered and cant offer me anything. Its not easy to offer me something. Let them participate with their candidate. I met with Zhirayr Sefilyan eight months ago, but we didnt talk about that. The presses are constantly trying to link me to the Sasna Tsrer Party. There are members of the political party who support me, but I recommend those who link the Sasna Tsrer Party to me to not waste time because its not going to work out.

Armenian News-NEWS.am: You once declared that the adversary committed sabotage in 2016. Do you still think so?

Samvel Babayan: My position remains unchanged. What happened on the night of 1 April and in the morning of 2 April was sabotage. Later, when the adversary seized the military positions and the developments unfolded, it turned into a war. If there was a high level of discipline at those military positions, those positions wouldnt be surrendered. This is brilliantly evidenced by the results of the forensic-medical expert examination. Baku brought new troops on 3-4 April 2016, and if a large-scale operation was envisaged, nothing like that would happen.

Knkush Hovhannisyan
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Post: #1 Bernie Sanders Rejects Call for Open Borders, Savaged by Left

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Bernie Sanders made himself an unlikely target for criticism among his detractors in the Democrat Party on Sunday, after rejecting an assertion from a questioner that he supported open borders.



A man asked how Bernie intended to sustain his vision of enlarged governmental social programs while supporting open borders. The Vermont Senator and Presidential candidate clarified that he did not support open borders, going into brief detail as to why he did not. Watch here:



https://bigleaguepolitics.com/bernie-san...d-by-left/



If even Bernie isnt leftist enough for these folks, something is seriously wrong with the Democratic Party.



I have no time for weaklings. Sanders surprised some by rejecting a platform of open borders.Bernie Sanders made himself an unlikely target for criticism among his detractors in the Democrat Party on Sunday, after rejecting an assertion from a questioner that he supported open borders.A man asked how Bernie intended to sustain his vision of enlarged governmental social programs while supporting open borders. The Vermont Senator and Presidential candidate clarified that he did not support open borders, going into brief detail as to why he did not. Watch here:If even Bernie isnt leftist enough for these folks, something is seriously wrong with the Democratic Party.I have no time for weaklings. Tacoavenger

Avenger of Tacos

User ID: 495096

04-08-2019 03:11 PM



Posts: 4,329









Post: #2 RE: Bernie Sanders Rejects Call for Open Borders, Savaged by Left

Fight the Power Wrote: (04-08-2019 03:09 PM) Sanders surprised some by rejecting a platform of open borders.



Bernie Sanders made himself an unlikely target for criticism among his detractors in the Democrat Party on Sunday, after rejecting an assertion from a questioner that he supported open borders.



A man asked how Bernie intended to sustain his vision of enlarged governmental social programs while supporting open borders. The Vermont Senator and Presidential candidate clarified that he did not support open borders, going into brief detail as to why he did not. Watch here:



https://bigleaguepolitics.com/bernie-san...d-by-left/



If even Bernie isnt leftist enough for these folks, something is seriously wrong with the Democratic Party.





Probably why he's an independent

Probably why he's an independent LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 442897

04-08-2019 03:11 PM











Post: #3 RE: Bernie Sanders Rejects Call for Open Borders, Savaged by Left

Need, Muh, votes LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 496600

04-08-2019 03:14 PM











Post: #4 RE: Bernie Sanders Rejects Call for Open Borders, Savaged by Left

his actual policy support is mainstream and right of center, he is certainly no lefty.. Tacoavenger

Avenger of Tacos

User ID: 495096

04-08-2019 03:16 PM



Posts: 4,329









Post: #5 RE: Bernie Sanders Rejects Call for Open Borders, Savaged by Left

LoP Guest Wrote: (04-08-2019 03:11 PM) Need, Muh, votes

The Democratic strategists are trying to appeal to white male voters now so maybe.



But Bernie switches back and forward from Democrat to independent, so who knows what he's doing.

The Democratic strategists are trying to appeal to white male voters now so maybe.But Bernie switches back and forward from Democrat to independent, so who knows what he's doing. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 352462

04-08-2019 03:24 PM











Post: #6 RE: Bernie Sanders Rejects Call for Open Borders, Savaged by Left

Guess whatBernie isn't for gun confiscation, either.



I watched him during his debates w/Hillary when they were running for Potus. Bernie was not for taking away all guns; in fact, he said some people in Vermont used them for hunting. Several in the audience booed him, but he repeated he was not for gun confiscation. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 397180

04-08-2019 03:27 PM











Post: #7 RE: Bernie Sanders Rejects Call for Open Borders, Savaged by Left

LoP Guest Wrote: (04-08-2019 03:14 PM) his actual policy support is mainstream and right of center, he is certainly no lefty..

He's not even remotely close to right or center. He's a socialist, which means he's out in the left field.



Mainstream leftists have gone off the deep end and are out in extremist territory. That's why they think he's not leftist enough.



Don't toe the party line on every issue and get roasted. He's not even remotely close to right or center. He's a socialist, which means he's out in the left field.Mainstream leftists have gone off the deep end and are out in extremist territory. That's why they think he's not leftist enough.Don't toe the party line on every issue and get roasted. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 496394

04-08-2019 03:27 PM











Post: #8 RE: Bernie Sanders Rejects Call for Open Borders, Savaged by Left

Fight the Power Wrote: (04-08-2019 03:09 PM) Sanders surprised some by rejecting a platform of open borders.



Bernie Sanders made himself an unlikely target for criticism among his detractors in the Democrat Party on Sunday, after rejecting an assertion from a questioner that he supported open borders.



A man asked how Bernie intended to sustain his vision of enlarged governmental social programs while supporting open borders. The Vermont Senator and Presidential candidate clarified that he did not support open borders, going into brief detail as to why he did not. Watch here:



https://bigleaguepolitics.com/bernie-san...d-by-left/



If even Bernie isnt leftist enough for these folks, something is seriously wrong with the Democratic Party.





Bernie doesn't stand a chance.



The media isn't going to let him win.



Ron Paul 2008 Redux! Bernie doesn't stand a chance.The media isn't going to let him win.Ron Paul 2008 Redux! Damnrod

Pull my finger

User ID: 292511

04-08-2019 03:40 PM



Posts: 7,609









Post: #9 RE: Bernie Sanders Rejects Call for Open Borders, Savaged by Left

..."savaged by idiots and morons"



more accurate "I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery"...Thomas Jefferson



"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it"...Thomas Jefferson





LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 496600

04-08-2019 03:44 PM











Post: #10 RE: Bernie Sanders Rejects Call for Open Borders, Savaged by Left

LoP Guest Wrote: (04-08-2019 03:27 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (04-08-2019 03:14 PM) his actual policy support is mainstream and right of center, he is certainly no lefty..

He's not even remotely close to right or center. He's a socialist, which means he's out in the left field.



Mainstream leftists have gone off the deep end and are out in extremist territory. That's why they think he's not leftist enough.



Don't toe the party line on every issue and get roasted.

he is in no way a socialist, nothing like a socialist, only those with tunnel vision would think some one as right of center as Sanders is a socialist...



in a global context Obama was to the right of conservative leaders like Maggie Thatcher, and socialists like Corbyn make Sanders look like a far right wingnut...



Sanders is right of center.



though the Democrats do seem deeply concerned that Momentum is taking root in the US, that'll be an interesting one to watch evolve... that you might see some real lefties enter US politics.... Sanders will look pretty right wing then.... he is in no way a socialist, nothing like a socialist, only those with tunnel vision would think some one as right of center as Sanders is a socialist...in a global context Obama was to the right of conservative leaders like Maggie Thatcher, and socialists like Corbyn make Sanders look like a far right wingnut...Sanders is right of center.though the Democrats do seem deeply concerned that Momentum is taking root in the US, that'll be an interesting one to watch evolve... that you might see some real lefties enter US politics.... Sanders will look pretty right wing then.... LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 397180

04-08-2019 03:57 PM











Post: #11 RE: Bernie Sanders Rejects Call for Open Borders, Savaged by Left

LoP Guest Wrote: (04-08-2019 03:44 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (04-08-2019 03:27 PM) He's not even remotely close to right or center. He's a socialist, which means he's out in the left field.



Mainstream leftists have gone off the deep end and are out in extremist territory. That's why they think he's not leftist enough.



Don't toe the party line on every issue and get roasted.

he is in no way a socialist, nothing like a socialist, only those with tunnel vision would think some one as right of center as Sanders is a socialist...



in a global context Obama was to the right of conservative leaders like Maggie Thatcher, and socialists like Corbyn make Sanders look like a far right wingnut...



Sanders is right of center.



though the Democrats do seem deeply concerned that Momentum is taking root in the US, that'll be an interesting one to watch evolve... that you might see some real lefties enter US politics.... Sanders will look pretty right wing then....

He's a self-admitted socialist.



https://youtu.be/K7jlAZSGXf4



https://youtu.be/apC4UBKlXMw



He tries to separate himself from the Soviet Union's or China's brand of socialism, because like all socialists he thinks that his version of it will actually work.



Which just means he's a hardcore dyed-in-the-wool socialist. He's a self-admitted socialist.He tries to separate himself from the Soviet Union's or China's brand of socialism, because like all socialists he thinks that his version of it will actually work.Which just means he's a hardcore dyed-in-the-wool socialist. Prince Vegeta

Knowledge and Power

User ID: 496737

04-08-2019 04:02 PM



Posts: 2,726









Post: #12 RE: Bernie Sanders Rejects Call for Open Borders, Savaged by Left

LoP Guest Wrote: (04-08-2019 03:57 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (04-08-2019 03:44 PM) he is in no way a socialist, nothing like a socialist, only those with tunnel vision would think some one as right of center as Sanders is a socialist...



in a global context Obama was to the right of conservative leaders like Maggie Thatcher, and socialists like Corbyn make Sanders look like a far right wingnut...



Sanders is right of center.



though the Democrats do seem deeply concerned that Momentum is taking root in the US, that'll be an interesting one to watch evolve... that you might see some real lefties enter US politics.... Sanders will look pretty right wing then....

He's a self-admitted socialist.



https://youtu.be/K7jlAZSGXf4



https://youtu.be/apC4UBKlXMw



He tries to separate himself from the Soviet Union's or China's brand of socialism, because like all socialists he thinks that his version of it will actually work.



Which just means he's a hardcore dyed-in-the-wool socialist.

It's just like the Nazis separating their brand of national socialism from the USSR's brand of socialism. But the reality is that socialism sucks wherever it is implemented as we saw with those two cases. It's just like the Nazis separating their brand of national socialism from the USSR's brand of socialism. But the reality is that socialism sucks wherever it is implemented as we saw with those two cases. I have no time for weaklings. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 496600

04-08-2019 05:33 PM











Post: #13 RE: Bernie Sanders Rejects Call for Open Borders, Savaged by Left

LoP Guest Wrote: (04-08-2019 03:57 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (04-08-2019 03:44 PM) he is in no way a socialist, nothing like a socialist, only those with tunnel vision would think some one as right of center as Sanders is a socialist...



in a global context Obama was to the right of conservative leaders like Maggie Thatcher, and socialists like Corbyn make Sanders look like a far right wingnut...



Sanders is right of center.



though the Democrats do seem deeply concerned that Momentum is taking root in the US, that'll be an interesting one to watch evolve... that you might see some real lefties enter US politics.... Sanders will look pretty right wing then....

He's a self-admitted socialist.



https://youtu.be/K7jlAZSGXf4



https://youtu.be/apC4UBKlXMw



He tries to separate himself from the Soviet Union's or China's brand of socialism, because like all socialists he thinks that his version of it will actually work.



Which just means he's a hardcore dyed-in-the-wool socialist.

Corbyn and Sanders have long long voting records which we can compare and define their actual political stances as opposed to whatever spin they want to frame their careers as, Sanders is simply not a socialist and Corbyn is...



Can you honestly imagine Sanders pushing for nationalising the Railways and Utilities in the US? simply not possible... look how both have voted vis a vis all the recent conflicts, Corbyn has consistently voted against them while Sanders has voted in favour.. Corbyn wants to give all employees a share in the companies they work for and give them a say in how their companies boards are run...



While Sanders votes in line with the run of the mill Democrat policies, and by framing Sanders as a socialist Americans take their eyes from the likes of Momentum making inroads into US politics... who are socialists.. which the centerists/center right like Sanders are trying to combat, much in the same way the EU is trying to combat the same kind of socialism in the EU. Corbyn and Sanders have long long voting records which we can compare and define their actual political stances as opposed to whatever spin they want to frame their careers as, Sanders is simply not a socialist and Corbyn is...Can you honestly imagine Sanders pushing for nationalising the Railways and Utilities in the US? simply not possible... look how both have voted vis a vis all the recent conflicts, Corbyn has consistently voted against them while Sanders has voted in favour.. Corbyn wants to give all employees a share in the companies they work for and give them a say in how their companies boards are run...While Sanders votes in line with the run of the mill Democrat policies, and by framing Sanders as a socialist Americans take their eyes from the likes of Momentum making inroads into US politics... who are socialists.. which the centerists/center right like Sanders are trying to combat, much in the same way the EU is trying to combat the same kind of socialism in the EU. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 496425

04-08-2019 06:12 PM











Post: #14 RE: Bernie Sanders Rejects Call for Open Borders, Savaged by Left

I like Bernie Sanders too. It's a tough call between him and Biden. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 483092

04-08-2019 06:24 PM











Post: #15 RE: Bernie Sanders Rejects Call for Open Borders, Savaged by Left

LoP Guest Wrote: (04-08-2019 03:44 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (04-08-2019 03:27 PM) He's not even remotely close to right or center. He's a socialist, which means he's out in the left field.



Mainstream leftists have gone off the deep end and are out in extremist territory. That's why they think he's not leftist enough.



Don't toe the party line on every issue and get roasted.

he is in no way a socialist, nothing like a socialist, only those with tunnel vision would think some one as right of center as Sanders is a socialist...



in a global context Obama was to the right of conservative leaders like Maggie Thatcher, and socialists like Corbyn make Sanders look like a far right wingnut...



Sanders is right of center.



though the Democrats do seem deeply concerned that Momentum is taking root in the US, that'll be an interesting one to watch evolve... that you might see some real lefties enter US politics.... Sanders will look pretty right wing then....

He is a self described socialist. He admits to subscribing to Marxism. He started the Democratic Socialist trend. Others hijacked it and repurposed the title to make full on Communism sound more palatable. He is a socialist. He is a self described socialist. He admits to subscribing to Marxism. He started the Democratic Socialist trend. Others hijacked it and repurposed the title to make full on Communism sound more palatable. He is a socialist. Advertisement



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The government of Iraqi Kurdistan opened the first Armenian church in the capital Erbil, Western Armenia TV reported.

The church, located in the Ainkawa district, was built under the leadership of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Religious Affairs.

Representatives of the government of the Kurdish autonomy, as well as foreign guests attended the ceremony of consecration of the church.

The opening of this church itself is laying another foundation stone for a peaceful coexistence of different ethnic and religious groups in the Kurdistan Region, Safeen Dizayee, the spokesperson of the KRG present to represent Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani at the observance.

The autonomous region has a unicameral parliamentary legislature with 111 seats, with five quota seats each reserved for Turkmen and Christian parties and one seat specifically set aside for a member of an Armenian party.
At the Iranian request, the Russian Emergency Ministry together with the Armenian Emergency Ministry have started delivering humanitarian aid to Iranian victims of large-scale floods.

The cargo included tents, blankets and folding beds - over 4 thousand items of material resources purchased at the Russian expense in the replenished humanitarian reserve of the Russian-Armenian center.

A protest was staged Monday at the courtyard of the Armenian National Assembly. The participants were demonstrating against a transgender persons recent address in parliament.

During past weeks parliamentary hearings on human rights, a transgender person delivered a speech from the NA podium.

Subsequently, the moderator of these hearings, Prosperous Armenia Party MP Naira Zohrabyan, got mad and asked this transgender person to leave the NA Sessions Hall.

On 8 April, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) launched its spring session, which will end on 12 April. This session will stand out with the speech by Armenian Prime Minister on 11 April.

At the PACE, Pashinyan will have meetings with Secretary-General of the Council of Europe Thorbjrn Jagland, PACE President Liliane Maury Pasquier and President of the Venice Commission Gianni Buchichio.

Pashinyan will officially open the exhibition called The Velvet Revolution in Armenia in the vestibule of the Assembly.

The capital city Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction on Monday morning granted the State Revenue Committee (SRC) of Armenias petition, and ruled that Spayka company director Davit Ghazaryan be remanded in custody for two months into non-payment of large amount of taxes.

As per the respective State Revenue Committee statement, Spayka company has not paid 7,036,666,312 drams (approx. US$14,468,090) in customs duties and taxes to the state budget.

A group of employees from Armenias Spayka company closed off Tigran Mets Avenue in downtown capital city Yerevan, across the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction.

The Armenian parliament voted on Monday in favor of the draft law on making amendments to the law on Public Holidays and Memorable Days in the first reading. A total of 92 parliamentarians voted in favor of the bill on Citizen's Day.

Citizens Day, which aims to emphasize the meaning of the Armenian velvet revolution, will be celebrated on the last Saturday of April.

The Armenian community of Boston has donated $ 150,000 to the City of Smiles Foundation to help treat young cancer patients in Armenia.

The wife of Armenian Prime Minister Anna Hakobyan, who is on a working visit to the US, was warmly received in the Armenian community of Boston.

In wealthy and developed countries, cancer is just a disease, but in many less-developed countries, it is equal to a death sentence, she said.
YEREVAN.- U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Lynne Tracy, alongside the Mayor of Yerevan, Hayk Marutyan, officially opened TechnoLab  a new technological hub in Yerevan supported by the U.S. Embassy and the Isahakyan City Central Library.

TechnoLab is an extension of the Yerevan American Corner and is the result of the ongoing successful collaboration between the U.S. Embassy and the Yerevan City Central Library.

TechnoLab is equipped with computers, 3D doodlers and 3D printers, as well as coding and robotics kits. Its purpose is to offer free access to new technologies and to offer the tools needed for the development of technological skills, particularly among young people.

TechnoLab will offer courses in coding and programming and training on the new technologies available in the center. Visitors may bring in their own devices and use them. Wireless Internet access is also available, and the facility is accessible for people with disabilities. As in all the U.S. Embassys American Corners, all services and programs are free of charge.

In her remarks at the opening ceremony, Ambassador Tracy said, The United States and Armenia share the view that STEM education is critical for our young people to succeed in our increasingly interconnected global society It is my hope that this new TechnoLab will complement the current wave of enthusiasm for new technologies that is sweeping across Armenia.

This state-of-the-art technolab is yet another great example of successful partnership between the U.S. Embassy and Yerevan City that will make technology accessible for the patrons of this library. In addition, it will offer courses to people of all ages on use of technology. This is exactly what we want to as we are heading to elevate to a new level our traditions in advanced technologies and to offer new tools for education and development, said Mayor Marutyan and thanked the Embassy for effective partnership.

The Yerevan American Corner was established in April 2005. It is now one of five U.S. Embassy-sponsored American Corners across Armenia  in Gyumri, Vanadzor, Kapan and Charentsavan. American Corners provide welcoming environments where visitors can connect and learn about the United States through programs and lectures, as well as through books, movies, and magazines. They are platforms for providing information and engagement through activities, including:

 Educational advising for those who want to study in the U.S.,

 Workshops on a range of topics from career skills to English language learning,

 Classes and clubs introducing new technologies, 21st century digital skills, and academic resources,

 Films, discussions, and lectures on entrepreneurship, leadership, current events, international affairs, and much more.
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"RG: What do you consider to be the most compelling Brazilian UFO incident on record, and why?



TLT: There are many. It is difficult to choose just one. Brazil is one of the largest UFO hotspots in the world. We had Official UFO Night in 1986, when more than 20 UFOs were chased by military aircraft, spotted by ground witnesses and detected on radars in several cities. We had Operation Prato, a secret investigation by the Brazilian Air Force in 1977 that went to several cities in northern Brazil to investigate strange UFOs that fired lightning at people and sucked their blood in an event known as chupa-chupa. Hundreds of photos, many already released to the public, were taken, and dozens of hours of videos of these objects were captured by the military. These videos are still under the secrecy of the Brazilian government. But, undoubtedly, the most famous and important case in Brazil was the Varginha Case, when, in 1996, a UFO crashed in the city of Varginha, in the state of Minas Gerais, and its crew were seen by dozens of people before being captured by the military and city firefighters. The case became even more bizarre due to the death of a military man for reasons not yet clear after his physical contact with one of the extraterrestrial beings.



RG: What is the Brazilian governments official stance on UFOs? When was the last time it issued a statement on the subject?



TLT: Unfortunately, the Brazilian government does not grant due importance to the subject. They have other, more important concerns. Brazil had in its hands a crashed UFO and its extraterrestrial crew and it handed them over to the US military.



The Brazilian government has never given any statements about UFOs. This subject is handled by the Brazilian air force, and the last time it was mentioned was in 2010, when the Brazilian Aerospace Defense Command (Comdabra) was issued the 551 / GC3 Report, which makes the command responsible for receiving and cataloging UFO notifications."

Robbie Graham interviews Thiago Luiz Ticchetti, an important Brazilian UFOlogist. I think there is much to be gained in branching out to other locations around the world to learn as much as we possibly can about the subject of UFOs. Here is an excerpt from the interview:Full interview here:
No talks will be ineffective so long as the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict remains unsettled. This is what Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told journalists on 8 April, touching upon his meeting with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in Vienna.

The statement by the co-chairs and the foreign ministers stated that the meeting was held in a constructive and positive atmosphere. We all agreed on the text. Thus, it is safe to interpret it by saying that the talks will be ineffective so long as the conflict remains unsettled, he said.

Touching upon the fact that Azerbaijan responded to Armenia's Minister of Defense Davit Tonoyan's new war for new territories statement by saying that Armenia is aspiring for war, Nikol Pashinyan said the statement is not illogical and much less destructive at all.

Armenia is telling Azerbaijan not to intimidate the country with war because we are not afraid of war. Armenia is the first country to support a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict exclusively through peaceful talks. We have said that we will do everything we can to set forth the peace agenda, but nobody should get the impression that we are going to be afraid of the threat of war. Armenia, Azerbaijan and the whole region have to be afraid of war. In case of a war imposed on us, we will impose peace. The purpose of our war is going to be peace, and it is not going to be our war. We are not preparing to launch a military operation against anyone, but in case of war, we will impose peace, the Prime Minister said.

According to him, there is no need to constantly talk about war. When we talk about war, we stress the importance of the talks and our loyalty to the talks.
The European Union and Armenia held the 10th round of their regular Human Rights Dialogue in Brussels on April 8. The EU and Armenia referred to their readiness to continue implementation of the EU-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA), the EU Delegation in Armenia reported.

The statement runs as follows, After the latest elections in Armenia, the expectations among Armenian citizens regarding the strengthening of democracy and the rule of law, fight against corruption and protection and enhancement of human rights are high. The CEPA commits the EU and Armenia to strengthen respect for fundamental freedoms. At the meeting, the EU and Armenia discussed freedom of assembly and expression, electoral reforms, gender equality, anti-discrimination policy, judicial and penitentiary reforms, as well as labor rights. Further amendments to Armenias media-related legislation would ensure greater transparency and plurality.

Armenia confirmed its commitment to pursue justice reforms, notably to the principle of equality before the law, to an independent judiciary and to an effective mechanism of checks and balances. It is crucial that Armenia adopts a comprehensive anti-discrimination law in line with international standards and establishes a national equality body under the Human Rights Defender's office. The Human Rights Defender and his office have taken positive steps to set up round-the-clock helplines and rapid response teams. The EU and Armenia discussed the preparation of the draft National Strategy on Gender Equality 2019-2023. Both sides highlighted the importance of raising public awareness and promoting gender equality, especially through education, and reiterated its support to this end.

Close co-operation between the Armenian authorities and the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman and Degrading Treatment (CPT) would be beneficial. The Armenian National Prevention Mechanism should continue capacity building to better monitor and evaluate psychiatric institutions and the police and penitentiary and juvenile institutions.

In line with its policy, the EU met and consulted representatives of the Armenian and international civil society prior to the Human Rights Dialogue. The Dialogue meeting resulted in operational conclusions with concrete actions that will be monitored and followed up over the next year.

The Armenian delegation was headed by Mr. Avet Adonts, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, while the EU delegation was led by Mr. Richard Tibbels, Head of Division for bilateral relations with Eastern Partnership countries at the European External Action Service. Mr. Arman Tatoyan, Armenian Human Rights Defender, and Ms. Mara Marinaki, Principal Advisor for gender issues from the European External Action Service also participated in the meeting.
Posted by PickupTrucks.com Staff | April 7, 2019

Cars.com photos by Aaron Bragman

By Aaron Bragman

Every year, the off-road wizards at Jeep create a bevy of specialty concepts for the Easter Jeep Safari in Moab, Utah, a multiday off-roading event for enthusiasts hosted by a Moab four-wheel-drive club. This year, the Jeep folks get to play with something totally new: a fully trail-rated factory Jeep pickup truck, the 2020 Jeep Gladiator. And play with it they did, as every one of this year's six EJS concepts is based off of the new Gladiator  and they are every bit as fantastic as the concepts from previous years.

Related Video:

Jeep J6: The Two-Door Gladiator Everyone Wants













The most common question I've gotten since reviewing the 2020 Gladiator has been, "Is Jeep going to do a two-door?" The answer is no ... but then have a look at the J6 concept. Inspired by the 1978 Jeep Honcho, the J6 sits on a custom Wrangler four-door frame with a modified Gladiator cabin, unique Brilliant Blue Metallic paint and a bed that's been stretched 12 inches to a full 6 feet long. The overall length is 201 inches, while the wheelbase is 118.4 inches. It features accessories from Mopar's Jeep Performance Parts line, including LED lights, a 2-inch lift kit, a cold-air intake and some prototype parts like the 17-inch bead-lock wheels shod in 37-inch tires, classic Jeep badging and the bed's roll bar. Jeep designers would love to make a production version of this truck, but they're concerned that the volume just wouldn't be high enough to justify the cost of development and tooling. If you feel otherwise, let 'em know.

Related: 2020 Jeep Gladiator First Drive: Yes, Maximus, We Are Entertained

Jeep Flatbill: For the MotoX Crowd

















The Flatbill concept is made specifically for fans of desert motocross racing, designed to haul dirt bikes in a custom bed that replaces the tailgate with custom wheel ramps and bodywork designed to improve its desert-romping abilities. It features a 4-inch lift kit, Dynatrac ProRock 60-series front and rear axles, and large rear bypass shocks. Twenty-inch wheels are shod with massive 40-inch tires, which Jeep says are the first ever fitted to a Gladiator, while the interior has been painted in a bright bedliner spray. Under the hood is something fun  no, not the powertrain, but the "burrito warmer" that's been installed, along with some serious shade aimed toward a certain best-selling Toyota mid-size truck. So, why is it called Flatbill? Ask your favorite motocross fan how they wear their hat.

Jeep Wayout: Because You Don't Want to Be Eaten by Bears













At the other end of the Gladiator customer spectrum, you'll find the overlanders  people who trick out their off-road rigs and disappear into the wilderness for days or weeks at a time. The Wayout is for them. Starting with a new Gladiator painted in Gator Green (a color soon to enter production), it's equipped with a custom bed rack with integrated ladder that carries a two-person rooftop tent and a massive 270-degree collapsible awning. Two custom-fit auxiliary fuel cans are integrated into the bedsides, while an ARB onboard air compressor and body-mounted quick-disconnect hose fitting allow airing up or down of tires. A JPP 2-inch lift kit is fitted, as are 17-inch steel wheels with 37-inch mud-terrain tires. Up front, a 12,000-pound Warn winch in the bumper and a JPP snorkel should help the Wayout find a way through. The bed has a Mopar/Decked bed drawer system for secure dry storage, while the interior has bedlined floors and brown leather seats with laser-etched topographical map patterns.

Jeep JT Scrambler: The Nostalgia Trip













In 1982, the Jeep Scrambler was based on the CJ8 and featured distinctive colors and graphics. Jeep brought the look back by customizing a new white 2020 Gladiator Rubicon with Punk'N Metallic Orange and Nacho body stripes and hood graphics, a tan hardtop and painted wheels done in a gold-orange color that Joe Dehner, head of Ram and Mopar Design, called "gornge." Mopar and JPP parts were then added, including LED lights on the custom roll bar, the A-pillar brackets and the brush guard. The requisite 2-inch lift kit was installed, as were the 17-inch wheels on 37-inch tires. Katzkin Amaretto Brown leather covers the seats, dash panel and armrests, while a custom auxiliary switch bank, bright pedals and all-weather floormats complete the interior.

Jeep Gladiator Gravity: The Mopar Parts Showcase









Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' Mopar parts division loves to use the Moab trip to showcase the latest and greatest parts, and the Gladiator Gravity custom truck does just that. JPP is proud that it'll have more than 200 accessories for the Gladiator ready to go when the truck hits dealerships this year, and a bunch of them have been fitted here. The bed has been outfitted with cross-rails, a cargo carrier basket and a truck bed locking storage system with sliding drawers. The JPP 2-inch lift is underneath, as are the 17-inch wheels and 35-inch tires. Two-inch tube-steel doors replace the solid ones, a mesh sunbonnet tops the cab to keep the sun off passengers' heads, and tie-down straps keep the folded windshield secure. Under the hood, a cold-air intake and cat-back exhaust system open up the engine, while JPP rock rails grace the sides of the truck. LED lights on the A-pillars light the way, while the interior features Katzkin leather seats, Mopar grab handles, storage bags and floormats.

Jeep M-715 Five-Quarter





























Jeep also likes to resurrect an old trooper for the EJS, and this year's lucky recipient is an old military truck that's been "resto-modded." What started life as a 1968 M-715 Five-Quarter (it's rated to one-and-one-quarter tons), this J-Series Gladiator-based military truck has been thoroughly reworked with a 6.2-liter "Hellcrate" Hemi V-8 nestled in that pumps out more than 700 horsepower, mated to a three-speed transmission and 4x4 transfer case. The front sheet metal has been replaced by custom carbon fiber, while a bobbed 6-foot aluminum bed has been added, made from water-jet-cut panels and wood slats. The convertible top has been chopped by 3.5 inches, but the original frame has been kept  it's just now been fully boxed for stiffness. Gladiator Rubicon steel bumpers were installed up front, and functional rock rails have been added, too. The axles, meanwhile, are huge: Dynatrac ProRock 60-series up front and 80-series in back, featuring 20-inch bead-lock wheels and 40-inch tires.

All the Easter Jeep Safari concepts are drivable, and Jeep plans to take them to the weeklong festival from April 13-21, where they can be seen by the public for the first time.

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SIU hosting suicide awareness and prevention event April 20

by Christi Mathis

CARBONDALE, Ill.  Suicide is the second leading cause of death among people ages 15-24 and 10th overall, but Southern Illinois University Carbondale is taking action to address this devastating problem.

The university is hosting a special suicide awareness and prevention event on April 20. It will include a guest speaker, a walk and a variety of other activities to raise awareness of the issue and support suicide prevention efforts.

Suicide affects many families

Suicide touches one in five American families, Angela Peterman, a senior early childhood major and undergraduate worker in SIUs Wellness and Health Promotion Services who is serving as chair of the walk, said. We hope that by walking, we will draw attention to this issue and keep other families from experiencing a suicide loss. Our ultimate goal is to save lives and bring hope to those affected by suicide.

Things start happening at 4 p.m.

One and all are invited to participate in the Out of the Darkness Campus Walk. Pre-registration begins at 4 p.m. near the front entrance of the Student Center.

Also at that time, people are invited to visit the remembrance tree where they can take a packet of flower seeds, including such poignant plants as forget-me-nots, and in its place, hang on the tree a leaf bearing someones name.

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) will have assorted T-shirts, bandanas, wristbands and other items for sale. Winstons Bagels by B-Rad will also be on hand and there will be honor beads for participants, with various colors symbolizing the relationships involved with survivors, suicide victims and those struggling with mental illness.

Buckman will speak before walk

Matt Buckman, licensed clinical psychologist, will speak at 5 p.m., just before the walk begins. He will discuss suicide awareness and prevention, support for survivors, the need to reduce the stigma of seeking help for mental health concerns and deliver a message of hope and support.

Everyone welcome

The walk is organized by the Student Health Services and the Salukis on Your Side campus suicide prevention program, in conjunction with the AFSP. The walk is one of more than 550 held nationwide, uniting more than 300,000 participants and raising millions of dollars for suicide prevention efforts.

In 2018, about 200 people participated in SIUs walk, raising more than $8,000.

Team captains and individuals may register in advance (until noon on April 19) at afsp.org/siu. Participants can also show up the day of the walk and participate. The walk will continue until 7 p.m. Pledges total about $3,800 already and organizers hope to top last years total and bring in $10,000.

Any participant who raises at least $100 will receive a free T-shirt.

Dogs are welcome at the walk, but organizers request that, to ensure the safety of walkers, no skateboards, scooters or bicycles be brought.

Vigil and counselors too

Counselors from SIUs Student Health Services will be on site, offering support and help to anyone who needs it. After the walk concludes, there will be candlelight vigil in honor of those who have lost their lives to suicide and those who struggle with suicidal thoughts.

The walk serves a variety of purposes:

Increasing awareness of the terrible impact of suicide.

Supporting people who have suffered loss due to suicide.

Raising funds for research, educational programs and public policy advocacy.

Raffle benefit planned

A raffle is being held in conjunction with the walk as well. Numerous great prizes, including a wide variety of gift cards, services and products, are up for grabs.

Sponsors for the 2019 walk include: Southern Illinois Healthcare, Bomber Crew Tattoo, Dunkin Donuts, Centerstone, SIU Credit Union, E. Claire Salon and Spa, BPL Plasma, Rainbow Cafe, uBreakiFix, SIU Student Health Services, SIU Salukis on Your Side and The Varsity Center.

Additional details

For more information about SIUs Out of the Darkness Campus Walk 2019 online or contact Angela Peterman at 618/536-4441 or angela.peterman@siu.edu or Beth Morrison at beth.morrison@siu.edu.
(Adds comment from EU and France, background)

By Ahmed Elumami and Ayman al-Warfalli

TRIPOLI/BENGHAZI, Libya, April 8 (Reuters) - Eastern Libyan forces tried to push towards the center of Tripoli on Monday after their easy desert advance hit a tougher urban phase, with deaths and displacements mounting despite Western appeals for a truce and a return to a peace plan.

Renewed war in Libya - splintered since Muammar Gaddafi's 2011 fall - threatens to disrupt oil and gas supplies, trigger more migration to Europe, and wreck U.N. hopes for an election.

The eastern Libyan National Army (LNA) forces of Khalifa Haftar, a former officer in Gaddafi's army, said 19 of their soldiers had died in recent days as they closed in on the internationally recognized government in Tripoli.

The United Nations said 2,800 people had been displaced by clashes and many more could flee, though some were trapped.

The LNA has conducted air strikes on the south of the city as it seeks to advance into the center from a disused airport.

But the government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj has armed groups arriving from nearby Misrata to help block the LNA.

It reported 11 deaths without saying on which side.

Al-Serraj, 59, who comes from a wealthy business family, has run the Tripoli government since 2016 as part of a U.N.-brokered deal boycotted by Haftar.

PEACE MOVES IN DISARRAY

His LNA, allied with a parallel eastern administration based in Benghazi, took the oil-rich south of Libya earlier this year before its surprisingly fast push towards the coastal capital.

While that advance was straightforward through sparsely populated areas, taking Tripoli is a far bigger challenge.

The violence has thrown into disarray a U.N. plan for an April 14-16 conference to plan elections as a way out of the anarchy that has gripped Libya since the Western-backed toppling of Gaddafi eight years ago.

The European Union joined the United Nations, United States and G7 bloc in calling for a ceasefire, a halt to Haftar's advance and return to political negotiations.

Story continues

A contingent of U.S. forces evacuated at the weekend.

The U.N. mission to Libya called on Sunday for a truce for two hours in southern Tripoli to evacuate civilians and wounded, but it did not appear to have been heeded.

Haftar casts himself as a foe of extremism but is viewed by opponents as a new dictator in the mould of Gaddafi, whose four-decade rule saw torture, disappearances and assassinations.

Forces with the Tripoli government have announced an operation to defend the capital called "Volcano of Anger."

Allied groups from Misrata along the coast have been moving pickup trucks fitted with machine guns into Tripoli.

TRANSIT POINT

The LNA says it has 85,000 men, but this includes soldiers paid by the central government that it hopes to inherit. Its elite force, Saiqa (Lightning), numbers some 3,500, while Haftar's sons also have well-equipped troops, LNA sources say.

Since NATO-backed rebels ousted Gaddafi, Libya has been a transit point for hundreds of thousands of migrants trekking across the Sahara in hope of reaching Europe across the sea.

Islamic State staged some high profile attacks in Tripoli last year, but the militant group has largely retreated to the desert of southern Libya since the loss of its former stronghold in Sirte late in 2016.

France, which has close links to Haftar, said it had no prior warning of his push for Tripoli and denied it was secretly undermining the peace process, a diplomatic source said.

France established close relations with Haftar under the Socialist government of Francois Hollande and his defense minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.

When President Emmanuel Macron named Le Drian his foreign minister, Paris doubled down in its support to Haftar, in close alignment with Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, which see him as a bulwark against Islamists and have supported him militarily, according to U.N. reports.

France's stance has created tensions with Italy, which has sought to play a leading role to end the turmoil, which has allowed Islamist militants and migrant smugglers to flourish.

(Reporting by Ahmed Elumami and Ayman al-Warfalli; Additional reporting by Ulf Laessing in Cairo, Tom Miles in Geneva, Diane Bartz in Washington, Robin Emmott in Luxembourg, Marine Pennetier in Paris; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
* Barnier ready to quickly clarify political declaration

* Chief negotiator confident of no deal solution for Ireland

* Irish PM to discuss length of extension with other leaders (Adds details, quotes)

By Padraic Halpin

DUBLIN, April 8 (Reuters) - The European Union's chief Brexit negotiator said he hoped cross-party crisis talks in London would yield a positive outcome to allow his team to move swiftly in agreeing more ambitions terms on a future British-EU relationship.

Britain's exit from the EU hangs in the balance with Prime Minister Theresa May trying to coax the Labour Party into agreeing a divorce deal with a better chance of being ratified by the British parliament, two days before an emergency summit where she will try to delay the April 12 departure.

"We all hope that these talks will produce a positive outcome. I've said many times before, we can be more, much more ambitious in our future relationship with the UK," Michel Barnier told a news conference with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in Dublin.

"The political declaration provides for a range of outcomes including a customs union. We are ready to make this clearer if it helps and this work can be done extremely quickly."

Barnier, a regular visitor to Dublin during two tortuous years of Brexit negotiations, also discussed the consequences for Ireland and in particular its 500-km (350-mile), seamless land border with British-governed Northern Ireland in the event of Britain departing the EU without a transition deal.

He said Dublin and Brussels were intensifying discussions on how they could protect peace on the island of Ireland, anchored in part by the open frontier - while also maintaining the integrity of the EU's single market that allows goods to move freely around the bloc - if Britain left without a deal.

"It is not an easy task but I am confident, I am confident that we will find operational solutions. One thing is certain, whatever happens, the EU will stand fully behind Ireland, you have our full support," Barnier said.

Story continues

His comments echoed expressions of solidarity made to Varadkar last week in his meetings with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, both of whom May will travel to meet on Tuesday.

While May has asked for a further Brexit delay until June 30, EU summit chair Donald Tusk plans to propose an extension of a year that can be shortened if Britain's parliament eventually approves the divorce deal struck with the EU last November.

Varadkar, whose country has most to lose among the remaining 27 EU members from a disruptive Brexit due to the free movement of goods over the border and its close commercial ties with its nearest neighbor, also favors a long extension.

"I will be speaking to some (fellow EU leaders) on the phone today and tomorrow. There will of course be different views but I am confident that we will reach an agreement," he said (Additioanl reporting by Graham Fahy Editing by Mark Heinrich)
(Deletes reference to contractor being American in first paragraph)

WASHINGTON, April 8 (Reuters) - Three U.S. service members and a contractor were killed in Afghanistan by an improvised explosive device on Monday, the NATO-led Resolute Support mission said in a statement. Three U.S. service members were also wounded in the incident near Bagram air base close to Kabul, the statement said.

Violence has been relentless in Afghanistan even though Taliban militants have held several rounds of talks with U.S. officials about a peace settlement. The talks began late last year, raising hopes for an end to the conflict.

Colonel David Butler, a spokesman for U.S. Forces- Afghanistan, said a car bomb had detonated near the security convoy, which lead to deaths and injuries.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

The latest deaths bring the number of U.S. service member deaths in Afghanistan to seven in 2019, and a total of 68 U.S. military deaths since January 2015, according to U.S. government and NATO reports.

The death toll is one of the deadliest recent attacks against U.S. personnel. In November, a roadside bomb blast killed three U.S. service members near the central Afghan city of Ghazni.

Last month two U.S. service members were killed in Afghanistan while conducting an operation.

The war has taken a much larger toll on Afghan security forces and civilians.

President Ashraf Ghani, speaking at the World Economic Forum in January, said that about 45,000 Afghan security forces have been killed since he took office in September 2014, which works out to an average of 849 per month.

The Resolute Support Mission consists of 17,000 troops, about half of them from the United States. A smaller number of U.S. troops operate in Afghanistan under a counter-terrorism mission. (Reporting by Idrees Ali Editing by Phil Berlowitz, Susan Thomas and David Gregorio)
(Adds U.S. response)

By Elias Biryabarema

KAMPALA, April 8 (Reuters) - An American tourist and her guide who were abducted in Uganda last week were released after a "negotiated settlement" was reached with the kidnappers, the firm that organized her safari told Reuters on Monday.

Amid fears the incident could deter tourists from visiting the East African country, U.S. President Donald Trump called on Twitter for the kidnappers to be found.

Ugandan authorities said on Sunday that Kimberley Sue Endecott, 35, and her driver, Jean Paul, had been rescued unharmed after being seized by gunmen in Queen Elizabeth National Park, near the border with Democratic Republic of Congo, on April 2. The kidnappers later demanded a ransom of $500,000 for Endecott's release.

The acknowledgement of negotiations with the captors follows reports in several local media outlets, including state-owned daily New Vision, that a ransom was paid before the two were freed.

"A negotiated settlement was arranged with the assistance of the American government," a spokesman for the tour firm, Wild Frontiers Safaris Uganda, told Reuters. "I don't have details of the final settlement"

New Vision reported on Monday, citing undisclosed sources, that a ransom of $30,000 had been paid.

In Washington, a State Department official said the United States maintains a "no concessions" policy that covers ransoms for Americans taken captive.

"We firmly believe that making concessions increases the risks for Americans and others traveling abroad," the official said, adding that the United States had worked closely with Ugandan authorities for the release of Endecott. "We cannot get into the details of this case, but can confirm that we worked closely with our Ugandan counterparts," the official added.

Uganda Police spokeswoman Polly Namaye said she could not confirm whether a ransom had been paid.

It remains unclear who was responsible for the abduction, which took place in an area once roamed by fighters belonging to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an anti-Kampala rebel group that is now mostly dormant. The group is still believed to have camps in eastern Congo.

Story continues

"Uganda must find the kidnappers of the American Tourist and guide before people will feel safe in going there," Trump tweeted on Monday. "Bring them to justice openly and quickly!"

Tourism is a key source of foreign exchange for Uganda and there are concerns the incident might raise safety fears and discourage visitors.

In a tweet on Monday, President Yoweri Museveni promised to "deal with these isolated pockets of criminals."

"I want to reassure the country and our tourists that Uganda is safe and we shall continue to improve the security in our parks. Come and enjoy the Pearl of Africa," he wrote.

The last attack on tourists in a Ugandan park was in 1999. An American couple, four Britons and two New Zealanders were killed along with four Ugandan guides after being ambushed by gunmen in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, a few kilometers south of the Queen Elizabeth park.

Queen Elizabeth National Park is one of most visited in the East African country, with tourists flocking there to see lions, hippos, crocodiles and various types of antelope. (Reporting by Elias Biryabarema Additional reporting by Lesley Wroughton in Washington; Editing by Catherine Evans and Leslie Adler)
(Adds Labour source on talks)

By Francesco Guarascio and Costas Pitas

BUCHAREST/LONDON, April 6 (Reuters) - The British government is optimistic about reaching some form of deal with the opposition Labour Party to end a deadlock on Brexit as work on a compromise continues, Britain's finance minister Philip Hammond said on Saturday.

But Labour said the governing Conservatives needed to be more flexible and had not shown any movement on a political declaration of intent on the future relationship between London and Brussels once Britain has left the European Union.

No talks have been arranged yet between the two sides for this weekend, a Labour source told Reuters.

Prime Minister Theresa May has asked EU leaders to postpone Britain's exit from the bloc next Friday until June 30 but the EU 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.

Hammond, however, told reporters on Saturday he was upbeat about breaking the impasse.

"I am optimistic that we will reach some form of agreement with Labour," he said on the sidelines of a meeting of European Union finance ministers in Bucharest, adding he expected the exchange of "some more texts today."

The government had no red lines in the talks, he said.

But Labour's home affairs spokeswoman said the Conservatives needed to show a willingness to compromise on Prime Minister Theresa May's red lines, which include no more membership of the EU's customs union or single market.

"My understanding is that there has been no movement from the government on the actual concept of the political declaration and that is key," Diane Abbott told BBC radio on Saturday. "The government perhaps has to show a little more flexibility than it seems to have done so far."

Story continues

Hammond, who is one of the most pro-European members of May's government, also signaled optimism about next Wednesday's EU summit on Brexit, saying most EU states agreed there was a need to delay Brexit. "Most of the colleagues that I am talking to accept we will need longer to complete this process."

Britons voted in 2016 by a 52 to 48 percent margin for Brexit and the two main parties, parliament and the nation at large remain profoundly split over the terms for departure as well as over whether to leave at all.

Many within the Conservative Party are increasingly worried that any delay obliging Britain to again take part in elections for the European parliament on May 23-26 would be deeply divisive.

"Going to the EU elections for the Conservative Party, or indeed for the Labour Party, and telling our constituents why we haven't been able to deliver Brexit I think would be an existential threat," junior education minister Nadhim Zahawi told BBC radio on Saturday.

"I would go further and say...it would be the suicide note of the Conservative Party." (Reporting by Francesco Guarascio Editing by Mark Heinrich)
In his recent annual letter to JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) shareholders, CEO Jamie Dimon said that although the U.S. economy continues to grow, there are some problems that are clearly holding back productivity and economic growth.

Dimon proceeded to list 11 specific areas where we need to improve and also suggested some ways we may be able to solve these problems.

American flags hanging on homes on a tree-lined street.

Image source: Getty Images.

1. Ineffective and out-of-touch education system

Dimon points out that America's high schools and other educational institutions aren't doing a great job of training young people for available jobs. Other reports have confirmed that there's a shortage of skilled workers available to fill vocational positions -- many of which pay very nice salaries. He also points out that inner-city schools are generally failing to properly equip students to avoid a life of poverty.

According to Dimon, this is a very solvable problem. High schools and community colleges need to focus more effort on creating skills-training programs and other ways to make students job-ready. And businesses should be involved in the process so that graduates are prepared for actual jobs that exist. Dimon also cited other countries' policy of mandatory preschool at age three as a way to not only give our children a jump-start on education, but ease the burden of child-care costs.

2. Soaring healthcare costs

U.S. healthcare expenses represent almost 20% of gross domestic product (GDP), which is more than twice what most developed nations spend. Obesity and related health problems cost the U.S. $1.4 trillion each year, and out-of-pocket expenses have soared for American families.

Dimon acknowledges this is probably the most complicated problem we have and named several ways we could make things better, such as:

Eliminating money wasted on bureaucracy, administration, and fraud.

Transparency in costs of health plans and medical procedures.

Developing better corporate wellness programs.

Creating tools to help people shop around for non-emergency care.

Reducing the expense for unwanted end-of-life care.

Start teaching wellness, nutrition, health, and exercise in K-12 classrooms.

3. Excessive regulations and bureaucracy

Story continues

Regulations have made it difficult to form businesses in the U.S., and Dimon says some estimates put total regulatory expense at $2 trillion per year in the United States. Dimon says that, while we need regulations, we have to get better in this category. We need to reduce the licensing requirements for running a business and eliminate unnecessary rules and regulations wherever we can.

4. Inability to plan and build infrastructure

As Dimon puts it, "It took eight years to get a man to the moon (from idea to completion), but it now can take a decade to simply get the permits to build a bridge or a new solar field." And our infrastructure lags behind much of the developed world.

5. Previously uncompetitive tax system for business

Dimon acknowledges that this one has been fixed with the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, but the tax system of the last 20 years created competitive advantages for foreign corporations.

And Dimon says there's still more that can be done. He suggests expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to help lower-income Americans, including expanding the credit for lower-income workers with no children, who currently receive a relatively tiny version of the credit.

6. Capricious and wasteful litigation system

In the average OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) nation, litigation costs about 0.6% of GDP. In the U.S., litigation expenses are 150% greater than this at 1.6% of GDP. Dimon suggests finding ways to reduce frivolous litigation, which is a big part of the problem.

7. Frustrating immigration policies and reform

Dimon points out that 40% of foreign students who come to the U.S. and obtain advanced science, technology, and math degrees have no legal way to stay here. As Dimon puts it, when most students who learn in the U.S. take their acquired skills back home, "one of our largest exports is brainpower."

Dimon acknowledges that passing immigration reform in today's political climate isn't going to be easy, but points out that there has been bipartisan support for increased funding for border security, more merit-based immigration, making DACA permanent, and creating a legal path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

8. Inefficient mortgage markets

Mortgage availability is not nearly where it should be. JPMorgan Chase's analysis suggests that over the past five years, over $1 trillion in additional mortgages could have been made if it weren't for flaws and inefficiencies in the mortgage system.

9. Dramatic reduction in labor-force participation

The lower end of the wage spectrum is no longer enough for people to make a living, giving fewer people an incentive to work. Dimon also cites the difficulties faced by former felons when looking for work, as well as the opioid addiction epidemic as reasons why labor-force participation isn't nearly as high as it should be.

Expanding the EITC, as Dimon suggested in his tax discussion, would help this, as would providing more job-focused education. Dimon also says that a critical piece of the puzzle is making it easier for convicted criminals who have been released from jail to find jobs.

10. Student lending (and debt)

Dimon calls the current state of student lending "irrational," and says that skyrocketing student debt is affecting the ability of millions of Americans to buy homes. Direct government lending has increased nearly 500% over the last decade, and Dimon says that "it has not all been responsible lending." He'd like to see more programs designed to reduce the burden of student debt on former students.

11. Lack of proper federal government budgeting and planning

Dimon points out that, not only are we bad at budgeting for things in an efficient manner, but we also do a poor job of accounting for certain things. Government entities should be required to conduct cost-benefit analyses and should be held accountable for executing on its plans.

Here are the problems -- now let's fix them

It's tough to argue with most of Dimon's points. All are undoubtedly affecting our economic prosperity to one extent or another. Dimon theorizes that our shortcomings in these areas have played a large role in the wage stagnation, slow economic growth, and income inequality that we've seen over the past couple of decades.

More From The Motley Fool

Matthew Frankel, CFP has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
LONDON (Reuters) - Activist Sherborne Investors on Monday wrote another letter to shareholders of Barclays seeking to drum up support for the election of its founder Edward Bramson to the board of the British bank.

Bramson has so far failed in attempts to get the lender to scale back its investment banking activities, which he says have weighed on shareholder returns and run the risk of the bank needing to raise fresh capital.

While Barclays has said it remains committed to its strategy, Chief Executive Jes Staley last month ousted the head of its investment banking division and instead took direct control of the unit, a move referenced in Sherborne's latest letter.

"In view of Barclays' most recent announcements of sudden management realignments and departures, we believe that Mr. Bramson's experience and temperament would be a strongly stabilizing influence on the board," the letter said.

Barclays is due to hold its annual general meeting of shareholders on May 2. Sherborne has a stake of around 5.5 percent in the bank.

(Reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by Keith Weir)
KABUL, April 6 (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)
As sea waters slowly rose around his temple and his neighbours fled inland, Thai abbot Somnuek Atipanyo refused to budge and is today a symbol of the fight to restore the country's fast-eroding coastlines.

A dangerous combination of climate change, industrial farming and rapid urbanisation are endangering the Gulf of Thailand's coasts, stripping away precious mangrove trees and leaving some buildings like Somnuek's surrounded by sea water.

In the 30 years since the waters started encroaching, most of his neighbours in the fishing village of Samut Chin moved several hundred meters inland to rebuild their wooden homes.

Standing in his saffron robes near his monastery on stilts -- dubbed the "floating temple" -- the 51-year-old monk points out to sea at the spot where the local school once stood.

"This temple used to be in the middle of the village," he tells AFP in Samut Chin, about an hour south of Bangkok.

"If we moved it, people wouldn't even know there had ever been one here," he says of the temple, accessible only by a small footbridge today.

These shores were once protected by extensive mangrove forests -- the Gulf of Thailand boasts some of the largest in the world -- a natural defence against coastal erosion thanks to their extensive roots that stabilise the shoreline.

But it's a been a losing battle to preserve them.

- Replanting in the 'heart' -

Mangrove forests have been cleared for extensive development of shrimp and salt farms, along with new houses and hotels that have popped up thanks to a development boom in recent decades.

Thailand lost almost one third of its vast coastal mangrove forests between 1961 and 2000, according to a report from the nation's Department of Marine and Coastal Resources and the UN Environment Programme.

Climate change is also having an impact: stronger waves and more ferocious monsoons have wiped out mangroves in the Gulf of Thailand, which is especially vulnerable because its waters are so shallow.

Story continues

"The waves and tides are higher than before," said Thanawat Jarupongsakul, who advises Thailand's government on its policy to combat erosion.

Asian and Caspian coastlines are the two areas in the world most affected by coastal erosion, according to a study published last year in the scientific journal Nature.

It's a global problem: tens of thousands of square kilometres of land have been lost from coastal erosion around the world -- between 1984 and 2015 the equivalent of the surface area of Haiti was lost, the study said.

In Thailand a quarter of the country's shores -- or about 700 kilometres (500 miles) -- are eroding, some "severely", according to data shared with AFP by the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources.

Now there is a push to restore Thailand's precious mangrove ecosystem through a national voluntary tree replanting scheme, including near Somnuek's island monastery.

On a recent sunny afternoon, scores of people spent the day wading chest-deep in the sea to replant mangrove trees.

Clad in headscarves and hats, they gingerly reach down into the water to plant young saplings along lines of bamboo poles that help offer some protection against the waves.

"This project is called 'Planting a forest in people's hearts,'" said Wason Ditsuwan, who runs the program.

Set up in 2016 by Bangkok city authorities, the project has so far replanted 84 acres of mangroves across the country.

- Temple selfies -

Wason is hoping his project will succeed where others have failed.

Nearly 10 years ago, government adviser Thanawat helped residents in Samut Chin replant mangrove trees but some areas were too far gone to recover.

"Even if you plant a lot of mangroves, it cannot help," he said.

Another strategy is to drill pylons of cement into the seabed -- and on the shoreline itself -- to act as a substitute for the mangrove roots.

This has proven successful so far in the tourist town of Pattaya further along the coast, where the pylons have helped to reclaim several metres of beach.

But it's a race to keep up with rapid development along the shore, Thanawat said.

As for Somnuek's stretch of coast, though further erosion has stopped for now, there is little hope his temple will ever see dry ground again.

But the flooding has brought one unexpected advantage: dozens of tourists that flock to the so-called floating temple for Instagram-worthy selfies.

"The fight against coastal erosion has brought fame," village head Wisanu Kengsamut said.
Amazon AMZN is all set to join the race to provide broadband Internet globally through its Project Kuiper. The project aims to create a constellation of low Earth orbit satellites in order to provide Internet worldwide.



Reportedly, the e-commerce giant is aggressively pursuing the launch of 3,236 small satellites into space with the help of which the company intends to ensure high-speed Internet connectivity to unserved and underserved regions across the globe.



Per the companys plans, there will be 3,236 satellites making up three layers  784 satellites at an altitude of 590 kilometers, 1,296 satellites will be positioned at the height of 610 kilometers, while the rest 1,156 satellites will be at 630 kilometers.



This initiative is likely to aid Amazon to make a strong foray into the booming global broadband market.



Initiative Likely to Cause Disruption



Internet is ubiquitous and its increasing user penetration across the world has created immense growth opportunities for the companies operating in Internet connectivity market.



Amazon looks to disrupt this market with Project Kuiper, something that the company has been doing in other sectors for quite some time.



The company has already made filings with International Telecommunication Union (ITU) on behalf of the project. Further, the company has appointed Rajeev Badyal to run and execute the project seamlessly. Notably, Badyal served as vice president to the satellites unit of SpaceX, which is also focused on launching high-speed Internet satellites.



In fact, Amazon has hired a few other members of the team that was led by Badyal at SpaceX.



We believe Amazons growing initiatives related to Internet satellite project are likely to intensify competition for companies which have already forayed into the satellite space in a bid to ensure global broadband coverage like SpaceX, OneWeb, Telesat and Boeing BA, to name a few.



Further, the companys space initiatives will provide a strong competition to Alphabets GOOGL division Google which is also leaving no stone unturned to bolster presence in the Internet connectivity space via Project Loon and growing investments on satellites.

Story continues

Amazon.com, Inc. Revenue (TTM)

Amazon.com, Inc. Revenue (TTM) | Amazon.com, Inc. Quote

Increasing Focus on Satellite & Space

Amazon has been eyeing the satellite and space area for quite some time now in a bid to explore the opportunities of the space.

Apart from the latest initiative, the companys cloud computing arm, Amazon Web Services (AWS), won a contract from Iridium Communications IRDM to develop a satellite-based network called CloudConnect for Internet of Things (IoT) applications.



Further, Amazons AWS is in talks with the president of Chile to house and mine astrodata from Chiles giant telescopes.



Last year, the company was looking to hire people who can work on its new space and satellite initiative, namely interconnecting space system networks. Among the companys several job listings, there was an opening for product manager for space related services and the launch of spacecraft.



Currently, Amazon carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.



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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.
The Democrats response to Kirstjen Nielsens resignation on Sunday as secretary of Homeland Security was biting.

They questioned her leadership. They slammed her cruel enforcement of President Donald Trumps immigration policies. They welcomed her departure.

They also recognized that Nielsens resignation wont change Trumps efforts to address his declaration of a national emergency at the countrys southern border.

It is deeply alarming that the Trump Administration official who put children in cages is reportedly resigning because she is not extreme enough for the White Houses liking, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. The Presidents dangerous and cruel anti-immigrant policies have only worsened the humanitarian suffering at the border and inflicted vast suffering on the families who have been torn apart.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer echoed Pelosi: When even the most radical voices in the administration arent radical enough for President Trump, you know hes completely lost touch with the American people, the New York senator said in a statement.

More: Cutting aid and closing ports: Here's what's happening at the southern border

More: Who is Kevin McAleenan, Trump's acting chief after Kirstjen Nielsen leaves?

Four 2020 Democratic presidential candidates sounded off via Twitter, using Nielsens resignation as another opportunity to criticize her 2018 defense of the Trump administrations zero-tolerance immigration policy that led to the separation of more than 2,500 children from their parents who illegally crossed the border.

About time, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said, adding that Nielsens legacy of tearing innocent families apart will follow her for the rest of her lifeand she should be ashamed of the role she played.

Kirstjen Nielsen misled the American people and defended Trumps inhumane policy of separating children from their parents, California Sen. Kamala Harris said. "It was long past time for her to go."

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Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro called Nielsen a willing partner in the most cruel and short-sighted immigration agenda in decades, and New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand blasted Nielsens support for the administrations inhumane treatment of immigrant families and called for a moral reset on immigration policies.

But, Gillibrand lamented, We wont get that in this administration.

While calling Nielsens 16-month stint as DHS secretary a disaster from the start, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi, also stressed that she cant serve as a scapegoat.

In a statement, Thompson, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said: Let me be clear, President Trump is to blame for making the situation at the border worse. His terrible and cruel policies have broken families apart and have caused chaos in our immigration system. This is now self-evident.

Nielsens departure comes as a surge of migrants has overwhelmed the U.S. immigration in recent months, leading Trump to threaten closure of the countrys border with Mexico and cut off aid to Central American countries that migrants continue to flee.

'Overwhelming' numbers: It may take 2 years to identify thousands of migrant children separated from families

Border Patrol agents apprehended 66,450 people illegally crossing the southern border in February, according to CBP data, including a record high of 36,174 members of families and 6,825 unaccompanied minors.

Just last week, Nielsen likened the situation at the border to a massive (Category) 5 hurricane disaster during a Fox News interview.

Her efforts to support the Trump administration drew praise from a few Republican lawmakers on Sunday night.

In a statement, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell praised Nielsen's service "to the administration and to the American people."

From natural disasters to cybersecurity threats, the Department of Homeland Security protects Americans on countless fronts  including, of course, the front lines of the security and humanitarian crisis on our southern border," the Kentucky senator said.

Secretary Nielsen served her country honorably as Homeland Security Secretary, despite facing numerous challenges including dire conditions at our southwest border, Alabama Rep. Mike Rogers, ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said in a statement.

Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford, via Twitter, thanked Nielsen for her tireless work to honor legal immigration and stop people from using children as pawns for illegal immigration.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'It was long past time for her to go': Dems welcome Kirstjen Nielsen's departure as DHS secretary
After a week of late-night jokes about Joe Biden, "Saturday Night Live" took its shot.

Following the apology video posted by the former vice president earlier this week, in which he promised to be more "mindful and respectful" amid accusations of inappropriate behavior toward women, his "SNL" persona underwent sensitivity training to keep his hands to himself.

Former "SNL" cast member Jason Sudeikis returned to his old stomping grounds to reprise his impression that Biden once called "so good it scared me."

"I'm a hugger, I'm a kisser and a little bit of a sniffer. But the last thing I want to do is offend anyone," Sudeikis' Biden tell his staff.

Joe Biden

Biden's team members (Cecily Strong and Kenan Thompson) bring in a consultant (Kate McKinnon), whom Biden quickly "connects" with by grabbing her arms and touching foreheads.

McKinnon's character tries multiple times, to no avail, to get Biden to see the issue with his excessive touching, but Biden (who says he picked "Amtrak" to win his March Madness bracket) is having a tough time letting go of his old ways.

"That's like telling Mario Batali to take his Crocs off," he says.

"I wouldn't bring him into this," McKinnon cringes, referencing the sexual assault allegations that arose against the celebrity chef last year.

Biden agrees to practice greeting women appropriately with the help of a few potential voters. He struggles a bit with his first visitor, played by Aidy Bryant.

"Oh, I know, I should probably just cradle her face with my hands," he thinks out loud before course-correcting. Unfortunately, his idea of a more gender-neutral greeting is putting Bryant into a headlock and calling her a "son of a (expletive)."

Cast member Leslie Jones enters next, and she has a different idea of how to greet the former vice president.

"I know who you are: You're Obama's granddaddy!" she cries before pulling him in for a huge hug. Satisfied with his "improvements," Sudeikis' Biden officially throws his hat in the ring for the upcoming election.

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"Come on, America, let's hug it out," he says, addressing the camera directly. "Biden and some woman 2020!"

'SNL' imagines 'Game of Thrones' spinoffs: Including a 'SVU' crossover with Ice-T and Mariska Hargitay

More 'SNL': 'Game of Thrones' actors make surprise cameos to ask Kit Harington to reveal spoilers

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'SNL' sends Jason Sudeikis' touchy-feely Joe Biden to sensitivity training
Do you have faith in the British sense of justice and fair play? Then you might want to think again.

Thanks to a combination of Brexit, austerity, inequality, and rising crime, the British public is so dissatisfied with the current political system that more than half (54%) of the population now wants a strong leader whos willing to break the rules, says the Audit of Political Engagement from the Hansard Society in a report on Monday.

Three-quarters of respondents feel the main political parties no longer serve the best interests of the country; another nearly three-quarters say the system of governing needs quite a lot or a great deal of improvement. If youve been watching the Brexit chaos unfold, you might respond to that last point with a resounding: no kidding.

Overall, the surveyof some 1,200 people in December 2018found that the public opinion of the U.K.s system of governing is now at its lowest point in 15 years, worse even than in the aftermath of a 2009 scandal involved lawmakers expenses, when investigations revealed several members of Parliament had used public money to pay for moats and floating duck houses, among other over-the-top perks.

Well over half are also downbeat about the state of Britain56% think Britain is in decline, 63% think Britains system of government is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful, while 74% have more faith in the military than they do in politicians (34%) or the government (33%).

Yet the real problem is not that Brits want a strong leader: its that theyve become so disillusioned with the party squabbling, lack of leadership and failure to get to grips with the tough challenges facing the U.K., that a large percentage now wants to rip up the system and start again, says Dr. Ruth Fox, director of the Hansard Society.

It is the willingness to break rules apart, which is concerning, because, for the U.K. as a country, fidelity to the rule of law, playing by the rules, fairness and fair play are all part of the national character and part of the democratic character, says Fox.

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The dissatisfaction also cuts across gender, social class and education to the point that Fox suggests theres now a universal picture of dissatisfaction, regardless of whether people voted Remain or Leave at the 2016 Brexit referendum.

Its not a simple thing of saying this is about the frustration of Leavers spilling over and that theres some kind of authoritarian bent of the disaffected, says Fox. It is a broader frustration with the system weve got and the political parties and the way they are conducting politics.

Viewed in a wider European context, however, the results are not unusual. In France, Marine Le Pens right-wing National Rally partypreviously known as the National Frontpolled just 1.5% behind President Emmanuel Macrons La Republique En Marche in an Ifop-Fiducial poll published on April 3.

Ifop also currently estimates Macrons approval rating at just 29%.

Across the Alps, Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini hosted a summit in Milan on Monday to discuss the creation of a populist alliance ahead of Mays EU parliamentary elections, under the banner To the Europe of Common Sense!

The Northern League leader hopes to unite right-wing populists such as Le Pen, Viktor Orban, Nigel Farage, and Austrian vice-chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache into a coherent political voice.

The question is whether the U.K. could finally be tempted to fully follow the same populist path after hundreds of years of successfully avoidingand fighting againstit.

Despite the pessimism, despite the dissatisfaction, and despite the frustration, there are some beacons of light, says Fox, pointing to the fact that indicators such as interest and knowledge in politics are stablewith the figure for certainty to vote at its highest ever level.

People are tuned in, but they are turned off, she continues.

Theres nothing in our system that says we are automatically immune to some of the pressures that other countries are facing with that kind of populist politics, she says. So, we have got to make sure we dont rest on our laurels.
Sydney (AFP) - Beijing agents pressured two Chinese-Australian authors to provide information about a secret Canberra inquiry into Chinese meddling in domestic politics, local media reported Monday.

Yang Jun, a novelist and democracy advocate, and Feng Chongyi, a Sydney-based university professor and former newspaper publisher, were reportedly interrogated over the classified probe.

The pair are both friends of John Garnaut, a former journalist who was heading up the inquiry.

Relations between the two nations have been fraught in recent times over fears of Chinese interference, and as Beijing flexes its muscle in the Pacific islands which Canberra views as its backyard.

A joint investigation published Monday by The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and national broadcaster ABC found China had waged an intelligence operation to gain details of the probe ordered in 2016 by then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

At a press briefing Monday, China responded by emphasising its opposition to interference in other countries' affairs.

"In its international relations, China has always insisted on mutual respect for each other's sovereignty, and mutual non-interference in internal affairs," said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang, adding that they did not know the latest on Yang's case.

Yang, an Australian citizen whose pen name is Yang Hengjun, has been detained in China since travelling there in January, accused of endangering state security.

Monday's report coincided with a plea from his wife for Australia to do more to secure his release.

Australian media have reported that Yang was a former Chinese diplomat, although that has been denied by Beijing.

The ABC report said Chinese agents had previously intercepted and questioned Yang in Sydney in 2018 when he was on his way to meet with Garnaut.

Garnaut told the ABC that a Chinese official asked Yang "about me... what I was doing, what I was working on".

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Yang's wife, Xiaoliang Yuan, has been banned from leaving China but she spoke to the ABC from Shanghai to urge Australia to help free her husband.

"I think at least the Australian government officials should care for its citizens' wellbeing when they are overseas, should show their concern," she was quoted as saying.

Feng, a permanent Australian resident, told the ABC he was questioned about Garnaut when he was detained for several days during a trip to China in 2017.

"They knew a lot about him (Garnaut). During the interrogation, they did not hide that they were angry with him," Feng said.

- 'Foreign interference' -

Andrew Hastie -- who chairs Canberra's intelligence and security committee -- told the ABC the government has had "multiple briefings" from domestic intelligence agency ASIO and other agencies that "foreign interference is being conducted in Australia at an unprecedented level".

"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," he added.

"China is seeking to influence our elites, particularly our political and business elites, in order to achieve their strategic objectives."

The inquiry led Australia to pass sweeping reforms to espionage and foreign interference laws, with China singled out as a focus of concern.
Washington (AFP) - Between 3.6 percent and 7.6 percent of US boys reported having sexual intercourse before the age of 13 in a study published on Monday, but the prevalence varies widely by race, ethnicity and geographic location.

The study in the latest issue of JAMA Pediatrics looked at the results of two surveys to determine how common it is for US boys to have sex before the age of 13.

A total of 7.6 percent of the nearly 20,000 male high school in one study reported having sexual intercourse before the age of 13.

In the second study -- of 7,700 males between the ages of 15 and 24 years old -- the figure was 3.6 percent.

The proportion varied widely by geography -- from five percent in San Francisco to 12 percent in Houston, Texas, to 25 percent in Memphis, Tennessee.

It also varied by race and ethnicity with non-Hispanic black and Hispanic male adolescents more likely than their white peers to have had sexual relations before becoming teenagers.

In the survey of 20,000 male high school students, 19.0 percent of the non-Hispanic blacks reported having sexual intercourse before the age of 13, 4.4 percent of the non-Hispanic whites, 9.0 percent of Hispanics and 7.8 of those classified as others.

In the survey of 7,000 males between the ages of 15 and 24, the numbers were 10.5 percent for non-Hispanic blacks, 2.2 percent for non-Hispanic whites, 3.4 percent for Hispanics and 1.6 percent for others.

The authors of the study noted that while the overall numbers differed in the two surveys they showed similar differentials by race and ethnicity.

"Broad cultural scripts about masculinity and sex hold that men should start having sex early and have sex often," the study's authors said.

"For young men of color, particularly black males, racist stereotypes of hypermasculinity may also contribute to expectations of early sexual initiation."

The study found that boys whose mothers did not have a college degree were more likely to report having had sexual intercourse before the age of 13.

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Among those aged between 18 and 24 who reported having sex before the age of 13, 8.5 percent characterized it as unwanted, 37 percent said they had mixed feelings about it and 54.6 percent described it as wanted.

"These findings underscore the need for providing comprehensive sex education that is culturally informed and inclusive before an individual's first sexual encounter and ensuring that health care practitioners discuss sex with their male patients starting during middle school years or earlier," the study's authors said.

The study did not look at girls' sexual behavior but cited other research as saying that boys were more than twice as likely as girls to experience sexual intercourse before the age of 13.

The study was conducted by Laura Lindberg of the Guttmacher Institute in New York and other researchers.
Woolston/Shutterstock

Taking the stage at the 2016 Oscars to introduce more than 50 survivors of campus sexual assault, then-Vice President Joe Biden received a standing ovation from the star-studded crowd. Smiling at the A-list audience, he joked that he was the least qualified person here and urged viewers to change the culture around campus sexual assaultan issue he had made his signature cause over the previous five years.

U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden introduces singer Lady Gaga after making a plea to prevent sexual abuse at the Oscars in 2016. Reuters

But now, as Biden prepares for a possible presidential runand as multiple women allege he made them feel uncomfortableactivists say Biden often stumbled in his fight against campus sexual assault. Multiple activists told The Daily Beast that Bidens approach to sexual violence, while well-intentioned, was shot through with paternalism.

His language was very gendered about men having to protect women, said Jasmin Enriquez, an anti-rape activist who attended several of Bidens Its On Us events. It was just that benevolent sexism of Men have to be the heroes, not Nobody should have to experience sexual violence ever.

It infantilizes women and takes away their level of their own control, she added later.

Biden became vice president at the beginning of the campus anti-rape movement, which spurred investigations into more than 200 universities for their treatment of survivors. The Obama administration jumped on the problem, issuing new guidelines for campus sexual assault probes and signing a survivors bill of rights. Biden served as the public face of many of these reforms, giving speeches, meeting with survivors, and launching a national media campaign to combat sexual assault.

Activists who worked on the issue say they appreciated having such a prominent champion in the White House, and everyone who spoke to The Daily Beast said they felt Bidens intentions were good. Even Enriquez said that, though Biden was not a poster child for what an ally should look like, he did use the power that he had available to him to open the White House to conversations about sexual violence.

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But activists also said that Bidens approach could come off as patronizing. One activist described the politician as having a save the girls mentality, which focused more on being a knight in shining armor than a partner in a women-led fight.

I think that his approach to the issues often feels more like a protective grandfather than an ally working with survivors who are agents in their own right, said the activist, who asked to remain anonymous to protect her employment. I dont doubt that comes from a place of affection and concern, but that is different than looking at women as agents, as equal partners in this fight, or even as people from whom he should be taking the lead.

Others have called attention to Bidens tendency to lump together women and children, such as in a recent speech where he recalled his father telling him never to raise his hand to a woman or a child. In one of his most famous speeches on campus sexual assault in 2017, Biden focused on the men in the audience, saying it was our responsibility, men in particular, but all of us, to stop this culture.

In notes sent to Bidens office in 2014, Enriquezs organization pushed back on some of this gendered language, saying that his national anti-rape campaign, Its On Us, should be for people as a whole.

There could be subtleties that focus on messaging towards men, but the message and brand as a whole has to lend itself to all people, regardless of their gender identity, for them to want to participate, the leaders of the organization wrote.

Enriquez said Bidens office responded to that note with a one-sentence thank-you email.

Several other activists told The Daily Beast they were frustrated with aspects of the Its On Us campaign. Wagatwe Wanjuki, an anti-rape activist who has previously received funding from the organization, said she found it odd that Biden made himself the spokesperson for a movement that was ostensibly about survivors. (The vice president was the only one to speak before sharing the Oscars stage with the 50-plus sexual assault survivors.)

Caroline Heldman, an Occidental College professor and author of a book on the campus anti-rape movement, said Biden could at times seem dismissive of the expertise of survivor activists.

He was not only the savior, he was the knowerthe possessor of knowledge in the room about sexual assault, even when he was surrounded by experts on violence, she said.

In recent weeks, multiple women have claimed that Biden touched them inappropriately at public events. None of them have described the incidents as sexual in nature, but all said it made them uncomfortable. Several anti-rape activists were among those bothered by the touchinga particularly striking experience given Bidens repeated comments about the importance of consent.

Survivor Caitlyn Caruso told the New York Times that Biden had rested his hand on her thigh during an event on sexual assault at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 2016. Activist Sofie Karasek wrote in the Washington Post about an unwelcome, uncomfortable interaction with Biden at the Oscars, in which Biden leaned in and touched his forehead to hers when she recounted an emotional story. Wanjuki told The Daily Beast about a similar experience at the same event, where she said Biden grabbed her hands backstage without her permission.

Im there because Im a survivor and he knows that, she said of the experience. Just to assume that I wanted to be touched felt jarring.

Lady Gaga holds hands with survivors of sexual abuse after singing her Oscar-nominated song "Til It Happens to You" at the 88th Academy Awards in Hollywood, California February 28, 2016. Vice President Joe Biden made a special appearance at the Oscars ceremony on Sunday to advocate for victims of sexual assault and introduced a powerful performance by Lady Gaga that featured survivors of sexual abuse. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni - TB3EC2T0ICV7E REUTERS

But the activists said their discomfort went beyond the touching, into the way Biden approached the issue of sexual assault. By painting himself and other men as saviors, they said, he unintentionally took agency away from female survivors.

I just feel like a paternalistic way of doing it is kind of antithetical to what you stand against, Wanjuki said. If youre actually dealing with the core concepts of rape culture, thinking about protecting women and protecting survivors isnt going to fix that.

Other sexual assault activists have come to Bidens defense. Actress Alyssa Milano, a prominent figure in the #MeToo movement, pointed to his work with Its On Us and called him a champion on fighting violence against women. Some have highlighted his role in passing the landmark 1994 Violence Against Women Act. Another activist present at the 2016 Oscars, Chloe Allred, told The Daily Beast she had a positive experience with Biden and that he was very warm and caring.

Bidens campaign did not respond to several requests for comment.

Even the activists who criticized Bidens approach said they appreciated his commitment to addressing sexual assault, which is one of the reasons they did not speak up sooner. According to Heldman, Everyone was so appreciative that he used his power to advance the cause that we overlooked it.

Zerlina Maxwell, a political commentator who serves on the Biden Foundation advisory council on Violence Against Women, said she thought the former vice president was a strong advocate for women and that his gaffes stemmed from a generational divide. But she also did not think this should shield him from criticism.

His motivation or his desire to do advocacy on this particular issue... comes from a paternalistic sort of protective headspace: I want to protect women, she said. I think some survivors find that condescending.

His intentions are good, but again, were not talking about intentions, were talking about the impact, she added.

Biden himself addressed the controversy in a video released Wednesday. Though he stopped short of apologizing for his behavior, Biden acknowledged that times had changed and that he would be more mindful and respectful of peoples personal space in the future. During public remarks on Friday, he joked twice about touching attendees with their consent and later told reporters he was not sorry for anything that I have ever done.

Biden also angered activists earlier this month when he failed to directly apologize for his treatment of Anita Hill, the law professor who accused Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment during confirmation hearings in 1991. At an event on sexual assault this week, Biden said he regretted that he could not come up with a way to get [Hill] the kind of hearing she deserved as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He did not apologize for his own actions.

Kamilah Washington, a sexual assault activist who also attended the 2016 Oscars, said Bidens failure to apologize to the women he made uncomfortable only made the situation worse. She said men like Biden were often applauded just for being in the room in conversations around sexual assault, and said it is crucial that they are now being held to a higher standard.

Of herself and her fellow activists, she added: Theres a sense that were all out for blood and want to ruin people's careers, but usually all people want is acknowledgement and accountability that isnt blanketed in excuses.

It needs to be humbling for people who are being held to account, and I dont think hes there, she said.

Read more at The Daily Beast.
Want to participate in a research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and earn a $60 gift card!

One of the best investments we can make is in our own knowledge and skill set. With that in mind, this article will work through how we can use Return On Equity (ROE) to better understand a business. To keep the lesson grounded in practicality, we'll use ROE to better understand ITD Cementation India Limited (NSE:ITDCEM).

ITD Cementation India has a ROE of 12%, based on the last twelve months. One way to conceptualize this, is that for each 1 of shareholders' equity it has, the company made 0.12 in profit.

View our latest analysis for ITD Cementation India

How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?

The formula for return on equity is:

Return on Equity = Net Profit  Shareholders' Equity

Or for ITD Cementation India:

12% = 1.2b  10.0b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2018.)

Most know that net profit is the total earnings after all expenses, but the concept of shareholders' equity is a little more complicated. It is all the money paid into the company from shareholders, plus any earnings retained. The easiest way to calculate shareholders' equity is to subtract the company's total liabilities from the total assets.

What Does ROE Mean?

ROE looks at the amount a company earns relative to the money it has kept within the business. The 'return' is the yearly profit. The higher the ROE, the more profit the company is making. So, as a general rule, a high ROE is a good thing. That means it can be interesting to compare the ROE of different companies.

Does ITD Cementation India Have A Good ROE?

By comparing a company's ROE with its industry average, we can get a quick measure of how good it is. Importantly, this is far from a perfect measure, because companies differ significantly within the same industry classification. As you can see in the graphic below, ITD Cementation India has a higher ROE than the average (9.9%) in the Construction industry.

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NSEI:ITDCEM Past Revenue and Net Income, April 8th 2019

That is a good sign. In my book, a high ROE almost always warrants a closer look. One data point to check is if insiders have bought shares recently.

Why You Should Consider Debt When Looking At ROE

Most companies need money -- from somewhere -- to grow their profits. The cash for investment can come from prior year profits (retained earnings), issuing new shares, or borrowing. In the first two cases, the ROE will capture this use of capital to grow. In the latter case, the debt required for growth will boost returns, but will not impact the shareholders' equity. That will make the ROE look better than if no debt was used.

Combining ITD Cementation India's Debt And Its 12% Return On Equity

While ITD Cementation India does have some debt, with debt to equity of just 0.47, we wouldn't say debt is excessive. I'm not impressed with its ROE, but the debt levels are not too high, indicating the business has decent prospects. Careful use of debt to boost returns is often very good for shareholders. However, it could reduce the company's ability to take advantage of future opportunities.

In Summary

Return on equity is one way we can compare the business quality of different companies. Companies that can achieve high returns on equity without too much debt are generally of good quality. All else being equal, a higher ROE is better.

Having said that, while ROE is a useful indicator of business quality, you'll have to look at a whole range of factors to determine the right price to buy a stock. Profit growth rates, versus the expectations reflected in the price of the stock, are a particularly important to consider. So you might want to check this FREE visualization of analyst forecasts for the company.

Of course ITD Cementation India may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of other companies that have 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.
Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Monday sacked his education minister, an ultraconservativewho had drawn public ire over a range of controversial proposals including a revision of school textbooks to deny the 1964 military coup.

Bolsonaro tweeted that Abraham Weintraub would replace Ricardo Velez Rodriguez, who became the second minister to be forced out of the trouble-plagued government in less than four months.

Weintraub, who Bolsonaro praised as a "doctor and university professor," has worked closely with the president's chief of staff, Onyx Lorenzoni.

Bolsonaro, who is preparing to mark 100 days in office on Wednesday, has seen his approval rating plunge since taking office on January 1 following a series of political scandals and a public row with Congressional leaders over his signature pension reform policy.

The former paratrooper had flagged last week that Rodriguez was on his way out after a tumultuous period marked by the resignations of some 20 senior education ministry officials.

Rodriguez has been widely criticized over proposed changes to school textbooks, saying they no longer needed to highlight the country's ethnic diversity, and for asking schools to film students singing the national anthem.

He was forced to back down on both ideas.

In the latest controversy, Rodriguez told a Brazilian newspaper last week that school textbooks would be revised to give children the "true idea" of the country's military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985.

Rodriguez described the 21 years of army rule that resulted in the death and disappearance of hundreds of people as a "democratic regime of force because it was necessary at that moment."

His comments came after Bolsonaro ordered the defense forces to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the coup on March 31, triggering street protests across the country.

Rodriguez had previously promised to stamp out "cultural Marxism" and gender-identity "ideology," and to create a special department handling just military schools.

The sacking comes after the February firing of Gustavo Bebianno, who was minister of the general secretariat of the presidency, over suspected improper campaign financing.

Since assuming the presidency, Bolsonaro has been on an ideological campaign to promote his ultraconservative ideas and values, and to erase any trace of the 2003-2016 leftwing government Brazil had.
The number of measles cases recorded across the USA rose by almost 100 last week as the annual total continued its march toward record levels, federal health officials reported Monday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 465 cases have been confirmed in 19 states in 2019, the second-highest total since measles was declared eliminated in the USA almost two decades ago.

The numbers are up sharply from just a week ago, when the total number of cases stood at 387 in 15 states. There were 372 cases last year; the highest total since 2000 was 667 in 2014.

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The surge has been fueled in part by the anti-vaccination movement  most people who contract measles have not been vaccinated, the CDC said. If one person has the disease, up to 90% of the people close to that person will become infected if they are not immune, the CDC warned.

Ogbonnaya Omenka, an assistant professor at Butler University who has a doctorate in public health, said the increase is alarming but won't necessarily continue. Public health professionals work behind the scenes to tackle these issues, he said.

"The numbers serve as a kick in the butt that says, hey, we probably should start paying attention to vaccination again," he told USA TODAY. "One of the most challenging aspects of public health is balancing between individual liberty, for people who don't want the vaccine for whatever reason, and what is best for everyone."

More: There are nearly 400 reported cases of measles in the USA. What are states doing about it?

In this Jan. 30, 2019, file photo, a sign posted at The Vancouver Clinic in Vancouver, Wash., warns patients and visitors of a measles outbreak. The focus on measles in the Pacific Northwest intensified Friday, March 1, 2019, as public health officials in Oregon announced a new case of the highly contagious disease unrelated to an ongoing outbreak in Washington state that's sickened 68 people so far.

Most of the U.S. cases this year involve 17 outbreaks  defined as three or more localized cases  including some underway in New York, New Jersey, Washington, California and Michigan, the CDC said. The outbreaks are linked to travelers who brought measles back from countries including Israel, Ukraine and the Philippines, the CDC said.

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Three outbreaks in New York state, New York City and New Jersey contributed to most of the cases. They occurred primarily among unvaccinated people in Orthodox Jewish communities, the CDC said. New York legislators proposed a bill that would end religious and all other nonmedical exemptions to vaccinations for school-age children.

"The religious communities that I've spoken to in no way prevent people from getting vaccinated," New York state Sen. David Carlucci said. "This (bill) would take any of that misconception out of the puzzle."

More: Facts alone don't sway anti-vaxxers. What does?

Similar legislation has been proposed in New Jersey. Only California, Mississippi and West Virginia have such laws.

There is some pushback. Lawyer Patricia Finn represents clients who have been injured by childhood vaccines. She specializes in cases involving religious and medical exemptions to vaccinations.

"The pharmaceutical companies are dominating the media," Finn said. "They're scaring people."

More: Anti-vaxxers open door for measles, mumps, other old-time diseases back from near extinction

Common measles symptoms include fever, runny nose, cough and a rash that can spread across the entire body. A very small number of those infected can develop pneumonia, swelling of the brain or other serious symptoms. Measles can cause pregnant women to deliver prematurely.

In Sacramento, California, a medical center sent about 200 patients letters last month saying they might have been exposed to measles after a girl who visited the emergency department was diagnosed with the infection.

The World Health Organization described the disease as a prominent cause of death among young children, despite the availability of an effective vaccine. More than 110,000 people, mostly children, died of measles worldwide in 2017.

The last U.S. measles death on record was in 2015.

Contributing: Rochel Leah Goldblatt, Robert Brum and Deena Yellin, Rockland/Westchester Journal News

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Booming measles cases rocket toward record: Up nearly 100 from last week
A British woman has been detained in Dubai for allegedly insulting her ex-husbands wife in Facebook comments made almost three years ago, the BBC reports.

Laleh Shahravesh, 55, is facing up to two years in jail and a fine of more than $65,000 under the United Arab Emirates draconian online defamation laws, even though she only lived in Dubai for 8 months and was no longer living there when she purportedly wrote the comments.

She was arrested when she and her 14-year-old daughter visited Dubai to attend the funeral of her ex-husband, the BBC says.

According to campaign group Detained in Dubai, authorities acted after the new wife complained about the comments made on Facebook in 2016. Shahravesh had apparently posted that her ex-husband, to whom she had been married to for 18 years, would go under the ground and that his new wife was a horse.

Shahravesh made the Facebook posts while living in the U.K.

Radha Stirling, the CEO of Detained In Dubai, told the BBC that Shahravesh was absolutely distraught and that her daughter was going through what you would call hell.

Shahravesh is due in court on Apr. 11, according to the campaign group. Foreign Office officials in the U.K. have told the BBC that they are in touch with authorities in Dubai over her case.
Ottawa (AFP) - The Canadian government on Monday hailed Facebook's decision to ban prominent far-right activists after the platform came under renewed scrutiny for allowing hate groups to flourish in the aftermath of the New Zealand attacks.

"We've seen hate speech fuel the attack against Pittsburgh, at the synagogue, we've seen more recently in Christchurch, worshipers gunned down. This is real and it has consequences. And we're very glad that Facebook has taken the actions that it has," Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen told a news conference.

The social media giant on Monday banned prominent nationalists including Faith Goldy, Kevin Goudreau, whose positions have been described as white supremacist, and several other groups.

"In Canada, when it comes to hate speech, when it comes to inciting violence, those are things that we don't accept out on the street corner -- we shouldn't accept them on platforms either," Minister of Democratic Institutions Karina Gould added.

Facebook bans individuals and organizations involved in terrorist activity, organized hate, mass or serial murder, human trafficking, organized violence and criminal activity.

"Individuals and organizations who spread hate, attack, or call for the exclusion of others on the basis of who they are have no place on Facebook," the platform said in a statement sent to media.

"That's why we have a policy on dangerous individuals and organizations, which states that we do not allow those who are engaged in offline 'organized hate' to have a presence on Facebook."

The announcement came in the wake of the March 15 massacre of 50 worshipers at two Christchurch mosques. The gunman livestreamed his rampage on Facebook, with the footage proliferating widely online.

New Zealand's Privacy Commissioner John Edwards said Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had been "disingenuous" in saying bad actors were going out of their way to circumvent Facebook's systems.

"They actually didn't have any systems to detect the events in Christchurch," Edwards told Radio New Zealand.
Montreal (AFP) - A Canadian neurosurgeon on Monday pleaded guilty to murdering his wife, stuffing her body in a suitcase and throwing it in a river after she told him she was leaving him, media reports said.

Mohammed Shamji, 43, admitted he had bludgeoned and strangled 40-year-old Elana Fric-Shamji, also a doctor with whom he had three children, in late 2016 in their home in Toronto.

He was arrested the next day when her body was discovered on the banks of river. He was charged with premeditated murder.

At a pre-trial hearing Monday, he pleaded guilty to murder without premeditation, which carries an automatic life sentence but with the possibility of parole after 10 years. Premeditated murder allows for a chance of parole only after 25 years.

The plea avoids a trial which had been due to start in the coming days. Shamji will learn his sentence in a hearing due on May 8, media said.

Police said that on November 28, 2016, Fric-Shamji filed for divorce. Two days later, her husband hit her several times and strangled her at their home.

Their 11-year-old daughter heard the assault and came into her parents' room, only to be ordered back to her own bed by her father, according to documents released on Monday.

Shamji then put his wife's body in a suitcase which he threw into the Humber river, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of Toronto. The couple had been married for 12 years.
* Finland votes on April 14

* Social Democrats set to become largest party

* Would mean first SDP prime minister in 20 years

* Party vows to end austerity, protect welfare services

By Anne Kauranen

FORSSA, Finland, April 8 (Reuters) - In a Nordic country used to a high level of state social care, Finns were shocked to hear of care homes leaving elderly patients all night in soaked diapers, a scandal that may play a part in helping the left return to power after 20 years in opposition.

With one of the most rapidly aging populations in the world, Finland is on the front line of a problem affecting most Western countries - how society can afford to care for an ever larger population of the elderly and infirm.

Finland predicts its social and healthcare costs will jump to 26.5 billion euros per year ($30 billion) in 2035 from 18.7 billion in 2018. That increase would push up such costs as a share of gross domestic product to 9.6 percent in 2035 from 7.9 percent in 2018.

Centrist Prime Minister Juha Sipila had hoped to offset the rise by cutting services and stepping up privatization. But the task of reforming the healthcare system proved too great and Sipila's center-right government resigned.

Parliamentary elections will be held on April 14.

Concerns about social welfare have been a gift for the opposition Social Democrat Party (SDP) that has led polls for almost a year, with 20.1 percent of the vote in the latest one by public broadcaster Yle.

The party has promised to raise taxes, set limits for healthcare privatizations, and increase all state pensions of less than 1,400 euros per month by 100 euros.

Worries about the future are particularly acute in places like Forssa, a town of 17,000 people in the southwest that depended for over 150 years on its textile industry, which has been in decline since the 1980s and has seen many younger people leave as jobs disappear.

"There is no one at home. My husband is dead and my children out in the world," 87-year-old Raili Huhtala said in a public nursing home where she moved to after being partially paralyzed by a stroke a few years ago.

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Like Huhtala, a growing number of elderly people around the country do not have family nearby to take care of them.

For now, taxpayers have been able to pay for round-the-clock care, but that may not be the case for future generations.

"The situation in Finland is different from for instance Southern Europe in the sense that we as a welfare society trust strongly that the state will fulfill our needs for treatment," said Annukka Kuismin, head of elderly care services in the Forssa region.

SEEKING SOLACE

SDP leader Antti Rinne says the state can afford to take care of its elderly but his main opponent, finance minister Petteri Orpo, called his economic policies "irresponsible."

Polls show Orpo's National Coalition in second place at 15.8 percent, with the nationalist Finns Party third with 15.1 percent.

Tuomo Turja, research director at pollster Taloustutkimus, said the government's popularity was initially hurt by imposing measures on the unemployed that forced them to take short-term jobs or training to avoid any reduction in their benefits.

"Then there was the (failed) healthcare and social services reform and the debate about elderly care and nurse threshold," Turja said.

Care home scandals added to the problem. Several privately-operated nursing homes have been shut down by authorities after investigations into fatalities and negligence.

At one in Forssa operated by Attendo, authorities found there had been too few nurses, causing elderly patients to lie in wet diapers all night long.

Attendo says it has taken action to improve its services, including hiring more personnel to assist with cleaning and catering to allow nurses to concentrate on nursing.

But some voters have drawn their conclusions of the crisis and put their hope in the SDP to defend Finland's public welfare services.

"Since I've inherited through my mother's breast milk a Social Democratic genetic ancestry, I hope and believe that they will settle these affairs better than the current government," said 61-year-old Lea Makela, who heads a local pensioners' association in Forssa.

Makela said the elderly care crisis had caused many aging people to fear getting old.

"My own mother is over 90 years old and looking at her, I am quite worried if we will have proper care and treatment at all when we turn 90," she told Reuters.

Another voter, 73-year-old Hannu Rekunen, said he was worried about nurses whose numbers have been reduced to cut costs.

"I hope that the Social Democrats too will do well in the elections and that's what it looks like," he said. ($1 = 0.8906 euros)

(Reporting by Anne Kauranen, additional reporting by Matti Matikainen, graphic by Tommy Lund in Gdynia, editing by Justyna Pawlak, Robin Pomeroy)
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The CEO of Cerillion PLC (LON:CER) is Louis Hall. First, this article will compare CEO compensation with compensation at similar sized companies. After that, we will consider the growth in the business. And finally - as a second measure of performance - we will look at the returns shareholders have received over the last few years. This process should give us an idea about how appropriately the CEO is paid.

View our latest analysis for Cerillion

How Does Louis Hall's Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies?

At the time of writing our data says that Cerillion PLC has a market cap of UK50m, and is paying total annual CEO compensation of UK468k. (This is based on the year to September 2018). We think total compensation is more important but we note that the CEO salary is lower, at UK286k. We looked at a group of companies with market capitalizations under UK154m, and the median CEO total compensation was UK238k.

It would therefore appear that Cerillion PLC pays Louis Hall 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. A closer look at the performance of the underlying business will give us a better idea about whether the pay is particularly generous.

You can see a visual representation of the CEO compensation at Cerillion, below.

AIM:CER CEO Compensation, April 8th 2019

Is Cerillion PLC Growing?

Over the last three years Cerillion PLC has shrunk its earnings per share by an average of 243% per year (measured with a line of best fit). Its revenue is up 8.2% over last year.

Few shareholders would be pleased to read that earnings per share are lower over three years. The fairly low revenue growth fails to impress given that the earnings per share is down. So given this relatively weak performance, shareholders would probably not want to see high compensation for the CEO. Although we don't have analyst forecasts, you might want to assess this data-rich visualization of earnings, revenue and cash flow.

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Has Cerillion PLC Been A Good Investment?

Most shareholders would probably be pleased with Cerillion PLC for providing a total return of 61% over three years. So they may not be at all concerned if the CEO were to be paid more than is normal for companies around the same size.

In Summary...

We examined the amount Cerillion PLC pays its CEO, and compared it to the amount paid by similar sized companies. We found that it pays well over the median amount paid in the benchmark group.

Earnings per share have not grown in three years, and the revenue growth fails to impress us.

However, we can't argue with the strong returns to shareholders, over the same time period. Given this situation we doubt shareholders are particularly concerned about the CEO compensation. Shareholders may want to check for free if Cerillion insiders are buying or selling shares.

Arguably, business quality is much more important than CEO compensation levels. So check out this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity 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.
Alliance Global Group Inc., the investment holding company of billionaire Andrew Tan, will boost its annual capital expenditures to P85 billion in 2019, 14.8 percent higher than P74 billion it invested in 2018. AGI chief executive Kevin Tan said in a disclosure to the stock exchange about 90 percent of this years capital spending would fund the expansion of the groups real estate and gaming subsidiaries. We remain unrelenting in our expansion plans as we view with optimism the countrys economic prospects despite some temporary challenges. We are allocating around P85 billion in capex this year, a significant increase from the P70-billion in actual expenditures in 2018, Tan said. He said about 90 percent of this years budget would fund the healthy expansion projects of Megaworld and Travellers. AGI posted a record consolidated net income of P23.7 billion in 2018, up from its restated profit of P22.3 billion in 2017. The group adopted the accounting changes under Philippine Financial Reporting Standards 15 for its 2018 financial statements which resulted in previous years performance being restated for comparability. Consolidated revenues increased 14 percent in 2018 to P160.7 billion from a restated level of P141.3 billion.This is a milestone performance for AGI and proves that our aggressive expansion strategies which we started implementing across our various business segments about five years ago have begun to bear fruit. Now, all our major business segments are contributing strongly to the groups growth. We look forward to sustaining this momentum in the coming years, Tan said. AGI is composed of real estate arm Megaworld Corp., liquor subsidiary Emperador Inc., gaming and leisure operations under Travellers International Hotel Group Inc., quick service restaurants business through McDonalds Philippines under Golden Arches Development Corp. and infrastructure arm Infracorp Development Inc. Megaworld earlier reported a 16-percent increase in 2018 net income to P15.2 billion while Travellers International, the owner and operator of Resorts World Manila, recorded an attributable net income of P1.4 billion, up sharply from P290 million in 2017. Emperador saw its net income rise 5 percent to P6.7 billion. GADC which holds the exclusive franchise of McDonalds in the Philippines reported attributable net income of P1.6 billion in 2018 on sales revenues of P28.3-billion. Same-store sales rose 4 percent. GADC ended 2018 with 620 stores, up from 566 stores in 2017. It targets to add 60 next-generation stores this year.
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A large part of investment returns can be generated by dividend-paying stock given their role in compounding returns over time. Historically, ClearView Wealth Limited (ASX:CVW) has paid a dividend to shareholders. It currently yields 4.1%. Let's dig deeper into whether ClearView Wealth should have a place in your portfolio.

Check out our latest analysis for ClearView Wealth

5 questions to ask before buying a dividend stock

If you are a dividend investor, you should always assess these five key metrics:

Does it pay an annual yield higher than 75% of dividend payers?

Has it paid dividend every year without dramatically reducing payout in the past?

Has it increased its dividend per share amount over the past?

Can it afford to pay the current rate of dividends from its earnings?

Based on future earnings growth, will it be able to continue to payout dividend at the current rate?

ASX:CVW Historical Dividend Yield, April 7th 2019

How does ClearView Wealth fare?

The company currently pays out 72% of its earnings as a dividend, according to its trailing twelve-month data, meaning the dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. However, going forward, analysts expect CVW's payout to fall to 50% of its earnings. Assuming a constant share price, this equates to a dividend yield of around 3.5%.

If you want to dive deeper into the sustainability of a certain payout ratio, you may wish to consider the cash flow of the business. Companies with strong cash flow can sustain a higher payout ratio, while companies with weaker cash flow generally cannot.

If there's one type of stock you want to be reliable, it's dividend stocks and their stable income-generating ability. The reality is that it is too early to consider ClearView Wealth as a dividend investment. It has only been consistently paying dividends for 8 years, however, standard practice for reliable payers is to look for a 10-year minimum track record.

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Compared to its peers, ClearView Wealth produces a yield of 4.1%, which is high for Diversified Financial stocks but still below the market's top dividend payers.

Next Steps:

If ClearView Wealth is in your portfolio for cash-generating reasons, there may be better alternatives out there. However, if you are not strictly just a dividend investor, the stock could still offer some interesting investment opportunities. 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. There are three relevant aspects you should look at:

Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for CVWs future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for CVWs outlook. Valuation: What is CVW 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 CVW 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.
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A look at the shareholders of Central China Real Estate Limited (HKG:832) can tell us which group is most powerful. Large companies usually have institutions as shareholders, and we usually see insiders owning shares in smaller companies. I generally like to see some degree of insider ownership, even if only a little. As Nassim Nicholas Taleb said, 'Dont tell me what you think, tell me what you have in your portfolio.'

With a market capitalization of HK$11b, Central China Real Estate is a decent size, so it is probably on the radar of institutional investors. Taking a look at our data on the ownership groups (below), it's seems that institutions don't own many shares in the company. We can zoom in on the different ownership groups, to learn more about 832.

See our latest analysis for Central China Real Estate

SEHK:832 Ownership Summary, April 7th 2019

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Central China Real Estate?

Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices.

Less than 5% of Central China Real Estate is held by institutional investors. This suggests that some funds have the company in their sights, but many have not yet bought shares in it. If the business gets stronger from here, we could see a situation where more institutions are keen to buy. It is not uncommon to see a big share price rise if multiple institutional investors are trying to buy into a stock at the same time. So check out the historic earnings trajectory, below, but keep in mind it's the future that counts most.

SEHK:832 Income Statement, April 7th 2019

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Central China Real Estate. There is some analyst coverage of the stock, but it could still become more well known, with time.

Insider Ownership Of Central China Real Estate

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The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.

Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own the majority of Central China Real Estate Limited. This means they can collectively make decisions for the company. Given it has a market cap of HK$11b, that means insiders have a whopping HK$5.5b worth of shares in their own names. Most would be pleased to see the board is investing alongside them. You may wish to discover if they have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 24% ownership, the general public have some degree of sway over 832. 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.

Public Company Ownership

Public companies currently own 24% of 832 stock. It's hard to say for sure, but this suggests they have entwined business interests. This might be a strategic stake, so it's worth watching this space for changes in ownership.

Next Steps:

I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too.

Many find it useful to take an in depth look at how a company has performed in the past. You can access this detailed graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow .

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.
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.

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.

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- '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.

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.

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.
Children with acute respiratory infections who visited doctors using telemedicine services were prescribed antibiotics more often than patients who visited a doctor in person, a study published Monday suggests.

The study from researchers at the University of Pittsburgh found kids during telemedicine visits  an approach where patients can talk to a doctor through their smartphone or other device  received antibiotics for ailments such as ear infections or viral colds 52% of the time.

By comparison, 42% of urgent care visits resulted in an antibiotic prescription, and in 31% of visit to primary care providers, said the study, which analyzed data from a national health plan covering 4 million children along with contracts from a telemedicine vendor.

"As a general pediatrician, Im interested in making care easier and less burdensome for families, and I think there are many technological innovations that aim to do this, but I think it also is important to make sure the quality of the care that children receive remains high," said lead author Kristin Ray, a pediatrician with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Childrens Hospital, in a statement.

The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Pediatrics.

Antibiotics received during telemedicine visits for children were less likely to follow clinical guidelines compared to those issued during urgent care or primary provider visits, said the study.

In a statement Monday, the American Academy of Pediatrics said it discourages telemedicine visits for kids because of limitations on physical exams and medical records. It also cites the importance of an ongoing relationship between kids and their doctors "all of which are especially important when children are too young to describe their symptoms well."

Telemedicine has surfaced as a convenient option for parents who can't get an immediate appointment for their child's primary doctor or want to avoid visiting an urgent care center.

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Telemedicine seems to be catching on, especially among employers who believe it can save money, said Jason Doctor, a University of Southern California health policy and economics researcher. "Telemedicine is going to grow. Its going to become a more routine part of peoples medical care."

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Study: Doctors are overprescribing medicine to kids through telemedicine visits
Meghan has reportedly broken from royal tradition by not appointing the Royal Household gynaecologists - REUTERS

The Duchess of Sussex has reportedly appointed her own delivery team to oversee the birth of her first child. 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 Mail on Sunday reported.

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, the paper reported.

The two gynaecologists attended at the arrival of all three of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's children.

"Meghan said she doesnt want the men in suits. She was adamant that she wanted her own people. It did leave a few of us a little baffled," a source was quoted as saying.

A spokesman for the Royal Family declined to comment.

Guy Thorpe-Beeston (left) and Alan Farthing (right), leave the St Mary's Hospital in London, with Marcus Setchell, (centre), following the birth of Prince George Credit: PA

It is understood there will definitely be a role for the Queen's doctors in the birth, but it might not be a prominent one.

Mr Farthing, the Queen's surgeon-gynaecologist, was engaged to BBC presenter Jill Dando when she was shot dead in April 1999.

He was a pioneer in keyhole surgery and today specialises in using the technique to treat gynaecological cancer patients.

Mr Thorpe-Beeston, surgeon-gynaecologist to the Royal Household, delivered Charlotte in 2015.

He has a Harley Street practice, and is a consultant at the Portland private hospital and at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for the NHS.

A Cambridge graduate, he specialised in foetal medicine at King's College Hospital, and is an expert in high-risk pregnancies and recurrent miscarriage.

Sir Marcus Setchell, who was the Queen's surgeon-gynaecologist and who delivered Prince George, has since retired.
Addis Ababa (AFP) - With poems and speeches, Ethiopians have held an emotional farewell for murdered rapper Nipsey Hussle, whose roots in neighbouring Eritrea won him admirers in both countries.

Known for his Grammy-nominated debut album, Hussle was shot dead last week in front of the clothing store he owned in the US city of Los Angeles, whose violence-plagued neighbourhoods he had tried to revitalise.

On Friday, 29-year-old Eric Holder pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted murder over the shooting that also wounded two other men.

At the Saturday evening memorial in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, Hussle was remembered as a rare entertainer who bridged his American upbringing with his roots in the Horn of Africa.

"When we heard there's an Eritrean rapper out there, we were fans before we heard his music," said Ambaye Michael Tesfay, who eulogised Hussle at the event held in a darkened parking lot. "He was an icon for us."

Before his 2018 debut album "Victory Lap" scored a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Album, Hussle, born Ermias Asghedom, had won the attention of rap fans from both Ethiopia and Eritrea for his embrace of his father's Eritrean heritage.

Eritrea was a province of Ethiopia until 1993, when it voted for independence after a decades-long independence struggle, but both countries still have close cultural and family ties.

"It's just really tragic what happened," said Tezeta Solomon, an Ethiopian living in Los Angeles who attended the memorial in Addis Ababa.

"When he first came out, we were all so excited. To know there was a habesha rapper out there definitely sparked some pride," she said, using a common term to describe people from the Horn of Africa.

Hussle embraced his Eritrean heritage, visiting the country last year and telling state media, "More than anything I am proud of being Eritrean."

The relationship between Ethiopia and Eritrea has often been tortuous, and the countries were not on speaking terms for years following a 1998-2000 border war that ground into stalemate.

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That ended with the signing of a peace agreement last year that restored ties between the neighbours.

The frosty relations did little to dampen Ethiopians' pride in Hussle's success.

"We're all one people," said Nemany Hailemelekot, an organiser of the memorial.

The crowd of hundreds gathered in the parking lot observed a moment of silence for the slain rapper, who was 33.

Then by the light of candle-like sticks known as twafs held by attendees, speakers came onto a stage erected before the crowd to eulogise Hussle and read poems in his honour.
The Hague (AFP) - Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Monday any decision by the European Union to agree to another Brexit extension would depend on British "guarantees for loyal cooperation."

"Just spoke to @theresa.may. The British Brexit extension will be discussed at the upcoming European Council," Rutte tweeted.

"It is crucial to know when and on what basis the UK will ratify the withdrawal agreement. A positive decision also depends on guarantees from the United Kingdom for loyal cooperation," he said.

May is hoping to have a deal to present to European leaders at an emergency summit on Wednesday, where she must secure another Brexit extension to prevent Britain leaving the bloc at the end of the week if there is no accord.

She has asked for a delay until June 30, but the decision has to be taken unanimously by Britain and the remaining 27 EU members.

Rutte -- who has been one of the most outspoken EU leaders on Brexit -- said "everyone has an interest in an orderly Brexit."

Rutte said May agreed "that we will meet again on Wednesday prior to the European Council."

Europe's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has warned Britain that in case of a no-deal Brexit, the EU would not open trade talks until the question of the Irish border had been resolved.

Speaking in Dublin, Barnier added that EU would also not discuss anything with Britain until there was also an agreement on citizens' rights and the financial settlement.

All three issues are covered by the withdrawal agreement, which was struck between British and EU negotiators in November but has been rejected by the British parliament.

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By Jan Wolfe WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats in the House of Representatives are gearing up to issue subpoenas to try to obtain Special Counsel Robert Mueller's full report on Russia's role in the 2016 U.S. election and President Donald Trump's actions related to the inquiry. The question is: how successful will they be? Attorney General William Barr, who has broad authority under Justice Department regulations to decide how much of Mueller's report to release, sent lawmakers a four-page letter on March 24 explaining Mueller's "principal conclusions" and has promised to release the nearly 400-page report by the middle of this month, with some parts blacked out, or "redacted." That has not satisfied Democrats, who control the House. The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on Wednesday to authorize a subpoena to compel the Justice Department to hand over the complete report, without redactions, as well as underlying evidence. Here is an explanation of the legal hurdles Democrats must clear in their subpoena effort, important judicial precedents and Barr's rationale for keeping parts of the report confidential. CAN CONGRESS SUBPOENA DOCUMENTS FROM THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH? Yes. Committees of the House and Senate possess the power to issues subpoenas for documents held by the executive branch or other subjects in investigations. Under the U.S. Constitution, Congress is a co-equal branch of the federal government alongside the executive branch and judiciary. If Barr refuses to comply with a Judiciary Committee subpoena to obtain the full report and underlying investigative material, the House could vote to hold him "in contempt" and turn to the courts to enforce the subpoena. Legal experts said that process could take years. Barr's "principal conclusions" letter said Mueller's inquiry did not establish that Trump's campaign team conspired with Russia. Barr also said Mueller did not reach a conclusion on whether the Republican president committed obstruction of justice but also did not exonerate him. Barr subsequently concluded that Trump had not engaged in criminal obstruction. The letter provided scant details of the findings, though Trump immediately claimed "complete and total exoneration." The Mueller investigation has cast a cloud over Trump's presidency. House Democrats have launched a series of investigations into Trump, who is seeking re-election in 2020. A situation analogous to the current subpoena fight unfolded during the presidency of Trump's Democratic predecessor Barack Obama. In 2012, the House, then controlled by Republicans, subpoenaed internal Justice Department documents related to a failed federal law enforcement operation to track illegal gun sales, dubbed "Fast and Furious." Obama's attorney general, Eric Holder, refused to comply. The House voted to hold him in contempt, marking the first time in U.S. history that Congress took such action against a sitting member of a president's Cabinet. The Justice Department later turned over thousands of pages of documents but the matter was not resolved until after Obama left office, with a settlement reached in 2018. WHY DID BARR NOT SIMPLY RELEASE THE WHOLE REPORT? Barr told lawmakers in a March 29 letter that he was making "redactions that are required" before releasing the Mueller report. He cited four reasons for redactions: protecting secret grand jury proceedings; safeguarding intelligence-gathering sources and methods; shielding material that could affect ongoing investigations; and protecting information that would unduly infringe on personal privacy and reputations. Grand juries are groups of citizens who meet in secret and decide whether to authorize criminal indictments or demands for evidence sought by prosecutors. U.S. law generally requires that information obtained from grand jury proceedings be kept secret, though there are exceptions that let Congress, and even the general public, see it. Barr also could redact information by citing a legal doctrine called executive privilege, which allows the president to withhold information about internal executive branch deliberations from other branches of government. WHAT LAWS AND HISTORICAL PRECEDENTS APPLY? Federal law and judicial precedent could play a role in the subpoena fight. Under U.S. law, grand jury testimony generally must be kept secret. But if a grand jury matter involves "grave hostile acts of a foreign power" or other intelligence information, the information can be shared with appropriate government officials. The law also lets a judge release grand jury information when strong public interest is at stake. A 1974 court decision involving Republican President Richard Nixon gives Democrats strong ammunition to argue that they are entitled to any grand jury information redacted by Barr. Leon Jaworski, a special prosecutor during the Watergate scandal, produced a report that relied on evidence from grand jury proceedings. H.R. Haldeman, who had served Nixon as White House chief of staff, sought to block that information from Congress, citing the same grand jury secrecy provision mentioned by Barr. The dispute ended up before a panel of federal appeals court judges in Washington, which ruled 5-1 against Haldeman. The court said Congress clearly needed the material to conduct an effective impeachment investigation, and noted that the Democratic-led House Judiciary committee had taken "elaborate precautions to insure against unnecessary and inappropriate disclosure of these materials." The committee approved articles of impeachment against Nixon as Congress began the process of trying to remove him from office. Nixon resigned before the full House could vote on impeachment. If Barr were to cite executive privilege in redacting material, a 1974 Supreme Court ruling could come into play. Nixon withheld tape recordings and other material subpoenaed by Jaworski, citing executive privilege. The high court then ordered him to give the material to a federal district court, saying the president's interest in keeping his communications secret was outweighed by the judiciary's need for evidence. (Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Will Dunham and Noeleen Walder)
JERUSALEM, April 8 (Reuters) - Israelis vote in a parliamentary election on Tuesday, choosing among party lists of candidates to serve in the 120-seat Knesset.

No party has won a majority of seats since Israels first election in 1949. Following are questions and answers about the vote and what sort of coalition negotiations could emerge:

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER POLLS CLOSE?

Israel's major television stations and news websites issue exit polls when voting ends at 10 p.m. (1900 GMT) on Tuesday, estimating how many parliamentary seats each party has won, and then the coalition calculations begin.

WHO'S AHEAD IN OPINION POLLS?

Final polls in the campaign, on Friday, showed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had fallen behind his main challenger, centrist Benny Gantz, but still has an easier path to form a government that would keep him in power for a record fifth term.

HOW DOES COALITION-BUILDING WORK?

Israel's president, Reuven Rivlin, consults with the leaders of every party represented in parliament as to their preference for prime minister, and then chooses the legislator who he believes has the best chance of putting together a coalition. The nominee, who does not necessarily have to be the head of the party that won the most votes, has up to 42 days to form a government before the president asks another politician to try.

WHAT SORT OF COALITION COULD BE FORMED?

Netanyahu will likely seek a coalition, similar to his current government, with ultranationalist and Jewish Orthodox parties. Gantz, who heads the centrist Blue and White Party, will likely win the support of center-left and left-wing parties, but polls predict he will fall short of a governing majority in parliament.

WHAT ARE THE UNEXPECTED FACTORS TO WATCH?

A far-right politician, Moshe Feiglin, has been drawing unexpectedly strong support, opinion polls show, with a libertarian platform advocating the legalization of marijuana, free market policies and annexation of the occupied West Bank. He could be a kingmaker.

In Israeli politics, a "unity government" can never be ruled out if the path to a right- or center-left-led coalition proves difficult - even though Gantz has pledged not to serve with Netanyahu, citing corruption allegations against the Likud party leader, who has denied those accusations. (Reporting by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
Dubai (AFP) - A British woman has been prevented from leaving Dubai, police in the Emirate said Monday, after her ex-husband's new wife pressed defamation charges over comments posted on Facebook.

Dubai police confirmed a 55-year-old British woman was being tried for defamation under the UAE's cybercrime law.

Police said the woman had never been held in custody, but had confessed to making the statements and refused attempts to settle out of court.

While police would not disclose the woman's identity, the London-based group Detained in Dubai identified her as Laleh Sharavesh, saying she had described her ex-husband's new wife as 'a horse'.

Dubai police said that following a complaint by a Portugese man and his Tunisian wife in 2017, a warrant had been issued requiring the woman to present herself to the police.

"Upon her return to the country on 10 March 2019, the outstanding warrant prompted the immigration authorities at the airport to bring the matter to the British woman's attention," the police said in a statement.

"She was requested to attend the nearest police station."

Britain said it was in contact with the UAE about the case and offering help to the Sharavesh.

"We are offering consular assistance to Ms. Sharavesh. We're very concerned about the situation," British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt told reporters in Luxembourg.

"Our diplomats in the UAE have enormous experience in dealing with consular cases ... so she is getting the best possible service" from the British authorities, he added.

The Detained in Dubai group said Sharavesh's Portuguese husband of 18 years divorced her to marry a Tunisian woman in Dubai.

The man died last month and Sharavesh flew to Dubai with their daughter for his funeral, according to the group.

While their teenage daughter was allowed to fly back, Sharavesh was not permitted to leave the country.

The group said the charges are based on two comments Sharavesh posted under her ex-husband's new wedding pictures on Facebook in Farsi.

"I hope you go under the ground you idiot. Damn you. You left me for this horse," she allegedly wrote. "You married a horse you idiot".

Sharavesh's attorney could not be reached for comment.
Fighters from Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army seen leaving Benghazi to reinforce troops advancing on Libya - REUTERS

Fighting has flared in southern Tripoli as General Khalifa Haftars self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) intensified its assault on the capital despite a United Nations appeal for a cease fire.

The United Nations mission to Libya (Unsmil) called for an "urgent" two hour truce to allow the evacuation of civilians and wounded from Tripoli's southern suburbs on Sunday, where troops loyal to the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) were battling to halt the LNA assault on the city.

But the violence saw no sign of abating, with Gen Haftar's forces launching at least one airstrike on a Tripoli suburb, and witnesses reported hearing grad rockets firing to the south of the city.

The airstrike was the LNA's first use of air power in the battle. It came after pro-government forces launched air-raids on Saturday.

Militiamen from the western city of Misrata head into Tripoli to reinforce the UN-backed government Credit: STRINGER/EPA-EFE/REX

Clashes were concentrated on the mainly farmland area of Wadi Raba and the disused international airport, 15 miles south of the capital. Haftar's forces claimed to have seized the airport on Saturday.

Colonel Mohamed Gnounou, a spokesman for pro-government forces, on Sunday said a counter offensive had been launched to push Haftars troops back.

He said operation "Volcano of Anger" was aimed at "purging all Libyan cities of aggressor and illegitimate forces", in reference to Haftar fighters.

Pro-GNA forces have been reinforced by powerful militia groups from the western city of Misrata, Zintan, and Zawiya. At least one armed group from Misrata known as Brigade 166 arrived Saturday in eastern Tripoli, according to AFP.

The health ministry in Tripoli said at least 21 people were killed and 27 wounded in the fighting.

The United States, which maintains a small contingent in the country to protect diplomatic facilities and help local forces fight al-Qaeda, said it was withdrawing some of its troops for security reasons.

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A handout photo made available by Libyan Army Media office on 05 April 2019 shows Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres (R) shaking hands with commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA) Khalifa Haftar (L) in Benghazi, eastern Libya Credit: LIBYAN ARMY MEDIA OFFICE HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/REX

"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."

Libya has been divided between various armed groups since the Nato-backed uprising that overthrew Muammar Gadaffi in 2011.

The main centres of power are the Tripoli-based GNA, and a rival administration allied to Gen Haftar in the east of the country.

Gen Haftar has portrayed himself as a bulwark against militant Islamists and has received military backing from Egypt, France, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates. He is also endorsed by a Saudi Arabia-based Salafist cleric and recently met Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman in Riyadh.

Critics say he wants to be a Gaddafi-style dictator, and his assault on Tripoli is widely seen as a bid to change facts on the ground ahead of a UN-sponsored national reconciliation conference later this month.

The move has drawn international condemnation and analysts say it is not yet clear his forces are capable of defeating the alliance of groups defending Tripoli.
Astronomers will supposedly release the first-ever photo of a black hole on Wednesday. What's all the fuss about, and what will we learn from it?

What's a black hole?

First of all, black holes are collapsed stars with gravity so strong that even light cannot escape their grasp. One of the black holes we're expecting to get a glimpse of this week  known as Sagittarius A  is the "supermassive" one that's at the center of our Milky Way galaxy.

Supermassive black holes are millions to billions times more massive than our sun, and appear to be in the center of almost all galaxies, the National Science Foundation said.

Astronomers this week are also expected to release images of another supermassive black hole, one that's 53.5 million light-years away.

What will we see?

As its name suggests, a black hole is black, so it'll be impossible to "see" against the black backdrop of space. But nearby objects, such as the event horizon  the edge of the black hole where light can't escape  could be visible.

So the photo may show a dark blob surrounded by a ring of bright light, according to Yahoo.

But that also might be a challenge, since the black hole at the center of our galaxy is "shrouded in a thick cloud of dust and gas," Science Alert reported.

What's "taking" the photo?

As you might expect, this won't be your run-of-the-mill photo of the night sky from your smartphone. Images will come from the Event Horizon Telescope, a collection of telescopes around the world specifically designed to peer at black holes. The telescopes are in Chile, Hawaii, Arizona, Mexico, Spain and at the South Pole.

The telescope will catch whatever light it can detect from near the black hole. By combining the data from the various telescopes placed around the world, the Event Horizon Telescope has as much magnifying power as a telescope the size of the entire Earth.

What does this have to do with Einstein's theories of relativity?

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The image from the black hole may give us more insight into Albert Einsteins theory of general relativity, which he came up with in 1915. According to CNET, the shape of the black hole's event horizon could prove Einstein's theory or possibly cast new doubt upon it.

But even if it casts doubt, the finding would not necessarily mean that his theory is wrong, but it would imply that we have more physics to understand, the Event Horizon Telescope website reported.

The discovery will be unveiled Wednesday by the National Science Foundation at a 9 a.m. ET press conference.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The first photo of a black hole is coming Wednesday. What are we going to see and what will we learn?
Fisher-Price Rock 'n Play Sleeper Should Be Recalled, Consumer Reports Says

Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site.

Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site.

Update: On April 12, Fisher-Price recalled all 4.7 million of its Rock 'n Play Sleepers, citing infant fatalities, and said parents should immediately stop using the products.

Update: On April 11, Consumer Reports linked an additional four deaths to inclined sleepers, from the company Kids II, and called for their recall as well.

Update: On April 9, the American Academy of Pediatrics called on the Consumer Product Safety Commission to immediately recall the Fisher-Price Rock 'n Play Sleeper, citing Consumer Reports' investigation. This story was originally published on April 8.

A Consumer Reports investigation into the safety of the Fisher-Price Rock n Play Sleepera product designed and marketed for babies to sleep on an inclinefound that it is tied to at least 32 infant deaths.

Amid CRs investigationand days after we asked for commentthe federal government and Fisher-Price on April 5 issued a warning about the product, which safety advocates believe does not go far enough. Medical experts tell CR that babies should be placed flat on their back alone and free of soft beddingand not at an inclineto minimize the risk of accidental suffocation. Products such as the Fisher-Price Rock n Play Sleeper do not align with these recommendations.



The safety alert from the Consumer Product Safety Commission and Fisher-Price includes a warning from the CPSC for consumers to stop using the product when infants turn 3 months old or as soon as an infant exhibits rollover capabilities. The alert cites reports of 10 infant deaths in the Rock n Play that have occurred since 2015, after the infants rolled from their back to their stomach or side, while unrestrained.

Despite these numbers, the product has not been recalled by Fisher-Price, part of the childrens products giant Mattel, which had about $4.5 billion in sales in 2018. The deaths have prompted only warnings from the company and the CPSC, which does not have a mandatory safety standard for infant inclined sleep products.

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Fisher-Price told CR in an emailed statement, The loss of a child is a devastating tragedy. We will continue to do all we can to ensure that parents and caregivers have the information necessary to create a safe sleep environment for infants.

But CRs ongoing investigation has turned up deaths of babies even younger than the 3-month threshold cited in the April 5 warning, and go beyond the risk of rollover.

Fisher-Price confirmed to CR that the company is aware of approximately 32 fatalities since the 2009 introduction of the Rock n Play Sleeper, including the 10 noted in the joint release with the CPSC. Fisher-Price told CR that the company does not believe that any deaths have been caused by the product, citing the many situations where a medical/health condition was identified as the cause of death, and/or those in which the product was clearly used in a manner contrary to the safety warnings and instructions.

While CRs review of the data shows that certain cases did have contributing factors such as illness or additional bedding, the number of incidents associated with the Rock n Play Sleeper, combined with long-standing expert medical advice that babies should sleep on firm, flat surfaces, raises serious safety concerns about the product.

Further, the American Academy of Pediatrics says it does not recommend products for routine sleep that require restraining a baby, especially if that product also rocks. To [fasten] a baby down to a surface and then rock the baby is not consistent with our recommendations, said Lori Feldman-Winter, M.D., a member of the AAP task force on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and a professor of pediatrics at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University in Camden, N.J.

Based on the deaths and injuries associated with the Fisher-Price Rock n Play, the product clearly puts infants safety at risk and should be recalled immediately, says William Wallace, senior policy analyst at CR. All other inclined sleepers should be investigated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. These products conflict with American Academy of Pediatrics safe sleep recommendations, and manufacturers should pull them off the market.

The alert issued Friday by the CPSC and Fisher-Price follows a previous one from the CPSC nearly a year ago, warning consumers about infant deaths associated with inclined sleep products without naming the Fisher-Price Rock n Play Sleeper.

The CPSC told CR in an emailed statement, At this time, we are focusing on deaths associated with the rollover hazard, though we acknowledge that we are aware of other deaths that have occurred in the Rock n Play. The statement also said that the agency is continuing to evaluate the product and investigate whether it contains a defect . . . and if the evidence indicates a need for a recall, we will take that step.

But CRs investigationbased in part on previously undisclosed CPSC data as well as reviews of lawsuits and interviews with numerous medical experts, product engineers, government and industry officials, and parentsraises questions about how the product was developed and marketed in the first place, and allowed to remain for sale despite incidents dating back many years. It also highlights a larger weakness in the regulatory systems meant to protect consumers, including children, from hazardous products.

A Long List of Deaths

The earliest death that CR uncovered occurred in 2011, with more in the years that followed. There is, for example, the mother in Hidalgo County, Texas, who placed her 2-month old daughter on her back for a nights sleep on Oct. 19, 2013, according to a lawsuit filed by the family against Fisher-Price. At 4 a.m., when the mother checked, all was well, but by 7 a.m., the baby had stopped breathing. Her head was tilted to the side with her chin on her shoulder, compressing her airway. She was pronounced dead at the scene from positional asphyxia, or an inability to breathe caused by her position.

The most recent deaths CR found occurred in spring 2018one involving a 1-month-old girl in Knoxville, Tenn., and the other a 9-day-old boy in Copperas Cove, Texas.

There have also been some close calls. In one, on July 25, 2014, a 7-week-old boy was placed in a Rock n Play Sleeper while his grandmother was in the room, according to a lawsuit filed against Fisher-Price that was ultimately dismissed.

The grandmother, Jan Hinson, of Greenville, S.C., says she looked at her grandson and saw he was cocked over all the way, and he was blue and lifeless. It was absolutely awful. She got the infant breathing again, and after a stay in the hospital, he was released.

Hinson, who is also a lawyer, is now representing a Virginia couple, Evan and Keenan Overton, whose son died while in a Rock n Play Sleeper.

A few days before Christmas in 2017, 5-month-old Ezra was asleep in the product while Keenan slept on a couch nearby. When Keenan woke in the middle of the night, he found Ezra on his stomach, unresponsive, and yelled for Evan to call 911. He was blue, and his body was, it was hard, and he didnt feel real, Evan said. Ezra was pronounced dead at the hospital; asphyxia was listed as the immediate cause of death. (The Overtons say Ezra was buckled in the sleeper, though the death certificate states the baby was unrestrained.)

In the days and weeks following the death, as the Overtons tried to make sense of what happened, they looked online and read about the Fisher-Price Rock n Play. The new parents had trusted that the product was safe for sleeping because that is how it is marketed. On the Fisher-Price website, the product is touted for naptime and nighttime, and the products packaging says things such as Inclined sleeper designed for all-night sleep.

But the couples internet searches revealed a different story. There were posts from parents and pediatricians describing the product as dangerous, prone to interfering with an infants ability to breathe. The Overtons learned that though sudden infant deaths can occur with no clear causeand there can be many factors involvedexperts warned that this particular product, and infant inclined sleep products in general, pose an increased risk of infant death.

The Overtons had received their Rock n Play Sleeper as a hand-me-down from their neighbors, who had said that, when their child was an infant, the product had been a lifesaver. But, Keenan said, the Overtons became convinced that was the opposite of what it was.

On Jan. 6, 2018, Evan posted a review on Amazon warning parents about the product: I lost my son in this horrible contraption December 22 . . . this should not be marketed as a sleeper!"

When asked by CR about the Overton incident, the company responded, The loss of a child is an unimaginable tragedy. Fisher-Price also confirmed that the Overtons case was one of the 10 cited by the company in the joint alert issued with the CPSC on April 5.

History of a Dangerous Product

Fisher-Price says on its website that the company started developing the Rock n Play Sleeper when one of its designers had a baby boy who had trouble sleeping because of acid reflux. The designers doctors suggested elevating the infants head, prompting her and the company to create a sleeper that would keep her son at a 30-degree incline during sleep.

Fisher-Price told CR that it engaged a leading engineering and scientific consulting firm, which concluded that the Rock n Play Sleeper presents a lower risk of fatality than cribs and bassinets/cradles.

Documents filed in an Atlanta lawsuit against Fisher-Price identified a medical consultant hired by the company to be Gary Deegear, M.D., a physician in San Antonio. According to these documents, he offered Fisher-Price assurance about the Rock n Play Sleepers safety. For example, Kitty Pilarzvice president of product safety and regulatory compliance for Mattelwrote in one email: Dr. Deegear stated pediatricians recommend babies with reflux sleep at 30 degrees, this is just fine, or sleep in a car seat.

But there are several reasons to be concerned about this advice.

For one, Deegear is not a pediatrician or a sleep specialist, according to the Texas Medical Board, but was a family practice doctor. CR attempted to contact Deegear but could not reach him for comment.

For another, the AAP and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development have long counseled against letting infants sleep unsupervised in a reclined position.

Shortly after the recent joint alert from the CPSC and Fisher-Price, the AAP tweeted that The Rock n Play should not be used for routine sleep; If you use the Rock n Play for soothing, always strap the baby in and never leave the baby unattended.

We dont recommend that babies are placed to sleep with their heads elevated because that is a position that would be subject to accidental suffocation [and] strangulation in bed, said Feldman-Winter of the AAP. Instead, the AAP says that for prolonged or nighttime sleep, babies should be put on their backs, unrestrained, alone, on a flat, firm surface, such as a mattress covered by a fitted sheet in a bare crib, bassinet, or play yard.

And, experts say, parents should never use a car seat, stroller, swing, sling, wedge, or any other similar product for unsupervised sleep.

That recommendation applies even to babies with acid reflux, Feldman-Winter said. She recognizes that some parents have heard that sleeping on an incline can ease that problem and understands the desperation parents can feel when a crying baby cant sleep. But theres no evidence to suggest that being on an incline is helpful for reflux, she said. There is a misconception that thats somehow an okay, safe sleep position, and its just not.

The AAP also doesnt recommend for routine use sleeping devices that require the use of restraints because a baby could roll or turn into an unsafe position and be incapable of moving, leading to suffocation or strangulation.

Thats one of the reasons experts caution against using infant car seats for unsupervised sleep. Those products are acceptable for shorter periods of time because its the safest position for a crash, said Paul Gaudreau, a mechanical engineer who currently works for UPPAbaby and has experience in the car-seat industry. But, he said, research (PDF) shows that a babys oxygen level can drop when sleeping at an incline in a car seat. And medical experts warn that the straps can lead to strangulation. Thats why Ive steered companies that Ive worked for away from doing inclined sleepers.

Finally, the basic advicethat babies should sleep on level, firm surfacesdates back to 1994, well before Fisher-Price created its Rock n Play Sleeper. Thats when the AAP and other groups introduced the Back to Sleep campaign to reduce the risk of SIDS and other sleep-related causes of death. That campaign (now called Safe to Sleep) has helped cut the rate of SIDS by almost a half.

Roy Benaroch, M.D., an associate adjunct professor of pediatrics at Emory University in Atlanta, who has blogged about the safety risks of the Rock n Play Sleeper, told CR that parents are confused by the product at a time when they are especially vulnerable.

Its tough because you dont sleep, the baby is not sleeping, parents are exhausted, and theyre looking for a solution, he said. But parents are assuming a lot of risk by using this rather than following the safety guidelines. Bottom line: If you let your baby sleep in this thing, theres an increased risk of death, Benaroch said.

Regulatory Side Steps

When Fisher-Price first introduced the Rock n Play Sleeper, it marketed the product along with its bassinets. But less than a year later, in 2010, the CPSC began revising the standards for infant sleep surfaces, including bassinets, and issued a proposed rule that would require those products to be firm and flat, with an angle of 5 degrees or less when the product was at rest, rather than rocking or swinging.

Instead of adjusting the incline of its product, Pilarz, at Mattel, asked the CPSC for a revision to that proposed rule to account for products like the Rock n Play Sleeper. Not making that change, she said, could actually increase the risk of injury: Parents deprived of any appropriate product for calming their tired, colicky infants will look elsewhereand substitute products dangerous for that purpose.

Ultimately, in October 2013, the CPSC excluded products with an incline of greater than 10 degrees from its mandatory bassinet and cradle standards.

Armed with that exclusion, Fisher-Price and other industry reps went to ASTM Internationalan organization that sets voluntary safety standards for consumer products and includes representatives from the government, industry, and the publicto finish a voluntary standard for a new category: inclined infant sleep products.

Some ASTM members had objected to creating a new category and standard for those products. By putting a standard in, youre telling people that . . . it must be safe, said Nancy Cowles, executive director of Kids in Danger, a nonprofit that focuses on reducing childhood injuries from consumer products. The voluntary ASTM standard, she worried, would create confusion for consumers and give new parents a false sense of security about a product that she felt was anything but secure.

Nevertheless, ASTM agreed to form a committee to develop a standard for the category. And they appointed Michael Steinwachsone of the primary engineers at Fisher-Price involved in designing the Rock n Play Sleeperchairperson of that committee. The voluntary standard for infant inclined sleep products was ultimately established in 2015.

Cowles, at KID, was disappointed but not surprised that the product category was established. You can talk safety till youre blue in the face, but if parents will buy themand [the company] can always justify the incidents that happen as being the parents faultthen theyre going to keep selling them, Cowles said.

Warnings From Around the World

Other health and regulatory agencies were not as easily sold on the infant inclined sleeper, according to documents in the Hidalgo County lawsuit.

Around January 2011, Australian regulators, for example, wrote to Mattel, explaining why they did not think the item should be marketed as a sleep product. They said that the Rock n Play Sleeper is at odds with widely accepted and promoted best practices that these types of products should not be used as an infant bedding alternative. They also explained that because of the products angle, babies heads can easily fall forward in a way that obstructs their airways. Fisher-Price confirmed it still does not sell the product in Australia.

In Canada, the product is availablebut was reclassified from a sleeper to a soother and is now marketed and sold as the Rock n Play Soothing Seat. This was because in February 2011 a representative from Health Canada wrote to Mattel Canada stating that public health officials there had concerns about the Rock n Play Sleeper in light of the Safe Sleep recommendations of Health Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and the Canadian Pediatric Society.

In the United Kingdom, the Rock n Play is for sale as a sleeper, despite misgivings from health organizations. In February 2011, the Royal College of Midwives in the U.K. told Fisher-Price that the product was suitable only for short periods of supervised play and that the group would not endorse the product as a sleeper. After receiving that news, a Fisher-Price employee wrote in an internal email, Please see attached the findings from the Royal College of Midwives testing on the sleeper. Im afraid the findings dont have good implications for a UK launch.

What Parents Should Do

Given the number of injuries and deaths, consumer safety advocates question why neither Mattel nor the CPSC has yet initiated a recall.

In cases like these, where the product is on the market and there have been incidents associated with it, its very difficult to understand why the enforcement agency with jurisdiction over this product wouldnt take action, said Rachel Weintraub, legislative director and general counsel of the Consumer Federation of America. When we know there are products that are posing risks and causing fatalities, that product in almost every case needs to be taken off the market.

The alert issued by the CPSC and Fisher-Price is inadequate, said Cowles of KID. She reiterated that children should not sleep restrained, and that children should sleep on flat surfaces, not inclines.

They should get rid of this product category, Cowles said. Anything intended for infant sleep should be flat. And then there should be specific recalls on the products that have been involved in deaths.

CR safety experts agree and recommend that anyone who currently has a Rock n Play Sleeper should immediately stop using it for routine sleep. Instead, babies should be put to bed alone, on their backs, on a firm, flat mattress in a crib, bassinet, or play yard.





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.
Flight Centre Invests in Jay Walkers Biz Travel Company Upside

While many companies in the last few years have launched with the goal of disrupting the business travel marketplace, most have experienced serious growing pains along the way.

Upside, which launched in beta in 2016 with big plans to reinvent how business travelers book their trips, has received an investment from Flight Centre Travel Group alongside a commercial agreement to cooperate on distribution matters.

After acquiring a 25 percent stake in Upside, Flight Centre has become the largest individual shareholder of the company. The price Flight Centre paid for the stake was not disclosed.

The deal follows Flight Centres recent investment in 30SecondsToFly and its acquisition of mobile chat provider Sam. It is also Flight Centres second corporate travel acquisition in less than a year, after the company purchased California-based Casto Travel late last year. The value of the investment was not disclosed.

Flight Centre operates a variety of business travel brands including Corporate Traveller, FCM Travel Solutions, and Executive Travel. Key to the deal is Upsides intellectual property in the artificial intelligence, machine learning, and packing technology spaces.

They need access to a good supplier network and good technology, and we need more access to technology assets, said John Morhous, Flight Centre Travel Groups chief experience officer. Theyre not necessarily looking to be completely bought out of the equation from our perspective, were not looking just to do just one particular transaction. From our vantage point, theres lots of different solutions out there and sometimes a JV works better than an acquisition.

Market Mistake

Jay Walker, the founder of Priceline, wanted to bring consumer travel packaging to business travelers while rewarding them with gift cards for making more affordable choices. The idea for Upside was born, leading the company to raise $50 million from venture investors. Travelers would be sold packages of flights, car rentals, and hotel stays in a bundle for a set amount of money, without seeing the specific airlines or hotels theyre booking, and receive gift card rewards based on what they booked.

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The problem is that going after individual business travelers is a much more complex and expensive proposition than signing on entire companies and the thousands of business travelers they employ. This is a lesson that Paul Englishs Lola learned in recent years after pivoting away from enticing individual travelers to providing light travel management tools, a move which culminated in an investment and partnership with American Express Global Business Travel that seems similar to the Upside agreement.

Upside turned to marketing gimmicks like free Bose headphones for making a booking on the site to bring customers into the fold. It also ran a variety of radio ads in markets around the U.S., hoping to entice business travelers who may not work at a company with a serious travel policy, and partnered to create a booking site for Wall Street Journal readers.

The most active, and lucrative, business travelers already likely book through a traditional travel management company, meaning Upside faced an uphill battle in the marketplace regardless of its marketing spend. And without users, its not only hard to generate revenue from commissions but also difficult to negotiate with travel companies to get their products for sale on your platform in the first place.

Time to Pivot

In the middle of 2018, Upside quietly began to pivot to more of a traditional business-to-business travel management play rather than a direct-to-consumer booking site; individual travelers can no longer just go on the site and book. It now offers corporate clients three percent cash back on all company travel once a $100,000 booking threshold is reached.

At the same time as the pivot, Upsides Chief Commercial Officer Jason Wynn began talking to Flight Centre about working together.

The deal has a couple components to it, the most immediate is this space that were going after, the [small- to medium-sized business] space, clients that dont have their own policy, that dont need to have online phone service for origination, they had a heavy interest in getting into that, said Wynn.

Startups entering the travel space often have issues with access to air and hotel content, and Wynn says Upsides relationship with Flight Centre will sort out all those issues for the company. In addition, Upside will develop a plan in the coming months to begin international expansion and leverage Flight Centres global scale. It has also launched a new air booking interface integrating ATPCOs Next-Generation Storefront.

We were finding it challenging to scale with the economics we thought would be sustainable to grow the business over the long term, said Wynn. Its really been trying to get as much game film as we can around this marketplace which has been underserved. Were talking about a group that hasnt been paying or using an entity centrally, trying to understand that group has all been a part of the last seven or eight months. Independent of the deal, we feel comfortable that our product-market fit is strong our expectation and plan is to start adding more capital into the marketing aspect in the back half of the year.

So Upside is back at it again, with a new value proposition and the backing of one of the largest companies in travel. Whether travelers ever come to embrace booking business travel bundles, though, remains an open question.

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By David Ljunggren OTTAWA (Reuters) - The world's major social media companies are not doing enough to help Canada combat potential foreign meddling in this October's elections and the government might have to regulate them, the cabinet minister in charge of ensuring a fair vote said on Monday. Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould spoke shortly after one of Canada's two spy agencies said it was very likely foreign actors will try to interfere in the election. Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said last week she was "very concerned" about possible Russian meddling and that there "have probably already been efforts by malign foreign actors to disrupt our democracy." Gould said Facebook Inc, Twitter Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google should help safeguard the election by promoting transparency, authenticity and integrity on their platforms. But she added that she had been disappointed by the slowness of talks with the companies. The safeguards should include more efforts to counter malicious cyber activity, such as the spread of disinformation, Gould said. "The platforms feel this is something they should be doing on their own and I don't have the confidence that they're disclosing everything with us," she told a news conference. Asked whether the firms should be regulated to limit the threat posed by disinformation and a possible foreign cyber campaign to sway the election, Gould replied: "It's something we are looking at very closely". She noted Britain had proposed a social media regulator on Monday. A few hours after Gould spoke, Facebook announced it had banned a number of individuals and groups it said had engaged in organized hate, including Aryan Strikeforce and Wolves of Odin. Gould said she welcomed the move. Google said it had "every intention of continuing our close work with government to protect Canadas democratic institutions and election activities." Twitter declined to comment. Last month Google said it would ban political advertising on its platform before the election. Facebook has said it would require advertisers to confirm their identities before running election-related material. Gould told the news conference there was much more the social media firms could do. "Until they think they are going to be forced to make those changes, I don't think they will willingly do it and I think that's disappointing," she said. Earlier on Monday, the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), the agency responsible for foreign signals intelligence and protecting government electronic information and communication networks, issued a report on the potential hazards around October's election. The report did not refer to any specific threat from Russia. U.S. intelligence officials and the governments of some European Union countries have accused Russia of interfering in their elections in recent years, allegations denied by Moscow. "It is very likely that Canadian voters will encounter foreign cyber interference ahead of, and during, the 2019 general election," said the CSE, which noted democratic governments around the world were experiencing more cyber attacks. The chances of an adversary actually overturning the results of a Canadian election are almost nonexistent, given that voters use paper ballots. (Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe, Tom Brown and Dan Grebler)
Paris (AFP) - The French government must implement bold tax cuts in response to the "yellow vest" protests, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe argued Monday as he revealed the results of a major public consultation on the crisis.

Giving the first conclusions of a "Great National Debate" which was launched in January, Philippe said that French citizens had expressed "an enormous exasperation" over the country's tax burden, which is the highest in the world.

"The debates show us very clearly which way to go. We need to lower taxes, and lower them more quickly," Philippe who told an audience in Paris.

The "yellow vest" protests, so called for the fluorescent vests worn by demonstrators, began in small-town France in mid-November, initially over fuel taxes before spiralling into a nation-wide revolt against President Emmanuel Macron.

The 41-year-old came to power in May 2017 promising pro-business reforms and tax cuts for companies and investors to encourage job creation, earning him a reputation as a "president of the rich."

Philippe, a centre-right fiscal hawk who has previously called for tax cuts and reductions in public spending, said the government needed to go further.

"We have reached a point where hesitating would be worse than an error, it would be an offence," Philippe added. "The need for change is so radical that any conservatism, any feebleness would be unforgiveable in my view."

Macron is expected to announce his conclusions in a major speech in the next fortnight, with the "Great National Debate" billed as a watershed moment in his nearly two-year-old presidency.

Though he is known to favour further tax cuts too, he has ruled them out without reductions in public spending -- which could prove hugely controversial.

Successive French leaders have faced street protests every time they attempted to trim France's vast public sector, underlining the difficult balancing act ahead for France's youngest ever president.

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The country has the highest taxation rate in the world, according to the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, with taxes equivalent to 46.2 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP).

French public spending is the second-highest in the world after Finland and is the equivalent of 56.8 percent of GDP, according to the OECD.

- National 'Bla-bla'? -

The "Great National Debate" has involved 10,000 meetings in community halls around the country, around two million online contributions and has seen Macron appear at local events for nearly 100 hours in total.

"I intend to transform anger into solutions," he declared in an open letter to the country on January 13 which launched the exercise, referring to the "yellow vest" protests which had seen crowds block roads and repeatedly riot on the Champs-Elysees.

"Your proposals will help build a new contract for the nation," he promised.

After a shaky start, when the chief organiser had to step down due to an outcry over her salary, most observers see the exercise so far as a qualified success for the president.

The number of contributions has demonstrated a level of enthusiasm that looked uncertain at the start, while Macron's approval ratings have climbed from record lows thanks to his townhall appearances around the country.

But many experts believe the former investment banker faces only hard choices ahead, with voters now expecting the months of discussions to translate into policies to improve living standards.

Critics have dismissed the exercise as the "Great National Bla-bla".

"Every debate has given him some new ideas. But he hasn't made his mind up yet," an aide told AFP last week on condition of anonymity. "He's going to consult some more. But ultimately he'll decide on his own, and perhaps at the last minute."

He has ruled out reintroducing a special tax for the wealthy which he scrapped early in his term.

Reinstating it has been one of the main demands of the "yellow vests" who continue to mobilise every Saturday to denounce inequality and Macron's policies, but in far smaller numbers than at the start of the year.

A referendum could also be on the cards, possibly to validate plans to reduce the number of national lawmakers and change the voting system for some seats.

As well as lower taxes, Philippe said that several other themes which had emerged during the consultation.

Citizens wanted a more direct say in the running of the country -- so-called "participatory democracy" -- and action to combat climate change.

"The president has said it: we can't continue to govern like before," he added.
Gannett headquarters in McLean, VA.

Gannett Co. sent a letter Monday to its shareholders defending its growth strategy and recommending that they reject a hedge fund-owned newspaper company's attempt to seize control of its board.

Gannett, owner of USA TODAY and more than 100 other publications, accused MNG Enterprises Inc. of "attempting to promote its self-serving agenda to take control of Gannett" by nominating six directors to the company's board.

Gannett recommended that shareholders re-elect all of the members of its board who have decided to serve again.

MNG, also known as Digital First Media, made an unsolicited bid to acquire Gannett for $12 per share on Jan. 14, arguing that it was better equipped to lead Gannett to growth. Gannett rejected the bid as not credible and questioned MNG's ability to finance it. Gannett also accused MNG of pushing for director nominees with potential conflicts of interest.

Gannett's stock price fell 3.1% to close at $10.11 a share on Monday.

Gannett said in its letter to shareholders that a merger of MNG and Gannett, an idea that MNG representatives have floated repeatedly for years, would have too much debt. The combined entity would be "in the company of its most distressed peers, which is why we have serious questions about MNGs ability to obtain financing for its proposed transaction," Gannett wrote in the publicly released letter.

Critics say Alden Global Capital-owned MNG has stripped its newspapers of value by implementing devastating cost cuts. The company's publications include The Denver Post, The San Jose Mercury News and The Boston Herald.

MNG asks shareholders for backing: Hedge fund-owned newspaper company pursues Gannett takeover

New details: Gannett says Digital First Media first floated possibility of selling itself to Gannett

MNG said in a statement on Monday that Gannetts letter is an obvious attempt to distract from its own underperformance" and that "Gannett has no credible plan to compete with MNGs $12 per share cash offer."

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"The truth is Gannetts business is declining rapidly and its high time the board act with a sense of urgency to salvage value before there is further deterioration," MNG said.

Gannett said its plan includes growing digital revenue through innovative consumer products and advertising, engaging journalism, digital marketing solutions, selective acquisitions and "thoughtful and strategic" cost management.

"This is a critical time for Gannett and the industry, and your board and management team are taking actions to deliver on our continued commitment to journalistic excellence and the path to the greatest value opportunity for shareholders," Gannett said.

Gannett shareholders will elect directors at the company's annual meeting May 16.

Follow USA TODAY reporter Nathan Bomey on Twitter @NathanBomey.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Gannett says MNG's proposed deal would be overloaded with debt
Munich (Germany) (AFP) - It's not often German big business openly dabbles in politics, but many companies are urging their employees to reject eurosceptics and right-wing populists in May 26 European Parliament elections.

From Volkswagen to Eon and Thyssenkrupp, Germany's corporate titans have become unusually engaged in defence of an open Europe, a position that is in their own strategic interest.

"Vote for Europe on 26.5. -- it's about freedom, it's about prosperity, it's about our Europe," read a huge poster in downtown Munich unveiled Monday by Bavarian industry federation VBW.

It was the latest such initiative after the VCI chemical industry association recently launched a "Ja zu Europa" ("Yes to Europe") campaign.

Alarmed by projections that see the far-right garnering at least one in five votes in the polls, the head of the German Employers' Confederation, "boss of bosses" Ingo Kramer, in February warned of the "serious" threat extremist forces pose to the European project.

"I ask all German companies to clearly show their colours," he wrote, cautioning that "anti-Europeans from the left and the right" could end up obstructing the European Parliament.

Hubertus Bardt, head of the IW economic research institute, said that "never before have I seen so many companies publicly call for people to go and vote".

"Businesses are realising the importance of European integration," he told AFP.

- Open markets, free trade -

Most of the initiatives have come from large export-driven corporations that "are among the biggest beneficiaries of the European single market," said Alexander Kritikos from the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW).

The rest of the European Union accounted for 780 billion euros ($870 billion) worth of German exports last year, its biggest market.

"Developments such as Brexit, increasing populism, euroscepticism and nationalism pose an enormous economic risk, especially for companies of this size," said Andrea Roemmele of the Hertie School of Governance.

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She said big business profits from the European single market and favours a strong EU that can assert economic interests on the world stage, while "nationalist efforts, such as those we see in the USA under President Trump, mean declining revenues".

Among other German business players, the Central Association of German Trade has published a "Yes to Europe" leaflet, while Ruhr industrial region giants Thyssenkrupp, RWE, Eon and Evonik will also encourage their employees to vote.

Thyssenkrupp boss Guido Kerkhoff told local media last month that "we need to better explain why we need open markets and free trade to succeed, not a withdrawal into our national shells".

Volkswagen will also issue a "clear call for a vote", its human resources chief Gunnar Kilian said earlier this year, stressing that "for European unity, for our common values, for peaceful cooperation ... our democracy needs every voice".

- Brand image boost -

Kritikos said the Brexit drama had driven home the point in the remaining 27 EU states that "it would be fatal for businesses if the single market were to break up".

Beyond the issue of maintaining open trade, a company taking a clear political stance can also boost its image as a responsible corporate citizen, experts say.

In another initiative, around 50 family-run enterprises recently launched a campaign against racism and xenophobia called "Made in Germany - Made by Diversity".

"Consumers are becoming increasingly critical and are consuming not only according to economic but also social and political criteria," said Roemmele.

Citizens with pro-European views, she added, "tend to be well educated and have strong purchasing power".

On the other hand, such campaigns can further alienate those employees already drawn to far-right ideas, as populist political groups are seeking influence in works councils, particularly among several car manufacturers.

"Companies must be careful not to fuel partisan conflicts in their factories," warned Bardt.

He pointed out that the corporate initiatives do not tend to mention any of the far-right parties by name, and said that the best way to combat extremist parties is high voter turnout.
The Metro Manila Development Authority has stepped into the case of a female commuter who accused a passenger bus driver who she said dropped her at non-designated zone along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue and that resulted in her injury. Mary Joy Eata, 39, personally went to the office of MMDA Traffic Discipline chief Roy Taguinod and filed her complaint against Diomedes Llames, bus driver of Original Transport Cooperative. In her two-page complaint, Eata claimed she got injured after Llames hastily dropped her at the approach of Ortigas flyover along EDSA, a prohibited area to unload passengers, causing her to fall. The incident happened on April 3 at 4:55 p.m. while on her way to an appointment. Eata said she suffered a trauma and still experiencing pain in different parts of her body caused by the fall. Llames, in a meeting with Eata, claimed the passenger jumped out of the bus, lost her balance and fell. However, closed-circuit television footage of the incident showed otherwise.Llames admitted he saw the victim fell off and did not stop when he saw the victim walked her way. He was driving a unit bound for Fairview in Quezon City with licensed plate number AAQ 6902 when the incident happened. Llames apologized to the victim. However, Taguinod referred the complaint to the Legal and Legislative Affairs Office for appropriate filing of charges against him. Taguinod said the MMDA would issue traffic violation tickets against Llames for violation of reckless driving, disregarding traffic sign and yellow lane rule. He also reminded drivers to observe the traffic rules and regulations along EDSA and be concerned of the safety of their passengers.
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."
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While some investors are already well versed in financial metrics (hat tip), this article is for those who would like to learn about Return On Equity (ROE) and why it is important. By way of learning-by-doing, we'll look at ROE to gain a better understanding of MJ Gleeson plc (LON:GLE).

Our data shows MJ Gleeson has a return on equity of 19% for the last year. Another way to think of that is that for every 1 worth of equity in the company, it was able to earn 0.19.

Check out our latest analysis for MJ Gleeson

How Do You Calculate ROE?

The formula for ROE is:

Return on Equity = Net Profit  Shareholders' Equity

Or for MJ Gleeson:

19% = UK37m  UK194m (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2018.)

Most readers would understand what net profit is, but its worth explaining the concept of shareholders equity. It is all earnings retained by the company, plus any capital paid in by shareholders. Shareholders' equity can be calculated by subtracting the total liabilities of the company from the total assets of the company.

What Does ROE Signify?

ROE looks at the amount a company earns relative to the money it has kept within the business. The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. A higher profit will lead to a higher ROE. So, all else being equal, a high ROE is better than a low one. That means ROE can be used to compare two businesses.

Does MJ Gleeson Have A Good Return On Equity?

One simple way to determine if a company has a good return on equity is to compare it to the average for its industry. Importantly, this is far from a perfect measure, because companies differ significantly within the same industry classification. You can see in the graphic below that MJ Gleeson has an ROE that is fairly close to the average for the Consumer Durables industry (16%).

LSE:GLE Past Revenue and Net Income, April 8th 2019

That isn't amazing, but it is respectable. ROE can give us a view about company quality, but many investors also look to other factors, such as whether there are insiders buying shares. I will like MJ Gleeson better if I see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying.

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Why You Should Consider Debt When Looking At ROE

Virtually all companies need money to invest in the business, to grow profits. The cash for investment can come from prior year profits (retained earnings), issuing new shares, or borrowing. In the first two cases, the ROE will capture this use of capital to grow. In the latter case, the debt used for growth will improve returns, but won't affect the total equity. That will make the ROE look better than if no debt was used.

Combining MJ Gleeson's Debt And Its 19% Return On Equity

Shareholders will be pleased to learn that MJ Gleeson has not one iota of net debt! Its respectable ROE suggests it is a business worth watching, but it's even better the company achieved this without leverage. After all, when a company has a strong balance sheet, it can often find ways to invest in growth, even if it takes some time.

The Bottom Line On ROE

Return on equity is useful for comparing the quality of different businesses. Companies that can achieve high returns on equity without too much debt are generally of good quality. If two companies have the same ROE, then I would generally prefer the one with less debt.

Having said that, while ROE is a useful indicator of business quality, you'll have to look at a whole range of factors to determine the right price to buy a stock. The rate at which profits are likely to grow, relative to the expectations of profit growth reflected in the current price, must be considered, too. So you might want to take a peek at this data-rich interactive graph of forecasts for the company.

Of course MJ Gleeson may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of other companies that have 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.
Late last week, 9to5Google spotted that the online Google Store was briefly updated to include the Pixel 3a under the Phone model menu and the Pixel 3a Case under the Featured Accessories menu in the website's navigation bar before it was promptly removed without a trace.

On Friday, 9to5Google noticed that a couple of updates to Google's online store were accidentally published confirming a set of not yet officially named products: the lite version of the company's flagship device and a corresponding case.

Last month, a 9to5Google source confirmed that the names of the rumored pair of Pixel Lite' smartphones will be the Pixel 3a and the Pixel 3a XL and, just last week, the Google confirmed the handsets themselves via the Google Play Developer Console, a platform used by developers to publish Android apps on Google Play. Through this service, developers can decide on which devices their apps can be used, and recently, two new devices code-named "Bonito" and "Sargo" appeared in the list according to redditor r/ElegyD.

Sargo is likely the standard 3a with an OLED display size of about 6-inches with a 1080 x 2200 resolution while Bonito's display is a bit bigger at 6-inches with a resolution of 1080 x 2160 making it the 3a XL. The former has 3840MB of RAM, a screen density of 400 DPI, uses the Snapdragon 670 processor, and has a 12 MP rear camera, and the latter has 3840 MB of RAM and a screen density of 440 DPR. Both are expected to have 64GB of storage.

With both the temporary publications of the Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a case listings on the Google Store and the new additions of Bonito and Sargo on The Play Developer Console, the launches of both models appear to be imminent.
Harris Corporation HRS recently inked an agreement with Elbit Systems Ltd.  a major defense electronics maker  to sell its Night Vision business to Elbit Systems of America, LLC for $350 million in cash. The technology and communications company intends to utilize the sale proceeds to pre-fund the L3 Harris pension and return cash to its shareholders.



Headquartered in Roanoke, VA, the Night Vision business represents a subset of Harris Communication Systems operating segment. Notably, the divested business is a leading provider of night vision technology for security forces and federal homeland security. The transaction is, however, subject to the successful completion of Harris proposed merger with L3 Technologies, Inc. LLL, including receipt of regulatory approvals.



Remarkably, a day before this deal was announced, Harris and L3 Technologies received their respective stockholders approval for all proposals that were required for the completion of the impending merger to create L3 Harris Technologies, Inc. The parties expect the transaction to close in the middle of calendar year 2019, subject to customary closing conditions.



The all-stock-merger-of-equals is aimed at creating a global defense technology leader with the combined firm being the sixth largest defense company in the United States and a top 10 defense company globally. The merged business will likely boast around 48,000 employees with customers in more than 100 countries.

The strategic deal will enable it to increase scale, strengthen core businesses and stoke its competitive position. The long-term growth prospects of Harris appear quite promising with earnings growth expectation of 8%.



Owing to solid second-quarter fiscal 2019 financial results with record earnings and high-single-digit revenue growth driven by margin expansion across all the three segments, Harris raised its guidance for fiscal 2019. It currently expects revenues in the range of $6.66-$6.69 billion, up 8-8.5% from fiscal 2018 (previously expected 6-8% revenue growth). Non-GAAP EPS is projected between $7.90 and $8.00, up from the previous guidance range of $7.80 and $7.90.



Backed by diligent execution of operational strategies alongside multiple contract wins from federal customers, the stock has recorded an average return of 23.3% compared with the industrys rise of 7.1% in the past three months.





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Currently, Harris has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). A couple of better-ranked stocks in the industry are Juniper Networks, Inc. JNPR and Motorola Solutions, Inc. MSI, both carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.



Juniper has long-term earnings growth expectation of 7.1%.



Motorola has long-term earnings growth expectation of 8%.



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By Elaine Lies AKITA, Japan - Taeko Watanabe awoke one cold March night and found a trail of blood in the hallway, a bloody cleaver on her son Yuki's bed and no trace of him in the house. Then police discovered a suicide note in his bedroom. "They found him in a canal by the temple and wrapped him in a blanket. After an autopsy, he came home in a coffin. I fell apart," she recalled, eyes welling up as she sat by a photo of Yuki and a Buddhist altar laden with flowers and Fuji apples. Yuki, who was 29 when he died in 2008, was one of many who committed suicide that year in Akita prefecture, 450 km north of Tokyo. For nearly two decades, Akita had the highest suicide rate in all of Japan, which itself has the highest rate in the Group of Seven. But things have changed, Watanabe said. If her son faced the same situation now, "he would never have died. There are people who can prevent it." Watanabe, who contemplated suicide herself after Yuki's death, now leads a suicide survivors group, part of national efforts that have brought Japanese suicides down by nearly 40 percent in 15 years, exceeding the government target. Akita's are at their lowest in 40 years. These efforts took off nationally in 2007 with a comprehensive suicide prevention plan, as academics and government agencies identified at-risk groups. In 2016, regions got more freedom to develop plans that fit local thinking. Corporations, prompted by lawsuits from families of those who took their lives because of overwork, have made it easier to take leave; more offer psychological support, and a law caps overtime. The government mandates annual stress tests in companies with over 50 employees. Suicide has a long history in Japan as a way to avoid shame or dishonor, and getting psychological help was stigmatized. But when suicides hit a peak of 34,427 in 2003, it alarmed policymakers and drew foreign attention, often a catalyst for change in Japan. "For a long time, thinking was that suicide was a personal problem and so the government didn't really deal with it - not just Akita, but the whole country," said Hiroki Koseki, an Akita civil servant in charge of suicide prevention. POOR, ELDERLY, ALONE Suicides have multiple causes, but experts say Akita has so many because of its remoteness, lack of jobs, long winters, a large number of isolated and lonely elderly, and accumulating debt. In 1999, Akita's governor became the first in Japan to budget for suicide prevention. Amid positive media coverage, citizen and volunteer suicide prevention groups sprung up. Akita, with a population of just 981,000, now has one of the largest citizen help networks in Japan. "Because it was a personal problem, even governments said tax money shouldn't be used. That paradigm shift occurred in Akita; the rest of Japan followed," said Yutaka Motohashi, director of the Japan Support Center for Suicide Countermeasures, who worked in Akita in the 1990s identifying at-risk groups. Akita began depression screening, and public health workers checked in on at-risk people. There was also enthusiastic participation by volunteers such as Hisao Sato, who fought depression for years after his business failed in 2000. "During that time one of my friends threw himself off a bridge and others had companies fail," added Sato, 75, whose own father probably committed suicide. "I was angry, I wanted them not to be forced to choose suicide." To help, in 2002 he created "Kumonoito," or Spiderweb, a network of lawyers and financial experts offering practical help. About 60 percent of his funding comes from the Akita government; the rest is from donations. Japan's parliament is drawing up a law to create a national organization similar to Sato's. "A business failure isn't just an economic problem, it's also a human problem," Sato said. GATEKEEPERS Akita also has an ever-growing network of "gatekeepers" - people trained to identify those contemplating suicide and, if needed, put them in touch with help. Anybody can undergo several hours of training from Akita public health personnel and take part. "Basically, everybody is part of community suicide prevention. It's everybody's business," Motohashi said. Japan's national barbers' association has called on its members to get training, though few have so far. But 3,000 people in Akita have been trained since 2017 and the goal is 10,000, or one for each 100 people, by 2022. Akita also has volunteer "listeners" - people like 79-year-old Ume Ito, who talks to at-risk people, many of whom are elderly, for hours at a time. "About 70-80 percent of those we deal with say they want to die, but while they talk they stop thinking about suicide and eventually say, 'I'm looking forward to seeing you,'" she said. One of her clients is Sumiko, 73, bedridden after a fall. She spends her days alone until her son's family returns at night. "I thought I'd be stuck in bed the rest of my life. Is this it for me? I thought I'd lose my mind," said Sumiko, who declined to give her last name. "If she wasn't coming it'd be so depressing. I can't tell my family everything in my heart and darkness remains," she added, smiling at Ito. "I tell my son: being listened to saved me." Akita's suicide rate has fallen from a high of 44.6 per 100,000 in 2003 to 20.7 in 2018, according to preliminary data - a drastic improvement, but still the sixth-highest nationally. Japan's suicides have fallen from the 2003 peak to 20,598 while the rate dropped from 27 per 100,000 to 16.3. The government aims to hit 13 per 100,000 by 2027. By contrast, the suicide rate in the U.S., with more than twice Japan's population, was 14 per 100,000 in 2017. SHADOW ON SUCCESS But 543 Japanese 19 and younger killed themselves in 2018, a 30-year high. Youth suicides were given unprecedented importance in a 2017 suicide-prevention plan, with counselors now at many schools, often starting in primary grades, said Ryusuke Hagiwara, who works on suicide prevention at the Health Ministry. Japanese youths often drop out of community activities and focus on school affairs by junior high, limiting possible confidants. "Just at the time when stress increases for them, their world narrows," said Yoshiaki Takahashi, a suicide researcher with the Nakasone Peace Institute. "We need to open things out." Education Ministry pamphlets aimed at primary school children allow them, through cheery comics, to assess how they're feeling, teaching stress-reduction measures such as deep breathing and encouraging them to seek help. "If we teach children it's okay to get help, and how, they'll be more open to it later too," Akita's Koseki said. "Raising adults like this may help reduce future suicides." (Additional reporting by Mayuko Ono; Editing by Gerry Doyle)
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This article is written for those who want to get better at using price to earnings ratios (P/E ratios). To keep it practical, we'll show how Jay Bharat Maruti Limited's (NSE:JAYBARMARU) P/E ratio could help you assess the value on offer. Based on the last twelve months, Jay Bharat Maruti's P/E ratio is 10.11. That is equivalent to an earnings yield of about 9.9%.

Check out our latest analysis for Jay Bharat Maruti

How Do You Calculate A P/E Ratio?

The formula for price to earnings is:

Price to Earnings Ratio = Share Price  Earnings per Share (EPS)

Or for Jay Bharat Maruti:

P/E of 10.11 = 276.5  27.35 (Based on the year to December 2018.)

Is A High Price-to-Earnings Ratio Good?

A higher P/E ratio implies that investors pay a higher price for the earning power of the business. All else being equal, it's better to pay a low price -- but as Warren Buffett said, 'It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.'

How Growth Rates Impact P/E Ratios

P/E ratios primarily reflect market expectations around earnings growth rates. That's because companies that grow earnings per share quickly will rapidly increase the 'E' in the equation. That means even if the current P/E is high, it will reduce over time if the share price stays flat. A lower P/E should indicate the stock is cheap relative to others -- and that may attract buyers.

Jay Bharat Maruti saw earnings per share decrease by 3.7% last year. But it has grown its earnings per share by 21% per year over the last five years.

How Does Jay Bharat Maruti's P/E Ratio Compare To Its Peers?

The P/E ratio essentially measures market expectations of a company. If you look at the image below, you can see Jay Bharat Maruti has a lower P/E than the average (16) in the auto components industry classification.

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NSEI:JAYBARMARU Price Estimation Relative to Market, April 7th 2019

This suggests that market participants think Jay Bharat Maruti will underperform other companies in its industry. Since the market seems unimpressed with Jay Bharat Maruti, it's quite possible it could surprise on the upside. It is arguably worth checking if insiders are buying shares, because that might imply they believe the stock is undervalued.

A Limitation: P/E Ratios Ignore Debt and Cash In The Bank

Don't forget that the P/E ratio considers market capitalization. In other words, it does not consider any debt or cash that the company may have on the balance sheet. In theory, a company can lower its future P/E ratio by using cash or debt to invest in growth.

Such expenditure might be good or bad, in the long term, but the point here is that the balance sheet is not reflected by this ratio.

How Does Jay Bharat Maruti's Debt Impact Its P/E Ratio?

Net debt totals 43% of Jay Bharat Maruti's market cap. This is a reasonably significant level of debt -- all else being equal you'd expect a much lower P/E than if it had net cash.

The Bottom Line On Jay Bharat Maruti's P/E Ratio

Jay Bharat Maruti's P/E is 10.1 which is below average (16.2) in the IN market. Since it only carries a modest debt load, it's likely the low expectations implied by the P/E ratio arise from the lack of recent earnings growth.

Investors have an opportunity when market expectations about a stock are wrong. If it is underestimating a company, investors can make money by buying and holding the shares until the market corrects itself. So this free report on the analyst consensus forecasts could help you make a master move on this stock.

But note: Jay Bharat Maruti may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with strong recent earnings growth (and a P/E ratio below 20).

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 Patricia Zengerle and Diane Bartz WASHINGTON (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. 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)
Bambari (Central African Republic) (AFP) - The young man picks up a heavy wooden horn, raises it to his lips and with widened eyes and puffed cheeks starts to blow.

A primal rumble emerges from the mouth of the instrument.

On a stony hill in Bambari, deep in the heart of the Central African Republic, 14 other horns start to sound, each with a unique hum, and an impromptu polyphonic concert gets underway.

The musicians -- clad in clothes made of bark that are called kundou -- mark the rhythm with a rolling step, shaking their alikposso, little bells made of palm leaves attached to their ankles.

Local people emerge from their homes, delighted to hear something that is not gunfire but rather the comforting resonance of a horn sculpted by nature itself.

"People in Bangui think that the Broto are dead and gone -- but they're still here!" exclaims Bruno Hogonede, head of the Ongo-Broto band, one of the last orchestras in the CAR devoted to the heavy horn.

Carved from tree roots, with its origins lost in the mists of time, the horns of the Broto people, a part of the wide-ranging Banda ethnic group, play a ceremonial role.

The instrument's earthy timbre is the sound of choice at traditional events and the Ongo-Broto used to perform in France, Algeria and elsewhere.

But the ancient instrument faces an uncertain future. The CAR plunged into violence in 2013, destroying musicians' livelihoods.

"The looters came, the instruments were destroyed in the fires," said musician Jean Noel Kilo. "We had to start again from scratch."

"Broto musicians play at ceremonies, weddings, parties, funerals... but during the crisis, they didn't get many invitations," said Albert Kotton, director of the Boganda Museum in the CAR capital Bangui, which specialises in the nation's diverse cultural traditions.

- Made by termites -

Walking down from the hill after the off-the-cuff rendition, Hogonede stopped in front of a hollow root emerging from the reddish laterite soil.

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"This is an opo root. The trumpet shape is caused by termites -- they hollow out the root from within," he said. "What I really like is that it's our ancestors who taught us this. And now I'm teaching young people in turn."

In the past, young men learned to play the Broto horn as part of their initiation into manhood, a tradition handed on from generation to generation.

The role of the horn in the initiation ritual has faded away as younger children are taught the instrument and its strange overlapping sounds.

The note and its overtones require extreme accuracy to deliver properly, for the pitch and feel of the sound depend crucially on the shape and width of the root.

The Broto are one of about 50 communities in the Banda ethnic group, which is widespread in central CAR.

Kotton, the museum director, said little was known about the ancestral origins of the Broto horn. One of the museum's treasures were a few tapes of horns being played that was made decades ago by an Israeli specialist in ethnic music, Simha Arom.

The traditional role of the Broto horn "is quietly being lost," said Kotton. "What our ancestors used to do isn't what young people are doing today."
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It is doubtless a positive to see that the Richly Field China Development Limited (HKG:313) share price has gained some 45% in the last three months. But that can't change the reality that over the longer term (five years), the returns have been really quite dismal. The share price has failed to impress anyone , down a sizable 62% during that time. So we're not so sure if the recent bounce should be celebrated. We'd err towards caution given the long term under-performance.

See our latest analysis for Richly Field China Development

Richly Field China Development isn't currently profitable, so most analysts would look to revenue growth to get an idea of how fast the underlying business is growing. Generally speaking, companies without profits are expected to grow revenue every year, and at a good clip. As you can imagine, fast revenue growth, when maintained, often leads to fast profit growth.

In the last half decade, Richly Field China Development saw its revenue increase by 11% per year. That's a fairly respectable growth rate. The share price, meanwhile, has fallen 18% compounded, over five years. That suggests the market is disappointed with the current growth rate. That could lead to an opportunity if the company is going to become profitable sooner rather than later.

The graphic below shows how revenue and earnings have changed as management guided the business forward. If you want to see cashflow, you can click on the chart.

SEHK:313 Income Statement, April 8th 2019

We're pleased to report that the CEO is remunerated more modestly than most CEOs at similarly capitalized companies. But while CEO remuneration is always worth checking, the really important question is whether the company can grow earnings going forward. Before buying or selling a stock, we always recommend a close examination of historic growth trends, available here..

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A Different Perspective

We regret to report that Richly Field China Development shareholders are down 27% for the year. Unfortunately, that's worse than the broader market decline of 1.3%. However, it could simply be that the share price has been impacted by broader market jitters. It might be worth keeping an eye on the fundamentals, in case there's a good opportunity. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 18% per year over five years. We realise that Buffett has said investors should 'buy when there is blood on the streets', but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality businesses. Shareholders might want to examine this detailed historical graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on HK exchanges.

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.



If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
By Julia Love

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico, April 8 (Reuters) - Isel Rojas put his dream of leaving Cuba on hold when the United States ended a generous immigration policy for island residents. But watching coverage of migrant caravans heading from Central America toward the United States on Cuban television last year, he began to see a new path.

One morning in January, he woke up and told his wife he was finally ready. Fifteen days later, he was gone.

"If they can do it, why can't we?" said Rojas, a 48-year-old who worked in agriculture in the eastern city of Holguin, recalling the images of young men and families traveling en masse to the Mexico-U.S. border.

Rojas is now waiting to apply for U.S. asylum in the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juarez, which has become a magnet for Cuban migrants.

Political repression and bleak economic prospects remain the primary reasons cited by Cubans for migrating from the Communist-ruled island, a Cold War foe of the United States. But some in Ciudad Juarez say news of the caravans also motivated them, giving them the impression the United States was accepting migrants.

Since early last year, the caravans have been a frequent target of U.S. President Donald Trump as he advocates for stricter immigration policies. Critics say the president's statements about the caravans, including a series of angry tweets, have ironically enlarged the groups and publicized asylum as a possible avenue to legal status.

"The person who created the media coverage and who drove the issue of the caravans has been President Trump," Tonatiuh Guillen, the head of Mexico's National Migration Institute, said on local radio last week.

The addition of Cubans to those flows is adding to the pressure on already overwhelmed shelters and border authorities in Mexico and the United States. More than 100,000 people were apprehended or presented themselves to authorities in March, the White House said on Friday, calling it the highest number in a decade. Trump has threatened a border shutdown or tariffs on Mexico in retaliation.

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What's more, some say Trump's harder line on Cuban relations has contributed to a sense of gloom on the economically weak and tightly controlled island.

The White House and the Cuban government did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mexico's migration institute declined to comment.

'TREATED LIKE EVERYONE ELSE'

Like Rojas, many Cubans who reached northern Mexico in recent months ultimately traveled with a smaller group, and caravans were not a factor for all who left. But a caravan of 2,600 migrants currently contained by authorities in southern Mexico, the largest this year, includes dozens from the island. Mexican immigration officials said they flew some 60 Cubans home on Friday.

In Ciudad Juarez, Cubans represent 75 to 80 percent of some 3,600 migrants in town, said Enrique Valenzuela, director of the state commission for population. The wait to apply for asylum is about two months, shelter directors say.

The bottleneck highlights a new reality: Cubans do not enjoy the same advantages they once did in the U.S. immigration system.

"For the first time this year, Cubans are being treated like everyone else," said Wilfredo Allen, a Miami-based lawyer who works with Cuban migrants. "The special door for the Cubans has already closed."

In 2017, U.S. President Barack Obama ended the "wet foot, dry foot" policy, which allowed Cubans who reached U.S. soil to stay but returned any intercepted at sea, triggering a decline in immigration from the island.

In the first five months of fiscal-year 2019, 6,289 Cubans turned up at ports of entry on the U.S.-Mexico border without papers. That number is on track to nearly double the total for the whole of fiscal-year 2018, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

While Cubans generally face slightly better chances of receiving asylum than Central Americans because their tales of political persecution are often more clear-cut, success is anything but assured, Allen said.

Allen estimates only 20 to 30 percent of his Cuban clients will win their cases.

That message has not reached those in Ciudad Juarez, many of whom sold their vehicles, businesses or homes to finance the trip. Some have literally bet the farm.

"They say that we have priority, that (the United States) will accept us in one form or another," said Rojas, who sold almost half his cattle. "They always accept us."

A NEW ROUTE

Cubans lucky enough to get a U.S. visa, to visit family for example, can fly there legally and are eligible to apply for residency after a year in the United States. For most though, reaching the United States is no easy feat.

Even before "wet foot, dry foot" ended, Cubans began forging new routes, flying into countries in Central and South America with loose visa requirements and then heading north. Only a few countries, such as Guyana, do not require visas for Cubans.

Last year, Panama made it easier for Cubans to come to the country to shop, creating another opening for some from the island to reach Central America.

Arasay Sanchez, 33, said she was browsing the internet in a park one day when she saw a story about the caravans.

After selling her house and most of her belongings, Sanchez flew into Panama on Jan. 25, she said.

She relied on a seven-page guide she inherited from Cubans who had traveled to the United States, detailing everything from where to sleep to where to buy a phone. On the trail, it was among her most valuable possessions  she carried it in her clothes.

The route ended in Ciudad Juarez, regarded by many Cubans as a safer and more orderly place to seek asylum than other more crowded Mexican border crossings, despite its reputation as one of the world's most violent cities. Ciudad Juarez, just south of El Paso, Texas, received relatively few asylum seekers until late last year.

Many are dismayed by the long wait they find, shelter directors say, and they are increasingly concerned about safety after reports of Cubans going missing in Mexico. Few leave the shelters, 10 migrants said in interviews.

Sanchez and her partner arrived in Ciudad Juarez in late February, moving from shelter to shelter and struggling with spicy Mexican food.

"Even the candy" has chile, she said, clutching the extra folds of fabric in her jeans to show she had lost weight.

Experts do not expect the flow of Cuban migrants to ebb anytime soon. Obama made it easier for Americans to travel to the island, generating new business. But that money dried up after Trump tightened the rules, said Pedro Freyre, a lawyer who studies the U.S.-Cuba relationship.

What is more, a gradual opening of the island's private sector triggered a backlash from conservatives, creating headaches for small businesses, Freyre said.

Reaching the United States would end a long quest for Reinaldo Ramirez, a 51-year-old construction contractor from the western town of Jaguey Grande. Starting in 2006, he tried and failed to reach Florida seven times by boat  including the day Obama canceled "wet foot, dry foot."

The new route has been just as arduous. After flying into Guyana in September, Ramirez and his wife had to hike across the Darien Gap, a remote stretch of jungle straddling Panama and Colombia. After they crossed the first time, Panamanian authorities deported them to Colombia, forcing them to repeat the trek.

Ramirez arrived in Ciudad Juarez about three weeks ago, and hundreds of asylum seekers are ahead of him in line. But he cannot help but feel that he is close.

"I've almost achieved my objective, my American dream," he said. (Reporting by Julia Love; additional reporting by Jose Luis Gonzalez in Ciudad Juarez, Lizbeth Diaz in Mexico City, Sarah Marsh in Havana, Kristina Cooke in San Francisco and Yeganeh Torbati in Washington; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Peter Cooney)
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The big shareholder groups in Ship Finance International Limited (NYSE:SFL) have power over the company. Generally speaking, as a company grows, institutions will increase their ownership. Conversely, insiders often decrease their ownership over time. Companies that have been privatized tend to have low insider ownership.

Ship Finance International isn't enormous, but it's not particularly small either. It has a market capitalization of US$1.4b, which means it would generally expect to see some institutions on the share registry. In the chart below below, we can see that institutional investors have bought into the company. We can zoom in on the different ownership groups, to learn more about SFL.

See our latest analysis for Ship Finance International

NYSE:SFL Ownership Summary, April 8th 2019

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Ship Finance International?

Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices.

As you can see, institutional investors own 33% of Ship Finance International. 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 Ship Finance International, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

NYSE:SFL Income Statement, April 8th 2019

Ship Finance International is not owned by hedge funds. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of Ship Finance International

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. The company management answer to the board; and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board, themselves.

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Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.

Our data suggests that insiders own under 1% of Ship Finance International Limited in their own names. We do note, however, it is possible insiders have an indirect interest through a private company or other corporate structure. It is a pretty big company, so it would be possible for board members to own a meaningful interest in the company, without owning much of a proportional interest. In this case, they own around US$2.2m worth of shares (at current prices). It is always good to see at least some insider ownership, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public holds a 43% stake in SFL. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Private Company Ownership

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 24%, of the company's shares. It's hard to draw any conclusions from this fact alone, so its worth looking into who owns those private companies. Sometimes insiders or other related parties have an interest in shares in a public company through a separate private company.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Ship Finance International better, we need to consider many other factors.

Many find it useful to take an in depth look at how a company has performed in the past. You can access this detailed graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow .

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.
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Qingdao Holdings International Limited (HKG:499) shareholders should be happy to see the share price up 17% in the last month. But that cannot eclipse the less-than-impressive returns over the last three years. In fact, the share price is down 36% in the last three years, falling well short of the market return.

View our latest analysis for Qingdao Holdings International

To quote Buffett, 'Ships will sail around the world but the Flat Earth Society will flourish. There will continue to be wide discrepancies between price and value in the marketplace...' One way to examine how market sentiment has changed over time is to look at the interaction between a company's share price and its earnings per share (EPS).

During the three years that the share price fell, Qingdao Holdings International's earnings per share (EPS) dropped by 29% each year. This fall in the EPS is worse than the 14% compound annual share price fall. So the market may not be too worried about the EPS figure, at the moment -- or it may have previously priced some of the drop in. This positive sentiment is also reflected in the generous P/E ratio of 89.45.

The company's earnings per share (over time) is depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

SEHK:499 Past and Future Earnings, April 8th 2019

Dive deeper into Qingdao Holdings International's key metrics by checking this interactive graph of Qingdao Holdings International's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

What about the Total Shareholder Return (TSR)?

We've already covered Qingdao Holdings International's share price action, but we should also mention its total shareholder return (TSR). Arguably the TSR is a more complete return calculation because it accounts for the value of dividends (as if they were reinvested), along with the hypothetical value of any discounted capital that have been offered to shareholders. We note that Qingdao Holdings International's TSR, at -36% is higher than its share price return of -36%. When you consider it hasn't been paying a dividend, this data suggests shareholders have benefitted from a spin-off, or had the opportunity to acquire attractively priced shares in a discounted capital raising.

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A Different Perspective

While the broader market lost about 1.3% in the twelve months, Qingdao Holdings International shareholders did even worse, losing 9.3%. However, it could simply be that the share price has been impacted by broader market jitters. It might be worth keeping an eye on the fundamentals, in case there's a good opportunity. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 2.3% per year over five years. We realise that Buffett has said investors should 'buy when there is blood on the streets', but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality businesses. Is Qingdao Holdings International cheap compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.

If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on HK exchanges.

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.



If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Iran has threatened to retaliate against the US if it designates its elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation.

Washington is reportedly expected to designate the IRGC as terrorists next week, marking the first time it has formally labelled another countrys military a terror group.

In response, a majority of Iranian parliamentarians said: We will answer any action taken against this force with a reciprocal action.

The statement was issued by 255 out of the 290 Iranian politicians, according to state news agency 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, it added.

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has advocated the change in US policy as part of the Trump administrations tough posture towards Tehran.

In 2017, IRGC commander Mohammad Ali Jafari warned that if Donald Trump went ahead with the move then the Revolutionary Guards will consider the American army to be like Islamic State [Isis] all around the world.

The change in policy comes as Irans supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged Iraq to demand US troops leave as soon as possible during a visit by Iraqi prime minister Adel Abdul Mahdi.

Iran and the US have been competing for influence in Iraq since the US-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Some 5,200 troops are stationed in Iraq as part of a security agreement with the Iraqi government to advise, assist and support the countrys troops in the fight against Isis.

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, Irans supreme leader 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.

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Set up after the 1979 Islamic Revolution to protect the Shia cleric ruling system, the IRGC is Irans most powerful security organisation.

It controls large sectors of the Iranian economy and has huge influence in its political system.

Additional reporting by agencies
LONDON/CARACAS (Reuters) - An Iranian delegation landed in Venezuela on Monday to discuss launching direct flights between the two countries, Venezuela's foreign minister said, as Tehran voices support for President Nicolas Maduro against the opposition backed by most Western countries.

A plane belonging to Mahan Air, a private Iranian airline accused by the West of transporting military equipment to Middle East war zones, landed in Caracas on Monday, and the two countries will discuss launching a direct flight "in the coming months," Minister Jorge Arreaza told reporters.

A White House official said the U.S. government viewed the launch of direct flights as a "politically motivated gesture."

"From our standpoint, there's clearly no commercial reason to establish this flight at this time," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Iran's Mehr news agency quoted the spokesman of Iran's Civil Aviation Organization Reza Jafarzadeh as saying a delegation from Mahan Air was travelling to Caracas to discuss maintaining regular flights between the two countries. The nonstop Tehran-Caracas flight would take 16 hours.

A Reuters photographer saw a Mahan Air plane parked at Caracas' main Maiquetia airport on Monday morning.

Mahan Air, established in 1992 as Iran's first private airline, has the country's largest fleet of aircraft. The United States imposed sanctions on the company in 2011, saying it provided financial and other support to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).

France and Germany banned the airline's flights earlier this year, accusing it of transporting military equipment and personnel to Syria and other regional war zones.

Iran has voiced support for Maduro, who faces demands from the opposition and the United States to step down. Russia, China and Turkey have also backed Maduro.

The U.S. government has recognised opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela's interim president. Most Latin American countries have done so as well, while European governments have cautiously thrown their support behind Guaido.

Since Guaido began a campaign in January to oust Maduro, whom he denounces as illegitimate, Chinese and Russian planes have flown supplies and military personnel to Venezuela in support of the government.

(Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin in London and Carlos Garcia Rawlins in Caracas; Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton in Washington; Writing by Angus Berwick; Editing by Richard Chang and Phil Berlowitz)
BEERSHEBA, Israel (Reuters) - An Israeli court sentenced a French citizen on Monday to seven years' imprisonment under a plea bargain in which he confessed to using a diplomatic car to help Palestinian gun smugglers. Romain Franck, a former employee of the French consulate in Jerusalem, was arrested last year and accused by Israeli prosecutors of receiving $7,600 for transporting the contraband between the Islamist-ruled Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank. He was not charged with complicity in terrorism, sparing him a potentially harsher sentence. Also arrested in the case was Palestinian from East Jerusalem. Beesheba District Court said that Franck, who was 23 when indicted, would spend seven years in jail, including time already served. He also received an 18-month suspended sentence and ordered to pay a 30,000 shekel (7,420 euro) fine. A French embassy spokesman declined comment on the sentencing. (Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Alison Williams)
* Candidate Moshe Feiglin quirky surprise of Israeli ballot

* An ultranationalist, he wants Palestinians out, pot in

* Poll show his party could be key to coalition-building

By Maayan Lubell

JERUSALEM, April 8 (Reuters) - His political platform might be just a pipe dream - a heady mix of pot legalization and biblical temple reconstruction - but far-right candidate Moshe Feiglin could be a kingmaker in Israel's election on Tuesday.

Drawing support from alienated young voters, Feiglin's new Zehut party has surged in the polls, which predict it could capture up to six of parliament's 120 seats and perhaps tip the balance in coalition-building that will follow the ballot.

No single party has ever won a ruling majority on its own in Israel. Neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the right-wing Likud nor his main challenger, centrist Benny Gantz of Blue and White, have public assurances from Zehut that it will be on their side when they try to form a government.

Feiglin has said that his conditions to both men are the legalization of cannabis and control of the finance ministry, where he wants to cut corporate taxes and eliminate customs duties.

Once a member of Likud who unsuccessfully challenged Netanyahu for its leadership, the libertarian Feiglin, 56, has showcased free markets and marijuana, with his plan for the Palestinians taking a back seat.

His far-right policies call for annexation of the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip, paid incentives to Palestinians to emigrate - and eventual construction of a third Jewish temple at the Jerusalem holy site where two biblical temples once stood.

The compound, revered by Jews as Temple Mount and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, is home to the Al-Aqsa and Dome of the Rock mosques and one of the most sensitive venues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"My solution is justice because this is the land of Israel, not the land of Ishmael - (it is) the land of the Jewish people," he told Reuters.

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MARIJUANA PLEDGE CHARMS YOUNG VOTERS

But it is the candidate's push for legalization of recreational marijuana that appears to have lit a fire under many young voters in Israel, where pot smoking is popular.

"One of his big agendas is the legalization, a free market and liberalization in general. I cant tell you I went over every line in his platform, I left that to my dad," said Ofir Avisar, 22, who works at a cigarette stand in a Jerusalem shopping mall.

Others are drawn by Feiglin's vision of small government.

"The cannabis is a small part of his charm," said 27-year-old Uriya Peled, a teacher who came to a bar in Rishon Lezion, a town near Tel Aviv, to hear Feiglin speak. "I don't consider myself right, left or center, I just want liberty."

Critics have cast Feiglin as a wolf in sheep's clothing, using the popular pot platform to get votes from bleary-eyed youngsters in order to promote an extremist agenda.

"Joints on the Temple Mount," was how the left-wing Israeli daily Haaretz headlined a recent editorial condemning Feiglin's "ridiculous dreams of liberty and cannabis" and his "ultranationalist and dangerous vision."

Feiglin appears to be reveling in his new-found appeal.

Days before the election, the bearded and bespectacled candidate emerged on an on-line comedy show, where he reclined on a sofa and slugged back some whisky as he and its host punched and massaged each other's bare feet.

"They're not morons," Feiglin, referring to his supporters, told Channel 12's Meet the Press on Saturday. "A new generation has risen in Israel that wants its liberty and is very intelligent, and it's not the cannabis that is attracting them." (Reporting by Maayan Lubell, Rami Amichai and Ron Bousso Editing by Jeffrey Heller/Mark Heinrich)
Japanese Emperor Akihito's historic abdication later this month has reignited concerns over the future of what is believed to be one of the world's oldest royal families, given its hereditary, male-only succession rules.

As it stands, the fate of the Japanese imperial family rests on 12-year-old Hisahito, the son of Crown Prince Naruhito's younger brother and the last eligible male heir.

Japan's centuries-old succession would be broken if Hisahito does not have a male child as the Imperial Household Law, in place since 1947, does not allow women to ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne.

That means Naruhito's only child, 17-year-old Princess Aiko, is not in line to inherit the throne.

While public attitudes seem to be shifting to change the succession laws to allow women to rule, the chance of concrete reform looks remote.

According to a poll by the Yomiuri Shimbun daily between October and November, nearly two-thirds want the law revised to allow women to be the rightful heir.

"I just wonder why Princess Aiko cannot ascend the throne," Mizuho, a Tokyo resident in her 30s who only gave her first name, told AFP.

"If it's just because she's a girl, then I think it's out of place in the current era," she said.

"Why don't we allow female heirs like Queen Elizabeth in the British monarchy?"

Under the current rules, female imperial family members also lose their royal status upon marriage to a commoner, a point highlighted by the engagement of one of Akihito's granddaughters, Princess Mako, to her college sweetheart.

- 'Sun goddess' -

Traditionalists are vehemently opposed to any change in the law but there have been as many as eight empresses, with the last one, Gosakuramachi, on the throne about 250 years ago.

And the imperial family, which has a myth-filled history dating back more than 2,600 years, is said to be descended from legendary sun goddess Amaterasu.

When the parliament passed a one-off rule allowing the ageing emperor to step down in 2017, it also urged the government to "swiftly study" reforms that would allow the sons of royal women to become emperor.

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Tokyo has said these discussions will begin soon after May 1, when Naruhito ascends the throne.

But the government has also decided that only male royal adults will attend the main abdication ceremony, during which the new emperor will inherit the traditional regalia such as a sacred sword and jewel.

Politicians are dodging the looming issue of male-only succession because "they do not want to shoulder the responsibility", Yuji Otabe, professor of Japanese history at Shizuoka University of Welfare, told AFP.

"If you think about the heredity system, a woman is also of imperial blood," he said, voicing concerns about the future of the Japanese royal line if the situation does not change.

- 'Great pressure' -

Another consequence of the male-only succession line is the enormous pressure to conceive boys to keep the line going.

The future emperor and empress were under huge pressure to have a boy but their only child -- born in 2001 -- was Princess Aiko.

The "crisis" was averted when Prince Hisahito was born in 2006 to the Crown Prince's younger brother Akishino, meaning the male blood line could continue.

After Crown Prince Naruhito takes the throne, Akishino is next in line, followed by Hisahito.

Crown Princess Masako, a former high-flying diplomat, has struggled for years with a stress-related illness after joining the tradition-heavy household, which some have put down to the pressure of producing a male heir.

Hideto Tsuboi, professor of modern Japanese literature and history at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies, argued that Masako's illness epitomises the difference between Japanese and British royals.

Japanese imperial family members "do not enjoy normal human rights due to too much emphasis on" the male-blood lineage succession system compared to the British monarchy, said Tsuboi.

Analyst Otabe also pointed to the "great pressure" on any woman marrying into the imperial family to bear a son.

"Who would want to marry (Hisahito)?" he asked.

Tokyo resident Mizuho called for change, saying: "I really don't think it has to be a man."

"As long as the person has the qualities needed to take over the throne, whether the heir is male or female doesn't matter to me."
In last nights Saturday Night Live cold open, Joe Biden was subjected to sensitivity training following public questions over his conduct around women. And it didnt go so well.

Im a tactile politician, said returning SNL cast memberJason Sudeikis, who reprised his role as Biden in the sketch. Im a hugger, Im a kisser and Im a little bit of a sniffer.

Biden has recently faced complaints from several women who say he made them uncomfortable with physical contact, including kissing them and smelling their hair. The former Vice President offered an apology last week, before joking about consent at a speech.

In the SNL sketch, Bidens campaign staff brought in a consultant on sensitivity training, who Sudeikis-as-Biden promptly greeted with an intimate forehead-to-forehead gaze.

The sketch also lobbed a few zingers at Bidens potential election rival, President Trump. The President has been accused of sexual harassment or misconduct by at least 18 women and was caught on tape bragging that as a celebrity he could grab women by the genitals.

Shes looking for a candidate that can beat Donald Trump, said the consultant, played by Kate McKinnon, referring to a Democratic voter.

You mean the guy who bragged about assault on tape? said Bennett.

Yes, but unlike his voters, your voters actually care, said Cecily Strong as a staffer.

Watch the full sketch here:
Amman (AFP) - Jordan's parliament on Monday amended marriage laws to allow judges in "exceptional" cases to permit minors to wed from the age of 16, up from a previous minimum of 15.

The move was approved by both the house of representatives and the senate.

The country's minimum marriage age is 18 under normal circumstances -- but unions involving minors can be granted by a judge, so long as they meet a string of conditions, including the consent of the girl.

Women's groups in Jordan have long campaigned against the marriage of minors.

Last week, Human Rights Watch urged Jordan's parliament to forbid the practice, noting that the "vast majority" of cases involve girls rather than boys.

"Jordan should seize the opportunity to prevent child marriage and enforce the minimum marriage age of 18 without exception," the rights group said in a statement.

HRW's deputy Middle East director Michael Page said "child marriage robs girls of their childhood and puts their health and education at risk."

According to justice ministry data, 77,700 marriages took place in Jordan in 2017, among which 10,434 cases -- some 13.4 percent -- betrothed a girl under the age of 18.
A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administrations policy of returning Central American asylum seekers to Mexico until their cases are processed.

Judge Richard Seeborg in San Francisco delayed the enforcement of his ruling thwarting the hardline immigration policy until Friday in order to give administration officials time to appeal it.

The policy of requiring asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their applications to progress was implemented in January at the crowded San Ysidro U.S. port of entry in California. It was a marked shift from previous U.S. policy for families seeking asylum, which was to release them into the U.S. with a notice to appear in court at a later date.

The lawsuit was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and other civil liberties groups as well as 11 Central American migrants who are seeking asylum. The plaintiffs accused the Department of Homeland Security of unfairly obfuscating the asylum application process. The lawsuit also objects that the policy, the Migrant Protection Protocols, place asylum seekers in mortal danger.

Instead of being able to focus on preparing their cases, asylum seekers forced to return to Mexico will have to focus on trying to survive, the lawsuit states. These pressures may deter even those with the strongest asylum claims to give up, rather than endure the wait under such conditions.

When the ruling takes effect, the 11 migrants from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras must be allowed into the U.S. within two days. The judge also issued a preliminary injunction blocking any future administration attempts to return asylum seekers to Mexico.

The administration argues the policy is a humanitarian approach meant to address the urgent humanitarian and security crisis at the Southern border.

The U.S. government currently has a backlog of over 800,000 immigration cases.

The decision comes hours after Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen resigned her position, citing outside impediments to its mission that the department had faced under her leadership.

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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 Americas borders and which have contributed to discord in our nations discourse, Nielsen said in her resignation letter to Trump. Our country and the men and women of DHS deserve to have all the tools and resources they need to execute the mission entrusted to them.

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The big shareholder groups in China Energy Engineering Corporation Limited (HKG:3996) have power over the company. Institutions will often hold stock in bigger companies, and we expect to see insiders owning a noticeable percentage of the smaller ones. Companies that have been privatized tend to have low insider ownership.

With a market capitalization of HK$29b, China Energy Engineering is rather large. We'd expect to see institutional investors on the register. Companies of this size are usually well known to retail investors, too. In the chart below below, we can see that institutions own shares in the company. We can zoom in on the different ownership groups, to learn more about 3996.

Check out our latest analysis for China Energy Engineering

SEHK:3996 Ownership Summary, April 7th 2019

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About China Energy Engineering?

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 China Energy Engineering does have institutional investors; and they hold 11% of the stock. This implies the analysts working for those institutions have looked at the stock and they like it. But just like anyone else, they could be wrong. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see China Energy Engineering's historic earnings and revenue, below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

SEHK:3996 Income Statement, April 7th 2019

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in China Energy Engineering. There are a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future.

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Insider Ownership Of China Energy Engineering

The definition of company insiders can be subjective, and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.

Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.

Our 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 take a look at this free summary of insider buying and selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 14% ownership, the general public have some degree of sway over 3996. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Private Equity Ownership

With a stake of 6.8%, private equity firms could influence the 3996 board. Sometimes we see private equity stick around for the long term, but generally speaking they have a shorter investment horizon and -- as the name suggests -- don't invest in public companies much. After some time they may look to sell and redeploy capital elsewhere.

Private Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 67%, of the 3996 stock. 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:

I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too.

I like to dive deeper into how a company has performed in the past. You can access this interactive graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow, for free .

Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

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.
Photo Illustration by Kelly Caminero/The Daily Beast/Getty

Over the past year and a half, President Trumps policy adviser and speechwriter Stephen Miller and Kirstjen Nielsen, the now ousted homeland security secretary, were locked in a bitter cold war of backbiting and paranoia.

By Sunday night, it was clear who had won.

Trumps decision to dismiss Nielsen signaled not only that Miller had emerged victorious but also further solidified him as the premier anti-immigration hardliner and survivor in an administration notorious for prolific, rapid turnover at the highest levels.

Before everything came to a head early this week, the president had walked up to the line of sacking Nielsen several times, sometimes cooling off but inevitably getting re-energized by his own resentments, cable-news coverage of the border, and aides and advisers who re-enforced his instincts. Nielsens job was temporarily saved last year in part by her willingness to publicly and vociferously defend Trumps controversial actions, such as deploying U.S. troops to the border late last year.

This was around the same time that Trump had told Fox News that he wanted Nielsen to be much tougher on the border, and suggested personnel changes were on the horizon.

But in recent weeks, the president asked Nielsen to bar all migrants, including those legally seeking asylum, from crossing into the United States via the southern border. When Nielsen reminded Trump that doing so would violate federal law, her reasoning only spiked the presidents rage further, according to The New York Times.

A senior White House official characterized this latest disagreement to The Daily Beast as a last straw.

By the weekend, the situation had reached a point where virtually all power centers in Trumpworld, in and out of the White House, had decided to elevate Nielsen as the scapegoat for internal frustrations regarding the influx of asylum seekers and continued attempts by migrants to cross into the U.S. without legal authorization.

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Among many former Trump administration officials, her departure is a welcome shake-up. During most of her time in the administration, Nielsen and Miller were at odds. In fact, their working relationship became so tense that the two could barely be in the same room without making other top officials uncomfortable, two knowledgeable sources told The Daily Beast.

Miller thought Nielsen was a soft-on-the-border Bushy, and she thought he was an egomaniacal lunatic who hated brown people. Needless to say, that made for awkward moments in the Oval [Office] and Cabinet Room, said a former senior Trump administration official who has been in the room with both numerous times. The ex-official also described their professional relationship as one of clear mutual disgust.

A current administration official confirmed that Nielsen had a vanishingly low opinion of Miller and openly wondered if Trumps senior policy adviser had often leaked against her to the press, or if he trash-talked her behind her back to the president.

Her instincts were right on the latter concern, as Miller made no secret of his feelings about Nielsen to Trump, according to multiple people familiar with the conversations.

Since the dawn of the Trump era, Miller has been a skilled but generally quiet knife fighter and operator behind the scenes, outlasting or outmaneuvering other senior officials, keeping on the presidents good side, and, as a result, expanding his reach of influence.

By mid-2017, Miller had elbowed his way deep into national security and foreign affairs deliberations, and used his clout to advocate dropping the cap on refugee admissions last year to a record low.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-IA) said he was very, very concerned about the rapid-fire dismissals within the Department of Homeland Security and those who are rumored to be next on the chopping block. Grassley also took a jab at Miller, saying it would be hard for him to demonstrate hes accomplished anything for the president.

Its pretty hard to elaborate on it when there hasnt been any accomplishments, Grassley added.

Those who know and have worked with Miller say he is shrewd in not infuriating Trump, knowing that too much of the limelight in Trumpworld can be fatal. He watched with a careful eye as Steve Bannon, Trumps former chief strategist, rose within Trumps ranks only to be sidelined after President Bannon storylines hyped his power and sway over the presidency.

Sensing Bannons demise was near, Miller turned on his former ally and trashed him to Trump, hastening Bannons exit from the West Wing.

With Nielsen, theres even less love lost. But the internal antipathy aimed at Nielsen certainly didnt end with Miller and the president. The sources noted how other senior aides, including Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner, didnt have Nielsens back, either.

She had also run afoul of one of Trumps principal outside counselors, Fox Business host and immigration hardliner Lou Dobbs, who had repeatedly counseled Trump to ditch Nielsen in recent months, according to a person with knowledge of their private discussions.

Late last month, the Fox Business star dedicated part of his show to calling for the riddance of the flailing and overwhelmed DHS secretary.

It was the same mix of public and private pressure Dobbs used to urge Trump to can Jeff Sessions, the former attorney general who the president routinely denigrated as a failure, personally annoying, and mentally retarded.

A Fox Business spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on this story. DHS and White House spokespeople didnt immediately respond, either. But as The Daily Beast previously reported, Trump values Dobbs so much as a confidant and adviser that he has even had the TV host patched in on speakerphone during high-level Oval Office meetings.

Trump himself had on-and-off flirted with axing Nielsen, who he would often denounce as an ineffective softie on immigration and the southern border, despite Nielsen becoming a public face for Trumps catastrophic family-separation policy, and her own fervent defenses of the administrations more draconian measures. The president would make annoyed, screaming phone calls to Nielsen to thrash her for her perceived weakness, and he didnt hesitate to berate her in front of colleagues during senior-level meetings, either.

Shes probably partially relieved and partially extremely frustrated. She was made a scapegoat, I think. She tried to do everything they wanted, but you cannot legally do everything they want, a DHS official told The Daily Beast. To fix the issues that need to be fixed, you have to be able to come to a good-faith partnership with people across the aisle and put your heads together to actually work with Congress, and thats completely impossible in this environment.

Now that shes out of a job, Nielsen reportedly has zero illusions about her diminished career prospects. During her time on Team Trump, she became a particular target, including for public confrontation, for liberal and left-wing activists who were determined to offer her no quarter for her prominent role in Trumps family separations. In a letter this month signed by multiple advocacy organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center and Moms Rising, the groups implored Fortune 500 companies to blacklist Trump administration officials including Miller, Nielsen, and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

We call on you to make it clear that you will not hire for employment, contract for consulting, or seat on your boards, anyone involved in the development or implementation of the Trump administrations family separation immigration policy, the letter reads.

Speaking to reporters outside her home on Monday, Nielsen said she thanks Trump for the tremendous opportunity to serve the country, and that the two have a common goal in cracking down on the U.S.-Mexico border. Still, as she plots her next move, Nielsen should expect little, if any, support from her former boss.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen will be leaving her position, and I would like to thank her for her service, Trump had posted to Twitter on Sunday. A White House official told The Daily Beast that the president and White Houses lukewarm goodbye to her was fully intentional.

With additional reporting by Max Tani and Betsy Woodruff

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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A sizeable part of portfolio returns can be produced by dividend stocks due to their contribution to compounding returns in the long run. Historically, Lung Kee (Bermuda) Holdings Limited (HKG:255) has paid dividends to shareholders, and these days it yields 7.0%. Should it have a place in your portfolio? Let's take a look at Lung Kee (Bermuda) Holdings in more detail.

See our latest analysis for Lung Kee (Bermuda) Holdings

Here's how I find good dividend stocks

When assessing a stock as a potential addition to my dividend Portfolio, I look at these five areas:

Is it the top 25% annual dividend yield payer?

Has its dividend been stable over the past (i.e. no missed payments or significant payout cuts)?

Has dividend per share risen in the past couple of years?

Does earnings amply cover its dividend payments?

Based on future earnings growth, will it be able to continue to payout dividend at the current rate?

SEHK:255 Historical Dividend Yield, April 8th 2019

How does Lung Kee (Bermuda) Holdings fare?

Lung Kee (Bermuda) Holdings has a trailing twelve-month payout ratio of 89%, 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 thinking about whether a dividend is sustainable, another factor to consider is the cash flow. Cash flow is important because companies with strong cash flow can usually sustain higher payout ratios.

If dividend is a key criteria in your investment consideration, then you need to make sure the dividend stock you're eyeing out is reliable in its payments. Whilst its per-share payments have increased during the past 10 years, there has been some hiccups. Shareholders would have seen a few years of reduced payments in this time.

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Compared to its peers, Lung Kee (Bermuda) Holdings has a yield of 7.0%, which is high for Machinery stocks.

Next Steps:

Taking into account the dividend metrics, Lung Kee (Bermuda) Holdings ticks most of the boxes as a strong dividend investment, putting it in my list of top dividend payers. 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 aspects you should further examine:

Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for 255s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for 255s outlook. Valuation: What is 255 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 255 is currently mispriced by the market. Other Dividend Rockstars: Are there better dividend payers with stronger fundamentals out there? Check out our free list of these great stocks here.

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.



If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
(Reuters) - BlackRock Inc Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink said on Monday that his ambition was to build an onshore presence in China and become the leading global asset manager there.

Rising demand for more diversified and long-term investment solutions in China was likely to drive the growth in assets under management in Asia by 50 percent over the next five years, Fink said in his annual letter http://bit.ly/2OXDWoE to shareholders published on Monday.

The chief executive of the world's largest asset manager said his China ambitions have not been dented by the prolonged tariff war between the United States and China.

"If anything the Chinese are looking for greater participation of global firms in their asset management space because they also have a growing retirement crisis," he said https://on.ft.com/2OVqbad in an interview to the Financial Times.

China has slowly started opening its financial markets, allowing foreign institutions to set up operations in the country.

In 2017, it raised the foreign ownership ceiling to 51 percent in securities firms, mutual fund houses, life insurers as well as futures brokerages and said all ownership restriction would be scrapped in three years.

BlackRock already has a foot in the door in China.

It has held talks with China's CICC Fund Management, a unit of state-backed investment bank China International Capital Corps, for a majority stake in it, according to the FT report that cited people close to the situation.

BlackRock has also been in talks with a handful of other Chinese groups, a person close to the asset manager told FT.

(Reporting By Aparajita Saxena in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
BEIRUT (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. 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)
- REUTERS

Fighting for control of the Libyan capital escalated dramatically on Monday when rebel forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar carried out an airstrike on city's only operating airport.

The attack came amid reports that the internationally recognised government of National Accord led by Fayyez al-Sarraj had begun conscripting migrants held in detention centres to fight against Gen Haftar's troops.

At least one jet was seen firing rockets at the Mitiga airport in northern Tripoli on Monday afternoon. The airport said it would be closed for the foreseeable future.

No casualties were reported. At least 2,800 people have been displaced since Gen Haftars self-styled Libyan National Army launched an assault on Tripoli last week.

The LNA said on Monday that 19 of its soldiers had been killed in recent days. The Tripoli based health ministry, on the government side, said at least 25 people including fighters and civilians had been killed and 80 wounded in fighting to the south of the capital.

The World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations' health agency, said two doctors had been killed while treating civilians and trying to evacuate patients from combat zones in the city.

Ahmed Al Mandhari, the WHO's regional director for the eastern Mediterranean, said in a statement Monday that the targeting of doctors was "unacceptable."

Gen Haftar announced his assault on Thursday, citing the need to clear the city of "terrorists".

Tracking progress on the ground is difficult partly because both sides are made up of loose alliances of militia groups rather than professional armies. But despite clashes in the southern suburbs, the LNA advance appears to have made little progress.

Residents said LNA troops retreated from the former international airport, 15 miles south of the city centre, on Monday.

Analysts say Gen Haftars assault has compelled the disparate militia groups who control western Libya to band together, presenting a harder target than he may have anticipated.

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He created that alliance by going in to early, too strong, said Jalel Harchaoui, a research fellow at the Clingdendael Institute, a think tank.

Khalifa Haftar shaking hands with United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres Credit: AFP/Getty Images

It prompted potential opponents who were considering siding with Haftar to do an about face and fight him.

Mr Harchaoui warned that the international community appeared to have little if any diplomatic leverage to reign in the fighting and that the situation could worsen dramatically.

If the airstrikes continue escalating, you could see the two camps committed in a very blind manner to saving face, and that means a lot of destruction, he said.

Meanwhile reports emerged that the internationally recognised government is offering migrants held in detention centres their freedom in exchange for military service.

Haftar's forces have come up against militias supporting the UN-backed government Credit: REUTERS/Hani Amara

Thousands of asylum seekers, many of them sub-Saharan Africans, are stuck in detention centres along the coast around Tripoli, hoping to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

Many did national service in their own countries. Reports of some Sudanese being released, given military uniforms and told that they may have to fight, Vincent Cochetel, special envoy of the UNHCR for the central Mediterranean, wrote on Twitter.

He also said that the situation for asylum seekers in Libya is becoming increasingly desperate as fighting escalates between the two sides.

Vehicles and militants, reportedly from the Misrata militia, gather to join Tripoli forces, in Tripoli Credit: STRINGER/EPA-EFE/REX

Unverifiable reports received suggesting that no more food is reaching some detention centres in Libya, where refugees and militants are kept arbitrarily, Mr Cochetel said.

Medicins San Frontieres, an NGO, said the fighting has left refugees and migrants in detention centres "exceptionally vulnerable."

"The Ain Zara detention centre is now in an area of active fighting, with more than 600 vulnerable people trapped inside, including women and children.

In another detention centre, reports suggest that some people are being conscripted to work for armed groups," the group said in a statement.

The European Union's foreign policy chief called on all sides to stop fighting and start talking.

Speaking at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg, Federica Mogherini said all sides should "go back to the negotiating table under the auspices of the UN and make sure that the Libyan people get what they really want, which is peace and stability for their country."

Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, said Britain was engaging all partners to send the message that there is no military solution to the crisis. Earlier he said there was no justification for the LNA assault.
By Jean-Baptiste Vey PARIS (Reuters) - French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said that after three months of public debate it was that clear tax cuts must be speeded up to quell the widespread anger over high living costs that has fueled anti-government protests. In an act of political theater on Monday, Philippe was presenting the findings from two million online contributions and 10,000 hours of town hall debates that President Emmanuel Macron must now digest and respond to with policy moves. Four broad needs emerged, the prime minister said: renewing ties between Paris and the regions, making the political process more relevant for citizens, responding better to climate change, and easing the tax burden. "The debate clearly shows us in which direction we need to go: we need to lower taxes and lower them faster," Philippe said in a speech in the Grand Palace in Paris. Planned increases to a fuel tax prompted five months of "yellow vest" protests nationwide and the worst rioting Paris has witnessed since the 1968 student uprising, though the discontent swiftly turned into a broader backlash against inequality and an aloof political elite. More violence in mid-March reminded Macron that putting his reform agenda back on track would not be easy and the unrest could damage his party's European election campaign. The "yellow vests" remain an amorphous group with varied demands, including higher salaries, better public services, and more power for voters on policy decisions. Tight public finances mean Macron has limited wriggle room. "The French have understood ... that we cannot lower taxes if we don't lower public spending," Philippe said. The debates reinvigorated Macron, who rolled up his sleeves and held forth for up to seven hours at a time with high-school students, mayors and working mothers, as well as intellectuals and philosophers. Polls showed only a tentative recovery in Macron's weak popularity, so the stakes are high for him and his prime minister. New policy measures are yet to be decided and could be put to a plebiscite. The option of a referendum - which has the advantage of responding to the yellow vests' demand for more people's votes - remains on the table. Nonetheless, Ingrid Levavasseur, who pulled out of leading a "yellow vest" list for the European elections because of internal divisions within the movement, doubted the debates would produce meaningful reform. "I count myself among the skeptics," she told Reuters (Additional reporting and writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Giles Elgood)
London (AFP) - British Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday started a last-minute flurry of European diplomacy that includes visits to Paris and Berlin as she prepares for a make-or-break Brexit summit.

Still struggling to get her EU divorce deal through parliament, May is hoping European leaders will agree on Wednesday to delay Brexit for a second time to stop Britain crashing out of the bloc two days later.

After putting her request in a letter to European Council president Donald Tusk last week, she spoke by telephone on Monday with him and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker.

May is also to visit German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday, in what her spokeswoman said was an attempt to set out "the rationale" for a further short delay.

Faced with political deadlock in London, the EU agreed last month to postpone Brexit from March 29 to April 12, and May will ask at a special summit on Wednesday for it to be pushed back again to June 30.

All other 27 EU leaders must agree and most seem ready to accept the idea of another delay to avoid a harmful "no deal" Brexit, but likely for a much longer period than Britain has asked for.

In anticipation of this, May's government on Monday reluctantly laid the legal order needed to hold European Parliament elections on May 23.

But she is hoping that EU leaders might agree to a flexible delay proposed by Tusk, whereby Britain could leave earlier if it agrees a divorce deal, and never hold the elections.

"It does not make these elections inevitable as leaving the EU before the date of election automatically removes our obligation to take part," a spokeswoman said.

European leaders have also asked May to come up with a reason for a delay, with France in particular warning that it does not want simply to prolong the uncertainty.

After MPs rejected her divorce deal for a third time, May last week approached main opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to try to find a compromise.

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But Corbyn said Monday that he was still waiting for her to alter her approach.

"Talks have to mean a movement, and so far there has been no change in those red lines," he said, adding that his team would speak to her ministers on Tuesday.

Adding pressure on the government, British lawmakers rushed through legislation late on Monday forcing May to request a delay and seeking to prevent a no-deal Brexit.

Under the terms of the law, the government will now have to put forward a motion in parliament on Tuesday setting out its extension request which will then be voted on by MPs.

- Sincere cooperation -

May says she is determined to implement the 2016 referendum vote for Brexit, but that Britain should not sever ties with its largest trading partner until it has new arrangements in place.

Her decision to meet with Corbyn has sparked fury in her own Conservative party, with former foreign minister and leading Brexit supporter Boris Johnson warning against any "surrender".

Labour wants a new customs union with the EU, something May has previously rejected as it would stop Britain striking its own global trade deals.

In Dublin, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar expressed optimism about the cross-party process as he met with the EU's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier.

"We're open to extending the deadline to allow these discussions to run their course," he said.

But Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who also spoke to May on Monday, said it was "crucial to know when and on what basis the UK will ratify the withdrawal agreement".

- Political changes -

Labour is pressing for changes to a political declaration on Britain's future relationship with the EU, which accompanies the withdrawal deal.

Barnier repeated that this could be reworked "extremely quickly".

Corbyn said May's government had been open to the idea, "but they haven't said in which way".

He added: "We are looking for movement. We do not want to see a crashing out of the EU with no deal."

The EU has by contrast refused to renegotiate the withdrawal agreement itself, which includes controversial plans to keep open the Irish border.

Barnier repeated his warning to hardline Brexiteers that, in the case of a no-deal Brexit, the EU would not start trade talks until the Irish issue was resolved.

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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP)  A legislative fight over expanding Medicaid in Kansas is delaying approval of the state's next annual budget as expansion supporters try to keep Republican opponents from blocking it for another year.

Some top GOP lawmakers are conceding that an expansion plan could pass because expansion is a priority for Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly and has bipartisan support in the Republican-controlled Legislature. However, opponents hope for time this summer and fall to develop a smaller program than Kelly wants with restrictions she opposes, such as a work requirement for participants.

Expansion became a sticking point in budget negotiations between the House and Senate, causing lawmakers to put off votes until May on any part of the state's spending blueprint for the fiscal year beginning in July. Potential expansion costs are hotly debated, but the disagreement in budget talks is over how much to tie Kelly's hands as she pursues expansion this year.

"We have a Democrat governor," Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning, a conservative Kansas City-area Republican. "There will be a time when we won't be able to maneuver around it."

Supporters argue that Medicaid expansion will benefit working-class families, help struggling rural hospitals and boost the economy with an influx of federal funds. Opponents predict expansion will prove far more expensive than advertised, even with the 2010 federal Affordable Care Act's promise that the federal government would cover 90 percent of the cost.

Thirty-six states, including GOP-led ones, have expanded Medicaid or have seen voters approve ballot initiatives.

In Kansas, Republicans who oppose expansion still hold key positions in both chambers and prevented even a committee vote for weeks. However, supporters forced a debate in the House last month, and it passed a modified version of Kelly's expansion plan over GOP leaders' objections.

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The Senate didn't take up the measure before lawmakers began their annual spring break Saturday. However, Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat, notified colleagues that he will try to pull it out of committee May 1, when legislators reconvene to wrap up business for the year.

In arguing for further delay, GOP leaders note that Republican-led Utah is pursuing a scaled-back version of an expansion approved by voters last year to control the potential costs.

Kelly's administration projects that her plan to extend Medicaid health coverage to as many as 150,000 more Kansas residents would come with a net cost of the state of $34 million in the program's first full year. Top Republicans are skeptical and believe the net cost easily could be twice as much.

They also want Kansas to consider work requirements, though a federal judge blocked them in Arkansas and Kentucky. Republicans also have suggested drug testing for people receiving the expanded Medicaid coverage. Kelly opposes both ideas, but it's not clear what she would do if either was included in expansion legislation.

GOP leaders announced plans last week to have a committee study possible alternatives to Kelly's plan this summer and fall.

"We're going to do it on our own schedule," Denning said.

To help build pressure for Medicaid expansion, Kelly is having a town hall meeting Tuesday in Wichita, and Lt. Gov. Lynn Rogers is touring western Kansas hospitals.

"We've studied this for multiple years," Rogers said Monday. "When they (Republican leaders) say we need more discussion, it's on them. It's not on the Kansas people."

Legislators initially planned to pass a bill containing most of the next state budget before the spring break, to make finishing their work in May easier.

However, the budget talks stalled last week. Medicaid expansion was among a few remaining issues in reconciling differences between the House and Senate versions of the spending blueprint.

Neither chamber included funds to cover expansion costs, but Denning persuaded senators to add an amendment to their version to prevent the state from spending any dollars on expansion paperwork.

A 2014 law already requires prior legislative approval for expansion, but Denning said he wants to ensure that putting funding in the budget isn't interpreted as a go-ahead for a specific plan.

House negotiators balked, with even expansion foes seeing the provision as overkill. The dispute  and resulting budget impasse  gives expansion supporters extra unexpected political leverage.

"That amendment could have caused us problems for passing expansion," said state Rep. Kathy Wolfe Moore, a budget negotiator and Kansas City Democrat who supports expansion. "As long as that was in there, anyone who voted for expansion would not vote for the budget."

___

Follow John Hanna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/apjdhanna .
- The Mega Agency

It's not every day the meeting of a make-up artist and a lighting director sets the scene for a royal love story, but that's exactly what happened in Meghan Markle's case.

The now-retired American actress, who is expecting her first child any time now, didn't come from a similar upbringing to her royal-ready Middleton sister-in-law. The Duchess of Sussex (born Rachel Meghan Markle) was born in Los Angeles on August 4, 1981 and quite literally grew up in Hollywood.

Though her parents - Doria Ragland and Thomas Markle Snr - divorced when she was six, her extended family's story does not end there. In fact, it takes unlikely and estranged turns towards a diplomat uncle, cannabis-growing nephew, and beyond.

As Meghan prepares to welcome her baby with Prince Harry, here we take a look at her family, many of whom are never far from the headlines.

Doria Ragland, Meghan Markle's mother

Doria Ragland, 62, was born in Los Angeles to an antique dealer father and a mother who was a nurse.

She attended the Fairfax High School, where she was remembered as bright and friendly - the teenager with the "Afro" hairstyle who loved listening to Marvin Gaye and dining out at a local Mexican taco joint with friends.

After school she worked as a make-up artist, which is how she met her husband, Thomas Markle Snr, a lighting director in Hollywood. The pair married in 1979 and Ms Markle was born two years later.

Meghan Markle pictured as a child in Rwanda with her mother Doria Credit: TIM STEWART NEWS LIMITED

The family moved into a house in The Valley, LA, to a neighbourhood that Ms Markle described as "leafy and affordable".

Ms Ragland and Mr Markle divorced in 1987, but remained friends. Ms Ragland took a job as an air stewardess, meaning their daughter was frequently cared for by her father.

Meghan Markle with her moother Doria, who has a masters in social work Credit: TIM STEWART NEWS LIMITED

She later returned to university to obtain a masters in social work, following on from her BA in psychology.

She now lives in the house she inherited from her father in 2011 in the Crenshaw area of LA.

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Ms Ragland and her daughter are extremely close - Ms Ragland once drove a car with the number plate MEGNME - and Ms Markle has spoken of her pride in her free-spirited mother, with her dreadlocks and nose ring.

Ms Ragland travelled with her daughter to her wedding ceremony from their overnight accommodation at Cliveden House Hotel, Berkshire, to St Georges Chapel. She is now preparing to welcome her first grandchild.

Meghan's family tree

Thomas Markle, Meghan's father

Born in Pennsylvania, of Dutch-Irish descent, soon-to-be-grandfather Thomas Markle Snr, 74, made his way to Hollywood where he worked as a lighting director.

He worked for many years on the set of the television show 'Married With Children' and his work on long-running series General Hospital earned him nine Daytime Emmy nominations, of which he was twice named the winner.

He was also reportedly chosen to oversee the lighting for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics as well as the 1986 Oscar ceremony.

Prior to meeting Doria Ragland, he had been married to Roslyn Loveless, with whom he had two children - Samantha, now 52, and Thomas Jr, now 50.

Mr Markle and his daughter were very close, with the young Meghan accompanying him on film sets and being cared for by him while her mother was travelling as an air stewardess.

Baby Meghan Markle lies on the chest of her father Thomas Credit: TIM STEWART NEWS LIMITED

Mr Markle moved to Mexico after retiring and was declared bankrupt in June 2016. The Duchess has described her father as the "most hardworking father you can imagine".

He has reportedly still not met Prince Harry but gave his blessing to the Prince over the phone when asked for Meghan's hand in marriage.

Mr Markle intended to travel from Mexico to the UK to meet his future son-in-law (and the rest of his royal family) before walking Ms Markle down the aisle.

Meghan Markle pictured as a toddler with her father Thomas Credit: TIM STEWART NEWS LIMITED

Following alleged dealings with the paparazzi to take advantage of Meghan's major moment, he said he would avoid the ceremony for fear of embarrassing his daughter.

The pictures, which appeared to be staged, showed Mr Markle getting measured for what was thought to be his wedding suit, looking at pictures of his daughter and Harry while in an internet cafe, and reading a picture book about Britain while having a coffee.

He then pulled out of the wedding four days before the ceremony, after falling unwell and required heart surgery.

He claimed his failure to fly would also force him to cancel appointments with the Queen, Prince Philip, Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall and Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Since the wedding, he has made frequent pleas through the media to speak to Meghan which he claims have been mostly ignored, bar a private letter he released to the public last month.

Meghan Markles uncles

Michael Markle

Of Thomas Markle Seniors two brothers, the eldest, Michael, had a profound impact on Meghan's early life. The 80-year-old is a retired US diplomat and Air Force veteran who lives in Florida. His wife, Toni, died of cancer in 2012.

During his State Department career, he reportedly worked in Ottawa, Bucharest, Berlin and Guam, and when Meghan was 20 years old, she planned to follow in his footsteps with a potential career in diplomacy.

It was through Michaels connections that Meghan was able to secure a prestigious at the American embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

After enrolling at Northwestern University in Illinois, Spanish speaker Meghan travelled to Argentina for her senior year in 2003. She completed a double major in Theatre and International Relations.

"So I'm 20 years old, in Buenos Aires, in a motorcade, doing that whole thing. I thought for sure I would still have a career in politics, she told Vogue a decade later.

In an interview with the Mirror in 2018, Michael spoke of his role in the process.

I knew the ambassador, and I asked him if he could help, as her application was a little on the late side, he said. As a result, he was surprised not to be invited to his nieces wedding. I dont understand why she has been so indifferent towards me. Its uncalled for. I helped her out, and I didnt ask for anything in return. This whole invitation thing has not been played out very well. I never did anything to embarrass Meghan. It seems to me they handled the arrangements poorly.

Michael has a 60-year-old daughter, Trish Gallup, who runs her own chauffeur business.

Frederick Markle

Meghans other paternal uncle, Frederick, is a reclusive cleric who also lives in Florida. There, he is the leader and sole minister of the small Eastern Orthodox Catholic Church, reportedly going by the name Bishop Dismas.

According to the Daily Mail, Frederick lives in a secluded woodland property and lives like a hermit, shunning technology. He has refused to speak about his nieces marriage, as have his two sons, Nick and David, and ex-wife Theresa.

Meghan Markle's siblings

Half-brother Thomas Markle Jr

The 52-year-old window fitter lives in Grants Pass, Oregon.

He said his family was like The Dukes of Hazzard and The Simpsons, versus the Royal family  but has spoken fondly of his half-sister, with whom he grew up in Los Angeles.

He was married for 11 years to Tracy Dooley, with whom he has two sons  Thomas and Tyler.

Thomas Markle Jr has spoken fondly of Meghan Markle, his half-sister Credit: AKGS

He was arrested in January 2018 for holding a gun to girlfriend Darlene Blounts head in a drunken argument. Mr Markle and Miss Blount are now engaged.

Half-sister Samantha Grant

Samantha Grant, 54, lives in Florida and is a wheelchair user and suffers from multiple sclerosis.

She discussed the allegedly staged images of her father's on Loose Women, saying she was entirely the culprit, convincing her father that it would be to his advantage to show himself in a positive light.

It was my suggestion that to benefit him and to benefit the Royal Family and that everyone looked good, and they depict you as you are, she said.

Samantha Markle has lashed out at her half-sister, Meghan, in several interviews Credit: Splash News

She also caused a stir when she announced she was writing a book entitled The Diary of Princess Pushys Sister.

Despite not having spoken to her in nine years, Ms Grant lashed out at Ms Markle in numerous interviews. She since says she was misquoted.

The Dooleys

Ms Markle's sister-in-law Tracy Dooley, and her sons Tyler and TJ, are among the family members who were not invited to the wedding.

Ms Dooley, who was married to the former actress's half-brother, was pictured arriving at Heathrow Airport before the wedding. She has previously told ITV's Good Morning Britain she had not received an invitation to the ceremony at Windsor Castle, admitting she had not seen Ms Markle for 20 years. The Dooleys announced on Facebook they had arrived in the capital.

Tyler, 27, who uploaded an image of the Imperial War Museum, as well as a photograph of the inside of a hotel room, is a cannabis farmer who considers himself a 'pioneer' in the legal production of the drug in California. He is reportedly keen to develop a new cannabis strain called 'Markle's Sparkle', in aid of his cousin's position.

Meghan Markle's nephew Tyler Dooley is a Cannabis farmer who is planning a new drug called Markle's Sparkle Credit: Mega

The family are keen on the burgeoning industry. TJ, 28, reportedly gives marijuana to his dog for pain relief, while Tracy frequently sells advertising space to marijuana dispensaries.

On arriving in London for the wedding in May last year,, Ms Dooley posted on her Facebook page  called "Royal Wedding with the Dooley Markles"  that she hoped Ms Markle's father was "well, healthy and happy". She wrote: "Just glad to have landed safely and hoping for Tom senior to be well, healthy, & happy. I wish the same for Meghan Prince Harry, my children, friends, family and those who need our prayers and love. Peace, love and good works."

In April 2018, the page, which appears to be run by Ms Dooley, shared an article headlined "Meghan Markle snubs nephew and his mum with no invite to Royal wedding." It was accompanied with the caption: "Beyond blessed to be any part of this momentous occasion. We'll be front and center at Windsor cheering Meghan and Prince Harry on."

Trevor Engelson, Meghan's ex-husband

New York-born film and television producer Trevor Engelson, 41, was married to Ms Markle for two years, until 2013.

The pair married on the beach in Jamaica in 2011, tying the knot at the Jamaica Inn in Ocho Rios, in front of around 100 guests.

They are believed to have been dating for seven years before they married.

Meghan Markle and Trevor Engelson in 2006 Credit: Billy Farrell/Patrick McMullan/Getty

Their August 2013 divorce cited irreconcilable differences, and their work schedules - he is based in Los Angeles, while she began filming legal drama Suits in Toronto the year they married.

Engelson is due to marry nutritionist Tracey Kurland in just over one month- almost exactly a year after Meghan and Prince Harry's own nuptials - on May 11.

During his Miami-based bachelor party in March footage emerged of friends toasting (perhaps roasting) the groom, joking: "If it wasn't for Trev I wouldn't believe that I could marry a future princess, so now I gotta...what princess is available right now, I'm coming for you girl."

He is working on a show about a man whose wife runs off with a prince.
By Jarrett Renshaw and Stephanie Kelly

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The March floods that punished the U.S. Midwest have trapped barrels of ethanol in the country's interior, causing shortages of the biofuel and helping to boost gasoline prices in the western United States.

The historic floods have dealt a series of blows to large swaths of an ethanol industry that was already struggling with high inventories and sluggish domestic demand growth.

The ethanol shortages are one factor pushing gasoline prices in Southern California, including Los Angeles, to the highest in the country, and they could top $4 a gallon for the first time since 2014, according to tracking firm GasBuddy.

Benchmark price for ethanol used in most supply contracts initially jumped on news of the floods but has been hobbled by rising waters around the Chicago hub that have halted barges and sales. That stands in contrast to prices on the coasts, which rose dramatically - drawing in heavy imports from Brazil, the main U.S. ethanol competitor.

The floods inflicted billions of dollars in damage to crops and homes in the U.S. Midwest, and knocked out roughly 13 percent of ethanol capacity.

U.S. ethanol is made from corn and required by the government to be blended into the country's fuel supply to reduce emissions.

While some ethanol plants were flooded, the primary effect of the rising waters was to shut rail lines that serve as the main arteries for corn and ethanol deliveries.

Ethanol prices on the coasts spiked due to shortages, but Midwest producers have been unable to take advantage because of washed-out rail lines, market sources told Reuters.

"Unfortunately for anyone who was impacted by logistics issues it was a double whammy. You couldn't capture the rally," said one trader.

At Chicago's Argo terminal, the nation's main ethanol pricing hub, the cash price for ethanol fell for an eighth straight session last week to $1.29 a gallon, the longest downward skid since April of last year, according to Oil Price Information Service, which does daily assessments.

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Initially, fears of widespread plant outages boosted that benchmark, but plants proved more resilient than expected, continuing to produce despite logistical challenges.

U.S. ethanol inventories were at 24 million barrels for the week ended March 29, just off a record hit a week earlier, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data.

Chicago's price acts as the benchmark for millions of barrels bought and sold via longer-term supply contracts each day. While that price faltered, ethanol prices at the coast have surged, helping plants owned by Pacific Ethanol Inc and White Energy in California and Texas to take advantage of higher prices.

Ethanol delivered into Los Angeles typically trades at 20 cents a gallon higher than Chicago, but that premium rose to as high as 50 cents a gallon, traders said. The price in New York Harbor was at roughly double normal levels, traders said.

The tight ethanol supplies, along with refinery outages, boosted retail gasoline prices and led to some gas station shutdowns in the West as blenders there lacked the ethanol needed to blend with gasoline to make fuel that meets government regulations.

Gas prices in Arizona averaged $2.89 per gallon on Monday, 17 percent higher than last month, according to the American Automobile Association. Prices were even steeper in California at $3.80 a gallon, well above the national average of $2.74 a gallon.

Cash prices in the state's physical market suggest further increases. In Los Angeles, spot gasoline on Monday was offered 10 cents a gallon higher from where it traded on Friday, putting it at a premium of 69 cents a gallon above the NYMEX futures benchmark.

"Ultimately, Los Angeles could get close to seeing that average at $4 a gallon," Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis at tracking firm GasBuddy, said, adding that much of that increase will come because of refinery outages in the state.

At least one county in California has already surpassed $4 a gallon. The highest recorded average price for the state was $4.67 a gallon, in October 2012, according to AAA.

The high coastal prices attracted barrels from the biggest U.S. competitor: Brazil. Overall ethanol imports to the United States totaled 558,279 barrels in March, the most seasonally since 2013, according to Refinitiv Eikon ship tracking data. Most of the imports during the month came from Brazil, according to the tracking data.

(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Stephanie Kelly; additional reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and David Gregorio)
Attorney general William Barr is set to appear before Congress for the first time since he received Robert Mueller's Russia report  and Democrats say they plan on grilling him on it as soon as they have the opportunity.

The eyes of Washington - and of observers around the world - have been fixed on Mr Barr since last month when the special counsel submitted his report to the justice department after nearly two years of investigating Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.

Democrats have already indicated that they are planning a push beyond Mr Barrs testimony on Tuesday and Wednesday, and say they want to bring in Mr Mueller himself at some point to explain his findings.

In order to ask special counsel Mueller the right questions, the committee must receive the special counsels full report and hear from attorney general Barr about that report on May 2. We look forward to hearing from Mr Mueller at the appropriate time, tweeted House judiciary committee chairman Jerry Nadler.

Shortly after Mr Barr received the Mueller report last month, he penned a short letter to Congress indicating that Mr Muellers team had found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. In that letter, Mr Barr also said he had determined not to prosecute Donald Trump for obstruction of justice.

In the time since, though, reports have surfaced indicating that members of Mr Muellers team felt as though the attorney general let the president off easy, leading to demands among Democrats for the report to be released in full.

Certainly the Mueller report will come up," congressman Matt Cartwright, a Democrat, told Fox News, while discussing Mr Barrs planned testimony.

I may ask about that, but probably not, the Pennsylvania politician continued. Until the actual redacted version of the Mueller report comes out, were all just kind of stabbing around in the dark about whats going to be left out.

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Mr Barrs visit to Capitol Hill comes as the justice departments budget is being considered in Washington, although that process is likely to be overshadowed by the Russia questions that have captivated the US for much of the Trump presidency.

While Mr Barr can expect some tough questioning from Democrats in the House and Senate appropriations committees, the forums are not known for the kinds of political grandstanding that was seen during the testimony of other key players in the Russia investigation like Michael Cohen or James Comey.

The Houses committee is chaired by Representative Nita Lowey, a New York Democrat who is rarely featured in national press reports. Her Republican counterpart is representative Kay Granger.

The Senate committee, meanwhile, is chaired by senator Richard Shelby, a Republican from Alabama. The top democrat on that committee is senator Patrick Leahy.

Mr Barr has indicated he plans on sending a redacted version of the Mueller report to Congress sometime later this month, and that the Justice Department is currently working to ensure that sensitive information  like grand jury information and information related to ongoing investigations  is redacted.

It is unclear how satisfied democrats in Congress will be with the report, and many have already made demands for the entire, unredacted report.
Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said on Sunday that the Trump administration will release an Obamacare replacement plan before the 2020 elections.

I do think youll see a plan here fairly shortly, Mulvaney said on Fox News Sunday.

Mulvaney reportedly met with top administration officials and White House aides, including Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, at Camp David on Saturday to discuss health care policy. The talks ranged from messaging strategies to lowering drug prices to individual health insurance marketplaces, CNNs Sarah Westwood reports.

The Trump administration caught Republican lawmakers off guard last month when it decided to back a legal ruling invalidating the entire Affordable Care Act and the president called on GOP lawmakers to again try to replace the law  a call they didnt exactly race to embrace.

It's clear that a week into the Trump-mandated makeover as the Party of Health Care, few lawmakers want ownership of an issue proven toxic to Republicans political futures, Politicos Adam Cancryn and Alice Miranda Ollstein write. The GOP has been deadlocked on a replacement since its high-profile repeal effort collapsed in the fall of 2017. Thats left the party paralyzed  reluctant to contradict Trump but scared of entering another campaign cycle without a coherent health care message. Those most qualified to craft a plan have no interest in the job, while others eager for another repeal effort arent gaining traction.

GOP lawmakers are still divided on health care, split between conservatives who want to completely wipe out Obamacare and some moderates who worry about voters losing coverage or protections for those with pre-existing medical conditions.

A Trump health plan could reduce regulations, spending, taxes, and premiums under the ACA, Larry Levitt of the Kaiser Family Foundation tweeted Monday. It couldn't simultaneously cover as many people, lower deductibles, and provide equal protections for people with pre-existing conditions. There's no magic pixie dust in health care.

That hasnt stopped the White House from pushing ahead with its search for a plan. Republicans have better ideas than Democrats. We should not be afraid to talk about that, Mulvaney said Sunday We want to run on this.

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Paris (AFP) - As thousands of protesters in Khartoum demand President Omar al-Bashir resignation, demonstrators have called for the Sudanese military to back them.

So far the army has not intervened, but agents of the powerful National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) and riot police have cracked down on demonstrators.

Bashir -- in power for nearly 30 years -- has refused demands to make way for a transitional government.

AFP spoke to conflict specialist Roland Marchal, a researcher at Sciences Po in Paris, about what could happen next.

- Military support? -

"There are important debates within the army. The top echelons have been appointed by President Omar al-Bashir, but they are also officers with families."

"The trigger for the crisis is the economic situation. There are also debates about corruption in the regime, about Bashir's personal situation, and about the intervention in Yemen (Sudan joined a Saudi-led coalition against Shiite rebels in Yemen)."

"Bakri Hassan Saleh (vice president, close to Bashir) was dismissed on February 22. He had been seen as a main representative of the army since 1989."

"There is also the issue about armed groups... and so many questions about what neighbouring countries will do... But that does not mean the army will necessarily switch sides and back the demonstrators."

- A turning point? -

"It may be a turning point because the question of Bashir's departure is openly raised."

"The protesters are not politically structured. People are very dissatisfied but that's not enough. Nevertheless, the government has very limited choices to resolve this crisis."

- Use of force? -

"People who protest are also the children of the regime. And a bloody repression would lead to a reaction."

"The EU, for example, would be forced out speak out. So far the EU has been very cautious because it is worried about chaos, migration, radical Islamism... and Bashir's Sudan, at least, they know it. People do not like it, but it is a relationship without surprises."
Tokyo (AFP) - 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.

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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.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)  Ohio and Hungary have struck up a partnership aimed at strengthening economic, technological and commercial cooperation.

Ohio Development Services Director Lydia Mihalik (mih-HAY'-lihk) and Hungary's minister of foreign affairs and trade, H.E. Peter Szijjarto (zy-JAR'-doh), recently signed a memorandum of understanding. The document pledges broader economic cooperation between the parties.

Mihalik said the partnership goes beyond trade, which totaled $186 million last year, to shared ideas. Szijjarto said American investors are increasingly important in Hungary's small but "very open" economy.

The leaders say 25 years of cooperation between the Ohio National Guard and the Hungarian Defense Forces laid the groundwork for the deal.

Cleveland is home to one of the largest Hungarian populations in the U.S.

Toledo's Hungarian neighborhood is home to the well-known Tony Packo's Cafe.
Want to participate in a research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and earn a $60 gift card!

This article is for investors who would like to improve their understanding of price to earnings ratios (P/E ratios). To keep it practical, we'll show how A.P. Eagers Limited's (ASX:APE) P/E ratio could help you assess the value on offer. Based on the last twelve months, A.P. Eagers's P/E ratio is 14.64. That is equivalent to an earnings yield of about 6.8%.

Check out our latest analysis for A.P. Eagers

How Do You Calculate A P/E Ratio?

The formula for P/E is:

Price to Earnings Ratio = Share Price  Earnings per Share (EPS)

Or for A.P. Eagers:

P/E of 14.64 = A$7.62  A$0.52 (Based on the year to December 2018.)

Is A High P/E Ratio Good?

The higher the P/E ratio, the higher the price tag of a business, relative to its trailing earnings. That is not a good or a bad thing per se, but a high P/E does imply buyers are optimistic about the future.

How Growth Rates Impact P/E Ratios

Probably the most important factor in determining what P/E a company trades on is the earnings growth. Earnings growth means that in the future the 'E' will be higher. Therefore, even if you pay a high multiple of earnings now, that multiple will become lower in the future. A lower P/E should indicate the stock is cheap relative to others -- and that may attract buyers.

A.P. Eagers increased earnings per share by 3.4% last year. And it has bolstered its earnings per share by 7.4% per year over the last five years.

How Does A.P. Eagers's P/E Ratio Compare To Its Peers?

The P/E ratio indicates whether the market has higher or lower expectations of a company. You can see in the image below that the average P/E (12.5) for companies in the specialty retail industry is lower than A.P. Eagers's P/E.

ASX:APE Price Estimation Relative to Market, April 8th 2019

That means that the market expects A.P. Eagers will outperform other companies in its industry. Clearly the market expects growth, but it isn't guaranteed. So investors should always consider the P/E ratio alongside other factors, such as whether company directors have been buying shares.

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A Limitation: P/E Ratios Ignore Debt and Cash In The Bank

It's important to note that the P/E ratio considers the market capitalization, not the enterprise value. So it won't reflect the advantage of cash, or disadvantage of debt. Hypothetically, a company could reduce its future P/E ratio by spending its cash (or taking on debt) to achieve higher earnings.

Such spending might be good or bad, overall, but the key point here is that you need to look at debt to understand the P/E ratio in context.

How Does A.P. Eagers's Debt Impact Its P/E Ratio?

A.P. Eagers's net debt is 59% of its market cap. This is a reasonably significant level of debt -- all else being equal you'd expect a much lower P/E than if it had net cash.

The Verdict On A.P. Eagers's P/E Ratio

A.P. Eagers has a P/E of 14.6. That's below the average in the AU market, which is 16.2. While the recent EPS growth is a positive, the significant amount of debt on the balance sheet may be contributing to pessimistic market expectations.

When the market is wrong about a stock, it gives savvy investors an opportunity. If it is underestimating a company, investors can make money by buying and holding the shares until the market corrects itself. So this free visual report on analyst forecasts could hold the key to an excellent investment decision.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking at a few good candidates. So take a peek at this free list of companies with modest (or no) debt, trading on a P/E below 20.

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 Syed Raza Hassan

KARACHI, April 7 (Reuters) - 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 neighbors had appeared to ease.

The attack could take place between April 16 and 20, he said.

A suicide car bombing by Pakistan-based militants in Indian-controlled Kashmir killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police on Feb. 14 and the risk of conflict rose dramatically on Feb. 27, 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 April 16 and 20," 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. (Writing by Nick Macfie; Additional reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj in New Delhi; Editing by Kim Coghill)
NEW YORK (AP)  Pinterest, among the gaggle of tech companies hoping to go public this year, set a conservative price range Monday for its initial public offering. It hopes to raise as much as $1.5 billion in its initial offering of shares.

The digital scrapbooking site said in a regulatory filing that it will put about 75 million shares up for sale at a price between $15 and $17 each.

That, at the higher end, could put the value of the company at around $9 billion. But it falls below the estimated $12 billion value from earlier sales of shares to private investors, according to reports two years ago.

Companies set their price range for an initial public offering with a tricky calculus set by investment banks and underwriters. They don't want to set the bar too low, but going too high can lead to a sell-off.

And those tech companies still planning to go public this year may be treading more carefully following the debut of Lyft 11 days ago. After a much ballyhooed debut , the stock slumped for two days. While its shares bounced back from their lows last week, they remain far below the heights reached in the flurry of first-day trading, and they closed down nearly 6% Monday, again dipping under the initial offering price.

The Lyft drop was a "major gut check time for Lyft and the tech IPO world to see how this stock trades given it was the first one out of the box," said Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives after Lyft shares tumbled.

Pinterest could raise the share price before it begins trading. Lyft, for example set a range of $62 to $68 per share and opened trading at $72 per share.

Other tech companies pushing to go public this year include Uber, Lyft's rival; the messaging app Slack; and the video conferencing company Zoom.

Pinterest claims more than 250 million active monthly users and more than 2 billion monthly searches. The platform allows people to search for and "pin" images that interest them, whether it's fashion, sports, pets or travel.

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Pinterest has long shunned the label of being a social network. It doesn't push users to add friends or build connections. That means it's avoided the privacy tangles that have ensnared companies like Facebook. Pinterest makes advertising revenue when businesses promote pins in users' feeds.

The San Francisco company had revenue of $756 million last year, a 60% bump from 2017. It had a loss of $63 million in 2018, compared with a loss of $130 million in 2017.

Pinterest was founded in 2010 by Ben Silbermann and Evan Sharp, who are the company's CEO and chief product officer, respectively.

The company has been working on developing its artificial intelligence search, which allows people to take a photo or upload a screenshot of an item and find similar products on Pinterest.

Pinterest's stock will list on the New York Stock Exchange under the "PINS" ticker symbol.

___

AP Business Writer Michelle Chapman reported from in Newark, New Jersey.
Good morning.

I will leave it to others to debate whether Herman Cain and Stephen Moore are the best-qualified people to serve on the Federal Reserve Board. But there is little reason to think their appointment will lead to dangerous politicization of the Fed, or to irresponsible economic policy.

Weve been here before. I covered the Fed for the Wall Street Journal in 1985, when Ronald Reagan appointed two governorsManuel Johnson and Wayne Angellwith the explicit intention of challenging the power of Fed Chairman Volcker. And the two did just that, successfully pushing a plan to reduce the banks discount rate. But in the end, they didnt seriously compromise monetary policy. The most important monetary policy decisions are made by the Feds Open Market Committee, which includes a dozen people. And any group pursuing a blatantly political agenda is likely to prompt the others to coalesce against them.

The broader lesson here is this: American institutions have proven remarkably resilient in resisting a president whose modus operandi is to undermine anything that he sees as a threatbe it the intelligence agencies, the FBI, the courts, the Justice Department, or the press. The Federal Reserve will be no exception.

Separately, Ray Dalio took to 60 Minutes last night to express his view that capitalism faces a crisis. Capitalism needs to be reformed. It doesnt need to be abandoned, he said. I dont think it is sustainable. We are at a juncture. We can do it together, or we can do it in conflictconflict between rich and poor.

Dalio said odds are 60-40 that it will be done in a bad way. But he is working to improve those odds. He posted a fuller explanation of his views on reforming capitalism on his website last week; you can read it here.

More news below.

Alan Murray @alansmurray alan.murray@fortune.com
A famed Polish general who fought in the American Revolutionary war and became a protege of George Washington may have been intersex, researchers say.

Scientists first found that Casimir Pulaski's skeleton had female characteristics about 20 years ago, but were unable to prove it was definitely him.

But DNA testing has now confirmed the female skeleton contained in a metal box under the monument to the general in Georgia was indeed Mr Pulaski's.

The new evidence suggests that although Mr 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.

Their findings will be set out in a Smithsonian Channel documentary, called "America's Hidden Stories: The General Was Female?" on 8 April.

[[gallery-0]]

The discovery offers historical representation to people who are intersex, a group that has often been stigmatised and overlooked throughout history.

About one in 2,000 people is born with ambiguous genitalia, which can lead doctors to perform what advocates say are unnecessary and harmful surgeries, according to the Intersex Society of North America.

But intersex includes a variety of conditions, and many more people have subtler variations in sex anatomy, which may manifest later in life  or not at all.

Some estimates suggest that about 1.7 per cent of the population has intersex traits, making such characteristics about as common as having red hair.

Although Mr Pulaskis role in history has long been embraced in areas with strong Polish and Catholic ties  his birthday is an Illinois state holiday and he is celebrated with an annual Polish pride parade in New York City  the new findings now also place him alongside the few historical figures who are known to have had intersex traits.

Kimberly Zieselman, executive director of interACT, an advocacy organisation for children with intersex traits, said Mr Pulaskis life showed what can happen when intersex people are allowed to live as they were born, without early surgical intervention.

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Whats happening today is so wrong, Ms Zieselman said. You are erasing people like this person who went on, untouched, to be a war hero.

This is what can happen if kids are left alone  natural and healthy as they are, she added.

Born in Poland in 1745, Mr Pulaski fought for his home country against the Russians before fleeing to France, where he met Benjamin Franklin.

He came to the United States in 1777 to serve in Washingtons army and helped form the American calvary, which played a crucial role during the Revolutionary War. Some even credit Mr Pulaski with saving Washingtons life during the Battle of Brandywine.

In 1779, Mr Pulaski was mortally wounded in battle in Savannah. Some said he had been buried at a local plantation, and later, those remains were moved to a monument honouring him in a downtown square.

The remains were exhumed for testing in the 1990s, but an investigation was inconclusive.

The skeleton was about the right height and age for Mr Pulaski, who was most likely about 5ft 1in to 5ft 4in and died when he was 34.

It also showed injuries consistent with Mr Pulaskis life, said Virginia Hutton Estabrook, an assistant professor of anthropology at Georgia Southern University who worked on the case.

But there was a big catch: The skeleton looked very female, she said.

The pelvic bones, a primary way of distinguishing sex in skeletons, indicated that the person had probably been a woman, and the body had other female characteristics, including a delicate face and rounded jaw line, Ms Estabrook said.

To our great frustration, we were unable to solve the mystery, Chuck Powell, a historian who was on the original investigation team, told the Associated Press in 2005, adding that some thought we ought to stop here and declare it a female and walk away.

But the mystery nagged at researchers, including Ms Estabrook and Mr Powells daughter, Lisa Powell, who more recently investigated the case with new technology.

A DNA test led to a breakthrough: The remains were a match with a relative of Mr Pulaski who died in the 1800s and whose own remains were exhumed for testing from a grave in Poland.

That raised a whole new question: How could researchers square the skeletal evidence with the documented evidence from Mr Pulaskis life, which showed that he was baptised as a son, fought in battle as a man and displayed certain masculine traits, such as facial hair and male-pattern baldness?

Researchers concluded he must have had intersex traits. That is the only way that these two things make sense together, Ms Estabrook said.

That discovery does not change Mr Pulaskis identity  he was always a he as far as his gender, she said  but it does open up the possibility for further research into a hidden part of history.

According to Ms Estabrook, there have been other cases in which skeletons that appeared to be one sex were found with objects associated with the opposite sex.

In 2017, scholars announced that a famous Viking tomb in Sweden contained the remains of a woman, which in that case seemed to provide support for the theory that there were female Viking warriors.

There are quite a few cases like this, and our go-to interpretation has not been intersex, Ms Estabrook said.

In Mr Pulaskis case, Ms Zieselman said the discovery highlighted the intersex communitys fight against invisibility  first, by history, when it was common for people not to know they were intersex, and more recently, by surgeries that she said erase intersex traits and identity.

Just imagine if Casimir Pulaski were born today, Ms Zieselman said. He may have been raised as a girl, she said, making it unlikely that he would have joined the military and helped Washington.

Arguably, if urologists had tried to fix Pulaskis body, the US could still be a British colony.

New York Times
WARSAW (Reuters) - Teachers across Poland held a strike on Monday following failed talks over their demands for higher pay, putting pressure on the government before parliamentary elections later this year. More than half of schools were closed in several large cities, where support for the government of the Law and Justice (PiS) party is generally lower. Nearly 80 percent of teachers were on strike in the capital, Warsaw, according to the state news agency PAP. PiS has seen its popularity erode during a series of scandals, with local media accusing the party of allowing excessive pay at the central bank and running a murky real estate business. PiS denies any wrongdoing. In recent weeks, some opinion polls conducted before a European Parliament election in May have raised the possibility that PiS might lose power after the general election due in October or November. It is the first such signal since the conservative party came into government in 2015. In an apparent attempt to shore up its voter base, PiS, which espouses a left-leaning economic agenda, has announced new public spending programs in February. Many public-sector workers also demanded higher pay. "The sense of surprise among teachers that money was not found to compensate them for their hard work was huge," a senior trade unionist from the western city of Poznan, Wojciech Misko, told public broadcaster TVN. Many teachers are also unhappy with what they say has been chaotic education reform. Talks between three teachers unions and the government ended on Sunday evening, with some sticking by their demand for a monthly salary increase of 1,000 zlotys ($262). Only one, smaller union accepted the government's offer of a 15 percent monthly increase starting in September. "My sense from the talks was that the unions were saying: deduct money from the broad social programs and give it to us," Beata Szydlo, a deputy prime minister, said. Teachers' salaries in Poland range from 3,045 to 5,603 zlotys per month. Official data in February showed the average corporate salary in Poland was around 4,949 zlotys. (Reporting by Agnieszka Barteczko and Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
Washington (AFP) - US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will travel to the Venezuela border in Colombia to highlight the plight of refugees during a four-nation trip to Latin America, the State Department announced Monday.

Pompeo will pay a brief visit on Sunday to the Colombian city of Cucuta after stops in Chile, Paraguay and Peru -- all four countries led by right-wing or center-right leaders favorable to the tough US approach on Venezuela.

In Cucuta, Pompeo will "visit entities supporting Venezuelan refugees and assess the challenges due to the closed border," the State Department said in a statement.

Starting the trip on Friday in Santiago, Pompeo will "highlight Chile's regional leadership" along with economic, scientific and security ties, the State Department said.

Chile is this year's chairman of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, with a Pacific-wide summit expected in November.

In Peru, the State Department said Pompeo on Saturday will discuss support for Venezuelan refugees as well as the country's role in leading the Lima Group -- the group of Latin American nations and Canada that meets on the crisis in Venezuela.

The United States and all the Lima Group members except Mexico in January declared President Nicolas Maduro to be illegitimate as the leftist firebrand heads a crumbling economy that has sent millions fleeing.

Washington has been ramping up economic and diplomatic pressure in hopes of installing opposition leader Juan Guaido, although Maduro has maintained control with support from the military, Russia and China.

Pompeo will be the first secretary of state to visit Paraguay since 1965 with his stop on Saturday. Paraguay's US-educated president, Mario Abdo Benitez, has shared much of Washington's agenda, although he backtracked on joining the United States in moving his country's embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

President Donald Trump's administration has also sought strong ties with Brazil's new far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, who visited Washington last month.
CAIRO (AP)  Libya has been plunged into chaos again, with forces loyal to a polarizing military commander marching on the capital and trading fire with militias aligned with a weak U.N.-backed government.

The battle for Tripoli could ignite civil war on the scale of the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. That conflict left behind a patchwork of local, tribal and Islamist militias governing various fiefdoms, often through extortion and brute force. It also transformed Libya into a haven for extremists and a major conduit for migrants making perilous journeys to Europe.

Field Marshal Khalifa Hifter, who has spent the last few years battling Islamic militants in eastern Libya, presents himself as a strong hand that can unify the country and rid it of extremists. But his opponents view him as another would-be strongman in the mold of Gadhafi.

HOW DID LIBYA GET HERE?

Inspired by the Arab Spring uprisings sweeping the region, Libyans rose up in February 2011 against Gadhafi, who responded with a fierce military crackdown. As the uprising quickly escalated into a civil war, Gadhafi massed tanks outside the eastern city of Benghazi and threatened to massacre the protesters street by street.

NATO responded with a bombing campaign against Gadhafi's forces, and eventually provided close air support to a loose alliance of rebel militias, helping them to drive him from power. The rebels captured Gadhafi in his home city of Sirte in October 2011 and killed him, later releasing video footage of him being beaten and humiliated.

Libya held free elections the following year, but the government was powerless to control the vast array of militias, and the democratic transition stalled. Fighting erupted in Tripoli in the summer of 2014, leaving the international airport largely destroyed and resulting in separate governments in the capital and in eastern Libya, each backed by various armed groups.

In 2015, the U.N. backed the formation of a transitional government in Tripoli, in the west, under the leadership of technocrat Fayez Sarraj. A separate government, based in the east and allied with Hifter, has rejected its authority.

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___

WHO IS HIFTER?

Hifter helped Gadhafi seize power in a 1969 coup against the monarchy and rose through the ranks of the military, eventually commanding Libyan forces in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. But his reputation was left in tatters by Libya's disastrous defeat in the war with Chad in the 1980s, in which he was among thousands captured.

As the war wound down, he defected and joined the armed opposition to Gadhafi, orchestrating a number of failed coup attempts. He eventually relocated to the Washington, D.C. area, where he lived in exile for 20 years, leading to widespread speculation that he worked with the CIA.

He returned to Libya in 2011 and commanded forces during the uprising against Gadhafi. But he soured on the revolution during the chaos following the dictator's death, and soon organized a campaign against the various Islamic militant groups that took root in eastern Libya.

In recent years he has fought a series of battles there, leaving a swath of destruction but eventually retaking most of eastern Libya and its vital oil facilities. Over the last few months he has quietly expanded his influence across the south, winning over local tribes and factions.

He has cast his opponents as Islamic extremists and modeled himself on President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in neighboring Egypt, who led the military overthrow of an elected but divisive Islamist president in 2013 and has since presided over an unprecedented crackdown on dissent.

Hifter is supported by Egypt, as well as the United Arab Emirates, Russia and France. His supporters see him as the best hope of stabilizing the troubled country and combatting extremists.

___

WHO IS HE FIGHTING?

Hifter is expected to face stiff resistance from powerful militias from the western cities of Misrata and Zawiya, two areas that saw heavy fighting during the 2011 uprising. The Zawiya militias captured 100 of Hifter's forces on Friday, the day after he launched his offensive. The battle-hardened Misratans led the fight against an Islamic State group affiliate in 2016, eventually driving it from its last stronghold in Sirte with U.S. air support.

The Tripoli factions present themselves as heirs to the 2011 revolution, but they are widely blamed for derailing the political transition through kidnappings  including of a transitional prime minister  extortion and violence.

They have received support from Turkey and Qatar as part of the regional rivalry between those two countries and Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. European countries have provided aid to local armed groups to stem the flow of migrants, battle extremists and protect oil supplies.

The U.N.-backed government has sought support from the militias as it has struggled to gain a foothold in the capital, while the militias have clashed with each other, most recently in September.

The U.N. Security Council has meanwhile called on Hifter to halt his advance and for all sides to de-escalate the situation. U.N. envoy Ghassan Salame says he still hopes to convene a national conference later this month to plan for elections.
By Eric Knecht and Dmitry Zhdannikov

DOHA/LONDON (Reuters) - Qatar filed lawsuits on Monday against three banks, accusing them of causing billions of dollars of damage to its economy by what it called overseas currency manipulation in the wake of an Arab boycott against Qatar in 2017.

The cases, filed in London and New York, name Luxembourg-based Banque Havilland, the United Arab Emirates' First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) and Saudi Arabia's Samba Bank, according to filings seen by Reuters and a statement from Qatar's government communications office.

First Abu Dhabi Bank declined to comment, while Banque Havilland and Samba Bank did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In the case, Qatar alleges Banque Havilland devised a plan to weaken the country's riyal currency on key composite indices by submitting thousands of "fictitious and depreciated" quotes, according to the court filings.

"But the quotes were phoney, as FAB, Samba Bank, and others repeatedly refused to transact with counterparties at the prices they were quoting in public," the filings stated.

The lawsuits are the latest fallout in a protracted Gulf row that began in 2017 when Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt imposed an economic boycott on Qatar in 2017, accusing it of supporting Islamist militants and Iran.

Qatar, a small Gulf state but major gas exporter, denies the charges and says the boycott is an attempt to impinge on its sovereignty.

The currency manipulation was intended to "deplete Qatar's financial reserves so that it would be unable to complete its preparations to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup games, and would be forced to share the games with Saudi Arabia or the UAE," the filings stated.

UAE sports chief Mohammed Khalfan al-Romaithi has said his country and other Gulf states could co-host an expanded World Cup 2022, a measure global soccer body FIFA is expected to vote on in June but which Qatar holds the final decision over.

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Qatar liquidated nearly $3 billion in U.S. treasury investments and drew down over $40 billion in foreign reserves after the alleged manipulation in a bid to support its currency, the filings stated.

With more than $300 billion in central bank reserves and sovereign wealth fund assets, bankers say Qatar has sufficient financial firepower to block attacks on its currency.

Its central bank began a probe into the alleged manipulation in late 2017 after it said unidentified banks were looking to attack the riyal by trading it between themselves offshore at artificially weak levels - to create an illusion Qatar's economy was crumbling.

"Qatar seeks to hold FAB, Samba Bank, and the unknown John Doe Defendants who conspired with them liable for the billions of dollars in damages that they have caused to Qatar, plus punitive damages and statutory interest," the filings stated.

They added elsewhere that Qatar also sought to hold Banque Havilland similarly responsible.

(Reporting by Eric Knecht and Dmitry Zhdannikov; Additional reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Dale Hudson and Mark Potter)
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We often see insiders buying up shares in companies that perform well over the long term. Unfortunately, there are also plenty of examples of share prices declining precipitously after insiders have sold shares. So we'll take a look at whether insiders have been buying or selling shares in Strike Energy Limited (ASX:STX).

What Is Insider Buying?

It's quite normal to see company insiders, such as board members, trading in company stock, from time to time. However, rules govern insider transactions, and certain disclosures are required.

We would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing. But logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares. As Peter Lynch said, 'insiders might sell their shares for any number of reasons, but they buy them for only one: they think the price will rise.'

View our latest analysis for Strike Energy

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Strike Energy

Non-Executive Chairman John Poynton made the biggest insider purchase in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for AU$76k worth of shares at a price of AU$0.076 each. That means that even when the share price was higher, an insider wanted to purchase shares. It's very possible they regret the purchase, but it's more likely they are bullish about the company. We generally consider it a positive if insiders have been buying on market, even above the current price. John Poynton was the only individual insider to buy shares in the last twelve months.

John Poynton bought 2.00m shares over the last 12 months at an average price of AU$0.066. The chart below shows insider transactions (by individuals) over the last year. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

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ASX:STX Recent Insider Trading, April 7th 2019

I will like Strike Energy better if I see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying.

Insider Ownership of Strike Energy

For a common shareholder, it is worth checking how many shares are held by company insiders. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. Our data indicates that Strike Energy insiders own about AU$10m worth of shares (which is 11% of the company). We do generally prefer see higher levels of insider ownership.

So What Does This Data Suggest About Strike Energy Insiders?

There haven't been any insider transactions in the last three months -- that doesn't mean much. But insiders have shown more of an appetite for the stock, over the last year. Insiders do have a stake in Strike Energy and their transactions don't cause us concern. 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 note: Strike Energy may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free 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.
Washington (AFP) - Top US Democratic and Republican lawmakers said Monday they want Special Counsel Robert Mueller to testify before Congress about his investigation into Russian meddling during the 2016 election campaign.

Two weeks ago, Attorney General Bill Barr cleared US President Donald Trump of colluding with Russia in a four-page summary of the report. But the special counsel's final report on the investigation -- and whether Trump himself was involved in obstructing the probe -- remains unreleased.

Doug Collins, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, said he wants Democrats to immediately bring Mueller before the panel to testify about his report.

"If you seek both transparency and for the American public to learn the full contours of the special counsel's investigation, public testimony from Special Counsel Mueller himself is undoubtedly the best way to accomplish this goal," Collins wrote in a letter to the committee's Democratic chairman, Jerry Nadler.

Nadler said he "fully" agreed, but stressed that Mueller should testify after the full report is delivered to Congress and Barr testifies. He called on Barr to testify before the committee on May 2.

"We look forward to hearing from Mr. Mueller at the appropriate time," Nadler said.

It comes amid a heated battle in Washington over what Congress will actually be able to see of the report itself.

Democrats are demanding access to the entire, unredacted 400-page text, saying the evidence within could be damning to the president.

But Barr has said he will not release key evidence that is part of any investigation by a grand jury, a special panel used by prosecutors in politically sensitive cases.

Last week Nadler was among six Democrat committee chairs who wrote to Barr demanding the full report with its underlying evidence be submitted to Congress.

In his letter, Collins said Democrats were politicizing the situation by seeking the protected grand jury materials, despite an appeals court last Friday ruling that federal judges do not have authority to disclose such evidence except in specifically authorized situations.

Collins wrote that courts have determined that such situations include a formal impeachment inquiry, something Democrats have so far refused to launch.

"If you decline to launch an impeachment inquiry, which is your clear legal path to the 6(e) grand jury information, I suggest instead inviting Special Counsel Mueller in to testify before the Committee as soon as possible," Collins wrote.
By Nick Brown

NEW YORK (Reuters) - John Murante, a conservative Nebraska senator, last year introduced a bill to prevent non-citizens from being counted when the state redraws its voting maps.

He said the effort aimed to ensure each election district contained similar numbers of voters, but opponents argued it intended to undermine the political power of immigrant communities.

Murante's bill died after its critics pointed out a lack of granular data on where the state's non-citizens live.

That data may soon be available.

The Trump administration believes its proposed question about citizenship on the 2020 Census will help states that want to draw citizens-only voting districts in the next round of redistricting by providing the first comprehensive data on non-citizens in about 70 years, according to a Reuters review of court and federal register documents and interviews with more than a dozen state lawmakers.

Such a change would provide a new opportunity for Republican-controlled states - those most likely to adopt citizens-only redistricting - to redraw their voting maps in a way that could help their party win more state-level elections.

Currently, state and federal voting districts are drawn to be roughly equal in population, regardless of how many residents can legally vote. That means tallies for district-drawing purposes include non-citizens, such as green-card holders and undocumented immigrants.

Democrats and immigrant rights activists say this system ensures elected leaders represent everyone in their district who depends on public services such as schools and trash pickup, regardless of voting eligibility.

Republicans argue that districts should be the same size so each vote carries the same weight. If one district has far fewer eligible voters than another, each vote there has more influence on election outcomes.

That's a problem for Republicans because the eligible voters in immigrant-heavy districts tend to support Democrats.

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Trump administration officials have been considering the merits of citizens-only redistricting since 2017 - well before announcing their intention in March 2018 to add the citizenship question to the decennial survey, according to court documents filed as part of litigation over the citizenship question.

And in December, the Census Bureau issued a notice in the Federal Register saying that if any states indicate a need for ... citizenship data to use in redistricting, it would make a design change" to provide it.

Republican lawmakers in Texas, Arizona, Missouri and Nebraska told Reuters they would consider making use of the citizenship data if it became available.

The tactic is prohibited at the federal level by past U.S. Supreme Court decisions that have interpreted the U.S. constitution as requiring that U.S. House districts be based on total population. But the court, in a 2016 case known as Evenwel v. Abbott, left the door open for state-level districts to use other metrics.

The Commerce Department, which includes the Census Bureau, declined to comment on whether redistricting was part of the motivation for proposing the citizenship question.

James Whitehorne, the chief of the Census Bureau's Redistricting & Voting Rights Office, called the federal register notice routine. "Were supposed to provide states with what they identify as needing," he said.

U.S. voting districts are drawn at the state level, most often by state legislators, giving the party in power control over how the lines are redrawn.

While both Republicans and Democrats frame the debate over citizen-only districts around fairness, demographic experts point out that both sides have a lot at stake politically.

Data from the nonpartisan APM Research Lab showed that 95 of the 100 U.S. congressional districts with the highest foreign-born populations are represented by Democrats. Similar data for state-level seats was not available.

Redrawing such districts with citizen-only populations would give Republicans a better shot by expanding the districts into more conservative areas, said Albert Kauffman, a professor at St. Mary's School of Law in San Antonio who has studied redistricting and opposes excluding non-citizens.

In Texas, a citizens-only map could strip Latino voters of majorities in two or three state senate seats and six or seven state representative seats, Kauffman said, pointing out that Hispanic voters traditionally lean left.

"Democrats know they would probably lose seats at every level," Kauffman said.

SUPREME CHALLENGE

Immigrant rights activists and Democratic-led cities and states have sued the Trump administration to prevent it from asking census respondents about their citizenship, and the Supreme Court will decide by June if the question can remain.

Opponents argue the administration aims to use the question to intimidate immigrants out of responding to the census, which would cost their communities political representation and a share of about $800 billion in annual federal aid allocated based on population.

The administration disputes that. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said his decision to add the question was aimed at getting the Justice Department the comprehensive citizenship data it needs to better enforce Voting Rights Act provisions that protect minorities from discrimination.

Ross has not publicly commented on how citizenship data might be used in redistricting. But Census records, as well as emails released during the litigation over the citizenship question, showed he was thinking about citizens-only redistricting well before he announced plans to add the question.

In April of 2017, at the behest of former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, Ross spoke with former Kansas Secretary of State and noted immigration hawk Kris Kobach, according to the emails. One topic of discussion was "the problem that aliens ... are still counted for congressional apportionment," according to a subsequent email from Kobach to Ross describing their conversation.

The following month, Ross asked Commerce Senior Policy Advisor David Langdon to look into whether non-citizens, including illegal immigrants, are included in voting maps, according to Langdon's deposition in the litigation over the citizenship question.

Kobach and Langdon did not respond to requests for comment.

ATTRACTING INTEREST

A handful of states will likely request the census data on citizenship if the question survives its legal challenges, state lawmakers and a Republican strategist told Reuters.

Lawmakers and state officials from Arizona, Missouri, Nebraska and Texas said in interviews they are considering citizen-only districts. Republicans in Tennessee also voiced support for citizens-only redistricting in court papers filed in the Evenwel Supreme Court case. Reuters reached out to several of the Tennessee lawmakers who signed the court brief, but all declined to comment.

Missouri Representative Dean Plocher, a Republican who sponsored unsuccessful legislation last year to base Missouri's voting districts on citizen population, said the effort is aimed solely at equalizing the power of all votes in the state. He said he hadn't considered how such changes might affect his party's chances in elections.

Nebraska's Murante - the former senator behind his state's failed citizens-only redistricting bill and now the state's treasurer - said he supports citizens-only maps because the state's constitution requires that "aliens" be excluded from voting districts.

Immigrant rights activists counter that citizens-only districts could be forced to expand in ways that weaken the political influence of immigrant communities.

The effect could be particularly pronounced in places such as south Texas, where immigrants make up more than a quarter of the population, said Juan Hinojosa, a Democratic state senator.

Hinojosas district includes areas known as colonias  informal communities of poor, largely Hispanic families. Citizen-only redistricting would make it more likely that anti-immigration Republicans would win elections in the border region, Hinojosa said.

The question of how to count non-citizens in voting districts may end up at the Supreme Court, said Kel Seliger, a Republican Texas state senator, who told Reuters that lawmakers there would explore citizen-only maps.

Youve got be careful," he said, "that the Republican bias doesnt get us on the wrong side of the Constitution.

(Reporting by Nick Brown; Editing by Richard Valdmanis, Brian Thevenot and Paul Thomasch)
American tourist Kimberly Sue Endicott, kidnapped last week while on an African safari, was scheduled to be turned over Monday to the U.S. ambassador to Uganda amid conflicting reports over whether a ransom was paid for her freedom.

Ugandan police said Endicott was released Sunday in good health and was safely in the hands of Ugandan security forces.

"The victim (and) her safari guide, Jean Paul Mirenge, were released because of the implicit threat of the use of force after the armed captors knew they were being pursued," Ugandan police spokesman Fred Enanga said.

Enanga declined to provide specific details on how Endicott's freedom was secured, citing future operational security and tactical reasons.

Wild Frontiers Uganda Safaris issued a statement thanking Ugandan and U.S. authorities for conducting the "negotiated handover." An official with the company told The Associated Press that an undisclosed ransom was paid.

Otherwise she wouldnt be back, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

Endicott, from Southern California, was visiting Queen Elizabeth National Park 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. They were swept across the border to an unknown camp in neighboring Congo, officials said.

"The operation to arrest the culprits is ongoing with the close coordination of our counterparts from the (Congo), whom we have been working with for the last five days," Enanga said. "We continue to appraise the kidnap and rescue operation to ensure such an occurrence does not happen again."

Enanga stressed that Uganda is safe for tourists. President Trump, however, suggested on Twitter that the kidnappers must be arrested before tourists will be comfortable in the equatorial nation of 43 million people.

"Uganda must find the kidnappers of the American Tourist and guide before people will feel safe in going there," Trump tweeted Monday. "Bring them to justice openly and quickly!"

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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

The State Department released a statement Friday saying it works "tirelessly, in partnership with local authorities" to bring home anyone who is kidnapped abroad. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, however, has repeatedly stressed that paying ransoms only leads to more kidnappings.

Endicott and Mirenge were on an evening safari with a Canadian couple when the gunmen accosted their vehicle. The 78-year-old Canadians were robbed but left behind and were able to notify the camp manager, who retrieved them.

A massive search-and-rescue effort was launched after the ambush and kidnapping.

More: American woman kidnapped in Uganda; $500K ransom demanded

Police said Endicott, who owns a small skin-care shop in Orange County, California, 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.

Queen Elizabeth Park is 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.

"We shall deal with these isolated pockets of criminals," Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni tweeted Monday. "However, I want to reassure the country and our tourists that Uganda is safe and we shall continue to improve the security in our parks. Come and enjoy the Pearl of Africa."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rescue or ransom? American kidnapped in Uganda will meet US ambassador Monday
The Pentagon wants to reduce the Navys carrier fleet. In testimony before the House Armed Services Committee on March 26, Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan said that aircraft carriers remain vital to the United States security. Shanahan also insisted that a carrier, the USS Harry S. Truman, which needs refueling for its nuclear reactor so that it can stay in the U.S. fleet for another 25 years, should be tied up to save money for the future force. The two assertions are contradictory. Future force includes unmanned planes that would fly from carrier decks. Laying up the Truman would reduce the carrier fleet below its congressionally mandated level of eleven, which U.S. combatant commanders say is insufficient to meet their requirements. Cutting the carrier force would undercut the rationale for investing in future technology  for example, unmanned planes.

The large problem is that the military service best suited to deter Chinas regional and global ambitions  the U.S. Navy  is not being funded at a level commensurate with the reemergence of great-power competition. The U.S. needs both enough ships to meet its global commitments and advanced technology to equip them. Cutting either to fund the other is like giving up your health insurance to replace a leaking roof.

Arguments for retiring the Truman stand up neither to facts nor to reason. The cost savings from failing to refuel the Truman in the fiscal year that begins this October would be no more than $17 million. Greater savings would accrue in later years. They amount, in constant dollars, to less than 75 percent of the Trumans original cost  a lot of money, but worth it to keep the carrier fleet at the absolute minimum needed to meet the U.S.s peacetime commitments in the Middle East and Indo-Pacific.

Another ailment to which Pentagon leadership has succumbed is the selectively applied notion that large deck ships are particularly vulnerable to Chinese missiles, whose unproven capability is believed to threaten aircraft carriers and large amphibious ships underway at sea as far as 2,500 miles distant. Selectively applied is an appropriate description because Pentagon leadership has also agreed to buy two Ford-class aircraft carriers to be built simultaneously, thereby saving $4 billion dollars. This is a good deal for which the Pentagon deserves credit, but is the Truman more vulnerable than the two future carriers?

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No argument exists to support that it is. The Navy already possesses late-model missiles that can defend against cruise and ballistic missiles. The U.S. Air Force long since demonstrated its ability to launch intermediate-range ballistic missiles at land targets from the air. This ability can be updated to threaten Chinese anti-ship missile batteries. A straightforward answer to Chinese missiles, as they present an increasing threat to ships underway at sea, is to invest in unmanned aerial vehicles whose range is much greater than that of manned aircraft and then to change the composition of planes aboard aircraft carriers so that they can launch strikes out of range of Chinas missiles. That investment should not be made at the expense of a ship that can carry new unmanned combat aircraft. In any event, the back-and-forth of new weapons answered by newer ones does not end with Chinas anti-ship missiles.

No less important, the Navy has been experiencing serious problems with repairs, maintenance, and training because of growing demands on its fleet. Former Pacific Command commander Admiral Sam Locklear told the House Armed Services Committee five years ago that the U.S. Central and Pacific Commands could not meet their obligations with the eleven existing carriers. Tying up the Truman would cut the number of carriers to ten, from its congressionally mandated requirement of eleven. It would idle shipyard workers whose skills cannot be turned on and off like a fan, thereby further harming the U.S.s industrial base. It would nullify President Trumps promise to expand the Navy to include having the twelve-carrier Navy we need.

The threatened aircraft carriers namesake, Harry S. Truman, was a self-taught historian who once observed that there is nothing new in the world except the history that you do not know. The lesson on which American defense planners have lost their grip is that weakness, in this case the diminished ability to bring powerful forces to bear swiftly, is an invitation to bad behavior from a foe. China insists that taking Taiwan by force remains an option and continues to increase the amphibious fleet required for that objective, along with its aggressive deployments of air and naval forces around Taiwan. Reducing the U.S. carrier fleet today is like lighting a campfire in a drought-stricken forest.

But the bottom line here is the defense budgets bottom line. This administrations defense-budget increases are prudent and necessary but insufficient. They will help end the unreadiness that the previous administrations defense cuts created. They will not build up the U.S. military at the rate needed to address the re-emergent great-power competition that the Trump administration correctly identifies. Achieving the Trump administrations original goal of a twelve-carrier fleet would require building a new aircraft carrier every three years. At that rate, Navy could have a twelve-carrier fleet by 2030  at the earliest. (Many of the existing eleven carriers would be retired as new ones come on line.) The Defense Department has no plan for this.

VIEW SLIDESHOW: USS Harry S. Truman

The administrations budgets will not substantially ameliorate what the 2017 congressionally mandated commission on the national-defense strategy identified as a crisis of national security for the United States that is undermining deterrence of U.S. adversaries and the confidence of American allies, thus increasing the likelihood of conflict. They will not reverse what the current commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral Phil Davidson, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in April last year: that there is no guarantee that the U.S. would win a future conflict with China. Of course, there is no guarantee of anything in a conflict, but this statement by the officer responsible for American forces in the Indo-Pacific is a powerful warning against the less capable Navy that the U.S. will have if USS Truman leaves the fleet.

The most apt parallel to our current situation is the one that Britain faced in the 1930s. China should not be compared to Nazi Germany, but the responses of British and American leadership to strategic danger bear examination. Up until it was too late to deter war, the British political class saw appeasement as an acceptable answer to Hitlers increasing aggression. They dismissed the idea that Britain was in a political struggle with Germany. Accede enough and the Germans will be satisfied, they thought. This is parallel to our decades-long hope that integrating China into the global economic system would make Chinese leadership stakeholders in the world order. Appeasing Germany failed for Britain. Using inclusion to moderate China has failed for us.

Comparisons between Britains experience and our policy today do not stop here. Todays perception is that the British sat on their hands as Germany armed. This misses the mark. After dipping slightly between 1930 and 1933, the U.K.s defense budget increased by 128.8 percent from 1934 to 1939, the year that World War II began. Winston Churchills reviled trio of British leaders, Ramsay MacDonald, Stanley Baldwin, and Neville Chamberlain, held the premiership during that five-year military buildup during which the defense budget increased by an average of 29.9 percent per year. It was not enough. The Germans seized the continent, drove the British off it, and inflicted devastation on London and other major cities.

Our increases in naval expenditures are less impressive than those of Britain in the 1930s. Measured in constant dollars, the U.S. Navys budget in 2008 was $162.7 billion dollars. One decade later, the Navys budget was $172.9 billion dollars. This is an annual growth rate of 1.02 percent. It compares unfavorably with Britains large defense increases that Churchill rightfully criticized as inadequate to defend against the arms buildup that accelerated as Berlin openly violated the Versailles Treatys proscription against German rearmament after 1933.

If there is a conflict between the U.S. and China, it will be waged at sea. Chinas naval buildup began in earnest in 2000. Eleven years ago, the Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) started to deploy guided-missile frigates and logistics ships to the waters off the Horn of Africa  a demonstration, which has been repeated dozens of times since, of Beijings ability to dispatch and supply naval forces at great distance from their base. The Pentagons unwillingness to refuel the USS Truman so that it can fund new and indispensable technologies to offset Chinese competition is a symptom of the U.S.s failure to take Beijings ambitions seriously  both in dollars and in strategy. Decommissioning an aircraft carrier, one with a quarter century of life left, to pay for new technology is an unforced error, an exercise in strategic malfeasance. Keep the Truman and pay for the weapons to deter or, if need be, defeat China.

More from National Review
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.
Johannesburg (AFP) - A suspected rhino poacher was trampled to death by an elephant and his body devoured by lions in South Africa's Kruger National Park, officials said Monday.

South African rangers have recovered the skull of the man in the vast Kruger sanctuary, which has born the brunt of much of the country's poaching crisis.

According to a park spokesman, rangers were alerted after the victim's alleged accomplices told his family that he had been crushed to death by an elephant.

The man's remains were discovered on Thursday after a two day search involving aircraft and rangers on foot, with the help of the victim's accomplices.

"Our field rangers looked around the area and made the unfortunate discovery of a skull. That was the only remaining part of the deceased," Kruger national park spokesman Isaac Phaahla told AFP.

He said a pride of lions was thought to have been in the area and were believed to have devoured the man's remains.

"But the family were grateful that at least they have the bone to go and bury and they know what happened," Phaahla said.

Four of the man's accomplices have since been arrested and are expected to appear in court this week.

The demand for rhino horn has placed Africa at the epicentre of a global poaching and trafficking crisis.

South Africa, which is home to about 80 percent of the world rhino population, has been hit hardest, with much of the poaching concentrated on the Kruger park.

In 2018, 769 rhinos were poached in South Africa alone, according to the country's environment ministry. More than 7,100 animals have been killed over the past decade.
BENGHAZI, Libya (AP)  Forces loyal to rival Libyan army commander Khalifa Hifter said Saturday they seized control of the main airport in Libya's capital Tripoli, two days after Hifter ordered his forces to seize the seat of Libya's U.N.-backed government.

Hifter's media office said in a post online that they took full control of the Tripoli international airport and were working to secure the facility. They posted photos of troops apparently inside the airport, saying "we are standing at the heart of the Tripoli international airport."

Hifter's offensive on Tripoli could plunge the oil-rich country into another spasm of violence, possibly the worst since the 2011 civil war that toppled and later killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. The country is governed by rival authorities: The internationally backed government in Tripoli and the government in the east, which Hifter is aligned with. Each is backed by an array of militias.

Fayez Sarraj, chairman of the Presidential Council of Libya, said his government had offered concessions to Hifter "to avoid bloodshed and to end divisions" and was surprised by Hifter's order to take the capital.

"We were stabbed in the back," he said Saturday in televised comments, adding that his forces would confront Hifter's troops with "force and determination."

The Tripoli airport has not been functional since fighting in 2014 destroyed much of the facility.

The media office said that troops also captured the area of Wadi el-Rabeia, south of Tripoli, amid clashed with militias loyal to Sarraj.

Ahmed al-Mesmari, spokesman for the self-styled Libyan National Army led by Hifter, said 14 troops had been killed since Hifter declared the offensive. He said rival militias launched four airstrikes Saturday targeting Hifter's position in the town of al-Aziziya, but that no casualties had been reported.

Al-Mesmari said Hifter's forces declared Tripoli a no-fly zone for warplanes.

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Hifter announced Thursday he was deploying his forces toward Tripoli, sparking fears that the tensions could be escalating out of control as militias from the western cities of Zawiya and Misarata said that they have mobilized to confront Hifter.

He also put at risk upcoming peace talks between Libyan rivals brokered by the U.N. aimed at drawing a roadmap for new elections.

The U.N. Security Council on Saturday called on Hifter forces to halt all military movements and urged all forces in Libya "to de-escalate and halt military activity."

The U.N. envoy for Libya, Ghassan Salame, said the UN is determined to hold the planned national conference later this month to set time for possible elections.

Speaking at a news conference in Tripoli, he 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.
Amid a push by Democrats to look at President Trumps tax returns, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, called their efforts moronic despite previously declaring that there could be an explosive revelation in them.

"I'd like the president to follow through and show his tax returns," Romney told NBCs Meet the Press on Sunday.

"But I also have to tell you, I think the Democrats are just playing along his handbook, which is that going after his tax returns through a legislative action is moronic, he continued. That's not going to happen. The courts are not going to say you can compel a person running for office to release their tax returns. So he's going to win this victory. He wins them time after time."

During the 2016 campaign, Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, was a fierce Trump critic and at one point suggested there could be a bombshell in the real estate moguls tax returns.

I think theres something there, he said in February 2016 on Fox News. Either hes not anywhere near as wealthy as he says he is or he hasnt been paying the kind of taxes we would expect him to pay, or perhaps he hasnt been giving money to the vets or to the disabled like hes been telling us hes doing.

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, is seen in the Russell Building on the first day of the 116th Congress on Jan. 3. (Photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

Democrats, empowered after the 2018 elections gave them control of the House, recently requested six years of the presidents personal tax returns under a provision in the federal tax code that says the IRS shall furnish any filers tax return information to the chairs of three congressional committees upon written request.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., sent a letter to the IRS Wednesday, formally asking for the returns and giving a deadline of April 10.

"This request is about policy, not politics, Neal said in a statement. My preparations were made on my own track and timeline, entirely independent of other activities in Congress and the Administration. My actions reflect an abiding reverence for our democracy and our institutions, and are in no way based on emotion of the moment or partisanship."

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Still, Republicans accused Democrats of weaponizing the tax code against Trump and argued their actions would threaten taxpayers privacy rights and set a dangerous precedent.

In recent precedent, presidential candidates have released their returns, which is not required by law. Trump, however, backed off his promise to do so and refused to release them, claiming he was under audit.

On Friday, Trump repeated the claim. "Im under audit. When youre under audit you dont do it."

"From what I understand, the law is 100 percent on my side," he also said.

Trumps acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney also told Fox News Sunday that the request was political hit job.

You always expect something from the Democrats, said Mulvaney, who also serves as director of the Office of Management and Budget. If they dont get what they want from the Mueller report, theyre going to ask for the taxes. If they dont get what they want on the taxes, theyll ask for something else.

"They know one of the fundamental principles of the IRS is to protect the confidentiality of you and me and everybody else who files taxes, continued Mulvaney. "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."

When asked if he believes Democrats will ever see Trumps tax returns, Mulvaney said, "Oh, no, never.

Nor should they, he added. Keep in mind that's 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, which, of course, is what drives the Democrats crazy. But they know they're not going to get this.

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Read more from Yahoo News:
(Repeats April 6 story with no changes to the text)

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON, April 6 (Reuters) - 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 hole's 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.

"It's 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 Einstein's 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).

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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 project's 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 hole's shadow or silhouette.

Einstein's 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 Einstein's 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.'" (Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Sandra Maler)
Moscow (AFP) - Russian officials said Monday they will work towards freeing all orca and beluga whales from a notorious facility in the east of the country, after a visit by US-based marine mammal advocates.

Nearly 100 whales captured for sale to aquariums have been kept in small pens for months in what the media has nicknamed a "whale jail" in the Russian Far East, as the campaign to release them gathered strength and went global.

Kremlin-backed Far Eastern governor Oleg Kozhemyako on Monday announced that he has "made a decision to free the animals into the wild," after meeting noted environmentalists and campaigners Jean-Michel Cousteau and Charles Vinick who visited the facility last week.

"Our goal is to release all of them," said a joint statement by Kozhemyako, Cousteau and Vinick.

Cousteau, the son of celebrated French ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, is the founder of the US-based Ocean Futures Society, while Charles Vinick heads the Whale Sanctuary Project and has worked on rehabilitation of captive orcas in the past.

Cousteau told AFP by phone from Vladivostok that he believed "many of the animals will be released" but that it will take time to identify the right decision for each animal.

"If some are sick we will take care of them," he said.

He said dolphinariums should move away from using marine mammals and instead use technology to "connect the public to the ocean through 3D projections" as well as encourage seeing the animals in the wild.

The "whale jail" has exposed the lack of legislation in Russia regulating capture of marine mammals, with companies abusing catch permits for "educational purposes" only to proceed to sell the animals to the captivity industry, notably in China where it is booming.

- 'It's a battle' -

Russia is the only country that catches wild orcas for aquariums, with each animal fetching $6 million or more in what is a very opaque market.

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The conditions in the facility in Nakhodka, which contains 10 orcas and 87 beluga whales, are "not conducive to their long term health," said Vinick.

"The pens are small and crowded, the depth is too shallow," he told AFP.

"In general, most of the animals are stable," though they have developed skin conditions, he said.

Four firms captured 90 belugas and 11 orcas last summer. Three belugas and one orca have disappeared since that time.

Scientists have taken probes and audio data from the animals and will continue working with the Russian side, Vinick said.

As a first step, the facility should be expanded, and animals' attention should be redirected from humans feeding them, he said, so that they spend more time in the water and limit exposure to air and sun.

On Thursday, Russia's environment minister said that releasing the animals in the winter would be too dangerous. "Now we are in summer, and this work can and must be done."

But environmentalist Dmitry Lisitsyn, whose group Sakhalin Watch has called for their release for months, said the government has not even filed a legal complaint to seize the animals from the companies keeping them.

"A legal decision is a decisive factor (in freeing the animals), and it doesn't exist," he said, concerned that when summer comes, officials will say their hands are tied.

"It's a battle," he told AFP. "It's possible that the forces behind the captive companies are just killing time."
Milan (AFP) - Italy's hardline interior minister Matteo Salvini gathered a handful of European far-right parties in Milan on Monday in a bid to forge an unlikely alliance of nationalists ahead of next month's European parliament elections.

"We're broadening the community, the family. We're working for a new European dream," Salvini, who is also deputy prime minister, told journalists.

Salvini heads the anti-immigrant League party and was flanked by Joerg Meuthen of Alternative for Germany (AfD), Olli Kotro from the Finns Party and Anders Vistisen of the Danish People's Party.

Despite their shared dislike for immigration, multiculturalism, the left and the EU, Europe's populists remain divided on many other key issues.

"Today for many citizens and peoples, the European Union represents a nightmare," Salvini told the meeting in a luxury Milanese hotel held under the slogan -- "Towards a common sense Europe... Peoples rise up."

"We're making work, family, security, environmental protection, the future of youth, central again (with) alternative movements to those that have governed for decades," Salvini said.

The new bloc hopes to be the largest in the 751-member European Parliament after the May 23-26 elections, Salvini said.

Notably absent from Monday's meeting were Marine Le Pen of France's National Rally (NR), Poland's governing PiS (Law and Justice party) and Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz party.

Orban has voiced admiration for Salvini but his party currently belongs to the European parliament's centre-right European People's party (EPP) group -- although it has been suspended after it ran a campaign accusing European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker of plotting to flood Europe with migrants.

- 'Identity and tradition' -

Most of Europe's right-wing nationalists are currently divided into three blocs and a tangled web of alliances in the European Parliament, which they would like to overhaul if not destroy.

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They are the Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF) group -- which includes Salvini's League and NR as well as Austria's Freedom Party and the Netherlands' Party for Freedom.

Then comes the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group and the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD).

The dream of Salvini -- and of Steve Bannon, US President Donald Trump's former strategist -- has been to unite these disparate forces and form an "international of nationalists".

Salvini admitted that the various nationalist movements "have differences" but "they meet on questions of identity and tradition."

The group hopes to expand before the May elections to become "a force of government and change in Europe".

"Those who are undermining the European dream (are) the bureaucrats, the do-gooders, the bankers, who have governed Europe for too long. We want to bring the people back to governing Europe," he said.

A rally of European populists is planned for May 18 in Milan, which Le Pen should attend, he added.

Salvini met Le Pen for talks in Paris on Friday, amid questions about who would lead the new populist bloc.

Among the key policy differences between Europe's populist parties, the AfD and their Scandinavian allies tend to believe in the market economy, while the French NR favours a more protectionist approach.

While Italy's League, Poland's PiS and Hungary's Fidesz highlight Europe's Christian cultural roots, the NR has shied away from taking a similar stance in a country where the majority is in favour of secularism.

Salvini and Le Pen have both praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, a view not shared by PiS in Poland or the Finns Party.

Denmark's Vistisen said on Monday that "this project is about defending nation states' rights to find their own path."

"If you let our opponents divide us, you will see more Brussels (EU), less security, and the multiculturalism and the identity of Europe's policies taking over the national identities of the 27 European countries," Vistisen said.

Monday's meeting came as the coalition government of Salvini's League and the Five Star Movement of fellow deputy prime minister Luigi Di Maio which won elections a year ago appears increasingly jittery.

The League has doubled its popular standing from 17 percent to over 30 percent since last year's parliamentary elections, but its ascendency has started to falter along with the Italian economy.

The anti-establishment M5S, which is ideologically opposed to many League policies, has meanwhile fallen behind in the polls after winning 32 percent of votes last March.

Di Maio on Friday said he was worried by the League's "alliance with Holocaust-denying forces", a charge Salvini and AfD's Meuthen were on Monday again forced to reject.
Milan (AFP) - Italy's Matteo Salvini gathers far-right parties from around Europe in Milan on Monday hoping to forge an unlikely alliance of nationalists ahead of next month's European parliament elections.

The meeting hosted by deputy prime minister and interior minister Salvini at a luxury hotel in Italy's commercial capital is being held under the slogan "Towards a common sense Europe... Peoples rise up."

European populists including Salvini's anti-immigrant League are hoping for a so-called "sovereignist" grouping of at least 70-80 MEPs in the 751-member European Parliament after the May 26 election.

Salvini will speak to journalists at around 0830 GMT and has said that up to 20 parties could join a hypothetical bloc.

The few confirmed attendees are Germany's Alternative for Germany (AfD), the country's biggest opposition party which has said it wants "a Europe of fatherlands", the Danish People's Party and the Finns Party.

- Tangled alliances -

Notably absent will be Marine Le Pen of France's National Rally (NR), Poland's governing PiS (Law and Justice party) and Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz party.

Orban has voiced admiration for Salvini but his party belongs to the European parliament's centre-right European People's party (EPP) group.

Most of Europe's right-wing nationalists are currently divided into three blocs and a tangled web of alliances in the European Parliament, which they would like to overhaul if not destroy.

They are the Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF) group -- which includes the League and RN as well as Austria's Freedom Party and the Netherlands' Party for Freedom -- the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD).

The dream of Salvini -- and of Steve Bannon, US President Donald Trump's former strategist -- has been to unite the disparate forces and form an "international of nationalists".

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Salvini held talks with Le Pen in Paris on Friday and said she would come to a bigger meeting in Milan in May, which, according to Salvini "at least 15-20 countries" will attend.

Despite their shared dislike for immigration, multiculturalism, the left and the EU, Europe's populists remain divided on other key issues.

The AfD and their Scandinavian allies tend to believe in the market economy, while the French RN favours a more protectionist approach.

While Italy's League, Poland's PiS and Hungary's Fidesz highlight Europe's Christian cultural roots, the RN has shied away from taking a similar stance in a country where the majority is in favour of secularism.

Salvini and Le Pen have both praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, a view not shared by PiS in Poland or the Finns Party.

- 'Increasingly nervous' -

The coalition government of Salvini's League and the Five Star Movement of fellow deputy prime minister Luigi Di Maio which won elections a year ago is also looking increasingly jittery.

The League has doubled its popularity from 17 percent to over 30 percent since last year's parliamentary elections, but its ascendency has started to falter along with the Italian economy.

The anti-establishment M5S, which is ideologically opposed to many League policies, has meanwhile fallen behind in the polls, despite winning 32 percent of votes last March.

Di Maio on Friday said he was worried by the League's "alliance with Holocaust-denying forces", prompting an outburst from Salvini: "I don't have time to lose by responding to scandals and insults, I prefer to WORK", Salvini responded on Twitter.

"League members seem increasingly nervous recently," Di Maio replied.
Samsungs Galaxy S10  regarded as a revelation in the crypto space thanks to its built-in cryptocurrency wallet  has already had one of its security measures breached, placing all stored funds at risk.

Earlier this year, rumours surfaced that Samsung was planning to release a mobile smartphone with a built-in cryptocurrency wallet.

It didnt take long for the crypto community to feel the buzz, particularly when it was confirmed that Samsung had entered a partnership with Enjin  one of the leaders in the crypto and blockchain gaming space.

But despite the hype surrounding the integration of a crypto wallet into Samsungs flagship Galaxy smartphone, a new video has been uploaded to imgur showing how easy it is to hack the phones fingerprint scanner, allowing criminals to gain access to any crypto stored on the phone.

The Galaxy S10 can be broken into in less than 15 minutes

The creator of the video has used a 3D printer and a pair of gloves to effortlessly bypass the biometric fingerprint scanner on the Galaxy S10.

He notes: It took me three tries to get the right ridge height (and I forgot to mirror the fingerprint on the first one) but yeah, third time was the charm.

The 3D print will unlock my phone in some cases just as well as my actual finger does.

He states this raises ethical concerns as there is nothing stopping him (or anyone who can recreate the process) from stealing somebodys phone and using printing gloves with their fingerprints to unlock the phone and commit a crime.

If I steal someones phone, their fingerprints are already on it. I can do this entire process in less than three minutes and remotely start the 3D print so that its done by the time I get to it, he writes.

He also raises the issue that many banking applications only require fingerprint authentication, and as such he could seamlessly obtain access to users bank accounts in less than 15 minutes if the phone is only secured by fingerprint security measures.

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Stored crypto could be at risk

This exploit poses a significant threat to users who are intending to store crypto on the Galaxy S10. While it is safer to use a hardware wallet or paper wallet to store crypto, many may want to use the S10 for its added convenience.

The issue will be particularly troublesome for those who are not well versed in locking down their crypto security measures. If they store their private key on the mobile device as well, a person with ill intentions could easily break into the phone and steal all of the crypto stored there.

The hope is now that Samsung is made aware of this flaw and adds additional security measures such as two-factor authentication, but in the early days of the S10, it doesnt look promising as a method for storing crypto.

Interested in reading more about the Galaxy S10s crypto wallet integration? Discover more about the pros and cons of having a crypto wallet built into a smartphone.

The post Samsungs Galaxy S10 fingerprint security measure has already been breached appeared first on Coin Rivet.
Its not what celebrants want to hear when the champagne is exploding out of shaken bottles of Dom, the confetti is falling, and their stock is up 8.7 percent at the markets close, but I have an announcement to make: San Francisco is past its prime and the fires of creation have abated.

With all the millionaires newly minted by Lyfts IPO, and with those set to be minted by Ubers and Palantirs and AirBnBs, you might expect this enclave to become the next Babylon of American capitalism. While our moralists in the media  Nellie Bowles, Emily Chang, et al.  busily tsk-tsk the greed and the lust and the hypocrisy and the hubris, there is a story here they miss: The citys current concentration of wealth likely doesnt represent the beginning of a golden-if-sinful era, but the end.

Magnificent in the distance, San Francisco is now shockingly ugly up close. In the decade I have lived here, the city has achieved the seemingly impossible: It has combined the expensive and the bland and the appalling into a new form of decadence. To the untrained eye, it looks magical: a city of the future, a city of gasps. Then, slowly, it reveals itself to be a city of lies, one that dismisses the idea of city living.

The distant future Silicon Valley sells with the zeal of a crusader  all the lip service it pays to making the world a better place  shimmers like fools gold, monopolistic surveillance capitalism cloaked in the language of the common good. Billboards off the highway announce the coming of artificial intelligence as new nonprofits pop up to defend us against HAL and Skynet, but in reality AI is machine learning  pattern-recognition software parsing out subtle statistical connections to win board games and show you better ads.

With a devilish consistency, this city sets you up for disappointment.

Running a venture-capital fund that invests as early as possible in startups, I now see fewer and fewer companies choosing to come launch here. When we opened our doors in 2015, maybe 80 percent of our investments were in Bay Area companies. Last year, half of them were, and we expect to see that number decrease even more in the years ahead. Andreessen-Horowitz, the famed Silicon Valley VC firm, has announced that its becoming more or less a hedge fund, presumably to focus on later-stage opportunities. Peter Thiel, who had lived here since the mid 90s, has now decamped to Los Angeles, and says there is a less than 50 percent chance the next great tech company will arise in an increasingly expensive, conformist Silicon Valley.

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Silicon Valley is now more fashion than opportunity, Thiel told the Swiss newspaper Zeitung. The heads are the same.

Lack of independent thought aside, the Economist has identified the source of the problem: You cant build a successful startup from a garage if a garage costs a million bucks. The flow of new creations is being choked off first and foremost because there are fewer cheap places for new things to start.

The median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco recently hit $3690 per month, 30 percent greater than in New York City. Over the last decade, the Bay Area has added 722,000 jobs but built only 106,000 new homes. Proposition M, passed in the 1980s to avoid Manhattanization, limits the supply of office space. The citys average Class A asking rent has risen 124 percent since 2010 to over $80 per square foot.

The legendary urbanist Jane Jacobs once remarked that new ideas come from old buildings, the types of places you can alter without permission because no one cares about them. This is one reason why so many garage startups and garage bands and artists spilling paint in discarded warehouse lofts have left their mark on the world. The true creative class cant afford to rent expensive new studios.

But in San Francisco, the true creative class cant afford to rent any space anymore.

The artists have fled. Sadie Valeri, an artist who has been painting and drawing in San Francisco for over 20 years, recently announced that she is closing her famed Potrero Hill atelier. Our studio lease is ending, she wrote in an email to her students last month. And we have been informed that our rent will be increasing significantly to more than we can afford.

There is no longer a San Francisco music scene, either. The house the Grateful Dead lived in at 710 Ashbury Street during their formative years in the 1960s is surrounded by Victorian townhouses that today sell for $3 million and more. A tourist review of the location puts it well: Unless you knew who lived there, you wouldnt know.

If you can stomach all that blandness, I wish you luck with the appalling. Up and down the citys disorienting hills, you notice homeless men and women  junkies, winos, the dispossessed  passed out in the vestibules of empty storefronts on otherwise busy streets. Encampments of tents sprout in every shadowy corner: under highway overpasses, down alleys. Streets are peppered with used syringes. Strolling the sidewalks, you smell the faint malodorous traces of human excrement and soiled clothing. Crowded thoroughfares such as Market Street, even in the light of midday, stage a carnival of indecipherable outbursts and drug-induced thrashings about which the police seem to do nothing.

The confused mumble, the incoherent finger-pointing tirade, the twitch, the cold daemonic stare, the drunken stumble and drool  these are the rhythms of a city on the edge of a schizophrenic explosion.

The cause of this blight is codified nostalgia and greed. (Nellie Bowles where are you?) Baby Boomer civil servants act as urban taxidermists stuffing and mounting a dead city so it always resembles the past. The San Francisco Chronicle tells us that there is indeed a mayor, and maybe even a chief of police, but it is not known who is actually in charge. Housing and zoning committees obscure responsibility for governance. But somewhere in the bureaucratic hierarchy faceless city functionaries administer labyrinthine regulations that benefit the rich over the poor, the old over the young, the here over those to come, the past over the future.

In one of the more comical examples of this sclerosis, a real-estate developer worked for five years and paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to show that a proposed housing development wouldnt cast shadows on a nearby playground or destroy the historic character of the laundromat it sat atop. In another, it took two years for a woman to open an ice-cream shop.

And yet the days pass in a foggy calm. Coit Tower, the Painted Ladies, both bridges, and Alcatraz all stand serene. It is not a city of urgency and restless insomnia, not a city of any discernable power. It never roars like New York or snaps cold like Chicago. It is a pastel city that optimizes its sleep with a device.

Im not holding my breath for a revolution.

San Francisco has been overwhelmingly Democratic since the 1950s. The last Republican mayor won an election in 1956. It is a one-party city touting a civic philosophy with its back to the wall. From afar city Democrats pay lip service to helping the poor. But up close the facts tell a different story. None of their policies in the last half-century have done much to rescue the poor from poverty. Inflexible limits on the housing supply push marginalized groups even further to the margins. The stratospheric cost of housing has flung minority families to the outer edges of the Bay Area, reinforcing segregation. A UC Berkeley study found that a 30 percent increase in the median rent led to a 28 percent decrease in the number of minority households in a neighborhood. Whole neighborhoods from the city have decamped to the hinterlands of Antioch and Vallejo. Stories of three-hour commutes from Stockton have become more common.

Alas, the media seems to have never taken an economics class, much less read Paul Krugman. It is quite simply baffling. Housing restrictions have made the situation worse and worse for decades. No one seems to notice that the same debates play out time and again to no positive end. Instead, for commentary, reporters invariably trot out someone who disguises greed with the piety of a San Franciscan born and raised. Ah, those picturesque locals! Whatever sad story they tell, they shamelessly aim to limit the housing supply, inflating the prices of their own properties. Meanwhile, the media prints their moralistic scolding of the gentrifiers, i.e. anyone with an urge to build affordable housing. No one seems to care about the unseen: the people who never get to live here because the apartments they would live in arent ever built, the bookstores unopened, the dance steps untried, the poetry never recited because the rents too damn high.

Cities are nearly immortal; though they decline, they rarely die. But creative clusters can and do bite the dust. They are fragile, fleeting things. Rome survived the fall of a civilization and two world wars; Ancient Athens and Quattrocento Florence dazzled and faded. Now, San Francisco has passed its prime and settled into a sad late-middle age.

Cities that become dominated by a single industry, cities that reward generation of wealth and financial success over a sense of shared humanity and community have a hard time preserving social capital, Sam Altman, the president of YCombinator, told the economist Tyler Cowen in a recent interview. Where I grew up, no one would walk past a person collapsed on the side of the street on their way to work and not do something about it. I hope I never get used to the fact that that happens in San Francisco.

True revolution would involve curbing the authority of the San Francisco Planning Commission. If Democrats in the city or in Sacramento actually cared about the poor or the environment (density is green), they would enact a land-value tax and establish a redistributive policy to align the interests of the city, current residents, and future citizens. Strong government housing policy could spur growth and redistribute the citys wealth fairly. But most of all, the freedom to build and experiment is the engine of Silicon Valley dynamism. Allow the experiments of the few to become the prosperity and fulfillment of the many, and the city could thrive once again.

This is unlikely to happen anytime soon, of course. But If the dream is lost, the skills and funding remain . . . for now. Im advising all the startups I meet with to consider staying in other cities. And anyone else who comes here should be aware that most bathrooms require a code to enter.

More from National Review
Riyadh (AFP) - A bond sale by energy giant Saudi Aramco to raise $10 billion towards its purchase of a controlling stake in chemicals behemoth SABIC closes Wednesday, Riyadh's energy minister said.

Khalid al-Falih told an energy conference in the Saudi capital on Monday that international investors had so far made bids totalling three times the value of the bonds.

"The bond issue is at a very critical stage. The roadshow is ongoing (and) the deal will close on Wednesday," said Falih, who is also chairman of state-owned Aramco, the world's largest energy company.

The firm announced last month it was buying a 70-percent stake in SABIC from Saudi Arabia's main sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, for $69.1 billion.

Aramco made $111 billion in net profit last year, making it the most profitable company in the world. It said it will pay for most of the SABIC purchase in cash.

Observers see the acquisition as way to boost the coffers of the Public Investment Fund (PIF), which is leading efforts to transform the petro-state to a tech-focused economy.

Ahead of the bond issue, Aramco revealed its accounts to international ratings agencies for the first time ever.

The firm aims to "establish a permanent presence in the world capital markets," Falih said in a clear reference that it will continue to seek debt.

Aramco has not scrapped plans to sell up to five percent of its shares, raising tens of billions of dollars.

Fitch ratings agency said last week that based on information received from Aramco, its planned initial public offering (IPO) still stands and is likely to take place in 2021.
By Rozanna Latiff KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysian authorities on Monday were on the lookout for boats believed to be carrying up to 200 Rohingya after dozens of migrants were found near a beach in the country's north. Scores of Rohingya Muslims have boarded boats in recent months to try to reach Malaysia, part of what authorities fear could be a new wave of people smuggling by sea after a 2015 crackdown on trafficking. Forty-one Rohingya men and boys, aged between 14 and 30, were detained on Monday near the town of Simpang Empat after landing at Sungai Belati beach, state police chief Noor Mushar Mohamad said in a statement. Thirty-five migrants landed at the same beach last month in the northern state of Perlis, bordering Thailand. More boats carrying about 200 Rohingya migrants are believed to be at sea, Noor Mushar said. "If we find them in our waters, we will bring them to shore," he said, adding that it was not clear if this group was traveling from Bangladesh or Myanmar. More than 700,000 Rohingya crossed into Bangladesh in 2017 fleeing an army crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine state, according to U.N. agencies. Myanmar regards Rohingya as illegal migrants from the Indian subcontinent and has confined tens of thousands to sprawling camps in Rakhine since violence swept the area in 2012. The unrest prompted tens of thousands of Rohingya to flee Myanmar by sea. The exodus peaked in 2015, when an estimated 25,000 people crossed the Andaman Sea for Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, many drowning in unsafe and overloaded boats. The boat that arrived off Perlis on Monday was carrying 47 Rohingya, all of whom paid a Thai trafficker 4,000 ringgit ($976.80) each to take them to Malaysia, Noor Mushar said, citing interviews with one of the detainees. The group had been traveling with hundreds of other Rohingyas on a larger boat before they were transferred to smaller, crowded vessels in Thai waters, he said. The 47 migrants were dropped about one kilometer offshore and walked for an hour through mud. Forty one were detained and six people are missing, Noor Mushar said. "Since there was no one to greet them, they made their way in separate groups to the nearby villages, covered in mud," he said, adding they were in good health despite their ordeal. (Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; editing by Darren Schuettler)
WASHINGTON  The Trump administration continued its leadership purge at the top levels of the Department of Homeland Security on Monday, announcing the removal of Secret Service Director Randolph "Tex" Alles.

Alles has done a great job at the agency over the last two years, and the president is thankful for his over 40 years of service to the country," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said. She said he would be replaced by Assistant Director James Murray.

The White House offered no explanation for the director's removal.

Alles, who disputed that he was fired, is expected to leave his post next month.

No doubt you have seen media reports regarding my 'firing,'" the director said in an internal message to staffers. "I assure you that this is not the case, and in fact was told weeks ago by the administration that transitions in leadership should be expected across the Department of Homeland Security. The president has directed an orderly transition in leadership for this agency and I intend to abide by that direction. It is my sincere regret that I was not able to address the workforce prior to this announcement."

Alles took office less than two years ago as the service emerged from a series of White House security breaches and incidents of agent misconduct. A senior official who is not authorized to comment publicly confirmed that the director was informed two weeks ago that the White House was making the change. The person said his ouster was part of a broader leadership shakeup throughout Homeland Security.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigned Sunday night. President Donald Trump rescinded his nomination of Ron Vitiello to head U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, saying he wanted to go in a "tougher" direction.

Nielsen and Alles were part of a leadership team assembled by White House chief of staff John Kelly, who previously ran the Homeland Security Department. Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, had close ties with Nielsen. Alles, himself a former Marine major general, served as the acting head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection under Kelly.

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The official said Alles' removal was not related to last week's arrest of a Chinese national who penetrated security checkpoints at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, carrying a cache of electronics that included a malware-infected thumb drive.

That incident prompted the FBI to begin reviewing whether the president's resort could be vulnerable to foreign spying. A government official familiar with the inquiry said it was opened out of "an abundance of caution," as it was unclear what threat, if any, the woman, Yujing Zhang, represented.

Asked last week whether he was concerned about the security breach, Trump betrayed no indication that he was mulling a change at the Secret Service, lavishing only praise on the agency.

"Secret Service is fantastic," Trump said Wednesday. "These are fantastic people. ... I would say I could not be happier with Secret Service. Secret Service has done a fantastic job from day one. Very happy with them."

During his brief tenure overseeing a staff of 6,500 and a $1.6 billion budget, Alles won legislative approval to compensate more than 1,000 agents for hundreds of hours in unpaid overtime as they sought to protect Trump's large family.

Alles pushed for the additional compensation after USA TODAY first reported that the agency could not pay hundreds of agents who had reached federally mandated caps on salary and overtime allowances as the agency grappled with protecting a president and his extended family who travel frequently.

More: Exclusive: Secret Service depletes funds to pay agents because of Trump's frequent travel, large family

Under Trump, the service protected an unprecedented 42 officials, up from 31 during the Obama administration. The number included 18 Trump family members.

Alles acknowledged the president's large family in an interview with USA TODAY but said there was "no flexibility" in the service's mandated protective responsibility.

"I can't change that," he said.

Before he was named to replace Alles, Murray was responsible for the planning and coordination of the agency's protective mission. In that role, Murray presided over presidential and foreign dignitary protection; special national security events, including the annual State of the Union address; and the protection of critical national facilities.

Murray joined the service in 1995 as a special agent in the New York field office where he conducted cyber-related financial crime investigations and served and worked on a terrorism task force. In 2001, Murray was appointed to the Presidential Protective Division and promoted as the deputy special agent in charge of presidential protection.

In Alles' message to staffers, he described Murray as a "true leader" and urged the agency to support his appointment.

"It has been my great honor to serve as director of the U.S. Secret Service," Alles said.

In this Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2017, file photo, President

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Homeland Security leadership purge continues as Trump ousts Secret Service Director Randolph Alles
A semi caught fire on Interstate 41 in Grand Chute Monday morning.

GRAND CHUTE, Wis.  No one was injured after a semi-truck hauling 41,000 pounds of meat caught fire on Interstate 41 Monday morning in eastern Wisconsin.

The incident near Appleton happened just before 6 a.m., according to the Grand Chute Fire Department.

Fire crews arrived on scene to find heavy smoke and fire coming from the trailer.

They were able to extinguish the flames using two engines and a water tender, the fire department said.

The northbound lanes on I-41 were shut down immediately to allow crews room to fight the fire, the release stated.

Certain on-ramps to the interstate were also shut down to help control traffic.

The stretch of highway was closed for about four hours as the Outagamie County Highway Department cleaned up the mess.

No dollar loss estimate for the semi has been given yet, the fire department said. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Follow Trent Tetzlaff on Twitter: @ttetz5

This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Semi-truck hauling 41,000 pounds of meat catches fire on interstate in Wisconsin
Washington (AFP) - Kirstjen Nielsen, the US homeland security chief whose departure was announced by Donald Trump on Sunday, was said to be a frequent target of the president's ire despite being among the staunchest defenders of his controversial immigration policies.

Last summer, as images were broadcast of wailing children being wrested from their parents under the administration's practice of separating families, she took to the White House podium to defend the "zero tolerance" approach, becoming the face of a policy that was decried the world over.

She appeared to have done enough to win over her boss, who until then was reportedly close to firing her for failing to keep an adequate check on illegal border crossings, a cornerstone of Trump's election campaign.

But the reprieve was to prove temporary.

As Border Patrol estimates put the number of migrants passing through Mexico at over 100,000 in March -- nearly a decade high -- an increasingly irate Trump appeared to have lost patience with Nielsen, who had been without her protector John Kelly, the former White House chief of staff, since he resigned last year.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi summed up the position of many progressive critics, writing: "It is 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."

- Lawyer, cyber-security specialist -

The 46-year-old Nielsen, who would swap elegant office attire for jeans and aviator shades on her frequent visits to the border, kept a low profile when she joined the administration at its outset in January 2017.

A lawyer by training, she had served previously as a cyber security specialist in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

She was brought in as assistant to Kelly, a retired marine general who set to work cracking down on illegal immigration as Trump's first DHS secretary.

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When Kelly moved to the White House as Trump's top aide in July 2017, Nielsen went with him as his deputy.

But by October that year she was back at DHS, this time as secretary.

Described as being all-business, she oversaw a sprawling department with 200,000 employees and wide-ranging responsibilities.

Disaster relief, cyber security, transportation security, the Coast Guard, customs and policing the borders all fall under the department's purview.

So it fell to her to carry out Trump's most fiercely held objective: stopping illegal immigration.

It was a daunting, deeply controversial task in a country with an estimated 11 million people living without papers, many with families and deep roots in their communities.

Under Trump, Nielsen's department embarked on sweeping roundups and tough new measures, including barrier construction on the Mexico border.

- Loyalist -

She will be remembered most, however, as the primary defender of the Trump administration's most widely condemned practice -- since revoked -- of separating migrant children from their parents as part of a policy of prosecuting all illegal border crossers.

Nielsen faced down opposition calls to resign as condemnation pours in from the United Nations, human rights groups, and four former first ladies -- all mothers -- who have called the policy "cruel" and "immoral."

She would go on to counter-attack, bristling at suggestions that the children were being mistreated, or placed into what appeared to be "cages."

Instead, toeing the administration's line, she blamed Congress for passing laws that offer illegal immigrants numerous "loopholes."

And in any case, the children taken from their parents after crossing the border were "well taken care of," she said.

Nielsen's relationship with Trump was long said to be tenuous. But despite reports he complained constantly about her performance, she continued to loyally defend him.

When participants in a 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.

Quizzed about Trump's statement that he would prefer immigrants from a country like Norway, Nielsen spun it as Trump's appreciation of the skills of Norwegian workers, and not their race.

"Norway is a predominantly white country, isn't it?" a senator asked her.

"I actually do not know that, sir, but I imagine that is the case," replied Nielsen -- herself of Scandinavian lineage.

That loyalty persisted until the end: 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.

And her letter of resignation left little doubt Nielsen remained a true believer in Trump's crusade against undocumented migrants.

"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.
Of all the charlatans, sycophants and moral sellouts surrounding Donald Trump, no one comes close to Kirstjen Nielsen.

Related: Climate change is pushing Central American migrants to the US | Lauren Markham

Not Steve Bannon, the neo-fascist strategist who glued a thin veneer of ideology on top of the particle board flakes that fill the cranium of a bankrupt property developer.

Not Paul Manafort, the ostrich jacket-loving former campaign chairman now serving seven years for being a liar and fraud after servicing a motley crew of tyrants.

Not even Mike Pence, the evangelical Catholic vice-president who set a new land-speed record for praising this genital-grabbing, porn star hush money president.

No, there is no one quite like the departing secretary of homeland security, who forced some of the worlds most vulnerable people to pay any price and bear any burden to assure the survival of her own career.

In Trumps ninth circle of hell, there may be more ideological hardliners than Nielsen and there certainly are more wingnut sociopaths.





But Nielsen has deployed all the skills of a careerist technocrat to oversee the two greatest scandals of the entire human misfortune that is the Trump presidency: a death toll of more than 3,000 in the criminally negligent aftermath of Hurricane Maria, and tens of thousands of children illegally imprisoned and forcibly separated from their parents at the southern border.

Long after we have forgotten how to spell her name, there will be children suffering from the permanent separation from their parents because Nielsen was too incompetent and inhuman to track them or their parents.

Those children are just the collateral damage of someone pretending to be tough enough to be part of Trumps band of bullies.

Perhaps Nielsens only skill was a doggedly determined drive to lie at every downward spiral of her own career. That continued on Sunday afternoon, as news emerged of her long-anticipated departure, when she successfully spun her firing/resignation as a principled stand against even more illegal and repressive policies at the border.

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This may be the kind of lie Nielsen tells herself to fall asleep at night after reading all those emails about the victims of sex abuse in the child prisons she built at vast expense.

No doubt the officials who built the Japanese American internment camps also believed they were protecting America with a gulag that was nowhere near as bad as Stalins.

A two-year-old Honduran asylum seeker cries as her mother is searched and detained near the US-Mexico border on 12 June 2018 in McAllen, Texas.

A two-year-old Honduran asylum seeker cries as her mother is searched and detained near the US-Mexico border on 12 June 2018 in McAllen, Texas.Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images

But the lies, big and small, are the giveaway that all this talk about protecting America is really just a cover for the political punishment of the weak and voiceless. 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 Americas borders and which have contributed to discord in our nations discourse, Nielsen wrote in her resignation letter.

If you locked Nielsen in one of her own Ice iceboxes, the hieleras where her officers detain immigrant men, women and children for hours on end, she would admit within minutes that the discord in our nations discourse is in fact the product of one man and a team enabling his racist fantasies.

What is the point of securing the nations borders if you think the legal and legislative checks and balances  established by the constitution  are to blame for so much of the unpleasantness in our national conversation?

That is not to say that Nielsen has entirely failed in her quest to fool a gullible proportion of the nation about Trumps fake border crisis, and the foundation for an entire industry of human suffering.

As border crossings have spiked in the last few months, the media has swallowed every deceiving word from every overworked official about the supposed flood of people that must  by implication  be drowning the entire border in their foreign culture and lawlessness.

This requires a certain amnesia and implicit bias in reporting that for some reason propagates the notion that it is normal to lock up tens of thousands of undocumented migrants.

According to Nielsens official numbers, there were 76,103 apprehensions at the south-west border in February. That was about 25% higher than the previous three months. But it was also 80% lower than the peak of apprehensions in 2000. If this crisis continued every month for the rest of the year, the total would still be far lower than the regular levels through the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.

Yet somehow America survived all those floods of migrants. Somehow undocumented immigration sharply declined after the Great Recession and never really picked up again in the same way. Somehow all those draconian anti-migrant laws passed in the anti-terror psychosis after 9/11 never stopped all those Mexican terrorists because there never were any.

Which brings us to the essential madness at the heart of Nielsens old department: homeland security. We now spend more on border security than the combined budgets of all the major criminal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, the DEA and the Secret Service. Locking families up in prisons costs 10 times more than keeping them monitored in the community, and family caseworkers have a 100% track record in court appearances.

The Department of Homeland Security is a vastly expensive and vastly immoral catastrophe

A fraction of that money could be spent on programs to stabilize the Central American countries whose children are fleeing the gangs that represent the only law and order on the ground. Instead, Trump wants to cancel that aid, which includes the Mueller-like investigation of a corrupt presidents family in Guatemala.

The Department of Homeland Security is a vastly expensive and vastly immoral catastrophe. Its Fema agency botched Puerto Ricos recovery from Maria to the point where thousands died needlessly for lack of power, food, water and medicine. Its anti-immigration forces are a self-sustaining prison-industrial complex of more officers, more apprehensions and more prisons, supplying judges who are barely worthy of the name, some of them with deportation rates of more than 90%.

All in the service of a self-sustaining crisis fabricated by a delusional demagogue. The only reason the numbers are spiking now is because desperate Central Americans fear Trump really will close the border entirely. Trumps supposedly deterrent policies of hurting families, or militarizing the border, have been a colossal failure.

So spare us your self-serving excuses, Kirstjen Nielsen. You lied to Congress and the nation by saying repeatedly there was no family separation policy, when you knew full well there was. You kept the policy secret for months before it became public just in time for an election your party lost. And you sustained it for months after you pretended it ended.

You may well pick up lucrative contracts as a pundit, lobbyist and speaker. But you sold your soul so long ago that you can never claim a refund.
By Khalid Abdelaziz KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudanese soldiers intervened to protect several thousand demonstrators calling for an end to President Omar al-Bashir's rule on Monday after security forces tried to break up the sit-in, witnesses and activists said. For the first time in some three months of unrest, a group of prominent opposition leaders joined protesters outside the defense ministry in Khartoum. They addressed demonstrators who have been massed for two days outside the ministry compound and repeated their demand for Bashir and his government to step down immediately, witnesses said. The compound also includes Bashir's residence and the secret service headquarters. The interior minister told parliament that six people had been killed on Saturday and Sunday in disturbances in the capital, and one in the western region of Darfur. Frequent protests have been staged in Sudan since December, when the government tried to raise bread prices, building into the most sustained challenge yet to Bashir, a former army general who came to power in a military coup in 1989. On Saturday, protesters marched toward the defense ministry hoping to deliver a memorandum urging the army to side with them. They reached the ministry compound despite attempts by security forces to stop them, and set up a camp. Numbers outside the compound continued to grow on Monday despite the closure of all roads leading there, witnesses said. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged all parties to "exercise utmost restraint and avoid violence", and called for the release of detained protesters, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. WARNING SHOTS Early on Monday, witnesses and activists said riot police and secret service personnel charged the demonstrators with pickup trucks while firing tear gas, trying to disperse a crowd estimated at 3,000 men and women. But witnesses and activists said soldiers guarding the compound had come out to protect the demonstrators, firing warning shots in the air. The security forces retreated without firing back and soldiers deployed around the area, while demonstrators chanted "The army is protecting us" and "One people, one army", witnesses said. There were no immediate reports of casualties. Information Minister Hassan Ismail, who is also the government spokesman, contradicted the reports. "The crowd in front of the (military) general command has been cleared completely, in a way that resulted in no casualties among all parties." Previous attempts by security forces have failed to disperse the protesters, who have vowed to stay until Bashir steps down. Addressing a meeting of military commanders, Bashir's defense minister and vice president said security forces would not permit attempts to divide them, state news agency SUNA reported. ECONOMIC CRISIS Bashir is wanted by international prosecutors for alleged war crimes in the western Darfur region, and demonstrators accuse him of presiding over years of repression and promoting policies that devastated the economy. The government denies any connection with atrocities in Darfur and blames U.S. sanctions for the economic hardships. Bashir has acknowledged that the protesters have legitimate demands but says they must be addressed peacefully, and through the ballot box. Security forces have used tear gas, stun grenades and mass arrests, and have sometimes fired live ammunition. Authorities have also blocked social media. Facebook and WhatsApp, the most popular platforms in Sudan, have been inaccessible without a virtual private network since Sunday, residents said. In his address to parliament, Interior Minister Bishara Jumaa said 39 people had died since the onset of the protests, including three members of the security forces. He said 10,000 protesters had gathered outside the defense ministry compound on Saturday, the first time authorities had provided such a crowd estimate. Activists put the death toll at more than 60 since the protests began. They chose Saturday for their march to coincide with the April 6 anniversary of a 1985 military coup that forced long-time autocrat Jaafar Nimeiri to step down after protests. (Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols; Writing by Sami Aboudi and Aidan Lewis; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Catherine Evans)
Three U.S. troops and one U.S. contractor were killed in Afghanistan on Monday when an improvised explosive device exploded in the vicinity of the main American military base in the country, the U.S. military has announced. Another three soldiers were injured in the blast when their convoy hit a roadside explosive near Bagram Air Base. They have been evacuated and given medical treatment.

The Taliban, in an account of the attack that differed from the U.S. militarys, claimed responsibility, saying an affiliated suicide bomber had detonated a vehicle containing explosives near the base.

The latest deaths bring the total up to seven U.S. service members killed in Afghanistan this year. Two U.S. troops were killed late last month in the Kunduz Province in northern Afghanistan while conducting an operation that was carried out jointly by U.S. and Afghan forces.

At least 65 U.S. service members have died in Afghanistan since the January 2015 launch of Operation Resolute Support, in which the thousands of U.S. troops currently in Afghanistan are working to train, advise, and assist local Afghan forces to fight ISIS and Taliban combatants. In December, President Trump promised to bring home at least half of the American troops in the country.

Taliban officials have held several rounds of peace talks with U.S. diplomats that American officials said were productive. But the terror group has also continued to launch attacks in Afghanistan, including one perpetrated by Taliban militants last week that killed at least 30 soldiers and police officers in Afghanistan.

More from National Review
Former Rep. Joseph Crowley and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: AP, Getty Images)

WASHINGTON  Some congressional seats are safer than Fort Knox, and it just happened to be Joe Crowleys luck that he had one of these, in the outer New York boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. A native of Queens, Crowley first won election in New Yorks 7th District in 1998, a tribune of lunch-pail Democrats who were central to New Yorks legend about itself. Fourteen years later, the district was redrawn to include a slice of the Bronx and rechristened the 14th District. Crowley easily won that too.

By 2016, Joe Crowley was one of the elder statesmen of the national Democratic Party. And though the New York seat gave him no worry, he yearned to ascend ever higher in the partys power structure in Washington, D.C. Crowley saw his chance in the aftermath of the cataclysm that was the 2016 presidential election. Colleagues grappling with President Trumps appeal to working class whites pushed him to challenge Nancy Pelosi, the powerful California Democrat slated to become House minority leader of the 115th Congress.

Crowley seriously considered the ramifications of challenging the most powerful Democrat  and woman  in his conference. Nine days after the election, Crowley called Pelosi.

I wanted to let you know Im not going to run, Crowley told her.

Good decision, Pelosi answered.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Crowley talk to reporters following a meeting of the House Democratic caucus at the Capitol in January 2018. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

It would be the closest Crowley would ever get to wielding power under Trump. About a year and a half later, he faced something seemingly inconceivable: a primary challenger. Even more inconceivable was the challenger, a 28-year-old bartender from the Bronx. By the time it was all over, Crowley would be seen largely  if not entirely fairly  as a footnote in the ascent of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Gil Amelio to her Steve Jobs.

The exchange with Pelosi  and Crowleys downfall to the woman now known as AOC  is relayed in The Hill to Die On: The Battle for Congress and the Future of Trumps America, by Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer, editors with Daniel Lippman of Politico Playbook, the twice-daily distillation of who, and what, matters in Washington. Like the newsletter that has made them famous  at least among those who consider Twitter a form of physical exercise  The Hill to Die On is imbued with the conviction that C-SPAN doesnt show the truly important parts of Congress. Or the fun ones.

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In their telling of Crowleys defeat, Sherman and Palmer either had direct access to Crowley or someone extremely close to the former congressman (likely the former, given the detailed recounting of at least one spousal conversation). As such, they provide a useful and engaging account of one of the biggest upsets of the 2018 midterms. It is history told from the defeateds perspective.

Sherman and Palmer describe Crowley as the almost too-perfect embodiment of everything Ocasio-Cortez was running against. They write it was an open secret that Crowley lived with his family in suburban Virginia, not in Queens. A leader of that boroughs Democratic Party, he practiced the backslapping politics that were increasingly the stuff of a bygone New York, where political clubs on dusty outer-borough stretches held in ordinate sway. He played guitar and was often seen at parties with a beer in hand, Sherman and Palmer write, gently noting that Crowley was not a policy wonk.

Photo: Crown Publishing, Amazon, Yahoo News

Crowley did not answer Yahoo News requests for comment.

He was, however, an exceptional fundraiser for fellow Democrats running for Congress. There is no goodwill in Washington quite like the goodwill that comes from having your coffers filled, and Crowley  who maintained hopes of a leadership position despite having declined to challenge Pelosi in 2016  was happy to help stuff dollars into pockets that were not his own. On March 1, 2018, on the very cusp of the midterm primary season, Crowley held a fundraiser at the Wythe Hotel in Brooklyn, a sleek symbol of the new Brooklyn where rooms went for well over $300 a night. Twelve Democrats running for the U.S. House showed up. Ever the good soldier, Crowley managed to raise $900,000 on their behalf. A time would come, probably after the 2018 midterm elections, when they would surely have the opportunity to pay Joe back.

Two months later, there was a seemingly inconsequential item in the Queens Chronicle: Ocasio-Cortez on the ballot in NY-14, the headline read, noting that she had gained the requisite signatures to challenge Crowley in the primary. Actually, she managed about four times what the citys Board of Elections required. Still, the Queens Chronicle was not impressed. Crowley expects easy primary win, a second headline said, with the article itself arguing that massive hurdles would likely prevent Ocasio-Cortez from the stunning upset she had in mind.

Crowley agreed. As Sherman and Palmer write, he was so focused on his campaign inside the Capitol and on helping other Democratic candidates, he failed to see the threat materializing on the other side of the Triborough Bridge. (A spokeswoman for Rep. Ocasio-Cortez declined to make her available for an interview for this article.)

Sherman and Palmer report that even as the Acela-bound press corps largely ignored Ocasio-Cortez, Crowleys own polling showed what they euphemistically call troubling results. One poll, in early 2018, showed that his name ID was low despite being in office for nearly 20 years. A second poll showed Crowley with an illusory 36-point lead, illusory because it surveyed only super-prime voters, older outer-borough whites loyal to the Democratic machine. Those were not the voters Ocasio-Cortez was after. In the 14th Districts disillusioned young, its black and brown working classes, she saw a voting bloc that had been all but invisible to Crowley.

The authors also fault Crowleys campaign advisers for their seemingly disengaged approach to his primary challenger. Crowley had plenty of fodder he couldve used against Ocasio-Cortez, but his top New York campaign operatives decided to take the punches and not hit back. That sure sounds like Crowley casting blame.

He probably knew that he was caught in a trap, so ensconced in Washingtonian struggles that he couldnt be seen tending to the lowly Bronx. It wasnt just that Crowley didnt want to go dirty; he thought it would be a sign of weakness in D.C. if he was seen in a tight race against Ocasio-Cortez, Sherman and Palmer explain. He was supposed to be the next Democratic leader, not someone who had to fight to re-election.

Yes, well, and Hillary Clinton was supposed to win Wisconsin. In her only debate with Crowley, Ocasio-Cortez treated Crowley more or less the way Trump had treated his Republican challengers three years before. If a person loves their community they would choose to raise their family here, she said of Crowleys choice to live on the Potomac River, not the East River. They would choose to send their kids to our schools, they would choose to drink our water and breathe our air.

Crowley continued to hold out hope that the Ocasio-Cortez shoestring campaign was going to show its weakness on Election Day, as Sherman and Palmer put it, and his institutional support would drown her. But as New Yorks 14th went to the polls, Ocasio-Cortez supporters showed up en masse. She beat Crowley by 15 points.

The seemingly invincible Queens party boss had gone down, Sherman and Palmer wrote, describing how Crowley dedicated a rendition of Born to Run, the Bruce Springsteen ode, to the woman who defeated him. Then he called his son Cullen, who was entering the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., the following morning.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, left, stands with Zephyr Teachout after endorsing her for New York City public advocate on July 12, 2018, in New York City. (Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

At some point during the night, Crowley also took a call from Pelosi, whom Sherman and Palmer describe as distraught. They do not say what she was distraught about. Pelosis representatives would not confirm that the call took place. But since resuming the House Speakers gavel, Pelosi has struggled to contain the emboldened progressive wing of the Democratic Party, an insurgency of which Ocasio-Cortez is the undisputed leader.

As for Crowley, Sherman and Palmer describe him ushered out of the House with roughly the same emotion as that which followed Stalin on his final journey across the Soviet Union. One has to wonder how much of that was the fear of older Democrats now worried that they too would have to fend off a progressive primary challenger like Ocasio-Cortez.

Not that Crowley went all that far. A little more than a month after Ocasio-Cortez took his former seat in the House, Crowley joined Squire Patton Boggs, an immensely influential Washington lobbying firm that paid its top influence peddlers well over a quarter million dollars.

And he continued the good-old-boy fundraising back home  or home  in Queens. In February, the New York Post reported that Crowley was charging up tp $250 a head for a St. Patricks Day party at the Globe Tavern in the boroughs traditionally Irish neighborhood of Sunnyside. The goal was to raise money for a new state-level political action group, Joe for New York. The unflattering Post report, with its swampy stench, scuttled those plans, and Crowley announced that partygoers could pay what they wished. He said there had been some confusion. And maybe there was, on Crowleys behalf. He must have thought he was still in Washington.

_____

Read more from Yahoo News:
Washington (AFP) - A sarcophagus containing an Egyptian high priest was opened on live TV Sunday during a special two-hour broadcast by the American channel Discovery.

"Expedition Unknown: Egypt Live" aired from the site outside Minya, which is along the Nile River south of Cairo and its Giza pyramids.

Archeologists recently discovered a network of vertical shafts at the site which led to tunnels and tombs containing 40 mummies "believed to be part of the noble elite."

After exploring other tombs -- finding artifacts like statues, amulets, canopic jars used to store organs, and other mummies including one that had decomposed to a skeleton -- they crawled to the chamber containing the intricately carved sarcophagus.

It took the strength of several people to open.

And the team's efforts had not gone to waste: inside was a pristinely linen-wrapped mummy surrounded by treasure including gold.

"I can't believe this, this is incredible," exclaimed Zahi Hawass, an Egyptian archaeologist and former antiquities minister, who had taken charge of the expedition with American explorer Josh Gates as the host of the broadcast.

A Discovery spokesman previously told AFP that the project was set up in collaboration with Egypt's antiquities ministry.

- 'Like a royal burial' -

Gates said the mummy was that of a high priest of Thoth, the ancient Egyptian god of wisdom and magic, and dated to Ancient Egypt's 26th dynasty -- the last native dynasty to rule until 525 BC.

"Toward the end of Ancient Egypt, the power really was with the high priests and you can see this... almost feels like a royal burial," Gates said.

Cairo has sought to promote archeological discoveries across the country in a bid to revive tourism hit by turmoil after the 2011 uprising against Hosni Mubarak.

Asked by AFP about a possible financial deal between the channel and the Egyptian state for permission to film and open the grave, the spokesman for Discovery refused to comment.

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"It's a media spectacle in the end -- but it could make people love antiquities and is a good promotional opportunity for tourism, if done right," an Egyptian archeologist who asked to remain anonymous told AFP.

However, she asked: "If money is being paid by a major channel to the ministry to show antiquities, where is it going to end up?"

"Will it go in the state's purse-strings or end up elsewhere? We need more transparency on where the money is going."

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has overseen a crackdown on dissent, banning protests and jailing Islamists as well as liberal and secular activists.

He regularly evokes political stability to draw foreign investment.

The tourism sector has begun to return, with arrivals reaching 8.3 million in 2017, according to government figures.

That still falls far short of the 14.7 million in 2010.

Discovery's broadcast also comes with global interest in Egyptian archeology generated by a "once in a generation" exhibition about the pharaoh Tutankhamun, which opened in Paris last month and will tour the world.
After the rescue of American Kimberly Sue Endicott and her tour guide, who were ambushed and kidnapped Tuesday in Uganda, tourists may be asking themselves: Is it safe to travel there?

For at least one travel agency, they're not willing to take the risk where the kidnapping took place.

"Following the abduction and rescue of an American tourist and local guide in Ugandas Queen Elizabeth National Park on April 2, G Adventures has proactively taken the precaution of rerouting a scheduled tour in April to avoid the area," according to adventure travel company G Adventures. "Instead of exploring the park, guests will enjoy a guided lake cruise and safari drive in the Lake Mburo region, followed by a visit to the Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Lake Victoria."

The U.S. Department of State has Uganda at a level 2 travel advisory  last updated Dec. 17, 2018  meaning travelers should "exercise increased caution."

"To give perspective to this rating, most European countries are only a level 2 as well," explained Kim Steiger, a certified travel specialist with Travel Leaders.

The Department of State's highest travel warning is a level 4, or "do not travel."

The advisory for Uganda cautions travelers: "Violent crime, such as armed robbery, home invasion and sexual assault, is common, especially in larger cities including Kampala and Entebbe. Local police lack the resources to respond effectively to serious crime."

Rescue or ransom? American kidnapped in Uganda will meet U.S. ambassador Monday

The Minister of Tourism, Wildlife & Antiquities Prof. Ephraim Kamuntu told USA TODAY: "This incident, regrettable as it is, is an isolated incident. The country has been secure for the last three decades. An incident of this kind, we have not experienced in recent times."

The U.S. government offers several tips for safe travel in Uganda.

Keep your group of friends close in public

Have a copy of your passport and visa on hand

Don't leave food and drinks unattended (in particular at local clubs)

"I have clients that have, and continue to travel, to this part of the world without incident. It is important to always stay alert to your surroundings and to use reputable providers within the country," Steiger told USA TODAY.

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Ugandan police spokesman Fred Enanga has stressed that Uganda is safe for tourists.

"The operation to arrest the culprits is ongoing with the close coordination of our counterparts from the (Congo), whom we have been working with for the last five days," Enanga said. "We continue to appraise the kidnap and rescue operation to ensure such an occurrence does not happen again."

President Donald Trump, however, suggested on Twitter that the kidnappers must be arrested before tourists will be comfortable in the equatorial nation of 43 million people.

"Uganda must find the kidnappers of the American Tourist and guide before people will feel safe in going there," Trump tweeted Monday. "Bring them to justice openly and quickly!"

Endicott was scheduled to be turned over Monday to the U.S. ambassador to Uganda amid conflicting reports over whether a ransom was paid for her freedom.

Ugandan police said Endicott was released Sunday in good health and was safely in the hands of Ugandan security forces.

Wild Frontiers Uganda Safaris issued a statement thanking Ugandan and U.S. authorities for conducting the "negotiated handover." An official with the company told the Associated Press that an undisclosed ransom was paid.

Contributing: Jorge L. Ortiz, John Bacon and the Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Uganda tour rerouted following kidnapping, ensuing traveler safety concerns
Paris (AFP) - The attempted offensive by Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar on Tripoli has thrown into sharp relief the divisions between world powers over how to end the chaos that has riven Libya since the 2011 overthrow of Moamer Kadhafi.

Over the last years, competing factions and militias have sprouted up controlling different parts of Libya, leaving foreign powers to back or oppose a sometimes bewildering array of groups.

Haftar's controversial and surprise offensive on Tripoli, launched last week, has forced interested parties to lay their cards on the table about what they believe is the best way to restore order in the north African country.

Where do key regional powers in the Gulf, Turkey, neighbour Egypt as well as Russia and key EU players France and Italy stand?

Egypt, Saudi and UAE: Haftar's allies

On one side of the struggle is Haftar, the military commander and strongman of eastern Libya. And on the other Fayez al-Sarraj, who leads the United Nations-endorsed Government of National Accord, which has control of Tripoli.

The key allies of Khalifa are the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and increasingly Saudi Arabia while he is strongly opposed by their regional foe Qatar as well as Doha's chief supporter Turkey.

"The fighting in Libya has turned into a proxy war between Gulf rivals," according to James Dorsey, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

Neil Partrick, a Middle East specialist based in Britain, told AFP that Haftar has had the support of Egypt and the United Arab Emirates from the outset while recently Saudi Arabia began openly backing him as well.

Previously Riyadh had been "discretely backing" Haftar while publicly professing political support for the UN-backed government in Tripoli.

But the strongman was invited to visit Riyadh in March in a show of support, Partrick said.

Italy, Turkey and Qatar: Friends of Sarraj

On the other side of the fight, the UN-backed Sarraj government retains substantial support from Italy, which has close ties with and strong economic interests in its former colony.

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"Historically, the Italians have always maintained very good relations with Tripoli," said Ali Bensaad, professor at the French Institute of Geopolitics, pointing to Italy's interests in Libyan energy reserves through its oil firm ENI.

In addition to Italy, Sarraj has backing from Turkey and Qatar, "but a Qatar that is currently weakened by its (diplomatic) isolation" due to the blockade from other Gulf nations, particularly Saudi Arabia and the UAE, according to Bensaad.

The support of Rome, a colonial power in the early 20th century, also has a lot to do with its "priority (of) ending the flow of migrants" coming from Libya, said Arturo Varvelli, head of the North Africa Program at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies in Milan.

France and Russia: ambiguous games

For its part, France has ostensibly played the role of mediator between Haftar and Sarraj, organising two meetings between the Libyan rival leaders, one in July 2017 and the other in May 2018.

But in reality the French position is less clear, and Paris -- which maintains close ties with Cairo, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi -- has been accused of favouring Haftar's side in the power struggle.

"France is no longer playing the role of mediator," said Bensaad. "Its strategic alliance with the Gulf countries is pushing it to mould its geopolitical strategies."

In July 2016, France announced the death of three soldiers in a helicopter accident in Libya, where they had been supporting Haftar's forces during an intelligence-gathering mission.

"The French position is ambiguous," said Varvelli, arguing Paris had from 2015 "endorsed Haftar to demonstrate French commitment to the fight against radical Islamists."

French involvement in Libya under President Emmanuel Macron has caused tensions in the past with Italy, which has historically been the lead European power in the country.

"France and Italy are on the same wavelength," French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian claimed on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Russia has been seen as an enthusiastic supporter of Haftar, hosting meetings with him in Moscow.

But since his offensive, Moscow has in public at least distanced itself from the military strongman, with the Kremlin calling "on all sides to reject actions that could provoke bloodshed in battle and the deaths of civilians".

"If he (Haftar) wants to maintain an internal and international legitimacy, he cannot afford a bloodbath," said Varvelli.
Donald Trump attacked one of the first Muslim women to serve in the US Congress, hours after it emerged that 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.

Special thanks to Representative Omar of Minnesota, he said. 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.

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 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 condemnation 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 Trump's latest comments about, The 37-year-old mother of three who is the first Somali-American, 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."

     



My Lord, forgive my people for they do not know. https://t.co/mtEzMrCLKF  Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) April 7, 2019

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.

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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 added that Mr Trump's "policies and rhetoric are antithetical to Jewish values and  antisemitism has increased to unprecedented levels due to Trumps divisive words, policies and willful blindness "What happened today in Las Vegas was a shameful display of lies and arrogance.
In an unprecedented move, President Trump on Monday officially designated Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft, the president said in a statement. This action sends a clear message to Tehran that its support for terrorism has serious consequences. We will continue to increase financial pressure and raise the costs on the Iranian regime for its support of terrorist activity until it abandons its malign and outlaw behavior.

The designation prevents Americans and American-owned companies from conducting business with the IRGC and comes with accompanying sanctions.

Like other evil deeds of the US, this move is also doomed to failure, Iranian judiciary chief Seyed Ebrahim Rayeesi said Monday in Tehran, according to state-owned FARS News.

The IRGCs commander, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, issued a warning over the weekend that military tensions between the two countries would rise if the Trump administration took such a move. He added that Iran will designate the U.S. military as a terrorist organization in response.

If [the Americans] make such a stupid move, the U.S. Army and American security forces stationed in West Asia [Middle-East] will lose their current status of ease and serenity, Jafari reportedly said.

In response to the move, Irans foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, asked President Hassan Rouhani to place U.S. forces in the Middle East on the countrys list of terrorist groups, according to the government-backed Islamic Republic News Agency.

More from National Review
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.

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.

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
Donald Trump sought to reinstate his controversial family separation policy, clashing with a now departing cabinet member over the issue, according to a new report.

The presidents calls to once again systematically separate migrant families  many of them arriving at the nations southern border legally while seeking asylum  reportedly put him at odds with Kirstjen Nielsen, the sixth secretary to the Department of Homeland Security.

The "collision" was first reported by NBC News on Monday.

The homeland security chief told Mr Trump the agency was unable to reinforce his policy as it defied federal court orders prohibiting the measure, multiple sources told the outlet.

Moreover, Ms Nielsen reportedly reminded the president he would be overturning his own executive order, which he signed to end the separation of migrant families after widespread backlash spilled over into nationwide protests and major demonstrations on Capitol Hill.

Ms Nielsen, who was expected to stay on as the head of the agency until Wednesday, oversaw the implementation of the zero tolerance policy and defended the Department of Homeland Security under Mr Trump when grilled on Capitol Hill last year.

She has repeatedly denied the administration ever separated families at the border, despite public evidence, Congressional hearings and press reporting all indicating families were in fact separated under her watch. We do not have a policy of separating families at the border, she wrote in June 2018, adding, Period.

The secretary released a statement on Sunday saying it was a great honour to serve in the role.

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.

Ms Nielsen added, I hope that the next Secretary will have the support of Congress and the courts to fully secure Americas borders and which have contributed to discord in our nations discourse.

Ms Nielsen would be replaced by Kevin McAleenan, the commissioner of US Customer and Border Patrol under Mr Trump, who has reportedly not ruled out reinstating the presidents zero tolerance policy.
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Earwax is vital for protecting your ability to hear. But too much can sometimes accumulate and lead to itchiness, pain, a feeling of fullness, and even coughing. It can also temporarily muffle your hearing or cause tinnitus. Here, the best and safest ways to keep it in balance.

We all have sticky, oily earwax in our ear canals. And that's a good thing, in small doses.

In fact, earwax, also known as cerumen, has several helpful properties, says Stephane Maison, Ph.D., assistant professor of otolaryngology at Harvard Medical School. Under normal circumstances, it naturally migrates from inside your ear canal outward. Along the way, the wax traps dust, dead skin, and other debris inside the ear canal, helping to keep your ears clean. The oily quality of earwax moisturizes the skin inside your ear canal, helping prevent cuts and scratches. And the waxs acidity can destroy bacteria, protecting you from infection.

Anyone can find that they have more than an ideal amount of earwax, but about one-third of older adults have excessive earwax, along with two-thirds of nursing home residents. And age, indeed, is a key factor in how likely you are to have an overabundance of earwax, although genetics also plays a role, says Seth Schwartz, M.D., M.P.H., director of the Listen for Life Center at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, and lead author of clinical practice guidelines on cerumen impaction for the American Academy of OtolaryngologyHead and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS).

The consistency of wax tends to be drier as we age, Schwartz says, making the stuff slower to move normally out of the ear, and more likely to accumulate. Cerumen buildup is also more common among people who use hearing aids, which can physically block wax from leaving the ear. (The AAO-HNS recommends hearing aid wearers have their ear canals checked by their doctors every three to six months.)

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Safe Ways to Clean Your Ears at Home

Unless excessive earwax is causing problems for youpain, reduced hearing, or any of the other problems mentioned aboveyou can leave it alone.

But many people consider removing the wax a regular part of their hygiene routine. And several common removal methodssuch as using cotton-tipped swabs or ear candlescan do harm, but no good. If you want to get rid of some of your earwax, consider the following:

Check out drugstore eardrops. Over-the-counter (OTC) ear drops, either oil- or water-based, may soften cerumen, making it easier for it to work its way out of your ear on its own. A 2018 analysis by the independent Cochrane collaboration found that ear drops may be helpful for clearing out cerumen, but that no specific type of ear drop worked better than others. Look for products labeled for clearing or removing ear wax.

Flush it out gently. Another recommended method: softly flushing your ears with fluid, using an ear irrigation kit. These OTC kits usually include a bulb syringe or another type of ear syringe, along with ear drops. (But talk with your doctor before using any OTC method if youve ever had ear surgery or a perforated eardrums.)

Skip the swabs. Resist the temptation to insert cotton-tipped swabs, hair pins, paper clips, or any other foreign object, into your ears. These can all cause serious ear injuries, including eardrum perforation.

They can also be counterproductive, Maison says. For instance, by using cotton swabs, youre pushing back the cerumen all the way to the eardrum, he says. The cerumen gets trapped, and prevents the ear drum from moving. That impedes the normal movement of sound through the ear, leading to temporary hearing loss.

Avoid ear candling. This home remedy involves inserting a long, hollow tube, made of fabric soaked in beeswax or paraffin, into your ear, and lighting the other end on fire. This supposedly creates suction through the tube that draws out earwax.

The problem? Studies of the process have found that any wax drawn out is simply melted wax from the candle itself. And it carries significant risks, including burning yourself with the lit candle. For these reasons, the Food and Drug Administration has warned consumers against using ear candles.

Know when to get more help. If youve tried eardrops and/or irrigation, but cant shake the itchiness, pain, or feelings of fullness in your ears, or youre still experiencing tinnitus or muffled hearing, visit your primary care doctor. He or she may be able to more effectively irrigate your ear canal, or to manually remove an earwax blockage. The latter option requires some training and experience, so your primary care doctor may also refer you to an ear, nose, and throat doctor.





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By Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence met with his Brazilian counterpart Hamilton Mourao at the White House on Monday to discuss sanctions and diplomatic efforts aimed at increasing the pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to exit. In his first-ever talks with Mourao, Pence aimed to encourage the former Brazilian general to use his experience and influence to urge Venezuelan military leaders - as well as China and Russia - to pull back on their support of Maduro, a White House official said. The United States and most other Western countries have backed Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, who declared himself interim president in January, arguing that Maduro's 2018 re-election was illegitimate. Maduro - who is backed by Russia and China and retains control of state functions and the country's military - has called Guaido a puppet of the United States. Guaido has offered amnesty to members of the military who took his side, but the top brass largely has stuck by Maduro. Mourao, who was a defense attache in Caracas, "has a very unique perspective" when it comes to helping convince Venezuelan military leaders to switch sides, the White House official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "He speaks with a unique credibility from within the region as a senior political leader with a military background. That voice is very important, and he is using that voice to advance the cause," the official said. Mourao is also well-positioned to confront Russia and China over their support of Maduro, since Brazil is a partner with the nations in the BRICS group of largest emerging markets economies, the official said. The United States sanctioned state-owned PDVSA in January, a move aimed at cutting Maduro's government off from oil revenues, and has also sanctioned Venezuelan banks, shipping companies and individuals connected to Maduro. The White House would like allies like Brazil to take similar economic measures to isolate Venezuela, the official said. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Alistair Bell)
The Trump administration Monday designated Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps a foreign terrorist organization in a move that reflects Washington's increasingly aggressive stance toward Tehran and could have implications for the safety of American soldiers stationed in the Middle East.

It is the first time the U.S. has formally labelled another countrys military a terrorist group. The action follows a months-long escalation of Washington's rhetoric against the Islamic Republic after President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the 2015 Iran nuclear accord last year and reimposed sanctions that crippled its economy.

The move is intended to put pressure on the financial assets of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps, or IRGC, a powerful security organization founded in the aftermath of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution. It has a vast political and economic power base that extends to Iran's armed forces, as well as its strategic industries from oil to agriculture.

The IRGC also presides over Iran's ballistic missiles and nuclear programs.

"This action sends a clear message to Tehran that its support for terrorism has serious consequences," Trump said in a statement released by the White House.

The designation imposes sanctions on assets Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps may have in U.S. jurisdictions and a ban on Americans doing business with it. It also presents a new risk for foreign businesses around the world that engage in any transactions withe IRGC.

"Its absolutely the case that the IRGC amounts to a significant piece of the Iranian economy through pure kleptocracy," Secretary of State Pompeo told reporters in announcing Monday's decision.

State Department officials said banks and businesses in Europe and elsewhere could now be subject to possible criminal prosecution under U.S. terrorism laws if they have dealings with the IRGC. He noted that providing material support for a designated foreign terrorist group carries a 20-year maximum sentence under U.S. law.

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"The point of this designation is to render the IRGC radioactive," said Nathan Sales, who leads the State Departments Counterterrorism Bureau. "So all businesses, all foreign officials who are thinking about engaging with the IRGC should think long and hard about whether that makes sense."

Pompeo and John Bolton, Trumps national security adviser, are Iran hawks who prior to joining the president's inner circle long called for regime change in Iran, which they blame for most of the problems in the Middle East.

Pompeo said Monday the administration was taking this unprecedented step because "the Iranian regimes use of terrorism as a tool of state craft makes it fundamentally different from any other government."

He said the designation would take effect in one week.

Designating the IRGC a terror group has been rumored for years because of its support for militant groups from Lebanon to Syria. Washington has accused the IRGC of carrying out attacks on the U.S. and its allies across the Middle East.

Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia have remained in the nuclear deal with Iran, which tightly restricted Tehrans nuclear ambitions in return for ending sanctions.

The Trump administration has demanded other signatories to the nuclear accord exit the deal. But those countries have largely ignored U.S. demands and sought ways to keep open trade and financial dealings with Iran despite the renewed U.S. sanctions.

More: Pence: Europe must withdraw from Iran nuclear deal

Javad Zarif, Iran's foreign minster, took to Twitter to call the terror designation, "A(nother) dangerous U.S. misadventure in the region."

He said also that it appeared timed to help the Tuesday re-election prospects of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a close ally of Trump's.

"A(nother) misguided election-eve gift to Netanyahu," Zarif said.

Iran is Israel's arch-enemy.

"Thank you, President @realDonaldTrump for your decision to designate the Islamic revolutionary guards as a terrorist organization. Once again you are keeping the world safe from Iran aggression and terrorism," Netanyahu wrote on Twitter.

Over the weekend, Iran said that if the IRGC was branded a terror organization it would consider placing the U.S. military on a terror list of its own, raising questions about whether the move will further endanger U.S. military personnel.

"We will put (the U.S.) on the terror blacklist next to Daesh," Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, the head of the Iranian parliaments national security committee, said Saturday on Twitter, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

Pompeo said the Trump administration has warned Iran against any military action against U.S. armed forces. "We have made clear both publicly and privately that an attack of the United States of America is something that they ought to think more than twice about, he said.

Sales said the U.S. is prepared for retaliation from the Iranian regime but declined to elaborate.

The action also potentially complicates Iran-U.S. diplomacy.

Unless there are exclusions or waivers, U.S. troops and diplomats could be barred from contact with Iraqi or Lebanese authorities who act as intermediaries. State Department officials declined to say whether there were any exemptions in the designation but insisted that U.S. diplomacy  including any efforts to secure the release of American hostages in Iran  would not be affected.

The U.S. Department of Treasury previously blacklisted Iranian entities and people for their affiliations with the IRGC. The group as a whole has not been described this way.

"A formal designation and its consequences may be new, but these IRGC butchers have been terrorists for a long time," said Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.). "This (is) an important step in our maximum-pressure campaign against Iran, the largest state-sponsor of terror and the biggest chaos agent inside the Middle East."

Inside Iran: Americas contentious history in Iran leads to mix of anger and weariness

Iran hawks:Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani's side project: Bashing Iran





This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: U.S. designates Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps foreign terror group
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)
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's culture minister Jeremy Wright said the government would continue to talk to the opposition Labour Party on Monday to try to find a solution to the Brexit impasse. "I'm entirely supportive of the prime minister's view that she needs to find a way through this, that she's tried everything else ... and we now need to talk about what else might work," he told BBC television. "That's what these talks are for. "As I understand it there will be conversations that continue today and we need those conversations to proceed and I hope (they) reach a sensible conclusion." Prime Minister Theresa May could offer to remain in a permanent customs union with the European Union to win support of Labour, the BBC reported. (Reporting by Kate Holton and Paul Sandle. Editing by Andrew MacAskill)
United Nations (United States) (AFP) - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday appealed to all sides in Sudan to avoid violence as thousands of demonstrators massed outside the army headquarters in Khartoum.

Guterres urged the government of President Omar al-Bashir to "create a conducive environment for a solution to the current situation and to promote an inclusive dialogue."

Sudan's Interior Minister Bushara Juma said seven protesters died on Saturday when forces tried to disperse them, 15 were wounded and 2,496 arrested during the demonstration.

The UN chief "appeals to all actors to exercise utmost restraint and avoid violence," said a UN statement.

Guterres called for the release of the detained protesters and for the full respect of human rights including the freedom of assembly and freedom of expression.

Sudan has been rocked by more than three months of protests that began with demonstrations against the hike in bread prices and have since morphed into opposition against Bashir.
By Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday defended its handling of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report examining contacts between President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia as it faced increased pressure to make the document public. The department said Attorney General William Barr must strike confidential information from the nearly 400-page document as reports surfaced in the news media that members of Mueller's team were unhappy with the way Barr had characterized its main conclusions. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, already pressing Barr to release the entire unredacted report to Congress, expanded his demands. Nadler, a Democrat, called on Barr to immediately release summaries of the document prepared by Mueller's team. He also asked Barr to hand over communications between the special counsel's team and the department about the report. The department said those summaries include secret grand jury information that cannot under law be made public. Barr, appointed by the Republican president, has pledged to release a redacted version of the report by mid-April. Barr said last week that Mueller's 22-month inquiry did not establish that Trump's campaign conspired with Russia in the election. Barr also said Mueller also did not reach a conclusion on whether Trump had illegally interfered with the Russia investigation, which has cast a shadow over his presidency. While Mueller did not exonerate Trump, Barr said he then concluded there was not enough evidence to show that Trump committed the crime of obstruction of justice. The New York Times and the Washington Post reported that some investigators were unhappy with the way Barr had described their findings, in a sign of tensions between some members of Mueller's team and administration officials overseeing the report's release. Every page of Mueller's report contains a warning that it might contain confidential material, so Barr decided first to release the report's main findings as quickly as possible, Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said. "The Department continues to work with the Special Counsel on appropriate redactions to the report so that it can be released to Congress and the public," Kupec said in a statement. The Judiciary Committee authorized Nadler on Wednesday to subpoena the department to obtain Mueller's full report, moving closer to a legal clash with the Trump administration. 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. FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress he had not seen Mueller's report. (Additional reporting by David Morgan and Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Will Dunham and Ross Colvin)
In the past two weeks, two different airports have blocked Chick-fil-A from the premises. First, the city council of San Antonio banned the chain because, in the words of councilman Robert Trevino, everyone should feel welcome when they walk through our airport. Then, two weeks later, a New York Democratic assemblyman, Sean Ryan, announced that the Buffalo airport food vendor was prohibiting Chick-fil-A from operating in its food court. Ryan was explicit about the reason, declaring in a statement that the views of Chick-fil-A do not represent our state or the Western New York community.

The immediate justification for the bans was a ThinkProgress allegation that the Chick-fil-A foundation supported groups with a record of anti-LGBTQ discrimination. ThinkProgress was resurrecting a 2012 controversy over Chick-fil-A contributions to an affiliated foundation that gave grants to conservative Christian groups, including groups that opposed same-sex marriage, and over comments by Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy supporting the traditional, biblical definition of marriage. There was no allegation that Chick-fil-A discriminated against gay customers or gay employees.

In 2012, a wave of Democratic city officials, including the mayors of Boston and San Francisco, threatened to block Chick-fil-A from opening restaurants in their cities, and Chick-fil-As customers responded with an immense buycott as a show of support. By the end of 2012, the storm appeared to have passed.

Until now. While ThinkProgress has continued to call attention to Chick-fil-A donations for years, this year San Antonio and Buffalo decided to act. And once again Chick-fil-A faces explicit, official retaliation not for any incidents of discrimination in its stores, but rather for the constitutionally protected freedom of expression of its associated foundation. This is intolerable on two counts.

First and most importantly, it is plainly and clearly unconstitutional for government officials to punish private corporations for the political or religious views of their owners or affiliates. This basic principle of constitutional law was recently reaffirmed in a federal court in California, when an Obama-appointed district judge protected a living history farm from public reprisal against the conservative views of its owner. When the local school district canceled field trips to the farm in protest of the owners private political views, the courts ruling was clear: Defendants cannot terminate [the trips] for unconstitutional, retaliatory reasons.

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Simply put, there is a fundamental difference between enforcing a valid anti-discrimination or public-accommodations statute  such as a law prohibiting discrimination in the provision of services  and blocking a restaurant that complies with anti-discrimination law simply to punish the politics (and faith) of its owners.

Second, its worth pointing out the sheer extremism and intolerance of San Antonios and Buffalos actions. Chick-fil-A is being punished not for giving money to political or culture-war organizations, but rather for donations to the Salvation Army, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and a small donation to a youth home. The result is a declaration by government actors that even the most mainstream of traditional Christian organizations should be officially marginalized. Groups that are instrumental in the lives of the poor and in the lives of American youths are too toxic even for private donations, and donors should face economic punishment for having the audacity to support the charity of their choice.

Fortunately, a backlash is already building. Texas attorney general Ken Paxton has launched an investigation of the city councils action, and Buffalos decision was condemned by the New York Civil Liberties Union, and the transportation authority is blaming the decision to block Chick-fil-A on an outside vendor.

The virus of public reprisal against private expression is spreading. For example, the Los Angeles City Council now requires contractors to disclose any ties with the National Rifle Association. In 2017 it passed an ordinance requiring contractors to disclose if theyd submitted bids to work on President Trumps border wall.

It is the role of government to protect liberty, not promote ideological conformity by punishing dissent. San Antonio and Buffalo are on the leading edge of a dangerous trend, and if they dont relent, then Chick-fil-A should sue. Its time to make unlawful retaliation costly for Americas most intolerant cities.

More from National Review
BENGHAZI, Libya (AP)  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 how many remain in the country.

Footage circulating online showed two apparent U.S. Navy transport craft maneuvering off a beach in Janzour, east of Tripoli, sending up plumes of spray as American forces were ferried from the shore.

India also 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.

Fayez Sarraj, head of government in Tripoli, accused Hifter of "betraying" him.

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"We have extended our hands towards peace, but after the aggression that has taken place on the part of forces belonging to Hifter and his declaration of war against our cities and our capital ... he will find nothing but strength and firmness," al-Sarraj said Saturday in televised comments.

Sarraj and Hifter held talks in Abu Dhabi in late February, their first confirmed meeting since November 2018, when they agreed that national elections were necessary, according to the U.N.

Hifter is seeking to capture the capital and seize military control of the whole country before U.N.-sponsored talks due to start next week that were designed to set a time frame for possible elections in the oil-rich country.

The U.N. envoy for Libya, Ghassan Salame, said the U.N. is determined to hold the planned conference.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged Libyan factions to return to negotiations, saying that "there is no military solution to the Libya conflict."

"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," Pompeo said in a statement.

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.

Armed groups behind the U.N.-backed government of national accord, or GNA, have announced an effort to defend Tripoli, vowing to recapture all areas seized by Hifter's forces.

Col. Mohamed Gnounou, a spokesman for GNA forces, said in televised comments Sunday that the counteroffensive, dubbed "Volcano of Anger," was aimed at "purging all Libyan cities of aggressor and illegitimate forces."

The two sides reported that at least 35 people, including civilians, had been killed 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, a 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.

___

Magdy reported from Cairo.
Washington (AFP) - The United States on Monday designated Iran's elite military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a terrorist organization, ramping up already far-reaching attempts to undermine the Iranian government.

President Donald Trump said in a statement that the "unprecedented" move "recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft."

"The IRGC is the Iranian government's primary means of directing and implementing its global terrorist campaign," Trump said.

It is the first time the United States has designated part of a foreign government a terrorist organization, rather than guerrilla groups or other more informal entities.

The move comes on top of Trump's decision to pull the United States out of an international deal with Iran that was meant to lift crippling economic sanctions in return for the government allowing its nuclear technology to be restricted and kept under close supervision.

The Trump administration argues that Iran's government, which is locked in a deeply hostile standoff with top US ally Israel, cannot be trusted and should face "maximum pressure."

Israeli's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, warmly welcomed the move by his "dear friend" Trump.

- Retaliation threat -

The terrorist designation for the Revolutionary Guards is meant to strike at the heart of the Iranian government's power structure.

The elite force was formed after the 1979 Islamic revolution with a mission to defend the clerical regime, in contrast to more traditional military units that protect borders.

At home, it has amassed strong political and economic influence.

Abroad, the Guards' prized Quds Force, named for the Arabic word for Jerusalem, supports Iranian allies, including Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Lebanon's Hezbollah.

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Iran's parliament has vowed to retaliate by passing an urgent bill putting American troops on its own terrorism blacklist, which already features the jihadist 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 lawmakers 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.

- Criminalizing contact with Guards -

Addressing reporters following Trump's announcement, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned all banks and business of consequences to dealing with the Revolutionary Guards from now on.

"The leaders of Iran are racketeers, not revolutionaries," Pompeo said. "Businesses and banks around the world now have a clear duty to ensure that companies with which they conduct financial transactions are not conducted with the IRGC in any material way."

A senior Trump administration official said the new measure would criminalize contact with the Guards and "enable our prosecutors to bring charges to those that bring material support to the IRGC."

"The IRGC is interwoven into the Iranian economy. The safest course is to stop doing business with the IRGC. If you do business with the IRGC you run the risk of bankrolling terrorism," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Another official said the force has "been a principal driver of violence on a vast scale for many decades" in an attempt "to reshape the Middle East in Iran's favor."

The dramatic escalation of Washington's attempt to undermine Iran's leaders comes on the eve of Israeli elections where close Trump ally Netanyahu is seeking to extend his 13 years in office.

Trump, who describes himself as the most pro-Israeli US president ever, has recently recognized Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, as well as previously moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the contested city of Jerusalem.

"Thank you, my dear friend, US President Donald Trump, for having decided to declare Iran's Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization," Netanyahu said in a statement issued minutes after the White House announcement.

"Thank you for responding to another important request of mine, which serves the interests of our countries and countries of the region."
Washington (AFP) - 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.

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- '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 lifeand 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.
Want to participate in a research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and earn a $60 gift card!

Passive investing in index funds can generate returns that roughly match the overall market. But investors can boost returns by picking market-beating companies to own shares in. To wit, the Viva Energy REIT (ASX:VVR) share price is 21% higher than it was a year ago, much better than the market return of around 5.1% (not including dividends) in the same period. So that should have shareholders smiling. Viva Energy REIT hasn't been listed for long, so it's still not clear if it is a long term winner.

See our latest analysis for Viva Energy REIT

To quote Buffett, 'Ships will sail around the world but the Flat Earth Society will flourish. There will continue to be wide discrepancies between price and value in the marketplace...' One way to examine how market sentiment has changed over time is to look at the interaction between a company's share price and its earnings per share (EPS).

Over the last twelve months, Viva Energy REIT actually shrank its EPS by 4.4%. Sometimes companies will sacrifice EPS in the short term for longer term gains; and in that case we may be able to find other positives. Since the change in EPS doesn't seem to correlate with the change in share price, it's worth taking a look at other metrics.

We note that the most recent dividend payment is higher than the payment a year ago, so that may have assisted the share price. Income-seeking investors probably helped bid up the stock price. Though we must add that the revenue growth of 3.5% year on year would have helped paint a pretty picture.

You can see how revenue and earnings have changed over time in the image below, (click on the chart to see cashflow).

ASX:VVR Income Statement, April 8th 2019

We know that Viva Energy REIT has improved its bottom line over the last three years, but what does the future have in store? If you are thinking of buying or selling Viva Energy REIT stock, you should check out this FREE detailed report on its balance sheet.

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What About Dividends?

When looking at investment returns, it is important to consider the difference between total shareholder return (TSR) and share price return. The TSR incorporates the value of any spin-offs or discounted capital raisings, along with any dividends, based on the assumption that the dividends are reinvested. It's fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. As it happens, Viva Energy REIT's TSR for the last year was 29%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted the total shareholder return.

A Different Perspective

Viva Energy REIT shareholders should be happy with the total gain of 29% over the last twelve months, including dividends. A substantial portion of that gain has come in the last three months, with the stock up 7.5% in that time. This suggests the company is continuing to win over new investors. Keeping this in mind, a solid next step might be to take a look at Viva Energy REIT's dividend track record. This free interactive graph is a great place to start.

But note: Viva Energy REIT may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with past earnings growth (and further growth forecast).

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on AU exchanges.

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.



If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
What did you eat for dinner last night and why? Who did you vote for in the last election? Why did you choose to marry your husband or wife? These are questions to which the majority of us could provide reasonable answers. But what if you are wrongwhat if someone else made those decisions for you.

In a series of experiments, Swedish philosopher Petter Johansson of Lund University demonstrated that unseen forces can heavily influence our decisions, and our reasoning is sometimes only used to justify our decisions in hindsight. His research suggests that we are in far less control of our decisions than we may think, and that people can be made to change their minds about all kinds of things.

In one experiment, Johansson asked participants to decide which people they found more attractive by showing them a series of pictures of people printed on index cards. The participants were asked to choose between two faces. After they made their selection, Johansson used a sleight of hand to give participants the card they did not pick but asked them to explain why they chose that particular face. Over 80% of the participants did not notice that Johansson had switched the cards, and proceeded to give detailed explanations of why they preferred the face they didnt actually prefer. Whats more, when Johansson let participants make the choice again, they uniformly chose the face they did not pick the first time.

A misinformation newsstand is seen in midtown Manhattan on Oct. 30, 2018, aiming to educate news consumers about the dangers of disinformation, or fake news, in the lead-up to the US midterm elections.

People were tricked into changing their minds and had no idea it had happened. Johansson and his colleagues labeled this phenomenon choice blindness, meaning that sometimes we are blind to our own choices and preferences.

Young people checking the facts: Why 'NBC Nightly News' anchor Lester Holt is teaching teens about fact-checking

You may be thinking that choosing between two faces on cards is pretty inconsequential, and that choice blindness surely wouldnt hold for more important matters. Johansson did another experiment of more magnitude a few years later. This time he gave participants a chart and asked them to rank where they stood on various political issues. Again, he used a trick to completely flip participants answers from conservative to liberal and vice versa. This time, 90% of participants failed to detect the switch, and proceeded to justify their fake responses, often reasoning for an opposing political view.

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Researchers have repeated versions of Johanssons experiments with all kinds of decisions, such as purchasing things as straightforward as jelly and tea, with the same results. All it takes is a little manipulation to make most people choose a different face, a different flavor tea, or a polar opposite political stance.

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The implications are far-reaching. If you are wondering why fake news is so dangerous, one reason is that choice blindness makes it easy to trick peoples minds. The most cynical interpretation is that our choices dont actually matter, that an outside force routinely spins our collective wheels, and that we only justify our decisions after the fact. But as an optimistic brain scientist, I see it differently.

Johanssons experiments show that our beliefs are remarkably flexible: we arent as rigid in our thinking as we think, and neither are the people around us. If we can get someone to really examine the opposite point of view, and to think as if that view was his or her own, we can change minds. The old wives tale is wise indeed: place yourself in someone elses shoes before judging.

Jeff Stibel is the former CEO of Web.com and vice chairman of Dun & Bradstreet, a partner of Bryant Stibel and an entrepreneur who also happens to be a brain scientist. He is the USA TODAY bestselling author of "Breakpoint" and "Wired for Thought." Follow him on Twitter at @stibel. 

The views and opinions expressed in this column are the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why is fake news so dangerous? Blame your easily-fooled brain.
* Photo essay: https://reut.rs/2WHemak

By Bruno Kelly and Sergio Queiroz

RAPOSA SERRA DO SOL, Brazil, April 8 (Reuters) - A decade after the Macuxi people won a bloody legal battle to expel rice planters from their reservation in a remote part of Brazil, their hold over ancestral lands has come under threat again from new right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro.

The sprawling 1.7 million hectares (6,600 square miles) of savannah on the border with Venezuela  a reservation called Raposa Serra do Sol  is home to 25,000 native people whose main livelihood is raising cattle.

But the land remains coveted by commercial farmers and mining prospectors who believe the area is rich in minerals such as gold, diamonds, copper, molybdenum, bauxite and even niobium, a metal used to strengthen steel that Bolsonaro considers "strategic."

"In the fight for our land rights, 21 of us died," says Chief Aldenir Lima, the leader of the 70 communities on the reservation. "Since then we recovered what we had lost and today, the white farmers' rice plantations have been replaced by our cattle herds."

That could change if Bolsonaro follows through on his promise to review the borders of the reservation  part of his push to repeal a ban on commercial farming and mining on indigenous lands.

Bolsonaro's first move after his January inauguration was to put indigenous land decisions under the Ministry of Agriculture, which is controlled by farm sector representatives eager to open up new frontiers to large-scale farming.

The president has already singled out Raposa Serra do Sol.

"It is the richest area in the world. There are ways to exploit it rationally. And for the Indians, to give them royalties and integrate them into society," he said in December.

The Macuxi fear the return of illegal gold miners and other poachers on their lands, emboldened by Bolsonaro's rhetoric and his moves to weaken their rights.

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"I want to ask the new president Jair Bolsonaro to respect indigenous people and our constitutional rights," says community leader Tereza Pereira de Souza, her hair crowned with a headdress of yellow feathers.

"It took us 30 years to get our land borders legally recognized and registered," she says.

Brazil's 900,000 indigenous people make up less than 1 percent of the population and live on reservations that account for 13 percent of the territory.

Bolsonaro says they live in abject poverty and hunger and should be assimilated instead of being confined to reservations like "zoo animals."

In Raposa Serra do Sol, Daniel Andrade butchers a cow's carcass and holds up a cut of fresh beef. Nobody goes hungry on the reservation, he counters.

Any attempt to change the reservation's legal status would likely be opposed by the Supreme Court on the grounds that Brazil's 1988 Constitution protects indigenous land rights.

Anthropologists warn removing that protection would destroy the traditions and languages of the Macuxi and four other related tribes on the reservation.

"Nature is our life, our blood and our spirit, because it gives us sustenance," says Martinho de Souza, a Macuxi shaman. "We were born on this land, we live here and we will die here."

Nearby, in the shaman's village of Tamandua, chickens run about the earth floor and a pot of food cooks over a wood fire. The village is named after a type of anteater, a large mammal in danger of extinction.

Younger tribe members say they would fight for the land, among them Tiago Nunes Pereira, 24, who shows scars on his leg from a gunshot wound he suffered in a clash with farmers when he was just 12 years old.

"Blood was shed here. That hurt a lot. I'm not scared to die. We will never tire of fighting, to the last one of us."

Photo essay https://reut.rs/2WHemak

(Reporting by Sergio Queiroz and Bruno Kelly Writing by Anthony Boadle Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
Two skyscrapers entered America's top 10 within the past year, but they're small fries among the world's tallest.

New York City's 30 Hudson Yards (1,268 feet) opened a few weeks ago. Late in 2018, the Comcast Technology Center (1,121 feet) opened in Philadelphia. Both have redefined their skylines, yet they wouldn't even rise halfway up the Burj Khalifa (2,717 feet) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

America is no longer the country with the biggest skyscrapers. And there are no mega-tall buildings (600 meters, or 1,969 feet) on the drawing board, so it's unlikely we'll regain that prestige any time soon.

New York, then Chicago, laid claim to the "world's tallest" throughout most of the 20th century. Then in 1998, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur snatched the top spot by 33 feet from Chicago's Sears Tower.

The world's tallest title hasn't returned since.

Burj Khalifa: Watch King Kong climb today's world's tallest building

Groundbreaking Skyscrapers by USA TODAY NETWORK on Sketchfab

Just one U.S. building cracks the world's top 10  One World Trade Center. Its height of 1,776 feet, symbolic of the year the Declaration of Independence was signed, places it sixth among the world's tallest.

What's behind the change?

It doesn't appear to be a case of American decline. Many of the innovative techniques and talents raising skyscrapers to new heights come from America. It may be more a case of rising construction costs, elaborate building codes and changes in corporate priorities.

Cost and financing

New York is the most expensive place in the world to build. The average cost is $362 per square foot, according to a Turner and Townsend international construction market survey in 2018. By comparison, Hong Kong is $344 per square foot; the United Arab Emirates is $134; Kuala Lumpur is $96; and Beijing is $75.

Finding private investors to bankroll those costs in the USA can be difficult for developers of tall buildings. Market uncertainty can complicate deals, especially in multi-year construction projects.

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Developers often turn to a variety of sources such as investors, investment banks and future building tenants, according to towerinfo.com. Many developers in China, by comparison, are owned by or have connections to the state, making funding less of a problem.

Sunlight vs. shadow

New York began restricting tall building construction in 1916, a year after the 538-foot Equitable Building went up at 120 Broadway. It threw a 7-acre shadow on the streets below, according to the New York Historical Society, triggering protests from residents who said it was like being at the bottom of a canyon.

In response, New York required setbacks and stepped-back walls  buildings such as the Empire State Building shaped like wedding cakes  to let sunlight reach the streets below. Zoning rules have since given way to other ratios to restrict size.

Building restrictions arent as tight in many foreign countries  some seeking the prestige that tall buildings confer.

FAA height restrictions

The Federal Aviation Administration sets a building height of 2,000 feet in most U.S. cities to make commercial flights safer. The height is closer to 1,000 feet near airports.

From offices to apartments

Americas tallest buildings used to be reserved for office space. Thats changing after the introduction of mixed-use buildings, which incorporate office space, luxury condominiums or apartments, restaurants and retailers. Residential towers are more valuable when they are tall, but they dont have to be supertall.

For example, One57 in New York is 1,004 feet with 92 apartments and a hotel. Its duplex apartment sold for $100.5 million in 2014. 432 Park Avenue opened in 2016 and, at 1,394 feet, is the tallest residential building in the world and the second-tallest in New York. Its space has sold for more than $2 billion.

Some space in tall buildings is just  vanity space

Not all available space inside tall buildings is used. Some of it is vanity height, a term coined in 2013 by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. Vanity height is defined as the space between a buildings highest occupied floor and its architectural top, which are elements such as spires and parapets.

That space can be used to inflate building height. About 29% of Burj Khalifa is vanity height, according to the council. Nine other tall buildings in the USA, China and the UAE have 28% to 36% vanity height.

SOURCES Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; towerinfo.com; Turner and Townsend, International Construction Market Survey, 2018; Federal Aviation Administration; BCW Global; Skyscraper Museum; New York Historical Society; Emaar Properties; Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty; Empire State Realty Trust

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The worlds tallest buildings arent being built in the USA anymore
Harare (AFP) - Zimbabwe next month will start paying partial compensation to white commercial farmers whose properties were seized nearly 20 years ago under Robert Mugabe's land reforms, the government said Monday.

In a statement, the finance and agriculture ministries said they had budgeted 53 million Zimbabwean dollars ($18 million) in payments to "former farm owners affected by the land reform programme and who are in financial distress."

More than 4,000 of the country's 4,500 white farmers were stripped of their land under former president Mugabe's highly controversial land seizures.

Mugabe justified the land grabs as a way to correct colonial-era land ownership disparities that had favoured whites and to stimulate economic growth for black Zimbabweans.

Critics blame the evictions for a collapse in agricultural production that forced Africa's one-time bread basket to become dependent on imported food to feed its population.

Economic output fell by half following the land seizures which started in 2000 and the country's economy has struggled since then.

The compensation will only be paid for improvements the former farm owners made to the land. It will not be paid for loss of the land itself.

The organisation representing the farmers welcomed the government's move.

"This is a huge step by government in acknowledging that compensation is owed by them, that the delay has caused hardship and that they are now in a hurry to deal with this not only with this interim payment but also to agree on a global figure for improvements," the Commercial Farmers Union said in a statement.

It added that since "this is a limited fund, it is hoped that those who are not in financial distress do not take up the offer so as to maximise the effect on those not so fortunate".

The government's decision came after it carried out a valuation exercise of farm improvements.

The survey is expected to be completed by end of this month.

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"The registration process and the list of farmers should be completed by the end of April after which interim advance payments will be paid directly to the former farm owners," the statement said.

"The completion of the work ... will enable the government and the former farm owners to progress towards closure of the land issue."

A former close ally of Mugabe, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has vowed to revive the country's economy by lifting agricultural production and attracting foreign investment.
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe is to start paying compensation this year to thousands of white farmers who lost land under former president Robert Mugabe's land reform nearly two decades ago, the government said, as it seeks to bring closure to a highly divisive issue. Two decades ago Mugabe's government carried out at times violent evictions of 4,500 white farmers and redistributed the land to around 300,000 black families, arguing it was redressing imbalances from the colonial era. But land reform still divides public opinion as opponents see it as a partisan process that left the country struggling to feed itself. President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government sees the paying of compensation to white farmers as key to mend ties with the West, and set aside $17.5 million in this year's budget to that end. The initial payments will target those in financial distress, while full compensation will be paid later. "The registration process and list of farmers should be completed by the end of April 2019, after which the interim advance payments will be paid directly to former farm owners," Zimbabwe's ministries of finance and agriculture said in a joint statement on Monday. They said the process to identify and register farmers for compensation was being undertaken the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) and a committee representing the farmers. A committee comprising government officials and former farm owners is currently valuing improvements made on the farms. That process should end next month and will determine the full amount due to the farmers. The government, which maintains it will only pay compensation for infrastructure and improvements on farms and not for the land, is talking to international financial institutions on options to raise the full amount to pay farmers. Colonialists seized some of the best agricultural land and much of it remained in the hands of white farmers after independence in 1980, while many blacks were landless. (Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
Home | News | General | Declare me winner of Imo governorship election - APC candidate tells tribunal

- The governorship candidate of the APC in the Imo state governorship election, Hope Uzodinma, asks an election tribunal to void the victory of Emeka Ihedioha of the PDP

- Ihedioha alleges that INEC excluded votes cast for his party at the polling units across the state which he said gave the PDP candidate an advantage

- The APC candidate maintains that after the votes were counted the tally showed that the APC defeated the PDP candidate with a large margin

The governorship candidate of the APC in Imo state governorship election, Hope Uzodinma, has asked a tribunal to nullify the election of the PDP candidate, Emeka Ihedioha, and declare him as winner of the poll.

Ihedioha in a petition argued that he ought to be declared the winner of the Imo governporship election having polled majority of the votes cast at the election, Vanguard reports.

The APC candidate alleged that the INEC excluded votes cast for the his party at the polling units across the state which he said gave the PDP candidate an advantage.

READ ALSO: Buhari, Osinbajo, Saraki away from Nigeria

He maintained that even after the votes were counted, the tally showed that the APC defeated the PDP candidate with a large margin.

It was at the course of collation of the results at the ward, Local Government and State levels, that the 3rd respondent (INEC) incorrectly stated the votes of the 1st Respondent (Ihedioha) and thus reduced the votes of the petitioners by excluding the results from the polling units where the petitioners scored overwhelming majority of the votes cast, the petitioned said.

READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda

The petitioner further avers that in order to give unfair advantage to the 1st and 2nd Respondents, the INEC unlawfully credited the 1st and 2nd Respondents with votes arising from over voting in all of the polling units in Aboh Mbaise, Ezinihitte and Ahiazu Mbaise LGAs.

Meanwhile, the governor made the comment in Owerri on Friday, April 5, following criticisms of his last minute appointments.

Some chieftains of the incoming Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government in the state, had accused the governor of trying to burden the incoming administration with the appointments.

The governor who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Mark Uchendu, inaugurated the chairman and members of some government boards and parastatals less than two months to the end of his tenure.

Why Governors Steal? Rochas Okorocha of Imo State | Legit TV

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Home | News | General | African ministers hail President Buharis economic policies

- African ministers of labour, employment and social affairs commend President Buharis economic policies

- The ministers also extoll Nigerias minister of labour and employment, Chris Ngige, for championing the cause of the continent at the governing board of the international Labour organization(ILO) since his election in 2017

- Chris Ngige highlights some of the measures the Buhari administration took in reviving the Nigerian economy which slipped into recession in the first and second quarter of 2016

President Muhammadu Buharis economic agenda, particularly the one on Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), has gotten the commendation of African ministers of labour, employment and social affairs.

READ ALSO: NASS leadership: We can't let Tinubu rule us by dictatorship - APC chieftain

Vanguard reports that the minister commended Buhari at the 3rd biannual special technical committee on social development, labour and employment under the auspices of the African Union Commission at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The assistant director, press in the ministry of labour and employment, Iliya Rhoda Ishaku, in a statement on Sunday, April 7, 2019, disclosed that the ministers also extolled the Nigerias minister of labour and employment, Chris Ngige for championing the cause of the continent at the Governing Board of the International Labour organization(ILO) since his election in 2017.

Chris Ngige at the event noted that the economic development agenda of the Buhari administration was tailored towards a concurrent growth of the three-tier federal structures of national, states and local governments in line with the diversity of the nation.

He noted some of the measure the Buhari administration took in in reviving the Nigerian economy which slipped into recession in the first and second quarter of 2016.

READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda

"We boosted agriculture and raised the capacity of the nation to feed herself, to the extent that importation of rice for example, dropped by 95%. The same goes for sorghum. This decisive inward look was pivoted on the elastic efforts of government which the Central Bank of Nigeria piloted through the Anchor Borrowers Programme in agriculture," he said.

Ngige stated that the efforts of the Buhari administration in the last four years has charted a new course for Nigeria with the results of that giant strides made manifest in core sectors of agriculture, anti-corruption , employment generation, infrastructural development and war on insurgency.

The minister however warned that Africa would remain undeveloped if drastic measures are not taken by the leaders to fiercely tackle many challenges of underdevelopment facing the continent.

Meanwhile, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Wednesday, April 3, declared that the federal government has implemented no fewer than 140 reforms on ease of doing business in the past three years.

Osinbajo said this at the 2nd Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) Awards 2019 held at the state House Banquet Hall in Abuja.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports he said he was delighted to celebrate the phenomenal successes of the PEBEC reforms and recognition of those who made it all possible.

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Home | News | General | Why we want Gbajabiamila as speaker - House of Reps member

- Honourable Garba Mohammad said Femi Gbajabiamila is the best qualified candidate to become the next speaker of the house

- Mohammad explained that Gbajabiamiila ordinarily should have been elevated to the position of Speaker without any issues

- According to him, Femi he has been in the leadership since 2007, he has performed wonderfully well

A member of the House of Representatives, Garba Datti Mohammad, representing Sabon Gari federal constituency in Kaduna state has declared support Femi Gbajabiamila to become the speaker of the incoming 9th assembly.

The Nation reports that Mohammad, the ranking member in the green chamber, said Gbajabiamila ordinarily should have been elevated to the position of speaker without any fuss.

He said: That is because it is the normal convention in all democracies of the world. The majority party will always constitute the leadership and whoever is the head of that party in parliament that has the majority party automatically becomes the presiding officer.

READ ALSO: We can't let Tinubu rule us by dictatorship - APC chieftain

It happened in recent time. Just last November after the midterm election in US Nancy Pelosky became the speaker. She was the Minority Leader but once they became the majority, she automatically became the Speaker.

And this is the second term she has emerged as the Speaker; not even through election! It was just automatic. There was no election, although we have some slight differences in our constitution.

To me, the decision of the party leaders is right. These (Gbajabiamila and Lawan) are two leaders that have done a lot for this party, so they deserve to lead.

On the argument of the North Central lawmakers that they contributed more to the emergence of the President through their number of votes, he said: Well, anybody can argue whatever he wants to argue but the hard fact is, these are our leaders and we have majority now, so automatically they should take over because they have never been found wanting in their positions.

They have played very vital roles. Like Femi, he has been in the leadership since 2007 as Minority Whip, Minority Leader to Majority Leader and he has performed wonderfully well.

Then you can never take away experience in this system; competence, experience, doggedness, everything you are looking for and he has paid his dues, so to me, there is no issue.

Speaking on the position of some PDP lawmakers that Gbajabiamiila can never be their speaker, he said: The minority can always have their say; the majority will always have their way! You can say whatever, the only thing is to try and unite as a party. Once we unite, PDP has no mouth to talk.

READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda

They cannot decide who becomes the presiding officer. They can decide who becomes the Minority Leader and the Minority Whip but they cannot decided the Speaker; that is we put our house in order. I dont think there will be much problem.

Yes. I think the party has started doing that.I know of a person that even the President himself talked to him. I know of another person who his governor will talk to him either today or tomorrow to step down.

So, I am sure we will have it right when the chips are down. Some are just flying kites, some are serious and some are not serious. We know that.

Recall that Legit.ng reported that the APC explained why it settled for Senator Ahmad Lawan and Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila as Senate president and speaker respectively.

The party leadership said its decision was because the duo are the highest ranking members in both chambers of the National Assembly.

NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng: Same great journalism, upgraded for better service!

Nigerians set 2nd term agenda for President Buhari | Legit TV:

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The number of new print magazines started in the U.S. fell by more than half in 2020 to 60, compared t
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.

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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
Unconditional love, support and acceptance is what all queer children deserve. We stan! @DwyaneWade @itsgabrielleu pic.twitter.com/fMUON5c2k7  Growin Up Gay (@growinupgay_) April 7, 2019

Gabrielle Union took her (step)sons Zion and Zaire Wade to the Miami Beach Pride Parade. Union (and Wade's) baby daughter, Kaavia, who curiously has an Instagram, was also there and tagged in a number of the stories.



DWade, Union, and Zaire each posted Instagram stories supporting 11-year-old Zion. Wade's captions included "We support each other with Pride," "It's a family thing," and "Zion had his on [sic] cheering section today. Wish I was there to see you smile kid!" and I know we generally think DWade is trash, this is a very nice way to support his kid. Zion's older brother, Zaire, also posted "Love you lil bro no matter what" He posted another that said "gotcha back kid. Support gang!"

Some (morally reprehensible) media outlets have previously posted photos of Zion, which were then deleted when people were unsurprisingly hateful.Sources: Growing up Gay Twitter Zaire Wade IG , me and my IG. (Thanks for ontd.pictures for hosting!)

ONTD, which Prides will you be attending? For my gay and Black ONTD fam, how will you be getting your Black gay life this summer?
Recent hiccups for Brazilian oil supply call into question the growth projections for the country, with implications for the global oil market.

Brazils oil production slipped by 65,000 bpd in January, falling to 2.73 million barrels per day (mb/d). Compared to a year ago, Januarys production levels were flat, as maintenance and declines from mature fields offset growth from new start-ups, the IEA said in its March Oil Market Report. The IEA went on to say that [o]utput should rise in February following the start-up of the P-67 platform in the Lula Norte area and the P-76 at Buzios.

However, production fell again to around 2.5 mb/d in February.

The IEA had estimated that Brazilian production would increase by 375,000 bpd this year to about 3.3 mb/d by the end of the year. For the full-year, the IEA expects Brazil to average 3.07 mb/d.

The setback does not necessarily ruin the IEAs projection, but it will be much harder for Brazil to reach those levels after seeing output decline for two months. Brazil was expected to be producing a few hundred thousand barrels per day higher than it actually was in February. Growing output by 350,000 bpd in 2019 from last years levels now looks ambitious, particularly since output is now actually below last years average of 2.7 mb/d.

This is not only a problem for Brazil. The country has been widely cited as one of the very few countries aside from the U.S. that would add meaningful volumes of new oil supply this year. That is particularly true when excluding hypothetical increases from OPEC, should the cartel abandon its production cuts. For the year as a whole, non-OPEC oil supply growth is expected to slow from a record 2.8 mb/d in 2018 to 1.8 mb/d. The US continues to account for the bulk of the expansion, adding 1.5 mb/d, or 83% of the total, the IEA wrote in March. Other increases will come from Brazil, where a number of new production units are currently ramping up. Related: Why Oil Prices Rallied 30% This Year

The only other non-OPEC country that could add significant new supply is Canada, and Canadas infamous pipeline bottlenecks are likely to restrain growth. Some Canadian companies have already announced their decision to hold off on new investment and supply expansions because of pipeline constraints and policy uncertainty following Albertas mandatory production cuts.

To be sure, the new platforms that are starting up in Brazil this year are still expected to add significant volumes of new supply. Brazil is on the verge of major supply growth, Francisco Blanch, head of commodities research at Bank of America Corp., told Bloomberg in February. U.S. shale is not the only driver of increased volumes.

Brazilian officials boasted about a turning point. Brazil is reaching a new level of production and that is a fact, Decio Oddone, head of the countrys oil regulator, the National Petroleum Agency, said in a February interview with Bloomberg. 2019 will be critical.

But existing fields needing maintenance continue to undercut overall output. Some mature fields have also suffered from significant decline rates. This has been a perennial problem for Brazil. The production declines in January and February raise the prospect that Brazil could disappoint once again. Related: Aramcos Mega Debt Deal Is A Raging Success

On top of that, the quality of oil coming from Brazilian pre-salt fields is of the type that is in high demand right now. Medium and heavy oils have been increasing hard to come by with the severe disruptions in Venezuela, declines in Mexico, constraints in Canada, disruption in Iran and otherwise production restraint from the rest of OPEC. Those countries tend to produce medium and heavy oil. Meanwhile, light sweet oil from the U.S. has been found in extraordinary abundance. As a result, if Brazil undershoots expectations, it will not only affect global supply on an absolute basis, but also in terms of quality.

The Brazilian government is hoping to move forward on new auctions that could lead to future development. Regulators revealed higher bonuses for an upcoming auction in October in the Campos Basin. But any oil and gas that may result from such an auction are years away.

The main question over the next year or two is if the large volumes coming online from new projects turn out to be offset or somewhat mitigated by declines and maintenance elsewhere.

By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com

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The average production cost for a barrel of oil in Nigeria has declined to just US$23 a barrel, Petroleum Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu told local media, adding that oil companies were not stopping there and were aiming to reduce this further, to US$15 a barrel.

Oil exports are the largest single source of oil revenues for the Nigerian state, and anything that makes these more appealing to buyers would help revenues grow. However, production costs are not the only factor at play when it comes to oil revenues.

Local communities continue to be a hotbed for militant activity as they see only a fraction of the money Nigeria receives for its oil exports. This, in turn, makes investors reluctant to commit more funds and other resources to field exploration and development in Nigeria.

As a result, Exxon, one of the companies with the longest presence in Nigeria, is now looking to sell assets there worth as much as US$3 billion. The move is also in line with the companysand the whole oil industrysnew focus on quicker and higher return projects, which, for Exxon are clearly not in Nigeria. Kachikwu has denied the claim that Exxon is looking to bail.

On the other hand, French Total earlier this year launched production at a new offshore field, Egina, which has the capacity to produce up to 150,000 bpd of crude. Related: Midstream Outperforms In First Quarter

We are still underdeveloped, underachieving and we are close to achieving the 4 million production target as we deliver 1.9 to 2 million barrels a day currently, but even at that why are we not taking over from the International Oil Companies, or produce a single oil firm that can transcend other West African countries, Kachikwu said.

Nigeria is taking part in the latest OPEC+ round of production cuts and it is supposed to be producing less than 1.9 million bpd. The country, exempt from the first round of cuts, was initially reluctant to join the agreement but Saudi Arabia convinced it to take part. It has yet to reduce its production to the quota set it by the cartel.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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Technology has made a lot of things once only seen in sci-fi works of fiction a reality, and now floating cities may join the list. Earlier this month, UN-Habitat, the UNs Human Settlement Programme, showcased a project for floating villages that could house up to 10,000 people.

Oceanix City was developed by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels and the MIT Center for Ocean with the support of a specially set up vehicle, Oceanix, and is truly impressive. Whats more important, however, is that it is realistically buildable, according to the people behind it.

The city will be a cluster of small islands, each capable of accommodating up to 300 people. Below the surface, there will be farms for seafood, including scallops and kelp, and above the surface will be the regular land farms that will allow the community to be self-sufficient. Plans are to also have the islands produce their own energy and have all waste repurposed or recycled.

The islands will be car-free, although there is space for autonomous vehicles to take people to the coast and back, as well as drone deliveries, according to a Business Insider report. It will also be resilient enough, thanks to its construction, to withstand tsunamis, hurricanes, and earthquakes, and continue to operate without suffering any devastating consequences. In case of an extremely harsh weather event, the platforms could be towed to safety.

Though all this sounds like a project from the future, the truth is that floating homes are nothing new. There are many floating homes in various parts of the world where waterways allow it.

In Europe, the Netherlands and Denmark are notable for it. Yet, a repurposed ferry like the one the Oceanix City architects lives on is not really the same as a city. According to Ingels, however, a city is better. "At the city scale you can achieve more," the architect told Business Insider.

The project aims to address the problem of rising sea levels that are threatening some coastal communities and, according to its authors, there are virtually no technological challenges. There are other ones, though.

"The biggest question in people's minds is if these cities can actually float," the chief executive officer of Oceanix, Marc Collins Chen, told the BBC. Related: EV Superchargers Are Already Here But Theres A Catch

"The main obstacles at this point are psychological and are not technological," said another supporter of the project, Richard Wiese, president of The Explorers Club. "People psychologically get nervous at the term 'floating city'. I used this term to my wife, and her immediate response was not technological but rather visceral, she didn't like the idea of something that could drift away."

Whatever the misgivings of land dwellers, the project is already getting a prototype on the East River in New York, courtesy of UN-Habitats support. Oceanix, The Explorers Club, and the MIT will work jointly on the prototype.

Everybody on the team actually wants to get this built, Oceanix Collins says, as quoted by Business Insider. Were not just theorizing.

Some people have found cause for concern with the project: according to them, this sort of project goes counter to the idea of fighting climate change because it suggests there is a way of dealing with the consequences of climate change instead of trying to prevent them.

Since there are many scientists who argue it is already too late to prevent the consequences of climate change, it might actually be a good idea to try and find ways around them rather than lament the possibility that such ways exist.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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There have been plenty of eye-catching stories in the energy industry this year, but one notable development has been the rise of the U.S. as a crude oil exporter.

The ban on crude exports from the U.S. was lifted at the end of 2015, and exports ticked up in the following year, but only modestly. 2017, however, was the year that the floodgates opened.

In the first half of the year, there were several weeks when the U.S. topped 1 million barrels per day (mb/d), but exports averaged about 750,000 bpd between January and June.

(Click to enlarge)

In the third quarter, the export machine really kicked into high gear, and Hurricane Harvey was arguably the spark. It may seem odd at first blush that a disastrous storm that ravaged Texas would be the thing that spurred a rise in U.S. oil exports, but because so many refineries were damaged, a lot of the oil produced in Texas had to go elsewhere.

That surplus of crude and the temporary shortage of refining capacity was visible in the discount for WTI relative to Brent, a price differential that widened to as much as $7 per barrel after the storm, the largest disparity in years. If you are a buyer in say, China, paying $7 less per barrel than elsewhere is pretty appealing, even after factoring in high transport costs. As such, it is no surprise that U.S. oil exports to China surged this year. Related: Chinese Ships Caught Illegally Selling Oil To North Korea

U.S. oil exports hit a high at 2.133 mb/d in the last week of October, and have fallen back a bit since. In fact, it would seem to be a struggle for the U.S. to maintain such a high level of shipments. The more oil that is exported, the more likely the discount between WTI and Brent would narrow, which would essentially eat away at the competitiveness of U.S. crude.

Nevertheless, the U.S. has averaged exports of 1.5 mb/d in the fourth quarter, which is very high historically and makes the U.S. a significant player in the global oil market. At that level, the U.S is shipping more oil than 6 of the 14 OPEC members.

Moreover, even as U.S. oil exports may ease a bit next year, there are some forces working in its favor. The WTI discount remains exceptionally large, with front-month prices still trading almost $7 per barrel lower than Brent. That will keep exports high. Argus Media notes that transport costs of very large crude carriers (VLCCs) run at about $3.75 per barrel, which means the differential between WTI and Brent is supportive of U.S. exports.

The discount is helped along by the fact that U.S. shale output is surging, which acts as a drag on WTI. The EIA predicts that the U.S. will average 9.9 mb/d in 2018, an all-time high. OPEC and other analysts expect growth of U.S. shale by about 1 mb/d; the IEA sees slightly less but still robust growth of about 870,000 bpd.

At the same time, the outage at the Forties pipeline directly affected Brent, both in terms of fundamentals (an outage of several hundred thousand barrels per day) and in the way the benchmark is priced (Brent prices are specifically based on oil coming out of the North Sea). Other outages, such as in Libya, have more of an effect on Brent than WTI. Related: How China Is Killing Indias Solar Industry

In addition, the longer the discount stays in place, the more likely the U.S. holds onto some customers even after the discount narrows. Argus Media reports that refiners from South Korea, India and Poland are beginning to make purchases of American crude, replacing barrels that typically come from the Middle East. Refiners in these countries recently booked initial cargoes from the U.S. ahead of several more purchases scheduled in subsequent months.

Another reason why exports could remain elevated is that more crude export terminals are set to come online in 2018 and 2019. The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) is making changes to its facility in order to handle VLCCs, which will expand the ports capacity and lower the cost of export. That upgrade is slated to reach completion in early 2018.

U.S. oil exports surged in 2017, and 2018 could see more of the same.

By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com

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Saudi Arabia could begin natural gas exports in five-six years as it has already begun talks with neighboring Gulf Arab states to build natural gas pipelines, S&P Global Platts quoted Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih as saying at the Gulf Intelligence energy forum in Riyadh on Monday.

The Saudis will soon launch feasibility studies for a pipeline out of the Kingdom to some of its allies in the Persian Gulf, according to the Saudi minister.

Large volumes of natural gas have been found in the Red Sea, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) quoted al-Falih as saying last month.

In January this year, Saudi Aramcos chief executive Amin Nasser told Reuters in an interview that the oil firm was looking to spend billions of U.S. dollars on natural gas acquisitions in the United States as part of Aramcos strategy to bolster its gas business and become a global natural gas player.

At the end of February, Nasser said that Saudi Arabia aims to export as much as 3 billion cubic feet of gas per day by 2030 as part of its goal to boost the international footprint of its natural gas business.

Aramco will solely develop Saudi Arabias conventional and unconventional gas reserves, and the options for exports include exports via pipelines and LNG, according to Aramcos top manager.

In November last year, Nasser said that Saudi Aramco, already a top global oil producer but not as strong in gas production, will boost efforts to grow its natural gas output, from both conventional and unconventional reserves. Related: Platts Survey: OPEC Oil Production Down To More Than 4-Year Low

Saudi Aramcos gas development program is expected to attract as much as US$150 billion in investments over the next decade, Nasser said. Natural gas production is expected to jump to 23 billion standard cubic feet a day from the current 14 billion cubic feet a day, Aramcos top executive said in Dubai a few months ago.

We also have world-class unconventional gas resources that are rapidly supplementing our large conventional resources. Because a significant proportion of this unconventional gas is rich in both liquids and ethane, its production will play an important role in the further growth of the Kingdoms chemicals sector, Nasser said.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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The Libyan National Army (LNA) has launched a campaign to take over Tripoli and oust the internationally-recognized government, the latest phase in a long-running civil war that has simmered since the fall of Gaddafi eight years ago.

The LNA, led by Khalifa Haftar, is marching on Tripoli after solidifying control of vast swathes of territory in Libyas east. Haftar ordered the offensive last week, and there are reports of fighting near Tripoli over the weekend, with the LNA having conducted at least one airstrike as of Sunday. Its unclear how the situation will play out. The LNA is widely thought to be more organized than its counterpart in Tripoli, but Haftar is disliked in and around the capital. Libyas internationally-recognized government vowed to fight back and cleanse all Libyan cities of the aggressors, a spokesman said.

At the moment its too early to come to any firm conclusion, and ultimately fighting could drag for weeks, said Mohammad Darwazah, a director at Medley Global Advisors, according to Bloomberg.

The rival factions had made progress on political talks in recent months, pushed along by the UN. The fighting now underway erases all of that goodwill and it seems that UN officials were caught off guard with how quickly the situation deteriorated. Related: Whats Next For Algeria As Bouteflika Steps Down

A contingent of U.S troops supporting U.S. Africa Command temporarily exited the country due to declining security in Libya. The security realities on the ground in Libya are growing increasingly complex and unpredictable, said U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, commander, U.S. Africa Command, in a statement.

The turmoil could threaten Libyas oil supplies. On and off civil war, as well as more minor skirmishes involving pipelines and oil fields, has repeatedly disrupted Libyas oil production and exports. For now, Libyas main oil fields, pipelines and export terminals do not lie in the path of the fighting, although there is one major port nearby. Oil operations have been largely normal but any sustained fighting could quickly bring Libya back below one million barrels a day, Darwazah said.

The irony is that Libyas oil sector has rebounded strongly over the past year, and the head of the National Oil Corp. has laid out ambitious goals of continuing to ratchet up output this year and in 2020. Last year, the LNA tried to block oil exports and take control of shipments. Also, just a few months ago Libyas Sharara oil field  the countrys largest  went offline amid unrest.

There is no reason to expect any immediate impacts from the fighting on Libyas oil and gas infrastructure, which is focused in the east and south-west of the country Hamish Kinnear, Senior MENA Analyst at global risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft, wrote in an analysis. Intense inter-militia fighting in the capital in September 2018, for example, had no effect on Libyan oil production. Related: Oil Markets On Edge As Military Clash Looms In Libya

Still, this time could be different. A drawn-out conflict, however, will force the LNA to commit increasing amounts of military and financial resources to its war effort. This means the group will have to dial down its already limited presence in oil producing areas of the Oil Crescent and the south west, raising the risk of disruption to production, Hamish Kinnear of Verisk Maplecroft said.

Kinnear noted that while the LNA has control over much of Libyas oil production already, it does so through a complex web of alliances with local militia groups, all of which depend on payments from the LNA. Protracted fighting could sap the LNA of resources, both military and financial, while also distracting it elsewhere. That puts the countrys oil fields at greater risk.

The potential outage of Libyas oil production comes as the broader oil market continues to tighten. OPEC+ cuts have helped erased the supply glut, while outages in Venezuela and Iran have tightened the market more than most analysts had expected. Meanwhile, we are a few weeks away from the expiration of waivers for Iran sanctions. Libya is at risk again, a U.S. official involved in Iran sanctions told the Wall Street Journal. We cant afford an accident in the oil market.

The U.S. government was already considering bowing to oil market pressure by granting extensions on waivers for Iran sanctions.

By Monday, Brent shot up above $70 per barrel. In the event of renewed production outages in Libya, the oil market risks sliding into an even larger supply deficit in the second quarter, Commerzbank wrote in a note.

By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com

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China has long been criticized for imposing massive debt on developing countries as well as securing their natural resources to help them build up infrastructure with funding by Beijing, something about which the U.S. has been especially vocal, particularly in Africa and South Asia. Now, that criticism will likely be taken to a new level.

On Friday, South Sudans information minister Michael Makuei Lueth told reporters in Juba, the capital, that the country will provide 30,000 barrels of oil per day to state-owned lender Export-Import Bank of China to help fund South Sudans largest infrastructure project, which is being funded by Beijing. The amount has tripled from the 10,000 barrels of oil per day it provided to China in February. South Sudan, which produces around 170,000 barrels of oil per day, gained its independence from Sudan in 2011 after years of Civil War which saw China supply Sudan with arms and financing in-spite of allegations of human rights abuses.

Since South Sudan gained independence it has also been embroiled in civil war as troops and militias backing President Salva Kiir square off against former Vice President Riek Machar. A peace deal was signed in 2018 to end the war, but the situation still simmers, with atrocities being committed by both sides, according to recent media reports.

The UN Human Rights Council released a report in February describing what it believes is actually funding the war - the country's rich oil industry. The UN report added that even before the countrys independence, there were concerns about the appropriation of natural resources, particularly oil, and the significant role this has played in the conflict. The fighting continues in the oil-producing areas of the country, which has become increasingly militarized by Government forces. Related: EV Superchargers Are Already Here But Theres A Catch

Belt and Road Initiative

Lueth added in his statements on Friday we have adopted the policy of oil for development. The [South Sudanese] cabinet approved an additional 20,000 drums to make it 30,000 drums per day to be deposited in an account in China for infrastructure, especially for the roads and other development. He added that the crude will fund projects, part of Chinas Belt and Road Initiative, including a 244-mile (392-km) road from Juba to Rumbek in the central region, with work set to begin in mid-April. Other routes are planned from the south to the Bahr el-Ghazal region and from Juba to Nadapal on the Kenyan border. Chinas Shandong Hi-speed is carrying out the construction, which will take 36 months to complete, he said.

South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in July 2011. Although most of the oil production capacity in those two countries is in South Sudan, the country is landlocked and remains dependent on Sudans export pipelines and port.

Civil unrest, disagreements over oil revenue sharing, and border disputes have curtailed oil production and investment in both countries, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said recently. Disruptions in oil production, disputes over oil revenue sharing, and lower oil prices have had a negative effect on both economies.

According to BPs Statistical Review of World Energy, Sudan and South Sudan had 1.5 billion barrels and 3.5 billion barrels of proved oil reserves, as of January 1, 2017, respectively. Most of these reserves are located in the oil-rich Muglad and Melut basins, which extend into both countries. Oil and natural gas exploration in Sudan and South Sudan is limited outside of these basins because of the lack of evidence of prospective acreage and the persistent civil unrest affecting both countries.

By Tim Daiss For Oilprice.com

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In a major policy shift during the weekend, Norways Labor Partya long-time ally of the oil industry and the biggest party that is currently in oppositionsaid it would no longer support opening up the Lofoten archipelago to oil drilling, taking Norway a step closer to a permanent drilling ban in the area.

The scenic Lofoten archipelago is currently off limits for oil drilling thanks to years of political compromises. The ruling Conservative Party, as well as Labor until very recently, supported in principle the launch of feasibility studies for potential development, but didnt have the support from their junior partners when in power.

Now with the Labor Party withdrawing its support to potential oil development, the Lofoten area will likely remain off-limits for oil exploration, as the biggest party joins the smaller parties in Norways Parliament who dont want to risk damaging the pristine archipelago either.

Environmentalists and smaller parties in Norway have been strongly opposed to any meddling with the beauty of the Lofoten, Vesteralen, and Senja islands.

It takes courage and vision to stand up for systemic change. The permanent protection from oil drilling and exploration in Lofoten in Northern Norway should serve as an example for the rest of the world, environmental protection organization SeaLegacy said, commenting on the Labor Partys decision.

The major shift in position from the biggest party and long-time oil industry supporter, Labor, likely means that the area will never be tapped.

Estimates have put the potential oil resources underneath the picturesque islands at between 1.3 billion and 3 billion barrels of oil equivalent, estimated to be worth US$60-65 billion.

The shift in the Labor Partys position on Lofoten drilling, however, could make the oil industry nervous that further shifts in political support for oil drilling could come in the future.

According to Bloomberg, the oil drilling debate could now move to whether more areas in the Arctic Barents Sea should be open to oil drilling and development.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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A senior Russian official has suggested Russia will press for an end of the OPEC+ production cuts after the end of June when the original agreement expires, Reuters reports.

Kiril Dmitriev, head of the countrys direct investment fund, has been a staunch supporter of the OPEC+ cooperation since the beginning, which makes his latest remarks all the more significant.

It is quite possible that given the improving market situation and falling stocks, (OPEC and its allies) could decide in June this year to abandon supply cuts and subsequently increase output, Reuters quoted Dmitriev as saying.

This decision will not mean the end of the deal but a confirmation that participants continue their coordinating efforts when it is important not only to cut but to increase output depending on market conditions, the official added in keeping with his original stance on the partnership between the cartel and Russia.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabias Energy Minister also had comments to make about the agreement: Khalid al-Falih told media it was too early to say whether the agreement would be extended beyond the end of June, adding that next month would be crucial for where OPEC+ would go in the second half of the year.

JMMC will be a key decision point because we will certainly by then know where the consensus view is and, more importantly, before we ask for consensus, we will know where the fundamentals are pointing, he said.



Related: Oil Hits $70 On Libya Unrest, Crisis In Venezuela

The joint ministerial monitoring committee of OPEC+ is meeting in May.

Russias oil companies have been reluctant to take part in the production cuts this time around. In fact, there were reports earlier this year that Rosneft and other state entities were pushing for an end of Russias participation in the pact so they could start ramping up production again.

Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, is trying to convince the rest of OPEC and its partners to keep pumping at the reduced rate until Brent goes above US$70 a barrel for a more extended period of time than a day.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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Oil products output at Europes largest oil refineryShells 404,000-bpd Pernis refinery in the Netherlandswill be reduced after workers started a strike on Monday, demanding higher wages.

There will be impact on production but at this point we cant say exactly what the exact impact will be because we dont know yet, a spokeswoman for Shell told Reuters today, confirming that the industrial action, which local trade unions threatened in March, had begun.

In March, Dutch trade union CNV gave Shell seven days to meet their demands before announcing a strike.

At the end of last month, CNV said that workers would reduce production at the Pernis refinery and the Moerdijk chemical plant beginning on April 8 and would keep output at lower levels until workers demand are met.

The union had given no indications of the amount of output reduction, but Pernis is the largest oil refinery in Europe, and the point is to reduce output to a level that would force Shell to meet demands for higher wages.

Unions want a 5-percent wages increase, while Shell offers a 2-percent raise this year and another 2.5-percent salary increase next year, according to Reuters.

We are taking it day by day, we will have another technical meeting with the unions this afternoon, and we will take it from there, Shells spokeswoman told Reuters today.

According to the FNV trade union, production at the Pernis refinery will be gradually cut to 65 percent of the facilitys capacity today, as part of the strike for higher wages.

The reduction will be kept in place until Wednesday night, after which the trade union will discuss where negotiations are going and what to do next, FNV trade unions spokesman Egbert Schellenberg told Reuters on Monday.

Shell has just launched a new unit at Pernis in October last year to enhance performance and reduce environmental impact by enabling the processing of more oil into cleaner transportation fuels.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Kill two policemen

The Nigeria Police suffered casualty when bandits invaded certain communities in Birnin Gwari Local Government Area, Kaduna State. Two policemen were said to be killed by the bandits during exchange of gunfire.

The policemen were said to be killed during a gun battle with the bandits who invaded Kakangi community in Birnin Gwari Local Government on Saturday evening.

It was gathered that the bandits arrived the Police station at Kakangi, opening fire at they made their way.

The bandits from there proceeded to destroying houses and killing innocent citizens, including gathering at a wedding ceremony.

The State Police Command in Kaduna State was said to have confirmed the attack, noting that three of the bandits were also killed in the gunfire.

Post Views: 47
At the start of the year, Falz dropped his fourth studio album, Moral Instruction. On the tape, he covered topics ranging from corrupt politicians on Talk, to judgemental citizens on the Demmie Vee-assisted Hypocrite, which has now be given a fitting music video.

On the Sess-produced track, Falz raps about self-righteous sinners who judge others even though their crimes are greater. The video for Hypocrite depicts some of these cases  from a man stealing during prayer to a pedophile grooming a young boy.

In the frightening, Prodigeezy-directed video, the hypocrites Falz describes are made to look like zombies, their eyes sent to the back of their head leaving a lifeless white blockade in place of the windows to their soul.

It would have been great if both stars also became zombies, as that would have fully illustrated the fact that we are all hypocrites. Neither of them is faultless, yet they made a song judging others for judging others  the irony of their hypocrisy is entangling.

Still, the message that we should focus inward on our own wrongdoings, as opposed to viciously condemning others, is an important one to take home from the song and video  if only Falz adhered to the advice hes dished out.

Watch Hypocrite below:

[embedded content]
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...
Jamas nos callaran



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LOS REVOLUCIONARIOS NO TOMAN CACA-COLA No se trata solamente de un capricho, sino de una sana actitud en todos los sentidos. Desde la solidaridad con el pueblo colombiano donde la empresa Caca-Cola ha cometido los mas grandes abusos contra sus trabajadores incluyendo el presunto secuestro y asesinato de los dirigentes del sindicato, hasta la proteccion de la salud de nuestros hijos, enviciados por ese jarabe de cola y azucar, que les produce obesidad prematura. Pensemos tambien los revolucionarios, que ese dinero que gastamos en los refrescos es utilizado por esas empresas para financiar el terrorismo en nuestro pais. Es cierto, no se trata solo de la Caca-Cola, sino tambien de la cerveza, de los cigarrillos y todos esos articulos innecesarios y mas que eso, daninos para nuestra salud. Podriamos incluso pensar en un dia de parada para cada uno de ellos. Es cuestion de irnos organizando. Pero para empezar, que tal si dejamos de comprar Caca-Cola y sus similares?



























Cuando lo extraordinario se vuelve cotidiano...



Discurso del Acto de Grado en Barinas en 12 de Febrero del 2005 Queridos Graduandos:



Mas que un discurso, quiero dirigirles algunas palabras que escribi anoche, despues de visitar en las clinicas, a los estudiantes heridos, a consecuencia de los enfrentamientos con la policia de hace apenas dos dias.



Me ha tocado por razones del destino, ser la persona que les otorgue el titulo que bien merecieron con sus estudios. Y me siento sumamente orgulloso de serlo. Me consta que la Universidad de Los Llanos Occidentales Ezequiel Zamora, a pesar de lo dicho por los enemigos de esta universidad, es una universidad de primera.



No tendremos la mejor planta fisica, en los salones hace calor. En el comedor hace calor. Pero no es en lo material que las cosas deben valorarse. El mayor capital es el ser humano. Y en eso, nuestra UNELLEZ, lo digo con conocimiento de causa, esta sobrada. Los llaneros venezolanos son nobles, valientes, de coraje.



En la UNELLEZ hacen vida, en este momento, aproximadamente 67000 personas. El 97% de ellas son estudiantes. Jovenes que, como Ustedes hasta el dia de hoy, buscan ese titulo, que constata los anos de dedicacion y de estudio.



Los jovenes son el rio de la vida, ustedes graduados deben ser los capitanes de esos barcos que naveguen por el rio de la vida.



Nuestra Patria atraviesa momentos muy dificiles porque decidio dejar de ser esa matrona de edad vetusta y complaciente, para ser joven, rebelde y altanera. Nuestra imagen ya no es la de una acaudalada ricachona mayamera. En nuestro rostro brilla ahora la sonrisa del Che Guevara, con su diente delantero torcido, su pelo largo y su boina con la estrella.



Entender esto, a mi me ha tomado practicamente toda la vida. Tengo 53 anos, y ya perdi mi oportunidad de derramar sangre joven a causa de un ideal.



Ustedes son jovenes, estan en la flor de la vida. No cometan por favor el error de renunciar a su instinto de rebelion. El Che Guevara fue Ministro de a Economia en Cuba. Los billetes y las monedas se adornaban con su rostro. Nada de eso le importo. Primero fue a Angola donde paso un penoso ano de combate. Despues se fue a Bolivia, donde encontro la muerte. El Che era el ultimo que comia, el que cargaba la mochila mas pesada. Siempre se sacrificaba por los demas en un estoicismo que mas parecia fervor religioso que ideologia marxista.



Si quieren un modelo de vida. Ahi lo tienen.



Dije hace unos momentos que el 97% de la poblacion de la UNELLEZ es estudiante. Se imaginan Ustedes la Universidad que podriamos tener si todos los estudiantes tuvieran la abnegacion, la combatividad del Che?



Los momentos que se avecinan van a requerir de una gran unidad del pueblo venezolano. La alternativa de continuar siendo libres o regresar a la pobreza se nos planteara en los proximos dias de forma enmascarada, o quizas peor, desenmascarada, vestida con uniforme de soldado del Imperio.



Por nuestra parte podemos esperar lo mejor. La macroeconomia no podria ir mejor, la justicia social ha mejorado notablemente. Las misiones ocupan un papel muy importante en el pago de dicha justicia social. Aqui en Barinas ya hemos cumplido con dos de las misiones, la mision Robinson y la mision Sucre. No hay analfabetismo y no hay exclusion en la educacion superior, en estas tierras de Zamora.



Pero ay malhaya! Son precisamente estos exitos los que nos hacen mas antipaticos al Imperio. Para ellos, somos inclusive un mal ejemplo que se esta contagiando al resto del continente y cuidado sino al resto del mundo.



Nunca venceremos al Imperio. Estara siempre ahi, acechando. Por lo menos hasta que el mismo no se autodestruya. Porque, sepanlo senores, el neoliberalismo es canibal. Cuando le ataque el hambre, se devorara a si mismo.



Ustedes, queridos graduandos, a partir de hoy pasan a conformar la elite profesional que debe sostener este pais en los proximos cuarenta o cincuenta anos. Anos decisivos para el logro de nuestra libertad y del rescate de nuestra Soberania.



No se dejen comprar. No se dejen corromper. No se dejen gritar. No se dejen pisar. Que nadie les diga que comer, o que vestirse, o que leer. Sean siempre autenticos, rebeldes, contestatarios. Pero eso si, profundamente patriotas, dignos de ser hijos de Bolivar.



Muchas gracias y que Dios los bendiga.





Alguna duda?



Medio siglo de Holocausto Palestino



Oscar Zanartu Nacio en Caracas en 1960. Ha realizado exposiciones individuales en las galerias Minotauro, Clave y San Francisco, y en salas de Coro, estado Falcon, y Puerto Ordaz, estado Bolivar. En Paris su obra ha sido exhibida en el Centro Cultural Tanagra, en la Exposicion Cite Internationale des Arts, en las galerias De Mars y Arver Space, al igual que en la Galeria Municipal Levallois, en Levallois Perret (Francia). En muestras colectivas, su obra se ha expuesto en Belgica, Francia, Estados Unidos y Venezuela; en Caracas intervino en la exposicion "Del genesis a la memoria", 1995, organizada por la Fundacion La Previsora. En 1982 obtuvo el Premio Nacional Critven y en 1990 la Mencion de Honor Jose Antonio Paez, en la Embajada de Venezuela en Paris. En 1991 se le concedio el primer premio de Pintura Itinerante, en Levallois Perret, Francia.



OZ1



OZ2



OZ3



OZ4



Homenaje a Jason Galarraga



La Victoria de Samotracia



Odalisca



Mas fotos de la nevada del pasado agosto 2008



























La Sierra Nevada de Merida



Nuestro precioso Churum Meru



Homenaje a Picasso



Autoretrato



Sabes lo que bebes en una Coca-Cola?

La formula de la Pepsi tiene una diferencia basica con la de la Coca-Cola y es intencional, para evitar el proceso judicial. La diferencia es a proposito, pero suficientemente parecida como para atraer a los consumidores de Coca-Cola que prefieren un gusto diferente con menos sal y azucar.

Mi profesion?

Tuve que aprender quimica, entender todo sobre componentes de gaseosas, conservantes, sales, acidos, cafeina, enlatado, produccion, permisos, aprobaciones y muchas otras cosas. Monte mi propio mini-laboratorio de analisis de productos.

Sal en la Coca Cola?

A patadas. El Cloruro de Sodio no solo refresca sino da mas sed, como para pedir otra gaseosa. Y no resulta desagradable porque la sal mata literalmente la sensibilidad al dulce... del que por cierto tambien tiene mucho: 39 gramos de azucar.

De los 350 gramos de producto liquido, mas del 10% es azucar, o sea que en una lata de Coca-Cola mas de un centimetro y medio es puro azucar en polvo. Aproximadamente tres cucharadas soperas llenas de azucar por lata!!La formula de la Coca Cola es muy sencilla:

Concentrado de azucar quemado caramelo- para dar color oscuro y gusto

Acido fosforito (para darle el sabor acido)

azucar (HFCS-jarabe de maiz de alta fructosa)

Extracto de hojas de la planta de Coca (Africa e India) y otros pocos aromatizantes naturales de otras plantas

Mucha Cafeina

Conservante que puede ser Benzoato de Sodio o Potasio

Dioxido de Carbono en cantidad para sentir freir la lengua cuando se bebe

Sal para dar la sensacion de refrigeracion

El uso del acido fosforito y no del acido citrico como en todas las demas gaseosas, es para dar la sensacion de dientes y boca limpia al beber. El acido fosforito literalmente frie todo y dana el esmalte de los dientes, cosa que el acido citrico lo hace en menor grado.Trate de comprar acido fosforito para ver las mil recomendaciones de seguridad que te dan para su manipulacion (quema el cristalino del ojo, quema la piel, etc...). Esta prohibido usar el acido fosforito en cualquier otra gaseosa; solo la Coca Cola tiene permiso. Porque claro, sin el acido fosforico, la Coca Cola sabria a jabon.El extracto de coca y otras hojas casi no cambia en nada el sabor. Es mas bien un efecto cosmetico. El extracto forma parte de la Coca-Cola porque legalmente tiene que ser asi. Pero sin el, no se nota ninguna diferencia en el gusto, que esta dado basicamente por las cantidades diferentes de azucar, azucar quemada, sales, acidos y conservantes.Sabor a que...? ja, ja, ja.

Aqui en Bartow, sur de Orlando, hay una empresa quimica que produce aromatizantes y esencias para zumos. Envian diariamente camionadas de sales concentradas y esencias para las fabricas de helados, gaseosas, jugos, enlatados y comida colorida y aromatizada.Cuando visite por primera vez la fabrica, pedi ver el deposito de concentrados de frutas, que deberia ser inmenso, especialmente los de naranja, pina, fresa y tantos otros. El encargado me miro, se rio y me llevo a visitar los depositos inmensos... pero de colorantes y componentes quimicos.

Las gaseosa de naranja no contiene naranja.

En los zumos dizque de fresa, hasta los puntitos que quedan en suspension estan hechos de goma (una liga quimica que envuelve un semi-polimero).

Pina, es un popurri de acidos y goma.

La esencia para helado de aguacate usa peroxido de hidrogeno (agua oxigenada) para dar la sensacion espumosa tipica del aguacate.

Bebidas Light?

Quieres saber la cantidad de basura que tiene un refresco 'light'? Yo ni siquiera los uso para destapar mi lavaplatos pues temo que danen los tubos de PVC. Los productos endulzantes 'ligth' tienen una vida media muy corta. Por ejemplo el

Despues de toda mi experiencia con la produccion de bebidas embasadas, puedo afirmar sin dudar un segundo: la mejor bebida es el agua, como tambien los jugos exprimidos de naranja o limon. Nada mas, cero azucar y cero sal.



Publicado por loretahur



En realidad, la formula secreta de la Coca-Cola se puede detallar en 18 segundos en cualquier espectrometro optico, y basicamente la conocen hasta los perros. Lo que ocurre es que no se puede fabricar igual, a no ser que uno disponga de unos cuantos millones de dolares para ganarle la demanda que te metera la Coca-Cola ante la justicia (ellos no perderian).La formula de la Pepsi tiene una diferencia basica con la de la Coca-Cola y es intencional, para evitar el proceso judicial. La diferencia es a proposito, pero suficientemente parecida como para atraer a los consumidores de Coca-Cola que prefieren un gusto diferente con menos sal y azucar.Tuve que aprender quimica, entender todo sobre componentes de gaseosas, conservantes, sales, acidos, cafeina, enlatado, produccion, permisos, aprobaciones y muchas otras cosas. Monte mi propio mini-laboratorio de analisis de productos.A patadas. El Cloruro de Sodio no solo refresca sino da mas sed, como para pedir otra gaseosa. Y no resulta desagradable porque la sal mata literalmente la sensibilidad al dulce... del que por cierto tambien tiene mucho: 39 gramos de azucar.De los 350 gramos de producto liquido, mas del 10% es azucar, o sea que en una lata de Coca-Cola mas de un centimetro y medio es puro azucar en polvo. Aproximadamente tres cucharadas soperas llenas de azucar por lata!!La formula de la Coca Cola es muy sencilla:Concentrado de azucar quemado caramelo- para dar color oscuro y gustoAcido fosforito (para darle el sabor acido)azucar (HFCS-jarabe de maiz de alta fructosa)Extracto de hojas de la planta de Coca (Africa e India) y otros pocos aromatizantes naturales de otras plantasMucha CafeinaConservante que puede ser Benzoato de Sodio o PotasioDioxido de Carbono en cantidad para sentir freir la lengua cuando se bebeSal para dar la sensacion de refrigeracionEl uso del acido fosforito y no del acido citrico como en todas las demas gaseosas, es para dar la sensacion de dientes y boca limpia al beber. El acido fosforito literalmente frie todo y dana el esmalte de los dientes, cosa que el acido citrico lo hace en menor grado.Trate de comprar acido fosforito para ver las mil recomendaciones de seguridad que te dan para su manipulacion (quema el cristalino del ojo, quema la piel, etc...). Esta prohibido usar el acido fosforito en cualquier otra gaseosa; solo la Coca Cola tiene permiso. Porque claro, sin el acido fosforico, la Coca Cola sabria a jabon.El extracto de coca y otras hojas casi no cambia en nada el sabor. Es mas bien un efecto cosmetico. El extracto forma parte de la Coca-Cola porque legalmente tiene que ser asi. Pero sin el, no se nota ninguna diferencia en el gusto, que esta dado basicamente por las cantidades diferentes de azucar, azucar quemada, sales, acidos y conservantes.Sabor a que...? ja, ja, ja.Aqui en Bartow, sur de Orlando, hay una empresa quimica que produce aromatizantes y esencias para zumos. Envian diariamente camionadas de sales concentradas y esencias para las fabricas de helados, gaseosas, jugos, enlatados y comida colorida y aromatizada.Cuando visite por primera vez la fabrica, pedi ver el deposito de concentrados de frutas, que deberia ser inmenso, especialmente los de naranja, pina, fresa y tantos otros. El encargado me miro, se rio y me llevo a visitar los depositos inmensos... pero de colorantes y componentes quimicos.Las gaseosa de naranja no contiene naranja.En los zumos dizque de fresa, hasta los puntitos que quedan en suspension estan hechos de goma (una liga quimica que envuelve un semi-polimero).Pina, es un popurri de acidos y goma.La esencia para helado de aguacate usa peroxido de hidrogeno (agua oxigenada) para dar la sensacion espumosa tipica del aguacate.Quieres saber la cantidad de basura que tiene un refresco 'light'? Yo ni siquiera los uso para destapar mi lavaplatos pues temo que danen los tubos de PVC. Los productos endulzantes 'ligth' tienen una vida media muy corta. Por ejemplo el aspartamo , despues de tres semanas mojado, pasa a tener gusto de trapo viejo sucio.Para evitar eso, se agregan una infinidad de otros productos quimicos, uno para alargar la vida del aspartamo, otro para neutralizar el color, otro para mantener el tercer quimico en suspension porque sino el fondo de la gaseosa quedaria oscuro, otro para evitar la cristalizacion del aspartamo, otro para realzar el sabor, dar mas intensidad al acido citrico o fosforito que perderia su sabor por el efecto de los cuatro productos quimicos iniciales... y asi sucesivamente.Un consejo final !!Despues de toda mi experiencia con la produccion de bebidas embasadas, puedo afirmar sin dudar un segundo: la mejor bebida es el agua, como tambien los jugos exprimidos de naranja o limon. Nada mas, cero azucar y cero sal.Publicado por loretahur

MARGARINA o MANTEQUILLA La margarina fue producida originalmente para engordar a los pavos; cuandolo que hizo en realidad fue matarlos.Las personas que habian puesto el dinero para la investigacion quisieronrecobrarlo asi que empezaron a pensar en una forma de hacerlo.Tenian una sustancia blanca, que no tenia ningun atractivo como comestible,asi que le anadieron el color amarillo, para venderselo a lagente en lugar de la mantequilla.Que tal esa?... Ahora han sacado algunos nuevos sabores para vender mas alos incautos como usted y yo.CONOCE USTED la diferencia entre la margarina y la mantequilla?Siga leyendo hasta el final... porque se pone bastante interesante!Comparacion entre mantequilla y margarina:

1.- Ambas tienen la misma cantidad de calorias.

2.- La mantequilla es ligeramente mas alta en grasas saturadas: 8 gramos,comparada con los 5 gramos que tiene la margarina.

3.- Comer margarina en vez de mantequilla puede aumentar en 53% el riesgo deenfermedades coronarias en las mujeres, de acuerdo con un estudiomedico reciente de la Universidad de Harvard.

4.- Comer mantequilla aumenta la absorcion de gran cantidad de nutrientesque se encuentran en otros alimentos.

5.- La mantequilla provee beneficios nutricionales propios mientras lamargarina tiene solo los que le hayan sido anadidos al fabricarla.

6.- La mantequilla sabe mucho mejor que la margarina y mejora el sabor deotros alimentos.7.- La mantequilla ha existido durante siglos mientras que la margarinatiene menos de 100 anos.

Ahora... sobre la margarina:

1.- Es muy alta en acidos grasos trans. (Si, esos que recien ahora loscientificos descubrieron que son malisimos y los gobiernoscomenzaron a prohibirlos) .

2.- Triple riesgo de enfermedades coronarias.

3.- Aumenta el colesterol total y el LDL (el colesterol malo) y disminuye elHDL (el colesterol bueno).

4.- Aumenta en cinco veces el riesgo de cancer.

5.- Disminuye la calidad de la leche materna.

6.- Disminuye la reaccion inmunologica del organismo.

7.- Disminuye la reaccion a la insulina.

Y he aqui el factor mas inquietante (AQUI ESTA LA PARTE MAS INTERESANTE! ):A la margarina le falta UNA MOLECULA para ser PLASTICO...!!Solo este hecho es suficiente para evitar el uso de la margarina de porvida, y de cualquier otra cosa que sea hidrogenada (esto significaque se le anade hidrogeno, lo cual cambia la estructura molecular de lassubstancias).Usted puede ensayar lo siguiente:Compre un poco de margarina y dejela en el garaje o en un sitio sombreado.Dentro de unos dias notara dos cosas:

* No habra moscas; ni siquiera esos molestos bichos se le acercaran (esto yale debe decir a usted algo).

* No se pudre ni huele mal o diferente porque no tiene valor nutritivo; nadacrece en ella. Ni siquiera los diminutos microorganismos puedencrecer en ella.Por que? Porque es casi plastico!!



No a la guerra, Si a la Paz



Misterios de la ciencia...



Los costos de la guerra



medicos y capitalismo...



Capitalismo...



medicos (2)



Quien educa a nuestros hijos?



Los Medios...



Sin Palabras...



Chistes feministas

- Cual es el problema, Eva?

- Se que me has creado, que me has dado este hermoso jardin, todos estos maravillosos animales y esa serpiente con la que me muero de risa... pero no soy del todo feliz...

- Como es eso, Eva? - replico Dios desde las alturas.

- Me encuentro sola, y ademas estoy harta de comer manzanas...

- Bueno Eva, en tal caso, tengo una solucion... creare un hombre para ti.

- Que es un hombre?

- Un hombre sera una criatura imperfecta, con muchas artimanas. Mentira, hara trampas, sera engreido... vamos, que te va a dar problemas... Pero, va a ser mas fuerte y rapido que tu y le gustara cazar y matar cosas... Tendra un aspecto simple, pero como te estas quejando, le creare de tal forma que satisfaga tus... eh... necesidades fisicas... Y tampoco sera muy listo, y destacara en cosas infantiles como pegarse o dar patadas a un balon... Necesitara tu consejo siempre para actuar cuerdamente.

- Suena bien - dijo Eva, mientras levantaba la ceja ironicamente.

- Cual es el truco?.

- Pues... que lo tendras con una condicion.

- Cual?

- Como te decia, sera chulo, arrogante y muy narcisista... asi que le tendras que hacer creer que le hice a el primero... recuerda... es nuestro secreto... de mujer a mujer.





Por que a los hombres no les puede dar la enfermedad de las vacas locas?  Porque todos son unos cerdos

Un dia, en el Paraiso, Eva llamo a Dios: Tengo un problema.- Cual es el problema, Eva?- Se que me has creado, que me has dado este hermoso jardin, todos estos maravillosos animales y esa serpiente con la que me muero de risa... pero no soy del todo feliz... - Como es eso, Eva? - replico Dios desde las alturas.- Me encuentro sola, y ademas estoy harta de comer manzanas...- Bueno Eva, en tal caso, tengo una solucion... creare un hombre para ti.- Que es un hombre?- Un hombre sera una criatura imperfecta, con muchas artimanas. Mentira, hara trampas, sera engreido... vamos, que te va a dar problemas... Pero, va a ser mas fuerte y rapido que tu y le gustara cazar y matar cosas... Tendra un aspecto simple, pero como te estas quejando, le creare de tal forma que satisfaga tus... eh... necesidades fisicas... Y tampoco sera muy listo, y destacara en cosas infantiles como pegarse o dar patadas a un balon... Necesitara tu consejo siempre para actuar cuerdamente.- Suena bien - dijo Eva, mientras levantaba la ceja ironicamente.- Cual es el truco?.- Pues... que lo tendras con una condicion.- Cual?- Como te decia, sera chulo, arrogante y muy narcisista... asi que le tendras que hacer creer que le hice a el primero... recuerda... es nuestro secreto... de mujer a mujer.Por que a los hombres no les puede dar la enfermedad de las vacas locas?  Porque todos son unos cerdos

Ellas...



Ellas (2)...



Tres venganzas femeninas VENGANZA NUMERO 1

Hoy mi hija cumple 21 anos y estoy muy contento porque es el ultimo pago de pension alimenticia que le doy, asi que llame a mi hijita para que viniera a mi casa y cuando llego le dije:

-Hijita, quiero que lleves este cheque a casa de tu mama y que le digas que: Este es el ultimo maldito cheque que va recibir de mi en todo lo que le queda de su puta vida!!! Quiero que me digas la expresion que pone en su rostro.

Asi que mi hija fue a entregar el cheque. Yo estaba ansioso por saber lo que la bruja tenia que decir y que cara pondria.

Cuando mi hijita entro, le pregunte inmediatamente: -Que fue lo que te dijo tu madre?

-Me dijo que justamente estaba esperando este dia para decirte que no eres mi papa!



VENGANZA NUMERO 2

Un hombre que siempre molestaba a su mujer, paso un dia por la casa de unos amigos para que lo acompanaran al aeropuerto a dejar a su esposa que viajaba a Paris.

A la salida de inmigracion, frente a todo el mundo, el le desea buen viaje y en tono burlon le grita:

- Amor, no te olvides de traerme una hermosa francesita Ja ja ja!!

Ella bajo la cabeza y se embarco muy molesta.

La mujer paso quince dias en Francia.

El marido otra vez pidio a sus amigos que lo acompanasen al aeropuerto a recibirla.

Al verla llegar, lo primero que le grita a toda voz es:

- Y amor me trajiste mi francesita??

- Hice todo lo posible, - contesta ella - ahora solo tenemos que rezar para que nazca nina.



VENGANZA NUMERO 3

El marido, en su lecho de muerte, llama a su mujer. Con voz ronca y ya debil, le dice: - Muy bien, llego mi hora, pero antes quiero hacerte una confesion.

- No, no, tranquilo, tu no debes hacer ningun esfuerzo.

- Pero, mujer, es preciso - insiste el marido - Es preciso morir en paz.

Te quiero confesar algo.

- Esta bien, esta bien. Habla!

- He tenido relaciones con tu hermana, tu mama y tu mejor amiga.

- Lo se, lo se Por eso te envenene, hijo de puta!!!



machismo y cibernetica



Chiste machista La NASA ha enviado al espacio una mision experimental tripulada por dos monos y una mujer.Apenas abandona la atmosfera, se establece comunicacion con Houston.

-Atencion, simio 1, verifique sistemas hidraulicos, controle adecuada presion de los propulsores de arranque. A 60.000 pies disminuya un 25% la velocidad.

El simio hace la sena de OK.

-Atencion, simio 2, nivele al cruzar la estratosfera y active sistemas anticongelantes. No olvide monitorear sistemas de comunicacion e indicadores de presion. Comprendido?.

El simio hace la sena de OK.

-Atencion, Houston llamando a mujer: no se olvide.

-Mujer: Si, si, ya se! -interrumpe enojada- que no me olvide darles de comer a estos monos de mierda y que no se me vaya a ocurrir tocar nada!.



.Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti.

Un abogado mantiene un romance con su secretaria.Al poco tiempo, esta queda embarazada y el abogado, que no quiere que su esposa se entere, le da a la secretaria una buena suma de dinero y le pide que se vaya a parir a Italia.Esta pregunta: Y como voy a hacerte saber cuando nazca el bebe ? El abogado responde: Para que mi mujer no se entere, tan solo enviame una postal y escribe por detras: Spaghetti. Y no te preocupes mas, que yo me encargare de todos los gastos.

Pasan los meses y una manana la esposa del abogado lo llama al bufete, algo exaltada: Querido, acabo de recibir el correo y hay una postal muy extrana viene desde Italia. La verdad, no entiendo que significa.El abogado, tratando de ocultar sus nervios, contesta:Espera a que llegue a casa, a ver si yo entiendoCuando el hombre llega a casa y lee la postal, cae al suelo fulminado por un infarto.Llega una ambulancia y se lo lleva. Ya en el hospital, el jefe de cardiologia se queda consolando a la esposa y le pregunta cual ha sido el evento que precipito tan masivo ataque cardiaco.

Entonces la esposa saca la postal y se la muestra diciendole: No me explico, doctor; el solamente leyo esta postal. Vea usted mismo lo que trae escrito.Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti."Tres con salchicha y albondigas y dos con almejas



Gol !!!!



Chistes de Borrachos Entra un borracho a su casa todo manchado con lapiz labial por todos lados hecho un desastre, y la mujer le pregunta:-Hombre que te paso?Y el borracho le responde:-No me vas a creer, me pelee con un payaso!



Este es un borracho que entra en un bar y le dice al camarero:-Me da cinco copas de whisky?Al rato:-Me da cuatro?Al rato:-Me da tres copas?Despues:-Me da dos copas?Luego le dice:-Me da una copa?Y le dice al camarero:-Ves? Cuanto menos bebo, mas borracho estoy!


" " Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge stand on the balcony at Buckingham Palace with their bridesmaids, following their wedding at Westminster Abbey on April 29, 2011. Many Americans love to follow the royal family. ark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty Images

When American actress Meghan Markle weds Prince Harry of Wales in May 2018, she'll fulfill a fantasy for many American girls: marrying a prince and gaining a royal title. Outside of marriage, there's little chance of Americans obtaining one. The U.S. simply doesn't have any aristocracy or monarchy in place to facilitate such a system. That said, a couple of notable American citizens have earned their titles through marriage, including actress Grace Kelly, who married Prince Rainier III of Monaco in 1956 and urban planner Lisa Halaby who wed King Hussein of Jordan in 1978 and became Queen Noor [source: Courtney].

So what accounts for this American fascination with titles and the British royal family? (They're not so interested in other European royal families). Is it just princess fever courtesy of Disney movies or a love of imported dramas like "Downton Abbey"?

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It's been suggested that the reason is Americans see the British royal family as the equivalent of a long-running soap opera or reality show. But Boston University historian Arianne Chernock thinks it is about the special relationship between Britain and America. She told The New York Times that Anglophilia in the U.S. dates back to just after the American Revolution ended British rule in the 13 colonies. "There is a desire to retain that strong cultural tie, and I think that persists to this day," she told the Times.

Meanwhile Britain remains fond of their royals too. Despite some complaints about the amount of money it costs to maintain them, the percentage of the population that wants to do away with them has remained at 18 to 19 percent from 1969 to 2011.

Titles in Europe are still typically passed down from father to eldest son, with daughters unceremoniously skipped over (which means the title sometimes goes to a distant male cousin.) Efforts have been made in recent years to alter this practice. This potential change to hereditary peerage, as it's known, is still tied up in debate as of 2018 [sources: Parliament UK, Shapiro]. The law was changed to give equal succession to females in the British royal family in 2011.
The Independent reports on a new government white paper, which proposes that social media companies including Facebook and Twitter will be legally required to protect their users, including plans to introduce a regulator.They say that the long-awaited government proposal, which would also see bosses of companies personally liable for harmful content on their platform, will ensure internet firms meet their responsibilities, which will be outlined by a mandatory duty of care.They propose that the regulator will have the power to issue substantial fines, block access to sites and potentially impose liability on individual members of senior management.These proposed measures come amid concerns about the growth of violent content, disinformation and inappropriate material online.In March, the father of Molly Russell urged the government to introduce regulation on social media platforms in response to the suicide of his 14-year-old daughter, who was found to have viewed content related to depression and suicide on Instagram before her death:Getting the balance right here is going to be particularly important. The former culture secretary, John Whittingdale fears that the plans would send the wrong message to other countries, such as China, Russia and North Korea which censor their people. He does not want a UK regulator to give the despots an excuse to claim that they are simply following an example set by Britain.Daniel Dyball, UK executive director at the Internet Association, has criticised the current scope of the proposals for being extremely wide, which could hinder their implementation. He wants to ensure that any laws do not restrict freedom of speech.No doubt all these issues will be aired and decided upon as any legislation progresses through Parliament. If MPs can manage to protect vulnerable people while protecting people's freedom of speech then they will have nailed it.
TWO drug suspects who yielded over P3.5 million worth of methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu) were arrested in a drug bust in Sampaloc, Manila early Monday dawn, April 8.National Capital Region Police

TWO drug suspects who yielded over P3.5 million worth of methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu) were arrested in a drug bust in Sampaloc, Manila early Monday dawn, April 8.

National Capital Region Police Office Director Major General Guillermo Eleazar said Porferio Pementera, 39, and Orlando Naguinlin, 56, were arrested during a drug bust inside an apartment unit in Barangay 484, Zone 48, Sampaloc, Manila.

He said a barangay watchman, identified as Joseph Dela Cruz, was also arrested after allegedly trying to block the operatives.

Recovered from the suspects were 516 grams of shabu with a street value of P3,508,000, one firearm ,and other drug paraphernalia.

Initial investigation revealed that the suspects were members of Pementera Criminal Gang, a drug trafficking group operating in Manila and Quezon City.

Eleazar said the group is connected to local narco-politicians, including former barangay councilor Ronnie Labongray, who died during a police operation on March 28, 2019.

The group also has connections with high-value target ninja cops, particularly Jolly Aliangan, who is currently detained at the city jail.

Cases for violation of Section 5 and 11 of Republic Act (RA) 9165 or Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 and RA 10591 (Comprehensive Law on Firearms and Ammunition), in relation to Omnibus Election Code, are being prepared for filling in court against Pementera and Naguinlin.

Obstruction of justice will also be filed against Dela Cruz.

Eleazar said they will also look into the possible liability of the barangay chairperson who owns the apartment raided by authorities.

Meron tayong appropriate na kaso na ifafile sa kanya at eventually, matanggal sya sa kanyang katungkulan (We will file an appropriate case against the barangay chairperson, and eventually, he will be dismissed from service), he said. (SunStar Philippines)
THE Bureau of Immigration (BI) is studying possible actions against businessman Xian Gaza for allegedly mocking its system after he allegedly left the country despite having three arrest warrants.In a

THE Bureau of Immigration (BI) is studying possible actions against businessman Xian Gaza for allegedly mocking its system after he allegedly left the country despite having three arrest warrants.

In a Facebook post on Sunday, April 7, Gaza, who earlier went viral online after asking actress Erich Gonzales for a coffee date via billboard and due to his involvement in several investment scams, detailed how he was able to fly out of the country on September 30, despite having arrest warrants.

Gaza said he booked three tickets, one for Hong Kong, one for Taipei and another for Singapore, which were both decoy flights.

He said the most crucial part was when he passed through the immigration officer and he was informed that he has arrest warrants but still managed to get through since there is no hold departure order against him.

Okay na lusot na nakaupo na nga. Putek biglang may dumating na airport police at uniformed PNP! Pinapa-page sa mga cabin crew yung pangalan ko to check if I'm on board! Tanqinyeam gravity mukhang mapupurnada pa at makukulong ng 5 years ang Kuya mo Xian! Tayo agad ako pucha! Deretso sa toilet sabay lock ng pinto. Hindi ko na nakayanan at tumulo na ang luha ko sa loob. Grabe ang dasal ko as in while panic attack, said Gaza.

Nung narinig ko na sa cabin crew yung salitang 'cross-check' eh doon na ko nakahinga. Alam ko na that time na wala na lahat ng ground personnel at sarado na ang mga pinto ng aircraft. Thank you Lord! Wooh! Remember my 2 decoy flights bound to SG and Taipei? For sure, eh doon na sila sumunod nagpunta at naghanap dahil positive ang name ko on both passenger manifests. I strategically booked my HK flight ahead of time sa dalawa for that very purpose. Advance ako mag-isip, he added.

In a statement, BI spokesperson Dana Sandoval belied Gazas "story."

His story sounds like it was taken straight out of an action movie... He said it so himself, his story is based on what happened, but sadly its not what actually happened, she said.

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Sandoval said if a person has a hit in the BIs derogatory database, such as an existing hold departure order (HDO) or warrant of arrest, they will immediately be barred from flying out.

For Gazas case, when he left, Sandoval said he was cleared that is why he was allowed to leave.

The story is preposterous, similar to other claims he made in the past. If you know regular airport procedures, his story sounds silly. Ang daming loopholes. Booking numerous flights will not help evade police. Everything is recorded in our systems, with one click, youll know which flight a person really took, she said.

Since he had no derogatory record when he left, he was cleared for departure. It was quite uneventful and ordinary, really. No Hollywood-level storyline, just regular immigration clearance... Stunts like this using the Bureau to gain fame and stay relevant are a security risk. He is making a mockery of our airport procedures for attention, she added.

Arrest warrants were issued against Gaza for violation of the Anti-Bouncing Checks Law. He has reportedly scammed several persons. In 2018, the Malabon Metropolitan Trial Court sentenced him to five years and six months in prison. (SunStar Philippines)
THE Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) will push through with the creation of an angel investors group to help startup projects in Cebu take off.Although this project has already been initiated,

THE Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) will push through with the creation of an angel investors group to help startup projects in Cebu take off.

Although this project has already been initiated, CCCI president Virgilio Espeleta said the plan to create the group did not materialize due to issues concerning the organizational structure.

But he said that during his term, he will push for the realization of this project.

We have to help the Cebuano startups to monetize their creations. The chamber will develop a platform that will link the innovators and the capitalists, Espeleta said.

We just need to formalize the mechanics on how to go about this, he added. Guidelines will have to be formulated within the chamber.

An angel investor is an affluent individual who provides capital for a business startup.

According to Espeleta, the interest to support technology startup projects is high among the members of the chamber.

He said they can start with a few interested capitalists that will not only finance the project but also hand-hold startup entrepreneurs in their entrepreneurial journey.

The group will also act as business mentors, said Espeleta.

In June 2018, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) conducted an angel investing seminar for members of the CCCI and the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The seminar was meant to make the business community understand the dynamics of startups and angel investing for them to have better and informed investment decisions.

We target those entrepreneurs who are ready for this thinking. We want them to be more open in working with our startups, said DTI 7 Assistant Director Ma. Elena Arbon, adding that a startup venture is a high-risk-high-reward undertaking.

The business community can provide mentorship for our startups or traction in their operations, she said.

Funding remains a top challenge for local startups to flourish.

According to a study by QBO Innovation Hub and PwC Philippines in 2017, startup founders cited capital requirement (88 percent) as the top hindrance they encountered when starting their businesses, followed by regulatory requirements (54 percent) and general economics and business conditions (50 percent).

As of 2017, there were more than 300 startups in the Philippines, most of which were founded between 2012 and 2017, the study said. (KOC)
THE Supreme Court has ordered the Manila City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 5 to reinstate the criminal case for reckless imprudence against an official of the Sulpicio Lines Inc. (SLI) in connection

THE Supreme Court has ordered the Manila City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 5 to reinstate the criminal case for reckless imprudence against an official of the Sulpicio Lines Inc. (SLI) in connection with the 2008 M/V Princess of the Stars tragedy that claimed 227 lives.

The SC Third Division, in a 20-page decision penned by Justice Jose C. Reyes Jr., granted the consolidated petitions, reversed and set aside the March 22, 2013 decision and the January 8, 2014 resolution of the Court of Appeals that ruled in favor of respondent Edgar S. Go, SLI first vice-president for administration and team leader of the Crisis Management Committee.

In this case, the criminal action instituted against respondent involved exclusively the criminal and civil liability of the latter arising from his criminal negligence as responsible officer of SLI. It must be emphasized that there is a separate civil action instituted against SLI based on culpa contractual incurred by it due to its failure to carry safely the passengers of Stars to their place of destination. The civil action against a ship owner for breach of contract of carriage does not preclude criminal prosecution against its employees whose negligence resulted in the death of or injuries to passengers, the SC held.

In 2009, a Department of Justice (DOJ) panel indicted Go, along with several others, for reckless imprudence with the Manila RTC.

The DOJ panel found that Go was involved in making decisions on whether a vessel should be allowed to sail, such that he should have cancelled or discouraged the voyage considering the severe weather at that time.

Go filed with the DOJ Secretary a petition for review, during which pendency then Department of Transportation and Communication Secretary Leandro Mendoza issued a resolution exculpating SLI from any negligence and holding Captain Florencio M. Marimon solely responsible for the sinking of M/V Princess of the Stars.

Subsequently, the DOJ Secretary denied the petition of Go, who elevated the case to the Court of Appeals (CA) after his motion for reconsideration was denied.

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The CA ruled in Gos favor holding that respondents act of allowing the officers of the vessel to decide whether to set sail or not did not make him criminally liable as such decision was within the authority of the captain of the vessel, in coordination with the [Philippine Coast Guard] PCG, in view of the weather bulletin.

READ: Sulpicio exec cleared in Princess of the Stars sinking

The CA also found erroneous the finding of the DOJ panel that Go was criminally liable for not instructing the vessel to seek shelter or drop anchor in the face of the storm, because there was not a shred of evidence from which such power to decide matters pertaining to the vessels navigation could be inferred.

The SC, however, ruled that it will not interfere with the executive determination of probable cause for the purpose of filing an information in the absence of grave abuse of discretion.

It noted that the DOJ panels resolution clearly supports a prima facie finding that reckless imprudence under Article 365 of the Revised Penal Code has been committed.

The High Court found that the DOJ panel did not only rely on affidavits of complainants but also conducted clarificatory hearings in finding that Go, among others, failed to closely monitor and assess the movement of the vessel as against the movement of Typhoon Frank.

This failure resulted in him not instructing Captain Marimon to take shelter in the vicinity of Batangas despite information from the state weather bureau that the vessel would come face to face with Typhoon Frank if it continued along its regular route.

The SC also held that Gos acts, though not malicious, were indeed voluntary, and allowing the vessel to sail despite the severe weather condition demonstrated inexcusable lack of precaution on the latters part.

The Court also said that the ship owners liability based on the contract of carriage is separate and distinct from the criminal liability of those who may be found negligent.

It added that it is beyond dispute that a civil action based on the contractual liability of a common carrier is distinct from an action based on criminal negligence.

In this case, the SC said the criminal action instituted against Go involved exclusively the criminal and civil liability of the latter arising from his criminal negligence as a responsible officer of SLI.

The M/V Princess of the Stars, a passenger cargo, capsized on June 21, 2018 off Sibuyan Island in Romblon at the height of Typhoon Frank. It was bound for Cebu from Manila when the tragedy, considered one of the world's biggest maritime disasters, happened.

The incident left 227 of the 849 persons on board dead and 592 missing. Only 32 passengers survived.

The disaster prompted Sulpicio to change its name in 2009 after incurring losses. It is now known as Philippine Span Asia Carrier Corp. (PR/With SunStar Philippines)
THE National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) has removed over 650,000 campaign materials all over Metro Manila.NCRPO Director Major General Guillermo Eleazar urged the candidates to also do their

MALACANANG on Monday, April 8, said President Rodrigo Duterte's "threat" to declare a revolutionary war and suspend the writ of habeas corpus was not directed at the people, but at the enemies of the state.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said these are the criminals, the people manning the illegal drug industry, the corrupt bureaucrats, the greedy politicians, the communist rebels, foreign and local terrorists, and other enemies of the people.

He also clarified that it was not a threat, but an expression of exasperation.

"It was a stern warning to those transgressors of the law that the Chief Executive will not sit idly and watch as they go about their transgressions," he said in a media briefing on Monday.

Panelo said the President's statement was not made on a whim, as his critics noted.

"If the statement came across as a threat, it was not made on a whim but brought about by a series of acts committed against the people, e.g. the bold entry of illegal drugs in the country despite the relentless war against drugs, the unmitigated corruption in the bureaucracy and the outrageous bureaucratic red tape that has stymied government projects resulting in delayed services to the people, the seeming impunity of criminals to do their nefarious trade, the onerous contract entered into by the government that prohibited it from performing government action protective of the interest of the people, the NPA's attacks and ambushes of military and PNP personnel and local government units and their continuing extortion activities, the continuing threat of terrorists that endangers the security of the state and other acts of its enemies that imperil the safety of the nation," he added.

Under the Constitution, Panelo pointed out that the President is vested with powers to quell attacks on the people and save the state.

He cited Article 2, Section 4 of the Constitution, which provides that, "The prime duty of the Government is to serve and protect the people."

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"This constitutional command is for the President, as head of government, to serve and protect the people. When the very democratic institutions are being used to the detriment of the people and have become illusory for the people's interest; when their safety is imperilled, when the territorial integrity is at stake, and when the enemies of the republic are bent on bringing it down, then it becomes the constitutional duty of the President to use the powers reposed to him by the Constitution to quell the attacks on the people and to save the state," Panelo said.

Duterte issued the "threat" on revolutionary war in reaction to a statement by Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon urging extreme caution in the review of contracts entered into by the Philippine government.

Read: Duterte warns Drilon of revolutionary war

In his speech in Puerto Princesa City on April 4, Duterte said that if the opposition continues to push him, he will declare a revolutionary war, suspend the writ of habeas corpus and arrest all of them.

Duterte ordered a review of all contracts signed by the government following a court ruling that ordered the state to pay P3.42 billion to water concessionaire Maynilad Water Services Inc. (MVI/SunStar Philippines)
Forty-one Rohingya were found on a Malaysian beach Monday, police said, the second group of the Muslim minority to arrive in the country within weeks, stoking fears of a looming exodus. Many Rohingya have been seeking in recent weeks to leave by sea from Bangladesh, where they live in squalid refugee camps after fleeing their mostly Buddhist homeland Myanmar, before the monsoon season starts in earnest. Security forces have prevented hundreds from departing for Malaysia with people smugglers on fishing boats. But last month 34 Rohingya arrived in the northern Malaysian state of Perlis, the first group believed to have landed in the country in almost year. The latest batch, which consisted entirely of men, were found Monday on the same beach as the previous boatload, local police chief Noor Mushar Mohamad told AFP. "This is definitely the work of human smuggling syndicates working with local syndicates," he said. "I fear there could be more Rohingya arrivals unless maritime enforcement agencies step up patrols urgently." Noor Mushar said initial investigations indicated they could have travelled in a large boat before being transferred to smaller craft by local criminal gangs and ferried ashore. They have been handed over to immigration authorities, he said. It was not clear whether they had departed from Bangladesh or Myanmar, or when they had arrived. About 740,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar for Bangladesh following a brutal military clampdown in their home country in August 2017, joining hundreds of thousands already living in crowded camps. The traditional route to Malaysia is by boat from Myanmar or Bangladesh. Refugees arrive either in Thailand and head overland to Malaysia, or arrive directly in Malaysia. But arrivals have fallen markedly since 2015 when Thailand launched a crackdown, which disrupted the lucrative trade and led to smugglers abandoning huge numbers of refugees at sea. Relatively affluent, Muslim-majority Malaysia has long been a favourite destination for Rohingya, where they are a source of labour in low-paying industries such as agriculture and construction.
Join Songkran festival at Seedlings restaurant with splashes of 4 region authentic Thai foods, along with Phuket Peranakan cuisine featuring with variety of meat in BBQ char-grilled style for perfect combination. Special lucky draw on the night.

Day: Saturday 13 April 2019

Price: THB 790 net per person

Place: Seedlings Restaurant

Angsana Villas Resort Phuket

Call 076-336900

E. reservations-villaresort@angsana.com
A gas flare is seen in Malaysia. Canada has minimized gas flares. Credit: Shutterstock

Alberta's New Democratic Party government has had an aggressive carbon policy that's been central to its term in office. The carbon policy was meant to be a bookend to getting a pipeline built to tidewater so Alberta oil could reach international markets.

The climate policy plus pipeline strategy was designed to be collaborative with the federal government because the federal Liberals also campaigned in 2015 on climate policy plus pipeline. Alberta's largest oil industry players were supportive of the NDP government's carbon policies and committed to continue and boost their efforts to reduce their emissions.

But a series of federal environmental and Indigenous consultation legal hurdles over the past four years has resulted in delays in pipeline building.

Nonetheless, Alberta's largest oil industry players continue today to be supportive of a proactive carbon policy.

With an election on April 16, the polls-leading United Conservative Party (UCP) is now campaigning with a no-holds-barred aggressive "get a pipeline built" approach complete with a $30 million war room to attack environmental opponents.

Carbon policy is all but missing from the UCP platform, with the notable exception of scrapping the carbon tax and hinting that most other NDP climate initiatives will face a similar fate.

Many Albertans lean to fiscal conservatism and worry that the NDP is not sufficiently frugal while the province continues to suffer a recession. Yet they are not committed UCP supporters. Many of these fiscally conservative voters share the NDP's environmental values. Recent polls suggest that this group is in the "undecided" camp.

These environmental values received a jolt with the recent release of the federal environment commissioner's 2019 audit conducted by government scientists. The report concluded that Canada's climate is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the world.

I believe, as a scholar in energy and environment, that the responsible production and export of oil, as well as the export of industry expertise and know-how, is key to Alberta's future. Renewables and electricity storage will no doubt be important growth sectors, but oil will remain a significant part of Alberta's energy portfolio for decades, despite the global energy transition to a lower-carbon economy.

Most of Canada's oil is in Alberta

Canada has the third-largest oil reserves in the world, and is the fourth-largest exporter of oil. Most of that oil is in Alberta.

The oil-and-gas industry is also Canada's largest exporter. The industry represents over 20 per cent of Canada's exports, followed by the auto industry at just under 15 per cent. The industry and its supply chains employ thousands across the country in good jobs. The industry's royalties and taxes fund government services in Alberta and across Canada.

More than a dozen years ago, former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper proclaimed to the world in London that Canada was an "emerging energy superpower." I was in the room in Houston two years ago when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared: "No country would find 173 billion barrels of oil in the ground and leave them there."

Global oil demand is growing and the United States, historically Canada's only oil customer, has recently become the world's largest oil producer due to innovations in fracking technology and the resulting "shale revolution."

Like the U.S., Canada's oil industry has also made technological leaps to meet the growing oil demand. Canada, however, needs pipelines to its coasts to reach overseas markets. And Canada, unlike the U.S., lacks a large domestic market.

The United States, meantime, for the first time in half a century, has so much oil that it's exporting it. The U.S. has become Canada's oil industry competitor.

Canada is a signatory to the Paris Accord on climate change. Consequently, the federal and Alberta governments introduced carbon taxes and Alberta placed a greenhouse gas emissions cap on the oilsands.

Alberta's largest oilsands companies, understanding that being proactive with respect to corporate environmental strategy pays off, endorsed these policies. They welcomed them as being consistent with their own efforts to increase energy efficiency and reduce emissions and costs, despite their heavy oils being higher in emissions than lighter oils.

Reducing emissions

My organizational studies on industrial process innovation in Canada's oil industry show that, due to restrictions on emissions and cost pressures, the industry is leading in technology development. These new technologies reduce emissions by increasing energy efficiency.

Another stream of research I am involved in examines quantitatively using data from the Alberta Energy Regulator, Statistics Canada and corporate financial and sustainability reports what the results are of this process innovation in terms of a metric called energy return on investment (EROI).

Our studies show that EROI, or energy efficiency, from Alberta oilsands is improving and approaching the average of all global oils. Improved energy efficiency equals lower emissions. Among much sought-after heavy oils, which fetch high prices in Asia, Alberta's heavy oil has, arguably, the lowest carbon footprint, making it attractive.

Yet another recent study, published in Science, found that while waste gas flaring from conventional oil production worldwide had increased since 2010, it has not in Canada. The paper concluded that if Canada's minimal flaring practices were adopted worldwide, greenhouse gas emissions per barrel would fall by 23 per cent.

Alberta exports knowledge

Besides oil, Alberta has long exported technology and know-how to other oil-producing countries.

I am carrying out my EROI studies collaboratively with colleagues at the China University of Petroleum-Beijing, and funding comes jointly from my Suncor-sponsored research chair in strategy and sustainability and from the Natural Science Foundation of China.

According to Chinese diplomats in Canada with whom I have spoken, China is keen to reduce their carbon footprint and to meet their Paris commitments by switching electricity generation from coal to natural gas from Canada, and, for industrial refining purposes, by using the lowest carbon heavy oils globally available. They're also from Canada.

Given this innovative spirit and its emissions-reducing results, is this a time for Alberta to turn its back on carbon policy and tarnish its reputation in a world transitioning to lower carbon?

I say categorically no.

The United States may be able to isolate itself from global carbon policy because it has a large domestic market. Alberta and Canada are dependent on global energy markets and we cannot isolate ourselves from global carbon policy. Industry understands that. As they head to the polls soon, Albertans must understand it too.

Carbon policy should not be polarized as a left-right partisan issue, but should be embraced across the board.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

It's been a towering landmark in the world of English literature for more than two centuries, but Beowulf is still the subject of fierce academic debate, in part between those who claim the epic poem is the work of a single author and those who claim it was stitched together from multiple sources.

In an effort to resolve the dispute, a team of researchers led by Madison Krieger, a post-doctoral fellow at the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics and Joseph Dexter, who received a Ph.D. from Harvard, turned to a very modern toola computer.

Using a statistical approach known as stylometry, which analyzes everything from the poem's meter to the number of times different combinations of letters show up in the text, Krieger and colleagues found new evidence that Beowulf is the work of a single author. The study is described in a April 8 paper published in Nature Human Behaviour.

In addition to Krieger, the study was co-authored by Leonard Neidorf from Nanjing University, an expert on Beowulf whose numerous studies include a book on the poem's transmission, as well as Michelle Yakubek, who worked on the project as a student at the Research Science Institute, and Pramit Chaudhuri from the University of Texas at Austin. Chaudhuri and Dexter are the co-directors of the Quantitative Criticism Lab, a multi-institutional group devoted to developing computational approaches for the study of literature and culture.

"We looked at four broad categories of items in the text," Krieger said. "Each line has a meter, and many lines have what we call a sense pause, which is a small pause between clauses and sentences similar to the pauses we typically mark with punctuation in Modern English. We also looked at aspects of word choice."

"But it turns out one of the best markers you can measure is not at the level of words, but at the level of letter-combinations," he continued. "So we counted all the times the author used the combination 'ab', 'ac', 'ad', and so on."

Using those metrics, Krieger said, the team combed through the Beowulf text, and found it to be consistent throughouta result that lends further support to the theory of single authorship.

"Across many of the proposed breaks in the poem, we see that these measures are homogeneous," Krieger said. "So as far as the actual text of Beowulf is concerned, it doesn't act as though there is supposed to be a major stylistic change at these breaks. The absence of major stylistic shifts is an argument for unity."

The study is just the latest effort to pin down Beowulf's often-mysterious background.

"There are two big debates about Beowulf," Krieger explained. "The first is when it was composed, because the date of composition affects our understanding of how Beowulf is to be interpreted. For instance, whether it is a poem near or far in time from the conversion to Christianity is an important question."

The second debate among Beowulf academics, Krieger said, is related to whether the poem was the work of one author, or many.

"The first edition that was widely available to the public was published in 1815, and the unity of the work was almost immediately attacked," Krieger said. "From high school, everyone remembers the battle with Grendel and Grendel's mother, and maybe the dragon, but if you go back and read the whole poem, there are weird sections about, for instance, how good Beowulf is at swimming, and other sections that go back hundreds of years and talk about hero kings that have ostensibly nothing to do with the story. So the way we read it now... seems very disjointed."

One piece of evidence that has factored into debates about unitary composition can be seen just by looking at the text.

"The handwriting is different," Krieger said. "At what I would call a random point in the poem, just mid-sentence, and not really an important sentence, the first scribe's handwriting stops, and somebody else takes over. It's clear that the second scribe also proofread the first scribe, so even though currently nobody really things that these two guys were different poets, or were joining together parts of a poem at this random mid-sentence location, it has helped contribute to a narrative according to which the writing of Beowulf, and maybe its original composition, was a long and collaborative effort.

For the nineteenth century, the prevailing view among academics was that the poem must be the work of multiple authors. It wasn't until the early 20th century that another authorone whose name is all but synonymous with epic storytellingbegan to challenge that idea.

His name? J.R.R. Tolkien.

"Tolkien was one of the greatest champions of single authorship," Krieger said. "He was a very prominent Beowulf scholar, and in 1936 he wrote a landmark piece, "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics," that really revived the idea that it was the work of a single person."

At the heart of Tolkien's argument, Krieger said, was the way in which Christianity is reflected in the text.

"The Christianization of Beowulf is very interesting, because every single character in it is a pagan, even in these odd digressions" Krieger said. "Beowulf is from southern Sweden and goes to Denmark to help other pagan Germanic peoples fight monsters...but it's overlaid throughout with a Christian perspective and infused with Christian language." Computational evidence from the study supports Tolkien's view, from a new perspective. "Arguments based on the poem's content or its author's supposed belief system are vital, of course, but equally important are arguments based on the nitty-gritty of stylistic details. The latter also have the merit of being testable, measurable."

Though he acknowledged it's unlikely the new study will be the end of the debates about Beowulf's authorship, Krieger believes it can shed important new light on English literary traditions.

"If we really believe this is one coherent work by one person, what does it mean that it has these strange asides?" he asked. "Maybe one of the biggest takeaways from this is about how you structured a story back then. Maybe we have just lost the ability to read literature in the way people at the time would have understood it, and we should try to understand how these asides actually fit into the story."

Going forward, Krieger and colleagues are hoping to apply the stylometry tools developed for the study to other literary traditions and other landmark works.

"Even works as well-studied as the Iliad and the Odyssey have yet to be analyzed using a full array of computational tools," Krieger said. "The fine-grained features that seem to matter most have never been examined in a lot of traditions, and we're hoping to spread these techniques that we think could change the way similar problems are approached."

Krieger also hopes to use the techniques to understand the stylistic evolution of English across history.

"Putting Old English in context is the springboard," he said. "This is the birth of English literature. From here, we can look at what aspects of style evolvednot just grammar, but at the cultural level, what features people enjoyed, and how they changed over time."

Aside from their ability to shed new light on works of literature, Krieger suggested the stylometry tools used in the study might also have some thoroughly modern usesincluding spotting troll farms and fake news online.

"In retrospect, we know many thousands posts on Facebook were written by the same Macedonian troll farm during the 2016 election," he said. "If we had some way to identify that posts were likely written by the same author, that would obviously be very useful in deterring misinformation campaigns."

Ultimately, though, Krieger believes the study is a prime example of how ancient texts still hold secrets that can be uncovered through the use of modern tools.

"This is the first step in taking an old debate and refreshing it with some new methodology," he said. "It's a new extension of the whole critical apparatus, and it's exciting that an area probably assumed to be very traditional can in fact be at the cutting edge of work that spans the humanities and sciences."

Explore further Real meaning of English poem's first line discovered

More information: Large-scale quantitative profiling of the Old English verse tradition, Nature Human Behaviour (2019). www.nature.com/articles/s41562-019-0570-1 Journal information: Nature Human Behaviour Large-scale quantitative profiling of the Old English verse tradition,(2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41562-019-0570-1
In this April 10, 2018, file photo Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before a joint hearing of the Commerce and Judiciary Committees on Capitol Hill in Washington. Momentum is gaining in Washington for a privacy law that would sharply reduce the ability of the largest technology companies to collect and distribute people's personal data. Zuckerberg, published a column last month in the Washington Post calling for tighter regulations to protect consumer data, control harmful content and ensure election integrity and data portability. (AP Photo, Alex Brandon, File)

Momentum is gaining in Washington for a privacy law that could sharply rein in the ability of the largest technology companies to collect and make money off people's personal data.

A national law, the first of its kind in the U.S., could allow people to see or prohibit the use of their data. Companies would need permission to release such information. If it takes effect, a law would also likely shrink Big Tech's profits from its lucrative business of making personal data available to advertisers so they can pinpoint specific consumers to target.

Behind the drive for a law is rising concern over the compromise of private data held by Facebook, Google and other tech giants that have earned riches by aggregating consumer information. The industry traditionally has been lightly regulated and has resisted closer oversight as a threat to its culture of free-wheeling innovation.

Support for a privacy law is part of a broader effort by regulators and lawmakers to lessen the domination of companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon. Some, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic presidential candidate, have called for the tech giants to be split up.

The Trump White House has said in the past that it could endorse a broad data privacy law.

The big tech companies have been nervously eyeing a tough privacy law taking effect next year in California. That measure will allow Californians to see the personal data being collected on them and where it's being distributed and to forbid the sale of it. With some exceptions, consumers could also request that their personal information be deleted entirely.

Whatever federal privacy law eventually emerges is expected to be less stringent than the California measure and to supersede it. As a result, the tech industry is trying to help shape any national restrictions.

"This is the first time ever that the industry wants legislation," said Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a privacy advocacy group. "The industry is terrified."

In this Dec. 11, 2018, file photo Google CEO Sundar Pichai appears before the House Judiciary Committee to be questioned about the company's privacy security and data collection, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Support for a privacy law is part of a broader effort by regulators and lawmakers to lessen the domination of companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon. Some, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic presidential candidate, have called for the tech giants to be split up. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

On Tuesday, a House committee will press Google and Facebook executives about another urgent concern involving Big Tech: Whether they're doing enough to curb the spread of hate crimes and white nationalism through online platforms. The Judiciary Committee hearing follows a series of violent incidents fueled in part by online communication.

Facebook, used by 2-billion-plus people including over 200 million in the U.S., has been a particular lightning rod for industry critics. Having had its reputation tarnished over data privacy lapses, a tide of hate speech and a spread of disinformation that allowed Russian agents to target propaganda campaigns, Facebook appears ready to embrace a national privacy law.

Facebook's founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, published a column last month in the Washington Post calling for tighter regulations to protect consumer data, control harmful content and ensure election integrity and data portability.

"The internet," Zuckerberg wrote, "needs new rules."

Amazon says it has built its business on protecting people's information, "and we have been working with policymakers on how best to do that."

"There is real momentum to develop baseline rules of the road for data protection," Google's chief privacy officer, Keith Enright, has said in a policy paper. "Google welcomes this and supports comprehensive, baseline privacy regulation."

A sweeping "privacy shield" law in the European Union, covering how tech companies handle personal data in the 28-country bloc, should be a model, Zuckerberg wrote. EU regulators recently fined Google $1.7 billion for freezing out rivals in the online ad businesstheir third penalty against the search giant in two years. The EU watchdogs have also ordered Apple and Amazon to pay back taxes and fined Facebook for providing misleading information in its acquisition of WhatsApp.

On Monday, Britain unveiled plans to vastly increase government oversight of social media companies, with a watchdog that could fine executives or even ban companies that fail to block such content as terrorist propaganda and images of child abuse.

In this Sept. 5, 2018, file photo an empty chair reserved for Google's parent Alphabet, which refused to send its top executive, is seen before the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. Momentum is gaining in Washington for a privacy law that would sharply reduce the ability of the largest technology companies to collect and distribute people's personal data. Behind the drive for a law is rising concern over private data being compromised or distributed by Facebook, Google and other tech giants that have earned riches from marketing consumer information. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

The entire debate cuts to the heart of Big Tech's hugely profitable commerce in online users' personal data. The companies gather vast data on what users read and like and leverage it to help advertisers target their messages to the individuals they want to reach. Facebook drew 99% of its revenue from advertising last year. For Google's parent Alphabet, it was 85%, according to Scott Kessler of the research firm CFRA.

Amazon, too, doesn't just sell products online; it provides ad space, too. The company doesn't say how much but has said that the "other" revenue in its financial reports is mainly from ads. Its "other" revenue topped $10 billion last year, more than double what it was in 2017.

The tech giants' problematic relationship with advertisers was spotlighted by action regulators took last month. The Department of Housing and Urban Development filed civil charges against Facebook, accusing it of allowing landlords and real estate brokers to exclude certain racial or ethnic groups from seeing ads for houses and apartments. Facebook could face penalties.

The company has separately agreed to overhaul its ad targeting system and end some of the practices noted by HUD to prevent discrimination in housing listings as well as credit and employment ads. That move was part of a settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union and other activists.

Besides crafting a bipartisan data-privacy measure in Congress, lawmakers are considering restoring Obama-era rules that formerly barred internet providerslike AT&T, Verizon and Comcastfrom discriminating against certain technologies and services.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., has proposed fines and jail time for executives of companies guilty of data breaches.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable, representing CEOs of major companies, have presented their own proposals to curb privacy abuses. At the same time, President Donald Trump has echoed complaints from some conservative lawmakers and commentators that the big tech platforms are politically tilted against them.

"Facebook, Twitter and Google are so biased toward the Dems it is ridiculous!" he has tweeted. And he told a rally crowd, "We're not going to let them control what we can and cannot see, read and learn from."

In this April 10, 2018, file photo Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg pages while testifying before a joint hearing of the Commerce and Judiciary Committees on Capitol Hill in Washington. Momentum is gaining in Washington for a privacy law that would sharply reduce the ability of the largest technology companies to collect and distribute people's personal data. Zuckerberg, published a column last month in the Washington Post calling for tighter regulations to protect consumer data, control harmful content and ensure election integrity and data portability. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

Tech executives and many Democrats have rejected those assertions as themselves politically biased. Still, Trump has threatened to push regulators to investigate whether Google has abused its role as an internet gateway to stifle competition. And referring to Amazon, Facebook and Google, Trump told Bloomberg News, "Many people think it is a very antitrust situation, the three of them."

Among the tech giants that are trying to shape any final restrictions is the chipmaker Intel, which has developed its own legislative proposal.

"I think it's likely we are going to pass a national privacy law by the end of 2020," David Hoffman, Intel's associate general counsel and global privacy officer, said in an interview.

By then, the privacy measure emerging in California will have taken effect.

"The California bill is responsible for 90% of the lobbying and political pressure to pass a national law," said Robert Atkinson of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, whose board includes tech executives.

Four senatorsRepublicans Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Jerry Moran of Kansas and Democrats Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Brian Schatz of Hawaiiare working on a national measure. They say it would protect consumers from the abuse of their data and provide legal certainty to ensure that tech companies continue to hire and innovate.

"It would be nice," said Wicker, who leads the key Senate Commerce Committee, "to have it on the president's desk this year."

 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Full atomistic molecular dynamics simulation of a high-resolution HPAA-collagen structure constructed to investigate the effect of the presence of large polyelectrolyte molecules along the surface of collagen fibril on the movement and infiltration of ions in a biomimetic model. Credit: Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aav9075.

Living organisms form biological minerals during biomineralization, where inorganic elements can selectively deposit on specific organic macromolecules under precise control. The process can be divided into biocalcification or biosilicification based on the inorganic component, with collagen used as a universal template. During intrafibrillar mineralization, collagen matrices that are destined for mineralization in vertebrates contain surface bound matrix proteins. Understanding the complex mechanisms of intrafibrillar mineralization to form hard collagenous tissue such as bone and dentin is of significant interest in biomechanics, with decades of studies conducted to mimic or model the process in lab. In a recent study, now published in Science Advances, Q. Song and co-workers at the interdisciplinary Departments of Biology, Applied Physics, Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Sciences and Dental Medicine, in China, the U.S. and Italy, have developed a biomechanical model to examine the collagen-ligand interactions contributing to intrafibrillar mineralization.

In the study, they used negatively charged, high molecular weight polycarboxylic acid, cross-linked to reconstituted collagen, to create the biomimetic model. They conducted cryogenic electron microscopy and molecular dynamics simulations, to show that chain-like aggregates formed after cross-linking to collagen, along the fibrillar surface to implement fibrillar mineralization. They observed that the negatively charged, mineralized scaffolds allowed them to achieve higher quality with better biomechanical properties, compared with mineralization on unmodified scaffolds. The work on collagen-ligand interaction provided the scientists with insights on the origin of heterogeneously mineralized tissues and also clarified the potential causes of ectopic calcification (inappropriate biomineralization) in nonmineralized body tissues.

Biominerals that occur in nature inherently contain calcium to form calcium phosphate (CaP) and octacalcium phosphate as examples. CaP-containing biominerals specifically constitute vertebral hard connective tissues, whereas calcium carbonate forms the invertebral skeleton. Collagen fibrils can be used as mineralization templates due to nanoscale channels in their fibrillar structures to form nanoengineered hybrids with combined strength and resilience. However, the process cannot be achieved by simply immersing collagen matrices in a supersaturated solution of mineral ions, instead requiring the use of nucleation inhibitors to stabilize ion association complexes and prevent their crystallization outside the fibrils. As a result, in the last decade, scientists have proposed different in vitro models to understand the mechanisms of intrafibrillar mineralization. In the preceding study models, inhibitors of crystal nucleation were included in the mineralization medium and not bound on to the collagen fibrils, departing from the typical scenario that occurred in biological systems. In the present study model, Song et al. therefore allowed the inhibitors to bind the collagen fibrils for adequate biomimicry.

Characterization of PAA-collagen. (A) Infrared spectra of PAA-collagen sponges. Spectra were normalized along the collagen amide A peak (~3300 cm1, NH stretch coupled with hydrogen bond) Compared to the spectrum of bare collagen, the spectra of HPAA-bound collagen (HPAA-collagen) and LPAA-bound collagen (LPAA-collagen) sponges show increases in the amide B, I, II, and III peaks. (B) Solid surface  potential of HPAA-collagen, LPAA-collagen, and bare collagen. Cross-linking of PAA to the collagen molecule resulted in significantly lower  potentials of 17.17  1.98 mV for HPAA-collagen, 15.19  1.22 mV for LPAA-collagen, and 3.04  0.37 mV for bare collagen. (C and D) Comparison of carboxyl (C) and amine groups (D) between PAA-collagen and bare collagen. After anionic modification, the quantities of carboxyl group (in mM/g of collagen) in the HPAA-collagen (1.907  0.084) and LPAA-collagen (1.807  0.035) were significantly higher than that of the bare collagen (0.460  0.017). Credit: Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aav9075.

Since physiological noncollagenous proteins are difficult to extract and functionally complex for use in biomimetic mineralization studies, Song et al. used anionic polyelectrolytes as nucleation inhibitors in their model of intrafibrillar mineralization. Anionic polyelectrolytes can mimic the highly anionic and intrinsically disordered protein conformation found in noncollagenous proteins. In the proposed model, the polyelectrolyte nucleation inhibitors bound to the matrix protein-free reconstituted collagen as models of intrafibrillar mineralization. Song et al. first simulated the molecular dynamics to show that a polyelectrolyte such as polyacrylic acid (PAA) could reserve calcium and hydrogen phosphate ion complexes into chain-like aggregates along the surface of the macromolecule upon its introduction into a supersaturated CaP mineralization medium.

Based on the simulated molecular dynamics, Song et al. developed a testing hypothesis that a nucleation inhibitor bound to the surface of collagen fibrils could stabilize CaP mineralization precursors near the fibrils, for efficient intrafibrillar mineralization. To test the hypothesis, they used controls with an unbound version of the same polyelectrolyte used to stabilize the CaP precursors included into the mineralization medium instead.

Simulating the late phase of intrafibrillar mineralization of HPAA-collagen. 3D rendering of the late phase of intrafibrillar mineralization of HPAA-collagen showing accumulation of prenucleation cluster aggregates (yellow) along the fibril surface; intrafibrillar minerals are depicted in orange. Credit: Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aav9075.

The scientists used high-molecular weight polyacrylic acid - PAA (HPAA) to simulate osteopontin and low molecular weight PAA (LPAA) to simulate osteocalcin. They chemically crosslinked the polyanionic electrolytes to reconstitute type I collagen fibrils or sponges using organic compounds and examined the polymer constitution using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Song et al. used transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to observe PAA-bound collagen fibrils that were stained red and recorded them as electron dense filamentous aggregates on the fibril surface. They then used high-performance liquid chromatography to examine the characteristics of binding/release of PAA-collagen sponges.

Simulating the molecular dynamics of biomineralization

To understand the different phases of intrafibrillar mineralization of HPAA-bound collagen (HPAA-collagen), the scientists created movies using the electron tomography data of the diverse phases of biomineralization. They simulated the (1) early phaseto show the accumulation of prenucleation cluster aggregates around the unmineralized collagen fibril, (2) mid phaseto show partial intrafibrillar mineralization and (3) late phase - to show heavy intrafibrillar mineralization of the HPAA-collagen fibrils. They showed that LPAA-collagen did not induce intrafibrillar mineralization compared to HPAA in the study, and therefore did not include the polymers in the subsequent experiments.

Molecular dynamics simulations. (A) Profile of bare collagen microfibrillar structures with water molecules within the intrafibrillar spaces. Blue ribbons, collagen triple helices; red dots, water molecules. (B) Side view of bare collagen microfibrils. The blue lines describe the 67-nm-long simulation box. (C and D) Movement of Ca2+ (yellow spheres), HPO42 (red assemblies), and assembled CaP mineralization precursors (yellow-red assemblies) across the collagen microfibrils with the HPAA (green chain) bound to the LYS1099 amino acids of the collagen molecules. (E) Top: Simulation of the movement of various ions across the HPAA-collagen microfibrillar structures at designated simulation times. Blue spheres, purple spheres, yellow spheres, red assembly, yellow-red assemblies, and green chain structure represent Na+ ions, Cl ions, Ca2+ ions, HPO42 ions, CaP mineralization precursors, and HPAA, respectively. Bottom: Dynamic changes in the number of Ca2+ (black line), HPO42 (red line), Na+ (green line), and Cl (blue line) in the intrafibrillar and extrafibrillar regions along the a-axis boundary at 0, 30, 50, and 70 ns. (F) Movement of Ca2+, HPO42, and assembled CaP mineralization precursors across the bare collagen microfibrils with unbound HPAA in the extrafibrillar region (control). (G) Comparison of the distribution of various ions within the intrafibrillar region in the collagen-bound HPAA and the unbound HPAA mineralization models. (H) Comparison of root mean square deviation of collagen molecules in the collagen-bound HPAA and the unbound HPAA models. (I) Comparison of solvent-accessible surface area (SASA) of the collagen molecules between the two models. Credit: Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aav9075.

Song et al. thereafter used molecular dynamics simulations of the mineralization process to understand the structure-to-function relationship and validated the ability of collagen-bound HPAA to aggregate CaP mineralization precursors. For this, they used a full atomistic model of the hydrated HPAA-collagen fibril complex. In the unit model, they simulated Ca2+ and HPO 4 2- ions and assembled CaP mineralization precursors to form around the collagen-bound HPAA. The work revealed the distribution of sodium ions, chloride, calcium and HPO 4 2- ions along the axis of the unit model boundary.

Examining the ultrastructure

For ultrastructural examinations of the biomimetic model, Song et al. used nanoindentation to assess the Young's moduli of mineralized and unmineralized collagen fibrils with atomic force microscopy (AFM). The values were similar to those previously reported for mineralized and unmineralized fibrils, computed using nanoindentation. The scientists used X-ray diffraction spectroscopy to identify the presence of apatite on the mineralized sponges. The study showed that HPAA-collagen mineralized in CaP solution for seven days had higher mineral content than bare collagen. When Song et al. calculated the apatite/collagen ratio in the spectroscopic profiles, the HPAA-collagen sponges indicated higher levels of mineralization.

: LEFT: AFM of the 3D surface topography and modulus of elasticity (Youngs modulus) mapping of representative air-dried, mineralized bare collagen and HPAA-collagen fibrils. (A) Bare collagen fibrils (BC) had a close-to-normal distribution of Youngs modulus transversely across the fibril. (B) Bare collagen mineralized in CaP solution without nucleation inhibitor (BC + CaP). (C) Bare collagen mineralized with HPAA-CaP solution (BC + HPAA-CaP). (D) HPAA-collagen mineralized with CaP solution without nucleation inhibitor (HPAA-Col + CaP). (E) Statistical analyses of the Youngs modulus of collagen fibril in the lengthwise and transverse directions (n = 8). RIGHT: Characterization of mineralized HPAA-collagen sponges and bare collagen sponges. (A) TEM of mineralized HPAA-collagen sponges. (B) TEM of mineralized bare collagen sponges. (C) Dynamic attenuated total reflection (ATR)FTIR shows progressive mineralization of an HPAA-collagen sponge at 12-hour intervals over a 7-day period. (D) Changes in apatite 3PO4/collagen amide I ratio of mineralized anionic collagen sponges and unmodified collagen sponges. E) Dynamic ATR-FTIR shows the progress of mineralization of a bare collagen sponge in HPAA-CaP solution. (F) Stress-strain response of mineralized HPAA-collagen sponges for determining tangent modulus and modulus of toughness (inset, middle row). (G) Stress-strain response of mineralized bare collagen sponges. Credit: Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aav9075.

The modulus of toughness, which typically indicates the energy per unit volume that a material can absorb before rupturing, was also significantly higher for HPAA-collagen sponges indicating fracture resistance of the material. Such features account for the high resilience of biomineralized collagen-based tissues that mimic bone microarchitecture to combine the bone properties of toughness and strength in regenerative engineering. Song et al. credited the observed properties of cohesive/adhesion to HPAA crosslinking, which allowed to create the collagen/mineral composite, similar to the crosslinked osteopontin found in bone architecture.

Applications of the novel biocompatible constructs

Since the biocompatibility of new materials is an important feature in materials science and bioengineering, Song et al. verified favorable cell-material interactions on HPAA-crosslinked collagen using stem cell viability and proliferation during in-lab bone regeneration cell culture. When the scientists conducted mitochondrial dehydrogenase and apoptosis assays on human mesenchymal stem cells, they did not observe significant differences between the unmineralized HPAA-collagen and bare collagen sponges. Due to their compatibility to human osteoblast-like cells, such materials can be used as biocompatible coatings for surgical implants.

In this way, Song et al. demonstrated a biomechanical model of intrafibrillar mineralization enhancement using collagen-ligand interactions to understand the site-specific mechanisms. This model of collagen-ligand interactions can also shed light on the potential causes of ectopic mineralization, which is of interest at present. In the perspective of Song et al., intrafibrillar mineralization via collagen-ligand interactions can infiltrate minerals more consistently into bulk collagen matrices for applications in regenerative medicine. The results will help understand the biomechanical properties, while reducing flaws to increase the biomimetic features of a mineralized collagen matrix in tissue engineering.

 2019 Science X Network
The global fleet of Boeing 737 MAX planes has been grounded, including those owned by Southwest Airlines, seen here last month in Victorville, California

Boeing shares slumped Monday on the company's weakened profit outlook after it announced last week it would cut production of 737 planes following two deadly crashes.

Shares finished down 4.4 percent at $374.52, weighing on the Dow in the first session since Boeing announced late Friday it would trim production to 42 planes per month, down from 52 per month.

Several analysts downgraded profit estimates, releasing notes that expressed a variety of views on the seriousness of the crisis for Boeing.

The 737 MAX has been grounded worldwide after suffering two crashes in five months that killed nearly 350 people. The Federal Aviation Administration has signaled it will take a cautious approach before clearing the planes to resume operations.

Bank of America Merill Lynch predicted the "disruption" to the 737 line would last six to nine months, up from the prior estimate of three to six months. The bank also trimmed its profit forecast for this year and over next four years.

"Boeing could incur liabilities related to certification and testing costs, late delivery penalty to airlines, lives lost from the Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 302 and Lion Air flight JT 610, and production disruption penalties to suppliers," the note said.

"The reputational loss from these events could erode long-term market share and pricing power of the 737 MAX," added the Bank of America note, which downgraded the rating to "neutral."

Canacccord Genuity cut its price target on Boeing shares to $380 from $391.93 and said it now saw July 2019 as the date the MAX grounding could be lifted "in a best-case scenario."

Last month, Canaccord had predicted the grounding would end in early to mid-May.

"After a relatively slow reaction by Boeing management to the Ethiopian Air accident, we believe Boeing is feeling much more regulatory and political pressure on the MAX than it anticipated," said the Canaccord Genuity note.

Morningstar also said the announcement likely meant a longer grounding period, estimating that earnings would decline $1.11 per share. However, Morningstar said Boeing should be able to ramp up monthly production of the planes to 57 aircraft before hitting the mid-60s in the next decade.

"We believe Boeing's ability to generate returns above its cost of capital will remain strong well into the next decade and most likely beyond," said Morningstar.

CFRA Research maintained a "buy" rating on Boeing despite trimming the earnings estimate for 2019. Although the Boeing story will be "volatile" in next few months, the company should do well in time, it said.

"Longer term, strong aerospace demand, Boeing's strong order book and backlog and track record of execution are likely to weigh out, we think," CFRA Research said.

More cancelations?

S&P Global Ratings said its rating was unaffected, writing that the company "has sufficient liquidity and cushion in the rating to weather the MAX grounding."

S&P warned that deliveries in some markets could be delayed after regulators in the EU, Canada, China and elsewhere said they would review Boeing's fixes before allowing the planes to resume normal operations. These announcements break with a tradition of accepting the certification of the company's home regulator, in this case the US Federal Aviation Administration.

But S&P said a canceled 737 MAX order by Indonesian carrier Garuda and a recent decision by China to order from Airbus were not signs of a new trend.

"Order cancellations from other airlines are possible but this could be driven more by their growth prospects and financial condition," S&P said.

"Airlines generally lose their deposits if they cancel orders and Airbus does not have the capacity to ramp up production significantly in the short term to replace canceled Boeing orders."

Explore further Boeing, FAA say more time needed for fix of troubled 737 Max

 2019 AFP
Carbon dioxide emissions by income level. Credit: World Bank

By pointing out the western lifestyle is not "the norm and end goal of societal evolution", the research team of Dr. Mohsen Kayal (University of Perpignan, France) contributes to the debate on the urgency of achieving sustainability, as ignited by the largely publicised article "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice" published in BioScience in 2017. Their Response paper in the open-access journal Rethinking Ecology emphasizes that societies in developing countries are often more dependent on natural resources, while least responsible for the ecological crisis.

While expressing explicit support and endorsement for the call made in the original paper, the team argue that several of its recommendations "address symptoms rather than root causes", while steering away from historical patterns and underlying drivers of the global socio-economic system, namely those relating to wealth inequality, human demography, and food production.

According to the researchers, the desired universal sustainability cannot be achieved in a situation of inequitable wealth distribution. They highlight the link between the consumerism and neocolonialism in the western society and the environmental declines. Meanwhile, communities in the developing world are much more vulnerable to ecological disasters and their homelands are being overexploited and compromised for the production of a major part of the commodities sold around the world.

Inequitable distribution is also evident in the ecological footprint of the western world as opposed to poorer regions. The team of Dr. Mohsen Kayal question the appeal made in the Warning to Humanity paper that restricting birth rates is of primary concern when it comes to mitigating the anthropogenic effect on the planet. Rather, they argue that it is the excessive resource consumption and ecosystem-destructive practices observed in the western lifestyle that need to be prioritized.

Carbon dioxide emissions per capita vs GDP per capita (2016). Credit: Global Carbon Project, Maddison (2017)

Citing the 2017 data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the authors note that there is indeed enough food being produced to meet the needs of even more people on Earth than there currently are. However, it is again the unequal distribution of resources that results in both hunger and obesity. In the meantime, the replacement of the current industrial model of agriculture with a suite of environmentally friendly practices (e.g. cover crops, diverse crop rotations), the adoption of ecologically-based farming and well-managed grazing could preserve soils and their properties, while also increasing yields, resilience to climate change and socio-economic development.

"Sustainability can only be achieved through prioritizing global ethics, including universal equality and respect for all forms of life," conclude the authors of the Response paper. "Sustainable solutions to Earth's socio-ecological crisis already exist, however humanity still needs to realize that pursuing the same practices that created these problems is not going to solve them."

Global Resource Trade. Credit: Chatham House

More information: Mohsen Kayal et al, Humanity and the 21 st century's resource gauntlet: a commentary on Ripple et al.'s article "World scientists' warning to humanity: a second notice", Rethinking Ecology (2019). Journal information: BioScience Mohsen Kayal et al, Humanity and the 21 st century's resource gauntlet: a commentary on Ripple et al.'s article "World scientists' warning to humanity: a second notice",(2019). DOI: 10.3897/rethinkingecology.4.32116
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A team of researchers at the University of Georgia has found a way to use the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing tool on reptiles. In their paper uploaded to the bioRxiv preprint server, the group describes the technique they developed and how well it worked on test lizards.

CRISPR Cas-9 has been used in a wide variety of experiments over the past couple of decades as scientists attempt to learn more about the procedure itself, how well it works, and possible applications for its use. But early on, researchers suggested that CRISPR could not be used with reptiles because of their unique reproductive systemsanole females, for example, store sperm for use when it is most convenient, making it difficult if not impossible to time the injection of the CRISPR Cas-9 tool. There is also the problem of inserting a needle through an eggshell without damaging it and preventing the embryo from developing. But difficult does not mean impossible, as the team in Georgia has foundthey developed a successful workaround to edit cells in several lizards using CRISPR Cas-9.

To use CRISPR Cas-9 on lizards, the researchers cut open several test anole females and injected the editing tool directly into eggs before fertilization, while they were still in the mother's ovaries, and then allowed nature to take its course. In all, the team injected the editing tool into 146 eggs in 21 lizards. In their experiments CRISPR Cas-9 had been programmed to edit the tyrosinase gene, which is responsible for determining what color the lizard will bewhen it is deactivated, the lizard will be an albino. The researchers report that the editing technique was successful four timesfour albino anoles were born. The researchers suggest their technique should work on other species of lizard as well.

In taking a closer look at what had actually transpired with the albino anoles, the researchers found that the offspring had edited genes from both parentsthis meant that CRISPR Cas-9 had remained active in the female longer than expected, resulting in changes to paternal genes after fertilization had already happened.

More information: Ashley M. Rasys et al. CRISPR-Cas9 Gene Editing in Lizards Through Microinjection of Unfertilized Oocytes, bioRxiv (2019). Ashley M. Rasys et al. CRISPR-Cas9 Gene Editing in Lizards Through Microinjection of Unfertilized Oocytes,(2019). DOI: 10.1101/591446

 2019 Science X Network
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Following the Christchurch mosque shootings, there has been considerable discussion of intolerance and experiences of discrimination in New Zealand.

For example, Anjum Rahman, a spokesperson for the Islamic Women's Council, has expressed concerns about rising levels of discrimination against the Muslim community.

This discussion has been driven by specific examples of discrimination or intolerance. Such anecdotes clearly prove wrong the idea that New Zealand is free of discrimination or intolerance, but they provide no evidence of societal prevalence of such experiences and attitudes.

My aim here is to consider data on the occurrence of discrimination and the extent of tolerance across New Zealand society, in aggregate and by different groups. This allows some generalisable conclusions about what we do and don't know.

Experiences of discrimination

Stats NZ's most recent General Social Survey (collected between April 2016 and April 2017) allows a consideration of local discrimination and tolerance. It uses an officially collected and statistically representative population sample. It also enables an analysis by subgroups defined by migrant status, main ethnic category and region.

Aggregating across all experiences of discrimination (e.g. by ethnicity, age, gender, dress, language, religion, sexual orientation etc), and hence maximising reported discrimination, most New Zealanders (83.1%) report no discrimination in the previous year. There is little difference in reported discrimination between New Zealand-born people (83.5% report no discrimination) and long-term migrants (83.7%). However, while a large majority of recent migrants (74.3%) report no discrimination, the figure was smaller.

Across all major ethnic categories, the large majority report no discrimination. Of New Zealand Europeans, 85.4% report no discrimination. Rates for Pacific (80.1%), Maori (74.4%) and Asian New Zealanders (73.4%) are lower, but still high.

In terms of regional differences, 83.1% of Cantabrians (where Christchurch is) report no discrimination, identical to New Zealand-wide rates. On this evidence, Canterbury is not a local hotbed of discrimination.

How big are the observed difference in discrimination between groups reported above? The standard social science approach divides population differences into "small", "medium" and "large". On the basis of this division, the most elevated experiences of discrimination experienced by ethnic minorities and recent migrants are closest to small in size.

Tolerance of ethnic and religious diversity

In terms of tolerance, the large majority of New Zealanders are comfortable or very comfortable with a neighbour with a different religion (87.4%). They feel the same comfort regarding a neighbour from a different ethnic group (88.7%).

The one case where only a small majority express comfort involves a neighbour with a mental illness. Only 53.2% of people are very comfortable or comfortable here.

There are no notable differences in tolerance by migrant status, ethnic category or region. Hence, with the exception of the mentally ill, all groups share a majority value of out-group tolerance, and harbour a similar small share of the intolerant.

There is no official data on discrimination experienced by Muslim New Zealanders compared to other groups. Equally, there is no official data on Muslim tolerance of other ethnic and religious groups as neighbours.

However, there is information from the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study on negative attitudes, in the form of reported anger. People report on a 1 to 7 scale, where 1 is "No anger", 4 is "Neutral", and 7 is "Anger". People report on anger towards several main ethnic categories, as well as Muslims, a religious group. In terms of the sampling approach, these data are less well suited for answering population questions than the official Statistics New Zealand data.

Bearing this caveat in mind, the survey shows a broad lack of out-group negativity. Most societal responses fall between "No anger" and "Neutral". For example, 91.3% of non-Pacific people report "No anger" to "Neutral" attitudes towards Pacific people. Comparable out-group figures for Asians are 90.3%, for New Zealand Europeans 87.3% and for Maori 86.0%.

All these figures are basically identical. For Muslims the number is slightly lower at 81.9%. But in all cases the share of society in the "No anger" to "Neutral" zone is a large majority. Equally, differences between Muslims and ethnic groups are small.

Unfortunately there are no other religious groups where the anger question is asked. This means there is no benchmark to compare out-group anger towards Muslims. Data on anger towards Evangelical Christians, Hindus or Jews are not collected.

While discrimination experienced by minority groups, defined by migrant status and ethnic category, clearly exists, it is not the experience of a large majority of New Zealanders from any of these groups. Furthermore, group differences are small.

The large majority of New Zealanders also seem to be tolerant, including of different ethnic groups and religions, and are not angry, as far as one can tell, towards Muslims.

There appears to be, however, a small elevation in anger towards Muslims compared to ethnic groups. But whether anger is greater towards Muslims compared with other religious minorities remains unclear from the available evidence. It is worth observing that all religious groups, Muslim or otherwise, are minorities in New Zealand.

Explore further Prejudice against black and ethnic Scots widespread

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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California's native species and its precious water resources are in serious need of some Trump insurance.

The state has laws that safeguard threatened wildlife and regulate water quality. But they are muscles and sinews that function only because they are attached to the bones of strong federal environmental laws adopted by forward-looking Congresses and presidents since the 1970s. Now those federal bones are beginning to dissolve.

President Trump came into office declaring global warming a hoax perpetuated by China, the drought a figment of Californians' imagination and environmental protections a plot to undermine the U.S. economy. His departments and agencies have moved to weaken or eliminate dozens of protections, and the rollbacks are coming so fast it's not always possible for the state to keep up.

It's not for lack of trying. On Tuesday, the State Water Resources Control Board approved new standards to protect California's wetlands and seasonal streams and ponds that are slated to lose their current federal protection under the Clean Water Act as part of the Trump administration's rollbacks. The water board's nick-of-time move is welcomebut state water regulators had been working on it for a decade and probably sped up the process in response to the rollback. They and other bureaucracies can't possibly move fast enough to defend against Trump efforts to eliminate species protections in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta or elsewhere in California.

That's why the state needs Trump insurance. Lawmakers are now considering such a policy in the form of Senate Bill 1. Written by Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) and a handful of her colleagues, the bill would prevent environmental backsliding by keeping in placethis time as state standardsthe federal protections of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Endangered Species Act as they existed prior to Jan. 20, 2017. That's the day Trump took office.

In other words, it keeps in place the status quo.

The bill's opponents in agriculture and industry complain that it imposes new uncertainty, making it more difficult and costly to plan construction projects or expand ongoing operations. But they have it exactly wrong. The bill eliminates uncertainty by keeping current standards and regulations.

Their actual reason for opposing SB 1 is more likely that they were looking forward to the kind of deregulation that would make it easier for them to foul rivers and streams, divert water and take other actions that could harm birds, fish and other animals. Those are exactly the kinds of rollbacks that California can't afford.

State rollbacks could still occur if warranted, even if the bill becomes law. Species could still be removed from the state's endangered list, upon evidence that their numbers and prospects for survival have recovered. Rules for draining wetlands or filling in streams could still be changed. But it would be up to state lawmakers and regulators, and not just officials in Washington.

Opponents may also be unhappy with a provision of the bill that keeps in place the current level of labor protections for all workers in Californiaunder workplace safety and whistleblower regulations, for exampleeven if the Trump administration lowers them nationwide. For most Californians, that's one more good reason to support SB 1.

One less noticed feature of the bill is that it protects Southern California's water supply by preventing the State Water Projectwhich delivers water from the delta to L.A. and adjacent areasfrom shouldering the environmental responsibilities of the federal Central Valley Project, the parallel system that irrigates San Joaquin Valley farmland.

The Trump administration has tried to increase exports of delta water to farmers, leaving less water in the San Joaquin River and its tributaries to sustain migrating salmon. Without SB 1, if the Central Valley Project pumps too much, it could fall to the State Water Project to keep river flows within current environmental standards, leaving less water to send to Southern California residents.

An earlier version of SB 1 was introduced last year but never made it to the governor's desk. Since then, the danger of Trump rollbacks has only grown. It is time for the state to protect itself by adopting SB 1.

2019 Los Angeles Times

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
An artist's interpretation of the sea floor after the mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs. The three hair-covered forms (left) represent species of plankton that survived. The geometric form (bottom left) is a species of algae. Credit: The University of Texas at Austin Jackson School of Geosciences/John Maisano

It takes at least 10 million years for life to fully recover after a mass extinction, a speed limit for the recovery of species diversity that is well known among scientists. Explanations for this apparent rule have usually invoked environmental factors, but research led by The University of Texas at Austin links the lag to something different: evolution.

The recovery speed limit has been observed across the fossil record, from the "Great Dying" that wiped out nearly all ocean life 252 million years ago to the massive asteroid strike that killed all nonavian dinosaurs. The study, published April 8 in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, focused on the later example. It looks at how life recovered after Earth's most recent mass extinction, which snuffed out most dinosaurs 66 million years ago. The asteroid impact that triggered the extinction is the only event in Earth's history that brought about global change faster than present-day climate change, so the authors said the study could offer important insight on recovery from ongoing, human-caused extinction events.

The idea that evolutionspecifically, how long it takes surviving species to evolve traits that help them fill open ecological niches or create new onescould be behind the extinction recovery speed limit is a theory proposed 20 years ago. This study is the first to find evidence for it in the fossil record, the researchers said.

The team tracked recovery over time using fossils from a type of plankton called foraminifera, or forams. The researchers compared foram diversity with their physical complexity. They found that total complexity recovered before the number of speciesa finding that suggests that a certain level of ecological complexity is needed before diversification can take off.

Lead author Chris Lowery, a research associate at the University of Texas at Austin, examining microfossils on the scientific drilling mission that retrieved core samples from the crater left by the dino-killing asteroid. Credit: The UT Jackson School of Geosciences/Chris Lowery.

In other words, mass extinctions wipe out a storehouse of evolutionary innovations from eons past. The speed limit is related to the time it takes to build up a new inventory of traits that can produce new species at a rate comparable to before the extinction event.

Lead author Christopher Lowery, a research associate at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (UTIG), said that the close association of foram complexity with the recovery speed limit points to evolution as the speed control.

"We see this in our study, but the implication should be that these same processes would be active in all other extinctions," Lowery said. "I think this is the likely explanation for the speed limit of recovery for everything."

Lowery co-authored the paper with Andrew Fraass, a research associate at the University of Bristol who did the research while at Sam Houston State University. UTIG is a research unit of the UT Jackson School of Geosciences.

A photomicrograph showing 10 species of foraminifera, a type of plankton. In this paper, researchers examined foraminifera fossils and found a link between the rate of species recovery after an extinction event and evolution. Credit: United States Geological Survey/l Randolph Femmer

The researchers were inspired to look into the link between recovery and evolution because of earlier research that found recovery took millions of years despite many areas being habitable soon after Earth's most recent mass extinction. This suggested a control factor other than the environment alone.

They found that although foram diversity as a whole was decimated by the asteroid, the species that survived bounced back quickly to refill available niches. However, after this initial recovery, further spikes in species diversity had to wait for the evolution of new traits. As the speed limit would predict, 10 million years after extinction, the overall diversity of forams was nearly back to levels observed before the extinction event. Foram fossils are prolific in ocean sediments around the world, allowing the researchers to closely track species diversity without any large gaps in time.

Figure showing the very diverse late Cretaceous planktic foraminifera, the very small and simple group that survives the extinction, and then the increasing diversity of shapes in this group of plankton as they recover during the early Paleogene. Credit: Christopher Lowery

Pincelli Hull, an assistant professor at Yale University, said the paper sheds light on factors driving recovery.

"Before this study, people could have told you about the basic patterns in diversity and complexity, but they wouldn't have been able to answer how they relate to one another in a quantitative sense," she said.

The authors said that recovery from past extinctions offers a road map for what might come after the modern ongoing extinction, which is driven by climate change, habitat loss, invasive species and other factors.

Explore further Fossils show recovery from extinction event helped shape evolutionary history
Reindeer on Norway's Svalbard archipelago are experiencing the extremes of climate change, with increasingly frequent rain-on-snow events during the winter. But instead causing the population to crash, the reindeer population is able to adapt. Credit: Erik Ropstad

Think of reindeer on Norway's Svalbard archipelago as the arctic equivalent of sloths. It's not a perfect analogy, except that like tropical sloths, Svalbard reindeer move as little as possible to conserve energy.

This, combined with the fact that they don't have any predators, allows them to stay in the same area year-round, nibbling on the grasses, herbs and sedges they can find. When snow comes, they simply paw it away and keep nibbling. It's a lifestyle that has allowed Svalbard reindeer to persist over the millennia, long enough for them to adapt physiologically and evolve into a separate subspecies.

But over the last few decades, the warming climate has brought more rain and less snow in some winters. These rain-on-snow (ROS) events can cause ice to form on the ground. The ice coats the reindeer's preferred food and causes them to starve a potential catastrophe.

In a study just published in Nature Communications, researcher Brage Bremset Hansen, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics (CBD) and colleagues describe how they modeled the effects on reindeer population dynamics if icing becomes the norm, rather than an extreme event.

In other words, will climate change make Svalbard's reindeer go extinct? "In the past, some rare icing events have been shown to cause population crashes," the researchers said. "An intuitive expectation would be to predict more population crashes and hence a greater extinction risk with continued warming."

But as is often the case with life, it wasn't that simple.

Decades of reindeerand raindata

To explore this question, the researchers relied on reindeer data collected each year since 1994 by their co-authors from the James Hutton Institute (UK), the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences.

During that time, reindeer calves were captured and marked each spring and re-sighted in August. Using this information and a biological model called an Integrated Population Model, or IPM, the researchers created what amounts to a detailed picture of the Svalbard reindeer population with annual population sizes, survival and reproduction rates for six female age classes.

They also used historical data on the yearly amount of ROS since 1962 to obtain what they called an icing, or "winter harshness" proxy, which allowed them to look at how ROS affects population dynamics. Equipped with these tools, the researchers were able to make projections of how the reindeer population they studied would change given different future ROS scenarios.

Saved from oblivion by extremes?

When the researchers ran the models to see what would happen, they found that the reindeer population behaved in a counterintuitive way under future scenarios where conditions were harsher, meaning when the ROS frequency increased. "If ROS conditions remain the same as observed in the past, the probability that the population goes extinct is actually much higher than under the likely future scenario of very high ROS frequencies," said Marlene Gamelon, a CBD researcher who was also the co-first author of the paper with Hansen.

The key, the researchers found, was that extremely harsh winters with ROS events could only cause a population crash if animal density was high, because that was when competition for food was great. Even under these conditions, only the most vulnerable animals, the youngest and the oldest, die. Females, weakened by the lack of food, were less likely to have calves.

The entire population was not only smaller following a crash, with less competition for food, but was also composed of prime-aged animals, less vulnerable to subsequent ROS events.

If one bad winter with lots of icing followed almost right after the first, the researchers found it essentially had no effect on the population. The small, robust population hadn't aged that much and was not at risk of starvation. "The interactions between climate effects, density and age structure explain why our study population did not crash in recent icy winters," the researchers said. "In other words, internal population restructuring modifies and buffers the effects from climate change."

Several good years could lead to a crash

The model estimated that only after several good years in a row, the Svalbard reindeer population would have grown enough, with enough vulnerable young and old individuals, that a bad winter would cause the population to crash.

"One important message from our study, supported by past observations of this population, is that the impact of a harsh winter on the population is far less dramatic if it happens soon after a previous harsh winter," the researchers said.

Steve Albon, from the James Hutton Institute, initiated the Anglo-Norwegian reindeer study south of Longyearbyen 25 years ago. "When we started our studies, rapid climate warming of the magnitude seen in recent decades was unimaginable," he said. "But without following hundreds of individual reindeer throughout their long lives we would never have acquired the data to understand their responses to the changing environment."

"Nonetheless, however detailed our data, without the novel population models that showed us the nuances of the likely consequences of continuing climate change, our predictions of the future population dynamics of this charismatic animal would be very likely wrong."

Finding may have relevance across the Arctic

And so, for this reindeer population, anyway, a series of icy winters one right after the other may not necessarily be such a bad thing. "This study provides the first evidence that fluctuations in population size of long-lived species are actually dampened when extreme climate events become frequent," the researchers said.

They think that this kind of buffering by internal mechanisms is probably not specific to reindeer. Given that, "(it) should be considered when scientists predict the ecological effects of changes in climate, and especially changes in extreme events."

But as the researchers also point out, Svalbard is a "hotspot for winter climate change."

Other parts of the Arctic are lagging behind and will likely see more ROS events as global temperatures continue to rise, but as long as these extreme weather events still happen infrequently, that could cause populations to crash.

"These kinds of crashes are exactly what has been observed recently in some caribou and reindeer populations across the Arctic, but they are unlikely to reflect future population dynamics," Hansen said. "The more common these events, the less dramatic the fluctuations."

Explore further Extreme weather events a potent force for arctic overwintering populations

More information: Brage B. Hansen et al, More frequent extreme climate events stabilize reindeer population dynamics, Nature Communications (2019). Journal information: Nature Communications Brage B. Hansen et al, More frequent extreme climate events stabilize reindeer population dynamics,(2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09332-5
The US has urged France to drop the plan

French lawmakers on Monday approved a new tax on digital giants such as Facebook and Apple that has angered the United States, with Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire boasting that France was proud to be in the vanguard of such a move.

The United States has urged its NATO ally to drop the plan, with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warning last week that it would hurt both the American firms and the French citizens who use the platforms.

The measure was approved by 55 votes against four in the National Assembly, with five abstentions. It will then be put to vote in the Senate, or upper house, before becoming law.

The legislation, dubbed "Gafa" after Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple, comes amid rising public outrage at the minimal tax paid by some of the world's richest firms.

"France is honoured to be leading on such subjects," Le Maire told parliament before the vote, saying that the draft constituted a "step... towards a fairer and more efficient taxation for the 21st century."

Responding to the criticism from the United States, Le Maire said France was "determined" to press on with the legislation and would be "sovereign" on fiscal issues.

He said it was "unacceptable" that digital giants could make considerable profits from user data so that the "profits are made in France but the taxes are imposed abroad".

Last month, France unveiled the draft legislation to set a three percent tax on digital advertising, the sale of personal data and other revenue for any technology company that earns more than 750 million euros ($840 million) worldwide each year.

France is seeking to agree the legislation on a national level after a European Union-wide effort was scuttled by low-tax countries such as Ireland, which have wooed big technology firms.

But Le Maire insisted that a "good solution in the long term will be a multilateral solution," vowing not to let up in efforts for an agreement within the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Explore further France insists on digital tax despite US anger

 2019 AFP
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Most children inherit both their postal code and their genetic code from their parents. But if genetic factors influence where families are able to live and children's health and educational success, improving neighborhoods may not be enough. Latest research at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and University of California at Irvine, provides new insights into the highly debated question of whether the neighborhoods that children live in influence their health and life chances.

This is the first study to bring together genetic and geographic data to test links between children's neighborhood and genetic risk. The findings are published online in Nature Human Behavior.

The research team led by Dan Belsky, Ph.D. assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School, and Candice Odgers at the University of California, Irvine Department of Psychological Science, linked the genomic, geographic, health, and educational data of thousands of children living in Britain and Wales. They found that children growing up in worse-off neighborhoods also carried higher genetic risk for poor educational outcomes and earlier childbearing. The authors replicated their findings in the U.S.-based Add Health Study, where they found that gene-neighborhood correlations may accumulate across generations as young people with higher genetic risk for poor educational attainment and younger age at first birth were both born into, and subsequently moved into, worse-off neighborhoods.

"But genetic risk alone was not enough to explain why children from poorer versus more affluent neighborhoods received less education and were more likely to be Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEET) by late adolescence," said Belsky, who is also with the Columbia Aging Center. "The data on education could explain only a fraction (10-15 percent) of the link between neighborhood risk and poor educational qualifications and NEET status, suggesting that there is ample opportunity for neighborhoods to influence these outcomes."

"Surprisingly, for obesity, one of the most prevalent and costly health problems facing this generation, we found no link between neighborhood and genetic risk," observed Odgers. "Children who grew up in worse-off neighborhoods were more likely to become obese by age 18, but they did not carry a higher genetic risk for obesity than their peers living in more advantaged neighborhoods."

Similarly, for mental health problems, children in worse-off neighborhoods experienced more symptoms of mental disorder, but there was little evidence that the reason for this link was due to genetic risk. For physical and mental health problems, postal code and genetic code both predicted children's futures.

Analyses were based on data from The Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study, which has followed 2232 twins born in England and Wales in 1994-1995 into young adulthood, and The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, which followed 15,000 American secondary school students into adulthood. For "polygenic scoring" the investigators combined information across the genome based on recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of obesity, of schizophrenia, of age-at-first-birth, and of educational attainment. Neighborhood risk assessment and Neighborhood Mobility Analysis tools are described in the paper's Supporting Details.

Using Google Street View and high-resolution geo-spatial data enabled the researchers to capture key features of the neighborhoods where the children lived. Odgers developed the virtual assessments used in the study. "Advances in both genomics and geospatial analyses are rapidly positioning us to make new discoveries. Here, they allowed us to identify outcomes, like obesity and mental health, where neighborhoods are most likely to have unique impacts." But, she added "this is only a first step in tackling the critical question of whether changing neighborhood conditions can improve children's lives across these domains."

"In our study, polygenic risk scores showed a link between genetics and neighborhoods for teen pregnancy and poor educational outcomes. This finding suggests that we should consider neighborhoods when interpreting the results of studies searching for genes related to these outcomes and also that we should consider genes when examining the effects of neighborhoods," said Belsky. But, he cautions that "polygenic risk scores are an evolving and still imperfect tool. They can help us test whether genes and neighborhoods are related. But they cannot tell us how."

Genetic risk accounted for only a fraction of the differences between children living in different types of neighborhoods. According to Belsky and Odgers this provides some reason to hope that "targeting neighborhoodsespecially for physical and mental healthwill be enough to improve children's life outcomes."

Explore further Polluted city neighborhoods are bad news for asthmatic children

More information: Genetics and the geography of health, behaviour and attainment, Nature Human Behavior (2019). www.nature.com/articles/s41562-019-0562-1 Journal information: Nature Human Behaviour Genetics and the geography of health, behaviour and attainment,(2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41562-019-0562-1
The green area on the map shows the inferred location of a "northern microrefugium" where bitternut hickory trees survived the last ice age. Results from a University of Michigan genomic study support the controversial idea that some trees likely survived much farther north and closer to the ice sheet than is generally believed. The red cross marks the spot with the highest likelihood of being the microrefugium. Credit: Bemmels et al in PNAS.

During the last ice age, which peaked around 21,500 years ago, glaciers covered large portions of North America, including the entire Great Lakes region. Once the ice retreated, the land was gradually repopulated by trees that eventually formed dense forests.

But what was the source of the trees that carried out this vast postglacial recolonization? Identifying the exact location of these so-called glacial refugiathe places where ancestors of today's forest species survived the last ice agehas proved difficult and is the topic of an ongoing debate among biologists.

Now, University of Michigan researchers report using a recently developed genetic technique to estimate the precise longitude and latitude of ice-age refugia for two broadly distributed hickory species, the bitternut and the shagbark.

Their results support the controversial idea that some trees likely survived much farther north and closer to the ice sheet than is generally believed. The study is scheduled for publication the week of April 8 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers looked for the signatures of past geographic migrations in the trees' DNA. Their results for the bitternut hickory support the idea of northern microrefugia, places where local climatic conditions may have allowed the persistence of isolated tree populations within a region of generally inhospitable climate.

"The traditional view is that these tree species only survived in larger refugia located farther south, where regional climate was much warmer," said Jordan Bemmels, first author of the PNAS paper.

"Our results for bitternut hickory provide some of the strongest evidence to date that northern microrefugia existed and were important for survival of some temperate tree species throughout the ice age," said Bemmels, who conducted the study for his doctoral dissertation in the U-M Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

The inferred location of the northern microrefugium is near the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, in a region that today includes southernmost Illinois, southeastern Missouri, northeastern Arkansas and westernmost Kentucky.

As it happens, that location is only 160 miles from a site in southwestern Tennessee, near Memphis, where rare preserved remains of ice-age hickories were found decades ago.

Bemmels is now a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Georgia. His co-authors on the PNAS paper are Christopher Dick and Lacey Knowles of the U-M Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

Identifying the locations of glacial refugia is important to biologists for several reasons. In addition to helping them understand basic forest history, the information allows them to establish a baseline that shows how fast and how far tree species are able to migrate in response to climate change.

Also, locating refugia helps biologists identify tree populations that may be genetically unique and important to conservation efforts. Northern tree populations that were recently recolonized are often thought to be unimportant for conservation of genetic diversity and long-term species survival relative to southern populations that are believed to be reservoirs of unique genetic diversity.

But Bemmels and his colleagues conclude that "increasing evidence of expansion out of northern microrefugia suggests that conventional wisdom about management of genetic diversity may need to be revised."

Numerous refugial regions have been proposed in eastern North America, including the Gulf Coast, the Atlantic Coastal Plains, the Lower Mississippi River Valley, the Southern Appalachians, the Florida peninsula and central Texas.

Various research tools have been applied to the problem over the years, but all of them have limitations. Climate-based models identify only broad areas of potential habitat, and traditional studies of the geographic distribution of genealogical lineages provide poor spatial resolution. Fossil pollen records provide some clues on refugia locations, but those records are incomplete for most of eastern North America at the time of the last ice age and have been difficult to interpret.

In the current study, Bemmels and his colleagues harnessed signals of range expansion from large genomic datasets, using a simulation-based framework to infer the precise latitude and longitude of North American glacial refugia for two hickory species.

The technique they applied, a data-analysis pipeline called X-Origin, was developed in the laboratory of co-author Lacey Knowles at the University of Michigan. It was originally used to study expansion of pika populations in Alaska but has broad applications for understanding the geography of range expansion in terrestrial species.

The researchers examined more than 1,000 genetic markers spread across the genomes of bitternut and shagbark hickories, from datasets Bemmels generated for another section of his doctoral dissertation. The genetic material was collected from about 150 individuals in each species, across the full range of both species.

The direction and distance the trees migrated from their initial source population left behind distinctive patterns within their DNAfootprints that could be traced back to the geographic source.

The researchers used a computer simulation technique to model range expansion from different refugia and to produce expectations for the genetic patterns that would likely arise from these different "expansion origins."

Then they compared the simulated genetic patterns to the real genetic patterns extracted from hickory tree DNA to identify the most likely scenarios. By repeating the process millions of times, they were able to statistically estimate the latitude and longitude where the ancestors of modern populations survived the last ice agesomething that not been done before for temperate trees.

The inferred location of the glacial refugium for the other study species, shagbark hickory, is in the eastern Gulf Coastal Plain and includes most of Alabama, Mississippi and southeastern Louisiana. That location corresponds to more traditional proposals of a southern refuge.

"The ability to extract details from population genomic data about where species took refuge when changing climate conditions drove shifts in their distribution means the researcher's toolbox now has a powerful way to identify the geographical coordinates of such refugia in any species," Knowles said.

Co-author Dick added: "Although the inferred northern refuge in the Mississippi Valley was generally harsh and inhospitable during the glacial period, there were probably milder conditions near glacial meltwater lakesknown as microclimatesin which some temperate tree species could persist."

The PNAS paper is titled "Genomic evidence of survival near ice sheet margins for some, but not all, North American trees."

Explore further Where did broadleaved evergreen trees survive during the last glacial period in Japan?

More information: Jordan B. Bemmels el al., "Genomic evidence of survival near ice sheet margins for some, but not all, North American trees," PNAS (2019). Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jordan B. Bemmels el al., "Genomic evidence of survival near ice sheet margins for some, but not all, North American trees,"(2019). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1901656116
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan vetoed a bill Thursday night that would permanently bar oyster harvesting in five waterways targeted for restoration of the distressed species.

The legislation had the support of environmental groups and was a top priority of House Speaker Michael Busch, its sponsor. It was set to become law without Hogan's signature at midnight Friday.

But Hogan rejected the proposal hours before that, citing pleas from watermen that it would deliver "a crushing blow" to the state's seafood industry.

"This bill is bad policy, is bad for our watermenand worst of allis bad for the Chesapeake Bay," the Republican governor wrote in a veto letter.

Busch, a Democrat, called the governor's decision "unfortunate," and counter to Hogan's recent calls for Congress to increase spending on the federal Chesapeake Bay Program.

"As Governor Hogan loudly lobbies for federal Chesapeake Bay funds, he quietly vetoed legislation that is critical to the health of the Bay," Busch said in a statement.

The General Assembly's Democratic leadership is expected to quickly take up votes to override Hogan's veto. The bill passed overwhelmingly in the House, and by a narrow veto-proof margin in the Senate.

At issue are five Chesapeake tributaries where millions of dollars of federal and state money has been spent to build artificial oyster reefs and seed them with lab-grown larvae. They are Harris Creek, the Little Choptank River, the Tred Avon River, the St. Mary's River and the Manokin River.

Federal law bars harvesting from the first three of those waterways, where federal money has already been spent on restoration work. But amid complaints from watermen, the Hogan administration has chosen to forgo federal money in recent yearskeeping open the option that sanctuaries in the St. Mary's and Manokin rivers could one day be open to harvesting.

Watermen say the oyster restoration efforts aren't working. They argue the work would be more successful if they were allowed to periodically dredge the man-made reefs, saying it helps encourage oyster growth and reproduction by removing silt and sediment that can smother the oysters.

But scientists and environmentalists say that isn't true, and have stressed that maintaining a network of oyster sanctuaries is important in helping the species reestablish itself in the bay.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation criticized the veto as "extremely short sighted," citing growing oyster populations in one waterway that has seen some of the most significant investment, and criticism from watermen.

"There is a thriving oyster population in Harris Creek, delivering improved water quality and essential habitat for crabs and other aquatic life," Alison Prost, the foundation's Maryland executive director, said in a statement. "Maryland citizens deserved to have their investments permanently protected."

The Chesapeake oyster population is at less than 1 percent of the levels scientists say were present before colonization. A recently completed and long-awaited study found that there are 300 million market-sized oysters in the bay, half as many as in 1999.

Oyster sanctuaries extend across about a quarter of Maryland's 36,000 acres of oyster bars, and are not only limited to the five tributaries that have been targeted for oyster restoration.

But the oyster bars in those five waterways are among the most controversial of sanctuaries.

Maryland and Virginia each agreed to restore oyster populations in five sanctuaries as part of their obligations under the 2014 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement, a multistate compact that set goals for bay restoration.

As that work has proceeded, the Hogan administration has explored the feasibility of what watermen call "rotational harvesting," when they are permitted occasional access to oyster bars in sanctuaries. Environmentalists and the Democratic leadership of the General Assembly have repeatedly pushed back against the idea.

In his veto letter, Hogan accused them of ignoring input from important stakeholders in the bay during a yearslong process of reviewing state oyster policy.

The bill "circumvents that progress and demonstrates outright contempt for those who were asked to work together to arrive at a consensus solution over the past four years," Hogan wrote.

Bipartisanship is commonly cited in Annapolis as politicians differentiate themselves from the divisions on Capitol Hill, but both Hogan and Busch lobbed the term in criticisms of each other regarding the oyster bill.

Hogan accused Democrats of ignoring a bipartisan policy process. Busch noted that the Republican governor vetoed a bill with bipartisan support.

Explore further Maryland scientists to conduct Chesapeake Bay oyster harvest study

2019 The Baltimore Sun

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Dr. Alex Wu conducting research in a wheat field. Credit: ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis

In the next two decades, crop yields need to increase dramatically to feed the growing global population. Wouldn't it be incredibly useful if we had a crystal ball to show us what are the best strategies available to increase crop yields?

A team of scientists have just developed exactly that: a dynamic model that predicts which photosynthetic manipulations to plants will boost the yields of wheat and sorghum crops.

"We have developed a reliable, biologically rigorous prediction tool that can quantify the yield gains associated with manipulating photosynthesis in realistic crop environments," said Dr. Alex Wu, from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis (CoETP) and The University of Queensland (UQ).

Plants convert sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into food through photosynthesis and several studies have shown that this vital process can be engineered to be more efficient.

"Until now, it has been difficult to assess the impacts of these manipulations on crop yield. This prediction tool will help us to find new ways to improve the yields of food crops around the world."

Dr. Wu, the lead author of the paper published this week in the journal Nature Plants, said that this modelling tool has the capacity to link across biological scales from biochemistry in the leaf to the whole field crop over a growing season, by integrating photosynthesis and crop models.

"It is a powerful tool to assess and guide photosynthetic manipulations and unravel effects that confound the relationship between photosynthetic efficiency and crop performance, "he said.

Centre Deputy Director Professor Susanne von Caemmerer said one of the study's most innovative aspects was using a cross-scale modelling approach to look at the interactions between photosynthesis and the pores of the leaf that allow the exchange of CO2 and water vapour.

"We know that it is not as simple as saying that improving photosynthesis will increase yield. The answer depends on the situation," said Professor von Caemmerer, a researcher at The Australian National University (ANU) who is a co-author of the study.

Dr. Alex Wu researching in the field. Credit: ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis

"For example, we found that in crops like sorghum, more photosynthesis can actually decrease yield in water-limited cropping situations. The modelling predicts that we can manage this yield penalty if we can also maintain a stable rate of carbon dioxide entering, or water vapour exiting, the pores of a leaf."

Co-author and Centre Chief Investigator Professor Graeme Hammer from UQ said this study fosters the type of transdisciplinary research needed for future crop improvement.

"It links research across the whole Centre, which has a main focus to increase the yield of major staple crops such as wheat, rice, sorghum and maize by enhancing photosynthesis."

"Now that we have developed and tested this predictive model, our next step is to work closely with collaborators at the CoETP to design simulation scenarios that test the effects of other bioengineering and breeding trait targets," Professor Hammer said.

One of those collaborators is ANU Professor Graham Farquhar, who co-authored the study.

"In this study we are scaling up to the whole crop growth season and incorporating the feedback effects on photosynthesis of resources for the crop, such as water, which is critical in predicting consequences on crop productivity in future Australian crop environments", said Centre Chief Investigator Professor Farquhar from the ANU Research School of Biology.

The team investigated three main photosynthesis manipulation targetsenhancing the activity of the main photosynthetic enzyme, Rubisco; improving the capacity of the leaves to transport electrons; and improving the flow of carbon dioxide (CO2) through the internal layers of the leaf.

"This study permits us to quantify the consequences on crop yield for these three targets and their combinations for wheat and sorghum crops for irrigated or dryland cropping environments," said Dr. Wu.

The team found crop yield changes ranged from a reduction of one per cent to a 12 per cent increase, depending on the combination of photosynthetic targets, the crop and environmental conditions such as water availability.

Explore further Designing a more productive corn able to cope with future climates

More information: Quantifying impacts of enhancing photosynthesis on crop yield, Nature Plants (2019). www.nature.com/articles/s41477-019-0398-8 Journal information: Nature Plants Quantifying impacts of enhancing photosynthesis on crop yield,(2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41477-019-0398-8
Renzo Giudice (center) visited several indigenous communities in Peru that participated in the conservation program and asked them about their experiences. Credit:  Photo: Renzo Giudice/Uni Bonn

A few years ago, the Peruvian government launched a program to protect the rainforest. However, an analysis by the Center for Development Research (ZEF) at the University of Bonn shows that its effect is small. But the researchers also have good news: Three measures could probably significantly increase effectiveness. The study is now published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

In their publication, the scientists analyze Peru's National Forest Conservation Program (NFCP). It was launched by the Peruvian government in 2010 to curb the deforestation of the rainforest. The program is aimed at indigenous communities in the Amazon region and is mainly funded from public Peruvian sources and by international donors.

Communities that succeed in effectively curbing deforestation in their territory and establishing sustainable production systems receive a compensation payment, the equivalent of $3 per hectare of forest per year. They also receive technical assistance to implement the sustainable production systems. "We have investigated the extent to which the program has successfully contributed to forest conservation," explains Renzo Giudice. The Peruvian is a Ph.D. candidate and researcher at the ZEF with a DAAD scholarship. His doctoral thesis is supervised by Prof. Dr. Jan Borner, whose working group investigates the economic aspects of sustainable land use.

Giudice has studied the development of forest cover in 50 indigenous communities participating in the program. For comparison, he used 50 other communities that had not enrolled in the NFCP, but were otherwise very similar to those of the first group. "We were able to prove that the loss of forest among NFCP participants was somewhat lower," he states as a central outcome. "However, this difference was very small."

Renzo Giudice visiting the participating indigenous communities. Credit:  Photo: Renzo Giudice/Uni Bonn

Why was this? Giudice and his colleagues cite two main reasons for this: On the one hand, communities themselves could decide which part of their land they designated as a protected area. "They often chose the strategy that made the most economic sense," explains the scientist: "Particularly areas that are already hardly threatened by deforestation were declared protection zones." These are areas that are unsuitable or inaccessible for agriculture.

Violations only punished leniently

In addition, the government did not consistently punish violations of the program's conditions. The people living in villages in the Amazon region are among Peru's poorest social classes. The NFCP therefore generally has two objectives: on the one hand, to protect the forest, and on the other, to combat poverty. "This is probably the reason why those responsible turned a blind eye when the environmental goal was not achieved," explains Giudice.

The cultivation of cocoa plants is often part of the sustainable production systems implemented by the participating communities. Credit:  Photo: Renzo Giudice/Uni Bonn

The scientists propose that the program be redesigned to increase its effectiveness in a socially responsible way. Corresponding recommendations for action were also made to those responsible for the program in the course of the study. First, the participating communities should have to enroll their entire territory and not only selected parts. And secondly, the government should more closely monitor compliance with the agreed protection goals. Violations of the rules would by no means have to lead to the exclusion of an indigenous community from the program, but only to a reduction in the compensation payment by an amount corresponding to the loss of forest. Land use would then always remain a voluntary decision of the community.

There is also a third point: Those responsible should primarily offer participation in the program to those communities whose areas are most ecologically endangered. While the government had drawn up a list of priority areas in advance, the criteria for this ranking were chosen inappropriately and were not communicated transparently. Some of the funds flowed into areas where the forest is still doing quite well, anyway. "The available money should be distributed more efficiently," Giudice emphasizes. "The aim must be to benefit above all the indigenous communities where the forest is most threatened."

The Amazon rainforest is regarded as an extremely important ecosystem that is the basis of life for millions of people. Furthermore, it is an important climate factor, not only because of its carbon storage service, but also as a motor for global water cycles.

More information: Renzo Giudice et al, Selection biases and spillovers from collective conservation incentives in the Peruvian Amazon, Environmental Research Letters (2019). Journal information: Environmental Research Letters Renzo Giudice et al, Selection biases and spillovers from collective conservation incentives in the Peruvian Amazon,(2019). DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/aafc83
Increase in wheat yield by pre-sowing seed treatment with ionizing radiation. Credit: Lobachevsky University

Currently, the study of the effects of ionizing radiation is of great relevance in the field of agriculture development, the study of zones with elevated natural and man-made background radiation, and space biology studies.

At the same time, this type of radiation can be successfully used for developing new varieties of agricultural plants, pre-sowing seed treatment and solving other general biological tasks aimed at establishing general patterns and peculiarities of ionizing radiation effects on various living organisms.

To date, a large amount of data illustrates the effects of ionizing radiation on plant growth and reproduction, as well as changes caused by ionizing radiation at the genetic level. At the same time, there is a significant gap in understanding the mechanisms of the influence of ionizing radiation on the activity of biochemical and physiological processes, despite the fact that it is at this level that the basis is formed, due to which all effects appear at the level of the whole organism.

According to Professor Vladimir Vodeneev, Head of the Department of Biophysics at Lobachevsky University, the activity of physiological processes, on the one hand, determines the growth of plants, and on the other, is determined by changes at the genetic level. Thus, the study of the physiological and biochemical effects of ionizing radiation can give the most complete and comprehensive picture of the effect of ionizing radiation on plants.

Diagram of the ways in which ionizing radiation influences the activity of physiological processes. Credit: Lobachevsky University

"In the present study, attention is focused on the effect of radiation on the most important physiological processes, including photosynthesis, respiration, long-range transport, the functioning of the hormonal system, and biosynthesis of various compounds. Based on a large amount of experimental data, an analysis was performed of the dose and time dependences of ionizing radiation effects, which show qualitative similarity in relation to various physiological and biochemical processes. The sequence of the stages of these processes, their mechanisms and cause-effect relationships between them were examined," Vladimir Vodeneev notes.

Primary physico-chemical reactions caused by ionizing radiation, including the formation of various reactive oxygen species (ROS), are the cause of the changes in the functional activity of plants. The study emphasized the role of the long-lived ROS hydrogen peroxide, which mediates the effect of ionizing radiation. It acts not only as a damaging molecule, but also as a universal intracellular messenger and a molecule playing the role of a long-range signal. Thus, in addition to the negative factors of ROS influence on plants, it illustrates some positive aspects of ROS as a source of information transfer at the molecular level.

Nizhny Novgorod scientists have suggested that the influence of ionizing radiation on physiological processes occurs mainly through dysregulation of their activity. Such a dysregulation is apparently due to the existence of cross-talk between plant signaling systems, such as ROS, calcium, hormonal and electrical systems.

Mechanisms of changes in the concentration of reactive oxygen species in plants, caused by ionizing radiation; their role in signal-regulatory processes. Credit: Lobachevsky University

An increase in the level of ROS induced by both acute and chronic irradiation may affect the activity of a wide range of physiological processes through regulation both at the genetic and physiological levels, which ultimately affects the process of plant adaptation to changing environmental conditions.

The obtained results open up a new stage in studying the possibilities of plant survival under the influence of various adverse factors, including extreme conditions of outer space.

Explore further What ionized the universe?

More information: Sergey V. Gudkov et al, Effect of ionizing radiation on physiological and molecular processes in plants, Journal of Environmental Radioactivity (2019). Sergey V. Gudkov et al, Effect of ionizing radiation on physiological and molecular processes in plants,(2019). DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2019.02.001

Provided by Lobachevsky University
Scientists have developed a new imaging technology to visualize 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. Credit: The University of Edinburgh

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.

Credit: Wiley

"This is a very important advance to understand the metabolism of diseased cells and we hope it will help develop better therapies."

Explore further Imaging advance may bring earlier disease detection

More information: Sam Benson et al, SCOTfluors: Small, Conjugatable, Orthogonal and Tunable Fluorophores for in vivo Imaging of Cell Metabolism, Angewandte Chemie International Edition (2019). Journal information: Angewandte Chemie International Edition , Angewandte Chemie Sam Benson et al, SCOTfluors: Small, Conjugatable, Orthogonal and Tunable Fluorophores for in vivo Imaging of Cell Metabolism,(2019). DOI: 10.1002/anie.201900465
In this Feb. 13, 2019, photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a member of the Mexican gray wolf recovery team carries a wolf captured during an annual census near Alpine, Ariz. The agency announced the results of the survey Monday, April 8, 2019, saying there has been an increase in the population of Mexican gray wolves in the wild in New Mexico and Arizona. (Mark Davis, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via AP)

More Mexican gray wolves are roaming the American Southwest now than at any time since federal biologists began reintroducing the predators more than two decades ago, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Monday.

Agency officials declared progress for the endangered species in New Mexico and Arizona, saying there are at least 131 wolves in the wild in the two states. That represents a 12% jump in the population.

The rarest subspecies of gray wolf in North America, Mexican wolves have struggled to gain ground since the first release in 1998 because of poaching, politics, legal challenges and even complications from a lack of genetic diversity.

"The Mexican gray wolf has come back from the brink of extinction thanks to scientific management and the dedicated work of a lot of partners," said Amy Lueders, head of the agency's southwest region.

The population increase comes as gray wolves have marked their own turnaround elsewhere, prompting federal officials to reconsider that species' endangered and protected status. Now more than 6,000 gray wolves live in portions of nine states, including Oregon, where officials on Monday reported a 10% increase in the population there.

Making up only a fraction of the wolves in the U.S., Mexican wolves are in a more precarious position with their limited numbers and the population is still far from where biologists had initially envisioned the species would be by now.

In this Feb. 13, 2019, photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, members of the Mexican gray wolf recovery team gathering data from a wolf captured during an annual census near Alpine, Ariz. The agency announced the results of the survey Monday, April 8, 2019, saying there has been an increase in the population of Mexican gray wolves in the wild in New Mexico and Arizona. (Mark Davis, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via AP)

Environmentalists have long called for the release of more captive wolves to boost the population in the Southwest. They also have complained about confining the physical boundaries of the recovery program, saying that has helped to limit the population.

However, they were encouraged Monday by the latest numbers.

"It shows that these wolves have the capacity to make it if we give them half a chance," said Michael Robinson with the Center for Biological Diversity.

Ranchers and others in rural communities within the mountain ranges that border wolf territory have pushed back against the reintroduction program, citing livestock kills and safety concerns.

Federal wildlife managers have been working with partners in Arizona, the White Mountain Apache Tribe and the Mexican government to mitigate concerns related to the reintroduction on both sides of the international border, but ranchers in New Mexico and Arizona continue to document conflicts that range from cattle deaths to nuisance reports.

During the first two months of the year, officials reported 18 confirmed livestock kills in New Mexico and two in Arizona.

This Feb. 13, 2019 photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows a collared Mexican gray wolf restrained as biologists are gathering data as part of an annual census near Alpine, Ariz. The agency announced the results of the survey Monday, April 8, 2019, saying there has been an increase in the population of Mexican gray wolves in the wild in New Mexico and Arizona. (Mark Davis, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via AP)

Environmentalists have argued that not enough is being done to discourage wolves from preying on livestock and to limit losses from trapping and poaching.

"The Mexican gray wolf is an essential part of the Southwestern ecosystem and we must do everything we can to ensure the species recovers," said Bryan Bird with Defenders of Wildlife.

Despite the ongoing battles, officials said they're still encouraged by the growth in the wolf population given that 21 wolves were found dead during 2018, marking the deadliest year since reintroduction began. Another four were reported dead in the first two months of 2019, including an alfa female that died after being captured during the annual census so its collar could be replaced.

The census also showed an increase in the number of packs in the wild. That now stands at 32, with half of them rearing pups that survived at least through the end of 2018.

In all, more than 80 pups were born last year and biologists say the survival rate was shy of 60%. That's an improvement over past years. Jim deVos with the Arizona Game and Fish Department said the uptick in wolf numbers isn't isolated but rather a continuation of ongoing increases over the last decade.

The survey was conducted over the winter, using teams on the ground as well as low-flying helicopters. The results create a snapshot of the wolf population that biologists use as they make management decisions related to the species.

Explore further Record number of Mexican gray wolves found dead in 2018

 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
An archaeologist brushes a newly-discovered mummy laid inside a sarcophagus, part of a collection found in burial chambers dating to the Ptolemaic era (323-30 BC) in February 2019

A sarcophagus containing an Egyptian high priest was opened on live TV Sunday during a special two-hour broadcast by the American channel Discovery.

"Expedition Unknown: Egypt Live" aired from the site outside Minya, which is along the Nile River south of Cairo and its Giza pyramids.

Archeologists recently discovered a network of vertical shafts at the site which led to tunnels and tombs containing 40 mummies "believed to be part of the noble elite."

After exploring other tombsfinding artifacts like statues, amulets, canopic jars used to store organs, and other mummies including one that had decomposed to a skeletonthey crawled to the chamber containing the intricately carved sarcophagus.

It took the strength of several people to open.

And the team's efforts had not gone to waste: inside was a pristinely linen-wrapped mummy surrounded by treasure including gold.

"I can't believe this, this is incredible," exclaimed Zahi Hawass, an Egyptian archaeologist and former antiquities minister, who had taken charge of the expedition with American explorer Josh Gates as the host of the broadcast.

A Discovery spokesman previously told AFP that the project was set up in collaboration with Egypt's antiquities ministry.

Archeologists recently discovered a network of vertical shafts at the site outside Minya which led to tunnels and tombs containing 40 mummies "believed to be part of the noble elite."

'Like a royal burial'

Gates said the mummy was that of a high priest of Thoth, the ancient Egyptian god of wisdom and magic, and dated to Ancient Egypt's 26th dynastythe last native dynasty to rule until 525 BC.

"Toward the end of Ancient Egypt, the power really was with the high priests and you can see this... almost feels like a royal burial," Gates said.

Cairo has sought to promote archeological discoveries across the country in a bid to revive tourism hit by turmoil after the 2011 uprising against Hosni Mubarak.

Asked by AFP about a possible financial deal between the channel and the Egyptian state for permission to film and open the grave, the spokesman for Discovery refused to comment.

A newly-discovered mummy wrapped in linen with sarcophagus fragments found in burial chambers dating to the Ptolemaic era (323-30 BC) in Egypt's southern Minya province

"It's a media spectacle in the endbut it could make people love antiquities and is a good promotional opportunity for tourism, if done right," an Egyptian archeologist who asked to remain anonymous told AFP.

However, she asked: "If money is being paid by a major channel to the ministry to show antiquities, where is it going to end up?"

"Will it go in the state's purse-strings or end up elsewhere? We need more transparency on where the money is going."

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has overseen a crackdown on dissent, banning protests and jailing Islamists as well as liberal and secular activists.

He regularly evokes political stability to draw foreign investment.

Cairo has sought to promote archeological discoveries across the country in a bid to revive tourism hit by turmoil after the 2011 uprising against Hosni Mubarak

The tourism sector has begun to return, with arrivals reaching 8.3 million in 2017, according to government figures.

That still falls far short of the 14.7 million in 2010.

Discovery's broadcast also comes with global interest in Egyptian archeology generated by a "once in a generation" exhibition about the pharaoh Tutankhamun, which opened in Paris last month and will tour the world.

Explore further Mummified mice and more in latest Egyptian tomb discovery

 2019 AFP
Credit: Michigan State University

Why does the observable universe contain virtually no antimatter? Particles of antimatter have the same mass but opposite electrical charge of their matter counterparts. Very small amounts of antimatter can be created in the laboratory. However, hardly any antimatter is observed elsewhere in the universe.

Physicists believe that there were equal amounts of matter and antimatter in the early history of the universe  so how did the antimatter vanish? A Michigan State University researcher is part of a team of researchers that examines these questions in an article recently published in Reviews of Modern Physics.

Jaideep Taggart Singh, MSU assistant professor of physics at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, or FRIB, studies atoms and molecules embedded in solids using lasers. Singh has a joint appointment in the MSU's Department of Physics and Astronomy.

The answer could be rooted in the nature of forces between subatomic particles that are not the same when time is reversed. Physicists theorize that this time-reversal violation is the key ingredient needed to unravel the cosmic mystery of the missing antimatter. Such time-reversal violating forces result in a property in particles called a permanent electric dipole moment (EDM). For over 60 years, physicists have searched for EDMs with increasing precision, but they have never observed them. However, recent theories of particle physics predict measurable EDMs. This has led to a worldwide search for EDMs in systems such as neutrons, molecules, and atoms.

EDM searches often involve atomic clocks operating in a controlled magnetic field (uniform in space and stable in time). In an electric field, an ultra-stable atomic clock with a nonzero EDM will run slightly faster or slower. The success of such experiments depends on how well physicists can control the surrounding magnetic field and other environmental factors.

Jaideep Singh, assistant professor in MSUs Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, works with a magnetic shield in his lab. Photo by G.L. Kohuth. Credit: Michigan State University

EDMs of atoms such as radium and mercury are primarily due to forces originating within the nuclear medium. The best limits on these types of forces are presently derived from the mercury-199 atom. Researchers at the University of Washington, Seattle, have found that their mercury-199 clock loses less than one second every 400 centuries. This experiment is impossible to improve upon unless one can build a clock less sensitive to environmental factors. A competing experiment that seeks to do just that is the search for the EDM of radium-225. It is a collaboration between Argonne National Laboratory, Michigan State University, and the University of Science and Technology of China.

The rare isotope radium-225 is an attractive alternative. Its "pear-shaped" nucleus (see figure) amplifies the observable EDM by orders of magnitude compared to the nearly spherical nucleus of mercury-199. In order to perform a competitive experiment, a radium-225 clock only needs to be stable to less than one second every two years. This is difficult but feasible. The sensitivity of this radium clock is currently limited only by the small number of atoms available (about 0.000005 milligrams per day). In the future, using an even more "pear-shaped" nuclei, such as the rare isotope protactinium-229, may improve the sensitivity of these EDM searches by another factor of a thousand. In other words, a competitive experiment with a protactinium clock would only need to be stable to less than one second every day.

"We, everything we see, and the rest of the observable universe exists because the antimatter vanished during birth of the universe," Singh said. "Discovering a new source of time-reversal violation, perhaps using rare pear-shaped nuclei, would begin to explain how this happened."

FRIB will produce an abundance of pear-shaped nuclei such as radium-225 and, for the first time, protactinium-229. This will enable a search for an EDM with unprecedented sensitivity to answer the antimatter puzzle.

MSU is establishing FRIB as a new scientific user facility for the Office of Nuclear Physics in the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. Under construction on campus and operated by MSU, FRIB will enable scientists to make discoveries about the properties of rare isotopes in order to better understand the physics of nuclei, nuclear astrophysics, fundamental interactions, and applications for society, including in medicine, homeland security, and industry.

Explore further Exotic atoms hold clues to unsolved physics puzzle at the dawn of the universe

More information: T. E. Chupp et al. Electric dipole moments of atoms, molecules, nuclei, and particles, Reviews of Modern Physics (2019). Journal information: Reviews of Modern Physics T. E. Chupp et al. Electric dipole moments of atoms, molecules, nuclei, and particles,(2019). DOI: 10.1103/RevModPhys.91.015001
Aerial view of Chicago. Credit: Dicklyon - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

How much does growing up in a healthy and cohesive community, or lack thereof, contribute to later long-term economic and social success in adulthood? Quite a lot, it would seem. Two Harvard sociologists, Robert Manduca and Robert J. Sampson, sought to better understand the relationships at play among environment, community, poverty, race, violence and social mobility in their paper, "Punishing and toxic neighborhood environments independently predict the intergenerational social mobility of black and white children," recently published in PNAS. Their work specifically references and builds on several recent landmark studies by fellow Harvard researcher Raj Chetty and colleagues.

The authors of this study [1], Manduca and Sampson, undertook their research against the background of data suggesting that growing up in areas of concentrated poverty, i.e., disadvantaged neighborhoods, is a major determinant of individual success later in life. They were especially interested in the earlier findings of Chetty et al. [2- 6] that black children from low-income communities were at a particular and distinct disadvantage when compared with whites from a similar background. Moreover when black children moved to better neighborhoods with the presence of a same-race father and low levels of poverty and white racism, these children did better for every year they spent in the better neighborhood. Yet as the Chetty studies found, there were "massive disparities" between blacks and whites in access to better quality neighborhoods likely to foster upward social and economic intergenerational mobility.

Manduca and Sampson looked at data from the Opportunity Atlas compiled by Chetty's group and based on that, developed a two-part mode of inquiry for their own study. For the first part, they looked at the negative roles that violence, incarceration and toxic lead exposure play in interfering with healthy child development and disrupting social mobility. For the second part, they examined the positive influence factors on children of cohesive communities, informal social control, trust among neighbors, and organizational participation. In contrast with the first set of negative factors, these previously unstudied characteristics of neighborhoods may be positively linked to an individual's success later in life.

The investigators used demographic data from Chicago, a typical large American city with a variety of intensely racially segregated neighborhoods. Specifically, they looked at "Census tract-level estimates of child mobility in the city of Chicago, created from linked income tax and Census records with measures of the social and physical environment constructed from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) and follow-ups." This dataset covers roughly 96% of the cohort of children born in Chicago between 1978 and 1983 and tracks their social progress into their 30s while measuring outcomes such as adult income, incarceration, teenage pregnancy, etc. The analysis specifically targets expected outcomes for children whose parents fall within the national 25th percentile.

Manduca and Sampson then applied statistical methods to these data to yield a number of independent and inter-related explanatory variables. In particular, they were interested in developing predictive models that would work in combination with traditional socio-demographic Census data, such as single parent status, to provide higher explanatory power to their research and future endeavors. Ultimately, they presented and compared data using two separate modelsa Census model; and an expanded model which utilizes PHDCN measures, either separately or as a single factor. Here's what they found.

Because the neighborhoods of Chicago are so heavily segregated, it was nearly impossible to attempt a direct comparison of black and white boys from the same neighborhood. Furthermore, they found that the various neighborhoods which were divided along racial lines were distinct and "qualitatively different environments" where men raised in the 90th percentile of majority black tracts earned less than the 10th percentile in majority white tracts. With reference to the explanatory power of the two categories of environmental and social predictors for intergenerational social mobility, the results were generally in keeping with the study investigators expectations. That is, they found that intergenerational mobility was lower and incarceration and teenage pregnancy rates were higher in childhood neighborhoods where social positives like social control and community organizations were absent or lacking, and where rates of violence, incarceration and lead exposure were pronounced.

With regard to black children specifically, the investigators offer some discussion of the predictive power and statistical significance of their expanded social and environmental criteria when used in conjunction with Census variables. The investigators found that the poverty rate had little explanatory power when environmental controls were added to Census data. But importantly they note that lead exposure, incarceration, and violence are tightly co-associated and can be used as a single "neighborhood harshness/toxicity" factor. Here it is associated with lower income mobility and higher teenage birth rates and adult incarceration. Less significantly, the strength of local social networks was found to predict lower teenage birth rates in black women.

Results were similar for white children, though incarceration rates could not be estimated for poor white boys. As with the results for black children, Manduca and Sampson found that the poverty rate had little explanatory power when environmental controls were added to Census data. Some subtle differences were revealed in the correlations between lead exposure, violence and incarceration, where these were found to be less highly correlated. On the other hand, violence was more predictive of future income; and lead exposure and incarceration were better predictors of teenage motherhood in white girls, as was the presence of social control. Neighborhood organizations were slightly associated with lower income rank.

The most alarming finding of this study however may be the racialized nature of exposure to neighborhood harshness/toxicity, as the investigators have defined this variable comprising lead exposure, violence and incarceration. While both black and white children were found to suffer in neighborhoods with these conditions, black children in Chicago were exposed to them at an overwhelmingly disproportionate rate compared with white children. As the investigators note with regard to the magnitude of this disparity, "the most-exposed white tracts in our sample had levels comparable to the least-exposed black tracts."

In the Discussion section of their paper, Manduca and Sampson reiterate the utility of working with measures that account for punishing environments and supportive social organizations in addition to standard Census measures, as these offer increased explanatory power for predicting social and economic mobility. With regard to ameliorating the conditions driving these inequalities in income mobility, the authors conclude: "Past interventions that have cleaned up the physical environment and reduced toxic hazards indicate that environmental policy is in part crime policy. Our results suggest a broader conclusion: Reducing violence, reforming criminal justice through deincarceration, and maintaining environmental health together make for social mobility policy."

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More information: 1. Robert Manduca and Robert J. Sampson. Punishing and toxic neighborhood environments independently predict the intergenerational social mobility of black and white children. PNAS. published ahead of print April 1, 2019 1. Robert Manduca and Robert J. Sampson. Punishing and toxic neighborhood environments independently predict the intergenerational social mobility of black and white children.. published ahead of print April 1, 2019 doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1820464116 2. Chetty R, Hendren N (2018) The impacts of neighborhoods on intergenerational mobility I: Childhood exposure effects. Q J Econ 133:11071162. 3. Chetty R, Hendren N, Katz LF (2016) The effects of exposure to better neighborhoods on children: New evidence from the moving to opportunity experiment. Am Econ Rev 106:855902. 4. Chetty R, Hendren N, Kline P, Saez E (2014) Where is the land of opportunity? The geography of intergenerational mobility in the United States. Q J Econ 129:15531623. 5. Chetty R, Hendren N, Jones MR, Porter SR (2018) Race and economic opportunity in the United States: An

intergenerational perspective. (National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA). Available at www.nber.org/papers/w24441. 6. Chetty R, Friedman JN, Hendren N, Jones MR, Porter SR (2018) The opportunity atlas: Mapping the childhood roots of social mobility. (National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA). Available at www.nber.org/papers/w25147. Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

 2019 Science X Network
Model at the Royal BC Museum. Credit: Wikipedia

A new Tel Aviv University study suggests that the genetic profiles of two extinct mammals with African ancestrywoolly mammoths, elephant-like animals that evolved in the arctic peninsula of Eurasia around 600,000 years ago, and Neanderthals, highly skilled early humans who evolved in Europe around 400,000 years agoshared molecular characteristics of adaptation to cold environments.

The research attributes the human-elephant relationship during the Pleistocene epoch to their mutual ecology and shared living environments, in addition to other possible interactions between the two species. The study was led by Prof. Ran Barkai and Meidad Kislev of TAU's Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures and published on April 8 in Human Biology.

"Neanderthals and mammoths lived together in Europe during the Ice Age. The evidence suggests that Neanderthals hunted and ate mammoths for tens of thousands of years and were actually physically dependent on calories extracted from mammoths for their successful adaptation," says Prof. Barkai. "Neanderthals depended on mammoths for their very existence.

"They say you are what you eat. This was especially true of Neanderthals; they ate mammoths but were apparently also genetically similar to mammoths."

To assess the degree of resemblance between mammoth and Neanderthal genetic components, the archaeologists reviewed three case studies of relevant gene variants and allelesalternative forms of a gene that arise by mutation and are found at the same place on a chromosomeassociated with cold-climate adaptation found in the genomes of both woolly mammoths and Neanderthals.

The first case study outlined the mutual appearance of the LEPR gene, related to thermogenesis and the regulation of adipose tissue and fat storage throughout the body. The second case study engaged genes related to keratin protein activity in both species. The third case study focused on skin and hair pigmentation variants in the genes MC1R and SLC7A11.

"Our observations present the likelihood of resemblance between numerous molecular variants that resulted in similar cold-adapted epigenetic traits of two species, both of which evolved in Eurasia from an African ancestor," Kislev explains. "These remarkable findings offer supporting evidence for the contention regarding the nature of convergent evolution through molecular resemblance, in which similarities in genetic variants between adapted species are present.

"We believe these types of connections can be valuable for future evolutionary research. They're especially interesting when they involve other large-brained mammals, with long life spans, complex social behavior and their interactions in shared habitats with early humans."

According to the study, both species likely hailed from ancestors that came to Europe from Africa and adapted to living conditions in Ice Age Europe. The species also both became extinct more or less at the same time.

"It is now possible to try to answer a question no one has asked before: Are there genetic similarities between evolutionary adaptation paths in Neanderthals and mammoths?" Prof. Barkai says. "The answer seems to be yes. This idea alone opens endless avenues for new research in evolution, archaeology and other disciplines.

"At a time when proboscideans are under threat of disappearance from the world due to the ugly human greed for ivory, highlighting our shared history and similarities with elephants and mammoths might be a point worth taking into consideration."

Explore further Neanderthals were sprinters rather than distance runners, study surprisingly suggests

More information: Human Biology, DOI: 10.13110/humanbiology.90.2.03
Dr Georgia Ward-Fear, with brothers Herbert (left) and Wesley Alberts about to release 'Barney' . Credit: Melissa Bruton

Researchers at the University of Sydney have produced hard data that demonstrates collaborating with Indigenous peoples changed the outcome of a scientific research project. It is the first empirical evidence that culturally diverse teams produce improved results in conservation research.

Dr. Georgia Ward-Fear, a conservation biologist and herpetologist (amphibians and reptiles), said this was the first published study to measure the scientific contribution that Indigenous peoples bring to a research project, beyond the moral or ethical value.

"This is of major importance for Indigenous peoples around the world," Dr. Ward-Fear said. "Traditional owners often don't have a voice in science. This is a case study for Indigenous groups globally to hold up and say 'we deserve a voice' and 'we deserve input into research'."

James 'Birdy' Birch, a leading ranger from the Balanggarra Aboriginal Corporation in the Kimberley said: "The university-educated scientists have research tools, data and methods that work for them. But we have every-day lived experience. We have knowledge of the land and the animals passed down over thousands of years. If we put these skills together, it paints a clearer picture."

Working with traditional owners of the land

Dr. Ward-Fear, from the School of Life and Environmental Sciences, and her team have been working in the Kimberley, a remote area of northern Western Australian. Her conservation work involves protecting large goannas from the devastating impacts of invasive, poisonous cane toads.

Over 18 months, teams made up of a Western scientist and an Indigenous ranger would set out at daybreak to find and capture the goannaswhich can grow up to 1.7 metres in length and weigh more than six kilograms. They fitted the lizards with radio transmitters and then released them and trained them to avoid eating the large toads. They did this by approaching the animal in the field, and feeding the goanna a small toad, large enough to make them sick but not kill them. This put the lizards off eating the toads once the invasion arrived.

Goanna foraging in the Oombulgurri floodplain, the Kimberley, Western Australia. Credit: University of Sydney

The aversion training, developed with Emeritus Professor Rick Shine, has been hugely successful and is now being rolled out on a large scale via the Cane Toad Coalition, a consortium of scientists, government authorities, conservation groups and the Australian Research Council.

But Dr. Ward-Fear said the success of the initial project would not have been possible without the input of the Balanggarra Rangers, who are traditional owners of the land.

"Working with Indigenous rangers, you get to see their unique skillsets. Once we showed that the trial worked, I was curious to see whether this contributed to the success of the study in a way we could quantify," Dr. Ward-Fear said.

"Even though we worked in teams and had the same opportunity to spot the lizards, there were significant differences in the animals that the rangers spotted," Dr. Ward-Fear said. "The rangers have amazing observation skills and ability to see animals in a landscape. They could see the shape of a goanna when they were not moving, were in the shade or dappled light or from much further away. The Western scientists tended to see animals that were closer, out in the open or moving."

Published today in Conservation Letters, the study found the Indigenous rangers were able to find and collect a subset of large varanid lizards (goannas) that Western scientists were unable to spot. Importantly, these lizards displayed different behavioural profiles throughout the study: they were more 'shy' than the bolder lizards foraging in broad daylight; and they also learned the aversion technique better than the braver lizards.

"These ranger-spotted animals responded better to the conservation technique and they actually drove the significant result of the study," Dr. Ward-Fear said. "If we hadn't worked with rangers and we hadn't collected that subsample of animals then our results wouldn't have been significant."

Dr. Georgia Ward-Fear (left) with ranger Wesley Alberts. Credit: University of Sydney

Local knowledge

James 'Birdy' Birch is the head ranger with the Balanggarra Rangers. He said the rangers had unique skills to offer the scientists.

"We had access to country for a start," Mr Birch said. "We knew where the goannas were and we caught over 100 of them. We just had a keen eye. We could see them miles away.

"My rangers all grew up on this country hunting for goanna with their parents. It is knowledge passed down for thousands of years."

Mr Birch believes science can benefit from combining the two "ways of looking".

"You've got the Western way of looking with all the tools and the data, and you've got the Indigenous way of looking at things. Together, Western science and Indigenous knowledge, they complement each other. We've got our skills and you guys have got your skills, we can put them together and find out so much, we were amazed by the results."

Dr. Ward-Fear said the scientific community already knows it is ethical to work with the traditional owners of the land. "But now we know there is ethical and scientific value in working together in meaningful collaborations," she said.

Explore further Kimberley goannas trained in cane toad taste-aversion
A convict serving 30 years at Nakuru GK Prison is yet to join Secondary school despite scoring 403 marks in last years Kenya Certificate of Primary Education exams.

37-year-old Solomon Ngatia is unable to pursue his dream due to lack of a secondary education facility at Nakuru Prison.

Ngatia, who was convicted of attempted murder in 2012, hopes to join University someday and achieve his dream of becoming a doctor. His dream was initially shattered when he dropped out of school at class seven due to poverty.

When he was convicted, Ngatia saw an opportunity to pursue his studies and went on to post impressive results in KCPE last year. He scored 90 in English, Kiswahili 96, Mathematics 68, Science 68 and Social Studies 81.

I attained 403 marks, but I am unable to continue with my education, due to lack of secondary school education in our facility. Unless I am transferred to Naivasha Prison where they offer secondary education, which requires a lot of protocol, said Ngatia.

Mr Ngatia now serves a stand-in teacher and peer counselor for prisoners when teachers are not available.

Sometimes I teach issues of depression or how to manage stress to new convicts. I am also an active volleyball player, he told KTN News.

It is demoralising that I cannot proceed with my studies. Term one has ended without me setting foot to Form 1. I keep hoping that something can be done.

Ngatia, who was among 19 candidates who sat for KCPE at Nakuru GK Prison, adds; Despite the conditions in prison where we have few resources, I really did my best and my result is not any different from those I competed with.

Mr Japheth Onchiri, Officer in charge of prisons, said they had made a request to the prisons department to approve Ngatias transfer. Nothing has been forthcoming.

According to Onchiri, the delay in the transfer is occasioned by the stringent process of transfer of convicts which takes time before approval.

Ngatia is a father of two. He said he was imprisoned after he went on a drinking spree at a pub in Nakuru and was involved in a brawl.
Tragedy has struck the family of Evelyn Namukhula, the woman who gave birth to five babies in Kakamega County last month.

The 28-year-old, who delivered three girls and two boys through a Caesarean Section on March 13 at Kakamega General Hospital, has died. She succumbed to chest complications on Sunday at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) where she had been admitted.

Tragically, two of Ms Namukhulas quintuplets died in the last week of March while under special care at the same hospital.

Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) CEO Dr. Wilson Aruasa said Ms Namukhula complained of chest pains and persistent headache on Saturday night.

Tests conducted on Ms. Namukhula showed her heart and lungs were enlarged by fluids around them.

She had been very well until this morning (Sunday) when she complained that she was having difficulty in breathing with some headache also. So the doctor who was on duty put her on treatment for blood clotting and antibiotics and then ordered for tests to confirm what the problem was, said Aruasa, adding, We lost her at about 12 midday after the test  a CT angiogram  was done which showed that the heart was enlarged with fluid around it and the lungs also had fluid.

On the death of the two boys, Dr Aruasa said, There were five babies but the two boys were very sick and have also died. But the three girls are okay and growing well.

The doctor said the hospital is especially saddened by the death of Ms Namukhuka who was getting stronger by the day.

Last month, Dr Aruasa raised concerns over the manner in which county hospitals refer premature babies for further care in major health facilities.

The hospital management noted the babies and their mother arrived in five separate ambulances on Wednesday night, March 13, a move that saw the newborns arrive when they had hypothermia.

Evelyn Namukhula was referred with her five new-borns (three girls, two boys) and it is important to state the manner in which the babies were transported. Referring hospitals should be done in a particular manner with focus given on their health and safety. The five babies arrived when they were already cold, said Dr Aruasa.

As part of giving feedback to our referral facilities, they need to relook into how they transport the babies, they should have been brought in one or two ambulances that are well oxygenated and kept warm.

The medics also raised concern over the mothers refusal to breastfeed citing cultural barriers.

They said when the mother arrived at the facility accompanied by the grandmother they were adamant that the babies should not breastfeed.

We learnt that it is a cultural myth in their community that having multiple babies is a bad omen. The mother is worried that when she goes home with many children, she will be viewed differently with others blaming it on a curse, said Dr. Phillip Kirwa the director of Reproductive health said at the time.

We have been educating them to understand and accept that twinning is a natural process and a good thing. There is no association with curses or cultural beliefs but a woman who is blessed with an ability to have many babies.

The deceased leaves behind her husband Herbert Wawire, who has a hearing disability, and four other children.
About Me Scott Because prophetic scriptures are found throughout the bible, it is obvious that a comprehensive, systematic approach would be useful, if not necessary, for the understanding of prophecy. Past prophecies have been fulfilled in a literal manner, as confirmed by the dating of these writings and historical records of confirmation. These past prophecies also serve as a model of how to interpret future prophecies. A literal view of prophecy clearly indicates a certain sequence of events will occur within a single generation, concluding with the Tribulation and Second Advent and these events will be obvious. The prophetic signs appear to be present in this generation and we believe these signs are revealed in the news from around the world. View my complete profile
Here are todays top headlines.

Saudi nuclear program accelerates, raising tensions in a volatile region On the outskirts of Riyadh, a building site is quickly being transformed into the birthplace of Saudi Arabias quest for nuclear power, a bid that has sparked concern in the US Congress and fury in Tehran.

Germany once pleaded with Britain to stay in the EU. Now the love has cooled It wasnt so long ago that German politicians wrote a love letter to Britain, published in The Times, pining for British humour, ales at the pub and a proper cup of milky tea. Timed just before Valentines Day, the letter read:

Aviation world faces moment of reckoning after 737 MAX crashes It was a moment the aviation world had been waiting for since a second deadly crash grounded the 737 MAX fleet: Boeing gathered hundreds of pilots, airline executives, and regulators to unveil a fix that would return the jetliner to the sky.

Activist or spy? The curious case of a Cold War nuclear scientist The two police officers trailed the university professor as he left his home in the southwest London suburbs and walked to the local railway station.

The fascinating world of China pigeon racing Every day during the racing season, 55-year-old Zhang Yajun wakes at 4 a.m. and carefully loads bamboo cages containing his 76 cherished racing pigeons into a van. Then he drives up to 200 kilometers (124 miles) from his Beijing apartment to release them.

Egypt discovers a tomb full of mummified cats, mice and other animals The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced its most recent discovery of a preserved double graveyard containing the remains of a man, his wife, and mummified animals, including cats and mice.

How to find hidden cameras in your Airbnb (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.

Rwanda marks 25 years since genocide Commemorations have begun in Rwanda to mark the 25th anniversary of the genocide that killed about a tenth of the population. The country will mourn for 100 days, the time it took in 1994 for 800,000 Rwandans to be massacred. Most were minority Tutsis, killed by ethnic Hutu extremists.

The genocide orphans still searching for their names A quarter of a century after the Rwandan genocide, some orphans are still desperately searching for any clues about their lost pasts. Oswald knows nothing about his life before the moment a young woman picked him out of the pile of bodies in Kigali, Rwandas capital, as he tried to suckle a dead womans breast.

How Algerias army sacrificed a president to keep power When the head of Algerias 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 Algerias 82-year old former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, it is game over, as slogans on the countrys streets have been saying since mid-February.

Israel PM vows to annex settlements 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 Earth-like planets we have found may not be like Earth  BBC Reel There are more planets in our galaxy than there are stars, says science writer and astrophysicist Adam Becker. He explains what these exoplanets are like to the BBCs Melissa Hogenboom and Michael Marshall, with help from the animators at Pomona Pictures.

Tunisia leader, 92, wont seek re-election Tunisias 92-year-old president has announced he does not plan to stand in elections expected this November, despite calls for him to run. Beji Caid Essebsi told a meeting of his ruling Nidaa Tounes party someone younger should take charge. Mr Essebsi won the countrys first free presidential poll in 2014.

Our Planet exemplifies how nature docs can make you feel very small, but extremely powerful From flocks of birds to colonies of ants, big group shots are a staple in most nature documentaries. Meticulously filmed and explained, these scenes often depict some massive group of animals  occasionally in tandem with another massive group of animals  working to accomplish a monstrous task thats somehow critical to their survival.

Netflix confirms it will no longer support AirPlay capability The days of beaming your favorite Netflix show to your Apple TV are officially over. Netflix suddenly and unceremoniously stopped supporting AirPlay capability, quietly informing users accustomed to the wireless streaming feature of the change via service support page. AirPlay is no longer supported for use with Netflix due to technical limitations, the announcement read, offering up few additional details.

Chris Evans is launching a political website with some help from Congress A video of actor Chris Evans asking members of US Congress to participate in his to-be-launched political website leaked to CNN, spoiling the breadth of his formerly secret project. As reported by CNN, the video shows Evans meeting with congresspeople, including Senators Cory Booker and Amy Klobuchar, and encouraging them to answer questions about prescient political issues on camera.

Snaps plan to fight Facebook is bold Snap has long been known for its secretive ways. Even after going public in 2017, CEO Evan Spiegel rarely divulges much about the company publicly, save for quarterly earnings calls. But that may be starting to change.

Snaps plan to fight Facebook is bold Snap has long been known for its secretive ways. Even after going public in 2017, CEO Evan Spiegel rarely divulges much about the company publicly, save for quarterly earnings calls. But that may be starting to change.

Samsung expects quarterly profit to plummet 60 percent compared to a year ago Things are not going well in Samsung-land. Ahead of its earnings report later this month, the South Korean electronics giant shared earnings guidance for operating profit in the first quarter of 2019  and it doesnt look good.

Elon Musk explains why there is a camera inside of the Tesla Model 3 Back in 2017 we learned that the Tesla Model 3 has an inactive camera above the rearview mirror looking into the car. Seems  creepy. Well, recently on Twitter, CEO Elon Musk revealed what that camera is doing there. Its to help Tesla compete with Uber and Lyft in the future, duh.
Few topics prompt as powerful (and violent) a response from financial professionals as what the role of financial buybacks is in determining stock prices. One group, largely those bulls who after a decade of central bank manipulation still believe that markets are efficient and unrigged, and in hope of increasing their AUMs claim that they are financial geniuses for riding the world's biggest financial bubble in history, argue that stock buybacks have no impact on stock prices. Others, those who actually understand that if there are a trillion dollars in price indiscriminate stock bids (as was the case in 2018 and will again happen in 2019) is the single most effective way to boost stock prices (and management's incentive-linked comp, linked to higher stock prices), know - correctly - that corporate buybacks, which until not too long ago were banned, and which over the past decade emerged as the single biggest source of stock purchases, are one of the two most important factors behind the all-time highs in the stock market (the other being the Fed, whose policies have allowed companies to issue debt with record low yields, allowing them to fund these trillions in buybacks).

And with the debate raging, either side happy to "convince" others in its echo chamber while hurling insults at the other, few have been as vocal in their defense of stock buybacks as Goldman Sachs.

One month ago, the firm's chief equity strategy David Kostin wrote a report - let's call it the carrot - seeking to debunk "misconceptions" about stock buyabcks, which he claimed had gotten an unfair rap in the US. Specifically, Kostin said that "one of the greatest misconceptions in the public discourse surrounding corporate buybacks is the belief that management repurchase stock in an attempt to inflate earnings per share and meet incentive compensation targets, Goldman wrote. And while Goldman tried, to demonstrate that "executives whose compensation depends on EPS, did not allocate a higher proportion of 2018 total cash spending to buybacks than companies where management pay is not linked to EPS", the bank was forced to admit that last year buybacks did surpass capex as the biggest use of capital allocation.

Goldman's valiant effort to halt regulatory and legislative focus on buybacks - which also included Goldmans ex-CEO Lloyd Blankfein issuing a rebuttal defending the practice on Twitter, saying the money gets reinvested in higher growth businesses that boost the economy and jobs" did little however to stem the tide and as a result buybacks have been getting increasing scrutiny in the wake of the tax reforms in late 2017, when companies used money saved from the lower taxes as well as repatriated cash to return money to shareholders in record amounts, with total announced buybacks surpassing $1 trillion for the first time in 2018.

As a result, Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida released a plan last month that would curb buyback incentives. Democratic Senator Chris van Hollen of Maryland may propose legislation curbing executive share sales after repurchase announcements. The culmination - so far - was the US Senate convening hearings and introducing legislation to prohibit public companies from repurchasing their shares on the open market. Related: Gold Stocks Press Higher

This was too much for Goldman, which realized that the carrot approach is not working, and late on Friday went all "stick", when one month after his first report exposing buyback "misconception", Goldman's David Kostin doubled down, effectively warning that a ban on buybacks would likely result in a market crash, as "eliminating buybacks would immediately force firms to shift corporate cash spending priorities, impact stock market fundamentals, and alter the supply/demand balance for shares."

And just to underscore his dire warning, Kostin said that from a portfolio strategy perspective, "the potential restriction on buybacks would likely have five implications for the US equity market: (1) slow EPS growth; (2) boost cash spending on dividends, M&A, and debt paydown; (3) widen trading ranges; (4) reduce demand for shares; and (5) lower company valuations."

Kostin then breaks down these core points into the detail components, all of which have dire consequences for the market if the single biggest buyer of stocks is forced to step aside:

1. Slow EPS growth.

From a fundamental perspective, removing buybacks would have a negative effect on EPS growth. Aggregate earnings growth trails EPS growth because buybacks boost earnings per share by reducing the number of shares outstanding. During the past 15 years, the gap between EPS growth and earnings growth for the median S&P 500 company averaged 260 bp (11% vs. 8%). In 2018, the spread equaled 200 bp (20% vs. 18%). Another approach to estimating the boost to EPS growth in excess of earnings growth is the net buyback yield [(share repurchases - share issuance) / starting market capitalization]. This yield reflects the percent of market cap repurchased during the trailing 12 months. The S&P 500 net buyback yield averaged 2.6% during the past five years, close to the actual 290 bp gap between median EPS and earnings growth (10% vs. 8%).

2. Shift cash spending priorities.

S&P 500 firms allocated an average of 25% of their annual cash spending to buybacks since 2009. Eliminating repurchases would compel firms to find new uses for that cash. Some firms might choose to make formal tender offers for their shares, which firms employed to retire stock prior to 1982. But most managements would probably redirect cash that was previously spent on buybacks towards dividends (both regular and special) and funding more M&A. Spending on capex and R&D would probably not change if buybacks ceased, according to Goldman. During the past decade, capex and R&D have accounted for an average of 45% of S&P 500 annual cash spending which has consistently equaled about 8% of sales. Investment spending has always been the first priority for corporations, at least until 2018 when spending on buybacks surpassed CapEx for the first time. Simply put, to Goldman this means that without new investment opportunities firms are unlikely to suddenly spend more than 8% of sales on capex and R&D, and firms would be forced to hoard the case.

Related; Will Artificial Intelligence Replace The Military?

This means that in a world without buybacks, companies would almost certainly increase dividend growth and raise cash M&A spending. Dividends have accounted for 18% of annual cash use during the past decade and growth has averaged 6%. The S&P 500 dividend payout ratio currently equals 34%, below the 30-year average of 38%. Cash M&A spending would also jump. During the past decade, cash M&A spending accounted for 13% of corporate cash use and growth averaged 16% annually (Ex. 2). More than 75% of mergers involve some cash consideration. Firms might also choose to redirect cash spent on buybacks to reduce debt outstanding.

3. Widen trading ranges.

Removing or limiting buybacks would lead to a greater amplitude of index moves, a wider distribution of individual stock returns, and higher volatility: in short many more market crashes, both flash and otherwise. Worse, Goldman notes that prohibiting buybacks would reduce downside support for equity prices since companies could no longer step in to repurchase shares if their stock prices tumble. A case study of the potential impact of eliminating buybacks can be seen each quarter around the time the buyback blackout rolls in, about five weeks prior through two days after a company releases earnings. During these periods, firms are restricted from executing discretionary buybacks.

And here is the clearest indication just how much of an impact buybacks have no stock prices: during the past 25 years, the 20th percentile return for stocks within the S&P 500 has averaged -27% (annualized) in buyback blackout periods compared with -16% when companies can freely repurchase their shares. The average (11% vs. 5%) and 80th percentile (61% vs. 40%) stock returns are also higher during buyback blackouts likely due to the boost from quarterly earnings releases. Return dispersion (16 pp vs. 14 pp) and volatility (16.4 vs. 15.8) during blackout windows have also been higher compared with non-blackout periods (Exhibit 3).

4. Reduce demand for shares

This is where Goldman's warnings start to get especially dire, because as Kostin cautions, without company buybacks, demand for shares would fall dramatically. Repurchases have consistently been the largest source of US equity demand. Since 2010, corporate demand for shares has far exceeded demand from all other investor categories combined. Net buybacks for all US equities averaged $420 billion annually during the past nine years. In contrast, during this period, average annual equity demand from households, mutual funds, pension funds, and foreign investors was less than $10 billion for each category  despite the fact these categories collectively own 83% of corporate equities. Buybacks represented the largest source of equity demand in 2018.

According to the Federal Reserves most recent Financial Accounts quarterly report, corporate demand for stocks, measured as gross repurchases minus share issuance plus M&A, totaled $509 billion last year. Households were the only other net buyer of stocks (+$191 billion). Pensions, mutual funds, and foreign investors sold $243 billion, $124 billion, and $94 billion of equities in 2018, respectively. High equity exposure among major investor categories increases the importance of buybacks as a source of equity demand. Equity allocations for each of the major investor categories are elevated vs. history. Aggregate equity allocation totals 44% across households, mutual funds, pension funds, and foreign investors (86th percentile relative to the past 30 years). In contrast, we estimate that allocation to debt and cash are only at the 39th and 3rd percentiles, respectively.

5. Lower valuations

A decline in expected earnings growth could also lead to P/E multiple contractions. In a world without buybacks, forward EPS growth could be trimmed by 250 bp, close to the impact of net buybacks on company-level EPS growth. During the past 30 years, a 250 bp lower expected FY2 EPS growth has corresponded with one multiple point lower forward P/E multiple for the median S&P 500 stock. And since Goldman already warned liquidity would be even direr, one can expect that 1x PE multiple shrinkage to have dire consequences on stock prices.

Finally, prohibiting buybacks could also apply downward pressure to equity prices if it increases the supply of equities relative to demand at current prices, as eliminating the largest source of equity demand could lower the demand curve if other investor categories do not replace the corporate bid from buybacks. And since buybacks have been the go-to backstop for the market - along with the Fed - the probability of another "investor category" stepping up to buy stocks when the buyer of last reserve is gone, is virtually nil.

* * *

So as Goldman turns from a carrot to a stick approach, one can summarize the latest Goldman report by observing that very bad things will happen if Congress proceeds with its intentions to ban buybacks. There is a silver lining: while Goldman previously sided with the generally clueless segment of "financial experts", claiming that the impact of buybacks on stocks is at best muted, now that buyback legislation is becoming an increasingly greater threat by the day, Goldman can finally admit the truth: without buybacks the market will crash.

And with Goldman's abrupt and honest reversal, we are confident that the debate whether buybacks influence stocks or not, can finally be laid to rest.

By Zerohedge

More Top Reads From Safehaven.com:
The European Genre Forum, a talent lab dedicated genre productions in, well, Europe, is calling for submissions for its 2019 edition.

The EGF is looking for filmmakers who are developing their first or second feature genre film. Of the submissions eight projects will be selected to participate in labs in Zagreb, Croatica, at the Fantastic Zagreb Film Festival in July and in Tallinn, Estonia during the Black Nights Film Festival in November.

Getting your genre film made is about connecting to the right people that can make it happen. The more people you talk to not only do your chances of getting your film made increase but you speak to enough of your peers that you can get a better idea from them of the potential for your project, help you hone your pitch, or change your approach to getting it made.

The internation genre community is by and large a friendly and supportive one. Start local and work your way to global.

This year we will select up to 8 projects of which the director and producer will be invited to participate in 2 meetings full of training sessions, mentor meetings and a pitch workshop. These meetings will take place during the genre film festivals in Zagreb (4-7 July 2019) and Tallinn (November 2019). Its Europes only talent lab dedicated to horror, fantasy or sci-fi film productions, and therefor a great opportunity to experience the workings of the genre film industry and to broaden professional networks.
 Notable new (though incomplete) accounts of the state of death penalty politics | Main | "Department of Justice Announces First Step Act Implementation Progress" 

The title of this post is the title of this notable new paper authored by Brandon Garrett. Here is its abstract:

Ten years ago, people across the U.S. protested that too big to jail banks were not held accountable after the financial crisis. Little has changed. Two years into the Trump Administration, newly collected data allows one to assess what impact a series of new policies have had on corporate enforcement. To provide a snapshot comparison, in its last 20 months, the Obama Administration levied $14.15 billion in total corporate penalties  with 71 financial institutions and 34 public companies prosecuted. During the Trump Administration, corporate penalties declined. During its first 20 months, there were $3.4 billion in total penalties, with 17 financial institutions and 13 public companies prosecuted. These trends build over time  in each year, blockbuster cases come and go, creating swings in fines. However, consistent with these data, this Article describes changes in written policy, practice, and informal statements from the Department of Justice that have cumulatively softened the federal approach to corporate criminals.

This Article also describes continuity between administrations. A rise in corporate declinations, for example, represents a continuation of Obama Administration policy. A decline in use of corporate monitors similarly reflects prior policy. The steady and low level of individual charging in corporate cases, reflects an ongoing lack of success of efforts to prioritize individual prosecutions, exemplified by the 2015 Yates Memo. That policy, like others, has now been formally relaxed. This series of DOJ corporate prosecution policy changes have been accompanied by important institutional shifts. For example, high-level vacancies within the DOJ and other enforcement agencies may compromise ability to coordinate resolution of complex cases.

This Article concludes by proposing structural changes, such as an independent corporate enforcement functions, to enhance capacity and prevent pendulum shifts in the administration of enforcement. How we handle corporate crime goes to the root of power imbalance in the economy that produced the financial crisis. Ten years gone, if we still have not learned the lessons of the last financial crisis, then the next one cannot be far ahead.
 Are more re-enfranchised former offenders now registering as Republicans rather than as Democrats? | Main | "Declining Corporate Prosecutions" 

April 8, 2019

Notable new (though incomplete) accounts of the state of death penalty politics

A couple of major news outlets had a couple of recent lengthy stories about modern death penalty politics. Here are headlines, links, a small snippet and a follow-up comments:

From NBC News, "Death penalty repeal sweeping across states as both parties get on board":

Hannah Cox, the national manager of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, said that while the issue of repealing the death penalty was once a partisan one, that's changing. It "was virtually unheard of in 2012 for a Republican lawmaker to sponsor repeal," Cox said. This year, ten states have had Republican-sponsored legislation aimed at doing away with capital punishment, according to her grassroots advocacy group. That includes Georgia, where the bipartisan House Bill 702 was introduced on March 28 backed by the Ways and Means committee chairman and boasting two other GOP co-sponsors.

From the New York Times, "Democrats Rethink the Death Penalty, and Its Politics":

In 2016, for the first time, the Democratic Party platform called for the abolition of the death penalty. But Hillary Clinton, the partys nominee for president, supported capital punishment. President Barack Obama never called for its end, either. Al Gore was a supporter, and so was Bill Clinton. Some fear it could still be a losing issue in a general election against President Trump, who has talked about expanding those eligible for execution to include convicted drug dealers and could use the issue to rally his base and portray Democrats as weak on crime. 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!

Because the story of modern capital politics is so interesting and dynamic, I cannot fault these press stories for failing to cover it fully. These pieces, in my view, especially miss the important stories surrounding the apparent disinterest that even Republican supporters of the death penalty now have for taking steps to enhance the number and pace of executions. As regular readers know, here in Ohio, former GOP Gov (and once and perhaps future Prez candidate) John Kasich commuted or delayed a large number of executions and his replacement, Gov. Mike DeWine, recently imposed a de facto moratorium on executions because of lethal injection concerns. Similarly, a number of deep red states with sizable death rows, states like Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma and South Carolina, have not had an execution in a number of years, and I do not recall any GOP leaders complaining (or campaigning) that this is a major problem.

Indeed, though Prez Trump was quick to criticize California Gov. Newsom's announcement of a formal execution moratorium, Prez Trump himself has seemingly done nothing over two+ years in the Oval Office to end the long-running de facto moratorium on federal executions. Notably, California had its last execution in 2006, whereas the last federal execution took place way back in 2003. There are currently more than 60 people on federal death row, and some of have been there for more than 25 years. Ultimately, it seems that Prez Trump is really like many GOP leaders these days: he is supportive of the death penalty in theory, but he is not really all that interested in doing the work needed to make the death penalty much more functional. And this political reality arguably accounts for the modern state of capital punishment more than any other factor.

April 8, 2019 at 08:47 AM | Permalink

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Nadiem Makarim, founder of ride-hailing and online payment firm Go-Jek. (Photo: REUTERS/Darren Whiteside)

By Karlis Salna

(Bloomberg)  Indonesian ride-hailing service Go-Jeks value was estimated at $10 billion by a U.S. market intelligence company, putting it in the ranks of startups called decacorns.

New York-based CB Insights has listed Go-Jek among 19 decacorns around the world, along with the likes of Uber Technologies Inc., according to the Jakarta Post newspaper. That would make Go-Jek Indonesias first startup to join the $10 billion market-valuation club, and the second in Southeast Asia after rival ride-hailing service Grab.

Go-Jeks valuation reflects the confidence investors have that the company will continue to grow, Nila Marita, its chief of corporate affairs, said, without confirming details of its value.

An initial public offering remains a long-term aim for Go-Jek but it is not in our immediate future, she said in a text message to Bloomberg. Our focus is on growing the business and serving our users and partners in the countries we operate in.

Indonesian Communications Minister Rudiantara, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, said that while news of Go-Jek reaching decacorn status hasnt been confirmed and is based only on the CB Insights report, its a big achievement. It is indeed a significant milestone not only for Indonesia but also for the region, he said in a text message.

Unicorn, Decacorn

A unicorn is a closely held startup valued at more than $1 billion, while decacorn uses the Greek word for ten.

Go-Jek and Grab are battling for supremacy in the Southeast Asian market after Uber pulled out of the region last year. Grab recently raised about $1.5 billion from SoftBank Group Corp.s Vision Fund, bankrolling its effort to expand into new services across the region. That means its received about $4.5 billion from investors over the past year.

Go-Jek has presented a challenge for Grab, with the Jakarta-based startup marching into Grabs home market of Singapore as well as Vietnam and Thailand. Go-Jek Chief Executive Officer Nadiem Makarim and Grab founder Anthony Tan were classmates at Harvard Business School.

Southeast Asias two most valuable startups have been looking to rapidly expand in everything from mobile payments to food delivery. Go-Jek raised more than $1 billion in a continuing funding round from a clutch of internet giants including Google, JD.com Inc. and Tencent Holdings Ltd., a person with knowledge of the financing said in January. Both companies are using the proceeds to shore up their positions in Indonesia and expand around the region, while merging payments with ride-sharing and food delivery to create so-called super apps.

 2019 Bloomberg L.P
* Malaysia says suitors interested in Lynas, will clean ore

* Lynas says it sees value in processing near Australian mine

* Miner says it has the support of its Japan lenders, customers (Adds comment from Lynas CEO, investor)

By Melanie Burton

MELBOURNE, April 8 (Reuters) - Rare earths miner Lynas Corp said on Monday it is considering initial ore processing near its Australian mine, as Malaysia stepped up pressure on the company already in the midst of a takeover struggle.

Lynas, the world's only major producer of rare earths outside China, has been locked in a dispute with the Southeast Asian nation, which has told it to remove years of accumulated waste at its Malaysian processing plant in order to have its licence renewed.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Friday companies interested in acquiring Lynas had pledged to decontaminate low-level radioactivity from mined ore before shipping it to the country.

Mahathir did not identify any company. Lynas last month rejected a $1.1 billion takeover approach by Australian retail-to-chemicals conglomerate Wesfarmers.

Lynas Chief Executive Amanda Lacaze said on Monday that Lynas had been considering building new processing facilities for months in addition to its Malaysian operations as part of expansion plans and as a way to mitigate risk from any regulatory changes in Malaysia.

Initial ore processing to reduce levels of radioactivity would mean building a cracking and leaching plant at a cost of about A$100 million over three years, according to a research report by brokerage CLSA. Lynas was considering five locations, Lacaze said, but gave no details on cost or timing.

"We have been giving great consideration to ... our future industrial footprint," she told an analyst and investor call. "We remain confident that we can agree a path forward with the Malaysian government which is good for Malaysia and good for our business."

Lynas mines rare earths at Mount Weld in Western Australia and currently ships the concentrated material to an $800 million processing plant in Kuantan, Malaysia, where it stores thousands of tonnes of waste.

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Mahathir said even Lynas could operate in the country as long as raw materials coming to Malaysia were cleaned.

His comments come after Malaysia's Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) told Lynas in December that it must export stockpiles of a type of residue from its processing plant by Sept. 2, when its full operating stage licence is due for renewal.

In February, Lynas said that exporting the residue within the mandated timeline was "unachievable".

Lynas shareholders played down the likelihood of Lynas being forced to close its plant in Malaysia.

"The PM has said he wants the plant to keep operating and stay open in Malaysia. My expectation then would be that the plant's licence must be maintained," said Matthew Ryland of Greencape Capital, the company's second-biggest shareholder.

Lynas said it was seeking clarification from the Malaysian government on its latest comments, but had not yet heard back.

Wesfarmers said it welcomed the Malaysian comments which were consistent with talks it had had with senior government officials.

"We look forward to more detail from the government about Lynas' operating licence certainty, to assess the conditionality of our proposal," it said in a statement. (Reporting by Melanie Burton; additional reporting by Aditya Soni in Bengaluru and Paulina Duran in SYDNEY; Editing by Peter Cooney and Richard Pullin)
Beijing crucial to peace on Korean peninsula, says new Seoul ambassador

South Koreas new ambassador to China has arrived in Beijing vowing stronger cooperation between the two countries to accelerate denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and the establishment of a permanent peace settlement for the region.

Jang Ha-sung, former policy chief in the South Korean presidential office, promised close communication with Beijing, so that it may play a constructive role in resolving North Koreas nuclear issue and the permanent settlement of peace.

China is our old friend who suffered and overcame the hardships of their modern history  I will strengthen the communication channel and thus our trust through active exchanges and dialogues, Jang said on Monday, in his first address as ambassador.

On his arrival at Beijing International Airport on Sunday, Jang, a long-time economist, told reporters Chinas role in securing peace on the Korean peninsula was crucial.

The role of neighbouring countries surrounding the Korean peninsula, particularly China, has become significant  China has a crucial role in the denuclearisation process and for preserving peace on the Korean peninsula, he said.

South Korea-China relations must act as a catalyst to make Chinas role on the peace process more effective.

It is my responsibility to make relations mutually beneficial  Ill do everything to help South Korea-China relations improve further.

Progress on the Korean peninsula has been stalled since the collapse of the second Trump-Kim summit at Hanoi in February, leaving high-stakes nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang at a stalemate.

With international sanctions against North Korea still in place, Seouls ambitious plans to merge the economies of the two countries into a single market  and potentially laying the foundations for unification  are also gridlocked.

The plan, which proposes accelerating inter-Korean economic projects, was outlined in a New Economic Map of the Korean peninsula, presented on a USB drive to North Koreas Kim Jong-un by South Korean President Moon Jae-in during their meeting last year at the fortified border village of Panmunjom.

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Kim Yong-hyun, a professor at Dongguk Universitys Department of North Korean Studies, said: The bilateral cooperation between Seoul and Beijing is crucial in opening up North Korea and for the settlement of peace on the peninsula.

Chinas role as a mediator has significantly increased this year, especially after the Hanoi summit  Beijing can act as a bridge between the international community and Pyongyang, and this comes in line with Seouls national interests too, he added.

China has risen as a major player. Beijing ought to play a more active role in maintaining the framework of dialogue.

How the Korean peninsula was divided

Zhang Baohui, director of the Centre for Asian Pacific Studies at Lingnan University in Hong Kong, said the ambassadors comments reflected Seouls concern that Washington alone may not be sufficient in achieving the denuclearisation objective.

The failure of the Hanoi meeting may have motivated Seoul to try to bring China into the process  and move the denuclearisation process forward, Zhang said.

There could be further coordination of the North Korean policies of China and South Korea. They share the same interests of achieving denuclearisation while preserving stability in the Korean peninsula, he added.

China can affect North Koreas strategic choices in different ways. However, there is also a limit to those roles. After all, North Korea became a nuclear power against Chinas advice.

Nonetheless, the recent improvement of relations between China and North Korea may have increased Beijings influences on Kim. This could be why Seoul wants Beijing to play a more prominent role.

More from South China Morning Post:

This article Beijing crucial to peace on Korean peninsula, says new Seoul ambassador first appeared on South China Morning Post

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Thousands of motorcycle riders on March 24, 2019, staged a protest along EDSA to express their opposition to the implementation of double plates on motorcycles.

MANILA, Philippines  President Rodrigo Duterte is seeking the suspension of the doble plaka law saying, bigger license plates can be dangerous for motorcycle riders.

In a speech on Saturday (April 6), Duterte said he will talk to Senator Richard Gordon about the proposition to amend several provisions in the Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act.

He will first convince the Land Transportation Office (LTO) to suspend the implementation of the double plates.

Kasi it is not good. It is dangerous to place another gadget, lalo na may kanto . May kanto iyang plate number. It could be a plastic or it could be an aluminum but still with an impact, tutusok iyan sa helmet mo. Delikado. Anything that is sharp there, hindi maganda [Because it is not good. It is dangerous to place another gadget especially if there are corners. Plate numbers have corners. It could be a plastic or it could be aluminum but still with an impact, it will stab your helmet. Anything that is sharp is not good], Duterte said.

The President suggested that instead of using double plates, it would be better to just increase the size of the current plates by 1/4 in order for it to be more readable.

He also wants to amend the fines imposed on violators. From P50,000, he wants to lower it to P10,000 to P15,000.

Fifty thousand is mas mahal pa sa motor. Ano na lang sir, i-compromise siguro . Ako, Im willing P10,000 to 15,000, okay na iyan [Fifty thousand, that is more expensive than the motorbike. Maybe there should be a compromise. Im willing [to impose] P10,000 to P15,000, that is okay], Duterte said.

The LTO is currently drafting the implementing rules and regulation of the new law, but it might still be subject to change depending on the Presidents amendments.

Meanwhile Senator Richard Gordon has appealed to the President to give the implementation of the new law a chance before opposing it.

He said that the implementation can truly determine if the new law is effective or not.

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He added that he is prepared to explain the law to the President and is also open to discussing the concerns the Chief Executive has raised.

President Duterte said he signed the Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act on March 8 based on the recommendation of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

Motorcycle riders lauded the Presidents measure to temporarily suspend the implementation of the Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act.

According to Atoy Cruz, president of the Motorcycle Federation of the Philippines, they are happy because the President understands their concerns.

However, Cruz clarified that they only want amendments on some of the provisions of the law and not its full abolition. Aileen Cerrudo (with reports from Grace Casin)

The post Duterte seeks suspension of doble plaka law appeared first on UNTV News.
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. 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.
Over the weekend, the HUAWEI P30 Series made its debut sale at VivoCity with hundreds in line as early as 9pm the day before the official launch on 6 April. Since its global launch in Paris last week, the Huawei P30 Series quickly became the talk of the town among fans and new users for its worlds first Leica Quad Camera with industry-leading zoom capabilities and low-light performance.

We can totally understand the hype because we are a big fan of the Huawei P series and simply fell in love with their outstanding AI photography capabilities and the partnership with Leica after we were exposed to the P20. Read our P30 review on why we think it will give DSLR cameras a run for their money.

How well-received was the new HUAWEI P30 Series in Singapore? It was sold out within two hours of the launch by noon!

Yvelyn Tey, together with her fiance were first in line since 9pm the night before.

Yvelyn Tey, 29, was first in line since 9pm before the day of launch with her fiance and she will be using a Huawei smartphone for the first time.

I started to know about Huawei since its launch of its previous Mate 20 Series and I have heard great reviews of the phone ever since. My fiance has also been raving to me about the cameras on Huawei. I often use my phone to take photos so having a good camera is really key for me. When I heard about the night mode of the P30 Series, I was very impressed.

Valerie Kang and her boyfriend came prepared to camp overnight since 10pm to purchase the new Huawei P30 Pro.

Next in line was another young couple, Valerie Kang, age 29, and her boyfriend who came prepared to camp overnight since 10pm for the Huawei P30 Series. When we saw how the Mate 20 Series was sold out so quickly last year, we decided to arrive early last night to be safe so that we can get our P30 Pro together, commented Kang. We have never used a Huawei before and we are very excited to use the camera because of the good reviews that we have read online.

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Travellers from Belgium, Lizze de Vreese and her boyfriend took a special trip downtown to VivoCity to purchase the Huawei P30 Pro.

The release of the Huawei P30 Series today also drew the hearts of many beyond the shores of Singapore including travellers from Belgium, Lizzie de Vreese and her boyfriend who took a special trip downtown to VivoCity to purchase the Huawei P30 Pro. Ive seen so many incredible images shared on social media that were taken with a Huawei phone and I knew that I had to switch my phone then. I have always been an Android user but I have been completely bought over by the camera quality of the P30 Pro. I am looking forward to snap away with my new phone during my travels!

Customers trying out the new SuperZoom lens on the Huawei P30 and P30 Pro.

Taking the reins from its predecessor, the P20 Pro, the Huawei P30 Pro tops the charts in DxOMarks Photo and Video categories with an all-time high score of 112 and 97 points respectively.

Further adding to Huaweis smartphone photography credentials, the Huawei P30 Pro was recently recognised by the Technical Image Press Association (TIPA) as Best Photo Smartphone. The crowning jewel of the HUAWEI P30 Pro rests in its worlds first Leica Quad Camera that is equipped with a revolutionary RYYB colour filter array, empowering photography enthusiasts to capture stunning images even in the dark with the smartphone.

The Huawei P30 Pro was also lauded among the crowd for its jaw-dropping 50x digital zoom capabilities that can capture objects on camera as far as approximately 580 metres in distance, a breakthrough for the smartphone industry.

Francis Toh (right) decided to switch his phone to a Huawei P30 Pro after being convinced by his wife Amy Toh (left).

Francis Toh, decided to switch to Huawei after being convinced by his wife, Amy Toh, who has used the Huawei Mate 10 and P20 Pro. When I compared the images taken from my phone and my wifes, I was very amazed with the detail and the difference was very obvious. I decided to follow the updates for the latest Huawei products so that I can plan my purchase ahead. I think what really makes the P30 Pro stand out for me is the low-light photography and zoom capabilities that no other phone has ever introduced.

In 2018, the global sales revenue of Huaweis consumer business reached CNY348.9 billion, up 45.1% year-on-year. In Singapore, Huawei maintained strong sales growth that doubled from the previous year. Huawei also emerged in the list of top 5 brands in YouGov Brand Index for most improved brand sentiment in 2018.

Innovative technologies has always been the hallmark of our brand. The new Huawei P30 Series features outstanding camera upgrades ahead of its time that will enable more freedom and room for creativity among users to capture the best moments in life, said Xu Chengfei, Managing Director of Huawei Consumer Business Group Singapore.

The response at our public launch today has exceeded our expectations and is testament to consumers confidence in our line of smartphones. The Huawei P30 Series is our best-seller yet and we look forward to providing our customers with more quality and innovative products.

This year, Huawei introduced an electronic queue system at its launch event to facilitate a swift and smooth customer experience during purchase. Customers who were in line overnight were also treated to breakfast and given bottles of water.

Click to view slideshow.

The HUAWEI P30 Series is available at all Huawei Concept Stores, local telecommunication operators, authorised mobile retailers, selected consumer electronic stores and online marketplaces.

Whats more, those who purchase the HUAWEI P30 Series will be entitled to a 2-year warranty and enjoy premium services under the HICARE PRESTIGE package which includes:

One year door-to-door repair pick-up and delivery service

Two years warranty

Three months screen insurance (terms and conditions apply)

The post Huawei P30 Series sold out before noon in Singapore during official release at VivoCity appeared first on Alvinology.
Saudi Arabia has arrested at least eight writers and bloggers, including two US citizens, in an apparent crackdown on supporters of detained women activists whose trial has drawn global censure, campaigners said Friday. News of the arrests came the morning after US lawmakers voted to end military support for a Saudi-led war in neighbouring Yemen, which has triggered what the UN describes as the worlds worst humanitarian crisis. It also marks the first major crackdown since the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last October, which sparked unprecedented international scrutiny of the kingdoms human rights record. Campaigners identified the US-Saudi dual nationals as writer and doctor Bader al-Ibrahim and Salah al-Haidar, the son of Aziza al-Yousef a high-profile activist who was temporarily released last week but remains on trial along with other women campaigners.

The latest round up started on Thursday, a day after the 11 women some of whom accused interrogators of torture and sexual abuse in detention returned to court to face charges that include contact with foreign media, diplomats and human rights groups. But one of them, university lecturer Anas al-Mazrou, was detained last month after he expressed solidarity with the detained women during a panel discussion at the Riyadh book fair, multiple activists said. London-based rights group ALQST said all eight were writers and social media bloggers previously engaged in public discourse on reforms and that the crackdown was linked to their support of women activists on trial. Prisoners of Conscience, a Saudi group that tracks political prisoners, put the number of people arrested at 10. Saudi authorities seem to be hellbent on silencing anyone who dares to speak up or even voice their opinions privately and publicly, Amnesty Internationals Middle East campaigns director Samah Hadid told AFP. This goes beyond just attacking activists and now seems to target different segments of society. This is a dangerous pattern.



Pressure to stay silent :

There was no immediate comment from Saudi authorities or the US embassy in Riyadh. What is disturbing about new Saudi arrests is that waves of arrests keep moving from most-known to successively lesser knowns, Saudi-American activist Nora Abdulkarim said on Twitter. Another confusing aspect is timing, leaves one asking: why now?' Riyadh has faced pressure from major Western powers to release the women on trial, most of whom were detained last summer in a wide-ranging crackdown against activists just before the historic lifting of a decades-long ban on female motorists. Three of them activist Aziza al-Yousef, blogger Eman al-Nafjan and preacher Rokaya al-Mohareb were granted temporary release last week. Before their provisional release, the three freed women and their bail guarantors were made to sign a pledge that they will stay away from the media, according to multiple people with access to the trial.

The siblings of one of the prominent detainees, activist Loujain al-Hathloul, this week said they were being pressured by people close to the Saudi state to stay silent over her treatment in detention. People close to the Saudi establishment have warned that public criticism by family members could prolong their detention. A reminder: we are not going to stay silent, Loujains sister Alia al-Hathloul tweeted on Friday. At an emotionally charged hearing last week, some women broke down as they accused interrogators of subjecting them to electric shocks, flogging and groping in detention, two people with access to the trial told AFP. A Saudi prosecutor roundly rejected the accusations in the latest court hearing on Wednesday, witnesses said, reiterating the governments stance. The next hearing in the trial, which foreign media and diplomats are barred from attending, is scheduled for April 17, activists say.



AFP






US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will travel to the Venezuela border in Colombia to highlight the plight of refugees during a four-nation trip to Latin America, the State Department announced Monday. Pompeo will pay a brief visit on Sunday to the Colombian city of Cucuta after stops in Chile, Paraguay and Peru -- all four countries led by right-wing or center-right leaders favorable to the tough US approach on Venezuela. In Cucuta, Pompeo will "visit entities supporting Venezuelan refugees and assess the challenges due to the closed border," the State Department said in a statement. Starting the trip on Friday in Santiago, Pompeo will "highlight Chile's regional leadership" along with economic, scientific and security ties, the State Department said. Chile is this year's chairman of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, with a Pacific-wide summit expected in November. In Peru, the State Department said Pompeo on Saturday will discuss support for Venezuelan refugees as well as the country's role in leading the Lima Group -- the group of Latin American nations and Canada that meets on the crisis in Venezuela. The United States and all the Lima Group members except Mexico in January declared President Nicolas Maduro to be illegitimate as the leftist firebrand heads a crumbling economy that has sent millions fleeing. Washington has been ramping up economic and diplomatic pressure in hopes of installing opposition leader Juan Guaido, although Maduro has maintained control with support from the military, Russia and China. Pompeo will be the first secretary of state to visit Paraguay since 1965 with his stop on Saturday. Paraguay's US-educated president, Mario Abdo Benitez, has shared much of Washington's agenda, although he backtracked on joining the United States in moving his country's embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. President Donald Trump's administration has also sought strong ties with Brazil's new far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, who visited Washington last month.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart on Monday discussed a missile deal slammed by the US as well as closer military cooperation during a visit by Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Moscow. The two sides must "strengthen cooperation in the military-technical sphere," Putin told Erdogan as they met in the Kremlin. "These regard first of all the completion of the contract to supply S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems to Turkey," he said. "There are other promising projects on the agenda related to the supply of modern Russian military products to Turkey," Putin added. NATO member Turkey's missile deal has tested its already soured relations with Washington. The US has put a freeze on its joint F-35 fighter jet programme with Turkey in protest. Last week, US acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said he was confident Turkey would drop the plan and buy the US Patriot system instead. Erdogan has said the S-400s are needed to protect Turkey's borders. He said he turned to Russia because no acceptable US missile deal was available at the time. The first S-400 delivery is expected in July. The pair also discussed Syria, where they have backed opposite sides in the eight-year conflict but have been working closely to end the fighting. Putin said they were unable to reach an agreement to set up a monitoring centre in Syria's jihadist-held Idlib region, agreed at a summit in Sochi in February. "We have so far not been able to create the monitoring centre," Putin said. "But I am sure that we will do this." Russia, which supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and rebel backer Turkey in September inked a buffer zone deal to prevent a massive regime offensive on the Idlib region, near the Turkish border. On Sunday, 13 civilians died in bombing in Idlib. Along with Iran, Russia and Turkey have positioned themselves as key foreign players in Syria's long-running war. Erdogan is on his third visit to Russia since the beginning of this year.
In the book, a tsunami in the North Sea devastates parts of northern Europe and leaves millions dead

The executive producer of "Game of Thrones" said Monday he is making a new big budget TV series based on the eco-disaster bestseller "The Swarm".

Frank Doelger, who won five Emmys for the swords and dragons epic whose final season screens next week, said it is a chilling story of an "epic ecological disaster" in which "the oceans and their inhabitants" turn on mankind and exact revenge for the damage we have done to the planet.

He showed a chilling animated mock-up of one of the key early scenes from the series at MIPTV, the world's top TV and streaming market in the French Riviera resort of Cannes.

It showed how a group of "Humpback and Orca whales go kamikaze and attack a group of whalewatchers" off Canada in a scene that made "Jaws" look like a Sunday school picnic.

In the book, a tsunami in the North Sea devastates parts of northern Europe and leaves millions dead as scientists struggle to figure out a series of freak events in the world's oceans.

Even those living far from the sea may not be safe from the avenging wrath of the creatures of the sea, Doelger hinted.

"One of the ideas that we are working on is that the attacks start along the coast but eventually this intelligent life force will figure out a way to penetrate to the interior. It will be nature's revenge for the environmental crimes and atrocities we have committed."

Like "Game of Thrones", the show will rely heavily on special effects, he said, with new techniques allowing filmmakers to shoot "dry for wet" with so much action taking place in the sea.

Doelger revealed that the book's German author Frank Schatzing "has given us outlines for a second, third and possibly fourth series", with the first season likely to hit screens in 2021.

He described "The Swarm" as a scientific detective story.

"Frank wrote the book in 2003 and 2004 and unfortunately a lot of the things that he predicted and fantasised about the state of the world's oceans, and what mankind has done to them, have proved all too true."

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- No diatribe -

Doelger said the strength of the book was that it wasn't preachy. "No one is ever giving a speech about environmental damage. That is something the scientists have been dealing with for decades and doesn't need to be discussed. We did not want to make it into a documentary or a diatribe against those crimes."

"It is an incredible journey with an extraordinary end," he added.

Alan Taylor, who directed key episodes of "The Sopranos", "Mad Men" and "Boardwalk Empire" will make half of the first eight-part season.

He said the story "really functions at an emotional level and is hugely relevant to what we are wrestling with today. It has the structure of a thriller that builds and builds towards an ending that I find thrilling, devastating and transcendant at the same time."

The show -- whose producers say is likely to be the most expensive European production ever -- is being backed by the German broadcaster ZDF, but US and other European channels are also getting on board.

"It is too big for just one," said producer Eric Welbers, who said that the main parts of the story will be set in Scandinavia, Canada and Shanghai.

Schatzing's book, which has been translated into 25 languages, was a "truly global phenomenon", he added.
Back in the 80s and 90s, shopping malls were in their heyday. Across the United States, the commercial powerhouses served as a consumerists haven, inviting families, friends and other patrons who were looking to shop, eat or gallivant at their leisure.

But with the rapid rise of e-commerce and shifting consumer preferences, the American staple has suffered a steady decline  an observation noted by photojournalist Seph Lawless.

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Mall Vacancies Are on the Rise in This Fashion Mecca, Too

For nearly 15 years, the Ohio-based explorer has been documenting the demise of the long-beloved shopping center through evocative imagery of the countrys dead and dying malls. His first book, Autopsy of America: The Journal Entries of Seph Lawless, chronicled the industrial decline that started in the 80s, followed by Black Friday: The Collapse of the American Shopping Mall, which garnered recognition on reputable global platforms including CNN and BBC News. (Lawless next book, Abandoned Malls of America: Crumbling Commerce Left Behind, is set to release this fall.)

Shopping malls for me were a big part of life growing up in the 80s. As I grew older, I witnessed more and more malls becoming slowly deserted and eventually abandoned, Lawless said. I thought the images would be a poignant reminder of how rapidly the consumerism landscape is changing.

Here, Lawless shares his experiences photographing some of Americas eeriest retail ruins.

When did you begin taking photographs of abandoned malls?

I started in 2005, and eventually, my body of work became so large that I started breaking up my images of Abandoned America into themes, like abandoned amusement parks and dead shopping malls. No one has ever documented more abandoned theme parks or abandoned malls than me. I decided to focus purely on deserted shopping malls for my next published book [Abandoned Malls of America: Crumbling Commerce Left Behind] after the overwhelming response I received from the half-million fans across my social media platforms. I received thousands of comments and emails from my Instagram posts from people sharing with me very nostalgic memories they had of malls.

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How did social media play a factor, and when did you see your breakthrough moment?

My art is not complete until its shared. Thats been my conceptual view on art since I was an art student. I knew early on that art was a weapon, and I understood that exploiting social media platforms with my art and message would be powerful. I realized that my work was breaking through after several media outlets started reporting my Instagram account in the press. It was media outlets all over the world, and I knew then that I was succeeding with my goal.

Why do you think these photographs continue to capture so much attention?

Shopping malls werent just a place for Americans to shop; they were arguably some of the largest communal spaces in America over the last century. So many Americans share very nostalgic memories of these American shopping malls that have been rapidly dying over the last few years. I get emails and Instagram comments all the time about people telling me emotional stories of meeting their wife at a shopping mall, their first job and some of their favorite stores they visited as a child at their local mall.

What were the most notable abandoned malls you have photographed?

The abandoned malls Ive shot that really stood out to me were the ones I grew up in Randall Park Mall, Euclid Square Mall and Rolling Acres Mall. Ironically, all of those malls are now Amazon fulfillment centers that will be shipping my next book, showing images of those three malls as well as 20 other abandoned shopping [malls] across the U.S.

Do you have any nostalgic memories of these malls?

Plenty. Three of the malls Ive shot extensively in my hometown alone are now all Amazon fulfillment centers. I remember meeting my first girlfriend there and hanging out with my friends after school. As a child, it was the only place my mom would drop me off to roam around all alone. It was liberating for kids.

Share with us an anecdote about one of your most memorable visits.

One of my most memorable visits inside an abandoned mall was during a blizzard. All of the skylights were shattered and snow was just pouring inside the abandoned mall. It was fascinating to be the only person in the world to witness such a rare phenomenon. The mall transformed into a real-life winter wonderland, and it was beautiful.

What upcoming projects are you working on?

My third published book will be out in a few months, entitled Abandoned Malls of America: Crumbling Commerce Left Behind. All of my images are accompanied by celebrities, musicians and journalists [who] share their personal memories of shopping malls, including Actress Yvette Nicole Brown and Ronan Farrow  both longtime followers and fans of my work. Ill also be traveling extensively to parts of Russia, Asia and South America as I begin filming my new reality television show where I will take viewers into some of the most hauntingly beautiful abandoned places in the world.

Click through the gallery to see more of Seph Lawless photographs of abandoned shopping malls.

Watch FNs video on Allbirds new headquarters below.

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Is the Mall Dying? Four Experts Weigh In

What Department Stores Used to Look Like in the 1800s  Beautiful & Architecturally Magnificent

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Photo credit: Alex Edelman - Getty Images

From Esquire

On Monday, Rep. Eric Swalwell became the latest Democrat to declare hes running for president. Swalwell, a 38-year-old congressman from northern California and member of the House Intelligence Committee, is well-known to cable news junkies for his frequent appearances over the last two years discussing Trump and Russia. Off-camera, he has been bouncing between Iowa and New Hampshire for months. He made things official this afternoon during a taping of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which will air tonight. We spoke recently during two long interviews as Swalwell prepared for todays announcement. What follows is an edited and condensed version of our conversations.



Ryan Lizza: Where will you find yourself ideologically within this large group of candidates?

Eric Swalell:I'm going to be an aspirational candidate who believes that in our lifetime we could have 100 percent renewables when it comes to energy; that in our lifetime we could have publicly financed campaigns; that in our lifetime we could buy back and ban every single assault weapon. So I want to challenge the country to go big, be bold, and do good. I think that there's just a boldness that's missing right now and I think I can make the case as someone who has lived the life. I've seen hard work add up to something. Generationally, Im still very optimistic [but] experienced enough to know how to get things done in Washington.

Is there any one issue that you think you push for or be more known for than the other candidates?

Gun violence. I will be the first candidate to say that reducing gun violence has to be a top three issue. Last year I wrote a bill calling for a buy back and ban on assault weapons-not just to ban future manufacturing, but to just take the 15 million that are out there and buy them back. And do what Australia did, do what New Zealand did. They've shown us-Australia in the 90s, New Zealand just this week-that courage in doing the right thing can protect people. And I'm inspired by this next generation, who lifted themselves up out of this Parkland tragedy and went to the town squares and the town halls and marched on the ballot box and took out a number of NRA endorsed candidates [in the 2018 midterms].

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I've seen that when I go across the country. The NRA-they are a paper tiger. They have us in fear that [if you support] any limitation on firearms, you would be in a position that the overwhelming majority of the country is against you. And I've just come to find out that's not the case at all.

Your candidacy will be greeted with a lot of skepticism-about fundraising, about polling, about your ability to get into the debates. When we talked recently you joked a little bit about convincing your wife about doing this. How did you convince her?

We talk about a single moment a lot, which was when we went to her 40-week appointment when we had our son, back in 2017, and the doctor was a little surprised to see me at the appointment because she figured I'd missed most of the earlier appointments and probably wasn't going to be around for the last one. And my wife told the doctor really excitedly, Oh, yeah, he's going to be around all week for the birth of our son. He's going to be missing votes. And the doctor, she looked at the both of us and she said, "You're going to miss votes?" And I was like, Yeah, of course, I'm not going to miss the birth of my son! And the doctor looked at my wife and she said, "Well aren't they possibly voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act this week?" This is when the ACA repeal was happening in the spring of 2017. And I said, That's a chance, that's a risk. It could come back from the Senate and we could have another vote, but I'm not missing the birth of my son. And the doctor looked at me and looked at my wife and she said, "How about I make a deal with you guys? You do your job, I'll do mine. You go back there, don't let them take healthcare away from my patients, I'll see your wife every single day and make sure that you don't miss the birth of your son."

My wife didn't want me to miss the vote. I went back to Washington, came back, made the birth within three hours. And I remind my wife of that and she reminds me of that: that she was willing to sacrifice me missing our son's birth then because she saw from a doctor who cared a lot about her patients what was on the line, and this is a big sacrifice for our family now, but we think there's a lot on the line and we think that we could help. [Editor's note: The couple also has a daughter, who was born last fall.]

Photo credit: Gary Gershoff - Getty Images

One of the ways that a lot of candidates have started this race is by apologizing for things that they regret. What are you sorry for?

Well I think you should apologize if you're wrong, not if you've said something that's unpopular, and so it's important to show empathy and that's why it's so maddening that we have a President who doesn't apologize for anything. So I, from time to time, particularly on social media, I've sent out tweets that, you know, I don't think show the best of me. During the Kavanaugh confirmation I was very passionate about making sure Dr. Ford was believed. Senator Collins had said that her office was being inundated with threats of violence. She was being threatened and I very snidely tweeted back that, well, Dr. Ford can't even sleep in her own bed. Boo hoo hoo. And I'm sorry I said that. That's not who I am. I've never even used that phrase before. I will apologize if I say something that is insensitive or just flat-out wrong to say. So I wish I had not done that during that very emotional period of time for our country.

You were a prosecutor for seven years in Alameda County, California, and you once mentioned to me that there was a certain ideology instilled in young lawyers in that office. What was it?

You were told on Day One that this was an office that [future chief justice] Earl Warren presided over and there was a lot of pride in that because of the reforms he put in place to clean up corruption in the county, to make sure prosecutors were not seeking just wins in a case but justice. And so the mantra in the office was: this isn't about wins and losses. It's about doing justice. And so that kind of liberated you to do the right thing and not feel like you'd be judged by your colleagues if you dismissed a case because you didn't believe you could prove it or if there was a lot of pressure to win a case at all costs. When it came to showing mercy for people who deserved it, you were given the ability to do that because of the history in the office.

Is it true that your parents and three brothers are all Republicans who voted for Trump?

My mom and dad are Republicans. At least two of my brothers are. I think one of my brothers is an independent now. My parents are on, like, the Republican National Committee mailing list and a year ago they bought a Trump-Pence refrigerator magnet that is still on their fridge. I hope that comes down soon. And then I married a Hoosier from southern Indiana and she grew up literally in the hometown with Pence. Her grandfather was a pallbearer at Mike Pence's father's funeral. So I'm around a lot of Republicans.

Is it true that you decided, in 2012, to run in the primary against Democratic Congressman Pete Stark, who was 81 years old then and had served for 20 terms, because he canceled a meeting with you?

[Laughs.] It was a canceled meeting where I saw that we didn't have an active, engaged member of Congress who understood the changing economy of the time. I was a city councilman [from Dublin, California]. I've come back to Washington, D.C. I go to his office, it's a voting day. And his staff, brings me into his office. I sit on his nice leather couch, and they tell me that he's at home in Annapolis and that he would be calling into the meeting. And I just remember hearing, like, the House bells going off because votes were going on that day. And I thought, What is he doing at home? There's work to be done, you know, here on Capitol Hill."

I talked to him sitting on his couch and then went back home and started to give some thought about our area, our needs and I did make the decision shortly thereafter to run a new energy, new ideas candidacy against him.

So this leads to the obvious follow-up: what did Bernie Sanders or Beto ORourke or Kamala Harris do to piss you off?

[Laughs.] As a 20-year old intern on Capitol Hill who was intimidated by the biographies of congressmen, I never imagined I would have so many friends in a presidential primary field. I found a great picture in my phone from our new member orientation when we were members-elect. We were up at Harvard for the new member orientation and sitting in the dugout of Fenway Park because we had done like a bonding tour. And its me, Tulsi [Gabbard, senator from Hawaii], and Beto sitting together-just the three of us. And I thought, boy, who would have thought in that moment that all three of us, who had kind of not taken a straight line to Congress, and seven years later would be in the same primary together.

Photo credit: Courtesy of Eric Swalwell

During your race against Congressman Stark he called you a "pipsqueak," a "slime ball," and a "fucking crook." Did you guys ever reconcile after you beat him?

No, I've not seen him. We both represented-he represented and I represent-the same area and so I hope one day if we did cross paths we could talk about that. I hold no hard feelings and honor his service to the country. I just believe and still believe that our area needed someone that was gonna bring new energy, new ideas, and a new confidence to the Congress, and that's why I ran.

If you were the Democratic nominee, and you were on a debate stage with Donald Trump, what are some of the questions that you are dying to confront him with?

I would ask him, how is the average American who's not invested in the stock market, who is living paycheck to paycheck, better off since you were elected? I think thats ultimately what this election will be about.

Not something about Russia? Do you worry that your public image is so tied to the Russia investigation that that's something you need to correct as you enter the race?

As the country gets to know me more, they will see the reason I care so much about Russia is I understand why they thought to help Donald Trump. And it wasn't only to get a transactional benefit of reduced sanctions, a diminished role of NATO, and pulling out of Syria. It was to tear down the promise of America, which is that no matter who you are, who you love, who you worship, what your parents did, if you work hard, you can be anything. And if that promise is true in our young country, it could be true in Russia. And the best way to keep it from coming to Russia is to beat it at its origin. And so because I'm someone who benefited from seeing my parents have that promise fulfilled, I care a lot about a country trying to interfere in our election, turn us against each other, and have us on an equivalent plane with their oligarchy system.

I don't want that. I want us to be a country of free ideas, free markets, and a freedom to dream.

What are the lessons youve learned from how Clinton and Obama, the last two Democratic presidents, governed?

Clinton brought pragmatism and collaborative spirit to Washington and I think he was regarded as able to strike deals, work with Republicans, and get things done. It wasn't always pretty, but he was effective at working with Congress. And I've heard that from my colleagues who were here when he was President and I know that from coming of age during that era.

President Obama just brought unseen integrity to the office. He's such a man of character, had eight years without any serious scandal, not only of his making but the people he'd hired around him. During the Russia investigation, one day we had Sally Yates before our committee and the next day, we would have Roger Stone. And you got to see just the contrast between who President Obama had around him and who Donald Trump as a candidate and still today as an advisor has around him. And so the character and the quality of people he brought into government is something that I admire and would want to emulate.

If I were to pull up your top 25 most played list on your iPhone, what do you think would be on it?

I'm a country music Democrat, that's for sure.

Like in a real way or like a fake way because you're running for president?

No, no, no, no. Ask anyone who knows me. I picked that up in law school [University of Maryland, Baltimore] from my law school roommate. We would drive to class and he was just the biggest country music fan and turned me on to it. Started with Tim McGraw and Billy Currington and went from there.

Do you go to country music shows?

Oh yeah.

What's the last country music show you went to?

Darius Rucker in August, in California. And I also went to see Taylor Swift when she was here in Washington, like, you know, unapologetically. I won't apologize for that.

Photo credit: Scott Olson - Getty Images

Whats a book youve read recently that affected your thinking about policy?

I just read The Hell of Good Intentions [by Stephen M. Walt], which is about U.S. foreign policy over the last ten years and some of the mistakes we've made and the rise of authoritative governments in the world. That there are more and more authoritative government coming to be than democracies.

What's a takeaway from Walt's book that perhaps you didn't think of before you read it?

Our disengagement in promoting democracy, particularly in the Trump era, is leading to more authoritative governments being on the rise. And I think it's that we have to lead from the front on foreign policy. As a 38-year old in this field it would be natural to wonder if he is up for the commander-in-chief part of the job. But I happen, in the last seven years-having been on the Intelligence Committee, the Homeland Security Committee-to have acquired foreign policy credentials and awareness. I've gone to visit our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, have been to Pakistan and Russia and South Korea and on the D.M.Z. looking into North Korea. So I know who our threats are from abroad. I know who our friends are to address those threats, and I also know what attacks to the rule of law and to those alliances on the inside mean to us.

If you look at our foreign policy like a parent looks at a playground, your child has gone from hanging out with the honor roll kids, the Brits, the French, the Australians, to rolling with the detention crew, the Saudis, the Russians, the Turks. And the cost of that is that we're going to have to spend more on our own national defense and that will take money away from tablets for kids, and medicine for seniors. I think, you know, we need a candidate who understands that and is able to do a global affirmation tour on Day One.

In 2016 The Hillnamed you the Snapchat King of Congress. What were you snapping to earn that prestigious title?

Eighty percent of it was just what I was doing throughout the day that wasn't necessarily political. The next generation very much craves authenticity and they want you to just be yourself and they can call B.S. if they feel like you're not. And so it was just letting my constituents in to see what I do on a day-to-day basis. And then recognizing that once they're at the table with you, and they trust you and they believe you're being real with them, you can talk to them about what you're doing in Washington, what you care about, and what you hope they will do to advance the issue.

So you were like AOC before it was cool.

Still not known by my initials yet.

You once said that your own parents thought you were crazy to run for Congress-

Yeah.

Photo credit: Chip Somodevilla - Getty Images

And tried to talk you out of it. So what do they think about you running for President?

[Laughs.] It's a parent's job to worry, about their kids. And my dad didn't want me to transfer from Campbell University, a small school where I was the men's campus president, and on the Division I soccer team, to go to a much larger school, the University of Maryland, where I wanted to be closer to Capitol Hill. They felt the same way about running for Congress. They don't want to see me fail. And I just tell them that actually in the way that they've lived their life and raised me, they've put me in the best possible position to succeed.

And so you have their blessing for this run?

They're very nervous, but they're proud of their son. My parents worked very hard. We moved [from Iowa to Northern Californa] and lived in eleven different houses. I went to nine different schools before graduating high school and my dad had said a couple weeks ago to me, "Son, I wish you wouldn't talk about that so much. People don't need to know that." And I said, "Dad, that makes me who I am. That's why I care about the issues I care about because I saw you weren't moving us around to punish me and make me lose friends, go to new schools. You were doing it to put me in a better school district, giving me a better shot at being able to be the first in the family to go to college." And so that is where I get my work ethic and also my belief that the promise of this country is that if you work hard, you do better.

So he's gonna be pissed when he reads this. [Laughs.]

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At an LGTBQ Victory Fund event, Mayor Pete Buttigieg shared what he wishes the ultra-conservative, anti-gay people of the world would understand about his sexual orientation.

On Saturday, April 6th, Mayor of South Bend, Indiana Pete Buttigieg spoke at the LGBTQ Victory Fund Champagne Brunch. Buttigiegthe first openly-gay Democrat to explore a nomination for the 2020 presidential campaignshared his coming out story and how his sexual orientation may ultimately affect his potential run for president. He also discussed his struggle to accept himself earlier in life.

If you could have offered me a pill that could make me straight, I would have swallowed it before you could give me a swig of water, Buttigieg said. Its a hard thing to think about now. If you had shown me exactly what it was that made me gay, I would have cut it out with a knife.

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Buttigieg came out in his early 30s during his run for reelection as Mayor of South Bend, Indianathen under the governorship of Vice President Mike Pence. The mayor told brunch attendees that, at that point in his life, he had everything he wantedexcept the idea of what it felt like to be in love. He said he eventually found the courage to live his truth after coming home from serving in Afghanistan.

Buttigiegor, Mayor Pete, as his constituents call himsaid that his marriage to husband Chasten Buttigieg has moved [him] closer to God.

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Mayor Pete Buttigieg: "My marriage to Chasten has made me a better man, and yes, Mr. Vice President, it has moved me closer to God." https://t.co/76lcMjQckB pic.twitter.com/bcnNAfsXzh  The Hill (@thehill) April 8, 2019

This isnt the first time Buttigieg has rebuked Pences anti-LGTBQ platforms, and it likely wont be his last. Buttigieg is rousing presidential campaign support during a time when more Americans than ever say they would be comfortable with a gay presidential candidate. Additionally, Buttigieg was reelected by more than 80% of the conservative South Bend community after coming outwhich shows that times are changing (hes rumored to be officially announcing a run for the presidency on April 14th).

Were ready.
Timothy Simons of 'Veep' (left) and Ron Cephas Jones of 'This Is Us' will be in the Hulu miniseries 'Looking for Alaska.'

Hulu has called on two American television stars for its next mini-series, "Looking for Alaska." Timothy Simons ("Veep") and Ron Cephas Jones ("This Is Us") have joined the cast of the production, which has been adapted from the novel of the same name by John Green ("The Fault in Our Stars"), according to the American press. They will join Charlie Plummer and Kristine Froseth already announced in the lead roles.

With HBO's political-comedy series "Veep" soon coming to an end, one of the actors from the series, who plays the irritating Jonah Ryan, has landed a role in Hulu's next mini-series called "Looking for Alaska." Timothy Simons will be joined by another actor well known to fans of TV series -- Ron Cephas Jones, who played William, Randall's biological father in the drama series "This Is Us."

A new John Green adaptation

Developed by Paramount TV and co-produced by Fake Empire, the mini-series "Looking for Alaska" is an adaptation of John Green's first novel, published in 2005. The story follows Miles "Pudge" Halter, a 16-year-old boy who decides to leave his home state of Florida in pursuit of new experiences at Culver Creek Preparatory High School in Alabama. Once there, he befriends a group of friends including an emotionally unstable girl, Alaska, with whom he feels an instant connection. He goes on to spend unforgettable moments in the company of his new friends, however, one day, the students learn of the sudden death of their friend, Alaska. Devastated, Miles and his friends try to make sense of this drama.

Timothy Simons ("Veep") will play the dean of the boarding school. Nicknamed "The Eagle" and known for his strict and humorless manner, Mr. Starnes likes to lead the school with an iron fist while Miles and his friends like to set regular traps for him. Ron Cephas Jones ("This Is Us") will play Dr. Hyde, the theology professor. Described as extremely old and with only one lung, Hyde nonetheless remains a captivating lecturer. The mini-series will consist of eight episodes with Kristine Froseth and Charlie Plummer playing the leading roles of Alaska and Miles.

Josh Schwartz ("Gossip Girl") will write the first episode and act as showrunner while Sarah Adina Smith ("Hanna") will manage the pilot episode. The author of the novel, John Green, has already had two of his bestsellers adapted for cinema, "The Fault in Our Stars," in 2014 with Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort, and "Paper Towns" with Cara Delevingne (2015).

Timothy Simons can currently be seen in the seventh and final season of "Veep," which launched March 31 on HBO. Ron Cephas Jones, who won the Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor (drama television series) in 2017 for his role as William in the series "This Is Us," will be seen in "Truth Be Told," a new series expected soon available via Apple's streaming platform.
Actress Felicity Huffman and a dozen other parents involved in the college admissions scheme have agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges, Variety reports. Huffman, who was charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud, allegedly paid $15,000 to an admissions consultant to inflate her daughters SAT score and disguised the money as a charitable payment. After being arrested on March 12, Huffman appeared in court in Boston on Wednesday.

Huffmans husband, the actor William H. Macy, has not been charged by federal prosecutors despite court documents that show he agreed to the plan. Documents also indicate that Huffman, who was one of 33 parents charged, considered using a similar admissions tactic for her younger daughter before ultimately deciding against it.

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On Monday, Huffman released a statement apologizing to students, parents, and her own family, asserting that her daughter had no knowledge of the operation. Heres her full statement, per The Boston Globe:

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Weddings are good for the celebrity media business. But steadily happy marriages are not. This might help explain the sudden interest in both the British and American press in a vague, unsubstantiated, but oddly persistent rumor of trouble in the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

At first, this seemed like a story about a cooling friendship, which the British tabloids were covering closely for reasons that were not instantly apparent to casual royal watchers. The saga began when Kate and William started spending more time at their 10-bedroom Georgian manor in rural Norfolk last year, becoming part of a country-posh set referred to as the turnip toffs. Kate and her Norfolk neighbor, a woman named Rose Hanbury, are around the same age, both have young children, and both also have long hair in nearly indistinguishable brunette hues. Rose is married to the seventh Marquess of Cholmondeley (pronounced, for God knows what reason, Chumley), who is 23 years her senior; her grandmother was a bridesmaid at the queens wedding. Kate is married to the future king of England. The couples were natural inhabitants of the same social circle.

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The story of Kate and Roses apparent feud broke in the Sun, a British tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch, which reported on March 22 that Kate told her husband that Rose needed to be phased out as a friend for an unspecified reason. This was not enough to make the story truly take off because: Who cares? It looked like nothing more than a tiff between two toffs.

OR WAS IT??? Two days later, a columnist in the Daily Mail, another British tabloid, rebutted the Sun at oddly extravagant length. Longtime royal reporter Richard Kay opened his March 24 column with multiple paragraphs of general praise of Prince William: Hes content, he is popular, he is respected, he is happy, he carries none of the emotional baggage that plagued the life of his father. This was a strange lede, as no one had really said otherwise. Kay went on to quote several anonymous sources insisting that the couples werent even that close to begin with, but anyway, they are still as friendly as ever. When the couples first heard the rumors, Kay reported, they laughed! They laughed so hard! Later, both families then considered legal action to combat the rumors, but ultimately decided not to sue because none of the reports have included any details, which are nonetheless very, very upsetting to the family for some reason.

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At first it looked like nothing more than a tiff between two toffs.

Suddenly the story about nothing looked quite juicy. Why would William and Kate, who are the subjects of hundreds of speculative media reports a year, consider suing over a vague rumor about a cooling friendship with an obscure neighbor? Much more damaging stories about a supposed feud between Kate and her sister-in-law, Meghan Markle, have circulated for months, and no one, as far as I know, had threatened to file suit. A dishy British reporter named Giles Coren tweeted (and then deleted) what had started to seem like the only possible explanation: Everyone knows about the affair, darlingbetween Rose and William, that is.

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That was enough for some in the American press to finally turn subtext into text. Radar reported last week that Kate was jealous of Rose, a former model, because she believes William is crushing on her. The American tabloid In Touch put the story on its cover this week and finally came out with it: WILLIAM CHEATS ON KATEWith Her Friend! (Meanwhile, Slate contributor Nicole Cliffe offered a wildly speculative and wildly entertaining Twitter thread on the subject, musing that perhaps the rumored feud between Kate and Meghan was really a feud between Harry and William over the latters cruelty toward his own wife and children.)

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Not all American tabloids have followed suit. Us Weeklys website has no mention of the scandal on its active page of reporting on the royal family; as I write, the page has 13 mentions of Meghan Markle, 12 of Prince Harry, one mention of William, and zero of Kate. People magazine, which also has a designated page for royal news, has not mentioned the affair rumor either. That page has 68 mentions of Meghan and only eight of Kate. For these more respectable celebrity magazines, the biggest royal story of the moment is Harry and Meghans official new Instagram account, which racked up 3.9 million followers in two days. Other outlets have written about the affair coverage, recognizing both the irresistibility of the rumor and the lack of hard evidence for it.

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In other words, the story hasnt broken as an actual story quite yet. But some tabloid watchers, including the blog Lainey Gossip, point out that In Touchs piece could give cover to British outlets who have been waiting for an excuse to dive in (and are subject to stricter libel laws than the American press). The 21st century has been an abnormally sunny era for the British royal family, at least in terms of the public image of their personal lives. Charles married Camilla, William married Kate, Harry married Meghan. Its been all romance and babies for years now. But this spell of domestic bliss followed decades of tabloid-fueled sagas of marital misery, tawdry infidelities, and divorce. If theres any substance to rumors of drama between Will and Kate, well surely be reading about it soon.
Let me do something that I have been criticized for not doing as a politician, Sen. Bernie Sanders told a packed audience at an Islamic center in Los Angeles early on a Saturday morning in March, and be a little bit personal.

I dont like talking about myself very much, he added. I much prefer talking about ideas.

The Islamic center visit had been put on Sanders schedule the previous afternoon, a last-minute addition to break up his typical itinerary of mass rallies, where hes much more comfortable railing, impersonally, against the usual list of economic and political injustices. The event, an interfaith gathering of imams, pastors, priests, and rabbis, was the first mosque visit from a major presidential candidate since the New Zealand shooting a week earlier.

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Sanders explained that there were two forces that shaped my political views. The first was that his family didnt have much money; his mother, Dora, who died of a heart condition at 46, was never able to achieve her dream of owning a home.

The second part of my life that shaped my views, he continued, was being Jewishis being Jewish. Crying when I would read books about the Holocaust, these picture books of what happened at Auschwitz and the other concentration camps, and tears would stream down my eyes. And it never occurred to me, I could never understand: Why would people do such terrible and horrible things to people?

This was not a Bernie Sanders I had ever seen before, and one that his friends, allies, and staff, who speak of getting Bernie to talk about himself as among the hardest feats known to mankind, have worked for years to reveal. There he was connecting his personal story to his political beliefs and comforting a room of people shaken not just by the recent New Zealand shooters targeting of Muslims but by the political climate in Donald Trumps America. His communications director, who insisted to me that the remarks were unprepared, was pleased to see it. This was Bernie looking, well, presidential.

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This time around, there is no need for Sanders to rationalize his candidacy. There is one goal: to win.

Amid all the prevailing narratives surrounding the early days of the 2020 racethat Beto ORourke could either upend, or completely underwhelm, the field; that Elizabeth Warren is struggling to find her footing; that Kamala Harris has had a strong rollout and may have the most room to grow; that Pete Buttigieg has skyrocketed into a contender overnight; and that Joe Biden might be out of his mind to get into this racetheres one central thread that, somehow, isnt getting the attention it deserves: Bernie Sanders is starting in a great position to win the nomination. He has the name recognition, the resources, and the base of support. He and Biden have consistently outpaced the field in early polling.

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But numerous past and present staff and advisers I spoke tosome of whom remain on speaking terms with the candidate, some of whom dontquestion Sanders ability to develop beyond the itinerant preacher spreading the gospel of revolution that got him far, but not far enough, last time. They portray a candidate whose strengths and weaknesses are two sides of the same persona. Sanders domestic and foreign policy positions have been bold and consistent for decades. As you might have heard, he has a quirky, gruff, cut-to-the-chase authenticity that appeals to voters, especially younger ones, who are sick of the usual bullshit. The flip side, though, is that he can be stubborn, resistant to counsel, and unwilling to evolve as a candidate. Sanders has gone from extreme underdog to legitimate front-runner in a matter of four years. Now the question is whether he can act like one.

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In late 2014, Sanders met with Tad Devine, a veteran political consultant with whom hed worked on past House and Senate races, and told him he was thinking about running for president. Devine was surprised but intrigued. Over the course of the next several months, Sanders, Devine, and a few other close confidants met repeatedly, often at the house of Democratic commentator Bill Press, to explore the possibility. Devines consulting partners, Mark Longabaugh and Julian Mulvey, were eager to get on board.

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Just before Sanders announced, Devine traveled with him and his wife, Jane, to Vermont for a weekend to talk strategy and to gauge Sanders commitment. He also wanted to deliver a message: Bernie probably wasnt going to beat Hillary Clinton.

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The system is just set up for her to win, Devine says he told Sanders at the time, citingamong other thingsthat she would likely receive just about all of the partys roughly 800 superdelegates. Tell me why youre doing this short of winning?

And he said, Well, Im sick and tired of being a backbencher,  Devine told me. And I said, Well, I think thats an achievable goal. But you cant go around saying this is a symbolic candidacy, because people arent going to vote for someone whos running for symbolic reasons. 

Sanders team is trying to shed the not-inconsiderable baggage of the last campaign.

The goal of getting off the bench was achievedand then some. Sanders went from relative unknown to one of the most popular politicians in the country, winning 22 states and 43 percent of the vote against Clinton, all while raising $230 million, building an enormous list of supporters, and setting a new ideological agenda for the Democratic party.

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This time around, there is no need for Sanders to rationalize his candidacyto argue that he wants to get off the back bench, shift the conversation to the left, or offer a protest option for those who cant stomach the establishment. There is one goalto winand he will be judged as a success or failure by that single metric.

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When the Sanders campaign began in 2015, the small staff developed a strategy based on a projection that they would raise about $30 million. The strategy required a narrow focus on winning Iowa and New Hampshire, and then hoping that fundraising and name recognition would explode from there. This time, Sanders name recognition and fundraising capacity are the envy of the early field. Strong campaigns will need to go on the air more or less simultaneously in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina, and California, where early voting begins the same day as the Iowa caucuses. This will not be cheap, and with the primary calendar so front-loaded this cycle, many candidatesand there are many candidateswill find themselves buried in the delegate count before theyve been able to fully blossom.

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Sanders and his senior team have tried to take advantage of their position by building a larger and more professionalized operation, including a big political department, something it barely had the last time, to reach out to elected officials, so many of whom were previously captured from the get-go by the Clinton campaign.

Sanders team is also trying to shed the not-inconsiderable baggage of the last campaign. Even in reaching out to me, his new campaign manager, Faiz Shakir, a former aide to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid who had most recently been the ACLUs national political director, told me, one of the first things he said was, we were too white and too male. And [he] wanted to make people feel like this was a welcoming movement, like people needed to be extended an open hand.

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The maleness of the last campaign contributed to what numerous 2016 campaign staffers have described as a toxic, sexist atmosphere, where bullying was commonplace and complaints about sexual harassment went nowhere. Sanders public comments didnt help. When asked recently about whether he was aware of the atmosphere, he told CNN that he was a little bit busy running around the country trying to make the case for his candidacy. The campaign insists it has now established the proper HR protocols for complaints to be reported and addressed. And on an early April conference call, Shakir said that the campaign staff was now majority-women and 40 percent people of color, including the three campaign chairs and himself.

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The campaign is also aware that it needs to distance its candidate from the so-called Bernie bro phenomenonthose extremely online, aggressive, white male Bernie fans who harass or bully others, especially on social media, and especially women. The debate over whether this sort of behavior is a common characteristic of Bernie supporters or a caricature based on some of the campaigns most obnoxious online advocates is one that has continued, without interruption, since late 2015 and is not likely to end, ever.

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The campaign bristles at the broad-brush description of Bernies base, which it views as being wielded against them opportunistically. When I asked Jeff Weaver, Sanders 2016 campaign manager whos serving as a senior adviser this time, about whether he viewed the Bernie bro problem as a legitimate one, he directed me to a 2016 Daily Dot article that found Clinton supporters were more aggressive online than Sanders supporters. Nevertheless, Sanders did send a letter to surrogates in late February calling on them to do our very best to engage respectfully with our Democratic opponentstalking about the issues we are fighting for, not about personalities or past grievances. I want to be clear that I condemn bullying and harassment of any kind and in any space.

Remember, he wrote, that our struggle is bigger than a Tweet or a Facebook comment. That letter wasnt just directed at online harassers. It was a reminder that some Clinton voters from the 2016 primary still hold grudges against Sanders, and vice versa, but everyones gotta let it go. Sanders will need those Clinton votes, and its best not to dredge all of that up again.

The revelations of sexual harassment and a generally toxic workplace dynamic offered a taste of another dynamic thats going to be different this time: the intense scrutiny of a leading candidate.

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Weaver told me he believes the conventional wisdomthat Hillary Clinton went easy on Sanders last time around, for fear of alienating his baseisnt accurate. People understate the amount of incoming the campaign took in 2015 and 2016, he told me. David Brockthe Media Matters founder and attack dog for Clintonand his super PAC were working night and day to feed negative stories into the media on a consistent basis. So yes, we are prepared this time, but I sort of reject the premise that there was not any scrutiny last time.

Sanders does not easily take advice, and persuading him to try something different can be a titanic struggle.

Clinton, at least publicly, did limit most of her attacks to policy, like highlighting some of Sanders previous statements and votes on gun issues. Or she would portray Bernie as living in a fantasy world, without the sort of practical ideas that could make their way into law. Some of the more damning episodes from Sanders more radical or, really, strange pastsuch as a 1972 stream-of-consciousness article, in which he wrote about a woman who fantasizes being raped by 3 men simultaneouslywere out there but never got, say, tens of millions of dollars in attack ads placed behind them. Now, if Sanders is going to become president, he will eventually be running against noted ethical campaigner Donald Trump.

The campaign says it knows this and is trying to build a much fuller team that can run conventional media strategies, including fielding the barrage of attacks that are sure to come. Bernie Sanders, however, does not always embrace conventional strategies devised by his advisers.

The morning before Sanders announced his second bid for the presidency, his media consultants at Devine Mulvey Longabaugh got a call from staffers in Vermont. The firm had been laying the strategic groundwork for Sanders second campaign launch for months, but now they were learning that the senator didnt like the way he looked in the direct-to-camera announcement video that DML had shot in D.C. a few days earlier. Bernie, the staffers said, would be shooting another one in Vermont, in half an hour. They sent along images of various background options and asked which ones DML liked best. The resulting, nearly 11-minute monologue of a launch video, with its slapped-together cable-news vibe, was released the next morning.

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A week later, DML, which had been with Sanders since the very beginning of his first campaign, quit, citing creative differences.

The launch video headache, according to those familiar, was hardly the only creative butting of heads. Sanders does not easily take advice, and persuading him to try something different can be a titanic struggle. Thats an attribute that differentiates him from the many flip-flopping, overmanaged politicians, and ignoring the political professionals advice was almost the only way to try something so crazy as toppling Hillary Clinton in 2016. But Sanders isnt an insurgent this time.

The statement announcing the separation was signed by each of the three partners at DML: Devine, Mulvey, and Longabaugh, all top advisers to Sanders 2016 run. But since then, only the M and L had been functionally working with the senator. Devine and Sanders never really reconciled after the 2016 campaign.

I certainly was of the opinion that, you know, he wasnt really listening to my advice, Devine said of where they left things in 2016.

He said, Go with your gut, Tad, thats what I do. And I said: But my job is different than yours.   Tad Devine

According to Devine, one of the earliest disagreements between the two came during the late summer and fall of 2015. Sanders was concerned that Hillary Clinton was putting up television advertisements well before he was. He wanted to get on the air. Devine told him that it wouldnt make much sense to put ads up without getting some data on which voters to target and with which message. He wanted to conduct polling first. Sanders refused.

It took a significant amount of time and energy to convince Sanders that the consultants werent trying to change Sanders positions. They werent, as another staffer familiar with the matter put it, trying to knock down his proposed minimum wage target from $15 an hour to, say, $12.50, if thats where the polling sweet spot was, or to change his single-payer health care plan based on focus group results. They were trying to find which of the positions he already held would be most effective to highlight in ads and how best to message the things he believed in.

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He said, Go with your gut, Tad, thats what I do,  Devine recalls. And I said, Listen, thats what I respect about you. I think its great that youre not a politician whos looking to a poll to decide what position to take on an issue. But my job is different than yours. 

Devine stayed on through the disputes, traveling with Sanders all the way through the California primary in early June. It was after that, though, that they had the disagreement that eventually severed the relationship.

The Sanders campaign, and Sanders himself, knew by about mid-March of 2016 that Clinton likely had an insurmountable delegate lead. Sanders felt it was important, though, that he stay in the race until the end to give everyone a chance to vote. His team was OK with that, especially since Clinton had stayed in through the end of the primary calendar in 2008 despite the delegate hole that Barack Obama had put her in.

After California, though, Devine thought it had been long enough. Clinton was already going to have enough trouble beating Trump in Novemberhe was a change candidate; she was notand Devine wanted Sanders to throw his support to her quickly, giving her the summer to unify the party. Sanders disagreed and, according to Devine, genuinely felt that he needed to work through the party platform process to build a substantive bridge between his supporters and Clinton, otherwise they might never get behind her.

He said, Listen, Tad. You dont understand what its like to stand in front of 20,000 people, and I say [Clintons] name, and theyre screaming holy hell, OK?  Devine recalled.  I mean, theres no way I can just go out and endorse her, and credibly help those people to come to support her. The only way I can do that is to convince them that this agenda that we talked about throughout the course of the campaign has been adopted in large part by the Democratic Party, and that the next president, even if its Hillary Clinton, is going to work on these issues. 

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Devine says he did, and still does, respect that view. He just disagreed, feeling that the biggest imperative was for the Clinton campaign to get itself out of the conflict stage and into the consensus stage. Devine had worked on Jimmy Carters 1980 campaign, when they had to fend off Ted Kennedy through the convention, and Michael Dukakis campaign, when they had to do the same with Jesse Jackson. I saw, when those things dont end, the consequences that can have on a campaign, he said. These were experiences that I had that Bernie Sanders never had.

Though he respected Sanders position, he felt that he wasnt being listened to, so the two parted ways. Sanders never got back in touch with him about returning for 2020, Devine says. Though Longabaugh and Mulvey stuck around until February of this year, they, too, eventually arrived at the same place Devine had years earlier: They werent being listened to, so it was time to move on.

Sanders advisers want their candidate to talk about himself more not only because they believe its important for voters, in a presidential election, to feel like they know the guy. They also think opening up about a specific era of his life could address one of his campaigns most glaring shortcomings from 2016: his weak support among black voters. While it is possible to inflate, as some surrogates do, Sanders role as a civil rights leader, he was an active organizer against racist policies as a student at the University of Chicago and helped merge the colleges chapters of the Congress of Racial Equality and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He organized picketers, participated in sit-ins, and was once charged with resisting arrest while protesting school segregation. This does not make him John Lewis. It is, however, a useful counter to the widely voiced criticism that hes narrowly focused on economic issues and views racial justice issues as secondary.

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But when an old photo of him resisting arrest surfaced in early 2016, he didnt want to use it, multiple sources said.

He didnt want that out there in the world, one former campaign staffer told me. It took a long time for folks to convince him that that would be a good thing.

Sanders felt that the photo didnt speak to his policies and his actions as an administrator or a legislator, the staffer said. I think hes also kind of reticent to exploit things that are personal for political gain.

This is the prevailing explanation for Sanders reticence to open up, even when it could really help his campaign: that he despises the kind of politics that revolves around exploiting who you are, where youve been, and what your personality is, rather than what your ideas are.

He believes that politics should be about ideas and platforms, rather than trading on relatability, California Rep. Ro Khanna, one of Sanders three campaign co-chairs, told me. Someone can be very charming and connect by talking about their favorite restaurants or their hobbies, but still not have the right platform  and I think he thinks thats not a serious politics.

Khanna has urged Sanders many times to speak more about himself and believes theres one aspect of his biography in particular that doesnt get enough play: Despite Sanders depiction as just another straight white man running in an excitingly diverse field, he would make history as the first Jewish president. But when he tries to convince Sanders to make this case, he says, You do that. You guys do that,  referring to his surrogates.

There are some strategic reasons for Sanders not to want to open up more, in addition to the dignity of an issues-based campaign. Weaver argued that by sticking to issues exclusively, Sanders gives himself more of a mandate to enact those issues if hes elected, since it wouldnt have been a personality contest. OK, sure. There could also be a Pandoras box effect to opening up his past: If Sanders infuses his personal story into his messaging, his competitors will feel more empowered to infuse Sanders personal storycertain troubling magazine articles from the 70s, the (now-dropped) investigation into Jane Sanders tenure as a Vermont college presidentinto their messaging, too. (At the moment, he seems very disinterested in, and characteristically prickly about, disclosing one particular aspect of his personal life: his tax returns.)

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Khanna offered one other explanation for Sanders reticence that I hadnt considered before and that no one else had floated. Hes had a very tough life, Khanna said, based on the few personal conversations hes had with the senator. His mother died young; much of his fathers family, as hes said from time to time, was wiped out in the Holocaust. He didnt have much growing up.

He had a very tough thing with his parents, and his childhood. It may be a painful part of his life.

Every last person in the Sanders orbit I spoke toeven if they shared a gripe about how Sanders doesnt listen to their advice on political outreach, talking about himself, polling, playing up a killer photograph of a college arrest, dropping out for the good of the party, attacking an opponent, shooting a professional-looking launch video, trying to crack a few jokes once in a while, or whatever else they believe could help him unlock new masteries of political dexteritywould all quickly hedge their gripe with the same caveat: Of course, the reason hes so popular, and the reason I was attracted to him in the first place, is that he ignores people like me. Most of them think he needs to evolve to win, but the weight you give their opinions depends a whole lot on what you think of political advisers and strategy to begin with.

After releasing his 11-minute announcement video, Sanders agreednot without putting up a bit of a fight and not without delaysto do a more formal, two-step launch that was originally Mark Longabaughs brainchild. He would give a biographical speech about his youth in Brooklyn and then a speech focusing on race in Chicago, where he had protested as a student. The speeches were well received.

By the time I saw Sanders at rallies in California toward the end of March, though, the biographical sections of his stump speech had been trimmed to a perfunctory paragraph or two, and he was back in his comfort zone: shouting his platform, citing statistic after statistic about CEO pay, income disparity, wealth concentration, the prison population. His first rally in California, in San Diego, came the same day that special counsel Robert Mueller submitted his report to the attorney general. Sanders didnt have a lot to say about the investigationI dont know whats in the report, nobody doesbut he did enjoy sharing the statistic that Mueller had indicted 34 individuals and six Trump campaign officials. Even the personal detail that Sanders was most willing to share throughout the weekend campaign stretch was a statistic: that he has four children and seven grandchildren.

And you know who was enjoying that litany of statistics? The 6,000-person crowd in San Diego and the 12,000 attendees the next day, in Los Angeles, crammed into Grand Park, filling up the allotted space or watching from across the streets, shoulder-to-shoulder, outside City Hall. Bernie Sanders doesnt have too many gears, but he knows how to use the ones that he has. Its not impossible that his advisers, and the political class in general, have an inflated sense of their own expertise and that his gut is enough to get him elected. Consider, after all, the winner of the last presidential election.
Off the back burner: In 2016, Bernie Sanders ran a surprisingly successful insurgent campaign against Hillary Clinton. But this time around, hes not the underdog. Jim Newell investigates what it could take for Bernie to actually win. His advisers say he needs to do the one thing hes never had to do: change. Will he?

Toff tiff: Last month, the British tabloids began reporting on an apparent feud between Kate Middleton and posh neighbor Rose Hanbury, aka the Marchioness of Cholmondeley. Rumors swirled as royalists offered overly aggressive refutations of the claims, and one dishy British reporter tweeted and then deleted a reference to allegations that Kates husband, Prince William, cheated on her with her friend Rose. Ruth Graham looks at how the American tabloids are treading into these very juicy muddy waters.

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Not so fast: Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen abruptly resigned on Sunday, reportedly because she wasnt tough enough on immigration, despite overseeing the Trump administrations cruel family separation policy. Dont be fooled by her developing redemption narrative, Dahlia Lithwick warns: We should not forget  the monstrousness of the policy Nielsen implemented when it was her turn. Mark Joseph Stern has more details about the purge that just happened at DHS.

Behind this woman: FXs latest series, Fosse/Verdon, takes on the legend of Bob Fosse at the height of his career. And according to Willa Paskin, the extremely watchable and totally fascinating show does so while perpetuating, yet again, the historical shadow Fosses work and life always cast over his wife and collaborator, the inimitable Gwen Verdon. (Gwen Verdon!)

The best: Lili Loofbourows essay Men Are More Afraid Than Ever from September will be included in The Best American Essays 2019. Read (or reread) the piece, which was a timely meditation on the Kavanaugh hearings that also captured something larger about gender and power in America, now.

For fun: A brief history of the theme from The Twilight Zone.

Dee-dee-dee-dee, dee-dee-dee-dee, dee-dee-dee-dee,

Abby
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Stephon Clark was shot and killed by police officers in his grandmothers backyard on March 18, 2018. He was unarmed. He was black. Last month, the Sacramento DA decided not to press charges against the two officers who fatally shot Clark citing an honest and reasonable threat to the police officers safety. In California, and across much of America, the word reasonable is enough to get officers off the hook when deadly force is used. Will the California state Legislature change that?

Guest: Laurel Rosenhall, reporter at CALmatters and host of Force of Law, a narrative podcast series following the debate in California on the use of deadly police force.

Tell us what you think by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sending an email to whatnext@slate.com.

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Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Anna Martin.
Call it the Monday Afternoon Massacre. After firing Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen on Sunday, President Donald Trump purged the agencys senior management on Monday. According to CBS News, Trump secured the resignation of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Lee Cissna, DHS Undersecretary for Management Claire Grady, and DHS General Counsel John Mitnick. He also fired U.S. Secret Service Director Randolph Tex Alles. Trump adviser Stephen Miller, an immigration hard-liner, reportedly masterminded the DHS purge as part of an effort to crack down on immigration at the southern border.

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Just how much worse, though, can Trumps immigration policies get? The president, after all, persuaded Nielsen to carry out Trumps ghastly family separation policy at the southern border (while publicly claiming that the policy did not exist). During her tenure, Nielsen also designed a plan that strictly limited the number of asylum-seekers allowed to enter the United States. And she implemented what was ultimately ruled to be an unlawful policy to prevent immigrants from applying for asylum if they entered the country illegally. The New York Times reports that Nielsen drew the line at Trumps clearly illegal demands, including blocking all migrants from seeking asylum. She also reportedly refused to resume family separations, despite Trumps entreaties, because she did not want to violate a court order that currently prohibits the practice.

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Nielsen, in other words, carried Trumps immigration crackdown as far as she could without risking contempt of court. Under her leadership, the agency engaged in horrific human rights abuses and violence against innocent migrants, including children. Nonetheless, it could, indeed, get worse. Trumps near-systematic purge at the nations second-largest national security agency, as one senior administration official put it to CNN, is an ominous indication that Trump will now brook no independent judgment at DHS. He wants an agency that does exactly what he asks. And what he asks is frequently cruel, brutal, and lawless.

Consider the coup that Miller allegedly engineered on Monday. Under federal law, the DHS undersecretary for management should have become acting DHS secretary when Nielsen resigns later this week. As of Monday morning, Claire Grady filled that position. A career civil servant who previously worked at the Department of Defense and the Coast Guard, Grady specializes in weapons acquisitions. She also served as acting deputy DHS secretary, working on immigration and counterterrorism issues. An apolitical defense expert, Grady was perfectly qualified to lead DHS until Congress confirmed a new secretary.

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But Trump didnt want Grady; he wanted Kevin McAleenan, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection. Its easy to see why. Under McAleenans leadership, CBP repeatedly broke the law to implement Trumps first travel ban, earning a rebuke from DHS Office of Inspector General. McAleenan is a strong proponent of a border wall as well as new laws to curb asylum-seekers entry into the country. He infamously failed to inform Congress that a 7-year-old girl died in CBP custody when he testified before the Senate just three days after her death.

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To elevate McAleenan, Trump simply ousted Grady, then ignored the line of succession to leapfrog McAleenan to the head of DHS. (An Obama-era executive order allows him to do just that.) McAleenan appears eager to resume family separations, speaking vaguely of a binary choice that would let migrant parents either surrender their children to CBP or go into long-term detention as a family. This pseudo-compromise is really just an effort to get around a court order that has blocked family separations since June (though they have continued in smaller numbers).

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Trump and Miller plainly expect that McAleenan will rubber-stamp illegal policies that Nielsen was unwilling to execute. Presumably, they hope McAleenan will approve Trumps idea of expanded family separation, which CNNs Jake Tapper reported on Monday. Tapper wrote that Trump wants families separated even if they enter the U.S. at a port of entry and are legally seeking asylum. (He just wants to separate families, a senior administration official said.) Nielsen refused to carry out this policy, which reportedly contributed to her termination. At the end of the day, the administration official told Tapper, the President refuses to understand that the Department of Homeland Security is constrained by the laws. Given that McAleenan refused to let CBP be constrained by the laws during the first travel ban, Trump may hope he will take the step that Nielsen would not and defy the courts to punish migrants.

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Its more difficult to understand why Trump fired Cissna and Mitnick, aside from general dissatisfaction with the direction of the agency. (Similarly, no one seems to know why he fired Alles, the Secret Service chief.) Cissna, in particular, was an efficient hawk who successfully limited the number of immigrants allowed in the country. It was Cissna who gutted the U.S. refugee program and beefed up the denaturalization task force while making it easier for the government to initiate deportation proceedings and deny visas to foreign nationals. Cissna also spearheaded the public charge rule, which would deny green cards to immigrants if their family members use a public benefit, including food stamps.

Shortly before his termination, Politico reported that Miller asked Cissna to launch more experimentally and legally questionable policies, but Cissna declined to overstep legal boundaries. His effective efforts to curb immigration and penalize immigrants could not spare him from the purge.

If Nielsen and Cissna were not sufficiently extreme, it is alarming to consider what might come after them. Both bent the law as far as they could to implement hugely controversial and frequently vicious policies to further Trumps nativist goals. It wasnt enough for the president. With their ousters, DHS is entering a new era, one in which the agency will do whatever Donald Trump and Stephen Miller think it can get away with.
As Israelis go to the polls Tuesday, a depressing electoral campaign comes to a close. This election could lead to annexation of the West Bank and could have other profound implications for the future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including the end of the two-state solution. Yet, this issue has been nowhere near the center of the campaign. Instead, the election has been primarily about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus corruption and personal attacks on all sides.

In late February, Netanyahu appeared to be in for the toughest political fight of his life. He was reeling from the decision by Israels attorney general to seek indictments against the prime minister in three corruption cases. And he faced a formidable opposition led by former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Benny Gantz, who had joined forces with Yair Lapids centrist Yesh Atid party and brought in two other former IDF chiefs of staff, Gabi Ashkenazi and Moshe Yaalon.

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Six weeks later, things look much rosier for the prime minister. Polls have moved in Netanyahus favor as he has portrayed himself as the man most capable of representing Israels interests on the global stagescoring an Oval Office meeting, hosting new Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, and traveling to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin only five days before the election.

Netanyahu has combined this approach with effective personal attacks against Gantz. Most notably, his government leaked that Gantz had had his cellphone hacked by Iranian intelligence and implied that the Iranians had derogatory personal information about Gantz, including unfounded allegations of adultery.

Gantz was slow to get out in public and did not give TV interviews during the early weeks of the campaign in February and early Marchinstead allowing Netanyahu to drive the narrative. He and his compatriots have responded with scathing attacks on Netanyahu for a number of bribery scandals. These included Bibi allegedly asking the U.S. government for a long-term visa for an associate after that associate gave him thousands of dollars worth of Champagne and cigars. A more damaging scandal has revolved around Israels decision to buy a suspiciously large number of submarines over the objections of the military from a German company in which Bibi and some close to him appear to have had a vested interest and Netanyahus decision not to stand in the way of submarine sales from the same German company to Egypt. Netanyahu has not been indicted in this case, but a number of people around him have been.

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Israel faces three possible scenarios in the election. The first and most likely, according to the polls, is a Netanyahu victory and formation of a hard-right-wing government. This governments composition would not be all that different from Netanyahus current coalition, but it may pursue a very dangerous path by opting to start annexing parts of the West Bank. Such a decision would lead to irreversible steps that make it impossible to form a contiguous and viable future Palestinian state and could lead to the dissolution of the Palestinian Authority, which was established to create a pathway for Palestinian statehood. In short, this outcome could mark the end of the possibility of a two-state solution.

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Annexation of parts of the West Bank is overwhelmingly popular in Netanyahus Likud party.

But until now Bibi has been smart enough to oppose it, recognizing that this irreversible step could have profound implications for Israels international standingbringing harsh international condemnation, isolating it from even its closest partners, and jeopardizing any possibility of warming relationships with its Arab neighbors.

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However, two things have changed. First, Netanyahus primary motivation in forming any coalition will be to protect himself from legal jeopardy. What he wants more than anything is to form a right-wing government that would pass new legislation to shield a sitting prime minister from criminal prosecution. In exchange for such a promise, he would be willing to give almost anything to his coalition partners , including giving in to demands on the far right to annex parts of the West Bank. And indeed, this weekend Netanyahu declared he would do just that if elected.

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Second, the fear of damage to the U.S.-Israel relationship has always been a check on pursuing such an extreme goal. But with President Donald Trump in the White House, that check has vanished. Trump has been more than happy to bolster support for Netanyahu. On March 21, he announced via Twitter that the United States would recognize Israeli annexation of the Golan Heights. The timing of the announcement was clearly designed to provide a political boost to Bibi, as annexation of the Golan is incredibly popular in Israel and Trump enjoys tremendous support there. The move also signaled to Israelis and Palestinians that the United States may be open to supporting annexation of the West Bank.

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The Trump administration is signaling that it may release a peace proposal in the aftermath of the electionor more likely after the Israeli government is formed in June. The plan will almost certainly be heavily biased toward Israel and be rejected out of hand by the Palestinians. And when it is, the plan could become the cover for a right-wing, Netanyahu-led government to declare that it has no negotiating partner and begin annexing parts of the West Bank with implicit American support. If the Trump administration genuinely wants to see progress toward peace, which is far from clear, it should avoid putting down a peace plan if a far-right-wing government wins the election, and it should come out clearly and publicly against any annexation in the West Bank.

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That, however, is just one of the three possible scenarios. A solid right-wing coalition is far from assured. Israeli election polling is notoriously unreliable, and while the polls all favor Netanyahu, the difference is not so large as to make a polling error unthinkable. Israeli law does not allow any polling during the final five days before the election, making it impossible to track late breakers and undecideds, who, according to one recent poll, still made up nearly 15 percent of the electorate.

An even more important wild card is that in Israels parliamentary system, coalition building often relies heavily on a number of small parties on both the left and the right. Many of these parties are polling very close to the parliamentary threshold of 3.25 percent. Such small percentages make it hard to predict precisely which of these parties will be in the next Knesset. If a handful of parties on either the left or the right fall below 3.25 percent and get no seats, it could fundamentally upend the coalition-building scenarios for both Gantz and Netanyahu.

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If Gantz garners the most seats and has an opportunity to form a governing coalition, his first call would be to Netanyahus Likud party, as he would try to form a national unity government. Gantz would insist that as part of such a government, Netanyahu would have to step down as Likud party leader.

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It is unclear what such a governing coalition would mean for policypartially because Gantz has not talked about policy at all during the campaign. It is unlikely that Israelis and Palestinians would jump back into peace negotiations or that the Trump peace plan would suddenly be accepted by all sides. But this coalition would certainly take West Bank annexation off the table, and at the very least we could expect an Israeli approach that seeks to preserve the possibility of a two-state solution.

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A final possibility is that Netanyahu is able to form a right-wing coalition but cannot pass legislation that protects him from his legal problems. Some of the more moderate parties in Netanyahus right-wing bloc such as Moshe Kahlons Kulanu party would be hesitant, on principle, to give him immunity from prosecution. And when Netanyahu tried a few months ago to push forward this legislation, it was met with major protests in the streets. Other hard-right-wingers, such as Naftali Bennett, have notoriously bad relations with Netanyahu and may wish to ultimately see him out of office.

In this third scenario, the election would enable Netanyahu to remain prime minister, but this would almost certainly be his final term. Within 18 months, he could very well be convicted and removed from office, ignominiously ending the career of the longest serving prime minister of Israel. If that scenario comes to pass, this election would be seen in retrospect as only a blipa way station toward a much more fundamental choice that Israelis may face when after 12 years they may have to finally ponder the reality of an Israel without Bibi Netanyahu.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen resigned on Sunday evening, ending the tenure of the administrator of Trumps most brutal policy since entering office: family separation. Apparently, she needed to step aside for somebody less squeamish.

CBS News reported on Sunday that the move was part of a massive immigration overhaul, spearheaded by Stephen Miller, that included the withdrawal of Trumps nominee for Immigration and Customs Enforcement director because the president wanted to go in a tougher direction. On Friday, at a border event with Nielsen, Trump declared that asylum people are gang members and part of a scam.

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The system is full. We cant take you anymore. Whether its asylum. Whether its anything you want. Its illegal immigration, the president said. Of course, seeking asylum in this country is by definition legal, unilateral declarations from the executive notwithstanding. Two days after this announcement, Nielsen was out.

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It is no secret that Trumps relationship with the secretary has been charged from the start. Nielsen famously threatened to resign last spring after reportedly being reluctant to sign the memo ordering routine family separations at the border. When the president excoriated her at a Cabinet meeting, she drafted a resignation letter, but she changed her mind and ultimately ordered the zero tolerance policy that would lead to the separation of thousands of children at the border. Over the spring and summer, she initially denied publicly that such a policy even existed, then gradually became its staunchest defender. We do not have a policy of separating families at the border, she said on Twitter last June. Period. That was untrue. Yet she persistently and robustly liedincluding to Congressabout the origins and scope of the family separation policy at the border, as recently as this past January. That said, its fairly clear that she is now setting up the redemption narrative about her heroism in the face of Trumps relentless cruelty.

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It is no secret that Trumps relationship with the secretary has been charged from the start.

The New York Times Maggie Haberman reported on Twitter that Nielsen was concerned about how awful life would/will be for her on the outside after defending [Trumps] policies for a long [time]. After she became the face of family separation and children in cages, public life did become tricky for her. She was famously heckled by protesters in a Mexican restaurant last June at the height of the backlash over separations.

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Nielsen undoubtedly would have appreciated seeing her mentor, John Kelly, go from the guy willing to lie and shame the family of a dead Green Beret and lie to protect an accused wife beater, to a national hero when he finally left the Trump administration around Christmas. The temptation to find some filament of heroism in Kellys parting shotshis resignation letter and exit interviews flamed the president for flawed policiesis a reflection of how desperate the country has become for heroics.

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Kelly had claimed he stayed on this rotten ship for so long as an act of patriotic duty, but he was no hero. As Jamelle Bouie put it at the time, he was simply Trump but with better manners:

If theres any lesson to take from John Kellys tenure in the White House, its that the appearance of moderation is not moderation. And while official Washington might pine for someone to take the reins of the administrationfor someone to truly be an adult in the roomthe Kelly experience shows that this is overrated. What matters is the ethos of the administration, and that flows inexorably from the man at the top.

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I give it two weeks before Nielsen tries to float the same kind of redemption narrative. Already the unnamed sources are suggesting that she was a principled brake on Trumps worst impulses. As the New York Times reported last night, Trump is really nuts:

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The president called Ms. Nielsen at home early in the mornings to demand that she take action to stop migrants from entering the country, including doing things that were clearly illegal, such as blocking all migrants from seeking asylum. She repeatedly noted the limitations imposed on her department by federal laws, court settlements and international obligations. Those responses only infuriated Mr. Trump further.

New leaks similarly suggest that for months Trump had pushed to reinstate a family separation policy that has been enjoined in the courts. Nielsens alleged defiance of that demand to openly flout a court order appears to be another source of her heroic resistance work. In other words, Nielsens alleged heroism seems to lie chiefly in the fact that she didnt break international or domestic law fast enough to mollify a president who doesnt believe in international or domestic law.

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While there is a roiling legal question about who is rightfully in line to succeed her as acting DHS chief, we know at least a couple of things about Trumps proposed candidate, Kevin McAleenan. Chiefly, he actually authored the policy memo advising Nielsen to go ahead with the family separation policy. Also importantly, he has publicly disavowed the very policy he crafted and is now reportedly saying hed be open to reinstating a version of that policy. Family separation 2.0, NBC News reports, would give migrant parents the option between being separated from their children or bringing their children with them into long term detention. The clinical name for this is binary choice, because it would apparently allow the administration the binary choice between violating a court order against separating families and violating the Flores Agreement that dictates how long undocumented immigrant children can be kept in detention before being released.

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So it certainly sounds like McAleenan may be the perfect pick for a president who no longer wishes to be constrained by the rule of law at the border. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi put it this way on Sunday night: It is deeply alarming that the Trump administration official who put children in cages is reportedly resigning because she is not extreme enough for the White Houses liking.

That she will likely be followed by someone far worse hardly makes Nielsenwho signed off on McAleenans policy, lied about it repeatedly, but wouldnt reinstate it after it had been enjoined in courtthe darling of the law and order set. Like Rex Tillerson, Jeff Sessions, Kelly, and multiple others, Nielsen seems less to have had an ethical red line of lawlessness that she wouldnt cross than to have been finally fired for declining to cross one of those lines. There is a difference. And whether lying about monstrous acts is better than owning them outright is an ethical calculation for future historians to sort out.

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There are now a couple of ways that Nielsens career and public life will play out. One way was suggested on Monday by CNNs Jeffrey Toobin, who hazarded that Nielsen will forever be tarnished by her complicity with the cruelest public action taken by the Trump administration. Here is this woman who was a reasonably admired bureaucrat, Toobin observed. For the rest of her life people will look at her and think, Oh, thats the woman who put children in cages.  Maybe. Or perhaps she will be scooped up as a Fox News pundit or given a sweet academic post from which to explain the Trump age to future historians. She will leak about the presidents infirmities and sit on a vaunted stage at Davos someday to slyly complain about him. Because whoever comes next will surely be tougherwhich is to say even more viciousshe will seek to be remembered as the temperate one.

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We should not forget, though, the monstrousness of the policy Nielsen implemented when it was her turn. Reports this weekend suggest that the government may take up to two years to even identify the thousands of traumatized children who were taken from their families as a result of that horrific policy and its mangled planning and execution. Nielsen will forever be the face of that policy because she found it useful, precisely until it was not. To borrow from Bouies construction, Nielsen was Trump but with more obfuscation. If she wants to clear her name, it shouldnt come by way of press leaks and corporate boards and winking asides about Trumps volatility. It should come with a full and honest reckoning about what she was willing to oversee and why she lied about it. Being fired by Trump isnt an act of Resistance. Its the inevitable outcome of a job in this White House. And being infinitesimally less compromised than whoever follows you isnt a redemption story. Its the thing of nightmares.
How many forms do you think youve filled out this week? Personally, I count five. An intake form for my dog to go to dog day care, a W-9 for a new company Im writing for, a patient information form at a dentists office, a Freedom of Information Act request, and an application for a science-fiction writing workshop. Perhaps you filled out a voter registration form, or a health insurance form, or a tax form, or a visa form. There seem to be an endless number of poorly formatted PDFs or digital dropdown menus for us to wade through these days. The inexorable march of bureaucracylike climate changefeels inescapable. There will always be more forms to fill out. Even as the world burns and floods, people have to apply for aid.

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Nobody appreciates these formswe simply have to muddle through them. But the design and deployment of paperwork is one of those things thats simultaneously boring and incredibly revealing. How forms are structured, what questions they ask, what options they give, and who is invited to fill them out can have huge impacts. The interpretation of the data that forms gather reflects what we think is important. The questions these forms ask reveal what the people who designed those forms think is important and what categories the form-makers believe to be the most common.

For instance, in 2018 the Trump administration proposed adding a question about citizenship to the 2020 census, a question that the annual count hasnt asked since 1950. The attempt sparked a debate about why, exactly, the census needed to include such a question. Those who oppose asking about citizenship argue that by including the question, certain vulnerable communities will simply forgo participating in the census at all, which will result in an undercount of those populations. The question was struck down by two different California judges, one of whom wrote that the inclusion of the citizenship question on the 2020 Census threatens the very foundation of our democratic system.

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The U.S. census is no stranger to the power of form design. The way the form asks about ethnicity has changed repeatedly as the demographics of the United States have shifted. In particular, the form has struggled with formatting questions of race and Hispanic origin. It wasnt until 1970 that the form even tried to count Hispanic residents of the U.S., and when it did, it broke those two questions apartone for race, one for Hispanic origin. The 1970 census asked Is this persons origin or descent and the options were: Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American, Other Spanish, and No, none of these. The question was a flop. Experts estimate that the census count of Hispanics in America was about 500,000 short that year, because many respondents didnt know how to answer this question. On the other hand, Americans who were living in Central or Southern America picked that option, not understanding that the question wanted to know about origin as opposed to current location.

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Since then, the census has struggled with how to count Hispanic people living in America. Even the order in which the questions are asked changes how people reply. In the 1990 census, the form asked about race first, and then about Hispanic origin. On the 2000 census form, the questions were switched: People were asked about Hispanic origin first and then about race. The flip resulted in the percent of Hispanics picking White as their race increasing 10 percent, while the number of people who picked some other race went down by the same amount, according to the Pew Research Center.

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The forms we fill out tomorrow will seem just as mundane as the forms we fill out today.

The census is just one of many examples of how form design reflects how form-makers think about the world. Take the site Nextdoor, a kind of neighborhood forum. It ostensibly exists to help neighbors stay in touch, share information, sell things, and generally keep one another safe and informed. But the site has also been a hotbed of racial profilingusers reporting suspicious activity by black neighbors or visitors when in fact all those people are doing is existing. To try to push back on these sorts of reports, Nextdoor changed the way it designed its form for reporting suspicious activity. If the report includes any reference to race, Nextdoor now requires at least two other descriptors like what the person was wearing or hair color. Without those, you cant post the report, making it just a little harder to post purely racial suspicious activity. According to Nextdoor, this small change cut racial profiling in the crime section of the site by 75 percent.

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Or take the gender options on official forms. Only recently have forms started offering options beyond the binary of male and female. In August, the Canadian government announced that people applying for unemployment insurance benefits would be provided with three options for gender rather than the traditional two: male, female, and a nonbinary X option. In the United States, theres a case currently making its way through the courts over whether people should be allowed to mark anything other than male or female on their passports. For people who identify outside of those two categories, the fact that they have to essentially lie on these forms is a clear sign of erasure. When your identity is absent from a checkbox or pulldown menu, the message it sends is clear: You dont exist.

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Archivists mine through forms for information about not just individuals but trends. The National Archives has a huge collection of pension applications spanning from 1775 to 1916, veteran service records, bounty land warrant applications, and more. Forms have led historians to trace everything from the ways in which governments have tagged and tracked people, to how Ivy League institutions and teacher trainings in the United States have excluded black and Latino applicants, to what death certificates can teach us about public health.

In the future, historians will look back on todays paperwork with a keen eye, scouring it for information about what we care about today. There will be papers about how the transition to new gender options on forms reflected awakenings around gender in the wider culture. There will be dissertations about how the incredible complexity of medical reimbursement forms revealed a bloated medical industry on a path toward destruction. There will be books about what tax forms from this era can teach us about the economic realities of the gig economy and the crushing weight of late capitalism.

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But why wait for future historians to have all this fun? In this series, we imagine forms from the future and break down what they say about our impending realities. The forms we fill out tomorrow will seem just as mundane as the forms we fill out today. Only foresight or hindsight can make these annoying bits of logistical wrangling interesting. From the future of credit scores to the kinds of technologies you might have to authorize when youre dying, join us as we imagine what tomorrows pile of confusing paperwork looks like and what it says about the future it comes from.

Read more in Forms From the Future:

 What if Your Social Media Activity Affected Your Credit Score?

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
This article is part of Forms From the Future, a series in which Rose Eveleth imagines the bureaucratic paperwork of tomorrow and what it says about our impending realities. Read more here.

Experian estimates that right now 62 million adults in America dont have enough of a credit history to generate a credit scorethat magical number that banks and landlords use to determine trustworthiness. These people are called invisible or unscoreable by the banks, and studies show that this state of creditlessness disproportionately applies to communities of color and recent immigrants. Without a credit score, its much more difficult to rent or buy a home, start a business, or get a loan.

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For banks and lending agencies, this presents both an issue and an opportunity. The more people they can turn from unbanked to banked, the more money they can make. Bringing those people into the banking world means not only profiting on the money in their accounts, but also potentially making money on them when they take out loans or mortgages. But without basic information like credit, banks cant evaluate the risks they might be taking on individuals and businesses.

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To bring these credit invisible people into the world of lending, banks and credit agencies have started coming up with creative ways of assessing that risk. Theyre calling it alternative data, which really just means data that isnt normally used in a credit report. That could be things like proof of rental payments, or mobile phone bill payments, or cable TV payments. Anything people can use to prove that theyve paid bills on time certainly helps. But it doesnt stop there. In a report on alternative data, Experian proposed also using things like a persons educational history, occupation, and even social media activity. Yelp reviews, Foursquare check-ins and online rankings and ratings can all shed light on a businesss health, growth and stability, the report explains.

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All data is credit data.  Rob Aitken

Sociologist Tamara K. Nopper has been looking into the intersection of surveillance and financial freedom when it comes to alternative data. In her work on Korean immigrant entrepreneurship, she has watched recent immigrants navigate banks and systems without credit histories. To her, this idea of alternative data isnt as new as places like Experian might claim. The banks that lent money to the immigrants Nopper studied were always looking for alternative ways to judge someones likelihood to pay it back. The way the bankers would describe their work, they would talk about the alternative forms of data they would use for an immigrant. Things like your rental payment in another country, your work history, that they could verify through a transnational banking institution, she told me. Now, this practice has a fancy name, and with it comes concerns.

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On the one hand, getting access to banking has some serious benefits for peoplehaving a checking account makes everything from getting paid to renting an apartment a little bit easier. Often, the language around alternative data is angelic. Banks are offering the credit-invisible a way to come out of the shadows and fully participate in American life. But coming out of the shadows also means becoming more visible and more trackable, Nopper says, so that becomes an interesting question about what banking the unbanked immigrant will mean for issues of surveillance when more and more activities are documented and tracked.

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In a paper on the unbanked, political scientist Rob Aitken argued that all data is credit data. He writes, Experiments in alternative credit scoring are, in some essential measure, attempts to know the unbankedto know unbanked bodies, payment traces, psychological inclinations, online behaviour, social footprintsand to verify the creditworthiness of those bodies in detailed and intimate ways. If the end goal is for banks to guess how trustworthy someone is, they can (and might) turn to data beyond bills being paid. Which leads to an interesting question about privacy, and who is afforded it. If all data is credit data, when does all data end and begin? Does it have a beginning point or is it anything they can find on you? Nopper asks.

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There are laws in place that should, in theory, keep banks from discriminatory lending practices based on the data they collect on people. Experians own report on the future of alternative credit carefully explains that social media accounts for businesses are great sources of this data, but personal accounts should be considered with caution. The Equal Credit Opportunity Act states that credit must be assessed without the consideration of race, religion, gender, marital status, or age. A quick scan of any Facebook profile can reveal these things and more, the Experian paper says. But it doesnt rule out the option completely: This is not to say that social media data cant be used in the future, but financial institutions are still grappling with how it can be predictive of credit behavior over time.

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In this future form, then, we imagine a time when credit scores do indeed take into account not just our payment history, but our entire social web. With the aid of algorithms and machine learningwhich will surely be couched as a neutral solution to the pesky problem of discrimination outlawed by the Equal Credit Opportunity Actlenders will be able to mine our every move to generate a credit score that truly sums up how trustworthy we really are. Simply have your social media app generate a special data access code, and voila, your credit score can be augmented by simply looking at how positive your comments are, how often you like posts from high- or low-risk accounts, how quickly you respond to DMs, and even how long you spend mindlessly scrolling. How often do you text your friends back? Did you call your mom on her birthday? Did you like posts about strip clubs or stockbrokers? It all adds up to a nice little score at the top of a brightly colored readout: your credit score, enhanced.

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Read more in Forms From the Future:

 The Future of Forms

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
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.
Collect the keys, learn about the history of the castles and win prizes.

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Tourists can observe the history of the Beckov, Cachtice and Plavecky castles through the story of pretty but unhappy Katarina. This touristic novelty is under the patronage of the Trencin and Bratislava regional organisation of tourism.

The three keys for Katarina project is based on true events. It tells the miserable story of young Katarina from the Stibor House who was unlawfully deprived of her manor. When Duke Stibor junior died in 1434, he had only one heiress, 12-year-old Katarina.

He determined three executors of his last will and testament, who were assigned the task of taking care of his family property and his only daughter Katarina until she reached the age of 18.

The money and documents were put into the treasury at Beckov and secured with three locks. Each of the castellans had one to ensure that one can do nothing with the property without an agreement of the other two. Every document had three copies that were saved in the three castles of Beckov, Cachtice and Plavecky castle.

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In 1435, the Bratislava Royal Council was deciding on the last will of Stibor Junior. King Sigmund was absent, so the process was manipulated and the rights of Katarina were doubted.

Visitors will come to each of the three castles, where they will receive the document of Stibor that mentions women can inherit the property. They will collect three keys from the castellans of three castles. After collecting them, they will send the document to the Cachtice address and at the end of the whole project on September 21, one or several winners will be chosen. They can win various prizes, said the manager of Beckov castle and initiator of the project Peter Pastier, as quoted by the TASR.

The castles will also be connected during Easter, the holiday of Ss Cyril and Methodius and several other occasions.
The testimony, known by the name The Auschwitz Protocols, is one of the most important documents about the Holocaust tragedy.

The entrance to the former Nazi Death Camp Auschwitz with the "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Sets you Free) sign above, in Oswiecim, Poland. (Source: AP/TASR)

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Only a handful of people managed to escape from the Auschwitz concentration camp, and most of them were shot dead by the Nazis. Two prisoners, Alfred Wetzler and Walter Rosenberg, who later started using the name Rudolf Vrba, decided to find another method of escape.

They disappeared on April 7, 1944 to raise an alarm and stayed hidden among the wooden panels from which the prisoners were expected to build new barracks for Jews from Hungary. Three days later, after the alarm had been cancelled, they escaped, the Sme daily reported.

Shortly after crossing the Slovak-Polish borders, they collapsed on the field owned by Ondrej Canecky. He found them, fed them and offered them a place to stay in his house. They later contacted the representatives of the Jewish community in Zilina.

An important testimony

Thanks to their testimony, the West and the Catholic Church learned about the horrors happening in Auschwitz.

The testimony of Vrba (Rosenberg) and Wetzler is 32 pages and is also known by the name The Auschwitz Protocols. It is one of the most important documents about the Holocaust tragedy.

Their life-stories were also published in books: Rudolf Vrba: I Cannot Forgive / I Escaped from Auschwitz; and Alfred Wetzler: Escape from Hell. The True Story of the Auschwitz Protocol.

Vrba moved away after the war and became a successful scientist. He died in Vancouver in 2006. Wetzler spent the rest of his life in Bratislava, where he worked in several professions. He died in 1988, Sme wrote.

Canecky was granted the Righteous Among the Nations title this year.
But both the operator of the nuclear power plant and the Slovak regulator consider it scaremongering.

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The Austrians have objected to the third and fourth blocks of the Mochovce nuclear power plant, situated in Nitra Region, once again.

GLOBAL 2000, an Austrian environmental organisation, wrote on April 3 that deficiencies in the construction project Mochovce 3 are so serious that even nuclear power supporters no longer stand behind the construction project.

The testimonies and photos clearly show that the containment shell of the reactor was damaged by negligent drilling and could fail in the event of an earthquake or explosions could lead to a major accident, according to its press release.

Based on this information, we have to assume that the static of the reactor building weakened and the hermetic chambers, which should stop the escape of radioactive material in the event of a major accident, are damaged, said Reinhard Uhrig, spokesperson for GLOBAL 2000, as quoted in the press release.

However, Slovenske Elektrarne, Slovakias dominant energy generator and the operator of the Mochovce nuclear power plant, disagrees with such a statement.

We strongly oppose the fake news about the new nuclear units in Mochovce that is being spread by the organisation via the Austrian media, said Miroslav Sarissky, spokesperson for Slovenske Elektrarne, Slovakias dominant energy generator and the operator of the Mochovce nuclear power plant, as quoted by the SITA newswire.

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The company called the statement of the Austrian organisation misleading and false.

This shows an absolute lack of knowledge about the complex projects aimed at increasing seismic resistance of existing nuclear power plants and those under construction and creates fear and panic among the citizens of Austria and Slovakia, Sarissky added, as quoted by SITA.

The Austrian organisation only creates pressure

Slovenske Elektrarne has carried out a complex project of increasing the seismic resistance during the construction of the third and fourth blocks. As part of it, more than 60,000 steel anchor plates, which follow the engineers calculations and project, were installed on both blocks.

The result is the increase in both blocks resistance against any earthquake that could occur near the Mochovce nuclear power plant, Sarissky said, as quoted by SITA.

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The company has also tested the tightness of the hermetic zone of the power plant, which posted great results, he added.

In his opinion, Global 2000 is trying to stop putting the two blocks into operation by using any means. This includes putting pressure on the Austrian government, Sarissky added, as quoted by SITA.

Nuclear authority inspects the power plant regularly

Meanwhile, the Nuclear Regulation Authority (UJD) stated that it is continuing with the so-called safety dialogue on the completion of the two nuclear blocks in Mochovce with the Austrian government.

We continue the dialogue at the government and expert level, said Miriam Vachova of UJD, as quoted by SITA. Moreover, in an attempt to maintain a correct and helpful approach that goes beyond the dialogue, the Nuclear Regulatory Authority provides GLOBAL 2000 representatives with detailed information in written form or in person, most recently in February 2019.

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UJD will not permit the launch of the nuclear facility, which starts with nuclear fuel loading into reactor units, unless all requirements on nuclear safety and the positive results of the tests are carried out, she added. In spite of this, the Austrian NGO continues spreading ungrounded allegations.

We would like to draw attention to the fact that the intention of the Austrian organisation is to halt the launch of the nuclear power plant Mochovce 3 and 4 by any means, Vachova said, as quoted by SITA. Therefore, the organisation does not hesitate to spread false and misleading information and scaremongering.
The Slovak National Party has stopped the levy it introduced few months ago.

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Retail chains in Slovakia will not have to pay a special levy to the state. After the European Commission suspended the special levy in early April, parliament has decided to cancel the measure altogether.

The draft amendment to cancel the levy, authored by the Slovak National Party (SNS) which also introduced the new tax, was discussed in a fast-track proceeding and approved by all 141 MPs present.

Criticism from the opposition

The SNS introduced the original law last September, without submitting the proposal for interdepartmental review and discussion with experts. Even though parliament adopted several amending proposals during the discussion, which meant that the levy was not applied to all retail chains, some retailers challenged it in Brussels, the Dennik N daily reported.

During the discussion about the amendment, in which the SNS proposed to cancel the levy, opposition MP Ondrej Dostal, who is a member of the Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) caucus, asked the party why it did not stand its ground. He recalled that during the discussions of the levy, the party claimed that it was all right, as reported by Dennik N.

Increase in prices?

On April 2, the EC issued an injunction requiring Slovakia to suspend the application of the special levy on retailers, which came into force in January 2019. The first payment would have been due by the end of April 2019.

It also opened an in-depth investigation into this tax on the food retail sector in Slovakia due to the concerns that certain exemptions from the tax gave some retailers a selective advantage over their competitors, in breach of EU State aid rules.

Speaker of Parliament and SNS chair Andrej Danko responded that it would be easy to correct the law but he decided to withdraw it instead.

As a result, retail chains will not be obliged to pay the levy. The SNS anticipated that it could collect some 70-80 million per year.

Read also:

Read also: Extreme rise in food prices: Who and what to blame for it? Read more

However, food prices experienced their highest increase in 15 years, analysts claimed, with one of the contributing factors being the special levy. The Institute for Financial Policy, running under the Finance Ministry, claimed that about 0.9 percent of the 3 percent increase was caused by the levy. The Finance Ministry however maintained that the influence of the levy was smaller, about 0.1 percent out of a 2.2 percent increase.
Fico has denied phone call with alleged mafia boss several times.

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A Slovak diplomat has not ruled out the possibility that Italian investigators might have information about a phone call between Smer chair and ex-PM Robert Fico and Italian businessman and alleged mafia boss Antonino Vadala.

This stems from a communication between the Slovak ambassador to Italy and the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Aktuality.sk news website reported.

Fico allegedly called Vadala, who is suspected of drug trafficking, in 2012. Fico has claimed several times that he has not spoken on the phone with Vadala. He has also presented the alleged confirmation from the prosecutors office in Calabria that they do not have any information about such phone call.

However, Aktuality.sk reported that it has the communication between the Slovak Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Slovak ambassador to Italy at its disposal. The revelations do not seem to be in Ficos favour. Moreover, it seems there is an above-standard relationship between him and the ambassador, Aktuality.sk reported.

Partial information

On March 6, Fico asked the General Prosecutors Office to provide him with the entry referring to the working trip to Calabria taken by Juraj Novocky, prosecutor for the Special Prosecutors Office, in late February.

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Read also: Investigative centre: Fico spoke on the phone with Vadala years ago Read more

Five days later, Fico sent a new request, asking for the communication between the Foreign Affairs Ministry and Slovak Ambassador to Italy Jan Soth, Aktuality.sk reported.

Soth wrote in an email to Foreign Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajcak (Smer nominee) on February 22, saying that he had spoken to the Calabrian regional prosecutor Giovanni Bombardieri, who confirmed that the Calabrian prosecutors office does not have any information about a phone call between Vadala and Fico. Even if it had, it would certainly not give it to media, reported by Aktuality.sk.

He does not rule out that some investigative team could have some partial information of this kind, but he repeated that the prosecutors office does not have it, Soth wrote in the email, as quoted by the website.

He also informed the minister of Novocky's planned trip to Calabria, that was later mentioned by Fico.

Foreign Affairs Ministry did not mention it

The communication suggests that Fico had several above-standard relationships, Aktuality.sk wrote, including within the Foreign Affairs Ministry since the second request submitted by Fico also included the email sent by Soth to Lajcak. It is possible that the email was forwarded by Lajcak to Fico, according to Aktuality.sk.

Read also:

Read also: Italians intercepted hundreds of phone calls between Troskova and Vadala Read more

There could also be a special relationship between Fico and Soth, since the ambassador asked Lajcak whether he could forward the information to Fico.

Aktuality.sk pointed to the way the Foreign Affairs Ministry informed about the case. While the ambassador did not rule out that an investigation team could have had some information of this kind, the ministry did not mention this in the official statement released three days after the email communication with the ambassador, Aktuality.sk wrote.

Several sources have confirmed the existence of the phone call, for example Italian journalists from the Investigative Reporting Project Italy who were behind the story of how Antonino Vadala planned his drug business. Czech investigative journalist Pavla Holcova also confirmed it.
He was last seen wowing the crowd at the Dan Patch Awards Gala in February, and now it has been announced that the great Foiled Again will be mingling with some of his fans in a few days time.

Foiled Again, harness racings all-time richest horse with $7.6 million in earnings, may be officially retired from racing, but after joining the snowbirds and wintering in Florida, he is on his way back north to be at the Midwest Horse Fair in Madison, Wis., from April 12-14.

As part of the fairs 40 Years of Legends celebration, Foiled Again will join other discipline champions who have been honoured with their own Breyer horse model: Chocolate Chip Kisses (a double registered Paint and Pinto gelding) who, like Foiled Again, had his likeness unveiled in 2015; Dusty (a palomino Rocky Mountain Horse who visits childrens hospitals and Ronald McDonald houses) who was honored by Breyer in 2011; and Empress (an Arabian stallion) one of the latest 2018 Breyer models.

We are absolutely honoured to host Foiled Again at the 2019 Midwest Horse Fair, said the fairs executive director, Megan Hanuszczak. He is a true living equine legend and we simply couldnt ask for a more fitting celebrity representative to commemorate our 40 Years of Legends celebration.

Foiled Again will be stabled in Pavilion Two, Row 1000 and is scheduled to appear at the following times:

Friday (April 12)

12:30 p.m. - Grand March in the Coliseum

5:30 p.m.  Standardbred: What is a Harness Horse? in the Nutrena Arena

Saturday (April 13)

12:30 p.m. - Grand March in the Coliseum

5 p.m. - Re-Training Your Ex-Racehorse in the Nutrena Arena

7:30 p.m. - Legendary Night evening show in the Coliseum



Foiled Again, pictured victorious in the 2012 Molson Pace

Foiled Again has been owned by Burke Racing, Weaver Bruscemi (the partnership of Mark Weaver and Mike Bruscemi) and the Koury familys JJK Stables since 2008. He was trained by the Burke family patriarch, Mickey, before he retired and son Ron took over the training duties.

As he neared the end of his racing career, all harness horses must retire by the age of 15, Foiled Again embarked on a farewell tour across North America in 2018, drawing crowds at every racetrack he attended. He is the sports all-time richest horse and ranks ninth with 109 lifetime wins. He received the Dan Patch Award for best older male pacer in 2011, 2012 and 2013 and was named Pacer of the Year in 2011. In February 2019 he appeared at the U.S. Harness Writers Associations Dan Patch Awards banquet in Orlando, Fla., to accept his Stan Bergstein-Proximity Award, one of harness racings most prestigious and coveted accolades.

The Midwest Horse Fair, owned by the Wisconsin Horse Council, Inc., is a top three-day horse fair held at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wis., with 2019 being the 40th annual event. A one-day advance purchase ticket is $13 for those over the age of seven; a weekend pass is $30. Separate ticketed events include the PRCA Rodeo on Friday evening and the Legendary Night evening show on Saturday. For more information visit the Midwest Horse Fair website.

(With files from Midwest Horse Fair and USTA Outreach)
The jointly produced Demystifying Chinese Investment in Australia report says that while Chinese businesses still see Australia as a relatively attractive country in which to invest, they are finding it harder to move money out of China.

The Business Schools Professor Hans Hendrischke, who co-authored the report, sees global insecurity about Chinese investment as the main reason for the decline, but says that recent political tensions between Canberra and Beijing may also have had an impact on investment levels.

Describing the investment decline as a significant withdrawal, particularly by Chinese State Owned Enterprises (SOEs), Professor Hendrischke said it had been influenced by Chinese capital controls, diplomatic relations and security concerns about Chinese investments in Australia.
Despite being allies, Iran and Russia are competing to take control of Syria's state institutions and have made a number of new appointments to ensure their influence writes Al-Modon.

The Iranians and Russians are coordinating on military and security changes to the Syrian regime leadership, in what looks like a division of centers of influence between them. This operation has accelerated recently, with entire military units and security agencies going entirely to one of the two allies.

With the Russians imposing their full control over the regime forces chief of staff and the government, and turning the General Intelligence Directorate/State Security Department into a Russian security and intelligence branch in Syria, the Russians have recently engaged in making material changes which have affected regime military and security command positions. The Russians have sent hundreds of officers to be investigated on a variety of charges, from abuse of power to cooperating with armed terrorists groups and spying.

An informed judicial source told Al-Modon that special sections had been established in the Adra and Saydnaya prisons for commissioned and non-commissioned officers from the Syrian army and security branches. The source said that these officers and soldiers had been transferred for investigation after being implicated in various matters affecting national security.

The Russians did not stop at sending hundreds of officers for investigation, but also carried out various changes in the command of the military barracks, which the Iranians do not control. Additionally, the Russians begun an active plan in 2016 to dissolve regime loyalist militias across Syria or to put them directly under their authority, as occurred with the Palestinian Liwa al-Quds.

As opposed to the routine annual and semi-annual promotions, as had been typically carried out in recent years, the regime command has carried out security and military changes at a number of security agencies. The most important of these decisions was to transfer the commander of the Military Intelligence Directorate, Major General Mohamed Mahala, to retirement, after a previous extension, and then appoint him as a military adviser to the Republican Palace. Al-Modons sources predicted that Mahala would have a role in the National Security Agency later this year.

According to Al-Modons sources, there has been news in the corridors of the regime that the visit of Iranian Chief of Staff, Mohammad Bagheri, to Damascus from Mar. 17-18, 2019, was to oversee the transferring of Mahala from retirement to security adviser to Bashar al-Assad, so that Iran could keep a pressure card in the Republican Palace.

Major General Kifah Mulham, deputy to Mohamed Mahala, was appointed to replace him as head of the Military Intelligence Directorate. This change to the head of the Military Security Directorate coincided with dozens of changes to the directorates branches, some of which the Russians had a role in, and the Iranians the rest.

Sources told Al-Modon that a number of decisions, including the appointment of the head of the National Security Agency, Major General Ali Mamlouk as deputy to the president of the republic, were put on the discussion table over the last few weeks.

The pretexts of the two allies, Russia and Iran, vary in their justification for wanting the changes and carrying out the transfers. The Russians say openly in internal meetings, according to Al-Modons sources, that they have to break up the sectarian system of the Syrian army and security agencies, so that security agencies and sensitive centers in the army have sectarian and regional diversity. Unlike the Russians, the Iranians have focused on gaining the keys to allow them to facilitate their military and economic expansion in Syria, primarily through the Alawite sect.

On the ground, the Russians and Iranians are working to have greater penetration into the positions and centers of the Syrian forces, even at one anothers expense. Iran has begun to make changes recently after it felt threatened by the changes Russia was making to impose their control over key state institutions.

The changes have impacted the Air Force Intelligence Directorate, which is still officially headed by Major General Jamil Hassan, despite him having been absent for more than two months as a result of illnesses, which has seen him make three separate trips to Hezbollahs hospitals in Lebanon.

The changes in the Air Force Intelligence ranks to the Iranians benefit have affected dozens of officers in security branches and stations. Transfers between Damascus, Aleppo and coastal branches have occurred, and have affected commissioned and non-commissioned officers in the Damascus central administration, who have been transferred to branches in other provinces. Some of them have been transferred on the pretext of corruption.

This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
Arrests in eastern Ghouta, continued suffering at the al-Rukban camp, five dead in Hama and al-Sisi pledges support for a political resolution. Catch up on everything that happened over the weekend.

1. At least 12 residents from eastern Ghouta were arrested by the regime security last week as the regime continues to track young men who escaped conscription. The arrest campaign, Zaman Al Wasl reported, took place in Kafr Batna, Harasta and neighboring suburbs east of the capital, local activists say. Most of the young men in the capitals eastern suburbs have rejected the regimes conscription call but the reconciliation deals have imposed a new de-facto. They should join the army or face the prospect of being arrested by the military intelligence.

2. The ignored camp of al-Rukban is witnessing continuing tragic situations that affect tens of thousands of people. The prices of the food in the camp continues to rise, amid a lack of milk for babies and some medicines that the camps inhabitants need. The regime continues to block access to the camp, which is pushing people to take the risks. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Right (SOHR), those departing have not guarantees. The number of those who have left the camp since February 2019, reached about 700, the largest batch of them (150 people) left last week.

3. Five people were killed in shelling that targeted Missyaf National Hospital, in Hama Province, including two from the hospitals cadre. Fifteen civilians, four of them from the hospitals cadre sustained wounds of varying severity. According to the government-owned al-Thawra, Terrorist groups, positioned in the countryside of Hama and Idleb, on Sunday morning, fired rockets on Missyaf City in the western countryside, with a number of shells falling on the entrance of Missyaf National Hospital and the Children Department.

4. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi affirmed that work and coordination with Russia will continue to expedite reaching a political resolution for the crisis in Syria. An Egyptian presidency spokesman was quoted by Russia Today as saying that: Sisi affirmed during his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Saturday the need for, containing terrorist elements and ensuring that they do not cross over to other areas in the region. The meeting tackled means of enhancing joint counter-terrorism efforts, with Sisi underlining the danger posed by some sides and countries that support terrorist groups and organizations.

This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
Despite the area being classified as a de-escalation zone, attacks by the regime and their militias have continued, resulting in the death of dozens of civilians reports Alsouria Net.

The number of civilian fatalities from attacks by the Assad regime and its terrorist militias on de-escalation zones in the Idleb province has risen to 11, and wounded 40 more.

The Syrian Civil Defense, the White Helmets, and the Anadolu agency reported that regime forces and Iranian-backed militias attacked the towns of Maarat al-Nouman, Saraqeb, and Kafrenbel in Idleb with rockets, as well as the villages of Maarat Hroma, Tell Mannas and al-Nayrab.

The sources said that regime forces and their backers also attacked the town of Kafr Zeita in Hama province and the towns of al-Huwayz, al-Hawijah, al-Shreea, and Qalaat al-Madiq in the al-Ghab plains.

According to the White Helmets, at least seven civilians were killed in a regime attack that struck the village of al-Nayrab, south of Idleb, and another in the village of al-Khawin, while more than 24 others were wounded.

Three civilians were killed and 16 wounded in an attack by the regime and its backers on the town of Saraqeb on Sunday.

Attacks by the regime and its Russian and terrorist backers on the de-escalation zones in Idleb killed 135 civilians in March.

Idleb and the northern Hama countryside, as well as the western Aleppo countryside, comprise the de-escalation zones according to a deal signed in September 2017 between Turkey, Russia and Iran in the Kazakh capital of Astana.

This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
A new report by the National Liberation Movement has highlighted the injustices that Syrian refugees living in Lebanon are subjected to and the illegal practises of the Lebanese security forces writes Zaman Al Wasl.

A legal report issued this week has shed the light on the mounting abuses against Syrian detainees inside Lebanese prisons.

The sentences issued by the Lebanese Military Court against Syrian detainees, clearly and unequivocally violate the most basic conditions and standards of trials according to international laws and conventions.

The report was prepared by Moutasem Haj Ibrahim, the lawyer from the National Liberation Movement.

The report mentioned that the torture and humiliation of Syrians in Lebanese prisons is a violation of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of 1989, which classified torture as a crime against humanity.

Article 3 states that: Any person arrested or imprisoned under the conditions specified in paragraph (c) of paragraph (1) of this article shall be promptly brought to a judge or a member of the judicial body that empowered by law to exercise judicial functions.

This person is entitled to be tried within a reasonable period of time or to be released during the judicial proceedings, and his release may be subject to a guarantee of appearance before the Court.

According to the report, Syrian Detainees in Lebanese Prisons, Syrian refugees in Lebanon have been subjected to injustice and repression by the security and intelligence services. They have arrested thousands, under baseless and false arguments such as, belonging to terrorist organizations, dealing with Israel and violating Lebanese laws, and subjected them to long periods of time in prison.

In some cases, they were incarcerated for as long as four years before being brought before a military court. These actions have violated human rights and international laws, including the Lebanese Military Justice Act of 1968, Article 24, which prohibits the prosecution of civilians and all children before military courts.

The report stressed that support of the Assad regime and sectarian incitement from its ally Hezbollah, is causing everyone who revolted against the regime to be punished, and forcing the rest of the refugees to return.

The report pointed out the criminality practiced by the Lebanese security forces against Syrian refugees and detainees.

The National Liberation Movement prepared a file and submitted it to international bodies and institutions in an effort to try and secure the release of these detainees.

According to the report, the file included lists of prisoners and detainees in the Lebanese prisons, in addition to reports of the brutal practices against them and testimonies of activists and detainees from inside Roumieh prison, and an appeal from them to be released.

The report considered that there is an, almost complete absence of the legitimate rights for Syrian refugees in Lebanon, and that all provisions against Syrians in Lebanese courts violate the laws of 1951, the Universal Refugee Convention and the 1967 Protocol that called for the protection of all refugees in all countries that provide a safe place for them.

Sentences against children under the age of 15 is a serious violation by the Lebanese government of international law and the International Convention of Childrens Rights, which insists on the rights of the child as human and universal rights.

This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
Prime Minister of Syria, Imad Khamis, has been examining the most recent data surrounding the industrial and economic output from Syria reports Al-Watan.

For over five hours, Prime Minister of Syria, Imad Khamis, reviewed data from government work in different fields over the last two years, which showed the extent of the efforts carried out by the government to support production and the economy. This data includes the return of 75,000 industrial and professional facilities to operation, and 70,000 workers in three industrial zones (Homs, Adra, and Sheikh Najjar). Additionally, electrical production has increased and 1,800 schools have returned to operation, and utilities have been repaired in liberated areas.

Khamis said that the government was counting on private sector investment and that there were a number of measures, decisions and laws to simplify the investment process. He noted the importance of the new investment law in this respect, adding that the government was with those manufacturers and traders who wanted to work transparently and clearly. He said that there would soon be a meeting soon with professional federations to discuss means of facilitating work.

Regarding government projects, Khamis said that 423 medium-sized and larger projects had been launched over the last two years, and that the focus had been on industrial cities and agricultural and industrial production. There had been 9,000 projects through the Administrative Units, as well as small-scale projects.

Khamis Responds

In terms of corruption, Khamis revealed that he had ordered a list of all corruption-related matters that had passed through the cabinet over the last two years, and asked for details about each file and where it had gone. He said that he was not fully satisfied with the administrative reform project as well as a number of other matters, and that in a cabinet session he would develop specific determinants for the administrative reform project to achieve its priorities.

The Prime Minister denied that the stores of the Syrian Trading Establishment had been proposed for investment by traders, disregarding these as just rumors.

Responding to Al-Watans questions, Khamis said that the difference in the exchange rate between the official bulletin of the Syrian Central Bank and the black market was being studied and discussed on a daily basis, and said there were measures underway to address the gap soon.

Regarding the smuggling campaign being limited to small traders and not impacting large traders, evidenced by the continuing influx of smuggled goods into the markets, Khamis promised to consider customs entering shops and to develop the working mechanisms of the campaign on smuggling. He noted the doubling of penalties for store owners discovered to have smuggled goods. He stressed that the anti-smuggling campaign would continue. With regards to the issue raised by the Mokhtar program recently broadcast by the Madina radio station on the customs agents that were transferred following the intervention of a trader backed by a minister, he said the matter was being followed up, and that the truth would be announced pending clarification.

This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
The 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.
2 hours ago

Fireball from overturned tanker kills dozens in Haiti

CAP-HAITIEN, Haiti (AP)  A gasoline tanker overturned and exploded in northern Haiti, unleashing a fireball that swept through homes and businesses on its way to killing at least 60 people Tuesday in the latest tragedy to befall the Caribbean nation. The blast occurred shortly after midnight in Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second largest city, along the northern coast.

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A place to exercise ideas before writing about them with greater discipline.
Vang Vieng was once a byword for backpackers excess and the devastating effects it can have on a place. In the past this wonderful village surrounded by mountains and stunning rivers was described as a Paradise Lost, engulfed by the drunken backpackers who would pass through without a care for the culture or indeed the opportunities for true adventure travel here. But today the town is a very different place, especially if you venture out of the centre for some spectacular Vang Vieng activities! Now it really is a paradise for those seeking all the thrills, views and culture Laos can conjure up! A true wonderland once again, heres our top things to do Vang Vieng!

Things to do in Vang Vieng: The best of the Vang Vieng activities in this beautiful town.

Go hiking in this magical landscape through jungles and up mountains to the Pha Poak viewpoint

Vang Vieng is surrounded by amazing mountains and lush jungles just waiting to be explored. Heading across the river and beyond the first set of bungalows are several easy hikes to be taken, all of which will leave you in awe of this magnificent place. Following the trail of plastic bags used as flags through the countryside will bring you to a small peak topped with a red flag called Pha Poak. From the bottom it might look rather modest, but take the steep scramble up to the top and you will be rewarded with jaw dropping views at every angle! Head further passed here and you will find yourself trekking deep within the jungle! This is such a cheap and rewarding entry on our things to do Vang Vieng list and is a must do and one of our favourite Vang Vieng activities.

Price

The entrance price for the viewpoint is 10,000 kip / 1.00 / $1.16







Explore the incredible cave systems by torch light: Pha Thao Caves, Lusi Cave

It will come surely as no surprise that with such a mountainous karst region comes many hidden caves and crevices. These limestone features have worn down over thousands of years to create magnificent voids within the peaks that can be explored by the brave and intrepid and make up some of the best Vang Vieng activities on offer.

Pha Thao Cave

There are quite a few caves around Vang Vieng, the most popular being Pha Thao Cave 11km out of town that can easily be reached on a scooter. This cave system is quite popular and has well formed trails inside and ladders to access each section. The way to the cave is well sign posted and easy to find and features some impressive chambers.

Price

The cave entrance price is 10,000 kip / 1.00 / $1.16

Lusi Cave

Our favourite was the lesser visited Lusi Cave, this place is actually a lot bigger than you first imagine taking almost an hour to explore it all and get back out. Made even more intense also by the fact it is only accessible via torch light and you will be likely the only people in thereapart from the huge huntsman spider that is!! For sheer adventure this is one of the top things to do Vang Vieng due to the fact that you can actually swim inside in the pitch black too! Visiting is easily combined with climbing the Pha Poak viewpoint as it is just a few KM along the same trail.

Price

The cave entrance price is 10,000 kip / 1.00 / $1.16

You can also hire a guide for an extra 10,000 kip / 1.00 / $1.16

Tham Chang or Tham Jang

Closer to the town and just a few steps up the Pha Lao mountain just outside of Vang Vieng is Tham Chang cave. A smaller but feature full cave it is also of major significance to the people of the area as it was used as a refuge against the invading Chinese in the 19th century. The cave offers great views out over the town and it is also possible to swim in the freezing cold water of a lagoon fed by water straight from the caves!

Price

The cave entrance price is 15,000 kip / 1.50

The fee for crossing the bridge to access the caves is 2,000 Kip / 0.20

Go tubing through the Tham Nam Cave (Water Cave)

As well as the other cave systems in the town another must do of the Vang Vieng activities is tubing through Tham Nam caves. Offering a combination of two of the typical things to do in Vang Vieng, caving and tubing, the caves are a fun and spooky experience. This incredible adventure takes you through an eerie spider filled cave in the pitch black!! Pulling yourself along via a rope through the 500 metre low cave the narrow tunnels offer a close up view of magnificent formations and a surreal disorienting experience.

The cave is often included as the first activity on some of the popular full day trips around Vang Vieng meaning it can get very busy in the mornings and so visiting in the afternoon is recommended.

The cave is around 14km from Vang Vieng and can be visited without a tour and is best on a scooter.

Price

The cave entrance price is 10,000 kip / 1.00 / $1.16

You can also hire a guide for an extra 10,000 kip / 1.00 / $1.16

To cross the access bridge it costs 10,000 kip / 1.00 / $1.16

Parking your scooter costs 5,000 Kip / 0.50 / $0.60

Climb on the amazing limestone cliffs: One of the most adventurous things to do in Vang Vieng!

Vang Vieng is also a rock climbers mecca. It not only features many developed routes and crags for the more well rehearsed climber but there are also easier walls and scrambles available all over town. As many of our readers may know we are keen rock climbers so we take any opportunity to hit the crag and we jump on it!

You can choose to rent your own gear out from the many shops in town or take a guide for a lesson in the art of clinging to rock with your fingertips! The limestone crags offer some incredible sport climbing for all abilities and have been well developed by local and international climbers. Some routes do close during the rainy season but not all of them so do check beforehand to see what is available. One of the companies we can recommend the most is Adams Climbing School due to their level of experience, equipment and knowledge.

Price

Half day courses cost around 180,000 Kip / 16.00 / $20.00 pp

Full day courses cost 260,000 Kip / 23.00 / $30.00 pp

3 day courses cost 1,325,000 Kip / 117.00 / $153.00 pp

Gear rental for everything costs 350,000 Kip / 31.00 / $40.50 for two people

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Spend a lazy day tubing on the river: One of the most typical things to do in Vang Vieng!

Tubing on the Nam Son river hasnt had the greatest of reputations over the years. It has been seen as the ultimate activity of the drunk, disrespectful and downright idiotic backpacker. However after the authorities cleaned up the river of the illegal bars, drug fuelled raves and death trap swings we are here to tell you tubing in Vang Vieng can be something completely different. We headed out on the water for a peaceful float down this lazy river, instead of stopping off at bars we were laid back taking in the stunning scenery around us, so we really do think it has to be one of the best Vang Vieng activities now!

There is no better way to see both the sheer beauty of the area as well as having the most relaxing day you could imagine! Dont be put off by previous reputations, tubing is one of the best things to do Vang Vieng!

The ride should take around 3 hours without pit stops but remember in the rainy season when the river is higher you will go faster! Aim to get an early start on the river as your tube needs to be returned before 6pm to get your deposit back. Bring along a dry sack and leave your valuables at home. You are ok in your swimming gear but bring with you a t-shirt/ shorts etc for walking back around town as it is considered rude to walk around half dresses in Laos. Flip flips are best secured or put in your bag too as they have a tendency to float off in the current! Bring sunscreen and remember to stop off regularly and re-apply!

Read more about it here: Tubing in Vang Vieng

There are other ways to enjoy the river too, its possible to rent out kayaks as well as visiting a zipline course part way along the river too.

Price

Renting the tube costs: 60,000 / 6.00 / $7.00, plus a returnable deposit of 60,000 / 6.00 / $7.00

Tubes can be rented from a few places but only one is the official place where you are not forced on some kind of tour! Its not the easiest place to find but the town is quite small so asking does help if you get lost! The office is across the road from Hallys coffee which is on google maps, look for a yellow sign and tubes piled up outside!

A tuk tuk will fill up and take you to the start of the river and you finish at the Smile Bar where you can walk back into town from there or get a tuk tuk.

Take a leap of faith or just a dip at the Blue Lagoon!

Vang Vieng has no shortage of amazing water to take a dip in, be in inside a cave, on a tube or after jumping 35 ft from a tree!! Over at the blue lagoon a few km from town you will find a haven for both the adrenaline junkie within you and also the relaxation seeker! The natural phenomenon set in the stunning karst mountains of Vang Vieng shines a light turquoise colour in the blistering Laotian sun.

Here you can climb the tree that overhangs the water and test out your bravery from its highest point at 35 ft / 10m! If thats not your cup of tea then instead relax on the many low swings that sit in the water and watch the others take the leap into this wonderful water! There are also other pools nearby you can visit, some are quieter and have other features too making this area home to some of the best Vang Vieng activities.

The main one, featured here, can get quite busy though when we visited we didnt think it was too bad!

Price:

Entrance to the Blue Lagoon is 10,000 Kip / 1.00 / $1.16

Bike parking is 5,000 Kip / 0.50 / $0.60

Things to do in Vang Vieng: Get lost in the amazing countryside and take in local life

Whilst Vang Vieng town centre itself might not be much to look at the surrounding countryside is awash with local culture and beautiful farmlands. Set to the backdrop of the jungle covered mountains taking just a short walk from the bars and noise of Vang Vieng itself you will find yourself completely surrounded by untamed nature and fascinating culture. Out here many local ways still remain despite the invasion of tourism in the centre. Rickety bamboo bridges cross the river, leave covered shelters house farmers in their fields and children play happily in the river! Without costing you a penny and one of the best things to do Vang Vieng seeing real life here is such a wonderful experience.

You can either rent a scooter, bike or just walk from the town centre. We recommend renting a scooter whilst visiting the many Vang Vieng activities to take advantage of the many things to do just outside of the town and also to explore the wider countryside.

Price for rentals:

A scooter costs around 50,000-80,000 kip / 5.00  8.00 / $5.78  $9.25 for a day excluding fuel

Bicycle rentals cost around 10,000  20,000 Kip / 1.00  2.00 / $1.16  $2.30







Want to chill out? Have a friends marathon on a comfy sofa in a bar!

Yes, you read that correctly!! For some reason, maybe the history of drug use here, this seems to be a big things!! I mean, who doesnt like Friends!!?? So after a day of adventure why not kick back at a bar with some cheap food, drink and the surreal sound of canned laughter floating out into the humid jungle atmosphere! Its a strange sight for sure and one that probably sums up what Vang Vieng is about. Sure, its a true backpacker town and some of those holier than thou travellers might turn their noses up at it. But what it is is fun, beautiful and full of adventure!! Oh, and Banana Pancakes of course!

Things to do in Vang Vieng: Catch unforgettable sunsets along the rice fields

Vang Vieng just seems like one of those wonderful places that never fails to provide you with the perfect sunseteven on the dullest of days. Its unique climate, mountain ridges, open fields and stunning river allow a multitude of locations from which to watch the glowing orange sun dip below the horizon. There are also balloon rides for those brave enough to float above this magical landscape at this most beautiful of times. Those of us with a smaller budget can wander over to the sunflower fields and nearby rice paddies for one of the most awe inspiring sunsets weve ever witnessed.

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What are your best things to do in Vang Vieng or your suggestion for best Vang Vieng activities?

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Related Posts:

Vang Vieng Tubing, Laos: Why its still a fun way to see this beautiful town!

The amazing Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang slow boat: Thailand to Laos.

The temple town of Luang Prabang Laos: Buddhism, Monks, Rivers and Rich Culture!

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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. &&
The Third Estate Sunday Review focuses on politics and culture. We're an online magazine. We don't play nice and we don't kiss butt. In the words of Tuesday Weld: "I do not ever want to be a huge star. Do you think I want a success? I refused "Bonnie and Clyde" because I was nursing at the time but also because deep down I knew that it was going to be a huge success. The same was true of "Bob and Carol and Fred and Sue" or whatever it was called. It reeked of success."
The initiative "The Farm in the City" took place for the second time in Luxembourg City on Sunday. The goal of the event was to introduce the general public to modern agriculture.

Last Sunday, those who wanted to know more about the Grand Duchy's agriculture could comfortably do so without leaving the confines of Luxembourg City. The event "The Farm in the City" kicked off at 10am near the capital's iconic Gelle Fra monument.

Unusual sights awaited visitors as cows, veal, pigs and chicken had invaded Constitution Square. The farmers themselves were of course present too - and ready to answer any question that visitors may have had.

The initiative is still in its infancy but already seems to bear fruit. Organisers hope that their event informs the public about modern agriculture such as meat production. 95% of Luxembourg's inhabitants consume it and should therefore know all the facts surrounding its production.

Organisers also shed light on the benefits of a local and circular economy.

Swine fever - a sensitive topic

Farmers specialised in the production of pig-meat showed themselves satisfied with the construction of the fence along the Belgium-Luxembourg border. They would have preferred, however, if a fence had also been constructed in the north of the country.

According to the farmers, wild boars should also be killed on a grand scale like the authorities did in Belgium. Luxembourg's regions are not safer than Belgium's, they explained.

The event ended at 6pm. A similar event will take place in Fingig on 30 June.
Luxembourg should grow into an epicenter for green finance, CSV argue. According to the political party, the government shares their vision but fails to get a head start on international competition.

In CSV MP Laurent Mosar's view, the Grand Duchy should become a key address when it comes to green finance. In this context, the politician presented a new draft bill on Monday morning.

In case you were wondering, green finance refers to investment in the environment and in the social sector. For this reason, the CSV hope to reduce Luxembourg's subscription tax from 0.05 to 0.01% in order to make the country's finance sector more attractive and get a head start on international competition.

Even though the government has talked at length about green finance, nothing concrete seems to be initiated, the party lamented. Mosar explained that the government in fact foresaw a similar initiative in their coalition programme. He therefore hoped that his bill would kick things off.

Luxembourg must act quickly and this is why he proposed the bill earlier this Monday, he explained. Mosar also stressed that there was "no use in making this proposition in three or four years" if Luxembourg entertained any hopes of becoming a "first mover."

It is important, he concluded, that "we show the outside world that Luxembourg wants to become the number 1 of green finance."

Among other things, the draft bill proposes the creation of a committee for sustainable finance that will support Luxembourg's minister of finance and raise awareness about sustainability. CSV also emphasised that a representative of the ministry of youth should be on the committee - after all, the "Youth for Climate" protests made it abundantly clear that the country should give more responsibility to its youth, they concluded.
A Wednesday deadline passed without progress in months-long talks aimed at resolving Nicaragua's deadly political crisis, with the opposition accusing the government of lacking political will.

Talks however did not break down, and both sides could decide to prolong the negotiations.

Negotiations began on February 27 between President Daniel Ortega's government and the opposition but have snagged on disagreements over key issues like the release of political prisoners.

Ortega said late Wednesday that the talks have been "complex," but "agreements have been reached" despite the "extremist" position of some of his opponents.

Opposition negotiators disagreed.

"The political will is non-existent on the part of the government," said Juan Sebastian Chamorro, a representative of the opposition Civic Alliance, before talks resumed.

One of the main stumbling blocks is the fate of people who participated in violent anti-government protests, many of whom are under arrest.

A year of political upheaval has left hundreds dead in the Central American country.

The government and opposition delegations reached an agreement on Friday on restoring protest and press freedom rights, and on disarming pro-government paramilitaries.

However, police dispersed a demonstration in Managua the following day that called for the release of political prisoners, injuring four people and detaining 10, the opposition said.

The government also rejected an opposition proposal to invite prominent human rights organizations to act as guarantors of any agreement.

The crisis began last April when protests, initially against a now-scrapped pension reform, transformed into calls for Ortega's ouster.

Protesters accused him and his wife of establishing a dictatorship characterized by nepotism and brutal repression of the opposition and independent media.

Unrest left more than 300 people dead, 2,000 wounded, and sent 52,000 into exile, human rights groups say.

The Friday agreement was the first since stop-start talks began on February 27.

Under the deal, the government is also to respect freedom of expression.

However, the two sides remain divided on the opposition demand to release prisoners held during a crackdown on the protests.

The government has released some prisoners but the opposition says hundreds remain behind bars.

Ortega agreed last month to release all opposition prisoners within a 90-day period, but Chamorro said Wednesday: "We continue to see imprisonment" of opponents.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) last month put Nicaragua on its human rights black list along with Venezuela and Cuba.
Conceptual Artist Charles Gaines to Receive the 60th Edward MacDowell Medal

Press Release  April 07, 2019

Buildings & Grounds Press Releases Artist News Events Artist Profiles

2019 Medal will be awarded to visual artist at free public event on August 11.



The 60th Edward MacDowell Medal will be presented to conceptual artist Charles Gaines during a free public event on Sunday, August 11 at The MacDowell Colonys grounds in New Hampshire. As one of the nations leading contemporary arts organizations, MacDowell has awarded the prestigious medal annually since 1960 to an artist who has made an outstanding contribution to American culture.

Charles Gaines is many things: an influential teacher, a provocative and powerful writer and curator, a talented drummer, and, of course, a highly renowned and celebrated visual artist, said Ann Philbin, Medalist Selection Panel chair and director of The Hammer Museum at UCLA. It is thrilling to see him receive the 60th MacDowell Medalthe latest in a long line of some of the greatest artists of our time. Charles has been a leading figure in the conceptual art movement on the West Coast for more than 40 years. His influence as an artist is exponentially enhanced by his legacy as an educator, helping generations of students find their artistic voices since the 1970s.

MacDowell Colony Chairman, Fellow, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon will present the Medal to Gaines on August 11, along with MacDowell Board President Andrew Senchak, incoming Executive Director Philip Himberg, and Resident Director David Macy. Joining Philbin on the selection panel this year were Hilton Als, The New Yorker writer and critic; Naima Keith, new vice president of education and public programs at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Barbara Kruger, conceptual artist and educator; and Arthur Simms, visual artist and member of The MacDowell Colony Board of Directors.

When I received the phone call telling me I was selected, I really couldn't believe it, said Gaines. I think I still don't. I am familiar with MacDowell and its amazing list of Medal recipients and because of this, I feared that my imagination would be unable to handle the magnitude of such a recognition. Being chosen by the selection panel is particularly poignant for me because they are all people I deeply respect and admire.

Gaines joins an august roster of previous MacDowell Medal recipients including Aaron Copland (1961), Robert Frost (1962), Georgia OKeeffe (1972), Willem de Kooning (1975), Louise Bourgeois (1990), Stephen Sondheim (2013), Toni Morrison (2016), and Art Spiegelman (2018).

Gaines, who was born in 1944 in Charleston, SC and went to Arts High School in Newark, NJ did undergraduate work at Jersey City State College. He then earned an M.F.A. from the School of Art and Design at the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1967. In the 1970s, his work shifted in response to what he would later call the awakening. This epiphany materialized in a series called Regression (1973  1974), in which he explored the use of mathematical and numeric systems to create soft, numbered marks in ink on a grid, with each drawing built upon the calculations of the last. He quickly became a pivotal figure in the field of conceptual art with a body of work engaging formulas and systems that interrogate relationships between the objective and subjective realms.

Gaines is a member of the CalArts School of Art faculty. He has been the subject of numerous exhibitions in the U.S. and internationally, and his work is in prominent public collections. Some of these are the Museum of Modern Art and Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Gainess work was also presented at the Venice Biennale in 2007 and 2015.
King Mohammed VI has urged the Islamic Development Bank to help its member countries to diversify their economies and stimulate the private sector, a growth engine and a source for the creation of wealth.

In a message to the 44th annual meeting of IDB Group, convening in Marrakech (April 5-6), the Moroccan Sovereign said most IDB member countries have been facing real economic and social challenges due to a decline in global economic growth, heightened trade tensions, growing protectionist policies, volatile world commodity prices and increasing external and financial pressure on emerging markets.

This situation requires Islamic countries to increase the pace of inclusive, sustainable growth, particularly capacity building for young people and the creation of jobs, stressed the Monarch in his message read out by royal advisor, Omar Kabbaj.

Despite our nations achievements in terms of structural reforms in the financial and economic sectors, our countries still have a great deal to do in order to modernize their economies and achieve sustainable development goals as well as social justice and territorial cohesion, said the King.

To achieve this goal, it is necessary, today more than ever, to expand and strengthen the role of the IDB Group, enhance its performance and develop programs to meet the growing demands of our countries as well as our peoples aspirations, underlined the Moroccan Sovereign.

He urged the IDB Group to step up its efforts and muster all its resources and energies to respond positively to the need to upgrade member states development models.

The Sovereign also called in this connection for collective action to strengthen solidarity among Islamic countries and ensure the transition to an economic model conducive to development at all levels.

Given the magnitude of the challenges faced today, collective action is required to strengthen the foundations of inter-Islamic solidarity, transition to an economic model that allows for development across the board and give strong impetus to economic relations between Islamic countries. The aim is to serve our nations and contribute to economic development and to our peoples social advancement, he stressed.

The IDBs top priorities should be human resource development, support for small and medium-sized enterprises, the creation of employment opportunities for young people, the harnessing of capacities to set up social welfare networks on a broad scale, the promotion of womens conditions and the reduction of poverty, vulnerability and regional inequalities, King Mohammed VI went on to say.

He also called on the Islamic Development Bank Group to play a pioneering role in supporting member countries efforts to tackle climate change, enhance environmental safety, ensure optimal use of natural resources and contribute to the global commitment to provide concessionary financing in order to enable its member countries to achieve agreed objectives in this area.

The Moroccan Monarch urged the IDB to grant a special attention to infrastructure rehabilitation projects and to development projects that contribute to inter-Islamic economic integration, particularly in Africa. These include energy and infrastructure projects to enhance electrical, land and sea connectivity, as well as farming projects that ensure food security.

The royal message cites in this regard the Morocco-Nigeria Gas Pipeline project as a model of South-South integration and structural cooperation, which can be funded by the IDB Group, especially as most of the African countries concerned by the project are members of the Bank.

The 44th annual meeting of IDB will discuss the banks funding activities, assess its future challenges and look into the most effective means of enhancing cooperation between Islamic countries.
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A handicapped Vietnamese man has spent the last 10 years teaching other disadvantaged children art and music at a center for the disabled so as to improve their conditions and help them recognize the most basic objects around them.

Truong Tan Dung, 37, is currently a teacher at a center for Agent Orange-infected and disadvantaged children in the central city of Da Nang.

At the center, he is not only the teacher of a class with 15 most serious cases of the facility, but he is also in charge of maintaining and managing its equipment and computers.

Crippled teacher of the disabled

At the age of three, Dung suffered from polio causing paralysis in his lower body and sensory paralysis in both of his arms.

The misfortune of his childhood continued as his mother soon passed away and his father left, so the disabled boy grew up with his grandmother.

As Dung showed his painting talent quite early in his life, he was able to support himself through adolescence by selling paintings.

Shortly after, he recognized his passion for informatics, which he soon followed until he was able to land a job at the center as a computer technician.

Ever since, he has been in charge of computers at the center while also teaching students with special needs, helping them improve their conditions.

Dungs class consists of 15 students in the most severe conditions of intellectual and physical disabilities, many caused by Agent Orange, a chemical weapon used by the U.S. military in their war in Vietnam that causes defects at birth.

Simple coloring, holding pens, or responding to music are all challenging tasks for the students as they are used as forms of therapy to improve their conditions.

At first many could not even recognize and name objects surrounding them but that has hugely improved through their painting activities, according to Dung.

Another treatment the crippled teacher uses to help his students is music through singing and dancing.

Hence, the class usually begins with the students singing and dancing to music, occasionally followed by Dungs singing upon their request.

Truong Tan Dung sings in the classroom. Photo: Doan Nhan / Tuoi Tre

A dedicated mentor and a friend

Confined to a wheelchair, Dung had countless difficulties and doubts as he first indulged himself in this profession.

When I first started working at the center, I wanted to give up many times because I was too shocked to see the childrens conditions, he admitted, adding that now he believes it is only fair that a disabled person teaches students with special needs as only he can truly place himself in their shoes.

His perseverance and determination have helped him through the difficult times as now he is loved and adored by all of his students thanks to his whole-heartedness in helping them.

So much is he adored that his students would ask him to sing for them at the beginning of the class as they all dance to the song, turning their class into near-professional musical performances.

In Dungs classroom, he wheels himself from one desk to another, from one corner of the class to the other in order to attend to each of the students just so that they know how to hold the pen properly and how to correctly color the pictures.

Most of the students at the center forget what they learn almost immediately, with many unable to remember their own names for months, Vo Thi Thu, vice-director of the center, said, adding that it took Dung a great deal of time to teach the students things that seem simple to ordinary people.

Sharing many difficulties with the students at the center, Dung is not only known as their teacher, but also as a friend and a mentor.

Nowadays, for the more physically demanding tasks as a teacher of the disadvantaged, Dung receives help from the center's staff.

Many of Dungs students have greatly improved their condition and been moved to other classes, with some even starting to learn academic subjects.

Others have also been able to have their own family, jobs, and been integrated into the society, Dung said.

"Such cases are motivations for me," he proudly shared.

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Read what is in the news today, April 8!

Politics

-- Vietnam treasures ties with Qatar and considers the country an important partner in the region, chairwoman of Vietnams lawmaking National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan said on Sunday as she met with Prime Minister of Qatar Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani on the sidelines of the 140th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU-140) in Doha.

Society

-- Around 5.4 million dogs are raised as pets in Vietnam but only 2.1 million, or 39 percent, of the animals are vaccinated against common canine diseases, including rabies, while 80-100 people die in the country each year after being bitten by dogs that have rabies.

-- The Peoples Council of Ho Chi Minh City convenes an irregular meeting on Monday to vote on selecting a new chair to replace former chairwoman Nguyen Thi Quyet Tam, who retired in January.

-- All regions of Vietnam are forecast to enjoy ample sunshine during the day while experiencing rains at night this week, according to the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting.

-- Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Sunday paid a visit to the Khmer Theravada Buddhist Academy in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho to wish Buddhists and students good health on the occasion of the Choul Chnam Thmey, or Cambodian New Year, which is celebrated in mid-April.

-- The Government Inspectorate of Vietnam has been found to have spent state money on organizing training tours to foreign countries for its officials and inspectors, many of whom are counting days until their retirement, according to an investigation by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

-- Police in District 5, Ho Chi Minh City are searching for a male suspect behind a series of random attacks on nearly a dozen of local residents using sharp objects suspected to have HIV-contaminated blood.

Business

-- A drove of fake websites and social media pages that pretend to be the official channels of recognized brands and organizations are being used to scam gullible Internet users in Vietnam for money.

-- An Nhon Slaughterhouse, the largest such facility for poultry in Ho Chi Minh City capable of slaughtering 90,000 animals daily, has been fined VND5 million (US$215) for using subpar equipment that dont meet required safety and hygiene standards.

-- Admissions to the 2019 Da Nang International Fireworks Festival to be held in the namesake central Vietnamese city for five nights in June and July are being sold at VND400,000 ($17)  VND1.2 million ($52) per ticket.

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Morocco and the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) have sealed a new partnership program focusing on inclusive economic development, competitiveness, exports and jobs creation.

The four-year action plan (2019-2022) was sealed this weekend in Marrakech on the sidelines of the 44th annual meeting of the IsDB. It was inked by President of IsDB Group Bandar Hajjar and Secretary General of the economy & finance ministry Zouhair Chorfi.

The Islamic financial institution has agreed to fund social projects worth $206 million in the North African kingdom. These projects include the National Initiative for Human Development (INDH), preschool education and territorial development.

The IsDB thus agreed to contribute $1.5 million in support of phase III of INDH and provide $93.8 million for an inclusive rural development project in the Tangiers-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region. This program seeks to improve the living conditions of rural populations.

The Islamic Development Bank also announced a $280,000 contribution for an education project in Morocco. This project aims to make education compulsory for children aged 4 to 11 years and to improve students academic performance through the elaboration and implementation of an integrated education model.

The 44th annual meeting of IsDB Group was marked by the royal message, which called on the Bank to increase inclusive, sustainable growth, particularly capacity building for young people and the creation of jobs.

The IsDBs top priorities should be human resources development, support for small and medium-sized enterprises, the creation of employment opportunities for young people, the harnessing of capacities to set up social welfare networks on a broad scale, the promotion of womens conditions and the reduction of poverty, vulnerability and regional inequalities, underlined the royal message addressed to participants.
Nearly 100 people have tested positive for drugs after police raided a karaoke shop in the Mekong Delta province of Ca Mau on Sunday.

Many customers appeared to be high on drugs inside multiple rooms on the first, second, and third floors of the Gossip karaoke parlor, located in the provincial capital of Ca Mau, when officers inspected the facility in the pre-dawn swoop.

A total of 96 people later tested positive for drugs.

Officers found numerous plastic bags apparently containing crystal meth, while a white substance appearing to be heroin was also found on several plates inside the rooms.

About 300 pills of ecstasy and such weapons as knives and wooden sticks were discovered inside the storeroom of the facility.

On the early morning of February 28, police also caught approximately 100 people consuming narcotics at a club, also named Gossip, which is located near the karaoke shop.

About 59 pills of ecstasy and 30 grams of marijuana were confiscated following the raid.

The Gossip Club is the biggest of its kind in Ca Mau City and a favorite spot of local party goers.

On Saturday, officers in the Mekong Delta province of Vinh Long arrested 17 men and women, aged 20 to 25, for using drugs inside a local motel.

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Constructing a network of influential Vietnamese worldwide in all sectors will contribute to Vietnams development and the building of a global Brand Vietnam, it was agreed during a two-day forum in Paris late last month.

Once such a network is established, talented Vietnamese people will be empowered to make impacts that will induce transformative changes, contributing to the countrys greater development, constructing and promoting Vietnams country brand both internally and globally, panelists said at the inaugural Vietnam Global Leaders Forum (VGLF) held in the French capital from March 30 to 31.

Two hundred successful and influential Vietnamese active in different areas including economics, science, and arts participated in the event, themed Brand Vietnam, where they discussed solutions to develop a global network of Vietnamese and the right way to build a country brand for Vietnam.

The forum included plenary sessions and panel discussions on such topics as Role of diaspora and global talent network in national development and nation branding and Nation branding: from the culture, the people and education.

Delegates agreed that a countrys image has a strategic role in maintaining competitive advantages and promoting growth in todays global market economy, the VGLF said in a post-event press release.

A country brand encompasses all cultural, economic, social aspects, and is reflected in and will affect every one of these aspects  it is the external projection of a countrys goal and vision, it said.

Beyond economic impetus such as attracting investments and tourists, the right country brand can bring about other positive impacts: strengthening diplomatic ties, invigorating the art scene, and benefiting citizens overseas.

Delegates participate in a panel discussion at Vietnam Global Leader Forum in Paris, France. Photo: Supplied

After two days of work, participants reached a consensus that one of Vietnams biggest strengths to encourage the development of the nation brand is the broad network of Vietnamese living abroad.

It is important for all Vietnamese to understand that they play an important role in forming and developing the Vietnamese image regardless of where they live and which industry they are active in, according to the participants.

Vietnamese living abroad also need to acknowledge their special roles as deliverers of new, fundamental and in-depth knowledge needed for the development of Vietnam that they attain in more developed countries.

As they are based overseas, this community of Vietnamese plays an important role in having an influence on other countries and they are also able to familiarize people in other nations with Vietnamese culture.

Some panelists said it is essential that the two communities - Vietnamese residing abroad and those living in Vietnam - have better cooperation. They added that building a nation brand needs contributions and determination from everyone as it is not a one-man job.

Vietnam Global Leader Forum was an event gathering Vietnamese and people with Vietnamese roots who are successful, talented, and influential so as to contribute to Vietnams development and a global "Brand Vietnam."

The idea originated from the Association of Vietnamese Scientists and Experts, an organization based in France whose members are Vietnamese academics and scholars residing in different countries around the world.

VGLF was held as part of a series of events aimed at boosting Vietnams development, with cooperation and support from Vietnamese authorities including the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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Many officials of the Government Inspectorate of Vietnam have been discovered being selected for state-funded overseas study trips not too long before their retirement, a probe by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper revealed.

Between August 2018 and March 2019, the state inspectorate organized multiple business trips aimed at exchanging knowledge and experience on anti-corruption measures to such countries as Denmark, Russia, South Korean, and Japan, according to data reviewed by Tuoi Tre.

It has been discovered that officials who were about to retire were among the delegates eligible for these trips.

Costs including return tickets, transportation, accommodation, meals, phone bills, insurance, and interpretation for these travels were covered by the state budget, in compliance with promulgations of the Ministry of Finance.

For instance, on September 13, 2018, deputy chief inspectorate Nguyen Van Thanh signed a decision to send nine officials to Russia for an eight-day trip within the same month.

Among them was Nguyen Thanh Hai, editor-in-chief of Thanh Tra (Inspection), a newspaper run by the government inspectorate, who retired on December 1 the same year.

Documents regarding the overseas trips of officials at the government inspectorate. Photo: Than Hoang / Tuoi Tre

Similarly, Le Khanh Thanh, deputy head of the inspectorates office, was sent on a study trip to Japan along with seven other people, on August 6, less than two months before his retirement.

On February 27, 2019, a 15-member team went to Hong Kong for a study trip, including Dang Quang Trong, an official from the government inspectorates appraisal department.

Trong will retire on June 1, and the decision was signed in March.

While there are no regulations stating that officials are not allowed to join an overseas study trip ahead of their retirement, many people have wondered what results they can create after the journeys given that their retirement is just a few months away.

According to Le Hong Linh, the state inspectorates spokesperson, the agency is examining the situation and will publicize their conclusions once available.

Le Minh Khai, head of the Government Inspectorate of Vietnam, told Tuoi Tre that he welcomes all constructive feedback regarding the operations of the agency and will exert efforts to make necessary changes and improvements.

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A poor veteran from the south-central Vietnamese province of Binh Dinh is being hailed for returning a backpack containing valuable assets to a foreign tourist after recovering it from the side of a street on the weekend.

Tran Van Thanh, 54, came across a black backpack lying by the roadside on Saturday afternoon.

He stopped to check it and found many valuable assets, including VND23 million (US$1000) worth of cash, a mini recorder and some passports, inside the bag.

Thanh immediately had his daughter post photos of the items on her personal Facebook account, hoping to find their rightful owner.

A group of British tourists saw the post and found their way to Thanhs home to claim the lost possessions.

After verification, Thanhs family agreed to return the backpack to them.

Rupert Toms, owner of the assets, said he and his friends from the UK were going on a trip in Vietnam when they lost the backpack along the way.

He also expressed his gratitude to Thanh, a financially challenged father of five who is noted by local authorities to have done creditable things despite his poor living conditions.

The British tourists take photos with locals after receiving their lost backpack from Tran Van Thanh. Photo: Van To / Tuoi Tre.

Last month, 52-year-old tailor Nguyen Van Loc from Binh Dinh Province also ran across a bag on the sidewalk of National Highway 1 while traveling to work.

In the bag were expensive technical devices, VND50 million ($2174) worth of cash in both Vietnamese and foreign currency, and identification documents of a Danish guy named MikKel Bay Florin.

Loc managed to establish contact with the owner via Facebook and eventually had the chance to return all the lost assets to the Dane.

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Discovery Channels Expedition Unknown: Egypt Live today uncovered a meticulously preserved 2,500-year-old mummy of a high priest, live on television.

Cameras were rolling Live around the world as adventurer and host Josh Gates and Egyptologist Dr. Zahi Hawass, explored the inner chambers of the remote burial site known as Al-Ghorifa in Middle Egypt, located approximately 265km south of Cairo.

This ancient Egyptian necropolis has long remained a mystery until now. In 1927, an antiquities inspector first discovered the sarcophagus of a high priest in this area. However, the sarcophagus was robbed and the mummy was missing.

Today the documentary opened a sealed sarcophagus, which contained an exquisitely preserved 2,500-year-old high priest, a Great of the Five Priest of Thoth, covered from top to bottom with gold banding and a scarab.

Two other mummies were revealed: poorly preserved mummy and a wax skull head.

https://youtu.be/L6MeJ0CsGno

Never in my 50 years in archaeology have I experienced something on such a grand scale as this, Dr. Hawass said. The findings here are completely special and totally unique. This is what keeps me going. It is what keeps me feeling young and alive!

This has been such an amazing experience, said Gates. There arent many people who can say theyve gone down into unexplored ancient tombs  especially with a living legend like Dr. Hawass. We were able to document spectacular artifacts and mummies and bring viewers along in real time. It was the thrill of a lifetime.

I could never have ever imagined what a unique journey this has been. Weve been the first to see these amazing ancient treasures. But maybe the most impressive thing of all is how much there is left to explore. I am very happy that the program was seen by millions of people from around the world. We are sending an important message that Egypt is safe and we invite tourists to come, said Dr. Waziri, the secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt.

The second mummy was discovered inside the Family Tomb, the final resting place of an entire family from 2,500 years ago. The Family Tomb also included such unique objects as an ancient Egyptian board game, the remains of a family dog and four intact canopic jars used to store a mummys organs. While the second mummy was not a high priest or fully preserved, the objects inside the tomb and inscriptions on his sarcophagus reveal that he was a singer in the temple of an Egyptian god known as Thoth.

Besides finding the mummies at the site, Dr. Hawass revealed to Josh Gates for the very first time a mysterious wax head that they believe is the mold of Irt Hrw, one of the high priests. This extraordinary wax head is the exact cast of a 2,500-year-old high priest mummy  with such detailed features that he could have easily been picked out on the street from it. This moment lead to the stunning finale of the broadcast with the opening of a sealed sarcophagus, which contained an exquisitely preserved 2,500-year-old high priest, a Great of the Five Priest of Thoth, covered from top to bottom with gold banding and other artifacts.

A special 60min replay will air on Discovery Channel tomorrow night at 9.30pm.
This episode of Foreign Correspondent was due to screen in March but was held over due to the Al Jazeera doco and Federal Budget.

Sally Sara reports on The Battle for Rio.

Democrat or despot? Brazils new strongman is cracking down on rampant crime  but many fear the Trump of the Tropics is turning his country into a police state.

People want to break the system  and the great symbol to break the system was Bolsonaro. Rodrigo Amorim, MP and friend of new President Bolsonaro.

Jair Bolsonaro vaulted to power on a pledge to smash corruption and endemic violent crime that sees around 60,000 Brazilians murdered each year, many in its tourist capital Rio, and to restore family values.

His message rang with Brazils burgeoning evangelicals and middle classes.

In Rio, reporter Sally Sara moves from wealthy gated communities to crime-infested favelas to explore why yet another democracy has turned to a hard-right absolutist leader

Brazil really needs someone who is more severe, more drastic. Rachel, middle class single mother and victim of rape and robbery.

 and why his opponents live in dread.

This is obviously a person who poses a danger to basic democratic principles, to the rule of law, to human rights. Glenn Greenwald, journalist and husband of left-wing MP.

When Bolsonaro lets police shoot to kill, his army of supporters love him for it. It seems not to matter that the former soldier praises past military dictatorships, or that he trash-talks women, or that he is a homophobe.

But there was one killing thats become a rallying point for those who oppose the new president.

Black, gay, favela-raised politician Marielle Franco was a fierce critic of a policing system that kills a reported 5000 people a year.

A year ago she and her driver were gunned down by unknown assailants. Just this month, two ex-military police were arrested in connection with the killings.

There are men, powerful, who killed her because they dont accept people like us in politics David Miranda, gay left-wing politician.

In death, Marielle Franco looms as large as she did in life. As preparations get under way for the spectacular annual Carnaval, huge flags are unfurled bearing her image. She has become a heroine and galvanising figure for opponents of the new order.

She may inspire them, but she cant protect them

Everybody is afraid of dying, everybody Sagat B, barber and musician in the favelas.

8pm Tuesday March 26 on ABC.
Foxtel and AFTRS today announced Trudi Houston Refshauge as the recipient of this years $20,000 Foxtel Screenwriting Scholarship for Diverse and Under-represented Students.

The scholarship has been awarded over the past three years to support an outstanding Master of Arts Screen: Screenwriting student, from students from diverse cultural, ethnic or socio-economic backgrounds, or from otherwise underrepresented minority groups.

Carly Heaton, Foxtels Executive in charge of drama production, said, Foxtel believes that building a thriving and vibrant media, arts and film environment in Australia demands investing in a rich diversity of talented Australians drawn from every corner of every community. Through our relationship with AFTRS we are able to expand that diversity and support a new generation of screen writers through the Foxtel Screenwriting Scholarship for Diverse and Under-represented Students. We are delighted to award Trudi with this years scholarship and look forward to seeing her talents grow.

AFTRS CEO Neil Peplow said, Trudi shows exceptional writing talent and, with her wealth of life experience, she is keen to write stories that older women want to see and to offer perspectives that represent both regional and rural Australia.

Trudi Houston Refshauge lives and works from a cattle property in regional NSW and is, by her own definition, as a regional woman in her 50s, from a group underrepresented in the screen industry.

Trudi commenced her Masters this year and she may also have the opportunity to undertake a work attachment at Foxtel.

While working on her familys property at Woodstock in the Central West of NSW, Trudi has also focused on developing her writing skills. She won the Banjo Patterson Short Story Writers Competition and was lauded by her lecturers as one of the best on-line students they had taught when completing an AFTRS Open screenwriting course.
Mark Zuckerberg. the genius billionaire behind social media giant Facebook, has an idea to slowly eradicate the long existing problem of fake news. However, he's not truly sure how to do that, just yet.

A shift from family-friendly to society-friendly

In the past, Facebook was famous for family and friends connectivity. In comparison to other social media outlets, Facebook provided more freedom in terms of what you post, you're entitled to your own opinion and you are free to express it online. This privilege has been abused countless times, making it a home for hate pages, fake news, and propaganda.

Last March, the tragic New Zealand shooting that went live on Facebook was the final straw and Facebook has finally made a move.

Facebook News

Zuckerberg is aware of the woes of many online publishers that use Facebook to gain readers and how they are being affected by the lockdowns and policy changes. The controversial social media platform has shifted to a family-friendly focus to slow down harmful fake news outlets and propaganda. The reason why they've been harmed is that Facebook's algorithm changed in order to show less news and more wholesome posts.

Now, Zuckerberg is changing that, although at the moment his idea is still on the brainstorming page. In a video that he uploaded on his page, he expressed that he's still unsure of how it will go.

One of his ideas is to have a dedicated news tab on the platform with authentic news to combat the existing problems Facebook deals with to this day.

High quality journalism

Zuckerberg's idea includes paying "broadly trusted" publications to use this section. He is also willing to pay the publishers and editors involved. This will not only increase readership that is essential in supporting news outlets but it also provides more jobs for others.

With editors and legit publications, there is a big chance that eradicating harmful pages and posts can be much easier. On the other hand, growing publications and starting ones could be harmed by this change due to the section's dedication to high-quality news from big publications.

Journalism plays a huge part in shaping people's opinions, hence the criticism towards Facebook for catering to even the most outlandish of theories in its platform.

Since he is still on the brainstorming phase, Zuckerberg understands the flaws he must address in order for this plan to be successful. So far it has been a neutral media platform to a fault.

He knows how much power Facebook holds, with many lawmakers often telling him that. He is now making a stand in order to provide the community with better access to quality news.
US military command for Africa, AFRICOM, have temporally withdrawn US troops out of Libya amid deadly armed confrontation between militia forces aligned with UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) and the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA) of east-based warlord Khalifa Haftar.

The Libyan capital Tripoli has become since late last week the target of Haftars LNA after the military strongman ordered his troops to capture the city, despite UN efforts to unify the factions and rivals through a forum scheduled for 14-15 this month.

In a statement, the US military command, which has worked in close collaboration with the GNA in the fight against terrorist groups, said it was evacuating a contingent of US forces due to unrest in Libya.

We will continue to monitor conditions on the ground and assess the feasibility for renewed US military presence, as appropriate, AFRICOM said.

The US did not elaborate on the size of the troops but video footage on socio-media showed two fast US navy transport craft manoeuvring off a beach in Janzour, in Tripolis western suburbs, sending up plumes of spray, The Guardian reports.

The craft were ferrying the American troops from the beach, the media noted.

Fighting between the two rival sides focused Saturday around the Mitiga international airport, south of Tripoli. The GNA forces, according to the BBC, carried out air strikes on Haftar forces in full flesh confrontation. The LNA reportedly on Sunday conducted its first air strike in reprisal to the GNA-sponsored pounding.

The fighting have left 21 people dead and 27 wounded according to BBC reports. The dead reportedly include 14 fighters aligned with the LNA.

The UN has asked the two sides to observe a truce in order to enable the evacuation of casualties and wounded.

Besides Washingtons pulling out of soldiers, the UN is likely to evacuate non-essential staff. India, according to its top diplomat, Sushma Swaraj, has evacuated 15 Central Reserve Police Force peacekeepers from Tripoli due to the security situation.

The situation in Libya has suddenly worsened. There is fighting in Tripoli. Indian Embassy in Tunisia @IndiainTunisia has evacuated the entire contingent of 15 CRPF personnel yesterday itself. I appreciate the excellent work by Indian Embassy in Tunisia. #Libya, Swaraj tweeted.

Haftar launched the offensive despite agreeing with GNAs leader Faiez Serraj not to overrun the country militarily and to endorse UN efforts to assist in the organization of presidential and legislative elections this year.
Australias Eurovision contestant has defended her decision to compete in this years competition in Israel after Roger Waters called on her to boycott the event.

Classically trained Kate Miller-Heidke said she respected the former Pink Floyd stars view but thought avoiding the show would do nothing to help secure peace between Israel and Palestine.

In a clip posted to the video sharing platform Vimeo last week Waters, a supporter of the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement, suggested her appearance would be used by the Israeli government to whitewash human rights abuses in Palestine.

Roger Waters supports the BDS movement (Anthony Devlin/PA)

Miller-Heidke, who is set to perform her song Zero Gravity at this years contest in Tel Aviv, promised to use her time in the country to speak to people from different sides of the debate.

She told the Press Association: I absolutely respect his point of view.

But for me, personally, the idea of completely blocking off an entire people, an entire country, from music, culture and learning

Its not just art that they are trying to block but academia and stopping the free flow of learning and information into a country.

I just cant see how that is going to advance that part of the world towards solution.

I have a lot to learn and I am looking forward to being there for two and a half weeks, and having the chance to meet Palestinians and people from different sides and deepen my learning and understanding.

Miller-Heidke will perform Zero Gravity in Tel Aviv (SBS/PA)

Miller-Heidke, who has worked with British artists including Passenger and Razorlight drummer Andy Burrows, added that she believed music could help solve the conflict.

She added: I believe in the power of music and art to actually provoke discussion and inspire dialogue.

Its a complex issue but I have thought about it deeply.

I respect the opinions of people who feel otherwise, I do, but this is my decision.

Story continues

The 37-year-olds offering melds pop, folk and opera and was written after she emerged from a period of depression prompted by the birth of her son in 2016.

Zero Gravity is about coming out of depression, she said.

Miller-Heidke has collaborated with British artists like Passenger (SBS/PA)

Its about transcending that and going from feeling very powerless to powerful again.

I went through a period of depression after the birth of my son, Ernie, and it lasted for quite a while, a couple of years.

But eventually the fog lifted.

This song tries to catch the immense relief I felt when that happened.

The joy I felt, of getting my life back.

Miller-Heidke was selected after winning the Australia Decides programme ahead of acts such as Aboriginal electronic music duo Electric Fields and drag queen Courtney Act.

The Eurovision Song Contest 2019 will begin in Tel Aviv on May 18.
By Guy Faulconbridge and Elizabeth Piper

LONDON (Reuters) - Brexit hung in the balance on Monday as Prime Minister Theresa May tried to coax the Labour Party into agreeing a divorce deal with a better chance of passage by parliament, ahead of a crisis EU summit where she will try to delay the April 12 departure.

Britain's exit from the EU has already been delayed once but May is asking the bloc for yet more time as she courts veteran socialist Jeremy Corbyn, whose Labour Party wants to keep Britain more closely tied to the bloc after Brexit.

May heads to Berlin and Paris on Tuesday to meet Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Emmanuel Macron and will be phoning other leaders before setting out the case for another delay at Wednesday's emergency EU summit in Brussels.

Nearly three years after the United Kingdom shocked the world by voting by 52 percent to 48 to leave the EU, May warned that Brexit might never happen, but said that she would do everything possible to make sure it did.

"We have been in touch with the opposition today and technical talks between officials will take place this evening," a spokesman for May said.

Labour's Brexit point man, Keir Starmer, said earlier that May's government had so far not shifted from its red lines on Brexit and so no way forward had been agreed.

"Both us and the government have approached this in the spirit of trying to find a way forward. We haven't found that yet. We will continue to do that," Starmer said.

May's spokeswoman said she wanted Britain to have an independent trading policy - something hard to reconcile with Labour's demand to keep Britain in a customs union with the EU - and that both sides would need to compromise.

The deputy political editor of the Telegraph newspaper, Steven Swinford, said Labour and the Conservative government were still discussing both a customs union and the idea of holding a confirmatory referendum on any deal they agree.

Story continues

Both ideas are anathema to many in May's party, whose rebels have helped trigger three parliamentary defeats of the withdrawal deal she negotiated with the EU last year.

"We all hope that these talks will produce a positive outcome. I've said many times before, we can be more, much more ambitious in our future relationship with the UK," EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier told a news conference with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in Dublin.

BREXIT DELAY?

The 2016 referendum revealed a United Kingdom divided over much more than EU membership, and has sparked impassioned debate about everything from secession and immigration to capitalism, empire and what it means to be British.

Yet, more than a week after Britain was originally supposed to have left the EU, nothing is resolved as May, the weakest leader in a generation, battles to get a divorce deal ratified by a profoundly divided parliament.

EU leaders, fatigued by the serpentine Brexit crisis, must decide on Wednesday whether to grant May, who has asked for a postponement until June 30, a further delay. The decision can be vetoed by any of the other 27 member states.

Without an extension, Britain is due to leave the EU at 2200 GMT on Friday, without a deal to cushion the economic shock.

While the EU is not expected to trigger such a potentially disorderly no-deal exit, diplomats said all options were on the table - from refusing a delay to granting May's request or pushing for a longer postponement.

But May is boxed in at home.

Brexiteers in her cabinet insisted on at most a short delay, while Mark Francois, deputy chief of the Conservatives' hardline eurosceptic faction in parliament, demanded she resign and called on the party to vote on forcing her out - even though there is no formal provision to do so before December.

As the crisis grinds on, one survey suggested that voters wanted a strong leader willing to force through reform of a political system that has been found badly wanting by Brexit.

Research by the Hansard Society found that 54 percent of voters wanted a strong leader willing to break the rules, while 72 percent said the political system needed "quite a lot" or "a great deal" of improvement.

(Additional reporting by Andrew MacAskill, Kate Holton and Kylie MacLellan; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
A charity worker who was the heartbeat of overseas aid organisation Trocaire for decades has died in a road accident in Guatemala, her former employer said.

Sally ONeill from Co Tyrone translated for campaigning archbishop Oscar Romero shortly before his murder and highlighted a massacre in El Salvador.

She was a driving force for human rights at the Catholic bishops international development agency for almost 40 years.

CEO Caoimhe de Barra said: We are heartbroken by this news.

Sally was the heartbeat of Trocaire for almost 40 years.

Ms de Barra said her former colleague from Dungannon was a remarkable person.

"To have known Sally ONeill Sanchez was a privilege." Statement by President Michael D. Higgins on the death of Sally ONeill Sanchez: https://t.co/AlItBttEvC pic.twitter.com/HVD3DM8pfc  President of Ireland (@PresidentIRL) April 8, 2019

Trocaire was only five years old when Sally joined.

Sally built the foundations of the organisation.

She embodied our values and through her courage and commitment to human rights touched the lives of so many people.

She died following a crash in the Central American country.

She was married to husband Roger and leaves children Roger, Rhona and Xio.

Ms de Barra said: She dedicated her life to improving the lives of others. Her legacy will live on through the thousands of people whose lives she helped to improve.

She joined Trocaire in 1978 and dedicated her life to working with the poor, the marginalised and victims of human rights abuses.

Retirement came in April 2015 after 37 years of service.

She worked in Central America at a time when civil wars were being fought in El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua.

Story continues

Sally ONeill visited El Salvador with President Michael D Higgins (Peter Byrne/PA)

She oversaw humanitarian aid to more than two million refugees in the region during those conflict years.

In 1982, the aid worker and President Michael D Higgins, who was then a deputy in the Dail, visited El Salvador to investigate reports of a massacre in the village of El Mozote.

Their report from El Mozote reached the pages of the international media, including the New York Times and Washington Post, Trocaire said.

President Higgins said: Sally understood the importance of combining tangible assistance and practical compassion with the pursuit of long-term solutions to the root causes of poverty, marginalisation and oppression.

Through her work she empowered countless people and she was relentless in calling on those with power to bring their influence to bear on the policies and politics that affected those most vulnerable.

With the same professionalism, ease and conviction as Sally ONeill Sanchez led delegations of politicians and bishops to witness the suffering of marginalised communities throughout Central America, she was able to bring those previously without a voice to the corridors of power at international conferences.
Protesters gathered for a second day outside army headquarters in Khartoum on April 7 to call for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to step down, local reports said.

At least five demonstrators were killed during a 24-hour period between Saturday and Sunday, Aljazeera reported, citing local activists. The government disputed the number, saying one person had been killed, the report said.

Anti-government protests began across Sudan in December amid food shortages and rising prices. The demonstrations have been frequently marked by violence as security forces used live ammunition and tear gas to crack down on demonstrators.

This footage was filmed by Twitter user @ThawragySD, who said he filmed it outside the military headquarters in Khartoum on Sunday. Credit: @ThawragySD via Storyful
As we start the countdown to next Friday, 12 April, the first of the newly-agreed Brexit deadlines, the French papers are full of either exasperated or simply exhausted speculation about what might ... B-Day is approaching. Or is it?On Friday next, 12 April, unless Mother Theresa can come up with a miracle and force her cantankerous Conservative cohorts into a semblance of parliamentary order, the United Kingdom will crash out of the European Union in a no-deal Brexit. The sky will finally have fallen.The soothsayers at the French newspapers are divided in their predictions.Business daily Les Echos says that the cost of such a scenario would be so enormous for Europe in economic and security terms, that the remaining European leaders are unlikely to allow it to happen. Les Echos is thus betting on extra time.Right-wing Le Figaro, in contrast, says a no-deal departure is now more likely than ever before. Left-leaning Liberation is less sure. Theresa May has asked for an extension until 30 June, because she couldnt batter the bullies in her own party into shape by the original exit date of 29 March, and probably wont put manners on them by either of the original extensions, 12 April or 22 May. Libe notes that a further short extension would involve the rapid organisation of UK elections for the European Parliament, polls which would have non-voters turning out to elect non-candidates for non-existent seats since the first sitting of the new European body is set for 2 July, by which date Theresa May and the rest of the blithering Brits will have reached their own deadline and will be gone......but not forgotten!How will we ever forget Jacob Rees-Mogg, a man who acts, speaks and looks as if hes just escaped from a dodgy Monty Python Posh Dope sketch?He has promised to make European political life impossible in the event of the UK being forced into a further delay. This sort of sabotage would involve vetoing the long-term budget, the multiannual financial framework, which sets out EU financial form until 2027. The point, Rees-Mogg says with a smirk, is to cause maximum inconvenience to the European Union.The same mook has also ridiculed French President Emmanuel Macrons calls for further integration of the European family.Rees-Mogg says: Monsieur Macron has come up with a whole slew of new plans to have a more integrated European Union. He wants to tie the whole thing more tightly together as a follow-up, essentially, to the euro.But that would require treaty change and we would be able to obstruct that. And a European Union army would also require treaty change.So, what I am suggesting is that we use those remaining vestigial powers to make life difficult for them because they havent treated us with the sincere cooperation that they now expect from us.French paper Liberation says Rees-Mogg is obviously trying to annoy Europe in general, and Emmanuel Macron in particular, so that the 27 will kick the UK out with no further delay. It could well work.What might happen nextRight now, France wants an immediate end to the whole shambles, with the presidents office saying there should be no talk of an extension to the extension until London can present a credible alternative plan.The Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, is also against any prolongation. He says the basic problem is that the British electorate is deeply divided on what the House of Commons and the parties which sit there are supposed to do. And thats not going to be resolved by an extra extension.On the economic front, Europe can not really afford a no-deal Brexit. If you doubt the truth of that, says Les Echos, just look at the current problems of the German car sector, and the slow growth of all 27 member economies.Then theres the question of the political stability of the island of Ireland, divided between a departing North and a remaining Republic.What are the implications of formal separation from a nuclear power, and one with a veto on the UN Security Council?How will Europe deal with the commercial competition proposed by the departed Brits?And why cut the continent off from London, the true financial heart of Europe?Those questions alone suggest that Friday will come and go, like the March deadline, without any dramatic change. The Brits will still be on the way out, but at their own rate and on their own terms. And the rest of Europe will, not for the first time, have to grin and bear it.The crucial question really is, how long can we put up with Jacob Rees-Mogg? In my own case, its a matter of days!

As we start the countdown to next Friday, 12 April, the first of the newly-agreed Brexit deadlines, the French papers are full of either exasperated or simply exhausted speculation about what might ...

B-Day is approaching. Or is it?

On Friday next, 12 April, unless Mother Theresa can come up with a miracle and force her cantankerous Conservative cohorts into a semblance of parliamentary order, the United Kingdom will crash out of the European Union in a no-deal Brexit. The sky will finally have fallen.

The soothsayers at the French newspapers are divided in their predictions.

Business daily Les Echos says that the cost of such a scenario would be so enormous for Europe in economic and security terms, that the remaining European leaders are unlikely to allow it to happen. Les Echos is thus betting on extra time.

Right-wing Le Figaro, in contrast, says a no-deal departure is now more likely than ever before.

Left-leaning Liberation is less sure. Theresa May has asked for an extension until 30 June, because she couldnt batter the bullies in her own party into shape by the original exit date of 29 March, and probably wont put manners on them by either of the original extensions, 12 April or 22 May.

Libe notes that a further short extension would involve the rapid organisation of UK elections for the European Parliament, polls which would have non-voters turning out to elect non-candidates for non-existent seats since the first sitting of the new European body is set for 2 July, by which date Theresa May and the rest of the blithering Brits will have reached their own deadline and will be gone...

...but not forgotten!

How will we ever forget Jacob Rees-Mogg, a man who acts, speaks and looks as if hes just escaped from a dodgy Monty Python Posh Dope sketch?

He has promised to make European political life impossible in the event of the UK being forced into a further delay. This sort of sabotage would involve vetoing the long-term budget, the multiannual financial framework, which sets out EU financial form until 2027. The point, Rees-Mogg says with a smirk, is to cause maximum inconvenience to the European Union.

Story continues

The same mook has also ridiculed French President Emmanuel Macrons calls for further integration of the European family.

Rees-Mogg says: Monsieur Macron has come up with a whole slew of new plans to have a more integrated European Union. He wants to tie the whole thing more tightly together as a follow-up, essentially, to the euro.

But that would require treaty change and we would be able to obstruct that. And a European Union army would also require treaty change.

So, what I am suggesting is that we use those remaining vestigial powers to make life difficult for them because they havent treated us with the sincere cooperation that they now expect from us.

French paper Liberation says Rees-Mogg is obviously trying to annoy Europe in general, and Emmanuel Macron in particular, so that the 27 will kick the UK out with no further delay. It could well work.

What might happen next

Right now, France wants an immediate end to the whole shambles, with the presidents office saying there should be no talk of an extension to the extension until London can present a credible alternative plan.

The Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, is also against any prolongation. He says the basic problem is that the British electorate is deeply divided on what the House of Commons and the parties which sit there are supposed to do. And thats not going to be resolved by an extra extension.

On the economic front, Europe can not really afford a no-deal Brexit.

If you doubt the truth of that, says Les Echos, just look at the current problems of the German car sector, and the slow growth of all 27 member economies.

Then theres the question of the political stability of the island of Ireland, divided between a departing North and a remaining Republic.

What are the implications of formal separation from a nuclear power, and one with a veto on the UN Security Council?

How will Europe deal with the commercial competition proposed by the departed Brits?

And why cut the continent off from London, the true financial heart of Europe?

Those questions alone suggest that Friday will come and go, like the March deadline, without any dramatic change. The Brits will still be on the way out, but at their own rate and on their own terms. And the rest of Europe will, not for the first time, have to grin and bear it.

The crucial question really is, how long can we put up with Jacob Rees-Mogg? In my own case, its a matter of days!
French lawmakers were to begin debating a proposal to tax web industry giants including Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon on Monday in an effort that has faced resistance in the US and elsewhere in ... The so-called Gafa tax  in reference to web giants Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon  would impose a 3 percent tax on digital advertising and other revenues of tech firms posting annual worldwide revenues of more than 750 million euros.French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire says the proposal, which would concern revenue generated by the web activity of French users, is a step towards a fiscal policy for the 21st century.European competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager was in France early on Monday to argue for a similar tax at the European Union level.The European Commission says on average, web giants pay tax at a rate of 9 percent, far lower than the 23 percent average of other European companies.But even if France has been driving hard for this tax, other European countries have not embraced the policy with much enthusiasm.The French proposal takes its inspiration from draft European legislation for a similar tax that was struck down last month by Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Ireland.There is also opposition across the Atlantic, with Washington denouncing the French proposal as extremely discriminatory with respect to multinationals based in the United States.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on Paris to renounce the plan last Thursday.French President Emmanuel Macron announced the tax last December as he was facing opposition from the Yellow Vest movement.It would help to finance the 10 billion euros worth of measures Macron announced in response to the discontent over living standards expressed in the protests.MPs are to debate the bill and about 150 amendments until Wednesday.

French lawmakers were to begin debating a proposal to tax web industry giants including Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon on Monday in an effort that has faced resistance in the US and elsewhere in ...

The so-called Gafa tax  in reference to web giants Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon  would impose a 3 percent tax on digital advertising and other revenues of tech firms posting annual worldwide revenues of more than 750 million euros.

French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire says the proposal, which would concern revenue generated by the web activity of French users, is a step towards a fiscal policy for the 21st century.

European competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager was in France early on Monday to argue for a similar tax at the European Union level.

The European Commission says on average, web giants pay tax at a rate of 9 percent, far lower than the 23 percent average of other European companies.

But even if France has been driving hard for this tax, other European countries have not embraced the policy with much enthusiasm.

The French proposal takes its inspiration from draft European legislation for a similar tax that was struck down last month by Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Ireland.

There is also opposition across the Atlantic, with Washington denouncing the French proposal as extremely discriminatory with respect to multinationals based in the United States.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on Paris to renounce the plan last Thursday.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced the tax last December as he was facing opposition from the Yellow Vest movement.

It would help to finance the 10 billion euros worth of measures Macron announced in response to the discontent over living standards expressed in the protests.

MPs are to debate the bill and about 150 amendments until Wednesday.
News broke on Monday that Tyrone woman Sally ONeill Sanchez was killed in a car accident.

Irish leaders have sent condolences after a life-long charity worker died in Guatemala.

News broke on Monday that Tyrone woman Sally ONeill Sanchez was killed in a car accident along three of her co-workers while working for human rights causes in Central America.

"To have known Sally ONeill Sanchez was a privilege." Statement by President Michael D. Higgins on the death of Sally ONeill Sanchez: https://t.co/AlItBttEvC pic.twitter.com/HVD3DM8pfc  President of Ireland (@PresidentIRL) April 8, 2019

She joined charity Trocaire in 1978, and had a career spanning 37 years, working in Latin America, and Africa, most notably Ethiopia and Somalia.

President Michael D Higgins, said he was deeply saddened to hear of the death of his long-time friend.

To have known Sally ONeill Sanchez was a privilege, he said.

To have been with her in some of the places of conflict, distress and human suffering was to see the brilliance, compassion, and limitless courage she brought to her engagement with the poor, the oppressed, and the displaced.

I was privileged to have her as a friend and will never forget the brilliant guidance and assistance she provided on so many occasions and in so many places.

Sabina and I send our deepest condolences to the families of the four victims, and in particular to Sallys husband Roger and their children, Roger, Rhona and Xiao.

The Tanaiste Simon Coveney said all possible assistance will be provided to Sallys family.

We were devastated today to learn of the death of our friend and former colleague Sally ONeill in Guatemala. Sally was the heartbeat of Trocaire for almost 40 years and leaves an incredible legacy. https://t.co/D8I8zd7UMV  Trocaire (@trocaire) April 8, 2019

I was greatly saddened today to hear of the death of Sally ONeill Sanchez, a lifelong advocate for human rights and the dignity of all people, dedicating her life to working with the poor and the marginalised, he said.

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Sally was a remarkable woman who made a tremendous contribution to Irish society and to disadvantaged communities across the world. She presented the best of what it is to be Irish, working tirelessly to empower those impacted by poverty and injustice.

With her sad passing, Ireland and the countries where she had such a significant impact have lost a dedicated defender of human rights and equality for all.

I would like to extend my deepest sympathy to Sallys family at this most difficult time.

Trocaire chief executive Caoimhe de Barra said the organisation was heartbroken.

Sally was the heartbeat of Trocaire for almost 40 years, she said.

She was a truly remarkable person.

Trocaire was only five years old when Sally joined.

Sally built the foundations of the organisation.

She embodied our values and through her courage and commitment to human rights touched the lives of so many people.

In recognition of her career, Ms ONeill was awarded the Hugh OFlaherty Humanitarian Award in 2011.

She was also appointed by President Higgins as a member of the High Level Panel for the Presidential Distinguished Award for the Irish Abroad in 2012.

Following her retirement, Ms ONeill Sanchez continued to work in a voluntary capacity as a facilitator with prisoners and migrants in Honduras, where she lived.
More than 400 people protested against the abuse of animals in Havana, Cuba, on April 7, in what was a rare, and possibly unprecedented, independent protest in the country.

Animal lovers marched with their pets through Havanas El Vedado neighborhood, carrying placards as they called for the introduction of animal protection laws.

One of the marchs organizers was quoted by the Associated Press as calling it unprecedented.

Sarah Marsh, a Reuters reporter in Havana, tweeted that the march was diverted at the last moment, reducing its visibility.

The march culminated at the tomb of Jeannette Ryder, an American animal-rights campaigner who lived in Havana. Credit: CEDA  Cubanos en Defensa de los Animales via Storyful
Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

New York man charged with threatening to kill Muslim U.S. lawmaker Ilhan Omar

A 55-year-old New York man has been arrested and charged with threatening to assault and murder Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar, a Muslim U.S. Congress member from Minnesota, federal prosecutors said. Patrick Carlineo Jr. of Addison, New York, faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Friday in a statement.

U.S. attorney general orders probe into mistreatment of gay employees

U.S. Attorney General William Barr said he was ordering certain Justice Department offices to investigate possible discrimination targeting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees after an internal gay affinity group complained of low morale. In an April 4 letter to DOJ Pride released on Friday, Barr said he was "troubled" by the group's concerns, and was directing the FBI and the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to "investigate and address allegations of discrimination."

American tourist kidnapped in Ugandan park rescued

An American tourist and her driver have been rescued unharmed after being kidnapped in a national park in southwestern Uganda last week, the Ugandan authorities said 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.

Herman Cain says he faces 'cumbersome' vetting for Fed board seat

Former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain said he will face a "cumbersome" process as he is vetted for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board. In a video posted on Facebook late Friday, Cain said he must turn over records from 50 years in business, including numerous professional jobs, service on boards, and extensive speeches.

U.S. government says it could take two years to identify families separated at border

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It could take the U.S. government up to two years to identify potentially thousands of additional children separated from their parents by the authorities at the southern border, the government said in a court filing. The filing late on Friday outlined for the first time the Trump administration's plan for identifying which family members might have been separated by assessing thousands of records using a combination of data analysis, statistical science, and manual review.

Exclusive: Pain-care specialist agrees to testify against Purdue, other drug makers - court documents

A physician ally of Purdue Pharma LP whose views helped drive the explosive growth in the use of addictive pain relievers for common aches and pains in the United States has agreed to testify against the OxyContin maker and other drug companies, newly disclosed court records show. Dr. Russell Portenoy, a professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, was an early advocate for the use of opioids for chronic pain, a position he shared in medical journal articles, with regulators, at physician conferences and in other forums. He also was named as a defendant in some of the lawsuits filed by cities, counties and states seeking to hold opioid makers - including Endo and Mallinckrodt Plc - and their distributors liable for the cost of the U.S. opioid epidemic.

Former South Carolina Senator Ernest 'Fritz' Hollings dies at 97

Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, a sharp-tongued moderate Democrat with a booming voice and deep Southern drawl who advocated fiscal discipline in Washington during 38 years representing South Carolina in the U.S. Senate, died on Saturday at age 97. Andy Brack, who served as spokesman for Hollings during his Senate career, said he died early Saturday of natural causes at his home on the Isle of Palms.

Suspicious blazes destroy three predominantly black Louisiana churches

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.

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.

Courting black voters, Bernie Sanders draws personal contrast with Trump

Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders, courting the black voters who did not support his 2016 White House run, drew a sharp personal contrast on Friday with what he called President Donald Trump's racist policies. Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, told a crowd of African-American activists that his push for economic equality, including universal healthcare, free public college and a higher minimum wage, would help ease the country's racial wealth gap.
South Africa: Pandor announces plan to build Mitchell's Plain TVET College

Higher Education and Training Minister Naledi Pandor has unveiled the departments plan to build a new False Bay TVET college campus, in Mitchells Plain, Cape Town.

Pandor made the announcement at a Youth Summit held over the weekend at Beacon Hill High School.

Held under the theme 'Youth & Women Job Creation and Skills Development Opportunities', the summit follows a series of meetings held by Pandor with various youth structures and organisations, including NGOs, regarding challenges faced by the youth of Mitchells Plain.

The R380 million state-of-the-art campus will offer a host of interesting and relevant programmes to young people, directly linked to the economic drivers of the Mitchells Plain industrial area, and the country. These include a range of qualifications that will prepare young people for the demands of employment and equip them to be self-employed.

The range is impressive and includes electronics, electrical engineering, PV installer and spray painting, civil engineering and construction subjects, Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Early Childhood Development, Tourism, Retail and will add to these as demands are identified, Pandor said.

Pandor said the construction of a new campus will start as soon as the department reaches an agreement with the City of Cape Town, regarding a piece of land where the new campus will be built.

The campus will be an addition to four Falsebay TVET College campuses, namely Khayelitsha; Swartklip; Westlake and Distant Learning Campuses. The building is expected to be completed in two years.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2019-04-08. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
by Sumon Corraya

Hundreds of people protest the murder of 26-year-old Jennyfar Maria Gomes. The autopsy confirms that her husband stabbed her eight times. In the past seven years, 50,000 divorce applications were filed in Dhaka, one per hour.

Dhaka (AsiaNews)  Jennyfar Maria Gomes, a 26-year-old Catholic woman, had discovered that her husband was having an affair. For this reason, she wanted to leave him, but she was killed before she could get back to her family.

Yesterday the autopsy confirmed that her husband, Human Christopher Hemal Gomes, 31, killed her, stabbing her eight times. He had also tortured her.

Jennyfars story is not uncommon among young Bangladeshi Catholics, so much so that extramarital relations have become an important concern for the local Church.

Usually the victims families do not even go to the police and the cases are ignored, like the one that occurred last year in the Archdiocese of Dhaka, involving another young bride. By contrast, in Jennyfars case, hundreds of people have protested.

Jennyfar got married in 2017 in an arranged marriage. Originally from Nagori, where she attended the local parish, she moved to Gazipur, near Dhaka, after her wedding in the church of Kawyachala.

The marriage started to sour when she discovered that he husband was having an affair with an uncle's wife. When she asked him to stop, he refused.

On 28 March, Jennyfar was killed. At present, her husband and father-in-law are on the run, whilst her mother-in-law, Phelomina Dipty Gomes, 48, was arrested by police. The victim leaves an eight-month daughter.

According to Prova Rozario, secretary of the Family Commission of the Archdiocese of Dhaka, the most common reason for cheating "is the lack of ties between husband and wife.

Love and respect must be at the base of marriage, she explains. If children see that husband and wife are bound by mutual respect, they will do the same and will not look for relationships outside of marriage."

Bangladesh is a country in which social norms are evolving, the Catholic leader notes. "In the past, society was dominated by men, but now women are entering the workforce and expect husbands to help them with household chores."

Given the changes, it is necessary for couples to prepare themselves (for marriage responsibilities) with appropriate courses. Children suffer a lot from their parents' betrayal. Faith and trust are fundamental in a couple.

Cheating is not only a problem in the Catholic community, but affects the country as a whole. According to a local newspaper, Prothom Alo, there is one divorce every hour in Dhaka, and cheating is one of the main causes.

According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the divorce rate jumped 34% in the capital in the past seven years, with a total of 50,000 divorce cases filed. Couples split for a number of reasons.

Women seeks divorce because of the husbands jealousy, cheating, dowry issues, drugs and Facebook addiction, impotence, bad temper, and emigration.

Men complain when wives do not respect Islamic rules, have a bad attitude, show indifference towards the family, disobey their orders, and cannot have children.
The Algerian Parliament will elect on Tuesday an Interim President after longtime ruler Abdelaziz Bouteflika stepped down last week.

The Tuesday meeting will be headed by Abdelkader Bensalah, the current chairman of the upper house, state-run APS news agency said.

Per the constitution, the two chambers of the assembly will formally confirm vacancy of the presidency after former President Bouteflika succumbed to pressure from the streets and army and stepped down.

The two chambers will elect the interim President and as it stands now, according to the constitution, Bensalah will be elected and tasked to lead a 90-day transition until new elections are held.

However, the tens of thousands of Algerians who have been taking to the street since mid-February, are demanding a change of the entire Bouteflika clan.

During the huge demonstrations staged across the country last Friday, following Bouteflikas resignation, protesters called for the stepping down of the 3 Bs, namely Abdelkader Bensalah; current Prime Minister Nouredine Bedoui; and Tayeb Belaiz, head of the Constitutional Council; for their connection with the ailing former country ruler.
Also planned is a meeting with a number of SNP MPs.

Sinn Fein leaders are due to hold Brexit talks with Jeremy Corbyn later on a day of meetings in London.

Party president Mary Lou McDonald and vice-president Michelle ONeill are also set for discussions with Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley.

They will also meet a number of SNP MPs at Westminster.

On Sunday, Mrs McDonald said she would tell the Labour leader that Irish interests must be protected whatever the outcome of his Brexit negotiations with Prime Minister Theresa May.

Sinn Fein leader @MaryLouMcDonald said Irish citizens in the north, who are EU citizens, should have elected representation in the @Europarl_EN pic.twitter.com/JbcogyzOWK  Sinn Fein (@sinnfeinireland) April 7, 2019

Mr Corbyn is due to meet the republican leaders late this afternoon.

We will set out again the very clear need to protect Irish interests and make it very, very clear that whatever way Brexit lands, deal or no deal, that Irish interests have to be protected, said Mrs McDonald.

Our peace process, our all-Ireland economy, crucially our citizens rights, cannot be the collateral damage to the Tory Brexit.

At the weekend, Mrs McDonald also confirmed that Sinn Fein will hold a convention this weekend to select a candidate to fight a potential European election in Northern Ireland.

If an election happens, we will fight the election, she said.

We are ready.
Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd is expected to be brought before the Old Bailey on Thursday, after 10 months on the run.

The 31-year-old skipped bail last summer and was found guilty of the manslaughter of 24-year-old Charlotte Brown in his absence.

He is expected to be escorted by Metropolitan Police officers on a flight back from Georgia to the UK on Wednesday.

Shepherd will then be brought before an Old Bailey judge before he starts his six-year prison sentence.

The web designer last appeared at the court in November 2017 when he denied Ms Browns manslaughter.

Charlotte Brown was thrown from a speedboat into the River Thames during a first date (Metropolitan Police/PA)

It emerged at the start of his trial last June that he would not attend court but was in regular contact with his defence team who carried on without him.

The jury was not told he had failed to attend in breach of his bail, rather that he was simply not in the dock, to avoid them being unfairly influenced by his absence.

The court had heard how Shepherd and Ms Brown had been on a champagne-fuelled first date when they went for a late-night speedboat ride down the Thames in December 2015.

The 14ft Fletcher Arrowflyte, which had a series of defects, was speeding when it was thought to have struck a submerged log near Wandsworth Bridge and overturned, throwing Ms Brown to her death in the water.

Shepherd, who had been plucked from the chilly water, was found guilty in his absence and sentenced to six years imprisonment by Judge Richard Marks QC.

The speedboat owned by Jack Shepherd had a series of serious defects, jurors were told (Metropolitan Police/PA)

In December, he was granted permission to appeal against the conviction and handed himself in to authorities in Tbilisi the following month.

His surrender came after repeated public appeals by Ms Browns family for him to face justice for her death.

After his extradition was granted by a court last month, her family said he had a weak case and no choice but to return.

Her father Graham Brown told ITV: We are going to get justice for Charlotte.

Were hoping that he wont follow through with his appeal, which causes the family more anguish, but I guess that could be a forlorn hope.

Story continues

Speaking from Tbilisi last week, Shepherd apologised to Ms Browns family but insisted Ms Browns actions caused the fatal accident.

Shepherd also faces a grievous bodily harm charge over an alleged assault in Devon on March 16 last year.

A warrant for his arrest was issued by magistrates in Newton Abbot after he failed to attend the court.

No date has yet been set for the appeal hearing.

The Crown Prosecution Service and Metropolitan Police have declined to comment on the case ahead of Shepherds arrival in the UK.
Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd has insisted he was not solely responsible for the death of Charlotte Brown but has apologised for the role he played in the Thames tragedy.

Shepherd, awaiting extradition from Georgia, said he agreed that he has to take "some of the moral responsibility" for the 24-year-old's death, but said Ms Brown's actions "led to the fatal accident".

Speaking from prison in Tbilisi, he told The Sun: "I can understand why her family apportion the entire blame on me. But the reality is not quite so simple.

"Absolutely, unreservedly, I apologise for the role I played, and undeniably I did play a part.

"(Ms Brown's family) have my sincere sympathies and condolences and I understand why they apportion the blame as they do."

Shepherd, 31, who is reportedly due to fly back to the UK under police guard on Wednesday, said "a number of factors" led to the accident.

He and Ms Brown were on a first date when they went for a late-night speedboat ride down the Thames in December 2015 and had been drinking champagne.

The 14ft Fletcher Arrowflyte hit a submerged log near Wandsworth Bridge and overturned.

Ms Brown was thrown to her death in the freezing water.

Shepherd said it was a joint decision for the pair to go out on the boat and it was Ms Brown who wanted to drive it.

He admitted it was his decision to allow her to take the controls but he conceded he could have given her more instruction.

He said: "But it was ultimately Charlotte's action to accelerate in the manner that she did, even though I failed to prevent her."

There were "matters of luck or fate" involved such as not seeing the log.

Shepherd, a web designer originally from Exeter, fled his manslaughter trial at the Old Bailey last year.

In his absence he was found guilty and sentenced to six years in prison.

He was granted permission to appeal against the conviction in December and handed himself in to authorities in Tbilisi in January.

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His surrender followed repeated public appeals by Ms Brown's family for him to return to Britain and face the courts over her death.

After his extradition was granted by a court in March, her family said he had a weak case and "no choice" but to return.

"We are going to get justice for Charlotte," her father, Graham Brown, told ITV.

He added: "We're hoping that he won't follow through with his appeal, which causes the family more anguish, but I guess that could be a forlorn hope."

The Sun said Mr Brown had no comment on his apology, while her mother, Roz Wickens, told the paper: "I don't want to sound disrespectful, but nothing he says will bring my daughter back."

A date has yet to be set for the appeal hearing.
The US has designated Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation, prompting Iran to do the same to America's military.

President Donald Trump's decision to sanction the IRGC, which is a branch of Iran's Armed Forces, is designed to increase pressure on the country.

It is the first time the US has designated an official body of another country as a terrorist organisation.

"This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognises the reality that Iran is not only a state sponsor of terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft," Mr Trump said in a statement.

Iran's state TV says the move is illegal.

Without quoting a specific official, the channel said: "No other country has the legal right to designate as terrorist another country's armed forces... Iran's influence in the Middle East and its success in fighting against Islamic State are reasons behind this designation."

Shortly after the announcement was made, in a tit-for-tat response, Iran's Supreme Security Council designated America's military forces as a terrorist organisation.

The IRGC was founded after Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution and answers only to Iran's supreme leader, currently Ali Khamenei.

It operates independently of the regular military and has wide-ranging economic interests across the country.

The designation, which will come into effect next week, imposes sanctions on the group.

Any assets the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps may have in US jurisdictions will be frozen and Americans will be banned from doing business with it.

People who have provided the group with support will potentially be barred from entering the US.

If no waivers are included in the designation the move is likely to complicate diplomacy in the region, with figures from other counties who interact with the Guard potentially being barred from talking to US authorities or troops.

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Writing in Hebrew, Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted support for Mr Trump's decision, saying: "Thank you, my dear friend... for having decided to announce Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organisation. Thank you for the answer to another important request that serves the interests of our country and the region.

"We will continue to act together in any way against the Iranian regime that threatens the state of Israel, the United States and the peace of the world."

The clampdown on the Guard is the latest in a series of actions the US has taken against Iran since Mr Trump became president in 2016, most notably withdrawing from a nuclear deal .
888poker XL Blizzard: Canadian "dujoe123" Wins $30,000 Crazy8

April 08 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 Apr 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 Apr 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 Apr 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.
888poker XL Blizzard: Chris Moorman Wins $100,000 Tune Up

April 08 2019 Eric Mertens

On the fourth day of the 888poker XL Blizzard Series, five new tournaments were on the schedule. Most of the attention went out to the $100,000 Tune Up, where some great prizes were paid out to the players. Let's take a look who was crowned as a winner in this event and the results of the other events that played out on Sunday.

888poker XL Blizzard #9 - $100,000 Mega Deep

Buy-in Date Players Prize pool $215 Apr 07 391 $106,800

The XL Blizzard #9 - $100,000 Mega Deep started with each player receiving a massive 50,000 starting stack. After the late registration closed, there were 391 players who reentered 143 times. That made for a prize pool of $106,800, with a first-place prize of $20,495.

After several hours, the tournament reached the final table. "PokerJoe332", "GherilaZ" and "jt7bl2f" busted in ninth, eighth and seventh place, receiving $1,773, $2,403, and $3,471 respectively.

"FiestaFiesta" from Argentina finished in sixth place for $4,539 and "strangejelly" got $5,981 for his or her fifth place. Sweden's "Perrymejsen" received $8,544 after busting in fourth place and "easylimp888" ended up in third place for $11,214 for a five-figure score.

The final heads-up between Canada's 69Gronk87 and Latvia's "eight0808" was won by the former who secured $20,495. The runner-up had to settle for $15,219.

888poker XL Blizzard #9 - $100,000 Mega Deep Final Table Results

Position Player Country Prize 1 69Gronk87 Canada $20,495 2 eight0808 Latvia $15,219 3 easylimp888 United Kingdom $11,214 4 Perrymejsen Sweden $8,544 5 strangejelly $5,981 6 FiestaFiesta Argentina $4,539 7 jt7bl2f Canada $3,471 8 GherilaZ Romania $2,403 9 PokerJoe332 Croatia $1,773

888poker XL Blizzard #10 - $100,000 Tune Up

Buy-in Date Players Prize pool $160 Apr 07 744 $111,600

After almost eleven hours of play, XL Blizzard #10 - $100,000 Tune Up finally crowned a winner. And it wasn't just someone as 888poker Ambassador Chris "888Moorman" Moorman claimed the victory and the first prize of $21,092 after beating "Kroat." in the deciding heads-up.

The event, with a buy-in of $160, saw 539 players register and those players made 205 rebuys to get a total amount of 744 entries. They created a total prize pool of $111,600 with 72 places paid. It took a while to get to the money but in the end, "Mooseman306" was the last player finishing empty-handed.

After making the money, it took a long time before the tournament got down to the last nine. After nine hours, the remaining nine players made the final table and went on to play for a $21,092 first prize.

At the final table of the $100k xlblizzard with big chips lets get it. @AnaMarquez86 here too #888poker  Chris Moorman (@Moorman1)

For "Mootter" (ninth - $1,707), "CKLouis" (eight - $2,511) and "Ana AnaMarquez Marquez" (seventh - $3,627) it wasn't a big success on the final table, because they left quite early.

Not much later, "LprMessiah" finished in sixth place for $4,743. He or she was followed to the rail by "Assad91" (fifth - $6,026) and "Michael wywrotx Wywrot" (fourth - $8,593).

Having received the PocketFives Legacy Award during the Global Poker Awards, Chris "888Moorman" Moorman probably already had a great weekend. He went on to dominate the Tune Up. He took a commanding chip lead against two opponents and won almost every pot played. "Kondogbia" was busted by the chip leader and had to settle for third place ($11,383.) It didn't take much time to get a final decision, and "Kroat." had to settle for second place ($15,457).

Moorman secured himself of the first prize of $21,092 while adding another impressive win to his endless resume.

888poker XL Blizzard #10 - $100,000 Tune Up Final Table Results

Position Player Country Prize 1 Chris "888Moorman" Moorman United Kingdom $21,092 2 Kroat. United Kingdom $15,457 3 Kondogbia United Kingdom $11,383 4 Michael "wywrotx" Wywrot Canada $8,593 5 Assad91 Norway $6,026 6 LprMessiah Sweden $4,743 7 Ana "AnaMarquez" Marquez Austria $3,627 8 CKLouis Latvia $2,511 9 Mootter Finland $1,707

Ana Marquez finished seventh for $3,627

888poker XL Blizzard #11 - $50,000 Mini Tune Up

Buy-in Date Players Prize pool $16.50 Apr 07 3,066 $58,995

For the players who couldn't afford the bigger buy-in ($160), there was a Mini edition of the Tune Up on the schedule. This tournament had a buy-in of just $16.50, and there were 3,066 players competing for a prize pool of $50,000. The final table saw all nine finalists in this tournament securing themselves of $531 while the top prize was $8,793.

That prize went to "eduardokhaan" after beating "carnival007" from Russia in the deciding heads-up. The Russian runner-up received $6,430.

888poker XL Blizzard #11 - $50,000 Mini Tune Up Final Table Results

Position Player Country Prize 1 eduardokhaan Romania $8,793 2 carnival007 Russia $6,430 3 Sniper2020 Moldavia $4,661 4 MelvinDow United Kingdom $3,481 5 denyagnet Ukraine $2,442 6 MrNorway74 Norway $1,770 7 Mirale23 Romania $1,180 8 EnjoyLife666 Austria $708 9 s.gorniak Germany $531

888poker XL Blizzard #12 - $10,000 Micro Tune Up

Buy-in Date Players Prize pool $5.50 Apr 07 2,151 $14,870

Also, for those who thought $16.50 for the Mini Tune Up was a little too much, 888 had the Micro Tune Up in store, asking just $5.50 to enter. A massive turnout of 2,151 players resulted in a sizable prize pool worth $14,870. The win would go to Sweden as "Tommykorberg" won the heads up battle after beating "softipml" in the final heads up. The Swede received $2,312 while the runner-up settled for $1,801.

888poker XL Blizzard #12 - $10,000 Micro Tune Up Final Table Results

Position Player Country Prize 1 Tommykorberg Sweden $2,312 2 softipml Russia $1,801 3 lesnik55 Russia $1,277 4 AXau777 Russia $959 5 buttloverr Belarus $705 6 sye_wbc Ukraine $562 7 Skjellbreit Germany $419 8 samanas13 United Kingdom $281 9 Freshmaker65 Germany $174

888poker XL Blizzard #13 - $20,000 Late Tune Up

Buy-in Date Players Prize pool $55 May 07 420 $27,050

The late edition of the Tune Up saw a field of 420 compete for a share of the $27,050 prize pool. "todacage" from Malta took the top spot and won the biggest prize of $5,191. Runner-up "_SNS_" from Ukraine had to settle for second place and a prize of $3,855.

888poker XL Blizzard #13 - $20,000 Late Tune Up Final Table Results

Position Player Country Prize 1 todacage Malta $5,191 2 _SNS_ Ukraine $3,855 3 Nordynordbrg Canada $2,840 4 Wei2good4Yu $2,164 5 zaSPARTAK Russia $1,515 6 uzversiu Lithuania $1,150 7 _FALCON_ Ukraine $879 8 quiestce Switzerland $609 9 Blahaj Romania $449

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888poker XL Blizzard Schedule

Date Time (GMT) Event Buy-in 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.
Photo credit: Getty Images

From Town & Country

The atmosphere was buzzing in a large, bright room at the top of Londons Science Museum, where 300 people gathered for the official launch of the Royal Osteoporosis Society. Formerly the National Osteoporosis Society, the charity was given rare approval from the Queen to use a royal title. It was a big day for the organization and also for its president, the Duchess of Cornwall, whose passion for helping people with the disease stems from a very personal tragedy.



Tugging at a piece of cloth to unveil a screen with the new name, Camilla clasped her hands and declared, to laughter, "Im going to say a few brief words but I havent got any notes, so I could go anywhere." She went on to speak movingly about her familys devastation at the death of her mother, Rosalind Shand, who died of osteoporosis 25 years ago.

Photo credit: Desmond ONeill

Standing at the back of the crowd that day in mid-February, I felt very much that this was the Duchess of Cornwall in her elementand an example of royal endorsement at its most effective. Her desire to find a cure for this illness had spurred a level of interest and understanding that meant she was able to bring much more than just her royal status to the cause.

It was also clear that many of the people in the audience counted her, not just as a royal ambassador, but as an active colleague, and a friend. "I think shes fabulous. Ive met her many times and shes great at bringing this to peoples attention," says Lynn Faulds Wood, a British television personality and journalist who is an ambassador for the Royal Osteoporosis Society. "The very first time I met her she said to me 'Oh Im having trouble with my builders.' Shes very natural."

The Duchess has also earned praise for being as effective outside the spotlight as she is when everyone is paying attention. "She does secret visits. She does things that get no publicity," says Faulds Wood. Claire Severgnini, chief executive of the ROS, has had the same experience. Camilla goes "to meet the health professionals and the scientists and the academics behind the scenes" and "briefs herself," she says.

Story continues

This is a side to the Duchess's work that the public does not get to see and one that many might find surprising. She did not, after all, see royal life as a calling. When she married Charles in 2005, as one person put it to me, she "married the man not the institution." Initially, according to one source, Camilla was "very careful about the issues that she wanted to put her name to" and made a lot of behind the scenes visits. Yet, throughout her 14 years in the royal family, these relationshipsand the way she can make a difference with themhave formed an increasingly important part of her life.

Camilla was 57 at the time of her marriage to the Prince of Wales, and had never really worked outside the home. Now 71, the Duchess is patron or president of more than 90 charities and carried out 219 engagements in 2018, including 70 during overseas tours. She and Charles have just returned from a 13-day tour taking in 50 engagements across 10 islands, including an historic visit to Cuba.

Camilla is not as often on the front page as Charles's sons and their wives, but her role is destined to become more prominent. The royal apparatus has begun to prepare for the inevitable moment when the Queen's reign ends. Prince Charles increasingly represents his mother, providing a steady reminder that Camilla's position will one day be by his side when he becomes king.

Photo credit: Getty Images

Not only has the Duchess had to adapt to royal life, she had to do so against a headwind of withering criticism. Camilla married Charles after years of being the "other woman," perceived as the wedge in Charles and Diana's "fairytale" marriage.

"When she joined the royal family it was a very different situation to the one we see now," says Rebecca English, the Daily Mails royal correspondent of 15 years. Pointing out that their team had to decide how to approach Camilla's public image in her new role, English says, "They decided the way to do it wasn't to sell her. They concluded that the best way to move things forward was to just let her be herself and let people see for themselves what she is actually really like."

She adds, "In just going out there and being herself she has turned her public image around from being one of the least popular royals to one of the most accepted."



Photo credit: REX/Shutterstock

Those who work closely with the Duchess today say she maintains the same attitude, keen to meet people and let them make up their own minds.

Camilla's obvious loyalty, and how happy she clearly makes Charles, have undoubtedly played a big part in the palpable shift in public perception. "They are a partnership. Her husband comes first and foremost in everything she does," says English.

But Camilla's impact on Charles is more than just companionship. "I think what she brings him is balance," says Robert Jobson, the author of Charles at Seventy: Thoughts, Hopes & Dreams. "She has a great sense of humor. As a result hes smiley and laughing."

English agrees. "He's definitely a more relaxed person since she's been on the scene. I think we're starting to see a bit more of what he's like in private as well and she's responsible for bringing that out in him," she says. "Its a side to him that everyone really likes."

Once described to me as a "glass-half-full" personality, the Duchess of Cornwall has a strong sense of fun. Her staff seem comfortable around her and happy in their jobs, with everyone staying pretty relaxed during moments when engagements become hectic or it looks like the itinerary might go out of the window.

During a visit to Liverpools Central Library for a literacy event, she shot an amused look at a senior aide when a child she was supposed to be reading with became distracted. At another engagement in Clarence House ahead of International Womens Day, Camilla stifled laughter as Jude Kelly, founder of charity Women of the World, spoke of the "divine right of kings" perhaps not being useful any more. Happy to poke fun at herself, the Duchess even recently told an anecdote at Buckingham Palace about the moment several years ago when a taxi driver, not recognizing her, asked her what she thought of Camilla Parker Bowles.

"He was incredibly charming and I gave him a huge tip," she said afterwards to laughter.

Camilla is also well-liked by reporters and photographers. She is accommodating and often friendly, stopping to say hello when there is an opportunity and remembering things about the personal lives of journalists she sees regularly.

Photo credit: Chris Jackson - Getty Images

"She actually likes journalists; she likes the company of journalists; she likes the gossip and the fun and the sense of humor," English says. "She respects that you have a job to do and that sometimes you might write things that arent entirely comfortable for her or the family. But she doesnt let that affect her day to day working relationship with you, which is professional and refreshing."

Jobson recalls one official visit to a vineyard in Crete where, he says, "she invited me to sit down and join in with the cheese and wine."

Her increased acceptance has come with the appreciation that loving Diana does not mean having to hate Camilla.

Photo credit: Getty Images

No one exemplifies this attitude more than Dianas sons, William and Harry, who both greeted their stepmother with warm kisses on the cheek when they saw her at Westminster Abbey last month for the Commonwealth Day Service. When Harry was just 21 and still struggling to come to terms with his mothers death, he said of Camilla, "She's not the wicked stepmother... she's a wonderful woman and she's made my father very, very happy." One of her granddaughters, Eliza Lopez, was a bridesmaid at William and Kates 2011 wedding.

Behind the scenes, Camilla is a driving force for keeping the family connected, spending time with Meghan and Kate when they first joined the royal family. She is also known to be the only person who might persuade Prince Charles to do something if all other avenues have failed. Just dont criticize her husband. "She's fiercely loyal to him," Rebecca English says.



Yet, Camillas light touch belies the seriousness with which she now takes much of her work. Like the younger royals, she has realized that her position and influence can have a huge impact on a cause or organization.

One of Camillas big charitable focusses has been helping the victims of sexual violence, putting this topic, which has not always been discussed openly, on the agenda. She came up with the idea to distribute bags filled with toiletries to victims of sexual assault in 2013 after speaking directly to survivors. The Duchess has also raised awareness of domestic violence, including quietly visiting a womens refuge during a day trip to Liverpool last month, where she turned up with books as well as jams and biscuits from the Highgrove shop for children living there.

Photo credit: Getty Images

Describing Camilla as "informal," one project worker says of her visit, "She seemed to have an understanding of what faces them and wanted clarification on how schooling effects the children that come in here, can the clients come back once they have left the refuge ... She definitely did seem to understand the issues that are faced."

English recalls a particularly moving visit with the Duchess to hear about the work of charity SafeLives, a group dedicated to ending domestic abuse, in 2016.

"All these people stood up, women who had been beaten up and abused by their husband over the years, mothers and fathers who had lost daughters to domestic violence and coercive control. She just sat there with tears trickling down her face, as did pretty much everybody who was in the room, because these stories were so powerful," English says. "I remember her turning to someone in the room and saying 'I will do everything I can to help you.'"

Her royal role has clearly given her a new purpose, but Camilla still holds on to many aspects of the "ordinary" life she had before she married into the "firm." She still maintains her own home, Ray Mill House, in Wiltshire, and often spends weekends there with her two children Tom Parker Bowles and Laura Lopes and her five grandchildren. She and Charles will often go their separate ways before reuniting to enjoy each others company.

Photo credit: Anwar Hussein Collection/ROTA - Getty Images

And while the Duchess is committed to her work, she does not quite have the stamina of her husband, who carries out more than 500 engagements each year and works late behind the scenes. She has, on occasion, traveled separately from Charles on royal tours so she can create itineraries better suited to her.

In 2012, she visited a retreat in India before their Diamond Jubilee tour started, and in 2018, she returned from Australia ahead of her husband. "When he has to carry on his relentless pace, he goes off and does his thing, she will slow up and do her thing, says Robert Jobson, Charles's biographer. Camilla is also not a fan of flying but has not let that get in the way of her duties.

In 2016, the Queen made Camilla a member of her most senior advisory body, the Privy Council. This move not only demonstrates the regard in which she holds her daughter in law but also, as Jobson points out, means that "she will be in the room" when he is proclaimed king.

Photo credit: Stephane Cardinale - Corbis - Getty Images

What her title will become in that moment has been the topic of much discussion. Clarence House announced when they married that the intention was for her to be called Princess Consort. Experts have since pointed out that she will legally become Queen Consort however she is styled.



The general consensus is that she's not hung up on these things but many believe that it matters to Charles. "When the time comes, I believe Prince Charles will want Queen Camilla by his side," says Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty Magazine. Jobson agrees. "She will most definitely be Queen Consort, theres absolutely no question about that," he says.

Either way, there can be no doubt she will be key to his reign. As Little says, "The Prince of Wales that we see today would not be the man that he is, the future king that he is, without the woman that he clearly loves."

Photo credit: Peter Byrne - PA Images - Getty Images

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Symbion Power has signed an agreement with the Rwandan government for the construction of a 56 MW power plant on Lake Kivu in the Eastern African nation.

The 56 MW power plant will be operational in fourteen months with a cost estimated at $200 million.

The construction of the plant is part of the Rwandan governments strategy to increase national capacity from 221 MW to 512 MW by 2024, the year in which Rwanda hopes to increase access to electricity for all its inhabitants to 100%.

According to local media close to the project, the energy produced by the plant will be injected directly into Rwandas national electricity distribution grid.

The two energy projects on Lake Kivu will increase our capacity by 81 MW and significantly reduce the current cost of power generation in Rwanda, said Symbion Power.

The Rwandan government has mobilized $491 million for a series of projects including the construction of the 56 MW power plant on Lake Kivu.

In Rwanda, the number of households connected to electricity increased from 10 percent in 2010 to 51 percent as of February 2019, according to the Rwandan Energy Group (REG).

Among the households, which have access to electricity, 37 percent are connected to the national grid while 14 percent are connected through off-grid solution, mainly solar energy and mini-grids.

Hydro power accounts for 42 percent of the total energy sources of Rwanda, thermal accounts for 31 percent, solar accounts for 5 percent and methane takes 14 percent.
One of the largest ever pythons caught in the Florida Everglades weighs 140-pound. It is a female, 17 feet in length and has been euthanized. This was done in order to arrest their population because these reptiles fall in the category of invasive species and are a major threat to native wildlife. In order to check the growing menace of pythons in the Big Cypress National Preserve, the authorities have come up with a new method of locating the females. Their goal is to outfit male pythons with radio transmitters so that they lead researchers to the females' breeding grounds.

Once tracked, it is easy to euthanize the females and control their numbers.

PYTHON BREAKS RECORD | Researchers say she weighed 140 pounds and carried 73 developing eggs https://t.co/LvIaFRe0To  News4JAX (@wjxt4) April 7, 2019

Daily Mail UK reports that in this case, the female was carrying 73 developing eggs, which were destroyed. Pythons entered the state in the 1970s as pets and over a period have become a menace. They can grow up to 20 feet long and can have a devastating effect on wildlife and the environment.

Python Elimination Program

Huge pythons keep getting caught at regular intervals. Daily Mail UK says the latest catch was `17 feet in length but in 2014, engineers in the Florida Everglades chanced upon a Burmese python that was more than 18 feet long, 18 feet 2 inches to be precise.

That was during a routine inspection of levees. However, it could not claim the state record  it fell short by 6 inches. Earlier, in 2013, a snake collector came across the largest python on record measuring 18 feet 8 inches.

FOX NEWS: An Everglades record: largest female python captured in Big Cypress https://t.co/ttmdZvUjk2 pic.twitter.com/4vhjqs7o53  DeaLnews.Live (@DeaLnews_Live) April 6, 2019

These reptiles are from Southeast Asia and can reach lengths of more than 20 feet in their native habitat.

Discuss this news on Eunomia

Once they land up in the wetlands of the Florida Everglades, they become a threat to indigenous species of wildlife and unless checked, could rewrite the ecosystem. Hence, there is a Python Elimination Program. Python hunters get paid for the catches and are believed to have caught more than 1,850 of them once they began to destroy Floridas ecosystem.

The authorities permit elimination of burmese pythons even without a hunting license.

Burmese pythons are a threat

According to Fox News, Pythons are native to Southeast Asia, Africa, and Central and South America and the one caught in the Big Cypress National Preserve was a 17-foot-long female. Burmese pythons came into the United States as pets, and their owners released them into the Florida Everglades when they became too big to handle. The result was the creation of a situation that is gradually going out of control. The pythons are an invasive species and once released into the wild, have multiplied rapidly. They can thrive and spread aggressively outside their natural range and are now a major threat to the survival of native wildlife. This has a cascading effect on the ecological balance.
Paul Ryan's clashes with Trump got another take in a new book released this week. In "A Hill to Die On," Newsweek reports that Politicos Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer detailed how Ryan was determined to "never defend Donald Trump."

Paul Ryan recently retired from Congress after two decades worth of service. He earned the respect of many for his bi-partisanship and 'good guy' reputation. Ryan climbed through the ranks over the years and become a powerful committee chairman. After being a Republican vice presidential nominee, he reluctantly became speaker of the House of Representatives in 2015.

While Ryan's early work in Congress earned bi-partisan praise, his later high-profile positions made him a target. As is often the case, he became the face of the 'enemy' for some. But attacks didn't just come from Democrats. Ryan's final election to Congress coincided with Donald Trump's election as president. The two had already had a contentious relationship. Perhaps even more so than some had realized.

Ryan encouraged Republicans to abandon Trump shortly before Election Day

Just weeks before the 2016 election, news outlets had major headlines. Donald Trump had been caught on an audio recording boasting of inappropriately touching women. It was far from the first controversy to surround Trump, but this one especially disturbed many people.

Speaker Ryan issued a scathing statement on the matter. Trump was also disinvited to an event in Ryan's district in Wisconsin. Trump and Ryan had historically been at odds over various issues. So much so that Ryan had previously refused to endorse Trump for the presidency. The ardent Trump supporters, famous for being almost cult-like in their zeal, weren't pleased.

Discuss this news on Eunomia

His new criticism of Trump would increase their dismay.

Newsweek reports that Ryan also had blunt words for his fellow Republican Congressional members. In a conference call, Ryan reportedly told the Republicans to "feel free to abandon" Trump. He also stated that he would not defend Trump 'now or in the future.'

To the shock of many, Trump still went on to win the presidential election in a result that Ryan reportedly called "unbelievable." Despite the ire from loyal Trump fans, Ryan was re-elected from his district in a landslide.

Likewise, he was overwhelmingly re-elected as speaker by House Republicans.

Ryan and Trump apparently tried to forge a working relationship, despite their differences. But Trump's many polarizing actions continued to draw frequent criticism from Ryan. Among them, Trump's inflammatory language after the 2017 events in Charlottesville, Virginia. The Hill reports that Trump then accused Ryan of being disloyal.

Other notable instances include Ryan declaring Trump's idea to ban Birthright Citizenship as unconstitutional. Ryan also thwarted efforts to hound Trump's political foes with legal proceedings. Trump himself acknowledged this after Ryan's retirement.

Ryan was apparently fed up with Trump

A key element of Ryan's decision to retire was reportedly his exasperation with the president.

Instead, he opted to live as a private citizen in his native Janesville, Wisconsin. He has added his name to list of the city's residents with great accomplishments. Among them are prominent artists, politicians and seven Medal of Honor recipients. Ryan was awarded the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service by Defense Secretary James Mattis. Mattis had also had a number of public disputes with the president.

Republican Bryan Steil was elected in Ryan's place. Another Janesville native, Steil had worked on Ryan's staff before becoming an attorney. A relative moderate, Steil has seemed to distance himself from Trump. He also appeared to break from the president on the highly-controversial 'border wall'.
Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale has started a visit to Morocco this Monday, for talks with Moroccan officials on the development of the Morocco-USA partnership, as well as on regional issues, given the key role played by Morocco in the region in terms of peace and security, and other questions of common interest.

David Hale discussed in this connection with Foreign minister Nasser Bourita means to further reinforce the strategic dialogue between the two allied countries, in addition to regional issues of shared interest, said a statement by the ministry of foreign affairs.

The Sahara issue will undoubtedly be at the center of talks of the US Under-Secretary of State with Moroccan officials, as David Hales trip to Morocco coincides with the ongoing debates on the Sahara issue at the level of the UN Security Council, with a briefing on MINURSO on April 1, followed the next day by the presentation of the new report of the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

The report will be debated on April 9 & 10 by the fifteen member countries of the Security Council, while a vote on a new resolution on the Sahara that is expected to renew the MINURSO mandate for another six months, is scheduled for April 29.

The process of quadripartite talks (between Morocco, Algeria, Polisario and Mauritania), initiated last December in Geneva, under the auspices of the UN Personal Envoy for the Sahara, Horst Kohler, will also be one of the main topics of the resolution.
About this blog

In the interests of doing something different to every other wine blogger, this blog delves into the world of wine data, instead of wine itself. The intention is to ferret out some of the interesting stuff, and to bring it out into the light, for everyone to see. In particular, I draw pictures of the data  as William Playfair said (in 1805): "whatever can be expressed in numbers may be represented by lines". So, I'd rather show you a graph than a paragraph. Hopefully, this will be both interesting and informative.
All of the materials used here are copyright Doug Stowe.

Photos of our students at work are published solely for the promotion of the Wisdom of the Hands program and

Other uses are strictly prohibited and copyright will be enforced.

Questions about Wisdom of the Hands can be addressed to
Mexican architect and founder of Rojkind Arquitectos Michel Rojkind has been appointed as the new Senior Vice President of Architecture at The We Company, an extension company of WeWork.

Michel Rojkind will closely work with BIG's founder Bjarke Ingels for the company's major projects as the company continues to grow for its upcoming projects. Bjarke Ingels was oppointed as Chief Architect of the company in May 2018.

Rojkind will be heading his first major project for the company's new 18,581-square-metre building in Bentonville, Arkansas, which will be a new location of the company. The new building will house retail, community space and work space for more than 3,200 WeWork members across several floors, according to a company's news release.

Global co-working company WeWork works and develops work spaces that can led community-led interaction spaces for different business tenants. The new building will be the new built project and its first location in Arkansas. Groundbreaking for the building is scheduled for 2020.

Rojkind Arquitectos completed Foro Boca Concert Hall in 2017 in the coastline of Mexico. Image  Jaime Navarro

"It's part of an ecosystem changing how we work, live and learn all over the world and are thrilled to welcome Bentonville to our global community," said Miguel McKelvey, WeWork co-founder and chief culture officer, reported Arkansas Online.

"Coming from New York city, when we first thought of coming to Bentonville I felt, 'Why?'" McKelvey said. "Then I came here." The quality of life is outstanding, he said, and so is the entrepreneurial climate, he said. His company and the town will be a perfect fit, he said.

"The We Company will provide to the project its fully integrated platform including core and shell design." The We Company said in a statement: "construction, and management expertise to service small and medium-sized businesses as well as to tap the areas large enterprise community."

Rojkind, 49, founded Rojkind Arquitectos in 2002 in Mexico and Rojkind Arquitectos produces multi-scaled projects in Mexico and outside of Mexico. Rojkind is known with his community-driven design approach during his design process.

Foro Boca Concert Hall in Mexico, R432 - a mixed-use tower in downtown Mexico City, Tori Tori Restaurant in Mexico City, High Park completed in 2015 in Monterrey among his well-known projects. Michel Rojkind is Honorary Member of World Architecture Community and won the WA Award in the 9th Cycle with R432 project.

Rojkind Arquitectos' Tori Tori Restaurant completed in 2010 in Mexico City. Image  Paul River

The We Company is developed as a larger extension of WeWork, like WeGrow - an education platform and WeLive - a housing development. WeGrow completed its first school with BIG on West 18th Street in Manhattan, the school aimed at focusing on children's abilities and revaling their talents at early stages.

WeWork was founded in 2010, and led by three entrepreneurs Adam Neumann, Rebekah Neumann and Miguel McKelvey in New York - the company transforms buildings into beautiful, dynamic environment for creativity with a detailed focus and connection.

Top image: Michel Rojkind. Image  Mariana Milanesi

> via WeWork
Austria and Czech Republic-based design firm Vasku & Klug has transformed the magnificent Sala Reale, once the waiting room of the Royal House of Savoy, into a dynamic design pool at this year's Salone del Mobile, the worlds leading furniture and design trade fair which will kick off on April 9, 2019 and continue until April 14, 2019 in Milan, Italy.

More than 40 top designers and furniture producers from around Austria will be represented at the worlds most influential design event, the Salone del Mobile. A series of pink-colored arches, circular bases and a sea of foam will showcase the Austrian furniture and brands to the visitors at a pinkish design pool.

For the eighth time already, Advantage Austria will be showcasing a top-class selection of the latest design products from around Austria parallel to the Milan Furniture Fair.

Image courtesy of Advantage Austria

This year, the event will be held in the Sala Reale, which once served as the royal familys private waiting room at Milans central station. The exclusive location opens its door for the first time in history during "Fuorisalone", and will host the Austrian exhibition under the motto "Pleasure & Treasure", a concept created by the international renowned and recognised architects Vasku & Klug.

From imperial waiting room to design pool

"The Austrian exhibition will be an extraordinary scenographic experience," promise architects Michael Vasku and Andreas Klug.

"We are transforming the magnificent Sala Reale, once the waiting room of the Royal House of Savoy, into a design pool." Visitors will have to wade through a sea of foam to find their way to the exhibits. Furniture and interior products from more than 40 Austrian designers and manufacturers are set to be showcased using this explorative approach.

Image  Vasku & Klug

Design exhibition illustrates every facet of interior design

The exhibition will showcase a wide range of products from the field of Austrian interior design  from home accessories such as table mirrors to office furniture, tableware and lighting. The exhibits themselves were selected by a jury of four experts based on criteria such as degree of innovation, craftsmanship as well as formal, aesthetic and functional qualities.

"The level of the submissions was very high," explained Reanne Leuning, Project Manager and Director of Creative Industries at Advantage Austria.

"We are very much looking forward to presenting the high-quality design objects to a specialist international audience in an integrative and charming way."

Image courtesy of Advantage Austria

The Sala Reale in Milans central station will serve as this years exhibition venue, despite being rarely accessible to the public. The venue will open its doors for the first time to showcase the Austrian exhibition as part of the Design Week.

Working together with design experts, Advantage Austria in Milan, Consul Gudrun Hager, visited various locations to examine their originality and assess staging possibilities. It was the exclusivity and complexity of the Sala Reale that captured the imagination: the venues splendour is combined with urbanity and industriousness thanks to its connection to Milans central station.

Image courtesy of Advantage Austria

"The Sala Reale is a hidden gem in a great central location and is a genuine local secret," highlighted Gudrun Hager. "The venue spans 400 square metres over two floors and will be used to stage our chosen design highlights from across Austria in a unique way."

The Salone del Mobile is the worlds leading furniture and design trade fair, opening its doors to over 400,000 visitors from 188 countries every year  and thats not including guests at the shows of the Fuorisalone, which takes place at the same time each year.

Image courtesy of Advantage Austria

The Austrian design exhibition as part of Milan Design Week is thus hugely important, offering exhibitors the ideal opportunity to meet trendsetters and VIPs, to discover potential partners for future cooperation and to identify new distribution channels.

"With its global appeal, Milan Design Week represents a dynamic stage and source of inspiration for the creative industries," claimed Michael Otter, Director of Advantage Austria.

Vasku & Klug also created a dynamic installation - named "Breath of Light" for a lighting design company Preciosa at Salone del Mobile last year. Vasku & Klug Studio, founded in 2011, collaborates with clients worldwide, on architecture, interior design and exhibition architecture projects.

> via Advantage Austria
The Telugu remake of 96, tentatively titled Jaanu, starring Sharwanand and Samantha, was launched on the Ugadi festive day. The films regular shooting will kick-start soon in this month. A major part of the films story is set in Vizag and Hyderabad.

And, the latest update is that Jaanu will first be shot in the African country of Kenya. Sharwa will be been as a photographer in the movie, and scenes featuring him could be shot there. The Kenya schedule will last for 15 days. The team will later move to Vizag and finally to Hyderabad to wrap up the remaining shoot.

Jaanus entire shooting formalities will conclude by July. The movie is expected to hit screens in September. 96s director Prem Kumar is helming the Telugu remake as well. Dil Raju is producing the movie.









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The President of Mozambique Filipe Jacinto Nyusi has expressed thanks to King Mohammed VI for the humanitarian aid provided to his country to alleviate the impact of hurricane Idai.

This came in a message he addressed to the Sovereign and that was conveyed Monday in rabat by Mozambican Foreign Minister Jose Condunga Pacheco to his Moroccan counterpart Nasser Bourita.

The Mozambican official told the media after his meeting with Bourita that without this support, we would have faced a very difficult situation. The first aid was a success, Pacheco said, adding that the countrys reconstruction program had been launched.

Following the massive floods that destroyed last month swathes of lands leaving victims and considerable damage to fields and infrastructure, King Mohammed VI ordered the shipment of an urgent humanitarian aid to Mozambique.

The 39 ton-aid consisted mainly of tents, blankets and foodstuff.

The Mozambican Foreign Minister also announced that Mozambique is hosting the next Africa-USA Economic Summit, and urged the two countries to join forces to establish a business forum that will work for the continents economic development.

This visit provides an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to strengthen solidarity, friendship and bilateral cooperation, particularly in the economic field and to establish a fruitful and solid relationship with the Kingdom, Pacheco said, stressing that it is also an occasion to discuss bilateral, continental and international issues.

For his part, Bourita noted that this meeting was an opportunity to discuss ways to boost bilateral relations, based on the historical relations between Rabat and Maputo.

The discussions with the Mozambican official also examined ways to implement cooperation mechanisms and build a relationship based on clarity, mutual understanding and respect for the interests of both countries so as to resolve regional problems rather than complicate them, Bourita said.
by Abigail Akavia

Israels minister of justice stars in an ad for the perfume Fascismif you follow Israeli politics even superficially, you probably have heard about this election campaign video for the New Right party, which sparked controversy in Israeli as well as international media. If youve actually watched it, you may have realized it is (or purports to be) ironic, though you would need the subtitled version to make the irony clear. To a non-Hebrew speaker watching the non-subtitled version, Ayelet Shaked seems to seductively model the perfume Fascism. Shot in black-and-white, she has the affectations of a sultry film star, complete with hair flip, donning of blazer (at least, thankfully, she is not filmed taking the blazer off), and caressing of a stair railing. A sexy female voice-over croons Shakeds proposed measures for the restraining of judicial powers, a judicial revolution which has been her main goal as justice minister, and which she hopes to further in the next administration, to be assembled following the upcoming elections for parliament tomorrow (April 9th). Shaked has been vocal and active against what right-wingers have long considered the ultra-liberal tendencies of Israels Supreme Courtnamely, its concern for the liberties and human rights of Palestinians.

For example, the ministry under her lead has transferred the jurisdiction of the occupied territories from the Supreme Court to the Jerusalem court of administrative affairs, especially in matters pertaining to building and construction, and entry and exit. She has also pushed for a law that would allow the parliament to override the Supreme Courts authority to disqualify any law contradicting The Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, which enjoys super-legal status (Israel does not have a constitution, but a set of Basic or Constitutional Laws that can only be changed by a supermajority in parliament). That the Supreme Court should uphold the Human Dignity and Liberty of individuals and groups that are not part of the hegemonic majority (i.e. non-Jewish) is anathema to Shaked and her far-right party members. In an Israel which is clearly more right-leaning than ever, the sentiment that Palestinians in the occupied territories (in itself a term that is falling out of the norm and into the purview of the delusional left) are undeserving of basic human rights or simple human dignity, is becoming alarmingly common.

But back to the perfume ad: is Shaked simply saying, I am a proud fascist? The controversy, no doubt deliberate, revolved partly around this issue: that the subtle irony of the video, not to mention its actual punch-line, might be lost on anyone who mistakenly takes the ad at face value. Ill suggest below how we might unpack this irony, both in its local context and by comparing it to Melania Trumps infamous I really dont care jacket, another instance of a plausible fascist performance with multi-layered significance.

The more straightforward punchline, delivered in Hebrew by Shaked as she looks straight at the camera, is smells like democracy to me. Her measures to limit the judicial powers of the Supreme Court are touted as necessary to ensure Israels Jewish and democratic character. (The court is still widely perceived to be a bunch of unelected lefties, even though several conservative judges have been appointed in recent years.) The growing tendency in Israeli political life to interpret democratic as for Jews only is, precisely, proto-fascist. Thus, commentators have written that, under the thin veil of a tongue-in-cheek prank, Shaked is in fact unabashedly campaigning for fascism. Even as she is claiming to smell something elseas if trampling on human rights is a matter of aesthetic perceptionShaked advances a clearly fascist agenda. As a mobilizing message to Shakeds electorate, however, the ad is meant to mock the Israeli left for their opposition to her measures. In Israeli idiom, fascist is the go-to outcry of lefties against nationalistic extremism, almost a knee jerk reaction to right-wingers contempt for minorities and aspirations to promote a Jewish nation-state. The term marks its user as a universalist liberal, one who would have Israel be democratic first and Jewish second rather than the other way around. The colloquial counter-pejorative is, simply, leftist (smolani), which has evolved into a veritable derogatory term in contemporary Israeli discourse (with or without the add-on traitor). Indeed, Shaked promoted the video on Twitter with the tag the perfume that leftists wont like. Shakeds ad taunts her opponents with their own term of abuse, essentially saying, you can call me whatever you want, but Ill keep doing my thing.

In 2013, historian and cultural critic Ofri Ilani could still write that fascism hasnt truly come to Israeli society. This was his conclusion precisely because of the ubiquity of the anti-fascist rhetoric among the upper middle class. This rhetoric was, at the time, a partly effective strategy that allowed the upper middle class the luxury of feeling politically active while defending their cushioned liberal life-style. Six years later, when Benjamin Netanyahu aka King Bibi might plausibly win a fifth term as prime minister even as he is faced with charges of bribery and fraud, and when far-right ideology is more entrenched in the government than everfor example, Shaked and her partner at the helm of the New Right, Naftali Bennett, are openly anti-gay, and are advancing not only a judiciary revolution but also public education that conforms with nationalist ideals and orthodox Judaismthe danger of fascist bigotry and jingoism taking over national politics seems much more imminent. Another big difference between Ilanis 2013 perspective and where we are today is, of course, the difference in world politics. Israel would not become truly fascist as long as Barack Obama was leader of the free world, wrote Ilani.

In the age of Trump, the image of Shaked looking liberals in the eye and daring them to call her fascist is a more concrete threat. That the packaging is blatantly sexy and democratic makes it all the more terrifying. Indeed, that a totalitarian regime can be advanced by democratic means is part of the dangerous appeal of such populist means. As Slavoj Zizek wrote in 2016, under the conditions of global capitalism, the democratic nation-state cannot stand up for itself without opening itself up to rightist populism. Shakeds proposed judiciary revolution, along with her vehement stance against asylum seekers, reminds one of nationalistic tendencies in European countries such as Poland and Hungary, whose democratic regimes are quickly dissolving into autocracy, and with whose leaders Netanyahu is happy to tighten relations, along with his closeness to Trump and Putin.

Within an international frame, the irony of Shakeds ad is (probably unintentionally) complex, for it at once signals a relationship between the Israeli far-right and global trends, and situates the Israeli version as separate from the global context. Fascism, in theory, is not indigenous to Israeli culture, for it is marked as a European phenomenon, antisemitic in the traditional sense, and so antithetical to Israeli-ness. Claims of fascism can easily be dismissed by the Israeli public as culturally irrelevant; signs of proto-fascism dont press the collective panic button with the same urgency that one might expect. It is this that international audiences find so horrifying and mind-boggling about contemporary Israeli politics, along the lines of: how can Israelis be so blatantly abusive of minority rights after what the Jews have suffered in Europe. Indeed, for the most part, Israelis still view themselves as victims, and almost revel in their own sense of localism. Such victimhood and tribalism have been cultivated by Israeli leadership in the last 25 years. Thus, those for whom fascism is a problem are marked as not-us, champions of a universalist-humanistic worldview that is not of here.

On the other hand, the Trump regime and our current era of fake news is the unavoidable global context in which Shakeds gesture should be understood, both in how it manipulates appearances for political gain (Im not a fascist! Yes, I am! hmmm, what does it smell like to you?) and in its reflection of the rights willingnesseagerness, almostto withstand what the Left sees as its most vilifying slams. These are two sides of the same phenomenon, which the Trump administration so clearly models in its mastery of spinning critical media coverage. Shakeds video was quickly compared to Saturday Night Lives 2017 parodic perfume ad starring Scarlett Johansson as Ivanka Trump, Complicit: the fragrance for the woman who could stop all this, but wont. But I was reminded of a different episode in which Trump and his family drove the media crazy with mixed messages of fascism bound up in a pretty, fashionable package. In June 2018, at the peak of the humanitarian crisis at the US southern border (a crisis which is ongoing, we should not forget), Melania Trump boarded a plane to visit migrant children in a detention center in Texas. She was wearing a Zara military-green jacket with the phrase I really dont care, do U? printed, graffiti-style, on its back. The astounding fashion moment caused an uproar and a media frenzy, with some commentators attempting to excuse the First Lady for an unfortunate but unintentional choice of garment, and others pointing to the absurdity of the idea that a former model and professional luxury-clothes wearer such as Mrs. Trump would inadvertently wear a $39 jacket in public, and one that happens to have an appallingly inappropriate phrase written on it at that. Months later, Mrs. Trump said in an interview that she obviously didnt wear the jacket to meet the detained children, but only to go on and off the plane, precisely in order to enrage the media. It was  for the left-wing media who are criticizing me, she said. And I want to show them that I dont care. You could criticize. Whatever you wanna say, you can say. Indeed, at the time of the incident similar claims had already been made, for example by celebrity-fashion analysts and bloggers Tom & Lorenzo, to the effect that Mrs. Trumps actions were a deliberate trolling, a successful attempt to divert the conversation away from her husbands actual policy. The influential bloggers further suggested that this move was in accordance with the administrations strategy of throwing women (Melania, Ivanka, Sarah Huckabee Sanders) into the line of fire by saying or doing something outrageous (e.g. Ivankas posting of images with her children while families were being ripped apart at the border).

So, there are two, not mutually exclusive, critical claims here: one, that there is no hidden message because Mrs. Trump was wearing her heart on her sleevethat she in fact meant to say, I dont give a hoot about asylum seekers being caged and toddlers being snatched away from their parents. Second, that she was doing her job as the administrations professional pretty face, and that the words on her jacket were only meaningful for their shock value. These words bait the media to talk about what shes wearing, only to then allow Republicans to theatrically roll their eyes and decry the superficial concerns of the fake-news media. Both claims give Mrs. Trump a measure of agency, rather than assuming she is an illiterate puppet (how else can one say that she wore this particular jacket in this particular occasion by mistake?). It is interesting to see how, especially if we accept the second claim, the representational role of First Lady evolves under such a system of theatrical government from its traditional confines into an insidious force for harm. Mrs. Trumps role, inasmuch as it is focused on superficiality and (misleading) appearances, is perhaps just as limiting and limited as the traditional one, even though no fashion choice imaginable could signal a clearer break from First Lady representability.

What has been less frequently discussed in the coverage of Mrs. Trumps I really dont care appearance is that the phrase can be considered a fascist motto. It is an English version of the Italian me ne frego (tonally closer to I dont give a damn) which became a fascist call for arms since the end of WW1. Italian writer and translator Giovanni Tiso describes the history of the use of the phrase, from the time it was chanted by Italian special forces to signify that they didnt care if they should lose their lives in battle, through Mussolinis elevation of the slogan to the philosophy of his regime, signifying an acceptance of violence and, later, a detached moral autocracy. The phrase has survived as a marker of ideological nostalgia, and can be found nowadays on t-shirts and other neofascist merchandise. Cynthia Miller-Idriss, a professor of education and sociology based in Washington, conducts research about far-right youth culture. She has recently written about the way that high-end fashion items are used to mobilize the far right. The image of the far-righter as a skinhead in combat boots is changing; the extremist today is trendy, wearing expensive clothing embedded with far-right symbols. These coded messages, including e.g. Viking symbols, and English texts and phrases like Hate Club or White Fist, create and signal the fact of belonging to a specific, often underground, political community. Some of these coded messages, according to Miller-Idriss, deliberately sit in a gray zone of literal significance, offering plausible deniability to law enforcement, parents and other authorities. For example, a purple T-shirt that says, in big white block letters, my favorite color is white, could be read as a white supremacist message or as a humorous play on the color of the shirt. The I really dont care jacket arguably falls into this gray zone category. To one less familiar with fascist history and/or who doesnt know the Italian phrase, it may sound simply like a statement of cheeky (if juvenile) indifference. To those in the know it resonates with and further amplifies the sense of nationalistic mobilization and valorization of violence. Even if Melania Trump herself, who speaks Italian, was not aware of this historical context, it is improbable to think that no-one around her, in an administration notorious for its far-right sympathizers, recognized the phrase and its references. And if they have, they must have found the occasion of her visit to detained immigrant children suitable for sending a fascist-themed message to Trumps far-right support base.

A final note of comparison between the two cases of political propaganda I discuss here. Since I did hint at the chauvinistic norm that invites scrutiny of Mrs. Trumps clothingon which Trumps administration was capitalizing, of courseI will allow myself a brief comment on the question of the sexism of Shakeds ad. Of course the perfume ad as a genre is inherently sexist, and Shaked allows herself to be objectified in her campaign video, even if it ultimately amounts to a joke. For it is undeniable that part of the delectability of this joke comes from the genre in which it is told and the prettiness of the face that tells it. Both Melania Trump and Ayelet Shaked use their looks to say call me a fascist, I really dont care.
by Samia Altaf

In May 2014, a young man beat his twenty-year-old sister, Farzana, to death by hitting her head with a brick. He did this in broad daylight just outside the High Court building in Lahore, the cultural, artistic and academic capital of Pakistan. He did it as local policemen and passersby looked on, lawyers in their black flowing robes went in and out of their offices and barely fifty yards away, inside the building, the bewigged and begowned Chief Justice sat with his hand on the polished gavel.

Farzana, a young woman from a lower-middle-class family, had married a man against her familys wishes. She had come to the High Court that day to provide proof that she had married voluntarily and had not been abducted by her husband as her family claimed when they filed the case to get her back. Farzana was dead, the bridal henna still bright red on her hands and feet, before her case was called for hearing by the court.

Though this was one in a string of incidents of violence against women, and though many similar incidents have happened in Pakistan since, the shock and horror of the murder consumed us for a few days and became international news. On May 29, 2014, the BBC asked, How can families do this?

One answer to the question is that families can perpetrate violence against their daughters because they have years of practice doing so every day. Women in Pakistan live in a culture of ambient violence, and incidents of exaggerated violence labeled honor killings are just lamentable spikes in the ambient violence of their everyday lives.

Daughters belong to their families. They are the property of the family, which has the right to use and dispose of them as it sees fit in its own interest. The real dispute in a case like Farzanas was over who owned the asset, the paternal family or a husband acquired independently against the familys wishes. No one intervened because they saw and understood that Farzanas father and brother were asserting their right over their property.

Fathers and brothers deciding for daughters and sisters regarding, employment, education, travel and even minor activities of daily life is common in South Asia across all classes, even in educated households. And the decisions are defended and enforced by the mothers. Most of the time this is done in a framework of love and with care, a framework that is internalized by the women who are coaxed or cajoled into accepting the protection as being in their own best interest. In cases of non-acceptance, corrective measures are employed, such as exclusion from the household or the larger community. When cajoling or arm-twisting fails, violence is the next recourse.

Farzana, like thousands of other girls, had likely started to suffer benign violence at the hands of her family from the day she was born. She had a lower status in her parental home and was not treated as well as her brothers. She received less food, less medical attention and less education. She had fewer opportunities for employment, reduced opportunities to enjoy occupying public space, and diminished freedom of movement. Almost all decisions related to these choices were made for the family and endorsed by the mothers who justified the special privileges of the brothers as commensurate with their role as her protectors.

The confirmation of the lesser worth of a woman is institutionalized in the rules of inheritance. A daughters share in inheritance is half that of her brothers. A wife inherits one-sixth of her husbands estate though a husband inherits the entirety of a wifes. A Pakistani woman marrying a foreigner cannot confer citizenship on her husband whereas a man can. A wife cannot initiate divorce, she has to ask the husband for one; he may or may not agree to give it. These manifestations of lesser worth are taken for granted and the lower status of women feeds into the internalization of ambient violence.

Pakistan ranks 150 out of 153 countries on the Georgetown Institutes Women, Peace and Security Index and is considered among the five worst countries for women in the world. According to the UNDPs Gender Inequality Index, Pakistan was ranked 145 out of 187 countries. The Aurat Foundations annual report on violence against women, which included only reported cases, documented a 6.7 percent increase in extraordinary violence over the preceding year. Sexual assaults increased by 48 percent, acid throwing by 37.5 percent, honor killings by 27 percent and domestic violence by 25 percent.

Pakistan is one of the few countries in the world with laws that directly repress women, including those who are supposedly empowered by education or their class status. These laws pertain to citizenship rights, marriage and divorce, inheritance and property transfer. It is also one of the few countries in the world where a member of the National Assembly described murder of women for the crime of wanting to marry a person of their own choice as a cultural practice.

This situation persists across social groups. In accepting their subordinate position women are complicit in the construction of their own unequal status that they perpetuate as mothers and grandmothers. In most homes, daughters are treated with gentleness and care and acculturated without overt coercion. They are made to accept by subtle and not so subtle ways that they have limited choices and personal agency. Associating these patriarchal attitudes with shame or honor is an effective way of embedding them deep inside the psyche of the family. That could explain why even families that move abroad can kill their daughters when they interpret their independence as bringing shame on the family.

This was the context of Farzanas life. Raised to defer and submit, she failed to comply with the stereotype. Something forced her to break out of the claustrophobic expectations that shaped her life to exercise personal agency, to insist on being a person and not a piece of property. With that act of defiance Farzana created a problem and became a liability that had to be written off.

One can be sure this was probably not the first time her brother had hit Farzana. In my work as a physician I have encountered many victims of beatings and heard the beatings justified because the woman needed to be taught to respect her brother, father, or husband and become an obedient wife and mother.

It was thus not unusual for Farzanas brother to revert to type and on that fateful day beat his sister to death while the father looked on. Nor was it out of the ordinary for the bystanders to look on without interfering, for they, too, were brothers and fathers familiar with the context of womens lives. They may not have been beating their daughters or their sisters, but in their homes, too, girls were suffering from a lesser violence, that of less food, less medical care, less education, and less freedom compared to their brothers.

The extraordinary violence rests on the acceptance and persistence of the lesser violence, much like a person with untreated chronic infection manifesting as low- grade fever can have a dangerously high spike at times. It is to be expected if the underlying pathology remains untreated.

The Pakistani government has attempted to address the situation. There was a flurry of legislative initiatives in 2014. The Punjab provincial assembly introduced the Punjab Reproductive, Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health Authority Act, the Punjab Status of Women Act, and the Punjab Fair Representation of Women Act. The Baluchistan Assembly introduced the Baluchistan Domestic Violence Prevention and Protection Act and the Promotion of Breast Feeding and Child Nutrition Act. The Punjab government also introduced police stations with separate cells for women where psychosocial services were provided. There has also been the increased induction of female judges in the judiciary. Since 2010 there has been the overarching Protection of Women Act passed by legislature to make violence against women, of the kind meted out to Farzana, a criminal offense.

Most of this legislation awaits ratification, and that which has been ratified awaits regulations for implementation. The court system is slow and conviction rates low due to lack of sufficient evidence. Many such crimes are dealt with in traditional forums where the perpetrators are forgiven or absolved by the payment of blood money. Very often the underlying sentiment in such forums is one that lauds male perpetrators for their acts of bravery to protect the family honor.

The Pakistani author Mohammed Hanif in his novel Our Sister of Alice Bhatti has one of the characters comment on the treatment of sisters and daughters by their families: They treat her like a slave they bought at a clearance sale.

That provides the short answer to the BBCs question of how they can do it. They can do it just as easily as the slave masters did it to their slaves.
Photo: Pictorial Parade/Getty Images

A few years ago I was preparing to write a magazine profile of Rodrigo Duterte, who had then recently been elected as president of the Philippines, when I came across The White Mans Burden, Rudyard Kiplings famous ode to imperialism, in a history book. I had never seen the full title before: The White Mans Burden: The United States and the Philippine Islands. I had always thought it was a racist relic of the British empire! But no, Kipling wrote it after the U.S. won the Philippines from the Spanish in the Spanish-American War in 1898. The victory had announced America as a world power to be reckoned with, complete with overseas colonies. Kipling was posing himself as an emissary from the older and wiser imperial power with advice for the upstart on how to deal with their new brown people: Take up the White Mans burden  / Send forth the best ye breed  / Go bind your sons to exile / To serve your captives need.

Only an American such as myself could be so totally oblivious to their own countrys imperial past. One of the truly distinctive features of the United States empire is how persistently ignored it has been, the historian Daniel Immerwahr writes in his introduction to How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States, his new book on the United States overseas empire. Triumphalist accounts of the U.S.s rise to superpower status usually begin with World War II: Pearl Harbor roused the sleeping giant to save the world from fascism. But if the United States had been sleeping, it was only a brief nap after a vigorous workout. From the early 19th century through the 20th, the U.S. assembled a sprawling overseas empire, which grew to include the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, Hawaii, Alaska, the Panama Canal Zone, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa, comprising millions of colonial subjects. This story resists a happy moral arc.

U.S. imperial rule was defined at various times by neglect, patronizing racism, and brutal military campaigns. As Immerwhar writes, people in the territories were shot, shelled, starved, interned, dispossessed, tortured, and experimented on. What they havent been, by and large, is seen. He aims to correct this state of affairs by telling U.S. history from the point of view of the territories. While many commentators on U.S. empire have sought to shock Americans out of what the historian Niall Ferguson has called Americas imperial denial by focusing searing attention on its misdeeds, Immerwahrs book is not primarily an expose. He often deploys the good-natured quirkiness of a TED-talker; the book is full of pop-culture references and interesting anecdotes that challenge common sense. Immerwahrs point is not to condemn empire but to explain it. And by doing so, he helps us better understand American foreign and military policy in the present  and the future.

The founders imagined the U.S. as an empire, despite the countrys revolutionary beginnings. I am persuaded no constitution was ever before so well calculated as ours for extensive empire and self government, wrote Thomas Jefferson. The country expanded by acquiring territories, which were ruled by the federal government with absolute authority, much like colonies. The residents of these territories  Native Americans, Catholics, free blacks, and unruly squatters  were seen as an alien threat to the white, Protestant utopia the founders hoped to create. The idea was for the government to orchestrate the orderly settlement of the territories before they became states, but this plan, in Immerwhars telling, was overwhelmed by rapid population growth, which sent settlers surging over the Appalachian Mountains in the mid-1800s. As settlers literally raced for land on horseback at the shot of a pistol, the native people who already lived there were driven into ever smaller territories and reservations.

Continental expansion provided material and ideological justification for overseas expansion. In order to feed the still-booming population on the continent, the U.S. annexed its first overseas territories in 1857: a few hundred tiny islands covered in guano, a valuable source of fertilizer at the time. At the same time, the settling of the American west led to the romanticization of the frontier. Where the founders had fretted over early settlers, afraid they might start wars with the native peoples or infringe on property rights (George Washington held considerable land in the territories), the frontiersman Daniel Boone was rescued from obscurity and made into a national hero by the mid-19th century. In the late 1800s, the historian Frederick Jackson Turner famously argued that the struggle to settle the frontier had shaped the national character into one of resourceful individualism, which laid the groundwork for American democracy itself.

One person who caught frontier fever was the young Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt was East Coast royalty, but spent much of his youth gallivanting out west, building a myth of himself as a frontiersman by writing books with titles like Hunting Trips of a Ranchman. Roosevelt was also an insatiable warmonger who crowed that the most ultimately righteous of all wars is a war with savages. A photo included in Immerwahrs book of a 20-something Roosevelt posing stiffly in a buckskin suit with his hands gripped around a rifle suggests his obsession with belligerent manliness may have been a form of overcompensation. (Give a sissy a gun and he will kill everything in sight, is what Gore Vidal once wrote of Roosevelt.) By the 1890s, the frontier had been closed on the continent, but Roosevelt was in luck, for the fading Spanish empire was in the process of brutally suppressing a rebellion in Cuba which, along with the sinking of the USS Maine, served as the pretext for the Spanish-American war.

With the victory over the Spanish in 1898, and the subsequent acquisition of the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam, the colonies took the place of the western frontier as the blank space on which to project American ambitions to shape a new world. The empire was memorialized in songs and books, while Americans hung redrawn maps on their walls and flocked to the First Greater America Colonial Exposition in Omaha, where a group of Filipinos thrilled the crowd with a rendition of Therell Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight. The famed architect Daniel Burnham, designer of the Flatiron Building, was commissioned to redesign Manilas public spaces, and built an imperial complex in neoclassical style outside of the capital, modeling it after the hill stations where British colonizers cooled off in the summers.

Americans who shouldered the White Mans Burden often took advantage of the colonies second-class status to carry out ambitious schemes free from regulations and public scrutiny on the mainland. American doctors and researchers used Puerto Rico as a giant laboratory in which ethics often fell by the wayside. One particularly egregious case Immerwhar brings to light is that of Dr. Cornelius P. Rhoads. Sent to Puerto Rico to help with a hookworm epidemic, he had to flee after it was revealed hed written a letter to an American associate filled with racist vitriol, in which he seemingly confessed to murdering eight Puerto Ricans and transplanting cancer into several more to help bring about the genocide which, he wrote, would be the only way to save the island. While it was never proven that Rhoads actually killed anyone  he later claimed he was joking  it still seems a bit odd that Rhoads had a prestigious oncology award at Sloan-Kettering named after him until 2003.

The triumphant mood changed quickly after 1898. Although the U.S. had easily defeated the Spanish, it was soon bogged down in a war against its former ally in the Philippines, the nationalist Emilio Aguinaldo, who had been led to believe that he would be recognized as the leader of a newly independent nation after helping America defeat Spain. Unfortunately for Aguinaldo, when an ambivalent President William McKinley asked God what to do with the islands, the big guy told him to keep them, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them, as McKinley recounted in a speech. Aguinaldo turned on his new imperial master.

The PhilippineAmerican war was waged through the same erratic strategy of wanton violence plus ham-fisted attempts to make nice with the natives that would define future counterinsurgency campaigns. When they werent building roads or improving sanitation, U.S. soldiers burned farmland to the ground, waterboarded prisoners, and rounded up villages suspected of harboring insurgents in reconcentration camps. The war is estimated to have killed 4,196 U.S. troops and 775,000 Filipinos, a staggeringly lopsided body count which betrays the American tendency to visit mass destruction on civilians and combatants alike.

After insurgents killed 45 U.S. troops in an ambush in the town of Balangiga, on the southern island of Samar, American soldiers rampaged through the countryside, burning rice and buildings in revenge. The interior of Samar must be made a howling wilderness, said General Jacob H. Smith of the occupying forces. I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn, the more you kill and burn the better you will please me. The atrocities sparked outrage at home, fueling a growing anti-imperialist movement. A century before the Iraq War awakened many Americans to the hypocrisy of conquering a people in order to free them, Mark Twain exposed the contradiction in biting commentaries. There must be two Americas, he wrote, one that sets the captive free, and one that takes a once-captives new freedom away from him, and picks a quarrel with him with nothing to found it on.

Today, the PhilippineAmerican War has largely been forgotten. Reading about it, I wondered why it is not remembered better among the many other instances in which American values were starkly undermined by the actual conduct of Americans working in their name. A year before the controversy around the Confederate monument in Charlottesville erupted into a national firestorm, the return of six bells looted by U.S. soldiers from Balangiga barely warranted a mention in the press. The memory of the PhilippineAmerican War is not so forgotten in the Philippines, where a recent blockbuster biopic of the young Filipino general Antonio Luna portrayed his American adversaries as pompous xenophobes, according to one review. Perhaps the election of Duterte, whose flagrant disregard for human rights and rabid anti-Americanism has bewildered many observers in the U.S., is a resurfacing of the Philippines traumatic colonial past.

Why are so few Americans aware of this history? How to Hide an Empire shows that many of the events that happened in the colonies are not remembered today because they were not deemed important at the time by the people who told memorable stories. This might seem like common sense, but the way we talk about historical amnesia suggests a past in which the facts were clear. At its best, Immerwahrs book describes not only a forgotten history but a history of forgetting itself, as when Franklin Roosevelt removed prominent mention of a simultaneous Japanese attack on the Philippines from his famous address to congress after Pearl Harbor. As Immerwahr points out, FDR likely made the calculation that Americans wouldnt care as much about this island nation halfway across the world, compared to the one that was closer and more culturally aligned.

American imperial history was further suppressed during the Cold War, when the idea that the U.S. might be anything but a champion of democracy was almost solely propagated domestically by leftist critics of U.S. foreign policy. It was not hard for many people to imagine empire-building as a brief and unimportant blip in the history of the country. After all, the formal empire was largely dissolved after World War II, as part of the wider move toward decolonization among the developing world. Alaska and Hawaii became states. Puerto Rico gained semi-autonomy as a commonwealth. The Philippines, which had been occupied by the Japanese and suffered horrific destruction, gained independence.

Yet, in Immerwahrs telling, Americas empire did not disappear  it transformed. The U.S. reshuffled its imperial portfolio from large swaths of land to a string of military bases around the world, many of which are located in former imperial holdings. The U.S. became what he calls a pointillist empire, where military power is projected across the globe from hundreds of small patches of land. For Immerwahr, this transformation poses the puzzling question of why, at the height of its power, the U.S. decided to divest itself of all but a scattering of its territorial holdings. He argues that the rise of the global anti-colonial movement abroad and the civil rights movement at home made ruling imperial subjects politically impossible. At the same time, a series of innovations largely spearheaded by the U.S. military during World War II made it possible to reap many of the benefits of empire without undertaking colonization. These empire-killing technologies included advancements in communications, logistics, synthetics, and transportation which allowed U.S. troops and commerce to flow across the world as if it was all occupied territory.

In Immerwahrs telling, these technologies helped bring about a world where globalization replaced colonization as the great coordinating process. Market dominance replaced military might as the crux of American power. The U.S. came out on top because economic and technological advantages gained in World War II allowed it to outcompete other countries. He gives the example of how American dominance of the airline industry led to the virus-like spread of English throughout the world via the vector of international air traffic controllers. As the book nears the present day, Immerwahr narrates a number of interesting stories from far-flung U.S. military installations (did you know the Beatles were inspired by music they heard from U.S. troops stationed in Liverpool?), but the reader becomes increasingly curious about why, in an era of increasingly seamless globalization, the U.S. stationed troops, planes, and ships all around the world in the first place. Immerwahrs hyperfocus on territory physically controlled by the U.S., which was so crucial in the first half of the 20th century, begins to seem myopic when he addresses the second.

The historian Alfred McCoy offers a more complete view in his short and clarifying recent book In the Shadows of the American Century. America maintained its network of military bases after World War II to fight the Cold War, something barely discussed in How to Hide an Empire. American military supremacy provided the backbone of the American-led post-war order of alliances, economic treaties, international governing bodies, and pliant leaders (often installed through clandestine activities or invasion) that the U.S. constructed in the name of defeating communism and making the world safe for democratic capitalism. Far from being made obsolete, American military might secured the conditions for the market-based globalization that Immerwahr suggests replaced it.

Still, stripping empire to its roots in the control of territory reveals how even as the nature of empire changes, the way in which its hidden remains much the same. In the fall of 1950, Puerto Rican nationalists staged a violent uprising to protest the continued U.S. rule of the territory. A pair of nationalists attempted to assassinate President Harry Truman while he was sleeping. While the surviving assailant railed against specific injustices of U.S. imperialism on the island, the New York Times dismissed the uprising as one of those mad adventures that make no sense to outsiders. Such obfuscation resembles the response to 9/11, when Osama Bin Ladens long-standing resentment of Americas military presence in the Middle East was largely smothered by hyperpatriotic discourse in the U.S. that framed him solely as a madman who hated America for our freedoms. In both cases, the reality of empire was obscured to preserve what the historian William Appleman Williams once called Americas grand illusion that it might maintain a global empire, however informal, without fully confronting imperialisms contradiction of Americas professed values of freedom and self-determination.

It shows, also, that the dilemma of empire is as pressing today as it was in Mark Twains time. Donald Trump has made a lot of noise about winding down wars and withdrawing from alliances, but, seen from the far reaches of the pointillist empire, all of it seems as hollow as most of the other noises that issue from his mouth. Trump has shown little inclination to dismantle the world-spanning military apparatus that underpins Americas (yes, increasingly shaky) global supremacy.

The administrations latest budget features a $750 billion increase in military spending, much of which would presumably support the nearly 700 U.S. military installations maintained today. And Trump does not seem particularly reluctant to use American military power to dictate events abroad. He shockingly made the good decision to withdraw U.S. forces from the quagmire in Syria only to address the crisis in Venezuela with a reckless bellicosity that threatens to entangle those forces again. In his incessant hinting at military intervention in Venezuela, Trump brings to mind the arch-imperialist Teddy Roosevelts idea of big-stick diplomacy  though no one would accuse Trump of speaking softly. A military intervention in Venezuela in the name of democracy would be as hypocritical, and likely as disastrous, as the campaign in the Philippines that got Roosevelt so hot and bothered. Now is as good a time as ever to familiarize yourself with the history of U.S. imperialism, if only to remember what an asshole Teddy Roosevelt was.
Attorney General's impeachment process to be guided by Rapid City attorney

Sara Frankenstein has been selected by South Dakota House Speaker Spencer Gosch to act as special counsel to panel
Not extreme enough. Photo: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

Intelligencer staffers Benjamin Hart, Jonathan Chait, and Eric Levitz discuss the political fallout from the high-profile firings at the Department of Homeland Security and elsewhere in the security apparatus.

Ben: Yesterday, Homeland Security director Kirstjen Nielsen resigned at President Trumps request. Jon, you wrote that her refusal to break the law by clamping down on the border beyond judicial restraints is what ultimately led to her dismissal. Not to be naive about this, but wont Trump run into the same problem with her replacement, Kevin McAleenan, or anyone who takes his place? Is Trumps dissatisfaction more about posture than the execution of policy?

Jon: Yes, he probably will! My background assumption is that Trump is not a terribly smart person, and his actions often fail to advance a coherent long-term strategy. I know you love Trump, Ben, so Im sorry to offend.

Ben: I needed to hear this.

Eric: Yeah, I dont know. It is difficult to understand how Trump could believe that he can overcome legal constraints on his border enforcement options by simply replacing his DHS director. He can order McAleenan to reestablish family separation, but the judiciary would presumably still block it.

I do think a lot of Trump-era policy-making is for promotional use primarily  which is to say, that its designed to project a certain image to Fox News viewers more than to achieve an objective. In that sense, its possible that having a male DHS director say tough things about migrants into microphones will be more satisfactory for Trump than having a female one do so. (In other words, Nielsen might not resemble a DHS director out of central casting.)

Jon: Peripheral casting has talent, too. They get overlooked.

Eric: Haha.

Jon: I do think Trump is responsive to basic numbers about immigration, and he is apparently upset that his policy is failing. He does not grasp any of the constraints or the relation between policies and outcomes.

Eric: Its also possible that the real agent here isnt Trump but Stephen Miller.

Jon: Yeah, a deeper DHS purge seems more like a Miller play. Trump would not think below the top level of an agency.

Ben: That larger house cleaning includes the ouster of the head of the Secret Service and the looming dismissal of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services director. They will presumably be replaced by tough people, in Trumps parlance, though the latter position was already filled by a tough person.

CNN reports that Trump really did want to close parts of the U.S.-Mexico border last month  that it wasnt just a bluff  that he wanted to institute an even more extreme version of his child-separation policy from last year, and that he told officials to simply not admit anymore migrants, an order they did not heed.

I also fear were about to be privy to the rollout of some draconian new policy we hadnt even considered.

Jon: Literally just shuddered.

Eric: From what I understand, the Trump administrations best play is to use development aid to bribe the Mexican government into doing their dirt for them at Mexicos southern border (where American laws and public opinion are less of a constraint on what authorities can do to Central Americans headed north).

Ben: Trump won the 2016 election in large part by stirring up fears about immigration. But family separation is very unpopular, and his fearmongering didnt work nearly as well in 2018 as it did two years before. It seems to me that making unusually harsh policies even harsher is not a brilliant play going into 2020, but hey, I didnt think Trump would win last time. Do you think this is a political mistake?

Jon: Child separation was extremely unpopular  it lost more of his base than almost anything hes done. On the other hand, running against his own immigration policy seems pretty unattractive, too. Ive never understood how his everything is still terrible immigration message would translate to the campaign.

Eric: Then again, The immigration problem is fixed now, so you should pay less attention to your anxieties about demographic change in the United States, and think more about your immediate material interests isnt a great message for the Trumpist GOP either.

Jon: Running against Democratic ideological excess is his best message.If the economy is good, hell say he can keep it going while Democrats have a bunch of crazy, expensive ideas. If the economy is in recession, hes toast no matter what.

Eric: Yeah, I mostly agree. Though I think Democrats support open borders is among the most potent of the ideological excess arguments.

Ben: Regardless of the political wisdom, immigration enforcement seems to be a genuine obsession for Trump, to a degree I did not expect. Youd think he might lie and say the walls being built, declare that he has made it harder to come here both legally and illegally, focus on the booming economy, and call it a day. But no.

Eric: Yeah. Trump might be a nihilist in most respects, but he does seem to feel a deep, heartfelt disgust at the thought of non-rich brown people entering the U.S.
From a medication that helps stop internal bleeding to home visits to prevent the need for 911 calls, Rio Rancho Fire Rescue Department has been advancing its medical services.

Most of the services are recent additions, while others are expected to come online this summer.

I would absolutely say that were on the cutting edge in New Mexico and beyond, said department Medical Director Dr. Darren Braude, also a University of New Mexico professor of emergency medicine, EMS and anesthesiology.

Telemedicine

Battalion Chief Marc Sandoval said RRFR is the first department in New Mexico to have a telemedicine video-conferencing system that allows emergency medical responders and their patients to talk to doctors during calls.

Its basically like a HIPAA-compliant Facetime, he said.

HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which mandates privacy in personal medical information.

Braude said crews can usually handle situations on their own, but if they need to consult a doctor, it helps if the doctor can see the patient. Telemedicine also provides a good venue for a doctor to explain concerns to a patient who needs to go to the hospital but is resisting, he said.

The fire departments telemedicine system operates via laptop. Sandoval said responders first successfully used it in February, although the system has been in place for longer.

Ultrasound for hearts

Paramedic lieutenants have also begun using ultrasound machines to more accurately tell if a cardiac-arrest patients heart is pumping.

There may be a handful of places in the world  not only in the country where paramedics are able to do that, Braude said.

Providers in hospitals often use the technique, but its recently been introduced to field work, he said.

Sandoval said ultrasound is more accurate than a heart monitor, which may show electrical activity when the heart isnt compressing, and is an easier assessment than looking for a pulse.

What we dont want to do is do chest compressions when the heart is pumping, he said.

Fire Lt. Jessica Duron-Martinez said the ultrasound also helps crews see if theyve done everything they can.

Sandoval said Rio Ranchos three paramedic lieutenants, one working during each shift, have earned state certification for ultrasound and will respond wherever theyre needed in the city, typically coming from Station 1 on Southern Boulevard.

RRFR received approval to use the ultrasound machine in December, joining Albuquerque Fire Department and Albuquerque Ambulance, he said.

Stopping blood loss

In September, the fire department began using tranexamic acid, or TXA, a medicine that helps create clotting agents to stop severe internal bleeding. Its in all ambulances, and all Rio Rancho emergency medical service providers have been trained to administer it.

Braude said he believed RRFR was the only fire department in the metro area using it. TXA was used in gynecology and obstetrics for decades, and rediscovered for battlefield injuries before entering civilian emergency medicine.

Braude said surgery is the only way to stop internal bleeding, but it could take 30 minutes to get to UNM Hospital from Rio Rancho, depending on circumstances. TXA is important to keep people alive on the way.

Mechanical CPR

RRFR also has a LUCAS device, which does the chest compressions in CPR, freeing one or two members of an EMS crew to do other procedures.

Thats a lot of hands if you only have a limited number to begin with to do other important things, Braude said.

Sandoval said the LUCAS compresses the chest to the right depth at the right speed more consistently than a human does.

Braude said if eight or 10 people could respond to a cardiac arrest and take turns doing chest compressions, they might do them as well as the LUCAS. However, RRFR can afford enough staff members to send four or five people, so the device is better.

Also, if someone goes into cardiac arrest in a moving ambulance, he said, its much safer and easier for crews to use the LUCAS than manual chest compressions.

Paramedic lieutenants carry the devices. While waiting for the lieutenant, crew members perform manual CPR.

Sandoval said Rio Rancho Fire Rescue was the first agency to get such a device in the metro area two or three years ago. Albuquerque Fire Department and Albuquerque Ambulance have similar equipment now, he continued.

With the LUCAS and ultrasound, Braude said, paramedic lieutenants have the equipment because the department could afford to train and equip that small number of people.

It made the training easier, and it made the investment easier, he said.

In the works

RRFR is preparing two more programs Sandoval hopes will begin in mid-July. He expects both to sustain themselves with payments from users health insurance.

The Community EMS program will provide case management and home visits for frequent users of ambulance services and other people the department will serve under contracts with health-insurance companies. RRFR is the only fire department in the state with such a service, as far as Sandoval knows.

He said the program will officially begin July 15 with one new position, although a firefighter on temporary light duty provided the services before now.

She did wonders with that position, Sandoval said.

Community EMS is meant to prevent emergencies, lessen non-emergency calls, support people after discharge from the hospital and free up crews for other response. Braude said its a way to engage the population other than on the worst day of their lives.

Help it provides could include building wheelchair ramps, fall-proofing homes, explaining what services people should and shouldnt seek at the emergency room and helping patients navigate the health-care system.

If someone keeps calling 911 because of loneliness, the habit might lessen because of the providers weekly visits, plus information responders already provide about senior programs and the related shuttle.

The Medic Six program will consist of one ambulance dedicated to non-emergency medical transportation between treatment facilities. Braude said the program will provide a needed service without impacting the departments ability to respond to emergencies. People will be able to schedule service times from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, except for holidays.

Sandoval said the department will repurpose an ambulance and hire two people for the program.

Thats their whole response, Sandoval said. They wont be firefighters; theyll be EMS only.

Braude said RRFR is always making changes to improve.

We are constantly looking at the evidence and we are constantly re-evaluating our practice and doing what provides the best possible care, he said.
To say the rock was slippery is putting it mildly.

Moment I set foot on it, I was gone. My feet flew skyward and I plunged down hard onto the rock and into the icy creek below, fortunately landing on my shoulder and not my head in the process.

The resulting bruise lasted more than a month, proving that a few inches higher and I would have cracked my skull and drowned.

Point is I was one of the lucky ones, whereas at least four other treasure hunters were not. Sadly, they did not survive their own slippery rocks. Worse, they probably died for scant, as in nothing.

The hunt started in 2011 when a Santa Fe antiquities dealer named Forrest Fenn self-published a memoir titled The Thrill of the Chase containing a poem that he claimed, if solved, would lead to the end of his rainbow and the treasure. More specifically, a small bronze chest filled with riches hidden in the U.S. Rocky Mountains, somewhere from Canada to New Mexico.

The poem spawned an entire cottage industry devoted to the hunt, sending tens of thousands into the wilderness to search with hopes high. Yet, in the eight years since, the chest has not been found. Why not?

Because, if you actually solve his poem, your reward is not a treasure chest  no, your prize instead is a mea culpa from the author himself. And its hidden but not buried, as Fenn put it, in plain sight. So obvious, in fact, that all you have to do is take a good, hard look at a single lonely line in his poem.

The fateful line is: But tarry scant with marvel gaze.

This phrase is the most obscure in the entire piece, as well as the clue most Fenn hunters gloss over, a product of its intentionally confusing design. It is almost universally translated as delay little with amazed look.

Yet that interpretation is merely a fancy, nonsensical way of saying look quickly  which is already in the previous line of the poem and is actually one of the many clues pointing (directly) to the tarry scant line.

How then do we tarry scant with marvel gaze?

Traditionally, to tarry something as a verb means to inspect, visit, look up or even smother with tar and, of course, gaze is to stare at something intently. Therefore, the line is asking the reader to inspect, stare at and study the word scant.

Or literally, smother scant with smart eyes.

It fits, too, as Forrest once admitted there is a single word in the poem thats key to solving the puzzle. Therefore scant is that word and were being instructed to analyze it judiciously with a marvel gaze or with genius eyes. And thats where it all falls to pieces.

For one thing, scant means bare or barren, as well as deficient, little, void and short of amount indicated, but look further down the Collins English Dictionary and the origins of the word make your heart skip.

Scant comes from the Old Norse skamt, or skammr/short, related to Old High German scam.

Thats the result if you inspect, visit, smother or tar the word scant  nothing, the chest is barren, void and the author admits it boldly right in the middle of the poem.

Forrest has said every word is deliberate, so he certainly knows these tidbits about scant and wouldnt use the word otherwise. A giant red flag planted in the poems center.

So why did he do it? Further down the poem, he offers his reasoning: Ive done it tired. In this case, tired refers to jaded, disgusted and perhaps most apt: fed up, as in I am so tired of people killing the environment, for instance.

His secret is brilliantly conspicuous (as in blaze), showing he ultimately wanted it found, puzzled over and debated. Angry social and environmental activism is likely the motive (beyond gonzo book sales).

Yet this highlights why I feel compelled to reveal his secret with urgency: people have perished looking, essentially, for one word. At the very least, the hunt must end before anyone else gets hurt attempting to find the poems scant admission.

Yes, instead of the rich jubilance of discovery, I have to inform others that they, like me, were skamt in a grand scam.

To say Fenns rock is slippery is to put it mildly, so let this scant key act as the shoulder others land upon before four inevitably becomes five  and beyond.

Miguel Antonio Fiol, of Minnesota, is an entrepreneur, writer and amateur treasure hunter who has spent nearly a year deciphering Forrest Fenns poem. In 2015, he gained attention when said hed discovered that five planets  Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, Earth and Venus  were aligned in the shape of a man on a crucifix on the day Jesus is believed to have died.
On March 27, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan visited the El Paso field sector and held a news conference highlighting what he called the humanitarian crisis at the border. He announced that CBP will be performing direct releases of migrants when Immigration and Customs Enforcement is unable to provide bed space to relieve overcrowding.

McAleenan estimated that 55,000 families, including 40,000 children, are expected to enter the immigration process this month. To handle this increased flow of immigrants, mostly from Central America, 750 CBP officers have been assigned to the Border Patrol, and CBP has been authorized to reassign up to 2,000 agents. In some sectors of the border, up to 40 percent of BP officers are engaged in just the care, transport, and processing of migrants  meaning these agents are not on the line providing security functions.

CBP is the largest agency in the immigration cycle with 45,000 uniformed professionals, and 60,000 total employees. ICE Removal Operations only has 6,000 people, so a large funnel goes from a large border agency to the small funnel of a detention/removal agency. Backups and overflows in the system occur when CBP apprehends more people than ICE can process and hold.

Also playing a major role at the border is the Department of Health and Human Services, which uses a grant-based system to find private providers for care of children, and this is a very difficult system to administer. At present, the system can only process a fraction of the thousands of migrants waiting in gymnasiums and hostels across northern Mexico. Some migrants have taken it upon themselves to try to storm into the U.S. side at a port of entry, knowing that once they step on U.S. soil, they will have to automatically be processed by CBP officials.

Agents can take up three hours to process an asylum case at the border before transporting the person to a clinic or hospital for a medical exam. Generally, two agents are required to accompany during this type of visit. Migrants detained at the border also need to be fed, so that can soak up other agents time. Very quickly, duties at a border crossing can be shifted from processing private vehicle and commercial traffic to processing migrants turning themselves in to seek asylum. These increase crossing times at the border, creating inefficiencies in supply chains, which could result in higher costs for American consumers.

The whole situation is like watching a train wreck in slow motion and being surprised when the crash actually occurs. We have had months  no years  to address the immigration issue. And where has the leadership been to address this issue? A wall? This proposal has almost no relevance in the current situation, as the vast majority of migrants are surrendering at official ports of entry. They are avoiding trying to illegally cross into the U.S. and be absorbed into the general population. Doing so would most likely void their attempt to be considered for asylum.

Completely closing the border? This is akin to having a headache, taking out a pistol, and shooting yourself in the foot. Uttering this threat can cause desperate migrants to leave their shelters in Mexico and rush ports of entry in a panicked attempt to enter the U.S. and be processed before the border is closed  not to mention the devastating disruption that would occur to the U.S. economy, as $1.7 billion of trade crosses the U.S.-Mexico border daily. Millions of American jobs depend on trade with Mexico. This also is disruptive to supply chain managers who have to spend time planning and strategically moving suppliers around in case this threat is acted upon.

A halt of aid to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador? Yes, lets create more chaos and misery in these countries so that more economically desperate migrants will come to our southern border seeking asylum. U.S. involvement in these countries is needed more than ever to stabilize the situation.

And what about Congress? The immigration issue, who gets preference to come to the U.S., and which asylum seekers are allowed to stay has been kicked down the road like an empty can for years. This body must immediately authorize monies to support the efforts of CBP, ICE and HHS personnel on the border. More boots on the ground and better technology are needed by these agencies.

The U.S. also must reverse its trend toward isolationist nationalism or the problems of other nations in our hemisphere will quickly become our own problems, as is evidenced by the current situation.

Finally, it is obvious that our immigration laws and the way we accept people permanently and temporarily into this country while they seek permanent residence are not working. The political tit-for-tat that all of us are sick of needs to end, and a bipartisanship approach to developing effective immigration law needs to occur.

The current humanitarian crisis at the border offers a golden opportunity for lawmakers from both sides of the aisle to come together and show the American public that Congress is still capable of acting in our countrys best interest rather than further slipping into pettiness and divisiveness. At minimum, this is what we should demand from our legislators.

Meanwhile, agents, support groups, and communities at the border will be overwhelmed, and desperate migrants will keep coming while we continue to watch this train wreck.

Jerry Pacheco is the executive director of the International Business Accelerator, a nonprofit trade counseling program of the New Mexico Small Business Development Centers Network. He can be reached at 575-589-2200 or at jerry@nmiba.com.
NEW YORK  Candace Barr showed all the signs: She was exhausted, stressed out and starting to resent my clients.

Barr had so much work in her resume writing business that it was a struggle to get it all done.

In short, she was burned out.

While burnout is a common phenomenon in the workplace, its particularly frustrating for entrepreneurs whose dream was to escape the daily grind of employment and find fulfillment in running their own companies.

I had major deadlines every week, recalls Barr, owner of Birmingham, Ala.-based Strategic Resume Specialists, who discovered that burnout can occur even when a business is flourishing.

Like many other owners who realize theyre burned out, Barr made adjustments. She scheduled breaks and turned down some requests.

Saying no does not come easily when someone says they might get their dream opportunity, she says. But, Barr says, putting quality over quantity makes the process easier.

Exhaustion, feeling overwhelmed and even getting sick can make owners dread the very things about their companies that once brought them joy.

Victoria Bogner, who describes herself as a perfectionist and control freak, burned out after becoming head of two financial advisory firms.

I eventually found myself spinning some huge plates as a CEO, chief investment officer and a financial adviser with my own clientele, says Bogner, a co-owner of McDaniel Knutson Financial Partners in Lawrence, Kansas.

Bogner started getting sick and felt lightheaded. Her doctor told her she was stressed out, needed to take a vacation and to figure out how to dial back. Her husband had a warning of his own: Its affecting our marriage.

About that time, Bogner became pregnant with her first child. She realized she had to delegate tasks to staffers and relinquish her need for perfection. And set firm boundaries between work and her personal life.

Now, at home with her two children, I put my computer and phone away and focus on them. No insidious multitasking that makes us all believe we can answer emails and be present with our family at the same time, Bogner says.

Florent Defontis worked 18-hour days and gave up exercising as he built his software business, Air360. He loved the work but was so focused on it that he neglected his health. He ended up in the hospital on the verge of an ulcer.

Defontis cut the number of hours he worked. And he returned to one of his great loves, exercising and jogging outdoors. A resident of Paris, he realizes he should have been taking advantage of the citys great parks all along: Its stupid now, when I think of it.

Business partners can suffer collective burnout. Five years ago, when Paul Altero and Bill Hart had opened eight Bubbakoos Burritos restaurants, they were both overwhelmed from the juggling required to create new locations, work on their strategic plan and run day-to-day operations of the Point Pleasant, N.J.-based chain. Altero remembers having panic attacks.

It was so draining that we would look at each other and say, OK, do we stop?' Altero recalls. Another part of us would say, We cant stop; its working.'

The partners had resisted delegating but realized they needed to make some key hires. A district manager and an administrative assistant came on board, followed eventually by a vice president to oversee construction of new locations. The company now has 25 restaurants, with 10 more planned.

Burnout may not be a one-shot deal. Dentist Ben Dancygier, like many other practitioners, handles accounting, staffing issues and other tasks that accompany running a business. Hes suffered burnout several times from working too much.

You think the more hours you put in, the more that gets accomplished, but then suddenly it hits you that you arent getting anything done because you cant think straight, says Dancygier, who owns Valley Pediatric Dentistry, which has offices in Jefferson Valley and Hopewell Junction, N.Y.

Dancygier has learned to delegate more and to take breaks. But every year or so, especially after taking on a new project, he starts feeling moody and uninspired.

Were all susceptible to falling back to our old ways, he says.

Annemarie Fowler has felt burned out several times since starting her online learning company, Speak Confident English, in 2014. Fowler remembers feeling overwhelmed in the beginning because there was so much to learn and do  such as marketing, accounting, and developing a website. The feelings returned as she signed up clients around the world. Trying to keep up with the expectations of people in multiple time zones became exhausting.

I was waking up at 2 a.m. and not functioning well. I was getting angry and frustrated. I knew something needed to give, says Fowler, who lives in Omaha, Neb.

Fowlers solution included time for herself in her calendar  not just workout time, but also 15 minutes for morning coffee. She gets alerts when its time to shut down the computer and quit for the day. And the last half-hour of her day is spent reading for pleasure.

It makes it easier to come back and sit at the computer and feel fulfilled instead of overwhelmed, she says.
An 18-year-old charged with involuntary manslaughter says the gun he pointed at his best friend just went off, according to court documents.

Zachary Hammond told police that Eric Apisa, 19, came to his home near Unser and McMahon on Tuesday to buy drugs. While he was there, Hammond mentioned he had a gun he wanted to sell, and Apisa said he was interested. Hammond retrieved the gun and pointed it at Apisa, who was waiting outside in a friends vehicle.

Zach stated in the past he and Eric have pointed guns at each other multiple times just to mess around, police wrote in a criminal complaint.

He told police that he did not remember pulling the trigger and believed the safety was on.

According to Zach the gun just went off, police wrote.

Hammond said he saw the bullet in his friends forehead and started yelling that he was sorry. He said that he had taken a loaded magazine out of the gun, but hadnt checked the chamber.

Apisa was taken to the hospital by the friends he was riding with, and Hammond packed some belongings and left.

He turned himself in on Friday, the same day medical investigators pronounced Apisa dead.

Hammonds girlfriend, who was in the home when she heard a single gunshot, told police she could not think of any reason Hammond would shoot Apisa and believed it was an accident.

Apisas family told detectives that the two had been close friends for several years. His mother said shed treated Hammond like a son and had spoken to him on the phone hours before the shooting.

Court documents show a judge on Sunday ordered Hammond be released from custody. He must wear a GPS monitor and must check in weekly with the courts pretrial services division.
KAMPALA, Uganda  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.

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.
WOOSTER, Ohio  The grandmother of a boy who went missing in 2011 from Illinois said she believes her grandson is still alive and hopes publicity surrounding a hoax perpetrated by an Ohio man claiming to be the 14-year-old boy will generate new leads in the authorities search for him.

Linda Pitzen, 71, told The Wooster Daily Record she tried to manage her expectations when she heard Wednesday that Timmothy Pitzen, missing since age 6, might be the teenager who told police he was Timmothy. She said she found it frightening to wonder whether Timmothy would remember his name after supposedly being kept captive for so long.

You dont want to get your hopes up, but yet you are hoping that it could be him, Linda Pitzen said.

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. Rini has been charged with make false statements to authorities in federal court in Cincinnati.

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 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.

Rini was found wandering the streets 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 wasnt Timmothy, Rini acknowledged his identity, saying he had watched a story about the missing boy on ABCs 20/20 and wanted to get away from his own family, the FBI said.

I just hope this young man who claimed to be Tim realizes how much hurt he caused, Linda Pitzen said. And now everybody is hurting. And I just dont 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.

Rinis brother, 21-year-old Jonathan Rini, told The Associated Press on Saturday that his family struggled while growing up. He said it has been four years since he has spoken to his brother.

I wasnt surprised he did something stupid, Jonathan Rini said. I was just surprised he stooped that low for attention.

Jonathan Rini said that while he has no compassion for his brother, he has deep sorrows for Timmothys family.

Its too much for them, he said. They shouldnt have to go through this. No one in the world should have to go through this.
Detectives have launched an investigation after a child under 12 was shot in a Northeast Albuquerque home Sunday evening, according to a department spokesman.

The child, whose gender and exact age have not been released, is in critical condition.

This is very, very active, all of this information is very preliminary, Albuquerque Police Department officer Simon Drobik said at a news conference. I can confirm we have one child under the age of 12 down at a local hospital being worked on by doctors.

Drobik said officers were dispatched to a house in the 6700 block of Kelly NE, near Paseo del Norte and San Pedro, around 5:15 p.m. Sunday. He provided few details, but said the shooting took place inside of the residence.

The investigation initially also involved a search for two other children who live in the home who were ultimately found in Southeast Albuquerque.

This is a family home and three kids live in this house, Drobik said. Somehow they were moved after this incident happened.

Drobik said those children are not old enough to drive and they are not considered perpetrators. They have been placed on an emergency 48-hour hold and are in the custody of detectives and the Children,Youth and Families Department, Drobik said.

In an update around 8:30 p.m. Sunday, Drobik said detectives are in the process of interviewing numerous witnesses at three locations.

Violent Crimes detectives along with APDs (Crimes Against Children Unit) will be working diligently throughout the night, Drobik said.
IOWA CITY, Iowa  Democratic presidential hopeful Beto ORourke on Sunday described Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a racist whose outreach to far-right interests as he seeks to hang onto political power has seriously damaged the chances of peace in the Middle East.

Speaking at a town hall at the University of Iowa, the former Texas congressman denounced Netanyahus pledge Saturday that he would annex Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank if he wins another term in Tuesdays Israeli general election. Netanyahus proposed annexation, ORourke said, will make peace in the long term impossible.

In response to a voters question about his policy toward Israel and Palestinian rights, ORourke reiterated his support for a two-state solution and accused Netanyahu of having joined forces with far-right parties who are inherently racist in their speech and the way that they want to treat their fellow human beings in that part of the world.

He then went further, telling reporters in a gaggle afterward that Netanyahu is a racist.

The U.S.-Israel relationship is one of the most important relationships that we have on the planet, and that relationship, if it is to be successful, must transcend partisanship in the United States, and it must be able to transcend a prime minister who is racist as he warns about Arabs coming to the polls, who wants to defy any prospect for peace as he threatens to annex the West Bank and who has sided with a far-right racist party in order to maintain his hold on power, ORourke said.

His comments came one day after President Donald Trump played up his pro-Israel agenda in a speech before an influential conservative Jewish group. Speaking to the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas, Trump accused Democrats of advancing by far the most extreme, anti-Semitic agenda in history.

The Democrats radical agenda very well could leave Israel out there all by yourselves, Trump declared.

As he seeks to become Israels longest-serving prime minister, Netanyahu has played up his ties to Trump, who has all but formally endorsed the Israeli leader ahead of Tuesdays election. On Saturday, Trump told the Las Vegas audience that he had stood with your prime minister.

Explaining his approach toward a two-state solution to voters on Sunday, ORourke acknowledged that the United States was working with imperfect partners. He criticized Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as someone who has also not been faithful in pursuing peace, pointing to inflammatory rhetoric and his inability to bring his side to the table to negotiate in good faith.

ORourke also took a swipe at the Trump administration for its role in the peace process.

If we truly care about the safety and the human dignity of every person in that region, Israeli or Palestinian, then we have to have a two-state solution. But that opportunity is quickly fading in the face of our inaction and some of what this administration has done to exacerbate some of the preexisting condition.
A child at a recent Trump rally in Grand Rapids. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images

On Tuesday, the Michigan State Board of Education will vote on a plan to reform the states standards for social studies, the rubric that determines how teachers cover history, civics, economics, and geography in their classrooms. The new standards, first developed by former Republican State Senator Patrick Colbeck and a group of like-minded conservatives, propose a few right-turns in the lesson plans of Michigan teachers from kindergarten through 12th grade.

According to the local nonprofit Bridge magazine, Colbeck and companys plan would remove from the standards all LGBT references in the section dealing with civil rights, all references to Roe v. Wade, and would severely limit teachers ability to discuss climate change. Colbeck told Bridge that he personally added a zero-sum proposal about how the expansion of rights for some groups [including immigrants, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ Americans] can be viewed as an infringement of rights and freedoms of others.

This is more or less standard fare for conservative education advocates: altering lesson plans or textbooks to make them more friendly to small-government ideas, or less critical of the countrys most egregious human rights violations. In Texas in 2010, the state board of education approved a new set of textbooks that corrected a perceived left-leaning bias within the school system. Academia is skewed too far to the left, said Dr. Don McLeroy, the leading conservative advocate on Texas education board. Among other attempts to provide what McLeroy called balance was a rewrite of history book chapters on slavery, which glossed over the atrocities of centuries of bondage and included feel-good passages like Some slaves reported that their masters treated them kindly, and many enslaved Africans found comfort in their community and culture. They made time for social activity, even after exhausting workdays, in order to relieve the hardship of their lives. In Oklahoma in 2015, state Republicans drew up a bill that would ban public schools from using state money to teach the AP U.S. history course, because it emphasizes what is bad about America and doesnt teach American exceptionalism, according to State Representative Dan Fisher.

The proposed curriculum update in Michigan also falls in line with another type of push by conservative education advocates: cutting references to Americas status as a democracy. The first draft of the proposed changes in Michigan attempted to nix the word democratic from the phrase core democratic values, a slogan that defined virtues like equality, liberty, and diversity. Similar efforts were enacted in Texas and Georgia in 2010 and 2016, when state education boards removed democracy as a description of American government, or promoted the unwieldy phrase representative democracy/republic instead.

In March, the conservative advocates defended their draft in front of a bias review board in Lansing, who also considered community suggestions, including references to Japanese-American internment during WWII, redlining, the Flint water crisis, #MeToo, and Black Lives Matter. Internment and Flint made it into the standards; #MeToo, redlining, and Black Lives Matter did not.

In a compromise, the proposed standards now use the term American government as the most-frequent phrase for the nations electoral system, but will also include the phrase constitutional government, and occasional uses of democracy. Patrick Colbeck, the leading conservative voice in the argument, said that the term democracy was not politically neutral and accurate. On Tuesday, the Board of Education  which has a 6-2 democratic majority  will vote on the renegotiated, democracy-sometimes standards.

These efforts by Colbeck and other local conservatives are a little less direct than recent anti-democratic positions taken up by state Republicans  a proposed poll tax in Florida, the wholesale gerrymandering of Wisconsin  but could have an equally long tail of consequence, considering that they target young students figuring out their own political stances and the basic functions of constitutional government. At least one student, concerned about the standards language on gender and race, isnt thrilled about grown advocates arguing on his behalf. Alex Hosey, a high school sophomore in East Lansing, wrote to the State Board of Education: Hiding our nations sins isnt the right way to do it. Teach us about everything  the good and the bad, so we can learn to think for ourselves.
One year from April 1 is Census Day  when census takers begin gathering responses for the U.S. Census.

According to a George Washington University study, New Mexico receives approximately $7.8 billion from the top 54 federal programs  from Medicaid, food stamps, highway funding, Head Start, Title I education, housing vouchers, and Medicare. New Mexico is also the hardest state in the nation to count, being large, rural, sparsely populated, as well as ethnically, linguistically and culturally diverse.

This census will also mark the first effort by the U.S. Census to ask residents to fill out the form online or by phone  a remarkable challenge, because much of New Mexicos population has inadequate or no access to broadband. The addition of a citizenship question is guaranteed to depress census responses. The U.S. Census Bureaus own analyses demonstrate that the addition of the citizenship question to the 2020 Census would significantly decrease the overall response rate, especially among the hardest-to-count populations: young children, foreign-born residents, low-income families, communities of color and people living in rural communities. This is why dozens of New Mexico foundations joined 300 national foundations in a letter to the U.S. Census Bureau opposing the addition of the untested citizenship question. We hope the U.S. Supreme Court will strike the question from the census.

For New Mexico, just a 1 percent undercount would cost the state $750 million over the next 10 years. To help city, county, tribal and state policymakers understand the financial impact of an undercount to their community, the N.M. 2020 Census Funders commissioned the University of New Mexico Geospatial Population Studies program to create a statewide map: gps-unm.shinyapps.io/Census_Undercount_Cost.

In response to this unprecedented challenge, the N.M. 2020 Census Funders, a group of New Mexico foundations, is launching the Community Based Outreach to Hard-to-Count Immigrant Communities request for proposals, inviting local nonprofits working directly with immigrant populations and interested in ensuring an accurate count of every New Mexico resident  foreign-national or citizen. Applications to the RFP are due by 12 p.m. April 29 to the Albuquerque Community Foundation and are accepted in English or Spanish.

The N.M. 2020 Census Funders will be distributing $150,000 in funds and providing technical support to community based nonprofits across New Mexico through this grant opportunity. (nmcounts2020.org/resources)

Over the next year, the N.M. 2020 Census Funders will be issuing additional requests for proposals inviting nonprofit and tribal groups working with the hardest to count communities: young children, immigrants, low-income families, tribal communities and communities of color.

We applaud the New Mexico Legislature and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham for recognizing the urgency of a complete Census count for the state of New Mexico by appropriating $3.5 million to assist local and tribal governments in their efforts to realize an accurate count of every New Mexican. The 2020 Census Funders group urges the governor to convene the statewide Complete Count Committee to develop a plan for the funds distribution and to spread the word of the importance of the census to their community.

The 2020 Census Funders stand ready to help ensure an accurate count of the hardest-to-count communities in our state. To date, we have assembled $730,000 in commitments to advance an aligned strategy. An accurate census count benefits every New Mexican with sufficient appropriations for programs for children and youth, accurate information for economic development and policymaking, as well as political representation. Together, we can support efforts to count every single New Mexican for the betterment of all.
WASHINGTON  They gave the movie an R rating  which meant the trailer could only run before R-rated movies and no one younger than 17 under could see it without a parents permission. A half-dozen major music labels refused producers requests to license music for the film. Many major television networks except Fox News and the Christian Broadcasting Network refused to run ads promoting it. Then, curiously, the movies Twitter account was suspended through no fault of its own during opening weekend.

Twitter restored the account after outraged filmgoers flooded them with complaints. Tens of thousands of users  myself included  mysteriously found themselves removed from the accounts followers and/or unable to follow it in the first place. Get the feeling someone doesnt want you to see Unplanned?

The film tells the true story of Abby Johnson, a Planned Parenthood employee of the year turned pro-life activist.

Over eight years, Johnson rose through the Planned Parenthood ranks from volunteer escort, to counselor to one of the youngest clinic directors in the country. But everything changed when she was asked to assist in the ultrasound-guided abortion of a 13-week-old child  a moment captured in the movies opening scene.

As she administered the sonogram, Johnson heard a beating heart and saw a human life. I could easily see its head, arms, and legs, she says. Then she watched in horror as the doctor inserted the suction tube. The baby jumped away from it but it was all for naught. The abortionist turned on the suction and I saw that baby get sucked apart right in front of me on the screen and inches from the probe I was holding. She quit Planned Parenthood and joined pro-life activists praying outside her old clinic which, thanks in part to her efforts, eventually closed.

Johnson calculates she was personally culpable in about 22,000 Planned Parenthood abortions  including two of her own unborn children. The movie is a story not of condemnation but redemption, forgiveness and hope. Apparently that message resonates with moviegoers. Despite all the obstacles thrown in its way, Unplanned more than doubled its projected $3 million in opening weekend tickets, grossing $6.4 million, and came in No. 4 for the weekend. The film opened on 700 more screens this past weekend, to a total of 1,700.

The R rating didnt stop Unplanned. Instead, it validated the films premise. As Ashley Bratcher, the actress who plays Johnson, explained, We dont have nudity, we dont have sex, we dont have language, so the only thing they could give us an R for is violence. So that means they agree that abortion is a violent and disturbing act. They would not give it an R if it depicted a tonsillectomy.

Critics dismiss Unplanned as propaganda, but this is incorrect. Yes, Cheryl, the clinic director who hired Abby, is evil to the point of caricature. But the movie also shows Abby, before her conversion, passionately explaining to her parents why she believes she is helping women. She wants to reduce the number of abortions by making abortion less necessary. And Unplanned is brutally honest about the flaws of the pro-life movement. In one scene, a man outside the clinic gates, Bible in hand, screams at a frightened young girl and calls her baby-killer. In another, we see Abbys terror after hearing Kansas late-term abortionist George Tiller was shot and killed in his church. I knew him, Abby wails. He had a family. Not everyone who claims to be pro-life is.

But the movie also shows us what really takes place inside a Planned Parenthood clinic. The passcode to get into the clinic is 2-2-2-9  a wicked joke; it spells baby. At one point, Cheryl invites Abby to chat with her in the P.O.C. room. When a nurse asks if Abby knows what P.O.C. stands for, she replies products of conception. No, her colleague says, it means pieces of children. Every aborted child must be reconstructed so that they can be sure no parts were left inside the womb.

In another horrifying scene, the clinic director refuses to call 911 after a doctor accidentally punctures a teenagers uterus because it could result in bad publicity.

Ultimately, the movie is a testament to the power of prayer. Abbys family prays for her to leave Planned Parenthood but never rejects her. They know she is a good person who does not yet understand the evil of abortion. There are millions like her. The films goal is to reach them by showing the humanity of the unborn child. This is why abortion supporters dont want to you to see Unplanned. See it anyway.
Copyright  2019 Albuquerque Journal

New Mexico, which receives nearly $8 billion in federal dollars each year, stands to lose $750 million over 10 years for every 1 percent undercount in the upcoming 2020 Census.

Because federal money for various programs is often predicated on the states population, counting every resident of New Mexico is critically important, said Allan Oliver, executive director of the Thornburg Foundation, which is part of a group that has organized to make sure New Mexicos census count is as accurate as possible.

Starting next April 1, census takers will begin gathering information for the 2020 Census. New Mexico, however, is one of the most difficult states in which to do that, because it is large, rural, sparsely populated, as well as ethnically, linguistically and culturally diverse, Oliver said.

The nonprofit, nonpartisan Thornburg Foundation makes grants in New Mexico to fund projects in the areas of early childhood education, food and agriculture, and good government.

The family foundation is also part of the NM 2020 Census Funders, a group of grant-making organizations looking to fund grass-roots groups that can identify and educate communities and people in New Mexico that are likely to be overlooked by the census or who may be reluctant to participate in the census.

The U.S. Constitution mandates that a census take place every 10 years. The census data determines the number of seats each state gets in the U.S. House of Representatives, but it also helps in the distribution of billions of dollars in federal funds to communities.

According to the University of New Mexicos Geospatial and Population Studies, New Mexico was undercounted by nearly 2 percent in the 2000 Census and had the second lowest response rate in the country during the 2010 Census.

New Mexico currently receives approximately $7.8 billion annually from 54 federal programs, including Medicaid, Medicare, food stamps, highway funding, Head Start, Title I education and housing vouchers, according to a study by George Washington University.

The 2020 Census will be the first time that the U.S. Census Bureau is allowing residents to fill out the census form online or by phone. That could be a challenge in rural New Mexico communities, where there is poor or no internet access, Oliver said.

Also for the first time, the census form includes a citizenship question  which critics say could discourage a large number of New Mexico residents from participating for fear of calling attention to their immigration status.

Oliver pointed to a survey conducted by the Harvard Kennedy School that preceded the 2010 Census and included a citizenship question. The survey results made clear that a citizenship question significantly increases the percent of questions skipped, with particularly strong effects among Hispanics, and makes respondents less likely to report having members of their household who are of Hispanic ethnicity.

Based on that survey and other data, Harvard researchers recently said a citizenship question on the 2020 Census would result in a nationwide undercount of up to 4.6 million Hispanics, and that number was likely an underestimate.

Inclusion of the citizenship question was requested in late 2017 by the U.S. Justice Department and subsequently accepted by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. A number of jurisdictions filed suit, saying the question would have a disproportionate effect on Hispanic populations. A federal district judge in Maryland on Friday blocked the proposed question, joining federal judges in New York and California who did so previously and ordered the Trump administration to remove it.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to take up the matter April 23.

Dolores Roybal, executive director of Con Alma Health Foundation, a member of the NM 2020 Census Funders, said, We want to make sure everyone is recognized and we have a true and accurate picture of the people of New Mexico.

Con Alma is a grant-making organization that focuses on programs, policies and projects that help improve the health status and health access needs of the underserved and demographically diverse communities of New Mexico.

A complete and accurate census count is also important, Roybal said, because of the correlation between the states population and the much needed resources New Mexico gets from the funding of federal programs.

Theres a disconnect in that the populations that are generally undercounted are the ones in most need of those resources, she said.
Copyright  2019 Albuquerque Journal

SPACEPORT AMERICA  Hundreds of families visited New Mexicos Spaceport America to see the facility firsthand and learn more about plans for Virgin Galactic to offer commercial flights.

Im really looking forward to commercial service, said Virgin Galactic astronaut pilot Frederick CJ Sturckow after giving a presentation to the crowd. After youve been in space yourself, one of the funnest things is to share that experience with someone else.

The former NASA astronaut joined Virgin Galactic in 2013 and was on SpaceShip Twos VSS Unity alongside test pilot Mark Stucky in December. Many of those at the open house were eager to find out when Virgin Galactic would begin passenger flights to space.

Its super exciting for me too, Sturckow said. Things are coming along really well with the program. We had two successful test flights in Mojave.

Virgin Galactic has experienced several delays including a test flight crash in 2014 that killed one pilot and injured another in the Mojave desert. But the company is back on track and expects to offer suborbital passenger flights from New Mexico by the end of this year with tickets starting at $250,000. Virgin Galactics owner Sir Richard Branson plans to be on the first flight from Spaceport America.

Its pretty cool, said Nathan Garcia, a 17-year old high student from Las Cruces High School. I would like to go up there into space, see how the experience is.

He attended the festival with his mother, younger sister and brother.

I get to learn how space works and rockets fly, 9-year-old Anthony Garcia said.

The festival, which drew about 2,000 persons, offered many New Mexicans their first chance to see the states Spaceport in person.

Spaceport America is owned by New Mexico, said Chris Lopez, director of site operations.

New Mexico taxpayers have invested more than $220 million in the facility.

The next economy is going to be space,Lopez said. We in New Mexico have lost out on opportunities in the semi-conductor world, the software world. Lets not lose the next industry and this is it.

Several companies, including EXOS Aerospace, Up Aerospace and ARCA Space Corp, have used the Spaceport for suborbital and orbital launches carrying a variety of research payloads. But Virgin Galactic remains the anchor and most high profile tenant.

The Spaceports open house included plenty of family activities designed to celebrate space travel. A DJ played Elton Johns song Rocket Man during a model rocket launch and the Sol Ballroom dance group of Las Cruces staged a flash mob space dance. Several businesses had booths including the Salud restaurant of Mesilla which offered donut holes decorated to look like earth.

Children off all ages crowded around to watch demonstrations by the Rio Rancho Robo Racers.

Theyre mesmerized by the robots here, said Reva Kaintz, a Rio Rancho student.

She and fellow Rio Rancho student Bethany Gruenig hoped to encourage other girls visiting the spaceport to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math.

Our goal for today is to spread the love for STEM she said.

The open house at Spaceport America launched the Las Cruces Space Festival which celebrates a place in space for everyone with a weeklong series of activities through Saturday.
DAVENPORT, Iowa  Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is quieting critics who questioned whether he could recapture the energy of his upstart 2016 campaign, surpassing his rivals in early fundraising and establishing himself as an indisputable front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Less than two months into his second White House bid , no other declared candidate in the crowded Democratic field currently has amassed so many advantages: a $28 million war chest, a loyal and enthusiastic voter base and a set of clearly defined policy objectives.

That puts Sanders on markedly different footing than during his first White House run, creating new challenges for a candidate whose supporters relish his role as an underdog and an outsider. He now carries the weight of high expectations and will face heightened scrutiny over everything from the cost and feasibility of his government-funded policy proposals to his tax returns, which he has not yet released. He initially blamed mechanical issues for the delay, and his campaign now says he wants to wait until after the April 15 tax filing deadline to fulfill his promise to release a decade worth of returns .

Sanders has largely embraced his new front-runner status. More than any other candidate, he draws explicit comparisons with President Donald Trump in his campaign remarks, previewing his approach to a general election faceoff with the incumbent Republican. Behind the scenes, Sanders is also building out a larger, more diverse campaign operation, responding to criticism that his 2016 organization skewed too heavily white and male. Campaign officials say the 2020 campaign staff  roughly 100 people and growing  is majority female and 40% people of color.

Still, Sanders message and style hasnt changed from 2016, when he stunned many Democrats by mounting a formidable challenge to Hillary Clinton and besting her in more than 20 primary contests.

After briefly acquiescing to his advisers suggestions that he reveal more about his upbringing and personal history, Sanders has returned to his comfort zone: delivering lengthy campaign speeches chockablock with the same policy prescriptions he campaigned on during the 2016 campaign. In Davenport, Iowa, on Friday night, Sanders spent 63 minutes outlining his views on health care, criminal justice reform and economic inequality.

With your help, we are going to complete what we started here, Sanders told the 1,200-person crowd, referring to his virtual tie with Clinton in the 2016 Iowa caucuses.

Sanders approach underscores his belief that his success in 2016 was not a fluke or simply a function of being the next best alternative to Clinton. His advisers argue the populist economic message Sanders has espoused for years, often in obscurity, has now been embraced not only by a slew of his Democratic rivals, but also Trump.

Donald Trump campaigned on economic terms as faux Bernie Sanders. It was taking his language and selling it to the American people, said Faiz Shakir, Sanders campaign manager. And now how do you defeat faux Bernie Sanders? You defeat him with real Bernie Sanders.

Sanders owes some of his fast start to the fact that he never really stopped running for president after the 2016 campaign. Our Revolution, the political group Sanders launched after the campaign, has collected information on voters and held events in early voting states since the last election. Sanders was also active in the 2018 midterms, throwing his support behind progressive Democratic candidates across the country, though many were defeated.

He spent 2018 lifting up progressives all over the country, said Rebecca Katz, a progressive Democratic consultant. Even though many of them did not win, it was appreciated, it was movement building and it was a different calculation than most politicians make.

Despite his strong launch, Sanders current standing atop the Democratic field is not entirely enviable. Presidential primaries are long and turbulent, and past elections underscore how many early front-runners have been tossed aside before the first votes are cast. Former Vice President Joe Biden has signaled his expected presidential campaign would serve as a centrist check on Sanders brand of progressive politics.

And though Sanders $18 million first-quarter fundraising haul far outpaced the rest of the Democratic field, some rival campaigns breathed a sigh of relief, having anticipated the Vermont senator would clear $20 million or more.

He did very well. He could have done better, said Mo Elleithee, who advised Hillary Clintons 2008 presidential campaign and now runs the Georgetown University Institute of Politics and Public Service.

Sanders also still has to prove that he can overcome some of the same vulnerabilities that contributed to his defeat in 2016.

Chief among them will be bolstering his standing with black voters, one of the most important constituencies in Democratic politics. Black voters overwhelmingly sided with Clinton in 2016, halting Sanders momentum when the contest moved into more diverse states. He lost the South Carolina primary by a staggering 48 points.

Some of Sanders top advisers dismiss the notion that hell face similar problems in 2020, noting that he has spent time building relationships with black leaders in South Carolina and other Southern states. Hes also sharpened his campaign message on criminal justice issues and racial inequality.

I understand that a lot of people took a lot of things out of the South Carolina results, Shakir said. We are going to continue to court and address these issues directly, but we are operating with a great deal of confidence that this is going to be a particular demographic that supports Bernie Sanders at the end of the day.

Perhaps Sanders biggest challenge is overcoming skepticism among voters who may be partial to his focus on economic inequality but fear that nominating a 77-year-old self-described democratic socialist would put Democrats in a weak position against Trump in the general election.

Thats a thing that scares me about him, said Gwen Hobson, a 70-year-old Democratic voter, who attended Sanders rally on Friday in Davenport.

Yet some of Sanders longtime supporters say their enthusiasm for him is unshakable. In Davenport on Friday, several voters donned faded t-shirts from Sanders 2016 campaign. Melita Tunnicliff, 57, wore a button she bought during that campaign with Sanders photo and the phrase Not For Sale.

Asked if she was open to other Democratic candidates this time around, Tunnicliff shook her head no.

Ive been waiting for Bernie, she said.

___

Follow Juana Summers at http://twitter.com/jmsummers and Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC
LAS CRUCES, N.M.  A knife-wielding shoplifting suspect in New Mexico accused of trying to steal a vehicle after stabbing store employees may have lost his eyesight because of injuries suffered when police fired bean-bag rounds 15 times and stun guns 23 times to subdue him, authorities say.

The Las Cruces Sun-News reported that Police Chief Patrick Gallagher said during a Friday news conference that a multi-agency task force will investigate the March 23 incident involving 31-year-old Joshua James LeNoir.

Police released a 17-second police video clip showing projectiles being fired at a man who stood up, turned away from officers and walked away.

Gallagher said the thief repeatedly ignored officers commands to drop his knife during the encounter with police in a Mesilla Valley Mall parking lot.

The Tasers were used so frequently and so often that some of the batteries drained on the Tasers, Gallagher said.

The police chief said the final bean-bag round fired before LeNoir was subdued hit him in the face and may have blinded him. Unofficial understanding is that he lost his eyesight as a result.

Before officers arrived, several employees of two different stores tried to stop LeNoir, police said.

A store security officer was punched in the face and torso and two other employees suffered minor stab wounds, police said.

The thief then tried but failed to steal a familys SUV, police said.

A police spokesman, Dan Trujillo, said LeNoir is at a rehabilitation facility after being released from a hospital.

Charges against LeNoir include aggravated burglary with a deadly weapon, attempted theft of a vehicle, misdemeanor counts of battery, criminal damage to property and resisting, evading or obstructing an officer.

Court records dont list a defense attorney for LeNoir who could comment on the allegations.
Copyright  2019 Albuquerque Journal

Saul is back for season five.

Better Call Saul, the critically acclaimed show, is beginning principal photography this month in Albuquerque.

The fact that Sony Pictures and Better Call Saul are filming for a fifth season in New Mexico is a tribute to our professional crews, our climate and our new package of incentives, which make New Mexico the best in the country for this industry, said Alicia J. Keyes, New Mexico economic development secretary. We welcome them back.

Better Call Saul is a Breaking Bad prequel, focusing on the evolution of the popular Saul Goodman before he became Walter Whites lawyer. The series has been nominated for dozens of Emmy Awards over the course of its four-season run. In season four, the series averaged around 1.5 million viewers.

On Saturday, Rhea Seehorn, who plays Kim Wexler, posted on Twitter Lets do this!!!! Season 5 @BetterCallSaul, let the shooting begin!!! along with a photo of her arriving at the Albuquerque International Sunport.

Better Call Saul is executive-produced by Peter Gould, Vince Gilligan, Mark Johnson, Melissa Bernstein and Thomas Schnauz.

A Sony Pictures Television production and created by Gilligan and Gould, the series stars Bob Odenkirk, Jonathan Banks, Seehorn, Patrick Fabian, Michael Mando and Giancarlo Esposito.

According to the New Mexico Film Office, the production will employ approximately 375 New Mexico crew members, 200 New Mexico actors and 500 New Mexico background talent workers.

Stand-in and background casting has begun through White Turtle Casting. More information can be found by emailing extras@whiteturtlecasting.com.

The series films on location around Albuquerque and is housed at Albuquerque Studios.

Albuquerque itself is one of the characters in Better Call Saul, and we welcome the show back for season five, Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said. Productions like these give our city a boost and employ hundreds of talented Burquenos.

In the fourth season of Better Call Saul, Jimmy McGill, played by Odenkirk, was reinstated as a lawyer and his change into Saul Goodman was foreshadowed.

According to AMC, the fifth season wont air until 2020.

Breaking Bad premiered in January 2008 and ran for five seasons, eventually ending with its finale on Sept. 29, 2013. During its run, the series became a pop culture juggernaut and its ratings continually rose. The final episode of the series was seen by more than 10 million viewers.

It told the story of Walter White, a struggling high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with advanced lung cancer at the beginning of the series.

White, played by Bryan Cranston, turns to a life of crime, producing and selling methamphetamine with a former student, Jesse Pinkman, played by Aaron Paul, with the aim of securing his familys financial future before he dies.

The series brought worldwide notoriety to Albuquerque. A tour of filming sites is still given, and merchandise is still sold around the city.
KAMPALA, Uganda  U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday urged Uganda to find the kidnappers of an American tourist who has been freed amid conflicting reports over whether a ransom was paid for her release.

Kim Endicott of Costa Mesa, California, was released by her abductors over the weekend and was to be turned over to the U.S. ambassador Monday, Ugandan police said.

Endicott and her Ugandan driver were both safe after the five-day ordeal. They were taken from Queen Elizabeth National Park across the border to Congo, according to Ugandan authorities.

Trump pressed Ugandas government to capture the culprits Monday.

Uganda must find the kidnappers of the American Tourist and guide before people will feel safe in going there. Bring them to justice openly and quickly! he tweeted.

Over the weekend, Trump tweeted that he was pleased the tourist and guide had been released.

Ugandan police spokesman Fred Enanga said he did not believe a ransom had been paid.

I have indicated to you that we dont do ransom, he said Monday at a news conference in the Ugandan capital of Kampala.

A Uganda-based tour official said, however, that a ransom was paid to secure Endicotts freedom. The tourist was released, not rescued, after money was paid otherwise she wouldnt be back, said the tourism professional with knowledge of Endicotts trip.

He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

Many officials, including from the U.S. Embassy, were involved in efforts to secure the release of the kidnapping victims, he said. He couldnt say how much was paid or who paid.

Ugandan officials have said the kidnapping victims were rescued from armed kidnappers who are still at large.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said on Twitter that the security forces shall deal with these isolated pockets of criminals.

The kidnappers had demanded a $500,000 ransom after grabbing Endicott and her driver from a group of tourists on an evening game drive on April 2, police said.

Its completely shocking, Sandy Benton, a friend of Endicotts in Southern California, said Monday. I never thought anything like this would happen to her.

Benton called Endicott an adventure seeker and world traveler, saying it wasnt surprising that she would travel to Uganda on her own.

I just prayed for her and hoped for safe return, Benton said. Im glad to hear shell be on her way home soon. I cant imagine how traumatic that was for her. She had to be terrified.

Megan Barth, a longtime client and friend of Endicotts who lives in Las Vegas, said Endicott is an animal lover who long dreamed of traveling to Africa to see gorillas in the wild.

It was definitely on the bucket list for her, Barth said. Shes a wanderlust, and shes always been a wanderlust. She always was wanting to travel and experience different cultures.

Barth said shes been overcome with worry since Endicott was kidnapped.

Over the past week, Ive just been praying  praying in the shower, praying while Im driving, praying while having my cup of coffee, she said. My whole entire day was consumed by her because I knew she was in such an awful, traumatic place.

Benton and Barth said they hope Endicott isnt too scarred by the experience and is touched by those worldwide who have reached out to her family while she was held.

Hopefully she just feels a lot of love, Benton said.

Barth said if anyone can make it through such an experience, its Endicott.

Shes such a lovely, warm-hearted, beautiful spirit, she said. She will somehow turn this traumatic experience into something that is not only a healing experience for her, but an experience she can use to help others.

Endicott, who has a small skin care shop in Costa Mesa, is in her 50s and has a daughter and granddaughter, according to Phoenix resident Rich Endicott, who told The Associated Press that he hadnt spoken with his cousin since a family reunion several years ago.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last week at an 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.

Queen Elizabeth National Park, which is near the porous border with Congo, is Ugandas most popular safari destination. Its attractions include groups of tree-climbing lions.

___

Myers reported from Los Angeles.
WASHINGTON  The United States on Monday designated Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps a foreign terrorist organization, an unprecedented declaration against a foreign government that may prompt retaliation and make it harder for American diplomats and military officers to work with allies in the region.

It is the first time that the U.S. has designated an entity of another government as a terrorist organization, placing a group with vast economic resources that answers only to Irans supreme leader in the same category as al-Qaida and the Islamic State.

This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a state sponsor of terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft, President Donald Trump said in announcing the measure.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the designation is intended to increase pressure on Iran, isolating it further and diverting some of the financial resources it uses to fund terrorism and militant activity in the Middle East and beyond. But, in addition to the potential for Iranian retaliation, it complicates a delicate balance for U.S. personnel in at least two key countries.

The administration went ahead with the designation despite expressions of serious concern by senior defense and intelligence officials about the possibility of retaliation, as well as the effectiveness against an organization already subject to sanctions, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the decision.

Pompeo said the move is part of an effort to put maximum pressure on Iran to end its support for terrorist plots and militant activity that destabilizes the Middle East. Speaking to reporters, he rattled off a list of attacks dating to the 1980s for which the U.S. holds Iran and the IRGC responsible, beginning with the attacks on the Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, Lebanon in 1983.

No waivers or exceptions to the sanctions were announced, meaning U.S. troops and diplomats could be barred from speaking with Iraqi or Lebanese authorities who have dealings with Guard officials or surrogates. Such contact occurs now between U.S. officials in Iraq who deal with Iranian-affiliated Shiite militias and in Lebanon, where the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement is in parliament and the government.

The Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies had raised concerns about the impact of the designation if the move did not allow contact with other 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.

The Justice Department said Monday it would prosecute violations but officials declined to say how broadly they would interpret the provision barring material support to the IRGC. A strict interpretation would leave hundreds of European companies and executives at risk for U.S. travel bans or criminal penalties in addition to limiting American officials ability to deal with foreign counterparts who have links to the guard.

The designation raises the question of whether a non-U.S. company or individual could be prosecuted for engaging in commercial transactions with an Iranian company controlled by the IRGC, said Anthony Rapa, an international trade and national security attorney with Kirkland and Ellis.

Critics of the hardline policy also see it as a prelude to conflict.

This move closes yet another potential door for peacefully resolving tensions with Iran, said Trita Parsi, the founder of the National Iranian American Council. Once all doors are closed, and diplomacy is rendered impossible, war will essentially become inevitable.

National Security Action, a group made up of mainly former Obama administration officials, said it would put U.S. troops at risk while jeopardizing the 2015 nuclear accord with which Iran is still complying.

We need to call out todays move for what it is: another dangerous and self-defeating tactic that endangers our troops and serves nothing but the Trump administrations goal of destroying the Iran deal, it said.

The designation could also open hundreds of foreign companies and business executives to U.S. travel bans and possible prosecution for sanctions violations.

The IRGC is a paramilitary organization formed in the wake of Irans 1979 Islamic Revolution to defend the government. The force answers only to Irans supreme leader, operates independently of the regular military and has vast economic interests across the country. The U.S. estimates it may control or have a significant influence over up to 50% of the Iranian economy, including non-military sectors like banking and shipping.

Iran has long been designated a state sponsor of terrorism by the U.S. and the State Department currently designates more than 60 organizations as foreign terrorist organizations. But none of them is a state-run military.

Iran immediately responded to the designation with its Supreme National Security Council designating the U.S. Central Command, also known as CENTCOM, and all its forces as terrorist, and labeling the U.S. a supporter of terrorism.

The Council denounced the U.S. decision as illegal and dangerous and said the U.S. government would be responsible for all dangerous repercussions of its decision. It defended the IRGC, which has fought Islamic State fighters, as being a force against terrorism.

American military commanders were planning to warn U.S. troops remaining in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere in the region of the possibility of retaliation. Aside from Iraq, where some 5,200 American troops are stationed, and Syria, where some U.S. 2,000 troops remain, the U.S. 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.

The U.S. special envoy for Iran, Brian Hook, and the State Departments counterterrorism coordinator, Nathan Sales, said the decision was reached after consultation with agencies throughout the government but would not say in a news conference if the military or intelligence concerns had been addressed.

Doing this will not impede our diplomacy, Hook said, without elaborating. He noted that the U.S. has at various times had contact or even formal negotiations with members of groups that are subject to sanctions.

Reaction from those who favor tougher engagement with Iran was quick and welcoming.

Thank you, my dear friend, US President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a tweet, a day before what could be a close election. Thank you for answering another of my important requests that serves the interests of our countries and of countries in the region.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called the action an overdue but essential step that should be followed by additional sanctions.

Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the designation ends the facade that the IRGC is part of a normal military.

And, the Iranian opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, called it an imperative for Middle East security, peace, and stability, and an urgent and necessary step to end war and terrorism throughout the region and the world.

___

Susannah George in Washington; Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran and Aya Batrawy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates contributed to this report.
The number of Mexican gray wolves in the wild jumped by 12 percent in the past year, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials said Monday.

There are 131 wolves in the wild in New Mexico and Arizona, according to the Mexican Wolf Interagency Field Team, a task force comprising federal, state and international partners. From November through January, the team conducted ground counts of the wolves in both states and in February conducted aerial counts.

The survey results indicate the Mexican wolf program is helping save an endangered subspecies, said Amy Lueders, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Southwest Region. The Mexican wolf has come back from the brink of extinction, thanks to scientific management and the dedicated work of a lot of partners. With continued support and research, we can continue to make progress in Mexican wolf recovery.

Among the teams findings: The 131 wolves are nearly evenly distributed  64 in Arizona and 67 in New Mexico. Last year, the team documented 117 of the animals.

This is a relief, Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity told the Journal. But the Mexican gray wolf still faces peril.

Robinson, a critic of how the Fish and Wildlife Service has carried out the program, said there are continuing concerns about the lack of genetic diversity among the wolves. He said too few captive wolves have been released into the wild.

Robinson also said the species remains threatened by the removal of wolves from the wild by the Fish and Wildlife Service and by illegal killings.

He was critical of the removal of two wolves from the wild in Catron County last month after attacks on livestock there. A removal order was issued for a third that approved the use of lethal force. Robinson and other wildlife advocates later requested the release of the wolves, which were taken to Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in northern Socorro County.

Fish and Wildlife Service officials said they are addressing the lack of genetic diversity through cross-fostering: taking days-old pups born in captivity and placing them in packs in the wild.

Jim deVos, assistant director of wildlife management for the Arizona Game and Fish Department, said the process is bearing fruit.

One of the key recovery criteria addresses the need for increasing genetic diversity within the wild population, deVos said. Using the proven approach of cross-fostering, the Interagency Field Team documented survival of no fewer than three fostered pups from 2018 fostering events.

The team last spring placed eight captive pups into four wild dens to boost the genetic variability in the wild population. The team began cross-fostering in 2014.

This years findings include:

n There are a minimum of 32 packs of wolves (two or more animals), and seven individuals.

n A minimum of 18 packs had pups; 16 of these packs had pups that survived to the end of the year.

 A minimum of 81 pups were born in 2018, and at least 47 survived to the end of the year, a 58 percent survival rate.

 The population growth occurred despite 21 documented deaths last year.

 Eleven wolves were captured during the aerial operations.

 Seventy-nine wolves  60 percent of the population  wore functioning radio collars. The collars help researchers manage and monitor the population, and are vital to collecting scientific information.

Working with the Mexican government, the service in 1977 began developing a captive breeding program to restore numbers. It started with seven wolves.

If the Mexican gray wolf population averages 320 in the wild in the U.S. over an eight-year period, the animal could be removed from the endangered species list, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.
A migrant family resting in Mexico. Photo: Herika Martinez/AFP/Getty Images

On Friday, the Trump administration revealed that it may need up to two more years to identify thousands of migrant children who may have been separated from their families at the southern border. The depressing acknowledgement, made a full year after the separation policy was originally announced, underlines the long-term impact of one of the Trump administrations most shameful acts. It also demonstrates how ill-equipped the government is when it comes to dealing with the consequences of Trumps reckless war on immigrants.

In a Friday night court filing, the Justice Department claimed it would need at least a year, and as much as two years, to analyze the roughly 47,000 cases of unaccompanied minors taken into federal custody from July 2017 to June 2018, when U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw ordered both an end to the separations, and that the children be reunited with their families.

Its still not clear exactly how many children were taken from family members at the border over that period, and it might not be until after the 2020 elections. At the time of Sabraws ruling against the separations, about 2,700 children were in federal custody as a result of the policy, but a watchdog report released in January by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services indicated that thousands of additional families may also have been separated at the border, starting months before the Trump administration announced the policy. After the ACLU convinced Judge Sabraw that those additional children should be added to his reunification order, he told the Trump administration to submit a proposal on how to address the problem.

That proposal listed several complications to justify the long time frame, chief among them the massive number of cases to review, which the administration claims it does not have the resources to do manually. Instead, a multi-agency team plans to run a statistical analysis of the tens of thousands of cases in an attempt to determine which children were most likely to have been separated from their families through the policy. Cases flagged by the analysis would then receive manual review. The government says that the still unknown number of additional children had already been released into the care of sponsors before the judges June order, and that the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol didnt create a searchable database tracking the children until April 19 of last year  meaning there is no easy way to search the cases of children taken into custody before then.

The ACLU, which has been waging a legal fight against the government on behalf of the affected families, quickly rejected the Trump administrations time frame. The organizations lead attorney in the case, Lee Gelernt, told CNN on Saturday that the ACLU would strongly oppose any plan that would give the government up to two years to find these children and that the Trump administration needed to do more moving forward:

The governments proposed plan reflects the Administrations continuing refusal to treat these separations with the urgency they deserve.  We are talking about the lives of children, potentially thousands of them. The government was able to quickly gather resources to tear these children away from their families and now they need to gather the resources to fix the damage.

They wont, or at least not voluntarily.

The Trump administrations zero tolerance policy toward migrants mandated that all undocumented adults crossing the border face criminal prosecution and be placed in federal custody even if they were traveling with children. The official line from the Trump administration and its allies was that the policy was about following the letter of the law, but it was really meant to discourage migrants from wanting to ever come to the U.S. in the first place. To that end, the cruelty of the separations, magnified by the administrations incompetence in implementing them, and the publicity the policy and the resulting crisis inevitably received were very much the point. And that was despite evidence that the policy would actually deter would-be migrants in the first place, and over all, Trumps anti-immigrant rhetoric appears to have had the opposite effect.

From the very start of Trumps presidency, nativist hardliners in the White House like policy adviser Stephen Miller have worked to implement as many anti-immigration measures as possible, both to appeal to Trumps anti-immigrant base, and, as a larger goal, to ruin Americas long-standing reputation as a nation of immigrants. Migrant children werent just collateral damage in this ongoing war on immigrants  they were intended damage.

Regardless of how long it takes the Trump administration to account for, let alone address, the full scale of that harm, it may be irreparable, as this new HuffPost report explains:

Almost a year later, most [of the separated children] have been reunited with their mothers and fathers. But HuffPost spoke with six parents who said their kids remain deeply traumatized. They describe how their once affable sons and daughters are now angry, withdrawn and unable to sleep. Some dont want to go to school or leave the house, for fear of being separated once again, and constantly burst into tears. Other children have physical scars, from self-harming after prolonged periods in detention. And at least 200 children remain permanently separated from their parents who were deported back to life-threatening situations and opted to keep their sons and daughters safe in the U.S.

Mental health experts and lawyers told HuffPost that family separation, which happened to potentially thousands of families before the implementation of zero tolerance and which continues despite the policys termination, could traumatize children for the rest of their lives.  Going to therapy can help children work through the damage, but most separated families dont have access to or the resources for mental health services. In the U.S., only six states and the District of Columbia provide undocumented minors with health coverage. For families who were reunited back in Central America, there is often no therapy available in remote, poverty-stricken regions.

Furthermore, if the intended purpose of the separation policy, or any of the administrations other anti-immigrant efforts, was to deter migrants  its failed spectacularly. A decade-high number of migrants have tried to make the journey to and over the southern U.S. border in recent months, a surge which many immigration experts believe was prompted by Trumps ever-present anti-immigrant rhetoric and repeated empty threats to close the border.

Thanks to deliberately intolerant policies, incompetent or negligent leadership, and an overwhelming burden on under-resourced U.S. agencies, Trump has created a real humanitarian crisis at the southern border in place of the fake security crisis he and his allies conjured for their rise to power.

The border crisis, like most crises, can only be solved by good governance, evidence-based policy, resources, and compassion  which is another way of saying that it wont be solved by the current administration. And even if Trump could address the problem with something other than a fantastic wall, why would he want to?

Crisis and chaos, real or imagined, have often worked to Trumps political advantage. Its already more than clear that the Trump will triple-down on immigrant scaremongering as a central pitch in his reelection campaign. In that sense, its a good political strategy to break the immigration system, overwhelm the asylum system, highlight the chaos, blame Democrats for the lack of a wall to contain it, and scramble all other news cycles with the outraged crossfire.

On his signature issue of immigration and border security, President Trump is running for reelection on the effectiveness of his sabotage. If he loses, the damage will be his legacy, and the intolerable aftermath of the child separation policy is a preview of what it will be like as we try to pick up the pieces.
DALLAS  A suburban Dallas teenager has pleaded guilty to plotting an Islamic State group-inspired mass shooting at a North Texas mall.

A state judge sentenced Matin Azizi-Yarand to 20 years in prison Monday for solicitation of capital murder and making a terroristic threat, state and federal prosecutors announced. The 18-year-old is eligible for parole after serving 10 years.

Azizi-Yarand was arrested last May for plotting to shoot civilians and police at a Frisco mall in a rampage authorities said he was timing to coincide with Ramadan. IS has called on its supporters to carry out attacks during the Muslim holy month.

The then-high school student had been recruiting others to participate in the shooting and planned to explain it with the release of a Message to America, according to prosecutors. He spent more than $1,400 buying weapons and tactical gear, and had been conducting surveillance of the mall.

Azizi-Yarand believes his plea agreement is a fair deal and is ready to begin his prison term, his lawyer, Mitch Nolte, told The Associated Press.

Azizi-Yarand was indicted in July , but his age presented a challenge for prosecutors.

Terrorism cases are typically brought in federal court. But because Azizi-Yarand was 17 at the time of the crime and a minor under federal law, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Texas was limited in the charges they could bring against him.

Its extremely rare for someone to be prosecuted for terrorism charges state court, U.S. Attorney Joseph Brown said Monday at a press conference.
LOS ANGELES  Character actors arent often called larger-than-life, but Seymour Cassel, was just that. The live-wire pillar of independent film known for his frequent collaborations with John Cassavetes and Wes Anderson, has died at 84.

His daughter, Dilyn Cassel Murphy, said Monday that her father died Sunday surrounded by family following complications from Alzheimers disease.

With a thick head of hair, a distinctive voice  sly, squeaky and matter-of-fact  and a forehead lined with concern even as a young man, he always made an impression no matter how big the role, whether sharing top billing with Gena Rowlands as one-half of a volatile couple in Minnie and Moskowitz or posing as a cancer doctor for Gene Hackman in The Royal Tenenbaums. He even left legacies outside of his own industry, as the man who coined the nickname Slash for the eventual Guns N Roses guitarist Saul Hudson (he was childhood friends with Cassels son).

Born in Detroit, Cassel travelled frequently with his burlesque dancer mother as a child, and never met his father.

I started performing when I was 3; Id come out in a little checkered suit and pull down the clowns pants  I loved that! he told the Los Angeles Times in 1992. I was a little ham and was a very open kid, probably because I was around adults all the time.

He was an angry and rebellious teen, who started drinking at 13. His mother shipped him off to live with his godmother in Detroit, where he stayed until enlisting in the Navy at 17.

He eventually made his way to New York in the 1950s to pursue acting, launching a 60-year career with appearances in over 100 films. It was there that he met Cassavetes, who he said saved his life, and made his film debut in his 1958 feature Shadows, which he also associate-produced, almost by accident.

It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship. In 1959 he followed Cassavetes and Rowlands to Los Angeles where he lived in their guest house.

Hed go on to work for Cassavetes often, with roles in Faces, which earned him a best supporting actor nomination in 1969, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Opening Night and Love Streams.

Working with Cassavetes got him on the radar of many and hed get the chance to work with greats like Sam Peckinpah in Convoy, Elia Kazan in The Last Tycoon and Nicolas Roeg in Track 29 and Cold Heaven.

His journey in Hollywood was not without issues, mostly the result of a hard-partying lifestyle with the likes of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones that took a toll on his health, marriage and family life. Hed even spent time in jail in 1982, and went into recovery in the mid-80s.

Cassel bounced back, however, and worked frequently in the 1990s, with roles in films like Dick Tracy, White Fang, In the Soup, Indecent Proposal, Honeymoon in Vegas and It Could Happen to You.

And then, in 1998 a new generation would meet him as a result of the beginnings of a fruitful collaboration with Anderson, as Bert Fischer in Rushmore. Hed go on to work with him twice more, playing the ill-fated Esteban in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and Dusty the elevator operator in The Royal Tenenbaums.

He guessed that Anderson cast him because he liked his face.

Anderson said in a tribute reel in 2009 that Cassel was one of his favorite actors in the world, and that he met him, first, as a fan.

Its a dream to become an actor, Cassel told the L.A. Times in 2009. But its your dream. Dont give up on it.

Cassel is survived by three children, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. The family has asked to consider donating to the Alzheimers Foundation of America in lieu of flowers.

___

AP National Writer Hillel Italie contributed to this report.
Police say no arrests have been made and no suspects are being sought as detectives continue to try to figure out what led to an 8-year-old girl being shot and critically injured in a Northeast Albuquerque home Sunday evening.

Officer Simon Drobik, a spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department, said detectives have scheduled safe house interviews with the girls two siblings to try to determine what happened.

Its critical to make sure those kids feel safe before they give the interview because they might have been witnesses to a traumatic incident, Drobik said. They were there at the house.

He said those siblings, under the age of 18, are not considered perpetrators of the shooting. They were taken from the house on the 6700 block of Kelly NE, near Paseo del Norte and San Pedro, before police arrived and later found in Southeast Albuquerque.

Thats why we had the second and the third location to serve warrants on because we found them at another area command, Drobik said.

The children were placed in the custody of the states Children, Youth and Families Department for a 48-hour hold Sunday evening.

Drobik said the parents arrived at the scene as well and told detectives who was responsible for the children at the house at the time.

We have many people to interview, Drobik said. Who was at the house, the parents and the kids to find out exactly what happened. This could go anywhere from an accident to some sort of criminal charges.
HELENA, Mont.  Flood, snow, avalanche and fire alerts popped up Monday from Idaho to Colorado, as parts of the U.S. interior that were paralyzed by blizzards and floods last month braced for round two of an unusual weather phenomenon.

Welcome to springtime in the Rockies and parts of the Great Plains.

Its not unusual for floods, snow and fire to co-exist in the Rockies thanks to powerful storms blowing through the mountains, melting snow swelling waterways and high winds sweeping across dry grasslands and trees that havent seen their first green shoots and leaves.

Those conditions are what drove a wildfire Sunday on southeastern Montanas Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, where a house fire sparked a blaze that quickly burned through 1,700 acres (688 hectares) of dry grass and trees. It forced evacuations Sunday in Lame Deer, a town of about 2,000 people that is the seat of the tribal government, before fire crews were able to contain it.

Also normal are the fire warnings issued for eastern Colorado on Monday, a day after a wildfire near Colorado Springs forced the temporary evacuation of about 20 homes. Forecasters frequently issue red flag warnings for March and April on the eastern and southeastern Colorado plains as the jet stream moves southward and brings stronger weather systems and higher wind, said Jennifer Stark, meteorologist in charge for the National Weather Service in Pueblo, Colorado.

This is the time of year when we get a roller coaster of weather, Colorado state climatologist Russ Schumacher said Monday. Going from 80 degree temperatures one day to a snowstorm the next is not that out of the ordinary, especially in March and April, around here.

But what is unusual is whats coming next. A storm system that is moving in from the Pacific Ocean is forecast to intensify and form into a new inland bomb cyclone.

A bomb cyclone is a rapid drop in air pressure  at least 24 millibars in 24 hours  and often is over or near oceans or seas because it requires warm moist air smacking into cold dry air, along with volatile weather from the jet stream. The central and mountain part of the country may get one of these every few winters, said Greg Carbin, forecast branch chief for the National Weather Services Weather Prediction Center in Maryland.

But this would be the second such storm in less than a month. The March 13 storm caused massive flooding in the Midwest, a blizzard in Colorado and Wyoming, and produced winds of between 96 mph and 110 mph (155 and 177.02 kph).

This weeks bomb cyclone one is expected to be similar in intensity and in snowfall, meteorologists said. Heavy, wet snow will fall from the Nebraska panhandle through south central and southeastern South Dakota into western Minnesota. Wind speeds can reach 50 mph to 60 mph (80 to 96 kph) across Kansas.

This blizzard will further exacerbate flooding in Nebraska with the added insult of heavy snowfall to eventually melt, said Ryan Maue, a meteorologist at the private weathermodels.com. This is more bad news for suffering farmers who are unable to flip the calendar on winter.

But first, the storm is expected to flooding in Idaho and western Montana, and dump up to 2 feet (61 centimeters) feet of snow in the mountains of Montana and Wyoming as it moves in from the Pacific Ocean. Parts of Colorado that were under a fire warning Monday are expected to see snow and temperatures drops of more than 40 degrees by Wednesday at the southern edge of the storm, meteorologists said.

The storm dumped rain on parts of Oregon Sunday and Monday as it moved inland, causing flooding that closed some schools in the central Willamette Valley and forced the release of water from dams.

While its unusual to see two consecutive inland bomb cyclones, its difficult to pin the cause on climate change, said Schumacher.

I think its an interesting question to ask whether theres some climate change fingerprint on this, he said. But its a complicated puzzle to piece together.

That includes what is happening as the storm forms over the Pacific Ocean, what happens once its over land and what effect climate change may have on those variables.

Im not sure we have the answer, Schumacher said.

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Associated Press writers Seth Borenstein in Washington, D.C., and Dan Elliott in Denver contributed to this report.
LONDON  Prime Minister Theresa May wooed domestic political opponents and European leaders Monday as she sought to break Britains Brexit impasse and secure a delay to the countrys departure from the European Union.

Mays Conservative government and the main opposition Labour Party were clinging to hope of finding a compromise Brexit deal, two days before EU leaders decide whether to grant an extension to the U.K.s departure from the bloc. If they refuse, Britain faces a sudden and chaotic departure on Friday, the Brexit deadline previously set by the EU.

May has asked for a new delay until June 30, to give Britains divided politicians time to agree, approve and implement a withdrawal agreement. The blocs leaders are due to meet Wednesday in Brussels to consider the request.

An extension requires unanimous approval from all 27 EU national leaders, some of whom are fed up with Brexit uncertainty and reluctant to prolong it further. French President Emmanuel Macron has been particularly resistant to the idea of further delaying Brexit, saying the EU cant be held hostage to Britains political crisis.

Mays office said the prime minister spoke to multiple European leaders by phone Monday and will dash Tuesday to Berlin and Paris for face-to-face talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Macron.

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt urged European leaders to be cooperative, saying May is totally and utterly determined to deliver Brexit.

They want Brexit to be resolved as quickly as possible, Hunt said of the other 27 EU leaders. So do we.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said he was open to extending the deadline.

There will be different views, but I am confident that we will reach agreement, he said after meeting chief EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier in Dublin.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, however, said May would have to convince EU leaders that Britain would continue sincere cooperation with the bloc if granted a delay. Some pro-Brexit British politicians have suggested the U.K. could try to disrupt EU policymaking if it remains a member much longer.

Almost three years after Britons voted by 52% to 48% to leave the EU, the country remains divided and the political process deadlocked.

May and the EU agreed late last year on divorce terms, but the agreement has been rejected by Parliament three times. In desperation, May last week sought talks with the left-of-center Labour Party.

Labour favors a softer Brexit than the government has proposed and seeks a close economic relationship with the bloc through a customs union  a trading area that sets common tariffs on imports while allowing free trade in goods moving between member states.

So far, the cross-party talks have failed to yield a breakthrough, but Labour politicians and government ministers were due to continue negotiations Tuesday.

The government doesnt seem to be moving off its original red lines, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said. We are looking for movement.

The EU would welcome a move by Britain to keep close post-Brexit economic ties. Barnier said Monday that the bloc was willing to be much more ambitious in our future relationship and would agree to a customs union arrangement.

The alternative of a no-deal Brexit threatens huge disruptions to trade and travel, with tariffs and customs checks causing gridlock at British ports and possible shortages of goods in the U.K.

It would also be tough for Ireland, the only EU member state to share 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 Irelands peace process.

Barnier said the EU would remain fully behind Ireland.

If the U.K. were to leave the EU without a deal, we would not discuss anything with the U.K. until there is an agreement for Ireland and Northern Ireland, he said.

It was unclear whether the cross-party talks in London would succeed. Mays reach for compromise left her caught between angry Conservatives who accused her of throwing away Brexit, and Labour opponents mistrustful of her sudden change of heart.

Suggestions she might back a customs union infuriated pro-Brexit Conservatives, who say Britain must cut ties to the EU in order to forge an independent economic policy.

Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, a leading Brexiteer, said a customs union would enslave the U.K. He tweeted that it cannot, must not and will not happen.

But others say May has little choice but to change her long-held Brexit positions, after lawmakers rejected her deal and also repeatedly ruled out leaving the bloc without an agreement.

Late Monday, Parliament passed a fast-tracked law that compels the government to seek a delay to Brexit rather than leave without a deal. May has already committed to doing that, but many lawmakers dont trust the government and passed the bill as an insurance policy.

While the government still intends for Britain to leave the EU in the next few months, it is also making plans to participate in European Parliament elections taking place across the bloc May 22-26.

The government announced Monday it had taken the legal step required to start preparations and set a May 23 date for the poll. It said the measure does not make these elections inevitable as leaving the EU before the date of election automatically removes our obligation to take part.

Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright said both Conservatives and Labour should compromise to make Brexit happen.

Theres some urgency to it, but I do think its important for everyone to take their responsibilities seriously, whatever party they come from, and try and get to a point where we leave the EU, as people have said they wish to do, and to do it on the best possible terms, he told the BBC. I think thats achievable.

___

Associated Press writer Jill Lawless reported this story in London and AP writer Raf Casert reported from Brussels. AP writer Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report.

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Follow APs full coverage of Brexit at: https://www.apnews.com/Brexit
OROVILLE, Calif. - The Butte County Sheriff's Office arrested a man in connection to an identity theft case of an 80-year-old victim in Oroville.

During the investigation, deputies learned that there were checks stolen from the victim's mailbox that were being used to create fictitious checks with the victim's account information. The checks were then cashed at an online bank.

Deputies identified one of the suspects as James Dye and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

On April 5, deputies were able to locate Dye driving near a Walmart in Oroville. He was arrested for his outstanding warrant.

However, during a search of his vehicle, deputies found more than 40 other potential victims of identity theft including a torn fake check of the original 80-year-old victim's.

Authorities also found numerous printed fake checks, hundreds of blank check pages, copies of checks, bank cards, tax documents, and other personal identifying information belonging to local businesses and businesses from Sacramento, Nevada and Texas.

They also found a laptop computer, printer and scanner, all believed to have been used to help the suspect steal the identity of the victims.

Additionally, Dye had mortgage payout checks from Camp Fire victims that he was using the information from to create other fraudulent checks.

Ultimately, Dye was arrested on charges of identity theft of more than 10 victims, making fictitious checks, forgery, being in possession of stolen property, and being in possession of burglary tools. He remains in Butte County Jail with a bail of $531,000.

Deputies also identified a second suspect in the investigation as Ashley Buck, 28, of Biggs. She is currently wanted for questioning.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Butte County Sheriff's Office at (530) 538-7321.
SHASTA COUNTY, Calif. - In the midst of extreme wet weather, Action News Now met up with Caltrans representatives to see if the weather will affect roads in the North State.

This winter, community members have seen a number of potholes, flooding and new cracks along city, county and state roadways.

However, Caltrans representatives said that the roads are designed to withstand a lot of water.

"The roads are designed to withstand a lot of water," said Eric Acana, office chief for roadside maintenance with Caltrans. "It's usually in and around drainages, and when we get a lot of high flows then erosion can't happen. We're usually there to try and address that."

Acana said that's why many Caltrans workers are out in the winter months working to fix the problems in the roadways as soon as possible.
SACRAMENTO, Calif.- Butte County's housing crisis after the Camp Fire is about to get a voice at the State Capitol.

Assemblyman James Gallagher plans to introduce legislation to help speed up housing projects in Butte County.

This will be in the Natural Resources Committee on Monday, April 8 at 2:30 p.m. in the State Capitol, Room 447.

Assemblyman Gallagher is inviting anyone in support of the bill to attend, in hopes of pushing the bill through.

Recently, the Assemblyman was in a Butte County meeting, where he heard what the biggest needs were after the fire and housing topped the list.

To RSVP to the committee hearing, send an email to Assemblymember.Gallagher@assembly.ca.gov.
Former Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen stands alongside President Trump as he tours the border wall between the United States and Mexico in Calexico, California, on Friday. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen tendered her resignation on Sunday, joining a long line of top officials who have departed the Trump administration. Nielsen, who took over the department after former DHS head John Kelly left to become President Trumps chief of staff in July of 2017, had been a regular target of criticism from the president, who once berated her so badly at a Cabinet meeting that she reportedly drafted a resignation letter. On Sunday, facing escalating pressure from Trump, she went all the way.

The change happened amid a worsening humanitarian crisis along parts of the southern U.S. border after waves of Central American migrants, fleeing violence and poor economic conditions, travelled north seeking entry to the U.S. That surge has overwhelmed U.S. authorities at the border.

Nielsen had set up a meeting with Trump on Sunday. According to the New York Times, three people familiar with the meeting said Ms. Nielsen had requested it to plan a way forward at the border, in part thinking she could have a reasoned conversation with Mr. Trump about her role.

In a statement announcing her decision after that meeting, Nielsen said she had determined that it was the right time for her to move on and hoped 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 Americas borders and which have contributed to discord in our nations discourse.

Many had expected Trump to fire Nielsen, but rather than deploy his famous Apprentice catchphrase, the president seems to have decided to force her to quit instead. Among recent moves to marginalize Nielsen, Trump cut U.S. aid to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras the day after she signed a regional compact with officials from the countries. (He had previously told her to cut the aid, not understanding that the State Department was responsible for foreign aid.) He also recently floated the idea of naming an immigration czar who would essentially take over parts of her job. By Sunday, Nielsen had apparently had enough.

Kevin McAleenan, who is currently the commissioner of the Customs and Border Protection agency, will replace Nielsen as acting head of the agency, Trump announced in a tweet. That makes McAleenan the fourth acting head atop the Trump administration. Other acting heads  who have not been confirmed by the Senate  are already in place as Defense secretary, Interior secretary, and White House chief of staff.

In what was likely a related move on Friday, President Trump withdrew his nominee to head the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, Ron Vitiello, citing the need to go in a tougher direction. Nielsen reportedly supported Vitiello.

According to CNN, Trumps desire for a tougher direction came from Stephen Miller, the nativist policy adviser who is the architect of the Trump administrations (anti-)immigration policies. The Times points out that Miller regularly complained about Nielsen, too.

Miller and Trump apparently blamed Nielsen for not finding more ways to to secure the border, though its not clear what non-border wall ideas the men had themselves. For her part, Nielsen was reportedly frustrated with the lack of support she received from other agencies to handle the migrants trying to enter the U.S. Per the Times, the president berated Ms. Nielsen regularly, calling her at home early in the mornings to demand that she take action to stop immigrants from entering the country, including doing things that were clearly illegal, like blocking all immigrants from seeking asylum.

She apparently responded with attempts to explain the rule of law, which undoubtedly enraged the authoritarian-minded president further still.

As Voxs Dara Lind points out, Nielsen  who presided over the Trump administrations objectively cruel policy of separating migrant families  was already arguably the most aggressive DHS head in the agencys history, but it wasnt enough for Trump, who seems to have blamed her for the reality of migration itself.

The presidents infamous tirade at Nielsen was reportedly over her refusal to close the border. Trump has repeatedly threatened to close the border, but the logistical and economic ramifications of doing so make it effectively impossible. Since Nielsen was undoubtedly one of the main administration officials who attempted to explain to Trump why he could not do something impossible, it was only a matter of time until hed seek to replace her.

Whether McAleenan, a longtime border officer, will take a more hardline approach than Nielsen if thats even possible  remains unclear. He also might not hold the position for very long himself.

This post has updated throughout to reflect new information about a breaking news story. The headline originally stated that Nielsen had been fired, but she later said she had resigned.
CHICO, Calif. - Congregation Beth Israel hosted their annual kosher deli lunch at their center in Chico on Sunday.

The event was for all of the community, not just temple members.

They served up a traditional kosher deli lunch with pastrami, corned beef and sliced turkey, along with salads and delicious desserts.

The goal was to raise money for the congregation's Shul School so they can provide a quality Jewish education for temple members in Chico.
CORNING, Calif. - A man was sentenced to nine years and eight months in state prison on Monday for attempting to run over a game warden with his car in September of 2018.

Phien Khamsavang, 35, of Orland, pleaded guilty to one count of attempted murder and one felony count of resisting a peace officer with violence.

The attack happened on Sept. 3, 2018, when a fish and game warden was checking Khamsavang's fishing license.

The warden discovered that Khamsavang had multiple outstanding warrants and attempted to arrest him on the warrants.

He was not cooperative and the warden failed in multiple attempts to subdue him.

Khamsavang was able to get into his vehicle and attempted to run over the warden. However, the warden was able to get into his car just before he was about to hit him.

Khamsavang fled the area in the car until it became disabled a short distance away. He then fled on foot westbound on South Avenue before being captured by other Game Warden Officers from the California Highway Patrol.
ROCKLAND COUNTY, N.Y. - A New York state judge has issued a preliminary injunction against Rockland County's emergency order that banned kids from public places unless they have been vaccinated against measles.

The emergency order included schools, stores, churches and restaurants.

Some local government leaders are worried, such as Ed Day, who is an administrator for Rockland County.

Day said, "We're not going to sit idly by and wait and watch. That's not what this administration will do."

"We'll find other strategies to make sure we have a public safety level here in Rockland County to help safety here in Rockland County that is meritorious," Day added.

The judge says 166 cases of measles out of a population of 330,000 people does 'not' make an epidemic.
Tangrams Awards will open for entry on April 17, in line with Spikes Asia, allowing entrants to work on entry submissions for a single piece of work simultaneously rather than multiple times throughout the year for recognition of strategy and effectiveness as well as creative excellence. Tangrams judging and winners awards show take place during Spikes Asia Festival of Creativity in Singapore, from September 25 to 27, 2019.

Jury Presidents

Effectiveness: Anindya Dasgupta, Head  Global Consumer Business & CMO, Fonterra

Media Strategy: Sindhuja Rai, Director, Media, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, Mondelez International

Digital Strategy: James Keady, Director - Digital Engagement, Citi

Data & Analytics and e-Commerce: Michelle Wong, Director, CRM & Analytics (Global Marketing), McDonalds Global Franchising Limited Singapore Branch

Commenting on the appointments, Festivals Director Joe Pullos said, Winning a Tangram is not an easy thing to do, and thats why were hugely honoured to have such a formidable team of Presidents leading each jury panel for Tangrams in 2019 to uphold our rigorous judging process. Entrants can look forward to having their campaigns reviewed by global industry experts on strategy and effectiveness. A win at Tangrams means your work is truly the best in the region.

The full list of Tangrams jury members will be announced in May.

Anindya Dasgupta, Head  Global Consumer Business & CMO for Fonterra, will lead the Effectiveness Jury. Dasgupta heads the global consumer business for Fonterra. Prior to this, he was with the Global Beverages group in Pepsico in New York, leading marketing for APAC, etc.

In the clutter of communication, some brands stand out, which allow them to become not just a part of the consumers mind, but their daily life experiences too. We will be judging the best in class work in this area as part of the Effectiveness jury, Dasgupta said.

Sindhuja Rai, Director, Media, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa for Mondelez International, will preside over the Media Strategy Jury. Rai works closely with brands and markets to activate their strategic priorities across the region. She is responsible for leading and developing partnerships, internal capabilities and strategies across all forms of consumer connections including digital, TV, e-commerce, print and outdoors.

Rai remarked, Media is a critical lever of driving business growth in todays dynamic media ecosystem. Im really excited to be working with Tangrams to recognize amazing work that marries creativity with business results.

James Keady, Director - Digital Engagement for Citi, will lead the Digital Strategy Jury. Keady has had experience in leadership roles throughout APAC & Europe leading teams across digital media, online retail, social, customer experience and data driven marketing. He has a breadth of experience across Technology, FMCG, Finance, Automotive and Luxury. James is also on the editorial board of US Journal of Digital & Social Media Marketing and speaker at various events across the globe.

Keady said, Excited to be part of the team and opportunity to judge the great work happening across Asia in 2019, all the best to the entrants.

Michelle Wong, Director, CRM & Analytics (Global Marketing) for McDonalds Global Franchising Limited Singapore Branch, will head the Data & Analytics and e-Commerce Jury. Wong is part of the McDonalds Global Media, CRM and Merchandising team that aims to unlock the full value of all McDonalds customers through data. Her vision is that Today we serve close to 69 million customers in over 100 countries on a daily basis. Tomorrow, we want to have personal conversations with these customers. Her team is focused on using the data they have on customers to create value, utility and meaningful experiences.

What separates the forerunners will be how they democratise data into every business unit to power individual and collective decisions. Because if not, even data has an expiry date, Wong observed.

Tangrams Strategy & Effectiveness are inviting submissions in 5 award types; Effectiveness, Media Strategy, Digital Strategy, Data & Analytics and eCommerce. All entries will be assessed on the ideas, strategies and business results by a team of expert judges who are selected based on their knowledge, influence and contribution to the industry.
Moonbow by Hindware, the water purifier and air purifier brand has appointed Brand Visage Communications as their Social Media agency. The agency won the business post a multi-agency pitch which concluded last month.

As Social Media managers, Brand Visage will strategise, plan and execute a comprehensive Social Media strategy for the brand, elevating its brand awareness. This will include managing social media presence across platforms.

Commenting on the association, Ruchin Khanduja, (Head Marketing, HSIL Consumer Products Division, said Brand Visage is a young and dynamic Digital Agency and we found it to be best suited to work for a young and Dynamic brand like Moonbow to develop some out of the box Social Media campaigns

On the win, Siddharth Khanna, Co-founder and CEO, Brand Visage Communications, added, We are extremely thriled on the win. The water purifier business in India is a growing category and still a lot of consumer education and outreach is required. With the revolutionary technology of Moonbow, we look forward to break the clutter and strengthen its positioning through various digital & communication assets

We are glad to add Moonbow from Hindware to our client list and the entire team is looking forward on building innovative and exciting campaigns. We aim to build and drive the brand awareness and performance even higher. said Anuj Khanna, Co-founder and COO, Brand Visage Communications.
EPIC TV- India Ka Apna Infotainment, has always been known for the strength of its content, derived from in-depth research, and diligent creator values. On the back of this reputation, the Department of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) of the Punjab Government entrusted the channel with the creation of a two part feature to commemorate the contributions of the martyrs of the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre. Jallianwala Bagh - Punjab Ka Dil, produced as an EPIC Original for the Govt. of Punjab will air in 2 parts. Part 1 will air on 6th April at 7 pm with a repeat telecast on 7th April at 10:30 am.

The concluding part will telecast on 13th April at 7 pm and repeat on 14th April at 10:30 am. On the Baisakhi day of 13th April, 1919; General Reginald Dyer opened fire on a peaceful gathering of unarmed people at the Jallianwala Bagh. Trapped in an enclosed area, under relentless, unprovoked firing that blocked the only exit from the park, hundreds lost their lives. Condemne d in the strongest terms by leaders from around the world, this incident was pivotal in Indias fight for independence and has become a symbol of the atrocities of colonialism, and of British rule of India. A tribute to all those martyred in cold blood, the feature examines the events leading up to the incident and analyses the far-reaching impact of its fall-out; that spurred the clarion call of Poorna Swaraj - complete independence. Through interviews with renowned scholars, rare archival footage, meetings with descendants of the martyrs, along with an exploration of those who visit the hallowed ground to pay homage; the hour long narrative explores the various facets that make the Jallianwala Bagh tragedy an extremely significant event in Indias history.

Akul Tripathi, Head - Content and Programming, EPIC Channel added, We are honoured and proud to be the vessel of choice, to tell the story of such an important moment in Indias history. The feature is homage to generations of martyrs and freedom fighters from the brave land of the Punjab. The Jallianwala Bagh incident and its sacrifices must not be forgotten, today and by generations to come.

This special feature will also be available on EPIC On, EPICs video streaming service in 3 languages - Hindi, English, and Punjabi. The EPIC On app is available across devices and platforms, including Firestick and Apple TV. Part of the recently announced IN10 Media network, EPIC, true to its brand proposition as Indias Storytellers, is known for its extensive library of premium Indian content that brings out lesser known stories through powerful visuals and gripping narrative.
GoDaddy, the company empowering entrepreneurs everywhere, today launched a new Professional Email solution in India, designed to help small business owners and entrepreneurs create a professional email address to support their ventures.

A professional email account is an accessible and easy way to have the name of your company or your domain name in your email address. Email that matches your business name, versus generic email, can help you look more professional and can build credibility and trust with new and prospective customers. A professional online presence is beneficial whether you are a freelancer, a small business owner, an entrepreneur in early development stages, or an established business. Finally, it is a great way to highlight the name of your company or project in the inbox of those with whom you are in contact.

GoDaddy Professional Email offers a modern look and a clean interface with an intuitive experience, making it easy to set up and use. Professional Email features a responsive design that works great on all of your devices. So, whether youre working on desktop, laptop, tablet, or on your mobile phoneits the same seamless experience. Additionally, GoDaddy Professional Email syncs data across all of your devices automatically so your email, calendar, and tasks are always up-to-date. Professional Email works flawlessly with the email client of your choice, such as Outlook, Apple Mail, or your favorite Android email program.

This email solution also can help you manage your digital life with a customizable web portal that lets you personalize the way you use your email and calendar. Helpful features like drag-and-drop attachments, full text search, attachment previews, and a clean, ad-free interface provide a top-notch experience. In addition to the features of each plan, Professional Email also has built-in industry-leading security and anti-virus and spam filters to help protect your data.

Sharing his thoughts, Nikhil Arora, Managing Director and Vice President for GoDaddy in India said, India has emerged as a leader for innovation and entrepreneurship that has grown at a rapid pace. With this professional email tool, we aim to strengthen the small and medium businesses and entrepreneurs online presence, by further building credibility, and help them show a more professional view of their business or idea. GoDaddy wants to help customers promote their business with every email sent.

GoDaddy Professional Email is currently available in two affordable packages, each aligning to the particular needs of a business or entrepreneur.

The Professional Email Startup plan, currently offered for 39.00 per month/user, features:

Email address that matches your domain

10 GB of email storage.

of email storage. Mobile-friendly webmail .

. Calendar, contacts and tasks.

Works with the email app of your choice.

No distracting advertisements

Industry leading email security

The Team plan, currently offered for 58.00 per month/user, offers all of the great features of the Startup plan, plus more email storage and additional ways to collaborate:

25 GB of storage

of storage Share and synchronize calendars and contacts with your team

Assign tasks to specific members of your team

To see GoDaddy Professional Email in action, please visit: GoDaddy India

To know more about GoDaddy Professional Email, please visit: GoDaddy.com

GoDaddy offers an integrated suite of products for small business owners and entrepreneurs, ranging from domain names, hosting, website building, to email marketing, security protections and an online store. GoDaddy offers local 24/7 customer support to help guide customers in the growth of their venture, and to find the tools that best meet their needs.
No matter where we go or what we do, we always want to look our best. From a night out with the family to a Sunday brunch with the girls, were always camera ready. So what about when we travel? Is comfort the first choice or do we let comfort and style go hand in hand?

With the trend of Airport looks setting in, people all over the country are seeking inspiration from celebrities and choosing an amalgamation of style and comfort for their travel outfits. Enabling their audience to look their best while they travel, as one of Indias leading fashion destination, fbb brings International Travel Looks Day on 7th April.

Conceptualized and executed by Digital Marketing Agency, Social Kinnect, the celebration aims at giving our audiences the best styles to sport on their travels this summer. While showcasing celebrity looks, fbb stores will see a complete makeover for the 7th of April where their audience can shop their favourite celeb inspired Airport looks and #TravelLikeAStar at affordable prices.

A week-long celebration leading up to the day itself, International Travel Looks Day will see celebrity styles being broken down and recreated for the audience. With several influencers joining in, the fashion world is abuzz with celeb inspired looks.

But it doesnt stop there. To make it even more interesting, fbb decided to sweeten the pot and give all shoppers an irresistible offer where customers who shop for more than 2999 get a free travel bag worth Rs. 1999 while 3 lucky shoppers win a free trip to Europe. All this for a simple shopping trip at an fbb near you.

Avail the offer here.

Speaking of the celebration created by fbb, Pawan Sarda, Digital Marketing Head at Future Group said, At fbb we understand the DNA of fashion and our customers across all regions. We are proud to create days like World Shorts Day and National Jeans Day which celebrate the freedom of fashion. #TravelLikeAStar is our way of encouraging our consumers to shed away all their inhibitions and style themselves in a way that is liberating.

Social Kinnect CEO, Chandni Shah added, fbb is a brand that is constantly evolving to meet its customers requirements. Based on Internet and social media trends, with International Travel Looks Day, we wanted to do something really topical around the growing popularity of celebrity Airport Looks. Since fbb is all about making fashion fun and approachable for Indians, we showcased these sought-after celebrity airport looks, recreated with affordable fbb pieces. Unique and relevant to the brand, we are confident that this campaign will create lasting business impact.

So what are you waiting for? Register NOW and head to your nearest fbb store to shop for your favourite celeb inspired travel looks on the 7th of April.
Viacom18s digital video-on-demand streaming service Voot is celebrating its third anniversary with 100+ billion minutes of watch time. Backed with technology and insights, the AVOD OTT platform now aims to reach 100 million monthly active users (MAU) within the fiscal year.

As part of its future growth strategy, the platform also announced the further scaling of its current content library with a line-up of over 30+ Voot Originals across genres and languages, to be launched this fiscal. Law and Honour, Naaz, Love All, The Raikar Case, Kaisi Yeh Yaariaan - Season 4, Marzi and Asura are few of the Voot Originals that will be launched shortly.

Sudhanshu Vats, Group CEO and MD, Viacom18, informed, Voot has crossed the 100-billion watch minutes mark in 3 years and we are now targeting 100 million monthly active users within this financial year. Additionally, we are segmenting the Voot business into 4 uniquely focussed propositions  the existing AVOD model and the upcoming freemium offering, Voot Kids and Voot International.

He further said, India will have an online consumer base of more than 500 million by 2022. Of this, more than 3/4th will be consuming video content. While technological advancements allow us to personalise content consumption, growth for the category will come from our ability to segment our offerings to multiple consumer segments accelerated by the three As  accessibility, availability and affordability.

Institutionalising the branded content play, Voot announced the launch of Voot Studios  a business performance-oriented content tech solution for advertisers looking to connect with digital audiences with branded shows, sponsorships, interactive formats in addition to other bespoke solutions.

Speaking about the branded content play for Voot, Akash Banerji, Head  AVOD Business, Voot, said, Brands today realise regular ad spots, while important, is not sufficient to drive resonance with the consumer. Branded content solutioning is hence, the way forward given that it allows for bespoke content curation and subtle communication embedded into the narrative of the show. Voot Studios will allow brands to bring the world of story-telling, data and tech all together to deliver the brand message and the ROI effectively for the business.

With the proliferation of digital content and its increasing consumption across mediums, understanding consumer behaviour now plays a critical role. Voots consumer insights product MAVARIC is built to help advertisers identify the right audience thus ensuring high impact via communication. MAVARIC helps advertisers with consumer insights as well as target their messaging beyond simple demographic profiles and instead focuses on enhanced insights around online behaviour, purchase behaviour, affinity and interest and more.

Insights clubbed with interactivity solutions will allow brands to provide immersive brand engagements. Reinforcing the importance of interactivity on OTT platforms, Voot will strengthen its current offering with the addition of 5 new programmes in the next few months which will fuel further growth and attract users to the platform.

Now available on iOS, Android, Web, and Amazon Fire TV, and built on a robust technology backbone, Voot further strengthens its technology and distribution system by announcing over 20+ new distribution partners across the travel, broadband and mobile ecosystem as well as with OEMs. The OTT platform has partnered with smart TV manufacturer like CloudWalker, ShareIt, Act Fibrenet and travel network company Ola, among others.

Currently driven by an advertising supported video-on-demand model, Voot will continue to build scale by soon diversifying from one business model of AVOD to four  Voot AVOD, Voot Kids, Voot International and Voot Freemium.
President Trump with Homeland Security Director Kirstjen Nielsen Photo: Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg via Getty Images

In his first week as president, Donald Trump addressed employees at the Department of Homeland Security and instructed them that their mission would be to carry out the law. I am asking all of you to enforce the laws of the United States of America  We are going to restore the rule of law in the United States, he said.

Here Trump was hewing closely to the themes that had been developed for years by the most respectable conservative immigration hawks. Their complaint about illegal immigration was not the immigration part but the illegal part. Indeed, many conservatives expressed openness to higher levels of at least some forms of legal immigration. Trump himself repeatedly endorsed more legal immigration  just two months ago, he said, I want people to come into our country, in the largest numbers ever, but they have to come in legally. It was all a matter of immigrating the right way rather than the wrong way.

The law-and-order facade has been crumbling for a long time. But the firing of Kirstjen Nielsen as secretary of DHS truly reveals how little Trump or his party actually care about the law at all.

In recent months, Trump has not bothered to conceal his impatience for legal niceties. He has publicly mocked the idea that courts should oversee asylum hearings (Get rid of judges), and claimed unilateral authority to spend federal money on border fencing despite being denied authorization by Congress. Reporting on Nielsens departure shows that her central disqualification was an unwillingness to violate the law.

CNN reports that Trump becoming increasingly unhinged in his demands to Nielsen, and kept making demands incompatible with legal, humanitarian and international realities. The president personally instructed border agents to defy the law and simply not let migrants in. A senior administration official explains, chillingly, At the end of the day, the President refuses to understand that the Department of Homeland Security is constrained by the laws.

The New York Times adds that Trumps demands included things that were clearly illegal, such as blocking all migrants from seeking asylum, but that any such explanation by the Homeland Security Secretary only infuriated Mr. Trump further. And NBC reports that Trump has demanded that Nielsen reinstate the family-separation policy, but she has resisted on the grounds that it would violate the executive order Trump signed last June.

While these accounts obviously come from Nielsen or her allies, and tend to present her tenure in a favorable light, the important thing here is not her sainthood. Clearly Nielsen had little or no humanitarian objection to Trumps immigration agenda. But she did have a breaking point, and it was the very thing the administration claimed to be upholding all along: the rule of law.

One reason Trump has abandoned his pretext of simply following the law is that the immigration crisis is not related to breaking immigration laws. The surge at the border is migrants seeking asylum. They are not sneaking in, but presenting themselves at crossing points legally.

Trumps response has been revealing. He has not abandoned his demand for a wall (which is of course irrelevant to refugees arriving at ports of entry). He has instead switched to insisting the country is full, without bothering to explain why, or even that, he has reversed his previous stance of welcoming larger numbers of legal immigrants.

The internal mental processes that created this reversal are, as usual, simple and fairly transparent. The wave of enthusiasm Trump unleashed was not a fervor for the efficient administration of immigration law. It was a racialized panic over cultural change.

A Washington Post account from last year depicts Trump regaling his advisers with stories of his rallies and the visceral response he drew when he linked immigrants with crime:

Acting as if he were at a rally, he recited a few made-up Hispanic names and described potential crimes they could have committed, such as rape or murder. Then, he said, the crowds would roar when the criminals were thrown out of the country  as they did when he highlighted crimes by illegal immigrants at his rallies, according to a person present for the exchange and another briefed on it later. Miller and Kushner laughed.

Conservative elites have tried to convince themselves that what Republican voters really mean when they cheer for the wall and repeat lurid stories of Latino men committing horrific crimes is that they just want the law to be followed. Trump, as he has done so many times, has turned the rationalizations made on his own behalf into a joke.

This post has been updated.
In all, 1,900 cities, towns and villages have been affected. More downpours are forecast today. Deforestation and climate change are among the main causes. The UN emergency agencies have not been able to intervene because of sanctions.

Tehran (AsiaNews/Agencies)  Floods caused by recent heavy rains have displaced thousands of people in Iran with the death toll standing at 70 for now.

As people struggle to recover from the natural disaster, which has been blamed on climate change and deforestation, fingers have also been pointed at US sanctions for the arrival of hindering the humanitarian aid the country extremely needs.

The extremely heavy rain began on 19 March in northern Iran with the first ten casualties with the emergency eventually affecting the mostly arid south and west.

Heavy downpours are now set to strike the south-western provinces and officials say they will release water from key river dams that are dangerously full.

Women and children are being moved to safer areas whilst men have been asked to stay to assist with relief efforts.

Some 1,900 cities, towns and villages have been affected. The town of Susangerd, with a population of 50,000, is under evacuation orders.

Thousands of roads, bridges and buildings have already been destroyed. So far, 86,000 people are living in emergency shelters, of which about 1,000 were airlifted to safety.

Sanctions, which were re-imposed after US President Donald Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal last year, have hampered rescue operations, this according to Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.

Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and Iranian-American political scientist Kaveh L. Afrasiabi agree.

'Due to the illegal and unjust US sanctions, in violation of UNSC 2231, international efforts to assist Iran have been seriously hampered and there has not been even a trickle of assistance from the UN relief agencies, some of whom have cited the US sanctions, writes Afrasiabi in his letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

The United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution UNSC 2231 for a joint plan of action on the Iranian nuclear issue.
President Trump. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

This week, the House Ways and Means Committee formally moved to obtain President Trumps federal tax forms. This move, which ought to be a mere formality, has slipped immediately into a political and legal conflict. What is so striking about the episode is how little outcry Trumps open defiance of the law has created. It is by now simply taken for granted that this president holds himself above legal accountability and that his party will support him to the hilt.

The law governing this matter is unusually clear. The Internal Revenue Code states, Upon written request from the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives, the chairman of the Committee on Finance of the Senate, or the chairman of the Joint Committee on Taxation, the Secretary shall furnish such committee with any return or return information specified in such request. This law has been used to examine tax returns of high-placed political officials. It was enacted in order to let Congress examine financial conflicts of interest by the administration, and forced the disclosure of a presidents tax returns (Richard Nixon).

News accounts describe this law as obscure or little used, which it is  but only because presidential candidates who receive a major-party nomination have habitually published their tax returns. It is a very strong norm that has made the law unnecessary. But the fact that the norm is backstopped by a law strengthens rather than weakens the case for enforcing it.

Trump recently told reporters, From what I understand, the laws 100 percent on my side. The president declined to support this strident interpretation with any references to legal texts or other precedent, which is hardly surprising. Somewhat more unusually, his supporters have likewise failed to explain why the plain-text meaning of the law does not actually apply.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders simply stated, While his taxes continue to be under audit, he doesnt anticipate that changing at any point anytime soon, and therefore doesnt have any intention to release those returns. Trumps tax returns may or may not be under audit, but in any case, this has no bearing on a law allowing Congress to examine them.

Senator Charles Grassley, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, defended Trumps defiance of the law in terms that made up in emotional intensity what they lacked in any legal basis. [Democrats] dislike him with a passion, and they want his tax returns to destroy him, Grassley said. Thats all that this whole process is about, and its Nixonian to the core.

These are not good reasons, but they are reasons, and its worth considering their meaning. It is surely true that Democrats in congress dislike Trump. However, that has no bearing on their standing to exercise a right to which the law entitles them unambiguously.

More interestingly, Grassley asserts that obtaining Trumps tax filings would destroy him. Its startling that Grassley believes not only that the information in Trumps tax returns is so devastating it would destroy him, but that the proper response is to prevent this ruinous information from being made available to Congress or the public.

National Reviews David French concedes that Congress has a legal right to the tax returns while devoting almost the entirety of his argument to the proposition that the law is terrible and Trump is correct to defy it. His stated concern is not Trump, but the poor average taxpayer who might be targeted by meanies in Congress: They can have your return, my return, or any political enemys return.

This theory fails to explain why, if the law is so ripe and tempting for abuse, none of the people running Congress over the last 95 years  many of them quite ruthless  actually have used it to attack private citizens. In any case, even if youre worried that the law is ripe for abuse, leaving it on the books and failing to use it to compel the president to do what all modern presidents have done is hardly a solution. It could still be used in the future to target private citizens.

If this scenario that hasnt happened in 95 years is really so scary, congress could amend the law so that it only applies to the president, or perhaps members of the cabinet as well, which would satisfy the concerns about privacy. But nobody actually thinks Trump would support such a reform, because he obviously doesnt care about privacy in the abstract at all. In both its motive and its application, Trumps position has nothing to do with protecting average citizens and everything to do with protecting Trump.

Mere public disclosure is just about the most minimal step possible to constrain Trumps massive financial conflicts of interest. Its certainly far milder than forcing him to place his assets in a blind trust, as all presidents have willingly done for decades. Yet even that modest step goes too far for any Republican to abide. This fanatical opposition only makes the forbidden more tantalizing.

Last year, the New York Times examined state records and found a decades-long pattern of massive tax fraud by Trump and his father, in addition to the devastating revelation that Trump inherited at least $400 million. Other reporters have found extensive evidence that Trumps income comes from abetting money laundering or dealing with criminals and dictators.

This would help explain the unusual diligence the president has applied toward this problem. The Times reported recently that Trump urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to speedily confirm his handpicked IRS chief counsel, Michael J. Desmond, even prioritizing his confirmation ahead of Attorney General William Barr. Trump generally takes little interest in the internal workings of government  his Defense Secretary resigned three and a half months ago, and Trump has taken no evident steps toward finding a replacement. He clearly cares a lot about having loyalists staffing the IRS.

Republicans are acting as though presidential tax returns have traditionally been kept private, and it is Democrats who wish to violate this sacred custom of secrecy. Obtaining Trumps tax returns sets a dangerous standard of having the federal government used as a political weapon and is also a waste of time, asserts House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. (The actual standard it would set would be that presidents have to disclose their tax information, which is what the standard was before Trump came along.)

Democrats say theyre interested in the tax returns of all presidents when theyre really just interested in one: President Trump, Grassley argues. (Of course Democrats are only interested in obtaining this presidents taxes  hes the only one whos refused to disclose them!) Grassley adds, Its motivated by the Democrats intense dislike of this president. Its motivated by their frustration over losing an election that they thought theyd easily win. Its motivated by their desire to use all of the resources at their disposal to find something  anything  to bring this president down.

Grassley is fixating on the motivation of Congress to obtain Trumps taxes, while ignoring Trumps own motivation to hide them, so that he can steer the conversation away from the obvious solution  from the standpoint of both the public good and the letter of the law. This is the method Republicans have used to justify every debasement of norms and the law Trump has undertaken: Drain the question of any neutral principle and reduce it to a simple struggle of us versus them. And the more gross and unjustifiable Trumps behavior, the more Democrats resent him, which gives Republicans all the more reason to defend him.

Maintaining the secrecy of Trumps tax returns is a hill and people would be willing to die on it  we will see you in court, boasts an administration official. Legally, they havent got a leg to stand on. Its telling that nobody in the administration or the Republican Party seems to care.
In a sudden move, Israel on April 1 expanded the allowed fishing zone off Gazas coast to 15 nautical miles around the south near Egypt, and to 12 nautical miles in the center of the strip. The allowed zone, up from 9 miles before a recent closure, is the farthest offshore distance allowed in over two decades.

Israels crossings with Gaza  Erez and Kerem Shalom  were opened once again March 31, and the supply of diesel to operate the Gaza power plant has been renewed. Israel is also expected to allow Gaza to increase its exports and imports in the coming days.

These Israeli measures came after Hamas and Israel reached an understanding March 29 whereby Hamas is to keep weekly protests at least 300 meters from the border, prevent the launching of incendiary balloons and kites toward southern Israel and stop the nightly riots in return for an easing of restrictions on the blockaded strip.

According to multiple Hamas sources, major long-term economic projects for Gaza are expected to follow after the Israeli elections, including: upgrading Gazas gas and electricity infrastructure with Israeli and Qatari assistance, establishing a trade zone at the Egyptian Rafah border area and a number of commercial and industrial projects there, building solar farms on the outskirts of Gaza, employment programs, and the construction of desalination plants along with other projects.

Many of these programs are going to be funded by Qatar, though a Hamas source told Al-Monitor that other Gulf countries are expected to chip in.

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said Israel will lift restrictions on the entry of 30% of the materials it normally blocks; Israel has said the supplies could be also used for building Hamas military infrastructure.

Many ordinary Palestinians and most Palestinian factions are suspicious of the agreement and the sudden shift of Israels policy toward the coastal enclave.

Almost all Palestinian factions  including Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Democratic Front, and the Palestinian peoples party, among others  expressed concerns that these upcoming humanitarian plans are a part of the Donald Trump administrations plans to introduce humanitarian solutions that will come at the expense of a fair political solution to the Palestinian cause.

Senior Palestinian figures have expressed worry that the Trump administration, after it was shut out by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, is trying to circle around and find a gateway for its plans through Gaza.

The United States on a number of occasions has publicly endorsed the efforts of Egypt, Qatar and Israel to rehabilitate Gaza, even though the United States, Israel and Egypt all in the past decade were adamant that the blockade should not be alleviated until Hamas turns over control of Gaza to Abbas. This sudden shift of policy on their behalf is raising doubts, especially among the Palestinians.

Palestinian factions also expressed concerns that the goal behind Israel's acceptance of these projects is to maintain the separation between Gaza and the West Bank, and establish a separate Palestinian state in Gaza, as going back to the 1950s there have been Israeli plans to undermine the Palestinian cause through establishing a Palestinian state in Gaza and possibly expanding it at the expense of the Sinai Peninsula.

Ever since Hamas began talks with Israel outside of the PLO umbrella, the PA has disavowed the talks, accusing Hamas of engaging with Trumps so-called deal of the century, which, the PA said, involves establishing limited self-rule for Palestinians in the West Bank and a Palestinian statelet in Gaza.

On March 28, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the American recognition of Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem and the Golan, and granting Israel the right of overriding security control over the West Bank, means that the "next step for Trump is to recognize Israel's sovereignty over the West Bank, beginning with the so-called settlement blocs, and then later an American recognition of a Palestinian state in Gaza.

Osama al-Qawasmi, a spokesman for Fatah, told Al-Monitor, "Israel and the US seek to liquidate the Palestinian cause through Gazas gateway and Hamas' openness to deal with their ideas.

He said, Contrary to the PLOs negotiations with Israel, which were on the basis of land for peace, Israel seeks through these negotiations to separate the Gaza Strip gradually, and provide insignificant humanitarian facilitations in return for preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) politburo member Mariam Abu Daqqa stressed that the PFLP withdrew from the Gazas negotiations with Israel. She told Al-Monitor, Our position is crystal clear. The Palestinian people have the right to these humanitarian initiatives and have the right to have the blockade removed, but not at the expense of the core issues of the Palestinian cause.

Israels goal is clear: to separate the West Bank from the Gaza Strip and maintain the Palestinian division, she said.

The most efficient and secure way to solve Gazas problem is through [national] reconciliation and the implementation of its agreements by Hamas and Fatah, Abu Daqqa added.

Walid al-Awad, a senor official in the Palestinian Peoples Party, said in an April 3 interview with Amad, We do not exactly trust the Qatari role, which seeks to take these understandings into a different path that goes along with Trumps Middle East plan, and which will present humanitarian and economic solutions that will come at the expense of the political solution to the Palestinian cause.

In a Likud meeting March 12, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel's decision to allow Qatari funds to be transferred to Hamas is part of a broader strategy to keep Palestinians divided and undermine the possibility of a Palestinian state.

Political analyst Mohammed Qassem told Al-Monitor, The Trump administration wants to settle the Palestinian issue with a semi-political settlement backed up by humanitarian projects in Gaza and the West Bank. Those projects, funded by Gulf countries, will be the basis upon which the normalization project will kick off as it  the normalization  is a core issue that the Trump administration is desperate to achieve.

Aside from separating Gaza from the West bank and Trumps so-called peace plan, Hamas by accepting these humanitarian projects is risking blessing the normalization project by Palestinian hands in the months to come, Qassem added.

The Islamic Jihad is also against the Hamas-Israel deal and against any long-term truce in general, as its leaders have long believed that a long-term truce is an Israeli attempt to exclude Gaza from the conflict to maintain its efforts to swallow the West Bank undisrupted.

Haniyeh denied the Palestinian factions accusations and stressed that the understandings have no political consequences and that they have nothing to do with Trumps deal of the century. Hamas chief also denied that the understandings reached are intended to separate Gaza and the West Bank.

There are those who said that Egypt is taking Hamas toward the establishment of a permanent separate political entity in Gaza, and we say that Egypt has not and will not do so, and its position is clear on the necessity of Palestinian territorial unity, Haniyeh said.

Egypt under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi two years ago mended its ties with Hamas, despite the fact that it accused the Islamist movement in 2013 of being a co-conspirator against the security and stability of the Egyptian people.

There has been wide speculation that Egypt mended its ties with Hamas upon instructions from the Trump administration. Trump recently announced that he has invited Sisi to visit the United States soon, ahead of the release of his upcoming Middle East plan slated for after the April 9 Israeli elections.

UN envoy Nickolay Mladenov, who has been helping to advance humanitarian initiatives to Gaza stressed in a statement he released that the core of the crisis in Gaza remains political, and that advancing intra-Palestinian reconciliation remains essential.

I reiterate that there can be no state in Gaza, and there can be no state without Gaza. Ultimately, only sustainable political solutions will reverse the current negative trajectory and restore hope to Gazas long-suffering population, Mladenov said in the statement.
President Donald Trump has been laying the groundwork for todays designation of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist group for at least 18 months, a review of US statements shows.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo himself suggested as much when he made the decision official, telling reporters at the State Department that the IRGC designation should surprise no one but rather builds on the administrations sanctions against more than 970 Iranian businesses and individuals since the president took office.

Why it matters: The increasingly hostile rhetoric places todays decision squarely within the administrations maximum pressure campaign against Tehran. A timeline of recent public statements lays out the US escalation  and the Iranian pushback  in stark terms:

February 2016: The Barack Obama administrations last worldwide threat assessment makes a single reference to the IRGC, saying its Quds Force allows the country to exert its influence in regional crises in the Middle East.

The Barack Obama administrations last worldwide threat assessment makes a single reference to the IRGC, saying its Quds Force allows the country to exert its influence in regional crises in the Middle East.

Oct. 13, 2017: Trump announces his Iran strategy, declaring that it begins with the long-overdue step of imposing tough sanctions on the IRGC, which he dubs the Iranian Supreme Leaders corrupt personal terror force and militia. The president authorizes the Treasury Department to further sanction the entire IRGC for its support for terrorism and accuses the group of arming the Syrian dictator [Bashar al-Assad], supplying proxies and partners with missiles and weapons to attack civilians in the region, and even plotting to bomb a popular restaurant right here in Washington, DC, a reference to an alleged 2011 plot attempt to assassinate Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir.

Trump announces his Iran strategy, declaring that it begins with the long-overdue step of imposing tough sanctions on the IRGC, which he dubs the Iranian Supreme Leaders corrupt personal terror force and militia. The president authorizes the Treasury Department to further sanction the entire IRGC for its support for terrorism and accuses the group of arming the Syrian dictator [Bashar al-Assad], supplying proxies and partners with missiles and weapons to attack civilians in the region, and even plotting to bomb a popular restaurant right here in Washington, DC, a reference to an alleged 2011 plot attempt to assassinate Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir.

May 8, 2018: Trump announces the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. The president justifies the move in part by declaring that the deal does nothing to constrain Irans destabilizing activities, including its support for terrorism.

Trump announces the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. The president justifies the move in part by declaring that the deal does nothing to constrain Irans destabilizing activities, including its support for terrorism.

May 21, 2018: Pompeo announces his 12 demands on Iran. No. 11 on the list: Iran, too, must end the IRG Qods Forces support for terrorists and militant partners around the world.

Pompeo announces his 12 demands on Iran. No. 11 on the list: Iran, too, must end the IRG Qods Forces support for terrorists and militant partners around the world.

Aug. 16, 2018: The State Department launches the Iran Action Group, headed by special representative for Iran Brian Hook.

The State Department launches the Iran Action Group, headed by special representative for Iran Brian Hook.

Sept. 25, 2018: Hooks team releases a white paper that blames the IRGC for a range of malign and threatening actions, including terrorism, cyberattacks and even destruction of Irans environment.

Hooks team releases a white paper that blames the IRGC for a range of malign and threatening actions, including terrorism, cyberattacks and even destruction of Irans environment.

Jan. 29, 2019: The Trump administrations latest intelligence assessment faults the IRGC navy for infrequent unprofessional interactions with US ships in the Gulf while raising concerns that such interactions could resume should Iran seek to project an image of strength in response to US pressure. The report also accuses the IRGC of flying drones close to US aircraft carriers during flight operations. It also points out that Iranian leaders since July 2018 have threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz in response to US sanctions targeting Iranian oil exports.

The Trump administrations latest intelligence assessment faults the IRGC navy for infrequent unprofessional interactions with US ships in the Gulf while raising concerns that such interactions could resume should Iran seek to project an image of strength in response to US pressure. The report also accuses the IRGC of flying drones close to US aircraft carriers during flight operations. It also points out that Iranian leaders since July 2018 have threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz in response to US sanctions targeting Iranian oil exports.

April 2, 2019: The United States says it has assessed that Iran was responsible for the deaths of at least 600 US service members during the Iraq war, from 2003 to 2011. This death toll is in addition to the many thousands of Iraqis killed by the IRGCs proxies, Hook adds at a State Department briefing during which he also accuses the group of trying to plant military roots in Syria and establish a new strategic base to threaten Syrias neighbors such as Israel and enabling Lebanese Hezbollah to use murder, terrorism and corruption to intimidate other Lebanese parties and communities.

The United States says it has assessed that Iran was responsible for the deaths of at least 600 US service members during the Iraq war, from 2003 to 2011. This death toll is in addition to the many thousands of Iraqis killed by the IRGCs proxies, Hook adds at a State Department briefing during which he also accuses the group of trying to plant military roots in Syria and establish a new strategic base to threaten Syrias neighbors such as Israel and enabling Lebanese Hezbollah to use murder, terrorism and corruption to intimidate other Lebanese parties and communities.

April 8, 2019: Pompeo cites the deaths of US service members during todays IRGC designation, making clear the high-stakes personal animosity driving US policy: Inexplicably the regime has faced no accountability from the international community for those deaths. Far from being an arbitrary attack on Iran, our pressure campaign imposes just and long overdue consequences for the regimes malign activity.

Whats next: Todays designation makes crystal clear the risks of conducting business with, or providing support to, the IRGC, Trump said in a statement. If you are doing business with the IRGC, you will be bankrolling terrorism. As the sanctions go into effect in one week, look to the Europeans and other parties to the deal to see how far they are willing to challenge the United States in an effort to salvage a nuclear deal they see as being in their national interest. Irans neighbors  particularly Iraq  will also come under tremendous pressure. And Iran will be contemplating its next steps after labeling the Pentagons Central Command a terrorist group today.

Know more: Diplomatic correspondent Laura Rozen looks into the IRGC designations risks to future diplomacy with Iran, while Al-Monitors Iran Pulse examines the reaction from Tehran.

-Julian Pecquet
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced today that the United States would designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization. The Wall Street Journal reported April 5 that as early as this week President Donald Trump would designate the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization, an unprecedented move against a national armed force.

Iranian officials, as expected, have condemned the move by the United States. One of the first responses came from the commander of the IRGC, Mohammad Ali Jafari. In case of such stupidity, the army and security forces of America in West Asia will no longer have the calm of today, Jafari said April 7. When asked what the IRGC would do, Jafari replied, If the Americans make such a stupid decision and endanger our national security, in accordance with the policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran, we will make operational similar countermeasures.

Ebrahim Raisi, the newly appointed judiciary chief and a rising star in the Islamic Republic, condemned the potential designation and accused the United States of being a supporter of terrorism. A country that has nothing but arming, guiding and giving refuge to terrorists in its track record is labeling the armed forces of another country terrorist, Raisi said. He added that such an action has no political or legal validity, but asked the Foreign Ministry and the Supreme National Security Council to respond with similar measures.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused those of pushing Trump to label the IRGC a terrorist organization of being Netanyahu Firsters, after the hard-line Israeli prime minister who has advocated a confrontational US-Iran policy. He added that those who push the United States into such decisions fully understand its consequences for US forces in the region. In fact, they seek to drag [the] US into a quagmire on [Netanyahus] behalf.

Two hundred and fifty-five members of Irans parliament signed a statement in support of the IRGC in the likelihood of it being labeled a foreign terrorist organization. The IRGC is one of the great achievements of the Iranian nation, the statement began, praising the IRGC for its role in the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, reconstruction efforts after the war and its role in Syria and Iraq, which it referred to as advisory help for regional governments in the fight against terrorism.

The statement continued, Irans national security and its armed forces have been a red line for parliamentarians. It added that if the United States would designate the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization, Irans parliament would pass a similar bill so that they would regret their misplaced and idiotic action.

Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, head of the parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, also said that parliament would respond with a similar bill. As did other Iranian officials, Falahatpisheh accused the United States of supporting terrorists, but he quoted Trump in doing so: As Trump has admitted, the Americans created Daesh [Islamic State] and the reality is that the IRGC, the army and our military forces defeated Daesh.

Moreover, in a statement published soon after the US announcement, the Supreme National Security Council  the top decision-making body in Iran  strongly condemned the move as illegal and dangerous, declaring that it has designated the United States as a state sponsor of terrorism and that US Central Command and all affiliated forces are a terrorist group."

The IRGC was already designated as a supporter of terrorism and it is not clear exactly what the new designation means. It is also not clear what Iran's parliamentary bill would entail. However, the IRGC has economic assets and any European country seeking to do business with Iran may be more disinclined to make such economic ventures.
Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi visited Tehran April 6-7, his first official visit to the neighboring country since assuming office in October 2018. Accompanied by a large delegation of high-ranking Iraqi officials and representatives of the private sector, Abdul Mahdi came to Tehran at the formal invitation of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

Apart from meeting with Rouhani, the Iraqi leader also met with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and attended a joint meeting of the Iranian and Iraqi business sectors at the Iran Chamber of Commerce. The visit came less than a month after Rouhanis visit to Iraq  the first by the Iranian president since taking office in 2013  in which the two sides reached a number of important agreements, mostly on economic issues.

The increased frequency of high-level meetings between Iranian and Iraqi officials, as well as Abdul Mahdi's busy schedule while in Tehran, sparked fresh discussion on the growing ties between the two neighbors. In fact, taking into account Abdul Mahdis agenda in Iran, as well as the regional and international circumstances surrounding the visit, it could be said that the visit was important from three main aspects.

First and foremost, the visit came amid increased pressure from the United States to limit Irans influence in Iraq, giving the visit a symbolic aspect. Although the US administration agreed on March 20 to extend the sanctions waiver for Iraq, so it can import gas and electricity from Iran for a 90-day period, it has been pressuring Baghdad to eliminate its energy dependence on Tehran.

However, Iraqs parliamentary speaker Mohammed al-Halbusi said March 30 that his country needs at least three years to become economically independent. Until then, Iraq needs to continue importing energy. Furthermore, Abdul Mahdi himself previously emphasized that his country is "not obliged" to abide by US sanctions against Iran. One of the main topics of discussion during both Rouhanis visit to Baghdad and Abdul Mahdis visit to Tehran was how to bypass the sanctions in bilateral economic ties.

Apart from the sanctions, Washington has tried to dissuade Iraqi officials from expanding relations with the Islamic Republic by trying to depict Iran's role in Iraq as negative and destructive. Following Rouhanis visit to Iraq in March, US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook claimed that Iran wants to turn Iraq into a province. Before Abdul Mahdis departure to Tehran, Hook said Iran was responsible for the deaths of more than 600 American troops in Iraq.

Under such circumstances, Abdul Mahdis visit and his expressed willingness to develop ties with the Islamic Republic were interpreted by the Iranian media as signs of Baghdads indifference toward US positions. For instance, IRIB news agency, which is affiliated with Irans state broadcaster, wrote that Abdul Mahdi's "visit to Iran has a special message for the United States." Iranian First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri expressed the same view. During his meeting with Abdul Mahdi April 7, he said, The clear message is that despite the American hostilities, Tehran and Baghdad are determined to comprehensively expand their ties.

The diplomatic aspect of Abdul Mahdis visit was no less important. Two days before his trip, he hosted a high-ranking Saudi delegation, headed by Saudi Trade Minister Majid bin Abdullah al-Qasabi. The Saudi official was not only tasked with reopening the Saudi Consulate in Baghdad after nearly three decades of closure, but also with strengthening economic ties between the two countries, including providing Iraq with $1 billion in loans. The visit, a clear sign of Riyadhs desire to initiate a rapprochement with Baghdad, was interpreted as being aimed at curbing Irans influence in Iraq.

However, not only did the Saudi charm offensive not affect Abdul Mahdis bid for closer relations with the Islamic Republic, it apparently made him eager to play a mediating role between the two rivals. Upon the Iraqi leaders arrival in Tehran, the media reported that an Iraqi mediation plan was to be presented to Tehran. According to media reports, the plan has been in the works since Abdul Mahdis visit to Egypt in March, and it will be discussed with Saudi officials during his visit to Riyadh next month.

Although the two sides have not confirmed those reports, Rouhanis reference to regional issues in his joint press conference with Abdul Mahdi could indicate that they addressed the issue during their meeting. The [situation of] the region was one of the issues discussed between the two sides, Rouhani said, adding that we have common viewpoints on many regional issues. As such, it seems Baghdad is trying to build upon its current favorable relations with both Tehran and Riyadh to push them toward a compromise.

The third yet most important aspect of Abdul Mahdis visit to Tehran was the economic aspect. Economic issues dominated the visit, with both sides declaring a desire to enhance annual bilateral trade to $20 billion within the next three years. According to Reza Rahmani, the Iranian minister of industry, mines and trade, the two sides are also working on a free trade agreement. Separately, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh announced that the two sides would start working on the development of two shared oil fields. Media also reported that Irans central bank head Abdolnaser Hemmati will soon travel to Baghdad to personally oversee the implementation of financial agreements.

Given the current situation, with the United States determined to pursue a policy of imposing maximum pressure on the Islamic Republic through economic sanctions, Iraqs approach of not giving in to the pressure, and thereby continuing its economic interactions with Iran, is of great significance to Tehran. Meanwhile, as both Iran and Saudi Arabia redefine their relations with Iraq, giving more weight to the economic aspect, the Iranian-Saudi rivalry could take on a geo-economic characteristic, gradually replacing the traditional geopolitical one. This, in turn, would further decrease the risk of an escalation between the two sides, while making it easier for Baghdad to pursue a balanced foreign policy toward its two powerful neighbors.
As Israelis prepare to go to the polls on April 9, predicting the winner would be a fool's errand. A series of major losers, however, are already evident: peace with the Palestinians and the Arab world, public trust in the institutions of government, co-existence between the Jewish majority and Arab minority, and freedom from religion. Israels 35th prime minister, whoever he is, will find himself bound by social and geopolitical realities that will sap his ability to affect change in each of these important areas. Various considerations dictated by the need to forge a coalition with smaller, disparate parties will shrink any remaining room for maneuver.

Hopes for peace: The overriding agenda throughout the election campaign, the Zionist parties candidates, opinion poll results and the political parties' discourse all reflect attitudes deeply ingrained in Israeli society over the past decade under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu. It is far easier to spread fear, injected continuously and skillfully into Israelis brains, than to deconstruct it. It is far easier to sow hatred, spread abundantly throughout Israeli society for years, than to uproot it. Conducting realistic peace negotiations based on the 1967 borders with certain adjustments, on the evacuation of settlements and recognition of East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state would now be even harder, if not impossible, given the sheer weight of fear and hatred of the other amassed over the Netanyahu decade.

The right-wing bloc is openly striving for territorial annexation of West Bank lands. Its representatives in the outgoing Knesset have bequeathed the next government no fewer than 60 proposed bills containing some degree of annexation. The Knesset has already adopted eight into law. Legal opinions and a change in the states position on the status of the West Bank as occupied territory and Israels authority to act there have buttressed these de jure annexation measures. A new database maintained by the anti-occupation organization Yesh Din points out that the growing annexation measures increase the impression that Israel is turning itself into an apartheid state, with two categories of people under its sovereignty and rule: Israeli citizens enjoying full rights and Palestinian residents devoid of all political and other rights.

The center-left parties do not stand a chance of pulling together a Jewish majority in favor of the two-state solution, which matters due to the troubling yet likely correct assumption that no Jewish leader would sign an agreement with the Palestinians stipulating Israeli withdrawal from most of the occupied territories based on a non-Jewish Knesset majority, meaning one that relies on Arab votes too. A distinct majority of Israeli Jews do not want to pay the price of peace. A small minority, estimated at less than 15%, supports Labor and Meretz, the only two parties advocating a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The leadership of the Blue and White party, running neck-and-neck against Netanyahu and his Likud, includes distinctly right-wing elements, such as former Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, former Netanyahu Director of Communications Yoaz Hendel and former Cabinet secretary Zvi Hauser. All regard the term two-state solution as an obscenity.

Trust in public institutions: The 2019 elections will go down in history as a single-issue referendum: yes or no on Netanyahu. This phenomenon reflects a decline in the value of ideologies, disinterest in the principles of political parties and mistrust of the most important institutions of Israeli democracy. A large number of Israelis support a leader, Netanyahu, whom both the police and the attorney general strongly suspect of egregious criminal wrongdoing. The election campaign confirms the worrying findings of the 2018 Democracy Index of the Israel Democracy Institute indicating that only 26% of Israelis trust the Knesset and only 16% express trust in political parties. In other words, a sweeping majority of Israelis do not believe in their elected representatives. Two-thirds think their representatives are not doing their job, and 80% of Israelis think Knesset members take more care of themselves than they do of the public that elected them. The Democracy Index points to limited trust (50%) in law enforcement authorities, including the Supreme Court.

Co-Existence: The two largest parties  Likud and Blue and White, expected to comprise about one-half of the next Knesset (some 60 of 120 seats)  have a priori dismissed 20% of the countrys citizens, the Arab minority, as irrelevant. While Netanyahu, leader of the right-right bloc, was promising ministerial portfolios to the Union of Rightwing Parties, including outspoken ultra-right nationalist disciples of Rabbi Meir Kahane in the Jewish Power party, the leaders of the center-left bloc, Benny Gantz Blue and White and his colleagues, were rejecting the idea of a government coalition dependent on any form of support from the Arab parties. On election day 2015, to get out the right-wing vote, Netanyahu famously warned, The Arabs were flocking in droves to the ballot box, generating outrage. This year, Netanyahu's election slogan Its Bibi or Tibi, a reference to himself and to Knesset member Ahmad Tibi, leader of the Arab Taal, has been accepted with equanimity.

Religious freedom: Following Netanyahus first victory in the 1996 elections, his rival Shimon Peres offered an interesting take on the election results: The Jews, he said, defeated the Israelis. In a 2003 article in the right-wing weekly Besheva, Moshe Feiglin, then a minor candidate of the Jewish Leadership faction for the Likud leadership, disagreed with Peres. He argued that the Israelis were the ones who actually defeated the Jews, But it is a little harder to defeat reality, meaning the Creator. They were unable to overcome the hurdles of reality, of God. Feiglin then wondered what would be the next invention in the war of the Israelis against the Jews. Sixteen years hence, Feiglin, the messianic Jewish warrior and leader of Zehut, is galloping toward the Knesset at the head of an Army of God, riding on the backs of young secular Israelis buoyed by the heady aroma of cannabis.

Barring a shocking surprise, the vision of two states for two people and a State of Israel for two nations will move further out of reach. The resilience of Israeli democracy and its institutions will be further eroded and as will public trust. The hope of freeing Israelis of all religions and denominations from the chokehold of apparatchiks who have ordained themselves agents of the Almighty will dissipate.

Who will win on April 9? It's unclear. What is abundantly clear, however, is that lovers of peace and proponents of democracy, co-existence and religious freedom cannot afford to take the day off.
It has been 30 years since the Iron Curtain fell and hundreds of thousands of new immigrants from the former Soviet Union began landing at Ben Gurion Airport. Almost as soon as they stepped off the plane, they discovered that they were the hottest political commodity in Israel. Today, in the 2019 election, most of the parties are ignoring this sector. They did not launch major Russian-language campaigns, nor did they try to find new stars in this community. Even the Russian-oriented Yisrael Beitenu party, headed by Russian-born Avigdor Liberman, has been weakened significantly, and is now hovering on the voter threshold. Where did the Russian vote disappear and why?

As early as the 1992 election, politicians realized that 1 million new immigrants from the former Soviet Union could change the Israeli political map completely. They poured considerable efforts into winning the votes of these new immigrants, offering them all sorts of benefits, events and happenings. They even promised economic miracles. Your mortgage will not be linked to the economic index, the Labor Party promised in 1992. In 1996, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to provide a job for every immigrant in his or her field.

In 1992, the Russian vote won the election for Yitzhak Rabin. Four years later, in 1996, it won the election for Netanyahu. In 1999, the book Soldier Number One (by Ben Caspit, translated into Russian and then distributed for free by associates of Ehud Barak) did the trick for Ehud Barak. At the same time, human rights activist Natan Sharansky founded the Yisrael BaAliyah party, while Liberman founded Yisrael Beitenu in 1999. Both of these were immigrant parties.

But many years have passed since then, and those immigrants have been integrated. In the 2003 election, Yisrael BaAliyah received just two seats and merged with the Likud Party. Similarly, Yisrael Beitenu has grown weaker. It was at the height of its strength in 2009 that it won 15 seats. In the last election, in 2015, it dropped to just six seats, with only some of them from the Russian sector. Many of the immigrants who acquired the language and found employment in their fields believe that this was a very natural development. It is important that every community is represented in every major party, so that they can deal with the issues unique to their communities, Attorney Polina Hasin of Jerusalem told Al-Monitor. On the other hand, there is no room in the Israeli polity for a specifically 'Russian' party, especially when the party failed to fulfill its promises to its base.

The dramatic weakening of Yisrael Beitenu has not resulted in the general Israeli parties competing vigorously for the Russian vote. There were fewer Russian-language campaigns in the 2015 election, and the trend gained momentum in this election. There has even been a drop in the number of candidates drawn from the pool of immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

Meanwhile, parties with Russian-language campaigns have not been particularly impressive on that front. For example, the New Rights campaign featured the slogan Shaked will defeat the Supreme Court, and Bennett will defeat Hamas. The Russian translation of this promise includes several embarrassing mistakes and resulted in a heated debate on social media. People wondered if the New Right used Google Translate instead of employing the services of a professional translator.

Former Knesset member Roman Bronfman told Al-Monitor that in his opinion, the community of immigrants from the former Soviet Union is no longer perceived as a political community. Thirty years is long enough to be absorbed  if not socially or culturally, then at least politically. It is not by chance that the parties stopped considering this sector to be a distinct political community. The disappointment is mutual. Immigrants realize that no one is really working on their behalf, so they focus on more general questions, rather than on the way their community is represented, said Bronfman, co-author of "The Million That Changed the Middle East: The Soviet Aliyah to Israel, which he wrote together with journalist Lily Galili. It is worth noting that since the book came out that number has declined to just 700,000, as some have left the country and others have died. Today, their electoral strength is estimated to be about 9-11 seats.

Yekatrina Grodskaya is a doctoral student at Bar-Ilan University, who studies Israels Russian-language media. In a conversation with Al-Monitor she said that this development was entirely predictable. Even though there are many of us, we still dont have a lot in common. These immigrants came from the different republics of the Soviet Union. Some of them managed nicely here, while others remained impoverished. By now, there are some who grew up here and no longer identify as part of the community. Even those of us who lived in the Soviet Union for part of our adult lives have no common present or common future. All we have is a common past, and even that is problematic, said Grodskaya, who immigrated from Moscow in 2000.

So who represents the Russian street in 2019? The Likud has two candidates: Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein and Minister Zeev Elkin. Neither of them is identified with the most prominent struggles of the Soviet immigrant community for pensions, public housing, civil marriage and public transportation on the Sabbath. Nor do they rely on the Russian vote in the primaries. The party did, however, invest in Russian-language signage in a number of cities and special content for the sector. In one of many telephone messages to voters, they claimed that Yair Lapid is not an intellectual, and therefore ill-suited to be prime minister. The Likud certainly would not disseminate content like that in Hebrew.

The Blue and White party has a single immigrant from the former Soviet Union on its list: Knesset member Yoel Razvozov of Yesh Atid (partner party within Blue and White). In its Russian-language campaign, the Blue and White party presents itself as a right-wing party, whereas its campaign geared for the general population presents the party as centrist. As far as election promises are concerned, Blue and White promised immigrants everything that all the other parties ever promised them. In Kulanu, Knesset member Tali Ploskov has a seemingly realistic place on the partys list (fifth position), but it is not at all certain that the party will pass the four-mandate electoral threshold. Meanwhile, the Labor Party does not have a single Soviet immigrant as a candidate in this election. It therefore seems as if the percentage of Soviet immigrants in the 21st Knesset will be lower than ever.

Andrei Kovgan is an immigrant from Vladivostok, now studying for his masters degree at Haifa University. He believes that this is an unwelcome development. Apparently the Israeli parties think that the electorate has stopped being sectoral, he told Al-Monitor. But only someone from this sector understands the problems that exist among the immigrant community.

Whether the Israeli parties believe in the Russian vote or not, the problems facing Israeli citizens who were part of the massive wave of immigration from the Soviet Union and the newer immigrants too have not changed. These include a dearth in public housing for needy seniors, scant pensions, the crisis of 400,000 immigrants from the Soviet Union who cannot marry in Israel (they are not considered Jews according to Jewish Orthodox law), the glass ceiling, and so on.

Will one of the nonsectorial parties pick up the gauntlet at some point in the future and get back in the field to win the Russian vote? In many ways it depends on the immigrant community itself, and whether its members want to enter politics to bring about substantive change.
When Layla Salih walks amid the rubble of Mosul with her quick, soft steps, she knows exactly where she wants to go. Whether in the Old City of Mosul, in Nimrod, or at a spot where some of the Mosul Museums antiquities were destroyed, Salih knows that rubble can often hide remnants of destroyed artifacts that can be put back together if one has the drive and patience to do so.

After graduating from the University of Mosul in 1999, Salih dived straight into archaeology. Until 2009, she worked at the Mosul Museum. In 2012, she was appointed as head of the Heritage Buildings in Antiquities Board of Ninevah province, the provincial section of the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage of Iraq. Meanwhile, she continued her academic studies and completed a master's degree in Islamic archaeology at Baghdad University in 2013.

A few months after she received her postgraduate degree, she had to flee her beloved city, following its occupation by the Islamic State (IS), moving along to Kirkuk, Baghdad and Erbil.

During the three-year occupation of our city, it was really hard to watch how IS was destroying our common ancient culture, the Mesopotamian cultural heritage that we all belong to, she told Al-Monitor, cringing as she remembered propaganda videos the terrorist group would put online every few months to show to the world the destruction the group had wreaked on non-Muslim heritage.

When the Iraqi army started its operations to liberate the Ninevah Plains from IS in October 2016, she immediately followed the soldiers to visit the archaeological sites destroyed by the terrorist group.

The only worthwhile gift left by IS' devastation of Ninevah was an unprecedented unearthing  that of an Assyrian palace beneath a destroyed mosque. I knew [this Assyrian palace] was there, under the Nabi Yunis Mosque [named after the Prophet Jonah, who is believed to be buried in there]. But in our excavations in 2004-2005, we could not proceed further because of the mosque and the holy shrine, she told Al-Monitor.

But when IS bombed the Nabi Yunis mosque on July 24, 2014, the 2,700-year-old palace, built by Esarhaddon, who ruled the Assyriam Empire for 12 years in the early seventh century B.C., came to light. The excavation team  which consisted only of Salih and her colleague Faisal Jeber  found two lamassu (the Assyrian protective deity depicted as having a human head and the body of a bull or lion and bird wings) and an unusual pair of reliefs, each showing a row of women.

The lamassu and the reliefs were still under the tunnels  the same tunnels where IS used to exploit their prisoners for the excavations and then smuggle the antiquities to sell them in the international archaeology black market, Salih said.

When IS blew up the Nabi Yunis Mosque dedicated to the Prophet Jonah in July 2014, I thought that was the moment a rebellion against IS could have happened. But it didn't, Jeber, a geologist who works with Salih, told Al-Monitor, pointing out that the Nabi Yunis Mosque was a pilgrimage site for both Christians and Muslims and visited by other local religious and ethnic minorities of the vibrant multicultural city.

Salih and Jeber co-founded the Gilgamesh Center for Antiquities and Heritage Protection to document the post-IS destruction and looting during and after the battle for Mosul.

At some point in the battle, local people in Nimrod took stones from the archaeological sites because they needed materials to rebuild their damaged houses, Salih told Al-Monitor, explaining that some of the destruction was out of necessity, not material profit or ideology.

In fact, there are no ideological motivations at all: IS militants sold the large majority of pieces they claim as anti-Islamic. [In fact, it was mainly] a well-organized business for them, she added.

When the mosques, the churches, the synagogue and the archaeological sites are renovated, that's the moment when our Mosul will be alive again, Jeber said.

Salih visited all the areas of the severely damaged Old City of Mosul to assess the damage and needs of the local population trying to return home. One of my priorities is to talk about the reconstruction of Mosul, she said while visiting the ancient Jewish neighborhood together with Al-Monitor. My thesis was about the Sasoon synagogue of the area. The Jews constituted a dynamic community in Mosul until the 1950s and we have lost them as neighbors and as part of our history and heritage, she said, referring to the forced migration of Jews from all over Iraq.

Salihs role for her community goes beyond archaeology. She worked for Amnesty International in the camps for Iraqi displaced persons to document violence against IS women. She also cooperated with the Italian nongovernmental organization Un ponte per (A bridge to, or UPP) in clinics for women in Mosul, conceived as safe spaces to guarantee health and psychological support to women and girls who suffered gender violence during the three years of the Islamic States occupation. She is still involved in a project implemented by UPP, Bridging communities in Ninewa Governorate, aiming at building peace, promoting social cohesion and ensuring safe return of displaced people to their homes in Ninevah.

During a brainstorming meeting with her fellows at the Book Forum Cafe in east Mosul, Salih talked about the transformative role her profession can have: I didnt want to become an engineer, teacher or doctor. ... I chose archaeology. It reunited all what I am and I believe in  a cultural, political and peace-building, empowering profession, especially for a woman in the field. Only through my work can I have hope again, she said.
MOSCOW  Russias deputy foreign minister and Putins special envoy for the MENA region, Mikhail Bogdanov, received a phone call April 6 from Gen. Khalifa Hifter, the commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA).

Hifter, the strongman who controls two-thirds of the Libyan territory, ordered his forces April 4 to make a victorious march on Tripoli, the capital of the UN-backed government of Fayez al-Sarraj, supported among other groups by powerful Misrata militias.

The mediation effort by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who at the time was in Libya, failed. Following his meeting with the eastern commander on April 5, Guterres tweeted, 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. The UN is committed to facilitating a political solution and, whatever happens, the UN is committed to supporting the Libyan people.

As the situation remains highly precarious, outside backers of the warring parties are making their own moves.

Ever since the Russians hosted Hifter onboard the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov on Jan. 11, 2017, Moscows involvement in the Libyan conflict in the post-Gaddafi era has raised suspicions. Russian punditry is divided on the two issues that haunt foreign experts and policy-makers vis-a-vis Russias presence in Libya: What are Russia's interests in the country, and is Moscow keeping its eggs in more than one basket or relying solely on Hifter?

Over the last two years, Moscow has been forging contacts with both Hifter and Sarraj and brainstorming ideas with both the Libyans and the Europeans as recently as November. As the political process has remained stalled, Hifters offensive breaks previous agreements and seeks to set up a new power balance in the country.

"We are watching the developments in Libya very closely. Without a doubt, we believe that it is essential that any actions must not lead to renewed bloodshed," said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov shortly after the first clashes broke out. Peskov stressed, "Moscow is not participating in this in any way."

For now, Moscow may not be taking action, but it's not sitting on its hands. In the phone call with Bogdanov, Hifter briefed Moscow on the LNA's latest moves. Its actions, he argued, were intended to boost the fight against terrorist and extremist groups that are present in different parts of the country, including in Tripoli, and that threaten the stability of Libyan society and hamper implementation of agreements on the inclusive and consensus-based intra-Libyan dialogue that seeks the establishment of united, effective institutions of governance.

Moscow reiterated its principled position in support of political methods on all Libya's issues and the efforts of UN special envoy on Libya Ghassan Salame.

A need to consolidate efforts to fight terrorism and extremist ideology was also stressed, according to a read-out of the phone conversation between Bogdanov and Hifter.

Around the same time, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made a more strongly worded statement. Speaking in Cairo at a joint press conference with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry, the top Russian diplomat said Moscow was concerned with the use of airstrikes against the LNA forces and urged outside backers "who have influence over these groups [loyal to Sarraj] to prevent such an escalation and call on the Libyans to cease all the military offensives and come to the negotiating table. Lavrov also took the opportunity to claim that the essence of Libya's problems stems from the NATO bombings of 2011 that made the country a black hole through which terrorists and arms are smuggled southward and migrants northward.

The Russian foreign minister concluded by emphasizing that Moscow continues to stay in contact with all Libyan parties, arguing, Weve never staked on any one player in particular. I am convinced this is the only right way to act in this case.

Perhaps Lavrov could have said nothing different, given he made the statement in Egypt, one of the key Arab backers for Hifter along with the UAE and the Saudis. But even if he meant to make the remarks sound conciliatory, the experienced diplomat exposed Russias bottom line: Moscow doesnt want to see Hifter defeated nor does it agree with the condemnation of his military gamble on Tripoli.

Official statements from the Foreign Ministry also suggest that Hifter has Moscows moral support and that Russias radar screen of the situation is perhaps brighter than everyone elses.

None of this should really be eye-opening. Russia has indeed developed good contacts with all the major players in Libya and will continue working them. At the same time, Moscows past and recent overtures to the local actors have already shaped depth of commitment to each player and some policy patterns. Moscows perceived inclination for Hifter can perhaps be paraphrased from George Orwell: All players are equal, but some are more equal than others.

That said, Russias view on the current situation in Libya appears to be based upon the three assumptions. First, Hifter is powerful enough to take control of the whole country, especially since he enjoys a cohort of outside supporters with resources. Second, Libya is too much of a patchwork state for the groups that Hifter united under his leadership to be excluded from any reconciliation process, let alone power-sharing at a national level. So politically edging him out now or sanctioning him if he gets control of the capital wont bring stability to the country.

Third, should Hifter fail in the current adventure or even ultimately lose his influence, existing contacts with the Sarraj camp as well as with multiple other groups and tribes will keep Moscow a vital player able to stitch different interests into one functioning state simply because all other outside backers  the Arabs, the Europeans and the temporarily departed Americans  have exposed their biases for one party.

Besides, Russia has created an image of a new king-maker in the Middle East for itself throughout the Syrian campaign, and presumably, the actors in Libya will seek Russias support for their own actions. First you work for your reputation, then your reputation works for you.

Therefore, it comes as little surprise that the day after Hifters call with Bogdanov, the Russian deputy foreign minister had a separate phone conversation with the vice president of the Presidential Council of Libya and Misrata representative Ahmed Maiteeq. The latter told the Russian diplomat that the only solution to the current crisis is "the departure of aggressor forces from the military zone in the western and southern regions."

Russia thus acquired an understanding of the starting negotiating positions should the parties seek mediation.

A more serious sign of Russias position in the crisis than its political rhetoric would be military support for Hifter. Rumor has long had it that Russias Wagner mercenaries are present in the east of Libya and partnering with Hifter. So far there isnt much concrete evidence  just claims by anonymous Ukrainian intelligence officers.

As long as Moscow doesn't help Hifter militarily, Russia will continue to politically shield Hifter from international pressure by branding his Tripoli march as an unfortunate implication of the failed Libyan peace process and continue to advocate for a renewed diplomatic settlement of the crisis, perhaps under its own sponsorship. In all of this, Moscow will stick to the golden rule of Russian diplomacy: Position yourself in a way that makes you the go-to for all the parties regardless of your own engagement with each of them.
After avoiding foreign travels for over a year, Saudi Arabias King Salman has been very active in the last 60 days, traveling across the Arab world. The toxic shadow over his favorite son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, is undoubtedly a factor in the kings higher profile. The Saudis are struggling to regain control of their international image.

In his first years on the throne after his 2015 ascension, the king was a typical royal traveler. He made state visits to many countries in the Middle East as well as to the United States, Britain, Japan, China, Indonesia and Russia. He also typically took an extended summer vacation in France or Morocco. His schedule was never hectic, but it was thorough.

The pattern stopped in late 2017, when several hundred prominent Saudis were forcefully incarcerated in the Ritz Carlton hotel. This was part of a self-proclaimed anti-corruption campaign, yet many have said it was more like a mafia shakedown. For more than a year (and all of 2018) the king did not travel outside the kingdom. The crown prince was the driver behind the Ritz Carlton affair, which alienated many prominent Saudis, including important members of the House of Saud.

Along with my colleague Israa Saber at the Brookings Institution, I speculated last year about the reason behind the hiatus in foreign travels. Health may have been a factor, but ill Saudi kings actually tend to spend more time abroad to get medical attention. More likely, tensions within the royal family over the crown princes behavior was the answer. The king didnt want to leave the kingdom while it was unsettled.

The premeditated murder of Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in October 2018 only added to the tensions. The crown prince is widely blamed for the killing and for a host of other human rights abuses. According to one account, the king has opened an investigation into such abuses without his sons agreement. Detailed medical reports of prisoner abuse have been prepared for the king. Nonetheless, more womens' rights activists were detained this week.

The outcry about the crown princes behavior directly led to the kings first foreign travel this February to Egypt for a joint summit meeting of the Arab League and the European Union. EU leaders made it clear before the meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh that they would not meet with the crown prince. Not only is he tainted with the Khashoggi caper, but he is also seen as the driver behind the kingdoms disastrous war in Yemen. So the king went to Egypt for three days, his first foreign venture since a trip to Russia in October 2017.

Then the king held a high-profile meeting with Libyas rebel general, Khalifa Hifter, in Riyadh in late March, the top Saudi leadership's first meeting with Hifter since the general began his campaign to take control of Libya. Since the meeting in Riyadh, Hifter has launched an attack on Tripoli, apparently with the king's blessing. It was an unusually high-level reception for the Saudi king to give to a non-head of state.

The king then traveled to attend the Arab summit in Carthage, Tunisia, in late March. Salman forcefully reiterated Saudi support for an independent Palestine with its capital in Jerusalem and for the return of the Golan Heights to Syria, positions at odds with the Donald Trump administration. The reaffirmation of Saudi support for the Arab peace plan stood at variance from the much rumored speculation that the crown prince is colluding with the Trump team on the so-called deal of a century, or even considering a direct meeting with Israeli officials. It has been a pattern: The king reinforces his commitment to well-established Saudi positions on Israel whenever the Trump administration breaks with historic American positions in favor of Israel, or reports surface that MBS is soft on Israel.

This week the king traveled again to neighboring Bahrain for a day of meetings in Manama with King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. Salman delivered on a previous Saudi commitment to bail out the island kingdom from its economic problems. Saudi troops have been on the island since 2011 to keep Hamad in power. There is no sign that will change.

King Salman is picking up the pace of royal travel as his son finds it more and more problematic. MBS was told he was not welcome in Morocco last December by King Mohammed and was snubbed by then-president of Algeria Abdelaziz Bouteflika on the same trip. His visit to Asia this winter was marked by postponing visits to Indonesia and Malaysia on short notice with no explanation. The outcry about Khashoggi and Yemen is even more intense in Europe, Canada and the United States. The Hill has now passed a bill prohibiting American support for the war in Yemen, one Trump will likely veto but that still marks an unprecedented use of the war powers legislation to end Americas participation in a war. It should be a wake-up call to our Gulf allies.

The kings resumed foreign travel is a short-term solution to a long-term problem for the House of Saud. The heir apparent is burdened with severe negative personal baggage as a consequence of his behavior over the last four years. His image outside the kingdom is not getting better. Demands for further investigation into the Khashoggi murder by human rights groups are only becoming more urgent. Those who hailed MBS as a reformer only a year ago have abandoned him. And Trump standing by him is not a very positive form of help given Trumps own unpopularity in much of the world.
WASHINGTON  In a move critics warned could escalate risks to US troops and reduce chances for future diplomacy, the Trump administration today announced its intent to designate Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a foreign terrorist organization.

The action, due to go into effect in a weeks time, marks the first time the United States has designated a foreign government entity as a terrorist group, US officials said.

Were doing [it] because the Iranian regimes use of terrorism as a tool of statecraft makes it fundamentally different from any other government, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in remarks announcing the decision at the State Department today. This historic step will deprive the worlds leading state sponsor of terror the financial means to spread misery and death around the world.

But former US diplomats who served in the region said the designation will add little new economic pressure to Iran while potentially generating an anti-US backlash in Iraq.

This kind of pressure can be used by pro-Iranian factionsto put their own counter-veiling pressure on Baghdad to choose Iran, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq Barbara Leaf told Al-Monitor.

Advocates can celebrate, but this will not meaningfully add to pressure and certainly meaningfully adds to risk, Richard Nephew, a former US civil servant who played a key role in the US sanctions regime on Iran and later served as a member of the US Iran nuclear deal negotiating team, wrote on Twitter. The real story here is the not-so-hidden-motivation: toxifying the relationship so that it is impossible to negotiate with the [Islamic Republic of Iran] in the future.

Iran immediately denounced the decision and announced reciprocal measures. Among them, Irans Supreme National Security Council designated US Central Command and all the forces linked to it as a terrorist entity, Iranian media reported.

Irans Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif portrayed the latest US action against Iran as a gift to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the eve of the April 9 Israeli elections.

A misguided election-eve gift to Netanyahu, Zarif tweeted. A dangerous U.S. misadventure in the region.

And indeed, Netanyahu took to Twitter to thank Trump for the latest gift, which follows Trumps decision last week to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, move the US Embassy to Jerusalem, withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal and keep mum about Netanyahus latest campaign promise to annex settlements in the West Bank. Once again you are keeping the world safe from Iran aggression and terrorism, Netanyahu wrote on Twitter.

US special envoy on Iran Brian Hook said IRGC Quds Force chief Qasem Soleimani was the true Iranian foreign minister, not Zarif. And he rejected warnings that the action could complicate any future diplomatic efforts, including trying to gain the release of US citizens believed held in Iran under the direction and control of the IRGC.

The designation is a tool, Hook told journalists after Pompeos announcement today. Doing this will not impede our diplomacy.

The Middle East cannot be more stable and peaceful without weakening the IRGC, Hook said. It is the blunt instrument of Irans foreign policy, and it has been that way for decades. And what were doing today is  stigmatizing this organization.

As to possible fallout to US force protection and Iraq government stability, Hook said the action was only taken after robust interagency review.

The Pentagon, which was reported to have concerns about the action and possible implications for US troop protection, said it was prepared to implement the measure.

As a matter of policy, we do not discuss adjustments to force protection levels or measures for operational security reasons, Pentagon spokeswoman Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich said in a statement. As always, DoD [Department of Defense] has taken prudent measures to ensure the safety of our forces around the world, and maintain our readiness to carry out our missions.

Practically, the US designation of the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization makes it a federal crime punishable by a prison sentence of up to 20 years for a US person to provide material support to the IRGC, US State Department counterterrorism coordinator Nathan Sales said.

However, the latest designation applies those prohibitions only to US persons, US trade and sanctions compliance lawyer Doug Jacobson said. The FTO prohibitions apply only to persons (including companies) in the US or subject to US jurisdiction, Jacobson tweeted. These are not secondary sanctions.

In reality, there is little additional economic pressure to be derived from the action, but potential risks, former US Iran sanctions official and negotiator Nephew said. We do not need to do this to maximize economic pressure on the IRGC or Iran for that matter, Nephew, now at Columbia University, told Al-Monitor. All the major companies and entities are not going to do business with anyone they even suspect of IRGC ties.  This decision will not meaningfully add to that pressure. We've already got the IRGC under a microscope.  How much more vigilance can be required from this?

The theoretical added stigma of the IRGC from the action is outweighed by the more real potential risks, Nephew said.

Let's say that the Iranians call the US military terrorists, Nephew said. Well, if you have terrorists nearby your [area of responsibility] AOR, what do you do with them? In the US system, we have authorities that authorize military operations against them. The Iranians know that. Are they going to wait to be hit? Or will they hit first?

Nephew noted, All of this is totally unnecessary and really dangerous as the operational parameters come out."

In Iraq, the US action could be counterproductive, by raising the pressure of pro-Iranian factions on Iraqs government to pick Iran over the United States, and possibly lead to renewed calls by those factions to ask US military advisers to leave Iraq, said former US diplomat Leaf.

I think Iraq is in a pretty delicate, one might almost say fragile political transition point, post-ISIS [Islamic State], with a technical government headed by a prime minister who does not have separate political following of his own, Leaf, who headed a US provincial reconstruction team in Basra, Iraq, and later served as US ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, told Al-Monitor.

The one thing that Iraqi leaders have been consistent in saying is that they dont want Iraq to be a battleground between Iran and the US, Leaf, now with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said. So they dont want to be pressured by Iran to cut ties with the US. In similar fashion, they have to maintain a good relationship with their big neighbor. So its a really tough balancing act."

She added, I think we in a sense dodged a bullet recently in terms of this incipient push by the Council of Representatives to pass some sort of legislation to call for US military advisers to be expelled [from Iraq]."

As far as impact on the Iranian regime, I dont really see it, Leaf noted. The IRGC is already heavily stigmatized  There is already a great deal of caution on the part of Western firms about who they are dealing with when they look at prospective business in Iran."
White House senior adviser Stephen Miller is reportedly calling most of the plays on immigration. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

On Friday, the president announced that he was withdrawing the nomination of the acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a move so unexpected that one Department of Homeland Security official reportedly thought it was a paperwork error. Without much explanation, Trump told reporters that he had ditched Ron Vitiello as his candidate for permanent ICE director, saying that Rons a good man, but were going in a tougher direction.

ICE is already known as the agency that deports tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants who are parents of children with American citizenship. In a particularly cruel separation from November 2017, ICE split a Congolese mother from her daughter and flew the child 2,000 miles to a center for unaccompanied minors, holding her there with limited contact with her mother for four months. Between 2012 and March 2018, there were 1,224 reports of sexual abuse filed by detainees in ICE custody; half of those accused worked for the agency. If such treatment is the agencys response to undocumented immigrants living mostly without incident in the United States, how much tougher does the president intend to get?

As Vox immigration reporter Dara Lind notes, this may not be one of the presidents more politically thought-out staffing moves:

Its  doubtful that whoever Trump might nominate in lieu of Vitiello would be confirmed by the Senate. Democrats are increasingly unwilling to endorse any aspect of federal immigration enforcement as run by Trump, and some Republicans remain leery of Trump immigration-hawk favorites like former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. When Vitiello was nominated, he was seen as the only confirmable candidate for the position; he was a career law enforcement officer whod come from a leadership position at CBP. That, apparently, is no longer tough enough for Trump. Who could pass that bar, whether the Senate will fall in line, and what a tougher direction might look like in practice remain to be seen.

According to the New York Times, Trump believed that a possible reason for the move was that Vitiello did not favor closing the border, a move the president considered last week before rescinding the threat. (Perhaps Trump forgot that ICE does not actively patrol the border, but is responsible for deporting undocumented Americans within the interior.) Another reported reason was that Stephen Miller  the White House chief policy adviser, and by far the administrations most hawkish voice on immigration  didnt think Vitiello was up to the task. Stephen would like to put Atilla the Hun at ICE, one candid White House official told the Post.

The weekend at the Department of Homeland Security, which houses ICE, only got rockier on Sunday when Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigned after meeting with the President. Nielsen is considered by Voxs Dara Lind to be the most aggressive DHS Secretary since the agency was founded in 2002: To Trumps critics, Nielsen will likely be remembered for presiding over the widespread separation of children from their parents at the US/Mexico border in late spring and early summer 2018, under a zero tolerance policy of prosecuting first-time border crossers for illegal entry. Nielsen also moved to limit the number of migrants that would be able to apply for asylum legally.

The weekend was a good one for Stephen Miller at least: The senior adviser is also a noted critic of Nielsen, and has reportedly been lobbying the president to shake things up at ICE and DHS. According to the Washington Post, the president recently told Miller he would be in charge of handling all immigration and border affairs. Its unfortunate news for those who hope for humane border security and immigration policies, as Miller is known to be an echo chamber for the Trumps most base ideas on those issues. (Among his recent ideas, on Saturday the president called the U.S. asylum program a scam and said that Central American migrants are Some of the roughest people you have ever seen. People that look like they should be fighting for the UFC.)

If Trump wants ICE, and presumably the Department of Homeland Security, to get tougher, having Miller in charge by proxy is a strong bet. However, its unclear if the move will result in anything other than the further dehumanization of migrants coming into the country: Miller reportedly supported the presidents call to shut down the border, a move that would effectively be economic suicide. Nor is Miller likely to face any backlash if his policies fail: according to an administration official who spoke to the Post, he is also particularly adept at blaming others when his ideas dont work.
When the Istanbul mayoral candidate for an election alliance led by Justice and Development Party (AKP), Binali Yildirim, said March 26, We have to collect more taxes in Istanbul, the statement hit a nerve with the public. Efforts were promptly made to remove the statement from the internet so as not to damage his candidacy in the March 31 municipal elections.

But Yildirim was right; the municipality is on the brink of bankruptcy. It is crucial to see the extent of the financial difficulties the city faces to understand why Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the AKP are so reluctant to accept the results of the elections in Istanbul, where Yildirim has been trailing by a margin of some 15,000 votes.

Istanbul, a city of 15 million, has a budget for 2019 of 23.8 billion liras (over $4 billion); this is an 18.4% increase over 2018. The municipality also has two agencies that work as its partners: a directorate responsible for transportation management known as IETT and water and disposal management known as ISKI. When these are included, the total budget reaches almost 35 billion liras (more than $6 billion).

The municipality also has 28 official companies under its umbrella that handle areas such as the city parks, parking lots, city planning or natural gas distribution for consumers. The 2018 oversight report submitted to the parliament shows that the municipality (all of its companies and partners combined) is 22 billion liras (over $4 billion) in debt.

Al-Monitor spoke with Tarik Balyali, a member of the city council from the main opposition Republican People's Party who was on a committee that wrote the report, and three current and former employees of the municipality to understand why the municipality is facing financial difficulties. Balyali also wrote his own analysis of the situation.

It appears that there are four main reasons behind the municipality's financial disarray.

Balyali said that given the colossal structure of the municipality, far too few personnel are involved in oversight. Most of the problems are not new. Erdogan was elected Istanbuls mayor in 1994. All mayors since have sprung from his political grouping, although that will change if Bildirim indeed is certified as having lost the March 31 election. Since 2002, the AKP has also been in charge of the central government.

The Istanbul municipality's financial system has gradually evolved into a very complicated apparatus. It introduced a confusing method for procurement, much like an omnibus bill, referred to an omnibus procurement method in Balyalis report. The municipality also has been utilizing its 28 official companies to conduct much of its business. However, the oversight committee Balyali serves on does not have the power to inspect these companies. They can be inspected by Turkeys Court of Accounts. Balyali said only a few companies are inspected every year.

So the first reason for the financial disarray is the lack of comprehensive oversight. Even with the limited oversight capability, opposition parties have provided several recommendations and warnings about ineffective management and reckless spending. Yet there is no working mechanism to compel change or prosecute those who act against the public interest.

The second reason is the way that the municipality has handled bidding tenders. Like with omnibus procurement, there is a rather vague language in the municipality's tenders. For example, Greater Istanbul or Anatolian side of the city are common terms used without specifics. Similarly, terms such as repair and maintenance of service buildings are too broad. Balyali has emphasized that the same companies win the tenders repeatedly.

There are several examples in Balyalis report, where the municipality receives goods and services at rates much higher than market ones. Is this simple mismanagement or cronyism at work, where a significant amount of money is taken out of city coffers and shrewdly disguised in the budget?

The competition for the tenders is quite limited and the bids are rather high. In 2018, almost 12% of all city tenders were initiated with an emergency clause. This clause is to be used during a natural emergency so that the city can get immediate services. In an emergency, fair competition rules often can be ignored.

For some projects there has only been one bidder. When we look at the reasons, we see that for each tender the municipality provides specific conditions that are almost custom-designed for that winner. No other company can meet these specific special conditions to enter the competition. These conditions are legal. They lead repeatedly to the same conclusion: There has been an elimination of competition.

The inspection report found multiple bids that were awarded to official municipality companies. These companies then subcontract the project to several other firms at much lower prices. What happens to the gap amount is not clear. But if services can be received at much lower prices, why does the municipality keep paying more?

The third reason is simply bad management that harms the public interest. For instance, the municipalitys transportation partner IETT has agreed to rent out hundreds of its buses to another transportation firm. These are not extra vehicles but those that are to serve the city. The transportation company is to provide the drivers and the gas. Interestingly, if there is an accident that requires repairs less than 100,000 liras ($19,000), then IETT is responsible for that cost. All the revenues collected from serving the city are left to the transportation company. Balyali has asked why the city is renting out its vehicles rather than doing the driving itself.

Also, in 2018, due to a cash crunch because of its high debt to income ratio, the municipality started selling public land. Land is quite valuable in Istanbul, and the report questions why properties were sold below market value.

The last reason is reckless spending. A good example of this is almost 848 million liras ($155 million) donated to private schools and student hostels and dormitories by the municipality in 2018 and before. These donations are awarded mostly to religious endowments and this is legal as well. The problem is most of the recipients have close links to Erdogans family. The largest recipient is the Turkish Youth Foundation (TUGVA) with 74.3 million liras ($14 million). Bilal Erdogan, Erdogans younger son, serves on TUGVAs high advisory board.

The municipality has escaped financial surveillance as the rules and regulations of city management have changed frequently in Turkey. Yet this does not eliminate the exponentially growing debt. Bad management, no matter the ever-changing laws, should be scrutinized.

Before the election, Erdogan made it clear that even if the opposition won any municipalities, they would not be able to govern. They wont even be able to pay the salaries of their employees, Erdogan said. As Turkey has transitioned into an all-powerful presidential system, the local governments have less control over their own finances and resources. If they would like to borrow from government banks they would need Erdogans approval.

In a nutshell, Erdogan has sufficient legal power to turn mayors into symbolic posts, so why would he be so reluctant to congratulate opposition party candidates victories in Istanbul and other cities? It seems that even if Erdogan can limit mayors executive powers, it would still be difficult to manage local governments from Ankara. That is why Erdogan has repeatedly said, If we lose Istanbul, we lose Turkey."
Two acts with Alabama ties -- Florida Georgia Line and Little Big Town -- were shut out tonight at the 54th Academy of Country Music Awards. However, a producer from Florence took home a trophy.

Ben Skipworth, a graduate of the University of North Alabama and Brooks High School, won for his work on Drunk Girl, which won Video of the Year. Skipworth, the videos producer, shared the award with the director, Jeff Venable, and the artist, Chris Janson.

Skipworth, who lives in Nashville, is the owner of Inkwell Films. He had two chances to win the award for Video of the Year at the ACMs. Skipworth also produced another nominated video, Burn Out" by Midland. Directors were Cameron Duddy and TK McKamy.

Meanwhile, Florida Georgia Line, a popular bro-country band, was vying for four awards this year: Duo of the Year, Single of the Year, Music Event of the Year and Song of the Year. In the latter three categories, Florida Georgia Line was nominated as the featured artist on "Meant to Be with Bebe Rexha.

Other artists won; Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley went home empty-handed.

Hubbard (from Monroe, Ga.) and Kelley (from Ormond Beach, Fla.), are the bands principals. Florida Georgia Line is linked to Alabama by Hubbards parents, the late Roy Wayne Hubbard and Amy Eady Hubbard, who are from Bibb County. Hubbard also has relatives in Tuscaloosa and Centreville.

Little Big Town was nominated for Vocal Group of the Year at the ACMs, competing against Lady Antebellum, LANCO, Midland and Old Dominion. Old Dominion won that award.

Little Big Town, a harmonizing country-pop group includes Jimi Westbrook of Sumiton and Karen Fairchild and Kimberly Schlapman, who met as undergraduates at Samford University in Birmingham.

Florida Georgia Line and Little Big Town have won ACM Awards in the past.
Alabamians historically consider themselves an independent bunch. The reality may be different.

A recent analysis by WalletHub ranked the states that are most  and least  dependent on the federal government. The rankings were determined by several factors: state resident dependency, which includes the return on taxes paid to federal government and the share of federal jobs; and state government dependency, which factors in federal funding as a share of state revenue.

Overall, Alabama was ranked as fifth on the list of places most dependent on the federal government. The state ranked fifth for state resident dependency and 11th for state government dependency.

The other states that depended most heavily on the federal government for tax dollars and jobs were:

1. New Mexico

2. Mississippi

3. Kentucky

4. West Virginia

5. Alabama

According to the analysis, Alabama also ranked:

Fifth for the highest amount of federal contracts received compared to federal taxes paid

Fifth for highest amount of other financial assistance received compared to federal taxes paid

Fifth for lowest gross domestic product per capita

You can see each states ranking below:
Phone calls asking north Alabama residents about their Medicare coverage or trying to get them to buy health insurance that appear to be coming from the Madison County Health Department are not being made by the agency, the state Health Department said Monday.

Recipients of these possibly fraudulent calls should not provide any personal information such as Social Security numbers or addresses, the Alabama Department of Health said.

One of the numbers the callers appear to use is from the Madison County Health Department. But according to Judy Smith, northern district administrator for the state Health Department, no one from the Madison County Health Department has been making these calls.

She advised anyone on the receiving end of these calls to hang up immediately.
Blake Thompson and his wife Taylor Thompson came to a UAB park on Sunday wearing t-shirts honoring his late brother Jeremy Thompson, who was murdered in 2017 in Ensley. The case remains unsolved.

They hope by wearing the shirts bearing Jeremys name, it could garner more interest in solving the case. He was a good guy. Had a good heart, Blake said. He had his problems. He struggled with addiction that just led him to a path of destruction and unfortunately it cost him his life.

The Thompsons were at the University of Alabama at Birmingham for the second annual One Heart in the Park festival, an event hosted by Birmingham police and victim advocacy groups to remember victims of crime and celebrate their families.

More than 40 groups set up tables on the University of Alabama at Birminghams campus at the beginning of National Crime Victims Rights Week to support those touched by crime. Among the groups were the Jefferson County Sheriffs Department, VOCAL, a victims advocacy group, UAB police and One Place Metro Alabama Family Justice Center.

We wanted to do something that was upbeat and festive and provide some services and some support for people, because historically its a sad time because people are mourning people theyve lost to homicide or people are dealing with remembering something bad that happened to them, a crime that was committed against them, Wanda Miller, director of victim services at Jefferson County Sheriffs Office said.

The event was spread across UABs green and provided food, music, and therapy goats alongside tents with advocacy groups.

Janette Grantham, director of VOCAL, said she was inspired to get involved with victim advocacy after her brother, Neil Grantham, was murdered in 1979.

As my family was going through the judicial system, we didnt have a VOCAL at that time, we didnt have anything, Grantham said. Victims had no rights. They were not allowed in the courtroom... They had no voice.

VOCALs Alabama chapter began in 1982 when Alabama had no victims rights laws. The group has since helped advocate for 24 laws benefiting victims of crimes in the state.
Former Trump aide turned author Cliff Sims has been named partner and president of Birmingham marketing firm Telegraph Creative, the company announced Monday.

Cliff has led successful communications, messaging and branding campaigns at the highest level, with the highest stakes, and has a long track record of delivering results, said Telegraph Creative CEO Kevin McLendon. "He is also a successful entrepreneur and has a deep understanding of the trends that will define the future of communications and technology.

Sims said he is thrilled to be joining the marketing firm.

"Kevin has been a friend of mine for a long time and Ive always respected the quality of work that Telegraph produces, Sims said.

Sims is the founder of conservative website Yellowhammer. He took a leave of absence from the website in 2016 to serve as an adviser to President Trumps presidential campaign, following Trump to the White House where he served as assistant communications director.

Sims announced in May 2018 he was leaving the White House and later released a book titled Team of Vipers: My 500 Extraordinary Days in the Trump White House.

The book resulted in lawsuits, with both the Trump campaign and Sims filing claims against the other.
Carson Jones, the son of Alabama Democratic Senator Doug Jones, has penned an open letter to Alabama.

Writing for The Advocate, Jones, who is gay, said the proposal to do away with marriage licenses in Alabama is an effort to send a message to members of the LGBT-Q community.

Its the intention behind this bill that is the root of the problem. Republicans are not just simplifying the law or making things easier for people in their state. There is no greater good served here. They are simply demonstrating that they continue to oppose marriage equality. They still do not believe that gay and bisexual people deserve the same rights and privileges as straight people. They continue to believe that we are somehow less. That is the message that they are sending to the people of Alabama, to their constituents, and to the rest of the world, Jones wrote.

The Alabama Senate approved a bill last month that would do away with judge-signed marriage licenses. Under the bill, couples would get a form at the local courthouse if they want to marry but it would not be called a license. The proposal comes after several Alabama probate judges said they would not issue marriage licenses if they were required to provide them to same-sex couples.

Doug Jones won his Senate seat in 2018 in a race against Republican Roy Moore. Moore had previously resigned his post as Alabama Chief Justice after defying the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage.

Carson Jones: Wont get married in Alabama

In his letter, Jones said while he hopes one day to marry, hes disappointed to say it wont be here in this state.

It probably wont be in Alabama simply because (same sex marriage) doesnt yet feel welcome or accepted. One day it will be, but unfortunately that day has not come yet, he wrote.

He urged the state do do better.

Lets commit to being more inclusive and more accepting. Not because we have to, but because we want to. Because we recognize that the fabric of our country and our state is made of different people of different backgrounds and is what gives us true strength and makes this place so special. We can do better Alabama. We must do better, he wrote.

You can read the complete open letter here.
U.S. District Judge Karen O. Bowdre had a message today for gun owners who have children: Keep your firearms locked away safely and securely.

Bowdre issued that message as she handed down a federal prison sentence to the father of a Huntsville boy who accidentally shot himself at school.

Letroy Cole was sentenced to federal prison April 8, 2019 for a gun charge that stemmed from his son taking a gun to school and accidentally shooting himself. The shooting happened Sept. 17, 2018 at Blossomwood Elementary in Huntsville, Ala.

Letroy Cole Jr. was ordered to serve 26 months after pleading guilty to being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. The judge also ordered Cole to serve three years of supervised release, including 20 hours of community service. Hes required to turn himself in to prison by May 15.

Cole, 41, was charged following a Sept. 17, 2018 shooting at Blossomwood Elementary School in Huntsville. Coles son, a second-grader, accidentally shot himself in the hand while showing the .32-caliber semi-automatic pistol to another student, authorities said. It happened in a bathroom during P.E. class. The boys injury wasnt life-threatening.

Cole cried as he stood before the judge and apologized today.

Coles son found the gun at home and took it from the top shelf of his mothers bedroom closet, court records state.

After the shooting, Cole admitted to police the gun was his, according to a sentencing memorandum filed by his defense attorney.

Cole explained that he found the gun near the garbage dumpster where his children (and their mother) lived, defense attorney Latasha McCrary wrote in the memorandum. He believed that it might help protect them from danger in their new surroundings (they had recently moved from Chicago).

In state court, Cole is charged with a misdemeanor count of receiving stolen property, as police say the gun had been reported stolen in a vehicle break-in during the spring of 2017. Coles state court charges are expected to be dismissed now that hes been sentenced in federal court, McCrary said at todays hearing.

For the past six months, Mr. Cole has relived the tragedy of September 17 every day, his attorney wrote in court records. He remains thankful that no one was seriously injured.

Coles attorney asked for a probation sentence instead of prison time. Cole, a father of five children, also took care of three step-children and his disabled parents before his arrest, records show.

McCrary wrote that Cole understands the seriousness of the case and has been tormented by the consequences that resulted from his action.

His son was injured, his family was forced from their home and the children were temporarily placed in foster care, records show. The children have recently been returned to their mother.

The childrens mother wrote in a letter to the judge that Cole is a family man and hard worker, who loves his family and provides for them.

An employee of Panera Bread in Huntsville, Cole was supported by his friends, colleagues and family members. Several people attended todays hearing or wrote letters in support of Cole. Speaking at the hearing, his uncle and sister asked the judge for leniency, calling Cole a good father.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Becher, Sr. said Cole owed a debt to society for the pandemonium caused by the shooting and the effects the situation had on other students, parents, teachers and the community.

Its about time he suffer the consequences of his actions, Becher told the judge.

Convicted felon

Cole was raised in South Side Chicago, one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the United States, where drugs, gangs and homicide were the norm, his attorney wrote in court records.

By his teen years, Cole was using and selling drugs, court records state. At 16, he became involved with the Gangster Disciples, a street gang in Chicago. Within a year, he was convicted of a felony drug crime.

Its because of Coles record as a felon that he was charged with a federal crime after the Blossomwood shooting. He pleaded guilty earlier this year to being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.

Felons in unlawful possession of firearms are not only a threat to all of us when those weapons are illegally in their hands, but made worse when those weapons get into the hands of children, U.S. Attorney Jay Town said in a statement. A child was shot and injured with the handgun that Cole illegally possessed. This situation could have been much worse."

In 1995, Cole was convicted of narcotics possession in Cook County, Illinois records show. In 2002, he was convicted of illegally having pistol, federal prosecutors said.

Cole moved to Alabama in 2014 to start a new life, his attorney said. Since then, hes lived responsibly and held down a job. Until his arrest on the gun charge last year, Cole hasnt been in trouble with the law since leaving Chicago.

Judge Bowdre said its because of Coles strides to improve his life that she sentenced him below the recommended sentence. Federal sentencing guidelines called for Cole to be sentenced to 37-46 months in prison. Instead, Bowdre issued a 26-month sentence, saying Coles children need their father in their lives.

The judge said she hopes Coles prison sentence will serve as a reminder to gun-owning parents that they should always secure their firearms.

Coles sentencing comes just weeks after a 74-year-old substitute teachers pistol accidentally fired in a first-grade classroom in Blountsville. In that case, a bullet fragment injured one student.
This is an opinion column.

When state lawmakers say district attorneys should prosecute ethics crimes, not the Attorney Generals office nor the Ethics Commission, mind what they mean, not what they say.

To see why, look no further than Jefferson County.

When a Jefferson County grand jury indicted Trey Glenn and Scott Phillips on state ethics charges, their defense lawyers went to work, throwing every brick and timber on the tracks, to derail the case against them from ever going to trial.

(Its a tricky case worth its own column, but today I want to focus on just one little piece of it thats important to everybody right now.)

The defense lawyers contend that the Alabama Ethics Commission staff got involved in the case in the wrong way.

(Again, well come back to that another day.)

And to make their case, they introduced an affidavit from former Jefferson County acting District Attorney Mike Anderton.

(This is what were here for.)

In that affidavit, Anderton says he made it clear to the Ethics Commission staff that his office didnt have the resources to prosecute the case against Glenn and Phillips.

I told (Ethics Commission General Counsel) Raulston that I would facilitate her appearance before the grand jury but that my office did not have the resources to support her case, Anderton wrote. I also told her that she would have to prosecute the case herself.

Heres the important thing here: The Jefferson County District Attorneys office didnt have the resources to prosecute a state ethics case.

Mind you, this should have been an easy lift. Most, if not all, of the evidence from that case came out of a federal case against a Balch & Bingham lawyer, Joel Gilbert, and Drummond vice president David Roberson. The feds did the hard work for them.

Also, Andertons office had received a complaint. People had walked into the courthouse and said to his staff, roughly paraphrasing here, Hey, these guys are breaking the law and we need you to do something about that.

Yet Anderton elected to do nothing and instead to pass the potato to the Ethics Commission. This was the top law enforcement officer in the largest county in the state saying under oath that his office was not equipped to do its job.

Thats bad.

And heres worse.

This week, 11 state Senators, including Alabama Senate Pro Tem Del Marsh, introduced a bill to gut Alabamas ethics laws. In addition to making gifts from lobbyists to public officials completely legal again, and on top of making bribes less than $6,000 a misdemeanor, this bill would do something else.

SB230 takes responsibility for investigating and prosecuting ethics crimes away from the Alabama Ethics Commission completely, and it puts that responsibility solely in the hands of district attorneys.

District attorneys who lack the staff, money and experience prosecuting white collar crimes and public corruption.

District attorneys with political considerations of their own.

When handled by the Attorney General or federal prosecutors, corruption cases typically take years to investigate and prosecute, nevermind the years of appeals that can follow. These are protracted, expensive legal battles.

If Jefferson Countys district attorney cant handle a public corruption case, how is a district attorney in Clay County supposed to? Or Clarke? Or Crenshaw?

The lawmakers who drafted this bill know good and well what district attorneys are equipped to handle and what theyre not. If they dont know, then theyre willfully ignorant.

A school lunchroom worker stealing from the cash register?

Yeah, a DA can make that case.

A lawmaker or governor stealing out of your pocket?

Not in a lifetime.

Which is exactly how they want it.

Kyle Whitmire is the state political columnist for the Alabama Media Group.

Want access to the best analysis and in-depth reporting about Alabama each week? Sign up for the weekly Reckon Report newsletter and follow Reckon on Facebook and Twitter. Follow Whitmire on Twitter and Facebook, too. And Instagram.
Authorities are searching for a Cullman County teen who they say ran away from home, taking her mothers vehicle with her.

Sonny Hope, a 15-year-old Vinemont girl, has been not been seen or heard from since early Sunday, according to the Cullman County Sheriffs Office. She left in her mothers 2010 Chevrolet Taverse with Alabama license plate 25FP578.

Anyone with information on Sonnys whereabouts is asked to call Investigator Ryan Hogeland at 256-734-0342.
Kris Kobachs is reportedly being considered to lead DHS. Photo: Aaron P. Bernstein/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Kirstjen Nielsen is out as Homeland Security secretary and, for now at least, Kevin McAleenan is in. On Sunday, President Trump tweeted that McAleenan, currently the commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, will take over DHS in an acting capacity. But given what were learning about the career government official  apparently McAleenan isnt a wild-eyed anti-immigration hawk  hes likely not long for the job.

Indeed, less than 24 hours after Nielsens resignation, the short list to replace her is not very short. According to multiple reports, Trump is looking for someone who will take a harder line on immigration than Nielsen, who is best known for enforcing the barbaric family-separation policy at the U.S.-Mexico border. As Trump said last Friday when he pulled his nominee to lead ICE, he wants to bring about a tougher era of immigration policy and enforcement.

Unsurprisingly, White House senior adviser Stephen Miller is reportedly behind the shake-up at DHS. According to the Washington Post, Miller has privately derided other officials to the president for not being tough enough. The 33-year-old is now in charge of all immigration initiatives, Trump recently told advisers, according to the Post.

Politico reports that Miller has been telephoning mid-level officials at several federal departments and agencies to angrily demand that they do more to stem the flow of immigrants into the country. One person described the calls as a form of intimidation.

So who will Trump select to fulfill his vision at the border, which may include bringing back the family-separation policy? Here are the names currently being floated:

Kris Kobach  The former Kansas secretary of State interviewed for the job atop DHS in the weeks after Trumps election in 2016. He didnt get it, but he did accidentally reveal some of what he would have done if he had.

Rick Perry  Currently serving as the Energy secretary, Perry is seen as the easiest to confirm, Robert Costa reports. But would the former Texas governor want to leave the relative anonymity of his current Cabinet post for on that puts him on the front line of the immigration fight in his home state?

Ken Cuccinelli  Virginias ex-attorney general is a longtime immigrant basher who has advocated for ending birthright citizenship.

Thomas Homan  A former ICE employee under President Obama, Homan became acting director under Trump. He retired from that post last summer and now works as a Fox News contributor, where his hot takes include ones like this:

Fox's Tom Homan predicts that "maybe a decade from now, President Trump is going to be recognized as one of the greatest presidents of our generation, if not the greatest." pic.twitter.com/KCRal0CUaC  Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) February 6, 2019

Matthew Whitaker  The former acting attorney general left the Justice Department last month, but could make a triumphant return to the Trump administration at DHS.

Pam Bondi  Floridas former attorney general is tight with Trump, but confirmation hearings might not be a very good idea for her given the possible pay-for-play scandal she and the president have in their past.

In Nielsen, Trump had a DHS secretary who would enforce his most inhumane policies without moral compunction, but she seems to have drawn the line at actions she believed to be illegal. Her replacement will likely be someone who disregards both morality and legality. Trump should have little trouble finding someone in his orbit who will do both.
A 31-year-old man has been charged in a north Birmingham shooting that killed one young man and injured two others.

Birmingham police on Monday announced the murder charge against Tarek Rashad Owens. He is charged in the April 1 slaying 22-year-old Durand Witherspoon.

Owens was booked into the Jefferson County Jail Friday and released Sunday after posting $100,000 bond.

The shooting happened just before 9:30 p.m. one week ago in the 1200 block of 12th Street North. Witherspoon was found unresponsive between two apartment buildings and later pronounced dead on the scene by Birmingham Fire and Rescue at 10:03 p.m.

Two other victims were taken to UAB Hospitals Trauma Center. One of them - a 14-year-old - has life-threatening injuries.

A witness told AL.com he heard arguing and then the gunfire. "Someone said, Ill put a bullet in your mother (expletive) head,'' and the shots rang out. He said dozens of shots were fired, and he immediately called 911.

Birmingham police put out multiple evidence markers - at least 57 - to designate evidence left on the scene. Police say they believe the argument started during some type of gambling event.

Jail records do not indicate that Owens was charged in the wounding of two others. This story will be updated if more information becomes available.
Walker County Sheriff Nick Smith said his office will continue to enforce gambling laws whether it is popular to do so or not.

With the recent upswing in illegal gambling activity becoming a street-front issue again in Walker County, Smith said Monday he feels it is law enforcements responsibility to make the laws regarding this issue clear to the citizens of Walker County, and to make a decisive, definitive, and final statement on how these issues will be approached during his administration.

Illegal gambling is just that; illegal. It is not law enforcements role in society to make decisions on what laws will or wont be enforced based on their own personal opinions, he said. It is our role to understand and enforce the laws our legislature puts forth.

The Walker County Sheriffs Office will continue to do exactly that, because each one of us took an oath to do so. In the grand scheme of criminal activity, illegal gambling is not comparable to violent crimes, crimes of a sexual nature, or crimes against a persons property. We understand that, Smith said. However, it is still a crime, and our enforcement of those laws doesnt take away from our enforcement of any others. We will arrest and prosecute murderers, rapists, and thieves just like we will arrest and prosecute the proprietors of illegal gambling operations because that is our job, and as law enforcement professionals, we are fully capable of handling the vast array of laws we are tasked with enforcing. The people of Walker County elected me to enforce the law.

Sheriffs deputies last month seized 40 electronic bingo machines and other evidence from a Jasper business, drawing praise from Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall. Alabama law is crystal clear, Marshall said. Electronic bingo and coin slot machines are illegal. No matter what the operators of these unlawful enterprises claim, the Alabama Supreme Court has definitively and repeatedly ruled that electronic bingo and coin slot machines are illegal gaming devices. There is no debate, there is no ambiguity. As the Supreme Court stated on March 31, 2016, all that is left to do is to enforce the law.

In that same statement issued by Marshall, he wrote, Should local agencies in other jurisdictions fail to enforce State laws on gambling, my office will take action as needed to hold the perpetrators accountable.

The Jefferson County Sheriffs Office has repeatedly stated publicly that investigating illegal gambling operations is not a priority for Sheriff Mark Pettway, and that deputies will continue to focus on more serious, violent crimes.

Smith on Monday said the people of Walker County did not elect him to listen to some opinions over others, and they certainly didnt elect him to decide which laws he will enforce based on any one particular opinion of that law.

Agree with the gambling laws, disagree with the gambling laws, or have no opinion of them at all, but the Walker County Sheriffs Office will enforce the law, he said. With that being said, if you are operating an illegal gambling establishment we will shut your operation down, confiscate any illegal proceeds made, seize your machines, arrest you, and prosecute you in a court of law because that is the law and that is what is right and just. Until that law changes, we will enforce it. Period.

Smith also provided an explanation of Alabamas illegal gambling laws. We as a law enforcement entity hope this explanation makes its way to as many of our citizens as possible, Smith said. The people of Walker County deserve a Sheriffs Office that is willing to take the time to relay important information regarding issues that affect our communities.

LEGAL

 Paper Bingo (Traditional church style bingo played with paper or plastic cards and bingo markers. The ONLY game of chance legal in Alabama.)

 Games of skill - Any game which requires the player to exert any skill other than putting in coins and pushing a button, pulling a lever, etc. OR a game that relies more on a players skill than random chance or luck (Example: Fruit Ninja, Candy Crush, or other Chuck E. Cheese type games, etc.)

ILLEGAL

 Electronic Bingo

 Games of chance  Any game which can be won by no act of the player OR a game that relies more on chance than a players skill. Pushing a button or pulling a lever is not considered a skill under state law (Example: slot machines, penny machines, dice, roulette, etc.).

 Lotteries/Raffles  Persons or organizations cannot sell tickets for a chance to win something else

 Games of ANY kind CAN NOT pay out in cash or anything redeemable for, or as, cash (ex: gift cards). All prizes awarded from games of skill must have a monetary value of less than $5. Businesses cannot award tags, tokens, or points redeemable for cash. This is why the prizes awarded at carnivals and places like Chuck E. Cheeses are essentially worthless. For them to abide by state law, their prizes have to be worth $5 or less.
The search for a beloved pastor is in its second full day but storms in northwest Alabama are hampering rescue efforts, for now.

The Rev. Sid Burgess, who was pastor at Edgewood Presbyterian Church from 1990 through his retirement 2013, was last seen just before 11 a.m. Saturday at White Creek Falls in Double Springs. Burgess, 70, is an avid hiker.

Winston County sheriffs Chief Deputy Bryan Kirkpatrick on Monday said another hiker encountered Burgess at 10:57 a.m. Saturday. They chatted and even took a picture together before parting ways. But Burgess has not been seen or heard from since then.

On Sunday, Burgesss vehicle was found at Randolph Trailhead where he was supposed to be doing a day hike. They have not been able to track his cell phone. Once you leave Trailhead, there is no cell service, Kirkpatrick said.

Searchers spent 12 hours in the woods on Sunday searching for Burgess, but to no avail. They hit the woods again on Monday but said the weather forced a temporary halt to the search.

Several certified search teams also are ready to fan out again once it is safe to do so, Kirkpatrick said. Were exhausting every avenue, Kirkpatrick said. Were not giving up by any stretch of the imagination.

Authorities are asking civilian volunteers not to try to do their own search because they do not want to take the risk of losing someone else or someone being injured during the search. We do have some civilians out there right now and we cant tell them not to, but our fear is were going to have to go looking for them as well, Kirkpatrick said.

When Burgess began to lead the church in 1990, there were about 25 people in attendance. When he retired six years ago, that number had grown to about 250 members. "It's always going to be small," he said in 2012. "That's God's call to us, to be small in a world of big. It's a healthy congregation, and a growing congregation."

Burgess formerly worked at WBRC-TV in the early 1970s and was general manager of Birmingham Cable before going to seminary.

The Rev. Joe Genau, who replaced Burgess after his retirement, said he has spent much of the past two days with Burgesss wife and family, which includes two daughters. Its been a bit of a rollercoaster, Genau said. We get some hopeful news and then we dont hear anything for a while.

Everyone is trying to stay focused on the hope that he will be found soon and safely, he said. What we are really asking for is for everyone to send their love and prayers. We know there are dedicated experts doing their absolute best to try to find Sid.

Anyone who knows Sid knows he is one of the biggest-hearted people in the world, Genau said. Were abiding in hope and waiting for him to get home.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Burgess is asked to call the sheriffs office at 205-489-2115.
Several schools across the northern part of the state announced closures Monday morning after an early-morning storm.

The National Weather Service reported an isolated storm may have produced a tornado that tracked over parts of Blount, Marshall and DeKalb counties early this morning.

Damage has been reported in the Guntersville area and the weather service has reported some damage in Blount County as well. The National Weather Service in Birmingham said it will be sending out a survey team today to look at the Blount County damage.

Strong to severe storms will be possible statewide for most of the day today.

Here are schools that have posted closures for Monday or early release times. This post will be updated throughout the morning as more closures are announced.

Blount County

-Blountsville Elementary School, Pennington High School, Susan Moore Elementary School and Susan Moore High School are closed Monday.

- All other Blount County Schools will dismiss at 1 p.m.

Cullman County

-Cullman County Schools: Dismissal at 1:30 p.m.

DeKalb County

-DeKalb County Schools: Buses and morning transportation will be delayed in most locations by one hour this morning, according to the superintendent.

Marshall County

-Albertville City Schools: Dismissal at 11:30 a.m.

-Marshall County Schools: School is canceled for Douglas schools and buses will run late for other schools in the county. All county schools will dismiss at 11:30 a.m., and absences will be excused for any student, according to the superintendent.
An Alabama inmate set to be die Thursday evening has asked an appeals court to stay his execution.

Christopher Price is set to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Thursday at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. He was convicted in the 1991 robbery and slaying of Bill Lynn and was sentenced to death by a jurys vote of 10-2. A judge upheld the jurys recommendation and sent Price to death row.

Price had asked the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama for a stay of execution, arguing the Alabama Department of Corrections three-drug lethal injection cocktail could cause Price severe pain during his execution. The 46-year-old also claimed the states refusal to allow him to elect the newly approved nitrogen hypoxia method denies him equal protection under the Constitution.

The Alabama Attorney Generals Office claimed in a filing Price was given the forms necessary to elect a change of execution method from lethal injection to nitrogen hypoxia last summer, when all other inmates on death row were given the same opportunity. The state says Price neglected to make that election. The AGs Office called the current lawsuit a meritless delay tactic.

Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Kristi DuBose denied the stay of execution and noted Price did not elect to choose nitrogen hypoxia by the cutoff date, and that the gas is not readily available since the state has not yet developed a protocol for those types of executions.

Prices appeal to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals was dated Saturday, but made available in court records Monday morning.

Lynn, a minister at Natural Springs Church of Christ, was fatally stabbed with a knife and sword outside his home in the Bazemore community three days before Christmas in 1991. Court records state Lynn was putting together Christmas presents for his grandchildren, when the power went out. He walked outside to check the power box when he was attacked.

Records state Lynn suffered 38 cuts, lacerations, and stab wounds, and one of his arms was almost severed. He died en route to a local hospital. His wife, Bessie Lynn, was wounded in the attack but survived her injuries.

Price was arrested in Tennessee several days after the slaying and was convicted in 1993.
Investigations are underway after three Alabama prison guards were injured in two separate incidents over the past 24 hours.

A male correctional officer assigned to Staton Correctional Facility in Elmore was the victim of an inmate assault on Sunday, said Alabama Department of Corrections spokesman Bob Horton. The incident happened about 11:30 p.m.

Prison officials reported the officer  who has not been identified - had been injured by a makeshift weapon during the assault. The officer was treated for his injuries at a local hospital and was later released. Several inmates have been identified as suspects in the assault.

Early Monday  about 5 a.m. - an incident involving an inmate and two male correctional officers was reported at Elmore Correctional Facility, also in Elmore. While escorting the inmate from a housing area, the inmate struck an officer with a closed fist.

The officer was treated for his injuries at the facilitys infirmary. A second correctional officer who responded to the incident was also struck and taken to a local hospital as a precautionary measure. Both officers were treated for their injuries and released. Officers were able to gain control of the inmate without further incident.

ADOC is investigating both incidents.
This is an opinion piece.

Theres something strange afoot at the Southern Poverty Law Center, one of the nations richest civil and human rights charities. In March, the center abruptly fired legendary co-founder Morris Dees. Dees biography was quickly scrubbed from the centers 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.

- - -

Jim Tharpe is a retired journalist who lives in Atlanta and a former managing editor of the Montgomery Advertiser.
Prisons in Alabama are in a state of crisis  and they have been for a long time. Last week, the Department of Justice released a 56-page report on Alabamas prison system, condemning in no uncertain terms the endemic violence and abuse that continues to threaten the lives of incarcerated people across the state. Today, Alabama confines approximately 16,000 people in its correctional facilities. The actual capacity of those facilities? 9,882. Massive overcrowding and dangerous understaffing plague most Alabama prisons. Medical and mental healthcare has long been abysmal. Homicides in Alabamas prisons occur at a rate ten times higher than the national average.

Though they are horrific, none of the findings regarding excessive violence in the DOJs recent report are new or surprising. Alabama prison officials have known about the chaos and violence in its facilities for years. A decade ago, the Southern Center for Human Rights filed Hicks v. Hetzel, a putative class action lawsuit on behalf of people incarcerated at Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer, Alabama. In the months before the lawsuit was filed, Donaldson was at 173.7% capacity. Dormitories with hundreds of men were supervised by just one or two officers. Stabbings and beatings left prisoners with slit throats, punctured livers, pierced lungs, partial blindness, paralysis, and other injuries, as well as permanent psychological trauma.

The Alabama Department of Corrections has long refused to accept responsibility for the conditions in its facilities. Here is but one example. At Donaldson, in the first six months of 2007, one man was stabbed and suffered a punctured liver; a second was hospitalized after being found on the floor, stabbed and covered in blood; a third was taken to the hospital with numerous stab wounds to his head, chest, and back; a fourth was hospitalized after he was found, on the floor, bloodied, and unable to speak, with obvious head wounds; a fifth was airlifted to the hospital after his throat was slashed; a sixth was taken for emergency care after being stabbed through the hand; and a seventh was hospitalized with stab wounds to his chest and face. In the face of such rampant violence, the Southern Center for Human Rights sent the state prison commissioner a letter requesting immediate action to remedy the prisons unsafe conditions. The Commissioner responded through his attorney that the level of violence was not rampant, but rather low.

The civil rights lawsuit over conditions at Donaldson was but one of many. Through multiple lawsuits over the years brought by Equal Justice Initiative, Southern Poverty Law Center and others, people incarcerated in prisons in Alabama have shown time and again that they were being warehoused in conditions that were filthy, decrepit, dangerous and unlivable. The State of Alabama has had decades to address these problems, but it has been unwilling or unable to do so.

The Hicks lawsuit was settled in 2011. Since then, conditions have only worsened across the prison system. The mortality rate has more than doubled since 2008. In 2018, Equal Justice Initiative reported that thirty-five prisoners had been murdered in Alabama DOC facilities in the previous five years. As of 2019, twenty-four prisoners had been murdered in just two years.

In the face of this crisis of violence, the Alabama Department of Corrections has often released inaccurate information to the public, significantly underreporting the number of people assaulted or killed in custody. The DOJ report found that Alabama failed to adequately track violent deaths or investigate sexual abuse. At least three murder victims had been incorrectly recorded as having died from natural causes, according to the report.

Former Attorney General and longtime Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions and Governor Kay Ivey have expressed skepticism about federal intervention, with Governor Ivey advocating instead for an Alabama solution to the prison crisis. Before he left office last year, Sessions released a memo seeking to limit the use of consent decrees between federal government and local agencies being investigated. But the time for an Alabama solution has come and gone. The State has had well over a decade to fix these problems, and they have failed, time and again.

The time for negotiation is over. The federal government needs to step in, and a federal court order with significant and clearly articulated penalties for noncompliance is the only way forward. How many more people must die before that much is clear?

Sarah Geraghty is the Managing Attorney of the Impact Litigation Unit at the Southern Center for Human Rights. Sarah litigates cases challenging inhumane prison conditions, open records law violations, denial of right to counsel, and the incarceration of indigent persons for debt.
James Buckley, right, with his famous brother William F. Buckley on the night of his election to the Senate in 1970. Photo: Bettmann Archive

Former U.S. senator and South Carolina governor Ernest F. (Fritz) Hollings died over the weekend at the age of 97. Hollings spent 38 years in the Senate, beginning as a standard anti-civil-rights conservative, then becoming an advocate for nutrition programs after discovering extreme poverty in his state. He then settled into a pattern of occasionally eccentric moderation on most issues, accompanied by a passion for fiscal discipline and a strong antipathy to liberalized trade arrangements that threatened South Carolinas textile industry. He briefly ran for president in 1984, an adventure that was memorialized in a hilarious New Republic piece titled The Dog Ate My Candidate, by the then-liberal journalist Mickey Kaus.

Hollingss death makes former New York senator James Buckley, who is 96, the oldest living elected ex-senator (North Dakotas Jocelyn Burdick, who is slightly older, served the last two months of her late husbands final term). Unlike the South Carolinian, Buckleys Senate service lasted just one term; he was defeated for reelection in 1976 by Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan. But his election in 1970 on the Conservative Party ticket was a major New York and national political landmark, marking the conservative takeover of the Republican Party.

James Buckley is the older brother of William F. Buckley, the late conservative columnist and editor, who is generally regarded as one of the chief founders of the American conservative movement. James was an attorney and corporate officer until he accepted the Conservative Party nomination to challenge Republican senator Jacob Javits in 1968. He won 17 percent of the vote, a solid if unspectacular showing by the party founded to counter the Liberal Partys influence in New York, and the liberal tendencies of the states GOP.

But in 1970 Buckley ran again in a dramatically different context. After the assassination of New York senator Robert F. Kennedy, Republican governor Nelson Rockefeller appointed an obscure upstate GOP congressman named Charles Goodell to the Senate. Goodell quickly became an outspoken Vietnam War opponent and compiled a generally liberal voting record. This deeply annoyed the Nixon White House, and aroused already-growing hostility to the liberal Republicanism typified by Javits, Rockefeller, and New York City mayor John Lindsay, who had won reelection in 1969 on the Liberal Party ticket after losing the GOP primary. As the campaign became competitive, Nixons vice-president, Spiro Agnew, signaled support for Buckley by calling Goodell radical liberal. And Buckley not-so-subtly made himself the symbol of white Christian outer borough, suburban, and upstate resentment of Big Apple liberalism with the slogan: Isnt it time we had a U.S. senator?

With the liberal-to-moderate vote split between Goodell (running on the Republican and Liberal tickets) and Democrat Richard Ottinger, Buckley won the three-way race with 39 percent. As National Review noted in retrospect, this was a really big deal at the time:

[T]he New York election of November 3, 1970, became the conservative event of the decade. Finally the Right, lashed together by the other Buckley, had won a race and proved that its ideas were viable even in one of the most liberal states in the Union. Young Americans for Freedom  an organization whose Sharon Statement had been drafted and signed in 1960 in the great Buckley house  had mobilized the college students and twentysomethings who wanted nothing to do with Tom Hayden and the New Left. The movement brimmed with optimism, which buoyed the senator-elect as he prepared to go to a Washington that he knew would oppose him.

Indeed, the Young Americans for Freedom presence in Buckleys campaign was very noticeable, as witnessed in the Election Night spectacle of a youthful audience lustily singing Goodbye Charlie in celebration of Goodells dispatching.

Buckleys tenure in Washington was marked by one major surprise, when he became one of the first Republican senators to call for Richard Nixons resignation. In 1976, Buckley gained some brief national notoriety as a tense Republican National Convention got underway; he considered offering himself as a compromise alternative to Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, before demurring when New York Republicans threatened to withdraw support for his Senate reelection (Buckley spoke to the convention and quipped: My name is Jimmy Buckley and Im running for the Senate, an allusion to Jimmy Carters signature line My name is Jimmy Carter and Im running for president).

By the time Buckley lost to Moynihan, New York politics had been decisively realigned, with Republicans becoming a recognizably conservative party (making the Conservative Party itself triumphant but less significant). When liberal Republican Jacob Javits lost the GOP nomination in 1980, and subsequently his Senate seat (even as Reagan carried New York), the transformation was complete.

Buckley never ran for office again, but served Reagan as undersecretary of State before the Gipper placed him on the D.C. Court of Appeals, from which he retired in 1996. In retirement, the former senator has been relatively quiet, though he declared himself an unhappy man with Donald Trumps presidential nomination in 2016.

The third oldest ex-senator, Mike Gravel, is, at 88, toying with a presidential campaign. So far as we know, thats not in the cards for James Buckley.
Abuja, Nigeria  In March, hundreds of Nigerian doctors gathered at a hotel in Abuja, the capital, and another in Lagos, the countrys commercial centre, to take a test conducted by the Saudi Arabian health ministry.

In a symbol of the Nigerian medical brain drain, those yet to migrate must complete foreign exams in order to get work placements abroad.

Weeks before the attempt by Saudi Arabia to lure Nigerias greatest medical talents, dozens had sat the regular Professional Linguistic Assessments Board (PLAB) exams at the British Council. Once they pass, it will enable them to work in the UK.

According to some estimates, about 2,000 doctors have left Nigeria over the past few years.

Doctors have blamed the mass exit on poor working conditions  only four percent of Nigerias budget is allocated to health.

While the annual healthcare threshold per person in the US is $10,000, in Nigeria it is just $6.

More than half of those seeking visas to [India] are going for medical care that is not available here in Nigeria. Indigent Nigerians would be at the mercy of the dilapidated health infrastructure, Onwufor Uche, consultant and director of the Gynae Care Research and Cancer Foundation in Abuja, told Al Jazeera.

It has become worse; a doctor [in Nigeria] earns N200,000 monthly ($560), necessitating moving to countries where they can be better paid for their services  This ultimately means that eight of 10 Nigerians are presently receiving substandard or no medical care at all.

Middle-class and wealthy Nigerians often travel for healthcare. Even the septuagenarian Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari, seeks medical care in London.

British, American, South African, Emirati and Saudi Arabian agencies operate in Nigeria to recruit the best doctors.

Nigerias polling agency, NOI Polls, in partnership with Nigerian Health Watch in 2017, found that most doctors seek work abroad.

The trend of doctors emigrating to other countries is at an all-time high, Chike Nwangwu, head of NOIPolls, told Al Jazeera in Abuja. Our survey  showed that 88 percent of doctors are considering work opportunities abroad.

Reasons for emigrating include better facilities and work environment, higher salaries, career progression and an improved quality of life.

One doctor in 5,000

Medical schools and residencies are subsidised by government funds, an investment that is now benefiting other countries.

With an estimated population of over 180 million, there is one doctor per 5,000 people in Nigeria, according to Isaac Folorunso Adewole, the health minister, compared with the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation of one per 600 people.

There are 72,000 doctors registered with the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN); over half practise outside the country.

Nine in every 10 doctors are considering work opportunities outside Nigeria. And it is projected to keep rising as doctors continue to face systemic challenges, said NOIPolls Nwangwu. I actually think [Nigeria] is already at the state of emergency with the availability of medical doctors.

The countrys worsening health sector also grapples with strikes by health workers.

The government is often in conflict with the Nigerian Medical Association, an umbrella union of doctors, over working conditions. The union argues that government officials fail to stick to agreements, leading to industrial action.

When asked last year why Nigerian doctors had to wait a long time to get residency training, Adewole appeared to make light of the issue, saying: It might sound selfish, but we cant all be specialists; we cant. Some will be farmers; some will be politicians  The man who sews my gown is a doctor. He makes the best gown. And some will be specialists, some will be GPs, some will be farmers.

As well as angering some doctors, the apparent failure to act seriously also affects patients.

The government needs to urgently start addressing the issues and concerns of the medical workers and especially the doctors. The truth is, most of these doctors leave for better working conditions and you cant blame them, said Mariam Abdullahi, a 38-year-old patient at a hospital in Abuja.

I am being referred to strange faces and different doctors almost at each of my bi-monthly visits and Im always told the last doctor left the country. As a patient I feel heartbroken anytime my doctors leave, but what can I do when the system treats them poorly?
Paris, France  For the seventh consecutive Sunday, Algerians in Paris continued to protest against the existing government in Algeria.

News of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika submitting his resignation earlier this week was cause for celebration, but protesters are determined to continue their mass rallies until the system that succeeded in propping him up for two decades is gone.

Thousands of protesters gathered at the Place de la Republique, where a joyous atmosphere gripped people from all walks of life, young and old.

Food stalls, singing and dancing were accompanied by speeches. Nearby, a group of students dressed all in black took part in an artistic protest, displaying signs on their shirts of what freedom meant to them.

I feel like I am at a wedding celebration for democracy, Said Baroudi, a 55-year-old protester, told Al Jazeera.

Now we are at the difficult stage of removing the remaining elitists in power.

Algerias constitution stipulates that the speaker of the upper house of parliament, Abdelkader Bensalah, should take the presidential reins for no more than three months, during which a presidential election must be organised.

But the 77-year-old is widely unpopular as a key Bouteflika ally and longtime member of his government.

The popular movement gives us safety, credibility and courage to move on to the next stage, where politicians and civil society must sit down and talk, Baroudi said.

We must follow the constitutional way in order to achieve justice and democracy.
On March 6, just two months before South Africas elections, African National Congress (ANC) politician and current premier of Gauteng province, David Makhura, declared: I think some specific crimes [are committed] by some specific nationalities or foreign nationals are involved.

Whenever a powerful South African political leader blames undocumented migrants for perpetrating crime and lawlessness, I get shivers down my spine. The consequences of expressing such broad, unsubstantiated claims can be deadly, as events in the recent past have demonstrated.

In 2008, more than 60 people were killed in weeks-long xenophobic riots across the country; the violence was preceded by much talk by South African officials about flood of aliens. Since then, the country has witnessed fatal attacks on foreigners on a regular basis. Most recently, in late March, at least three people died after an angry crowd attacked foreign-owned shops and homes in the city of Durban.

As South Africas May 8 general election nears, politicians from both the ruling ANC and the main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) party are stepping up their anti-migrant rhetoric. Plagiarising from US president Donald Trumps electoral playbook, they have repeatedly described foreigners as criminals who are taking advantage of and exploiting the nations riches.

The ANC has promised to take a hard line on undocumented foreigners and the DA has said it is bent on fixing immigration. But is migration really South Africas biggest problem?

I am a migrant from Zimbabwe. I came to South Africa 14 years ago after the economy of my country imploded. I have a permanent residency here.

Contrary to what Makhura and others like him claim, Im not a criminal. I work legally in South Africa.

I, and the two million migrants in South Africa, fear drug lords, property hijackers, carjackers, murderers, rapists and petty thieves, whatever their nationality may be. I dont fraternise with criminal elements and remain panic-stricken and angered by the pervasive threat of falling prey to violent crime, just as much as my South African friends and colleagues are.

Unfortunately, the massive divide between a law-abiding migrant, documented or not, and a foreign criminal, is deliberately obscured and purposefully politicised. Im always inundated by a sense of deep shame and discomfort each time a migrant, especially a fellow Zimbabwean, reportedly commits a crime. But the truth is, the vast majority of us are not involved in criminal activity.

In a 2017 analysis, South Africas Institute for Security Studies (ISS) concluded that most people committing crimes across the country are South Africans and not foreign nationals. The ISS study also said unsubstantiated public declarations made by senior government officials on undocumented migrants tend to promote xenophobic attitudes and may provoke violence against foreign nationals.

Currently, 7.5 percent of the prison population in South Africa is made up of foreigners and, according to the 2011 census, 4.2 percent of the South African population was foreign-born. Given that migrants have a higher chance of being apprehended by the police, since they are purposefully targeted, there does not seem to be evidence that there is a higher degree of criminality among them.

Blaming other problems plaguing the country on foreigners is also based on non-existent evidence.

Contrary to what Makhura and others like him claim, I, and many other migrants, do not exploit South Africas healthcare system. I pay taxes in South Africa and therefore contribute to the funds that go towards the healthcare budget. Whatever is not covered by the system, I pay out of my own pocket. My three children were born here, and I am forever grateful to the South African nurses, specialists and doctors who delivered them safely and cared for them at government hospitals in Pretoria.

The fact that state-run hospitals are overwhelmed and underfunded is not because of us, migrants. In fact, it has been well-documented that plenty of migrants are turned away by South African hospitals, despite the fact that they have the legal right to access free basic healthcare. The health care system is suffering because of major structural issues the South African state faces, including problems of mismanagement and misallocation of funds.

That there are some migrants who do not pay taxes on their labour or commercial activities is also not a problem of migration, but a problem of law enforcement by the South African state. More importantly, whatever tax evasion is happening among migrant workers, it is negligible in terms of scope compared to the massive amounts of money South Africa is losing due to the complex schemes major corporations and business elites undertake to avoid paying their dues. As one recent study found, 98% of the tax loss is associated with profit-shifting by the biggest 10% of multinational corporations.

Likewise, unemployment woes in South Africa are not caused by migration. Migrants most often than not take low-paying jobs that locals avoid and more often than not restrict their economic activities to the informal sector anyway.

Migrants are also not to blame for low salaries. The precarious situation they often found themselves in force them to accept the worse working condition and lower pay. However, it is the duty of the state to ensure fair remuneration in all sectors of the economy and punish employers who do not provide it.

Indeed, when one looks at the big picture  the pervasive poverty, the poor service delivery, the underdevelopment of infrastructure, lack of housing and high levels of violent crime  it is clear that migration is not South Africas biggest problem.

But it is a convenient issue to rant about in public when the general population needs to be distracted from the fact that over the past 25 years, the South African political elite has not managed to deliver on the many promises it has made.

It is much easier to fuel xenophobic sentiments among the South African population than to try to counter them. In fact, it is politically rewarding to do so. Blaming foreigners for everything is an old, political gimmick that unfortunately still works and South African politicians are showing no signs of giving up on it in their electoral games.

And while they are quick to condemn violence when it gets really bad, they seem to make no connection between their routine toxic rhetoric and what is happening on the ground, between talking about undocumented foreigners not paying taxes and running businesses without licenses and the shooting of dozens of migrant shopkeepers every year.

Back in 2008, after the deadly xenophobic riots, the opponents of then President Thabo Mbeki within the ANC blamed his policies for the situation. Today, 11 years later, it does not seem that they have done much to rectify whatever Mbeki did wrong.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.

I work legally in South Africa and have permanent residenicy.
On April 4, Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar announced in a voice recording circulated online that he was launching a military campaign to take over the capital, Tripoli. His media office then released a video purporting to show tens of armoured vehicles bearing the emblems of Haftars Libyan National Army (LNA) heading towards the Libyan capital. Tripoli would fall in 48 hours, his forces declared.

The Tripoli-based and UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) seemed taken by surprise. It scrambled to mobilise various militias backing it to defend the capital and eventually launched airs attacks against Haftars forces.

Despite the severity of the situation and the risk of another bloody escalation in the years-long Libyan conflict, the response of the international community was rather weak. The United Kingdom called an emergency Security Council meeting on Friday night, which resulted in a statement calling on Haftar to halt all military advances, after Russia and France insisted on minimal pressure on the LNA. Meanwhile, the US pulled out some of its troops stationed in Libya.

As the GNA announced a counteroffensive on Sunday, the situation in the country remains tense. With conflicting reports coming from both sides, and what appears to be a massive battle of misinformation raging on, it is very difficult to judge what is really going on on the ground.

At this point, what is clear is that Haftar has received enough international backing to press on with his operation and its outcome will be determined by what happens in the coming weeks.

Why did Hafter attack now?

An LNA operation to take over Tripoli was always just a question of time. After securing full control over Benghazi in eastern Libya in 2017, over the past year, Haftar has steadily pressed on to expand the territories under his control, while also engaging in talks with the GNA sponsored by various foreign actors.

In January, his forces launched an operation to take over major oilfields in the south and by the end of the month were able to enter Sabha, the largest city in southern Libya. Having established control, at least nominally, over two-thirds of Libya, Haftar turned his gaze on Tripolitania (western Libya) and the capital Tripoli.

With a UN-led national conference scheduled for mid-April, Haftar hastened to maximise his territorial gains and hence his leverage over his opponents at the GNA. At the same time, the ongoing civil unrest in Algeria gave him a rare window of opportunity to launch a military operation.

Worried about the Libyan conflict spilling over into its territory, the Algerian leadership has been pressing for a political solution in Libya and has hosted several meetings between Libyan actors. For Algiers, the GNA and the Islamist forces in Libya have to be included in any conflict settlement to ensure the stability of the country. It has perceived Haftars zero-sum games as dangerous and potentially destabilising. Moreover, in its status of North Africas hegemon, Algiers sees his Arab allies  Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia  as geopolitical foes.

Given Algerias political and military clout in the region, Haftar had avoided moving close to Algerian borders and kept open communication channels with the Algerian leadership until a few months ago. The purge that Algerias security and military apparatus went through in mid-2018 and the uprising which erupted in February 2019 against President Abdelaziz Bouteflikas rule gave Haftar a unique opportunity to launch his expansionist military campaign, without much backlash from Algiers.

Haftar probably also received the green light from his foreign backers. It is no secret that Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and increasingly Russia and France, have been providing the LNA with military and political support.

In late March, Haftar travelled to Riyadh to meet Saudi King Salman, which roughly coincided with a visit Abu Dhabis Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed paid to Egypt, where he met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. It is quite unlikely that Haftars closest allies were not informed about the planned operation.

The timid response by the international community to his offensive on Tripoli  which was launched as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was visiting the Libyan capital  shows that many countries consider Haftar as the solution for Libya, not just the UAE, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Haftar is also hoping to capitalise on the increasing discontent among the civilian population in western Libya. The situation inside Tripoli  as in other Libyan cities  has been steadily deteriorating. Crime, insecurity and corruption have been on the rise, while living conditions have markedly worsened as the local economy has struggled and the provision of social and health services has nearly collapsed.

The capital is divided between different militias, and the GNA is itself weak and corrupt. As nostalgia for the Gaddafi era has crept in, Haftar has tried to project himself as a military strongman who could unite the country and bring back stability and order. This self-styled image as Libyas saviour has been promoted by a massive propaganda machine largely backed by the UAE.

What happens next?

The situation on the ground is changing rapidly and is rather unpredictable, but at this point, there are at least three possible scenarios for what happens next in Libya.

First, the Tripoli offensive can become a protracted conflict similar to the one that Benghazi witnessed, which lasted three years. This would take a heavy toll on the civilian population and infrastructure, and would spoil Haftars hopes to enter the capital as a popular and much-awaited saviour.

Second, a quick victory is also not out of the question and it would very much depend on whether Haftar is able to win over enough militias that would join his forces and help him take control of Tripoli without a fierce fight. He has been conducting negotiations with a number of militia leaders already  a strategy that had helped him make quick territorial gains in his campaign in southern Libya.

Striking a deal with armed groups, however, would mean that he will have to guarantee their military and economic interests. This means that the lawlessness which is currently plaguing Libyas west would persist. And if Haftar decides to crack down on militias in the future  as he has promised  he might face a widespread rebellion.

Third, a retreat or a consolidation of the new status quo could also take place, where the LNA forces cut their offensive short but retain strategic positions in order to keep the pressure on Tripoli. This may be followed by another round of negotiations, with or without the UN, in which Haftar would have the upper hand.

Whatever scenario unrolls in the following weeks, one thing is for sure: Libya will continue to be an epicentre of the crisis in North Africa and a major source of concern beyond its borders.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
US says all sides have responsibility to urgently de-escalate situation after 11 more people killed in Tripoli.

The United States has called for an immediate halt to military operations in Libya as the Libyan National Army (LNA) headed by Khalifa Haftar advanced on the capital, Tripoli.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement on Sunday that Washington was deeply concerned about fighting near Tripoli and urged talks to end the fighting.

This unilateral military campaign against Tripoli is endangering civilians and undermining prospects for a better future for all Libyans, said Pompeo.

All sides had a responsibility to urgently de-escalate the situation, Pompeo said, adding that there was no military solution to the Libya conflict and sides should return to negotiations.

We have made clear that we oppose the military offensive by Khalifa Haftars forces and urge the immediate halt to these military operations against the Libyan capital, Pompeo said in urging de-escalation.

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At least 11 people were killed and 23 wounded in clashes in southern Tripoli, the health ministry of the UN-backed Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) said late on Sunday.

At least 35 people, including civilians, have been killed on both sides since Haftar launched his offensive four days ago.

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.

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.
Decision came in Mondays shareholders meeting after Ghosn was re-arrested on fresh financial corruption charges.

Shareholders of Nissan Motor Corporation have voted former chairman Carlos Ghosn out as a director, severing his last ties with the automaker.

Shareholders at the emergency meeting on Monday also voted out another director, Greg Kelly, and voted in favour of making Renault Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard director, according to announcements made at the meeting.

Japans second-largest carmaker proposed Ghosns dismissal after removing him as chairman in November following his arrest, while bringing in Renaults new chairman Jean-Dominique Senard as a new member.

In 1999, Renault sent Ghosn to spearhead a turnaround at Nissan, which nearly went bankrupt, after forging a capital alliance with the Japanese carmaker.

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The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Motors alliance sold more than 10 million vehicles in 2018 after Ghosn reinvigorated Nissan.

On Friday, the Tokyo District Court approved the detention of the 65-year-old until April 14 after prosecutors took Ghosn into custody over a new allegation that he was responsible for Nissan sustaining a $5m loss.

This period can be extended for a further 10 days if the court allows, meaning Ghosn is unlikely to be released any time soon.

Thursdays arrest came nearly a month after he was released on bail from the Tokyo Detention Centre in early March, after 108 days in custody.

Ghosn faces three separate charges. The first two relate to the alleged deferring of around $80m 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.

Al Jazeeras Fadi Salameh, reporting from Tokyo, said the shareholders meeting was a very important step in the case.

Tomorrow, his lawyers will also hold a press conference and show the media a video message by Ghosn that was recorded just before he was arrested on Thursday, said Salameh.

A plot against Ghosn

Just before his re-arrest, Ghosn had appeared on Twitter to announce a news conference for April 11  which will now not happen barring a further surprise.

However, he gave a combative interview to Frances TF1 television channel where he again denounced his downfall as a Nissan plot and voiced fears he might not receive a fair trial.

Its obvious its a plot, said Ghosn. 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 havent been in the press.

The latest set of charges against Ghosn are more serious this time around, according to Michael Penn of the Shingetsu news agency.

This is a more serious round of accusations by the prosecutors, Penn told Al Jazeera from Tokyo.

It is far more likely that this is part of a boardroom coup and Ghosns claims that hes essentially been set up do make a lot of sense.
Four far-right nationalist parties plan to form a new group in the European Parliament after next months elections, their officials have announced, as they called other like-minded movements to join the alliance.

Italys interior minister and co-deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, is spearheading efforts to constitute the new group, which will be called the European Alliance of People and Nations. Salvini is the leader of the anti-migrant League party whose popularity has shot up after it formed a government with the Five Star Movement (M5S) last year.

A press conference held in the Italian city of Milan on Monday under the slogan for a common-sense Europe, saw the participation of Jorg Meuthen, leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which is currently the third-largest group in the Bundestag, the German parliament.

Other participants were the anti-migrant Finns party of Finland, which did not send its leader, but candidate Olli Kotro, and Anders Vistisen, an MEP of the anti-Islam Danish Peoples Party.

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We are working towards a new European dream, Salvini told journalists in Milan, adding that the League is doing so with movements which are alternatives to those that have ruled Europe in the past decades.

From today, this family aims to expand and include movements we have not collaborated with before, the League leader continued. We aim to finally be in government as a force for change in Europe. Some of the issues are common: the control of borders and the fight against terrorism, Salvini said.

A fortress Europe

AfDs Meuthen said the new group aimed at uniting right-wing, nationalist forces in the European Parliament and to reform Europe without destroying it.

If we want to hold on to our rich heritage, then we must create a fortress Europe, said Meuthen, whose party has been accused of denying the Holocaust and put under special surveillance by Germanys domestic intelligence agency.

Meuthen hailed Salvini for the work he has done so far in preventing refugees and migrants from arriving on Europes shores.

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Kotro, of the Finns party, added that the group was working against the ideology of multiculturalism which is destroying Europe, particularly political Islam, while Andersen said the national identity of 27 European countries was at risk.

It is not yet clear whether the blocs 28th member state  the UK  will participate in the elections as the country continues to grapple with the process of leaving the European Union. British Prime Minister Theresa May is seeking an extension to the deadline for departure, which could force the UK to take part in the vote on May 23-26.

If it does participate, the UK could provide an additional contingent of Eurosceptic MEPs to the European Parliament.

Concerns over migration helped fuel the rise of far-right nationalist parties in Europe [File: Yara Nardi/Italian Red Cross via Reuters]

Web of alliances

European parties have formed a number of cross-national groups in the European Parliament. Italys League is currently a member of the anti-EU, nationalist bloc Europe of Nations and Freedoms (ENF), alongside Frances National Rally and Austrias Freedom Party.

Group alliances can shift and Eurosceptic parties can currently be found in four different European parliamentary groups.

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These include the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy, whose head is former UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage  seen as one of the architects of Brexit  which also contains the AfD.

The Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe (ACRE) counts Polands Law and Justice (PiS) party in its ranks, while the centre-right European Peoples Party (EPP), the largest in the European Parliament, includes several pro-European conservatives and Hungarys anti-migrant Fidesz. Prime Minister Viktor Orbans party was partially suspended from the group in late March.

Rise of the League

Salvini said he had no plans to put himself forward as a Spitzenkandidat (lead candidate), but was eager to emphasise that the initiative had originated in Italy. He has also previously called for right-wing nationalists parties across Europe to rally in Italy on May 18.

But while populist far-right parties share a common focus on sovereignty and Euroscepticism, as well as anti-migrant and anti-Islam views, they clash over other issues such as the states role in the economy, ties with Russia and the redistribution of refugees arriving on Europes southern shores.

Since forming a government with the anti-establishment M5S last year, the League has overtaken its senior coalition partner in the polls. According to the European Parliaments own projections, the League is en route to becoming the second-largest party in the parliament after Mays vote, behind Germanys ruling centre-right CDU/CSU party.

Salvinis League is now polling ahead of its coalition partners [File: Yara Nardi/Reuters]

However, while right-wing populists are likely to gain ground in the upcoming election, their influence will find a number of obstacles, according to Carlo Ruzza, a professor of political sociology at the University of Trentos School of International Studies.

The main limitations lie in their ideology itself. Putting the nation first  will make it difficult to form alliances and there are fundamental tensions in their coalition, Ruzza said, adding that the two main centrist groups, which have traditionally called the shots in the European Parliament, alongside the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), would keep the influence of right-wing populists in the European Parliament in check.

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The very creation of the group can be counterproductive in the first place: opening up to the AfD means that Orban will think twice before leaving the EPP because the group in the making could be quite large and also very extreme, Ruzza added.

On the other hand, as the European elections are fought at the national level, Salvini is selling a package to Italians.

His objective remains to further erode the electorate of [former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconis] Forza Italia and perhaps that of the M5S, too, Ruzza argued.

Hes well-accepted and liked by the far-right, but he tries to avoid communicating that too clearly to the rest of Italians for fear it could be detrimental.
The two multilateral institutions attract power brokers from across the globe  and plenty of criticism.

Slowing global economic growth. Trade tensions. Rising inequality. A planet in peril. These challenges and some notable debuts will be on the agenda at this weeks joint gathering of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in Washington.

The semiannual event attracts power brokers, finance ministers, big-money luminaries, central bankers and media from around the world.

But the institutions  which both mark their 75th anniversaries this year  are also attracting critics who question their capacity to redress the global economys most pressing problems.

The debuts

Tuesday, former Wall Street executive and newly installed World Bank Group President David Malpass will start his five-year term. The sole candidate for the job, he was nominated by President Donald Trump in February and unanimously selected by the banks executive board on Friday.

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Malpasss nomination to lead the development lender initially raised eyebrows. Hes expressed doubts in the past over multilateral cooperation and criticised the World Bank for continuing to lend to China even as the country has grown wealthier.

President Trumps climate scepticism also blatantly contradicts the banks position on climate change, which it characterises as an acute threat to global development and its efforts to end poverty.

Tuesday also will see newly installed IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath present the first World Economic Outlook (WEO) produced on her watch.

Appointed by IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde last fall, Gopinath is the first woman to lead the funds research department in its seven-decade history.

We expect continuity from previous WEOs, Torsten Slok, chief economist with Deutsche Bank, told Al Jazeera. The [analytical] chapters are always interesting because they are always very well done, and on top of that, they reveal what policymakers are thinking about.

Gita Gopinath is the first woman to lead the IMFs research department in its seven-decade history [File: Charles Platiau/Reuters]

Last week, Lagarde indicated the IMFs forecasts for global growth would likely be further revised downward, telling an audience at the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington that the global economy is in a delicate moment.

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Though Lagarde said growth could improve in the second half of this year and early 2020, she warned that there are clear downside risks including the United Kingdoms proposed exit from the European Union, high levels of global debt, jittery financial markets and trade tensions.

The recent slowdown in global trade is already spreading pain to European and most Asian economies.

The ongoing trade war is a very important topic not only because of its impact on the G7 countries but also because trade and trade policy is very important for emerging markets, said Slok.

Last Wednesday, the IMF released research forecasting the possible consequences of an escalation in the ongoing US-China tit-for-tat trade dispute. The IMF warned that if the US and China were to increase tariffs by 25 percent on all goods flowing between the two countries, both economies would suffer sizeable losses in manufacturing.

Sustainability on the agenda

This weeks meetings in Washington will spotlight sustainability, development and the roles of both citizens and institutions in making progress towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)  a global blueprint to work towards a more secure, equitable and sustainable future.

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Sustainability has come more to the forefront of conversations surrounding the IMF, Rachel Ziemba, an adjunct senior fellow with the Center for a New American Security, told Al Jazeera.

This year, one key question will be whether or not the risks surrounding sustainability have been taken into account for future planning  and for investors, if its being priced into any future forecasting, she added.

But some believe the IMF and World Bank are taking the wrong approach to meet these challenges.

The IMF in recent years has an exceptionally poor record, thanks in good part to its disastrous engagement with Greece, said James Galbraith, a professor of economics at the University of Texas.

During the global financial crisis, the IMF and the eurozone required Greece to raise taxes and cut spending in exchange for a bailout package. The painful austerity measures devastated the livelihoods of millions of ordinary Greeks and hit young workers and pensioners especially hard.

The World Bank has also come under fire for its Maximizing Finance for Development agenda, which helps private sector capital tap into developing markets.

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Last year, a group of 120 scholars signed an open letter criticising the World Banks approach, arguing that it promotes the privatisation of public services and could usher in permanent austerity along the lines of privatising gains, socialising losses'.

What the World Bank is encouraging countries to do is to transform their financial systems in a way that they can welcome global institutional investors, said Daniela Gabor, a professor of economics and macrofinance at UWE Bristol and the lead signatory on the letter.

Gabor argues that the World Bank should help countries create an institutional infrastructure that orients the entire economy towards greener, more sustainable development.

The World Bank has not yet confronted the very serious question that you need structural change in the economies of the poorer countries that youre supporting in theory in order to achieve the SDGs, Gabor said.
At a time when most payments banks in the country are struggling to expand their reach, Paytm Payments Bank is present in over 550 districts. Satish Kumar, CEO, Paytm Payments Bank hopes the payment bank will have 36 crore savings account by the end of the financial year 2020 from 4.4 crore accounts now. In an interview with Aprajita Sharma of Business Today on the sidelines of the launch of its second branch in Delhi-NCR last week, Kumar talked about competition with banks, discussions with the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and its expansion plans.

BT: The idea behind launching payment banks was financial inclusion. How is Paytm Payments Bank doing on this front?

Kumar: We have a pan-India presence. We are present in over 550 districts across the country. We may not have physical branches there but around 2 lakh business correspondents (BCs) are present across India to service our customers.

BT: Going ahead, would you focus more on physical presence by opening branches or on digital operations?

Kumar: The ultimate goal is that customers need to be served. Customers require two things: User-friendly service experience and quick grievance redressal mechanism. We don't need branches to meet these requirements. We have more than 1500 customer service agents across the country. We are equipped with multi-lingual capabilities. We resolve around 95 per cent of service calls on the same day. We would not go aggressive on opening branches and will focus more on growing digitally.

BT: What are your key payment products and growth drivers?

Kumar: Paytm wallet is our key growth driver. We have 26 crore wallets and 4.4 crore savings accounts. We introduced Direct Money Transfer and Current Account in the recent past.

BT: What are your revenue streams?

Kumar: We have a mandate to invest a minimum 75 per cent of the customer deposits in the government securities and a maximum 25 per cent in banks, in the form of fixed deposits or cash reserves. We earn interest on government securities and FDs (fixed deposit) with banks. Besides, there is also revenue from transactions on digital payments.

BT: There is fierce competition around as the banks are vying for the same customers. So what steps are being taken to attract customers?

Kumar: We offer zero-balance accounts and offer 4 per cent interest on deposits. We don't charge anything from the customers on making digital payment transactions. Further, the experience of our customers on Paytm app is user-friendly. Although as a payment bank, we can't offer FDs but if a customer wants to have a FD by arrangement with the partner bank, we do that. We offer up to 8 per cent on linked sweep-out FDs. For example, if the balance exceeds Rs 1 lakh, the surplus amount needs to go into the partner bank's account. IndusInd Bank is our partner bank. We charge no penalty on premature withdrawals.

Coming to competition, I believe that pie for the digital transactions in the country is very large and there is space for everybody. There is no need to run after the customers of others. We need to offer relevant products to meet the requirement of our target customers.

BT: What policy changes do you seek from the RBI and the government?

Kumar: Recently, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIADI) mandated that private entities will have to pay for e-KYC (Know Your Customer). We believe it will be difficult for us to bear the cost. We have flagged our concerns with the UIDAI, the government and the RBI; e-KYC is a good thing, but cost should be looked at.

We understand that there is a need for RBI to reconsider the upper limit of Rs 1 lakh on the deposits and allow us to offer FDs within the prescribed limit to our customers. If customers open an account with us, they look for a bouquet of banking services. People belonging to lower strata cannot afford to have multiple bank accounts.

BT: Why have payments banks not picked up?

Kumar: We are doing fine both in acquiring new customers and growth in transactions. There are indeed some challenges but I am sure regulators and the government are aware of our constraints and shall take suitable steps to see that Payment Banks are able to realise the vision which was set up while creating a new breed of banks.

BT: You started offering current accounts since January 2019. How has the response been?

Kumar: We have been getting a lot of applications for opening large salary accounts, accounts for disbursing small benefits over and above salaries such as food vouchers and gift cards etc. So, corporates open current accounts with us and from there money goes to customers.

BT: How much interest income have you earned so far and how have your margins been?

Kumar: We are in the process of consolidating our books for FY19. Interest income and margins will be known once the audit of annual closing is complete.

BT: What are your future targets?

Kumar: We plan to have 36 crore accounts by the end of the financial year 2019-20. We will decide about opening new branches after gaining experience of our Lajpat Nagar, New Delhi Branch. We have a vision of having a pan-India presence and serve our customers through business correspondents.
Iran responded to the US move by calling US forces in the region terrorist groups, Iranian state TV reported.

President Donald Trump announced on Monday that the United States is designating Irans elite Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a foreign terrorist organisation, marking the first time Washington has formally labelled another countrys military a terrorist group.

Responding to the move, Iran immediately declared the US as state sponsor of terrorism and US forces in the region terrorist groups, state media reported.

Iran also condemned the US decision as an illegal act prompted by Tehrans regional influence and success in fighting against Islamic State, Iranian state TV said, referring to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS).

The US has already blacklisted dozens of entities and people for affiliations with the IRGC, but not the organisation as a whole.

Trump on Monday confirmed earlier reports that the US was planning the designation, saying it will continue to increase financial pressure and raise the costs on Iran for its support of terrorist activity.

The US president said in a statement that the move recognises the reality that Iran is not only a state sponsor of terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft.

The designation makes crystal clear the risks of conducting business with, or providing support to, the IRGC, Trump said. If you are doing business with the IRGC, you will be bankrolling terrorism.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a strident critic of Iran, said the designation would take place in one week.

Could complicate deplomacy

The designation allows the US to deny entry to people found to have provided the IRGC with material support or prosecute them for sanctions violations. That could include European and Asian companies and businesspeople who deal with the IRGCs many affiliates.

It also may complicate diplomacy. Without exclusions or waivers to the designation, US troops and diplomats could be barred from contact with Iraqi or Lebanese authorities who interact with IRGC officials or surrogates.

The Pentagon and US intelligence agencies have raised concerns about what effect the designation will have if the move does not allow contact with foreign officials who might have met or communicated with IRGC personnel.

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Those concerns have in part dissuaded previous administrations from taking the step, which has been considered for more than a decade.

The US special envoy for Iran, Brian Hook, and the State Departments counterterrorism coordinator, Nathan Sales, said the Trump administrations decision was reached after consultation with agencies throughout the government but would not say in a news conference if the military or intelligence concerns had been addressed.

Doing this will not impede our diplomacy, Hook said.

Tensions between the two countries have grown since Trump pulled the United States out of a 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran last May and reimposed sanctions that had crippled Irans economy.

Mike Pompeo said the designation would take place in one week [Patrick Semansky/AP Photo]

Another dangerous US misadventure

Shortly after Trumps Monday announcement, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif sent a protest note over the US decision to the Swiss embassy in Tehran, which looks after the US interests in Iran.

He also urged Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to place US forces in the region on Tehrans list of terrorist groups, the foreign ministry said.

A(other) misguided election-eve gift to Netanyahu, Zarif tweeted on Monday, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is seeking to extend his 13 years in office on Tuesday.

A(other) dangerous U.S. misadventure in the region, Zarif added.

Irans Supreme National Security Council said in a statement that the designation could endanger peace and stability in the Middle East and globally, according to Iranian state TV.

This unwise and illegal measure is a major threat to regional and international stability and peace  Iran labels the American regime as a supporter of terrorism, the statement read as quoted by state TV.

Netanyahu, a Trump ally, thanked the US president for the decision, saying the designation serves the interests of our countries and of countries in the region.

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The IRGC, Irans most powerful security organisation, 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.

The State Department currently designates more than 60 organisations, including as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS), Hezbollah and numerous armed Palestinian groups, as foreign terrorist organisations.
Nielsens departure comes amid reports that Trump was not happy with her handling of immigration issue.

Kirstjen Nielsen, the US secretary of Homeland Security who oversaw the Trump administrations controversial immigration policies, has resigned.

US President Donald Trump announced Nielsens departure on Sunday, underscoring the presidents intent to toughen immigration policy amid a surge in border crossings along the southern border.

A senior administration official said Trump, who has recently expressed growing anger about the situation at the border, asked for Nielsens resignation.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen will be leaving her position, and I would like to thank her for her service, the US president tweeted.

.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

Kevin McAleenan, the current US Customs and Border Protection commissioner, will become acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

During her 18 months at the head of the powerful agency, Nielsen became synonymous with the controversial policy of separating children from their parents, leading to frequent calls for her resignation from progressive groups and the Democratic opposition.

In a tweet late on 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.

Effectively fired

Jeff Hauser, a lawyer and executive director of the Revolving Door Project, which examines government appointments, believes Trump influenced Nielsens decision to resign.

She was effectively fired, he told Al Jazeera. Its possible that Trump, in a passive-aggressive manner, made it that she felt like she had to resign to retain some scrap of dignity, but I think she was forced out because Trump is, as he has often been, in a politically perilous moment.

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The move came just two days after Nielsen and Trump visited the Mexican border in California together, with the president delivering a stern message to undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers: Our country is full.

He had previously threatened to close the US-Mexico border if Congress and Central American governments did not act to stem a flow of migrants that saw Nielsen last week order an emergency surge of personnel to handle the situation.

Bill Schneider, a political analyst and public policy professor at George Mason University, said Nielsens resignation reflects Trumps vision for tougher immigration policies.

The president does not want to face his supporters again next year and have to answer for the fact that illegal immigration has become a more serious problem than when he took office, he told Al Jazeera. Hes embarrassed by that and he holds her partly responsible.

He [Trump] was pressuring her to refuse to accept any more applications for asylum, which wouldve been illegal, and there were clearly places where she drew the line and refused to do what the president wanted her to do.

Difficult relationship

Nielsen, 46, had been DHS secretary since December 2017.

Her relationship with the president had long been said to be difficult. But despite reports that he complained constantly about her performance  and that he believed she was not harsh enough  she remained steadfastly loyal.





Last month, she defended the presidents declaration of a national emergency to secure funding for his pet project, a wall on the US-Mexico border.

Nielsen is not a showman, shes not a good actor in this television show that Trump is producing of racism and bigotry at the border, and so I suspect in time he needed to get someone in that position he felt could ratchet up pressure and increase attention at the border, said Hauser.

Trump has made a clampdown on undocumented immigration a centrepiece of his two-year-old presidency, leading chants of Build that wall at his rallies as he sought to cut back on the number of immigrants entering the US without proper documentation.

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 arent radical enough for President Trump, you know hes completely lost touch with the American people, said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

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 Houses liking.
The BJP promises to scrap Article 35A, which prevents non-residents from buying property in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Indias ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has made 75 promises, which include the contentious decision to scrap a decades-old law providing special rights to the residents of disputed Kashmir region, according to the partys election manifesto.

Prime Minister Narendra Modis BJP has consistently advocated ending Kashmirs special constitutional status, which prevents non-residents from buying property in Indian-administered Kashmir, arguing that such laws have hindered its integration with the rest of the country.

We believe that Article 35A is an obstacle in the development of the state, the partys manifesto said.

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Political leaders in Muslim-majority Kashmir, where India is fighting an armed rebellion against its rule, have warned that repealing the law would lead to widespread unrest.

Modi has made his strong stance on national security a key part of the BJPs election campaign, following a recent flare-up in tensions with arch foe Pakistan, which also lays claims to Kashmir.

Nationalism is our inspiration, Prime Minister Modi said at the release of the BJPs election manifesto at the party headquarters in New Delhi.

Amit Shah, the head of the Hindu nationalist party, along with other top leaders released the BJP manifesto for the upcoming elections that begin on Thursday.

The BJP also promised to reserve 33 percent of seats in the Indian parliament and state assemblies for women, if it is voted back to power.





Womens welfare and development will be accorded a high priority at all levels within the government, and the BJP is committed to 33 percent reservation in parliament and state assemblies through a constitutional amendment, the manifesto said.

Al Jazeeras Faiz Jamil, reporting from New Delhi, said these manifestos are the intent  not necessarily what the governments are going to do.

Among the more controversial promises is to create a uniform civil code  currently under the constitution, different religions have different civil code rights, particularly for marriage and inheritance, he said.

They also want to pass the citizenship bill  a measure that would allow immigrants from neighbouring countries who are not Muslim to get Indian citizenship.

Farm income

The BJP promised a capital investment of 100 trillion Indian rupees ($1.44 trillion) on infrastructure by 2024, to help create jobs for the millions of youth entering the workforce every year.

The party pledged to simplify the goods and services tax (GST), which disrupted businesses and hurt economic growth when it was introduced by Modis government in 2017.

The party said it is committed to building a temple for Hindu god Ram in Ayodhya in place of medieval era Babri mosque, which was demolished by Hindu mobs in 1992.

The main opposition Congress party led by Rahul Gandhi is seeking alliances with regional parties to thwart Modi, accusing the BJP of undermining Indias secular foundations.

Surveys suggest the BJP is the frontrunner going into the election, although some have said it could lose the clear majority it won five years ago.

The national elections will see close to 900 million voters cast their ballots in nearly a million polling booths  the worlds biggest ever democratic exercise.

Voters will elect 543 of 545 MPs to Indias lower house of parliament, the Lok Sabha.
Al Jazeera tries to explain the main poll promises made by the ruling party days before general elections.

New Delhi, India  Indias ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday released its election manifesto, just days before the countrys general election.

The Hindu nationalist party outlined 75 milestones in its manifesto, which it promises to achieve in the next few years if voted back to power.

Nationalism is our inspiration, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the release of the BJP manifesto at the party headquarters in New Delhi.

Among the promises are some of the BJPs core issues, including the abrogation of Article 370 that grants Jammu and Kashmir state a special status within the Indian union.

Here are the main takeaways from the newly released manifesto.

Article 35A and Article 370

The BJP has proposed to abrogate Article 370 of the constitution, which gives special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

It also promises to scrap Article 35A, which empowers the Jammu and Kashmir states legislature to define permanent resident of the state and provide special rights and privileges to those permanent residents, which are excluded for non-permanent residents.

Removal of Article 35A would allow non-residents to buy land in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Sheikh Showkat, a Srinagar-based political commentator and law professor, said that there is nothing new in the BJPs mentioning of abrogation of Article 370 in their election manifesto.

They (the BJP) keep certain things in their manifesto despite the fact that it is impossible for them to do away with them or accomplish them, Showkat told Al Jazeera.

They are just trying to polarise the Hindu vote in their favour, he said.

I dont understand why they have mentioned Article 35A, which is part of Article 370.

Construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya

The BJP in its manifesto reiterated its stance for supporting the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh.

We reiterate our stand to explore all possibilities within the framework of the Constitution to facilitate the construction of a Ram Temple in Ayodhya, the manifesto reads.

Political analyst and academic Sanjay Kumar told Al Jazeera that he is not surprised that the issue of Article 370 and Ram temple is mentioned in the BJPs manifesto.

It has become a compulsion for the BJP to mention these issues in the manifesto otherwise people will start asking questions what happened to these issues, Kumar, a professor at Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in New Delhi, said.

33-percent female quota in Parliament

The BJP promised to reserve 33 percent of seats in Parliament and state assemblies for women through a constitutional amendment, if it returns to power.

The manifesto said that the womens welfare and development would be accorded high priority at all levels within the government.

Secretary of the All India Progressive Womens Association, Kavita Krishnan, told Al Jazeera that the pledge was merely lip service.

They had the power to implement this in the last five years and they had absolute majority, still they did not table it, Krishnan said.

Increasing farmers income and revising income tax brackets

The party also promised farmers, who have taken to the streets several times over the past few years, that their income would be doubled by 2022.

The party had promised in 2014 to double farmers income and on Monday, it pledged to exert all efforts to achieve this goal by 2022.

The BJP also pledged to revise income tax brackets to help the middle class if the party retained power in the upcoming election.

Food policy analyst, Devinder Sharma, told Al Jazeera that the party had pledged to raise farmers incomes in the past and to date had not taken concrete steps to achieve that.

All what this government has been able to achieve is zero increase in the real income of the farmers, Sharma said.

Commenting on the pledge to revise income tax laws, economist and business expert, Akash Jindal, said the pledge would be a positive step.

If the middle class is given taxation concessions, it can work wonders for the economy because what would happen is that purchasing power would increase, Jindal told Al Jazeera.

If executed, the pledge would boost Indias economy and would decrease deficit, Jindal noted.
Supreme Court backs Meilianas 18-month jail sentence but her lawyer says she is a victim of a hoax.

Medan, Indonesia  Indonesias Supreme Court has upheld an 18-month jail sentence for a 44-year-old Buddhist woman convicted last year on blasphemy charges.

Meilianas conviction last August stemmed from a complaint filed after she was accused of making remarks against mosque loudspeakers in the city of Tanjung Balai in North Sumatra nearly three years ago.

Her lawyer Ranto Sibarani said that his client was a victim of a hoax, denying she made those remarks.

There is no evidence that she committed blasphemy. This hoax spread in the course of a week and ruined a womans life in the process, Sibarani told Al Jazeera.

Todays decision is very dangerous because in the future it means that people can spread false information which will lead to wrongful convictions under the blasphemy law.

The case is based on an incident on July 22, 2016 when Meiliana, an ethnic Chinese-Buddhist resident of Medan, purportedly made a complaint to her neighbour, Kasini, who like many Indonesians only goes by one name.

Kasini claimed that Meiliana asked for the azan, the Islamic call to prayer, to be turned down at the local al-Mashum mosque. Her version has been disputed and the ensuing blasphemy conviction widely criticised by human rights groups, including Amnesty International Indonesia.

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In the days and weeks that followed the initial incident, comments were widely shared on social media stating that Meiliana, a mother of four, had tried to stop the mosque from broadcasting the call to prayer.

A mob in Tanjung Balai set fire to Meilianas front lawn while two of her four children were inside her home. They escaped with the help of a Muslim pedicab driver who happened to be passing at the time.

Members of the mob were then called as witnesses at the trial which took place in Medan District Court between June and August last year.

Sibarani said there was insufficient evidence against Meiliana to warrant a custodial sentence.

The hoax was legitimised by the court. The judge allowed a statement letter to be submitted as evidence by three witnesses outside Meilianas house, he said.

They claimed she told them the prayer call hurt her ears while a gang confronted her and pelted her home with rocks and bottles. Yet there is no evidence that this conversation ever happened and the statement letter was written six months after the incident.

Indonesia has the worlds largest Muslim population but it also is home to sizeable numbers of Buddhist and Christian minorities.

The alleged remarks also kicked off some of the worst race riots since the fall of Suharto in 1998. At least 11 Buddhist temples were torched in Tanjung Balai, where Buddhists number around 11,000 out of 185,000 residents.

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There has been widespread criticism of Indonesias blasphemy law, which in recent years has been wielded against minority groups including the former governor of Jakarta, Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama.

Ahok was sentenced to two years in prison for insulting Islam following comments he made about a verse from the Quran in 2016.

According to Sibarani, Meilianas legal team are now considering their final legal options.

We believe that video evidence of the discussion outside Meilianas home exists and we plan to use it to file a judicial review, he said. If this case is not followed up then it means that anyone can now file a statement letter to a judge accusing someone of blasphemy without having to prove it.

This case shows that there is no legal certainty in Indonesia any more.
Tehran calls US state sponsor of terrorism after Washingtons unprecedented step against a foreign govt institution.

Irans Supreme National Council has moved swiftly to brand the United States as a state sponsor of terrorism, in a tit-for-tat response to President Donald Trumps designation of the Islamic Republics elite Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organisation.

In a statement carried on Monday by Irans state-run IRNA news agency, the council said it also declared all US forces operating in the Middle East terrorist groups.

The developments mark a new high point in the already tense relations between Tehran and Washington, which took a turn for the worse in the wake of the US withdrawal last year from a nuclear deal brokered with Iran and other world powers in 2015.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, for his part, criticised Trumps decision as another dangerous US misadventure in the Middle East and a misguided election-eve gift to Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, Irans regional archenemy.

A(nother) misguided election-eve gift to Netanyahu. A(nother) dangerous U.S. misadventure in the region.  Javad Zarif (@JZarif) April 8, 2019

Netanyahu, an ally of Trump, thanked the US president and said it would help in keeping the world safe from Iran aggression and terrorism.

Trump vows to keep up pressure

The IRGC was set up to protect the countrys Shia clerical ruling system after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which toppled the Western-allied secular monarch Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and led to the formation of the Islamic Republic headed by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

With an estimated 125,000 personnel, comprised of army, navy and air units, the force is Irans most powerful security organisation.

It controls the countrys ballistic missiles and nuclear programmes, answers directly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and owns a vast network of businesses ranging from oil and gas projects to construction and telecommunication.

Trump said in a statement on Monday that the designation recognises the reality that Iran is not only a state sponsor of terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft.

His move marked an unprecedented step by the US against an entire institution of a foreign government.

Trump said the decision underscores the fact that Irans actions are fundamentally different from those of other governments and vowed to continue increasing financial pressure on Tehran until it abandons its malign and outlaw behaviour.

It makes crystal clear the risks of conducting business with, or providing support to, the IRGC. If you are doing business with the IRGC, you will be bankrolling terrorism, he said.

Trumps administration has already put sanctions in place on more than 970 Iranian individuals and entities, according to the US State Department.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a strident critic of Iran, confirmed the new designation would take effect one week from Monday.
Stuck between endless waiting lists for a job in the public sector and with a frail private sector, Iraqi youth are beating unemployment by establishing their own startups.

Rising unemployment in Iraq is provoking growing demands  particularly by young people  for government action.

The International Monetary Fund says youth unemployment is more than double the governments official rate of 20 percent.

The jobless often blame corruption and mismanagement while government leaders say the problem stems from years of conflict.

A solution to unemployment is The Station, established last year by young Iraqis to assist startup companies.

The Station is privately funded by local and international non-government organisations and offers office space for rent and access to experts to provide business guidance.

But many jobless Iraqis say it is still not enough to help tackle growing unemployment around the country.

Al Jazeeras Dorsa Jabbari reports from Baghdad.
Security, corruption and the economy have been dominating the campaigns before Tuesdays vote.

Jerusalem  Polls have opened in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the right-wing Likud party, seeking a fifth term in office. If his party wins, he could become Israels longest-serving prime minister.

Polling stations opened at 7 am on Tuesday (0400 GMT) with exit polls expected at the end of the voting day. Official results are expected to come in overnight.

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Netanyahus main rival, Benny Gantz, is a former military chief of staff. He leads the Blue and White party in alliance with Yair Lapid, a former finance minister and TV personality.

According to a poll published on Thursday by Israels Channel 12, in which respondents were asked who they would prefer to see as prime minister, 37 percent answered Netanyahu and 35 percent, said Gantz.

Security, corruption and the economy are key issues for Israelis before the vote.

Security

The top concern for voters is security, according to a poll conducted by political analyst Mitchell Barak of Keevon Strategies.

The Gaza Strip, home to two million Palestinians living under an Israeli siege for over a decade, remains a source of tension.

Since March 30, 2018 Palestinians there have been participating in weekly demonstrations along Israels separation fence, demanding an end to the siege and the right of return to their ancestral homes which they were expelled from in 1948.

Since the start of demonstrations Israelis have killed 266 Palestinians and over 30,000 have been wounded.

The Israeli public has generally supported the use of live fire against protesters in Gaza as many see the demonstrators as a security threat.

According to a poll conducted in April 2018 by the Israel Democracy Institute, 83 percent of Jewish Israelis said that the use of live fire is appropriate.

Last month, a rocket launched from Gaza hit a home in central Israel, wounding seven people.

As defence minister, Netanyahu has been criticised repeatedly for not responding forcefully to rocket attacks, most recently in March.

Netanyahu also dismayed many Israelis in November when he agreed to a controversial ceasefire with Hamas, following two days of Israeli aerial attacks on Gaza after an operation by Israeli forces in Gaza was botched.

At least 15 Palestinians and two Israelis were killed in the violence.

The ceasefire led to the resignation of then Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

Dahlia Scheindlin, an international public opinion analyst and strategic consultant based in Tel Aviv, told Al Jazeera that while Israelis mostly see Netanyahu as the best person to handle security, a majority are not satisfied with his handling of Gaza in particular.

Judging from my own research, more people support an escalation in Gaza than oppose it, she said.

Some people believe that escalation is the only way to resolve [the demonstrations and rockets fired]. It looks to me that people who are not satisfied with Netanyahus handling think he has not gone far enough in terms of a military response in Gaza, she added.

The Blue and White party is a serious challenger when it comes to addressing the nations security as its led by three pragmatic, former chiefs of staff of the Israeli army.

Corruption

Israels attorney general announced in February 2019 that he intends to indict Netanyahu for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three corruption cases.

Police say theres evidence that he accepted nearly $300,000 in bribes over 10 years. Hes also accused of making deals with the publisher of Yediot Aharonot, a leading newspaper, in an attempt to garner favourable coverage.

I think the charges against him are very significant, Barak told Al Jazeera.

But for the people that dont like him, this just reinforces their dislike of him and theyre not going to vote for him anyway. And for the people that like him, they  overlook it and look at the bigger picture generally how things are going in Israel.

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Nearly half of respondents in the poll, conducted by Keevon strategies, rated corruption as a serious issue, meaning the cases could affect his chances of re-election.

Local media sometimes refer to the prime minister as Mr Teflon, suggesting accusations rarely seem to stick to him.

Economy and social inequality

Israel brands itself as the start-up nation in a nod to its successful hi-tech sector. However, it also has the highest poverty rate among OECD countries and the largest gap between rich and poor.

The economy is performing strongly and the unemployment rate is low, at four percent, but the share of the working poor is relatively high compared with other OECD countries. 14 percent of workers in Israel live in poverty, according to a 2018 OECD economic survey.

Poverty remains widespread, particularly among its Palestinian and Haredi (ultra-orthodox Jewish) populations. More than one-quarter of Israelis are poor or nearly poor.

According to the Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute, a research institution, while 13.3 percent of Jewish Israelis live in relative poverty, the rate rises to 49.4 percent among Palestinian citizens of Israel and 45.1 percent in the Haredi community.

According to the OECD, without further action, the situation will likely worsen as the two groups could constitute half the population by 2059.

Israels cost of living is already among the highest in the world, yet its expected to rise again in 2019, affecting the most vulnerable.
Andrew Anglin, who runs the Daily Stormer, is accused of directing an anti-Semitic troll storm against a Jewish woman.

A neo-Nazi website operator is not excused from returning to the United States for questioning under oath in a lawsuit accusing him of orchestrating an anti-Jewish troll storm against a Montana real estate agents family, a federal judge has ruled.

The Daily Stormer founder Andrew Anglin claims its too dangerous for him to travel to the US, but Magistrate Judge Jeremiah Lynch ruled on Friday that Anglins personal safety concerns are factually unsupported and no basis for a protective order sparing him from an in-person deposition in the US.

One of Anglins attorneys, Marc Randazza, said in a text message to the Associated Press on Monday that his client has made it clear to him and to the court that he wont return to the US. Randazza said he expects that Anglin would willingly accept a default judgment against him before returning to the US for a deposition by Tanya Gershs attorneys from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

The end result of that will be that the SPLC will get a piece of paper, my client will pay nothing and there wont even be a decision on the legal merits, at least clarifying the law. Everyone loses, Randazza wrote.

Death threats

In the lawsuit she filed in Montana against Anglin in 2017, Gersh claimed anonymous internet trolls bombarded her family with hateful and threatening messages after Anglin published their personal information, including her 12-year-old sons Twitter handle and photo.

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In a string of posts, Anglin had accused Gersh and other Jewish residents of Whitefish, Montana, of engaging in an extortion racket against the mother of Richard Spencer, a prominent white supremacist and leading figure of the alt-right. The alt-right is a loosely knit coalition of white supremacists, white nationalists and neo-Nazis that advocates a white ethnostate.

Gersh said she had agreed to help Spencers mother sell commercial property she owns in Whitefish amid talk of a protest outside the building. Sherry Spencer, however, later accused Gersh of threatening and harassing her into agreeing to sell the property.

In the months that follow Anglins first post about Gersh, the real estate agents inbox, voicemail and mailbox filled up with death threats, harassment and hate messages.

Among the messages sent to Gersh, according to the lawsuit, was one that said: Listen here you f****** Jew. You had better back off of Richard Spencers mom. Everybody is watching you.

Speaking to Al Jazeera in August 2017, David Dinielli, an SPLC lawyer, said the wave of harassment triggered by Anglin is a part of an ongoing shift in the way people terrorise others.

In the past, they would have burned a cross on the lawn, he told Al Jazeera at the time. Now theyre doing it from behind a keyboard.

Disregard for authority

Anglin, an Ohio native, claims he hasnt been to the US since 2012. He refuses to disclose his current whereabouts, claiming he gets death threats. But he has said he took up residence in the Philippines sometime before 2010, moved to Greece in 2013 and then moved to Cambodia four days before Tanya Gersh sued him in 2017.

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Anglins attorneys had argued that the court can order Anglins deposition to take place abroad or by telephone or video conference. Court records show Anglin suggested meeting in Cuba or Venezuela for his deposition  a suggestion that Gershs attorneys found dubious.

Her lawyers from the Alabama-based law centre said Anglins request amounted to baseless gamesmanship.

Since the outset of this case, [Anglin] has displayed a pattern of disregard for the authority of this Court and the seriousness of these proceedings, they wrote in a court filing.

Gershs attorneys said they recently deposed Richard Spencer without incident, and without publicising either the fact of the deposition or its location or timing.

Lynch said he is willing to order that the time and place of Anglins deposition be kept confidential.

Gershs suit accuses Anglin of invading her privacy, intentionally inflicting emotional distress and violating a Montana anti-intimidation law.

Anglins site takes its name from Der Sturmer, a newspaper that published Nazi propaganda in Nazi-era Germany, and includes sections called Jewish Problem and Race War.

Since the deadly August 12 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, when a white supremacist killed a 32-year-old activist when he ploughed his car into a crowd of anti-racists, Daily Stormer has struggled to maintain a home online.

After that rally, Anglin lambasted the victim, Heather Heyer, on his website, prompting GoDaddy to boot the neo-Nazi blog. It has since been kicked from one web hosting service to another, often forced to operate on the dark web.
There are almost nine million Indonesians living abroad, a key constituency for the contenders Widodo and Subianto.

Thousands of migrant workers from Indonesia will head to Hong Kongs Victoria Park to cast their vote for the next Indonesian president this week.

More than 190 million registered voters go to the polls in Indonesia on April 17 but overseas voters have been given from April 7 to April 14 to cast their ballots.

An estimated nine million Indonesians live and work abroad, a community that is larger than the population of 25 of Indonesias 34 provinces.

The figure is also bigger than incumbent Joko Widodos margin of victory when he was first elected in 2014.

Wita, a domestic worker from Central Java who has lived in Hong Kong for nearly seven years, plans to vote for Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi.

Jokowi spoke out up when Erwiana was tortured, Wita told Al Jazeera, referring to domestic worker Erwiana Sulistyaningsih who was tortured by her Hong Kong employer in 2014, sparking an international outcry. He cares about us.

A survey of 541 overseas Indonesians carried out by the Indonesian Diaspora Network between November 2018 and January 2019 revealed that 85 percent planned to vote.

Both campaign teams will spend more logistics and campaign effort in countries such as Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Netherlands and Singapore where a significant majority of the voters live, said Ericssen Wen, an independent political analyst in Singapore.

The candidates treat Indonesian voters in Malaysia seriously. It is not surprising as 27 percent of Indonesias overseas voters are living in Malaysia.

Despite that, securing expatriate Indonesians democratic rights is not easy because a large percentage are working without proper documentation or living in remote regions far from government facilities.

Data from the Elections Commission shows only two million have registered to vote.

A construction worker rests on a rooftop at a housing construction project in Kuala Lumpur. [Samsul Said/Reuters]

Although there are provisions under Indonesian election law that allow unregistered migrants to vote in person, NGOs do not expect many to take advantage.

Some even say the government is not doing enough to ensure all overseas Indonesians can vote.

As many as seven million migrant workers are [in danger of] losing their political rights, said Hariyanto, chairperson of the Indonesian Migrant Workers Union (Serikat Buruh Migran Indonesia).

We compel the government to ensure that all migrant workers can use their vote.

The steep turnover of workers  hundreds of thousands either leave or return to Indonesia each year  also makes it a challenge to ensure that all migrant workers are accounted for.

As Malaysia has the highest number of Indonesian migrant workers, authorities plan to open polling stations in smaller cities across the peninsula and in Borneo where many Indonesians live. There is also an option to vote by post or mobile.

Still, it is not easy to cast a vote as some workers rarely have time off or work on remote plantations.

Domestic workers, who often work in an estate, find it difficult to travel and vote, said Nasrikah with Serantau Malaysia, a non-profit that works with Indonesian migrant workers.

For undocumented workers, theres another concern.

Nobody can guarantee their security, as the Malaysian government can carry out raids anywhere at any time, added Nasrikah.

Chasing votes

Regardless, Widodo, his challenger Prabowo Subianto and several political parties are chasing migrant workers votes.

Prabowo has been focusing his attention on Malaysia, with his party, Gerindra, opening an office in 2017 and his local team keen to highlight the former generals friendly relationship with the countrys prime minister-in-waiting, Anwar Ibrahim.

Prabowos camp is hoping to build on the success of 2014 when Malaysian-based Indonesians supported him.

It was not enough, though, as Widodo, who had the support of many migrant worker organisations, won the overseas vote by seven percent.

This time Widodos campaign team has been visiting construction sites, factory accommodation and other places where Indonesians congregate in Malaysia in order to raise awareness of a key achievement: reforms to the migrant worker law, which were passed in 2017.

Beyond increasing social protections for migrant workers, the reforms eliminated the role of recruitment agencies and intermediaries, a key source of exploitation, and increased state oversight of migration.

However, according to Anis Hidayah, executive director of the Indonesian NGO Migrant Care, the law has not yet been fully implemented, meaning most migrant workers are not yet seeing the benefits.

The Indonesian government had two years to prepare the implementation of that law, said Hidayah.

Were still waiting on regulations on migrant workers protection, regulations on monitoring, one-stop services and seafarers.





Pressures

Further complicating things for Widodo is that the law, and his administration, has been unable to help an Indonesian domestic worker convicted of murder for killing her abusive employer.

Saudi Arabia executed Tuti Tursilawati last October without notifying her family or the Indonesian government.

The move has been condemned by both candidates.

Tursilawatis episode was not unusual. According to Migrant Care, more than 74 Indonesians remain on death row abroad, including in Saudi Arabia.

Often, particularly in the Middle East, they lack access to adequate legal representation, leaving concerns about the fairness of their trials.

We urge the Indonesian government to mobilise political and diplomatic resources to seek the release of hundreds of migrant workers who are threatened with capital punishment throughout the world, said Hidayah.

Despite these concerns and other challenges, Indonesians continue to go abroad in search of better opportunities.

Figo Kurniawan moved to Malaysia in 2006 for that reason. He is undecided on who he will be voting for. For him, and millions of Indonesians  home and abroad  the key concern will be the economy and jobs.

As long as the Indonesian government does not provide employment for all its citizens with a decent salary, citizens will continue to become migrant workers, said Figo.
Even after one-and-half-year of efforts, the joint venture deal between Tata Steel Europe and German steelmaker Thyssenkrupp AG has not been completed. According to reports, both steelmakers will have to sell some of their assets to get approval from European agencies as the joint venture company will end up holding more than a specified market share in some of their business areas.

Bloomberg reported that both companies have offered to sell assets in Belgium, Spain and the UK to win antitrust approval. The two companies proposed divesting two automotive steel plants in Spain and Belgium. The companies may sell a UK steel operation, but plan to keep the main Port Talbot mill, Bloomberg reported. According to BBC report, Tata Steel could sell one of its Welsh plants to get approval for a proposed merger. The Trostre steel plant in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, could be sold to get the approval from European Commission (EC). The plant employs 650 people and produces steel packaging for Tata Steel. The joint venture could give the JV company over 50 per cent of the steel packaging market in Europe.

There are more processes involved in forming Tata-Thyssenkrupp JV. The merger must be checked for legality in each European Union (EU) country involved before it can come into force. This is normally done by a notary or court. After checking if everything is in order, they will issue a pre-merger certificate. The merger can be completed once the pre-merger certificate is issued. Then the relevant authority in the country where the new company will be created and registered must check the legality of the formation of the new company. If the turnover of the combined businesses is greater than certain specified amounts both worldwide and within the EU, the merger requires approval from the European Commission. The commission will examine the proposed merger's impact on competition in the EU and that is happening now. If the merger is deemed to significantly restrict competition, it would be rejected. Sometimes mergers are approved with certain conditions attached. For example, they may commit to sell part of the combined businesses or license technology to another market player.

In September 2017, Tata Steel and Thyssenkrupp had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for creating the joint venture business to revive the fortunes of their sliding businesses in the continent. It took 10 months to sign the definitive agreement. EC, one of the approval agency for the merger, in October last year said that they will investigate the impact of the planned combination of Tata Steel and ThyssenKrupp on competition in Europe's steel markets. EC expressed concerns about the merger in three areas: Steel for automotive applications, metallic coated steel for packaging and grain-oriented electrical steel. It asked to ensure that the merger won't impact competition in the region. Finally, Thyssenkrupp said last week that it has submitted a comprehensive package of proposed solutions to the EC to obtain clearance.

"our proposals cover all the concerns expressed by EC. The offer is extensive and substantial. At the same time, it is acceptable to the joint venture partners and no risk to the industrial logic of the JV," said Guido Kerkhoff, CEO of Thyssenkrupp.

The two companies agreed to combine their European steel businesses to create the continent's second-largest steelmaker after ArcelorMittal. The two companies had foreseen annual synergies of 400 million euro to 600 million euro at the time of announcing the MoU.

Also read: ThyssenKrupp applies for EU extension on Tata Steel merger talks

Also read: Thyssenkrupp, Tata Steel set to get EU regulators warning on steel JV: Report
Former president is among several high-ranking officials charged with crimes against humanity over Romanian revolution.

Romanias former President Ion Iliescu has been charged with crimes against humanity by the countrys top prosecutor for his role in the aftermath of the chaotic and bloody uprising that toppled the communist government in 1989.

Iliescu is accused of using state media to spread false information and stoke fears of a terrorist threat, which contributed to fratricidal fire, chaotic shootings and contradictory military orders, prosecutors said on Monday.

Some 862 people were killed and thousands more injured in the days after Iliescu took power. He has repeatedly pleaded his innocence.

Two other men  Gelu Voican Voiculescu, a former vice premier and former Air Force chief Iosif Rus  are being tried alongside Iliescu.

Voican Voiculescu also denies wrongdoing, calling the prosecution an act of political revenge.

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No date has been set for the trial of the three men, all of whom are accused of crimes against humanity.

The charge on Monday came as a three-year inquiry into the revolt was completed. Prosecutor General Augustin Lazar said that the files documenting the events  commonly referred to as the Revolution File  will be submitted to a court of law.

The completion of this case by our military prosecutors is one of the most important goals in the management project I assumed publicly three years ago: to solve Romanias historical files, Lazar told reporters, calling the completion of the investigation  paying a debt of honour to history and our country.

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis welcomed the announcement, saying in a statement that finalizing the judicial investigation into the Revolution events, 30 years since communisms collapse, is a necessary act and honours our heroes.

The crimes of the Revolution cannot go unpunished, he said.

The charges are the result of a three-year reinvestigation of files related to the uprising [Andreea Alexandru/AP Photo]

Terrorism psychosis

Iliescu, 89, enjoyed widespread popularity after the revolt against former communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu, who was deposed and executed in December 1989.

Mondays official indictment relates to a five-day period when Iliescu seized power from Ceausescu after the former leader fled the Romanian capital, Bucharest, on December 22, 1989. Ceausescu and his wife Elena were summarily tried and executed on December 25.

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Military investigators who reopened the so-called Revolution File in 2016 said the new political and military leadership that took control under Iliescu was directly involved in broad and complex misleading activities of diversion and misinformation via the countrys state broadcaster in order to create a state of panic regarding a possible terrorist threat.

This also set the stage for what prosecutors called a simulated criminal trial that ended with the execution of the Ceausescus, the investigators said.

Hundreds of people were killed in the aftermath of the uprising [File: Bogdan Cristel/Reuters]

Under the scheme, a general terrorism psychosis was fueled, triggering fratricidal fire, chaotic shootings and contradictory military orders that led to the deaths of 862 people and the wounding of another 2,150 after Ceausescu left, prosecutors said, adding that about 13 million bullets had been used by police.

Iliescu was confirmed as interim president by a temporary parliament in February 1990. As a candidate for the National Salvation Front, he won 85 percent of a ballot in May 1990.

Critics at home and abroad accuse Iliescu, who stepped down in 2004, and other leading politicians of trying to block reform and protect the political heritage and ruling elite of the communist system.
Randolph Tex Alless departure comes amid a spate of turnover across the Department of Homeland Security.

US Secret Service Director Randolph Tex Alles will leave his post shortly, the White House has said.

The announcement, made by President Donald Trumps spokeswoman Sarah Sanders on Monday, comes a day after the resignation of another top national security official, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.

United States Secret Service director Randolph Tex Alles  will be leaving shortly and President Trump has selected James M Murray, a career member of the USSS, to take over as director beginning in May, Sanders said in a statement.

Her remarks confirmed earlier reports by US media, but Sanders did not elaborate on the circumstances of his departure.

The Associated Press news agency, citing three unnamed administration officials, reported that Alless departure stems from a personality conflict within the agency.

The officials added that the departure is unrelated to the resignation of Nielsen, as well as a recent security breach at the presidents private club in Florida.

CNN, citing multiple administration officials, reported that Trump instructed his acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to fire Alles.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Secret Service did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters news agency.

Near systematic purge

Alless departure comes amid a spate of turnover across DHS that began last week when President Trump withdrew his Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) directors nomination to stay on permanently.

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One official described the firings to CNN as a near-systematic purge at the DHS. The Secret Service director reports to the director of Homeland Security.

Nielsen, who oversaw Trumps 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, who has recently expressed growing anger about the situation at the border, asked for Nielsens resignation.

During her time at the head of the powerful agency, Nielsen became synonymous with the controversial policy of separating children from their parents, leading to frequent calls for her resignation from progressive groups and the Democratic opposition.

Nielsen is expected to stay in her post until Wednesday. Trump said Kevin McAleenan, the current US Customs and Border Protection commissioner, will become acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

After Nielsens departure, an empowered Stephen Miller, the immigration hawk White House senior adviser, is also eyeing the removal of Lee Francis Cissna, according to two of the people, the Associated Press reported. Cissna is the director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, which runs the immigration system.

Trump, seeking re-election in 2020, has taken a hard line towards immigration since becoming president in January 2017, and the issue may be a central theme in next years election.
Three US service members and a contractor have been killed by an improvised explosive device close to a major base near Afghanistans capital, Kabul, the US military has said.

The blast took place on Monday close to Bagram Airfield, the largest US military facility in Afghanistan.

In a statement, the military said three other US troops were wounded in the explosion and were receiving treatment.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack and described it as a suicide car bombing.

The group said an attacker detonated his explosives-laden vehicle near the base in Parwan province.

It is one of the deadliest recent attacks against US personnel. In November, a roadside bomb blast killed three US service members near the central Afghan city of Ghazni.

Last month two US service members were killed in Afghanistan while conducting an operation. The war has taken a much larger toll on Afghan security forces and civilians.

President Ashraf Ghani, speaking at the World Economic Forum in January, said that about 45,000 Afghan security forces have been killed since he took office in September 2014, which works out to an average of 849 per month.

There are about 14,000 US forces in Afghanistan.
One soldier died while trying to defend demonstrators from widely-feared Sudanese security service NISS, activists say.

Activists demanding the exit of Sudans President Omar al-Bashir say a soldier has been killed while attempting to protect anti-government protesters from security forces trying to break up a rally in front of the leaders residence.

In an apparent escalation of the four-month calls for political change, demonstrators in the capital, Khartoum, held a sit-in on Monday for a third straight day outside the complex, which also houses the headquarters of the Sudanese army.

Forces belonging to the widely-feared National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) used tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition in a bid to disperse the protesters, according to the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), one of the groups spearheading the demonstrations.

Activists told the Associated Press news agency a soldier was killed on Monday while trying to protect those rallying against Bashir.

Speaking to Al Jazeera from Britains capital, London, SPA spokeswoman Sara Abdeljaleel said other army officers had also tried to defend the demonstrators on Monday and during previous clashes between civilians and the security services on Saturday and Sunday.

In the last 72 hours, there has been a positive [development], to some extent,  that army officers are supporting protesters and protecting them from the National Intelligence and Security Service, Abdeljaleel said.

We keep asking for the army to  protect this revolution and keep it peaceful, she added.

Later on Monday, Interior Minister Bushara Juma said seven people were killed and 2,496 arrested during demonstrations in Khartoum and elsewhere over the weekend.

The latest deaths take the overall toll to 38 since the protests began, according to officials. Human Rights Watch says more than 50 people have been killed, including children and medics.

Army officers have tried to defend the demonstrators during clashes with the security services [AFP]

Seeking transition talks with army

Protesters in recent days have been appealing for solidarity with the military, shouting slogans such as Sudan is rising, the army is rising and holding placards reading The army and the people are one to encourage soldiers to back their demands.

On Monday, the protesting Alliance for Freedom and Change group called on the army to hold direct talks with demonstrators about forming a transitional government.

We reiterate our peoples demand that the head of the regime and his government have to immediately step down, Omar el-Digeir, a senior member of the group, said in a statement outside the army headquarters.

We also call on the Sudanese armed forces to withdraw their support for a regime that has lost its legitimacy, Digei added.

Crunch point

The demonstrations against the 75-year-old president were sparked by a government decision to triple the price of bread in December, but quickly escalated into broader protests against Bashirs three-decade rule.

In response to the nationwide protests, Bashir in late February imposed a state of emergency which led to the protests largely being confined to Khartoum and Omdurman, the capitals twin city.

But the movement now appears to have entered a critical new phase after the organisers last week urged protesters to take to the streets on Saturday, which marked the 34th anniversary of the overthrow of the government of Jaafar al-Nimeiri.

Protesters in front of the military headquarters in the capital Khartoum [AFP]

In Khartoum, the rally saw anti-government protesters reaching the army headquarters for the first time since the demonstrations erupted.

Analysts said the recent intensification of the protests signalled that Sudan was heading towards an imminent crunch point.

Either the military will have to side with the regime and aide and abet the crackdown  or they will have to take a stand and at least ask for the president to resign, Abdelwahab el-Affendi, a professor of politics at the Qatar-based Doha Institute, told Al Jazeera.

Bashir took power in a 1989 coup which toppled the elected government that had taken office following the militarys overthrow of al-Nimeiri four years earlier.

Critics accuse Bashir of mismanaging the economy, leading to soaring food prices, regular shortages of fuel and widespread cash shortages.

The president has acknowledged that the economic concerns raised by protesters are legitimate, but refused to step down.

Instead, he has overseen a crackdown on critics and argued his opponents should seek power through the ballot box when his term ends in 2020.
Witnesses say troops deployed around army headquarters as security forces try to break up sit-in protest.

Security forces in Sudan fired tear gas at protesters in an attempt to break up a demonstration in front of the defence ministry in central Khartoum, witnesses said on Monday.

A witness told Al Jazeera that security forces on pickup trucks fired the gas as they charged towards the protesters who have been calling for the resignation of President Omar al-Bashir amid deepening economic woes.

After that, security forces began firing tear gas at protesters, the witness said.

Other witnesses told AFP news agency that the army deployed troops around its headquarters in the capital and blocked several roads leading to the complex, where protesters have amassed since Saturday.

The tear gas fired on Monday morning was felt by residents in an upscale Khartoum district some five kilometres away from the army complex.





I stepped out on my balcony hearing the sound of the gas canisters and could feel the gas in the air, said one resident.

Thousands of people have rallied outside the headquarters of the Sudanese army in Khartoum since Saturday, urging the countrys military to back their demands for Bashirs resignation.

Chanting Sudan is rising, the army is rising, crowds massed on Sunday outside the complex, which also houses Bashirs official residence and the defence ministry.

The protest movement began as a reaction to a government decision to triple the price of bread in December, but it has since escalated into growing demands for Bashirs departure after three decades in office.

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 Nimeiri.

The military removed Nimeiri before handing power to an elected government, which in turn was overthrown by al-Bashir in a 1989 coup.

Bashir, meanwhile, has refused to step down, saying that his opponents need to seek power through the ballot box.

Since April 6, at least four people have been killed by security forces in Khartoum.

Another protester was killed at a separate demonstration in Omdurman, Sudans second most populous city.

Sudanese demonstrators chant slogans during a protest demanding Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir to step down in Khartoum, Sudan April 6, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer

While officials say 32 people have died since the protests erupted on December 19, Human Rights Watch has said at least 51 people have been killed during the demonstrations.

Hundreds of protesters, including opposition leaders, activists and journalists have also been jailed by the widely-feared National Intelligence and Security Service.

Critics accuse Bashir of mismanaging the economy, leading to soaring food prices and regular shortages of fuel.

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.
Supporters of the former Brazilian president demand his release a year after his imprisonment for corruption.

Thousands of supporters of former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva have rallied outside his prison a year after he was convicted of accepting bribes.

They insist he is a victim of political persecution.

Others, though, are celebrating a crackdown on the political elite.

Al Jazeeras Daniel Schweimler reports.
Private sector lender HDFC Bank on Monday said it plans to raise fund up to Rs 50,000 crore by issuing debt instruments over the next 12 months.

"The bank proposes to raise funds by issuing Perpetual Debt Instruments (part of Additional Tier I capital), Tier II Capital Bonds and Long Term Bonds (Financing of infrastructure and affordable housing) up to a total amount of Rs. 50,000 crore," HDFC Bank said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The bank will raise capital over the period of next twelve months through private placement mode, it said in the exchange filing.

The board of directors would consider this proposal at its ensuing board meeting to be held on April 20, 2019, it added.

Earlier today, HDFC Bank reduced its marginal cost-based lending rates (MCLR) by 5-10 basis points across various tenors with effective from April 8, a move which is likely to provide some respite to home loan borrowers.

Also Read: Bharti Airtel gets SEBI nod to raise up to Rs 25,000 crore via rights issue

In a separate development, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with HDFC Bank to further strengthen the BSE Startups platform. BSE had launched the Start Up platform on December 22, 2018 with an aim to encourage entrepreneurs to get listed and raise equity capital for their growth and expansion.

Commenting on the development, Smita Bhagat, Country Head - Government, e-commerce and Start-ups, HDFC Bank, "This is part of our commitment to the larger cause of strengthening the Startup community/ecosystem in the country. Startups are today reimagining and reshaping the world we live in. We are already partnering with them by mentoring them and giving them a chance to work with us. We are extremely happy to reinforce our commitment to them through this partnership with BSE".

Meanwhile, shares of HDFC Bank closed day's trade at Rs 2288.90, down 0.56 per cent, on the BSE.

Edited by Chitranjan Kumar
The Case for Trump by the political and military scholar Victor Davis Hanson is a book dedicated to the "Deplorables." It is a fact-based analysis of why Donald Trump was able to win the presidency in 2016. Beyond that, Hanson sat down with American Thinker and discussed the presidential election in 2020.

Donald Trump ran against both political parties and the East Coast establishment in the 2016 presidential election. He was the first man ever elected to the nation's highest office without prior experience in government, politics, or the military. In a nutshell, Trump appealed to a forgotten but sizable portion of the population: the working and middle classes most negatively impacted by decades of globalism. Through direct quotes from various individuals on both sides, Hanson makes a powerful case that the elite of both parties hold immense disdain for these middle Americans.

Hanson told American Thinker, "He was not supposed to win. With the victory, he interrupted sixteen years of a planned progressive agenda. This election was a referendum on prior credibility. His victory meant all those who were consulted in the past would be isolated because Trump was not necessarily going to listen to those in the World Bank, the Brookings Institution, Hoover Institution where I work, and the Council on Foreign Affairs, nor was he going to call past presidents for advice. This was an affront to the entire political establishment."

Before Trump, Republicans and conservatives usually did not take the initiative, nor did they go on the offense. "Trump did just the opposite. His aggression was very popular among the frustrated Republican voters. They did not want a John McCain or a Mitt Romney whose often passive attitude they saw as a cancer. McCain had ignored attacking Reverend Wright and his outrageous comments, while Romney never really objected to what 'moderator' Candy Crowley did in the second debate. Conservative voters were ready for someone who fights back. They might not like all Trump's wild comments and tweeting, but they thought Trump's combative attitude was worth it."

Hanson went on to explain that many voters saw Trump as authentic. Regardless of what audience he was speaking to, he always wore a suit and a tie. "He never adopted a southern accent when speaking to voters in that region as Hillary Clinton did, or changed his tone when speaking to the inner city as Barack Obama had, or wore jeans and a flannel shirt at state fairs as Joe Biden did. Even though he is a multibillionaire, people found Trump more authentic and empathetic. For example, after Hillary Clinton said she wanted to shut down the coal industry, he went into West Virginia and said he loved the 'big and beautiful coal.' He also gives straight answers, not the 50-50 type, such as 'on the one hand, in theory, maybe we will take a look at that, that is a good question to explore.'"

Fast-forwarding to 2020, Hanson believes that Trump's track record is pretty good. He is creating economic opportunity through growth, redressing longstanding trade inequities, reducing costly and poorly conceived overseas entanglements, cutting red tape that restricts business activity, and restricting illegal immigration that threatens wage growth.

Regarding Beto O'Rourke, Hanson believes that his strange background will come back to haunt him in the Democratic primaries. "The image he did not want to convey is that he is from a very wealthy white family. He had used privilege and influence as a young man to get ahead, mostly getting off from serious punishment after a DUI and apparently not charged to the fullest extent for burglarizing a warehouse. He wrote grotesque stories about killing children, ate dirt, and played a trick on his wife by supposedly putting feces in her bowl. There seems something sick, mean, weird, and sinister about all of these. Regarding his policies, he has a hard-left agenda now. He never says anything concrete about an issue, almost like he is mindlessly vague. I think the more people know about O'Rourke, the less they will like him."

His prediction is that Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, or Kamala Harris will get the Democratic nomination. "Trump will be running against one of these candidates. The issues they are running on are pretty radical, and they do not have the support of 51% of the electorate. Trump can say, 'You may find my tweets crass or crude, but I am the only thing between you and socialism.' The Democratic candidates are in an echo chamber competing to be the one furthest left."

Hanson makes a good point, considering even anti-Trumper and former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg recently said this: "Joe Biden went out and was essentially apologizing for being male, over 50, and white," and "Beto, or whatever his name is, he virtually apologized for being born affluent and white." He also bashed the Democratic policies: "We need a healthy economy, and we shouldn't be embarrassed by our capitalist system. If you want to look at the record of a system that is non-capitalistic, just take a look at what was perhaps the wealthiest country in Latin America, and today, people are starving to death. It's called Venezuela." He went on to say, "I'm a little bit tired of listening to agendas that are pie-in-the-sky that are never going to pass into law, never going to afford. I think it's just disingenuous to promote those things as if they are serious issues. You've got to do something that's practical."

Will Trump win in 2020? Hanson thinks he has a very good chance. "The Democrats are against the extra oil produced since 2016, the Keystone Pipeline, and the traditional judges appointed. They will run on issues such as a 90% tax rate, outlawing combustible engines, wanting reparations, radical abortion, abolishing ICE, and abolishing the Electoral college. In addition, a lot of Latinos where I live, in Central California, do not like the Catholic-bashing by liberals and the effects of thousands of illegal immigrants suddenly in their schools. Also, the monotonous white-bashing is not popular among the working-class white electorate. Most of those caricatured are of the working class that do not have white privilege. For example, a truck-driver working twelve hours a day has very little in common with a Malibu homeowner."

He predicts that Trump will draw from the traditional Democratic base that includes 40% of the Hispanic vote and 40% of the Jewish vote. "About half of the base of the Democratic Party is anti-Semitic and at least half of the party likely also does not like Israel. Progressives talk recklessly about Israel as evil even though there are 100 other nations in the world, and dozens that are disasters. The Left only bashes Israel because it is a Jewish state and so they are basically saying, 'I don't like Jews.'"

In reading the book, people understand why Trump won, and Hanson also explains the reason he thinks Trump will win again: "the Democrats, who have alienated the middle classes," would need to get "95% of the black vote, 75% of the Asian vote, 75% of the Hispanic vote, and 70% of the Jewish vote. I do not think that will happen." As they say, from his words to G-d's ears.

The author writes for American Thinker. She has done book reviews and author interviews and has written a number of national security, political, and foreign policy articles.
Bill Gates is among the richest, most successful people on the planet. He enjoyed a lot of victories until he ventured into a dangerous part of town called Education. He squandered a few billion dollars by becoming entangled with a shady character named Common Core.

Since 2010, Gates endured a long, slow defeat, as more people turned against Common Core, and he himself realized that it was not what he had dreamed of.

So how did Bill Gates lose his golden touch?

Gates, computer man and businessman, trusted data neatly arrayed on monitors. Digital tools could give predictability, consistency, and control. Add standards that everyone agreed on. Not only would children learn more efficiently, and be tested and tracked more accurately, but his companies could market educational services by the cubic mile because every school would welcome the same products. Gates could make a new and separate fortune.

So this digital leviathan abruptly became the law of the land. Local control of schools, long an American tradition, was euthanized without mercy. But victory was temporary. Common Core seemed to have one objectionable feature after another.

Surely, we can stipulate that Gates is too smart to be a useful idiot, too patriotic to be a secret leftist trying to destroy the country. So why did he align himself with what many consider blatant malpractice? Was he blinded by predictions of a giant payoff? Or was it a case of trusting the wrong people?

Perhaps Gates, a college dropout, assumed that the professors at the top of the Education Establishment (many of them at his alma mater, Harvard) were smart guys who knew their business. However, these were the same people who had been mismanaging American K-12 for a long time  so much so that McKinsey and Company, the super-consultant, summed up the situation in 2007: "The longer American students remain in public schools, the dumber they get." This is not a track record that a shrewd person would invest in.

There were warning signs from the start. Never mind all the blather about a state-led initiative. Common Core is best understood as a coup d'etat, or more exactly a coup d'ecole. This vast, top-to-bottom takeover of American public education was achieved by the old-fashioned tactic of throwing grants (some would say "bribes") at the politicians in charge, state by state, even as Obama lent some dignity to the shenanigans. Obama had just swept into office and was in his honeymoon phase. Common Core was effectively ObamaEd, and nobody wanted to say no to the first black president.

But Bill Gates should have felt some uneasiness. Common Core was untested, unproven, and micromanaged by David Coleman, a man with limited credentials but reliably far to the left. Nobody in the business world launches a big new product without years of research and refinement. Instead, Common Core was wrapped in $1 billion's worth of propaganda and dumped on the country as a fait accompli.

The late, great Siegfried Engelmann, a real educator, was asked what he thought of this approach: "A perfect example of technical nonsense. A sensible organization would rely heavily on data about procedures used to achieve outstanding results; and they would certainly field test the results to assure that the standards resulted in fair, achievable goals. How many of these things did they do? None."

Did Gates realize that Common Core, supposedly a new and higher instruction, incorporates all the dubious ideas from decades prior? New Math and Reform Math were the basis for Common Core Math. Similarly, Whole Language and Balanced Literacy were rolled into Common Core's English Language Arts (jargon for reading). Constructivism, which prevented teachers from teaching, has been undermining American schools for decades. Nothing new and higher about these clunkers.

An earlier generation of Gates's business partners had created so much illiteracy that Rudolf Flesch had to write a book to answer every American's favorite question: "why can't Johnny read?"

Did Bill Gates reflect empathically on the proposals in his billion-dollar baby? Everyone should try to imagine he's eight years old and has to struggle with Common Core every day. The verbiage is convoluted and pompous; at every step, there are absurdly unnecessary steps. Only one way to tie your shoes? Don't be silly. Every student needs to learn at least four or five! Finally, the kids are encumbered by a backpack full of bricks and not much else. One has to suspect that this mumbo-jumbo was never intended to improve education, but to stupefy a generation.

There are hundreds of videos made to show how wonderful Common Core is. Instead, they show the opposite. Here's a single abominable video that can stand for all the others. The title is "Strategies for Addition and Subtraction." Notice the new layer added there. Instead of learning to add, children learn strategies for adding  five of them, no less. Everything will now remain in first gear as children struggle with Regroup or Borrow, Decompose, Cross Number Puzzle, Use or Draw Base Ten Blocks, and Solve Using Money. Think how many hours you can waste debating which strategy to use in each situation.

We have to wonder if Bill Gates performed due diligence, that being the care that a reasonable person exercises to avoid harm to other persons or property. In other words, before putting your business funds to work on anything, you should make yourself an expert. That's what we need in this country: everybody becomes an expert. For sure, nobody should trust the official experts. If Bill Gates had observed that simple rule, he would still have a billion or two he doesn't have now. And the country would have tens of millions of better educated students it doesn't have now.

It's annoying to study Common Core because, it seems to me, it's on the same intellectual level as the food fight in Animal House. Did Gates fly to Hong Kong to buy a new operating system from the local bazaar? Or did he fly to Russia to buy something sinister from the Pavlov Neuro-Disruption Institute? Point is, the resulting curriculum is way overpriced and relentlessly dysfunctional  a pig in a poke that you never stop paying for.

The teacher in the video actually admits that you may find this or that strategy "confusing at first." But that's all right, because Common Core recommends frustration and difficulty. The premise is that students respond to doing things the hard way  exactly the opposite of what's true.

For years, people have tried to sue school systems when their children don't learn to read. It would be helpful if such lawsuits went forward. Next, parents could sue the system for introducing Common Core, which is arguably a fraud designed to lower academic standards. If parents can't succeed with those lawsuits, they can start demanding an IEP (Individual Education Plan) for their children, an IEP that emphatically excludes Common Core.

Trump said he would cancel this preposterous thing, and he should.

Bruce Deitrick Price's new book is Saving K-12: What happened to our public schools? How do we fix them? He deconstructs educational theories and methods at Improve-Education.org.

Image: Sebastian Vital via Flickr.
For years, many have bemoaned the slide of Americas higher education system down the slippery slope of moral relativism and the embracing of virtually all facets of progressive dogma while rejecting most elements of conservatism. The mere invitation of a conservative commentator to speak on college campuses is now reason enough for rioting and mass student protests. Bozo the Clown has a better chance of giving a commencement address at an Ivy League school than does Clarence Thomas, Condoleezza Rice, or their conservative contemporaries. Nowhere is this truth more prevalent than at our most prestigious law schools, and the products of those schools are now reflecting that decades-long liberal drift.

Individuals from this new class of legal eagles have advanced in all branches of government and at all levels -- local, state, and federal. They have attended notable law schools, they are African-American, and they are hellbent on ushering in an era of seeking what todays liberal law schools are pouring into their students by the bucket full -- not justice but social justice.

Now finding themselves in positions of power, these social justice warriors have a deep-rooted belief in the fundamental unfairness of America in general, and our judicial system in particular. They believe that crimes for which underprivileged groups, namely blacks and Latinos, have higher rates of sentencing and incarceration, are the product of an at best a biased, and at worst a racist system; a system which they are a part of and can find ways to affect. One example is when the Obama/Holder DOJ released 6,000 people from federal prisons and reduced the sentences of as many as 46,000 others as a part of their sentencing-reform efforts in 2015.

Those at the executive and legislative level include names like Barack Obama (a 91 Harvard Law graduate), Eric Holder (73 Columbia), Kamala Harris (89 Cal-Berkeley), and Loretta Lynch (84 Harvard), among others. These are nationally prominent figures; however, those in the judicial level are of much lesser note. Few Americans can name a judge or two, and judges tend not to be in the news, thus this infiltration has happened largely under the radar. Were it not for the egregiousness of her actions and the celebrity status of Jessie Smollett, Kim Foxx would exist in relative anonymity.

The decision by Cook County Illinois States Attorney Kim Foxx (97 Southern Illinois) to dismiss all sixteen felony charges against Jessie Smollett, wipe his record clean, seal documents from public view, and allow him to walk with only time served (16 hours of community service at Jesse Jacksons Rainbow/PUSH Coalition) is representative of an ever-growing class of young ethnic-minority lawyers advancing through the ranks of our judicial system and taking it upon themselves to place a thumb on what used to and should be the blind scales of justice in favor of the marginalized.

Foxx has drawn the ire of Chicago law enforcement, and apparently this is not the first time. A Washington Post article on Foxxs malfeasance included this: Its outrageous, but this is nothing new for Kim Foxx, said Martin Preib, second vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police Chicago Lodge 7.

The Chicago P.D. has argued that Foxx, who is African-American, has a pattern of favoring offenders over cops. Foxx is not alone. Last November, another young African-American attorney, Rachel Rollins (99 Georgetown), won her race to become Suffolk County (Boston, MA) district attorney. After the election, Rollins published to her website a list of charges that her office will not be prosecuting, including larceny, shoplifting, drug possession with intent to distribute, and resisting arrest. She is simply not going to prosecute those arrested for these crimes, stating:

Instead of prosecuting, these cases should be (1) outright dismissed prior to arraignment or (2) where appropriate, diverted and treated as a civil infraction for which community service is satisfactory

As is the case with the cantankerous relationship between prosecutor and police department in Chicago, Rollins and the local P.D. dont appear to be bosom buddies. Boston Police Protection Union President Michael Leary is quoted as saying:

Our job is already dangerous. Its unbelievable to think people are willing to make it more dangerous for us. I fear that officers will begin to see even more aggressiveness than we already face on a daily basis if there are no consequences, offenders will figure why not resist?

Earlier this month, Brooklyns new District Attorney Eric Gonzalez (92 Cornell) introduced what his office has dubbed as sweeping reforms via his Justice 2020 Initiative. According to the DAs website, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced his plan for a groundbreaking initiative to transform Brooklyns justice system into a progressive model designed to keep Brooklyn safe and strengthen community trust by ensuring fairness and equal justice for all. There it is: equal justice for all. What do the initiatives reforms looks like? Its first two pillars read:

Considering non-jail resolutions at every juncture of a case Establishing early release as the default position

No discussion about the incredible things liberals do is complete without California. Perhaps following the lead of Contra Costa County (San Francisco Bay Area), which in 2009 announced that assaults, thefts, burglaries, and felony drug cases would no longer be prosecuted, California voters passed Proposition 47, which essentially introduced crime with no consequences to the Golden State.

Prop 47, the Reduced Penalties for Some Crimes Initiative is very pro-thief. Under its provisions, offenses that were once felonies, including shoplifting, grand theft, receiving stolen property, forgery, fraud, and more, are recategorized as misdemeanors. It states that theft of property worth less than $950 is not prosecutable. Such thefts result in the perpetrators getting the equivalent of a warning for J-walking. They face essentially no punishment.

Predictably, retailers and the law-abiding public are feeling the hurt. This quote showed up in National Review: Every bicycle in our building has been stolen, says Karen Burns, president of a San Francisco condo association. Ive caught so many people stealing packages. They dont care. They know nothing will happen to them. Its crazy. Its horrible.

Large retailers say shoplifting has increased at least 15 percent, and in some cases doubled since voters approved Prop 47. Fox News wrote that shoplifting reports to the Los Angeles Police Department jumped by a quarter in the first year, and added this incredible bit of detail, "We've heard of cases where they're going into stores with a calculator so they can make sure that what they steal is worth less than $950," said Robin Shakely, Sacramento County assistant chief deputy district attorney.

The Independent Sentinel carried this story about one local business owner: Hobby shop owner Perry Lutz says his struggle to survive as a small businessman became a lot harder after California voters reduced theft penalties 1 years ago.

About a half-dozen times this year, shoplifters have stolen expensive drones or another of the remote-controlled toys he sells in HobbyTown USA, a small shop in Rocklin, northeast of Sacramento. Its just pretty much open season, Lutz said. Theyll pick the $800 unit and just grab it and run out the door.

Thieves know that if its worth less than $950, they will not be pursued by law enforcement, and even if they are, and theyre caught, there will be no penalty.

This new breed of lawyers whove been raised and trained on social justice in our law schools are becoming prosecutors and judges and are slowly changing the landscape of our legal system. While they publicly state a belief that their reforms are making communities safer, its difficult to see how. What they are really doing is enabling criminal behavior in the name of fairness and equality. Exactly how its fair to allow people to get away with criminal activity is unclear, but this much is certain -- they are steadily moving up the justice system ranks.

Derrick Wilburn is a Centennial Institute Fellow and Executive Director of the Rocky Mountain Black Conservatives
Rather amazingly, Democrats are promoting the addition of yet another candidate to their crowded subway car of potential presidential candidates  this time, failed gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.

Here's what The Hill is reporting:

Democrats say there's room in their crowded presidential field for one more high-profile candidate: Stacey Abrams. The Georgia Democrat, who became a national name in her gubernatorial bid last year, is pondering whether to run for the White House  or the Senate, where Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) would love to have her take on Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.). When Abrams's name was floated as a potential vice presidential pick for former Vice President Joe Biden, who has yet to enter the race himself, some supporters were offended because they saw her as the politician who should be at the top of the ticket. Some Democrats say she would add a degree of diversity to a race that at the top looks to be crowded with white men.

It's weird stuff, given that Abrams holds views identical to those of the rest of the Democrats  socialism of an extreme sort. She's not being put there on the strength of her ideas. Based on her Georgia campaign website and other sources, Abrams favors gun control, Medicaid expansion, post-birth abortion, environmental "justice," the green agenda, open borders, letting criminals out of jail, redefining marriage, raising the minimum wage, tax hikes, etc.  the whole cookie-cutter agenda of the radical left that has taken over the Democratic Party. In this regard, Abrams offers nothing new  just the same stale stuff the rest of them are selling as Venezuela fries away in the background from those very ideas put into action.

The only thing that makes Abrams different is that she's black. That's a big deal for Democrats because they've got an identity politics platform, and the people they've already put out there on that basis  Cory Booker (black), Julian Castro (Latino), Pete Buttigieg (gay), Amy Klobuchar and Kirsten Gillibrand (women), Kamala Harris (woman, black, and Asian  a threefer), Andrew Yang (Asian), Elizabeth Warren (real woman, fake Indian)  aren't going anywhere in the polls.

Beto O'Rourke, who is going somewhere in the polls, is a fake Latino, in reality an inconveniently white male. The other two frontrunners, much to Democrats' embarrassment from their own point of view, are old white men, too  Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. And every one of them is offering the same old plate of socialism, just in different identity packaging.

Who is going to sell this slop the Democrats are selling? Abrams is now the designated hitter. The old white guys are an inconvenient for them, being jurassic, white, and male. Abrams, on the other hand, is black, and not in that polished, fireproof corporate way that "best-looking" Harris is, but in a homey, everywoman way, which comes off as authentic. We all can rest assured that unlike Harris, Abrams didn't sleep her way to the top.

Abrams, who narrowly lost the governor's race in Georgia last year, also has political talent. Anyone who can sell a load of socialism to voters and not be laughed out of the room or tossed out as a bum has political talent.

This boils it down to the real issue: Democrats are trying to sell American voters a load of socialism, and only the most charismatic of pols can pull it off. Bernie has it. Beto has it. Biden doesn't, but that's a function of moderate Democrats not wanting to elect a far-left nut, and some are endeared to his many gaffes, as they see those as authentic.

Enter Abrams, who is black, has charisma, and has exactly the views the Democrats want to promote. It's a cynical entry from the Democratic operatives' perspective, being based on personality politics rather than any attunement to what voters want. Here's the package; let's get Abrams to sell it.

It's unlikely to work, given that it's above all the work of their own otherwise unsalable agenda.

Image credit: The Circus via YouTube via Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0.
CNN's Christiane Amanpour asked James Comey, the disgraced head of the FBI, if his FBI should have shut down "hate speech" at Trump rallies.

Hate speech, we need to understand, is speech the Left disapproves of. Amanpour has said nothing about Hillary Clinton calling Trump-supporters "deplorable," not to mention the 24/7 CNN attacks on the president, including calling him a traitor.

When a journalist asks an FBI chief to close down speech she doesn't like is when America and its media have reached a dangerous moment. It's when liberal progressive news channels become intolerant, regressive political machines.

This wasn't a first for Amanpour, a once great journalist now become a well paid media party hack.

Amanpour was active in preventing Mike Pompeo, the U.S. secretary of state, from becoming the recipient of the James Foley Freedom Award.

To remind ourselves, James Foley was beheaded by ISIS in 2014 by what President Obama described as "the J.V. team," and it was the Trump administration, including Pompeo, that gave the command and led the total defeat of ISIS.

Part of the proud record of Mike Pompeo in rescuing hostages was outlined in his letter to Diane, James Foley's mother, on April 2, 2019, on learning he had been selected to receive the award.

You and your son's mission to advocate for and advance the safe return of Americans detained unjustly abroad has been my mission as the Director of the CIA and as the Secretary of State. It is the President's mission.

Since President Trump took office, his administration, led by Pompeo, has led to the return of Otto Warmbier, Tony Kim, Kim Hak-song, and Kim Dong-chul from North Korea, as well as Caitlan Coleman and her children from the Taliban in Afghanistan after five years' captivity while Obama was in the White House. Josh Holt was returned from Venezuela. Pastor Andrew Brunson was reunited with his family. Danny Burch was released from captivity in Yemen. And the secretary of state is hard at work attempting to force the release of other Americans still languishing in captivity in Iran, Syria, and Afghanistan.

Instead of awarding Mike Pompeo for his successful service to the cause behind the award, biased media critics of the current administration, with their visceral hatred of Trump and his anyone immediate, went after the Pompeo nomination with a vengeance, even threatening to disrupt the ceremony.

The foundation behind the award bowed to pressure and decided to rescind the nomination from Mike Pompeo.

On learning of this decision, Mike Pompeo wrote to James's parents:

I understand that the Foundation decided to rescind the Freedom Award and my invitation to attend the 2019 James Foley Freedom Awards due to pressure from its media partners and your fear, stated in your letter, that some guests at the dinner would not show my office proper respect if I attended[.] ... How sad is it that base politics and hatred have been allowed to creep into even this sphere of our activity. The safe recovery of Americans held hostage overseas should be beyond politics and must enjoy the support of all Americans. I regret that pressure of such a cynical and abominable nature was brought to bear on you and John. The ignoble conduct of those behind this sad deed [and that included Christiane Amanpour] will never diminish my commitment, and of the commitment of the men and women that I lead, to the safe recovery of all Americans unjustly held abroad.

The grace of Mike Pompeo and the disgrace of media people such as Christiane Amanpour can be seen in their words and actions.
All that strutting, all those jumping jack flashes, all those drugs, all that loud music finally took its toll on 75-year-old Mick Jagger's heart. It needed a new valve. And so the British-born, British-raised Jagger had his valve replacement surgery performed...no! no! no!...not in Britain, home to socialized free medicine for all, but right here in the good ol' USA. In New York City. Yes, New York, where he purchased an expensive home nearly three years ago for the American Ballet Theater dancer who is the mother of his eighth child when they demanded gimme shelter, is part of America, no matter what its inhabitants  and the rest of the country  think.

The U.S.'s medical system seems to be treating him very well.

Thank you everyone for all your messages of support, Im feeling much better now and on the mend - and also a huge thank you to all the hospital staff for doing a superb job.  Mick Jagger (@MickJagger) April 5, 2019

Well, good. But why did he choose the USA for his medical care instead of England? While I'm not privy to such intimate decisions, perhaps it has something to do with Jagger joining other wealthy celebrities and business people as a tax exile years ago. After all, before he rocked, he studied...accounting (yes, really  at the London School of Economics). He worked hard, made money, and the British socialist government initially took 90% of it.

Someone has to pay for all the free stuff in a socialized country. But many of England's wealthy, including Jagger, decided they wouldn't. So to escape the punishingly high taxes, he recorded in France, and later, fleeing the latter's high taxes, he and his band mates parked their money in Holland thanks to the advice of their accountant.

And so, last August, according to details disclosed in documents maintained by the Handelsregister, the trade registry of the Netherlands, Promogroup helped the three performers set up a pair of private Dutch foundations that will allow them to transfer assets tax-free to heirs when they die. Other Dutch shelters that Promogroup has arranged for the three have already paid off handsomely; over the last 20 years, according to Dutch documents, the three musicians have paid just $7.2 million in taxes on earnings of $450 million that they have channeled through Amsterdam  a tax rate of about 1.5 percent, well below the British rate of 40 percent.

And you thought accountants were dull.

Also, despite...because of the inherent flaws in socialized medicine, "you can't always get what you want," let alone "get what you need," as Jagger sang years ago. Although not singing about medicine at the time, he might have been, according to this sad, but not surprising, report describing how British patients are not getting what they need  let alone what they want  in British socialized medicine heaven, which we would call hell.

Thousands in Britain left to go blind due to eye surgery rationing: Report LONDO (XINHUA)  Thousands of elderly people in Britain are left to go blind because of rationing of eye surgery in the National Health Service (NHS), a report revealed on Saturday (April 6). The Times newspaper said a survey by the Royal College of Ophthalmologists (RCO) found tens of thousands of elderly people are left struggling to see because of an NHS cost-cutting drive that relies on them dying before they can qualify for cataract surgery. The survey has found that the NHS has ignored instructions to end cataract treatment rationing in defiance of official guidance two years ago. The RCO said its survey has found 62 per cent of eye units retain policies that require people's vision to have deteriorated below a certain point before surgery is funded[.]

Ah, yes, socialized medicine National Health Service highly paid bureaucrats saving money by denying medical treatment, hoping the patient dies instead of medically knowledgeable personnel trying to improve a patient's life. This is the medical system that president-wannabe Bernie Sanders of Vermont wants to bring to our shores, as does honors economics and international relations graduate, failed businessperson, and former bartender Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Bronx, N.Y.).

So tax exile Jagger had to jet to America to get what he wanted, to get his satisfaction.

Rock on, Mick, with your new American-inserted heart valve. Your eight  at last count  children, your numerous grandchildren, and even your great-grandchild, not to mention your numerous fans, will get what they want, knowing that 75 is really, really, really not that old thanks to private medical care.

Yeah, you can get satisfaction!
House Intelligence Committee ranking member Rep. Devin Nunes says he has referred eight individuals to the Department of Justice for prosecution. Nunes told Fox News the referrals were for crimes committed in the Russia collusion investigation, including the leaks of "highly classified material" and conspiracies to lie to Congress and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court.

The Hill:

The dramatic step comes as Republicans have pushed for the release of key documents to uncover the origins of the now-discredited narrative that the Trump campaign colluded improperly with the Russian government. President Trump recently told Fox News he would release the entirety of the FISA applications used to surveil one of his top aides, and other related documents. Nunes said he has been working on the referrals for more than two years, and wanted to wait until the confirmation of Attorney General Bill Barr. "We're prepared this week to notify the attorney general that we're prepared to send those referrals over," Nunes said. "First of all, all of these are classified or sensitive. ... Five of them are what I would call straight up referrals  so just referrals that name someone and name the specific crimes," Nunes told Maria Bartiromo. "Those crimes are lying to Congress, misleading Congress, leaking classified information. So five of them are those types."

Nunes would name no names, but it's virtually certain that former deputy director of the FBI Andrew McCabe will be on the list. The inspector general's report looking into the Hillary Clinton email investigation said McCabe leaked material to the Wall Street Journal and then lied about it to his superiors.

It's unclear who else might be referred, but the investigation into the origin of the FISA warrant against Carter Page found several improprieties  including the FBI misleading the court about the Steele dossier.

And House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C., touched off a firestorm last August after claiming on Twitter that his office had "hard evidence" suggesting the FBI leaked information to the press and used the resulting articles to help obtain surveillance warrants. The claim stemmed in part from FBI intelligence analyst Jonathan Moffa's Friday testimony behind closed doors before the House Judiciary and Oversight committees. Nunes added: "There are three [referrals] that I think are more complicated. ... So on the first one, is FISA abuse and other matters. We believe there was a conspiracy to lie to the FISA court, mislead the FISA court by numerous individuals that all need to be investigated and looked at that, and we believe the [relevant] statute is the conspiracy statute. The second conspiracy one is involving manipulation of intelligence that also could ensnarl many Americans." Nunes asserted that "we've had a lot of concerns with the way intelligence was used" during the Trump-Russia probe.

The referrals do not mean there will be any indictments. It will be up to the attorney general to decide whether to prosecute anyone. And proving a conspiracy will be very hard.

Liberal commentary has tried to ridicule Nunes for seeking indictments. After all, the notion of wrongdoing by the FBI and the Department of Justice and not Trump just doesn't follow the narrative.

But this is certainly a step in the right direction. At the very least, a record is being made that suggests there's far more to the Russian collusion story than the media and Democrats have ever let on, and if it leads to certain reforms in the FISA warrant process, that can only be a good thing.
We continue to have a partisan debate up here about the crisis on the border. However, all you have to do is look to the border itself and see something that looks a lot like a crisis to me.

This is from John Daniel Davidson:

McAllen, a city of fewer than 150,000 residents, is now facing the prospect of thousands of migrants discharged from ICE custody, wandering the streets and sleeping in doorways and on park benches  the city's mayor has said as much. What's more, in February the city ordered Catholic Charities to vacate the former nursing home and find a new location within 90 days, citing complaints from neighbors about constant traffic and strangers wandering nearby streets where children play. By any measure, the situation in McAllen is an emergency. This is just one border town in Texas. Something similar is playing out all up and down the U.S.-Mexico border. In El Paso, hundreds of migrant families are turning themselves in to Border Patrol every day, overwhelming federal facilities and personnel. In a five-minute stretch one day in late March, Border Patrol apprehended two different groups totaling 400 people. On the night of President Trump's rally in El Paso in February, a group of 300 turned themselves in to the Santa Teresa Border Patrol station, which sits on an empty stretch of New Mexico scrubland 22 miles west of El Paso. Agents had to move all the ATVs out of the garage just so a hundred or so migrants would have someplace warm to sleep that night. Since then, things have been getting worse.

And that's McAllen. Add Eagle Pass, El Paso, and others. No country has enough border patrol agents or resources to stop something like this.

The article also points out that the cartels are making millions of dollars transporting people through Mexico. I would call that a humanitarian crisis!

Nevertheless, we keep hearing from many Democrats that this is not a crisis. At some point, even Democrats will have to admit the reality of what is happening on the border. We have something that looks and feels a lot like a crisis.

PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
U.S. intervention in Libya in 2011 continues to reap the whirlwind of tragedy as forces in opposition to the "legitimate" Government of National Accord are attacking the capital city of Tripoli.

In short, it's a mess. A rogue general looking to take over the government is making the security situation for U.S. troops "complex and unpredictable," according to the Marine general in command, Gen. Thomas Waldhauser.

The Hill:

"The security realities on the ground in Libya are growing increasingly complex and unpredictable," Marine Corps Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, commander of U.S. Africa Command, said in a statement. "Even with an adjustment of the force, we will continue to remain agile in support of existing U.S. strategy." Africom further clarified that the repositioning was in response to security concerns. "A contingent of U.S. forces supporting Africom temporarily relocated from Libya in response to security conditions," the combatant command tweeted. "We will continue to monitor conditions on the ground and assess the feasibility for renewed U.S. military presence, as appropriate."

The worsening security situation is a direct result of policies formulated by President Obama and secretary of state Hillary Clinton when the U.S. led a coalition of forces to oust Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi. The reasoning behind the intervention  that the U.S. had a "responsibility to protect" Libyan citizens from Gaddafi  had no basis in any strategic interest of the U.S., and, with no organized opposition to Gaddafi, had no chance of succeeding in bringing peace.

It was the worst foreign policy debacle of the Obama presidency. But it's largely been swept under the rug  disappeared from history lest it tarnish the "legacy" of Barack Obama.

The Libyan uprising was part of the "Arab Spring" that was encouraged by Obama-Clinton and has resulted in massive loss of life while not changing the political conditions in any country  another failure that has been forgotten.

U.S. troops should never go back. The government of Libya does not control much territory and it appears to be a hopeless cause to try and unite the various factions. Like Syria  another Obama-Clinton failure  combatants will be fighting over the scraps for years to come.
Elizabeth Warren is not so popular these days. That's not a reference to Republicans; it's among her home state Democrats, in Massachusetts, where a new poll shows she places third.

All that hype and press, and claims to her near invincibility, and not even her homies in deep blue D-Mass. want her unless they can't get some others. Here's what The Hill has on it:

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Sunday placed third in a 2020 presidential poll of her home state of Massachusetts, trailing Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former Vice President Joe Biden. In a poll of likely Democratic primary voters in the state, 14 percent picked Warren as their preferred Democratic nominee for president. Sanders led the field with 26 percent of support, followed closely by Biden, who had the support of 23 percent of likely Massachusetts voters. According to Spencer Kimball, director of Emerson Polling, "This is a concern for Warren who at this time does not have a firewall in her home state, and her rival Sanders has a strong base in the Bay State."

Well, that's wretched. Not even the Massachusetts lefties want her.

Yet let's not forget how she was marketed by the Democrats with bylines in the mass media, and their assorted allies. Some earlier headlines:

Gack. She's not even a second choice now in Massachusetts.

As Thomas Lifson predicted several months ago (and before most of those headlines were written), she's toast: "dead phony walking."

Maybe that's because all of her airtime has been devoted to her original sin  calling herself an Indian when she was clearly not an Indian in order to climb the Ivy League ladder  and have a political platform. She took privileges other whites didn't have to bite and claw her way to the top, and only because those whites were honest and ethical. Worse still, she made a mockery of the original purpose of affirmative action, which was to right historic wrongs, literally taking a job slot that belonged to a Native American.

Her DNA test showed a trace of Latin American Indian ancestry, which isn't American Indian, and she claimed she was vindicated. That led to a lot of mockery before she was forced to make an apology to disgusted real American Indians, as well as kowtow to them on their various pork projects, suddenly trying to make amends as a legislator for her own wrongs.

And if you ask any ordinary voter out there what's the first thing that springs to mind when Elizabeth Warren's name is brought up, odds are, it's going to be "fake Indian."

She's a walking argument against any affirmative action privileges at all, showing how easily they can be abused by ambitious whites desperate to get a leg up on other whites, as well as Native Americans.

That's not a good look for her, particularly since the brouhahas it's generated have sucked all the air out of her platform, which, to be honest, has more heft, even if it's not good ideas, than those of her rivals. Without the Indian scandal, it was enough to excite the lefty policy wonks in any case. Now she's in a crowded field of cookie-cutter socialists and the thing that makes her stand out among them is the fake Indian scandal.

It's all led to her poll numbers going to the basement. The only thing interesting now about her campaign is whether she'll be the first to exit the Democratic clown car of candidates. Bets are being taken.
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal on Monday said it would decide on the insolvency of debt-ridden Reliance Communications (RCom).

RCom has pleaded the tribunal to go ahead with insolvency proceedings against it as it is unable to pay dues to its lenders.

Swiss telecom gear maker Ericsson, which received its unpaid dues of Rs 550 crore from RCom last month following a Supreme Court order, is opposing the move.

A two-member bench headed by Chairman Justice S J Mukhopadhaya also observed that if insolvency proceedings against RCom are allowed, then Ericsson would have to return Rs 550 crore.

"Why one party will take amount and let the financial creditors suffer," said the NCLAT, adding that either it may quash RCom bankruptcy proceedings in NCLT or allow bankruptcy case to proceed.

The appellate tribunal also said that it would consider the reply filed by the Department of Telecom (DoT) over the RCom's plea against the show cause notice issued by it over spectrum charges due on April 30, the next date of hearing.

"DOT reply would be considered on April 30. Let us be very clear which are the assets of corporate debtor, whether they have some right of asset. Can you take away licence? If yes, what is the value of the company (Rcom) then," the NCLAT said.

The NCLAT's direction came during the hearing of applications moved by three RCom executives.

Earlier on February 4, the tribunal had said that until further orders of the NCLAT or the Supreme Court, no one can sell, alienate, or create third-party rights over RCom's assets.

The NCLAT on March 26 stayed the two notices issued by the Department of Telecom (DoT) to RCom over cancellation of its spectrum licence for a delay in payment.

Its two-member bench had also stayed the DoT's letter dated March 20, 2019, to Axis Bank to encash the bank guarantee of Rs 2,000 crore given by the Anil Ambani group firm.

On May 15, 2018, the Mumbai bench of NCLT had admitted an insolvency petition filed by Ericsson against Reliance Communications and two of its subsidiaries seeking to recover unpaid dues.

Also Read: Mukesh Ambani's brotherly gesture is a ray of hope for Anil Ambani

However, on May 30 NCLAT granted a conditional stay on insolvency proceedings against RCom and its subsidiaries -- Reliance Infratel and Reliance Telecom.

The tribunal had directed RCom and its subsidiaries to pay Rs 550 crore to Ericsson India in 120 days, failing which it will direct insolvency proceedings against the company.

On February 1, RCom had informed that it has decided to opt for insolvency proceedings following its failure to sell assets for paying back its lenders.

Last month, Anil Ambani warded off a possible jail term as RCom cleared dues of Ericsson on March 18 with money received from elder brother Mukesh Ambani.

Anil Ambani made a Rs 550 crore payment, including interest, to Ericsson just a day before the expiry of the deadline set by the Supreme Court to clear dues or face a three-month jail term.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) handed a victory to Russia in a Ukrainian transit dispute, in its first ever ruling on a national security exemption, which could have profound implications for pending Section 232 disputes at the WTO.

The WTO panel ruled on April 5 that Russia had met the requirements for invoking national security, noting that a situation existed in Russias relations with Ukraine that constituted an emergency in international relations.



The panel also confirmed that the WTO has the authority to determine whether the requirements of national security exemptions are satisfied, diminishing US arguments that national security was not subject to review.



An emergency in international relations would, therefore, appear to refer generally to a situation of armed conflict, or of latent armed conflict, or of heightened tension or crisis, or of general instability engulfing or surrounding a state, it said.



National security exemptions are at the center of pending disputes at the WTO between the US and nine countries and regions over the Section 232 blanket tariffs and retaliatory countermeasures on US imports.



These countries and regions - including China, India, the European Union, Canada, Mexico, Norway, Russia, Switzerland and Turkey - challenged the national security justification for the Section 232 tariffs and quotas, alleging that the US' actions are inconsistent with WTO rules.



The United States has filed its own complaints over the retaliatory tariffs imposed against US exports by Canada, China, the EU, Mexico and Turkey.



The US has argued that even if the steel and aluminium measures are inconsistent with US obligations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), a WTO panel cannot examine whether the Section 232 measures violate the GATT because the US considers the measures to be necessary for the protection of its essential security interests under GATT Article XXI  the so-called national security exception.



Auto Section 232

The WTO's ruling could also affect automotive tariffs that could potentially be imposed by Trump.



In mid-February, US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross formally submitted to Trump his report on the Section 232 investigation into the effects of automobiles and auto parts imports on national security, although the content of the report has not yet been made public.



Potential Section 232 tariffs on imported automobiles and auto parts, under which the same legal premise is used for tariffs and quotas on US imports of steel and aluminium, are a bigger concern for global automakers because they have invested billions of dollars over the past few decades to take advantage of international trade and cost arbitrage. The possibility of such tariffs threatens to wildly disrupt existing trade patterns, industry experts have said.



WTO still at impasse

Even with the first ruling on national security, the WTO still faces a dilemma in dealing with the Section 232 challenges.



On one hand, the US could pull out of the organization if the WTO rules against the national security rationale behind Section 232. On the other, if the WTO rules in favor of the US, other countries could similarly impose tariffs or quotas on a wide range of products by citing national security concerns.




Representatives of Google, Facebook, and Twitter are set to face United States lawmakers later this week and be subjected to a grilling over 21st-century censorship. Yes, another one.

A Republican-controlled Senate Judiciarys subcommittee chaired by GOP Senator Ted Cruz will be fielding questions over alleged bias the top names in the Silicon Valley are exhibiting in some of their content policies, according to recent reports.

The hearing with an ominous title of Stifling Free Speech: Technological Censorship and the Public Discourse is scheduled to take place in Washington on April 10. The very name of the hearing makes it sound as if the subcommittee already decided on the social media giants guilt and will simply be using the allotted time to score cheap political points with their base. For one reason or another, the aforementioned tech giants are said to be playing along with whats shaping up to be a farce; Facebook officially confirmed its public policy director Neil Potts will be in attendance, scheduled to give a testimony, whereas insiders claim Google and Twitter will also be sending their own representatives to answer questions at the hearing as well.

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If all of that sounds familiar, its because the GOP already held several such hearings throughout 2018, even after it became clear its losing the control of the House, and with it, to power to actually legislative without compromising on anything with the other side of the political spectrum in the country.

The U.S. is presently at its most ideologically polarizing point in recent memory, yet even now both the DNC and GOP appear to agree some kind of social media regulation is a requirement. Neither appears to be too keen on proposing it for the time being; instead, theyre running in circles with hearings led by old people who dont understand technology. As a result, unique and important opportunities such as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerbergs public hearing are being squandered on questions about how the Internet works, with tech media executives being more than happy to oblige and waste time on such trivial matters.

On one of the most recent occasions of such wasted opportunities, Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, had to explain why images of President Donald Trump appear when people search for the term idiot online. As a result, precious minutes were wasted on explanations about how Google doesnt have a tiny man sitting behind an Internet-themed curtain and making tasteless political jokes whenever the opportunity to do so arises. To make matters even more pointless, those explanations were aimed in the direction of ancient lawmakers who have already made up their mind on the issue or at least have a public position they wont back away from as doing anything else would be political suicide.

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How the U.S. ended up at this point is difficult to say, though the decay must have already started by the time the 2016 presidential race was in full swing and the likes of Facebook and Google failed to even detect suspicious foreign activity that was later proven as Russian meddling into the American democratic process.
A top British official in charge of cybersecurity referred to Huaweis network security and engineering practices as shoddy and alluded to a potential selective ban coming in the Chinese companys direction further down the road.

Dr. Ian Levy, the Technical Director of the National Cyber Security Centre, a division of the Government Communications Headquarters, just went on record to state the core part of the United Kingdoms fifth-generation mobile networks may be off the limits to Huaweis technologies.

His commentary comes on the heels of an alarming report that blasts Huaweis engineering work due to its vulnerability potential, as well as some already identified oversights. Whats particularly damning about that paper is that it was authored by an oversight agency partially funded by Huawei itself, so hardly an unbiased actor but instead an oversight body thats a core part of the agreement allowing Huawei to continue operating in the British wireless segment.

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Quite frankly, the Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre (HCSEC) Oversight Board concluded that the Shenzen-based firm poses a threat to the UK national security in late March. While Huawei did not outright deny the entirety of its claims like it usually does, it has yet to fully elaborate on its promise to look into the British governments concerns.

Thats not a significant improvement over how Huawei has been handling the matter of the UKs warnings since 2018 seeing how the company took nearly a year to even start acknowledging some of the complaints London launched its way.

The British administration is now quite obviously losing patience as its resorting to more direct threats, which is how Dr. Levys comments could certainly be interpreted.

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The industry veteran likened the current state of Huaweis engineering practices to the year 2000, concluding hes far from being convinced the worlds largest telecom equipment maker has what it takes to be competitive on the cybersecurity front in 2019.

Huawei can take some solace in the fact that the UK appears to be the only country currently adamant on pressuring the firm into getting its bearings on the network security front under the threat of being (partially) banned from its 5G deployment efforts. Germany, Canada, Japan, and the Czech Republic reportedly considered doing so in recent months but those efforts eventually cooled down.

Ironically, Huawei may actually have the United States to thank for that as Washington appears to have become too aggressive in its endeavors to convince its allies to drop the companys technologies altogether. Things went too far, at least in the case of Germany, with Berlin now making it a diplomatical point to resist U.S. demands and approach the matter of assessing Huawei from a perfectly neutral perspective, free even from the opinion of one of its traditionally strongest allies since World War II.

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Due to that state of affairs, Huawei remains relatively safe in regards to additional country bans, at least for the time being. The U.S. and Australia remain the only two countries that have outright banned its wireless equipment, which is a pair of hits Huawei can certainly live with and continue onward with its mission of retaining its status of the worlds largest maker of wireless gear.
Posted on: April 8, 2019 8:04 PM

The editor of the Anglican Communion News Service, Gavin Drake, is to be the next Director for Communications for the Anglican Communion. Gavin Drake, who has a long track record as a respected journalist, also has extensive experience in communications and public relations, having previously worked as Senior Communications Officer for the Evangelical Alliance in the UK and Director of Communications for the Church of Englands Diocese of Lichfield. He will succeed Adrian Butcher when he stands down next month.

Gavin Drakes experience in journalism began with the contemporary Christian music magazine Cross Rhythms. He moved on to cover Devon and Cornwall as a news journalist for many of Britains national newspapers, television and radio stations before moving into public relations. After 15 years in PR, including several years as a consultant for political groups and Christian charities, he returned to journalism in 2011. During this time he provided occasional cover as editor of the Anglican Communion Service, including 16 months as interim editor, from October 2015 to January 2017. He was appointed full time editor of ACNS in December 2017.

I am deeply honoured to have been asked to serve as the Anglican Communions Director for Communications, he said. I have enjoyed working with Adrian Butcher and I am pleased with the improvements we have been able to implement. I look forward to developing communications further, both in the run-up to the Lambeth Conference in 2020 and beyond it.

Welcoming the appointment, the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, Dr Josiah Idowu-Fearon, said: Gavin has a long history of supporting the Anglican Communion.

His extensive knowledge of the Communion and his many contacts in the Provinces bode well for our future communications work. I look forward to working more closely with him in the months and years ahead.
Posted on: April 8, 2019 8:06 PM

The Anglican Communions Director for Women in Church and Society, Canon Terrie Robinson, is to step down at the end of May. Terrie Robinson joined the staff of the Anglican Communion Office more than 16 years ago to support ecumenical and intra-Anglican dialogues. Within a few years she was asked to take on a role supporting the official Anglican Communion Networks and was asked to create a Womens Desk.

It has been an extraordinary journey, she said. The Womens Desk was quickly in demand and it became clear that courageous grass root Anglican initiatives to improve the status of women and girls and tackle gender-based violence within and beyond our churches were somewhat isolated and often escaped the notice of church leaders.

Gender equality in terms of just power relationships between women and men, girls and boys has been seen as a peripheral area of mission, rather than an essential building block for Gods reign and a pre-requisite to flourishing families, communities and nations. At base, my own work as Director for Women in Church and Society has therefore focussed on raising awareness and improving knowledge about power and discrimination, making connections within and beyond the Communion, and promoting positive theology and biblical interpretation.

Along the way I have worked with so many faithful and inspirational women and men who are determined to see our churches contribute to the making of just communities where no-one is burdened or diminished, or destroyed, by harmful social norms and practices. There is so much we can be proud of but there is still so much to do.

It takes more than a few years to undo the attitudes and abuses compounded by centuries of patriarchal values, but through the strength of heaven and the courage of those striving to create enabling environments for women and girls, we will get there.

She added: family circumstances mean that its now time for me to move on. I will deeply miss my colleagues at the ACO and around the world and will keep all in my prayers.
Posted on: April 8, 2019 8:09 PM

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York, Justin Welby and John Sentamu, have invited Christians around the world to pray for more people to know Christ. The invitation comes in the run-up to the now-annual Thy Kingdom Come global wave of prayer, which runs from Ascension to Pentecost. The invitation was initially given to clergy of the Church of England in 2016, but was quickly adopted by Christian leaders of different denominations in the UK and around the world.

This weekend, in two separate videos, Archbishops Justin and John Sentamu invited Christians to take part in their own unique ways.

Archbishop Justin encouraged Christians to pray in whatever manner works for them whilst also promoting the new Common Worship Daily Prayer app, which was produced in partnership with the Church of England.

It doesn't matter if you pray formally or informally, just pray, Archbishop Justin said in the short video, which was filmed in the historic Lollards prison tower at Lambeth Palace.

In his video, Archbishop John encouraged Christians to pray for five people. Will you find five people, pray for them, on the hour every hour when their names come through?, he said. You are going to be surprised on how your own prayer life actually becomes a joy and a delight.

This years Thy Kingdom Come event runs from 30 May to 9 June.

Each year during the movement, daily-themed content is sent out to participants such as video reflections, podcasts and Bible readings usually from high profile Christian leaders.

However, this year, they have focused on incorporating a wider range of voices, drawing on the faith of what organisers call everyday people, such as Christian emergency service workers and Army personnel alongside more well-known voices such as the speaker and author Krish Kandiah; the new Worldwide President of the Mothers Union, Sheran Harper; and the world-renowned theologian, Bishop Tom Wright.

It also features young voices such as Jasmine Yeboah, the British Methodist Conferences Youth President-designate for 2018-19 and some of the current members of the Community of St Anselm  the new monastic community for young people based at Lambeth Palace.

Thy Kingdom Come also recently launched its newly revamped website complete with resources available in eight different languages and with a new engagement feature share and shine your light, which allows those who sign up, to shine their light on a global map and share it across social media.

We really wanted to focus on the power of story this year so have a wonderful range of videos on this very theme, Thy Kingdom Comes Project Director Emma Buchan said. We are really excited by these range of voices and hope that it will encourage Christians to go deeper in their prayer and discipleship during these 11 days.

Since the movement began, more than a million Christians from 65 different denominations and traditions, in more than 114 countries worldwide, have prayed for more people to come to faith in Christ.
The Congress on Monday termed the BJP's 'Sankalp Patra' as 'jhansa patra' (a deluded manifesto), and said the document failed to mention demonetisation, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's much-debatable decision to replace high value currency notes with new ones, which was supposed to end the flow of black money.

Slamming the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s Lok Sabha manifesto for upcoming polls, the Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said what was missing from the document was any mention of jobs, notebandi (demonetisation), GST and black money.

Demonetisation of high-value currency notes -- Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes - was a step taken by PM Modi to bring back money that was out of the banking system.

Addressing media in New Delhi, top Congress leaders including Ahmed Patel and Randeep Singh Surjewala highlighted some of the BJP manifesto's flaws. During the media interaction, the Congress leaders later released document called '125 broken promises of BJP', listing the many tall promises the party made in the 2014 election manifesto.

It is worth notables that BJP has not listed demonetisation as achievement in its 2019 election manifesto. In the past, the BJP had described the note ban as a key step in a chain of important decisions taken by the government to formalize the economy.

One of the key poll promises of Narendra Modi-led BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections was bringing back the black money. Before he became Prime Minister, Modi vowed to bring all illicit money stashed away in foreign countries, and promised that poor people in the country would get Rs 15 lakh each.

In the President's note, Amit Shah mentioned demonetisation only once as one of the historic achievements of our government. "In its tenure of five years, the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been able to take many decisions which are historic and has ushered in a comprehensive and fundamental transformation," BJP President Amit Shah said.

Also Read: BJP's 2019 manifesto cover has a stark difference from its manifesto cover five years ago

Highlighting the work done by Narendra Modi-led NDA government in the last five years, he said, "Swachh Bharat Mission, Ujjawala Yojana, Saubhagya Yojana, Demonetisation, GST, Surgical Strikes, Air Strikes, total electrification, provision for housing for 2.5 crore families, health insurance under Ayushman Bharat for more than 50 crore people and disbursement of loans to more than 14 crore people under MUDRA Yojana are some of the historic achievements of our government."

Last week, Indian Express had reported that India's tax department recorded a huge surge in the number of "stop filers" in the financial year in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation. According to the report, the number of stop filers spiked over 10-fold to 88.04 lakh from 8.56 lakh in 2015-16. The report mentioned that this number does not include taxpayers who have passed away or whose PAN cards have been cancelled or surrendered in that year.

The total value of invalidated Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes at the time of demonetisation was Rs 15.44 lakh crore, out of which only Rs 16,000 crore was not returned to the RBI. As per the final numbers disclosed by the RBI in August 2018, Rs 15.31 lakh crore returned to the banking regulator which was far higher than the government expectation of recovering only Rs 10 lakh crore.

Edited by Chitranjan Kumar

Also Read: Lok Sabha elections 2019 LIVE: Our manifesto is a letter on good governance, national security, prosperity, says Modi
Marysville, CA (95901)

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Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low 38F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph..

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Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low 38F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.
The new programme was launched during the ACI Asia-Pacific World Annual General Assembly, Conference and Exhibition which took place in Hong Kong, on April 3.



During the event Abu Dhabi International Airport (AUH) was recognized as one of six airports who contributed to the development of the new programme, and the first and only airport in the Middle East and North Africa to be accredited.



The programme forms a part of ACIs globally-established Airport Service Quality (ASQ) program, and is designed to help airports implement best practices, educate employees and ensure customer satisfaction through service excellence.



Bryan Thompson, chief executive officer of Abu Dhabi Airports, said: Providing our customers and passengers with a seamless experience and making sure they are happy with our services is among our foremost priorities at Abu Dhabi Airports. We are delighted to have had the opportunity to contribute to the ACIs development of the new Airport Customer Experience Accreditation program and proud to announce AUHs status as the first and only airport in the region to be accredited.



As a part of the accreditation process, each airport is required to ensure the highest levels of training and service accreditation for their staff, enabling them to deliver best in class services.
It struck me a couple of months ago that Mrs. Tshad made her even more deserving than usual of a just-because-I-love-you present. Since she now spends most of her time at our farmhouse in Connecticut, I decided to give her a work of art that would not only be pleasing specifically to her (our tastes are not identical, though they overlap widely) but would also be suitable for hanging there. It took a bit of thinking and even more looking, but I finally succeeded in tracking down a copy of an etching, John Marins The Lobster Fisherman, that filled both bills to perfection.

I have trouble keeping secrets from Mrs. T, something that amuses her no end, but I somehow managed to order The Lobster Fisherman and get it framed on the sly, and Im delighted to report that it went over big when I finally brought it home to Connecticut last week.

Marin, Americas first cubist and one of the twentieth-century artists whose work means the most to me, is best remembered today for his watercolors. I use the term remembered somewhat loosely, for he is no longer very well known by name, either in this country or elsewhere. Such, however, was not always the case, as I explained when Ithat ran inback in 2011:

Sooner or later, everyone who writes about John Marin gets around to mentioning the 1948 Look magazine poll of 68 critics, curators and museum directors who, when asked to name Americas greatest living painters, put him at the top of the list. Five years later, the headline of Mr. Marins New York Times obituary described him as Artist Considered by Many as Americas No. 1 Master. No less a highbrow than the art critic Clement Greenberg concurred, predicting that Mr. Marin and Jackson Pollock would compete for recognition as the greatest American painter of the 20th century. So why does Mr. Marin so often get the John Who? treatment? For its better than even money that unless you happen to be a connoisseur of American modernism or an art-history major, his name is unknown to you. Its been 21 years since a major U.S. museum last put together a full-scale retrospective of his work. New Yorks Museum of Modern Art owns 25 Marinsbut not a single one of them is currently on view. Why, then, is Mr. Marin so underappreciated by the art-world elite? The standard explanation is that even though he marched to the edge of abstraction, it seems never to have occurred to him to turn his back on the visible world. The sea that I paint may not be the sea, he wrote, but it is a seanot an abstraction. After the rise of Abstract Expressionism in the 1940s, his deep-rooted belief in representation came to be seen as old-fashioned, even quaint.

Nothing, alas, has changed since then: Marin remains the most underappreciated of American masters. The good news, however, is that this makes him more affordable to those of us who know his worth. To be sure, Marins watercolors are well above my pay grade, but his best etchings are precisely comparable in quality, and the two that I love most, Downtown. The El and The Lobster Fisherman, happen to have been printed in larger-than-usual editions, thus making them accessible to collectors of modest means. In addition, these two etchings represent between them his favorite subjects: the first is an urban cityscape, the second a marine study. To own them both, then, is to own a Marin Museum in miniature.

Not surprisingly, Downtown. The El was one of the very first pieces of art that I bought, a couple of years before I met Mrs. T. Iin 2003, on the day that this blog first went live:

I just bought a copy of John Marins 1921 etching Downtown. The El, and its a beautya nervous cubist spiderweb that captures some of the sheer excitement of this crazy city in which I insist on living. Its already taught me a lesson, which is that the ultimate test of the quality of a work of art is whether you can look at it every day without getting bored or irritated. So far, so good.

Downtown. The El now hangs over the couch in our Manhattan living room, and I look at it as often and as appreciatively today as I did sixteen years ago. For some reason, though, it never occurred to me to buy a copy of The Lobster Fisherman until I realized that it would make an ideal present for Mrs. T, a bred-in-the-bone New England girl who loves lobster and everything to do with its catching and cooking as much as she does modern art.

I started searching, and within a couple of weeks Id found a flawless, richly inked impression of The Lobster Fisherman, one whose only defect made it an even more attractive purchase. Marin, it seems, never got around to pencil-signing this particular copy, an oversight that erased a zero from the end of the price tagand yes, were talking three figures, in case youre wondering whether you can afford to buy real art. Believe me, you can. (I knocked down the exquisite 1888 Berthe Morisot etching in the hall of our Manhattan apartment for a hundred dollars.). Now Mrs. T is happily fussing over where to hang it.

For those of you interested in such things, The Lobster Fisherman, which was etched in 1948 and printed two years later in an edition of 125, is based on a much lesser-known oil canvas of the same name that Marin also painted in 1948. (Its present whereabouts are unknown, at least to me.)

As is not infrequently the case with prints that have been based on pre-existing paintings, the etching reduces the painting to a simpler, even more immediately arresting image, an electric tangle of scrawled lines of black ink that puts me in mind of what an anonymous staffer for Life wrote about Marins work in 1950:

His scenes of the Maine coast, sailing ships and towering city skylines are never entirely realistic yet never unrecognizably abstract. They are glimpses into a single momentthe jostling of a city mob or the whipping of the wind through a schooners rigging.

Mrs. T and I lost our hearts to the coast of Maine the first time we went there, but until now we had yet to acquire a piece of art that reminded us of how we feel about it. (This one, for instance, always makes us think of our many visits to New Yorks Hudson Valley.) Whenever we look at The Lobster Fisherman, I expect it will fill us both with memories of some of the best times weve spent together. This, too, is one of the special joys of living with art.

For the record, copies of The Lobster Fisherman are also owned by the Georgia Museum of Art, Houstons Museum of Fine Arts, New Yorks Whitney Museum of American Art, Washingtons National Gallery of Art, Phillips Collection, and Smithsonian American Art Museum, and in the John Marin Collection of Maines Colby College Museum of Art. I have yet to see it hanging in any of those fine institutions, though, and I doubt they care about their copies as much as the curator of the Connecticut branch of the Teachout Museum will henceforth care about hers.
The UK High Court on Monday rejected fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya's plea against extradition. Mallya has the option of appealing to the Supreme Court. This process might involve at least another six weeks.

Mallya who is facing charges of fraud, money laundering and violation of FEMA had earlier appealed at the UK High Court against UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid's extradition decision.

The rejection of Mallya's appeal is a major boost for Indian agencies who have been trying to bring the embattled liquor baron back to India, on charges of not paying back loans worth Rs 9,000 crore.

On December 9, the Westminster Magistrate's Court had ordered Vijay Mallya's extradition to stand trial on charges brought by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Also Read: Vijay Mallya is broke and living off his partner, children: report

In her verdict at the end of a year-long extradition trial in December last year, Judge Emma Arbuthnot had ruled that the flashy billionaire had a case to answer in the Indian courts. The court had also dismissed any bars to extradition on the grounds of the prison conditions under which the businessman would be held, as the judge accepted the Indian government's assurances that he would receive all necessary medical care at Barrack 12 in Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail.

The development came days after reports claimed that Vijay Mallya is broke, bankrupt and is only left with assets worth Rs 2,956 crore. Mallya's lawyers have told the court that he offered to curb his living expenses to pay back his debt. These details on were part of Mallya's response to a bankruptcy petition presented by 13 Indian banks on September 11, 2018, which will be heard in December 2019.

Also Read: Court allows sale of Vijay Mallya's shares worth Rs 1,000 crore

Last month, Mallya had slammed the PSUs for "double standards" under the Modi regime as the same lenders made his Kingfisher Airlines "fail ruthlessly". Mallya had also blamed the government for not doing anything for him. Mallya had offered the PSU banks to pay off dues of the Jet Aiways from his assets. Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines had face similar crisis as Jet back in 2012 causing the airline to go bankrupt and resultant losses running into millions, lessors, job losses and massive writedowns by banks.

Mallya has been based in the UK since March 2016 and remains on bail on an extradition warrant executed by Scotland Yard in April 2017.

Edited by Chitranjan Kumar
German investment in the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been increasing steadily and has the potential to grow further in the coming years. In the first part of this five-part article, we analyzed German investment in Brunei and Cambodia, and in the second part, we covered Indonesia and Laos. We next look at Malaysia and Myanmar.

Malaysia

Ranked 28 on the Market Potential Index 2018, Malaysia represents a fast-growing market with a huge potential for German products.

The country is also ranked 15 on the World Banks Ease of Doing Business Index 2018. Known for its excellent track record in the areas of protection of minority investors and issuance of construction permits, Malaysia has remained an attractive investment destination within ASEAN for German companies, who have invested a total of US$ 481 million in the country in 2017.

German  Malaysian Relations at a Glance

Goods worth around US$6.11 billion were exported from Germany to Malaysia in 2018. The export numbers were largely consistent in recent years. On the other hand, Germany imported US$10.6 billion worth of goods from Malaysia in 2018, which was a steady increase compared to the preceding years. Imports mainly consist of electronics, electrical and electronic equipment.

Several German companies have already established business operations in Malaysia, including Siemens, Audi, BMW and MAN. Malaysia is especially attractive for companies from Bavaria, one of the main high-tech producing areas in Germany. Recently the Bavarian international business promotion organisation has signed a MoU for the improvement of high-tech collaboration between the two regions. Malaysia with its strategic location, access to the ASEAN market and a desire for future technologies represents an attractive destination for German tech companies.

Investment Outlook

With a consistent annual growth rate of close to 4.5 percent and the easy market entry conditions, Malaysia represents a perfect opportunity for German business operations. Malaysia continues to implement programs for the improvement of the skills of the countrys workforce with the objective of having 45 percent skilled workers by 2030. In particular, in regard of its aspirations for industry 4.0, various skill development programs are in place.

Malaysia is highly dependent on imports for medical equipment. This opens vast opportunities for German companies to export to Malaysia, to build up factories or contribute the machines for independent production. The aspirations of the Malaysian government to become a regional medical tourism hub plays to the advantage of German exporters to export or settle down in Malaysia.

Smart manufacturing or Industry 4.0 is increasingly popular in Malaysia. As Germany has led its development in Europe, Malaysia highly welcomes German investments in this sector to help the country to become a regional high-technology hub. An exchange program Malaysian Engineers  Made in Germany provides young local engineers the chance to get insight into German technologies and then help building up facilities in Malaysia. Especially, the German machine construction industry can highly benefit from this increasing demand for imports.

There are also increased opportunities in the chemical industry, which expects further growth. In particular, pharma, consumer goods and products for the construction industry will experience high growth rates due to increasing demands.

In the energy sector, the government focuses on diversification and aims at increasing the share of renewable energies of the total energy product from 2 to 20 percent (without water power) by 2020. This opens up vast opportunities for German companies as most of the knowledge, facilities and investment in these operations comes from abroad.

Revival of airplane production hub

The hub in Subang which was announced several years ago is going to be revived and is poised to become the largest regional aerospace hub. With recent demand of new investment opportunities, the government aims to implement the industrial park again. The government and private organizations want to develop the park into one of the biggest aviation service providers in the region.

Situated strategically within ASEAN, one of the worlds fastest growing economic regions, the hub can be a supplier and repair station for several major economies. German high-tech firms that provide several services for the aerospace industry can explore vast opportunities to get involved and to help build regional hubs.

Labuan  Offshore opportunities

Labuan is a small island within Malaysia that offers a liberal tax regime and other incentives. The advantageous of establishing a business easily as well as the comparable cheap prices are especially interesting for companies newly entering the ASEAN market.

While Labuan is a part of Malaysia and therefore ASEAN it offers perfect possibilities for offshore companies to establish regional offices as they have access to the ASEAN market. At the same time, it offers low prices in comparison to Singapore which is the current main hub for offshore companies to establish offices within the region.

Risk Analysis

Malaysia has in the recent years has introduced several investment projects especially with the help of China. From high-speed railways to an entirely newly established city called Forest City, large parts of these projects were investigated and stopped by the government as they exceeded the governments budget which faced several problems recently.

Especially regarding the aspirations in industry 4.0 and high-tech industry, Malaysia has several challenges to manage. First, the skill level of workers needs to be increased to keep up with the demand of international and local high-tech companies. Second, the close proximity to Singapore, which is already a high-tech hub, could potentially be a problem as several German companies have their high-tech branches there and see no incentive to move to Malaysia.

Myanmar

With enhancing growing economy in recent years, Myanmar represents a market with vast investment potential for German companies. With steady FDI inflows in recent years, a strategic location between China and India and within ASEAN, Myanmar serves as an attractive investment destination.

German  Myanmar Relations at a glance

In 2018, Germany exported goods worth US$144.5 million, though exports have been declining in recent years. On the other side, German imports increased to US$1 billion in 2018, which is a significant improvement on previous years. German imports from Myanmar are largely focused on textiles and footwear.

So far not many German companies have ventured into the Myanmar market. In recent times, energy and infrastructure projects have especially caught the attention of German companies that want to invest in Myanmar and aim to expand their business. With the recent opening of Myanmar, the ways to get involved expand quickly.

Investment Outlook

With growth rates of over 6 percent in the recent years and government measures to open up the economy, Myanmar becomes increasingly interesting for investors. The reforms in the banking sector and liberalization of market access for foreign banks make investments in the local economy more attractive.

The food and beverages sector contributes two thirds to the total goods production in Myanmar. International brands have already viewed the large investment opportunities and moved production facilities to Myanmar or plans to establish new ones. Germany with a strong machine industry can position itself here as an important facilitator.

Since the end of sanctions on the textile industry in Europe and the US the sector experienced expansion to three times the exports in the last five years. As shown above, the majority of exports are textiles. About 400 factories are involved in the sector, of which 171 are entirely foreign-owned.

Further, opening of bids for oil and gas exploration is announced for 2019. 18 onshore and 12 offshore blocks will be offered. German tech-companies can especially offer services as supply companies for machines and high-tech equipment.

The renewable energy sector also offers opportunities for German investors. Solar and wind power play a major role in future development and for potential involvement of German corporations for providing knowledge and high-tech equipment.

The common border with China and Chinas large infrastructure plans under the Belt and Road initiative opens up further possibilities. With low wages, Myanmar is attractive for companies that are considering moving from China to another country while still supplying the Chinese market. Special Economic Zones are already in the planning and under construction.

National Logistics Master Plan

The National Logistics Master Plan aims at connecting Myanmar with the surrounding countries and to develop economic exchange while increasing the competitiveness of Myanmar as a manufacturing hub. The Plan connects China and India in the North with the economic centres in Yangon and Mandalay and further the Southern Economic Corridor.

This further connects Myanmar with Thailand and Cambodia and opens up vast possibilities for manufacturers to establish supply firms in Myanmar that produces products for factories in Thailand.

Risk Analysis

Myanmar opens up vast opportunities but at the same time holds a lot of risks as well.

First, the number of skilled workers is low and does not allow complex manufacturing activities in the country. The government recently opened up the local education market especially for foreign education provider.

The major influence of China that represents the grand majority of all FDI could also display a potential risk factor. Chinas control of the infrastructure projects especially in the north could also have adverse effects.

In the fourth part of this five-part article, we will look at German FDI in the Philippines and Singapore.
When Singapore became independent a little more than 50 years ago, the small and resource-poor developing country originally had little chance of survival. Today, the city-state has risen to become the economic hub of Asia, and is mentioned alongside other financial centers such as New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo. Now its financial sector is facing new challenges and rapid digital progress, with technologies such as blockchain and 5G, which will have an even greater impact on it in the foreseeable future.

Singapores Fintech Sector

Financial technology, or Fintech, has experienced rapid growth in recent years.

In addition to combining traditional financial services with technological solutions, Fintech also unites e-commerce, infrastructure service providers and telecommunications companies under one roof. While investment in the Fintech sector in Asia generally tended to decline, according to Fintech Global statistics, investment in Singapore reached a new record high of US$ 365 million in 2018. By comparison, the investment was US$ 20.8 million in 2014 and US$ 229.10 million in 2017.

This rapid growth is due in particular to the excellent environment Singapore offers to the Fintech sector. In addition to a high per capita income and an excellent infrastructure, the country also offers an ultra-high-speed fiber optic network, which has helped Singapore, to achieve a download speed of up to 55.52 Mbps, ranking first in a worldwide comparison of the fastest broadband connections in 2019. Furthermore, the growth of the Fintech sector is facilitated by various policy initiatives, tax incentives and a favorable regulatory environment.

Regulatory environment and supportive policy measures

Although there are no specific regulations governing the Fintech sector in Singapore, certain financial services provided by Fintech companies fall within the scope of existing regulatory systems in the banking sector. Companies wishing to invest in this sector should therefore urgently examine whether they fall under one of the current regulatory systems, e.g. the Banking Act, the Insurance Act or the Financial Institutions Act. Responsible for the supervision of Fintech companies is the Singapore Monetary Authority. In recent years, this organ has helped Fintech companies to test promising innovations on the market.

The so-called sandbox is one instrument that enables Fintech companies to experiment with innovative financial products and services over a certain period of time and within a controlled environment. The main advantages are the ease of the legal and regulatory conditions during the time in the sandbox and the protection in case of disturbances or the failure of experiments. Companies wishing to apply for the sandbox must use new or emerging technologies, or use existing technologies in an innovative way and go through an application and evaluation process with the Singapore Monetary Authority. Upon completion of the sandbox phase, any easing of legal and regulatory requirements will be lifted and companies must fully comply with all regulatory requirements.

In addition to this, Singapores central bank began rolling out initiatives to support Fintech companies as early as 2017. Alongside the conclusion of cooperation agreements with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and other institutions in the United States, South America, South Korea, Australia and Hong Kong and the development of a cross-border platform for commercial financing using blockchain technologies, the Singapore Monetary Authority also provided US$225 million for the development of Fintech projects. In parallel, Fintech innovation hotbeds such as the 80RR Fintech Hub SG are increasingly being built in Singapore.

In 2017, the approximately 100,000 square meter large office building was opened in the heart of Singapores business district and has since housed both international and local Fintech companies and start-ups. We are very excited to support and promote the rapidly developing Fintech sector by providing an innovative environment and premises at competitive prices for start-ups and other Fintech companies, said an 80RR spokesperson.

Besides the examples above, there are many other programs and opportunities for Fintech companies and start-ups in Singapore that make the city an attractive investment destination.

Cybersecurity through Blockchain

What repeatedly hinders the development and implementation of Fintech, especially in European countries, are the concerns of users regarding the security of such Fintech solutions. Experts see a solution to this confidence problem in the development of blockchains. The blockchain technology was originally developed to store and send the first crypto currency, Bitcoin. With the development of technology, however, it has also established itself worldwide for other purposes, in particular as a means of increasing cyber security. Blockchains are decentralized databases, that are often referred to as digital ledgers, which chain a continuous list of data records by using cryptography. The special feature of this new technology is the ability to store and manage information of any kind, rather than on a central server, distributed on various computers, similar to a publicly accessible database.

It is precisely this particular feature that makes it possible to increase cyber security. By publishing every transaction, including even the smallest details, an enormous transparency is created between transaction partners, which offers all stakeholders a high level of security and better protection against hacker attacks. In this way, the blockchain technology is able to close basic security gaps.

In 2016, Global eTrade Services (GeTS), a subsidiary of CrimsonLogic, launched the Open Trade Blockchain (OTB), the worlds first cross-border blockchain for trade between ASEAN and Chinas digital silk road. With the help of such blockchains, global trade can become more efficient, secure and transparent, and sectors that depend on cyber security and transparency can benefit from it in the future.

Opportunities for foreign companies

It is easy for foreign investors to invest in Singapores fintech sector as there are no particular government restrictions.

In addition to the attractive environment that Singapore offers for growth and innovation for both local and international Fintech companies, the financial metropolis also serves as a gateway to Asian markets, especially the ASEAN states. For example, the company Grab, which was founded in Singapore and offers carpooling services, delivery services and logistics services via an App, is enjoying increasing popularity in some Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia. In some of these countries it is now possible to pay conveniently via smartphone with the GrabPay app launched by Grab in 2016.

These markets, however, have very underdeveloped Fintech sectors, which offers various opportunities for investing companies. The entire ASEAN region has a population of over 625 million, much larger than the EU with 504 million and the United States with 319 million. According to Fintech Global statistics, Singapore replaced Hong Kong as the leading Fintech hub in Asia as early as 2015 and was able to attract almost twelve times as many investments as Hong Kong in the first half of 2018. This is due in part to the simpler regulations in Singapore compared with Hong Kongs multi-level regulatory structure.

Singapore as a Fintech Oasis

Singapore has set itself high goals and wants to establish itself as the worlds greenest city as well as the capital of Asia. Already today, the small city-state, which its inhabitants trivially call The Little Red Dot, is increasingly referred to as the city of the future. With various political incentives and an attractive investment environment, the city offers outstanding opportunities to become a global Fintech haven.
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.
Union minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju has also taken note of this appeal.

Guwahati: An appeal by Arunachal Pradesh Catholic Association to all Parishes and Catholic churches to vote for ex-Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Nabam Tuki has stirred a debate in the frontier state where political parties are trying to show their commitment to secularism.

The prayer petition, which is now viral on the social media, said, Arunachal Pradesh Catholic Association appeal and request all the Parishes and catholic church in Arunachal to pray for Mr Nabam Tuki who is contesting ensuing Lok Sabha election 2019 from Western parliamentary constituency. He is the pillar of catholic church in Arunachal Pradesh.

Various circles on social media have condemned the appeal. Union minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju has also taken note of this appeal.

While posting the prayer petition of the catholic association Mr Rijiju on his facebook page wrote, This is not proper. We all are children of the God who never discriminates. Democracy is system in which the government is elected by the people. Ive always served the people with full sincerity. I help all the believers and religious organisations. If anyone has doubt please contact most Reverend Bishop P.K. George to know about my contributions. Please pray for me and everyone.

The APCA letter signed by secretary general Pekhi Nabum also requested to all the voters of catholic communities who are going to cast their votes on April 11 to vote in favour of Mr Tuki.

In what has certainly provoked the ruling BJP, the appeal of catholic association has triggered a fresh debate on the role of Christian missionaries in the Northeast.

The leaders of other political parties like National Peoples Party has also raised question over the appeal of catholic association to vote for Congress candidate.
Members of a housing society at Karaya Road in Park Circus have apparently decided to block the entry of any Muslim tenants.

New Delhi: One of the countrys last bastions of secular politics, West Bengal, seems to be crumbling under the weight of communalisation. With the resurgence of the BJP, anti-minority feeling is spreading rapidly, particularly in Kolkata, which once prided itself for protecting minority rights.

While the Congress had virtually disintegrated over the years in the state, the influence of the Left parties too has been on the wane. Statistics show that the Left won less than 10 per cent of seats in the 2016 Assembly polls. In the 2018 panchayat polls, the Left parties slipped to third place behind the Trinamul Congress and the BJP.

The fight in the state is mainly between the Trinamul Congress and the BJP. West Bengal, one of the most politically crucial states of India, will undergo a lengthy seven-phase polling, starting from April 11.

Moving around recently in Kolkata, which has four Lok Sabha seats (Kolkata South, Kolkata North, Jadavpur and Dum Dum), one can sense simmering anti-minority sentiments. The BJPs one-point agenda in West Bengal is to polarise votebanks. This seems to be working in the urban areas in particular.

Members of a housing society at Karaya Road in Park Circus have apparently decided to block the entry of any Muslim tenants. We have decided not allow Muslims in our society, an association member told this newspaper. A senior journalist, who once used to attack the BJPs communal politics, is now ranting against the TMC for appointing Firhad Hakim as Kolkatas mayor. How can Kolkata have a Muslim mayor, he asked. A Bengali businessman from Salt Lake accused Mamata Banerjee of Muslim appeasement. Ajoy Mukherjee, a resident of north Kolkata who drives Uber cabs, indicated his preference for the BJP. Didi only thinks of Muslims, he said, and added: Look at the Muslim population in Bengal. It is growing rapidly. The demography is changing.

Madhusudan, a bookshop owner at College Street, felt that Hindus are losing their voice in Bengal. Ms Banerjees welfare scheme of monthly doles to imams have not gone down well with a large section of the Bengali middle class.

In one of his recent election rallies in the state, BJP president Amit Shah, playing the polarisation card, said: The Mamata Banerjee government provided a monthly allowance to imams, but not to priests. He also accused Ms Banerjee of imposing Urdu in schools.

Of the 42 Lok Sabha berths in West Bengal, the BJP chief has set a target of 23 seats. If the anti-minority feelings sweeping much of Kolkata translate into votes, and a similar feeling spills over into rural Bengal, if not 23, the BJP could be looking at anything between eight to 10 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The party has two MPs from the state at this point. As for voteshare, in the 2011 Assembly polls, the BJP got only four per cent of the vote. This jumped to 17 per cent in the 2014 general election. The BJP feels that the four-cornered fight in the state will only help the party to improve its tally.

Muslims, who constitute nearly 30 per cent of West Bengals population, are clearly backing Ms Banerjee. The BJP is trying desperately to consolidate the Hindu votebank in the state.

What appears to have hurt Bengali sentiments was Ms Banerjees move to halt the immersion of Durga idols to allow tazia processions during Muharram in 2017. This dangerous mix of politics and religion gave the BJP an opportunity to sneak in and unleash its mechanism to polarise the votebank. Ram Navami, which had been an obscure festival in West Bengal, suddenly took on new significance with thousands of RSS and BJP workers armed with swords and lathis holding processions across the state last year.

While the Bengali bhadralok appear to be falling for the BJPs muscular nationalism and aggressive Hindutva, the partys road to power Bengal also lies through the former Maoist hotbed, popularly called Junglemahal (Purulia, Jhargram, West Midnapore and Bankura districts). The shift in the tribal belt was evident as the Trinamul Congress lost at least 34 per cent of the panchayat seats in these three districts, while the BJP has won 150 panchayats in these areas.
The BJP leadership, including party president Amit Shah and chief ministers of NDA ruled states are expected to accompany him.

Modi will be filing his nominations from Varanasi on April 26 after seeking blessing from Baba Vishwanath. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The BJP on Sunday officially announced its 2019s Lok Sabha campaign themes focusing on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's honesty, ability to take major decisions and Modi-led NDA governments five-year performance, including on the national security front.

Launching Phir ek bar, Modi sarkar (Modi government, once more) campaign theme, the BJP asserted that the people will chose between Mr Modi led cohesive and tested NDA government or chaos and mahamilawat offered by the opposition.

Also, Mr Modi will be filing his nominations from Varanasi on April 26 after seeking blessing from Baba Vishwanath. Just like in 2014, he will hold a roadshow on April 25 from Ravidas gate in Lanka area to Godholia. The BJP leadership, including party president Amit Shah and chief ministers of NDA ruled states are expected to accompany him.

Varanasi will go to polls in the last phase of elections to be held on May 19 and nominations will begin from April 22. The BJPs manifesto is expected to be released on Monday.

Union minister and senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley, who officially launched the partys campaign themes, said, The poor, the middle class and the neo-middle class will be at the centre of the BJPs electioneering and took a swipe at the Con-gress for not even saying a word on the emerging middle class when it launched its manifesto.

Taking a swipe at the Opposition, Mr Jaitley said people have to decide between a government led by one captain or a team of 11 players, and that of 40 captains. Mr Jaitley, along with Railways minister Piyush Goyal and BJP general secretary Bh-upender Yadav, among ot-hers, addressed a conference in this regard where they also released slogans and video materials for the party's campaign.

The theme song 'Phir ek baar Modi sarkar banate hain(let's elect the Modi government again,) phir se kamal khilate hain(let the lotus blossom again)"". The video of the song also contains screenshots of newspaper reports of India's recent airstrikes on terror camps in Pakistan.
The Congress statement came the day BJP released its manifesto.

'BJP should issue maafi patra (apology letter) for injecting a lethal injection of unemployment, farmers suicide, closing of businesses and putting youth towards unemployment,' party's national spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill said. (Photo: ANI)

New Delhi: Congress on Monday said that BJP should issue an apology letter instead of a manifesto.

The Congress statement came the day BJP released its manifesto.

"BJP should issue maafi patra (apology letter) for injecting a lethal injection of unemployment, farmers suicide, closing of businesses and putting youth towards unemployment," party's national spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill told ANI.

He added, "BJP has cheated people; they should answer on the promises they made in 2014".

Taking a jibe at the BJP, Shergill said that the party has pushed the youth of the country towards "pakoda employment", linking it to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's comment in an interview that a person earning Rs 200 per day by selling pakodas is also employed.

Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading.
Puri was last week grilled by the Enforcement Directorate in Delhi in connection with the AgustaWestland helicopters purchase probe.

Bhopal: Income-tax sleuths on Sunday conducted pre-dawn searches in about 65 houses and business establishments of close aides and kin of Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath at several places in and outside the state for suspected tax evasion and hawala transactions.

A team of about 200 I-T department and police officers swooped down on these premises around 3 am and recovered Rs 10-14 crore, official sources said. Premises in Indore, Bhopal, Goa and Delhi (Green Park) were raided and those being searched included Mr Naths former officer on special duty (OSD) Pravin Kakkad, former adviser Rajendra Miglani and executives linked to his brother-in-laws firm Moser Bayer and his nephew Ratul Puris company, they said.

Mr Puri was last week grilled by the Enforcement Directorate in Delhi in connection with the AgustaWestland helicopters purchase probe.

Both Mr Kakkar and Mr Miglani had resigned from their posts just before the dates for Lok Sabha polls were announced, officials said. Mr Kakkad, a former MP police officer, had earlier served as OSD of former Union minister Kantilal Bhuria during the UPA regime.

Raids were also being conducted against Kolkata- based businessman Paras Mal Lodha, the sources added.

Mr Lodha was arrested by the ED on money laundering charges within days of demonetisation.

The department, this time, had a tip off about Mr Lodha-linked operatives making hawala transactions in connection with a money laundering case being pursued against Mr Naths brother-in-law Deepak Puri, official sources said.

Sources added there is a strong possibility that the cash recovered during the raid was meant to be 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.

Searches in an apartment in Bhopal, owned by a man identified as Ashwin Sharma, yielded around `nine crore, papers detailing transfers of over two dozen IAS and IPS officers, and documents showing acquisition of farm houses and agriculture lands, said a member of the raiding party.

In Indore, the raids were conducted at Mr Kakkads residence in Vijay Nagar area and other places linked to him, sources said.

Searches were also conducted at Mr Kakkads house in Bhopals Nadir Colony and a couple of other places in the state capital, they said.

Officials said documents related to undisclosed transactions worth `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 ruling Congress described the I-T raids as political vendetta. It is intimidation of Congress ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha at the behest of the Centre, AICC legal cell chairman and Congress candidate for Jabalpur LS constituency in MP Vivek Tankha said.

The BJP hit back saying thieves were now complaining against the watchman.

Blackmoney worth crores was recovered during the Income-Tax departments raid at the house of the private secretary of Kamal Nath. This has made one thing clear that those who are thieves have a complaint against the watchman, said BJPs national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya.
Military tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours had reached the brink in late-February this year.

New Delhi/Islamabad: Hours after Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi alleged India was planning to attack Pakistan again, possibly from April 16 to 20, New Delhi hit back Sunday evening, accusing Islamabad of creating a war hysteria and instigating Pakistan-based terror outfits to attack India. India also warned it reserved the right to respond to any cross-border terrorist attack.

Mr Qureshi, addressing a press conference at Multan, said Pakistan had credible intelligen-ce that India was planning another act of aggr-ession and that India can create a new drama in Kashmir on the pattern of Pulwama.

A new mishap could be staged... and its purpose will be to justify their [Indias] offensive against Pakistan and to increase diplomatic pressure against Islamabad.

New Delhi hit back, saying: 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.

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, the MEA added.

India 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. India reserves the right to respond firmly and decisively to any cross border terrorist attack.

Military tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours had reached the brink in late-February this year.
Every year, about 100,000 young men are drafted in April. If the number of volunteers is low, the other soldiers are picked by a lottery. The Ya Nak shrine is a popular pilgrimage destination for those trying their luck.

Bangkok (AsiaNews/Agencies)  Many young Thai men flock are flocking to a famous Buddhist shrine in Bangkok this week to offer prayers, in the hope of avoiding the military draft.

In Thailand, every 21-year-old male is potentially required to serve in the Forces. The process begins in April and involves enlisting about 100,000 recruits, for up to two years. Whilst some volunteer, most are selected via a lottery system whereby young men pick coloured cards out of a box: red for the draft and the coveted black for exemption.

For those who fear military service, the Ya Nak (Grandma Nak) shrine, located in Bangkoks Wat Mahabut temple, has become a popular pilgrimage destination.

Represented by a golden statue that depicts a woman with long black hair, sitting cross-legged with a child, Ya Nak is surrounded by gifts of flowers, toy cars and traditional Thai clothes.

Legend has it that whilst her husband was doing his military service, she died alone during childbirth.

Among those who turn to the sacred image are transsexuals not yet operated, such as Pasakorn Raksri.

Hailing from Kanchanaburi province, he endured the five-hour journey to Bangkok. "One of my concerns is my sexual appearance as it is not exactly what the army is looking for," Pasakorn said.

Others pray to Ya Nak because they have financial commitments as the sole breadwinner. "I am the only one who works in the family," said Thawatchai Saisawang, the father of a young girl.

Finally, there are those who were able to avoid the draft and return to Wat Mahabut temple out of gratitude. Utain Kamrit, a 22-year-old worker, is one of them.

Last year, during the lottery he prayed to Ya Nak. As it turned out, there was only one black card left in a box full of red cards. "I was thinking about her, asking her to help me," he said.
The BJP manifesto, Sankalp Patra, promises to be "responsive to the needs of the aspirational middle class" and states that the party "will make all efforts to ensure that our aspirational middle class has access to education, employment opportunities and suitable urban infrastructure for a better quality life."

But where will the employment opportunities come from?

The manifesto mentions 'employment' a dozen times -- a reading of these passages underline the party's thinking on the job-creating sectors. Infrastructure is one of them, and this seems like a doable idea given the current government's track record in road and logistics development. The manifesto says, "We will aim at next-generation infrastructure which will include gas grids and water grids, i-ways, regional airports and wayside amenities along national highways. We will continue the fast pace with more and more public and private investment and efficient ground level management on the building of infrastructure further and to improve the quality of life and enhance the ease of living. In addition to ensuring efficiency in the economy, this will also lead to the creation of a large number of jobs and livelihood opportunities".

Also Read: Women voters take note! Here's what BJP and Congress are promising you

The logistics industry has seen many policy changes over the past couple of years and efficiency in this sector is a precursor to success in manufacturing - Make in India has been a struggle for the NDA government.

What in Make in India could work over the next five years?

Interestingly, the BJP manifesto calls out defence, a sector where the private players struggle for large orders. A cursory glance at the major projects awarded over the past five years reveals two things: One, the chunkier orders have been bagged by foreign original equipment manufacturers (OEMs); and two, among Indian vendors, public sector units have bagged most of the projects. It has largely been a famine situation for the domestic private sector, and not the feast they expected when the NDA government came to power in 2014. During the last three years and the current year (up to October 2018), 121 contracts have been signed with Indian vendors worth about Rs 73,918 crore; the multinationals bagged contracts of more than double this amount. About 67 contracts were signed with foreign vendors worth about Rs 1,65,590 crore, data shared in the Lok Sabha states.

The manifesto, nevertheless, promises self-reliance in defence, yet again.

"In order to ensure self-reliance in the procurement of defence equipment, we have taken several effective steps in the last five years. For instance, the most modern AK-203 automatic rifles are being manufactured at Amethi under our 'Make in India in Defence' initiative. We are committed to focus on 'Make in India in Defence' to enable indigenous production of defence equipment. This will also generate employment and encourage investment in the defence sector," the manifesto says.

Apart from this, the BJP document mentions investments in clusters, which can go a long way in making the smaller manufacturers competitive. "We will invest in creating clusters/networks that can take on the world's best," the manifesto states. "Public procurement and government incentives will be used actively to build up these clusters and encourage job creation."

Expectedly, there is a lot of focus on start-ups - perhaps the only sector, apart from infrastructure and logistics, which is creating jobs today. BJP says it would set-up a new 'Entrepreneurial Northeast' scheme to provide financial support to the micro, small and medium industries. It would also launch a new scheme to provide collateral-free credit up to Rs 50 lakh for entrepreneurs. "We will guarantee 50 per cent of the loan amount for female entrepreneurs and 25 per cent of the loan amount for male entrepreneurs," the manifesto says. "We will continue to promote and encourage start-ups through the creation of a 'Seed Startup Fund' of Rs 20,000 crore."

Also read: Infra, power stocks rise after BJP announces manifesto

Also read: BJP using Ram Mandir in manifesto to sharpen communal polarisation: Yechury
Qureshi said Pakistan has 'reliable intelligence' that India was planning to attack Pak again between April 16 and 20.

The tension between the two countries triggered by the Pulwama strike appeared to have eased slightly in the last couple of weeks. (Representational Image)

New Delhi/Islamabad: India on 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 five permanent members of the UN Security Council were apprised about it. In a strongly worded statement, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Ravesh Kumar called Qureshi's comments a "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.

In Islamabad, the Indian Deputy High Commissioner was summoned to Pakistan Foreign office and he was issued a warning against "any misadventure" by India. The claim by Qureshi came nearly six weeks after India struck the biggest terrorist training camp of Jaish-e-Mohammed deep inside Pakistan in retaliation to 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. In the dogfight, Pakistan downed a MiG-21 Bison jet and captured an IAF pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1. India had shot down a Pakistani F-16 but Islamabad has been denying that it lost any jet in the aerial combat. Kumar said it has been made clear to Pakistan that it cannot absolve itself of the 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.

Sources said the Indian deputy high commissioner clearly conveyed to Pakistan foreign office about India's position on Pak-sponsored terror, asserting that Islamabad must take concrete action against terror groups based in that country. 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 home town of Multan that India is 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."

The tension between the two countries triggered by the Pulwama strike appeared to have eased slightly in the last couple of weeks. Pakistan on Friday announced that it will release 360 Indian prisoners, mostly fishermen as a "goodwill gesture". The two countries held a meeting relating to the Kartarpur corridor last month.
Congress chief Rahul Gandhi is contesting the general election from Wayanad in Kerala and Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.

Kolkata/Imphal/Agartala: Four days before the first phase of Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched a simultaneous offensive against the Trinamul Congress, the Congress and the Left. 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 Prime Minister 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, Mr Modi said.

Attacking Ms Banerjee at an election rally in North Bengals Cooch Bihar, the Prime Minister 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 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.

Mr Modi alleged that Ms Banerjee has been abusing him and threatening the Election Commission because she has started having sleepless nights and frustration as her political influence has been diminishing in the state.

The Trinamul Congress 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.

At a rally in Manipurs Imphal, the Prime Minister alleged that the Congress in its manifesto claimed that no one could tamper with Article 370 of the Constitution that grants special status to Kashmir, an assertion which Pakistan agreed to.

The 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.

At a rally in Tripuras Udaipur, Mr Modi mocked the love between the Congress and the Left.

In Tripura, they (Left and Congress) are fighting each other, but in Delhi they stand united, holding each others 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? said Mr Modi.

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi is contesting the general election from Wayanad in Kerala and Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.

Elections to 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal will be held in seven phases between April 11 and May 19. Voting for two Lok Sabha seats each in Tripura and Manipur will be held on April 11 and 18.

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.

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 be remembered 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 the 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: Modi Hatao. Can anyone remove Modi against so much love and blessings from you? Can anyone oust Modi when so many mothers and sisters of the nation are standing for protection? Can anyone replace Modi when crores of youth of the country are fighting the perpeptrators risking their lives?

Mr Modi observed, The more you are chanting Modi Modi, the more someone is losing her sleep. Dont you know who is she? Who is she? Speadbreaker! Didi, the speadbreaker of West Bengal, is failing to sleep in peace. She is venting all her anger on the officers and the EC. How it feels to lose own political ground can be gauged by anyone from the degree of her fury. It is clear from the volley of abuses on me and attacks on the EC by her that how much she has been scared. All these are the signs of her panic.

The PM also took potshots at Ms Banerjee referring to a dais her party has built for her rally adjoining the venue of his rally. He pointed out to the crowd, The memorial of Didis defeat stands here. This is the live memorial of Didis destruction. The dais has been built here so that little space is left for you. Can an election be won through such childish acts? Sometimes when kids fight among themselves in their area, they tell others: I will see you when you pass through my area. The drama Didi and her Ghulam (aides) have done here is a clear testimony of democracys reprimand. Mr Modi bantered that the chief minister might lodge an FIR against him to pacify excitement in the crowd.
Bureaucrats, who have no understanding of peoples aspirations, are running the show in Odisha, Shah alleged.

Bhubaneswar: The BJP national president Amit Shah on Sunday launched a no-holds-barred attack on Odisha chief minister and Biju Janata Dal president Naveen Patnaik. He tagged the CM as back-stabber, lazy and a non-performer and called upon Odisha voters to replace him by energetic and young BJP leader.

Naveen Patnaik has the habit of not respecting associates, backstabbing party leaders and removing those who stand as an entity by themselves. This is a weird form of politics that has taken birth during his regime, Mr Shah alleged.

In fact, the Odisha CM has expelled almost all the founder members of the BJD in the past two decades to establish his one-upmanship in the party and government.

Addressing two separate public meetings at Polsara in Ganjam district and Bargarh, Mr Shah slammed Mr Patnaikover mining and chit fund scams and said that those involved in corrupt practices will be put behind bars if the saffron party is voted to power in Odisha and a New Odisha will be built.

Chit fund scam flourished because of the protection provided to those involved in corrupt practices. We, after coming to power, will put them behind bars, Mr Shah asserted.

A large number of innocent investors were taken for a ride. We, after coming to power, will put them behind bars, he asserted Mr Shah also alleged that most of the senior leaders of the ruling-BJD were sidelined and the powers of the elected representatives have been handed over to the bureaucrats in the State.

Bureaucrats, who have no understanding of peoples aspirations, are running the show in Odisha, he alleged.

Odisha is lagging in drinking water, houses, healthcare, safety and security of women, education and several other fields despite being rich in resources, he reiterated.

Responding to the BJP chiefs allegations, BJD spokesperson Sasmit Patra said the BJP manifesto for Odisha is another attempt of the saffron party to spread lies. The BJP had promised big in its 2014 election manifesto, but it was all a lie. In its current manifesto, the BJP is trying to hide some lies of its previous manifesto by giving a new look.

The political atmosphere in Odisha looks like a cauldron with all the major political parties leaving no stone unturned to show the rival as unfit and making large-ditch efforts to woo the voters. Besides, over the next three days prior to the first phase polls on April 11, the high-voltage campaign in the state is expected to reach a crescendo with heavyweights and star campaigners putting their best foot forward to garner votes.
Tharoor also slammed Mr Modi and the BJP for suggesting that Mr Gandhi chose Wayanad to run away from majority dominated areas

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.

Mr Tharoor claimed Gandhis 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, Mr Tharoor said, adding that it also signals that the Congress chief has the confidence to win elections in both the north and the south.
Air Vice Marshal Kapoor said that due to security and confidentiality concerns we are restricting the information being shared in the public domain.

Air Vice Marshal R.G.K. Kapoor, at a media briefing, showed radar images to assert that an F-16 of the Pakistan Air Force was shot down by the Indian Air Force. (Photo: ANI)

New Delhi: On the day BJP came out with its election manifesto 2019, Indian Air Force said on Monday that it had credible evidence clearly indicating that Pakistan Air Force lost one F-16 in the air action on February 27.

There is no doubt that two aircraft went down in the aerial engagement on 27th February one of which was a Bison of IAF while the other was a F-16 of PAF conclusively identified by its signature and radio transcripts, said Air Vice Marshal R.G.K. Kapoor, assistant chief of air staff (operations).

During the media briefing at the defence ministry, he showed radar images of the engagement where in one picture MiG 21 Bison and F16s could be seen. In another second slide of the battle scene captured after few seconds, the targeted F-16 had disappeared from the screen but MiG-21could still be seen.

The F-16 crashed and fell across the LoC in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, said Air Vice Marshal Kapoor .

Air Vice Marshal Kapoor said that due to security and confidentiality concerns we are restricting the information being shared in the public domain.

He said that two aircraft had gone down on that day in the same area separated by around 1 to 1:30 minute of time.

Indian Army posts in the vicinity of the LoC in Jhangar sector have visually sighted two separate parachutes. The first sighting was in West, in general area Sabzkot and the second was after a few minutes in Southwest general area Tandar, he said

On 27 February IAFs MiG 21 Bison piloted by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman had chased and shot down one of the F16 which had fallen into Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK). During the chase Wg Cdr Varthaman MiG21 has also got hit and he had to eject in PoK.

Analysis of electronic emissions have shown that the aircraft picked up by the intercepts from Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) and radio transcripts indicated F-16s in the area directly in front of Wg Cdr Abhinandans aircraft, he said.
BJP's manifesto or 'sankalp patra' released in Delhi today.

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Partys poll manifesto released Monday detailed the governments achievements these last five years, sharpened its focus on security and welfare without falling back on party core issues such as the Ram Mandir and the Uniform Civil Code.

We will explore all options to build the Ram Mandir as soon as possible in a harmonious manner, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said after the manifesto was launched in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and other top party leaders.

The manifesto is also committed to annulling Article 35A of the Constitution, as the provision is discriminatory against non-permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir.

The manifesto or sankalp patra (document of promises) was based on the theme of a Sankalpit Bharat, Shashakt Bharat (Determined India, Empowered India).

Nationalism is our inspiration, we aim to reach the last man in the queue, and give the country good governance, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.

Modi, while emphasising the salient points of the manifesto, said it was his duty to take India on one mission, one direction.

We should think how by 2047, India could become a developed country. We will work hard in the next five years, from 2019 to 2024, to build a solid foundation for that dream, Modi said.

Speaking first, Amit Shah lauded the five-year rule of Narendra Modi, stating that he had provided India a decisive government. India's development from 2014 to 2019 will be written in golden words in history, Shah said, adding, He has dared to carry out air and surgical strikes on the very foundation of terror.

He spoke of the development work done in the last five years. He said the party has made 75 pledges in the manifesto, promising to fulfill all expectations of the people by the time India turns 75.

Shah harped more on the governments efforts to deal with terrorism, saying, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sent out a strong message that India cannot be taken lightly.

After the manifesto release, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the document touched upon every section and region. It is a visionary and practical document, he said.

A 13-member team led 15 sub panels under Singh to prepare the manifesto. Amit Shah also said the document has been prepared after consulting nearly six crore people.

Singh also said peoples faith in Narendra Modi has increased. Development is now fast paced. We made procedural and structural changes. We gave a responsible, sensitive government with firm commitment, Singh said.

Explaining the BJPs manifesto, Singh said, With promises made in this manifesto, we are taking a step towards building a 'New India.' We had a zero tolerance policy towards terrorism, it will continue till terror is eliminated completely. Singh also said strike capabilities of armed forces would be strengthened with modern equipment.

Sankalp Patra is a vision document that lists expectations of 130 crore Indians. We launched 300 raths, 4000 mann ki baat events and 110 samvad programmes, said Rajnath Singh, explaining the work behind the manifesto.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the manifesto was prepared with a strong national vision, not with a tukde tukde or Ivy League mindset. This manifesto is rooted in Indian reality, he said, adding, Our new policy, new doctrine of striking terror at its very origin has received global recognition.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said: We are working for a stable and strong government, whereas the Opposition is working to form a weak collation government.

The Congress manifesto had put major thrust on welfare measures, including a promise of giving Rs 72,000 to the poorest 20 per cent households in India.

Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley had on 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.

Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading.
Section 5 of COTPA, 2003, prohibits the advertisement, promotion, and sponsorship of tobacco products.

The additional director of health department said that the children in the age group of 6-10 years have been observed by him using indigenously made hookahs. (Photo: Representational/Pixabay)

New Delhi: Giving a stern warning to those promoting smoking, the AAP government has asked the Union health ministry to stop the promotion of smoking and hookah in the three web series, Made in Heaven, Mirzapur, and Four More Shots Please, which are being aired on Amazon Prime Video.

The additional director of Delhi health department said that the children in the age group of 6-10 years have been observed by him using indigenously made hookahs.

He said that this was really a very serious situation from the public health point of view and these violations are punishable under Sections 5 and 22 of COTPA (Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act). Dr Arora emphasised that even if these were not covered under COTPA, its really high time that the Centre did something immediately before our youths got trapped in the habit of these hazardous products as the viewership of online TV and film shows comprise mostly of youngsters.

You (Union health ministry) are humbly requested to take necessary action to stop the promotion of smoking/hookah, especially if any TV/film running online is very popular among the youngsters, he said.

At present, all cinema houses are bound to show advertisements warning people that smoking causes cancer. Its precisely why many movies show this advertisement to make people aware of the ill effects of smoking, he added.

Dr Arora has also written to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and producers of the shows for stopping these violations immediately on legal and moral grounds as well. Mr Bezoss office has replied that they have received the complaint and will respond shortly, he said.

Section 5 of COTPA, 2003, prohibits the advertisement, promotion, and sponsorship of tobacco products.

This prohibition extends to the depiction of tobacco products or their use in films, television, and web programmes.

According to Dr Aroras letter, one of the episodes of Made in Heaven shockingly promotes the making of hookah at home from plastic bottles.

He said that these web series are promoting smoking and hookah among youngsters, who may easily get influenced as these serials are being produced and acted by their favourite TV and film personalities.
Mr Yadav, however, was acquitted of all charges in 2011 but still had to fight a legal battle to regain his job.

Mumbai: In a historic case, a fireman, Sunil Kashinath Yadav, was reinstated after 19 long years. Mr Yadav (50) was suspended by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in 2000 and dismissed in 2002 as he was accused of abetting his wifes suicide.

Mr Yadav, however, was acquitted of all charges in 2011 but still had to fight a legal battle to regain his job.

Finally, on March 14 this year the Supreme Court ordered the BMC to reinstate Mr Yadav, who joined as a fireman in Dharavi fire station from Saturday, April 6.

Mr Yadav will now get arrears of around `50 lakh and is entitled to pension and all post-retirement benefits such as gratuity, leave encashment and bonuses. It is a historic win, Mr Yadavs advocate Prakash Devdas said.

Mr Yadav told The Asian Age, I had to drive a rickshaw these many years to sustain myself, but I did not lose hope.

Mr Yadav, who hails from Ratnagiri, had joined the Mumbai Fire Brigade in October 1999. He was merely three months into his service when his wife took her own life and his father-in-law accused him of abetment to suicide. The case was registered at Kalyan police station.

Mr Devdas said, The BMC dismissed Mr Yadav without any inquiry. We had approached the labour court and it allowed him to rejoin work. However, the BMC challenged the decision in the industrial court and later the high court which stayed the labour courts decision. The BMC even moved the Supreme Court but lost there too. Finally, Mr Yadav has received justice.
It emerged that Naik, who stayed alone in his tenement in Murdha village, was addicted to alcohol.

According to the police, the accused Mayur Sagar Naik (21), a resident of Murdha village in Bhayandar, stole rickshaws and used to ferry late-night passengers in and around the Mira-Bhayandar belt. (Photo: File)

Mumbai: The local crime branch (LCB) unit of the Thane (rural) police has arrested a 21-year-old thief who adopted a unique modus operandi to earn his daily bread and fund his addiction to alcohol.

According to the police, the accused Mayur Sagar Naik (21), a resident of Murdha village in Bhayandar, stole rickshaws and used to ferry late-night passengers in and around the Mira-Bhayandar belt.

Once the vehicle ran out of fuel, he would abandon it and walk away with the earnings. Alarmed by the rising cases of auto thefts in the region, SP Dr Shivaji Rathod deputed the LCB team to nab the culprits. After intensifying our vigil and activating our core informer network, we rounded up the suspect. Initially, he cooked up a story claiming the involvement of his friend in the thefts. However, after sustained interrogations, he finally broke down and confessed to his single-handedly committed crime, said assistant police inspector Pramod Badhakh.

It emerged that Naik, who stayed alone in his tenement in Murdha village, was addicted to alcohol and mostly targeted older auto-rickshaws for the ease of stealing. Based on information provided by Naik, the police recovered four stolen autos, which will be handed over to their rightful owners after necessary verifications.

A case under sections 379 of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against Naik, who has been remanded in custody.

The case has been handed over to the Bhayandar police for investigation.
The commission has observed that it seems the area lacks proper patrolling and monitoring by the police authorities.

Mumbai: The National Human Rights Commission has taken suo motu cognisance of rape and murder of the 9-year-old girl in Juhu. The Commission has issued notices to the Maharashtra director general of police (DGP) and Mumbai commissioner of police (CP), calling for a detailed report in the matter within four weeks.

The commission, in its directions to DGP and CP, has stated that it expects a detailed report on the matter and the mechanism adopted by the police authorities to address the issue more effectively.

The commission has observed that it seems the area lacks proper patrolling and monitoring by the police authorities. The culprit in the case has a criminal background, as the police had reportedly arrested him in the year 2013.

According to the commission, the local police officials should be vigilant about suspicious activities of these anti-social elements, in order to avert such heinous crimes.

The Right to Life and Dignity of the innocent victim has been grossly violated, stated the commission. It has issued these directions taking suo motu (on its own) cognisance of the media reports about the 9-year-old girls sexual exploitation and murder by a suspect, who was released from jail around six months ago after completing his sentence in a minor girls rape case.

The commission observed that as per the media reports, a similar incident had happened in the JJ Marg area around one and half years ago, in which a six-year-old girl was killed. Later, the court convicted the accused.

On April 4, the victim, a resident of Nehru Nagar slum in suburban Juhu had gone to purchase packet of tea but didnt return home, following which the girls parents lodged a complaint with the Juhu police.

Later, on April 6, the girls body was found from a septic tank of her locality. The autopsy report from the JJ Hospital revealed that she was subjected to sexual assault before being killed.

After recovering the 9-year-olds body in Juhu, the police scanned CCTV footages of the area and saw the suspect Vadivel alias Gundappa Devendra taking the victim to a room. The police then arrested him on April 6.

Later in the day, when the police team reached at his house for a search, his family members prevented them from entering the house. Also the accuseds brother and sister-in-law threatened the police team with iron rod and bamboo stick.

The police also arrested Devendras wife Muskan, brother Chelmuttu alias Anna, his wife Banu and mother Ramai.
Private sector employees will see their pension shoot up under Employees Pension Scheme (EPS), 1995, thanks to a recent Supreme Court ruling directing the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) to give pension to all retiring employees on the basis of their full salary.

The impact on your EPF balance

But while this is great news in terms of building a nest egg, EPF subscribers will have to forego a significant chunk of their provident fund balance if they choose to opt for higher pension.

Here's the math to help you understand:

All employees in the organised sector currently contribute 12% of their salary (basic salary+dearness allowance) to the EPF. The employer makes a matching contribution, of which 8.33% - or Rs 1,250, whichever was higher - goes to the EPS. Till now an arbitrary cap of Rs 15,000 was put on pensionable salary but post the top court's ruling, the entire 8.33% of your monthly salary will go into the EPS, should you opt for higher pension.

Also Read: Women voters take note! Here's what BJP and Congress are promising you

Let's assume a 58-year old who is about to retire after 35 years on the job. If his salary is currently Rs 90,000 at a 7% annual salary increment, the additional contribution for the last 35 years will be to the tune of Rs 10.35 lakh, plus interest, if he wants to avail of higher pension. According to the daily, including the interest component, the additional contribution comes close to Rs 45.15 lakh. The employee will have to shift this amount from his EPF corpus to the EPS to be eligible for full pension, which now works out to Rs 45,000 per month instead of just Rs 7,500 previously (when the Rs 15,000 cap was in place).

In the same example above, while the employee was getting Rs 9,550 in his EPF account in the old regime (after deducting the employer's EPS contribution of Rs 1,250), now only Rs 3300 goes into EPF since the pension contribution has swelled to Rs 7,500. Significantly, the top court ruled that recently retired people can also opt for the higher pension option. To avail of the new rule, you have to submit an application to the EFPO via your employer requesting the body to deduct a sum equal to 8.33% of your salary (basic+DA) towards the EPS together with the accrued interest there upon till date retrospectively and shift the pending dues from your PF corpus to the EPS.

Comparison with annuity plans post retirement

The big question is whether you should opt for higher pension right now, or would it be better to continue accumulating your EPF corpus and investing it lumpsum at the time of your retirement?

"Due to the increase in life expectancy, we all need some regular monthly income. So, it will be better if people opt for higher EPS contributions," Amol Joshi, Founder, Plan Rupee Investment Services told the daily.

Besides, investing your EPF, say, in an annuity from an insurance company, may fetch a lower monthly income than the additional pension amount coming from EPS under the new regime. For instance, if you put Rs 45.15 lakh in LIC Jeevan Akshay, you would get a monthly annuity of Rs 32,054 but if you opt for higher pension you will get Rs 37,500.

Salary bracket matters

However, given that pension under EPS is fully taxable, experts say that opting for a higher pension may not be a cost advantage for people in the higher tax bracket. For such people, debt funds and systematic withdrawal plans could prove a more tax-efficient option. Also, while switching to the higher pension option works for people in the lower income brackets, they are advised to exhaust other high yielding safe instruments such as the Senior Citizens' Savings Scheme before putting additional money into EPS.

The biggest beneficiaries of the Supreme Court ruling will be people whose salaries were low for most part of their careers but have grown sharply in the past few years.

Sustainability of the EPS corpus

There's one other factor you need to keep in mind: The EPS corpus, while huge currently, is certainly not completely risk-free. Total inflows into the pension fund in 2015-16 reportedly stood at Rs 32,307 crore, and after pay-outs it was left with a net surplus of Rs 17,762 crore. Then there is the interest income of Rs 21,662 crore in the same fiscal, which continues to grow.

But as India ages and the number of pensioners multiply, the EPS corpus may not be able to meet liabilities in the future. Actuarial studies reveal that while the projected deficit has come down from Rs 10,855 crore in 2011-12 to Rs 5,027 crore in 2014-15, the latest Supreme Court ruling may compound the shortfall in the EPS.

"Current EPS corpus is not sufficient for pension payouts at the current levels in the coming years. So the long-term viability of increased pensions under existing circumstances is suspect," B.P Pant, a former EPFO member, told the daily. That's worrying news indeed for those dreaming of a golden retirement.

(Edited by: Sushmita Choudhury)

Also read: Infra, power stocks rise after BJP announces manifesto

Also read: BJP using Ram Mandir in manifesto to sharpen communal polarisation: Yechury
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.

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.
A perfect handset for those who want all the best features Samsung has to offer in a neat, compact package.

Rating:

After countless leaks and pictured in all its glory, Samsung, at a special event unveiled the 10th anniversary Galaxy S device and there was no surprise with the naming scheme with it being titled  the Galaxy S10.

At its launch, Samsung unveiled three Galaxy S10 devices  the Galaxy S10+, the Galaxy S10 and the Galaxy S10e, The Galaxy S10 sits bang in the centre of the S10+ and the S10e in terms of both pricing and feature set.

The Galaxy S10's 6.1-inch Infinity-O Display is one of the main selling points of this 2019 flagship; however, in true Samsung fashion, with an aim to get devices piping hot out of the innovation oven, the amazements are more to discover. The ultra-slim bezels, the three rear cameras, an ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensor, a punch-hole display and various other remarkable traits together add to being one of the hottest devices this year has to offer thus far.

We take a look at the Samsung Galaxy S10 to tell you whether its worth your while.

Design, Build

The Samsung Galaxy S10 is a fitting 10th-anniversary smartphone and it does not just look premium  it also feels great in your hand. Being Samsungs flagship, it is built with the most premium materials and in this case  a metal and glass sandwich. It boasts a thin aluminium frame thats sandwiched between the curved Infinity Display and a glass rear which is colourful  Prism White, Prism Black, Prism Green, Prism Blue, Canary Yellow and Flamingo Pink to choose from. In for testing, we have the Prism Black which is more of a deep Grey as opposed to a Black finish ideal for both professionals as well as casual consumers.

The rear features the triple camera setup and here you find the slightest of camera bumps. Its so tiny that its hardly even noticeable and without a case, it sits practically flat on a surface. Under the camera module, you get the much talked about Wireless PowerShare feature that apart from being Qi-wireless enabled, it now also has the ability to charge another smartphone or for that matter the Galaxy Buds true wireless earphones that launched alongside the Galaxy S10 devices. What makes the rear a classy affair is that even though it features so much cutting-edge tech, there is no sign or denotation seen here. It is a really clean look and quite a rarity on present-day smartphones that usually feature a protruding camera bump or fingerprint scanners.

During our usage, as soon as we turned the Wireless PowerShare feature in the quick settings, we were able to easily charge an Apple iPhone XS Max. To denote that a device is being charged, the module near the LED flash will blink blue. We placed the handset in both orientations and it managed to charge just as easily as putting it on a wireless charging pad. Samsung does state that if the battery of the S10 is below the 30% mark, the Wireless PowerShare wont function.

As mentioned earlier, the design is one the handsets strong suits, but what actually deserves an applaud is its body-to-weight ratio. Measuring 149.9 x 70.4 x 7.8mm and weighing a mere 157g, the Samsung Galaxy S10s curved display provides the welcome illusion that its a lot thinner than it actually is. Using it one-handed is possible and this is due to the curved edges which nestle well within the palm. Its a welcome change from the large handsets which get increasingly difficult to use single-handedly.

The metal and glass do pose a slippery threat and if you do happen to be accident prone, it's advisable using a case made of silicone to protect your investment. However, its worth mentioning that Samsung does include a protective case with the handset that keeps your mind at ease.

A feature found on the S10 and S10+ is the in-display fingerprint sensor thats of the ultrasonic variety as opposed to the optical fingerprint sensor thats found on the OnePlus 6T and Huawei Mate 20 Pro. The addition of the front-facing fingerprint scanner is a welcome one with it being deployed at the back on previous iterations of the S-series devices such as the S8 and S9. The last time there was a front-facing fingerprint sensor was way earlier with the Samsung Galaxy S7.

While the Galaxy S7 had its fingerprint scanner placed on its chin, advancements in phone design and technology have improved by leaps and bounds with the option now being fitted under the screen for a more streamlined look. The addition of an ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensor isnt just for aesthetical purposes but by using this Qualcomm-enabled technology, Samsung promises it to be a lot more secure than an optical fingerprint sensor as it scans a 3D image of your fingerprint for better biometric authentication in areas where the optical sensors tend to struggle  wet or cold print inputs.

While the new tech is great on the handset, the ultrasonic fingerprint sensors are as fast as the optical fingerprint sensors, but it definitely will get faster as time progresses. We noticed that at times, although rare, the fingerprint registered did not match and at other times it took about a second more to register and unlock the device. Also, you need to add a bit of pressure to actually unlock the handset. We found using the face unlock to be a much faster alternative, but you should be aware that is it not as secure as a fingerprint scanner. By using an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, Samsung has taken a step in the right direction but it still is a work in progress and as stated above, with future iterations it will get a lot faster.

Similar to every Samsung Galaxy S device in the past decade, the Galaxy S10 still includes the headphone jack. This classic addition is a welcome one even though the brand is seriously pushing for their Bluetooth true wireless Galaxy Buds. This makes Samsung one of the few brands around to still strongly support the old 3.5mm headphone jack. This feature is reinforced by the fact that Samsung has thrown in a pair of AKG wired earphones as part of the packaging.

Display

The chief feature of the Galaxy S10 is undoubtedly the brands new Infinity-O display. With this, Samsung has successfully avoided launching their flagship without a notch yet managing to raise the screen-to-body ratio to a figure that was once thought impossible at a massive 93.1%. In the past, Samsung has always scored top points when it comes to their display even though their prime competitors employ their displays. So, with the Galaxy S10, you can make no mistake and rest assured you will get a top-notch display thats the industry's best.

The 6.1-inch 19:9 Super AMOLED Infinity-O display is so goofed that it has been rated the most colour accurate display according to the worlds leading authority on displays  DisplayMate. The Galaxy S10 has received the A+ grade and has set over a dozen smartphone display performance records which include a high brightness mode that is 17% brighter than the Galaxy S9. The handset features a QHD+ display and a pixel density of 551ppi which gives off a highly detailed viewing experience thats rivalled to none.

Samsung has used a punch-hole display on the Galaxy S10 located on the upper left corner which is a neat feature that helps in eliminating the notch and Samsung has done a fair bit of work to add all the sensors behind the crisp display.

The display found here is absolutely gorgeous and like all Galaxy S flagships, Samsung never ceases to put us in awe. The display is vivid, large, bright and the colours are accurate. What we personally applaud is that the display isnt overly saturated as how the S line-up had been in years gone past.

Software

With the Galaxy S10 series, Samsung has also introduced the new One UI, an OS thats built on top of Android Pie and paves the way for future Galaxy devices. With One UI, Samsung has answered the issues related to their older TouchWiz UI. Their previous skin tended to be rather unintuitive and cluttered with bloatware. This degraded the user experience quite drastically and its about time that Samsung went back to the books and launched something thats up to date with their stellar hardware.

The new One UI is great, but not as lightweight as stock Android. However, the Galaxy S10s latest baked-in UI is very easy to navigate and has plenty of customization options making it a tech enthusiasts dream phone.

As with previous Samsung flagships, you also get the always-on display that allows you to quickly glance at the clock, or any other notifications you may receive.

Move over to the left and the Bixby button that pulls up Samsungs very own voice assistant is visible. This button can now be customised to launch an app of your choice and in the process, you have not tied down to the losing this button to a feature you may or may not use that often.

With One UI, you get a better-designed interface and more importantly a more useful user experience. Samsung has also thrown in their own gestures in place of the on-screen buttons that are handy to use too.

While the UI is less congested as compared to TouchWiz, Samsung has also thrown in their own apps in addition to similar Google-made apps. This can be a bit irritating for those who want just one app for their tasks. However, the fact that its there makes it useful to people who are upgrading from a Samsung device as the familiarity plays an important factor in a users upgrading purpose.

For those who are not a fan of the bright appearance of the handset; this can be changed in the display setting to Night mode that gives the entire UI a darker contrast, which is easier on the eye. Personally, we found the darker theme more appealing and we stuck to it over the brighter UI post that.

Performance

All the Samsung Galaxy S10s run on an octa-core Snapdragon 855 SoC in the US and a home-grown Exynos 9820 chipset in the rest of the world. Hence, as before, India relishes on the Exynos 9820 SoC which is paired with 8GB of RAM. The Galaxy S10 is filled with power, so much so that it can take on and beat most gaming-specific handsets that have been released recently. The Exynos chipset fills the handset with enough of oomph that no matter what you throw at it, it will always perform at its optimum best.

We ran the Geekbench 4 and it scored an impressive 9925 points in the multi-core benchmarking test making it faster than any Android we have tested in the past. Speaking of which, in day-to-day activity, the device impresses continuously and keeps up with all tasks effortlessly. The fact that Samsung has also added an 8GB RAM means that its apps can be pulled up easily as it stores all the data in its memory for seamless multi-tasking, no matter how long the desired app is in the background. To say that everything is snappy is a massive understatement.

The smartphone handles stressful games without any stress; however, there is a slight amount of heat that one can notice when continuously gaming on high performance, and this is completely normal.

Camera

With the improvements in the overall UI, Samsung has also worked hard on the Camera app and have made it extremely easy to use. The app offers easy access to all the features and settings and an impressive aspect of the device is that its extremely zippy while shooting.

The Galaxy S10 has a triple rear camera configuration comprising of a 12MP standard sensor, a 12MP telephoto lens and a new 16MP ultra wide-angle lens that offers a 123-degree viewing angle. The 12MP regular lens is a derivative of Samsungs Galaxy S9 and so is the 2x telephoto lens. This camera, though featuring a third sensor isnt that much evolved from the previous generation handsets and this is probably the only feature that lags in comparison to the brilliant photographic capabilities of the Google Pixel 3 or the recently launched Huawei P30 Pro. The overall image quality is solid and there are no real complaints. It does as advertised but not as great in comparison to Androids best  Pixel 3 or Huawei Mate 30 Pro, if we have to highlight some.

The Galaxy S10 shoots images well in mixed light environments and even in low light conditions, the images have a fair amount of detail. The Galaxy S10s colour reproduction is great as it offers punchy hues and in comparison with the iPhone, it renders quite lively photos. With the HDR turned on, the exposure levels tend to rise a bit leaving colours a bit washed out. In low-light shots there tends to be a bit of image grain; however, it can still be considered as one of the best cameras currently available on a smartphone.

The third wide-angle camera can be really beneficial  consider it a party-trick, the S10s ultra-wide lens offers more than what say the Google Pixel can as it avoids the need for you to take a couple of steps back to get a lot more in the frame. We see this feature as something that can be used quite a lot for social media.

Capturing images with the 10MP Dual Pixel AF sensor, the S10 performed brilliantly with a lot of detail visible. Colours appear natural and unlike the rear cameras, hues aren't washed out. While the S10+ has a secondary camera that takes care of depth sensing, the S10s single-camera relies heavily on software to add image blur. It performs up to the mark and there arent any real complaints from us.

Battery

Samsung has thrown in a 3400mAh battery in this device and while using it as a daily driver for the last couple of weeks, we got an average of around 10 per cent battery remaining after a standard work day. The usage included watching a couple of one-hour episodes on Netflix, accessing social media, sending and receiving emails, utilising instant messaging apps and playing games. If you are a casual user, you should be seeing your charger only the next day morning, unless you want to top up at night.

The handset also supports wireless charging meaning you can charge it easily on any Qi-compatible wireless charger.

Verdict

With a starting price of Rs 66,900, the Galaxy S10 is placed well in between the Galaxy S10+ and the Galaxy S10e. We feel that the form factor and size is the primary reason for switching to this handset as it is extremely comfortable to handle. As of now, the Galaxy S10 handsets are the ones to beat and if you opt for this model you get an immersive screen, a decent battery life, great cameras and most importantly bragging rights because you will have one of the best devices the world has to offer this year.
Police arrested a naked woman on Thursday after she broke into a day-care centre in Stafford, Virginia.

Heaven Connor, aged 23, of Spotsylvania, had recently been released from Rappahannock Jail. (Representational Image)

USA: Police arrested a naked woman on Thursday after she broke into a day-care centre in Stafford, Virginia, authorities reported.

Heaven Connor, aged 23, of Spotsylvania, had recently been released from Rappahannock Jail when she broke into Kids on the Move Learning Center on Cambridge Street, the County Sheriff's Office reported.

Two employees arrived at the centre in the wee hours of Thursday morning to open for the day. As one employee turned on the classroom lights, she noticed a naked Conner in a doorway, sheriff's office spokeswoman Amanda Vicinanzo said.

Connar politely told the the worker that she was merely tresspassing. The chaos then attracted the attention of the second employee, who also saw Connor naked, Vicinanzo said.

The employees, bewildered and confused, rushed out of the day care and called the police. When the sergeant arrived, he saw Connor clothed but she was holding 'a fork' in each hand.

Connor was charged with unauthorized entry and indecent exposure, acoording to the sheriff's office.
For the first time since the inaugural LinkedIn Top Companies list was revealed in 2016, law firms have been identified as some of the most sought-after workplaces in Australia.

This year, MinterEllison, Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF), and Allens ranked 21st, 23rd, and 25th, respectively, and were among notable names, including the largest in professional and financial services.

The list, which is compiled every year for select countries by the social media giant, is based on billions of actions taken by the users of LinkedIn. It identifies companies attracting the most attention from jobseekers and earning the loyalty of employees.
Had Diana wore hers as well, she would probably still be alive, UKs top forensic pathologist Dr. Richard Shepherd says in a new book, excerpts of which have been published by the Daily Mail in its Sunday column. Dr. Shepherd was asked to review the evidence and testify in the 2004 inquest that ruled out that the crash was an accident, and not some kind of attack.His conclusion: Diana died from a very rare and very tiny injury, the kind of which hes only seen once. On her.She actually suffered just a few broken bones and a small chest injury  but this included a tiny tear in a vein in one of her lungs, Dr. Shepherd says. Dianas was a very small injury  but in the wrong place. Dianas death is a classic example of the way we say, after almost every death: if only. If only she had hit the seat in front at a slightly different angle. If only she had been thrown forward 10mph more slowly.When first responders arrived on the scene, Diana was still alive and able to communicate with them, which translated into some delay in getting her in an ambulance. This made matters worse, because the longer she waited, the more the vein bled. On the ride to the hospital, she started losing consciousness and eventually went into cardiac arrest.Doctors determined the cause when she was at the hospital, and proceeded to operate on her but, by that time, it was too late.However, Dr. Shepherd says, the biggest if only was within her own control. If only she had been wearing a seat belt. Had she been restrained, she would probably have appeared in public two days later with a black eye, perhaps a bit breathless from the fractured ribs and with a broken arm in a sling, the expert concludes.Dr. Shepherd notes that Dianas bodyguard survived because he secured the seatlbelt at the last moment. This also helped Diana initially survive the crash, as his seatbelt absorbed some of the force with which she was propelled forward against the seat, since she was seated right behind him.
Palmdale, CA (93550)

Today

Windy with rain and snow showers mixed this evening. Becoming partly cloudy overnight. Low 31F. Winds WSW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of precip 40%. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph..

Tonight

Windy with rain and snow showers mixed this evening. Becoming partly cloudy overnight. Low 31F. Winds WSW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of precip 40%. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.
Italy's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini announced the formation of a new populist alliance  titled the "European Alliance of Peoples and Nations"  that will compete in next month's European Parliament elections on an anti-migration, pro-borders platform.

The big picture: Salvini, with whom fellow nationalist Steve Bannon has forged a close relationship, will be joined by euroskeptic parties from Germany, Finland, Denmark, France, Austria and the Netherlands. May's elections will be the first since the 2016 Brexit referendum, and will be a test for an EU threatened from within by newly empowered strands of anti-migrant nationalism.

"As interior minister for 10 months, the No. 1 risk in Italy and Europe is Islamic extremism, Islamic fanaticism, Islamic terrorism," Salvini declared at the press conference.

Salvini said if the group wins a parliamentary majority, it would seek to block the process of Turkey  a Muslim-majority country  joining the EU.

What to watch: One of Europe's most notorious nationalist parties, Hungary's Fidesz, was recently suspended from the powerful, center-right European People's Party for "rule of law" violations. If Fidesz and its ultra-nationalist Prime Minister Vikor Orban decide to leave the EPP for good, the Salvini-led alliance would be a likely landing spot.

Go deeper: Europe's future on the ballot
1 big thing: Kerry's shadow climate diplomacy

Former Secretary of State John Kerry is speaking publicly for the first time about a new chapter in his half-century history with Vietnam: an initiative aiming to get the country off coal-fired power.

Driving the news: In an exclusive interview with Axios last week, Kerry laid out the broad parameters of a renewables financing proposal that he said could become a model for other countries in coal-dependent Asia too.

Hes been working on this since he left government, and he has enlisted the help of former Vice President Al Gore, who made a trip to Vietnam last summer. Kerry is meeting Vietnamese government officials this week in Boston to negotiate details.

Im trying to put together a model project of how Vietnam can get off coal now, and we are working very hard to help them see that coal is in fact more expensive and has many, many more downsides.

 John Kerry

The big picture: Vietnam, like the rest of Asia, is where the worlds battle over growing economies and worsening climate change is raging.

These nations want cheap power  usually coal  to provide better standard of living for their growing populations.

Yet they're under political pressure to back away from coal, given that their heavy use of it is accelerating global warming and worsening local air pollution.

Flashback: Kerrys history in climate change diplomacy and Vietnam runs deep.

He was a leading architect of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement  which will proceed without the U.S. since President Trump has vowed to withdraw from it.

He was a decorated officer in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War and worked toward normalizing relations with the nation decades later.

Coal became Vietnams biggest electricity source in 2018, surpassing hydropower for the first time, according to preliminary International Energy Agency data.

More than 42,000 megawatts of new coal capacity are under development, according to a recently released report by environmental groups. Thats nearly one-fifth of Americas entire operating coal capacity.

Where it stands: Kerrys proposal includes undisclosed private-sector financing for wind and solar along with transmission lines. It also calls for more efficiently using Vietnams hydropower and tapping a domestic natural gas field.

Weve opened the door, Kerry said. Weve got a preliminary agreement. We now need to work on the feasibility for how exactly its going to be implemented, and then sign it.

Read the whole column
U.S. Attorney General William Barr ordered the FBI and the Bureau of Prisons to investigate allegations of discrimination and unfair evaluation standards against LGBTQ employees at the Department of Justice, following an open letter from DOJ Pride that cited "low morale" among LGBTQ workers, the AP reports.

Why it matters: Barr also released a formal Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) statement for the DOJ, which had not been done since the Obama administration. "I know these steps are a not a cure-all," he noted in his letter. EEO statements, which enable employers to explicitly denounce discrimination against employees and job applicants on the basis of sexual orientation, race and gender identity, are required by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
India can launch another aggression against Pakistan in April: Shah Mehmood

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi Sunday said the government has reliable intelligence that India can launch another aggression against Pakistan between April 16 to 20.



Addressing a press conference here, the minister said India is planning an aggressive move against Pakistan. As per wishes of the nation and the international laws, Pakistan will, however, respond effectively, he asserted. Following the Pulwama incident, Modi government created a war hysteria and tried to damage peace of the region, he said, and added that Modi put peace of the region in jeopardy just for political gains.



Qureshi said Pakistan has always behaved like a responsible state but Indias behaviour has always been irresponsible. Recently Modi chaired a meeting of cabinet committee on security in which the heads of Indian forces sought permission for aggression against Pakistan and Modi gave them a freehand, he revealed. India can attack military targets in Pakistan, he said, and added that Pakistan is drawing attention of the international community on the expected aggression by the eastern neighbour.



The foreign minister said India can stage another Pulwama-type incident to justify its misadventure against Pakistan. If India attacks Pakistan, just think what will be its impacts on the regional peace and stability, he said.



The minister said Foreign Office has already shared its concerns with diplomats of P-5 countries. Pakistan wants that the international community should take notice of irresponsible attitude of India and stop it from damaging peace of the region, he said.



Qureshi said when India violated the Line of Control (LoC) and Pakistani airspace, the international community remained silent. He said the international community should not be a silent spectator but play role for maintaining peace in the region. In order to gain political mileage, Modi is putting regional peace at stake, he remarked.



The foreign minister observed that India made three claims related to surgical strike, including targeting of three terrorists camps, killing 350 terrorists, and shooting down F-16 plane of Pakistan. But all of these have proved baseless as international community including the US has rejected those, he said, adding that the new planning of attack by India can be dangerous for the region.



Pakistan released Indian pilot as a goodwill gesture for peace of the region as we wanted to de-escalate the situation. Despite the Indian aggression, Pakistan sent its delegation for dialogue to finalise terms and conditions for opening of Kartarpur corridor. The second phase of dialogue was scheduled for April 2 at Wahga border but India cancelled these talks, Qureshi observed. Despite all these steps, Pakistan once again decided to release 360 Indian prisoners as a peace gesture, he said, and added that Pakistan wants the international community to acknowledge as to who is endeavouring for peace and who is putting it in jeopardy.



Again, let the world see Pakistans true image and an obstinate behaviour of India and let it decide who wants peace and who has political designs, the minister said, and added that Pakistan always wished for peace and will continue the same spirit in future. Talks are the only way forward to settle issues including Kashmir, water, Sir Creek, corridors and economic cooperation, between the two nuclear states, he said. Responding to a query, the minister categorically said Pakistan reserves the right to safeguard its frontiers. The morale of Pakistans armed forces and masses is very high and they are united against any sort of aggression, he said.



Meanwhile, the Foreign Office on Sunday summoned the Indian deputy high commissioner to warn his country against any misadventure targeting Pakistan.
Riot police clashed with scores of employees of Armenias leading food producing and exporting company on Monday after its official owner, Davit Ghazarian, was arrested on tax evasion charges strongly denied by him.

The State Revenue Committee (SRC) said on Friday that the Spayka company evaded over 7 billion drams ($14.4 million) in taxes in 2015-2016. Ghazarian, who is also Spaykas chief executive, was quick to reject the claims as baseless, saying the SRC moved to arrest him after he refused to pay the alleged back taxes.

A district court in Yerevan allowed the SRC to arrest Ghazarian pending investigation as several hundred Spayka workers demonstrated outside the court building. They said they fear losing their jobs as a result of the criminal proceedings.

The angry protesters responded to the court decision by blocking an adjacent street in the city center. They then surrounded a car carrying a handcuffed Ghazarian that emerged from the court compound.

Riot police pushed back the crowd to allow the car to transport the businessman to a detention center. One protester was detained in the scuffle, the Armenian police said afterwards.

Although the busy street was unblocked about an hour later, the rally led by another senior Spayka executive, Karen Baghdasarian, continued outside the court building. In an emotional speech, Baghdasarian accused the SRC of destroying what he described as one of Armenias most successful and rapidly expanding businesses. He claimed that Ghazarians arrest will not only hurt Spayka and its more than 1,200 workers but also thousands of farmers whose agricultural produce is purchased by the company.

The protesters chanting Spayka! and Freedom to Davit! then marched to the main government building in Yerevan to demand a meeting with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. The latter declined such a meeting, sending instead one of his aides to talk to them.

The official, Nairi Sargsian, told the protesters that Pashinian will not intervene in this or any other criminal case. Baghdasarian insisted, however, that the prime minister must give the court a personal guarantee that would pave the way for Ghazarians release.

At a news conference held on Friday, Ghazarian claimed that Pashinian had a hand in the tax evasion charges brought against him.

Meanwhile, the businessmans lawyers said that they have already asked the court to free him on bail. One of the lawyers, Karen Sardarian, told reporters that the tax fraud case against his client is based on a mere expert assessment cited by the SRC. He said the tax agency should conduct a fresh and more thorough inquiry with Spaykas representatives. The company would accept its findings, he said.

In an April 5 statement, the SRC said that the accusations stem from large quantities of cheese and other foodstuffs which were imported to Armenia by another company, Greenproduct, in 2015 and 2016. It claimed that Greenproduct is controlled by Spayka and that the latter rigged its customs documents to pay fewer taxes from those imports. Ghazarian said that Spayka is not connected to Greenproduct and has only carried out cargo shipments for it.

Spayka was set up in 2001 and has since become Armenias largest producer and exporter of agricultural products grown at its own greenhouses or purchased from farmers in about 80 communities across the country. It also owns hundreds of heavy trucks exporting those products to Russia and other countries.

In March 2018, the company borrowed $30 million from the Manila-based Asian Development Bank to build more climate-controlled greenhouses equipped with drip irrigation systems.

As recently as on March 26, Spayka inaugurated a newly built dairy factory in Yerevan at a ceremony attended by Pashinian. It claimed to be planning to expand further with a $100 million investment project which will be mostly financed by the Kazakhstan-based Eurasian Development Bank.

Ownership of Spayka has long been a subject of Armenian media speculation. Some media outlets have linked it to the family of former President Robert Kocharian and then to his successor Serzh Sarkisians son-in-law, Mikael Minasian. Ghazarian has maintained that he is the companys sole real owner.
The Yerkrapah Union, a once powerful organization uniting thousands of Armenian veterans of the Nagorno-Karabakh war, has elected a close associate of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian as its new leader.

Yerkrapah members unanimously voted for Sasun Mikaelian , a prominent war veteran and the nominal chairman of Pashinians Civil Contract party, at a weekend congress in Yerevan.

Mikaelian, 61, pledged to resign from the party leadership in May. But he gave no indications that he will also terminate his membership in Civil Contract.

Yerkrapah was established by the late Defense Minister Vazgen Sarkisian and played a major role in Armenian politics in the 1990s and the early 2000s. It began losing its political influence after Sarkisian was assassinated in the October 1999 terrorist attack on the Armenian parliament.

But the group remained linked to the Armenian military in one way or another. It sent thousands of armed volunteers to Nagorno-Karabakh following the outbreak of large-scale hostilities there in April 2016.

Manvel Grigorian, an army general who succeeded Sarkisian as Yerkrapah chairman in 1999, served as Armenias deputy defense minister from 2000-2008. He was removed from the military after supporting former President Levon Ter-Petrosian in the February 2008 presidential election.

In 2010, Grigorian openly pledged allegiance to then President Serzh Sarkisian. He and Yerkrapah helped Sarkisian win reelection in a disputed vote held in 2013.

Grigorian resigned as Yerkrapah leader shortly after being arrested in June 2018 on corruption charges. His arrest came two months after Sarkisian was overthrown in the velvet revolution led by Pashinian. Mikaelian actively participated in the protest movement.

The new Yerkrapah leader insisted that he will not turn the veterans union into the ruling partys appendage. You saw what happened when they tried to make Yerkrapah serve the [former] authorities, he said.

Mikaelian made clear at the same time that Yerkrapah will never hamper the current Armenian government.

Pashinian attended and addressed the Yerkrapah congress.
Armenia sent on Monday an aid convoy to neighboring Iran to help victims of devastating flash floods that have swept through hundreds of Iranian towns and villages, killing at least 70 people.

The southwestern Khuzestan province has been especially hard hit by the floods that began with heavy rains on March 19. Gholamreza Shariati, the provincial governor, told the official IRNA news agency on Saturday that six local towns "must be evacuated as soon as possible" as the government releases water from major dams that are near overflowing.

A convoy of trucks carrying 4,000 blankets, 250 beds and 30 tents left Yerevan after an official ceremony attended by Armenian Ministry of Emergency Situations Felix Tsolakian and Seyyed Kazem Sajjad, the Iranian ambassador to Armenia. Sajjad thanked the Armenian government for the aid.

Tsolakian said that the relief supplies were provided by the Armenian-Russian Center for Humanitarian Response. They will be handed over to the Iranian Red Crescent Society in the northern city of Tebriz, he told reporters.

Roobik Minasian, a Yerevan-based journalist with Radio Farda, RFE/RLs Persian-language service, said the Armenian humanitarian assistance is very symbolic given the huge scale of the floods. We can say that aid provided by other countries is also symbolic, he said.

Tsolakian offered to help the Iranian authorities cope with the consequences of the natural disaster at a March 28 meeting with Sajjad. We will be sending technical equipment, machinery and rescuers, he said at a cabinet meeting in Yerevan held the following day.

The minister did not speak on Monday of a possible dispatch of Armenian rescue teams to Iran.

Armenia has maintained a cordial relationship with Iran ever since its independence. The leaders of the two nations pledged to deepen bilateral ties during Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinians recent official visit to the Islamic Republic.
By Leman Mammadova

The number of Azerbaijani tourists visiting Georgia amounted to 117,050 people in March 2019.

According to the report of Georgian National Tourism Administration, the number of people traveling neighboring country from Azerbaijan increased by 11,865 or 11.3 percent in the annual comparison, Report informs.

Thus, Azerbaijan ranks first in the number of foreigners visiting Georgia with this indicator.

The next places in the top three are Russia (98,480 people) and Armenia (84,403 people).

In annual comparison, the number of foreign visitors who visited Georgia in March rose by 6.4 percent and amounted to 619,325 people, so 328,486 of which were tourists.

The number of tourists visiting the country increased by 13,536 people or 4.3 percent compared to the same period in 2018.

The tourist flow between Azerbaijan and Georgia keeps increasing. This year, the number of tourists from Georgia exceeded the number of Russians for the first time. Georgian citizens made 29.8 percent of 364,200 visitors arriving in Azerbaijan in January-February 2019.

However, in 2018, 2,849,600 tourists from 196 countries arrived in Azerbaijan, 21.4 percent of which came from Georgia.

Azerbaijan and Georgia maintain high-level relations in all spheres, especially in economic field. Two countries have already taken initiatives for global projects in the region together for a long time. Close bilateral ties play a key role in the development of regional cooperation.

The trade turnover between Georgia and Azerbaijan amounted to $1.1 billion in 2018. The share of Azerbaijan in the total trade turnover of the neighboring country made 8.7 percent last year. Georgian exports to Azerbaijan amounted to $ 502.7 million in 2018. In turn, Azerbaijan exported goods worth $ 586 million to Georgia.

Georgian exports to Azerbaijan include cement, locomotives and other railway vehicles, mineral and chemical fertilizers, mineral waters, strong drinks, glass and glass wares, and pharmaceuticals, among other things. Azerbaijani mainly exports to Georgia oil and petroleum products, natural gas, electricity, plastic, cement, anhydrite and gypsum binders.

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Leman Mammadova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @leman_888

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
By Trend

The total volume of cargo transportation via Georgias Batumi port to Azerbaijan amounted to 85,738 tons in January-March 2019, Batumi Sea Port Ltd. told Trend.

"Of this volume, 62,691 tons accounted for raw sugar. Moreover, 12,836 tons of palm oil, 6,603 tons of soya and 3,608 tons of corn oil were transported via Batumi port to Azerbaijan in January-March 2019," added the source.

The total volume of cargo transportation from Azerbaijan via Georgias Batumi port stood at 26,119 tons as of 2018.

As much as 22,126 tons of the abovementioned figure accounted for industrial oil, while 3,993 tons fall on bentonite transportation from the country.

This is while the total volume of cargo transportation from Batumi port to Azerbaijan amounted to 336,702 tons.

Of this volume, 183,315 tons accounted for raw sugar. Moreover, 53,850 tons of palm oil, 62,887 tons of soya, 20,512 tons of rails, 12,809 tons of corn oil, 3,322 tons of laminate and 8 tons of tanks were transported from Batumi port to Azerbaijan in 2018.

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By Mirsaid Ibrahimzade

The construction of a logistics center in the Turkish Kars, implemented jointly with Azerbaijan, will be completed by the end of this year, a source in the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure of Turkey told Trend.

There are no delays in the construction of the logistics center, according to the source.

This center is one of the most important logistics centers in eastern Turkey, the source noted.

"The logistics center in Kars will also contribute to the development of the region," the source said.

A 300,000 square meter land plot was allocated for the construction of the logistics center. Railway lines with a length of 16 kilometers will be built on the territory of the logistics center, and this section will be connected to the Kars-Erzurum railway.

Around 412,000 tons of cargo are expected to be transported through the logistics center annually.

An agreement on the creation of the logistics center was signed on July 19 last year, during the visit of Head of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC Javid Gurbanov to the Kars province.

On October 30, 2017, a solemn ceremony on the occasion of the opening of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway was held at the Baku International Sea Trade Port. This is a regional rail link project to directly connect Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.

The BTK railway was built on the basis of the Azerbaijani-Georgian-Turkish intergovernmental agreement. At the initial stage, the volume of freight traffic will be at the level of 6.5 million tons of cargo, as well as up to one million passengers will be transported through this railway.

The key objective of the project is to improve economic relations between the three countries and gain foreign direct investment by connecting Europe and Asia.

As further objectives, the railway is expected to provide stable goods turnover between Azerbaijan, Turkey, Georgia and the countries located on the other side of the Caspian Sea. The formation of strong port infrastructure and transportation of oil and oil products to the world markets are other targets.

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By Leman Mammadova

Azerbaijan is Chinas main trading partner in the South Caucasus, Azerbaijani Economy Minister, Co-Chairman of the Azerbaijani-Chinese Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation Shahin Mustafayev said.

He met with a delegation led by a member of the Foreign Policy Advisory Group of the Foreign Ministry of China, Xiaopei Zhou.

It was noted that last year, the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and China exceeded $1.3 billion, making 43 percent of Chinas total trade turnover with the countries of the South Caucasus.

The minister also stressed that there is great potential for expanding trade relations and Azerbaijan is taking consistent measures to realize this potential, mentioning operation of Azerbaijan's trade representative, opening of wine and trade houses of Azerbaijan in China as well as export missions organized to China.

He added that the import support policy implemented by the Chinese side creates favorable conditions for the presentation of high-quality Azerbaijani products on the Chinese market.

About 120 companies with Chinese capital are registered in Azerbaijan. Over the past period, Azerbaijan invested $ 1.7 billion in China, and Chinese investments to Azerbaijan exceeded $ 800 million. Chinese companies also took part in projects implemented in our country at the expense of public funds worth $600 million, he said.

Stressing the importance of cooperation in the financial sector, the Minister of Economy noted that Azerbaijan became a member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in 2016.

He said that the bank had allocated a loan of $ 600 million for the implementation of the TANAP project, and stressed the role of China in the implementation of the TANAP project.

Mustafayev emphasized that Azerbaijan is one of the first countries that supported the project One Belt, One Road and is one of the active participants in its implementation. The minister stressed that the use of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR) within the framework of One Belt One Road creates excellent opportunities for cooperation in the investment, trade, transit and other spheres.

Touching upon the cooperation in the tourism sector, Minister recalled the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on the simplification of group trips of Chinese tourists to Azerbaijan. Noting increasing interest of Chinese tourists to Azerbaijan, he said that Chinese tourists use the ASAN Viza system and about 16,000 Chinese citizens visited Azerbaijan last year.

In turn, Xiaopei Zhou informed about the consultative group and underlined that, taking into account the important position of Azerbaijan in the region, China chose Azerbaijan as the main trading partner in the South Caucasus.

He also mentioned Chinas interest in developing relations with Azerbaijan in various sectors of the economy.

Recently, the seventh meeting of the intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation between Azerbaijan and China was held in Beijing. The meeting ended with the signing of the protocol that envisages the expansion of cooperation in industrial, agricultural, transit, logistics, trade, investment, ICT, financial, tourism, humanitarian and other areas.

At present, Azerbaijan's trade representative operates in China, Azerbaijan's wine houses in Urumqi and Shanghai, Azerbaijans Trade House in Liuzhou. Azerbaijani export missions to China are also being organized.

This year, the Ministry of Economy is planning to organize three more export missions to China.

It should be noted that Ministry of Economy and the Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO) organized the first export mission of this year to Beijing, China on 25 February-1 March. The mission included 16 Azerbaijani companies operating in the field of food, wine and other alcoholic drinks.

Azerbaijan and China recently signed a protocol on cultural cooperation for 20192023 and the Memorandum of Understanding on simplifying group visits of Chinese tourists to Azerbaijan.

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Leman Mammadova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @leman_888

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By Trend

The Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Agriculture of Azerbaijan have issued a joint statement on the rise in prices of some vegetable products, Trend reports.

In connection with the rise in prices of potatoes, onions and cabbage in the country, until April 30, an export duty is imposed on the supply of potatoes abroad, and until May 31 - for the export of onions and cabbage. Moreover, imports of onions are exempted from the specific duty.

This step serves to ensure price stability in the domestic market, as well as to satisfy the demand of the population for these types of products, the statement read.

The ministries also note that they will take all the necessary measures to eliminate possible difficulties for entrepreneurs associated with the sale of products.

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By Leman Mammadova

Having made considerable efforts to develop renewables in recent times, Azerbaijan is also planning to provide foreign countries with local products in this industry.

Azerbaijani-made solar panels will be supplied to Germany, Azguntex chief technologist Nizami Asgarov told Trend.

The chief technologist noted that the company is working on the modernization.

After modernization, the enterprise will apply new technologies, the products will be of higher quality and meet international standards, said Asgarov.

Asgarov added that after the completion of the modernization of the enterprise, solar panels will be supplied to Germany, Turkey, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Georgia.

Solar energy is one of the most common types of alternative energy sources in modern times. The amount of sunlight falling on the surface of the Earth is greater than all oil, gas, coal and other fuels.

The advantage of solar energy is that sun exposure does not generate a glaze effect, no air pollution occurs, and heat does not spread to atmospheric layers. The only cons of solar energy are dependence on the state of the atmosphere, day and year.

Azerbaijan's natural climatic conditions open up opportunities for energy production using solar energy sources. The amount of sunny hours in Azerbaijan is 2,400-3,200 hours a year. Taking into account that there are 300 sunny days in Azerbaijan, it is one of the most promising areas.

A major part of the countrys capacity in this area accounts for solar energy, while its potential is estimated at 5,000 megawatts. Some 4,500 megawatts accounts for wind power, 1,500 megawatts -- for biomass, 800 megawatts -- for geothermal energy, and the remaining 350 megawatts -- for the small hydro power plants (HPP).

In January-February 2019, the production of solar energy in the country increased by 15.9 percent.

The State Agency for Alternative and Renewable Energy Sources plans to implement 23 projects worth 13 million manats as part of the strategic roadmap for the development of public services in 2018-2020.

The projects cover the construction of 420 megawatt wind, water and biofuel power plants. The capacity of wind power stations will be 350 megawatts, solar power stations will be 50 megawatts, and biofuel power plants will be equal to 20 megawatts.

Presently, solar power plants in Azerbaijan operate in the cities of Gobustan and Samukh, the Baku settlements of Pirallahi and Surakhani. The power plant in Bakus Sahil settlement is fully ready for operation. After the start of its operation, it is also planned to commission a similar solar power plant in Sumgayit city, where the work has almost been completed.

Azguntex LLC established by the State Agency on Alternative and Renewable Energy Sources is engaged in the production of solar panels since April 24, 2012. It is located in Sumgait and combines two plants: Azguntex plant of sun modules and Azguntex plant of LED lighting.

Earlier, the company produced panels with a capacity of 250 watts. After modernization, their power will grow to 300-330 watts. New samples will be able to accumulate more solar energy by replacing the old three-tire models of photovoltaic cells with new high-performance five-tire cells. Upon completion of the modernization works, the total annual capacity of the products produced at the plant will increase from 25 to 60-65 megawatts. The company will operate two lines, producing 100,000 panels per year.

Advantage of the strength of the solar modules produced by the automated technology is a high efficiency and the latest model is distinguished by the use of technology polycrystal cells. In addition, they are based on the most modern technologies of leading firms of European countries.

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Leman Mammadova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @leman_888

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By Laman Ismayilova

The Mariinsky Ballet will go on tour to Washington, DC (U.S.).

Azerbaijan's ballet star Teymur Asgarov will join the ballet troupe, Trend Life reported.

The ballet dancers will perform on the stage of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on April 9-14.

The ballet "Corsaire" based on the choreography by Peter Gusev will be staged as part of the tour.

Le Corsaire is a ballet typically presented in three acts, with a libretto originally created by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges loosely based on the poem The Corsair by Lord Byron.

Originally choreographed by Joseph Mazilier to the music of Adolphe Adam, it was first presented by the ballet of the Theatre Imperial de lOpera in Paris on 23 January 1856.

All modern productions of Le Corsaire are derived from the revivals staged by the Ballet Master Marius Petipa for the Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg throughout the mid to late 19th century.

Teymur Asgarov is a graduate of the Baku School of Choreography. He performed at the Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre and the National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet named after T.G. Shevchenko in 2008-2011.

Since 2011, Asgarov has been working in the Mariinsky Theatre. He is the winner of the "Spirit of Dance" in the category "Rising Star" by Ballet magazine in 2012, prizewinner at the 11th International Ballet Dancers' and Choreographers' Competition in Moscow in 2013, and recipient of the Azerbaijan Presidential Youth Prize for Culture in 2013.

The ballet dancer was recognized as the best male dancer in duet nomination of the International Ballet Competition and contest of choreographers that took place at the Bolshoi Theatre in 2013.

His repertoire includes Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty, La Bayadere, Swan Lake, Don Quixote, The Nutcracker, Carmen-Suite, The Legend of Love, Le Corsaire and Chopiniana.

With the Mariinsky Ballet, Asgarov have toured around Europe, Asia and America.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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PESS supported Pemra decision to impose restrictions on TV channels for inviting retd military officers

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Ex-Servicemen Society (PESS) has supported the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authoritys (Pemra) decision to impose restrictions on TV channels over inviting retired military officers to their talk shows and other programmes as defence analysts.



A statement issued by the PESS on Sunday said that the society distanced itself from a decision taken by the Ex-Servicemen Legal Forum to challenge in court the Pemras directives that retired officers take permission from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) before appearing on television.



Retired Lt Col Inamur Rahim Khawaja, convener of the Ex-Servicemen Legal Forum, said on Saturday that his group had decided to challenge the Pemra notification in the Islamabad High Court.



The PESS reiterated that the ISPR director general was the only voice of the armed forces. The decision was in national interest and the PESS stood behind it wholeheartedly, it added. According to the society, it has three million members.



The PESS disassociated itself from any ex-servicemen forum which did not agree with this decision. Such forums/groups only wish to serve their own vested interest and that of their paymasters, the statement said.



In a notification issued on Thursday, Pemra instructed all TV channels to seek prior clearance from the ISPR before inviting retired military officers on news and current affairs programmes to solicit their views on matters of national security.



The notification stated: It has seriously been observed by the concerned quarters that retired military officers are frequently being invited in different news and current affairs programmes / talk shows as defence analysts to solicit their views / opinions on matters of national security and related affairs. Such invitees are usually not fully conversant with latest defence and security related developments due to their service background and post retirement time. Moreover, the discussion mostly switches from security-related matters to politics which inadvertently embroils military officers into political debate which is felt undesirable. The Forum is an association of retired army officers-turned-lawyers.
By Laman Ismayilova

A poetry evening dedicated to the world-famous poet, President of the Senate of the University of Delaware (USA) was held in Baku.

The event was co-organized by the Azerbaijan Ministry of Culture in cooperation with the International Mugham Center, Trend Life reported.

The evening was held with the assistance of the State Committee for Work with the Diaspora and the American Chamber of Commerce.

The creative evening coincided with the birthday of the head of "SOZ" literature project, poetess Nigar Hasanzade.

Poet and translator Salim Babullaoglu spoke about the life and work of a guest from the United States, having first read his poems in Azerbaijani.

In turn, Alexander Selimov read his poems in Russian and Spanish, performed a number of compositions on the guitar. He began writing poems in Russian as a teenager. While serving in Cuba, he began writing poetry in Spanish.

Over the years, Latin America and Spanish became closer to the poets soul.

A concert program with the participation of Honored Artist, tar player Shahriyar Imanov, pianist Tural Raphael, laureates of international competitions, dancers Lenai Seidalizade and Javid Hajiyev, was presented to the guests. The evening was met with a storm of applause.

Alexander Selimov was born in Makhachkala in 1963, in a family of teachers and artists. Father Azim Selimov taught the dialectology of the Russian language at the University of Dagestan, mother Lyudmila Selimova hosted the program "Hello,we are looking for talents!" on the Dagestan TV.

The grandfather of the poet Agahan Selimoglu was sent from Baku to Makhachkala, where he worked under the leadership of the First Secretary of the Dagestan Regional Committee Aziz Aliyev.

He was Chairman and Secretary of Khivsky and Suleiman-Stalsky districts.

Alexander Selimov graduated from the Dagestan University in 1986 and until 1989 worked as a military translator in the department of international relations of the Ministry of Armed Forces of Cuba.

In 1990 he entered the magistracy of the University of Delaware. He also took a post-graduate programme of the university. The poet defended his Ph.D. in Spanish language and literature in 1996.

He teaches Spanish and Latin American literature at the University of Delaware.

Alexander Selimov is a member of the United States Pen Club, the Academy of American Poets, an honorary member of the Union of Writers and Artists of Bolivia, an UNESCO Honorary Ambassador, a member of the Coordinating Committee of the Democratic Party of Delaware, and a deputy candidate for the New Castle county.

Selimov is an author of many books and literary articles published in Spain, USA, Canada, South Korea and Azerbaijan.

Among them are such works as "The Challenge and Other Poems", the book of anti-war poems, which received the honorary Victoria Urban Award in 2018.

Published by the Ibero-American literary community in the United States, this book includes poems dedicated to the innocent victims of the Khojaly genocide.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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By Abdul Kerimkhanov

In the conditions of a delay in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement, the intensification of contacts between Azerbaijani and Armenian representatives at the most diverse levels, including the negotiation process between the heads of the foreign ministry, is particularly valuable.

The next meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia will be held in the capital of one of the countries co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group, said Leyla Abdullayeva, press secretary of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.

She noted that negotiations are currently underway related to the date of the meeting.

She recalled that a joint statement adopted at a meeting of the heads of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Vienna on March 29, noted that the parties agreed to meet in the near future in the level of foreign ministers.

"In this regard, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, during his visit to Brussels, made a statement that an agreement was reached on the upcoming ministerial meeting and such a meeting will be held in the near future in the capital of one of the co-chair countries. As for the specific time of the meeting, it will be announced after reaching an agreement between Baku and Yerevan," said Abdullayeva.

Earlier, the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, participating in the meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the CIS, held a bilateral meeting with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow on April 5.

The parties expressed satisfaction with the high level of political dialogue and multifaceted cooperation between Azerbaijan and Russia.

The upcoming meeting of the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia in the negotiation process framework on the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which will be held in Moscow, with the participation of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, pursues a serious goal, said well-known Azerbaijani political scientist Arzu Nagiyev.

The expert noted that it is within this meeting that the parties will have to hold a detailed discussion of issues relating to the situation on the contact line of troops, as well as humanitarian issues.

Nagiyev recalled that during the Vienna meeting, the Armenian side again tried to talk about changing the negotiation format, and the Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan raised this issue later in Yerevan.

Political scientist believes that the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs recent statements regarding the unchanged format of the negotiation process, as well as statements of similar content of high-ranking EU officials, are a serious message to the Armenian side.

"In turn, the position of Azerbaijan remains unchanged, we unilaterally declare that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement is possible subject to the restoration of territorial integrity and the inviolability of the Azerbaijani borders. The Azerbaijani leader repeatedly voiced this sound and fair position. At the same time, we propose to resolve this issue through substantive negotiations, that is, in stages," said Nagiyev.

As for the presence of Russia at the upcoming meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers, the political scientist called it a positive fact, noting that the participation of the Russian foreign minister is necessary.

At the same time, the expert recalled that the UN Security Council resolutions constitute the legal basis for resolving the conflict, and unequivocally confirm the sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of Azerbaijani international borders, and also require the immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian occupying forces from Azerbaijani territories.

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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94

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By Abdul Kerimkhanov

The yearning for their native places, which lasted for more than 20 years, prompted two Azerbaijanis to make a selfless step to visit the occupied lands. That was only a pure their desire to see native lands, home and graves of parents. Now their illegal arrest by Armenia and the refusal to release their relatives cause great sadness and outrage in public in Azerbaijan.

The current political leadership of Armenia continues to deny shameful acts against the hostages Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilgam Asgarov, who were unlawfully prosecuted.

As a result of the ethnic cleansing, more than one million Azerbaijani people, including Asgarov and Guliyev and their family members, were forcibly expelled from their homes. Since 1993, they and their families have been forced to live as internally displaced persons.

In the near future, the Council of Europe will take a decision on the Azerbaijanis Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev taken hostage by Armenian military forces, said lawyer of Dilgam Askerov and Shahbaz Guliyev, chairman of the Azerbaijani Bar Association Anar Bagirov.

The chairman of the Board said that the Armenian side appealed to the Council of Europe with a request for a postponement until March of this year.

The Armenian side had to express its position before March. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) gave them a reprieve. April is already here. I can say with absolute certainty that the issue will be resolved in the shortest possible time, Bagirov added.

The chairman of the Board also said that the ECHR should soon announce its decision since the course of the case gives reason to talk about it.

The photos of Asgarov and Guliyev before and after being taken hostage prove that while they are being held hostage they are subjected to inhuman treatment, physical and moral torture. As a result, both suffer from various serious illnesses.

Deliberately demonstrating inhuman attitudes towards them in the media, the Armenian side exposes their family members and relatives to psychological pressure.

Bagirov expressed confidence that Azerbaijans fair position will be taken into account on this case, the rights of Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilgam Askerov will be protected and a fair, correct decision will be made.

He noted that if the ECHR makes a decision, there will be nothing left for the Armenian side but to comply with this decision.

Guliyev and Asgarov were judged illegally by the unrecognized courts of the separatist regime in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh. Following an expedited judicial process in December 2015, Asgarov was sentenced to life imprisonment and Guliyev  to 22 years in prison.

Azerbaijans State Committee on Affairs of Refugees and IDPs, the State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons and other agencies have repeatedly urged international organizations, including the ICRC, to assist in release of Guliyev and Asgarov, whilst the problem remains topical yet.

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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94

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By Trend

There is no country in the world in which army would prepare for peace, spokesman for the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry, Colonel Vagif Dargahli said in response to Trends request.

Dargahli was commenting on Armenian Defense Minister David Tonoyans statement that the Azerbaijani military-political leadership must prepare its army for peace.

The task of the army is to be ready for war, not peace, Dargahli said.

The function of the army is to constantly be in a state of alert, protect the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of its country and ensure its security and protection, Dargahli added.

"As the supreme commander-in-chief of the Azerbaijani armed forces stated, if Armenia wants peace, then the Armenian soldiers must be leave the Azerbaijani lands, he said. The Armenian leadership must once and for all realize that our army will be able to think about peace only after the liberation of the Azerbaijani lands from occupation. In the current conditions the Azerbaijani army is ready for war, not peace."

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

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By 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.

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By Trend

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed an order regarding measures to construct Shamkir-Zayam-Duyarli-Shishtapa-Bayramli road in Shamkir.

Under the presidential order, the Azerbaijan Highway State Agency is allocated 14 million manats for the construction of the road connecting eight residential areas with a total population of 85,000 people.

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By Trend

The incitement of hatred by Armenians seriously undermines the efforts and work of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to strengthen democracy, Head of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE Samad Seyidov said at a spring session of the organization in France, Trend reports April 8.

We see a lot of changes in our region, he said. But one negative factor remains - incitement of hatred from the Armenian colleagues. This seriously undermines our efforts as a democratic organization.

Speaking about the report regarding the work of PACE, Seyidov noted that this report doesnt reflect positive changes in Azerbaijan.

I cannot recall the case when some negative processes in regions such as ours, including Azerbaijan, wouldnt be mentioned during discussions of such reports on the progress of the Assemblys work, he said. There are a lot of positive things happening in Azerbaijan. The report should reflect this. Recently, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed a decree of pardon and much of what we heard today no longer exists.

More than 60 people have been released from the list we often hear about at the Assembly meetings, he noted. This is an extremely important fact. Recently, the president of Azerbaijan has also signed a special decree on the very important plan of reform in the judicial system of Azerbaijan, which completely fits into the values of the Council of Europe. These points arent reflected in the progress report on the PACEs work. However, this is an essential document.

The PACE spring session is taking place April 8-12 in Strasbourg (France).

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By Trend

Logistic Hub is one of the important projects in the development of the non-oil segment of the Azerbaijani economy, department head of the Baku International Sea Trade Port Khudayar Hasanli told Trend as part of the project PREZIDENT. Mustqillik. Thluksizlik. Rifah.

He said that the non-oil sector is developing in Azerbaijan, and the Logistic Hub is one of the biggest projects being implemented in this sphere.

Logistic Hub implies not only the port, but also the free zone, railway, shipping, freight and transit, he noted. The Baku International Sea Trade Port is the center connecting all these undertakings. The implementation of these projects directly serves the development of the non-oil sector of Azerbaijan.

He added that after the second phase, which envisages bringing the transshipment potential of the Baku International Sea Trade Port to 25 million tons, as well as 500,000 containers per year in the future, the Baku port will be able to get the biggest share in the non-oil sector as the largest port not only in Azerbaijan, but also in the region.

The cargo handling potential of the Baku port as part of the first phase is 15 million tons, including 100,000 containers per year. Dry cargo vessels moor at 7 berths, out of 12 existing ones, ferries moor at 2 berths, while ships of the Ro-Ro and Ro-Pax type moor at 2 more berths. One more berth is used to service the towing and auxiliary vessels of the port.

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By Leman Mammadova

Support for the development of small and medium-sized businesses is one of the most remarkable contributions to the economic reforms carried out in the country.

Azerbaijani State Oil Company SOCAR and Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communications signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that envisages the creation of a digital portal to encourage domestic production.

The document was signed by the president of SOCAR, Rovnag Abdullayev, and the head of the center, Vusal Gasimli.

The main purpose of the memorandum is to support small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in Azerbaijan through a new website. As part of the memorandum, SOCAR will post on the new website requests for goods, equipment and services needed by the company.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of signing, SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev said that SOCAR has decided to take part in supporting SMEs in Azerbaijan.

He recalled that the company participates in many social programs in Azerbaijan.

Special attention is also paid in Azerbaijan to supporting the development of local production, he said, stressing that supporting SMEs is one of the main directions of Azerbaijans policy.

In turn, Executive Director of the Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communications Vusal Gasimli said that the website dedicated to import substitution and supporting local production will start operating in Azerbaijan soon.

He said that the proposal to create such a website was received from SOCAR.

We are very glad with such proposal and willingly agreed to support and participate in the websites creation, he noted.

Thanks to the website, representatives of SMEs will be able to participate in tenders that were previously available only for big companies. The website will be managed by the Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communications.

Small and medium-sized businesses play an important role in development of the country's economy.

Development of small and medium-sized businesses leads to the growth of entrepreneurship which is one of the priority directions of Azerbaijans economic policy.

The Agency for the Development of Small and Medium Business of Azerbaijan was established in 2017 to ensure the consistency of reforms, as well as the improvement of the business regulation system and the application of effective coordination, enhancement of the role and competitiveness of small and medium-sized businesses in the country's economy, and the compliance of the management system of this sphere with modern requirements.

The share of SMEs in Azerbaijans foreign trade is planned to increase to 40 percent after 2025.

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By Abdul Kerimkhanov

The situation around the Lidian company with the British-American capital, licensed to operate the Amulsar field, is increasingly concerning the Armenian expert community and pro-Western politicians.

Obstacles caused to the company by the public with the connivance of the authorities, and Lidians intention to apply to Armenia in an international arbitration court can put an end to the Pashinyan governments plans to attract major western investments to the country.

This situation is especially hard on the Armenian-American relations, consider analysts at armenianreport.com. The Armenian-American relations contain great opportunities for Armenia, which, however, may be put at risk as a result of inaction.

It is about relations with the Lidian company, which have reached such a level and quality as a result of problems encountered in the Armenian-American political relations.

Lidian announced its intention to start the process in international arbitration against the Armenian government. This is the largest company, the largest investor in the history of Armenia, having invested $400 million, which, in its steps, hardly calculated the political relations of the U.S. with Yerevan. In other words, in other conditions and the content of the Armenian-American relations, Lidian, perhaps, would have refrained from intending to turn to arbitration, assumes an Armenian edition.

Authors of the article noted that as long as Armenia continues to consider relations with Russia as the number one priority for Armenia, the country should not expect financial assistance from the United States. Due to lack of relevant work in the direction of Armenian-American relations, Armenia is losing money, which accounts to billions of dollars.

Earlier, the former U.S. ambassador Richard Mills pointed out to the inadmissibility of the oppression of companies with western capital. He openly said that western investors are closely monitoring the situation around Lidian and how the Armenian government will provide guarantees for them.

So far, PM Nikol Pashinyan stubbornly does not want to take into account his country's international obligations to partners. This is perhaps the only case where he really fulfills the wishes of the working people, already very soon a year as they impede the start of development at the fields. In all other cases, the wishes of citizens remain ignored.

What is the interest of the new government and why did it go to such a confrontation with the largest investor in the history of Armenia, which lost billions as a result of the protest actions? Will the revolutionary image of Pashinyan help in making a decision by international arbitration? Ultimately, this confrontation may cost Armenia the final loss of investor confidence and an even greater cooling in relations with the United States.

However, the tension of economic relations concerns not only Western companies.

Armenia asks Russia to postpone the payment of a loan for the modernization of the NPP, head of the Foreign Relations Department at the Ministry of Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources of Armenia Tigran Melkonyan said at the 19th meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation on April 4.

He raised an issue related to the delay in work on the project implementation to extend the life of the Armenian NPP.

"We have identified several reasons, both objective and subjective. To successfully complete the project, it is necessary to make a decision on extending the loan term, as well as postponing the start of loan repayment so far, the only source of annual loan payments are funds from the sale of electricity produced by the Armenian NPP," said Melkonyan.

The program of the Government of Armenia provides for the extension of the operating life of the existing NPP until 2026, as well as the phased commissioning of new units, although the service life of the reactors has long expired.

The Armenian NPP is located near the town of Metsamor and is based on the technologies of the Chernobyl NPP, which ceased operations in 1986 due to an accident at a nuclear reactor.

Ecologists and scientists consider the seismic activity of this region turns the NPP operation in Metsamor into a highly dangerous enterprise, even in the case of the construction of a new-type reactor, since the NPP has completed the service life and its continued operation can lead to catastrophic consequences for the entire region.

Earlier, the EU offered assistance in the amount of 100 million euros to close NPP, while Armenia refused and continue to manage NPP, putting at risk the lives of millions of people.

Armenia also does not attach importance to the proposals of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regarding the closure of the Metsamor NPP.

---

Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Two accused willing to become approvers against Asif Zardari-Faryal Talpur

ISLAMABAD: Two of the accused expressed their willingness before an accountability court in Islamabad to become approvers against PPP President Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur.



The case was earlier being heard in a banking court in Karachi but had been shifted to an accountability court in Islamabad upon an appeal by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). Zardari, Talpur and others accused nominated in the case appeared before the court amid amid tight security.



Two women, Kiran Aman and Noreen Sultan, are among 24 accused persons that NAB has nominated in the case. They told the court that they are ready to testify as witnesses, and had filed an application before NAB Chairman Javed Iqbal, but the bureau named them as accused instead.



The accountability judge asked NAB to verify using the case record if Kiran and Noreen had informed the court of their willingness to testify in the case against the other accused persons.



Zardari, while talking to reporters as he sat in court, said he was seated in the same chair former premier Nawaz Sharif used to sit in during his trial in the Al-Azizia and Flagship Investment references. Zardari described Nawaz Sharif as "a noble man" and himself as "a humble one".



He added that the establishment should be asked about the trial of former military dictator Pervez Musharraf.



Meanwhile, police arrested two female workers of the PPP from outside the federal judicial complex as they were trying to enter into the accountability court to witness the appearance of their leaders.



The case had been transferred from Karachi to an accountability court in the capital on the National Accountability Bureau's (NAB) appeal. The Sindh High Court had rejected appeals against the decision.



Security in the capital was put on high alert, with at least 1,650 security officials deployed within and around the judicial complex to avoid any untoward situation during the hearing.



A police official told said that 1,500 police officials, including the anti-riot force, commandos and women officials will be deployed, along with Rangers, Special Branch and Traffic Police officials.



Last month, when PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and his father appeared before the accountability court, PPP workers had clashed with police, leading to at least 20 workers being arrested, while cases were registered against 70 workers including Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar and Raja Shakil Abbasi. Nine police officials and a journalist were injured in the tussle.



The FIA had named Asif Zardari, Faryal Talpur, Omni Group chairman Anwar Majeed, his sons and over 10 others as suspects in an interim charge sheet filed in the banking court in August 2018 for alleged money laundering to the tune of over Rs4 billion after 29 fake bank accounts were found opened in three banks  Summit Bank, Sindh Bank and United Bank Ltd.



On March 15, 2019, a banking court had granted NAB's request to transfer the case to the accountability court in Rawalpindi for trial.
By 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.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
By Abdul Kerimkhanov

The third anniversary of the April battles celebrated in the outgoing week forced the separatists in Karabakh to recall that nightmare for them.

After the battles on the line of contact on April 25, the situation on the front line changed radically: in contrast to all previous years, the advantage is now on the Azerbaijani side, which can control front-line territories from conquered heights.

Wishing to keep up with Yerevan, the puppet regime threatened Baku that if Azerbaijan decided to liberate the occupied lands by military means, "all necessary self-defense measures will be taken in accordance with the UN Charter."

How does an unrecognized entity created in the territories occupied by Armenia fall under the UN Charter is a good question, but the answer seems to be known to separatists.

The separatists are confused after the failed negotiations for Armenia in Vienna, held recently between Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders, which meant the collapse of all hopes of legitimization of the occupation regime. After three years, the illegal regime created in Karabakh does not want to understand that the April fighting could end not on April 4 but later, and today the Armenian gangsters and war criminals would be in Azerbaijani prisons.

Armenian authorities are trying with all their might to assure the society that there are changes in Azerbaijans position on the settlement of the Karabakh conflict and a change in the format of negotiations is possible.

But the loud statements of the Minister of Defense David Tonoyan and the hot assurances of the Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan can no longer deceive anyone, even such an "optimist" as General Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan.

Speaking about the preservation of the negotiations format, Ter-Tadevosyan said this is Armenias first mistake, which is unlikely to be corrected.

He added that a format has already been created, international observers have already agreed and Azerbaijan will not allow a third party to sit at a table of talks.

This time, Ter-Tadevosyan abandoned military rhetoric and said more that Armenia wants peace, and does not want war.

Noteworthy that, shortly after the April battles, the headlines on Armenian websites sounded with Ter-Tadevosyans voice, promised to blow up the whole of Azerbaijan in 20 minutes. "During the next attack of Azerbaijan, we need to strike a serious blow," the army general said in an interview with Yerkramas, as well as Karabakh separatists who believe that the UN gives Armenia such a right.

Ter-Tadevosyan believes that Azerbaijan has an infrastructure that represents very great explosiveness, in particular, oil and gas pipelines through which Azerbaijan transported energy resources in the framework of international projects.

Earlier, representatives of the occupied Khankendi stated the relevant threats against Azerbaijan. The separatist regime declared that it possesses a special weapon, which no one else has, and is able to send them to Baku. However, these statements only amused the Azerbaijani side.

Recently, Azerbaijans Defense Ministry Zakir Hasanov commented on the threats of the Minister of Defense of Armenia to launch an offensive. Hasanov considers, David Tonoyan is not familiar with the real state of the Armenian army.

"Armenia and its army in order to go on the offensive against Azerbaijan have neither economic nor sufficient military capabilities. Now it is not the 1990s. When I heard his statement, I said, it would be great if they really launched an offensive. Then I would meet with Tonoyan in Yerevan," said Hasanov.

It seems that if Yerevan does not come to its senses, perhaps this will happen.

---

Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
By Trend

Public events, rallies and processions are banned in Turkeys eastern Kars Province, Trend reports referring to the announcement of the city mayors office.

It is stated in the announcement that this measure was taken in order to ensure public security in the province and to prevent provocative activities.

The ban on holding of public events was decided upon in relation to the recently held municipal elections in Turkey.

Thirteen political parties took part in the municipal elections held March 31. These included the Felicity Party (SP), the Independent Turkey Party (Bagmsz Turkiye Partisi), the Communist Party of Turkey (Turkiye Komunist Partisi), the Patriotic Party (Vatan Partisi), the Great Unity Party (Buyuk Birlik Partisi), Free Cause Party (Hur Dava Partisi), Republican Peoples Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi), Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalknma Partisi), Democratic Party (Demokrat Parti), Nationalist Movement Party (Milliyetci Hareket Partisi), Iyi Party (IYI Parti), Peoples Democratic Party (Halklarn Demokratik Partisi) and Democratic Left Party (Demokratik Sol Parti).

---

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By Trend

The presidents of Turkey and Russia will also discuss the situation in the South Caucasus during their meeting in Moscow, a source in the Turkish government told Trend commenting on the visit of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Russia.

According to him, Turkey always keeps the issue of the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the agenda.

"Despite the talks mainly revolving around Turkish-Russian relations, the situation in the South Caucasus will also be on the agenda," the source stated.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Russia on April 8, during which a number of economic and political issues will be discussed.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

---

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By Trend

The municipal election results in Istanbul were almost completely rigged, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters, Trend reports with reference to the Turkish media.

He noted that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) appealed to the Turkish Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) to identify the perpetrators.

Meanwhile, the Justice and Development Party presented facts of falsification of 11,000 votes in Istanbul in favour of the candidate of the opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP) Ekrem Imamoglu.

Earlier, Bayram Senocak, head of the Istanbul branch of the Turkish ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), stated that the ruling party has evidence of the election results in Istanbul being falsified in favor of candidate of the opposition Republican People's Party Ekrem Imamoglu.

Imamoglu gained 4.159 million votes, while Yildirim got 4.131 million votes in Istanbul.

The coalition of the ruling party and the Nationalist Movement Party gained 51.67 percent of votes in the municipal elections throughout the country.

Following the elections, candidate of the Republican Peoples Party Mansur Yavas became mayor of Ankara.

Thirteen political parties took part in the municipal elections held March 31. These included the Felicity Party (SP), the Independent Turkey Party (Bagmsz Turkiye Partisi), the Communist Party of Turkey (Turkiye Komunist Partisi), the Patriotic Party (Vatan Partisi), the Great Unity Party (Buyuk Birlik Partisi), Free Cause Party (Hur Dava Partisi), Republican Peoples Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi), Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalknma Partisi), Democratic Party (Demokrat Parti), Nationalist Movement Party (Milliyetci Hareket Partisi), Iyi Party (IYI Parti), Peoples Democratic Party (Halklarn Demokratik Partisi) and Democratic Left Party (Demokratik Sol Parti).

Municipal elections are held every 5 years in Turkey.

---

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By Trend

Russian-Turkish relations are becoming stronger, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters before his visit to Moscow, Trend reports referring to the Turkish media.

According to Erdogan, a strengthening of relations in all fields is currently being observed between the two countries.

The president noted that regional issues will be discussed during the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, including the situation in Syria and the supply of Russian S-400 air defense missile systems.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Russia on April 8, during which a number of economic and political issues will be discussed.

Initial reports of negotiations between Russia and Turkey on the supply of S-400 surfaced in November 2016. The signing of a contract was confirmed by the Russian side on September 12, 2017. Turkish National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said that the S-400 air defense systems will be deployed from October 2019. The supply of the S-400 air defense systems to Ankara cost $2.5 billion, head of the Rostec state corporation Sergey Chemezov said in December 2017. Turkey is the first country, a NATO member, which will receive the S-400 air defense systems from Russia.

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Industry consulting agency BSB honors important contributions for innovative ingredients and cosmetic products

Euperlan  OP White offers a wax-based, readily biodegradable alternative to synthetic polymer opacifiers

New face mask concept takes up latest trends in skin care and offers the right mask for every purpose



Paris, France  April 8, 2019  BASFs Care Creations has twice been awarded the BSB Innovation Prize 2019: Euperlan OP White, an eco-friendly alternative to synthetic opacifiers, received second place in the Functionals and Recipients sub-category of Cosmetics. The face mask concept was awarded with the third place in the category Applied Concepts. The consulting agency BSB rewarded all winners during in-cosmetics, the international trade fair for cosmetic ingredients, in Paris.

We are constantly seeking innovative and eco-friendly solutions for the personal care market. Consumer trends and needs clearly show us the way. These awards prove that we are on the right track  and we are keen to fulfill the high demands of our customers in the future as well, said Ulrich Issberner, Director Operative Marketing Personal Care Europe.

BASFs award-winning offers

Euperlan OP White is a wax-based, readily biodegradable and cold processable opacifier dispersion with a superior white appearance for surfactant formulations. The product meets todays demand for ecologically friendly ingredients, and its unique properties make it particularly suitable for eco-label-compliant skin and hair cleansing formulations. BASF is the leading supplier of cold processable wax dispersions for personal care that provide optical effects in rinse-off products. Euperlan OP White complements BASFs current portfolio of pearlizing wax dispersions and can be used as an alternative to synthetic polymeric opacifiers.

Face masks are the fastest growing skin care sector. The range of new products is increasing with extremely high speed. All the more difficult has it become for manufacturers and consumers not to get lost in this world of masks. For its face mask concept, BASF has selected the latest trends to offer the right product for every purpose  from anti-pollution effects via clay, natural retinol alternatives for gentle skin renewal, through to K-Beauty, the latest beauty trend in Korean cosmetics.

The German consulting agency BSB has been issuing its Innovation Awards since 2003. The awards are given to innovative goods in the cosmetics sector in three superordinate categories: Cosmetics, Natural Products, and Concepts.
Spend Time with Sea Otters and Oregon Coast's Black Oystercatchers at Cannon Beach Events

Published 04/06/2019 at 6:33 AM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff





(Cannon Beach, Oregon)  Earth Day with sea otters and a lecture on stunning birds of the Oregon coast: two such events fill the roster in Cannon Beach this month. (Sea otter photo courtesy Oregon Coast Aquarium).

The north Oregon coasts World of Haystack Rock lecture series is winding down: the next comes up on April 10, talking about Oregons Black Oystercatchers. The series happens at 7 p.m. at the Cannon Beach Library.

The Audubon Societys Joe Liebezeit unveils the mysterious of the Oregon coast bird.

Liebezeit has worked for the Audubon Society of Portland since 2013, managing their community science science projects and a number of state-wide conservation efforts including Portland Audubons Coastal Conservation Program. Prior to his position with Portland Audubon, he worked for the Wildlife Conservation Society for 12 years leveraging on-the-ground science efforts to help protect shorebird and other wildlife from oil development and climate change impacts in Arctic Alaska.

More information on Audubon's Oregon Oystercatcher program visit https://audubonportland.org/files/species/black-oystercatcher-infographic-2018/at_download/file.

The Cannon Beach Library is at 131 N. Hemlock St, Cannon Beach.

Celebrate Earth Day at the Cannon Beach History Center & Museum with a talk about sea otters.

These adorable creatures of Oregon are a missing keystone species. Expert Robert Bailey will talk about the history of the sea otters status in the state and how we can make some changes. The presentation will be on Monday, April 22 at 4 p.m.

Once common on the Oregon coast, sea otters were hunted nearly to extinction for their rich fur in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Their loss was a significant blow to coastal native people and to the marine environment. Although sea otters have returned elsewhere, they remain missing in Oregon. What will it take to help them return?



This talk will explore the history of sea otters in Oregon, their ecological and cultural importance, and the prospects for their return and recovery. It will touch on the mission of the Elakha Alliance, an Oregon non-profit organization devoted to sea otter conservation.

Cannon Beach History Museum. 1387 S Spruce St, Cannon Beach, Oregon. 503-436-9301.

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NEW YORK  Former television actress Allison Mack pleaded guilty to racketeering and conspiracy charges in Brooklyn on Monday as part of the ongoing federal prosecution of the NXIVM organization's leaders.

Mack, 36, became the third of six defendants in the case to plead guilty. Lauren Salzman, 42, and her mother, NXIVM President and co-founder Nancy Salzman, 64, both pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges last month.

The remaining defendants are NXIVM co-founder Keith Raniere, known within the organization as "Vanguard"; Clare Bronfman, the organization's operations director and an heiress of the Seagram's liquor empire; and Kathy Russell, a longtime bookkeeper for NXIVM.

In pleading guilty to the racketeering count, Mack admitted to two criminal acts: state law extortion and forced labor. Mack admitted using threats to force women to join a secret slave-master club founded by Raniere, and also to forcing a woman  identified in court papers as Jane Doe 6  to perform "labor" under threat of force and physical restraint.

Mack  an actress who is best known for her role in the television series "Smallville," which ended in 2011  sobbed in court on Monday as she gave a detailed admission and acknowledged taking part in what she knew was criminal activity, according to courtroom observers. She is scheduled to be sentenced in September and is facing the prospect of spending up to several years in prison.

It's unclear whether Bronfman or Russell are also engaged in plea negotiations. Raniere's attorney, Marc A. Agnifilo, wrote a letter to the court on Sunday requesting that, if any of his client's remaining co-defendants are planning to plead guilty, they should be barred from sitting at the defense table as jury selection began on Monday afternoon.

"It would be clearly prejudicial to Mr. Raniere or any defendant going to trial to have the jury know that another co-defendant introduced as a trial participant has in fact pleaded guilty between jury selection and opening statements," Agnifilo wrote. "It would be even more prejudicial to have a co-defendant introduced to the jury as a trial participant and later have that same person appear as a government witness."

Raniere and Mack were arrested in March 2018. In July, federal agents in Albany arrested the Salzmans and Russell. Bronfman was taken into custody that same day by federal agents in New York City.

Nancy Salzman, a close confidant of Raniere, was the first of the defendants to break her allegiance to Raniere and plead guilty.

The guilty pleas mark the unraveling of a close-knit and ultra-secretive organization that Raniere had built over the past 20 years, amassing thousands of followers in "executive success" training programs that prosecutors have cast as no more than a "cult-like" pyramid scheme, according to court filings.

The government last month unsealed a superseding indictment against Raniere and his remaining co-defendants that added seven charges, including some leveled at Raniere for his alleged sexual exploitation of an underage girl. Those charges elevated the severity of the case for Raniere, who would face a minimum 15 years in prison if convicted on those counts.

Last week, several criminal counts against Raniere were dropped by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, which is part of the Eastern District of New York, because the alleged crimes took place in the Capital Region, which is part of the Northern District of New York. Federal prosecutors in Albany are reviewing the charges.

Some of the federal criminal charges center on a secret club within NXIVM that Raniere founded and claimed was a private women's organization to help its members improve their lives. Instead, prosecutors said, women were lured into the club, known as "Dominus Obsequious Sororium," which means "Master Over the Slave Women." Many did not know that Raniere was the group's "grand master."

Mack had a pivotal role in that club, prosecutors said, and allegedly helped gather "collateral" from the women who joined. If they tried to leave, they were threatened that their collateral  sometimes damaging information about family members or close-up photographs of their genitalia  would be released. Some of the women were allegedly branded with Raniere's initials and coerced to have sex with him.

Raniere and Mack both were charged with multiple counts of sex trafficking, conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit forced labor.

Mack had allegedly made some of the women pose for nude photographs that she would forward to Raniere. She also delivered some of the women to Raniere for sexual encounters, and at least one alleged victim described the sex as unwanted.

"Allison Mack recruited women to join what was purported to be a female mentorship group that was, in fact, created and led by Keith Raniere," U.S. Attorney Richard P. Donoghue of Brooklyn said in a statement last year. "The victims were then exploited, both sexually and for their labor, to the defendants' benefit."

According to people familiar with NXIVM, Mack joined the organization about a decade ago, around the same time several other young actresses were pulled into its ranks  a list that included Nicki Clyne, Grace Park and Kristin Kreuk, who recruited Mack. Kreuk left NXIVM several years ago, before the slave-sex club was allegedly formed by Raniere, and later denounced it.

Mack was with Raniere at a luxury villa in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, when he was taken into custody on March 25, 2018, by Mexican federal police officers, who deported Raniere at the request of U.S. law enforcement authorities.

NXIVM has been described by experts as a cult. Raniere, in statements posted on NXIVM's website two years ago, characterized the slave-master group as a consenting, private "sorority" and said that he and the corporation had no role in it.

Opening statements in the criminal trial are scheduled to take place April 29 in Brooklyn. Raniere has pleaded not guilty to the charges and remains in custody at a federal detention facility in Brooklyn without bond. The other defendants have all been released on conditions that include home confinement.

The new indictment honed the government's case and includes charges of extortion, sex trafficking, harboring of aliens for financial gain, forced labor, various conspiracy charges and wire fraud.
The Symphony of Southeast Texas violinist Yu Zhao Gu, 60, died of a heart attack that struck during the symphony's Saturday evening performance while sitting beside his wife and stand partner, Ying Zhao, at the Julie Rogers Theatre in Beaumont, according to symphony leaders.

After Gu fell from his seat in the final concert of the season, members of the audience rushed to his aid, according to witnesses and the symphony concertmaster.

A cardiologist in the orchestra and doctors from the audience attempted to resuscitate Gu until paramedics arrived.

"It was a shock," said Matthew Detrick, the concertmaster of the symphony who sat in front of Gu and Zhao during the performance.

"The orchestra is very close-knit, like a family... Something like this is very difficult."

Fellow violinist Grace Liu Anderson helped translate for Zhao in the chaotic moments after he fell.

"She was just in shock," Anderson said. "A lot of things fell into place that night. It was a blessing that they were able to start CPR on him very quickly."

The couple, both of whom are from China, joined the Symphony of Southeast Texas in the mid-'90s and lived in Houston, Anderson said.

Gu and Zhao are listed on the Symphony of Southeast Texas website as core members.

Detrick described Gu as a dependably kind and conscientious presence in the group.

After Gu was taken to the hospital, James Fuller, the reverend of a local Baptist church and a board member of the symphony, prayed with grieving musicians and attempted to console them. Members of the symphony on Sunday launched a GoFundMe to help Zhao with Gu's medical and funeral costs.

"Yu and Ying have been playing with the symphony for well over a decade and as regular members of the Galveston, Corpus Christi, Lake Charles, and Victoria symphonies.

The first to say hello at rehearsal, Yu could always be counted on to greet you with a smile and a word of encouragement," the Go Fund Me site says.

Detrick said he hoped to continue Gu's legacy through music.

"He died doing something he loved," he said. "That doesn't make it any less tragic."

He is survived by his wife and their son, a University of Houston student.
In 2005, a private company called Port Arthur Steam Energy began taking exhaust heat from one nearby plant and converting it into steam, which it sold to another plant to use in refinery processes.

The business arrangement had the side benefit of reducing the amount of carbon dioxide that would have been released to create the same amount of steam through traditional methods.

It was a green project in the heart of a vast petrochemical ecosystem, perhaps the nation's highest concentration of refineries and other plants. It worked so well that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gave PASE an Energy Star award, noting that the company eliminated the equivalent of 27,000 cars' worth of CO2 emissions annually.

> > REPORT: SETX plants among state's worst air polluters

Fourteen years later, PASE is all but shuttered and 15 local workers have lost their jobs. It's mired in a long-running contract dispute with Oxbow Calcining, the company it was getting the exhaust heat from. A major point of contention is whether Oxbow can legally deprive PASE of the raw material it needs to operate.

The fight also brought attention to a change in the way Oxbow sends another pollutant, sulfur dioxide, into the air. Activists don't think the state's environmental regulatory agency can adequately monitor the plant under this new normal.

"Oxbow's intentions are clear," now-retired Judge Donald Floyd, then of Jefferson County's 172nd state District Court, said in a related court ruling a year and a half ago. "Oxbow intends to remain in business, operate ... at any level it chooses by discharging (exhaust), avoid having to purchase or maintain pollution control equipment to control SO2 emissions and keep PASE from generating steam revenues."

* * *

Oxbow's Port Arthur calcining plant, on a 112-acre waterfront site near the Sabine Neches Ship Channel, uses petroleum coke, a byproduct from the oil refining process, to create calcined coke, which is then sold to make aluminum, titanium dioxide and other industrial products.

Sulfur dioxide and heat are two byproducts of this process.

Oxbow released more than 11,000 tons of sulfur dioxide into the air in 2016, according to calculations by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, making it one of the top 10 emitters of the invisible chemical in the state.

Sulfur dioxide makes breathing difficult, contributes to acid rain and reacts with other compounds to form small particles that can penetrate deeply into sensitive parts of the lungs, the EPA says. It also can react in the atmosphere to form aerosol particles, which can contribute to outbreaks of haze and influence the climate.

These releases alarm environmental activists such as Neil Carman, a former TCEQ investigator who is now director of the Clean Air Program for the Sierra Club's Lone Star Chapter.

"I've been concerned about this plant for 25 years," Carman said. "They emit nearly 85 percent of the SO2 in Jefferson County. Compared to the refineries' emissions, they're the big kahuna."

The company decided in 2016 not to install scrubbers that would decrease the amount of sulfur dioxide released by its operations, citing costs. Estimates from PASE and Oxbow for the pollution-control measures range from about $27 million to $56 million in capital expenses, excluding any contingencies or cost overruns.

Asked about the decision to forgo the scrubbers, Oxbow spokesman Brad Goldstein told The Enterprise that the company is in full compliance with its operating permits.

"We are proud of our environmental record and continue to work proactively with TCEQ to operate within all applicable laws and permits," he said in an email.

Goldstein wouldn't comment on the amount of sulfur dioxide released by the plant.

* * *

Sulfur dioxide monitors set up by the TCEQ are supposed to log when the surrounding air has more than 75 parts per billion of sulfur dioxide  the national standard set in 2010. Jefferson County could be considered out of compliance should any of its monitors exceed that limit three times in a one-year period.

The EPA mandated that many of these monitors be placed near sources that, like Oxbow Calcining's Port Arthur plant, emit more than 2,000 tons per year of sulfur dioxide.

The TCEQ determined where to put the monitor to catch the highest sulfur dioxide concentrations by using Oxbow's operating procedures at the time, according to the agency's 2016 Annual Monitoring Network Plan.

The plant was releasing its emissions during this period at 400 degrees Fahrenheit out of three smokestacks and at 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit out of a fourth smokestack, according to the plan and information from Oxbow's operating permits.

The 400-degree Fahrenheit smokestacks belong to PASE, which is connected to Oxbow's plant.

When the two plants are operating in tandem, Oxbow sends its exhaust gases to PASE, which extracts heat from the gases to create steam that it sells to the nearby Valero refinery.

When the exhaust gases go through PASE's process, they're cooled and released out the 400-degree "cold stacks." When Oxbow bypasses PASE, the gases are released through the 2,000-degree "hot stacks."

A contract between the two companies mandates Oxbow deliver its exhaust gas to PASE, unless the action would break a law or cause Oxbow to face legal action, according to PASE.

PASE and Oxbow have been in an on-again, off-again contract fight since 2011. Today, the fight is largely over whether Oxbow is contractually obligated to deliver its exhaust gases to PASE regardless of whether that would cause Oxbow to violate air quality standards.

The most recent iteration of this dispute started three years ago in part because Oxbow began bypassing PASE, leaving it with no product to sell. Many details regarding Oxbow's release of sulfur dioxide emerged during public court hearings.

In an interview with The Enterprise, former PASE employee Kenneth Vallier, 60, who worked with the company for more than a decade, said he started getting periodic calls from Oxbow in 2016 saying it would be temporarily bypassing PASE's system for testing.

He said he and other employees noticed that the company would say it was testing when the wind was blowing a certain way that would make the monitor more likely to pick up the sulfur dioxide.

"It got to the point where we could look at which way the stacks were blowing and know if Oxbow was going to be shutting the dampers on us," Vallier said.

Oxbow spokesman Goldstein declined to respond to the allegation on the record.

In November and December 2016, the first two months the sulfur dioxide monitor was in operation, Oxbow went above the sulfur dioxide limit six times, TCEQ records show. The company exceeded the limit six times in 2017 and three more times in the first four months of 2018.

After that, the company completely discontinued sending exhaust gas to PASE.

The company said in court documents that it determined, while working with state regulators, that releasing the emissions through the cold stacks caused the sulfur dioxide exceedances.

Ray Deyoe, managing director of Integral Power, which manages PASE, testified during one court hearing that the same amount of sulfur dioxide is released from hot or cold stacks.

The difference, noted by Deyoe and Carman, the environmentalist and former TCEQ investigator, is that sulfur dioxide likely goes up and over the monitor when released at the higher temperature. The gas ends up at a higher concentration farther away, Carman said.

"I believe that SO2 hourly air monitoring would likely predict that SO2 hourly violations may be occurring at a different west Port Arthur site than the existing SO2 monitor," he said. "TCEQ knows all these details since this is their business."

Goldstein said Oxbow's duty is to comply with environmental standards, even if that means using the hot stacks and bypassing PASE.

"We found the most expeditious way to fix the (sulfur dioxide exceedances) and get us into environmental compliance was to run through the hot stacks," he said.

* * *

Goldstein cited pending litigation in declining comment on why it's acceptable to operate out of the hot stacks despite the fact that TCEQ's placement of the ambient air quality monitor relied largely on operations out of the cold stacks.

Judge Floyd wrote in his court ruling that these actions made it clear that Oxbow was using techniques to avoid sulfur dioxide detection by the state monitor. He said he was "troubled" Oxbow was able to move "the same pollution to another location."

> > RELATED: Halting deal, Oxbow cited Branick letter

Another Texas environmental activist, Adrian Shelley of Public Citizen, said TCEQ could settle the matter if it wanted to.

"But it would not be at all surprising if they took a 'Hear no evil, see no evil' approach and didn't show where that dispersion is going," he said.

Asked why the monitor was placed in its current location, TCEQ pointed to the 2016 modeling report, which shows the monitor's placement based on since-changed operations.

"Placement of the monitor was based on Oxbow's representation of its operations under its air permit at the time the monitor-siting analysis was performed," agency spokesman Andrew Keese said.

Keese reiterated later that Oxbow is permitted to operate out of the hot or cold stacks.

Questioned further about how allowing Oxbow to operate solely out of hot stacks fits with the intent of the monitor's testing, Keese said the monitor near Oxbow is not meant to capture solely emissions from Oxbow.

"These monitors are placed to measure ambient air concentrations of specific pollutants that may originate from avariety of sources in a given area (industrial sources, trucks, ships, etc)," he said in an email. "Placement of a monitor downwind and near to these sources would capture the impacts on ambient air concentrations of all emissions from these sources."



kaitlin.bain@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/KaitlinBain
When it completely suspended the supply of exhaust gases to Port Arthur Steam Energy a year ago, Oxbow Calcining in part cited a letter from Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick threatening legal action against the plant if it didn't curb its sulfur dioxide emissions.

> > RELATED: Emissions concerns arise over Port Arthur plant

But Branick now says he wasn't given all the facts about the situation beforehand. Sometime after writing the letter, he said, it came to his attention that Oxbow had specifically declined to install sulfur dioxide control equipment years prior.

"If I had known that, I wouldn't have written the letter or I would have written it differently," he told The Enterprise.

At the same time, PASE questions whether the threat of legal action was orchestrated by Oxbow, which the company disputes.

A contract between PASE and Oxbow says Oxbow can suspend exhaust gas delivery to PASE only if doing so would break the law or bring legal action against Oxbow, although the specifics of that clause are among the issues the two companies are litigating.

Last May, just weeks before Oxbow told PASE it was suspending sending exhaust heat for good, Oxbow received the letter from Branick, the county's chief executive. In it, he warned that he may be required to "institute a suit for injunctive relief to preclude further (SO2 level) violations."

The letter was sent more than a year after Branick received information from regulators at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that the county needed to rein in its sulfur dioxide emissions, correspondence Branick referenced in his letter to Oxbow.

Oxbow was the only company to receive a letter from the county judge. Arkema, Exxonmobil Oil, Motiva Enterprises and others in the county that were also notified about the updated sulfur dioxide standard by the TCEQ did not receive one.

Ray Deyoe, managing director of Integral Power, which manages PASE, said in an affidavit that Branick told him Guy Goodson, an Oxbow local attorney who is Branick's campaign treasurer, first suggested writing a letter to Oxbow.

However, Goodson, in his own affidavit, said he never suggested or requested Branick or Branick's assistant write a "letter to Oxbow regarding its SO2 exceedances."

Goodson did not reply to requests for comment from The Enterprise. Branick did not specify which person at Oxbow he talked to about the SO2 emissions.

Court documents show at least one other Oxbow attorney sent an email to Goodson asking if he'd had an opportunity to meet with the county attorney "on its interest and enforcement authority under" Texas law before Branick's letter was sent, according to email correspondence between the two included in the court record.

In late June, Oxbow sent a letter to PASE officials, using Branick's letter and its threat of enforcement action as reason for completely suspending providing waste heat to PASE.

Branick said when the situation was first brought to him, Oxbow explained the difference between operating out of the hot and cold stacks. As county judge, he said, it's his responsibility to do what he can to keep industrial plants in the county from breaking environmental standards.

In court testimony, Oxbow's lawyers called PASE's theory that Branick was asked to write the letter so Oxbow would seem to be facing legal action a "nonsensical conspiracy theory."

Oxbow spokesman Brad Goldstein wouldn't comment further on the issue, again pointing out that the company is operating in compliance with its air emissions permits and citing pending litigation and arbitration.

County Commissioner Michael Sinegal, whose district the plant is in, said he was surprised when he found out Branick wrote a letter to the company. Normally, he said, that would be run through the county's legal department and/or the other commissioners.

He said the county needs to hold Branick's "feet to the fire" in questioning why the letter was sent, why other commissioners weren't included and why no plans seem to have been made to gauge Oxbow's progress or when to file a lawsuit if that progress wasn't made.

kaitlin.bain@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/KaitlinBain
You might think that family portraits with dogs in the field is the most adorable thing you've ever seen. But have you ever seen Texas law officers pose in a bluebonnet field?

Here's your chance to see some Texas cops shed their tough guy persona.
Kathmandu, Nepal, April 8: Police and cadres of the Rashtriya Prajatantra Party clashed briefly during latters demonstrations at Putalisadak area in Kathmandu on Monday.

Police fired a few rounds of tear-gas shells to disperse the protesters when cadres of the RPP attempted to cross the prohibited area.

The RPP has said that dozens of RPP cadres have injured during the scuffle.
Pennsylvania's 2019-20 budget proposal includes a tax on ASCs, according to the Pennsylvania Medical Society.

Three details:

1. The Pennsylvania Ambulatory Surgery Association is leading a coalition of 19 state medical societies opposing the tax. In a March 29 letter, the coalition asked legislators to reject the proposal.

2. The tax's opponents say it could cause nearly one-fourth of ASCs in the commonwealth to operate at a loss, hurt access to quality care, shift patients to costlier hospital settings, and force ASCs to scale back services or close altogether.

3. Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf also proposed a 2.81 percent tax on surgery centers' net patient revenue last year, but it was nixed from the final $32.7 billion budget.
Royal Oak, Mich.-based Hillcrest Capital Partners, an ASC development and management company, aims to open 15 ASCs in the near future, according to Crains Detroit Business.

Five things to know:

1. The company will partner with physician investors to develop 15 surgery centers in Michigan by the end of 2020.

2. Hillcrest was founded in 2015 and currently manages one center, Charter Endoscopy Center in Flint, Mich. The company has plans for three additional centers in the works.

3. The company estimates development will cost around $14 million for each center and guarantee a return of investment between $20 million to $30 million per center, according to the report.

4. Michigan is a certificate-of-need state, which makes developing new ASCs challenging. However, Hillcrest owners report multiple physicians have committed to ASCs in planned CON applications.

5. Hillcrest, founded by Abe Baydoun and Ricardo Borrego, MD, are looking for centers to include spine, orthopedics, pain management and cardiovascular care.
Epic Systems CEO Judy Faulkner and her staff celebrated the EHR company's 40th anniversary March 22, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.

Founded in 1979, Epic was one of the first to transition medical records from paper files to digital records. Ms. Faulkner started the company in the basement of an apartment building equipped with her recent bachelor's degree in math from Dickinson College.

Today, Epic has 9,800 employees at its Verona, Wis., campus. The company generates $2.9 billion in annual revenue and stores medical records for more than 250 million people, according to the report.

When Ms. Faulkner started Epic, her original vision was to target healthcare; it wasn't to track individual's health histories. Her original goal was to "manage external factors, such as scheduling appointments, operating room access and patients' names and addresses in order to make hospital records more efficient," Mike Hegyi, senior systems architect at Epic told the Journal.

As the computer industry changed, so did Epic's strategy.

At the end of 1995, Epic had 100 clients and 125 employees on staff. Then in 2003, Epic made its largest contract ever. Per the agreement, Epic would supply software to Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanent's 8.4 million patients, 30 hospitals, 423 medical offices and more than 11,000 physicians.

Ms. Faulkner, now 75, remains quiet about the company, but has no plans to retire. She is determined to keep Epic privately owned and develop software exclusively by company employees, according to the Journal.
McLaren Greater Lansing (Mich.) will shutter two hospitals in South Lansing when its new consolidated $450 million campus near Michigan State University opens, according to the Lansing State Journal.

The new facility, expected to open in late 2021, will consolidate services from McLaren Greater Lansing Hospital and McLaren Orthopedic Hospital in one facility. The new hospital will deepen McLaren's academic partnership with Michigan State and house 240 beds, a cancer center and an ambulatory care center.

The two facilities that will close will continue to operate normally for about three more years.

As a result of the consolidation, McLaren will lower its bed count by 149 when the new facility opens, mirroring a national trend among healthcare organizations as more care moves to outpatient settings, Casey Kandow, COO of McLaren Greater Lansing, told the Lansing State Journal.

McLaren is seeking a buyer to repurpose the closing hospitals. Tearing down the hospitals is an option, but would be the "worst-case scenario," Mr. Kandow told the Lansing State Journal.

"Bringing together our current hospitals into a single healthcare campus will better serve our patients with access to a cancer center, medical services building, and other facilities to support health care delivery, educational opportunities, and medical research," McLaren said in an email to Becker's. "McLaren Greater Lansing has worked with the city of Lansing, the Lansing Economic Area Partnership, and the Lansing Chamber of Commerce to repurpose our existing facilities to best serve our community. McLaren Greater Lansing is exploring several exciting opportunities for the future of our current campuses and will continue to work with community partners as the process continues."

Editor's note: This article was updated April 17 at 4:34 p.m.
Here are six articles that address unexpected patient medical bills, commonly called surprise medical bills.

1. While federal and state governments have wrestled with legislation to stamp out surprise medical bills, state data shows the issue apparently isn't a major problem in southwest Pennsylvania. Read more here.

2. North Carolina lawmakers introduced a bill to protect patients from surprise medical bills. Learn more about the legislation here.

3. The House recently held its first hearing on surprise medical bills. Click here for seven things to know.

4. The Federation of American Hospitals, American Hospital Association and American Medical Association came out against bundled billing as a solution to protect patients from unexpected out-of-pocket costs. Read more here.

5. Florida had the highest share of surprise out-of-network medical bills during in-network hospital admissions in 2016 among 37 states and Washington, D.C., according to a reportfrom the Health Care Cost Institute. Click here to see other states with a high share of surprise bills.

6. About 1 in 7 patients received a surprise bill in 2016 after being treated by an out-of-network healthcare professional at an in-network facility, according to a reportfrom the Health Care Cost Institute. Click here for three report findings.

More articles on healthcare finance:

Connecticut hospital reports $2M profit, June opening of medical office, lab

California hospital considers layoffs amid projected $18.8M loss

Community health centers fare better in Medicaid-expansion states, study finds
While hospital closures in rural communities affect healthcare access, they also present economic challenges for small towns, including Celina, Tenn., according to NPR.

Celina's 25-bed Cumberland River Hospital  which served a town of 1,500 residents  closed March 1 due to financial struggles.

The hospital was the town's second-largest employer, and nearly 150 workers were laid off when it closed..

The town has tried to attract retirees,but with the hospital closure, Celina is not an optimum destination for seniors with health problems, Susan Scovel, a Seattle transplant, told NPR.

"I'd say, look elsewhere," said Ms. Scovel, who heads up the local chamber of commerce effort to attract retirees.

Residents now must travel about 18 miles to get to the closest hospital in Livingston, Tenn., which costs precious time in an emergency. Two of the area's four ambulance trucks are out of service.

Some residents are concerned that the hospital closure will mean losing the only three physicians in town, according to NPR.

Access the full NPR report here.

More articles on healthcare finance:

6 recent stories on surprise billing

With 2 large health providers, surprise bills rare in southwest Pennsylvania

For-profit hospital stock report: Week of April 1-5
While federal and state governments have wrestled with legislation to stamp out surprise medical bills, the issue apparently isn't a major problem in southwest Pennsylvania, according to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette report.

"In southwest Pennsylvania, I think we're in such a unique situation with two [insurance/health] systems that people are just very aware that there's an in-network route, or an out-of-network route" to medical care, Lou Ann Jeremko, executive director of the Consumer Health Coalition in Pittsburgh, told the publication.

"They know the message is: 'You'd better come to us or pay out-of-network.'"

Southwest Pennsylvania is home of Pittsburgh-based UPMC health system  which owns UPMC Health Plan  and Pittsburgh-based insurer Highmark  which owns the Allegheny Health Network health system.

Ms. Jeremko said the systems are large enough now that "it's very rare with one or the other that there is a provider that is not in your network."

The Pennsylvania Department of Insurance received about 60 complaints about out-of-network bills in 2017 and 2018, and only nine were related to care provided in southwest Pennsylvania, according to the report, which cites department data.

UPMC spokesperson Susan Manko told the Post-Gazette the issue rarely occurs at UPMC "because almost all UPMC facilities utilize in-network ancillary providers."

"We rarely use non-UPMC physicians at our hospitals and provider sites. Otherwise, we would contract with the specialist to accept the payment as if in-network," she said.

Tom Fitzpatrick, a Highmark senior vice president involved in negotiating contracts with hospitals and other medical providers for Highmark, agreed that Highmark/Allegheny Health Network does not often deal with surprise out-of-network bills.

He told the Post-Gazette this is because of Allegheny Health Network's size and because most, if not all, hospital contracts with Highmark have "hold harmless" provisions in them that protect patients from surprise-billing situations. But he acknowledged some surprise bills have slipped through in the past.

Read the full Post-Gazette report here.

More articles on healthcare finance:

Connecticut hospital reports $2M profit, June opening of medical office, lab

California hospital considers layoffs amid projected $18.8M loss

Community health centers fare better in Medicaid-expansion states, study finds
Sharp Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa, Calif., issued an apology April 5 after 81 women filed a lawsuit claiming they were recorded in secret at the hospital's women's health centers, according to NBC 7.

The hospital said motion-activated cameras were used as part of an investigation into whether an employee was stealing anesthesia drugs from carts in the operating rooms at the hospital's three women's centers. "Although the cameras were intended to record only individuals in front of the anesthesia carts, others, including patients and medical personnel in the operating rooms, were at times visible to the cameras and recorded without sound," Sharp HealthCare President and CEO Chris Howard said in a statement.

The investigation into the missing drugs took place between July 2012 and June 2013. "The surveillance methods in the 2012-13 investigation were used for that particular case only and have not been used again," Mr. Howard said.

An initial lawsuit alleging privacy violations and other claims stemming from the video recordings were filed in 2016 against San Diego-based Sharp HealthCare and Sharp Grossmont Hospital. Since then, other cases have been filed, including one on March 29. That lawsuit, filed by 81 women, alleges several types of operations were recorded on the hidden cameras, including hysterectomies, sterilizations and caesarean births. The cameras also allegedly recorded women undressing.

"Our primary concern has been, and will continue to be, ensuring patient safety and quality of care," Mr. Howard said. "We sincerely apologize that our efforts may have caused any distress to the women who were recorded, their families, and others we serve. We can assure you this surveillance method is no longer in use, and we have made changes in our protocols to ensure this situation is not repeated."

Read Mr. Howard's full statement here.

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10 CEOs reshaping healthcare: Forbes

No evidence found to support sexual misconduct allegations against ex-Centra CEO
President Donald Trump plans to release an ACA replacement plan "fairly shortly," according to The Hill.

The news came after White House aides and administration officials  including HHS Secretary Alex Azar and CMS Administrator Seema Verma  met at Camp David in Maryland over the weekend to discuss healthcare, CNN reports.

"I do think you'll see a plan here fairly shortly," Mick Mulvaney, President Trump's acting chief of staff, told Fox News Sunday.

President Trump said April 1 that a vote on a replacement for the federal healthcare law can wait until after the 2020 election. On April 7, Mr. Mulvaney indicated that the impending healthcare plan would offer campaign talking points for Republicans, according to CNN.

"Republicans have better ideas than Democrats. We should not be afraid to talk about that," Mr. Mulvaney said on Fox News. "We want to run on this."

President Trump recently announced a renewed focus on healthcare and developing a legislative ACA replacement. His administration also recently said it supports a judge's ruling that the entire ACA should be invalidated.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans who were chosen by the administration to help with healthcare legislation have not been leaping to lead the effort, according to Politico. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., says a new plan must come from President Trump's administration, and Mitt Romney, R-Utah, has only said he and colleagues are "working on healthcare thoughts."
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Ford China announced on April 8 that Yang Song, former CEO of Borgward Group AG, officially joins Ford Chinas leadership team as President of National Distribution Service Division (NDSD), effective immediately.

Ford said the 45-year-old new executive will lead the NDSD team to promote sales, build brand image, optimize the customer experience as well as enhance the execution of new vehicle product roll-out and dealers' profitability.

Joseph Liu, former acting president of Ford's NDSD, will remain a member of Ford Chinas leadership team and will take a new position based on a future announcement. Meanwhile, Mr. Liu will assist Yang Song with the management over the NDSD during a certain period.

Mr. Yang boasts 25 years of experience in marketing and sales in China and the U.S. Before joining Ford Motor, he had assumed positions of CEO of Borgward Group AG. From 2005 to 2015, he held several key leadership roles in marketing and sales at Dongfeng Nissan and Nissan U.S.

On April 3, Ford Motor announced its new Ford China 2.0 transformation blueprint that comprises five key plans and four centers of competence to speed up the redesign of its business and sharpen its focus on the Chinese market. The five key plans will focus on: accelerating product development and delivery, developing smart technology, deepening strategic partnerships, driving innovation and developing local talent. The four centers of competence are dedicated to: product, design, innovation and new energy vehicles.
Daily FT, March 29, 2019

Since coming into power in 2015, every Budget of the Yahapalana Government has faithfully advanced a labour law reform agenda. The 2019 Budget proposals attempt to frame labour law reforms as a solution to address the low participation of women in the workforce.

In the words of the Minister of Finance, ainflexible labour lawsa, among others, ahave been identified to be the reasons women leave the labour force or never enter it at alla. He goes on to propose amendments to labour laws to allow part time, flexi hours and home working as a solution to accommodate women. These proposals are accompanied by the Minister of Labouras renewed interest in consolidating all labour laws into a single code.

Proposals for labour law reform date back to the early 1980s when the then UNP regime led by J.R. Jayawardena attempted to introduce a new employment relations law to significantly reduce many existing protections. In the face of militant trade union resistance Jayawardena withdrew the plan and Sri Lankan workers continue to enjoy many of those protections under the present labour regime. In the past four decades under the liberalised economy, however, labour laws have increasingly come under attack as archaic, out of date and hindering better prospects for both employers and employees.

Who needs a labour law?

The only labour reform agenda set by the Government is for the deregulation of labour for the full benefit of the private sector. For example, Vision 2025, the official policy document of the current Government, uses market oriented terminology to describe labour laws. The inflexibility of the labour laws is understood in Vision 2025 to be hampering productivity growth and international competitiveness. aInflexibility in the labour lawsa largely refers to the restrictions imposed on employers against hiring and firing employees at will; state interventions in setting minimum wages and minimum standards of working conditions; and the guaranteeing of trade union rights such as collective bargaining and freedom of association. Instead of viewing these rights as essential tools to democratise the economy and strike a balance between property (capital) owners and the labour force, the Government subscribes to an ideology that sees labour laws as obstructions to attracting private investments and maximising the profits of the private sector.

The rise of market fundamentalism as a forceful political ideology since the late 1970s has posed a serious threat to democratic legal regimes like labour laws, which seek to function outside of the rationalisation of the free market. The characterisation of labour laws as inefficient and hindering productivity is entrenched in this market fundamentalist worldview which Minister Samaraweera and the Government attempt to pass as universally accepted truths. This is despite the consensus on free market orthodoxy breaking down worldwide, even among its most rigid proponents like the IMF.

Contrary to the market oriented view of our own Government, modern labour law is premised on the fundamental understanding that the relationship between the employer and the employee is one of subordination and therefore freedom to contract and other market oriented rationalisations are not fitting schemes to govern the employment relationship. The state has to intervene and address the power imbalance between the employer and the employee in order to free workers from subordination and reconceptualise the worker not as a commodity but as a human being.

The challenge of atypical employment

Over the past few decades however, the nature of the typical employment relationship itself has transformed. New forms of employment like fixed term contracts, part time jobs, temporary jobs, manpower jobs and freelance jobs do not fall within the ambit of the existing labour regime which is based on the concept of permanent, fixed hours work under one employer until retirement. While there are sometimes genuine needs to use fixed term contracts and outsource labour, a closer look into many of these new atypical jobs will also reveal that employers use these forms to digress from standard employment contract regulations to circumvent the law entirely.

Minister Samaraweera either fails to consider or wilfully ignores these aspects of what he calls flexible labour arrangements which are also instrumental in subjecting working class mothers and women to super exploitative conditions. Many of these contracts do not offer protection guaranteed under the existing labour law like EPF/ETF benefits, overtime pay, maternity leave or compensation in case of termination.

In fact, contemporary discussions on labour law identify workers in these flexible labour arrangements to be more vulnerable to exploitation than more traditional workers. Unlike the traditional working class who are organised in trade unions and therefore empowered with collective bargaining power, workers in these new forms of employment are mostly unorganised and therefore defenceless against the will of the employers.

Labour reform that we need

Popular discourse on labour, fuelled by irresponsible Ministers like Samaraweera and employersa lobbies like the Employers Federation of Ceylon, glorify the use of atypical employment and deregulation of labour as something which can expand opportunities for women and the unemployed. The reality, however, is that widespread use of fixed term contracts, manpower labour and so on have undermined employment relationships and contributed to a culture of labour law circumvention depriving a large number of workers from enjoying their legally protected rights.

Several trade unions, especially manpower labour unions, have repeatedly demanded that the Government address these deteriorating labour conditions due to circumvention on the part of the employers. In 2016 almost 2,000 manpower employees of Sri Lanka Telecom PLC went on a three-month-long strike highlighting the unequal treatment of manpower employees and the cuts to their benefits when compared with permanent workers. Sri Lanka Telecom PLC to this date continues to deny any employment relationship with its manpower employees and continues to treat them differently.

It is evident that Minister Samaraweeraas solutions are only going to create more problems for working class men, and especially women. The labour law reforms we need at this hour are not fixed terms contracts or flexi hours but laws that can curb the unequal power balance that lies in those new employment forms and guarantee equal rights to all workers across the spectrum regardless of whether they are men or women, or if they are employed in traditional or non-traditional forms of employment. Ensuring that contract employees, temporary employees or manpower employees are not left out of the ambit of labour law so that they too can enjoy the rights enjoyed by other workers must be the essential task of labour law reforms today.

Liberation Movement
The federal judge reviewing an agreement between the government and CVS Health, which allowed the pharmacy chain to purchase Aetna, said April 5 he wants to hold a hearing for opponents of the deal, according to Reuters.

In a recent court hearing, Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said he plans to listen to critics of the deal in May. The American Medical Association, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and other pharmacy and consumer groups have spoken out against the deal.



While the Justice Department approved the $70 billion CVS-Aetna deal in October 2018, and the transaction closed in November of the same year, Mr. Leon is tasked with approving the department's consent decree on the merger. This process is often completed without pushback, but Mr. Leon was not as convinced the department's agreement with the company alleviated antitrust concerns.
After discontinuing work on its sole drug candidate in a clinical trial, Cambridge, Mass.-based Merrimack Pharmaceuticals will complete another round of layoffs, according to The Boston Business Journal.

The drugmaker paused work on MM-310, a cancer treatment, after observing signs of peripheral neuropathy in clinical trial participants. Discontinuation of the cancer treatment development comes six months after Merrimack shelved production of a different cancer drug.

As a result, the drugmaker plans to lay off an undisclosed number of its 27 employees.

The company said it will invest resources toward development of its two preclinical drug candidates.

Read the full report here.
Pharmacy benefit managers, the middlemen who negotiate drug benefits for health plans, will head to Capitol Hill this week to face back-to-back hearings about their role in the pricing of prescription drugs.

What you need to know:

1. Back-to-back hearings in Senate, House. The Senate Finance Committee invited several major PBM executives to testify April 9 about their role in the drug industry. This hearing, initially scheduled for April 3, was delayed. The April 10 hearing, held by the House Energy and Commerce Oversight, will discuss drugmakers and PBMs' role in skyrocketing insulin prices.

2. Who is testifying? Top executives from five major PBMs, CVS Health, Cigna, OptumRx, Prime Therapeutics and Humana, will testify before the Senate Finance Committee on April 9. Representing the companies will be: Derica Rice, executive vice president at CVS; John Prince, CEO of OptumRx; Steve Miller, MD, chief clinical officer at Cigna; Mike Kolar, interim president of Prime Therapeutics; and William Fleming, Humana president of healthcare services. Three of those top executives, from CVS, Cigna and Optum, will face the House Energy and Commerce Oversight Committee on April 10.

3. What criticism will PBMs likely face? Pharmaceutical companies, pharmacists and physicians continually blame PBMs for rising prescription drug costs. President Donald Trump has blasted them as "middleman" who are "dishonest," according to STAT. The pharmaceutical industry has been accused of lacking transparency in how it handles rebates from PBMS and for not passing these discounts to patients at the pharmacy counter.

4. How PBMs are likely to respond. PBM executives will likely defend themselves by characterizing drugmakers as the villians who push list prices higher and pocket the most from prescription drug sales in the U.S. They will probably try to persuade lawmakers that they're valuable industry players whose rebate system and other mechanisms promote savings for the entire healthcare system, according to The Washington Post.

5. The drug-pricing hearings. The PBM industry's trip to Capitol Hill follows a major March hearing during which seven executives from major pharmaceutical companies faced a Senate grilling about the industry's role in the nation's high drug costs. The hearings come in the midst of increasingly bipartisan interest in lowering the price of prescription medicines.
As opioid lawsuits against Purdue Pharma and its billionaire family owners mount, members of the Sackler family are leaving the governing boards of prominent nonprofit organizations, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Kathe Sackler and Mortimer Sackler offered to leave the board of the New York Academy of Sciences, home of the Sackler Institute for Nutrition Science, to "reduce distractions from the critical missions" of the academy and the institute, according to the report. They left the board last week.

Other Sackler family members have left nonprofit boards in the last few years as well.

In 2017, Ilene Sackler Lefcourt, left the board of the Hastings Center, a bioethics research institute, after a quarterly board meeting in which members discussed the opioid crisis, according to the report.

Mortimer Sackler left the board of the Solomon Guggenheim Museum, a prominent New York art museum, in late 2018.

A Sackler family representative said the decisions by Illene and Mortimer in 2017 and 2018 were for personal reasons.

The family's giving has been under more scrutiny as details emerge in thousands of lawsuits accusing Purdue Pharma of fueling the opioid epidemic.

Two charitable organizations overseen by Sackler family members recently suspended new philanthropic giving around the globe after several big-name art museums turned down pledges.

Read the full report here.
Health officials confirmed a norovirus outbreak at the Hospital for Sick Children Pediatric Center in Washington, D.C., after three patients tested positive April 6, reports Fox 5 DC.

"Additional patients have been tested and no new infections have been identified in the past 48 hours. All patients are being monitored for signs and symptoms of further infection," the hospital said in an April 6 statement cited by Fox News.

The children's hospital implemented temporary visitor restrictions amid the outbreak. Hospital leaders also sent a memo to staff members asking anyone with norovirus symptoms to stay home for 48 hours.

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A New York judge put a hold on Rockland County's decision to ban unvaccinated children from enclosed public areas, including schools, reports CNN.

Rockland County officials introduced the ban last month as part of a 30-day emergency declaration over an ongoing measles outbreak. Within four days of the ban's implementation, more than 500 people received the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, Rockland County Executive Ed Day told CNBC.

Judge Rolf Thorsen temporarily blocked the county from enforcing the ban in response to several lawsuits filed by parents of Rockland County children.

"The county is disappointed that the court did not see this measles outbreak, unprecedented in scope over the past 30 years, as a crisis sufficient to warrant the need for a declaration of a state of emergency," Rockland County attorney Thomas E. Humbach said of the judge's decision, according to CNN.

The judge set a hearing for the lawsuits April 19. Mr. Humbach said the county is still weighing its next steps.

As of April 5, Rockland County confirmed 167 measles infections linked to the outbreak, which started in October 2018.

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Nurses posted bail for a man who was arrested for traffic violations as he raced to get his daughter to Centreville, Ill.-based Touchette Regional Hospital, reports Fox affiliate Fox2Now.

Darius Hinkle sped to the hospital April 4 because his 1-year-old daughter was choking on a penny. Mr. Hinkle, who does not have a valid driver's license, was driving over 100 miles per hour, according to police.

"The first thing on my mind was to get her to the hospital," he told Fox2Now.

When Mr. Hinkle pulled into the hospital, he was met by officers from several different agencies and arrested.

The nurses at Touchette Regional Hospital not only saved Mr. Hinkle's daughter from choking, but also all chipped in to cover his bond.

"I can't thank them enough," Mr. Hinkle said.

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Here are 10 key points on artificial disc replacement and where the market is headed.

Learn more about spine surgeon leadership at the Becker's 17th Annual Future of Spine + The Spine, Orthopedic and Pain Management-Driven ASC Conference, June 13-15 in Chicago. Click here to learn more and register. For more information about exhibitor and sponsor opportunities, contact Maura Jodoin at mjodoin@beckershealthcare.com.

1. The global artificial disc replacement market is expected to hit $4.5 billion by 2024, according to a Global Market Insights report. The metal-on-biopolymer segment was the largest in 2017, hitting $1 billion. Over the next five years, the cervical disc segment is expected to have a compound annual growth rate of 22.3 percent.

2. Many insurance companies have policies that cover cervical artificial disc replacement; in July 2018, UnitedHealthcare issued a new policy to cover single-level lumbar total disc replacement in patients with degenerative disc disease after a patient forced a third-party review.

3. The FDA granted clearance for the M6-C cervical disc, originally developed by Spinal Kindetics and acquired by Orthofix. The next-generation disc technology was designed to restore physiologic motion of the spine, including an artificial visco-elastic nucleus and fiber annulus incorporated into the disc. The device is expected to have a limited, controlled release in the U.S. this year to accommodate surgeon training and education.

4. Centinel Spine acquired assets of the prodisc Total Disc Replacement portfolio from DePuy Synthes in late 2017. The products include cervical and lumbar total disc replacement technology. A study published in the European Spine Journal in 2017 examined clinical and radiological outcomes 10 years after total disc replacement with the prodisc-C technology and found a low implant-related reoperation rate and low rate of symptomatic adjacent segment disease.





5. The International Journal of Spine Surgery published an article in 2017 examining the long-term evidence of cervical disc replacement with Mobi-C technology, developed by LDR and acquired by Zimmer Biomet. The study included 599 patients who underwent spine surgery, 164 who underwent one-level total disc replacement, 225 who underwent two-level disc replacement, 81 who underwent one-level anterior cervical discectomy and fusion, and 105 who underwent two-level ACDF.

After an average of seven year follow-ups, the success of two-level disc replacement was 60.8 percent, compared to 34.2 percent for ACDF. One-level disc replacement success was 55.2 percent at seven years after surgery, compared to 50 percent for one-level ACDF. The study authors concluded "At seven years, the composite success analysis demonstrated clinical superiority of two-level TDR over ACDF and non-inferiority of single-level TDR versus ACDF."

6. Total disc replacement is also safe and effective in the outpatient setting, according to a study published in a 2018 edition of the International Journal of Spine Surgery. The study included data from 145 patients who underwent cervical disc replacement in ASCs, 348 who underwent the surgery as hospital outpatients and 65 who had the procedure inpatient. Study authors found:

 Surgery times were the shortest in ASCs at 63.6 minutes.

 Blood loss was lowest in the ASC at 18.5 mL, compared to 43.7 mL in the HOPD and 65.7 mL in the hospital inpatient.

 One device or surgery related adverse event was reported in the ASC, compared to 10 in the hospital setting.

7. CMS updated its payment policies to include total disc replacement in 2018. The agency calculates the total cost for disc replacement in the ASC as $11,213, compared to $15,371 in the hospital outpatient department.

Two key thoughts from spine surgeons about disc replacements:

Justin Park, MD. The Maryland Spine Center at Mercy Medical Center (Baltimore): I think that motion-preservation technologies such as cervical disc replacement will become a bigger player in the surgical toolbox of spine surgeons. As insurance companies such as Medicare have become more open minded in approving these surgeries in the last five years, we will see a growing population of patients with excellent results from long-term follow-up.

Jason M. Cuellar, MD, PhD. Assistant Professor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (Los Angeles): Our patients are expecting to be more physically active at greater ages than in prior generations. Motion-preservation devices will allow spine surgeons to improve patients while taking into consideration the long-term health of the spine, reducing rates of future surgery caused by adjacent-segment failure. In addition to taking into consideration our patients' long-term spinal health, we have some responsibility for the cost-effectiveness and durability of the procedures that we utilize. There is significant evidence that artificial disc replacement is more cost-effective than fusion. (Ament JD, Yang Z, Nunley P, et al. Cost Utility Analysis of the Cervical Artificial Disc vs Fusion for the Treatment of 2-Level Symptomatic Degenerative Disc Disease: 5-Year Follow-up. Neurosurgery 2016;79:135-45.)
The speed of privatisation of state-owned enterprises has been improving remarkably in the last few years. The foreign-invested sector has also been growing strongly. These two factors have created pressure on private enterprises.



Look at the economy and the sectoral structure, there are many problems: the lack of equitable treatment for all economic sectors, conflicts in the market mechanism, the wrong determination of the role and functions of each economic sector, the distortion of the business environment by biased policies.



Deviation from market economy



Vietnam is focused more on the establishment of private enterprises rather than the approach it needs to take to develop this sector. This is the result of a wrongly thought-out market mechanism and the lack of respect for market rules after embracing the market economy. The government wants to develop the private sector but does not focus on doing it, does not care much about developing the market and capital sources. The government has still not truly embraced market rules for developing the private sector.



Domestic private enterprises and state firms do not get equitable treatment when it comes to access to resources. 90 percent of the national budget is earmarked for the latter through direct financing. A million private enterprises have to compete with each other to borrow from the banking system. The change in mindset towards the private sector was slow and subjective. For a long time, Vietnam has maintained policies that are not fair to various economic sectors, and has not given the private sector its due when competing in the global economy and developing a modern economy. On the other hand, it has rolled out the red carpet for foreign investors for decades. This has been increasingly distorting the economic system.

The barriers to private sector growth and the mechanism of asking and giving have been there for a long time. This is the cause of the squander of national resources.

The change in mindset towards the private sector was slow and subjective. For a long time, Vietnam has maintained policies that are not fair to various economic sectors, and has not given the private sector its due when competing in the global economy and developing a modern economy. On the other hand, it has rolled out the red carpet for foreign investors for decades. This has been increasingly distorting the economic system.The barriers to private sector growth and the mechanism of asking and giving have been there for a long time. This is the cause of the squander of national resources.

For a long time, Vietnam built its economic strategy around multiple sectors and many economic zones and slowly devolved authority from the central to local levels. But the government does not truly delegate authority. This causes tardy disbursement and allocation of funds and creates hurdles to the development of many areas.



Vietnam GDP growth had been weaker and weaker from 1991-2018.



Large quantity but low quality

In the last decade or so (since 2011) the 3 breakthrough strategies and the model of economic reform and restructure have been adopted slowly. The restructuring of the financial and banking sector took more time than planned. The business environment improved in certain areas but not overall.

Obviously, the private sector delivers the highest growth in the economy, and was an important factor in the economy recovering and stabilizing in 2008-09.

The growth of the private sector has helped increase competition between various sectors and create a foundation for a new generation of entrepreneurs. The private sector creates around 85 percent of the jobs every year, helping stabilise society.



The government should designate the private sector as a spearhead of the economy, change perceptions about the privatisation of state firms and make an effort to speed up this process. However, there have been some problems in developing the private sector: The ratio of private enterprises paying tax dropped from 60-70 percent in 2010 to 30 percent in 2015-16 and the return on capital tended to decrease in all economic sectors. For the foreign, state and domestic private sectors, the ratio fell from 16 percent, 7 percent and 5 percent in 2010 to 12 percent, 3 percent and 4 percent in 2015.

However, there have been some problems in developing the private sector: The ratio of private enterprises paying tax dropped from 60-70 percent in 2010 to 30 percent in 2015-16 and the return on capital tended to decrease in all economic sectors. For the foreign, state and domestic private sectors, the ratio fell from 16 percent, 7 percent and 5 percent in 2010 to 12 percent, 3 percent and 4 percent in 2015.

The number of new companies is low in manufacturing but high in real estate. For instance, in the first 10 months of 2017 the number of new enterprises in manufacturing grew at 8.6 percent and in property at 62.5 percent.



The number of enterprises that cease operations has been 60,000-80,000 per year. It jumped to 90,000 last year since many companies were unable to keep pace with the global economy.



Most of the private enterprises focus on selling products and services to end users, not to other producers and manufacturers. Only 15 percent of private enterprises sell to other manufacturing and processing companies. The link between private enterprises and the global production chain is very weak.

Most of the private enterprises focus on selling products and services to end users, not to other producers and manufacturers. Only 15 percent of private enterprises sell to other manufacturing and processing companies. The link between private enterprises and the global production chain is very weak.

Private companies are also small in size. In 2001 the rate of private enterprises having 100 workers was 6 percent, and this halved by 2013. Now the productivity of medium-sized and large enterprises is even lower than that of small enterprises.



The slow growth of the private sector could be traced to many factors, with the lack of a suitable policy framework being the key one. There has been a failure to adopt market rules. Doing business based on relationships and corruption continued for a long time, creating many barriers to the growth of the private sector.



The business environment too has been plagued by issues such as the lack of a level playing field for all sectors (foreign companies and SOEs enjoy more benefits and favourable conditions). This unfair treatment was more pronounced during the period of economic difficulty.



Perception change



After a long period of continuous growth, Vietnams economy is now larger, meaning from now economic growth will be from a larger base.



We are committed to joining the global market and have become a strategic partner for many countries like the US, Japan, Canada, Australia, and South Korea. The commitments by the Vietnamese government and other governments have wide scope and stringent conditions, and Vietnam has to develop all economic sectors based on these modern economic commitments.



Vietnam should replace the term economic sector with economic zone. This will help eliminate inequitable treatment and align its economy with market rules and the market mechanism. This will also help create the foundation for a legal framework and fair business environment.



The government should stop its unfair treatment of certain zones and make the right determination about the function and responsibility of each economic zone.

It should encourage the development of all elements of production, especially land, energy, capital, labour, and technology. The government should consider this task a high priority to develop the private sector quickly and efficiently.



It should amend certain laws, especially the Land Law. It should allow the market mechanism to operate in electricity. It government should revamp the wage mechanism, which should be based on productivity, and make a clear separation between wages, benefits and retirement allowance.



It should formalise the border trade between China and Vietnam and develop some strategic products. It should especially define clearly the term socialist oriented in developing a modern economy, correctly determine its own functions and those of the market and enterprises. The management by the government should be based on functions, individual responsibilities and respect for contracts. The government should focus on professionalism (in terms of both skill and ethics) and get rid of the current certificate-based recruitment mechanism.



Need strategy for private companies



The government should determine correctly the impacts of new economic and technology trends. It should quickly build a legal framework to create a solid foundation for Industry 4.0 renovation.



It should adopt new technologies and new business models in all economic sectors and areas. There should be a clear action plan from the central to local levels of administration.



It should designate the private sector as the core of the economy, follow market rules and spell out the functions of each economic sector. It should be fair when drafting legislation. There should be a strategy to create some national corporations and legalise them. There should a clear penal system for any violation of market rules. And companies should be allowed to do any business not prohibited by the law.



To conclude, the government should make the private sector central to economic development and change strategies to attract foreign investment. It should support start-ups and innovation. It should have a specific schedule to adopt EU business standards for Vietnamese enterprises. It should not only attract FDI but also FII. It should promote the spirit of Industry 4.0 and quickly make the economy digital.

Associate Professor Doctor Tran Dinh Thien
The latest health check on the Northern Ireland economy has painted a grim picture as Brexit uncertainty continues to hang over key industries.

Business activity fell in March for the first time since mid-2016, bringing an end to almost three years of growth, according to the latest Ulster Bank's Purchasing Manager's Index (PMI).

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The monthly survey into the state of Northern Ireland's manufacturing, services, retail and construction industries, showed downward trends in every sector apart from manufacturing, where Brexit-linked stockpiling is believed to be the key driver in recent weeks.

The data, based on responses from a panel of 200 private sector companies, also showed falls in exports, new orders and employment. New export business decreased at the fastest rate since May 2013, according to the survey, while the rate of firms cutting jobs quickened to the steepest since April 2013.

Retail sales activity also declined at the sharpest rate for four years during March, while Northern Ireland's largest sector, the service industry, saw activity hit a 32-month low with staffing levels in the sector falling at the fastest rate in almost seven years.

Ulster Bank chief economist Richard Ramsey said while the term 'Brexit uncertainty' has been overused in the past two years, he said the impact of the decision to leave the EU was becoming more and more tangible.

"Business conditions deteriorated further according to respondents, with March seeing the first fall in business activity in 32 months," he said. "Perhaps more significantly though, export orders and employment levels both dropped at their fastest rate in almost six years, and Northern Ireland firms are increasingly pessimistic about the year ahead. Clearly the potential for a no-deal scenario was exercising the minds of business owners last month."

The economist said stockpiling was the likely factor in the growth witnessed in Northern Ireland's manufacturing sector. This is seen in the UK Manufacturing PMI, where stockpiling was reported to be rising at its fastest rate in 27 years."

Mr Ramsey said the March deterioration had resulted in the weakest quarter in terms of economic output since autumn 2016, warning: "More significantly though, employment and exports had their worst quarter since the first half of 2013."

However, the UK is struggling in terms of growth, alongside key economies in Europe, including Germany.

"Northern Ireland though differs from the rest of the UK in that there has been a lack of decision-making on two fronts, with the absence of an Executive adding to the complications created by uncertainty over Brexit," continued Mr Ramsey.

"This has driven a declining picture regarding confidence, with Northern Ireland respondents, particularly in the construction sector, the most pessimistic in the UK regarding future output.

"With the prospect of a no-deal Brexit receding and decisions in relation to some key infrastructure projects now being made in Northern Ireland, it remains to be seen whether some optimism returns in the months ahead."
A firm headed by one of Northern Ireland's most high-profile developers more than doubled its turnover last year.

Revenues at Paddy Kearney's Kilmona Group rose from 13.6m to 29.7m in the year to June 30 on the back of its hotels and property businesses.

Kilmona is the holding group for the Belfast developer's wide portfolio of interests, which includes hotels, warehouse storage and developing, renting and selling property.

Mr Kearney was one of the so-called 'Maple 10' group that bought shares in Anglo Irish Bank in 2008.

In recent years he has turned his attention to the hotel trade through his hospitality subsidiary, Loughview Leisure.

Loughview's portfolio includes Ten Square Hotel in Belfast, Chimney Corner Hotel in Newtownabbey, the Loughshore Hotel in Carrickfergus and the Bad Ass Kitchen restaurant behind Belfast City Hall.

The group recently put the finishing touches to a 20m redevelopment of city centre hotel Ten Square, which now includes a new bar called The Doffer.

Loughview, which posted a turnover of 9.2m in 2017, had revenues of 5.2m for the six months to June 30, 2018.

Despite a pre-tax loss of 434,375 during that period, the firm is going through a period of growth, expanding its workforce from 282 to 301 during the first half of last year.

Kilmona is pressing ahead with a 40m bid for two new apart-hotels in Belfast under the Ten Square brand on Stockmans Way and Apollo Road.

The group includes subsidiaries Lanyon Homes NI Ltd, warehouse firm CDC (NI) Ltd and Kilmona Property Ltd.

The biggest source of the group's income in the reporting period was property sales and hotels.

The sale of property garnered 11.7m in revenue for the holding group, compared with 4.2m in 2017. Rent income also rose from 5.9m to 8.2m over the 12 months.

Income from the hotels increased from 808,913 to 7.8m, while warehouse income dipped from 2.6m to 1.9m.

The group's assets were revalued at 131.5m last year, up from 91.7m in 2017.

A report for the group also revealed that Kilmona's expansion since October 2017 had been backed by Fairfield Real Estate Finance and Ulster Bank, both of which provided secured lending facilities.

The company's strategic report outlined the intention of the directors to continue acquiring new assets for development.
A mock customs post is put up by Border Communities Against Brexit protesters on Old Belfast Road in Carrickcarnon on the northern side of the Irish border, between Newry and Dundalk.

A campaign group representing Northern Ireland's manufacturing industry has co-signed an open letter to Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn calling for Article 50 to be revoked if a Brexit deal cannot be agreed in parliament.

Trade body Make UK penned the letter, which states that a no-deal exit would be "disastrous for the majority of UK manufacturers and the livelihoods of the millions of people they employ and their families."

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"Many of the families supported by our sector would undoubtedly suffer. There is already a tangible impact in the confidence of some Boards to invest in UK operations and other companies tell us that they cannot agree new contracts with European customers until the terms of trade with the EU have become clearer," Make UK chief executive Stephen Phipson wrote.

"As a consequence, many fear for their long term viability and the futures of their staff should we leave without a deal."

The move comes ahead of a a meeting of EU leaders on Wednesday, where they will discuss Theresa May's request for a further Brexit extension.

Stephen Kelly, chief executive of Manufacturing NI, was one of the co-signatories of the letter.

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"The perfect outcome is if agreement is found in parliament this week, but no-deal really needs to be taken off the table," he said.

"We're four days away from losing market access, we're four days away from huge amounts of costs and complexities being added to manufacturing across the UK, and we need to avoid that."

In October, Manufacturing NI was one of 21 Northern Ireland business groups to write to the Prime Minister urging his to act over severe labour shortages as a result of Brexit.

The letter stated that shrinking numbers of European workers are critically affecting the daily operations of many businesses in the region.
The United States International Trade Commission (USITC) will hold a listening session in Belfast this month as part of a UK city tour to hear directly from American SMEs on the challenges in exporting to the UK.

The event, which will be held in Belfast on April 26 at the US Consulate, will be attended by small and medium-sized American businesses who export to, and invest in the UK.

They will directly feed into a US Government policy initiative that will help shape the future of UK-US trade and investment relations.

According to USITC Belfast has attracted more US foreign direct investment jobs than any UK city outside of London with the US being the main source of international investment into Northern Ireland.

Emanuel Adam, executive director, BritishAmerican Business said: "The US is the second most important single-country trading partner for Northern Ireland, with imports from the US increasing 6.3% last year.

"Clearly there is huge demand for US products in Northern Ireland and we look forward to joining the USITC's listening session in Belfast later this month to find out what more can be done to strengthen and grow this relationship."

The USITC is looking for US-based firms with UK operations that have fewer than 500 employees and export to/invest in the United Kingdom which includes both goods and/or services.

To register for the session, companies can sign up via Eventbrite or emailing BritishAmerican Business at: policy@babinc.org
BrewDog is set to raise another 7 million from craft beer fans (PA)

BrewDog is inviting beer fans to invest in the business for the sixth time in just nine years, as it raises funds for new breweries, bars and other projects.

The pugnacious craft brewer told existing investors  known as equity punks  over the weekend that it would seek to raise a fresh 7 million.

If the company reaches the targeted amount, it would bring the total raised since BrewDogs first equity crowdfunding round in 2010 to 74 million.

Since Equity for Punks first began we have been blown away by their enthusiasm in rising up against bad beer alongside us, said founder James Watt.

The growth BrewDog has shown over the last decade could only have been achieved with the encouragement and support of our kick-ass Equity Punk community. But we are far from being done yet.

The move comes just six months after the fifth Equity for Punks round closed in October last year, raising a total of 26 million.

BrewDog said the new cash would go towards several projects announced this month. These include the opening of the third DogHouse hotel in London and the development of a recently acquired brewery in Germany.

Announcing the takeover of the Stone Brewing taproom in Berlin last week, Mr Watt said the decision was linked to Brexit.

Uncertainty surrounding Brexit is crippling British business, he tweeted. We are not going to let stupid politicians f*** up our business. So we took our destiny into our own hands and bought a brewery on the continent.

Uncertainty surrounding Brexit is crippling British business.



We are not going to let stupid politicians fuck up our business.



So we took our destiny into our own hands & bought a brewery on the continent.



Read more here: https://t.co/Li3nhLRR1d pic.twitter.com/6bXWSNu4Ny  James Watt (@BrewDogJames) April 5, 2019

The Punk IPA maker is also building a brewery in Brisbane, Australia and plans to start work on one in China by 2020.

The latest crowdfunding round will run for an initial 90 days until July 5.

As part of the funding drive, the brewer has said every investor will be entered into a draw to win 1 million worth of shares.

BrewDog has previously said it will aim to float on the stock market in the next few years, giving an exit to existing investors.

Mr Watt told Press Association last year that an initial public offering (IPO) was still on the cards for as soon as 2020.
Nine years ago, on April 2, 2010, Melanie Reid, a journalist with The Times, based in Scotland, was approaching a small jump on her horse when it refused, throwing her off.

She tumbled head first into the ground, breaking her neck and fracturing her back.

"I experienced a blinding red flash and felt my body suffuse with a most beautiful intense feeling of warmth, my own internal nuclear explosion, my own terrible mushroom cloud," she writes.

She realised in that moment on that Good Friday that her life had changed forever.

She was left tetraplegic, dependent on others for assistance with the most private of bodily functions and the most mundane of everyday tasks.

But she could still write and came up with the name of her new weekly column for the newspaper's Saturday magazine - what else but Spinal Column.

Now she has written a book detailing life from that fateful moment through her long months in the spinal unit of a Glasgow Hospital to the initial fears and challenges of returning home and the impact on relationships.

It is a story that is heart-wrenching and emotionally draining, but laced with humour and memorable phrases - "I'm two people, me (the functioning part) and the rest of me" and "overnight your buttocks have become the soles of your feet" - as well as thought provoking.

Q Was writing the book a cathartic experience?

A I am glad I have done it, but it was very harrowing, going back and revisiting all that hospital stuff for the first time. There was loads of stuff about my time in hospital that I did not include in my columns when I was still in the spinal unit. There were grim details of life in the unit which were not appropriate to write about while I was still in there. I had to relive all that for the book. It was very hard and did take a lot out of me.

That makes it sound like the spinal unit was a prison. It wasn't. It saved my life and put me back into the world again. But it was a long, tough haul.

QYet writing your column in

hospital was therapeutic?

A When I wrote what I did it was therapy. I tapped away with one finger and then hit 'send'. However, it was two or three years before I was emotionally strong enough to read what was printed in my newspaper. It had been a case of sending it and getting rid of it at that time. I was expressing some of the grief and writing was a life raft. The analogy I used was that I was a war correspondent reporting from the front line of my own body. Can this really be happening to me? I am sending despatches back to head office.

Q You have had a life-long love affair with horses. Where did that begin?

A I, like many other little girls, loved horses and I used to to draw pictures of them. Endlessly. My cousins in Northern Ireland had a pony and a donkey and we used to spend our summer holidays there every year with my maternal grandmother. It was at Hillhall Road near Lisburn, which at that time in the 1960s was all countryside. Today it is a commuter rat run, but back then we used to go out in a pony and trap.

I loved being allowed to sit on the pony and the donkey. My cousins also had a tack room. I was not allowed to enter, but I used to go and stand at the door and look at the tack and smell it. Unless they also have the horsey disease, people would think you are nuts, but lots of little girls have that love of all things horsey.

Q Do you still have a connection with Northern Ireland?

A Northern Ireland is a huge part of me. Quite a bit of my spirit lies in granny's old home between Lisburn and Belfast and my first husband came from Northern Ireland. I have many cousins there and my parents moved back to Lisburn when they got older and lived there for about 10 years. As they became frail they moved back to my home in Scotland, but Northern Ireland is still very much part of my world.

Q Owning a horse is very expensive. Did you have to sacrifice a lot for your hobby?

A It is madness, the expense is colossal. I think it is one of the reasons my first marriage broke up. My husband said it was crazy, like digging a hole and throwing money into it.

Q In your book you recall an aunt who suffered from a kind of locked-in syndrome, where her body deteriorated while her mind remained keen. Was that memory stirred by your similar position?

A Aunt Averil, who lived with granny near Lisburn, was my mother's oldest sister. She was one of the Northern Ireland victims of sleeping sickness, later called encephalitis lethargica, which was first noticed when she was about 12 in 1924.

She was a presence when we were growing up. She couldn't talk or express herself and lived in a chair and was looked after by my granny.

The disease had been flying around the world since 1918 and came after the outbreak of Spanish flu, which killed millions. Her illness left its mark on me as a child.

Knowing what I know now of her condition - she was trapped in a body that didn't work but with a brain that was unaffected - how dreadful that locked-in syndrome must have been for her. In a way it was worse than what I've gone through; at least I can communicate.

Averil was one of the forgotten people, like those who died from Spanish flu - a lost generation. It was difficult to write about her in my book, but it was a way of remembering her and letting her live on.

Q You say you were lucky compared to your aunt. Many people might not see your situation in that light.

A If I opened my eyes in the spinal unit I quickly realised there was someone else there worse off than me. I likened our injuries to a lorry crashing into a telecoms junction box. No two wires were damaged in the same way. A myriad of connections are damaged, broken or twisted in different ways and so it is when people have spinal injuries.

Some people had less arm or hand movement than me and others who suffered lower spinal injuries could do things I could never attempt. You have to put things in perspective, even though that can be very difficult. I might have broken my neck in such a way that I would have needed a respirator to help me breathe.

Q Do you think your book will help give people that perspective?

A Unless you experience paralysis I feel it is very hard to imagine what it is like. I wrote the book giving my realities, but they are different from those of others. I felt that if I was completely authentic with mine, it might help give others some advice or help them realise that they are not on their own.

There was terrific spirit among the people with spinal injuries that I met, but when you leave hospital it can feel lonely and scary, like falling off a cliff again. Ultimately, if it might help other people with similar injuries in some way, that is great.

Q What has been the reaction to your weekly columns?

A A lot of my readers tell me they are able-bodied and live normal lives but I have helped them appreciate their lives and put things in perspective for them and they don't take normal things for granted, as I did.

One woman said she had stopped shouting at her son for leaving wet towels or his socks lying all over the place, when she is able-bodied and able to pick them up.

Q What would you say to young people?

A I wish I could spend time with teenage girls or young women and tell them to stop fretting about their appearance, or whether they can fit into a particular dress size. I would tell them that if their body works, then it is beautiful and they should just get out there and enjoy life.

Q In the book you talk about the impact of your fall on your husband, Dave, and son, Dougie, and how you had a conversation with your husband telling him if he wanted to leave you would understand. That must have been very difficult?

A It just seemed polite. Maybe it was a bit of masochism on my part, or a feeling that I couldn't trap him in my disability, so I felt I should offer and I did. But he was wonderful and has been amazing. He has evolved and changed and we joke that between us we are one functioning person; I have the brainpower and he has the functioning body. He has been wholeheartedly wonderful.

It is a big number to ask someone to sacrifice a normal life and become a carer. I know some men just can't cope and I have never been judgmental of that. I reckon we are not all born for sacrifice and it is better to be open and honest and settle things early, rather than causing grief down the road.

Q Does each anniversary of your fall hold any significance for you?

A It is unequivocally a crap day. I have all kinds of aversion techniques to try to forget it. I bury myself in work and I don't look at the clock, as I would say things like 'at this time nine years ago I was being flown to hospital'. For the first few years each anniversary was unbearable, but your skin toughens over the years and you just get on with things.

Q Can you foresee a day when spinal injuries can be healed?

A I am patron of the Spinal Research charity. One of the reasons I became a patron is that I firmly believe there will be a cure this century with enough research funding, but it won't come in time for me. I am 61 now. But I want it to come in time for young people who are now suffering from spinal injuries. They have been cheated out of a lot of good years.

Gene therapy will be the big thing in this century - changing genes, adapting genes, sending genes in to cure things. A lot of things will be cured by this therapy, like multiple sclerosis and cystic fibrosis and I think spinal repair will come out of that.

Electrical implants are also showing positive results. Gene therapy is also showing promise in breaking down scar tissue which forms over the site of spinal injuries. The scar tissue blocks all reconnections, but if we could find a way to dissolve it with gene messengers then we could have spines repaired and nerves reconnected.

Q You are critical in your book of the amount of physiotherapy available to people like you when you leave hospital. What can be done to improve the situation?

A The NHS is so pared to the bone that it cannot afford any greater service. Nobody ever died from lack of physiotherapy and therefore it is not seen as an absolutely essential service.

Journalist Andrew Marr found exactly the same problem when he came out of hospital after his stroke.

Stroke victims' lives could be transformed if they had ongoing physiotherapy. It is one of the things I am passionate about.

It would be wonderful if we could find more money for it.

It can help keep people out of hospital and help stroke survivors lead independent lives and also increase the independence of spinal injury victims.

Q Finally, you have a wonderful phrase in your book about the limitations of what you can wear. You said: "Whatever I wore, I always wore a wheelchair."

A It goes to the nub of everyday life. It is lovely to look pretty and attractive, but what is the point when you are stuck in a metal box on wheels? I know that is defeatist and that I am a grumpy, middle-aged person.

I love it that young people in wheelchairs dress up.

They are much better at saying "Hey, look at me".

I admire them for it. I cannot go there, but they are the future and God bless them.

The World I Fell Out Of by Melanie Reid is published by 4th Estate, price 16.99
While the recreational use of marijuana is now legal in 10 American states, on this side of the pond lighting up a joint is still very much a criminal activity - so how come there's suddenly been an explosion of oils, serums, masks and moisturisers with cannabis on the ingredients list?

"Cannabis, which until not too long ago was taboo, has now started to emerge as a significant element in the medical and wellness sectors," says Hugh Winters, CEO of Australian skincare company MGC Derma.

"Since your skin is your biggest organ, it can benefit your skin the most."

Recent changes in global legislation have allowed firms to do more research and experimentation into the beauty benefits of the cannabis plant.

This is why cannabidiol (CBD) products are flooding the market, with new brands popping up and big names like Kiehls jumping on the CBD bandwagon.

"It's a game-changer," agrees Laure Bouguen, founder of French brand Ho Karan.

"It can replace a lot of synthetic and less powerful molecules and reshape the beauty industry into a wellness industry with a beauty-in and beauty-out approach."

So what are the benefits of CBD skincare and how should you be using it? Here, three experts explain, and we run down the best new products.

What is CBD and how can it be legal?

"Cannabidiol (CBD) is a totally non-psychoactive compound derived from the cannabis plant," explains Winters.

It comes in a variety of forms and is usually derived from the hemp plant (hemp and marijuana are the two primary species of cannabis), extracted from the seeds and stems.

It is legal globally because it contains only minute amounts of THC - the chemical that gets you 'high'.

"At the other end of the spectrum is CBD extracted from medical-grade cannabis, which is why our company is named MGC," Winters says.

"The oils are extracted from the flower of the plant, as opposed to seeds and stems.

"It contains 20% or more of CBD of a higher grade, and usually higher than trace amounts of THC, thus it is only legal in certain countries."

"Be informed about what you are buying," says Gamu Mawora, technologist in ethical beauty and aromatherapy at Holland & Barrett, which has a CBD skincare range.

"As with any upcoming trend, it is easy to be confused by the presentation of products, especially between hemp and CBD, which are not quite the same thing.

"Always look out for CBD oil or cannabidiol on the ingredients list."

What are the benefits of CBD skincare?

"The virtues are amazing," says Bouguen. "Many studies show that CBD can be useful for acne, psoriasis, dermatitis or dry skin."

Mawora says: "There have been some recent findings that suggest CBD has the potential to decrease excessive sebum production, as well as slowing down other triggers of acne."

CBD is also known to have anti-inflammatory effects, so it can help soothe rosacea or redness.

Even if you don't have a specific skin concern, CBD is thought to benefit your complexion.

"The molecular structure includes a high concentration of vitamins A, B, D and E and it is rich in antioxidants," Winters says.

"Further, there are indications that CBD will work in concert with other ingredients, such as hyaluronic acid, to enhance their effectiveness, making the skin appear firmer and younger with reduced wrinkles and a natural fresh glow."

Milk Makeup cannabis face mask, 21, available soon at Cult Beauty

MGC Derma CBD stem cells and hyaluronic facial serum, 80, Lookfantastic

Revolution Skincare skin nourishing CBD oil, 9.99, Superdrug

Holland & Barrett CBD serum, 9.99 (was 19.99)

Kiehl's cannabis sativa seed oil herbal concentrate, 38, Selfridges

Dr Botanicals hemp super concentrated rescue essence serum, 17

Ho Karan Holy Flow 2.5% CBD oil, 27.90, BeautyMart

Disciple miracle drops 1% CBD, 22, Cult Beauty

Kiki Health CBD oil 5%, 40, Cult Beauty
Theresa May said both sides will have to compromise in cross-party Brexit talks with Labour as she faced a backlash over the negotiations with Jeremy Corbyn's party.

Further talks are expected this week and shadow business minister Rebecca Long-Bailey, a member of Labour's negotiating team, said that while it was "disappointing" that there had not been any shift in the Government's red lines, "the overall mood is quite a positive and hopeful one".

Labour's 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 UK's ability to strike free trade deals through being bound by tariffs set by the EU.

In a video message filmed at her Chequers country retreat, Mrs May said: "There are lots of things on which I disagree with the Labour Party on policy issues.

"But on Brexit I think there are some things we agree on: ending free movement, ensuring we leave with a good deal, protecting jobs, protecting security.

"And so we are talking. Can we find a way through this that ensures that we can get a good deal and a deal agreed through Parliament? It'll mean compromise on both sides, but I believe that delivering Brexit is the most important thing for us."

Ms Long-Bailey told BBC's Andrew Marr Show that in the talks 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 Minister's deal with Brussels already had a "customs arrangement" aimed at tariff-free trade.

She added: "My expectation - and I'm 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.

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," she said.

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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".

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 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".

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".

Tory Eurosceptics are furious at the Prime Minister's handling of the Brexit process.

European Research Group chairman Jacob Rees-Mogg told Sky News: "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."
The front of the mansion faces Vo Van Tan Street with Ba Huyen Thanh Quan street on its side and Nguyen Thi Dieu street behind in District 3. The building has three entrances comprising two main gates in Vo Van Tan Street and one side gate in Ba Huyen Thanh Quan Street, two storeys measuring 1,780 square meters designed in North  South direction. The main part of the house has an area of 990 square meters, including 16 rooms connected by central staircase.



Ancient Asian - European arechitecture

The architecture of the mansion shows the presence of Art Deco and Art Nouveau styles, creating a unique architecture feature of Saigon in the past thanks to modern European techniques. Interior decoration shows characteristics of Vietnamese culture. Built in the 1920s, the mansion exists for nearly a century and still stands out from surrounding buildings.

And for Minerva, now the key issue is the correctness and scientificity in conservation works. Therefore, all of the investors, supervision consultants, contractors and experts must be scientific and serious in their works. Because if there was only one mistake, we would no longer have the opportunity to repair. Experts in the conservation group said that in term of construction method, the mansion was built with the most advanced techniques in the early 20th century with floor frames and steel trusses similar to the structure of the Eiffel Tower, concrete blocks and stone steps. Materials were mostly imported from France including roof tiles, ceramic tiles and decorative mirror tiles. Notably, the villa has two fully equipped bathrooms in the main part of the house, a rare style at that time. Because normally, the kitchen and bathroom were arranged independently out from the main part of the house, on the house campus, during the first half of the 20th century.

Experts in the conservation group said that in term of construction method, the mansion was built with the most advanced techniques in the early 20th century with floor frames and steel trusses similar to the structure of the Eiffel Tower, concrete blocks and stone steps. Materials were mostly imported from France including roof tiles, ceramic tiles and decorative mirror tiles. Notably, the villa has two fully equipped bathrooms in the main part of the house, a rare style at that time. Because normally, the kitchen and bathroom were arranged independently out from the main part of the house, on the house campus, during the first half of the 20th century.

The original owner was identified as Mr. Nguyen Van Nhieu. In the period of 1946-1955, the palace was used by the French army as the headquarters. Aftewards, it was sold to a rich man, who named it Phuong Nam villa. From 1960-1970, a suite of rooms was built along Ba Huyen Thanh Quan Street to be used for a foreign language school. Later, this villa belonged to two people including Dang Kim Chi born in 1938 and Nguyen Kim Sa Dang born in 1934. In 2015, they sold it to Minerva Joint Stock Company at the price of US$35 million.

The old mansion before restoration.



Restoration effort



Following Mrs. Nguyen Vu Dan Vi, Deputy General Director of Minerva Company, Investment & Finance reporters on April 2 had the opportunity to witness a "major surgery" inside the work with about 50 people on the construction site. Among them, there were 15 foreign experts, the majority were women. The experts comprise those from contractor Stonewest Limited Company, subcontractor Hydroscience Company, Italy based Palazzo Spinelli Academy and many other experts...

The site manager is an English woman from Stonewest Limited. French architect Nicolas Viste, leader of the restoration team, was also present at the project, discussing with the experts. The reporters found that suite of rooms along Ba Huyen Thanh Quan Street have been dismantled. Inside the main part of the villa, the central staircase and floor were carefully covered for repair work.

On average, there are about 50 experts and engineers of contractors working in the old mansion every day.

The result of building inspection shows that the foundation, the truss, the column ... are very good. However, many items and details in balcony, roofs, walls, bricks, doors ... are badly damaged and must be restored. Due to the complexity of the mansions restoration, Minerva Company has invited experts from Vietnams Hue city and from Germany, Italy and France for the past three years to fully and comprehensively study and find the most feasible solution before conducting restoration. The result of building inspection shows that the foundation, the truss, the column ... are very good. However, many items and details in balcony, roofs, walls, bricks, doors ... are badly damaged and must be restored. Due to the complexity of the mansions restoration, Minerva Company has invited experts from Vietnams Hue city and from Germany, Italy and France for the past three years to fully and comprehensively study and find the most feasible solution before conducting restoration.

In addition, Minerva has also promoted cooperation with the Palazzo Spinelli Academy, museums, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HUTECH) and Van Lang Univeristy for the purpose of training and developing human resources in conservation and restoration.



Urban history preservation

Firstly, the restoration work will focus on painting restoration bid packages. In most of the rooms, there are Asia style murals and ceiling paintings such as the ceiling painting of The Twelve Fairies, fruits and flowers... These paintings are hidden deep inside in the paint layers. Therefore, experts will perform the process of peeling and cleaning each layer meticulously to restore the paintings.

Ms. Maria Constancio, Spinelli Academy's expert, peels off the paint on the wall to restore the patterns in the old mansion.

One Minerva representative said: Through this project, JSC Minerva wishes to accompany with the city government in the urban heritage preservation. And one of our concerns, besides the support of the government, is how to attract more young people in heritage preservation works. We should not depend entirely on foreign experts. So, recently, we organized a heritage seminar and brought this information to students. We have received positive feedbacks, especially from the Architecture and Fine art departments in many universities.

One Minerva representative said: Through this project, JSC Minerva wishes to accompany with the city government in the urban heritage preservation. And one of our concerns, besides the support of the government, is how to attract more young people in heritage preservation works. We should not depend entirely on foreign experts. So, recently, we organized a heritage seminar and brought this information to students. We have received positive feedbacks, especially from the Architecture and Fine art departments in many universities.

"This opens up a new approach. and Minerva want to connect international cooperation on science and training human resources in heritage preservation for interested parties. Finally, through this conservation project, we wish to spread the love for urban heritage, so that everyone preserve and promote the good values that our ancestors left for Saigon - Ho Chi Minh City. If we do this well, the next generations will have something to preserve and be proud of."



When asked how to exploit effectively and harmoniously the interests of relevant parties when the project is completed, the Minerva representative said that this was hard to find out. According to the Minerva representative, even developed countries had similar difficulties when referring to the concept of heritage economy. But Minerva is very confident in the heritage economic model, which has been applied in developed countries.

Minh Tuan
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar may have to introduce border checks in the Republic of Ireland in the event of a no-deal Brexit, an Ulster Unionist Peer has said.

Lord Empey made the comments after Mr Varadkar called for regulatory checks at sea ports in Belfast and Larne in a no-deal scenario, in order to ensure frictionless trade across the border.

He said the Government's no-deal plan suggested treating Northern ireland differently from Great Britain in terms of tariffs and checks.

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"That opens up the potential to have the checks at the ports in Larne and Belfast, which is the logical place to have them of course, not on the land border," he added.

Lord Empey said the Irish premier's comments are "proof" Dublin is facing the prospect of having to enforce EU external borders in the event of a no-deal exit.

The Taoiseach conceded a few weeks ago that the Republic had made no preparations for border checks. It is well known that no Irish government could erect a border and hope to survive," he said.

"However, having thrown in his lot with the EU 27, they will require him to protect the single market by enforcing EU borders, which we all know he can't! Hence Leo's dilemma.

Leo's latest wheeze is to ask the UK to enforce his border! The Taoiseach said over the weekend that 'the UK still has obligations under the Good Friday Agreement, you still committed to full regulatory alignment back in December 2017 and we still want the arrangements in the backstop to apply.'

In other words, Dublin wants to have border checks at Belfast and Larne, thus moving the border to the Irish Sea and separating Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.

Of course he does, because he and his colleagues have played the green card from the beginning, but now it risks backfiring. He should have been open to discussing with London and Belfast ways of handling things on the island, but he refused."

The Taoiseach is meeting with the EU's chief negotiator on Monday in Dublin to discuss Brexit developments.

The talks come prior to the meeting of the EU27 on Wednesday when European leaders will discuss Theresa May's request for a further Brexit extension.
TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar has called for regulatory checks to take place between Great Britain and Northern Ireland at sea ports in Belfast and Larne if there is a no-deal Brexit.

Speaking on RTE Radio One's Countrywide programme he also said any EU country that vetoed a further Brexit extension for the UK would not be forgiven by other member states.

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He said he believed the prospect of one of the EU27 saying no to another extension at this week's European Council meeting was "extremely unlikely".

The Irish premier suggested his own preference was for a longer extension than the June 30 date proposed by the UK.

Mr Varadkar also said that, in a no-deal scenario, the "logical" way to ensure a free-flowing Irish border would be for regulatory checks to take place between Great Britain and Northern Ireland at sea ports in Belfast and Larne.

The Taoiseach acknowledged that there was increasing frustration at the Brexit process within the EU27, particularly among countries which were less dependent on trade links with the UK and wanted to focus on other key issues affecting the bloc, such as migration and the next EU budget.

He said he had asked for their "patience and solidarity".

"Today we have got that and I think that will continue," he said.

Mr Varadkar said the prospect of a crash-out Brexit on Friday was unlikely.

"Because nobody wants no-deal I think the likelihood is an extension. But we want to avoid an extension that just allows for more indecision and more uncertainty. So I'd prefer to see a longer extension during which the United Kingdom has more time to decide really what future relationship it wants to have with the European Union, rather than the alternative, which could be rolling extensions every couple of weeks, every couple of months."

He said the UK and Ireland would find themselves in a "dilemma" in the event of a no-deal because they would have to balance obligations under trade rules to check goods and obligations under the Good Friday Agreement to keep the Irish border open.

"It would be up to us to protect the single market and it would be up to the United Kingdom to enforce WTO rules," he said. "We would both find ourselves in a dilemma because, on one hand we would have obligations under the European treaties, they'd have obligations under the World Trade Organisation.

"But then there's the Good Friday Agreement and, to me, that is equally important and the Good Friday Agreement is about the peace process, it's about ensuring we have free movement of people, goods and animals."

Mr Varadkar said Ireland was exploring the possibility of conducting regulatory checks away from the border, potentially on business premises.

He noted that the UK Government's no-deal plan suggested initially treating Northern Ireland differently from Great Britain in terms of tariffs and checks.

"That opens up the potential to have the checks at the ports in Larne and Belfast, which is the logical place to have them of course, not on the land border," he said.

The Taoiseach said he would like the principles behind the Withdrawal Agreement's contentious border backstop to be honoured even if there was a no-deal.

"The reason we came up with the backstop is because it is the solution and, even in the event of a no-deal we will be saying to the UK 'You still have obligations under the Good Friday Agreement, you still committed to full regulatory alignment back in December 2017 and we still want the arrangements that are in the backstop to apply'," he said.
Scene of a crash involving a young boy who was knocked off his bicycle by a vehicle in Limavady, on Monday afternoon. The boy was airlifted to hospital. Picture Margaret McLaughlin 8-4-2019

A young boy was airlifted to hospital after he was knocked off his bike in a crash in Limavady.

It happened in the Edenmore Road area of Limavady at around 4pm on Monday.

The boy was airlifted to hospital by the charity Air Ambulance. Part of the road was closed for a period to allow the emergency services to attend the scene.

Police have not released any further details, however, it is thought the boy is of primary school age.

The driver of the vehicle was spoken to at the scene by police.

The road has been described as a residential street which leads onto a country lane. Children in the area would regularly use the road to ride their bikes. The crash happened close to a mini roundabout.

Causeway Coast and Glens Mayor Brenda Chivers said the community was left in shock as news spread of the incident.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the young cyclist and his family, I hope he makes full recovery," she added.

"I would urge anyone with information to bring it to the police.

DUP councillor James McCorkell added: "All day long there would be children riding up and down the road on their bikes. It is very popular with children."

He added: "My thoughts and prayers go out to the young boy and his family and I hope he makes a full recovery."

As well as the Air Ambulance a rapid response paramedic and emergency crew were sent to the scene.

"Following initial assessment and treatment at the scene, the child was transferred by Air Ambulance to the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children," an Ambulance Service spokesman said.

Police have appealed for anyone who witnessed the collision or who has dashcam footage to contact police in Limavady on 101 quoting reference number 795 08/04/19.
Business activity in Northern Ireland has dropped for the first time in almost three years, with Brexit uncertainty blamed for the decline.

The Purchasing Managers Index, a well-established benchmarked index for measuring private sector growth, has recorded a decrease in activity for the first time since July 2016.

Rates of employment and new orders in the sector are also on a downward trajectory, the data from the Ulster Bank Northern Ireland PMI.

Richard Ramsey, chief economist with Ulster Bank Northern Ireland, said the regions firms were becoming increasingly pessimistic about what lies ahead in 2019.

The term Brexit Uncertainty has been overused in the last couple of years, however it is again a major feature of the latest PMI, with the impact of this becoming more and more tangible, he said.

Expand Close A man looks across the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland from Edentober in Co Louth to Newry in Co Down (NIall Carson/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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Business conditions deteriorated further according to respondents, with March seeing the first fall in business activity in 32-months.

Perhaps more significantly though, export orders and employment levels both dropped at their fastest rate in almost six years, and Northern Ireland firms are increasingly pessimistic about the year ahead.

Clearly the potential for a no-deal scenario was exercising the minds of business owners last month.

Positives were in short supply in the latest survey with manufacturing continuing to be the only sector recording output growth; albeit that stockpiling was no doubt a factor.

This is seen in the UK Manufacturing PMI, where stockpiling was reported to be rising at its fastest rate in 27 years.

At the other end of the spectrum locally is retail, with sales activity declining at its sharpest rate in four years.

Meanwhile, Northern Irelands largest sector, the service industry, took a turn for the worse in March, with output, orders and employment all going lower.

Service sector activity hit a 32-month low and staffing levels in the sector are falling at the fastest rate in almost six and a half years.

Northern Ireland, though, differs from the rest of the UK in that there has been a lack of decision-making on two fronts, with the absence of an Executive adding to the complications created by uncertainty over BrexitRichard Ramsey

Last month marked the end of the first quarter of the year, and the deteriorating picture in March meant that it was the weakest quarter in terms of output since Q3 2016.

More significantly though, employment and exports had their worst quarter since the first half of 2013.

Mr Ramsey said the UK as a whole was struggling on the growth front.

Indeed this picture is consistent in Europe as well, where Germany for instance, is seeing manufacturing activity falling at a rapid rate, he added.

Northern Ireland, though, differs from the rest of the UK in that there has been a lack of decision-making on two fronts, with the absence of an Executive adding to the complications created by uncertainty over Brexit.

This has driven a declining picture regarding confidence, with Northern Ireland respondents, particularly in the construction sector, the most pessimistic in the UK regarding future output.

With the prospect of a no-deal Brexit receding and decisions in relation to some key infrastructure projects now being made in Northern Ireland, it remains to be seen whether some optimism returns in the months ahead.

The March PMI report was produced for Ulster Bank by IHS Markit.
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.

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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.

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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.
Sally ONeill was the heartbeat of overseas aid organisation Trocaire for decades (Trocaire/PA)

A charity worker who was the heartbeat of overseas aid organisation Trocaire for decades has died in a road accident in Guatemala, her former employer said.

Sally ONeill from Co Tyrone translated for campaigning archbishop Oscar Romero shortly before his murder and highlighted a massacre in El Salvador.

She was a driving force for human rights at the Catholic bishops international development agency for almost 40 years.

CEO Caoimhe de Barra said: We are heartbroken by this news.

Sally was the heartbeat of Trocaire for almost 40 years.

Ms de Barra said her former colleague from Dungannon was a remarkable person.

"To have known Sally ONeill Sanchez was a privilege."



Statement by President Michael D. Higgins on the death of Sally ONeill Sanchez: https://t.co/AlItBttEvC pic.twitter.com/HVD3DM8pfc  President of Ireland (@PresidentIRL) April 8, 2019

Trocaire was only five years old when Sally joined.

Sally built the foundations of the organisation.

She embodied our values and through her courage and commitment to human rights touched the lives of so many people.

She died following a crash in the Central American country.

She was married to husband Roger and leaves children Roger, Rhona and Xio.

Ms de Barra said: She dedicated her life to improving the lives of others. Her legacy will live on through the thousands of people whose lives she helped to improve.

She joined Trocaire in 1978 and dedicated her life to working with the poor, the marginalised and victims of human rights abuses.

Retirement came in April 2015 after 37 years of service.

She worked in Central America at a time when civil wars were being fought in El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua.

Expand Close Sally ONeill visited El Salvador with President Michael D Higgins (Peter Byrne/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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She oversaw humanitarian aid to more than two million refugees in the region during those conflict years.

In 1982, the aid worker and President Michael D Higgins, who was then a deputy in the Dail, visited El Salvador to investigate reports of a massacre in the village of El Mozote.

Their report from El Mozote reached the pages of the international media, including the New York Times and Washington Post, Trocaire said.

President Higgins said: Sally understood the importance of combining tangible assistance and practical compassion with the pursuit of long-term solutions to the root causes of poverty, marginalisation and oppression.

Through her work she empowered countless people and she was relentless in calling on those with power to bring their influence to bear on the policies and politics that affected those most vulnerable.

With the same professionalism, ease and conviction as Sally ONeill Sanchez led delegations of politicians and bishops to witness the suffering of marginalised communities throughout Central America, she was able to bring those previously without a voice to the corridors of power at international conferences.
Health officials have finally been given the green light for a new contract for community dentists - three years after funding was secured, it can be revealed.

Stormont officials had refused to implement the new terms without formal ministerial approval.

However, a deal has now been rubber-stamped that means community dentists here will get the same pay as their counterparts in Britain.

Northern Ireland's community dentists were the last healthcare workers in the UK working under contracts drafted in the 1980s.

The service provides dental care for people of all ages including children and adults with learning disabilities, patients with health problems, phobias, and those unable to leave their homes.

The British Dental Association (BDA) welcomed the move and said it will help to improve the care dentists can deliver to local patients.

Grainne Quinn of the BDA said: "Paralysis at Stormont had left the care for thousands of vulnerable patients at risk.

"Community dentists had been left facing an uncertain future, working to rules drafted three decades ago.

"Finally, after a decade of negotiation, frustration and inertia we've got a result. I am delighted to see this contract finally being implemented within the community dental service in Northern Ireland. Our hard-working staff deserve the improved terms and conditions, and they have been very patient awaiting its implementation.

"We will be looking to trusts to work with the Department of Health, to ensure all staff get their long-awaited back pay in a timely fashion."

Under the old contract agreed in 1988, there was no dedicated training for dentists.

The contract showed its age by referring to the right to compensation arising "in respect of an accident sustained before July 5, 1948".

There was also no nationally agreed appraisal plan to ensure staff were working efficiently.

Under the new contract, specialised training will be provided which will enable dentists to meet the needs of patients with more complex needs.

A new appraisal system is also being specifically designed which will allow training to take place and improve the service for patients.

And a change in working hours will result in more patients being seen.

Ms Quinn said that getting the new contract agreed had been "a surreal experience".

"Since initial agreements in 2016, the BDA have been trying to get this contract implemented, but have been thwarted at all stages with first no minister present, and secondly no government in place," she explained.

"Despite this, we pushed ahead, looking at every opportunity to raise this issue with senior officials to enable us to get to completion this week.

"Our members should never have been put in this position, and they are finally getting recognition for their valuable work."

The Department of Health did not respond to a request for a comment.
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 O'Neill will hold talks with the Labour leader in London today.

Mrs McDonald outlined the message she would deliver to Mr Corbyn while unveiling the party's European and local council election candidates in Roganstown in Co Dublin yesterday.

"We spoke with Prime Minister Theresa May in the course of last week and tomorrow a Sinn Fein delegation will go to London," the republican leader said.

"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."

Ms McDonald added: "Our peace process, our all-Ireland economy and crucially, our citizens' rights, cannot be the collateral damage to the Tory Brexit."

Mr Corbyn has been a long-time supporter of Sinn Fein.

Speaking after a meeting with Mr Corbyn last month, Ms McDonald said they "are of one mind in terms of protecting the Good Friday Agreement, in terms of the need for a backstop".
A man and woman are to stand trial for alleged involvement in one of the biggest drugs operations ever disrupted in Northern Ireland.

Cannabis with a street value of up to 2 million was seized at properties in Belfast and intercepted en route to hotels across the city last August.

Police also believe a large number of other packages, potentially worth several million pounds more, slipped though the net.

Chinese nationals Chun Guo Pan, 48, and his female co-accused Mei Juan Gao, 38, appeared before Belfast Magistrates' Court on Monday, April 8, on charges related to the suspected distribution plot.

The pair, both of no fixed abode, are jointly charged with possession and conspiracy to supply Class B drugs.

They also face further allegations of having false identity documents.

During a preliminary enquiry hearing the defendants confirmed they understood the charges against them.

Speaking through an interpreter, Pan and Gao both declined to give evidence or call witnesses at this stage.

Their lawyers did not contest prosecution submissions that the accused each has a case to answer.

District Judge Fiona Bagnall then granted a request to have the pair returned for Crown Court trial on a date to be fixed.

With no bail applications mounted, the defendants are to remain in custody.

Barrister Declan Quinn, representing Pan, secured a certification for two counsel at trial due to the seriousness and scale of the case.

He told the court: "This is one of the largest drugs seizures in this jurisdiction.

"Between 1.5m to 2m was seized, around 75 kilos, and it has also been linked to wider criminality."
In November last year an industrial tribunal held police holiday pay had been wrongly calculated

A dispute over holiday pay could mean the PSNI paying staff nearly 3 million more for last year alone, the Court of Appeal has heard.

The potentially additional budgetary pressure was disclosed as Chief Constable George Hamilton challenged a finding that police officers and civilian workers are owed money dating back two decades.

In November last year an industrial tribunal held that their holiday pay had been wrongly based on basic working hours, rather than actual hours worked including overtime.

The decision came in a case taken by a group representing more than 3,700 officers and support staff.

They launched proceedings following a landmark ruling on UK holiday pay rules in 2014.

In that case judges decided employees who were regularly required to work overtime should get extra holiday pay.

According to the Industrial Tribunal the failure to provide the correct annual leave entitlements was "extremely serious".

It raised the prospect of the PSNI and the Police Authority facing an estimated bill of 30m in relation to unlawful deductions which could stretch back 20 years.

But the extent of liability remains in dispute.

Lawyers for the officers insist they are entitled to payments from 1998, when the Working Time Regulations were introduced in the UK.

Alternatively, however, it has been suggested that they can only cover a period of three months prior to proceedings being commenced.

In court on Monday, counsel for the Chief Constable, John Beggs QC, disclosed the amount calculated going back to April 2018.

He said: "The sum of money (which would) have to be added to the police officers and civilians who work with the PSNI will be approximately 2.7m for the tax year just concluded."

Lord Justice Stephens, hearing the appeal with Lord Justice Treacy and Mr Justice O'Hara, questioned why payment has not been made.

"The public might be interested in why the Chief Constable isn't obeying the law," he said.

But Mr Beggs stressed it was his client's "earnest intention" to comply.

Referring to the calculations for 2018, he added: "The figures are ready to be paid on a backdated basis."

The appeal continues.
From restriction and denial



During the countrys difficult period, there was a shortage of everything, and bureaucratic and subsidy policies were in force, denying the private sector a role.

The policy of "strengthening the socialist economy, restricting the private capitalist economy" was stated in Section 3, Part E, Directive No. 252 - BTN/VVG dated 11/11/1957, of the Ministry of Commerce on "Assigning price decisions".

In a market economy, the public sector is only a part, not dominant or a monopoly. The private sector is the key to creating sustainable growth and bringing real vitality to the market. After that Prime Minister's Directive No. 212-TTg dated May 15, 1977, on "building the 5-year state plan (1976-1980) and the 1978 plan stated: In the process of socialist reform, private enterprises are allowed to exist for a certain period of time but are subject to the conditions of the socialist economy, and must operate according to the trajectory of the plan.

After that Prime Minister's Directive No. 212-TTg dated May 15, 1977, on "building the 5-year state plan (1976-1980) and the 1978 plan stated: In the process of socialist reform, private enterprises are allowed to exist for a certain period of time but are subject to the conditions of the socialist economy, and must operate according to the trajectory of the plan.

In 1985 we saw the phrase not maintain the private sector in Article 13, Regulations on "reorganising and rearranging the production and business management of the cosmetics industry in Ho Chi Minh City", issued together with Decision 246/QD-UB, dated December 7, 1985, of the HCMC People's Committee.

 To recognition and promotion



When the time came, we had to adopt the market mechanism and recognise and promote the role of the private sector. Following are some notable policies on the recognition and promotion of the private sector.



In 1986 the first Regulation said: The bank lends to support the development of the family economy, private economy and individual economy, and meet the production and processing needs of the state.



This was stated in Article 9 of "Provisional regulations on the socialist business mechanism and state management of banking operations to ensure production and business autonomy of all economic units", which was issued together with Decision 76-HDBT dated June 26, 1986, of the Council of Ministers (now the Prime Minister).



In 1989 the principal perception was changed when Point 3, Section II, Resolution of December 28, 1989, of the National Assembly on the targets of socio-economic development in 1990 stated it will encourage the development of the private economy, individual economy and family economy in urban and rural areas to resolve peoples issues of jobs and livelihoods.



According to the Company Law and Private Enterprise Law, in 1990 the establishment of a private enterprise required legal capital of VND20 million (applicable to services) to VND240 million (hydropower) and approval from the Council of Ministers or chairman of the province Peoples Committee where the enterprise has its head office.

Since 2000 under the Enterprise Law, most requirements for the establishment of private enterprises were scrapped. There were almost no conditions for establishing a private company.



Since 2002 the private sector has been recognized with Section 1, Resolution 14-NQ/TW, dated March 18, 2002, of the Party Central Committee, IXth Congress, on "Continuing to renovate mechanisms and policies, encourage and facilitate private sector development" stating: The private economy is an important part of the national economy. The development of the private economy is a long-term strategic objective along with the development of a multi-component socialist-oriented economy.

In 2005 the government enacted the General Enterprise Law which did not distinguish in any way between state and private enterprises.



The General Investment Law did not differentiate between local and foreign investment either.



Resolution 10-NQ/TW dated June 3, 2017, of the 12th Central Committee of the Party said The development of private sector is an important motivator of the market socialist-oriented economy.



Among the things it said were: The private sector is an important driving force for overall economic development. The state economy, collective economy and private economy will be the cores of an independent, autonomous economy. Encouraging and creating favorable conditions for the private sectors rapid, sustainable and diversified growth in terms of both quantity and quality to make a high rate of contribution to GDP, Deleting all barriers and prejudices and creating favorable conditions to develop a healthy private economy and Private economy is allowed in all sectors and areas which are not prohibited by law.

Lawyer Truong Thanh Duc
The vaccine will be offered to boys from September this year. Credit: David Cheskin/PA.

A vaccine to help prevent a range of cancers is to be offered to boys aged 12-13 in Northern Ireland, the Department of Health (DoH) has announced.

The Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine will help protect against related cancers, such as that of the mouth and throat, and will be offered to all boys in year nine.

Young women in Northern Ireland has already be given the vaccine since 2008, with it to be introduced for boys from September this year.

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Northern Ireland's Chief Medical Officer, Dr Michael McBride, welcomed the announcement.

We can now look forward to a future where we can be even more confident that we will reduce cervical cancer and other HPV related cancers that affect both men and women," he said.

This is an effective vaccine against a particularly harmful virus. I would encourage all parents to take up this offer and ensure their boys and girls are vaccinated.

The DoH has also announced it will be introducing a better test for bowel cancer, of which there are 1,100 new cases in Northern Ireland every year.

The Faecal Immunochemical Test (FIT) will replace the Faecal Occult Blood (FOB) test as the primary screening test for bowel cancer in the Bowel Cancer Screening Programme (BCSP) in Northern Ireland.

DoH Permanent Secretary Richard Pengelly said: The evidence is clear in both cases that very significant health protection benefits can be achieved for our citizens.

"Both decisions have been under active consideration for some time and can now be made, following confirmation of the Departments budget allocation for this year."

The annual cost of the HPV vaccine for boys is estimated to be around 750k.

Margaret Carr of Cancer Research UK said: The HPV vaccination is already offered to girls, and making it available to boys as well will help prevent cancers such as anal, penile and some types of mouth and throat cancer.

The switch to using the FIT test in the bowel cancer screening programme should improve uptake of screening and help pick up more bowel cancers before symptoms have developed. Bowel cancer is much more treatable, and has better survival rates, if diagnosed at an early stage."
Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley does not have a deep appreciation of Irish politics, the leader of Sinn Fein has claimed.

Party president Mary Lou McDonald made the comments as she accused the Cabinet minister of making erroneous and dangerous comments about voting rights in a potential border poll.

Ms Bradley recently sparked controversy when she appeared to suggest that Irish citizens living in the UK could not vote in such a referendum, but the Government later moved to clarify her remarks.

Karen Bradley has proven not to have a very deep appreciation of Irish politics or the dynamic of Irish politicsMary Lou McDonald

The debate on Irish unification has gained higher priority since the Brexit referendum in 2016.

Commenting on the confusion, Mrs McDonald  on a visit to Westminster for Brexit talks  told the Press Association: Karen Bradley has proven not to have a very deep appreciation of Irish politics or the dynamic of Irish politics

Im alarmed that as I speak to you now, more than 20 years after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, that the British Government and state insists that Irish people living in the north of Ireland are British.

And I am concerned that the Secretary of State would make such ill-judged and inaccurate comments around peoples right to vote in any potential unity referendum. That worries me and that does undermine public confidence in her.

Asked if Ms Bradley should resign, Mrs McDonald said it wouldnt solve the problem.

Expand Close Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald speaks to a pro-EU protester (John Stillwell/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald speaks to a pro-EU protester (John Stillwell/PA)

The issue that we have here regards this Governments stewardship of the peace process is far deeper and goes much wider than Karen Bradley.

Last month Labour MP Conor McGinn asked the Northern Ireland Secretary why the reciprocal voting rights for Irish citizens do not cover referenda.

In her reply, Ms Bradley said: The voting rights which will continue to be enjoyed by British and Irish citizens are reciprocal.

British citizens may vote in local and parliamentary elections in Ireland but not presidential elections or referendums. This reciprocal right is reflected in the voting rights of Irish citizens living in the United Kingdom.

The Government later said voter eligibility rules for referenda were determined on a poll by poll basis.

Irish citizens were able to vote in the 2016 EU referendum.

A Government spokesman said: This issue is being distorted. Voting rights for Irish citizens in the UK are long established, going back decades.

Irish citizens have had the right to vote in every recent UK referendum. Nobody has ever suggested that Irish citizens will be disenfranchised from future votes in UK referendums.

The UK Government will remain completely consistent with the letter and spirit of the Belfast Agreement. To suggest otherwise is totally without any foundation and is something that the UK Government refutes in the strongest terms.

The Secretary of State will make this clear when she meets political representatives from Northern Ireland today.

Sinn Fein vice-president Michelle ONeill will be holding talks with Ms Bradley in Westminster on Monday, while Mrs McDonald will meet Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Ahead of the talks, Mrs McDonald warned that a customs union does not solve the problem for the north of Ireland.

She said a customs union probably makes sense for Britain but said: You need to be aware that membership of the customs union alone does not solve the problem for the north of Ireland  we need alignment also with the single market.

These are the bare minimums that are required just to keep the lights on on our island. I think for our purposes we have to be clear that this Brexit saga cannot go on indefinitely  there actually has to be a conclusion, there has to be an end point.

Whether there is a deal, and I hope there is, or no deal, I hope that that doesnt come to pass, but irrespective of whether theres a deal or no deal or an extension of any duration, we are very clear, and the British political system needs to be very clear, that the commitments made to Ireland must be honoured.
Irish leaders have sent condolences after a life-long charity worker died in Guatemala.

News broke on Monday that Tyrone woman Sally ONeill Sanchez was killed in a car accident along three of her co-workers while working for human rights causes in Central America.

"To have known Sally ONeill Sanchez was a privilege."



Statement by President Michael D. Higgins on the death of Sally ONeill Sanchez: https://t.co/AlItBttEvC pic.twitter.com/HVD3DM8pfc  President of Ireland (@PresidentIRL) April 8, 2019

She joined charity Trocaire in 1978, and had a career spanning 37 years, working in Latin America, and Africa, most notably Ethiopia and Somalia.

President Michael D Higgins, said he was deeply saddened to hear of the death of his long-time friend.

To have known Sally ONeill Sanchez was a privilege, he said.

To have been with her in some of the places of conflict, distress and human suffering was to see the brilliance, compassion, and limitless courage she brought to her engagement with the poor, the oppressed, and the displaced.

I was privileged to have her as a friend and will never forget the brilliant guidance and assistance she provided on so many occasions and in so many places.

Sabina and I send our deepest condolences to the families of the four victims, and in particular to Sallys husband Roger and their children, Roger, Rhona and Xiao.

The Tanaiste Simon Coveney said all possible assistance will be provided to Sallys family.

We were devastated today to learn of the death of our friend and former colleague Sally ONeill in Guatemala. Sally was the heartbeat of Trocaire for almost 40 years and leaves an incredible legacy. https://t.co/D8I8zd7UMV  Trocaire (@trocaire) April 8, 2019

I was greatly saddened today to hear of the death of Sally ONeill Sanchez, a lifelong advocate for human rights and the dignity of all people, dedicating her life to working with the poor and the marginalised, he said.

Sally was a remarkable woman who made a tremendous contribution to Irish society and to disadvantaged communities across the world. She presented the best of what it is to be Irish, working tirelessly to empower those impacted by poverty and injustice.

With her sad passing, Ireland and the countries where she had such a significant impact have lost a dedicated defender of human rights and equality for all.

I would like to extend my deepest sympathy to Sallys family at this most difficult time.

Trocaire chief executive Caoimhe de Barra said the organisation was heartbroken.

Sally was the heartbeat of Trocaire for almost 40 years, she said.

She was a truly remarkable person.

Trocaire was only five years old when Sally joined.

Sally built the foundations of the organisation.

She embodied our values and through her courage and commitment to human rights touched the lives of so many people.

In recognition of her career, Ms ONeill was awarded the Hugh OFlaherty Humanitarian Award in 2011.

She was also appointed by President Higgins as a member of the High Level Panel for the Presidential Distinguished Award for the Irish Abroad in 2012.

Following her retirement, Ms ONeill Sanchez continued to work in a voluntary capacity as a facilitator with prisoners and migrants in Honduras, where she lived.
Ian Ogle died after being beaten and stabbed 11 times in the back near his home

A man previously arrested in the Ian Ogle murder investigation has been reported to the Public Prosecution Service for drugs offences.

The 28-year-old was reported to the PPS for possession and cultivation of a Class B controlled drug.

Community worker and father-of-two Ian Ogle was murdered by a group of men near his Cluan Place home in east Belfast on January 27.

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Police said he was stabbed 11 times in the back and suffered a fractured skull.

PSNI Detective Chief Inspector Peter McKenna said police will continue to target those involved in "any form of criminality" detected during the murder investigation.

I am continuing to appeal for witnesses to this horrific murder. Ian Ogle was subjected to a brutal attack and his family deserve justice," he added.

"Anyone with information that could assist my investigation is asked to please get in touch with the investigation team by calling 101 quoting reference 1303 27/1/19."

Information can also be provided anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

To date, two men have been charged with Ian Ogle's murder.
The family of murdered backpacker Inga-Maria Hauser have expressed gratitude to those who attended a ceremony to mark the 31st anniversary of her murder.

A group of people from across Northern Ireland gathered at the lonely spot in Ballypatrick Forest where the remains of the 18-year-old German tourist were discovered more than three decades ago.

Ms Hauser, from Munich, went missing after she arrived in Larne on a ferry from Stranraer in Scotland on April 6, 1988.

Her body was found two weeks later. It is believed she was murdered and her body dumped hours after she arrived in Northern Ireland.

A campaign to bring her killer to justice has gathered pace in recent years, as well as efforts to demonstrate to the Hauser family that the much-loved and talented teenager has not been forgotten by the community so horrified by her bloody murder 31 years ago.

Following Saturday's ceremony, Ms Hauser's only sister, Fredericke, said: "What a wonderful gift to Inga-Maria. Thank you so much for visiting her memorial. This day makes me sad every year, even every March 29, the day she left."

SDLP MLA John Dallat, who has been at the forefront of efforts to uncover the truth about the murder, said people here will never give up the quest for justice.
Police at the scene of the accident on the Castleward Road

A three-vehicle crash in Co Down claimed the life of a man in his 60s yesterday morning.

The victim died as a result of injuries sustained in the collision on the Castleward Road in Strangford.

The PSNI said: "Shortly after 11.30am it was reported that a motorcycle, a Renault Clio and a Nissan Qashqai were involved in the incident."

It's believed that it was the motorcyclist who died as a result of the crash.

The victim has not yet been named by the authorities. He was the 17th person to die on Northern Ireland's roads this year.

Local independent councillor Cadogan Enright said the scene of yesterday's collision was an accident blackspot.

"It's a very dangerous section of road," he said.

"There have been multiple accidents there, with several people killed over the past few years.

"The road needs to be upgraded.

"It's a tragedy waiting to happen.

"This won't be the last time someone is killed there.

"It's a constant nightmare."

Former SDLP leader Margaret Ritchie, who lives in the area, said: "My thoughts and prayers are with the bereaved.

"My deepest sympathies go to the family and friends of the gentleman who lost his life today in such tragic circumstances."

Castleward Road in Strangford was closed between Bannaghan Road and Churchtown Road for a time yesterday as officers carried out their investigations. It has since reopened.

Police appealed for anyone who witnessed the collision or who may have dash cam footage to contact them on 101.
The Department of Health is introducing a better test for bowel cancer - to increase uptake rates and to detect more cancers earlier

The Department of Health is introducing a better test for bowel cancer - to increase uptake rates and to detect more cancers earlier.

The Faecal Immunochemical Test (FIT) will replace the Faecal Occult Blood (FOB) test as the primary screening test for bowel cancer in the Bowel Cancer Screening Programme (BCSP) in Northern Ireland.

There are around 1,100 new cases of bowel cancer here every year, with more than 400 deaths.

The BCSP aims to pick up bowel cancer at an early stage, when it would be more treatable.

The new FIT bowel screening test will be introduced from early 2020.

Evidence has shown there is increased patient acceptability of the FIT test and increased uptake of screening will mean even more lives can be saved.

FIT requires a single faecal sample - whereas FOB requires three - and is more reliable.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Michael McBride said: "The existing test for bowel cancer has proved hugely valuable in detecting cancer early and it is therefore essential that people invited to participate in the Northern Ireland Bowel Screening programme from age 60-74 continue to complete and return the test they receive in the post until the new test is available."

The news was last night welcomed by cancer charity Bowel Cancer UK, who have been calling for the FIT test to be made available in Northern Ireland.

Deborah Alsina MBE, chief executive of Bowel Cancer UK, said: "We are delighted the Department of Health has finally committed to roll out the new, potentially more accurate Faecal Immunochemical Test (FIT) in Northern Ireland from 2020, meaning that all four nations of the UK will now have access to this lifesaving test.

"Bowel Cancer UK, in collaboration with other charities, have long called for this announcement as the new screening test is a game-changer for bowel cancer.

"It has the potential to detect thousands more cancers earlier, meaning we can save more lives from Northern Ireland's second biggest cancer killer."

The Department of Health has also announced that boys aged 12-13 in Northern Ireland are to be offered a vaccine to protect them against Human Papillomavirus (HPV) related cancers.

From September this year the HPV vaccine will be offered to all boys in year nine at school.

A very high proportion of all women under 25 have already taken up the opportunity to be vaccinated against HPV, and the intention is to protect boys through similar uptake rates.

This extended programme offers the opportunity to make some HPV-related diseases and cancers a thing of the past by building on the success of the programme for females.

The main HPV cancer-causing strains 16 and 18 have already been reduced by over 80%.

Dr McBride said: "We can now look forward to a future where we can be even more confident that we will reduce cervical cancer and other HPV related cancers that affect both men and women.

"This is an effective vaccine against a particularly harmful virus.

"I would encourage all parents to take up this offer and ensure their boys and girls are vaccinated."
An aid worker from Northern Ireland has died in a road accident in Guatemala.

Sally O'Neill died alongside three others in a crash in the Mirador Juan Dieguez area almost 200 miles from Guatemala City on Sunday.

From Dungannon she worked for charity organisation Trocaire for almost 40 years having joined when the organisation was just five years old working to help the poor, the marginalised and victims of human rights abuses. She retired from Trocaire in April 2015 after 37 years of service.

The 69-year-old had been Trocaires Head of Region for Latin America based in Honduras. Despite retirement she continued to work in a voluntary capacity in Central America.

She is survived by her husband and three children.

President of Ireland Michael D Higgins paid tribute to Mrs O'Neill. He said knowing her was a privilege. He said working with Trocaire Sally "distinguished herself for four decades through her commitment and unstinting belief in the dignity and inherent equality of all human being".

"I was privileged to have her as a friend and will never forget the brilliant guidance and assistance she provided on so many occasions and in so many places," he said.

"I thank her for her work, in most recent years, as a member of the High-Level Panel for the Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad.

"She will be missed by so many, but most acutely by her family, her wide circle of friends and her former colleagues in Trocaire."

Trocaire's chief executive said news of the death had caused "shock and devastation" describing Mrs O'Neill as "truly remarkable".

Expand Close Sally O'Neill with Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina Coyle on her retirement in 2015. / Facebook

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Whatsapp Sally O'Neill with Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina Coyle on her retirement in 2015.

Caoimhe de Barra said: We are heartbroken by this news. Sally was the heartbeat of Trocaire for almost 40 years. She was a truly remarkable person.

"Trocaire was only five years old when Sally joined. Sally built the foundations of the organisation. She embodied our values and through her courage and commitment to human rights touched the lives of so many people.

I was with Sally last week in Guatemala. Despite having officially retired, she remained a driving force for human rights in Central America."

Sally's legacy will live on through the thousands of people whose lives she helped to improve.

Sally worked primarily on Trocaire projects in Latin America but she was also involved in providing famine relief in Ethiopia in the mid-1980s and established Trocaires programme in Somalia in the early 1990s in response to the famine.

Throughout her career Sally worked on the frontline during some of the most significant global humanitarian crises.

She worked in Central America at a time when civil wars were being fought in El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. She oversaw humanitarian aid to more than two million refugees in the Central American region during those conflicts years.

Sally led delegations of politicians and bishops to Central America so they could see the suffering, translating for Archbishop Oscar Romero six weeks before he was murdered.

In 1982, Sally and Michael D Higgins (who was then a TD) visited El Salvador to investigate reports of a massacre in the village of El Mozote. They were initially refused entry into the country but were eventually granted access. They uncovered evidence of a massacre of civilians and their report from El Mozote made its way onto the pages of the international media, including the New York Times and Washington Post.

"Her early work in Central America was ground-breaking," continued President Higgins.

"Sally understood the importance of combining tangible assistance and practical compassion with the pursuit of long-term solutions to the root causes of poverty, marginalisation and oppression. Through her work she empowered countless people and she was relentless in calling on those with power to bring their influence to bear on the policies and politics that affected those most vulnerable.

"With the same professionalism, ease and conviction as Sally ONeill led delegations of politicians and bishops to witness the suffering of marginalised communities throughout Central America, she was able to bring those previously without a voice to the corridors of power at international conferences."

Sally was appointed by President Higgins as a member of the High Level Panel for the Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad in 2012 and awarded the Hugh OFlaherty Humanitarian Award in 2011. In July 2017 she was conferred with an honorary Doctor of Law degree by the University of Ulster.

Following her retirement, Sally continued to work in a voluntary capacity as a facilitator with prisoners and migrants in Honduras, where she lived. As well as her ongoing work with human rights organisations in Central America, she lectured in Development Studies in the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Honduras in Tegucigalpa.

"Her drive, passion and commitment was as strong as ever," Caoimhe de Barra added, "Sally was much beloved by communities and human rights activists throughout Central America.

"She dedicated her life to improving the lives of others. Her legacy will live on through the thousands of people whose lives she helped to improve.

Our hearts go out to Sallys family, particularly her children Roger, Rhona and Xio, and her husband, Roger. Although we still cannot believe she is gone, we know that she left an incredible footprint on the world.
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Diversions are in place and traffic is being diverted onto the Vicarage Road, delays are expected.

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The improper valuations have been occurring in the process of bringing public lands (including land repossessed by the government) into the market, and the prices of public lands are not properly collected. The definition of public lands is not spelled out in the Land Law.

The low land - use tax is another reason for the low revenues and is also enabling land speculation and hoarding.



This has been causing a relentless increase in land prices and a significant migration of people from rural to urban areas. These are two weaknesses (can be seen as two bottlenecks) of the land-related financial system in Vietnam, and need solutions.

Public lands not properly valued

The loss of revenues from public lands and their sales originates at the stage of land valuation. According to the 2003 Land Law, the official land prices have to match market prices, but this has been not applied effectively in all places. The violation of this law has been occurring across the country but has been ignored as a normal activity.

When the economy moved from subsidies to the market mechanism, the government had huge tracts of public lands and a lot of public assets. If these resources had been used efficiently, Vietnam would have been a financial superpower. Unfortunately, the opportunity was frittered away. The amendments to the Land Law in 2013 made some improvements to land pricing. The land prices listed by provincial Peoples Committees are only used for tax and fee calculation.

For selling public lands, the price is determined case by case. But generally the government does the land valuation by multiplying a pre-determined factor with the land price in each province. It means that the values listed by provinces are used to calculate prices when public lands are sold off.

The amendments to the Land Law in 2013 made some improvements to land pricing. The land prices listed by provincial Peoples Committees are only used for tax and fee calculation.For selling public lands, the price is determined case by case. But generally the government does the land valuation by multiplying a pre-determined factor with the land price in each province. It means that the values listed by provinces are used to calculate prices when public lands are sold off.

Currently the government regulates land prices with two tools, its land price frame and the land price lists of provincial peoples committees. However, in both, prices are lower than market prices. In Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh City, some studies found, the prices are just equal to 30 percent of the market price.



Asked why their prices are so low, officials in both cities replied with a question: how can their prices be high when the governments price frame is so low?



Ho Chi Minh City had proposed to increase prices, but deferred it because of public displeasure. Many people wanted prices to remain unchanged because any increase in land prices would result in higher land taxes and land-use fees.



The increases in taxes and fees caused by higher official land prices could have been mitigated by reducing the tax and fee rates instead of the land prices.

The site at 8-12 Le Duan (HCMC), area of 5,000m2, was recovered to auction again.

When provinces official prices are aligned with market prices, let us say they are 80 percent of the market price, the difference between the sale price and the one on the contract will not be significant. Low prices in sales contracts brings some benefit but carries high risks.

When provinces official prices are aligned with market prices, let us say they are 80 percent of the market price, the difference between the sale price and the one on the contract will not be significant. Low prices in sales contracts brings some benefit but carries high risks.

The sale price of a government land plot must be equal to or higher than the official price. If it is equal, when official prices are aligned with market prices, the loss to the governments coffers will be much less than now.



In conclusion, the government and provinces land prices being significantly lower than market prices causes difficulty in valuation, incentivises corruption [since officials sell at government rates] and makes tax and fee calculation more complicated.



Land-use tax too low



The land-use tax is too low while the sales tax on land sales is too high. What is required is to adjust the tax rates commensurate with the increase in land prices and current income levels.



The land-use tax on non-agricultural land is currently 0.03 percent of the official price. The Ministry of Finance once suggested a new rate of around 0.4 percent and also collecting the tax on the value of the house and not just the land. Again there was a dispute and this recommendation too has gone to the back burner.



Tax is an important and effective, but also complex, tool.



The total cost, including the tax on selling the land and registration, notarisation and other related fees, comes to around 2.7 percent of the official land price. If the price increases, these fees will become too high. To encourage registration at the actual transaction price, the tax ratios should be reduced to, say, 1 percent.



In some industrialised countries, property tax accounts for 60-90 percent of a provinces revenues.



The increase in tax rates on non-agricultural lands will be beneficial. Province and city governments revenues will increase, migration from rural areas to cities will decrease, land speculation and hoarding will reduce, land prices will cool down, and the current housing shortage can be easily resolved.



Solutions to bottlenecks



Firstly, in my opinion, the government should not use its price frame and should task the Ministry of Environment and Resources with periodically checking provincial prices to resolve the problem of price differences.



Further, it should increase the official rates in cities, places that will become cities and suburbs to market rates. The maximum permitted difference between this price and the market price should be 20 percent (like in some industrialised countries). The government should also penalise provinces that violate this rule.



To resolve the second bottleneck, the government should have a long-term master plan, may be for several decades, to gradually increase the basic non-agricultural tax rate from the current 0.03 percent to around 1 percent.



The increase in tax should be linked with the increase in official land prices and wages. The land-use tax increase should focus on cities, especially those with a high population density.



The government should also consider creating specific tax mechanisms for mountainous areas and for underdeveloped rural areas.



At the same time, it should reduce income tax on land sales to create a better system, one that meets the economic development needs.



In conclusion, before do anything else, the government should prioritise tackling these two bottlenecks.



The important tasks in the longer term are to replace the provincial price lists with land valuation maps and create clear land sale procedures and valuation methods both generally and for individual lands.

Professor Doctor, Dang Hung Vo
Stills from the video showing members of the Guards Parachute Platoon shooting at a picture of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn

Stills from the video showing members of the Guards Parachute Platoon shooting at a picture of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn

Two soldiers facing the sack after they were caught on camera shooting at a photograph of Jeremy Corbyn are from here, according to reports.

In total four soldiers from the elite Guards Parachute Platoon have been flown home in disgrace from Afghanistan and face the wrath of top brass for bringing the reputation of the Army into disrepute.

The Daily Mail claimed two of the men are from Northern Ireland. However, due to fears over their safety no further details have been released.

The footage, filmed at an indoor firing range in Kabul, was shared on Snapchat and then went viral when it was leaked on Twitter.

Expand Close Stills from the video showing members of the Guards Parachute Platoon shooting at a picture of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn / Facebook

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The soldiers were using paint "simunition" rounds and not bullets, although there were multiple holes in the picture of Mr Corbyn's head.

The video was captioned with "happy with that".

Mr Corbyn reacted with shock to the video, while the Army's most senior officer admitted that the troops' behaviour had "damaged our reputation".

MPs also expressed concern over the footage. Labour's Stella Creasy said the "awful video damages the well-deserved professional standing" of the Army.

She tweeted: "Appalling. Completely unacceptable and frightening to threaten violence to any politician."

Labour colleague Dan Jarvis, a former paratrooper, described the incident as "shameful and utterly unacceptable".

In an unprecedented message on YouTube, General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith, Chief of the General Staff, said: "This hasn't been a good week for the Army. It has damaged our reputation, which is exceptionally hard-earned and includes the sacrifice o

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f our friends on the battlefield.

"We are proud custodians of that reputation, which needs all of us - each and every one of us - to do better.

"Let's make sure that together we get this right."

The reaction has prompted speculation that the men involved will be kicked out of the Army for the embarrassment they have caused.

According to the Daily Mail, each of the soldiers, whose ranks range from private to corporal, has a clean record.

However, commanders believe that their actions have brought the Army into disrepute.

Sanctions for doing so include discharge from the ranks or demotion. The Guards Parachute Platoon, part of the 3rd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, can trace its history back to the Second World War.

The soldiers, who are drawn from units such as the Coldstream Guards, are handpicked to undergo exhaustive airborne training before being seconded to 3 Para.
Three former soldiers who served in Northern Ireland have returned their medals to the Prime Minister along with 23 white feathers in protest of the decision to prosecute one soldier over the Bloody Sunday killings.

Last month the Public Prosecution Service announced the former paratrooper - known as Soldier F - is to face prosecution for the murder and attempted murder of six people in Londonderry in 1972.

Thirteen civil rights demonstrators were shot dead on January 30 1972, on one of the most notorious days of the Northern Ireland Troubles. A 14th died later in hospital.

Medals returned to the Prime Minister and her Cabinet with White Feathers

Capt Steve Garwood ,WO 1 Mark Billingham SAS & Cpl Jim Kenyon have all returned their Northern Ireland medals along with 23 white Feathers in protest of the treatment of Solider F.

Please share far & wide pic.twitter.com/niLiCC6TPz  Jim kenyon (@Jimofhereford) April 7, 2019

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The Daily Mail reports of Corporal Jim Kenyon formerly of the Parachute Regiment, Captain Steve Garwood and ex-SAS Sergeant Major Mark Billingham returning their medals for service in Northern Ireland to Downing Street.

They included 23 white feathers each attached to a miniature version of their medals and addressed to each member of the cabinet.

The former soldiers said that was to represent "cowardice in the face of the enemy".

In an accompanying letter they raised the cases of soldiers killed in the line of duty while serving in Northern Ireland.

"Politicians have let us down," said Mr Kenyon, "The Armed Forces should have had an amnesty."

He added: "The Good Friday Agreement gave amnesty to terrorists. It gave no amnesty to the Armed Forces."

The UK Government said it was "indebted" to those soldiers who served with "courage and distinction to bring peace to Northern Ireland".

It said the decision to bring a prosecution was independent of it and it would be offering full legal and pastoral support to Soldier F.
A hilarious poem about the perils of Brexit has become an internet sensation.

Written and delivered with expert comic timing by storyteller Dominic Bennett, his innuendo-packed Brexit ballad tells the story of how one man's life has been ruined by Brexit - even though the UK hasn't even left the European Union yet.

In the video, author Dominic deadpans his way through the sometimes saucy, sometimes salty, but always screamingly funny verses.

All the Brexit heroes and zeroes - mostly zeroes, it must be said - get a tongue lashing as the ballad unfolds, with rhymer Dominic recounting how his obsession with the twists and turns of the long-running political process has made his life fall apart at the seams.

Sammy Wilson and Boris Johnson feature prominently, as do the likes of Theresa May and Jacob Rees-Mogg.

Even BBC NI's Stephen Nolan gets a look-in at one point, as the poet bewails the curse Brexit has placed upon him.

"I listened into the Nolan Show, though it drives me near insane,

"For every Prod's determined to Leave, and every Fenian wants to Remain.

"Seamy from Coalisland thinks Irish unity's the only call,

"But Mervyn from the Shankill wants to build a wall..."

Finally, the rhymer's long-suffering wife has had enough:

"One night as I was making love, the wife grabbed me by the throat,

"She says, 'What are ye thinking of?'

"Says I, a People's Vote.

"She says I've had enough of you, and she quickly shoved me off.

"She says 'You've just called me Theresa, and your hard border's going soft!"

The crowd-pleasing performance was recorded at a session in the popular Crown and Shamrock traditional pub in Mallusk, Co Antrim, where storytellers gather every month to sing songs and share stories with an appreciative audience.

Pub owner Aidan McAlinden told the Belfast Telegraph his customers really enjoyed the Brexit ballad.

"It's brilliant. Everyone loves it, everyone's talking about it."

He said the country pub had only hosted two sessions of the storytelling night so far, and the hilarious Brexit ballad was recorded at the first one, held in March.

The video has already been seen more than 24,000 times on YouTube, and has attracted a wealth of appreciate comments from around the world.

Sonya Heller from New York said: "This is absolutely brilliant... and hysterically funny in its deadpan delivery!" While Maria Behan from San Francisco told Dominic: "Absolutely wonderful.

"I love how you make Brexit kind of dirty... which it is!"

The writer makes no secret that he's not a Brexiteer himself.

Replying to a fan, Mr Bennett posted on his Facebook page: "Yes... it's hard to believe that the future of Europe rest in the hands of Sammy and his cohorts. Men (and 1 woman) untroubled by the weight of intellect.

"More than half of them believe the world is six thousand years old.

"If you wrote it in a novel or play it would be dismissed as unbelievable.

"Aw well... as they say life doesn't have to be believable... but fiction does."
Police have defended their response to the recent spate of ATM thefts across Northern Ireland, saying they "can't be everywhere at once".

The PSNI is under pressure after brazen thieves used a digger to rip a cash machine from the wall of O'Kanes Filling Station in Dungiven, Co Londonderry, yesterday morning.

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This brings the total number of ATMs stolen this year to nine following eight separate incidents.

But in a Facebook post, an officer at PSNI Craigavon said police simply couldn't predict which cash machine would be targeted next.

"I could sit for hours at an ATM but no sooner am I round the corner than a team of crooks arrive," the officer said.

"The idea that we can watch them 24/7 is pure fiction."

Meanwhile, Detective Chief Inspector David Henderson acknowledged the concerns of the public and business community, saying police remained determined to catch those behind these "despicable" crimes.

"I cannot emphasise this enough: we are committed to catching those responsible and have a dedicated team of detectives working across Northern Ireland specifically focusing on this crime.

"We will continue to work closely with the banking and retail sectors in a bid to prevent any further attacks and bring the reckless actions of these brazen criminals to an end."

Det Chief Insp Henderson also said the public had a role in stopping ATM thefts

"To catch the people responsible we need the public's support," he said.

"We need the public to report anything suspicious and to come forward to us if they have any information about who the culprits are."

His comments follow questions over whether a PSNI task force has been allocated enough resources to catch those responsible.

Retail NI chief executive Glyn Roberts said: "I don't doubt the commitment of individual officers, they are totally dedicated and committed to trying to catch these gangsters. I just want to ensure that all aspects of the PSNI are pushing in the right direction.

"It's very hard to protect your business against a digger that's going to smash holes in the side of your premises."

DUP MLA and Policing Board member Keith Buchanan called for police to step up their investigation.

"Police must ensure that adequate resources are focused on this crime, which is disproportionately impacting upon rural communities," he said.

"These are areas where many have already seen their local bank branch close, and ATM machines are the only source available to access their money."

The DUP will raise the issue with the Chief Constable this week.

Shop owners Martin and Josie O'Kane said they are unlikely to replace the stolen ATM.

"The men who did this are just scum," Mr O'Kane 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."

Unlike recent incidents, the digger used to forcibly remove the machine was not burned out.

As forensic officers dusted the machinery for fingerprints, the O'Kanes took the decision to reopen the shop.

"We're in shock, but there's no point crying over spilled milk," Ms O'Kane said.

"Our ATM definitely got a lot of use. The community will miss the facility. There's another one at the very top of Dungiven but it's off the main road, we're on the main road and used very much."

Sinn Fein councillor Kathleen McGurk expressed concern that Dungiven may soon be left without any cash facilities for residents following Ulster Bank's closure in 2018, it was the last of the banks in the area.

"There's no incentive any more for the shopkeepers to keep ATM's on their premises. It's just making them targets for these attacks.

"It's just another blow to the local community. These rural communities really need these facilities; these attacks are abhorrent."

Recent months have seen ATMs stolen from businesses in Ballymena, Moira, Omagh, Dungannon, Newtownabbey and Irvinestown.

Nine ATMs stolen in eight separate incidents this year

2am Friday, February 1

Asda Supermarket, Junction Retail Park, Ballymena Road, Antrim - 2 ATM machines

4am Saturday, February 15

Glendale filling station, Killyclogher Road, Omagh

4.05am Sunday, March 24

Spar filling station, Dromore Road, Irvinestown, Co Fermanagh

4am Sunday, April 7

O'Kane's Garage, Foreglen Road, Dungiven, Co Derry

3am Monday, April 1

Business premises, Brook Street, Ahoghill, Co Antrim

3.10am Friday, March 22

Danske Bank branch, Mallusk Road, Newtownabbey

3am Saturday, February 2

Spar filling station, Glenavy Road, Moira

4.15am Sunday, March 10

Mace filling station, Ballygawley Road, Dungannon
The DUP has accused Sinn Fein of prioritising a border poll over reform of Northern Ireland health care system.

Monday saw the close of the nominations for the forthcoming local government elections.

Over the weekend on Sinn Fein's launch of its campaign, Michelle O'Neill said there was "change in the air" and pointing to Brexit said more were considering the implications to leaving the EU with the UK or staying as part of a united Ireland.

She said a referendum on the border was a very real prospect within the next short number of years.

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Arlene Foster addressed the claims in her party's campaign launch.

"The DUP manifesto for these local government elections will encourage councils to play their part in the promotion of public health, something highlighted in the Bengoa report.

"Instead of getting back into Stormont and implementing Bengoa, Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle ONeill, a former health minister, seem obsessed with a divisive border poll and their own narrow agenda.

"They have their Bs mixed up."

The 2016 Bengoa report recommended wide-scale reform of health care in Northern Ireland to address spiralling waiting lists and deteriorating conditions faced by patients. With the absence of devolved government in Northern Ireland there has been no minister in place to implement the much-needed reform.

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Continued Arlene Foster: "Boasting that the 'unionist majority is gone' also gives a clear insight into Sinn Feins attitude towards working with others, whether that is in council chambers or in Stormont.

"The Sinn Fein approach towards unionism was encapsulated by the 'England get out of Ireland banner' for which Mary Lou McDonald was eventually forced to apologise for.

"I want to see all parties back in Stormont immediately. In its absence, our local councils are the only functioning local democratic structures within Northern Ireland.

"Sinn Fein will persuade no-one that a united Ireland will work for them when they block the return of Stormont, refuse to do their job at Westminster and they appear determined to bring this same approach to council chambers.

"Whilst Sinn Fein focus on a divisive border poll, the DUP will get on with using our influence in Westminster to deliver more money to tackle waiting lists and improve our mental health services.
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 man known as the 'Border Fox' paid other associates out of the 10,000 sum but pocketed a portion of the money himself.

O'Hare, from south Armagh, was suspected by gardai of selling security services to businesses and individuals after the Republic's 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, Dublin's 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 in a vicious attack captured on CCTV.

Jimmy Mansfield Jnr confirmed via his solicitor he met O'Hare and he was "at his hotel" but denied hiring him - or anyone - to carry out an eviction.

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.

Jimmy Mansfield Jnr's disputed association with O'Hare is the latest in a series of controversies.

In past interviews Mr Mansfield said that he wasn't worried about reports of a threat 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 bulls***," he said.

At O'Hare's hearing last week, Judge Tony Hunt said the possibility of a non-custodial sentence was "unlikely".
The DUP has lashed out at the UK Government - which it helps to keep in power - labelling the Brexit talks an embarrassment and a catastrophic failure saying it has allowed itself to be "outmanoeuvred" by Brussels.

Diane Dodds said the millions that voted to leave the EU had been let down.

She also said the words of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Michel Barnier, who was in Dublin on Monday, "rang hollow when compared to their obsession with a backstop which would be offensive to unionists and fundamentally undermine the integrity of the United Kingdom".

"Their actions and determination to foist a bad deal for the Union on the United Kingdom betray the words being uttered by their lips," she said.

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Brexit negotiator Barnier following his visit in Dublin, said the goal of the of the EU was to protect peace in Ireland and the single market. He said even in the event of a no-deal there could not be trade talks until a solution was found to the border. EU leaders are to meet on Wednesday to discuss a further extension request from Theresa May.

One thing is for certain, whatever happens, the EU will stand fully behind Ireland, he said.

Time and again opportunities have been missed, leverage has been gifted away and the EU chief negotiator seems to be calling the shots. Diane Dodds

MEP Dodds was scathing on the role of the UK Government in the Brexit process.

The United Kingdom should have already exited the EU but due to ineffectiveness in London and intransigence in Dublin and Brussels, the people who voted 'Leave' almost three years ago have been let down," she added.

"The confusion and chaos being endured by the public at the moment is the result of a catastrophic failure by the Government to handle the exit negotiations in a proper manner. The negotiations have been an embarrassment for the fifth largest economy of the world.

"Time and again opportunities have been missed, leverage has been gifted away and the EU chief negotiator seems to be calling the shots."

She continued: "The Government should have heeded the DUPs warnings in December 2017. No one was ever building a new hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. Yet the Government was outmanoeuvred by Brussels."

Following the hung parliament result from the 2017 General Election the DUP and Tories brokered a confidence and supply deal in order to allow Theresa May to form a government. It means the DUP supports the Government on all major matters, including Brexit.

Together they currently hold a working majority of just four votes. The DUP denied being sidestepped when Theresa May began talks to the Labour party in order to get her withdrawal agreement passed by parliament last week.

An embarrassment for the fifth largest economy of the world. Diane Dodds

Speaking during a visit to Dublin on Monday, Michel Barnier said the EU will stand fully behind Ireland, and the EUs 27 member states would remain fully united.

If the UK were to leave the EU without a deal we would not discuss anything with the UK until there is an agreement for Ireland and Northern Ireland as well as for citizens rights and the financial settlement, Mr Barnier said.

You have our full support and, I have said before, the backstop is currently the only solution we have found to maintain the status quo on the island of Ireland.

Mr Barnier expressed confidence a solution would be found on how to protect the Good Friday Agreement all-Ireland structures as well as the integrity of the single market.

Should no deal arise, it will be a shared challenge. Leo Varadkar

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar expressed confidence that the EU27 would reach agreement at Wednesdays European Council meeting of leaders.

He reiterated that, although he wishes to see a deal ratified, contingency planning for a no-deal Brexit has intensified in Ireland, and that Ireland would be open to an extension.

Mr Varadkar added: A no-deal Brexit would be damaging for everyone. For the United Kingdom, Ireland and the European Union.

We also exchanged views on the length of an extension and I look forward to discussing this further with my EU counterparts at the EU Council.

There will, of course, be different views, but I am confident we will reach agreement.

However given the ongoing uncertainty we need to continue our preparations for a no-deal and that is exactly what we are doing.

We also discussed in the case of a no-deal how best to meet our shared objectives, of protecting the Good Friday Agreement on which our peace is founded and also protecting the integrity of the Single Market and the Customs Union.

He added: Should no deal arise, it will be a shared challenge.
Police on both sides of the border have said normal procedures were followed during a security alert at Garda headquarters involving an unmarked PSNI vehicle carrying the Garda Commissioner.

Commissioner Drew Harris, a former Deputy Chief Constable of the PSNI, was being escorted in a joint Garda and PSNI convoy from Northern Ireland when it was damaged by a security bollard.

A vehicle in the convoy being driven by members of the Garda Emergency Response Unit gained entry to the Phoenix Park complex. However, an officer on duty at the gate pressed an emergency button when he saw the unmarked Range Rover with Northern Ireland registration plates carrying the Commissioner approach.

Sunken security bollards were raised from the ground following the alert and the PSNI vehicle collided with them, causing damage.

There were no injuries during the incident on March 25.

The PSNI said: "We do not comment on operational matters.

"However, where PSNI and An Garda Siochana carry out any operational activity in either jurisdiction it is within the law and with full permission and knowledge of the host service."

The Garda issued a near-identical statement, adding: "Both An Garda Siochana and PSNI are content normal procedure was followed."

The episode has raised questions as to why the Commissioner was being driven from the border to Dublin by close protection officers from Northern Ireland.

Sources said that the PSNI is regularly involved in armed escorts with Mr Harris from Northern Ireland, but that this escort is usually taken over by the Garda at the border.

Sinn Fein TD Donnchadh O Laoghaire said the Garda needed to clarify the situation.

"My understanding is that, contrary to standard procedure, Commissioner Harris did not change between PSNI and Garda vehicles at the border and continued to Dublin from the North in the PSNI vehicle," he said.

"This raises a series of questions about why standard procedure was abandoned, whether the gardai on duty at the Phoenix Park were informed of this and if not, why not?"
The Health Minister has suggested that criticism of a rollout of out-of-cycle smear tests is politically motivated.

It emerged last week that the former clinical director of CervicalCheck, Dr Grainne Flannelly, warned senior officials that repeat smear tests would fundamentally undermine the screening programme before the Health Minister Simon Harris announced the free tests in April last year.

It was stated in the Dail chamber that 79,500 women are currently waiting for results after a backlog was created by the increase of tests.

Harris has serious questions to answer. His decision has damaged cervicalcheck and harmed women due to the anxiety created. Book stops with him.  Lisa Chambers (@lichamber) April 3, 2019

It has also been reported that Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan was in favour of a more restricted form of free tests.

When asked about the reports, Mr Harris said that both he and Dr Holohan worked closely when making the decision.

The facts show that myself and Dr Holohan worked together to make sure that women could have reassurance in relation to repeat smears, he said.

I think the idea to reduce the decision to one of one tweet is extraordinarily dismissive of the legitimate concerns women had.

Its very easy now, a year on, for everyone to be wise in hindsight, but this was a very frightening time where we couldnt provide reassurance to women about this, and they were already making their own health care decisions to go to their GP.

Were we going to add insult to injury to the debacle of CervicalCheck and tell women they had to pay?

My Secretary General, and the Director General of the HSE both told the health committee that I never received any contrary advice, and my decision was consistent with the Chief Medical Officers advice.

Its disappointing that some people are choosing to play party politics with such an important issue in womens health.

I think more than disappointing  its crass, it might be the time of the political cycle were in, but that does nothing to serve womens health.

Mr Harris has also been forced to defend a letter from the deputy director general and chief operations officer of the HSE last week, halting recruitment and overtime for the next three months.

Here is the letter referred to in todays @Independent_ie article by @Philip_Ryan. Its incomprehensible that @SimonHarrisTD would allow the @HSELive to bring this in!https://t.co/BWNbAqWpeD pic.twitter.com/kG3LlrMUnA  Alan Kelly TD (@alankellylabour) April 7, 2019

Political opponents have condemned the decision as ill-judged as the HSE struggles to deal with a number of issues including trolley numbers and a recruitment and retention crisis in the nursing sector.

Mr Harris admitted that he was not aware of the letter, which was obtained by Labours Alan Kelly, however he says parts of the letter have been taken out of context.

Every single year we hire many thousands of people into the Irish health service, whats important is that hospital managers adhere to a plan and hire in appropriate areas, he said.

We cant have a situation where we vote through a budget in the Dail, and we say; Hire X amount of nurses, hire X amount of doctors, and then individual health mangers go off and do their own thing anyway.

The letter has been selectively quoted, when its read in full, it doesnt apply to groups that have provided recruitment plans.

Its a message from managers, that says; If you want to grow the number of people in your organisation send in your plans, and if you dont well have to scrutinise you further.

So I would hope now what health managers will do is use the coming days to submit robust plans.
A modern line-up of The OJays after their induction into the Hall of Fame (Rich Lee/PA)

Bill Isles, an original member of the chart-topping R&B group The OJays, has died at the age of 78.

Isles son, Duane Isles, told The San Diego Union-Tribune that his father died of cancer in Oceanside, California last month.

The funeral was on Saturday.

Isles and his childhood friends in Canton, Ohio, formed the Mascots in 1958 before changing the name to The Triumphs and releasing a single in 1961.

The band changed its name to The OJays after getting pivotal advice from a Cleveland DJ named Eddie OJay.

Bill Isles was featured on songs including Lonely Drifter and Lipstick Traces before quitting the group in 1965.

Duane Isles said his father was The OJays tour manager between 1971 and 1974, when the group released Love Train and Back Stabbers.
[April 08, 2019] CloudJumper Presents on Future Proofing Managed Services with Windows Virtual Desktop at the 2019 TAG Conference GARNER, N.C., April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CloudJumper , a leading provider of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), Workspace as a Service (WaaS) and Desktop as a Service (DaaS) solutions, today announced its exhibition at the annual Technology Assurance Group (TAG) conference which runs from April 8th  April 10th. During the conference, CloudJumper is presenting on how to future-proof managed services organizations by incorporating Windows Virtual Desktop in the services portfolio.

Founded in 1998, the Technology Assurance Group is a leading managed technology services provider (MTSP) based in North America and representing $350 million in products and services. TAG Members integrate a wide range of technology solutions, including CloudJumpers Cloud Workspace Management Suite (CWMS). Members benefit from best business and management practices, advanced sales training programs and processes, in-depth financial analysis and industry benchmarking, professionally led peer group interaction, marketing and lead generation programs, and strategic partnerships with technology manufacturers. The annual conference brings members together to leverage new solutions and expand revenue opportunities. At the event this week, Robin Brandl, VP - strategic alliances for CloudJumper, will host numerous sessions on the advantages of Windows Virtual Desktop in the MSP solution provider portfolio. The technology recently went into public preview as Microsoft prepares for its general release this year. With Windows Virtual Desktop, Microsoft is addressing the complexities, management challenges and costs of desktop virtualization, opening the technology to a new generation of computer users. CWMS by CloudJumper serves as the managemet layer that simplifies the deployment and operation of Windows Virtual Desktop for solution administrators. In 2018, Microsoft introduced Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) and recognized CloudJumper as one of only two leading platform partners.

Windows Virtual Desktop enables a multi-user Windows 10 experience, including compatibility with Microsoft Store and existing Windows line-of-business applications at a very compelling price. It is the best solution to virtualize Office 365 ProPlus running in multi-user virtual scenarios and the only platform to provide Windows 7 virtual desktop with free extended security updates. Other advantages include: Most scalable service available to deploy and manage Windows virtual machines, using Azure for compute, storage, diagnostics, advanced networking, connection brokering and more.

Ability to virtualize desktops and applications in the desired configuration seamlessly into the user experience.

Deep integration with the security and management of Microsoft 365 with conditional access, data loss prevention and integrated management natively built in. At the TAG conference this year, our focus is to help solution providers get a jumpstart on the migration to Windows Virtual Desktop, which is set to become the most popular desktop virtualization platform upon its release, said Max Pruger, chief revenue officer, CloudJumpers patent pending auto-scaling technology allows for on-demand expansion or contraction of a virtual desktop environment as required. The solutions enhanced management simplicity will drive significant cost savings for MSPs which we will explore further at the event. For additional information on CloudJumper or the Cloud Workspace Management Suite, please visit: https://cloudjumper.com/contact/ Tweet This: @CloudJumperWaaS Presents on Windows Virtual Desktop at 2019 Technology Assurance Group Conference - http://bit.ly/1Ufno9F Resources: Contact CloudJumper today to schedule a product demonstration at: http://cloudjumper.com/contact/

Follow CloudJumper on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/CloudJumperWaaS

Visit CloudJumper at: http://www.cloudjumper.com About CloudJumper

CloudJumper is a leading software and services company in the Cloud Workspace and RDS enablement markets. Cloud Workspace Management Suite (CWMS) is a super-simple SaaS solution for interfacing with the technology layers needed to deploy a Cloud Workspace using RDS, VDI or Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD). CWMS automates delivery of hosted Windows desktops, application services and Microsoft workloads. It allows IT service managers to deliver Cloud Workspaces with minimal labor, lower costs and faster delivery times. CWMS is supported in Azure, Google Compute, AWS and most private clouds. In 2018, Microsoft introduced Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) and recognized CloudJumper as one of only two leading platform partners. For more information, visit About CloudJumper or call us at 844.645.6789. CloudJumper Agency Contact: Joe Austin The Ventana Group 818-332-6166 jaustin@theventanagroup.com

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A call to allow Tory MPs to stage a vote to show they have lost faith in Theresa Mays leadership has been rejected by the chairman of the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee.

Prominent Brexiteer Mark Francois has written to Sir Graham Brady asking for an indicative vote of confidence in the Prime Minister this week if she refuses to step down voluntarily.

But after a meeting in Downing Street between Mrs May and the 1922 executive, Sir Graham said they had no intention of agreeing to that course of action.

As I made clear last week, the executive have discussed it and there is no intention of proceeding, he told reporters.

Expand Close Mark Francois said Tory MPs have lost faith in Theresa May (Kirsty OConnor/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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In his letter, Mr Francois, the deputy chairman of the pro-Brexit European Research Group, said he believed the Prime Minister should resign for the sake of the existential future of our party and the destiny of our country.

But he said, if she would not, then a vote on Wednesday would send a signal to leaders of the remaining 27 EU states that they should not grant Mrs May the delay to Brexit she is requesting at a Brussels summit that evening.

A formal vote of confidence in Mrs May as Conservative leader cannot be held until December, after she survived an earlier attempt to oust her by 200 votes to 117, granting her a 12-month period of grace during which no challenge is permitted.

However Sir Graham told last weeks meeting of the 1922 executive that a proposal for an indicative vote had been put to him.

The executive decided that, while it was possible for such a vote to be staged, it was neither necessary nor appropriate to do so at this point.

BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: ERG Vice Chairman Mark Francois writes explosive letter to 1922 Committee Chairman demanding an indicative vote for Tory MPs on whether they back Theresa Mays leadership before she attends the European Council on Wednesday https://t.co/72eCuqW8WC  BrexitCentral (@BrexitCentral) April 8, 2019

In his letter Mr Francois said they could carry on with a weak leader, a riven Cabinet and a party in despair.

I believe Theresa May has been a failure as leader of our party, which she now threatens to destroy. Hers is a classic example of hubris  and after hubris comes nemesis, he wrote.

He said that it was literally incredible that Mrs May was discussing a possible compromise Brexit deal with Jeremy Corbyn and that she was contemplating European Parliament elections in which Tory candidates would be slaughtered.

I have never known our MPs, councillors and activists to be as angry and disillusioned as they are todayMark Francois

We are living in a world gone mad, he said. A Conservative Prime Minister, who voted Remain, egged on by a coterie of neo-federalist civil servants and a powerful Remainiac cabal in the Cabinet, has tried  and failed three times  to pass a draft treaty through the House of Commons which would lock us into a customs union forever.

In 36 years as a member of the Conservative Party, I have never known our MPs, councillors and activists to be as angry and disillusioned as they are today.

The former shadow Europe minister said that any deal with Labour based on Mrs Mays Withdrawal Agreement was extremely unlikely to pass, as opposition on the Tory benches was growing once more.

Branding Mr Corbyn a committed Marxist, a lifelong CND supporter and a man who would quite willingly disarm this country of its defences, he claimed that the Labour leader was taking advice on the negotiations from Sinn Fein/IRA.

Mr Francois said he hoped that the EU27 leaders would kick us out of the EU on Wednesday by refusing to grant an extension to the Brexit process.
Tories are jostling for position to succeed Theresa May, with a potential alliance between Boris Johnson and Amber Rudd seen by supporters as a way of bridging the party's Brexit divide.

The so-called Bamber - Boris and Amber - plan would see the Work and Pensions Secretary back Mr Johnson for the leadership in the hope that her influence would mean other MPs from the Remain wing of the party would follow.

Speculation about possible leadership contenders has heightened since Mrs May signalled she would leave office early if she could get a Brexit deal through.

The difficulties she has faced in achieving that and her decision to hold talks with Jeremy Corbyn have increased the pressure on her to stand down.

During the referendum battle Ms Rudd said Mr Johnson was "the life and soul of the party but he's not the man you want driving you home at the end of the evening".

The Mail On Sunday and Sunday Times both reported on the potential 'Bamber' tie-up, but said Ms Rudd had also considered the possibility of alliances with Michael Gove or Jeremy Hunt.

Asked about the rumours, Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg said Mr Johnson could "unite the party and win an election" while Ms Rudd was a person of "first-class capabilities".

He told Sky News's Sophy Ridge on Sunday: "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" and "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".

Andrea Leadsom, who stood for the leadership in 2016, did not rule out another campaign.

"I will be thinking about that when the time comes, but for now I'm supporting the Prime Minister to get Brexit through," she told BBC's Andrew Marr Show.

Asked what she had learned from the 2016 experience, the Commons Leader said it was "be prepared", adding that Leave campaigners had not been ready when David Cameron resigned.

Treasury Chief Secretary Liz Truss, another potential leadership contender, said the Conservative Party needed to "reinvent" itself.

She said she was "not thinking about" the leadership, adding, "I'm talking about ideas".
Brexit talks between the Government and the Labour Party were resuming on an official level on Monday evening after four days of little apparent progress.

In jointly released statements, Downing Street and Labour said technical talks were restarting after dialogue by phone and email over the weekend.

There was no official confirmation of BBC reports that the Government had made a fresh offer of a legislative lock to prevent a future Conservative leader from unpicking any agreement reached by Theresa May.

With only two days to go to a crunch Brussels summit at which the other 27 EU member states will decide whether to grant the Prime Minsters request for a further delay to Brexit, Downing Street insisted Mrs May was treating the cross-party talks with urgency.

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But there appeared little prospect of a compromise agreement being in place in time for Wednesdays EU meeting, and no chance of it being approved by MPs before the EU27 meet.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the talks were serious, but the Government was sticking to its red lines.

Mr Corbyn said: The exchanges with the Government have been serious, but our shadow cabinet expressed frustration that the Prime Minister has not yet moved off her red lines so we can reach a compromise.

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The key issues that we must see real movement on to secure an agreement are a customs union with the EU, alignment with the single market and full dynamic alignment of workers rights, environmental protections and consumer standards.

We are prepared to talk and put forward our view, but talks have to mean a movement and so far there has been no change in those red lines.

The talks continued as the Government tabled an order enabling elections to the European Parliament to be held in Britain if the country has not left the EU by the time they take place next month.

The Day of Poll Order sets the date for the elections on May 23, but the Cabinet Office said they would automatically be cancelled if the UK left before then.

The Tories have launched a selection process for candidates to stand in the elections.

Mrs May is to make a whistle-stop trip to Berlin and Paris for last-minute talks with Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron on the eve of the emergency summit.

And she spoke by phone with European Council president Donald Tusk, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, Dutch PM Mark Rutte, Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Maltas Joseph Muscat to set out the case for extending the Brexit process to June 30.

The unanimous agreement of all 27 is needed to avoid the UK leaving without a deal on Friday.

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Mr Tusk has recommended a one-year extension to the Brexit process, with a break clause allowing an earlier departure if a withdrawal deal is ratified in Westminster.

Following his call with Mrs May, Mr Rutte said it would be crucial for the EU27 to know when and on what basis the UK will ratify its Withdrawal Agreement.

He said they would need assurances of sincere co-operation from London before granting an extension.

Speaking during a visit to Dublin, the EUs chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said the UK could not escape demands for a 39 billion payment and a backstop for the Irish border by quitting without a deal.

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If the UK were to leave the EU without a deal we would not discuss anything with the UK until there is an agreement for Ireland and Northern Ireland as well as for citizens rights and the financial settlement, Mr Barnier told Mr Varadkar

You have our full support and, I have said before, the backstop is currently the only solution we have found to maintain the status quo on the island of Ireland.

Mr Varadkar said he was confident of agreement on an extension at Wednesdays summit.

Tuesdays weekly meeting of Cabinet has been cancelled due to Mrs Mays travels, with no rescheduled date announced. A number of Cabinet ministers attended Downing Street for a scheduled meeting of the EU subcommittee on Monday.

The Prime Minister has angered Tories by holding talks with Labour, with Brexiteers including Boris Johnson concerned that she will accept a customs union as the price for a deal with Jeremy Corbyn.

Negotiations stalled after Labour said the Prime Minister refused to set out any changes to her Brexit red lines.

Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said the ball was in the Governments court.

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In a video message recorded in her Chequers country retreat at the weekend, Mrs May said both sides in the cross-party talks will have to compromise.

The Prime Minister acknowledged she could not see the Commons accepting her deal in its current form and MPs would not agree to a no-deal exit.

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.

She hopes to have a solution ratified in time to allow the UK to leave the EU by May 22, avoiding the need to take part in European Parliament elections the following day.

But Mr Johnson warned that Tory MPs will not allow Mrs May to surrender to Mr Corbyn, who is demanding involvement in a post-Brexit customs union arrangement with the EU as part of the price for Labour support.

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If the UK were to commit to remaining in the customs union, it would make a total and utter nonsense of the referendum result, said the former foreign secretary in his regular column in the Daily Telegraph.

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.

Another prominent Brexiteer, Mark Francois, called for an indicative vote among Tory MPs on the PMs future on Wednesday to send a signal to the Brussels summit that Mrs May has lost the confidence of her own side and cannot deliver a Brexit deal.

But it is understood that the executive of the backbench 1922 Committee considered this option last week and decided it was not appropriate at this stage. A formal confidence vote cannot take place until December.

Meanwhile, Parliament was continuing its consideration of Yvette Coopers backbench Bill forcing the Prime Minister to request a Brexit extension rather than leave the EU with no deal.
Jack Shepherd will be flown back to the UK on Wednesday, according to reports (PA file)

Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd has said he absolutely, unreservedly apologises for the role he played in Charlotte Browns death  but insisted he is not solely responsible for the Thames tragedy.

Awaiting extradition from Georgia, Shepherd said he agreed that he bears some of the moral responsibility for the 24-year-olds death, but rejected the charge that he is to blame.

Speaking from prison in Tbilisi, Shepherd said Ms Browns actions led to the fatal accident.

It was ultimately Charlottes action to accelerate in the manner that she did.Jack Shepherd

I can understand why her family apportion the entire blame on me. But the reality is not quite so simple, he told The Sun.

Absolutely, unreservedly, I apologise for the role I played, and undeniably I did play a part.

(Ms Browns family) have my sincere sympathies and condolences and I understand why they apportion the blame as they do.

Shepherd, who is reportedly due to be flown back to Britain under police guard on Wednesday, said there were a number of factors that led to the accident.

The pair were on a champagne-fuelled first date when they went for a late-night speedboat ride down the Thames in December 2015.

The 14ft Fletcher Arrowflyte struck a submerged log near Wandsworth Bridge and overturned, throwing Ms Brown to her death in the icy water.

Shepherd told the paper that it was a joint decision for the pair to go out on the boat and it was Ms Browns desire to drive it.

Shepherd admitted it was his decision to permit her to take the controls, although conceded that he could have given her more instruction.

He said: But it was ultimately Charlottes action to accelerate in the manner that she did, even though I failed to prevent her.

Shepherd also said there were matters of luck or fate involved and highlighted that they did not see the log.

The web designer, who is originally from Exeter, fled his manslaughter trial at the Old Bailey last year.

He was found guilty in his absence and sentenced to six years imprisonment.

In December he was granted permission to appeal against the conviction and handed himself in to authorities in Tbilisi in January.

His surrender came after repeated public appeals by Ms Browns family for him to return to Britain and face justice for her death.

After his extradition was granted by a court in March, her family said he had a weak case and no choice but to return.

We are going to get justice for Charlotte, her father, Graham Brown, told ITV.

Were hoping that he wont follow through with his appeal, which causes the family more anguish, but I guess that could be a forlorn hope.

The Sun said Mr Brown had no comment on his apology, while her mother, Roz Wickens, told the paper: I dont want to sound disrespectful, but nothing he says will bring my daughter back.

Shepherd also faces a grievous bodily harm charge over an alleged assault in Devon on March 16 last year.

A warrant for his arrest was issued by magistrates in Newton Abbot after he failed to attend the court.

Following his extradition, Shepherd will be returned to the Old Bailey before he is committed to prison.

No date has yet been set for the appeal hearing.
Theresa May has defended her decision to hold cross-party talks with Labour (Andrew Matthews/PA)

Prime Minister Theresa May is to visit the French and German leaders for Brexit talks, officials have said.

Mrs May will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin and French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Tuesday.

Time is running out for the PM to reach a Brexit compromise with Labour ahead of a summit with European leaders on Wednesday.

She 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.

But Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright agreed there was a need for compromise during the talks with Labour, although these have not yet been confirmed as continuing today.

Let me explain what's happening with Brexit.pic.twitter.com/gjGkvFk8fT  Theresa May (@theresa_may) April 7, 2019

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.

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.

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Mrs May 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

Mr Wright backed Mrs May and called for compromise in Brexit talks between Labour and the Government so the UK could leave the EU on the best possible terms.

The Culture Secretary told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: I think we have to move forward We must make sure were all prepared to compromise to fulfil that primary objective.

I think thats achievable. I would prefer we did it on the basis of the Prime Ministers deal  But if we cant do that then lets find another way forward.

However, Labours Andy McDonald said there appeared to be little sign of compromise and suggested another referendum is the likely outcome of Brexit talks.

The shadow transport secretary told Today: My view is if our proposition was accepted in its totality I think the argument for a public vote in those circumstances reduces.

The reality is that is not on the table, so I think were looking at options that would warrant a PV (Peoples Vote) in those circumstances.

Weve got to look at the offer on the table at the moment and what were looking at is Theresa Mays deal or no deal.

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Former foreign secretary Boris 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.

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.

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 that talks aimed at reaching a deal with the Tories were expected to continue early this week, and confirmed revoking Article 50 was still an option to avoid no deal.

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

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.

Meanwhile, EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier will travel to Ireland for talks with Leo Varadkar ahead of Wednesdays summit.

At the weekend, the Taoiseach said his preference was for a longer delay than the June 30 date proposed by Mrs May and added that it was extremely unlikely that any one of the 27 EU leaders would use their veto over an extension at the European Council meeting.
A police operation to crack down on drug dealing will be launched in Aberdeen after a successful initiative in Peterhead and Fraserburgh.

More than 2,000 people have been charged in relation to drug offences in north Aberdeenshire over the last year.

Since September 2017, officers have identified more than 100 people in Fraserburgh and Peterhead who were victims of cuckooing, which occurs when dealers use their homes to distribute drugs.

Operation Corner took a multi-agency approach towards tackling organised crime, with many victims who were identified now receiving support for substance misuse.

Official figures show more than 2,100 people were charged in relation to drug offences in the last year.

Tackling drug misuse is not just about the police putting doors in and executing warrantsDetective Chief Inspector Lorna Ferguson

On Monday, Police Scotland announced a pilot scheme, designed to replicate the success of Operation Corner, has now been launched in Aberdeen.

Detective Chief Inspector Lorna Ferguson said: Tackling drug misuse is not just about the police putting doors in and executing warrants  whilst this is an important part of disrupting the supply, we must also address the wider issues that bring about drug abuse in the first place and it is crucial we work with our partners to provide the wrap around support to those who need and want it.

During Operation Corner we focused on the activities of those involved in serious and organised crime at all levels, particularly those who were travelling to the north-east to exploit vulnerable people living in Peterhead and Fraserburgh for their own financial gain.

Cuckooing or county lines may not be new concepts but we were hearing from both communities that illegal drug activity was affecting their quality of life and increased activity was required to tackle this unwanted behaviour.

She added: As a result of this action we identified a number of people as victims of cuckooing, with many of them requesting a referral to substance misuse services.

Thanks to the success of the work ongoing in north Aberdeenshire and through Operation Corner, a multi-agency pilot scheme is currently being implemented in Aberdeen starting in the Seaton and Tillydrone areas to provide similar support.

Initiatives like this are intelligence-led which allows us to target the right resources to the right places at the right times.

In the past year a total of 2,114 people were charged in connection with drug crimes and we can only do this with support from the public.

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Aberdeen City Council co-leader Jenny Laing said: Aberdeen City Council recognises the impact that drug dealing can have in communities and where residents are being exploited by organised crime groups for cuckooing, we are committed to working with our partners to deal with this robustly.

We will ensure that vulnerable individuals and communities get the support they need to increase their safety.

Fraser Hoggan, of Alcohol and Drugs Action, said: Many of the people we support have complex physical or mental needs, making them vulnerable to those who seek to exploit their situation.

Cuckooing is exploitation and harmful, on a number of fronts, to those targeted by these organised criminals.

We owe it to our clients to spread awareness of this problem here in the north-east of Scotland, to encourage them to pass on information they may be aware of to the authorities and support the efforts of the police and other organisations to tackle the problem at its core.
Any compromise Brexit deal between the Government and Labour is likely to feature UK involvement in some sort of customs union with the EU. But what is a customs union and why does it matter?

What is a customs union?

A customs union is a group of countries which abolish import tariffs and quotas on goods traded amongst them. Members of the union commit to observe a common external tariff, so that goods coming from outside the area pay the same duties, regardless of where they enter the bloc.

What are tariffs and why are they charged?

Tariffs are fees charged on imports. They are generally levied in order to protect domestic producers from cheap imports, often from areas of the world where labour costs are lower. If an imported good is subject to a tariff, it will be more expensive for consumers to buy, making home-grown products more competitive in the market. Tariffs can be used to prevent dumping of commodities like steel at a low cost in cases of over-production.

Who is in the EU customs union?

The European customs union covers all EU members as well as Monaco and the UK territories of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. The EU has customs union agreements with Andorra, San Marino and Turkey, whose deal excludes agricultural products.

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What are the advantages of being in a customs union?

Membership reduces the cost and bureaucracy involved in transporting goods across borders within the union. This is particularly important in industries like motor manufacturing, where components and part-finished vehicles can cross borders multiple times before the final product is ready for sale. Members of customs unions also benefit from the additional clout of negotiating as part of a large bloc in trade talks with outside states.

What are the downsides of membership?

Members of a customs union are barred from negotiating their own bilateral free trade deals with countries elsewhere in the world. Any deals are negotiated as a bloc, meaning that particular sectors are not accorded the priority they might receive if an individual state was negotiating on its own behalf. Equally, a major trade deal covering the whole continent can be delayed or blocked because of objections from a single country or region.

How would customs union membership affect arrangements at borders?

A customs union does not eliminate border checks altogether, but it can streamline them and allow formalities to take place away from the actual border. Involvement in a customs union arrangement with the EU would be a large step towards resolving the tension over the proposed backstop for Northern Ireland.

How would leaving the customs union affect everyday life?

Leaving the customs union could push up the price of European-made goods for consumers. In March, the Government published a temporary schedule for a no-deal scenario, under which most goods would enjoy 0% tariffs, but there would be 12% charges on many items of clothing and 10.8% on cars  adding about 1,500 to a typical family hatchback.

In the longer term, it would allow the UK to forge its own free trade agreements with major economies like the US and China, which could result in lower prices in the shops, but would also challenge the viability of some domestic industries.

Where do the parties stand on customs union membership?

Prime Minister Theresa May laid down red lines for her Brexit negotiations which included the UK leaving the EUs customs union. Many Conservatives regard the ability for the UK to strike its own free trade agreements as the biggest benefit of Brexit and regard customs union membership as anathema.

Labour states that, rather than remaining in the existing union, it would seek a comprehensive and permanent new EU/UK customs union, with a British say on any future trade deals negotiated by Brussels. Compromise on this issue may be the key to finding a consensus deal in ongoing talks between the Government and the official opposition.

As opponents of EU withdrawal, both the Scottish National Party and the Liberal Democrats want the UK to remain full members of the customs union.
President Donald Trump walks with Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen as they visit a newly constructed part of a border wall with Mexico in Calexico, California (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

US president Donald Trump has said Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is leaving her job.

President Donald Trump thanked her for her work in a tweet and announced US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan would be taking over as acting head of the department.

Mr 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 Mr Trumps priority for a sprawling department founded to combat terrorism following the September 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 on Sunday was unexpected.

Ms Nielsen travelled to the US-Mexico border on Friday with Mr Trump to participate in a roundtable with border officers and local law enforcement.

There she echoed Mr Trumps comments on the situation at the border, though she ducked out of the room without explanation for some time while Mr Trump spoke.

As they toured a section of newly rebuilt barriers, Ms Nielsen was at Mr Trumps side, introducing him to local officials.

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She returned to Washington afterwards on a Coast Guard Gulfstream, as Mr 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, two people familiar with the decision said.

Her resignation later, obtained by The Associated Press, showed no sign 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 Americas borders and which have contributed to discord in our nations discourse.

There have been persistent tensions between the White House and Ms Nielsen almost from the moment she became secretary, after her predecessor, John Kelly, became the White House chief of staff in 2017.

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Ms 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.

In recent weeks, as a new wave of migration has taxed resources along the border and as Mr 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.

Ms Nielsen dutifully pushed Mr Trumps immigration policies, including funding for his border wall, and defended the administrations 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 Ms 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 US military for some 12,000 people in an effort to detain all families who cross the border.

Currently, there is space for about 3,000 families and facilities are at capacity.
New Zealands official privacy watchdog has described Facebook as morally bankrupt and suggested his country follow Australias lead by making laws that could jail executives over streamed violence such as the Christchurch mosque shootings.

Privacy commissioner John Edwards has been critical of Facebooks response to a gunman using the platform to livestream some of the slaughter of 50 worshippers and the wounding of 50 more at two mosques on March 15.

Facebook cannot be trusted. They are morally bankrupt pathological liars who enable genocide (Myanmar), facilitate foreign undermining of democratic institutionsTweet from John Edwards, NZ privacy commissioner

Mr Edwards made his comments after Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg recently rejected calls to introduce a delay in his livestreaming service Facebook Live, saying it would interfere with the interactivity of livestreaming.

Facebook cannot be trusted. They are morally bankrupt pathological liars who enable genocide (Myanmar), facilitate foreign undermining of democratic institutions, Mr Edwards posted on Twitter.

Facebook has been criticised for not doing enough to police hate speech in Burma (Myanmar), where a government campaign against minority Rohingya Muslims has been described by the UN as ethnic cleansing.

The platform has also been at the centre of claims that Russia meddled in the 2016 US presidential election.

We are deeply committed to strengthening our policies, improving our technology and working with experts to keep Facebook safeFacebook statement

Facebook responded to Mr Edwardss post with a statement that said its chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg had recently shared the policy and technical steps the company was taking to strengthen the rules for using Facebook Live, address hate on Facebook platforms and support the New Zealand community.

We are deeply committed to strengthening our policies, improving our technology and working with experts to keep Facebook safe, the statement said.

Mr Edwards, who is tasked with protecting New Zealanders personal information according to the countrys Privacy Act, said that governments needed to come together and force the platforms to find a solution to the problem of livestreaming of atrocities such as the Christchurch killings, as well as suicides and rapes.

It may be that regulating, as Australia has done just in the last week, would be a good interim way to get their attention and say, 'Unless you can demonstrate the safety of these services, you simply can't use them'John Edwards, NZ privacy commissioner

It may be that regulating, as Australia has done just in the last week, would be a good interim way to get their attention and say, Unless you can demonstrate the safety of these services, you simply cant use them, Mr Edwards told Radio NZ.

Mr Edwards regards himself as an advocate for Christchurch victims who had their right to privacy violated by having their deaths broadcast via Facebook to the world in real time.

His office said the privacy commissioner had taken to making his criticism of Facebook about its lack of livestreaming safeguards public because he has few other options.

Under the current Privacy Act, his office has no penalties it can impose on global tech companies like Facebook, the commissioners office said in a statement.

His only resort is to publicly name Facebook for not ensuring its livestreaming service is a safe platform which does not compound the original harm caused by the Christchurch killings, the statement added.

The Australian parliament on Thursday passed some of the most restrictive laws about online communication in the democratic world.

It is now a crime in Australia for social media platforms not to quickly remove abhorrent violent material.

The crime would be punishable by three years in prison and a fine of 10.5 million Australian dollars (5.7 million), or 10% of the platforms annual turnover, whichever is larger.

The Digital Industry Group  an association representing the digital industry in Australia including Facebook, Google and Twitter  said taking down abhorrent content was a highly complex problem that required consultation with a range of experts, which the government had not done.

Australia wants to take its law to a Group of 20 countries forum in Japan as a template for holding social media companies to account.

New Zealands justice minister Andrew Little said last week his government had also made a commitment to review the role of social media and the obligations of the companies that provide the platforms.

He said he had asked officials to look at the effectiveness of current hate speech laws and whether there were gaps that need to be filled.

Facebook last year disregarded Mr Edwardss ruling that it had breached the Privacy Act by not releasing information to a New Zealand man who wanted to know what others were saying about him on the social network.

Facebook argued that it was not bound by New Zealands Privacy Act because it was based overseas, but later agreed to comply with the local law.

New Zealands parliament is amending the Act to give the privacy commissioner more powers and to clarify that offshore companies that hold information about New Zealanders must comply with the Act.
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lu Kang's Regular Press Conference on April 8, 2019

2019/04/08

Q: In the communique issued on April 6 by the foreign ministers of the Group of Seven, they voiced strong opposition to any unilateral actions that undermine regional stability and the international rules-based order. They also encouraged China to participate responsibly in the free and open international rules-based system. What is your response?

A: We have takennoted of relevant reports. For some time, the topic of the international system and international rules has been raised frequently worldwide. We believe it is good news that everyone wants to follow the rules, but we hope the relevant parties can specify what international system and rules they are talking about when they discuss them.

What the vast majority of the international community uphold are the basic norms governing international relations based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, the multilateral system with the UN at its center, and the multilateral trading system with the WTO rules at its core. I can assure you they are what China upholds. If such international rules and system are what the G7 members have been standing for and if the G7 members also explicitly oppose unilateral actions beyond the UN framework, the international community including China will warmly welcome their efforts.

Q: The French and German foreign ministers proposed creating an "alliance of multilateralism" while attending a UN Security Council meeting. They plan to officially launch this alliance during the 74th session of the UN General Assembly to be held in September this year. What's your view on that?

A: We have noted relevant reports. China has been committed to upholding, supporting and practicing multilateralism. Against the backdrop of deeper economic globalization and multi-polarization and growing global challenges, the world needs multilateralism more than ever.

During President Xi Jinping's recent visit to France, he and French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker attended the closing ceremony of the Global Governance Forum co-hosted by China and France, where President Xi elaborated on China's proposition on upholding multilateralism, enhancing international dialogue and cooperation, working together against the deficit in governance, trust, peace and development and improving global governance. China supports the active efforts of the international community including France and Germany to uphold multilateralism, and stands ready to work with all sides to safeguard the international order and system with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter at the core, uphold the multilateral trading system with the WTO rules at its core, stay committed to multilateralism, establish a new type of international relations featuring mutual respect, fairness, justice and win-win cooperation, and build a community with a shared future for mankind.

Q: The G7 foreign ministers issued a statement after their meeting, which welcomes the denuclearization plan that was talked about in the second DPRK-US summit, but regrets that the DPRK hasn't taken relevant measures. Besides, South Korean media reported that some entrepreneurs in the Kaesong industrial park recently applied for exemption from sanctions, but the requests were rejected by the US Department of State. What's your comment?

A: After the US and DPRK leaders met in Hanoi, the international community indeed has been closely following the development of the settlement process of the Korean Peninsula issue, and it is even more true for the Chinese side. Like we said on many occasions, after the Hanoi summit, both the DPRK and the US have expressed their willingness to maintain dialogue. We think this is advisable and we hope that the international community will continue to support and encourage this positive attitude. In the meantime, such attitude alone will not suffice. The two sides need to meet each other halfway, take concrete measures to further enhance mutual trust and promote the political settlement of the Peninsula issue. China will continue to play a constructive role to this end.

Q: Australian media is reporting that Yang Jun was questioned by Chinese agents on the matters related to Australia's probe into Chinese interference in domestic politics. Can you confirm this? What is your response to this report?

A: We have no updates on the individual case of this individual Yang Jun you mentioned. Regarding the relevant media reports you talked about, I would like to reiterate that when it comes to international relations, China believes that nations should respect each other's sovereignty and refrain from interfering in each other's internal affairs. Like we said before, we hope all governments can openly state their commitment to non-interference in each other's internal affairs.

Q: Premier Li Keqiang has left for Europe and President Xi Jinping just wrapped up his visit to Europe in March. Two Chinese leaders have paid visits to the Europe within just two months, and the frequency is higher than before. Could you tell us why? Does that have anything to do with China-US trade talks?

A: Thank you for your interest in China's diplomacy. Indeed, President Xi travelled to France, Monaco and Italy in his first visit this year. Premier Li Keqiang is travelling to Europe this time to attend the China-EU Leaders' Meeting and the China-CEEC Summit and pay an official visit to Croatia. Europe is an important force in the world and has been a priority of China's diplomacy. Strengthening the ties between China and Europe meets the aspiration of both China and Europe.

As you can see in the outcomes of President Xi's visit to Europe, if China and Europe reach important consensus on upholding multilateralism and the rules-based international trading system, that will set the pace for the international community and I believe countries including Japan will welcome that. As to whether the strengthening of ties between China and Europe has anything to do with other parties, I don't see any necessary link here. Developing friendly relations with other countries has been our commitment all along and I think all parties will support and welcome such effort.

Q: A recent commentary claims that less than half of the Chinese infrastructure projects in Pakistan under the Belt and Road Initiative have been carried out, that Pakistan has failed to turn massive lending by China into self-sustaining economic momentum and that it only heightened economic risks. The article also states that Pakistan says its current debt crunch is unrelated to Chinese loans and that China's assistance has played an important role in improving Pakistani people's living conditions. Do you have any comments?

A: The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a flagship program of China-Pakistan cooperation in the new era and also an important pilot program under the Belt and Road Initiative. Over the past more than five years after its launch, the CPEC has yielded 22 early harvests, created tens of thousands of local jobs and met the power demand of 8.6 million households, significantly improving local infrastructure and people's well-being and naturally gaining recognition of the government and people of Pakistan.

Leveraging international financing to carry out major projects, as a common practice across the world, is an effective way for developing countries in particular to overcome the funding bottleneck and boost growth. Of all current CPEC projects, only less than 20% are financed with Chinese loans, while the rest are all funded by direct investments or grants from China. Far from adding to Pakistan's burden, the CPEC has actually strengthened the local economic structure.

We hope media agencies truly caring for Pakistan's development and its people's well-being will solicit local residents' views regarding the CPEC on the ground and then write reports on China-Pakistan cooperation based on the facts.

Q: The British Counsel-General in Hong Kong expressed concerns to the SAR government over the ongoing legislative proceedings regarding the amendment of the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance. UK MPs in the House of Commons also plan to hold discussions on this issue. Does the Foreign Ministry have any response to these actions?

A: We have answered many similar questions. This matter falls within the internal affairs of the Hong Kong SAR and China. No other country has any right to interfere.

As to the SAR government's decision to amend the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance, the MFA Commissioner's Office in Hong Kong has made it clear that this is a necessary measure to facilitate Hong Kong's cooperation with other regions and countries. We are firmly opposed to foreign interference in China's domestic affairs using this matter as a pretext.
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.

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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.

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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.
People move around the landing area as a U.S. amphibious hovercraft, right, prepares to depart with evacuees from Janzur, west of Tripoli (Mohammed Omar Aburas/AP)

The United States has temporarily withdrawn some of its forces from Libya due to security conditions on the ground, a top military official has said.

The move comes as a Libyan commanders forces advanced toward the capital of Tripoli and clashed with rival militias.

CLARIFICATION: A contingent of U.S. forces supporting AFRICOM temporarily relocated from Libya in response to security conditions. We will continue to monitor conditions on the ground and assess the feasibility for renewed U.S. military presence, as appropriate.  US AFRICOM (@USAfricaCommand) April 7, 2019

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 General Thomas Waldhauser, the head of US Africa Command.

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Even with an adjustment of the force, we will continue to remain agile in support of existing US strategy.

He did not provide details on the number of US troops that have been withdrawn or how many remain in the country.

Footage circulating online showed two apparent US Navy transport craft manoeuvring off a beach in Janzur, east of Tripoli, sending up plumes of spray as American forces were ferried from the shore.

India also evacuated a small contingent of peacekeepers.

The Indian foreign minister, Sushma Swaraj, said the countrys 15 central reserve police force peacekeepers were evacuated on Saturday from Tripoli because the situation in Libya has suddenly worsened and fighting has moved into the capital city.

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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 Muammar Gaddafi.

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.

Fayez Sarraj, head of government in Tripoli, accused Mr Hifter of betraying him.

We have extended our hands towards peace, but after the aggression that has taken place on the part of forces belonging to Hifter and his declaration of war against our cities and our capital  he will find nothing but strength and firmness, Mr Sarraj said Saturday in televised comments.

Mr Sarraj and Mr Hifter held talks in Abu Dhabi in late February, their first confirmed meeting since November 2018, when they agreed that national elections were necessary, according to the UN.

Mr Hifter is seeking to capture the capital and seize military control of the whole country before UN-sponsored talks due to start next week that were designed to set a time frame for possible elections in the oil-rich country.

The UN envoy for Libya, Ghassan Salame, said the UN is determined to hold the planned conference.

Fighting was under way Sunday at the international airport, some 15 miles from central Tripoli, after Mr Hifter claimed to have seized the area.

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The airport was destroyed in a previous bout of militia fighting in 2014.

Mr Hifter said his forces had launched airstrikes targeting rival militias on the outskirts of Tripoli.

The rival militias, which are affiliated with a UN-backed government in Tripoli, said they had also carried out airstrikes, slowing Mr Hifters advance.

Armed groups behind the UN-backed government of national accord, or GNA, have announced an effort to defend Tripoli, vowing to recapture all areas seized by Mr Hifters forces.

Colonel Mohamed Gnounou, a spokesman for GNA forces, said in televised comments Sunday that the counteroffensive, dubbed Volcano Of Anger, was aimed at purging all Libyan cities of aggressor and illegitimate forces.

The two sides reported that at least 35 people, including civilians, had been killed 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, a spokesman for Mr Hifters forces, said on Saturday that 14 troops had been killed since the offensive began.

The fighting has displaced hundreds of people, the UN migration agency said.

The UN mission to Libya called for a two-hour ceasefire 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 UN-backed government.
Seymour Cassel, a live-wire pillar of independent film known for his frequent collaborations with directors John Cassavetes and Wes Anderson, has died at the age of 84.

His daughter, Dilyn Cassel Murphy, said her father died on Sunday surrounded by family following complications from Alzheimers disease.

Born in Detroit, he travelled frequently with his burlesque dancer mother as a child, and never met his father.

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I started performing when I was three. Id come out in a little checkered suit and pull down the clowns pants  I loved that! he told the Los Angeles Times in 1992.

I was a little ham and was a very open kid, probably because I was around adults all the time.

He was an angry and rebellious teenager who started drinking at 13. His mother shipped him off to live with his godmother in Detroit, where he stayed until enlisting in the Navy at 17.

He eventually made his way to New York in the 1950s to pursue acting, launching a 60-year career with appearances in more than 100 films.

It was there that he met Cassavetes, who he said saved his life, and made his film debut in his 1958 feature Shadows, which he also associate-produced, almost by accident.

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It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship. In 1959 he followed Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands to Los Angeles where he lived in their guest house.

He went on to work for Cassavetes often, with roles in Faces, which earned him a best supporting actor nomination in 1969, Minnie And Moskowitz, The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie, Opening Night and Love Streams.

Working with Cassavetes got him on the radar of many and he got the chance to work with greats like Sam Peckinpah in Convoy, Elia Kazan in The Last Tycoon and Nicolas Roeg in Track 29 and Cold Heaven.

His journey in Hollywood was not without issues, mostly the result of a hard-partying lifestyle with the likes of The Beatles and the Rolling Stones that took a toll on his health, marriage and family life.

He even spent time in jail in 1982, and went into recovery in the mid-80s.

Cassel bounced back, however, and worked frequently in the 1990s, with roles in films like Dick Tracy, White Fang, In The Soup, Indecent Proposal, Honeymoon In Vegas and It Could Happen to You.

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In 1998 a new generation met him as a result of a fruitful collaboration with Anderson, as Bert Fischer in Rushmore. He went on to work with Anderson him twice more, playing the ill-fated Esteban in The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, and Dusty the elevator operator in The Royal Tennebaums.

He guessed that Anderson cast him because he liked his face.

Its a dream to become an actor, Cassel told the LA Times in 2009. But its your dream. Dont give up on it.

Cassel is survived by three children, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. The family has asked to consider donating to the Alzheimers Foundation of America in lieu of flowers.
It is frequently lamented that there has been such a steady decline in the learning of foreign languages among native English speakers. Only 4% of students in the Republic go on to study a foreign language at university. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the outlook for European language-learning is just as gloomy: French and German have experienced a steep decline since 2010.

During the prolonged Brexit imbroglio (a nice Italian word), or the political impasse (imported from French), anglophones often remarked on the ease with which continental Europeans routinely hold their press conferences in only lightly accented English: Juncker, Tusk, Barnier, Macron, Rutte. How many British or Irish politicians could perform as confidently in French, German or Spanish?

The only UK politician known to be an outstanding linguist is Prisons Minister Rory Stewart, who speaks fluent Pashto, having spent time wandering the terrain of Afghanistan, just for the fun of it. Yet every time Juncker, Tusk, Barnier & Co spout English, they knock another nail into the coffin of language-learning among anglophones.

Youngsters think, 'Why learn foreign lingos when everyone speaks English?' Dispiriting as it is for those of us who have always liked learning languages, it's the brutal truth. English is global. Everyone does business in it. The Swedes now publish all their scientific papers in English.

Just try speaking Dutch in the Netherlands, having learned off a few polite phrases, such as 'What is the way to the station?' You'll inevitably be answered in English, which may be for the best, all told.

It's nice to learn a few words of anyone else's language - how charming when visitors to Ireland come out with the cupla focal that they have carefully rehearsed.

It's also polite and a necessary etiquette to say "may I speak English?" when opening up an anglophone conversation.

But the Department of Education's publication Languages Connect, recommending foreign languages "for trade and the economy and our own cultural life" is only right in the last affirmation. Cultural enhancement, okay. But trade and the economy? All done in English.

The other brutal truth is that most of us, through the course of our lives, are not going to master a foreign language.

I've spent years, on and off, trying to learn German and, although it's often been very interesting, it's also been a waste of time.

German is a snidely deceptive tongue: because it has lexical similarity to English (many basic words, such as 'mother' and 'father', are similar), it looks accessible at first. You can always get to first base: 'Noch ein kaffee, bitte.'

But your head begins to spin when the grammar looms - 'der Mann, den Mann, des Mannes, dem Mann', according to case.

Then you try to read a newspaper like the Frankfurter Allegemeine - well, forget it.

I learned French when I was a teenager and got to speak it reasonably well. But I still attend a monthly French conversation session and still need to read a French newspaper daily to retain skill. Language learning requires constant input and constant commitment. And I'm still learning.

If young people prefer to focus on STEM subjects - science, technology, engineering and maths - their choice is justified. STEMs will be much more useful. And most of the tech stuff they'll tackle will be in English.

Portuguese audiology technicians now do their research into the development of hearing apparatuses in English.

Robots and language apps are also increasingly used as translation supports when communications get stalled.

Today, the only real reason to learn another language is for the love of it.

Yes, if you plan to live in the Costa del Sol, it would be polite, as well as rewarding, to learn Spanish, which also has a global reach across the Americas.

And some specialists in Mandarin and Arabic will always be required.

But, otherwise, English will take you everywhere, because the English language has taken all before it: absorbed everything from Hindi ('bungalow') to Persian ('pyjamas'), from Irish ('smithereens') to Dutch ('spook').

It has morphed into Pidgin: when speaking in West Africa, Prince Charles expressed thankfulness for his good fortune in Nigerian Pidgin: "God dun butta my bread."

English is shape-shifting and endlessly adaptive, inventing new words annually ('selfie', 'Brexit') itself.

The greatest incentive for learning a language is simply necessity. Jean-Claude Juncker indeed speaks excellent English - but then, who is going to speak to him in his native Luxembourgish?

All languages have their particular charms and strengths, and I'm grateful that my endeavours in German introduced me to the uniquely German genius for the compound abstract noun, the most famous of which is 'schadenfreude' - pleasure in the misfortune of others.

My favourite of all is 'verschlimmbesserung' - the improvement that makes things worse.

There's a lot of that about.
A lunar eclipse and a solar eclipse refer to events involving the sun, the moon and the Earth. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth passes between the moon and the sun, and the Earths shadow obscures the moon or a portion of it. A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun, blocking all or a portion of the sun.

A big thing that separates solar eclipses from lunar eclipses is the effect on the human eye. While it is safe to watch a lunar eclipse with the naked eye, watching a solar eclipse without eyewear protection can seriously damage your eyesight.

Throughout history, eclipses have evoked both wonder and fear. These feelings are heightened when a rare phenomenon takes place. One example of this is when total lunar eclipses turn the moon blood-red.

Eclipses may seem like odd occurrences, but it is no secret to God or the authors of the Bible. We know from Scripture that God uses signs and wonders in heaven to communicate with His people. Many believe that lunar eclipses and rare solar eclipses are signs from God.

From a biblical point of view, a solar eclipse is meant to be a sign from God, says Pastor Mark Biltz who claims to have first noticed the four blood-moon pattern.

In Genesis 1:14, God declared this to be so. It is a sign that is beyond mans control, something he cant manipulate, Biltz told WND. Solar eclipses become biblically and prophetically significant and relevant when man understands their timing according to the biblical calendar and where they happen. Then, we look for the patterns.

Blitz ultimately suggests that such cataclysms may be in store for the United States, especially given the timing of the event.

As the sun is larger than the moon, the sun represents the nations of the world and the moon represents the nations of the world and the moon represents the nation of Israel, as their calendar months are based on the cycle of the moon while the nations of the world follow the sun for their calendar, Biltz said. When there is a total solar eclipse, it is a warning to a specific nation or nations depending on its path.

Many end-times theorists believe that both lunar eclipses and solar eclipses are signs from God. Two eclipses, one that traveled across the United States in 2017 and one that will take place in 2024 will mark an X across the nation. Some believe this could be the starting and ending signs bookmarking a seven-year period of awful tribulations that are in store for non-believers who are left behind on Earth when the rapture occurs. While we know from Scripture that there are many other things that are supposed to take place before the rapture occurs, could there be some other sort of significance?

In order to better to better understand if God is giving us sign or warning, we can turn to Scripture. There are passages through the Bible that talk about the sun being blacked out by darkness descending on the land. During the plagues of Egypt, God covered the land in darkness.

Exodus 10:21-23 says, Then the LORD said to Moses, Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness spreads over Egypt  darkness that can be felt. So Moses stretched out his hand towards the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days. No one could see anyone else or move about for three days. Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived. This sounds a lot like a solar eclipse.

Then, during Jesus crucifixion, referenced in the New Testament, something very similar happened. Mark 15: 32-33 says, Let the Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe. Even those who were crucified with Him reviled Him. Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.

We even see biblical prophecies about the sun going dark. Revelation 6:12 says, I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood.

This isnt the only passage that predicts this. We also see this in the book of Matthew and Mark, here foretelling of some sort of eclipse.

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened. (Matthew 24:29). Similar words are said in Mark 13:24. Many people point to this verse as a sign of the end times. During a solar eclipse, the sun is significantly darkened and the light normally reflected by the moon is gone. What occurs during a lunar eclipse is the light normally reflected by the moon significantly decreases. So, it would make sense that there would be a connection between an eclipse and the end times, right?

While eclipses seem to allude to fulfillment of end-times prophecy, there is no way to connect a specific eclipse to the event. While they seem like rare occurrences, eclipses are actually very common. Total lunar eclipses occur virtually every year in most parts of the world. A total solar eclipse occurs somewhere on Earth once every 18 months. Partial solar eclipses occur several times per year. Since Jesus references the eclipse in Matthew 24, there have been thousands of total and partial solar and lunar eclipses and none of these have specifically spoken to end-times Bible prophecy. However, this likely wont stop end times theorists from connecting eclipses to the end times.

Given the number of references the Bible makes to eclipses, it seems like eclipses are significant even outside of the awe and wonder they instill. Turning to Scripture can help you look forward to future solar and lunar eclipses.
Madrassa student Nusrat Rafi arrives at Dhaka Medical College Hospital to be treated for burns, April 6, 2019.

A female student at an Islamic boarding school who was allegedly doused with kerosene and set on fire at the madrassa over the weekend was placed on life support Monday at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, the head of the burns unit said.

The victim was identified as Nusrat Rafi, a student at the Sonagazi Islamia Senior Fazil Madrassa in the Chittagong division of southeastern Bangladesh.

Police said seven people were being held in connection with the incident after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday ordered that the perpetrators be immediately apprehended.

The girl came to us with burns to about 80 percent of her body, with 45 percent to 50 percent are deep burns, Abul Kalam, chief of the burn and plastic surgery department, told BenarNews.

On Monday, she was struggling to breathe  her lungs were not working  so we decided to put her on ventilation. Government officials said she would be flown to Singapore for treatment at government expense.

She was reportedly set on fire after she and her family had filed a complaint with police about alleged sexual misconduct by the schools principal.

They bound her hands with a scarf, set fire, then shouted, Go, run! a source who overheard a statement given by the victim to police investigators and doctors at the hospital in Dhaka, told BenarNews on condition of anonymity.

Nusrat had arrived at school on Saturday morning to take exams, when a burka-clad person told her that her friend was being beaten on the buildings roof, according to her brother, Mahmudul Hasan.

Once there, she was accosted by four others wearing burkas who told her to drop sexual assault charges against the madrassa principal before dousing her with kerosene, Hasan said.

On Monday, Prime Minister Hasinas special assistant, Biplob Barua, visited Nusrat at the hospital.

The prime minister is monitoring the issue, he told reporters after the visit. She will be sent to Singapore on government expense as soon as possible for better treatment.

A senior hospital official confirmed that the necessary documents had been sent to Singapore.

We are now waiting for their reply. Once they say yes and she can fly, we will take immediate action, Samanta Lal Sen told reporters.

The prime minister ordered immediate arrest of those who attempted to kill the female student by setting fire to her, Sen added, according to the Daily Sun newspaper.

Complaint against principal

Mahmudul Hasan said his mother, Shirin Akter, had filed a sexual assault case against the madrassa principal, identified as Siraj-ud-Daula. on March 27. He was subsequently arrested.

Md Moazzem Hossain, the officer in charge at the Sonagazi police station, said that as of Sunday night, officers had detained seven people for questioning about the attack.

Of the seven, at least two had held human-chain (protests) and other programs for freeing the accused principal, Hossain told BenarNews.

We will send them to the court.
Supporters of Prabowo Subianto display a huge Indonesian flag during a rally for the opposition presidential candidate at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta, April 7, 2019.

As Indonesians prepare to participate next week in one of the worlds largest democratic elections, members of minority groups in the sprawling nation are not optimistic that they will be better protected by the next government, no matter who wins.

In a fiery speech at a huge campaign rally on Sunday, presidential challenger Prabowo Subianto vowed that all citizens would be treated equally if he was elected president on April 17.

Our teachers, our Islamic clerics have always taught us that Indonesias Islam is one that brings good to all things in the universe, Prabowo told more than 110,000 supporters who packed Jakartas cavernous Bung Karno National Stadium.

Our Islam is one of peace and one that respects all religions, races, and ethnicities, he said, to the chants of Prabowo! Prabowo! Prabowo!

It was Prabowos last big rally in Jakarta before campaigning officially ends on April 13, days before voters once again choose between him and the man who narrowly defeated him five years ago, Joko Jokowi Widodo, as their next president.

Prabowos support base includes conservative Islamic groups that have persecuted Ahmadi and Shia Muslims, and oppose lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights.

Marginalized groups like us cant pin our hopes on either candidate. We have to fend for ourselves, said a spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Indonesia Congregation, Yendra Budiana.

Let alone the Prabowo camp, which is supported by hardline groups, he told BenarNews.

Yendra said 114 Ahmadis who were expelled from their homes on Lombok island in 2006 still lived in a temporary shelter.

An Ahmadi mosque in Depok near Jakarta has not reopened after it was forcibly closed by local officials in 2017, he said.

Indonesian presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto speaks to supporters during a campaign rally at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta, April 7, 2019. [AP]

Prabowo: Rights are undermined

Prabowos rally on Sunday was marked by conspicuous religious displays.

Supporters, mostly dressed in white, had begun arriving on Saturday night and performed morning prayers together in the stadium.

Prabowos running mate, wealthy businessman Sandiago Uno, led chants in Arabic praising the Prophet Mohammad from a raised platform erected on the pitch.

The rally ended with a video message played on a giant screen by the leader of the hardline Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), Muhammad Rizieq Shihab, who is in self-imposed exile in Saudi Arabia.

Rizieq said Muslims should vote for Prabowo because he would not protect deviant sects and vice, liberalism, or the now-defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

Rizieq shot to political prominence after he led a campaign in 2016 and 2017 to oust then-Jakarta Gov. Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama, a Christian of Chinese descent, over allegations that he had insulted the Koran in off-the-cuff remarks.

The FPI leader has not been back to Indonesia since police attempted to question him in 2017 over allegations he had engaged in a lewd online chat with a female supporter and a separate charge of insulting the Indonesian state ideology of Pancasila.

In his speech, Prabowo, a retired army special forces general, painted a bleak picture of Indonesia under Jokowi.

Our national wealth is continuously being taken away. The peoples rights are undermined, he said, citing criminal charges ranging from defamation to campaign violations against his supporters.

Prabowo himself has been accused of human rights violations during his time in the army in the 1990s. He was accused of kidnapping several pro-democracy activists in the dying days of the Suharto regime in 1998. He has denied the allegations.

A banner depicting Islamic Defenders Front leader Muhammad Rizieq Shihab is displayed at a rally for presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto in Jakarta, April 7, 2019. [AFP]

Racing to the right

Jokowi has also been criticized for failing to curb anti-gay rhetoric and actions by officials in recent years.

Police have raided places frequented by gay people and briefly detained hundreds suspected of being homosexual.

Several local governments are mulling anti-LGBT bylaws.

The Pariaman city government, in West Sumatra province, recently issued a bylaw that imposes a fine of up to 1 million rupiah (U.S. $71) on LGBT people who conduct activity that disturbs public order or commit immoral acts with the same-sex, according to a media report.

The plight of the LGBT community under the Jokowi government has been worse than it was during the 10 years of the SBY government, said Dede Oetomo, a sociology lecturer and campaigner for gay rights. He was referring to Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Jokowis predecessor.

[T]he change of leadership will have little effect on the lot of minority groups such as LGBT, he predicted.

Jokowis choice as his running mate of conservative Muslim cleric Maruf Amin, who is known for his anti-LGBT views, has raised concerns that he is pandering to religious puritans at the expense of minorities.

Maruf, the head the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), the countrys semi-official clerical body, has expressed support for the criminalization of homosexuality and overseen the issuance of controversial fatwas including one that says Ahmadi beliefs are heretical and not part of Islam.

Jokowi, whose 2014 campaign pledges included solving past human rights cases and promoting pluralism, has vowed to protect religious and ethnic minorities as well as marginalized groups.

But his promises have not produced meaningful policy initiatives, according to rights groups.

Jokowi has not taken firm action against violations of economic and social rights of religious minorities, said Maidina Rahmawati, a researcher at the Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR).

Its as if the government is condoning them, she told BenarNews.

The two candidates are racing to the right and minorities are just pawns, she said.

On Monday, meanwhile, Indonesias Supreme Court upheld an 18-month prison sentence for a Buddhist woman convicted of blasphemy because she had allegedly complained about noise from the loudspeakers of a neighborhood mosque in her home province of North Sumatra in 2016.

Indonesias constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but the government recognizes only six religions: Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Confucianism. More than 87 percent of Indonesians are Sunni Muslims.

Indonesias criminal code outlaws deviations from the central tenets of these religions, as do numerous local laws and regulations, according to U.S.-based Human Rights Watch.
This article discusses three meetings. First, it reports on the meeting of the HIV Planning Council (HIV PC). The Broward HIV Planning Council oversees the Ryan White Care (RWC) Program of Broward (RWC-Broward).

Second, it reports on the meeting of the South Florida AIDS Network (SFAN). The South Florida AIDS Network (SFAN) advises the RWC program of the Florida Department of Health in Broward (RWC-FL DOH Broward).

Third, it reports on the Broward County HIV Prevention Planning Council (BCHP PC). The BCHP shares information about HIV prevention efforts in Broward.

The HIV Planning Council met on Feb. 28.

Leonard Jones, RWC-Broward, discussed long-term fiscal issues. At current funding levels, RWC-Broward is at capacity. Some people needing its services are not receiving them. As its funding does not increase as new clients enter the program, this will be a problem. Jones said, We cannot continue to operate the same level of services.

A large part of RWC-Browards funding is based on the number of people that test HIV-positive in the county. When someone moves to Broward after testing HIV-positive, they do not bring "their HIV funds" with them. Those funds remain where they first tested. According to Jones, Broward has more in-migrants with HIV than any other county in Florida.

SFAN met on March 7.

Mark Schweizer, DDS, discussed HIV and oral health. Schweizer works as the dental director for the Southeast AIDS Education and Training Center. The STD, Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), can lead to genital warts, as well as anal, cervical, and oral cancers. As skin-to-skin contact spreads HPV, condoms offer incomplete protection. French kissing and oral sex can also transmit HPV. One out of every nine men carries the HPV virus.

More people now have HPV-related oral cancers than have HPV-related cervical cancers. While people with intact immune systems can clear HPV, those with weakened immune systems cannot.

People living with HIV face particular challenges with regard to oral health. They face increased chances for dental decay, gum disease, and oral HPV.

Schweizerstressed the importance of regular dental visits and oral self-exams for people living with HIV.

The Broward County HIV Prevention Planning Council met on March 7, 2019.

The 2019 HIV prevention contracts stress bio-medical interventions. For people of unknown or HIV-negative status, bio-medical interventions include the following: Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP), and HIV testing. For people living with HIV, bio-medical interventions stress consistent and life-long access to antiretroviral treatment. This will allow most people living with HIV to achieve an undetectable HIV viral load. Josh Rodriguez said, When we have a lower viral load in the community, then we have fewer new infections."

Announcements

To learn how to do an oral self-exam, please visit

http://bit.ly/2VWOUx2.

Phone numbers have changed for most RWC-FL DOH Broward Services. The number for ADAP is 954-213-0623. The RWC Part B Call Center number is 954-467-4705.

HEP: A vaccination available at 2421 SW 6thAve. Walk-ins are welcome.

The Gay and Bi Mens Advisory Group of the HIV Prevention Planning Council is seeking new members. Please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Next SFAN Meeting: Friday, April 5, at 10:00 a.m. at Holy Cross Healthplex, 1000 NE 56thSt., Fort Lauderdale. SFAN welcomes newcomers.

Follow Sean McShee on Twitter @SeanMcShee
Philippine Sen. Leila de Lima shows documents on her petition to dismiss charges filed against her during a news conference at the Philippine Senate south of Manila, Feb. 21, 2017.

The Philippine government told a group of U.S. senators Monday to not meddle in its affairs after they called on Filipino authorities to release a lawmaker from jail who has been highly critical of President Rodrigo Duterte.

The bipartisan group of American senators last week condemned human rights abuses in the country, claiming Philippine Sen. Leila de Lima was in custody for allegedly questioning Dutertes war on drugs.

They also criticized the Philippine government for bearing down on journalist Maria Ressa, who is facing tax evasion and other charges. Her online news site, Rappler, has reported critically on the Duterte administration, including the drug war.

The U.S. lawmakers should focus their efforts in solving their own countrys problems instead of questioning the policies of a sovereign nation, Duterte spokesman Salvador Panelo said.

Their resolution is an unwelcome intrusion to the countrys domestic legal processes and an outrageous interference with our nations sovereignty as the subject cases are now being heard by our local courts, Panelo said in a statement.

No government official of any foreign country has the authority or right to dictate how we address the commission of crimes, he said, adding that the U.S. senators had relied on false narratives by unnamed biased new agencies about the Duterte administration.

Panelo said Manila was not under the dominion of the United States of America or any of its high-ranking officials, and emphasized that the cases against de Lima and Ressa were being handled by the courts.

Sen. de Lima is no prisoner of conscience, rather a prisoner of no conscience or a prisoner of her own folly, he said.

De Lima has been jailed for two years on what she said were trumped up charges that she had profited from the drug trade. Rights groups claim the charges against her are baseless and that she is in jail because she aggressively questioned Dutertes rights records.

Ressa, meanwhile, has been jailed twice, for alleged tax evasion and violating the countrys anti-dummy law that prohibits foreign ownership of a mass media company.

US resolution

Last week, U.S. Sens. Edward Markey of Massachusetts, Marco Rubio of Florida, Richard Durbin of Illinois, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, and Chris Coons of Delaware filed a resolution that condemned human rights abuses in the Philippines.

They also denounced what they claimed was a crackdown on human rights defenders and political leaders who exercise their rights to freedom of expression amid Dutertes war on drugs.

Extrajudicial killings in the Philippines have been a stain on the countrys human rights record. But rather than working with lawmakers, journalists and civil society in the Philippines to hold perpetrators for these crimes accountable, the Duterte government is turning the law against the very voices promoting the rights of the Philippine people, Markey said in statement.

While the Philippines is a close ally, Markey said the U.S. lawmakers in his group were seeking an immediate improvement in the Duterte regimes behavior. The senators charged that Manila had weaponized the rule of law against de Lima and Ressa.

More than 5,000 suspected drug addicts and dealers have been killed since Duterte assumed the presidency in 2016, alarming rights groups and opposition leaders. Rights groups have said that the figure could be as high as 12,000 if killings by vigilantes are included.

Duterte had vowed to end the nations drug scourge in six months, but has since said he underestimated the problem and the police efforts would continue until his six-year term ended in 2022.

Jeoffrey Maitem in Manila contributed to this report.
Plus, Bill's Message of the Day, my take on the first leg of the Trump-O'Reilly History Tour.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
For Immediate Release, April 8, 2019

Contact: Michael Robinson, (575) 313-7017, michaelr@biologicaldiversity.org

Mexican Gray Wolf Numbers Increase by 14 Animals in 2018

Releases of Captive Wolves Needed to Spur Recovery in Arizona, New Mexico

SILVER CITY, N.M. The U.S. population of endangered Mexican gray wolves increased by 14 animals in 2018, from 117 to 131 during 2018, according to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service census announced today. The numbers represent a 12 percent population increase.

Sixty-four of those animals were in Arizona and 67 in New Mexico.

Its heartening that the population of these endangered wolves got a boost last year, said Michael Robinson, senior conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity. To sustain the numbers, the Fish and Wildlife Service must release captive wolf families and protect them to increase the health of wolves in the wild.

The Center recommends freeing four captive packs in 2019 and another four in 2020 to reduce inbreeding and bolster pup-survival in the wild.

This population boost is good news, but theres still a lot of work to be done, said Robinson. The government should be releasing Mexican gray wolves into the wild to ensure theyre on track to recover.

Background

The current wild population of Mexican gray wolves was first established through the releases of well-bonded pairs with their pups. But the Service halted such releases after 2006.

Starting in 2016, the agencies began taking newborn pups from their captive parents and placing them in the dens of wild wolves, but genetic diversity has continued to decline.

In contrast, northern gray wolves were released into Idaho in 1995, just three years before the start of the southwestern reintroduction program. By 1999, Idahos wolves surpassed the number of wolves found today in Arizona and New Mexico.
Selected representatives of the Swiss and Indian healthcare sector presented their vision for enhancing the quality of patient-hospital interaction and healthcare delivery at the conclave.

Indo-Swiss HealthTech Conclave 2019 on Digital Health was recently conducted in Bengaluru. The Digital Health Conclave (DHC) 2019 put forward a platform curated by swissnex India to showcase cutting-edge technologies and innovations in healthcare from Switzerland and India.

Selected representatives of the Swiss and Indian healthcare sector presented their vision for enhancing the quality of patient-hospital interaction and healthcare delivery at the conclave.

With this Indo-Swiss Digital Health Conclave, we are establishing a forum for exchange and inspiration on the latest trends, opportunities and challenges with regard to various aspects of digital health. Switzerland is known to be an innovation hub, particularly in medical technologies and pharmaceutical research, while Indias healthtech sector is changing rapidly, creating many opportunities for both countries to collaborate in education, research and innovation, said Sebastien Hug, CEO of swissnex India and Consul General of Switzerland in India.

Prof. Dr. med. Andreas Trojan, Founder, Consilium shared information about the newly developed smartphone healthcare app referred to as Consilium which is currently under validation in Switzerland. Prof Trojan plans to launch the service soon in Singapore and India. Joining him in the same session, Randy Ramin-Wright, International Business Director, Clinerion spoke about his plans of introducing a Real World Data ecosystem in India very soon. Traditional trial countries in Europe and North America are in high demand and may be somewhat saturated, with clinical trials competing for the same patient population. However, regions like Asia offer attractive untapped potential. Moving East has become a highly effective way for pharmaceutical companies to streamline operations and concentrate on their core activities. However, the local infrastructure and cultural understanding of emerging regions can present formidable barriers, Ramin-Wright pointed out.

Highlighting the implementation of technology in the area of diagnostics, Prof Hans-Peter Beck, Head of Molecular Parasitology-Epidemiology Unit, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute elaborated upon the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in improving malaria detection. For all our efforts to control malaria, diagnosing it in many parts of the world still requires counting malaria parasites under the microscope on a glass slide smeared with blood. Now an artificial intelligence program can do it more conveniently. We are currently conducting studies in Odisha in India and few parts of Africa so that we can implement the AI technology for malaria detection in these parts, Prof Beck mentioned.

Clemedi is another player in the field of digital health at Switzerland who has developed a TB diagnostic test based on machine learning. We wish to tailor our test for the Indian market by collaborating with the right partners. We are planning to conduct multi-centre studies in countries such as India, South Africa and Eastern Europe where there is high prevalence of drug resistant strains of TB, said Dr Prajwal, Founder & CSO, Clemedi.

The conclave also saw interesting presentations made by the healthcare experts in India. Dr Sailesh Mohan, Joint Director, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) talked about the various health technologies developed by PHFI keeping affordability in mind as the prime criteria.

An interactive session between Dr Paul C Salins, Senior VP- NH Narayana Health; Medical Director- Mazumdar Shaw Medical Centre and Dr Shravan Subramanyam, MD, Roche Diagnostics India was quite engaging as the experts spoke about the various challenges facing the healthcare system in India. India needs to scale up and skill up the healthcare system. The trend is now shifting from treatment to prevention. We are at a pivotal moment in healthcare history. An unprecedented convergence of medical knowledge, technology and data science is revolutionising patient care. In order to ensure timely screening, diagnosis, treatment and even prevention of diseases, we need to ensuring the right treatment for the right patient at the right time, said Dr Shravan.
Through the Portea Health Prime membership, Portea offers every family a doctor that is constantly monitoring their health needs

Portea, Indias leading consumer healthcare brand has launched an exclusive healthcare service for people above 65yrs of age. The service line is called Portea Health Prime and is designed to address the comprehensive health monitoring needs of elders. The population of seniors in the country is growing rapidly and many of them have one or more chronic conditions. This combined by the fact that most of them live on their own, and not with extended families, makes their healthcare management a rapidly growing challenge. Children living abroad, or in other cities, desire to attend to their parents health, however, struggle to do so due to their busy lives.

Through the Portea Health Prime membership, Portea offers every family a doctor that is constantly monitoring their health needs. The doctor would carry out a comprehensive assessment and create a customized plan for the couple.

The membership comes with additional benefits like access to Porteas exclusive Care Club, Hospital partners and a tailor made social calendar for seniors. The health manager who is a single point of contact assigned to the family then ensures that the customized plan is delivered seamlessly to the family. That apart any other health needs are attended to, either at home or at a hospital as appropriate. The health manager becomes the go-to person for the children, helping them manage their parents health in a stress-free manner.

Speaking about this, Meena Ganesh, MD and CEO, Portea Medical, said, In the last 5 years, weve served more than 100,000 elderly patients, and the one common thread in all the cases is that the families feel that if someone had medically monitored their elders better, they would have lead a more independent and healthy lives. People need a partner in effective care of their elders health. This is the need that Portea Health Prime will address by assigning a health manager to each member, who will then work with Patients family and their consulting doctors. Well also tie-up with NGOs and event agencies, to create workshops and events for the enrolled members, to enable growing elder communities in the key cities.

Portea has currently introduced these services in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, and Chennai. The new offering is developed by Porteas Doctors, geriatric consultants, and follows international protocols designed for geriatric care. Digitalized health records; integrated reports and sophisticated monitoring systems will use technology to medically superior patient experience.
APO is the sole press release wire in Africa, and the global leader in media relations related to Africa. With headquarters in Dakar, Senegal, APO owns a media database of over 150,000 contacts and the main Africa-related news online community.Go to: www.bizcommunity.com/PressOffice.aspx?cn=apogroup
Theres just a burst of color, Christopher Loader, a London native visiting Miami said at the conclusion of this years Miami Beach Pride parade. Everyone is super super happy, its a big wedding and everyone is getting married.

There was plenty of love throughout the weeks pride festivities  and certainly plenty of color. Pride weekend in Miami Beach was jam packed with cultural events, concerts, shows and plenty of parties.

Ive never been here before, its a lot more fun than the other prides Ive been to, its a lot more lively, more diverse, Im definitely coming again, Kimberly Guice, a med student visiting Miami before moving to Texas said at the Pride festival.

Founded ten years ago in 2009, the first festival and parade drew 15,000 spectators. Last year over 145,000 people were in attendance, and the festivities have grown to a global event with A-list celebrities such as last years Grand Marshal Gus Kenworthy, Betty Who, Bebe Rexha, Adam Lambert, Ross Mathews, Mario Lopez and more.

Judy and Dennis Shephard, parents of Matthew Shephard and founders of the Matthew Shephard foundation were this years Ally Grand Marshals. They are coming off the 20thanniversary of the murder of their son at the University of Wyoming. The Foundation works to erase hate crimes and foster understanding, compassion and acceptance in the LGBT community.

We are thrilled and honored to be a part of Miami Beach Pride, Jason Marsden, Executive Director of the Matthew Shepard Foundation said. We hope that by representing our Foundation and reminding people of Matt, we can encourage both those affected by hate crimes and law enforcement to step up, connect, and do a better job for LGBTQ+ community of Miami Beach.

This years Advocate Grand Marshal was Detective Juan F. Sanchez, and openly gay police officer and member of the Miami Beach Police Department since November 1987. In 2010 Sanchez was appointed to serve as the departments LGBT Liason  a position he held until his retirement last month.

Ive been involved with Miami Beach Pride from year one, and its been incredible to see what its grown into, Sanchez said. The first year I was involved, I started by providing security for the event and never once did I think I would be a marshal for the parade. Its very humbling and a huge honor.

The Grand Marshals marched alongside more than 70 parade groups, 35 floats and over 3,000 participants. Local groups like Gay Vista Social Club and Equality Florida marched in the pride and corporations like T-Mobile and Starbucks showcased large floats and showered the crowd with branded rainbow swag.

My favorite part about pride is the fact that you can be yourself, said Jeff Perla, influencer behind The Travelin Bum Instagram said. I feel like its a time where everybody can let loose and enjoy each others company and I think a lot of people dont like to go to bars or clubs, but Pride brings the whole community together once a year and thats really nice to see.

On Pride grounds two stages were bridged by rows of tents where pride-goers could shop, learn, take pictures, get tested and buy drinks. This years festival had two VIP tents, one near either stage where a rotation of DJs, drag performances, competitions and talks kept the party going on both ends of the festival.

I came to pride because I want to see people in their natural skins, I wanted to see what they were like when people werent just pressuring them to fit the norms, Maria Sanchez, a Miami native said. This is my first time to any pride, but it wont be the last.

Miami Pride

Via: YouTube
#Prisms2019: Meet young judge Dorcas Dube

In the run-up to the 22nd Prism Awards taking place on Sunday, 14 April, we chatted to this year's cohort of young judges about their fresh approach to the judging process.





This years young judges entries far exceeded expectation. The selected group is proof that theres an array of diverse and young talent in this industry and that they have a lot to offer, says co-convenor and founder of the Prisms Young Judges initiative, Palesa Madumo, executive director of strategy at Vuma Reputation Management.



Dorcas Dube Here, our interview with Dorcas Dube, marketing and communications manager at Partners for Possibility...



What does this recognition and opportunity mean to you? What does this recognition and opportunity mean to you? In this series of interviews, we find out what theyve learnt working alongside the cluster judges and what their young minds bring to the table.This years young judges entries far exceeded expectation. The selected group is proof that theres an array of diverse and young talent in this industry and that they have a lot to offer, says co-convenor and founder of the Prisms Young Judges initiative, Palesa Madumo, executive director of strategy at Vuma Reputation Management.Here, our interview with Dorcas Dube, marketing and communications manager at Partners for Possibility...

Briefly tell us about your experience in the industry. Briefly tell us about your experience in the industry.

Comment on the judging process. Comment on the judging process.

What has the response been to this years entries? What has the response been to this years entries?

What makes the winning work stand out? What makes the winning work stand out?

Prisa also introduced the Student Campaign of the Year in 2016. Why do you think its important that PR students are included in such initiatives? Prisa also introduced the Student Campaign of the Year in 2016. Why do you think its important that PR students are included in such initiatives?

What do you think young minds bring to the table? What do you think young minds bring to the table?

What have you learnt working alongside the cluster judges? What have you learnt working alongside the cluster judges?

Comment on the past, present and future state of PR. Comment on the past, present and future state of PR.

The special ingredient to the future of PR is the magical wow factor, the future certainly looks bright.

What would the title of Prisms Young Judge for the 2019 awards mean to you? What would the title of Prisms Young Judge for the 2019 awards mean to you?

What are you most looking forward to in terms of this years Awards? What are you most looking forward to in terms of this years Awards?

Jessica Tennant's articles About Jessica Tennant Jess is Senior Editor: Marketing & Media at Bizcommunity.com. She is also a contributing writer. Jess is Senior Editor: Marketing & Media at Bizcommunity.com. She is also a contributing writer. moc.ytinummoczib@swengnitekram

This recognition and opportunity has been one of the highlights in my career. Being amongst likeminded people who are passionate about PR has broadened my horizon and understanding of the industry. Not only did I gain knowledge, I also made friends who are now family. I aspire to inspire upcoming PR professionals to seize any learning opportunities that arise.My journey in PR started when I decided to study Strategic Communications and went on to acquire an Honours In Strategic Communication from the University of Johannesburg and currently I am pursuing a Masters in Communication Science. From the onset I knew my passion was within the marketing and communications industry, however, the question remained, 'How do I integrate passion and purpose?'.My purpose is to make a difference in society through being a servant leader in the development sector. As a result, I have been privileged to lead the marketing and communications of various NGOs.Prior to joining the development sector, I worked in an agency and I was responsible for various brands. I gained vast experience in branding, social media, brand reputation and stakeholder relations amongst others.What an incredible experience! I was fortunate enough to be in a cluster with industry experts who have immense experience in the PR field. It was fascinating to hear the different views and debate who deserves to be awarded. After lots of deliberation, it all came down to awarding excellence and not business as usual. It was a valuable experience.A lot of work was put into the entries. Most entries demonstrated evidence of quality, creativity and making an impact. However, some entries failed to regard the principles and practices of the PR profession.The winning entries produce magical wow campaigns that showcase excellence and not business as usual. This encompasses identifying a clear problem or opportunity, conducting extensive research on the subject under investigation. The planning phase needs to illustrate quantifiable objectives while execution demonstrates creativity and flexibility. Lastly, the evaluation needs to elucidate on how the campaign delivered on the objectives.PR students are future PR industry leaders hence it is vital for them to be included in such experiential initiatives. It is essential to merge education and practice. Thus including students into the world of professionals is of paramount importance.Young minds bring fresh perspectives and insights on how millennials function and view campaigns. The future of PR is with young minds.I have learnt that my views matter and most importantly visualise your highest self and start showing up as her. I am doing just that and wow, what an incredible journey it has been.Over the years, PR has evolved tremendously. Gone are the days of spray and pray; media releases are everything and producing content that is not meaningful. We live in the digital era where a transdisciplinary approach to working is a winner. Content needs to be of quality and relevant, the customer is king.I came. I judged. I conquered. The experience has been incredible and the title of Prisms Young Judge is validation that I am a PR professional with a lot to offer the industry.I am looking forward to networking with like-minded people in the industry and meeting professionals behind the award-winning brands. Most importantly I am excited to know that I had a voice in the judging process. Onwards and upwards!
This job expired on 20 May 2019.
This job expired on 8 May 2019.
When we think of climate change, one of the first things to come to mind is melting polar ice. However, ice loss isn't just restricted to the polar regions.

According to research published today, glaciers around the world have lost well over 9000 gigatonnes (nine trillion tonnes) of ice since 1961, raising sea level by 27 mm.

An international team led by the University of Zurich in Switzerland used classical glaciological field observations combined with a wealth of information from various satellite missions to painstakingly calculate how much ice has been lost or gained by 19 different glacierised regions around the world.

Their research, published in Nature, reveals that glaciers lost 9625 gigatonnes of ice between 1961 and 2016.

The largest regional losses were in Alaska, followed by glaciers around the edge of the Greenland ice sheet and from glaciers in the southern Andes. Significant amounts of ice were also lost from glaciers in the Canadian and Russian Arctic, as well as from Svalbard.

Glaciers in temperate regions such as in the European Alps and the Caucasus mountain range did not escape ice loss either, but are too small to make a significant contribution to sea level.

Interestingly, the only area to have gained ice over the 55-year period was southwest Asia (noted on the map as ASW). Here, glaciers amassed 119 gigatonnes of ice, but neighbouring southeast Asia (ASE) lost around the same amount, 112 gigatonnes.

ESA's Climate Change Initiative - a research programme focused on generating global datasets for the key components of Earth's climate, known as essential climate variables - was also key to the research.

The initiative's glacier project, together with ESA's former GlobGlacier project, provided glacier outlines and information on ice mass changes for thousands of individual glaciers.

Frank Paul, co-author of the study explains, "Glacier outlines are needed to make precise calculations for the areas in question. To date, this information came largely from the US Landsat satellites, the data from which are delivered to European users under ESA's Third Party mission agreement.

"In the future, the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission, in particular, will increasingly contribute to the precise monitoring of glacier change."

Digital elevation models, which provide topographic details of a region, were calculated using information from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's ASTER sensor on the US Terra mission and Germany's TanDEM-X mission. Both sources were processed within the Glaciers Climate Change Initiative and other projects.

These data, along with the comprehensive glaciological database compiled by the World Glacier Monitoring Service, allowed the researchers to reconstruct ice thickness changes of 19 000 glaciers worldwide.

By combining these measurement methods and having the new comprehensive dataset, the researchers could estimate how much ice was lost each year in all mountain regions since the 1960s.

The glaciological measurements made in the field provided annual fluctuations, while satellite data allowed them to determine ice loss over several years or decades.

Research leader, Michael Zemp, said, "While we can now offer clear information about how much ice each region with glaciers has lost, it is also important to note that the rate of loss has increased significantly over the last 30 years. We are currently losing a total of 335 billion tonnes of ice a year, corresponding to a rise in sea levels of almost 1 mm per year."

While warming ocean water still remains the main driver for sea-level rise, melting glacier ice is the second largest contributor to rising seas.

Dr Zemp added, "In other words, every single year we are losing about three times the volume of all ice stored in the European Alps, and this accounts for around 30% of the current rate of sea-level rise."

Around the world, vanishing glaciers also ultimately mean less water for millions of people, less hydroelectric power and less water for crops. While melting glaciers also result in sea-level rise, they critically increase the risk of other natural hazards such as glacier-lake outburst floods and related debris flows.

The pace at which glaciers are losing mass in the long term is very important to making informed future adaptation decisions. This kind of information, therefore, is critical for international bodies assessing climate change, such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Mark Drinkwater, Senior Advisor on cryosphere and climate at ESA, added, "Bearing in mind the socio-economic consequences, the fate of glaciers in a future climate is something ESA views seriously."

"It is fundamental that we build upon existing monitoring capabilities using observations from the EC's Copernicus Sentinel missions, and other ESA and Third Party Mission missions. Their data crucially allow us to build a robust climate perspective to reveal regional and year-to-year fluctuations of glaciers and other parts of the cryosphere such as snow cover, sea ice and ice sheets."

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Shanghai (Gasgoo)- GAC NIO New Energy Automobile Co.,Ltd (GAC NIO) is ready to initiate its Series A round fundraising, according to a local media outlet.

The NEV maker announced on April 1 via its WeChat account the plan to launch an all-new car brand that focuses on the R&D, sales and relevant services of all-electric vehicles. GAC Group and the startup NIO, two parent companies of GAC NIO, will jointly invest in the new car brand and co-hold equity with GAC NIO's founder team.

GAC Group and NIO signed a strategic cooperation agreement and NEV project agreement on December 28, 2017, announcing that they would fund a new company, namely, GAC NIO, whose primary operations include R&D, sales and services pertain to intelligent-connected NEVs.

The new company was formally founded in April, 2018 with a planned investment of RMB1.28 billion and registered capital of RMB500 million. GAC Group and NIO account for 22.5% and 22.5% ownership in GAC NIO respectively with the former being responsible for R&D and production of complete vehicles and the latter focusing on intelligent-connected technology and energy support.

GAC NIO regarded itself as a jointly-created company rather than a co-funded joint venture in traditional sense. Under this business mode, GAC NIO will build an open, independent platform available for sharing that integrates resource of the whole value chain, making innovation from aspects of industry, resource, technology and users.
California is in an earthquake drought. It has been almost five years since the state experienced its last earthquake of magnitude 6 or stronger  in Napa. Southern California felt its last big quake on Easter Sunday 2010, and that shaker was actually centered across the border, causing the most damage in Mexicali. Experts know this calm period will eventually end, with destructive results. They just dont know when this well-documented geological pattern will shift.

Earthquakes shown occurred in California and within 30 miles of the states coast or border since March 1, 1969. The size of the circles indicates the amount of shaking energy released in the earthquake. (Jon Schleuss / Los Angeles Times)

Earthquake rates are quite variable: We have a decade or two where we dont have many earthquakes, and people expect thats what California is always like, said Elizabeth Cochran, seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. Eventually, were going to dramatically see a change in earthquake rates.

Scientists have been warning California of seismic dangers, be it the Big One on the San Andreas fault or catastrophes that could come from lesser-known faults, such as Hayward or Newport-Inglewood.

One reason for the urgent alerts: Memories of a truly destructive quake in many urban areas have faded. And with that, some fear, the urgency of pushing seismic safety has also faded.

Experts say California ignores these realities at its own peril.

Along the main plate boundary faults, we are in a deficit of earthquakes in the last 100 years, said Tom Rockwell, a San Diego State paleoseismologist. At some point, thats going to change. Were going to have some big earthquakes.

Major earthquakes in California

Consider how much quieter California has been in regard to earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater:

 In the last 25 years, there have been 11 such temblors statewide. In the preceding generation, there were 32.

 In the last quarter-century, there have been three such earthquakes that shook Californias 10 southernmost counties. In the prior generation, there were nine, including the Sylmar temblor of 1971 (magnitude 6.6) and Northridge of 1994 (magnitude 6.7).

 The greater San Francisco Bay Area has been particularly quiet. Since the great 1906 earthquake destroyed much of San Francisco, there have been only three earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater. But in the 75 years before that catastrophe, there were 14, according to geophysicist Ross Stein.

Earthquakes locked up

Earthquakes must happen at some point to relieve the immense tectonic forces that are pushing part of the state northwest toward Alaska and the rest southeast toward Mexico. On average, theres about 12 feet of movement per century along the 730-mile San Andreas fault system between Point Arena in Mendocino County and the Mexican border, Rockwell said, but, except for a 90-mile section that creeps in San Benito and Monterey counties, there has been no significant movement along this primary boundary of faults between the Pacific and North American plates in a century.

There may be periods where things get kind of all locked up and no earthquakes happen for a while. You store a lot of strain in the Earths crust, said Tom Jordan, USC professor of geophysics. Once it gets going, its like a set of dominoes. You might get multiple events if you have enough strain energy stored in the crust, because its been a long time since an earthquake.

Earthquakes shown occurred in California and within 30 miles of the states coast or border since March 1, 1969. The size of the circles indicates the amount of shaking energy released in the earthquake. (Jon Schleuss / Los Angeles Times)

When a time of elevated seismic activity will come is hard to say. Some thought the 1989 magnitude 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake, which killed 63 people, would mark the end of decades of seismic quiescence in the Bay Area. Instead, the lack of extreme shaking has largely persisted, save for the Napa temblor of 2014.

Lack of seismic activity on Californias faults

Scientists have been particularly focused on the lack of major seismic activity on several California faults that as a group produce the most frequent earthquakes on the plate boundary  the San Andreas, San Jacinto and Hayward. They are the ones seen as most likely to cause trouble in our lifetime.

Yet theyve been exceedingly quiet. A USGS analysis published in the journal Seismological Research Letters Wednesday finds that, based on an analysis of sites where seismic data are known for the past millennium, the century between 1919 and 2018 is in all odds the only 100-year period in the past 1,000 years where there have been no earthquakes strong enough to break the ground on those three faults.

Only sections of the San Andreas, San Jacinto and Hayward faults that have 1,000 years worth of data on earthquakes were included in the analysis because the authors needed that data to look for periods of seismic activity and inactivity.



Ordinarily, there are roughly three to four of these earthquakes on these faults every 100 years.

The next century is unlikely to be as quiet as this one. Its hard to beat, said USGS seismologist Glenn Biasi, the lead author of the study.

Earthquakes in history

The 1800s, by comparison, was a far more active time for earthquakes. That century saw six large temblors on this trio of faults; between 1800 and 1918, there were eight. Thats an average of one major quake on those faults every 16 years.

Earthquake scientists have been buzzing for years about Californias hiatus in supersized earthquakes, thinking the chances of such a 100-year gap between ground-shattering seismic events to be improbable. Did Someone Forget to Pay the Earthquake Bill? was the title of a talk by UCLA geophysicist David Jackson at the Seismological Society of America conference in 2014.

Scientists focus on earthquakes that literally break the ground along the main plate boundary because theyre the ones that actually do the job of relieving centuries of tectonic strain. A famous example of the ground breaking was during the great 1906 earthquake that destroyed much of San Francisco; at Point Reyes in Marin County, a fence that intersected the fault was suddenly cut in two, separated on each side by the San Andreas by 18 feet.

Some quakes dont do that job. The 1989 magnitude 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake, while near the San Andreas fault, actually occurred on a neighboring sub-parallel strand, according to USGS research geologist Kate Scharer, a coauthor of the USGS study. Earthquakes of 1992 in Landers and 1999 in Hector Mine broke faults at the surface, but didnt do it at the main plate boundary, Biasi said.

There have been more mild seismic storms in recent memory

The earthquake storm in the 80s and 90s is clearer in hindsight, said Caltech seismologist Egill Hauksson. It began with the Whittier Narrows temblor in 1987 (magnitude 5.9), which killed 8; followed by Pasadena in 1988 (4.9); Montebello in 1989 (4.4); Upland in 1990 (5.2); Sierra Madre in 1991 (5.8), which killed a woman; before ending with Northridge in 1994, which resulted in the deaths of at least 57 people.

In the 75 years before the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake, there were 14 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater in the Bay Area, according to geophysicist Ross Stein. Since 1906, there have been only three. (Temblor.net geophysicist Ross Stein)

More severe periods of earthquake activity were seen in the 19th century. Mission San Juan Capistrano endured shaking and suffered damage from two earthquakes  both greater than magnitude 7  within a span of just a dozen years.

The first came in 1800 from a quake on the San Jacinto fault east of Temecula. Then, in 1812, movement of the San Andreas and San Jacinto faults through present-day cities like San Bernardino, Rialto, Loma Linda, Yucaipa and Highland brought down the missions Great Stone Church, killing more than 40 people inside.

The Inland Empire would be strongly impacted if those quakes repeated today, Scharer said.

There are other examples of frequent major earthquakes

In the 1500s, for instance, three major San Andreas fault earthquakes hit along the Grapevine, according to Scharer, possibly all within 30 years. And over the last 1,000 years in the southernmost 100 miles of the San Andreas fault system, there have been three periods of increased seismic activity  between 900 and 1100, 1200 and 1400, and 1600 to 1800, according to Rockwell. In that section, it has been relatively quiet for the last 219 years.

If this pattern continues, we could well start a new phase of activity, Rockwell said.

Turkeys example

Turkey shows how a region can be affected by an above-average rate of earthquakes that persists for generations. A 1939 earthquake was the start of a series of 11 large temblors on the North Anatolian fault lasting at least 60 years, generally moving westward toward Istanbul, according to Stein, chief executive of Temblor.net and a former USGS geophysicist who has written extensively on the Turkish quakes.

Sometimes there was a 30-year gap between big quakes; sometimes, only one.

The most recent catastrophic earthquake was a magnitude 7.4 that caused more than 17,000 deaths. The 1999 temblor struck the industrial heartland and densely populated areas. And theres concern Istanbul is next.

Istanbul has been kind of on tenterhooks ever since the 1999 Izmit earthquake. They have an early warning system. Theyve done billions of dollars of infrastructure upgrades  a good job, considering its a very old city with lots of frail buildings, Stein said.

California out of practice!

While Istanbul might be on alarm for a future big one, many Californians are out of practice.

The last time California has seen an earthquake as powerful as a magnitude 7.8 was in 1857 in Southern California and 1906 for Northern California. No one alive today has first-hand experience with that kind of quake in the Golden State.

For instance, the magnitude 6.7 Northridge quake of 1994, which severely shook just a fraction of Los Angeles County, would pale in comparison with a magnitude 7.8 quake on the San Andreas. That would produce 45 times more shaking energy than the 1994 temblor, and a plausible scenario would not only send strong shaking to much of L.A. County, but also parts of five others: Kern, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura.

The magnitude 6.7 Northridge earthquake produced severe or violent shaking (shown in orange or red) in only a part of Los Angeles County. (U.S. Geological Survey)

A plausible future magnitude 7.8 earthquake on the San Andreas fault in Southern California would produce severe or violent shaking over a much larger geographical area than the 1994 Northridge earthquake, affecting six counties. (U.S. Geological Survey)

If we had earthquakes as frequently as we had prior to 1906 within the last 50 years, people would be a lot more in tune with what earthquakes can do, and have a lot more interest in earthquake preparedness, said Tim Dawson, senior engineering geologist at the California Geological Survey.

A sudden jump in how often earthquakes come can make recovery difficult.

New Zealand elevated seismic activity

New Zealands South Island has faced elevated seismic activity for 16 years  and its still not over, even after a magnitude 6.3 Christchurch earthquake of 2011 caused the deaths of 185 people and collapsed many buildings.

Four months after the Feb. 22, 2011, earthquake, a magnitude 6 hit southeast of Christchurch; then a 5.8 and a 5.9 on the same dayhalf a year later. Valentines Day in 2016 brought a magnitude 5.7 quake. Its definitely on the high side of numbers of aftershocks, said Matt Gerstenberger, principal seismologist for New Zealands seismic monitoring agency, GNS Science.

The constant shaking caused significant impact to peoples mental and social health. Rates of things akin to PTSD started showing up amongst people, said Sara McBride, a public information official for the regions emergency management agencies between 2006 and 2011.Its a constant reminder of that which you have no control over.

Californians Be prepared!

Experts say its important that Californians are psychologically prepared for the prospect of a new era of earthquakes.

That means not only having an emergency plan and supplies, said McBride, now a social scientist for the USGS earthquake early warning system, but mentally imagining what that will mean  not just putting a flashlight and shoes next to the bed, for instance, but understanding that will mean dealing with broken glass on the floor and a power outage that may last weeks or more, and planning for how your family will get through it.

If we accept that there will come a time that the Earth is going to be more active than usual  that this is a natural process going on, and plotting how you might react, McBride said, that gives you a sense of psychological preparedness.

California! Get prepared for the next Big One! It is around the corner!

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[SeismoSoc, LA Times]
By Olivia Rose

PUBLIC access to Babalua Beach has finally been restored following a multi-department Government intervention.





The huge pile of rubble blocking the pathway to the beach on the west side of Turtle Cove has been removed.





The issue of public beach access sparked last week when photos appeared on online forum Speak Your Mind TCI showing mounds of quarry barring the only access to the popular Babalua Beach on Cherokee Road, Providenciales.





Residents took to the forum to voice their disapproval and called on the Government to remind property owners of the penalties for obstructing public beach access.





Multiple reports made directly to the Department of Environment and Coastal Resources (DECR) and on social media, prompted a Government investigation.





On March 25, officers from the Department of Survey and Mapping, Planning Department and the Department of Environment and Coastal Resources (DECR) visited the site.





Subsequently the DECR release a statement confirming that the access was on Crown land and that an obstruction of quarry had been illegally developed.





The DECR said: "The Government is continuing to follow leads into the incident, but the obstruction has now been cleared and public access to Babalua Beach can continue.





Also weighing in on the issue, Minister of Tourism Hon. Ralph Higgs reminded developers and by extension the general public that all beaches in the TCI are for responsible public use and any obstruction of a public beach access will not be tolerated.





He said: "We are proud of our world renowned beaches here in the Turks and Caicos and the Government is committed to ensuring that the public can continue to enjoy our beautiful by nature shores.





"Offenders will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, Higgs stressed.





Since the Government assumed office a freeze was placed on further development on and removal of beach accesses and a full review of beach accesses is ongoing.




By Delana Isles

RESCUE workers spent all of Sunday (March 31) scouring the waters around West Caicos for survivors of a deadly boat excursion from Haiti.





Tragedy struck at about 8am when a twin-engine outboard boat (sloop) smuggling several undocumented migrants from Haiti capsized in the shark infested waters.





The Royal TCI Police (RTCIPF) Marine Branch discovered the boat and a team was immediately dispatched to lead the rescue efforts. They were joined shortly after by a team from the US Coast Guard.





Fourteen people were eventually rescued, while tragically 14 dead bodies were recovered from the water when the search was called off just after 6pm.





Authorities said at least four bodies were still unaccounted for at that time.





The following morning and up until Wednesday (April 3), rescue efforts continued, but no more bodies or survivors were found, police said.





Throughout Sunday, the police force kept the territory updated on the terrible tragedy and their rescue efforts via emails and social media posts.





During one of those updates, Acting Police Commissioner Trevor Botting stated that the force would be using all of its resources in the rescue efforts.





Botting also thanked responders for their dedication: "Today, March 31, 2019 we have seen the heroic efforts of my police officers, immigration officials, emergency medical response teams and private citizens, after a boat carrying suspected illegal migrants capsized off West Caicos.





"This has indeed been a difficult day, and I would like to express thanks and appreciation to all of you that responded.





"Your service today is invaluable and appreciated. We know that emergencies can happen without notice, but our ability to respond and recover from the many horrific situations we see daily is directly influenced by how well we work together as a team.





"I would like to commend you for your teamwork. Thank you, for your service and dedication to deal with what you were faced with today.





This is the second substantial loss of life this year for those braving the perilous journey from Haiti to greener pastures.





In February, Bahamian authorities recovered the bodies of 28 Haitians after a boat smuggling them sank off the northern Bahamas.





Some 17 individuals were rescued and taken into police custody.





Last year, at least 12 people died when a boat travelling from Haiti sunk off Providenciales in January.





In response to that tragedy at sea, the US Embassy in Port-au-Prince launched a public service announcement warning Haitians not to risk their lives at sea.





Similarly, the TCI-based Haitian consulate commented on Tuesday (April 2) on the tragedy and made the same call.





As reported on Magnetic Media, the consulate stated: "Once again the Haitian community of the TCI is in mourning due to the tragic loss of life on the seas of our countrymen.





"Its a sad and painful situation for us and on behalf of the Haitian Consulate in the TCI, we offer our condolences to families of people who are directly affected by this tragic incident.





"At this time, we would like to use this opportunity to appeal to our young compatriots and ask them to stop this activity for the big risk and the loss is even greater; I am appealing to those who are thinking of risking the lives of offshore and people who will help people to take such a dangerous crossing of these fictitious ships.





"You risk your life and if you live, you have no chance to reach the shores of the TCI as they will hold you back and return them home.





The consulate thanked local authorities for the massive effort displayed in recovering the survivors and the bodies of the deceased.





"We also want to inform the public that we are working closely with the Government in order to identify and repatriate their bodies in Haiti.




INTERNATIONAL members of a shipping register group met in Montserrat this week to discuss maritime matters of interest.





Red Ensign Group is made up of 13 British shipping registers from the United Kingdom, its Crown dependencies and its overseas territories, including the Turks and Caicos Islands.





Members have met every year for the past 31 years in one of the member countries to talk about business strategy, policy and safety matters.





They discuss best practice and look at ways of improving the performance of the British registers internationally.





This year the focus was on matters of technical interest and sessions were held for registrars and those who oversee coastal state preparedness, a press release on Tuesday (April 2) said.





It also included sessions on the roles and responsibility of coastal states in terms of vessel traffic management and port state control.





Ashley Lindsey, registrar of shipping in Montserrat, said: "This is an important opportunity for all those involved in the work of maritime across the Red Ensign Group to get together, to build relationships and also to take away ideas to improve our individual flag, port and coastal state work as well as to benefit the Red Ensign Group as a whole.





The Red Ensign Group conference began in 1988 as an opportunity for the registrars to get together to share ideas, harmonise processes and discuss ways forward.





Katy Ware, director of maritime safety and standards at the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, chaired this years event from Tuesday to Thursday (April 2 to 4).





She said: "The Red Ensign Group conference matters because it brings us all together to work through those matters of regulation related to flag, port and coastal state responsibility that give us our status as a leading maritime player across the world.





"Everyone has an equal voice and there is a relationship between us that makes things happen.





Any vessel registered in the UK, a Crown dependency or UK overseas territory is a British ship and is entitled to fly the Red Ensign flag.





Administration of the Red Ensign Group is operated by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.




Exploring Israeli innovation from all angles

Conference sponsored by Schusterman Center, International Business School unites Israel scholars and economic experts

Brandeis Provost Lisa Lynch (left) moderates the Ilan Troen Lecture on Contemporary Israel Affairs featuring Karnit Flug, past governor of the Bank of Israel, and Gideon Argov, general partner at New Era Capital Partners.

The U.S. and Israeli economies share an entrepreneurial spirit and willingness to take risks that has led to flourishing technology sectors in both countries, former Bank of Israel governor Karnit Flug told a crowd of experts and academics gathered Sunday at Brandeis University for the Innovation in Israel: Economy and Society conference.

Flug, who served as the first female governor of Israels central bank from 2013 to 2018, said three factors are largely behind the countrys high-tech success to date: investments in education, effective bridge-building between universities and commercial enterprises  which helps get breakthrough innovations to market quickly  and the maturation of Israels venture capital industry.

But Flug cautioned it will take further investment in human capital before the economic benefits of the innovation boom are felt beyond just a select pocket of Israeli society.

The main issue is education, from the very early start all the way up to adulthood, and vocational training, said Flug. The education system doesn't provide enough people with the right skills.  This is the area where we must invest much more.

The two-day Innovation in Israel conference, which concluded Monday, served as a forum to explore the roots, future direction and societal impact of Israel's innovation economy. The event was sponsored by the Asper Center for Global Entrepreneurship at Brandeis International Business School and Schusterman Center for Israel Studies.

Were going to be debating innovation in Israel from all angles  what works, what doesnt work and the implications for the future, said Brandeis Provost Lisa Lynch, who moderated Sundays discussion with Flug and Gideon Argov of New Era Capital Partners, a venture capital investment firm with offices in Boston and Tel Aviv.

On Monday conference attendees engaged in in-depth lectures and panel discussions about Israels status as startup nation, a moniker frequently used to describe the countrys thriving innovation sector. Participants included Erran Carmel of the Kogod School of Business at American University; Shayna Weiss of the Schusterman Center; Aziz Kaddan, CEO and co-founder of Myndlift; Ilan Troen of Ben-Gurion University; Yehudah Mirsky of Brandeis; Jacob Cohen of MITs Sloan School of Management; Shana Krakowski of Tel Aviv Yafo municipality; and Ohad Elhelo '16, MA '17, founder of Our Generation Speaks (OGS).

Also Monday, Elhelo received the Brandeis Alumni Entrepreneurship Award for his work at OGS, a fellowship program and incubator for emerging Israeli and Palestinian leaders hosted at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management. The honor, which was presented by Brandeis IBS Dean Kathryn Graddy, is given annually to a Brandeis alumnus that best exemplifies an entrepreneurial spirit and independent thinking.

What started out as an idea Ohad conceived during his years as a Brandeis undergraduate has blossomed into a thriving organization promoting positive social change, said Graddy. Ohad, we are so proud that you are a part of our Brandeis family. And we are thrilled to give you this award today in recognition of everything you do to uphold the values on which our university was founded.
OTTAWA - Reduced search-and-rescue coverage, ferry-service disruptions, cancelled resupply runs to Arctic and coastal communities and nearly $2 million in lost navigational buoys.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 8/4/2019 (981 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The CCGS Captain Molly Kool is presented to the media after undergoing refit and conversion work at the Davie shipyard, Friday, December 14, 2018 in Levis Que. Reduced search-and-rescue coverage, ferry-service disruptions, cancelled resupply runs to Arctic and coastal communities and nearly $2 million in lost navigational buoys. New documents obtained by The Canadian Press show those are among the real impacts that communities and business are starting to feel as the Canadian Coast Guard's icebreaker fleet continues to age. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

OTTAWA - Reduced search-and-rescue coverage, ferry-service disruptions, cancelled resupply runs to Arctic and coastal communities and nearly $2 million in lost navigational buoys.

Those are among the real safety, social and commercial impacts that communities across the country are starting to feel as the Canadian Coast Guard's fleet gets older, according to new documents obtained by The Canadian Press.

And the problems are expected to get worse: the documents warn that more than a third of the coast guard's 26 large vessels have exceeded their expected lifespans and many won't survive until replacements arrive.

"Vessels are at increasing risk of unrecoverable failure," reads one PowerPoint presentation prepared by coast guard officials last summer and marked "secret." "Many ships will not remain operational until their replacements arrive."

Obtained through the access-to-information law, the documents underline the stakes facing the federal government and various communities if Canada does not have a capable coast-guard fleet.

They come amid questions about how and when the government will replace the coast guard's existing vessels. Only five new coast-guard ships are currently included in the government's multibillion-dollar national shipbuilding plan.

The PowerPoint presentation is particularly frank in its assessment of what it describes as the "early impacts of an older fleet coupled with increasing demand" that are already visible.

"Over the past four years, lengthening repair periods and unplanned outages have temporarily reduced coverage in all four offshore search-and-rescue areas in Atlantic Canada," reads one section.

The coast guard has also lost nearly $2 million in navigational buoys in recent years "because they could not be removed due to ship availability and ice conditions," the presentation adds.

Ferry services have been interrupted, specifically Marine Atlantic's operations serving Newfoundland and commercial ships have been left waiting for days for icebreakers "at significant costs to industry."

Canada has also failed to meet its obligations under the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization in recent years for fisheries conservation and protection "due to repair and maintenance issues," the presentation says.

And the resupply of Arctic and coast communities have been delayed or cancelled  a problem that continued even after the presentation was prepared, as residents of three communities in the Northwest Territories can attest from last fall.

"I don't know why they couldn't have arranged an icebreaker," John Holland, senior administrative officer for the hamlet of Paulatuk, told The Canadian Press in October after one scheduled sea lift was cancelled.

The coast guard has a long history of being overlooked and ignored in political Ottawa, which is one of the key factors in the age of the agency's fleet, said Rob Huebert, an expert on the Arctic at the University of Calgary.

The presentation underscores the impact of such neglect, he said, namely real safety concerns, in the case of search-and-rescue services and lost navigational buoys, and northern communities cut off from supplies.

"We have talked in the past about an older coast-guard fleet and that there are problems (but) we can't get into details because the details are never presented," Huebert said. "This is the actual reality. This is what is happening."

Asked about the documents this week, Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson insisted in a statement the fleet "remains reliable" and the federal government "takes the renewal of the coast-guard fleet seriously."

Ottawa recently bought three second-hand icebreakers to pick up some of the slack, he noted, while the multibillion-dollar national shipbuilding plan includes money for one icebreaker and four science ships for the coast guard.

"We will continue to look at solutions so that Canadians can continue to receive the services they need," Wilkinson added.

Yet exactly when Seaspan Shipyards in Vancouver will deliver the five ships included in the national shipbuilding plan remains uncertain, let alone when the government will decide how and when to replace the rest of the fleet.

Seaspan was supposed to deliver the first of three fisheries-science vessels in early 2017 before problems were found with the ship's welding. It then crashed into a breakwater last month while returning from its first test run at sea.

Government officials say they still anticipate receiving that science ship this summer and that the other two will follow over the next year or so. Even if that happens, there is no firm schedule for the new heavy icebreaker and other science vessel to arrive.

Seaspan has also been tapped to build two new supply ships for the navy, the first of which won't be delivered until at least 2023.

Meanwhile, Seaspan and its Quebec-based rival Davie have been engaged in a fierce behind-the-scenes battle over the contracts for 10 other coast-guard ships that were promised to the Vancouver yard in 2013.

Seaspan has all but warned that its survival is contingent on building those ships, which were initially estimated to cost $3.3 billion.

Davie, however, has pointed out that Seaspan won't be able to start work on the ships for years and wants the government to shift the business to Davie.
MONTREAL - The owner of the last surviving St. Lawrence River schooner, beached in Cuba after running aground more than two months ago, says looters made off with thousands of dollars worth of equipment from the ship last week.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 8/4/2019 (981 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Grosse-Ile, the last surviving St. Lawrence River schooner, is shown in this handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Facebook-Didier Epars MANDATORY CREDIT

MONTREAL - The owner of the last surviving St. Lawrence River schooner, beached in Cuba after running aground more than two months ago, says looters made off with thousands of dollars worth of equipment from the ship last week.

The Grosse-Ile, the last seaworthy vessel of its kind and an important piece of Quebec's maritime heritage, has been grounded since Jan. 27, and salvage efforts have been repeatedly thwarted by Cuban authorities, said the ship's owner, Didier Epars.

For two weeks, everything has been in place to remove the schooner from the beach, but for reasons that remain unclear, Cuban authorities have delayed issuing a permit for a tug from the Cayman Islands requisitioned by Epars' insurer.

The delay allowed thieves to strip the two-masted schooner last week of GPS antennas, an outboard motor for a dinghy and valuable rigging for the sails.

Since he and his son, fearing for their lives, deliberately ran aground in a storm, the schooner has been looted several times, but Epars said the Cuban army refused to allow him to camp on the beach to watch over the ship.

His son has since left Cuba, but Epars remains "in custody"  albeit at a holiday resort run by the Cuban military. The Maria La Gorda resort is close to his ship, which he monitors from a distance when he can. There is a military base next to the resort, which is in a national park in a remote part of Cuba.

The shipwrecked skipper wonders where the looters have come from, since the national park is uninhabited and the nearest village, El Cayuco, is inland 45 kilometres from Maria La Gorda.

Epars said it is clear that the theft required the use of boats, and the only boats nearby are those of the army, recently relaunched after undergoing repairs for about two weeks.

The looting is all the more discouraging as Epars had hoped the Grosse-Ile would have been refloated weeks ago. On March 23, he was told the salvage would take place the following Tuesday, March 26, but the necessary permit has still not been provided.

Epars' insurance broker, the British firm Concept Special Risks, is also questioning the delay.

In an email to The Canadian Press last week, company representative Mark Thomas said a Cuban salvage company, also run by the military, is responsible for obtaining the permit. Thomas said the process has been bogged down by requests for information from the Cubans.

"A lot of the information doesn't seem relevant, but they insist," Thomas said.

Built in 1951, the Grosse-Ile was used to provision the island east of Quebec City after which it was named. Epars bought it in 1992, but it needed to be almost entirely rebuilt. It took him 20 years to get the necessary permits to take on passengers, and in 2015 the schooner returned to the water, sailing between Quebec City and Montreal.

Quebec Minister of International Relations Nadine Girault said in an interview that her office is closely monitoring the situation in collaboration with the Canadian Embassy in Cuba. "We offered our support to the embassy, but our hands are a little tied on it, because it is really under federal jurisdiction," she said.

The Cuban embassy in Ottawa did not return a call from The Canadian Press.
By Delana Isles

ELECTED representative for Grand Turk North, Hon. George Lightbourne has called on the TCI to stand united against any attempted imposition of the recommendations on gay marriage and Belongership removal made in February by the UK Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC).





The House of Assembly member recently released a statement on the issue, in which he also questioned his party - the PNPs - lack of a public position on the controversial report.





Lightbournes call came just as sister British overseas territory (BOT), the Cayman Islands, legalised same sex marriage following an historic court ruling on Friday (March 29).





While that territorys legalisation of same sex marriage is not as a result of the FACs recommendations, it is one of the major steps the committee proposed to the Theresa May-led government that has seen the most backlash from Caribbean BOTs.





Last Fridays ruling in the Cayman Islands, means that of the 20 jurisdictions over which the UK has a legal relationship, 15 now permit same-sex marriage.





Northern Ireland permits civil partnerships, while four overseas territories in the Caribbean - the British Virgin Islands, Montserrat, the Turks and Caicos Islands and Anguilla - permit neither marriage or civil partnership.





Last year, the Bermuda Supreme Court legalised same-sex marriage.





To date, the UK government has not made any major pronouncements on the FACs recommendations, except to say that they are carefully considering the report and will respond fully in due course.





In his statement, Lightbourne said the recommendations are not to be taken lightly, because if implemented, they have the potential to negatively impact the landscape of the TCI morally, culturally, socially and politically, and that includes the people of Grand Turk North.





"Each country in the world is defined by its uniqueness and their core values which set them apart from other countries.





"In the Turks and Caicos we are no different. We are regarded as a beautiful, friendly, upright, law abiding, Christian country; a country where most persons fear God and subscribe to the teachings in the Holy Bible.





He added that the proposal on same sex union goes directly against the territorys beliefs and should be wholeheartedly rejected without hesitation.





The member added that it is also very unacceptable for the committee to recommend a change in voting patterns in the TCI that would allow UK citizens the right to vote and occupy public office in the TCI.





"The British regard us as a dependent territory and for many years Ive asked the question, what is it that we depend on the UK for?





"Needless to say, I have been unsuccessful in receiving a sensible answer. I am not surprised by the boldness of the UK, after all theyve gotten away with doing us so much wrong already.





Bipartisan response needed

According to Lightbourne, the UK has been allowed to take advantage of the territory without any meaningful resistance, and while he is not surprised by the recommendations, he is surprised by the unilateral response to the report by the premier.





"I am also surprised by the non-response by the leader of the Opposition.





He added that a report of such magnitude with the potential to negatively disrupt the Islands way of life should at the very least be given a bipartisan response.





"A response that would have captured the wishes of our total populace.





He stated that such a damning report requires a response that clearly outlines and reflects in no uncertain terms the true wishes of the TCI people.





It should have been a territorys response that all could be proud of and contented with, the representative added.





"Furthermore, it should have stated our countrys position. It should have been signed off by both the premier and the leader of the Opposition, after all, it is a national crisis.





"Additionally, it should have established a red line and it should have said to the UK, if you cross this line, this is what we will do, so there would be no surprises when they proceed with their anti TCI agenda. They would know exactly what the expected consequences would be.





He said he was very disappointed in the premiers response, and considered it to be weak, giving the impression that she either did not take the recommendations seriously or she does not understand what is being proposed.





"The reason why Im saying this is because in her response she said to the UK: No thank you.





"Madam premier, the FAC is not asking for your permission to implement their plans but rather they are telling us what they are about to do and quite frankly they do not need your permission; they can and will do it by order in council whether we like it or not, so the question becomes, what will we do?





"Tell the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands what are your intentions once the UK implements their plans by order in council, he encouraged.





The representative believes that for several years, the UK has been exerting and taking control of the territory, though incrementally.





First with the constitution, which he describes as "toilet paper where they have all the powers while leaving the Islands with a powerless Government.





"We turned a blind eye to it and carried on as though we had powers to make decisions to advance our peoples agenda and because we went along with the saga and made believe like we had power, the UK is now emboldened and have decided to engage in what I would like to refer to as a hostile takeover caring less about who you are, what you want and more about what they want.





He noted that this latest attempt by the British presents a defining moment for the Turks and Caicos Islands because it provides a serious opportunity for some much-needed self-introspection.





"We now have a clear look into the minds of our adversaries and the ball is in our court, we can stick our head in the sand and act like ostriches and allow ourselves to be overthrown or we can arise and do what God wants us to do.





He said it is time to make a choice "between good or evil.





"We can allow the UK to have their way and impose their belief and cultures on us, or we can object it and chart a new course, a true path to real Turks and Caicos citizenship.





"Should we allow the will of the UK to prevail, we will find ourselves in an unfortunate predicament.





He said the TCI must not allow itself to be continually disrespected and dominated into submission.





He added that the culture, values and biblical principles of the TCI are worthy of retention and deserving of protection, and called on people to wake up, fight back and not accept the recommendations.




WINNIPEG - A lawyer representing Manitoba says a "Star Trek" fan wasn't allowed to keep his personalized ASIMIL8 licence plate because the word cannot be dissociated from the history of forced assimilation of Indigenous people in the province.

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This article was published 8/4/2019 (981 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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WINNIPEG - A lawyer representing Manitoba says a "Star Trek" fan wasn't allowed to keep his personalized ASIMIL8 licence plate because the word cannot be dissociated from the history of forced assimilation of Indigenous people in the province.

Manitoba Justice lawyer Charles Murray told court Monday that licence plates are owned and issued by Manitoba Public Insurance, and the insurer cannot be divorced from a historical context of "cultural genocide."

Nick Troller launched a legal challenge against MPI over its decision to revoke his personalized plate. (Facebook photo)

Assimilate, whether in the sense of a fictional alien race or the real history of Indigenous people in Canada, is "talking about wiping out the uniqueness of people," Murray said.

The legal challenge against MPI was launched by Winnipeg's Nick Troller over the Crown corporation's decision to revoke his personalized plate in 2017.

Troller is an avid fan of the "Star Trek" TV franchise and in 2015 got the plate with the well-known words from the alien race the Borg. He put the ASIMIL8 plate in a border that stated: "We are the Borg" and "Resistance is futile."

James Kitchen, lawyer for the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, argued on behalf of Troller. Kitchen told court that Troller drove around for nearly two years with the plate on his vehicle without any complaints. In fact, Kitchen said, many people asked Troller for photos with the plate.

"The word assimilate is just a word," the lawyer argued.

That changed on April 22, 2017, when a woman from Ontario posted a photo of the plate on Facebook and complained to MPI that the plate was offensive because of the history of government assimilation policies.

The judge reserved his decision.

In this photo released by Christies Images Ltd.2006, on Thursday, May 18, 2006 in New York, a model of the Starship Enterprise-A, is shown. The lawyer for a ???Star Trek??? fan who had his personalized ASIMIL8 licence plate revoked says that it was a violation of his client???s charter-protected right to free expression. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP/Christies Images Ltd.2006) **NO SALES**

Documents filed in court show multiple emails between MPI officials trying to understand how the licence plate was approved in the first plate.

Plates are denied for a variety of reasons, including if they are offensive, suggestive, discriminatory or include racial or ethnic slang. They are the property of the Crown and can be recalled at any time.

The ASIMIL8 plate was considered by a five-person committee. Internet searches were done on its meaning and it was issued without any concerns.

Troller was later contacted and told his plate was deemed inappropriate and was being recalled.

Kitchen argued the emails show it was a "knee-jerk reaction" to the complaint that violated his client's charter right to freedom of expression.

A worker puts the finishing touches on a display of Borgs, which lines the walls at Star Trek: The Experience, at the Las Vegas Hilton on January 2, 1998, in Las Vegas. A lawyer representing Manitoba says a "Star Trek" fan wasn't allowed to keep his personalized ASIMIL8 licence plate because the word cannot be removed from the history of forced assimilation of Indigenous people in the province. Manitoba Justice lawyer Charles Murray told a Winnipeg court Monday that licence plates are owned and issued by Manitoba Public Insurance, and the insurer cannot be divorced from a historical context of cultural genocide." Assimilate, whether in the context of a fictional alien race or the real history of Indigenous people in Canada, is "talking about wiping out the uniqueness of people," Murray said. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP/Lennox McLendon

He pointed to a case where a man's licence plate was removed after the controversy around the ASIMIL8 plate.

Kitchen said a First Nations man was upset after his NDN CAR plate was recalled earlier this year. Kitchen said the man had the plate, which references the song "Indian Cars" by Keith Secola, for years before MPI recalled the plate for being offensive.

Justice Centre president John Carpay said in an interview from Calgary after the hearing that freedom of expression cannot be trumped by some "kind of legal right to not feel offended."

"When freedoms are lost, typically, they are lost gradually  bit by bit by bit," he said.

"If a person cannot express their enthusiasm for 'Star Trek' using a word that is inherently not offensive, that is a small step in the wrong direction."

Personalized licence plates have been controversial before.

A man in Nova Scotia is also to be in court this month over a personalized licence plate. Lorne Grabher has been trying to reinstate his "GRABHER" plate since it was revoked in 2016 by the Registrar of Motor Vehicles following an anonymous complaint.

Saskatchewan Government Insurance recently denied Dave Assman (pronounced Oss-man) a licence plate with his last name on it. In response, he put a large "ASSMAN" decal on the back of his truck.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version incorrectly said a man had an 'NDN CAR' licence plate for decades.
HALIFAX - Nova Scotia conducted sufficient consultations with the Sipekne'katik First Nation on a controversial project to store natural gas in underground caverns north of Halifax, the environment minister has ruled.

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This article was published 8/4/2019 (981 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Nova Scotia Environment Minister Margaret Miller fields questions on the environmental assessment of Northern Pulp's proposed effluent treatment plant, in Halifax on Friday, March 29, 2019. Miller says the province conducted sufficient consultations with the Sipekne'katik First Nation around the controversial Alton natural gas storage project near Shubenacadie. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

HALIFAX - Nova Scotia conducted sufficient consultations with the Sipekne'katik First Nation on a controversial project to store natural gas in underground caverns north of Halifax, the environment minister has ruled.

Margaret Miller released her decision Monday as part of a review sparked by the first nation's appeal of the province's industrial approval for the Alton Gas project near Shubenacadie.

Miller also determined the province's terms and conditions are sufficient to protect the environment.

"The record ... reflects extended efforts by the province to understand, explain, and mitigate against the impacts the Alton Natural Gas Storage project ... would have on fish, fish habitat and Aboriginal rights," Miller said in a letter to the first nation's lawyer, Raymond Larkin.

"I conclude that the level of consultation was appropriate to the circumstances and to the Aboriginal and treaty rights as asserted."

Alton Gas plans to pump water from the Shubenacadie River to an underground site 12 kilometres away, where it will be used to flush out salt deposits, and create up to 15 storage caverns.

The company has been continuing to work on the project, and its status would only have been jeopardized had the minister ruled that there wasn't sufficient consultation with the Mi'kmaq by the Alberta-based firm.

Protesters have gathered at the site for several years, arguing that the plan poses dangers to the traditional fisheries of the Mi'kmaq and risks harming the 73-kilometre river used by Aboriginal populations for thousands of years.

"For me, that river is also sacred," Miller told reporters on Monday, noting she had grown up near it.

However, she said there are safeguards in place to prevent excessive salinity in the river.

Miller said the approval has been amended to require Alton Gas to meet all applicable provincial, federal and municipal laws, including any future amendments to them.

The company is also required to develop an improved communication plan for sharing information with Sipekne'katik First Nation on environmental issues that may require an amendment to the approval.

Miller's ruling comes after a 2017 Nova Scotia Supreme Court ruling that quashed the minister's original decision to dismiss the first nation's appeal after she approved the project in 2016.

Justice Suzanne Hood concluded the first nation was not supplied with the proper documents to mount a proper appeal, although she did not order a stay of the minister's project approval.

The first nation and the company have 30 days to appeal Miller's latest decision.

Neither the first nation nor its lawyer were immediately available for comment.

Lenore Zann, the NDP's environment critic, said she was disappointed by the decision.

"The minister's decision to uphold the industrial approval and say Sipekne'katik was sufficiently consulted is disappointing. There are very real concerns about the affect the Alton Gas project will have on the Shubenacadie River and the Minister continues to side with the company over the water protectors," she said in a statement.

The company has obtained an injunction limiting protesters to a designated area of about 22 metres by 38 metres. Those who don't comply face arrest by the RCMP.
TORONTO - Ontario's realtors say the province should ban so-called "bully" offers that they say give some home buyers an unfair advantage.

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This article was published 8/4/2019 (981 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The CN Tower can be seen in the Toronto skyline in Toronto, Ontario on Tuesday, April 25, 2017. Ontario's realtors say the province should ban so-called "bully" offers that they say give some home buyers an unfair advantage. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston

TORONTO - Ontario's realtors say the province should ban so-called "bully" offers that they say give some home buyers an unfair advantage.

Ontario Real Estate Association President Karen Cox says the government should use its current review of the act that governs realtors in the province to bar the practice.

So-called "bully" offers are submitted by a buyer ahead of a seller's established offer date, a move usually made to avoid competing with other buyers and pressure the seller into accepting the bid.

Cox says banning the practice will ensure all interested buyers are able to make a fair offer on a home and allow sellers to carefully consider all bids.

The recommendation is one of 28 submitted by the association  which represents 78,000 brokers and salespeople  to the government as it reviews the Real Estate and Business Brokers Act.

Last fall, realtors asked the province to review the act  which was put in place in 2002  saying the legislation needed to be updated to allow for more transparency for buyers and sellers.

Cox says eager buyers have been using bully offers to crowd out other buyers in the market and that should change.

"It creates an unfairness in the home-buying process," she said. "It doesn't give all buyers a fair shot to make an offer and a seller a chance to consider all the offers."

The association is also asking the government to ban escalation clauses in offers, which are aimed at defeating any competing bid by automatically increasing a purchase price over the next highest offer.

The practice opens the door for sellers to fill in an offer that may not reflect the next highest bid and can expose the seller to litigation, the association says.

"This makes it a very uneven playing field," Cox says.

Realtors are also asking the government for education programs that require more in-class training to help raise professional standards.

"It would allow for more specialization so you can be recognized as an expert in that area," Cox said, adding that the sale of condominiums, industrial and rural, or waterfront properties all require different expertise.

The recommendations also ask the government to give the body that regulates realtors  the Real Estate Council of Ontario  greater powers to proactively investigate agents who break industry rules.

"Our regulator should have the authority to investigate and kick out of our profession the worst offenders, the people who are unethical," Cox said.
OTTAWA - Marking the 25th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda, a Liberal MP has called his government out for not doing more on peacekeeping as the United Nations is warning it will be forced to curtail its efforts in Mali unless Canada extends its mission there by several months.

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This article was published 8/4/2019 (981 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Canadian infantry and medical personnel disembark a Chinook helicopter as they take part in a medical evacuation demonstration on the United Nations base in Gao, Mali, Saturday, December 22, 2018. The United Nations is warning that it will be forced to curtail its peacekeeping efforts in Mali for several months unless Canada extends its mission there by several months to prevent a gap in lifesaving medical evacuations. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

OTTAWA - Marking the 25th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda, a Liberal MP has called his government out for not doing more on peacekeeping as the United Nations is warning it will be forced to curtail its efforts in Mali unless Canada extends its mission there by several months.

While the Trudeau government insists it stands with the UN, Liberal backbencher Rob Oliphant told an all-party press conference that Canada is not pulling its weight.

"Canada's peacekeeping operations pale in comparison to those offered by many African countries," said the Toronto MP, who recently visited Rwanda as co-chair of the Canada-Africa Parliamentary Association. "When you look at what Ethiopia contributes, what Kenya contributes, what Ghana contributes, what Rwanda contributes, Canada is not pulling its weight."

The Rwanda genocide unfolded over 100 days starting on April 6, 1994, with Hutu extremists slaughtering 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and their Hutu supporters.

It was a horror that Canadian general Romeo Dallaire, then the commander of UN peacekeepers, was powerless to prevent despite his repeated warnings and pleas for help to UN headquarters in New York.

Even as Oliphant and others on Monday were commemorating that genocide, the questions and concerns were emerging about Canada's mission in Mali  and the Trudeau government's commitment to the UN, which has been trying since 2013 to protect civilians and stabilize a government weakened by a rebellion and a subsequent military coup.

Canada has eight helicopters and 250 military personnel in the West African country, where they are scheduled to provide emergency evacuations to injured peacekeepers and workers until July 31. But Romanian replacements aren't due until mid-October  three months later.

The UN can contract civilian helicopters and aircrews, which the report describes as the "white fleet," but officials said it would be at "disproportionate expense to the UN" and provide less support than the Canadians do.

"They explained that military helicopters and aircrews can fly at night and can operate in riskier and more dangerous environments than their civilian counterparts because they are armed and use more sophisticated technology," the report says.

"The committee was told that, in an effort to limit risks to UN personnel, the UN would likely have to scale down operations during the capability gap between the Canadians' departure from, and the Romanians' arrival in, Mali," it continues. "It was explained that, without an aeromedical capability, UN ground troops would have to significantly reduce the range of their patrols, as well as the services they provide in the communities."

The UN formally requested at the end of February, after months of quiet lobbying, that Canada extend its mission in Mali until mid-October to prevent a gap. But Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland indicated two weeks ago that would not happen.

The government has offered little explanation for its decision, but the committee report suggests military officials are worried about the helicopters' mechanical condition and want them ready for crises back home.

Conservative defence critic James Bezan said in an interview that Canadian Forces members underscored the challenges that would come with an extension and the impact it would have on the troops and the helicopters.

Liberal and Conservative committee members ended up recommending the government stick with its original timetable and instead work with the Romanians to speed up their arrival.

But NDP defence critic Randall Garrison, who has been pushing for an extension, said the military was clear that it would be able to manage if the government did decide to keep its members in Mali past July  and not staying would put people's lives at risk.

"If we were talking about an extension of another year or two years, I think those may be valid concerns," he said. "But nothing we heard in the field confirmed those kinds of concerns would be an obstacle to the short extension that the UN is asking for."

Both Bezan and Garrison said the fact the Liberals are willing to leave despite the United Nations' very real concerns raises questions about the government's self-professed commitment to peacekeeping and the UN.

"They never bought into their own rhetoric," Bezan said.

 With files from Mike Blanchfield

 Follow @leeberthiaume on Twitter.
Johnson & Johnson have announced they are to create an additional 300 jobs in a 100m expansion of the companys Vision Care facilities, at the National Technology Park, Limerick.

The IDA Ireland supported jobs include 100 permanent manufacturing jobs, as well as 200 additional construction posts during the building of the new facility.

Johnson & Johnson currently employs around 1,000 people in Limerick at the largest contact lens manufacturing facility in the world, an IDA Ireland spokesperson said.

This will make it even bigger, they added.

Announcing the jobs in Limerick this morning, the Minister of State for Trade, Employment and Business, Pat Breen, said: I very much welcome Johnson and Johnson Vision Cares expansion of its operations in Limerick and of course the approximately 100 jobs that will be created. It is a huge vote of confidence in the Mid-West region.

The expansion, supported by the Government through the IDA, reflects the commitment of the Government and its agencies to pursue balanced and sustainable regional development.

John Lynch, Plant Leader, Johnson & Johnson Vision Care (Ireland) said the companys aspiration is to bring improved eyesight to people around the world.

The most important way we accomplish that is through the research, development and manufacturing of new medical device technologies.

Mr Lynch added: We believe that the new manufacturing roles being introduced in Limerick in 2019 will be foundational in helping us bring new, innovative contact lens products to our patients and customers around the world at an industry-leading pace.

IDA Ireland CEO Martin Shanahan said it was a significant announcement by Johnson & Johnson who are already the worlds largest contact lenses manufacturing plant.

This expansion by Johnson & Johnson Vision Care of the Limerick facility represents not just a substantial financial investment but a considerable commitment to its Limerick operations.

The approximately 100 jobs being added, along with those being created in the construction phase, will greatly benefit the economy of the Mid West region. Having a company of this stature continue to expand its operations enhances Irelands global reputation as a Medical Technologies centre of excellence and demonstrates how global companies can successfully operate in regional locations.
A decision on the future of Waterford Airport is "near completion", according to the Department of Transport.

The department said Transport Minister Shane Ross "would go to Government on the matter shortly" as calls grow locally for a decision on financing the airport, which has been without commercial flights since mid-2016.

Management has submitted a proposal to extend the runway, which it says would considerably enhance the airports commercial appeal and attract new carriers.

Mr Ross, who commissioned EY to review the airport's future, has warned that although the Government wants Waterford Airport functioning, commercial and viable, it did not want "to create a white elephant.

EY's report was provided to airport management last October, which was then was invited to provide any additional proposals "which might strengthen the airport's position in relation to the runway", Mr Ross said.

Fianna Fail TD for Waterford, Mary Butler told the Dail that the local proposal requests 5m from the Government, which will be matched by 5m from investors and 2m from local authorities in the south-east, but that a decision had to be made.

Minister of state at the department Brendan Griffin said he would request an "immediate" response from Mr Ross.

The regional airport saw proposed routes to Luton, Birmingham, and Manchester by Aer Southeast fail to materialise in 2017, as the airline failed to secure the required licence.

Waterford City and County Council chief executive Michael Walsh told councillors recently if the runway extension was given the green light and funding granted by the Government, the airport could be fully operational by the spring of 2020.

Ms Butler said a decision was now needed one way or the other:

"There are signs that the decision may be a positive one for Waterford, but the time has come for a definitive decision. Investors and local authorities need certainty and clarity.

"It cannot be understated just how hugely beneficial a viable commercial Waterford Airport would be to the south-east region."
Gardai in Cork believe they have dismantled an organised car-theft gang which was behind a spate of incidents in the city and suburbs in recent months.

But they have renewed their advice to people to lock their cars after it emerged that 20 of 24 cars broken into in the Cork City Garda Division over just three nights last week were unlocked.

The details emerged during a meeting of the Cork City Joint Policing Committee (JPC).

Garda statistics for the period January 1 to March 31 show property crime is up 1% for the period compared to the same period last year, with increases in the sub-categories including robbery from the person, up 46%, theft from the person, up 25%, and theft from a vehicle, which is up 15% to 188 reported incidents compared to 166 for the same period last year.

Chief Superintendent Barry McPolin said there has been some progress in relation to investigations into the theft from cars in Bishopstown, Carrigaline and Togher areas in recent months.

He said a garda operation, codenamed Joyrider, had identified that a gang based on the northside of the city was involved in an organised operation to steal from cars, and stealing cars.

Detectives identified several suspects and made several arrests, including several juveniles aged from 16.

Some have been before the courts and jailed, others have been charged and have strict bail conditions, including curfews, imposed pending court appearances, and others are awaiting decisions from the DPP.

Property has also been recovered, he said.

But Chief Supt McPolin said in recent days, seven of eight vehicles targeted by criminals in the Carrigaline area were unlocked, and of 24 vehicles targeted across the division in the space of three nights last, 20 were unlocked.

Crime Prevention Officer, Sgt Tony Davis, said the advice from gardai is simple.

Lock your cars. It's a simple thing to say really. Despite big campaigns, people don't seem to be listening. Until people are victims of this type of crime themselves, they don't seem to learn.

Figures presented to the JPC also show that theft of bikes is down 26% since January 1 compared to the same period last year - down from 61 incidents to 45.
A Brazilian national jailed for killing a man who had assaulted and racially abused him earlier that evening has moved to appeal his sentence.

Juraci Da Silva (aged 36), with an address at Park Lane Apartments in Waterford, had admitted killing James 'Jay' Banville at New Street in the city in the early hours of October 8, 2016, but denied it was murder.

The Central Criminal Court heard that Da Silva had been assaulted twice earlier that evening by the deceased and his friend Conor Hogan. The first assault was accompanied by racial comments and the second by sexual comments "of a very damaging nature", the trial heard.

After the second assault, the two men moved to the top of the street and turned down another street, while Da Silva, who had earlier armed himself with a knife, decided to go after them.

He was found not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter and guilty of producing a knife during an altercation. Mr Banville died from a single stab wound to the heart.

Da Silva was also found not guilty of assault causing harm to Mr Hogan.

Sentencing him to eight years imprisonment in November 2017, Mr Justice Michael White said Da Silva knew the dangers of knives due to his job in a meat plant.

Da Silva, who had no previous convictions and three young children in Brazil, had come to Ireland to work in the factory one month before the fatal incident.

Moving to appeal his sentence today, his barrister, Colman Cody SC, said the sentence was too high given the context.

Mr Cody said Da Silva, a man of very slight build, had been subjected to two assaults which were racially motivated and sexually demeaning earlier that evening.

But the sentence Da Silva was given would usually be reserved for persons embarking on criminality or persons who used a knife in a sustained assault or burglary, Mr Cody submitted.

Mr Justice John Edwards remarked that Da Silva armed himself with a knife and used it. He had opportunities to withdraw but did not.

Counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions, John OKelly SC, said the two men were walking up the street posing no threat to Da Silva when he set off after them.

Mr OKelly said the prosecution's case was that Da Silva pursued the two men for retribution.

Mr Cody later added that Da Silva's family in Brazil were very impoverished.

President of the Court of Appeal Mr Justice George Birmingham, who sat with Mr Justice Edwards and Ms Justice Marie Baker, said the court would reserve its judgment.
There is a call on political parties to do more to encourage migrants into politics.

A new scheme has led to an increased number of migrants putting themselves forward for election.

The Councillor-Migrant Internship Scheme saw migrants pair up with councillors for four months to learn about politics.

Three out of five interns have now decided to run in the upcoming local elections.

Just 31 people from a migrant background stood for election in 2014 among more than 2,000 candidates.

Only three out of 949 sitting councillors across the country are from this background.

Immigrant Council of Ireland spokesperson Joe O'Brien outlined how the scheme works:

"We matched up migrants who have been living in Ireland for some time now with local county councillors in five different local authorities around the country," he said.

"Thye worked with them over the course of the councillor's duties over a four-month period all with a view to learning what it's like to be a local representative."

Mr O'Brien says political parties need to create more opportunities for people who have come to Ireland as migrants.

"There's a bit of work to be done and I think, in particular, the big political parties need to open their eyes to the diversity of the communities they represent [and] open their eyes to the talent that is there among migrant communities," he said.

"[They need to] make an effort, go outside their comfort zones in terms of who they're looking for as local candidates and pick diversity."
A man who has spent 31 years in prison for a murder he committed when he was a child does not pose a risk to society and should not be extradited to the UK, his barrister has told the High Court.

Roy Norman Kenyon absconded to Ireland in 2003 while serving his sentence for the murder of Margaret Potts, an elderly shopkeeper, whom he beat to death with a poker in 1971. Having lived in Ireland under an alias for the past 15 years, the 64-year-old is now facing the prospect of returning to the UK to continue serving the life sentence.

Ronan Kennedy BL, for the Minister for Justice, told the court last month that Kenyon was in the process of having his life sentence reviewed "when he made the conscious decision to become a fugitive".

Outlining the facts of the case, Mr Kennedy said Kenyon had been "consuming alcohol at a public house" on the night of his crime, when he left to purchase more alcohol from Mrs Potts. However, he soon got into an argument with her, before hitting her two times in the head with a poker, while she sat in an armchair.

The court heard that Kenyon had lived in Tullamore under the alias of Alan McPherson, before being arrested in the village of Eyeries, Co. Cork on May 2, 2018.

Opposing an application for his surrender to the UK today, Sean Guerin SC said that his client is not considered a risk to society. The focus of the probation officers report was on behavioural issues, coping skills and compliance with prison conditions and no concern was expressed for Kenyon's behaviour, argued Mr Guerin.

The barrister said his client is now an adult but was sentenced as a child and was considered to be at greater risk to society than the average prisoner because he had spent a longer time in custody. The lawyer said this logic was "fallacious" and unsupported by the evidence placed before the court.

Counsel said Kenyon has been at liberty for a long period of time and did not appear to have exhibited a risk to the public.

Mr Guerin said his client was eligible for release in the 1980s when he completed the punitive portion of his sentence. However, he will now serve an "indeterminate" sentence if he is surrendered to the UK, he said. There is no evidence in terms of his behaviour to suggest that he poses an "unacceptable risk" to the public, he added.

Mr Guerin also submitted that there is no commitment from the UK authorities that Kenyon's case will be reviewed at anytime before 2021. He said that his client is likely to find himself "back in the twilight zone" of having his life sentence reviewed every two years and further conditions being imposed.

Counsel pointed out that the only purpose for Kenyon's surrender to the UK is to serve a sentence for the protection of the public and no material has been put before the court which demonstrates "any such risk".

"We say that the court should not lend itself to that process and the very obvious injustice which will result," concluded Mr Guerin.

Ms Justice Aileen Donnelly said she had alot to think about and would reserve her judgment until May 21. Kenyon was remanded in custody until then.

Mr Kennedy told the court that over the years, there were a number of comprehensive reviews of the case and a number of actions undertaken but that there was nothing to suggest Mr Kenyon had left the country or had any ties with anyone outside of the United Kingdom.

Mr Kenyons barrister, Sean Guerin SC, addressed the court by saying that Mr Kennedy had missed many of the striking features of this case.

Mr Guerin pointed out how the bald and ageing head of Mr Kenyon, an offender of 64 years was nonetheless a child offender at the time the crime was committed.

It is an exceptional state of affairs that a child offender has spent 31 years in custody and at this point almost 50 years later that there is still a desire to return him to custody Mr Guerin told the court.

Mr Guerin pointed out how Mr Kenyons mental development and maturity at the time of the offence are factors that must be considered.

He also made the argument that Mr Kenyons sentence was an indeterminate one made at her Majestys pleasure and that this sentence is not a case of life in prison in the formal sense but rather it is a different type of sentence that is imposed on a child offender which is not a true life sentence.

Mr Guerin continued by explaining to the court that this is not a case where you are dealing with a person who has committed any offence while at liberty and that there is no indication that Mr Kenyon is a risk to the public anymore.

Mr Guerin revealed how Mr Kenyon had no release date to work towards after facing six parole hearings and that this is the reason he chose to escape custody.

Referring to the time Mr Kenyons parole was denied after he consumed alcohol while on home leave, Mr Guerin called this a minor breach of a minor condition.

Mr Guerin also criticised the central authority in the United Kingdom for failing to supply information relating to Mr Kenyons case including the affidavit.

Addressing suggestions that Mr Kenyon had adjudications for selling drugs and positive drug tests, Mr Guerin explained that while in prison Mr Kenyon was prescribed a strong painkiller which may have had an impact on drug tests.

Mr Kennedy later responded to Mr Guerins critique of the parole board by stating that there was never a suggestion before this afternoon that the objections made by the board were unlawful or in relation to the fact Mr Kenyon had a drink while on temporary leave.
By Olivia Rose

OPPOSITION Leader Hon. Washington Misick has extended his condolences to the family and loved ones of the 14 Haitian nationals who perished in TCI waters this week.





On Sunday (March 31) the US Coast Guard suspended its search for Haitian migrants in the sea off West Caicos after reporting that 14 bodies had been recovered, and 14 survivors found.





Addressing the incident on April 1 via a live Facebook feed, Leader of the Progressive National Party (PNP) Opposition Misick offered his sympathy and extended condolences to those suffering the loss of their loved ones who lost their lives in the most unfortunate way.





He said: "While I extend sympathy and I empathise with them, I must also condemn those mercenaries who would exploit the vulnerabilities of persons who...have very little hope and so they decide to do desperate thing and to hand over whatever resources they could put their hands on to escape the poverty of Haiti.





"Its moments like these Turks and Caicos Islands, when leadership is called into action. This whole situation with the illegal landings, the invasion of our border has been going on now for quite some time at an escalating rate.





"And one would think by now we would have had a community-wide consultation about how to deal with the problem, the invasion of our shores, the loss of life.





"These are challenges and issue that we should not relax about, Misick added.





The Opposition leader further questioned the motives and functions of the Haitian Consulate in the TCI.





"And so one has to ask the question, what purpose does the Haitian Consul serve in these Islands?





"Whether they are a beacon of light that says to the person who wants to escape that this is a safe haven to come to, or whether they are essentially in collusion with the perpetrators of these vicious crimes of human trafficking.





"The truth of the matter is, we can curse the darkness but we need to light candles in order to save our own country to prevent further death on the high seas.





He called out the Sharlene Cartwright Robinson-led Government for not ensuring the Border Control Department is aptly funded to tackle the growing illegal migration issue.





"So I decry the fact that the Government has not provided the financial resources that is necessary to make sure that our borders are protected.





He pointed out that the Government is spending huge amounts of money on repatriation when its efforts should be geared towards averting the sloops.





"We all know prevention is better than cure, Misick said.





In February, Bahamian authorities recovered the bodies of 28 Haitians after a boat smuggling them capsized off the northern Bahamas.





Haitis economic situation has worsened significantly in recent months, which has stirred political tensions and amplified the poverty.




Cork County Council is about to appoint consultants who will see if it is feasible for it to take control of all monitoring of existing and new community CCTV systems in towns and villages in its jurisdiction.

Council chief executive Tim Lucey made the announcement after a number of councillors expressed anger that, despite state-of-the-art equipment being purchased for some towns, their CCTV remained inoperable because of data protection issues.

Cllr Ian Doyle raised the issue after he sought a report on progress with CCTV systems in the county and found that there was no progress on getting systems activated in Charleville and Mitchelstown, three years after equipment was purchased for them.

He said he was angry nothing had been done in either town as they were battling anti-social behaviour and thefts.

The report showed that nine community CCTV systems were in operation and provide live feeds monitored by gardai. These are in Macroom, Kinsale, Fermoy, Mallow, Bantry, Clonakilty, Dunmanway, Schull and Skibbereen. However, since they were installed the question of who views the information and stores it has been muddied.

Cllr Frank O'Flynn said Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan had told him it was now local authorities' responsibility to view and store the data. The report showed systems are also planned for Midleton, Bandon, Banteer/Lyre and Millstreet.

Cllr O'Flynn said it was a disgrace the council hadn't progressed getting the systems operational adding that Limerick City and County Council had done so.

Cllr Danielle Twomey said the county council should take over all monitoring of community CCTV.

Mr Lucey said it was his understanding that it was originally suggested that the gardai would monitor CCTV in Charleville. He pointed out Limerick City got a specific allocation from the Government to install CCTV under a city regeneration grant.

He said, at present, the council did not know if all systems currently in use were compatible with each other and how they could be networked into the county council's own computer systems.

Most importantly, he added that financing and resourcing the council's involvement in monitoring the networks would be an issue and it was likely the council would need grant-aid from the Government to do it.

Mr Lucey said he hoped to have a report ready for councillors by August or September.
Businessman Bernard Rocca and his wife, Theresa, face losing their 1 million Castleknock, Dublin home despite having the money in a legal account to clear off a mortgage debt of 131,000 and a second mortgage debt of 10 cent, a court heard today.

Barrister Gary Hayes, counsel for Havbell Dac which acquired loans from Permanent TSB, told Judge Jacqueline Linnane in the Circuit Civil Court that Havbell was seeking possession of the couples home at 30 Woodberry, Castleknock, on foot of the two outstanding mortgages despite one having been paid off bar 10 cent.

Mr Hayes, who appeared with Sherwin ORiordan solicitors, said Mr Rocca had taken out a mortgage in his own name and there was more than 130,000 outstanding on it.

A much smaller loan for the purpose of home renovations had been taken out in the names of both Bernard and Theresa Rocca but this had been paid off.

Judge Linnane said possession of the couples family home was being sought on the basis of the two mortgages.

She said that only 10 cent was still owed on the smaller home improvement mortgage.

Tim Dixon, who appeared for the Roccas with P.B Cunnigham solicitors, said the full amount of the outstanding debts had been paid by Mr Rocca to his solicitor and was currently in a client account waiting to be handed over to Havbell as soon as the fund provided an undertaking it would release the couple from the securities contained in the initial mortgages.

Mr Hayes said the bank would not release the mortgage securities as commercial loans had been taken out to the extent of 2 million on the security of the property at No 30 Woodberry, Castleknock.

Judge Linnane said there were no documents relating to commercial loans of 2 million in any of the papers she had read in relation to Havbells application before the court for possession of the Rocca family home.

Mr Hayes told the court that Havbells wished to proceed with its application for possession of the family home on the basis that, while funds may be held in a legal client account, nothing had been paid over to clear the debts.

Judge Linnane, who said the reason nothing had been paid over was due to the absence of an undertaking to release the mortgage securities, put the proceedings back so that Havbell could respond to correspondence from the Roccas legal team, seeking confirmation that on payment of the 131,000 the mortgages would be released.
A Valentine's night out went "very wrong" after a woman was arrested on suspicion of drink-driving and her partner ended up daubing his faeces on a cell wall after he was arrested for public order offences.

Richard O'Donovan, a 24-year-old with an address at Garranes in Bandon in County Cork, daubed his initials on the cell wall, Bandon District Court was told.

Mr O'Donovan pleaded guilty to a public order charge and another charge of criminal damage in the early hour of February 15 last.

Judge James McNulty heard that Mr O'Donovan, originally from Glanmire near Cork city, and his partner had been out for Valentine's night.

His partner was brought into garda custody at the station in Bandon on an alleged drink driving offence and he was waiting in the public foyer.

Sgt Brian Harte, prosecuting, said Mr O'Donovan was highly intoxicated and agitated and was shouting that gardai were "dirty c**ts" and "corrupt bastards".

He was requested to leave the station and went out onto Weir Street in the town but continued shouting "at the top of his voice" about the gardai.

At 2.15am he was arrested by a Sgt at the station under the Public Order Act and the court was told he first attempted to evade gardai before being brought back to the garda station, where he was placed in a cell.

"While in the cell he smeared his own faeces on the back wall," Sgt Harte said, adding that Mr O'Donovan wrote the initials 'RD' on the wall.

The clean-up afterwards cost 150.

His solicitor, Plunkett Taaffe, said Mr O'Donovan wanted to apologise for his behaviour to gardai and anyone else who witnessed it.

"He had been out for Valentine's Day with his partner and after the meal they went for a drink," Mr Taaffe said.

When his partner was arrested he blamed himself, the solicitor said, and in his drunken state became abusive, having been first told that his partner was being processed.

"He lost it," Mr Taaffe said, adding that his client's behaviour was "utterly out of order".

"He is ashamed and embarrassed to be here," Mr Taaffe said.

The court heard that he had eight previous convictions for minor road traffic offences and that he now fears for his job as a result of any conviction. He and his partner have one child.

File photo

Judge McNulty said "some poor person had to clean his faeces off the wall of a cell in the garda station", adding that it was "demeaning to any human" to have to undertake such a task.

Mr O'Donovan admitted that his parents are ashamed of what had happened.

The Judge said his instinct is that Mr O'Donovan should go up to Cork Prison for a few days but Mr Taaffe said his client has learned a lesson and pleaded guilty.

"Maybe he should be spared the prison cell, but it is going to cost him," Mudge McNulty said, stating that the defendant should bring 1,000 to court on May 3 and have his legal fees paid by that date.

He convicted Mr O'Donovan on the charge and deferred penalty, adding: "It is going to be an expensive Valentine's night out gone wrong, gone very wrong."
Health Minister Simon Harris says critics of his decision to offer free smear test re-checks to women last year are "playing politics" with the crisis and making "crass" claims amid growing opposition pressure over the move.

At the launch of the Government's latest Healthy Ireland plan, Mr Harris continued to insist he was right to announce the free re-checks at the height of the crisis last year, saying there was nationwide panic over the scandal. Mr Harris was forced to defend his decision amid fresh claims that he and his officials were warned that offering free smear tests without the right financial and staffing levels would jeopardise the service.

At the launch of the Government's latest Healthy Ireland plan, Mr Harris continued to insist he was right to announce the free re-checks at the height of the crisis last year, saying there was nationwide panic over the scandal.

However, despite health experts and rival politicians claiming that the decision has undermined the entire Cervical Check system by stretching the service too far, Mr Harris said the decision was needed given the circumstances.

And in a staunch defence of his role in the affair, the Health Minister added that critics who last year supported the decision are "playing politics" with what happened and making "crass" claims for their own interests.

"Look, it's a little bit disappointing that some are trying to play party politics with such an important issue for women's health. I think it's a little bit more than disappointing, it's actually a bit crass, it might be the time of the political cycle that we're in but it does nothing to serve women's health," Mr Harris said.

"The way I tally it is with regard to the truth and the facts. They show exactly what they've shown for the last number of months, that myself and Dr Tony Holohan [Department of Health chief medical officer] have worked together to make sure women could have reassurance about these repeat smear tests. It's actually really easy a year on to be wise in hindsight.

"This was a very frightening time, it was a time when we couldn't provide reassurance to the women of Ireland in relation to their smear tests, and they were already making the decision to go to their own GP.

"The question was who was going to pay for that smear test - were we going to add insult to injury on top of the debacle of Cervical Check and were we actually going to tell women they would have to pay for that repeat smear test?" Mr Harris said.

Asked about the ongoing Cervical Check backlog, which means 79,000 women are still waiting for the results of their re-checks, Mr Harris added the HSE has "identified additional capacity" and that "I expect the backlog to significantly reduce over the summer months".

The significant delays in the free smear test re-checks have been a source of repeated criticism of Mr Harris's role in the crisis, with ex-Cervical Check clinical director Dr Grainne Flannelly telling the Oireachtas health committee last week that she warned officials of this exact situation last year if the free test re-checks were rolled out.

Mr Harris was responding to growing criticism of his decision last year to announce the re-checks, with Fianna Fail TD, Lisa Chambers, saying on Monday morning that the Health Minister must face further Dail questions over what happened.

Speaking on RTE Radio's Today with Sean O'Rourke programme, Ms Chambers - who last week revealed she is one of the 79,000 women still waiting for their re-check results - said Mr Harris is wrong to claim he was not told of the potential delay risks due to the free tests announcement.

Asked why Fianna Fail can continue to say it has confidence in Mr Harris if she holds this view, Ms Chambers said her party has decided that there is no point in tabling a no-confidence motion in someone who should stay to fix the problem she said he has caused. It has been noted the confidence and supply pact will collapse if Fianna Fail tables or backs a no-confidence motion in any Government minister.
The FAI has confirmed that former CEO John Delaney will appear before an Oireachtas Committee on Wednesday.

While not mentioning Mr Delaney by name, a statement on behalf of FAI President Donal Conway said: "All requested members of the FAI are included on the [attendance] list".

Mr Delaney, who was recently appointed executive vice-president of the FAI, will face questions relating to a 100,000 bridging loan which he gave the association in 2017.

Mr Conway said in his statement released this afternoon:

"We also advised [Sport Ireland] that some recent comments made by the FAI did not accurately reflect the Boards level of awareness of the existence of the 100,000 issue in 2017. This matter is being considered by the Board sub-committee."

A previous FAI statement, released on March 18, said: "The Board of the FAI has been kept fully informed in relation to this matter at all times".

The day previous, then CEO Mr Delaney said in an FAI statement: "As CEO, I hold regular meetings with our Director of Finance regarding the state of our finances and all items arising are conveyed to our Board at our monthly meetings.

"This was the case in 2017 when I acted in good faith for the benefit of the FAI and will continue to do so."

Sport Ireland last week expressed its dissatisfaction with the FAI's response to queries it has made about the loan.

A letter sent by the FAI to Sport Ireland said the organisation wouldn't be able to provide further detail on the loan until a review was completed.

The letter does not provide any explanation, the board of the FAI has not provided any legitimate reason why it cannot provide any explanation, said Sport Irelands chief executive John Treacy.

Mr Conway said he regrets that the FAI "were not in a position to assist Sport Ireland with answers to its questions before it attended the Committee last Wednesday" and "that no disrespect was intended by the lateness of the letter of the 2nd of April or its brief contents".

FAI President Donal Conway

He said the association hopes to address the issue "as soon as possible, with due regard to the different ongoing processes".

The external review, to be conducted by Mazars, is yet to begin, with work ongoing to finalise the terms of reference.

The FAI have also revealed that accounting firm Grant Thornton have been on site at FAI headquarters since last Tuesday to conduct an internal review "of the Associations books, records and ledgers".

"As well as the Board establishing a sub-committee to lead the work, the global auditing and consulting group Mazars has been commissioned to conduct an independent and in-depth external review of matters," said Mr Conway.

"The Association's advisors are working with Mazars to finalize the terms of reference for the review so work can begin. The Board has also requested that this review be completed as soon as possible.

"Pending the review by Mazars, the Association has separately and urgently engaged Grant Thornton to conduct an internal review of the Associations books, records and ledgers.

"Grant Thornton are on site at FAI HQ since Tuesday, April 2."

The FAI says it has "offered to meet Sport Irelands audit staff and, with the assistance of Grant Thornton, to go through the relevant accounts to assure Sport Ireland that all Government funding has been properly spent since the last Sport Ireland audit of the FAI".
A top Meath trainer has described a tweet by comedian Ricky Gervais in the aftermath of the Grand National as "very ill-informed and offensive".

Ger Lyons extended an open invite to the celebrity to visit his Glenburnie Stables at Dunsany after the star tweeted a picture of a horse with a tear in his eye and said: Why Would You Gamble with a horses life for fun? #youbettheydie

Why would you gamble with a horse's life for fun? #YouBetTheyDie pic.twitter.com/Jej3fdYZPL  Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) April 6, 2019

An infuriated Lyons replied to the tweet saying: Ricky, I probably love animals more than humans and I invite you to visit my yard and see how these glorious animals are treated.

Youre probably too busy but your tweet is very ill-informed and offensive.

Speaking from his stables, where he trains more than 100 horses, Ger said he felt he had to tweet after seeing the post.

I felt I had to stand up and be counted. I follow Ricky Gervais because he loves and respects animals so much like I do but when you have 13.2m followers like he does, you have to be responsible with what you tweet.

Every year after the Grand National you see tweets similar to this and it gets tedious to be honest.

I hate giving oxygen to these comments but he has so many followers, I had to say something.

Of course, hes entitled to his view but he has to be mindful about what he tweets.

I have 100 horses and the horse racing industry, in general, is bound by stringent regulations which change constantly. Thats on top of our natural love for horses anyway.

Hes more than welcome to come to my yard at any time and Ill show him the care and time we place on all our horses.

A native of Co. Kildare, Ger has been training horses in Dunsany for over 20 years, after an injury in 1989 cut short his jump jockey career which saw him notch up 50 winners in four years.

He has had many winners since, most notably the GR1 winner Lightening Pearl in 2011.
A woman whose humanist marriage was described as "mumbo-jumbo" and "away with the fairies" by a district court judge has had her four-month jail term lifted on appeal.

At Ennis Circuit Court, Judge Gerald Keys told Patricia Fogarty (aged 41) that she had an "appalling record" after hearing that she has been caught driving without insurance eight times.

At Killaloe District Court in December, Judge Patrick Durcan jailed Ms Fogarty for four months when convicting the mother of nine of Shanbally, Craughwell, Co Galway, of giving a Garda a false name and driving without insurance with a number of her children when she was stopped at the side of the road by Det. Garda John Jenks on March 6, 2018, at Bridgetown, Co Clare.

Ms Fogarty was disqualified when stopped by Det, Jenks in March as she was serving a four-year driving ban imposed on her in September 2014.

Last December, Judge Durcan described Ms Fogartys marriage as "mumbo-jumbo" and "away with the fairies".

He said that Ms Fogarty had instructed her solicitor with this cock and bull story about being married that is daft.

Ms Fogarty spent a night in custody last December before being released on appeal pending the circuit court case.

Along with the prison term, Judge Durcan imposed a six-year driving ban on her. Now, at the circuit court, Ms Fogarty escaped jail for driving without insurance on the day after Judge Keys increased the prison term to nine months but suspended all of it.

Judge Keys also reduced Ms Fogartys driving ban to five years. Judge Keys said that Ms Fogarty had exposed her children to the consequences of driving without insurance. He said: What I have heard doesnt suggest to me that she is a very responsible person.

In the incident, Ms Fogarty told Det. John Jenks that her name was Patricia Fogarty but Det. Jenks said that he couldnt find any record of Patricia Fogarty but did come across a Patricia Haskett McLeish.

Solicitor for Ms Fogarty, Jennifer Donovan, told Judge Keys that her client was appealing against the severity of the four-month jail term for providing a false name but that she was pleading guilty to the charge.

Ms Donovan explained that Haskett is Patricias maiden name and she got married to a man called McLeish. Ms Donovan said that her client now goes by the name of Patricia Fogarty after taking her husbands Fogarty surname after marrying at a humanist ceremony five years ago.

Ms Donovan said that the Humanist Society of Ireland has told her that there are accredited celebrants of humanist marriages where those marriages have legal status.

However, Ms Donovan added that the HSI told her there are unaccredited freelancers performing humanist marriages where there is no legal recognition and she said that it was one of these freelancers used by Ms Fogarty for her humanist ceremony.

Ms Donovan said that Ms Fogartys children have the name Fogarty on their birth certificates. Ms Fogarty also has a voting card with the name Patricia Fogarty on it.

Ms Donovan said that Ms Fogarty is extremely regretful and remorseful of driving without insurance. Judge Keys said that he would remove the jail term on Ms Fogarty for providing the false name.

He said: The name Fogarty is mentioned somewhere along the line and I will give her the benefit of the doubt over that.
A woman facing a string of charges provided fake medical reports to court on at least five separate occasions, resulting in a string of adjournments spanning almost two-and-a-half years.

Karen Nixon, of Forest Rest in Kilbrittain in Co Cork, was told by a judge that she faces a likely prison sentence as a result of her offending and that she wasted "an awful lot of public-paid time".

The 40-year-old appeared before Bandon District Court and through her solicitor pleaded guilty to all charges.

They include some road traffic offences and a number of charges of inducing someone to pay her thousands of euro in cash by deception.

Those charges relate to a six-month period from Oct 2013 to Mar 2014, with the money all paid over to her by one person.

However, a court previously heard that gardai believe there was also an issue with production of false medical certificates when she was not present and leading to multiple court adjournments.

Those medical reports, produced unknowingly in court by her solicitor, took place from September 2015 to January last year.

Judge James McNulty told Ms Nixon's solicitor, Plunkett Taaffe: "Your client has a significant history of offending".

That included charges of obtaining "significant sums of money from someone by deception".

He referred to a previous probation report from 2013 that indicated Ms Nixon was at a low risk of offending, something he said was "not the truth".

He said: "She was re-offending in 2014 and 2015 in other respects."

"Then it transpired she was creating false medical reports and relying on them, giving them to you, to mislead you, to give them to the court," Judge McNulty said to Mr Taaffe.

This resulted in repeated adjournments and Judge McNulty said: "You will gather that I take the most serious view."

Mr Taaffe said it is a "bizarre scenario" as his client had a genuine and life-threatening illness and did not need to fabricate medical reports, adding: "It was an appalling thing to do."

The court heard Ms Nixon was to have produced some money in court but was unable to raise the full amount.

Judge McNulty said he believes the matter could not be dealt with by fines or community service and said the issues are too serious to be dealt with on a suspended sentence basis: "The court intends to sentence and the sentences will be significant."

The Judge said: "Garda time is not a free resource. Court time is not an infinite resource. She has wasted an awful lot of public-paid time without amends being made."

Judge McNulty said the court will sentence her on April 15 and remanded her on continuing bail until then.
When gardai asked murder accused Patrick Quirke why he had searched the internet for "body decomposition timeline" he told them his son had died and added: "That's all I'm saying."

Gardai also put it to Mr Quirke that he had carried out similar internet searches before his son's tragic death in August 2012 but he denied that this "blew out of the water" his explanation.

Farmer Patrick Quirke, 50, of Breanshamore, Co Tipperary has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Bobby Ryan, a part-time DJ known as Mr Moonlight.

Mr Ryan went missing on June 3, 2011, after leaving his girlfriend Mary Lowry's home at about 6.30am.

His body was found in an underground run-off tank on the farm owned by Ms Lowry and leased by the accused at Fawnagown, Tipperary 22 months later in April 2013. The prosecution has claimed Mr Quirke murdered Mr Ryan so he could rekindle an affair with Ms Lowry, 52.

Detective Inspector Seamus Maher told prosecution counsel Michael Bowman SC that gardai arrested Mr Quirke on suspicion of Mr Ryan's murder on June 19, 2014, and interviewed him the following day at Tipperary Garda Station.

During those interviews, Det Insp Maher agreed with counsel that gardai asked Mr Quirke about a computer hard-drive labelled as KKPQ1 which was seized from Mr Quirke's home in May 2013 and which gardai said they had identified as belonging to the accused.

A computer expert, they told him, had identified searches relating to the limitations of DNA evidence carried out some time before September 2012 and other searches relating to human decomposition on December 3, 2012.

Gardai asked him if he could eliminate his wife and children as the people who carried out those searches.

He responded that he didn't know what they meant. He also said he was not familiar with "in private browsing" when gardai asked if he activated a private browsing session when carrying out the searches.

Mary Lowry

They asked if there was any explanation for those searches and he replied: "My son had recently died. That's all I'm saying."

Gardai put it to him that he was searching for decomposition because he knew where Bobby Ryan's body was and was trying to establish what condition it would be in.

He said that if he knew where Bobby Ryan was all he would have to do is open the lid of the tank and look in.

He said it wouldn't make sense for him to search for decomposition on the internet when he had full access to the tank at all times.

He further described as a "load of crap" the theory that he alerted gardai to the body because he wanted to be "in control" and didn't want it to be found by someone else. He asked them why he would bring this "nightmare" on himself.

Gardai later returned to the internet searches and confirmed that Mr Quirke's son Alan died on August 4, 2012.

Gardai said they had reviewed the evidence and found a search for "body decomposition" on July 25, 2012.

They said this "blows out of the water" his explanation.

Mr Quirke said his explanation wouldn't account for every search. He said the previous search does not "blow out of the water" his explanation for the searches on December 3, 2012.

The trial continues in front of Justice Eileen Creedon and a jury of six men and six women.
SEVERAL police officers have been selected by their peers to act as a support alliance for members and their families in times of need.





The new Royal TCI Police Force Police Welfare Association executive will also oversee the management of available resources and organise or direct various fund-raising activities.





An election for the executive team for April 2019 to March 2021 took place on March 19 at police stations on each of the populated islands.





In a Government press release on April 1, Acting Commissioner of Police Trevor Botting said the association is an important part of the force.





"Myself and my colleagues look forward to working with you in advancing the working conditions for all of the RTCIPF and in making the force as efficient and effective as possible in ensuring a safe and secure TCI.





The team consists of senior, intermediate and junior ranks of the organisation.





PC David Barnett is the new chairman, with Sergeant Delton Robinson supporting as deputy chairman.





PC Jepson is victor secretary, PC Carisa Clare-Forbes is assistant secretary of welfare and gender affairs, SC Tammika Lall-Williams takes on the role as treasurer, Inspector Neal Stanislaus is assistant treasurer of research and legal affairs, while Sergeant Kevin Clarke is public relations officer with planning and recreational duties.





Chairman PC David Barnett said members of the police force voted for a change and "that change is here.





"The elected members of the Police Welfare Association Committee (PWAC) 2019 to 2021 would like to express our sincere gratitude to you for making this change possible.





"You turned out in your numbers, in support of your candidates; the results of this effort realised a dream team that will be working assiduously in the best interest of every member of the RTCIPF in an effort to resolve many of our welfare issues.





All RTCIPF officers are members of the Police Welfare Association by virtue of their employment.




The European Union (EU) will not discuss anything with Britain about a future post-Brexit relationship until issues relating to the Irish border are resolved, Michel Barnier has said.

Mr Barnier said the backstop is the only solution we have found to maintain the status quo on the island of Ireland.

During a highly curtailed press conference with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in Dublin, he said: We would not discuss anything with the UK [on future relations] until there is an agreement for Ireland and Northern Ireland, as well as for citizens' rights and the financial settlement."

Mr Barnier was in Ireland ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg and an emergency summit of EU leaders in Brussels on Wednesday.

On what was his fifth visit to Dublin as EU Brexit negotiator, Mr Barnier held meetings with Mr Varadkar, Tanaiste Simon Coveney and Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe.

He said it is the intention of the EU to protect the status of the Good Friday Agreement while also protecting the integrity of the single market.

It is not an easy task, but I am confident we will find operational solutions, whatever happens, the EU will stand fully behind Ireland. The EU will stand fully behind Ireland, he said.

Mr Barnier also said that the political declaration on the future UK-EU relationship "can be [amended] extremely quickly.

Good to welcome @MichelBarnier back to Dublin this afternoon for discussions on #Brexit and this Wednesdays @EUCouncil meeting pic.twitter.com/mnAM1pxRrL  Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) April 8, 2019

We want to respect the UK's parliamentary debate, the House of Commons is trying to decide how it sees its future relationship with the EU. We all hope that these talks will produce a positive outcome. We can be much more ambitious about a future relationship, he said.

Mr Barnier's comments echoed expressions of solidarity made to Varadkar last week in his meetings with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, both of whom May will travel to meet on Tuesday.

Mr Varadkar spoke of the necessity of avoiding border in a no-deal: "I know the European Commission and other EU member states fully understand these issues, and are supportive and constructive about finding a way forward should a no-deal arise. But, it will be a shared challenge."

He said he and Mr Barnier exchanged views about the length of a possible extension to Brexit.

I will be speaking to some (fellow EU leaders) on the phone today and tomorrow. There will, of course, be different views but I am confident that we will reach an agreement, he said

He added by saying he "sincerely hopes it will be possible to build sufficient consensus in Westminster to ratify the withdrawal agreement.

Our job is to make sure Irish interests are understood and protected and that commitments made on no hardening of the border are honoured - @MaryLouMcDonald tells @SkyNews pic.twitter.com/rbwlG9Cow5  Sinn Fein (@sinnfeinireland) April 8, 2019

Meanwhile, Sinn Fein president, Mary Lou McDonald, warned that a customs union does not "solve the problem for the north of Ireland" as she visited Westminster for Brexit talks with Jeremy Corbyn.

She noted that a customs union "probably makes sense for Britain" but said: "You need to be aware that membership of the customs union alone does not solve the problem for the north of Ireland - we need alignment also with the single market.

"These are the bare minimums that are required just to keep the lights on our island. I think for our purposes we have to be clear that this Brexit saga cannot go on indefinitely - there actually has to be a conclusion, there has to be an endpoint.

"Whether there is a deal, and I hope there is, or no-deal, I hope that that doesn't come to pass, but irrespective of whether there's a deal or no-deal or an extension of any duration we are very clear, and the British political system needs to be very clear, that the commitments made to Ireland must be honoured."

Michel Barnier: 'EU will stand behind Ireland whatever the outcome of Brexit'

Chief Negotiator for Brexit Michel Barnier has vowed that the European Union will stand behind Ireland whatever the outcome of Brexit may be.

European Chief Brexit Negotiator Michel Barnier and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar TD speaking to media following discussions on the latest Brexit developments at Government Buildings, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins

Mr Barnier said he was delighted to back in Dublin for his fifth visit as Chief Negotiator, after meeting with the Taoiseach, Tanaiste Simon Coveney and Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe:

"The aim of our meetings today, first and foremost, was to take stock of the latest developments in London and discuss Wednesday's European council in Brussels as convened by Donald Tusk."

We are ready to make this clearer about the customs union if needed and this can be done very quickly says @MichelBarnier.. but insists EU stands fully behind Ireland, backstop is the only deal on table #Brexit #iestaff pic.twitter.com/H7vaUJMzMe  Daniel McConnell (@McConnellDaniel) April 8, 2019

The discussions that took place today were largely focused on what would happen in Ireland in a potential no-deal scenario.

"There have been intensive discussions between our teams over the past weeks. Our goal is to protect the Good Friday Agreement, peace on this island, and integrity of the single market. It is not an easy task but I am confident that we will find operational solutions.

One thing is certain, whatever happens, the EU will stand fully behind Ireland.

"The EU will stand fully behind Ireland. You have our full support. The backstop is currently the only solution we have found to maintain the status quo on the island of Ireland."

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said : "We discussed the developments in the United Kingdom, including the cross party talks now underway, Prime Minister May's request and the assurances that she provides us in her letter.

"We both welcomed the Prime Minister's statement, that the Withdrawal Agreement, which includes a protocol on Ireland and the backstop, is not up for renegotiation and that the cross party discussions are focusing on the future relationship.

"The EU has always said that should the UK change its red lines, that we should be prepared to amend the political declaration on the future relationship."

Mr Varadkar expressed awareness that the UK and Northern Ireland will hold European Parliament elections if it is not out of the EU by May 22.

"From Ireland's perspective, we're open to extending the deadline to allow time for these discussions to run their course and come to a conclusion."

Mr Varadkar said that a no-deal Brexit would be damaging for everyone.

"However, given the ongoing uncertainty, we need to continue our preparations for a no-deal and that's exactly what we're doing."

Ahead of this weeks European Council meeting, the Taoiseach has also spoken by phone with Prime Minister Rutte of the Netherlands, Prime Minister Bettel of Luxembourg, and Prime Minister Muscat of Malta.

The Taoiseach also had a phone call with Prime Minister May this evening, who spoke about her recent letter to Donald Tusk seeking an extension of the Article 50 deadline, and her ongoing preparations for the Summit on Wednesday.

Additional reporting by Digital Desk
Therell be no fear of too many cooks spoiling the broth when four Michelin star winning chefs join forces later this month to raise money for two Cork homeless charities.

Corkman Ross Lewis of Chapter One has invited three Cork-based Michelin star chefs to collaborate on a special night of dining in aid of Penny Dinners and the Cork Simon Community.

The one-of-a-kind four-course dinner will be created by Ross Lewis, along with Rob Krawczyk (Restaurant Chestnut, Ballydehob), Ahmet Dede (Mews, Baltimore) and Takashi Miyazaki (Ichigoe Ichie, Cork City).

The April 29 event will be hosted in North Main Streets Raven Bar, with proceeds from the 225 tickets going to the two charities.

Speaking at the event launch, Takashi Miyazaki said each chef will be responsible for a different course, and that for them it will be a fun way to aid a good cause.

It'll be very interesting, four chefs from different sides, he said.

I do Japanese food but all with local ingredients and local suppliers with the Japanese technique, so it will have unique texture, and flavour, he said.

Caitriona Twomey, from Cork Penny Dinners said the initiative was a welcome fundraiser, particularly as her own charity is based around food.

It's going to help the people that really need it and for this we're truly grateful because we're very proud of our chefs and the Michelin stars. We know they work hard towards that and we work hard at Penny Dinners, she said.

Ms Twomey said the chefs influence may also rub off on their own cooks.

Our standards are going up immediately, she laughed. Hopefully next year we'll have a few Michelin stars in Penny Dinners. Our chefs will aspire to that, don't worry.

Head of Fundraising at Cork Simon Rachel Stevenson also expressed its gratitude for the gesture.

It's fantastic and, of course, while we're really grateful for the support for Cork Simon community, not alone that but it raises awareness of the homelessness issue in the city, so it's fantastic to have the support of these local businesses, she said.

Pat OHara of The Raven said it will be special to have Michelin star chefs serving in their bar.

We do concentrate on food in the bar but to have chefs of the caliber of Takashi, Rob, Ahmet and Ross is absolutely fantastic - fantastic for us and fantastic for Cork as well.

Homelessness, as everyone is aware, is a huge problem in the city as it is elsewhere in the country and it's doing our little bit to raise money first but also to raise awareness and hopefully it will go beyond the money we raise on the night, he said.

To register interest in attending the dinner, email info@theravenbar.com with a name and the number of tickets required.
A new initiative has been launched in Dublin by Plan International and UNESCO Chair IT Tralee to help children with disabilities to join in everyday activities including playing sport.

Ireland's youngest ever Paralympic athlete Ellen Keane helped launch the initiative which aims to help normalise disability and improve education for disabled children around the world.
Three permanent cameras are going to be installed in Dublin in order to stop drivers breaking red lights.

The news comes after 1,300 drivers were detected ignoring signals at one city centre junction over the span of a year and a half.
Seven food premises were issued with enforcement orders by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) last month for breaches of food safety legislation.

Three establishments in Dublin, three in Galway and one in Cork were ordered to close.

The FSAI listed a variety of reasons for non-compliance with food safety laws, including rodent dropping on a floor adjacent to a kitchen and at the back of freezers, or where no adequate pest control measures were in place.

In one of the premises, "rat activity" was identified in an area used for washing equipment, preparing sushi rice, and preparing ingredients for soup.

Health officers found an accumulation of rubbish bags, food waste and debris, while in another location a slug was found on a wall adjacent to the dishwasher.

Lack of hygiene was noted in several places, with containers of food stored on the floor of the premises which was in a greasy and dirty condition throughout, no evidence of hand washing or soap at wash hand basin, and dirty cloths used to clean surfaces and crockery.

Cooked rice and raw meat were also found to be stored at ambient temperatures.

Here are the full list of enforcement orders issued for March:

Four Closure Orders were served under the FSAI Act, 1998 on: Taka Ra, 37 Abbey Street Upper, Dublin1

The Old Punch Bowl (Closed area: kitchen and food storage area on first floor only, bars not affected), 116 Rock Road, Booterstown, Co Dublin

Cuppa City Coffee, 3 Roger Casement Square, Cobh, Cork

Xian Street Food (Closed area: satellite kitchen at 8 Quay Street. There is no part of the premises at 9 Quay Street Galway closed), 9 Quay Street, Galway



Two Closure Orders were served under the EC (Official Control of Foodstuffs) Regulations, 2010 on: Victoria Asian Cuisine, 5a The Crescent, Monkstown, Co Dublin

Gourmet Tart Company, Unit 1, Block 13, Ballybane Industrial Estate, Tuam Road, Galway



One Prohibition Order was served under the EC (Official Control of Foodstuffs) Regulations, 2010 on: Gourmet Tart Company (Manufacturing), Unit 1, Block 13, Ballybane Industrial Estate, Tuam Road, Galway

Commenting today, Dr Pamela Byrne, Chief Executive of the FSAI, said food businesses are not providing sufficient care for their customers if they do not have a pest control system in place.

The most common non-compliances identified in Irish food businesses during March were a significant lack of pest control, coupled with filthy conditions," she said.

It is alarming to see consistent reporting of rodent activity noted in food businesses.

Food businesses run the risk of making their customers sick through exposing food to pests and ruining their reputation with consumers by neglecting basic food safety management and hygiene standards. Negligent practices will not be tolerated, she said.

Under the FSAI Act, 1998, a Closure Order is served where it is deemed that there is or there is likely to be a grave and immediate danger to public health at or in the premises or where an Improvement Order is not complied with.

Under the EC (Official Control of Foodstuffs) Regulations, 2010, Closure Orders and Prohibition Orders are served where there is a non-compliance with food legislation.

An Improvement Order may be issued by the District Court if an Improvement Notice is not complied with within a defined period. Further non-compliance can result in a Closure Order also being served.

A Prohibition Order is issued if the activities (handling, processing, disposal, manufacturing, storage, distribution or selling food) involve or are likely to involve a serious risk to public health from a particular product, class, batch or item of food. The effect is to prohibit the sale of the product, either temporarily or permanently.

Further information on the Enforcement Orders is published on the FSAIs website at https://www.fsai.ie/
A retired Irish aid worker has been killed in a road collision in Guatemala.

Sally O'Neill, from Dungannon, Co. Tyrone, began working with Trocaire in 1978 and only retired in April 2015 after 37 years service.

Sally worked primarily in Latin America, working on the frontline during some of the world's most significant humanitarian crises.

During the conflict years when civil wars were being fought in El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua, she oversaw humanitarian aid to more than 2 million refugees.

President Michael D Higgins and Sabina Higgins with Sally O'Neill in Aras An Uachtarain, Dublin on Thursday 26 March 2015. Picture Credit: Maxwells Picture Agency.

Trocaire CEO Caoimhe de Barra said the charity is heartbroken by the news:

Sally was the heartbeat of Trocaire for almost 40 years. She was a truly remarkable person. Trocaire was only five years old when Sally joined. Sally built the foundations of the organisation. She embodied our values and through her courage and commitment to human rights touched the lives of so many people.

I was with Sally last week in Guatemala. Despite having officially retired, she remained a driving force for human rights in Central America. Her drive, passion and commitment was as strong as ever. Sally was much beloved by communities and human rights activists throughout Central America. She dedicated her life to improving the lives of others. Her legacy will live on through the thousands of people whose lives she helped to improve.

Our hearts go out to Sallys family, particularly her children Roger, Rhona and Xio, and her husband, Roger. Although we still cannot believe she is gone, we know that she left an incredible footprint on the world.

Leading human rights advocate, Sally ONeill received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws (LLD) for her tireless work as an overseas development worker.

In 1982, Sally and President Michael D Higgins, who was then a TD, travelled to El Salvador to investigate reports of a massacre in the viallage of El Mozote. Their report made it on the pages of the New York Times and Washington Post.

In 2011, she awarded the Hugh OFlaherty Humanitarian Award. The following year she was appointed by President Michael D Higgins as a member of the High Level Panel for the Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad.

In July 2017, she was conferred with an honary Doctor of Law degree by the University of Ulster.

Following her reitrement, Sally continued to work in a voluntary capacity as a facilitator with prisoners and migrants in Hondouras, where she lived, and lectured in Development Studies in the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Honduras in Tegucigalpa.
The Transport, Tourism and Sport (DTTS) said they are aware of a report of the alleged use of a laser pointed at the crew of the Shannon based Rescue 115 helicopter.

The incident is understood to have occurred on Thursday evening of last week.

Rescue 115, which had earlier left its base at Shannon Airport, was hovering over the River Shannon in Limerick city searching for a female casualty reported in the water when a laser was allegedly pointed towards the aircrafts cockpit.

A laser beam can refract through tiny abrasions on the exterior of the cockpit windscreen and thereby illuminate the entire flight deck. Shining a laser light at an aeroplane can have serious consequences on the safety of a flight, making it difficult for pilots to navigate.

When contacted, a DTTS spokesman confirmed the helicopter crew was stood down after the callout was deemed to be a hoax and that it,does not comment on incidents involving lasers out of concern it might lead to copycat incidents.

A member of a voluntary search group who responded to the river after hearing the helicopter, later wrote on Facebook:

As most of Limerick would have heard, Coast Guard helicopter 115 was over the river tonight as emergency services rushed to search for a reported person seen entering the water, as the search went on, 115 was stood down as certain individuals in the apartments overhead were shining lasers at 115, endangering the crew...

Searching is hard enough, without idiots like this making the task more hazardous. Nothing was found, and search was eventually called off.

The Department A source in the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport (DTTS), said they were aware of a report of a laser been pointed at the crew of the Shannon-based Rescue 115 helicopter, however they said the department does not comment on incidents involving lasers out of concern it might lead to copycat incidents.

Rescue 115, which had earlier left its base at Shannon Airport, was hovering over the River Shannon in Limerick city searching for a female casualty reported in the water when a laser was allegedly pointed towards the aircrafts cockpit.

When contacted, a DTTS spokesman confirmed the helicopter crew was stood down after the callout was deemed to be a hoax.

A member of a voluntary search group who responded to the river after hearing the helicopter, later wrote on Facebook: As most of Limerick would have heard, Coast Guard helicopter 115 was over the river tonight as emergency services rushed to search for a reported person seen entering the water, as the search went on, 115 was stood down as certain individuals in the apartments overhead were shining lasers at 115, endangering the crew..

Searching is hard enough, without idiots like this making the task more hazardous. Nothing was found, and search was eventually called off.

Niamh Fitzpatricks sister captain Dara Fitzgerald and three other crew members, died in an unrelated matter, on board the Rescue 116 Coast Guard helicopter which crashed off the coast of Mayo. Niamh Fitzpatrick said that people needed to ask themselves:

Given that it brings a safety concern for aircraft, would you honestly aim that laser at the helicopter if you knew that it was heading out on a mission to rescue your loved one? Your brother, sister, friend?

Would you continue that behaviour if your own mother or father was a member of the crew on board the helicopter? Or do you simply view it that these crews are random people who you don't know, so it doesn't impact you if there's an accident?

Local voluntary and professional emergency services sources have recently criticised people taking photographs and and engaging in rubbernecking during emergencies on the river.

In 2014 the State Airports (Shannon Group) Act made it illegal to aim laser pens at aircraft. As of August 26 2016, there were 31 reports of lasers deliberately pointed at aircraft in Irish airspace.

Since the legislation was introduced, there has been a significant decrease in the number of laser incidents reported by Irish pilots in Irish airspace to Irish Air Traffic Control.

Gardai have been asked if they are investigating the latest alleged incident in Limerick.

- Additional reporting by Sarah Slater
Everyone's favourite assassin Villanelle, and MI5 officer Eve, are sticking around another while longer as studio executives confirm Killing Eve has been renewed for a third season.

Fans of the hit series are rejoicing on Twitter after it was announced the show was renewed- less than 24 hours after its season two debut on US screens.
A 70-year-old babysitter has been found guilty of manslaughter in Germany for the killing of a seven-year-old boy she was looking after.

Judges at the regional court in the south-western city of Heilbronn sentenced the woman to 10 years and six months in prison.
President Donald Trump has announced that the US is designating Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a "foreign terrorist organisation", in an effort to increase pressure on the country.

It is the first time the US has designated a part of another country as a terrorist organisation.

The designation imposes sanctions that include freezes on assets the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps may have in US jurisdictions and a ban on Americans doing business with it.

Mr Trump said in a statement: "This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognises the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft."

Iran has threatened to retaliate for the decision.

The designation allows the US to deny entry to people found to have provided the Guard with material support or prosecute them for sanctions violations.

That could include European and Asian companies and business people who deal with the Guard's many affiliates.

It will also complicate diplomacy.

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.
France's prime minister has called for quick tax cuts to respond to the anger expressed through yellow vest protests across the country.

Edouard Philippe unveiled the results of a three-month "big debate" launched by President Emmanuel Macron in response to the demonstrations, giving ordinary people the chance to express their views on France's economy and democracy.

Mr Philippe said "the debate clearly indicates the direction: we must cut taxes and cut them more quickly".

At the same time, however, he said the government will have to cut public spending.

Mr Philippe listed as other major topics the demand for more public services, new democratic ways to influence political decisions and fighting climate change without raising taxes to do it.

He called for "radical" changes but did not provide details.

Mr Macron is expected to unveil a series of economic measures next week.

The yellow vest movement, prompted by a fuel tax hike in November, has expanded into a broader revolt against Mr Macron's policies, which protesters see as favouring the rich and big businesses.

The French government said 1.5 million people have participated in the debate through posts on a website, local meetings and conferences, messages in grievance books placed in town halls and in letters.

Most yellow vests leaders have called on the movement's supporters not to take part in the debate, saying they did not believe in the government's offer to listen to the French.

Mr Philippe's suggestions do not include two of the yellow vests' persistent demands: the reintroduction of a wealth tax on the country's richest people and the implementation of popular votes allowing citizens to propose new laws.

Mr Macron has already made concessions that failed to extinguish the anger of the yellow vest movement.

He abandoned the fuel tax hike, scrapped a tax increase for retirees and introduced a 100 monthly bonus to increase the minimum wage, a package estimated at 10bn.
BT announced that it is expanding the range of services it provides to NATO to support the military alliances global operations. It follows the signing of a new, three-year agreement with NATOs Communications and Information Agency (NCI) for support services valued at 5.9 million.

Secure and reliable connectivity complemented by new support services lie at the heart of NATOs digital transformation. BT connects more than 70 NATO locations internationally, including sites spread across the Alliances 29 member countries and beyond. Adding BTs network support services to the agency enables NATO to roll out new solutions within the dynamic environment it operates in.

Bas Burger, CEO of Global Services, BT, said: Digital transformation is a strategic driver for multinational organisations. Like many of our global customers, NATO faces a dynamic operational landscape and looks to harness the latest digital tools and technologies to enhance its performance. With our global secure network and expertise as a trusted supplier to governments, international agencies and multinationals, BT is well placed to support NATO in an increasingly digital world.
A woman in England who tried to cheat the British health service out of more than 2m (2.3m) by exaggerating injuries from botched surgery has been jailed after she was spotted at a hen party in Ibiza.

Lesley Maria Elder, 50, from Poole, Dorset in the south-west of England claimed she was left disabled by constant pain following a vaginal mesh operation and could no longer work or do routine tasks without help.

She sued the George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust in Nuneaton, where she underwent the surgery in 2010, for 2.5m (2.9m).

But a judge found she had "grossly, dishonestly and repeatedly" exaggerated her symptoms after photographs appeared on Facebook of her at her daughter's hen party in the Spanish resort.

Undercover surveillance also showed she was able to go shopping and to walk her dog regularly, without the aid of a walking stick.

Elder was jailed for five months at the High Court in London for contempt of court over her false claims.

She was sentenced in her absence after apparently taking an overdose of painkillers in court shortly before the hearing started.

Judge Karen Walden-Smith said: "This was a deliberate and persistent making of false statements for the purpose of falsely recovering significant monies from a publicly-funded body."

The judge said only immediate custody was possible, given the "great seriousness" of the contempt committed by Elder.

She added: "This was an attempt to effectively defraud the NHS of a sum of more than 2 million - public funds which are desperately needed for frontline services."

The judge told the court Elder suffered a genuine injury as a result of the surgery, which it later transpired was not necessary because she had been misdiagnosed.

The NHS trust admitted liability but disputed the amount she claimed, and a judge at a county court in 2017 ruled she was entitled to just 120,000 (139,000).

Judge Iain Hughes QC rejected her claims that she had become isolated and dependent on others for routine tasks including housework and shopping following the surgery.

He found she had not suffered the significant disability she alleged after surveillance footage showed her walking unaided, visiting the zoo with her grandson and shopping.

The NHS Trust brought committal proceedings against her at the High Court over the lies she had told during the county court case.

Judge Walden-Smith said Elder's claims involved "extensive and widespread exaggeration and lies" - including her assertion that she could not go to her daughter's hen party when in fact she was there and "fully participating".

The judge said her mitigation included the fact she had suffered actual harm as a result of the unnecessary surgery and her previous good character.

She had also donated a kidney to her ex-partner to prevent her daughter from having to do so, which has had a further impact on her health.

The sentencing was delayed after Elder appeared to take a number of pills shortly before the judge came into court.

She was taken to hospital and the judge went ahead with the hearing in her absence.

Elder is likely to be released from prison after serving half her sentence.
A rhinoceros poacher in a South Africa wildlife reserve was trampled to death by an elephant and eaten by lions, authorities have said.

Rangers at Kruger National Park found the man's skull and trousers.

The man and two others were hunting for rhinos illegally last week when the elephant surprised them and trampled him, park spokesman Isaac Phaahla said.

The two companions dragged his body to a spot near a road and told the man's family what happened.

"Poaching is a serious, ongoing problem in the park," Mr Phaahla said of Kruger, which covers 7,500 square miles in south-eastern South Africa.

The world's rhinos are in danger of being hunted to extinction.

They are prized for their horns, which are ground up and used in traditional Chinese medicine as a supposed cure for a variety of ailments.

South Africa, which has about 80% of the world's remaining rhinos, has seen aggressive poaching of the animals in recent years.

Last year, 769 rhinos were killed illegally, down from more than 1,000 annually since 2013, according to Save the Rhino.

After the death of the poacher, whose name and nationality were not released, relatives asked park officials to help recover the body.

Rangers searched on the ground and by air but did not find the remains before it got dark, Mr Phaahla said.

The two surviving hunters gave officials a more precise description of where they left the dead man.

Police arrested them on suspicion of poaching.

"The next day, our field rangers searched in the bush and made the gruesome discovery," Mr Phaahla said.

"There was a pride of lion nearby which apparently had devoured his body."

Police said they seized guns and ammunition from the surviving men.

They appeared in court and were charged with illegal possession of firearms, trespassing in the park and conspiracy to poach.

"On most days, we have close to 15 poaching groups of three individuals each who are hunting illegally for rhinos," Mr Phaahla said.

"Our rangers are well trained and making progress in controlling the poaching."
Six people have died in the capital of Khartoum, the seventh in Darfur, during protests in Sudan..

Those protesting are calling for President Omar al-Bashir to resign. According to CNN, some members of the Sudanese army have moved to protect protesters after security forces attempted to break up the third day of a mass sit-in outside the presidential compound.
Some 2,800 people have been displaced by fighting between rival militias over Tripoli, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator in Libya said.

Maria do Valle Ribeiro said clashes have prevented emergency services from reaching casualties and civilians, and have damaged electricity lines.

She warned that the increased violence is worsening the situation for migrants held in the capital's detention centres.

Fighting was under way at the international airport, some 24 kilometres (15 miles) from central Tripoli.

The self-styled Libyan National Army, led by Khalifa Hifter, began an offensive against the capital last week.

Rival militias that support the UN-backed government in Tripoli have vowed to recapture all the areas recently seized by Hifter's forces.

The two sides reported that at least 41 people, including civilians, had been killed since Thursday.

Update: Medecins Sans Frontieres have said they are "extremely concerned" by the fighting in Tripoli.

"MSF is extremely concerned for civilians caught in the ongoing fighting in Tripoli, including those refugees and migrants currently trapped in detention centres in or near the affected areas.," Craig Kenzie, Project Coordinator for MSF's Operations in Tripoli.

"The fighting has made refugees and migrants in detention exceptionally vulnerable and severely reduced the capacity of the humanitarian community to provide timely lifesaving response and urgently needed evacuations."

"This is the third time in the past seven months that Tripoli has erupted in conflict, yet many people trapped in detention are there because of European member state policies that enable the Libyan Coast Guard to intercept people at sea and forcibly return them to Libya in violation of international law," Mr Kenzie added.

- Press Association; Additional reporting by Joel Slattery
Labour has suspended a councillor over a social media post saying "Hitler had the right idea" about travellers.

The "dehumanising" comment was sent from the Facebook page of Cllr Bob Murray, of Prestatyn, a town in Denbighshire, Wales.

Mr Murray, whose Facebook page now appears to be deleted, said he had no comment to make about the incident.

Images online appear to show a comment reading: "Hitler had the right idea, anyone hot (sic) any gas canisters?" sent from his account.

The remarks were reportedly made on a discussion about a group of travellers posted by a fellow councillor.

Labour MP Chris Ruane said he was "appalled" and would ensure a "full investigation is carried out".

He wrote on Twitter: "This kind of dehumanising language is utterly unacceptable and incompatible with Labour Party values and our shared values as a tolerant society."

I'm appalled by this remark. This kind of dehumanising language is utterly unacceptable & is incompatible with Labour Party values & our shared values as a tolerant society. I have reported this to @UKLabour & will be following up to ensure a full investigation is carried out https://t.co/8BkLKTMv4m  Chris Ruane (@ChrisRuane58) April 8, 2019

A Labour Party spokesman said: "The Labour Party takes complaints about discriminatory and threatening language extremely seriously, which are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures and any appropriate disciplinary action is taken.

"We can't comment on individual cases."

Cllr Murray will sit as an independent while he is suspended from Labour.

A Denbighshire Council spokesman said: "The matter was referred to the Council and we have since referred it to the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales for consideration."

- Press Association
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.
Its hard to escape the impression that a private deal has been hatched between West Australian giant Wesfarmers and the Malaysian government to sell rare earths company Lynas  but the shareholders and board of Lynas have been left out of the meeting room.

Even more bizarre, the board of Lynas is receiving the vital intel on whether it can retain its existentially important Malaysian operating licence from a YouTube video of a Malaysian press conference held last Friday.

Amanda Lacaze has two Goliaths to contend with.

Corporate governance, sovereign risk, disclosure seem to be hard to find in this rapidly moving Lynas feast. As far as a description is concerned  circus comes to mind.

While the board of Lynas is scratching around on their mobile phones to get the YouTube feed, it seems Wesfarmers, which last month launched a $1.7 billion hostile bid for Lynas, has already been in meetings with the Malaysian government  and has come up with a solution to Lynas licence problems.
The boss of Australia's second largest telecommunications company has criticised the $50 billion National Broadband Network as a "ticking time bomb", while rejecting industry calls for a write-down in favour of upgrading the network.

Singtel Optus chief executive Allen Lew said cutting wholesale prices charged by the NBN Co to telcos would not solve the major problems as "people are not complaining about prices, they're complaining about the customer experience".

Allen Lew has rejected calls for a writedown of the NBN Co, instead asking for upgrades to the network. Credit:Jamila Toderas

"We believe at Optus that the NBN could well be a time bomb but we believe as an industry we have the power to work co-operatively, collaboratively with NBN to put out that fuse," Mr Lew said.

Despite this, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims said at a telecommunications industry summit in Sydney on Monday that the cost of basic NBN plans had become an affordability issue for those on lower incomes because the charges were more than the plans some customers were on before the rollout.
Equifax Analytics Pvt. Ltd. announced that it is joining forces with AccountScore, an analytics-based business in London with presence in India, which provides actionable insights and analytics on bank transaction data for its clients.

Together, the companies will develop products that will provide a 360-degree view about customers by considering their assets and liabilities. The alliance will also work on developing analytics attributes of the customers based on their transactional behavior using the data available with AccountScore and the analytics expertise of both the firms to design and develop it. The partnership will provide a full range of products and services to prospective users like banks, NBFCs and financial institutions in India and the Middle East.

India is a very exciting market for AccountScore with a unique opportunity that needs innovative solutions. The partnership in India with Equifax further deepens our strong relationship that we have on the back of our existing Open Banking partnership in UK, said Joseph Hungin, Head of International at AccountScore.

This complementary partnership will enable financial institutions in India and Middle East to get a holistic view of their customers which can help in digitization and better underwriting, especially for the new-to-credit segment, said K M Nanaiah, Managing Director, Equifax Credit Information services Ltd. and Country Leader, Equifax India and MEA.
While President Donald Trump is focused on the national emergency he's declared to secure the southern US border, the billionaire founder of the world's biggest hedge fund is more worried about losing the American dream.

Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio. Credit:Bloomberg

Capitalism must be reformed because it's not producing enough opportunities for most Americans, creating an income gap that threatens to spark conflict, Ray Dalio, the Bridgewater Associates co-chairman, said in an interview that aired on Sunday on CBS' 60 Minutes.

"If I was the president of the United States," Dalio said, "what I would do is recognise that this is a national emergency." It has to come from the top, he said: "If you look at history, if you have a group of people who have very different economic conditions, and you have an economic downturn, you have conflict."

While Dalio, 69, previously has focused on inequality and warned about the dangers of populism, he's started to focus on what he terms the existential threats they present to American society.
A Sydney earthmoving company has been fined $90,000 after a 26-year-old man was crushed underneath the body of a dump truck and seriously injured.

The District Court of NSW found Haines Bros Earthmoving, which supplies civil construction and plant hire services, failed to maintain a safe working environment for its employees.

Sydney earthmoving company Haines Bros Earthmoving has been fined $90,000.

Executive Director for SafeWork NSW Tony Williams said the accident was avoidable and the result of the dump body of a truck, carrying 30 tonnes of soil and gravel, being lowered during repairs.

The worker was called to inspect and repair the malfunctioning truck, then began working underneath the raised dump body, Mr Williams said.
When Fernando Manrique moved back into the family's northern Sydney home on October 2, 2016, after having earlier been shown the door, his wife Maria Lutz remarked to friends that he was acting like "father of the year".

The marriage of the Colombian-born couple was on the rocks, with Ms Lutz saying she was "done with Fernando", who was pursuing a relationship with a teenage woman he had met while on business in the Philippines, a coronial inquest has heard.

Maria Lutz, husband Fernando Manrique and children Martin and Elisa died in a suspected murder suicide at Davidson in Sydney's north in October 2016.

Detective Sergeant Timothy Pooley told the inquest the family's finances were in "dire straits", and, by the time Mr Manrique had opened up an account with gas supplier BOC on September 30, "his intention was clear".

Sergeant Pooley said that, while Ms Lutz was at school with their two autistic children, Elisa, 11, and Martin, 10, Mr Manrique was rigging up a deadly apparatus that would pump carbon monoxide into the house in Davidson while the family slept.
Temperatures are set to be more than five degrees above the April average in parts of south-east Queensland on Tuesday as another spell of hot Autumn weather approaches.

Ipswich was expected to reach a top of 33 degrees, well above its average maximum of 27.5, while Gatton, west of Brisbane, was also bracing for 33, almost six degrees above its 27.2-degree average.

A dip in the pool is ideal for Tuesday with the mercury to hit 30 degrees or higher across large parts of the south-east. Credit:Tammy Law

Brisbane was predicted to reach 31 on Tuesday, significantly higher than its April average of 27.1, according to Bureau of Meteorology records.

The Sunshine and Gold coasts were forecast to hit 29 degrees, exactly three degrees above average.
A three-year-old boy allegedly murdered by his father had cuts on his forehead and extensive scarring on his back in the years leading up to his death.

Kenyan refugee Quincy Timberlake is accused of killing his son Sinclair while the family were living in Brisbane in 2014.

Several witnesses gave evidence there had been concerns about Mr Timberlake's mental health following his arrival in Australia. Credit:Louise Douvis

The former Kenyan presidential candidate appeared in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Monday for the first day of his committal hearing.

Christina Carroll gave evidence she befriended Mr Timberlake's wife Esther, a TV presenter and lawyer, before he arrived in Australia.
Adrian Schrinner has been sworn in to become Brisbanes 17th lord mayor in a special meeting of Brisbane City Council on Monday, saying Brisbane has been at the centre of my universe.

Outgoing lord mayor Graham Quirk, who formally resigned on Sunday night, left his seat of power and joined family and friends seated at the back of the chamber, listening intently to the speeches made by councillors for and against the selection of the new leadership team.

Brisbanes new Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner makes his first speech with new deputy mayor Krista Adams watching on. Credit:Lucy Stone

Hailing his elevation as building on a long history of stable LNP mayors, Cr Schrinner said his mayoralty would be focused on two pillars of building and protecting Brisbane.

Cr Schrinner was joined by new deputy mayor Krista Adams, in a packed chamber with family and friends watching on, including former lord mayors Campbell Newman and Sallyanne Atkinson.
One of Brisbane lord mayor Adrian Schrinners first acts of office on Monday morning was to unblock independent councillor Nicole Johnston on Twitter.

At the special council meeting on Monday to swear in the new lord mayor, deputy mayor and council committees, Cr Johnston (Tennyson) said she hoped Cr Schrinner would be more communicative to her than his predecessor Graham Quirk.

Nicole Johnston (Tennyson) said she had been blocked on Twitter by Adrian Schrinner for years. Credit:Glenn Hunt

For the first time in nine years, Adrian Schrinner called me last Wednesday, Cr Johnston said.

The phone call was to invite Cr Johnston to nominate for her preferred council committees.
A man and woman remain on the run after another woman was stabbed in Ipswich on Sunday.

Police found a 32-year-old woman with multiple stab wounds when they were called to a home on Bergin Street in Booval about 3pm.

The victim was taken to the Princess Alexandra Hospital in a serious condition on Sunday and she had improved to a serious but stable condition on Monday.

A man and a woman fled the scene and were still on the run on Monday but police said they believed they had identified a suspect.

Police said the victim did not live at the home where she was found.
A driver has fled the scene of a fatal crash on Phillip Island, leaving his passenger to die after the car hit a tree.

Police are searching for the driver after emergency services arrived at the scene of the single vehicle crash just before 6am on Monday.

The car is believed to have lost control at the intersection of Phillip Island Road and Ventnor Road in Cowes. It struck a tree and the 28-year-old male passenger died at the scene.

The driver was not in the car when emergency services arrived. Police are now searching for the driver.

Detective Senior Sergeant Roz Wilson from Major Collision Investigation Unit said it was a "heavy" impact and the driver might be injured.
The teenager dubbed "Egg Boy" after he smashed a raw egg on the head of far-right Senator Fraser Anning has been handed an official caution from police and says he has learnt a valuable lesson.

After reviewing footage of the incident, police have chosen not to lay charges against the controversial Queensland politician, who they say was acting in "self defence" when he lashed out at Melbourne teenager Will Connolly.

Will Connolly, 17, has received an outpouring of support after he smashed an egg on to the head of controversial politician Fraser Anning.

But police have charged a 20-year-old man from the Melbourne suburb of West Footscray with assault after he allegedly kicked Will while he was pinned to the ground during a scuffle with Mr Anning's supporters.

The teenager egged Mr Anning at a far-right rally in Moorabbin in Melbourne's south-east on March 16, the day after the Christchurch terror attack.
A preliminary investigation has dismissed the majority of workplace allegations made against Victorian coroner Sara Hinchey, but a claim she took alcohol belonging to the court could cost the judge her job.

The Judicial Commission of Victoria, which investigates complaints about judicial officers, on Monday said it had dismissed 87 of 92 allegations made against Judge Hinchey, but five warrant further action.

State Coroner Sara Hinchey stepped aside last year. Credit:Joe Armao

Judge Hinchey stepped down from her role as coroner in August while the Judicial Commission investigated the complaint made against her.

The commission has referred for further investigation one allegation that Judge Hinchey took home alcohol purchased by the Coroners Court.
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.
He personally believed the protestors harmed their cause by their actions, although it was "a matter for the community to determine", and acknowledged some people may have felt alarmed at the commotion given recent attacks in the CBD. One such person was city worker Dianne Delbridge, who came out of her Flinders Street office to flashing lights and police. Protesters being moved by police about 9am. Credit:Zach Hope She happened to be in hospital with a broken ankle when victims were brought into her ward 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.

"I understand why people want to protect animals  I do myself  but I dont think its worth disrupting and frightening people." The vans, which had been parked in the middle of the intersection, are being towed. Credit:Zach Hope The Melbourne protest was the biggest in a wave of co-ordinated action in Victoria, Tasmania, NSW and Queensland that saw animal-rights activists raid abattoirs, meatworks and even negotiate the release of three sheep from the Carey Bros' plant in Yangan, near Toowoomba, in Queensland. 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 filmed themselves blocking the entrance of Australian Food Group's pig slaughterhouse in Laverton, in Melbourne's south-west.

Nine protesters said they locked themselves onto a Goulburn slaughterhouse in NSW since 2am to shine a light on what they said was the "oxymoron of humane slaughter". They were arrested by police who had to cut them free and carry them to police cars. One Victorian protester said: "Things like this will keep happening until we see change, until ... it's a vegan world." Protesters connected outside the Melbourne Aquarium. Credit:Zach Hope But Chris Delforce, director of the Dominion film and a leader in the nationwide action, was more cirumspect about what may come next. "That's a good question," he said. "I'm not actually sure how to answer that. We're just going to keep promoting the film. We figure anyone who watches the film will understand why we did this and maybe will participate in future actions."

He said the potential to scare commuters was "absolutely on our mind", which was why, he said, protesters and vans moved slowly into the intersection and were quick to assure non-participants there was no danger. He said no-one stood to make any money out of extra film sales or online views. Protesters linked together with pipes and chains outside Melbourne Aquarium. Credit:Zach Hope "[It's] about creating conversations that need to be had that we weren't having otherwise," he said. "It's easy for the public to ignore it if it's not interrupting their day."

Prime Minister Scott Morrison lashed out at the "shameful, un-Australian" protesters and said the government was prepared to join or bankroll a civil lawsuit brought by any affected farmers against the activists. "I think state and territory governments should ensure the full force of the law is brought against these green-collared criminals," Mr Morrison said. Protesters in the middle of the Flinders and Swanston streets intersection. Credit:Zach Hope Victorian Agriculture Minister Jaclyn Symes would not be drawn on new or harsher penalties for such disruptive protests, but said she would be talking to police in coming days. "I'm outraged that you've got 12 year olds sitting in the main intersection of Melbourne under the false pretense that these people are there for a just cause," she said.
Two anti-Adani protesters have stormed a stage to disrupt Scott Morrison at a Brisbane business lunch, but the prime minister appeared to take in his stride.

"Do we have contestant number three?" Mr Morrison asked as the protesters were jeered and removed from the Valley Chamber of Commerce on Monday.

A Stop Adani protester takes to the stage where Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison was making a speech at a the Valley Chamber of Commerce business luncheon in Brisbane on Monday. Credit:AAP

One woman carrying a stop Adani protest flag managed to reach Mr Morrison's side but was dragged away by security as a second protester stood to yell "stop Adani".

Then a table of 10 protesters started chanting "climate election, no more coal" before they were escorted out by security.
Changes to religious instruction classes in Queensland schools to rule out references to animal sacrifice, prostitution, beheadings and wasting money on women will come into effect this year.

In August 2017, Education Queensland reviewed the wording and class activities of the hourly religious instruction given by volunteers in state schools by Christian organisation Connect.

Changes to religious instruction information provided in Queensland schools will come into effect from 2019, says Education Minister Grace Grace. Credit:AAP Image/ Glenn Hunt

State Education Minister Grace Grace said the changes would come into effect alongside a review of the school chaplaincy system.

Parents and principals raised concerns in 2016 that, in some cases, students were encouraging other students to join church-based organisations.
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.
Washington: A man from the state of Maryland inspired by the Islamic State group plotted to ram a stolen U-Haul truck into as many pedestrians as possible at a popular convention and tourist destination just outside the nation's capital, federal prosecutors said on Monday.

Rondell Henry. Credit:Montgomery County Police

The allegation was made in a court filing as prosecutors in Maryland urged a judge to keep the defendant, 28-year-old Rondell Henry, detained on a charge of driving a stolen vehicle across state lines. The police arrested him on March 28 after officers who discovered the stolen truck saw him leap over a security fence.

Henry then made incriminating statements that show steps he took to maximise damage, prosecutors say.

"I was just going to keep driving and driving and driving. I wasn't going to stop," the document quotes Henry as telling law enforcement authorities who questioned him. He said he wanted to create "panic and chaos" similar to a deadly truck attack that killed scores of people in Nice, France in 2016, prosecutors say.
Cruz's letters are to a young woman in the United Kingdom named Miley, one of his cyber supporters, and her brother, Liam, and they are dated from mid-October 2018 to mid-November. A young woman named Miley helped form a Facebook group shortly after the shooting. It was called "The First Victim," referring to Cruz. Her last name is not shown in the letters. This photo posted on the Instagram account of Nikolas Cruz showed weapons lying on a bed. Credit:AP He says he isn't sure he wants to remain alive. "I wish life for me could have been different but it's not. And a part of me is wishing it ends. End with the death (penalty), letting someone inject me with longlast [sic] sleep. Its kind of what I want but I'm unsure of myself so I'm just leting [sic] people save me from myself, saving me from something that I can never return from." Cruz says he thinks death will be "forever darkness or a flash of light."

At the same time, Cruz muses about freedom, and a family. Students hold their hands in the air as they are evacuated by police from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Credit:AP "Would you be OK with me getting a crossbow if I lived with you? It would only be used for sporting and hunting." Cruz's letters are rife with misspellings and childish drawings. A lifelong special education student, Cruz was thought to have autism. He also was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. In his letters, he said he wants Miley to attend his trial and suggests when she moves to Florida, she get a medical marijuana card and a concealed weapons license "cause it's dangerous hear."

Loading "I also was wondering if you'd be interested in marriage when the time's comes. It won't be for a long time, but would you be interested? I feel like we make a great family together. With lots of kids. I imagine it every day. That's what's keeping me strong." He said he really wants to have a girlfriend even if the person is "miles away." "I don't know what's wrong with me, maybe I should get the death penalty. IDK (I don't know), I just want love ... " "I hope you can understand it's because of my mother," he writes. "I feel like I'll never be loved and I'll die alone."

In a letter from November 1, 2018, he mentions the Pittsburgh shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue, where eight people died. Loading "I put my heart out to these victims and to the shooter because I believe they need all the support they can get," he says. Cruz talks about boredom, missing his mother and politics. Guns: Cruz said he's "a huge Second Amendment supporter even though I'm here in jail for being on the wrong side of the law. I still believe it's a special right to have and I try to encourage everyone including you to take part in it."

Holidays: The Fourth of July is his favourite holiday. "I love fireworks and the explosions. It's super fun." Halloween: "This will be the first year I won't go trick or treating, unfortunately." He said he dressed as a soldier last year, wearing body armor and a ballistic helmet. He took his dog Kobe with him. His mother was in the hospital. She died the next day. Politics: Cruz wrote several times about the elections and his hope that Republicans would win - specifically Governor Ron DeSantis and Senator Rick Scott. "I can't spell his name but I know he's Republican and I'm voting for him," he wrote about DeSantis. "I know if we get a Democratic governor he will take away our rights. ... Please pray that Ron wins."

"I really don't like liberals. I don't want them winning. They really are dangerous. They spread lies and are destroying America. We're going to one day be the weakest country with the highest crime rates." "Are you liberal or conservative? Let me know." Outlook: "What is your outlook on life?" he asked in one letter. "Mine is go live the best way you can. So please let me know. I really want to know all your dreams." Sport: "You're probably wondering what my favorite sport is, well it's hunting, and professional bull riding." Girls: "I also like girls with red hair and a positive outlook on life."

Colour: His favourite colour is "Army green and woodland camouflage." Jail life: He said life in jail is boring. "I watch TV and do homework." He said it's easy to gain weight. Guards pat him down every four hours. "What's your day like?" he asks. Homelessness: He said he liked helping the homeless and once gave a homeless man a cheeseburger and fries. Food: He mentions in several letters that he puts peanut butter and jelly on meatball subs. Immigrants: "I hear there's a reason why wear trying to stop immigration and that's (unreadable word). They attack people, destroy property's and spread diseas [sic]." He said he is waiting for the whole society to collapse "because of these issues."

Media: He asked if the news media in the United Kingdom is "like hear with a bunch of lies or are they honest?" Diploma: Cruz says he is working to get his high school equivalency, the GED. Emotions: "I've been dealing with my emotions heer [sic] in jail. Their is this one guard I don't like but I'm behaving to the best of my ability but I'm starting to (unreadable word). Do you know any way how I can deal with that so I don't get in trouble?" Glasses: He talks about having gained weight in jail and about getting new glasses that look like they're from the 1960s. "So don't laugh at them when you see me on TV," he writes. Cruz regales the girl he's never met with stories from his childhood, including a recent hunting trip with his friend, Hunter McCutcheon, during which he says he almost shot his friend's father.

"We were shooting bug nest with bird shot. It was a lot of fun until he handed me shotgun and I almost shot him! He told me not to shoot but I did and I almost hit him but thank God I didn't. He said to be more careful cause once I take a life there's nothing that can be undone. Hunter was mad at me to but he got over it." Cruz wrote that his attorneys said Miley would attend his trial. He goes on to say he's hungry and will be having a peanut butter sandwich. Cruz seemed to retain hope he'd get out of jail one day. "Since I am into your sister maybe we can go on a double date," he wrote to Miley's brother, Liam. In another, he talked about spending time in the Everglades.
Washington: President Donald Trump says Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is leaving her job amid growing frustration by the administration over the number of southern border crossings.

Nielsen left her position on Sunday, ending a tumultuous tenure in charge of the border security agency that had at times made her the target of Trump's criticism.

Three people familiar with details of her resignation sad Nielson 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 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.
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

Data from CoreLogic has shown a slowly strengthening auction clearance rate  with three consecutive weeks holding above 50%  yet it appears as if uncertainty around upcoming events is still dampening the market in a significant way. As a result, what is traditionally one of the busiest weekends of the year could see a much lower auction clearance rate in 2019.

Kevin Brogan, CoreLogic national auction market commentator explained, When the market loses energy, one of the first signs is the auction clearance rates start to fall. The reason is that vendors are not recognizing the fact that the market is slipping and theyre keeping their reserves out of reach of the highest bid.

Now, vendors are likely looking at the media coverage, at the market conditions, and theyre wanting to make sure that theyre setting their reserve at a level that is realistic in the current market rather than at their aspirational reserve.

As a result, buyers who are watching clearance rates drop are more motivated to go to the auction rather than make an offer on the property beforehand as they can sense vendors willingness to reassess the asking price.

However, despite this progression towards more realistic pricing, Brogan pointed out that in a time where the market is a bit softer, uncertainty might be causing people to hold back.

To illustrate his point, he compared the last full week before the long Easter weekend in 2018 to the predictions for the last full week before the holiday this year.

Last year we saw a very significant spike in auction activity, but were just not seeing that for next week, Brogan said.

CoreLogic data predicts that there will be 2,098 auctions next week, as compared to the 1,978 evidenced this week.

By contrast, the week before Easter last year, there were 2,071 auctions in Melbourne alone, said Brogan.

There were 3,990 auctions across the country, nearly double what is predicted for this year.

Brogan said that the figure is likely due to a wait and see attitude by investors who are cautious to act before events such as the proposed changes to negative gearing, the availability of funding, and the federal election shape the market moving forward.
An alternative convincing argument for joining parliament

There could be an alternative convincing argument for opposition joining the parliament and be opposition in the parliament also. Nothing will change the truth about the election robbery seen all over the world. The government itself has made clear like the day the nightly robbery of the last general election by pocketing 289 seats of the parliament of 300 elected representatives. Rejecting the election on the ground of robbery was perfectly legitimate.





One can reasonably argue that those who are elected as candidates from the Unity Front are the ones who have been genuinely elected because there was no stuffing of pro-government votes. The robbery was too bold to allow BNP, the second largest party, to win only 5 seats. Such an election result is provocatively insulting. Again the fact remains the BNP or Unity Front proved ineffective to react against such an outrage. The

leaders of the Front together have remained helpless despite condemnation by international democratic community.





The parliament, though not legitimately elected, is functioning. The ministers are going about as ministers. The BNP leaders have no qualms against demanding to the government release of its ailing leader Begum Khaleda Zia.





The government does not feel any pressure to be sympathetic to the demands of BNP leaders, though the need for her medical treatment is accepted. The government shows no inclination to accede to the request for her to get treatment in a private hospital of her choice. Now she is under treatment at a government hospital.





That she was duly elected Prime Minister for three times is not deniable. So deserves to be taken seriously for her health condition. There is no reason to believe that she will flee the country. Let us also accept the fact that she is convicted in two corruption cases of dubious nature. But the convictions have to be finally decided by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court. So the matter is pending before the Appellate Division to consider her bail application on health ground.





It is reported that the government is ready to consider her release on parole. If the intention is genuine then it is not understandable why the government should be unwilling to consider the request for treatment in a private hospital at her own expense.





The Supreme Court also could be helpful in granting her bail for a limited period to facilitate her treatment. If any instance is needed then one can cite the example of Nawaz Sharif, a former prime minister of Pakistan, who is also convicted for corruption but the Supreme Court accepted his prayer for bail as he needs treatment for heart complications.





So options are available to make it possible to arrange for her treatment freely to her satisfaction. We do not believe that the government is anxious to seek any political concession in return.





We are not thinking of any deal or political sell out for joining the parliament. The decision whether or not to join the parliament has to be honourably and independently taken keeping in view the political cause to be advanced.





In our view if the five MPs of BNP join the parliament they will be an opposition to be reckoned with however ineffective it is. They will be free to uphold the cause more emphatically than the present politics tolerates outside the parliament.





If the BNP alone or together with the Front can in future show any muscle to organise a powerful movement, the opposition MPs in the parliament will be no obstruction. Rather they will be their strength from the parliament. The sad thing at present is that the opposition is so to say voiceless.





It can also be argued that the people who voted the opposition MPs cannot be blamed for electing them honestly by the people to represent their interest in the parliament. Now they are not just BNP members or the Front candidates. Their representative capacity of the people must not be taken lightly in whatever political decision is.





If the joint opposition could take leadership to make it impossible for the government to remain in power through election robbery then abstaining from the parliament would have been justified. But enough time has passed to be hopeful of any challenge to the election farce.





We do not believe that joining the parliament by the opposition MPs will confer legitimacy nationally or internationally to those who have robbed the parliamentary seats so openly to be in the parliament and form the government. All will depend in what circumstance and with what motive they agree to take oath as MPs.





It has to be explained also how the opposition is gaining to be benefitted by insisting on their genuinely elected MPs to respect the people's desire when the opposition is struggling to justify their own existence.
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Hes making a C. diff-erence.

A Park Slope man is taking his crusade against a deadly infection that annually kills tens of thousands of Americans to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, where he and more than two dozen other advocates will lobby legislators to pass new laws in the hope of saving lives.

Christian Lillis became a leading figure in the fight to spread awareness of the bacterium known as C. diff after his mother fell ill with the infection following a routine dentists visit, and within days perished due to fatal complications caused by the ill-understood germ.

It was horrific, said Lillis. From the time that we took her to the hospital until she was gone was probably 36 hours.

C. diff  a bacterium that can be ironically activated by anti-biotic  afflicts about a half million people every year, of whom an estimated 29,000 perish 30-days after their initial diagnosis, reaping an annual death toll on par with motor-vehicle collisions, according to the Center for Disease Control.

After Lilliss mother died in 2009, the Slope resident created the Peggy Lillis Foundation to spread awareness to the little-known, but lethal infection. Now, the Kings County man works with other organizations to host an annual C. diff summit, where experts share potentially life-saving information about the deadly microbes.

The first two summits were hosted in New York City, but the event moved to Washington, D.C., last year, and was followed up by a day of intense lobbying, where approximately two dozen advocates met with nearly 50 lawmakers in both houses, many of whom had never heard of the illness.

Only three of them had every heard of the disease, Lillis said.

And this year theyre heading back to ask Congress to approve new programs to spread awareness for the obscure killer, enhance regulations around reporting the illness, and increase funding to study and fight the illness.

All these advocates have appointments with their Congress members and senators, who will be gong to offices sharing their stories, and things congress can do to make a tangible difference, said Lillis.
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Police found a dead man floating in the water near Sheepshead Bay on Sunday night.

Dennis Bennett, a 64-year-old Marine Park resident, was pulled out of Shell Bank Creek, near Knapp Street and Harkness Avenue at approximately 7 p.m. on April 7, according to cops. First responders pronounced Bennet dead at the scene.

The New York City Medical Examiner will determine the cause of Bennets death, and the investigation is ongoing, police said.
Ericsson India Private Limited will have to refund the entire amount of Rs 550 crore it got from Reliance Communications Limited (RCom) if the stay placed by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on May 30 last year is vacated by it, a two-judge bench led by Chairperson Justice S J Mukhopadhaya observed. "Why should one party get it and why should banks suffer? Why should the Indian economy suffer," the two-judge Bench observed, adding that it would either quash RComs bankruptcy proceedings in NCLT or allow bankruptcy case to proceed as per law.

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Dear Reader,

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

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Korean Air patriarch, chairman and CEO Cho Yang-ho died of a chronic illness on Monday just weeks after shareholders ended his 27-year tenure on the board of the country's biggest carrier due to perceived leadership failings. Shares of the family-controlled airline and Hanjin Kal, the holding company for parent Hanjin Group, jumped on news of the death, as investors push for better governance under new management or a younger generation of the Cho family. The death also raised the possibility of a bidding war over the 70-year-old patriarch's stake in the holding firm, ...
Abu-Dhabi based Etihad Airways, a 24 per cent shareholder in Jet Airways, is evaluating its options to participate in a pre-bid process for the troubled airline as part of a bank-led resolution plan, sources in the know said. Etihad, which had recently indicated to Jet lenders that it wanted to sell its stake in the airline founded by Naresh Goyal more than 25 years ago, is yet to confirm if its interested, keeping the stakeholders guessing.

Dear Reader,

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

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Theres yet no wave discernible for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, even as it was from this city that he kicked off his campaign on March 28, with the famous exhortation to vote against the SaRaBa  the acronym he coined for the gathbandhan (alliance) of the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The city, which votes in the first phase on April 11, does not look like a Hindutvawaadi election ...

Dear Reader,

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

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With Lok Sabha elections 2019 around the corner, the Supreme Court has asked the Election Commission of India to increase the verification of Voter Verified Paper Trail(VVPAT) to five EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines) in a constituency from the earlier one per constituency, according to LiveLaw. "We have interacted with the EC officials.

At the outset, we would like to observe we are not doubting It may be possible that the system gives accurate results. But if the number increases, it would increase the greater satisfaction - the endeavour is to find to find a viable number ...
All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) has opposed the proposed merger of Lakshmi Vilas Bank with Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd. The association urged the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) not to give nod for the merger.

Lakshmi Vilas Bank had earlier said that it has received approval from the board to merge the bank with Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd. While RBI clarified that the Board has unanimously approved the resolution, the RBI nominee directors, as is the practice at the bank, did not have to participate in the voting or express any views. But the union said that the two ...
The government is considering a proposal under which demat account holders will be able to carry out their gold transactions electronically. According to the proposal, a demat account holder will have to open an account with a repository participant and through it, he/she can transfer gold to a jewellers demat account for the purpose of buying jewellery or even produce it as collateral for securing a loan.

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Well, this may not be really shocking but 60 per cent of Americans do not trust social networking giant Facebook with their personal information.

A poll conducted by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News sought to examine the thoughts about Americans when it comes to aspects of technology, social media, and government regulation of tech firms.

As Fast Company reports, it is not just Facebook that people don't trust. Thirty-seven per cent of Americans don't trust Google with their data, and 35 per cent don't trust the federal government, and 28 per cent of Americans don't trust Amazon on the same grounds.

Fifty-seven per cent of Americans believe that social media sites do more to divide the country than unite it. 74 per cent of Americans think that letting social media companies collect and use data about them in return for free services is not a fair trade-off.

Social media has always been into trouble for spreading misinformation, and 55 percent of Americans believe that social media does more to spread lies and falsehoods.

Interestingly, 82 per cent of Americans think social media sites waste people's time. On the other hand, 59 per cent of Americans say the has more benefits than drawbacks and 60 per cent feel more hopeful than worried about future

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In a landmark decision, Afghanistan on Sunday (local time) announced that it will send an official delegation to Qatar later this month for peace talks with the Taliban.

"An inclusive official delegation will attend the Qatar meeting representing Afghanistan," Anadolu News Agency quoted Mohammad Umer Daudzai, special presidential envoy, as saying.

The Taliban is yet to respond to the development. The group has so far refused to participate in the peace talks initiated by the Afghan government.

The announcement comes in the midst of US special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad's multi-nation tour on Afghanistan's peace process and to give a renewed push for stalled negotiations between Kabul and the Taliban.

It also comes after several rounds of negotiations between the US and Taliban in Doha, Qatar's capital city. These negotiations are aimed at ending the nearly two-decades-old conflict in Afghanistan.

No dates have been announced yet for the next round of talks, which is slated to take place later this month.

Last month, Afghan Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Abdullah Abdullah had said that the Taliban is an "obstacle" in the way of reaching peace in war-torn Afghanistan.

He also professed that the formation of a negotiation team can prevent the Taliban from making an "excuse" to avoid talks.

"Taliban has been the obstacle for taking the first step (for peace) because they have an excuse that we do not negotiate with government and that is why I say that Taliban is an obstacle on the way of reaching to peace," TOLONews had quoted Abdullah said as saying.

In February, Russia had hosted a meeting on Afghanistan's peace process in which various Taliban members were invited. However, Afghanistan was not invited to the meet.

On being snubbed for the summit, Kabul had expressed reservations and said that the talks in Moscow were held against the spirit of Afghan-led and owned peace process.

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India's hottest new startup in the Defence Sector, Big Bang Boom Solutions (BBB) broke into the 100 crore club within its first year of operations and secured funding in the form of convertible notes from strategic investors. Adding another success, the company won the 'See Through Armour' challenge from the Ministry of Defence under the aegis of iDex, within which the Defence Minister had launched the Defence India Startup Challenge.

"As a part of treasury operations; the funds received will be invested into a Hedge Fund to generate superior returns besides running the general operations of the company and development," said elaborating on the funding, Praveen Dwarakanath, CEO, BBB.

"With this model the investors bite off on a much lower market risk as opposed to a much higher startup risk. An innovative precedent set by us whom we feel must be the template for other firms/investors who wish to develop solutions in this space," he further added.

"The recent win in the MoD competition was around 'See Through Armor'. When one sits in an armoured vehicle; situational awareness is much lower than being in the open field. The solution gives the tank crew an ability to move naturally and feel that the armour around them is invisible. This is accomplished using AR/VR technologies which are co-developed with our partners in the space. The extension of this solution will be into unmanned vehicles and other technologies of the future," said detailing the winning entry at iDex, Praveen.

The company is also one of the finalists in the Illegal Usages of Drones Category (results expected in a month). The MoD competition entitles a Rs 1.5 crore grant and a chance to exhibit their defence credentials to the armed forces. The company is also open to exploring alliances and partnerships in the defence sector.

"Our interest in defence stems from the fact that defence technology has always been critical to defining superpowers of the world. The country with advanced defence technology invariably ends up being the strongest. As a country, we have lagged on this. With the new initiatives and proactive policies, the current environment is conducive to a change, and we intend to drive this change," said while explaining their foray into the defence sector, Dr Shivaraman Ramaswamy, Technical Head, BBB.

"Our ambition is nothing less than the complete independence for India from defence imports and we intend to achieve this by creating indigenous tech, integrating tech from other startups in solutions, consulting to ramp up indigenous manufacturing, facilitating tech transfer deals etc.," he further added.

"The competition saw over 500 applications coming from the public over the various categories. This shows the level of interest that the industry is willing to show when the government throws out a feeler. We feel that India of 2018 in the defence sector; is the India of 1992 when it decided to open its economy. A good time to be here," added Dr Shivaraman Ramaswamy.

This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article.

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Democrat Senator Bernie Sanders has fired a fresh salvo at the Republicans over open borders while stating that she is in favour of "comprehensive" immigration reform.

Sanders, who is also one of the Democrats in the fray for the presidential post in the next year's elections, said at a rally here, "I'm afraid you may be getting your information wrong. I think what we need is comprehensive immigration reform."

"Oh my god, there's a lot of poverty in this world, and you're going to have people from all over the And I don't think that's something that we can do at this point. Can't do it," he was quoted by The Washington Post as saying.

Interestingly, Sanders' comments came after the 77-year-old Vermont senator was criticised during campaigning for the 2016 presidential polls, where he had opposed a comprehensive immigration overhaul bill in 2007 over issues that it would depress wages and hurt the interests of the American workers.

Notably, Sanders has not released an outline for immigration policy for his 2020 presidential campaign.

US President Donald Trump, who declared a national emergency in February for getting his wall built at the US-Mexico border, has frequently dubbed the Democrats as "the party of open borders".

On February 19, Sanders announced that he will be contesting in the 2020 presidential elections, marking his second consecutive bid for the Democratic nomination after losing to Hillary Clinton in 2016.

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Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Monday lodged a complaint against BJP at Kharvela Nagar Police Station for allegedly cheating 4.5 crore people of Odisha on special category status.

In its complaint, the BJD also said that it is disappointed with the fact that the BJP has not addressed the issue of special category status to the state in its manifesto, police said.

After the BJP released its election manifesto for the state on Sunday, the BJD said: "The BJP released its election manifesto for 2019 Odisha elections. Just as the 2014 election manifesto was full of lies and falsehood, the 2019 election manifesto of BJP succeeds it with bigger lies and falsehood."

BJD had posed 15 questions to BJP including "why is the promise of special category status for Odisha, which was present in 2014 manifesto, is missing in the 2019 manifesto of BJP?"

Earlier in January, Patnaik had appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to accord the special category status to Odisha.

"Our pace of transformation has been remarkable and our growth has been inclusive. However, successive Central Governments have neglected Odisha. It is in this premise of historical Central neglect and frequent natural calamities that my government has been demanding Special Category Status for Odisha which will supplement our efforts in transforming the State," Patnaik wrote in a letter to the Prime Minister.

Odisha will vote in four phases on April 11, 18, 23 and 29. The state will be voting simultaneously for 21 Lok Sabha constituencies and 147 Assembly seats. 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 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday reiterated its promise of constructing Ram Temple in Ayodhya in its manifesto.

The party asserted that it will explore all possibilities within the framework of the Constitution to facilitate the expeditious construction of the Ram Temple.

"We reiterate our stand on Ram Mandir. We will explore all possibilities within the framework of the Constitution and all necessary efforts to facilitate the expeditious construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya," the party manifesto read.

The Supreme Court is hearing appeals against the September 30, 2010 verdict of the Allahabad High Court which ordered a three-way division of the disputed 2.77 acres of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya between the Nirmohi Akhara sect, the Sunni Central Wakf Board, Uttar Pradesh and Ramlalla Virajman.

The construction of the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya has been a long-standing promise by the BJP.

The pledge was also included in the 2014 elections manifesto.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Setting the narrative for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, BJP on Monday released its manifesto, reiterating its demand for abrogation of Article 370 and Article 35A of the Constitution which are provisions specific to Jammu and Kashmir.

It also said that the party will make efforts to ensure the safe return of Kashmiri Pandits to the state.

"In the last five years, we have made all necessary efforts to ensure peace in Jammu and Kashmir through decisive actions and a firm policy. We are committed to overcome all obstacles that come in the way of development and provide adequate financial resources to all the regions of the state, We reiterate our position since the time of the Jan Sangh to the abrogation of Article 370," the party manifesto said.

"We are committed to annulling Article 35A of the Constitution of India as the provision is discriminatory against non-permanent residents and women of Jammu and Kashmir. We believe that Article 35A is an obstacle in the development of the state," it said.

"We will take all steps to ensure a safe and peaceful environment for all residents of the state. We will make all efforts to ensure the safe return of Kashmiri Pandits and we will provide financial assistance for the resettlement of refugees from West Pakistan, Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK) and Chhamb," the BJP document said.

Article 370 grants special autonomous status to J and K, while Article 35A, incorporated into the Constitution in 1954, provides special rights and privileges to the citizens of the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Congress on Monday said that BJP should issue an apology letter instead of a manifesto.

The Congress statement came the day BJP released its manifesto."BJP should issue maafi patra (apology letter) for injecting a lethal injection of unemployment, farmers suicide, closing of businesses and putting youth towards unemployment," party's spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill told ANI.

He added, "BJP has cheated people; they should answer on the promises they made in 2014".

Taking a jibe at the BJP, Shergill said that the party has pushed the youth of the country towards "pakoda employment", linking it to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's comment in an interview that a person earning Rs 200 per day by selling pakodas is also employed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Amid the political chaos surrounding the UK's exit from the European Union, British Prime Minister Theresa May has admitted that her beleaguered Brexit deal will get a green signal only if it is supported by the opposition Labour Party.

May said that her deal negotiated with the EU was rejected thrice by the British Parliament and there was no chance of the agreement getting another approval in its current form.

"Given that Parliament has also made clear it will oppose a no-deal Brexit, the only way to secure a deal was through a compromise with Labour", CNN quoted May as saying in a statement released on Sunday.

"If we cannot secure a majority among Conservative and Democratic Unionist Party MPs we have no choice but to reach out across the House of Commons," she added.

May's comments on her failure to get the Brexit deal passed in the Parliament is an admission that her previous approach of trying to win over the hardline elements of her Conservative Party failed.

However, the remarks made by the 62-year-old leader is likely to ignite yet another political debate on her way of handling the Brexit process.

The Labour Party, which has criticised the Brexit process several times, is in favour of the UK remaining in a customs union with the EU after the country leaves the European bloc. However, the party is in two minds whether to ask the electorate to ratify any deal in a second referendum.

Interestingly, in an apparent shift of stance, May did not rule out the possibility of a second referendum or a customs union, saying both Labour and Conservative parties are committed to preventing unrestricted immigration from the EU after Brexit.

"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 further stated.

"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," she said.

Meanwhile, May will pay another visit to Brussels on April 10 to meet EU leaders at a special summit. The British Prime Minister will attempt to seek a short extension to delay the Brexit process to June 30.

Unless the EU is in favour of the delay, the UK is due to leave the EU without a deal on April 12. Several business tycoons and economists have warned of chaos in the case of no-deal Brexit.

No resolution seems to be in sight for the UK as the British Parliament had earlier rejected a "no-deal Brexit" scenario, besides rejecting May's Brexit deal thrice.

On April 3, May had engaged in "constructive" talks with Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn in an attempt to end the Brexit deadlock.

The EU, on the other hand, has reiterated on multiple occasions that the previously negotiated Withdrawal Agreement is the best that can be put on offer.

May had earlier announced that she would step down if her deal was passed in the British Parliament. Despite the rejection, demands from parliamentarians regarding her resignation have intensified.

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CERA, India's premium home solutions provider and one of India's most trusted brands in sanitary ware, faucets and tiles, entered modular kitchens market with the launch of Senator Cucine.

CERA unveiled an exclusive display of Senator Cucine spread over 3,000 sq ft at its company display centre, CERA Style Studio, at Marine Drive, Kochi in the presence of a large number of trade associates, architects, designers and developers from all over India.

Senator Cucine is truly Italian, made to measure in Italy. CERA has tied up with Spagnol group, a 50-year-old Italian company, for bringing kitchens to India. Silvan Spagnol its CEO along with Atul Sanghvi, Executive Director, CERA inaugurated the Senator Cucine Studio in Cochin, designed and executed by their designer, Ar Cristian Guizzo.

"CERA's entry into kitchens further consolidates its position of a total home solutions provider," said, Atul Sanghvi.

"We plan to open 30 studios for Senator Cucine in the first year, across India," he added.

CERA's premium brand, Senator, was launched exactly one year ago with the designer collections of sanitary ware, faucets, wellness and mirrors. The extension of Senator brand to kitchens is part of its growth plans.

Each of the seven kitchens ranges displayed has a definite individual design philosophy. The latest trends of glass and ceramic finished kitchens are on display. The modular kitchens are designed in such a way that they reflect the individual's strong personality and therefore focus particularly on the ability to personalise projects by choosing characteristic elements and endless different materials.

The water-based varnish used in of the production lacquered furniture reduces over 90 per cent the emission of noxious substances compared to traditional varnishes without compromising on the aesthetics. And it conforms to the EN 71.3 norm, which is considered safe for children.

Manufactured by using hydro-repellent materials with the lowest formaldehyde emissions, up to five times lower as compared to European market standards. IDROLEB board which is used to manufacture is a unique engineered wood and is considered as the lowest ever emission board.

Each Senator Cucine Studio will have well-experienced kitchen designers, who will help the consumers in designing the kitchen as per their individual needs through the latest cloud-based designing software.

This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article.

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Congress has blamed the makers of a TV serial of "pseudo-campaigning" for the Bharatiya Janata Party and will be approaching the Election Commission to lodge a complaint in the matter.

Maharashtra Congress will be filing a complaint against the production team and channel for allegedly violating model code.

General Secretary and spokesperson of Maharashtra Congress Sachin Sawant took to Twitter to announce the same and said, "Tomorrow on 8th April at 2.30 pm I will formally file a complaint before the Chief Electoral Officer of Election Commission of India against the channels and production teams of such serials who are deliberately and mischievously promoting"

He also shared a short clip from a daily soap where the two characters are talking about one of the flagship schemes of the central government, which, he said, is in violation of the model code of conduct.

The Model Code of Conduct is a set of instructions and guidelines to be followed by political quarter and candidates contesting polls for the conduct free and fair elections. It came into force on March 10 after the announcement of election schedule by the EC.

Seven phase elections will begin on April 11 and commence on May 19. Counting of votes will be held on May 23.

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Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday launched a scathing attack on the alliance of Congress and DMK in Tamil Nadu, stating that the alliance between the two parties is nothing but an 'Unholy Preposterous Alliance', a jibe based on the acronym 'UPA'.

Addressing a public rally in Madurai, Singh said, "Congress-DMK alliance not United Holy Alliance but it is an Unholy Preposterous Alliance. I am also astonished why DMK has made an understanding with the sinking-ship of leaderless Congress. It will prove to be a disaster."

He also accused Congress of destroying the heritage and culture of Tamil Nadu while blaming it for thwarting democracy in the state.

"Tamil Nadu is the biggest heritage center of culture, architecture, and history. Britishers harmed it and after them, it is Congress which has harmed Tamil Nadu the most. Three times the central governments led by Congress have dismissed the state governments of Tamil Nadu", said Singh.

Singh, while campaigning for AIADMK candidate Raj Sathiyan, highlighted the economic growth of the country and said, "International Monetary Fund (IMF) has accepted that India is the world's fastest growing economy. In 2014 India was on the 9th place in economic ranking but today it has emerged on the 6th place due to efforts of Prime Minister Modi led government. In some months we will be on the 5th position."

He also talked about the dastardly Pulwama attack and Balakot air strikes and said, "Our fighters destroyed the terrorist camps in Pakistan. However, the opposition is putting signs of interrogation on the bravery of armed forces and asking them about the count of casualties. A Tamil Nadu son Abhinandan was also involved in the operation. India also shot down Pakistan's F-16 however their prime minister is lying about it which has been contradicted by Pentagon".

Singh also talked about the recent A-SAT missile test and said that while the capability was there since 2007, the then Prime Minister put a hold to it. It was given a go-ahead after formation of BJP government in the Centre, he added.

The BJP is in alliance with the AIADMK, the DMDK, and the PMK to contest all 39 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

Voting in Tamil Nadu will be held on April 18. Counting of votes will take place on May 23.

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Hours after the release of BJP's manifesto called 'Sankalp Patra,' the Congress on Monday dubbed it as 'Jhansa Patra' (document of delusion), demanding that the ruling party should have released a 'maafinama' (apology) instead.

"At a time when there are 125 questions (featured in a document released at the event) looming over their manifesto for the last general polls, how can one believe in their Jhansa Patra," Congress communications in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala said at a press conference here.

Congress leader Ahmed Patel, who was also present on the occasion, said: "The difference between BJP manifesto and Congress manifesto can be seen firstly from the cover page. Ours has a crowd of people, and BJP manifesto has the face of just one man. Instead of a manifesto, the BJP should have come out with a 'maafinama."

"For its 2019 manifesto, the BJP has simply copy pasted its 2014 manifesto and changed all previous deadlines from 2019 to 2022, 2032, 2047, 2097. Luckily they didn't shift any deadlines to the next century," Patel quipped.

Coining a slogan to counter promises made in BJP's manifesto, Surjewala said: "Fir ek bar unhone jhansa patra kiya taiyar, desh ki janata kharij karegi is bar, aur jhola uthakar ho jao jane ko taiyar (They have once again prepared a document of delusion. People of the country would reject it, and you (Modi) should be ready to vacate the post of the PM)," he added.

Congress also released a document which, it said, contains 125 unfulfilled promised made by the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2014 elections. The document questions the central government on issues like unemployment, job creation, farm distress, black money, women safety atrocities on Dalits among others.

Surjewala slammed BJP for failing to provide 10 crore jobs in the last five years as promised and cited the government data to claim that 4.7 crore jobs vanished the post demonetisation.

He said that BJP leaders while speaking at their manifesto launch did not mention even for once the words like 'job', 'employment,' 'demonetisation' and 'GST.'

Drawing a parallel between manifestos of the BJP and the Congress, Surjewala said that there was a contest between "plethoras of fake promises versus support of Nyay."

Terming the Prime Minister an emperor, he said that Prime Minister Modi was obsessed with "I, me and mine" and asked as to why Modi did not take any questions from media post their manifesto launch.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Congress party on Monday urged the Supreme Court to reconsider its instruction to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to increase the random verification of VVPAT slips from one polling station per Assembly seat to only five booths in the Lok Sabha polls.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said: "We are not satisfied with five per booth verification of VVPAT slips in one assembly constituency. If VVPAT slips are not verified, then what was the point in spending Rs 18,00,00,000."

"We have demanded the verification of 50 per cent VVPAT slips. The order of the Supreme Court is not reasonable. The apex court must reconsider its decision," said Surjewala.

The Congress party stuck to the demand of 50 per cent matching of votes recorded in the electronic voting machines (EVMs) with the verifiable paper audit trails (VVPAT) in all constituencies.

Earlier on Saturday, twenty-one Opposition parties had submitted before the apex court that they were agreeable to a delay of even five days in the declaration of Lok Sabha poll results if the Election Commission of India (ECI) approves their demand for the verification of 50 per cent votes through VVPATs.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
American tourist Kimberly Sue Endicott and her tour guide, who was kidnapped in Uganda on April 2, have been rescued by security forces, authorities said on Sunday.

Confirming the development, the Ugandan Police tweeted, "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."

Endicott and her guide, who was abducted at gunpoint by suspected kidnappers while on a game drive at the Queen Elizabeth National Park, were found unharmed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ugandan government spokesperson Ofwono Opondo said.

"Both were rescued from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and are safely back in Kanungu district in Uganda. They are back at the lodge and she is expected to be in Kampala tomorrow," Opondo was quoted by CNN as saying.

He said that the suspected kidnappers fled the scene of the rescue after security personnel moved in the region.

Ugandan police on Thursday had said that an armed gang kidnapped Endicott and her tour guide from the national park and had made persistent demands for USD 500,000 ransom amount.

A spokesperson of the Wild Frontiers Uganda, the company Endicott toured with, stated that she and her tourist were not harmed by the suspected kidnappers, whose identities have not been revealed yet.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump expressed happiness over the rescue of Endicott and her tour guide.

"Pleased to report that the American tourist and tour guide that were abducted in Uganda have been released. God bless them and their families!" he tweeted.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Election Commission developed India's own Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in partnership with two government-owned companies i.e. the Electronics Corporation of India (ECIL) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) in the year 1989, which were used for the first time in the Goa State Assembly elections of 1999. For the first time, the paper ballot system was replaced by the electronic voting machines and it received great applause and marked the transition to digitalization in the election system of India.

Highlighting the relevance of the working module of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), Advocate Anant Sharma & Advocate Tushar Mudgil remarked, that the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and it's working module is very simple as it consists of two parts i.e. the control unit and ballot unit.

The control unit is kept in the polling station with the Presiding Officer and is placed inside the voting compartment as the votes are counted through it whereas the balloting units are kept in the voting compartment for electors to cast their votes. The balloting unit presents the voter with blue buttons horizontally labelled with corresponding party symbol and candidate names. The Control Unit, on the contrary, provides the officer-in-charge with a "Ballot" marked button to proceed to the next voter, instead of issuing a ballot paper to them.

The digitalization has marked the transition from the primitive paper ballot systems and a long wait for results to a more reliable, safe and secure medium for conducting elections. But the technology and transition have its own challenges and critics, which subsists for the issue in hand as there are certain strata of people and political parties who challenge the authenticity of these EVMs and there flows an ongoing debate on the same.

"EVM manufacturers and election officials have attempted to keep the design of the EVMs secret; this presents only a minor obstacle for would-be attackers. Some reports formed an opinion that the EVMs used in India are not tamper-proof and are susceptible to a range of attacks. Thus, the legal sanctity of EVM is always questioned. But, the Indian Parliament amended the Representation of the People Act 1951 and has introduced Section 61A, which lays down the provisions for the use of EVMs by Election Commission of India to conduct general and state elections in India. Further, Section 100 of the Act makes the tampering of the EVMs to be a corrupt practice and in the event of happening of the same then the election should be held void. Despite all such amendments, insertions and laws in force, disturbing claims are brought forward after almost every election," said, Anant Sharma, while answering the questions and enumerating the legal sanctity behind the usage of EVMs.

The question challenging the authenticity of the EVMs has already came before the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the leading case of Dr. Subramanian Swamy vs Election Commission of India (SLP (Civil) No.13735 of 2012) in which the petitioner pleaded that, in the present system of voting, there is no such facility by which a voter can verify and confirm his/her own vote. The Court after hearing both the parties stated that Election Commission of India has taken due diligence to avoid tampering and "paper trail" is an indispensable requirement of free and fair elections and thereof dismissed the case. Pursuant thereto, the Election Commission in the year 2013 incorporated Viable Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trial Systems (VVPAT) as a part of the presently used EVMs. The VVPAT machines are used during the election process to verify that the vote polled by a voter goes to the correct candidate, thus making the election even more transparent. The VVPAT system further helps the voter by executing a paper slip which contains the poll symbol and party name of the candidate as soon as the voter presses the button on EVM.

In the wake of numerous allegations related to the tampering, the Election Commission of India decided to replace over 9 lakh EVMs with advanced M3 Machines ahead of the 2019 general Lok Sabha elections. These machines will become redundant in case of any attempt of tampering. Thus, in order to restore the confidence of voters and have full transparency during the entire process of election, it is necessary to incorporate VVPAT with EVMs respectively.

"It was in favour of increasing random physical verification of Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) in the upcoming general Lok Sabha elections, however, doing so it shall take a number of days for the results to be declared," said, Hon'ble Supreme Court on March 25, 2019.

While reading the dailies and watching the talk shows we see many allegations and questions on the authenticity and validity of the EVMs, which are being raised by several activists and politicians. Having said that, the Election Commission of India has time and again demonstrated the EVMs and has issued various clarifications on their efficiency and usage and have also invited people who level allegations and raise questions to come forward and prove their stance, however, up-till now not even a single person has been able to prove anything beyond reasonable doubt.

The political turmoil created by certain activists and politicians has left the voters on a lurch. On one hand, we talk about digitalization and technology whereas on the other hand we level allegations and raise questions on them, without any concrete and decisive evidence and proofs while leaving the Indian voters perplexed and the International community amazed. The bare denial and the state of confusion have opened its arms and the general Lok Sabha elections of 2019 are looking at us with a smile on its face.

This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article.

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Iran on Monday (local time) designated the US as a "state sponsor of terrorism", and labelled the US Central Command (CENTCOM) in the Middle East as a "terror group" in a tit-for-tat response to a similar move by Washington.

The Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), headed by President Hassan Rouhani, said that the move was announced few hours after the US labelled the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a "foreign terrorist organisation".

Slamming Washington's decision, the SNSC termed it "an illegal and dangerous action" that poses a "major threat to regional and international peace and security and grossly violates the rules of international law", Fars News Agency reported.

It accused the CENTCOM of harming Iran's national security interests and "destroying" the lives of "innocent Iranian and non-Iranian individuals" to promote Washington's "aggressive policies" in the Middle East.

Claiming that the US and its allies "have always been advocates of extremist groups and terrorists in West Asian region", the SNSC statement said that Washington should be accountable for "the dangerous consequences of its adventures".

In an unprecedented first, the US designated IRGC as a "foreign terrorist organisation" in a bid to pressure Iran into abandoning "its deadly ambitions," according to Secretary of State Michael Pompeo.

This is the first time that Washington has labelled another country's governmental entity as a terror body. The designation makes it illegal to provide any materials to Iran's paramilitary organisation formed in the wake of the 1979 Islamic revolution to defend its government.

"In an important step to counter the Iranian regime's terrorism, the US has designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including Qods Force, as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation. We must help the people of Iran get back their freedom," Pompeo said. The Qods Force is a unit of the IRGC.

The move was, however, welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying US President Donald Trump was "once again keeping the safe from Iran's aggression and terrorism".

"Thank you, President @realDonaldTrump for your decision to designate the Islamic revolutionary guards as a terrorist organisation. Once again you are keeping the safe from Iran aggression and terrorism," he tweeted.

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Two people were killed and five others sustained injuries in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast in Jalalabad city on Monday morning.

Tolo News confirmed that the IED was embedded in a military vehicle, after quoting provincial police spokesman, Farid Khan.

The police said that the people who suffered injuries were shifted to nearby hospitals.

However, no terror group has claimed responsibility for the blast.

The blast comes after three people were killed and 19 others wounded in two back-to-back roadside bombings in the capital of eastern Nangarhar province on Saturday.

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A Patiala House court on Monday adjourned till July 23 hearing in the JNU sedition case, thereby, granting more time to the Delhi Government to decide on the grant of sanction for the prosecution of former JNU Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar and other accused in the case.

On April 5, the Delhi Government submitted a reply before the Special CBI court stating that the Delhi Police had filed the charge sheet in the case in a "secretive" and "hasty" manner, without obtaining approval of the appropriate authority.

City government's response came after Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Deepak Sehrawat, on March 30, asked the police to request the Delhi government to expedite the sanction process for the prosecution of the accused in the case.

On April 3, the city government had informed the court that it would take a month to decide whether to grant sanction to prosecute Kumar and others.

Chief Public Prosecutor Vikas Singh, representing the Delhi Government, in the next hearing on April 5 reiterated that a call on the matter would be taken within a month after he gives his opinion.

During the course of the hearing, Singh read out the reply stating that the city government has not yet determined whether the purported slogans raised were seditious or not.

Delhi Police had earlier told the court that it had sent a request to the Delhi Government seeking sanction in the case.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Pramod Kushwaha had appeared before the court on March 30 after being summoned on the issue of filing of the charge sheet without the city government's sanction.

"Grant of sanction is an administrative act and is not a part of the investigation," Kushwaha said in a written reply to the CMM citing the High Court judgment in the Deependra Kumar Srivastava vs. State (CBI) case.

The police in its charge sheet filed in January this year had contended that there were videos wherein Kumar could be seen on February 9, 2016 "leading the students who were raising anti- slogans" and that he had been identified by witnesses.

The presence of Kumar's mobile phone at the "place of occurrence" was also cited as evidence against him in the 1200-page charge sheet.

As part of other evidence, the police had also said the Forensic Science Laboratory retrieved an SMS sent by accused and former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Students' Union leader Umar Khalid to Kumar, asking him to "arrive at Sabarmati Dhaba, JNU, as their permission had been cancelled by the JNU administration".

The police have charged Kumar, Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya with raising 'anti- slogans' during an event, which was organised to mark the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

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Russian film and theatre director Kirill Serebrennikov has been finally freed from house arrest in Moscow after 20 months in detention.

As per the news reported by The Hollywood Reporter, a court in the Russian capital on Monday overturned a district court decision to extend his house arrest and ordered him free without bail until a trial date is set. The court requested that he did not leave Moscow until that time.

Serebrennikov was arrested in August 2017 and charged with duping $2 million in the state funds from the Gogol Center, an avant-garde theatre he runs in Moscow. He was placed under the house arrest pending trial.

The lawyers for Serebrennikov, who was charged along with two other members of the theatre, and were also released from detention on Monday, claimed that the charges were absurd.

'The Student' film director who was unable to attend Cannes last year where his film 'Summer' played in the competition, said he would push for a full acquittal.

Speaking to reporters outside the court, the director said he looked forward to the day "when this nightmare ends and we prove our innocence."

Serebrennikov's detention has become an international cause where celebrities and prominent filmmakers around the world are calling for his release.

The Kremlin declined to comment on the court decision, although Russian President Vladimir Putin has in the past refused to interfere, stating that it was a matter for the courts to decide.

The first signs of Serebrennikov's difficulties came two years ago when a controversial Bolshoi theatre production based on the life of Soviet-era ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, who defected during the Cold War, was cancelled a week before the curtain was due to go up.

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With the first phase of Lok Sabha elections due in three days, Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid Syed Ahmed Bukhari on Monday said that he would not appeal in support of any political party.

"The unabated hatred and growing religious mania rampant in the country have trampled over our basic values and traditions. These circumstances have caused grave concern to the civilised society.... Things have come to the point that instead of following the golden principles of one nation and unity in diversity, the venom of communalism is being spread in every matter," said Bukhari in a press statement.

He added, "In these circumstances, the parliamentary elections of 2019 are a trial of the wisdom and farsightedness of the people. In the current situation, it is difficult to ascertain which one deserves to be supported. Therefore, after much deliberation and consultations, I have decided not to appeal in support of any of the political parties," the statement read.

Expressing disappointment with political parties, Bukhari said that political parties always make promises but never deliver on them.

"Muslims should keep in view the fact that almost all political parties have disappointed them. There is a long list of promises, statements and announcements but the level of implementation is disappointing. The tale of injustices to Muslims is very long," he said in the release.

Bukhari further said that the current elections are important in the nation's political history and will decide far-reaching consequences for the survival of the nation's common culture and civilization.

"These elections should be seen in the perspective of the Indian conscience, honour, upholding the Constitution and the prevalence and disposal of justice. Apart from this, the personal integrity of candidates and their previous record too have to be considered before deciding whom to vote," the release further said.

"Therefore, I expect from the Indian public, particularly Muslims that they shall decide in a way as to ensure that India's centuries' old cultural harmony and the supremacy of the Constitution remain preserved and secured," it read.

Bukhari reportedly supported the Congress in the 2014 General elections.

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The issue of unemployment and poverty has acquired prominence in the Congress party manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls, while the BJP has chosen to focus on security, zero-tolerance against terrorism, and sustainable creation of job opportunities.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah on Monday released the party's manifesto, though also talks of creating employment opportunities, but largely veers around the mission of security, which is pivotal to a nation's sustainable development.

The Congress party has betted on the minimum income support programme (MISP) or Nyuntam Aay Yojana (NYAY) scheme, which is expected to cover around five crore families, constituting the poorest 20 per cent of the population. Under NYAY, each such family will get Rs 72,000 annually.

"All 4 lakh vacancies as on April 1, 2019, in the Central government, Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs), judiciary and parliament will be filled before the end of March 2020," reads the Congress manifesto, which also promises to create one crore jobs through "Water Bodies Restoration Mission" and "Wasteland Regeneration Mission."

BJP in its manifesto talks of creating "new opportunities for employment by providing more support to 22 major 'Champion Sectors' identified as the main drivers of Indian economy and optimally leveraging the untapped employment-generation of the potential sectors such as defence and pharmaceuticals to take advantage of opportunities available in domestic and foreign markets."

BJP also aims to bring down the percentage of families living below the poverty line to a single digit in the next five years. It has also promised to ensure 'Pucca' houses for the families either living in 'mud' houses or without access to housing by 2022.

Doubling farmers' income by 2022 is another prominent promise of the BJP, for which the party has made a plethora of interventions including a pension scheme for farmers, and interest-free Kisan credit card loans. The Congress party, on the other hand, promises farm loan waiver in other states on the pattern of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan governments.

'Make In India' and 'Swachh Bharat Mission' which were the core issues of the BJP for 2014 Lok Sabha elections, but have now found a place on 18th and 20th pages of its nearly 40-page manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress promises to review and replace the current GST laws with a 'GST 2.0 regime' based on a single, moderate, standard rate of tax on all goods and services. The rate will be revenue neutral to the current indirect tax revenues of the Central and State governments.

As expected, the BJP reiterates its resolve to abrogate Article 370, which gives autonomous status to Jammu and Kashmir, and annul Article 35A of the Constitution, which the party finds discriminatory against non-permanent residents and women of the Valley state.

"We believe that Article 35A is an obstacle in the development of the state. We will take all steps to ensure a safe and peaceful environment for all residents of the state. We will make all efforts to ensure the safe return of Kashmiri Pandits. We will provide financial assistance for the resettlement of refugees from West Pakistan, Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK) and Chhamb," reads the BJP manifesto.

The Congress manifesto promises to review the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act and the Disturbed Areas Act in Jammu and Kashmir while emphasising that "dialogue is the only way to understand the aspirations of the people of the three regions of Jammu and Kashmir and find a solution to their issues."

Both the Congress and the BJP promise 33 per cent reservation to women in the Parliament and State Legislative Assemblies. "We will also amend the Service Rules to reserve for women 33 per cent of posts in the Central government," reads the Congress manifesto.

BJP is also committed to the Citizenship Amendment Bill, and protecting "the linguistic, cultural and social identity of the people of North-East."

It has promised to recognise "11 left out Indian Gorkha sub-tribes as Scheduled Tribes." It also promises to implement reservation in the legislative assembly of Sikkim for Limboo and Tamang tribes. "We are committed to working towards finding a permanent political solution to the issue of Darjeeling Hills, Siliguri Terai and Dooars region," reads the BJP manifesto.

On the other hand, the Congress promises to immediately withdraw the Citizenship Amendment Bill and to restore the special category status of North East states. The two parties are equally vocal in promising good governance, education, and health in their respective manifesto for the current Lok Sabha polls.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Manipur High Court on Monday ordered the release of journalist Kishore Chandra Wangkhem, who was detained under the Security Act (NSA) in November last year, for allegedly criticising the BJP-led state government in a social media post.

Wangkhem, a journalist working with a local TV channel here, was first arrested on November 21 under the Security Act (NSA) for allegedly posting a video-recording targeting the stance of Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for allegedly observing the birth anniversary of Rani Lakshmibai.

In the video clips, he purportedly called the Chief Minister a "puppet" of Prime Minister Modi-led Central government.

As per the reports, on November 25, a local court released him on bail but later on November 27, he was picked up from his residence by the police and detained under Section (3) (2) of the NSA Act, 1980.

On December 14, the state government also approved the detention of the journalist under the NSA by the District Magistrate, Imphal West and fixed the period of detention for a period of one year from the date of detention.

He, however, filed the petition on December 19 challenging his detention.Various organisations including the Press Council of India, Indian Journalist Union, student bodies termed the detention as arbitrary and demanded the release of Kishorchandra.

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Shareholders of Nissan Motor on Monday voted to remove former chairman Carlos Ghosn from its board amid allegations of financial misconduct.

Al Jazeera reported that the shareholders also voted out another director, named Greg Kelly, and replaced Ghosn with Renault Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard.

The announcement came after Ghosn was reportedly fired as the chairman of both Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors following his arrest in December, after which he stepped down as the chairman and CEO of French carmaker Renault.

Last week, the Tokyo District Court approved the detention of the 65-year-old until April 14 after Ghosn was arrested once again for the fourth time on Thursday by Tokyo prosecutors on suspicions of aggravated breach of trust.

This detention period can be extended for 10 more days if the court allows, meaning Ghosn is unlikely to be released any time soon.

Ghosn's re-arrest on Thursday comes days after he was released on bail by a Tokyo court after spending 108 days in detention, during which he was indicted on charges of aggravated breach of trust and underreporting his remuneration for Japanese carmaker Nissan Motor.

Prosecutors in Tokyo believe that Ghosn allegedly misused Nissan's funds for personal use through a dealership in Oman. They suspect that some funds, out of the USD 34 million paid to the dealership, were used to pay for a yacht, which was used by Ghosn.

The former Nissan chief faces three separate charges. The first two relate to the alleged deferring of around USD 80 million in income and concealing this in official documents to shareholders.

Whereas, according to the third charge, Ghosn attempted to transfer personal losses to Nissan and paid a Saudi contact, who provided collateral from company funds.

Just before his arrest on Thursday, Ghosn took to Twitter to announce an upcoming press conference earlier slated to take place on April 11.

However, Ghosn has denied the allegations and described his re-arrest as "outrageous and arbitrary".

"Why arrest me except to try to break me? I will not be broken. I am innocent of the groundless charges and accusations against me," he said.

He added that his arrest is an attempt by "some individuals at Nissan" to "silence him" and mislead the prosecutors.

The former CEO called for a free trial and expressed confidence that he would emerge innocent if tried fairly.

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With Lok Sabha polls inching closer, candidates are leaving no stone unturned to woo voters in their favor. However, there is a village in Bijnor district that has collectively decided to not vote, citing poor condition of roads.

Large numbers of residents of Majlis Taufikpur of Bijnor Lok Sabha constituency have threatened to boycott polls if the main road connecting their village to the other part is not constructed.

Speaking to ANI, one of the villagers, Kuldeep Saini, said, "Our village comes under Bijnor Lok Sabha constituency. A lot of leaders are coming because of Lok Sabha elections but no one does anything. The main road is in very bad condition. Now the villagers have decided that vote will be given only when there is a proper road."

Another resident Veer Singh said, "We have a lot of issues but there is this road problem which affects us very adversely. The road is in very bad condition and there are big potholes. A lot of accidents have also happened in which our children have gotten injured. We have now decided that vote will be given only on the basis of work otherwise we will not give the vote. The whole village has unanimously taken the decision".

He also said that there is no inter-college for girls in the village.

Village Headman Yogesh Thakur is also supporting the campaign of 'no road, no vote' and told ANI, "Our main road is almost non-existent. The road has broken quite ago in the year 2013 but no one is reconstructing it. We have decided that there will be no vote until we have a road. Every time we get promises but we want work done now."

Seven-phase elections in the country are slated to begin on April 11 and will go on till May 19. Counting of votes will be held on May 23.

There are 80 Lok Sabha seats at stake in Uttar Pradesh, polling for which will be held in all seven phases. Polling in Bijnor will be held in the first phase of elections on April 11.

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Opposition leaders have mental problems and they need to visit medical centres, RSS leader Indresh Kumar said here on Sunday while reacting to Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav's allegation that BJP spreads hate.

"Souls and minds of Congress and other opposition parties' leaders are filled with hate and venom that's why they always see 'hate' in the BJP and the Sangh Parivar. I think they have mental problems. They need to visit medical centres," the Muslim Rashtriya Manch patron told ANI.

Yadav on Sunday alleged that BJP has divided the people into communal lines and created a rift in the society.

"BJP has divided the country and society more than the British did. This election is for shedding the wall of hatred that has been created," Yadav said.

Kumar also said that Opposition leaders did not get samskara from their parents and do not know to respect their elders. "They (Opposition leaders) perhaps have not got any samskara from their parents hence why they would lie and use abusive words," Kumar responded to RLD leader Ajit Singh's comment that Prime Minister Narendra was not taught by his parents to speak truth.

"He (Modi) claims he never lies but he has never said a truth till date. Children are taught to speak the truth, but his parents did not teach him that," Singh said at a rally on Wednesday.

The RSS leader also asserted that incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the for front runner the prime minister's post.

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An appeal has been filed in the Supreme Court on Monday challenging the Madras High Court order imposing a ban on Chinese video app TikTok.

The matter was mentioned before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi which would take up the plea in due course.

In its April 4 order, the Madras High Court directed the government to ban the app, saying it was "encouraging pornography". The order also restrained the media from telecasting videos made using the app.

The order was passed by the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court comprising Justices N Kirubakaran and S S Sundar.

The order came in after the court noted that through this app, children are being exposed to inappropriate content including pornography adding that minors are also being exposed to strangers through this app.

"It is evident from media reports that pornography and inappropriate contents are made available in this kind of cyber applications. The children are exposed to strangers and there is a possibility of the photographs and other private details of the children are being landed in the hands of predators or third parties," the bench observed.

Following this, the court had also asked the state government to file a report regarding the steps taken by the state authorities to prohibit Tik Tok app.

Both the central government and the state government were directed to respond before April 16.

"On March 27, an auto driver was arrested for posting a video that included a woman from Chennai on Tik Tok Mobile App. A 15-year-old girl is said to have committed suicide at Mumbai for being scolded by her grandmother for use of Tik Tok Mobile App. An old man is said to have fallen in the waterfalls in Valparai, while taking a selfie or Tik Tok video. Before many tragic incidents would occur, the Government has to take appropriate steps," the plea filed by Madurai senior lawyer Muthu Kumar read.

TikTok, an app that allows users to create and share short videos with special effects, has over 54 million monthly active users in India.

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Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal said that BJP failed to fulfil its 2014 poll manifesto promises and people are still waiting for the Rs 15 lakh into their bank accounts and the return of "black money" stashed abroad.

"I say it's like 'Mungeri Lal ke tute sapne' as they have not fulfilled the promises made in 2014. First of all the people are still waiting for Rs 15 lakh into their accounts. Secondly, they promised the return of black money stashed abroad and did nothing for bringing it back," said Kapil Sibal referring to the fictionalised character from a TV series.

"Earlier also they talked of Article 370 and Article 35A but did nothing. They also talked of Uniform Civil Code but did nothing. They have such a good chance for implementing 33 per cent reservation for women by means of a constitutional amendment as they have the full majority, but they failed to do that," Sibal told ANI.

"Now they claim to make our economy 5 trillion by 2025 but Prime Minister Narendra Modi who speaks untruths every day had once said in his address at foreign land that Indian economy is 8-9 trillion," said Sibal.

"They have destroyed institutions and PM Modi tells lie every day," he said.

Meanwhile, CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury termed BJP manifesto a "Jumla Patra" having fake promises.

"This all Jumla Patra as last time also they made many promises but none was completed. They have exempted rich people from loans but not farmers. What about 10 crore jobs and there is unemployment in the country," said Sitaram Yechury.

"Construction of Ram temple and Article 370 are communal agenda. They think they will get the vote by article 370 and 35A but this will not happen this time" said Yechury.

Terrorism, security, soldier welfare, Article 370 related to Jammu Kashmir, combating infiltration were some of the key issues that Bharatiya Janata Party highlighted in its manifesto released on Monday for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Terming it as a vision document for the "New India", the manifesto promised to create growth opportunities for the people of India as the BJP sought continuity for the sake of stability.

The party has also reiterated its demand for "abrogation" of Article 370, "annulling" Article 35A in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

On the issue of construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya, the party manifesto stated: "We reiterate our stand on Ram Mandir. We will explore all possibilities within the framework of the Constitution and all necessary efforts to facilitate the expeditious construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

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A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) moved in Delhi High Court on Monday sought direction to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to ban Jammu and Kashmir politicians Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti from participating in the ensuing Lok Sabha Elections as their "statements are against the Indian constitution".

All the three leaders are the former Chief Ministers of Jammu and Kashmir.

The petition filed by an advocate alleged that the statements given by the three leaders were against the Constitution, adding that the court or the ECI should bar or impose conditions on their entry into the general elections.

The plea is yet to come up for hearing.

Reacting to this, People's Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti tweeted, "Why waste time in court. Wait for BJP to scrap Article 370. It will automatically debar us from fighting elections since Indian constitution won't be applicable to J & K anymore. Na samjho gay tou mit jaouge aye Hindustan walo. Tumhari dastaan tak bhi na hogi dastaano main (If you won't understand, you will be finished. Your story will not be in the history)"

Seven-phase Lok Sabha polls are set to begin on April 11 and will go on till May 19. The counting of votes will take place on May 23.

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Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar opined that Prime Minister Narendra Modi gets "hysterical" when elections are around the corner.

"There is one thing about this man (Prime Minister Modi). Normally, he speaks fine. But when elections are approaching, he gets hysterical. There is no need to focus on that," he said while addressing party workers here on Sunday.

Pawar, who was campaigning for his daughter Supriya Sule, who is contesting from Baramati constituency in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, said leaders should avoid making comments on a personal level.

"Do not make personal comments. What is the need for making personal comments when the Prime Minister has taken responsibility of doing the same? He is expected to visit Baramati on April 10, let's see what he says then," he quipped.

The NCP chief also rubbished Prime Minister Modi's claims of a feud going on in his family.

"Recently, he (Prime Minister) went to Wardha, which is around 600-700 kilometers away from here, and said there are fights going on in my family," Pawar claimed. "We all live in different cities and there is no fight. We don't know who lives in his house. But he should abstain from speaking about anybody's family in this manner."

Pawar asserted that as the mood of the nation has changed, Modi will not remain Prime Minister for long. "The nation's mood towards Prime Minister Modi has changed. He is not going to stay for sure after this election."

"When I meet him in Delhi, I will tell him that if he does not become the Prime Minister, he will remain an MP in Parliament where I will also be there," he added.

In Daund, Pawar raked up the issue of former Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav being detained in Pakistan and said: "From the last 2.5 years, Kulbhushan has been lodged in Pakistan jail but this man with 56-inch chest (Modi) could not get him back. He says 'Behno aur Bhaiyon sab thik kar dunga', then how are we facing (terror) attacks."

"The time when the plane was hijacked (Kandahar), it was BJP government in power, when the attack happened on our Parliament, it was BJP government in power, Pathankot attack happened during BJP government's tenure. All the terror attacks that happened in the country in the recent period have happened during BJP rule," he added.

Taking a jibe at Modi's alleged proximity to businessmen, he said: "Recently one (businessman) 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."

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said after demonetisation to hang him after 100 days at any corner if he failed now. Which corner should we choose?" Pawar quipped.

He 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?"

Polling in Maharashtra is scheduled to be held in four phases - on April 11, 18, 23 and 29. Counting of votes will take place on May 23.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi, along with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Amit Shah on Monday released party's manifesto for the ensuing Lok Sabha Elections.

Manifesto described as "sankalp patra" or document of promises has been weaved on the theme of a "Sankalpit Bharat - Shashakt Bharat" or "determined India, empowered India".

Speaking at the event, Shah said, "In five years, the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken 50 major decisions for the betterment of the country. From 2014-19, our government has transformed the country."

"We took suggestions from six crore people while making the sankalp patra. When we came to power in 2014, our country was ranked as 11th major economy. Today, it stands as 5th major economy," he added.

He also underlined that, "We are going forward with 75 resolutions that we can fulfill by the year 2022 when India completes 75 years of independence.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday congratulated Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on his party's landslide victory in the third Parliamentary elections, according to the Ministry of External Affairs.

Voting for the 87-member People's Majlis took place on April 6 in the island nation, with temporary results projecting Solih's Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) to have won over 65 seats, obtaining the supermajority in Parliament. This was the third multi-party contest since a democratic constitution was adopted in 2008 in the archipelago.

Speaking via telephone, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the election results showed the extent to which Solih's government has been accepted by the people. He also highlighted the age-old friendship shared by India and Maldives, assuring continued assistance to Maldives from India.

"The Prime Minister noted that this significant victory of MDP signifies a resounding endorsement of the policies and efforts of its leaders, who have worked with deep commitment for the people of Maldives," the MEA outlined.

During the conversation, Prime Minister Modi hailed Saturday's elections as the "strengthening of democratic institutions in the Maldives".

Thanking Prime Minister Modi, Solih noted that India has always been a close ally of the Maldives, according to a local Maldivian news portal, Avas. He stressed that the current government would prioritise the relationship between India and Maldives.

While the official result is yet to be announced, the oath-taking ceremony has been scheduled for May-end. As per laws, the current Parliament will be dissolved by the end of April, after which the oath-taking will take place.

Numerous stalwarts have been displaced from their long-held seats following Saturday's elections. As many as 386 candidates belonging to 10 parties contested the elections for the 19th Parliament.

Prime Minister Modi also congratulated former President Mohamed Nasheed, who was imprisoned by Solih's predecessor, for his win from the Macchangolhi Central seat in the elections.

The current President of the MDP, Nasheed assured the people that the "days of Rolex watches and Kohinoor are over," after his win.

"The Parliament you have elected today possesses integrity. You desired to reform the general well-being of the nation and housing. Hopefully, we will succeed in fulfilling your wishes," Nasheed said on Saturday, after the announcement of initial results on April 6.

This is the first time in Maldives' history that a single party has managed to secure a large number of seats in Parliament.

Abdullah Yameen, who was ousted by Solih as the President during the September elections, did not run for the Parliamentary elections.

However, the two parties backed by him - the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and the People's National Congress (PNC), who contested in alliance with the Jumhooree Party (JP) - failed to make a dent in the parliamentary elections.

According to initial results, the PNC, which is founded by Yameen, has won only two seats, while PPM and JP have been able to secure five seats each.

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President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday visited the War Memorial for the first time and paid tribute to the jawans who laid down their lives for the country post-independence.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Chief of the Army Bipin Rawat, Chief of the Naval Staff Karambir Singh and Chief of the Air Staff Birender Singh Dhanoa were also present at the War Memorial.

President Kovind was shown around the memorial by the defence minister and the three service chiefs.

The President said he was honoured to visit the War Memorial.

"The memorial salutes thousands of brave soldiers, who fought and made the supreme sacrifice to protect the sovereignty of our nation. India will remain ever grateful to them. Jai Hind!," Kovind posted on his official twitter handle.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 24 inaugurated the memorial located next to India Gate in the heart of the capital.

The state-of-art monument spread over an area of approximately 40 acres dedicated to soldiers who laid down their lives defending the nation during Sino-Indian war in1962, Indo-Pak wars in 1947, 1965 and 1971, Indian Peace Keeping Force Operations in Sri Lanka and in the Kargil Conflict in 1999.

The memorial also commemorates the soldiers who participated and made supreme sacrifice in UN Peace Keeping Missions, during HADR Operations, Counter Insurgency Operations and Low-Intensity Capital Operation (LICO).

The monument has four concentric circles, namely, the 'Amar Chakra' or Circle of Immortality, the 'Veerta Chakra' or Circle of Bravery, the 'Tyag Chakra' or Circle of Sacrifice, the 'Rakshak Chakra' or Circle of Protection.

The complex also includes a central obelisk, an eternal flame, six bronze murals depicting famous battles fought by the Indian Army, Air Force and Navy in a covered gallery (Veerta Chakra).

Likewise, 16 walls have been constructed in the Tyag Chakra for paying homage to the 25,942 battle casualties.

The names of soldiers who have made supreme sacrifice have been inscribed in golden letters on granite tablets arranged in a circular pattern which symbolises the ancient Indian war formation 'Chakravyuh'.

The outermost circle called Rakshak Chakra comprises rows of more than 600 dense trees with each tree representing many soldiers who guard the territorial integrity of the nation round-the-clock.

The complex also has graphic panels and stone murals. Busts of the 21 awardees of Param Veer Chakra have been installed at Param Yoddha Sthal which includes three living awardees -- Sub Maj (Hony Capt) Bana Singh (Retd), Sub Major Yogendra Singh Yadav and Sub Sanjay Kumar.

The construction of a memorial had received in-principle approval of the Union Cabinet at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Modi on October 7, 2015.

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With BJP reiterating its promise of constructing Ram Temple in Ayodhya in its manifesto released on Monday, Iqbal Ansari, the litigant in the Ram Janm Bhoomi-Babri Masjid case said that he "respects the government commitment of resolving the issue of Mandir and Masjid within the limits of Constitution".

"The government is of BJP and we respect that its commitment to resolve the Mandir-Masjid issue within the limits of the Constitution. Whatever work will be done within the limits of the Constitution will harm neither Hindu nor Muslims," said Iqbal Ansari.

"Although the matter is in the Supreme Court, it is entangled in politics, and Hindus and Muslims are both doing politics on the issue. We want that a solution within the legal and constitutional limits should be found," said Ansari.

The BJP asserted that it will explore all possibilities within the framework of the Constitution to facilitate the expeditious construction of the Ram Temple.

"We reiterate our stand on Ram Mandir. We will explore all possibilities within the framework of the Constitution and all necessary efforts to facilitate the expeditious construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya," the party manifesto read.

The Supreme Court is hearing appeals against the September 30, 2010 verdict of the Allahabad High Court which ordered a three-way division of the disputed 2.77 acres of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya between the Nirmohi Akhara sect, the Sunni Central Wakf Board, Uttar Pradesh and Ramlalla Virajman.

The construction of the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya has been a long-standing promise by the BJP.The pledge was also included in the 2014 elections manifesto.

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The Supreme Court on Monday adjourned the bail plea of former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar who is undergoing life imprisonment in one of the cases related to 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

A division bench of the apex court comprising Justices SA Bobde and SA Nazeer adjourned the matter.

In January, the three-time former MP had moved the court challenging his conviction. The court had issued a notice to the CBI seeking its response on the plea.

On December 17 last year, the Delhi High Court convicted Kumar reversing a verdict of the trial court in the killing of five members of a family in Raj Nagar and torching of a gurdwara in Delhi on November 1, 1984 following the assassination of Indira Gandhi.

Two weeks after the order, he surrendered before a Karkardooma district court.

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Hundreds of people took to streets outside the White House here on Sunday to protest against decades of atrocities inflicted by Pakistan on various religious minority groups.

Expressing anger over exploitation, several oppressed ethnic groups from the current geographical boundaries of Pakistan demanded absolute freedom from the clutches of the country.

The Mohajirs, Balochs, Gilgit-Baltistanis, Pashtuns and other religious minorities collectively demanded a separate land by exercising their Right to Self Determination.

Rehan Ibadat, the central organiser of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) USA told ANI, "The Pakistani military establishment has meted out a lot of injustice to its minorities. Every day there are reports of indefinite number of cases related to killings and disappearances of our people. So, we are here to raise our voice in front of the White House and other human rights organisations. We want them to help the minorities and others oppressed in Pakistan. We are asking for the right of self-determination. We need freedom from all such injustices in Pakistan."

The party leader accused that Pakistan is hell-bent on destroying their identity and has been propagating a narrative that suits its oppressive agenda in the region.

When asked whether the military establishment in Pakistan ever took any action against the jihadi groups, especially keeping in mind the recent conflict between India and Pakistan, Rehan said, "No, they won't take any action ever because jihadi groups are being created by them. They are the greatest assets of the Pakistani military. They have supported and enfolded them under their protection."

Rehan further noted that Pakistan and the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) has a long history of nurturing terrorist organisations, providing safe havens and training militants and banned religious outfits in the northern mountainous region, creating a situation of terror and unrest inside and outside of Pakistan, mainly in neighbouring countries like India, Afghanistan, and Iran.

The minorities of Pakistan believe that the establishment in Pakistan would never take any action against jihadi groups and will continue to mislead the international community.

"Pakistani establishment has been misleading the international community because of the money they receive. The aid provided to Pakistan from various international bodies and the United States is not being channelised for the right purpose. It is used solely for one purpose and that is terrorism. Therefore, it is necessary to stop the aid," the MQM leader said.

Nabibash Baloch, who is associated with the Baloch National Movement (BNM), told ANI: "Injustice is the reason behind the rally. People have been compelled to protest against injustice; we have been tired of it. We were not a part of Pakistan. We were a separate country. After Pakistan was created they forcefully occupied Balochistan."

Talking about the primacy of the army's role in Pakistan, Baloch said that Prime Minister Imran Khan's talk of bringing peace to the region is only an eye-wash to the international community: "Pakistani army has been controlling the country since the day it was born. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is another puppet. He has no power. He can't say anything. He can't do anything. The Pakistani army has written a script for them and Khan is only carrying out their instructions."

Baloch further asserted that the minorities in Pakistan have been deprived of basic human rights as well as constitutional rights by the government of Pakistan.

The protestors said that the minority groups in Pakistan continue to suffer the worst form of genocide. The voices of those demanding their rights are muzzled using brute force.

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BJP President Amit Shah on Monday paid a visit to senior party leaders Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi at their residences in the capital, setting off speculations in the power capital.

The visit assumes significance in the wake of recent political developments.

Both the leaders have not been fielded by the party in the ensuing Lok Sabha polls. Both the leaders were also conspicuous in their absence at the BJP's manifesto release event

Party president Amit Shah is contesting from Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat this time, a seat which Advani won six times.

Murli Manohar Joshi too has been replaced by Satyadev Pachauri to contest from Kanpur.

Advani on April 4 wrote a blog in which he said, "Right from its inception, the BJP has never regarded those who disagree with us politically as our 'enemies', but only as our adversaries. Similarly, 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 personal as well as political level," the BJP stalwart had said in his recent blog titled 'Nation First, Party Next, Self Last'.

The statements were seen as a veiled dig at the current leadership of the BJP.

Several leaders from the opposition parties began to use Advani's statement to target the top BJP leadership including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi commenting on the blog by the senior party leader tweeted, "Advani Ji 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 LK Advani Ji have strengthened it."

The Lok Sabha polls are scheduled to be conducted in seven phases from April 11 to May 19.

The results will be announced on May 23.

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Students from WUD's School of Fashion showcased their designs on the runway at the Delhi Times Fashion Week on April 6th, 2019. The collection was a work in progress of pre-final year fashion students and based on the theme 'Perfectly Imperfect'. The ensembles blended most unexpected and contrasting colours, prints, materials and textures that are generally considered a Mismatch.

The show came alive with a riot of colours, eclectic designs and patterns as the models walked the ramp in ensembles that were a blend of bold colours and prints, inspired from the concept of geometry. The collection was termed 'fresh' and 'evolved' and termed a huge success winning many accolades from fashion designers, stylists and experts present at the show.

"The collection describes the beauty of imagination in things what we call seemingly flawed. Since we live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles so it's about bringing on the feelings of childhood into the power of manhood; to combine the child's sense of wonder and novelty with appearances and create a beautiful object of contemplation," said, Manish Patwal, third year student of World University of Design.

"It's when a mid-year work is shown in public. In this case, not only the work is mid-year but the students showing them are only in the third year of their four year fashion design program. It requires a lot of confidence to put such work in a show. I am proud of the research and the elaboration of fabrics that I see in this collection. Creativity emerges strongly, among the patterns, silhouettes and styling," said, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Vice Chancellor of the World University of Design.

The overriding theme details the fusion of sharp lines and shapes in the designs, made out of cotton and cotton blend fabrics. The techniques like patchwork, layering, applique that were then fused with the use of bold colours to create the ensembles. The overall concept and use of myriad colours were supplemented by the use of subtle and minimal makeup and accessories.

The students are closely mentored by Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Vice Chancellor at World University of Design, Dean for School of Fashion Devender Kharb, a celebrated designer and Art Director, S K Satyam a NIFT Delhi Fashion Design Alumni among others.

This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article.

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US Vice President Mike Pence has heaped praises on President Donald Trump over his tough stance on immigration, saying he was "doing his job" to secure the US-Mexico border and end the "crisis".

In a series of tweets, Pence took a jibe at the Democrats for its stance on the wall along the US-Mexico border, while urging the Congress to "do its job" in enhancing the immigration laws of the country.

"Make no mistake about it: No matter what you hear from the Democrats and their allies in the media, we have a CRISIS on our Southern Border! #BuildTheWall," he tweeted.

"@RealDonaldTrump is doing his job to SECURE OUR BORDER! @CBP is doing their job. It's time for Congress to do its job and CLOSE THE LOOPHOLES in our immigration laws & end the CRISIS on our southern border!" read another tweet by Pence.

"The last 2 years, under @RealDonaldTrump, have been 2 years of action - it's been 2 years of results - & it's been 2 years of promises made and promises kept!" Pence said in a follow-up tweet.

On Friday, Trump paid a visit to Calexico in southern California to inspect a section of the new wall that is being built on the US' southern border with Mexico.

"If you want to climb that, it's pretty sharp up on top, too. If you want to climb that then you deserve whatever you can get, but it's very, very hard. It's meant anti-climb. It's called anti-climb, so it's a great wall and ... I think it looks fantastic -- very see-through, so you're able to see the other side, which is a very important element," CNN quoted Trump as saying during his visit along with law enforcement and immigration officials near the border.

The border wall is one of the long-standing promises that Trump had made during his 2016 presidential campaign.

On February 15, Trump had declared a national emergency to bypass Congress and fulfill his long-pending demand of building the wall along the border with Mexico.

Defending his move, the US President asserted that he had "no choice" but to use his emergency powers to stop illegal immigrants spreading crime and drugs. The move was criticised by the Democrats, slamming it as "unlawful".

On March 25, the Pentagon notified the US Congress that it had transferred USD 1 billion to begin the construction of the barricade at the US-Mexico border at Trump's behest.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Azernews





By Leman Mammadova

Azerbaijan is Chinas main trading partner in the South Caucasus, Azerbaijani Economy Minister, Co-Chairman of the Azerbaijani-Chinese Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation Shahin Mustafayev said.

He met with a delegation led by a member of the Foreign Policy Advisory Group of the Foreign Ministry of China, Xiaopei Zhou.

It was noted that last year, the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and China exceeded $1.3 billion, making 43 percent of Chinas total trade turnover with the countries of the South Caucasus.

The minister also stressed that there is great potential for expanding trade relations and Azerbaijan is taking consistent measures to realize this potential, mentioning operation of Azerbaijan's trade representative, opening of wine and trade houses of Azerbaijan in China as well as export missions organized to China.

He added that the import support policy implemented by the Chinese side creates favorable conditions for the presentation of high-quality Azerbaijani products on the Chinese market.

About 120 companies with Chinese capital are registered in Azerbaijan. Over the past period, Azerbaijan invested $ 1.7 billion in China, and Chinese investments to Azerbaijan exceeded $ 800 million. Chinese companies also took part in projects implemented in our country at the expense of public funds worth $600 million, he said.

Stressing the importance of cooperation in the financial sector, the Minister of Economy noted that Azerbaijan became a member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in 2016.

He said that the bank had allocated a loan of $ 600 million for the implementation of the TANAP project, and stressed the role of China in the implementation of the TANAP project.

Mustafayev emphasized that Azerbaijan is one of the first countries that supported the project One Belt, One Road and is one of the active participants in its implementation. The minister stressed that the use of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR) within the framework of One Belt One Road creates excellent opportunities for cooperation in the investment, trade, transit and other spheres.

Touching upon the cooperation in the tourism sector, Minister recalled the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on the simplification of group trips of Chinese tourists to Azerbaijan. Noting increasing interest of Chinese tourists to Azerbaijan, he said that Chinese tourists use the ASAN Viza system and about 16,000 Chinese citizens visited Azerbaijan last year.

In turn, Xiaopei Zhou informed about the consultative group and underlined that, taking into account the important position of Azerbaijan in the region, China chose Azerbaijan as the main trading partner in the South Caucasus.

He also mentioned Chinas interest in developing relations with Azerbaijan in various sectors of the economy.

Recently, the seventh meeting of the intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation between Azerbaijan and China was held in Beijing. The meeting ended with the signing of the protocol that envisages the expansion of cooperation in industrial, agricultural, transit, logistics, trade, investment, ICT, financial, tourism, humanitarian and other areas.

At present, Azerbaijan's trade representative operates in China, Azerbaijan's wine houses in Urumqi and Shanghai, Azerbaijans Trade House in Liuzhou. Azerbaijani export missions to China are also being organized.

This year, the Ministry of Economy is planning to organize three more export missions to China.

It should be noted that Ministry of Economy and the Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO) organized the first export mission of this year to Beijing, China on 25 February-1 March. The mission included 16 Azerbaijani companies operating in the field of food, wine and other alcoholic drinks.

Azerbaijan and China recently signed a protocol on cultural cooperation for 20192023 and the Memorandum of Understanding on simplifying group visits of Chinese tourists to Azerbaijan.
Hyderabad police on Sunday arrested two African nationals with about 25 grams of cocaine.

Sharing details of the arrest, Anji Reddy, Assistant Prohibition Superintendent, Excise Department, Hyderabad told ANI, "On credible information, we have conducted raids at suspected places and have nabbed two persons Arnold Patricks and Abdulla, who belongs to Ivory coast country in Western Africa. Abdulla is residing in Sun City, Hyderabad and Arnold Patricks is residing in Bangalore."

"Along with drugs, three mobile phones have also been seized from their possession. The visas of these two accused expired long back and they were staying in India illegally," he added.

He also said that there is another Nigerian on police radar who was allegedly supplying drugs to these two individuals and attempts are ongoing to apprehend him from Bengaluru.

Reddy said that action will also be taken on the customers who have been identified through these accused.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Incoming commander of the United States Central Command (US CENTCOM) General Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. called on Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday to discuss on matters related to mutual interests, geo-strategic and regional security in the region.

Geo News reported that the talks held between Khan and McKenzie focused on Afghanistan peace process and the Pak-US relations.

According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the delegation of the US officials, headed by McKenzie, called on Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi on Sunday, ARY News reported.

The meetings came amid reports where 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."

"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 has 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."

Pakistan's Foreign Office has further decided to hold a meeting of the ambassadors of the P-5 counties (UN Security Council's five permanent members) following a briefing on Pakistan's concerns about the possible Indian aggression.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The US pulled out a contingent of its troops from Libya on Sunday (local time) amid deteriorating security situation near the capital city of Tripoli as fighting by warring parties escalate in the strife-torn North African nation.

"The security realities on the ground in Libya are growing increasingly complex and unpredictable. Even with an adjustment of the force, we will continue to remain agile in support of existing US strategy," Marine Corps General Thomas Waldhauser, head of US Africa Command, said in a statement.

The US forces, who provides military support for anti-terror activities, diplomatic missions and enhancing regional security were temporarily relocated from Libya due to the "increased unrest", CNN reported.

India also evacuated its entire contingent of peacekeeping forces comprising of 15 CRPF personnel from Tripoli after the situation in Libya "suddenly worsened".

"The situation in Libya has suddenly worsened. There is fighting in Tripoli. Indian Embassy in Tunisia @IndiainTunisia has evacuated the entire contingent of 15 CRPF personnel yesterday itself. I appreciate the excellent work by the Indian Embassy in Tunisia. #Libya," India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted on Sunday.

Several years of fighting in the war-torn nation after the death of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi showed no signs of stopping as Field Marshal General Khalifa Haftar is aiming to take control of Tripoli.

Haftar, who has set his sights on claiming the capital city, has already gained control over several parts of eastern Libya.

The self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) claimed that it had launched the first air raid on a Tripoli suburb as part of their aim oust the internationally-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) and control Tripoli.

The United Nations Mission to Libya (UNSMIL) called for a "humanitarian truce" from 4 pm to 6 pm (local time) in Tripoli, urging rival forces to halt fighting so that ambulances could safely take the injured civilians injured in clashes for immediate treatment.

The army aligned to Libya's UN-backed GNA government announced a counteroffensive and vowed to reclaim all areas seized by Haftar.

Addressing media persons here on Sunday, Colonel Mohamed Gnounou, spokesperson of GNA, said that the counteroffensive, dubbed as "Volcano of Anger", was aimed at "purging all Libyan cities of aggressor and illegitimate forces".

Resulting from years-long civil conflict, Libya has no single government currently, with LNA backing the Tobruk-based parliament, which governs eastern Libya. The GNA controls Libya's western parts from Tripoli.

The UN in a statement noted that Libya's UN-backed Prime Minister, Fayez al-Sarraj and Haftar held talks in Abu Dhabi in late February during which they agreed that national elections were necessary.

Apart from capturing Tripoli, multiple tribes are fighting for control of Libya's dwindling oil reserves, as well as terror groups like Islamic State, scattered across the North African nation.

Last week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was in Benghazi for talks with Haftar to chalk out a peace deal to end the fighting, but no agreement was reached.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Indian Air Force (IAF) on Monday released radar images to reiterate the fact that not just F-16 was used by Pakistan Air Force (PAF) on February 27 but also that a MIG-21 Bison piloted by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman shot down the F-16 in the dogfight.

"The Indian Air Force has irrefutable evidence to prove not only the fact that F-16 was used by PAF on February 27 but also that an IAF MiG 21 Bison shot down a PAF F-16," Air Vice Marshal RG Kapoor said while addressing a press conference here.

Explaining the entire action of February 27 with the help of slides and images from the ground-based radars, Kapoor said: "PAF package of fighter jets were in three groups. One was to the north, and the other ones in central (Jhanagar) and southern (Naushera) sector which were picked by AWACS. The northern group was JF-17 while the central and southern group were F-16s."

"IAF aircraft were vectored to shoot down the PAF aircraft. PAF aircraft fired multiple AMRAAM missiles which were defeated by countermeasures and tactical manoeuvres," he said.

"In the aerial combat that followed, one MiG 21 Bison piloted by the Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman shot down one F-16 of the PAF. The F-16 crashed and fell across the LoC in Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir," he said.

"Indian Army posts located in the vicinity of the action area witnessed two separate parachutes. The first sighting was due West, in general area Sabzkot and the second, was after a few minutes, South West, general area Tandar," the senior Air Force officer said.

"There is no doubt that two aircraft went down in the aerial engagement on February 27, one of which was the Bison of IAF while the other was F-16 of Pakistan Air Force conclusively identified by its electronic signature and radio transcripts," the Air Vice Marshal said.

Highlighting the contradictions in the statements made by the DG, ISPR and Pakistani Prime Minister, the IAF said, "In his initial statement on Feb 27, DG ISPR categorically said '3 pilots- one in custody, and two in the area'. DG ISPR also stated on camera in a press briefing that they had two pilots."

"One in custody and the other had been admitted to hospital and was being given treatment. The same was corroborated by the statement by the Pakistan Prime Minister on camera also indicating more than one pilot."

The IAF said that all of these conclusively prove that a total of two aircraft had gone down that day in the same area separated by approximately 1 to 1:30 minutes of time.

"Analysis of electronic emissions have shown that the aircraft picked by the ELINT intercepts from AWCS and radio transcripts indicated F-16s in the area directly in front of Wing Commander Abhinandan's aircraft," the IAF officer said.

"The IAF achieved its objective of successfully striking the terrorist camp at Balakot and thwarting PAF attack against Indian Military Installations while PAF was unable to achieve its military objective," he said.

"The Indian Air Force has more credible information and evidence that is clearly indicative of the fact that Pakistan Air Force has lost one F-16 during the entire action. However, due to security and confidentiality concerns are restricting the information being shared in the public domain."

The Indian Air Force had bombed a Jaish-e-Mohammad, a terrorist organisation based in Pakistan, camp in Pakistan's Balakot on February 26. This was in retaliation to Pulwama terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir in which more than 40 CRPF soldiers lost their lives.

On February 27, PAF tried to retaliate by attempting to bomb Indian military installations in Jammu and Kashmir which was thwarted IAF fighter jets.

Soon after the aerial engagement, DG ISPR (propaganda division of the Pakistani Army), Major General Asif Ghafoor tweeted that PAF had shot two MiGs of the IAF and captured three Indian pilots.

He reiterated during a press conference that two pilots were captured claiming that one of them is under custody while the other one was undergoing treatment in hospital.

Ghafoor also denied using F-16s in the mission, a claim which was refuted by Indian which presented parts of AMRAAM missile which can only be fired from an F-16 jet.

However, making a U-turn on his claims, DG ISPR tweeted in the evening that only one Indian pilot is in Pakistani custody.

India approached America about the use of F-16 in an offensive mission against it. US was non-committal on the issue refusing to confirm or deny if the F-16 was indeed shot down by the Indian Air Force.

Controversy erupted after an American magazine reported a few days ago quoting unnamed Pentagon officials that all F-16s of the Pakistani Air Force were accounted for, contradicting the IAF claim of shooting down an F-16.

However, the Pentagon denied being aware of any such counting.

The DG ISPR welcomed the "truth" reported in the magazine and later tweeted a picture of four missiles which he claimed proved that IAF MiG-21 fired nothing.

This claim was immediately rebutted by the defence experts in India who said one of the missiles shown in the picture was actually fired.

IAF reasserted on the same day that it has conclusive evidence of shooting down a Pakistani F-16 jet.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Headline indices of the Australian stock market closed higher on Monday, 08 April 2019, as investors risk sentiments bolstered by better-than-expected jobs data in the U. S. and reports of progress in trade negotiations between Washington and Beijing. Most of ASX sectors gained today, with materials, energy, and health care sectors being notable gainers. At closing bell, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index inclined 40.09 points, or 0.65%, at 6,221.35 points, while the broader All Ordinaries added 40.18 points, or 0.64%, at 6,310.76.

Australian shares opened higher, encouraged by gains on Wall Street after positive March US jobs data. The Labor Department reported that the US added 196,000 net new positions last month, well above expectations, while the jobless rate held steady at 3.8%.

Market gains were also supported on trade optimism. As per reports, U. S. and Chinese officials were said to have discussed draft agreement text on contentious issues such as technology transfer, protection of intellectual property rights, and the bilateral trade balance, among others.

President Donald Trump's top economic adviser says the U. S. and China are closer and closer to a trade deal, and that top-tier officials would be talking again this week via a lot of teleconferencing.

High-level U. S. and Chinese officials met on the heels of discussions in Beijing the previous week. Chinese negotiators, led by Vice Premier Liu He, and their U. S. counterparts discussed the text of an agreement regarding technology transfers, intellectual property protections, non-tariff measures, services, agriculture, trade balance and enforcement. The White House released a statement Friday evening saying that significant work remains, and the principals, deputy ministers, and delegation members will be in continuous contact to resolve outstanding issues.

Shares of materials were higher, as commodity prices spiked. Mining giant BHP was up 1.7% to A$39.89, Rio Tinto gained 1.6% to A$101.48 and Fortescue Metals up 2.8% to A$8.

Energy stocks were also higher, with Santos gaining 2.3% to A$6.82, Woodside Petroleum up 1.4% to A$34.56 and Origin Energy up 2.1% to A$7.25.

Financials were lower, with all four of the big banks down, between 0.3 and 0.7%. Westpac dropped the most, 17 cents to A$25.88.

Lynas was up 0.5% to A$2.12 after some controversy following comments by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who said the rare-earths miner needed to decontaminate radioactive raw material from its West Australia mine before refining it in Malaysia.

Infratil dipped 6.7% to A$3.88 after the New Zealand-based infrastructure investment company said an audit had found several of its assets are worth millions more than it thought, and it would have to pay its external fund manager up to A$71.7 million more in incentive fees.

CURRENCY: The Australian dollar weakened against the U. S. dollar on Monday. The Australian dollar was quoted at 70.99 US cents, from 71.25 US cents on Friday.

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Headline indices of the Mainland China equity market closed marginal lower on Monday, 08 April 2019, as investors booked profit following more than 5 percent gains last week, but hopes that Beijing's policy will bolster growth curbed losses. At closing bell, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index edged lower 0.05%, or 1.76 points, to 3,244.81. The Shenzhen Composite Index, which tracks stocks on China's second exchange, fell 0.55%, or 9.82 points, to 1,770.20. The blue-chip CSI300 index dropped 0.12%, or 5 points, to 4,057.23. The Mainland China equity market closed on last Friday, 05 April 2019, for the Ching Ming Festival holiday.

In an effort to support the economy, China will step up its policy of targeted cuts to banks' required reserve ratios to encourage financing for small and medium-sized businesses that play a key role in economic growth.

On US-China trade front, U. S. and Chinese negotiators wrapped up their latest round of trade talks on Friday and were scheduled to resume discussions next week to try to secure a pact that would end a tariff war that has roiled global markets. As per reports, U. S. and Chinese officials were said to have discussed draft agreement text on contentious issues such as technology transfer, protection of intellectual property rights, and the bilateral trade balance, among others.

President Donald Trump's top economic adviser says the U. S. and China are closer and closer to a trade deal, and that top-tier officials would be talking again this week via a lot of teleconferencing.

High-level U. S. and Chinese officials met on the heels of discussions in Beijing the previous week. Chinese negotiators, led by Vice Premier Liu He, and their U. S. counterparts discussed the text of an agreement regarding technology transfers, intellectual property protections, non-tariff measures, services, agriculture, trade balance and enforcement. The White House released a statement Friday evening saying that significant work remains, and the principals, deputy ministers, and delegation members will be in continuous contact to resolve outstanding issues.

CURRENCY NEWS: China's yuan was little changed against the U. S. dollar on Friday, as optimism over Sino-U. S. trade negotiations was offset by broad dollar strength following solid U. S. job data. Prior to market opening on Monday, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) set the midpoint rate at 6.7201, weaker than the previous fix of 6.7055. In the spot market, the onshore yuan opened at 6.7120 per dollar and was changing hands at 6.7179, only 1 pip away from the previous late session close.

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Key indices dipped in negative zone in mid-morning trade, erasing early gains. At 11:28 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 23.25 points or 0.06% at 38,838.98. The Nifty 50 index was down 19.70 points or 0.17% at 11,646.25. Most realty stocks gained.

Domestic stocks nudged higher in early trade on positive Asian stocks. A divergent trend was witnessed in morning trade as the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was trading with small gains while the Nifty 50 index was trading with tiny losses.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was off 0.03%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.31%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On the BSE, 1191 shares rose and 970 shares fell. A total of 130 shares were unchanged.

Most realty stocks gained. Prestige Estates Projects (up 1.14%), and Oberoi Realty (up 1.68%), Indiabulls Real Estate (up 7.45%), Housing Development and Infrastructure (up 5.26%), D B Realty (up 0.8%) and Sobha (up 1.02%) rose. DLF (down 5.73%) and Godrej Properties (down 2.5%) fell.

NIIT rose 17.97% to Rs 112.60 after the company said Baring Private Equity Asia will acquire 30% stake in NIIT Technologies from NIIT and other promoter entities. Shares of NIIT Technologies was down 2.89% at Rs 1310.50.

Funds affiliated with Baring Private Equity Asia ("BPEA"), have signed definitive agreements to purchase approximately 1.88 crore NIIT Technologies shares (approximately 30% shareholding on a fully diluted basis in NIIT Technologies) from NIIT and other promoter entities at a price of Rs 1394 per share. The aggregate consideration for purchase of shares from promoter entities is estimated to be approximately Rs 2627 crore. The announcement was made on Saturday, 6 April 2019.

BPEA made an open offer to the public shareholders of NIIT Technologies to purchase up to 26% additional shareholding at a price of Rs 1394 per share. The aggregate consideration for purchase of shares from promoter entities and the open offer is estimated to be up to approximately Rs 4890 crore based on ownership of approximately 56% stake.

As on 31 December 2018, promoters held about 1.88 crore shares, or 30.58% equity, in NIIT Technologies. This includes about 1.44 crore shares, or 23.51% equity, held by NIIT.

Overseas, Asian shares edged higher on Monday as investors cheered a much-needed rebound in US payrolls, while looking forward to more policy stimulus in China.

U.S. stocks closed higher Friday, as investors cheered a solid jobs report and upbeat comments on prospects for a U.S.-China trade deal.

Chinese President Xi Jinping reportedly said in a letter to US President Donald Trump that substantial progress had been made in U.S.-China talks over the past months and called for negotiations to be wrapped up as soon as possible.

March jobs report showed that the U.S. economy added 196,000 new jobs. The Labor Department's official measure of unemployment held steady at 3.8%. Wage growth remained modest, with average hourly earnings rising 4 cents to $27.70, a year-over-year increase of 3.2%, down from 3.4% in February.

On the Brexit front, U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May is still searching for a new plan to secure a delay to Brexit from EU leaders at a summit on Wednesday. U.K. lawmakers have so far failed to approve a withdrawal agreement, with the world's fifth-largest economy set to leave the bloc on April 12.

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Stocks hovered in negative zone in early afternoon trade. At 12:28 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 68.28 points or 0.18% at 38,793.95. The Nifty 50 index was down 30.75 points or 0.26% at 11,635.20. Shares of state-run oil marketing companies fell after Brent crude prices firmed up in international market.

Domestic stocks nudged higher in early trade on positive Asian stocks. A divergent trend was witnessed in morning trade as the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was trading with small gains while the Nifty 50 index was trading with tiny losses. Key indices dipped in negative zone in mid-morning trade.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was off 0.16%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.18%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On the BSE, 1172 shares rose and 1123 shares fell. A total of 151 shares were unchanged.

Tata Motors fell 0.46%. Tata Motors during market hours today, 8 April 2019 said that Jaguar Land Rover total retail sales were 76,895 vehicles in March 2019, down 8.2% compared to sales in March 2018.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries rose 0.05%. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries and its subsidiaries and/or associate companies during market hours today announced that INFUGEM (gemcitabine in sodium chloride injection), for intravenous use, is now commercially available in the U.S. INFUGEM, the first chemotherapy product that comes in a premixed, ready-to-infuse formulation, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in July 2018 in combination with other drugs for the treatment of breast, ovarian, non-small cell lung cancers, and as a single agent for the treatment of pancreatic cancer.

Shares of state-run oil marketing companies fell after Brent crude prices firmed up in international market. HPCL (down 3.19%), BPCL (down 1.52%) and Indian Oil Corporation (down 2.09%) edged lower.

Higher crude oil prices could increase under-recoveries of PSU OMCs on domestic sale of LPG and kerosene at controlled prices. The government has already freed pricing of petrol and diesel.

In the global commodities markets, Brent for June 2019 settlement was up 30 cents at $70.64 a barrel. The contract rose 94 cents, or 1.35% to settle at $70.34 a barrel during the previous trading session.

Overseas, Asian shares edged higher on Monday as investors cheered a much-needed rebound in US payrolls, while looking forward to more policy stimulus in China.

U.S. stocks closed higher Friday, as investors cheered a solid jobs report and upbeat comments on prospects for a U.S.-China trade deal.

Chinese President Xi Jinping reportedly said in a letter to US President Donald Trump that substantial progress had been made in U.S.-China talks over the past months and called for negotiations to be wrapped up as soon as possible.

March jobs report showed that the U.S. economy added 196,000 new jobs. The Labor Department's official measure of unemployment held steady at 3.8%. Wage growth remained modest, with average hourly earnings rising 4 cents to $27.70, a year-over-year increase of 3.2%, down from 3.4% in February.

On the Brexit front, U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May is still searching for a new plan to secure a delay to Brexit from EU leaders at a summit on Wednesday. U.K. lawmakers have so far failed to approve a withdrawal agreement, with the world's fifth-largest economy set to leave the bloc on April 12.

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With the last day of withdrawal of nominations on Monday, as many as 371 candidates were left in the fray for the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat which would go the hustings in the third phase on April 26.

According to the Chief Electoral Officer's office, 81 candidates withdrew their forms on Monday leaving 371 candidates, including 26 each of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress, in the race.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) had received total 572 nominations from across Gujarat for the 26 Lok Sabha seats. The CEO office, after scrutinizing the forms, had rejected 120 of these with 452 candidates valid for contesting.

The maximum number of candidates, 31, will be fighting it out for the Surendranagar Lok Sabha constituency, and the minimum six contestants are in the fray for the Panchmahals seat.

The maximum 17 withdrawals were reported from the Gandhinagar parliamentary seat where BJP candidate Amit Shah is facing Congress' sitting MLA CJ Chavda.

Gujarat will go to polls for the Lok Sabha elections on April 23 in a single phase for all the 26 seats. The results will be out on May 23.

--IANS

desai/vc

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least 99 Taliban fighters and 12 troopers have been killed in a fierce battle in Afghanistans Badghis province, the Defence Ministry said on Monday.

The fighting has been raging since Saturday in the ala-Murghab district and has also left 25 insurgents and 34 security personnel injured, Efe news reported.

On Saturday, government forces launched a major counter-attack against militants to push them back from the centre of the district days after the Taliban overran several security checkpoints in the area on April 4.

Security forces had retreated to their headquarters to avoid civilian casualties as the Taliban were using residential houses as their fighting positions, the Ministry said.

"Heavy fighting is currently underway," it added.

Bala-Murghab district of Badghis is strategically important as it shares a border with Turkmenistan. The district connects the western and northwestern provinces of the country.

--IANS

ksk/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Global hospitality giant Marriott International aims to boost its Middle East and Africa (MEA) portfolio with the opening of 19 new properties this year, thus adding a total of 3,000 new rooms into the market.



Underpinning a strong demand for its diverse brands, the new additions are in line with the companys expansion plans to add more than 100 new properties and nearly 26,000 rooms across the region by the end of 2023.



Marriott estimates its development pipeline through 2023 represents up to $8 billion of investment from property owners and is expected to generate over 20,000 new jobs across the region.



Our growth across the Middle East and Africa is fuelled by a strong demand for our diverse range of well-established brands, each offering different attributes that cater to this regions ever-changing and evolving marketplace, remarked Jerome Briet, chief development officer, Middle East & Africa.



This region continues to present us with opportunities to further grow and enhance our portfolio across new and established markets. While the majority of our growth will be through new-builds, we are seeing an increasing number of conversion opportunities, especially in the luxury space, he stated.



Year-to-date, the company has opened five new properties in the region and is expected to add 14 more - bringing its portfolio across the Middle East and Africa to nearly 270 properties and over 60,000 rooms - by the end of the year.



Marriott is poised to expand its luxury footprint in the region by more than 70 per cent in the next four years, with more than 25 luxury properties under development. The company expects to grow its luxury portfolio in 2019 with seven anticipated openings across four brands W Dubai, St. Regis, The Luxury Collection and JW Marriott.



The growth of Marriotts premium brands remains steady across the region with more than 30 hotels expected to be added to the portfolio by the end of 2023. By the end of 2019, it will add four more hotels under its premium portfolio for the region.-TradeArabia News Service
At least 99 Taliban militants and 12 government security personnel have been killed in a fierce and lengthy battle in Afghanistans Badghis province, officials said on Monday.

The fighting has been raging since Saturday in Bala-Murghab district of the province and left 25 insurgents and 34 security personnel injured, the Defence Ministry said in a statement cited by Efe news.

On Saturday, government forces launched a major counter-attack against militants to push them back from the centre of the district, days after the Taliban overran several security checkpoints in the area on April 4.

Security forces had retreated to their headquarters to avoid civilian casualties as the Taliban were using residential houses as their fighting positions, the statement said.

It added that the Air Force aided Afghan Army commandos, special forces of the police and the National Directorate of Security in their offensive against the militants.

As bodies of the militants lay scattered in the battlefield, the security forces seized or destroyed their weapons and several vehicles, the report said.

According to the Ministry's statement, the 34 injured security personnel were airlifted to hospitals amid heavy fighting.

--IANS

soni/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday said it would launch its second phase of campaign in the national capital for the Lok Sabha polls from Wednesday with an aim to reach out to 35 lakh people.

Speaking to the media, AAP leader Gopal Rai said the demand for full statehood will be the centre-stage of the campaign.

Rai said in the first phase, the party focused on public gathering. "In the second phase, party workers will go to people to tell them about the importance of full statehood."

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has scored a major win in local polls, largely considered a barometer of electoral popularity ahead of the July election for Parliaments upper house, the media reported on Monday.

Abe's conservative LDP secured 1,158 of the total 2,277 seats that were up for grabs during the election held on Sunday, according to the results.

The ruling party had positioned economic revitalization of the country as its lead agenda and Abe hopes to frame the victory in the local elections as a mandate for his Abenomics policies, according to state-owned NHK broadcaster.

People voted to elect governors of 11 prefectures, six mayors and representatives to 41 of the 47 prefectures, as well as municipal assemblies in 17 cities where the LDP won a majority in 25 assemblies, benefiting from a divided opposition.

The LDP's gains included victories in Hokkaid and Aichi, which have been traditionally known to support other political groups, Efe news reported.

However, certain setbacks such as not being able to secure the influential positions of Governor and Mayor of Osaka, Japan's third-largest city, and lack of unity in places like Fukuoka could be potentially detrimental to the party's prospects in the elections to the upper house, where it currently enjoys a comfortable majority, reports say.

Its coalition partner, the Buddhist Komeito, managed to retain the 166 seats it contested from.

The opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan performed relatively well, securing 118 seats, 31 more than predicted by surveys, whereas the Democratic Party for the People lost 59 seats and retained 83.

The Japanese Communist Party, which had members in assemblies at all prefectures when they began their campaign, lost their seven seats in Aichi and ended up with a total of 99, whereas the Japan Innovation Party gained 13 seats to finish with 67.

Japan will hold a second phase of the local election on April 21 during which people will vote to elect the mayors of the different wards of Tokyo, as well as the representatives of the regional assembly in the capital region.

Abe, in a statement published by Kyodo agency, said that they would seriously analyze the results and ensure victory in the second stage of the local polls.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Calcutta High Court on Monday directed that Rujira Naroola, the wife of Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, will not need to appear before the Customs authorities on its summons till July 31.

A division bench of the high court ordered the Joint Commissioner, Customs to extend the date of summons till after July 31 so that the court's single bench can decide Naroola's petition challenging the summons.

Last week, Naroola was asked by the court to present herself before the Customs authority on April 8 as per its summons, but it had also restrained the Central government department from taking any coercive action against her.

The division bench order observed there was no allegation that gold had been illegally imported in the Customs Authority's complaint filed by a week after the incident at the airport.

Representing the Customs, Additional Solicitor General Aman Lekhi submitted that Naroola had declined to allow the Customs to check her baggage, but relented after much persuasion.

Naroola had an argument with the Customs authorities on the intervening night of March 15-16 at the NSCBI Airport on her return from Thailand. Naroola, a Thai citizen, as also another woman, were "randomly selected considering their movements and profile" for checking after they landed from Bangkok.

On March 16, she lodged a complaint with the NSCBI police station alleging she was "harassed and heckled" by the Customs authorities. The complaint was later converted into an FIR as per a directive by the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate of Barrackpore following a preliminary inquiry.

The Customs officials lodged a complaint at the NSCBI Airport police station alleging they were "voluntarily and intentionally obstructed by the two women and local police" from discharging their functions under the Customs Act.

Naroola then filed a petition in the high court, arguing that the summons notice slapped on her by the Customs was illegal.

The Customs has been ordered to file an affidavit on her claims within three weeks. Naroola can reply within one week thereafter.

Describing as "baseless" allegations that his wife was caught at the airport for carrying gold in her checked-in baggage, Abhishek Banerjee, who is the nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, had told the media on March 24 that a complaint filed by the Customs alleging interference and obstruction by the local police was drafted in Delhi and "highly politically motivated".

Challenging the Customs authorities to prove that his wife was carrying even two grams of gold after landing from Bangkok, Banerjee had declared he would leave politics if there was any wrongdoing on her part.

--IANS

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A court here on Wednesday issued summons to Congress President Rahul Gandhi in a suit filed by a BJP member accusing him of making defamatory statements against the party President Amit Shah at a poll rally in Madhya Pradesh last month.

The case was filed by Krishnavadan Brahmbhatt, a BJP corporator from the city's Khadia ward, who contending that the Congress chief's terming Amit Shah a "murder accused" at the rally was defamatory as well as false "because Amit Shah had been discharged honourably by the CBI court in January 2015" in the killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh in an allegedly staged gunfight.

Issuing the summons, Metropolitan Magistrate D.S. Dabhi fixed the next hearing on July 9.

Brahmbhatt's lawyer had argued that an Ahmedabad court could have jurisdiction though Gandhi made the remarks in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur since the speech was televised nationally while city newspapers also reported it.

--IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The ruling AIADMK on Monday lodged a complaint with the Election Commission against newspaper and television advertisements issued by rival DMK for violating the code.

In its complaint, the AIAMDK said the DMK has issued election campaign advertisements to Sun TV, Kalaingnar TV alleging the state government intentionally opened fire at the protestors against Sterlite Copper smelter plant in Thoothukudi last year.

The AIADMK said the DMK has violated Election Commission's order that states no political party should use funeral photos, coffins and dead bodies in their campaign.

The ruling party in Tamil Nadu has urged the Election Commission to direct the TV channels not to air such advertisements and also issue a showcause notice to DMK President M.K. Stalin, his sister Kanimozhi and also the party Lok Sabha candidate from Thoothukudi constituency.

The AIADMK also complained to the poll body about DMK's ads in newspapers not carrying the latter's permission number and also using the picture of Anitha, a girl student who committed suicide two years back.

--IANS

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BJP President Amit Shah on Monday met L.K. Advani, four days after the party veteran appeared to take a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership by saying that the party never viewed its political foes as "anti-national".

Shah drove to the residence of Advani, who has been virtually sidelined in the party. It was not immediately known what transpired at the meeting.

The meeting comes after Advani, who has been denied ticket from the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat, wrote a blog saying the BJP has never considered its political opponents as "enemies" or "anti-nationals".

"The essence of Indian democracy is respect for diversity and freedom of expression. Right from its inception, the BJP has never regarded those who disagree with us politically as our 'enemies', but only as our adversaries.

"Similarly, in our conception of Indian nationalism, we have never regarded those who disagree with us politically as 'anti-national'," Advani said.

The comments were seen as a message by Advani to the Modi leadership which has been alleging that those raising questions over the Balakot air strike in Pakistan were working against national interests.

Amit Shah is now contesting from Gandhinagar, a constituency Advani has represented in the Lok Sabha since 1991.

--IANS

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Barely 15 days after quitting the Congress, legislator from Sillod Assembly seat, Abdul Sattar A. Nabi has backtracked and withdrawn from the Lok Sabha poll race, here on Monday.

Sattar had left the Congress in a huff after he was denied a Lok Sabha nomination from Aurangabad parliamentary seat.

He also announced his plans to contest as an Independent, worrying the Congress over his potential to split the Muslim votes in this minority-dominated seat.

However, Sattar assured that he was "not disgruntled or unhappy with anybody either in the party or the leadership" which could prompt him to leave the party.

"I am very keen to do something for the Muslim community, help solve their problems and achieve their aspirations. I feel it can be done on a larger platform through a Muslim elected to Parliament," he had claimed.

A fortnight later, however, Sattar suddenly announced on Monday that he had opted out of the poll race, but assigned no reasons for his move, spelling glad tidings for the Congress.

This time, the Aurangabad seat is crucial for all parties. Sitting Shiv Sena MP Chandrakant Khaire is trying to win for the fifth time, but he is challenged by Congress' Subhash Zambad and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi-AIMIM's Imtiyaz Jaleel.

There is a rebel Shiv Sena legislator from Kannad Harshvardhan Jadhav contesting as an Independent, and the founder-president of Aurangabad Shiv Sena unit, Subhash Patil, contesting for Maharashtra Swabhiman Party, founded by former Chief Minister Narayan Rane.

Soon after quitting the Congress and his legislature seat, Sattar had held two meetings with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, sparking speculation that he would join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The maverick legislator shot into limelight when his supporters carted away 300 plastic chairs he had donated to the Congress party office here.

When asked by mediapersons on his future plans, he retorted that he had resigned from the Congress and "it was up to them to take a decision on it" - hinting he might return to the party fold if the resignation was rejected.

An aide to state Congress President Ashok Chavan told IANS on Monday (April 8) that the party will take a decision on Sattar's resignation in due course, but declined to elaborate.

It may be recalled that in July 2018, Sattar was among the five legislators from various parties who had resigned from the Maharashtra legislature seats in support of the Maratha quotas agitation.

Thereafter, the state government finally cleared the 16 per cent reservations for Marathas in November. As the issue was resolved amicably, their resignation issue was also over.

--IANS

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Reacting to the BJP's commitment to abrogate articles 370 and 35A of the Constitution, National Conference President Farooq Abdullah said on Monday that the move will pave the way for 'Azadi' for Kashmir.

The BJP manifesto released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah said the party would abrogate both articles if votes to power.

Reacting to this, Abdullah told an election gathering here: "Do they think they will abrogate Article 370 and we will be quiet? They are wrong.

"We will fight it. I think it is Allah's will that they are trying to abrogate it. Let them do it and it will pave way for our Azadi."

There are many public interest litigations pending in the Supreme Court wherein both articles 370 and 35A have been challenged.

While article 370 gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir, article 35A empowers the state legislature to define citizens of the state and their privileges.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
BJP President Amit Shah on Monday met party veterans L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi hours after top party leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, unveiled the party's 'Sankalp Patra' for the Lok Sabha polls.

Shah drove to the residences of Advani and Joshi, who have been virtually sidelined in the party and were reportedly upset with the way they were denied party tickets from the constituencies they represented.

Although there was no official word by the party about the meeting, the party leaders asserted that Shah shared the party manifesto and took their inputs.

However, sources said Shah explained them about party's decision of not fielding candidates above 75 years of age.

Shah's meeting with Advani comes four days after the party veteran appeared to take a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership by saying that the party never viewed its political foes as "anti-national".

Advani, who has been denied ticket from the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat, wrote a blog saying the BJP has never considered its political opponents as "enemies" or "anti-nationals".

"The essence of Indian democracy is respect for diversity and freedom of expression. Right from its inception, the BJP has never regarded those who disagree with us politically as our 'enemies', but only as our adversaries.

"Similarly, in our conception of Indian nationalism, we have never regarded those who disagree with us politically as 'anti-national'," Advani said.

The comments were seen as a message by Advani to the Modi leadership which has been alleging that those raising questions over the Balakot air strike in Pakistan were working against national interests.

Opposition leaders, including Congress and its President Rahul Gandhi, have hit out at Modi and Shah for "disregard" shown to veterans.

Amit Shah is now contesting from Gandhinagar, a constituency Advani has represented in the Lok Sabha since 1991.

After being denied ticket, Joshi had issued a statement saying the BJP told him that he would not be nominated by the party from Kanpur. Joshi has been replaced by Satyadev Pachauri for the seat.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) is showcasing its key projects and initiatives at the Annual Investment Meeting (AIM 2019) being held in Dubai.



The AIM 2019, a major event being organised by the Ministry of Economy, kicked off today (April 8) at the Dubai World Trade Centre and will run until April 10.



During the AIM, Dewa will highlight its robust infrastructure, as part of its strategy to support the vision of the wise leadership in making the UAE a key centre for global economy, and strengthen Dubais position as a preferred destination for investors.



It will also be promoting its Independent Power Producer (IPP) projects such as the Dh50 billion ($13.6 billion)

Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, the world's largest solar power project with a capacity of 5,000 megawatts by 2030.



"The UAE has become the world's preferred investment destination, thanks to the vision of the wise leadership that provides all the necessary facilities for investors in a legislative environment that attracts investments," remarked Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of Dewa.



"In Dubai, we work in line with the directives of the wise leadership to provide a robust infrastructure for electricity and water to enhance the business environment. The UAE, represented by Dewa, came first for the second consecutive year for getting electricity, as per the World Banks Doing Business 2019 report," remarked Al Tayer.



"The Eight Principles of governance in Dubai, launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, show that Dubai is a global hub that focuses on creating economic opportunities," he stated.



"Dubais growth is driven by three factors: a credible, resilient and excellent government; an active, fair and open private sector; and public and government-owned flagship companies that compete globally and move the economy locally. Since its inception, the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Parks projects have received considerable attention from global developers," stated Al Tayer.



At its stand, Dewa has a model of the Green Charger for electric vehicles on display. The Dubai utility had built over 200 green chargers across Dubai. It also features a model of its new headquarters named Al Sheraa, which will be the tallest, largest, and smartest government net-zero-energy building in the world.



Dewa is also highlighting its Shams Dubai initiative to connect solar panels on buildings to the electricity grid. So far, the company has connected 1,267 sites with a total capacity of 81.3MW.



The AIM is expected to attract over 20,000 visitors, 150 delegates, and 450 exhibitors from 150 countries around the world.-TradeArabia News Service
The BJP on Monday vowed to strengthen the armed forces and said it will continue to take "focused steps" to strengthen their "strike capability".

The issue of national security figured prominently in the BJP's election manifesto as well as in the speeches of its leaders during its launch in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party President Amit Shah and several union ministers.

"Our security doctrine will be guided by our national security interest. This is exemplified by the surgical strikes and the air strikes carried out recently. We will firmly continue our policy of 'zero tolerance' against terrorism and extremism and will continue to follow our policy of giving a free hand to our security forces in combating terrorism," the party said in its manifesto.

It said that the decisive leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi had fundamentally altered the national security paradigm of India in the last five years.

"We will speed up the purchases of outstanding defence related equipments and weapons. In order to equip the armed forces with modern equipment, we will continue to take focused steps to strengthen the strike capability of the armed forces," the party said.

In order to ensure self-reliance in procurement of defence equipment, the party pledged to continue its focus on 'Make in India in Defence' to enable indigenous production of defence equipment.

"This will also generate employment and encourage investment in the defence sector," the party said.

In February, India and Pakistan faced off in their worst confrontation in years after the Indian Air Force conducted strikes on Balakot in the aftermath of Pulwama terror attack that killed 40 CRPF troopers.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the BJP's manifesto had not been prepared with a 'tukde tukde' mindset but with a strong nationalist vision.

"Our new policy, new doctrine of striking terror in its origin has received global recognition. This manifesto has been prepared with strong nationalist vision ... it is rooted in India's realities," he said.

The manifesto also pledged to "expeditiously complete" the National Register of Citizens process in the areas where a huge change in the cultural and linguistic identity have taken place due to illegal immigration.

"We will expeditiously complete the National Register of Citizens process in these areas on priority. In future we will implement the NRC in a phased manner in other parts of the country," the manifesto read.

The party pledged to continue to undertake effective steps to prevent illegal immigration in the North Eastern states.

"For this, we will further strengthen our border security. A pilot project on the use of technology to strengthen border security (Smart Fencing) was implemented in Dhubri (Assam). We will implement this on all borders," the party said.

The party manifesto said that to facilitate easier trade and travel from the neighbouring countries, it will ease the movement of goods and people by constructing 14 more integrated checkposts by 2024.

"After completion of all the proposed integrated checkposts, all trade movement with Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan will be conducted through the integrated checkposts," the manifesto said.

The promise of enacting Citizenship Amendment Bill, which provides citizenship to non-Muslims from neighbouring countries, also figures in the manifesto, which said the BJP would clarify concerns of the north-east population who are opposed to it.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh said: "We will not allow infiltration and will implement Citizenship Amendment Bill. We will not compromise on national security."

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
When India will celebrate 75th Independence Year in 2022, the country would have fulfilled 75 goals related to agriculture, infrastructure, economy, governance, education, etc, the BJP said here on Monday.

Releasing manifesto for Lok Sabha elections with the tagline "Sankalpit Bharat, Sashakt Bharat" (Committed India, Strong India), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said doubling of farm income, investment of Rs 1 lakh crore in higher education, housing for all, 100 per cent electrification, clean Ganga and 'Gaganyaan' mission would be achieved by 2022.

Also, creation of 10,000 new farmer producer organisations, pension for small and marginal farmers above 60 years, digitisation of land records, toilet in every household, access to safe and potable drinking water, electrification of all railway tracks, establishment of 1.5 lakh health centres and improving gross domestic product (GDP) share from manufacturing sector, are among the 75 goals.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has demonstrated "his commitment" that when India would celebrate 75th year of Independence in 2022, the message of transformation would be taken to every Indian, the BJP said.

Adequate avenues would be created for better price realisation for farm produce, and efforts would be made to maximise income support to farmers under the PM-KISAN scheme along with facilitating interest-free loans, land records digitisation and improved irrigation, it said.

Ensuring bank accounts to all, LPG connection to all poor rural households, completion of phase-1 of Bharatmala Project, doubling length of National Highways, better air connectivity, and achieving 175 GW of renewable energy capacity are among the plans for infrastructure improvement.

Also, equipping all railway stations with Wi-Fi, completion of dedicated freight corridor and conversion of all viable tracks to broad gauge will be done.

To improve healthcare, the party said primary medical care would be provided to the poor at their doorstep through 'tele-medicine', the doctor-population ratio would be improved and efforts would be made to reduce malnourishment.

Improving India's ranking in 'ease of doing business', imposing civil liability for technical and procedural defaults of a minor nature are on the party's list to boost economy.

It said the party wanted to complete digitisation of the government processes, digital delivery of the government services, and widening of banking services network for the good governance.

Efforts would also be made to end crop residue burning to reduce air pollution, it said.

The BJP said it intended to increase female workforce participation and ensure justice for Muslim women by enacting the law against 'triple talaq'.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A British woman was arrested in Dubai after she had called the new wife of her ex-husband a "horse" on Facebook, according to a campaign group.

Londoner Laleh Shahravesh, 55, is facing up to two years in jail in Dubai and a fine of 50,000 pounds for the insult, the BBC reported on Sunday.

Under the cyber-crime laws in the United Arab Emirates, defamatory statements on social media can attract fine or jail term.

According to the campaign group Detained in Dubai, Shahravesh was married to her ex-husband for 18 years, during which time she had stayed in the UAE for a few months.

While she returned to Britain with her daughter, her husband stayed back, and the couple got divorced.

When Shahravesh saw her ex-husband on Facebook with his new wife, she posted two comments in Farsi, including one that said: "I hope you go under the ground you idiot. Damn you. You left me for this horse."

Shahravesh was arrested when she went to Dubai to attend her former husband's funeral.

Shahravesh's ex-husband's new wife, who lives in Dubai, reported the comments, according to Detained.

Radha Stirling, the Chief Executive of Detained in Dubai, told BBC News that both her organisation and the Foreign Office had asked the complainant to withdraw the allegation, but she had refused.

The decision "seems quite vindictive really", she added.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
It's a constituency that has consistently voted for Rajputs though they make up just 12.5 per cent of the 17 lakh voters. Now, the opposition has fielded an extremely backward caste (EBC) candidate to break the Rajput stranglehold.

Aurangabad has been a traditional Congress bastion but the party has stepped aside this time as the seat has gone to the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) in a seat sharing pact. HAM has put up EBC leader Upendra Prasad, from Dangi community, which has sizeable number of voters in the constituency.

The NDA has re-nominated BJP's Sushil Singh, a Rajput who belongs to a political family that challenged the first political family of Aurangabad of veteran Congress leader Satyanarayan Sinha, popularly known as 'Chhote Saheb'.

It was Sunil Singh's father Ramnaresh Singh, alias Lutan Singh, who had halted in 1989 the winning spree of Satyanarayan Sinha who had made Aurangabad his hub, winning seven times with the support of the Rajputs, Muslims and Dalits.

After Sinha, his son Nikhil Kumar, a former Delhi Police Commissioner, and his wife Shayama Sinha won the seat on the basis of the same social support.

In the last 30 years, the seat was won either by a member of Sinha's family or of Ramnaresh Singh's family. In 2009 and 2014, Sushil Singh won the seat, defeating Nikhil Kumar of the Congress. For the first time, none from Sinha family is in the fray in 2019.

Sushil Singh is banking on his overwhelming support base of Rajputs, Bhumihar and Brahmins. He is also eyeing the support of non-Yadav OBCs like Baniyas and Dalits, who constitute 19 per cent of voters.

On the other hand, Grand Alliance candidate Upendra Prasad is banking on his own Dangi castemen. There are also the Yadavs, who form over 12 per cent of voters and are considered loyal supporters of RJD chief Lalu Prasad; and the Koeri or Kushwahas who constitute 6.5 per cent of the electorate and owe allegiance to RLSP chief and former Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha.

Muslims, who number nearly 10 per cent, are likely to support the Grand Alliance.

According to election watchers, most Rajputs will support Sushil Singh in the political battle to maintain the domination of the caste.

Development is a key election issue, followed by unemployment, drinking water scarcity and lack of water for irrigation due to depletion of ground water. People are unhappy over non-completion of North Koel Project.

Aurangabad has 17,37,821 voters, including 9,15,930 males.

Poling will be held in Aurangabad on April 11 in the first phase of the seven-phase election.

(Imran Khan can be contacted at imran.k@ians.in)

--IANS

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"Thor" star Chris Hemsworth has revealed that he would "love to" play fictional spy James Bond after actor Daniel Craig quits.

The actor, 35, expressed his interest in the role while talking with Balance magazine, after the publication pointed out his critically acclaimed performance as British Formula One driver James Hunt made him a perfect candidate, reports dailymail.co.uk.

He explained: "When we were shooting 'Rush', someone had said that and I thought, 'Cool, if this is my audition tape, then great'. I don't think you'll ever meet anyone who doesn't want to have a crack at James Bond. I'd love to do it.

"But that's up to so many elements and is way beyond myself; it's not one you can pitch yourself on to either."

"It's something that the community of Bond fans, (producer) Barbara Broccoli and the whole crew there agree on, and it has to be a very organic decision from them. There have been a lot of names thrown out there and a lot of brilliant people can tackle that one," Hemsworth added.

There have been a number of different actors tipped to play 007, including Idris Elba, Richard Madden and Tom Hiddleston.

Craig is set to become the longest-standing James Bond. The 51-year-old actor will beat his predecessors to be the longest-serving Bond this Wednesday with a record-breaking 4,527 days in the role.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
"The Congress is clearly on the path of resurgence. The change is palpable on the ground and after a long time Congress workers are enthused. We are on the comeback path in Uttar Pradesh," says UPCC President Raj Babbar.

In an interview to IANS, Babbar, who is now campaigning in Fatehpur Sikri from where he is contesting, said on phone: "For five years, people have seen how the Congress leadership was attacked by the BJP and people have also suffered the consequences of the Modi government's policies. This election is an election for change and the results will prove it."

Babbar said that after several years, Congress workers across Uttar Pradesh were actively working in the election.

"The sense of despair among party workers is gone and they can see that the Congress is looking towards a new future."

Babbar admitted that the entry of Priyanka Gandhi into active politics, especially in Uttar Pradesh, had filled the party with hope.

"We have a young leadership in Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi. We also have the blessings and guidance of senior leaders including Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh and this amalgam of experience and youth is very much evident in the Congress manifesto," he explained.

Reacting to the joining of Shatrughan Sinha, Babbar said: "We are happy at this development and many more leaders will be joining the party in the days to come - an indication that the Congress is back in reckoning."

The Congress state president, however, refused to comment on the attack on the Congress by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Samajwadi Party at the Deoband rally on Sunday.

"In elections, everyone says what suits him or her. We are not going to waste time on such issues but will focus on the people. Our alliance is with the people and we will concentrate on strengthening that," he said.

Asked about the allegation that the Congress in Uttar Pradesh was relying heavily on turncoats who had recently joined the party, Raj Babbar said: "In elections, every party looks for candidates who rate high on the winnability factor and the Congress is doing the same. If someone has joined the party and he or she deserves a ticket, we cannot deny the same because he is new to the party."

In Fatehpur Sikri, Babbar is pitted against his former acolyte Raj Kumar Chahar, who had been fielded by the BJP. The BSP has fielded Guddu Pandit, a proverbial party hopper who has travelled from BSP to SP to BJP and now back to BSP.

Babbar is banking mainly on the support of young voters and also the fact that he belongs to the neighboring Agra that is now a reserved seat.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A court here on Monday adjourned the hearing in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) sedition case till July 23, while giving more time to the Delhi Government to decide on the issue of granting sanction or not.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat allowed the state government's plea seeking more time on the sanction issue.

On April 5, the state government told the court that the Delhi Police filed a chargesheet in the JNU sedition case in haste and secrecy without getting the sanction of the competent authority.

The court in its last hearing asked the government to submit a definite time frame to decide when sanction would be given in the case that involves a 2016 event organised in the campus against the hanging of Parliament attack mastermind Afzal Guru.

The chargesheet was filed on January 14. It named former student leaders Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya and seven Kashmiri students as accused.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Delhi court on Monday reserved its order on issuing summons to Congress Lok Sabha member Shashi Tharoor in a defamation complaint filed by the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Rajeev Babbar.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal said that he will deliver the order, on whether to summon Tharoor or not, on April 22.

The court was hearing a criminal defamation complaint against Tharoor for his comment that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is "a scorpion seated on a Shiv-ling".

Babbar has filed the complaint alleging that Tharoor made the statement with mala fide intention, which not only denigrates the Hindu deity but is also defamatory.

Babbar requested the court to initiate proceeding against Tharoor under Section 499/500 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code.

Speaking at the Bangalore Literature Festival on October 28, 2018, Tharoor had said: "Modi is like a scorpion sitting on a Shiv-ling. You cannot remove him with your hand and you cannot hit it with a 'chappal' (slipper) either."

Babbar said he was hurt by the comment as it is not only baseless, but also misleading and defamatory. He also told the court that he considers Modi an inspiration, and has the highest regards for the Prime Minister.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) V.S. Sampath said on Monday that the electoral bonds scheme introduced by the NDA government has failed on the transparency front though it ensured that black money was not used for election funding.

Sampath told IANS that the scheme did not ensure a level-playing field between the opposition and the government and that people were entitled to know which corporate was contributing to which party.

The former CEC said that there were two aspects to election funding -- black money and transparency.

He said the government's claim that the electoral bonds scheme curtailed black money was justified since people could contribute only white money now.

"Bond money cannot be black money, it has to be white only," he said.

However, Sampath said that transparency was equally, if not more important.

"People are entitled to know which corporate is contributing to which party. This is not something which can be washed under the carpet. So in the transparency front, the scheme fails," the former CEC said.

He said that corporates could be contributing to the party in power at the Centre and in the states.

"People are entitled to know whether there is any linkage to decisions taken by those governments and the contributions made. There should certainly be transparency, which is equally important," he said.

"There is one more thing. In election matters, there is something called a level-playing field. Now the only person who knows the corporate contributors is the State Bank of India (SBI). And who controls the SBI? They would know the contributions made by the corporates to various political parties while nobody else would know. But is it a fair system," he asked.

He said if the government says there should be anonymity, it should be anonymous for the government too.

"How are you (government) different? You are also a political party. Why should you know the contributions made to others when the others don't know the contributions made to you? It looks weak from all angles," Sampath said.

The Supreme Court had last week declined to grant an interim stay on the operation of electoral bonds scheme, and directed the petitioner NGO objecting the scheme to approach the court with an appropriate application.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said that the matter required a detailed hearing and posted it for the next hearing on April 10.

The Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) had approached the court alleging that there was a strong possibility that thousands of crores of rupees were channelled to different political parties under the garb of anonymity.

The ADR filed an application in the apex court seeking an immediate stay on the electoral bonds scheme, which was introduced by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in January 2018.

The apex court is in the process of hearing a batch of petitions challenging the essence of the scheme and seeking a stay on it. Apart from the ADR, the other petitioners include Sitaram Yechury, General Secretary of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).

The electoral bonds are a monetary instrument that could be bought either by citizens or corporate groups from the State Bank of India. Later, these bonds can be given to any political party of choice, which can redeem them to generate funds. Under the scheme, the name of the donor is known only to the bank.

The Centre had filed an affidavit in the top court defending the bonds. The affidavit said that the bonds were certainly a concrete step in introducing accountability and transparency in the entire election process.

The Election Commission, however, had said that the electoral bonds would affect transparency in political funding and make political donations opaque.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
An Indian doctor has been missing from her home in Herefordshire, West England, since last week, the police said.

The Avon and Somerset Police have issued a missing person's appeal for Dr Uma Kulkarni in the North Somerset-Bristol area. She was reported missing on April 3, BristolLive reported.

According to the police, Kulkarni's residence is in Herefordshire in the west Midlands, signalling that she may have travelled to the Bristol area.

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.

"Concern is growing for her welfare because there has been no contact from her. We're urging people living near to the Severn Bridge or in North Somerset to be vigilant," said a spokesperson for Avon and Somerset Constabulary.

Police officials described Kulkarni as "a 42-year-old Asian woman, five feet tall of slim build".

"She has black hair and both her ears are pierced. It is not known what Uma was wearing when she went missing," the police said in a statement.

Kulkarni obtained her MBBS degree from Nagpur University in 1999 and registered with the General Medical Council to practice in the UK in 2015.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US-based Emerson, a global technology and engineering company said that it has acquired KnowledgeNet (KNet) software from Tunisia-based Integration Objects.



KNets unique analytics application software accelerates digital transformation initiatives for process and hybrid industries.



KNet is used to extract, clean, transform and analyze operational and manufacturing data. Using libraries of advanced statistical and machine-learning algorithms, the software consumes large quantities of diverse information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) data into actionable knowledge that drives real-time decisions to improve process and asset performance.



Emerson has had a long-standing alliance with Integration Objects and has used KNet to solve complex operational challenges for its customers, said Pat Fitzgerald, vice president and general manager of Emersons reliability solutions business. We are excited to leverage KNets easy-to-use advanced analytics and automated root cause identification to provide differentiated insights into operational health to improve uptime and performance.



KNet will be integrated with Emersons leading Plantweb digital ecosystem, which helps customers deliver measurable business outcomes from digital transformation initiatives. Combined with Emersons extensive Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) Library and consulting services, KNet will enhance the comprehensive analytics solution Emerson offers to customers.



Integration Objects is proud of KNets industry impact and excited to see the future of this unique software, said Samy Achour, CEO and founder of Integration Objects. The integration of KNet into Emersons Plantweb ecosystem will help companies continuously improve their operations by making informed decisions with the latest real-time data and expert knowledge and migrate from reactive to proactive operations.



The acquisition of KNets application software will further enable Emerson to deploy our industry expertise and solution capabilities to help customers decrease energy use and increase safety, asset availability and production, said Jim Nyquist, group president of Emersons systems and solutions business.



In addition, Emerson will hire several team members from Integration Objects and open a new branch office in Tunis, Tunisia, to support the integration of KNet.  TradeArabia News Service
Israeli authorities announced on Monday that the Army would close all border crossings into the occupied territory of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip ahead of the general election on Tuesday.

The general closure of the Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and the crossings into Gaza, which has been under Israeli blockade since 2007, is set to begin midnight Monday, according to Israel's public broadcaster Kan.

Authorities said that the crossings will return to normal on Wednesday following the election, Efe news reported.

Israel controls all crossings into the Palestinian territories, except the Rafah crossing between the Strip and Egypt, and usually closes them during times of conflict or on Jewish holidays such as Purim, Passover or Yom Kippur, which is the most sacred holiday in the Jewish faith.

On Saturday, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would extend Israeli sovereignty over parts of the West Bank if re-elected for a fifth term.

Netanyahu said he was contemplating moves that would upend decades of Israel's policy acknowledging that the lands it seized in the 1967 war would be part of a negotiated settlement with the Palestinians.

The Prime Minister's apparent push to cement control over the West Bank came in the wake of what he would consider a diplomatic victory in getting the US to acknowledge Jerusalem as the country's capital as well as Israel's sovereignty claim over the Golan Heights, which was annexed from Syria and has never been internationally recognized.

In recent weeks, Netanyahu has become more strident in speaking about lands seized in the 1967 war, saying territory taken in a defensive war need not be returned.

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 three million Palestinians who live in the West Bank as well as much of the Arab world.

"Such a statement by Netanyahu is not surprising. Israel will continue to brazenly violate international law for as long as the international community will continue to reward Israel with impunity," said Saeb Erekat, the Palestine Liberation Organization's Secretary-General.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The performance of Jammu and government was below average on most voter issues, including employment, healthcare, school education and terrorism, according to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

The election watchdog's 'Jammu and Survey 2018', released on Monday, says the government also performed "poorly" in providing farm loans and better roads.

The survey was conducted between October 2018 and December 2018. The state is being governed by the central government since June 20, 2018 -- earlier through Governor's rule and now through President's rule.

Across the state, the major voter concerns were employment opportunities (69.23 per cent), school education (57.36 per cent) and primary healthcare centres (41.78 per cent), it said.

In rural parts, the top priorities were employment opportunities (71 per cent), school education (64 per cent) and farm loan availability (42 per cent). Jobs (63 per cent), traffic congestion (60 per cent) and healthcare facilities (60 per cent) continue to be huge concerns for the urban voters.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Congress candidate and two-time MP from Kozhikode M.K. Raghavan on Monday gave his statement to the Kerala Police after corruption charges were hurled at him in a sting operation conducted by a TV news channel.

Raghavan is seeking to win the Lok Sabha seat for a third time.

"I gave my detailed statement to the police. Now let the people's 'court' and the judiciary decide," he said.

The two-member police team will now meet the TV channel.

Raghavan filed a complaint to the Kerala Police against the news channel after it aired a sting operation showing the Congress MP negotiating a bribe of Rs 5 crore in connection with land acquisition for opening a hotel in the city.

He has accused the CPI-M of hatching a conspiracy to tarnish his image.

Last week, Raghavan admitted that he met the people seen in the news report, but said the video was doctored and what was being aired was never spoken.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist has also accused Raghavan of violating the model code of conduct.

Kerala goes to the polls on April 23 to elect 20 Lok Sabha members.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Cho Yang-ho, the Chairman of South Korea's largest airline Korean Air, whose leadership was overshadowed by several family scandals including his daughter's infamous "nut rage" incident, has died in the US due to an illness at the age of 70, the company announced on Monday.

Korean Air said in a statement that Cho died at a hospital in Los Angeles on Sunday, without providing further details. But according to Yonhap news agency, Cho's death was caused by a lung disease.

The news of the Chairman's passing came barely a few weeks after he was removed from the company's board owing to a series of scandals involving himself and his family.

Cho was to be tried over avoiding inheritance tax and embezzling company funds, while his wife was accused of physically and verbally abusing company staff and of employing domestic workers illegally.

Cho's two daughters have also been in the spotlight for their behaviour, Efe news reported.

One of his daughters, Cho Hyun-min, a former senior executive at Korean Air, flew into a rage during a meeting in April last year and allegedly threw a glass of water at an advertising agency official.

Her elder sister, Cho Hyun-ah, a former Vice-President of Korean Air, was sentenced to prison in 2015 over a "nut rage" incident involving forcing the return of a flight to the gate in New York in 2014 because she was angry about her macadamia nuts being served in a packet, not a plate.

These incidents led the Korean Air Chairman to issue a public apology and fire his daughters from the positions they were holding in the company.

Meanwhile, the expulsion of Cho in March made him the first founding family member of a major South Korean conglomerate or "chaebol" to be voted off the board by the shareholders.

Almost three-quarters of the shareholders had attended an annual meeting at the company headquarters in Seoul on March 27, where 64 per cent of them had voted in favour of Cho's reappointment as Director, just short of the two-thirds required for the motion to be passed.

The series of scandals involving the Cho family negatively impacted the company, which posted a net loss of 167 billion won (around $147 million) during the last financial year.

Cho was also the Chairman of Korean Air's holding company, Hanjin Group, a logistics and transportation giant and the 14th-largest South Korean conglomerate.

Following Cho's death, Hanjin announced that his only son, Cho Won-tae will for now lead the group.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
With the first phase of Lok Sabha polls just days away, Facebook on Monday said it is removing or blocking about one million abusive accounts a day with the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) tools.

"We are absolutely committed to maintaining the integrity of the elections in India and will continue to work with local organisations, government groups and experts to make that happen," Ajit Mohan, Facebook's Managing Director and Vice President, India, wrote in a blog post.

Facebook said it was working for more than 18 months now to make sure that Indian elections were fair and free from interference, both foreign and domestic.

"This work is done across dozens of teams, both in India and around the globe, and began more than 18 months ago with a detailed planning and risk assessment across our platforms," Mohan added.

Facebook had earlier launched the political ad transparency tools, giving people a clearer picture of who is placing the ads they see.

The social networking giant recently launched two new products in India to help people learn about issues they care about and engage with candidates and elected officials in meaningful ways.

"Candidate Connect" is designed to give voters accurate information and help people learn more about different candidates.

And "Share You Voted" lets people share with friends that they've cast their ballot in the Lok Sabha elections.

"Building on lessons we've learned over the past two years, this week we will activate new regional operations centres, focused on election integrity, in Singapore and Dublin," Mohan said.

These teams include engineers, operations specialists and data scientists, and will work closely with staff in Facebook's Menlo Park, California headquarters, as well as with experts in Delhi.

Facebook said it was also using AI and ML to identify abusive or violating content, quickly locate it across the platform and remove it in bulk.

"We continue to expand on this initiative, adding 24 new languages -- including 16 for India -- to our automatic translation system," Mohan said.

Facebook last week removed nearly 700 Pages, Groups and accounts in India for violating its policies on what it calls "coordinated inauthentic behaviour" and spam.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
"Yeh mera desh, mera watan, yeh mera ghar, mera chaman, sabka vikas chahta hoon, chahta hoom aman haan main bhi chowkidaar hoon" the song is juxtaposed by visuals of the tricolour and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A number of government welfare schemes like Ujjwala find mention in these five-minute documentaries that also talk about border security and creation of a new India.

"Main Bhi Chowkidaar" films -- and there are about a dozen of them -- are now a part of the Bharatiya Janata Party campaign in the interiors of Uttar Pradesh.

These films have been commissioned mainly by the BJP but as well as by some individual candidates.

"Some candidates who are contesting in eastern Uttar Pradesh have got promotional films made in Bhojpuri dialect and are being forwarded on WhatsApp. With technology now available on your phone, there is no need to show these films on LED screens now," said R.K. Agarwal, who manufactures and sells election memorabilia.

Agarwal said that most of the visuals have been taken from BJP's official campaign films while some have been "borrowed" form the internet.

"The cost of these films ranges from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 15 lakh, depending on the quality and production costs," he said.

In some of the films, relevant dialogues spoken by famous actors have been incorporated. There is late actor-politician Vinod Khanna clad in a police inspector's uniform saying: "Main kisi chor ko apne ilakey mein rehne nahin doonga."

In another scene, there is Nirupa Roy saying "Mere bete ko naukri dekar apne hum par bada ehsaan kiya hai" and then Prime Minister Modi's visual floats across the screen.

BJP MP K.P. Singh from Jaunpur, whose ticket is yet to be finalised, said that he has already started his campaign with short films in Bhojpuri.

"These films are getting very popular and children can be heard singing 'Main bhi chowkidar' in the villages which explains the popularity of the party and the campaign. The anthem is even playing in local transport," he said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday released its manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the party headquarters.

Major promises in the BJP manifesto

- Full commitment to national security

- Zero tolerance to terrorism

- Commitment to implement Uniform Civil Code

- Stop illegal migration fully

- Committed to citizenship amendment bill but ensure identity of states not affected

-A Explore all possibilities for building grand Ram Temple at AyodhyaAA

For Farmers:

- Double farmers income by 2022

- Zero interest for 5 years on loans through (kisan) credit card of up to Rs one lakh

- Spending Rs 25 lakh crore in rural areas in five years

- PM-KISAN to be extended to all farmers

- Pension to small and marginal farmers to ensure social security after 60 years of age.

- Effort to complete all pending irrigation schemes by 2022

Other promises:

- Set up Rashtriya Vyapar Aayog

- Take forward the idea of simultaneous elections

- 100 per cent electrification of all households

- LPG cylinders to all poor

- Increase seats in top law, engineering colleges

- Toilet, drinking water in every home

- 100 per cent waste management

- 75 new medical colleges, post graduate institutes

- 1.5 lakh wellness centres under Ayushman Bharat

- Clean Ganga by 2022

- Rs 100 lakh crore to be spent on infrastructure in five years

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A man was arrested on Monday for killing his wife Kajal on Sunday over alleged extra-marital affairs, from the Aaya Nagar area in Delhi.

Dharmendra, a resident of the Chhatarpur area, and Kajal, a native of Assam, had got married three months ago.

"Dharmendra was living in the Nathupur area of Gurugram with Kajal. On Sunday, he took her to the Aravalli mountains area on the pretext of visiting his brother Satish," said Subhash Bokan, Public Relation Officer of the Gurugram Police.

The accused had heated arguments with her over suspected extra marital affair. He killed her with stone and crushed her face to hide her identity, he said.

The body of Kajal was found from the Aravalli mountains area, the police said.

Dharmendra on Monday morning made a phone call to his brother Satish and confessed the crime to his brother's wife, Bokan said.

She told about the incident to her landlord who informed the police, he said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
British Prime Minister Theresa May will travel to Paris and Berlin on Tuesday to meet French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to seek a "short extension to Brexit", the media reported.

May will meet them ahead of an emergency European summit on Wednesday to make the case for extending Article 50 -- the legal mechanism through which Brexit is taking place -- for a few months, according to the Guardian.

The report said the UK leader could argue that "talks with opposition Labour Party are on the brink of a breakthrough". However, no formal meetings were scheduled to restart negotiations, stalled at the end of last week.

"This is obviously a unique European council specifically focused on Brexit. The Prime Minister has set out a clear task in terms of an extension and it is important that she set out the rationale for that," said May's official spokeswoman.

Her request for Brexit extension till June 30 was earlier rejected and EU leaders said they would rather grant a longer extension of about a year, potentially with a break clause if the UK ratifies a deal during that time.

If no extension is granted, the UK is set to leave the EU without a deal on April 12. It could be stopped only through MPs voting for a revocation of Article 50.

Macron had also demanded earlier that May set out a clear purpose for an extension, which could be a general election or second referendum. But the Downing Street is likely to argue that talks with Labour are reason enough for a short delay, the Guardian says.

On Sunday, Rebecca Long-Bailey, a member of Labour's negotiating team, described the mood (to find a Brexit deal) as "positive and hopeful" and indicated more talks were likely early this week. This was despite the fact government proposals "have not been compliant with the definition of a customs union", the Labour's key demand, she told the BBC.

That would allow tariff-free trade in goods with the EU, but limit the UK from striking its own deals. Long-Bailey also suggested Labour could be prepared to cancel Brexit by revoking Article 50 if the UK was heading towards a no-deal scenario on Friday.

Her remarks came after May tweeted a video message on Sunday, explaining her decision to negotiate with Labour. "We absolutely must leave the EU...that means we need to get a deal over the line and that's why we've been looking for new ways -- a new approach -- to find an agreement in Parliament.

"People didn't vote on party lines when it came to the Brexit referendum. I think members of the public want to see their politicians working together more often," May said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called up Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on Monday and complimented him on the victory of his Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) in the recent parliamentary elections in the Indian Ocean archipelago nation.

A MEA release said that during their telephonic conversation, Modi noted that the significant victory of MDP signifies a "resounding endorsement of the policies and efforts of its leaders", who have worked with deep commitment for the people of Maldives.

He welcomed the successful completion of the elections, which marked consolidation of democracy and strengthening of democratic institutions in the Maldives.

Modi reiterated India's deep commitment, in keeping with its 'Neighbourhood First' policy, to work closely with the Maldives in further deepening their partnership and assist it as per its requirement in its socio-economic development.

He also spoke to former President Mohamed Nasheed and congratulated him on the momentous electoral victory.

The Prime Minister lauded the participation of all democracy-loving forces in deepening the roots of democracy in the Maldives, and offered India's continued assistance for the objective.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
UK-based Expro, a leading international oilfield services company, recently celebrated a full year of production at the newly built Hollong Modular Gas Processing Plant in India.



Expro was awarded a contract from Hindustan Oil Exploration Company Ltd (HOEC)in 2016 to build, install, commission, and maintain a modular based gas processing plant on a long term contract basis, in the Dirok gas field in Assam, north east of India.



The plant has also achieved a milestone of 365 days without any down time or lost time incident (LTI).



Built in a short timeframe of nine months, the plant has the capacity to process35 MMSCF gas and 800 barrels of condensate.



Mrinal Vohra, Expros region vice president of Asia Pacific, said: The Hollong plant is the first of its kind in India, and so its been an especially exciting and innovative project for Expro. Achieving the milestone of 365 days incident free with no downtime, despite working at capacity, is testament to the hard work and efforts of our employees, and demonstrates our companys commitment to the highest standard of health and safety.



P Elango, managing director for HOEC, said: I am delighted that the Hollong Modular Gas Processing Plant, built by Expro in record time, has achieved the remarkable milestone of 365 days of LTI free operations.



The fact that this safety accomplishment has been achieved while maintaining a plant uptime of nearly 100 per cent, speaks volumes about the high quality Operations and Maintenance system from Expro.



HOEC, and our joint venture partners Oil India and Indian Oil Corporation, look forward to meeting more significant achievements as we continue focus on setting new benchmarks on safety and operational excellence, Elango added.



Expro is the market-leading provider of production, well testing and appraisal services globally. Headquartered in the UK, the companys global well test operations are run from Great Yarmouth and Aberdeen (UK), alongside regional hubs in North and Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.  TradeArabia News Service
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not completing probes into Saradha scam and Narada case in the last five years.

"He (Modi) talked a lot about Saradha (chit fund scam) and Narada (sting operation case). The Saradha scam took place during the reign of the CPI-M. Have you arrested a single person from the CPI-M or the Congress? Your friend CBI is probing the scam since 2013. It has been six years. Have you been able return the money to a single person," Banerjee said.

She also urged the court to speed up the proceedings. "We want the court to complete the proceedings quickly and give judgement. People should know the truth," said Banerjee.

Addressing a meeting at the Rash Mela Ground, where the Prime Minister held a massive rally just a day ago, the Trinamool Congress supremo said the people will throw him out from "his chair as well as politics" in the elections.

"The case is in your hand. Why have you not done anything, so far? You have been sitting idle. What can you do after coming back to power? Why is the court not able to do anything (in Saradha-Narada)," said Banerjee amid thunderous applause.

At the Sunday rally, Modi flayed Banerjee's party, accusing it of devouring common man's money through ponzy scams, like Saradha and Rose Valley, and referred to the Narada sting case where a number of senior Trinamool leaders were purportedly seen taking cash and promising to provide undue benefits to a fictitious company.

All three cases are being probed by the CBI under the direction of the Supreme Court.

Banerjee termed Modi as "fascist, autocratic, Hirtlar-like expiry Prime Minister". She also criticised the BJP for fielding in the Cooch Behar Lok Sabha seat former Trinamool youth leader Nisith Pramanik who has 11 criminal cases against him, including murder and arms smuggling.

"You are talking so much about Saradha-Narada. Who was sitting beside you during yesterday's meeting? Whom have you given ticket from here? He is an arms dealer and involved in human trafficking. We have driven him out from our party," Banerjee said.

"They (BJP) could have given ticket to a simple labourer. They could have told me. I would have lent you a candidate for free," she said mocking the BJP.

She also took a swipe on Modi for claiming that the Trinamool Congress was resorting to "child-like antics", like trying to occupy the rally ground and cause inconvenience to attendees.

"This venue was booked by us. But we allowed him to hold the rally. We booked this ground on March 31. You (Modi) sought the permission much later. No one else would have allowed him to hold the meeting. Has he no shame? He should be grateful to us," she added.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address seven public rallies over the next 10 days to campaign for BJP candidates in Karnataka where elections to 28 Lok Sabha constituencies will be held on April 18 and 23, it was announced on Monday.

"Modi launches his first rally on Tuesday at Chitradurga followed by another at Mysuru in the evening. He will address three rallies at Koppal, Mangaluru and Bengaluru on April 13 and the remaining two at Bagalkot and Chikkodi on April 18," BJP leader G. Madhusudhan told IANS here.

The last two rallies in the state's northern region coincide with the first phase of polling on April 18 in 14 seats in the state's central and southern regions.

Polling in the remaining 14 seats are in the state's coastal and northern regions on April 23. Vote count in all the 28 seats is on May 23.

The BJP is contesting in 27 parliamentary seats and supporting multi-lingual south India actor Sumalatha Ambareesh, an Independent, from Mandya, about 100 km from here, against Nikhil Gowda of the Janata Dal-Secular.

"The location and venue of the rallies have been decided to ensure Modi reaches out to the maximum electorate in the state's all the three regions and from where most of our candidates had won in the last two general elections in 2014 and 2009," said Madhusudhan.

As the party won 17 of the 28 seats in the 2014 general elections, it has re-nominated most of the outgoing members except in Bangalore South, Belgaum and Koppal.

The party is betting on Modi's popularity to win at least 20 seats from the state.

"As Modi has to campaign for the party across the country till May 17, we are unable to get him for more rallies in the state although he had addresses two rallies at Hubli on February 10 and Gulbarga on March 6 before the elections were announced," said Madhusudhan.

Besides Modi, the party has lined up a galaxy of its leaders including party President Amit Shah, central ministers Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Suresh Prabhu and Smriti Irani and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, Tesla and Neuralink, is in negotiations with Israels government to build tunnels in the country, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"I met a man that they call Elon Musk-have you heard of him? A real genius," the New York-based The Algemeiner journal quoted Netanyahu as saying at a campaign event last week when asked about Israel's transportation infrastructure.

"Right now, we're in conversation with him to see if we can tunnel the State of Israel."

Netanyahu said he and Musk ate breakfast at the Prime Minister's residence, where the billionaire entrepreneur mentioned tunneling, The Algemeiner reported on Sunday.

According to the state comptroller, ineffective public transportation could cost the Israeli economy $6.9 billion annually by 2030, if dire changes are not implemented.

The billionaire entrepreneur visited Israel in March 2018 and has been in negotiations with Israel's government to build tunnels.

If the plans work out as intended, Musk's tunneling firm -- Boring Co. -- could help in the development of Israel's tangled transportation network, the report said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Joel Kinnaman doesn't agree with the whole "call-out" culture of the society. The Swedish-American actor says there is no value in digging up an old tweet or finding a bad joke written by someone ten years ago.

Be it James Gunn, Kevin Hart, "Green Book" screenwriter Nick Vallelonga, Blake Shelton or Trevor Noah -- there have been many instances when old tweets came back to haunt many names from Hollywood in the era of MeToo movement, inclusivity and gender equality.

But Kinnaman feels people should refrain from jumping to judgments, and look for the intention behind the words sometimes.

"There is a negative side of this movement and it is something that I really dislike. That is the call-out culture where people are offended by things," Kinnaman told IANS in an interview over the phone from New York.

"What is really important is that people go to the bottom of the intent of what is being said and not dig up an old tweet (in which) someone has said (something) or someone had written a bad joke ten years ago. I don't think there is value in that," he added.

The actor feels one needs to "go deeper and find the intention of what the person is saying and then judge the person based on the intention".

Kinnaman saw a whirlwind rise to fame with his Swedish film "Easy Money", after which he made a mark in Hollywood with projects like "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" and "The Killing".

He further strengthened his position in the West with a reboot of "RoboCop" in 2014 and sci-fi series "Alter Carbon". He is currently seen in Amazon Prime Original Series "Hanna", which is based on the 2011 film of the same name. The show explores the dynamics of a father-daughter bond, emotional issues of a family and also highlights the dilemma of how teenagers grow in the modern world and do they ever fit in.

The actor said the wave of change has swept into Hollywood, courtesy the ongoing dialogue about diversity and empowerment.

"It has been a very powerful process that has been going on for the last few years. Old truths of the business have been challenged and proven to be incorrect. There were a lot of ideas about how a commercial movie had to be made."

Like?

"You know you couldn't have a female superhero, you couldn't have a black lead in a film if it wasn't Will Smith or Denzel Washington."

"And all these ideas have been challenged and proven to be wrong. It is an important process. We are in middle of it and we will see where we end up in the next few years, but you can definitely tell that business has changed for better," he said.

Looking back, the 39-year-old said that coming to the US from Sweden brought many shocking experiences for him.

"I remember when I had moved to the States nine years ago, I was pretty shocked in how unmodern it was. There were so many of these old ideas."

Kinnaman, who has five sisters, continued: "Like when you get into a relationship with someone in the US, then the girl expects the guy to pay for everything... Also, a lot of women would stay home and take care of the kids. I am not saying that it is a bad thing but it was just very different from how I grew up.

"But when that discussion started in the US, it was very impactful. They were a bit behind and now they are catching up."

(Sugandha Rawal can be contacted at sugandha.r@ians.in <mailto:sugandha.r@ians.in>)

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
After former MP Putul Kumari, Bharatiya Janata Party's Bihar legislator Sachidanand Rai on Monday revolted against the party, announcing that he will contest Lok Sabha polls from Maharajganj parliamentary seat.

"I will contest from Maharajganj as an independent candidate," Rai said.

Putul Kumari, who had filed nomination papers from Banka seat as an Independent candidate, was expelled from the BJP for six years last week. The wife of former Union Minister Digvijay Singh, she had contested the bypoll for Banka as an Independent after his death in 2010 and won. However, she had lost the 2014 polls from the seat when she was contesting as a BJP candidate.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Pakistan on Monday accepted India's "proposal for a technical meeting" on the Kartarpur Corridor which will be held on April 16.

"Continuing with #Pakistan's spirit of constructive engagement, we have agreed to the Indian proposal for a technical meeting on April 16. We expect positivity from #India so that the corridor becomes reality for 550th celebrations. #PakistanKartarpurSpirit," Pakistan Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Dr Mohammad Faisal tweeted.

His comment came after India last week said Pakistan had not responded to the clarifications it has sought about facilities to pilgrims for the Kartarpur Corridor.

New Delhi had also said that Islamabad also had not addressed its concerns about appointment of "controversial elements" to the committee appointed by Pakistan to be associated with the corridor.

India had put on hold the second round of Kartarpur Corridor talks scheduled for April 2.

The Kartarpur Corridor connects Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan's Narowal district with Dera Baba Nanak in India's Gurdaspur.

The Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara is significant for the Sikh community as it is here that Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev spent 18 years of his life and is his final resting place.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Amidst escalated tensions between India and Pakistan, veteran actresses from Pakistan have urged cross-border peace using a rap number.

Bushra Ansari has teamed up with sisters Asma Abbas and Neelum Ahmad Bashir for the track "Humsaye maa jaye", a song which talks about unnecessary divisions between the neighbouring countries.

Asma and Bushra perform the track and Neelum has written it, the Dawn reported.

Bushra and Asma play Indian and Pakistani neighbours respectively, who are kept apart not just by a wall but the animosity between the two countries.

In their lyrics, they hint towards the fact that the average Pakistani and Indian wants peace but it is the politics and war-mongering that keeps them apart.

This is the first video that has been uploaded on Bushra's YouTube account.

They have described their release as "a music video that goes beyond war and borders to the hearts of people living so close, and yet so far away."

According to Samaa TV, Bushra had shared in a recent BBC interview that people have shown immense love for the song. "My inbox is filled with viewers' feedbacks who say the song is the voice of their soul," she said.

--IANS

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A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in the Delhi High Court on Monday seeking ban on Kashmiri leaders Mehbooba Mufti, Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah from participating in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The plea has sought direction to the Election Commission (EC) to ban the National Conference (NC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from joining the 2019 general elections as the loyalties of the leaders of these parties lie elsewhere and not in the Indian Constitution.

The petition filed by advocate Sanjjiiv Kkumaar has also sought direction to book them under various charges including sedition of the Indian Penal Code.

In his plea, the petitioner said allowing these leaders to contest the elections would be a mockery of democracy as these people openly call for sedition to divide "Mother India" on the basis of religion and demanding two Prime Ministers -- one for Jammu and Kashmir and other for the rest of India.

The petitioner told the court that the National Conference President Farooq Abdullah and his son's statement that they would demand revival of the post of Wazir-e-Azam and Sadar-e-Riyasat for Kashmir is unacceptable.

"Mehbooba Mufti, Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah's seditious, communal statements are against the Indian Constitution and hence the court/ Election Commission should bar/ impose conditions on their entry to a very constitutional House (Lok Sabha) as their loyalties lie somewhere else and not in the Indian Constitution," the plea said.

--IANS

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Bihar's opposition Rashtiya Janata Dal (RJD) on Monday released its election manifesto for the coming Lok Sabha polls, where it has promised reservation for the Dalits, OBCs, EBCs and tribals in the private sectors

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, who released the manifesto at the party headquarters here, said the main aim was to provide "bread to each plate and pens to all hands".

"We are committed to social justice and will implement remaining recommendations of the Mandal Commission," he said.

Tejashwi Yadav, former Deputy Chief Minister and the younger son of jailed RJD chief Lalu Prasad, said if his party was voted to power, a helpline for migrant workers from Bihar would be set up to provide them with timely help.

He also said that his party will implement a 200-point roster and will amend the Constitution for reservation for government jobs.

According to the manifesto, the RJD has ensured to conduct a caste-based census in 2021.

Tejashwi Yadav said the party has decided to spend 6 per cent of the GDP on education and 4 per cent on healthcare.

RJD has promised a tax free toddy to woo a particular Dalit community and to give a relief to millions of daily consumers of it.

Toddy is locally known as the 'poor man's beer', is consumed particularly in rural Bihar.

As per the seat sharing formula of the Grand Alliance announced on March 22, the RJD will contest 19 of the 40 seats and the Congress nine, while smaller parties will be in contention in the remaining constituencies.0D

The seven-phase election in Bihar is scheduled from April 11 to May 19.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Peoples Conference President Sajad Lone said on Monday that he stood by the English newspaper 'Greater Kashmir' whose staff has allegedly been threatened.

Reacting to the threats received by the Jammu bureau chief of the widely circulated daily, Sajad Lone tweeted: "Highly regrettable that Greater Kashmir staff in Jammu has been threatened. We fully support press freedom and condemn the thugs who made the threats. Our full support to GK."

The newspaper reported on Monday that its Jammu bureau chief had received several threat calls in which an unknown caller threatened to shoot the staff of the newspaper in its Jammu and Srinagar office.

Both 'Greater Kashmir' and its sister publication, the vernacular Urdu daily 'Kashmir Uzma', have been barred by the Jammu and Kashmir government from receiving government advertisements.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Kyrgyz ex-president Almazbek Atambayev has called into question the achievements of the April 2010 revolution. He held a rally in the center of Bishkek, during which he accused the head of state Sooronbay Jeenbekov of restoring the family-clan regime, suggested repenting and starting to correct his mistakes. Otherwise, he promised to bring people back to the streets in two months.

On Sunday, Sooronbay Jeenbekov honored the memory of those killed in the April 2010 people's revolution. He laid flowers at the monument to those who died in the April 2010 events at the Ata Beyit Memorial Complex. Then the memorial prayer was read.

On April 7, 2010, a second coup d'etat took place in Kyrgyzstan, during which President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's family-clan regime was overthrown. Then, 77 people were killed and 306 were injured during the protests. The power in the republic was passed to the provisional government, headed by Roza Otumbaeva. A year later, the election was held in the country, won by one of the leaders of the April revolution, Almazbek Atambayev. After his presidential term expired, the election was held, and the power was passed to the pro-government candidate Sooronbai Jeenbekov.

In his address to the people, the head of state emphasized that the Day of the People's April Revolution personifies the peoples "invincible will to revive, striving for new heights of development." "The Kyrgyz people have proved that they will never put up with the willfulness of the authoritarian government, will not allow the family-clan regime in the state. April 7 marks the beginning of a new era, big changes in politics, economics, and renewal of public life," Jeenbekov stressed.

Almazbek Atambayev held his own memorial rally. He brought about 400 his supporters to the central square of Bishkek and gave the current president a "scathing rebuke". The old and the new presidents have started to turn on each other immediately after the 2017 elections. Under the pretext of fighting corruption, the authorities opened criminal cases against Atambayevs confidants, trying to get compromising material on the ex-president. However, either the compromising material was not enough, or the ex-president' immunity saved Atambayev from arrest.

But the authorities did not stop there, and nevertheless the deputies amended the draft law "On guarantees of the activities of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic", depriving him of immunity. It means that a criminal case can be initiated against Atambayev any time. As expert on Central Asia and the Middle East Alexander Knyazev said: "Atambayev was not part of Jeenbekovs plans."

At the rally, Atambayev accused the current government of persecuting political opponents under the guise of fighting corruption and restoring the family-clan regime in the republic.

Atambayev returned to active politics, and it is possible that he will try to return to power. But not as a president or prime minister, Kyrgyz politician and public figure Adil Turdukulov told Vestnik Kavkaza, according to him, Atambayev wants to leave a positive mark in the country's history. "Serving as president, he launched a mechanism for creating a parliamentary republic. This indicates that he works for a historical perspective, creating a unique precedent not only for Kyrgyzstan, but also for the entire Central Asian region. Atambayev himself says that the parliamentary process should become long-term and stable to establish parliamentarism in the country. To prevent the State Committee for National Security fro falling into the hands of the president as a punitive body. By the way, this was the case under Atambayev. But today Tambaev admitted his mistakes and agrees with the criticism," Turdukulov said.

Answering the question from Vestnik Kavkaza of how Atambayev intends to realize his plans, Adil Turdukulov replied that first of all he would take part in the parliamentary elections scheduled for next year. At the same time, the expert does not exclude that it could be the early elections, so it is possible they will be held this autumn. There are several reasons: a socio-economic situation, unemployment and mass migration. Corruption is on the rise, while the declared fight against this evil has become of purely propagandist nature. "The government does not show any initiatives to improve the life of the population. And if it does, these steps are as unpopular as the adopted Administrative Code with its disproportionate fines. It has resulted in increasing displeasure among people. In order to relieve displeasure and switch the people's attention, they discuss holding early elections. However, the opposition is also in favor of dissolving the parliament. These are the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan and other Kyrgyz political forces. It is possible that a coalition will be formed. Atambayevs participation in political life is good for the country, because the opposition is preventing the current government from sliding into authoritarianism and nepotism," Turdukulov stressed.

Atambayev promises to bring people to the streets, which may again lead to unrest and coup d'etat. According to Adil Turdukulov, "Atambayev is a politician, which is strongly felt by the political field." "He himself declares that there is no real, revolutionary situation in Kyrgyzstan. But the authorities, fearing that he may have grown in popularity, pushes him out of the real political field. Negative in the media and social networks, holding a parallel fake congress of the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan, arrests of Atambayev's associates. The authorities regard any contacts with Atambayev as a betrayal. Atambayev says that he is not afraid of the authorities, is not afraid of being arrested, and is ready for anything," the expert said. He may take people to the streets in June, but it does not mean a revolution.
The Supreme Court on Monday said it will look into the order passed by the Madras High Court directing an interim ban on the video mobile application 'TikTok'.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi sought urgent listing of the case. He said that the application had been downloaded on a major scale, has numerous users and an ex-parte interim order was passed against the start-up.

Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said he will look into the matter.

Last week, a bench of Justices N. Kirubakaran and S.S. Sundar passed an interim order issuing directions to the government to prohibit downloading the mobile application. It also directed the media not to broadcast the videos made using it.

The Madras High Court posed a query to the government. It asked whether the government will enact a statue, like the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act enacted by the US government, in order to prevent children becoming online victims.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Supreme Court on Monday declined to pass an order on a plea seeking a stay on the biopic on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The matter will come up for hearing on Tuesday.

The apex court also declined to issue any direction to the film director to provide a copy of the movie to the petitioner.

The court did not pass the order on Monday and said it will hear the plea on Tuesday and in the meanwhile, the petitioner could bring on record what was objectionable in the film.

The bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi made an observation on the plea by a Congress activist and said: "Why should we direct that an individual be given a copy of the film."

The bench told the lawyer of the petitioner: "We fail to see how such a direction can be issued... We fail to understand why such a direction be given."

The lawyer said that the producer had made a statement that the biopic will be released on April 11.

The bench said that it was not unusual to make a statement on the release date of the film, as the producer may have assumed that it will get certification from the Censor Board.

The bench said that at that moment there was not sufficient evidence to challenge the release, especially the content of the film.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Supreme Court on Monday directed former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar to file his response on a CBI plea seeking his arrest in the multi-crore Saradha chit fund case.

The CBI in an application sought the apex curt to abandon its earlier order directing that no coercive action be taken against the former Kolkata Police Commissioner.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi issued a notice to Kumar on CBI's plea and sought his response within four weeks. The court on February 5 stayed the arrest of Kumar in the Saradha and Rose Valley Ponzi scam cases.

The agency said the custodial interrogation of Kumar was required to make progress on gathering evidence on the nexus between politicians and the top management of Saradha Group.

The agency also said that Kumar on apex court direction had appeared before the agency in Shillong, but during the questioning he remained elusive.

The CBI also sought the apex Court's direction to the West Bengal authorities to cooperate in the investigations and not to interfere in the scope of investigation.

Counsels for Vodafone and Airtel were present in the court during the hearing.

Mukul Rohtagi, appearing for Vodafone, said the company had already cooperated with the agency in the investigation and handed over all call data and records.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta asked Airtel to hand over all the call data and other records concerning the case.

The court rejected a plea by A.M. Singhvi, appearing on behalf of the West Bengal government, that the CBI's affidavit must be vetted by its Director.

Singhvi claimed that the action had been ordered was due to the West Bengal Police probe into alleged dealings of then CBI chief Nageshwar Rao's wife.

--IANS

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Global private equity firm TPG Capital and international airline such as Lufthansa are among six entities who are believed to have shown interest in the "expression of interest" stake sale process of the debt-ridden Jet Airways, sources said.

The development comes as lenders of the debt-ridden airline invited EoI for stake sale in the airline to recover their dues worth Rs 8,000 crore.

Sources said that TPG Capital, private equity firm KKR, Blackstone, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines and Delta-Air France-KLM are among the companies approached by the lenders.

When contacted, a Tata Group spokesperson, said: "We don't comment on market speculation."

As per the document issued by the State Bank of India (SBI), the lead lender in the consortium, it offered stake from 31.2 to 75 per cent of the company on a fully diluted basis.

However, it was not known whether ex-Chairman Naresh Goyal or major equity owner Etihad Airways would be selling their stake on a pro-rata basis.

The airline owes Rs 8,000 crore to lenders, led by the SBI. On March 25, Goyal had stepped down from the board of the airline and ceded majority control to the SBI-led consortium.

The consortium of banks then appointed SBI Caps to take out the EoI and conduct the process of their stake sale in the airline.

"The lenders, pursuant to the guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank of India, are in the process of formulation of a resolution plan for resolving stress in the company, inter alia, involving change in control and management of the company," the EOI document said.

The purpose of the EoI is to provide information about the company to enable interested parties to make assessment about the proposal prior to the submission of their bids.

The time period for submission of EoI is till 6 p.m. on April 10.

Monday's development comes after lenders last week said that they intend to pursue the bank-led resolution plan for the airline under the present legal and regulatory framework. This came after the Supreme Court decided to annul a February 12, 2018 Reserve Bank of India (RBI) circular on bad debts.

The judgement was seen as a major setback for the resolution process. In a statement, the consortium 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."

As per the lenders' statement, all efforts will be made for the stake sale and other options may be considered by them should these efforts not result in an acceptable outcome.

The lenders did not divulge any information about the present funding needs of the airline. Jet Airway's former Chairman Goyal had earlier 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 is hardpressed for funds and without further funding the airline's fleet size is expected to shrink further. It has alredy shrunk to 26.

Jet 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.

Recently, the airline informed employees that salaries for March will be delayed. Salaries are pending since January. On Monday, the company's scrip gained 3.14 per cent or Rs 8.05 to Rs 264.1 0.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is locked in a fierce battle for power with the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) as the stage is set for single-phase polling for simultaneous elections to 175-member Andhra Pradesh Assembly and for 25 Lok Sabha seats on April 11.

Over 3.93 crore voters, including 1.98 crore women, are eligible to vote to decide the fate of over 3,800 candidates in the Assembly polls, including Chief Minister and TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu, YSRCP chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and Jana Sena leader and actor Pawan Kalyan.

Former Union ministers Kishore Chandra Deo and Ashok Gajapathi Raju (both TDP), D. Purandeswari (BJP) and former CBI joint director V.V. Lakshminarayana (Jana Sena) are among about 500 candidates in the fray for the Lok Sabha elections.

The high-decibel campaign is coming to an end on Tuesday for the first full-fledged election in the truncated state of Andhra Pradesh as 2014 polls were held a couple of months before the formal bifurcation.

Both the main contenders for power are going it alone. The Congress and the BJP are also contesting on their own, but both the national parties look more or less like ringside spectators of the Naidu-versus-Jagan fight.

Naidu, who led TDP campaign, roped in National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for a couple of meetings and roadshows.

The narrative in these elections has been around the special category status for the state as Naidu targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for reneging on the commitment.

The TDP chief tried to play the card of Andhra self-respect by alleging that Modi has hatched a conspiracy against the state in collusion with Jagan and Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao.

He also raked up corruption cases pending against Jagan and asked people if they want to make somebody a chief minister who is a 'brand ambassador of crimes'.

"Your future is my responsibility" was the slogan of Naidu's campaign as he tried to woo all sections of voters, especially farmers, women and youth by promising to continue welfare schemes launched over the last few months.

The Election Commission's action in transferring three top police officers, including Director General, Intelligence, and later shunting out Chief Secretary A.K. Punetha kicked up a row with Chandrababu Naidu accusing the poll panel of acting at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Jagan has been drawing massive crowds with his speeches delivered in his distinct style. His mother Y.S. Vijayamma and sister Y.S. Sharmila too campaigned for the party.

Jagan promised to usher in 'Rajanna Rajyam', a reference to the rule of his late father Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy during which several schemes were implemented for welfare of poor and weaker sections.

The 46-year-old targeted Naidu for enjoying power with BJP for four years and then severing ties with that party to draw political mileage.

Analysts say actor Pawan Kalyan's Jana Sena, which is making its political debut and contesting the polls in alliance with Bahujan Samaj Party, CPI and CPI-M, may tilt the balance of power by cutting into the votes of the TDP or the YSRCP.

Pawan may do well in a few constituencies with sizeable population of Kapus, a community to which the actor belongs. In the previous elections, Pawan had campaigned for TDP-BJP alliance.

Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and Congress president Rahul Gandhi have addressed only a couple of rallies each.

In 2014 elections, the TDP had won 102 seats in the 175-member Assembly while its then alliance partner BJP secured 4 seats. YSRCP emerged as the only opposition bagging 67 seats. Two independents were also elected.

Interestingly, the YSRCP polled 45.01 per cent votes, a mere 1.6 per cent less than the votes polled by the TDP-BJP combine.

Out of 25 Lok Sabha seats, the TDP bagged 15 seats while BJP got two. The YSRCP secured eight seats.

Facing people's wrath over bifurcation, the Congress was completely wiped out drawing blank in both the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls.

A key feature of these polls is the electoral debut of Naidu's son Nara Lokesh, who is contesting for Assembly from Mangalagiri in the capital region of Amaravati. Naidu is seeking re-election from Kuppam in his native Chittoor district while Jagan is contesting once again from Pulivendula, his family stronghold in Kadapa district.

Pawan Kalyan is contesting from two Assembly constituencies - Bhimavaram and Gajuwaka.

--IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A sting by a private TV channel on Congress candidate Jyoti Khandelwal fielded from Jaipur parliamentary constituency has put the party in a spot as the purported video clip showed her "promising" a tender to a contractor if elected as an MP.

She allegedly made the offer to a person in the purported video after being "offered" Rs 5 crore.

Khandelwal has dismissed the allegation, calling the video as fake. "There is no authenticity of the video and it has been released to defame me," she told IANS.

In the sting video, a person posing as a contractor is heard talking to Khandelwal and her husband Sharad Khandelwal. The contractor offers Rs 5 crore "in exchange for the contracts" to be given to him under the MPLAD fund once Khandelwal is elected to Parliament.

Sources said the party leadership has called Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot to Delhi on Saturday.

Pratap Khachriyawas, a state minister, on Sunday accused the BJP of playing dirty politics and said that Khandelwal will contest election and that the candidate would not be changed.

Meanwhile, state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Anand Kumar has directed the police to initiate a thorough probe into the matter. A forensic analysis of the video is also being conducted by the police.

The Congress has fielded a woman candidate from the Jaipur seat after 45 years against the BJP's Ramcharan Bohra.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
DocuBay, a new, global, subscription-based streaming service and video-on-demand platform featuring international documentaries, will launch this summer and will include India in its first phase.

DocuBay will be available in India with a distinctive global catalogue for Indian audiences, and several titles exclusive to the country.

IN10 Media showcased a first look of DocuBay at the MIPDoc event in Cannes to a select international community of documentary creators and distributors, said a statement.

At the event, DocuBay also presented The Pitch, a documentary pitching session. The judges for the pitches included Chris Hoelzl from Smithsonian Channel, Axel Arno from SVT, Bernadette McDaid from National Geographic and Akul Tripathi, COO, DocuBay.

"Humankind, as a race, has always had the uncontrollable desire to tell their tale. To save it for posterity. Etched in stone, sketched on rock, sung through the ages, engraved, embossed, stitched, typed, recorded, photographed and now filmed - documentaries are just the latest in a long series of the preferred repository of human experience. These cumulative/many experiences unite us as One tribe, which is at the core of DocuBay philosophy," said Tripathi.

The platform will make discovery easy through affinity-based categories like Nature, Action, Travel, Culture, and Science. It intends to further refine its 'bays' by analysing watch habits and consumer surveys of the early adopters.

Aditya Pittie, Managing Director, IN10 Media, said: "With consumers worldwide having more content choices than ever, DocuBay's constantly expanding library of international documentary films will create its own niche through its focus on discovery and distribution."

--IANS

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At least 2,800 people have fled rising violence in Libya's capital Tripoli, the UN said on Monday after international powers began evacuating personnel from the country amid the worsening security situation.

The UN-backed government in Libya said 32 of its fighters were killed in the fighting, the BBC reported.

Tensions in the country have risen since rogue Libyan military commander, Gen. Khalifa Haftar, ordered his forces to attack the government in Tripoli last week.

Gen. Haftar's Libyan National Army is seeking to take over from the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA).

Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj has accused Gen. Haftar of attempting a coup and says rebels will be met with force.

The UN said several civilians were trapped by the clashes and cut off from vital emergency services. It had earlier appealed for a two-hour truce so casualties and civilians could be evacuated, but fighting continued.

In response, the EU and several countries including the US and Russia called for an end to hostilities.

"This unilateral military campaign against Tripoli is endangering civilians and undermining prospects for a better future for all Libyans," said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

America's top commander for Africa said the US had pulled a contingent of its troops from Libya.

"The security realities on the ground in Libya are growing increasingly complex and unpredictable," said Marine Corps Gen. 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 said the repositioning was in response to security concerns.

The Italian multinational oil and gas company Eni also decided to evacuate all its Italian personnel from the country, reports say.

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. It was also due to pull out non-essential staff.

The country has been torn by violence and political instability since long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi was deposed and killed in 2011.

UN-backed talks aimed at drawing up a road map for new elections have been scheduled for April 14-16 in the city of Ghadames. UN envoy Ghassan Salame insisted the talks would go ahead, unless serious obstacles prevented it, saying "we won't give up this political work quickly".

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US President Donald Trump is set to welcome his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on Tuesday for the second time at the White House, the media reported.

Egyptian officials are hailing the meeting, which came at the invitation of the US administration, as a high mark for a new era of relations between the two countries, CNN reported.

The meeting on Tuesday will focus on building the "robust military, economic and counterterrorism cooperation" between Washington and Cairo, the White House said on Sunday.

The two leaders are expected to talk about the fight against the Islamic State terror group in the Sinai Peninsula and a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to Egypt's state-run Ahram daily.

But it comes amid human rights groups accusing the Egyptian regime of carrying out widespread and systematic torture of political prisoners, silencing dissidents and using death sentences to settle scores.

Sisi's government has vehemently denied the allegations.

Rights groups have continue to raise Cairo's dismal human rights record as an issue that US Congressmen should take into account when officials meet Sisi.

Amnesty International along with Egyptians Abroad For Democracy Worldwide have been working for the last year in a joint effort to lobby the US Congress to "oppose the death penalty in Egypt and to improve human rights", according to official documents.

--IANS

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With just five days to go until the UK is due to leave the European Union (EU) on Friday, the opposition Labour Party has said that it expects to hold further talks with Prime Minister Theresa May's government to find a Brexit deal.

Last week, May said that only a cross-party pact will get the support of a majority of MPs, as Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and some Conservatives have rejected her deal with the EU, reports the BBC.

On Sunday, Rebecca Long-Bailey, a member of Labour's negotiating team, described the mood as "positive and hopeful", and indicated more talks were likely to take place early this week.

This was despite the fact government proposals "have not been compliant with the definition of a customs union", the Labour's key demand, she told the BBC.

That would allow tariff-free trade in goods with the EU but limit the UK from striking its own deals. Leaving the arrangement was a Conservative manifesto commitment.

Long-Bailey also suggested that Labour could be prepared to cancel Brexit by revoking Article 50 - the legal mechanism through which Brexit is taking place - 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 told the BBC.

Long-Bailey's remarks came after May tweeted a video message earlier on Sunday, explaining her decision to negotiate with Labour.

"We absolutely must leave the European Union... that means we need to get a deal over the line and that's why we've been looking for new ways - a new approach - to find an agreement in Parliament.

"People didn't vote on party lines when it came to the Brexit referendum. And I think members of the public want to see their politicians working together more often."

While communication between the two sides is continuing, little detail has emerged about what is being discussed.

May is due at an emergency summit in Brussels on Wednesday, when EU leaders will expect to hear fresh plans.

The UK is scheduled to leave the EU without a deal on Friday at 11 p.m.

However, on Monday, peers will continue considering a bill brought by senior Labour MP Yvette Cooper, which aims to force May to request a Brexit extension rather than leave the EU without a deal.

--IANS

ksk

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
European Parliament president Antonio Tajani has expressed anxiety over a new migrant crisis in Libya, due to the prospect of the current government being toppled by a powerful general.

Breitbart reports in its article EU Parliament President Warns of New Libyan Migration Crisis as Warlord Advances on Capital that Tajani said the European Union was concerned over the recent developments in Libya that have seen General Khalifa Haftar and his forces advance on the capital of Tripoli.

The renegade general ordered his Libyan National Army to take the city earlier this week, with troops loyal to the government saying they will resist the move and stop Haftar and his men.

Tajani called on all sides in the conflict to stop and avoid any violent action, adding: There can be no military solution to the Libyan crisis. A new conflict would only cause further loss of life and enormous damage to the country and its population.

Tajani also warned that conflict could lead to the risk of a new migration crisis, with the increase in [migration] flows, mainly to Italy and other Mediterranean countries.

The EU Parliament chief advocated for the EU to intervene immediately and speak with a single and authoritative voice, contributing to a peaceful and democratic solution, within the framework of the United Nations, as requested several times by the European Parliament.

A new wave of migration from Libya would come just as the number of migrants attempting to get to Europe from its shores has greatly decreased due, in large part, to the anti-mass migration policies of Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Matteo Salvini.

Data released earlier this year also revealed that the number of migrants drowining in the Mediterranean had also gone down due to Salvinis Australia-style stop the boats, stop the drownings policy of refusing port access to migrant rescue NGO vessels.
A group of ethnic Tibetan youth from a poverty-stricken village in China's Sichuan province will make their first overseas trip to the US to widen their horizons as part of a UN poverty-relief programme, an organiser said.

Hwa A. Lim, a board member of Asian Hustle and Salsa Association (AHSA) World, a California-based non-profit organization dedicated to skills development, literacy promotion and poverty alleviation, said on Sunday that six ethnic Tibetan youth from a village in Pingwu County, Sichuan province, will come to California in celebration of World Dance Day.

"They'll be visiting us for about 10 days. We'll take them to different schools, to different places and even to visit some companies," he was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

The ethnic Tibetan youth will perform a Chinese intangible heritage "Yak Dance", a traditional ritual dance popular among ethnic Tibetan groups in Sichuan, at the 2019 AHSA World Dance Day Charity Night on April 28 in the San Francisco Bay Area, Lim said.

This year's celebrations will focus on the theme of poverty-relief and quality education, said Lim, who is a bioinformatics expert at the UN Food and Agricultural Organization and a member of the International Dance Council (CID).

The CID is a non-governmental organization founded in 1973 within the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) headquarters in Paris.

"We encourage everybody to help out so that everybody can be on the same boat," Lim said. "This year we target those impoverished children of the ethnic Tibetans in remote areas of western China."

AHSA World is the sponsor of the project "When Creativity Meets Poverty Alleviation and Education" nominated for the 2018 Unesco Literacy Prizes, which was later incorporated into the SDG4- 2030 agenda.

Its aim is to help poverty-hit children become literate and develop skills for future careers.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who skipped an opposition meeting called by president in Delhi on Friday, is likely to attend a lunch being hosted by Prime Minister on Saturday in honour of visiting Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth, setting political tongues wagging.

" has been invited by Modi for the lunch on Saturday in honour of Mauritius Prime Minister P. Jugnauth," a JD-U leader said.

JD-U leaders, while reluctant to say much on Saturday's meeting, remarked that it will be purely an "official meeting" and nothing to do with

" will submit a list of unfulfilled promises made to Bihar, including a special financial package and his old demand of special category status for the state. It is not going to be a meeting to discuss politics," a senior JD-U leader said.

had recently called over phone and discussed with him the possibility of a consensus opposition candidate in the Presidential election. The Bihar Chief Minister is reported to have favoured a second term for incumbent Pranab Mukherjee.

However, his absence on Friday at the luncheon meeting convened by Gandhi to discuss the issue set off speculation that something could be amiss in the opposition camp, more so after the recent Income Tax raids on the properties of chief Lalu Prasad's kin.
A total of 100 fishermen crossed over to India through the Attari-Wagah



border on Monday after the Pakistan government released them from jail as a goodwill gesture.

All of them crossed over to India in the evening on the basis of 'emergency travel certificate' issued by the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, officials said.

The fishermen were arrested when their boats strayed into the Pakistani waters in the Arabian sea.

Immediately after the repatriation, medical examination of all fishermen was conducted.

Earlier, Pakistan Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mohammad Faisal had said the country would release 360 Indian prisoners, 355 fishermen and five civilians in April.

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Two members of a liquor-smuggling gang were arrested by police in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut district, officials said Monday.

Acting on a tip-off, Special Task Force sleuths arrested Vijay Dabas and Kapil Gurjar on Sunday from Daurala area of Meerut with 760 bottles of liquor, they said.

The gang is involved in smuggling liquor into Uttar Pradesh from other states, officials said, adding that the seized liquor was being smuggled from neighbouring Haryana.

A case has been registered and probe is underway.

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A 21-year-old man was arrested after he plotted a false robbery bid in South Delhi's Mehrauli area, police said Monday.

The accused has been identified as Kishan, a resident of Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh, they said.

An information of robbery of Rs 3 lakh was received around 10.45 am on Monday at the Mehrauli police station, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Vijay Kumar said.

One Mahender Kumar filed a complaint and stated that he had sent his employee Kishan to deposit Rs 3 lakh at a bank in Chattarpur area.

Kishan left the shop around 9.15 am and around 9.45 am, he called Kumar and informed that two boys on a motorcycle stopped him and forcefully robbed him off Rs 3 lakh and his mobile phone at gunpoint.

During investigation, police analysed the CCTV cameras installed in the area and interrogated all six employees of the complainant.

Police found Kishan's movement suspicious and grilled him where he broke down and confessed to committing the crime.

During interrogation, Kishan said that he had a habit of online gambling and lost a big amount on it.

Due to the debt which he had to pay, he concocted a false story of robbery to usurp the money of his employer.

Total amount of Rs 3 lakh and one mobile phone was recovered from his possession, the police said.

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Four men were arrested and 50 kg of heroin worth more than Rs 200 crore in the international market were seized, police said Monday.

The accused have been identified as Mohammad Sufiyan (31), Mohammad Ismail (49), Hasim (30), and Manoj Kumar Das (50).

Acting on a tip-off, Ismail and Sufiyan were arrested near Burari in Delhi on Thursday, said Sanjeev Kumar Yadav, deputy commissioner of police (crime).

Fifty kilograms of heroin was recovered from their possession, along with two cars, mobile phones and SIM cards, police said.

The two revealed that they used to procure heroin from the Northeast and supply it to different states, police said Monday.

The accused said the drugs was delivered to them by a person named Kabir, a resident of Manipur, on the directions of Das, a resident of Bihar, he said.

A police team was sent to Bihar and Das was arrested from Patna on Friday, the DCP said.

Another person, Hasim, was also arrested from Bawana on Saturday,.

During interrogation, Das said that he has been involved in this business from the past eight to 10 years.

The accused also disclosed that they used to bring high-grade heroin from suppliers of Manipur, who get the raw material from Myanmar.

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Four persons, including two foreign nationals, were arrested by Mumbai police from Bengaluru for allegedly cheating people online, an official said Monday.

The accused used to lure people through Facebook and other social media platforms by promising them valuable gifts which could be had by depositing "custom duty fees" online into a specified bank account, he said.

NM Joshi Marg police, which was probing a cheating case with the same modus operandi, found that a complainant had transferred Rs 68,500 into a Bengaluru-based bank account, the official said.

"A team from NM Joshi Marg police station reached Bengaluru and found that at least Rs 45 lakh had been deposited in this account from people across the country," he said.

The police team from Mumbai raided a house in Bengaluru and arrested four persons, two of whom are Africans, he said.

"The four were brought to Mumbai on Sunday and produced in a court here which remanded them in police custody till April 11. Further probe into the cheating racket is underway," he informed.

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The Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) Monday handed over six Dhanush artillery guns to the Army in a ceremony held at the Gun Carriage Factory here.

The OFB recently received a bulk production clearance from the Army and the Defence Ministry for 114 Dhanush artillery guns.

"The OFB has handed over six Dhanush guns to the Army in the first phase. Dhanush is the first indigenously built 155 mm x 45 calibre long-range artillery gun with strike range of 38 kilometres," said OFB chairman Saurabh Kumar, adding that the weapon was a major success story of the 'Make in India' initiative.

Automated technology allows three to six guns to be fired simultaneously at a single target, each gun having a capacity to fire 42 rounds in an hour, he said.

"The weight of the gun is under 13 tonnes, making it easy to mobilise in hilly terrain and remote areas. It is a versatile weapon that can operate in all climatic conditions," Kumar informed.

"The gun is equipped with inertial navigation-based sighting system, auto-laying facility, on-board ballistic computation and an advanced day-night direct firing system. The self-propulsion unit allows the gun to negotiate and deploy itself in the field," the OFB chairman said.

Kumar informed that the OFB was now working on the next two versions of the Dhanush gun including a truck-mounted version.

Officials said the Dhanush is a joint effort by the OFB, the Army, Defence Research and Development Organisation, Directorate General Quality Assurance, PSUs Bharat Electronics Limited, SAIL, and private firms.

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Senior AAP leader Gopal Rai on Monday said if the Congress is confident of winning in Punjab without an alliance, his party is also capable of winning all the seats in Delhi on its own.

Questioning Congress leader Randeep Surjewala's statement where he said his party was not in talks with the AAP or any other party for an alliance in Haryana and Punjab, Rai asked whether the Congress has forgotten about its loss in the bypolls in Jind.

"I do not understand why Congress is so self obsessed. It appears that it is in a state of maha-confusion," he said.

"If Congress is confident of winning in Punjab without an alliance so even AAP is capable of winning all seats on its own in Delhi," he said.

Rai said AAP took the decision of contesting on 35 seats in different states, keeping in mind that "it can contribute in defeating the BJP".

"You can win in Punjab but what about Haryana. The Congress is ready to lose but not form an alliance in Haryana," he said.

"Even people in Haryana are saying that if JJP-AAP and Congress stand together then BJP cannot win and can lose all 10 seats," he added.

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.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi had Saturday discussed the issue with senior party leaders.

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 other senior leaders were present at the meeting held at Gandhi's residence.

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The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will launch its second phase of campaigning for the upcoming general election on April 10 with an aim to reach out to 35 lakh people, including the working-class population, and tell them about the importance of full statehood to Delhi.

Delhi minister and senior AAP leader Gopal Rai said the booth-level workers of the party would go to people, instead of calling them to jan sabhas.

"In the first phase, we held jan sabhas with people, now we will go to the people, including the working class, and tell them about the importance of full statehood," he said.

Rai added that the campaigning would be held in three phases and the second phase would start from April 10.

"We will be engaging 13,814 booth heads and train them over the next two days to convey the message of importance of full statehood to the people," he said.

The AAP leader said the third phase of campaigning would be launched after the candidates file their nominations.

Rai claimed that his party's first phase of campaigning had pushed the BJP on the "backfoot".

"The BJP, which had thought it would have a walkover in Delhi, is now confused about which candidates should be fielded," he said.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Moscow today.

According to the Turkish leader, he plans to discuss with his Russian counterpart a possible Turkish military operation in Syria.

"Our preparations on the border are finished, everything is ready for an operation. We can begin it at any moment. I will discuss this issue among others face-to-face (with Putin) on my visit to Russia," Erdogan told reporters ahead of his departure for Moscow.

Erdogan also said that everything Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been doing since 1948 violates international law and U.N. resolutions. "Every action of Israel since 1948 is illegal. But, of course, it has always taken these steps with a support of the U.S," he stressed.

Earlier, Kremlin Aide Yuri Ushakov said that the Russian and his Turkish leaders at the meeting on April 8 will discuss Syria, the deliveries of S-400 air defense systems to Turkey, the pace of building the Turkish Stream gas pipeline and the Akkuyu nuclear power plant. In addition, the presidents will participate in a plenary session of the Cooperation Council, which will be followed by their roundtable discussion with representatives of business.

The Turkish leader's last visit to Russia was held on February 14.

The head of the political research of the Center for Modern Turkish Studies, Yuri Mavashev, speaking with the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that Erdogan's working visit will be mainly devoted to economic issues. "The presidents will participate in a plenary session of the Cooperation Council to discuss the number of issues, including the Turkish Stream project and deliveries of S-400 air defense systems. The will take part in the ceremony of opening the Cross Year of Culture and Tourism of Russia and Turkey. Although the Syrian issue will be also discussed today, the talks will be focused on bilateral relations," he said.

"If we talk about the frequency of presidential contacts in general, it is based on contacts of ministries and departments that have been actively implemented recently, especially in the area of security. This is the political intention of the two countries - cooperation, especially since we found ourselves in quite similar situations. Both Russia and Turkey combine the features of the West and the East, while Europe and the United States do not perceive Russia and Turkey as part of the West, they view us as a separate political region. According to many Americans experts, the West has started to perceive Turkey as a state, which has its own way. Thus, there is growth in the number of contacts between our countries," Mavashev noted.

Political scientist Orhan Gafarli stressed that good relations between the leaders of Russia and Turkey promote mutual dialogue between the two countries. "The positive cooperation between Moscow and Ankara also allows constructive discussion of regional issues of the Middle East and the Black Sea region. President Erdogan's visit is also related to the Cross Year of Culture and Tourism of Russia and Turkey. The next talks will undoubtedly contribute to open discussion of all the issues in bilateral relations, as well as issues of neighboring countries, primarily Syria," he said.

"The presidents will have to discuss how to clear Syria's Idlib of terrorists, the Astana peace process development. In bilateral relations there is such a problem that Turkish citizens still travel to Russia only with visas, so Erdogan will promote the visa-free regime. I think that both countries have mutual understanding on the idlib process, the only question is how this process will develop," Orhan Gafarli concluded.
The Calcutta High Court Monday directed that Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee's wife Rujira Naroola will not have to appear before the Customs authorities on its summons till July 31.

A division bench of the high court directed the joint commissioner of Customs to extend the date of summons to a date after July 31 to enable the single bench to decide Naroola's petition challenging the summons.

Naroola, who is a citizen of Thailand, was asked to appear before an assistant commissioner on Monday at 12 noon in connection with her alleged intentional obstruction of Customs officers from checking her baggage at the Kolkata airport on her arrival from Bangkok on March 16 in a Thai Airways flight.

The single bench of Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj had directed Naroola to appear before the Customs assistant commissioner in compliance with its summons issued on March 26, while asking the central government authority to not take any coercive action against her.

Naroola challenged the order, through her counsel Ahin Chowdhury, before the division bench comprising Justices I P Mukerji and Md Nizamuddin claiming that the summons was illegal and prayed for a stay on it.

The division bench observed in its order that there was no allegation made of any illegal importation of gold in the complaint filed by Customs seven days after the incident took place at the airport.

Appearing for the Customs authority, Additional Solicitor General Aman Lekhi submitted that Naroola had refused to get her baggage examined on arrival from Bangkok.

Submitting that the baggage was allowed to be examined after persuasion, Lekhi said x-ray of the bags at the airport showed presence of gold.

At that time, local police was called in by Naroola, who entered a restricted area and escorted her away from the airport.

Lekhi submitted that investigation under the Customs Act can be done even if a police investigation is on, claiming that the two probes are distinct.

Submitting that there is no politics behind the summons issued to Naroola and that the Customs wants to do a proper inquiry only, Lekhi wondered why is she apprehensive about it.

Naroola, on her arrival at the airport, was apparently selected randomly for checking by the Customs officials at the immigration counter.

She filed a complaint with the NSCBI Airport police station on the same day alleging that she had been deliberately harassed and misbehaved with by the officials.

The Customs authorities also filed a complaint before the NSCBI Airport police station on March 22 stating that they were prevented from examination of the baggage of Naroola and her companion Menka Gambhir, who Naroola said was her sister.

The Customs authorities alleged that they were voluntarily and intentionally obstructed by the two passengers, local police personnel and other unknown persons from exercising their power as conferred under the Customs Act.

Naroola's counsel had submitted before Justice Bharadwaj that the additional chief judicial magistrate of Barrackpore court had ordered the conversion of the complaint into an FIR and begin investigation into her claims.

He submitted that the Customs authorities have no right to issue summons to the complainant on the same ground.

Counsel for the Customs submitted before the single bench that the central government authority is not considering Naroola as an accused.

Claiming that there are some discrepancies in information declared by her, standing counsel for the centre Ravi Prakash said these need to be verified and she has been asked to appear before the joint director of Customs for this purpose.

Abhishek Banerjee, nephew of party supremo Mamata Banerjee, had on March 23 denied reports in a section of media that 2 kg gold was found in his wife's baggage when she landed in the city from Bangkok.

Terming the allegations as baseless and politically motivated, Banerjee said in a press conference that his wife was "not carrying even two grams of gold" or any other dutiable or objectionable item in her baggage.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Monday said abrogating Article 370 of the Constitution will pave way for "freedom" for people of Jammu and Kashmir and asked the BJP try joining the hearts and not break them.

Abdullah's remarks come on the day BJP released its manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls in which the party reiterated its commitment to scrap Article 370, which grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

The party also resolved to annul Article 35A of the Constitution, which bars people from outside to own property in Jammu and Kashmir.

"They talk of abrogating Article 370. If you do that, the accession will also not stand. I swear by Allah, I think this is the wish of Almighty, we will get freedom from them," Abdullah, who is contesting the Lok Sabha polls from Srinagar constituency, said at an election rally here.

The former chief minister said there would not be anyone to hoist the national flag in Kashmir if Article 370 is abrogated.

"Let them do it, we will see. I will see who is ready to hoist their flag here. So don't do such things that break our hearts. Try joining the hearts, not breaking them," he said.

Launching a scathing attack on the BJP leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Abdullah said, "When you do an election rally do speak a few words of love for Jammu and Kashmir."



"Yes, we are a Muslim majority state and there is no doubt about that. Try as much as you want but you can't change it. You think by removing Article 35A, you will usurp our rights. Will we take this lying down? We will fight it," he added.

The NC president said the special residency laws were brought in by then Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, Hari Singh, in 1927 as a safeguard for Dogras so that their numbers were not diluted by influx of population from other parts of India.

"Do you know what is Article 35A? It gives you (people of state) the right to this place. Nobody from outside can buy land here or apply for jobs. This was kept by Maharaja Hari Singh in 1927 so that the population of Dogras does not fall. It was not as much for us as much for them (Dogras). What do they want? Will they bring people from outside and settle them here to dilute our numbers?" he asked.

NC vice president Omar Abdullah used the BJP manifesto to hit out at Governor Satya Pal Malik.

"Recently J&K Governor claimed there was no threat to Art 370 & 35-A and that parties like mine were only using them to drum up fear in the elections. I hope his colleagues in the BJP send him a copy of their manifesto," he tweeted.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Mozambique's first disaster was a cyclone. The second has been cholera. Now hunger could be the third.

The raging floodwaters that left a large part of central Mozambique a vast inland sea are draining away, laying bare a severe lack of food for the months ahead.

Low-lying rice fields in this fertile region were destroyed when rivers burst their banks. Maize crops on higher land were shredded. Their mangled stalks now wither under an almost constant sun. Exposed, the clay earth is cracking.

Cyclone Idai swept in from the Indian Ocean on March 10 shortly before thousands of subsistence farmers planned to bring in the harvest.

"People are hungry because there is no produce. Look at the fields," teacher Lino Luciano Munere told The Associated Press in Bopira, a village reached by helicopter for just the third time with aid, nearly a month after the storm. West of the hard-hit town of Buzi, it remains cut off by road. "I don't know what we did to deserve this," he said.

A narrow window of time for farmers to put a shorter-term crop into the ground such as beans or green corn is quickly closing, with about two weeks left. Such a "second harvest" normally accounts for just 10 per cent of annual food production, the United Nations' World Food Program said.

Farmers say they would be happy to plant if they had any seed, or hoes. Their very homes were often washed away by a storm that left curious traces: An intact thatched roof draped over a tree like a limp umbrella; a house collapsed but for the metal door, upright and still closed.

More than 715,000 hectares (1.7 million acres) of crop fields were flooded, according an update released Sunday by Mozambique's disaster management agency.

No one speaks of famine as long as aid groups keep delivering basic food like flour and cooking oil to survive, but they warn of a lean season for months to come.

That season will start "atypically early in August" and continue into early 2020, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network said over the weekend, adding that local seed prices could rise.

This is in a country where even before the cyclone more than 40 percent of children were physically stunted, WFP said. Signs of malnutrition among some cyclone survivors in displacement camps could be aggravated by the cholera outbreak, WFP added.

"You know the food can't be enough for people right now," said a farm manager, Ibrahim Ismail. Relief supplies are given to heads of households, but some men have several wives and 20 to 30 children, he said.

"How do you distribute two kilograms of rice? That's not enough for a week. That is a problem." It is like a war, said Filipe Mawani, a farmer.

"There's no food. There's absolutely no food. We're just nobodies, depending on aid." These are families who have no second source of income and supporting them until the farming cycle returns to normal will be a year-long project, said Jaco Combrinck, part of an impromptu relief effort run out of a farmhouse in Matarara.

"The crops they are planting now won't be enough but it will be something," he said.

The cyclone relief efforts have focused on keeping people alive, addressing the immediate needs: Food, water, shelter.

Even now, air relief efforts are still looking for communities that have not been reached with aid.

On Monday the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization with partners is expected to begin distributing more than 180 tons of "second harvest" seeds, plus tools, to some 18,000 subsistence farming households, the UN humanitarian agency said Sunday.

Providing seeds alone while everyday needs remain urgent might tempt some hungry people to eat them, said a close observer of the air relief operations. He watched one woman throw herself on a bag of flour during a food distribution, scared that someone else might take it.

Subsistence farmers, many just as protective of their land, can be seen in the ruined maize fields salvaging kernels to start another crop as best they can.

"We are in urgent need of food assistance, especially seeds," said Moises Mukoto, a local chief near Dombe. "The planting season is nearly over. We need to feed our families." Nineteen-year-old Rahul Chavel now lives in a tent with his parents. Their maize crop is horizontal and bone-dry.

The clay pot in which they made traditional beer is partially submerged in hardened mud.

"We even lost all our chickens," the teen said, still in the tattered red slippers and rolled-up black pants he wore when he climbed up a mango tree to escape the floodwaters.

His family is trying to salvage what they can, he said. But almost nothing remained.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
After the Supreme Court direction to have random matching of EVM results with paper trail machine slips in five polling stations per assembly seat, the exercise will be held in 20,600 of 10.35 lakh polling stations in the Lok Sabha elections.

Though the exercise of matching EVM results with paper trail machine slips was being held in various assembly elections, this is the first time it will be undertaken in Lok Sabha polls.

So far, paper audit trail checks were done in only one polling station per assembly segment selected randomly by a draw of lots or lottery system, though the VVPAT machines are deployed in all the polling stations.

Highly placed sources in the Election Commission of India (ECI) Monday said the exercise will not have much bearing on official declaration of results.

"Though candidates come to know of the results after the EVM results are counted, the official declaration will be delayed by two to three hours," a functionary explained.

He said if the ECI is able to deploy five separate teams for random matching, then there would not be much of a delay in announcing the results.

"But if there are less than five teams, the delay would be proportional to the time taken at each station," he said.

India has 4,120 assembly seats. Now, multiplied by five, the paper audit trail checks will take place in 20,600 polling stations spread across these assembly seats.

"The number of voters vary from 800 to 2,500 per polling station," the functionary said.

Since Union territories such as Chandigarh, Daman and Diu, Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli do not have state assemblies, five polling stations will be selected randomly. This would mean, another 25 polling stations.

A cautious approach by the ECI, thin margins of leads and counting of paper trail machine slips were some of the key factors that led to the delayed poll results in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in December last year.

With parties blaming the electronic voting machines (EVMs), the poll panel was extra cautious in its approach.

The Chief Electoral Officers of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram were reminded of an old rule that they had to provide round-wise results to candidates without fail.

Referring to its April 2014 instruction, the poll panel had said observers and returning officers would sign candidate-wise results for each round after checking everything.

The system ensured that very few demands were made for a recount, but it delayed the counting process.

The panel will set up nearly 10.35 lakh polling stations in the country, as compared to nearly 9.28 lakh set up during the 2014 polls -- an increase of 10.1 per cent.

Nearly 39.6 lakh EVMs and 17.4 lakh voter verifiable paper trail machines (VVPAT) would be used in these polling stations. These include reserves.

One control unit and at least one ballot unit where buttons are placed constitutes an EVM.

The ECI said it will make all-out efforts to implement the Supreme Court's direction "with immediate effect".

The top court said its direction was issued keeping in mind confidence of voters and credibility of the electoral process.

"The ECI shall make all-out efforts to operationalise and implement the directions of the Supreme Court with immediate effect," a commission spokesperson said.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi also did not agree with the demand of 21 opposition parties that matching of EVM-VVPAT results be done in 50 per cent cases, saying it will require huge manpower and will not be feasible in view of infrastructural difficulties.

After votes are cast, the polling station where VVPAT slips are matched with EVM results is decided by a draw of lots or lottery system in the presence of the candidates.

VVPAT machine is a device which dispenses a slip with the symbol of the party for which a person has voted.

The slip appears on a small window for seven seconds and then drops in a box. The voter cannot take it home.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
With the BJP making nationalism a central theme of its poll campaign, its manifesto released on Monday asserted that the security doctrine will be guided by national interest only, mentioning surgical strike and air strike against terrorists as examples of its stand, and promised NRC exercise in other parts of India.

The party said it will firmly continue with its policy of giving a free hand to security forces in combating terrorism.

Talking tough on infiltration, the party has said it will implement National Register of Citizens, which is currently underway in Assam to identify illegal immigrants, in a phased manner in other parts of the country, as they cause "huge change" in the cultural and linguistic identity of the areas they live.

"The decisive leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has fundamentally altered the national security paradigm of India in the last five years," the manifesto released by top party leaders, including Modi and its president Amit Shah, said.

If vote to power again, the BJP will continue with its zero-tolerance approach to terrorism, it said.

The BJP has made national security a major poll plank following the Balakot air strike targeting a terror camp in Pakistan after the death of at least 40 CRPF personnel in Pulwama terror attack on February 14.

"Our security doctrine will be guided by our national security interest only. This is exemplified by the surgical strikes and the air strikes carried out recently. We will firmly continue with our policy of 'Zero Tolerance' against terrorism and extremism and will continue to follow our policy of giving a free hand to our security forces in combating terrorism," it said.

The manifesto has also promised that purchases of outstanding defence related equipment and weapons will be speeded up so as to equip armed forces effectively, and that the BJP will continue to take focused steps to strengthen their strike capability.

On the issue of combating infiltration, it said there has been a huge change in the cultural and linguistic identity of some areas due to illegal immigration, resulting in an adverse impact on local people's livelihood and employment.

"We will expeditiously complete the National Register of Citizens process in these areas on priority. In future we will implement the NRC in a phased manner in other parts of the country," it said.

Advocating self-reliance in defence sector, the BJP said it has taken several effective steps in the last five years.

The most modern AK-203 automatic rifles are being manufactured at Amethi under our 'Make in India' in defence initiative, the manifesto said.

"We are committed to focus on 'Make in India in Defence' to enable indigenous production of defence equipment. This will also generate employment and encourage investment in the defence sector," it said.

Under the subject of welfare of soldiers, the party said it has demonstrated its commitment to the welfare of our veterans with the implementation of long delayed OROP (one rank one pension).

It promised in its manifesto to create a more effective framework for the resettlement of armed forces veterans, saying planning for their post-retirement lives will begin three years before their service end.

This will include provision for skills training and soft skills training, and financial support for higher education, housing and starting an enterprise, it said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Telecom operator has received market regulator the Securities and Exchange Board of Indias (Sebis) approval to raise up to Rs 25,000 crore through rights issue, according to sources.

The board of the company had approved the rights issue proposal in February.

has given green signal to the rights issue of Bharti Airtel, the sources said.

When contacted, spokesperson said, "the company is in process of obtaining requisite approvals and shall make necessary announcements at an appropriate time".

The board has earlier approved the rights issue to raise up to Rs 25,000 crore through issuance of fully paid up shares at a price of Rs 220 per share, and an additional Rs 7,000 crore via foreign currency perpetual bond issue.





ALSO READ: GIC to subscribe to Bharti Airtel rights issue of Rs 25,000 crore

The company had said the capital infusion will help it continue investments in future rollouts to build large network capacity and create content and technology partnerships to ensure the strong customer experience.

Last month, Airtel received commitment from its single-largest shareholder Singtel, promoters, and GIC Singapore to participate in the Rs 32,000 crore capital raising programme.

Singapore telecom major SingTel said it will infuse Rs 3,750 crore in by subscribing to the proposed Rs 25,000 crore rights issue of the company, while GIC Private Limited, on behalf of Singapore government and Monetary Authority of Singapore, has made a commitment of Rs 5,000 crore in the proposed programme.

Indian telecom players, including Airtel and Vodafone Idea Ltd, have outlined mega fund raising programmes to arm themselves with firepower to take on market competition intensified by Reliance Jio as well as pare debt.

Recently, the board of directors of India's largest telecom operator Vodafone Idea cleared the planned Rs 25,000-crore rights issue at a price of Rs 12.50 per equity share.

(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.)
Seeking to drive a wedge into their anti-BJP alliance, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on Monday said BSP supremo Mayawati would be "ditched" by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav after May 23, the day of the Lok Sabha poll results, "and then, only the BJP will support her".

"The Samajwadi Party has never given due honour to Dalits. In 1995, when Mayawati was attacked at the State Guest House here by SP leaders on the directions of Mulayam Singh Yadav, the BJP had saved her. Now, his (Mulayam's) son Akhilesh will dump her after May 23 and the BJP will support her," Maurya told PTI in an interview at his residence here.

"Whenever Mayawati is in crisis, the BJP supports her and will continue to do so in the future too," he said.

Asserting that the BJP is pro-Dalits, Maurya said, "At Kumbh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi washed the feet of sanitary workers to give them due honour. Our party leaders are always there for Dalits."



On the Congress's prospects in the upcoming general election, he said irrespective of the tall claims of the opposition party, its strength would be reduced further after the polls, adding, "The BJP is going to form the government under the leadership of Modi again, with Uttar Pradesh giving it 74 plus seats."



The state accounts for the highest number of 80 Lok Sabha seats in the country.

Maurya's statement came a day after he had targeted Mayawati on her remark at a Deoband rally, where she had asked the Muslim voters not to split their votes.

"Her statement clearly indicates that she has only used Dalits as a vote bank and has not respected them. She has started hating them after their tilt towards the BJP after the saffron party empowered them. She has now appealed to the Muslims to vote for her but the community knows the reality of the SP-BSP-RLD alliance," Maurya had said.

The deputy chief minister, however, did not say anything about it on Monday.

Asked about the SP's poll promises, Maurya said, "(SP chief) Akhilesh (Yadav) is not loyal to his father Mulayam and uncle Shivpal. How can he be loyal to Mayawatiji, whom he calls 'bua'? He should not be trusted by her (Mayawati). He was taught a lesson in 2017 (UP Assembly polls) by the people of the state and once again, he will get a reply from the people."



On the achievements of the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh in the last over two years, the deputy chief minister claimed that law and order had improved, due to which the state was attracting investments and people could go anywhere "fearlessly".

"The 'jungle raj' of the previous SP government ended immediately after the BJP came to power. Criminals, who were ruling the roost, are now behind bars or have left the state for good," he said, exuding confidence that the state would once again give the maximum number of seats to the saffron party in the upcoming polls.

Terming the SP-BSP-RLD pre-poll alliance as "opportunistic", he said it would end automatically due to conflict of interests in the near future.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Allahabad High Court Monday restored the arms licence of former Uttar Pradesh Cabinet minister Azam Khan, partially setting aside an order by the Rampur district magistrate, suspending the licence.

A bench of Justice Siddhartha, however, endorsed the other part of district magistrate's March 23 order which had also asked Khan to explain as to why his arms licence should not be cancelled permanently.

The bench directed the Rampur DM to seek Khan's explanations on a date after the ongoing Lok Sabha polls are over.

The bench gave its order on a plea by the Samajwadi Party founder member challenging the suspension of his arms licence by the Rampur DM.

Khan's counsel Imran Ullah alleged a malfide behind Rampur DM's move in suspending his client's arms licence, saying that he had passed the order after Khan's wife Tazeen Fatima, a Rajya Sabha MP, lodged a complaint with the Election Commission, seeking the DM's transfer.

In her complaint to the poll panel, Fatima had sought transfer of Rampur's district magistrate, accusing him of harassing Khan for political reasons, Ullah told the court.

He said Fatima had requested the poll panel to transfer Rampur DM to ensure a free and fair election in Rampur.

Khan is contesting for the Rampur Lok Sabha seat, the polling for which is scheduled to held on April 23, in the third phase of the ongoing polls.

The additional advocate general representing the state government, however, opposed Khan's plea saying the district magistrate's order was merely a show cause notice and there was alternative remedy available to Khan against it as he could have appealed before the commissioner against the order.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) told the Delhi High Court Monday that a plea of arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari seeking quashing of a money laundering case be transferred to the bench which is hearing Robert Vadra's petition in the same matter.

Justice Mukta Gupta was informed by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the ED, that the agency is in the process of filing an application seeking to tag Bhandari's plea with the petitions of Vadra and his close aide Manoj Arora.

A bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Vinod Goel is hearing the pleas of Vadra and Arora who have also sought quashing of the money laundering case against them besides challenging the Constitutionality of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Mehta along with central government standing counsel Amit Mahajan said there is a development in the case and two co-accused involved in the same FIR have filed writ petitions challenging the vires or Constitutionality of the PMLA before a division bench.

The counsel said Bhandari's plea be also sent to the division bench to be heard together and added "there is a direct nexus between this petitioner (Bhandari) and the two petitioners before the division bench".

Though Mehta did not name the two co-accused in the court, the ED has lodged the money laundering case against Vadra and Arora.

The single judge listed the matter for further hearing on May 10.

Bhandari and his wife Sonia Bhandari have move separate pleas seeking quashing of the money laundering case lodged against them by ED in February 2017.

Bhandari, who is also an accused in a 2016 case under the Official Secrets Act relating to the recovery of confidential documents of the Ministry of Defence from his residence during an Income Tax raid in 2016, was declared a proclaimed offender by a trial court here in January last year.

He is also facing prosecution under provisions of the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015.

During the probe, ED had found that he helped Vadra, brother-in-law of Congress President Rahul Gandhi, in purchasing a property in the United Kingdom.

ED has lodged a money laundering case against Vadra and Arora accusing them of acquiring the London property in an illegal manner.

The ED case relates to allegations of money laundering in purchase of a London-based property at 12, Bryanston Square, worth 1.9 million pounds. The property is allegedly owned by Vadra.

The case is before a trial court here which has granted anticipatory bail to Vadra. The court had asked him to cooperate in the investigation by the ED where he appeared several times for being quizzed.

In his plea before the division bench, Vadra has sought that various provisions of the PMLA, including its power to arrest and the burden of proof, be declared unconstitutional.

He has said that while it is permissible for the investigating agencies to conduct further probe, the sweeping investigation power does not warrant subjecting a citizen each time to a fresh investigation in respect of the same incident giving rise to one or more cognisable offences.

The plea has said that multiple investigations have been held in "abuse of statutory power of investigation and therefore second or successive FIRs filed in connection with the same or connected cognisable offence alleged to have been committed in the course of the same transaction pursuant to the first FIR is liable to be quashed".

The ED has raised preliminary objection on Vadra's plea saying it was not maintainable as he "wilfully suppressed" material facts from the court and it was an abuse of process of law.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In a major boost to its fire power, the Indian Army on Monday received the first batch of six 'Dhanush' artillery guns from the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), a defence official said.

The guns were handed over by Saurabh Kumar, Director General, Ordnance Factories and the OFB chairman, at a ceremony organised at the Gun Carriage Factory in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh.

The 155mm x 45 calibre modern artillery gun system was developed by the Ordnance Factories jointly with the Army, the official said.

The OFB had received bulk production clearance in February, and the initial order of 114 guns was placed by the Army.

The artillery gun incorporates the latest features such as an inertial navigation system, an on-board ballistic computer, direct day and night firing system, a modern target acquisition system and a communication system, the official said.

Weighing less than 13 tonnes, with a high ground clearance of 400 mm, 'Dhanush' is the "most manoeuvrable artillery system" and can be deployed in any terrain, he said.

Significant contributions have also been made by DRDO, public sector units such as SAIL and BEL and several private sector firms in the development of the gun, the official added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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.

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.

In addition, 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 at the meeting.
Arunachal Chief Minister Pema Khandu, who is seeking a re-election from Mukto Assembly seat for the third consecutive term, is the richest among 184 candidates contesting the state polls, with assets more than Rs 163 crore, according to a election watchdog report.

Polling for simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections will be held in the state on April 11.

A thorough analysis of the affidavits submitted before the election office found that 131 of 184 Assembly poll candidates are crorepatis, the report by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said.

As many as 67 candidates (36 per cent) have wealth above Rs 5 crore, while 44 candidates (24 per cent) possess assets to the tune of Rs 2-5 crore, it said.

Khandu, who defected to the BJP from the Congress in 2016, has movable assets worth Rs 1,43,87,82,786 and immovable assets worth Rs 19,62,75,356, as declared in his affidavit.

Lombo Tayeng, the Congress candidate from Mebo constituency, is the second-richest candidate in the state with wealth of more than 148 crore - movable assets of Rs 1,13,52,21,594 and immovable assets of Rs 35,01,84,400.

Another BJP candidate Tsering Tashi, who is contesting the polls from Tawang Assembly constituency, ranks third on the list with assets worth over 109 crore - movable assets of Rs 97,10,97,522 and immovable assets of Rs 12,32,96,250.

The average assets of the candidates contesting the Assembly polls were recorded at Rs 9.86 crore, the election watchdog report stated.

In the 2014 assembly elections, of the 148 candidates in the fray, 88 (60 per cent) were crorepatis.

Among the major parties, the BJP leads the tally this time with 54 crorepatis, accounting for 90 per cent of its candidates in the fray.

The opposition Congress has 30 crorepatis (65 per cent), while the National People's Party (NPP), which is contesting the state polls for the first time, has 11 (73 per cent) crorepatis.

Five of the eleven independents in the race have declared assets worth more than Rs 1 crore.

Making an exception, Congress candidate from Tali assembly constituency has declared zero assets.

Among those who were found to be possessing nominal assets is Janata Dal (Secular) candidate from Lekang constituency Takam Paleng, with Rs 5000.

Another JD(S) nominee from Longding-Pumao constituency, Wangshu Wangsu, has declared assets worth Rs 75,365, while Congress candidate from Liromoba seat, Marjum Karbak, possesses wealth to the tune of Rs 1,20,000.

The report added that none of the candidates have declared their ITR details, while two of them have not provided their Permanent Account Number.

According to section 10(26) of IT Act, 1961, a Scheduled Tribe (ST) member residing in specific areas of Arunachal, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura or Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir is exempted from paying income tax.

Barring one, all seats in the 60-member Assembly in Arunachal Pradesh are reserved for Scheduled Tribe.

On the educational qualification front, the election watchdog reported that 108 candidates are graduates, while 68 of them have studied between Classes 5 and 12.

Five candidates have been found to be illiterate.

A total of 35 candidates have declared their age to be between 25 and 40 years, while 130 have mentioned their age between 41 and 60 years and 19 nominees have submitted their age between 61 to 80 years, the report added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The CPI on Monday said the BJP manifesto was a list of new 'jumlas' to conceal the betrayal and the broken promises made to the people in the last five years.

CPI national secretary D Raja said the BJP's manifesto confirms the saffron party is nothing but a political tool of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh whose ideology is "divisive, sectarian, communal and fascist."



"The BJP manifesto is a list of new jumlas (gimmicks) to conceal the betrayal and broken promises of last five years. The BJP has become the Bharatiya Jumla Party," he said.

The Left leader demanded to know what happened to the BJP's alleged promises of Rs 15 lakh in every citizens bank account, "achche din" and 2 crore jobs.

.

On the Ram Temple and Sabarimala issue, Raja said the matters were pending in court and still the BJP was making tall promises.

"This is to influence judiciary and pre-empt judicial verdict. It is an irony," he said.

The CPI leader pointed that the BJP manifesto does not talk of job creation.

"They talk about self-reliance in defence sector only after they brought in Reliance in the sector.

"The irony is that the BJP talks about opposing casteism and communalism, but they continue to work for civilisational continuity. This is nothing but bringing in Manusmriti," he said.

The BJP manifesto was earlier released by Prime Minister Narenrda Modi along with BJP President Amit Shah.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Coming out in support of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's'Virus' comment against the Indian Union Muslim League, BJP Minority Morcha national president Abdul Rasheed Ansari Monday said "things which are not good for the nation can be called a virus".

Adityanath had tweeted that the IUML is a virus and the Congress was affected by it.

"Muslim League is a virus. If someone is affected by this virus, he cannot survive and today the main Opposition party Congress is affected by it.

Think, if they win what will happen? This virus will spread in the entire nation," Adityanath had tweeted.

He had also brought in the 1857 movement for freedom and its hero Mangal Pandey.

"In 1857, the entire country fought against Britishers with Mangal Pandey, then this Muslim League virus came and spread in such a way that the country was divided," he said.

"The same threat is looming over the country again. Green flags are once again furled. Congress is suffering from Muslim league virus,remain alert," another of his tweets had said.

Ansari, who was in Thiruvananthapuram to campaign for the saffron party, agreed with Adityanath's tweet.

"That's correct. Things which are not good for the health of the nation or good for society can be called a virus, that is those whose actions and speeches are not good for harmonious relations in society," Ansari said.

Asked about the alleged lack of tolerance in the country, Ansari said it was just a "political narrative".

"I think intolerance is simply a political narrative. I belong to a minority community.

Minority communities in the country include my Sikh brothers, Parsi brothers, Christian brothers and many others.

What do we require? Freedom to practice, freedom of movement, harmonious environment to live in, an environment to work... We get everything in this country," Ansari told reporters here.

He also said there were no cases of admissions being denied to Muslims or Christians in educational institutions or roads not being constructed in minority areas.

"Even in the recent UPSC exams, many Christians and Muslim candidates emerged victorious. If there was marginalisation, how could they have been selected?,"he asked.

Asked about lynching incidents and the protests by right wing groups against certain films like the Deepika Padukone starrer "Padmavat",he said those instances were not political.

"Such instances were not political. They are just social. Moreover, you see the intention of the government. At any point, were the government or its officials party to any such incidents?," he asked.

When it was pointed out that union minister Jayanth Sinha had garlanded some accused who got bail in a lynching case,he said it's the head of the government or the party that matters.

"Has PM Modi not condemned the incidents? Has he not asked his colleagues in the government to take strong action so that such things were not repeated?," he said.

Ansari also lashed out at the Congress and CPI(M) in Kerala and said successive governments led by both fronts had over the years ignored their manifestos and promises made to the people of the state.

He said Keralites were not employers due to lack of development in the state.

Ansari also flayed the decision of the Congress chief to contest in Wayanad.

"He (Rahul Gandhi) and his family were engaged in the Amethi seat and other places in Uttar Pradesh. Now the national president of the oldest national party has to come to Kerala to find shelter....They find competition there. Because they have not developed the area," Ansari said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Disgruntled BJP MLA in Maharashtra Anil Gote Monday announced resignation from the assembly and said he will contest the Lok Sabha polls from the Dhule constituency as an independent candidate.

The BJP has fielded Union minister and sitting MP Subhash Bhamare from the Dhule seat in North Maharashtra which goes to the polls on April 29.

Gote accused Bhamare of not doing any work in his Lok Sabha constituency of Dhule, which is also the hometown of the BJP legislator.

"I have quit from the post of MLA. I have substantial proof against Bhamare. I will contest the election as an independent candidate. I am sure I will win the election," said the legislator from Dhule City.

The MLA had been at loggerheads with the BJP's state leadership since the Dhule Municipal Corporation elections held last year.

In November last year, Gote had alleged "criminals" were being inducted into the party in Dhule. He had opposed induction of some leaders from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) into the BJP.

Gote had won the 2009 assembly election as an independent and joined the BJP ahead of the October 2014 state polls.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Pitching nationalism as its inspiration, the BJP manifesto for the high-stakes Lok Sabha polls promised Monday NRC in different parts of the country to push out infiltrators and zero tolerance to terror while reiterating its pet causes --construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya and scrapping of Article 370, 35A dealing with special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

Releasing the manifesto, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah along with senior union ministers also promised slew of welfare schemes for farmers and others, a Rs 100 lakh crore infrastructure investment and easing of the tax burden for the middle class in next five years.

"Nationalism is our inspiration, empowering the poor is our philosophy and good governance is our mantra", Modi said, asserting that a BJP government will lay a strong foundation for a developed India by 2047, when India completes 100 years of independence.

Announcing 75 milestones for India to achieve at its 75 years of freedom in 2022, the manifesto mentions a number of goals under heads of agriculture, youth and education, infrastructure, railways, health, economy, good governance, inclusive development, women and cultural heritage.

The 75 definitive, time-bound targets will allow people an "interim evaluation" of his government in 2022, Modi said, adding that the manifesto was a "multi-layered and multi-dimensional" document that addressed the expectations and aspirations of different sections of India's diverse society.

The manifesto, called 'Sankalp patra' (document of resolve), also reiterated the BJP's commitment to scrap Article 370, which gives J&K special status, and Article 35A, building Ram temple in Ayodhya and also promised constitutional protection of people's faith in the contentious Sabarimala issue.

Bringing its pet theme of nationalism to the fore, the manifesto for polls starting from April 11 cited surgical strikes and air strikes targeting Pakistan-based terrorists to assert that "our security doctrine will be guided by our national security interest only".

"The nation is no longer helpless against the barbaric forces of terror. Any destructive ideology that destroys the atmosphere of peace and unity is and will be given a befitting reply. They are being paid back in their own coin, with compound interest," Modi said.

On the issue of combating infiltration, the manifesto said illegal migrants have caused huge change in cultural and linguistic identity of some areas and promised to implement National Register of Citizens, currently underway in Assam, in a phased manner in other parts of the country.

The manifesto has devoted three pages to a host of promises to double farmers' income by 2022 and promised to bring all peasants under the Modi government's input cost transfer scheme, which gives Rs 6000 to those owning agriculture land up to two hectares.

The party will give pension to small and marginal farmers if it is voted to power, it said.

The 45-page manifesto with a theme "Sankalpit Bharat, Sashakt Bharat" (committed India, strong India), three days before the seven-phase Lok Sabha polls begin, also promised housing for all by 2022 and piped water, LPG connection, toilet and piped water to every household by 2024.

Under foreign policy, the BJP has asserted that the rise of India is the new reality and it will play a major role in shaping global agenda in the 21st century.

The government will work to combat terrorism through global forums and get permanent membership of the UN Security Council, the manifesto said.

While India was branded as "fragile five" in 2014, the Modi government has turned it into a bright spot that is not only the fastest growing major economy of the world but also enjoys macroeconomic stability, it said, adding that the BJP aspires to make India the third largest economy of the world by 2030.

"This implies that we commit to make India a US $ 5 trillion economy by 2025 and US $ 10 trillion economy by 2032," it said.

Promising to encourage a spirit of entrepreneurship among the youth, the BJP manifesto said its government launch a new scheme to provide collateral-free credit up to 50 lakh for entrepreneurs.

"We will guarantee 50 per cent of the loan amount for female entrepreneurs and 25 per cent of the loan amount for male entrepreneurs," it said.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said at its release that the document was drafted by neither "tukde tukde gang", a term used by the BJP to refer to radical left and Islamist elements allegedly involved in anti-national activities, nor "Ivy League" group.

The manifesto is rooted in Indian reality, he said, referring to the BJP's claim that it had received suggestions from over six crore people to draft its manifesto.

Asserting that his party promises a transparent, strong and decisive government , Shah urged voters to bring it back to power, saying performance of the Modi government, which will be written in "golden letters", has ignited people's aspirations and it will meet them if voted to power.

Modi also said his government has been working to make development a mass movement in the same way as Mahtama Gandhi made the freedom struggle.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Eyeing another stint in power, the BJP on Monday made a string of promises, including expeditious construction of a Ram temple, a firm hand in dealing with terrorism and doubling farmers income in the next three years.

The party also promised to make India the third largest economy globally by 2030 and scrap Article 370 that gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir if it comes back to power.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the manifesto, titled 'Sankalpit Bharat, Sashakt Bharat' (Determined India, Empowered India), in the presence of BJP chief Amit Shah and other top leaders, including Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley.

In the manifesto, the BJP also resolved to annul Article 35 A of the Constitution which says no outsider can own property in Jammu and Kashmir.

On the economic front, the BJP said it aspired to make India the third largest economy of the world by 2030.

"This implies that we commit to make India a USD 5 trillion economy by 2025 and USD 10 trillion economy by 2032," it said.

The party promised it will continue with the simplification of the GST process by engaging in dialogue with all stakeholders.

The party said purchase of defence equipment will be fast tracked to strengthen the armed forces, adding that the BJP government will continue with its approach of zero tolerance towards terrorism if voted to power.

Security forces will continue to get a free hand to deal with terrorism, the document stated



The party said it will implement NRC (National Register of Citizens) in a phased manner in various parts of the country.

About Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP said, "We reiterate our position since the time of the Jan Sangh to the abrogation of Article 370. We are committed to annulling Article 35A of the Constitution of India as the provision is discriminatory against non-permanent residents and women of Jammu and Kashmir."



"Let us work towards building a strong and inclusive India, whose citizens are assured of dignity, prosperity, security and opportunity," Modi wrote in the preface of the manifesto.

In his write up in the manifesto, Shah said, "In its tenure of five years, the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been able to take many decisions which are historic and has ushered in a comprehensive and fundamental transformation.

He also referred to various schemes and decisions of the government, including Swachh Bharat Mission, Ujjawala Yojana, Saubhagya Yojana, demonetisation, GST, surgical strikes and air strikes.

In his remarks at the event, Shah said Modi has done justice to every sector of the society, with cooking gas connections in rural areas, housing and affordable healthcare for all and welfare schemes for farmers.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Eyeing to retain power, the BJP made a plethora of poll promises on Monday, including expeditious construction of Ram temple, firmly dealing with terrorism, doubling farmers' income in the next three years, making India the third-largest economy globally by 2030, and scrapping Article 370 of the Constitution that gave a special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the 45-page manifesto titled "Sankalpit Bharat, Sashakt Bharat" in the presence of BJP chief Amit Shah and other top leaders of the party, including Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, three days ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

In the manifesto, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also resolved to annul Article 35A of the Constitution, which says no outsider can own property in Jammu and Kashmir.

On the economic front, the party said it aspired to make India the third-largest economy of the world by 2030, adding, "This implies that we commit to make India a USD 5 trillion economy by 2025 and USD 10 trillion economy by 2032."



The party promised that it would continue with the simplification of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) process by engaging in dialogue with all the stakeholders.

It said the purchase of defence equipment would be fast-tracked to strengthen the armed forces, adding that if voted to power, the government led by the party would continue with its approach of zero tolerance towards terrorism.

The security forces would continue to get a free hand in dealing with terrorism, the saffron party said.

Asserting that nationalism was his party's inspiration and inclusion and good governance its mantra, Modi said the BJP's manifesto aimed to make India a developed nation by 2047, 100 years after Independence.

The "Sankalp Patra" (document of resolve) of the BJP had 75 definitive, time-bound targets for the country, he said, adding, "We want people to hold us accountable. Hence, we have set out 75 goals to be achieved by 2022."



The prime minister said the BJP's manifesto was a "multi-layered and multi-dimensional" document that addressed the expectations and aspirations of all sections of the society.

The saffron party also promised to implement the NRC (National Register of Citizens) in a phased manner in various parts of the country.

About Jammu and Kashmir, it said, "We reiterate our position since the time of the Jan Sangh to the abrogation of Article 370. We are committed to annulling Article 35A of the Constitution of India as the provision is discriminatory against the non-permanent residents and women of Jammu and Kashmir."



"Let us work towards building a strong and inclusive India, whose citizens are assured of dignity, prosperity, security and opportunity," Modi wrote in the preface of the manifesto.

In his write-up in the manifesto, Shah said: "In its tenure of five years, the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been able to take many decisions which are historic and has ushered in a comprehensive and fundamental transformation."



He also referred to various schemes and decisions of the government, including the Swachh Bharat Mission, the Ujjwala Yojana, the Saubhagya Yojana, demonetisation, GST, surgical strikes and airstrikes.

In his remarks at the event, the BJP chief said Modi had done justice to every section of the society, with cooking gas connections given in the rural areas, housing and affordable healthcare for all and welfare schemes for farmers.

He said the party promised to the people of India a transparent, strong and decisive government and urged the voters to bring it back to power.

"Our 'Sankalp Patra' promises to fulfil all expectations of the people," Shah said.

He added that Modi had provided a decisive government in the last five years and had dared to order surgical strikes and airstrikes on the foundation of terror.

With its strikes on terror, the Modi-led government had sent out a strong message that India could not be taken lightly, the BJP chief said.

Calling the BJP's manifesto a "vision document", head of the party's manifesto committee Rajnath Singh said the Modi government was fully committed on nationalism and zero tolerance towards terrorism.

Jaitley said the manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls starting April 11 was not prepared with a "tukde tukde" mindset, but with a strong nationalistic vision.

The document was rooted in reality, the finance minister added.

"Our new policy, new doctrine of striking terror at its origin has received global recognition," he told the gathering.

Speaking on the occasion, Swaraj said the BJP was the only party to come up with a "Sankalp Patra" while others came up with "Ghoshna Patra".

"It is not just announcements that the document has made, but pledges that the party has made to itself to deliver to the people," the external affairs minister said.

"The country will believe us because we did a lot more than we had promised in 2014," she added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The stage is set for a high stakes battle in Karnataka's Bangalore South Lok Sabha constituency, considered a BJP stronghold, where the saffron party's Tejasvi Surya, a newcomer, will take on Congress veteran B K Hariprasad.

Union minister Ananth Kumar had held the seat since 1996.

Kumar passed away last year and the BJP has fielded Surya (28), who is a lawyer and party's youth wing leader, this year.

The BJP's choice of candidate came as a surprise to many in the party who were expecting Kumar's wife, Tejaswini Ananth Kumar, to get the ticket.

Dismissing reports of differences within the party unit over his nomination, Surya exuded confidence that the BJP would once again retain the seat.

"It takes time for things to settle down when a fresh development takes place. After a roadshow of party president Amit Shah, things have changed. I am getting support and blessings of senior leaders including V Somanna and Ashok," he said.

"They have also been campaigning for me. I am expecting people to vote for (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi and I am least bothered about media reports about differences (within the party unit)," he added.

In the 2014 general election, the Congress had fielded Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani. He managed to poll 36.39 per cent votes against Kumar's 57 per cent.

Kumar was considered a moderate saffron leader. His success was attributed to his ability to reach out to Brahmins and Vokkaligas -- who account for about 10 per cent each of the total electorate of 22.16 lakh.

In contrast, Surya is perceived as a staunch RSS ideologue who doesn't shy away from making pro-Hindutva statements that sometimes make minority voters uncomfortable.

The debutant asserted that his chances of winning are high as the BJP holds five out of eight assembly seats in Bangalore South.

"I am pretty confident that the BJP will win from this constituency which has eight assembly segments. I do not believe in strategy based on caste politics, but the caste composition is favouring us," Surya said.

"There are 5.5 lakh Brahmin voters in the seat. According to available data, it also has 4.5 lakh Vokkaligas, 3 lakh Muslims and about 1 lakh Christian, SC, ST and OBC voters," the BJP candidate said.

On the other hand, Hariprasad, who hails from backward community of Idigas, is confident that his party will benefit from people's disappointment with the BJP-led NDA government.

"I am confident that voters cutting across communities will vote for my party. People are dissatisfied with the Narendra Modi-led government," he told PTI.

It has failed to fulfil its promises including creating two crore jobs and bringing back black money, he added.

Backward classes cumulatively account for about 40 per cent of votes and Muslims and Dalits account for 30 per cent in the constituency.

The Congress candidate also hopes for transfer of JD(S) votes.

"The JD(S), our coalition partner, has huge pockets in assembly segments like Basavanagudi, Padmanabhanagar and Bommanahalli. Our alliance with Deve Gowda and his party is benefitting us," he said.

Hariprasad, with an experience of almost two decades, said his vision is to protect the nation and the Constitution.

"I am fighting for defending democracy and restoring democratic institutions. I want 33 per cent reservation for women to be implemented. I want to bring back the glory and the cosmopolitan culture of Bengaluru," he said.

Historically, the constituency has registered a low voter turnout of less than 50 per cent.

Hariprasad said Congress workers are encouraging voters to exercise their right to franchise.

"Our workers are sweating it out to educate people to come out and vote in large numbers to get a strong and stable government at the Centre," he said.

Lok Sabha polls will be held in seven phases from April 11 to May 23. Polling will be held in Bangalore South in the second phase on April 18.

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.)
CPI(M) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami Monday said BJP's inclusion of abrogating Articles 370 and 35A in its manifesto was another exercise by the saffron party to hoodwink the voters ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

The Jammu and Kashmir unit of the Congress also hit out at the BJP over the issue, saying the special status granted to the state under the Constitution was "permanent and irrevocable" and cannot be diluted.

Tarigami said an examination of the BJP's 2014 manifesto reveals that all the promises, including providing two crore jobs per year, doubling the income of farmers and other promises, have proved a "hoax".

"The promise of abrogation of Article 370 and annulling Article 35A in its election manifesto is another exercise by the BJP to hoodwink the voters ahead of the general election," Tarigami said while reacting to the release of the BJP manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls in which the party reiterated its commitment to scrap Article 370, which grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

The party also resolved to annul Article 35A of the Constitution, which bars people from outside to own property in Jammu and Kashmir.

The communist leader said the only achievement of the BJP in the past five years has been "dividing society through hate campaigns".

"The BJP has failed to deliver on all the promises and is now trying to rake up those issues which are divisive aimed at polarising the society further," the CPI(M) leader said.

He alleged that the BJP has pushed Kashmir into the lap of the cycle of violence.

"It has resulting in huge number of deaths of civilians and security forces personnel.

"The situation in Kashmir has reached to an extent that authorities had to ban the movement of civilian traffic on national highway for two days a week. Such a mindless order can only have serious repercussions," he added.

Tarigami said Article 370 was in the basic structure of the Indian Constitution providing a constitutional basis for the relationship of J&K with the Union.

"The CPI(M) has filed an intervention application in the Supreme Court against the removal of Article 370 and Article 35A as it is the lifeline of state's relation with the Union.

"Erosion of Article 370 has already weakened the relation of Jammu and Kashmir with the Union of India. Any attempt to abrogate it will be disastrous and will have unimaginable repercussions," he said.

Jmmu and Kashmir Congress Committee president G A Mir said the BJP is "misleading" people over the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A and other sensitive issues for electoral gains.

"Special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir is permanent and irrevocable. It cannot be diluted," he said at an election rally in south Kashmir.

Mir reiterated Congress' commitment to safeguard the special status granted to the state.

"The matter of the fact is that the BJP will lose upcoming Lok Sabha elections miserably and it is desperate to woo the voters by exploiting them on sensitive issues," he said and termed the BJP manifesto a "bundle of lies".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Bharatiya Janata Party lodged a complaint with the Election Commission on Monday, seeking disqualification of the Congress candidate from the Jammu Lok Sabha seat over his wife's alleged communal remarks.

In the written complaint to the Jammu and Kashmir chief electoral officer, the BJP urged the commission to file an FIR against Indira Bhalla, who is the wife of Raman Bhalla, the Congress candidate for the Jammu-Poonch constituency.

At a rally in Poonch last Tuesday, Indira Bhalla had purportedly described the Amarnath land agitation as communal, the BJP lawyers said.

They accused Indira Bhalla of polarisation and hurting religious sentiments. A copy of the video clip has been provided to the CEO.

During the Amarnath land row of 2008, there were widespread protests for and against the allotment of nearly 100 acres to the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) for creating permanent facilities for pilgrims.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he planned to discuss a possible Turkish military operation in Syria when he visits Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin today.

Earlier, Kremlin Aide Yuri Ushakov said that the Russian and his Turkish leaders at the meeting on April 8 will discuss Syria, the deliveries of S-400 air defense systems to Turkey, the pace of building the Turkish Stream gas pipeline and the Akkuyu nuclear power plant.

In addition, the presidents will participate in a plenary session of the Cooperation Council, which will be followed by their roundtable discussion with representatives of business.
The Monday said it cannot pass an order at this stage on a plea seeking stay on the release of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's biopic as the censor board is yet to certify the film.

The apex court said it will hear the matter on Tuesday and could possibly pass an order if the petitioner brings on record what the film depicts is "highly objectionable".

"Any kind of order from the court will be possible if the petitioner states and pleads what the film is seeking to depict and his objections on this count," said the order by a bench headed by

The bench also refused the plea of the petitioner, activist Aman Panwar, that the copy of the film should be given to him.

"Why should we direct that individual be given a copy of the film," said the bench, also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna.

"On behalf of the petitioner, a prayer has been made that directions should be issued for furnishing a copy of the film to enable the petitioner to act in terms of the order. We fail to see how such a direction can be issued by the court," it said.

At the outset, the of (CJI) said the film is not yet certified and referred to April 4 statement by Central Board of (CBFC) chairperson given to about it.

Joshi had told that the film was undergoing due process of examination and certification.

"Since there are a lot of queries around the certification of the film, (I) would like to give a clear picture: the film is going through the due process of examination and certification according to the requisite guidelines and is yet to be certified as the process is not complete at this point," Joshi had said.

Senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for the activist, said producer Sandip Singh had come out with a statement that the biopic would be released on April 11.

Taking note of his submission, the bench said the producer may have come out with such a statement on release of the biopic on April 11 anticipating that the film would get the certification from the censor board.

The bench said as of now there is no cause of action for challenging the film's release.

When Singhvi repeated for further stay on the biopic, the bench said, "How can we stop the release of the film? It is not yet certified. There is only a statement from the producer for its release."



Singhvi submitted that there was no level playing field and allowing the release of the film would be a direct assault on the structure of the Constitution.

However, the bench said it cannot decide on the grievances raised by the petitioner as it did not know what was there in the film.

Singhvi also submitted that the judges themselves can see the film in advance to decide the matter.

He said the lead actor, Vivek Oberoi, has been named as the star campaigner for the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections. His father, who was also an actor, is a card holder of the BJP.

"You have the power to call for the screening of the movie," the senior advocate told the bench.

"The film has considerable ramifications as it would be screened for the coming 40 days across the country," he said.

The plea has sought deferment of the biopic's release till the completion of the coming Lok Sabha polls, alleging that it was designed to "manipulate, influence and impress viewers and voters".

Titled 'PM Narendra Modi', the biopic which was slated to be released on April 5, has been postponed till further notice, Singh said Thursday.

The plea has sought a direction from the court declaring that advertisement and promotion of the film during the operation of the model code of conduct violates electoral laws.

It has sought directions to the Centre, CBFC and the to delay its release till the completion of the general elections next month.

The bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court had earlier rejected a plea seeking ban on the release. The had also disposed of a plea seeking deferment of the biopic's release, saying the EC will deal with the issue.

"The film was driven by no artistic inspiration and was instead designed to manipulate, influence and impress viewers and voters in the upcoming elections," the plea has said.

It said there were several facts which demonstrated that the film was not an innocuous work of art, despite the repeated statements of the producers, the director and the lead actor to the contrary.

It said Maharashtra Chief Minister released the first poster of the biopic and BJP president was also scheduled to release other similar promotional materials of the film.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Supreme Court Monday said it cannot pass an order at this stage on a plea seeking stay on the release of a biopic on Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the Censor Board is yet to certify the film.

The apex court said it will hear the matter Tuesday and could possibly pass an order if the petitioner brings on record that what the film depicts is highly objectionable.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi refused the plea of the petitioner, Congress activist Aman Panwar, that the copy of the film should be given to him.

"Why should we direct that individual be given a copy of the film," said the bench, also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna.

"We fail to understand why such a direction be given," the bench said.

At the outset, the CJI said the film is not yet certified and referred to April 4 statement by Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chairperson Prasoon Joshi given to PTI about it.

Joshi had told PTI that the film was undergoing due process of examination and certification.

"Since there are a lot of queries around the certification of the film, (I) would like to give a clear picture: the film is going through the due process of examination and certification according to the requisite guidelines and is yet to be certified as the process is not complete at this point," Joshi had said.

Senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for the Congress activist, said the producer Sandip Ssingh had come out with a statement that the biopic would be released on April 11.

Taking note of his submission, the bench said the producer may have come out with such a statement on release of the biopic on April 11 anticipating that the film would get the certification from the Censor Board.

The bench said as of now there is no cause of action for challenging release of the film.

When Singhvi repeated for further stay on the biopic, the bench said, "How can we stop the release of the film. It is not yet certified. There is only a statement from the producer for its release."



Singhvi submitted that there was no level playing field and allowing the release of the film would be a direct assault on the structure of the Constitution.

However, the bench said it cannot decide on the grievances raised by the petitioner as it did not know what was there in the film.

Singhvi also submitted that the judges themselves can see the film in advance to decide and decide the matter.

He said the lead actor, Vivek Oberoi, has been named as the star campaigner for the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections.

His father, who was also an actor, is a card holder of BJP.

"You have the power to call for the screening of the movie," the senior advocate told the bench.

"The film has considerable ramifications as it would be screened for the coming 40 days across the country," he said.

The plea has sought deferment of release of the biopic till the completion of upcoming Lok Sabha polls alleging that it was designed to "manipulate, influence and impress viewers and voters".

Titled "PM Narendra Modi", the biopic which was slated to be released on April 5, has been postponed till further notice, Ssingh said on Thursday.

The plea has sought direction from the court declaring that advertisement and promotion of the movie during the operation of the Model Code of Conduct violates electoral laws.

It has sought directions to the Centre, CBFC and EC to delay its release till the completion of the General Elections next month.

The Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court had earlier rejected a plea seeking ban on the release. The Bombay High Court had also disposed of a plea seeking deferment of the biopic's release, saying the Election Commission will deal with the issue.

"The movie was driven by no artistic inspiration and was instead designed to manipulate, influence and impress viewers and voters in the upcoming elections," the plea has said.

It said there were several facts which demonstrated that the movie was not an innocuous work of art, despite the repeated statements of the producers, the director and the lead actor to the contrary.

It said that Maharashtra Chief Minister released the first poster of the biopic and BJP president Amit Shah, was also scheduled to release other similar promotional materials.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Nagaland Chief Electoral Officer, Abhijit Sinha Monday said cash, liquor and other abusive substances worth more than Rs 3 crore have been seized in the state after the model code of conduct came into effect.

Election to the lone Lok Sabha seat in Nagaland and the byelection to the Aonglenden Assembly constituency will be held on April 11.

Addressing media persons the CEO said till date unaccounted cash of Rs 92 lakh and all seizures amounting to Rs 3,03,33,284 have been seized.

Sinha said campaigning for both the seats will come to an end at 4 pm on Tuesday, restricting all political public rallies and displaying election matter intended or calculated to influence or affect the result of an election by means of cinematograph, television or other similar apparatus.

Any person who contravenes this provision shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both, he informed.

The District Election Administration and Police will ensure that all political functionaries shall leave the constituency immediately after the campaign period is over, he said.

On security, he said more than 75 companies are being deployed in the state comprising of Central Armed Police Forces, Nagaland Police, District Executive Force, Home Guards and Village Guard.

The CEO also informed that Central Armed Police Forces will be deployed at 172 vulnerable identified polling stations.

The CEO further informed that no exit poll can be published or broadcast in print and electronic media from the period of the first of polling till the last phase of the polling day on May 19.

Nagaland has a total of 12,13,777 electorate for the Lok Sabha polls while total voters for by-election to Aonglenden Assembly constituency stands at 12,482.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) president and chief minister Pawan Kumar Chamling Monday urged the electorate to repose their faith in him to usher in development in the state.

Chamling, who is seeking a sixth consecutive term as chief minister, said if his party is elected to power, he will empower the urban local bodies to serve the people in better way.

"The urban local bodies will be given more power to administer the people in a smooth and transparent manner with human touch," he said while campaigning for SDF candidates in the state capital and adjoining areas.

Chamling also pledged his commitment to fulfil the demand for income tax exemption demand for the old settlers of Sikkim and also spoke on the various new schemes like free medical and free education to the kin of the business community in the state.

The Chief Minister said that Sikkim was a truly secular state in which people of all communities live in peace and harmony.

"It has been my government's endeavour to provide safety and security to the people and ensure that all people living in Sikkim enjoy their fundamental rights and freedom," Chamling said.

Chamling, who is the founding president of the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) will wind up his two-week long campaigning Tuesday at a public meeting at Joretrhang in South Sikkim, the bastion of his party.

Sikkim goes to polls for 32 Assembly seats as well as the lone Lok Sabha seat on April 11.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
China is planning to introduce artificial intelligence systems in parks in Beijing to ban "uncivilised visitors" from entering the public areas in the city.

The Beijing park management authorities are mulling to have a list of unruly visitors identified through artificial intelligence and facial recognition technology.

The list will allow the authorities to curb bad tourist behaviour during events such as the three-day holidays around Tomb Sweeping Day, also known as the Qingming Festival.

On the second day of the three-day holidays around Tomb Sweeping Day, which ended on Sunday, parks in Beijing witnessed an upsurge in visitors, which led to uncivilised tourist behaviour, officials at the Beijing Municipal Administration Centre of Parks told the Beijing Youth Daily.

The centre is considering establishing a "blacklist" to restrict loutish travellers - for example, those who destroy cultural relics and refuse to stop - from entering the park, the report said.

The report said that some tourists have been spotted climbing peach trees, picking flowers and damaging plants.

There were also people who fished near the lake and sold things privately in the park.

Mi Shanpo, an official at the centre, said "facial recognition" and other technologies will be used to detect uncivilised behaviour.

In 2017, six facial scanners were installed in the male and female sections of the busiest toilets in the Temple of Heaven, after reports of an increasing number of local residents raiding the park's toilets to steal toilet paper.

The China National Tourism Administration implemented tighter rules for tourists in 2016, and placed 20 people who failed to observe public order and scenic regulations on the blacklist.

The blacklisted travellers' bad behaviour included quarrelling, fighting, disturbing the peace, climbing on statues and stealing scenic assets.

China has already banned over a million people from travelling in flights and high speed trains for bad behaviour. Chinese courts have also blacklisted over nine million loan defaulters and froze USD 27.7 billion deposits owned by them.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Supreme Court Monday sought the response of former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar on CBI's plea seeking his arrest in the multi-crore rupee Saradha chit fund scam.

The apex court, on February 5, granted protection from arrest to Kumar while directing him to appear before the CBI and "faithfully" cooperating into the investigation of cases arising out of the scam.

The central probe agency has sought vacation of the order so that it can arrest and interrogate Kumar.

"This is the interim application (IA) of the CBI seeking custodial interrogation of Rajeev Kumar. Issue notice. Let the matter be listed for hearing on April 15," said a bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna.

The bench also allowed CBI to file a fresh affidavit regarding its allegations that telecom operators -- Vodafone and Airtel -- were not cooperating with it in the probe.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Vodafone, said that it has provided the details including the CDRs (call data records) to the CBI and sought the hearing after three weeks. The bench has now posted this aspect after two weeks.

At the outset, senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for the former Kolkata police chief, said that CBI's plea in this case must be settled or approved by the CBI Director as he has no faith in M Nageswara Rao, former interim CBI Director, whose wife is being probed by the West Bengal police in a 2017 case.

"Let us not digress from the real issue. You are taking excuses. The CBI is seeking your arrest. Don't go here and there," the bench said.

Singhvi then said that he was not aware of listing of CBI's plea, seeking arrest of Kumar, today.

"This (CBI's IA) is very much there. It is listed today. If you do not know this, what can I do," the bench said and it prompted Singhvi to tender an apology.

In its plea to the apex court, the agency has 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.

"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.

The CBI also sought directions to West Bengal authorities to comply with the court's earlier orders "in letter and spirit" and not to create any hurdle in the agency probe or try to "intimidate, harass and scare agency officials" probing the cases.

Earlier, the apex court had termed as "very very serious" the revelations made by CBI in its status report relating to the recent interrogation of the then Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar in connection with the Saradha chit fund scam case.

It had asked the CBI to file an appropriate application seeking reliefs against Kumar.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Supreme Court on Monday sought response from former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar on the CBI's plea seeking his arrest in the multi-crore Saradha chit fund case.

The CBI has also sought recall of the apex court's earlier order directing that no coercive action be taken against Kumar.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi issued notice to Kumar on CBI's plea and sought his response within four weeks.

The CBI has sought recall of the court's February 5 order, staying the arrest of Kumar in the Saradha and Rose Valley ponzi scam cases.

In its plea, the agency said the recall of the order granting Kumar interim protection from arrest was necessary "to unravel the entire gamut of the larger conspiracy in ponzi scam cases".

The CBI also sought directions to West Bengal authorities to comply with the court's earlier orders "in letter and spirit" and not to create any hurdle in the agency probe or try to "intimidate, harass and scare agency officials" probing the cases.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Congress and the BJP "copied" the schemes being implemented by his government in Telangana, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao claimed Monday.

"Day before yesterday Congress and today BJP announced election manifesto. I am feeling very proud.

Both have copied many schemes that the Telangana government has introduced. Both have incorporated in their manifestos," he said during an election meeting at Vikarabad.

Rao claimed the two parties copied 'Rythu Bandhu (investment support scheme for farmers) being implemented by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi government.

Realisation was dawning on the two parties and the Congress talked about transfer of powers to States, he said.

Rao, who earlier spoke about optimum utilisation of river waters, quoted the BJP as saying it would focus on efficient use of water resources.

The chief minister said he has been raising issues like effective utilisation of river water and electricity for some time now.

"Telangana needs to play a role at the Centre in national interest," he said, adding the Telangana Rashtra Samithi should win 16 Lok Sabha seats for the purpose.

Alleging that the country was in a poor state on various issues with even basic needs not being met, Rao said a qualitative change needs to come in the Central government.

Claiming that a coalition government would be formed at the Centre post Lok Sabha polls with the BJP getting less than 150 Lok Sabha seats and the Congress securing below 100 seats, he said regional parties would call the shots.

Favouring Telangana getting national status for an irrigation project, Rao said the state should be able to play a key role for the purpose.

Rao, who favours formation of a federal front government at the Centre, said Telangana should play a major role with 16 MPs.

Hitting out at Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu for his reported attack on him, Rao claimed that Naidu would be losing the elections badly.

Assembly polls are also being held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections in Andhra Pradesh



Referring to Naidu's alleged attack on him on the issue of special status for Andhra Pradesh, Rao said his party supported the promise of giving special category status to AP.

He claimed that the YSR Congress was going to win in a big way. TRS MPs would also support the cause of special status for AP, Rao said.

The TRS, YSR Congress and the AIMIM together would have 35-36 MPs in the Lok Sabha (among 42 in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh), he claimed.

The TRS supported the construction of Polavaram multi-purpose irrigation project in Andhra Pradesh and wanted Telangana to get its share.

Telangana did not have any dispute with people of Andhra Pradesh and the problem was only with a few allegedly trouble-some people like Naidu, he said.

The TRS and TDP have been bitter rivals.

The TDP had contested the assembly polls in Telangana in December last in alliance with the Congress and others.

Attacking the BJP, the chief minister said divisive should end and all sections of society should live in harmony, Rao added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Congress Monday approached the Election Commission demanding a ban on two private television channels for allegedly violating the model code of conduct by airing content that praises Central government schemes and ruling party leaders.

The Maharashtra Congress said the EC should file cases against the makers and actors of the two serials as well as the BJP.

Maharashtra Congress general secretary Sachin Sawant, who led a party delegation to the EC, said it was "shocking" that television serials were being used to "promote" schemes and leaders of the ruling party.

"We approached the Election Commission seeking ban on the two channels for airing content that exalts the schemes and ruling party leaders. It violates the model code of conduct and betrays viewers," Sawant said in a statement.

"Case should be filed against makers and actors of the two serials and the BJP for violating the code of conduct," he added.

Sawant said the Congress has submitted video clips from the two serials to the Election Commission.

In one of the clips, characters of a certain serial are shown hailing the Centre's Ujjwala scheme, which provides LPG connections to Below Poverty Line households, and the Swachh Bharat Mission, a cleanliness campaign of the NDA government.

In another clip from a serial being aired on the second channel, two characters are shown discussing the Pradhan Mantri MUDRA (Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency) Yojana that promises affordable credit to micro and small enterprises.

Sawant said there was a possibility that crores of rupees were transacted in this connection and demanded that the EC probe it and register a case of corruption.

"The BJP is stooping to low levels day-by-day. Like Ravana from Ramayana and the Kauravas from Mahabharata, it is using illegal ways (in the election). But the truth shall prevail at the end," he claimed.

Asked about it, Maharashtra BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhye said the Congress was "politicising the issue".

"The Election Commission will take a right decision on the issue," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Congress in Karnataka Monday warned of disciplinary action against party workers and leaders in Mandya, if they do not abide byits decision to support Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy's son Nikhil of JD(S) as the coalition's jointcandidate there.

The warning by State congress chief Dinesh Gundu Rao comes after repeated failed attempts by the party leadership, including him and CLP leader Siddaramaiah, to pacify Mandya Congress leaders, who are upset over decision to cede the seat to the JD(S), and are strongly opposing Nikhil's candidature.

"If anyone goes against the decision of the party and not abide by it, it will be inevitable for us to take action against them," Rao told reporters here.

Stating that party men would have to function with "discipline", he said the Congress was striving for thevictory of JD(S) candidates, where they are contesting and vice versa.

"So, we cannot think about Mandya as separate..if any of our leaders decides not to cooperate, ours is a national party, and it will be inevitable for us to take certain decisions," he added.

Congress leaders in Mandya have stayed away from campaigning with most of them even backing independent candidate and actress Sumalatha Ambareesh, who has the BJP's support on her side.

Noting that party has put all its efforts in resolving the Mandya issue, Rao said Siddaramaiah and JD(S) patriarch H D Deve Gowda will jointly campaign there on April 12.

He said Congress president Rahul Gandhi will also be visiting Mandya on April 13.

With open fissures in the ruling alliance, Gandhi during his recent visit to the state asked leaders and workers of his party and JD(S) to strive unitedly for the coalition victory in Lok Sabha polls as defeating Prime Minister Narendra Modi was its target.

Rao termed the incident where Congress workers allegedly shouted pro-Modi slogans at a party meeting in Hassan recently, as a non-issue.

"See..among hundred people, someone says some thing for a different reason- that is not an issue. It is not a big issue," he said.

At a meeting of Congress workers in Hassan's Channarayapatna, a section of partymen reportedly shouted pro-Modi slogans.

Prajwal Revanna, Nikhil's cousin and grandson of Deve Gowda is the candidate from Hassan, Gowda's family turf.

Congress leaders in Hassan are opposed to the party ceding the seat to the JD(S).

Former Congress Minister A Manju, who recently joined the BJP, is the saffron party's candidate from Hassan.

Congress and JD(S) which had fought againsteach other in the old Mysuru region had joined hands to forman alliance, as the May 2018 assembly polls threw up a hung verdict.

Though the Congress and JD(S) leadership have decided to fight the Lok Sabha electiontogether, it is not something that grassrootlevel workers of the parties agree with as both have beenfighting each other for decades.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Russia's presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that the Kremlin is monitoring developments on the fuel market.

"Appropriate expert teams of the Administration of the Russian President are closely monitoring the situation on the fuel market; certainly, in interaction with the Cabinet of ministers," TASS cited him as saying.

Commenting on the letter of Chief Executive Officer of the Russian oil producer Rosneft Igor Sechin to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, where the top manager noted downsides in manual regulation of this market, the presidential spokesman readdressed it to the government.

According to Peskov. this is the prerogative of the Cabinet of Ministers utterly and completely.
Accusing the Congress of trying to politicise issues related to national security, Union minister Nitin Gadkari has asserted it is "not a debatable political subject" and that of the 21st is driven by progress and development.

In an interview to PTI here ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the senior BJP leader expressed confidence that his party would get a "reasonably good majority" and Narendra Modi would again be the prime minister.

Replying to a question, he said, "In elections there are many important subjects related to the economic situation, some with national security. It is time for people to discuss these subjects."



"As far as our ideology is concerned, we are committed towards progress and development and this is the of the 21st century," Gadkari said.

He, however, opined that issues of national security should not be politicised.

"These are not debatable political subjects. Internal and external security are very important for the country. We should think above in the interest of people. The Congress wants to politicise this which is not correct," he said.

Gadkari said political parties should deliberate on economic policies, developmental issues and increase the level of debate.

Highlighting the BJP-led government's works in the last five years, Gadkari, who is in-charge of several infrastructure related portfolios like highways, road transport and shipping, said their economic policies and welfare schemes have achieved the goal of creating an employment potential for poor people.

"We have developed infrastructure, we helped the poor, the farmers and the downtrodden with different schemes and also at the same time, there are issues (of national security) which people are discussing... When someone (a political party) talks about something, someone has to answer them," he said.

"The BJP has a strong ideological base and nationalism is its soul," he said, adding that good governance and development were the party's mission along with progress of the last man in society -- socially, economically and educationally.

"I am confident the BJP will get a reasonably good majority and Modiji will be our next prime minister," said Gadkari, who is seeking a re-election to the Lok Sabha from his hometown Nagpur, which will go to polls on April 11.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Delhi Commission for Women has issued notice to the Tihar jail and and the Delhi Police seeking details of a rape convict who was set free before completion of his sentence.

The DCW said a nine-year-old girl was kidnapped, raped, murdered and dumped in a public toilet septic tank in Mumbai by a child rape convict who walked out of prison Tihar Jail just six months ago on the basis of 'good conduct'.

The commission has taken a strong view against this ghastly incident and issued notice to Tihar DG and all DCPs of Delhi, seeking details of all such persons who were convicted of rape in the past 10 years and whose sentence was waived, the DCW said.

The commission has sought the reasons for letting the rapists out, if any, as well as details of the approving authority who allowed the same, it said in a statement.

The commission also requested information regarding the steps taken by both the police as well as Tihar Jail authorities to ensure a proper check on the activities of the rapists that they do not repeat the crime again once they move freely in the society.

The commission also pointed out that a seven-year-old girl was brutally raped and murdered in Delhi in Nihal Vihar recently by a man who was let out on bail in charges of rape sometime earlier.

It has, therefore, sought information on the existing guidelines as well as the steps being taken by authorities in ensuring that those released on bail on charges of rape, especially child rape, do not commit the crime again.

Terming these crimes 'horrifying', the commission has stated in its notice that steps need to be taken urgently to ensure that such crimes are never repeated again.

The authorities have been given 10 days' time to reply to the notice else proceedings of civil court shall be initiated against them, it said.

DCW Chief Swati Maliwal said, "How did authorities ascertain that he was a changed individual within five years of his imprisonment? What yardsticks did they use?"



"In developed countries, activities of people accused of heinous crimes if released on bail are closely monitored. But we have no such systems here. We will work on this issue and try and ensure proper systems are put in place," she said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Sudanese protesters on Monday called on the army to hold talks on forming a transitional government, as thousands braved a deadly crackdown for a third day to urge the military to back them.

The east African country has been rocked by more than three months of protests that erupted over a hike in bread prices before transforming into nationwide demonstrations against President Omar al-Bashir's iron-fisted 30-year rule.

At the biggest rally so far, thousands of protesters have since Saturday been camped out around the army headquarters in Khartoum which also houses Bashir's residence and the defence ministry.

They are calling on the military to protect them and to back calls for Bashir to resign.

"When the army is here, we have no fear," protesters flashing victory signs chanted as military vehicles with soldiers fanned out around the complex, onlookers said.

Riot police have fired tear gas at the protesters, but they have failed to dislodge them.

Officials say 38 people have died in protest-related violence since December.

Interior Minister Bushara Juma said seven protesters died on Saturday when forces tried to disperse them and 15 were wounded along with 42 members of the security forces. In all, 2,496 protesters were arrested.

The group spearheading the protests on Monday appealed to the army for talks on forming a transitional government.

"We call on the Sudanese armed forces to talk directly with the Alliance for Freedom and Change for facilitating the peaceful process of forming a transitional government," said Omar el-Digeir, a senior member of the group.

Digeir said the protest organisers had also formed a council to initiate talks with security forces and the international community aimed at agreeing a transition that gives power to a "transitional government that represents the wish of the revolution".

"We reiterate our people's demand that the head of the regime and his government have to immediately step down," Digeir said.

Reading from a statement, he also called on the armed forces "to withdraw their support for a regime that has lost its legitimacy" and to support the "people's alternative for a transition to a civilian democratic government".

Since protests erupted across Sudan in December agents of the powerful National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) and riot police have cracked down on demonstrators, but the army has not intervened.

Soldiers put up barricades in streets near the army compound after reinforcements of intelligence agency members and riot police arrived in the early hours, witnesses told AFP.

"After that, security forces began firing tear gas at protesters," one said on condition of anonymity.

Gunshots were also heard, witnesses said, but it was unclear who fired.

Some activists on the ground said it was the army shooting in the air, but this could not be confirmed independently.

Protest organisers urged the military to protect the demonstrators.

"We want you, the young officers and soldiers, to remain committed to the role of the national army, which is of protecting the people," said the Sudanese Professionals Association.

A few hours later security personnel again fired tear gas at the demonstrators, witnesses said.

Protest organisers urged the residents of Khartoum and nearby areas to join the demonstrators.

Crowds of people carrying food and water were later seen walking towards the complex to take part in the protest, according to onlookers.

Some companies have told employees not to come into work "until further notice".

The rally outside the army headquarters has been the largest since protests began on December 19 in the central town of Atbara, quickly spreading to the capital and towns and cities across the east African country.

The European Union said an "unprecedented" number of people had come out calling for change since Saturday.

"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."



The protesters accuse Bashir's administration of economic mismanagement that has led to soaring food prices and regular shortages of fuel and foreign currency.

Sudan's security council on Sunday said the demands of the protesters "have to be heard" after a meeting chaired by the veteran leader.

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.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Delhi court Monday allowed the ED to interrogate in Tihar jail two accused, arrested in connection with a case of terror funding module allegedly led by terrorist Hafiz Saeed's Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF).

Additional Sessions Judge Rakesh Syal allowed the agency to interrogate accused Mohammad Salman and Mohd Salim in Tihar jail and record their statements under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The two accused were arrested by the NIA on September 26, 2018, in the terror funding case and are lodged in Tihar jail under judicial custody.

The court directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to question both the accused for any two days between April 15 to 25.

ED's Special Public Prosecutor Nitesh Rana sought Salman and Salim's custodial interrogation on the ground that the provisions under which the charge sheet was filed against them by the NIA falls within the ambit of the PMLA.

NIA had filed a charge sheet against Salman, Salim and six others for the alleged offences under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 121 (waging war against the government of India) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and relevant sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

"Since, the sections 120B and 121 of the IPC and relevant sections of the UAPA Act are scheduled offences under the provisions of PMLA, ED in order to investigate the alleged offences seeks their custodial interrogation," said the ED's application, filed through advocate A R Aditya.

As per the NIA's charge sheet, the accused had allegedly hatched a criminal conspiracy to engage in violence in carrying out subversive and secessionist activities in Delhi and around Haryana with the help of foreign handlers, ED's plea said.

"To achieve their objectives they have established a network of cadres who are funded through Pakistani Agencies via Hawala dealers under the garb of building mosque and charity. It has also been revealed that the accused have received money through Hawala for carrying out their objectives," the plea alleged.

It had emerged during the NIA's investigation that Mohammad Salman, a resident of the Nizamuddin in New Delhi, was in regular touch with a Dubai-based Pakistani national, who in turn was connected to the Deputy Chief of FIF, a front organisation of the proscribed terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

The NIA had on September 25 last year conducted searches at the premises of Mohammad Salman in Nizamuddin, Daryaganj-resident Mohd Salim (hawala operator) and Rajaram in Kucha Ghasiram in New Delhi and seized Rs 1.56 crore in cash, Rs 43,000 in Nepali currency, 14 mobiles phones, five pen drives and several incriminating documents, it said.

Following the seizure of incriminating material, it had arrested from Delhi FIF operative Mohammad Salman (52), and Hawala operators Mohd Salim alias Mama (62) and Sajjad Abdul Wani (34), a resident of Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir.

FIF, a Lahore-based organisation established by Jamat-ud-Dawa, was founded in 1990 by Hafiz Mohammad Saeed who is designated as global terrorist by the USA.

FIF is placed on the list of terrorist organisations here and it was also designated as a terrorist entity by the USA in 2010.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A senior official of the Delhi government has asked the Union Health Ministry to stop promotion of smoking and 'hookah' in the three web series - 'Made in Heaven', 'Mirzapur' and 'Four More Shots Please' being aired on Amazon Prime Video.

Additional Director in Delhi Health Department Dr S K Arora has also written to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and producers of all these shows for stopping these violations immediately "on legal and moral grounds as well".

Arora said the office of Jeff Bezos has replied that they has received the complaint and will respond shortly.

Arora has also written separately to producers Zoya Akhtar, Farhan Akhtar and Pritish Nandi on the issue.

In his letter Arora said section 5 of Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act 2003 (COTPA) prohibits the advertisement, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco products and this prohibition extends to the depiction of tobacco products or their use in films, television and web programmes.

"These days lot of movies and TV serials are being shown on online portal which are primarily viewed by youngsters either on smart phones or on smart TV. There are many global players in this online video streaming sector in India.

"Among them I want to bring to your notice some episodes of TV serials namely 'Mirzapur', 'Four more Shots Please' and 'Made in Heaven' being shown on Amazon Prime Video which are showing usage of tobacco smoking scenes without any static health warning and other legal provisions to be followed in such TV serials showing tobacco usage," Dr Arora, who was earlier heading Delhi State Tobacco Control cell, said.

In his letter, Arora said "shockingly" one of the episodes of 'Made in Heaven' promotes how to make hookah at home from plastic bottles.

All these are promoting smoking and hookah smoking among the youngsters who may easily get influenced as these serials are being produced and acted by their favourite TV and film stars, he said.

"I take this opportunity to inform that children in the age group of 6-10 yrs have been observed by me using such indigenously made hookahs. This is really very serious situation from public health point of view," he said, adding these violations are punishable under section 5 and 22 of COTPA.

Even if these are still not covered under COTPA, then it's really high time that the Union government should do something immediately before our whole youth gets trapped into the habits of these hazardous products as most viewership of online TV and film shows belong to youngsters, Dr Arora said.

"You (Ministry) are humbly requested to take necessary action to stop the promotion of smoking/hookah smoking in these and if any TV/film serials going on online and are very popular among people especially the youngsters these days," he said.

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A two-day international convention will be organised in the national capital beginning Tuesday to take stock of the challenges being faced by homeopathy and formulate "future strategies for development" of this stream of alternative medicine.

The convention is being organised by the Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy (CCRH), an autonomous research organisation under the Ministry of AYUSH, to observe the World Homoeopathy Day.

With an aim to recognise exemplary work in homoeopathy, AYUSH awards relating to this stream of alternative medicine for lifetime achievement, best teacher, young scientist and best research paper will be conferred at the event, an official release stated on Monday.

Twenty-four students will be awarded scholarships under the Short Term Studentship in Homoeopathy (STSH). Four students will be awarded for 'Quality MD Dissertation in Homoeopathy', it said, adding MoUs will be signed with two more post-graduate homoeopathic colleges in an effort to link education with research.

The vision behind the agreement would be to provide impetus to research infrastructure, which, in turn further orient the students towards research, the release said.

"There is an imminent need to focus on improving the quality of education and enhancing the success rate of an average practitioner. There is also a need to ensure the production and availability of high quality homeopathic drugs in the market," it said.

A wide range of topics including linking education and clinical practice with research, utilisation of existing research by clinicians, drug development and validation, research initiatives, documented clinical experiences and the road ahead for homoeopathy will be discussed in the convention, the release added.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a "national calamity" who needs to be defeated in the Lok Sabha polls to safeguard the nation, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said here Monday.

Claiming that the country's democracy was in "peril" and holding Modi solely responsible for it, Pawar wondered whether democracy will survive in the country if the BJP manages to retain power following the general elections.

Canvassing for Navneet Rana, the Yuva Swabhiman Paksh candidate from Amravati Lok Sabha constituency here in Vidarbha region, he dubbed Modi a "national calamity" and said the prime minister should not talk about the ability of the opposition parties to lead the country.

"We can run the country well. Modi need not worry about our ability," Pawar said.

The Yuva Swabhiman Paksh is part of the grand alliance formed by the Congress, NCP and other parties against the BJP-Shiv Sena combine in Maharashtra.

On Modi alleging at Wardha poll rally that Pawar has lost grip on the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) which has been "wrecked by a family feud", the former Union minister fired a broadside saying, "I am happy in my home. You (Modi) need not worry. You never had a home in your life."



Modi and Pawar have been at loggerheads of late after the prime minister fired the first salvo during his rallies in Vidarbha's Wardha and Gondia districts last week.

After addressing the rally, the NCP chief wrote on Twitter, "The situation across the country is worrying, the country's democracy is in peril. The only person responsible for this is Prime Minister @narendramodi. It is a question if the democracy will survive if the government of people following this ideology comes to power again."



He also claimed on the microblogging site that experts feel elections won't be held in the country again if Modi is re-elected.

"But I have huge confidence in the people. They will favour democracy when it comes to saving democracy," Pawar added.

He accused the Modi government at the Centre and the Devendra Fadnavis dispensation in Maharashtra of having hoodwinked the people of the country by not fulfilling pre-poll promises.

The NCP chief observed that former advocate general of Maharashtra Shrihari Aney had moved court against Maratha reservation, while the quota given to Muslims was taken away as soon as the Fadnavis government was formed in October 2014.

"Hence, there is no other alternative but to defenestrate this government," he said in another tweet.

Hitting out at Modi for not visiting Mahatma Gandhi's Sevagram Ashram during his Wardha tour on April 1, Pawar said Modi claims to be a Gandhian and gets pictures clicked of himself spinning the 'charkha' but did not deem it fit to pay tribute at the ashram.

Training his guns at the Modi government over farm distress, the NCP chief said it did not probe farmer suicides or study their issues for framing agricultural policies.

"The UPA waived farm loans worth Rs 71,000 crore. Modi asks me why there are farmer suicides. He is in power but is pinning the blame on me," the former Union agriculture minister told the well-attended rally.

On national security, the NCP chief said the prime minister, with his "self-proclaimed 56-inch chest" style of governance, took credit for the anti-terror air strikes by the IAF deep inside Pakistan following the Pulwama terror attack, but was unable to bring back former Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav who in Pakistani jail on espionage charges.

"Modi criticised (former prime minister) Manmohan Singh for communicating with Pakistan after a terror attack and had asked the government to stop writing love letters to that country. What is the situation now?



"In 2014, there were 267 attacks. In 2015, there were 208 and in 2016, the number of attacks was 218. Where is the 56-inch chest?" Pawar taunted.

Accusing the Modi government of attacking the country's institutions such as the judiciary, the CBI and the Reserve Bank of India, he claimed that the BJP wanted to change the constitution.

"It is time to defeat the NDA and only the UPA can do that," he told the gathering.

At a poll rally in Gondia last week, Modi had also said that "NCP leaders were unable to sleep as their 'sleep' was jailed in Delhi's Tihar". The prime minister had not elaborated, but it is believed that he was referring to the arrest of corporate lobbyist Deepak Talwar in connection with some deals.

In response, Pawar said he does not pay heed to "criticism by every Tom Dick and Harry".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A boat headed for market laden with merchandise and vendors capsized in the Niger River in Mali, claiming about a dozen lives, authorities said Monday.

The victims had been on their way Sunday to a weekly market in Markala, in central Mali, where people from surrounding villages sell and buy goods.

The boat sank about five kilometres (3.1 miles) from its destination, the transport ministry said in a statement, blaming overloading.

The ministry spoke of nine dead and six survivors, but a Markala official said more had lost their lives, including a child of about six months.

"The craft was overloaded," added Abdoulaye Saye, a local councillor. "There was too much merchandise" which the occupants of the boat had planned on selling at the market.

In October, 26 people died when two boats capsized on the Niger River near Timbuktu.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Chief Justice of Delhi High Court Rajendra Menon Monday said the new Rouse Avenue court complex was part of the central district, and a district and sessions judge was appointed only to take care of the day-to-day administrative work.

Justice Menon said that there were some "apprehensions" among members of the bar regarding creation of another post to head the new court complex, but additional district and sessions judge was appointed only to deal with the "administrative" problems, adding there were "only 11 districts" and this court complex was "part of the central district".

He was speaking at the inaugural function of the new Rouse Avenue court complex here.

"Initially when this court complex was conceived and we had decided to shift it, we had an issue as to how we will manage the day-to-day administrative functions of this building.

"Even though Mr Talwant Singh was the incharge district judge but for administrating the building from Tis Hazari would have been difficult and therefore we thought of getting an additional post of district and sessions judge sanctioned and posting him here to be the administrative head head for dealing with the administrative problems," Justice Menon said.

His remarks assume importance in view of the Delhi Bar Association (DBA) approaching the Lieutenant Governor against the creation of the new post of district judge-cum- special judge (PC Act) at Rouse Avenue court and seeking revocation of the post of chief metropolitan magistrate (CMM) proposed to be posted at the building.

In the letter, which was also sent to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Law Minister Kailash Gahlot, the lawyers had said the Delhi High Court had assured the DBA that no revenue/sessions district has been created for the Rouse Avenue complex which falls within the territorial jurisdiction of central district.

Justice Menon said that the "new controversy" started after the registry published the invitation card calling the venue as 'Rouse Avenue District Court Complex' giving an impression to members of the Bar that a "12th district" had been created in Delhi taking without telling them.

"I have to tell the members of the bar that please don't go by the nomenclature of a building. We have such a beautiful building, let us not call it a support building. The name or the nomenclature of the building has to be in conformity with and looking at the nature of the building.

"If we call it a district court complex it does not mean that it is a separate building. I assure the members of the bar what was told to you in the last meeting of the coordinate committee still holds good," Justice Menon said.

All the courts relating to Prevention of Corruption Act and Anti Corruption Branch will be relocated to the Rouse Avenue court complex. 24 Special Judges (PC Act) (CBI) and two Special Judges (PC Act) (ACB) will be functioning there.

The court will start functioning from Tuesday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Congress Monday termed the EC's directive to the I-T Department on raids carried out during poll time as "too little, too late" and hoped it will take decisive action against "prejudiced officers" of I-T and ED trying to "bulldoze and intimidate" political opponents.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala alleged that the Narendra Modi government was being blinded by hatred and revenge in the manner its probe agencies were acting against BJP's political opponents.

He claimed there were four people campaigning for the BJP -- Prime Minister Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

"The Election Commission's action is too little, too late. We are happy that they have finally taken note of their responsibility of superintendence and conduct of election under Article 324 of Constitution of India.

"We do hope that the Election Commission will take decisive action against the patently prejudiced officers of Income Tax Department and the ED who are trying to bulldoze and intimidate political opponents," he told reporters.

Surjewala accused the government of being "blinded by rage, hatred and revenge". The manner in which the Income Tax Department, ED, CBI and now even paramilitary personnel are being used in an extra-constitutional manner to violate the federal structure and jurisdictions of the state is "unpardonable and shameful", he alleged.

"It is unacceptable as per every legal and constitutional norm. That's why we said there are only four people now campaigning for the BJP. One is Narendra Modi ji, Amit Shah ji, ED ji and CBI ji.

"That's why you find a failed prime minister alone even on top of a failed manifesto which has become a useless piece of paper to be rejected for what it is," the Congress leader claimed.

Congress leader Ahmed Patel asked why there were "selective raids" and why action was not being initiated by probe agencies against BJP leaders.

"Why are selective raids being conducted? Everyone knows who has more money. Why is no action being initiated against BJP leaders whose files are pending with probe agencies. Is the prime minister only spying on its opponents," he asked.

The Election Commission Sunday "strongly advised" the Finance Ministry that any action by its enforcement agencies during election time should be "neutral" and "non-discriminatory" and officials of the poll panel should be kept in loop about such actions.

Its advice came against the backdrop of Income Tax Department's raids in Madhya Pradesh Sunday and in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh in the recent past on politicians and people connected to them.

The department conducted raids against close aides of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath and others on Sunday that continued on Monday, with search teams making seizures of documents and cash, officials said.

The searches on charges of alleged tax evasion and hawala transactions during the ongoing poll season, the official said, are continuing at various premises in Bhopal, Indore and in Delhi and the National Capital Region as tax sleuths are gathering details and evidence.

While there is no official word on the exact amount of cash seized, sources said over Rs 10 crore suspected cash has been seized till now.

Since the Model Code Conduct came into force on March 10, the I-T Department has carried out several raids on political leaders and their associates which the opposition has dubbed a misuse of central agencies during poll season.

There have been nearly 55 raids in the recent past by agencies under the Finance Ministry.

The poll panel's advice came amid allegations that the government was using the agencies to target rival parties in the election season.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said that incumbent Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko would win the election.

"I am inclined to believe after all that Poroshenko will win this presidential election," BelTA cited the Belarusian leader as saying.

In addition, Lukashenko noted that Poroshenko will do everything for Ukrainians to support him.

On March 31, the first round of the Ukrainian presidential election took place. Zelensky received 30.24% of the vote, while Poroshenko came in second with 15.95%. Both candidates will proceed to the runoff, set to be held on April 21.
The Sikkim Congress president Bharat Basnett Monday urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to ensure that the people here get to exercise their franchise without fear as the SDF was "intimidating" voters.

"The ruling Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) has vitiated the election process in Sikkim by pumping huge money amassed through corrupt means and also resorted to intimidation to voters and opposition parties to win the assembly polls by hook or crook," he told reporters.

Elections to the 32-member Sikkim Assembly and the lone Lok Sabha seat in the state would be held on April 11.

The Sikkim Democratic Front has denied the allegations of Basnett.

Basnett, who is the Congress candidate for the lone Lok Sabha seat in the state, said that it was the duty of the Centre and EC to crack down against the use of money and intimidation tactics being resorted to by the ruling party by.

The SPCC president alleged that Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling made "intimidating" speeches against opposition at one of his election meetings at Jorethang, but no action has been taken against him.

He also alleged that the SDF has pumped huge money collected from certain contractors, but there was no mechanism to prevent this malpractice.

The Congress is contesting dozen Assembly seats and also the Lok Sabha seat in the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on Monday strongly urged Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar to halt his offensive on Tripoli and return to UN-sponsored talks to avoid a civil war.

Dozens of people have been killed since Haftar, the strongman behind a rival administration in eastern Libya, launched an assault last Thursday on Tripoli, home to the UN- and EU-backed unity government.

"I make a very strong appeal to Libyan leaders and in particular to Haftar to stop all military activities in this moment and to return to the negotiation table under UN auspices," Mogherini said after talks with EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.

Mogherini said the foreign ministers did not take any formal written conclusions on Libya but were united around a common interest.

"There is a clear consensus on the call to stop immediately all military actions inside Libya being it from Libyans, or hopefully not or never from external actors."



The EU has supported efforts by the UN-backed unity government in Tripoli to stabilise the country following the overthrow of Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.

Brussels works closely with the Tripoli-based government to stop migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Europe, which in 2015 faced its worst migration crisis since World War II.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Monday any decision by the European Union to agree to another Brexit extension would depend on British "guarantees for loyal cooperation."



"Just spoke to @theresa.may. The British Brexit extension will be discussed at the upcoming European Council," Rutte tweeted.

"It is crucial to know when and on what basis the UK will ratify the withdrawal agreement. A positive decision also depends on guarantees from the United Kingdom for loyal cooperation," he said.

May is hoping to have a deal to present to European leaders at an emergency summit on Wednesday, where she must secure another Brexit extension to prevent Britain leaving the bloc at the end of the week if there is no accord.

She has asked for a delay until June 30, but the decision has to be taken unanimously by Britain and the remaining 27 EU members.

Rutte -- who has been one of the most outspoken EU leaders on Brexit -- said "everyone has an interest in an orderly Brexit." Rutte said May agreed "that we will meet again on Wednesday prior to the European Council."



Europe's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has warned Britain that in case of a no-deal Brexit, the EU would not open trade talks until the question of the Irish border had been resolved.

Speaking in Dublin, Barnier added that EU would also not discuss anything with Britain until there was also an agreement on citizens' rights and the financial settlement.

All three issues are covered by the withdrawal agreement, which was struck between British and EU negotiators in November but has been rejected by the British parliament.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The European Union said Monday it has fined US engineering giant General Electric 52 million euros for providing incorrect information during a probe into its merger with LM Wind Power.

But the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, said the decision, taken under competition rules, has no impact on its 2017 approval of the merger with the Danish supplier.

"The fine imposed today on General Electric is proof that the Commission takes breaches of the obligation for companies to provide us with correct information very seriously," EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said.

The Commission said "an overall fine of USD 58.4 million is both deterrent and proportionate" calling GE's breach of its obligations a "serious infringement".

In January 2017, when GE notified the Commission of its merger plans, it said it was not developing any offshore wind turbine more powerful than an existing six megawatt turbine.

But the Commission said it had learned from a third party, which it did not identify, that GE was offering a 12-megawatt offshore wind turbine to potential customers. General Electric subsequently withdrew its notification and resubmitted its plans with "complete information", the Commission said.

The Commission approved the proposed acquisition on March 20, 2017. It was the second time that Brussels fined a company for having supplied incorrect or misleading information.

In May 2017, the Commission fined the US social media network Facebook 110 million euros as part of its 2014 investigation into its acquisition of mobile telephone application WhatsApp.

Under EU merger rules, the Commission can impose fines of up to one percent of the aggregate turnover of companies which supply incorrect or misleading information.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The EU will "stand fully behind Ireland" whatever happens with Brexit, chief negotiator Michel Barnier said on Monday during a visit to Dublin.

Barnier also warned Britain that, in case of a no-deal Brexit, the EU would not open trade talks until the question of the Irish border had been resolved.

"We would not discuss anything with the UK until there is an agreement for Ireland and Northern Ireland, as well as citizens' rights and the financial settlement," he said.

All three issues are covered by the withdrawal agreement, which was struck between British and EU negotiators in November but has been rejected by the British parliament.

Brexit hardliners oppose provisions in the deal which they fear could end up locking Britain into the EU's economic embrace and prevent it from striking its own trade deals with countries around the world.

The EU has opposed any renegotiation of the divorce deal but Barnier on Monday said an accompanying political declaration on future trade ties could be reworked "extremely quickly".

The British government is currently in talks with the opposition Labour Party on a possible compromise that could include a customs union.

Irish Prime minister Leo Varadkar express support for the cross-party talks in London.

"I sincerely hope that it'll be possible to build sufficient consensus to enable ratification of the withdrawal agreement," he said.

"We're open to extending the deadline to allow these discussions to run their course.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangh (RKM), an umbrella body of 185 farmers' organisations across the country, appealed to the community on Monday to not vote for the BJP.

The RKM also released a booklet, 'Narendra Modi Kisan Virodhi' (anti-farmers Narendra Modi), listing out the alleged failures of the National Democratic Alliance government on the agriculture front.

Addressing a press conference here, a number of farmer leaders accused the Modi government of deceiving farmers and alleged that its actions over the past five years had been detrimental to the peasants.

"The main aim of this booklet is to mobilise the farmers and the youth on the issues of national and social importance like farm distress and unemployment in a non-political manner," said Abhimanyu Kohar from Haryana.

Kohar claimed that the Modi government had not taken a single step to make farmers debt-free, saying it waived corporate loans worth Rs 2.72 lakh crore.

Shiv Kumar Kakkaji from Madhya Pradesh claimed that the ruling BJP government had taken 25 anti-farmers decisions, including non-implementation of the Swaminathan report that recommended giving better price for the farm produce.

Kakkaji said the Modi government had tried to amend the land acquisition act to "benefit the capitalists".

"The BJP governments in different states have managed to bring the land acquisition act through a backdoor entry," he said.

The legislation is currently with the select committee of the Parliament following protests from the Opposition over certain clauses of the bill.

Jagjit Singh Dallewal from Punjab said the online national agriculture market or e-NAM, soil health cards and the irrigation scheme had failed completely to provide any relief to the farmers.

Harpal Chaudhary from Uttar Pradesh highlighted the issues of sugarcane farmers in the state, saying dues of nearly Rs 22,000 crore were pending.

Basavraj Patil from Karnataka said the free trade agreements, which are negotiated with other countries and regional blocs, were having a serious impact on farmers.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A father allegedly killed his teenage daughter and a man in a suspected case of honour killing in Pakistan's Punjab province.

The 17-year-old girl, Shiba, and her 19-year-old friend, Almas, were found dead at the girl's house in a village in Mandi Bahauddin on Sunday, police said.

Citing initial investigations, a police official said that it seems that the double murder was a case of 'honour killing'.

The entire family of the deceased girl is on the run.

Police said that a case will be lodged after a post-mortem examination of the victims.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Back in Rampur after a long hiatus, this time as a BJP candidate, actor-turned-politician Jaya Prada says she's fighting elections to restore the pride of women and free the constituency from the "illegal grip" of her former SP colleague Azam Khan.

The actor, who is seeking a third term from the Rampur Lok Sabha seat, said things have become much easier for her this time with BJP cadres around her.

The former Samajwadi Party leader won from Rampur in 2004 and 2009 but lost from Bijnor in 2014 when she contested on a Rashtriya Lok Dal ticket.

I have an emotional attachment with the people of Rampur. I am here to work for them and make Narendra Modi our prime minister once again while Azam is fighting election to legalise his acts," Prada told PTI in an interview.

"I also want to ensure development of the constituency," she added.

In 2004, Prada made history when she won the Rampur seat for the first time for the SP by defeating sitting Congress MP Begum Noor Bano by 85,000 votes. And now she is back to familiar territory, but as a BJP candidate.

With the BJP cadres with me, things have become much easier. I had to manage things earlier on my own but with the cadre support this time, it is quite easy to manage them.

The actor, who made a mark in southern cinema as well as in Bollywood, hit out at Khan for his derogatory statements.

He can say anything. He did not have any respect for women. It's his habit to make such statements but the people of Rampur know him very well. They dislike what he says and will reply to him with their votes, she said.

In 2004, when I was in Mumbai (acting in Bollywood) and contested from here, he campaigned for me. Didn't he know me then? He now calls me 'amrapali' (dancer), 'nachne wali' etc. It's his habit, he can say anything to any women. He is a performer himself.

About the response she is getting from the people of Rampur, Prada said the Jatavs and the Dalits are unhappy with the SP and are backing the BJP.

"Azam, who has been nine-time MLA from Rampur, has done nothing for rural areas. He had been a Cabinet minister but rural areas still lack development as he did nothing, she added.

In a clear reference to Khan, often in the for his controversial remarks, Prada said those who call Bharat Mata 'dayan' (demon), who do not acknowledge Kashmir as part of India and use foul language against the prime minister and Chief Minister YOgi Adityanath stand exposed before the people.

She said she was fighting the poll for restoration of women's pride and freeing Rampur from the illegal grip of Azam Khan".

Responding to criticism from rivals who call her an outsider, Prada retorted, "How can I be outsider? I represented the constituency in 2004 and 2009. I have been with the people in their good and bad times. They (rivals) are trying to confuse people but they are certainly not confused. They have made up their mind.

Asked whether she missed colleague and friend Amar Singh in her campaign, the actor expressed concern about his health.

"I pray for his speedy recovery. May he be fine, she said.

"I am sure the people of Rampur will once again give me a chance to represent them, she added.

The minority-dominated Lok Sabha constituency in western Uttar Pradesh goes to the polls in the third phase on April 23.

The Congress has fielded Sanjay Kapoor from Rampur, with many saying it is a direct one on one between Prada and Khan, a nine-time MLA from the Rampur assembly seat.

Rampur was a Congress stronghold from 1952 to 1989 before the BJP won it for the first time in 1991.

The Congress, however, managed to wrest it back in 1996 by fielding Begum Noor Bano.

In 1998, BJP's Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi won the seat. The following year, Begum Noor Bano got it back for the Congress again.

The SP made its entry in Rampur in 2004, fielding Jaya Prada who defeated Noor Bano by a big margin.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A fire broke out at Pakistan Prime Minister's Office here on Monday, according to a media report.

The fire broke out on the sixth floor of the building and Prime Minister Imran Khan was reportedly one floor below in a meeting, the Express Tribune reported.

The PMO was evacuated after the fire broke out.

The fire had been contained and a police official said an electrical short circuit may have caused the incident, the daily reported.

Speaking to the media, the PM's spokesperson said they have no knowledge of any important documents being destroyed by the fire.

We will be able to provide further information after a complete investigation of the incident, the spokesperson added further, saying they could not yet comment with certainty on the cause of the fire.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Former chief election commissioners Monday welcomed Supreme Court's direction to the EC to increase the matching of paper trail machine slips with EVM results, saying it will boost the confidence of people in the electoral process.

Former CEC V S Sampath told PTI that the ruling is a "good solution". "The Supreme Court has put an end to the controversy once and for all," he told PTI.

He said matching of EVM results with slips from paper trail machines was feasible and it would not delay the results.

Another former head of the poll panel, Nasim Zaidi said that in 2017, the commission had suggested tallying results in five to seven per cent constituencies. "We had also given a sample size," he said.

He described the ruling as "very, very good", saying it will improve the satisfaction of the people. "It was the Supreme Court which had ordered the use of VVPAT machines. Now it has given the matching a five-time jump. It is good for perception of the people," Zaidi said.

He said the EVMs cannot be tampered with and the top court's direction will bring added satisfaction and confidence among the people.

Former chief election commissioner S Y Quraishi also welcomed the order. "It is a very good decision. There was a need for people's faith in the system and now I think the order of the apex court will put the matter to rest," he said.

On the ECI's submission before the apex court that the tallying would delay the vote-counting and cause "insurmountable difficulty" in the election process, Quraishi said five teams can be set up and counting can be done faster.

"Five teams can be set up and can do the work faster. The approach should be solution oriented and it should not be made into a prestige issue by the ECI," he told the reporters on the sidelines of an event.

"In those times, ballot papers used to be of newspaper size, 20-50 candidates in fray and on every ballot they used to fight but now the slip of VVPAT is of 3/3 inches and it can be counted easily," he said.

The apex court on Monday directed the Election Commission to increase the random matching of VVPAT slips with EVMs from one booth per assembly segment to five in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls for better voter confidence and credibility of electoral process.

The order came on a plea filed by 21 opposition parties that had sought a direction to the poll panel to randomly verify at least 50 per cent of electronic voting machines using voter-verifiable paper audit trail slips in the assembly and general elections beginning April 11.

After votes are cast, the polling station where VVPAT slips are matched with EVM results is decided by a draw of lots or lottery system in the presence of the candidates.

VVPAT machine is a device which dispenses a slip with the symbol of the party for which a person has voted.

The slip appears on a small window for seven seconds and then drops in a box. The voter cannot take it home.

Nearly 39.6 lakh EVMs and 17.4 lakh voter verifiable paper trail machines (VVPAT) would be used in these polls.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
One of the most prominent features of President Donald Trumps proposed federal education budget is his administrations pitch to create $5 billion in annual tax credits to bolster educational choice. These dollar-for-dollar tax credits for private donations to scholarship-granting organizations, branded as Education Freedom Scholarships, could pay for private school scholarships as well as transportation, special education services, and more.

But would the program rely on public money to pay for it? The question isnt a new one in debates over school choice, but U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos put it front and center last week on social media:

Despite what some may try to tell you...Education Freedom Scholarships are privately funded and do not take any money from public schools. #EducationFreedom pic.twitter.com/bzNTVrNVT5  Betsy DeVos (@BetsyDeVosED) April 2, 2019

When reporters responded by pointing out that the tax-credit program would incur a cost of $5 billion in public revenue, DeVos team responded by saying the framing of the issue was off-base. Heres one exchange:

A private donation isnt a public resource. Is a donation to a nonprofit that you claim on your taxes a public resource?  ED Press Secretary (@EDPressSec) April 4, 2019

In addition, the DeVos team said that any costs to the Treasury would be offset per congressional rules .

Run It Through the Tax Code

Asked why DeVos and her team object to the idea that the tax credits would take money away from public schools, even though the Trump budget request would eliminate billions of dollars in federal K-12 spending, Education Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Hill called it a fallacy to try to conflate the two. The Treasury Department wouldnt be losing a single additional penny under the proposal, and therefore it should not be understood as a cost, Hill said.

One term that some might find helpful in this debate is tax expenditures. The Tax Policy Center (which is run by the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution) quotes a 1974 law defining tax expenditures as revenue losses attributable to provisions of the Federal tax laws which allow a special exclusion, exemption, or deduction from gross income or which provide a special credit, a preferential rate of tax, or a deferral of tax liability. Dollar-for-dollar tax credits for Freedom Scholarships would meet this definition, said Carl Davis, the research director at the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy, a think tank that studies federal and state tax issues.



You can take virtually any spending-side policy initiative you might wish to craft and run it through the tax code instead, Davis said.

Davis also noted that the proposal stands out from how donations to charitable groups are currently treated by Washington as being worth up to 37 cents in tax deductions for every dollar donated. But Hill said the fact that these donations would receive a dollar-for-dollar credit only underscores the Trump administrations commitment to school choice.

People do it all the time. We dont view [the scholarships proposal] any differently than that, Hill said of charitable contributions. We have to think about all the ways in which Americans can donate to the charity of their choice and then receive some type of benefit from their choice.

Still, tax expenditures is a relatively technical term that perhaps wouldnt resonate with a huge portion of the public.

The fact that these credits would be overseen by the Treasury Department and not the Department of Education shouldnt mislead people about what the credits ultimately represent, said Sasha Pudelski, the advocacy director of AASA, the School Superintendents Association, which opposes vouchers.

Theyre public dollars that are really being redirected into private hands, she said. Theyre public dollars that are coming [out of the Treasury] at a cost to other programs.

Lindsey Burke, the director of the Heritage Foundations Center for Education Policywhich advocates for school choice as well as a smaller federal role in K-12 educationhad a somewhat different but ultimately similar take.

Such a system of tax credits would be preferable to traditional bureaucracies that often surround federal education programs, Burke said. She added praise for the Trump administration for rolling back Obama-era education regulatory schemes, and in general keeping other regulations to a minimum. But she cited Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruzs comments about a similar proposal that he said would create new money for school choice.

Its hard to look at this and think it is not a federal program, Burke said.

In addition, Burke worried that a future presidency, particularly a Democratic one, could warp such a tax-credit system to privilege certain policy priorities for admissions and other hot-button issues, such as adding requirements for how transgender students access to school facilities is handled. Those kind of moves would only reinforce the idea that the tax credits ultimately represent a federal program, she noted.

Hill, in turn, called this a straw man argument because of DeVos insistence that the tax credits create a states-centered, students-first approach.

States dont have to participate. Students dont have to participate. No ones compelled to donate, Hill added.

What about the offset issue? You might have noticed that DeVos team said any impact on revenues from the tax credit would be offset due to congressional rules. Thats a reference to a congressional rule known as PAYGO, which requires tax cuts, or increases in entitlement or other mandatory spending, to be offset by corresponding spending cuts or tax increases.

Hill said the PAYGO rule would apply to these tax credits. She said the department has had discussions with lawmakers about which offsets they would find acceptable, but declined to identify which possible offsets had been discussed.

However, Davis argued that this arrangement would extend, not end, the debate over these tax credits. Thats because PAYGO ultimately requires a tax hike (not something the Trump administration generally supports), or shrinking or eliminating some other federal program, which might spur a new wave of pushback.

Photo: Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos in August 2017 (Cory Morse/Grand Rapids Press)

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 . And follow the Andrew Ujifusa half of Politics K-12 @AndrewUjifusa .
Newly elected head of the municipality of Turkeys Ankara city from the Republican Peoples Party Mansur Yavas has taken office.

Yavas received his certificate of election today from Turkey's Supreme Election Council (YSK), Anadolu Agency reported.

Mansur Yavas was elected mayor of Ankara metropolitan municipality with 50.93% of the votes on March 31 local elections in Turkey.

Ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party had contested the results, however, Yavas was still ahead after the vote recount.
French lawmakers on Monday began debating a new tax on digital giants such as Facebook and Apple that has angered the United States, with Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire boasting that France was proud to be in the vanguard of such a move.

The United States has urged its NATO ally to drop the plan, with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warning last week that it would hurt both the American firms and the French citizens who use them.

The legislation, dubbed "Gafa" after Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple, comes amid rising public outrage at the minimal tax paid by some of the world's richest firms.

"France is honoured to be leading on such subjects," Le Maire told parliament, saying that the draft constituted a "step... towards a fairer and more efficient taxation for the 21st century." The debates in the National Assembly are due to last until Wednesday.

Responding to the criticism from the United States, Le Maire said France was "determined" to press on with the legislation and would be "sovereign" on fiscal issues.

He said it was "unacceptable" that digital giants could make "considerable profits" from user data so that the "profits are made in France but the taxes are imposed abroad".

Last month, France unveiled the draft legislation to set a three percent tax on digital advertising, the sale of personal data and other revenue for any technology company that earns more than 750 million euros (USD 840 million) worldwide each year.

France is seeking to agree the legislation on a national level after a European Union-wide effort was scuttled by low-tax countries such as Ireland, which have wooed big technology firms.

But Le Maire insisted that a "good solution in the long term will be a multilateral solution," vowing not to let up in efforts for an agreement within the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A court in northern France handed jail terms to two vegan activists on Monday for a string of attacks on butchers, shops and restaurants selling meat, after a trial lawyers said was the first of its kind in the country.

The court in the northern city of Lille handed the pair prison terms of 10 and six months over the attacks on businesses in the north of France from November 2018 to February 2019.

The couple, a 23-year-old youth worker named Cyrile and a 29-year-old employee at a kindergarten called Mathilde, were convicted of criminal damage after breaking windows and starting fires at butchers, fishmongers, restaurants and shops in the area.

They are likely to escape having to serve time behind bars under French law that allows jail sentences of less than two years to be converted into community-based service.

"We needed an example to be made of them so that these actions by small groups with extremist and profoundly violent ideas come to an end," the head of the local butchers' federation, Laurent Rigaud, said in a statement.

The activists are from a movement that describes itself as being "anti-speciesist", which rejects the idea of humans sitting at the top of the species hierarchy and consuming animals.

Two other accused, including a woman accused of complicity in the attacks, were given suspended jail terms of six months.

The court also ordered the payment of compensation to the victims, whose businesses suffered damage estimated at several million euros.

In the trial, Cyrile and Mathilde, who both had no previous criminal record, admitted taking part in nocturnal raids where they broke windows or scrawled slogans like "Stop Speciesism" and "Assassins" on businesses selling meat.

Last June, French butchers wrote to the interior ministry seeking increased protection after several businesses were vandalised across the country, often splashed with fake blood.

As eating and health habits change in traditionally carnivorous France, meat sales have been falling and the animal rights movement is increasingly active, led by campaigners including actress Brigitte Bardot.

But the CFBCT butchers' confederation, which represents 18,000 businesses, has been fighting back, notably backing a campaign to have the culture of the butcher in France inscribed as global heritage by UNESCO.

Butchers' shops selling a wide variety of meats and cuts are a mainstay of French shopping streets throughout the country with family-run businesses still managing to survive.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
France's prime minister has called for quick tax cuts to respond to the anger expressed through the yellow vests protests across the country.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on Monday unveiled the results of a three-month "grand debate" launched by President Emmanuel Macron in response to the protests so ordinary people could express their views on France's economy and democracy.

Philippe says "the debate clearly indicates the direction: we must cut taxes and cut them more quickly." At the same time, however, he said the government must cut public spending.

Macron is expected to unveil a series of economic measures next week.

The yellow vest movement, prompted by a fuel tax hike in November, has expanded into a broader revolt against Macron's policies, which protesters see as favouring the rich and big businesses.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Goa deputy Chief Minister and Goa Forward Party (GFP) chief Vijai Sardesai Monday requested the Election Commission to exempt traditional religious activities from the scope of a sound ban deadline during the Lent season, which is observed by Christians.

For the community, Lent is a season of grief that necessarily ends with a great celebration of Easter, which falls on April 21 this year.

"Goa Forward Party will request the Election Commission to exempt traditional religious activities in Goa from sound ban under the Noise Pollution Rules," Sardesai twitted on Monday evening.

He also said that all religions should come in the ambit of this exemption.

"This is relevant due to ongoing Lenten Season and pre Easter services," he tweeted.

The Lent season which began on March 6 will end on April 18, followed by Good Friday and the Easter.

When contacted, Additional Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Narayan Sawant said the matter would be taken up before district election officials.

"We will issue directions asking the officials to ensure that traditional religious activities are not disturbed. The religious activities don't disturb the election process and hence, we will ensure that they are also not disturbed," he commented.

A sound ban is not imposed under the model code of conduct, but under the Noise Pollution Act norms loud speakers are not allowed after 10 PM.

Elections to two Lok Sabha constituencies and bypolls to three assembly segments will be held on April 23.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The BJP is banking on issues of development and national security as it takes on the infallible SP-BSP-RLD combine in Ghaziabad, where a resurgent Congress in urban areas has made it a keen contest.

Spread over Loni, Muradnagar, Sahibabad, Ghaziabad and Dhaulana assembly segments, the constituency has 27 lakh voters, up from the 23 lakh in 2014 when the Bharatiya Janata Party's V K Singh rode high on the "Modi wave" and won with a thumping majority.

The former Army chief, who was labelled as an "outsider" because of his Haryana origin and still fighting that tag, had raked in 7.58 lakh votes, 56 per cent of the total votes polled. He alone had pulled nearly two lakh more votes than the 14 other candidates and NOTA combined.

Among the 12 candidates in the fray are the Singh (67), Congress' Dolly Sharma (33), an MBA with political lineage; and the Samajwadi Party's Suresh Bansal (70), a former MLA backed by the Bahujan Samaj Party, Rashtriya Lok Dal and the Aam Aadmi Party.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanth have been here multiple times in recent months.

"Development, nationalism and national security are our key poll planks this time," Prithvi Singh, a six-time BJP state executive member, told PTI.

The BJP is counting on the extension of the metro rail line, the work on NH-24, opening a domestic terminal at the Hindon airport.

Singh, the minister of state for external affairs, reiterated bringing in projects worth Rs 32,000 crore, including a regional rail transport system (RRTS) that would connect Delhi and Meerut via Ghaziabad.

Ghaziabad also moved from 351st rank in cleanliness index in 2017 to 13th in 2018. "Some works have been done and some others remain in pipeline. If we do not get another chance, those works may not get completed," he added.

The Samajwadi Party claims that nothing more has come to Ghaziabad since the Akhilesh Yadav government was succeeded by the BJP.

"People are angry over the local issues. In fact, the BJP workers have admitted, but hesitantly, that they cannot get work done. The MP should be local and available to the people. The traders and businessmen are unhappy about GST and demonetisation," said Sanjay Yadav, former Ghaziabad president of the SP.

The Congress claims that the BJP had given nothing to Ghaziabad.

"People are paying tax and they deserve better facilities. Basic infrastructure and traffic problems are an issue. The MP has done nothing on these fronts," Congress spokesperson Rajiv Tyagi said. He points out that his party has a plan for industrial panning and hassle-free traffic in Ghaziabad.

"When the BJP can waive loans of farmers, why cannot they do it for the poor, the farmers? Our state governments have proved this can be done," Tyagi said.

Lawyer-activist Neeraj Saxena, 56, claimed that the constituency was suffering from rampant illegal construction, encroachment, poor healthcare and transport system.

"We are taxpayers. We deserve basic amenities and it is the responsibility of elected representatives to deliver that," said Saxena, a Ghaziabad resident since birth.

Political observers believe civic issues might influence voting among the mixed, urban crowd of Sahibabad (9.48 lakh) and Ghaziabad (4.48 lakh), while caste factor may play an important role in Loni (4.91 lakh), Muradnagar (4.43 lakh) and Dhaulana (3.94 lakh) segments.

Considered a BJP stronghold with a combined Brahmin-Vaishya voters, a traditional supporter of the party in the region, of around 10 lakh, the constituency is also home to six lakh Scheduled Castes, 5.5 lakh Muslims, 1.5 lakh Jats, around 50,000 Yadavs, among others in the electorate, according to poll observers.

"We are likely to win again but our victory margin may go down. The alliance (SP-BSP-RLD) is going to make some impact. Yadavs and Muslims won't support us. It's the Jat votes that will get divided," a senior local BJP leader told PTI requesting anonymity.

Congress' Tyagi claimed that his party's vote bank is intact and the Congress candidate has appeal in urban areas, even as the BJP's Singh said the "infighting" in the Congress will spell doom for it despite "no question mark on Dolly Sharma as an individual".

The SP's Yadav said even if the alliance candidate Bansal gets the vote share on the same trend as in 2014, the SP-BSP-RLD could breach this BJP seat.

Notably, the SP had initially planned to field Surendra Kumar Munni, its current district-unit president and a Brahmin face, but was replaced by Bansal, a Vaishya, after the Congress nominated Sharma, to ward off split in Brahmin votes.

"Honestly, this time there is not even the so-called Modi wave, so we are hopeful. Once we win, this Brahmin-Bania tag from Ghaziabad will also get removed. It's only because of the BJP," he said.

The AAP, which had last time got around 89,000 votes with Shazia Ilmi (who joined the BJP post 2014 polls) as its face, has stepped up campaign for consolidating anti-BJP votes.

"AAP has some influence in urban areas like Vaishali, Kaushambi and Indirapuram, so it may do something little but even that would matter if the fight gets close," he added.

Of the total voters in Ghaziabad, which goes to polls on Thursday during the first leg of the seven-phase election, 15.17 lakh are male, 12.08 lakh female and 109 third gender.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Days before India begins to vote in the world's largest democratic exercise, thousands of miles away a team of experts maintain round-the-clock vigil on election-related chatter on Facebook, ready to combat the first signs of misinformation, voter manipulation tactics, poll interference and fake

Facebook -- which counts India as one of the biggest base outside the US -- has put in motion an elaborate strategy at the headquarters here with 'information warriors' at its election war room watching out for hoax, voter supression attempt, suspicious account behaviour, hate messages, fake accounts, and spikes in spam.

Ajit Mohan, Managing Director and Vice President, Facebook India said the platform has also expanded partnerships with third-party fact-checkers to seven accredited organisations in India.

"These groups cover eight of the most spoken languages English, Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Gujarati and we're looking to add more. In a country largely driven by local and community news, we knew it was critical to have fact-checking partners who could review content across regions and languages," Mohan said in a blogpost on Monday.

Building on the lessons learnt over the last two years (the planning began nearly 18 months ago), this week Facebook will activate new regional operations centres, focused on election integrity, in Singapore and Dublin. These teams will work closely with staff in Menlo Park, CA headquarters as well as with local experts in Delhi.

Once the team, manning the election operation centres, identifies attempts of platform abuse, they move in swiftly to contain them. Last week, Facebook removed 687 pages and accounts linked to the Congress and a smaller but far more influential number of what appeared to be pro-BJP accounts for "coordinated inauthentic behaviour" on the social media platform.

The election operation centre supplements the ongoing efforts of the platform to crackdown on misinformation during the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Facebook has already brought in transparency initiatives for political ads, teamed up with third party fact checkers for India, and rolled out initiatives like Candidate Connect (a voter outreach feature that allows Lok Sabha candidates to record 20 second videos).

As many as 40 cross functional teams, drawn from areas like cybersecurity, public policy, data science, legal, engineering, threat intelligence, research and others work together in sync at the command centre to co-ordinate, detect and respond to situations in real time.

And soon, key officials from the US office will fly down to India and Singapore to oversee the functions, as seven phase general elections get underway. The elections will begin on April 11 and continue till May 19, with counting scheduled on May 23.

"...if a report comes that there is a piece that maybe violates our community standards...maybe people are giving wrong information on voting ...we will report and a task gets created in the war room and the community operations person then evaluates that piece of content to see if its violates our community standards...minutes of taking a look at that, can take the content down," says Katie Harbath, Facebook's Public Policy Director for Global Elections.

There could also be instances when these efforts require close coordination with fact checkers and the response time could be a tad longer.

"You might get reports that there is violence happening at a place. There could be violence happening or it could be voter suppression tactics to make voters stay away (from an area). That is not a determination we can make, so we direct it to fact checkers to do review and that can take a bit longer. As soon as they mark it as false, the content reach will be reduced and we will provide additional context," says Harbath briefing reporters during a media tour of the election operations centre here.

With nearly 900 million voters eligible to cast their votes in a nation that now has over 200 million Facebook users, its election integrity strategy for India is harnessing the full potential of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in an attempt to defeat 'bad actors' who try to game the system through nefarious means.

For instance, these tools help it block or remove approximately one million accounts a day. They also help identify abusive or violating content, quickly locate it across the platform and remove it in bulk - reducing its ability to spread.

Facebook continues to expand on this initiative, adding 24 new languages including 16 for India to its automatic translation system, Mohan said.

"It's not just being ready for threats we saw in 2016 or 2018, we recognise that there is always work that is to be done...so many of the investments we have made are particularly around videos...that focused on ensuring that we are ready for next set of challenges including around tamperes videos," says Kaushik Iyer, Engineering Manager for Civic Integrity at Facebook.

While Facebook did not divulge the investments or number of employees at the election operations centre, it says the money that it has ploughed into the entire machinery - leveraged in the past for American midterms and the recent Brazilian elections - is amongst the top things in importance for the company.

"The investment in India is same size and level of importance that we have had for Brazil and the US...," says Harbath.

Mohan said the work to ensure Facebook is not used to influence elections began more than 18 months ago with a detailed planning and risk assessment across its platforms.

"The findings allowed us to concentrate our work on key areas, including blocking and removing fake accounts; fighting the spread of misinformation; stopping abuse by domestic actors; spotting attempts at foreign meddling; and taking action against inauthentic coordinated campaigns," Mohan said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Out of the 52 candidates fielded by main contenders BJP and Congress in Gujarat, 25 are not even graduates, while in one seat the most qualified nominee, a doctor, is pitted against a Class 5 dropout.

As per details furnished by candidates in their nomination forms, BJP's Surendranagar seat nominee Mahendra Munjpara holds a doctorate degree in general medicine while his main rival, Congress' Soma Patel, dropped out of school after Class 5.

Munjpara is contesting the Lok Sabha polls for the first time, while Patel is a three-term MP, who also won the 2017 state Assembly election from Limbdi.

Out of the 25 non-graduates, 14 have been nominated by the BJP and 11 by the Congress.

Among these 25, four of the Congress and one of the BJP did not complete their matriculation.

BJP's sitting MP Kirit Solanki, who is again contesting from Ahmedabad (West) seat, its Valsad seat nominee K C Patel and Congress' Bardoli seat candidate Tushar Chaudhary hold MBBS degrees.

Two candidates, Parbat Patel and Bharatsinh Dabhi, contesting on BJP's ticket from Banaskantha and Patan seats, respectively, are lawyers.

Besides, BJP's Mitesh Patel and Congress' Bharatsinh Solanki, both contesting from the Anand seat, are qualified engineers.

The saffron party's Kheda seat nominee Devusinh Chauhan and Bardoli candidate Prabhu Vasava also hold engineering degrees.

BJP's Panchmahal seat nominee Ratansinh Rathod and Dahod candidate Jaswantsinh Bhabhor are B.Ed (Bachelor in Education) degree holders.

Besides, two candidates of the BJP and five of the Congress are commerce graduates.

As per the nomination forms, BJP's Bhavnagar candidate Bhartiben Siyal holds a BAMS (Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery) degree while Congress' candidate from the same seat, Manhar Patel, has done a diploma in agriculture.

Lok Sabha elections for 26 seats in Gujarat will be held in a single phase on April 23.

Total 573 candidates have filed their nominations in the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Election authorities in Gujarat Monday issued a show cause notice for alleged model code violation to BJP MLA Madhu Srivastava who is accused of threatening voters during his speech at a rally in Waghodia area in Vadodara on April 3.

The Congress had submitted a complaint and a CD of the purported speech of the Waghodia legislator to Vadodara district collector and election officer Shalini Agarwal Saturday.

Srivastava, who is representing the constituency for a sixth term, had denied the charges against him.

"We have issued a show cause notice to MLA Madhu Srivastava. He is required to submit his explanation about the video to us within two days of receiving the notice," said Agarwal.

Voting for all 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat will be held in a single phase on April 23.

In the video, which was submitted by local Congress leaders to the collector a few days back, Srivastava can be heard purportedly threatening people of Waghodia with dire consequences if they do not vote for the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

According to Congress, the election rally was organised on April 3.

While canvassing for BJP candidate and Vadodara MP Ranjan Bhatt, Srivastava purportedly said he will not spare voters if the BJP fails to win each and every booth in Waghodia.

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The Supreme Court Monday asked the Uttar Pradesh government to file fresh status report in the Hapur lynching case last year, in which one person lost his life.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna asked the state government to submit its status report on the investigation and trial in the case.

The apex court on September 5 last year directed the Inspector General of Police of Meerut range to supervise the investigation in the Hapur lynching case.

The Uttar Pradesh government had earlier told the court that it has transferred the SHO concerned and filed appeals seeking cancellation of bails granted to the accused in the case.

It had told the top court that the police had taken swift and instant action at the time of the incident and the investigation in the case will be completed in 60 days.

On August 13 last year, the apex court directed a senior Uttar Pradesh police officer to probe the case in which a person was killed and another brutally assaulted in the name of cow vigilantism.

It had termed the allegations of survivor Samiuddin as "serious".

It had also directed the IGP to "facilitate the recording" of victim's statement before a judicial magistrate regarding the incident in which 45-year-old Qasim Qureishi was beaten to death on June 18.

The plea filed by Samiuddin had sought setting up of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to ensure "an impartial, competent and fair investigation" into "the barbaric incident of mob lynching on June 18 last year in Hapur district of Uttar Pradesh.

The plea said that Samiuddin (the petitioner No. 1) and Qasim (deceased), both belonging to the minority community, were targeted and mercilessly assaulted by a mob of the majority community from the neighbouring village, in the name of cow vigilantism.

The plea had sought "setting up a SIT comprising of police officers with impeccable career records of integrity and competence from outside the state of Uttar Pradesh, which shall be charged with the responsibilities and duties of investigation, in respect of all issues relating to the matters concerning and arising from the incident".

It sought a direction that the SIT "shall report to and be responsible to this court through the filing of periodic status reports and shall also keep this court informed of any major developments".

The plea further sought a direction to the state government to compensate the victim for his medical treatment. It said Qasim had died as a consequence of the lethal mob lynching, while Samiuddin survived the attempt on his life but suffered multiple fractures, wounds and egregious injuries.

It said Yaseen and Dinesh Tomar, brother and a family friend, were subjected to "grave threat and coercion" by Circle Officer Pawan Kumar Singh of Pilkhuwa Police Station for lodging a false complaint of road rage instead of mob lynching.

It also sought cancellation of bail granted to the accused, including alleged key offender Yudhishthir Singh Sisodia.

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The Jammu and Kashmir High Court Monday issued a notice to the state government on a plea seeking striking down of the ban on movement of civilian vehicles on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway on Sundays and Wednesdays.

A division bench of Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Tashi Rabstan issued notice to the state government on a public interest litigation filed by former IAS officer Shah Faesal, through his counsel advocate Tassaduq Khwaja.

Faesal, in his PIL, has sought quashing of the order passed by state government last week, according to which the movement of civilian traffic on National Highway 44 between Udhampur and Baramulla has been banned on Sundays and Wednesdays to allow safe passage to security forces convoys. The ban came into force on Sunday.

The division bench directed the petition be listed for next hearing on Tuesday.

Faesal, the 2010 batch UPSC topper, resigned from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in January this year to protest unabated killings in Kashmir and maginalisation of Indian Muslims. Last month, he launched his own party the 'Jammu and Kashmir People's Movement'.

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Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's wife Anna Hakobyan, while paying a visit to the United States, declared that Yerevan's sacrifices in order to keep the occupied territories of Azerbaijan are senseless. She made this statement in the interview with Voice of America about her Women for Peace initiative.

First of all, Hakobyan stressed that 'Women for Peace' call on to maintain the ceasefire not only the Azerbaijani side, but also the Armenian side of the conflict.

"This is necessary to prevent young soldiers on the border from dying, both from the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides. The only meaning of our initiative is to save lives of the soldiers, not sacrifice them in vain, because all the years of confrontation resulted in numerous casualties on both sides," she explained.

"There were thousands of victims, but they were in vain, because these victims didnt bring us closer to resolving the conflict, not even an inch, if not the opposite, we were removed from the settlement, because we cannot find a solution to the conflict in the conditions of hatred," Anna Hakobyan noted.

After that, Nikol Pashinyan's wife informed that her team invited Azerbaijani women to join the initiative.
The Delhi High Court has put on hold JNU's resolution debarring two of its professors from participating in the university's Executive Council (EC) meetings, saying on first impression, it appears to be contrary to the university's statutes.

Justice Vibhu Bakhru stayed the minutes of the EC's 278th meeting to the extent that it debarred the professors from participating in future meetings of the academic body.

The court also issued notice to the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), represented by central government's standing counsel Monika Arora and advocate Harsh Ahuja, and sought its response within two weeks on a plea moved by the two professors challenging the university's decision.

"...this court is, prima facie, of the opinion that the resolution debarring them from participating in the meetings of the Executive Council is contrary to the statutes.

"In view of the above, the impugned minutes, to the extent that it debars the petitioners from participating in future meetings of the EC of the JNU, is stayed," the judge said and listed the matter for further hearing on August 7.

The court, however, made it clear that the university was not precluded from taking any other disciplinary proceedings, if required.

The professors -- one from the School of Social Sciences and the other the Dean of the School of Computer and Systems Sciences -- have said in their plea that they were debarred from the EC meetings for participating in a protest outside the Administrative Block of JNU.

They said the JNU Teachers' Association (JNUTA) had organised the protest meeting on January 31 against the 13-point roster system and for handing over a memorandum to members of Parliament appealing for a bill to restore the 200-point roster system.

The university had asked them not to hold the meeting, saying it would violate Regulation M-7 of the Academic Rules and Regulation and a high court order prohibiting any protest outside the block.

The petitioners, Sachidanand Sinha and Daya Krishan Lobiyal, have contended that the regulation and the high court order are applicable to the students of the university and not the teaching staff.

According to their plea, the EC had, on February 15, "illegally" barred them and 17 other teachers, who were part of the protest, from participating in its future meetings and the meetings of the Academic Council of the university.

The petition has contended that the minutes and decisions of the university "ought to be set aside and quashed as the same are illegal, arbitrary, unreasonable, excessive, violate the principles of natural justice and infringe the petitioners' rights under the Constitution of India".

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Veteran filmmaker Tim Burton says he has no clue about the status of "Beetlejuice" sequel featuring Michael Keaton.

The filmmaker, who recently directed Keaton in Disney's reboot of "Dumbo", said he is doubtful if the sequel to the 1988 fantasy horror will ever happen.

Burton was asked by USA Today about the status of the sequel, to which he replied: "Nothing, nothing."



Then asked if it's definitely happening, he said: "I don't know. I doubt it."



Rumours of a "Beetlejuice" sequel have been doing the rounds for years now, but nothing has been finalised yet.

"Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian", which took the demonic character to Hawaii, was green-lit after the big success of the original film, but never went into production.

In 2015, Winona Ryder had confirmed that a second film was in works. There were also reports of Mike Vukadinovich being roped in to write the movie.

Since 2017 there has been no update on the project.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
"Black Panther" star Chadwick Boseman channelled his inner Groot at a press conference for "Avengers: Endgame", answering every question on the film with a now-viral line: "I'm dead".

Boseman's King T'Challa was among the 16 superheroes who turned to dust in the aftermath of Thanos' finger snap in "Avengers: Infinity War".

While fans expect most of the superheroes, including Black Panther, to be resurrected in the second part, Boseman is not ready to spill the beans, reported IndieWire, sharing his amusing exchange with a reporter.

Interviewer: People are ready to see this movie.

Boseman: Of course.

Interviewer: They're buying the tickets, it's nuts. How does that feel to know people love this film so much?



Boseman: It's great, but I'm dead. So I can't answer any questions about that.

Interviewer: OK, so you don't want to give us a spoiler or anything like that.

Boseman: I'm dead.

Interviewer: How about "Black Panther 2" anything you can tell us?



Boseman: I'm dead.

Interviewer: We're not ready for you to be dead, Chadwick!



Boseman: But I am. I'm dead.

Clearly, directors Anthony and Joe Russo don't have to worry about Boseman giving out spoilers about the movie unlike co-stars Mark Ruffalo and Tom Holland.

Co-director Joe, who was recently in India to kickstart the film's promotional tour, had said that they went to extra lengths to keep the plot secret even from the actors.

"We are the ones who withhold the script from actors. We did it for a reason... If they don't know the whole story then they cannot slip up in an interview," Russo said in a group interview recently, adding that the script of "Infinity War" existed only on a single iPad.

But despite precautions, Ruffalo had ended up sharing a bit too much, actually the entire climax of "Infinity War", in an interview months before its release.

"Wait till you see this next one, half... everybody dies," Ruffalo had said as his co-star Don Cheadle looked in horror.

Joking about the two actors' inability to keep a secret, Russo in a press conference in Mumbai told a fan that he was not going anywhere around the story of "Endgame".

He credited his and brother Anthony's good practice of "protecting the plot" of the movie for three years from Ruffalo and Holland for it.

"But I appreciate and admire your effort," he quipped to the fan.

"Endgame" opens in theatres worldwide April 26.

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"Game of Thrones" star Gwendoline Christie says she is open to new projects as the winter in finally set to hit the world of Westeros.

The 40-year-old actor has played the role of Brienne of Tarth in the hit HBO series since season two.

"Now it's the last season, I don't need to worry about being employed for another year with a company. I am open to offers," Christie said in an appearance on "Good Morning America".

"I love cash! Cash is king," she added as quoted by People magazine.

The eighth and final season of "GOT" premieres April 14. The show will air in India on Star World.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Indian Air Force on Monday released radar images as part of its "irrefutable evidence" to assert that it shot down an F-16 fighter jet of Pakistan during the February 27 aerial combat over Nowshera in Jammu and Kashmir.

Graphic captures from an airborne warning and control system (AWACS) were shown by the IAF at a media briefing, reiterating that it has credible evidence that Pakistan Air Force (PAF) lost an F-16 fighter jet in the aerial engagement.

The IAF had issued a similar statement on Friday asserting that it shot down an F-16 in Nowshera sector after leading American magazine 'Foreign Policy' reported that a US count of the F-16s with Pakistan has found that none of them are missing.

Government has been maintaining that IAF pilot Abhinandan Varthaman had engaged with one of the Pakistani F-16s and shot it down before his Mig-21 Bison was downed, but Pakistan has denied losing any aircraft in the combat.

Varthaman was captured by Pakistan and was released after spending nearly 60 hours in Pakistani custody.

"The IAF has irrefutable evidence of not only the fact that F-16 was used by Pakistan Air Force on February 27, but also that an IAF Mig 21 Bison shot down a Pakistan Air Force F-16," Air Vice Marshal RGK Kapoor, the Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Operations and Space) said in a statement at the briefing.

He, however, did not take any question on the issue.

The IAF official said the Pakistan Air Force fired multiple AMRAAM missiles which were defeated by use of counter measures and tactical maneuvers.

"In the aerial combat that followed one MiG 21 Bison of the IAF piloted by Wing Commander Abhinandan shot down one F-16 of PAF as shown in radar image on the slide.

"The F-16 crashed and fell across the LoC in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. The IAF lost one MiG21 in the aerial engagement and Abhinandan ejected safely but his parachute drifted into Pakistan Occupied J and K," said the Air Vice Marshal.

Following the report in Foreign Policy, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan had accused the BJP for "whipping up war hysteria" and targeted the party over India's assertion that the IAF shot down a Pakistani F-16.

"There is no doubt that two aircraft went down in the aerial engagement on February 27, one of which was a Bison of IAF while the other was an F-16 of PAF conclusively identified by its electronic signature and radio transcripts," the IAF official said.

He said the IAF has more credible information and evidence that is clearly indicative of the fact that PAF has lost one F-16 in the air action on February 27. "However, due to security and confidentiality concerns, we are restricting the information being shared in the public domain."



The IAF showed images of the F-16 and JF 17 jets engaging with Indian fighters and how signal of the one F-16 dropped of from the radar.

"Analysis of electronic emissions have shown that the aircraft picked up the intercepts from air-borne radars and radio transcripts indicated F-16s in the area directly in front of Wing Commander Abhinandan's aircraft," Air Vice Marshal Kapoor said.

He said the PAF was unable to achieve its military objectives during the engagement.

The official said the Indian Army posts in the vicinity of the LoC in Jhangar sector have visually sighted two separate parachutes.

"The first sighting was in West, in general area Sabzkot and the second was after a few minutes in Southwest general area Tandar," he said.

Last week, leading American magazine 'Foreign Policy' reported that a US count of the F-16s with Pakistan has found that none of them are missing, contradicting India's claim that one of its fighter jets shot down a Pakistani F-16 during the aerial dogfight on February 27.

In the report, the magazine said two senior US defense officials with direct knowledge of the situation told it that American personnel recently counted Islamabad's F-16s and found none of the planes missing.

The report contradicted the claim made by New Delhi that the IAF shot down an F-16 jet of Pakistan.

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.

Indian Air Force has been forcefully asserting that it shot down a Pakistani F-16 during the dogfight. Pakistan has denied that it lost any F-16 jet during the aerial combat.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday said if Congress president Rahul Gandhi believes terrorism in not a poll issue then he should give up his Special Protection Group cover.

Addressing a BJP workers meet organised by the party's social media wing here, Swaraj said,"Opposition parties cannot feel the pulse of the nation like Prime Minister Narendra Modi can, which is why he managed to give Pakistan a befitting reply after the Uri and Pulwama terror attacks."



The union minister alleged the Congress does not consider terrorism to be a problem, "which was reflected in the party's election manifesto".

"If such is Rahul Gandhi's view, then I request him to give up his Special Protection Group cover. This could be done with a simple letter to the government. This will save the country huge sums of money," Swaraj said.

She said the opposition leaders do not trust the words of the country's defence forces, instead listen to the assertions of the Pakistan Army.

"It is a matter of shame that when our soldiers risk their lives and fight terrorists, our opposition members want to know how many were killed and demand proof for the same," she said.

She asked party workers to promote works done by the BJP government, including Ujjwala, Jan Dhan schemes, lengthened highway network, among others.

She said in the last five years the number of passport offices had grown from 73 to 159 and there were 46 new offices in Uttar Pradesh alone.

"Presenting the manifesto, Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned the three main focus areas of our party -- nationalism, uplifting the poor and good governance. We will stay committed to these issues," Swaraj said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Army on Monday said India has failed to provide any evidence of downing a Pakistani F-16 fighter jet during the February 27 aerial combat over Nowshera in Jammu and Kashmir, despite claiming that it has proof of the incident.

The statement came hours after the on Monday released radar images as part of its "irrefutable evidence" to assert that it shot down an F-16 fighter jet of during the airstrike.

In a tweet, Pakistani military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said, "Repetitions don't make truth of a lie. Despite claiming possession of evidence on shooting F16, still short of presenting it."



Graphic captures from an airborne warning and control system (AWACS) were shown by the in New Delhi at a media briefing, reiterating that it has credible evidence that Air Force (PAF) lost an F-16 fighter jet in the aerial engagement.

The had issued a similar statement on Friday asserting that it shot down an F-16 in Nowshera sector after leading American magazine 'Foreign Policy' reported that a US count of the F-16s with Pakistan has found that none of them are missing.

Air Vice Marshal RGK Kapoor, the Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Operations and Space), said the IAF has more credible information and evidence that is clearly indicative of the fact that PAF has lost one F-16 in the air action on February 27. "However, due to security and confidentiality concerns, we are restricting the information being shared in the public domain."



India has been maintaining that IAF pilot had engaged with one of the Pakistani F-16s and shot it down before his Mig-21 Bison was downed, but Pakistan has denied losing any aircraft in the combat.

Varthaman was captured by Pakistan and was released after spending nearly 60 hours in Pakistani custody.

Ghafoor also reiterated that Pakistan destroyed two Indian jets and claimed the "wreckage seen on ground by all".
India's in recent years has been "too much" driven by domestic demand and its exports were about one third of its potential, a official said, asserting that the next government needs to focus on export-led growth.

Praising attempts to liberalize markets within India, Hans Timmer, Chief Economist for the Region said "that is what is needed to become more competitive."



"At the same time you've seen also of the last couple of years that the current account deficit widened - an indication that increasingly growth came from the non-tradable sector -- from the domestic sector, and that makes it difficult to more, Timmer told PTI in an interview.

The polling for first phase of seven-phase parliamentary polls in the country is scheduled to take place on April 11, with the last phase on May 19 and the results will be announced on May 23.

In the last five years, he said, India's overall growth was "too much" driven by domestic demand, which resulted in double digit growth of imports, and four to five per cent growth in exports.

"In more recent months, that turned around somewhat. But the broader picture was that's a minus, he said.

The pluses were that we have seen the GST trying to create more flexibility within the country, so that it's easier to trade between states. That's what you need if you want to trade also with foreign countries, he said.

Responding to a question, the official said the focus of the next government should be on reducing the stimulus of domestic demand.

"That would be one. I think looking at trade liberalization on the side - that would be another to create more competition. I would look at what people feel as impediment in the labour market. Is it difficult to go to those new jobs? What about the startups of young people do they feel restrictions or not? he said, adding that it is also about female labour force participation.

"I think, the most important thing is the understanding that you need export-led growth because that's where you increase productivity when you compete in international markets; that's where you gain knowledge by interacting with competitors and with customers abroad. And so, it is that mindset," the top World Bank official said.

India, Timmer said, is exporting only 10 per cent of its GDP.

"What they should have exported is 30 per cent of the of GDP, given all their characteristics. India is a big country, so normally a big country doesn't that much in per cent of their GDP because when you're small you're a lot more open.

"But even for India, 30 per cent would have been normal if you look at the experience of other countries. It's only 10 per cent. So that's an enormous gap. And the gap is widening in the last couple of years, he told PTI.

According to him, friction between India and Pakistan is unhelpful to the trade and in the region.

The lack of regional integration is not the main course of the under performance in exports. And that's often the assumption. When people look at South Asia, immediately the problem of very limited regional integration jumps up, he said.

A latest report of the World bank on South Asia, he said, asserts that the economic under performance of South Asian countries is mainly because they are locked on fundamental issues within the domestic economies that have prevented the countries to become much more export-led, like one sees in East Asia.

Trade liberalization, flexible labour markets skills, trying to address the big problem of the difference between the formal economy and the informal economy, he said are some of his recommendations for the South Asian countries.

"So, it's a lot of domestic issues also. It's not just trade policies. A lot of domestic issues that have to be addressed to unleash that potential that has not been utilized now in exports. It's not one single issue that can solve , he said.

Responding to a question, Timmer said the South Asian countries need to learn from

"The fact that has been so competitive for so long means that did something right whereas didn't do it right. There was a clear focus in China to have export-led growth and to integrate into global markets. And you see a sharp increase in productivity at all. This is not an explanation that we couldn't compete. Somehow, the Chinese did it better than South Asia, he said.

The top bank official asserted that China is a "big opportunity" for

The slowdown in China is not a cyclical slowdown. It's not because they don't demand anymore. They are slowing down because of the supply side. They're running out of cheap labour in general because of their success. They are no longer that competitive, and they have now that policy that they want to rebalance their economy much more towards domestic services, less towards exports," he said.

That means that it has become easier to export to China which is very important, Timmer said.

It has become easier to compete with the Chinese. So for me China is, what is happening at the moment, is a big opportunity for South Asia, he stressed.
India and Sri Lanka Monday agreed to enhance bilateral cooperation in the defence sector, including training Sri Lankan military personnel, as foreign secretary Sanjay Mitra called on President Maithripala Sirisena.

Mitra arrived on a two-day visit to Sri Lanka on Sunday during which he will participate in several high level defence cooperation meetings.

He will also meet his counterpart Hemasiri Fernando and chief of defense staff Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne, besides visiting the central town of Kandy and the north central town of Anuradhapura.

India and Sri Lanka have agreed for enhanced cooperation in the areas of security and defence including regional security, said a statement from the president Sirisena's office.

The statement came after Sirisena's meeting with Mitra here this morning, it said.

India has agreed to train Sri Lankan defence personnel, it added.

Training of Sri Lankan defense personnel in India became an explosive issue during former Tamil Nadu chief minister Jeyalalitha's time.

She had demanded the expulsion of two Sri Lankan officers from the Defence Staff Services College in Wellington in the State.

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Indonesia's Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal by a woman sentenced to 18 months in jail under the country's controversial blasphemy law for complaining about the volume of a mosque's call to prayer.

Meiliana, 44, an ethnic Chinese Buddhist, was found guilty of insulting Islam for asking her neighbourhood mosque in Medan, on Sumatra island, to lower its sound system because it was too loud and "hurt" her ears.

In a decision posted to its website Monday, the Supreme Court said that it had rejected her appeal, but did not elaborate further.

Indonesia, which has the world's biggest Muslim population, is officially pluralist with six major religions recognised, including Hinduism, Christianity and Buddhism.

Freedom of expression is supposed to be guaranteed by law. But criticising religion - particularly Islam, which is followed by nearly 90 percent of Indonesia's 260 million citizens - can land offenders in jail.

Meiliana's comments more than two years ago triggered riots that saw angry Muslim mobs ransack Buddhist temples.

Some ethnic Chinese in the area fled in fear.

The case fuelled fears that Indonesia's moderate brand of Islam is coming under threat from increasingly influential radicals.

Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia's largest Muslim group, said the woman's comments should not have been considered blasphemous.

Rights groups have long campaigned against the nation's blasphemy laws, which they say are frequently misused to target minorities.

Last year Jakarta's former governor - the city's first Christian leader of Chinese descent - was sentenced to two years in jail for blasphemy.

There are hundreds of thousands of mosques across the Southeast Asian archipelago nation, with the five-times-a-day call to prayer heard everywhere in the biggest cities and smallest towns.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla made a plea in 2015 for places of worship to turn down the volume slightly to placate nearby residents.

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Pakistan, warning of a possible new attack by giant neighbor India, said 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 Ministers briefing of today and warned against any misadventure," Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal wrote on Twitter.

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 the two nuclear-armed neighbors had appeared to ease, Reuters reported.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief Dr K Sivan Monday said the response to the agency's proposed students outreach initiative, the Young Scientist Programme (Yuvika) was "immense" and the agency was mulling to organise it every year.

The selection procedure for this year's programme, likely to be held in the second week of May, was completed and three students each from 29 states and seven union territories have been shortlisted as participants, he said here.

Sivan was interacting with the media on the sidelinesof the golden jubilee celebrations of the Space Physics Laboratory (SPL), a premier research institution of theVikram Sabarbhai Space Centre (VSSC) here.

"That much enthusiasm was there...It is getting so much demand from pupils...it is going to make a big change. The programme is going to happen every year," Sivan said.

ISRO had launched the Yuvika programme from this year in tune with the Centre's vision "Jai Vigyan, Jai Anusandhan".

The initiative is primarily aimed at imparting basic knowledge on Space Technology, Space Science and Space Applications to children to kindle their interest in the emerging areas of space activities.

The two week-long programme would include invited talks, experience sharing by eminent scientists, facility andlab visits, exclusive sessions for discussions with experts, practical and feedback sessions, ISRO sources said.

Three students each from each state/union territories are proposed to be included in this programme, they said.

"Selected students will be brought to ISRO for two weeks training. The detailed training will have lab and facility visits there," he said.

The training would be in four ISRO centres, including the VSSC here, the U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC), Bengaluru and the Space Application Centre in Ahmedabad, he said.

"All of them will undertake a one-and-half day tour at Sriharikota to see the satellite launch facilities and other details. They will be taken to all big facilities and later to the original training centres," the ISRO chief said.

During their visit, there would be the launch of a sounding rocket and if the students were lucky, they would witness the actual launch of the satellite.

"It depends on their (students) luck of the day," he said, adding that ISRO also had another students' programme called "Samwad".

Earlier, while delivering the presidential address during the inauguration of the golden jubilee celebration of the SPL, Sivan appreciated the efforts of the institution, which aimed at scientific understanding of energetics, dynamics and chemistry of the terrestrial and planetary environment with implications to society.

The SPL has played a pivotal role in the progress of space research in the area of planetary atmosphere, encompassing the surface of the Earth, Earth's atmosphere and ionosphere,space environment and planetary atmosphere,he said.

Former ISRO chief K Kasturirangan and VSSC director S Somanath were among the dignitaries who attended the programme.

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Irrfan Khan on Monday said he is happy to be back on a film set and is excited to tell the audience another story.

Irrfan, who is making comeback to the movies with "Angrezi Medium" after recovering from neuroendocrine tumour, will be playing a sweet shop owner in the film, a sequel to his 2017 hit "Hindi Medium".

The actor shared a picture from the set of the movie, which is currently being shot in Udaipur, Rajasthan.

"GMB (Ghasiteram Mishthan Bhandar) serving since 1900s . It's going to be fun to tell another story #AngreziMedium," Irrfan captioned the picture.

In the photo, the 52-year-old actor can be seen dressed up as his character Champak.

According to the synopsis, Irrfan and Deepak Dobriyal 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.

The film features Radhika Madan as Irrfan's daughter and talks are on for another leading lady.

"Angrezi Medium" is directed by Homi Adjania and produced by Dinesh Vijan.

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The staff of one of the leading English dailies of Jammu and Kashmir has received deaths threats from an unidentified person here, prompting the publication to lodge a written complaint with the police, the paper said on Monday.

The Jammu bureau of the Greater Kashmir newspaper got several calls on Sunday, where the unidentified person allegedly threatened to shoot down the staff, the paper's officials said.

The publication has lodged a written complaint against the caller at the Gandhi Nagar police station.

A police official confirmed receiving the complaint from the newspaper and said appropriate action was being taken.

The National Conference, People Democratic Party and the Congress condemned the threats to the newspaper and demanded a thorough probe.

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Coffee Day Enterprises said Monday Japan-based Impact HD Inc will acquire 49 per cent stake in Coffee Day Consultancy Services Pvt Ltd (CDCSPL) for USD 15 million (about Rs 104.45 crore).

The company along with its material subsidiary Coffee Day Global Ltd (CDGL) and Coffee Day Consultancy Services Pvt Ltd has entered into a share subscription and shareholders agreement with Impact HD Inc for the deal, Coffee Day Enterprises said in a regulatory filing.

The CDCSPL will carry out the business of providing consultancy services in the retail sector. Subsidiary of CDCSPL operates and manages Coffee Day Fresh & Ground business.

"The company has approved to enter into the share subscription and shareholders agreement between Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd (CDEL) along with its material subsidiary Coffee Day Global Ltd (CDGL) and Coffee Day Consultancy Services Pvt Ltd (CDCSPL) with Impact HD Inc, (IHD) for subscription to equity shares of the CDCSPL by IHD by investing rupee equivalent to USD 15 million for 49 per cent stake in the CDCSPL," the filing said.

Coffee Day Enterprises said post subscription of equity shares by IHD, CDEL and CDGL will hold 51 per cent of the paid-up-equity capital of CDCSPL, the company added.

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The Allahabad High Court Monday rejected a petition filed by over 100 hundred farmers from Gautam Buddh Nagar who wanted back their land acquired for an upcoming airport in Jewar, according to their lawyer.

The writ petition, filed on behalf of 113 farmers, most of them from Kishorpur village in Jewar area, was made on February 23 and taken up on February 25, following which April 8 was marked for hearing in the case, said lawyer Ganga Dhar Shukla.

"The matter was taken up by a double-judge bench of Justice Pankaj Kumar Jaiswal and Justice Y K Shrivastava which rejected it this afternoon citing lack of any merit," he told PTI over the phone.

"The farmers are not satisfied with this decision and are mulling to move the Supreme Court to get their land back," Shukla said.

The advocate said the petitioners had moved the high court to get their land back not for enhanced compensation and wanted the land acquisition process to be stopped.

The Uttar Pradesh government had last year started acquiring land for the Jewar international airport, billed to be the biggest in the country when fully operational.

A total of 5,000 hectare land is required for the development of the proposed Greenfield international airport and cost Rs 15,000 crore to Rs 20,000 crore, according to officials.

For the first phase of the airport - the second in Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) 1,334 hectare land is required, 1,239 hectare land from six villages -- Rohi, Dayanatpur, Parohi,Kishorpur, Ranhera and Banwariwas.

The UP government had in November last year approved a fund of Rs 1,260 crore for acquisition of land for the airport.

Some landowners, including farmers, had initially resisted the land acquisition citing various reasons such as an "inadequate" compensation amount and related benefits, besides the resettlement policy.

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Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) Monday reported 5.8 per cent decline in retail sales at 5,78,915 units for financial year 2018-19.

During the year, the all-electric Jaguar I-PACE was introduced and sales of the Jaguar E-PACE, Range Rover Velar and the refreshed Range Rover and Range Rover Sport ramped up, the company said in a statement.

However, this was offset by continuing weakness in China and the run out of the first generation Range Rover Evoque, it added.

Sales for 2018-19 were up year-on-year in North America (by 8.1 per cent) but down 34.1 per cent in China.

"Clearly we were disappointed by the lower sales in China. However, together with our retailers we decided not to push sales 'at any cost' to ensure that our brands remain desirable," JLR Chief Commercial Officer Felix Brautigam said.

In the mid term, the company remains optimistic about the region, he added.

"Particularly, as we are starting to see results of our local turnaround strategy, with retails expected to stabilise in the next few months and grow thereafter," Brautigam said.

While Jaguar retail sales were up 3.2 per cent to 1,80,198 units in 2018-19, Land Rover retailed 3,98,717 units, down 9.3 per cent as compared with 2017-18.

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A Delhi court on Monday granted the government here time till July 23 for deciding on grant of sanction to prosecute former JNU student's union president Kanhaiya Kumar and others in the 2016 JNU sedition case.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat granted specific time to the Delhi government which had earlier told the court that it will take over a month to decide whether to grant sanction to prosecute Kumar and others in the case.

On January 14 this year, the police had filed a charge sheet in the court against Kumar, saying he was leading a procession and supported seditious slogans raised on the JNU campus during an event on February 9, 2016.

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The jury in the trial of four former Barclays executives accused of fraud during the 2008 financial crisis has been discharged, Britain's Press Association newswire reported Monday.

Ex-CEO John Varley and former executives Roger Jenkins, Thomas Kalaris and Richard Boath, had been charged with conspiracy to commit fraud in connection with an emergency fundraising from Qatar during the financial crisis. All four men had pleaded not guilty.

The trial at London's Southwark Crown Court began on January 23 and had been expected to last about four months.

No further information was available on Monday because the case remains subject to continuing reporting restrictions, according to PA.

Varley, who was chief executive from 2004 to 2010, is the highest ranking UK banking official to face charges linked to the financial crisis.

The charges concern emergency funding secured from Qatari investors in 2008 as the global banking sector went into meltdown.

In order to avoid asking the UK government for a taxpayer bailout, Barclays raised nearly 12 billion pounds (13.5 billion euros, USD 16.6 billion) from investors in the Middle East, including the Qatari state sovereign wealth fund, to help it weather the storm.

In turn, Barclays loaned USD 3 billion to the State of Qatar.

By contrast, British rivals Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group had to have billions of pounds of taxpayers' money pumped into them.

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A state-of-the art national facility for toxicological studies of Indian System of Medicine drugs would be set up in the Pondicherry University with the assistance of the Department of Science and Technology (DST).

The DST had sanctioned Rs 4.98 crore for the facility to be set up in the Department of Biotechnology of the central university, its Assistant Registrar K Mahesh said in a release here Monday.

The facility would be used for analytical and pre-clinical studies of test drugs of Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani systems of medicines, the release said.

The lab would extend its services to several industries, research organisations and medical institutions and schools in the southern states.

The release said university Vice-Chancellor Gurmeet Singh had assured a separate building for the proposed facility.

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A case has been registered against Madhya Pradesh Law and Public Relations Minister PC Sharma for allegedly promising jobs to Congress workers during a poll rally earlier this month.

Sharma, an MLA from Bhopal South-West Assembly seat, had made the remarks at a meeting on April 4 at Narmada Bhawan.

Senior leader Digvijaya Singh is the Congress candidate from Bhopal Lok Sabha seat.

Talking to reporters on Monday, MP Chief Electoral Officer V L Kantharao said, "We have received a report from Bhopal District Returning Officer. A case was registered against PC Sharma for violating the model code of conduct."



Sharma, during the April 4 meeting, had told booth level Congress workers from his constituency that those who performed well in their respective booths would be given government jobs.

The state BJP complained to the EC, which ordered the district returning officer to probe the matter.

TT Nagar police station in charge Virendra Chouhan said a case was registered on Sunday night on a complaint filed by Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Sunil Shrivastava for violation of model code of conduct.

Sharma told PTI he did not violate the model of conduct.

"I told the gathering that new jobs would be created by the Congress government. So more jobs would be available for them. Congress has pledged to make jobs its top priority in the Lok Sabha manifesto. Our Chief Minister Kamal Nath ji is also making efforts to create more jobs," Sharma said.

"What is wrong if I say more jobs would be available for the youths and they would be benefited from it. We don't make false promise of two crore jobs like the BJP did in the last Lok Sabha elections," he claimed.

MP BJP spokesperson Rahul Kothari said luring workers by promising government jobs was immoral and a violation of law.

"Sharma used immoral and illegal tactics to ensure the victory of party candidate Digvijaya Singh. He is the law minister of the state, but he himself violated the model code of conduct," Kothari said.

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The Internet should remain a free zone, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a welcome message to the participants, organizers and guests of the Tenth Russian Internet Governance Forum, which opened today. The message was read out by First Deputy Chief of the Presidential Staff Sergei Kiriyenko.

"I am confident that we should continue to follow the principle of the freedom of the Internet, creating conditions for a wide exchange of information and the implementation of business initiatives and startups," TASS cited the Russian leader as saying.
Auto major Mahindra & Mahindra on Monday said its pick up vehicles' domestic sale crossed 1.5 lakh units in domestic marker during the fiscal ended March this year.

The pick up range has sold 1,62,000 vehicles in FY-2019, compared to 1,49,121 vehicles in FY-2018, logging a 9 per cent growth, thereby posting the highest-ever annual sales growth in the segment since the launch, the company said in a release.

Mahindra's pick up range, which caters to the cargo transport segment, comprises brands such as Bolero Maxi Truck, Bolero pik-up, Bolero Camper and Imperio.

The company commands as high as 58 per cent market share in the 2-3.5 tons light commercial vehicle (LCV) category.

"The journey towards achieving this over 1.5 lakh units milestone of pickups in fiscal 2018-19 is a proud moment for us. We are grateful to all our customers and for the success of our newly-launched Maha Bolero Pickup 1.7T. Mahindra has the widest range in this segment today," said Veejay Ram Nakra, the company's chief of sales and marketing for automotive sector.

At present, the pick-up segment in India has sales of over 14,000 vehicles per month and is growing rapidly, the company said, adding Mahindra groups market share in the segment stood at 58 per cent in FY19.

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A UK High Court judge has denied embattled liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya permission to appeal against his extradition order to India to face alleged fraud and money laundering charges amounting to Rs 9,000 crores.

The 63-year-old former Kingfisher Airlines boss had filed the application in the High Court after UK home secretary Sajid Javid signed off on a Westminster Magistrates' Court order for his extradition to face the Indian courts back in February.

"The application for permission to appeal was refused by Mr Justice William Davis on 05/04/2019," said a spokesperson for the UK judiciary.

"The appellant (Mallya) has five business days to apply for oral consideration. If a renewal application is made, it will be listed before a High Court judge and dealt with at a hearing," the spokesperson said.

The application seeking leave to appeal had been passed on to a single judge, who was to make a decision on the basis of papers submitted as part of the application. Now that the judge on papers application has been rejected by Judge Davis, Mallya has the option to submit for a renewal.

The renewal process will lead to a brief oral hearing during which Mallya's legal team and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) on behalf of the Indian government will renew their respective claims for and against an appeal for a judge to determine if it can proceed to a full hearing.

Mallya has been based in the UK since March 2016 and remains on bail on an extradition warrant executed by Scotland Yard in April 2017.

In her verdict at the end of a year-long extradition trial in December last year, Judge Emma Arbuthnot had ruled that the "flashy" billionaire had a "case to answer" in the Indian courts.

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Maoists have put up posters and banners asking farmers and plantation workers in Mundakkai, a part of Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency from where Congress President Rahul Gandhi is contesting, to boycott the April 23 elections.

The posters were put up at some places in Mundakkai town under Mepady police station limits early Monday morning, Wayanad District police chief, R Karuppasamy, said.

"Police have beefed up security and we will be getting additional additional paramilitary forces. Already one company is stationed in the district," he told PTI.

"We are monitoring the situation and have begun investigation", he added.

A letter had also been sent to the Wayanad Press Club regarding boycott of the polls, Karuppasamy said.

Police have been on high alert in Wayanad since Maoist leader, C P Jaleel, was killed during an alleged exchange of fire with the police on March 6 this year.

Wayanad being a high-profile constituency following Rahul Gandhi's candidature, security has been tightened in the hilly district.

Gandhi, who was in Wayanad on April 4 to file his nomination, had taken out a roadshow in a massive show of strength along with his sister and AICC secretary of eastern Uttar Pradesh Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

He is expected to visit Wayanad again on April 16.

UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi are also likely to visit Wayanad, Congress sources said.

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Maval Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra has suddenly seen a rise in its profile as NCP chief Sharad Pawar's grand nephew Parth Pawar is contesting his maiden election from this seat against Shiv Sena's sitting MP Shrirang Barne.

While the entry of a third generation leader from the Pawar family has churned local politics, Barne has dismissed Parth's challenge, saying the NCP lacks organisation in the constituency which is spread from Pimpri in Pune district to Panvel in Raigad district neighbouring Mumbai.

Countering Barne, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) feels Parth will get votes from diverse sections of people who appreciated the work done by Parth's father and former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar in developing the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC).

An NCP leader said the party activists who had shifted their loyalty to the BJP and the Sena during and after the 2014 polls, are eager to back the Pawar scion.

The constituency with 22 lakh voters comprises six assembly segments--Pimpri, Chinchwad and Maval in Pune district, Uran, Panvel and Karjat in Raigad district.

Dismissing anti-incumbency and voter fatigue, Barne said Parth's only qualification is that he comes from the Pawar clan.

"People of Maval will never accept the NCP. Parth does not have any involvement in social activities. He doesn't have any contact with the people and lacks understanding of local issues," Barne said while referring to Parth's maiden poll speech wherein he spoke from a written text and fumbled many times.

The NCP, which has a strong presence in Pune district, has failed to register victory in the constituency since it was formed in 2008 after delimitation. The Sena has won two Lok Sabha elections held since then.

"Nobody is disappointed with my work. I have been implementing a lot of schemes of the Central and state governments. I have resolved various issues from water shortage to railway connectivity. A new passport office has also been set up," Barne said.

He said the issues pertaining to the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) in Navi Mumbai, new airport, agricultural issues and those related to unauthorised constructions under the PCMC still remained unresolved.

NCP Pune district president Pradip Garatkar said the youth from the constituency were seeking Parth's candidature as they wanted a young face with a clean slate to represent them.

He said Parth's entry into the poll fray will end factionalism in the party.

Crediting Ajit Pawar for making the PCMC the "number one civic body in Asia", the NCP leader said the PCMC was developed in a "planned and perfect" manner due to his vision.

Garatkar said the NCP lost 2014 general elections only due to the "Narendra Modi wave".

"Many leaders and corporators from the NCP who rose to higher ranks due to Ajit Pawar had joined the BJP then," he said, adding that these leaders are now disillusioned with the BJP and wanted Ajit Pawar to be in the saddle.

Garatkar claimed these party workers would work hard to elect Parth.

Refuting Barne's claim that the NCP lacks any base in Maval, he said the scenario is changing in favour ofthe party in areas under PCMC and also in Panvel, Uran and Karjat, neighbouring Mumbai.

The Shetkari KamgarPaksh, which has a strong presence in Raigad district, has extended its support to the Congress-NCP combine in the elections.

When asked about Parth's political acumen, Garatkar said he has a rich legacy and has seen politics from close quarters in his family.

He also conceded that Parth, who educated from a convent school, has been honing his skills to speak Marathi language.

"When Sharad Pawar contested the Lok Sabha election in 1984, Ajit Pawar had not even entered politics but he had started campaigning for him. In one such rally near Baramati, some party workers asked Ajit Pawar to address the gathering and they made him stand on the bonnet of a jeep," Garatkar said while stressing that Parth has been doing well despite being a greenhorn in politics.

"When Ajit Pawar stood on the bonnet, he was trembling and some party workers had to hold his legs so that he can complete his speech," he recalled.

For Barne, the stand of BJP MLA from Pimpri Laxman Jagtap is a factor to pay attention to.

The MLA is not in good terms with the Sena MP.

However, after intervention of senior BJP leader Girish Mahajan, Barne and Jagtap held a joint press conference Monday to announce that they are together.

Camil Parkhe, a journalist cum political expert from the PCMC area, said the Maval contest is a battle of prestige for the Pawars.

"It will be a close contest. This time, the NCP is leaving no stone unturned. Ajit Pawar himself is reaching out to voters for his son," he said.

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British Prime Minister Theresa May will meet with German and French leaders Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron as she scrambles to find a Brexit breakthrough ahead of Wednesday's crucial EU summit.

May will meet the two leaders on Tuesday, their offices announced on Monday, the day before the summit where she is expected to ask the bloc for another delay to Brexit. Britain will fall out of the European Union without a deal on Friday if no delay agreement is reached.

"The chancellor and the British prime minister will have an exchange of views on Britain's exit from the EU as well as on Wednesday's special summit of the European Council," said Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert.

May was on Monday to press ahead with her bid to find a "compromise" with the opposition Labour Party despite a backlash from her own Conservatives.

"Our intention is to engage further with the opposition today ... and we hope that will lead to formal face-to-face discussions" later Monday, a Downing Street spokeswoman said.

Having failed three times to get her withdrawal deal through parliament, May has been locked in talks with Labour to find a modified plan that could command a majority.

"It'll mean compromise on both sides but I believe that delivering Brexit is the most important thing for us," she said in a video message released on Sunday.

"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." Labour wants a customs union with Brussels, something May consistently ruled out as it would prevent Britain striking trade deals with the rest of the world.

The talks broke down last week, with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn saying, "I'm waiting to see the red lines move".

Labour is also facing internal division, with 80 MPs writing to Corbyn urging him to secure a guarantee of a second referendum in any deal.

Leading Brexit supporter Boris Johnson, the favourite to take over once May leaves, said the prime minister's talks with veteran leftist Corbyn were "so disheartening that you can scarcely believe it".

"It seems utterly incredible that he has now been invited into Downing Street to negotiate a Brexit deal," he wrote in his Daily Telegraph column.

"And it is doubly incredible that the government is -- so we are told -- willing to accede to his terms."



May's deal includes the legally binding terms of Britain's withdrawal, and also a political declaration outlining the principles of a future relationship. She has told restive Conservative MPs she will resign before negotiations on future trade ties begin.

Labour could seek to lock the agreement into law, making it much more difficult for May's successor to change strategy.

But Johnson said Britain staying in a customs union, "would make a total and utter nonsense of the referendum result".

May is hoping to have a deal to present to European leaders at the emergency summit on Wednesday, where she must secure another Brexit extension to prevent Britain leaving the bloc at 2300 GMT Friday with no accord.

She has asked for a delay until June 30, but the decision has to be taken unanimously by Britain and the remaining EU 27 members.

French 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.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said it was "extremely unlikely" a member would veto another extension and revealed he now favoured a lengthy delay.

Britain's parliament is expected later Monday to approve a bill to force the government to delay Brexit.

If passed, May will have to bring a motion to parliament on Tuesday, pledging to request an extension in Brussels and outlining the length of the planned for delay.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The poll authorities in Uttar Pradesh sent a factual report to the Election Commission (EC) here on Monday on the remarks made by BSP supremo Mayawati appealing to Muslims to vote for the SP-BSP alliance in the upcoming Lok Sabha election and not to allow the Congress to split their votes.

The chief electoral officer of Uttar Pradesh had asked the Sharanpur district magistrate on Sunday to send him a factual report on Mayawati's remarks in order to allow the poll panel to ascertain whether the comments were violative of the Model Code of Conduct, in force since March 10.

The model code states: "There shall be no appeal to caste or communal feelings for securing votes."



The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief's open appeal to the minority community came at the first joint rally her party held with the Samajwadi Party at Deoband in the last two decades.

The report of the Saharanpur district magistrate was forwarded to the EC and a decision on whether the remarks violated the poll code was expected in the next two days, a source said.

"I want to make an open appeal. It is not the Congress but the (SP-BSP-RLD) alliance which is fighting the BJP. The Congress wants to ensure that the alliance does not win. The Congress is trying to help the BJP in this election," Mayawati had said while sharing the stage with SP president Akhilesh Yadav and RLD chief Ajit Singh.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will host Theresa May for talks on Tuesday, on the eve of a crucial EU summit when the British premier is hoping to convince the bloc to grant her a new Brexit extension to June 30.

"The chancellor and the British prime minister will have an exchange of views on Britain's exit from the EU as well as on Wednesday's special summit of the European Council," said Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert.

The spokesman noted that the final decision on May's request will be made by all 27 remaining members of the EU.

But there are "always good reasons in such difficult and highly charged situations in Britain and the EU 27 to first talk to each other before the first deadline," he said.

Berlin also stressed the importance for the bloc's remaining members to speak with one voice on whether or not they will accept May's request for a new extension.

"Decisiveness and unanimity is essential at the European Council summit of government leaders," stressed Seibert.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Monday expressed confidence that members from the minority community in the coastal state will vote for the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Sawant said the minority community voters were aware of how Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the nation ahead in the last five years through his "inclusive policies".

"The minority community voters are educated, they read national newspapers, watch television and are aware about development undertaken by the Modi government. They are with the BJP," the chief minister told reporters here.

The BJP has fielded its sitting MPs Shripad Naik and Narendra Sawaikar from North Goa and South Goa Lok Sabha seats, respectively, where polling will be held on April 23.

"The Lok Sabha polls are for the country. Don't limit these elections to certain caste or religion," Sawant said.

Of the total voters in Goa, nearly 27 per cent are Christians.

Sawant said the issues related to Goa, like resumption of mining operations, tourism development, improvement of infrastructure and inclusion of Dhangar (shepherd) community under the Scheduled Tribes category, were suggested for incorporation in the BJP's national manifesto.

Responding to a question on support of allies, the chief minister said his government's coalition partners, including the Goa Forward Party and Independents, were campaigning for the BJP candidates in their respective Assembly segments.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
More than Rs 5 crore unaccounted cash have been seized from different places in Arunachal Pradesh after the model code of conduct came into effect, a senior police officer said Monday.

Election to the 60-member Arunachal Pradesh Assembly and two Lok Sabha seats in the state would be held on April 11.

Inspector General of Police Sunil Garg said that as on date more than five crore in unaccounted cash had been seized from different places in the state.

The Election Commission Sunday ordered poll authorities in Arunachal Pradesh to get an FIR lodged under a penal provision dealing with bribing voters, days after Rs 1.8 crore was recovered from two vehicles in the north eastern state.

While one vehicle belonged to former MLA Dangi Perme, the other vehicle was registered in the name of a deputy secretary of state transport department.

The money was recovered during raids by the Election Commission's expenditure monitoring committee.

In a letter to state chief electoral officer, the EC directed him to get an FIR registered under section 171 C and D of the Indian Penal Code dealing with bribing of voters.

Meanwhile, the EC appointed Special Expenditure Observer for Arunachal D D Goel on Monday underscored the importance of team work while checking, frisking people and vehicles during the election process.

Addressing the election officials here, Goel urged all stakeholders to leave no stone unturned in order to ensure free and fair elections and were not impacted by money.

He said that the Chief Electoral Officer must make a sincere effort to prepare a level playing field by systematically stemming the rampant use of money by political parties.

Goel asked the concerned officers to closely monitor the bank transactions to check financial malpractices and further emphasized on timely action on misuse of money during election saying that delay in taking actions would invariably defeat the purpose.

Inspector General of Police Sunil Garg while participating in the deliberation, told Goel that even CMs cars and police vehicles were not spared while carrying out checking.

The IGP said that as on date more than five crore in unaccounted cash had been seized from different places in the state.

Earlier, CEO Kaling Tayeng threw light on the election preparedness in the state and apprised Goel on the various steps that had been initiated to conduct free and fair simultaneous elections in the state on April 11 next.

Tayeng said that the Income Tax Department was actively involved along with police in checking electoral malpractices.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Uttar Pradesh government has not yet permitted the district authorities to withdraw any of the Muzaffarnagar riots cases that it had decided to take back, an official said on Monday.

According to prosecution sources, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party government, which had announced last December that it would 44 cases, only sought permission in about a dozen cases.

Dushyant Tyagi, the district government counsel, told PTI that the permission to withdraw the riot cases from the court had not been received so far.

The counsel said the prosecution had not been approached yet in most of the cases pending in the sessions court.

Communal clashes in Muzaffarnagar and adjoining areas in August and September 2013 had claimed 60 lives and displaced over 40,000 people.

Several BJP leaders, including Muzaffarnagar MP Sanjeev Balyan, Bijnor MP Bharatendra Singh, MLAs Sangeet Som and Umesh Malik, have been named in 125 cases. State minister Suresh Rana and Hindutva leader Sadhvi Prachi are also accused in the cases.

However, the cases that had been decided to be withdrawn do not include the names of the BJP leaders.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ex-President of Georgia and former governor of Ukraines Odessa region Mikhail Saakashavili has dared incumbent Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko to return his Ukrainian citizenship before the runoff election.

"I dare you to restore law, to return my Ukrainian passport and to let me into Ukraine! If you are not afraid, if you are indeed that brave and have made up your mind to change, then you have an opportunity to do this," Saakashvili said in a Facebook video address today.

He said he would not be giving Poroshenko 24 hours to do that. "But you still have enough time before the second round of the presidential race under the law and in line with international law. I am waiting for your decision, Pyotr Alexeyevich," TASS cited Saakashvili as saying.

In May 2015, Saakashvili was granted Ukrainian citizenship. In July 2017, Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko stripped him of his Ukrainian citizenship.
State-owned NBCC Ltd should adopt new construction technologies for faster execution of projects and to ensure minimum damage to the environment, Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra said on Monday.

The secretary was speaking at an event to give farewell to NBCC's former chief managing director (CMD) Anoop Kumar Mittal, whose term ended on March 31, 2019.

Shiv Das Meena, additional secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, has been given the additional charge of the post of CMD.

During Mittal's six-year tenure as CMD, Mishra said, NBCC's turnover jumped 2.5 fold to an estimated Rs 7,000 crore in 2018-19 from Rs 2,600 crore in 2012-13.

The company achieved this growth despite demand slowdown in the real estate sector, he said.

NBCC has become the first choice for redevelopment projects, Mishra said, adding that the company has been securing orders not only from the Centre but also state governments.

The government had denied service extension to Mittal till his date of superannuation, resulting in his demitting office a good 10 months before he would have retired.

Speaking at the event, Mittal said NBCC has become a big company with Rs 90,000 crore order book and its brand value has grown significantly. He emphasised on the need to hire good talent for the future growth of the company.

Mittal joined NBCC in 1985 as an assistant engineer and rose through the ranks to head the company. He was appointed as the CMD in April 2013 for a five year period. Last year, he was given a one-year extension till March 31, 2019.

Last week, sources said, the NBCC's parent ministry had recommended extension of Mittal's service till his superannuation in January 31, 2020, but the approval of the competent authority did not come.

NBCC is into project management consultancy and real estate businesses. It has bagged many prestigious projects in the last few years, including the redevelopment of Pragati Maidan in central Delhi.

The company has bid for acquiring Jaypee Infratech, which is undergoing insolvency process. It is also completing some projects of Amrapali Group, as per the direction of the Supreme Court.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal on Monday said it would decide on the insolvency of debt-ridden Reliance Communications (RCom).

RCom has pleaded the tribunal to go ahead with insolvency proceedings against it as it is unable to pay dues to its lenders.

Swiss telecom gear maker Ericsson, which received its unpaid dues of Rs 550 crore from RCom last month following a Supreme Court order, is opposing the move.

A two-member bench headed by Chairman Justice S J Mukhopadhaya also observed that if insolvency proceedings against RCom are allowed, then Ericsson would have to return Rs 550 crore.

"Why one party will take amount and let the financial creditors suffer," said the NCLAT, adding that either it may quash RCom bankruptcy proceedings in NCLT or allow bankruptcy case to proceed.

The appellate tribunal also said that it would consider the reply filed by the Department of Telecom (DoT) over the RCom's plea against the show cause notice issued by it over spectrum charges due on April 30, the next date of hearing.

"DOT reply would be considered on April 30. Let us be very clear which are the assets of corporate debtor, whether they have some right of asset. Can you take away licence? If yes, what is the value of the company (Rcom) then," the NCLAT said.

The NCLAT's direction came during the hearing of applications moved by three RCom executives.

Earlier on February 4, the tribunal had said that until further orders of the NCLAT or the Supreme Court, no one can sell, alienate, or create third-party rights over RCom's assets.

The NCLAT on March 26 stayed the two notices issued by the Department of Telecom (DoT) to RCom over cancellation of its spectrum licence for a delay in payment.

Its two-member bench had also stayed the DoT's letter dated March 20, 2019, to Axis Bank to encash the bank guarantee of Rs 2,000 crore given by the Anil Ambani group firm.

On May 15, 2018, the Mumbai bench of NCLT had admitted an insolvency petition filed by Ericsson against Reliance Communications and two of its subsidiaries seeking to recover unpaid dues.

However, on May 30 NCLAT granted a conditional stay on insolvency proceedings against RCom and its subsidiaries -- Reliance Infratel and Reliance Telecom.

The tribunal had directed RCom and its subsidiaries to pay Rs 550 crore to Ericsson India in 120 days, failing which it will direct insolvency proceedings against the company.

On February 1, RCom had informed that it has decided to opt for insolvency proceedings following its failure to sell assets for paying back its lenders.

Last month, Anil Ambani warded off a possible jail term as RCom cleared dues of Ericsson on March 18 with money received from elder brother Mukesh Ambani.

Anil Ambani made a Rs 550 crore payment, including interest, to Ericsson just a day before the expiry of the deadline set by the Supreme Court to clear dues or face a three-month jail term.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
BJP Mizoram president John V Hluna Monday claimed that the NDA will retain power at the Centre and the party's Lok Sabha candidate in the state could become Union Minister if he wins the election.

Nirupam Chakma is the BJP's candidate for the lone Lok Sabha seat in Mizoram. Polling in Mizoram would be held on April 11.

Hluna claimed that the BJP-led NDA will win the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections and if Chakma wins the seat that would mean that Mizoram could have an Union Minister.

"Nirupam Chakma, being elected to the state legislature for five times and a member in the state council of ministers for a decade, has sufficient experience to represent Mizoram in the Parliament," the BJP Mizoram chief said.

Hluna said that if any political party in Mizoram could counter Hindutva, it would be the state BJP members, who are Christians and most suited to do the job.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The National Green Tribunal Monday formed a committee to look into the alleged erosion of Yamuna floodplain due to movement of heavy vehicles in Haryana's Sonipat district.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel constituted a committee comprising the principal secretary of the Haryana Irrigation and Water Resources Department, member secretary of the Haryana State Pollution Control Board and the director of the Mines and Geology Department.

"The nodal agency for coordination and compliance will be the principal secretary of the Haryana Irrigation and Water Resources Department. The joint report may be furnished within one month by e-mail so that matter can be taken up before monsoon," the tribunal said.

It directed the applicant to furnish a set of papers to the above authorities and file an affidavit of service within one week.

The matter is posted for next hearing on May 24.

The tribunal was hearing a plea filed by Krishan Chander, a Haryana resident, who had alleged that the policy of permitting heavy vehicles in the embankments of the Yamuna river was destructing the ecology in Sonipat district.

"At the behest of mining companies, the Irrigation and Flood Control Department is not taking remedial action and permitting heavily loaded trucks to operate in the embankments of the river. A policy dated February 21 has been issued laying down procedure for using the embankments by paying fee.

"Though there is a provision against operation of the vehicles from July to September, this safeguard is not being observed," the plea alleged.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The National Green Tribunal has rapped the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) over its failure to control air pollution in the national capital, saying it was avoiding its duties.

A bench, headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, directed the Delhi chief secretary to look into the matter and take remedial measures about proper manning and effective functioning of the DPCC.

"The tribunal may have to consider whether a statutory authority which is repeatedly failing to perform its duties should continue in position as one of the reasons which is contributing to unabated pollution in Delhi resulting in large scale deaths and diseases is the failure of statutory authorities to perform their duties.

"In absence of responsiveness of the statutory authorities who have to carry out the orders of this tribunal, mere passing of paper orders will not advance the purpose for which this tribunal has been constituted under the law," the bench said.

It said that no officer or authority can be allowed to defeat law in the manner it is being done on regular basis by the DPCC.

The tribunal said that in such a situation, option may also have to be explored for action under Section 18(2) of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, whereby the central government may handover the functions of defiant DPCC to the Central Pollution Control Board.

"Before further action, we direct the Chief Secretary, Delhi to look into the matter and take remedial measures about proper manning and effective functioning of the DPCC. The DPCC may file a proper affidavit of the action taken in the matter before the next date," the bench said.

The tribunal was hearing a plea filed by city resident Rajesh Kumar alleging air pollution by a brake lining factory near Chajju Gate, Babarpur here.

The NGT had earlier directed DPCC to furnish a factual and action taken report.

"A report has been received vide e-mail dated March 29 to the effect that East Delhi Municipal Corporation has sealed the premises and the SHO (Welcome) will be keeping strict vigil.

"The report does not show any steps for prosecution or recovery of compensation for damage to the environment on 'Polluter Pays principle'," the tribunal noted.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Monday issued a notice to the Delhi government over a report that 30-odd families residing in a building in east Delhi, in which three minor girls had died of starvation eight months back allegedly still await ration cards.

After the death of the minor girls, the Delhi government had reportedly promised ration cards to all those who lived in the building, it said.

The NHRC has also observed that the content of the report is "quite disturbing" and that even after the death of those young girls due to starvation, the authorities in the government of Delhi "have not woken up".

"The NHRC has taken suo motu cognizance of a media report that ration cards elude 30-odd families in the same building of east Delhi, where three minor girls had died of starvation eight months ago," the NHRC said in a statement on Monday.

"The entire area is deprived of basic amenities and the garbage is also being dumped near the residential area," the rights panel said, quoting the report.

The Commission has issued a notice to the chief secretary of Delhi and asked to submit a detailed report, including action taken after the deaths of the minor girls, and present status of the applications pending for issuance of ration cards as well as status of public distribution system, along with status of basic amenities in the area.

The response is expected in four weeks, the NHRC statement said.

"Apparently, innocent people have become victims of the state's apathy and inhuman approach. This is a serious case of violation of Right to Food of the poor people," the statement said.

According to the report, carried on Monday, the Delhi government's Food and Civil Supply Department officials have stated that under the current rules, eligible applicants are required to have the same address on the Aadhaar card where they currently reside.

A module is reportedly being developed by the central government to enable beneficiaries to procure ration anywhere in the country with the card issued to them on the permanent address or any other place but the same is yet to be implemented, the statement said.

It is also mentioned in the report that till this system comes into implementation, applicants have to submit Aadhaar, having a Delhi address, the rights panel said.

Reportedly, the deputy chief minister of Delhi, accompanied by the officers from the department of food and supplies had visited the building on July 26 last year, after the death of three minors due to starvation, it said.

"It was assured that all the residents would be given ration cards but, till date, nothing has happened," the report claimed.

The report has referred to some of the cases where residents "have not been able to procure a ration card as the landlord of the building has refused to give them identity proof," the statement said.

Most of the people residing in the area have their Aadhaar card issued on their village addresses and the officials concerned have told them to get the address changed to apply the ration card for which money is required.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The National Human Rights Commission Monday sent a notice to the Punjab Police chief over reports that a man, arrested in a vehicle theft case, died allegedly in police custody in Ludhiana.

The commission has observed that the reports, if true, amount to serious issue of violation of right to life of the victim.

"The National Human Rights Commission has taken suo motu cognisance of media reports that a 22-year-old youth arrested, in a vehicle theft case, died in police custody at the Janakpuri post in district Ludhiana, Punjab on Sunday," the NHRC said in a statement.

The commission has issued a notice to the Director General of Police of the state, seeking a detailed report in four weeks.

The commission said it has also directed the DGP to explain as to why this case of "custodial death" has not been reported to the NHRC, as per the guidelines.

According to media reports carried Monday, the deceased has been identified as Karan, a resident of Prem Colony, Bhamia Khurd in Ludhiana.

He, along with his friend, Gautam was arrested by police, on April 6 and a stolen motorcycle was recovered from them. A case was registered against both of them and they were lodged in a lock-up, the NHRC said, quoting the report.

At around 4:30 AM, Gautam noticed blood coming out from the mouth of Karan, following which he raised an alarm and the victim was shifted to the Civil Hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead, it said.

Reportedly, the deceased had a "notorious past" and was also facing a snatching case registered against him at the Model Town Police Station and proceedings against him for declaring him a proclaimed offender were also going on as he was not attending the court, the statement said.

According to another media report, the family members of the victim have alleged that he was taken away by police, without disclosing any reason and was later "framed" in the vehicle lifting case, it said.

"The family reportedly visited the police check post several times and requested a meeting with Karan, but they were not allowed. The next day, the family members were informed that the victim has committed suicide by consuming poison.

"As alleged by the family of the deceased, he was tortured by police to confess stealing of the vehicles. As per police version, a judicial probe has been ordered and on the basis of the autopsy report, action will be taken," the NHRC statement said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Monday issued notices to the Police Commissioner of Mumbai and Maharashtra's Director General of Police over a report that a nine-year-old girl, who had gone missing on April 4 from a slum in Juhu was found murdered two days later.

The victim's body was recovered from a septic tank in her locality in Nehru Nagar, the NHRC said, quoting the report.

Preliminary medical reports have reportedly confirmed that she was raped and murdered, it said.

"The NHRC has taken suo motu cognisance of a media report that a nine-year-old girl, who had gone missing on April 4 from Nehru Nagar slum area of Juhu Mumbai was found murdered on April 6," the rights panel said in a statement.

The Commission has issued notices to the Director General of Police, Maharashtra and the Commissioner of Police, Mumbai seeking a detailed report in four weeks.

The Commission also expects to have a report giving details of the mechanism adopted by the police authorities to address the issue more effectively, it said.

According to the media report, a similar incident had taken place in JJ Marg area about one-and-a-half year ago.

The NHRC observed that it seems the area lacks proper patrolling and monitoring by the police authorities.

"The culprit in the instant case, has a criminal background as he was reportedly arrested by the police in the year 2013.

"The local police officials are expected be vigilant about suspicious activities of these anti-social elements so that such heinous crimes could be averted. The right to life and dignity of the innocent victim has been grossly violated," the Commission said.

According to the media report, carried on Sunday, the mother of the victim has stated that the girl had gone to get a packet of tea after which she disappeared.

A missing complaint was lodged with the details about the location and uniform she was wearing. The police authorities have arrested the suspect with whom the girl was last seen by some people, the statement said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The NIA Monday questioned Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq for nearly eight hours in connection with a case related to funding of terror groups and separatist organisations in Jammu and Kashmir, officials said here.

He was asked to appear before the agency again Tuesday, the officials said, adding Naseem Geelani, son of pro-Pakistan separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani, was also summoned on Tuesday.

After avoiding the first two summons, the Mirwaiz finally appeared before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) after he was assured of being provided security upon his arrival in the national capital.

The Mirwaiz was accompanied by other separatist leaders, including Abdul Gani Bhat, Bilal Lone and Maulana Abbas Ansari.

During the questioning, the Mirwaiz was asked several questions related to the funding of his party Awami Action Committee as well as Hurriyat Conference, the officials said, adding that the replies were not satisfactory.

He had been asked to appear before the NIA on March 11 and March 18 but expressed his inability to join the investigation in the national capital, saying he feared for his security in view of "conditions of hostility".

In its third summons issued last week, the NIA promised him security.

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 Hafiz Saeed, the Pakistan-based chief of Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD), the front for the banned Lashker-e-Taiba, as an accused. It also names organisations such as the Hurriyat Conference factions led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani and the Mirwaiz, the Hizbul Mujahideen and the Dukhtaran-e-Millat.

Ahead of his appearance before the NIA, the Hurriyat Conference chairman tweeted, "In Delhi today with my colleagues for the NIA summon, efforts to malign leadership for its political stand wont work. Inspite of harassment Hurriyat will continue to seek peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue. Urge people back home to stay calm and peaceful."



On Sunday night, the Hurriyat held an executive meeting and strongly condemned the move to summon the Mirwaiz. It claimed 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 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 questioned two maternal uncles of the Mirwaiz, Maulvi Manzoor and Maulvi Shafat, and his close aides last year. Both Manzoor and Shafat are retired senior government officers.

The Mirwaiz had informed the NIA that he was not acquainted with the subject matter of the FIR referred to in its 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.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
/ -- Signs definitive agreement to make a strategic investment



Transaction to strengthen Digital capabilities, complement existing Transformation competencies, and create a powerful offerings combination in the Digital Integration space



NIIT Technologies Limited, a leading global IT solutions organization, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement with WHISHWORKS IT Consulting, an IT services and consulting company specializing in MuleSoft and Big Data technologies, to acquire a 53% stake initially, with the remaining equity to be acquired over the next two years through pay-outs linked to financial performance. The transaction closure is subject to fulfillment of certain government/regulatory approvals.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/537635/NIIT_Tech_Logo.jpg )



A fast-growing company with a robust operating profile, WHISHWORKS currently has around 250 employees. Incorporated in 2010 and headquartered in Hyderabad, WHISHWORKS works with an ecosystem of global innovators, including MuleSoft, Salesforce, MapR, and Cloudera. It enjoys multiple deep and longstanding customer relationships across industry verticals.

Over the years, WHISHWORKS has invested in building unique capabilities around MuleSoft's Anypoint Platform, the leading platform for building application networks, and today enjoys increasing market share and accelerated growth as a Strategic Consulting Partner of MuleSoft supporting the digital transformation journeys of organisations around the world. WHISHWORKS' consultants hold over 350 MuleSoft certifications, which makes it the largest pool of MuleSoft certified experts in the EMEA region and one of the largest worldwide.

"WHISHWORKS fits into our overall Digital strategy, enhances our footprint in a high demand space, and is a significant addition to our existing capability spectrum in digital integration. This initiative is in line with our strategy to drive growth and create value over the long term by enhancing capabilities and domain depth, adding new partnerships, and making well-considered acquisitions that complement our existing strengths. We are delighted to welcome the WHISHWORKS team, clients, and partners into our fold", said Sudhir Singh, CEO, NIIT Technologies.

Commenting on the transaction, Sri Arardhi, Founder and CEO, WHISHWORKS, said: "Together with the other co-Founders Suman Konkumalla, Kranthi Vempati, Pankaj Kankatti and Murthy Aradhi, we have created a track record of enabling clients to succeed in their digital transformation journeys through our robust technology capabilities in MuleSoft and Big Data. We are very excited to now be joining forces with NIIT Technologies, a global leader at the forefront of engaging with emerging technologies, which will fuel our growth and innovation faster. We also see substantial opportunities and growth potential for WHISHWORKS in the US geography and are thrilled to have the support of NIIT Technologies' strong local presence and scale there."



This transaction is expected to be margin and earnings accretive to NIIT Technologies. The Company will be making this acquisition in an all-cash transaction, funded through internal accruals.

About NIIT Technologies



NIIT Technologies is a leading global IT solutions organization, enabling its clients to transform at the intersect of unparalleled domain expertise and emerging technologies to achieve real-world business impact. The Company focuses on three key verticals: Banking and Financial Services, Insurance, Travel and Transportation. This domain strength combined with leading-edge capabilities in Data & Analytics, Automation, Cloud, and Digital, is enabling its clients to drive business transformation.

With over 10,000 employees serving clients across Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia, NIIT Technologies fosters a culture that promotes innovation and constantly seeks to find new yet simple ways to add value for its clients.

Learn more about NIIT Technologies at www.niit-tech.com.

About WHISHWORKS



WHISHWORKS is a global IT services and consulting company, specialising in Systems Integration and Big Data. It works with an ecosystem of global innovators, including MuleSoft, MapR and Cloudera, to develop leading solutions that provide distinct business advantages. WHISHWORKS has helped hundreds of businesses access, control and monetise their data. Its dedication, expertise and ability to solve problems fast, have been recognised by customers and partners alike. Today, WHISHWORKS is the partner of choice for data-driven organisations who want to start their digital transformation journeys on solid foundations.

Safe Harbor



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Republican Senator of Florida Marco Rubio admitted that U.S. Congresss enthusiasm for additional sanctions against Russia is waning.

"We face a little bit of sanctions fatigue around here these days. Hopefully well get more people on board," Bloomberg cited Rubio as saying.

According to the agency, many lawmakers still want Russia to face stronger consequences for its actions in the U.S. and elsewhere, but theres no clear consensus on how to send the right message to the Kremlin. "Two other factors add to the hesitation: concern about unintended economic consequences, and the difficulty of passing legislation in a divided Congress when the measures dont have the presidents support," the article reads.

Republican Senator of Wisconsin Ron Johnson said that "sanctions can often be a double-edged sword." "So we really should take a little bit of a step back and assess where we are and what we can really do," he said.

Senators Republican of South Carolina Lindsey Graham and Democrat of New Jersey Bob Menendez in February reintroduced their DASKA Act, which would impose sanctions on Russian individuals, cyber operations and liquid natural gas export facilities. The legislation calls for the president to "prescribe regulations" for sanctions on sovereign debt issued 90 days after the law is enacted.

The other Senate bill, the DETER Act, was reintroduced in April by Rubio and Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland. It would require the Director of National Intelligence to tell Congress on any foreign interference within 60 days of a federal election. If a Russian violation is found, sanctions would target that countrys political figures and its energy and defense sectors. Sanctions could also extend to government and state-owned company bonds issued after the bill is signed into law.

The President of the National Strategy Institute, Mikhail Remizov, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that the current situation does not give Washington a clear reason to impose sanctions on Russia. In previous years, according to the expert, new sanctions were imposed in the context of strong informational reasons. "The strongest of them were the downed near the Donbas Boeing, the Skripal case and the staged use of chemical weapons in Syria. After each such strong informational occasion, one can develop the sanctions policy in the inertial mode for some time, but then, as Rubio said, they face sanctions fatigue, and some new impulse is needed to restore the policy," he said.

"In this regard, I think we should expect some new events that will push the sanctions policy. As for the call for "more creative" pressure on Russia from the U.S., then it's difficult to predict what the Americans will do. The range of possibilities is wide enough, and, of course, there are plenty of problem issues that the U.S. can use relatively safely for themselves. Of course, Washington will need strategic imagination to find them," Mikhail Remizov warned.

Director of the Institute of Strategic Planning and Forecasting, Professor Alexander Gusev explained Rubio's words about 'sanctions fatigue by the fact that a group of anti-Russian congressmen is blocking a legislative agenda in Congress that is more relevant for the United States. "Because of them, issues of sanctions pressure on Russia, North Korea and Iran are discussed at every meeting. The already existing sanctions will last for a very long time, but the activity of Russophobes only increases: in 2018, the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate considered sanctions only against Russia 10 times. This year, the Senate has already met three times to discuss additions to the existing list, in particular, the so-called January 'Kremlin report'," he recalled.

"The United States is not so tired of discussing bills, but of the fact that they constantly warn Russia, Iran or the North Korea instead of taking tougher actions. Sanctions are not so important to us, and the same goes for North Korea and Iran. As a result, Washington sees that there are no positive results from the sanctions. It forces Brussels to impose similar sanctions, which do not work as intended as well. Moreover, it turns out that no one wants to obey the United States. Europe has not abandoned the Nord Stream -2 project, for example.They could not hold a military coup in Venezuela and put their person as a president. The U.S.is tired of failures, of lack of results of their actions," Alexander Gusev concluded.
The Congress Monday urged the Supreme Court to review its decision on matching of VVPAT slips with EVMs, saying it is not satisfied with the counting being held in only five booths in each assembly segment.

Party chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said that as a citizen of India he was concerned why Rs 18,000 crore were spent on VVPATs if they were not to be used in elections.

"No, we are not satisfied with counting only five VVPATs. As a citizen, I feel if I am going to pay for Rs 18,000 crore for VVPATs, the democracy enjoins upon every constitutional authority, every government to ensure that election is free, fair, proper and without an iota of doubt regarding exercise of franchise by every individual," he said.

"I think, the Supreme Court should re-examine its decision," he told reporters.

He asked whether the Supreme Court was in doubt about the authenticity of the EVMs that it ordered the purchase of VVPATs. "VVPAT is not a voluntary step taken by any government or a political party," he said.

Surjewala claimed VVPATs have been implemented pursuant to the apex court's order of a paper trail for every certifiable vote because they are doubtful that Electronic Voting Machine (EVMs) could be possibly tampered with.

"Is the exchequer's money for being wasted or for being appropriately utilised for strengthening democracy," he asked.

The Supreme Court directed the Election Commission Monday to increase random matching of VVPAT slips with EVMs to five polling booths per assembly segment, from one at present, in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, saying it will bring more "credibility" and "integrity" to the electoral process.

The apex court, however, did not agree to the demand of 21 opposition leaders, led by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, for counting of at least 50 percent of the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips with Electronic Voting Machines per assembly segment.

The EC currently follows a system of random counting of VVPAT slips in one polling booth per assembly segment of a parliamentary or assembly constituency.

"It is our considered view and having regard to the totality of the facts, it would generate greater satisfaction and will foolproof the electoral process if number of VVPAT machines is increased to five per assembly segment of each parliamentary constituency," a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said.

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Pakistan said Monday that it will hold a technical meeting with India on April 16 to discuss the modalities for the corridor linking Gurudwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district in Punjab.

"Continuing with Pakistan's spirit of constructive engagement, we have agreed to the Indian proposal for a technical meeting on 16 April," Foreign Office spokesman Dr Mohammad Faisal tweeted.

"We expect positivity from India so that the corridor becomes reality for 550th celebrations," he further said.

India and Pakistan last month held a meeting of technical experts on the Kartarpur corridor during which its alignment, coordinates, and other engineering aspects of the proposed crossing points were discussed.

The technical meeting at the level of experts, including engineers and surveyors, was held at "proposed zero points" in the follow up to the decision reached on the March 14 meeting.

Later, the Pakistani Cabinet constituted a 10-member Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (PSGPC) to facilitate Sikh pilgrims after opening of the Kartarpur corridor.

India voiced concerns over the presence of several Khalistani separatists in the committee on the Kartarpur corridor and said it will wait for a response from Islamabad on the issue and will not go ahead with a previously agreed meeting on the corridor on April 2 in Wagah on the Pakistani side.

On Thursday, India said Pakistan is yet to respond to its concerns over reports that controversial elements have been appointed to the committee.

Last November, India and Pakistan agreed to set up the border crossing linking Gurudwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, the final resting place of Sikh faith's founder Guru Nanak Dev, to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India's Gurdaspur district.

Kartarpur Sahib is located in Pakistan's Narowal district across the river Ravi, about four km from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine.

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had on November 26 last year laid the foundation stone of the Kartarpur corridor in Gurdaspur district.

Two days later, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan laid the foundation stone of the corridor in Narowal, 125 km from Lahore.

The Indo-Pak tensions escalated in recent months after a terror attack in Pulwama by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group that killed 40 CRPF soldiers on February 14 and a subsequent aerial strike by India on a JeM training camp in Balakot on February 26.

On February 27, the Pakistan Air Force retaliated by unsuccessfully targeting several military installations in Jammu and Kashmir.

In the dogfight, Pakistan downed a MiG-21 Bison jet and captured an IAF pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1. India had shot down a Pakistani F-16 but Islamabad has been denying that it lost any jet in the aerial combat.

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Representatives from various ethnic and religious minorities of Pakistan have held a peaceful demonstration in front of the White House here against what they described as "the worst kind of genocide" they are facing in Pakistan and asked the international community to help them exercise the right to self-determination.

The ruling Pakistani establishment is driving ethnic identities towards eradication, they alleged.

"It is now incumbent that International Community must understand our plight, and help us achieve the Right of Self Determination," said Rehan Ibadat, central organizer, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) USA.

"As a collective effort we have gathered today to represent all the oppressed ethnic groups residing in the current geographical boundaries of Pakistan. We Mohajir, Baloch, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pashtun, and other religious minorities demands separate land by exercising our right to self determination," participants of the protest said in a joint statement.

Scores of representatives from the Mohajir, Baloch, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pashtun, and other religious minorities arrived in front of the White House in the form of a rally from the Dupont Circle. They were carrying posters and banners displaying the atrocities against the ethnic and religious minorities of Pakistan.

"We, ethnic minorities are facing worst form of genocide against the mankind. The ongoing enforced disappearances, extra-judicial killings, and denial of basic human rights by this ferocious law enforcement agencies of Pakistan, particularly Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) are the primary factors," they said.

Nabi Bakhsh Baloch, who represents Baloch National Movement in the US, alleged that Pakistan is a state sponsor of terrorism and epicenter of global jihadist movements and militant groups involved in cross border terror attacks against its neighbours India and Afghanistan; creating an environment of political instability and zones of conflict that could lead to large scale war and nuclear catastrophe.

Speaking on behalf of the people of Gilgit and Baltistan, Senge H Sering said Pakistan has received billions in dollars from the US for fight against terrorism, but has only caused more harm to the United States.

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Finance Minister Asad Umar said on Monday that Pakistan's economy was out of the crisis phase even as the cash-strapped country's economic growth is projected to slump further to 3.9 per cent in fiscal year 2019 from 5.2 per cent in 2018.

"The crisis phase for the economy is over, however, we are still in the stabilisation phase," Umar was quoted as saying by Geo TV.

He said this stabilisation phase would continue for the next one and a half years as he compared Pakistan's economy to a patient in the ICU who had been treated and now brought back to a normal ward, the channel reported.

"The situation right now is that we are not taking loans to pay off past loans, but to pay off interest," he said.

Umar said Pakistan was facing three main problems on the economic front. "We are stuck with the fiscal deficit, current account deficit and saving and investment gap," he said.

He called on the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to simplify the tax return system with easier forms and lesser questions.

"The amount of questions FBR asks you for your returns is more than those asked when you are accepting a marriage proposal for your daughter," Umar said.

He said Pakistan's talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a financial package were in its final stage.

On March 16, Umar had hinted that bailout package talks with the IMF are in their final stages and the government will have further negotiations with the newly appointed IMF mission chief before reaching an agreement.

Cash-strapped Pakistan is seeking USD 8 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to bail itself out from a severe balance-of-payments crisis that threatens to cripple the country's economy. With the generous Chinese assistance, Pakistan has so far received a total of USD 9.1 billion in financial aid packages from friendly countries during the current fiscal year.

While China has pumped-in USD 4.1 billion, Pakistan has got USD 3 billion from Saudi Arabia and USD 2 billion from United Arab Emirates (UAE).

In its flagship economic publication titled "Asian Development Outlook 2019," the Manila-based Asian Development Bank said Pakistan's economic growth decelerated in fiscal year 2018 despite revived agriculture.

Pakistan's GDP growth is forecast to decelerate further to 3.9 per cent in FY2019 as macroeconomic challenges continue and despite steps to tighten fiscal and monetary policies to rein in high and unsustainable twin deficits.

Continued fiscal consolidation in FY2020 will keep growth subdued at 3.6 per cent, the ADB said.

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A life-size statue of rationalist leader and Dravidian movement founder E V Ramasamy, popularly known as Periyar, was found vandalised at Aranthangi in the district Monday, police said.

The incident triggered an outrage with the Tamil Nadu government joining the opposition parties in condemning the act, while assuring action against the culprits.

The statue of Periyar located near the government hospital in Aranthangi town was found with the head dislodged and lying on the ground, police said.

Local leaders of the Dravidar Kazhagam noticed the damage caused to the statue Monday morning and informed police, demanding that the culprits be arrested immediately.

Officials said steps were being taken to repair the statue.

Periyar, who launched the self-respect movement in the state, was a staunch atheist and had founded the Dravidar Kazhagam, the parent organisation of the DMK.

Condemning the incident, state Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar, in Chennai, said, "This is not at all acceptable. Whoever did this, action will be taken against them."



DMK president M K Stalin tweeted, "Not only should stern action be taken against whoever be the destructive forces which acted with the intention to disturb peace during election time, but they should be crushed with an iron fist."



Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) leader K Veeramani, MDMK founder Vaiko and AMMK's TTV Dhinakaran also condemned the incident.

"Periyar statues are not mere stones, but an inspiration," Veeramani said in a statement.

Vaiko said that those who "cannot break" Periyar's idealogy were damaging his statues and urged the government to take strong action against those behind the desecration.

Dhinakaran alleged that attempts were being made to derive political mileage by targeting Periyar statues at the time of election.

"Those responsible for (the desecration) should be punished," he tweeted.

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A plea was filed in the Delhi High Court on Monday seeking a direction to the Election Commission (EC) to ban Jammu and Kashmir politicians Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti from participating in the upcoming Lok Sabha election as their statements were allegedly "seditious".

The petition filed by a lawyer alleged that the "seditious and communal statements" given by the three leaders were against the Constitution, adding that the court or the EC should bar or impose conditions on their entry into the Lok Sabha.

The plea is yet to come up for hearing.

All the three leaders are former chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir. The petition has arrayed the EC, the Union of India, the Delhi Police, National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah, his son Omar Abdullah and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti as parties to the petition.

The plea moved by advocate Sanjjiiv Kkumaar has also sought a direction to book them under various charges, including sedition and inciting hatred, of the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act.

"Issue directions to the respondent number 1 (EC) to ban the NC and the PDP from Lok Sabha election 2019 as respondent number 4 and 6 (the three leaders) are presidents of their respective parties and represent their parties and their ideologies," it alleged.

"Will it not be a mockery of democracy to allow those people and parties to participate in the Lok Sabha election when people/parties openly call for sedition to divide Mother India on the basis of religion (Muslim majority) and two prime ministers (for Jammu and Kashmir and the rest of India)...," it said.

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The sale of Punjab National Bank's 13 per cent stake in PNB Housing Finance is credit positive as it will strengthen the bank's capital, Moody's said Monday.

Last month state-run Punjab National Bank announced that it will sell 13 per cent stake in PNB Housing Finance for Rs 1,850 crore (USD 270 million) to global private equity firm General Atlantic Group and alternative investment firm Varde Partners.

"The proceeds of the sale will strengthen the bank's capital, a credit positive. We estimate that the sale will increase PNB's Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio by about 40 basis points from the 6.9 per cent reported in December 2018," Moody's said in a statement.

The stake sale provided timely support to bank's capitalisation, which has been challenged by high credit costs and investment losses, in addition to the negative effect of fraudulent transactions PNB discovered between February and March 2018, it added.

"We expect the bank's internal capital generation to improve gradually as declining credit costs alleviate pressure on its capitalisation over the next 12-18 months," Moody's said.

It said the recent government capital infusion in February 2019, increased the bank's pro forma CET1 ratio by around 150 basis points. The lender's the overall pro forma ratio is nearly 9 per cent.

Upon completion of the sale, PNB will retain a 19.8 per cent stake in PNB Housing Finance worth around Rs 3,000 crore (USD 440 million).

"The stake will remain a key potential source of capital for PNB, given its limited access to the equity capital markets following the substantial decline in its share price over the past year," the US-based agency said.

Moody's estimates that a sale of the remaining stake at a valuation similar to the current deal would increase PNB's CET1 ratio by approximately 70 basis points.

Despite the bank's losses over the past few quarters, PNB's reported CET1 ratio has improved as a result of government capital infusions and a reduction in risk weighted assets, Moody's said.

"PNB's core profitability remains robust given its strong franchise as one of the leading public sector banks in India supported by a superior funding profile and strong net interest margins," it added.

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A member of a polio monitoring team was gunned down on Monday by a man after a verbal brawl during a campaign at a village near Pak-Afghan border in Pakistan's Momand district, official said.

The polio team was in the area for the immunisation drive when the accused, Zubair Ali, had heated argument with the deceased polio monitor Wajid Ali for reporting his name to the authorities in previous refusal cases.

Zubair's name was reported to the authorities for refusing to give oral polio drops to his children in the previous campaign at Ghazi Beg area of Momand district.

As the government has announced jail punishment to the parents who refuse to administer polio drops to their children, Zubair got angry.

During the campaign on Monday, when Zubair and Wajid came face to face, the matter took an ugly turn and led to the death of the monitor.

Pakistan is one of only three countries where polio remains endemic, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria.

Efforts to eradicate the crippling disease have been seriously hampered by deadly targeting of vaccination teams in recent years by militants, who oppose the drives, claiming the polio drops cause infertility.

Attacks on immunisation teams have claimed 68 lives since December 2012. In January 2014, three workers were killed while in late 2012 five workers including four female workers were killed in Qayyumabad area.

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The BJP's poll plank for abrogating Article 370, that gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir, Monday brought state political parties together, with the National Conference saying it will pave way for "freedom" from India and the PDP warning them to stop "playing with fire".

Mainstream political parties, the National Conference (NC) and the PDP, who are political arch-rivals, were singing the same tune after the BJP unveiled its manifesto in which the party resolved abrogation of Article 370 and annulment of Article 35A of the Constitution, that allows the state's legislature to define permanent residents.

NC patron Farooq Abdullah, who is the party's candidate from the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat, said abrogating Article 370 will pave the way for "freedom" for people.

"They talk of abrogating Article 370. If you do that, the accession will also not stand. I swear by Allah, I think this is the wish of Almighty, we will get freedom from them," he said at an election rally here.

The Srinagar Lok Sabha seat goes to polls on April 18.

The former chief minister said there would not be anyone to hoist the national flag in Kashmir if Article 370 is abrogated. "Let them do it, we will see. I will see who is ready to hoist their flag here. So don't do such things that break our hearts. Try joining the hearts, not breaking them," he warned.

The PDP was also not left behind as its patron Mehbooba Mufti, whose party was an ally of the BJP till June last year, was more vitriolic in her attack of the erstwhile alliance partner. She said the Indian constitution will not be applicable to Jammu and Kashmir if Article 370 was abrogated as promised by the BJP in its election manifesto.

"The state is already on a heap of explosives and we saw a glimpse of it in Pulwama. If the BJP does not stop making such statements and give up such intentions, it will not only burn the state but the entire region.

"So my warning to the BJP is to stop playing with fire. There is explosive in Jammu and Kashmir. If you will light a spark, everything will go up in flames, there will be no Jammu and Kashmir or India left," she added.

Mufti said that if Article 370 is abrogated "you will free the state from country as well. I have said many times that Article 370 links the state with the country. When you break this bridge, India loses its legitimacy over the state. It becomes an occupational force."



Responding to reports that a PIL has been filed in the Delhi High Court seeking a ban on PDP and NC presidents contesting the Lok Sabha elections, Mufti said "Why waste time in court? Wait for the BJP to scrap Article 370. It will automatically debar us from fighting elections since Indian Constitution won't be applicable to the state anymore."



Mufti, who is contesting from the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat, also quoted a famous couplet of Urdu poet Allama Iqbal which reads, "Na samjho gay tou mit jaouge aye Hindustan walo. Tumhari dastaan tak bhi na hogi dastaano main (O people of Hindustan, if you don't understand, you will perish, and your story will be erased from history)".

She said the BJP has failed on several fronts, be it unemployment, farmer issues or price rise. "Now they are looking for issues which they can use to garner votes," she added.

Abdullah said that in 1927, special residency laws were brought in by then Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, Hari Singh, as a safeguard for Dogras so that their numbers were not diluted by influx of population from other parts of India.

"Do you know what is Article 35A? It gives you (people of state) the right to this place. Nobody from outside can buy land here or apply for jobs. This was kept by Maharaja Hari Singh in 1927 so that the population of Dogras does not fall. It was not as much for us as much for them (Dogras). What do they want? Will they bring people from outside and settle them here to dilute our numbers," he asked.

National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah hit out at Governor Satya Pal Malik over the manifesto.

"Recently J&K governor claimed there was no threat to Art 370 & 35A and that parties like mine were only using them to drum up fear in the elections. I hope his colleagues in the BJP send him a copy of their manifesto," he tweeted.

BJP's trusted ally, People's Conference led by Sajad Lone, also warned of disaster, saying, "Article 370 and 35A are sacred. The only space for movement in this regard is reversal of the erosions. Any other reckless thought or comment seeking removal is a disaster".

The IAS-turned-politician Shah Faesal said in a tweet that all residents of Kashmir "will switch the time of our watches 15 mins away from IST the moment something happens to Section 35A by BJP".

CPM leader Mohammed Yusuf Tarigami slammed the Modi government, saying its biggest achievement "has been to push Kashmir into cycles of violence. Any attempt to abrogate articles 370 and 35A will have unimaginable repercussions".

He claimed that the BJP's threat of abrogation of the provisions was a way of hiding from real issues and hoodwinking people.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh Monday said there will be no option with the government other than abolishing articles 370 and 35A related to special status to Jammu and Kashmir in the Constitution if there is a demand for a separate prime minister for the terrorism-affected state.

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Polling personnel in Jalpaiguri district Monday demonstrated before the office of the District Election Officer (DEO) demanding deployment of Central forces in all polling booths in the district to ensure their security.

Expressing concern over possible disturbances during the polling process on April 18 in the second phase, agitating polling personnel urged the concerned authority to look into their demand and act accordingly.

"Without sufficient security measures preferably with the deployment of 100 per cent deployment of Central forces we shall not be able to join election duties," they said.

Similar demonstration was also staged at Phanindradeb Vidyalaya and Jalpaiguri Zilla School, where polling personnel were in a session with the authority.

Agitation was also held at Malbazar and Moinaguri demanding adequate steps to secure polling personnel.

The agitation was withdrawn only after the police intervened and DEO and District Magistrate Shilpa Gourisaria assured the polling personnel to provide them with adequate security during the poll.

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National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan delivered a speech at the plenary discussion of IPU-140 in Doha, Qatar on April 7__Photo: VNA

The National Assembly of Vietnam is a responsible member of the IPU and is ready to work with the IPU and other member parliaments to implement resolutions and initiatives, contributing to building peace and sustainable development for the sake of people around the globe, Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan said.Ngan made the statement while addressing the plenary session of the 140Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU-140) in Doha, the capital city of Qatar, on April 7.The IPU-140 opened on April 6, under the theme Parliaments as platforms to enhance education for peace, security and the rule of law. It brought together leaders of parliaments, heads of delegations from 160 member parliaments, over 1,600 parliamentarians and representatives from international organizations.Ngan said peace, security, and sustainable development are the goals that require all nations to make more joint efforts to build foundations, in which education is used as an approach and also a prerequisite.In the current global context, education helps promote dialogue, enhance mutual understanding, fight against xenophobia, and prevent extremism, she said, adding education needs to target everyone in society on the basis of equality and justice.She stressed the important role of parliamentarians in fine-tuning the legal system, distributing budget, supervising the Governments implementation of action plans in education, as well as their role as a bridge for improving knowledge and awareness of people about the important role of education for peace, security and sustainable development.The Vietnamese leader welcomed every effort of the IPU in pushing its member parliaments to give priority to education via its resolutions adopted in 1993, 2001 and 2017, saying this IPUs theme shows the long-term and humane vision, looking toward a sustainable future for multilateral cooperation among nations.She said Vietnam always gives priority to sustainable development, highlights education as its prime national policy to help raise intellectual standards, and generate high-quality human resources to meet requirements of Industry 4.0.The National Assembly of Vietnam adopted and revised many legal documents, such as the Constitution, the Law on Tertiary Education, and the Law on Vocational Training, and increased supervision with the aim of raising the quality of education in Vietnam, the top legislator said.She suggested that the international community continue to strengthen the peaceful and stable environment for sustainable development and focus on providing comprehensive education for everyone with the aim of preventing the seeds of conflicts and promoting international legal framework for education cooperation, boosting vocational training to improve the quality of laborers for economic development.Along with promoting the role of parliaments and parliamentarians, providing a complete legal framework, building a state of the rule of law, and supervising the execution and approval of budgets for education reform programs, the countries should work to ensure all people access education.She underlined the need to continue supervising the implementation of national action plans to implement sustainable development goals, asking the IPU to press ahead with reforms to raise the efficiency and role of its member parliaments in carrying out adopted resolutions.The leader stressed the importance of increasing dialogue, international cooperation and partnership between countries, and regional and international organizations, providing maximum support for countries that meet limitations in carrying out comprehensive and inclusive education programs.-
Elections bring hope and promise of a new start for most people.

However, for over 2,000 'joginis' in northern Telangana, the exercise holds little meaning as the ancient religious practice that forced them into flesh trade as young girls has failed to find a mention in successive poll campaigns.

The practice, also known as the Devadasi system, is prevalent especially among the Dalit community in parts of south India even after a law prohibiting it was passed almost four decades ago.

As part of this practice, parents marry their daughters to temple deities and the girls are forced to work as sex workers after they attain puberty.

Despite being ignored by the politicians, the 'joginis' cannot afford to ignore the polls as they fear losing their ration cards.

"Elections come and go but nothing has changed in my life. Still, I vote every year for fear of losing subsidised ration," Puram Ananda, a 30-year-old 'jogini', told PTI.

Recalling her plight, Ananda, who lives in a Dalit colony in Sardana village, said, "I was given to a village elder to be used by him once I reached puberty. When he got tired of me, I became 'property' of the village, to be used by any man, anytime, anywhere."



At present, she is the 'property' of four villages but earns less than what sex workers in big cities like Mumbai and Kolkata get.

To support her son's education, she also works as a casual labourer in fields but income from that too is paltry.

"My only demand from the government is a sweeping or cleaning job in the collectorate. It will help in supporting my son's education," Ananda said.

The income of most 'joginis' is limited to what they get from their clients or the little rice or money they get for dancing in village temples or before a body while it is taken for the last rites.

A mother of three, Siddamma, a 65-year-old 'jogini' who lives in Jamsing Lingapur village, said she gets senior citizen pension from the state government but it is not adequate.

"I never wanted to be a part of this practice but I was forced as the 2,000-year-old practice is still deeply ingrained in Telangana's culture," she said.

'Joginis', who are betrothed to the first man who uses them, are largely located in Medak and Nizamabad districts of Telangana.

In the past, even Naxal groups have tried to help them break free from the shackles of the archaic system. However, they could not succeed in convincing the 'joginis'.

"We struggled to help them get out of this cruel system. We spoke to them and created awareness but they did not agree because of public fear," said Tam Tam Yadagiri, a surrendered Naxalite.

Low literacy rate among 'joginis' compounds the problem.

Many 'joginis' are illiterate and unaware that they are part of an illegal practice.

They are also at a high risk of physical and emotional abuse. They are also very vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections, including HIV and AIDS.

Nizamabad MP Kavitha, who is recontesting from the parliamentary constituency, claimed that most women had come out of the system and only the last generations remained.

"It is a profession which is not relevant anymore. But the last generations are left. Most of them have come out (of the system) and are leading their lives in a different way and have children," she said.

She said the current government is the first to recognise 'joginis' as destitute women and give them pension.

"We are giving a pension of Rs 1,000 at present and from May we are planning to give Rs 2,000," she said.

"Earlier governments never gave them anything. They had a scheme of giving them 1-2 acres of land. Not many of them got it. They are in a very dire situation. Our government is at least giving them pension," she added.

This is the only community which has 'Antodaya Anna Yojana' (AAY) ration card with 35 kg of foodgrain supply, Kavitha, daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, said.

Asked about providing jobs to this community, she said, "We have not given any thought to it.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday warned all banks and business of consequences to dealing with Iran's Revolutionary Guards after Washington designated the elite unit a terrorist group.

"Businesses and banks around the world now have a clear duty to ensure that companies with which they conduct financial transactions are not conducted with the IRGC in any material way," he told reporters, using the acronym for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Predictions about election results by astrologers, tarot card readers and others in media when there is a ban on broadcasting exit polls are a violation of law, the said Monday.

The poll body's advisory comes days before the first phase of Lok Sabha is to be held on April 11.

The silence period, when campaigning in poll-going areas is barred, begins Tuesday evening.

"The Commission is of the view that prediction of results of in any form or manner by way of predictions etc by astrologers, tarot readers, political analysts or by any persons during the prohibited period is violation of the spirit of Section 126A (of the Representation of the People Act) which aims to prevent the electors of constituencies still going to polls from being influenced in their voting by such predictions about the prospects of the various political parties," the advisory read.

Electronic and is advised not to publish or publicise any article or programme related to the dissemination of results of exit polls during the prohibited period, it said.

The commission also reiterated its earlier advisory banning exit polls till the evening of May 19.

" of India, in exercise of the powers under sub-section(1) of Section 126A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 has notified the period between 7.00 A.M. on 11.04.2019 (Thursday) and 6.30 P.M. on 19.05.2019 (Sunday) as the period during which conducting any and publishing or publicising the result of by means of the print or or in any other manner shall be prohibited," the advisory read.
Targeting the BJP leadership over its candidate selection in Rajasthan, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot Monday said all the four union ministers contesting Lok Sabha polls in the state are in a "weak position" as the public is "unhappy" with them.

Gehlot said Prime Minister Narendra Modi made first-time MPs minister and people are "fed up" with them in five years.

Prospects of union ministers contesting Lok Sabha polls in Rajasthan are poor. Ticket of one minister, CR Chaudhary, was dropped and rest of the ministers- Gajendra Singh Shekhawat in Jodhpur, PP Chaudhary in Pali, Rajyavardhan Rathore in Jaipur rural and Arjun Ram Meghwal in Bikaner are in a weak position. There is resentment among the public against them, he claimed while addressing a rally here.

"Those who won elections for the first time were made ministers whereas four-time MP Dushyant Singh, the son of former chief minister Vasundhara Raje was not given a chance. This is the state of affairs in BJP which is going to lose elections, the chief minister said.

Gehlot was in Barmer to address a rally in support of party candidate Manvendra Singh, a former BJP leader who defected to the Congress ahead of the 2018 assembly elections following discord with Raje.

In a scathing attack on the BJP and its leaders, Gehlot charged that former chief minister Raje ruled in a vindictive manner and ignored Marwar area because he (Gehlot) belongs to the region.

He also alleged that it was Raje who got Jaswant Singh's ticket dropped from the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and and also called BJP and Congress leaders asking them to ensure that Singh, who contested as an independent candidate, loses the election.

Raje did of revenge but this does not go a long way in democracy, he said.

Targeting sitting BJP MP from Barmer, Sonaram Chaudhary, who was dropped by the party this time, Gehlot said Congress took care of Sonaram for 15 years and he became MP and then MLA on Congress ticket but he joined the BJP ahead of the 2014 LS elections and got the ticket.

But what happened this time that he was not given ticket by the BJP? he said.

Highlighting promises made by Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Gehlot said the UPA, if elected, will introduce a separate budget for agriculture and support farmers and poor people.

Whatever Gandhi says, he does, Gehlot said.

The chief minister charged that democracy and Constitution in the country are under threat under the rule of prime minister Narendra Modi and the country is passing through an "alarming" phase.

PCC president and deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot and other leaders were present on the occasion.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Enforcement teams in Punjab have seized cash, liquor, psychotropic substances and valuables worth Rs 166.27 crore ever since the model code of conduct for the Lok Sabha polls came into force.

The surveillance teams have seized 2,75,495 litres of liquor worth Rs 5.55 crore, Punjab Chief Electoral Officer S Karuna Raju said.

Similarly, the enforcement wings also recovered 5,169 kg of psychotropic substances worth Rs 123.77 crore and valuables (like gold and silver) worth Rs 18.43 crore, he said.

Besides, unaccounted cash worth Rs 18.33 crore has also been seized, he added.

According to the directions of the Election Commission of India, Raju said, 90.23 per cent of the licensed weapons in the state had been surrendered so far.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Delhi High Court Monday said the private unaided schools, which did not approach the court or sought the government's approval to hike fees, will not get the benefit of its orders on the issue.

A bench of Justices S Muralidhar and I S Mehta asked the Action Committee Unaided Recognised Private Schools, which represents over 300 such institutions, to give a list of the schools who have applied to the Delhi government for approval to hike fees or have moved the court for the same.

"Those who have not come to court or sought approval, why should they get any indulgence?" the bench said, adding that "we need to have a clarity on this".

The observation by the court came while hearing the Delhi government's plea challenging a single judge order of March 15 allowing private unaided schools in the city to go ahead with an interim hike in fees to implement the recommendations of the seventh central pay commission on salaries of teachers and other employees.

The bench had on April 3 put on hold the interim hike in fees by the private unaided schools and the direction was Monday extended till April 30, the next date of hearing in the matter.

During the arguments, the Delhi government's Directorate of (DoE) told the bench that there have been instances of fee hike by private unaided schools despite the stay order.

Delhi government standing counsel Ramesh Singh, appearing for DoE, also told the court that some schools proceeded to hike fees without first sending a proposal seeking approval for the same.

During the hearing, DoE also told the court that of the 364 schools which were part of the Action Committee, 266 had applied to hike fees and of them 58 have been granted approval.

Of the rest, 34 had withdrawn their proposal, applications of seven are still pending and the remaining 167 were rejected, DoE, also represented by additional standing counsel Santosh Kumar Tripathi, said.

The Action Committee, during its arguments, told the bench that the DoE has been "prohibiting" them from submitting their statements of accounts, as required under the law, for seeking approval for increasing the fees.

It said "there was a concerted effort to prevent the schools from filing their statements of accounts".

The single judge, on March 15, had permitted the interim fee hike by quashing a Delhi government circular of April 13 last year, which had prohibited private unaided schools functioning on government land from hiking tuition amounts without approval of the DoE.

The government order was selectively applied to private schools which were on government land and as per a 'land clause' in the lease agreement, they needed to seek a prior approval of the DoE before hiking fees, the order noted.

Seeking to set aside the order, DoE had on the last date argued that the court had erred in holding that no prior approval was required in case of an interim fee hike as the same was not an act of fee increase by the school, but a dispensation by the department itself.

The single judge's order had come on the plea of the Action Committee which had challenged the April 13 last year DoE circular that had withdrawn an earlier notification of October 17, 2017 permitting interim hike of fees by private unaided schools.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A suspected rhino poacher was trampled to death by an elephant and his body devoured by lions in South Africa's Kruger National Park, officials said Monday.

South African rangers have recovered the skull of the man in the vast Kruger sanctuary, which has born the brunt of much of the country's poaching crisis.

According to a park spokesman, rangers were alerted after the victim's alleged accomplices told his family that he had been crushed to death by an elephant.

The man's remains were discovered on Thursday after a two day search involving aircraft and rangers on foot, with the help of the victim's accomplices.

"Our field rangers looked around the area and made the unfortunate discovery of a skull. That was the only remaining part of the deceased," Kruger national park spokesman Isaac Phaahla told AFP.

He said a pride of lions was thought to have been in the area and were believed to have devoured the man's remains.

"But the family were grateful that at least they have the bone to go and bury and they know what happened," Phaahla said.

Four of the man's accomplices have since been arrested and are expected to appear in court this week.

The demand for rhino horn has placed Africa at the epicentre of a global poaching and trafficking crisis.

South Africa, which is home to about 80 percent of the world rhino population, has been hit hardest, with much of the poaching concentrated on the Kruger park.

In 2018, 769 rhinos were poached in South Africa alone, according to the country's ministry. More than 7,100 animals have been killed over the past decade.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Activists of a Right-wing party in Nepal clashed with police on Monday when they were holding a protest rally here, demanding that the country be declared a Hindu state.

Nepal police fired tear gas shells and baton charged Rastriya Prajatantra Party leaders and activists near Singhdurbar, the government administrative complex, injuring more than a dozen of them.

The rally started from Ratnapark and converged into a corner meeting near Singhdurbar. The clash between the RPP cadres and the police occurred as soon as the party's leaders starting addressing the corner meeting.

The RRP has been campaigning for reinstatement of Nepal as a Hindu State after the country was converted into a secular nation through a parliament declaration in 2008, when monarchy was abolished with the success of the multi-party People's Movement.

Party president Kamal Thapa has vowed to convert Nepal into a Hindu state through launching a struggle.

Nepal Police Spokesperson, Senior Superintendent (SSP) Uttam Raj Subedi said, Police used force to disperse demonstrators as they were obstructing vehicular movement along the road.

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The Rashtriya Lok Samata Party, a constituent of opposition "Mahagathbandhan" in Bihar, suffered yet another setback Monday with its sitting MP Ram Kumar Sharma floating his own faction and lambasting the party's founder Upendra Kushwaha for allegedly ignoring committed workers while distributing tickets.

The Sitamarhi MP, who has been the party's "chief whip" in the Lok Sabha and the chairman of the parliamentary board, made the announcement at a conference here, saying, "I am going to write to the Election Commission to recognize RLSP (Ram Kumar Sharma) as a separate group".

"Like a feudal oligarch, Kushwaha decided on the candidates for all five seats he was allotted in Mahagathbandhan, without consulting me. Jittery over his prospects in his sitting seat of Karakat, he is contesting from Ujiyarpur as well," Sharma alleged.

The disgruntled leader, the only sitting MP in the RLSP other than Kushwaha, also said that the party's founder had falsely accused Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of using foul language against him.

"He denied me a ticket because I tried to stop him whenever he took suicidal decisions like falling into the trap of the Congress and Sharad Yadav and quitting the NDA. He falsely accused Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of using foul language against him," Sharma claimed.

"The most brazen example of his shenanigans was on display in Motihari (Purvi Champaran). He took money for the seat from former general secretary Pradeep Mishra and reneged on his promise when he got a bigger price from Madhaw Anand.

"In the end, he sold the ticket to Akash Prasad Singh who turned out to be the highest bidder. Singh was not even a party member before his candidature was announced," he said.

Singh is the son of former Union minister Akhilesh Prasad Singh, who won Purvi Champaran seat - earlier known as Motihari - in 2004 and was the runner up in 2009 as a Congress nominee. The former minister currently heads the campaign committee of the Bihar Congress.

Sharma also alleged "the candidate for Pashchim Champaran, too, has been imported from the JD(U) for a price. Brajesh Kushwaha's candidature left us all wondering when he acquired the primary membership".

"All through, Kushwaha has functioned in an undemocratic manner. He made righteous noises about the need for representation of lower castes in the judiciary and used the metaphor of kheer (rice pudding) to hoodwink the people with the claim that he wanted to take all sections along.

"Whenever somebody raised objections about the near absence of non-Kushwaha OBCs, he was eased out," Sharma alleged.

All RLSP members in the bicameral state legislature had turned their backs on him when he walked out of the NDA, the sitting MP claimed.

"He stands isolated today, even though he may be feeling high over getting five out of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar. Our Jehanabad MP Arun Kumar had parted ways long back. Now our group will work to ensure that he loses all the five seats," Sharma asserted.

A former JD(U) leader, Kushwaha floated his own party in 2013 after having voted in favor of the bill for introducing FDI in retail brought by the then Congress-led UPA government, defying the party whip.

When Nitish Kumar, the de facto leader of the JD(U), pulled out of the NDA, Kushwaha cosied up to the BJP. His fledgling party won all the three seats it contested - riding the Modi wave.

The BJP - which needed an OBC face to compensate for the exit of Kumar - promptly rewarded him with a ministerial berth at the Centre.

Kushwaha, however, grew uneasy following Kumar's return to the NDA in 2017. The BJP insisted that all NDA partners make sacrifices in order to accommodate the new ally and asked him to settle for two seats. He ultimately walked out of the NDA in December last year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Election Commission of India has directed the Punjab government to divest IPS officer Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh of his charge as inspector general (IG) of police, crime, and the additional charge of Organised Crime Control Unit (OCCU) for "violating" the model code of conduct.

A show cause notice has also been issued to Pratap Singh to explain his position and the ECI has warned him against making comments related to the SIT probe into the 2015 sacrilege and police firing incidents, officials said.

The ECI's direction comes after a complaint was lodged by the Shiromani Akali Dal against Pratap Singh.

Following the directions of the ECI, the Punjab government has posted him as inspector general of Counter Intelligence (Amritsar).

Pratap Singh is a member of the Special Investigation Team probing the 2015 sacrilege and police firing incidents, which remains unchanged after the ECI directive.

In a communication sent to the chief secretary of Punjab, the ECI wrote that it had received a complaint from Rajya Sabha MP Naresh Gujral (Akali Dal leader) against the IPS officer.

"The matter was examined and it was found that the officer gave politically motivated interview to a TV channel on March 18 and 19 about ongoing investigation by SIT and made certain political comments. It has also been observed that the contents of the part of the interview has political connotations and has the potential to show certain political leaders in poor light. The officer also mentioned the name of leaders of SAD which is clearly in violation of the provision of model code of conduct," the ECI's letter to the chief secretary said.

"The commission has therefore decided that Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, IGP, (member SIT) shall be immediately relieved from his present post and shall not be given any post related to conduct of elections," as per ECI letter.

The commission also directed that action may be initiated against the IPS officer for the "lapse /violation".

The ECI also directed the member of SIT to not make any such contents during the period of MCC, as it will affect the fairness of polls.

The SAD had filed a complaint against the IPS officer, alleging he was working at the behest of the Congress to target Akalis. The party sought Pratap Singh be shifted out of the state till elections are over.

The Punjab government told the ECI that the SIT was functioning independently.

The ruling Congress had accused the Akali Dal of trying to use the ECI by filing "frivolous" complaints, aimed at "sabotaging" the SIT probe into the 2015 sacrilege and police firing incidents.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
I laid the groundwork/outline for three books. Finished 7 short stories and tidied up 10 short stories about a Little Bear for children. Now I can work at an even pace

When the ideas are flowing, I have to get the ideas down. They never stay the same if I let time flow by too long

But, I have to take the clutch master cylinder out of Sammy the Volga. We have the part and it has to be put in before we can get to the Tiny Russian Village. I am still fighting the remains of the flue and to be honest, I am scared of getting sick again. I have had pneumonia six times in my life and being weakened by the flue, makes that a possibility magnified

So, I will wait until the weather is better and it is almost there. The next sun shiny day, I will be working on Sammy the Volga

It was nice this winter, Sammy does not have any leaks inside her anymore. All the work done has sealed her up good and no water sitting in the floorboards. Older cars have always had issues with that and Sammy was no exception, but she is happy now

Sammy the Volga fired right up after a month just sitting and waiting to get out of the snow and or ice. I am always amazed at how these Volga engines will start almost every time in any temperature. They are not a tight tolerance engine and I think that is the key to being able to survive the harshness of Russia. They are designed to simply run, not give super performance. When there is three feet of ice and snow on the ground, for four or five months and more. Performance is not high on the list. Just good low rpm power and running at -40 below

Oh my goodness, Russians have some sweet tourist deals to Venice Italy, I mean dirt cheap and Svetochka is looking at me and pointing at the deals. I do not know how to swing it, but they are so cheap that to pass up a week in Venice at this price would be a crime. Besides, the Italians are being smart and questioning the status quo of the EU and the rest of the USA Western Empire. We need to help Italy out

There is Svetochka pointing at those super Venice deals right now 

I (but needs to be we) wanna go to China, if I was Russian that would be easy, being American takes much more effort to go to China

Maybe next time.Svetochka is still pointing at Venice and dreaming

Too much to do and too many things to get done

I just wanna go to the Tiny Russian Village and walk, work and R&R

WtR
Former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar was the "kingpin" of gruesome offence in which Sikhs were "massacred" in Delhi during the 1984 anti-Sikhs riots, CBI told the Supreme Court on Monday while opposing his plea seeking bail.

Kumar has challenged in the apex court the Delhi High Court verdict of December 17 last year that awarded him life imprisonment for the "remainder of his natural life" in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.

73 year old Kumar, who is lodged in jail, has also filed an application seeking bail.

His bail application came up for hearing on Monday before a bench of Justices S A Bobde and S A Nazeer.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the CBI, opposed his plea saying it would be a "travesty of justice" if Kumar was granted bail as he is facing trial in another 1984 anti-Sikh riots case at Patiala House district court here.

"This is a gruesome offence of massacre of Sikhs. He (Kumar) was the leader and he was the kingpin of this," Mehta told the bench.

The case in which Kumar was convicted and sentenced relates to the killing of five Sikhs in Delhi Cantonment's Raj Nagar Part-I area of southwest Delhi on November 1 and 2, 1984, and burning down of a Gurudwara in Raj Nagar Part-II.

Anti-Sikh riots had broken out after the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984 by her two Sikh bodyguards.

During the arguments, the counsel representing Kumar told the bench that a key witness in the case had earlier given four statements in which she had not named Kumar but later, she named the former Congress leader in her statement.

"How long he (Kumar) has been in jail?," the bench asked.

To this, the counsel said Kumar is in jail for past over three months and during the adjudication of the trial, he was out on anticipatory bail and never misused the liberty.

Mehta, however, told the bench about the circumstances in which Kumar was granted anticipatory bail and argued that a violent mob had gathered at Kumar's residence when CBI team had gone there during probe into the case.

The bench was also told by one of the advocates that Kumar was a sitting MP in 1984 and several Sikhs were killed during the riots in his constituency.

When Kumar's counsel referred to the merits of the case, the bench said: "We do not know why you are inviting our attention to the facts of the case.

"Today, you (Kumar) are convicted by the high court. It is not a charge by police. We cannot treat it lightly."



During the hearing, when Mehta referred to the ongoing trial against Kumar in a case related to 1984 anti-Sikh riots, the bench asked, "How many witnesses are yet to be examined?".

Mehta said the case is at the stage of recording of prosecution evidence and the apex court can ask the trial court to expedite it.

The bench, however, asked the CBI to apprise it of the status of the ongoing trial in the case involving Kumar and listed his bail plea for hearing on April 15.

Kumar had surrendered before a trial court here on December 31, 2018, to serve the sentence in pursuance of the high court's December 17 verdict.

After his conviction in the case, Kumar had resigned from the Congress party.

The CBI has recently told the top court that Kumar's plea seeking bail should be dismissed as he has a "large political clout" and is capable of "influencing or terrorising" witnesses in the case pending against him.

The high court had convicted and sentenced Kumar to spend the remainder of his life in jail for the offences of criminal conspiracy and abetment in commission of crimes of murder, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of communal harmony and defiling and destruction of a Gurdwara.

It had also upheld the conviction and varying sentences awarded by a trial court to five others former Congress councillor Balwan Khokhar, retired naval officer Captain Bhagmal, Girdhari Lal and ex-MLAs Mahender Yadav and Kishan Khokhar.

The high court had set aside the trial court's 2010 verdict which had acquitted Kumar in the case.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Salvadoran police said Monday they had struck a "heavy blow" against the Central American country's violent MS-13 gang, arresting 117 members for a raft of crimes from murder to extortion.

US President Donald Trump has frequently pointed to the gang to justify his immigration policy, labelling it a danger to Americans and claiming many Salvadoran migrants to the US are gang members.

Announcing the arrests, El Salvador's top police official Howard Cotto said those arrested came from 11 separate MS-13 cells operating against businesses in downtown San Salvador.

Cotto said a complicating factor for El Salvador's anti-gang operations was that members of the feared gang operating in the capital lived elsewhere.

"They come from outside the capital to commit crimes," he said, claiming police "have managed to strike a heavy blow." The charges against them include 16 homicides and extortion.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to pull US aid from El Salvador amid claims the government is not doing enough to counter the 70,000-member gang. Some 17,000 MS-13 members are in prison.

El Salvador's homicide rate of 51 per 100,000 inhabitants makes it one of the world's most violent countries outside of full-fledged conflict zones.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Samsung Electronics would further consolidate its lead in the LED TV segment, helped by India-specific innovations and by providing affordable finance solutions to its consumers, said a company official.

Samsung is witnessing "strong momentum" in sales of smart TVs in metros, tier II, III and IV cites helped by factors such as low priced data, good internet speed and low priced OTT (over the top) content.

The company would continue to invest to add advanced features as IoT (internet of things) and AI (Artificial Intelligence) in the segment.

"Overall, we continue to be the largest brand with share of 30 per cent in the TV segment. Our intent it to consolidate our overall market leadership," Samsung India Consumer Electronics Senior Vice President Raju Pullan told PTI



Samsung is growing over 60 per cent in the 32-inch screen size LED TV segment, which is considered to be mainstay of the industry.

"The TV industry is growing only 22 per cent in 32-inch category," he said adding that in the UHD segment, the company's market share is 35 per cent and in QLED 63 per cent.

According to him, now the consumers are upgrading their existing TVs to smart TVs. In metros and tier II markets, people are going for a higher screen size.

While in tier III and IV markets, the growth rate of smart TV segment is higher because of low penetration of smart TVs compared with the developed metro markets.

"We are seeing a strong momentum because of two strategies -- to give the right consumer benefits and affordability with the help of financial institutions," he added.

When asked about the competition with other companies which are offering competitive prices at the entry level segment, Pullan said Samsung would compete with its full range.

"We would be price warrior and size warrior... We have seen many brands around us in last couple of years but holistically we are a brand which would be across price points," he said.

According to him, the penetration of TV in the Indian household is 60 per cent and most of them are not smart TVs.

The company Monday introduced its latest range of smart TVs which can be used as personal computer, music system and home cloud.

Samsung range of new smart TVs starts from Rs 24,900 for 32-inch and is available across screen sizes up to 82-inch.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said on Monday the oil market was "moving towards balance", and that producers may not need to make additional output cuts.

As oil prices hit a five-month high at more than USD 70 a barrel, Falih told a conference in Riyadh that non-OPEC member Russia and other countries have met their production cut obligations.

Falih said he did not "think we need to" when asked if the kingdom was prepared to make additional cuts to support the oil market.

"I think the market is moving towards balance," he said.

The Saudi minister however insisted that it was still premature to say that a crucial meeting in June for OPEC and its allies will extend the 1.2 million barrels per day cuts.

The 25-member group, called OPEC+, agreed to cut output by 1.2 million bpd from the beginning of 2019 after oil prices dipped by more than 30 percent late last year.

The oil producers have been debating whether it was necessary to extend the cuts beyond the June deadline or even make additional cuts.

The Saudi minister said the subject will be discussed at a key OPEC+ meeting in Jeddah next month.

Falih said Russia, the main non-OPEC producer, and others like Iraq, Kuwait and the UAE have met their obligations for production cuts.

"The implementation once again is moving in the right direction ... the market is coming back to health," Falih said.

The minister said that the main objective of the OPEC+ countries remains to bring down the level of global inventories as the "market is sensitive to inventories." Although the level of inventories has dropped in the past few months "they are substantially above what is a normal level," Falih said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
State Bank of India (SBI) Monday invited bids for stake sale in ailing

SBI, which is the lead lender of a consortium of domestic lenders that has extended loans to Jet Airways, is looking for "change in control and management" of the carrier, according to a public notice.

SBI Capital Markets would be assisting and advising the lenders on the bid process.

The bids have to be submitted by April 10.

The lenders' consortium has taken control of the airline under a debt recast plan.

Under the debt resolution plan approved by the Jet Airways' board on March 25, lenders have taken a majority stake in the airline and are set to infuse Rs 1,500 crore.

Besides, the carrier's founder and promoter Naresh Goyal, as well as his wife Anita Goyal, quit the board. The shareholding of Goyals has come down to 25 per cent from 51 per cent earlier.

Acute financial crunch has forced the airline to ground aircraft, cancel flights and delay payment of salaries, including to pilots.

Last week, the lenders said they would pursue a resolution plan for the carrier in a time-bound manner under the present legal and regulatory framework.

"The lenders are cognisant that the outcome of efforts of the lenders will depend on the interest shown by the parties on sale of stake in the company," the statement issued by lenders had said.
The Supreme Court Monday directed the Election Commission to increase the random matching of VVPAT slips with EVMs from one booth per assembly segment to five in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls for better voter confidence and credibility of electoral process.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi however did not agree to the request of 21 opposition parties leaders that VVPAT slips of 50 per cent EVMs be matched, on the ground that it will require huge manpower and not be feasible in view of infrastructural difficulties.

The bench, also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna, disposed of the petition filed by opposition parties including TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu on the issue.

In their reply in response to Election Commission's affidavit, the leaders of 21 opposition parties have told the apex court that they do not mind a delay of six days in declaration of Lok Sabha election results for counting of 50 per cent of VVPAT slips, saying it is not a "serious delay" if it ensures integrity of the electoral process.

The EC in its affidavit has claimed that the verification of 50 per cent of VVPAT slips would delay the declaration of election results by "5.2 days".

The leaders said it "is not a serious delay in any manner if it ensures integrity of electoral process".

"If delay of 5.2 days is to be balanced with the integrity of electoral process, the balance will certainly tilt towards the latter," they said in an affidavit submitted to the court.

The Commission follows a system of counting of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips in one polling booth per assembly constituency in Vidhan Sabha elections, and one polling booth in each assembly segment for Lok Sabha polls.

Naidu and others seeking that VVPAT slips of at least 50 per cent of voting machines in each assembly constituency be matched with Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during the counting of results in the general elections, starting April 11.

The opposition leaders said the delay of 5.2 days, as the EC claims, will occur only if the Commission chooses not to increase its present workforce but the delay would be substantially reduced if the workforce is increased by even one person.

They clarified that this is not an adversarial litigation and the plea was filed in public interest with the sole intention of ensuring free and fair elections.

"The petitioners are not casting any aspersions on the Election Commission of India but are merely seeking a direction that will not only give proper effect to the earlier orders passed by this Court but will also instil a certain sense of confidence in the minds of the general public to the effect that elections shall be free and fair," they said in the affidavit.

The affidavit stated that the issue raised is not of credibility of EVMs but of public confidence in the integrity of the electoral process.

"The petitioners respectfully submit that the election commission which is saddled with the responsibility of ensuring free and fair elections should in all fairness welcome the petitioners' prayers and itself offer to increase the aforesaid numbers/percentage rather than robustly opposing the same in an adversarial manner," it said.

Replying to the EC affidavit, in which the poll panel has justified the use of the present system of random counting in one poll booth per assembly segment, the leaders said, "The present guideline issue by ECI makes VVPAT completely ineffective and merely ornamental in nature".

"It defeats the entire purpose of introducing VVPAT and renders the judgement and directions passed by the court completely otiose," they claimed.

With regard to EC's claim of "insurmountable difficulties" of larger manpower and space for additional six days, they asserted that sensitising additional poll officials and finding larger counting halls are not an insurmountable difficultly by "any stretch of imagination".

"The petitioners submit that even if just one official per booth has been sensitised, it is not difficult at all, much less an 'insurmountably' difficult, to sensitise one or two officials and the ECI should not be permitted to resist increase of percentage or numbers of EVMs to be verified/checked against VVPAT on this ground," they said in their submission to the court.

On April 1, the apex court had asked the opposition leaders to file within a week their reply on the EC's affidavit on their plea.

The EC has submitted to the court that any increase in the sample size of verification from the existing norm of one polling booth per assembly segment would lead to very negligible gain in the confidence level, which is way above 99.99 per cent.

It has stated that increased VVPAT slip counting will require extensive training and capacity building of election officials.

"It is further submitted that when the polls are imminent and polling is to commence from April 11, 2019, to now seek to alter the system adopted by the Election Commission of India at this stage might not be feasible," the poll panel has said.

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The Supreme Court directed the EC on Monday to increase random matching of VVPAT slips with EVMs to five polling booths per assembly segment, from one at present, in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls saying it will bring more "credibility" and "integrity" to the electoral process.

The apex court however did not agree to the demand of 21 Opposition leaders, led by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, for counting of at least 50 percent of the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips with Electronic Voting Machines per assembly segment.

The Election Commission currently follows a system of random counting of VVPAT slips in one polling booth per assembly segment of a Parliamentary or Assembly constituency.

"It is our considered view and having regard to the totality of the facts, it would generate greater satisfaction and will foolproof the electoral process if number of VVPAT machines is increased to five per assembly segment of each Parliamentary constituency," a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said.

The bench, also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna, made it clear that the existing mechanism of random process to select EVMs for VVPAT slips matching as being done by the poll panel would continue to apply.

"We are of the view that if the number of EVMs in respect to VVPAT is subjected to physical scrutiny be increased from one to five per assembly segment...there will be greater satisfaction not only to the political parties but also to the voters," the bench said.

It emphasised that increasing the number of EVMs for VVPAT slips matching per assembly segment would neither require additional manpower and infrastructure nor delay the declaration of result.

The bench interacted with the Deputy Election Commissioner Sudeep Jain who said that presently the poll panel matches VVPAT paper slips of 4,125 EVMs under the one EVM per assembly segment guidelines.

He said that increasing the number of random sample size checking of VVPATs slips with EVMs would lead to more manual counting and hence it would be more prone to error.

Jain told the court that at present three election officials, one returning officer and one observer, who happens to be a senior civil servant, are deployed to undertake the random checking of VVPAT slips with one EVM and increasing the sample size would require more workforce.

Senior advocate C A Sundaram, appearing for EC, said that it was the constitutional duty of the poll panel to ensure free and fair election in the country and it has put forth the difficulties posed in increasing the sample size in view of the allegations of leaders of different political parties which was only based on their perception.

Senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for the opposition leaders said that the delay of 5.2 days, as the EC claims, will occur only if the Commission choose to not increase its present workforce from one person but the delay would be substantially reduced if the workforce is increase by even one person.

He said that they do not mind a delay of six days in declaration of Lok Sabha election results for counting of 50 per cent of VVPAT slips if it ensures the integrity of the electoral process.

Singhvi said that increasing the sample size would instil a sense of confidence in the minds of the general public that the elections are free and fair.

The 21 political leaders in their affidavit has said "The present guideline issue by ECI makes VVPAT completely ineffective and merely ornamental in nature. It defeats the entire purpose of introducing VVPAT and renders the judgement and directions passed by the court completely otiose."



"The petitioners submit that even if just one official per booth has been sensitised, it is not difficult at all, much less an 'insurmountably' difficult, to sensitise one or two officials and the ECI should not be permitted to resist increase of percentage or numbers of EVMs to be verified/checked against VVPAT on this ground," they said in their submission to the court.

The EC has submitted to the court that any increase in the sample size of verification from the existing norm of one polling booth per assembly segment would lead to very negligible gain in the confidence level, which is way above 99.99 per cent.

It has stated that increased VVPAT slip counting will require extensive training and capacity building of election officials.

"It is further submitted that when the polls are imminent and polling is to commence from April 11, 2019, to now seek to alter the system adopted by the Election Commission of India at this stage might not be feasible," the poll panel has said.

Naidu and others had sought in their plea that VVPAT slips of at least 50 per cent of voting machines in each assembly constituency be matched during counting of votes this general election and assembly polls.

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The Supreme Court Monday refused to entertain a plea seeking a direction to the Centre to frame guidelines and laws to curb the menace of fake on social sites.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi dismissed the plea which had sought directions to the ministries of Home Affairs, Law, Information and Broadcasting and Electronics and Information Technology to constitute a committee for tackling fake on various social media handles.

The plea, filed by advocate Anuja Kapoor, said there should be accountability, liability and responsibility of the authorities and departments concerned to prevent spread of such

It referred to unverified news on social media relating to the ongoing tension between India and Pakistan.

"The non-restraining of the various fake news travelling on social media handles leads to crimes against humanity such as mob lynching, abetment to murder, sedition, communal riots, influence in elections, mass hysteria," the plea said.

It had also sought framing the necessary guidelines, appropriate laws and bye-laws and appropriate punishment for its violation.

"There are no set laws relating to restricting fake news, which travel on various social handles, no proper guidelines and punishments/penalties for those social media handlers," it said.

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The Supreme Court Monday said it cannot pass an order at this stage on a plea seeking a stay on the release of a biopic on PM Narendra Modi as the Censor Board was yet to certify the film.

The apex court said it will hear the matter tomorrow and possibly can pass an order if the petitioner brings on record that what the film depicts is highly objectionable.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi refused the plea of the petitioner, a Congress activist, that the copy of the film should be given to him.

"Why should we direct that individual be given a copy of the film," the bench also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna said.

"We fail to understand why such a direction be given," the bench said.

At the outset, the CJI said the film is not yet certified.

Senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for the Congress activist, said the producer Sandeep Singh had come out with a statement that the biopic would be released on April 11.

Taking note of his submission, the bench said the producer may have come out with such a statement on release of the biopic on April 11 anticipating that the film would get the certification from the Censor Board.

The bench said as of now there is no cause of action for challenging release of the film.

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The Supreme Court Monday agreed to hear a bail plea of former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in connection with a two-decade-old drug seizure case.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna issued notice on the bail plea and sought response from Gujarat police.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Bhatt, said the high court has dismissed the plea in the case.

On March 7, the Gujarat High Court had rejected the bail application filed by Bhatt in connection with the case.

Bhatt, is behind the bars since September last year in connection with a 23-year-old drug seizure case.

The former Gujarat-cadre IPS officer had approached the high court after a Sessions court in Banaskantha district turned down his bail plea in December last year.

He was suspended in 2011 on charges of remaining absent from duty without permission and misuse of official vehicles.

Bhatt, who was sacked from service in 2015, was a superintendent of police in Banaskantha district in 1996.

The district police under him had arrested one Sumersingh Rajpurohit, a Rajasthan-based lawyer, in 1996, claiming that they have seized drugs from a hotel room in Palanpur town where he was staying.

However, the Rajasthan police later said Rajpurohit was falsely implicated by the Banaskantha police to compel him to transfer a disputed property located at Pali in Rajasthan.

Former police inspector I B Vyas moved the Gujarat High Court in 1999 demanding a thorough inquiry into the matter.

In June last year, the high court handed over the probe to the state CID, and Bhatt was arrested in September.

On February 8, the apex court had refused to entertain Bhatt's plea seeking security for his family and had directed him to approach the high court.

On October 4 last year, the apex court had dismissed his wife Shweta Bhatt's plea, challenging the police probe and his judicial custody in a 23-year-old case.

She had unsuccessfully contested assembly election as a Congress party candidate against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Maninagar constituency in Ahmedabad in 2012.

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The Supreme Court Monday took note of a PIL seeking direction to the Election Commission to take "strict action" against political parties if their spokespersons make remarks based on castes and religions in the media in the run up to general elections.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna issued notice to the EC on the plea filed an NRI Yoga teacher based in Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Referring to communal and caste-based election speeches and remarks of political leaders, Harpreet Mansukhani said he has filed the plea to "maintain secular environment in the forthcoming Lok Sabha Election, 2019".

In the plea, he has sought various reliefs including a direction to the poll panel "to take strict actions against the political parties if their spokesperson or representative deliver speeches and make remark in media pertaining to the religion or caste.

"The 'undesirable development' of appeals to religion, race, caste, community or language of politicians would hamper the objective of fundamental rights provided under the Constitution of India, this would affect the public at large".

The plea, filed through lawyer Arup Banerjee, has also sought setting up of a committee under the chairmanship of retired Supreme Court Judge "to have close watch on entire election process and to check the loyalty of election commission".

It has also sought a direction to the poll panel to take strict actions against media houses which hold debates on caste or religious lines.

The plea has sought a report from the poll panel on the measures adopted by it in holding "corruption free elections".

"Our Constitution ensures a Socialist, Secular State and equality, fraternity among its citizens. Our country has a democratic set-up which is by the people, for the people and of the people.

"A new trend of giving tickets to those who spread communal hatred and do caste or religion based politics has grown very rapidly on media and social media platform more than that the situation appears to be more alarming when we find such persons being elected for the State Assembly or Parliament...," the plea said.

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South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Monday confirmed the appointment of a pro-engagement academic as his new point man on Pyongyang, despite controversy over his outspoken support for cooperation with the nuclear-armed North.

The confirmation of Kim Yeon-chul as the new unification minister comes days before Moon flies to Washington for a summit with President Donald Trump as he seeks to rekindle dialogue between the US and North Korea after a failed summit in Hanoi in February.

The dovish South Korean president brokered the talks process between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which led to their first landmark summit in Singapore last June.

But at times security allies Seoul and Washington have appeared to diverge on their approach to Pyongyang, with Moon, a longstanding advocate of engagement with the North, regularly pushing inter-Korean cooperation projects.

Moon faced a heavy backlash last month after tapping Kim Yeon-chul, chief of the state-run Korea Institute of National Unification, to head the unification ministry which handles inter-Korean affairs.

Kim, also a vocal supporter of dialogue with Pyongyang and Moon's longtime confidante, has a record of challenging generally held views on highly emotive issues involving the North.

In a 2010 newspaper column, Kim wrote that the shooting dead of a South Korean tourist by a northern guard at the North's Mount Kumgang resort was a "rite of passage" that Seoul had to undergo in the early stages of cross-border cooperation.

All South Korean tours to the North were suspended following the 2008 killing.

Kim is also a vocal critic of sanctions against Pyongyang.

Shortly after Seoul's 2016 closure of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, where Southern firms used to be staffed by Northern workers, he told an interviewer that "sanctions and pressure was a failed approach".

Moon has been pushing for the resumption of both projects, but doing so would fall foul of the current sanctions system.

In spite of the collapse of the Hanoi summit, Moon said last month that Seoul would consult with the US on ways to resume South Korean tours to Mount Kumgang and restart operations at the joint factory park.

Moon is able to override opposition parties' strong objections to Kim's appointment as cabinet ministers do not require parliamentary approval.

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BJP president Amit Shah may meet party veterans L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi on Monday, days after the party dropped both leaders as its Lok Sabha candidates.

The BJP has replaced Advani, who represented Gandhinagar for many years, with Shah as its candidate from the constituency in Gujarat.

Joshi has been replaced with Satyadev Pachauri in Kanpur.

Joshi issued a statement, saying the party told him it would not nominate him as the BJP candidate from Kanpur.

While Advani has not said anything about being dropped from the party's list of Lok Sabha candidates, he wrote a blog asserting his party never regarded those who disagreed with it politically as "anti-national".

Shah is likely to meet both leaders on the day the party released its manifesto.

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BJP president met party veterans and L K Advani on Monday, hours after the launch of the partys poll manifesto.

Shahs meeting with the two leaders came days after they were not given poll tickets.

The BJP has fielded Shah from Gujarats Gandhinagar, a seat represented by Advani for many years, while Joshi has been replaced by Satyadev Pachauri in

After being denied ticket, Joshi had issued a statement saying the BJP had told him that he would not be nominated by the party in

While Advani has not said anything about being dropped from the party's list of candidates, he wrote a blog asserting his party never regarded those who disagreed with it politically as anti-national.

Both Advani and Joshi were sidelined in the party after the 2014 general elections, in which the BJP got clear majority under the leadership of Narendra Modi.

After easing them out of key organisational positions, the party leadership brought the curtains down on their electoral innings by not giving them tickets to contest the polls this time.

(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.)
Auto industry has approached the government to cut GST on passenger vehicles and two-wheelers from 28 per cent to 18 per cent to compensate the sector, which is expected to see a price hike in range of 10-15 per cent with the coming of new emission and safety regulations.

The industry fears that with the increase in prices, the demand for their products would be impacted.

Currently, automobiles attract peak GST rate of 28 per cent with additional cess ranging from 1 per cent to 15 per cent, depending on the length, engine size and type.

"We want the government to be sensitive to the fact that BS-VI emission introduction (from Apri1, 2020) and other safety regulations will add to the cost. If it adds to the cost it is likely to lead to a slowdown in the demand," Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) Rajan Wadhera told reporters here.

If the demand goes down, government collection of taxes would also go down, he added.

"Therefore, for a win-win situation, we are seeking a 18 per cent GST (Goods and Services Tax) in automobiles," Wadhera said.

A price hike of even 10 per cent would impact the sales of the two-wheeler segment, which currently witnesses offtake of over 22 million units annually, he said.

"In PVs also, the prices are going to go up in the range of 10-15 per cent due to technology and safety enhancements. There also we need serious considerations by the government so that it is a win-win situation for all," Wadhera said.

Earlier this year, Managing Director and CEO had sought a reduction in taxes on automobiles in order to create demand and develop the industry.

Major two-wheeler companies like TVS Motor Company, and had also demanded a GST rate cut on two-wheelers.
Social media should be included in the ambit of election rules related to print and electronic media and there should be proper regulation of their content by the Election Commission to ensure free and fair polls in the country, a group of poll experts and advocates said Monday.

Addressing a press conference ahead of first phase of Lok Sabha election on April 11, former chief election commissioner S Y Quraishi said there cannot be a separate law for social media which should be treated as any other mass media.

He said political leaders and parties must get prior approval of the EC before posting anything on social media websites and they should also declare the expenditure incurred in using social media.

"Social media is also media. Whatever guidelines are meant for media- print and electronic- are applicable to social media websites also. There cannot be a separate law for it," said Quraishi, who was the CEC from July 2010 to June 2012.

Urging political parties to not "misuse social media or misguide voters by spreading fake news", Quraishi said, "Whatever you are spending on social media should be declared and the content to be posted on social media should also be approved by the Election Commission first.

"There is a committee to approve this - Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) which will have social media expert also."



Echoing his views, senior advocate and Bar Council of Delhi chairperson K C Mittal said the country needs "uninfluenced fair electoral process" and there must be level playing field between parties and candidates as far as money power and media is concerned.

"This is why certain guidelines were issued earlier for print and electronic media so that genuine people are elected, " he said.

Mittal said social media platforms are wrong to say that "they are not responsible for the content being posted by users and it is their personal opinion".

He said that social media companies should be summoned by the EC and told that they will be held responsible for posting of any offensive material that influences the elections and will be prosecuted.

Concurring with Mittal, S K Mendiratta, former legal advisor to EC, said that ahead of Lok Sabha polls 2014, the poll panel came out with guidelines for social media wherein instructions were given to the candidates and political parties but the social media was not regulated.

"Today, big internet companies are sharing Indian data with the US intelligence agencies. Unless this is stopped, the EC cannot conduct free and fair polls because this sensitive data is being used to influence elections," he alleged.

Recently, social media giant Facebook said it has removed over 600 pages and fake accounts linked to individuals associated with an IT Cell of a political party.

Facebook, which has been facing flak globally for instances of user data breach, has been ramping up efforts to ensure that its platforms (that includes WhatsApp and Instagram) aren't misused to spread misinformation, especially ahead of polls in India.

It has recently started providing details of political ads on its platform in a bid to enhance transparency. According to a recent voluntary code of ethics prepared by such platforms, no political campaign will be allowed to run on them in the last 48 hours before polling ends.

The EC has also issued an advisory to media that exit polls can only be telecast on the evening of May 19 after the last phase of Lok Sabha election and has included websites and social media platforms for the first time.

The experts were, however, divided on the ongoing controversy over the recently launched 'Namo TV' channel against which the opposition parties have approached the EC demanding action.

While Quraishi and Mendiratta said that having a TV channel was not against the model code of conduct, senior advocate Mittal and High Court lawyer Virag Gupta said it could not be allowed.

"There are channels already running in south India. It is not against the model code of conduct. It is a normal publicity campaign material. But the content has to be monitored to ensure there is no incitement of any sort," the former CEC said.

His view was shared by Mendiratta who said, "There are channels like Jaya TV and others for publicity of parties in south India. This has been happening and it is part of their own publicity. They can do it."



However, Mittal claimed that it was against the model code of conduct.

"How can a political party or leader have their own channel for propaganda? Definitely EC can and should take action against such erring leaders. According to me you cannot have a channel. There may not be a cap on party expenditure, but again there will be no level playing field then," Mittal said.

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Opposition DMK Monday welcomed the Madras High Court order quashing the land acquisition process for the Salem-Chennai green corridor project, saying it has dealt a 'death blow' to the K Palaniswami government in Tamil Nadu.

DMK president and Leader of Opposition in the state assembly M K Stalin said the government should not prefer an appeal against the court ruling and demanded that the chief minister apologise to farmers for acquiring their land.

"The court has dealt a death blow to the Palaniswami government which does not respect people's sentiments," Stalin alleged in a statement here.

Earlier in the day, a special bench of the high court quashed the land acquisition process for the Rs 10,000-crore project, holding it required a mega realignment as the proposed route would have an adverse effect on the

The bench of Justice T S Sivagnanam and Justice Bhavani Subbarayan passed the order allowing a batch of petitions of 35 landowners and PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss, whose party is now a constituent of the AIADMK-led NDA.

Stalin said the government paid no heed to the plea of the farmers who did not want to part with their land and was keen to implement the project with the help of the police.

He also took a swipe at Anbumani Ramadoss, saying "he has stopped talking" about the project after entering into an alliance with the AIADMK.

"Palaniswami should announce that an appeal will not be made against the court order," Stalin said and wanted to know if PMK would quit the alliance if the chief minister failed to give such an assurance.

The Salem-Chennai corridor is an ambitious 277.3-km long eight-lane greenfield project under the Centre's 'Bharatmala Pariyojana' scheme which aims to cut travel time between the two cities by half to about two hours and 15 minutes.

However, it has has been facing opposition from a section of locals, including farmers, over fears of losing their land, besides environmentalists who were against felling of trees for the project.

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The Sudanese group spearheading months-long protests against President Omar al-Bashir's rule Monday called on the army to hold direct talks with demonstrators about forming a transitional government.

"We call on the Sudanese armed forces to talk directly with the Alliance for Freedom and Change for facilitating the peaceful process of forming a transitional government," Omar el-Digeir, a senior member of the group, said in a statement outside the army headquarters where thousands of demonstrators have massed since Saturday.

Digeir said the protest organisers had also formed a council to initiate talks with security forces and the international community aimed at agreeing a political transition that gives power to a "transitional government that represents the wish of the revolution".

"We reiterate our people's demand that the head of the regime and his government have to immediately step down." "We also call on the Sudanese armed forces to withdraw their support for a regime that has lost its legitimacy," Digeir said, reading from a statement issued by the alliance.

"We call on the Sudanese armed forces to support the Sudanese people's alternative for a transition to a civilian democratic government." The Alliance for Freedom and Change is an umbrella group of political parties and unions representing doctors, engineers and teachers that has led the protest movement against Bashir since December.

The rally outside the army headquarters, now in its third straight day, has been the largest since protests began on December 19 in the central town of Atbara, quickly spreading to the capital and towns and cities across the east African country.

The protesters accuse Bashir's administration of economic mismanagement that has led to soaring food prices and shortages of fuel and foreign currency.

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The idea of 'sugar rush' -- a state of hyperactivity after consuming too many sweets -- is a myth, claim scientists who found that sugar makes people less alert and more tired.

Researchers from University of Warwick and Lancaster University in the UK set out to examine whether sugar really boost people's mood.

Using data collected from 31 published studies involving almost 1,300 adults, the team investigated the effect of sugar on various aspects of mood, including anger, alertness, depression, and fatigue.

They also considered how factors such as the quantity and type of sugar consumed might affect mood, and whether engaging in demanding mental and physical activities made any difference.

The researchers found that sugar consumption has virtually no effect on mood, regardless of how much sugar is consumed or whether people engage in demanding activities after taking it.

They found that people who consumed sugar felt more tired and less alert than those who had not.

The study shows that the idea of a 'sugar rush' is a myth without any truth behind it.

"We hope that our findings will go a long way to dispel the myth of the 'sugar rush' and inform public health policies to decrease sugar consumption," said Elizabeth Maylor, from the University of Warwick.

"The idea that sugar can improve mood has been widely influential in popular culture, so much so that people all over the world consume sugary drinks to become more alert or combat fatigue," said Konstantinos Mantantzis, from Humboldt University of Berlin, who led the study.

"Our findings very clearly indicate that such claims are not substantiated -- if anything, sugar will probably make you feel worse," said Mantantzis.

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SUN Group Chairman Vikramjit Singh Sahney Monday elected as the new president of International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) - India.

He said the chamber would work with the government to promote India's external trade.

"We will pro-actively support initiatives of government to promote India-US trade and reducing trade deficit with China," Sahney said here at the annual general meeting of ICC India.

He added that ICC was founded in the aftermath of first world war when no world system of rules covered trade, investment, finances and commercial relations.

"To mark our centenary, ICC will host a mega summit in Paris during May featuring leaders from business, government and international organisations to discuss pressing global challenges and role of business in 21st century," he added.

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Appointment of Joint Company Secretary

Sydney, April 8, 2019 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Hastings Technology Metals Ltd ( ASX:HAS ) advises that Mr Guy Robertson has today been re-appointed as joint company secretary.Mr Hidio Jackson has resigned as joint company secretary with effect from today's date.About Hastings Technology Metals Ltd

Hastings Technology Metals Ltd (ASX:HAS) (FRA:5AM) is advancing its Yangibana Rare Earths Project in the Upper Gascoyne Region of Western Australia towards production. The proposed beneficiation and hydro metallurgy processing plant will treat rare earths deposits, predominantly monazite, hosting high neodymium and praseodymium contents to produce a mixed rare earths carbonate that will be further refined into individual rare earth oxides at processing plants overseas.

Neodymium and praseodymium are vital components in the manufacture of permanent magnets which is used in a wide and expanding range of advanced and high-tech products including electric vehicles, wind turbines, robotics, medical applications and others. Hastings aims to become the next significant producer of neodymium and praseodymium outside of China.

Hastings holds 100% interest in the most significant deposits within the overall project, and 70% interest in additional deposits that will be developed at a later date, all held under Mining Leases. Numerous prospects have been identified warranting detailed exploration to further extend the life of the project.

Brockman Project

The Brockman deposit, near Halls Creek in Western Australia, contains JORC Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources, estimated using the guidelines of JORC Code (2012 Edition).

The Company is also progressing a Mining Lease application over the Brockman Rare Earths and Rare Metals Project.

Hastings aims to capitalise on the strong demand for critical rare earths created by the expanding demand for new technology products.
Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Monday said its wholly owned subsidiary Sun Pharma Distributors Ltd (SPDL) will commence distributing its formulation products in India from this month in a phased manner on the same terms as was with Aditya Medisales.

This phased transition is expected to be fully completed by the first quarter of 2019-20, Sun Pharma said in a filing to the BSE.

"The above-mentioned transition and consequential one-time reduction in sales and profit will impact Sun Pharma's financial results for the period ended March 31, 2019," it added.

The regulatory filing further said that "Atlas has completed assignment of its business rights and obligations including those arising from the supply contract with Sun Pharma to a wholly owned subsidiary of Sun Pharma".

This has no material impact on the profit or loss for the year ended March 31, Sun Pharma said.

In January, Sun Pharma had announced that distribution related to the company's India domestic formulations business shall be transitioned from Aditya Medisales Ltd to its wholly-owned subsidiary.

It had also announced the settlement of a transaction amounting to Rs 2,238 crore with Atlas Global Trading -- with which it had a supply agreement -- that had arisen out of a patent litigation settlement over Protonix.

Shares of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries closed at Rs 462.10 per scrip on the BSE, down 0.13 per cent from the previous close.

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Panun Kashmir, an organisation representing Kashmiri pandit migrants, Monday appealed to the Election Commission to ban candidates of the NC and the PDP from contesting the Lok Sabha polls as they were running a "seditious and secessionist" campaign in the valley.

The campaign launched by the National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party that accession of Jammu and Kashmir with India was conditional and abrogation of Article 370 will lead to separation of the state from India is preposterous and has seditious connotation, the organisation said.

"NC and PDP have embarked upon a brazenly seditious and secessionist campaign. They are virtually acting as over ground flanks of Pakistan and the separatist establishment in Jammu and Kashmir," Convenor of Panun Kashmir Agnishakher said.

"We appeal to the EC to take notice of the seditious nature of the election campaign launched by NC and PDP in Jammu and Kashmir and ban their candidates from contesting the forth coming Parliamentary elections in the state," he said.

NC vice-president Omar Abdullah had last week said that his party would not allow any attacks on Jammu and Kashmir's special status and would seek restoration of terms of accession of the state, including the provision for 'Sadr-e-Riyasat' (president) and prime minister posts.

PDP president Mehbooba Mufti too had said the relation of Jammu and Kashmir with India will end if the terms and conditions of the 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 end," Mehbooba had told reporters after filing her nomination papers from the the Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency.

Panun Kashmir said the two regional parties have rejected every view and policy of the Government of India pertaining to foreign affairs, defense and internal security.

"The Election Commission of India cannot close its eyes to the seditious election campaign launched by both these parties," Panun Kashmir chairman Ajay Chrungoo said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Tata Motors Monday launched an initiative to promote driving profession in the trucking space.

Under the Tata Motors Samarth initiative, the company plans to address four critical areas -- health and wellness, insurance, education and financial planning for the drivers' well-being.

The auto major aims to reach to five lakh drivers every year under the programme.

"We at Tata Motors are driving our efforts towards driver empowerment and welfare. Our programme 'SAMARTH' is tailored to make the entire trucking profession dignified," Tata Motors President (Commercial Vehicle Business Unit) Girish Wagh said in a statement.

The company intends to cement its long-lasting relationship with customers and their drivers to safeguard their health, ensuring overall well-being of their families and, in the process, uplift the quality of life for them, he added.

In association with Tata AIG General Insurance Company, the auto major has launched Swasthya Samarth which aims to provide health insurance products including Rs 50,000 hospitalisation coverage.

The programme will be linked to new vehicle sales and the policy will be issued by Tata AIG. TATA AIG will also set up free medical camps at Tata Motors-defined locations.

Tata Motors said it also plans to encourage investment habits among drivers through its Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) offering by ICICI Prudential and TATA Mutual Funds, with a lock-in period of 3 years, as well as conduct financial literacy camps for drivers and owner drivers across the country.

Besides, the auto major has joined hands with Toppr, a learning app for classes V to XII that helps students prepare for every board, competitive and scholastic exams.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A sarcophagus containing an Egyptian high priest was opened on live TV Sunday during a special two-hour broadcast by the American channel Discovery.

"Expedition Unknown: Egypt Live" aired from the site outside Minya, which is along the Nile River south of Cairo and its Giza pyramids.

Archeologists recently discovered a network of vertical shafts at the site which led to tunnels and tombs containing 40 mummies "believed to be part of the noble elite."



After exploring other tombs -- finding artifacts like statues, amulets, canopic jars used to store organs, and other mummies including one that had decomposed to a skeleton -- they crawled to the chamber containing the intricately carved sarcophagus.

It took the strength of several people to open.

And the team's efforts had not gone to waste: inside was a pristinely linen-wrapped mummy surrounded by treasure including gold.

"I can't believe this, this is incredible," exclaimed Zahi Hawass, an Egyptian archaeologist and former antiquities minister, who had taken charge of the expedition with American explorer Josh Gates as the host of the broadcast.

A Discovery spokesman previously told AFP that the project was set up in collaboration with Egypt's antiquities ministry.

Gates said the mummy was that of a high priest of Thoth, the ancient Egyptian god of wisdom and magic, and dated to Ancient Egypt's 26th dynasty -- the last native dynasty to rule until 525 BC.

"Toward the end of Ancient Egypt, the power really was with the high priests and you can see this... almost feels like a royal burial," Gates said.

Cairo has sought to promote archeological discoveries across the country in a bid to revive tourism hit by turmoil after the 2011 uprising against Hosni Mubarak.

Asked by AFP about a possible financial deal between the channel and the Egyptian state for permission to film and open the grave, the spokesman for Discovery refused to comment.

"It's a media spectacle in the end -- but it could make people love antiquities and is a good promotional opportunity for tourism, if done right," an Egyptian archeologist who asked to remain anonymous told AFP.

However, she asked: "If money is being paid by a major channel to the ministry to show antiquities, where is it going to end up?" "Will it go in the state's purse-strings or end up elsewhere? We need more transparency on where the money is going." Egyptian



President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has overseen a crackdown on dissent, banning protests and jailing Islamists as well as liberal and secular activists.

He regularly evokes political stability to draw foreign investment.

The tourism sector has begun to return, with arrivals reaching 8.3 million in 2017, according to government figures.

That still falls far short of the 14.7 million in 2010.

Discovery's broadcast also comes with global interest in Egyptian archeology generated by a "once in a generation" exhibition about the pharaoh Tutankhamun, which opened in Paris last month and will tour the world.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Three labourers were trapped inside a 12-feet deep pit while trying to install a cable wire in Gurgaon Sector-8, following which they were safely rescued, a police official said Monday.

The incident took place near a private hospital when the labourers - Rahul (19), Rinku (20) and Rupesh (30) - were installing the electric cable wire inside the pit behind a hospital wall, the officer said.

The victims were trapped inside the pit due to landslide while using an earth mover. They were timely given oxygen by doctors of the hospital until they were pulled out by police personnel by removing debris, Aman Yadav ACP Sadar said.

The condition of the victims is stable and they are undergoing treatment at a hospital, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday asserted that her party would play a crucial role in forming the next government at the Centre, after the Lok Sabha polls.

Banerjee also claimed that the BJP would not be able to retain power at the Centre after the elections, and many of its allies, including the Shiv Sena, would severe ties with the NDA.

"There will be no government formed without the TMC. They (the BJP) have only one arrogant man in him (Prime Minister Narendra Modi). But we have so many leaders who have credibility... So, we will decide it (on the PM face of the opposition alliance) later.. Let the elections be over," she told a Bengali channel.

Terming Bengal as a "friend, philosopher and guide" to the country, the TMC chief said she is not hungry for power but wants the state to help form the next government.

"I do not want power. I want Bengal to show the path and help form a new government at the Centre. When nobody can, it's Bengal that can show the light," Banerjee said.

She said all the regional parties will come together after the elections, and a "big national party" will have to extend support to that "united force".

Asked whether that national party could be the Congress, Banerjee replied in the affirmative.

"Congress must do it (extend support to the united forum of regional parties)... which will support secularism and make efforts to keep the country together...," she said.

On her role in the forming the new dispensation, Banerjee said, "I do not know whether I will be a key factor or not, but I will work together with everybody to keep the country intact. I want the Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, the minorities, the OBCs, SCs, STs and dalits to stay together. I will work to take the country forward."



To another query, the chief minister said she shared cordial relationships with leaders like Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati, Arvind Kejriwal, Chandrababu Naidu and M K Stalin.

"I have cordial relationships with everybody, because I am into for a long time. I know each and every state," she said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Taking a dig at DMK over the issue of corruption, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami Monday raked up the 2G spectrum scam and said the appeal against acquittal of former Telecom Minister A Raja and others was pending and they "will get what they deserve."



The AIADMK Joint Coordinator was canvassing votes for M Thyagarajan, his party's candidate for the April 18 Lok Sabha elections from the Nilgiris constituency, where Raja has been fielded by the DMK.

Hitting back at DMK president chief M K Stalin for raising the issue of corruption in his campaign meetings, the chief minister said "Raja was lodged in Tihar jail" in connection with the 2G spectrum allocation scam.

Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and other accused in the case were acquitted by a special court in December 2017 for lack of evidence.

The CBI and the Enforcement Directorate have since moved the Delhi High Court challenging their acquittal.

"The CBI has appealed (against the acquittal). They will get what is due for them. You are very much aware of that," Palaniswami told the gathering, apparently hinting at a conviction of Raja and others.

He said the 2G spectrum allocation scam happened when Raja was Telecom Minister in the UPA government, in which the DMK was also a part.

He recalled that the CBI action was initiated against Raja when he was a Minister.

"If the DMK had been in the opposition, one can claim political vendetta....what can one say about Stalin who has fielded a person who has been to jail for corruption," Palaniswami said.

Further, he alleged Raja did not take up relief measures effectively during the 2009 landslides here, which killed over 40 people. Raja was the then Nilgiris MP.

Palaniswami asked should the people vote for a person "who did not meet" them and urged them to "teach him a lesson."



On the other hand, the AIADMK government had taken up the construction of 450 houses for the victims, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday named a Supreme Court judge to lead an inquiry into the massacre last month of 50 worshippers at two Christchurch mosques.

"The government will ensure no stone is left unturned as we examine as quickly as possible how the March 15 attack happened, what could have been done to stop it and how we can keep New Zealanders safe," Ardern said.

The Royal Commission probe, the most powerful judicial inquiry available under New Zealand law, will be led by Supreme Court Judge William Young and report its findings by December 10, she said.

Australian Brenton Tarrant, 28, a self-avowed white supremacist, has been charged with 50 counts of murder and 39 of attempted murder over the mosque attacks in the southern city.

Ardern said the probe, due to begin hearing evidence on May 13, would play a critical role in ensuring "such an attack never happens again".

The inquiry will involve consultation with the Muslim community and look into whether New Zealand counter-terror agencies placed an "inappropriate concentration" of resources in tracking Islamist militants while neglecting the threat from far-right extremism.

It will probe Tarrant's activities before the attack, including how he obtained a gun licence, weapons and ammunition, and his use of social media, Ardern said.

Tarrant live-streamed his attack and published a lengthy manifesto online before launching his rampage.

What knowledge intelligence agencies had of his activities and whether any laws impeded the gathering and sharing of information by the agencies will also be part of the inquiry, she said.

Since the attacks, the government has tightened the country's gun laws, is reviewing legislation dealing with hate speech and called for social media giants to do more to combat online extremism.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Pitted against Congress leader and former chief minister Harish Rawat, wining the Nainital seat may prove to be an uphill task for BJP state chief Ajay Bhatt, who makes his debut in the Lok Sabha polls from the traditional Congress bastion.

Given Rawat's political stature,the odds appear stacked against Bhatt who is a newcomer in comparison. However, the backing of BJP Nainital MP Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, who is campaigning aggressively for Bhatt, and the Narendra Modi factor may come to his rescue, poll watchers here feel.

Koshiyari had wrested the seat from the Congress stronghold in 2014. But he chose to stay out of the fray this time to let the younger generation come forward.

Enjoying a taller political stature, Rawat (70) seems to have an edge over his younger rival, but the upcoming election is going to be a high-stake battle for both Congress and BJP which appear to be locked in a close and straight contest on the seat.

Both Bhatt and Rawat are struggling to regain lost ground in the coming polls as they had lost the seats they had contested in the state Assembly elections held in 2017. Bhatt had lost from Ranikhet and Rawat from both Kichcha and Haridwar (rural) seats.

According to L L Verma, professor (retd) of Political Science in Kumaon University, the Congress has fielded a veteran from the seat in the hope of retrieving the party's lost prestige in its traditional stronghold.

"In a way, it is a fight between Harish Rawat and Narendra Modi as the BJP candidate is lesser known in the constituency than Rawat, a mass leader who rose from the grassroots to become a minister in the Manmohan Singh government and later helm the affairs of the state from 2014 to 2017," Verma said.

Rawat, who decided to contest from Nainital in the last minute after BJP's list of candidates dropping Koshiyari was out, is leaving no stone unturned to shore up his chances holding nearly half a dozen public meetings and rallies in a day to drum up support for himself.

Bhatt is also working overtime to brighten his chances campaigning aggressively in the area along with Koshiyari.

While Rawat is highlighting public welfare measures taken during his tenure as the CM and promising to give active representation to people by raising state specific issues in Parliament, Bhatt is primarily banking on Modi government's achievements during the last fives years to score over his rival.

At there public meetings, Bhatt and Koshiyari are projecting these elections as an opportunity to re-elect Modi as prime minister, describing him as the only leader capable of giving the country the kind of leadership it needs.

Bhatt is trying to capitalise on the support for Modi especially after the air strikes in Pakistan in the wake of the Pulwama terror attack, Pandey said.

"Our workers are fully organised and people have made up their mind about having Modi back as the prime minister. This factor is bound to work in favour of BJP everywhere," Bhatt said.

Bhatt is also promising to give a boost to adventure tourism activities in the constituency, if elected to power, by reviving the water bodies and giving a fillip to water sports. He has also promised to revive the HMT factory at Ranibagh near Haldwani.

Bhatt is seen as a promising young leader under whose leadership his party stormed to power in Uttarakhand in 2017, Mohan, a resident of Nainital, said.

"Bhatt has his own strengths. Though he had lost his own seat to Congress's Karan Mahra in the last assembly polls, the state BJP president is credited with guiding the party to a massive win the state assembly elections in 2017 when it won 57 out of a total of 70 seats in the state," he said.

Rawat is fully confident of his victory and says he has a roadmap of development ready for his constituency.

"People have realised mere slogans do not work. Consistent efforts are needed to propel the nation on the path of progress. This has been a tradition of the Congress party, this growing feeling among voters will ensure my victory," Rawat said when asked how he rated his chances of wining.

Another factor expected to work in favour of Rawat is the Thakur (Rajput)dominance in the constituency. Rawat, who belongs to the Thakur community, may reap the advantage, but voters in Uttarakhand are not known to vote on caste lines.

Caste does not seem to be a deciding factor in Nainital as K C Pant represented the seat for a number of years apart from Ila Pant of the BJP and N D Tiwari of the Congress, a poll observer said.

A total of 19,31,427 voters will cast their votes to decide the fate of seven candidates, including BSP candidate Navnit Aggarwal in Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar constituency, when it goes to polls along with the remaining four seats in Uttarakhand on April 11.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Two Supreme Court staffers have been arrested for allegedly posting wrong information on the apex court's website related to a case involving Reliance Communications chairman Anil Ambani, police sources said Monday.

The duo allegedly uploaded an order, which said Ambani's presence in a case had been dispensed with, despite the court ordering that he be present for the next hearing, they said.

Senior officers refused to comment on the matter.

The accused, identified as Manav and Tapan, who were arrested on Sunday were dismissed earlier by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, they added.

The duo are being interrogated, they added.

The Supreme Court had sacked the two court officials for tampering with its January 7 order on the issue of personal appearance of Reliance Communication Chairman Anil Ambani in connection with the contempt matter against him.

Gogoi passed directions to terminate the services of the two court officials who were responsible for noting the judge's orders and getting them uploaded on the apex court's website.

A bench headed by Justice R F Nariman has been hearing three contempt applications filed by Ericsson against Ambani and others for not clearing its dues.

Justice Nariman had forwarded a complaint to the CJI that the order in the case for the presence of the contemnor was not properly found in it.

The order dictated had stated that the personal appearance of the alleged contemnor(s) is not dispensed with, but it found the word 'not' was missing.

The discrepancy in this regard was brought to the notice of the bench on January 10 by senior advocate Dushyant Dave, who was appearing for Ericsson.

Taking note of the fact, an order was passed by the Chief Justice on administrative side dismissing the two employees.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Editors Note: Recently, Christine Powell, a special education teacher from Southern California, traveled to Japan to attend a three-day conference on Asian Education and International Development. While there, she learned about hansei (pronounced hahn-say), the Japanese practice of self-reflection. Here she shares how it can be used in U.S. education.

Education is a dynamic process; changes often occur in policy and practice with a new administration, fluctuating school leadership, and promising educational trends. The tides change, and new mandates are made, objectives set, benchmarks laid out, data collected, and achievements measured, but often we miss the vital opportunity to reflect on why new procedures are made and newfangled practices are warranted in the first place. It is during this reflection that purpose-driven decisionmaking can become clear. I recently learned an important strategy centered on reflection from a Japanese academic.

Introducing Hansei

Hansei is the practice of self-reflection and loosely translates into English as self-awareness is the first step to improvement. Rooted in Eastern philosophy, with a religious nuance, the art of hansei is taught in some Japanese schools so children begin to learn from an early age to reflect on performance, irrespective of outcomes. It is not exclusively used in education; it is also part of the Japanese corporate business world . Part reflection, part meditation, the process becomes second nature with continued practice, I was informed.

My new Japanese colleague and hansei expert wanted feedback on his presentation, and like most of the participants in our group, I gave broad comments based on execution. Yet we were pushed by our hansei guide to dig deeper and provide pointed feedback that would inform the presentation focused on areas that might need to be bolstered more or framed differently. I have never participated in such a process at a conference and will admit that it required me to think deeply about content, delivery, and overall impact. The process differed from the type of pointers I have provided colleagues in the past, as this process was meant to be critical, with an awareness that we were helping to inform broader actions. Gone were the superfluous comments of well done or good job. This feedback serves as the starting point of hansei: listening to others with the objective of revisiting the feedback to gain clarity and understanding about the underpinnings that frame and support our decisionmaking with a personal accountability exercise. The multistep process, listed below, is a combination of deliberate reflection and contemplation. For maximum benefit, all group members would be trained in the process of hansei, although a single participant hearing feedback and applying the hansei process is beneficial.

Often in Western culture, we are not receptive to feedback for two poignant reasons: time and perception. Receiving feedback usually is not done in an efficient time frame. Hansei is conducted following the execution of an action. This process does take time, and it must be seen as a worthy use of time to be valuable to all participants. Additionally, feedback for many in Western culture is synonymous with criticism and taken as a personal assault on performance. Whether one is running a program, guiding policies, or directing leadership activities, the opportunity to be given feedback that could have a meaningful impact is lost when ones mindset is not open and receptive.

Four Steps for Using Hansei

As an educator and teacher trainer, I would like to infuse more hansei into my practice. This can be done using a multistep reflection process:



Reflect on Actions and Behaviors

The first step to embracing hansei is to challenge the facts of your actions, as well as the behaviors that resulted in success or failure. After a meeting, implementing a new policy, or refining an old practice, determine if the meeting, policy, or procedure met the objectives, and, more importantly, reflect on why or why not. Ask Why

The second step requires asking the question, Why? several times to understand the reasoning and assumptions behind the groups or individuals actions. After asking why several times, the impact of ones rationale becomes clear. Take for example a school or district policy on teacher professional development. When a need arises to change such a policy, and before implementing a new version of an old mandate, ask why it needs to be changed. If the answer is that it is not working the way it was intended, then ask why again. Continue this reflective process to get to the root of the issue.



Question Assumptions

The third step is to question the validity of your assumptions and ask those in your hansei group to assist in the process. This is important to dispel preconceived suppositions or unchecked assumptions. A hansei group can assist in asking poignant questions and providing feedback so clarity is achieved. Define Alternatives

And finally, the process calls on participants to define alternative assumptions, reasoning, and/or actions in the context of the situation being reflected upon.

This powerful four-step process can ensure that decisionmaking is purposeful, as it requires those participating to reflect on the reasons change is warranted or current educational trends embraced. The hansei practice is by design iterative; through self- questioning and analysis tied to decisionmaking, each iteration is intended to bring clarity to the reasons why or why not change might be needed, as well as what is currently framing our assumptions.

Applications in an Educational Context

As a special educator, I regularly hold meetings with school staff, students, parents, and stakeholders to elicit input on individualized education programs (IEPs). The meetings have great impact on the educational trajectory for a student, yet once the paperwork is signed and the parents and students depart, there is little discussion or reflection on the part of the school team. An opportunity to participate in hansei would allow a conversation about what information could have been explained better, what assumptions were made, or if a different approach might have worked more effectively.

In addition to special education, the process can be used in other educational contexts, such as staff development, feedback for teachers going through induction, and student-discipline matters. Reflection is a practice that needs to be explicitly taught and deliberately practiced, and the benefits include a perspective check and growth on both a professional and a personal level.

Hansei provides a unique exemplar of personal accountability in decisionmaking and illustrates the point that learning from international educators provides opportunities for organizational and personal growth. Educational practice is not static, and through the art of reflection, we can perhaps consider different ways to enhance, and ultimately improve education in our schools, districts, and states.

Connect with Christina , Heather , and the Center for Global Education on Twitter.

Image created on Pablo .


and Salt Lake Potash Sign Split Commodity Agreement

Sydney, April 8, 2019 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Blackham Resources Limited ( ASX:BLK ) ( OTCMKTS:BKHRF ) ('Blackham' or the 'Company') and Salt Lake Potash Limited ( ASX:SO4 ) ('SO4') have executed a binding Split Commodity Agreement for the development of a Sulphate of Potash ('SOP') operation based at Lake Way, near Wiluna on the terms announced by SO4 on 12 March 2018. Under the Split Commodity Agreement, SO4 will acquire Blackham's brine rights and Blackham will acquire gold rights to SO4's Lake Way holdings, with each company retaining a royalty on their respective holdings. SO4 will sole fund the evaluation and development of any SOP operation at Lake Way.SO4 completed a Scoping Study on the development of a SOP Plant at Lake Way in 2018 and last quarter commenced building evaporation ponds on Blackham's Lake Way mining leases. SO4 plans to commence the dewatering of Blackham's Williamson Pit this quarter in advance of Blackham's scheduled commencement of mining at the Williamson Pit in the September quarter. The initial evaporation ponds will have the capacity to hold the Measured Resource of 1.2GL of Williamson Pit brines at an average grade SOP grade of 25kg/m3, which contains an equivalent of 32,000 tonnes premium SOP (refer SO4 announcement on 6 March 2019).SO4's development of the SOP project at Lake Way will have significant benefits to Blackham including:- SO4 will pay for all costs of dewatering the Williamson Pit- Sharing of overheads and infrastructure costs between the SOP Plant and Blackham's Wiluna Gold Mine, including a reduction in tenement holding costs for Blackham- Access to approximately 290km2 of tenements prospective for gold to the south of the Wiluna Mine Sequence- Blackham receives a 4% royalty on all SOP production from its tenureEntitlements IssueOn 21 March 2019, Blackham announced that it is offering eligible shareholders the opportunity to participate in a fully underwritten pro-rata renounceable entitlements issue of five (5) new fully paid ordinary shares in the Company (New Shares) for every four (4) shares at an issue price of 1.5 cents per New Share to raise approximately $25.8 million (before costs) ('Entitlements Issue'). The fully underwritten Entitlements Issue will strongly position Blackham to unlock the significant potential that Blackham has identified with the sulphide expansion opportunity at its 100% owned Matilda-Wiluna Gold Operation.Blackham will issue one (1) free attaching option ('Option') for every three (3) New Shares issued pursuant to the Entitlements Issue, with each Option being exercisable at 3.0 cents with an expiry date of 12 October 2020. Blackham intends to list the Options on the ASX, subject to satisfying ASX requirements.Further details in relation to the Entitlements Issue can be found in the prospectus dated 21 March 2019 that can be found on the Company's website www.blackhamresources.com.au. For enquiries in regard to individual shareholdings please contact Link Market Services on 1300 330 255.The Closing Date for receipt of acceptances and application monies under the Entitlements Issue is 5:00pm (Sydney time) TODAY Monday, 8 April 2019.About Wiluna Mining Corporation Ltd

Wiluna Mining Corporation (ASX:WMC) (OTCMKTS:WMXCF) is a Perth based, ASX listed gold mining company that controls over 1,600 square kilometres of the Yilgarn Craton in the Northern Goldfields of WA. The Yilgarn Craton has a historic and current gold endowment of over 380 million ounces, making it one of most prolific gold regions in the world. The Company owns 100% of the Wiluna Gold Operation which has a defined resource of 8.04M oz at 1.67 g/t au. In May 2019, a new highly skilled management team took control of the Company with a clear plan to leverage the Wiluna Gold Operation's multi-million-ounce potential.
In two separate cases of corruption, two government officials were arrested Monday while accepting bribes from private contractors for clearing their pending bills for their works, said Anti-Corruption Bureau officials.

Hukum Singh, a village development officer of Palayatha gram panchayat in Anta Tehsil of Rajasthan's Baran district was arrested from Rajiv Gandhi Seva Kendra while accepting a bribe of Rs 20,000 from Jakir Hussain, a contractor, ACB's Assistant Superintendent of Police Prerna Shekhawat said.

The contractor had carried out a construction work worth Rs 18 lakh in the gram panchayat in 201819, but had received a payment of Rs 15.50 lakh only, she said.

The accused village development officer (VDO) had been demanding a bribe of Rs 54,000 from the contractor for clearing his remaining dues, she added.

The contractor reported the matter to the ACB on April 4, following which a trap was laid and the contactor was asked to make a payment of Rs 20,000 with the ACB sleuths waiting nearby, she said.

As soon as the VDO accepted the money from the contractor, the ACB sleuths nabbed him red-handed, she said.

The ACB sleuths subsequently also raided the residence of the accused officials.

The raid is still going on and nothing can be said as yet about recoveries made from his residence, she added.

In another case, Umashankar Sharma, an assistant engineer working for the Samagra Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan was arrested by the ACB's Jhalawar unit sleuths while accepting a bribe of Rs 15,000 from another contractor, Jagdish Lodha, for clearing his bill, they said.

Sharma was arrested from his house in Agrasen colony of the city, they said.

Lodha had contacted the ACB after the accused had demanded the bribe for clearing his bill of Rs 7.59 lakh, said ASP Bhawani Shankar Meena of ACB's Jhalawar unit.

The ACB also recovered Rs 1,02,000 in cash and a large number of officials files from his residence, the ASP added.

Both the accused have been booked separately and will be produced before the ACB court in Kota on Tuesday, the official said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A 30-year-old man and his brother-in-law were arrested for allegedly trying to extort Rs 2.5 crore from the owner of a printing press in northwest Delhi's Model Town, police said on Monday.

The accused were identified as Aman Kumar Jha (30) and Aman Tiwary (20), both natives of Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, they said.

In his complaint, Harish Mittal, owner of the printing press alleged that on April 5, he received a extortion call where the caller demanded Rs. 50 lakhs.

Mittal then contacted his close friend Ajay Chauhan, who got back to the caller to negotiate the amount.

The caller told Chauhan that Mittal will have to pay Rs.2.5 crore immediately.

"Chauhan tried to convince the caller that Mittal was not in a position to pay such a huge amount but the caller insisted that if the money is not paid, Mittal will lose his life," said Vijayanta Arya, Deputy Commissioner of Police (northwest).

During investigation, the location of the unknown caller was traced to Jamshedpur. A team was sent to the steel city in Jharkhand to conduct raids and in the early hours of April 7 the duo were arrested.

The mobile phone and SIM card used for making extortion call have also been recovered, she added.

Interrogation revealed that in the past, Jha had worked in the printing press of Mittal for about one month from July 2018 to August 2018.

Jha did not have at present and his wife has been living in her parental home at Jamshedpur.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Britain's foreign minister says he is "concerned" about a UK woman arrested in Dubai for allegedly insulting her ex-husband's new wife on Facebook.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Monday that Laleh Shahravesh "is getting the best possible service" from British diplomats.

The group Detained in Dubai says Shahravesh was arrested at Dubai Airport on March 10 as she arrived for her ex-husband's funeral. Authorities there had received a complaint about Facebook posts that she allegedly made in 2016 calling her ex's new wife a "horse."



The United Arab Emirates has strict laws about what can be posted online.

Detained in Dubai, which helps people who fall foul of the Gulf state's legal system, says Shahravesh faces a maximum sentence of two years in prison and a 50,000-pound (USD 65,000) fine.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A UK High Court has rejected Vijay Mallya's application for permission to appeal against his extradition order, in a setback to the embattled liquor tycoon who is wanted in India on alleged fraud and money laundering charges amounting to Rs 9,000 crores.

The 63-year-old former Kingfisher Airlines boss had filed the application seeking "leave to appeal" in the High Court after UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid signed off on a Westminster Magistrates' Court order for his extradition to face the Indian courts back in February.

"The application for permission to appeal was refused by Mr Justice William Davis on 05/04/2019," said a spokesperson for the UK Judiciary.

"The appellant (Mallya) has five business days to apply for oral consideration. If a renewal application is made, it will be listed before a High Court judge and dealt with at a hearing," the spokesperson said.

Mallya's "leave to appeal" application had been passed on to a single judge, who was to make a decision on the basis of papers submitted as part of the appeals process. Now that the "judge on papers" application has been rejected by Justice Davis, Mallya has the option to "renew his application for permission to appeal" by this Friday.

The renewal process will lead to a brief oral hearing during which Mallya's legal team and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) on behalf of the Indian government will renew their respective claims for and against an appeal for a judge to determine if it can proceed to a full hearing.

"If he (Mallya) does so (applies for renewal), there will be an oral hearing at which the Administrative Court (High Court) will consider whether or not to grant permission to appeal," a CPS spokesperson said.

While this effectively means that the appeal process in the case is not at an end, the latest decision does move the case one step further in favour of Mallya's extradition to India.

The latest ruling marks a fresh legal setback for the UB Group chief, who just last week offered to curtail his "lavish" lifestyle to satisfy numerous Indian banks trying to recoup some of the nearly 1.145 billion pounds owed to them as a result of the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines' unpaid loans.

Mallya is required by court order to live within an "ordinary living expenses allowance" of a maximum of 18,325.31 pounds a week, which he offered to cut down to around 29,500 pounds a month during a separate UK High Court hearing last week.

However, a consortium of 13 Indian banks led by State Bank of India (SBI) did not agree to his offer as they seek access to nearly 260,000 pounds in an ICICI Bank current account in his name in London. The judge in that case, Master David Cook, has reserved his judgment on an interim court order and is expected to pronounce his final ruling in the coming weeks.

"Dr Mallya continues to do all he can to support a court process in India, which should see creditors paid off in full," said Jonathan Isaacs, partner at DWF Law LLP the firm representing Mallya in the case against the Indian banks related to a worldwide freezing order.

Mallya has been based in the UK since March 2016 and remains on bail on an extradition warrant executed by Scotland Yard in April 2017.

At the end of a year-long extradition trial at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London last December, Judge Emma Arbuthnot had ruled that the "flashy" billionaire had a "case to answer" in the Indian courts.

The judge found there was "clear evidence of dispersal and misapplication of the loan funds" and accepted a prima facie case of fraud and a conspiracy to launder money against Mallya, as presented by the CPS on behalf of the Indian authorities.

The court had also dismissed any bars to extradition on the grounds of the prison conditions under which the businessman would be held, as the judge accepted the Indian government's assurances that he would receive all necessary medical care at Barrack 12 in Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail.

Incidentally, the jail was back in reference in the UK courts in another high-profile extradition case recently as the likely holding cell for fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, whose case is also being presided over by Judge Arbuthnot at Westminster Magistrates' Court.

India and the UK have an Extradition Treaty signed in 1992 and in force since November 1993. So far only one successful extradition has taken place from the UK to India under the treaty - that of Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel, who was sent back to India in 2016 to face trial in connection with his involvement in the post-Godhra riots of 2002.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A UK High Court has rejected Vijay Mallya's application to appeal against his extradition, a move that brings India closer in getting back the embattled liquor tycoon wanted in alleged fraud and money laundering charges amounting to Rs 9,000 crores.

The 63-year-old former Kingfisher Airlines boss had filed the application seeking "leave to appeal" in the High Court on February 14 against his extradition order, which was signed by UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid.

"The application for permission to appeal was refused by Mr Justice William Davis on 05/04/2019," said a spokesperson for the UK Judiciary.

"The appellant (Mallya) has five business days to apply for oral consideration. If a renewal application is made, it will be listed before a High Court judge and dealt with at a hearing," the spokesperson added.

Mallya's "leave to appeal" application had been put before Justice Davis, who was to make a decision on the basis of papers submitted as part of the appeals process. Now that the "judge on papers" application has been rejected by Justice Davis, Mallya has the option to "renew his application for permission to appeal" by this Friday.

"If he (Mallya) does so (applies for renewal), there will be an oral hearing at which the Administrative Court (High Court) will consider whether or not to grant permission to appeal," a CPS spokesperson said.

During the oral hearing, Mallya's legal team and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) - on behalf of the Indian government - will renew their respective claims for and against an appeal for a judge to determine if it can proceed to a full hearing.

While the rejection by the High Court on Friday doesn't mean that the appeal process in the case has come to an end, the latest decision does move the case one step further in favour of India in bringing back Mallya, who had fled the country in 2016.

The latest ruling marks a fresh legal setback for the UB Group chief, who just last week offered to curtail his "lavish" lifestyle in a bid to recoup some of the nearly 1.145 billion pounds he owed to the Indian banks as a result of the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines' unpaid loans.

Mallya is required by the UK court order to live within an "ordinary living expenses allowance" of a maximum of 18,325.31 pounds a week, which he offered to cut down to around 29,500 pounds a month during a separate court hearing last week.

However, a consortium of 13 Indian banks led by State Bank of India (SBI) did not agree to his offer as they seek access to nearly 260,000 pounds in an ICICI Bank current account in his name in London. The judge in that case, Master David Cook, has reserved his judgment on an interim court order and is expected to pronounce his final ruling in the coming weeks.

"Dr Mallya continues to do all he can to support a court process in India, which should see creditors paid off in full," said Jonathan Isaacs, partner at DWF Law LLP the firm representing Mallya in the case against the Indian banks related to a worldwide freezing order.

Mallya has been based in the UK since March 2016 and remains on bail on an extradition warrant executed by Scotland Yard in April 2017.

At the end of a year-long extradition trial at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London last December, Judge Emma Arbuthnot had ruled that the "flashy" billionaire had a "case to answer" in the Indian courts.

The judge found there was "clear evidence of dispersal and misapplication of the loan funds" and accepted a prima facie case of fraud and a conspiracy to launder money against Mallya, as presented by the CPS on behalf of the Indian authorities.

The court had also dismissed any bars to extradition on the grounds of the prison conditions under which the businessman would be held, as the judge accepted the Indian government's assurances that he would receive all necessary medical care at Barrack 12 in Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail.

Incidentally, the jail was back in reference in the UK courts in another high-profile extradition case recently as the likely holding cell for fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, whose case is also being presided over by Judge Arbuthnot at Westminster Magistrates' Court.

India and the UK have an Extradition Treaty signed in 1992 and in force since November 1993. So far only one successful extradition has taken place from the UK to India under the treaty - that of Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel, who was sent back to India in 2016 to face trial in connection with his involvement in the post-Godhra riots of 2002.

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A UK police force has issued an appeal for public assistance to help trace an Indian-origin woman who went missing in the south west of England.

Uma Kulkarni, 42, was reported missing from her home in Herefordshire and is believed to have travelled into the Avon and Somerset area as her car a bronze-coloured Toyota Auris was found near the Severn Bridge crossing in the region.

"We are appealing for help to find Uma Kulkarni, who is believed to be missing in the North Somerset or Bristol area," Avon and Somerset Police said in a statement.

The appeal notes: "Uma is a 42-year-old Asian woman, 5ft tall of slim build. She has black hair and both her ears are pierced and she normally wears earrings. It is not known what Uma was wearing when she went missing. Concern is growing for her welfare because there has been no contact from her."



According to local media reports, Kulkarni was most recently employed as a general practitioner at the Cantilupe and Hampton Dene surgeries in Hereford.

The police are urging people living near to the Severn Bridge or in North Somerset to be "vigilant" and urged anyone with information on the missing person to contact them.

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A case has been registered at Bhandup police station against an unidentified person for allegedly threatening to kill Maharashtra NCP vice president Bhaskar Vichare over phone, police said Monday.

The caller also told Vichare that he will remove two more persons from his way, Vichare said in a complaint.

After the NCP leader approached police, a non-cognisable offence was registered against the caller, an official said.

Further probe is on, he added.

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Lauding the BJP's manifesto for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, External Affairs Minister and senior party leader Sushma Swaraj on Monday said the saffron party was the only one to come up with a "Sankalp Patra", while others came up with "Ghoshna Patra".

Speaking at the party's manifesto release programme, she said, "It is not just announcements that the document has made, but pledges that the party has made to itself to deliver to the people," adding that the country would believe the BJP as its government had done a lot more than it had promised in 2014.

Talking about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership, Swaraj said he was honoured with five major prestigious awards in the last five years by different countries, including Saudi Arabia.

She added that India's prestige had touched new heights under Modi's leadership and that it was visible when Pakistan threatened to boycott the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting if India was invited and 56 of the 57 participating countries said let Pakistan not come.

India's prestige was now very high in the world and its participation in the OIC meeting was a significant achievement, the external affairs minister said, adding that it was an indication of Modi's diplomatic success.

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Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Monday said the United Progressive Alliance government at Centre, if voted to power, will launch a probe into the Narendra Modi government's demonetisation in 2016.

"The UPA government at the Centre will get demonetisation probed when it will be in power. The secret will be out about the profit and loss to the country due to demonetisation. Corruption will also be exposed," Gehlot told reporters here.

The Rajasthan chief minister said Narendra Modi became prime minister of the country by talking about Gujarat's development model, but today the entire country was against him.

"These people do not lack resources. They are misusing social media by forming teams. Now, they have learnt marketing strategies very well," he said.

Modi had said the back of terrorism would be broken and Naxalism wold be eliminated but no work was done in this direction, Gehlot claimed.

Be it developing smart cities, model villages or terrorism-free India, the Modi government has failed on all fronts, he added.

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The US on Monday designated Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps a foreign terrorist organisation, an unprecedented declaration against a foreign government that may prompt retaliation and make it harder for American diplomats and military officers to work with allies in the region.

It is the first time that the US has designated an entity of another government as a terrorist organization, placing a group with vast economic resources that answers only to Iran's supreme leader in the same category as al-Qaida and the Islamic State.

"This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a state sponsor of terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft," President Donald Trump said in announcing the measure.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the designation is intended to increase pressure on Iran, isolating it further and diverting some of the financial resources it uses to fund terrorism and militant activity in the Middle East and beyond. But, in addition to the potential for Iranian retaliation, it complicates a delicate balance for US personnel in at least two key countries.

No waivers or exceptions to the sanctions were announced, meaning 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 had also raised concerns about the impact of the designation if the move did not allow contact with other 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.

Critics of the hardline policy also see it as a prelude to conflict.

"This move closes yet another potential door for peacefully resolving tensions with Iran," said Trita Parsi, the founder of the National Iranian American Council. "Once all doors are closed, and diplomacy is rendered impossible, war will essentially become inevitable."



The designation could also open hundreds of foreign companies and business executives to US travel bans and possible prosecution for sanctions violations.

It blocks any assets that IRGC entities may have in US jurisdictions and bars Americans from any transactions with it. When it takes effect next week, it will allow the US to deny entry to people found to have provided the Guard with "material support" or prosecute them for sanctions violations. That could include European and Asian companies and business people who deal with the Guard's many affiliates.

"It makes crystal clear the risks of conducting business with, or providing support to, the IRGC," Trump said. "If you are doing business with the IRGC, you will be bankrolling terrorism."



Pompeo said the action should serve as a warning to corporate lawyers to ensure any business their companies do in Iran is not with any entity affiliated with the Guard.

"If you're the general counsel for a European financial institution today, there is more risk," he said.

The IRGC is a paramilitary organization formed in the wake of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution to defend the government. The force answers only to Iran's supreme leader, operates independently of the regular military and has vast economic interests across the country.

The US estimates it may control or have a significant influence over up to 50 per cent of the Iranian economy, including non-military sectors like banking and shipping.

The State Department currently designates more than 60 organisations as "foreign terrorist organisations." But none of them is a state-run military.

Iran immediately responded to the designation with its Supreme National Security Council designating the US Central Command, also known as CENTCOM, and all its forces as terrorist, and labeling the US a "supporter of terrorism".

The Council denounced the U.S. decision as "illegal and dangerous" and said the US government would be responsible for all "dangerous repercussions" of its decision.

It defended the IRGC, which has fought Islamic State fighters, as being a force against terrorism.

The US special envoy for Iran, Brian Hook, and the State Department's counter-terrorism coordinator, Nathan Sales, said the decision was reached after consultation with agencies throughout the government but would not say in a conference if the military or intelligence concerns had been addressed.

"Doing this will not impede our diplomacy," Hook said, without elaborating.

Reaction from those who favour tougher engagement with Iran was quick and welcoming.

"Thank you, my dear friend, US President Donald Trump," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a tweet, a day before what could be a close election.

"Thank you for answering another of my important requests that serves the interests of our countries and of countries in the region."



Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called the action an "overdue" but essential step that should be followed by additional sanctions.

Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the designation "ends the facade that the IRGC is part of a normal military.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Last Wednesday (2nd April) Ministers were quizzed on this issue by the DWP Select Committee and they admitted that they did not know how many workers were affected. But based on an FOI reply issued on Friday (4th April) Royal London now believes that up to 1.75m workers could be missing out  around half a million more than previously thought. The issues arises for workers who have to be enrolled into a pension because they earn more than 10,000 per year but who are earning under the income tax threshold  now 12,500 per year. It is thought that around three quarters of these workers are women in low-paid or part-time jobs. Whether or not these workers benefit from pension tax relief depends on what sort of pension arrangement their employer has chosen. Workers whose employer has chosen a Group Personal Pension arrangement benefit from tax relief because tax relief is given through the relief at source method. But workers in most trust-based occupational pension schemes (and in most public service pension schemes) get no tax relief because tax relief is delivered in a different way which excludes those earning under the tax threshold. Until now, the only information available was from an FOI supplied to the Low Income Tax reform group, and was based on HMRC data for 2015/16. This found that 1.22m workers were at risk. However, following the release of the 2016/17 survey of personal incomes data, Royal London tabled a follow-up FOI which found that the number losing out had risen to 1.33m by 2016/17, an increase of around 110,000. But, as the table shows, this increase happened at a time when the income tax personal allowance had risen by just 400 (from 10,600 to 11,000). Since then, the allowance has risen by another 1,500 (alongside a continued rapid rollout of automatic enrolment, bringing millions more low-paid workers into pension saving). Assuming that each extra 400 on the personal allowance (alongside the rollout of automatic enrolment) brings an extra 110,000 people into the net, the further increase of 1,500 might be expected to add another 412,500 by 2019/20. This would bring the total number affected to just under 1.75m  half a million more than previously thought. Ministers told the DWP committee that each worker losing out was missing out on an average of 35 per year. Multiplying this by 1.75m workers suggests a combined loss of around 60m every year until this problem is resolved. Commenting, Steve Webb, Director of Policy at Royal London said: It is a scandal that so many low-paid and part-time workers are missing out on tax relief on their pension contributions. This is the group that most needs a boost to their pension savings. These new figures suggest that the scale of the problem is much bigger than previously thought. It is simply not good enough for ministers to say that it is not cost-effective to deal with this problem.


The United States on Monday designated Iran's Revolutionary Guard a "foreign terrorist organization" in a move to increase pressure on the country that could also have significant military, diplomatic and economic implications throughout the Middle East and beyond.

It is the first time that the US has designated a part of another government as a terrorist organization. The designation could spark Iranian retaliation as well as potentially open hundreds of foreign companies and business executives to US travel bans and possible prosecution.

"This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a state sponsor of terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft," President Donald Trump said.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the move is part of an effort to put "maximum pressure" on Iran to end its support for terrorist plots and militant activity that destabilizes the Middle East.

The designation blocks any assets that IRGC entities may have in US jurisdictions and bars Americans from any transactions with it. When it takes effect next week, it will allow the US to deny entry to people found to have provided the Guard with "material support" or prosecute them for sanctions violations.

Those could include European and Asian companies and business people who deal with the Guard's many affiliates.

"It makes crystal clear the risks of conducting business with, or providing support to, the IRGC," Trump said. "If you are doing business with the IRGC, you will be bankrolling terrorism."



Pompeo said the action should serve as a warning to corporate lawyers to ensure any business their companies do in Iran is not with any entity affiliated with the Guard.

The IRGC is a paramilitary organisation formed in the wake of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution to defend the government. The force answers only to Iran's supreme leader, operates independently of the regular military and has vast economic interests across the country.

The US estimates it may control or have a significant influence over up to 50 per cent of the Iranian economy, including non-military sectors like banking and shipping.

The State Department currently designates more than 60 organisations, including as al-Qaida and the Islamic State, Hezbollah and numerous militant Palestinian factions, as "foreign terrorist organisations." But none of them is a state-run military.

Iran threatened to retaliate for the decision, and shortly after it was announced foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called on President Hassan Rouhani to include Mideast-based US forces on Iran's own terrorist list, the official IRNA agency reported.

Zarif also sent a protest note over the US designation to the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, which looks after the US interests in Iran.

In addition to potential retaliation, the designation may also complicate US diplomacy in the Middle East. No waivers or exceptions to the sanctions were announced, meaning 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 had raised concerns about the impact of the designation if the move did 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.

The US special envoy for Iran, Brian Hook, and the State Department's counterterrorism coordinator, Nathan Sales, said the decision was reached after consultation with agencies throughout the government but would not say in a conference if the military or intelligence concerns had been addressed.

"Doing this will not impede our diplomacy," Hook said.

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Vice Admiral Bimal Verma on Monday moved the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) questioning why he was overlooked as the next Navy chief despite being the senior-most in the line of command, official sources said Monday.

In a petition to the AFT here, Verma, Commander-in-Chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command, sought to know why the government ignored his seniority and appoint Vice Admiral Karambir Singh as the next Navy chief.

His petition is likely to be taken up Tuesday.

The government last month named Vice Admiral Karambir Singh as next chief of the naval staff, succeeding Admiral Sunil Lanba who retires on May 30.

The government made the selection following a merit-based approach and did not go with the tradition of appointing the senior-most eligible officer to the post.

Vice Admiral Verma is senior to Singh and was among the contenders for the top post.

While appointing the Army Chief in 2016, the government did not follow the long-held tradition of going by the seniority. Rawat was appointed Army Chief superseding then Eastern Command Chief Lt Gen Praveen Bakshi and Southern Command Chief PM Hariz.

Besides Verma, the other contenders for the Navy Chief post included Vice Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral G Ashok Kumar, FOC-in-C of Western Naval Command Vice Admiral Ajit Kumar and FOC-in-C of Southern Naval Command Vice Admiral Anil Kumar Chawla.

Vice Admiral Singh, who is at present serving as the Flag Officer Commanding in Chief (FOC-in-C) of the Eastern Naval Command in Visakhapatnam, will be the first helicopter pilot to become Chief of Naval Staff.

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Commander-in-Chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command Vice Admiral Vimal Verma has approached an armed forces tribunal seeking to know why he was overlooked as the next chief despite being the senior-most in the line of command, official sources said Monday.

The government last month named Vice Admiral Karambir Singh as next chief of the naval staff, succeeding Admiral who retires on May 30.

The government made the selection following a merit-based approach and did not go with the tradition of appointing the senior-most eligible officer to the post.

Vice Admiral Verma is senior to Singh and was among the contenders for the top post.

Sources said Vice Admiral Verma has approached an armed forces tribunal in the capital to know why the government ignored his seniority.

His petition is likely to be taken up Tuesday, they said



Besides Verma, the other contenders for the Chief post included Vice Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral G Ashok Kumar, FOC-in-C of Western Naval Command Vice Admiral Ajit Kumar and FOC-in-C of Southern Naval Command Vice Admiral Anil Kumar Chawla, the source said.

While appointing the Chief in 2016, the government did not follow the long-held tradition of going by the seniority.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Indian Air Force on Monday reiterated that it shot down an F-16 jet of Pakistan Air Force during the February 27 aerial combat and showed radar images of the engagement to assert that it has "irrefutable evidence" of downing the enemy jet.

The IAF held a media briefing at the Defence Ministry where several slides of graphic captures from airborne warning and control system (AWACS) were shown to the media.

"The IAF has irrefutable evidence of not only the fact that F-16 was used by Pakistan Air Force on February 27, but also that an IAF Mig 21 Bison shot down a Pakistan Air Force F-16," Air Vice Marshal R G Kapoor said in a statement.

He, however, did not take any question on the issue.

On Friday, the IAF had asserted that it shot down an F-16 fighter jet of Pakistan during the dogfight, following a report in a leading US magazine which contradicted India's contention.

"There is no doubt that two aircraft went down in the aerial engagement on February 27, one of which was a Bison of IAF while the other was an F-16 of PAF conclusively identified by its electronic signature and radio transcripts," the IAF official said.

He said the IAF has more credible information and evidence that is clearly indicative of the fact that the PAF has lost one F-16 in the air action on February 27. "However, due to security and confidentiality concerns, we are restricting the information being shared in public domain."



Last week, leading American magazine 'Foreign Policy' reported that a US count of the F-16s with Pakistan has found that none of them are missing, contradicting India's claim that one of its fighter jets shot down a Pakistani F-16 during the aerial dogfight on February 27.

In the report, the magazine said two senior US defense officials with direct knowledge of the situation told it that American personnel recently counted Islamabad's F-16s and found none of the planes missing.

The report contradicted the claim made by New Delhi that the IAF shot down an F-16 jet of Pakistan.

The Government has been maintaining that 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 Air Force had on February 28 displayed pieces of an AMRAAM missile, fired by a Pakistani F-16, as evidence to "conclusively" prove that Pakistan deployed the US-manufactured fighter jets during an aerial raid targeting Indian military installations in Kashmir.

Indian Air Force has been forcefully asserting that it shot down a Pakistani F-16 during the dogfight. Pakistan has denied that it lost any F-16 jet during the aerial combat.

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Promising to continue "zero tolerance" policy against terrorism and extremism, Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday said the BJP will not allow anyone to play with the future of youths of Jammu and Kashmir.

Addressing a rally here, the BJP leader launched a veiled attack on the National Conference and the PDP over Article 370 and Article 35A of the Constitution related to special status to J-K, saying some leaders were misleading the people on different issues but the BJP would not let such things to continue any longer.

The Minister also firmly ruled out any rollback of the decision to restrict civilian traffic on Jammu-Srinagar National highway twice a week for safe movement of security forces convoys.

He also referred to the IAF strike inside Pakistan on February 26 and said the mission was carried out to wipe out the terrorist training camp without attacking Pakistan Army or hurting any citizen of the neighbouring country, guided by the spirit of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who used to say that friends can be changed but not neighbours.

"We will continue to adopt zero tolerance against terrorism and extremism and a secure India will lead to more determined India. For us, nation always comes first," the home minister said addressing his first election campaign rally here in support of Union Minister Jitendra Singh who is seeking re-election from Udhampur parliamentary constituency.

Without naming National Conference and PDP, he said the state had become a den of corruption under their rule.

"There are some people who are creating new problems to confuse the people and speak against the government. The youths of the state are intelligent but what is happening in the state," he said.

He said those who consider themselves 'messiah' of Jammu and Kashmir are only looking after their political interests and not thinking about the future of the youths.

He said they have no answers and are misleading people of the state by raking up different issues. "They can confuse anyone but I, as home minister of the country, have taken a pledge that we will not allow it to continue like that. Let us see what happens."



Seeking votes for the party candidate, he said, "You are peace loving people and we will walk with you shoulder-to-shoulder and stand with you. We will not allow anyone to play with the future of the youth of Jammu and Kashmir and will not forgive them."



He said the BJP does not believe in of caste, creed, religion and sect unlike the other parties and practices only the " of justice and humanity".

The home minister said the the BJP will never compromise on national security and asserted that "unless we guarantee both internal and external security, neither Jammu and Kashmir nor India will become prosperous".

"Some leaders are trying to gain sympathy of a particular section by raising doubts on air strike carried by our brave soldiers across the border. But they are living in a fool's paradise as people are intelligent enough to understand their motive behind all this nonsense," he said in an apparent reference to NC president Farooq Abdullah.

Referring to traffic restriction on Jammu-Srinagar National highway, he said "keeping in view the security of our forces and nation, we won't succumb to any pressure and will not roll back the decision."



"I am sure that this must have reached to the quarters concerned and they should now stop making hue and cry over this," he said referring to the criticism of the decision to ban civilian traffic on Wednesday and Sundays on the highway till May 31.

On February 26 airstrike inside Pakistan, the home minister, "The IAF went there to destroy the terrorist training camp only and did not attacked Pakistan Army or hurt any Pakistani citizen.

""What happened in Pulwama on February 14 when a suicide bomber attacked a CRPF convoy killing 40 CRPF personnel? They were here to safeguard the people of the state after leaving their homes.

"Despite the fact that terrorists are coming from Pakistan, we did not hurt any citizen of Pakistan or attacked Pakistan army. We only destroyed the terrorist training camp with so much precaution, remembering the statement of Vajpayee. But the leaders do not understand," he said.

He also talked about successful mission Shakti and said though the scientists of the country had developed the technology in 2007, "the then prime minister had stopped them from conducting the mission so that the US, Russia and China do not get annoyed".

"When our scientists informed Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he gave them the positive signal, bringing the country in the elite group of few nations possessing the technology to safeguard space assets," he said.

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Various meat shop owners in the national capital "shut" their businesses on their own during the Navratri festival to "respect the sentiments of the Hindu community", mayors of BJP-led north and east Delhi corporations Monday claimed.

North Delhi Mayor Adesh Gupta and East Delhi Mayor Bipin Bihari Singh, however, both asserted that Delhi is a peaceful city and concurred that "shops cannot be forced to shut".

"What happened in Gurgaon was wrong and not the right way to deal with the issue. In Delhi, however, people either close shops out of respect for sentiments of the Hindu community during Navratri or do so when requested," Singh said.

Their remarks come two days after Hindu Sena activists were arrested for allegedly forcing meat shop owners to shut their businesses in view of the Navratri festival, police said Sunday.

Over 200 Hindu Sena activists Saturday marched towards many places in Gurgaon, including Palam Vihar, Badshahpur and Om Vihar, and forcibly shut 250 meat shops, a senior police official said.

East Delhi has a slaughterhouse in Ghazipur and there are various meat shops in the trans-Yamuna localities.

In north Delhi, areas like Jama Masjid have several meat shops.

"People or some local councillors either request shop owners to close during the festival or some do it on their own out of respect for sentiments of the Hindu community. But aggressive methods should never be resorted to," Gupta said.

"The Hindu organisations would continue with their efforts throughout Navaratri as opening of meat shops during the festival could hurt religious sentiments of Hindus," Ritu Raj, president of Hindu Sena, had said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday said if his party was voted to power in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, the application fees for examinations for government posts would be done away with.

He also promised that the Congress government would enact the Right to Healthcare Act, which would guarantee every citizen the right to healthcare services.

"The Congress government will do away with the application fee imposed on the examinations for government posts," Gandhi said in a Facebook post.

In another post, he said healthcare was an issue related to public welfare and complete health facilities should be the right of every citizen.

The Congress chief said the total government expenditure on healthcare would be increased to three per cent of the country's GDP if his party was voted to power.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
An old promise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) makes a comeback in its latest election manifesto- to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution. "We reiterate our position since the time of the Jan Sangh to the abrogation of Article 370," read the BJP's 'Sankalp Patra' for Lok Sabha elections 2019.

The manifesto added that in the last five years, the government had made "all necessary efforts" to ensure peace in Jammu and Kashmir through decisive actions and a firm policy. "We are committed to overcome all obstacles that come in the way of development and provide adequate financial resources to all the regions of the state," it stated.

Article 370 grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir and limits Parliament's power to make laws concerning the state. Interestingly, the Supreme Court, on April 3, had made it clear that Article 370 is not a temporary provision. A bench of Justices AK Goel and RF Nariman had reportedly said it was impossible to abrogate the Article since it has acquired permanent status through years of existence.

The BJP manifesto also promised to annul Article 35A "as the provision is discriminatory against non-permanent residents and women of Jammu and Kashmir". Article 35A empowers the state assembly to define 'permanent residents' for bestowing special rights and privileges to them.

"We believe that Article 35A is an obstacle in the development of the state. We will take all steps to ensure a safe and peaceful environment for all residents of the state. We will make all efforts to ensure the safe return of Kashmiri Pandits and we will provide financial assistance for the resettlement of refugees from West Pakistan, Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK) and Chhamb," the Sankalp Patra added.

The Congress Party, incidentally, in its own manifesto for the upcoming elections has promised that nothing will be done or allowed to change the constitutional position on Kashmir and that enforcement of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in Jammu and Kashmir will be reviewed. While affirming that the whole of state is part of India, the party said it also acknowledges its unique history and the unique circumstances under which it acceded to India, which led to the inclusion of Article 370 in the Constitution of India. "Nothing will be done or allowed to change the constitutional position," the party said in its 55-page document, titled 'Hum Nibhayenge' (Congress will deliver).

Not surprisingly, former chief ministers of J&K, Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah, have been vocal about the need to leave these two Articles in place. In an election rally last week, Mufti even warned BJP chief Amit Shah that India "will be an occupational force in Jammu & Kashmir", akin to what Israel is to Palestine, the day Article 370 is scrapped.

(Edited by: Sushmita Choudhury)

Also read: BJP manifesto: 60,000 kilometres of highways to be built in 5 years

Also read: BJP manifesto: Number of airports in India to be doubled, high-speed train connectivity to be expanded
In line with its theme 'Phir Ek Baar, Modi Sarkar' announced yesterday, the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) released its manifesto, 'Sankalp Patra Lok Sabha 2019' on Monday for the upcoming General Elections at party headquarters in New Delhi.

The ruling party made a slew of promises, to woo different sections of society, which included encouraging the spirit of entrepreneurship amongst the youth in the document.

In its bid to harness the demographic dividend of the country, BJP announced a new scheme to provide collateral-free credit of up to Rs 50 lakh for entrepreneurs under which the party promised to guarantee 50% of the loan amount for female entrepreneurs and 25% of the loan amount for male entrepreneurs.

Also Read: Lok Sabha elections 2019 LIVE: BJP releases manifesto; KISAN scheme to be extended to all farmers

Here are other big poll promises the party proposed in its manifesto to strengthen the entrepreneurship and startup ecosystem in India:

1. The party offered to ease the regulatory requirement for startups.

2. The manifesto propounded to facilitate the establishment of 50,000 new startups in India by 2024.

3. BJP offered to create 100 Innovation Zones in Urban Local Bodies to provide mentorship, industry connects, validation and investor access to the startups.

Also Read: 'Dear sisters and brothers': PM Modi follows Priyanka Gandhi's footsteps in BJP manifesto

4. The party promised to initiate ranking of Central Ministries, Departments, State Government and CPSUs for their increased engagement with startups and bring in innovation and newer technologies and global practices and skills.

5. The party in its manifesto pledged to continue to promote and encourage startups through creation of a 'Seed Startup Fund' of Rs 20,000 crore.

Also Read: BJP manifesto: Rs 100 lakh crore to be spent on infrastructure in 5 years

6. The party sweared to support entrepreneurial venture started by individuals from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other Backward Communities, or Economically Weaker Sections and take forward the 'Standup India' intiative.

7. The party commited to setup new 'Entrepreneurial Northeast' scheme to provide financial support to the Micro, Small and Medium industries as well as accelerate employment generation in the Northeastern state.

Also Read: BJP releases 2019 election mainfesto 'Sankalp Patra'
The Indian Air Force Monday said it has "irrefutable evidence" that Pakistan had deployed F-16 fighter jet during a dogfight on February 27 and that Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman had downed the Pakistani aircraft with IAF's MiG21 Bison.

Air Vice Marshal RGK Kapoor while addressing the media and a press statement released afterwards said, "The IAF has irrefutable evidence of not only the fact that the F-16 was used by Pakistan Air Force on February 27 but also that IAF MIG 21 Bison shot down the F-16."

Also Read: US officials say no Pakistani F-16s missing raising doubts over India's claim: report

The release added, "There is no doubt that the two aircraft went down in the aerial engagement on 27 February, one of which was the bison of IAF while the other was F-16 of Pakistan Air Force (PAF) conclusively identified by its electronic signature and radio transcripts."

The IAF has also accepted losing its MiG21 Bison in the air action on February 27. The events took place after IAF struck Jaish-e-Mohammed's (JeM) terror den in Balakot, Pakistan on February 26.

Also Read: India will attack again between April 16 and 20: Pakistan foreign minister

Also Read: IAF scrambled Mirage, Sukhoi jets last night to fight off Pakistani F-16s near Punjab border
















After having spent three days in the beautiful Toronto, we wondered why not visiting the oldest city of Ontario. So we rented a car and we drove two hours to discover something more than a city: we found a new world within the boundaries of Kingston.

#1 - Ghostly mystery tour

As soon as the bus started to jut out in the least known Kingstons paths, I remembered the son by The Beatles: The Magical Mystery Tour. I think it may well have been inspired in the tour full of mysterious tales that date back to the days on which the city was founded. For less than thirty dollars you can take home a wonderful bunch of new bedtime stories for those nights in which kids refuse to go to sleep unless you scare them. The tour is in the evening, so darkness is the best ally to believe that magic is possible.

#2 - Kingston Scouts museum

My son was craving about visiting that museum, and as hes not particularly keen on museums, that was a big issue in the family. When we finally spent almost half of an afternoon there, we thanked him for his insistence about going there. What we discovered there was really amazing. The whole story of the Scout movement in Canada is depicted on its walls. Soon after the Scouts started as an organization in Britain, Kingston followed its steps and created its own groups in the city. The black and white pictures are very representative of its philosophy.

# 3  Discovery cruise

This is an exciting tour to enjoy with your family. Its really lively since they give you a good ride around the environment known as the thousand islands and youre told interesting facts about the history of the city. The guides are very kind, helpful and they know a lot, so can feel free to ask as many questions as you want.

# 4  Lemoine Point

This natural reservoir is the home of a very important part of Canadian wildlife. We chose to pick one of the very many available tables and have a picnic there. The fresh air that comes from Lake Ontario is priceless. As we were enjoying out delicacies, we saw several families cycling and a group of hikers. The area allows the typical open air activities loved by the ones who love and respect nature. I think next time we go there, Ill dare go for a swim on the stone beach.

# 5 Historic heritage

Going to such a historic city without getting immerse in its history would have been nonsense. We had a walk down Princess Street, a major arterial street where several historic buildings are waiting to be discovered. Queens University is part of all this heritage, as well as Bellevue House is. This house used to be the home of Canadas first prime minister: Sir John Macdonald. Now it has been made a historical building that opens its doors to show the gardens where everything began, and also to offer events such as the whisky tasting adventure and the Xplorers progra m, this one for the little members of the family.
The Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) has released its manifesto for the upcoming Lok Sabha Polls today. The 'Sankalp Patra' was released in the presence of party's top leaders.

This is the full text of prime Minister Narendra Modi's letter to the citizens in the BJP's 2019 manifesto:

Dear sisters and brothers,

The BJP comes to you to seek your valued blessings yet again, so that India continues unhindered on the path of development, to realize its true destiny with renewed vigor.

Five years ago, on 26th May 2014, we commenced our journey to transform our great nation and do justice to the historic mandate bestowed upon us.

At that time, India's challenges were monumental- our economy was in the doldrums, the nation was among the fragile five, pessimism and despair was all-pervasive and corruption was rampant. There were serious doubts in the minds of many about India's ability to fulfill the dreams and aspirations of her citizens.

But, if challenges were enormous, so was our resolve to build a stronger, safer and prosperous nation. Powered and inspired by the strengths and skills of 130 crore Indians, we converted obstacles into opportunities, decay into development and pessimism into positivity.

At an unimaginable speed and scale, what seemed impossible earlier soon became a reality. In the last five years, every Indian family got a bank account due to Jan Dhan Yojana, 50 crore Indians got health insurance thanks to Ayushman Bharat and more than 40 crore people in the unorganised sector can now avail pension coverage. A subject like cleanliness ignited the imagination of the nation and now we are close to 99% sanitation coverage, compared to a mere 38% in 2014. It is now possible for youngsters from smaller towns to become entrepreneurs thanks to Mudra Yojana. The rising neo-middle and middle class with taxable income upto Rs. 5 lakhs no longer need to pay income tax.

Our Government filled the infrastructure gaps with speed and foresight. The pace of construction of roads and railway lines has doubled. India has now more efficient pos. 18,000 villages living in darkness till 2014 are now brightly lit thanks to rural electrification efforts. More than 2.6 crore homes have been electrified through Saubhagya Yojana. Over 1.5 crore homes built over the last five years have enabled millions to dream big.

The nation is no longer helpless against the barbaric forces of terror. Any destructive ideology that destroys the atmosphere of peace and unity is and will be given a being reply. They are being paid back in their own coin, with compound interest.

India's Northeast, which earlier made headlines for blockage and neglect, is now witnessing unprecedented development. The Northeast is now closer to the national mainstream in more ways than one.

The Central Government has waged a determined crusade against the scourge of corruption and black money. The culture of middlemen roaming in the corridors of power is now history. Decisions are guided by public interest of all Indians and not the self-interest of a select few. The trinity of Jan Dhan- Aadhaar and Mobile has weeded out over 8 crore fake beneficiaries, and prevented leakages of more than Rs. 1 lakh crore. Systems have been strengthened to prevent money laundering. The corrupt have begun to realize that their machinations will no longer be tolerated.

One can clearly see how development has become a mass movement. Numerous people friendly decisions have led to the empowerment of 130 crore Indians and the safeguarding of our strategic interests.

Today, India stands tall at the international level. The world recognizes India's immense potential, which is clearly reflected in a record rise in foreign investment. India's stand on subjects like terrorism, climate change and prevention of money laundering are setting the global narrative.

Friends,

Through this Sankalp Patra, you would get a glimpse of the challenges of the yesteryears, the indomitable efforts made by 130 crore Indians to overcome those challenges and our collective vision for the future.

We have achieved a lot in the last five years and we want to do lot more. There are two commitments that I am extremely passionate about- doubling of farmer income and housing for all, by the year 2022. With your support, I am sure both will happen.

Also read: 'Dear sisters and brothers': PM Modi follows Priyanka's Gandhi footsteps in BJP manifesto

I thank lakhs of alert, committed and patriotic citizens of India, who have enriched the Sankalp Patra with their valuable inputs. This Sankalp Patra is the voice of the people in the truest sense.

Your vote in 2014 for a strong and decisive government enabled us to fill some of the biggest shortcomings of five decades of dynastic rule in a short span of just five years. Now that these shortcomings have been successfully addressed, imagine the pace at which we can work in the times to come.

The next five years are crucial because in 2022, we mark the 75th anniversary of our Independence. Generations of great women and men laid down their lives so that we could breathe the air of freedom. It is our sacred duty to create the India of their dreams.

In 2047, our nation would complete a hundred years of freedom. Let us together imagine what is the kind of India that we want by 2047. The BJP pledges to make the next five years as the foundation laying period for India of 2047. Let us together lay the foundations of this vision now, and work earnestly towards translating this vision into a golden reality.

Having seen the work of different political parties and ideologies, the people of India are convinced that if there is one pay that can address their problems, it is the BJP. The Mantra of 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas' has resonated across the length and breadth of India. BJP is a pay for every Indian. It is a Pay that works 24/7 at the grassroots level. That is why, the support we have received has been historic and unprecedented New India has broken from the shackles of the past. Today, we are a nation that is daring to dream and dreaming to dare. There is an air of hope and a spirit of aspiration among the youth.

Together, let us work towards building a strong and inclusive India, whose citizens are assured of dignity, prosperity, security and opportunity.

Vande Mataram!

Narendra Modi

(Edited by: Nehal Solanki)

Also read: PM releases BJP manifesto, Shah says 'Sankalp Patra' makes 75 pledges

Also read: Congress trying to politicise issues related to national security: Gadkari
India has rejected China's invitation to attend the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) meeting, which is scheduled to take place later this month. This is the second time, India has turned down official invite from China to attend its BRI forum. The first time, India boycotted the meeting was in the year 2017.

This year in March, the Chinese authorities sent an official invitation to Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), but the Indian government turned down the invite, owing to its concern over China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.

The Indian government has resolutely maintained that Beiing's BRI project undermines India's sovereignty in the form of CPEC which runs through the disputed territory of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) and overrides India's strategic concerns.

In response to a question about India's concerns over the Belt and Road Initiative and whether India would take part in the second BRF meet, India's Ambassador to China Vikram Misri in March told the state-run Global Times that, "No country can participate in an initiative that ignores its core concerns on sovereignty and territorial integrity".

Also read: India may boycott China's second Belt and Road Forum meet next month

In addition to this, China's latest attempt to block India's bid to declare Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar a global terrorist for the fourth time, is another reason why India has boycotted the BRI meet.

India along with the US and several other countries have been highlighting the concerns over the BRI projects, leaving a number of smaller countries in debt traps.

The concerns grew louder after China took control of Sri Lanka's Hambantota port in 2017 on a 99-year lease as debt swap.

BRI is a pet project of President Xi Jinping aimed at expanding the China's influence all over the world with a chain of infrastructure projects funded by Chinese investments.

This year, representatives from over 100 countries, including about 40 leaders of governments, will attend the second Belt and Road Forum.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and Russian President Vladimir Putin are among those who have confirmed their participation.

Italy is the first European nation that has signed up for China's multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative despite skepticism from its EU counterparts and US.

Also read: India may boycott China's second Belt and Road Forum meet next month

Also read: Commerce Ministry for anti-dumping duty extension on aluminum alloy wheels from China, Korea and Thailand
Pakistan has "reliable intelligence" that India will attack again this month, its foreign minister said, drawing condemnation from New Delhi which described the claim as irresponsible.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi's comments came after tensions over a February standoff between the arch enemies had appeared to ease.

He said on Sunday that an attack could take place between April 16 and 20, adding that Pakistan had told the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council of its concerns.

"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," a spokesman for India's foreign office said in a statement.

"This public gimmick appears to be a call to Pakistan-based terrorists to undertake a terror attack in India."

The foreign office said India reserved the right to respond firmly and decisively to any cross border militant attack, accusing Pakistan of being complicit in such attacks on India.

A suicide car bombing by Pakistan-based militants in Indian-controlled Kashmir killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police on February 14. The risk of conflict rose dramatically on Feb. 27, when India launched an air strike on what it said was a militant training base inside Pakistan.

The following day Pakistan shot down an Indian fighter jet and captured its pilot who was later released.

Earlier on Sunday, Pakistan summoned the Indian deputy high commissioner to protest against any "misadventure", Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal said in a tweet.

INTELLIGENCE

"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 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.

Khan blamed India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for "whipping up war hysteria" over claims that India shot down a Pakistani plane during the February standoff.

The Indian air force had displayed pieces of a missile that it said was fired by a Pakistani F-16 before it was downed.

Satellite images showing little sign of damage have also case doubt on the success of Indian air strikes on a camp of the Jaish-e-Mohammed militant group in northwestern Pakistan.

The standoff led Pakistan to close its airspace but most commercial air traffic has since resumed and major airports have opened.

As strains between the two neighbours apparently eased, Pakistan said on Friday it would release 360 Indian prisoners this month. The first hundred were released on Sunday.

Because relations are so rocky, prisoners who have completed jail terms, many of them fishermen convicted of straying into each other's territory, often languish in prison for months, if not years, afterwards.

"These are 100 Indian fishermen released from jail as a goodwill gesture by Pakistan," Saad Edhi, an official with Pakistan's largest charity, the Edhi Foundation, told Reuters at Karachi's Cantonment Railway Station on Sunday.

"They are going to Lahore from where they will be released into India across the Wagha border crossing."

Also read: India rejects 'preposterous' Pakistan claim of India planning another attack

Also read: A day after Pulwama attack, IAF was ready with plan to strike Jaish camps in Balakot, PoK: Here's a timeline
Out of the 52 candidates fielded by main contenders BJP and Congress in Gujarat, 25 are not even graduates, while in one seat the most qualified nominee, a doctor, is pitted against a Class 5 dropout.

As per details furnished by candidates in their nomination forms, BJP's Surendranagar seat nominee Mahendra Munjpara holds a doctorate degree in general medicine while his main rival, Congress' Soma Patel, dropped out of school after Class 5.

Munjpara is contesting the Lok Sabha polls for the first time, while Patel is a three-term MP, who also won the 2017 state Assembly election from Limbdi.

Out of the 25 non-graduates, 14 have been nominated by the BJP and 11 by the Congress.

Among these 25, four of the Congress and one of the BJP did not complete their matriculation.

BJP's sitting MP Kirit Solanki, who is again contesting from Ahmedabad (West) seat, its Valsad seat nominee K C Patel and Congress' Bardoli seat candidate Tushar Chaudhary hold MBBS degrees.

Two candidates, Parbat Patel and Bharatsinh Dabhi, contesting on BJP's ticket from Banaskantha and Patan seats, respectively, are lawyers.

Besides, BJP's Mitesh Patel and Congress' Bharatsinh Solanki, both contesting from the Anand seat, are qualified engineers.

The saffron party's Kheda seat nominee Devusinh Chauhan and Bardoli candidate Prabhu Vasava also hold engineering degrees.

BJP's Panchmahal seat nominee Ratansinh Rathod and Dahod candidate Jaswantsinh Bhabhor are B.Ed (Bachelor in Education) degree holders.

Besides, two candidates of the BJP and five of the Congress are commerce graduates.

As per the nomination forms, BJP's Bhavnagar candidate Bhartiben Siyal holds a BAMS (Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery) degree while Congress' candidate from the same seat, Manhar Patel, has done a diploma in agriculture.

Lok Sabha elections for 26 seats in Gujarat will be held in a single phase on April 23.

Total 573 candidates have filed their nominations in the state.

Also read: Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Richest, poorest candidates in Phase I to fight from the same seat

Also read: Lok Sabha Elections 2019 LIVE updates: BJP releases 16th list of 6 candidates, Nirhua to contest from Azamgarh
In a stinging attack on Congress for its minimum guarantee scheme for the poor, PM Modi on Tuesday said that the party remembers poor only during elections. Following the release of Congress manifesto, Union Minister Arun Jaitley said the promises made by the Rahul Gandhi-led party is dangerous and divisive for the nation. Raising question over Rahul's promise to amend the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), he said that it appears some points of the manifesto have been drafted by Congress president's friends in the Tukde Tukde gang', like in the case of Jammu and Kashmir. BJP President Amit Shah also slammed the Congress party and said that our forces crossed the borders and avenged the killing of our bravehearts. On the other hand, Congress and DMK leaders want us to engage in dialogue with Pakistan.

Earlier today, the Congress released its manifesto. The party has kept prime focus on the NYAY scheme, jobs for the youth, farmers' distress and a simpler taxation system in its manifesto which was unveiled today. Congress President Rahul Gandhi talked about 5 key ideas in Congress' manifesto during the event. He began with NYAY scheme and promised Rs 72,000 for 20 per cent of the poorest families. Gandhi then said that Congress will bring about a separate farmers' budget like the country earlier had for the Railways. He then spoke about education and healthcare. Rahul Gandhi also said that Congress would bring about a "saral, simple tax".

Manifesto committee president P Chidambaram said that the manifesto keeps in mind the millions of voices of the people of India. He added that the manifesto guarantees two things - wealth and welfare. He added that the party will bring in wealth and guarantees welfare. He further said that the manifesto looks to bring back the conversation to the real issues and not on issues of religion and community. The three issues that the manifesto keeps in mind are unemployment, farmers' distress and women, the former Finance Minister said

Follow the Lok Sabha Elections 2019 updates on BusinessToday.In LIVE blog:

7:40pm: Indian Army veteran Captain Shalini Singh on Tuesday joined the Aam Aadmi Party. Besides her, former vice president of Delhi BJP Purvanchal Morcha Shailendra Singh too joined the AAP, PTI reported.

"We are proud to announce that the country's brave daughter Captain Shalini Singh and former vice president of Delhi BJP Purvanchal Morcha Shailendra Singh are joining the AAP. We welcome both of them," Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said.

7:30pm: Addressing a rally in Gaya, Bihar, PM Modi said, "There are two kinds of people who have a problem with 'Chowkidar.' One type includes 'Maha Milawati' and the second includes all those who sponsor terrorists."

PM Modi addressing a rally in Gaya, Bihar: Yeh dhamake kisne band kiye? Yeh Modi ne nahi kiya. Aapke ek vote ne kiya, yeh aapke vote ki taqat hai. Agar kuch badla hai toh woh hai reet, neeti aur niyat. Dilli mein 'Chowkidar' ki sarkar bani aur parinaam aapke saamne hai. pic.twitter.com/ZZkfGByEXD - ANI (@ANI) April 2, 2019

7:20pm: Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Tuesday releases a list of 9 candidates; 2 for Lok Sabha elections and 7 for Legislative Assembly polls. Mahesh Sahu to be fielded from Dhenkanal Lok Sabha seat and Chandrani Murmu from Kendujhar Lok Sabha seat.

7:10pm: Early today, Supreme Court reserved a judgement for tomorrow on the petition filed by GJM leaders seeking an interim protection during general elections.

Supreme Court reserves judgement for tomorrow on the petition filed by Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (GJM) leaders Roshan Giri and Bimal Gurung seeking a direction to grant them interim protection for three weeks to allow them to participate in the general elections. pic.twitter.com/pp5JnxjuvF - ANI (@ANI) April 2, 2019

7:05pm: "Recall how Congress treated architect of our Constitution, Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar. Congress plotted many conspiracies to defeat him. It is important that youth of today knows about these facts," said PM Modi in Jamui, Bihar.

7:00pm: Speaking at Jamui, PM Modi asked people of Bihar to give a befitting reply to those who are spreading rumours about reservations.

PM Modi in Jamui, Bihar, earlier today: I want people of Bihar to give a befitting reply to those who are spreading rumours about reservations. Be it Modi or anyone else, no one can remove reservations. pic.twitter.com/LQ9H4w2tYc - ANI (@ANI) April 2, 2019

6:55pm: Sasmit Patra of BJD accused PM Modi of violation of model code of conduct.

Sasmit Patra,BJD: Today using a mobile number anyone could call up&listen to PM's speech while he was campaigning in Bhawanipatna,Odisha. So,we've gone before EC, since it didn't have pre-certification from EC,it's violation of poll guidelines&demanded action be taken against BJP pic.twitter.com/qcQzrepJcF - ANI (@ANI) April 2, 2019

6:50pm: Commenting on Congress party's promise to amend the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, Omar Abdullah said that some 'Congress friends' conspired against removal of AFSPA.

Some 'Congress friends' conspired against removal of AFSPA, says Omar Abdullah Read @ANI story | https://t.co/rwbELO8qqP pic.twitter.com/6Orp3b6o49 - ANI Digital (@ani_digital) April 2, 2019

5:35pm:BJP President addresses rally in Tamil Nadu. He assured the people of the state that like previous five years of our govt, the next five years of our govt will be dedicated to the welfare of people like great MGR and Jayalalithaa.

On behalf of PM Modi, I want to assure the people of Tamil Nadu that like previous five years of our govt, the next five years of our govt will be dedicated to the welfare of people like great MGR and Jayalalithaa: Shri @AmitShah #BharatBoleModiModi pic.twitter.com/kRLF7VGhr2 - BJP (@BJP4India) April 2, 2019

5:30pm: In their recent manifesto, the Congress has proposed to bring back Special Status to North Eastern States and roll back Citizenship Amendment Bill.

We promise to bring back Special Status to North Eastern States & we ensure the Citizenship Amendment Bill will not pass as we are committed to protecting the indigenous culture of the North East. #CongressManifesto2019 pic.twitter.com/E8lNAVDhQF - Congress (@INCIndia) April 2, 2019

5:25pm: "In ths time of grief & outrage, attempts will be made to divide us. Religions & identities will be pitted against each other. Hindu vs Mus. Jam vs Kash. Our pain musnt fuel such diabolical plans. Because eventually, the axe forgets but the tree remembers," Mehbooba Mufti said.

5:20pm: Former J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti lauded the Congress for promising to amend the Armed Forces Act (AFSPA) in its manifesto.

Congress has shown great courage by endorsing issues PDP incorporated in its agenda of alliance with BJP. Revocation of AFSPA, not fiddling with JK constitutional provisions & holding unconditional dialogue .The roadmap PDP envisages is the only solution for a peaceful J&K pic.twitter.com/HddumNZZZK - Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) April 2, 2019

5:10pm: Ajit Jogi-led Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (JCC) will not contest Lok Sabha elections. The party has passed a resolution to not contest from any of the 11 Lok Sabha seats in Chhattisgarh, while they will support candidates fielded by the BSP on all these seats.

5:00pm: Election Commission of India writes to Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation and Chairman, Railway Board over 'noncompliance of lawful instructions and lackadaisical approach towards enforcing the model code of conduct', ANI reported.

4:40pm: Congress President Rahul Gandhi will file his nomination from the parliamentary constituency of Wayanad in Kerala on 4th April. Sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to accompany Rahul Gandhi for filing of his nomination.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (file pic) to accompany Congress President Rahul Gandhi to Wayanad in Kerala for filing of his nomination from the parliamentary constituency. pic.twitter.com/UhCuQpQhKb - ANI (@ANI) April 2, 2019

4:10pm: Congress names Babi Bagkar as its candidate to contest by-election from Mandrem, Goa.

Congress names Babi Bagkar as its candidate to contest by-election from Mandrem (Goa) legislative assembly seat and Atal Shukla (UP) to contest by-election from Nighasan legislative assembly seat. pic.twitter.com/UgQMEPstuj - ANI (@ANI) April 2, 2019

4:05pm: Arun Jaitley on Congress manifesto: It seems some points have been drafted by Congress president Rahil Gandhi's friends in the Tukde Tukde gang', like in the case of Jammu and Kashmir.

Union Finance Minister & BJP leader Arun Jaitley on Congress manifesto: Even though there was a drafting committee, but it appears that some of the important points have been drafted by the Congress President's friends in 'Tukde Tukde gang' when it deals with Jammu & Kashmir pic.twitter.com/2rE39uBOaC - ANI (@ANI) April 2, 2019

4:00pm: EC has written to the President against Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh for violation of model code of conduct.

Election Commission has written to the President against Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh for violation of model code of conduct. He had said 'We all are BJP workers&we want BJP to emerge victorious. We want that once again Modi ji should become the PM' on 23rd March. (File pic) pic.twitter.com/22NPW7579a - ANI (@ANI) April 2, 2019

3:55pm: Former Navy Chief Admiral L. Ramdas has written a letter to the Election Commission of India on Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath referring to the Indian Army as 'Modi ki sena' during a public rally in Ghaziabad on March 30, ANI has reported.

3:50pm: UP CM Yogi Adityanath slammed Congress party after it released its manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections.

UP CM Yogi Adityanath on Congress manifesto: Iss chunaav mein Congress naetretavya ka ye jhuut dubara benaqab hoga aur janata zordaar jawab Congress aur uske sehyogi dalon ko degi. Unhone apne 55 varsho ki naakaami ko 55 page ke apne ghoshna patra ke maadhyam se vyakt kiya hai. pic.twitter.com/MhbXI9hDFT - ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 2, 2019

3:40pm: "In their recent manifesto, the Congress has proposed to tone down AFSPA in J&K. Do they want to demoralize the forces and their personnel?" said Amit Shah in Thoothukudi.

3:35pm: "In Pulwama, 40 soldiers were killed by Pakistan. Our forces crossed the borders and avenged the killing of our bravehearts. On the other hand, Congress and DMK leaders want us to engage in dialogue with Pakistan," said Amit Shah in Thoothukudi.

3:30pm: "I want to assure people that the next five years of our govt will be dedicated to the welfare of people like MGR and Jayalalithaa govts were," said Amit Shah in Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu.

3:20pm: The Congress promises to reduce the presence of the armed forces in the Kashmir valley in its manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

3:10pm: Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday released its Lok Sabha election manifesto that promises to "reverse the unwarranted and illegal interference by the BJP government" into the functioning of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

"Congress will respect the autonomy of the RBI in matters reserved to the RBI under the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1939, including the formulation of monetary policy," said the manifesto.

3:00pm: The Congress has said that it will review all laws and revoke the laws which are outdated, unjust or restrict the freedom of people, ANI has reported.

2:50pm: MP CM Kamal Nath has said that I don't support the decision to remove security from RSS office in Bhopal.

Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath: We can have ideological differences with RSS but I don't support the decision to remove security from outside their office in Bhopal, hence have directed officials to continue to deploy security at RSS office https://t.co/gVUdtVFHdV - ANI (@ANI) April 2, 2019

2:40pm: Congress promises to bring every Fortune 500 company to set up business in India.

2:30pm: Congress promises separate department to help startups and a simple GST format.

2:20pm: BSP Chief Mayawati in Bhubaneswar: "The way PM Modi's government implemented GST and demonetisation in haste, that affected small businesses. That also led to increase in unemployment. Congress was involved in Bofors and now BJP govt is involved in Rafale."

2:10pm: Rahul Gandhi promises NYAY scheme, jobs, farmer welfare, universal healthcare and quality education for all. Read the full story here.

1:45pm: Congress manifesto - healthcare: "Congress promises to enact the Right to Healthcare Act that will guarantee to every citizen the right to healthcare services, including free diagnostics, out-patient care, medicines and hospitalisation through a network of public hospitals and enlisted private hospitals. We will ensure that government expenditure on healthcare and education will be doubled to 3 per cent of GDP and 6 per cent of GDP respectively by 2023-24."

1:40pm: The Congress manifesto mentions that the party will "Omit Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (that defines the offence of 'sedition') that has been misused and, in any event, has become redundant because of subsequent laws".

1:30pm: Congress manifesto - women reservation: "Congress will pass the Constitution (Amendment) Bill to provide for reservation of 33 per cent of seats in the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies in the first session of the 17th Lok Sabha and in the Rajya Sabha. We will amend the Service Rules to reserve for women 33 per cent of appointments to posts in the Central Government."

1:25pm: Congress manifesto - economy: "To ensure that no Indian is left behind, Congress will provide a Minimum Income Support Programme (MISP) or Nyuntam Aay Yojana(NYAY) under which Rs 72,000 a year will be transferred to the poorest 20 per cent families in India. We will provide special respite to farmers and farm workers, not just through "Karz Maafi" or a loan waiver but by setting farmers on the path to "Karz Mukti", or Freedom from Indebtedness."

1:20pm: Speaking on why he is contesting from Kerala's Wayanad, Rahul Gandhi said, "They feel that they are not being included in the decisions of this country. So I wanted to send a message to south India that we are with you and we are standing with you. That is why I am standing from Kerala."

1:15pm: Congress manifesto - jobs: "Our pledge is jobs, jobs, jobs. Congress will fill all 4 lakh Central Government and institutional vacancies before March 2020, create an estimated 10 lakh seva mitra positions in every gram panchayat and urban local body, launch a 'Water Bodies Restoration Mission' and 'Wasteland Regeneration Mission' to create 1 crore jobs, exempt new businesses from applicable laws and regulations (except Minimum Wages Act and tax laws) for a period of 3 years, encourage State Governments to fill their vacancies, reward businesses for job creation, provide businesses with fiscal incentives for employing more women, and require businesses with over 100 employees to start an apprenticeship programme."

1:10pm: "The last 5 years have been disastrous for the people of India. The youth have lost jobs. Farmers have lost hope. Traders have lost business. Micro, small and medium enterprises have lost their confidence. Women have lost the sense of security. Deprived communities have lost their traditional rights. Institutions have lost independence," the manifesto reads.

1:07pm: "You will ask me but why don't you ask PM Modi why won't he address the media? Why don't you ask why won't he answer the questions of the public?" says Rahul Gandhi to a reporter.

1:04pm: Commenting on how BJP has been saying that implementing NYAY scheme won't be possible, Rahul Gandhi said, "It might be impossible for BJP. They said the same thing about MNREGA but it helped people of the country. It is impossible for BJP but it is possible for Congress and we will do it."

1:00pm: "Believe in me, I don't lie. I won't promise Rs 15 lakh but I will promise Rs 72,000," says PM Modi.

12:55pm: "Party promises saral, simple tax," says Rahul Gandhi.

12:53pm: "We will also work to bring the country together. The BJP government has only worked to disrupt peace in the country, you can see for yourself in J&K. We will also work on the national security," says Rahul Gandhi.

12:51pm: "Then there is education and healthcare. Six percent of GDP will be reserved for education. We want everyone to have the best healthcare there is," says Rahul Gandhi.

12:50pm: "If farmers cannot replay their loans then we want to make it a civil offence and not a criminal one like it is today," says Rahul Gandhi.

12:48pm: "For farmers, there should be a separate farmers budget, like we had for railways. Everything should be clear and transparent," says Rahul Gandhi.

12:46pm: "Then there are the ideas of employment and farmers. There are no jobs in the country. I told the committtee that if we can't give 2 crore jobs then tell me the truth, we will tell the citizens the truth. Truth is 22 lakh vacant government jobs," says Rahul Gandhi.

12:44pm: "There are five big ideas and themes in the manifesto. The first is NYAY sceme," says Rahul Gandhi.

12:40pm: "This manifesto is a massive step for the Congress party. The committee has done a very good job and I thank them for it," says Rahul Gandhi.

12:32pm: "We will release a forward-looking document that sums up the aspirations of the people of India," says former PM Manmohan Singh.

12:30pm: "The manifesto keeps in mind two things - wealth and welfare. We will bring wealth and guarantee welfare," says P Chidambaram.

12: 25pm: "Contents of the manifesto in my view is the millions of voices we heard in the process," says former Finance Minister P Chidambaram. Chidambaram is also the President of the manifesto committee.

12:15pm: Congress leaders arrive at the manifesto release event in Delhi.

12:13pm: We identified 8 crore fake people who were availing subsidies and looting public money: PM Modi in Kalahandi.

12:09pm: "Parties like Congress and BJD have conspired to keep the poor poor. They have betrayed them. People have been forced to migrate to other states for livelihood," said PM Modi in Kalahandi.

12:04pm: More than 400 Eklavaya model schools have been opened for the children of tribal communities: PM Modi in Kalahandi.

12:00pm: "If BJP had formed govt here, the work in Odisha would've been done much faster, better and at a bigger scale. Despite no cooperation from the state govt, we did our best to bring about the change in your lives," said PM Modi in Kalahandi.

11:57am: Congress ally Jaydeep Kawade said, "Smriti Irani sits next to Nitin Gadkari in the Parliament and says that they will change the Constitution. Let me tell you something about her. I have heard that those women who have bigger bindi on their foreheads, change their husbands quite frequently."

11:55am: In the last five years, 8 lakh poor families have been given houses in Odisha. More than 24 lakh free electricity connections have been given. After 70 years of independence, for the first time electricity was provided to 3,000 villages in India: PM Modi in Kalahandi.

11:50am: "Without taking a single leave in last five years, I have worked diligently to bring about transformation in the country. It was possible because people supported me. The credit for the transformation in the country goes to the people of the country," said PM Modi in Kalahandi.

11:45am: PM Modi addresses public meeting at Odisha's Kalahandi.

11:15am: Congress has released a list of 9 candidates for Lok Sabha Elections 2019 - 1 from Gujarat, 2 from Maharashtra and 6 from Rajasthan.

6



pic.twitter.com/PbZh5ZA8wU Sachin Pilot (@SachinPilot) April 2, 2019 11:05am: The district election officer of Mumbai has issued a notice to Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut for alleged violation of the model code of conduct over his comments against CPI candidate Kanhaiya Kumar. Raut, who is the editor of Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana', said in the publication on Sunday that Kumar should be defeated in the elections even if it means the BJP has to "tamper with EVMs". 11:00am: "When we will come to power, we will initiate an inquiry into Rafale deal on the first day and we have included this in the manifesto," said Bhalchandra Mungekar, member of Congress' manifesto committee. 10:50am: Supreme Court declines urgent hearing of Patidar leader Hardik Patel's plea seeking a suspension of his conviction in a 2015 case relating to rioting, so that he can contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. "The order was passed in August 2018. What is the urgency now?" the bench said while refusing to accord urgent hearing on the petition. Patel, 25, had started preparations to contest from Jamnagar on a Congress ticket after joining the party on March 12 and the last date for filing of nominations is April 4. 10:40am: Former Navy Chief Admiral L Ramdas said he would approach the Election Commission against UP CM Yogi Adityanath's comment on Indian Army. The CM called the Indian Army 'Modi ji ka sena'. "The armed forces do not belong to any one individual, they serve the country. Till the polls get over, the Chief Election Commissioner is the boss. I am going to approach the Election Commission in this regard," Admiral Ramdas said. 10:30am: BSP chief Mayawati said that it was the will of the people while justifying expenses in installations of her statues and of elephants in Uttar Pradesh. 10:15am: BSP MLA Maulana Jameel joined the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Talking to reporters in Muzaffarnagar, Jameel said he left the Mayawati-led outfit as he felt only Congress could defeat the BJP in the coming elections. 10:10am: Arvind Panagariya, former Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog on NYAY (Nyuntam Aay Yojana): If you are giving Rs 72,000 per annum to 5 crore families then there will be an expense of Rs 3.6 Lakh Crore - this is 13% of the total budget of central govt. No one has given details of how Rs 3.6 Lakh crore will be arranged for the implementation of the scheme. It's more than our defence budget. Fiscal situation is always tight, it's almost impossible to take out 13% of the budget. 10:00am: "My campaigns across Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have been overwhelming. NDA's solid track record and development agenda has connected with people. Votebank politics and failed promises of the Opposition has repulsed India," tweeted Narendra Modi. 9:45am: Congress on Monday fielded Olympian discus thrower Krishna Poonia from the Jaipur Rural constituency as it released another list of nine candidates for the Lok Sabha polls. She will contest against Union Information and Broadcasting Minister and Olympic medallist Rajyavardhan Rathore, who is the Jaipur Rural MP. Read the full story here: Congress fields Krishna Poonia against Rajyavardhan Rathore from Jaipur Rural 9:38am: In an attempt to urge people to vote in the upcoming elections, Coimbatore-based miniature artist Raja has carved 18 election party symbols in one gram silver and 300 milligram gold. Tamil Nadu: Urging people to vote in upcoming elections, Coimbatore-based miniature artist Raja has carved 18 election party symbols in one gram silver & 300 milligram gold in a miniature EVM, & a compass & a pencil in which a person raises his hands with the black ink-mark. pic.twitter.com/9VRqTsXBFu ANI (@ANI) April 2, 2019 9:35am: Electoral Officers of West Tripura constituency took part in a one-day technical training on the Commissioning of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPATs) on Monday. Agartala: Electoral Officers of West Tripura constituency took part in a one-day technical training on the Commissioning of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) & Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPATs) yesterday. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/3ITZ8tFVBo ANI (@ANI) April 1, 2019

9:30am: In a press statement, Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal said that the PM Modi's comments on Rahul Gandhi's nomination from Wayanad are a "disgrance to the high office of Prime Minister". "Without understanding the cultural legacy and demography of Wayanad, the PM was making a communal and diviisive statement," Venugopal said.
Google is all set to make its new mid-range Pixel devices official after the Google Play Store and the Google Play Developer Console's device catalogue hinted to the Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL. The Play Developer Console also added "bonito" and "sargo," which are supposed to be the fish-related monikers for the Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL. Both the devices have also received IMDA certification in Singapore, suggesting an imminent launch of the phones.

As far as the leaked details about the phones are concerned, "Bonito" or the smaller Pixel 3a would have a 2,160x1,080 screen, while the "Sargo" or the Pixel 3a XL would have a larger 2,220x1080 display. Both handsets would also have 4GB of RAM, OLED screen with Snapdragon 670, 12-MP rear camera, and 3,000 mAh battery.

The listing on the Google Play Developer console alludes to a support for Open GL ES 3.2, bringing advanced desktop class graphics functionality to the device. Android Q code was also spotted with the branding of Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL. There have also been reports that Pixel 3a would have a 64GB of onboard storage.

The phones list of "system features" also reads "PIXEL_2019_MIDYEAR_EXPERIENCE", hinting that the Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL are mid-cycle refresh. Both the phones might see the light of the day before the tentative October unveiling of the next Pixel flagship. On the IMDA (Info-communications Media Development Authority) certification in Singapore, the Pixel 3a and the Pixel 3a XL were seen carrying the model number G020B and G020F respectively, spotted by MySmartPrice. The same model numbers were also seen at the FCC as well.

Other than the two Pixel budget smartphones, a 10-inch smart display called Google Nest Hub Max was also spotted on the Google Store. Other than the big display, the Next Hub Max will have stereo speakers, and a built-in camera for Duo calls. The smaller 7-inch Home Hub had no camera and came with mediocre speaker. The HUB Max will also have a built-in Nest Cam for motion and sound alerts. Not much is known about the release dates but it won't be surprising if Google announced all three devices as part of its I/O conference on May 7.

Edited By: Udit Verma

Also Read: YouTube fixes the issue of ads, background playback for premium subscribers

Also Read: OnePlus 7 images leaked again; sports pop-up selfie camera, triple rear-camera
Netflix has ended the support for Apple's AirPlay, which means that you won't be able to use your iPhone or an iPad to beam Netflix to an Apple TV. AirPlay allowed Apple users to seamlessly move Netflix shows from one device to another. Streaming giant had first offered support for AirPlay in 2013. Netflix has cited 'technical limitation' as the reason for dropping AirPlay support and has instructed iOS users to connect to a TV using built-in Chromecast, Netflix second Screen or a physical cable.

Also Read: Apple TV app announced, curates content from over 150 streaming apps

In a statement issued by Netflix to MacRumors, the company has said, "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 vs. what isn't) 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."

The timing of the move from Netflix gives a completely different picture though. Apple had recently announced its long-awaited push into television programming which could threaten Netflix in the future. Netflix, on its part, has refused to be a part of Apple's TV+ app that offers subscriptions to HBO, Showtime, Starz, Epix, CBS All Access, Noggin and others.

Netflix is also on bad terms with Apple owing to the app store fees that the Cupertino based company charges the streaming giant. Apple charges Netflix for the customers who sign up for its service using the iOS app. In response, Netflix has now removed iTunes billing, and the Netflix app now redirects its users to the official site of Netflix in a browser for making the new payments. The move will help Netflix to save millions of dollars which were earlier going to Apple.

Meanwhile, the Netflix's move could be a minor inconvenience for many. TV these days are smart enough and several app are built-in, including Netflix. Netflix's move also doesn't impact other ways of getting content on to the screen, like screen mirroring etc.

Edited By: Udit Verma

Also Read: Netflix tests Rs 65 weekly, Rs 250 monthly plans in India

Also Read: Why Apple's video streaming service could be a 'Netflix Killer'
Samsung's budget Galaxy smartphone, Galaxy A20, will go on sale for the first time today in India via Samsung Online Shop, Samsung Opera House, and other major online retailers. Samsung has been releasing a slew of A-series phones to cater to every price segment in the developing markets, especially India. The Galaxy A20 comes right in between the cheaper Galaxy A10 and below Galaxy A30 and Galaxy A50 and is priced at Rs 12,490.

The Samsung Galaxy A20 has a 6.4-inch HD+ (720x1560 pixels) Super AMOLED infinity V-display. As far as specifications are concerned, the phone is powered by the octa-core Exynos 7884 SoC, which has two high power cores clocked at 1.6GHz and six efficiency cores with a clock speed of 1.35GHz. The phone comes with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage option, which can be further expanded via a microSD card (up to 512GB). The Samsung Galaxy A20 runs on Android 9 Pie with the company's One UI on top.

In terms of optics, Samsung Galaxy A20 comes with a dual rear camera setup with a 13 MP primary sensor and 5 MP secondary sensor. There is also a 5 MP selfie sensor with an f/2.0 lens.

The Samsung Galaxy A20 has a huge 4,000 mAh battery that would easily last you a complete day. There is also a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor and support for Samsung Pay. The smartphone also features a "3D Glasstic" build and measures at 158.4x74.7x7.8 mm.

Additionally, the Galaxy A20 comes with a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor for biometric authentication and has a large 4,000mAh battery with fast charging support as well as USB Type-C port.

Edited By: Udit Verma

Also Read: Samsung Galaxy A20 launched in India; Check out price, specifications

Also Read: Samsung Galaxy A40 gets certified by FCC, may launch soon

Also Read: Samsung to launch for Galaxy A50, Galaxy A30, Galaxy A10 in India today: everything you need to know
Global recruiting and consulting company Oxford Global Resources, a division of ASGN, last week announced that it will fill 25 new jobs in 2019.

As part of the companys celebration of 25 years at its European Headquarters in Ireland, the announcement was made this morning at a breakfast event, which was attended by An Tanaiste Simon Coveney.

Headquartered in the United States, Oxford focuses on connecting organisations with senior-level talent in information technology, life sciences and engineering. Oxford has more than 850 employees across 25 offices worldwide.

The 25 new Irish roles, mainly as Technical Recruiters and Account Managers are on track to be filled this year. As part of this expansion effort, Oxford will host a Recruitment Open Evening at its European headquarters in Penrose Quay, Cork on 15th April.

Speaking at last weeks event, Oxford Vice President of European Operations, Denis Carroll said, "In 1994, we started with four employees in Cork; today we have 129 and are still growing. Our 25th anniversary milestone is a testament to the dedication and expertise of the entire Cork team as well as the fantastic local resources. We are excited to expand our team here further, which will lead to our goal of doubling our European business over the next five years. These new vital roles will match highly skilled and hard-to-find talent with the right projects for our valued clients worldwide."

Source: www.businessworld.ie
Irish fintech company, Global Shares last week celebrated the Grand Opening of its new Lisbon IT Hub and Service Delivery Centre, creating over 30 new high-tech jobs.

Lisbon is one of 11 Global Shares offices around the world and has been designated as a strategic operations base in terms of new product development and centralised Service Delivery. The Lisbon team is split between its pioneering IT development team, and its highly experienced support team of Service Analysts.

Ireland's Ambassador to Portugal - her Excellency Orla Tunney  cut the ribbon at the companys brand new office for over 50 staff in Lisbon city centre, kick starting a recruitment drive to fill a range of new high skilled jobs including C#.NET Software Engineers, Mobile App Developer, Front End Angular Developer, QA Engineer, multi-lingual Service Desk Analysts and more.

Speaking last week, Global Shares Chief Operating Officer, Mark Purcell said, "Our decision to invest in Lisbon is a direct response to the incredible commitment given to Global Shares by the team here, and the warm rapport that exists between our cultures. Lisbon is a major hub with an extensive pool of resources in terms of language skills and access to highly talented staff. As our company scales further we look forward to see our new strategic Lisbon hub go from strength to strength."

Source: www.businessworld.ie
* Local governments of cities with an urban population of 3 million to 5 million will also have to ease restrictions for migrant workers

* The change aims to make education and other social services more available to Chinas large floating population

(Beijing)  Chinas state planner has required local governments to lift household registration restrictions for people who live and work in some second- and third-tier cities in an effort to advance reform of the residency system for migrants.

China is going to eliminate all restrictions for household registration, or hukou, for all cities with an urban population of 1 million to 3 million, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in a notice on Monday.

Based on their urban populations in 2016, cities such as Wuxi and Ningbo in eastern China would qualify for the relaxed residency rules, according to NDRC statistics.

The NDRC also said governments of cities with an urban population of 3 million to 5 million should also ease restrictions for farmers-turned-workers who have lived there for more than five years, as well as technicians, college and vocational school graduates and people who have obtained overseas degrees.

Chinas hukou registration system dictates that people can only receive many government and social welfare benefits, such as public schooling for their children, health care and retirement pensions, when they live in the cities or rural areas of their official residence. During the planned-economy era when everything was state-owned and people seldom left their place of official residence, it was often extremely difficult to change ones hukou. But as China opened up its economy after 1978, people began to leave their places of official residence in search of better paying jobs, often in larger cities.

Such migration has come at a cost, however, because moving often means having to pay for costs like education and other social services  something many migrants cannot easily afford. Migrants are also often banned from buying property in cities where they reside if they dont hold a local hukou.

The result has been a widening array of social problems, and migrants often complain of discrimination. Another big problem has been left-behind children, who are forced to stay in their hometowns to get state-supported education. Often, they end up raised by grandparents while their parents are working in larger cities.

These parents are among those that make up what is often called the floating population, a group whose place of residence does not match their hukou. It currently accounts for about 18% of Chinas total population, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

A recent government report called for serious reform of the hukuo system for migrants. It found that less than 4% of migrants in the 50 cities  including Qingdao, Xiamen, Wuxi, Chengdu and Changsha  were able to obtain permanent residency in their adopted city.

Doug Young also contributed to this report.

Contact reporter Timmy Shen (hongmingshen@caixin.com)
Good morning everyone. Bonjour tout le monde.

As we gather on the traditional territory of the Algonquin people, its my pleasure to bring you greetings and good wishes from the Government of Canada

My thanks to President Stamatakis and the Canadian Police Association for inviting me to join you once again this year. And thank you for your on-going help and support on so many important public policy files. Your constructive engagement is always much appreciated.

Attending the annual CPA conference is an honour!

The work your members do every day on the frontlines of law enforcement across this country is truly impressive. Your country, at all levels, is deeply grateful for your service  to keep us all safe and secure.

The year that has passed since we last met here has certainly been eventful, and at times, very difficult.

Police officers have been absolutely vital in helping Canadians get through many of their most challenging moments:

You were prominent among the 80 or more First Responders on the scene of the tragic Humboldt Broncos bus crash in my home province of Saskatchewan, one year ago this week.

You provided extraordinary and highly professional support during Canadas Presidency of the G-7 process last year, including the Leaders Summit in Charlevoix.

You responded with incredible speed and skill to one of the most violent incidents in Canadian history, the horrible and deadly van attack along Yonge Street in Toronto.

One tragic Friday last August, two of your comrades reported for duty in Fredericton, New Brunswick, but never came home  instead laying down their lives in unflinching acts of bravery to protect their community from a mass shooter who was bent on carnage. The courage and proficiency of all members of the Fredericton Police Service that day clearly averted a much larger calamity.

You advised, prepared and engaged as Canada became only the second nation in the world to legalize recreational cannabis for adult use, and as we instituted some of the toughest impaired driving laws in the world.

You were among the first on the scene of the storm of the century as an unprecedented six tornadoes hit Ottawa and Gatineau  you were helping victims to safety and helping to tame the chaos.

In co-operation with national security and intelligence officials, you helped prevent a tragedy in Kingston, Ontario, by intercepting a would-be terrorist before any lives were put in jeopardy.

And when the horrible news arrived about what happened in Christchurch, New Zealand, your members pro-actively began visiting Mosques and knocking on doors in Muslim communities  to ensure their safety and reinforce their confidence 

 just as you had done a few months earlier after a vicious attack on a Synagogue in Pittsburgh caused fear and anguish in the Jewish community.

These are just some of the stories that Canadians see and hear and react to on a national scale. There are countless others that never attract much news.

But Canadas 160 police services, from our smallest towns to our biggest cities, can take enormous pride in how they stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the communities they serve  through law enforcement work, outreach activities, prevention efforts, charitable service and so much more.

Being the Minister of Public Safety means Im compelled to deal with a lot of tough and unpleasant stuff, from drug smugglers peddling fentanyl to terrorists trying cause mayhem. You know that all too well. Sometimes, its hard to find the UP-side in this portfolio.

But without doubt, being associated with police officers, firefighters, paramedics and other First Responders, and emergency workers of all kinds  that is, by far, the very best part of being the Minister. And I thank you.

Let me offer a brief update on some of the key public safety policy issues that weve discussed together over the past few years.

To start with, Im happy to report that both Bill C-4 and Bill C-7 have been passed into law, as promised. C-4 was about restoring several fundamental rights to organized labour, including police unions. And C-7 was about extending those rights  for the first time in history  to members of the RCMP.

Secondly, we are putting the finishing touches on a National Strategy to deal with post-traumatic stress injuries which disproportionately affect public safety officers. I look forward to having more to say about this strategy very soon  within a few days.

Weve had the benefit of your engagement and advice on this vital topic  about the further research thats required, the early warning signs for detection, the need for effective and accessible treatment tools, the information and measures necessary to combat stigmatization, and how we can best get people healthy again and back to work and successful living.

In recent federal budgets, weve allocated more than $50 million to PTSI and mental health issues pertaining to public safety officers. A full National Strategy will be available shortly.

Thirdly, over the past year, weve also rolled out new investments to better tackle gun-and-gang violence across the country. These are largely tailored to meet the unique needs of each province and territory. Altogether, were providing $327 million in new funding over the coming five years (rising to $100 million per year thereafter) based on what we heard from you and other stakeholders:

$8 million will beef up the Youth Gang component of the National Crime Prevention Strategy;

$25 million will enable my department to provide coordination, research, better data collection and analysis;

$30 million will help the RCMP to better track crime guns and nefarious activities like straw purchasing;

$50 million will strengthen CBSAs work at the border to attack smuggling; and

the biggest share, $214 million, is going to the 13 provinces and territories for prevention, intervention, disruption, law enforcement and prosecutions. To date, funding agreements have been reached with 11 of these jurisdictions and the remaining two are close.

Nimble flexibility is a key characteristic. In one community, the biggest need may be for targeted services that steer kids away from gangs, or extricate them from that lifestyle. In another, it may be correctional programming or enhanced law enforcement, or greater work on prosecutions. I hope our provincial partners will look to you for good implementation advice.

Our guns-and-gangs package goes in parallel with new firearms safety legislation in Bill C-71. This new law will increase the effectiveness of background checks, improve license verification procedures, standardize good business practices for commercial record-keeping, bolster safety when restricted or prohibited weapons are transported, and take political considerations out of the classification system.

The Senate is due to finalize its work on Bill C-71 this spring.

On another front, last months federal budget announced new investments to fight two of the greatest law enforcement challenges of our time  money laundering and the scourge of online child sexual exploitation.

As we work toward comprehensive new plans to combat the exploitation of children, as well as human trafficking, Im pleased that this new funding will help raise awareness of this very serious issue, and how prevalent it is. We need to reduce the stigma associated with victims reporting it, and we need to increase Canadas ability to pursue and prosecute offenders.

This being the First of April, I want to acknowledge that we are now at the one-year anniversary of Canadas new Memorial Grant Program for First Responders

As you know, this program provides a one-time, tax-free payment of $300,000 to the family of an eligible first responder who dies as a result of his/her duties. That includes deaths resulting from occupational illness or psychological impairment, as well as catastrophic incidents.

So far, we have supported more than 19 grieving families of fallen first responders, and a further 53 applications are in process.

The good work of the CPA is much appreciated in making certain that all eligible families know of the grant, and receive it.

You worked hard on the programs design features, and to ensure the Memorial Grant came into being  one year ago today. It is a small gesture of respect and gratitude to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. Im glad, together, we got done, and its working.

Looking ahead as I finish these remarks, I want to flag two other areas of emerging concern where we will need exceptional police work and strong collaboration.

One is combatting what we saw in New Zealand  the rise and the violent activation of ultra-right-wing, neo-nazi, white supremacist extremism. It shows itself in antisemitism, Islamaphobia, racism and misogyny. It is filled with hate and terror, and there can be no room for it  certainly not in Canada.

Christchurch wasnt the first incident. Before that there was the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. And the van attack along Yonge Street. And Charlottesville. And the Mosque in Ste Foye. And police killings in Moncton and Mayerthorpe. And Dawson College and Ecole Polytechnique.

All the product of the same depraved mentality. Dealing with it is an important public safety and national security priority.

Secondly, we need to be alert to the dangers posed by those who have gone abroad to associate themselves with the Daesh terrorist organization in Syria and Iraq, or other brutal terrorist groups. Some of them seem to think they want to come back to Canada.

This is a global problem. As many as 40,000 of these so-called terrorist travelers or foreign fighters originated from various countries around the world. Canadas portion is small. Its reported at about 250, with only a small fraction of that total actually going into the Syria-Iraq-Turkey theatre.

About 60 of these people are believed to have returned to Canada from various places around the world (again, only a small number of them from Syria-Iraq-Turkey), leaving about 190 still overseas and many of them are likely dead. A few have been captured in the region. Most of the travelling by these people, both going over and coming back, occurred before 2016. The overall numbers recently  over the past three years  have been basically stable.

Going forward, one significant complicating factor is this  whether still living or dead, a number of these terror collaborators or participants acquired spouses and families along the way. Some of them are among the captives  in a dangerous dysfunctional part of the world where Canada has no current diplomatic presence, and no legal obligation to facilitate a return.

Our top goal with respect to all these people is to investigate them, compile sufficient evidence to lay charges and to prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. They need to be held accountable for their outrageous behavior.

Finding evidence that will stick in Canadian courts is a challenge. While we have successfully done so in four cases to date, we also need a full suite of other measures to utilize  further investigations and interviews, surveillance, terrorism peace bonds, intelligence gathering and lawful sharing, on-going threat assessments, no-fly listings, criminal code listings, the refusal or revocation of passports, and legally authorized threat reduction measures.

It will take tight cooperation among all our security, intelligence and police agencies to make sure of three things:

First, that we know everything we need to know about the whereabouts, actions, risks and threats associated with these people;

Second, that we employ the right combination of prosecutions and all other legal tools in each and every circumstance to keep Canadians safe, and deliver justice to the guilty; and

Third, that we contain the scourge of terrorism, stop it from spreading to another generation of children, and find the most effective means to prevent or disrupt deadly radicalization before it leads to extremist violence.

All of this is a tall order, but I have every confidence in the judgment, skill and capacity of Canadian police officers to do the job. And do it properly.

I commend your professionalism. Your respect for civilian authority and oversight. Your transparency and accountability. Your pursuit of excellence and high standards.

Your work is among those things that set Canada apart. You keep Canadians safe, while simultaneously safeguarding our rights and freedoms, our national character as an open, diverse, inclusive and generous society  all the various qualities that make Canada, Canada.

You help to make all that possible. And I thank you for your service.
Modified On Apr 05, 2019 04:45 PM By Dinesh for Citroen C5 Aircross

It will be sold in India via the CKD route and will go on sale by the end of 2020

C5 is a mid-size SUV; will rival Jeep Compass, Hyundai Tucson and MG Hector.

Likely to be offered with both petrol and diesel engine options at launch.

Expected to be priced from Rs 18 lakh to Rs 25 lakh.

At its debut event in Chennai, Citroen revealed that the C5 Aircross will be its first product from its stable to be launched in India. The mid-size SUV, which has already been spotted testing in the country, will go on sale before the end of 2020. Check out the spy shots here.

Now lets take a look at what we know about the Citroen C5 Aircross.

Dimensions

Citroen C5 Aircross (UK-spec) Jeep Compass Hyundai Tucson Tata Harrier Length 4500mm 4395mm 4475mm 4598mm Width 1859mm 1818mm 1850mm 1894mm Height 1670mm 1640mm 1660mm 1706mm Wheelbase 2730mm 2636mm 2670mm 2741mm

In terms of dimension, the Citroen is the second longest car after the Harrier. It also the second widest and tallest car in the segment. And while its wheelbase is longer than the Compass and the Tucson, it shorter than the Harrier by 11mm.

Engines:

In the global market, the Citroen C5 Aircross is available with four engine options: two petrol and two diesel units.

The smaller 1.2-litre petrol unit makes 130PS of power and 230Nm of torque and comes mated to a 6-speed manual gearbox. The larger 1.6-litre engine, on the other hand, is offered with an 8-speed automatic and puts out 180PS and 250Nm. Both engines are turbocharged.

As for the diesels, it is available with a 1.5-litre and 2.0-litre unit. Where the smaller engine makes 130PS and 300Nm, the larger unit generates 176PS and 400Nm. While the 1.5-litre engine is available with a 6-speed manual as well as an 8-speed automatic, the 2.0-litre unit is only available with the latter.

In India, the C5 Aircross is expected to get the 1.6-litre petrol and 2.0-litre diesel engine.

Design:

Where other mid-size SUVs in India look quite subtle and businessy, the C5 Aircross looks quirky, especially with its split headlamp setup at the front and Airbumps on the side. The Airbumps are slim air-filled thermoplastic polyurethane elements designed to protect the lower part of the doors from knocks and scrapes. Further complementing the SUVs unusual styling are red elements which can be seen all around its exterior. A similar theme runs inside the cabin on the split front AC vents. The steering wheel too gets a unique design.

Features

The global-spec C5 Aircross is fairly equipped on this front and expect the India-spec car to offer similar levels of safety, comfort and convenience. In the UK, the C5 gets features such as multiple airbags, ESP, traction control, hill start assist, electronic parking brake, traffic sign recognition, active lane assist and active blind spot detection. Other features on offer include a panoramic sunroof, dual zone climate control, powered driver seat, front and rear parking sensors, hands-free parking, a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster and an 8-inch touchscreen infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

India Launch

Citroen will launch the C5 Aircross in India before the end of 2020, probably around the festive season. It will rival the likes of the Hyundai Tucson, Jeep Compass, Tata Harrier, MG Hector and the upcoming Skoda Karoq. The C5 Aircross is expected to be priced from Rs 18 lakh to Rs 25 lakh in India.

Also Read: Citroen To Launch One New Car In India Every Year From 2021
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.
Johnson & Johnson won the latest trial over claims its iconic baby powder can cause cancer, as a jury in Long Beach, California, rejected a lawsuit brought by a 65-year-old retired teacher who claimed the product was contaminated with asbestos.

The J&J victory Friday comes the week after the company settled three cases alleging baby powder caused a rare asbestos-connected cancer. Two, in Oklahoma and California, were settled during trial. The other, in New York, was settled less than two weeks before trial was set to begin.

Plaintiff Robert Blinkinsop was diagnosed in July 2017 with mesothelioma, a rare cancer of the lining of the lung generally caused by asbestos exposure. Blinkinsop used Johnsons baby powder daily for personal hygiene from 1977 to 1994 and on his children from 1992 to 1996, his attorney, Mark Bratt, said at trial. He also used the companys Shower to Shower talc product.

J&J is facing more than 13,000 lawsuits linking baby powder and another talc product, Shower to Shower, to ovarian cancer or mesothelioma. More than two dozen trials have been scheduled in U.S. courts in 2019.

Todays jury unanimously ruled that Johnsons Baby Powder does not contain asbestos and was not the cause of the plaintiffs disease, Kim Montagnino, company spokeswoman, said in an emailed statement. This conclusion is aligned to the decades of clinical evidence and scientific studies by medical experts around the world that support the safety of Johnsons Baby Powder.

Blinkinsops attorney said he was shocked and disappointed by the verdict.

Given the hundreds of positive historical tests from J&J showing asbestos in its talc containing baby powder, as well as J&Js ongoing decision to use deceptive testing techniques that allow for false negative results  we have no doubt asbestos was, and currently still is in J&Js talc baby powder products, Bratt said in a statement. Asbestos in baby powder is a huge public health concern that is far bigger than just this case.

The companys record at trial has been mixed so far. The company lost a $29 million jury award in a California mesothelioma case March 13 and won a defense verdict in a New Jersey trial March 27, the same day it settled the three cases.

Litigation Tourism Suffers Blow as J&J Dodges Trial in St. Louis

Several of the first trials resulted in plaintiffs verdicts, including one for $4.69 billion in St. Louis in 2018 to 22 women with ovarian cancer. But J&J has been able to win reversals of three of the first five jury awards.

The company has also won other defense verdicts in cases alleging links between baby powder and mesothelioma beyond the New Jersey trial.

Some of the verdicts include awards against J&Js talc supplier, Imerys America, which filed for bankruptcy protection in February.

Lawyers for Blinkinsop and his wife Karen alleged that J&J knew for decades that its talc contained asbestos yet didnt warn or protect customers. People at J&J made some really poor decisions in the past, which led to Blinkinsops exposure to asbestos, Bratt said. Talc and asbestos were found in Blinkinsops lung tissue, he said.

Blinkinsops condition is terminal, he testified at trial. Its not curable, he said. The doctors have all said the same thing that if everything goes well, I might survive three years, he told jurors. Never any guarantee about the quality of life during that time.

The companys attorney told jurors here is no asbestos in J&J talc products and its talc didnt cause Blinkinsops illness. For over 40 years we have been working with the best scientists, the best universities and the best laboratories who have all confirmed our products do not contain asbestos, defense attorney Bruce Hurley said.

Blinkinsop could have been exposed to asbestos while working on construction jobs, he said.Mr. Blinkinsops mesothelioma was not cause by Johnsons baby powder, Hurley said. Cosmetic talc does not cause mesothelioma.

The case is Blinkinsop v. Albertson Co., BC677764, Superior Court, Los Angeles Co. (Long Beach).

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.
With the recent commitment of $28.4 million of U.K. aid to the Centers Guinea Worm Eradication Program, the U.K. continues to set an admirable standard for other nations in building peace, fighting disease, and improving the lives of millions. Key Carter Center initiatives supported by the U.K. are outlined below.

Since 1997, the United Kingdom (U.K.) has been one of the Centers most supportive and dedicated partners, funding decades of health and peace work and making a considerable impact on millions of lives. In total, the U.K. government, through its Department for International Development (DFID) and Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), has contributed more than $119 million of U.K. aid to the Center to fight debilitating NTDs and support the Centers peace work.

Health Support

Guinea Worm Eradication Program

Guinea worm disease (GWD) is a neglected tropical disease contracted from drinking contaminated water. After ingesting microscopic larvae, infected persons become unwitting carriers of the parasite until the adult worm emerges, causing a blister on the skin and a severe burning sensation. When a patient attempts to cool the infection in a stagnant water source, the worm releases thousands more larvae, continuing the transmission cycle. While there is no drug or vaccine for GWD, educating communities about Guinea worm prevention is vital to stopping the spread.

Guinea worm is poised to be the second human disease and the first parasitic disease ever eradicated, thanks to the Carter Centers leadership of the Guinea Worm Eradication Program. Over the past three decades, DFID has contributed nearly $93 million of U.K. aid to the Centers historic efforts to eradicate Guinea worm. These funds have allowed The Carter Center to continue its crucial health education and active surveillance efforts in endemic countries.

With DFIDs contributions and support from other partners, The Carter Center has driven the global annual incidence of GWD down to only 28 cases in 2018, a reduction of more than 99.99 percent since 1986. To date, 199 countries and territories have been certified as free of GWD by the World Health Organization, the only agency that can officially certify the eradication of a disease.

Support for the Centers Peace Programs

Addressing Transparency in the Democratic Republic of Congos Extractive Industries

DFID has been a trusted partner in the Centers peacebuilding efforts in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The DRC is one of the most mineral-rich nations on earth, and its mining sector has attracted billions of investment dollars. The Congolese people see very limited benefit from these investments, as current mining policies redirect the revenue away from local communities and the Congolese treasury, leaving the government with insufficient resources to meet the needs of its population. This issue continues in perpetuity as the Congolese people are too often unaware of the corrupt mining regulations in play.

The U.K.-aid-funded Carter Center project titled Advancing Transparency and Accountability in the Democratic Republic of Congos Extractive Industries seeks to strengthen the capacity of local civil society organizations to ensure transparent policy implementation in the DRC, to research and analyze revenue impacts and advocate for improved fiscal governance, and to use this data for more effective advocacy and pro-poor outcomes.

Support for the Democratic Republic of Congos Electoral Processes

The Carter Center, with U.K. aid, has worked to build up the technical and organizational capacity of the Catholic Churchs Congolese social justice organization, Justice and Peace Congo (JPC), with the aim of ensuring a credible and orderly electoral process and a peaceful transfer of power between an outgoing president and a president-elect. DFID has worked with the Center to provide long term technical assistance to the training and deployment of long-term observers (LTO) and short-term observers (STO), and to provide local capacity building support to JPC. While multiple governments contributed to JPCs December 2018 electoral observation mission, DFIDs allocation contributed to the deployment and training of 40,000 STOs and 1,026 LTOs.

The Carter Center is deeply grateful for U.K. support over the last twenty years for assistance with these and other Carter Center programs. We honor the impactful partnership we have built together.
Photo: The Canadian Press B.C. Attorney General David Eby and Federal Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction Bill Blair

B.C.'s attorney general says he's troubled by a report that finds there are no federal police dedicated to money laundering investigations in the province.

David Eby says despite two years of headlines that organized crime is laundering billions in illegal cash in B.C., the only dedicated RCMP presence is a provincially funded team fighting crime in casinos.

The information comes in the partial release of a money laundering report conducted by former RCMP deputy commissioner Peter German, who was appointed by Eby last fall to review the use of illicit money in B.C. real estate, horse racing and luxury vehicle sales.

German says his review found 26 federally funded positions on the RCMP's money laundering team in B.C., but not one of those was dedicated to money laundering investigations.

Eby says he is calling on the federal government devote more officers and resources to fighting the problem.

Organized Crime Reduction Minister Bill Blair, who has said previously that the federal government is committed to combating money laundering, was not immediately available for comment.
Trinidad Cement seeks higher taxes on Rock Hard Cement imports

08 April 2019

Trinidad Cement Ltd (TCL) has written to the Caribbean Court of Justice to seek higher taxes to be imposed on Rock Hard Cement imports, according to the Nation.



TCL wants the final appellate court to raise the tax on imported cement above the five per cent which has been suggested by last month's CARICOM Council of Trade and Economic Development (COTED).



Hard Rock Cement has been importing product classified as 'other hydraulic cement' from Portugal, which makes it eligible for the five per cent levy. TCL has argued that the tariff should be 60 per cent since the product is being imported from outside CARICOM and that the product was 'Building cement grey'.

Published under
Hima Cement to return illegally-acquired land in Tororo

ICR Newsroom By 08 April 2019

Hima Cement Ltd has agreed to surrender back over 30 acres of land it illegally acquired in Mwello, Tororo, Uganda, according to The Observer. The companys Managing Director, Nicolas George, said the company will ensure the residents will have their land returned.



Earlier this week, Mwello residents petitioned the Justice Catherine Bamugemereire-led Land Probe Commission, accusing Hima of coercing them through its agents, Optima Mines Consultancy Ltd, into selling their land at a cheap price. The agents, operating under Optima Mines Consultancy Limited, allegedly told the residents that Hima was in possession of an exploration licence that granted them rights to acquire land in the area. The former commissioner of geological survey and mines, Edward Kato, told the commission that the exploration licence he awarded to Hima did not grant them rights of land acquisition. Hima had explored granite stones in Mwello along the Mwello rock.

Ms Bamugemereire said her legal team will meet with Himas legal team to see how to implement its decision to return the land.





Published under
GICA ships 37,000t of clinker to Cote dIvoire

ICR Newsroom By 08 April 2019

GICA-owned Hadjar Soud de Skidka (SCHS) plant in Algeria has exported 37,000t of clinker from Annaba port, according to its CEO Youcef Merabet.

"This cargo represents the first export operation to the African market made by the SCHS, according to Mr Merabet. A total of 200,000t of clinker will be exported by the cement plant in 2019 as part of GICAs 1Mt export programme to African countries. Skikda's SCHS cement plant, which produces seven types of cement that meet the quality criteria, "aspires to position itself in the international market," Mr Merabet said.





Published under
Russia delivered six SU-30K fighter jets to Angola this year and two more are expected by the end of May, Angolas Defense Minister Salviano de Jesus Sequeira told reporters.

Angolan SU30K fighter jet (Picture source Dimitriy Berdasov)

Sequeira said the country is interested in buying Russian S-400 air-defense systems, but there are no talks because of economic difficulties.

Angolan armed forces are used to work with Russian weapons and because of that the military cooperation between the two countries will last forever, Sequeira said. Angola has always had good military cooperation with Russia, within the framework of our contract we have already received six Su-30K aircraft andwe hope that the other two will be delivered to Angola at the end of May".

Angola received its first two Su-30Ks in September 2017, with four spotted in satellite imagery in October 2018. It ordered 12 Su-30K fighters during a visit by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin to Luanda, Angola, in October 2013. Deliveries were originally anticipated around 2015 but delayed due to upgrade work  according to ITAR-TASS, modification work includes improvements to the radar and navigation system and installation of a video recorder, amongst other items.
Toronto

Blog updated to include additional partners in the project.

When it comes to algebra, new research suggests you cant start too early.

Algebra is considered the keystone of students understanding of higher mathematics, and districts across the country have moved to introduce the course in middle school rather than high school. But studies previewed at the American Educational Research Association meeting here suggest students can understand and benefit from being introduced to algebraic concepts even in elementary school.



The studies are part of Project LEAP, for Learning Early Algebra Progression , a program developed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, TERC, University of Texas at Austin, City College of New York, and Merrimack College to boost math concepts for low-income elementary students.

Were not talking about taking a traditional [algebra] curriculum and pushing it earlier in the sequence, said Rena Stroud, a senior researcher for Project LEAP at Merrimack College. Were talking about what algebraic thinking looks like in early grades.

Say I give our 3rd graders a number sentence. If I say, 49 + 3 = 50 + 2. True or false?, how could you consider solving that? You could use a purely computational approach, right? You could add on each side and say, yes, thats true and you get a correct answer. But you could also think about the structure of that relationship. So either way you could be correct or incorrect ... but the way that you get to the answer is important. And so we are not only interested in whether or not students thought an item correct, but also the type of strategy that they use to solve it, Stroud said.

The three-year curriculum includes 18 weekly hour-long lessons, in each of grades 3-5, in which teachers introduce students to generalizing, representing, justifying, and reasoning about numbers. In the process, they correct common misconceptions that often trip up older students. For example, students learn that the "=" sign means that the numbers on either side are equivalent, not simply that one side is the answer to a problem.

Researchers randomly assigned some 440 incoming 3rd graders in nine high-poverty urban, suburban, and rural schools to either receive the algebraic lessons or standard grade-level arithmetic. Both groups of students were tested at the beginning of grade 3 and the end of grades 3, 4, and 5.

By the end of 3rd grade, students participating in Project LEAP were growing in math skills 9 percent faster than their peers who were taking standard arithmetic. The Project LEAP students continued to grow 2 percent faster than their control group peers at the end of grades 4 and 5, and by the end of grade 5, they performed 13 percentage points higher in math than students who had not participated in the program.

Were looking at these schools where we have 100 percent of students who are receiving free or reduced-price lunch. ... and so we did see that pattern of improvement, said Stroud. This is encouraging for us, given what we know about underperformance of low [socioeconomic status] students, the importance of algebra in the schools, and the specific importance of algebra for these grade levels.

A Box of Candy Concepts

Project LEAP researchers also previewed a second longitudinal study of even younger students.

In one early experiment, researchers presented 10 kindergartners with a closed box of candies, with two placed on top of the box. Researchers asked the children what they knew about the unseen candies in the box. Eight of the kids shook the box, or tried to guess how many were inside, but two gave more straightforward answers: I dont know or some.

We know from previous work that students even this young are capable of using a variable representation. ... And sometimes among 3- to 5-graders, we found that to represent relationships, for example, students prefer to use variables, said Ana Stephens of the University of Wisconsin-Madisons Wisconsin Center on Education Research.

Rather than a mental shrug, some is a sophisticated concept for young children. After the first experiment, students went through a lesson discussing this early concept, using everything from coins in a piggy bank to the teeth inand sometimes recently out ofthe students heads. Teachers turned the physical boxes into mental ones, introducing letters (such as a or x) to represent uncertainty.

By the end of the lesson, all of the children could describe the basic equation: All of the candies together would be what was in the box, plus the number on top. Four of them correctly chose a letter to represent the unknown quantity of candies in the box.

We see this as just an initial introduction, not as something that the kids can immediately pick up on and become extremely comfortable with in one lesson, Stephens said, adding later, We believe that students as young as kindergarten did show evidence of structural thinking.

Related:

Do you have a question about education research, or just want to know what the evidence says about that pesky instructional problem? Let me know! Drop me a line at ssparks@epe.org, or
The Chattanooga Choo Choo Senior Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol has been invited to participate for the third annual 2019 Challenge Airs Fly Day Event at Wilson Air, center hangar 13, on the West side of the Chattanooga Airport, 932 Jubilee Drive in Chattanooga.

Challenge Air, a nationwide non-profit organization that is dedicated to change the perception of children with special needs, is holding their third Chattanooga event on Saturday, April 13, from 9 a.m.4 p.m.

So far, there are more than 60 co-pilots that will get to experience flight in light aircraft for the first time. Challenge Air holds the events to give children with special needs an unforgettable growing experience, while building confidence, learning to find courage within themselves, and build in areas where they lack self-esteem.

Local pilots will be volunteering their time, their plane(s), and their piloting skills by providing short orientation flights to the children.

Several members of the Choo Choo Senior Squadron will be assisting the operation during the event, including Maj. Kelly Williamson, who will be coordinating all flight activities. Other members will be conducting educational workshops for children while they await their turn to participate in a flight, assisting in safety supervision, escorting children to and from the aircraft, and other rolls.

Choo Choo Squadron Commander, 1st Lt. Charles Ed Dempsey said, Working with Challenge Air has been a rewarding and uplifting experience, and I am proud to be a part of it.

Civil Air Patrol, the longtime all-volunteer U.S. Air Force auxiliary, is the newest member of the Air Forces Total Force. In this role, CAP operates a fleet of 560 aircraft, performs about 90 percent of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and is credited by the AFRCC with saving an average of 80 lives annually. CAPs 61,000 members also perform homeland security, disaster relief and drug interdiction missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. In addition, CAP plays a leading role in aerospace/STEM education, and its members serve as mentors to over 26,000 young people participating in CAPs Cadet Programs. Visit www.GoCivilAirPatrol.com or www.CAP.news for more information.
Here are the new marriage licenses from the County Clerk's office:

NATHAN DANIEL DIETSCH MICHELLE MARIE WISZ

6705 PETUNIA CT 6705 PETUNIA CT

HIXSON, TN 37343 HIXSON, TN 37343



JONATHAN EDWARD FELTS MEGAN ANN LUKETIC

16002 LAKEWOOD DR 14420 MAY ROAD

SALE CREEK, TN 37373 SODDY DAISY, TN 37379



HEATHER MICHELE WHITENER ANGELA CHERIE BIVENS

302 MONTLAKE RD 7235 CANE HOLLOW RD

SODDY DAISY, TN 37379 HIXSON, TN 37343



MATTHEW DAVID LEWIS SHANDI MARIE HACKLER

2019 SHIELDS RD 1841 DOGWOOD DR

DALTON, GA 30720 CHATTANOOGA, TN 37406



CHRISTOPHER ALAN PEACE PRISCILLA LYNN DUNMAN

3400 JENKINS RD #724 3400 JENKINS RD #724

CHATTANOOGA, TN 37421 CHATTANOOGA, TN 37421



LAWRENCE DAVID KLEIN CHRISTIE ELVIA SMITH

314 EAGLE LANDING DR 314 EAGLE LANDING DR

FLINTSTONE, GA 30725 FLINTSTONE, GA 30725



PRESTON MATTHEW PRICE EVAN NICOLE ANDERSON

1130 BRENTON DR NW 1130 BRENTON DR NW

KENNESAW, GA 30144 KENNESAW, GA 30144



JERMALE LEBRON MAFFETT SHARNEA NECHELE PARKS

2015 HAMILTON BROW PATH 3009 E 26TH ST

CHATTANOOGA, TN 37421 CHATTANOOGA, TN 37407



JAMES HENRY HENDERSON, III MARCELLA EILEEN MAY

2122 SARGENT QUICK DR 2122 SARGENT QUICK DR

CHATTANOOGA, TN 37421 CHATTANOOGA, TN 37421



CLIFTON MAJOR COGGINS KRISTA DAWN KING

1919 SHORTLEAF LN 1919 SHORTLEAF LN

SODDY DAISY, TN 37379 SODDY DAISY, TN 37379

.



KASEY ALAN THRUSH JENNIFER LYNNE BULLOCK

4025 OAKWOOD DR #328 4025 OAKWOOD DR #328

CHATTANOOGA, TN 37416 CHATTANOOGA, TN 37416



JOSHUA MICHAEL MATYAS MELISSA LYNN SHAVERS

2003 PRIGMORE ROAD 2003 PRIGMORE ROAD

CHATTANOOGA, TN 37412 CHATTANOOGA, TN 37412



CHARLES SCOTT PARSONS THERESA ANN STEVENSON, DR

1611 MELODY LN 1611 MELODY LN

CHATTANOOGA, TN 37412 CHATTANOOGA, TN 37412



MICHAEL LABRON RAY RUBY LEE WOODALL

2206 E 25TH ST #4 2206 E 25TH ST #4

CHATTANOOGA, TN 37407 CHATTANOOGA, TN 37407



TREY KRISTIAN ADOLPHI LIBERTY FEAR CLACKUM

4506 MURRAY HILLS DR 4506 MURRAY HILLS DR

CHATTANOOGA, TN 37416 CHATTANOOGA, TN 37416



THOMAS LAMAR WATERS LINDSAY MCCAFFREY CAST

830 DARTMOUTH ST 830 DARTMOUTH ST

CHATTANOOGA, TN 37405 CHATTANOOGA, TN 37405



BRIAN CASEY KELLEY PATRICIA ERIN BROWN

1635 LISA LYNN DR 1635 LISA LYNN DR

HIXSON, TN 37343 HIXSON, TN 37343



CHRISTOPHER WILLIAM SCHALK MEGAN MARIE SUNNOCK

314 SERENA DR 7440 PFIZER DRIVE

HIXSON, TN 37343 OOLTEWAH, TN 37363



ZACHARY TYLER CODY CAYLA LYNN SMITH

8460 SHAWN RIDGE DR 8460 SHAWN RIDGE DR

HARRISON, TN 37341 HARRISON, TN 37341



STEPHEN PETE RADJENOVIC MELISSA KAY SMITH

97 KEVIN LN 1808 SHADOW LN #4

ROCKSPRING, GA 30739 DALTON, GA 30720



CARLY MARIE PULVER ALEXIS BREANNE JOHNISEE

80 CRESTVIEW CIRCLE 5451 BUENA VISTA ROAD

RINGGOLD, GA 30736 WHITES CREEK, TN 37189



QUINCY LONDALE SCOTT TIMARRA DENISE BRADY

2024 PEACHTREE STATION CIR 2024 PEACHTREE STATION CIR

PEACHTREE, GA 30269 PEACHTREE, GA 30269



JACOB NATHANIEL SEWARD JO ANN RAST

5418 DUPONT ST 5418 DUPONT ST

EAST RIDGE, TN 37412 EAST RIDGE, TN 37412



TAYLOR WEBB FAULK CAROLINE ELIZABETH KING

731 TURNING LEAF CIRCLE 731 TURNING LEAF CIRCLE

AUGUSTA, GA 30909 AUGUSTA, GA 30909



ANTHONY ANDERSON BECKI THERESA ANDERSON

1012 ENDICOTT ST 1012 ENDICOTT ST

CHATTANOOGA, TN 37405 CHATTANOOGA, TN 37405



LAWRENCE ALEXANDER WILSON, III HANNAH BROOKE JUMPER

3112 PINEHURST PL 3112 PINEHURST PL

CHARLOTTE, NC 28209 CHARLOTTE, NC 28209



JOSHUA QUENTEN PERKINS JESSICA LAROSE DEAN

6564 DEEP CANYON RD 6564 DEEP CANYON RD

HIXSON, TN 37343 HIXSON, TN 37343



HOWARD MILTON LESURE SHANDAL MICHON SCOVILLE

2706 E 29TH ST 2706 E 29TH ST

CHATTANOOGA, TN 37407 CHATTANOOGA, TN 37407



DAVID WADE PAYNE MARIA DAWN NOLES

4817 CHELSEA WAY NW 4817 CHELSEA WAY NW

ACWORTH, GA 30102 ACWORTH, GA 30102



SPENCER SCOTT MOSSBURG JESSICA HANNAH SLOCUM

2813 FOX RIDGE RD 555 WILLOW CREEK COVE

OOLTEWAH, TN 37363 CLEVELAND, TN 37323



WALTER PAUL ISRAEL HELEN NICOLE ESPIRITU

717 CRESTVIEW DR 717 CRESTVIEW DR

GADSDEN, AL 35901 GADSDEN, AL 35901



BRANDON NATHANIEL LYNN DARLA ROSE ROBERSON

3315 LIGHTFOOT MILL RD 3315 LIGHTFOOT MILL RD

CHATTANOOGA, TN 37406 CHATTANOOGA, TN 37406



BRIAN DOUGLAS TUCKER MARY TIFFANY TAYLOR

4216 MOUNTAIN CREEK RD 601 BARTON AVE

CHATTANOOGA, TN 37415 CHATTANOOGA, TN 37405



SEAN EUGENE ROOD HEATHER MICHELE ANGEL-PURSLEY

1008 BROWNS FERRY RD 1008 BROWNS FERRY RD

CHATTANOOGA, TN 37419 CHATTANOOGA, TN 37419



JOSHUA THOMAS FREDERICKS GERRIKA JEN NIECE HOLCOMBE

3715 CONNER ST 3715 CONNER ST

CHATTANOOGA, TN 37411 CHATTANOOGA, TN 37411



CHRISTOPHER SHEA COX ELLIE CAROLINE SHADRICK

326 BRANCHWOOD CIRCLE 326 BRANCHWOOD CIRCLE

HIXSON, TN 37343 HIXSON, TN 37343



ADAM JACK BAUERMEISTER SABRINA ALEEZAH GERKOWICZ

805 CANAL STREET APT 348 805 CANAL STREET APT 348

CHATTANOOGA, TN 37402 CHATTANOOGA, TN 37402



JOSHUA NOLAN KENNON CRYSTAL NICOLE SMITH

1033 GARRETTS CHAPEL RD 1033 GARRETTS CHAPEL RD

CHICKAMAUGA, GA 30707 CHICKAMAUGA, GA 30707



STEVEN PATRICK GRAHAM DEVONNA JOY MURRAY

1614 PRIGMORE ROAD 7413 COUNTRY HILL LANE

CHATTANOOGA, TN 37412 OOLTEWAH, TN 37363



ROBERT ARMIN ESCHMANN, JR ANNIE JEAN MCDONALD

2809 OLD HUNNING RD

HIGH RIDGE, MO 63049 ST CHARLES, MO 63301



ERIC KYLE DORRIS SINCLAIR CARLY CHRISTINE WAUGH

690 NW ATALANTA WAY, APT K103 690 NW ATALANTA WAY, APT K103

OAK HARBOUR, WA 98277 OAK HARBOUR, WA 98277



LOGAN JAMES HAYNES KATHRYN LEANNE MESSIER

283 ACORN OAKS CIRCLE APT 301 4462 JOHNSON RD

CHATTANOOGA, TN 37405 BIRCHWOOD, TN 37308



CORTEZ DEJUAN HERBERT VANESHA ANN GUNN

1519 RYAN STREET APT 213 1103 VENIDO DR

CHATTANOOGA, TN 37404 KNOXVILLE, TN 37932



MACE HAWKINS PHILLIPS, III LEDA ROSE G BELEN

625 HAMILTON AVE 625 HAMILTON AVE

CHATTANOOGA, TN 37405 CHATTANOOGA, TN 37405



CODY JOSHUA HENDERSON SARAH KATE HEDRICK

313 ILLINOIS AVE 313 ILLINOIS AVE

DAYTON, TN 37321 DAYTON, TN 37321



JOSHUA WARREN ALLEN LEMING SARA MARIE GREGORY

3912 RUGRAT TRAIL 1413 MANA LN APT 11

OOLTEWAH, TN 37363 CHATTANOOGA, TN 37412



CORNELIUS MONTEZ WILLIAMS BREONNA TAINA SWAFFORD

6219 WIMBERLY DRIVE 6556 STILL MEADOWS LANE

CHATTANOOGA, TN 37416 HARRISON, TN 37341



GREGORY PAUL BELK SELINA GAYNELL COOPER

4709 LAKE HILLS CIR 4709 LAKE HILLS CIR

CHATTANOOGA, TN 37416 CHATTANOOGA, TN 37416


Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke presented a proclamation to Nikki Givens to recognize the month of April as Sarcoidosis Awareness month in Chattanooga.



Three local businesses, Liberty Tower, the Westin and the Tennessee Aquarium will be illuminating purple lighting on Saturday as a part of the Illuminate the Night event to Shine a Light on Sarcoidosis across the nation.

Sarcoidosis (SAR-COY-DOE-SIS) is an inflammatory disease that can occur in any demographic regardless of age, gender or race, however, it often strikes people with a wide array of mysterious symptoms in the prime of their lives between 20-40 years of age. It occurs when an individuals immune system goes into overdrive and they develop granulomas, tiny clumps of inflammatory cells, in one or more organ of their body. When too many of these clumps form, they can interfere with an organs function and lead to permanent damage. The cause of this disease is unknown.



While the organs involved and progression of the disease vary widely, 90 percent of patients have lung involvement. Spontaneous remission is common, however, 30-40 percent of patients develop major organ involvement which can lead to organ failure and death. Others face reduced quality of life due to the symptoms of the disease which include chronic pain and uncontrollable fatigue and/or side effects from treatment. Despite progress in research,

Sarcoidosis remains hard to diagnose with few reliable treatment options and no known cure.

"This fight is very personal for me, as my husband is currently fighting a chronic case of Sarcoidosis," said Ms. Givens. "It has completely altered life as we knew it. Because of this, I have become extremely passionate about this fight and helping those who share in our journey.

"I was recently selected to be an ambassador for the Foundation for Sarcoidosis Research and flew to Washington D.C. to discuss research funding with members of Congress from Tennessee. I pray and believe a cure is on its way."


Haynes Townsend has had just two jobs in his life; now hes moving on to his passion.Mr. Townsend says his first job was in the hardware and building supply business at Fraker Hardware in downtown Dalton, where he worked for several years before beginning his second job as a magistrate judge.At the end of March, that second job came to a close when he retired as chief magistrate of the Whitfield County Magistrate Court. Now, he can focus his full attention on his long-time philanthropic efforts with the Lions Club.Ive had a wonderful career here, Mr.Townsend said at a retirement reception given in his honor March 29 at the Whitfield County Courthouse. Its been a pleasure to work with the folks in my office that I get to work with every day. Its a little bit intimidating to be thinking about retiring; its a little bit exciting to be thinking about retiring.Mr. Townsend will have plenty to keep him busy in his retirement.Hes been a member of the Lions Club for the past 40 years and is serving as second international vice president.So I get to travel all around the globe and visit Lions Clubs, he said. We have Lions Clubs in 210 different countries around the world, and while Im not going to try to visit all of them, I am going to do the best I can to try to help them out.Mr. Townsend recalled his first meeting with the Lions Club in 1979.A fellow had invited me to go to the meeting, and there was a gentleman there named Mel Johnson, who was running for district governor at the time, he said. I listened to him talk and heard him say all the wonderful things that the Lions Club does, and I joined that day. Twenty years later, I did the eulogy at Mels funeral, so you build up family all across the world.In fact, Mr. Townsend says because of the plethora of Lions Clubs around the globe, there are very few places in the world where I couldnt find somebody that would help me if I needed help. So Ive just expanded my family out worldwide.He emphasized the clubs key message that kindness matters. If we all would just remember that and practice it, we would all be a lot better off, he said.Its a mantra he tried to live by on the job at Magistrate Court, too.Its been a great time, a wonderful ride, he said of his 22 years with the court. I like to feel that some days I helped make a difference in a few folks lives. But you never really know that  just do the job the best you can and hope that everything turns out well. Its a fun job most of the time, but some of the time its heartbreaking  have to put people out of their homes or something like that, thats the hard part for me. But I understand the position of the landlord as well, so you have to do what you have to do according to the law.Mr. Townsend says he appreciates all the support hes been given during his time with the court. Ive had a good working relationship with all areas of county government, he said. Were proud of that. Weve had a good working relationship with the Superior Court and all the other classes of court, and especially the commissioners office, so we want to thank all of them for that. And I hope that things will continue to run well and go seamlessly smooth through this transition.The four Superior Court judges  William T. Boyett, Scott Minter, Cindy Morris, and Jim Wilbanks  actually had to name three people to Magistrate Court posts.They selected current Magistrate Judge Chris Griffin to fill Mr. Townsends unexpired term as chief magistrate, named Thomas Lee Phillips II to fill Mr. Griffins unexpired term, and chose Rodney Rod Weaver to fill the unexpired term of Shana Vinyard, who resigned in February.Mr. Phillips, a captain with the Dalton Police Department, has been with the department since 1988 and also served 10 years with the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. He is a graduate of the National FBI Academy.Mr. Weaver served for 25 years with the Georgia Department of Corrections as a counselor, probation officer, and administrator. He has a bachelors degree from Georgia State University and a master of divinity degree from the Interdenominational Theological Center. He is an ordained Methodist minister.The appointments of Mr. Griffin and Mr. Phillips took effect April 1, and the appointment of Mr. Weaver on April 2. All three terms end on Dec. 31, 2020.Magistrate Court heard more than 14,000 cases last year, and a judge is on call 24 hours a day to handle arrest and search warrants for law enforcement. The court hears a variety of cases, including evictions, civil disputes up to $15,000, violations of county ordinances, and some misdemeanor crimes. The judges also handle first appearances, hearings in which defendants are informed of the charges against them and can make a plea or be referred to Superior Court, depending on the severity of the charges.You need this court, Mr. Townsend told the Dalton Daily Citizen in early March. It runs very well. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, every case comes through this office somehow or some way. Statewide, Magistrate Court deals with more than one million cases each year, so if you take it out of the equation, you can see how things would just grind to a halt, and a lot of people dont know exactly what we do.
The Board of Parole (BOP), the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI), the Department of Correction (TDOC) and the Tennessee Rehabilitative Initiative in Correction (TRICOR) will pay tribute to victims of crime Tuesday morning with a tree-planting ceremony in Hixson.

During the event, a local advocate who assists crime victims will be honored.



The event will be Tuesday, at 10 a.m. at Chester Foster Park, Shelter 2, 2277 North Gold Point Circle.



In case of rain, the event will move under the shelter.



A series of five ceremonies take place across Tennessee this week.
Nick Cannon and Mariah Carey were Hollywoods power couple from 2008 until 2016. Despite their 11-year age difference, the two seemed to be perfect for each other in every way. Thats why it came as such a shock to Nick and Mariahs fans when the pair announced  in 2014  they would be separating. Cannon and Careys divorce was finalized in 2016.

Cannon and Carey share two kids together: a set of twins named Moroccan and Monroe. At the time of their separation, their children were just three years old and both parents made sure to put their childrens feelings first when it came to coming up with a healthy co-parenting strategy. Now that it has been two years since their divorce was finalized, do they still have a good co-parenting routine in place? Here is what we know about their co-parenting skills.

Mariah and Nick put their egos aside

When it comes to effectively co-parenting his children with his ex-wife, Cannon says the key is to make sure that they put their children first. In an interview with US Weekly, Cannon had this to say about his relationship with Carey: We got our egos and our selfish behavior, when you put your children first, you realize that it is all unconditional love. All of that other stuff just falls apart.

Later in the same interview, Cannon went on to talk about how happy fatherhood has made him and how he loves to play and spend time with his kids. He also said that he enjoys watching his kids get on the stage with their mom at her concerts and try to take over the show. So, it seems like both of the twins have a very happy relationship with both their mom and their dad.

Nick and Mariah are still friends with each other

Despite their divorce, Cannon and Careys relationship is still on good terms. Which is great because they are able to make sure that their kids get to have both of their parents with them on all of the major holidays, including birthdays. In fact, last Christmas, Cannon flew up to Aspen, Colorado two days before Christmas so that Moroccan and Monroe would be able to wake up Christmas morning and open their presents with their mom and their dad.

They are also very vocal about supporting one another. When Carey went public with the fact that she has bipolar disorder, Cannon supported and commended her bravery in doing so. In an interview with People, Cannon was asked about how he felt about Carey going public with her bipolar disorder. He replied: She is just happy being who she is. She is one of those people who doesnt pay attention to anyone. I learned that from her  that was probably one of the greatest lessons that I learned from her.

Cannon and Carey have also been spotted together with their children at various public events, including the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards. Nick says that he and Carey have such a strong love for each other and great mutual respect for one another that it makes co-parenting with her much easier.

How do Nick and Mariah co-parent their kids after the divorce?

Cannon and Carey have always had a special bond. Whether they are married or divorced, it doesnt define what kinds of parents they choose to be for their kids. While the pair will probably always have a love for each other, it is the strong, unconditional love that they have for their kids that make them want to come up with the best co-parenting strategy possible.
Sofia Vergara is a stunning Colombian-American actress and model who is probably best known for her role on the hit ABC/USA sitcom, Modern Family. While the show has kept the stunning beauty tied up since 2009, her acting career dates back all the way to 1995!

Vergara has only gotten better with age, just like a fine wine! Her talent has increased exponentially, and her looks havent faltered the slightest bit.

How did Sofia Vergara get her start?

One day while wandering along one of the beautiful beaches in Colombia, Vergara was spotted by a photographer. He instantly noticed the potential hiding beneath her beautiful exterior and immediately offered her not just work as a model, but as an actress as well.

Perhaps it was her Catholic upbringing that made her hesitant, but the jaw-dropping Vergara didnt take to her good fortune right away. It took some coercing from her caring schoolteachers for her to tackle her first assignment, a Latin American commercial for a pretty noteworthy brand  Pepsi.

Prior to pursuing a dream she didnt even know she had, Vergara was actually en route to be a dentist!

What has Sofia Vergara done outside of Modern Family?

Modern Family may have been her claim to fame, but Vergara has an impressive 42 acting credits to her name. Some of her earlier works include Cici in Chasing Papi (2003) andBlanca in Soul Plane (2004). While both films were funny, neither left much of a lasting mark.

Her most notable roles include Lydia in The Three Stooges, Inez in Chef, and Daniella Riva in Hot Pursuit. In The Three Stooges, Vergara takes on the role of a villainous woman who hopes to use the stooges to murder her husband. Despite being a comedy, it was certainly interesting to see her in a black widow role!

Vergara really shines when it comes to comedies, and as such most of her roles are in comedy films. Perhaps thats her real claim to fame! There is something to be said about such a beautiful woman taking on such hilarious roles with as much tact, enthusiasm, and good-spiritedness as this modern-day bombshell does!

Sofia Vergaras achievements and accolades

Vergaras role as the hilarious Gloria Delgado-Pritchett on Modern Family has landed her Primetime Emmy Award nominations from 2010 to 2013 and Golden Globe nominations from 2011 to 2014! While she never made the cut, being recognized several years in a row is really impressive!

Vergara has taken home a Golden Derby with her fellow ensemble cast (2010), an Image Award (2011), an OFTA TV Award (2011), a Peoples Choice Award for Favorite Comedic TV actress (2017), and SAG Awards four years in a row for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series (2011-2014).

The gorgeous Latina even has her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, an achievement she added to her roster in the Spring of 2015. Shes also received some noteworthy labels from a handful of reputable publications. In 2012, Forbes let the world know the Modern Family actress was the highest-earning woman on television in the United States. Her earnings at the time  $19 million.

People magazine crowned her one of its 50 Most Beautiful People and The Hollywood Reporter, as well as Billboard, dubbed her one of the most influential Latinas in Hollywood! Vergaras also been on sexiest woman alive lists across various magazines dozens of times!

What about Vergaras personal life?

Vergara first stepped on the big stage when she was just 17-years-old with that Pepsi commercial. Being born on July 10th, 1972, means the Hot Pursuit actress is an astounding 46 going on 47 years old! She certainly doesnt look her age and when you factor in that shes a mother as well, its even more impressive!

Vergaras son, Manolo, was from her first marriage to her high school sweety, Joe Gonzalez. Manolo was born in September 1991; sadly his parents divorced just two years later. Fast forward to 2014 and the actress found a new Joe, to fall for. True Blood star Joe Manganiello and Vergara got engaged on Christmas in 2014 and were married a year later. They have been together ever since!

Manolo seems to be following in his mothers footsteps. The talented youth created his own web series on YouTube back in April 2012 called Vida con Toty. His mother happily starred in the project. Now Manolo is 26 years old and undoubtedly carving out his own Hollywood path. The young Vergara starred in Hot Pursuit alongside his mother and has a handful of acting, directing, and modeling gigs hes landed all on his own. Youll be able to see more of him in the upcoming comedy film, The Big Feed.
In the second episode of Season 16 of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, a family vacation to Bali became a source of drama for Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick, the father of her children.

Keep reading to learn why Kardashian didnt want Disick to join in on the trip. Plus, learn what she had to say about Disick being in full dad mode.



Kardashian didnt invite Disick



At the beginning of last nights episode appropriately named Kourtneys Choice, Kardashian along with her sister Kim Kardashian, and mother Kris Jenner participated in a tea service.

The activity reminded them of their upcoming family vacation to Bali. They expressed how excited they all were about having time to unwind but Kardashian voiced some concern about Disick going on the trip.



In a previous episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Disick brought a girl on a family vacation to Costa Rica, which made Kardashian so upset she banned him from going on any future family vacations.



Kim schemed to get Disick invited



Kim came up with a plan to get her sister to invite Disick on the family vacation to Bali. While at a luxury car dealership, she told Disick of her plan. She told him to suggest to Kardashian that the family all go to New York City for Kanye Wests appearance on Saturday Night Live so she could see that they could travel together and have fun, thus redeeming Disick in her eyes.



Disick liked the idea and immediately called the mother of his children and ran the idea by her. Meanwhile, Kim sat next to him, unbeknownst to her, listening to the conversation. Kardashian agreed to take the kids to New York City with Disick for the weekend.



Fun in New York City



Disick and Kardashian took their three kids Mason, Penelope, and Reign, to New York City for a weekend trip. They visited a candy store, had a pizza party, and attended the taping of Saturday Night Live.



I had fun, Disick told Kardashian. I feel like we havent been to New York together in forever. Well, we havent really gone anywhere together in a long time.



Scott Disick and Kourtney Kardashian | David Becker/WireImage

Kardashian and Disick ended their relationship after nine years together in July 2015 although they continue to co-parent their kids, according to People, which received exclusive details on the episode prior to airing.



Family not perfect



Obviously I said after Costa Rica that you werent ever coming on a family trip again  I think thats when I put the kibosh on the family trips, Kardashian told Disick.



Yeah. I mean, I dont think I was in the best place but I feel like you and I also werent in the best place, Disick said.



You were living your life the way you should be and I just wasnt ready to handle it. I feel like the biggest thing that you and I have always talked about  that you wanted from me, if there was anything  was just to see me consistent with you and my family. Its been over a year of consistency and I feel like were good. Our parentings been better, the kids are better.



Weve always said that we were going to try to be family, he added. Obviously it didnt work out perfect, but this is as close as we can get.



Kardashian on Disicks full dad mode



Its really nice to see how much Scott has grown and how much hes invested in being a really great dad to the kids, Kardashian said in an interview for the show.



Having dinner with his kids and family friend, Kim Kardashian remarked on how much Disick has changed in the last year. Scotts turned into like, the family man, she said. Its pretty crazy.



I was young when I first had the kids. Now I appreciate it and like it way more, Disick replied. Id rather hang out with them than anybody else.



Its so good to see what a different person Scott is, Kim said in an interview. I know that Kourtneys not even witnessing this and seeing how amazing Scotts being. Hes just having a good night with all of his kids and being such a good dad.



During a shopping trip, Kim told her sister about Disicks great parenting. Im really happy that Kim is saying that Scott is focused on the kids, Kardashian said in an interview.



Its really nice to see Scott in full dad mode, Kardashian said. All hanging out together as a family. And I feel like hes really focused on this family trip.

After their trip to New York City, Kardashian announced to the family that she invited Disick to Bali.



Im happy that Kourtney has come around, Khloe Kardashian said in an interview. I have so much more fun when hes around.
With the arrival of Baby Sussex coming in to the home stretch, many royal fans are curious about Meghan Markles birth plan and whether or not she will follow the tradition of giving birth in the Lindo Wing at St Marys Hospital. While few details are known about Markles birth plan, a new rumor points to Markle having no interest in having the Queens doctors deliver her baby.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle |Tim P. Whitby  Pool/Getty Images

Markle reportedly isnt keen on using the Queens doctors

According to a new report, Markle delivered an astonishing snub when she said she didnt want the Queens doctors to handle the birth of her first child with Prince Harry.

A source told The Daily Mail: Meghan said she doesnt want the men in suits. She was adamant that she wanted her own people. It did leave a few of us a little baffled.

Another insider is quoted as saying: It is slightly surprising. These people [the Queens doctors] are the best of the best and when it comes down to it, their role would actually be very limited in the birth itself, assuming all goes to plan.

Does Markle have something against these doctors?

While the complete details of why Markle would want to pass on using the Royal Household gynecologists, Alan Farthing and Guy Thorpe-Beeston (a specialist in high-risk births), is not known, its reported that she has appointed a female doctor to lead her delivery team.

Farthing and Thorpe-Beeston attended the arrival of all three of Prince William and Kate Middletons children.

A source shared that, of course, Markle and Prince Harrys birth plan is very personal, explaining: Above all, this is her birth, her baby, and she must do whatever feels right for her. How could anyone judge her for that?

The Daily Mail does report, however, that even if Markle has her own team in place for the babys delivery, in keeping with protocol, the Queens doctors cannot be excluded completely.

The cost of having her own delivery team

While its Markles choice to have her own delivery team, many critics note that the Queens physicians dont charge a fee, so there will be a cost for Prince Harry and Markle to employ a new team of specialists, estimated to be in the tens of thousands.

That additional cost will no doubt have some people up in arms, though one source told the Daily Mail that the Queens doctors are not offended in the least, noting: No one has thought anything of it because it really is ever so personal.

Where will Meghan Markle give birth?

Markle also is rumored to be breaking with the long-standing tradition of giving birth in the Lindo Wing at St Marys Hospital, with reports that she and Prince Harry will likely welcome Baby Sussex in a hospital closer to their Frogmore Cottage home.

Its also believed that the couple will not pose for a photo with their new arrival as other royals have done, with a source explaining that Markle doesnt want have photos taken of their newborn just because people think she should.

The source continued: It is impossible to compare to the Duchess of Cambridge because she is married to the future King. While the focus is very much on Harry and Meghan at the moment, this is not going to last  particularly as the Cambridge children grow up and become the core Royal family.
Meghan Markle is set to give birth any day now. The Duchess of Sussex is currently on maternity leave after her first whirlwind year as a member of the British Royal family. With a move from London to her new estate Frogmore Cottage in Windsor with her husband, Prince Harry the duchess has had a few weeks to begin nesting while anxiously awaiting Baby Sussexs arrival.

Though Markle already has a birth plan in place which does not include taking those post-birth photographs on the steps of Lindos Hospital Wing, she is also determined to have one particular person at her side for support. In addition to her red-headed hubby, Markles mom, Doria Ragland is set to be at the duchess side as soon as she gives birth and for an unspecified amount of time after.

Did Meghan Markles mom, Doria Ragland move to England yet?

Meghan Markles mom, Doria Ragland lives in Los Angeles and is a yogi and social worker. However, when the duchess and the prince announced their engagement in Nov. 2017, Ragland quit her job at the Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services clinic.

At the time, people speculated that Ragland was gearing up to move to the United Kingdom to be close to her daughter. Now, we know that Ragland will be at her daughters side when she gives birth. The soon-to-be grandma will also be on-hand to watch Baby Sussex grow and develop. A royal insider told Daily Mail, Doria should be here for the birth and will be staying. But then she has to get back to her dogs and work.

It looks like Raglands not about to give her life in Los Angeles up completely. Daily Mail reported that she will split her time between the City of Angles and Frogmore Cottage. Either way, the mother/daughter duo are extremely close. Ragland often sneaks into the United Kingdom to visit with the duke and duchess and apparently, both Markle and Prince Harry have been taking secret trips to L.A. to visit since theyve been married.

Inside Meghan Markles maternity leave

Markle and Prince Harry have finally moved into their 10-bedroom mansion at Frogmore Cottage. For now, before Baby Sussex makes their grand debut, Markle will be taking the time to put the final touches on her new home. The duchess is also using this time to rest and bond with her mom . Mostly, Markle will be enjoying some much-needed peace and quiet.

A source told HELLO!, Harry and Meghan will have plenty of privacy as Frogmore Cottage is located in the Home Park, which is off limits to the public. This means they can enjoy country walks, with Meghan able to push her buggy around the park without being snapped by photographers or members of the public.

Meghan Markles birth plan

Meghan Markle already has a birth plan in mind. Though this is Markles first child, she and Prince Harry are reportedly considering a home birth instead of the traditional hospital birth at St. Marys Hospital Lindo Wing. Since the prince and the duchess now live at Frogmore Cottage in Windsorabout an hour away from London, getting Markle to St. Marys in the midst of labor would be too far of a trek.

The duchess  doula, Prince Harry, and Markles mother Doria Ragland will also be present in the labor and delivery room. Vanity Fair reports, Doria plans to be around a lot when the baby arrives, and there are plans for her to have a dedicated space at their new home. She wants to be on hand to help Meghan and Harry with the baby. Doria will be involved, and if shes involved she will be encouraging Meg to go for a natural birth.

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In case you missed it, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were accused of stealing a Sussex mans Instagram account.



Last week, after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced their official social media separation from Prince William and Kate Middleton with a new Instagram name, @sussexroyal. Following its introduction, the account broke a world record by gaining 1 million followers in under six hours, which also led Instagram to crash for a short period of time. The account continues to gain eyes and now has 4.3 million followers.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle | Anwar Hussein/WireImage

That said, in the midst of the excitement, a Sussex man revealed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stole the account from him. According to the BBC, the account used to belong to Kevin Keiley, who secured the handle three years ago because he supports Reading FC  nicknamed the Royals  and he lives in West Sussex.



I got a jokey text from my son which said Ha ha, I see your handle has gone then, Keiley told Radio 1 Newsbeat. I thought Whats that all about? He said Look on Instagram so I looked on Instagram and suddenly my handle wasnt @sussexroyal anymore, it was @_sussexroyal_. It had been taken, he added.



How Instagram allowed Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to steal Keileys handle



Being a royal certainly has its perks  especially when it comes to social media. Although Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arent allowed to have their own personal accounts, they are allowed to take already existing accounts from users. How did they do it? They most likely had someone from their communications team  perhaps their new head of communications, Sara Latham  contact the social media platform to inquire about the handle.



Per Instagrams help section, if a username you want is being used by an account that seems inactive, you can choose an available version of the username. The app suggests adding periods, numbers, underscores, or abbreviations to help you come up with a username thats not already in use. However, as members of the royal family, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle didnt have to do either. Instead, they got to swoop in and take the name from an existing user.



According to reports, Instagram justified the move because Keileys account was considered inactive and confirmed to Newsbeat that, if an account is inactive for an amount of time (they did not reveal how much time), they can go in and change it. Keiley told the radio station that no one from Instagram or the royal family reached out before making the switch.



Prince Harry and Meghan Markles Twitter account



As of right now, Kevin Keiley still has access to his Twitter account, which is also named @sussexroyal. According to his profile, he joined with the username almost a decade ago. What Im trying to do is keep tweeting therefore they cant take it if its active, he told Newsbeat. I dont know what the royals are planning down the line, he added.



However, since his conversation with the radio show, he has expressed some concern about his Twitter account and the negative attention he has received since revealing Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are using his old Instagram handle.

Due to the constant abuse I have been receiving I have made the decision to close this Twitter account. Should free it up nicely for anyone wanting the sussexroyal handle. Just to put the record straight I have never received a penny nor do I want anything.  Kevin Keiley (@Sussexroyal) April 6, 2019

Due to the constant abuse I have been receiving I have made the decision to close this Twitter account. Should free it up nicely for anyone wanting the sussexroyal handle. Just to put the record straight I have never received a penny nor do I want anything, he posted on Saturday, April 6th. All I have ever asked is for an apology from Instagram. I continue to say I have nothing against Prince Harry or his family but that does not put people off the abuse, he added.



Following his remarks, it appears he had a change of heart, as he continued to share status updates over the weekend. If I stay will update profile picture as Alaska the dog as she was 8 years old yesterday, he wrote before updating his profile picture.



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If Avengers: Endgame theories are your thing, youre in luck, because the internet is full of them. As the world ramps up for the Marvel Cinematic Universes global event on April 26, 2019, its easy to get wrapped up in tiny details, speculating about Hawkeyes family, Shuris death, and much more. But the only people who know every little detail are those whove seen the movie  which is a very small number at this point.



(L-R) Anthony Russo and Joe Russo | Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for CinemaCon

Directors Joe and Anthony Russo are the keepers of the keys, and theyre experts when it comes to keeping quiet. What they will tell us is how close people have gotten to the truth.



Who are the Russo Brothers?



If you havent heard, the Russo Brothers are the men behind Endgame, but theyre more than that. Before becoming huge names in association with the MCU, they were perhaps best known for their work on comedic series like Arrested Development and Community. They plunged into the superhero world as the directors of Captain America: Winter Soldier, which earned them its follow-up, Captain America: Civil War, as well as the package deal that is Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame.



Heres what they had to say about fan theories



The brothers have to deal with a lot of excited fans telling them their theories about what happens in Avengers: Endgame. Theyre very good at dealing with this, refusing to confirm or deny anything in the chance of spoiling important (or even little) details. In an interview, Jake Hamilton asked if anyone had ever gotten things exactly right, either about Endgame or Infinity War, and if that caused them to panic.



The fans are so passionate and they spent such a long time living with these characters, thinking about these characters and theyre using their imaginations to follow where these stories could possibly go, said Anthony. Sometimes theyre wildly off, sometimes theyre kind of next door to what might happen nothings ever that close. You can get kind of close but nothings exactly right.



Our mission is always to surprise people so we try to make really surprising choices. I dont think that anyone predicted that we would end Infinity War with killing half the characters, added Joe. Thats the job  be disruptive. Break up the Avengers, make the good guy the bad guy in Winter Soldier, he said, referring to Bucky Barnes role in the franchise.



They go to great lengths to keep these secrets



Theres a lot at stake when it comes to the MCU, and the Russo Brothers arent taking any chances, even when it comes to the actors portraying these characters. When asked about the decision process of determining who knows what, they were very coy.



Firstly, its definitely based on what the actor needs to know to understand their arc, their character, what theyre doing in the movie even if were not giving them everything, we want to give them context, said Anthony. He added, We almost think of it as like were doing a favor the people  its hard to have all this information that you cant talk about.



Of course, some still want to know more about whats going to happen. Hamilton brought up Tom Holland (Peter Parker / Spider-Man), who is famous for leaking information, to which Joe joked, Thats why we killed him, referring to his dusting in Infinity War. He added, You know who else used to ask a lot of questions was Benedict (Cumberbatch, who plays Doctor Strange). Thats why hes dead, too. Sounds like a good lesson for the other actors to learn: Keep your mouth shut, and youll stay alive.



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The Browns might be starting their lives over in Flagstaff, Arizona, but it looks like the family of 23 wont be able to escape one thing, their debt. Fans began questioning the financial health of the family way back in 2018, but now that the reality stars have purchased a large parcel of land, plus a home in Flagstaff, all while failing to sell some of the homes they own in Las Vegas, it looks like the Browns are teetering on the edge of financial peril.

The houses in Vegas are not selling

When the family uprooted their lives in Utah, they were quick to settle down in Las Vegas. With an army of small children to raise it was essential to the family to ensure all of the kids felt settled quickly. They purchased four homes in the same neighborhood in an attempt to keep the kids lives as healthy as possible.

While Kody had dreams of moving from Vegas for years, the actual move was poorly executed. The family still owns several houses in Vegas, despite them spending months on the real estate market. The family allegedly believed the homes would sell quickly, but all four had to have their prices reduced to get any interested buyers. Two of the four family homes have been sold, including one that just had the listing removed in April 2019 after being initially listed in July 2018.

Christine and Kody purchased a house on top of the parcel of land

While the Browns have plans to build on a plot they bought before they officially moved to Flagstaff, Christine Brown went ahead and purchased an already completed house in the city. The reasoning for the purchase remains unclear, but according to real estate documents, Kody and Christine are both listed as owners of the property.

According to Heavy, the $520,000 property was purchased for Christine while the other sister wives are renting homes. Even sister wife, Meri, who has been on the outs with her family is renting a massive living space. The empty-nesters rental house allegedly has four bedrooms spread across 4,200 square feet.

The parcel cost the Browns $820,000

The parcel, located in Flagstaff, that the Browns purchased cost a s taggering $820,000. The family of 23 allegedly only put down 10% according to The International Business Times. The location does not currently have any housing structures on the property.





According to New Home Source, a custom structure generally takes between 10 and 16 months to complete. While it is true that some homes can be put together in as little as four months, the Browns havent even decided what type of home theyd like just yet. The family was playing around with the idea of building one large house that offered separate wings for each wife, but it seems theyve nixed the idea and are planning to fabricate four different houses on the land.

So, is the Brown family going broke?

Its hard to say if the family is out of money, or if they are looking to bide their time until they can find the right homes to build on their new property. However, fans worry that the unsold houses and the expensive parcel of land could spell financial ruin for the super-sized alternative family.

I've been doing right by this family, ALL my wives and ALL my children for 30 years. Have some faith in me.#notperfect#SisterWives  Kody Brown (@realkodybrown) April 1, 2019


Tom Holland is widely known for starring as the wise-cracking Tony Stark protege Peter Parker in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While hes one of the several superheroes who disappeared with the snap in Avengers: Infinity War, Holland will star in another Marvel standalone film Spider-Man: Far From Home coming to the silver screen July 5, 2019.

Tom Holland | Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney

With Avengers: Endgame on the horizon and Far From Home only a few months away, you may assume Tom Holland is all booked up. Yet, with seemingly no time left for other projects, this young actor has a few movies outside of the MCU scheduled for late 2019 and 2020.



In the soon-to-be-released (2020) Cherry, Holland will star as an army medic suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder who succumbs to drug addiction and enters a life of crime to cover his debts.



Cherry: The autobiographical fiction novel by Nico Walker



Tom Holland will team up with Avengers: Endgame co-directors, Anthony and Joe Russo, for this dramatic post-war narrative scheduled to hit theaters sometime in 2020, according to IMDb. While not much is known about the movie, it will be based on Nico Walkers debut novel of the same name.



The story follows an unnamed narrator as he attempts college, drops out of school, joins the war in Iraq, and returns home amidst the American Opioid Epidemic. Upon returning home, the narrator recounts his struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder and susbequent life as a drug-addicted bank robber.



The book falls in the realm of autobiographical fiction, as the author behind the story is an Army vet currently serving time in Federal prison for bank robbery. Nico Walker has been in prison since 2013, and he wrote the book using a typewriter over the course of several years. The book, published by Alfred A. Knopf in 2018, opened to stellar critical reviews and quickly garnered film offers. Anthony and Joe Russo landed the film deal.



According to IMDb, Jessica Golberg is set to pen the screenplay, and Tom Holland is slated to portray the title character (as of now).



Does Spider-Man have what it takes to play a drug-addicted bank robber suffering from PTSD?



Tom Holland has quickly grown to embody the quick-witted and light-hearted superhero we all know and love. However, does the actor have what it takes to play such an emotionally taxing role, one fraught with dark character qualities and past traumas we have yet to see him convey?



If the Russo brothers are behind the production, its likely that they have come to witness great talent from the 22-year-old actor while working with him for the Avengers saga. Seeing Holland take on a role so disparate from your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man will surely be exciting for fans of the franchise and the actor alike.



With Tom Holland and the Russo brothers set to reunite for the directing duos first feature film outside of the MCU since starting their journey with the saga, expectations are high. Do Anthony and Joe Russo have what it takes to garner the same praise and critical reception when hand-to-hand combat and superpowers arent in the mix? We will just have to wait and see.



While Cherry isnt scheduled to release until 2020, Tom Holland will appear in another film outside of the MCU later in 2019 titled Spies in Disguise. He will serve as a voice actor in the animated film following the worlds best spy who is turned into a pigeon. In Spies in Disguise, Holland will star alongside Ben Mendelsohn, Karen Gillan, and Will Smith. Tom Holland will also appear in Chaos Walking and The Devil All the Time later in 2020.




Over the years, fans have laughed and cried and conspired with some of the greatest players in the Big Brother game. The competition reality show lets viewers spy on houseguests as they compete for the $500,000 grand prize. In addition to the weekly shows, fans can get a closer look into the lives of the contestants by subscribing to the shows live feeds. With the constant live feeds, fans can often feel like they have really gotten to know the shows stars.

Because of this connection, it can feel heartbreaking when someone from the cast passes away. Sadly, there have been a few deaths of former contestants. Lets take a look at some of the players we have lost over the years.

Kent Blackwelder

Blackwelder appeared on season two of the CBS reality show. He was known for his close friendship with openly gay houseguest Bill Bunky Miller. The two had a close friendship that continued outside the house despite Blackwelders strong conservative views and admitted homophobia.

The former contestant died on Dec. 24, 2017, at the age of 62. A family member posted that Blackwelder died unexpectedly. No further details were released about his death.

Miller wrote that he recently had the opportunity to visit his friend at his Tennessee home. He wrote in part, I never dreamed this would be the last time I would see Kent. My heart is broken. Kent and I were 2 completely different men who built a bridge. And Kent came a lot farther across that bridge than me. Thank you for your love, respect, and friendship, you Old Fart. Love, the Big Homo.

Blackwelder is the only U.S. contestant to have died so far.

Jade Goody

Goody appeared in season three of the U.K. version of Big Brother. She later appeared on season fives celebrity edition. During her time on the show, Goody was constantly embroiled in controversy. The reality star was never afraid to say what was on her mind, but sometimes what she said was viewed as racist. At one point, she earned the title of most hated woman in Britain.

In 2008, Goody was diagnosed with cervical cancer. At the time she was appearing on the Indian show, Big Boss. Her breakdown when she found out the news was caught on camera.

Shortly before her death, Goody married her boyfriend of four years, Jack Tweed. Tweed proposed on Valentines day and the couple was married at Down Hall County House Hotel. The event was broadcast on Lifetime Television and covered by OK magazine. Goody lost her battle to cancer on March 22, 2009.

She is survived by her husband and two children. Her death brought attention to the disease, and after her diagnosis, screenings for the disease increased by one third.

David Gest

Gest appeared on the celebrity U.K. version of Big Brother. Gest was a producer, TV personality, and ex-husband to American actress Liza Minnelli. The Daily Mirror says that while in the U.S. he was best known as Liza Minnellis husband, in the U.K. Gest carved out a successful career as a reality star contestant.

During his time in the house, one of his houseguests thought that he had died during his stay. Gest had become ill while competing on the show. Fellow houseguest Angie Bowie told another houseguest, Tiffany, that her ex-husband  she was referring to David Bowie  had died. Confused, Tiffany broke into hysterics thinking that it was Gest who had died.

Sadly, Gest died a few months after the in-house mix-up, at the age of 62, on April 12, 2016. He was found dead at his London hotel room after suffering a stroke.
The drama surrounding Meghan Markle and her estranged father, Thomas Markle, leaves some royal experts to believe that he will never meet his grandchild when Baby Sussex is born. Whether that is true or not remains to be seen, but theres much speculation that Thomas and Meghan will not mend their relationship.

Meghan Markle | Yui Mok/PA Images via Getty Images

The Markle family tension continues

According to one royal commentator who discussed Markle and her fathers relationship in the TLC documentary Meghan and Harry: A Royal Baby Story, its believed that their estrangement will continue even after the babys arrival.

Duncan Larcombe, author of Prince Harry: The Inside Story, claimed that its unlikely that Markle and her father will reunite when she and Prince Harry welcome their first child.

The father and daughter have reportedly not spoken to one another since Thomas missed her wedding after selling paparazzi photos.

Markle reportedly hurt the family

Meghan Markles half-sister, Samantha, is also seen in the clip from the documentary, explaining that the Duchess of Sussex has hurt the family.

Larcombe asserts in the clip: I cant think for a moment that Thomas Markle will ever be able to meet his grandson or granddaughter, with Samantha adding: You cant hurt people like this and then turn around and flip the script and play victim.

This isnt the first time that Samantha has publicly slammed Markle, as both she and Thomas have shared their views in numerous interviews. Markle has not responded to any of the negative claims theyve made about her.

Another Markle family member spoke out

While the narrative is generally about the rift between Thomas and Meghan, with Samantha lashing out about her half-sister, Meghans half-brother, Thomas Markle Jr., explained earlier this year that Samantha is jealous and bitter.

Markle Jr. noted that he stopped talking to Samantha years ago, calling her hard to get along with and sharing, I wouldnt believe anything thats written in there [her book on Meghan].

Markles private letter to her father became public

In August 2018, Markle penned a handwritten letter to her father and, earlier this year, Thomas sold the letter to Mail on Sunday. In part, she wrote: If you love me please stop lying please stop exploiting my relationship with my husband. Your actions have broken my heart into a million pieces  not simply because you have manufactured such unnecessary and unwarranted pain, but by making the choice to not tell the truth as you are puppeteered in this. Something I will never understand.

She also wrote: On a daily basis, you fixated and clicked on the lies they were writing about me, especially those manufactured by your other daughter, who I barely know. You watched me silently suffer at the hands of your vicious lies, I crumbled inside.

A royal source told Vanity Fair that Markle has been conflicted about the situation, noting: She cares for her dad, and has concerns for him and his mental health, which is one of the reasons she doesnt want to comment on this. Its a very complex, very emotional situation, and lets not forget she is seven months pregnant.
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar issued a warning over the weekend, saying if there is a war between Israel and Gaza, Tel Aviv and other Jewish communities on the southern border will be evacuated.

If the Gaza Strip is dragged into war, Israel will suffer. It will not only have to evacuate the communities around the Strip but also [the cities of] Ashdod and Ashkelon and even Tel Aviv, Sinwar said, according to a report from Al-Aqsa TV.

Our fingers are on the trigger and they will remain pressed against it in order to protect our people. We will be the sword and shield, he added.

Sinwar, who was speaking to representatives of Palestinian groups and other organizations, said they are ready for war with Israel to defend the Palestinian people.

Sinwar also said he was grateful to Egypt for helping to mediate a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel on March 22. For weeks, Hamas and Israel have been firing rockets at each other.

We have strengthened our relations with Egypt, Sinwar said of the ceasefire. The Egyptians have thankfully played a big role in the easing of the restrictions.

Still, on Friday, more than 10,000 Gazans protested along the border as part of the March of Return.

The understandings are not an alternative to Palestinian unity and partnership, Sinwar said of the protests. There is no talk about the Palestinian right to resistance in all its forms, especially in the West Bank. Also, there is no talk about halting the March of Return.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has himself warned Hamas against any more attacks.

We will do what is necessary to defend our people and to defend our state," Netyanhu said while addressing the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference in Washington D.C. last month.

Photo courtesy: Shai Pal/Unsplash
Three historical black churches were set ablaze over the last two weeks in Louisiana leading the FBI, ATF and state authorities to search for who and why someone would be doing this.

According to CBN News, three churches were burned down starting with St. Mary Baptist Church in Port Barre, LA on March 26. Last week, the Greater Union Baptists Church in Opelousas and the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church were also set ablaze, one on Tuesday night and the other on Thursday night, respectively.

During a Thursday news conference, Fire Marshal H. "Butch" Browning shared that fortunately, no one was in the churches when they caught fire and no injuries have been reported. Browning also shared that a connection has not been made yet between the fires, adding, however, that suspicious activity does appear to surround them.

Browning also asked locals to keep an eye out for any odd behavior around town, saying that he wants people to be aware of their surroundings and aware of something that might look suspicious that they dont think is suspicious.

Also on Thursday, following the destruction of the century-old churches, local church leaders met up to discuss a plan moving forward as the fire starter(s) is/are seemingly still on the prowl.

According to The Advocate, Reverend Gerald Toussaint of Mount Pleasant Baptists Church shared his devastation with his fellow church leaders noting that it was heartbreaking to watch the history of his church be burnt away.

He noted, however, that the church is still alive. He said, The building is gone, but well be back because we cant let the enemy win.

Rev. Harry Richard of Greater Union Baptist Church said that while it appears like the attacks could be race driven, he does not want to go there yet.

Richard said, I dont know whos doing it or why theyre doing it, but I dont want to be the one to inject race into it.

He continued, Until we find out exactly whats going on, I pray the community doesnt panic. All the assumptions are flowing and creating an atmosphere of fear.

The investigation into the church fires is ongoing.

Photo courtesy: Cullan Smith/Unsplash
Strict anti-abortion laws have swept conservative states in the country and Alabama has just upped the ante. If passed, HB 314 and SB 211 would make performing an abortion a Class A felony, the most serious felony, punishable by up to 99 years in prison, according to AL.

Lawmakers anticipate challenges and lawsuits to the bill since it is unconstitutional. Their hope is to push the bill all the way to the Supreme Court. Rep. Terri Collins, the Republican representative who sponsored the bill, told AL, It is meant to actually use some of the same language that is addressed in Roe vs. Wade. So, hopefully, it just completely takes it all the way to the Supreme Court eventually to overturn.

Over 60 representatives out of 105 in the Alabama House have co-sponsored the bill. It will go to the Senate the week of April 15.

Staci Fox, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Southeast called the bills a death sentence for women across the state. She also argued, In a state that already suffers from a physician shortage, high rates of infant and maternal mortality, cervical cancer mortality, unintended pregnancy, teen births, rural health care crisis, and opioid addiction, our lawmakers should be focused on increasing access to care - not restricting it.

Tuscaloosa News reported this bill is more extreme than any of the other two dozen anti-abortion bills proposed in conservative states this year. The Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health and rights advocacy group, have stated that the extreme nature of this years bills are unprecedented. Georgia and South Carolina have proposed similar bills, according to WND.

The law would only punish doctors who perform abortions, not the women. It also allows abortions in case of serious harm or death to the mother. There is no exception for rape or incest.

During last years mid-term elections, Alabama passed Amendment 2, which provides constitutional rights to fertilized eggs and fetuses, according to Rolling Stone. In March, the state made headlines when the court gave an aborted fetus full legal rights, the first in the United States.

Senate Judiciary Committee and chairman Sen. Cam Ward is supportive of the bill, as long as taxpayers dont pay the price. Since Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union plan on suing, Ward wants to include amendments to the bill to specify how legal expenses are paid. I want some restrictions on where this money comes from, Ward said. I want to make sure were not just sending a message with a huge price tag to taxpayers.

In 2017, over 6,700 abortions were performed in Alabama, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health. Over 5,700 happened at or before 12 weeks of gestation. Current law bans abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Photo courtesy: Pixabay
Chick-fil-A banned from another airport for Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Salvation Army donations

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Chick-fil-A was once again banned from an airport concession project over the popular fast food chicken chains support for groups that hold conservative views on homosexuality and same-sex marriage.

A plan to open a new Chick-fil-A at Buffalo Niagara International Airport was canceled following an outcry from individuals including New York State Assemblyman Sean Ryan.

The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority confirmed last Friday to local media that they had reversed course and that Chick-fil-A will not be part of the food court project any longer.

A publicly financed facility like the Buffalo Niagara International Airport is not the appropriate venue for a Chick-fil-A restaurant. I applaud the decision that has been made to remove Chick-fil-A from the plans for this project, stated Ryan last week, as reported by WGRZ.

We hope in the future the NFTA will make every effort to contract with businesses that adhere to anti-discriminatory policies, and were confident another vendor who better represents the values of the Western New York community will replace Chick-fil-A as a part of this project in the very near future.

In response to the news, the chicken sandwich company released a statement denouncing the inaccurate narrative being advanced about them.

We do not have a political or social agenda or discriminate against any group. More than 145,000 people from different backgrounds and beliefs represent the Chick-fil-A brand, stated Chick-fil-A, as reported by WGRZ.

We embrace all people, regardless of religion, race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity.

NFTAs decision about the Buffalo airport came days after city council for San Antonio, Texas, voted 6-4 to remove Chick-fil-A from a project at their airport.

As with the Buffalo airport, the key issue was Chick-fil-As connections to conservative Christian nonprofits and CEO Dan Cathys stated opposition to same-sex marriage.

Both decisions came after the liberal website Think Progress published an article on March 20 arguing that Chick-fil-A was donating money to anti-LGBT groups.

"Chick-fil-A has taken great pains to downplay its anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and giving, seven years into a national boycott by LGBTQ and allied diners," stated Think Progress.

"But contrary to the companys latest claims that it has no political or social agenda, newly released tax filings show that, in 2017, the Chick-fil-A Foundation gave more than $1.8 million to a trio of groups with a record of anti-LGBTQ discrimination."

Chick-fil-A released a statement the following day rejecting the claim, pointing out that their donations to groups like the Salvation Army, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and others were for charitable purposes.

"To suggest that our efforts in supporting these organizations was focused on suppressing a group of people is misleading and inaccurate," stated the company.

"It is well-known that our Founder S. Truett Cathy used biblical principles to guide our business in its formative stages, and that we still uphold those same principles today."

San Antonio Councilman Roberto Trevino celebrated the earlier vote in San Antonio as an example of the Texas city becoming a champion of equality and inclusion.

San Antonio is a city full of compassion, and we do not have room in our public facilities for a business with a legacy of anti-LGBTQ behavior, said Trevino, as reported by NBC News.

For his part, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has stated that he is investigating whether the San Antonio decision constituted discrimination and a violation of the First Amendment.

The Constitutions protection of religious liberty is somehow even better than Chick-fil-As chicken. Unfortunately, I have serious concerns that both are under assault at the San Antonio airport, wrote Paxton in an official letter to San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg.

I have directed my office to open an investigation into whether the Citys action violates state law. I trust the City will fully cooperate with my investigation into this matter, and will abide by relevant federal and state laws in the future."
Group behind 'hate map' is 'morally bankrupt': Christian conservatives call out corruption, hypocrisy

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Conservative groups that have suffered due to being tagged on the controversial hate map of the Southern Poverty Law Center say the organization has no moral authority to label others as it grapples with racial discrimination and sexual harassment allegations of its own.

Todays SPLC is aggressively anti-Christian and morally bankrupt, both inside and out. It has long lost any claim as the moral arbiter of hate, Jeremy Tedesco, senior counsel and vice president of U.S. advocacy for Alliance Defending Freedom told The Christian Post.

The ADF is an alliance-building legal organization based in Arizona that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith. The group unites attorneys, ministry leaders, pastors, and like-minded organizations in a common purpose  a shared commitment to defending religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage and family.

The SPLC was founded in 1971 to take on legal cases related to racial injustice, poverty and the death penalty. The organization, which began tracking the Ku Klux Klan in the early 1980s, has since broadened its field of threats to include conservative groups like the ADF whose ideology it does not agree with.

The vaunted civil rights organization currently lists the ADF as a hate group among 20 other organizations in Arizona because of their sexual politics.

In a report in The Washington Post Magazine last November, the SPLC noted that the ADF filed an amicus brief in the 2003 landmark Supreme Court case that struck down a Texas law criminalizing gay sex.

Lawyers for the ADF wanted to uphold the states right to decide whether it is reasonable to believe that same-sex sodomy is a distinct public health problem, the brief noted, because it clearly is.

Its really bad that you want these people thrown in jail for consensual activity, Heidi Beirich, director of the SPLCs Intelligence Project told The Washington Post. Its literally barbaric in our opinion. And that was the thing that really pushed ADF over the top to us.

Earlier this month, the nations wealthiest civil rights organization fired its co-founder, Morris Dees, and president, Richard Cohen, a week later, due to allegations of sexual harassment and racial bigotry.

Bob Moser, a former writer for the SPLC who is gay, wrote in the New Yorker on March 21 that the organization which has amassed an endowment of nearly half a billion dollars is a scam. A part of that scam was to also use the widening scope of its hate map, to raise funds.

When the S.P.L.C. hired me as a writer, in 2001, I figured I knew what to expect: long hours working with humble resources and a highly diverse bunch of super-dedicated colleagues. I felt self-righteous about the work before Id even begun it, Moser wrote.

He quickly lost faith in the organization after realizing that leadership did not practice what the organization preached when it comes to issues of race and gender.

Nothing was more uncomfortable than the racial dynamic that quickly became apparent: a fair number of what was then about a hundred employees were African-American, but almost all of them were administrative and support staffthe help, one of my black colleagues said pointedly, Moser explained.

The professional staffthe lawyers, researchers, educators, public-relations officers, and fund-raiserswere almost exclusively white. Just two staffers, including me, were openly gay, Moser continued. The work could be meaningful and gratifying. But it was hard, for many of us, not to feel like wed become pawns in what was, in many respects, a highly profitable scam.

In a statement on the scandal at the SPLC, Bryan Fair, the Thomas E. Skinner Professor of Law at the University of Alabama School of Law and chair of the Southern Poverty Law Centers board of directors, who happens to be black, chose to highlight a laundry list of the organizations important ongoing work while hitting back at the suggestion that their fundraising is a scam.

Were doing this work because countless people continue to face discrimination and exploitation. They deserve justice. I resent the suggestion that were doing it merely for fundraising purposes, as some have said, Fair argued.

I would not be serving on the board if this were true, and I know that Julian Bond, a true civil rights icon, would not have served on our board for many years had he thought that the organization took on cases and causes for the wrong reasons, he continued.

Right now, as you may have read, were facing some internal workplace challenges. But were meeting them in the same way that were meeting every other challenge that we face  with a fierce commitment to do justice. I can assure you that we will continue to work as hard as we can to combat the forces of hate and bigotry and to seek justice for the most marginalized people in our country.

Because of the SPLCs "hate map," however, organizations like the ADF have suffered hits to their fundraising and security and believe it's time to get rid of it.

For ADF, the SPLCs baseless accusations have resulted in our exclusion from the Amazon Smile donation program. Microsoft has removed us from its non-profit pricing for its software, we have armed guards at our offices, and we have been forced to hire plain-clothes police officers to protect attorneys when they speak on hostile campuses, Tedesco said.

The recent revelations about the inner workings of the SPLC, he said, shows that the organization isnt a neutral watchdog.

Recent reports have highlighted once again that todays SPLC is a corrupt fundraising machine that has become nothing more than a partisan progressive hit operation. Nobody should rely on the SPLC as a neutral watchdog. Investigative reporters, charity watchdogsand most recentlyformer employees have been raising the alarm that SPLC is partisan and unreliable for years, he said. It is time for the media, major corporations, and big tech companies to cut ties with the SPLC once and for all. Todays SPLC has zero credibility and its making hate pay business model should be rejected by all.

Christopher Gacek, a senior fellow at the conservative Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., agrees. He told CP that while tracking the work of the Klan was strategic for the SPLC in the early days of the organizations operations, he doesnt think they should be using a "hate map" at this time, especially with trained law enforcement already tracking true hate crimes.

They should not be doing the hate map, Gacek said.

In August 2012, 28-year-old Floyd Lee Corkins II opened fire inside the FRC's headquarters. At the time, according to his parents, Corkins was volunteering at a community center for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people. The FRC was targeted for its strong opposition to gay marriage, which landed it on SPLC's "Active Anti-Gay Groups" list. Corkins reportedly had a bag packed with Chick-fil-A sandwiches and a box of ammunition when he said, "I don't like your politics," and shot a security guard in the FRC's lobby.

Weve been interacting with them (SPLC) over this (hate map) for nine years. One of the big effects of it was that a guy who was using the hate map came to our building and wanted to kill everybody in our building and shot our building manager and he told the FBI that he had been using the SPLC material. One of the things we have always been concerned about is security, Gacek said. No one should be using the hate map and it should be discontinued. It should have been discontinued after the shooting.

He argued that for companies like Amazon to continue to use the SPLCs data as a standard to determine who can fundraise on their platform is also inappropriate.

ADF was on it and was kicked off it, he said, referring to the Amazon Smile program.

ADF is not a hate group. Its ridiculous this claim that they are. Its like YouTube tagging Prager videos. Its just absurd. When Amazon does this its just extremely lazy and it just shows the prejudices of the organization, he continued.

I think anything coming out of the SPLC is rotten fruit from a poisonous tree and organizations need to stop playing around with this until they come clean about whats going on inside the organization and how long its been going on.
What's the future of the Church as it loses favor in secular society?

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ALEXANDRIA, Virginia  If the Western Church is to be effective in its mission as it loses favor in secular society, it's going to mean embracing peacemaking and remembering our role as a royal priesthood, speakers at Missio Alliance's Awakening Conference advised.

Theologians and pastors from around the country spoke about the future of the Western Church as Christianity loses its place of privilege in secular society that it held for centuries. The discussion was part of a panel at Alfred Street Baptist Church on March 29.

Faced with the need for a new missional approach to engaging the culture, Al Tizon, a professor of missional and global leadership at North Park University in Chicago, Illinois, said he believes Christians must embrace peacemaking and reconciliation as a Gospel imperative.

"In our brokenness we have made a bloody mess of God's beautiful, diverse world," Tizon said, adding that the human condition is the same all around the world.

"I contend that in a world literally quaking and cracking along racial, ethnic and cultural fault lines, the Church must embrace peacemaking and reconciliation as the primary paradigm for mission today," he continued. "We can no longer relegate peacemaking to fringe pacifists and historic peace churches. Peacemaking needs to be central to the whole churches whole mission throughout the world."

He added that he wants the word "peace" to become as hip as justice has become.

Keesha Polonio, associate director of the Tampa Underground Network, stressed that it's vital for Christians to consider the image of the curtain in the temple being torn when Christ was crucified, particularly their role as priests.

"We need to remember that the veil was split in two and that now I, you, we can interact and engage with the Holy One. We have direct access," she said, referencing 1 Peter 2:9 in which Apostle Peter speaks of God's people being a royal priesthood.

"But I wonder if the Church has forgotten this?" she posited. "Will the Church give everyone an opportunity to live out their responsibility as a priest?"

That might mean for churches to give up their freedom to dream in order that the dreams of others can live, she suggested.

What this would look like, she said, would mean "we'd let the voices of the people we seek to serve to dictate our programs and our infrastructure and not the other way around. And don't let our fear and the risky nature of freedom constrict us and control us.

"We have to suspend the idea that our way is the right way. We have to give up our bent toward micromanaging" and instead release people to do what God has called them to do, she stressed.

In many respects the Church  and its insistence upon specific structures  needs to get out of the way, she said.

In Polonio's ministry, she said they try to see everyone as priests. Her "parish," she said, is in strip clubs as she ministers to women ensnared in the sex industry. On any given Friday when she gives altar calls it is to music blaring overhead, surrounded with the smells of drugs and alcohol.

"My sermons are small. And they start with makeup tutorials" she said, as people often ask her about her hair and what products she uses.

"But at the end, I get to remind them of the truth, in 1 John, that there is a God who sees them, who knows them and is calling them out of their darkness into a wonderful light.

Our missional future hinges on the Church remembering that the veil is torn, that we are all a priesthood of believers, a community of sent ones.

"We have simple ecclesiology," she said, "Worship, mission, and community. Wherever those three things come together, that is the church."

When everyday people realize that they are priests they are empowered to do whatever it is that God has called them to do and the church infrastructure supports to come alongside them, she said.

The Awakenings Conference was a three-day event that concluded March 30.
Howard University president says safe space activism can be counterproductive

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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.
The Best of Enemies actors share how Christian faith of civil rights activist changed KKK leader

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NEW YORK  Hollywood filmmaker Russell Bissell and the lead actors of the new movie The Best of Enemies said it was Ann Atwaters Christian display of love that broke through the hatred of KKK leader C.P. Ellis in the 70s.

The Best of Enemies tells the true story of an unlikely relationship between Ann Atwater (Taraji P. Henson), an outspoken civil rights activist, and C.P. Ellis, the president of the Durham chapter of United Klans of America (played by Oscar winner Sam Rockwell). The pair unwittingly co-chaired a community summit in Durham, North Carolina, in the summer of 1971, just months after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the use of busing to desegregate schools. What followed would change Durham and the lives of Atwater and Ellis forever, as the two formed a friendship that lasted a lifetime up until Ellis' death in 2005.

Director Robin Bissel, who also produced Hunger Games, told The Christian Post, I think that Ann's idea of her faith and her being a Christian was all about love. It was all about love will see its way through and that's what she took."

Bissel was really touched by how Atwaters life helped transform Ellis.

That's what's important in the story to me because she was so religious, she had such strong faith, and it carried her forward, he added. She worked until she passed away for good.

The love Atwater showed Ellis despite his innate hatred of black people as a KKK leader eventually broke through his contempt, and popular actress Taraji P. Henson describes that as a reflection of Gods heart.

"When we talk about love, we talk about God's love. It's unconditional and love is the search for understanding, Henson told CP. So even the person you hate, if you want change, you can't match it with hate or else nothing's going to change. Someone has to rise above and tap into love. And that's when she (Atwater) was able to get change."

"It changed C.P.," Hensons co-star, Sam Rockwell, added.

Bill Riddick was responsible for hosting a 10-day charette in 1971 that helped bring the KKK leader and civil rights activists to a place where they could have an honest conversation. It helped bring unity and change the school system in their town. The Christian Post spoke with the real-life Riddick who said he didn't realize Atwater was a Christian until she requested to end each charette with a gospel set.

[Atwater] had a [faith] that I had not seen in her conversations [before] and C.P. had faith in the clan. So it made sense to let them bring those two ideas to fruition. They both participated in a sense, Riddick explained of his decision to allow Atwater to host her gospel sets and Ellis to display KKK propaganda at the charettes.

In the film, a scene showing a group of young boys confronting the offensive KKK display was featured and Riddick says that actually happened in real life. Atwater, however, stepped in and instructed the boys to be tolerant to the offensive display which showed her enemy the best of her heart.

I can remember Ann, literary telling the guys you can't do this and gave them a lecture. When I looked out the corner of my eye I saw C.P. peeping out the little office door [at that same moment], the charette leader recalled.

The Best of Enemies STXfilms hits theaters everywhere April 5. For more information, visit the movies website.
Worlds most expensive painting, a $450M image of Jesus by Da Vinci is missing

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The worlds most expensive painting, a centuries old image of Jesus known as the Salvator Mundi attributed to legendary Italian artist Leonardo Da Vinci, has disappeared in Abu Dhabi.

The painting, which was purchased for $450 million in 2017 by Saudi prince Bader bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan al-Saud, is now missing, The New York Times reports.

Al-Saud is believed to have acted as a proxy for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who was named the new Saudi Culture Minister in 2018.

The Abu Dhabi culture department announced about a month after the painting was purchased that it would be displayed in the world-class Louvre Abu Dhabi museum. But a scheduled unveiling of the painting last September was canceled without explanation, the Times said.

Officials with the culture department are now refusing to answer questions about the painting, but staff of the Louvre Abu Dhabi say privately that they have no knowledge of the paintings whereabouts, the report notes.

And while art experts are hoping that the painting will resurface soon, some argue that depriving the world of the work would be tragic.

It is tragic, Dianne Modestini, a professor at New York Universitys Institute of Fine Arts and a conservator who has worked on Salvator Mundi, told The New York Times. To deprive the art lovers and many others who were moved by this picture  a masterpiece of such rarity  is deeply unfair.

Martin Kemp, an Oxford art historian who has studied the painting, called it a kind of religious version of the Mona Lisa and Leonardos strongest statement of the elusiveness of the divine. Even he had no clue where the painting might be.

I dont know where it is, either, he told the Times.

Professor Kemp said the Salvator Mundi is believed to have been painted around 1500, and was one of two similar works listed in an inventory of the collection of King Charles I of England after his execution in 1649. The painting disappeared from the historical record in the late 18th century.

The painting later resurfaced in the collection of a 19th century British industrialist but attributed to one of Da Vincis followers. It was reclaimed as a Da Vinci work in 2005 and brought to professor Modestini of NYU for restoration.

Since the latest disappearance of the painting there have been renewed concerns over the works authenticity but Modestini called them nonsense.

Some art experts are speculating that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman might have decided to keep the painting for himself while others are thinking more sinister things might have happened to the painting.

Isn't it against conservative Muslim dogma to have an image of one of the prophets, i.e. Jesus? How does Salvator Mundi end up in Saudi Arabia or UAE? Could disappearance be a religious matter? critic James Stevenson asked on Twitter.

Let's only hope Muhammad bin Salman didn't chop it up and use it for firewood ((: wrote James Chikonamombe.
3 historic black churches burned down, FBI investigates; members share pain, unite in worship

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Days after a "suspicious" fire destroyed the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, Mary Thomas Espree was one of about 80 displaced members who attended a service Sunday morning at Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church in Opelousas, Louisiana.

It was only recently, the 70-year-old told the Advocate, that she had a premonition that the only church she had known throughout her life would have been razed by fire. She had no idea however, it would be so soon.

"I didn't know it would be so soon, but I knew it would happen," she said. "The Lord put it in my spirit that it would happen at Mount Pleasant too."

And when Espree learned of the fire that took her church, it hit her hard. This was where Espree was christened, baptized and married.

I teared up. There was a lot of hurt. That has been my church all my life," she told the Daily World." I was a lost soul and going there has kept me straight. It was like, 'Why did someone want to burn my church?'

And thats what the FBI and other local law enforcement agencies are now seeking to find out, according to CBS News, after Mount Pleasant became the third historically black church over 100 years old to burn down in St. Landry Parish in a span of 10 days last week.

St. Marys Baptist Church was the first reported church fire on March 26 and Greater Union Baptist Church went up in flames a week later, NBC News reported.

The church has been part of me and I am what I became because of the church. I really didnt know what to do. But I know now the answer is in Gods hands, Espree told the Daily World Sunday as she tried to console herself as she worshiped.

Louisiana State Fire Marshal H. "Butch" Browning, who addressed congregants from Mount Pleasant on Sunday, told them after the worship service that, combined with help from the FBI, nearly 200 people are working on the fire investigation.

Right now, what we have to say is that the fires are suspicious, Browning told NBC News. We do believe that crimes have occurred. We believe that the three fires obviously are not coincidental, they are related.

He noted however that the perpetrators of the fires also gave church members an opportunity to share their faith.

"There's a reason why I'm standing before you all," Browning said, according to the Advocate. "Unfortunately, the obvious reason is because there's been a horrendous crime placed on this church and its people, but I think it's bigger than that. You see, when this is over with, we've now formed a bond, and we've formed a purpose. And that higher purpose is to spread the good news of what our creator did to us and what he has in store for us."

He urged the church members to pray for those who torched their building and that whoever is responsible for the attack would turn themselves in and repent.

"Let's pray for the people responsible and all the churches that have surrounded and embraced you all," Browning said. "We'll get that person a whole lot better help than the justice system will ever get them because we're going to help them find God, and we're going to use that to stop this cancer that's going on that's executed through crime."

Pastor Gerald Toussaint, who leads both Morning Star and Mount Pleasant, said the congregations will continue worshiping together until his burnt church is rebuilt.

It's sad that our society has stooped this low to do something like that, Toussaint, 56, told NBC.

At St. Marys, some members took it as a sign from God when their Bibles, which were seared, survived the fire.

I think its a sign, Shameka Mallet, who has been a parishioner at St. Marys her entire life, said.

It's kind of devastating. My mom was buried here, my grandfather was buried here, and my aunties were married here, Mallet said.

Despite the devastation however, Toussaint said the tragedy has been a greater catalyst for community.

This caused us to call each other more than we ever called each other, he told NBC. Now we can pull together.
Christians mourn, repent for their silence on abortion: 'We have to own this'

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RICHMOND, Virginia  Hundreds of pro-life Christians came together on Saturday not to protest or rally but to repent for their silence and complicity in abortion.

Something is desperately wrong with our hearts when we can drive by these abortion clinics every day and sit silently by and do nothing," said Elizabeth Johnston, who organized the Day of Mourning in Richmond.

"We walked by the cries of these babies. We have to own this. We are in the 11th hour in our country. If we dont turn from our wicked ways now as a nation, we are toast."

Participants were dressed in black at the "solemn assembly" where they prayed and fasted, asking God for forgiveness for the prevalence of abortion in the United States.

"Today is not a pep rally, a fundraiser, a protest or a political meeting;  today is Gods," said Johnston, widely known as the "Activist Mommy" on social media. "Its the church getting the mote out of our own eyes."

Too many congregations in the United States have taken a seat on the sidelines and are not engaged in this important life and death issue," she explained to The Christian Post.

There are so many ways that Gods people can make a difference on the abortion issue. We could be active politically, we could be at the abortion clinics, praying and offering help to these women who feel very alone oftentimes.

We could be adopting and fostering. If every church would adopt or foster one child, the orphan crisis in our nation would be over. I think a whole church can handle providing support for a family to adopt or foster a child.

The Benham Brothers, the twin Christian entrepreneurs whose reality TV series was canceled in 2014 after LGBT activists protested their socially conservative views, stressed to Christians that this wasn't a "political issue." Rather, abortion should be considered a "Gospel issue."

Dad wasnt out to be an abortion issue fighter, he was out to be a Kingdom advancer, explained Jason Benham, referencing how his father, Philip, once baptized the Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade.

He went on to note how he and his brother David decided to not be silent about their views on both abortion and same-sex marriage, despite immense pressure from social progressives.

We were raised in a pro-life family and for us, we got a chance to see in the belly of the whale, so many folks who had large platforms if we look at pastors who had large platforms who would say nothing about it," Benham noted as he stood in front of two banners showing photos of in utero babies. One banner read Their blood cries out and referenced Genesis 4:10 while another banner read Rend your heart, not your garments and referenced Joel 2:13.

And now, being on this side, knowing what we felt in that moment, when we were so scared, now we look at those pastors with a little different eye. Because when your image, your influence, and your income is determined by people liking you, you will be silent when you should be speaking. That is the idol of our day.

Local pastors led prayers on Saturday, asking forgiveness for American churches failing to combat abortion. Medical professionals also joined and asked forgiveness for their peers who performed the procedure.

We were so happy to have pastors on the stage, repenting over the sin of abortion. Dozens from the medical community on stage mourning and repenting over what the medical community has done to these babies, Johnston commented.

You know, doctors take an oath to do no harm to children and abortion is a violation of that oath. And so, we were so pleased to have dozens from the medical community on stage with us here and it was just a great time of mourning and reconnecting with God and getting our hearts right with God.

The Day of Mourning event was held in Richmond largely in response to comments made earlier this year by Democratic Governor Ralph Northam regarding late-term abortion.

In January, Northam defended a proposed bill that would have stripped away many legal restrictions on abortion in an interview with WTOP, with critics charging that his comments endorsed infanticide.

When we talk about third-trimester abortions, these are done with the consent of the mother, obviously, with the consent of the physician, more than one physician by the way, said Northam at the time.

And its done in cases where there may be severe deformities, where there may be a fetus thats not viable. So in this particular example, if a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered, the infant would be kept comfortable. It would be resuscitated if thats what the mother and the family desired and then a discussion would ensue between the physician and the mother.

Amid the prayers on Saturday, 8-year-old Blythe Mullen went on stage to call her birth mother a hero for choosing adoption instead of abortion.

"Because she chose life for me, I am living out the purpose God has for my life," said Mullen, as she stood next to her adoptive mother, Jessica. "God's heart is for life for all."

Bishop E.W. Jackson, a clergyman and politician who lost an election for lieutenant governor against Northam in 2013, stressed that in addition to mourning and repentance, those gathered were called to fight for the lives of unborn children, because they need someone to fight for them.

We are here out of love. Were not here advocating violence. Were not here because we want some abortionist to be killed or we want some clinic to be bombed, said Jackson.

We condemn that behavior because that is as evil as what they are doing inside those clinics. But nevertheless, we fight, because the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God.

The Day of Mourning was held at the Greater Richmond Convention Center on and livestreamed on Vimeo.

The first Day of Mourning observance was held in February in New York, in response to the state government passing legislation that effectively legalized abortion up to the moment of birth.
Getting away for the weekend in Columbus

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Columbus is somewhat unusual as state capitals go.

It holds the distinction of being the states biggest city. By contrast, the capitals of most states are smaller, more obscure cities that were often chosen as part of a political compromise.

The population (879,170) is also still growing, unlike most other cities across the Midwest. In fact, last year Columbus was ranked as the fourth fastest-growing big city in the country.

Speaking of the Midwest, Columbus reminds me of the geographically vague Springfield, the fictional TV town in The Simpsons. Yes, Columbus is Midwest in the eyes of demographers in the federal government, but its also in the Rust Belt. At the same time, it has the big city feel you wouldnt associate with the rural Midwest. Adding to all of this is Ohio State University, which numbers more than 61,000 students and 34,000 professors, administrators and other staff. The cultural and geographical vagueness of Columbus is why many chain restaurants, including McDonalds, consider it the perfect test market.

What to do and see

The presence of the states flagship public university means the cityscape punches above its weight in art, culture and, increasingly, food.

This becomes evident when visiting Short North, a neighborhood that along High Street between downtown and campus. Here you find the kind of bars, eateries and shops that you would expect given not only the huge student population, but also the number of hipsters and urban yuppies.

A block off High Street is North Market, which is worth going if only for the people watching on a late Saturday morning. Of course, you can also buy food, produce and more from the merchants at the food hall-cum-market.

Back downtown at the aptly named Capitol Square is the Ohio Statehouse. Despite being overshadowed by countless office towers and other modern edifices, the antebellum Greek Revival capitol is spectacular in its simplicity. Best of all, doors are open seven days a week with free guided tours Monday through Friday.

From the Statehouse continue up East Broad Street. Along the way you cant help but notice several old churches. My favorite is the cathedral-looking First Congregational Church.

The best-kept secret in Columbus has to be the Jubilee Museum. Housed somewhat haphazardly in a former parochial school is a collection of anything and everything Roman Catholic, including saintly relics and magnificent embroidered copes. Some of the objects date back centuries and rival what you find in considerably more famous museums. Do plan accordingly as visiting hours are limited (10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1 to 4 p.m. on Sunday).

You will also want to visit both the Columbus Museum of Art, known for its early modernist art collection, and the recently opened National Veterans Memorial and Museum.

Where to stay and eat

I stayed at Hotel LeVeque, an upscale boutique-inspired hotel under Marriotts Autograph Collection brand. The hotel, which opened a couple years ago after an extensive restoration of an art deco-era skyscraper, is within walking distance of everything to see and do in downtown Columbus. Be sure to spend some time along the revitalized riverfront, which features 175 acres of parkland.

M at Miranova, one of only two AAA four-diamond restaurants in Columbus, is highly recommended for dinner. For something more casual try the dining room at Wolfs Ridge Brewing.

How to get there

All major airlines fly into John Glenn Columbus International Airport.

Spires and Crosses, a travel column exclusive to The Christian Post, is published every week. Follow @dennislennox on Twitter and Instagram.
Lecrae: Breakthrough movie will remind us of Gods relevance in post-Christian era

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WINNIPEG, Canada  Artists Lecrae and Phil Wickham, who star in the upcoming faith-based film Breakthrough, say this real-life telling is needed for today's post-Christian era in North America and Europe.

"Breakthrough" tells the miraculous true story of Joyce and John Smith, a mother and son who rely on the power of prayer and the Holy Spirit following a fatal accident that leaves the son dead for 45 minutes. The moms desperate prayers bring him back to life after the doctors lost all hope.

Grammy-winning hip-hop artist Lecrae believes the testimony of the Smith family is something people could use today.

"I think, specifically like in the western world, we're in a post-Christian era. So I think a lot of times, we forget our faith has survived for thousands of years, is just that here in the West, North America and Europe, it's post [Christian], Lecrae told The Christian Post in an interview on the set of Breakthrough" last year.

It's like, 'oh, we're over that now. We're more progressive with science and so on and so forth.' But take a trip to Africa, you take a trip to China, it's thriving, it's on fire right now. That's the reminder that God is not irrelevant. It's just we forget, [but] He doesn't," the rapper who plays an emcee in the film continued. We become unfaithful, He's still faithful, and He's going to use whoever wants to acknowledge Him to do whatever it is that He wants done.

Lecrae has had his fair share of doubt recently as he witnessed first hand the woes of racism in America and how a lot of his supporters turned a blind eye to it. A trip to Egypt, however, restored his faith in Jesus apart from institutionalized Christianity.

So it's a reminder for us here, it's almost like, we are going to become the new mission field for the world, and its films like this to remind us, He continued.

Wickham, who plays a worship leader, his real-life profession, in Breakthrough, added, "There's a difference between Christian culture and a person that really follows Jesus.

The contemporary Christian musician said its actually a good thing that a generation of people are not willing to subscribe to Christianity just because its their grandparent's religion.

"Once there's truth out there, and people own up to where they stand. I think instead of saying, 'Yeah, I'm Christian, and you don't have to tell me about Jesus,' [since] they're almost closed off to hearing the real truth that they never heard before, Wickham explained. In some ways, it's paving the way for something beautiful to happen in our country once again, rather than saying, 'I'm a Christian, cuz I'm an American.'"

After his recovery, John Smith admitted that his faith also increased from being a family belief to becoming his. He now aspires to be a pastor.

"Breakthrough" hits theaters April 17.

Chrissy Metz (This is Us) plays the role of Joyce Smith and actor Josh Lucas (Sweet Home Alabama) plays her husband, Brian Smith. Marcel Ruiz (One Day at a Time) portrays their son, John.

"Breakthrough" was directed by TV director Roxann Dawson ("House of Cards," "Scandal," "The Americans," and "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.).

The 20th Century Fox movie is based on Joyce Smith's book, The Impossible, and was adapted for the screen by Grant Nieporte ("Seven Pounds").
Nearly 3 in 4 Pastors Regularly Consider Leaving Due to Stress, Study Finds

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A study by a leading "Christian think tank" has shown that stress and exhaustion in pastoral ministry causes as many as 70 percent of pastors to regularly consider leaving, and many of them actually quit.

In a survey, the California-based Schaeffer Institute of Church Leadership Development found that about three quarters of pastors thought about leaving the ministry due to "clergy burnout," and about 40 percent of them actually did, most after only five years.

Based on the resurvey report, Citizen-Times spoke to pastors in Asheville, N.C., about what needs to be done.

Pastoral ministry involves being available 24/7 to help meet the needs of the congregation, apart from preparing for Sunday worship and numerous other management responsibilities. Yet pastors are not prepared to deal with it when they study at seminaries.

"In most seminaries today, pastors aren't taught half that stuff," Rev. Bill Buchanan, former pastor at Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church, told the Times.

"We are taught how to interpret the Bible, we are taught theology, how to preach and teach, but ministry and the church is changing so fast it is hard to keep up," added Buchanan, who started the Asheville Youth Mission after leaving the church. "All of these expectations are legitimate, but it is virtually impossible for one pastor to do all of those things well at once."

Many studies in the past have also found high stress levels among pastors and ministers.

A study conducted last year among more than 1,700 pastors found that clergy are at far greater risk for depression and anxiety, mostly due to stress, than those with other occupations.

The study by the Clergy Health Initiative at Durham-based Duke Divinity School interviewed over 1,726 United Methodist pastors in North Carolina and found that the clergy depression prevalence was 8.7 percent and 11.1 percent respectively, significantly higher than the 5.5 percent rate of the national sample.

The study also showed that the anxiety rate among clergy was 13.5 percent, and more than 7 percent of clergy experienced both depression and anxiety.

"It's common for public health professionals to ask pastors to offer health programming to their congregants," CHI research director Rae Jean Proeschold-Bell said in the survey report. "These findings tell us that we need to reverse course and consider how to attend to the mental health of pastors themselves."

In an article for The Christian Post, Dr. Thom Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention, recently identified seven greatest pain points of pastors, based on nearly 200 separate communications he received from various social media interactions, emails, and a few phone calls.

These included criticism and conflict, family problems, stress, depression, burnout, sexual problems and financial problems.

"Expectations of pastors can be unrealistic," Rainer wrote. "Pastors are often expected to attend multiple meetings, to visit countless congregants, to prepare sermons with excellence, to provide ongoing strategic leadership, to conduct weddings and funerals, and to be involved in the community. Many pastors don't know how or when to say 'no.' And many are not good at delegating, or they really don't have anyone who can handle some of their responsibilities."

In a national survey of Protestant pastors, LifeWay Research found in 2012 that more than one-half of pastors were discouraged. "I suspect that if we surveyed pastors over just a few months, we would find that almost all of them experience deep discouragement," Rainer said.

Faith leaders in Asheville told Citizen-Times that a key reason behind clergy burnout is that many pastors do not set boundaries allowing themselves time away from their church responsibilities.

Other reasons cited include a lack of enriching activities and relationships outside the church, always nurturing others while rarely getting nurtured, not being able to spend enough time with family, and an absence of general self-care needed for holistic development.

However, it is possible for pastors to have a successful and healthy ministry, faith leaders told the newspaper. For that, pastors must tell church leaders openly what they need to nurture themselves so that in turn they can best nurture their congregations, they said. Pastors must also have meaningful lives outside the church community.

The importance of having peer support must not be underestimated either, said Siler.

"This one thing I do know. Pastors need our prayers more than ever," Rainer wrote. "They need our support and encouragement. I am committed to pray for my pastor every day, even if it's only for a minute or so."
Pastor reveals the biggest lie too many Christians believe

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After nearly two decades as a pastor, speaker and Christian leader, Shane Pruitt has discovered some of the pervasive lies that too many people of faith have come to believe. And hes on a mission to right these theological wrongs in an effort to stop misplaced beliefs from holding people back in their faith.

Pruitt, who recently released a new book titled, 9 Common Lies Christians Believe: And Why God's Truth Is Infinitely Better, recently told The Pure Flix Podcast about how these common cliches and proclamations have had a negative impact on the faithful.

READ ALSO: 5 Incredible Stories of Hope, Inspiration & Miracles

Theres these one-liners, these cliches that we  have adopted into the Christian community, baptized them and have made them a part of our vernacular, Pruitt said. "But theyre not necessarily biblically true, and theyre actually lies that will hold us back in our faith.

Listen to Pruitt reveal the lies that could be impacting your faith:

Among the lies some Christians believe, though, is one that perhaps has the most pervasive impact. It can be found in the popular adage: Follow your heart.

Theres one lie that is at the bedrock or foundation of all these other lies, Pruitt said, noting that it is the lie that tells people theyre in control or that they are at the center of their own universe. Its a lie that culture values  but one that is totally and utterly false.

Who is the center of your universe? he asked. Is it you or is it Christ?

READ ALSO: 5 Ways to Reboot Your Relationship With God and the Bible

Pruitt shared his own personal story to illustrate why he started becoming more interested in exploring the lies too many Christians have come to believe. His journey started with his son, Titus, whom he and his wife adopted from Uganda.

Titus birth was traumatic, and the boy was faced with a great deal of medical issues.

[His mom] died during childbirth and so by the time Titus was brought into a clinic from way out of town he was almost in a comatose state, Pruitt said, noting that there were many complications and health woes. But we didnt know the severity of those needs until we got back to the states.

It wasnt until Titus was brought to a hospital in the U.S. that the Pruitts learned he had a severe seizure disorder and cerebral palsy. These diagnoses left much uncertainty, as Pruitt and his wife didnt know what Titus future would be like.

That just hit us with a ton of bricks, he said. For an entire year of him being at home, multiple surgeries, multiple doctors visits  I was pastoring a fast-growing church at that time. I had to pretend on the outside like everything was great.

Meanwhile, his wife suffered from anxiety over all that was unfolding, with the couple feeling pressure to keep it all together. But rather than continue on that path, the Pruitts had to make a decision to take a healthy approach to deal with the situation.

READ ALSO: Feeling Hopeless? Pastor Tony Evans Has a Solution

We just turned back to the basics of Gods word and we admitted that we were not okay, he said, noting that their decision to be so open inspired others to also be transparent.

Pruitt said the experience left him and his wife re-considering a theological belief that has been embraced by far too many: that God wont give you more than you can handle. The couple realized that this simply isnt an accurate view to take from scripture.

Yeah, sometimes it is more than we can handle, but that drives us to faith, he said. By faith you take that pressure off your shoulders, you put it on the shoulders of the Lord.

From there, Pruitt started drafting a broader list of lies, which formed the basis for 9 Common Lies Christians Believe. In the end, hes hoping to inspire people to go deeper in their faith.

Faith is not saying, Alright God, once I understand it then Ill trust you, Thats not faith, Pruitt said. Faith is saying, I dont get it. I dont understand it I might not like it, but God, I trust you, because youre doing all things for your glory and my good.

This article was originally published on Pure Flix Insider. Visit Pure Flix for access to thousands of faith and family-friendly movies and TV shows. You can get a free, one-month trial here.

Billy Hallowell, author of "The Armageddon Code," has contributed to TheBlaze, the Washington Post, Human Events, the Daily Caller, Mediaite, and the Huffington Post, among other news sites. Through journalism, media, public speaking appearances, and the blogosphere, Hallowell has worked as a journalist and commentator for more than a decade.
(ANSA) - Rome, April 8 - The German NGO Sea Eye's ship Alan Kurdi, which rescued 64 migrants last Wednesday off the coast of Libya, on Monday remains without a port of disembarkation after Italy and its interior minister, Matteo Salvini, refused entry into the country's territorial waters.

"This ship won't arrive in Italy," Salvini said on a TV talk show Sunday evening.

"You come here with a permit, saying please and thank you," he said.

On Sunday the ship launched a plea for help and said weather where it is currently stationed, 30 km off the Maltese coast of Valletta, is worsening.

On Sunday the NGO appealed directly to Maltese Prime Minister Josep Muscat, but the Maltese government hasn't officially taken a position regarding whether it will let the ship dock at one of its ports.


Pastors on 'Burnout:' We Forget We're Human

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Every pastor is susceptible to burnout, Wayne Cordeiro, pastor of New Hope Christian Fellowship, told a group of seven influential church leaders Wednesday.

Cordeiro was speaking at an event called the Elephant Room in Aurora, Ill., which featured "conversation's you never thought you'd hear from pastors." The Honolulu pastor acknowledged that getting burned out isn't an issue many pastors discuss publicly from the pulpit. But he recently released a book called Leading on Empty that centers on a period of burnout he went through in the ministry.

"It doesn't matter if you are in a small church or a big church," it can happen to anyone, he said at the conference, which was broadcast to over 60 locations across the U.S. Cordeiro explained that when he first started feeling burned out he didn't acknowledge it, and tried to keep going.

"I felt like Schindler. I could've saved one more marriage. I could've led one more person to Christ." But he said he finally realized he was wrong in thinking he could do everything he felt he had the capacity for if it wasn't actually what God had called him to do.

Oftentimes in ministry "you can't stop the train," he explained. "You think you're Superman at first because you link four or five successes together and you think you're bulletproof. We don't forget that we're pastors; we forget that we're human. You sleep with your Superman suit on."

T. D. Jakes of The Potter's House in Dallas, who was among the pastors at the Elephant Room, compared the Superman analogy to "a silent scream." He said if a plane is going down the passengers are going to be screaming, but the leader going down with it is not allowed to scream.

"We (pastors) have not been taught to scream," he said. "Whatever we go through we eventually go under, and then when we go under all the sharks come out and the whole church comes out to watch."

Cordeiro told those in the audience that in order to avoid going under he had to realign his priorities. Many pastors think they have to put themselves last in the ministry, but Cordeiro said he had to make his priorities become: "God, self, spouse, family, ministry."

James MacDonald, mediator of the event and pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel, said he has also experienced two periods of burnout in his ministry where he had to realign his priorities.

The first time he experienced it he had to take time away and figure out a new plan. "The Lord gave me some spiritual insights. I had neglected my soul. I had neglected my walk with the Lord. I was able to dial up my relationship with the Lord," he said.

MacDonald said getting support from others helped as well. "I had to make myself accountable to a group of people who could tell me, 'You're not going there. You're not doing that.'"

The other pastors participating in the event also spoke about sabbaticals, an extended time away from the ministry, as a good way for a pastor to avoid burnout. Crawford Loritts has been in the ministry for over 40 years and said that taking these breaks is different for everyone, but they are important.

He also said part of the problem that leads to burnout is that in today's church culture "everyone focuses on conferences about leadership development, when we need to focus more time on leader development. My identity is not my ministry. Younger leaders get on a treadmill of performance, when the truth of the matter is, God breathed on us."

Loritts told pastors at the event and those watching the broadcast that they had to stop separating their relationship with God from what they do. "Lead with that [relationship] instead, and that's when the Holy Spirit speaks to our hearts and helps us listen."

The Elephant Room discussions were first organized in 2011 by MacDonald and Mark Driscoll, who heads Mars Hill Church in Seattle. It features unscripted conversations between various Christian leaders. Other pastors who participated in this year's event included Jack Graham of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, and Steven Furtick of Elevation Church in Charlotte, N.C.
Rick Warren warns pastors that fast church growth 'can be a cancer,' shares antidote to discouragement

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ANAHEIM  Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in California urged church leaders to focus on obedience to Gods mission rather than boosting congregation numbers, as fast growth can be cancer.

Im not really impressed with ministries that grow fast. Fast growth can be a cancer, Warren said at the Closing Gala of Proclaim 19, the NRB International Christian Media Convention in Anaheim, California, last month. What I am interested in is the long haul  people who consistently serve Jesus Christ year after year after year.

Im interested in finishing well, and I want you to finish well. Your ministry matters to God. It matters to the Kingdom. We need you to stay in the race. We need you to not get tired. We need you to not quit. We need you to not give up. We need you to finish your race."

With church attendance plateaued or declining nationwide, Warren outlined several ways church and ministry leaders can fight discouragement, beginning with, Never forget how much God loves me.

Youve got to keep that constantly in focus, he reminded attendees. Everything in your ministry flows out of Gods love, Gods mercy, Gods grace. The problem is we can get so busy working for God, we forget how much God loves us. Your first purpose in life is not to love God. Your first purpose in life is to let God love you. The Bible says you were created as an object of Gods love.

Second, he encouraged pastors to avoid the temptation to fake it, adding: If youre going to be used by God, if youre going to be effective for God, if youre going to last in ministry, youve got to be authentic, youve got to be genuine, youve got to be yourself. Youve got to keep it real.

God, the pastor contended, did not create you to be somebody else  and those who focus on pleasing everyone end up experiencing ministry burnout.

When you get to Heaven, God isnt going to say, Why werent you more like Billy Graham? The reason we try to fake it is because we try to please everybody. Only a fool would try to do what even God cant do. Even God cant please everybody.

Third, Warren emphasized that ministry leaders need to be outward-focused, as those who are focused on themselves quickly become discouraged.

Every time you forget about this principle and you forget that its not about you, youre either going to get fearful or youre going to get prideful or youre going to get bitter in ministry, Warren said.

Everybody in this room has a unique life message that God wants to share with the world, but your life message is not about you. Its about Him. Its about our Savior Jesus Christ."

God is more interested in why you do what you do than He is what you do.

A lot of people start off as servants and end up as celebrities. They forget why they do what they do, and all of a sudden it is all about them, he said.

Fourth, Warren exhorted those in ministry to remember that Gods power is often manifested in weakness: When I first started off in ministry, I didnt even know I had any weaknesses, Warren said. Then I discovered them, and I denied them. Then I went from denial to hiding them. Then I went from hiding them to rationalizing them. Then finally I went to accepting them, and today, like Paul, I glory in my weaknesses because when I am weak, He is strong.

Humility, he contended, is not denying your strengths, but being honest about your weaknesses and thinking of yourself less.

Finally, the pastor encouraged those gathered to remember that God never wastes pain: Your greatest ministry will come out of your deepest pain if youll be honest with God, honest with yourself and honest with others, he offered.

Concluding his message, the pastor advised listeners to take time to rest and ultimately stay focused on eternity.

The reality is, every time you get tired, you lose your perspective. You dont think about Heaven when youre tired. You think about what youre feeling right now. When youre tired, you dont have a good perspective, he said. We need you to last. We need you to not flame out or to burn out or to rust out.

Rick and Kay Warren founded Saddleback Church in 1980. Today, the church is one of the largest in America, with a weekly attendance of over 22,000 people. The Lake Forest-based church says it was the first to send the Gospel to all 197 official nations in the world.

Warren is best known as the author of The Purpose Driven Life, one of the best-selling nonfiction books in publishing history. It has sold over 50 million copies and been translated into 74 languages.
Ronnie Floyd talks about leaving church he pastored for 32 years, leading SBC Executive Committee

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Correction appended

Arkansas megachurch pastor and author Ronnie Floyd will step down from his pastoral role after being elected this week to serve as the next head of the Southern Baptist Conventions Executive Committee.

We sought the Lord, through prayer, fasting, and really believe that God, really, this time, issued a call to [me and wife], and that we needed to be willing to put ourselves under the authority of the process of letting ourselves be looked at by the committee, Floyd told The Christian Post last week, explaining that he was initially pursued for the position starting last fall.

We asked the Lord for a declarative vote, and it was way overwhelming.  So I'm very, very grateful for that. And we accepted it. This coming Sunday, I am resigning after 32 and a half years [of ministry in Northwest Arkansas.]

Floyd, who was instrumental in forming what is now known as the multicampus Cross Church and a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, is said to have baptized over 22,000 people. He will take over a role that was vacated over a year ago by former Executive Committee President Frank Page.

Page stepped down citing an "inappropriate relationship. Page had served as president of the Nashville-based Executive Committee since 2010.

Floyd explained that he obviously has strong emotions about leaving Cross Church. He informed the congregation last Sunday that he was nominated for the role and his eventual departure could be possible.

A few days later, it became a reality via a 68 to one vote at a meeting of Executive Committee trustees in Dallas on Tuesday.

After making the announcement Sunday, Floyd explained that he heard from congregants' testimonies of how his ministry has impacted their lives and walks with the Lord.

Floyd, who also heads up the National Day of Prayer Task Force, told CP that he initially went and interviewed for the position the week after Thanksgiving. It was in February that Floyd received a call informing him that the committee wanted him to be the next president.

As leadership transitions at larger churches can sometimes be difficult, Floyd explained that the board of directors at the four-campus, over 25,000-member Cross Church, has been discussing for over two years how to handle the day that the 63-year-old Floyd either got called away or would no longer be able to pastor.

And so we have we have a succession plan that will kick in the order here with the church, Floyd said. Talking to the church about that, I told them Sunday that we have been planning this for the last two years plus and I will let them know more in the future, depending on what happened this week.

Considering his predecessor as head of the SBC Executive Committee left the position due to a moral failing, Floyd assured that he takes accountability measures to keep his walk with the Lord pure.

More than anything, rising early and starting my day with God, Floyd said. I've done that for decades, and spending time in the word and prayer and writing. Also trying to build a team of people around me that hold me to accountability  from staff members to lay people that are close in the leadership of the church.

Floyd also said a key for him is not placing himself in a vulnerable position.

Vast majority of the time, I travel with somebody with me. And when I was president of the convention, I did probably 90 to 95 percent of the time.

The SBC Executive Committee was formed in 1917 to act on behalf of the SBC between sessions. Its offices in Nashville were established in 1927.

As SBC has faced over a decade and a half of membership decline, Floyd said that he would like to see the SBC put its energy and resources to reaching the world for Christ.

He wants to see the Gospel presented to people across the world in order to make disciples of all nations.

And so that's where I'm going to put my focus, that theme of reaching the world for Christ, he said. I will filter my decision making to really encourage us to heighten evangelism at our convention.

Over the last two months, the SBC has had to deal with the impact of a Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News investigation that found that there were over 700 victims of sexual abuse by 380 Southern Baptist leaders since 1998.

As a result, SBC President J.D. Greear called for 10 churches highlighted in the investigation to be evaluated. Days later, the SBC Executive Committee bylaws workgroup cleared six of those 10 churches of acting indifferently.

An amendment to the SBC constitution has been proposed that would allow the denomination to remove churches that do show an indifference to addressing the crime of sexual abuse. The amendment will be discussed at SBCs annual meeting this June in Birmingham, Alabama.

There have been cases of sexual abuse exposed but as a denomination and convention and churches, we stand against all sex abuse, Floyd said. And so, therefore, we have to navigate through what is the best thing we need to do this June in relation to it, making that vision work.

The Southern Baptist Convention is not a top-down denomination and does not govern churches, Floyd added.

Floyd has also been among a group of conservative evangelical advisers who have informally engaged with the Trump administration, though his engagement with the administration has been nowhere near as heavy as many other evangelical leaders.

With that, Floyd has been among evangelical leaders that have had dinners at the Trump White House.

Correction: April 8, 2019:

This story has been corrected to state that membership at Cross Church is 25,000, not 8,000. Also, Ronnie Floyd did not help found the church (it was founded in 1870). Floyd did expand the number of campuses from one to four.
Ted Cruz threatens Yale Law School with lawsuit over blacklisting of Christian groups

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Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, wants to know if Yale Law School is illegally discriminating against Christians.

Cruz has launched an investigation into Yale Law Schools recent decision to apply their non-discrimination policy to summer and postgraduate public interest fellowships, arguing that it unfairly discriminates against students who wish to serve in organizations professing traditional "Christian views or sexual ethics.

Public news reports indicate that Yale Law School has recently adopted a transparently discriminatory policy: namely, that Yale will no longer provide any stipends or loan repayments for students serving in organizations professing traditional Christian views or adhering to traditional sexual ethics, Cruz wrote in a letter to Yale Law School Dean Heather Gerken last Thursday.

Cruz, who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committees Subcommittee on the Constitution, argued that the policy appeared to be in violation of the First Amendment.

The First Amendment protects both free speech and the Free Exercise of religion. Yales new policy does neither. Instead, it appears that the policy arose from unconstitutional animus and a specific discriminatory intent both to blacklist Christian organizations like the Alliance Defending Freedom and to punish Yale students whose values or religious faith lead them to work there, he said.

Please be advised that the Senate Judiciary Committees Subcommittee on the Constitution is opening an investigation into Yale Law Schools policy, announced via email on or about March 25, 2019, extending its putative nondiscrimination policy to summer public interest fellowships, postgraduate public interest fellowships, and loan forgiveness for public interest careers. As that investigation may include a subpoena duces tecum or a referral to the Department of Justice for action against the law school, please further consider this as notice of your obligation to take reasonable steps to retain all hard copies and electronically stored information relevant to this investigation and potential litigation, Cruz further warned.

A Yale News report said the law schools policy change was triggered after the schools chapter of the Federalist Society, a student group committed to open and honest debate on important legal issues, invited a lawyer from the conservative legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom to speak earlier this year. LGBTQ activists at Yale, known as the Outlaws, opposed the invitation and on Feb. 24 asked the administration to clarify its summer fellowship and admission policies regarding organizations that discriminate against members of its community.

The LGBTQ group argued that by supporting students working for organizations that supposedly discriminate against people like them in hiring practices, Yale would be violating its own nondiscrimination policy.

In a statement on Cruzs threat, Yale Law School said National Association for Law Placements policy and the American Bar Association require that law schools impose sanctions on discriminatory groups.

We recently decided that the Law School will require that any employment position it financially supports be open to all of our students, the statement cited by Yale News said. If an employer refuses to hire students because they are Christian, black, veterans, or gay, we will not fund that position.

A Cruz spokesperson told Yale News that he will possibly hold a hearing on the issue to determine whether Yale should continue receiving federal funds.

This discriminatory policy indicates that Yale Law School would prefer to sabotage the prospects of their own students than see them advocate for mainstream Christian or conservative causes, the spokesperson said. [Cruz] will possibly hold a hearing to determine whether their rights are being violated by Yale, an institution which receives federal funds and is clearly prohibited from this sort of discrimination.
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Irene brings babies into the world and was thrilled when she received her assignment. "However, my thrill was turned into disgust, discouragement and regret on my first day of work.

Irene Katusime, a midwife in rural Uganda, found herself assigned to a healthcare facility without the thing that is most foundational for her job: water. As a midwife, she attends to mothers during labor, new mothers, and newborns. During the vulnerable first days, it is Irenes job to exercise the highest levels of infection control  from providing a clean surface for the mother to give birth on, to cutting the umbilical cord and keeping it clean, to keeping her own hands clean to prevent infection, to teaching hygiene so new moms can care for and exclusively breastfeed their infants safely.

Imagine, then, caring for a newborn when you know that simply handwashing with soap prevents nearly 40 percent of neonatal deaths, but you cant adequately wash your hands between patients; you cant clean and disinfect equipment and surfaces; and provision of services for good personal hygiene for mothers and babies is impossible.

On that fateful first day, in the dry season, the only rain water harvesting tank attached to the maternity ward was empty with no single drop of water. The maternity ward was unbearably stinky and uncomfortable. Some caretakers carried water from a nearby borehole; others would keep the dirty linento be washed at home. The stench in the maternity ward was excruciating. For a moment I wondered whether this was a place for saving lives, or putting lives at risk.

Irenes experience is not the least bit unique to her facility, country or continent. A groundbreaking 2018 study by the University of North Carolina Water Institute evaluated data from 129,000 healthcare facilities in 78 low- to middle-income countries. The findings are alarming: 66% of healthcare facilities lacked soap and running water; 50% of healthcare facilities lacked piped in water and 30% lacked access to a nearby water source; and 33% of healthcare facilities lacked basic sanitation facilities.

In South-East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, healthcare-associated infections are responsible for 75% of neonatal deaths; newborns are not even named in some places because early death is so common. Most of this loss of life should be preventable, because infections, like sepsis which is responsible for 15% of neonatal deaths and 11% of maternal deaths, is transmitted by unwashed hands, contaminated beds, and dirty implements used to cut umbilical cords.

We know that encouraging mothers to give birth in healthcare facilities is much safer for both mother and child than birthing at home. But how can we rightfully ask them to come into facilities ill-equipped to keep them clean and safe? Why would we encourage someone to use a facility that we would not use ourselves?

In 2016, my organization, World Vision, took on that question in a more deliberate fashion and encouraged all our WASH programs (an acronym that stands for water, sanitation and hygiene) to consider working in health facilities and to report back on their progress. Weve begun to integrate our WASH programs with our health programs to provide clean and safe births and important early infant interventions to help everyone thrive.

Weve focused this integrated work in Mali, Uganda, Zambia and Kenya to start, with the longer-term goal to expand globally. Our model combines three life-saving interventions: bringing clean water directly into health facilities; training medical staff and community health workers to ensure a hygienic environment at home and in facilities; and equipping and supplying health facilities with critical supplies (both through direct equipping and through advocacy with governments to provide the appropriate supplies). These interventions, in collaboration with the Ministries of Health and regional and district health boards, are changing the quality of health facilities in the areas where we work.

With support from private individual donors, we worked with Irenes facility to rehabilitate its dilapidated system  including the existing, but non-functional, piped water system. We connected all wards and every critical point-of-care to water. Latrines were added, including those that meet disability standards, for mothers to easily access them from the delivery room. Staff and cleaners were trained, and now floors and toilets are cleaned daily. New mothers were also taught about the importance of breastfeeding and skin-to-skin contact with babies to keep them nourished and warm. Now when they leave the better-equipped health center, mother and child are also better-equipped to continue healthy and hygienic practices in the face of limited resources at home.

We believe that life is precious and that childbirth should be a time of joy, no matter where in the world a child is born. So Im happy to report that last year, Irenes health center assisted in 944 deliveries. So is Irene. My job is so enjoyable now because there is plenty of water to wash hands, equipment, work surfaces and floor. Mothers and caretakers, too, have no more excuses to store dirty linen; as such there is better personal hygiene and the ward is clean and hygienic  and smells good!

Jordan Smoke is Senior Manager for WASH Sector Programs at World Vision.
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The movie Unplanned, a Pureflix biopic about former Planned Parenthood director-of-the-year Abby Johnson, had more than a few unplanned obstacles to overcome for its opening weekend.

First, the Motion Picture Association of America gave the film an R-rating because of its depiction of abortion. As I mentioned on The Point last month, how tragically ironic that in many states a teenage girl doesnt need parental permission to get an abortion but needs it to see a movie about abortion.

Then, by some weird coincidence (yes, Im using scare quotes there), the movies Twitter account was suspended on the day of the movies release. And of course, CNN, the Hallmark Channel, and almost every other major network refused to accept advertising dollars for the movie. Even a major Christian music network refused to promote the film.

Even so, Unplanned brought in $6.1 million over the weekend, and Forbes magazine predicts it will gross $16 million, which would be a solid win for a limitedly-distributed film.

I took my daughter to see Unplanned, and I was moved. Even more, I left convinced that it teaches an incredibly important lesson: Silence about abortion is unacceptable and the reasons Christians give to justify their silencelike abortion being too political or too negativeare tragically bogus.

Abby Johnson was the youngest Planned Parenthood director in the country. Over her eight years with the organization, she grew increasingly uncomfortable. As she says at her website, she realized abortion was a product Planned Parenthood was selling, not an unfortunate necessity they were fighting to decrease. Then, she was asked to assist with an abortion, and watched the abortionist kill a 13-week old baby.

That was the final straw, and the rest, as they say is history. A history now on film for all to see.

Of course, its no surprise that Planned Parenthood and its allies dont want you to see behind the curtain of this national evil. As long as abortion remains hidden, they can continue to peddle their talking points, half-truths and lies: that abortion is not really the taking of a human life; that abortion is a compassionate choice for women; that Planned Parenthood isnt in this for the money; and that this is about helping women, and on and on.

What is surprising and what Unplanned exposes in a powerful way, is how misguided, and even cowardly, it is for Christians to remain silent. We have our reasons, of course: Its not Christian to protest abortion clinics, we are told. Abortion is a political issue, and we dont want to make those who have had an abortion feel bad.

Unplanned unmasks just how misguided each of those talking points is. First, it contrasts harmful protesting with the incredible power of prayer and consistent presence. When Abby escaped Planned Parenthood, she ran directly to the Human Coalition, people she met day after day after day outside of her clinic.

Second, the film earned its R rating because it showed the realities of both surgical and medical abortions. See it for yourself if you still think this is about politics, and not about the ending of innocent human life.

And finally, in a particularly poignant scene in the movie, Abby begins to realize the enormity of the evil shes participated in20,000 abortions, 20,000 lost lives. Her only recourse is forgiveness.

Churches that are silent about abortionbecause it ruins the positive vibe they want to have, or whateverarent dealing in reality. To ignore this issue because we dont want people to feel badly is to literally leave them in their guilt and shame. Why would any Christian whos been forgiven want to do that? Why wouldnt we want to point others to the love and forgiveness of Jesus that weve found, so they can find the redemption and the help that they really need?

Im thankful to see Abby Johnsons Unplanned story finally make it to the big screen. Im thankful that its exceeded so many expectations. And I pray that we will seize the opportunities we have, like the one this movie presents to us, to speak up loudly about abortion.

And today, on the BreakPoint Podcast, Warren Smith interviews Abby Johnson. You can hear her story directly in her own wordsat BreakPoint.org or wherever you download podcasts.

Resources

Thanks for stopping by, Abby Johnson | blog

"Unplanned" movie trailer

Originally posted at Breakpoint.
Brexit and the decline of Britain: lessons from the Old Testament

Did you know that what happens next with Brexit is clearly prophesied in the pages of the Old Testament?

That's right. It's all in the latter chapters of Ezekiel, and it can now be clearly understood thanks to ground-breaking new research that I myself have carried out. My pioneering investigation has involved a new system of Hebrew numerology based on winning combinations of figures from recent National Lottery results, combined with copious amounts of alcohol. And it puts a whole new spin on Ezekiel (sometimes literally) I can tell you.

Of course, believe that, and you'll believe anything.

Some things are very specifically prophesied and foreshadowed in the Old Testament  such as the crucifixion of Jesus, for example. But Brexit is not one of them. However, that said, there are some surprisingly prescient lessons we can learn about Britain's current situation from parts of the Hebrew Scriptures. Here are a couple from just two OT books:

1. Ultimately, neither the UK nor EU matter that much.

In Daniel 2, there is a dream in which there is a great statute  with a head of gold, middle of silver, legs of iron, and feet partly of iron and clay (from which we get the saying 'feet of clay,' incidentally). The different substances, it is subsequently revealed, represent different kingdoms, governments and power structures that will come and go over time.

The point is that each, in its era, seems permanent and invulnerable. But history will prove that not to be the case, as indeed the fulfilment of these words in the time after Daniel proved. And the same goes for the United Kingdom. Those of us who have grown up in it might feel it surely 'must' be there forever. But that is not the case. It's possible Brexit developments will lead to the break-up of the UK in future years. And if it does, we may be sad, for we have been in decline for a while. But we should not be dismayed. Kingdoms come, and kingdoms go, as Daniel reminds us.

The same, of course, goes for the EU.

Whatever our views on Brexit, the European Union is not the answer to all our problems. It will face many challenges of its own in the next few years. Perhaps it will not survive, regardless of whatever the UK ultimately does. Like the seemingly unshakeable golden head of Daniel's statue, one day it too will be toppled. Only God's kingdom, represented in Daniel 2 by a hurtling stone, will survive until the end of time.

As the Old Testament commentator Dale Ralph Davis says of the book of Daniel: "Kings and kingdoms, presidents and dictators, democracies and tyrannies and monarchies come and go and enter the landfill of history... Jesus has a coffin for every empire and emperor; the only true security is in the kingdom of the carpenter's son."

2. The current wish for a strongman is futile.

Recent years have seen many countries opt for maverick 'strongmen' to lead their nations  Erdogan in Turkey; Putin in Russia; Berlusconi in Italy; even Trump, in a way, in America. And today in the UK polling by the Hansard Society indicates that 54% of voters would like "a strong ruler willing to break the rules". Only 23% said they were against such an idea.

These are extraordinary figures, and yet the Hansard Society is a responsible organisation which one imagines conducts its polling to fairly high and rigorous standards. So we have to take the results seriously. Ruth Fox, director of the society, commented: "Unless something changes, this is a potentially toxic recipe for the future of British politics."

Britain today in its moral and political turbulence is reminiscent of Old Testament Israel in the 11th century BC. That too was a time when there was no guiding consensus and "all the people did what was right in their own eyes" (Judges 21v25). But instead of looking to God, of course, Israel demanded a new system of government in the form of a strong man (1 Samuel 8v5)  just as many in Britain are now apparently doing.

As Dale Ralph Davis (again) comments in another of his commentaries: "We have a tendency to assess our problems mechanically rather than spiritually..."

We instinctively think "the need is for adjustment, not repentance; [that] there is something wrong in the system that needs doctoring".

But, as Israel found, rejecting God's rule and changing its system of government didn't solve all its problems  it simply created new ones.

So what shall we take from all this? Perhaps the final words of the hymn The Day Thou Gavest, which are these: "So be it Lord, thy throne shall never, like earth's proud empires, pass away; thy Kingdom stands, and grows for ever, till all thy creatures own thy sway." Those words were sung when Hong Kong passed from British to Chinese rule in 1997. Perhaps we will sing them again before long when the UK and EU, like all powers before them, pass into history too.

David Baker is a former daily newspaper journalist now working as an Anglican minister in Sussex, England. Find him on Twitter @Baker_David_A
Game of Thrones star Jerome Flynn 'changed forever' after meeting child soldiers in South Sudan

English actor Jerome Flynn says the stories he heard from war-scarred children during a recent visit to South Sudan were "almost too painful to bear".

Flynn, who plays Bronn in the hit show Game of Thrones, said he was "changed forever" after his trip last month in his role as World Vision ambassador.

During his time in the country, he met some of the children World Vision is helping heal from the trauma of their experiences resulting from the five-year long civil war that has torn the country apart since it gained independence in 2011.

At least 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict, while World Vision said that at least 19,000 children had been forced to join armed groups.

Flynn said the stories of the children he met during his fact-finding trip were "unimaginable", with some being kidnapped by armed groups which then forced them to fight and kill people.

Some children told him that they had seen other children be killed "for not keeping up".

Other accounts revealed the scale of the devastation to communities, with homes and villages being burned to the ground, forcing people to seek shelter in camps for displaced people where there is little food and no educational provision.

"Children told me about unimaginable horrors they had seen and experienced," he said.

He continued: "Many lost mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters and were forced to make choices no child should have to make, just to survive.

"I met families torn apart because of the conflict and talked to parents who had sons and daughters snatched from them. At times I found their stories of what they had to endure almost too painful to bear."

Despite the heartwrenching tragedy, Flynn said there were small signs of hope as he praised the children and families affected for their resilience.

"Yet I also saw hope in a country ripped apart by war," he said.

"Dedicated World Vision aid workers are helping desperate families stitch their lives together amid the chaos. I was blown away by the resilience of the children, humbled by their spirit, and inspired by their determination to find happiness.

"I saw how war costs children their innocence but does not always destroy their childhoods. The bravery of the children I met will stay with me forever."

World Vision is warning that the latest peace deal is in jeopardy, with the country at risk of plunging into full-blown conflict again if it fails to form a national army of government and rebel forces by May 12.

"South Sudan's latest peace deal is on a short fuse and the situation is desperate," said Flynn.

"Help is needed urgently to protect children from further violence. Sadly, there are thousands of children across the world who need support right now. Please give generously to help them."
Malaysian human rights inquiry says police were behind pastor's disappearance

An inquiry into the disappearance of a pastor in Malaysia two years ago has pointed the finger at religious authorities and the police.

Malaysia's human rights commission, Suhakam, concluded that the Special Branch of the Malaysian police was behind the "enforced disappearances" of Pastor Raymond Koh, who was last seen on 13 February 2017, and Muslim social activist, Amri Che Mat, who went missing on 24 November 2016.

An eye witness said he saw Pastor Koh being taken from his car in Selangor at around 10:45am by 15 men dressed in black and wearing balaclavas. Mr Amri disappeared after leaving his home. His car was found the following day at a construction site.

The report identified their religious activities as a factor in their disappearances. Prior to going missing, Pastor Koh had been accused of proselytising Muslims, while Mr Amri practised Shia Islam, which is banned in Sunni-majority Malaysia.

The Council of Churches in Malaysia (CCM) is now demanding justice for the families.

It called upon the Malaysian government to launch an "independent and impartial" investigation into the disappearances, saying that the families had a "right to know the truth about the fate and whereabouts of these two men".

They also said the investigation needed to "clarify and separate the jurisdictions of the religious authorities and the Royal Malaysia Police" and be "free of conflict of interest".

"The Council of Churches of Malaysia (CCM) is thankful to Suhakam for conducting this inquiry with integrity, impartiality, transparency and courage," CCM's General Secretary, Dr Hermen Shastri, said.

"Suhakam had to take this up in the absence of an impartial and serious investigation, which the Malaysian police should have conducted as part of their statutory duty to uphold law and order in this country.

"This Suhakam investigation and inquiry process has been a vindication of the need for human rights to be placed at the forefront of all law and order matters in Malaysia. Going forward, we urge the Malaysian government to pay heed to the recommendations made by Suhakam today."

Chief Executive of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Mervyn Thomas, applauded the "courage, clarity and unanimity" of the commission in carrying out its investigation.

He called for freedom of religion to be respected in Malaysia as a "fundamental human right."

"We urge the government of Malaysia to act swiftly to ensure that the recommendations are implemented fully and effectively," he said.

"We call on the Malaysian authorities to do everything possible to establish the truth about the whereabouts and well-being of Pastor Raymond Koh and Amri Che Mat, and ensure that such incidents never recur.

"Enforced disappearances have absolutely no place in a civilised, democratic society where the rule of law should be respected and fundamental human rights upheld."
Scottish MSPs come out in opposition to assisted suicide after poll reveals broad support

Scotland will be "sending out mixed messages" if it moves to legalise assisted suicide, MSPs have warned.

MSPs warned in a letter to The Sunday Times that assisted suicide would risk damaging society and that the government should be working to reduce the occurrence of suicide wherever possible, rather than encouraging it.

"Have we really become a society that says the best answer we can provide to those suffering in end-of-life situations is to help them kill themselves? Is that really all we can offer?" the MSPs said.

"That, to us, is the measure of a desperately cold, soulless society. We think that in Scotland today we are better than that."

They added: "For the state to say that suicide is to be assisted in certain circumstances means we are in danger of sending out mixed messages. Society should be preventing suicide, not assisting it."

The letter was signed by Jeremy Balfour, Neil Bibby, Donald Cameron, Murdo Fraser, Mark Griffin, Gordon Lindhurst, John Mason, Mike Rumbles and Elaine Smith.

The parliamentarians are at odds with some of their colleagues after a separate group of MSPs wrote to The Sunday Times a week earlier saying it would be "brave" of the state to "support those who suffer" by permitting assisted dying.

Signatories of that letter included acting Scottish Tory leader Jackson Carlaw, former Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale and Scottish Green co-convener Patrick Harvie.

Last week, a poll by Dignity in Dying found overwhelming support across the UK for a change in the law to allow assisted suicide.

The survey, carried out by Populus, found that 87 per cent of British people were in favour of allowing terminally ill people with less than six months to live choose to end their lives with medical assistance. In Scotland, the figure was 83 per cent.

The poll also revealed broad support for assisted dying across most faith groups, including 82 per cent of Christians.

Previous attempts to legalise assisted dying in Scotland have been defeated in Holyrood.

Opponents of assisted suicide warn that vulnerable people may feel pressured to end their lives out of fear of being a burden to their loved ones and to society.

Gordon Macdonald, chief executive of Care Not Killing, a campaign group that supports better palliative care instead of assisted suicide, told The Times that as the Scottish Parliament has already rejected the idea in the last few years, there is "no need to debate this issue again".

"Most members realised then that the risks of legalising assisted suicide were too high and would put vulnerable people at risk of harm to justify taking that step," he said.

CARE for Scotland Director, Dr Stuart Weir the intervention from the MSPs was "timely" in light of the growing pressure to legalise assisted suicide in Scotland.

"The sad reality is that the other side try and sell assisted suicide as all about control and autonomy, but they are less quick to speak about the risks associated with legalising assisted suicide," he told Christian Today.

"Put simply, there is no way any assisted suicide law could be made safe from abuse and if legalised, the elderly, sick and those with disabilities would feel pressurised to end their lives to avoid being a burden.

"As a society, we can and must do better. From a Christian perspective I think being a burden on others is part of what makes us human.

"There are positive and powerful alternatives available for those at the end of their lives and we would like to see palliative care made more widely available.

"Scotland has a proud tradition of showing compassion for those in need and we want to show people that value, dignity and worth are not linked to personal circumstances."

CORRECTION: The original article stated that 87 per cent of British people were in favour of allowing terminally ill people to choose assisted suicide while in Scotland this was 83 per cent. This has been updated to show the correct figures as 84 per cent in the UK as a whole and 87 per cent for Scotland.
(ANSA) - Rome, April 8 - Residents of another outlying Rome district protested against the presence of Roma in local council houses Monday after a near-riot led to 60 or so Roma being moved from the Torre Mauro district last week.

"We don't want the gypsies here, that house should have gone to an Italian," said residents of Casal Bruciato.

One of the residents, Nunzia, told reporters: "That house has now been occupied by a girl with a six-month-old baby, she was sleeping in her car". "Better an Italian than the Roma...the Roma had better not return or we'll block everything".

An 85-year-old resident, Antonietta, told protesters "you are bloody fascists, you make me sick".

Rome prosecutors last week opened an investigation into the violent protests that took place in the Torre Maura district of the capital on Tuesday against the transfer of a group of around 60 Roma people to a reception centre there.

The probe is into the crimes of criminal damage and threats with racial hatred an aggravating factor.

Around 200 local people, supported by militants of the far-right CasaPound party, took to the streets in the protest, which saw trash canisters turned over and set alight, and bread trampled on.

The city council said that 60-odd people would be moved to other facilities in the Rome area.


Two Houston lawyers filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Boeing on Monday as the Boeing 737 Max planes are investigated in the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes that killed 346 people.

The lawsuit, the latest filed on behalf of families of victims killed in the crashes, alleges that Boeing "put profits over safety" when it didn't adequately inform or train pilots on changes with the 737 Max and allowed the planes to continue to fly without taking "appropriate action" after the Lion Air crash in October. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago, where Boeing is headquartered.

"In my 20 years of working on aviation cases, I've never seen such egregious and greedy conduct on behalf of a company," Nomi Husain, founder of Husain Law and Associates, said Monday during a news conference in downtown Houston.

At HoustonChronicle: Boeing's 737 Max grounded, Southwest adjusts

Governments around the world have grounded Boeing 737 Max planes following two crashes within months of each other. Investigators have linked the crashes to software that may have sent the planes into a dive that the pilots could not control. The first plane, Lion Air Flight 610, crashed into the Java Sea after departing from Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, in October.

The second, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, crashed in March shortly after departing the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

The 737 Max has likely damaged Boeing's reputation more than any other incident in the company's 103-year history, said Henry Harteveldt, founder of travel industry research company Atmosphere Research Group. Travelers are asking pilots and flight attendants if they're on a 737 Max.

"Boeing is going to come out of this bloodied and beaten," Harteveldt said, "but it will heal."

On Monday, Boeing's stock fell 4.4 percent to close at $374.52. This follows the company's Friday announcement that it would cut production of the 737 Max by 19 percent.

Monday's lawsuit was filed on behalf of Hassan Abdi, the brother of 29-year-old Mucaad Hussein Abdalla of St. Cloud, Minn., by Husain, Houston attorney Omar Khawaja and the Illinois-based Wisner Law Firm. Abdalla was killed in the Ethiopian Airlines flight, less than two months after getting married.

"I didn't get his body," Abdi said. "I cannot believe that something happened like this. The way the airplane crashed."

Boeing declined to comment on the specific lawsuit but said it is cooperating fully with investigating authorities. In a video statement last week, Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg expressed his condolences to the families of victims.

MORE: The investigation and cleanup that follows a plane crash

"These tragedies continue to weigh heavily on our hearts and minds," he said, "and we extend our sympathies to the loved ones of the passengers and crew on board Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302."

He also revealed that, according to a preliminary report from Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, erroneous information activated the maneuvering characteristics augmentation system, known as MCAS, in both the Ethiopian Airlines and the Lion Air crashes.

This software is supposed to kick in to prevent an airplane from stalling. But if activated when the plane isn't at risk of stalling, the result is a "terrifying tug-of-war with the plane's automated systems as the pilots manually tried to climb while the computer system repeatedly caused the plane to dive," according to court documents.

The court documents allege that Boeing knew or had reason to suspect a malfunction in the MCAS software and a sensor providing data to that software system following the Air Lion crash. An Emergency Airworthiness Directive, used when an unsafe condition requires immediate action by an aircraft owner or operator, was issued by Boeing on Nov. 6, 2018. Boeing also began investigating a software patch, though it did not push for further pilot training.

One of the selling points of the 737 Max was that it would not require a lot of training for pilots. It was branded as flying similarly to previous generations of 737s, allowing airlines to save millions of dollars on training costs. Some pilots received just one hour of training on an iPad or computer.

The 737 Max has a different flight control system from previous generations because its engines are larger. To clear the ground, these engines are positioned farther forward and a little higher up than previous designs of the 737. These adjustments change the flying characteristics of the plane.

The lawsuit alleges that the MCAS software was intended to operate automatically and without pilots even needing to know it existed. The MCAS software was not disclosed in the aircraft's flight manual. And two safety features that could mitigate its risks were optional add-ons for airlines and cost extra.

MORE: Southwest, mechanics' union reach tentative contract agreement

"Pilots of both Flight 302 and Flight 610 lost their fight with Boeing's flight computer," court documents said, "and hundreds of passengers and crew lost their lives."

Husain has handled aviation cases from plane crashes in Pakistan, Cameroon, Honduras, Bahrain, Indonesia and Sudan. He said they are seeking compensation and answers for their clients and penalties against Boeing, although the lawsuit did not specify an amount.

"That regardless of how big you are and regardless of your reach inside the United States government, when you put profit over safety you will be held accountable," Husain said.
A lively crowd turned out to Armadillo Palace on Sunday for tasty 'cue and the opportunity to save a national treasure.

Chaired by Penny Butler and Trey Strake, along with honorary chairs Marilyn and George Demontrond, the "Spirit of Texas" fundraiser featured a barbecue feast, open bar and music by Cory Morrow and his band.
The teenager charged with capital murder in the Santa Fe High School shooting was taken into federal custody Monday morning and will be arraigned on new charges, his attorney said.

Federal agents arrived at the Galveston County Jail to take Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 18, into custody and have him arraigned at the federal courthouse in Galveston at 1 p.m.

'THEY HAD NOTHING': Substitute teacher shot in Santa Fe pushes for more training and resources, only at HoustonChronicle.com.

Pagourtzis' attorney, Katy-Marie Lyles, said federal authorities plan to bring two new charges against her client related to the May 18 shooting, including a firearm charge and another for having an explosive device.

Lyles said the federal charges were unexpected. Families of people killed in the 2018 shooting at Santa Fe High School were told in a March private meeting with federal officials, including Ryan Patrick, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, that it was unlikely federal charges would be filed against Pagourtzis.

"We were absolutely shocked," Lyles said. "March 20th, they're saying, 'We're not going to pursue federal charges,' but then I guess Mr. Patrick consulted with his boss, so to speak, and I guess they decided to move forward with federal charges at this time."

Read More: Families: Feds not planning charges against alleged Santa Fe High shooter

Since the meeting with the U.S. attorney, victims and survivors' families began calling their U.S. elected representatives and rallying others in Galveston County to do the same. The families of all 23 people killed or injured in the shooting also planned a press conference for Sunday, which they canceled in hopes federal authorities would act in coming days.

John Barnes, a Santa Fe ISD police officer who was shot in the massacre, said the potential federal charges are an example of justice at work.

"Apparently, the right foot got in the right ass up there in Washington, D.C., so now he's getting charged," Barnes said.

Rosie Y. Stone, whose 17-year-old son Chris was killed, began sobbing when she got confirmation that the shooter would face federal charges.

"This is so awesome, it's finally coming," Stone said, pausing to catch her breath. "You don't know how much I've prayed for this. I'm so happy that everybody came together when we posted it out there. Everybody did their part to make this happen."

Galveston County District Attorney Jack Roady, who is prosecuting the state charges against Pagourtzis, said he did not have any information on the nature of the federal charges, but said they would not impact the state's case against the accused shooter going forward.

Pagourtzis, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, already is facing state charges for capital murder and aggravated assault against a public servant in the shooting that killed 10 people and wounded 13, including John Barnes, a Santa Fe Independent School District police officer. Pagourtzis faces life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years if convicted.

Nick Powell covers Galveston County for the Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter and send him tips at nick.powell@chron.com

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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.
Photo Courtesy of Rice University

Rice University's student startup competition awarded a total of $2.9 million to 42 competitors over the weekend at its annual business plan competition.

It was the most money ever awarded at the competition, which is in its 18th year. A team from Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minn., won first place at the competition.
Houston engineering, procurement and construction company KBR has entered into a deal to use turbines made by Baker Hughes when building medium-sized liquefied natural gas plants.

KBR designs and builds LNG plants but under the deal announced on Monday, the Houston-based service company will use LM2005+G5 and LM6000PF gas turbines made by Baker Hughes when building mid-scale LNG plants.

Mid-scale LNG plants use modular equipment and construction to build medium-sized production units that produce less than 3 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas per year. The turbines made by Houston oilfield service company Baker Hughes in Italy are touted as cost-saving and more efficient than those made by competitors.

"BHGE and KBR have a well-established 40-year history and partnership successfully delivering LNG projects," KBR Hydrocarbons and Delivery Solutions President Farhan Mujib said in a statement. "This allows us to further enhance our cost effective standardized approach to LNG design, minimizing CAPEX and OPEX for our clients."

Service Sector: KBR lands design contract for LNG export in Mexico

KBR is regarded as a pioneer in the LNG industry. Over the past 40 years, the company has designed and built one-third of the world's LNG production.

Monday's deal with Baker Hughes builds upon a September 2018 agreement with oil giant ConocoPhillips. Under that deal, KBR agreed to use ConocoPhillips' optimized cascade process technology when building modularized and medium-sized LNG plants.

Combined, the two deals are expected to bring down development and construction costs.

"We are delighted that KBR has selected our highly efficient and reliable gas turbine technology as part of the development of its standardized mid-scale LNG design," Baker Hughes Turbomachinery Process & Solutions President & CEO Rod Christie said in statement. "We welcome the opportunity to strategically work together with key partners like KBR, looking at our collective solutions across the value chain to develop a more competitive solution for customers."

Fuel Fix: Get daily energy news headlines in your inbox

Headquartered in Houston with roots going back more than 100 years, KBR reported a $281 million profit on $4.9 billion of revenue during 2018.

With services ranging from government contracting to the oil & gas industry, the company employs more than 36,000 people in 40 nations.
Oil spiked to its highest level in five months as a drop in the U.S. dollar and conflicts from Iran to Libya helped make the barrel look like an increasingly strong bet for investors.

Crude futures rallied 2.1 percent in New York Monday. The dollar fell, improving the lure of commodities priced in the greenback. Meanwhile, fighter jets bombed the Tripoli airport in Libya and U.S. President Donald Trump said he would designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist group, escalating tensions in two of the world's biggest producers.

"The expectation that the tightened supply picture is going to boost prices is starting to attract length into the market," said Gene McGillian, senior analyst at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut.

PRODUCTION: Rig count spikes after weeks of declines

The U.S. benchmark crude, meanwhile, shot past price thresholds watched closely by technical traders, who use charts to try to predict when a big move is imminent. At the same time, a suspected decline in crude supplies at Cushing, Oklahoma last week was another catalyst that helped push oil higher.

Crude prices have continued to climb after their strongest quarter in almost a decade as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies curb output while economic and political crises squeeze supplies in Venezuela and Iran. Increasing tensions in Libya, which pumped 1.1 million barrels of crude a day last month, add to the risks of a supply shortfall.

WTI for May delivery rose $1.32 to settle at $64.40 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude for June settlement added 76 cents to end the session at $71.10 on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The global benchmark crude traded at a premium of $6.77 to WTI for the same month.

POWER: Venezuela blackouts cut oil output by half in March

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index slid as much as 0.3 percent on Monday.

Libya Fighting Erupts Again. Here's the Oil Impact: QuickTake

Oil's gains are still being moderated by the ongoing supply boom from U.S. shale. American rigs climbed by 15 to 831 in the first increase since mid-February, according to data from oilfield services provider Baker Hughes on Friday. U.S. crude production is currently at a record high.

The structure of the futures market is also signaling tighter supplies. WTI's front-month spread flipped to backwardation from contango on Monday, a shift that likely invited more buyers into the market. May WTI closed at a 7-cent premium to the June contract.

"That tends to be a sign, if you're long oil, of a healthier market," said Stacey Morris, research director at Dallas-based Alerian, which tracks energy infrastructure companies. "The fact that we're seeing it all along the curve just reflects that the near-term concern is supply."

--With assistance from James Thornhill, Manus Cranny, Heesu Lee and Grant Smith.

2019 Bloomberg L.P.
The opening of the flagship The Roastery Coffee Kitchen at H-E-B at San Felipe marks not just the blossoming of a new coffee venture in Houston but a promise of even more great food from a vaunted New York culinary team.

Housed in the former Table 57 space at the H-E-B at 5895 San Felipe, the new Roastery expands the existing specialty coffee shop brand that already has made a home inside select H-E-B locations (already open in Bellaire at 5106 Bissonnet and the new Heights store at 2300 N. Shepherd). Owner Jason Giagrande who brought the unique concept to Houston H-E-B stores with his Four J Foods partners -- New York-based restaurateurs Giagrande (Jams), Joey Campanaro (Little Owl), Jimmy Bradley (formerly of The Red Cat), and Jonathan Waxman (Barbuto) -- intends to open 10 stores in the Greater Houston area in his partnership with Texas supermarket giant H-E-B.

While most of the Roastery units will be in the 1,200-square-foot range, the San Felipe store, at 7,600 square feet is positioned as a hub with commissary and catering capabilities, a one-of-a-kind roasting facility, and an expanded menu where Giagrande and his culinary team can tempt Roastery fans with pizza from a wood-burning brick oven, indulgent pastas and entrees such as Gulf fish and chips, shrimp and grits, and crab boil crawfish roll.

STEAK TOWN: Southern Smoke Spring festival fires up steak dinners that are the hottest culinary tickets in the city

Those entrees  to be augmented with specials including large format steaks and fish -- are just a hint of what Four J CEO Giagrande has in store for Houston. Within a year, the chef/entrepreneur said he intends to open a full-service restaurant. If it's anything like Jams or Barbuto, the city is in for a treat.

But first there's a Roastery empire to build. Judging from the smart grand cafe at San Felipe, the Roastery has plenty to offer discerning diners and coffee drinkers. Guests -- who can enter the restaurant through its own portal or through H-E-B  will find a large dining room fronted by a coffee roasting area, a full bar, and a patio where live music will be offered.

The Roastery's roastery  a open-air hive of coffee production and busy baristas  with a Dutch-made Giesen roaster, considered the Cadillac of coffee shop roasters. Overseeing the coffee program is master roaster Jennifer Stone, who sources her beans sustainable harvesters in Indonesia, Colombia, Honduras, Kenya and Brazil. The coffee program will eventually include a house blend designed specifically for the Bayou City called H-Town Roast. In addition to selling whole and ground beans at retail, the shop also will package its own K-cups.

The culinary team led by director Matt Johnson includes executive chef Kent Domas, formerly of Alice Blue, and pastry chef Sarah Schnitzer, formerly of Pax Americana. Together they have created a day-long menu that begins with morning toasts (avocado; burrata and roasted peppers with kale pesto; prosciutto and fig), seasonal frittata, quiche, smoked salmon on simit bread with cream cheese and capers, yogurt with house-made granola, and house made croissants, muffins, cookies and scones.

The menu segues to small plates (charcuterie board, pork belly sliders, duck wings, crudite and tempura green beans) and salads (kale with pecorino and anchovy vinaigrette; bibb lettuce with beets and sherry-shallot vinaigrette; quinoa with greens, asparagus, walnuts and lemon-pepper dressing; chicken Cobb salad; and roasted vegetable salad with apple-cider vinaigrette). Sandwiches include a breaded chicken cutlet with broccoli rabe; roasted turkey with avocado and sprouts; espresso-rubbed roast beef with arugula and horseradish aioli; New York Italian combo of cured meats, provolone and cherry peppers; crispy eggplant, mozzarella and roasted tomatoes; and three grilled cheese.

ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Why Texas barbecue generates such passionate debates

Pizza options include a margherita, wild boar sausage with broccoli rabe and mushrooms, summer squash with goat cheese and walnuts, and spring greens with ricotta and honey. Pasta offerings: pan-seared gnocchi with peas, asparagus and lemon cream, and oven-baked ricotta-filled pasta with short rib ragout.

Larger plate options include fried Gulf fish and chips; shrimp and grits with red-eye gravy; summer squash fritters with arugula, tomatoes and tahini; fried chicken sandwich with slaw and comeback sauce; a burger topped with five-year cheddar, thick-cut bacon and aioli; a Sloppy Joe made with buffalo meat and stuffed with fried pickles; a veggie burger; and aioli-dressed crawfish and corn loaded into a split-top bun.

There's beer, wine, and classic cocktails including a Manhattan, margarita, Texas martini (Tito's, St-Germain, lemonade and jalapeno) and a white Negroni. This being a roastery, coffee cocktails are also offered: espresso martini and a coffee Cuba Libre made with coffee soda; hot coffee drinks too such as Mexican Coffee (coffee, coffee liqueur and tequila); Irish Coffee (coffee, cream, Jameson and creme de mente); and the Spaniard (rum, coffee liqueur, Grand Marnier, coffee, cream and cinnamon).

"We wanted to create something refined but fun  fun casual dining," Giagrande said of the Roastery.

FLAVOR: Hungry for restaurant reviews and recipes? Get the free, weekly Flavor newsletter delivered to your email.

The next Roastery will go into H-E-B's Buffalo Heights store, 3663 Washington, scheduled for the summer, to be followed by Meyerland at 5417 S. Braeswood. After putting down firm roots in Houston, the Roastery will move into the Austin and San Antonio marketplaces, Giagrande said.

So how did the Roastery come to partner with H-E-B? For six years Giagrande has worked as a consultant with the company which also carries the Roastery brand coffee on its store shelves. Having come to Texas, and Houston in particular, over the years, Giagrande decided the city would be home to the new brand Four J Foods envisioned.

"Houston was attractive," Giagrande said, "because it felt most like home to me."

Now that's how to start a hometown brand.

The Roastery Coffee Kitchen at H-E-B, 5895 San Felipe, is open Monday through Thursday 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. For more information see theroastery.com.

Greg Morago writes about food for the Houston Chronicle. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter. Send him news tips at greg.morago@chron.com. Hear him on our BBQ State of Mind podcast to learn about Houston and Texas barbecue culture.
When directors and students began from scratch to work on last falls production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, winning nominations to this years Tommy Tune Awards was the last thing on their minds.

We walked in with a clean slate, said Michelle Smith, explaining that she and her husband, Asa, started the school year as co-theater directors at the school. Our choir director, Ricardo Valle, was also brand new. We didnt know the students; so we asked them to tell us what theyre good at and what they would like to do.

A sophomore, Bea Gundling, said she could sew; so the Smiths named her the student costume designer for last Octobers production.

Nailing a showstopping tap routine

Ivy Sepulvado, a junior, was picked as the student choreographer.

Ryan Fielder had played smaller roles, but he said he would never have thought of himself to play the shows most celebrated character, William Barfee, who spells out words with his magic foot in order to see the letters before speaking them.

The show scored a nomination for best costume design, and Fielder was nominated for best leading actor for his performance, which included a showstopping tap dance that he choreographed with Sepulvado.

Winners of the 17th annual competition will be announced in 15 categories in a Tony Awards-style ceremony at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 30 at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Houston.

The rambunctious celebration features performances from some of Houstons most talented teens, said Dan Knechtges, the artistic director at Theatre Under the Stars, which sponsors the program.

Fielder, 17, said he fell in love with theater when he was cast in a show as an eighth-grader at Westbrook Intermediate School.

That was definitely a game-changer, said the son of Rodney and Stacy Fielder of Friendswood. I played the king in The Happy Scarecrow. Actually experiencing what its like to be on stage was so different from what I thought.

As a freshman at Clear Brook, Fielder played one of the Wickersham Brothers in Seussical. His sophomore year, he portrayed Igor in Young Frankenstein, which required him to tap-dance to the tune of Puttin on the Ritz.

It was my first time (to tap-dance); so it really pushed my limits, he said.

It also inspired him to train harder the next summer in classes at the Broadway Dance Center in New York City.

When he was cast as William Barfee, Fielder asked the Smiths if he could add tap to his big number, Magic Feet.

We never imagined 

At the Tommy Tune Awards, he will reprise a sampling of that performance in the best leading actor medley, which is always a highlight of the show.

A production of Seussical in 2016-17 and Young Frankenstein in 2017-18 were entered in the Tommy Tunes, but neither scored a nomination.

Entering this years show in the competition, Michelle Smith said, We never imagined getting a nomination.

Instead, the directors saw the Tommy Tunes as an opportunity for their students to apply for scholarships from TUTS and to enable two students to perform in the awards shows finale, along with two students from each of the other 64 Houston-area high schools that entered the competition.

Representing Clear Brook in the finale will be two seniors: Austin Ceccacci, 17, the son of Anthony and Jennifer Ceccacci of Clear Lake City, and Savannah Salois, 17, the daughter of Aric and Angela Salois of Clear Lake City.

Our show was entirely student-designed, Smith said. The kids spent no money on the costumes. They used what we already had or what they already owned. Our costume designer really nailed it because the characters (who are quirky adolescents) looked like real kids.

The designer, Gundling, 16, is the daughter of Jeremy and Heather Gundling of Friendswood.

The choreographer, Sepulvado, a 17-year-old junior, is the daughter of Misty Osborn of Friendswood.

Tickets to the awards show go on sale to the public at 9 a.m. Monday, April 15.

Don Maines is a freelance writer who can be reached at donmaines@att.net
Tensions were running high in Ferguson, Mo., when teams of FBI agents arrived to investigate the Aug. 9, 2014 fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by now former police officer Darren Wilson.

The officer-involved shooting ignited unrest in the St. Louis suburb and prompted demonstrations throughout the country. The federal inquiry was to determine if the fatal shooting was a civil rights violation. But, it also became a domestic terrorism event as racial gangs and militia members swarmed to take advantage of the situation.

Everybody just sort of descended on Missouri  St. Louis  to make this their battleground, Supervisory Special Agent Grehoski said. We had source reporting that some of the gangs had stockpiled weapons in abandoned houses. They were just waiting for the fighting to start.

Grehoski is assigned to the Houston FBI office  which also covers Katy  but was working in the civil rights unit at FBI headquarters in Washington at the time. His presentation about the Ferguson shooting was part of a briefing for local media about civil rights investigation conducted by the FBI.

The agents mission in Ferguson was to determine what actually happened and if Wilson reasonably believed Brown posed a threat of seriously bodily injury to himself and others before pulling the trigger or if Michael Brown was attempting to surrender before he was shot.

The entire incident  from the initial dispatch of a theft in progress at a local business to the fatal shooting  happened in about nine minutes. In addition to the sometimes violent demonstrations, cyber activists like the group called Anonymous hacked into police databases and began publishing personal information of officers in the department.

The out-of-towners that were trying to instill chaos were calling in false 911 reports to divert law enforcement resources to other places so they could create more havoc, he said. Our goal was to just try and keep everybody safe.

While all that was going on around them, Grehoski and the other FBI agents were trying to conduct their investigation.

There was a lot of animosity and a lot of anger in Ferguson. This was the flashpoint incident that caused the chaos, he said. It was very challenging.

The FBI agents  working in groups of four for their own safety  canvassd of the entire neighborhood, eventually knocking on 418 front doors as they sought any potential witnesses to the fatal shooting. The interviews all happened during daylight because agents determined it was simply too dangerous to work at night.

Anybody who said they had any information whatsoever was interviewed, Grehoski said.

He said 121 interviews were conducted, including 38 would only talk to the FBI and refused to speak with local authorities. Of that number, seven people were deemed to be credible witnesses. Grehoski said each of their accounts matched up with each other and with the version that Wilson had provided during multiple interviews with federal and local investigators.

You never saw any of those seven people in the media. Every one of (them) kept quiet. They came forward by themselves or with their attorney in quiet because snitches get stitches. he said, referring to threats scrawled on local buildings warning against cooperating with police.

They didnt want any attention  they didnt want any publicity  they didnt want any retaliation, Grehoski said.

Television interviews with self-described witnesses to the fatal shooting invariably proved less-than-useful. In most cases, they were repeating what they heard on the news or from social media.

A lot of them admitted (they) just wanted to be part of something big. This was a huge thing going on (and) they wanted to get on TV, Grehoski said. They were just hungry for that attention.

After several months, a local grand jury decided not to indict Wilson in the shooting. The Justice Department also cleared him of any civil rights violations, saying that forensic evidence gathered at the scene and testimony from witnesses supported the officers account of what happened that day. Even if he would not face any criminal charges as a result of the officer-involved shooting, Grehoski said Wilson could not be considered a winner in the matter.

His life was ruined by this. Officer Wilson was doing his job that day. Michael Brown was doing what he was doing that day, Grehoski said. They met in the street and it ended tragically for everybody.
KPRC's Britta Merwin shared some happy news on a personal front Thursday.

"We're officially a party of five," the pregnant meteorologist, who joined the local TV news station in 2014, announced via Facebook.

This is the third child for Merwin, due this fall according to her post, and her husband.

Sharron Melton: 20 things you don't know about me

The good news at KPRC keeps coming. Merwin's colleague, Lauren Freeman, is pregnant as well.

Due this summer, Freeman is expecting her fifth boy with her husband, Dr. Forrest Roth, the evening news anchor posted on Facebook.

"No, we weren't trying for a girl! My kids are excited and can't wait to meet him," she wrote in her social media post.

Tom Koch: 20 things you don't know about me

Also counting down the days until her due date is Lisa Vaughn.

The former KRIV personality, now a freelance meteorologist at KHOU, announced on-air in March that she was four months pregnant, local media blogger Mike McGuff reported.

"By the way, my cat sleeps in the baby's bassinet every night," Vaughn told McGuff.

"I guess I will have to get another one for the baby," she added jokingly.

>>> See more on the three pregnant TV personalities in the photos above.

Marcy de Luna is a digital reporter specializing in social media, the famous, and food. You can follow her on Twitter @MarcydeLuna and Facebook @MarcydeLuna. Read her stories on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com. | Marcy.deLuna@chron.com | Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message
3 1 of 3 Harris County Precinct 5 Constable's Office Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Harris County Precinct 5 Constable's Office Show More Show Less 3 of 3





A big haul of illegal drugs are off the streets thanks to the efforts of deputies with Harris County Precinct 5 Constable Ted Heaps Office.

Rudy Ramos, 20, was arrested on Friday, April 5, after being stopped in the 32100 block of Hempstead Highway in northwest Harris County. Ramos was allegedly found to be in possession of seven kilograms  about 15.7 pounds, according to the charging instrument  of crystal methamphetamine in the bed of his pickup truck.
It was passion and persistence that got the attention of NASA when a team of seven students from Cryar Intermediate School in Conroe created a possible solution for astronauts who get dizzy and sick in space.

The fifth-and sixth-grade students on the team, also known as the RoboCatZ, started the year off like any other First Lego League group  they worked together at least once a week to build and program their robot, document their work and develop core values for their group.

They also had a research project objective they needed to complete. The kids were tasked with finding a solution for a problem that astronauts may face in space, team member Austin Barnett explained.

I have a brain condition called chiari malformation: you get dizzy a lot, you have headaches and you lose your balance sometimes too. Astronauts experience the same thing, Barnett said. I go to an acupuncturist, and we thought that if acupuncture works on me, then maybe it can help the astronauts, too.

The kids set to researching. They found that there was a study done a few years ago in Europe that experimented with acupuncture on astronauts during a parabolic flight that simulates a zero-gravity environment.

Then, they contacted Barnetts acupuncturist, Stacy Wunsch Tenant, to find out how acupuncture works.

I gave them a lot of information on acupuncture and how it works, how it would help with the dizziness and motion sickness astronauts get. I thought it was an awesome idea to take something that is more natural and help the astronauts stay healthy, Tenant said.

They also contacted a NASA flight surgeon, also known as a medical officer, for his expertise about space medicine. That doctor is Robert Mulcahy, who is stationed at NASAs mission control center.

Im not normally talking to kids of that age about space medicine, so figuring out how to communicate in a way that makes sense to them was interesting and fun, Mulcahy said.

Mulcahy said the kids asked him about how gravity affects the human body in space, what issues an astronaut might face during the flight and why theyre more susceptible to certain medical conditions.

They asked if weve used acupuncture to treat (space motion sickness), but as far as I know weve never utilized it in space flight. But we always like hearing new ideas like that, and it always helps to think outside the box, Mulcahy said.

The team set to work developing their prototype for performing acupuncture in space. It involves a sealed container with the needle inside, with a lid and button on top and adhesive on the bottom to stick to an astronauts skin. They compiled binders of research and presentation materials on which points on ones body would be helpful to treat with acupuncture to alleviate nausea, motion sickness and headaches.

When Mulcahy received their proposal, he passed on their idea to the research arm of the Human Health and Performance Directorate at NASA to evaluate.

Now, NASA is to be sending a representative to talk with the students about their idea and evaluate it. Barnett said that they dont know yet when the representative is going to visit them, but he and the team seemed excited.

It makes us feel very surprised, like we can actually accomplish something. Were going to try our best and hope that we can solve this problem of astronauts being dizzy, nauseous and sick in space, Barnett said.

jane.stueckemann@chron.com
March 29

At 11:12 a.m., an officer was flagged down in the 6000 block of Academy in regards to a theft that just occurred.

At 2:52 p.m., an officer was dispatched to the 5800 block of Kirby in reference to a burglary of a motor vehicle that had already occurred.

An officer was dispatched to the West U PD Lobby in reference to a delayed report for Failure to Stop and Give Information that occurred in the 2600 block of Werlein. An unknown suspect struck the complainants vehicle and then left the scene without providing the required information. An offense report and crash report were generated.

March 30

An officer observed a vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed while northbound in the 5500 block of Buffalo Speedway. A traffic stop was conducted and after further investigation, the driver (Luis Castor) was arrested for Driving While Intoxicated.

An officer observed a vehicle fail to come to a stop when making a right turn on red in the 4100 block of Bissonnet. The officer observed the vehicle commit several other traffic violations and attempted to conduct a traffic stop but the vehicle fled from officers and a pursuit was initiated. The vehicle crashed in the 5500 block of Wakeforest and the driver began evading on foot. A thorough search of the area was conducted but the suspect was not located. An offense report and crash report were generated and the investigation continues.

March 31

An Officer observed a vehicle traveling north bound in the 6700 block of Buffalo Speedway with expired registration. The Officer initiated a traffic stop on the vehicle. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that the driver was driving on a suspended license. The driver (Christopher Gleennlee) was arrested and charged with the offense of driving while license invalid.

April 1

An officer observed a vehicle fail to stop when turning right at a red light. The vehicle pulled into a driveway and later struck a tree while reversing. A traffic stop was conducted and after further investigation, the driver was arrested for Driving While Intoxicated.

An Officer was dispatched to the West U PD Lobby in regards to an Auto Theft. A report for Auto Theft was generated.

April 2

Officers were dispatched to the 4000 block of Bellaire in reference to a burglary of motor vehicle that had already occurred.

April 3

At 8:21 a.m., an officer was dispatched to the 4200 block of Bellaire in reference to a report of found property.

An officer observed a vehicle traveling eastbound in the 4000 block of Bissonnet without tail lights on as required. A traffic stop was conducted and after further investigation, it was found that the driver provided a false/fictitious name and date of birth and had an outstanding felony warrant out of the New York City Police Department. The driver was arrested for Fail to Identify-Fugitive from Justice.

An officer was dispatched to Harris County Sherriffs Office JPC to pick up a prisoner in custody with two outstanding West University Place warrants. The prisoner (Deric Hall) was transferred to the West University Jail Facility and booked without incident.

April 4

At 11:44 a.m., an officer was dispatched to the West U PD Lobby in reference to a FSGI that had already occurred.

An officer observed a vehicle westbound in the 4100 block of Bissonnet with expired registration. A traffic stop was conducted and after further investigation, the driver was found to be in possession of marijuana. The driver was deemed eligible to participate in the Misdemeanor Marijuana Diversion Program and was released from the scene.

An officer was dispatched to the Harris County Sheriffs Office Jail to pick up an individual with outstanding warrants through the City of West University Municipal Court. The individual (Lee Benson) was taken into custody and transported without incident.
More than 10,000 people are expected to attend this years Katy Area Safety Fest, slated to start at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 13, at Typhoon Texas.

After the gates open, a full slate of events are scheduled at the festival, which was designed to introduce residents to their first responder agencies. The first event was held in 2016. The timing couldnt have been worse as it kicked off immediately after the so-called Tax Day Flood. Although organizers thought only about 500 people would attend, more than 2,500 people showed up.

The idea for the Safety Fest began the year before as Harris County Emergency Services District 48 Fire Department was transitioning from a full-volunteer to combined full-time and volunteer fire department.

This years Safety Fest will be held Saturday in the parking lot at Typhoon Texas, 555 Katy Fort Bend Road. In addition to EDS 48, more than 20 other agencies  ranging from the Katy Fire and Police Departments, to the Texas Department of Public Safety and Harris County HAZMAT  are expected to be on hand to show people the roles they play in public safety.

Organizers call it a free, family-friendly festival. Activities include fire department and EMS demonstrations, tours of fire trucks and ambulances, an example of a car extraction, law enforcement exhibits and vehicles tours and  possibly the most dramatic  landings and take-offs by LifeFlight and police helicopters. There will also be a Kids Zone inflatable area along with music from local artists.

Last years event  held in the parking lot at Katy Mills Mall  also had its challenges because of the cold and windy weather but more than 5,000 people showed up.

For more information, go to http://katyareasafetyfest.org.

Katy City Council

Katy City Council will meet on Monday, April 8, at 6:30 p.m. at Katy City Hall, 901 Ave. C. Visit http://cityofkaty.com/government/council/agenda to check the agenda.

Katy Chamber of Commerce

The Katy Chamber of Commerce April luncheon will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday, April 9, at Embassy Suites by Hilton at 16435 Katy Freeway. For more information, go to www.katychamber.com.

Leslyn Jacks, a music teacher at Katy Elementary School, is scheduled to make a presentation on the Katy ISD Education Foundation.

Fulshear-Katy Area Chamber of Commerce

The monthly member meeting of the Fulshear-Katy Area Chamber of Commerce is scheduled to start at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, April 10, with a meet-and-greet and the meeting set to start at 8 a.m. at Parkway Fellowship 27043 FM 1093 in Richmond. The guest speaker is scheduled to be Wendy Duncan, director at Willow Fork Drainage District and co-founder of Barker Flood Prevention.

Joe Joe Bear Charity Car Show

MKT Distillery is presenting the Joe Joe Bear Charity Car Show benefiting the Joe Joe Bear Foundation. Joe Joe Bear provides children with a life-threatening illnesses a teddy bear and educational resources for parents and caregivers. There will be food trucks, vendor booths, live music, air bounce and so much more. The event is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at MKT Distillery at 5373 1st Street in Katy. For more information, go to http://tinyurl.com/y4ydvlcv.

Egg Hunt

Jordan Ranch is scheduled to host an adult and children egg hunt on Saturday, April 13. Adults and children are invited to hunt for golden eggs with cash yolks at the Jordan Ranch Easter Egg Scramble noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 13. The free event will take place at communitys model home park, 2422 Sandhill Crest Lane. Separate hunts will be held for children and adults and all can enjoy the petting zoo, DJ, photo booth, face painters, balloon twisters and food trucks. For more information about Jordan Ranch, visit www.jordanranchtexas.com.

Baskets & Bunnies

The city of Katy will host its Baskets & Bunnies event at Katy City Park on Saturday, April 13. Children can enjoy bounce houses, a petting zoo, photos with the Easter Bunny and an Easter Egg Hunt. Great Harvest Bread Katy will serve an assortment of goods for breakfast, lunch and desserts. The event is scheduled for start at 9 a.m. and run through noon, including an egg hunt at 11 a.m. sponsored by Parkway Fellowship.

rkent@hcnonline.com
A man was arrested Friday after he allegedly broke into a Willis home, pistol-whipped the owner and fled with electronics.

Dillon Scott Vienneau, 21, of Cypress, is facing an aggravated robbery charge, a first-degree felony, for the incident. Vienneau was identified by the homeowner and a neighbor. He is also facing four misdemeanor charges. At the time of the alleged robbery, he had three warrants for marijuana possession and one for evading arrest/detention, according to a Montgomery County Sheriffs Office press release and jail records.

Vienneau is being held on a $180,000 bond, according to jail records.

Sheriffs Office

A three-vehicle wreck Wednesday afternoon on Interstate 59 northbound between Kingsport Drive and Fostoria Road left the outside shoulder closed for at least an hour and a half, according to the Montgomery County Sheriffs Office.

Precinct 1 Constables Office

A tractor-trailer was overturned Wednesday on FM 830 and Texas 75 and snarled traffic, according to a Montgomery County Precinct 1 Constables Office social media post.

BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: Get your Houston breaking news alerts delivered to your inbox

Precinct 4 Constables Office

Two men were taken into custody Sunday for possession of methamphetamine by Montgomery County Precinct 4 deputies after stopping a white passenger car for a traffic offense at a gas station at FM 1485 and US 59, according to a Pct. 4 social media post. Photos from the arrest identified the men as Howard Brown and John Martin.

A man was arrested around Thursday for possession of a controlled substance and tampering with physical evidence after Pct. 4 deputies conducted a traffic stop on FM 1485. As the man was driving and making a slow turn, he allegedly threw a small object from the drivers side of the vehicle. The driver was detained and the object was recovered and identified as a small plastic bag with a crystal-like substance that tested positive for methamphetamine, according to a Pct. 4 social media post. Photos from the arrest identified the man as Jeremiah Burley.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY: Ex-San Jacinto County judge arrested and charged with impersonating a public servant

An arrest warrant was pending Wednesday after a search warrant executed by Pct. 4 deputies found a pistol with its serial number removed, narcotics and an abundance of drug paraphernalia in an unidentified convicted felons trailer home in Porter. The search stemmed from a tip provided during a traffic stop, according to a Pct. 4 social media post.

A man was in custody Wednesday for manufacture/delivery of a controlled substance after nearly one and a half pounds of methamphetamine were recovered following a half-month investigation stemming from multiple tips, according to a Pct. 4 social media post. Photos from the arrest identified the man as John Matthew Goines.

jose.gonzalez@chron.com

twitter.com/jrgzztx
(ANSA) - Milan, April 8 - Deputy Premier, Interior Minister and League leader Matteo Salvini on Monday called for Turkey's application to join the EU to be definitively rejected as he met with the heads of other European right-wing parties in Milan. "Turkey is not in Europe and it never will be," Salvini told a press conference at the gathering entitled 'Towards a Common Sense Europe, Peoples Rise Up'.

"The accession process should be cancelled. It should be definitively stopped". Among the figures taking part in the event are Jorg Meuthen of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Anders Vistisen of the Danish People's Party and Olli Kotro of the Finns Party.


As Tuesday morning looms ominously for students, parents and teachers who must get through the first round of STAAR testing, McDonald's hopes to brighten things up with free food.

All Houston-area students in grades 3-8 and their teachers may receive a free breakfast Tuesday, April 9 from 6 to 9 a.m.
One of the lawyers repeatedly slept through trial and the other had never handled a capital murder before. But last week a Houston federal judge decided that was good enough to keep George McFarland on death row, despite his longstanding claims of innocence and a conviction based largely on the testimony of a single, tentative eyewitness.

The Harris County man was sentenced to die in 1992 for the slaying and robbery of a local grocer, a 43-year-old man gunned down while walking back to his store with a bag of cash from the bank. There was never any physical evidence tying McFarland to the murder, but his primary attorney only cursorily prepared for the case, barely consulted with co-counsel, put on no evidence and dozed through key parts of the whirlwind four-day trial.

"I'm 72 years old," former defense attorney John Benn later told a court. "I customarily take a short nap in the afternoon."

FROM 2003: Death row inmate says he is innocent

The high-profile case sparked decades of legal wrangling and an award-winning movie, but it particularly resonated in Harris County in light of an earlier, more infamous sleeping lawyer case that helped usher in legislative changes to indigent defense and ended with the overturning of a local man's death sentence.

Yet in McFarland's case, U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes determined Tuesday that the attorney's dozing was "appalling" and "regrettable"  but in the end decided it didn't matter because at least one of the two defense attorneys was awake at all times, so the accused was never entirely without counsel.

"It's amazing how cavalier the courts have been with regard to this case," said Yale Law School visiting lecturer Stephen Bright. "It's unconscionable."

Tuesday's opinion came more than a decade after the case landed in Hughes' court but, for unclear reasons, the jurist did not make a decision until months after a Houston-area activist wrote a higher court to complain about the delay.

APPEALS COURT: Texas man's execution halted over claims of defense lawyer's 'racist ideology'

Rusty Herman, McFarland's current attorney, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On an unseasonably warm night in late 1991, a robbery crew gunned down Kenneth Kwan, the owner of C&Y Grocery north of Loop 610. The father of three was on the way back from the bank with $27,000 in hand when a robbery crew opened fire.

Carolyn Bartie, a civilian worker at the Houston Police Department, was a regular customer who happened to be sitting outside to witness the whole shooting. Early on, she tentatively identified McFarland in a photo line-up  though her initial description of the shooter didn't match the man accused.

None of the alleged accomplices was arrested or ever testified, and no prints or physical evidence tied any of the suspects to the crime.

Still, McFarland - who had a criminal background and a history of drug use - was arrested six weeks later after his teenage nephew called Crime Stoppers and said he'd heard the older man confess to a robbery. The teen later recanted, after McFarland had already been sent to death row.

For trial, McFarland hired Benn based on the recommendation of friends. But the elderly attorney hadn't tried a capital case in more than two decades, and started nodding off during jury selection. When the judge spotted the potential problem, he appointed Sanford Melamed  who had no capital experience  as co-counsel.

ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Suicides in Texas prisons hit 20-year high

When asked if he'd really been snoozing during trial, Benn first said the court proceedings were just "boring" and later contended that he'd been "thinking," not napping. But, unlike in the other sleeping lawyer case - where Joe Cannon dozed throughout Calvin Burdine's trial - McFarland had a second attorney, and the courts so far have zeroed in on that.

Generally, the judge conceded, lawyers should not sleep during trial.

"The court does not approve of a sleeping lawyer," Hughes wrote. "This is unacceptable by an attorney in any case and particularly in a case of this magnitude."

But in this case, Texas courts already found that it didn't matter because at least one of the two attorneys was awake - even though other attorneys later alleged Melamed was badly prepared.

"This is not a case where the trial court ignored a defendant's constitutional rights," Hughes wrote. "The prosecution engaged in no misconduct. While not perfect, the attorneys made efforts to defend McFarland. Viewing the evidence and McFarland's choice in trial, McFarland has not shown that a different strategy would have ended in a different result. It is regrettable that Benn slept through trial. That does not change the fact that the court of criminal appeals did not misapply the law."

keri.blakinger@chron.com
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

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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.

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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.

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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.
Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital is joining nearly 15.5 million American cancer survivors celebrating the 32nd Annual National Cancer Survivors Day this year. Also being recognized are the many family members, caregivers and health care providers whose support of cancer survivors help make the celebration possible.

A diagnosis of cancer can generate many emotions but survival is about embracing life and living each day to the fullest, said Amy Sebastian-Deutsch, director of oncology services. You will find our Cancer Survivors Day celebration and resource fair filled with laughter, camaraderie, hope, compassion, faith, love and music as we honor cancer survivors for their strength and courage.

Anyone living with a personal history of cancer - starting from the moment of diagnosis - is a cancer survivor, according to the National Cancer Survivors Day Foundation.

National Cancer Survivors Day is a great opportunity for cancer survivors, caregivers, friends and family to come together and affirm there can be quality of life after a diagnosis of cancer, said Clive Shkedy, M.D., medical director of radiation oncology.

Additionally, the foundation says that more people are surviving cancer than ever before, thanks to advances in prevention, early detection, treatment and follow-up care. Cancer, however, does come with many challenges, such as hindered access to cancer specialists and promising new treatments, inadequate or no insurance, financial hardships, employment problems and psychological struggles.

Despite these difficulties, cancer survivors can live active, productive lives with the support of other survivors, said Shkedy.

Houston Methodist Cancer Center at Sugar Land welcomes all local cancer survivors and one guest to join us as we honor cancer survivors. Find Your Sunshine, the Cancer Survivors Day Celebration and Resource Fair will begin at 10 a.m., Friday, May 31, at the Sugar Land Marriott Town Square. News anchor, Shern-Min Chow from KHOU 11 will emcee the event and this years keynote motivational speaker is Conor Cunneen an author and two-time cancer survivor.

Guests will also be able to have a photo taken at the photo booth, and visit the resource fair. Recognizing the importance of wellness, guests will be invited to participate in a fun activity prior to enjoying brunch.

Registration is required. Register online at events.houstonmethodist.org/survivorluncheon-sl or call 281-274-7500.
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump announced Sunday that Kirstjen Nielsen has resigned as secretary of homeland security, marking the exit of a second top immigration official in a matter of days as the White House continues to grapple with an influx of migrants on the southern border.

Replacing her on an acting basis will be Kevin McAleenan, who currently serves as the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, Trump said Sunday. The announcement on Twitter came shortly after Trump and Nielsen met at the White House, according to two senior administration officials.

"Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen will be leaving her position, and I would like to thank her for her service," Trump tweeted Sunday evening. "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!"

The meeting between Trump and Nielsen was not disclosed on the president's public schedule, and it came three days after the White House abruptly yanked the nomination of Ronald Vitiello, who had been picked as Trump's director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The president later signaled that he wants the nation to go "in a tougher direction" on immigration.

In her resignation letter to Trump, Nielsen said it was the "right time for me to step aside," despite what she described as "progress in reforming homeland security for a new age."

"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," Nielsen wrote in the two-page letter. "Our country - and the men and women of DHS - deserve to have all the tools and resources they need to execute the mission entrusted to them."

In a tweet late Sunday, Nielsen said, "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."

Two senior administration officials said that Nielsen had no intention of quitting when she went to the meeting Sunday with the president and that she was forced to step down. The announcement of her departure came shortly after the meeting.

Trump told aides last fall that he wanted to fire Nielsen, and he grew increasingly agitated as a large caravan of Central American migrants reached the U.S.-Mexico border in California. She appeared to recover her footing after U.S. Border Patrol agents used tear gas to repel a large crowd attempting to break through the border fence - the kind of "tough" action Trump said he wanted in a DHS secretary.

Nielsen's job security improved again after she helped persuade Mexican officials to agree to an experimental policy known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, which require asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their cases work their way through the U.S. court system. That policy began in January.

Nielsen issued a memo last week, ordering a rapid expansion of the program in an attempt to deter the record number of families who continue to arrive each month. Trump has alleged that those who are seeking asylum are scamming the United States and taking advantage of asylum laws to enter the country.

The president grew frustrated with Nielsen again early this year as the number of migrants rose and as she raised legal concerns about some of Trump's more severe impulses, particularly when his demands clashed with U.S. immigration laws and federal court orders. Nielsen also disagreed with the White House's decision to dump Vitiello, who had been on track for Senate confirmation in coming weeks.

Trump also was unhappy that Nielsen had been in London last week ahead of meetings with Group of 7 security officials in Paris, according to two people familiar with the matter. Nielsen returned early from Europe and was with Trump in California as he toured the border on Friday.

On Wednesday and Thursday, Nielsen convened calls with other Cabinet members and White House aides asking them to help at the border and saying she would be giving specific requests to officials, aides said.

She said there would be daily calls - which surprised other Cabinet officials - and emphasized the need to make immediate progress.

White House officials said there was a conspicuous lack of praise for Nielsen at Friday's roundtable, which presaged her Homeland Security exit.

Among those pushing the president to remove Nielsen was national security adviser John Bolton, who repeatedly told the president he did not believe she was the right fit for the job, a senior administration official said.

Nielsen's removal - and the withdrawal of Vitiello's nomination - also show the growing sway of senior adviser Stephen Miller, who has privately derided other officials to the president for not being tough enough and shares the president's hard-line impulses. In a recent Oval Office meeting, Trump told advisers that Miller would be in charge of all immigration initiatives, White House aides said.

The housecleaning blindsided Democrats, who have intensified their criticism of Nielsen and her deputies, particularly after she and then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions decided to prosecute all adults crossing the border illegally, even though it meant separating parents from their children.

Democrats spared no sympathy for Nielsen in her departure. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said Nielsen's 16-month tenure was a "disaster from the start."

"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," said Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

Nielsen's departure adds another key official in an acting position in Trump's Cabinet. He has interim secretaries at the Departments of Defense, Interior and Homeland Security, as well as an acting leader at the Office of Management and Budget.

An acting administrator will lead the Small Business Administration once Linda McMahon officially leaves her post Friday. Mick Mulvaney, the White House chief of staff, also serves in that role on an acting basis.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, did not directly reference Nielsen in a statement about her exit, but he emphasized that "we have a crisis at our southwest border."

"We need 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," Johnson said Sunday evening.

Ken Cuccinelli, a former Virginia attorney general, is under consideration to become Nielsen's permanent replacement and has been at the White House recently, according to two Republicans involved in the discussions who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Another potential nominee is Energy Secretary Rick Perry, the former Texas governor who is seen as the most easily confirmed. Kris Kobach, the former Kansas secretary of state and a prominent immigration hard-liner, has been floated in the past for the job but is more likely to be involved in the administration as a non-Senate-confirmed adviser.

Many at the DHS have expressed astonishment in recent months that Nielsen was able to hang on as long as she did. Her nomination to lead the sprawling megabureaucracy, with 240,000 employees and a $50 billion budget, was a surprise from the start.

Nielsen, 46, was a DHS staffer and adviser during the administration of George W. Bush. She left government and remade herself as a cybersecurity expert, then she returned to the DHS in early 2017 as chief of staff to John Kelly, Trump's first Homeland Security secretary. As her doubters noted at the time, Nielsen had never run a large organization.

(Kelly would become White House chief of staff before he resigned late last year.)

Tensions with the White House came almost immediately after her Senate confirmation in December 2017.

The president boasted that his election win and promises to crack down on illegal immigration had pushed the number of border crossings to their lowest level in half a century. But when that trend reversed and illegal crossings began climbing again, Trump erupted at his DHS secretary, frustrated at the setback to his self-styled image as a border-wall-building hard-liner.

Trump began chastising Nielsen in front of other staff members, and he berated her extensively during a May 2018 Cabinet meeting that left White House aides squirming in their chairs, according to officials present at the time.

But Nielsen remained in her role and worked to regain the president's favor, especially during a combative news conference at the height of the administration's "zero tolerance" policy that separated more than 2,500 migrant children from their parents.

McAleenan, a career CBP official who was confirmed as commissioner in 2017 by a wide margin, will now be responsible for the nation's border security and immigration system, Coast Guard, Transportation Security Administration, Federal Emergency Management Agency and Secret Service. DHS is the third-largest Cabinet agency, after Veterans Affairs and the Defense Department.

McAleenan is generally well liked by leaders in both parties and is viewed as a neutral, technocratic law enforcement official, rather than an immigration hawk. He has traveled to the border frequently in recent months to draw attention to the growing strains on U.S. agents and infrastructure, while also speaking directly with asylum-seeking families from Central America about their reasons for leaving their homelands.

A Los Angeles native with a law degree from the University of Chicago, he is an expert in trade and regulatory affairs. McAleenan has never worked as a Border Patrol agent, but he rose to the upper ranks of U.S. Customs and Border Protection during Barack Obama's presidency, and he received a 2015 Presidential Rank Award, the country's highest civil service prize.

McAleenan late last month was blunt about the situation on the border, saying the U.S. immigration enforcement system along the nation's southern boundary was at "the breaking point," straining almost every aspect of U.S. operations on the border. Speaking in El Paso, Texas, McAleenan noted that crossings have been overwhelmed with hundreds of migrants seeking asylum daily, that Border Patrol stations have no room for detainees and that the immigration courts are backed up with hundreds of thousands of cases.

"That breaking point has arrived this week," McAleenan said on March 27, a day after the agency detained more than 4,100 migrants, the highest one-day total at the border in more than a decade.

A DHS official said McAleenan is a well-timed pick to engage Democrats as the Trump administration clamors for more money for border enforcement. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said McAleenan could engage Democrats "a lot more effectively" than Nielsen because of his deeper understanding of the issues unfolding on the U.S.-Mexico border.

John Sandweg, a former acting director of ICE under Obama and a top aide to then-DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, said McAleenan is a quality leader who will do "an incredible job."

"McAleenan is a very smart guy and very competent. He's enforcement-focused but not an ideological figure," Sandweg said. This administration likes tough-talking sound-bite guys, and that's not Kevin. He's not a big loud talker, or the kind of guy who will say outrageous things to sound tough."

Smugglers in Mexico have been using express buses to deliver Guatemalan migrant families to the U.S. border in a matter of days, making the journey faster, easier and safer.

McAleenan also drew immediate criticism Sunday, with American Civil Liberties Union Political Director Ronald Newman saying McAleenan aided Nielsen in carrying out "a sad and shameful chapter in the agency's history," including efforts to build a "pointless" border wall and separating migrant families last year.

"He has been key in implementing Trump and Nielsen's unconscionable policies and has overseen" many Border Patrol "abuses," Newman said.

In the past week, Trump has grappled with a response to the surge of migrants at the border, most notably by threatening to close off the U.S.-Mexico border but backing off within days after pleas from business leaders and Republican lawmakers warning that a border closure could be devastating to the economy.

Trump toured the border in Calexico, California, on Friday and spoke at a roundtable with border and immigration officials to make a case to the public and to Congress for tougher enforcement policies. Nielsen joined him on that trip and appeared at the roundtable.

The number of apprehensions at the southern border soared in March, to nearly 100,000 arrests, according to the DHS; there were 58,000 in January. Much of the surge is attributable to Central American families who are seeking asylum in the United States.

- - -

The Washington Post's Robert Costa and Damian Paletta contributed to this report.
Migrants: Alan Kurdi sailing near Maltese waters La Valletta continues to say no to landing

(ANSAmed) - ROME, APRIL 8 - The Alan Kurdi migrant rescue vessel operated by German NGO sea Eye is travelling in international waters, just a few miles from Malta's territorial waters. Like Italy last week, Malta has refused entry into its territorial waters.



The German vessel - with 64 migrants on board rescued last Wednesday and 17 crew members - is continuing to maintain its position just a few miles from the 12-mile-limit from the island's coast as it awaits new developments.



The spokeswoman of Sea Eye, Carlotta Weibl, has complained that ''the people rescued have to endure unsustainable conditions. Some of them must sleep on the ship's deck and are exposed to wind, waves and cold weather''. (ANSAmed).




CIFAR announces new research programs and AI Chairs

Top scientists and scholars from around the world have new opportunities for collaboration today with the announcement of CIFAR's new research portfolio and the expansion of the Canada CIFAR AI Chairs program. The 13 CIFAR research programs address critical questions across four interdisciplinary theme areas: Life & Health, Individuals & Society, Information & Matter and Earth & Space.

Life & Health:

What might we uncover in an unknown biosphere?

Fungal Kingdom: Threats & Opportunities

Fungal Kingdom: Threats & Opportunities How do microbes that live in and on us affect our health, development and even behaviour

Humans & the Microbiome

Humans & the Microbiome How does life originate and what are the processes that make life possible?

Molecular Architecture of Life

Individuals & Society:

What are the origins and mechanisms of consciousness?

Azrieli Program in Brain, Mind & Consciousness

Azrieli Program in Brain, Mind & Consciousness How do childhood experiences affect lifelong health?

Child & Brain Development

Child & Brain Development Is it possible to have a world without "us" and "them"?

Boundaries, Membership & Belonging

Boundaries, Membership & Belonging How can innovation be beneficial to all?

Innovation, Equity & the Future of Prosperity

Earth & Space:

How do we understand the life, groundwater and environment deep below the surface of a planet?

Earth 4D: Subsurface Science & Exploration

Earth 4D: Subsurface Science & Exploration What is the nature of extreme gravity, and how can it help us understand the origin and evolution of the universe?

Gravity & the Extreme Universe

Information & Matter:

How can we learn from nature to harvest energy from the sun?

Bio-inspired Solar Energy

Bio-inspired Solar Energy How do we understand intelligence and build intelligent machines?

Learning in Machines & Brains

Learning in Machines & Brains How do we harness the power of quantum mechanics to improve information processing?

Quantum Information Science

Quantum Information Science How could quantum materials transform our society?

Quantum Materials

"For almost 40 years, CIFAR has supported fundamental research and innovation across borders and disciplines," says Dr. Alan Bernstein, President and CEO of CIFAR. "The portfolio we are announcing today will change conversations across disciplines and result in the scientific, technological, and scholarly advancements of tomorrow."

Each program addresses complex questions and engages international and interdisciplinary networks of researchers and scholars. CIFAR provides a sustained, long-term commitment to their progress by convening meetings and providing catalyst funds for new directions of inquiry. The environment of intellectual freedom fosters deep collaboration and trust between CIFAR fellows. At meetings, they share and critique preliminary findings and data, often prior to publication, and provide insights from peers across disciplines.

"I think CIFAR is going to be particularly catalytic for us," says Barbara Sherwood-Lollar, professor of earth sciences at the University of Toronto and the co-director of the new Earth 4D: Subsurface Science and Exploration program. "The program will enable us to bring together people from extremely different perspectives, and then give them the intellectual freedom to challenge each other, challenge themselves and change thinking."

While CIFAR's impact on the research process is immediate, wider social benefits can take longer to be realized. The organization bridges this gap by connecting its research programs to global thought leaders outside of academia through knowledge mobilization. These exchanges enrich research and stimulate new social, economic and technical innovations. For example, CIFAR fellows in the Humans & the Microbiome program are working with public health leaders to create the first educational curriculum on the Microbiome and Healthy Living.

More information on the new portfolio and the Global Call for Ideas is available here.

Expansion of Canada CIFAR AI Chairs program

As part of the Pan-Canadian AI Strategy, CIFAR also announced an expansion of the Canada CIFAR AI Chairs program, bringing the total number of chairs to 46, from 29 announced in December 2018. The prestigious Canada CIFAR AI Chairs program, funded by the Federal government with $86.5 million over five years, provides researchers with long-term, dedicated research funding to support their research programs and help them to train the next generation of AI leaders. The 46 Chairs are named in partnership with Canada's three national AI Institutes: Amii (Edmonton), Mila (Quebec) and the Vector Institute (Toronto), as well as twelve universities and hospitals across the country.

"The Canada CIFAR AI Chairs Program is core to Canada's ongoing leadership in machine learning research and training," says Dr. Elissa Strome, Executive Director of the CIFAR Pan-Canadian AI Strategy. "As the first country to develop a national AI strategy and the birthplace of deep learning, Canada is uniquely positioned to advance machine learning research and responsible AI."

The Canada CIFAR AI Chairs program aims to increase the number of outstanding artificial intelligence researchers and skilled graduates in Canada, and to enhance Canada's international profile in AI research and training.

More information on the Canada CIFAR AI Chairs Program and the full list of chairs is available here.

CIFAR takes the long view

CIFAR has a record of picking winners. The deep learning revolution in artificial intelligence was kickstarted by CIFAR support in 2004. In that year Geoffrey Hinton (Google, University of Toronto, Vector Institute) launched a new program called Neural Computation and Adaptive Perception, the predecessor to today's Learning in Machines & Brains (LMB) program at CIFAR. Today, Yoshua Bengio (Mila, Universite de Montreal) and Yann LeCun (Facebook, NYU) lead LMB, asking fundamental questions about how humans learn and how to apply that understanding to machines. Together, the three AI luminaries were recently awarded the ACM A.M. Turing Award-- the "Nobel Prize of Computing". Their work has enabled technologies like voice and image recognition and real-time translation, among many others.

While not every CIFAR program will radically transform our daily lives the way AI has, many transform science itself by introducing new techniques, approaches and bodies of knowledge that are core to innovation. The organization is meticulous and rigorous in its selection of research questions and the fellows chosen to pursue them. CIFAR is recognized around the world for its long-term vision and an unparalleled approach to the world's most complex questions. It is a leader in convening extraordinary minds, fostering international collaboration and creating new knowledge.

###

About CIFAR

CIFAR is a Canadian-based, global charitable organization that convenes extraordinary minds to address science and humanity's most important questions.

By supporting long-term interdisciplinary collaboration, CIFAR provides researchers with an unparalleled environment of trust, transparency and knowledge sharing. Our time-tested model inspires new directions of inquiry, accelerates discovery and yields breakthroughs across borders and academic disciplines. Through knowledge mobilization, we are catalysts for change in industry, government and society. CIFAR's community of fellows includes 19 Nobel laureates and more than 400 researchers from 22 countries. In 2017, the Government of Canada appointed CIFAR to develop and lead the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy.

CIFAR is generously supported by the governments of Canada, British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, Canadian and international partners, as well as individuals, foundations and corporations.

This story has been published on: 2019-04-08. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Sea Eye ship appeals for help off coast of Malta Salvini vows ship won't arrive in Italy

(ANSAmed) - ROME, APRIL 8 - The German NGO Sea Eye's ship Alan Kurdi, which rescued 64 migrants last Wednesday off the coast of Libya, on Monday remains without a port of disembarkation after Italy and its interior minister, Matteo Salvini, refused entry into the country's territorial waters.



"This ship won't arrive in Italy," Salvini said on a TV talk show Sunday evening.



"You come here with a permit, saying please and thank you," he said.



On Sunday the ship launched a plea for help and said weather where it is currently stationed, 30 km off the Maltese coast of Valletta, is worsening.



On Sunday the NGO appealed directly to Maltese Prime Minister Josep Muscat, but the Maltese government hasn't officially taken a position regarding whether it will let the ship dock at one of its ports. (ANSAmed).




CAIRO - General Khalifa Haftar's forces for the first time launched air strikes on Tripoli and shot Grad rockets to fight a counteroffensive by the coalition of militias defending the capital and the national unity government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, in what is increasingly looking like a battle for Tripoli.

Sarraj also had to accept the grim news that the US, its political sponsor, withdrew a military contingent due to the increasingly bitter conflict that ignored a first-ever UN appeal for a humanitarian ceasefire.

Tension is very high, and the Libyan National Army (LNA) led by Haftar as commanding general announced that fighter jets conducted air strikes on the outskirts of Tripoli that hit with "great precision".

Those air strikes were in retaliation after pro-Sarraj militias conducted air strikes three days ago.

Haftar contributed to an escalation of the conflict using for the first time Grad rockets launched from Garian, the city that he controls 80 km south of Tripoli.

Some of the rockets fell on Wadi el Rabie, 20 km as the crow flies from Tripoli's centrally located Martyrs' Square, and that strike allegedly killed a woman who had just given birth.

The possibility of a prolonged conflict, along with the presence of Libyan National Army forces in Bab al-Azizia, an area just eight km from the centre of Tripoli, provoked a rush on stores by the local population in an attempt to stock up on basic necessities.

Sarraj, who said he was "stabbed in the back" by Haftar, meanwhile accused the French government of supporting his rival.

The French government called for restraint.

The United States Africa Command (Africom) announced it had "temporarily relocated" from Libya an unspecified "contingent of US forces" due to the "increased unrest" in the country.

Africom forces were deployed in Libya to fight al-Qaeda and ISIS, above all with drones, and to protect diplomatic buildings.

Another contributing factor was the counteroffensive code-named "Volcano of Anger" announced and immediately enacted by Pro-Serraj militias in response to Haftar's operation "Flood of Dignity".

Despite being controversial, the formation in defense of the prime minister said it had taken control of the strategic international airport, which has been closed since 2014 but has runways Haftar would like to use for landing supplies.

In the most recent bulletin of the conflict, at least two-thirds of the fallen were from the general's ranks: 21 dead and 27 injured, including four civilians.

In addition, in the announcement of the taking of prisoners (in recent hours another 70, following 128 in recent days), all were Haftar's forces, which also lost nine vehicles following the 40 reported on Friday.

Both sides are declaring their strength and have ignored calls by the UN for a two-hour humanitarian ceasefire to move the injured out of four zones of combat.


The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Monday stayed the execution of a white Dallas death row prisoner who argued that his trial attorney relied on "racist ideology" to keep black jurors off the panel during his 1991 capital murder trial.

Mark Robertson - who was scheduled for execution Thursday - was originally sentenced to death for the 1989 murder of a friend and his 81-year-old grandmother. But earlier this month, defense lawyers asked the court to reconsider an earlier decision, and once again look at whether then-attorney Michael Byck "engaged in purposeful discrimination" based on the belief that black jurors would be less sympathetic to a white defendant.

The late Dallas attorney "brazenly recounted" his strategy and ideology during a 1997 appeals hearing where he said he'd be "more than happy to violate anybody else's rights" in an effort to defend his client. Ultimately, it was an all-white jury that sentenced Robertson to death, after Byck and prosecutors handling the case agreed to "indulge each other" in their "prejudices," according to court records.

ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Suicides in Texas prisons hit 20-year high

The three-page ruling on Monday doesn't offer any insight as to the court's reason for granting a stay, merely outlining history of the case and noting that the court "has determined that applicant's execution should be stayed pending further order from this Court." Robertson's current attorneys did not immediately offer comment on the decision.

The case started in August of 1989, after Robertson went to his friend's house to do some crank and smoke some weed. Later that night, the then-21-year-old and his friend, Sean Hill, went fishing in the creek out back.

They caught seven catfish before Robertson shot his friend in the head.

"After I shot him, Sean fell in the water," Robertson wrote later in a confession. "I then ran in the house through Sean's bedroom and into the bathroom where I splashed some water over my face. I then walked into the den where (Edna Brau), Sean's grandmother, was watching TV and I shot her once."

NEW POLICY: Texas prison system bans spiritual advisers from death chamber

After the slayings, Robertson swiped his friend's drugs and the elderly woman's purse before stealing her car and eventually fleeing to Las Vegas.

When police caught him, he offered a detailed and gory written confession.

During trial two years later, the jury also heard about how he murdered 19-year-old 7-Eleven clerk Jeffrey Saunders a week before the double killing at Brau's house. That slaying - and Hill's - netted him two life sentences, while Brau's killing put him on death row.

In 2003, his then-attorney won him a last-minute stay based on claims of false testimony as to his future dangerousness behind bars. He later won the chance at a new punishment, based on bad jury instructions - but the retrial still ended in a death sentence. Last year, a Dallas County judge again signed off on an execution date.

Now, with Robertson's death date off the calendar, there are four more prisoners scheduled for death this year in Texas.

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ROME - An air raid on Monday targeted the Mitiga airport in eastern Tripoli, the only airport still open in the Libyan capital, according to witnesses quoted by international media, who did not provide additional information.

The airport has been closed since the air raid, according to the reports.

Television Al Jazeera reported that the raids also targeted the international airport of Tripoli, which has been closed since 2014.

About 2,000 people have been displaced by armed conflicts underway around Tripoli, and the situation in western Libya "remains fluid and unpredictable", said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in a flash update on the situation.

"The civilian population in some combat-affected areas are unable to flee the area and emergency services are unable to reach them," it said.

French govt supports Sarraj, no 'secret plan'

A French diplomatic source said France did not know that Libyan General Khalifa Haftar had intentions to march on Tripoli and that the government has no "secret plan" in place regarding Haftar but rather reaffirms its support for the legitimate government of Prime Minister Fayez al Serraj. "The urgency in Libya is to protect the civilian population, obtain a ceasefire, and get the Libyan parties around the table," the source said. French sources said the government's intention is "to continue to put the Serraj government at the centre of play and try to reach the end of the political process negotiated in Abu Dhabi" at the end of February. The sources said a ceasefire meeting in Tripoli with UN special envoy Ghassan Salame and representatives of the various armed factions "is currently under discussion but remains hypothetical".
The George and Barbara Bush Foundation has asked that the late presidents library and museum at Texas A&M University become the permanent home of the Air Force One plane that once transported Bush around the world.

The College Station-based foundation wants to display one of two Boeing VC-25A planes, to be retired in 2025, on the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museums 90-acre grounds, president and CEO David Jones said. The foundations leaders hope the storied aircraft will attract more visitors and increase public knowledge of the Bushes life and legacy.

Artifacts at the library and museum already cover Bushs four years as president and major events such as the end of the Cold War and the first Gulf War, as well as his time as a family man, an accomplished naval aviator pilot in World War II, a congressman, an ambassador to the United Nations, a CIA director, and a U.S. vice president.

The plane would be a permanent loan from the U.S. Air Force, subject to the foundation abiding by the law, government regulations and museum standards.

RELATED: Bush Foundation announces name change, Houston satellite office to expand former first couples legacy

He had such a personal history with flying and that plane. He loved the plane, said Jim McGrath, vice president of the Bush Foundation. McGrath referred to the aircraft as a flying White House for Bush, who became the first president to fly in the plane in 1990. Bush used the plane frequently, flying to and from his many diplomatic missions, Jones said.

The staff would grind through the transatlantic flights to all these summits and important meetings ... but the president would definitely get a good nights sleep and have a shower before he (came) off, McGrath said with a laugh.

Bush approved the idea of exhibiting Air Force One on library grounds early in discussions, Jones and McGrath said  especially after foundation staff presented the renderings, which show a building largely made of glass encasing the plane. Jones said the building would also house an event space and exhibits related to the plane for visitors, who would also get to board the plane. After being declassified, the plane could be displayed as early as 2026.

(Bush) was very excited about it, Jones said. I just remember him beaming. He just thoughtit was a wonderful idea, and it made so much sense given his background.

More Information u See More Collapse

Bush died in Houston at age 94 on Nov. 30. Barbara Bush, his wife of 73 years, died in April 2018.

Bush sent a letter to Heather Wilson, the secretary of the Air Force, in July 2017 emphasizing that he would sure love to see that majestic plane sitting on the Librarys front lawn.

Please know I am in no way trying to take advantage of our friendship, Bush wrote to Wilson, who served in the National Security Council during Bushs administration from 1989 to 1991. But then again, he wrote. the George H.W. Bush Library Center at Texas A&M University would love to be the new home of the old Air Force One when it is retired.  It might be early, but competition will be tough. Since I was the first President to use the plane, we are thinking that means we are first in line? Perhaps that is a tad simplistic?

Jones said that Bush sent another letter to Wilson before his death in November inquiring whether hed see the plane in his lifetime, with a little reminder  PS. Im 94 years old.

Texas two U.S. senators, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, and Rep. Bill Flores sent a joint letter to Wilson in December 2018 emphasizing the presidents wishes for the plane, which acted as a symbol of American leadership as America and her allies prevailed in the Cold War and Operation Desert Storm.

Wilson acknowledged that she received Bushs request, according to Jones, and sent another letter earlier this year responding to the Bush Foundations formal request. At the time, it had been the only request received, she wrote, but she could not make any guarantees.

In an email to the Houston Chronicle, Wilson stated that The Bush Foundations request would be reviewed. The Air Force is committed to honoring and preserving the historical significance of the aircraft, she wrote. There have still been no other requests for the plane.

RELATED: George H.W. Bushs Houston office closes up shop after 26 years

While it awaits a decision, the foundation is raising funds to support the plane along with additional exhibits and renovations to the library and museum, including the 68-foot Marine One helicopter Bush flew in during his presidency. The foundation plans to display the aircraft in a permanent exhibit near a small lake behind the museum, a short walk from the Bushes burial grounds.

RELATED: Marine One helicopter to land permanent spot at George H.W. Bush Library and Museum exhibit

Jones said the foundation is also working with transport company Union Pacific to obtain the engine of the George Bush 4141 locomotive that transported Bushs casket to the library in December after his death. Housed in an open facility, the trains exhibit will be located outside the librarys conference center and could be finished as early as next year. The only cost, according to Jones, will be for its transportation to the library and shelter.

In January, the foundation launched a $130 million public fundraising initiative called the Campaign for Bold Horizons to fund the new exhibits and aspects of the library and museum.

Marcy de Luna contributed to this report.

brittany.britto@chron.com

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The Democratic primary field has begun to take shape in Texas 10th Congressional District, where two candidates are already vying to take on U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin.

Pritesh Gandhi, a primary care physician, and Mike Siegel, the districts 2018 Democratic nominee, both have started actively campaigning and fundraising within the far-reaching district, which extends from Austin to the Houston suburbs, spanning seven largely rural counties in between.

The early campaign activity  11 months remain until the 2020 primaries in March  reflects fresh national interest in the district. Though few political observers placed McCauls seat on their radar, he won by only 4.3 percentage points in November, prompting the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to place the district on its 2020 shortlist of targets.

McCaul has confirmed he is seeking re-election, and he has yet to draw a primary challenger this cycle. Now in his eighth term, he first won the seat in 2004, and has never failed to draw more than 80 percent of the vote in a Republican primary since his initial race.

As for his prospects against Democrats, McCaul did not appear unsettled by his narrower-than-usual win in 2018. He said he doesnt think his seat is in play.

The last election was skewed by straight-ticket voting, McCaul continued. Nobody even knew my opponent. The next time it's going to be voting on the candidate, and not just straight party ticket. So, I think it'll be very different.

Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law in 2017 that will end by the 2020 general election the practice of straight-ticket voting  casting a ballot for every candidate from a single party by checking one box.

In 2018, Siegel said, straight-ticket voting could cut either way. He contended that McCaul is largely unknown across the district, too, and that the incumbent benefited from Abbotts coordinated campaign just as Siegel himself was buoyed by Democrat Beto ORourkes Senate candidacy.

Regardless, Siegel has far from a clear path to a rematch. Gandhi formally joined the race in early March, raising about $161,000 during the 27-day span from then until the end of the first-quarter filing period, according to his campaign. He heads into the second quarter with $157,000 cash on hand.

As people get to know my story, they're going to see that (I have) a lifetime of experience, that this isn't something that, a seat opened up and I decided that now would be the time to run for it, Gandhi said.

A former Fulbright Scholar, Gandhi works as the associate chief medical officer for Peoples Community Clinic, an Austin-based nonprofit that provides health care services primarily to uninsured or underinsured patients.

Gandhi decided to enter the race, he said, because there is a vacuum of basic human decency and leadership in the halls of Congress that needs to be filled. In recent years, Gandhi has joined rallies advocating for paid sick leave, and he is running on a platform that includes Medicare for All.

I've been doing this stuff for years, before I had any inclination to run, Gandhi said. And that is because the stories and the experiences of the patients, their families and their communities are seared into my day-to-day thinking.

For his part, Siegel left the door open to another run shortly after the November election, then in January released a video titled, Were Still Running. On Feb. 1, he resigned from his job as an attorney for the city of Austin to hit the campaign trail full time.

Siegel has raised about $150,000 so far, he said, and maintains more than $100,000 cash on hand. His platform includes support for Medicare for All and the Green New Deal resolution, along with a $15 minimum wage.

Though national Democrats largely ignored Siegel during the 2018 race, his campaign drew attention shortly before the election when a field director was detained at the Waller County courthouse while delivering a letter related to a dispute over alleged voter suppression of Prairie View A&M University students.

Siegel appeared on MSNBC host Rachel Maddows show to address the issue, which was ultimately resolved.

Now seeking a second chance to face McCaul, Siegel said he was not particularly surprised to receive at least one primary opponent.

It's due to our success in making this appear winnable, he said. Last year it was deep red. No one thought McCaul could be beaten, or at least no one in D.C. thought he could be beaten. And now it's a national battleground, so it's attractive.

Gandhi acknowledged Siegels effort in 2018, but did not believe it should have dissuaded him from mounting a primary run.

"Yes, Mike ran last year and ran a good race, Gandhi said. But I've been fighting for people in this district every waking moment over the last few years."

McCaul, who saw his 19-point win in 2016 cut by more than 14 points last year, now serves as the top Republican on the House Foreign Relations Committee.

A former federal and state prosecutor, he previously served as chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security for the maximum number of terms allowed by the GOP.

jasper.scherer@chron.com

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A Houston woman faces two charges after a fatal crash this weekend in the Energy Corridor.

Sheila Michelle Brown is charged with intoxication manslaughter and failure to stop and render aid. She is in the Harris County Jail on bond totalling $50,000.

The crash on Saturday killed a man identified in court documents as 46-year-old Luis Torres.

Houston police said Brown was driving a red red Toyota Camry east on Interstate 10 about 3 a.m. when she struck a blue Mazda 3 just west of Eldridge Parkway. Torres' Mazda then struck a white GMC Canyon.

Torres died at the scene, police said.

Brown then struck a tractor-trailer truck that was stopped due to an earlier crash. Authorities said she fled but was later detained by officers who responded to the wreck.

Her leg was injured in the crash and Brown was taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital, where she was determined to be intoxicated, police said.

Prosecutors requested bail at $250,000 on the intoxication manslaughter charge, saying in court documents that she was convicted of driving while intoxication less than one year ago.
A Houston woman has been arrested in connection with the continuous abuse of her young sons, who she allegedly beat with printer and computer cords for eating food in the house without permission, according to Harris County court records.

Annette Bogany, 53, was charged with two counts of injury to a child and two counts of causing serious mental injury to a child. She remains in Harris County Jail in lieu of a $10,000 bail for all four charges.

The children  10 and 14 years old, respectively  have both been diagnosed with PTSD from the abuse, and are currently in therapy, according to the arrest affidavit filed by Houston police. The 10-year-old has also been diagnosed with depression, in addition to the significant bruising and scars visible on both boys, police said.

The 10-year-old weighed 51 pounds when police found him, records show.

Police filed the charges about 10 months after the boys escaped from the home July 18. On that day, police wrote that the boys ran away because they couldn't take any more beatings, which had been going on for several years, according to the affidavit.

The boys placed some household items in a pillow case, including one cord used to beat them, and boarded a Metro bus headed for the Medical Center, the affidavit said.

At the hospital, the boys initially lied to police about their situation because they didn't want to be sent back to their mother. Eventually, they detailed their history of abuse to authorities.

The boys said they didn't eat lunch the day before they ran away. That morning, they were hungry, so they grabbed a Honey Bun in the kitchen, the affidavit said.

When Bogany found out, she started beating them with a printer cable as punishment, the affidavit said. Most of the time, the boys said she beat them on their arms or legs. Sometimes she hit them on their head, including on instance where one of the boys started bleeding from that area, the affidavit said.

In another case, she beat the 10-year-old to the point where he urinated on himself, the affidavit said.

Despite Bogany punishing the boys for eating, she was always seen eating a "good meal" in front of them at home, the affidavit said.

During the investigation, Houston police spoke with another witness who took custody of the boys. The witnesses started crying when she described when she first took them in, the affidavit said.

Their arms "were all marked down," she said. They were both very skinny and wore long-sleeved shirts everywhere. They would run and hide when she tried to come into their room because they were afraid of a beating. They would also "stand at attention" when they saw their mother, the witness said.

Police reviewed records from Child Protective Services, who spoke with Bogany the day the kids ran away July 18, according to the affidavit.

Bogany admitted to striking the boys with various objects when she was mad at them, the affidavit said.

Julian Gill is a digital reporter in Houston. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, houstonchronicle.com. | julian.gill@chron.com | NEWS WHEN YOU NEED IT: Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message | Sign up for breaking news alerts delivered to your email here.
Three contractors working at the KMCO plant in Crosby when it erupted into flames filed suit Monday, saying company officials knew about a leak before the blaze.

The workers  Aurelio Campos, Jose Flores and Noe Flores  were injured in the fire, according to the lawsuit. One person was killed and at least 10 people have reported injuries, including five company employees.

It is the fourth lawsuit filed since KMCO caught fire April 2.

ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: KMCO Crosby plant has long history of environmental, safety violations

The lawsuit says KMCO officials were aware of a leak in a "check valve" on a high-pressure line containing isobutylene, a flammable gas that has been blamed for starting the fire.

"On information and belief, before the explosion it became apparent to personnel at the plant that a leak was occurring at or near the check valve," according to the lawsuit. "Despite this knowledge, KMCO personnel did not immediately order an evacuation or sound the general alarm."

John C. Foley, president and CEO of KMCO, responded Monday to the latest lawsuit.

"KMCO is working in close cooperation with the Fire Marshal, federal Chemical Safety Board and OSHA investigators to determine the accurate timeline and cause of last week's tragic incident," Foley said in a written statement. "I can assure our team and the community that no investigation will be more thorough than our own. But until facts are known, any legal complaints should be considered unverified."

A company spokesman said no KMCO employees have been involved in any of the lawsuits.

"While the company is aware that some outside contractors have made legal claims, none of the third-party companies they work for have informed us of any alleged injury," according to the written statement.

Three fires in three weeks

The KMCO fire was the second at a chemical facility in less than three weeks in the Houston area.

On March 17, a fire at the Intercontinental Terminals Co. chemical storage facility in Deer Park caught fire, sending a large plume of dark smoke across the area and releasing thousands of barrels of chemicals into local waterways, forcing a partial shutdown of the Houston Ship Channel. The fire burned for three days before being extinguished.

Two weeks later, an explosion rocked the KMCO plant and sent another plume of black smoke into the air.

The Harris County Fire Marshal's Office is investigating both fires, and Harris County and the Texas attorney general's office have filed lawsuits against the companies. The Chemical Safety Board and Occupational Safety and Health Administration are also investigating.

On March 15, a small fire broke out at the Exxon Mobil's Baytown refinery but was quickly contained. The fires are not believed to have been related, law enforcement officials have said.

Multiple lawsuits

The latest contract workers allege they were severely injured while trying to escape the KMCO blaze nd are seeking more than $1 million in damages.

The lawsuit does not describe the extent of their injuries, but their attorney, Larry Wilson, said at least one of them hurt his back and shoulder when he was thrown off a bicycle from the force of the blast.

The three were part of an insulation crew from an industrial services company on their third day of work, Wilson said.

The lawsuit, filed by the Lanier and Alexander law firms, alleges negligence by the company, including a failure to maintain a safe work environment and properly train employees.

KMCO produces coolant and brake fluid products for the auto industry and chemicals for the oilfield industry.

The latest lawsuit was filed in state court in Harris County.

Two other contract workers have also filed separate lawsuits. The workers also are seeking more than $1 million in damages each.

Perla Trevizo is the environmental reporter for the Houston Chronicle. Contact her at perla.trevizo@chron.com or follow her on Twitter at @perla_trevizo.

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A woman is expected to survive after her boyfriend shot her multiple times at a Kingwood apartment then turned himself in, Houston police said.

Police said the man shot the woman two to three times around 10:45 p.m. Sunday at the Villas of Kingwood apartment in the 300 block of Forest Center Drive.
A Houston teen standing trial in the deaths of his parents was known for his athletic prowess before failing out of his private high school and transferring to a more competitive football program, a former coach testified to jurors on Monday.

Prosecutors laid the groundwork for a motive to argue that Antonio Armstrong, Jr. might have been upset with his parents for transferring him out of the school where he was the big man on campus to go to a team where he might not have been on the starting roster.

On the fifth day of the capital murder trial, a former coach described a teen who was talented and confident in his abilities, respectful and even happy-go-lucky - someone who defense attorneys said was at odds and inconsistent with a person accused of killing his parents in their Bellaire-area home on July 29, 2016.

Everybody knew AJ was the man, said Steve Hill, who coached Armstrong in middle school and remained friends with his father until his death.

Armstrongs attorneys told reporters after trial recessed that Armstrong never showed any bad behavior or indicated he was lashing out.

Its ridiculous, Armstrongs attorney, Rick DeToto, said after trial recessed on Monday. They dont have a motive so theyre kind of reaching for straws.

Armstrong also seemed to have a good relationship with his mother and father, Dawn and Antonio Armstrong, Sr., Hill said. He considered himself close with the elder Armstrong, who absolutely cared about his son.

Why are you getting emotional? defense attorney Rick DeToto asked.

Its a tough situation, said Hill, who broke down in tears on the witness stand.

DeToto and other defense attorneys said that the Armstrongs were financially struggling to continue sending the teen and his younger sister to The Kinkaid School. Tuition there tallied almost $30,000 a year per student, Hill said.

Hill tried recruiting Armstrong to go to St. Pius X High School, where he was coaching at the time. The elder Armstrong, who played in the NFL, did ask what sort of help they could get at the school, he said.

Armstrong ended up at Lamar High School, which Hill described as one of the better programs in the area.

Theadis Reagins, who coached the Lamar High School program that Armstrong joined, said that at the time he already had two other good defensive back. That was the position Armstrong played.

I couldnt say he would have definitely started at that time, Reagins said during the trial.

Other testimony on Monday focused on an absence of gunshot residueon Armstrongs clothes and skin. Not finding gunshot residue doesnt exclude a suspect from being the triggerman, however, a forensic expert testified.

Jason Schroeder, an evidence laboratory manager at Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences, confirmed that no gunshot residue was found on Armstrongs shirt, pants or skin. Armstrongs siblings, Josh and Kayra, werent found to have gunshot residue on their skin, either.

The type of ammunition and firearm, time between the shooting and evidence collection, and efficiency of collection can cause a lack of evidence to show, he said.

A negative result  is not considered to be exculpatory in nature, Schroeder said.

Lucy Tea, a firearms examiner at Houston Forensic Science Center, had earlier testified that three bullets were found to be fired from the murder weapon, which belonged to the elder Armstrong.

The Armstrong parents were shot to death on July 29, 2016 in their Bellaire-area home. During a police interrogation, the son said he was innocent and reported seeing an intruder leave after gunshots rang out in the home.

Defense attorneys have taken issue with the accuracy of the alarm system. Prosecutors said the doors and windows in the house were locked from the inside and the alarm system didnt detect an intruder.

A Harris County District Attorneys Office investigator testified on Monday that he went to the scene in March 2018 to meet with people who were testing the home alarm system.

He heard chimes when every door to the outside opened, and from the third floor, he could personally hear and feel the rumble of the garage door opening. The younger Armstrong lived on the third floor, where he said he was before the killings.

The trial will continue Tuesday morning and is expected to last through the month.

Armstrong is being tried as an adult. He faces life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years. Because he was a juvenile at the time of the killing, he would not be eligible for the death penalty.

Note: This story has been updated to correct Jason Schroeder's place of employment.

samantha.ketterer@chron.com
Israel is on track to attempt a moon landing Thursday and, if successful, the tiny nation will become just the fourth to touch down on the lunar surface.

The landing attempt of the robotic probe -- called "Beresheet" or "in the beginning" in Hebrew -- is expected to take place Thursday between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. (Central Standard Time).

And it could be the first commercial lander to ever reach the surface of the moon.

The probe was launched Feb. 21 on the back of a SpaceX rocket and has had a largely flawless mission since. It was built by the Israeli nonprofit SpaceIL for just $100 million and is not carrying humans to the surface.

The United States remains the only country to leave human footprints on the moon. The other two countries that have sent probes to the surface are the Soviet Union in September 1959 and China in December 2013 and January 2019.

NASA has signed an agreement to "cooperatively utilize" Israel's probe, which will conduct experiments to measure the moon's magnetic field. The agreement essentially means both countries will benefit from this mission.

For example, NASA officials said in October that Israel will share data about the magnetic field of the landing site with the U.S., which will be available publicly via NASA's Planetary Data System. Additionally, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter  a probe launched in 2009 that is mapping the moon's surface  will try to take measures of the probe as it lands.

Israel's historic landing attempt comes soon after Vice President Mike Pence announced that the Trump administration was directing NASA to land humans on the moon in five years, by "any means necessary."

NASA Administration Jim Bridenstine has said that putting Americans on the lunar surface by 2024 -- instead of the originally intended 2028 date -- will require more money from Congress. However, the agency still has not provided an updated budget request to Congress.

Bridenstine said last week agency officials were working on it.

Israel's landing attempt will be broadcast live on Facebook and YouTube.

Alex Stuckey writes about NASA and science for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey.
RABAT - Over 2,500 migrants have been apprehended since February in Melilla, at the border between Morocco and Spain. Security is tight in the Spanish enclave in Morocco. Security officers and the Guardia Civil have set up equipment to detect a heartbeat if someone is trying to cross the border, even if they are hidden and not visible. Thanks to the new system, a reported 2,534 migrants - including 76 minors - were apprehended and transferred to hosting centers before being taken into custody by Spanish police, officials said. A migrant was recently found hidden in the trunk of a car while in December another migrant risked death while travelling hidden between two matrasses. In February, another one was found inside a car.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerbergs recent apparent call for content moderation regulation surprised and annoyed many free speech advocates. Daphne Keller, a law professor at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, immediately opined on Twitter that the op ed was a triumph of the Facebook communications staff over its lawyers, since the proposal transparently violated the First Amendment.

But Facebooks head of domestic policy, former FCC commissioner Kevin Martin, tried to reassure the public that Facebook continued to support the First Amendment. Zuckerberg had been calling for industry coordination in the United States, he said, not for a government censorship role.

Facebook, it seems, is prepared to work with governments as they craft measures that reflect a societal judgment on the limits of acceptable speech. In other countries, those measures might be much more prescriptive than anything that could be adopted in the US, where the First Amendment creates barriers to content regulation.

In Germany, a network enforcement law fines companies for failing to remove hate speech and other illegal content within 24 hours. The French government is considering new platform content rules modeled on the German law. Australia has just passed a new law with fines up to 10% of global revenue and as much as three years in jail for platform officials who violate new requirements for rapid removal of violent content. The U.K. government is about to impose a duty of care on platforms obligating them to remove harmful content or face substantial fines. The European Unions proposed terrorist content bill, which mandates removal of terrorist material within one hour of law enforcement notification, establishes fines up to 4% of global turnover and is strongly backed by Great Britain, is scheduled for a vote in the European Parliament on April 8.

These inflexible and intrusive measures will almost certainly do more harm than good, forcing companies to remove important and worthwhile speech in order to limit legal liability. Moreover, they couldnt survive a First Amendment challenge in the United States because, as the Washington Post points out, they amount to letting legislators tell tech companies to ban even some categories of legal speech.

More social media competition wont solve the content moderation conundrum

Some policymakers, seeking to avoid content regulation, put their hopes in competition policy. If there were many different social media platforms, they reason, there would be a competitive incentive for all of them to do a better job of content moderation. An interoperability requirement, for instance, might create alternatives to the current dominant platform companies by allowing users in one social network to reach users in all the others.

But interoperability would make content moderation even more difficult than it already is, because harmful content posted on one platform would automatically appear on all platforms, greatly complicating the task of identifying the source of malicious content. Each platform would have to devise new gateway controls to screen content and block users from other networks, an even greater technological and institutional challenge than managing its own network.

Moreover, additional competition by itself wouldnt necessarily do much to increase content moderation efforts. Competition could just as well lead social media platforms to do less content moderation if users think they are censoring too much speech and flee to more permissive outlets. Many users and policymakers already think that that the platforms are doing too much, with conservatives convinced that platforms are biased against conservatives and liberals fearing the further exclusion of marginalized voices.

This is not to say that measures to promote competition are a bad idea; but their aim should be to fix economic dominance in a market, not to substitute for social regulation. Traditional broadcast regulation combined ownership limits with behavioral rules such as the requirement to air a minimum amount of childrens educational programming. For generations, financial regulation separated commercial and investment banking, had detailed conduct requirements to ensure safety and soundness and provided incentives for lending to minority groups.

In a similar way, regulation of the tech industry might require a mix of sector-specific competition regulations such as interoperability or separation requirements and regulation to foster social goals such as content moderation and privacy.

Facebooks proposal for an independent oversight board might be a way forward

Facebook has embraced the idea of establishing and maintaining an independent board, and has opened a public consultation process to address questions around its design. In principle, such a board could review Facebooks content moderation standards, the reasonableness of its policies and procedures to control harmful content, and the adequacy of its procedural protections. The board could also run a process for appeal of particular cases.

Some have criticized Facebooks oversight board as a faux regulator or an attempt to outsource responsibility for content moderation. But Facebook remains responsible; the oversight board is there to ensure the efficacy and accountability of the companys program. And an empowered external board would be able to push platforms to establish a moderation program stronger than what their natural financial self-interest would allow.

A board could, for instance, review the poor performance of Facebook in connection with the New Zealand shooter video. Facebook didnt even realize it had a problem until notified by the police hours after the live-feed video of the shooting was posted. Once up, the video ricocheted into the far corners of the Internet. Facebook counted 1.5 billion attempts to upload it again to its own service but succeeded in blocking only 1.2 billion of them.

An independent review might require Facebook to reconsider its policy of allowing unmoderated uploading of live videos. Why not screen them for potentially harmful content? Or prevent reposting them until after a review? A directive from the board would overcome the companys understandable reluctance to do this on their own.

Policymakers who have run out of patience with todays limited content moderation programs should consider an independent board as an alternative to the impractical, punitive and counterproductive approaches they are currently pursuing.
PRATO - The Mediterraneo Downtown Festival in Prato came to a successful close after three days of guests, concerts, readings, and stories tackling a myriad of topics on the topic of the contemporary Mediterranean.

The festival's third edition was sponsored by the City of Prato and the Region of Tuscany and organised by the non-profit COSPE. It kicked off with a dialogue between the writers Tahar Ben Jelloun and Sandro Veronesi, who examined the many facets of the Mediterranean, including current events and literature.

In Prato's Piazza del Comune, the festival offered the stories of some of the essential cities that characterise the Mediterranean: Athens, Matera, Barcelona, and Tunis.

There were debates held at the Museo del Tessuto museum, such as one on food titled "The Good, the Right, and the Alternative", one on the economy titled "Mediterranean Economies" that focused on migrants who have created businesses and jobs in Italy, and one dedicated to news in difficult areas such as the Middle East, with speakers such as Palestinian journalist Khouloud Massalha; Amnesty International spokesperson Riccardo Noury; and pastor of the Cathedral of Saint Francis of Assisi in Aleppo, Father Ibrahim Alsabagh.

On Saturday evening, writer Paolo Di Paolo performed a reading of Predrag Matvejevic's "Mediterranean Breviary".

A dinner was held with over 100 participants to support the Giorgio La Pira soup kitchen, which every day prepares meals for hundreds of needy people.

In this occasion it wanted to raise funds for beds for those who, due to the so-called "security decree", will be expelled from reception centres and will no longer have a place to sleep.

On Sunday, a sunrise concert by Marzouk Mejri and Charles Ferris was followed by a reflection on the regeneration of Mediterranean cities and a performance by the actor Antonio Cederna, one of the stars of the film "Mediterraneo", who performed an excerpt from his theatre monologue "Mediterraneo Express".

COSPE President Giorgio Menchini said the festival featured Mediterranean dialogue, culture, and closeness.

"This festival, which was founded to highlight the many existing relations and to retie the knots that bind them as people with a shared home and destiny, showed its vitality and its bonding function," Menchini said.

"Without omitting the critical issues, but rather highlighting the challenges that await us, but that together we can face. After the third edition we feel like we can say that the journey continues," he said.


OHCHR Moldova: Apel deschis pentru aplicatii din partea OSC-urilor pentru a beneficia de suport in desfasurarea activitatilor de advocacy la nivel international in contextul celui de-al treilea ciclu de EPU a R. Moldova
On the evening of June 14, 2018, the editors of Rising Kashmir were rushing to prepare the next days issue. It was the night before Eid-ul-Fitr, the holiday celebrating the end of Ramadan, and the newspaper was short staffed. Many reporters were already home with their families. Outside, as the sun went down, shoppers hurried to finish making purchases before the stores closed.

The second-largest newspaper in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, Rising Kashmir occupies a multi-story office building in Srinagar, the regions largest city, in a neighborhood known as the press enclave, where media organizations are clustered. Faisul Yaseen, the acting editor, was working upstairs when he heard what he thought were fireworks. He looked out the window and saw people running. Worried that there had been a grenade attack in Lal Chowk, the crowded shopping district nearby, Yaseen left the office and descended to the street. He turned the corner to the market and saw a windshield riddled with bullet holes. It was the SUV of Shujaat Bukhari, Rising Kashmirs founding journalist.

Bukhari had left the office only minutes before, flanked by two bodyguards. As soon as he entered his car, three gunmen on a single motorcycle drove by and sprayed Bukhari and the guards with dozens of bullets.

Bukhari was fifty years old, with a thick mustache and rectangular glassesone of the most recognizable faces in local journalism. He had built Rising Kashmir, training and mentoring hundreds of journalists, and the paper became one of the most widely read news sources in the region. In a conflict zone where warring factions sought to suppress unfavorable coverage, Rising Kashmir published a nuanced and balanced version of events.

The next day, as Eid began, the roads to Bukharis ancestral home were jammed with thousands of drivers hoping to attend the funeral service. Rising Kashmirs front page featured a dignified black-and-white portrait of Bukhari. The extent and intensity of the mourning were commensurate with the publics respect for Bukharihis reach and network were unmatched by any other Kashmiri journalistbut the implications of his death were troubling for his colleagues.

Kashmir had never been a safe haven for the press. Bukhari reported, for the BBC, in 2016, that threats to life, intimidation, assault, arrest, and censorship have been part of the life of a typical local journalist. But before his murder, the last assassination of a journalist in region had taken place a decade prior. The press had learned to proceed with caution, yet they worked without fear of death. The bold, public killing of Bukhari was a devastating shock. The brutal nature in which he was assassinated was unnecessary, Aiyaz Hafiz Gani, Bukharis brother-in-law and Rising Kashmirs publisher, says. They did not have to do it this way.

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Almost a year later, on the eve of Indias national elections, it is still unclear who was behind the murder and what, exactly, provoked it. Any partyPakistan, India, or Kashmirismight be at fault. Pakistani militants might have sought to stamp out a voice that pushed for negotiating peace with India. Indian nationalists might have wanted to suppress calls for peace with Pakistan. And Kashmiris might have seen Bukhari as a sell-out whose journalism was diluting the cause for independence. Some speculate that Indian or Pakistani intelligence agencies were involved. With no clear answers, reporters in Kashmir are suspended in fear. Zahid Rafiq, a Kashmiri freelance journalist working in the region, tells me, There was always a gun being held to journalists in Kashmir, but now its been shot.

There was always a gun being held to journalists in Kashmir, but now its been shot.

Kashmir Valley, set within the Himalayas, is famous for its serene landscape, of which Amir Khusro, a fourteenth-century Sufi poet, is thought to have said: If there is ever a heaven on earth, its here, its here, its here. But the region is at the center of an ongoing conflict between India and Pakistan, which have fought three wars over control of the land since the end of British rule, in 1947. After the partition went up, the Kashmiri people were promised a referendum that was never held. That denial, of the right to self-determination, has been an enduring source of frustration and anger for Kashmir. Today the idyllic landscape is dotted with bunkers, army checkpoints, and Kalashnikov-carrying soldiers. Its one of worlds most militarized zones, and the site of some 70,000 deaths.

Journalists have long been caught in the conflict. They are under pressure from Indian state authorities, as well as separatist groups, to publish biased coverage serving opposing agendas. Journalists are regularly intimidated with legal action, surveillance, interrogations, physical threats, arrest, abduction, and assassination. When tensions have been especially high, the publication and distribution of newspapers has been halted, TV and radio channels taken off air, and the internet and mobile services shut down. A 1995 report from the Committee to Protect Journalists described those in Kashmir as working under a state of siege. In the nineties, militants would show up at newsrooms wielding guns and demanding control of stories. At the same time, state authorities charged reporters or news outlets that published the perspectives of militants with threatening national security. Today, many journalists told me, threats from militants are less severe, though they continue to face harassment and intimidation by groups with warring agendas.

Locals have virtually no confidence that police will conduct a credible investigation of Bukharis murder. Years of human rights abuses have fueled anger and mistrust from locals at all levels of authority in the Valley. There is little faith in the judicial system. And India has a dismal record of prosecuting the murders of journalists. Out of thirty-five journalists killed in India since 1992, only two cases have resulted in conviction.

Last summer, a special investigative team, assembled by the police, quickly established a theory of Bukharis murder: that Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based militant group, was responsible. (LeT has denied involvement.) Officials released images of four suspectsall militants who had long been on their radar. Then, in November, police and the army killed one of the primary suspects, Naveed Jhat, in a shootout. In Kashmir, this was a familiar sequence of events: name a militant commander as a suspect in a case, orchestrate an encounter killing (a police killing of a suspected gangster or terrorist in supposed self-defense), and declare the case closed. Every Kashmiri I spoke with had predicted that this would be the outcome of the Bukhari investigation.

Bukharis case has not been closed, but nearly nine months after his killing, there have been no more updates. Police have kept his two phones in their custody without releasing findings; there has been no outline of charges, suspects, or motive. Though the polices theory is plausiblethey pointed to the use of AK-47 and INSAS rifles as indicative of militant involvementthere are a number of questions about the investigation that remain unanswered: How did three militants armed with assault rifles, one well-known to authorities, manage to go undetected in the middle of the heavily populated and surveilled downtown? Where is the bike? Where did they spend the night? Also, an apparent failure of security in the press enclave that evening meant that the police car normally posted at the entrance was missing, police security cameras and CCTVs had either been moved or were not functional, and police did not arrive at the scene for more than twenty minutes. When militants are accused, the judicial process receives less scrutiny. Journalists wonder if the police are holding up an official narrative of the crime that serves the interests of the Indian state.

In September, I went to speak with police about Bukharis case. An officer told me and a colleague that he had no doubt that Pakistani militants were responsible. He also suggested that the murder was a response to Bukharis activism at a recent conference in Dubai. Bukhari, having covered decades of ceasefire negotiations between India and Pakistan, was one of the most prominent voices for peaceful moderation between Kashmir separatists and the Indian national government. He sought a resolution to the conflict through Track II diplomacy, a non-government effort. In Dubai, he spoke about the merits of that approach; Hizbul Mujahideen and United Jehad Council, a pair of militant groups, accused him of undermining separatist voices.

But there had also been an ongoing hate campaign against Bukhari. In an interview with my colleague, Inspector General S.P. Pani pointed to a blog called Kashmirfight and a series of social media posts. They were written by Sajjad Gul, he said, a militant he believes was the mastermind behind the murder. These campaigns smeared Bukhari as a person who was betraying the Kashmir struggle.

Nearly everyone I spoke with agreed that Kashmirfight had caused problems for Bukhari. Vitriolic trolling on Facebook and Twitter had haunted him for several years; after the conference in Dubai, the intensity increased. Kashmirfight and social media messages accused him of taking money from both Pakistani and Indian intelligence agencies, painting him as an agent working against the cause of Kashmiri independence. Social media is threatening everywhere, but in conflict zones, it can be deadly, Naseer Ganai, a journalist with Outlook, says. Here things go through social media scrutiny, not through editors. Everything has a consequence. Riyaz Wani, a journalist for Tehelka, tells me, Nobody knows who will use the narrative thats been built against you.

Bukhari was so worried, in fact, that he filed a defamation case against Madhu Kishwar, a right-wing pundit who had accused him of taking money from Indian and Pakistani intelligence services. He alerted Facebook and Twitter to the defamatory posts and registered complaints with the Jammu and Kashmir police. He began raising the matter with friends in the government, to try to find who was behind the posts. Just a few days before he was killed, Bukhari met with Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and requested increased security. It wasnt grantedits unclear why. His mood became tense. Bukharis wife, Tehmeena, told me that in the weeks before his death, something felt off. She sensed that he was refraining from telling her something so as not to worry her.

Bukhari started his career in journalism young: in middle school, he set up a small news agency in his village, Kreeri, about 25 miles northwest of Srinagar. His first job was in accounting, but he was known to skip out on work in order to chase a story. Eventually he pursued reporting full-time, with the Daily Bombay. The day he resigned his accounting job was one of the happiest Ive seen him, Basharat Bukhari, his older brother, says.

Bukhari went on to report for the Kashmir Times, then The Hindu, one of the largest newspapers in India. He became the Srinagar bureau chief, establishing himself as a national authority on Kashmir. He reported on the height of the conflict and the Kargil War, as well as on social and political developments in the region, and is credited for the resurgence of Kashmiri language education. He became a national TV commentator as well as a frequent contributor to international outlets, and his visibility and reputation grew.

At the same time, he began to receive threats on his life. In 1996, he was among a group of nineteen journalists who were kidnapped by an India-backed militia. Bukhari saved the day: he had a knack for memorizing phone numbers, and managed to use the landline in the room where they were being held to call a colleague. The journalists were released safely. In 2006, Bukhari narrowly escaped an assassination attempt when his attackers gun jammed.

He was not the only Kashmiri journalist who faced assassination during that time. Still, he continued reporting, saying after the incident, You know how this job is. You have friends and you have enemies. When Tehmeena would worry, hed reassure her, saying, What will they do to me? What have I done? Im neutral, Im nobodys agent.

The message from every side is: behave.

Many journalists believe that Bukhari was killed because of his outspoken advocacy for an end to the conflict. But others point out that Bukhari had not had a major role at the Dubai conference, and that journalists with similar views have not targeted. Shujaat did not have a major role at the Dubai conference, nor did he say anything controversial, Khurram Parvez, a human rights activist, tells me.

With Bukhari silenced, his colleagues have been hesitant to conduct field reporting. Some are considering leaving the profession. We dont know who actually killed him, Yusuf Jameel, a Kashmiri journalist, says. But the message from every side is: behave.

Jammu and Kashmir and Indian state authorities have taken advantage of journalists fear. Since Bukharis death, police have questioned at least six reporters. Some were called in on the pretext of questioning in Bukharis case, but instead were asked about their reporting, their headlines, recent travel to Pakistan, and their choice to cover stories of conflict over economic development in the region. Its unsubtle pressure on journalists to portray a more positive image of Kashmir.

In July, a journalist named Zulkarnain Banday was interrogated about his website, Lost Kashmiri History, which provides background on the Kashmir conflict. He was told that his posts contained strong undercurrents of sedition, and he was asked to reveal the terrorist organization he worked for. His electronic devices were searched and he was detainedwithout having been chargedfor five days. The same month, Indias National Investigative Agency interrogated a Kashmiri reporter named Auqib Javeed for three days about an interview he had conducted with a separatist leader. Another journalist, Aasif Sultan, has been detained since August on charges of harboring terrorists and having incriminating material on his laptop. The month before, he had published a story on the death of Burhan Wani, a popular and charismatic militant. During local elections last October, CPJ documented nearly a dozen cases of police beating journalists or obstructing their movements.

Despite its vast security apparatus, India is losing its hold on Kashmir. The separatist movement, which had been largely funded by Pakistan, has, in recent years, become increasingly supported by locals. Dead militants are celebrated by the public as martyrs, drawing thousands of spectators to their funerals. The attention further fuels the cause for independence.

To combat this, India is attempting to control the narrative of conflict in Kashmir more strictly than ever, continuing to claim that the region is an integral part of the country. (The state media of Pakistan makes the same claim.) Historically, India has vilified militant activity in Kashmir, using violent incidents as an opportunity to amplify nationalist rhetoric in the rest of the country. This was on display in Indian national media in February, after a suicide bomber in Pulwama killed forty Indian paramilitary police, and retaliatory airstrike by the Indian Air Force struck a terrorist camp in Pakistan. Amid this rapid escalation of tension, national papers put out of flurry of bombastic coverage that failed to investigate government claims or ask how such a serious intelligence failure happened. Instead, the reports amplified nationalist sentimenthelpful to a government preparing for the upcoming elections. Journalists who raised questions were quickly accused of being anti-nationals. Lost in this jingoist narrative is reporting and storytelling from Kashmir itself. After the Pulwama attack, basic details were confused, such as how much explosive material was used, and little space was given to questioning why the attack happened.

Parvez, the activist, who also participated in Track II, tells me that India treats Kashmir as its laboratory of violencea place to test out strategies of press oppression without repercussions, before exporting them to the rest of the country. Several journalists have pointed out that the intimidation tactics against the media being seen in Delhi now, such as legal cases, imprisonment, and political pressure, have been present for years in Kashmir. (An official in the Home Ministry declined to comment on press freedom in Kashmir and India.)

India treats Kashmir as its laboratory of violencea place to test out strategies of press oppression without repercussions, before exporting them to the rest of the country.

Under Prime Minister Narendra Modis leadership, the climate for journalists throughout the country is worsening. During his first term, he did not hold a single press conference, and he has not tolerated criticism of himself or BJP, the ruling party. The press is operating in an environment where the methods of intimidation, control, and censorship are subtle and effective. Jameel tells me: They may say the press is free, but they create circumstances in which its impossible to work. The result is self-censorship. Up till Shujaats killing you worked, Ganai, the Outlook journalist, says. We took it more lightly, had debates, everyone was free to write to a degree. Now you realize theres a cost. Weve become overcautious in reporting.

Bukharis murder is a tragedy for his family, and for Kashmir. Its also a tragedy for press freedom and peace advocacy. Without a political solution, conflict in the region will inevitably continue, and on-the-ground reporting will be compromised. In a vacuum of critical information and local voices, democracy falls at risk. As India begins its massive election process over the next two months, candidates must also recognize the important role of the media and make a commitment to protecting press freedom.

In a column called Blood Soaked June, published two weeks before his murder, Bukhari wrote about new tensions in the Valley, and called once more for a political resolution to conflict. Local support to militancy has increased. Unless a political approach is adopted by the government, violence will continue to make headlines. And with provocations from the government in Delhi which are further supplemented by TV channels, there is hardly any chance and hope to see a change.

Kunal Majumder, CPJs India correspondent, contributed reporting.

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Aliya Iftikhar joined CPJ in 2017 as its Asia research associate. She has reported from India and the Maldives, written for Vice News and was the editor of The Badger Herald at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
After more than a year of fervent media attention, there was an air of anti-climax when William Barr, the attorney general, reported to Congress, a little over two weeks ago, that Robert Mueller had found no prosecutable conspiracy in his investigation into the Trump campaigns ties to Russia. Even though Mueller punted on the question of whether Trump obstructed justice, the president and his outriders quickly claimed total exoneration. Journalists on the right and on the leftprematurely, at best; in abjectly bad faith, at worstcharacterized months of Mueller coverage as breathless, yet baseless. Cable news punditryexhibit A: Rachel Maddow and MSNBCtook the heaviest hammering.

It would be wrong to say that the dominant media reaction to Barrs Mueller summary was self-flagellation. As soon as it was released, many reporters and commentators stressed that news outlets had just been doing their jobs; in any case, we hadnt seen the full report yet. Nonetheless, in the two weeks since, it does feel like weve seen a narrative shift. At the end of March, The New York Times broke the news that Muellers report runs to more than 300 pages; Barr, in his summary, quoted just 101 words from them. Last week, the same paper reported that some of Muellers investigators believe Barr failed to adequately portray the findings of their inquiry and that they were more troubling for Trump than Barr indicated. Other outlets soon matched the story.

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In recent days, this reportingallied to the growing feeling that key information is being withheldhas driven a fresh skepticism of Barr and his stated conclusions, not least on cable news. That leaks had finally come from inside Muellers office was held up, in many quarters, as highly significant given its long track record of discretion. If were to believe all these reports that have been put out in the last week about the displeasure thats being felt by Muellers team over how Barr characterized this report, then I think it would be fair to call this a cover-up, The Atlantics Natasha Bertrand told MSNBCs Joy Reid yesterday. Barrwho called Muellers obstruction probe fatally misconceived in a memo to the Justice Department before his nomination for attorney generalis deeply, deeply conflicted, Bertrand added.

As Barr prepares a redacted version of Muellers report for Congress, journalists, once again, find themselves playing a waiting game. Maybe there should be a number of days clock on cable news screens? CNNs Brian Stelter mused on Friday, two weeks after Mueller delivered his report to Barr. In the interim, it feels like everything and nothing has changed. The delivery was a watershed moment, yet the Justice Department remains watertightwe still dont know all thats in the report, nor if we will ever find out. The stakes, if anything, seem even higher than before. As the Times wrote last week, some in Muellers team worry that because Barr created the first narrative of the special counsels findings, Americans views will have hardened before the investigations conclusions become public. The longer the wait for closure, the more public opinion will ossify.

Big stories are most compelling when they reach big, satisfying conclusions, so its no surprise that Barrs initial summary of Muellers findings felt anti-climactic. It is imperative, while we wait for more details, that we push back against that feelingnot to contrive a big finish, but because this story has yet to reach its climax, period. It will only do so when we know exactly what Mueller concluded. We should urgently demand that his full report be published, then apply rigorous legal scrutiny to whatever redactions Barr makes. Its what the public wants, and its what transparency demands.

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Below, more on Barr, Trump, and the latest Mueller waiting game:



Other notable stories:

ICYMI: I wrote a story that became a legend. Then I discovered it wasnt true.

Correction: An earlier version of this post stated that William Barr told Congress that Robert Mueller found no collusion in his investigation into the ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. That language has been updated to more accurately reflect Barrs statement.

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Jon Allsop is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Review of Books, Foreign Policy, and The Nation, among other outlets. He writes CJRs newsletter The Media Today. Find him on Twitter @Jon_Allsop.
In the waning hours of Georgias legislative session, between votes on sex trafficking and organ procurement, Republican House Representative and lawyer Andy Welch introduced the Ethics in Journalism Act. Co-sponsored by five other Republican lawmakers, the bill would authorize a board to create new ethical standards that govern journalists work, and to sanction journalists who violate them.

The Journalism Ethics Board, described in the bill as an independent body, would be based at the University of Georgias Grady College of Journalism. The University System of Georgias chancellor would select nine journalists to appoint the board: three editors, three news producers, a retired journalism professor, and two digital journalists.

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While not expressly required to do anything, the board could promulgate canons of ethics for journalism, develop a voluntary accreditation process for journalists, and handle Georgia residents complaints of ethics violations against journalists working in the state. The bill would also grant interview subjects the right to request any photographs, audio, and video recordings taken by a journalist, free of charge and at any time in the reporting process. Reporters that fail to respond in a timely manner would face civil penalties.

In a written statement, Richard T. Griffiths, a retired CNN vice president and former Grady College fellow who now heads the Georgia First Amendment Foundation, said the bill at first seemed like an April Fools joke.

But then it became clear it was an effort to rein in those who have been scrutinizing whats been happening at the legislature, Griffiths wrote. Frankly, this is the kind of proposal one might expect to see surface in a banana republic, not the Peach State.

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The Atlanta Journal-Constitutions James Salzer wrote that Welch, the bills sponsor, is setting a higher standard than he and other members of the General Assembly are under. While the bill would compel journalists to turn over records to interview subjects freely and for free, Georgias legislature is exempt from the states Open Records Act. Those state agencies that must comply with record requests can charge fees to access public documents, and response times for such requests can run longer than the three days afforded to journalists under Welchs bill. Once those three days elapse, the bill stipulates, journalists would be penalized $100 per day.

You want the press to be independent. You dont want them spending all their time going to court or having to foot the enormous cost of providing everything to everyone whos done an interview.

In February, the Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News reported that House Speaker David Ralston, another lawyer, might have used his status as a lawmaker in order to postpone trials for clients. (By doing no more than writing letters to judges declaring that court dates interfere with his lawmaking duties, the investigation noted, he has been able to keep cases perpetually off the docket.) Responding to the storypart of a series that led to a legislative changeRalston railed against the media, claiming reporters get to tell only part of the story and cloak opinions and erroneous conclusions as factual. Should the Ethics in Journalism Act pass, a lawmaker such as Ralston could file a complaint to the ethics board and have reporters work investigated, essentially for publishing a factually accurate story the subject did not like.



Journal-Constitution investigative reporter Johnny Edwards, who worked on the series of stories about the House speaker, says such a bill is ridiculous and ordinarily wouldnt have a chance of advancing. However, based on the obstacles he faced from lawmakers and other officials while working on his story and the national climate towards journalism, he says hes alarmed.

This bill is absolutely shocking, he says. Everyone in the state should perk up right now.

Georgia lawmakers have not previously sought to regulate journalists. However, in recent years, Republican lawmakers in South Carolina and Indiana have proposed journalist registries in an effort to critique coverage they see as critical of Second Amendment rights.

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Stephen Key, director of the Hoosier State Press Association, calls Indiana lawmaker references to a journalist registry a publicity move, and says the bill, which never received a hearing, wasnt serious. However, he says, lawmakers in Indianas statehouse and elsewhere across the country increasingly wont talk to members of the press, and conflate talk shows, opinion pieces, and political commentary with hard news reporting.

At Georgias capitol, Welch, the bills sponsor, told reporters he filed the measure to confront a national media landscape that, he claimed, blurs the line between fact and opinion.

It is very difficult to discern for the public as to whats an editorial commentary on something and what are the facts the articles based on, Welch said. Blending the two seems to be what has become more prevalent in the media than a separate analysis of facts versus commentary.

Journalists will always need to educate the public about how news is made, Lynn Walsh, Ethics Chair at the Society of Professional Journalists, says. But a board to decide a canon of ethics isnt necessary, because such codes already exist within many newsrooms.

We have an ethics code that goes over the basic principles of journalism, and a lot of news organizations have their own ethics code, Walsh says. But people may not know this, so its on us to talk about why we made ethical decisions.

If anyone has a complaint/concern about #news coverage, first step is contact #journalist or news org. Journalists should be responsive & listen to feedback, complaints AND make changes as appropriate. You can also contact the @spj_tweets #ethics hotline: https://t.co/PuFlSQUP60 https://t.co/7sm1TyqK5w  Lynn Walsh (@lwalsh) April 3, 2019

Atlanta-based First Amendment lawyer Cynthia Counts says questions about journalism cant be heard if media outlets are busy spending time and resources sending raw interview documentation to every person they may encounter.



You want the press to be independent, she says. You dont want them spending all their time going to court or having to foot the enormous cost of providing everything to everyone whos done an interview.



Counts also says the language of the bill seems to be in direct conflict with reporter privilege protections, which in Georgia say anything obtained during newsgathering is protected unless it is material and relevant cannot be reasonably obtained by alternative means and is necessary to the proper preparation or presentation of the case of a party seeking the information, document, or item.

On the same day Welch introduced his bill, he also announced his intention to resign from his seat. However, the bills five Republican cosponsors will still be in the General Assembly when the next session begins in 2020.

Even if the bill never sees the light of day, Nora Benavidez with PEN America says leaving the concept of a Journalism Ethics Board unresolved until next Januarys session sends a clear message to journalists in Georgia.

It casts this cloud over the press for the next several months, she says. Its very threatening, as if to portray that the press better be careful how it represents whats going on at the Capitol.

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Stephen Fowler is the politics reporter at Georgia Public Broadcasting in Atlanta, where he covers local, state, and local-around-the-state stories. His work has appeared on NPRs national newscasts, Morning Edition and All Things Considered, Here & Now, Marketplace, and ProPublica. You can find him on Twitter @stphnfwlr.
The United Kingdom joined a growing global backlash against technology companies such as Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc., proposing fines and bans if social-media platforms fail to curb illegal activity.

The government outlined plans for an industry-funded regulator that would police the technology companies platforms for harmful content, such as incitement to terrorism and child sexual exploitation. The move is part of a push to hold the companies accountable, and fines for breaches of the new law could reach as high as 4 percent of global turnover, Digital Secretary Jeremy Wright said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.

There is an acceptance that some form of regulation on social media is inevitable, Wright said on Monday. Companies will be subject to Internet rules wherever they are.

The U.K. plan follows steps by countries from Australia to the European Union to increase scrutiny of tech companies that until now have largely avoided any form of industry regulation. Last week, Australia passed legislation that included potential prison sentences of up to three years for executives who fail to remove abhorrent material from their platforms.

In the U.K., too, enforcement powers could go as far as imposing liability on individual company managers. The government laid out the proposals as it opened a 12-week consultation Monday.

Broader Effort

European lawmakers are also voting Monday on removal rules for online terrorism content, part of a broader EU effort to make platforms increasingly liable for what their users post.

The U.K. proposal wasnt universally welcomed. The Institute of Economic Affairs, a pro-market research group, labeled the plans draconian and more likely to do harm than good by holding back innovation. Giving the government power to dictate what content is appropriate sets a dangerous precedent, Director General Mark Littlewood said.

Following the March 15 mosque attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand, that left 50 people dead, Facebook and Alphabet Inc.s YouTube faced worldwide condemnation for failing to take down quickly a video live-streamed by the alleged gunman.

Damian Collins, a member of the U.K.s ruling Conservative Party who chairs the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, cited the New Zealand terrorist attack as a reason for introducing regulation.

Atrocity

A regulator should have the power to investigate how content of that atrocity was shared and why more was not done to stop it sooner, he said.

The U.K.s proposed laws will apply to any company that allows users to share or find content or interact with each other online, such as social-media platforms, file-hosting sites, public discussion forums, messaging services and search engines.

Other proposals outlined by the government include a code of practice that could include requirements to minimize the spread of misleading information, and an annual transparency report on harmful content.

Even in the home country of Facebook and Google, opposition has been growing. After a plethora of congressional hearings, a bill that would have restricted online political advertising lost steam when its Republican sponsor, Arizona Senator John McCain, died. But Republican Congressman Devin Nunes of California has sued Twitter, while Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a Democratic presidential candidate, last week complained Facebook has too much power.

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.
KAMPALA  An American tourist and her guide abducted in Uganda last week were released after a negotiated settlement was reached with the kidnappers, the firm that had organized her safari told Reuters on Monday.

Amid fears the incident could deter tourists from visiting the East African country, U.S. President Donald Trump called on Twitter for the kidnappers to be found.

Ugandan authorities said on Sunday that Kimberley Sue Endecott, 35, and her driver, Jean Paul, had been rescued unharmed after being seized by gunmen in Queen Elizabeth National Park, near the border with Democratic Republic of Congo, on April 2. The kidnappers later demanded a ransom of $500,000 for Endecotts release.

The acknowledgement of some negotiations with the captors follows reports in several local media outlets, including state-owned daily New Vision, that a ransom was paid before the kidnappers freed their victims.

A negotiated settlement was arranged with the assistance of the American government, a spokesman for the tour firm, Wild Frontiers Safaris Uganda, told Reuters.

I dont have details of the final settlement

New Vision reported on Monday citing undisclosed sources that a ransom of $30,000 had been paid.

The U.S. Embassy in Uganda did not return calls for a comment. Uganda Police spokeswoman Polly Namaye said she could not confirm whether a ransom had been paid.

It remains unclear who was responsible for the abduction which took place in an area once roamed by fighters belonging to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an anti-Kampala rebel group that is now mostly dormant. The group is still believed to have camps in eastern Congo.

Uganda must find the kidnappers of the American Tourist and guide before people will feel safe in going there, Trump tweeted on Monday. Bring them to justice openly and quickly!

Tourism is a key source of foreign exchange for Uganda and there are concerns the incident might raise safety fears and discourage visitors.

In a tweet on Monday, President Yoweri Museveni promised to deal with these isolated pockets of criminals.
A doctor who was an early evangelist for increased use of highly addictive opioids like OxyContin to treat chronic pain  and who was paid to promote the idea  has switched sides and now says drug makers helped to create a U.S. epidemic by failing to acknowledge the risks of abuse.

Dr. Russell Portenoy, a medical-school professor who studied pain for more than 30 years, has agreed to testify against the industry in trials of lawsuits brought by local governments seeking billions in social costs associated with addiction, according to unsealed court filings. In a sworn statement, he said drug makers were too aggressive in promoting opioids for all kinds of ailments.

The opioid manufacturers should have tempered their positive messaging about opioids with a greater focus on risk, particularly as early signals of opioid risk emerged, Portenoy said in his court declaration. Drug makers also should have responded as evidence of increasing adverse affects mounted to increased awareness and reduce inappropriate or risky prescribing, he said.

Portenoy switched sides last year after U.S. cities and counties agreed to drop their lawsuits against him in exchange for his cooperation, the court records show. A settlement was reached, and he provided documents and testimony that could be used in the lawsuits against opioid manufacturers including Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnsons Janssen unit and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.

According to a 2017 investigation conducted by then Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill, more than 50,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2015, with a third of those deaths caused by prescription opioids including Purdue Pharma LP OxyContin and Insys Therapeutics Inc.s Subsys.

Recognized as one of the leading U.S. experts on pain treatment and a key opinion leader, Portenoy will testify that companies overstated the benefits of chronic-opioid therapy and understated the risks of opioids, particularly the risk of abuse, addiction and overdose, according to the federal-court filing.

That backs up the contention of local governments that illegal marketing by opioid makers fueled a public-health crisis that consumed billions of tax dollars. The plaintiffs say those misleading sales tactics created a public nuisance that puts the companies on the hook for social costs tied to the epidemic.

Robert Josephson, Purdues spokesman, declined to comment on Portenoys defection.

Portenoys 36-page declaration about his change of heart was made public Friday as part a pre-trial ruling in a consolidation of more than 1,600 suits filed by public entities before a federal judge in Cleveland. The doctor didnt immediately respond to an interview request Monday.

A special master overseeing discovery in test trials set for October is recommending that Portenoy be barred from testifying because plaintiffs lawyers didnt notify the companies of the doctors settlement until months after it was signed. Portenoy would be free to testify in future opioid cases if U.S. Judge Dan Polster signs off on the recommendation.

Portenoy, a professor of medicine at New York-based Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University who oversees hospice care at Memorial Sloane-Kettering Cancer Center, was an early adopter of the idea that opioids used mostly to treat cancer patients could be safely and effectively used for chronic pain from arthritis and bad backs.

Government regulators generally limited prescription opioids  some of which are 1,000-times more powerful than morphine. While doctors have wide discretion to prescribe medicines beyond what theyve been approved to treat, drug makers can only market their products for ailments approved by regulators.

Portenoys assertion that opioid therapy is effective and safe for non-cancer pain was used in doctor-training videos backed by opioid makers and in the companies marketing brochures, he said. Portenoy said he was hired as a consultant by several drug makers. He has been identified in court filings as a spokesman for Purdue and an expert who provided a critical component of drug-marketing efforts.

Changed Views

But Portenoy now says hes changed his view. After more than 20 years of experience with opioids, he has determined that the drugs should not be prescribed widely, and instead should only be targeted to patients who dont have a high risk of addiction, according to the declaration.

The pain doctor said opioid makers selectively cited his work to market their products in an unbalanced way that contributed to physicians prescribing the painkillers inappropriately. During that period, he was receiving compensation from pharmaceutical companies for speeches, research and consulting. He didnt say how much he was paid in total, but cited examples of almost $80,000 from 2006 to 2011, as well as a $500-an-hour consulting contract in 2008 with Insys, court filings show.

Those kind of prescribing habits  influenced by opioid makers relentless marketing of their painkillers  contributed to rising incidences of drug addiction and overdoses, Portenoy said in his declaration.

Not all the plaintiffs lawyers are impressed with Portenoys change of heart.

Although its nice that Dr. Portenoy has changed his view on the use of opioids, it doesnt help the millions who have died and become addicted over the years while he was a shill for Purdue, J&J and the rest of the opioid industry, Hunter Shkolnik, an attorney for some cities and counties, said in an emailed statement.

The case is In Re National Prescription Opioid Litigation, 17-md-2804, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio (Cleveland).

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  A downtown office building on Bolivar Road will soon be renovated by a New York-based investment firm that recently purchased the property.

Somera Road Inc., which invests in commercial real estate, has acquired a 140,000-square-foot building at 1020 Bolivar Road, formerly the home of the city- and county-run workforce development office of Ohio Means Jobs. The sale and renovation plans were announced Monday by Cushman & Wakefield/Cresco Real Estate, which represented Somera Road in its search for property in Cleveland.

The firm plans to take advantage of the federal Opportunity Zone program, which provides incentives to invest in Census tracts designated as economically distressed. Somera Road plans to convert the buildings three office floors into modern, creative office space. The property also includes a 400-space covered parking garage and is located in downtowns Gateway District.

A sale price was not disclosed.

Somera Road has been investing in the Cleveland area for a long time, Matt Schagrin, vice president of asset management at Somera Road, said in a statement. Were particularly excited about this building because traditionally, creative office space has lagged in Cleveland versus other markets.

Work has begun on a new lobby and a rooftop patio that will overlook Progressive Field. The project will preserve exposed brick and beams to create a modern, industrial aesthetic, according to a news release.

The local office of the statewide Ohio Means Jobs program left the Gateway District property for an office in the former Whitlatch Building at 1910 Carnegie Ave. in 2017, according to a Plain Dealer story.
Expo 2020 Dubai: contest of ideas for 'Al Forsan' stage Amphitheatre to be built in front of the Italy Pavillion

(ANSA) - Rome, April 8 - The contest of ideas for the design of the stage of the "Al Forsan" Amphitheatre, to be built in front of the Italy Pavilion at the Expo 2020 site in Dubai, gets under way.



Italian creative flair will develop the project for a highly innovative stage at Expo 2020 Dubai, capable of housing, for each event, up to 80 actors in front of 4,000 standing and 2,500 seated spectators.



The contest of ideas for the stage of the "Al Forsan" Amphitheatre, which will arise in the public park of the Expo 2020 Dubai site in front of the Italy, India, Germany, the United States, Japan and Saudi Arabia pavilions, was launched by the General Commissioner and by Invitalia. The contest is open to architects, designers, stage designers and Italian designers.



It will help to put Italy's mark on one of the most popular venues within the exhibition site, at the exit of the United Arab Emirates national pavilion, between the Sustainability and Opportunity districts.



Over the six months of the Expo, the amphitheatre will host hundreds of performances and shows for thousands of visitors and artists from around the globe, transposing into a prestigious work the theme of 2020 Dubai, "Connecting minds, Creating the Future", and upholding the Italian claim, "Beauty connects people". Italy will contribute with numerous events and artistic, musical and theatrical performances.



Invitalia, in its role of central purchasing body on behalf of the General Commissioner's Office, launched the contest, which is open to all candidates possessing the requirements stated in the notice. Prizes in money will be awarded to the first three ideas, ranked by an independent committee made up of members of the highest repute. Moreover, up to three special mentions may be granted - without entailing prizes or expense refunds - for design ideas distinguished by particularly innovative aspects or that incorporate special technically advanced elements.



The deadline for submitting the ideas is 30 days from the date of publication of the Notice. The full text and all the details for participating in the international contest are available on the Invitalia eprocurement telematic platform and on the website of the General Commissioner's Office, at the following addresses: https://gareappalti.invitalia.it/tendering/tenders/000021-2019/v iew/detail/1 and https://italyexpo2020.it/.(ANSA).




BROOKLYN, Ohio -- Coming to the end of her first term as mayor, Katie Gallagher said there was no question she would seek re-election this fall.

I wouldnt say there was a moment where I realized I wanted to run again as much as I recognized that I wasnt done, Gallagher said. There are just so many great things you can do to help your community in this position, and I just havent reached that point where Im comfortable in saying my work is done here.

If I were to leave at the end of this year, did I leave the office better than I found it? Absolutely. But I havent made that kind of imprint where I feel like I can help the city go to the next level.

Gallagher said shes proud of the inroads made in Brooklyn over the past three and half years related to the departure of American Greetings, which at the time represented 20 percent of the citys income tax revenue and 14 percent of its overall revenue.

At her recent State of the City address, Gallagher said the 1 American Road site went from being in dire straits and losing a huge payroll to adding eight new businesses, 1,700 employees and more than $90 million in new payroll.

We had some time where we didnt know what the turnaround would be, Gallagher said. Its just been a lot of looking at our finances, trying to make sure were planning for the future.

I think Ive done that very well, but now its really kind of getting to work on other things and turning our city around in areas where I think we need some improvement more so than what Ive already done.

Even though the American Greetings situation was trying, Gallagher said it forced her to hit the ground running, going through every little detail related to the operation of the city.

While perhaps it wasnt the ideal situation, today Gallagher feels as though it was a blessing in disguise.

That sense of urgency was a huge motivational factor for me, making sure we not only weathered this storm, but we come out better, Gallagher said. I feel like we have.

One of the areas of need going forward has to do with capital investments. Gallagher said the city is faced with $19 million in needed improvements to city buildings. Included on that list is a new police station, which she hopes to tackle during her second term if she is re-elected.

Another area of focus is recreation. The mayor said that while the city at one point had the newest and best recreation center around in the late 1970s and early 1980s, thats no longer the case.

The nature of recreation has changed, so we need to look at how to change with it and provide the services that residents are looking for, Gallagher said.

What hasnt changed is her desire to serve the residents of Brooklyn, which began with four years on City Council.

I dont think when I went on City Council I had any intention of ever running for mayor, Gallagher said. I was fresh out of law school and thought I was going to go practice law and go that route.

My motive to run for mayor came at kind of a pivotal turning point in our city where we were going to need to make some tough decisions. I felt like I was the best candidate at that time to help kind of move the city along. I still feel that way.

So far, Gallagher is the only person to pull petitions in order to run for mayor in Brooklyn. When asked if she expects competition, the mayor said, In politics, you always expect an opponent.

Read more Parma Sun Post news here.
MEDINA, Ohio -- Retired Army Col. David W. Taylor has devoted much of his life to serving his country and his fellow soldiers, both on active duty and as veterans. Medina County has profited from his service in the form of educational programs and through his leadership in the renovation of the Medina County Veterans Memorial Hall.

Taylor was born in Philadelphia in March 1946, and even though their fathers age had kept him from duty in both World Wars, Taylor and his three brothers all had a sense of patriotism and duty that led them to military service. His oldest brother served in Korea; he and his other two brothers fought in Vietnam.

Following high school, Taylor earned an associates degree in business administration and marketing from Peirce Junior College in Philadelphia, but lost interest in school. Despite having had heart surgery at age 16, he was accepted into the Armys Officer Candidate School, then airborne school and Army ranger school beginning in 1967.

He was deployed to Vietnam in February 1969, where he served for four months. In May of that year, he was wounded by an antipersonnel mine, being hit by shrapnel in his head, ear and neck. He returned to the field the next day.

On June 3, a helicopter trying to clear a roadway was shot down. Taylor and five other men in a Cobra gun ship (helicopter) were sent to rescue the crew from the first helicopter. They jumped out of the Cobra as it hovered 5 feet above the ground.

As Taylor said, It just wasnt a good situation.

Two men were killed immediately as they left the helicopter; three other men jumped into a ditch to cover Taylor with gunfire as he ran to the other crew. Two of the crew members from the first helicopter were dead; the third was seriously wounded.

As the enemy fired at Taylor with AK47s, he returned fire. When he paused to reload, he was shot in the left side, opening a shallow, 8-inch-long wound. As he headed to the ditch to join his crew, his lower right leg was shattered by enemy fire.

It hurt like hell," he said.

After armored personnel carriers arrived to rescue the survivors, they were carried by helicopter to a field hospital, then transferred to Japan, where Taylor spent a week before being flown to Fort Dix, N.J., where he recuperated and rehabbed for a year.

David W. Taylor deposits discarded American flags in a bin outside the Medina County Veterans Memorial Hall. A Boy Scout troop later respectfully destroys the discarded flags. (Mary Jane Brewer, special to cleveland.com)

In October of that year -- 1969 -- he met his future wife, Sue, who was training to be an Army operating room nurse. According to Taylor, The Army issued me a wife. They were engaged in January 1970 and married that July.

They were both stationed in Fort Jackson, S.C., where Taylor took advantage of the GI Bill to earn a degree in business administration from the University of South Carolina. Because Sue was originally from Middleburg Heights and the couple wanted to come north, Taylor interviewed with BF Goodrich for a management training position. He was hired to work in Akron, so they moved to Medina in 1973.

He continued to serve his country for 22 years in the Active Reserves.

The family of four -- by now they had children Mike and Kyra -- lived in Venezuela for three years from 1977 to 1980, but kept their house in Medina. In October 2004, Taylor retired from Goodrich at the age of 58.

Tragedy visited the family in 2011 when their 38-year-old son Mike died suddenly of a heart attack.

After his retirement, Taylor began attending Army division reunions and questioned what had happened to Vietnam veterans after he left. He read 22,000 pages of daily entries covering four years and three months -- everything the battalion was doing. After interviewing more than 100 people, he wrote a 722-page chronological history of the battalion, titled Our War: the history and sacrifices of an infantry battalion in the Vietnam War.

I put the reader in the grass with the soldiers. The good, the bad, and the ugly -- youre going to see it," he said.

The book is now in its third printing and is available at the Medina library or on Amazon.com.

In order to educate the public about the war, Taylor does PowerPoint history presentations to high schools, colleges, veterans and families. He steers away from the politics of the war and only gives his opinion if asked. He has written more than 60 articles for Army magazines.

After he became involved with veterans groups here in Medina, he spearheaded the half-million-dollar renovation of the Medina County Veterans Memorial Hall, 620 N. Broadway. It now is home to four organizations: American Legion Post 201; Disabled American Veterans, Post 72; American Veterans, Post 1990; and Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 385.

Completed in July 2016, it is open to the public to rent for weddings, showers or meetings; the contact person is Phill Grossa, 330-416-0792.

Behind the hall is a bin to discard flags that are damaged or faded. Boy Scout Troop 5137 burns the flags in special ceremonies developed to respect the flags.

When hes not working with veterans, Taylor is active with St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Medina as a eucharistic minister, taking Communion to hospice patients and families.

He is planning to get involved with a visit a buddy program, and has been active with the citys Memorial Day Parade Committee and the recent Four Chaplains program.

I want to finish my life well," Taylor said.

This is one in a series of stories about Medina Countys Local Legends.

For more stories from the Medina Sun, visit here. Read more from the Brunswick Sun here.
SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio -- Sometimes the problems of the world seem much too large to tackle. And alone, we can cast a small stone that makes a ripple -- and that is a start. However, as a collective force, we can exponentially extend that ripple effect.

The good works of people in our Hillcrest area make me proud to be a resident. Learning of novel ways to give and to serve and to inspire uplifts me -- and perhaps you, too.

As I learned from a self-development class I took in my youth: Too often people believe that they should give until it hurts. But here is a turn of phrase: Give until it feels good. Read on.

Teens who orchestrated giving: Laurel School seniors Lily Seeman of University Heights and Cassie Trykoff of Highland Heights participated in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Societys Student of the Year Campaign. This seven-week campaign concluded, and these determined volunteers led Laurels Team Hope and raised a record-breaking $83,000 -- earning first place out of 15 teams.

Wow.

The funds will provide a research grant to work toward a cure for blood cancers. The teens learned the art of development and approached corporations, worked with local businesses to partner on events and donate proceeds, and tested their hand at event planning by hosting a gathering to raise additional funds.

I am impressed not only by their success, but what I imagine was hours of collaboration to get these wonderful results. Thank you, Lily and Cassie, for organizing and persisting on this worthy cause.

The power of love: The Tzu Chi outreach updates I get by email keep me informed on global events I might otherwise overlook. But we are all interdependent and in some way can improve our world, even against forces that may appear overwhelming.

From March 14-15, a devastating cyclone brought calamity to the East African nations of Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Madagascar. According to reports, at least 468 deaths occurred in Mozambique alone, and 50,619 homes were destroyed. The people of East Africa are in profound need of support. Consider the many mothers, fathers, children and the elderly, frightened and homeless due to the storm.

Tzu Chi volunteers locally and beyond aim to deliver care in person with sincerity and respect, providing not only monetary assistance, but compassion, a listening ear and an open heart. Tzu Chi volunteers go wherever there is need to share food, monetary aid, blankets, stationery, water purification agents and mosquito nets, in addition to carrying out evaluation for reconstruction of schools and essential emergency medical care.

And we are lucky to have a service center right in the heart of the Hillcrest area, on Ford Road at Ridgebury in Highland Heights.

Note that all donations made to Tzu Chi USA Disaster Relief Fund by April 15 will benefit the Cyclone Idai relief mission. Donate online: https://tzuchi.us/donate/cause/cyclone-idai/

Donate by text: Text TzuChi to 91999.

Donate by check: Make check payable to Tzu Chi

Giving on the move: Do you love to run or walk? Consider taking part in the Montefiore Foundations fifth annual Home Run 5K Run/Walk & 1M Walk on Sunday, May 5, at Ursuline College, rain or shine!

Registration begins at 7:30 a.m.; the race begins at 8:30 a.m.

Fun for the whole, active family! A lively addition this year is the indoor Adrenaline Monkey course.

If you register by Friday, May 3, the cost is $25. On race day, registration is $30. Youths age 12 and younger may participate for free.

Look forward to chip timing for 5K participants. And a Dri-Fit shirt for every registrant. For more details, contact dpease@montefiorecare.com

The gift of service: Michael N. Johns, CM, AICA, of Johns-Carabelli Company in South Euclid, has been elected president of the Monument Builders of North America (MBNA).

MBNA is the largest trade association for firms and individuals in Canada and the U.S. engaged in the retail sale of monuments, wholesalers and manufacturers of monuments, or who provide goods, services and materials to retailers or wholesalers of monuments.

Along with two of his sisters, Johns is one of three fourth-generation memorialists in his family. He began working for his father and grandfather on a part-time basis in 1975, transitioning to full-time in 1981. Currently, he is the CFO of The Johns-Carabelli Company and a master stone carver, with an emphasis on hand-cut and hand-drawn lettering. What a phenomenal talent that must be.

Outside of the monument industry, Johns is a third-generation Rotarian and has been president of three separate Rotary clubs, most recently as the charter president of The Rotary Club of Hillcrest-Sunrise in 2010.

Dont leave me in the dark! Share your Sun Messages with mariashinestewart@gmail.com No PDFs, please.

For more Hillcrest news from the Sun Messenger, visit here.
BRUNSWICK HILLS TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- Theft, Pearl Road: A resident reported a 2004 Subaru Forester stolen from their driveway and another car broken into overnight March 21.

The stolen truck reportedly had been left unlocked, and the victim said her grandson may have taken the car, as he has stolen items from the family in the past. The suspect also stole and used the keys to the truck in the theft.

The truck was later located by Medina Township police in the parking lot of Timber Lodge with the keys inside. Police found items inside the car, but were unable to locate the woman to whom the items belong. There was no further information at the time of the report.

Breaking and entering, Boston Road: A Strongsville man was arrested for breaking and entering and domestic violence at 2:20 p.m. March 20. The victim said the suspect -- her brother -- had assaulted her at their grandparents home, from which the suspect had been previously banned.

Police also arrested a Berea woman, who was a passenger in the suspects car, for drug possession. The woman reportedly admitted to police that she had hidden a bag of marijuana and a marijuana pipe in her vaginal cavity, reports said.

Drug possession, Sleepy Hollow Road: A driver was cited for marijuana possession after being pulled over at 11:03 p.m. March 15 for failing to use a turn signal. Marijuana and drug paraphernalia were found inside the car during the stop, and a case of beer was found in the trunk.

Police had the 19-year-old driver and his 18-year-old passenger pour out the beer, and the pot and paraphernalia were taken as evidence.

Disorderly conduct, Center Road: A man was cited for disorderly conduct while intoxicated at 7:15 a.m. March 17 when police were called to a gas station for a customer who was in the store being annoying and refusing to leave, according to store management.

If you would like to discuss the police blotter, please visit our crime and courts comments page.

Read more Brunswick Sun news here.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Federal prosecutors charged two men following a years-long investigation into what they said is millions of dollars in food stamp fraud and an illegal slaughter operation in Lorain County.

Mahmoud Abukhalil, a Lakewood resident, and Bernard Whiting, who lives in Cleveland, are charged with causing un-permitted discharges into a waterway, as well as slaughtering animals for commercial use without a permit.

The U.S. Attorneys Office accused both men of dumping blood and other bodily fluids from animals into Engle Ditch in Lorain County, which flows into the Black River. Abukhalil and Whiting also slaughtered 400 lambs or goats weighing about 25,000 pounds without having the process federally inspected. They then sold the meat, according to federal prosecutors.

The charges came as part of a larger investigation the FBI, IRS and other agencies began in 2015 that encompassed money laundering, the illegal slaughter operation and Clean Water Act violations.

Charges against Abukhalil, 46, and Whiting, 45, were filed Friday through documents known as a criminal information, which usually means a plea agreement is forthcoming.

Abukhalils attorney declined comment. Whitings lawyer did not immediately return a phone call.

The investigation centered Amin and Mohamed Salem, a father and son duo arrested in January. Federal prosecutors said Abukhalil and Whiting worked as part of the Salems operations.

The federal investigation was made public in November 2016, when the agents raided gas stations in Cleveland and Garfield Heights connected to the Salem family.

Meat from the slaughtering operation was sold to Middle Eastern restaurants and stores in the Cleveland area, prosecutors previously said. While Amin Salem illegally sold meat slaughtered on his property, Mohamed Salem also sold the meat and allowed customers to buy it using cards for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, authorities said.

Prosecutors said Mohamed Salem also managed the finances of gas stations on behalf of his father, authorities said. The gas stations accepted payment cards as part of the SNAP program, and Mohamed Salem managed finances because his father was barred from owning stores that accepted government benefits cards because of previous criminal convictions.

The Salems processed more than $2.7 million in fraudulent SNAP transactions between 2010 and 2016, according to the indictment.

Amin and Mohamed Salem pleaded not guilty. Zahran al-Qadan, a third man arrested in January, also denied a related charge.

If you would like to comment on this story, please visit Mondays crime and courts comments section.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Federal prosecutors and agents are investigating a Ukrainian oligarch with business ties to real estate in Cleveland and a now-shuttered steel mill in the Mahoning Valley.

The Daily Beast reported that the U.S. Attorneys Office in northern Ohio and FBI are involved in a wide-ranging probe that involves Ihor Kolomoisky and whether he committed financial crimes, including money laundering. It bases the assertion on three people briefed on the investigation and said the investigation has been under way for some time.

The Daily Beast reported that sources said Kolomoisky was under investigation in Ohio, as he has business ties here.

Kolomoisky is a principal of the Privat Group, a large Ukrainian business group. Principals of the company are also part of Optima, a conglomerate of companies in the United States that has interests in real estate in Cleveland, including the One Cleveland Center building on East 9th Street and 55 Public Square.

The company had a much larger presence in Cleveland about a decade ago when it bought several buildings under the leadership of executive Chaim Schochet. Its presence in Northeast Ohio has dwindled in recent years.

Optima also controlled Warren Steel Holdings, a mill northwest of Youngstown that closed in 2016.

Spokespeople for the U.S. Attorneys Office and the FBI declined comment. Kolomoiskys attorney Mike Sullivan did not return a phone call Monday.

However, Sullivan told The Daily Beast that "Mr. Kolomoisky categorically denies that he has laundered any funds into the United States, period.

A phone call left for Schochet was not returned.

Kolomoisky and a fellow Ukrainian billionaire formed PrivatBank in the early 1990s. It became one of the Ukraines key financial institutions, according to Forbes. The Ukrainian government nationalized the bank in 2016 after an investigation suggested there was large-scale fraud over a decade-long period, Forbes reported.

The financial news outlet places Kolomoisky net worth at about $1.2 billion. The Daily Beast, citing The Financial Times, said he lives in Tel Aviv and remains a complicated political figure in his home country. He is a former governor of Ukraines Dnipropetrovsk region.

If you would like to comment on this story, please visit Mondays crime and courts comments section.
EUCLID, Ohio -- A man died after being pulled from a house fire Monday in Euclid, authorities said.

Firefighters found the man in the burning home on East 194th Street, according to a statement the fire department posted on social media. The mans name has not been released.

E. 194 UPDATE: Fire is out. One fatality of unknown age male. Heavy fire damage to home with localized collapse of living room floor. Fire is under investigation with help from State of Ohio Fire Marshals office. No reported injuries to EFD personnel.  Euclid Fire Dept. (@EuclidFD) April 8, 2019

The fire caused heavy damage to the home. Part of the living-room floor collapsed, the statement says.

The firec cause has not been determined. The State Fire Marshals Office is assisting in the investigation, the statement says.

No firefighters were hurt, the statement says.

To comment on this story, visit Mondays crime and courts comments page.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Two police officers were taken to the hospital Sunday night after they were injured while chasing two suspects in the theft of a vehicle, police say.

One of the officers remained in the hospital with a possible concussion after he fell and hit his head, police say.

Another officer was treated at Euclid Hospital for a separated shoulder.

Police spokesperson Sgt. Jennifer Ciaccia says the officers had responded to a report of a stolen vehicle. Two suspects were caught after a brief foot chase near the intersection of Euclid Avenue and Torbenson Drive.

The incident occurred around 6 p.m. Sunday.

If youd like to comment on this post, please visit the cleveland.com crime and courts comments section.
NORTH BALTIMORE, Ohio  A Michigan man was killed when one of the tires on his three-wheel motorcycle detached as he was driving down Interstate 75, according to reports.

Kevin Suber, 60, of Detroit, was taken to Wood County Hospital in Bowling Green after the crash Saturday night but died of his injuries, State Highway Patrol troopers tell WTVG Channel 13.

The Bowling Green Sentinel-Tribune reports Suber was driving a 2012 Harley Davidson Tri Glide Ultra south on Interstate 75 when the left rear tire detached. Suber drove struck a concrete median wall and overturned.

Suber was not wearing a helmet, reports say.

The crash remains under investigation, but alcohol and drugs are not suspected.

If youd like to comment on this post, please visit the cleveland.com crime and courts comments section.
MILTON, Florida  A woman accused of causing a crash in 2018 in Columbus, Ohio, that killed a passenger in her vehicle has been arrested in Florida on an aggravated vehicular homicide charge, reports say.

Heather Lynn Tapia, 47, is being held at the Santa Rosa County Jail after she was arrested Saturday on the indictment from Ohio, ABC 6 reports.

According to WCMH Channel 4, police say Tapia was driving a Saturn SI at 3:23 a.m. on July 14 when she tried to make a left turn at an intersection. The Saturn was struck on the passenger side by a Dodge Caravan, killing Audrey Gartin, 39, who was a passenger in the Saturn, WCMH reports.

Franklin County Prosecutor Ron OBrien tells WCMH that Tapias blood-alcohol level was 0.138, above Ohios legal limit of 0.8.

According to ABC 6, officials say Tapia has eight OVI convictions. Her drivers license had been suspended for five years when the accident occurred.

If youd like to comment on this post, please visit the cleveland.com crime and courts comments section.
Libya: raid on only open airport in Tripoli

(ANSAmed) - ROME, APRIL 8 - An air raid on Monday targeted the Mitiga airport in eastern Tripoli, the only airport still open in the Libyan capital, according to witnesses quoted by international media, who did not provide additional information.



The airport has been closed since the air raid, according to the reports.



Television Al Jazeera reported that the raids also targeted the international airport of Tripoli, which has been closed since 2014. (ANSAmed).




COLUMBUS, OhioOhio House legislation expected to be introduced later this week would impose new customer surcharges to subsidize two nuclear plants in danger of closing. Here are four takeaways:

- FirstEnergy plans to close the Davis-Besse and Perry plants by 2021 amid competition from cheaper natural-gas plants.

- A draft version of the bill would add monthly surcharges of $2.50 for residential customers, $20 for commercial customers, and $250 to industrial customers.

- The draft bill would eliminate existing surcharges on energy-efficiency and peak reduction programs.

- House Speaker Larry Householder favors state help to keep the plants running.
Saudi-led air strikes in Sanaa kill at least 11 - Al Jazeera Attacks took place Sunday

(ANSAmed) - ROME, APRIL 8 - At least 11 people were killed on Sunday in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, following air strikes by the Saudi-led Arab coalition, said Qatari network Al Jazeera.



According to Youssef Al Hadrii, spokesperson for the Yemeni Health Ministry under Houthi control, more than 39 people were wounded in air strikes on Sunday that allegedly hit residences and schools.



The Associated Press said there were seven children among the dead, as well as more than 100 wounded.(ANSAmed).




President Donald Trump loves climate-wrecking coal and hates the climate-saving Paris Agreement.

Meanwhile, forward-looking impact investors hate the problems of burning coal and its financial downside  and love portfolios of companies and funds pursuing climate solutions, which can have stronger returns.

This love-hate split has motivated investors  and eco-focused ESG investment funds  seeking to save the planet from Trump's policies. (Note: ESG stands for "environmental, social and governance.")

In fact, $12 trillion  or $1 in every $4 of assets professionally managed in the U.S.  is invested in portfolios seeking to be sustainable, responsible and impactful. This is up 38 percent since 2016 and up 18 times since 1995, and it includes more than 180 mutual funds and dozens of exchange-traded funds, according to the US SIF Foundation, the socially responsible investing industry trade association.

More from Impact Investing:

From ESG to SRI, decoding impact investing lingo

Why investors like Bezos and Gates pour money into clean tech

What Warren Buffett thinks about climate change

While Trump seems to hate science, investors are loving physics genius Isaac Newton's third law of motion: "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."

Trump's August 2018 "affordable clean energy" rule seeks to transfer pollution-control laws to the states, likely to result in more polluted air and rivers. But savvy fossil-fuel-free-focused investors are trumping this by avoiding the 18 percent drop in coal stocks (Van Eck KOL ETF) since then, compared to the 's flat performance over the eight months from July 28, 2018, to March 27, 2019.

Trump announced in July 2017 the intent to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, which was signed by 195 countries in November 2015. That same month, the Etho Climate Leadership Index US launched its ETF, investing in a diversified mix of 400 equities with lower emissions and carbon footprints  and no fossil-fuel producers.

Since that Etho launch on Nov. 19, 2015, it has cumulatively returned 44 percent, while the S&P500 SPY ETF has returned 34 percent. Etho founder Ian Monroe said: "The most efficient and sustainable companies are simply making investors more money" by reducing energy, water, waste and emissions. Companies that don't can be much riskier.
For all the griping and grousing you may hear about flying these days, a new report says the quality of airline service in the U.S. soared to a record high in 2018.

The annual Airline Quality Rating, which measures airline service in four areas, shows carriers improved their overall performance compared to 2017.

"It is the best year we ever had," said Dean Headley, professor emeritus at Wichita State University. "Three out of the four things that we track got better this year, so I would have to say it is doing well."

Headley, along with Brent Bowen from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, created the Airline Quality Rating in 1991 as a way to measure airline service based on four categories tracked by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Those categories  on-time arrivals, percentage of bags mishandled, the number of passengers bumped from flights and complaints filed with the DOT  are reported every month.

Two areas in particular stand out in this year's report. Complaints about airlines to the DOT dropped 23 percent, while the number of passengers bumped from oversold flights was cut in half. Following the controversy of a United Airlines passenger being dragged off of a plane in April 2017, U.S. carriers either abandoned or curtailed the number of flights they oversold.

Headley is not surprised airlines are now bumping fewer travelers. "That is encouraging for the flying public, I think," he said.

So which airlines topped the list in terms of service?

Delta jumped from second place to first, just ahead of JetBlue and Southwest Airlines. By comparison, Spirit, American and Frontier came in at the bottom of the latest Airline Quality Rating.

While the numbers are encouraging, the Airline Quality Rating fails to track complaints posted on Twitter or other social media platforms. That's become a popular way for many travelers to voice their displeasure with airlines for a variety of issues, from being bumped off a flight to losing a suitcase.

Headley acknowledges the inability to track social media complaints, but believes the study still shows flying in the U.S. is improving.

"The complaints that people might file tell us whether they are happy or not, and those complaints are down this year," said Headley.
ROME - The German NGO Sea Eye's ship Alan Kurdi, which rescued 64 migrants last Wednesday off the coast of Libya, on Monday remains without a port of disembarkation after Italy and its interior minister, Matteo Salvini, refused entry into the country's territorial waters.

"This ship won't arrive in Italy," Salvini said on a TV talk show Sunday evening.

"You come here with a permit, saying please and thank you," he said.

On Sunday the ship launched a plea for help and said weather where it is currently stationed, 30 km off the Maltese coast of Valletta, is worsening.

On Sunday the NGO appealed directly to Maltese Prime Minister Josep Muscat, but the Maltese government hasn't officially taken a position regarding whether it will let the ship dock at one of its ports.


European Council President Donald Tusk shows the way to Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May after posing for photographers within a bilateral meeting during the Eastern Partnership summit at the European Council headquarters in Brussels, on November 24, 2017. CHRISTIAN HARTMANN | AFP | Getty Images

The U.K.'s political future looks as uncertain as ever this week with cross-party talks over Brexit still bearing no compromise ahead of crucial decisions that need to be made. Meanwhile on the continent, all eyes are on EU leaders who will meet Wednesday and must decide whether to grant the U.K. more time to leave the bloc, or not. Last week, Prime Minister Theresa May requested an extension to Brexit to June 30 but there are strong signals of dissent in Europe over granting the U.K. more time; France, in particular, is not keen. The U.K. is due to leave the EU on April 12 if the EU does not grant the country an extension to Brexit. A majority of U.K. lawmakers have rejected her Brexit deal three times, while also rejecting a no-deal Brexit and failing to reach a consensus for any alternative options. May has now resorted to holding talks with her political rival, Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn, to find a way out of the Brexit impasse. Talks have so far yielded little agreement, however, and are expected to continue Monday. As it stands, if the EU refuses to grant the U.K. an extension to June 30 (or counter-propose a longer extension) the U.K. could be faced with a stark choice on Friday April 12  leave the EU without a deal in place or revoke the whole departure process (known as Article 50) entirely.

The political uncertainty and confusion in the U.K. has riled politicians and the public alike with frustration over the length of time that Brexit is taking. Britain was originally due to leave the bloc on March 29 but was granted more time as no deal had been ratified. European Parliament elections in late May are a key focus for the EU and Brexit is a complicated and unwanted distraction. There is therefore no certainty over what decision EU leaders will take Wednesday. EU Council President Donald Tusk has suggested a one-year extension to Brexit but French President Emmanuel Macron has said there should be tough conditions imposed on the U.K. if it's given any further time. Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Saturday that he considered it highly unlikely that EU leaders would veto a proposal to grant Britain more time, however, and that any country that did "wouldn't be forgiven for it." May is due to hold talks with Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel ahead of the EU summit. Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank, said the bank expects the EU to "reluctantly grant the U.K. a further Brexit delay" just because the alternative  "a hard Brexit with even more political chaos in a country that will remain a close neighbour, is just too bad." "Most of the cautious comments by EU27 decision makers point that way. Still, deciding unanimously at the 10 April emergency summit to give the U.K. even more time to sort itself out will not come easy for the EU27. It raises serious concerns and a grave tail risk," he said in a note Monday.

"The EU27 may ask why a new delay should finally help the U.K. to get its act together if the first delay has not done the trick." May has been criticized by pro-Brexit members of her own Conservative Party and Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) on whose support she has relied upon in a minority government. She has defended her decision to talk to Labour, however, tweeting a video Sunday in which she said she could not see Parliament accepting her Brexit deal after it was rejected three times and that "the choice that lies ahead of us is either leaving the European Union with a deal or not leaving at all." Tweet:

Brexit has been the main focus point for sterling for months and the currency fell to a one-week low of $1.2987 on Friday as France and the Netherlands expressed doubt about May's plan to further delay Brexit. It had rebounded Monday to trade at $1.3064. London's FTSE 100 index trading lower Monday morning. Simon Derrick, the chief currency strategist at BNY Mellon, likened sterling's state of limbo to the thought experiment called "Schrodinger's Cat"  the paradox of a cat being placed in a box with something that could kill it  but the observer not knowing whether it is alive or dead (and thus the cat is both alive and dead) before the box is opened. Similarly, sterling's fate can't be known until the end of the week, Derrick told CNBC on Monday.

"(Sterling is like) Schrodinger's currency," he told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe." "It's worth either $1.50 or $1.10 dependent on the outcome of Brexit but you don't know until that happens. Until you open the box you don't know and Brexit is the box." Derrick noted that the $1.30 price has been the average price against the dollar since the 2016 referendum "and here we are stuck to it." "It is entirely possible that by the end of the week we get to the point of finding out that we've actually opened the box," he added. There's "a perfectly reasonable chance" that the prime minister goes to the European Council with no plan on Wednesday, Derrick said, and it was also "entirely possible that France, Spain and possibly Belgium go 'no plan, no extension' and that at the end of the week we're looking at making a choice," Derrick added. "The choices are between a no-deal Brexit or revocation  It's by no means clear what the actual result would be  It's entirely possible that you could have a no deal Brexit, it's equally possible that it might be revoked," he said.

Accidental disorder
Private equity firm Carlyle Group is set to acquire a significant minority stake in Europe's largest privately-owned oil and gas company, Cepsa, from Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala.

The Washington, D.C., based firm, one of the largest asset managers in the world with $216 billion in assets, plans to buy a 30-40% stake in Cepsa, or Compania Espanola de Petroleos, S.A.U, which it values at $12 billion. That means the stake could be worth as much as $4.8 billion.

Mubadala will remain the majority shareholder, and the transaction's completion is expected by the end of 2019, subject to regulatory approvals.

The news follows a cancelled IPO (initial public offering) last year by Mubadala of a 25 percent stake in Cepsa, which was shelved amid last October's stock market rout.

"We found Cepsa very attractive to invest in," Marcel van Poecke, head of Carlyle International Energy Partners, told CNBC's "Street Signs" on Monday.

"In general, IPO markets in Europe  especially for industrial companies like Cepsa, but also other companies  were not good last year."

"We invest private capital over many years in companies, so we have a very outspoken idea about value and how we can create more value  We are not susceptible to day-to-day or month-to-month movements in market prices and I think that is important," van Poecke said.
Chef Chris Sayegh holds marijuana buds and THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol) and CBD (Cannabidiol) oils as he poses in his kitchen in Los Angeles.

The FDA won't approve of this year's hot food trend.

The National Restaurant Association and the American Culinary Federation surveyed 650 professional chefs about the top culinary and restaurant concepts for 2019. It found that 3 in 4 chefs said CBD- and cannabis-infused food would be a hot trend this year.

Of course, chefs' interest in cannabis and CBD, a non-psychoactive compound found in the cannabis plant, does not necessarily mean it is coming to restaurants anytime soon.

Cannabis remains illegal at the federal level, and only 10 states have legalized it for recreational purposes. Some restaurateurs looking to get in on the trend with a little less scrutiny have turned to private supper clubs that offer menus with upscale cannabis-infused dishes.

That's true in Canada, too, where edibles won't be legal until October despite the country's 2018 legalization of marijuana.

Chef Travis Petersen travels across Canada hosting cannabis-infused dinners at Airbnb rentals. To stay relatively under the radar, he advertises his dinners on social media. Many of his diners are "canna-curious" and slightly nervous about cannabis-infused foods, so for now he sticks to using odorless, tasteless cannabis oil.

"For us here in Canada, this is a unique opportunity to kind of put our flag on the culinary map," Petersen said in an interview. "We're the first country of chefs that can fully legally cook with it and experiment with it, and I'm really excited to start working with more flavors, tastes and smells."

Wealthy consumers in states like Colorado and Washington  where the drug is legal for recreational use  have also turned to private chefs who specialize in cannabis-infused food, according to Donna Hood Crecca, a principal at Technomic.

Most CBD products became legal under federal law after President Donald Trump signed the farm bill in December. However, the Food and Drug Administration prohibits adding CBD to food and drinks because it is an active ingredient in an FDA-approved drug. The regulator has set its first public hearing on legalizing CBD in food and drinks for May 31.

That hasn't stopped some restaurants from selling CBD-infused products to respond to consumer demand. CBD, short for cannabidiol, is pitched as helping the body relax without altering the mind like THC.

"There's people out there that are willing to risk not being in compliance with local and other regulations in order to not risk being left behind," Hood Crecca said.

However, restaurant chains, especially those that are publicly traded, have largely stayed away from adding CBD to the menu until the regulatory issue is settled. Even after that, Hood Crecca said, they will have to consider how CBD-infused food and drinks fit in with their restaurant concept and brand, particularly if they want to bill themselves as family friendly.

For now, most restaurants that offer CBD-infused products are looking at beverages. Trendy coffee shops advertise CBD-infused lattes, while some bars have CBD mocktails on their menus. Most bartenders still avoid mixing the ingredient and alcohol given the strained regulatory environment.

Crackdowns from local regulators have been on the rise in response to the trend. New York City's health department ordered restaurants to stop adding it to food and drinks, while Los Angeles' health department has started docking points on inspections for restaurants that use CBD in food and drinks.

Other restaurant trends landing below cannabis or CBD-infused food on the restaurant group's survey are less mired in controversy. Zero-waste cooking, natural ingredients and upscale takeout packaging also took spots in the top 10.

Plant-based proteins landed seventh on the list as meat substitutes continue to rack up distribution deals with large restaurant chains. The Beyond Burger can already be found at TGI Friday's and Carl's Jr., while Burger King recently started piloting a version of its Whopper made with the Impossible Burger.

"Those two brands actually represent two-thirds of all of the growth in plant-based burgers in restaurants," said Darren Seifer, an analyst for The NPD Group.

Environmental sustainability and paper straws ended up next to each other at spots nine and 10, after consumer demand pushed companies like Starbucks, Disney and Hilton to pledge to ditch plastic straws last year.
Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank (ECB), speaks to the media following a meeting of the ECB Governing Council at ECB headquarters of March 7, 2019 in Frankfurt, Germany. Thomas Lohnes | Getty Images

Eleven years after the onset of the epochal financial crisis, followed by the Great Recession, the European Central Bank is still trying to hold the monetary union from drowning in another cycle of rising unemployment, poverty and civil unrest. Those rushing to ascribe that to the lack of instruments for economic policy coordination are wrong. The euro area has a de facto economic government in the form of the Eurogroup, a forum of finance ministers. For eight years, until October 2017, the group was chaired by Wolfgang Schauble, Germany's former finance minister who oversaw the Greek debacle and the long years of fiscal austerity in recession-ridden euro area economies. Under German leadership, slashing the government spending became the order of the day. Eventually, that calamity morphed into a cruel joke known as the austerity growth model: A sharp contraction of public sector expenditures and a regime of liberal hiring and firing sold to true believers as structural labor market reforms. France has been under relentless German pressures to apply that oxymoronic growth model. Paris duly followed with some fiscal austerity and a lot of harsh labor market deregulations, combined, most recently, with ill-fated gasoline taxes.

The EU must change

Now, all France has to show for that is a civil unrest, five months of continuing and violent demonstrations, a rush to douse the fires with increased public spending and a hasty recall of gasoline taxes. That's an estimated 10 billion euro cost to the public treasury, with disruptions to economic activity, higher budget deficits and question marks about the country's business and investment environment. Italy is another example. To get back at a newly elected Europhobic Italian government last year, the EU Commission opposed an eminently reasonable and mildly reflationary fiscal package proposed by Rome. Under threats of sanctions and other reprimands from the Commission, Italy was forced to scale back its public spending and cut the budget deficit down. Predictably, an already weak Italian economy promptly sank into a deepening recession during the second half of last year. But, oblivious to the logical outcome of the imposed fiscal austerity, the EU Commission is now warning the Italian government that the sinking economic growth would lead to overshooting the budget deficit target decreed by the Commission itself. That's an intolerably absurd situation. The lunacy, however, could go further: One might soon see the Commission's orders cut deeper into the public spending of Italy's declining economy. Adding Spain and Portugal to France and Italy, one gets exactly half of the euro area where demand management is crippled by binding fiscal constraints. That group's budget deficits are in the range of 1.5 to 3.5 percent of GDP, and their gross public debt goes from 115 percent of GDP to 153 percent of GDP.

Surplus countries should be growth leaders

Each of those countries are currently experiencing a slowing demand, output and employment, and all of them need strong support to economic activity. Where can that come from? Excluding the fiscal policy, there are only two sources: Low credit costs and rising export sales. The ECB is doing all it can with abundant credit flows and a zero percent interest rate  to the horror of its German critics. But, acting alone, the monetary policy cannot do it all. Bank lending to households is stuck at modest annual growth rates of 3 percent to 3.5 percent. Such a subdued demand for money is partly a result of high unemployment in Spain (13.9 percent), Italy (10.7 percent), France (8.8 percent) and Portugal (6.3 percent)  and the lingering uncertainties about the extent, and duration, of the growth slowdown and dimming prospects for job creation. The upshot is that volumes of retail trade in the three months to February showed no monthly growth in France, Spain and Portugal. That's a bad omen for household consumption, the pillar of economic activity in the interest-rate sensitive segment of aggregate demand. Exports could help, but that would require that the other half of the monetary union  with budget and trade surpluses  steps up public spending and tax cuts to stimulate domestic demand. That would expand export markets within the euro area and beyond, where hard-pressed deficit countries could sell some of their goods and services. But Germany has ruled that out. Anticipating calls for looser fiscal policies and a decreased reliance on its mercantilist policies, Germany served notice that it would continue to run budget surpluses, and that U.S. President Donald Trump should be told that German trade surpluses are just the way it is. Washington, of course, should not take that, because it violates the letter and the spirit of the G-7 and G-20 policy recommendations. On top of that, Germany's refusal to support the euro area growth puts in danger a quarter of U.S. exports to Europe, while Berlin pockets $70 billion on its U.S. goods trade. The International Monetary Fund and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development should also stop whining about the weakening world economy and call out  naming names  the trade and budget surplus countries to exercise an effective policy coordination.

Investment thoughts
Andrus Ansip, vice president for digital at the European Commission (EC), gestures as he speaks during a fireside chat at the CeBIT 2017 tech fair in Hannover, Germany, on Monday, March 20, 2017.

Less than one week after Google scrapped its AI ethics council, the European Union has set out its own guidelines for achieving "trustworthy" artificial intelligence.

On Monday, the European Commission released a set of steps to maintain ethics in artificial intelligence, as companies and governments weigh both the benefits and risks of the far-reaching technology.

"The ethical dimension of AI is not a luxury feature or an add-on," said Andrus Ansip, EU vice-president for the digital single market, in a press release Monday. "It is only with trust that our society can fully benefit from technologies."

The EU defines artificial intelligence as systems that show "intelligent behavior," allowing them to analyze their environment and perform tasks with some degree of autonomy. AI is already transforming businesses in a variety of functions, like automating repetitive tasks and analyzing troves of data. But the technology raises a series of ethical questions, such as how to ensure algorithms are programmed without bias and how to hold AI accountable if something goes wrong.
Forces loyal to Libya's UN-backed unity government arrive in Tajura, a coastal suburb of the Libyan capital Tripoli, on April 6, 2019, from their base in Misrata. Mahmud Turkia | AFP | Getty Images

DUBAI  A resurgence in fighting around the Libyan capital of Tripoli this week has driven U.S. forces to pull out of the country and is providing a new upside risk to global oil prices, underscoring the OPEC producer's importance to markets and the fragility of its supply. Rebel forces loyal to renegade General Khalifa Hifter, who effectively controls the country's breakaway east, launched a surprise offensive against the home of Libya's UN-recognized government last week in a move that risks plunging the country back into civil war. "The Libyan conflict coming back onto the front of the mind of the marketplace is actually very significant right now," Dave Ernsberger, global head of energy at S&P Global Platts, told CNBC in Dubai on Monday. "We've seen Venezuelan production fall of a cliff, we've seen already inventories against the five-year average move into more bullish levels, so the fact that there might be a lack of Libyan supply to the market is potentially a bit of a shock right now." The looming conflict follows a surge in crude futures in recent months on the back of tightening supply, with global benchmark Brent and U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) both rallying more than 20 percent since the start of 2019. Brent crude stood at $70 a barrel on Monday, with WTI trading at around $63. A 75-year-old general who holds American citizenship, Hifter was formerly a Gadhafi ally but returned to Libya in 2011, after years in the U.S., to join the NATO offensive that toppled the dictator.

300,000 to 400,000 million barrels at immediate risk

The North African country of 6.4 million has been struggling to rebuild its energy industry since its 2011 revolution that ousted longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi and the ensuing collapse in central power. The territory under control of Hifter and his amalgamation of militias who call themselves the Libyan National Army (LNA) includes the "oil crescent" in the Gulf of Sirte that holds four major ports, comprising the lion's share of Libya's oil exports. Hifter's attempts to take control in the west could leave the oil-rich east vulnerable to his rivals; the general is credited with securing many of Libya's central export terminals after battles with the Islamic State and other extremist groups in recent years. "The immediate barrels under threat would be those from the southwest which come up through into the west of the country, so that would be El Shahara field, a good 300,000, maybe up to 400,000 at immediate risk," said Paul Horsnell, global head of commodities at Standard Chartered. "But it's the uncertainty of those supplies rather than the immediate changes in the flow," he said, that will impact markets. Oil output disruption depends very much on how the fighting around Tripoli evolves, and whether a planned conference on new elections and reconciliation can still take place. The UN's envoy to Libya is so far insisting that the conference will go ahead.

Retired Libyan Army general Khalifa Haftar speaks during a press conference in the town of Abyar, 70 km southwest of Bengahzi, on May 17, 2014. AFP | Getty Images

"If you did lose that supply out of Libya right now, or a portion of it, most of the market would view it as being temporary as we've seen over the course of the last several years," Jeff Currie, global head of commodities at Goldman Sachs, told CNBC's Dan Murphy on Monday. "So it would create and reinforce a spot price move to the upside and that $75 potential-plus range, but it wouldn't do anything at the back end," Currie said, which he sees at $60.

Libya's rollercoaster oil production

Exempt from OPEC's supply cut agreements due to its civil conflict, Libya was enjoying its highest output levels in five years in the latter half of 2018. Production reached 1.28 million bpd as reported in November, up from roughly 500,000 bpd the previous June, but slipped to 900,000 bpd in February, according to OPEC. Libya in the 1970s was pumping 3 million bpd. Before the 2011 NATO intervention that helped oust Muammar Gaddafi, it was producing 1.6 million bpd. The country's population sits above the largest proven oil reserves in Africa, but benefit practically nothing from them  the UN estimates about 40 percent of the country lives below the poverty line.

This year, Haftar's LNA forces have already sought to bring order to the restive southern oil-producing region. But a campaign to take Tripoli could be even more grueling, analysts say, with some predicting prolonged and heavy fighting near the capital thanks to better-organized militias in the country's west. The latest supply disruption has been brewing for some time, serving as a reminder that the country's fragile recovery shouldn't be taken for granted. "It's not new, but there is a significant escalation," Standard Chartered's Horsnell said. "I think the market hasn't concentrated on Libya as much as it perhaps should've done. At the moment we do see threat to Libyan supplies in the short and medium term."

A key supplier of light sweet crude
Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud and formerly president of product development at Oracle, speaks at the Oracle OpenWorld conference in San Francisco on Oct. 3, 2017.

Thomas Kurian, the former Oracle executive who took over as Google's cloud chief in November, said on Monday that one big thing he has to do in his new job is hire a bunch of salespeople.

Google is way behind market leader Amazon Web Services in cloud infrastructure and also trails Microsoft, which has an established enterprise sales force from decades of selling servers and software to the world's largest companies.

Enterprise sales is something Kurian knows well after spending 22 years at Oracle, where he was most recently president of product development. He spoke to analysts at the Google Cloud Next conference in San Francisco on Monday, laying out his plans to rapidly bolster the sales staff. The session was not open to the press or the public, but several analysts relayed Kurian's key points to CNBC.

Other executives in the cloud division also spoke at the event and told analysts that previous challenges had been ironed out. For example, in past years, 10 managers would have to provide approval before a salesperson could offer a discount to a customer, and the deal would then require non-disclosure agreements and a team of lawyers. These practices have since been streamlined, Kurian's colleagues said, according to an analyst in attendance who asked not to be named because of a confidentiality agreement.

Google's cloud sales team is around one-tenth to one-fifteenth the size of the sales forces at AWS and Microsoft Azure, Kurian told the Wall Street Journal, though he added that two years from now he expects it to be more like half the size of either. Kurian has been talking about the importance of growing the sales team since February, when he made his first public remarks in his new role at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference.

It's a familiar theme at Google that predates Kurian. His predecessor, former VMware CEO Diane Greene, also emphasized the importance of the sales function. On Alphabet's third-quarter earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat said the biggest increases in headcount were in the cloud business for sales as well as technical positions.

Kurian strayed from his usual suit and tie in his presentation on Monday, instead wearing a shirt and blazer. Merv Adrian, an analyst at Gartner, said he was impressed with what he heard from the new chief.

"Thomas is a great content/engineering leader," Adrian wrote in a message to CNBC. "This is his opportunity to show he can lead a company, and I would not bet against him."

As part of the event, health-care company McKesson said it's chosen Google as its preferred cloud.

WATCH: Google's moving away from being a 'one-trick pony': Analyst
This picture taken on February 13, 2019 shows a worker trimming leaves on a newly created dwarf palm oil tree at the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) research station in Bukit Lawiang in southern Johor state.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahatir Mohamad have signed a joint letter of objection to the European Union over its plan to phase out the use of palm oil in renewable fuel, an Indonesian official said.

The letter was sent to the EU over the weekend, said Luhut Pandjaitan, coordinating minister for maritime affairs who also oversees natural resources issues. He declined to disclose content of the letter.

Indonesia and Malaysia, the world's top producers of the vegetable oil, have both threatened a World Trade Organization challenge against the EU over its plan to phase out the use of palm oil by 2030 in renewable transport fuel.
Nearly a dozen Democratic senators sent a scathing letter to Juul on Monday asking the company to answer questions about its marketing practices and deal with Marlboro maker Altria.

Eleven Democratic senators  including Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin, presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden and Richard Blumenthal  said they will investigate Juul's marketing practices. They will also look into Juul's sale of a 35 percent stake in itself to tobacco giant Altria and whether Juul is violating regulations or commitments it made to the Food and Drug Administration.

Juul has defended its decision to take money from Altria as a way to reach more smokers. Altria's Marlboro is the nation's best-selling cigarette brand. The idea is that Altria can help Juul switch more adult smokers from Marlboro to Juul. E-cigarettes are less harmful than cigarettes, though they may pose their own long-term health risks, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has concluded.

"While JUUL has promised to address youth vaping through its modest voluntary efforts, by accepting $12.8 billion from Altriaa tobacco giant with such a disturbing record of deceptive marketing to hook children onto cigarettes JUUL has lost what little remaining credibility the company had when it claimed to care about the public health," the senators wrote.

For more on investing in health care innovation, click here to join CNBC at our Healthy Returns Summit in New York City on May 21.

Public health officials blame Juul for a spike in teen vaping. Critics point to past marketing materials that use bright colors and attractive young models as evidence the company intentionally targeted young people, a claim Juul vehemently denies.

A Juul spokesman said in a statement that the company welcomes "the opportunity to share information" about its efforts to stop teens from using its products and getting them in the hands of adults.

"We agree that companies such as ours must step up with meaningful measures to limit access and appeal of vapor products to young people," he said. "That's exactly what we've done, and we will do more to combat teen use to save the harm-reduction opportunity for the 34 million adult smokers in the United States."

Over the past year, Juul has taken a number of actions to try to stop kids from using its products, including removing its fruity flavored e-cigarettes from store shelves. Still, former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb accused Juul and Altria of reneging on its promises when they struck a deal in December.

Now, the two companies must also answer to Congress.

"The corporate marriage between two companies that have been the most prolific at marketing highly addictive nicotine products to children is alarming from a public health standpoint and demonstrates, yet again, that JUUL is more interested in padding its profit margins than protecting our nation's health," the senators wrote.

The Juul spokesman said in the statement that "the Altria investment will help us switch adult smokers off of combustible cigarettes by helping us get our product in their hands." Altria spokesman Steve Callahan said its stake in Juul represents "a significant investment" toward the goal of achieving tobacco harm reduction.

"We understand that the future harm reduction potential of products like these is threatened by youth usage of e-vapor products. Both Altria and JUUL are committed to being part of the solution to the youth vaping problem," Callahan said, noting the companies' efforts to raise the minimum tobacco buying age to 21.

Read the senators' full letter to Juul:
Pedestrians walk past a big screen showing images of former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn in a news program on April 4, 2019 in Tokyo, Japan. Ghosn, a veteran of the auto industry, was re-arrested on Thursday for financial misconduct.

Nissan Motor shareholders ousted erstwhile boss Carlos Ghosn as a director on Monday, severing his last ties with the company he rescued from near-bankruptcy two decades ago and from which he is now accused of siphoning funds.

Shareholders, who had gathered for an extraordinary meeting just days after prosecutors arrested Ghosn in Tokyo again, also voted out another director, Greg Kelly, who has also been accused in the scandal. Both Ghosn and Kelly have denied the allegations against them.

Tokyo prosecutors last week took the highly unusual step of re-arresting Ghosn  who had been out on $9 million bail  returning him to the Tokyo detention centre where he had previously spent more than 100 days. Under the latest allegations, he is accused of trying to enrich himself to the tune of $5 million at the company's expense.

Ghosn, who was first arrested in November, has been charged with under-reporting his Nissan salary for a decade, and of temporarily transferring personal financial losses to Nissan's books. However, the new allegation is potentially more serious, as it could show that he used company funds for his own purposes.

Shareholders also voted in Renault Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard as a director, another move that was widely expected.

"Economic performance and the well-being of the people at Nissan will be for me of the highest importance," Senard told the meeting.

"I will constantly suggest the best possible evolutions in the framework of the alliance... We want to secure the right future for Nissan."

Nissan may claim damages against Ghosn over alleged financial misconduct, Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa said, adding he was not yet ready to give up control of the company, as it needed to be stabilised first.

Meeting shareholders for the first time since the once-feted executive's arrest rocked the global auto industry in November, Saikawa started the meeting by apologising for the inconvenience the scandal had caused, which was followed by a deep bow by him and a panel of Nissan executives and directors.

Ghosn's lawyers have said his latest arrest was an attempt to muzzle him.

The executive was due to speak at a news conference on April 11. Instead, a video statement from him will be shown on Tuesday, the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan said.
Syria: media, dozens of refugees return from Lebanon 172,000 repatriations since December 2017

(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, APRIL 8 - Dozens of Syrian refugees on Monday were repatriated from Lebanon to Syria, according to local media in Beirut.



The media reports quoted the Lebanese security service agency responsible for ''voluntary repatriations'' to Syria, stating that dozens of Syrians left from several areas of Lebanon to ''safe'' Syrian destinations.



From December 2017 until today, according to the agency, 172,000 Syrians have returned to their home country. A reported one million refugees have lived in Lebanon since 2011 while the Lebanese population is of four million people. (ANSAmed).




Pakistani soldiers stand next to what Pakistan says is the wreckage of an Indian fighter jet shot down in Pakistan controled Kashmir at Somani area in Bhimbar district near the Line of Control on February 27, 2019.

Pakistan has "reliable intelligence" that India will attack again this month, its foreign minister said, drawing condemnation from New Delhi which described the claim as irresponsible.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi's comments came after tensions over a February standoff between the arch enemies had appeared to ease.

He said on Sunday that an attack could take place between April 16 and 20, adding that Pakistan had told the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council of its concerns.

"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," a spokesman for India's foreign office said in a statement.

"This public gimmick appears to be a call to Pakistan-based terrorists to undertake a terror attack in India."

The foreign office said India reserved the right to respond firmly and decisively to any cross border militant attack, accusing Pakistan of being complicit in such attacks on India.

A suicide car bombing by Pakistan-based militants in Indian-controlled Kashmir killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police on Feb. 14. The risk of conflict rose dramatically on Feb. 27, when India launched an air strike on what it said was a militant training base inside Pakistan.

The following day Pakistan shot down an Indian fighter jet and captured its pilot who was later released.

Earlier on Sunday, Pakistan summoned the Indian deputy high commissioner to protest against any "misadventure", Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal said in a tweet.
Capitalism doesn't need to be destroyed but it does need to be reformed, hedge fund titan Ray Dalio said Monday in a blistering critique of the system. "I'm capitalist, I'm a professional capitalist. The system has worked for me," the Bridgewater Associates founder said during a fiery debate on CNBC's "Squawk Box." "I didn't have anything and then I got something through the capitalist system." However, he said the question is whether there is "equal opportunity for the American dream." He said that he did have that chance, but too many others do not. "So I was raised with equal opportunity. I went through the public school system and I had parents who took care of me. Then I was able to come in with equal job opportunities," he added.

His appearance featured a contentious back-and-forth with CNBC host Joe Kernen who argued that a lot of the faults Dalio was citing were not about capitalism but problems with fiscal and monetary policy instead. "I honestly don't understand what it is we're arguing about," Dalio said at one point. Too many people, in particular the bottom 60 percent of U.S. workers, are not getting those kinds of opportunities, he said. Part of the problem Dalio cited is the failing public school system that is leading to high levels of incarceration. Technology is also another culprit as it both improves the everyday lives of Americans but also displaces many of them from their jobs. At the root of the issue is a failure of the system to make sure people are not being left behind. "How is it been for income? How has it been for equal opportunity? That has been something for a long, long, long time. Is that deniable that it is producing those outcomes?" he said. The result, he added, "is producing a terrible split in our country."

Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates Founder, President & CIO. Anjali Sundaram | CNBC
Syria: Russian ballistic missiles against Idlib area,sources

(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, APRIL 8 - Intense air and missile strikes have been carried out by the Syrian government and Russia on the Syrian north-western region of Idlib, where some three million civilians live and where anti-government forces, including Qaedist groups, are active, according to sources on the ground.



The sources confirmed reports by UK-monitoring group Syrian Observatory for human rights.



The sources said that the city of Jisr ash Shughur, west of Idlib, has been repeatedly hit by long-range missiles fired from the Russian fleet in the Mediterranean.(ANSAmed).




ShellNo flotilla participants float near the Polar Pioneer oil drilling rig during demonstrations against Royal Dutch Shell on May 16, 2015 in Seattle, Washington.

An activist investor group that has filed resolutions for three years to pressure Royal Dutch Shell to act on climate change said it will withdraw from this year's filing.

Follow This, which has also invested in BP, ExxonMobil, Chevron and Equinor, made the decision to acknowledge that Shell has made progress by setting its first short-term carbon dioxide target last month.

The resolution, which was opposed by Shell's board, called on the company to set and publish targets aligned with the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement guidelines to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.

Shell on Monday announced plans to invest $300 million over the next three years in reforestation projects. And in April, it became the first major oil company to leave U.S. refining lobby American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers over clashes on climate policies, citing its support for the Paris climate agreement goals.

Oil companies have come under mounting pressure from activist shareholder communities who urge them take action over climate and pollution and acknowledge risks to their bottom lines. Last year, Shell caved in to investor pressure over climate change and rolled out carbon emissions targets linked to executive pay.

However, other investor efforts have failed. Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission threw out a shareholder proposal that called for Exxon Mobil to set targets to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

Mark van Baal, founder of Follow This, said Shell still did not align with the Paris climate goals, but it's made progress. After discussions with six major Dutch investor groups, Follow This withdrew from the resolution and will focus on other companies' environmental goals.

"We have therefore decided to give Shell time to bring that climate ambition into line with the Paris Climate Agreement," he said in a statement.

In the past, Shell's board has consistently opposed the Follow This resolutions. Similar resolutions from the group in 2017 and 2018 were only met with 6 percent support of Shell shareholders.

"Shell welcomes the decision by the Follow This shareholder group to withdraw their proposed resolution for Shell's 2019 AGM on the basis that Shell has already set initial short-term targets to reduce the Net Carbon Footprint of the products we sell, in line with our ambition to reduce that Net Carbon Footprint by around half by 2050," a Shell spokesperson said.
A number of Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are parked at Southern California Logistics Airport on March 27, 2019 in Victorville, California. Southwest Airlines is waiting out a global grounding of MAX 8 and MAX 9 aircraft at the airport.

Boeing announced late Friday plans to cut production of the jet, which has been grounded following the March 10 crash of an Ethiopian Airlines flight that killed all 157 people aboard. It was the second fatal crash of the popular aircraft in less than five months and investigators suspect that faulty data feeding into the aircraft's automated flight system played a major role in both accidents.

Wall Street analysts downgraded shares of Boeing and Southwest Airlines on Monday as troubles worsen for the airplane maker's popular 737 Max jets.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch cut its rating on Boeing to neutral from a buy Monday, saying it expects production to be delayed by six to nine months.

Raymond James downgraded Southwest Airlines stock and lowered its earnings projections, citing concerns that the grounding could last through peak summer travel.

Southwest has 34 Max jets out of its fleet of about 750 aircraft, accounting for roughly 4 percent of its passenger capacity.

The airline, which reports earnings April 25, said it expects to lose $150 million in revenue in the first quarter of 2019 due to the Max groundings, among other factors like weather-related cancellations, maintenance issues and slowed travel demand. Raymond James said groundings were a "one time" situation, and it expects recuperation through maintenance credits or lower ownership costs of future aircraft.

American Airlines said it's extending cancellations of 90 daily flights involving the 737 Max jet by more than a month to June 5.

Raymond James downgraded Southwest from the equivalent of a buy rating to a hold rating, and lowered its earnings-per-share estimate by 5 cents to $4.40.

"The reputational loss from these events could erode long-term market share and pricing power of the 737 MAX," BofA analyst Ronald Epstein said in a note to clients. "A six-month delay also means lower margins due to penalties owed to customers, weaker negotiating position with airlines as airlines consider cancellations, and operational inefficiencies from the production disruption."

Boeing is slashing 737 Max production by 20 percent as it tries to find a software fix to get the jets back in the air. The company's shares have have fallen nearly 9 percent in the past month.
Over the past six months, the stock market has gone from inconsolable to imperturbable.

From October through December, every upbeat fundamental trend or would-be positive catalyst was ignored or mocked by a seller-dominated market that dropped just about 20 percent from high to low over three months.

Third-quarter earnings up 20 percent? Cute, but old news, the market answered. Corporate buyback window re-opens in November? Not a factor, they'll have to buy them lower. Midterm elections "always" followed by gains? Not this time. December "never" the worst month of a year? Just watch.

The market simply had to go lower, and lower still, to exhaust the determined liquidation and price in the end-of-cycle anxieties before any bullish inputs found traction.

Flash to this year, when the cautious or ominous headlines and signals are being shrugged off.

Dramatic market lows after a bad correction are usually "retested" within several weeks, you say? Nope, the S&P 500 is up 23 percent in 3 months with little more than a 3 percent pullback along the way. Earnings forecasts have been slashed by the most in years and are now posing 4 percent drop for the first quarter? Stocks are apparently looking ahead, and the more-stable-earning sectors have led the upside. Global growth is near stall speed? Sure, but look at those dovish central banks and the "green shoots" in China.

Does this mean the market simply has to go higher, and higher, in order for the downbeat factors to challenge the rally, in a mirror image of last year?

Could well be the case. The S&P 500 is less than a 1.5-percent chip shot from matching its record high set in September, so it would be perverse if the bulls didn't make a closer run at it before too long.

To state what should be obvious: Markets that ignore bad news and turn stubborn investor caution into the best start to a year in 21 years, as this one has, are strong and should get the benefit of the doubt unless and until a routine pullback proves something more than that.

After all, the S&P is simply at levels it first reached some 15 months ago in the furious, giddy rally following the big 2017 corporate tax cut  and markets that reclaim a new high after more than a year going sideways in a jagged range can be said to have formed some kind of base, as happened from 2015-2016.

Credit conditions are steady, Treasury yields are helpfully off their lows  all consistent with equities remaining well-supported.

The stock market likes nothing better than a Federal Reserve that's more dovish than domestic economic conditions seem to warrant, which is what we seem to have, based on the way the U.S. job market has remained strong and the first-quarter stutter-step in GDP growth could turn out quite modest.

But given the firmer data, how much incremental dovishness can be expected, White House calls for a half-percent rate cut notwithstanding?
The U.S.-China trade dispute is pushing American multinational companies to relocate their factories and adjust business strategies for their supply chains in the next 12 months, according to a survey by Bain and Company.

"The shift is happening," said Gerry Mattios, vice president at consulting firm, Bain.

"Back at (the) end of 2018, when we ran a similar report, we found out a lot of companies  over 50 percent  were actually sitting on the fence ... there were no major actions taken," Mattios told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Monday.

But now, 60 percent of the respondents said they are ready to take action, as they see headwinds on their balance sheets, he added. "They see customers having to pay part of it, and they are trying to see how to reassess their supply chains."

A supply chain is a network between a company and its suppliers to produce and distribute the firm's products.

Even though China has had a significant cost advantage that propelled the country to its leading position as the world's manufacturing hub, that advantage is eroding as costs rise, Mattios said.

The survey polled more than 200 high-level executives and senior supply chain officers at U.S. multinationals with operations in China, and sought to gauge their perspectives on the ongoing trade dispute.
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, center, speaks during an event with House and Senate Democrats on protecting the Affordable Care Act outside the Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, April 2, 2019. Anna Moneymaker | Bloomberg | Getty Images

President Donald Trump reignited the fight over Obamacare last month when his administration decided to support a lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act's constitutionality. The move puts the ACA in jeopardy once again as it faces potential repeal. Trump tried to go further, pledging to replace the law with a new Republican plan before the 2020 election but beat a hasty retreat after his own party rebuked the idea. Obamacare, which was signed into law in 2010, includes provisions that protect people with pre-existing conditions, expand Medicaid in most states and allow children to remain on their parents' insurance plans until age 26. The law's individual mandate required almost every American to purchase insurance or face a tax penalty. The Trump administration reduced the individual mandate to $0 in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, a move that could lead to the law's undoing. In December, a federal judge in Texas ruled Obamacare unconstitutional after 20 Republican-led states filed a suit against the health-care policy. U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor said that without the individual mandate, the law could not stand. O'Connor's ruling, backed by the Justice Department, awaits deliberation with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans. But what does that mean for the millions of Americans who receive coverage under the Affordable Care Act?

What happens while O'Connor's ruling awaits appeal

Americans covered under the Affordable Care Act don't have to worry about losing benefits for now. O'Connor said his ruling should not be immediately implemented because "many everyday Americans would otherwise face great uncertainty" regarding their health care during an appeal. A ruling from the 5th Circuit on O'Connor's decision is not assured for 2019. Joseph Antos, a health-care and retirement policy scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said if the appeals court supports O'Connor's ruling  which he believes is unlikely  the earliest the Supreme Court would hear the case is sometime in 2020. Antos added that people will also "undoubtedly" be able to stay on their Obamacare plans and receive subsidies in 2020 because enrollment for next year opens this fall.

Where Obamacare stands

Obamacare sign-ups for 2019 fell to 11.4 million people, down from 11.8 million the year before, after the Trump administration made changes to the law that experts blame for the decrease. Trump removed the individual mandate, cut the ACA advertising budget, allowed healthy consumers to stay on "skimpy" insurance plans and shortened the enrollment period for consumers to sign up. Enrollment has been slowly decreasing since its peak of 12.6 million sign-ups in 2016. Still, about 30 million people, either covered by Medicaid expansion or plans sold on the Obamacare exchanges, would lose their health insurance if the Affordable Care Act is repealed with no replacement plan. The law, which sought to expand access to insurance, increase consumer protections and reduce health-care costs, initially required most Americans to purchase health insurance. If nonexempt Americans weren't covered, they faced a tax penalty of $695 per adult or 2.5 percent of household income, whichever was higher. The idea was to force younger, healthier consumers to sign up to mitigate the costs of covering older and sicker Americans. The mandate incensed conservatives who viewed it as a symbol of government overreach. Consumers can now opt out of purchasing health insurance without facing a penalty since the Trump administration reduced the individual mandate to $0. But the Obamacare exchanges are still available to the public. Consumers in all 50 states and the District of Columbia have access to exchanges, either federal or state run. Twenty-eight states use federally run marketplaces, while 12 states use their own state-based marketplaces. Eleven states use either federally supported state marketplaces or marketplaces that are run by a partnership between the federal government and the state. In 2017, insurance companies began to abandon the Obamacare exchanges as they worried about potential changes a Republican administration would make to the Affordable Care Act. But insurers have since started offering plans in more states or expanding in states they already operate in as they started making profits in the individual market, giving customers more options. Obamacare also expanded Medicaid eligibility to uninsured children or adults at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty level. It also made many people with mental illnesses eligible for coverage. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 36 states and D.C. have adopted Medicaid expansion and 14 states have not. Medicaid enrollment increased by 16 million people since Obamacare went into effect, with 13.6 million living in Medicaid expansion states. Critics of Medicaid expansion claim it is a financial burden on states, which have budgets that are already dominated by the cost of Medicaid. The federal government initially covered all the costs of expansion, but states were eventually expected to pick up 10 percent of the tab.

A replacement for Obamacare
Erdogan says Istanbul votes 'nearly all irregular' AKP party calls for total recount

(ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, APRIL 8 - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that the "nearly all" of the votes in the March 31 mayoral election in Istanbul were "irregular".



Erdogan defended his AKP party's request for a total recount by the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) of ballots in 38 of the city's 39 municipalities and to annul the vote in the remaining one, Buyukcekmece.



A review of more than 300,000 ballots that were initially declared null, already obtained by AKP, is still underway.



According to partial data, the margin of Ekrem Imamoglu of the social democratic CHP party has been reduced from 22,000 to about 15,000 votes, still however giving him the victory.



Erdogan spoke at a press conference at the Istanbul airport prior to departing for Russia, where he will meet with President Vladimir Putin on Monday.(ANSAmed).




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Libya: U.S., Pompeo urges Haftar to end offensive 'No military solution to conflict' - secretary of State

(ANSAmed) - WASHINGTON, APRIL 8 - US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has asked Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar to ''immediately'' end an offensive against Tripoli, adding that there is ''no military solution'' to the conflict in Libya.



''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'', Pompeo said.



''This unilateral military campaign against Tripoli is endangering civilians and undermining prospects for a better future for all Libyans'', he added.



Pompeo said all involved parties had the responsibility of scaling down tension, as emphasized by the UN Security Council and G7 ministers on April 5.



The US, he said, are continuing to put pressure on Libyan leaders, together with their traditional partners, to return to political negotiations mediated by UN special representative Ghassan Salame.



A political solution is the only way to unify the country and provide a plan for the security, stability and prosperity of all Libyans, Pompeo noted. (ANSAmed).




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Microsoft last week said the next Windows 10 feature upgrade will be available for all users to download and install sometime in late May - the third straight postponement for Windows 10. The decision illustrates the strain under which Microsoft's Windows-as-a-service model has been operating of late. What had been billed as a metronomic every-six-months release schedule for the feature-and-functionality upgrades has faltered, burdened by months-long delays.

Windows 10 1803 - last year's March upgrade in Microsoft's yymm format - launched about a month late. Microsoft claimed that the fall refresh, Windows 10 1809, was officially just one month behind but in reality 1809 was at least three months late. In both instances, Microsoft extended support so each received the promised 18 months of bug fixes.

The upcoming feature upgrade - designated "Windows 10 May 2019 Update" - will be released in "late May," Microsoft executive Mike Fortinsaid in an April 4 post to a company blog. The launch will also mark the start of the 18-month support span for 1903, the yymm identifier for the upgrade._

(As it's done before when deferring an upgrade, Microsoft has again retained a four-digit moniker at odds with the actual launch timeline.)

While Microsoft hasn't hewed to a specific day of the week for Windows 10 feature upgrades' releases, Computerworld selected May 21 - a Tuesday, the weekday Microsoft uses most often for updates of all types - as a likely target. Because Microsoft does like to end support on the first Tuesday of a month, a May 21 launch would mean a Dec. 8, 2020 retirement for 1903. (The span would then be 18 months plus 18 days.)

May 2019 Update, aka 1903

Why. Although Fortin implied that 1903 was prime time-ready - he called it "production quality" - the upgrade will slip from an expected April to late May so that Microsoft, users and company hardware partners can do additional testing. For the first time, Microsoft will use the "Release Preview" ring of the Windows Insider program to test an upgrade prior to its debut. (Microsoft used Release Preview last year with 1809, but only after it had been launched, then retracted.)

The six-to-seven weeks of further testing were an obvious reaction to the debacle of Windows 10 1809, which was issued with a known-but-yet-overlooked bug that destroyed user data. Microsoft does not want a repeat performance, or to be seen downplaying testing.

Support change. Because of the delayed launch, 1903 will probably be supported until Dec. 8, 2020, almost two months later than if it had debuted in April and patched until Oct. 13, 2020.

Impact. Users running Windows 10 1803 will have just five months of overlap with 1903, not the usual six. It's during those overlap months that someone interested in skipping a feature upgrade must act. Figure 1 shows the overlap.

IDG/Gregg Keizer Windows 10 1903's later-than-expected launch will shorten the overlap between it and 1803 to five months, giving users a month less time to migrate from the older upgrade to the latest code.

More important for commercial customers, the overlap between 1803 and for 1909, the months subsequent to Microsoft contending the latter is "business ready," will be a brief two months. (Computerworld pegged the delay between debut and "business ready" for 1909 at three months; it's difficult to believe that Microsoft will make the claim earlier, what with 1909's secondary job ... removing the bad taste of 1809's failures.)

On the other hand, users who end up with 1903 will have eight months, two more than the standard six, of overlap with the future Windows 10 2003, assuming that upgrade launches on time in April 2020.

October 2018 Update, aka 1809

Why. Seemingly rushed to release, 1809 was yanked from distribution just days after its Oct. 2, 2018 debut because of reports that the upgrade had mistakenly deleted user files. Rather than re-release the upgrade to the general public once the underlying bug had been quashed, Microsoft sent it back for testing through the Windows Insider program. Not until mid-January did the company resume automatic delivery and installation, and even then wisely opened the distribution throttle very slowly.

Support change. Microsoft adjusted support by just one month, pegging retirement for Home and Pro users at May 12, 2020.

Impact. By setting an end-of-support date without taking into account how 1809 actually rolled out, Microsoft short-changed users: Most Home and Pro customers who run 1809 will have only 16 months of fixes coming to them, not the standard 18.

April 2018 Update, aka 1803

Why. Various reports asserted that Microsoft postponed an anticipated April 10, 2018, launch for this feature upgrade because of a significant bug. (In hindsight, with the fiasco of 1809 in a rearview mirror, Microsoft clearly made the right decision with 1803.) By the time engineers had addressed the bug, April was over: Microsoft announced the release of 1809 on the month's last day.

Support change. Microsoft shifted end-of-support from October to November 2019 to account for the late launch.

Impact. Because Windows 10 1803 was preceded by on-time releases - both 1703 and 1709 launched on schedule if not before - the month-long delay had little impact on its own. As already described, it was only in combination with later launches, notably 1903, that 1803's postponement put some users in a pinch.
TEL AVIV - Israel's border crossings with the West Bank and Gaza will be closed starting at 12 a.m.

Tuesday through 12 a.m. Wednesday for elections on April 9, the Israeli army said.

It said the only exceptions would be for humanitarian reasons, such as for the passage of patients headed for Israeli hospitals.
Over 2,000 dengue cases reported in Q1 2019, a three-fold increase from same period last year

Over 2,000 dengue cases have been reported in the first quarter of 2019, according to the National Environment Agency.

This is a more than three-fold increase from the approximately 600 dengue cases reported in the same period in 2018.

With the peak dengue season approaching, Mr. Masagos Zulkifli, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, made the call for a concerted effort to step up our mosquito and dengue prevention efforts. He was speaking at the main launch of the National Dengue Prevention Campaign 2019 at the North West District on Sunday, April 7.

Photo courtesy: Wikipedia

NEA's Gravitrap surveillance system showed that the mosquito population remains high. In addition, our neighbouring countries have reported sharp increases in dengue cases in recent months. The warmer months of June to October usually see higher transmission of dengue in Singapore, due to the accelerated development of the Aedes mosquito and the shorter incubation period of the dengue virus.

NEA is thus expecting an increasing trend in dengue cases in the warmer months ahead, if active steps are not taken to keep the mosquito population in check.

The aedes mosquitoes have a short breeding cycle of seven days, NEA added. Therefore, keeping the mosquito population in check requires the effort of every individual in the community to eradicate mosquito breeding habitats.

Even clean and stagnant water in homes can be potential breeding habitats for mosquitoes. All it takes is a small amount of water the size of a 20-cent coin for mosquitoes to breed in, NEA said.
Ruby Shekhar, trailblazer of Singapore sari saga

Sari is the most admired traditional Indian attire around the world. Highlighting the popularity of the iconic Indian wraparound in Singapore, lovely ladies from different countries draped in beautiful saris, depicting myriad colours and patterns, were brought together on one stage by Ruby Shekhars Demure Drapes.

The recent event to celebrate Singapore's bicentennial brought together 200 plus women from 42 countries. Photo courtesy: Facebook/ Demure Drapes

Ruby Shekhar, who first founded Demure Drapes as a Facebook page in 2015, wanted to share her love and knowledge of the sari. She started the page as a way to encourage women to wear saris for more occasions, and in the process to learn more about the different weaves and handlooms in her sari collections. As the community grew online, she started seeing women from Uganda to South America to Myanmar sending photos of themselves in saris.

200 Demure Drapes ladies from 42 countries came together in 1 Drape the Sari for celebrating Singapores Bicentennial. Photo courtesy: Facebook/Demure Drapes

Amazingly, the recent event to celebrate Singapore's bicentennial brought together 200 plus women from 42 countries. This was a testament to how multicultural our community is, and the fact that the appreciation for the sari truly knows no bounds, Ruby said. She is again working on her next project, which is again to celebrate Singapores history.

Ruby Shekhar, who first founded Demure Drapes as a Facebook page in 2015, wanted to share her love and knowledge of the sari. Photo courtesy: Facebook/ Ruby Shekhar

Celebrating SG Bicentennial in saris was on my mind since January. I was able to put it in action with the help of my friends, mainly Aarti and Priya and many who helped spread the word around. It really was a sense of relief and joy when things went as planned on 31st, Ruby cheerfully added.

Her commendable efforts have seen Demure Drapes grow into a global community with over 10,000 followers around the world in just five years. In addition to a global community, now she has a strong local presence in Singapore among both locals and the expat community.

Each and every event holds a special place in Rubys heart but there are a few which stand out even more, including 50 Sari Shades of Singapore, Fashion for the Nation and Walk for the Nation.

50 Sari Shades of Singapore was the first event organised by Demure Drapes, which saw a group of Indian women who celebrated Singapore's 50th anniversary in style in 2015 - by having their pictures taken at 50 iconic locations around the island while wearing the sari. The event was surely such a bewitching way to mark Singapores jubilee and also put Ruby and her initiative on Singapores cultural map.

50 gorgeous women, dressed in their resplendent saris, of multiple faith and different races from Singapore participated in Fashion for the Nation. They presented 50 different weaves of saris and modelled 50 unique styles of draping it; embodying the true spirit and rich heritage of the sari - not just as a mere garment, but almost an art form.

After their stunning ramp walk, the amateur models formed a 'Human map of Singapore' on the stage, to wish Singapore A very happy 50th Birthday. Ms Rathi Menon, Miss Singapore Universe 2014, walked on to the stage for the grand finale. It was indeed a very special Ode to SG 50, Demure Drapes shared in a Facebook post.

Thats not all; for World Sari Day (December 1) every year, she has hosted a different programmes engaging ladies from Australia to America every part of the world. The icing on the cake was the performance by ladies in all six continents to the song Jai Ho which she choreographed herself. Just as the SG50 celebrations in 2015, Ruby didnt miss a chance to celebrate Singapores 200-year existence too.

Ruby hopes Demure Drapes can continue to be a place for Indians and non-Indians alike to share their love for this six yards of fabric - one that knows no bounds of race, size, or colour - very much like Singapore.

Well, more power to you for your astounding work, Ruby!
The Prime Minister makes her case for compromise with Labour

A more relaxed style  The Guardian

Is she rolling the pitch for a Customs Union?  Daily Telegraph

Truss attacks a flexible extension as purgatory  The Times

Macron might do a de Gaulle and refuse a further extension  FT

Or he might make costly demands in return for his consent  FT

Labour would back revoking Article 50 if No Deal is the only other option  The Sun

EU leaders are negotiating with MPs not the Prime Minister  The Sun

83 per cent of people are fed up with Brexit news  The Times

Salvini is building a populist alliance for the Euro elections  The Times

Sitting back with one arm resting on the arm of a sofa, and speaking directly to camera, Theresa May used a colloquial tone to tell voters she disagreed with Labour but claimed on Brexit the two sides agreed on ending free movement, ensuring we leave with a good deal, protecting jobs, protecting security. Her comments came Jacob Rees-Mogg called Mr Corbyns inclusion in talks a mistake this morning and Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom said the Tories were working with him through gritted teeth. With a note of laughter injected into her delivery, Mrs May said: Itll mean compromise on both sides, but I believe that delivering Brexit is the most important thing for us.  Daily Mail

Opinion

>Yesterday:

Johnson: A May-Corbyn Customs Union would never be acceptable

If we Tories have one duty, it is to prevent this man getting anywhere near the levers of power. So it seems utterly incredible that he has now been invited into Downing Street to negotiate a Brexit deal. And it is doubly incredible that the government is  so we are told  willing to accede to his terms. We are informed that there are now no red lines in the negotiations with Labour. In order to get Corbyn onside, the Government is apparently willing to abandon the cardinal principle and central logic of Brexit. Jeremy Corbyn and his team have demanded that the UK must somehow leave the EU, but remain in the Customs Union. That is their price. If the Government were to agree, it would not only mean repudiating a manifesto pledge, and tearing up a promise made thousands of times in parliament and elsewhere. It is far worse than that. If the UK were to commit to remaining in the Customs Union, it would make a total and utter nonsense of the referendum result. We would be out of the EU, but in many ways still run by the EU. It would be the worst of both worlds, not just now, but forever.  Boris Johnson, Daily Telegraph

>Today: Nicky Morgans column: Our One Nation group of MPs is fighting back against an attempt to hijack the Conservative Party

>Yesterday:

Wright: We will no longer sit by and allow social media giants to self-regulate

How can we do nothing when self-harm videos are being suggested for our children to watch. How can we stand by when those who are vulnerable are being abused and bullied online with nowhere to turn? How can we fail to act when hostile states spread lies to undermine our democracy? Self-regulation simply isnt working. Today, we have set out our plans for change. One of Governments primary duties is to keep people safe. Thats why through our Online Harms White Paper we will create a new statutory duty of care for online platforms.  Jeremy Wright, The Sun

>Today: ToryDiary: Be cautious when a watchdog bites its rivals

Fewer than one in five under-35s intends to vote Conservative

Just 16 per cent of under 35s said they would currently vote for the Tories while the so-called tipping point  the age at which people are more likely to vote Conservative than Labour  has increased from 47 to 51 since the 2017 general election. Meanwhile, just 17 per cent of Tory voters are under the age of 45 and only four per cent are under 25. However, some three million voters under the age of 35 would consider voting Conservative in the future  but not if an election were called today. The ability to appeal to younger voters is likely to be an important quality during the next Tory leadership battle given Labours popularity with voters in their 20s and 30s.  Daily Telegraph

Majorities among every age group and ethnicity want to cut immigration  The Sun

Hunt cancels Tory fundraiser over hotels Brunei links  The Times

Record number of people study for a Masters degree  The Times

Apprenticeship levy threatens to bust its budget  FT

Parenting video accused of nanny state meddling  Daily Mail

>Today: James Kanagasooriam on Comment: The left-right age gap is even worse for the Conservatives than you think

>Yesterday: WATCH: Gyimah  Ive faced deselection attempts from those who believe Im step in modernisation too far

Council candidates brand themselves Local Conservatives in effort to shake off the national brand

The party faces losing control of councils across the country due to the failure to deliver Brexit on time and Mrs Mays decision to enter cross-party talks with Jeremy Corbyn. Nomination papers submitted by candidates  seen by The Sun  reveal that many local Tory associations hope to escape voters anger over Brexit by listing their party on ballot papers for the May 2 local elections as Local Conservatives. A Tory MP who handed over a copy of Lincolnshires nomination papers said their candidates are listed as local Conservatives because they think Westminster associations are now so toxic. Among those who are using the Local Conservatives tag are Richard Wright, who is head of the Lincolnshire Area Conservative party.  The Sun

>Yesterday: ToryDiary: Does the Conservative Party have enough money to fight a European election campaign?

None of the Afghan translators promised sanctuary have yet made it to the UK

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.  Daily Mail

US military pulls out of Libya  The Times

Armed force will probably prevail  The Times Leader

Jewish Labour Movement votes No Confidence in unfit to be Prime Minister Corbyn

Smeeth feels sick at the state of Labour  Daily Telegraph

Labour members allegedly threatened to kill Jess Phillips  The Sun

What do you have to do to get thrown out?  The Sun Says

Communist time capsule found in Parliament  The Sun

Frank Field is going to stand as an independent at the next election  Daily Mail

There is a gender pay gap at the TUC  Daily Mail

Clinicians express concerns about NHS child gender clinic

Labours official Jewish affiliate has declared that it has no confidence in Jeremy Corbyns leadership after nearly four years of antisemitism rows. A motion of no confidence in the Labour leader was passed overwhelmingly yesterday at the annual meeting of the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM), which has been formally tied to the party for 99 years. Last month the JLM voted not to secede from the party. Internal Labour Party documents on antisemitism claims were leaked to The Sunday Times showing a complaints system bedevilled by delays, inaction and reported interference from Mr Corbyns office. Baroness Chakrabarti, the shadow attorney-general, appealed to the meeting not to personalise the issue by focusing on Mr Corbyn because he is one person and he wont be leader forever. The motion passed by the JLM concluded that the blame for both the crisis of antisemitism within the Labour Party and the partys failure to deal with it . . . ultimately rests with Jeremy Corbyn. It added that Jeremy Corbyn is unfit to be prime minister and a Labour government led by him would not be in the interest of British Jews.   The Times

The only NHS gender clinic for children is risking a live experiment by sending hundreds for life-changing medical intervention without sufficient evidence of its long-term effects, experts have warned. The Times has spoken to five clinicians who resigned from the service because of concerns over the treatment of vulnerable children who come to the clinic presenting as transgender. They believe that some gay children struggling with their sexuality are being wrongly diagnosed as transgender by the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) clinic. All five former staff were responsible for deciding which trans-identifying youngsters should be given hormone blockers to halt their sexual development. The vast majority of those who begin blockers go on to irreversible cross-sex hormones once they reach 16. The NHS specialists warned that vulnerable children and teenagers had been sent down the path towards transition before experts had time to assess the causes of their gender confusion.  The Times

It feels like conversion therapy for gay children  The Times

Im concerned about the lack of scientific evidence  Carl Heneghan, The Times

Support group accused of lobbying, and playing on parental anxiety  The Times

Homeopathic treatments to be banned from the NHS  Daily Mail

News in Brief
James Kanagasooriam is an advisory board member of Onward and a strategy consultant at OC&C. Between 2014-2018, he was Head of Analytics for Populus, where he and his team utilised data science techniques to optimise political campaigning. Their efforts contributed to Ruth Davidsons Scottish Conservatives successful 2017 Election.

It might not feel like it this week, but the Conservatives problem with younger voters is a bigger problem for them than Brexit. This morning, Onward publishes a big new report on the age gap in British politics  now the most important indicator of vote intention. The stark reality in the data is that the Conservative Partys age curve is not only extreme  you now need to be 51 years old before you become more likely to vote Conservative than Labour  but worse than the age curve for Leave. This is often missed because support for Leave is higher amongst older voters than voting Conservative.

You dont get any prizes for knowing that young Britain is skewed considerably towards Remain and Labour. One of the more distasteful arguments put about in the media about Leavers is that they are facing a natural demographic decline  just last week a young commentator on a BBC panel said that delivering on the will of the people now meant delivering on the will of dead people. But the Conservative age curve is much, much worse  and spells steady decline for the Party in the long-run unless something is done at pace.

The Conservative curve gets steeper the older you are  right up until very old age. The difference in voting intention between people in their 40s and 30s is smaller than the difference between people in their 50s and 40s. This differs from Leave, which arcs over middle age  as set out below. There are huge numbers of middle age voters who were willing to vote for Leave but are not currently willing to vote Conservative. That is a problem for the Tories.

Figure 1: Observing the problem  disaggregating the Leave issues from the Tory one

Why is this? It is because the Leave divide is primarily an educational gap, not an age gap. When you mathematically adjust for education, ethnicity, social and economic worldviews and housing tenure, the difference in Leave and mean voting behaviours by age is almost entirely explained. But when you do the same for the Conservatives, we find a significant chunk of the difference unexplained at the demographic top and bottom of the electorate as set out below.

If we look at the maths, we see something powerful at play. The Conservative vote is crumbling faster than the Leave vote over time. In effect, the Conservatives are about to lose a group of older voters who are more likely than they should be to vote Conservative  once we have factored in everything we know influences voting behaviour  which will be replaced by a group of voters who are much more likely than they should be, controlling for every conceivable factor, to vote Labour. In politics, cohorts matter and the next one could kill the idea of a Conservative majority.

Figure 2: The bow tie of doom: actual versus statistically inferred Conservative age curve

This flies in the face of most Conservative strategists thinking. Currently the Party is relying on the idea that if we a) build more houses b) build a vision of Britain that creates prosperous high paying jobs and is spread outside city centres c) provide people with the skills and retaining capabilities for a flexible and changing job market without expelling them from their hometowns, networks and families, then they will necessarily vote Tory. We will be able to create more Conservative voters through good government, as we have done in the past  or so the story goes.

Heres the problem: people arent equations. They are social animals they take their cues from the people around them. They practice what I call empathic voting: their political actions are influenced by their generation and the times they live through. The political contract is not such that if Governments pull certain policy levers and create certain conditions voters respond in kind. Leaders matter, external moments matter. Brand matters. The liberal consensus of the late 1990s and 2000s didnt come out of nowhere  it stemmed from a generation of leaders who grew up in the shadow of the Berlin Wall. They thought Fukuyama was right and they governed accordingly. Today no voter under the age of 40 has had a similar formative experience. First time voters at the last election were not even politically conscious when British capitalism was last deemed to be in good health. This is why  crudely  the older postie votes Tory and the younger investment banker votes Labour; each are voting  to a degree  in empathy with their own generational cohort.

The converging trends above are what I term the bow tie of doom  a possible cohort effect in different generations voting behaviour. A generation of younger people which  controlling for everything about them, including their views, where they live, their ethnicity, their income  are less Conservative than they should be, sitting alongside a cohort of older voters of whom many tick the Conservative box when they are not really Conservative in any meaningful, demographic or philosophical way. The Party might benefit from a political premium right now but it is unrooted in anything except time  and the clock is ticking.

There is a lack of longitudinal data to fully validate this cohort thesis, but the Onward data, a detailed snapshot, gives us a clear indication that we are not making conditions ripe for conservatism  and even if we were, it wouldnt be enough. In fact, we are creating battalions of anti-Tory shock troops  disheartened by austerity, uninitiated in prosperity, alienated by the Conservative brand. If every generation has a centre of gravity in its voting patterns, todays is far away from the current Conservative Party.

We need to learn the right lessons now. The solution is threefold. First, the Conservatives need to radically rethink what they stand for. It cant be everything  we should pick five things and double down on them again and again until we are blue in the face. This is hard in Government  you are by default responsible for everything  but ruthless clarity and urgency of purpose are essential if we are to cut through. Mass movements spring from evocative narrow issues, not from broad manifestos.

Second we need to completely retool our polling and data operation. Right now, CCHQs operation is limited in both breadth and depth. They know a little about a few things: they need to know a lot more and bring in the best brains to drive it. Good businesses start with their customers and repeatedly refine the proposition until they get product-market fit. They dont start with the product and then try and find an appropriate market.

Third, we need to build a policy platform underpinned by data and tailored to our audience. Onwards work identifies the precise policy areas that three million young considerers would be swayed by  and many are Conservative strengths. If we cant build a compelling proposition around low personal taxes, responsible capitalism, protecting the environment, reforming public services and being proud to be British, we deserve to lose.

If we spend the next two years arguing about Brexit we will lose the next election, no matter where we end up. If we are to ever have a majority again, we need to reverse the age gap.
Nicky Morgan is Chair of the Treasury Select Committee, a former Education Secretary, and MP for Loughborough.

Why is it that certain politicians need to test their theories to destruction? We had New Labour testing to destruction the idea that throwing money at a political problem will solve it. Now we have the EU ideologues in the Conservative Party ready to hold out so firmly for their theoretical version of Brexit that they may actually end up destroying the Party.

This sort of ideology has no place in the Conservative Party. It doesnt impress the vast majority of the British public, it doesnt win or hold marginal seats, and it wont help us to stay in Government.

Yesterdays Sunday Times reported that in a snap poll 42 per cent of voters back the Conservative and Labour parties co-operating over Brexit, with 27 per cent opposed. Conservative, Labour, Remain and Leave voters all backed the talks by significant margins.

This sort of realistic approach to public policy is what the Conservative Party is best known for, when we remember how to do it. We are at our best when we show a pragmatism and flexibility to deal with the world as it is, not how we would like it to be.

Given everything going on it seems an opportune time to remind the Conservative Parliamentary Party, and those who might aspire to lead the Party in the near future, about this essential strand of our thinking.

That is why I recently formed the One Nation caucus of Conservative MPs with a board consisting of Amber Rudd, Damian Green and Sir Nicholas Soames. We have MPs joining us all the time.

A bit like defining Britishness, a definition of One Nation Conservatism isnt easy to arrive at. But at its heart is a desire to bridge divisions in our country, caused by industrialisation (now better called globalisation) and inequality. When our country has never been more divided, this couldnt be a better time to remind our fellow citizens that there are Conservative MPs who want to heal the divisions and not to perpetuate them.

That is why we are asking MPs to sign up to a Code of Conduct about the language we are using in the current Brexit debate. When the police have to ask politicians to temper our language then we should know, in our hearts, that something has gone seriously wrong in our politics. Respectful and generous debate in the public sphere is something MPs should be able to do without blinking.

One Nation Conservatives want everyone to have the opportunity to flourish. We want to reinforce the ties that bind us  the reciprocal obligations between citizen and state and to support local, civic and voluntary structures and institutions. We believe in the market economy and the virtues of free enterprise. Our values should be defended by an independent legal system who are treated with respect and never described as the enemies of the people.

We do not want to appeal to popular nationalism but we are patriotic and believe in nation states and the union of nations in our United Kingdom. We believe in country before party and an active internationalism. The UK should be at the frontline of tackling global challenges.

The One Nation caucus is not a party within a party. We dont operate a parallel whipping system. Those who want to be part of the caucus have to make up their own minds on issues and policies. We arent ambivalent about the Conservative Partys future, we want it to win.

So we will call out those of the New Right who have hijacked the Conservative Party and are making it less and less governable and able to govern by the day. One Nation Conservatism should be the future of the Conservative Party if we are serious about winning in the future.
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This CoolSocial report was updated on 2021-11-30, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.
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Website jojoku.com uses latest and advanced technologies. It supports HTTPS and GZIP compression. The main html page has a size of 308 bytes (0.30 kb uncompressed) and 226 bytes (0.22 kb compressed).

This CoolSocial report was updated on 2021-09-09, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.
Holy Week is the week leading up to Easter; it always starts on Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter. Here are the dates for Holy Week in 2021: Sunday March 28 - Saturday April 3. Easter is on Sunday, April 4.

Important Dates of Lent Brief Overview of Significance 2021 Dates Palm Sunday Celebrates Jesus's triumphant entry into Jerusalem March 28, 2021 Holy Week The week leading up to Easter March 28 - April 3, 2021

Maundy Thursday Commemorates the foot washing and Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles April 1, 2021

Good Friday Commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary April 2, 2021 Holy Saturday Commemorates Jesus' body resting in the tomb April 3, 2021 Easter Sunday Celebrates the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and his victory over sin and death. April 4, 2021

For a timeline of Holy Week click here.

Get your FREE 8-Day Prayer and Scripture Guide - Praying Through the Holy Week HERE. Print your own copy for a beautiful daily devotional leading up to Easter.

What Is Palm Sunday?

Palm Sunday is the Sunday before Easter that begins the Holy Week. It is the day that we remember and celebrate the day Jesus entered into Jerusalem as Savior and King. As Jesus rode a donkey into the town of Jerusalem a large crowd gathered and laid palm branches and their cloaks across the road, giving Jesus royal treatment. The hundreds of people shouted Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!"

-Excerpted from 5 Things about Palm Sunday that Remind Us Christ is King by Debbie McDaniel

What Is Spy Wednesday (Holy Wednesday)?

We don't know much about what happens on Holy Wednesday. Most likely Jesus and his disciples prepared for Passover, which would occur on Friday. The term "Spy" refers to Judas and how he betrayed our Lord to the religious leader in exchange for silver coins.

-Excerpted from Why is the Wednesday of Holy Week Called "Spy Wednesday"? By Hope Bolinger

What Is Maundy Thursday?

"Maundy Thursday is the Thursday before Easter, believed to be the day when Jesus celebrated his final Passover with His disciples. Most notably, that Passover meal was when Jesus washed the feet of His disciples in an extraordinary display of humility. He then commanded them to do the same for each other. Christ's 'mandate' is commemorated on Maundy Thursday---"maundy" being a shortened form of mandatum (Latin), which means 'command.' It was on the Thursday of Christ's final week before being crucified and resurrected that He said these words to his disciples: 'A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another' (John 13:34)."

-Excerpted from What Is Maundy Thursday? By Alex Crain

What Is Good Friday?

"For Christians, Good Friday is a crucial day of the year because it celebrates what we believe to be the most momentous weekend in the history of the world. Ever since Jesus died and was raised, Christians have proclaimed the cross and resurrection of Jesus to be the decisive turning point for all creation. Paul considered it to be of first importance that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and was raised to life on the third day, all in accordance with what God had promised all along in the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3). On Good Friday we remember the day Jesus willingly suffered and died by crucifixion as the ultimate sacrifice for our sins (1 John 1:10). It is followed by Easter, the glorious celebration of the day Jesus was raised from the dead, heralding his victory over sin and death and pointing ahead to a future resurrection for all who are united to him by faith (Romans 6:5)."

-Excerpted from Whats So Good about Good Friday? By Justin Holcomb

What Is Passover?

"This year, the Passover Holiday will begin on the evening of Friday, April 19th and end on Saturday, April 27th. Passover is a traditional Jewish holiday with biblical origins. It is a celebration of the deliverance of the Jewish people by God from their bondage in ancient Egypt under the guidance of Moses. Passover commemorates the story of the Exodus as depicted in the Hebrew Bible, notably in the Book of Exodus. Passover is a spring holiday and was associated with the sacrifice of the "first-fruits of the barley" during the presence of the Temple in Jerusalem, barley being the first seed to mature and collected in the Land of Israel."

-Excerpted from When Is Passover? Compiled by Crosswalk Editorial Staff

What Is Easter?

"Easter is a very significant date within Christianity and is the foundation of the Christian faith. Jesus, the Son of God, fulfilled prophecy and through his death, has given the gift of eternal life in heaven to those who believe in his death and resurrection. Read the entire biblical account of Resurrection Day in Matthew 28, Mark 16, and Luke 24 and more Easter Bible verses at BibleStudyTools.com."

-Excerpted from What Is Easter? By Susan E. Richardson.

Holy Week Prayers

You can read a prayer for each day of Holy Week here, starting with a Psalm Sunday Prayer.

A Prayer to Start the Holy Week

Matthew 21:1-11; Psalm 118:1-2; Psalm 118:19-29

"Lord God, I give you thanks, for you are good, and your mercy is endless. Here I stand, at the start of this holy week, This week in which your church remembers Jesus passion and death, And I am distracted by many things. Turn my eyes now to the One who comes in your name The one who opens the gates of righteousness The one who answers when we call. I bless you, Lord, for shining your light upon me, And for sending your son to us, in human frailty. To walk the road we walk. Open my eyes that I may see him coming, And may praise him with a pure heart. And may walk in the way of his suffering, And share also in his resurrection. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen." -Rachel Marie Stone

Photo credit: GettyImages/RomoloTavani

This article is part of our larger Holy Week and Easter resource library centered around the events leading up to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We hope these articles help you understand the meaning and story behind important Christian holidays and dates and encourage you as you take time to reflect on all that God has done for us through his son Jesus Christ!

What is the Holy Week?

What Is Palm Sunday?

What is Maundy Thursday?

What Is Good Friday?

What Is Easter?

Easter Prayers

At Easter, the Son of God took on the worlds sin and defeated the devil, death, and grave. How is it, then, that historys most glorious moment is surrounded by fearful fishermen, despised tax collectors, marginalized women, feeble politicians, and traitorous friends?

In The Characters of Easter, youll become acquainted with the unlikely collection of ordinary people who witnessed the miracle of Christs death and resurrection. This FREE podcast provides a fresh approach to the Lenten season and can be used as a devotional or study for both individuals and groups.




Delegates from the Asia Cruise Cooperation (ACC) partners delivered key updates and initiatives to media and cruise industry executives, and noted its fifth anniversary at an event in Miami.

Cruise tourism in Asia has been identified as one of the fastest-growing sectors in tourism development, the ACC said, with the number of cruise passengers increasing by an estimated annual average of 33%, from 775 000 in 2012 to nearly 4.26 million in 2018.

To capture the opportunities from the growing Asian cruise market, ACC has been working on various kinds of consumer and trade marketing activities in the past few years, and the ACC partnering destinations are enhancing their facilities, policies and infrastructure, as well as diversifying their destination appeal, to encourage more ship deployments in the region and to attract more visitors to the partner destinations.

This year, ACC partners have joined hands to launch a regional TV program, called Cruise the World, in cooperation with the Discovery TLC channel. Cruise the World brings together four hosts who are passionate about the oceans, pairing them as cruise mates and travel companions on unknown journeys to explore the best of coastal destinations and cruise ships.

Through the program, ACC not only promotes partner destinations, but also generates consumer demand for the cruise ships deployed in the region.

Member Updates:

Hainan

International air routes continue to expand for travelers visiting Hainan, with plans for 28 new routes to destinations in Europe, Oceania, and America to be added by the end of 2019. The convenient Visa-Free and Visa-on-Arrival policies have also contributed to the citys popularity among foreign tourists. Residents of 59 countries, including those in North and South America, Southeast Asia and Western Europe, can travel to Hainan for as long as 30 days without a Chinese visa.

HK

Infrastructure remains at the forefront of Hong Kongs tourism development. Pre- and post-cruise travelers can now reach 44 mainland cities non-stop from Hong Kong via the recently opened GuangzhouShenzhenHong Kong High-Speed Rail. The new Hong KongZhuhaiMacao Bridge, also known as world's longest sea crossing, cuts the travel time between Hong Kong and Zhuhai, providing tourists with convenient access to and from the mainland.

Korea

A new passenger terminal with the capacity to accommodate 220,000-ton cruise vessels will be opened at the port of Incheon in April, housing a shopping and resort complex.

Jeju will host the 2019 International Cruise Forum in August to promote cooperation and the sustainable growth of the Asian cruise industry.

Philippines

Port development and expansion continues in Northern Philippines, with the development of the Salomague and Currimao ports for cruise ships while Subic Port is becoming more popular as a new port of call in the country. Solaire Cruise Center, the first cruise-dedicated terminal in Manila, is being developed by the Solaire Group, and is expected to be completed by 2021.

Taiwan

New customs facilities and enhanced infrastructure at the Port of Keelung, and a modern port terminal in Kaohsiung that can accommodate 225,000-ton ships will be completed by 2020,

Xiamen

The cruise terminal in Xiamen will be able to accommodate 220,000-ton cruise ships starting in mid 2019.
Holland America Line announced that its next Pinnacle Class ship will be called Ryndam. The Seattle-based Carnival Corporation brand also confirmed a May 2021 delivery date.

The Ryndam will be similar to sister ships Koningsdam and Nieuw Statendam at 99,500 tons and carrying 2,666 guests. As the third in the series, Ryndam will feature enhanced Pinnacle Class amenities and innovations, the company said.

Holland America Line honors the timeless tradition of cruising while also embracing new innovations for todays travelers, and the name Ryndam reflects the unique history of this company while honoring previous ships that were progressive in their time as this last Ryndam will be, said Orland Ashford, Holland America Lines president. From the first Ryndam more than 100 years ago to the most recent, the namesake ships have been beloved by our guests. The next Ryndam will bring new life to one of the most notable series of vessels in our history.

The steel cutting for Ryndam, signifying the official beginning of the building process, was held March 13, 2019 at Fincantieris shipyard in Marghera, Italy.

The first Ryndam was part of the Holland America Line fleet from 1901 to 1929, starting as Rijndam before receiving the English spelling in 1923. In 1927 Ryndam I became the first Holland America Line ship to sail a world cruise, although it was chartered as a floating school at sea for that voyage. The second Ryndam served from 1951 to 1973, and the third sailed in the fleet from 1993 through 2015, when it was transferred to sister brand P&O Australia and now cruises as Pacific Aria.
The new TUI Cruises Mein Schiff 2 made her inaugural call to Gibraltar recently having been officially named in Lisbon on February 9.

This summer the ship will be sailing from Palma de Mallorca, its homeport, on various itineraries in the Western Mediterranean before heading to the Caribbean in October where it will be sailing from Bridgetown and La Romana.

Gibraltar continues to be an attractive port of call for cruise ships and a destination which has been chosen by TUI cruises in particular, with consistent calls during the winter months, the port authority said, in a statement.
On Sunday, the Port of Kochi welcomed MSC Splendida for her maiden call, and celebrated the moment with the exchanging of crests to officially celebrate the ships first arrival.

This event marks an important moment for MSC Splendida as it is the first time the ship calls on a port in India.

Angelo Capurro, Executive Director, MSC Cruises commented: Calling the Port of Kochi is a great highlight in our journey and it is exciting to deliver an unparalleled cruise experience at this beautiful destination. Kochi is bustling center of activity, with a rich and varied cultural heritage and a maritime history that goes back many centuries. To be able to call here is privilege and an unforgettable experience we wanted to share with our guests.

The ship is currently on her way to Southeast Asia and will make further stopovers in Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Japan and China. The ship will be sailing in Asia until summer 2020, when the ship returns to Northern Europe and the Mediterranean.
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Moon Hooch, the Brooklyn-based trio known for its energetic, joyful music, is headed to Fairfield Theatre Company. The show, also featuring Too Many Zooz, will be at FTCs The Warehouse on Friday, April 19.

Both bands captured fans early on by busking in New York City subways and elsewhere. Moon Hoochs two sax players and funky drummer whipped up furious raves at the Bedford Avenue station in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with such regularity, police banned them from playing there.
Sherrod Small remembers getting laughs as a kid. He thought he was entertaining. Adults would call it annoying, but I thought I was funny, the comedian says.

Small, 45, even recalls the first joke he ever wrote. He was in grade school and people were teasing him about his last name. They said things like, You dont look so small.

He told them his middle name was Isnt  as in is not small. Pretty good for a second-grader.

The comedian shared more in a recent phone chat from Las Vegas, where he was performing. Its (comedy) kind of the family business, he said. I grew up around it (in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn). Chris Rock is a cousin of mine. Me and Tony Rock got into it together.

Small has been on television (VH1, Fox, A&E) and radio (SiriusXM). Hes also co-host of the podcast Race Wars, and is working on creating a TV version of it. Meanwhile, he still does live stand-up; hell bring his show to the Fairfield Comedy Club on Saturday, April 20.

I talk about everything from politics to family to race relations, he said. Topical stuff, too. Some of its pulled right from the headlines. I mix it with older, longer bits. I try to make it organic. Ive got everything from Jussie Smollett to mass shootings to Trump ... to why babies smell like that.

Smell like what?

Small laughed. Oh, its the best smell, if you smell a babys neck its the best smell in the world. I dont know what it is, but boy they know how to get us.

Discussing the inspiration for his material, Small said ideas come from pretty much everywhere, even tragedy. You give tragedy some time and it will be hilarity. There are no topics that are off limits when it comes to funny ... If you stay close to the truth you will usually find it, just like with any other art form.

When asked if hes a fan of President Donald Trump, Small said, I am a fan of America so I never want our president to fail, but he is a handful. The thing is, Im from New York so Ive been around Trump my whole life, so I already knew his game and how he plays it. But its interesting to see the whole country ... try to deal with it.

Although Small is very comfortable onstage, he said that wasnt always the case. Early in his career he figured out, when youre doing comedy its like youre driving a bus full of people. If you look confident then people will have confidence in you. If you look nervous, like you dont know what youre doing, then your jokes aint gonna work.

Basically, he said, Youve just got to believe in yourself and feel like youve got something to say.

More Information Fairfield Comedy Club at The Circle Inn, 417 Post Road, Fairfield. Saturday, April 20, 7 and 9 p.m. $29 general admission. 16 and over; BYOB. 475-999-2087 See More Collapse

Small said hes actually had more issues with microphones than audiences. The audience just needs to be open-minded and ready to laugh, in order to have fun. The audience isnt a problem, he said, laughing, but the microphone... When it doesnt work right, or its not loud enough and some people cant hear you, or it goes in and out, thats not cool.

lkoonz@newstimes.com; Twitter: @LindaTKoonz
The social worker is visiting the mother on another issue, but skillfully turns the conversation to sleep safety for the infant in the mothers arms.

So, would I be able to see where the baby sleeps? the social workers asks.

The conversation was part of a simulated training exercise that Vannessa Dorantes, the new commissioner of the Department of Children and Families, used Monday to get the word out about safe sleeping for infants.

According to the Center for Disease Control, approximately 3,500 infants die each year in the United States in unsafe sleep environments, Dorantes said at a news conference on the grounds of the Department of Veterans Affairs. For several years now we explicitly require that our social workers talk to caretakers of infants and very young children about how they practice safe sleep every time they go to the home.

Faith Vos Winkel, the states Assistant Child Advocate, said Connecticut loses on average a classroom size of children just to safe sleep issues every year. She said that from 2013 to 2018, the state lost 123 infants to sleep-related deaths, noting that number does not include children who die of other causes.

DCF is attempting to combat this problem, but Dorantes said the agency sometimes struggles to get the message across even when it has followed up with families.

Its not as easy as just talking to a family about safe sleep and then the problem is solved, Dorantes said. We have seen unsafe sleep tragedies when the documentation is very clear that we spoke with the family multiple times.

The quality of the discussion and engagement with the family is critical, Dorantes said, which is why the departments simulation laboratory work is valuable.

A non-profit Wethersfield-based group called FAVOR, Inc., which works to empower families as advocates for children, partners with DCF to do the training, providing staff members who play the role of family members so DCF social workers can practice their interactions with clients on myriad topics.

On Monday, Maquena Deslandes played the role of the mother, while Brenda Whittingham, who is a DCF social worker trainee, was the worker visiting Deslandes.

In Mondays enactment, the mom, Delsandes, agrees to show Whittingham the bedroom where her baby sleeps and the social worker talks gently with her about safe sleeping rules, which the mom seems to know: a firm mattress, nothing in the crib but the baby, the baby on her back.

But then Whittingham spots folded clothes in the crib. The mom says she only put them there for a short time, but with the moms permission, Whittingham takes the clothes out of the crib and puts them elsewhere.

This is perfect, the Whittingham tells the mom. This is how the baby should be be sleeping. I want to reiterate because we dont want anything to happen to the baby.

Whittingham gets a strong review from the supervisors who analyze the simulation with her, noting that it was good that she actually removed the clothes from the crib.

Dorantes said the Annie E. Casey Foundation recently found that Connecticut had the second lowest child death rate in the country.

But still, she said, in 40 percent of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome cases, unsafe sleeping habits were a factor. The CDC found in a recent national survey that despite widespread warnings against it, about a fifth of survey respondents said they place their baby on the babys side or stomach. Further, 61 percent reported sharing a bed with their infant, and nearly two in five reported using soft bedding  most commonly bumper pads and thick blankets.

All of these practices are dangerous and can be deadly, Dorantes said.

Citing recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics, Dorantes said the rules for creating a safe sleep environment for infants are:

Place the infants on their back to sleep.

Use a firm sleep surface, such as a mattress.

Share a room, but not a bed.

Avoid soft bedding such as blankets, pillows and bumper pads.
Racial justice played a strong role in pushing legalized marijuana over another big hurdle Monday, even though, on the same day at the state Capitol in Hartford, many in a gathering of black clergy railed against the evils of the psychoactive weed.

The General Assemblys powerful judiciary committee narrowly approved one version of legalization, which would  crucially for urban legislators including co-chairman Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven  wipe out arrest records of people charged with possession of less than 1.5 ounces.

All Republicans opposed the latest legalization bill, joined by Sen. Alex Bergstein, D-Greenwich, and Reps. Daniel Fox and Patricia Billie Miller, both Stamford Democrats, against it. The tally was 21-19.

Miller, more than anyone, was caught in the middle. A licensed minister, she gave the invocation at a morning gathering of the Connecticut Black Clergy Alliance  during which she asked for Gods guidance in the divided marijuana issue  then, as a member of the judiciary committee, cast an anguished vote, telling me on the way in that she remained undecided.

Winfield and many other Democrats, especially members of the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus, said legalization and expungement, as wiping out records is known, are, jointly, a way to make up for past injustices as police have targeted the minority community for arrests in far higher numbers.

We got here because of the issue of keeping a job for somebody back in the 1930s, Winfield said, referring to the original U.S. marijuana laws, and then we used racism to get us all the way forward to where we are.

Republicans  and Bergstein, who spoke most strongly among the three Democrats opposed  countered that marijuana is clearly not a healthy product, and more importantly, is associated with addiction and other social ills. So, they asked, why pass the bill?

When you legalize, you normalize, said Bergstein, the mother of three children ages 15 through 21.

The irony, as Rep. Richard Smith, R-Fairfield, saw it, was that this very committee has been on the forefront of a national movement to give lighter sentences to criminals under age 25, precisely because research shows their brains are still developing.

Now, he said, Lets allow them to smoke marijuana?...Were going to allow you to go into a store, pick it up and have a good time, and by the way, dont drive with it, even though we have no test.. I think its a major step backward.

The answer, Democrats said, is that its here and fully available anyway  and we can use the rise of a new industry to have a sense of reparation, in the words of Sen. Dennis Bradley, D-Bridgeport.

Wiping out arrest records is far from easy and clear. The bill the judiciary committee passed on Monday would provide automatic expungement, meaning people with a record wouldnt have to go through a long process to seek permission.

But what about related charges such as disorderly conduct? And what about the commonly applied, sometime specious charges of intent to sell? And what about the fact that many charges are for illegal substances, requiring a more arduous haul to research and wipe out records?

Were going to have to get all the police departments in on the methodology going forward, said Rep. Toni Walker, D-New Haven, a strong proponent. People are still trying to figure it out.

The 1.5 ounce threshold, new as of Monday, is fairly low, but its high enough for Sen. Douglas McCrory, D-Hartford  who voted against a legalization bill in the general law committee because it lacked an expungement provision. We cant erase everybodys criminal record, McCrory said.

He, Winfield, Bradley and other urban legislators said its more important to wipe out old possession records than it is to allow legal, adult-use, taxable sales.

Weve had a war on drugs, specifically on urban communities, for some time, Bradley said to me afterward. Money from taxing retail marijuana sales, he said, can be used for inner-city education programs in much the same way as Reconstruction-era programs were aimed at helping newly freed slaves before the era of Jim Crow laws took over.

While Republicans said the war on drugs needs adjustment, not a white flag, Bradley countered, This was a racist initiative to begin with and it never should have started.

He added, afterward, Its not enough to say, Well now youre a free man.

Thats strong stuff, comparing legalization to emancipation, but the issue is having that effect at the Capitol these days. At Black Clergy Day, earlier, Archbishop LeRoy Bailey Jr., senior pastor and CEO of The First Cathedral in Bloomfield, said Connecticut shouldnt build our coffins just because other states are doing it.

Mondays events at the Capitol made it clear that legalization remains too close to call, especially since a unified, final bill has yet to be written. Separate bills allowing employers to enforce their own anti-marijuana workplace rules, and beefing up measures to help police eradicate driving under the influence of marijuana, passed the committee hurdle easily.

Miller, whos not a member of the Black Clergy Alliance, said she still doesnt know how shell vote if and when the issue comes to a vote on the floor of the House. Details matter, she said, echoing a lot of Democrats.

Its tough, she said.

dhaar@hearstmediact.com
HAMDEN  A woman was evaluated Saturday night at the hospital after a house fire caused by a candle that was left burning in the master bedroom, according to Fire Marshal Brian Dolan.

The fire was reported shortly before 10:30 p.m. Saturday at the two-story home at 2625 Dixwell Avenue.

According to a release from Dolan, a couple returned home to find multiple smoke alarms going off.

Squad One from the Hamden Fire Department arrived to find smoke on the first and second floor. Firefighters learned that one of the residents had entered the building to try to rescue their pets.

Firefighters were able to locate the occupant inside the home through the use of a thermal imaging camera and safely remove him and the pets from the house, said Dolan.

The fire began in the homes master bedroom, Dolan said. It was contained there; the fire was declared under control at 10:41 p.m. by Battalion Chief John Spencer. The building suffered heavy smoke damage and some water damage.

A 78-year-old woman was taken to Yale New Haven Hospital after the blaze for evaluation, Dolan said. She was released the following day.

Those that live in the home will stay with family while the home is repaired, Dolan said.

Dolan said a candle left burning in the master bedroom started the fire.

william.lambert@hearstmediact.com
BRIDGEPORT  Police have arrested a third teenager in string of fires around the state including the blaze that destroyed the Shakespeare Theater in Stratford.

Capt. Frank Eannotti said Tuesday the teen was charged with conspiracy to commit arson in the third degree, criminal trespass, burglary and criminal mischief.

It follows the Monday arrests of two high school students from Stratford. The youths, one 18 and the other 17, are students at Bunnell High School and were charged with setting the fire that destroyed the theater and a truck in Stratford.

The names of the youths were not immediately released because they were juveniles at the time some of the fires were set.

All three, Eannotti said, were arrested in connection with recent arson and burglary incidents within the town including the arson at Shakespeare Theater.

At least one of the cases has been transferred to Superior Court in Bridgeport, though it was unclear Monday afternoon whether the suspects will be prosecuted as adults.

Eannotti said the two juveniles arrested Monday were each charged with first-degree arson, first-degree burglary, second-degree criminal trespass, first-degree reckless endangerment, conspiracy to commit third-degree arson, third-degree burglary and third-degree criminal mischief.

Frank Riccio II, a lawyer representing one of the suspects, said: This is still an ongoing investigation, therefore my comments will remain limited. We will comment further as the court processes continue.

Ongoing investigation

In all, police sources said the two teens are believed to have set six fires, including two in West Haven, the storage trailers at Silver Sands State Park and one that heavily damaged the former Southbury Training School.

Five police agencies have been involved in the investigation, which are being coordinated by Supervisory Assistant States Attorney Howard Stein and Assistant States Attorney Alex Beck in Milford.

Both declined comment.

Police sources said the two teens confessed to setting the fires and that there may be two other students involved. They said the investigation is continuing.

Sources stressed that there is no evidence the teens set the fire that destroyed the buildings at Silver Sands - that separate fire has not been ruled arson - but sources said the teens might have taken advantage of that situation to set the trailers on fire.

Fires that police sources said are attributed to the teens:

Jan. 13: Fire that destroyed the American Shakespeare Theater in Stratford.

Jan. 15: Vacant building at the Southbury Training School damaged in fire.

Feb. 8: Vacant house on Richards Place in West Haven destroyed by fire.

Feb. 17: Former Bilco Co. in West Haven damaged by fire.

March 9: Truck set afire at Good Earth Tree Care on Longbrook Avenue in Stratford.

March 24: Fire damages construction trailers at Silver Sands State Park in Milford.

In the early morning of Jan. 13, the American Shakespeare Theater, which once showcased the work of Katharine Hepburn, John Houseman and James Earl Jones, and in its heyday was the second-most popular tourist attraction in the state, burst into flames. The fire raged on through the early morning hours as firefighters from Stratford and Milford fought to get it under control. But in the end, all that was left was a blackened frame.

The state fire marshals office later determined that the fire had been set, police said.

On March 19, an early morning fire destroyed the nearly completed bathroom and concession buildings at Silver Sands in Milford. Days later, police said an arson fire heavily damaged the construction trailers near the original fire at the park.

Police confirmed that there is no evidence the fire at the Silver Sand Park buildings was arson, but arson was the cause of the fire that damaged the construction trailers at the park.

A Department of Energy and Environmental Protection spokesman said Monday that the fire remains under investigation and no arrests have been made.

Damages

Stratford Mayor Laura Hoydick said Monday the town submitted a claim totaling roughly $1.7 million to its insurance company Friday in connection with the January blaze.

She said more details would be released Monday night at the Town Councils monthly meeting.

It saddens me that its youths, Hoydick said of the arrests. At least theres a conclusion to this. Its something that we know now instead of something that was surmised.

Christopher Pia, a member of the Town Council who represents Stratfords First District, where the theater is located, agreed.

Im happy as a town we finally have clarity on what happened that night and we can move forward now as a community, he said.

Ed Goodrich organized a vigil in the aftermath of the fire attended by hundreds of people and now serves on a task force overseeing the conversation about what will happen at the property.

He said he was glad to see the investigation conclude.

Thats a big breakthrough, he said after learning of the arrests. Im very happy that they did that and congratulations to the investigators and fire department and police that tracked that down.

Goodrich said he hopes the town will continue to look into what exactly happened.

They spent a lot of money on making that building safe and secure, he said. The next investigation is to see exactly that they spent that money on, because that didnt make the building safe or secure.

Staff writer Ethan Fry contributed to this story.
MILFORD  Three state Department of Transportation employees recently filed a lawsuit alleging that openly racist, discriminatory acts have been common at the Milford DOT garage.

The lawsuit mentions the repeated use of the n-word, a white supervisor forcing a black employee to clean his shoes and the denial of training and advancement opportunities for employees of color.

Luis Ortiz, who is Latino; Michael Leo, who is white; and Tyquan Williams, who is black, are seeking damages and attorneys fees from the DOT and two supervisors, alleging that they have caused and/or permitted a hostile work environment based upon race and ethnicity to exist for employees of the Milford Garage for at least six months.

DOT Spokesman Kevin Nursick said the department cannot comment on pending litigation.

A series of alleged racist acts are listed in the complaint for the suit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in New Haven.

Ortiz alleges that racially and ethnically derogatory statements were repeatedly made, including the use of racial slurs and an employee brandishing his phone at employees of color while loudly playing a speech arguing that minorities and illegal aliens are not normal human people and that is why we need a wall to keep them out of America; that training opportunities were denied for black and Latino employees; and discipline was meted out in a discriminatory fashion.

Ortiz also alleges that he and other minority employees have also been made to do menial and belittling tasks not required of white employees, including cleaning toilets.

Complaints to management have either gone ignored or prompted inadequate steps in response, he alleges in the lawsuit.

Most Blacks and Puerto Ricans are in fear of their jobs so that will not speak out against the racial slurs. Managers and supervisors... are around to hear these racial slurs but do not correct the situation, said attorney Josephine S. Miller on behalf of the plaintiffs in the suit.

Ortiz also alleges that another employee stole a notebook in which he was recording times and dates of discriminatory and racist conduct.

Leo alleges that he was fired from his position because he did not make a false complaint against Ortiz sought by a supervisor.

He was reportedly fired because he backed into a telephone pole and failed to report it, according to the suit, although other employees have incurred more significant infractions without losing their jobs.

Williams alleges that he was discriminated against by being required to do extra work. He also alleges that there were Caucasian only meetings in which management sought to persuade white employees to make false complaints against Ortiz.

No attorney representing the Department of Transportation or the supervisors named in the suit has entered an appearance in the case, according to federal judicial records.

Pleadings in the case are due by May 26, according to federal records.

william.lambert@hearstmediact.com
MIDDLETOWN  The figures are grim for the formerly incarcerated upon release from prison for a variety of crimes.

A 2012 Connecticut Department of Correction survey, which examined five-year reviews of recidivism, found 79 percent of convicts were re-arrested, 69 percent were convicted of a new crime, and 50 percent were returned to prison with a new sentence.

A small group of Wesleyan University students is trying to change those statistics by helping offenders acclimate themselves back into society by making sure they have the skills they need to get jobs  and set them on a path to becoming productive citizens.

We know getting a job when you get out of prison is just so hard, and its such a big roadblock. We want to try to reverse the system in a small way, said sophomore Clare Brennan, who is among about 10 students who opened a career resource center at the North End Action Team March 29.

Being in a workforce is a really key part in feeling youre a part of the community. Youre a functioning member of society, youre giving back, you have a role, and thats super important, Brennan said.

These convicts, however, may not necessarily be prepared for the difficulties and discrimination they face every day upon their release.

We hate the way people who have been incarcerated are being seen as different, and looked down upon. We want to get the same job opportunities that anyone else would have, and hopefully change the way people think about it, said Angel Martin, an upperclasswoman who helped found the Pursuing Re-Entry Employment Possibilities, or PREP, Center.

It sprang out of a group called Wesleyan Students for Ending Mass Incarceration, or SEMI, in fall 2015.

Although Connecticuts Ban the Box Law, which took effect Jan. 1, 2017, prohibits companies from asking about a prospective employees criminal background at the beginning of the process, that doesnt mean an employer wont search judicial system records or conduct Google or social media searches.

While, in theory, companies cant look into a persons possible criminal history, they may do a background search following the application process, which could turn up information that could jeopardize an individuals chances for work.

The DOC study also found that 50 percent of offenders had served at least one sentence for violating the terms of their probation, 46 percent had served time in prison for a drug charge and 19 percent had served a prior sentence for driving under the influence or alcohol or drugs.

Freshman Asiyah Herrero, who is interested in social science and public health, knows a number of people who are imprisoned, as well as others who were released.

The way we criminalize people is really inhumane. Its a lot of times based on factors that dont have a lot to do with promoting justice. Its a lot of racism, classism, other factors why people are being put in prisons, she said.

Thats where PREP comes in.

The goal, according to Herrero is making re-entry into the workforce a little bit easier. There are usually a lack of resources when people get out of prison, and starting to look for work, especially because there are a lot of jobs that do discriminate or have discriminatory ideas about people who have been in prison.

Getting employment after being released from prison is a huge barrier something contributes highly to recidivism rates, Martin said.

The students hope eventually to compile a database of employers who conduct large hiring sessions throughout the year. It can be difficult to find jobs that are hiring on occasion and are very circumstantial and instance-based, Hererro said.

It doesnt just stop at resume building and things of that nature. Were also here to help in terms of finding an actual job, and finding things they would need help with. Well be a go-to person for other problems they might have, refer them to another organization, said Alphina Kamara, a freshman who intends to pursue a degree in sociology.

PREP plans to conduct practice interviews, offering clients professional attire, as well as help writing a resume.

Martin and her cohorts linked up with the North End Action Team, which was, like countless other nonprofit organizations, getting its funding cut by the state, and had similar difficulties obtaining grants. Because of these issues, NEAT couldnt pay staff to serve as points of contact for residents seeking help or services.

SEMI members realized the best use of their volunteer time could keep the office open more hours of the day by answering phones, helping walk-ins and completing other tasks. That effort allowed NEAT to keep its doors open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays.

No one can access any resources we have or any agencies were connected to if its closed all the time, Martin said.

I dont see prisons solving anything, I see them causing a lot more harm. When people commit crimes, its important to understand why. Its about healing and community restorative work instead of locking people away, Herrero said.

PREP volunteers also intend to help people beyond a new job, and, when needed, plan to stay in contact with clients if they need long-term assistance.

The 211 Infoline provides an up-to-date statewide database of information critical to discharging offenders and their families such as housing, employment, job training and more, according to the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven.

Wesleyan recently held a clothing drive to provide outfits for job interviews. They received a good deal of donations, however, they lack business-type shoes for men and woman.

The PREP Center is open Fridays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For information or to donate items, email prep@neatmiddletown.org or call 860-346-4845. NEAT is located at 654 Main St.
Many parents encourage their children to become entrepreneurs. Mine did the opposite. But in an unlikely way, we took this journey together -- and the person who once seemed most apprehensive about my career choice would come through with the greatest support precisely when I needed it.

This conflict was baked into my upbringing. While I come from a very traditional Indian family, my father was a career diplomat, and so we moved roughly every three years, living in places like Nigeria, India, and Vietnam before settling in the U.S. for high school. Because of this, I always felt at a crossroads between my familys values and the multitude of other cultures I experienced.

Related: 8 Ways Successful People Master Resilience

I graduated college in 2000 with a degree in finance and landed an investment banking job. It was comfortable, well-paying, and intense. My parents approved. But after five or six years, I lost my passion for it. Ive always been a sucker for entrepreneurship and a believer in the American dream. I was passionate about starting my own business. My parents staunchly opposed this, though. They were focused on all the ways I could fail.

After many difficult conversations, we arrived at a stalemate. They wanted me to make a bona fide effort to get into one of the top business schools. So I applied. To their dismay, and my relief, I didnt get accepted. They reluctantly agreed to my starting a business.

Related: How To Launch a Business While Minimizing Risk

I founded my first company, Bulldog Gin, in 2007 with the goal of creating a modern premium-gin brand. Two years later, it was gaining traction in Europe during a gin boom in Spain -- but despite that, the company wasnt profitable due to heavy marketing expenditures. At one point during the global financial crisis, I was about 45 days from having to shut it all down. And thats when my mom, who is a religious woman, came walking into my office. It was a difficult time, and she knew it. She said, Im giving you this statue, which she placed on my desk. It was of Ganesha, the Hindu deity associated with removing obstacles. Always make sure its facing the door, she said.

Not long after, I raised money and kept the business going. The brand flourished, and in 2017 it was acquired by Italian branded beverage company Campari for almost $70 million. Today, Bulldog is distributed in more than 160 countries.

Related: The Beginner's Guide to Succeeding at Entrepreneurship

I have no idea if there was a correlation between the statue and my success, but I do know that someone was looking out for me -- be it my mom or some higher power. So as I build my new brand, electrolyte hydration beverage Halo Sport, I keep that statue in my office and look at it during hard times. I feel that, though no guarantor of success, my own relentlessness combined with a watchful eye makes the difference in the often-fine line between success and failure.

Related:

A Desktop Statue of a Hindu Deity Gives This Founder Daily Inspiration

7 Prolific Business Lessons Nipsey Hussle Gifted the World

How to Pursue Your Dream of a Creative Job



Copyright 2019 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
Norwalk Police Department

NORWALK  A fugitive from justice in New York is in custody after a gun scare at an East Norwalk gas station early Monday.

Police said an officer was approached by a clerk at the Mobil station at 219 East Ave. around 1 a.m.
Phoenix, AZ

Registration is now open for CUNA Credit Union Finance for Boards & Committees Workshop, October 21-22, in Phoenix. This workshop is designed for credit union board and committee members to gain a fundamental education in credit union financial concepts, terminology and functions.

This workshop is a great way to learn about credit union finance, said past attendee Shanna Wright, board chair at Palmetto Health CU. The speaker was engaging, and I feel more confident in my understanding of my organizations financials.
Former President/CEO Margurite Mary Cofell pleaded guilty to credit union fraud in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis Wednesday.

She admitted to embezzling $2.5 million from the $51 million St. Francis Campus Credit Union in Little Falls, Minn., according to court records.

From June 2006 through January 2014, when she was fired, the former CEO diverted the credit unions funds and deposited that money into her accounts, member accounts and the accounts of family members and close friends, federal prosecutors said in court documents.

Her embezzlement led to the credit unions liquidation in February 2014.
In a recent news opinion piece for Fox Business News, Alex Sanchez, president/CEO of the Florida Bankers Association, viciously attacked the credit union industry, claiming corporate welfare for credit unions must end. Its a new verse of the same song Sanchez, a longtime opponent of credit unions, has been singing for years, including in a recent Credit Union Journal article.

But I for one am tired of hearing his off-key screeches, which have no basis in fact. He continues to claim that Florida credit unions have outlived their purpose and usefulness, and that somehow the credit union tax exemption has caused the current decline of community banks. As usual, he couldnt be further from the truth.

His attacks on credit unions, which hold 8.7 percent of the market share in Florida, cant be justified if he would only look at the large national and regional banks that continue to devour community banks and make it more difficult for all community financial institutions to do business. This rabble rouser should realize there are more than 2,200 for-profit banks in the U.S. that pay no corporate income tax because they organize as tax-exempt Subchapter S banks. And lets not forget the more than $28 billion in tax breaks the banks received from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.
STORY LINK Pound Sterling Australian Dollar (GBP/AUD) Exchange Rate Rises Ahead of Further Cross-Party Talks

Pound Australian Dollar (GBP/AUD) Exchange Rate Edged up Ahead of House of Lords Vote

Australian Dollar (AUD) Falls as Aussie Job Advertisements Slide

Last Week: Risk-Sensitive Australian Dollar (AUD) Buoyed on US-China Trade Optimism

Pound Australian Dollar Outlook: GBP/AUD to Rise on Disappointing Aussie Home Loans Data?

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The Pound Sterling Australian Dollar (GBP/AUD) exchange rate edged up on Monday, and the pairing is currently trading at an inter-bank rate of AU$1.8380.With just five days before the UK is due to leave the European Union, the Labour party have said it hopes for further cross-party discussions.While communication between the Conservatives and Labour is due to continue this week, very little detail has emerged from the talks.Rebecca Long-Bailey, a member of Labours negotiating team described the mood as positive and hopeful on Sunday, and indicated that further talks were likely to take place early this week.Meanwhile on Sunday, Prime Minister Theresa May tweeted a video message outlining her reasons for negotiating with the opposition.In the laid-back message, the Prime Minister said:We absolutely must leave the European Union [] that means we need to get a deal over the line and thats why weve been looking for new ways  a new approach  to find an agreement in Parliament.People didnt vote on party lines when it came to the Brexit referendum. And I think members of the public want to see their politicians working together more often.Data released by ANZ Bank on Monday showed that Australian job advertisements fell steeply once again in March.Advertisements fell by a further -1.7% in March following a slide of -0.8 in February.The annual rate contracted by 6%, the steepest decline in over five years which likely weighed on the Australian Dollar (AUD).In the past, a fall in advertising levels usually coincided with a rise in unemployment, however Australias unemployment rate currently stands at 4.9%, the lowest level in eight years.US-China trade discussions will continue this week via video link in order for officials to resolve outstanding issues.Last week, face-to-face discussions in Washington were described as successful, with US President Trump stating that a trade deal would be announced within four weeks.This likely buoyed the Aussie at the end of last week, although it could do little at the start of this week following disappointing Australian data.However, US officials have said that there was still significant work to be done in trade talks with Beijing.Commenting on the progress made, White House Advisor, Larry Kudlow said:We are making headway in a lot of areas. That includes enforcement, that includes IP [intellectual property] theft, that includes forced technology transfers, ownership, cyberspace, commodities and all the rest of it.Those are of course in the middle of the negotiations that are ongoing but weve come further and farther than ever before.Looking ahead to tomorrow, it is likely the Australian Dollar (AUD) will continue to fall against the Pound (GBP) following the release of Februarys home loans data.If Australian home loans contracts once again in February it is likely it will dampen sentiment in the Aussie.The British Retail Consortium (BRC) will release Marchs like-for-like retail sales on Tuesday evening, which could cause Sterling to slide against AUD.If sales contract for the second consecutive month, it could cause the Pound Australian Dollar (GBP/AUD) exchange rate to fall.

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TAGS: Pound Australian Dollar Forecasts
STORY LINK GBP to JPY Exchange Rate Unappealing as Brexit Jitters Cause Safe Haven Demand

GBP Exchange Rates Limp as Investors Await Major Week for Brexit

JPY Exchange Rates Benefit from Safe Haven Demand and Weakness in Rivals

GBP/JPY Exchange Rate Forecast: Brexit Takes Focus in Quiet Week for Data

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Numerous factors, such as brief soft Brexit hopes, a stronger US Dollar (USD) and some underwhelming Japanese data, made it easier for the British Pound to Japanese Yen (GBP/JPY) exchange rate to advance last week. This week so far though, safe haven demand has kept pressure on the pair despite continued weakness in Japanese data.Last weeks Japanese Yen weakness meant that GBP/JPY was able to close the week over a Yen higher, as the pair advanced from 144.59 to 145.66 throughout the week. In the middle of the week though, soft Brexit hopes briefly led to a surge in Pound demand and the pair touched on a weekly high of 147.06.Amid a lack of certainty over how Brexit will unfold this week though, GBP/JPY is currently struggling to gain much ground and continues to trend just below this weeks opening levels, near the level of 145.42.Against other major currencies, the Pound saw slightly more resilient movement on hopes that Brexit will become softer or that the process will be delayed. GBP/JPY gains are being limited by Japanese Yen resilience.Uncertainties over how the Brexit process will unfold this week have been driving Pound movement recently. With the UK still set to formally leave the EU this Friday  the 12th of April  fears of a possible no-deal Brexit have returned.For much of last week, investors became a little more hopeful that a softer Brexit could be possible, as UK Prime Minister Theresa May began cross-party talks with opposition Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn.If the two leaders are able to reach any compromise on Brexit, analysts predict it could lead to a softer outcome for the process. A soft Brexit would be more Pound positive.Pound investors had also been hopeful that the EU would offer Britain a longer Brexit extension, which analysts believe could also help make the Brexit process softer.However, the Pound weakened towards the end of the week as there is still no resolution over Brexit or another delay, despite the formal Brexit date being under a week away.The Pounds strength remained limited when markets opened this week, as Brexit uncertainties dominated the outlook.This prevented the Pound from sustaining any gains versus the safe haven Japanese Yen this morning.The Japanese Yen was relatively unappealing last week, and ended up falling versus the Pound despite the Brexit uncertainties weighing on Sterling towards the end of the week.This was because while the Japanese Yen is a safe haven currency that benefits from times of market uncertainty, its rival the US Dollar (USD) saw a surge in demand and this kept pressure on Yen movement.On top of this, Japanese Yen movement was further weighed throughout the past week by some underwhelming Japanese data.Japanese manufacturing index data fell short of expectations and Nikkeis manufacturing PMI contracted as expected. Japanese household spending was also much lower than expected.However, these factors lightened slightly on Monday morning. Safe haven demand amid Brexit uncertainties and some strong US data at the end of last week helped the Japanese Yen to firm slightly.This was despite this mornings Japanese consumer confidence figures falling short of analyst expectations.Both the Brexit-correlated Pound and the risk-correlated Japanese Yen are likely to be influenced by this weeks major Brexit developments.The current Brexit date is mere days away, meaning investors are highly anticipating some kind of major news on a delay to Brexit, or a way for the Brexit process to pass into UK law.Unless there are any surprising Brexit developments over the next couple of days, investors are currently looking ahead towards Wednesdays session  which could be the most influential of the week.Wednesdays Asian session will see the publication of this weeks most notable Japanese data, including Japanese machinery orders, PPI, and a speech from Bank of Japan (BoJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda.The EU will also hold a summit on Wednesday, which analysts perceive as being one of the best chances for the UK to secure a delay to the Brexit process.If the UK and EU cannot come to an agreement on delaying Brexit, the Pound would plummet and investors would rush to buy safe haven currencies amid market chaos.However, the Pound to Japanese Yen exchange rate would climb instead if Japanese data disappoints and there are any relieving or optimistic Brexit developments.

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The EUs Copyright Directive Risks Creating Two Internets

The European Parliaments approval of the Copyright Directive is the end of the internet as we know it. This new regulation creates substantial new controls on what we can share online which threaten freedom of expression, undermine creativity, and cement the dominance of technology giants.

The Copyright Directive will create two internets. The first, a heavily censored version for European users, including filters to prevent you from uploading content. The second, a free internet where creativity is encouraged, for everyone else. By Matthew Lesh

The directive represents everything thats wrong with the EUs policymaking process. It was written at a substantial distance from Europeans, heavily influenced by lobbyists and national compromises. There is a serious lack of accountability.

The opposition to the directive was substantial, but it didnt seem to matter. Over 200 intellectual property academics have warned that the directive serves narrow sectional interests. Even substantial parts of the European music industry have raised concerns about the scheme. The Change.org petition opposing the directive has reached over 5.1 million signatories, the most in the websites history.

Recently, while some Brits were marching to stay in the EU, thousands of Europeans took to the street in Save the Internet marches.

There are two particularly concerning sections of the law.

Article 11 prevents news aggregators, such as search engines and social media companies, from linking and providing snippets of news articles without paying a link tax.

This is clearly absurd. There is no reason why websites should have to pay for what is, in fact, doing news organisations a favour by linking people to their content. It is the responsibility of news organisations to monetise their content through advertisements or paywalls, not attempt to siphon revenues from more successful technology companies.

In practice, this will concentrate power in the hands of large news sites, who are most likely to reach deals to licence the right to link to each other and other sites. A German study found almost two-thirds of revenue will go to a single publisher, and just 1 per cent to smaller publishers. Its therefore no surprise that the multinational publishing industry lobbyists pushed the directive.

The internet was supposed to democratise access to information. This article will decrease access to online news. It will be much simpler for most websites to block links than go through the effort and expense of reaching licence deals. In 2014, Google shut down Google News in Spain to avoid legal liability in response to a similar domestic law. It was not worth operating a free service that brings in little revenue at the cost of paying for links.

Article 13 makes platforms (like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and web forums) proactively liable for breaking copyright. It reverses the onus, assuming user-generated content breaks copyright unless proven otherwise. This undermines the essential internet principle that platforms should not be legally responsible for the content produced by their users.

Platforms are like libraries. When a book breaks copyright or is defamatory it is removed. But you do not sue a library for what authors write, you go straight to the source. While they must remove content on request if it breaks the law, internet platforms should not be liable for everything people say.

Copyright is often unclear and contested. Because they will be legally liable, Facebook, YouTube and other platforms will need to use automated systems to prevent users posting swaths of content from images, videos, and music through to humorous GIFs and memes. In practice, this means new, complex upload filters.

This is a serious threat to freedom of expression and online creativity, which often involves mixing together various creative sources. Itll also often result in false positives and, to avoid paying fines, substantial limiting of content where copyright is uncertain.

CapX: Image: Nick Youngson

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This WWII vet wants to find, thank the girls who gave him a gift

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Dear Editor:

When Donald Trump says he wants to relax sanctions on North Korea because he likes Chairman Kim Jong Un, all I can say is, OH MY GOD!

It is really sad that all you have to do is give Trump a parade and compliment his hair and you are in.

I would like to recommend a good doctor for spine replacement for the GOP.

Nancy Guski

Red Hook, N.Y.
The love of my life is a woman of preternatural patience. She's never once lost her temper with our children. And, despite the much greater cause given, nor has she ever lost it with me.

But there is one habit of mine which causes her more exasperation than any other: that of leaving the loo seat in a state which  how can I put this delicately?  she finds repulsive.

I know: there is no excuse, none whatsover, no matter how great the hurry. But at least she knows the culprit and can deliver him a satisfying rebuke.

In ever more public places, the old system of male and female loos is being replaced by a single unisex facility. Often they are designated not as 'unisex' but as 'gender neutral'

So imagine her disgust and frustration last week, when, on a visit to the Design Museum in London, she found the available cubicle in the unisex loo to have all the familiar signs of poor male hygiene practice and with the rank stench that goes with it.

It's bad enough for her to clean up after me when at home. How much worse to have to do it after any number of unknown men, before she is able to use the facility provided by one of London's supposedly most civilised institutions.

I would not be bothering readers with this were it not for the fact that my wife's experience is that of millions of British women. In ever more public places, the old system of male and female loos is being replaced by a single unisex facility.

Often they are designated not as 'unisex' but as 'gender neutral'.

Hostility

This reveals the reason for the change. It is designed to provide a remedy for transgender males and females, who had faced hostility and abuse when they entered the loos designated for the gender with which they identify.

Thus, in the spirit of inclusivity, the old segregation is being broken down, replaced with a mono-loo where none can be excluded.

But in avoiding unpleasantness or distress for a small group (the less than 1 per cent of the population defined as transgender), a much larger number of people  women as a whole, so 52 per cent of the population  are being discomfited, or even made to feel threatened.

That feeling of threat is not delusional. Six months ago, a Freedom of Information request uncovered the fact that the great majority of sexual assaults at public swimming pools are taking place in unisex changing rooms.

In 2017-2018, of the 134 such complaints, 120 of the incidents took place in gender-neutral changing rooms and just 14 took place in single-sex changing areas.

Less than half of such facilities are unisex. But the proportion is rising rapidly, since doing away with separate male and female changing rooms and loos is seen both as a way to meet the demands of transgender advocates and  joy for the finance departments  cheaper.

The Labour MP Caroline Flint has taken a stand on this issue, intervening in a parliamentary debate on 'transgender equality' to declare: 'A woman friend reported leaving the cubicle of a gender neutral pub toilet to be confronted by five drunk men, one of whom urinated in a sink while she was washing her hands. The chances of that happening in a women's toilet would be minimal.'

Well, one hopes so.

MP Maria Miller, left, says aeroplane toilets have been unisex for years without a problem but Labour politician Caroline Flint, right, said a female friend was confronted by five drunken men in a gender neutral toilet and warned it would not happen in a woman-only toilet

The Conservative MP Maria Miller, who chairs the Commons Women and Equalities Select Committee (and who has devoted herself to the cause of trans-gender rights), responded that loos in aeroplanes had been unisex for as long as anyone can recall, and no one makes a fuss about it.

She is right, but misses the point that if men behaved like that in an aeroplane lavatory, they would be immediately identified (and have no means of escape). Many of the academic advocates of singlesex public loos insist that the old distinction between male and female public facilities originated in the Victorian era, based on a 'discriminatory' agenda and 'outdated morality'.

Less ideologically motivated scholars have countered that the division of male and female loos not only long preceded the sexually prim Victorians: it was always designed to protect women (and girls) from male harassment.

While it is right to show sensitivity to the concerns and anxieties of transgender people, there are other minorities for whom the imposition of single-sex loos is a particular horror. Orthodox Jewish women (and, indeed, many Muslims and Hindus) cannot countenance the notion that they share such facilities with men, especially during menstruation.

I accept that public policy cannot encompass all the rules of every minority faith. But this demonstrates how meeting the needs of one minority can cause particular difficulties for others.

Horror

What is the solution to this very modern problem? The answer is not to reduce the number of options down to one, which is no option at all. Instead, we should retain the existing male and female loos, while adding a unisex facility.

All would be welcome in the third one, which would be as non-discriminatory as anyone could wish for. It would not be specifically for transgender people, and in that sense would be as 'inclusive' as the solitary unisex loo now being imposed on all of us.

It is, when you think about it, extraordinary that this change has been happening without any mass consultation of the population as a whole.

We were consulted in a referendum on whether the UK should remain a member of the European Union. That was reasonable, given the strength of feelings about the matter and its importance.

But I suspect that for the typical Briton  or at least the typical British woman  these issues of public safety and personal hygiene weigh much more heavily in their daily lives. It really does matter, viscerally.

In short, the nation's women  and not just my wife  are mightily p**d off.

GLOATING HAMMOND TWISTS THE KNIFE OVER EUROPE

If you can hear laughter in the dark, it is coming from the vampiric form of Philip Hammond.

The Chancellor seems the only senior Tory MP who does not have the slightest desire to take part in the forthcoming race for the leadership of the party: yet he is already emerging as the victor in the great battle over Brexit.

It now appears that the only way Mrs May can get her Withdrawal Agreement past Parliament is to accept Labours demand for a commitment to remain in a customs union.

But this only became Labour policy at the beginning of last year. It had always been Hammonds idea.

Philip Hammond is emerging as the victor in the great Brexit battle. Theresa May is being forced to erase her sticking point over a customs union, and when Hammond declared over the weekend that there are no red lines, he was gloating

He has, at all times, been the agent of the multinational businesses who regard British attachment to the customs union as key to the efficiency of cross-border trade between their various subsidiaries. If the UK remained in a customs union while not being an EU member, then it would be subject to it, but with no vote.

But why should that matter to the multinationals? Theyre not remotely concerned about British sovereignty, and anyway feel that they can continue to lobby in Brussels.

It was some time ago that Hammond seemed to have lost the battle he had waged in Cabinet on their behalf. In August 2017, he was forced to accept the UK would leave the customs union. Dr Liam Fox, the Brexiteer International Trade Secretary  whose job would be meaningless in a customs union  had won the battle for Mrs Mays ear.

Now the PM is being forced to erase her previous sticking point. Hammond twisted the knife over the weekend, declaring there are no red lines. He was gloating.
1 The Spice Girls are re-forming for a series of stadium concerts later this year. To publicise this reunion, they have gained worldwide publicity by revealing through a series of leaked videos that they have not got any better.

2 The Spice Girls were brought together in 1994 after a management team held auditions for an all-female pop act to rival Take That and East 17.

Four hundred young women applied, of whom only five were eventually chosen. However, many of the unsuccessful applicants that day went on to enjoy considerable success in other fields.

The Spice Girls in their 1990s heyday. They are reforming for a series of concerts later this year, and Mel B has thrilled gossips by claiming she had an affair with Geri Horner - nee Halliwell - at the height of the band's fame

Mary Beard became Professor of Classics at Cambridge Univerisity and a popular TV historian, Carole Middleton masterminded Party Pieces, a successful events company, and Theresa May became a Tory MP and rose to become Prime Minister in 2016. But some instincts never die: Mrs May was heard humming Viva Forever as she emerged from her first round of Brexit talks with the Leader of the Opposition last week.

3 Originally, there were plans to have six Spice Girls, but the eldest, Old Spice, was dropped from the group after complaints from their choreographer that her Zimmer frame was slowing down the dance routines. Old Spice then embarked on a lucrative second career heading up the marketing campaign for a well-known brand of aftershave.

4 Over the years, there has been considerable speculation about the meaning of the lyrics of the bands breakthrough hit Wannabe. For almost a quarter of a century, musicologists and historians have debated the exact meaning of the zig-a-zig ah that the girls really, really want.

Some have argued it is some sort of sexual euphemism, others that it is Zulu vernacular for lots of money. But at last a definitive answer has emerged. Professor Stephanie Bookish, of the University of Yoxford, revealed to an International Spice Girls Conference in Toronto last week that Zigazig Ah is, in fact, an expensive make of Tuscan stone used for upmarket patios.

At that stage of their careers, the girls all yearned for costly patios for entertaining their new showbiz friends. And the exotic lines and marble-effect finish of the Zigazig Ah (available from Harrods) was uppermost in their minds.

5 Their resonant Girl Power slogan has ensured that the Spice Girls have long been regarded as our foremost feminist icons. The way they sang and danced in skimpy tops and hot pants sent a powerful message to young girls that baring as much flesh as possible was the road to a future independent of men, argues Sue Person, feminist studies lecturer at the LSE.

6 The Spice Girls were all influenced by top American soprano Florence Foster Jenkins. We owe everything to Florence, says Geri Horner. Before we studied her, our voices were thin, reedy and hopelessly out-of-tune. But Florence taught us to mime.

Mel B has sensationally claimed she had an affair with bandmate Geri Horner during the 1990s but reports suggest the revelation has not gone down well with her fellow Spice Girl, leading to potential ill feeling backstage at their upcoming shows

7 Soon afterethey started, the Spice Girls adopted the names Sporty, Ginger, Posh, Baby and Scary. In time, they abandoned them for their real names  Mel C, Geri, Victoria, Emma and Mel B. But their Official Fan Club has recently issued them with new nicknames in line with their current personalities. These are: Dully, Pushy, Pricey, Bland and Dodgy.

8 All the Spice Girls nine number one hits, including Wannabe (released in Australia as Walla B), were composed by the computer programme DirgeTune. It was a fairly simple piece of programming, explains computer guru Mervyn Dong. We just typed in da-di-da-di-da plus a 4/4 beat and out came the songs.

9 The Spice Girls are all accomplished dancers. The most highly qualified is Geri, who took third prize in the tiny tots Latin/American dance contest at her nursery school. Sadly, she was later disqualified. It was not on the grounds of ability  only age, she explained. It was so unfair. They announced out of nowhere that 23 was way too old for that category.

10 At the height of their success, the Spice Girls were feted by some of the most famous and powerful people in the world.

Vanessa Redgrave appeared as the older Geri Horner in the film of her life, Prince Philip duetted with her at the Royal Variety Performance and, on her official visit to South Africa, Nelson Mandela did a bit of light vacuuming for her.

The rest is history, or would be, if it were.
A student has launched an online photo series highlighting the achievements of Pakistani men studying at Cambridge University, following his frustration at the way his community is often portrayed.

Hassan Raja, 19, a history student at Fitzwilliam College, photographed students standing among the famous arches of Cambridge, in an inspiring piece that he hopes will encourage school pupils from ethnic minorities to apply for elite institutions.

'I found it worrying that the only time I'd see Pakistani men in the news would be when the subject of reporting was criminal activity,' he told Femail.

Hassan Raja, 19, a first-year student of History at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge dreams of becoming an international photojournalist. He has launched an online photo series highlighting the achievements on Pakistani men studying at Cambridge University, following his frustration by the way his community is often portrayed

'I feel this creates an inherently negative, one-dimensional profile of Pakistani men which is extremely harmful and something I aimed to change with the creation of this project'.

Hassan, an aspiring photo-journalist, pictured a medic, an engineering student, and man on course to be a diplomat among the group of Cambridge students, all of whom had Pakistani roots.

The photos, taken in front of Cambridge's iconic buildings, show portraits of the young men, with captions explaining what they're studying and their aspirations.

'It's about creating a fuller picture of our community, one in which our many contributions to society are recognised and where we're seen as more than just criminals' Hassan continued.

One of the men profiled by Hassan is Omar Kidwai, a Natural Sciences student at Christs College. A maths whizz, Omar represented Pakistan at the International Mathematical Olympiad last year, he aims to go into politics to solve problems facing Pakistan

Another portrait taken by Hassan was of Sulaiman Iqbal. He studies History at Jesus College, Cambridge. On top of his studies he works as the Events Officer in the Cambridge University Islamic Society and as Undergraduate Rep for the Cambridge School of Humanities & Social Sciences. He dreams of pursuing a career in law and politics to lead to greater world peace.

Hassan, who was born and raised in east London to Pakistani parents, said that he want to use the 'use the medium of photography to tell stories from marginalised communities' and 'empower the voices of those suffering from oppression.'

'It seems to me that whenever the term "Pakistani man" appears in a headline, you can guarantee that it will be followed by a mugshot and an article about criminal activity.

'As a Pakistani man myself, I take issue with this wholly negative reporting as this narrow portrayal fails to recognise the contributions made by the Pakistani community to our society.

Ibrahim Mohamed, who is is in his final year at Wolfson College, Cambridge, studying for a degree in Psychological and Behavioural Science, was also profiled in the series. On top of his gruelling study schedule, Ibrahim has built up a career in social media under the moniker 'IbzMo'. The very hard-working student has more than 8.5 million views on his YouTube channel. He hopes to become a commercial lawyer, and is currently in the process of building a school in his mother's village in Pakistan.

Another Pakistani man featured in the series is Zaki Arshad, a third-year Medicine student at Downing College. He hopes to become a surgeon and build a hospital in Pakistan.

'So I decided to do something about it, to take back control of the narrative surrounding which people get to be the face of my community.

Setting his ambitions high, Hassan's aim is to redefine what it meant to be a Pakistani man.

'We're talented academics, we're capable of obtaining places at the world's oldest and most prestigious institutions, and we have big dreams of leaving the world a better place than how we found it' he said.

Fahd Omar is in his second year studying Economics at St Johns College. He is also the treasurer of the Cambridge University Pakistan Society. He hopes to go into consulting to build up skills to give back in Pakistan and to his family in the UK.

Abdullah Shakeel, a Medicine student in his first yea at Corpus Christi College, was also profiled in the piece. He hopes to improve access to maternal healthcare in rural Pakistan by setting up a charity after graduating.

He added he wants to 'empower Pakistani voices' by telling stories from his community.

'I feel as though pieces of this nature that strongly depict the presence of ethnic minorities at elite institutions can be powerful tools for access as, especially in my own experience' he continued.

'One of the biggest barriers to applying to Oxbridge was the fear of feeling alienated and not finding like-minded people, the idea that Oxbridge simply wasn't a place for me.

The President of Cambridge's Pakistani Society, Hasaan Agha, was also photographed for the piece. Hassan studies Economics at Clare College and hopes to go into trading to fulfil his ambitions of promoting efficient development in Pakistan when he graduates.

'By photographing young Pakistani men against the backdrop of the Cambridge colleges in which they reside, all of which have deep connotations of elitism, I hope to normalise the idea that we are capable of obtaining places at these institutions.

'Coming from a working class background, the idea of applying to the oldest and most prestigious colleges can be extremely intimidating, with their historical architecture and grand chapels seeming to exacerbate the perceived sense of elitism '

Hassan was keen to show a selection of students from different backgrounds to show that Pakistani men aren't limited to just the sciences or arts, and spoke to men studying economics, history, veterinary medicine and law while creating the profiles.

First year Nasar Siddiqui also spoke to Hassan for the piece. He is in his first year studying for a degree in Veterinary Medicine at Girton College. He hopes to eventually open a clinic for mistreated animals in Pakistan.

Aspiring philanthropist Abu-Bakr Samad is in his first-year studying Law at Queens College. He hopes to go into law and then the diplomatic service when he graduates.

Most of the students pictured are British-born, which, Hassan explains, wasn't a conscious choice, but more to-do with who was available.

The history student added that campaigns of a similar nature encouraged him to apply to Cambridge while he was at school.

In particular he notes the 'Black Men of Cambridge' shoot in 2017, where the University's African-Caribbean Society posted an image of 14 of only 15 black male students accepted in 2015 gathered in one of the university's iconic courtyards.

Second-year Gonville and Caius College Chemistry student Jawad Aziz was also profiled for the piece. He hopes to go into consultancy after he graduates.

The post is said to have been inspired by a similar image taken by students at Yale University in Connecticut, one of the best in the US, which went viral in April 2017.

'I was definitely inspired by previous campaigns with similar aims such as the Black Men of Cambridge shoot in 2017' Hassan said.

'I remember being in Year 12 when this came out and finding it extremely inspiring, especially since I was beginning to decide which universities I'd be applying to.

Arqum Anwar is a postgraduate student studying at Christs College. The PHD student studies DNA damage and has been selected as a 'Leader of Tomorrow' by institutes at MIT and Harvard. He aims to explore Pakistans bioeconomy when he graduates.

Hassan says he was inspired by the 'Black Men of Cambridge' shoot in 2017 (pictured) where the University's African-Caribbean Society posted an image of 14 of only 15 black male students accepted in 2015 gathered in one of the university's iconic courtyards

'The fact that it has stuck out in my mind to this day is a testament to the power of visual imagery, something I recognised and aimed to utilise with my own project.

'I feel as though our communities suffer from the same problem with regards to our portrayal in the media which is another reason why I felt compelled to produce a project of this nature for my own community.

'I was not the first student to use the visual medium of photography to highlight the presence and impact of ethnic minority students, and I hope I will not be the last.'
YouTube influencer Safiya Nygaard has sparked a Twitter frenzy by sharing a picture of her newly acquired beauty fridge, admitting that she uses the mini chiller solely for her skincare.

The social media personality, from Los Angeles, who boasts about 415,000 followers on Twitter alone, shared pictures of her latest acquisition and asked 'I just bought a skincare fridge, have I gone too far?'

For the uninitiated, a skincare fridge or beauty fridge is a mini-fridge used solely for skincare products, as fans believe colder creams can take years off your face by reducing puffiness.

While the act of popping some beauty products in the fridge is not new - ask your grandmothers - some seemed both surprised and impressed, by Nygaard's purchase.

A beauty fridge - essentially a mini chiller just for face creams and moisturisers - are the latest trend, with fans saying colder moisturisers reduce puffiness and redness

YouTube star Safia Nygaard shared this snap of her new purchase, with some of her 400,000 followers on Twitter saying they now wanted one too

Some users were late to the party and did not realise mini-fridges were used for skincare instead of snacks

'There's a skincare fridge?' asked one user.

'The limit does not exist,' joked another, with a reference to 2004 hit movie Mean Girls.

'I just put my products in the kitchen fridge in the salad drawer,' said another user.

Others chimed in that they'd been using their fridges 'for years.'

'I feel nothing but PRIDE for how extra I am,' commented one about their own mini Redbull fridge converted into a beauty fridge complete with a brush-holder.

'My grandma has legit been doing this since I've had life on Earth and the fact people are JUST discovering it makes me feel like a knowledge guru.'

This Twitter user showed off her Redbull fridge, which she converted into a fully stacked make up and skincare fridge, complete with a container for her makeup brushes

Twitter shared thoughts on beauty fridges and keeping their beauty products chilled

In more recent years, beauty brands have been marketing mini-fridges that would previously have been used for beverages and snacks as solely for skincare.

But does keeping your product chill make an actual difference in how the products work?

Much like people will appreciate a cold drink during the summer, cold skincare can feel very nice on the skin during a heatwave and can preserve products such as lipsticks from melting when temperatures rise.

Keeping them chilled has other advantages. In 2017, Dr Joshua Zeichner, the director of cosmetic and clinical research at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City told Allure that: 'refrigerating products will help extend their shelf life,' however, he said it was not always needed.

On Instagram, @Beautyfridges compiles glam shots of pretty beauty-fridges filled with different products

Worth they hype? Beauty blogger Kamuskinblog shared a picture of her beauty fridge with @beautyfridges on Instagram

He added that the cooling sensation from refrigerated products could potentially calm itches and redness: 'the cool temperature may calm over-firing nerves that lead to itch and discomfort in the skin.'

Dr Preema from the London Clinic told Virgin Media in 2018 that refrigeration best applied to products that were gel-based or to masks, as it would help with puffiness and redness.

They're no evidence that the fridge will make your products work faster or better, however.
A new all-natural eye cream is making waves across Australia for its ability to lighten dark circles and banish fine lines in just one week.

Developed by Australian brand Eco Tan, Eye Compost promises to leave the eye area 'bright and smooth' using a range of powerful ingredients including Vitamin C, Kakadu Plum and Spirulina.

Described as a 'supercharged luxe eye cream' the bright blue $49.95 formula has been a hit across the beauty community, with hundreds of women reporting noticeable results after just one use.

A new all natural eye cream is making waves across Australia for its ability to lighten dark circles and banish fine lines in just one week

Developed by Australian brand Eco Tan, Eye Compost promises to leave the eye area 'bright and smooth' using a range of powerful ingredients including Vitamin C and Kakadu Plum

'These ingredients brighten, plump and help reduce the appearance of dark circles, fine lines and wrinkles,' the product description reads.

'Kakadu Plum with Vitamin C improves skin luminosity and helps reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.

'Pure hyaluronic naturally boosts the moisture in your skin for instant visibly smoother healthier looking skin and Spirulina brightens to help reduce the appearance of dark circles.'

This woman used the product to ease her dark circles and fine lines (top) and noticed a significant difference after just one week (bottom)

It also contains Aloe Vera for calming, anti-inflammatory and soothing benefits.

The cream also comes with a jade stone for application for 'calming and soothing' effects, with jade known to also tighten and tone the complexion.

'Eye cream that actually works! I have used and tried so many products on the market, and lately been trying to go as natural with my skincare as possible and find that without real technology behind the skincare, they do nothing,' one customer wrote.

This woman saw a significant change in her dark circles and lines after three weeks of use on one of her eyes

'This little blue pot of magic did brighten my under eyes, reduced wrinkles and just make my under eye so much more moisturised! So in love,' one customer wrote

What ingredients are in Eye Compost? * Helps to reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles with bioactive Vitamin C from Kakadu Plum * Hyaluronic naturally boosts moisture for instantly plump healthier looking skin * Spirulina brightens to help reduce the appearance of dark circles * A jade stone assists to increase circulation resulting in a fuller more youthful appearance Advertisement

'This little blue pot of magic did brighten my under eyes, reduced wrinkles and just make my under eye so much more moisturised! So in love!'

Another agreed, saying it worked 'instantly'.

'It instantly de-puffed my eyes and decreased dark circles and lines. I love using the jade roller to glide over the eyes as you use the product, this has a great cooling effect. I had another product I considered a great eye cream, but this is now my holy grail,' she wrote.

Eco Tan is one of the most popular natural beauty brands in Australia and first made headlines for its tanning water.

Eco Tan is one of the most popular natural beauty brands in Australia and first made headlines for its tanning water

Eco Tan was developed after the Gold Coast-based founder, Sonya Driver, set out to make a product that allowed people to tan without exposing themselves to chemicals or harmful UV rays.

After deciding to avoid chemicals commonly used in tanning products, Ms Driver started buying samples of cacao, flower essence, chamomile and all things natural and organic and started mixing batches out of her tiny kitchen in her Currumbin house.

In 2011, Eco Tan made Australian history by becoming the first and only tanning manufacturer to be certified organic by the Organic Food Chain under the Australian government.
One of Australia's largest pharmacies is hosting a half price sale on designer haircare products, with prices starting from just $3.

Priceline, which stocks 1,900 different hair-related products, has discounted the prices of brands like John Frieda, Ogx, Marc Anthony, Hask, Toni & Guy and Herbal Essences.

The nationwide sale will begin on Tuesday April 9 and finish on Thursday April 11 or while stocks last.

Priceline, which stocks 1,900 different hair-related products, has discounted the prices of brands like John Frieda, Ogx, Marc Anthony, Hask, Toni & Guy and Herbal Essences

Shoppers can expect to see the Hask Argan Oil From Morocco Intense Deep Conditioning Hair treatment, which usually costs $4.99, for just $2.49.

John Frieda's Frizz Ease Extra Strength 6 Effects Serum, which retails for $16.99, will also be on sale for $8.49.

If you're looking for a curling cream that will keep your bouncy ringlets frizz-free than reaching for the Marc Anthony Strictly Curls, Curl Envy Perfect Curl Cream might be your best bet.

Shoppers can expect to see the Hask Argan Oil From Morocco Intense Deep Conditioning Hair treatment (left) and Marc Anthony Strictly Curls, Curl Envy Perfect Curl Cream (right)

John Frieda's Frizz Ease Extra Strength 6 Effects Serum, which retails for $16.99, will also be on sale for $8.49

The $17.99 lotion is infused with avocado, shea butter, vitamin E and pro vitamin B5 for added moisture protection.

Ogx's famed Moroccan Argan oil shampoo and conditioner, which usually costs $17.99, is now down to $8.99.

For the blondes of the group you might be more inclined to try the Tony & Guy purple shampoo, which was $15.99 and is now $7.99.

For the blondes of the group you might be more inclined to try the Tony & Guy purple shampoo, which was $15.99 and is now $7.99

Herbal Essences Bio:Renew Naked Clean White Strawberry & Sweet Mint Shampoo (left) and Ogx's famed Moroccan Argan oil shampoo and conditioner (right) are featured

Herbal Essences Bio:Renew Naked Clean White Strawberry & Sweet Mint Shampoo is even cheaper at a staggering $5.99, half the price it would be normally.

The retailer sells 657,000 hairsprays each year - that's one every 48 seconds - and this is a good opportunity for customers to stock up.

Haircare buyer at Priceline Melissa Maden predicts that even more focus on 'natural' hair products will be the focus this year.

'Priceline Pharmacy is seeing a huge rise in the 'all natural' focus from consumers and industry leaders. We expect to see a lot of new products in the next six months that are vegan, cruelty-free, paraben-free and sulfate-free,' she said.
An artist who previously said she was on the way to making $1.8million by the end of the year has revealed she made a staggering $37,000 in just half an hour.

Sophie Tea, 26, based in London and Sydney, has almost 60,000 followers on Instagram who all follow her for her colourful art works.

Although she often sells her work on Instagram, it was during a recent trip to Sydney that she decided to create a web page with all of her works listed due to the high demand for her paintings.

This is when she raked in thousands of dollars in only half an hour as her followers snapped up every single one of her paintings.

Sophie Tea , 26, from London, previously said she was on the way to making $1,800,000 by the end of the year has recently revealed she made $37,000 in just half an hour

'They all completely sold out and I'm getting email notifications every 15 seconds right now for people signing up to the waiting list to get their piece for $740,' she told FEMAIL.

'At the moment we have 780 people on the waiting list. I think this success is due to having a trusting and authentic brand and the fact that my customers are able to afford the instalments with payment plans.

'Everything I post on Instagram sells in seconds. From large originals that cost $18,000 to pieces from my abstract challenge.'

The 26-year-old explained that although she is grateful her work sold out so quickly, because she is constantly on the go she barely had time to process what this meant.

It was during a recent trip to Sydney, where her boyfriend lives, that she decided to create a web page with all of her works listed and everything sold out in hours

'They all completely sold out and I'm getting email notifications every 15 seconds right now for people signing up to the waiting list to get their piece for $740,' she told FEMAIL

At this point in her career making art affordable and accessible is her number one goal.

'I pride myself on "taking people's art virginities". I have been the first art purchase for over 2,000 customers,' she said.

'Typically an artist would sell their work through a gallery and the industry standard commission that a gallery takes is fifty per cent.

'The term "starving artist" rings true because galleries take the money from the artist.'

'Everything I post on Instagram sells in seconds. From large originals that cost $18,000 to abstract challenge pieces,' she said

At this point in her career making art affordable and accessible is her number one goal

Sophie made a conscious decision, despite being approached by galleries weekly, to be an independent artist and pass on those savings to her customers.

Although Sophie is making thousands, soon to be millions, off of her work, she doesn't take a salary as everything she earns she puts back into her business.

'My mum always says "Sophie, you've worked so hard, just give yourself a bonus" and I just can't. I feel like I'm being unfaithful to the potential of Sophie Tea Art,' she said.

'This month we are on track to do $185,000. Which I honestly can't believe I just said! Any personal spending it always geared towards my art career.'

Sophie made a conscious decision, despite being approached by galleries weekly, to be an independent artist and pass on those savings to her customers

This spending includes flights to her international art shows as well as a new outfit for every exhibition.

Sophie said her business is growing 'very fast' and that the rapid scaling has been as a result of her investing back into it.

'We have a growth trajectory that even Silicon Valley would be jealous of! We've grown 800 per cent from this time last year. But it's taken hard work,' she said.

She considers herself to be disrupting the art industry by offering payment plans on her original art completely interest free.

If a customer would like to purchase an original work they are able to spread the payments equally across 12 months and they will receive the painting straight away.

Although Sophie is making thousands, soon to be millions, off of her work, she doesn't take a salary as everything she earns she puts back into her business

'This month we are on track to do $185,000. Which I honestly can't believe I just said! Any personal spending it always geared towards my art career,' Sophie said

'I have been advised against this from so many sources because ultimately a customer could just not pay but I operate on a complete trust basis,' Sophie said.

'A client has trusted me, it's a no-brainer for me to extend that good-will and offer this deal.'

She said that doing this also encourages more people to buy her work as it makes it more affordable.

It also creates strong relationships with her customers as she said 50 per cent of people who buy an artwork through a payment plan end up purchasing something else from her six months later.

Although Sophie is currently receiving worldwide success it doesn't mean this hasn't been without struggle.

Sophie said her business is growing 'very fast' and that the rapid scaling has been as a result of her investing back into it

'For the first 18 months of my career I lived in a damp room that I couldn't stretch my arms out in, it was that small!' She said.

'I ate biscuits and shopped in the reduced section only and I would prioritise buying paint over food.

'Initially I shared a studio space and my studio sharer hated me because we were meant to split our time and I was in there 15 hours a day, seven days a week.'

Although she still works those hours she now has four studio of her 'dreams' across London and Sydney, which is where she splits her time.

'I have always reinvested every single penny back into the business. I never minded being skint, I knew it was only temporary and I've enjoyed the hard work to get to where I am today,' she said.

Although Sophie is currently receiving worldwide success it doesn't mean this hasn't been without struggle

'For the first 18 months of my career I lived in a damp room that I couldn't stretch my arms out in, it was that small!' She said

Sophie said she often has people ask her whether she can actually make a living as an artist and she is now trying to shift the mind set that if you live a creative life it means you're 'poor'.

She didn't go to a prestigious art school, nor is she affiliated with a gallery, which means she is considered to be an outcast in the art world.

But said she likes it this way as it means she has zero obligations to do anything by the book.

'I'm completely independent as I hire by own team of five and we get to dictate how we run our business and spend our money,' the 26-year-old said.

She didn't go to a prestigious art school, nor is she affiliated with a gallery, which means she is considered to be an outcast in the art world

She always takes her work with her which means she has learnt how to create pop-up studios on the go.

'Mostly I use the hotel room I'm staying in and line the entire thing in bin liners, like Dexter, and paint wherever I am in the world,' she said.

Sophie previously told FEMAIL that she originally grew a following on Instagram when a photo of her with 'glitter boobs' went viral as part of a campaign for brand The Gypsy Shrine, a global business with a string of A-list fans.

The photo was then featured on The Ellen Show, MTV and Playboy and led her to accumulate lots of followers.

As Sophie's boyfriend, a private pilot, spends most of his time overseas she often meets him in whatever city he is temporarily living in and takes her work with her

'Mostly I use the hotel room I'm staying in and line the entire thing in bin liners, like Dexter, and paint wherever I am in the world,' she said

It then took her six months to translate those followers into taking her artwork seriously and making sales.

Weeks later, when terrorists attacked the Ariana Grande concert in Sophie's hometown of Manchester, the artist was determined to raise money to support the victims. She painted a huge colourful bee canvas, and auctioned it off for $4,600.

The striking design drew the attention of Ariana's publicist, who asked if he could have the bee embroidered onto a jacket for the star's birthday, further raising Sophie's profile.

'I think my personal brand has been built around being authentic and real on social media,' she said.

'I'm very open about my turbulent journey and always share the bad bits too! I don't really have a filter on social media, my mum calls me sometimes and says stop over-sharing but it just comes very natural to me!'
Fans of BBC 2'S Race Across the World were left disgruntled last night as Tony and Elaine were crowned winners of the epic journey from Greenwich to Singapore.

Teams of two had to leave behind smartphones, internet access and credit cards and travel from London with only the cash equivalent of a one-way airfare to Singapore.

Tony and Elaine Teasdale, who are both 62-years-old and retired teachers, from North Yorkshire, arrived first in Singapore and won the race, as well as the 20,000 prize.

Fans, however, had been rooting for father-son duo Darron, 48 and Alex, 20, from Bradford, who came a close second.

Audiences had warmed to the business software specialist and his unemployed son as the show went on, and were bitterly disappointed when they failed to cross the finish line first.

'Sorry, but after that nastiness towards Darron and Alex in Thailand I'm miffed that Tony and Elaine won. At least Darron and Alex completed it without any lying and scheming,' wrote one disappointed fan.

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Tony and Elaine Teasdale, retired physical education teachers from North Yorkshire, won Race Across the World and enjoyed a glass of champagne to celebrate their win

Father-son duo Darron, 48 and Alex, 20, from Bradford, came second but won the audience over by developing their bond while on the show

Some viewers said Elaine and Tony had played tricks in order to win and did not deserve to win the race

The fact Tony and Elaine played a ruthless game did not win them a lot of sympathy, and many viewers complained they did not deserve their win.

During the series the couple had lied to and misdirected other competitors when their paths crossed, in order to advance further themselves.

'I will honestly be so distraught if Tony and Elaine win this whole race over Darron and Alex,' wrote one viewer, before the results came in.

'Damn, the only team I didn't want to win. Such greedy moaners, Alex and Darron should have won,' wrote another.

Race Across the World's viewers were really disappointed when Darron and Alex did not win the race

Teams grew more and more competitive every week, and some resorted to scheming in order to advance toward the Singapore check-point and lose the other team.

Viewers applauded the father and son duo, as they manage to complete the race without any 'nastiness.'

'Tony and Elaine may have won the race, but Darren and Alex have one the heart of many watching them embrace each other and become closer whilst making the journey,' summarised one viewer.

'Darron & Alex were the true champions. Not a nasty word or underhand manoeuvre, should be proud of them,' commented one viewer.

At the start of the competition, Darron said he hoped the adventure would help his son get out of his rut of always taking the easy option,

But as the show went on, audience noticed a change in the young man's attitude.

Viewers were really rooting for Darron and Alex to win the race and said they won 'the hearts of many'

'Darron and Alex are the real winners for me,' shared a viewer.

'Gutted Darron and Alex didn't win. They are the true winners. Watching Alex grow into a man and the father/son bond develop has been TV gold.'

The pair acknowledged how close they had become thanks to the show.

'I've learned a lot about my dad along the way,' Alex, that's the main thing

'We've bonded more than either of us really expected

'Before this journey we were estranged father and son, really,' said Darron.

'Now we're father and son, and we'll always be that, but I think now we're friends as well, he added, before him and Alex hugged it out.

'What an amazing journey it's been, what a phenomenal time we've had together,' the emotional father said.

Alex and Darron congratulated Elaine and Tony for winning the competition and said they had had an amazing journey and had come from 'estranged' father and son to 'friends'

There was no hard feelings between participants, however, as Tony, Elaine, Alex and Darron enjoyed viewing parties together as the show aired, along with fellow contestants Josh and Felix and Natalie and Shameema.

At the end of the 50 day journey from London to Singapore, 'ecstatic' Elaine and Tony shared a glass of champagne to celebrate their win as they reflected on their time of the show.

'We've beat all these youngsters, how that has happened I'm not quite sure', said Elaine.

Elaine and Tony said they were 'ecstatic' and 'elated' following their win. 'We've beat all these youngsters,' joked Elaine

The couple 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.

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.

Best friends Shameema (left) and Natalie (right), both 38, arrived in third position behind Tony and Elaine and Darron and Alex

Best-friends Shameema, from Manchester and Natalie, from London both 38, arrived in third place.

Josh and Felix, both 32 and from London, almost did not make it to the finish line, but thanks to the generosity of Shameema and Natalie, who lent them some money they completed the race.

The move pleased audience, as the two men had played a tour on the women earlier in the episode and sent them in the wrong direction.
A royal commentator has claimed that Thomas Markle will never see his grandchild, in an explosive new preview for TLC documentary Meghan and Harry: A Royal Baby Story, which discusses the impending birth of the royal baby.

Duncan Larcombe, author of Prince Harry: The Inside Story, admitted the likelihood of the Duchess of Sussex's estranged father reuniting with Meghan when she welcomes her firstborn child with Prince Harry this spring, was low.

American lighting director Thomas Markle, 73, has not spoken to Meghan, 37, since he missed her wedding after he was exposed for selling paparazzi pictures, royal biographer Duncan Larcombe admitted the likelihood of them reuniting was low.

Samantha Markle, 54, also appears in the clip, claiming her half sister Meghan has 'hurt the family'.

A royal commentator has claimed that Thomas Markle will never see his grandchild, in an explosive new preview for TLC documentary Meghan and Harry: A Royal Baby Story, which discusses the impending birth of the royal baby. Meghan is seen in London last month

Discussing the impending birth of the royal baby, Larcombe says: 'I can't think for a moment that Thomas Markle will ever be able to meet his grandson or granddaughter.'

The clip then cuts to Samantha, who snipes: 'You can't hurt people like this and then turn around and flip the script and play victim'.

Elsewhere the reported rift between the Cambridges and Sussexes is also addressed, with celebrity journalist Ashley Pearson admitting of the sisters-in-law: 'I don't think Meghan and Kate will ever be super good friends.'

Meghan's father Thomas has done a number of public interviews discussing his daughter and Prince Harry, even appearing on ITV's breakfast show, Good Morning, and speaking to Piers Morgan.

Duncan Larcombe, author of Prince Harry: The Inside Story, admitted the likelihood of the Duchess of Sussex's estranged father reuniting with Meghan when she welcomes her firstborn child with Prince Harry this spring, was low

Meghan has maintained a dignified silence amid an array of public outbursts by both Samantha and her father.

In February Thomas Markle Jr branded sister Samantha 'jealous and bitter' as he begged for the family to be reunited.

Thomas Jr, shares the same father as Meghan and Samantha Markle - who he says changed her name from Yvonne Grant - he recalled how he lived with Samantha, their father and Doria Ragland for 'three to four' years after Meghan was born.

Telling how Samantha hardly knew their half sister and didn't spend any time with her, he said: 'She was very jealous of Meghan from the very beginning and still to this very day.'

The clip then cuts to Samantha, who snipes: 'You can't hurt people like this and then turn around and flip the script and play victim'

Meghan's father Thomas has done a number of public interviews discussing his daughter and Prince Harry, even appearing on ITV's breakfast show, Good Morning, and speaking to Piers Morgan

Telling how they lost contact and became even more distant when she landed a role on Suits and became a 'Hollywood starlet', Thomas admits that the interviews which saw the family 'badmouth' her drove her further away.

Speaking about Samantha, he admitted he stopped talking to her years ago, describing her as 'negative' and 'hard to get along with', and added: 'I wouldn't believe anything that's written in there [her book on Meghan].'

Thomas even recalled how their father begged Samantha to stop talking about Meghan, adding: 'He has even said to me 'I wish Babe [Samantha's nickname] would shut her mouth already and be quiet'.'

In February a letter written by the Duchess to her estranged father shortly after her wedding was revealed for the first time.

In the anguished letter the Duchess said she was devastated by her her father's Thomas Markle's public attacks on her and she penned the anguished letter begging him to patch up their differences privately.

Meghan and Harry: A Royal Baby Story is on Tuesday, April 9, on TLC.
by Wang Zhicheng

Cities are losing residents at a time when they suffer from a large number of vacant residential units and labour shortages. Getting a residency permit (hukou) is now easier. Several cities will allow migrants to settle if they are graduates or university students. By 2020, China plans to grant new residency permits to 100 million people.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies)  Chinas National Development and Reform Commission released its 2019 urbanisation plan today. In it, the Commission calls for lifting restrictions on new domestic migrants, specifically for cities with a population under three million, whilst cities with populations between three to five million should comprehensively relax permanent residency requirements.

Until now, migrants have been used as a cheap labour force. To avoid spending money on them, city governments did not allow them to use their social services (pension, medical services, schools) by restricting access to the local residency permit (hukou), which was introduced under Mao Zedong as a means to control urbanisation.

Now however, many Chinese cities are losing people due to a low birth rate, a consequence of 30 years of one child policy.

In many cities, labour shortages hinder economic development. For this reason, migrants are now welcome. They are need to breathe new life into the construction industry and fill tens of millions of housing units built during the boom of the past few years.

Some restrictions still remain. Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, last week said that it would grant permanent residency to migrants with a college education and above.

In Shijiazhuang, the capital city of Hebei province, the authorities announced last month a zero threshold policy for domestic migrants.

Xian said that any Chinese citizen with a university degree could become a permanent resident of the city.

According to a plan published in 2016, China will grant permanent residency in cities to 100 million people by 2020.

Despite the changes, some cities remain off-limits. Beijing expelled hundreds of thousands of migrants in November 2017,
The former wife of Prince Louis of Luxembourg will no longer be known as Princess Tessy, after their divorce was finalised last week.

Tessy, 33, who wed Louis in 2006, has two children with the Prince, who is the third son of the country's reigning monarch Grand Duke Henri.

In an interview with Hello! Magazine the mother-of-two explained that she would now be known as Tessy Antony-de Nassau, which is her maiden name and the royal family's surname.

Speaking about the separation for the first time, the humanitarian said there were people who 'made sure' her title was taken away, but added that it was fine because 'a title doesn't make you who you are'.

'A woman has her own merits, and it's not who you marry or what name you carry, it is what you have achieved in your own right' she added.

Princess Tessy of Luxembourg says she will not retain her royal title after her divorce from Prince Louis was finalised last week (pictured at Cartier's 27th Racing Awards at The Dorchester, London)

The couple's fairytale marriage broke down in 2016, and they were granted a decree nisi in February last year, after a 12 years together.

They were only 20 when they wed, getting married six months after the birth of their eldest son Prince Gabriel of Nassau, now 13.

Tessy, who in 2017 was named Woman of the Decade by the Women Economic Forum for her work in women's empowerment, now lives in London with Gabriel and her youngest son Prince Noah of Nassau, 11.

The former couple were only 20 when they wed (left on their wedding day) getting married six months after the birth of their eldest son Prince Gabriel of Nassau, now 13 (right, the couple with their children Gabriel and Prince Noah in 2012 at the christening of Princess Amalia of Orange)

Prince Louis, who will now pay 8,000 a year child support, renounced his succession rights to the throne in 2006, a month after marrying Tessy - who was not born of royal blood - but to a modest family in the small town of Niederkorn.

At a hearing in December, Louis was ordered to pay just 75-a-week to each of his two sons after a judge found his family's vast wealth could not be factored into a bitter divorce battle with his ex-wife.

Louis now lives in Paris, while Tessy juggles a busy work life with raising the couple's two children across the Channel.

Tessy, who in 2017 was named Woman of the Decade by the Women Economic Forum for her work in women's empowerment, now lives in London with Gabriel and her youngest son Prince Noah of Nassau, 11 (pictured)

The philanthropist is the co-founder of social enterprise Professors Without Borders which aims to improve access to higher education across the globe.

She also works as a consultant, public speaker and is a UN Association patron.

And Tessy doesn't think losing her royal title will affect her work in activism.

She told Hello: 'It gave me a platform  people are more charmed to listen. It is nice, but having a title was never my identity. And as far as I am concerned, every woman is royal at heart  a heroine.'

Speaking of losing her royal title, Tessy said: 'A woman has her own merits and it's not who you marry or what name you carry, it is what you have achieved in your own right' (picture in 2012 with her former husband Prince Louis)

Born a commoner, Tessy joined the Luxembourg Army in 2002 at the age of 18, rising to the rank of corporal. Two years later, when she was one of a handful of female UN peacekeepers in Kosovo, she met the prince, who was visiting the army.

However his family only became aware of their love affair when Tessy became pregnant and gave birth aged 19, and unmarried, in September 2005, providing Grand Duke Henri with his first grandson, infuriating the royal family.

Aware of the constitutional crisis they had created by having a child out of wedlock, Prince Louis renounced any claim to the title of Grand Duke.

Tesy (pictured at an awards ceremony in Utah, USA) said her title 'gave me a platform  people are more charmed to listen. It is nice, but having a title was never my identity. And as far as I am concerned, every woman is royal at heart  a heroine'

The royal familys anger became apparent when the Grand Duke stripped Tessy of any claim to his title when she married Prince Louis six months after giving birth, in September 2006, in a modest country church wedding.

After they married, the couple settled in London, where they both studied at Richmond, the American International University in London  Tessy graduated in 2014 with a BA in International Relations while Louis got a degree in Art in Communications.

It was at that point that their paths diverged: while Louis struggled to find work, Tessy's career soared. After gaining a master's degree from the School of Oriental and African Studies, she joined the Mayfair security company DS-48, juggling her job with her work as a UNAIDS global advocate for young women and adolescent girls and her charity work for Professors Without Borders.

Born a commoner, Tessy (pictured outside divorce court) joined the Luxembourg Army in 2002 at the age of 18, rising to the rank of corporal. Two years later, when she was one of a handful of female UN peacekeepers in Kosovo, she met the prince, who was visiting the army.

'I think their relationship became complicated when Tessy began studying for her masters,' her friend previously told MailOnline. 'For me that is when the divergences began to show.

'She was studying full time, taking care of her kids, managing the household and going to all these family functions. It was gruelling. At times, she wanted to quit but she didn't.

'We were all really proud of her for carrying on to the end and writing her dissertation on biochemical terrorism  she has always been interested in security and she poured her heart into it.

'But Louis wasn't involved in the programme and spent the year figuring out what he wanted to do. He found it difficult to find employment, being a public figure.
A furry feline has the perfect cat-ouflage as it merges with its family's thick rug.

Laura Miller's pet cat, KC, is a very talented hider, as when she rests her head on the rug at home in Muncy, Pennsylvania, she almost disappears into the fabric.

The five-year-old loves rolling around grooming herself on the furry rug, so much so, that when her eyes turn away from the camera, it's as if she is invisible.

KC is a Selkirk Rex, a breed known for their curly hair, which resembles a teddy bear.

Laura said: 'KC looks so much like the rug, it's hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.

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KC, a five-year-old Selkirk Rex, loves her owner's flully rug. Laura Miller, from Muncy, Pennsylvania, said she can barely tell her cat and rug apart, especially when KC closes her eyes

Hide and seek champion! Laura, who rescued the feline in 2018, said she got the rug before the cat, and did not notice how similar they were, until KC lounged on rug

'The rug came first, and I didn't even realise the resemblance until I was sitting in the living room one day and she was rolling around on it.

'I couldn't believe how close a match it was.

'She does love to lie on this rug but she much prefers a lap, only on her terms in typical cat fashion of course.'

Laura rescued KC, along with two other cats, in November 2018, but she says she acts more like a dog than a cat.

Whilst KC loves to lounge on the rug, she does prefers to sit on someone's lap, and is more like a dog in man of her mannerisms, such as begging for treats

She said: 'She begs at the table and can be found taking any opportunities available to eat off our plates.

'KC will wait at your feet until we get up to get a drink and jump up and grab your food.

'She's not extremely fond of being picked up and will let you know but loves attention.'

KC is definitely smart enough to use its camouflage skills to get what it wants, and new research shows it might also be able to tell its name apart from other words.

Researchers in Japan discovered that pet cats are able to tell their names apart from other words.

Experts found that commonly spoken words will catch a cat's attention, but this fades the more you speak to them.

Almost invisible! Laura said KC, pictured on her owner's rug, behaves like a dog, will beg for food and will eat off people's plates when given the chance

However, their interest perks up again when hearing their name spoken after a string of words.

Evolutionary psychologist Atsuko Saito of Japan's Sophia University and colleagues from the University of Tokyo and the RIKEN Center for Brain Science in Hirowara are behind the study.

Researchers tested the reactions of 78 domestic cats who either lived in ordinary households or a 'cat cafe', establishments where visitors pay to spend time with our feline friends.

Each cat was played recordings of either one of the scientists or the cats' owner saying four different common nouns, followed by either the name or that of one of the other cats they live with.

Experts looked for evidence of the kitties reacting to each word - such as movements or the cats vocalising back.

More than half of the cats responded to human speech by moving their ears and heads.

Fewer than a tenth reacted by either making sounds, swishing their tails, or moving their paws.

'Many cat owners know that cats understand their own names. So, there is no big surprise in the results,' Dr Saito told MailOnline.

Maddie, a nine-month-old pockapoo poses on her family's rug. Maddie won the nationwide Sofa Carpet Specialist (SCS) competition with her amazing camouflage abilities

However, Dr Saito explains, there was previously no scientific evidence recorded to actually verify that cats have this capacity.

'Also, people who have no experience of keeping cats do not know about cats' high cognitive ability,' she adds.

KC could give Maddie, a nine-month-old cockapoo who won a pet 'camouflage competition,' a run for her money.

Back in February in the UK, pet owners from across the country took part in a photo competition to find out whose pet was the best at camouflage, sending in pictures of their cats and dogs blending in with rugs, cushions and even piano seats.

The light-hearted contest was overseen by Sofa Carpet Specialist (SCS) and took place between December 2018 and February 2019 with only 10 making it into the shortlist.

Adorable and fluffy Maddie, from Nottingham who won a stay at a pet-friendly hotel with her owners.

Maddie's owner Emma said: 'Maddie is a playful dog who loves nothing more than playing in the ball pit and running around with her pals - oh and blending in with our living room rug! Shes very clever, although she often forgets her own name when theres fun to be had!'
A grandmother who gave birth to her own grandchild  because her daughter was born without a womb has said that she would do it again.

Emma Miles, 55, from Wales, appeared on Monday's This Morning with daughter Tracey Smith, 31, and the baby that she gave birth to - Evie Sian Emma Smith on January 16th this year.

Daughter Tracey feared she would never have a child of her own after being diagnosed with Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser Syndrome (MRKH).

But her mother stepped in, and despite being 53 at the time of the pregnancy, she agreed to be a surrogate for her daughter and gave birth to a healthy girl - Evie via C-section - who weighed 7lbs 7oz.

On the show host Ruth Langsford asked Emma: Question is - would you do it again? Emma replied instantly with: Yes, I would.'

Twitter fans of This Morning loved their story, with many saying how sweet it was of her mother.

A grandmother (left) who gave birth to her own grandchild (right)  because her daughter (right top) was born without a womb has said that she would do it again

Twitter fans of This Morning loved their story, with many saying how much of a sweet story it was

Talking on the show this morning Emma, the grandmother, said about Evie: 'I dont see myself as her mother, I see her as my granddaughter.'

Tracey also revealed at 16 that she couldnt have children: 'I had to see a lot of doctors and after a laparoscopy they told me I'd been born without a womb.'

Her now husband Adam and her started to look into surrogacy a few years ago: 'I thought it was never going to happen and my husband suggested looking into surrogacy, but it costs thousands.

'When we had a consultation, they suggested using a family member  so I asked mum,' Tracy admitted.

Daughter Tracey (pictured with daughter) feared she would never have a child of her own after being diagnosed with Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser Syndrome (MRKH)

Talking on the show this morning Emma (left) the grandmother said that she doesn't see herself a mother to Evie

'You'd anything for your child,' Tracey's Mum Emma said.

Because Tracey's ovaries still worked normally, she used IVF with her husband, Adam, 40, to create an embryo which was then implanted into her mother.

Even though Emma had already been through the menopause, she was able to be a surrogate because the baby was created from her daughter's eggs. Her womb was healthy enough to carry a child, though she needed to shed six stone (38kg) to reach a healthy weight and needed hormones to ensure the pregnancy took.

Older mothers, those over 35, face a higher risk of miscarriage and pre-eclampsia - a complication that can prove deadly to both woman and baby. But desperate to help her daughter, Mrs Miles decided to go ahead with surrogacy anyway.

Daughter Evie is now 12 weeks old - she was born in her Grandmothers womb via IVF

Emma Miles, 55, (right) was a surrogate for her own daughter, Tracey, and her husband, Adam, because Tracey had been born without a womb so couldn't have children naturally herself

Evie Smith was born by c-section on January 16th this year, weighing 7lbs 7oz  her parents Mr and Mrs Smith must now formally adopt her because parental rights automatically go to the surrogate and her partner  Mrs Smith's parents

Fans of This Morning loved their heartwarming story, with one saying: 'What an absolutely beautiful thing this lady has done for her daughter!'

While others loved the story: 'What an amazing story,' while another said: 'What a lovely mother.'

Grandmother Emma revealed that she had some morning sickness early on in the pregnancy but apart from that the pregnancy was 'plain sailing'.

They both described the moment that little Evie was born as: 'Scary, happy and every emotion you can think of.'

And although Grandmother Emma said she would be a surrogacy again for her daughter Tracey said: 'I would never ask her again.'

Mrs Smith said: 'Every moment of heartache was so worth it just to have our little bundle in our arms. I am so grateful to mum for her amazing gift to us'

WHAT ARE THE HEALTH RISKS OF A LATE PREGNANCY? Increased risk of complications for both mother and infant during pregnancy and delivery (although the actual size of the risk may be small).

Greater risk of general maternal health problems, such as high blood pressure, which can contribute to complications.

Higher risk of miscarriage in women above the age of 35.

Higher risk of having twins or triplets, which is itself associated with higher risk of complications.

Increased chance of having a baby with a congenital abnormality, such as Downs syndrome.

Increased risk of pre-eclampsia.

Increased risk of complications during delivery, such as prolonged labour, need for assisted delivery or Caesarean section, or stillbirth. Source: NHS Advertisement

Emma said earlier this year: 'To find out that Tracey couldn't have children was gutting to me.

'She rarely felt able to open up but when I had the chance just after her diagnosis I remember sitting on her bed and saying: "I'm here if you need me."

'Despite my age I wasn't worried about giving birth at all. All of my focus has been about doing this special thing for my daughter.

'I don't feel anymore attachment to Evie than any other proud grandmother. Tracey is my baby and I did it all for her to be a mother.

'Now I'm glad to be back to work and getting back to normal. But I have offered to do it all again if they ever want a little brother or sister for Evie.'

Mr and Mrs Smith got married in February, two weeks after Evie was born. And this year Mrs Smith will celebrate her first Mother's Day while thanking her own mother for her 'amazing gift'.

She said: 'Every moment of heartache was so worth it just to have our little bundle in our arms. I am so grateful to mum for her amazing gift to us.'

Tracey found out she didn't have a womb when she still hadn't started her period by the age of 15.Scans showed she had been born without a womb but she did have working ovaries and fallopian tubes.

At 16, Mrs Smith was diagnosed with MRKH  a condition which causes the vagina and uterus to be underdeveloped or absent, although external genitalia are normal.

The deformity affects around one in 5,000 women and is incurable. Doctors told a devastated Mrs Smith that she would never carry her own child.

At the time her mother, Emma, said she would do anything she could to help.But it was almost 15 years later when Tracey and her husband were considering fertility treatment and took her Mother up on the offer.

Tracey said: 'When I was diagnosed it tipped my world upside down. I was heartbroken at the idea that I wouldn't carry my own child.

'I'd always known that I wanted to be a mum, even at 15.'

Tracey and Adam, pictured on their wedding day in February, two weeks after Evie was born, conceived their daughter using IVF and had the embryo implanted into Mrs Smith's mother

Mrs Miles even lost six stone and took hormonal medication so she could be as healthy as possible for the pregnancy

Mrs Smith, pictured with her husband Adam, 40, found out she couldn't have children of her own naturally when she was a teenager, because she had been born without a womb. However, she still has functioning ovaries

Mrs Miles, who had always intended to be her daughter's surrogate if she wanted her to, said: 'To find out that Tracey couldn't have children was gutting to me... Despite my age I wasn't worried about giving birth at all. All of my focus has been about doing this special thing for my daughter'

Mr Smith (with his mother-in-law, who was eight months pregnant in this picture) and his wife considered using a surrogate through an agency but were concerned about UK laws which mean the surrogate and her husband automatically become the legal parents of the baby

How does surrogacy work and what are the laws in the UK? Surrogacy is when a woman carries a baby for a couple who are unable to conceive or carry a child themselves. Such couples may include those who have suffered recurrent miscarriages, repeated IVF failures, premature menopause or a hysterectomy. The risks of being a surrogate mother are the same as for every pregnancy, and include nausea, heart burn and back ache. In extreme cases, surrogates can suffer high blood pressure or gestational diabetes. Straight surrogacy This involves using the surrogate's egg and the intended father's sperm. It is the least expensive and simplest form of the procedure. Host surrogacy Host surrogacy requires IVF with either the intended mother's eggs or donor eggs rather than those of the surrogate. In this case, the surrogate is genetically unrelated to the baby. Donor eggs can be from friends or relatives, or anonymously donated. What are the laws? Surrogacy is legal in the UK, however, it cannot be advertised. No third parties are allowed to be involved and surrogates can only receive payments to cover expenses incurred as a result of being pregnant. In the US, surrogacy costs around $100,000 (75,879), with laws varying between states. Source: Surrogacy UK Advertisement

'Straight after my diagnosis mum made an offer to do what she could to help. I knew that she meant one day she'd carry my child for me.

'Over the years she mentioned it in passing but we never really made a firm plan.

'It was only after I met Adam and we got engaged in 2016 that he broached the subject of children.'

The couple considered using a surrogacy agency but were apprehensive because of the UK's 'outdated' laws.

'The law in this country gives the surrogate  and her husband if she has one  all parental rights from birth and that felt like a huge risk,' Mrs Smith said.

Instead, she turned to her mother and asked if she had been serious when she offered to help all those years ago.

She said: 'I remembered mum's promise to me.

'So the next time we met up I asked her if she'd been serious about carrying our baby.

'I was delighted when she replied: "Of course I was". She had just been waiting for me to ask.'

Mrs Smith's father, Robert Miles, 61, offered his support, too, and made sure it was put in writing through a solicitor that they would happily give parental rights to Mr and Mrs Smith once the baby was born.

Then his wife lost six stone and took hormone tablets to prepare her body for the pregnancy.

The IVF process involved taking an egg from Mrs Smith's still-functioning ovaries and fertilising it in a laboratory  so it could be placed into Mrs Miles's womb to grow.

Against the odds, it was successful at the first attempt.

And, on January 16 this year, Evie Sian Emma Smith was born at 7lbs 7oz by caesarean section.

Tracey said: 'Adam and I were allowed to both stay by mum's side as Evie came into the world.

'It was such an incredible emotional moment. I was so nervous that everything would go well for mum and for the safe arrival of our baby.

'Adam saw Evie come into the world because of a reflection on the lamps in surgery and I just waited to hear that cry and burst into happy tears.'

Tracey said: 'Adam saw Evie come into the world because of a reflection on the lamps in surgery and I just waited to hear that cry and burst into happy tears'

Because of British law, Mrs Smith's parents are the legal parents of Evie, so the couple have to officially adopt their daughter
She's known for her effortless style and impeccable taste.

And today was no exception as Queen Letizia of Spain showed off her sartorial prowess while performing royal duties in Madrid.

Letizia, 46, joined the Spanish Minister of Economy and Business Nadia Calvino during a visit to the School of Engraving and Graphic Design of the Royal Mint.

The wife of King Felipe opted for neutral tones, matching a tan leather Hugo Boss skirt with a beige coat, and complementing her colour scheme with brown leather court shoes with a chunky heel.

Queen Letizia of Spain, 46, showed off her sartorial prowess while performing royal duties in Madrid, as she was joined by the Spanish Minister of Economy and Business Nadia Calvino (left)

Letizia also gave out graduation certificates while at the royal mint's art school. She paired a Hugo Boss colour block skirt with a geometric pattern skirt for the occasion

Keeping warm for the cloudy spring day, Letizia wore a bold blue, orange, and white patterned top under her woolen coat.

Wearing her dark tresses loose, the royal styled her hair elegantly with a flick under her chin.

Adding to the look was a pair of simple cuff earrings, in an otherwise jewellery-free ensemble.

Not afraid to get hands on, The Queen and economy minister had a look at student's artwork

The Queen appeared to love the artwork and was all smiles as she chatted to students at the school

Wearing her dark tresses looses, the royal styled her hair elegantly with a flick under her chin

Keeping warm for the cloudy spring day, Letizia wore a bold blue, orange, and white patterned top under her woolen coat

As Letizia walked flashes of colour on her bold printed Hugo Boss skirt showed flashes on orange and blue, the skirt, which cost more than 500 has been worn by the Queen before

The Queen looked delighted as she became impressed by the art of the students at the School of Engraving and design

Letizia kept her make-up look simple, pairing a clear lip gloss with a smokey-eyed look and lashes of bronzer.

The royal later inspected artwork from the school, and presented the Tomas Francisco Prieto Award for artists to painter Jose Manuel Broto.

Her appearance comes less than a week after she was seen at the funeral of former Spanish minister Jose Pedro Perez-Llorca.

Perez-Llorca, a Spanish lawyer and one of the seven authors of the 1978 Spanish Constitution, passed away at the age of 78 on March 6 after battling lung disease.

Students and well-wishers seemed delighted by the Queen's presence as she looked at the art ahead of presenting graduation diplomas

The royal later inspected artwork from the school, ahead of rewarding the Tomas Francisco Prieto Award for artists to painter Jose Manuel Broto

The Queen and minister admired the work at the Spanish Mint's Drawing and Graphic Design College today

The royal later inspected artwork from the school, ahead of rewarding the Tomas Francisco Prieto Award for artists to painter Jose Manuel Broto

He served as the country's Minister of Foreign Affairs between 1980 to 1982.

In keeping with her busy schedule, the mother-of-two had earlier in the day attended the launch of a new project called (In) Formate at Google's Madrid campus, with the Spanish secretary of health, consumption and social welfare, Maria Luisa Carcedo.

The Queen met with several teenagers, who were also in attendance after the presentation and then went on to visit the campus, which was inaugurated by her husband in 2015.

The Queen showed off her thrifty side as she rewore the Hugo Boss outfit to the day out in Madrid

Students looked delighted to show off their hard work to the Queen who appeared very impressed by the young artists

The Queen's appearance today (pictured) comes less than a week after she was last seen at the funeral of former Spanish minister Jose Pedro Perez-Llorca
An autistic schoolboy has inspired the first ever doll with the condition - complete with ear defenders, sunglasses and communication cards.

Space-mad Hayden Geraghty, nine, from Limavady, Northern Ireland, was non-verbal and only started saying full sentences around four years ago - and hasn't stopped since.

Toy company Lottie Dolls was so impressed with his transformation it designed a toy inspired by Hayden.

The first ever doll with autism, the figure wears blue astronaut overalls and ear defenders and sunglasses - to cope with light and sound sensitivity.

Space-mad Hayden Geraghty, nine, from Limavady, Northern Ireland, holds the Finn Boy Doll by toy company Lottie Dolls, which is designed in his honour

'Mini Hayden' - officially called Finn Boy Doll - also has a service dog to help him cope with difficult situations, and communication cards to help him chat with his friends.

The doll, which retails at 28.50, also wears a T-shirt which reads 'Tesla, Einstein & Me' - a nod to genius scientists Nikola Tesla and Albert Einstein, believed to be on the autistic spectrum.

It will be on sale in over 30 countries within the coming year, and Hayden's dream is to one day get the doll into space.

Hayden, who is obsessed with space travel, was largely non-verbal until he watched Tim Peake take off to the International Space Centre in December 2015.

The doll designed in Hayden's honour be on sale in over 30 countries within the coming year, and Hayden's dream is to one day get the doll into space

The doll, which wears a T-shirt emblazoned with 'Tesla, Einstein & Me' - a nod to genius scientists Nikola Tesla and Albert Einstein - is the first of its kind with autism and even comes with ear defenders and sunglasses

He began shouting at the television: 'Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one... Blast off!'

It was one of the first times mum Caroline, 41, had heard her little boy say a full sentence - and it triggered a rapid increase in his language skills.

She said: 'The doll has the same headphones and clothes as Hayden so he really has put a lot of himself into the doll.

'The doll is there now for children across the world who might have autism. It also gets the message out there to children who don't.

Hayden, pictured meeting Major Tim Peake, was non-verbal until he watched the astronaut take off to the International Space Centre in December 2015

Hayden's mum Caroline, 41, said it was one of the first times her little boy had spoken a full sentence - and it triggered a rapid increase in his language skills

'When I first looked at the doll I thought, "That's the spitting image of Hayden".

'Whenever we go to space conferences Hayden always wears the signature flight suit.

'He wears his ear defenders just to help shut out the stormy weather. He's amazed by the fact that boys and girls around the world can have a doll like him.

'It's helped him understand if you have an idea you can achieve anything.'

Mum-of-one Caroline said she knew Hayden was 'different' from around 10 months old because he wasn't meeting common milestones or making eye contact.

After battling with doctors for years, he was eventually diagnosed with autism aged five.

Determined Hayden wrote to Lottie Dolls CEO Ian Harkin to tell him of the gap in the market, and got a response before the end of 2017

He learned Makaton at school - which combines signs, symbols and sounds - but aged around four he said his first sentence when he asked: 'What's the craic?'

But Hayden struggled to speak fully - until he saw Tim Peake go into space in December 2015.

Hayden sent astronaut Dr Niamh Shaw a painting of Mars, and she was so impressed she got in touch with the CEO of Lottie Dolls to tell them about Hayden.

Hayden was sent three Lottie Dolls - a range of dolls which are inspired by children - and, after reading the leaflets inside each box, he realised there wasn't an autistic doll in the range.

Determined Hayden wrote to Lottie Dolls CEO Ian Harkin to tell him of the gap in the market, and got a response before the end of 2017.

Both he and mum Caroline met with Ian in February 2018 and seven months later Finn Boy Doll was launched in the UK and Ireland.

Caroline, a former fitness instructor, said: 'He was just transfixed by these dolls and his imagination would run away with him.

'When he read the leaflets he turned to me and said, "I'd love to have one like me." So we wrote to Lottie Dolls to tell them about Hayden's journey.

'He thought it'll be great to reach and inspire a wider audience with his story. With autism nothing is visual.

In January, Hayden was awarded the title Planetary Defence Ambassador after impressing astronauts at Nasa's Human Exploration Research Analog

'When he went to the European Space Agency in October we bought six dolls with us. We handed them out but Hayden was dead set on giving one to Tim Peake.

'We know people in the circle now so we were able to pass it on to the right people. For two months Hayden would ask me, "Have you heard anything from Tim, Mummy?"

'He's based in Cologne and I know he is an extremely busy man. But two months later he sent a postcard which read: "Hayden. Thank you for the Lottie Doll - keep doing amazing things! Tim Peake." Hayden was over the moon.'

The company behind Lottie Dolls does not outwardly highlight diversity on the packaging or marketing but anyone who buys the doll will find out more about Hayden.

Hayden is the youngest member of Irish Astronomical Association and even has his own monthly column in Astronomy Ireland magazine

Ian Harkin, co-founder and CEO of Lottie Dolls, said: 'We want kids to buy it first and foremost because it is a cool doll and they later discover inside the box that he has ear defenders (not headphones) a dog (which happens to be a service dog), communication cards and a pair of sunglasses because of light sensitivity.

'By playing with a diverse set of doll kids develop empathy and understanding of kids with disabilities and it normalises behaviour.

'We want all kids to have a diverse toy box, as much as its important for kids to see dolls that look just like them its important for other kids to learn about empathy.

Hayden, pictured with Professor Brian Cox, is adamant to get the world's first autistic doll into outer space

In June, space-mad Hayden will travel to Luxembourg to meet some of his space heroes having been personally invited to attend World Asteroid Day

'Hayden's doll will be on sale in over 30 countries within the coming year.

'We are huge fans of Hayden's work in promoting his love of astronomy and being a role model for other kids with Autism and ADHD.'

In January, Hayden was awarded the title Planetary Defence Ambassador after impressing astronauts at Nasa's Human Exploration Research Analog.

He is also the youngest member of Irish Astronomical Association and even has his own monthly column in Astronomy Ireland magazine.

In June, Hayden will travel to Luxembourg to meet some of his space heroes having been personally invited to attend World Asteroid Day.

Caroline said: 'His dream is to get the doll out into space whether that be Tim or another astronaut.

'He's adamant to get the world's first autistic doll into outer space.'
Rare jewels belonging to twentieth century royals and socialites have been unveiled ahead of a historic sale at Sotheby's in Geneva.

The pieces on sale include a necklace, estimated to be worth over 3 million, and a tiara created for the last Crown Princess of Prussia as a wedding gift.

The decadent jewellery is being sold as part of a Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels collection by the auction house.

Those interested in buying the items will be able to view the remarkable items at Sotheby's in London before their sale in May.

The decadent emerald and diamond necklace, owned by American socialite Helene Beaumont, is estimated to be worth over 3 million

Sotheby's describes the auction online as part of a sale of 'a variety of fancy and colourless diamonds of impeccable quality'.

The website goes on: 'A spectacular array of jewels, by some of the worlds most renowned jewellery houses such as Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Mauboussin and Bulgari, feature alongside unique period jewels of noble provenance, including an important collection of German royal provenance.'

Other pieces for sale include an onyx, ruby and diamond pin, as well as two diamond rings, all worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The most highly priced item is the art deco style emerald and diamond necklace, from the collection of American socialite Helene Beaumont.

It's estimated to be worth between 2 million and just over 3 million.

The beautiful royal tiara is believed to be have been designed by Faberge for the wedding of Cecilie von Mecklenburg-Schwerin, the last Crown Princess of Prussia

This magnificent emerald and diamond necklace is believed to have been made by Van Cleef & Arpels.

Helene Beaumont was a renowned collector and loyal client of the French jewellery house.

It matches another lot in the sale, an emerald and diamond bracelet by Van Cleef & Arpels, from the collection of Helene Beaumont sold in 1994 - also unsigned, but recorded in the archives of Van Cleef & Arpels.

Meanwhile an iconic piece of history German history will go on sale, as a Faberge diamond tiara worn by the last Crown Princess of Prussia is also part of the collection.

The necklace, which is estimated to be worth over 3 million, will go on sale in a jewellery action on 14 May

The piece, which is estimated to be worth between 150,000-230,000, is said to have been made for the 'biggest social event of the century', the wedding of Cecilie von Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

The tiara is a detailed piece, and features a set with three circular-cut diamonds, framed with stylised laurels within an arched surround of lattice work design, joined with rose diamond quatrefoils.

The piece was formerly in the collection of Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Princess Wilhelm of Hohenzollern, Crown Princess of Prussia.

It was believed to have been a wedding gift for the biggest social event of the still young century, when on 6th June 1905, Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin married Wilhelm the heir to the Prussian throne.

The royal's mother was said to be good friends with Faberge, and tiara is believed to have been a wedding gift from the designer to the young bride

Tens of thousands of people poured into the lavishly decorated capital of the Empire Berlin, to witness the arrival of the bride of the Crown Prince.

In 1905 the young couple celebrated their wedding, with celebrations spanning four days, filled with countless commitments and appointments.

The handover of the wedding gifts to the bridal couple took place in the Brunswick Gallery of the Berlin castle.

Jewels, silver, and porcelain were among the precious presents, which also included a splendid carriage with Hungarian horses as a gift from the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I, who was a godfather of the Crown Prince.

Cecilie von Mecklenburg-Schwerin was the last Crown Princess of Prussia, pictured here around 1912. Her wedding was described as 'the social event of the century'

Cecilie von Mecklenburg-Schwerin with future husband Friedrich Wilhelm Prinz von Preussen, pictured posing for engagement photographs

Cecilie also received many gifts from her Russian relatives, and the tiara was amongst these presents.

It was referred to within the family as the Faberge Tiara.

Faberge was Cecilie's mothers' (Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia) favorite jeweller, and correspondence between the jeweller and herself, mentioning a diamond tiara, exists.

The tiara was also featured in a newspaper article dated March 1906, reporting from an exhibition held in Berlin, showcasing the wedding presents of the Crown Prince and his bride.
A woman who was sexually assaulted after being groomed online by a man posing as a female model has urged other victims to speak out, stressing: 'It's never too late to tell somebody.'

Sophie*, then 13, struck up a conversation with the predator after he told her she was pretty and could have a career in modelling.

After several hours of speaking, during which Sophie sent over a topless picture and shared her contact details, the man turned up at her house the next day and attacked her.

Feeling 'physically and mentally dirty', Sophie decided to keep quiet about the assault, but months later she was contacted by the police after they charged the culprit for other child abuse cases.

A woman who was sexually assaulted after being groomed online by a man posing as a female model has urged other victims to speak out

The attacker was convicted on multiple accounts of child abuse and sentenced to 13 years in prison.

Now 29, Sophie has just qualified as a family lawyer, having felt compelled to go into that area of law as a result of her ordeal.

She shares her story today as the government published its plans to tackle illegal online content and activity.

The Online Harms White Paper is designed to crack down on terrorist propaganda and child abuse and will force tech giants like Facebook, Twitter and Google to clean up harmful material on their platforms.

Speaking anonymously in a powerful video shared by the Home Office, Sophie recalls how over the course of the online conversation, they discussed her life, family and friends.

Speaking anonymously in a powerful video shared by the Home Office, Sophie recalls how over the course of the conversation, she and the perpetrator discussed her life, family and friends

After several hours of speaking, during which Sophie sent over a topless picture and shared her contact details, the man turned up at her house the next day and attacked her

Believing she was speaking to a female model, Sophie said: 'She told that me I was pretty and that I could be a model like her.

'She said she'd done topless modelling and you earned more money and got more work for it, so she asked me to send a photo of me topless.

'By this point she had asked me for my contact details.'

When the man turned up at her house the following day, Sophie said her initial reaction was 'utter panic'.

'I was so terrified because here was this much older, much bigger man stood there in my bedroom,' she recalled.

'He sexually assaulted me, he did things to me, he made me do things to him and he took photos of it throughout.

'He was telling me, "If you tell anyone about this, Im going to make sure everyone sees all of these pictures."

'I felt physically and mentally so dirty.'

Afterwards Sophie decided against telling anyone, fearing she would be 'blamed', and sank into a deep depression during which she self-harmed.

Sophie shares her story today as the government published its plans to tackle illegal online content and activity

It was only when police contacted her while investigating the criminal for other child abuse offences that she opened up about her ordeal and her attacker was brought to justice.

With the help of the Marie Collins Foundation, Sophie has been able to move on with her life and now helps others who have faced similar harrowing situations.

In the UK, the National Crime Agency estimate 80,000 individuals represent a sexual threat to children, and 400 people a month are being arrested for offences related to online child sexual exploitation and abuse, while more than 500 children are being safeguarded.

Project Arachnid, a web-crawler that can trawl the internet to identify webpages with suspected abuse content, has analysed around 51 billion images and 1.3 billion URLs for suspected child sexual abuse material and issued more than 800,000 take down notices.

In the UK, the National Crime Agency estimate 80,000 individuals represent a sexual threat to children, and 400 people a month are being arrested for offences related to online child sexual exploitation and abuse

The government's latest proposal has been hailed a victory by online safety campaigners.

It 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.

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. Ex-Culture Secretary John Whittingdale 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.'

Last night the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said the White Paper had 'no intention' of impacting editorial content.

*Names have been changed to protect identities.
Less than a month after model Nathan Westling, formerly Natalie Westling, came out as transgender, the flame-haired fashion darling appears to have nabbed a shoot with Vogue.

The 22-year-old, who has previously posed for several international editions of the fashion bible, still seems to be one of the fashion world's most in-demand models since his coming out only a few weeks ago.

This weekend, he was seen posing for photographer Peter Lindbergh, with two Vogue heavyweights on hand for the shoot  the magazine's men's editor Michael Philouze and creative-director-at-large Grace Coddington.

Preview? Model Nathan Westling (center) appears to have shot an editorial for an upcoming issue of Vogue

Posing: Photos posted on Instagram this weekend show trans model Nathan, formerly Natalie, looking moody in a black-and-white shoot

Chill: The 22-year-old is dressed casually in a Vans T-shirt and backwards cap

Smile! He posed for a few photos alongside photographer Peter Lindbergh (left) and Vogue creative-director-at-large Grace Coddington (right)

Big deal: Westling came out as transgender in an interview in mid-March

Coddington  herself a former model turned top fashion editorial force  was noticeably absent from the wedding of her good friend, designer Marc Jacobs, over the weekend.

DailyMail.com uncovered photos of the group on the top-secret shoot in Lancaster, California, on Instagram, which seem to explain her absence.

The crew: The magazine's men's editor Michael Philouze (right) also appears to have been along for the shoot

In one shot, Westling smiles in a Vans T-shirt and backwards cap, posing between Lindbergh and Coddington.

In others that were shared online by Elite Model Management's Lena Bodet, Westling looks pensive as he stares off into the distance.

Though it might raise eyebrows that Coddington missed Marc Jacobs' wedding, her involvement in Westling's shoot comes as no surprise, as she has long been a fan of the model.

Prior to his transition, Westling and Coddington even had similar looks, with both of the fashion favorites known for their long, curly red hair.

Just last year, Coddington styled Westling for an eight-page spread that ran in British Vogue, which was by far the models lengthiest editorial to run in the magazine.

Westling has also appeared in the pages of Vogue, Vogue Italia, and Vogue Paris and landed the covers of both Vogue China and Vogue Korea in March 2017.

This season, Westling appears in the Spring campaigns for Louis Vuitton and Hugo, which were both shot before his transition. Other past campaigns include Chanel, Vans, and Tiffany & Co.

That was then: Westling had much success as a catwalk model before transitioning (pictured in October walking for Louis Vuitton)

Just before: He started taking testosterone in October after walking the runway at Fashion Week in New York, Paris, and Milan (pictured left February 2017, right September 2019)

Revealed: Westling came out with a huge interview with CNN Style a few weeks ago

Coddington also gushed about Westling back in 2016 while being profiled in British Vogue, with the industry icon expressing her excitement about 'a new little redheaded model that I love called Natalie Westling  I have great hopes for her.'

When approached by DailyMail.com, Vogue declined to comment.

Westling shared the news of his transition in an exclusive interview with CNN Style last month.

He explained that after years of seeking help for his depression with no real results, he made the decision to move to Los Angeles last April and transition.

'I hit a point where I was tired of just existing, because that was kind of my whole life and how I lived' he said.

'I always questioned how people just lived life, and just woke up and felt good and could just do things. And I couldnt.'

That transition was difficult at first, he explained, saying it took two months to adjust once he began taking testosterone.

'It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows in the beginning,' he said. 'My first two months of the transition were tough, and it wasn't until I started to see physical changes that aligned with ... my mental state that I finally woke up and (started) living.

Jewelry: He'd already done several major campaigns, including this one for Tiffany & Co.

'I'm happy. I can't even imagine going back to how I was before because it's just darkness,' he said of his transition (pictured posting for Chanel)

Experience: Westling has also appeared in the pages of Vogue, Vogue Italia, and Vogue Paris

Flashback: He also landed the covers of both Vogue China and Vogue Korea in March 2017

'I'm happy. I can't even imagine going back to how I was before because it's just darkness.'

He started that step in October after walking in New York, Milan and Paris for each city's respective Fashion Week and shooting his final two campaigns as a woman.

Westling plans to continue working in the job he has had since the age of 16, and will join a growing group of transgender models that includes Lea T, Dara, and Teddy Quinlivan.

In the CNN interview, Westling said that many of the designers and photographers he had worked with in the past had already expressed their desire to keep working with him down the road.

Westling also said at that time he had managed to land a major fashion magazine cover, but would not say which one at the time. He had, however, said that the shoot had already taken place.

'We'll have to see how this story takes to fashion and how everything takes,' he said. 'I'm not worried about it. I think it's going to be a good change and I'm excited for it. I'm really, really excited.'
Tucker Carlson is being ridiculed on Twitter after he complained about feminists working in scientific fields.

Last week, the 49-year-old complained on his show about a new scientific study that links toxic masculinity to global climate change.

Tucker was clearly not a fan of the study's conclusions, and angrily asked his guest, 'How did we wind up with a country in which feminists do science?''

Scroll down for video

Taken to task: Tucker Carlson is being ridiculed on Twitter after he complained about feminists working in scientific fields

Point: The 49-year-old asked his guest, 'How did we wind up with a country in which feminists do science?'

Seriously? Twitter users are mocking him for complaining about feminists in science

Who'd have guessed! One joked that sometimes women even do math

Comeback: 'Books. We are allowed to read books,' wrote another

The segment, which aired on Thursday, included a conversation with conservative commentator Mark Steyn.

Both men were mocking both climate change and social science, when Tucker asked the pointed rhetorical questions about the perils of feminists 'doing' science.'

The clip caught the attention of social media users, many of whom were both furious and exasperated.

'Tucker Carlson with the hard-hitting questions: "How *did* we wind up with a country in which feminists do science?"' tweeted Caroline Orr, a behavioral scientist.

Her tweet, which included a clip, has been liked over 4,000 times and inspired hundreds of replies that mocked Carlson.

'And sometimes, when the moon is full, we even Math,' wrote one woman.

'Books. We were allowed to read books,' wrote another.

Tucker Carlson with the hard-hitting questions: "How *did* we wind up with a country in which feminists do science?" pic.twitter.com/Mnb0ynoLSH  Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D (@RVAwonk) April 5, 2019

This is what happens! Some tweeted about famous female scientists who made great discoveries

She does science: An American archaeologist joked about Carlson falling down a tomb shaft

Background: The segment was about a new scientific study that links toxic masculinity to global climate change

Debate: Carlson wasn't a fan of the study, but Twitter users really didn't like his reaction to it

'Marie Curie is to blame!' wrote a third. 'That brainy vixen who inspired countless women to believe they could be as nerdy as their scientist male counterparts.'

'Science... it's the new witchcraft!' joked yet another.

Several men also chimed in, including one who wrote that Carlson 'is why animals eat their young' and another who concluded: 'Ironically the answer is: because of tools like you, Tucker.'

American archaeologist Sarah Parcak wrote: 'I have a 20m deep tomb shaft at the site where I work in Egypt that contains the answer (at the bottom). Come visit. Ill even lower you down.'

Several well-known women chimed in as well, including New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

'Democracy and civil rights is how we got a country where feminists do science. (Also, note how hes drumming up fear around womens rights to create suspicion around climate change policy. Tells you a lot.),' he wrote.

High profile: New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez chimed in too

Real Housewives star Carole Radziwell tweeted, 'How is this moron still working? Rupert Murdoch is either a misogynist or tone deaf....or deaf'

Study: The study in question, from Utah State's Dr. Aaron Brough, theorized that widely-held unconscious bias leads many men to make less eco-conscious decisions than women

Bias: The study found that men and women both associate environmentally-conscious behavior, like carrying a reusable canvas bag to the grocery store, as 'more feminine'

Food for thougth: Dr. Brough calls this the 'Green-Feminine Stereotype

And Real Housewives star Carole Radziwell tweeted, 'How is this moron still working? Rupert Murdoch is either a misogynist or tone deaf....or deaf.'

Carlson's question was lambasted when taken both with and without context.

According to The Wrap, the Fox New host was discussing a new study by Utah State University's by Dr. Aaron Brough, which theorized that widely-held unconscious bias leads many men to make less eco-conscious decisions than women.

The study found that men and women both associate environmentally-conscious behavior, like carrying a reusable canvas bag to the grocery store, as 'more feminine'.

According to Forbes, Dr. Brough calls this the 'Green-Feminine Stereotype. That unconscious bias leads men to exhibit less environmentally-conscious behavior, thus linking toxic masculinity to climate change.

This is hardly the first time that Carlson has mocked feminism  or the first time that AOC has taken him to task for it.

More head-to-head: Ocasio-Cortez has defended MSNBC host Chris Hayes (pictured together promoting the Green New Deal) after he was mocked by Fox News' Tucker Carlson

Hey! The Democratic Rep. told Carlson to 'get spooked' because 'the future is here' - a reference to his jibe at feminism

Last month, Carlson swiped at the Democratic Rep. and MSNBC presenter Chris Hayes for promoting Ocasio-Cortez's ambitious climate change program at a town hall event in New York.

'Chris Hayes is what every man would be if feminists ever achieved absolute power in this country: apologetic, bespectacled and deeply, deeply concerned about global warming, and the patriarchal systems that cause it,' Carlson said.

The Fox News host also slammed Ocasio-Cortez, calling her a 'moron' who 'has never even raised children'.

Hayes responded on his Instagram account with a short clip of him exercising in a gym with the caption, 'Every quarter the Feminarchist junta require all adult males to present themselves for a fitness inspection. Failure to pass results in summary execution.'

Ocasio-Cortez clapped back too, tweeting: 'Chris Hayes was just as excited to host a #GreenNewDeal policy town hall in the BX as he was to get home in time to take his child to gymnastics class. If that's the scary future feminists want, get SPOOKED because the future is here and full of great relationships with your dad.'
A police officer who feels sorry for a surgeon after his family heirlooms were stolen discovers he staged a burglary and committed mortgage fraud worth over 1 million on 24 Hours In Police Custody.

In tonight's episode of the channel 4 show, Bedfordshire police receive a 999 call from orthopaedic surgeon Anthony McGrath, 46, from St Albans.

He reports over a quarter of a million pounds worth of antiques have been burgled from a country estate he and his wife are renting on the Luton Hoo Estate - including a Persian rug, valuable antiques and clocks, and a 19th century red marble rococo fire surround, with ormolu inserts.

But for veteran CID detective Dave Brecknock, something about the case doesn't quite add up. The man reporting the crime, who has since been sentenced to eight years in prison, seems very anxious to make an insurance claim on the stolen property.

'When we did a financial background check he was absolutely skint, almost to the point of bankruptcy,' he explains. 'That gave us the motive. He requested immediate payment from the insurance company of 50, 000. That would tend to say he needs the cash as opposed to he wants his belongings back.

Anthony McGrath, 46, from St Albans, appears on tonight's episode of Channel 4's 24 Hours in Police Custody. He calls 999 and reports over a quarter of a million pounds worth of antiques have been burgled from a country estate he and his wife were renting on the Luton Hoo Estate in 2015

The surgeon is questioned by DC Kathy Layton in tonight's show. Following a trial which lasted 18 weeks at Luton Crown Court, Anthony McGrath (pictured left) was found guilty of fraud by false representation and committing acts with intent to pervert the course of justice

But after first hearing the allegations, the detective expressed sympathy for the culprit.

'I just felt really sorry for him,' says DC Brecknock. 'Youve had family heirlooms, your antiques from your deceased father's estate stolen. For him, sentimentality of a lot of the property outweighs the commercial value. This must be absolutely devastating.

Despite his expertise, it doesn't mean the crime is going to be easy to solve as with over 70 antiques to be recovered, DC Brecknock needs evidence from the scene of the crime.

'We have nothing to go on,' he admits. 'No suspects for burglary, no forensics, no witnesses, no nothing. Where do we go?'

DC Dave Brecknock (above) pushes Anthony McGrath for pictures of the stolen items so he can identify if any have appeared on the antiques markets

DC Kathy Layton (above) faces the surgeon in her first interview with him after his arrest - but he just replies 'no comment'

In McGrath's Luton house, police find several of the antiques which were reported missing - including a liquor set in a wooden box which was hidden at the top of the wardrobe

'The same with financial crimes, you chase the money. Just follow the money, follow the antiques, find out where they've gone.'

The surgeon reports the burglary to his insurance company. His claim is for 250, 000 pounds. The next month DC Brecknock pushes him for pictures of the stolen items so he can identify if any have appeared on the antique's market.

And unfortunately for Anthony McGrath, the police officer has not only spent nearly a quarter of a century solving complex burglaries, he also has passion for antiques.

He confesses he once had a side line in restoring pine furniture.

'All these pictures come through and then we get to this one of the fireplace which he reported as being stolen,' says the detective, showing several photographs to fellow officer Kathy Layton, who assists him on the case. 'That fireplace he reports was wrapped in Persian silk rugs.'

'Hes supplied a receipt to the insurance company saying those silk rugs were 45, 000. His total claim is now over a quarter of a million pounds. By this point, Im suspecting hes committing fraud.'

DC Brecknock's suspicions are raised when he analyses the window which was allegedly broken into. He says: 'You smash a window closest to the lock. You dont smash a corner to try and then get your hand all the way through to get that lock

And the expert's suspicions are raised ever further after analysing the window which was alleged to have been broken into.

Pictured, the 19th century red marble rococo fire surround which was found in the cellar of McGrath's Ireland country estate

'You smash a window closest to the lock,' he says. 'You dont smash a corner to try and get your hand all the way through to get that lock.

Four months after the alleged burglary and without the insurance company paying out, Anthony sends new pictures to the detective in the hope of validating his claim.

But after tracking the GPS from the surgeons phone, DC Brecknock determines the photograph of the fireplace was taken from a family home in County Weath, Ireland.

DC Kathy Layton appears frustrated after interviewing the suspect, who she says 'has an answer for everything'

DC Kathy Layton goes through evidence ready to put it to the surgeon - but he turns it around and blames her for purposely trying to evoke emotion out of him

This is a picture of the actual item which was taken on 5th July 2015  three months after the burglary,' he explains. 'In April he told me that fireplace was stolen from his cellar  thats enough for a warrant.'

The detective follows his own advice and investigates the property in Ireland where he discovers the alleged stolen fireplace in the cellar - the very place Mr McGrath told cops it had been stolen from.

Then, after searching the house in Luton, several of the antiques, including a liquor set in a wooden box which was hidden at the top of the wardrobe, is found.

Back at the station, Anthony is taken in for questioning by DC Kathy Layton. To her frustration, he seems to 'have an answer for everything' and explains that by coincidence, there's a duplicate for much of the property thats been stolen.

Despite his web of lies, surgeon Anthony McGrath is brought into custody on suspicion of fraud and booked in

Nearing the end of the episode, the surgeon comes back to custody and is charged with fraud by Dc Dave Brecknock

Ive had three of these and that is the only remaining one we have,' says Anthony, speaking of the antique box. 'Its not being hidden if thats what youre saying.

Revealing a photograph of the fireplace, DC Layton then explains that the police have managed to determine where the picture was taken.

'You and I both know thats not the same fireplace,' he says, before trying to pretend it has different dimensions to the one he'd reported stolen.

But his web of lies are no longer any good and Anthony McGrath is taken into custody.

The fake burglary led police to uncover three counts of mortgage fraud totalling over 1 million. False tax returns in the couples name had been sent to the bank and copies were discovered in their study, with Anthony McGraths finger prints on them.

Following a trial which lasted 18 weeks at Luton Crown Court, he was found guilty of fraud by false representation and committing acts with intent to pervert the course of justice.

During the trial, the jury heard how the couples mounting debts had led him to carry out the elaborate fraud in the hope of receiving a large insurance pay out. He has now been sentenced to eight years in prison

The Detective & The Surgeon  Monday 8 April, 9pm, Channel 4
by Mathias Hariyadi

The police are looking into the incident, which is the latest in a long series of acts of intolerance that have occurred in the city. Christian tombs have also been vandalised in Purbayan and Magelang in recent months.

Jakarta (AsiaNews)  Two days ago, someone pulled out, damaged and burnt several wooden crosses at the Bethesda Christian cemetery in Mrican, Yogyakarta, a densely populated area, not far from Sanata Dharma Catholic (Jesuit) university and Yogyakarta State University.

The keeper of the cemetery, Hari Yuniarto, reports that in the ten years since he has held the job, he has never seen such vandalism, which is under police investigation.

The motive remains obscure, but the incident joins a long list of cases of intolerance that have taken place in recent months in Yogyakarta, capital of the homonymous special region, which is ruled by a monarch, a sultan.

The previous case in time occurred just last week and involved Slamet Jumiarto, a Catholic painter, who had moved with his wife and children to Karet, a village in Pleret subdistrict.

After the Catholic family moved in, the village chief and the local community informed the new residents that they had to leave because only Muslims could buy or rent houses and land.

In December 2018, some residents in Purbayan removed the upper part of a cross placed on the tomb of Albertus Slamet Sugihardi, after informing his widow, Maria Sutris Winarni, that the cemetery was "for the exclusive use of Muslims".

Before that, the Catholic family was forced to hold a private funeral to avoid tensions with the Islamic community.

A few weeks later, Christian tombs were vandalised in several cemeteries in Magelang, 30 kilometres north of Yogyakarta, Central Java. The first one to be attacked was Giriloyo public cemetery, followed by the Kiringan and Malangan cemeteries.

Local residents report that the person responsible for these acts is a man with mental disorders. In Indonesia, police usually drop charges if vandals suffer from such conditions.
A mother who met a man on Tinder has revealed that she had to pretend to be dead to make him stop raping her during a violent attack at her home.

Sarah Smith, not her real name, was strangled and smothered during the incident at her Birmingham home and was stamped on so hard, she was left with a footprint on her back.

The 41-year-old mother's attacker James McNutt, 33, was jailed for 13 years for rape and engaging in controlling behaviour on March 28.

Sarah explained how she met McNutt on Tinder 'around a year ago' and at first he was 'charming' and they shared some mutual friends.

However the relationship soon became 'suffocating,' with McNutt bombarding her with text messages and trying to isolate her from family and friends.

Sarah Smith, pictured, played dead to stop a man she met on Tinder raping her during an attack at her Birmingham home. Sarah is sharing her story using a pseudonym

After one argument McNutt grabbed Sarah by the throat and she went to the police,. However, she later dropped charges as he had threatened to throw himself off a cliff.

Sarah explained how after this, McNutt had started to act 'nice' again, and when he said he'd got a job in Scotland, she agreed to meet him for one more drink.

When McNutt talked his way to going back to Sarah's house, her family turned up and neighbours called the police, causing him to run off.

After this, Sarah went to be and didn't think anymore of it until McNutt came through the back door and started accusing her of 'cheating.'



She said: 'He beat me up badly, stamping over me, smashing a glass over my head and giving me a black eye. He stamped on my back so hard there was a footprint.

'He strangled me as he raped me. He put a pillow over my face, trying to smother me. I had to play dead because it was the only way to make him stop.'

Sarah told Birmingham Live that McNutt ran off. But when he came back to check on her and try to wake her up, she started to cough and he knew she wasn't dead.

During the ordeal, which lasted 'from 2am to 8am' Sarah was locked in the house, but managed to get hold of her mobile phone.

James McNutt, 33, pictured, was jailed for 13 years at Birmingham Crown Court on March 28

She said that the police had previously told her about the Hollie Guard app, which alerts emergency contacts when a person is in trouble if they shake their phone.

She said: 'So I started shaking my phone. He asked what I was doing and I told him, saying "you need to go because they are going to be here in a minute".

'To this, he said: "You're coming with me. So I had to get dressed and walk out of the house".

'Fortunately, there was a neighbour outside working on his car, and I got free from his arm and ran. The neighbour called the police.

'The ordeal lasted about four hours between 2am to 8am. That app saved my life.'

After the attack McNutt went on the run for three weeks, and when he was eventually arrested he denied the charges.

Sarah also revealed that under Claire's Law, she discovered there were five other women who McNutt had beaten up before her.

She said: 'I had to go to the Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) for internal examinations, which were horrific.

During the attack McNutt stamped on Sarah and smashed a glass over her head (file picture)

'The police put me in a hotel for three days then I went into a Women's Aid refuge for about a month.

'They kept an eye on my mum and dad because we were worried for their safety. My daughter had to go and stay with my sister. It traumatised them all.

'James continued to constantly message and phone me. He'd go from begging me not to do anything to intimidating me to threatening to take his own life.

What is Clare's Law? How you can find out your partner's domestic violence history, thanks to father's campaign Clare Wood, 36, was strangled by an ex Clare's Law was created in 2014 following a campaign by Michael Brown, whose daughter was murdered by her ex-boyfriend. The initiative, officially called the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme, was designed to provide people with information that may protect them from a potentially abusive situation. The scheme allows the police to disclose information about a partner's previous history of domestic violence or violent acts. Clare Wood, 36, was strangled and set on fire by her ex-boyfriend George Appleton at her home in Salford, Greater Manchester, in February 2009. The mother-of-one had met Appleton on Facebook, unaware of his horrific history of violence against women, including repeated harassment, threats and the kidnapping at knifepoint of one of his ex-girlfriends. Advertisement

'He never said sorry.

'Eventually, I heard he had been in a club in Birmingham and, knowing his routine, I told the police which pub he'd be in the next day. Sure enough, he was there and they arrested him.

'He denied everything in the police interview but, thanks to Claire's Law (a right to ask under the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme), we discovered there were five different women before me who he'd beaten up.

'It was the same pattern. They'd become partners in a relationship, then he'd break them down. Only each attack was worse than the last one.'

Sarah added: 'When the police showed him photographs of my bruises and the footprint on my back, he admitted he might have 'kicked me'.

'I stayed in a Women's Aid refuge for about a month. They were very supportive.

'I had to go to court, which was horrific but the police were very supportive throughout.

'When the sentence was read out, I was in shock because I didn't fully expect him to get 15 and a half years.

'Part of me felt guilty that I'd let it happen, I should have got away from him. If I'd have seen a friend acting like that, I'd have stopped it.

'But I thought I could help him. I work and live a normal life and I thought if he could see what a normal happy life is like, it would help him. He said he'd been in care but I think that might have just been part of the coercion.'

She added: 'I've tried to commit suicide twice since. The doctor has given me help with depression and I'm finding things are better when I'm doing constructive things.

Sarah went to a Women's Aid refuge for about a month after her ordeal and said that McNutt never 'said sorry' (file picture)

'I feel I can get a bit of closure now he's in jail. He needs professional help. I had said to him to get some counselling if it was his past that was causing the problems.

'I knew he was on probation but he never used to go. I think probation should have been keeping a closer check on him. He was supposed to tell them if he got into a new relationship but he didn't.

'Looking back, there was so much stuff leading up to it, it was all there, so many worrying signs but I didn't realise what the outcome would be.

'I want to warn other people to spot the signs - and act on them straight away.'

In April 2016, McNutt, of no fixed address, was jailed after throwing a knife, frozen food, plates and paint pots at police during a siege at his flat in Northfield.

Birmingham Crown Court heard he went on a three-hour rampage of destruction, which left some officers with minor injuries in November 2015.

There were five different women before me who he'd beaten up

The father, who had previously admitted affray, was jailed for 14 months and banned from returning to the address or having any contact with his former neighbour.

Lisa Newman, Senior Crown Prosecutor from West Midlands CPS, said: 'James McNutt is a dangerous individual who has a history of violence against women.

'The victim conducted herself with courage and dignity throughout the investigation and during the court process.

'Whilst the victim may never forget her horrific experience, she can take solace in the knowledge that justice has been served and that she has helped to protect other potential victims from future attacks.'

PC Tom Parrott, from West Midlands Police's public protection unit, said: 'McNutt is a manipulative and violent bully.

'He ignored the restrictions put on him as he was confident of the level of control he had over his victim.

'Following his arrest he attempted to fool investigators through lies and false alibis but officers were able to put forward a strong case of evidence.

'I have nothing but the greatest respect for her courage and resilience, and I would like to express my thanks to her for helping to put an extremely dangerous offender behind bars.'
A postal worker has received an emotional letter from the owners of a dog that he used to regularly give treats to when he was delivering mail along his usual route.

Texas native and mailman Fernando Barboza was out on his usual delivery route on Monday, April 1, when he received a note from the Cimino family - the owners of a dog he regularly visited while delivering mail.

The tear-jerking note typed up by the dog's owners detailed that Gretchen, a German Shepherd, had passed away, and requested for Fernando to give her leftover treats to other dogs.

Heartbreaking: Texas mailman Fernando Barboza, who regularly gave treats to dogs on his delivery route, received a note from German Shepherd Gretchen's owners on April 1

Kind: Fernando, who has been working as a mailman for five years, has memorized the names of many of the dogs along his delivery route, and regularly gives them treats while working

Adorable: Gretchen (pictured) was one of the dogs he would regularly give treats to. When she passed away, her owners asked Fernando to give out her remaining treats to other dogs

The note went viral on the internet on Twitter when Fernando's daughter took to the social media platform to detail the sweet story.

Alongside a photo of the note, she wrote: 'My dad is a mailman and he likes to give dogs on his route treats. Today he told us one of the dogs on his route passed away and his owners gave him this bag of treats with this note.'

Speaking to The Dodo, Fernando said: 'On Monday, I saw Gretchen's familys mailbox had its flag up, which meant there was outgoing mail.'

When he opened the mailbox, he found a bag of dog treats and a letter.

Generous: Fernando said he was 'choked up' when he read the letter. He then called into her owners - the Cimino family - to express his condolences

The sweet letter read: 'Gretchen passed away yesterday. She asked me to ask you if you would share her treats that she never got to finish with the other dogs on your route.

'She always enjoyed seeing you come to the door and was always happy to get a snack from you.'

Fernando said he was left 'choked up' after reading the letter, and he then knocked on the front door of Gretchen's owners home - the Cimino family - to express his condolences.

He promised the family that he would grant Gretchen's last wish by giving out her treats to dogs on his postal route.

He said: 'I've been giving out her treats to the dogs on my route every day. And when I do, I always say, "This is from Gretchen".

Fernando added that it is a 'bittersweet' feeling giving Gretchen's treats to other dogs.

'It's been both happy and sad. I'm sad when I think about her, but I'm happy to see the other dogs' tails wagging like crazy when they get the treats.'

'I know that she would have wanted her favorite things that she couldn't finish to go to her friends. She may not have liked many people, but she absolutely loved other dogs,' he added.

Gretchen's owner Chris Cimino said Fernando helped Gretchen become more open with people, as she came from a difficult background when she was adopted by the Texas family in 2013.

He said: 'She was pretty mistrustful of all people. I don't know her entire backstory, but judging from her initial reactions, it wasn't a good story.'

Love: Gretchen's owner Chris Cimino (pictured) adopted the German Shepherd in 2013. He said Gretchen began to recognize the sound of Fernando's truck, and would get excited

Proud: Tweeting about Gretchen, Chris said he never realized how much of an impact his dog would have, as he said: 'Look what you did lady!'

Grateful: Chris added that he and his family are grateful for the overwhelming amount of support they have received after people online heard about the story

Best buddies: Gretchen's owner posted a clip to Twitter that showed the German Shepherd waiting at the front door for Fernando to arrive with their mail and dog treats

Speaking about the dog's friendship with Fernando, her owner Chris Cimino said: 'She knew the sound of the mail truck and she would perk up and get ready when she heard it.

'[Barboza] just wore away that callus she carried with his good nature and love for her. And she loved him too,' he added.

Fernando has been working as a mailman for five years, and has since memorized the names of many of the dogs along is route.

'I have a bag of treats in my mail truck,' he said. 'When I bring a package to somebodys door, and theres a dog there, I give them a treat.

'Like, if I'm bringing something for the owner, I might as well bring something to the dogs, too, since they're part of the family,' he said.

And Gretchen was one of many dogs who reaped the benefits of Fernando's kindness and generosity.

'When I first met her, I was kind of worried,' Fernando said. 'She was a little standoffish at first, but then I started to talk to her and pet her and bring her treats.'

After this, their daily ritual had begun, and Fernando has been visiting her and giving her treats ever since.

Speaking out about the overwhelming response to the initial viral tweet, Chris said: 'I never realized how much impact Gretchen would have...now the whole world knows how amazing and sweet she was. Look what you did lady!'

He also responded to the original tweet, which was shared by Fernando's daughter, posting a short old clip of Gretchen when she saw Fernando appearing at their front door.

Viral: Since Fernando's daughter posted about the tear-jerking incident on Twitter, it has gone viral, receiving over 800,000 likes and more than 5,000 comments from different people

Chris wrote: 'My wife and I were told about Gretchens letter to Fernando being on Twitter. I can't begin to tell y'all how much it has meant to us seeing how much love and support yall have shown our girl.

'She was the absolute best. This is a short video of her seeing her mailman,' he added.

Tweeting directly at Fernando's daughter, he went on to praise the mailman, writing: 'Your dad is an incredible guy and everyone on his route thinks the world of him. Hes always quick with a smile.

'Thanks for sharing about Gretchen. Hopefully people will see her and know that adopting an older shelter dog can result in a once in a lifetime friendship.'

He later shared a photograph of Gretchen, and responding to people who were sending their wishes, he wrote: 'Thank you. I know shes up in heaven looking pleased with herself just like this.

'I'm hoping her story will get people to see that adopting older rescues is well worth it,' he added.

Since the tear-jerking tweet was posted, it has gone viral, garnering over 800,000 likes and more than 5,000 comments.

One Twitter user said the letter exchange was the 'sweetest thing', while several others said the post left them in tears.

Others took the opportunity to share photographs of their own dogs, many of which were also German Shepherds, and appreciate them.
Just when you thought you knew everything there was to know about the Kardashians, one of the members of the famous family comes out with another very surprising story.

This time, it was none other than Kim, 38, who revealed that she and her sister Khloe, 34, once stole a pair of Dior sunglasses during what she described as a 'funny' incident while they were on vacation in Hawaii as teenagers.

'We were in Hawaii and there was this Christian Dior store and no one [was working] there. Like, it was [in] the wild...just an empty store,' she told Bustle of how the theft occurred. 'Khloe really wanted the Dior sunglasses, so she took them and we walked out.'

Revealed: Kim Kardashian has admitted that she and sister Khloe stole a pair of Dior sunglasses when they were teenagers

Designer fan: Khloe, pictured in April 2016 wearing a newer pair of Dior sunglasses, grabbed a pair of designer shades from the Dior store in Hawaii and left with them, Kim revealed

It's unclear how old Kim and Khloe, 34, were at the time of the theft, but Kim said she was a teenager; it is also not known how much the shades were priced at, but Dior sunglasses can currently cost anywhere between $350 and $600, depending on the style.

Far from being just an impulse grab, however, Kim added that she still has the sunglasses today.

Throwback: The experience was described as 'wild' by Kim after Khloe, pictured when she was a teenager, took the shades. Kim said she still has the stolen pair

'These sunglasses were everything,' she admitted. 'I still have them to this day and they were so much fun. So cute.'

Speaking in more detail about the incident, the reality star seemed to have little remorse over the theft, admitting that she still finds the incident funny to this day.

'That was so funny,' Kim said.

'We were like, "This is wild." I think the [employee] must have gone to the bathroom or been in the back by herself on a Sunday.

'I don't know what the story was, but it was really funny.'

The cheeky sunglasses story comes as Kim launched her own line of shades in partnership with German brand Carolina Lemke  no shoplifting required.

On April 2, Kim's seven-shade line officially launched to the public and are all priced at $90.

'It's nice to have a company that will really listen to your direction, really wants to collaborate, and have me actually design everything from start to finish,' Kim said about the partnership.

Her shoplifting story was not the only thing causing waves during the launch. Kim decided to send out press boxes with a mask of her face wearing the shades to people.

Sisters in crime: 'These sunglasses were everything,' Kim, pictured with Khloe admitted. 'I still have them to this day and they were so much fun. So cute'

Could this be them? Kim (pictured in 2007) admitted she still has the Dior sunglasses. It is unclear if the Dior sunglasses pictured were the ones stolen

Moving forward: Both Kim and Khloe can now afford to buy their own sunglasses as Kim just launched a shades line with German brand Carolina Lemke

Innovative: The sunglasses line has seven different styles, which all are priced at $90

Creepy: Kim made waves with her press packaging as she sent three lookalike masks to people, including momager Kris Jenner (pictured), wearing the new shades

Chrissy Teigen, Kimora Lee Simmons, Kylie Jenner and Kourtney Kardashian all shared on their own social media accounts videos of the Kim masks and new shades.

'Packages from my sister are the best,' Kylie, 21, said in an Instagram story. 'This PR is so creepy and so cool at the same time. I love it.'

Although the press packages were creepy in appearance, they did their job to raise awareness about the new launch from the reality star.

'As soon as I saw them I said, this is our press box,' Kim told Bustle about the packaging, as she revealed her face was digitally scanned to create the masks. 'Like, it just clicked. I was like, this is what it has to be. I've never seen anything like it. I thought it was cute.'

Kim, who notably was told by husband Kanye West in an email to stop wearing big shades, said she was influenced by the 90s and other trends for the new collection.

'There is something for everyone. I want everyone to feel included with this collaboration,' Kim said in a statement about the first release.

'We've included everything from a big statement shield to a really simple, classic shape.'
High-end fashion brand Chanel has released a 'playful' new bag that fashion bloggers are predicting could be the latest fashion craze this summer.

The lambskin side-packs, which come in a variety of colours and sizes, feature two bags which are connected by straps and joined in the middle with the brand's signature logo.

The 5,350 product comes in bold yellow or red and is also on offer in a more neutral option of white or beige.

A larger version of the side-packs, which were seen on Chanel's Spring Summer tropical beach inspired runway show at the Grand Palais in Paris, are available in classic black or white and have the steeper price tag of 6,800.

Chanel's new side-pack style is worn with a bag over each shoulder, pictured on a model during Paris Fashion Week, and the straps are clipped together in the middle

The bag comes in a variety of colours and sizes. Pictured is the large black lambskin side-pack which has a price tag of 6,800 being worn by a model at Chanel's Spring/Summer 2019 show

Handbag blogger Linh Trang was one of the first to praise Chanel's newest creation and said that it could be the start of a new trend.

The fashionista noted how Chanel has been responsible for a number of recent crazes, such as making the backpack 'cool' again and giving the waist bag a moment in the spotlight.

'Chanel feels like Apple after the year 1997, when Steve Jobs was the captain of the ship,' she explained.

'Every new release came with something innovative and cool; the competitors were always chasing.'

The standard size bag, which measures 16  19  6 cm and costs 5350, comes in four colours. Pictured, the yellow lambskin design

Fashion bloggers have suggested the 'playful' bags, pictured left in white and right in beige, might be the next IT bag as Chanel is known for setting trends

The side-packs, pictured in bright red, are joined in the middle by a clip meaning there's several of the brand's logos on the bag

'And now a new bag has arrived, its the Chanel Side-Packs Bag. The Side-Packs is playful because it offers a new way of carrying.'

The blogger commended the unusual bag for its multiple ways of being carried and for giving fashionistas more space to carry essential items.

She explained how users could use each strap on one shoulder as if it were a backpack or carry it on the front with a bag on each hip.

As there's two packs the weight is more evenly spread making it comfortable to wear and giving a similar feel to a backpack.

The unusual design also comes in denim, pictured at Chanel's Spring Summer tropical beach inspired runway show at the Grand Palais in Paris runway show, and costs 4760

Models wore the side-packs, pictured in lambskin red, while walking the runway during Paris Fashion Week in October last year

Other handbag fans have also praised Chanel's Side-Packs online, with many saying they 'love it.'

One woman wrote 'sooo love these side packs! Too cute for summer,' while another commented: 'This Chanel side pack bag that keeps rolling down my timeline got my pockets burning. I love it.'

However, a third person wasn't so convinced on first look and penned: 'I am just now finding out about the Chanel side-pack and um uh wow I definitely have thoughts.'

Meanwhile, another claimed having two places to put things would only add to her daily confusion.

She tweeted: 'I have a hard enough time finding things in ONE purse, now I have to remember which purse to look in?'

The side-pack bag also comes in denim (4760) and in either a black and white or yellow and white combination for 3,710.
A cafe in Melbourne has created an eye-popping new meal that features crispy bacon hung on a mini 'Hills Hoist' with pegs.

The unique dish, priced at $27.90, comes courtesy of Third Wave Cafe, a restaurant loved by many for its outlandish culinary creations.

Its latest, aptly named The Bacon Hills Hoist, features four thick cuts of bacon 'pegged' to a line which have been brushed with maple syrup before being grilled using a blow torch.

The meal comes served with four chunky cornbread chips that have been designed to soak up the juices of the bacon as it cooks - and there's side serving of pickles.

Scroll down for video

The Bacon Hills Hoist (pictured) features four thick cuts of bacon which have been brushed with maple syrup before being grilled using a blow torch

If you wish to dispense with cutlery, it is possible to indulge in this meal using the pegs as eating implements

Those wishing to indulge in this quirky creation can visit Third Wave Cafe where the dish is available as part of restaurant's special menu running throughout April.

Since unveiling the dish on social media, thousands have given the meal the tick of approval and tagged in scores of friends they might enjoy the meal.

'This better not be an April Fool's joke,' said one.

According to Third Wave Cafe, the meal has been a hit with diners with plenty of demand for the gastronomical delight.

The restaurant has built its reputation on creating food that regularly defies all expectation and wows with its more-is-more approach.

One dish which couldn't have been more epic was its world's first 'mac and cheese pancake, priced at $52.

This mac 'n' cheese pancake comes laden with with pork nuggets, chicken wings, sweet corn, oink balls and bacon-wrapped gherkins and costs $52.90

This gargantuan dish, designed to be devoured by two hungry diners, was on offer to customers for the month of March.

It came with pulled pork nuggets, smoked chicken wings and skewered corn on the cob.

Extras included bacon wrapped pickles and oink balls (pork meatballs, wrapped in bacon) and the whole thing was topped off in style with lashings of cheese sauce.
Ice cream lovers will be able to get their hands on a free scoop, or two or three, on Tuesday, as Ben & Jerry's annual free cone day celebrations return to Australia.

The beloved ice cream parlour expect to give away over 400,000 free scoops of ice cream across the country today, and over one million scoops around the world.

From noon to 8pm on Tuesday, April 9, 2019, Ben & Jerry's will celebrate the festivities by giving people free ice cream cones.

Ice cream lovers will be able to get their hands on a free scoop, or two or three, on Tuesday, as Ben & Jerry's annual free cone day (pictured) celebrations return to Australia

The beloved ice cream parlour expect to give away over 400,000 free scoops of ice cream (pictured) across the country today, and over one million scoops around the world

According to Ben & Jerry's website, 'Every time you enjoy a scoop of Ben & Jerry's, you're showing us how much you care.

'We love you too, & Free Cone Day is our favorite way to show it!'.

So where do you need to head in order to pick up your free scoop?

In New South Wales, Ben & Jerry's Manly, HOYTS Broadway, HOYTS Penrith, HOYTS Blacktown, Ben & Jerry's Chatswood and Ben & Jerry's Bondi will be offering ice cream.

Where to get ice cream in New South Wales? * Ben & Jerry's Manly * HOYTS Broadway * HOYTS Penrith * HOYTS Blacktown * Ben & Jerry's Chatswood * Ben & Jerry's Bondi Advertisement

Where to get ice cream in Victoria? * Ben & Jerry's Flinders Lane * HOYTS Eastland * HOYTS Chadstone * HOYTS Greensborough Advertisement

From noon to 8pm on Tuesday, April 9, 2019, Ben & Jerry's will celebrate the festivities by giving the people free ice cream cones (pictured)

If you're based in Victoria, head to Ben & Jerry's Flinders Lane, HOYTS Eastland, HOYTS Chadstone or HOYTS Greensborough to get a free sweet treat.

Queenslanders have many options, including Ben & Jerry's Gold Coast, Ben & Jerry's Mooloolaba, Ben & Jerry's Pacific Fair, Ben & Jerry's Surfers Paradise, Ben & Jerry's Noosa and HOYTS Sunnybank.

Those in Western Australia have Ben & Jerry's Northbridge, Ben & Jerry's Hillarys, Ben & Jerry's Joondalup and Ben & Jerry's Fremantle to try.

Meanwhile, those in the ACT have HOYTS Woden and HOYTS Belconnen and in South Australia, there is HOYTS Norwood.

People on social media have been quick to express how excited they are about the free ice cream, with some saying it is the 'best day of the year' (pictured)

Where to go in Western Australia? * Ben & Jerry's Northbridge * Ben & Jerry's Hillarys * Ben & Jerry's Joondalup * Ben & Jerry's Fremantle Advertisement

Where to go in Queensland? * Ben & Jerry's Gold Coast * Ben & Jerry's Mooloolaba * Ben & Jerry's Pacific Fair * Ben & Jerry's Surfers Paradise * Ben & Jerry's Noosa * HOYTS Sunnybank Advertisement





Where to go in the ACT? * HOYTS Woden * HOYTS Belconnen Advertisement

Where to go in South Australia? * HOYTS Norwood Advertisement

People on social media have been quick to express how excited they are about the free ice cream.

'Best day of the year,' one person wrote on Instagram.

'It's going to be packed,' another said.

The celebration is all part of what Ben & Jerrys' call 'their global celebration of community support, fan awesomeness and funky chunks and swirls'.
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has now killed more than 700 people, according to figures.

Data from the African nations health ministry shows 721 people are now feared dead from the killer virus since the outbreak began last August.

It comes after officials warned last week that the outbreak, which has struck 1,146 people in total, is spreading faster than ever.

Aid workers are struggling to contain the outbreak, considered to be the second worst in history, behind only the 2014 epidemic in West Africa.

Data from the African nations health ministry shows 721 people are now feared dead from the killer virus since the outbreak began last August

Health personnel work inside the 'red zone' of an Ebola treatment centre in Butembo, one of two attacked in recent months

The number of cases of Ebola being reported has saw a sudden spike in March with the past two weeks both posting record numbers of people being diagnosed

The African nation's epidemic has been riddled with twists and turns making fighting it more difficult, including the threat of armed militias.

Health workers and quarantine camps have been attacked by militants, and thousands living in the Ebola zones are distrustful of aid workers.

The Democratic Republic of Congo declared its tenth ever outbreak of Ebola last August in northeastern North Kivu province.

The killer virus, which causes fevers, uncontrollable bleeding and organ failure, quickly spread into the neighbouring Ituri region.

Health workers in the city of Butembo carry a newly admitted Ebola patient to a treatment centre last week

WHAT IS MAKING THIS OUTBREAK DIFFICULT TO STOP? The current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been continuing for six months. Dr Nathalie MacDermott, an expert on Ebola at Imperial College London, shared some of her thoughts on the situation with MailOnline. Dr MacDermott said: 'The current outbreak has posed significant challenges to medical teams on the ground. 'The region has suffered several decades of ongoing conflict and militia activity. This has affected the ability of responders to engage with communities to provide awareness and encourage them to see medical teams early for testing and treatment. 'There has also been significant risk to medical teams, some of whom have been attacked, and in some cases killed, by fearful community members and militia groups operating in the region. 'As such, and despite the use of an effective vaccine, the epidemic has continued to spread to different communities. 'This was recently exacerbated by violence preventing responders accessing affected communities. This resulted from affected communities not being able to vote in national elections.' Advertisement

The World Health Organization has warned that the risk of national and regional spread remains very high.

Efforts to control the outbreak had been reasonably successful and, just weeks ago, officials hoped it would be over by September.

However, there are now fears the epidemic in the DRC  situated right in the heart of Africa - could rage on for another six months.

The DRC Health Ministry revealed that 95,000 people have now received a dose of an experimental Ebola vaccine.

Two weeks ago, 73 new cases of Ebola were recorded, following 56 in the week before  both were record numbers.

The previous worst weeks, which happened in January and November, had spikes of around 50 cases, according to official data.

And a cause of major alarm for officials is that the cases appear to be spreading in areas situated away from treatment centres.

This means there is a higher chance the patients have spread the infection before they are diagnosed, because it may take longer for them to get treatment.

In the past two months, five Ebola centres have been attacked, some by armed militiamen.

This violence led French medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) to suspend its activities in two of the most affected areas.

Another challenge has been a mistrust of first responders. A quarter of people sampled in two Ebola hotspots did not believe the disease was real, a survey found.

THE HISTORY OF EBOLA IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO SINCE THE KILLER VIRUS WAS FIRST DISCOVERED THERE IN 1976 CASES DEATHS DEATH % STRAIN AREA 1976 318 280 88% Zaire Yambuku (Equater) 1977 1 1 100% Zaire Tandala 1995 315 250 79% Zaire Kikwit 2007 264 187 71% Zaire Luebo/Mweke 2008/09 32 15 47% Zaire Luebo/Mweke 2012 36 13 36% Bundibugyo Orientale 2014 69 49 71% Zaire Equater 2017 8 4 50% Zaire Likati 2018 (May) 54 33 61% Zaire Kinshasa 2018-ongoing 1,089 679 62% Zaire North Kivu/Ituri
As more states make it legal to smoke marijuana, some worry what that might mean for one of the country's 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.

Marijuana advocates say there's 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 US.

Unlike cigarettes, there is evidence of certain health benefits from marijuana, such as easing chronic pain.

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 doesn't 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 alternative's long-term effects.

Researchers and policymakers are worried that as more US states legalize recreational marijuana, it will lead to a rise in Americans smoking cigarettes. Pictured: A man smokes marijuana at a Spleef NYC canna-cocktail party in New York, March 2019

SMOKING POT VS TOBACCO

While cigarette smoking is the top risk factor for lung cancer, some scientific evidence suggests there's no link between marijuana smoking and lung cancer.

That's according to a 2017 federal report that rounded up nearly two decades of studies on marijuana, research that's been limited by the federal government's classification of marijuana as a controlled substance like heroin.

While cigarette smoking is a major cause of heart disease, the report concluded it's unclear whether marijuana use is associated with heart attacks or strokes.

But there's 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 PUBLIC HEALTH EFFECTS OF LEGALIZING RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA Marijuana is now legal for recreational use in 10 states and for medical use in 33 (including those where it is also legal for recreational use). Research on public health outcomes in states where recreational use is legal has yielded a mixture of positive and negative outcomes. As these states were early adopters, much of this research focuses on Colorado and California. POSITIVE OUTCOMES: Colorado saw a six percent drop in opioid overdose deaths in the two years following the legalization of recreational cannabis there, according to a study published in 2017. Perhaps unsurprisingly, more adolescents use marijuana in any other state in the US. But, since weed was legalized for recreational use in 2014, teens have actually been drinking less alcohol, using other drugs less and even using cannabis at the lowest rates in a decade. NEGATIVE OUTCOMES: There has been an uptick in hospitalizations for marijuana exposure in states where the drug is legal for recreational use. Public health officials have noted a particularly sharp rise among teen ER visits for pot exposure. So-called 'drugged-driving' has climbed sharply in states where marijuana is legal. In fact, in 2016, half of all people who died in car accidents had marijuana, opioids or both in their systems at the time of death, according to a Governors Highway Association study. Advertisement

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.

The National Academies report found pot use likely increases the risk of dependence on other substances, including tobacco.

'One substance reinforces the use of the other, and vice versa, which can escalate a path to addiction,' said Dr Sterling McPherson, a professor at the University of Washington studying marijuana and tobacco use among teens.

To some public health officials, it makes sense to legalize marijuana and put some guardrails around it.

'For tobacco, we know that it's inherently dangerous and that there is no safe amount of tobacco to use,' said 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.

SO WHAT ABOUT VAPING?

Vaping - heating a solution into a vapor 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 there's little research on the health effects over time.

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.

A report from the Surgeon General stated that one in five high school students and one in 20 middle school students currently use e-cigarettes.

Others, though, think policymakers 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,' said Dr Rebecca Haffajee, an assistant professor of health management and policy at the University of Michigan.

TWO VIEWS

As a former cigarette smoker, New Yorker Gary Smith is dismayed that his home state might legalize recreational pot.

He knows research hasn't tied smoking marijuana to lung cancer, which killed three cigarette smokers in his family and struck him 20 years after he quit.

He's since been treated, but he fears the respiratory risks of marijuana smoking aren't fully known.

'It's crazy that the government, in order to raise [revenue from] taxes, they're permitting people to suck this stuff into your lungs,' said Smith.

Hawaii physician and Democratic congressman Richard Creagan feels no less strongly about cigarettes.

The ex-smoker unsuccessfully proposed a bill this year that would all but ban cigarettes by raising the legal smoking age to 100.

Meanwhile, he'd like Hawaii to legalize recreational marijuana, an idea that fizzled in the state Legislature this year.

Creagan, 73, thinks pot benefits people's 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 was sort of in my head,' he said.


Restaurants should be banned from offering children unhealthy desserts as part of fixed-price menus, leading doctors have said.

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health said stopping the practice could help curb soaring rates of childhood obesity.

Free treats offered by restaurants as part of menus can include ice creams, cakes, and other sweet treats.

One third of UK children aged two to 15 are now categorised as overweight or obese, according to Public Health England figures.

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health urged free desserts that come as part of a fixed-price menu to be banned to curb childhood obesity

Almost two-thirds (64 per cent) of chain restaurants offer a fixed-price menu in which a dessert is included, according to a survey by the Obesity Health Alliance in February.

Some 87 per cent of the desserts offered were unhealthy. Some did, however, offer fresh fruit.

HOW FAT ARE BRITISH CHILDREN? English children are fatter than ever  official data revealed last October that one in every 25 10 to 11-year-olds are severely obese, the fattest possible category. And out of around 556,000 children of primary school-leaving age in the UK, 170,000 are overweight to some degree, figures showed in May last year. More than one in five 11-year-olds are obese  equivalent to around 111,000 children  and being so fat means they are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer or have a stroke. The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health say children should be weighed every year at school because 'danger is on the horizon' and the UK is lagging behind the rest of the EU in tackling obesity. Experts have also warned children gain weight 'at a drastic rate' when they're at school. Sugar in food is known to be contributing to the swelling waistlines of children, with huge amounts of popular foods crammed full of sugar. A sugar tax has reduced the effects of some soft drinks, but breakfast cereals can still contain more than 70 per cent of an entire day's sugar in a single bowl. Even a single can of Coca Cola (35g of sugar) or one Mars bar (33g) contain more than the maximum amount of sugar a child should have over a whole day. Advertisement

The RCPCH has now urged ministers to consider a ban after they consulted on more measures to restrict promotions on foods high in fat, salt and sugar, according to The Times.

Max Davie, the RCPCH's officer for health improvement, suggested that families often give their children the dessert because it is value for money.

He said: 'As a parent myself, when I go to a restaurant and use a children's menu, I feel pressured to allow my children to always have a pudding, even if they are full, because we have "paid for it".'

Last year 26,000 under-tens were taken to hospital with rotten teeth. Being overweight increases the risk of major health problems including type two diabetes.

The RCPCH recommendations come after it was revealed in January that British children consume 22 stones (140kg) of sugar before the age of ten.

From the age of two, children are consuming an average of almost 2oz of sugar  52g  a day. This is more than twice the recommended daily maximum.

Children are exposed to unhealthy food messages every day - half of television food and drink adverts seen by children are for unhealthy items or for fast food restaurants, according to research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Evidence shows that exposure to food advertising can have both an immediate and longer term impact on childrens health by encouraging them to eat both straight after seeing the advert and altering their food preferences.

Strict new rules came into effect in July 2017 banning the advertising of foods that are high in fat, sugar and salt in childrens media content, including online platforms.

Junk food adverts during childrens television programmes have been banned since 2007.

But the IFS found 70 per cent of TV campaigns for products high in fat, sugar and salt or restaurants and bars were now screened before the 9pm watershed.

In a major crackdown this year, the government implemented bans on two-for-one deals on junk food and adverts on London's public transport.

Consultation on the latest phase of the childhood obesity strategy  including a ban on junk food advertising before the 9pm watershed  is already under way.

Calorie content in ready meals, sandwiches and dishes served in restaurants must be cut by 2024 under the Government's plans.

And latest figures suggest food manufacturers have cut sugar levels by an average of just two per cent, against targets of five per cent.
A mother has told how she suffered a stroke aged just 29 which doctors fear was triggered by giving birth just two weeks before.

Lexy Walton-Godfrey, from Blidworth, Nottinghamshire, claims her stroke felt like a huge magnet was pulling her down.

Mrs Walton-Godfrey has now credited her husband, Chris, for saving her life, saying without his quick reactions she could have died.

However, she has been left with short term memory loss because of her stroke, and has become reluctant to speak because of her slurred speech.

Lexy Walton-Godfrey, from Blidworth, Nottinghamshire, suffered a stroke aged just 29 which doctors fear was triggered by giving birth just two weeks before

Mrs Walton-Godfrey, who is mother to six-year-old Mia and six-week-old Hollie, said the stroke came on like the 'most intense feeling ever'.

She said: 'It felt like a huge magnet was pulling me down to the floor and I had an excruciating pain in the right hand side of my head.

'My husband noticed me and I was trying to shout "help me" but no words would come out.'

Mrs Walton-Godfrey gave birth to her second daughter, Hollie, in February through a C-section.

Just 17 days later, on March 2, after having a normal day with her family, Mrs Walton-Godfrey suffered her stroke.

She said: 'After being rushed to hospital, doctors could only point to my C-section as a risk factor.'

Mrs Walton-Godfrey had an ischaemic stroke - the most common type of stroke, which happens when a blood clot blocks the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain.

Mrs Walton-Godfrey, who is mother to six-year-old Mia and six-week-old Hollie, has credited her husband, Chris, (pictured) for his quick reactions, saying without him she could have died

A C-section can increase the risk of developing a blood clot inside a deep vein, especially in the legs or pelvic organs, according to the Mayo Clinic, although the likelihood of this happening is unclear.

One in every four pregnant women in the UK now has a caesarean birth, often when a natural birth is deemed too risky. A rise in older mothers, obesity and fear of childbirth are said to be behind the soaring rates of caesaereans.

Mrs Walton-Godfrey now struggles to speak normally, a condition called aphasia, or to swallow properly, called dysphagia.

She said: 'Having a stroke completely turned my life upside down. Following my stroke I became quiet and reluctant to speak to people.

'I was embarrassed because my speech was slurred and I couldn't say certain words. Stroke fatigue has also been hard to deal with, especially with two young girls to care for too.

'Following my stroke, I don't feel angry, I feel calm and extremely grateful for everything I have.

'My children are my motivation, I will keep fighting for them to see their mummy back to normal.'

A stroke is the fourth biggest killer in the UK, with more than 100,000 occurring every year.

Mrs Walton-Godfrey will take part in the Resolution Run in aid of the Stroke Association on Sunday May 5 at Markeaton Park in Derby.

She said: 'I am proud to be running in the Resolution Run as a stroke survivor.

'I feel lucky to be here and able to watch my daughters grow into beautiful strong women. I'm also lucky that I have a husband who has been my rock through all of this.

'I wanted to raise money for the Stroke Association, who helped me through some dark times and to raise awareness among my peers and new mums.

'If I can help just one person, I will be happy.'

Lucy Burnip, community and events fundraiser at the Stroke Association said: 'In the UK there are around 100,000 strokes every year. Our latest research shows that by training and taking part in a Resolution Run, you are helping to lower your stroke risk.

'The funds raised by each runner means we can reach out to more stroke survivors and their families to offer the support that they may need to rebuild their lives.'

This year the charity hopes to raise over 850,000 to continue supporting stroke survivors and their families throughout the UK.
He was in Croatia, awaiting his episcopal ordination, which was to take place on May 1st, conferred by Card. Parolin. He has been in the Holy See Study Mission for China for the past 10 years. In February Pope Francis had appointed him nuncio in the Ivory Coast.

Hong Kong (AsiaNews) - Msgr. Ante Jozic, who worked in Hong Kong in the Holy See's Study Mission to China, was injured in a serious car accident yesterday in his native Croatia. He is in hospital in intensive care.

The Study Mission issued a statement asking for discretion in personally contacting Msgr. Jozic, sending messages only to the Hong Kong Mission (xavier167@biznetvigator.com).

The Study Mission also asks for prayers for Msgr. Jozic, for a speedy recovery, joining the concern of his family.

Msgr. Jozic was the head of the Study Mission for 10 years, following the evolution of relations between China and the Holy See and keeping in touch with Chinese Catholics. Last February he was appointed nuncio to the Ivory Coast. He had recently returned to Croatia awaiting his episcopal ordination, scheduled for May 1st in Split. Vatican Secretary of State, Card Pietro Parolin, was to preside over the ordination.
A woman who suffers from a rare psychological disorder that caused her to pull out every single hair on her head is set to undergo a 10,000 transplant.

Claire Jenna Ory, 24, developed trichotillomania at just ten years old when the stress of starting a new school left her with a bald patch from pulling her hair out.

Cruel bullies would try to pull Miss Ory's wig off and nicknamed her 'alien'. Unable to take much more, she attempted suicide twice at 13.

Although now in a better place, Miss Ory - who works as a circus contortionist - still suffers from the 'addiction', which she compares to the need to smoke cigarettes.

Now bald, Miss Ory's father Philippe has offered to pay for the transplant.

Claire Jenna Ory (left) has been left bald due to a rare condition that caused her to pull out every single hair on her head. She compares the impulse to an 'addiction'. The circus performer (right) is set to have a 10,000 hair transplant after wearing wigs for years

Pictured as child, Miss Ory believes her problems began with the stress of starting a new school at ten. But she also showed signs of OCD at just nine when she developed a bizarre impulse to clean. Miss Ory had a bald patch by 11 and required a wig at 12

Speaking of her disorder, Miss Ory, who lives in Bristol, said: 'The condition is like an addiction. It's like smoking cigarettes.

'It's a need and you feel a relief when you have done it.'

Miss Ory, who is Swiss, puts her condition down to the stress of starting a new school as a child.

'When you are ten in Switzerland, you go to middle school,' she said. 'It's a much bigger school, with exams and big classes.

'The stress of that had something to do with the hair-pulling, I think.

'I remember sitting at my school desk and right next to it was a clump of hair, which I had to clear up every day.'

But the impulse may have begun when she was even younger. Miss Ory developed OCD at just nine years old, which left her with an overwhelming desire to clean.

By the time Miss Ory turned 12, her bald patch was so severe she had to shave her head and wear a wig.

'Kids can be really cruel, playing with your wig and pulling it off in class,' she said.

'They don't realise how important it is to you. They make fun of you and call you "alien".

'It made things really dark. I was afraid of everyone. You don't trust people.

'I had friends, and they were the one reason I was going to school, but I was always thinking "is that person going to try to find a way to see me bald?".'

Miss Ory - who tours the country as a circus contortionist - has worn a wig for decades, which makes it difficult for her to perform. Miss Ory often worries sweat will displace her wig, exposing her bald scalp to the audience (pictured with her wig)

WHAT IS TRICHOTILLOMANIA? Trichotillomania is a psychological disorder that causes sufferers to pull out their hair. It is more common in females and usually develops in early life. A person's lifetime risk of developing trichotillomania is thought to be 0.6 per cent. Yet many are embarrassed by their condition and attempt to hide it, causing many causes to be undiagnosed. The condition varies in severity but most commonly includes hair pulling from the scalp, eyebrows, eyelashes and pubic area. Some sufferers also suck or chew their hair, which can cause digestive issues if swallowed. Treatment usually includes counselling. Source: OCD UK Advertisement

Desperate for relief, Miss Ory tried numerous treatments, but none helped.

'I tried everything to stop pulling - elastic round my wrists, pulling hair from dolls, medication, hypnotherapy,' she said.

'It didn't work. I had therapists but they'd never had a patient who pulled their hair before.'

Unable to see a way out, Miss Ory attempted to take her own life.

'I couldn't take being at school,' she said. 'The bullying didn't help, but I couldn't just sit in a classroom.

'I wonder if in my whole life I spent a whole week at school without missing a class.'

Shortly before Miss Ory turned 14, her mother Stephanie took her own life.

The then-teenager received treatment in a psychiatric hospital over the next two months, during a time she describes as a 'constant depression'.

'My only goal was to survive, to go another day,' Miss Ory said.

After her stay in hospital, Miss Ory enrolled at a school in the Swiss city of Lausanne, which she says was 'like a hippie community'.

Originally from Switzerland, Miss Ory made peace with her condition when she moved to Bristol to train to be contortionist at 18. Miss Ory had previously faced bullies who called her 'alien' and drove her to attempt suicide at 13. And her mother took her life when she was 14

'There was a lot of focus on things like art and singing,' she said. 'They were really supportive, more than at my old school.

'They knew the kids were there for a reason and that we needed to express ourselves.'

Despite feeling happier in school, Miss Ory's hair-pulling continued, which she partially puts down to a lack of awareness around the disorder.

'Nobody knew about it, or even the name of the condition,' she said. 'You have no idea why it is happening. You are thinking "why am I doing this?"

'The horrible thing about it is you are doing it to yourself. It isn't socially acceptable.'

Since the move, Miss Ory says she is a 'completely different person' and has found her 'family'

She even credits moving to Bristol at 18, to train in the circus at Circomedia school, for saving her life.

'Before that I was letting other people decide things for me and all I wanted was my mum,' Miss Ory said.

'Moving here was me doing something for myself. I am a totally different person since coming here. Bristol is like a big family. I make friends everywhere I go.

'I have learned to hold myself back from panic. I try not to be stressed about things as much.'

Miss Ory's confidence has come on leaps and bounds. She now performs at circuses across the country, as well as working as a hair and make-up artist.

But despite her optimism, Miss Ory still has her bad days.

'I still struggle with the picture I have of myself,' she said. 'I can't remember what it feels like to have a full head of hair.'

Looking to the future, Miss Ory is excited about finally having luscious locks.

'I am really excited for the transplant,' she said. 'It's about not having any worries about whether my wig is attached.

'If I sweat it means three hours of washing my hair and changing the adhesive. It's something to worry about every day.'

Miss Ory is one of the young people interviewed in a new documentary by filmmaker Arthur Cauty called Faces of Mental Health.

The short film 'challenges stigma and encourages open conversation around mental illness and suicide in young people', Mr Cauty said.

Miss Ory delivers the closing line of the documentary: 'Open up. Don't be scared. It can save your life.'

She is speaking out to raise awareness of trichotillomania after other young sufferers have reached out to her.

'I have had messages from teenagers saying they had been pulling their hair out for years and they had been hiding it so no one knew,' Miss Ory said.

'They told me that my speaking out had really helped them. It was a really nice feeling to hear that.'
A man who has been left bedridden due to his gigantic leg is pleading with doctors to amputate the limb.

Muhammad Mushtaq has elephantiasis - caused by a parasitic infection that stops the lymphatic system from draining unwanted fluid and toxins from its tissues.

This has caused the 40-year-old's left leg to swell to ten times its normal size over the past two years. It now weighs in at an enormous 330lbs (150kg).

The former butcher, who was forced to give up work, now relies on his brother and sister-in-law to meet his 'basic needs'.

Mr Mushtaq, of Gujranwala, Pakistan, claims a local doctor said surgery to treat his leg could be deadly.

He is now appealing to his government to pay for him to see another medic, even if it means being told his only option is amputation.

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Muhammad Mushtaq (pictured) has been left bedridden due to his 330lbs (150kg) leg

Mr Mushtaq suffers from elephantiasis, which occurs when the lympathic system becomes impaired due to a parasitic infection. Pictured before the ordeal, he used to work as a butcher

Speaking of his condition, Mr Mushtaq said: 'This is extremely painful for me, I have to depend on others for my basic needs.

'I am locked in my room the entire day and I need the help of six people to lift me because of my weight.'

Mr Mushtaq's gigantic leg combined with his inactive lifestyle has caused him to balloon to an obese 658lbs (298kg).

Mr Mushtaq - who recently lost his parents - first noticed a lump on his leg two years ago.

After ignoring it for three months, the mass rapidly grew until he was unable to hide it under clothes.

'I was living a normal life until two years ago,' Mr Mushtaq said. 'I noticed a small lump around my left thigh just below the hips.

'It was very small at first and because of the fear of embarrassment, I didn't show it to anyone.

'Gradually it started growing and within three months it grew so big I couldn't hide it anymore.

'I went to see a local family doctor who asked me to go to Lahore or Karachi for proper check-up.'

Mr Mushtaq traveled 50miles (80km) from his hometown to the Mayo Clinic in the city of Lahore, Punjab.

He claims doctors said his condition was so severe that surgery could be life-threatening.

'I was highly disappointed when doctors told me surgery could kill me,' Mr Mushtaq said.

'They gave me medicines to treat [a] fungal infection but said there was no way to treat the condition as the infection had reached the veins and I could lose blood in surgery.'

Mr Mushtaq (pictured while ridden with elephantiasis) has been told surgery could be life-threatening. He hopes another doctor will help but accepts amputation may be necessary

Mr Mushtaq's leg began to swell two years ago when he noticed a lump around his hip. It is now ten times its normal size, leaving him dependent on his relatives to meet his 'basic needs'

Mr Mushtaq leg is 'extremely painful' and has left him 'depressed'

Mr Mushtaq's neighbour Dr Ruman-ul-Haq is helping him get in touch with specialists who may be able to treat his condition.

'Mr Mushtaq lives in my neighbourhood and I have known him since my childhood,' Dr Ruman-ul-Haq said.

'He was depressed after doctors told him his operation is not possible as it could be life-threatening and surgery could lead to blood loss.

'We have heard of Professor Naushad from Civil Hospital in Karachi who treated a similar patient.

'This has given Mohammed hope that we will find his treatment somewhere.'

Mr Mushtaq added: 'If there is no treatment that can save my leg that's fine, I want my 21-stone leg amputated if that's the case though.

'I'm appealing to the government to provide me treatment.'
A mother has revealed a rare condition known as 'breastfeeding dysphoria' caused her to feel intense dread every time she released milk.

Deena Todd, from, Yeovil, Somerset, had overwhelming feelings of homesickness and anxiety which left her in tears every time she breastfed.

It led the 31-year-old to even regret having her daughter, Isla, who is now five. She also suffered the same dread with her second child, Koby.

Ms Todd says doctors dismissed her and said she had postnatal depression, despite her feeling completely normal when she wasn't breastfeeding.

After researching online she discovered a potential cause of her bizarre feelings, called dysphoric milk ejection reflex, also known as D-MER.

Her suspicions of the condition were confirmed after the birth of Koby, now eight months. However, she was able to cope with her feelings better with him.

Deena Todd, 31, from, Yeovil, Somerset, has revealed a rare condition known as 'breastfeeding dysphoria' that caused intense dread every time she released milk

Ms Todd, pictured after the birth of her second child, Koby, now eight months, said she was able to cope better after she read about dysphoric milk ejection reflex in 2013

Ms Todd said: 'The first time it happened was in hospital when I fed my daughter for the first time.

'Initially I just felt the most intense bout of homesickness. I went to boarding school throughout my childhood and it was like the first day of that all over again.

'Then this intense feeling of dread kicked in. It's hard to explain but other mothers I know have described it as like killing a family dog.

'After that, I would get severe bouts of anxiety, depression and homesickness every time I breastfed, which I started associating with my daughter.

'It got so bad that when I knew I was going to pump, or breastfeed, I would just burst into tears knowing the feelings would come back.'

D-MER is relatively unheard of among medics, according to Ms Todd, and there are no known figures of who is affected.

Charities say research is underway to understand the mechanism behind the body's response to releasing milk.

D-MER is thought to happen due to a drastic drop in dopamine that occurs whenever milk is released.

Ms Todd revealed she associated negative feelings and regret with her newborn daughter, Isla, who is now five, before finding out about D-MER

Ms Todd would feel overwhelming feelings of homesickness and anxiety which left her in tears every time she breastfed. Pictured, breastfeeding her son, Koby

Ms Todd, feeding Koby, said: 'It's hard to explain but other mothers I know have described it as like killing a family dog'

For prolactin levels to rise to make more milk, dopamine levels must drop.

But in a mother with D-MER, her dopamine will drop faster than normal which causes the negative feelings, experts believe.

Over her first few days of motherhood, Ms Todd said the bizarre sensation was so severe it left her regretting becoming a mother and unable to bond with her baby.

She said: 'These feelings only came on as I was breastfeeding, and right before I started.

'But before I knew it was a condition I just thought it was a normal way that a woman felt after having a baby.'

Ms Todd visited her doctor who, she claims, dismissed her feelings off as postnatal depression.

But the mother said she couldn't understand why when she only felt down at the moment that she fed Isla.

She started digging and found forums filled with mothers suffering the same issues.

It was only after she diagnosed herself from online research in 2013 that she understood she was suffering from a real but little-known condition.

She said: 'By the time I knew that what I was feeling was a genuine condition, the damage had been done, and I had already started to feel like I regretted having a daughter.

D-MER is believed to be caused by abnormal fluctuations in the hormones involved in breastfeeding. Pictured, Ms Todd breastfeeding Koby

Ms Todd claims doctors dismissed her postnatal depression, despite her feeling completely normal when she wasn't breastfeeding. Pictured with Koby as a baby

Ms Todd said D-MER made her feel like a bad mother and now she is raising awareness of the relatively unknown condition. Pictured, Isla and Koby

'I knew I had to care for my daughter, but I also worried that the feelings wouldn't go. D-MER stopped me from being able to feel like a mum.'

But despite having a rocky start to motherhood, Ms Todd knew there was hope.

She said: 'Once I realised that it was normal, and I had a name for how I was feeling, I knew it would pass and it felt amazing, I was just so relieved.'

Ms Todd went on to have another child, Koby, which she felt more prepared for.

She said: 'When I had my second child, Koby, I knew what was wrong with me when I was breastfeeding, which made everything so much easier, I wasn't scared, I had my own coping mechanisms.

'There's nothing you can do to medicate this specific condition, you have to find your own way out, but it's all about understanding why it's happening and realising that it will go when you stop nursing.'

Ms Todd is now determined to raise awareness by encouraging anyone who believes they may also have D-MER to speak out.

She said: 'D-MER made me feel like a bad mother, or that I shouldn't be one.

'The problem with the condition is that because nobody knew anything about it, I thought it was me.

'I didn't know it was a condition and doctors brushed it off.

'We really need more doctors to know what this condition is, there will be mothers sat at home now who feel like they shouldn't be mums.'
They're known for being spicy and giving your meal a little kick.

But now scientists say chili peppers may have more use than just adding some fire to a curry - and could even tackle cancer.

Tests have suggested capsaicin, the compound that gives chili peppers their kick, may the disease from spreading.

They're known for being spicy and giving your meal a little kick. But now scientists say chili peppers may have more use than just adding some fire to a curry

Researchers at Marshall University, West Virginia, examined the effects of capsaicin on three types of cancer cell in the laboratory.

The team of scientists discovered the compound stopped the first step of cancer spreading, known as metastasis.

And tests on mice battling metastatic cancer found those who consumed capsaicin had smaller areas of aggressive cancer cells in their lung.

Further trials showed capsaicin suppressed lung cancer metastasis by blocking a protein that plays a role in cell growth, called Src.

The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Investigative Pathology in Orlando, Florida.

Jamie Friedman, a PhD candidate who led the study, said: 'Lung cancer and other cancers commonly metastasize to secondary locations like the brain, liver or bone, making them difficult to treat.

'Our study suggests that the natural compound capsaicin from chili peppers could represent a novel therapy to combat metastasis in lung cancer patients.'

Mr Friedman added: 'We hope that one day capsaicin can be used in combination with other chemotherapeutics to treat a variety of lung cancers.

WHAT IS LUNG CANCER? Lung cancer is one of the most common and serious types of cancer. There are 46,400 cases of lung cancer in Britain each year and 35,500 deaths, making it the biggest cancer killer. In the US, around 230,000 new diagnoses are made each year, while the disease kills around 140,000 people. Most patients who get lung cancer, which is often symptomless in its earliest stages, are smokers or former smokers. There are usually no signs or symptoms in the early stages of lung cancer, but many people with the condition will eventually develop symptoms. Only one in ten patients is still alive five years after their diagnosis because the illness has often spread elsewhere, figures suggest. Source: NHS Choices Advertisement

'However, using capsaicin clinically will require overcoming its unpleasant side effects, which include gastrointestinal irritation, stomach cramps and a burning sensation.'

There are 46,400 cases of lung cancer in Britain each year and 35,500 deaths, making it the biggest cancer killer.

In the US, around 230,000 new diagnoses are made each year, while the disease kills around 140,000 people.

Most patients who get lung cancer, which is often symptomless in its earliest stages, are smokers or former smokers.

Only one in ten patients is still alive five years after their diagnosis because the illness has often spread elsewhere, figures suggest.

It is not the first time researchers have found capsaicin  a form of vanilloid  has cancer-fighting properties.

Scientists say it triggers a cell receptor called TRPV1 which controls which substances the cancerous growth can feed on.

As it fights to battle this, the growth eventually self-destructs. As more and more cancer cells die, the tumour is stopped from growing larger.

Other experiments have found the family of compounds capsaicin belongs to can kill cancer cells by attacking their powerhouse, the mitochondria.

But experts have repeatedly warned that it is unlikely just eating lots of spice alone could help to combat any form of cancer.
A woman who went through the menopause aged 20 has launched a desperate crowdfunding appeal to have her dream baby.

Jade Burns, 30, was devastated when she learned she'd be unable to conceive having been diagnosed with premature ovarian failure (POF).

She hadn't suffered typical menopause symptoms, but was concerned that she had never had a period when starting university.

The healthcare worker has since suffered two miscarriages after becoming pregnant through IVF via an egg donor.

Now, her and her husband, Jon Burns, 30, are no longer eligible for more IVF through the NHS in her area, in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, because they have had two rounds.

In a last ditch attempt to start a family, the couple are hoping to raise the 9,000 to try IVF another time.

Jade and John Burns, both 30, have launched a crowdfunding appeal for 9,000 to have the baby they have always dreamed of

Jade Burns, 30, was devastated when she learned she'd be unable to conceive having been diagnosed with premature ovarian failure at the age of 20

The healthcare worker suffered two miscarriages after becoming pregnant via an egg donor. Now the couple are no longer eligible for more IVF on the NHS in their area

Mrs Burns said: 'I feel like this is our last chance. I always said I would try three times and that would be it.

'I've thought about what my baby will look like, what we will call them, what school they would go to and what colour we'd paint the nursery.

'I can't see our lives without children in them. It's not really an option.'

Having never had a period, Mrs Burns visited the GP at the age of 20 and after blood tests three weeks later was diagnosed with POF.

Mrs Burns said: 'I hadn't really had any hot flushes, but I did have aches and fatigue - although I'd put that down to another health condition.

'About three weeks after I visited the GP, just before my 21st birthday, they told me I'd gone into early menopause.'

Mrs Burns added: 'It was a shock. I'd never expected them to say that. I love children and always knew I'd want a family so it was extremely hard to comprehend.

Mrs Burns had known engineer Mr Burns since they were 13 and the pair became a couple a year after Mrs Burns' diagnosis before getting married in October 2016

Seven weeks after having her first embryo implanted in April 2018, Mrs Burns had a miscarriage despite the pregnancy going well

WHAT IS PREMATURE OVARIAN FAILURE? Premature ovarian failure is a loss of the normal function of the ovaries before a woman turns 40. If the ovaries fail, they do not produce enough of the hormone oestrogen or release eggs regularly. This often results in infertility. Premature ovarian failure affects around one in 1,000 women aged 15-to-29 and one in 100 aged 30-to-39. It is different to premature menopause in that sufferers of the former condition have irregular periods for years and can even become pregnant. But symptoms are often similar to menopause and include: Irregular or skipped periods

Difficulty conceiving

Hot flushes

Night sweats

Vaginal dryness

Irritability or difficulty concentrating

Reduced libido A woman should see her GP if she has missed her period for three months or more. Premature ovarian failure may occur due to genetic defects, exposure to toxins like chemotherapy or an autoimmune disease. It is more common in women over 35 and in those with a family history of the disorder. Restoring oestrogen levels may help to prevent complications like osteoporosis that can occur as a result of low oestrogen. Calcium and vitamin D supplements may also be important here. There is no treatment that is proven to restore fertility in premature ovarian failure patients. IVF via donor eggs may be an option for some couples. Source: Mayo Clinic Advertisement

'I started to worry about my future. I was single at the time and wondered if I'd ever meet anyone who would want to marry me if I couldn't have children.

'You don't feel like much of a woman. You feel like you've aged 30 years in the space of a couple of hours.'

For most women, the menopause starts between the ages of 45 and 55.

Both in the UK and US, approximately one in every 100 women under the age of 40, one in 1,000 women under 30 and one in 10,000 under 20 experience POF.

Mrs Burns had known engineer Mr Burns since they were 13 and the pair became a couple a year after Mrs Burns' diagnosis with POF, before getting married in October 2016.

Mrs Burns said: 'Jon always knew about my diagnosis and that if we were to have children it would be through IVF and egg donation.'

The pair had IVF and egg donor funding acknowledged in December 2016, two months after their wedding, and were matched with three donors between April and November 2017. Unfortunately these fell through.

They got a call to say they'd been matched with fourth donor on November 10, 2017. The couple had 13 embryos made, two of which were viable.

In April 2018, Mrs Burns had her first embryo implanted, just a couple of days after her 30th birthday. But seven weeks later she miscarried.

She said: 'After an agonising two week wait we got our first positive pregnancy test and were over the moon. We could see this little dot on the scan.

'It was going really well but then at five weeks I started bleeding. I had a reassurance scan and all seemed okay.

'But a week later I went to the doctor because I'd been feeling sick and I started miscarrying in the doctor's surgery. At seven weeks I miscarried.

'It was incredibly distressing. I went to the hospital and they gave me a cremation form and that was the worst moment. At that moment I realised what they were telling me.'

Three months later the couple tried again with the second embryo - but Mrs Burns miscarried again at six weeks pregnant.

She said: 'When we found out I was pregnant the second time we felt more apprehensive. We'd told a lot of people the first time but kept it to ourselves the second time for fear of jinxing it.

Three months after the first miscarriage, the couple tried again with the second embryo - but Mrs Burns miscarried again at six weeks pregnant. Pictured, the first positive pregnancy test

Mrs Burns said there wasn't much support after her miscarriages. Pictured, the scan of her first baby before she lost it

Mr and Mrs Burns feel like they only have one more chance at having a baby of their own

'The second time was probably more difficult because I really felt like that was it - that was our last chance and that it was the end of our family.'

Mrs Burns was left suffering from anxiety and depression after. But she said: 'I've not lost hope.

'We've always thought we would try three times before considering other options such as surrogacy and adoption.

'I have a baby drawer with a little blanket and some clothes in it. We've called the babies we've lost our two little dots.'

The couple are now desperate to try once more before considering other routes and are seeking help to raise the 9,000 required.

The couple need to source another egg donor, which they say will cost 4,000, and a another round of IVF at the cost of 5,000.

Although the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends the NHS should fund women under 40 for three rounds of IVF, at the time Mrs Burns' local Clinical Commissioning Group would only fund two rounds.

She said: 'Asking for money is not what we wanted to do, but we see crowdfunding as a way of raising awareness of miscarriage, mental health and fertility.

'Miscarriage happens to one in four women. I don't feel there is a lot of support offered to help them deal with the mental and physical impact. It isn't really spoken about and that's something that needs to change.

'I also want to raise awareness of early menopause as this is still a taboo subject. One in 10,000 women under 20 experience early menopause and it effects five per cent of women under 40.'

To donate visit Mrs Burns' Just Giving page.
About a quarter of black boys in urban areas have had sex before age 13, a shocking new study finds.

Researchers said that between eight and 12 percent of all boys have had sex before reaching age 13, but it was much higher in inner cities.

While the boys had varying attitudes about intercourse, nearly 40 percent said they had 'mixed feelings' about their first sexual experience and roughly 10 percent said it was unwanted.

Some of the boys reported that they were coerced or pressured by their peers into having sex before they were ready.

The team, led by Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, says the findings show the need for early access to sex education, sexual health clinics and mental health facilities for inner city boys and teens.

A new study from Johns Hopkins Medicine has found that nearly 50 percent of African-American boys who had sex before age 13 didn't want or had 'mixed feelings' about if (file image)

In the US, the average age at which both men and women report having sex for the first time is about 17.

Past studies have found that having intercourse before age 13 is linked to higher risk of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), as well as other behavioral issues like substance use and skipping school.

For the study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, the team collected data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey and the National Survey of Family Growth run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The first survey looks at six categories of health-related behaviors that lead to death and disability in adolescents and young adults, and the second studies family life, pregnancy, contraception and infertility among US men and women.

Researchers focused on the age at which men first reported having sex and their attitudes about the experience.

Among black men, nearly 25 percent - and mostly in urban areas such as San Francisco and Memphis - said they had sex for the first time before age 13.

About 55 percent said that they wanted it to happen at the time. Meanwhile, 37 percent said they had mixed feelings about their first sexual experience and eight percent said they didn't want it to happen at all.

'Young men having sex before age 13 usually haven't received the appropriate sex education and services, and we need a better system to respond to their needs,' said senior author Dr Arik Marcell, an associate professor of pediatrics Johns Hopkins.

'The cultural double standard about sexual behavior in the US, in which it is okay for young boys, but not girls, to be sexually active, has prevented us from effectively addressing male adolescents' vulnerabilities and their healthy sexual development.'

Currently, just 24 US states and the District of Columbia require that schools teach some form of sexual education.

While these classes are usually taught between grades six and 12, the level of education can vary depending on the school and the region.

According to a 2014 study from Guttmacher Institute, fewer than half of all US high schools had a sexual education program that covered all 16 'critical sexual education topics' recognized by the CDC.

This includes the efficacy of condoms, how HIV and other STDs are transmitted and the importance of limiting the number of sexual partners.

'I have heard boys and adolescents talking about their first sex encounters in a way that suggests they didn't anticipate, understand or know what was happening or what's appropriate and what's not,' said Dr Marcell.

'I was concerned that such early sex experiences happening to boys could be unwanted and influence their future health.'

For future studies, the team wants to look at how the age at which men have sex for the first time affects future sexual experiences.

In an accompanying editorial, Dr David Bell and Dr Samantha Garbers from the department of pediatrics at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City called for more mental health counseling for boys and teens when it comes to sex.

'It is critical to engage young men in self-reflection about the real pressures US society places on them that affect their overall health and well-being,' they write.

'Any discussions associated with pressures should include topics of "what it means to be a man" and soliciting and giving consent. With the support of caring adults... boys can achieve healthier milestones without ambivalence or societal risk.'
A comedian has sparked outrage after mocking an epileptic woman who had a seizure during his show.

Andrew Schulz, of New York, was performing in New Orleans on March 30 when audience members called out asking for medical help.

This occurred after a woman - who has not been identified - was taken out by paramedics.

Mr Schulz then took to the mic to make light of the shocking events in true stand-up comedian style.

Like most dark comedy, Mr Schulz's jokes left audience members on the night - and later Twitter users - divided.

While most of the of the crowd were in hysterics, one audience member took offence, causing a spat between the two.

Epilepsy Action has called the scene 'appalling' and urges people to be more understanding.

Andrew Schulz (pictured), of New York, has left epilepsy charities outraged after making a joke out of an audience member having a seizure during his show

The woman, who has not been identified, was helped out by paramedics (pictured)

One audience member was not amused by the joke, leading to an attack from Mr Schulz

On April 7, Mr Schulz posted a ten-minute video to his YouTube channel, which has been seen 79,600 times.

He wrote: 'This was wild. I was doing shows in Orlando and all the sudden a woman in the audience passed out. Turns out she was having a seizure.

'It was crazy but hey, the show must go on.'

The video shows the organisers rushing to the woman's aid after an audience member called out for help.

Not long after, Mr Schulz returns to the stage as the epileptic woman is slowly led out. He asks her if she is okay and reassures her 'not to be embarrassed'.

After the woman left, he impersonated her shaking body during the seizure and said: 'In your mind you're not thinking anyone is going to die.

'So when you see her laughing like really going, you're like, "Yo this girl got a sense of humour".'

He adds further jeers such as, 'I'm going to roast this b**** for almost dying at my show'.

In a shortened clip posted to Mr Schulz's Twitter account yesterday, which has had more than 105,000 views, he added further fire to the fuel as he is seen mocking a concerned member of the audience.

One woman, who turned out to be a paramedic, called out, 'That's not funny', to which Mr Schulz replied: 'White women are something special. A b**** almost died and you made it about you.'

As the woman tried to explain why she was upset, he further aggravated the situation by telling her he 'didn't care'.

While Mr Schulz's fans have praised the comedian for carrying on his show, Epilepsy Action have condemned his actions.

Hattie Hodgson-Crome, a spokesperson for the charity, said: 'We are so shocked about this. People with epilepsy do not chose to have seizures and are incredibly vulnerable when they do.

'We were appalled to see Andrew Schulz openly mocking someone for having a seizure at his show.

'Epilepsy Action knows that nearly 90 per cent of people with epilepsy worry about having a seizure in public.

'Epilepsy isnt a laughing matter, nor a choice for people with the condition, who deserve to be treated with respect and understanding.'

Mr Schulz's fans on praised the comedian on Twitter for carrying on with his stand-up show

One Twitter user said they found Mr Schulz's comedy 'hilarious' even though they had epilepsy

Another Twitter user sympathised with Mr Schulz considering his show was interrupted

After radio host Anna Hummel revealed she found the humour 'so good', one Twitter user shared her outrage and said she felt 'sickened'

The charity added that radio host Anna Hummel had worsened the situation by laughing about the evening's events on social media.

In an Instagram video, Mrs Hummel - a host at 102.5 The Bone in Tampa Bay - is heard saying, 'Never have iIbeen to a comedy show where a chick has an epileptic seizure in the middle of the show.

'The headliner Andrew Schulz gets on stage and starts roasting the b****. It was off the chain, so good.'

Her comments prompted the Epilepsy Foundation in Florida to confirm they were holding talks with the radio station on April 2, but it is unclear what happened next.

Epilepsy affects around one in every 100 people in the UK and 1.2 per cent of the US population.

Epilepsy Action added: 'Epilepsy is the most common serious neurological condition in the world.

'A lot of people with the condition live with the risk that they could have a seizure at any time, often without warning.

'People with epilepsy have to deal with both the physical and emotional challenge of having seizures, as well as battle negative public attitudes about their condition.'

MailOnline has contacted Mr Schulz for comment.
A Tennessee man is suing after an e-cigarette exploded in his face and tore part of his left cheek off.

In the lawsuit, David Bishop, 25, of Cordova, said he was using the device at home before heading to work one morning in May 2018 when, suddenly, the lithium battery exploded.

The battery acid caused severe burns on Bishop's mouth, face and hands, and broke several of his teeth. It also caused the flesh to tear away from his upper lip to his lower left cheek.

The warehouse maintenance worker allegedly needed 65 stitches and had to miss work for several weeks, reported the Memphis Commercial Appeal.

Bishop filed the lawsuit against three companies involved in selling the device and the batteries in October 2018, which was transferred to federal court in February.

David Bishop, 25, from Cordova, Tennessee, has filed a lawsuit against three companies after an e-cigarette exploded in his mouth in May 2018, tearing part of his cheek off and burning him (file image)

The lawsuit states that the vaping device Bishop was using was a VGOD Pro Mech 2, which retails anywhere from $45 to $95.

Bishop is seeking damages from VGOD, a company that sells e-cigarettes; Create A Cig Cordova, the store where he bought the device; and LG Electronics.

In court documents viewed by the Commercial Appeal, Create A Cig argued that it doesn't make the vape devices or batteries and that Bishop assumed any risk when he bought the e-cigarette.

Attorneys for VGOD argued similarly, writing: '[Bishop] so carelessly and negligently conducted himself that he, by his own negligence, contributed directly and proximately to his own injuries.'

Neither company named an action Bishop performed that may have caused the explosion.

THE CONTROVERSY OVER E-CIGARETTES Electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, are are devices, often resembling cigarettes, cigars or pipes, designed to deliver nicotine or related substances to users in the form of a vapor. E-cigarettes contain a solution thats heated up and converted to an aerosol, which is then inhaled. The most common ingredients are: Nicotine

Flavorings

Colorings

Propylene glycol (a lab-made liquid found in foods but also used to make artificial smoke or fog for performances)

Glycerin (a liquid that has a slightly sweet taste)

Chemicals to heat up the liquid such as formaldehyde and acetaldehyde (both possible carcinogens) Proponents have touted that e-cigarettes are healthier, safer alternatives to traditional tobacco products. Research has found that the aerosol from e-cigarettes was significantly lower in toxins than from conventional cigarettes, although toxins could be detected. Additionally, those exposed secondhand were also at much lower risk from e-cigarettes than from traditional ones, though some risk might still exist. A January 2015 found that the cancer risk from e-cigarettes long term is estimated to be five to 15 times higher than that of smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, due to the toxic substance formaldehyde in the vapor. Advertisement

LG Electronics has filed a motion to dismiss, saying it does not make batteries but that its sister company, LG Chemical, might - which Bishop thinks makes the batteries - reported the Commercial Appeal.

Lithium battery explosions are rare but, when they occur, they can cause devastating injuries.

A 2017 report from US Fire Administration found 195 incidents of e-cigarette fires and explosions occurred between January 2009 and December 2016.

Sixty of the incidents occurred while the device was being used. Additionally, there were 133 injuries - and 38 were severe.

No deaths were recorded in the report, but at least two have been reported since.

A 38-year-old Florida man died in May 2018 after a vape pen exploded and send two projectiles into his head and burned nearly 80 percent of his body, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

And in January 2019, a 24-year-old man from Fort Worth, Texas, died after a vape pen exploded in his mouth and severed an artery in his neck, reported The Washington Post.

Use of e-cigarettes has surged since they were introduced to the US marketplace in 2007, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

And they continue to be the most used tobacco product among US teens.

A 2017 report from the US Surgeon General found a 900 percent increase in e-cig use among young people between 2011 and 2015.

This means e-cigs have surpassed cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco and other conventional products in popularity.

Bishop's legal team says that e-cigarettes are different from other devices that use lithium batteries - like laptops and cellphones - because they're put in the mouth.

'It's the prevalence and the intimacy of these devices,' David Hill, one of his attorneys, told the Commercial Appeal. 'And if they are going to be so intimately used, they should be safe."

A jury trial for Bishop's case has been scheduled for June 15, 2020, but a settlement could be made in negotiations before the date even arrives.
A tick capable of carrying a host of killer illnesses has been found in the UK for the very first time, health officials have revealed.

The Hyalomma rufipes tick - a small blood-sucking arachnid - is usually confined to Africa, Asia and parts of southern Europe.

But Public Health England has now revealed one of the ticks, 10 times larger than others, was discovered in Dorset last year.

The creature itself wasn't found to be carrying the deadly Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus (CCHF).

However, it did test positive for Rickettsia spotted fever, which can cause painful headaches, muscle cramps and skin blisters in humans.

The Hyalomma rufipes tick - a small blood-sucking arachnid - is usually confined to Africa, Asia and parts of southern Europe (stock)

The disturbing find, which could 'present a threat to public health in the UK', has been documented in the journal Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases. However, PHE said the risk of infection from CCHF in the UK is very low.

A vet at The Barn Equine Surgery in Wimborne removed the tick from a horse last September. They then sent it to PHE's tick surveillance team.

Writing in the journal, the PHE team said: 'This is the first time Hyalomma rufipes has been reported in the United Kingdom.

'The lack of travel by the horse - or any in-contact horses - suggests that this could also be the first evidence of successful moulting of a Hyalomma nymph in the UK.'

The team of researchers who found the tick was led by Kayleigh Hansford, of PHE's medical entomology and zoonoses ecology group.

Writing in the journal, they said it is suspected the tick hitched a ride on a migratory bird before landing in the UK.

Neither the infested horse, nor other horses in the stable had travelled anywhere and no further ticks were detected on any of the horses.

It is thought the tick travelled on a swallow because they are known to nest in the stables of horses and migrate from Africa to the UK for summer.

WHAT IS CRIMEAN-CONGO HAEMORRHAGIC FEVER? The World Health Organization last year named Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus as one of 10 pathogens that pose the most 'urgent' threat to humanity. Figures show the virus  most often spread through tick bites  kills around 40 per cent of humans that it strikes. The horrific illness is said to manifest 'abruptly', with initial symptoms including fever, backache, headache, dizziness and sore eyes. CCHF then progresses to nausea, diarrhoea, and sore throat. But it can quickly lead to spontaneous bleeding from the skin, mental confusion and ultimately organ failure. Advertisement

The UK climate, known to be getting warmer, is thought to be a major limiting factor for the survival of Hyalomma rufipees.

However, the unusually warm weather experienced during the summer of 2018 may have been a factor for helping it moult  become an adult.

Currently, the ticks are found in Greece, Northern China, Russia, Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Egypt, Yemen and Oman.

The World Health Organization last year named CCHF as one of 10 pathogens that pose the most 'urgent' threat to humanity.

Figures show the virus  most often spread through tick bites  kills around 40 per cent of humans that it strikes.

The horrific illness is said to manifest 'abruptly', with initial symptoms including fever, backache, headache, dizziness and sore eyes.

CCHF then progresses to nausea, diarrhoea, and sore throat. But it can quickly lead to spontaneous bleeding from the skin, mental confusion and ultimately organ failure.

Shamir Patel, a pharmacist from Chemist 4 U, told MailOnline: 'The early signs of CCHF could easily be mistaken for the flu.

'It's vital pharmacists and doctors quiz patients about whether or not they'd recently come into contact with ticks.'

He added: 'Ticks have been an ever-present risk in the UK, and up until now the biggest danger posed by these parasites was Lyme disease.

'In recent years, incidences of Lyme disease have been increasing, and both GPs and pharmacists have been able to spot the symptoms of that illness.'

Mr Patel said it is now 'vital' pharmacists and doctors educate themselves about the risks and common symptoms associated with the Hylomma tick.

The first confirmed case of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) in the UK was in a man who returned from Afghanistan in October 2012.

The 38-year-old went to an A&E unit in Glasgow, having returned from Kabul where he'd been attending a wedding. He died just 96 hours after seeking help.

There are several types of tick in the UK but the most common is the sheep tick, known scientifically as Ixodes ricinus.

They're found all over the UK, but high-risk areas include grassy and wooded areas in southern England, East Anglia, Yorkshire moors and the Scottish Highlands.

Iain Booth, a British vet, told MailOnline that humans can avoid being bitten by ticks by wearing trousers and long sleeves.

He added: 'Get into the habit of checking your own body - and the bodies of companions - for ticks. And that's obviously crucial for dogs, too.'

The threat of CCHF spreading to Europe was first raised in August last year, when the Hylomma rufipes tick was discovered for the first time in Germany.
Eleven US senators co-signed a letter to Juul demanding the company to reveal the tactics it used to target American youth with its marketing campaigns.

Led by Senator Richard Durbin, of Illinois, the group of lawmakers is also accusing the market-dominating company of contradicting its promises to address the vaping epidemic by partnering with Big Tobacco company Altria.

Altria, which sells Marlboro cigarettes - long the favorite brand of children and teens - invested almost $13 billion in Juul last year.

The New York Times reported that Juul had made financial contributions to politicians that pushed the Trump administration to 'pump the breaks on [new FDA] regulatory efforts' on e-cigarettes.

The senators' letter, released Monday, requests that Juul explain its advertising tactics and finally come clean about its business practices, which it has kept largely secret.

Lawmakers and public health officials suspect that ads like this one were designed by Juul to target children and teenagers. Now, 11 senators are demanding the company turn over documents on its marketing and business practices

Last year, over 3.6 million middle and high school children said they used e-cigarettes.

Since the introduction of the Juul, vaping has surged.

It is now up by 78 percent over rates from a decade ago.

Juul's discreet USB-like design makes it easy for teens and children to hide and its potent nicotine content gets them hooked, health officials say.

But lawmakers and scientists alike suspect that the real source of its power over young people has been in its marketing and business practices.

Early ads were pervasive on social media channels like Instagram and often featured young, attractive models and pop-y color schemes.

In the ads' wake and the explosive popularity of the Juul, the Food and Drug Administration raided the company's headquarters, lawmakers called for it to turn over documents and pull the ads.

Last year, politicians and public health officials demanded that Juul make lower nicotine-content pods for its devices and provide evidence that it was trying to combat what has been labeled the 'youth vaping epidemic.'

Now, the 11 senators who wrote to the company say that Juul seems to have done quite the opposite, noting that its devices are more popular than ever among children and teenagers.

Juul accepted nearly $13 billion from cigarette giant Altria, forming what the American Heart Association called 'a tobacco match made in heaven,' as the senators' letter noted.

'The corporate marriage between two companies that been the most prolific at marketing highly addictive nicotine products to children is alarming from a public health standpoint and demonstrates, yet again, that JUUL is more interested in padding its profit margins than protecting our nation's children,' the senators wrote.

'While JUUL has promised to address its modest voluntary efforts...[partnering with Altria] - a tobacco giant with a disturbing record of deceptive marketing to hook children onto cigarettes - JUUL has lost what little remaining credibility the company had when it claimed to care about public health.'

The New York Times also reported that the company donated money to several legislators who penned a letter to President Trump begging him to interfere with the FDA's efforts to tighten regulations on the e-cigarette industry.

Senator Durbin and his co-signers are demanding to know when and how much Juul contributed to the lawmakers in question.

'While you and your investors may be perfectly content with hooking an entire new generation of children on your tobacco products in order to increase your profit margins, we will not rest until your dangerous products are out of the hands of our nation's children,' the senators wrote in conclusion.
The work of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which held its tenth ordinary plenary assembly in Rome from 4 to 7 April, continues with its program of learning, listening, assistance and protection of the most vulnerable.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - The work of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Children, which held its tenth ordinary plenary assembly, in Rome from 4 to 7 April, continues with its program of learning, listening, assistance and protection of the most vulnerable.

In a communique, the Commission reports that in the effort to listen to and learn from the reality of abuse directly from the voice of the victims, the testimony of a sub-Saharan African mother who was the victim of child sexual abuse was heard. The testimony, which the Commission says it is grateful for, was useful for understanding the complex problems that victims / survivors of clerical sexual abuse face in their specific cultural context.

At the opening of the Assembly, the president of the Commission, Card. Sean Patrick O'Malley, O.F.M. Opening the April 4-7 Assembly, Commission President, Cardinal Sean Patrick OMalley, O.F.M. Cap. greeted members on behalf of the Holy Father.

He also conveyed Pope Francis appreciation for the Commissions assistance in initially proposing both the February Meeting with Presidents of Bishops Conferences on the Protection of Minors and the recently published safeguarding guidelines and norms for Vatican City State, the Vicariate for Vatican City and the Roman Curia.

Feedback from the February meeting indicates that the understanding of the critical role of safeguarding in the life and mission of the Church is maturing. It also indicates that much remains to be done.

In light of this and its specific mandate to advise the Holy Father and through him assist the local Church leadership, the Commission is pursuing a large number of projects including:

 Through its group Working with Survivors, the establishment of a Virtual Survivors Advisory Panel (SAP). This method of listening to, and learning from survivors in a safe and culturally familiar space, is in addition to those local SAPs already established and at various stages of development within the local Church in Brazil, Zambia and the Philippines.

 An internal study day with international experts regarding understanding sexual offending and its implications for preventing future abuse. This understanding is a key factor in proactively providing safe environments for minors.

 A substantial project on creating an audit instrument. This includes the study of materials on safeguarding guidelines and the analysis of models for monitoring the level of implementation with the aim of creating a resource to assist local churches in the creation, implementation, review and audit of safeguarding programmes.

 Research to assess the status of implementation of safeguarding education and formation in Catholic schools, beginning with pilot projects in South Africa, Colombia, India, the Philippines and Tonga.

An international academic seminar is also planned on issues related to "Confidentiality and transparency", with particular attention to canonical criminal procedures, scheduled for December 2019 and a "Latin American Symposium on Protective Environments in Churches and Civil Societies", assisted by PCPM and the Archdiocese of Bogota. The participation of the Confederation of Latin America and the Caribbean of religious men and women (CLAR), of the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM), of Catholic schools, government bodies, international NGOs and local, international media and Churches of other denominations.

The Commission's working groups have also continued their dialogue with the Congregations and dicasteries of the Roman Curia, which have particular responsibilities in the sector.
Pearl Oakley, 79, of Dudley, West Midlands, is a victim of implantable surgical mesh

At 79, Pearl Oakley worries she is doomed to spend the rest of her life in pain and housebound as a result of an operation she had 20 years ago for incontinence going horribly wrong.

Christine Doppelt, who is 76, lives in constant fear of the return of the searing agony she endured for years after a similar surgical catastrophe. She found an NHS specialist who was able to help her, but he has since moved to Singapore.

Jackie Harvey has only avoided Pearl and Christine's fate after spending 7,000 on expert private surgery.

Helen, who has graced the pages of Tatler magazine but spoke to Good Health on condition of anonymity, is half way through an extensive series of even more costly private surgery to repair the same problem.

These four are just some of the more than 6,000 women left maimed or crippled by the use of plastic mesh implants  introduced as a cheap operation for those with incontinence or prolapse.

After almost a decade of campaigning by Good Health, the NHS has admitted the material can 'migrate' and disintegrate, becoming embedded in tissue.

Last July, it said that the tape should not be used for urinary incontinence.

NICE issued new guidance last week saying that mesh should still be an option for women who have not responded to non-surgical measures for stress incontinence but that they 'should be fully informed of the risks'.

The guidelines now recommend, too, that women with 'suspected or confirmed mesh-related complications' should be investigated by consultants in centres specialising in treating these issues.

But there has been no coordinated effort, as yet, to train surgeons in how to remove the mesh without causing further damage. It is complex surgery and there are concerns about the procedures some women are being offered.

'Although a number of specialist surgeons have developed expertise in the technique, opinions vary about who has the correct skills and which doctors' organisations should provide mesh removal training and who should validate it,' says Mohammed Belal, a consultant urological surgeon at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.

More than 6,000 women left maimed or crippled by the use of plastic mesh implants (file photo)

In the meantime, thousands of women damaged by the mesh have little idea where to turn for help.

Up to one in four women experiences injuries to pelvic organs during childbirth. While most recover, thousands go on to suffer lifelong incontinence.

In the past, this was treated with skilled and complex procedures using the woman's own tissue to construct a 'sling' to support the womb or bladder.

Plastic mesh tape was introduced 30 years ago by the NHS as a cheap alternative, but there was little testing of its long-term safety before it was put on the market.

Although there are no records of the number of women who have had it, they are believed to number more than 100,000.

Many have had no problems with the implant, but in others the tape has moved and disintegrated, its tiny razor-like fragments slicing into muscles or nerves, piercing the vagina, bladder and bowel.

As well as pain and incontinence, some women have suffered such severe damage to nerves that they struggle to walk.

Until Good Health began reporting these damaged women's problems, doctors routinely dismissed their complaints.

Jackie Harvey, 50, a mother of two, runs a support group for 600 other affected women in Northern Ireland

Pearl, a twice-divorced mother of four, who is a retired auxiliary nurse from Himley, West Midlands, says she has been in 'constant agony' for years.

'This mesh has curtailed and dominated my life,' she says. 'I had three of them implanted, one on top of the other, about 18 months apart. The first one was inserted in about 1989, when the product was in its infancy. Frankly, I think I was used as a guinea pig.

'None of them cured the problem, and all three are still in situ.

'I've been told the mesh has grown into other organs and cannot be removed.

'I try to keep my problems covered up but I always have to carry spare clothing. I don't seek out company and I have become quite isolated because I never know when I'm going to be embarrassed.

'When I said none of them had worked and I was now suffering pain as well as incontinence, the surgeon got impatient with me.'

The only option left for Pearl is a sacral nerve stimulation device  which is similar to a pacemaker and produces an electrical signal to prevent the incontinence.

'Afterwards, you can't bend or pick things up off the floor and apparently these gadgets set off alarms in shops and other places,' says Pearl. 'I honestly think that at my age I can't take it.'

Christine, who lives in Fulham, West London, and is a retired psychotherapist, has been similarly incapacitated since she had the mesh inserted in 2002.

'I have been told it's far too dangerous to try to take it out,' she says. 'I could end up with a colostomy bag, which is not an attractive prospect at all.

'I have had a huge amount of pain  every time I went to the loo, and constant urinary tract infections from it,' she says. 'It turned out the mesh was eroding into my urethra.

'It was treated by burning or melting bits off the plastic with an internal laser, which has been done four times. The first was ten years ago. I had a second procedure six months later and a third two years after that.

'Then more bits started to stick into my bladder, and I had a fourth laser treatment five years ago. Now, every time I get a twinge, I worry I'm in for more agony.

'I found a specialist urogynaecologist at St George's Hospital in Tooting, South London, who knew how to do the lasering. But he went to Singapore and I worry that if it happens again there will be no one who knows what to do.'

Helen, 54, who has three children and lives in Sussex, says she had the mesh put in ten years ago for stress incontinence.

'At first it seemed to work, but within six months it moved out of place and I began to have problems going to the loo,' she says. 'I started getting urge incontinence, where the bladder goes into a spasm and shoots urine out at high pressure. It was terribly painful because your bladder is trying to expel it faster than it can.

'I was diagnosed with irritable bladder syndrome and for years I had treatment every six months to stretch my bladder, but the symptoms just got worse.

'Sex became incredibly painful but I was told that was all down to the menopause.'

Helen finally went to see a specialist who discovered the mesh was strangling the ureter where it goes into the bladder.

'On the ultrasound, it looked like a grape  so swollen that it was about to burst,' she says.

'And some of the tape was sticking into my vagina, which was why sex was painful.

'I had swelling round my ankles, wrists and face; my ankles looked as if they were broken. This was because the urine was being pushed back into my kidneys and causing inflammation and fluid retention.

'The surgeon said he would take out all the tape, which would get rid of the pain, but that the incontinence would return because my bladder wouldn't be strong enough to contain the urine.' The surgeon explained he would then use some of her labia to replace the tape.

'I had the first operation and it was a huge success  the pain has completely gone and I look as if I have lost half a stone,' says Helen. 'At the moment my bladder can't hold more than a teacup of urine  but at least I'm not in pain and it doesn't come shooting out.'

Jackie, 50, a civil servant and mother-of-two who lives in Banbridge, Co. Down, Northern Ireland, set up an Irish branch of the women's pressure group Sling The Mesh in 2016. Within three years her network grew from 50 to 600.

Jackie had the mesh implanted after giving birth in 2005.

'It worked fantastically with no side-effects for seven years, then it began to deteriorate and I was in terrible pain,' she says.

In 2015, she went back to the surgeon  but 'she refused to believe it was the cause of my pain and said my problems were nothing to do with the mesh'.

Jackie then paid 800 for an ultrasound scan which showed the mesh was in the wrong place  but still, she says, she wasn't believed. When a rheumatologist diagnosed her with fibromyalgia  a condition characterised by

widespread pain  she was put on a waiting list to see a specialist. But it was the same specialist who'd already told her there was nothing wrong with her.

'There was no point waiting to see someone who was almost certain to turn me away again,' she says. 'I had a life to live and I wanted to live it.'

Last year, Jackie paid 7,000 to have the mesh removed privately by Natalia Price, a surgeon who also works in the NHS in Oxford and who'd been recommended by other patients.

'Although it was instant relief from the pain, I'm now getting nerve problems with my back and legs,' she says.

Helen is due to have an expert pelvic repair with the old-fashioned stitching method, using the patient's own tissue. However, the introduction of the mesh means very few gynaecologists or urologists now have the specialist skills required for this intricate surgery.

More than 6,000 women have come forward via the Sling The Mesh pressure group complaining of damage from implanted surgical mesh.

In July, the NHS agreed to suspend the use of mesh for incontinence but the British Society of Urogynaecology, which represents most of the surgeons using the mesh, then issued a statement claiming 95 per cent of mesh implant operations were problem free.

As things stand, NHS England is still meant to be deciding on the criteria for specialist mesh removal centres.

However, some senior doctors predict that the consultation  which may result in as few as five recognised centres  will lead to a turf war as specialists bicker over who has the right to the jobs and the lucrative NHS contracts.

Meanwhile, a subgroup of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) has circulated a list of 25 centres where there are urogynaecological surgeons.

But in a letter sent to the centres last July, David Richmond, president of the RCOG, warned: 'Being on the list does not endorse competency but merely compliance with correct personnel and agreement to correct processes.' Mr Belal suggests there are still going to be long waiting lists.

'The repairs using the women's own tissue do not always work, and because of the introduction of the mesh, we now don't have a sufficient body of people able to do the treatment,' he says

Kath Sansom, who runs Sling The Mesh, said: 'We want a national standalone centre where doctors have the right skills and training, and patients can feel safe.

'At the moment, there are only five specialists in the country who we think have the necessary expertise and we would recommend. We want to see a programme where these surgeons are used to train others.'
There is a very special bond between four-year-old Rory and his father, Stuart Blair. When little Rory lay in hospital needing a transplant, Stuart, 40, stepped forward to donate his own kidney to save his son.

The transplant, which took place in October last year, was a success and now Rory is enjoying life at home in Buxton, Derbyshire, with his mother Lisa, 36, and brothers Ewan, seven, and Alex, three.

But unfortunately, many others miss out on the donor kidney they need.

The latest figures from NHS Blood and Transplant show 6,097 people are waiting for a transplant in the UK  4,803 for a kidney. Every year hundreds die waiting for a donor organ.

Stuart, 40, stepped forward to donate his own kidney to save his son Rory, four, from a life of dialysis

Living donations, where a living person donates an organ to another, can help tackle the shortage  and more than 700 donors a year for the past two years have been living donors.

John Fisher, chairman of the charity Transplant and Beyond, explains: 'The main advantage of live donation is drastically cutting waiting times.'

A third of kidneys are given by live donors because most healthy people can survive with just one.

'[Part of] the liver can also be donated as a live donation because of its capacity to regenerate,' says John Fisher.

'Some people feel live donation is putting someone through major surgery who is perfectly well, and putting them at risk, but it is a way of saving someone's life. For patients needing a kidney transplant, it's a horrendous life on dialysis. It's no life at all  they have no energy, and spend much of their time in hospital,' he says.

The transplant, which took place in October last year, was a success and now Rory is enjoying life at home in Buxton, Derbyshire

Lisa was 20 weeks pregnant with Rory when the doctors said there was a blockage in his urethra  the tube from the bladder that removes urine from the body  causing his kidneys to become enlarged.

'We went for a scan and the sonographer said that she could see something wrong,' says Lisa.

'At a more detailed scan a few days later, he was diagnosed with posterior urethral valves (PUV), a blockage in the urine flow through the urethra caused by a faulty valve.' It develops in the womb and affects approximately one in 5,000 to 8,000 newborn boys.

The blockage meant that instead of passing down out of his body, urine was pushed back up into Rory's kidneys, making them swell and causing damage.

The valve can be removed once the baby is born, but his parents were told that at some point Rory would also need a transplant.

'It was devastating  we didn't know what the future would hold for him,' says Lisa.

'Doctors said they would monitor him until birth, and there was nothing else they could do.'

Rory was born weighing 7lb 6oz and operated on at five days old. The misshapen valve was cut away and excess fluid removed.

Lisa and Stuart Blair and four year old son Rory who has recently had a kidney transplant from his father. He is pictured here with brothers Alec, three and Ewan, seven

'It was so stressful seeing him wheeled down to the operating theatre,' recalls Lisa. 'It wasn't expected to be a cure  just a temporary fix until he had a transplant  and they put him on medication to improve his renal function.'

Afterwards, Rory suffered frequent urine infections so he had another operation to allow his kidneys to drain freely instead of going into his bladder.

The surgeons fixed two stomas  one for each kidney  on each side of his tummy, through which the urine could drain into bags.

For the next two years he seemed happy and healthy, if a little behind other babies his age.

But just before his fourth birthday, monitoring showed Rory's kidney function was dropping and the day after his birthday he started dialysis three times a week. It was a shock, as he'd seemed well.

'It was very stressful. We had one child at school, one at nursery and one at the hospital,' says Lisa. 'Luckily we had lots of help and support from family.

'We were told that he'd have to be on dialysis until he could have a kidney transplant. The body can't stay on dialysis indefinitely.

Rory pictured back in August 2018 after he had his chemo lines and mitrofanoff valve fitted

'Months before, tests had shown that Stuart was a good enough donor match. He never hesitated.'

Stuart, who works in pastoral care at a local school, says: 'I wasn't worried about having such a big operation  my only concern was to be fit and healthy so I could be a good father to all my sons.

'Both Lisa and I were a match, but I was a slightly stronger match, so there was less chance of Rory's body rejecting the organ.

'I wanted to help Rory get on with his life.'

Doctors carry out urodynamics tests before any kidney transplant, to check the volume that the bladder can hold. Rory's bladder was too small to cope with the volumes produced by an adult kidney, so before the operation his bladder had to be stretched.

'About seven months before the transplant, doctors put a catheter in to his bladder through his tummy, and we had to push fluid into it three or four times a day, gradually increasing the amount, to stretch it.

'It needed to stretch to around twice the size, from holding 90 ml to 200 ml,' says Lisa.

As it was a painful process for him it was emotional seeing him go through it,' adds Lisa. Rory went into hospital the day before the transplant and Stuart went in the following morning.

'The day of the operation was nerve-racking as I had both my husband and son in the operating theatre, but thankfully it went well,' says Lisa.

The operation took six hours. Stuart was allowed home after four days in hospital. 'I was tired and sore to start with but I just got stronger every day,' he says.

'The hardest part was me being allowed home when Rory was still in hospital. We have always had a special bond, but it does feel even more special now,' he says.

Rory was in hospital for three weeks, due to an infection. Next month he will go back to have his left kidney removed, as it isn't functioning and is at risk of cancer because of the damage to it.

'Now that he has Stuart's kidney and he's living life to the full, we feel finally that we can start to put it all behind us,' says his mother.

'He's doing fantastically well even though he picks up colds and infections more easily than most children, he has lots more energy.'

John Fisher adds: 'I would like to see more live donors  especially in kidney donors over 50.

'With younger donors there is a potential that they develop a problem, not related to the transplant, with their remaining kidney over the years, but in a donor over 50 that is less likely to happen because such problems usually take a long time to develop.'

The Blair family hope their story will encourage others: 'We would urge people to become live donors. You really can change a life.'
Spice Girl Emma Bunton has raised 420,000 for her ethical baby business in just a week.

Bunton, 43, raised the money with her business partner Christopher Money to help expand Kit & Kin, which sells eco-friendly nappies, wipes, skincare products and organic baby grows.

The pair were offered as much as 1m from eager investors through online platform Angel Investment Network, but decided to only accept 420,000 at this time.

In the money: Emma Bunton raised the cash with her business partner Christopher Money to help expand Kit & Kin

AIN's global head of brokerage, Ed Stephens, said it would usually take six weeks to raise a similar amount. 'Clearly Emma Bunton's extra spice was a key ingredient,' he said.

Bunton founded the business in 2016 after struggling to find products suitable for her son, who suffers with eczema.

Its products are currently stocked in Tesco and Boots with baby grows sold online for 21.99 and hair and body wash for 7.99.

Bunton is hoping to replicate the success of actress Jessica Alba's business The Honest Company. The ethical mother and baby firm was valued at just under 770m in 2017.
The FTSE 100 closed up 5.02 points at 7451.89 and the pound was at $1.31 against the dollar.

The pound is slightly higher as Theresa May lines up Brexit meetings with counterparts Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron.

In company news Mike Ashley has lashed out at Debenhams' bosses again as they continue to rebuff his increasingly insistent push to take control of the chain.

The cryptocurrency resurgence which began a week ago is continuing with the likes of Bitcoin and Ethereum seeing more rapid gains in value, stoking hopes of a new bull market in digital assets.
Help! I put my husband's name first on child benefit form and lost state pension

Help! I put my husband's name first on child benefit form and lost state pension

They were tipped off by Steve Webb column on This is Money - read

A London couple have successfully used a loophole in child benefit rules to win state pension credits worth tens of thousands of pounds - a victory that could help many other parents.

Christina Fang and Pierre-Jean Noziere made a common error by putting the 'wrong' partner's name down on their child benefit form.

But the couple managed to convince HMRC they were unaware his filling in the form could result in her losing huge sums in state pension in old age, and the taxman has waived the usual time restrictions on correcting the record.

Ms Fang now stands to gain up to 40,000 if she lives for a couple of decades after reaching state pension age.

State pension credits: More than 200,000 families are believed to have put the 'wrong' parent's name on their child benefit form

It's important a parent who is not working is the one named on the form to get child benefit, as credits are worthless to someone who is employed and already paying enough National Insurance towards their state pension.

More than 200,000 families are believed to have made this mistake on their child benefit form, according to an official estimate.

And it's likely that most could argue they had not understood the obscure link between who fills it in and the state pension.

This is Money is campaigning on behalf of parents who miss out on credits towards their state pension because they either fail to apply for child benefit or make innocent blunders.

One of our key campaign demands has been for the Government to remove red tape and drop the time limits on credit transfers between couples who put the wrong name down.

Have you applied for a state pension credit swap with a partner? If you have succeeded in persuading HMRC, failed or are still waiting, email tanya.jefferies@thisismoney.co.uk and tell us your story.

In this case, HMRC agreed to let Ms Fang swap eight years of credits with her husband, and dropped the time limit on when parents are meant to apply to do this retrospectively

HMRC recently said it would accept late applications from couples wanting to transfer credits, though only if they can persuade it the delay is 'reasonable in the circumstances' and meet all other conditions.

If making an innocent mistake qualifies as 'reasonable', Ms Fang and Mr Noziere's win could pave the way for many other couples to gain back state pension.

The full state pension is 168.60 a week, or around 8,800 a year. Each credit is worth 1/35 of the value of the state pension  around 251 per year or 5,020 over the course of a typical 20-year retirement.

See the box below for how to make a transfer application.

How did the London couple win their case?

Christina Fang, 49, learnt she could have lost valuable credits towards her state pension after she came across an old article by This is Money columnist and ex-Pensions Minster Steve Webb.

Help! I put my husband's name first on child benefit form and lost some state pension: Steve Webb says this danger should be flagged more clearly was published on our site last summer.

Ms Fang, a former manager at a pharmaceutical firm, had health issues after giving birth, so her accountant husband, Pierre-Jean Noziere, 35, filled in their child benefit form.

After the article tipped her off to this mistake, she wrote to This is Money saying: 'I had my first child in 2009 followed by twins in 2014 - I have been out of work since.

'At the time of filling in the form my husband who is working put his name on the application and, just like that, it seems I have lost 10 years of contribution to my state pension.

'This is torturing me. The thought that all my work as a mother raising three children is seen as worthless to the Government and they will not lift a finger to allow us to rectify what is essentially an admin error is beyond me.'

Why did HMRC relent on time limits in this case? HMRC explained the decision to allow the credit transfer as follows: 'There isn't a set definition of 'reasonable circumstances' - the decision maker will look at each case on its own merits with a view to achieving the best outcome possible for the customer having considered the totality of the case. 'In Ms Fang's case, it was clear from her application that she was not aware of the significance of the National Insureance credits, nor that they would as standard be awarded to the individual who made the claim to child benefit, as the form had been completed by her husband. 'In addition, she had taken the step of correcting the position going forward by transferring the child benefit claim from her husband's name to her name.'

Ms Fang applied for a transfer of credits to her from her husband, and the couple included an explanation of why they had not asked before - that they didn't know she should have been the one to fill in the child benefit form to safeguard her future state pension.

She also applied to transfer future child benefit into her name instead from now onwards, which is something that HMRC noted when assessing this case - see the box on the right.

HMRC agreed to transfer eight years out of 10, from 2010 to 2018.

The first year the couple applied for was incomplete due to the timing of their oldest child's birth, and their application for the 2018-19 tax year can't be made yet so Ms Fang will have to ask again this October.

If that succeeds, she could end up with nine years of credits in total.

After their win, Mr Noziere, said he and his wife were very happy about the outcome and hoped the details of their case would benefit other couples.

'There is fairness in the system,' he said. 'We didn't have to fight really hard. We sent three lines of comment. It was about not having had any idea. We didn't have the full information.'

Mr Noziere said he hadn't realised the implications for his wife's state pension when he filled in the child benefit form instead of her.

'It was lack of awareness. My wife was unwell after giving birth. I decided not to bother her with the details. She was unwell for a few months.'

Steve Webb, now policy director at Royal London, said: 'I am delighted to hear that Ms Fang's application has been successful and that at least eight years of credits can be transferred.

'This will make a huge difference to her eventual pension, and could add tens of thousands of pounds in total over the course of her retirement.

'The worry is that there are still hundreds of thousands of families where the higher earner is claiming the child benefit and where the lower earner is therefore potentially missing out on these valuable credits.

'HMRC should end the uncertainty over this issue and make it clear that anyone who can benefit by transferring credits will be allowed to do so.'

Mr Webb has launched a petition calling for mums to be handed back valuable state pension credits, which they lost by not signing up for child benefit because they didn't qualify for it. Read more here, and you can find the petition here.

How might this case help other couples?

When launching our campaign, we called on the Government to sort out the shambles couples were facing when trying to get the taxman to pass credits between them, and to drop time limits on applications made for years after 2010.

An Essex couple whose case we covered subsequently won 10 years' worth of state pension credits after spending months fighting the taxman's baffling red tape on transfers.

Raina Thurgood and Martin Ryott, who were originally refused the right to transfer state pension qualifying years from her to him, eventually had the time limit rules waived.

The 10 years of credits he gained could be worth up to 50,000, if Mr Thurgood lives for a couple of decades after reaching state pension age.

It was unclear at the time whether this would benefit other couples.

But HMRC changed its guidance on time limits in January in a little-noticed update to its website, which was spotted by former Pensions Minister Steve Webb.

This revealed a loophole that means parents trying to fix errors on child benefit forms to boost their state pension can disregard official time restrictions - they are supposed to apply before the end of the following tax year to swap each separate credit - provided they make a strong enough case to the taxman.

HMRC later admitted to This is Money it has always considered late applications in practice, and that it updated its official guidance to make this clear to parents and encourage them to ask for transfers.

Its move came as HMRC figures provided to the Treasury Committee of MPs showed more than 200,000 parents could be missing out on state pension credits due to putting the wrong partner's name on the form.

Treasury committee chair, Nicky Morgan MP, has called on the Government to do more to inform parents who are missing out on credits about the transfer option.

She said in response to HMRC's change in guidance: 'The question that now arises is what does HMRC consider 'reasonable' circumstances for not applying for the transfer on time?

'As many people were, and still are, unaware of this issue, and may have fallen foul of a tight deadline, HMRC appears to now be taking a more pragmatic approach to the time limit.

'There is still more to be done to improve the process and make parents aware of the need to make a claim.'
A heartbroken father spent six years and $500,000 in an international court battle to prove that his daughter's Japanese guru, a master of the 'dance of darkness,' turned her into a sex slave, plied her with drugs and was responsible for her suicide.

Tibor Stern filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Katsura Kan, who was teaching Butoh, a form of dance in which students were told to 'wallow in the darkness of their soul,' at a college in Boulder, Colorado, according to the lawsuit.

Kan, whose real name is Terugoshi Kotoura and is believed to be aged 71, was found liable last month for the suicide of his student, Sharon Stern, by a Florida circuit court. A trial will take place in a few months to determine the damages.

Tibor Stern, 70, of Hollywood, Florida, described his victory as 'bittersweet.'

'I thought it would bring much more closure,' he told DailyMailTV. 'I had no doubt we were going to win; the evidence was overwhelming. But I didn't jump for joy.'

'Our daughter is not coming back. But hopefully our effort will save some lives. That was the whole idea.'

Sharon Stern was driven to commit suicide in April 2012 aged 32 by her dance mentor Katsura Kan, who taught her Butoh, a form of dance in which students were told to 'wallow in the darkness of their soul,' according to the wrongful death lawsuit filed by her father Tibor Stern

Kan (pictured), whose real name is Terugoshi Kotoura, teaches Butoh, a dance that features slow, controlled movements and is traditionally performed in white body makeup, it also portrays grotesque imagery or absurd environments

Tibor, 70, (pictured with Sharon) of Hollywood, Florida, described the wrongful death victory as 'bittersweet.' He said: 'I thought it would bring much more closure. But I didn't jump for joy. Our daughter is not coming back. But hopefully our effort will save some lives. That was the whole idea'

Katsura Kan did not respond to requests from DailyMailTV for comment.

Sharon Stern, whom her family affectionately called 'Sharoni,' was beautiful and talented, with a lifelong interest in dance and performance, Tibor said.

After graduating from the University of Miami in 2001, Sharon performed as an actress and comedienne, taught yoga and was an avid swing and blues dancer.

Sharon married Todd Siegel, a software engineer, in May 2007. The couple moved to Boulder, Colorado, where Sharon enrolled in the master of fine arts program at Naropa University.

That's where Sharon encountered Katsura Kan, a Japanese citizen and guest artist who taught Butoh, the 'dance of darkness.'

This avant garde dance style features slow, controlled movements and is traditionally performed in white body makeup. Butoh dances often portray grotesque imagery or absurd environments, and explore taboo themes such as homosexuality and pedophilia.

'Under the guise of molding Sharon into a Butoh artist,' Tibor's lawsuit stated, Kan 'intentionally and/or recklessly inflicted emotional pain and suffering on Sharon continuously from the day he met her until the day she died.'

'We sent a totally happy girl, a pillar of the community, to college,' Tibor said. 'When she went to school, she respected teachers, respected authority. She wanted to excel in theater, and wanted to be a director. She was extremely talented. But she went to the wrong university and got the wrong teacher.'

After graduating in 2009, Sharon continued to work for Kan, organizing Butoh performances and festivals all around the world.

Kan, who was married and had a child, 'systematically stripped away Sharon's dignity, free will and self-respect,' the lawsuit claimed. He 'seduced Sharon, abused her physically and mentally, humiliated her, insulted her, and manipulated her.'

Sharon (far right) met Kan (center) when she enrolled in the master of fine arts program at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado in 2007. This avant garde dance style features slow, controlled movements and is traditionally performed in white body makeup

Sharon Stern, whom her family affectionately called 'Sharoni,' was beautiful and talented, with a lifelong interest in dance and performance, Tibor said

'We sent a totally happy girl, a pillar of the community, to college,' Tibor said. 'When she went to school, she respected teachers, respected authority. She wanted to excel in theater, and wanted to be a director. She was extremely talented.' Pictured l-r: Tibor, Sharon's brother, Sharon and her mother Hana at her brother's wedding in 2010

Throughout her involvement with him, Kan solicited money from Sharon to use in his Butoh dance business, the lawsuit claimed.

'He told her to steal things and give him the money,' Tibor said. 'This honest girl who could not tell a white lie  she felt compelled to steal so she could give him the money.'

By 2010, Tibor began to suspect that Sharon was in a cult. Kan's group performed in Israel, where Tibor has family. His sisters-in-law went to see Sharon and noticed a total change in her.

'She told them she needed to take care of Kan. He was the guru,' Tibor said. Sharon cooked for Kan, massaged his feet and toes, and paid for a three-hour massage for him. At a train station, Sharon carried three suitcases while Kan walked ahead.

That's when Tibor became fearful. 'My daughter was going to die. I knew it,' Tibor said. 'I felt she was going to die.'

My daughter was going to die. I knew it. I felt she was going to die.

On August 6, 2011, Tibor received a terrifying call from the United States Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark  Sharon had disappeared.

It turned out that Kan brought his dancers to the Christiana section of Copenhagen, a large commune well known for drugs and prostitution, where they squatted in a rat-infested abandoned building. By the time Tibor and his family arrived, Sharon had been found in a mental hospital.

'I believe he gave her some kind of drugs,' Tibor said. 'She was complaining about losing her memory. She doesn't remember the past.'

After five days, doctors released Sharon, but told Tibor that she needed immediate treatment.

Tibor brought Sharon home to Florida and made arrangements for her to enter a treatment facility on September 16, 2011. But before she could do that, Kan lured her away again, according to the lawsuit.

Kan 'disregarded Sharon's health and safety, and her parents' pleas to leave Sharon alone, and convinced Sharon to fly out of the country to be with him,' the lawsuit claimed.

'My wife and I  we never slept,' Tibor said. At night, they stood outside Sharon's door, listening. 'She's Skyping with the guy. He's telling her not to believe me, to come back to him.'

'He's the god,' Tibor said. 'She wrote, he's the god.'

'Under the guise of molding Sharon (pictured in Butoh makeup) into a Butoh artist,' Tibor's lawsuit stated, Kan 'intentionally and/or recklessly inflicted emotional pain and suffering on Sharon continuously from the day he met her until the day she died'

After graduating in 2009, Sharon continued to work for Kan (pictured), organizing Butoh performances and festivals around the world. Kan 'systematically stripped away Sharon's dignity, free will and self-respect,' the lawsuit claimed. He 'seduced Sharon, abused her physically and mentally, humiliated her, insulted her, and manipulated her'

In 2011, the Stern family were called by the US Embassy in Copenhagen who informed them Sharon had gone missing. She was found five days later in a psych ward. She had been squatting in a rat-infested abandoned building (pictured) with Kan and other dancers. Tibor photographed the conditions, with drugs openly displayed on a table in front of the building

Sharon sent Kan disturbing letter in months before her death Dear Kan, Sharoni is very sorry. She cannot helping KAN anymore. IF everything is secret, if everything is HIDDEN, I can't interpret your mystery. I AM MORE than imperfect. I am fat, ugly, stupid girl. I have nothing left but desire to connect with human race, escape time and subconscious. I guessing I must let go of attachment to KAN. KAN has wife and child. SHARONI has garbage, piles of garbage everywhere. I have only one very honest very sincere wish left. TO GO WITH KAN to some countryside and FAST, no food, no water. need no bed, no shower. NO TIME. TO become empty. want to shake this curse away. Still, forever sharoni loves kan. But this is all that is left. And if Kan can accept this imperfect sharoni, then maybe chance to survive. don't want to throw away this love. but if KAN cannot accept, sharoni is LOST forever. Advertisement

Kan sent Sharon an email on September 14, 2011, right before she was supposed to enter the hospital, which was submitted to the court. He wanted her to meet him in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and said he would be her 'personal psychotherapist.'

Sharon snuck out of her parents' home in the middle of the night, Tibor said, so she could fly to Thailand, using a ticket that Kan sent her.

'He found out she was sick when she arrived,' Tibor said. 'He wrote us emails saying why did you let her go? I don't want her.'

This happened multiple times. Tibor and his family got Sharon back, and then she left again to be with Kan. In San Francisco she had psychotic breakdowns. In Boulder, Colorado, she attempted suicide twice. In Tel Aviv she broke down crying.

By 2012, Sharon had divorced her husband and was living in her parents' home in Florida. But on January 4, 2012, Kan told her in an email that she was no longer his 'priority,' and if Sharon did not obey him, then the relationship was over, according to the lawsuit.

Heartbroken, Sharon sent Kan a disturbing email, which was submitted to the court as evidence. She wrote in the third person and called herself a 'fat, ugly, stupid girl.'

A few weeks later, according to the lawsuit, Sharon wrote an email to Kan, in which she said her brother would give her $250, but she needed more to follow Kan and help him. Sharon also wrote, 'I'm tired of life - no one helps me to help them. So now you please tell me how  please. need a way to DIE. really.'

In February 2012, Sharon reluctantly started seeing a psychologist, Dr. Eli Levy, whom she had spoken to when she was 19 or 20 years old.

'She was not the beautiful woman I had known,' Levy testified in a deposition. 'She was somewhat physically neglected. She was very sad, upset, angry. She felt in a way that her life was taking the wrong turn.'

Sharon had 14 counseling sessions with Dr. Levy, but could not let Kan go. She wanted to go a Butoh workshop to Brazil, hoping to see Kan.

Tibor, as her father, couldn't stop her; she was an adult and made her own decisions. But Sharon promised Dr. Levy that she would continue her counseling sessions via Skype.

Sharon flew to Brazil. Kan did not show up.

A few weeks after Sharon was taken back to Florida by her parents, she sent Kan an email asking for clarification about their relationship

Kan responded to some of her questions, telling her she needed to 'think with your weak head instead of ANGER', adding that his 'love has limitation, we can only share the creation on the stage'

Kan added: 'Your love is egoist not true love cause this big mess, you didn't accept my order back from SF to Boulder work for Butoh festival to meet Todd in India. Your priority is following your ego not me'

After Sharon returned to Florida, on April 23, 2012, she sent Kan a goodbye email, according to the lawsuit. She wrote, 'love you. that's all. thank you for all your important lessons  good life to you. wish i knew what else to do. u were my angel.'

In his reply, according to the lawsuit, Kan wrote, 'continue your research who you are in another world can be more deep than USA.'

On April 25, 2012, Sharon Stern, at age 32, committed suicide.

A year later, on April 30, 2013, Tibor Stern, heartbroken, filed the wrongful death lawsuit in Broward County, Florida. It said, 'Stern was reduced to a mere pawn in the hands of Kan who mentally and physically abused her, manipulated her, stripped her of even a modicum of free will, and utilized Stern as his mere instrumentality and his sexual and physical slave to the extent that Stern's entire existence became committed to gratify Kan's every wish and desire.'

'Kan deliberately and knowingly isolated Stern from her husband, causing Stern to divorce him and from her loving parents and brother, causing her to become estranged from her family,' the lawsuit said.

Kan, traveling the world, avoided service of the lawsuit for a year. Tibor's attorneys finally hired a top international investigation company, which located Kan and served him in Thailand.

Then Kan argued that, because he was a citizen of Japan and had never been to Florida, he could not be sued in Florida courts. But the judge ruled that Kan's email and Skype communications with Sharon, while she was in Florida, made him subject to the state's laws. Kan appealed the decision, and it took almost four years for the issue to be settled  that Kan could be sued in Florida.

In the meantime, Tibor Stern hoped to help other families who were trying to save loved ones from controlling individuals and groups. He founded Families Against Cult Teachings (FACT), a nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness about destructive, high-control, high-demand groups, and to provide victim services.

FACT has shut down 10 cults and provided information to law enforcement that lead to the indictments of five cult leaders, Tibor said. But that doesn't mean the cult leaders quit.

'They get indicted, but they will continue their activities,' Tibor said. 'It's a cancer. They go somewhere else and reopen. They reinvent themselves.'

After Sharon returned to Florida, on April 23, 2012, she sent Kan a goodbye email (pictured), according to the lawsuit. She wrote, 'love you. that's all. thank you for all your important lessons  good life to you. wish i knew what else to do. u were my angel'

In his reply (pictured), according to the lawsuit, Kan wrote, 'continue your research who you are in another world can be more deep than USA.' On April 25, 2012, Sharon Stern, at age 32, committed suicide

In February 2012, Sharon reluctantly started seeing a psychologist, Dr. Eli Levy, whom she had spoken to when she was 19 or 20 years old. 'She was not the beautiful woman I had known,' Levy testified in a deposition. 'She was somewhat physically neglected. She was very sad, upset, angry. She felt in a way that her life was taking the wrong turn'

So FACT is changing direction  instead of trying to shut cults down, the organization will focus on prevention.

'We came to the conclusion that it's like fighting cancer with a Band-aid, going after cult leaders,' Tibor said. 'My answer is education, bringing awareness and changing laws.'

While he was building FACT, Tibor's lawsuit dragged on. At one point Kan offered Tibor $1,000 to settle the case. Then Kan filed a counter-claim against Tibor, saying the wrongful death lawsuit was 'a misguided campaign' to damage his life and career.

In court documents, Kan said that Sharon showed up at his performances uninvited, and that he advised her to stay home with her family to rest and recover. He denied almost every allegation in Tibor's lawsuit and claimed they were unfounded.

But Ben Murphey, Tibor's attorney, sought the testimony of Dr. Eli Levy, Sharon's psychologist. Levy testified that while Kan had some positive effects on Sharon  he got her to believe in herself  mostly the effects were negative.

Reviewing Kan's emails, Levy said he believed Kan was a 'pathological narcissist.'

Kan was 'extremely controlling and manipulative, threatening to withdraw love and affection and mentoring, unless she's compliant and totally obedient to his dictates,' Levy testified.

'In my opinion,' Levy said, 'he breached a professional relationship between a mentor and teacher and a student. He took advantage of his position. I believe he abused her emotionally, physically, economically and sexually. I believe he misused his power and put her in a position of submissiveness, that she essentially had to surrender who she is and what she is, for the sake of getting his love, approval and recognition.'

Tibor (pictured with wife Hana), said he continued with the expensive six-year battle because he wanted justice. He did it so others will not endure the heartache of losing a loved one. 'I'm a very loving father and she was my best friend,' he said. 'I know who she was. I know what she became. The man needed to be found guilty'

A trial will take place in a few months and the court will decide how much money to award Tibor in damages. But Tibor doesn't care about the money. 'The guy doesn't have five dollars,'

'Reading through their emails,' Levy continued, 'I think that he essentially wanted to strip her and make her emotionally naked, and totally disconnect her from anybody else in a very insidious, in my opinion, power driven, control driven effort on his part.'

Levy testified that he believed Kan lost interest in Sharon and began to look for other women. But Sharon, he said, 'had given up everybody, including her husband, including her family. She had alienated everybody who loved her. She would not listen to anybody. And ending up essentially feeling that all her sacrifices were in vain.'

Ben Murphey, Tibor's attorney, said Katsura Kan was notified about Levy's deposition and had a year to present admissible evidence that he was not the cause of Sharon's death, but he never did.

Murphey filed a motion for a summary judgment on Kan's liability for Sharon's death. Kan could have attended the hearing on March 18, 2019, by telephone, but he did not show up. The motion was granted, which meant Kan was held responsible for Sharon's death.

Afterwards, Kan filed a response with the court, protesting that he tried to call the court but there was no answer. Writing that he was in an unfair situation, Kan said, 'Japanese Pro-se Defendant without Attorney and no proper technical knowledge of the trial still seeking the Fairness and JUSTICE.'

A trial will take place in a few months and the court will decide how much money to award Tibor in damages. But Tibor doesn't care about the money. 'The guy doesn't have five dollars,' he said.

What kept Tibor going through this expensive, six-year battle was his desire for justice. He did it so others will not endure the heartache of losing a loved one.

'When this ordeal happened, I didn't sleep more than an hour a night,' Tibor said. 'I was thinking about the factory worker who couldn't afford this. Why am I doing this? For them. I did it for all the parents.'

'I'm a very loving father and she was my best friend,' he continued. 'I know who she was. I know what she became. The man needed to be found guilty.'

'I did it for my daughter, did it for my family, did it for society.'

Donna Andersen is author of Lovefraud.com.

For confidential support call the National Suicide Prevention Line on 1-800-273-8255
A Chinese veteran who lost both of his legs due to an illness has planted more than 17,000 trees in 19 years on a once-barren mountain.

Ma Sanxiao, 70, has created a lush forest from scratch using a spade, a hoe and his iron will.

The double amputee started to plant trees in the year 2000 as a way to pay off debts, but now he considers it a way to repay the society.

He told local reporters: 'Although I don't have two legs and my energy is limited, but as long as I live, I will keep planting trees.'

Ma Sanxiao, 70, has planted the trees on a once-barren mountain in his village in Hebei, China

Mr Ma lives in the village of Mayu in Jing County in northern China's Hebei Province.

He joined a troop in Fujian Province at the age of 20 to train to be a military spy, according to People's Daily.

Three years later, he suffered from an infection while carrying out a task and contracted sepsis, a potentially life-threatening condition caused by the body's response to an infection.

He was forced to retire in 1974 because of the illness. He first worked as a teacher, then a farmer.

In 1984, his illness worsened and led to an inflammation in his right leg. He had to have its lower part amputated in 1985.

The next year, the same inflammation occurred to his right leg. In order to treat his left leg, his family borrowed more than 200,000 yuan (22,780) to pay for medical bills. Unfortunately, doctors failed to save his left leg and amputated it in 2004.

From 2000, Mr Ma started to plant trees in order to pay off the massive loans for his treatment.

He rides a tuk tuk to the mountain on the west side of his village with the help of artificial limbs

According to China News, the retired soldier often leaves his home at 5am before sunrise to plant trees on a mountain on the west side of his village in the Taihang Mountain Range.

He brings food with him and usually spends the whole day in the wilderness on his own.

Mr Ma rides a tuk tuk from his home to the mountain with the help of artificial limbs.

Once he reaches the patch he wants to plant trees on, he removes his prostheses, puts on thick gloves before crawling on the ground with his tools to his final destination.

Planting trees is not an easy task for a young and physically fit person, let alone a disabled pensioner.

Mr Ma says he has sustained serious injuries after falling into deep crevices during his outings.

Once, both of his stumps were crushed and had to have iron plates fit into them. Another time, he lost a little finger.

Explaining his remarkable achievement to the reporter in late March, Mr Ma said he first planted trees so he could sell them to support his family.

He then removes his prostheses and starts crawling on the mud with his tools to his destination

In 2008, his story was widely reportedly by Chinese media and the government reached out to provide him with financial assistance.

From then on, the elderly man carried on with his endeavour because 'I want to pay back the society and thank the government for their help'.

He says he feels secured and grounded when he spends time with trees.

He adds: 'To me, they are not trees. I consider them as the soldiers I have commanded.

'They make me feel very fulfilled.

'As long as I live, I shall keep planting trees for future generations.'
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 US Africa Command.

'Even with an adjustment of the force, we will continue to remain agile in support of existing US strategy.'

He did not provide details on the number of US troops that have been withdrawn or how many remain in the country.

Footage circulating online showed two apparent US Navy transport craft maneuvering off a beach in Janzour, east of Tripoli, sending up plumes of spray as American forces were ferried from the shore.

India also 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 US has temporarily withdrawn some of its forces from Libya due to 'security conditions on the ground' as clashes between a Libyan commander's forces and rival militias approach the capital of Tripoli. An amphibious hovercraft can be seen leaving with evacuees from Janzur, west of Tripoli, on Sunday

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.

Fayez Sarraj, head of government in Tripoli, accused Hifter of 'betraying' him.

Marine Corps Gen Thomas Waldhauser, head of US Africa Command, announced the temporary withdrawal of troops on Sunday. Waldhauser is seen above on March 7 in Washington, DC

'We have extended our hands towards peace, but after the aggression that has taken place on the part of forces belonging to Hifter and his declaration of war against our cities and our capital ... he will find nothing but strength and firmness,' al-Sarraj said Saturday in televised comments.

Sarraj and Hifter held talks in Abu Dhabi in late February, their first confirmed meeting since November 2018, when they agreed that national elections were necessary, according to the UN.

Hifter is seeking to capture the capital and seize military control of the whole country before UN-sponsored talks due to start next week that were designed to set a time frame for possible elections in the oil-rich country.

The UN envoy for Libya, Ghassan Salame, said the UN is determined to hold the planned conference.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged Libyan factions to return to negotiations, saying that 'there is no military solution to the Libya conflict.'

'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,' Pompeo said in a statement.

A small contingent of American troops has been in Libya in recent years helping local forces combat Islamic State and al-Qaida militants and protecting diplomatic facilities

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 UN-backed government in Tripoli, said they had also carried out airstrikes, slowing Hifter's advance.

Armed groups behind the UN-backed government of national accord, or GNA, have announced an effort to defend Tripoli, vowing to recapture all areas seized by Hifter's forces.

Col Mohamed Gnounou, a spokesman for GNA forces, said in televised comments Sunday that the counteroffensive, dubbed 'Volcano of Anger,' was aimed at 'purging all Libyan cities of aggressor and illegitimate forces.'

The two sides reported that at least 35 people, including civilians, had been killed 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, a 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 UN migration agency said. The UN 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 UN-backed government.
Dozens of neglected animals have been rescued from 'terrible conditions' at a squalid Gaza zoo in the fourth and largest such mission in the blockaded Palestinian enclave.

About 40 animals, including an emaciated wolf and painfully thin-looking lions, were evacuated from the park in the southern town of Rafah and taken into Israel.

The animals, which also included, foxes, monkeys, pelicans and ostriches, will be resettled in sanctuaries in Jordan and South Africa.

'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 Four Paws International, which carried out Sunday's rescue. 'Most of the animals had a sort of traumatization.'

In January, four lion cubs died in the Rafah zoo. The owner later released grisly footage showing a lioness being declawed, in an apparent effort to push the organization to speed up the evacuation process.

Lions, foxes, monkeys, pelicans, wolves and ostriches were among those rescued from the squalid zoo. Pictured: A malnourished lioness

A veterinarian of Four Paws, which is a global and independent organization for defending animal rights, holds an animal in his arms during a transportation of some animals to a wildlife sanctuary in Jordan

Another Four Paws vet struggles with a pelican as the animals are transferred from their cages to enclosures

A sedated monkey is carried from its cage by trained vets from the international charity on Sunday

Many of the animals were smuggled into Gaza via tunnels beneath the southern border with Egypt, which along with Israel has blockaded the territory since the Hamas militant group seized power there in 2007.

The blockade and three wars between Israel and Hamas have made life miserable for Gaza's 2 million residents. Animals kept in captivity have suffered from a combination of neglect and lack of resources on the part of zookeepers.

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.'

Some 40 animals were transferred into Israel from the neglected zoo in the southern town of Rafah, Palestine. Pictured: A fox is carried to its new enclosure

Members of Four Paws International, an animal welfare group, check on the animalas at Erez crossing on the Israel and Gaza border on Sunday

Dozens of workers from Four Paws were drafted in to help move the animals from the Palestinian zoo

In January, four lion cubs died in the Rafah zoo. The owner later released grisly footage showing a lioness being declawed, in an apparent effort to push the organization to speed up the evacuation process.

The owner was compensated for the animals, but the amount paid has not been publicized. There are no animals left at the zoo following the evacuation.

Four Paws International has carried out four rescue operations and has sent numerous medical missions to treat animals and birds in Gaza.

Two other zoos have closed since Four Paws removed their animals, while animals are still being held in poor conditions at three other zoos.

A sedated lion lays in a cage at a zoo in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday before it was evacuated to safety

Earlier this year the zoo's owner released gruesome footage of a lion being declawed in an effort to get Four Paws to evacuate the animals

One of the large cages used to transport the malnourished animals from the ramshackle Gaza zoo

The latest evacuation was scheduled last month, but a round of cross-border violence between Israel and Gaza militants forced the organization postpone it.

According to the zoo's owner Fathy Jomaa, the Israeli blockade of the enclave and the poor economy are to blame for the squalid conditions in the zoo.

'When we raise a cat for a week or a month we feel sad to lose it but what about suddenly losing animals that I have lived with for 20 years?'

While Israel's Land Crossing Authority chief said in a statement the country had 'used every means at our disposal to help transfer the animals as quickly as possible'.

The animals had been scheduled to be evacuated last month, but fighting between Israel and Palestine postponed the mission

The zoo's owner blamed an economic downturn coupled with an Israeli blockade for the zoo's poor conditions. Pictured: A vet carrying a heron

The owner was compensated for the loss of the animals although the amount he was paid was not revealed. Pictured: One of the zoo's emus

A litter of four lion cubs froze to death just hours after being born at a dilapidated zoo in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah
A woman whose deceit sent her fiance to jail for a crime he didn't commit was caught out by a detective who couldn't shake the feeling she was lying.

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, including rape and domestic violence.

Following her hunch, Detective Sergeant Leesa Alexander was able to discredit several of Parkinson's claims of violence and theft - proving she was a compulsive liar.

'I thought if she's lied to me, perhaps she's lied to the other investigators... my blood ran cold. I was horrified that that may be the case,' Detective Sergeant Alexander said.

Mr Jones' family was forced to pay for his defence after he was falsely charged - leaving them $600,000 in debt, Nine News reported.

Canberra man Daniel Jones (left) thought Sarah Jane Parkinson (right) was the love of his life when they met in 2011

Detective Sergeant Leesa Alexander (pictured) was able to prove Sarah Jane Parkinson was lying about other claims against Daniel Jones and his family

Parkinson claimed she had been driven off the road and attacked by a man wielding a steak knife - however police later learned the weapon belonged to a set she owned.

She also claimed she was the target of burglaries carried out by Mr Jones' family and that her stolen iPad was at their home.

Parkinson said someone had broken into her car while she was at work.

However, CCTV footage showed Parkinson leaving her place of employment on the day of the alleged break-in and unlocking her own car.

Detective Sergeant Alexander was able to track Parkinson's movements using the GPS on her car, and found Parkinson had planted the iPad outside the house herself.

'She was lying to me, she's lied to me now on four occasions, there's probably an innocent person in jail,' Detective Sergeant Alexander said.

Later, Detective Sergeant Alexander said she saw photos of Parkinson on her phone looking 'very happy' while former partner languished in prison.

'I found that very difficult, that a person could be so happy while someone else is in jail,' she said.

Parkinson also told Detective Sergeant Alexander she was also certain Mr Jones had raped her.

'Hand on my heart that was Daniel, I know it was Daniel, I recognised him,' Parkinson said during a police interview in July 2014.

'You're saying that you drove past their house, it doesn't make any sense,' Detective Sergeant Alexander said.

'I know, I just...' replied Parkinson.

'I think it was just sheer desperation, like it's been a rough few years with Daniel.'

Detective Sergeant Alexander discredited her claims with a timestamped social media photo that showed he wasn't at the scene of what his fiancee claimed was a brutal sexual assault.

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.

'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,' Detective Sergeant Alexander said.

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

Despite the evidence, Mr Jones was sent to Goulburn prison while his devastated parents prepared for the battle of their lives.

Mr Jones was just 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 of old-fashioned, and she was always dressed and frocks she always wore nice dresses and all that kind of thing,' Mr Jones told 60 Minutes of his ex-fiance.

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 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 pictured with his parents Michelle and Ian who went to battle for their son amid the false accusations

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 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.

On March 21, 2014, police arrived at the Jones' home without warning and he was arrested.

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

Once Detective Sergeant Alexander had discovered that Parkinson was lying, 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.

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.

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

'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 said 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 after they had to stump up hundreds of thousands in legal costs.

'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.
by Vladimir Rozanskij

Protests in Voronezh, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Lipetsk against the introduction of a personalized PIN. The total control of the individual is feared: an "electronic lager". Patriarch Kirill asks to respect those who reject electronic documents.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - Since 3 April, the Russians have seen their pension card replaced by a personalized PIN number, needed to access electronic services. A part of the Orthodox faithful has rebelled against this measure, which in their opinion expresses the imminent advent of the apocalyptic times.

The new law introduces the new rules for the use of state services, which provides a personalized PIN to access public administration. This is a simplification of procedures, part of the "digital revolution" announced by Putin after last year's election for his fourth presidential term. The most observant Orthodox, who for some time have been protesting against the use of "satanic figures", such as the tax code, speak of the imposition of the "electronic lager".

Valentina Pashenko, president of the "Committee in defense of the family and morality" in Voronezh, does not even use credit cards, denounces the use of biometric fingerprints to enter the bank and government buildings, and rejects electronic texts.

Speaking to the BBC, Valentina said that "when all personal data will be stored in one system, evil people will be able to exclude any unwanted person from the system". At the end of March, it organized a meeting in its city against the new PIN law, which would be associated with the identity card. About 500 people attended the event.

"First pensions and then all other information about the person, his property, social rights, data on the family and children, school and medical data, salaries: the whole life of the individual will be inserted into an electronic number", Pashenko complains, "it is like the mark of the Stalinist camps, where our grandparents were sent". Other protests were organized in St. Petersburg and Moscow; in Lipetsk a presidium of prayers of orthodox activists was held.

The head of the "Parental Resistance" movement, Nikolaj Mishustin, represents the interests of believers who reject any type of electronic identification number. According to him, already 40 thousand people have signed a petition against the law, in different cities of Russia. "Until now all those who wanted it could access administrative services in the traditional way," notes Mishutin, "while this law obliges the electronic form via PIN, without even asking for consent to the processing of personal data: it is a scandalous violation of the Constitution".

The participants in the Voronezh demonstration, as explained by Pashenko, appealed to the patriarch of Moscow Kirill (Gundjaev), to ask permission to organize processions against the new law, and condemn the "lobbyists of the initiatives clearly anti-Christian.

" The opposition of the Orthodox to digitalization is based on the words of St. John in the Apocalypse on the "number of the beast": It forced all the people, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to be given a stamped image on their right hands or their foreheads so that no one could buy or sell except one who had the stamped image of the beasts name or the number that stood for its name.(Ap 13,16-18).

In their opinion, the introduction of the PIN is a clear sign of the coming advent of the Antichrist. Some claim to recognize the cursed number not only in the codes, but also on every page of passports and other documents issued by the state.

The Orthodox Church is well aware of these concerns that have been circulating among believers for several years. Aleksandr Volkov, spokesman for the patriarch, explained to the BBC: "In the Church there are documents that illustrate how we should behave in the face of this type of initiative, and we collect many letters from worried faithful, but regarding this law we have no real objections to be presented".

In 2013, the Synod of Russian bishops declared that it opposed the introduction of "any form of coercion by citizens regarding the use of electronic identifiers".

Last January, speaking at the Duma, Patriarch Kirill called on the deputies to take into account the desire of citizens to refuse electronic documents. "Contemporary progress contains dangers, first and foremost for the freedom of people", warned the head of the Russian Orthodox, "true freedom does not tolerate global control over the lives of individuals, this would be a prospect of apocalyptic ruin for all mankind. When we talk about the arrival of the Antichrist, starting from the Scriptures, we understand precisely this system of global control, realized by a single center of power, or even by a single person ".

The president of the parliamentary committee for social policies, Jaroslav Nilov, said that many appeals with criticisms of the bill come from the believers, and deputies are trying to meet them: "We asked what is the official position of the Church, which expressed itself with great prudence, but not explicitly against the law".

The groups of "opponents of the electronic Apocalypse" do not represent the majority of citizens, and not even Orthodox believers, but they are very influential, also for the support of numerous and authoritative starets, whose word is heard even more than that of the patriarch and the president. Similar feelings exist in Russian orthodoxy since the time of the tsars and from the first modern census and population identification measures, such as the release of "internal passports" that were torn up and burned by believers.
A Texas woman who sold her seven-year-old son for $2,500 to pay off a drug debt has been sentenced to six years in prison.

Esmeralda Garza, of Corpus Christi, pleaded guilty to three counts of selling or purchasing a child.

Garza was also convicted of money laundering and conspiracy to sell or purchase a child.

Investigators said Garza had also been planning to sell her daughters, aged two and three, as well.

Esmeralda Garza has been sentenced to six years in prison after she sold her son for $2,500 to pay off a drug debt

Garza pleaded guilty to three counts of selling or purchasing a child. Pictured is her son

Garza was given six years in prison for selling her son and two years for the additional charges. The sentences will run concurrently.

Garza was also convicted of money laundering and conspiracy to sell or purchase a child

Texas Department of Public Safety special agents discovered Garza's son at a home in Corpus Christi while executing a drug search warrant in June. Garza's daughters were also in the home.

A woman at house told authorities she had purchased the boy from Garza for $2,500, according to USA Today.

Garza then told investigators that she and her boyfriend had owed drug money and gave her child to the woman.

The woman gave her $500 cash to clear the owed debt. They were supposed to receive an additional $700 when the custody paperwork was signed.

Roland Olivarez II, the seven-year-old's father, said he had no idea his son was in danger.

'He put his trust in her, and that was the last thing he would think she would do,' Olivarez told KIII back in July.

Investigators said Garza had also been planning to sell her daughters, aged two and three, as well. Pictured is Garza's son

Texas Department of Public Safety special agents discovered Garza's son at a home in Corpus Christi while executing a drug search warrant in June. Garza's daughters were also in the home

'I never thought she would do this to my child. He just trusted mom so much that he didn't think that anything like this would happen. You know, nobody would think something so ugly as this would happen.'

Olivarez has been separated from Garza for seven years but shares custody of their son.

'If we knew anything that was going on, we would have done everything to stop it, but of course you can't stop something that you have no clue of what's going on,' said Lucy Naranjo, Olivarez's sister.

'I couldn't imagine anybody doing that. I'm a mother myself. I don't know what was going through this girl's head. No child deserves what my nephew's going through at all.'

Naranjo said Garza had given Olivarez the boy and said she couldn't 'handle him' anymore. But she came back to get him last April and ceased communicating with Olivarez completely.

Roland Olivarez II, the seven-year-old's father, said he had no idea his son was in danger

First Assistant District Attorney Matt Manning said that prosecutors wanted to 'send a very clear and unequivocal message' with Garza's sentencing.

'If you hurt children or have the audacity to sell a child, we're going to do all we can to hold you accountable and put you in prison where you belong,' he told KIII.

'The most important party is that she is absolutely going to prison and she's being held accountable for this most heinous offense.'

Garza will be eligible for parole after two years.

The Texas Department of Public Safety's case against Garza's boyfriend and the couple who purchased her son is ongoing.
A Westpac advertising campaign has come under fire by online critics who have labelled it sexist for its portrayal of a family in the midst of separation.

The ad, which was released last month as part of the company's 'help' series, is intended to advertise a source of support for families going through a split.

The commercial features a storyline from the point of view of a young boy as his parents go through a divorce.

The video shows the mother, a black woman, struggling with her separation looking downcast and relying on her son for support.

Westpac's latest advertising campaign has been slammed over its portrayal of black families going through separation. Critics have blasted the bank for portraying a single black mum struggling while the father appears fine

The commercial, which was released last month as part of the company's 'help' series, is intended to advertise a source of support for families going through a split

One user criticised the ad as 'sucky' for showing the 'struggling' mum and 'reassuring' dad

The young boy is seen being protective of his mum, helping her out with household duties, reading her a bedtime story, and at one point even shading her from the sun at the beach.

The tune of the advert changes, however, when the boy's father comes into the picture and he is seen as the supportive figure for his son, reassuring him.

The seemingly poignant ad then concludes with a line from Westpac saying: 'If you're separating, there's help.'

But critics have claimed the message behind the ad is sexist by portraying the mum as helpless while also 'reinforcing' negative stereotyping of black families.

'Why does the ad show the little boy taking care of his mother - putting up fairy lights for her, shading her on the beach, catching a spider for her (he becomes 'the man of the house') - but the little boy doesn't have to look after the dad. Shameful stereotyping. This ad rates F for FAIL,' one user said in a Facebook comment.

The comment was met with support from another user who replied: 'Absolutely agree with what you've just said. Why is the mother portrayed as weak, requiring the son to care for her yet the father is portrayed as the carer. Fail Westpac Fail.'

The video is seen from the perspective of the young boy who becomes a supportive and protective figure for the 'sad' mother

One user questioned why the boy is portrayed as 'the man of the house'

Users also claimed the ad had racist undertones by 'reinforcing negative stereotypes of single parents black families'

The bank responded to the criticism in a comment explaining it 'is just one representation of a family going through separation.'

Another user blasted the ad as 'offensive' for casting people of colour in commercial about separation.

'I'm not usually a sensitive pc type of person but Wtf Westpac?!?!? We hardly see skin tones other than white in commercials so when we see yours which was beautifully produced and looked like it could be a movie about some poor marginalised culture, to then see it was about separation, you have got to be kidding me!!!'

Another said: Westpac, do you have any staff who are people of colour that reviewed this before its release? This ad is reinforcing negative stereotypes of single parent black families. As a customer I'm very disappointed. DO BETTER!'

Facebook user Jacqueline said: 'Unfortunately this ad is not portraying both parents equally. The mother's situation is given priority. The first time the father is included is hearing a male voice justifying himself to a woman's voice where she is using an accusing tone towards him.

The young boy is seen taking up the 'man of the house' role, and at one point is seen shading his downcast mother from the sun

The mum is portrayed as sad and struggling throughout the advert

One person said the mum is seen as not being able to do things on her own

Another Facebook commenter slammed the add as 'disgusting' and 'disgraceful'

'Are we meant to infer that the man is not fulfilling his parental responsibilities? Are we meant to infer that the woman has a harder time during separation? This is not being helpful Westpac.'

While some users admitted the emotional video tugged at their heartstrings, many also accused the company of being 'insensitive' towards broken families.

In a statement to Daily Mail Australia, a Westpac spokesperson said: 'We know that everyone's experience with separation is different, and the ad is just one representation of a family going through separation and is designed to bring to life the cultural diversity of Australia.

'One in three marriages end in divorce in Australia, and separating from a partner can be one of the most uncertain and overwhelming times in anyone's life. We want our customers to know that they can contact us throughout their lives, at a time where they may need our advice and support.'
Australian holidaymakers are being hit with $15 charges every time they withdraw money from automatic teller machines when they are overseas.

But with some research into banks and their policies, travellers can avoid the excess fees - which total about $2 billion annually in foreign transaction fees, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

International ATMs normally require customers to pay a fee of about $5 to access their money. They are charged again by the financial institution that owns the ATM, which usually charges a fee of $3 per transaction.

Australian's travelling overseas are encouraged to do their research before the trip to find the option best suited for their travels

Australian holidaymakers are being duped out of $15 every time they withdraw money from their ATM's while overseas (stock image)

An inquiry made by the ACCC then found international conversion fees are added to costs after the withdrawal - between 3 to 3.65 per cent - to cover costs of processing international transactions.

HOW MUCH YOU'RE PAYING IN FEES To withdraw a sum of $200 from an everyday bank account while travelling overseas, Australians are stung with a fee of about $15. Fee to withdraw money from an international ATM: $5

$5 Fee the financial institution that owns the ATM takes: at least $3

at least $3 Fee for conversion cost processing: 3.65 per cent of withdrawal amount Total fee amount for a $200 transaction: $15 Advertisement

A spokeswoman from the financial comparison website RateCity told Daily Mail Australia customers were often restricted in how often and how much money they withdrew while holidaying.

Sally Tindall said some ATMs set withdrawal limits, meaning customers are paying the fee more frequently.

'Often they don't let you take out more than $200 at a time so suddenly you are getting stung $15 per day,' Ms Tindall said.

'While the logistics of using money overseas have dramatically improved, accessing your cash can still come with a hefty price tag if youre not paying attention.'

'Whether its a debit card, credit card or travel card, youre likely to be hit with a list of fees in various shapes and sizes.

'One mistake people can make is to take their normal credit or debit card overseas and not check what fees are involved. While using the plastic thats already in your wallet is logistically easy, most banks will make you pay for the privilege.'

But some banks offer alternate options for travellers.

ING provides customers access to their account without paying the excess charges.

Similarly, the GE Money 28 Degrees MasterCard offers no annual fee and no international fees while the CitiBank Plus debit card has no currency conversion fees.

Ms Tindall also suggested customers should shop around and decide whether they want to use a debit, credit or travel money card.

'Using your everyday debit card overseas is now easier than ever. In many countries, you can just land at the airport, stick your card in the machine and out comes the cash you need.

In addition to this cost, they are then charged again by the financial institution that owns the ATM

'It can also be one of the more expensive ways to access cash because it typically incurs three separate fees.

'That said, some banks are starting to realise that waiving international fees on their transaction accounts can help bring new business in the door. In this regard, ING is the clear stand out.'

She said while credit cards are a tempting option, people should be wary of fees.

'Most credit cards are shackled in fees however, including a currency conversion fee every time you flash your plastic and an annual fee.

'Travel cards often promote themselves as low fee, and hassle-free alternative to credit and debit cards but many still have hidden fees in the terms and conditions, or a less-than optimal foreign exchange rate,' Ms Tindall said.

Travel cards often carry hidden fees, including for loading and reloading cash onto the card and costs when the card is inactive.

'You could also be hit with a hefty charge to pull out any money you have remaining on the account when you get back home.'

The Commonwealth Bank said their methods of charging international fees were based on the wholesale market price they pay for international currency

The Commonwealth Bank said their methods of charging international fees were based on the wholesale market price they pay for international currency.

'In setting the price for the service, [we] take into account a range of factors, including the wholesale exchange rate, the risks and cost associated with providing these services and competitor pricing,' a spokeswoman said.

'CBA continues to focus on ways to offer differentiated services (with features that meet the needs of our diverse customer base), but which also address consumers' and small businesses' need for convenient, secure and reliable foreign currency transfer and conversion services.'

A spokesman for NAB agreed 'fees for foreign exchange services can be complex.'

'NAB is continuing to drive innovation in payment services and investing in technology to improve its offering to customers and to lower and simplify costs to deliver payment services,' he said.

Australian's travelling overseas are encouraged to do their research before the trip to find the option best suited for their travels.
Senator Elizabeth Warren and other Democrats expressed satisfaction at the news that Kirstjen Nielsen was resigning her post as Homeland Security secretary effective on Wednesday.

[Nielsen] separated mamas from their babies and locked little children in cages, the Massachusetts senator tweeted on Sunday.

Im not sorry to see her go. I only wish shed been fired long ago, before she ever had a chance to resign.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi released a statement saying: It is deeply alarming that the Trump administration official who put children in cages is reportedly resigning because she is not extreme enough for the White Houses liking.

[Nielsen] separated mamas from their babies and locked little children in cages, Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator, tweeted on Sunday.

Im not sorry to see her go,' Warren tweeted on Sunday. 'I only wish shed been fired long ago, before she ever had a chance to resign.

The presidents dangerous and cruel anti-immigrant policies have only worsened the humanitarian suffering at the border and inflicted vast suffering on the families who have been torn apart.

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-Wisc., 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.'

Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut tweeted: Secretary Nielsen leaves a legacy of separating thousands of families, caging children, & denying it happened.

We will be grappling with the damage she has wreaked for decades to come.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer tweeted: When even the most radical voices in the administration arent radical enough for President Trump, you know hes completely lost touch with the American people.

Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii was scathing in her critique of Nielsen.

She tweeted: I have repeatedly called for Kirstjen Nielsen's resignation for her lies in service of [Trumps] abhorrent immigration policies, and I welcome her decision today.

History will not judge her or the president kindly.

Julian Castro, the former secretary of housing and urban development under Barack Obama, tweeted: Sec. Nielsen has been a willing partner in the most cruel and short-sighted immigration agenda in decades.

Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut tweeted: The Nielsen era was a disgrace, but we should all fear what comes next'

Julian Castro, the former secretary of housing and urban development under Barack Obama, tweeted: Sec. Nielsen has been a willing partner in the most cruel and short-sighted immigration agenda in decades'

House Rep. Adam Schiff tweeted: 'Secretary Nielsens policies were cruel and unconscionable. A generation from now, we will still recoil at how America separated children from their parents and put them in cages'

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer tweeted: When even the most radical voices in the administration arent radical enough for President Trump, you know hes completely lost touch with the American people.

Senator Mazie Hirono was scathing. She tweeted: I have repeatedly called for Kirstjen Nielsen's resignation for her lies in service of [Trumps] abhorrent immigration policies, and I welcome her decision today. History will not judge her or the president kindly

Senator Kamala Harris of California tweeted: 'Kirstjen Nielsen misled the American people and defended Trump's inhumane policy of separating children from their parents. It was long past time for her to go.'

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi released a statement saying: It is deeply alarming that the Trump administration official who put children in cages is reportedly resigning because she is not extreme enough for the White Houses liking'

We must defeat Donald Trump and create a more compassionate and sensible immigration system that puts people first.

House Rep. Adam Schiff tweeted: 'Secretary Nielsens policies were cruel and unconscionable.

'A generation from now, we will still recoil at how America separated children from their parents and put them in cages.

'But make no mistake, a change in personnel is pointless - the problem comes from the very top.'

Nielsen initially said her resignation would take effect immediately, but she later tweeted on Sunday that she would stay on until Wednesday 'to assist with an orderly transition'

Senator Kamala Harris of California tweeted: 'Kirstjen Nielsen misled the American people and defended Trump's inhumane policy of separating children from their parents.

'It was long past time for her to go.'

Nielsen resigned on Sunday amid the administration's growing frustration and bitterness over the number of Central American families crossing the southern border.

President 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 September 11, 2001 attacks.

Nielsen defended the Trump administration's policy of separating migrant children from their parents. The image above shows a young girl walking along a stretch of border fence after illegally crossing the Rio Grande near Penitas, Texas on Saturday

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 later lacked any sense of controversy - unlike those of others who have left.

'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.

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

'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.'

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.

Hours after announcing Nielsen's resignation, President Trump on Sunday took credit for the large number of arrests at the border while threatening to close the frontier with Mexico if Democrats in Congress do not agree to reform the immigration system

In a second tweet, Trump continued: 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!

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.

Kevin McAleenan Kevin McAleenan is the child of immigrants. His mom is from Finland and his father is from Ireland. He has served as the commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection since January 2017. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on March 19, 2018, by a vote of 7719. His confirmation was delayed for three months over allegations from anonymous accusers that he had an affair with a subordinate and bypassed proper channels to fund an immigration detention center. An inspector general investigation cleared him of all wrongdoing. Prior to becoming acting Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, he served as Deputy Commissioner during the Obama administration and had other positions in the agency. McAleenan has also served as the Area Port Director of Los Angeles International Airport. Her received his Juris Doctor Degree from the University of Chicago Law School. Advertisement

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 are on track to make 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.

Nielsen reportedly was not given a head's up on Thursday when the White House retracted its nomination of Ron Vitiello to lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

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.
Police and Australian Border Force (ABF) agents have found almost $500million worth of ice (pictured)

Australian Border Force agents have found almost $500 million worth of ice stuffed inside refrigerators in a shipping container from Singapore bound for Sydney's west.

Authorities uncovered 585kg of ice inside a shipping container in Port Botany, which arrived in late March.

The huge haul of crystal methamphetamine is understood to be the largest shipment of the drug to be seized this year.

In a bid to avoid detection the drug traffickers had labelled the shipment 'electronic ovens'.

However, police became suspicious when they saw the shipment contained 11 fridges, and machine X-rays revealed 'inconsistencies' with the construction of the appliances.

Police suspect the cartel behind the $438million shipment has links to the Fairfield area, and the huge batch of drugs was due to be delivered to a western Sydney address.

In a bid to avoid detection the drug traffickers had labelled the shipment 'electronic ovens'

Authorities uncovered 585kg of ice inside a shipping container in Port Botany (pictured) in late March

Australian Border Force acting regional commander Garry Low confirmed seven of the fridges had been rammed with 561 packets of ice.

'The concealment itself was fairly crude. The refrigeration components at the rear of the fridges had been removed and simply replaced with packages of methylamphetamine,' he said.

'Over the past year, we have found illicit substances in everything from highlighters to meat mincing machines.

'No matter how you try and hide it, ABF officers have the expertise and technology to find it,' Mr Low added.

The huge haul of crystal meth is understood to be the largest shipment seized this year

New South Wales Police Organised Crime Squad Commander, Detective Acting Superintendent Damian Beaufils said the shipment was evidence of the 'unwavering' demand for ice in the country.

'Organised criminal groups operate with profit as their priority and the unwavering demand for illicit drugs makes Australia an extremely lucrative market,' Mr Beaufils said.

'It's our job, along with our partners, to seize drugs at every opportunity and target those attempting to bring these poisons into our country,' he concluded.

Last Friday authorities executed two search warrants for properties in Wetherill Park and Edensor Park.

Police confirmed they had seized documents 'relevant' to inquiries as well as electronic storage devices.

The matter is being jointly investigated by NSW Police and Australian Federal Police.
Dame Stella met another couple from the Soviet embassy- and realised the man was a KGB agent

She had been introduced to a young couple who worked for Russian intelligence

She moved to Delhi, India with her husband after taking an MI5 job in the 1960s

ame Stella Rimington reveals how the KGB tried to recruit her after joining MI5

A former head of MI5 has revealed how the KGB tried to recruit her at a dinner party.

Dame Stella Rimington said that as a young spy she had been introduced to a couple who worked for Russian intelligence.

Realising it was an attempt to sign her up, she left the gathering and broke off the association with them.

Dame Stella Rimington said that as a young spy she had been introduced to a couple who worked for Russian intelligence. She made the remarks at a National Archives event [File photo]

The incident happened in the 1960s, when she was living in the Indian capital Delhi with her diplomat husband shortly after she had taken a job with MI5.

Speaking at a National Archives event, Dame Stella, 83, said she and her husband had become friendly with a young Left-wing couple from Delhi University and had gone to dinner with them.

We were having a nice conversation when all of a sudden the door opened and in came a couple from the Soviet embassy, she said.

To me, because by that time I was the clerk typist at the MI5 office and alert for that sort of thing, this seemed an obvious effort to introduce us to somebody from the Soviet Union.

Dame Stella, who was director general of MI5 from 1992 to 1996, also criticised Russian president Vladimir Putin. She also warned against data harvesting by major tech firms, saying some of their practices were very worrying [File photo]

I realised quite quickly that this man was from the KGB. We had a list of those people we had identified as KGB officers and he was one of them.

So it was clear this was the beginnings of a chatting operation that might lead anywhere as far as they were concerned. Who knew? But we didnt meet those people again.

Dame Stella, who was director general of MI5 from 1992 to 1996, also criticised Russian president Vladimir Putin.

It seems that Russia under Mr Putin still regards the West as an enemy and something to be weakened if he possibly can and undermined, she said.

I think that the way that used to be done during the Cold War is very different from the way its being done now because nowadays of course, he like everybody else benefits from the internet, from cyberspace, from fake news and the ability to spread dissension or spread your point of view very widely without showing your hand, shall we say.

William's job with the spies Prince William has praised the secret services after spending three weeks working behind the scenes at MI5, MI6 and GCHQ. Details of his hush-hush assignment were revealed by Kensington Palace at the weekend after he completed his final day. At MI6 he learned about risks to national security, while at MI5 he saw counter-terrorism teams analysing intelligence and conducting investigations. Finally he worked at GCHQ, the Government listening centre in Cheltenham, which monitors communications to look for potential security threats. William said: These agencies are full of people from everyday backgrounds doing extraordinary work to keep us safe. Details of his hush-hush assignment were revealed by Kensington Palace at the weekend after he completed his final day Advertisement

She added: I dont think were in the phase of a new Cold War, the Cold War was rather different. We are in a phase were Russia wants to weaken the West. I dont think were in friendly phase at the moment. Whether we ever will be remains to be seen but I dont think its a Cold War  not yet anyway.

Dame Stella also warned against data harvesting by major tech firms, saying some of their practices were very worrying.

Asked if they were behaving in the same way as a security service, but without the public role, she said: Yes, I think it is very worrying for all of us actually that thats going on.

But how its going to end... who knows? I think introducing regulation for these kinds of companies is going to be extremely difficult and people  your man in the street, your average person  arent aware of the implications of the amount of information that they are just handing out to some of these companies. So it is worrying.
Chief constables can decide to arrest and charge, caution or warn those caught

Police forces across the country were yesterday given the green light to stop arresting cannabis users.

Individual chief constables can now decide whether to arrest and charge, caution or warn those caught with the drug  or simply let them go.

The softening of approach was announced by the National Police Chiefs Council, the body that develops nationwide operational policies.

Suggesting to users that they opt for drug treatment means there is no arrest or even a minor criminal sanction, but there is no pressure on the user to take up the treatment [File photo]

The organisations spokesman on drugs, Cleveland assistant chief constable Jason Harwin, said that asking cannabis users to go for treatment rather than prosecuting them could prevent re-offending and provide the best outcome.

The news follows last weeks disclosure by the chief constable of the West Midlands force, Dave Thompson, that his officers do not even give official warnings to young cannabis users because it would be disastrous for their life chances.

Mr Harwin, who is NPCC lead for drugs, said: There is strong evidence to suggest that recommending minor offenders for early intervention treatment instead of pursuing convictions can prevent re-offending and result in the best outcome for both the user and the criminal justice system.

Individual chief constables can now decide whether to arrest and charge, caution or warn those caught with the drug  or simply let them go. The softening of approach was announced by the National Police Chiefs Council [File photo]

It is a matter for chief constables, in liaison with their police and crime commissioners, to determine operational priorities.

Suggesting to users that they opt for drug treatment means there is no arrest or even a minor criminal sanction, but there is no pressure on the user to take up the treatment.

Possession of a Class B drug such as cannabis can lead to a five-year prison sentence and an unlimited fine. Growing or dealing cannabis can theoretically bring 14 years jail and an unlimited fine.

Mr Harwin, whose organisation includes the 43 police forces in England and Wales, said that chief constables would continue to pursue large-scale drug gangsters.

However, he added: There are a range of options for dealing with those found in possession of cannabis or who cultivate the plant that are proportionate to individual circumstances  these include out-of-court disposals and cannabis warnings, as well as prosecution.

West Midlands Police Chief Constable David Thompson disclosed that his officers do not even give official warnings to young cannabis users because it would be disastrous for their life chances [File photo]

His remarks provoked fresh criticism from anti-drug campaigners. Drugs analyst Kathy Gyngell, co-editor of the Conservative Woman website, said: This is astonishing in view of the cumulative relationship between cannabis and violence. This is symptomatic of the politically influenced easier-to-say-yes-than-no culture of present day policing.

David Raynes of the National Drug Prevention Alliance said: Deliberately undermining the law on cannabis is no part of the NPCCs function.

In response to the NPCC statement, the Home Office said that police chiefs are expected to enforce the law. A spokesman said: Possession of cannabis is a criminal offence.
Highways England insist that smart motorways are safer because of lay-bys

smart motorways are being extended to almost 800 miles despite increasing concerns over their safety.

Highways England insists smart motorways, which do not have a hard shoulder, are safer because they have emergency lay-bys.

But motoring groups fear the removal of the hard shoulder will pose a risk as vehicles will have no choice but to stop in live lanes.

Smart motorways are being extended to almost 800 miles despite increasing concerns over their safety because they don't have a hard shoulder

Smart motorways work by using the hard shoulder as a permanent fourth driving lane, with variable speed limits controlling traffic. A red X on overhead signs indicates accidents or broken-down vehicles ahead.

In 2017, there were 16 crashes on smart motorways involving stationary vehicles, according to figures from Highways England. By contrast, there were 29 such crashes on the hard shoulder across the rest of Englands motorways, stretching roughly 1,800 miles.

But a recent safety assessment of a stretch of smart motorway on the M25 in Kent found crashes had reduced by 29 per cent, with 9.3 crashes registered per 100 million miles.

Last month the AA raised serious concerns about smart motorways following the death of an 83-year-old motorist on a section of the M1 without a hard shoulder.

Jim OSullivan, Highways England chief executive, told The Sunday Times that one in ten motorway deaths happened on the hard shoulder. They mainly involved vehicles hitting stationary cars from behind. He said: With the volume, speed and size of modern cars, the refuge areas are safer than the hard shoulder.

You will not get a car or truck drift into the emergency refuge area, whereas they can and do drift into the hard shoulder. We are now well into smart motorway operation and the statistics we have are reliable. They are telling us that the safety record on smart motorways is arguably better than what we see on conventional motorways.

Last month the AA raised serious concerns about smart motorways following the death of an 83-year-old motorist on a section of the M1 without a hard shoulder

Smart motorways, to be renamed digital roads, are expected to almost double in length from 416 to 788 miles by April 2025 under the Governments road strategy.

The system currently operates on parts of the M1, M4, M6, M25, M42, M60 and M62.

Emergency lay-bys are to be placed a mile apart, rather than the current 1.5 miles.

The speed limit past roadworks will increase from 50mph to 60mph to improve traffic.

A trial of roadside technology linked to the new system is in place on the M2 and A2 between London and Dover.

The system, which beams traffic signals and other data into modern cars, is expected to be rolled out across the country in the coming years.

Last September, a 62-year-old woman was killed on a stretch of smart motorway near Sheffield. The passenger got out of her grey Nissan Qashqai after it broke down on the northbound carriageway of the M1.

She was standing on a verge when a Mercedes E-class struck her vehicle before hitting her.

A 30-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving.

Research by the RAC has found more than a fifth of motorists have driven in lanes marked with an X over the past year.

Drivers who break the rules on closed lanes can be handed a 100 fine and three points on their licence. As of last month, Highways England has issued more than 160,000 warning letters to motorists.
The Chicago prosecutor whose office dismissed charges against Jussie Smollett defended the decision on Saturday, 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 Sr.s Rainbow Push Coalition.

Foxx openly wondered if her race had something to do with the harsh criticism shes faced since her office announced that charges against Smollett had been dropped, WGN-TV reported.

The actor was accused of staging what he claimed to be a racist and homophobic attack in January.

Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxx on Saturday defended her decision to drop charges against Empire actor Jussie Smollett

The actor was accused of staging what he claimed to be a racist and homophobic attack in January. He is seen above speaking to reporters at Leighton Criminal Courthouse in Chicago after charges were dropped against him on March 26

'I have been asking myself for the last two weeks what is this really about,' she said.

'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.'

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 and that the actor did pay that amount because his $10,000 bond was forfeited.

But Foxx did not address specifics of the case, or the criticism leveled 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.

Foxx's decision to drop charges against Smollett was denounced by Mayor Rahm Emanuel (left) and Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson (right)

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.

A Chicago attorney has called for a special prosecutor to investigate whether Smollett should be re-charged with staging an attack on himself and if the city's top prosecutor interfered with the case.

Saani Mohammed filed a petition asking for the investigation into Cook County State's Attorney Kimberly Foxx's actions over the decision to drop the 16 felony charges against the Empire actor.

According to court documents, Mohammed, who until recently worked in Foxx's office, wrote that a prosecutor should investigate if Foxx 'acted to impede the investigation concealed evidence, and/or intentionally misled the public'.

Foxx also improperly 'used her position to intervene in the investigation', after meeting with one of Smollett's relatives before the charges were dropped, the filing states, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Chicago police union chiefs have also demanded the resignation of Foxx over her office's handling of the case.

Police chiefs associations announced they passed a 'no confidence' vote against Foxx during a joint news conference yesterday afternoon.

Kevin Graham, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said the vote was about more than just the Smollett case, NBC News reports.

Smollett's lawyer said there was no doubt that the brothers Abel and Ola Osundairo attacked him, but no other motive than that Smollett asked them to has emerged

He reportedly said the decision was just one of many issues undermining their trust in Foxx and Chicago's criminal justice system.

The announcement came as the city confirmed Chicago will sue Smollett for the costs of police overtime spent investigating his claims that he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack - which prosecutors say were false.

The lawsuit was being prepared after the 36-year-old Empire star refused a demand by the city for $130,000, said Bill McCaffrey, a spokesman for the city's Department of Law.

He said: 'Mr. Smollett has refused to reimburse the City of Chicago for the cost of police overtime spent investigating his false police report on January 29, 2019.

'The Law Department is now drafting a civil complaint that will be filed in the Circuit Court of Cook Country.'

On Monday some 300 people, including off-duty Chicago police officers, took to the streets to protest, calling on Foxx to resign over her handling of the case.

Smollett, who is black and gay, told police on January 29 that two apparent supporters of President Trump struck him, put a noose around his neck and poured bleach over him.

He claimed the attackers poured the bleach-like chemical on him and tied a rope noose around his neck, yelling racist and homophobic insults as well as 'This is MAGA country'.

He told officers the unknown chemical substance was used on him while 'Empire f****t' and 'Empire n*****' was shouted at him.

Police chiefs associations announced they passed a 'no confidence' vote against Foxx during a joint news conference yesterday afternoon. Kevin Graham (above), president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said the vote was about more than just the Smollett case

But on February 15, unconfirmed reports emerged suggesting the openly-gay actor might have staged the attack to save his job with help from two Nigerian brothers that he reportedly knew as extras on Empire.

The actor, best known for his role as a gay musician on the Fox Television hip-hop drama Empire, was charged in February with staging the incident himself and filing a false police report.

Investigators said they believe Smollett may have paid Abimbola 'Abel' and Olabinjo 'Ola' Osundairo $3,500 to assault him in the orchestrated attack.

Last week prosecutors dropped all 16 felony charges issued by a grand jury against Smollett, infuriating police and outgoing Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Prosecutors said they stood by the accusation but that an agreement by Smollett to forfeit his $10,000 bond was a just outcome.

The case file was sealed by a Chicago judge, which critics suggested was evidence of a cover-up.

Last week Emanuel's law chief sent the Empire actor a letter demanding he cover the probe costs after the 16 felony disorderly conduct charges against him were dropped.

The letter, dated March 28, demanded the 36-year-old actor pay the $130,106.15 bill within seven days.

Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot could reverse any legal action after she's sworn in on May 20.

Smollett was written out of the final two episodes of Empire this season after he was charged with staging the hate crime.

Fox executives have not said if he will return should the show be renewed for another year.

The actor's criminal defense attorney, Mark Geragos, could not be reached for comment.
Reports of tax conmen have soared by 10 per cent since the Daily Mail exposed the gang behind the telephone fraud.

Thousands of victims have contacted HMRC to say they were targeted by bogus officials threatening them with jail unless they immediately repaid non-existent tax debts.

Treasury minister Mel Stride said the rise in reports was largely thanks to the Mails investigation, which has encouraged more people to come forward.

Mr Stride has also written to Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt to demand diplomatic action to tackle the crooks who target 10,000 Britons a day.

Conmen working in an office in Ahmedabad, India pose as HMRC officials and tell Britons they owe tax and face arrest and imprisonment if they do not pay up immediately. Pictured is Samkit Jain who spoke to an elderly gentlemen over the phone and said: 'Sir, we just wanted to know if you received the yellow slip regarding your case? Your case for tax fraud'

Indian police in Ahmedabad, where the criminals operate, say they have arrested key members of the gang. They have asked the Mail to pass on details of victims as they build their case.

HMRC staff have dealt with 60,000 scam reports in the six months to January  up 360 per cent on the previous half-year.

Hundreds of readers have contacted the Mail directly, many have lost life savings and now suffer from depression and panic attacks after being swindled.

The vast scale of the crime emerged after undercover reporters infiltrated the 18-strong gang at its fake call centre. The fraudsters, who boasted they did not fear the British authorities, select victims at random  often using the online BT phone directory.

Following a script, they demand immediate payment of fake debts with the threat of arrest, jail, seized homes, frozen pension payments and bank accounts.

Mr Stride, who was horrified by undercover footage of the scammers, is demanding urgent action. In his letter to the Foreign Secretary, he said: I would be grateful for assurance that we are bringing to bear the full reach of our diplomatic network so that these criminal gangs are brought to justice, no matter where they operate.

Police in Ahmedabad confirmed they have arrested gang leader Krishna Borah and two so-called closers, who reporters filmed tormenting British victims into handing over money online  and boasting about their tricks. One victim was Jane Ripley, who was forced to borrow thousands of pounds from a friend after being threatened with jail by the scammers last September.

The 64-year-old from Brighton endured a three day ordeal as she struggled to raise the cash. She said: It was terrifying. I cannot begin to describe the acute distress and trauma I was suffering.
by Shan Ren Shen Fu ()

Faithful and priests wept at the sight of the Qianyang church, demolished by the authorities. Meanwhile, in Mindong (Fujian), registration with the Patriotic Association for the bishop and underground priests is required, contravening the Sino-Vatican agreement. "The Sino-Vatican experts who hold high hopes" should listen to "groans from innocent oppressed (Christians)".

Beijing (AsiaNews)  Here we publish a comment by the blogger-priest Shanren Shenfu ("mountain priest"), on some news emerging from the Church in China, such as the destruction of the church in Qianyang (Shaanxi) and the governments resistance to the recognition of Msgr. Guo Xijin as auxiliary bishop of in Mindong (Fujian).

A new church, still under construction, located in Qianyang in the Diocese of Fengxiang (Shaanxi), was razed to the ground four days ago. In some videos taken on the spot, the local faithful tried with all their might to protect the church from demolition. However, from the cries of pain and lament of some faithful present, it is understood that their attempts were in vain.

Building a new church for the community is a continuation and expression of one's faith, it is also aimed at solving the need to have a place where the faithful can carry out religious activities. The donations collected are undoubtedly numerous, but also the commitment and the lively participation of the faithful are not to be underestimated. The participation of the authorities in the opening ceremony of the church was also foreseen: this means that nothing was hidden. At a time when the church was nearing the end of the construction work, catastrophe struck and it has grieved the hearts of the faithful. Many brother priests say they cried with great sorrow as they watch the demolition scenes on the videos.

After the provisional agreement signed by China and the Vatican, we who live within the Chinese Church no longer dare to have great expectations, because we have been told that our journey is still long and at the request of the Holy See, we  who are part of the Chinese Church - must be patient and make concrete sacrifices.

However, obedience to the agreement is the prerequisite for all our actions (the Pope claims to have signed the agreement, therefore, he takes responsibility). The content of the signed agreement has never been made public (the Vatican says it has not published the content at the request of China), so that what the Chinese authorities have promised in turn remains shrouded in mystery.

Currently the Holy See has legitimized, according to its own regulations, seven excommunicated bishops and asked the two ordinary bishops to cede their office to two newly recognized bishops. Nevertheless, in light of what has happened so far, we have never seen the official authorities loosen their stranglehold on the Chinese Church.

According to recent sources, although the bishop of the diocese of Mindong has given up his office for the unification of the diocese, underground priests and bishop Guo have not yet been recognized. The first step towards the light would be to [understand] how to overcome the difficulty for which they resisted for 60 years, or enroll in the Patriotic Association, but in the post-agreement era the problem is sharpened, without any room for negotiation . So the Chinese government is willing to offer 200,000 yuan (about 27,000 euros) to those who join the Patriotic Association, so that the annexation of the Diocese of Mindong can be successfully reconciled.

The Holy See believes that, the humiliations suffered by the Chinese Church are the mortifying cost that it must pay for the Sino-Vatican agreement to be continued. The dioceses are therefore required to obey the ban on allowing minors attend the church or to organize catechesis classes. The last glimmer of hope is to await the moment when the Vatican realizes the positive aspects obtained for the Chinese Church through the agreement, and hope that this moment arrives as soon as possible.

Until then, on the other hand, the Sino-Vatican experts who hold high hopes for this agreement continue to consider this anguish and the damage we suffer a necessary evil, as if they were deaf to the cries of the Chinese Church, and the weeping of the innocent oppressed (Christian).

If the Holy See has listened to the lament and sorrow of excommunicated bishops and have accepted them in communion with a merciful heart of the Father, how could they bear the cries of the innocents, forcing them to be the bearers of the cross?

I reiterate my firm point of view: Chinese Christians love their homeland and they continue on the path of Jesus Christ towards peace, love and mercy. Nevertheless, the demolition of the new church in Qianyang (Fengxiang) and the seal on the door are now the most burning truth, thus wounding the hearts of many who love the "Truth"!
Scott Morrison's task to win the coalition a third term still appears out of sight, despite the prime minister recording his best ever Newspoll.

Two polls out on Sunday night suggest voters' dislike of Opposition Leader Bill Shorten won't stop Labor winning a majority government in the May election.

A Newspoll published by The Australian suggests the government trails Labor 48-52 on a two-party preferred basis.

Labor only needs a uniform swing of about one per cent to win majority government and while the Coalition is rising in popularity, poll results still suggest they may lose up to 10 seats

That's an improvement from the 46-54 poll a month ago and marks the coalition's best result since Malcolm Turnbull was dumped as leader in August 2018.

The Ipsos poll, published by The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, suggested the Labor lead is six points (53-47).

Labor only needs a uniform swing of about one per cent to win majority government.

A three per cent swing to Labor would lead to senior ministers Peter Dutton and David Coleman losing their seats.

Despite each poll's dire warning for the coalition, both continue to suggest almost half of all voters approve of Mr Morrison while about 36 per cent were in favour of Mr Shorten's performance.

In the Ipsos poll, Mr Morrison also maintains a net approval rating of positive nine percentage points while the Labor leader's net approval has dropped three points to minus 15.

Poll results show Prime Minister Scott Morrison has a higher personal approval rating than opposition leader Bill Shorten, but the polls still indicate Labor will win

Despite the improvement in the Coalition's approval rating, the poll results suggest the Prime Minister's quest to win the election may still be out of reach.

Labor only needs a uniform swing of about one per cent to win majority government.

The Newspoll and Ipsos results suggest the Coalition government may lose 10 seats, despite a positive response to its budget.

Despite the two polls' warning for the coalition, Mr Morrison's personal approval rating jumped three points to 46, while Mr Shorten's dipped a point to 35.

Bill Shorten headed to Brisbane on Monday. The latest Newspoll shows Labor leading the Coalition by 52-48 on a two-party preferred basis

The prime minister headed to Brisbane on Monday to spruik his budget in an address to a business lunch.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten will also be in the Queensland capital.

In Canberra, the Senate is scheduled to hold a week of budget estimates, where senior officials are grilled about government spending.


Struggling to read and write was not enough to stop a teacher getting a job at a top secondary school.

Faisal Ahmed was given the green light by elite teacher training program TeachFirst despite having 'extreme difficulty with handwriting', problems with reading and understanding 'written tests'.

Just days into his new job at St Thomas More Catholic school in leafy Wood Green, north London, he was summoned by the headmaster and suspended, reported The Sun.

Thomas More Catholic school in Wood Green, North London where Mr Ahmed worked

Mr Ahmed suffers from dyspraxia, a condition that affects co-ordination, and he told the headmaster Mark Rowland that he was unable to write for 'more than a couple of minutes' as his condition caused him too much pain.

Teach First recruits top graduates who are parachuted into schools while they study for a teaching qualification, with the organisation receiving millions in funding.

What is Teach First? Teach First recruits top graduates who are parachuted into schools while they study for a teaching qualification. Set up in 2002, its two-year leadership development programme provides training in school while they study for a postgraduate diploma in education and leadership qualification. The charity aims to recruit people who can inspire young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to achieve their potential. It provides a salary from participants' first day in September, with teachers not having to pay any fees and getting support from a subject expert. It also provides summer internships and says its alumni are seven times more likely to be promoted to school leadership roles. Advertisement

The scandal emerged when Mr Ahmed, who is in his 30s, sued the school for constructive dismissal and disability discrimination after he quit in anger.

Papers obtained by the Sun showed that Mr Ahmed lost his legal battle and subsequent appeal over the 2016 scandal, with the London Central Employment and Tribunal throwing out his claims last month.

Ex-City worker Mr Ahmed was going to teach vital GCSE and A-Level lessons to teenagers.

Teach First admitted that they did not inform the school of Mr Ahmed's condition.

A Teach First spokesman told MailOnline: 'We hold the highest standards for every candidate who joins our teacher training programme. Every trainee who is offered a place must have a degree, expertise in the subject they teach and GCSEs in maths and English.

'They also will have passed the professional skills tests for prospective teachers in numeracy and literacy - which is standard for all routes into teaching.

'Once offered a place in a school, Teach First continues to provide rigorous training and support for two years to the candidate, alongside a university tutor and school mentor. Our training programme has been rated outstanding by Ofsted.'

'We have always welcomed applications from candidates with disabilities and additional needs - and work with them, the school and university partners to provide any extra training and support needed to ensure their teaching is of the highest quality.'
A former Swallows and Amazons actress spoke yesterday of her anger at the litter blighting our country as she revealed that she had joined the army of volunteers taking part in the Great British Spring Clean.

Sophie Neville, who appeared in the 1974 film version of Arthur Ransomes childrens classic, described herself as a lone ranger who began her own war on waste six years ago.

She collects rubbish along the coast at Lymington in the New Forest in Hampshire to protect the waters of the Solent and local wildlife.

Former Swallows and Amazons actress, Sophie Neville, 59, collects rubbish in Hampshire to protect the local waters

During her latest solo effort, she picked up more than 1,000 items, including 75 pieces of plastic and two beer cans in a 100-yard stretch of coastline.

Miss Neville, 59, a wildlife artist and fellow of conservation charity the Endangered Wildlife Society, started bagging litter in 2013 when she found two buckets washed up on the shore.

I call myself the lone ranger because I enjoy collecting litter when Im by myself walking the dog, she said.

I think everyone should try and work litter collecting into their daily routine, even if its when you walk the dog or walking home from school.

In the first two days of the Great British Spring Clean I filled four bags with rubbish, which is over 1,000 items. I usually find around 250 items each time, some of them can be large items like buoys and beer cans, while the smaller plastic items like cotton buds and wet wipes are just as important.

During her latest solo effort, she picked up more than 1,000 items, including 75 pieces of plastic and two beer cans in a 100-yard stretch of coastline

It makes me so angry going to the beautiful coastline and seeing the amount of rubbish.

In the Swallows and Amazons film, Miss Neville played Titty Walker, one of the children who enjoy a series of adventures in their boats amidst the splendours of the Lake District in the 1920s.

She described her litter-collecting hobby as fascinating  and an uphill struggle. You realise that so many items just wash up on the coast every day and its a never-ending cycle, she said. We live in the beautiful New Forest and have lots of tourists come to Lymington, they are the reason restaurants and hotels remain open.

In the Swallows and Amazons film, Miss Neville played Titty Walker, one of the children who enjoy a series of adventures in their boats amidst the splendours of the Lake District in the 1920s

If they stop coming here because of litter then people will lose their livelihood. Its awful.

Miss Neville, who is a TV producer and has also directed documentaries, added that collecting litter makes you realise how many people must throw rubbish from their cars.

She said: This is why vehicles must be installed with car bins so people dont just throw it onto the roadside or onto our gorgeous coastline.

More than half a million people have signed up to the Great British Spring Clean, which is organised by Keep Britain Tidy and supported by the Daily Mail.

Individuals, groups and companies are among the supporters helping to spruce up their communities and protect wildlife in areas ranging from car parks to country parks.

Now into its third week, it will continue until April 23.
Australian nurses were brutally raped by Japanese soldiers during World War II before they were marched into the sea and shot dead with machine guns.

The sole survivor of that massacre, Vivian Bullwinkel, was ordered by the Australian government to keep silent about being raped and shot when she was 26, a new book has revealed.

Shortly before the Japanese took Singapore in February 1942, 65 Australian nurses had fled on the British-registered cargo ship SS Vyner Brooke.

It was carrying 181 passengers, including women and children.

Two days after leaving Singapore, this vessel was bombed and sank near Bangka Island at Sumatra, with 22 surviving nurses making it to Radji beach, an area of Indonesia then known as the Dutch East Indies.

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Australian nurses were brutally raped by Japanese soldiers during World War II before they were marched into the sea and murdered with machineguns. The sole survivor of that atrocity Vivian Bullwinkel (pictured) was ordered by the Australian government to keep silent, a new book has revealed

Sister Bullwinkel, a member of the Australian Army Nursing Service, was in uniform when she was shot through the flesh on her hip.

She had survived by laying face down in the water and playing dead for 10 minutes until the Japanese had left, having raped and killed 21 other Australian nurses.

Military historian Lynette Silver's new book, Angels of Mercy, has revealed how Sister Bullwinkel was pressured into keeping silent by the Australian government about when happened to her on February 14, 1942.

Shortly before her death aged 84 in July 2000, Sister Bullwinkel revealed to a journalist how the Australian government had pressured her to remain silent about being raped and shot by the Japanese, as she attended the War Crimes Tribunal in Tokyo in 1946.

'The thing that affected her the most was that she'd been told by the Australian government that she was not to speak about it and she was not permitted to speak about it at the War Crimes Tribunal. She was shut down,' Ms Silver told ABC Radio National breakfast presenter Fran Kelly on Monday.

Shortly before the Japanese took Singapore in February 1942, 65 Australian nurses had fled on the British-registered cargo ship Vyner Brooke (pictured)

Military historian Lynette Silver's new book, Angels of Mercy, has revealed how Sister Bullwinkel was pressured into keeping silent by the Australian government

Ms Silver said other Australian wartime nurses had also made a pact to remain silent about what they knew.

'I called it the elephant in the room. When I talked to nurses, it was obvious there were things that weren't talking about and they went so far to say, "There were some things we've agreed never to talk about",' she said.

Ms Silver said the pact of silence emerged during the early 1990s when two Japanese academics suggested the Australian nurses had been raped.

Her new book Angels of Mercy explores the possibility of the Japanese soldiers committing a similar atrocity in Hong Kong during the war.

Sister Bullwinkel, who was part of the 2/13th Australian General Hospital, had made it to shore on Radji Beach with a large group of men, women and children.

Shortly before her death aged 84 in July 2000, Sister Bullwinkel revealed to a journalist how the Australian government had pressured her to remain silent about being raped and shot by the Japanese, as she attended the War Crimes Tribunal in Tokyo in 1946 (pictured)

Sister Bullwinkel (second left), who was part of the 2/13th Australian General Hospital, had made it to shore on Radji Beach with a large group of men, women and children

They were joined the next day by about 100 British soldiers.

She was part of a group that had agreed to surrender to the Japanese.

Her official Australian War Memorial record said that she had remained silent about the massacre during the war to protect other survivors of the Vyner Brooke sinking.

'She told them of the massacre, but none spoke of it again until after the war lest it put Bullwinkel, as witness to the massacre, in danger,' it said.

No mention was made of the rapes in the Australian government record.

Her official Australian War Memorial record said that she had remained silent about the massacre during the war to protect other survivors of the Vyner Brooke sinking. Sister Bullwinkel is pictured far left)

Sister Bullwinkel, who was part of the 2/13th Australian General Hospital (pictured here before being murdered by the Japanese in February 1942)

Historical records show that some Japanese soldiers killed the men, before motioning the nurses to wade into the sea.

They then machine-gunned the nurses from behind.

Sister Bullwinkel was struck by a bullet and pretended to be dead until the Japanese left, the Australian War Memorial said.

She hid with a wounded British private for 12 days before deciding once again to surrender, it said.

Sister Bullwinkel spent three and half years in captivity as one of just 24 of the 65 nurses who survived the sinking of the Vyner Brooke.

Of the 32 men, women and children taken as prisoners of war, eight of them died at the hands of the Japanese.

Angels of Mercy (Sally Milner Publishing) is being released today
A film about Bill Wyman has been banned from a leading documentary festival after protests about the grooming of his second wife.

The Quiet One was due to have its European premiere at Sheffield Doc/Fest in June.

But organisers received dozens of complaints saying it was giving a platform to an alleged sexual predator.

Bill Wyman and his fiancee Mandy Smith in London on May 9, 1989

The former Rolling Stone met Mandy Smith in 1984 when she was 13 and he was 47. She later claimed they first had sex when she was 14.

They married in 1989 after she turned 18 and he was 52. They separated in 1991 and subsequently divorced.

Wyman, 82, had been booked in for a Q&A with director Oliver Murray. One critic said the decision to hold the premiere was disgusting, embarrassing, disappointing, while another said you may want to look at the appropriateness of this line-up.

Katherine Noelle Wyman, Bill Wyman and Suzanne Accosta at the 'Sumo' Book Launch in Claridge's this year

Wyman left the Stones in 1993 and went on to marry actress Suzanne Accosta with whom he had two children.

But concerns about his relationship with Mandy Smith have dogged his later career.

In 2013, Wyman revealed he had approached police and prosecutors to ask if they wanted to interview him, only to be told they were not interested. He said: We all have a skeleton in the cupboard..

In my case it was publicised to the world and that wasnt really fair, I dont think.

Sheffield Doc/Fest declined to comment.
Tanya Plibersek learnt two big things on her first date with Michael Coutts-Trotter: he had recently served almost three years in prison and she wanted him to be in her life.

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition, who will be deputy prime minister if Labor wins the upcoming federal election, said her future husband's past as a drug dealer never deterred her but conceded their relationship had an 'unusual start'.

Mr Coutts-Trotter is a senior New South Wales public servant who has just been promoted to secretary of the Department of Justice, on top of his existing role as boss of Family and Community Services.

But 35 years ago as a teenage drug addict he was arrested for conspiring to import half a kilogram of heroin from Thailand and served two years and nine months in jail.

Mr Coutts-Trotter's new job puts him in charge of the largest prison and court system in the country, providing an inspiring story of redemption and hope.

Ms Plibersek told Daily Mail Australia she accepted people would always be interested in her husband's criminal history but publicly airing 'ancient history' could be hard on their family.

Labor MP Tanya Plibersek learnt two big things on her first date with Michael Coutts-Trotter: he was on parole after serving almost three years in prison and she wanted him in her life

Tanya Plibersek and Michael Coutts-Trotter met in university in 1991 and have three children, Anna, 18, Joe, 14, and Louis, 8. The family is pictured at a movie premiere in Sydney in 2014

Tanya Plibersek, pictured with Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten after he delivered his budget reply speech, will become deputy prime minister if Labor wins the upcoming election

'It's always a little bit embarrassing and personal when these things are in the paper,' she said. 'It's a bit exposing and I worry about how it affects my children.'

The couple, who met in 1991 when both were studying communications at the University of Technology Sydney, has three children: Anna, 18, Joe, 14 and Louis, 8.

'I think the real difficulty of this story is to talk to your children about the fact that their father's been in jail,' the 49-year-old MP for Sydney said.

'That's not easy because kids when they're little assume that everybody who's been in jail is 100 per cent bad.

'They don't understand that people can make mistakes and learn from those mistakes.'

Long before they contemplated having children Mr Coutts-Trotter had to tell Ms Plibersek - and she had to tell her Slovenian-born parents - about his 'complicated' past.

As a teenager Mr Coutts-Trotter had become addicted to heroin and dealt the drug to fund his habit before he was jailed for trying to import half a kilogram of the stuff.

Deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek pictured with her public servant husband Michael Coutts-Trotter and children Anna, 18 and Joe, 14. 'I think the real difficulty of this story is to talk to your children about the fact that their father's been in jail,' Ms Plibersek told Daily Mail Australia

Mr Coutts-Trotter, pictured as a 17-year-old in 1982, was injecting two-and-a-half grams of heroin at the height of his drug addiction. He was arrested in 1984 and jailed in 1986

'He told me on our first date and I think he was still on parole,' Ms Plibersek said. 'He had to go and see his parole officer every few weeks when we first started dating.

'It was an unusual start. He told me on our very first date his whole history and then I actually knew after our first date that I was serious about this fellow.

'I took him home to meet my parents probably two weeks after our first date, so I had to tell my mum and dad that I was dating someone with a pretty complicated history.

'My parents are really wonderful people so they accepted him on face value.

'Their only interest was how he was going to treat their daughter and when they saw that he was very decent they were fine with his history.'

Seven successive Labor and Liberal premiers under whose governments 54-year-old Mr Coutts-Trotter's career has flourished have also judged him on his ability rather than his criminal past.

'Everyone I meet that has worked with him over the years is impressed by his competence and his compassion in the job that he does,' Ms Plibersek said.

'He takes his role as a public servant really seriously, he absolutely believes that it's the job of a public servant to implement the policies of the democratically elected government in the best way that he can.

Ms Plibersek said Mr Coutts-Trotter was a 'wonderful husband and father', 'terrific son to his mother' and a 'loyal, loving friend'. The couple is pictured with children Anna, Joe and Louis

'He works very hard. Works very hard indeed. And he does it, I think, just incredibly ethically. He's a very ethical person.'

Ms Plibersek said Mr Coutts-Trotter was a 'wonderful husband and father', 'terrific son to his mother' and a 'loyal, loving friend'.

Telling his story of rehabilitation and redemption, as he did to Daily Mail Australia last week, was worthwhile because it gave hope to others with a family member addicted to drugs.

'He's never tried to minimise it, he's never tried to run away, he'd never made excuses for himself,' Ms Plibersek said.

Instead, Mr Coutts-Trotter had been 'prepared to face up to what he did wrong and to change his life.'

'I know that it's a comfort to parents whose kids are currently going through drug addiction,' Ms Plibersek said.

'To think there's a life after and to know that you can get clean and you can make amends and you can go onto be a productive member of society I think is really important for people who are supporting someone through drug addiction.'

Mr Coutts-Trotter was followed by police from the Redfern Mail Exchange after he picked up a package of heroin sent from Thailand in 1984. He is pictured here on that spot last Friday

Ms Plibersek said while her husband's addiction had been to heroin, his story had lessons for the growing numbers of Australians whose lives were afflicted by ice.

'Ice is so terrible at the moment,' she said. 'There's so many parents watching their kids go through ice addiction and wondering what the end is for them, whether they'll live.

'And certainly whether they can go on to have a family and have a job and do all the things that parents hope for their children.

'Seeing someone who has done that with heroin - which is a terrible addiction as well - I hope gives some comfort.'

While ever the couple was in the public eye Mr Coutts-Trotter and Ms Plibersek would continue to be asked about his drug use and years in prison.

'I think he sees it as the price of what he did wrong and that's fair enough, you know,' Ms Plibersek said. 'You can't minimise that stuff.

'It's not fair to pretend it never happened. The consequences last a long time.'
This is the heart-stopping moment a road worker is sent flying through the air after being taken out by a car.

Xolele Phindela, 32, suffered serious injuries after the dramatic crash in which he was flipped by the car's bonnet.

Police are yet to identify the driver of the Toyota Avanza in Cape Town, South Africa.

Two workers wearing hi-viz jackets in the middle of the road are ignored by an overtaking car near Cape Town

In the dashcam footage, a car follows a lorry down a road with two workers in bright hi-viz jackets in the middle.

A car tries to overtake from behind and smashes straight into one of the workers, sending him cartwheeling through the air.

Witnesses believe the driver was exceeding the speed limit of 80km per hour as he was overtaking.

Mr Phindela, who was hospitalised following the dramatic crash, fortunately avoided the oncoming traffic on the busy road.

Footage of the incident was caught on dashcam by Lyndon DeMeillon in the car behind.

The car, which is believed to have been travelling over the speed limit of 80km per hour, flipped the man over the bonnet

The worker was sent flying into the air and he was later hospitalised with serious injuries

They were on their way to the coast with their two children aged seven and ten when the dramatic incident occurred, according to The Sun.

Mr DeMeillon's wife Elri said: 'At first when it happened I thought he had a lost an arm or a leg from the impact.

'But when we when we watched the footage you could see it was his spade.

'I shudder to think what would have happened to our family if that had come through our windscreen.'

The family said they cried after the shocking incident and reported it to the police.

But they have been left frustrated with the lack of police action since.
Two young brothers were attacked in broad daylight on Sunday by a group of teenage thugs.

The attack occurred outside Rockingham Train Station near Perth, as Caleb McAlister, 10, and his brother Liam, 11, were riding their bikes at about 11am.

Two teenagers blocked the boys' path before demanding they handed over their bikes, Nine News reported.

Caleb was then hit on the head with a rock, prompting Liam to jump to his defense.

'My brother protected me when I got hit in the head, he started to chase them but they ran to the bikes, and we said "just take the bikes",' Caleb told Nine News.

The teenagers then fled with the bikes, leaving Caleb with a gash above his left eye.

Caleb's mother Mirita took him to the doctor shortly after the attack.

On Monday, another mother sent Ms McAlister a photo on Facebook of a group of boys thought to have been involved in the cowardly attack.

The boys are understood to be aged between 11 and 14.

Caleb was then hit on the head with a rock, prompting his brother to jump to his defense, before the bullies rode off with their bikes

Caleb's mother Mirita took him to the hospital after the attack, where he was treated for a nasty gash above his eye

Ms McAlister told Daily Mail Australia that the mother who had sent her the photo wanted to report the out-of-control youths to police after the attack.

'She said she is willing to talk to police as these kids have been causing trouble in and around the area for quite a while and the locals are fed up,' Ms McAlister told Daily Mail Australia.

Ms McAlister has also been in contact with police.
A Christmas card has been delivered more than three months late  after Royal Mail mistakenly sent it halfway around the world to the South Atlantic.

Roger and Margaret Curtis live in the village of St Helens, near Ryde on the Isle of Wight. Their friends in Wroxall, just ten miles away, posted them the card in December.

But it was incorrectly dispatched to St Helena  a remote, storm-buffeted volcanic outcrop with a large colony of penguins. It finally arrived at their home last week, having travelled around 10,000 miles.

A Christmas card has been delivered more than three months late  after Royal Mail mistakenly sent it halfway round the world to the South Atlantic

Roger and Margaret Curtis, who live on the Isle of Wight, received the late card after it travelled 10,000 miles around the world

A message stamped on the envelope declared missent to St Helena.

St Helens, with a population of 1,200, claims to be the second largest village in the UK. Meanwhile the island of St Helena has a population of 4,500, and was uninhabited when discovered by the Portuguese in 1502.

French ruler Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled there in 1815 and died there just over five years later.
Korean Air's chairman has died from a chronic lung condition less than two weeks after he was kicked off the board of his own company following years of scandal.

Cho Yang-ho, 70, whose family controls a 29 per cent stake in Korean Air, passed away in the US on Monday - causing the share price to rise sharply.

Perhaps the family's most infamous moment came in 2014 when eldest daughter Heather Cho forced a Korean Air flight to return to the gate at JFK airport in New York after flying into a fit of rage when she was served nuts in a packet rather than a bowl.

Cho Yang-ho, 70, the chairman of Korean Air, died of a chronic lung condition on Monday, two weeks after he was kicked off the board of his own company following years of scandal

Heather Cho (left) delayed a Korean Air plane at JFK in 2014 after forcing it back to the gate in a row over a bag of nuts, while sister Emily Cho (right) was accused of throwing a glass of water at a manager during a meeting

Her tantrum, dubbed 'nut rage', caused the flight to be delayed and ultimately saw her jailed for breaching air safety laws.

Heather's younger sister Emily Cho then found herself being forced to apologise after she allegedly threw a glass of water at a manager during a meeting.

Cho's wife, Lee Myung-hee, was then arrested over claims she screamed, kicked slapped, and threw a pair of scissors at employees - though she was later released.

The scandal culminated in 2018 when Cho himself was indicted on charges of embezzlement and tax evasion. He had been due to stand trial in a few weeks.

A Korean Air source said Cho had been receiving treatment for his lung condition since late last year, but said it 'worsened considerably' after shareholders voted him off the board.

Investors are now expected to push for better governance of the airline under new management, or a younger generation of the Cho family.

Cho's only son, company President Cho Won-tae, is seen as his likely successor.

However, the death also raised the possibility of a bidding war over the 70-year-old patriarch's stake, said Um Kyung-a, an analyst from Shinyoung Securities.

'Of course, his family will try to inherit his shares, but that can take time and money ... So that opens a window for expectations about a takeover battle,' Um said.

Cho holds a 17.8 percent stake in Hanjin Kal, the holding firm that controls the airline conglomerate. Cho, his relatives and the family's academic foundations own a total 29 per cent of the holding firm.

A South Korean activist fund is the second-biggest shareholder of Hanjin Kal after the Cho family and recently boosted its stake to 13.5 per cent, vowing to take a role in management to fix poor governance blamed on Cho and his family.

Shareholders forced Cho off the board in a landmark vote on March 27, making him the first founding family member of any South Korean corporate giant to be ousted in such a manner.

Shares in Korean Air jumped sharply as news broke of Mr Cho's death amid hopes it would lead to better management of the company

Cho's wife, Lee Myung-hee, was also arrested over claims she kicked, slapped, and threw a pair of scissors at staff

The vote added fresh momentum to growing shareholder activism in Asia's fourth-biggest economy, long dominated by family-run business empires accused of ignoring minority investors.

Korean Air shares rose as much as 8.2 per cent on Monday after the announcement of Cho's death, their biggest percentage gain since November 14 last year. Hanjin Kal gained as much as 24.4 per cent to a more than two-month high, while the broader market was flat.

Before his family's high-handedness became an object of public ridicule, Cho was regarded as a paragon of South Korean business acumen.

After taking control of the company from his father, Cho gained a reputation for daring and smarts as he built the airline into one of Asia's biggest, operating 166 aircraft with international flights to 111 cities in 43 countries.

During the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s, he saw an opportunity to expand and bought 27 Boeing planes.

A few years later, as the airline industry reeled from the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome crisis, he placed a massive order for Airbus' A380 planes in 2003.

He died from a chronic ailment in a Los Angeles hospital early on Monday Korean time, the airline said without providing further details.

A company official said Cho had surgery for lung disease a while ago and his condition had worsened over the past two years.

Even so, his condition was not publicly known and his death came as a surprise to the South Korean public. Only last year he had carried the torch for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

His name was the most-searched keyword on South Korea's top internet portal on Monday.

Korean Air in a statement paid tribute to his enthusiasm and work ethic, but conceded that 'not everything went well', a reference to the shareholders' vote to unseat him from the board.
Boris Johnson has vowed Tory MPs will not let Theresa May 'surrender' to a soft Brexit, despite her moves to potentially broker a deal with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

The Tory leadership hopeful claims an agreement with Corbyn on remaining in a customs union '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.'

Mrs May paved the way for a customs union deal with Labour last night as she pledged to 'compromise' to ensure Brexit happens.

In an informal statement aimed directly at voters, Mrs May argued she had no choice but to try to find a cross-party agreement with Jeremy Corbyn because otherwise Britain might not leave the EU at all.

She said the referendum campaign was not fought on party lines and the public wanted to see politicians 'working together more often'.

Boris Johnson has vowed Tory MPs will not let Theresa May steer the country toward a soft Brexit

Theresa May paved the way for a customs union deal with Labour last night as she pledged to 'compromise' to ensure Brexit happens

But Mrs May's approach is flatly contradicted by Mr Johnson today.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, he slams the Prime Minister for meeting 'a man who still believes in the precepts of Bolivarian revolutionary socialism, even though they have reduced Venezuela to destitution'.

He adds: 'If we Tories have one duty, it is to prevent this man getting anywhere near the levers of power.

'So it seems utterly incredible that he has now been invited into Downing Street to negotiate a Brexit deal.

'And it is doubly incredible that the government is  so we are told - willing to accede to his terms.'

Mr Johnson claims the Tories would be 'tearing up a promise made thousands of times in parliament and elsewhere' by acceding to Corbyn's demands.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, he said: 'If the UK were to commit to remaining in the Customs Union, it would make a total and utter nonsense of the referendum result.

'We would be out of the EU, but in many ways still run by the EU.

'It would be the worst of both worlds, not just now, but forever  and that is why I find the news so appalling that I don't really believe it.'

Formal talks between No 10 and Labour broke down on Friday night, but are expected to begin again today after informal contact over the weekend.

In an attempt to break the deadlock, Mrs May could agree to accept elements of Labour's plan for a 'softer' Brexit, including a customs union and alignment with EU rules on employment and the environment. No 10 is also considering whether to make elements of the deal legally binding to prevent them being torn up by Mrs May's successor.

Dubbed a 'Boris-lock' (after Mr Johnson), this would mean putting into law some elements of the agreement so a parliamentary vote would be needed to overturn them.

Mrs May argued there are only two choices left - 'either leaving the EU with a deal or not leaving at all'

Allies of the Prime Minister say she is determined to make progress in the talks as she prepares to travel to Brussels on Wednesday, to seek a further extension to Article 50. She has asked for a delay until June 30 with a break clause to allow the UK to leave ahead of European elections on May 22 if a deal has passed by then.

Germany is thought to be sympathetic to a shorter extension, but France is resisting. EU Council president Donald Tusk has suggested the break clause could be accepted, but with a much longer extension of a year.

In the social media clip, filmed sitting on a sofa in the Hawtrey Room at Chequers  the Prime Minister's Buckinghamshire retreat  Mrs May said people had been asking her, 'what on Earth's happening with Brexit?' with nearly three years having passed since the referendum. Suggesting she accepts that her own deal is dead, she said MPs had rejected it three times and 'I can't see them accepting it'.

The Prime Minister also warned that Parliament had rejected a No Deal exit and was now 'legislating to block No Deal'.

While staying in the EU's customs union would allow frictionless trade with other member states to continue, the UK would have to abide by the bloc's tariffs and trade regulations, and it would seriously hamper the country's ability to strike commercial deals with non-EU countries.

A Bill tabled by Tory backbencher Sir Oliver Letwin, which could be used to force Mrs May to delay Brexit, will continue its passage in the Lords today and is likely to receive Royal Assent this week.

As a result of these constraints, Mrs May argued, the only choice was 'either leaving the EU with a deal or not leaving at all'. She added: 'Now I think, the Government thinks, we absolutely must leave the EU. We must deliver Brexit. That means we need to get a deal over the line.'

Her only option was a 'new approach' of holding cross-party talks, she said. 'When you think about it, people didn't vote on party lines when it came to the Brexit referendum. You know I think often that members of the public want to see their politicians working together more often.

reasury Chief Secretary Liz Truss said a flexible Brexit extension 'sounds like purgatory'

'There are lots of things on which I disagree with the Labour Party... But on Brexit I think there are some things we agree on: ending free movement, ensuring we leave with a good deal, protecting jobs, protecting security.

'And so we are talking. Can we find a way through this that ensures that we can get a good deal and a deal agreed through Parliament?' With a laugh, she added: 'It'll mean compromise on both sides but I believe that delivering Brexit is the most important thing for us. People voted to leave the EU (and) we have a duty as a Parliament to deliver that.'

Cabinet ministers were also divided over Mrs May's approach. Treasury Chief Secretary Liz Truss said a flexible extension 'sounds like purgatory' and warned against the UK being stuck in 'limbo'.

Leader of the Commons Andrea Leadsom said she was agreeing to the Labour talks 'through gritted teeth'. But she said the Tories must be willing to give ground to stop Brexit 'slipping away'.

Leadership contender Dominic Raab said it was a 'desperate' decision to hold talks with Mr Corbyn, claiming it was 'potentially disastrous for the nation'.

But Tory MP Johnny Mercer welcomed Mrs May's statement, calling it her 'best in three years'.
James Cracknell's soon to be ex-wife Beverley Turner branded the Olympic hero's advice to his children to 'follow their dreams' as b*****ks' as she spoke out about their split following his Boat Race triumph yesterday.

The TV host, 45, said Cracknell's family responsibilities took a back seat when he returned to Cambridge to study and appear in the Boat Race, and that she did not want their three children to develop the same attitude.

In an extraordinary newspaper article, Miss Turner laid bare the devastating effects that the rower's near fatal brain injury in 2010, and more latterly his return to education and rowing had on their 17-year marriage.

She added that the sportsman, 46, had 'underestimated' the time commitment that his new lease of life would involve, and said his drive to become the oldest competitor in the famous race was partly to blame for their marriage falling apart.

Writing in The Times, she said: 'James has spoken publicly about this latest feat, demonstrating to his children you can do anything you set your mind to.

'He won't mind me admitting that I consider that to be b*****ks - I wouldn't want my children to view such an exit from familial responsibilities as something to aspire to.'

The rower announced his split with his wife Beverley Turner, 45, during his training for the historic race

Cracknell, who is studying for a Master's in human evolution at Cambridge, celebrated his victory with his mother Jennie on Sunday

James and Beverley have three children Croyde, 14 who was named after Croyde Bay in Devon where his parents got engaged, and two daughters, Kili, 10 , and eight-year-old Trixie

James Cracknell of Cambridge University Boat Club celebrates after winning the men's Boat Race on Sunday

James Cracknell and Beverley Turner attend the Pride Of Britain Awards at Grosvenor House, in London, in October 2017

However, TV presenter Miss Turner, who watched on TV at home with the couple's three children, did however describe her elation at the achievement of her ex and hinted at her own role in it.

She tweeted: 'Behind every great man an' all that. Fantastic performance from James Cracknell and Cambridge University. Congratulations on a hard won victory.'

Beverley Turner out for a jog on the day after James Cracknell wins the Boat Race with Cambridge

At 46, the Olympian became the oldest winner in the 190-year history of the event as Cambridge beat Oxford, but on a day he should be celebrating, Miss Turner has laid bare the grizzly details of their marriage.

The couple recently split after getting married in 2002, as exclusively revealed by MailOnline.

In the newspaper today, Miss Turner highlights the brain injury Mr Cracknell suffered in 2010, where he was hit off his bike by a 60 mile per hour truck in Arizona, made things challenging.

She has been married to two different men, she writes, one for the eight years before the accident and another for the eight years after.

After returning from an appearance on Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls in 2018, Miss Turner says his behaviour was 'unusual.'

She said: 'On James's return he started to apply for university courses, but his behaviour had deteriorated and I marched him to the neuropsycologist.

'Tunnel vision,' the doctor told us. 'Frontal-lobe injury makes you more yourself.'

Mr Cracknell enrolled in a MPhil in human evolution at Cambridge and would then move away from home to concentrate on his training and degree.

Over years Mr Cracknell's changing personality combined with his massive drive to always achieve became too much for his wife.

Miss Turner added: 'The difference in 2018 was whether I could reasonably live with these exhausting, self-centred pursuits for the rest of my life.

'I prefer the journey, to the destination: good wine and food; lively conversations with friends.

'James is all about the target: sod the picnic, where are we going next and how quickly can we get there.'

Following his accident Mr Cracknell went through a long recovery process and it is a testament to his drive that he has been able to become the oldest ever winner of the famous Boat Race competing with men 25 years his junior.

The couple married in 2002 at Clearwell Castle in the Forest of Dean (pictured left) and went on to form one of the most glamourous pairs in the worlds of sport and showbusiness

Beverley tweeted her congratulations to the rower after his history-making performance with the Cambridge team

BBC presenter and former teammate Sir Matthew Pinsent embraced Cracknell after Cambridge raced to victory on Sunday

English rowers, from left, James Cracknell, Steve Redgrave, Tim Foster and Matthew Pinsent pictured together celebrating with their gold medals on the podium at Sydney 2000 Olympics

The marriage came under intense pressure in 2010 after Cracknell suffered a crippling brain injury when he was involved in a crash with a truck while cycling in the US

The couple (last pictured together in June last year) said in a statement in late March: 'Together, we remain committed to our amazing children, they are our absolute priority and wish people to be kind and mindful of this.'

At 46, James Cracknell has become the oldest winner of the Boat Race in its 190-year history

The couple's split was exclusively revealed by MailOnline and in a statement, they said: 'We can confirm that sadly we separated last year.

'Together, we remain committed to our amazing children, they are our absolute priority and wish people to be kind and mindful of this.'

The couple married in 2002 at Clearwell Castle in the Forest of Dean and went on to form one of the most glamourous pairs in the worlds of sport and showbusiness and were regular faces together on the party and charity circuit.

They have three children Croyde, 14 who was named after Croyde Bay in Devon where his parents got engaged, and two daughters, Kili, 10 ,and eight-year-old Trixie.

They previously collaborated on 'Touching Distance', a revealing book about their experience in which at one stage Beverley feared the man she once knew as her husband was going to kill her because of the personality change that he went through following the accident.

She wrote: 'The tension in our house is reaching boiling point, and I'm with James almost 24 hours a day. It has been another long, upsetting, difficult day that culminates in Croyde crying himself to sleep after another hurtful telling-off from James.

'I lose it. I say I've had enough and he needs to get better elsewhere because it is too much for us. But I'm not calm and beseeching. I'm angry and exhausted.

'I am already only too aware that 75 per cent of marriages do not survive a TBI (traumatic brain injury). When I read the books they confirm that it is this self-centred behaviour that is often the final blow for families.'

Cracknell, who won gold at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics as well as six world championship medals, has been living in Cambridge where he is studying

After his team's victory on Sunday, Cracknell said he wanted to refocus his attention on his and Miss Turner's three children  son Croyde, 15, and daughters Kiki, ten, and eight-year-old Trixie.

'I'll be celebrating now with these guys [his fellow rowers] and then I've got three more important people in my life that I want to make sure I'm there for,' he said.

Cracknell won gold in the coxless fours at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and the Athens Games four years later. He retired in 2006.

Mrs Turner said: 'James exceeded all expectations in terms of his recovery and to most people, most days, he is perfectly 'normal'.

Though the pair have split amicably she says that her father's description of marriage as 'pebbles on the beach that rub together over the years until the corners are knocked off and they sit smoothly together', which Mrs Turner saw as wearing herself down was not something she wanted.

The couple are officially separated but remain close despite their looming divorce and even spend Christmas together.
Women can protect their baby from obesity before they are born by exercising while pregnant, research has found.

The study  the first to encourage pregnant women who are not overweight to exercise  found that keeping fit helps boost a childs metabolic health.

US researchers tested the theory on mice and discovered youngsters were less likely to gain weight throughout adolescence if their mother regularly exercised during pregnancy.

At weaning, the babies of active mothers had increased levels of a protein linked to converting fat to heat, and after eight weeks they had gained less weight [File photo]

Study author Jun Seok Son, of Washington State University, said: Our data suggest that the lack of exercise in healthy women during pregnancy can predispose their children to obesity.

The experts examined the babies of mice that completed an hour of low intensity exercise a day compared with the offspring of mice that did not.

At weaning, the babies of active mothers had increased levels of a protein linked to converting fat to heat, and after eight weeks they had gained less weight.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has warned that opposition leader Bill Shorten's electric car policy will prevent Australians from buying the cars they want

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has warned that opposition leader Bill Shorten's electric car policy will prevent Australians from buying the cars they want in the future.

In his latest Budget battle with Mr Shorten, the Prime Minister said the Labor leader has 'declared a war on the weekend'.

In a press conference, Mr Morrison said Mr Shorten's goal to make 50 per cent of vehicles electric by 2030 is stripping the public of 'their choice in the future'.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg's own target by the same year has been announced as between 35 per and 50 per cent.

Mr Morrison said Mr Shorten's policy would mean 'your Hilux is out. Even the Hyundai i30 is gone.'

Mr Morrison said Labor's policy to phase in vehicle emission standards of 105 grams of CO per km for light vehicles would see certain cars no longer reach Australian standards, including the Hilux and Hyundai i30 - two of Australia's top-selling cars.

'What Australians have always expressed [a liking for] is vehicles that have a bit of power and a bit of grunt, because they like to enjoy the great recreational opportunities out there,' the Prime Minister said.

Mr Morrison said Labor's policy to phase in vehicle emission standards of 105 grams of CO per km for light vehicles would see certain cars no longer reach Australian standards, including the Hilux (pictured)

'Bill Shorten wants to corral Australians, as part of his plan, out of the sort of lifestyles that are supported by the vehicles they are currently buying.

'It shows he does not get how Australians like to live, and what he's saying with his new carbon policy, when it comes to vehicle emission standards, is one that is really taking choice away from Australians.

'I support people going out buying electric cars and we have a plan facilitating that, but we're leaving the choice [to] the Australians. Letting them have the choice. Bill Shorten wants to take that choice away.

Electric vehicles currently make up 0.2 per cent of the market, and both parties hope to significantly increase this amount within the next 10 years.

But, Mr Morrison warned 'Bill Shorten wants to change it all.'

'They have learned nothing, they have changed nothing in terms of how they go about politics and policies  they will change [it] all with high taxes and [encroaching] on the very choices Australians want to continue to make.'
A controversial American preacher has slammed women in a Sydney church for their 'troubling' outfits, before claiming a 'Satanic agenda' has spread through Australia.

US evangelist Philip Blair, who made headlines last week for his anti-abortion rant on a packed Sydney train, said he saw 'many alarming things' at the church.

In a video posted to YouTube on Monday about evil spirits in Australian churches, the preacher said women who attended the worship service 'were not very modest'.

'I saw girls with t-shirts that had their belly button and a lot of their, I guess you could call it midriff or something, showing and then you had a lot of really tight jeans and figures showing,' Blair said.

'Even some of the women who were ministering to others who I guess was a part of the church were wearing these type of clothes. So that was a little bit troubling.'

Controversial US preacher Philip Blair (right, with friend) has slammed female worshippers at a Sydney church over their 'troubling' outfits

He continued to talk about how it was also troubling that the 50-year-old pastor was dressed very 'hip and modern'.

In a video posted on Monday, Blair declared Australia was being overrun by darkness while standing in front of Parliament House.

'A very pervasive Satanic agenda has spread throughout Australia,' he said.

'This is a battle cry to rise up against the forces of darkness that are overrunning our lands. Now is the time for prayer.'

Blair made national headlines last week after a series of controversial public sermons

The anti-abortion evangelist was slammed by commuters after shouting a sermon on a packed Sydney train

Blair was slammed last week for preaching about abortion on a packed Sydney train and telling a man in a wheelchair he was 'too bitter' to be healed by God.

The first controversial moment occurred on April 1 when he boarded a train at Martin Place and began shouting his religious beliefs.

'We care more about saving the whales than we care about saving our unborn children,' he was filmed shouting.

He then got into a shouting match with commuter Malcolm Frawley.

Mr Frawley was applauded by passengers on the train after telling Blair to 'shut up' and accusing him of being selfish for ignoring repeated requests for silence.

Blair was filmed on the same day in Martin Place targeting a man in a wheelchair who was talking with a florist.

'You're in a wheelchair. God can touch you but you're too bitter to ask,' Blair shouted.

He was then confronted by a tradesman who told Blair he was going to hell before the preacher replied: 'No I'm not - I'm here because I love you man.'

Blair has been in Australia since March 27, and regularly uploads videos of his public preaching to social media.

He has spoken against evolution and abortion and is part of the Torch of Christ Ministries.
The dark and dangerous past of one of Australia's most remote towns has been revealed in a disturbing new book.

Between north western Queensland and eastern Northern Territory lies a region known as the Gulf Savannah, which is home to the solitary town of Burketown.

From human ears nailed to walls to a highly contagious deadly disease and terrifying acts of violence - the tiny town's shocking history has remained in the shadows.

Social science expert Richard J. Martin has spent over a decade depicting the region's widely unreported past.

Between north western Queensland and eastern Northern Territory lies the isolated region of the Gulf Country in which the solitary town of Burketown lies

Social science expert Richard J. Martin has spent over a decade depicting the region's widely unreported past. Two children are pictured at Burketown in the early 1900s

Dr Martin said the town, which is home to just 201 people according to the 2011 census, was once described as 'a place only fit for demons,' and 'a city of refuge' for 'criminals of the south'.

His book details the legacies of colonial violence spanning across generations, and how eventually a multicultural community made a home together in the desolate town.

When Burketown was first established in the mid-19th century the people living in the isolated town were subjected to a 'brutal and unhealthy' life.

'There was no medicine, no doctor and few police or officials of any kind,' Mr Martin said.

'There was great violence and great chaos.'

When Burketown was first established in the mid-19th century the people living in the isolated town were subjected to a 'brutal and unhealthy' life

Within the first 12 months of the settlement, many of the town's people succumbed to a deadly disease.

'In 1866 a disease called the Gulf Fever spread and killed hundreds of people,' Mr Martin said.

'It began with a fever, headache and nausea, and led to the death of dozens if not hundreds of settlers within months of colonisation, as well as untold numbers of Indigenous people.'

Dr Martin said the epidemic was not helped by the fact the people were 'not healthy, had no medicine and no proper food'.

'They ate what they found, and what they could ship into town, including lots and lots of alcohol, or "grog",' he said.

Dr Martin said the epidemic was not helped by the fact the people were 'not healthy' when they first moved to the region

Soon after the town was first established two pubs were erected and both became a regular place to frequent for settlers.

Explorer Francis Birtles gave a bleak description of the town.

'The usual program was races in the morning, funerals in the afternoon and debaucheries at night,' he said.

While people were dying of deadly diseases, others were inflicting unthinkable violence on one another.

The town was tainted with 'spectacular violence' towards aboriginals from settlers.

Gulf Country by Richard Martin is published by Allen and Unwin

Mr Martin said aboriginals had labelled the time as 'The Wild Time'.

'Aboriginal people called it The Wild Time, as a way to describe how the white fellas acted without restraint,' Dr Martin said.

'Settlers were involved in an unofficial dispersing of aboriginal people by acts of violence.

'Hundreds of people were shot by native police or died from the Gulf Fever. People were terrified by the gruesome acts of violence and moved into country away from the settlers, or settled on the fringe of Burketown and around some cattle stations,' he said.

'One gruesome story describes how a settler nailed human ears to the wall collected during attacks on Aboriginal people,' he said.

In 1883, female explorer Emily Caroline Creaghe said she witnessed 40 human ears nailed to the walls of the Lawn Hill cattle ranch.

'The ears had been collected during a reprisal attack on the aboriginal community,' Dr Martin said.

It's believed the human ears had been cut off after a dispute about livestock had escalated.

By the 19th century, many Chinese migrants joined the European settlers and aboriginals in the region after stumbling upon it by foot.

'Many Chinese men had travelled through the region on foot in order to avoid racist legislation designed to restrict their movements.'

The legislation was a compulsory $10 tax needed to pay to enter Queensland.

'While some were later arrested and deported, others made a home for themselves on the fringes of Burketown, on cattle stations and around mines.

'Some of the men became close to Aboriginal people and had families together,' he said.

Dr Martin said he first started examining the history of the town because it had an unknown story that needed to be told.

He said despite some 'continuing tensions' in the region, the town has a complex story on how people from different cultures eventually grew to live together

'The Gulf Country is one of the least well known parts of Australia. It's very remote and has a story that needs to be known,' he said.

He said despite some 'continuing tensions' in the region, the town has a complex story on how people from different cultures eventually grew to live together.

'It's an unusual place with a fascinating mix of people, full of unusual stories about interaction across cultures,' he said.

'One hopeful development over time is a gradual resolution of tensions between cultures as people slowly begin to address the traumatic legacies of colonial violence,' Dr Martin added.

He noted that the land claims restoring the rights for Aboriginal people were helping to resolve the issues created by colonisation.

Gulf Country by Richard Martin is published by Allen and Unwin, RRP$29.99.


Democratic presidential candidate Beto ORourke says that Israels prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is racist.

The former Texas congressman made the remark during a campaign stop on Sunday in Iowa.

ORourke was asked on Sunday if his past criticisms of Netanyahu risked driving away Israel supporters from the Democratic Party.

The US-Israel relationship is one of the most important relationships that we have on the planet, and that relationship, if it is successful, must transcend partisanship in the United States, and it must be able to transcend a prime minister who is racist, as he warns against Arabs coming to the polls, who wants to defy any prospect for peace as he threatens to annex the West Bank, and who has sided with a far-right racist party in order to maintain his hold on power, ORourke told The Hill.

Beto O'Rourke: "The US-Israel relationship is one of the most important relationships that we have on the planet. And that relationship, if it is to be successful, must transcend partisanship in the United States, and it must be able to transcend a Prime Minister who is racist." pic.twitter.com/cZoEerEU82  The Hill (@thehill) April 7, 2019

Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke (left) said on Sunday that the U.S.-Israel relationship 'must be able to transcend a prime minister who is racist' - a reference to Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu (right)

The former House representative said that Netanyahu doesnt represent the best interests of the U.S.-Israel relationship or of the future of the peace process in the Middle East.

We must be able to transcend his current leadership to make sure that the alliance is strong, that we continue to push for and settle for nothing less than a two-state solution, because that is the best opportunity for peace for the people of Israel and the people of Palestine, ORourke said.

Netanyahu is just days away from a national election in Israel. Polls indicate that he has the best chance to form a ruling coalition.

Israeli voters go to the polling stations this coming Tuesday.

If, as expected, Netanyahu is picked to form the next government, he would be the longest serving prime minister in the countrys history.

Netanyahu has faced fierce criticism both in Israel and among Jewish communities worldwide for his open alliance this election campaign with far-right elements who espouse the beliefs of the late Meir Kahane.

Kahane was the founder of the Kach movement, which has been designated by the State Department as a terrorist organization.

The Kach movement believes that Israel is an exclusively Jewish country and that Arabs should be deported.

Faced with a new merger of centrist parties that opinion polls show might defeat him, Netanyahu engineered the deal between Jewish Power and another ultranationalist faction, Jewish Home.

Polls suggest that without the alliance one or both of the far right parties might fail to reach the 3.25 percent threshold needed to win any seats in the 120-member parliament.

With the merger they could win as many as five.

Netanyahu has defended the merger as a way to improve his chances of forming a right-wing governing coalition led by his Likud Party, to serve for a fifth term after the April 9 vote.

Such a bloc, he said, would best protect Israels security.

But criticism leveled by AIPAC and another major U.S. Jewish group, the American Jewish Committee (AJC), against Jewish Power dominated coverage in Israel when it was announced on February.

AIPAC has a longstanding policy not to meet with members of this racist and reprehensible party, the lobbying group said, echoing comments tweeted by the AJC.

Netanyahus leading opponent, Benny Gantz (above), a leader of the new centrist Blue and White alliance, said the prime minister had crossed an ethical line and was damaging our important relationship with U.S. Jews by forming an alliance with the far-right

AIPAC has generally provided unflinching backing for Netanyahus policies during his 13 years in power, even as some U.S. Jewish organizations have expressed reservations over Israels lurch to the right.

Netanyahus leading opponent, former armed forces chief Benny Gantz, a leader of the new centrist Blue and White alliance, said the prime minister had crossed an ethical line and was damaging our important relationship with U.S. Jews.

Netanyahu also caused alarm in America when he made a campaign promise this week to annex parts of the occupied West Bank if he were to win the election.

In March, President 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. embassys move to the holy city last May.

Asked in an interview on Friday on Israels Channel 13 why he wasnt pressing Trump now to approve a West Bank settlement status change, Netanyahu replied: Wait until the next term.
A father killed his entire family made four trips to Bunnings and ordered two cylinders of carbon monoxide 10 days before the family's death.

The trips were made after his wife discovered his affair with a 17-year-old girl in the Philippines and demanded a divorce, an inquest has heard.

Maria Lutz, 43, Fernando Manrique, 44, and their children Elisa, 11, and Martin, 10, were found dead, along with the family dog, in their Sydney home in October 2016.

Fernando Manrique, 44, killed his entire family to death after his wife discovered his affair with a 17-year-old girl in the Philippines and demanded a divorce, an inquest has heard

Maria Lutz, 43 and her children Elisa, 11, and Martin, 10, were found dead, along with the family dog, in their Sydney home in October 2016

The inquest heard Mr Manrique ordered two cylinders of carbon monoxide 10 days before the family's death and arranged for them to be delivered to his friend Jairo Campos' house.

Mr Campos told the coroner his friend told him he needed the cylinders to run tests on 'gas released by cars in underground car parks'.

Mr Manrique paid him $400 for storing the cylinders.

He also made four visits to Bunnings in a week to buy more equipment.

One of two drivers who delivered the cylinders, Robert Lamont, said this was the only time he had delivered carbon monoxide in over two years of delivering gas canisters.

He, along with the other driver, Daniel Reilly, contacted Manrique to check the address and to inquire what the bottles were to be used for.

When Ms Lutz discovered the affair she demanded a divorce from the already-unhappy marriage

Mr Reilly said it was unusual to deliver dangerous gas cylinders to a house but it sometimes occured as some houses had small workshops attached where owners would do tasks such as weld.

He said the response he got was that the gas was being used for 'calibration' on a work site nearby.

Counsel assisting the Coroner Adam Casselden told the inquest on Monday it was a 'real concern' how easy it was for Mr Manrique to purchase the gas he used to kill his family.

Mr Casselden said that the businessman was seeing the teenager for four months before the deaths.

The girl named Jamilyn told Australian police they met in a bar she worked in and after two weeks together he told her to quit her job.

She said Mr Manrique promised to support her and buy her a house, but never actually followed through on that plan.

When Ms Lutz discovered the affair she demanded a divorce from the already-unhappy marriage, the inquest at Lidcombe Coroners Court heard.

Mr Manrique frequently travelled around Asia for work, and was supposed to be in the Philippines with his business partner.

He worked for Drake Business Logistics as the executive director of its Asia services branch after getting his MBA at Macquarie University and working at Fuji Xerox.

Police forced their way in to the house in Davidson, on Sydney's northern beaches, on October 17, 2016, after the family didn't turn up to work and school

Mr Manrique's body was in the living room, Ms Lutz and Elisa next to each other in a bedroom, and Martin in a third room beside their bull mastiff Tequila

Ms Lutz kicked her husband out of the family home in September 2016 after an argument prompted by him having a loud phone call at 2am.

He was allowed to return the next month but by then is believed to have concocted his murderous plan, having ordered two canisters on September 30.

Police forced their way in to the house in Davidson, on Sydney's northern beaches, on October 17, 2016, after the family didn't turn up to work and school.

Mr Manrique's body was in the living room, Ms Lutz and Elisa next to each other in a bedroom, and Martin in a third room beside their bull mastiff Tequila.

Detective Sergeant Timothy Pooley told the inquest the alleged killer owed the Australian Tax Office more than $15,000 and $28,000 on his credit card.

The family had just $6 on its trust account, a few thousand in other accounts, and was only paying the interest on two mortgages totalling more than $500,000.

Nichole Brimble, a friend of Maria Lutz, (centre) is seen with supporters as she arrives at the Lidcombe Coroners Court in Sydney on Monday

The inquest will continue over the course of the week in an attempt to uncover how and why the family died

However, despite the family's dire finances, Mr Manrique was still blowing hundreds on expensive gifts for various girlfriends around Asia he visited on work trips.

His spending meant the couple's children weren't able to get the medical help they needed, leaving Ms Lutz stuck at home looking after them.

FROM COLOMBIA TO SYDNEY: A TIMELINE Early 2005: Fernando Manrique and Maria Claudia Lutz move to Sydney, Australia from Colombia. February 2005: The couple purchase a home in Davidson, in Sydney's north, for $590,000. May 2005: Their first child Elisa is born. August 2006: Mr Manrique and Ms Lutz's son Martin is born. Both their children have non-verbal autism. January 2009: Ms Lutz's parents visit the family in Sydney. November 2009: Ms Lutz's brother and sister-in-law travel to Sydney for a holiday. 2012: Elisa starts school at St Lucy's School for children with disabilities in Wahroongah. 2013: Martin starts school at the same place. Their mother was a regular helper at the school canteen and well-liked within the community. November 2013: Mr Manrique starts work at Drake Business Logistics as Chief Technology Officer. May 2015: He is named the Executive Director of Drake Business Services Asia. The father frequently travels for work with this new role. October 2016: Family and their pet dog found dead at their home. Believed to have been deliberately gassed. Advertisement

He said Mr Manrique ordered two gas canisters and had them delivered to his friend Jairo Campos's house, telling him they were to test an underground car park.

He also made four visits to Bunnings in as many days, buying more equipment for his plan.

Relatives at the time claimed Ms Lutz must have been in on the plan as part of a suicide pact, but Sergeant Pooley dismissed this suggestion.

'Maria had no awareness or involvement in Fernando's plans he took deliberate steps to hide the gas from her,' he said.

The inquest heard Ms Lutz, a lawyer, was devoted to her children and was planning to return to work after getting help from the National Insurance Disability Scheme.

She was due to received $50,000 from the scheme the help care for the couple's two children, who were autistic.

Sergeant Pooley said this would have allowed Ms Lutz to leave her husband for good and be 'better off than she had been for years'.

'She was looking forward to life without Fernando,' he said.

'She'd had enough of him she was going to go and raise the children and she was going to live her own life.'

Martin was a 'prolific painter' and used art to communicate what he couldn't in words.

At the time of the deaths, Ms Lutz's sister Ana Lutz said she was 'a warrior'.

'Always fighting for all. My cute doll. One more angel in heaven, an angel given to their children,' she wrote on Facebook.

Martin's body was found in a room beside the family's bull mastiff Tequila (pictured)

The beloved dog died beside the young autistic boy inside the house as collateral damage

Ms Lutz and her husband, who moved to Sydney from Colombia in 2005, disagreed on how to parent their children, both of which had nonverbal autism and were unable to speak.

Neighbour Shaun Mayatt said at the time of the deaths that lots of work had been done on the house to make it safe for the children.

Ms Lutz is believed to have spent many sleepless nights caring for her children, who needed frequent therapy and doctor's appointments.

She often posted about her children on social media and said her 'worst nightmare' was either of her kids getting lost or going missing.

Weeks after the deaths, a friend revealed Ms Lutz was calling family services 'nine times a day' as she struggled to cope with looking after the children.

The inquest heard Ms Lutz, a lawyer, was devoted to her children and was planning to return to work after getting help from the National Insurance Disability Scheme

A wellwisher places a bouquet of flowers outside the family's home in the days after their deaths

The funeral service for the Manrique family at the Holy Name Parish in Sydney on October 31, 2016

Coffins are loaded into hearses following the funeral for the Manrique family at the at the Holy Name Parish

She was only supported by the government about five hours every week.

'She would ring them sometimes nine times a day to confirm they had cancelled or changed things - or to ask for extra help. She felt completely alone and was a broken woman and depressed,' the friend said.

Principal Warren Hopley of St Lucy's Primary School in Wahroonga said he knew something was wrong when the children didn't show up for class and Ms Lutz for her canteen duties.

After repeated unanswered phone calls to their home and no email from Ms Lutz saying her children would not be attending school, a teacher called the police.

Mr Hopley said Elisa and Martin, who were in year five and year four, respectively, were much-loved students by their peers.

'This is an exceptional family. They've been at the school here for six years. Two beautiful children. And mum was very active within the school - almost a cornerstone of the school in many ways,' Mr Hopley said.

Neighbour Shaun Mayatt said at the time of the deaths that lots of work had been done on the house to make it safe for the children

After repeated unanswered phone calls to their home and no email from Ms Lutz saying her children would not be attending school, a teacher called the police

'When all the children leave at the end of the day she would be out there at the exit waiting for her kids and knew the names of every child in the school.

'I don't think she slept for many hours of the night because of the difficulties often with the two children, and yet she would always be here helping out in every way she possibly could.'

Mr Hopley said he wasn't aware of any issues in the family.

'There was no inkling of any of this.'

Mr Casselden said in addition to investigating the deaths, the inquest would examine whether tighter restrictions on obtaining poisonous gasses were needed.

'A real concern is the relative ease with which Fernando was able to source the carbon monoxide,' he said.

For confidential support in Australia LIFELINE: 13 11 14 www.lifeline.org.au . Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467
A far-right activist (pictured) who allegedly kicked the famous teenager who egged Senator Fraser Anning in Melbourne in March is wanted for questioning by police

A far-right activist accused of kicking a teenager dubbed Egg Boy after his attack on Senator Fraser Anning is wanted for questioning by police.

The now infamous incident took place in Moorabbin in Melbourne's south-east, on March 16 when 17-year-old Will Connolly cracked an egg on the back of Senator Anning's head.

Mr Connolly was slapped in the face twice by the senator, tackled to the ground and put in a choke-hold by four men.

Police on Monday released a photo of a man, who they allege kicked Mr Connolly numerous times while he was being held to the ground.

Mr Connolly said he felt compelled to egg Senator Anning after he blamed Muslim immigration for the terror attacks on two New Zealand mosques that left 50 worshippers dead.

Both he and Senator Anning have been interviewed by police and the investigation into the initial incident remains ongoing.

The now infamous incident took place in Moorabbin in Melbourne's south-east, on March 16 when Will Connolly cracked an egg on the back of Senator Fraser Anning's head

Another one of the right-wing activists who restrained Egg Boy posted a vile rant about the Christchurch mosque massacre online.

Neil Erikson described the terrorist attack that killed 50 people and left dozens more in hospital, as 'karma'.

He also said blame was being wrongfully placed on the far-right movement including controversial right-wing Senator Anning.

Erikson was identified as one of the men who attacked 17-year-old Will Connolly after he cracked an egg on Senator Anning's head at a rally.

He intervened and held the teenager's head to the ground as three other men restrained his neck, torso and legs.

Following the incident, he posted online and described the far-right movement as 'the sleeping dragon that has now awoken'.

'It is karma, this is what happens when you attack a people for so long,' he said.

The 17-year-old, dubbed 'Egg Boy', was slapped in the face twice by Senator Fraser Anning (pictured), tackled to the ground and put in a choke-hold by four men

'I am not surprised this happened. I am not condoning terrorism or going out and shooting people, but what do you expect when your religion goes around beheading, murdering, raping white Christians particularly in the western world.'

He said the Muslim community can't 'play the victim' now and commented on media attention and public outrage surrounding the attack.

In a statement after the Christchurch mosque massacre, Senator Anning said Muslim immigration was to blame.

'The real cause of bloodshed on New Zealand streets today is the immigration program which allowed Muslim fanatics to migrate to New Zealand in the first place.

'Let us be clear, while Muslims may have been the victims today, usually they are the perpetrators.'
An experienced skydiver whose parachute failed to deploy after he jumped out of a plane on Sunday afternoon fell to his death in a central New Jersey neighborhood.

The unidentified man, 54, was found dead in Monroe Township just after 5:30pm on Sunday.

I heard a thud, we thought a car hit somebody then I saw this white thing lying there, Rosemary Ilgenfritz told WPVI-TV.

It's traumatizing, said Kayla Maure.

The image above shows what appears to be a parachute at the scene where a skydiver fell to his death in Monroe Township, New Jersey on Sunday evening

Investigators are seen above at the scene in Monroe Township on Sunday

I didn't see it happen, just seeing his body there is traumatizing.

Neighbors in the Brookdale development were horrified and quickly called 911.

While the victim was surrounded by a parachute, police say that the backup chute was still attached to him when he hit the ground.

Neighbors said that they saw another skydiver leap from the same plane at around the same time as the accident.

The victim leaped out of an airplane that took off from Skydive Cross Keys, the company that operates skydiving jumps.

A spokesperson for the company told WCAU-TV that the skydiver made more than 1,000 jumps in his career.
Meat eaters have expressed their anger as vegan vigilantes protest across Australia by sharing photos of the succulent steaks and burgers they're eating for lunch.

Hundreds of animal rights activists caused traffic chaos in Melbourne as part of a mass protest across the country, leading to numerous arrests and a public outcry on social media.

One man went so far as to say he had been intending on eating a salad for lunch, but the protests had made him change his mind.

'I was going to have a salad for lunch, instead, directly due to the vegan terrorists in Melbourne today, I'm having a juicy beef burger - with extra bacon,' he said, alongside a photo of his lunch.

'I was going to have a salad for lunch, instead, directly due to the vegan terrorists in Melbourne today, I'm having a juicy beef burger - with extra bacon,' one said with a photo of his lunch

Meat eaters have expressed their anger as vegan vigilantes protest across Australia by sharing photos of the succulent steaks and burgers they're eating for lunch

Police move in to clear the protesters from the intersection at the intersection of Flinder and Swanston streets

Pictures of steaks and burgers have dominated vegan hashtags on social media platforms.

Another person wrote 'get this into ya,' alongside a picture of a rare steak.

'You might actually look a bit healthier and grow a brain if you do.'

Nearly 40 vigilantes - some including children - were arrested after parts of the city were brought to a standstill on Monday morning.

Pictures of steaks and burgers have dominated vegan hashtags on social media platforms

Social media users have shared photos eating meat to stand up against vegan protesters

Rental vans marked with banners condemning the slaughter of the animals were parked across road lanes at the Flinders and Swanston streets intersection.

Places animal rights protests were held at: Sydney CBD

Carey Bros Abattoir at Yangan (QLD)

Abattoir at Goulburn (NSW)

Warwick (QLD)

Australian Food Group abattoir, Laverton (VIC)

M.C Herd, Geelong (VIC)

Toowoomba (QLD)

Pakenham South (VIC) Advertisement

Tow trucks were fielded to move the stationery vehicles while other protesters chained themselves to cars and their counterparts waved placards that read, 'vegan rising' or 'this is a peaceful protest'.

Up to 11 tram routes were stopped while other services were diverted. Commuters were told to consider the city loop train as an alternative.

Elsewhere, Goulburn police - in the NSW Southern Tablelands - arrested nine protesters after they stormed an abattoir on Mazamat Road and chained themselves to a conveyor at 4am this morning.

Police cut the protesters free and they are expected to bring charges against the three men - one aged 46 and two aged 22 - and six women - aged between 21 and 61 - later today.

On a smaller scale, protesters marched through the Sydney CBD - including the University of Technology Sydney at Ultimo - after meeting at Hyde Park.
A couple who travelled to work in Australia from Tonga 'imported' a live-in worker from Fiji because they felt a servant was missing from their lives, a Queensland court has been told.

Isikeli Feleatoua Pulini and Malavine Pulini are on trial for human trafficking and forced labour offences in relation to allegedly bringing a woman to work in their Brisbane home for about $250 per fortnight from 2008.

The couple pleaded not guilty to the trafficking and forced labour charges in Brisbane District Court on Monday but pleaded guilty to harbouring an unlawful non-citizen.

Isikeli Feleatoua Pulini (left) and Malavine Pulini arrive at Brisbane District Court on Monday to answer accusations of allegedly forcing a Fijian woman into domestic work by taking away her passport. They have pleaded not guilty to trafficking and forced labour charges

In his opening address, crown prosecutor Ben Power told the court the woman lived hidden from plain sight, with neighbours oblivious of her alleged forced labour in suburban Brisbane.

Mr Power told the court the alleged victim had initially worked as a domestic servant for the pair in Tonga in the early 2000s, earning about $90 to $170 a fortnight.

But in 2006 Mr Pulini and Ms Pulini secured work in Australia as a civil engineer and public servant respectively.

Mr Power said the couple felt like there was something missing from their lives after their arrival, and allegedly arranged for the woman to travel to Australia twice on a tourist visa.

Upon the woman's second arrival in 2008, the Pulinis allegedly took her passport and said they would use it to get her an Australian visa.

Isikeli Feleatoua Pulini (right) and Malavine Pulini (second from left) have pleaded guilty to harbouring an unlawful non-citizen. The trial continues

Mr Power said the woman feared asking for her passport back and it was not returned until 2013, after it had expired.

He said the woman felt depressed as the years wore on, allegedly working on call around the clock, before she escaped in 2016.

The trial is expected to continue for most of the week.
The top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee says he is preparing a list of eight names of 'Watergate wannabes' to send to Attorney General William Barr for criminal referral as it relates to the Russia investigation.

'We couldn't really send these criminal referrals over without an attorney general in place, Devin Nunes, the Congressman from California, told Fox News on Sunday.

'So we are prepared this week to notify the attorney general that we are prepared to send those referrals over and brief him if he wishes to be briefed.'

'We think they're pretty clear, but as of right now this is, this may not be all of them, but this cleans up quite a bit.

'We have eight referrals that we are prepared to send over to the attorney general this week.'

House Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes said on Sunday that he plans to make eight criminal referrals to Attorney General William Barr

Nunes said he had prepared the referrals for two years but waited until a permanent attorney general was in place. Barr is seen above at the White House last week

WHO COULD HE MEAN? Devin Nunes has not named any of the individuals he is planning to refer to the Attorney General for possible criminal action but his past comments suggest some likely targets: James Clapper Possible crime: Leaking classified information; lying to Congress Obama's final director of national intelligence has been at the center of claims he leaked the 'golden showers' dossier to CNN. He denies that he did. James Comey Possible crime: Lying to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court and 'manipulating intelligence' Nunes has previously claimed that Comey's FBI relied on the 'golden showers' dossier to get a warrant to eavesdrop on Trump aide Carter Page despite knowing it was false. Andrew McCabe Possible crime: Leaking classified information; lying to Congress McCabe had direct supervision of the FISA application which caught up Carter Page and George Papadopoulos. John Brennan Possible crime: lying to Congress Obama's final CIA director has told Congress that he did not know who commissioned the notorious dossier and that the CIA did not rely on its contents for any action. But other officials say the wider intelligence community did. Advertisement

Nunes did not specify the individuals he planned to name, but he said that five of them committed crimes including lying to Congress, misleading Congress, and leaking classified information.

The other three referrals are 'complicated,' he said.

Nunes said that the three are being referred for crimes including lying to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court and 'manipulating intelligence', which is not in it self a crime.

Last year, Nunes and his staff wrote a memo alleging anti-Trump bias within the Justice Department.

Earlier this week, Nunes said he would refer 'two dozen' people to the attorney general.

'There are people who definitely lied and misled Congress,' Nunes told Fox News on Wednesday.

'If they don't go to prison, then we will have a two-tier justice Department in this country and it is not going to be good.'

Nunes didn't tell Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday exactly how many criminal referrals he plans to send to the DOJ, when they would be ready or who would be his targets.

'The American people need to have confidence in the FBI and the Department of Justice. We are working on the referrals,' Nunes said. 'There's going to be many of them.'

'There are going to probably at least be a dozen if not two dozen individuals,' he predicted, 'and as we continue to get more information and build these and build them out, we want to make sure that everything is finished before we turn them in.'

Democrats at the helm of the Intelligence Committee have directed their firepower at Trump, retracing ground already trod by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

They have shown no indication of focusing on current or former FBI and Justice Department officials tied to the earliest decisions to investigate the president and his 2016 campaign aides.

Nunes, who led the panel until Democrats took over the House in January, proposed a likely dead-end desire in February for subpoenaing a dozen people.

It's a near-certainty that Democratic chair Adam Schiff will ignore him.

Instead Nunes changed tack, running his own parallel investigation with the goal of encouraging the Trump DOJ to take action on a series of recommendations of criminal prosecutions.

A joint task force made up of House Judiciary and Oversight Committee members and the Oversight Committee grilled at least 15 witnesses in 2018.

Some transcripts of those interviews are now in the public domain following their release by Judiciary Committee ranking Republican Doug Collins.

The transcripts released so far reflect the testimony of Justice Department official Bruce Ohr and his wife Nellie Ohr, former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos, top FBI counterintelligence official Bill Priestap and Former FBI agent Peter Strzok.

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee approved a series of subpoenas on Wednesday and the Ways and means Committee demanded to see the president's last six IRS tax returns.

'There is nothing we can ever give to the Democrats that will make them happy,' Trump tweeted Thursday. 'This is the highest level of Presidential Harassment in the history of our Country!'

President Trump said on Sunday attacked 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 Barr's four-page synopsis of its conclusions indicated nearly two weeks ago.

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.

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

'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.

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 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.'

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 Mueller's team have complained to close associates' about.

Both the Times and the Post reported 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 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 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 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 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.

READ IN FULL: Attorney General Barr's letter to Congress summarizing the Mueller investigation findings Advertisement

'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 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.

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.

Two years of Mueller: How sprawling Trump-Russia probe unfolded in ultimate D.C soap opera Here is a timeline of significant developments in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and whether President Donald Trump's campaign conspired with Moscow. 2017 May 9: President Trump fires FBI Director James Comey and days later Trump attributed the dismissal to 'this Russia thing.' May 17 - U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appoints former FBI Director Mueller as a special counsel to investigate Russian meddling in the 2016 election and to look into any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and people associated with Republican Trump's campaign. June 15 - Mueller is investigating Trump for possible obstruction of justice, the Washington Post reports. October 30 - Veteran Republican political operative and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who worked for the campaign for five pivotal months in 2016, is indicted on charges of conspiracy against the United States and money laundering as is his business partner Rick Gates, who also worked for Trump's campaign. - Former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos pleads guilty to a charge of lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials. December 1 - Michael Flynn, Trump's national security adviser for less than a month who also had a prominent campaign role, pleads guilty to the charge of lying to the FBI about his discussions in 2016 with the Russian ambassador to Washington. 2018 February 16 - Federal grand jury indicts 13 Russians and three firms, including a Russian government propaganda arm called the Internet Research Agency, accusing them of tampering to support Trump and disparage Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. The accused 'had a strategic goal to sow discord in the U.S. political system, including the 2016 U.S. presidential election' according to the court document filed by Mueller. - An American, Richard Pinedo, pleads guilty to identity fraud for selling bank account numbers after being accused by prosecutors of helping Russians launder money, buy Facebook ads and pay for campaign rally supplies. Pinedo was not associated with the Trump campaign. February 22 - Manafort and Gates are charged with financial crimes, including bank fraud, in Virginia. February 23 - Gates pleads guilty to conspiracy against the United States and lying to investigators. He agrees to cooperate and testify against Manafort at trial. April 3 - Alex van der Zwaan, the Dutch son-in-law of one of Russia's richest men, is sentenced to 30 days in prison and fined $20,000 for lying to Mueller's investigators, becoming the first person sentenced in the probe. April 9 - FBI agents raid home, hotel room and office of Trump's personal lawyer and self-described 'fixer' Michael Cohen. April 12 - Rosenstein tells Trump that he is not a target in Mueller's probe. April 19 - Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Trump supporter in the election campaign, joins Trump's personal legal team. June 8 - Mueller charges a Russian-Ukrainian man, Konstantin Kilimnik, a Manafort business partner whom prosecutors say had ties to Russian intelligence, with witness tampering. July 13 - Federal grand jury indicts 12 Russian military intelligence officers on charges of hacking Democratic Party computer networks in 2016 and staged releases of documents. Russia, which denies interfering in the election, says there is no evidence that the 12 are linked to spying or hacking. July 16 - In Helsinki after the first summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump publicly contradicts U.S. intelligence agencies that concluded Moscow had interfered in the 2016 election with a campaign of hacking and propaganda. Trump touts Putin's 'extremely strong and powerful' denial of meddling. He calls the Mueller inquiry a 'rigged witch hunt' on Twitter. August 21 - A trial jury in Virginia finds Manafort guilty of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account. - Cohen, in a case brought by U.S. prosecutors in New York, pleads guilty to tax fraud and campaign finance law violations. Cohen is subsequently interviewed by Mueller's team. August 31 - Samuel Patten, an American business partner of Kilimnik, pleads guilty to unregistered lobbying for pro-Kremlin political party in Ukraine. September 14 - Manafort pleads guilty to two conspiracy counts and signs a cooperation agreement with Mueller's prosecutors. November 6  Democrats gain control of the House in the elections, positioning the party to control panels with oversight authority of the Justice Department. November 8 - U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigns at Trump's request. He had recused himself from overseeing the Mueller inquiry because of his contacts with the Russian ambassador as a Trump campaign official. Trump appoints Sessions' chief of staff Matthew Whitaker, a critic of the Mueller probe, as acting attorney general. November 20 - Giuliani says Trump submitted written answers to questions from Mueller, as the president avoids a face-to-face interview with the special counsel. November 27-28 - Prosecutors say Manafort breached his plea deal by lying to investigators, which Manafort denies. Trump says he has not ruled out granting Manafort a presidential pardon. November 28 - Giuliani says Trump told investigators he was not aware ahead of time of a meeting in Trump Tower in New York between several campaign officials and Russians in June 2016. November 29 - Cohen pleads guilty in the Mueller investigation to lying to Congress about the length of discussions in 2016 on plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. 'I made these misstatements to be consistent with individual 1's political messaging and out of loyalty to individual 1,' says Cohen, who previously identified 'individual 1' as Trump. - The president criticizes Cohen as a liar and 'weak person.' December 12 - Two developments highlight growing political and legal risks for Trump: Cohen sentenced to three years in prison for crimes including orchestrating hush payments to women in violation of campaign laws before the election; American Media Inc, publisher of National Enquirer tabloid, strikes deal to avoid charges over its role in one of two hush payments. Publisher admits payment was aimed at influencing the 2016 election, contradicting Trump's statements. December 16  President Trump tweets that Michael Cohen 'became a "Rat"'  using lingo associated with the mob for those who testify against higher-ups 2019 January 25 - Longtime Trump associate and self-proclaimed political 'dirty trickster' Roger Stone charged and arrested at his home in Florida. Stone is accused of lying to Congress about statements suggesting he may have had advance knowledge of plans by Wikileaks to release Democratic Party campaign emails that U.S. officials say were stolen by Russia. February 21 - U.S. judge tightens gag order on Stone, whose Instagram account posted a photo of the judge and the image of crosshairs next to it. February 22 - Manhattan district attorney's office is pursuing New York state criminal charges against Manafort whether or not he receives a pardon from Trump on federal crimes, a person familiar with the matter says. Trump cannot issue pardons for state convictions. February 24 - Senior Democratic U.S. Representative Adam Schiff says Democrats will subpoena Mueller's final report on his investigation if it is not given to Congress by the Justice Department, and will sue the Trump administration and call on Mueller to testify to Congress if necessary. February 27 - Cohen tells U.S. House Oversight Committee Trump is a 'racist,' a 'con man' and a 'cheat' who knew in advance about a release of emails by WikiLeaks in 2016 aimed at hurting rival Clinton. Trump directed negotiations for a real estate project in Moscow during the campaign even as he publicly said he had no business interests in Russia, Cohen testifies. Cohen also testifies that he 'never asked for, nor would I accept' a pardon from Trump, forcing his lawyer to issue a clarifying statement that Cohen 'could have been clearer' and standing by statement Cohen didn't 'personally' ask for a pardon. March 7 - Manafort is sentenced in the Virginia case to almost four years in prison. The judge also ordered Manafort to pay a fine of $50,000 and restitution of just over $24 million. March 13 - Manafort is sentenced to about 3-1/2 more years in prison in the Washington case, bringing his total prison sentence in the two special counsel cases to 7-1/2 years. - On the same day, the Manhattan district attorney announces a separate indictment charging Manafort with residential mortgage fraud and other New York state crimes, which unlike the federal charges cannot be erased by a presidential pardon. March 22 - Mueller submits his confidential report on the findings of his investigation to U.S. Attorney General William Barr. March 24 - Barr releases a summary of Mueller's report, saying the investigation did not find evidence that Trump or his associates broke the law during the campaign. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders says the summary is a complete exoneration of Trump. March 29  After facing a backlash from Democratic critics, Barr tells Congress the report is nearly 400 pages long and that he will make a the report public, stating: 'Everyone will soon be able to read it on their own.' He writes that he is working on redactions including of material that could harm 'reputational interests of peripheral third parties.' April 3  Democratic-run House Judiciary Committee votes to subpoena the full Mueller report. April 9  Barr tells Congress he is reviewing FBI conduct that began the Mueller probe. April 11  WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is arrested in Britain on charges of conspiracy to hack U.S. government computers in 2010. The initial charge does not mention Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections. April 18  Attorney General William Barr makes public a redacted version of the Mueller report, according to the Justice Department. Advertisement

The Democratic-led House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted on Wednesday to enable its chairman, Jerrold Nadler, to subpoena the Justice Department to obtain Mueller's 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.

'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.
A simple hack could give you a ten day holiday while only using three days of annual leave.

Australians and New Zealanders looking for a well-earned break can make use of the Easter long weekend and ANZAC Day when lodging requests for their annual leave.

The tip, shared to The Hits' Facebook page, is a revelation for those working 9-5 Monday to Friday jobs.

Australians and New Zealanders looking for a well-earned break can make use of the Easter long weekend and ANZAC Day when lodging requests for their annual leave

At the conclusion of the Easter long weekend, savvy workers could request leave for April 23 and 24.

Anzac Day falls on April 25, which means that a third annual leave day could be taken on Friday 26, leading into another weekend.

The dates also coincide with school holidays in New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania.

We recommend you book your leave before someone else beats you to it!

The dates also coincide with school holidays in New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania
A UPS driver has been posting adorable selfies with dogs he meets along his route in New Orleans.

Jason Hardesty began taking photos about two years ago when he was assigned to a new neighborhood with much friendlier pooches than the one he was previously assigned to.

'My old route, which was more families, the dogs did not like you,' Hardesty told Buzzfeed.

'They moved me to a different area of town with more people my age, more single people, and the dogs were a lot friendlier.

'They come to the door and are happy and let you pet them and stuff.'

Hardesty's joyful photos with neighborhood pups have earned him more than 62,600 followers on Instagram under the handle @jhardesty.

UPS driver Jason Hardesty has drawn national media attention for his adorable selfies with dogs he meets along his route in New Orleans. He is seen above with a puppy named Bit

Hardesty began taking photos about two years ago when he was assigned to a new route with much nicer dogs than the one he was previously assigned to - like the one above named Ziggy

Hardesty's joyful photos with neighborhood pups have earned him more than 62,600 followers on Instagram under the handle @jhardesty. A tiny pup named Kash is pictured

Hardesty's account, which features a mix of dog photos, personal pics and colorful scenes around New Orleans, gained thousands of followers late last month after author Jamie Attenberg, who lives along his route, tweeted about him.

'I have extremely important news and it is this: my sweet UPS guy has a hashtag of all the dogs in the neighborhood,' she wrote in a tweet linking to #pupsofjay on March 27.

'I think I gained like 10,000 followers in 48 hours,' Hardesty said.

Amidst his newfound Instagram fame, the UPS driver has found himself curating a list of dogs waiting to be featured because he limits his #pupsofjay posts to one every Friday.

Hardesty, who doesn't have a dog himself, said that the dog owners along his route are fully supportive of his campaign, saying: 'They love the fact that their dog loves me and I love them.'

More fan-favorite #pupsofjay posts are seen below:
A 14-year-old girl wants to meet her biological mother who dumped her at a hospital hours after giving birth.

The teenager, Jessica, has made an emotional appeal to the woman who abandoned her at Liverpool Hospital, in Sydney's south-west, in 2005.

'I love you even though I've never met you. Just be brave and come forward,' she told the Nine Network program, airing on Monday night.

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A 14-year-old girl wants to meet her biological mother who dumped her at a hospital hours after giving birth. Jessica (pictured), has made an emotional appeal to the woman who abandoned her at Liverpool Hospital, in Sydney's south-west, in 2005

'I want her to know ... not to feel terrible and not to feel guilty in any way.'

'It's not her fault - whether it was any external reasons, or any other reasons - it's not her fault,' Jessica says.

CCTV footage captured the dramatic moment Jessica's mother entered the hospital in the middle of the night, carrying her newborn daughter.

Young Jessica was cradled in a towel just eight hours after she was born.

Hours later, the mother abandoned her baby girl, sparking calls from the police for her to come forward.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom arrived in El Salvador Monday in an overseas trip designed to counter President Donald Trump, who has announced a planned cutoff of hundreds of millions of economic aid to the region.

Newsom visited the Central American nation days after Trump made a trip to California and declared the U.S. 'full' while telling would-be immigrants and asylum seekers to 'turn around.'

Those comments came during a period of days that brought chaos in the administration's immigration policy, with the withdraw of Trump's nominee to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the forced withdrawal of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.

Both staff changes were a signal Trump is furious about the continued influx in immigration, as he vows to implement 'tougher' policies.

Newsom blasted Trump at the start of his own four-day trip.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, second from right, walks out with San Salvador Mayor Ernesto Muyshondtof, far left, after they visited the tomb of Archbishop Oscar Romero at Metropolitan Cathedral in San Salvador, El Salvador, Sunday, April 7, 2019. Newsom is using the trip to confront President Trump's immigration policies

'Right now you have a president that talks down to people, talks past them, demoralizing folks living here and their relatives in the United States,' Newsom told reporters.

'I think it's important to let folks know that's not our country - that's an individual in our country who happens at this moment to be president,' he said.

His visit follows Trump's announcement that Trump wold cut $450 million in aid to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras  three nations contributing thousands of immigrants to the spike in border crossings.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom writes a note on a book at the the tomb of Archbishop Oscar Romero at Metropolitan Cathedral in San Salvador, El Salvador, Sunday, April 7, 2019

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom talk to Father Francisco Villalobos, left, after visiting the tomb of Archbishop Oscar Romero at Metropolitan Cathedral in San Salvador, El Salvador, Sunday, April 7, 2019

The funds are part of a program designed to improve economic opportunities there and otherwise prop-up violence plagued countries in order to reduce the incentives for out-migration.

Newsom's schedule is packed with events meant to show the driving forces of immigration, including gang violence and other social problems.

He will learn about the poverty and violence forcing thousands to flee and demonstrate an alternative to what he called Trump's demoralizing rhetoric.

He kicked off his four-day trip Sunday with harsh words for Trump, who recently moved to halt foreign aid to El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala and has mocked people seeking asylum amid a surge of families and children arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. About 3,000 unaccompanied children and 12,000 family members from El Salvador have arrived since October.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and commissioner for Customs and Border Patrol Kevin McAleenan listen to U.S. President Donald Trump speak during a visit to a section of border wall in Calexico California, U.S., April 5, 2019, before Newsom's trip to El Salvador

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen speaks during a border security briefing held for U.S. President Donald Trump near the US-Mexico border in El Centro, California, U.S., April 5, 2019. Picture taken April 5, 2019. She was back on the job Monday after announcing her resignation, after a snafu related to the appointment of her acting successor following her resignation

Immigrants from Central America seeking asylum board a bus, Tuesday, April 2, 2019, in downtown San Antonio. The surge of migrants arriving at the southern border has led the Trump administration to dramatically expand a practice it has long mocked as 'catch and release'

MCALLEN, TX - NOVEMBER 03: Eli Fernandez, a volunteer for Catholic Charities, speaks to immigrants, most seeking political asylum, who were released from U.S. government detention on November 3, 2018 in McAllen, Texas

Newsom, a Democrat who took office in January, chose El Salvador as his first international trip because California is home to both the United States' largest Salvadoran population and its busiest border crossing.

Newsom has endorsed California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris for president.

He visited the tomb of Saint Oscar Romero, the Salvadoran priest assassinated in 1980 at the start of the nation's civil war, because of his advocacy for human rights and the poor, a symbolic way to begin a trip that's designed to give Newsom a better sense of the deep social and economic challenges Salvadorans face.

Over the next two days, Newsom's trip includes meetings with President Salvador Sanchez Ceren, U.S. Ambassador Jean Manes and President-elect Nayib Bukele. He'll also tour a reintegration center that processes Salvadorans deported from the United States and Mexico, see a cultural demonstration in a rural town, meet with human rights groups and discuss economic development and gang intervention.

Newsom said he's figuring out in real time what more California can do to help tackle the root causes of migration, namely deep poverty and gang violence. El Salvador is one of the world's most violent countries, with the gangs MS-13 and Barrio 18 exerting strong control. The minimum wage is just $300 per month.

Mayor Ernesto Muyshondt of San Salvador, the capital city, said he hopes Newsom can use his political influence to halt the cuts to U.S. aid, saying the cuts will halt the countries' progress and could cause more people to flee. He joined Newsom at the San Salvador cathedral where Romero is buried.

'I think if he can get a feel for our country and our challenges and opportunities, I think he can be a good spokesperson,' said Muyshondt, a member of the country's conservative political party.

Newsom has fought the Trump administration on perhaps no issue as much as immigration, suing over the president's emergency declaration to build a southern border wall and pledging $25 million in state money to help asylum seekers.

The Trump administration has not commented on Newsom's trip. But Republicans in California have said the governor should be more focused on poverty back home.

'The tragic circumstances that drive migrants from their homes should remind us that we have people living in crushing poverty in our own communities. Our attention and resources should be focused there,' Republican state Assemblyman Devon Mathis said in a statement.

Newsom pushed back on critics, saying immigration is a driving political and policy issue that affects California more than any other state.

'How do you understand California without understanding all the diverse cultures that make it the most diverse state?' he said. 'It's fundamental, it seems to me, to governing a state. That's why I'm here in the first months.'

While Newsom hopes to plant a counter-narrative to Trump, he is barely known in El Salvador, a country just over 6 million people.

Before Newsom's visit to the cathedral, people milled about on the Gerardo Barrios Plaza, a public square out front. Only one of a half dozen people who spoke with The Associated Press said they were aware the governor of California was coming to visit, and none knew his name.

A woman visits the Gerardo Barrios Plaza before the arrival of California Gov. Gavin Newsom in San Salvador, El Salvador, Sunday, April 7, 2019. Newsom visited the tomb of Archbishop Romero, the Salvadoran priest assassinated in 1980 due to his advocacy for human rights and the poor. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)

Manuel Lara, 52, has family living in Los Angeles and said he learned of Newsom's trip from the news. Lara tried to come to the United States unsuccessfully in the 1980s and now works in construction in El Salvador. He makes $10 per day.

He said Newsom's trip was a good thing given Trump's threats to rescind aid.

Newsom said he hopes to show Salvadorans there's 'a completely different conversation' happening in the United States outside of Trump's comments.

'There are people in the U.S. who think folks down here matter and we care to understand their plight and challenges and see if there's ways we can soften things,' he said.

He said starting the trip at Romero's tomb, where he lit a candle and kneeled to pray, brought full circle his Catholic upbringing and some of his earliest political awakenings. At the time of Romero's assassination, the U.S. government was providing aid to El Salvador's military-led government during what would become a 12 year civil war.

'So much of my politics was shaped by those years and by the controversy down here,' he said. Later, he added, 'I never thought I'd be kneeling in front of Saint Romero as governor of California.'

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, second right, and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, far right, visit the tomb of Archbishop Oscar Romero at Metropolitan Cathedral in San Salvador, El Salvador, Sunday, April 7, 2019. From left, California state Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo, and father Francisco Villalobos. Newsom visited the tomb of Archbishop Romero, the Salvadoran priest assassinated in 1980 due to his advocacy for human rights and the poor. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez, Pool)

Salvadoran citizens rest in shade of the Gerardo Barrios Plaza before the arrival of California Gov. Gavin Newsom in San Salvador, El Salvador, Sunday, April 7, 2019. Newsom visited the tomb of Archbishop Romero, the Salvadoran priest assassinated in 1980 due to his advocacy for human rights and the poor. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)

A woman kneels at the tomb of Archbishop Oscar Romero inside the Metropolitan Cathedral in Sann Salvador, El Salvador, Sunday, April 7, 2019. California Gov. Gavin Newsom visited the tomb of Archbishop Romero, the Salvadoran priest assassinated in 1980 due to his advocacy for human rights and the poor. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez, Pool)
A Tasmanian dad turned a McDonald's Fool's Day joke into a $4.05 reality by ordering the 'McPickle burger' - and the staff actually made it to the horror of his family.

'The McPickle is real' tweeted Matt Little, 35, who manages a local comedy room for Fresh Comedy in Launceston.

And he posted the photos to prove it.

Matt Little's hand grips a McPickle burger as he gobbled it in front of his startled family. The receipt and photographic evidence is proof that this is no unicorn: the burger is real.

The mythical extreme-vegetarian burger started as a fool's day prank when McDonald's Australia posted a picture of a Big Mac without any beef on April 1.

It was instead filled with a stack of pickles lined between tomato sauce, layers of melted cheese, and packed into a sesame seed bun.

But it took a comedian to take it seriously.

The April Fools Day post by McDonalds. Some customers started actually demanding it

The real thing never looks exactly like the advertisement. This is the world's first McPickle burger known to have been ordered by a customer and eaten in Launceston, Tasmania

The father-of-two walked into McDonalds, Kings Meadow, in the southern suburbs of Launceston that very day and made dad-joke history. He ordered the McPickle.

Mark Little says he might even order it again from time to time, if a few beers are involved

When he walked up to the counter to explain his order, at first the staff were flummoxed.

But one woman had seen the April Fool's Day post so she knew what to make - and it cost Mr Little a total of $4.05.

Mr Little's wife refused to let him order with her and their children as she was embarrassed by his special request.

'She thought it was a silly idea - she said ''you have to put it on a separate order to everything we've got'',' he told Daily Mail Australia by telephone from Launceston.

'My six-year-old daughter hates pickles. She was looking at me like: what have you done, dad?'

Unlike the McDonald's April 1 photograph, Mr Little's pickle burger also had shredded lettuce along with the pickles.

Matt Little's historic announcement on Twitter gave the world its first real McPickle

Mr Little proceeded to eat the burger which he said was probably the wettest burger he had ever eaten due to the pickle juice.

He is the only member of his family who likes pickles ,and said his daughter will pick hers out and throw it at him every time, knowing he'll eat it.

Those days are over as Mr Little can get his own pickle-stacked burger whenever he likes.

'I might even have it again from time-to-time,' he said.

'If a few beers are involved.'
The missing New York teacher whose remains were found in a storage facility set up her estranged husband with the woman now accused of helping him murder her.

Jeanine Cammarata, 37, disappeared last Saturday night, less than 48 hours after she told Michael Cammarata that she wanted a divorce.

Now Michael, 42, and his girlfriend Ayisha Egea, 41, have been charged with her murder.

Friends of Cammarata have revealed that the mother-of-three set up Michael with Egea because she thought he would leave her alone if he had a new relationship.

Jeanine Cammarata, a missing New York teacher whose remains were found last week, set up her estranged husband with the woman now accused of helping him murder her

Cammarata, 37, disappeared last Saturday night, less than 48 hours after she told Michael Cammarata she wanted a divorce. Pictured is Michael being taken into custody on Thursday

Both Michael, 42, and his girlfriend Ayisha Egea, 41, (pictured in court on Friday) have been charged with her murder

'Jeanine actually set up Mike and Ayisha because she wanted Mike to be occupied and leave her alone,' Jessica Pobega, Cammarata's lifelong friend, told the New York Daily News.

'She actually introduced them in the hopes that Mike would stop stalking her.'

Cammarata and Michael had hired Egea as their babysitter two years ago while the teacher was working several jobs.

'She told me that Ayisha was babysitting their kids and then she found out that they were having a relationship,' said Jose Perez, Cammarata's teaching colleague.

'She was trying to get rid of Mike. She thought if he kept busy with [Egea], he wouldn't be stalking her. But he continued stalking her.'

Cammarata moved into an empty apartment in Perez's home, while Michael moved into Egea's home with the two children he shared with Cammarata.

Egea is also charged with concealment of a human corpse and tampering with physical evidence. Michael is pictured, right, outside court Friday

Friends of Cammarata have now revealed that the mother-of-three set up Michael with Egea because she thought he would leave her alone if he had a new relationship

'(Jeanine) was paying his rent (in Queens), her rent, and paying for three cars,' Perez said. 'The kids started calling Ayisha "Mommy". Could you imagine?'

Perez said Cammarata, who was fighting for sole custody of the two children she shared with Michael, updated her will just weeks before her to death to make sure her three children would be taken care of.

'She knew something was up,' he said. 'She wanted her sister to keep the kids and she wanted to make sure her kids got everything.'

Cammarata disappeared on March 30 after she met with Michael two days before their divorce hearing.

Her charred remains were found in a Staten Island storage facility on Thursday.

Michael was taken into police custody on Tuesday after he allegedly admitted to assaulting his wife on the night she went missing. Egea is said to have been in the Queens apartment when Cammarata was killed.

Both Michael and Egea appeared in court on Friday and have been charged with murder, concealment of a human corpse and tampering with physical evidence. They were held without bond.

Jessica Pobega, Cammarata's lifelong friend, said the teacher had hoped introducing Michael to Egea would stop him from continuing to stalk her

PIX11

NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea tweeted Friday: 'The investigation into the disappearance of Jeanine Cammarata is now officially a murder investigation.

'Working closely with (the) Staten Island DA we have arrested Michael Cammarata & Ayisha Egea, both charged with (second-degree) murder.'

Investigators have allegedly obtained surveillance footage which shows Michael carrying a large plastic bin out of his apartment in the Queens on Saturday night.

He was later seen unloading the bin with the help of another person at a storage facility in Staten Island, where police recovered a woman's body early Thursday.

A police spokesperson told New York Post that authorities had struggled to make a positive identification of the victim as the corpse was 'charred and unidentifiable' before being placed in a black plastic bag.

Sources say Egea told police about the storage unit, which was filled with air fresheners allegedly intended to hide the stench of the body.

Investigators have allegedly obtained surveillance footage which shows Michael carrying a large plastic bin out of his apartment in Queens shortly after Jeanine left on Saturday night

A lawyer representing Jeanine (left) said she had served her estranged husband Michael Cammarata (right) with divorce papers less than 48 hours before she vanished Saturday night

NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea tweeted Friday: 'The investigation into the disappearance of Jeanine Cammarata is now officially a murder investigation'

A city medical examiner vehicle is seen parked outside the storage facility

Investigators in white Tyvek suits were seen going in and out of a building at the facility

Cammarata was last seen at about 9pm Saturday when she dropped her boyfriend off at his house and said she was going to visit Michael and their three-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter.

Later that night she sent several alarming messages to friends.

Cammarata's boyfriend reported her missing on Tuesday after she failed to show up for work at elementary school P.S. 29 in Castleton Corner or her side job at Dollar Tree.

And she had missed a child custody hearing on Monday.

By Tuesday afternoon, Michael was questioned by police about Jeanine's disappearance and allegedly admitted to police that he had hit her in the face after they had sex on Saturday, according to WPIX-TV.

He was initially charged with stalking, harassment, and assault.

Cammarata was reported missing on Tuesday after she failed to show up for her job as an elementary school teacher at P.S. 29 in Staten Island. She was last seen at round 9pm Saturday when she dropped her boyfriend off at his house and said she was going to visit Michael and their children, who live with him

Cammarata and Michael are seen above with two of their children at their wedding

Those who knew Cammarata said she was terrified of her husband. They say she described his behavior toward her as abusive.

Perez claimed that Cammarata was 'concerned about her safety' because Michael would harass her and follow her in his car.

Perez said he last saw Cammarata two weeks ago, and that she was determined to win custody of her two children with Michael.

'He wasn't giving her her kids, she wasn't able to see her kids,' Perez said.

'That's when she said okay, I had enough. I'm gonna go get a lawyer, I'm gonna get divorced, and I'm gonna get custody of my kids. And now she's gone.'

Cammarata also has an 11-year-old son from another marriage.
Dr Ian Levy (pictured) has warned that Huawei's 'poor' engineering was 'like it's back in the year 2000' amid rising concerns about the provider

A GCHQ chief has suggested Huawei equipment could be banned from Westminster and other sensitive areas over concerns about 'shoddy' security in the Chinese firm's products.

Dr Ian Levy, technical director of the organisation's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), said Huawei's 'poor' engineering was 'like it's back in the year 2000'.

The technology giant's involvement in Britain's new 5G network is expected to come under scrutiny in an upcoming Government review of the country's telecommunications infrastructure.

To date, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson and the head of MI6 Alex Younger have publicly expressed their concerns over the company, while GCHQ chief Jeremy Fleming has spoken of both 'opportunities and threats' posed by Chinese firms.

Among the concerns are that the Chinese government could coerce companies into placing 'back doors' into their tech products that could be used by the state.

In an interview with Panorama, Dr Levy said the NCSC's concerns with Huawei were primarily with 'really, really poor' cybersecurity practices at the firm.

'The security in Huawei is like nothing else - it's engineering like it's back in the year 2000 - it's very, very shoddy,' he said.

'We've seen nothing to give us any confidence that the transformation programme is going to do what they say it's going to do.'

Dr Levy added that 'geographic restrictions - maybe there's no Huawei radio (equipment) in Westminster' is now an option for ministers to consider.

One of the world's biggest tech firms, Huawei said it is investing two billion dollars (1.5bn) as part of a transformation programme that will tackle the security issues.

Ryan Ding, chief executive of its carrier business group, told the BBC the firm hopes 'to turn this challenge into an opportunity moving forward'.

Gaving Williamson (pictured) has also raised concerns about the Chinese firm

'I believe that if we can carry out this programme as planned, Huawei will become the strongest player in the telecom industry in terms of security and reliability.'

Huawei's involvement in national networks has come under international scrutiny.

In the US, the firm is locked in a battle with authorities over claims it is involved in espionage, theft and fraud.

In 2018, a diplomatic row between Washington and Beijing escalated with the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the company's chief financial officer, in Canada at the US's request.

Elsewhere, the firm has been banned from shipping certain 5G products into New Zealand and Australia.

Mike Conaway, a member of the US House Intelligence Committee, told the BBC: 'You would never know when the Chinese government decide to force Huawei... to do things that would be in the best interests of the Communist party.'
A three-year-old girl has been rescued after she became trapped underneath a car after she was mowed down in a Sydney carpark on Monday.

The toddler was struck near a Macquarie Park hospital on Technology Pl and suffered injuries to her legs and face, police said.

Emergency responders found her conscious at the scene and rescued her from under the vehicle before rushing her to the hospital.

NSW Police confirmed a three-year-old girl was mowed down at a Macquarie Park carpark on Monday afternoon

New South Wales Police confirmed a female driver was also treated at the scene for shock.

The little girl was admitted to Westmead Children's Hospital in serious condition but is now said to be stable.
Dozens of British firms are snooping on their own staff using artificial intelligence to monitor their emails.

Around 130,000 UK workers are under the scope of the Isaak system, which measures when files are accessed and edited, how often meetings are held and how frequently emails are sent and to whom.

It was designed by London-based company StatusToday and is supposed to show bosses whether their employees are potential 'influencers', how their output ranks against their workplace behaviour and how well they work in a team.

StatusToday said insurer Hiscox, IT firm Cisco, five UK law firms and London estate agents JBrown have all used its algorithm software to monitor workers.

Concerns have been raised over workplace snooping due to new artificial intelligence software being used by British firms to monitor productivity (file picture)

But critics, including trade unions, claim it will create an atmosphere of distrust.

It is the latest step in what has been labelled 'the precision economy', with experts predicting a raft of changes over the next 15 years which will see everything from life insurance premiums to job applications being decided on high-tech monitoring.

Ursula Huws, professor of labour and globalisation at the University of Hertfordshire, said it risked damaging the mental health of staff by causing them not to take breaks while ramping up the pressure on them.

She told The Guardian: 'If performance targets are being fine-tuned by AI and your progress towards them being measured by AI, that will only multiply the pressure.

'People are deemed not to be working if they take their hands off the keyboard for five minutes. But they could be thinking, and that doesn't get measured. What is this doing for innovation, which needs creative workers?'

Workers also do not have an automatic right to see their own data, as it belongs to the employer.

The algorithm-based Isaak system monitors workers' output by checking internet activity, file access and emails

TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady added the Isaak system would 'undermine morale' and said it should only be rolled out where this a workplace agreement with employees.

StatusToday said the system has gathered data on more than 1billion workplace actions which has helped identify the most talented staff and thus 'improved the workplace environment' by shifting workload accordingly.

Chief executive Ankur Modi admitted there was a risk the Isaak system could be 'misused' but added it could also show when staff are being overworked.

He told the Guardian: 'If one salesperson is performing well and you can see overwork and another isn't performing well and isn't overworked, that could be enough to start a conversation.'

Mr Modi added the system would remove workplace discrimination around management decisions.
Two anti-Adani protesters have stormed a stage to disrupt Scott Morrison at a Brisbane business lunch, but the prime minister appeared to take in his stride.

'Do we have contestant number three?,' Mr Morrison asked as the protesters were jeered and removed from the Valley Chamber of Commerce on Monday.

One woman carrying a stop Adani protest flag managed to reach Mr Morrison's side but was dragged away by security as a second protester stood to yell 'stop Adani'.

One woman carrying a stop Adani protest flag managed to reach Mr Morrison's side

The young anti-Adani protester was dragged away from the prime minister by security

Then a table of 10 protesters started chanting 'climate election, no more coal' before they were escorted out by security.

One woman carrying a stop Adani protest flag managed to reach Mr Morrison's side as he began his address at the Valley Chamber of Commerce business lunch.

There were about 100 anti-Adani and refugee protesters outside the event.

Australian Youth Climate Coalition organiser, Melanie McAuliffe, said they wanted to highlight LNP government's inability to react on climate change.

'We just had a summer of unprecedented heatwave, bushfires and floods and yet this government still continues to ignore what we need to do to address the climate crisis.'

A Stop Adani protester (pictured) is evicted during Scott Morrison's speech on Monday

A Stop Adani protestor (centre) is removed from the Valley Chamber of Commerce business luncheon in Brisbane

Several teenagers said they were looking for action to save the planet.

Jo, from Cleveland, told the crowd outside the business lunch that all she wanted was a future.

'I am 17 years old and I want is for our government to do what they need to to save the planet,' she told the crowd.

'This is our home, this is what houses us, we have a responsibility to care for it.'

The protesters mocked Morrison government's claims they were on track to meet the Paris climate commitment.

They chanted 'hey Scomo, I'm talking to you, no Adani and no Nauru' and yelled 'bad for business' as people entered the venue.
Free flu vaccinations for children and the elderly are being offered after a record-breaking start to the flu season.

New South Wales has already recorded 7,595 cases, with Queensland trailing closely behind at 7,289 so far this year.

So far almost 4,500 cases and one death have already been recorded in South Australia, which is a stark comparison to the 1,000 cases this time last year.

In just the past week, already 1,012 cases have been reported in SA.

Free flu vaccinations for kids under five are being offered after a record-breaking horror start to the flu season

New South Wales has also seen their rate double from that recorded in January last year, according to NSW Health.

Victoria has also had a shocking start to the flu season, with one child fatality already recorded.

There have been 2,800 confirmed flu cases so far, which doubles the 1,300 cases recorded by VicHealth this time last year, the ABC reports.

Western Australia has recorded just 1,498 cases, which is substantially less than other states.

But the states with the lowest prevalence by far are the Northern Territory with just 296 cases, and Tasmania with 322 cases.

South Australian Health and Wellbeing Minister, Stephen Wade, has imposed free flu shots to be handed out immediately for children and the elderly, in response to the crisis.

But he said there may be a two week wait because of delivery times.

Free shots for people over the age of 65 are already available and pharmacies such as National Pharmacies, which is administrating the vaccinations by trained staff.

State politicians are also being taken care of, with all staff already being immunised.

Health and Wellbeing Minister, Stephen Wade, has imposed free flu shots to be handed out immediately for children and the elderly, in response to the crisis

The initial release date for shots was originally April 29, but the high prevalence of cases, which has reached a 10 year high, prompted Mr Wade to act immediately.

'Flu is always circulating in the community but we have seen the highest number of cases for this time in more than 10 years,' he told the Courier Mail.

'So we have begun distributing vaccines as soon as they have become available.'

Mr Wade stressed that getting the shot is the best way to protect the community.

Mr Wade stressed that getting the shot is the best way to protect the community

'The State Government is again funding free flu shots for about 90,00 eligible children aged between six months and under five years... [to] minimise the flu,' he said.

While the high numbers of cases suggest an upcoming horror season, health officials have played it down.

'While it's not possible to predict the severity of a flu season, it's important the community remain vigilant,' SA Health Director of the Communicable Disease Control Branch, Dr Louise Flood said.

While the high numbers of cases suggest an upcoming horror season, health officials have played it down

But Dr Flood also admitted an increase in cases, with the flu reaching 4485 confirmed cases, in comparison to 1139 this time last year.

Free flu shots are available for people aged 65 and over, children under five, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged six months and older, pregnant women and people with certain medical conditions.

Corporations are also having their staff immunised.
Bernadette Quirk, pictured outside Liverpool Crown Court in 2010, wrapped three of the babies in newspaper and rags in a plastic bin

A mother who hid three of her stillborn baby daughters in her wardrobe and another in a bag beside her bed for 20 years has died aged 64.

Bernadette Quirk, of St Helens, Merseyside, wrapped three of the babies in newspaper and rags kept in a small plastic bin with an air freshener.

The remains of the babies  whom she gave birth to between 1985 and 1995 - were found in 2009 by her daughter Joanne Lee, who contacted police.

Each of the babies had a different father, and police believe they were born when she was drinking and having casual sex after her marriage broke up in the 1980s.

Quirk was spared jail at Liverpool Crown Court in December 2010 after admitting four counts of concealing births. She died in February.

Ms Lee, 47, who is a mother-of-three and grandmother-of-four, has now written of the harrowing story in a book called Silent Sisters, published on April 18.

She told the Liverpool Echo: 'I couldn't stand the woman - and what she put us all through. But I wouldn't go back and change any of it. It's made me a better mother and person.'

The remains of the babies were found in 2009 by her daughter Joanne Lee, pictured recently

Ms Lee was 26 in May 1998 when her sister Cath, then 16, told her that Quirk had put the remains of a baby in the wardrobe.

Without telling authorities, she then helped her mother bury the baby in the family grave, where her own son John had been legally buried.

Ms Lee added: 'If I had known then what I know now I would have gone to the police there and then.

'I knew I was doing wrong and I could have gone to jail but I think a lot of it was to do with me losing my own child, and I felt sorry for her. I thought she was grieving.'

Quirk (right), of St Helens is pictured with her daughter Joanne (left) and son Christopher

She also told how her mother had mental health issues, and used to claim Freddie Mercury had given her ballet lessons and she had 'got off' with Michael Jackson.

Quirk fell into a 'chaotic and dysfunctional' lifestyle after the break-up of her marriage

At Liverpool Crown Court in 2010, prosecutor Anya Horwood told how Quirk had fallen into a 'chaotic and dysfunctional' lifestyle following the break-up of her second marriage.

She said: 'The defendant's heavy drinking significantly impaired her ability to look after her children, her family and herself. She had a number of sexual relationships during this period.'

There was no explanation about why Quirk kept the remains with her - moving home several times in the intervening years.

At the end of July 2009, Quirk's daughter discovered the remains of one baby in her mother's wardrobe at her house.

Police then searched the property and Quirk directed them to the remains of two more infants, also wrapped up in the bedroom.

Ms Lee has written about the harrowing story in a book called Silent Sisters, out on April 18

The defendant told detectives she gave birth to the four babies at her previous home in St Helens, and they were all stillborn.

Forensic tests suggested they had congenital disorders and Quirk was charged with concealing birth contrary to the Offences Against the Person Act 1861.

Ian Morris, defending, said Quirk embarked on a series of inappropriate relationships following the breakdown of her marriage.

He said she hid the pregnancies because she was ashamed of what she had done and did not believe in abortion.

Silent Sisters is published by Mirror Books and is released on April 18 for 7.99
A female German backpacker has been raped and murdered while holidaying on an idyllic Thai island.

Miriam Beelte, 26, from Hildesheim, Germany, was found dead on the island of Koh Sichang off the eastern coast of Thailand on Sunday.

Police said she suffered severe head wounds and a broken leg, and that her remains had been hidden behind some rocks and partially covered with leaves.

Miriam Beelte, 26, from Hildesheim, Germany, was raped and then beaten to death on the island of Koh Sichang around 1pm on Sunday

Police say local man Ronnakorn Romruen, 24, confessed to attacking the backpacker while high on meth before killing her to stop her reporting the crime

Investigators have arrested local man Ronnakorn Romruen, 24, and say he confessed to committing the crime while high on meth.

Thailand is a top international backpacking destination and is particularly popular with Britons, though authorities have warned about the dangers of holidaying there.

In just two years between 2016 and 2018, 60 Britons met with 'unexplained' deaths in the country, leading to suspicions that tourists were being targeted.

Beelte's body was discovered around 6pm Sunday by someone walking through the woods, who called the authorities.

Police locked down the island and Romruen was arrested a short time later.

Investigators believe Miss Beelte had been dead for around five hours before her body was discovered.

Police said that Miss Beelte had been on holiday in the nearby city of Pattaya and was travelling alone when she took a boat from the Siracha district to the island.

There she rented a motorcycle just before lunchtime when Romruen began talking to her. He told police he asked her for sex but she refused.

He then followed her as she tried to get away from him.

Romruen told police he pinned Miriam to the ground and raped her in woodland as she screamed for help.

He then allegedly killed her by repeatedly smashing her in the face with a rock to stop her from reporting the crime to police.

Officers said that Romruen confessed to murder after four hours of interrogation and he was taken back to his wooden home in the early hours of the morning.

Shirtless and in handcuffs, he pointed out the clothes he had been wearing when committed the crime, before taking them home and washing them in a bid to conceal the evidence.

Police Colonel Angkul Sarakul said that the killer was detained at the Koh Si Chang Police Station waiting for the legal proceedings.

Miss Beelte had been staying in Pattaya before catching a boat out to Koh Sichang, then renting a motorbike to explore the island

Police say Romruen accosted Miss Beelte when she stopped for lunch and asked her for sex, then followed and attacked her when she refused

On Monday morning he was then taken on a boat to the mainland in Chonburi province where he will be remanded in custody and charged.

Footage from the early hours of Monday shows him being taken back to his house in handcuffs to point out the clothes he had been wearing when he murdered and raped the young woman.

Police Colonel Angkul Sarakul said: 'The police station was informed of the foreign woman that had been murdered and hidden among leaves and rocks.

'At the scene the initial examination showed that the victim had been beaten in the head several times.

'She had been dead for around five hours. We suspected rape and murder and immediately stopped anyone from leaving the island.'

He added: 'The suspect was brought to the station in the early hours of the morning.

'Based on his confessions, he will be charged with premeditated murder, rape and concealing a body.

'The body of the victim will be sent to the forensic hospital for a full examination to find the exact cause of death.

'We immediately contacted the German embassy for them to communicate with the relatives of the victim.'
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Theresa May will hold a showdown with Emmanuel Macron in Paris tomorrow as the French President considers taking a hard line on Brexit talks and moving towards No Deal.

The Prime Minister's talks with Jeremy Corbyn appear to have stalled today, and she has announced she will cancel a Cabinet meeting tomorrow and tour European capitals including Berlin and Paris instead ahead of an EU summit on Wednesday.

May is asking the EU to delay Brexit until June 30, but she faces stiff resistance from EU leaders - especially Macron - who are growing tired of repeated delay requests and fear that Eurosceptic British politicians will try to wreck the EU from the inside if the UK stays in.

The summit on Wednesday in Brussels will decide whether Britain leaves the EU with No Deal by default on Friday, or a longer delay is granted.

Mr Macron wants to turn the screw on the UK by demanding 'strict' conditions if Article 50 is extended at a Brussels summit on Wednesday - or he will push for No Deal at 11pm on Friday.

Ahead of the gathering, Irish premier Leo Varadkar was in Brussels today for fresh talks with EU negotiator Michel Barnier.

Opinions on what Brussels should offer the UK differ - alongside Macron's hardline, Jean Claude Juncker and Ireland are pushing for a year-long 'flextension' to March 31 2020 and May requesting a short delay to June 30.

The Prime Minister will also jet to Berlin tomorrow for emergency talks with Angela Merkel - and will be calling some of the other 27 EU leaders in the next 24 hours.

Macron wants the UK to commit to not disrupting the EU's business after Jacob Rees-Mogg, the chairman of the European Research Group of Eurosceptic Tory MPs, said Britain should be 'as difficult as possible' in the event of a long extension and frustrate EU budget decisions.

Prime Minister Theresa May arrives at the back of Downing Street as Brexit talks with Labour are set to start again ahead of a visit to France to meet Emmanuel Macron tomorrow

If not he could choose to say 'non' to Mrs May, as General Charles de Gaulle of France did twice when he vetoed Britain's bid to join the EEC in the 1960s.

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. THURSDAY APRIL 11: PM'S FACES MPs Theresa May will return from Brussels with a likely nine to 12 month extension and will outline her plans in the the Commons in the wake of the EU summit. FRIDAY APRIL 12: BREXIT DAY Britain is due to leave the EU without a deal on this date if no delay is agreed. Advertisement

At the time it was claimed that de Gaulle was getting his own back for the wartime occasions when he had been snubbed by Churchill.

He argued that Britain was too subservient to its transatlantic alliance to be a loyal part of what he saw as a new European economic and political force. General de Gaulle resigned in 1969 - and Britain joined the EEC in 1973.

The EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier flew to Dublin today for emergency talks with Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar amid fears Britain could end up with No Deal.

A spokesman for Mr Varadkar said the aim of the meeting was to 'take stock of developments in London'.

Mr Barnier vowed: 'The EU will stand fully behind Ireland.

'You have our full support and, I have said before, the backstop is currently the only solution we have found to maintain the status quo on the island of Ireland.

'If the UK were to leave the EU without a deal we would not discuss anything with the UK until there is an agreement for Ireland and Northern Ireland as well as for citizens' rights and the financial settlement.'

The spokesman said the ongoing planning for a possible No Deal Brexit scenario would also be discussed.

To avert this Mrs May, who will cancel a crunch cabinet meeting because of her German visit, is risking civil war with her own party by pursuing a softer Brexit, with Boris Johnson calling it a 'surrender' and warning his party leader: 'It cannot, must not and will not happen'.

Today ERG rebel Mark Francois today wrote a letter to 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady demanding a vote of no confidence in Mrs May's leadership on Wednesday at 3pm - just as she arrives in Brussels.

Mr Francois, a former TA officer who described his time as Europe minister as 'his tour', said today: 'I believe May has been a failure as Leader of our Party, which she now threatens to destroy.

'Hers is a classic example of hubris  and after hubris, comes nemesis and after nemesis comes psoriasis, the reason we're itching to leave Europe'.

The EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier flew to Dublin today for emergency talks with Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar amid fears Britain could end up with No Deal

A formal vote of confidence in Mrs May as Conservative leader cannot be held until December, after she survived an earlier attempt to oust her by 200 votes to 117, granting her a 12-month period of grace during which no challenge is permitted.

Sir Graham told last week's meeting of the 1922 executive that a proposal for an indicative vote had been put to him.

The executive decided that, while it was possible for such a vote to be staged, it was neither necessary nor appropriate to do so at this point.

Mr Francois wrote: 'We simply cannot go on like this, with a weak leader, a riven Cabinet and a party in despair.

Theresa May paved the way for a customs union deal with Labour last night as she pledged to 'compromise' to ensure Brexit happens after talks broke down on Friday.

Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright gave a big hint that the PM could be willing to offer Labour a deal and said: 'The conversations with Labour are ongoing, and I believe they will continue today. Everybody needs to compromise  it isn't just the Government. We all need to find a way through [on Brexit]'.

But Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer said they are waiting for Mrs May's offer and said: 'There aren't any scheduled talks yet but no doubt things will develop today. The ball's in the government's court, we need to see what they come back with. When they do, we'll take a collective position on that'.

In a sign that talks are in the balance junior Brexit minister James Cleverley tweeted in response: 'Hang on a minute!!! Labour have spent months saying 'why won't you listen to our proposals?' Now it sounds like Sir Keir is saying 'we haven't got any proposals, what are yours?'.'

Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn and fellow Labour MPs welcome the newly elected MP for Newport West, Ruth Jones today as Labour continues to push for a customs union as the price for a deal with him

Yesterday, in an informal video statement filmed on a Chequers sofa aimed directly at voters, Mrs May argued she had no choice but to try and find a cross-party agreement with Jeremy Corbyn because otherwise Britain might not leave the EU at all.

How de Gaulle said 'non' to the UK in 1963 and 1967 - will Macron now do the same? Emmanuel Macron is said to be ready to use his EU veto to nudge Britain out of the EU as Theresa May repeatedly fails to get a deal through Parliament. French President Charles de Gaulle twice used that power in the 1960s - this time to stop Britain joining the EEC. President de Gaulle lived in exile in Britain between 1940 and 1945 as Germany conquered France - but he made no secret of his fundamental distrust of all things British. By 'nature and structure and economic context', he said, Britain was different from the rest of Europe. In the 1960s he stopped Britain joining the EEC. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan got so distraught he confided in his diary in 1963 that 'all our policies at home and abroad are in ruins' after the French President vetoed Britain's first bid to join. De Gaulle would torpedo Britain's second attempt four years later, too. He declared in 1963 that France had put her economic, financial and monetary affairs 'in order'. England, by contrast, he called 'insular', a country which 'has in all her doings very marked and very original habits and traditions.' Most commentators at the time agreed that de Gaulle had never forgiven Britain for bailing him out during World War II, and was itching to get one over on his former patron. He was reported to have said he wanted to see Britain enter the Common Market 'stripped naked'  and although he denied it, most people thought it rang true. Hence his famous 'non!', which delayed our entry for ten years to 1973. Advertisement

She pointed out the referendum campaign was not fought on party lines and said members of the public wanted to see politicians 'working together more often'.

Labour say they are ready to talk today with shadow transport minister Andy McDonald saying Mrs May offering to stay in the customs union 'could be a productive step'.

He added that if Labour's softer Brexit proposition is 'accepted in its totality' it could reduce the argument for a second referendum.

Formal talks between No 10 and Labour broke down on Friday night, but are expected to begin again today after informal contact over the weekend.

In an attempt to break the deadlock, Mrs May could agree to accept elements of Labour's plan for a 'softer' Brexit, including a customs union and alignment with EU rules on employment and the environment.

No 10 is also considering whether to make elements of the deal legally binding to prevent them being torn up by Mrs May's successor. Dubbed a 'Boris-lock' - after Boris Johnson - this would mean putting into law some elements of the agreement so a parliamentary vote would be needed to overturn them.

Allies of the Prime Minister say she is determined to make progress in the talks as she prepares to travel to Brussels on Wednesday, to seek a further extension to Article 50. She has asked for a delay until June 30 with a break clause to allow the UK to leave ahead of European elections on May 22 if a deal has passed by then.

Germany is thought to be sympathetic to a shorter extension, but France is resisting. EU Council president Donald Tusk has suggested the break clause could be accepted, but with a much longer extension of a year.

In the social media clip, filmed sitting on a sofa in the Hawtrey Room at Chequers  the Prime Minister's Buckinghamshire retreat  Mrs May said people had been asking her, 'what on Earth's happening with Brexit?' with nearly three years having passed since the referendum. Suggesting she accepts that her own deal is dead, she said MPs had rejected it three times and 'I can't see them accepting it'.

The Prime Minister also warned that Parliament had rejected a No Deal exit and was now 'legislating to block No Deal'.

While staying in the EU's customs union would allow frictionless trade with other member states to continue, the UK would have to abide by the bloc's tariffs and trade regulations, and it would seriously hamper the country's ability to strike commercial deals with non-EU countries.

The EU's leaders are considering whether to give Britain an Article 50 extension with Michel Barnier flying to Dublin for emergency No Deal talks with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar

A Bill tabled by Tory backbencher Sir Oliver Letwin, which could be used to force Mrs May to delay Brexit, will continue its passage in the Lords today and is likely to receive Royal Assent this week.

Will 'Bamber' alliance of Boris Johnson and Amber Rudd make it to No 10? Boris Johnson has vowed Tory MPs will not let Theresa May steer the country toward a soft Brexit Jacob Rees-Mogg hailed Amber Rudd as a 'first-class' politician yesterday as MPs claimed she might support Boris Johnson in a leadership alliance dubbed 'Bamber'. The former foreign secretary is keen to win over Miss Rudd to back his tilt at the Tory crown. But the Work and Pensions Secretary is also being wooed by other contenders, including Jeremy Hunt and Michael Gove. Mr Rees-Mogg, chairman of the European Research Group of Eurosceptic Tory MPs, who has hosted 'Back Boris' dinners at his home, paid tribute to Miss Rudd's abilities. Asked about the prospect of Ms Rudd supporting Mr Johnson, he replied: 'Well I've always thought highly of Amber Rudd, and she is a very long-standing friend of my sister and a person of first-class capabilities. I happen to disagree with her on the European issue and there will come a time, although we may find it difficult to believe, when there are other things to talk about than Europe. At that point we will need all the talents arrayed within the party and not just those of Brexiteers.' During the referendum campaign, Miss Rudd, a leading Remainer, attacked Mr Johnson as 'not the man you want driving you home at the end of the evening'. But she was also preparing to endorse him in the subsequent leadership contest until his campaign imploded. The pair often lunch together and are friendly but, by supporting him, Ms Rudd would risk alienating allies who dislike his hardline Brexit views. Some MPs think she is 'stringing him along' and will back a candidate more closely aligned with her own view of Brexit. With Theresa May expected to leave No 10 within weeks if she gets Brexit through, other candidates put themelves forward yesterday. Leader of the Commons Andrea Leadsom, who came second in the contest three years ago, refused to say whether she would run but said her experience of last time had taught her to 'be prepared'. Treasury Chief Secretary Liz Truss, who is also seen as a likely runner, made a pitch to ordinary members by saying they should have a vote on party policy at the Conservative conference. She backed calls for activists to be given a 'free and meaningful voice' at the annual gathering, and presented with 'votable motions' in the main hall of the party conference. Allies of Home Secretary Sajid Javid pointed to polling data showing he was the least disliked leadership contender, with a 'net favourability' rating of minus six, among voters. Mr Johnson's is minus 15 and Mr Gove's minus 22. Advertisement

As a result of these constraints, Mrs May argued, the only choice was 'either leaving the EU with a deal or not leaving at all'. She added: 'Now I think, the Government thinks, we absolutely must leave the EU. We must deliver Brexit. That means we need to get a deal over the line.'

Her only option was a 'new approach' of holding cross-party talks, she said. 'When you think about it, people didn't vote on party lines when it came to the Brexit referendum. You know I think often that members of the public want to see their politicians working together more often.

'There are lots of things on which I disagree with the Labour Party... But on Brexit I think there are some things we agree on: ending free movement, ensuring we leave with a good deal, protecting jobs, protecting security.

'And so we are talking. Can we find a way through this that ensures that we can get a good deal and a deal agreed through Parliament?' With a laugh, she added: 'It'll mean compromise on both sides but I believe that delivering Brexit is the most important thing for us. People voted to leave the EU (and) we have a duty as a Parliament to deliver that.'

But Mrs May's approach is flatly contradicted by Mr Johnson today.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph he says remaining in a customs union 'would make a total and utter nonsense of the referendum result'.

He claims the Tories would be 'tearing up a promise made thousands of times in Parliament and elsewhere' by acceding to Mr Corbyn's custom union demands.

He adds: 'We would be out of the EU, but in many ways still run by the EU. It would be the worst of both worlds, not just now, but forever  and that is why I find the news so appalling that I don't really believe it.'

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said going into talks with Labour would mean EU leaders could see Theresa May was leaving no stone unturned.

He told the BBC: 'What I will be saying to my European colleagues this afternoon is you can see from this that Theresa May is leaving no stone unturned to try and resolve Brexit.

'They want Brexit to be resolved as quickly as possible, so do we, so do the British people, so do MPs - so we're doing absolutely everything we can to get a resolution to get Brexit over the line.'

Cabinet ministers were also divided over Mrs May's approach. Treasury Chief Secretary Liz Truss said a flexible extension 'sounds like purgatory' and warned against the UK being stuck in 'limbo'.

Leader of the Commons Andrea Leadsom said she was agreeing to the Labour talks 'through gritted teeth'.

But she said the Tories must be willing to give ground to stop Brexit 'slipping away'.

Leadership contender Dominic Raab said it was a 'desperate' decision to hold talks with Mr Corbyn, claiming it was 'potentially disastrous for the nation'.

But Tory MP Johnny Mercer welcomed Mrs May's statement, calling it her 'best in three years'.

Mrs May paved the way for a softer Brexit and said after Parliament rejected her deal and No Deal, the choice was between a deal and staying in the EU

Labour splits on Brexit were exposed last night as one third of the party's MPs demanded a second referendum and warned Jeremy Corbyn not to 'bail out' Theresa May.

EU leaders have 'given up on Theresa May and are now negotiating with MPs directly' As Theresa May heads to Paris and Berlin EU leaders have given up on her, it was claimed today. The bloc's leaders are said to be negotiating directly with MPs after the Cooper/Letwin plot grabbed control of Brexit in the Commons. An EU diplomatic source told The Sun: 'What's annoying us is they're not a real government so we don't have any partners to properly talk to. 'We don't want to be demanding but we've got to manage the process and we don't have another side to manage it with. 'We have no trust in May anymore. We say we're not negotiating with the House but we are. But how can we negotiate with all these different factions?' Advertisement

Eighty MPs, including ten frontbenchers, signed a letter insisting that another Brexit vote is adopted as a red line in Opposition talks with the Government.

They also demanded that an option to Remain be included on the ballot.

They said failing to secure a so-called 'confirmatory vote' would undermine Labour's 'reputation with its membership and electorate', and added: 'Any compromise deal which is now agreed by Parliament will have no legitimacy if it is not confirmed by the public.' The MPs argue it is 'untenable' for Labour not to insist on a public vote, and wrote: 'It is not Labour's job to rescue Theresa May and usher in her successor.' They also warned that any concessions Labour could secure faced being 'ripped up' by whoever takes over from Mrs May as prime minister.

Among those to have signed the letter are business spokesman Chi Onwurah and the party's Treasury spokesman Anneliese Dodds.

Labour is deeply divided on a second referendum, with many MPs in pro-Leave seats in favour of a compromise deal to ensure Britain leaves the EU without another public vote.

Last week 25 MPs signed a separate letter calling for Mr Corbyn to rule out a second referendum.

And business spokesman Rebecca Long-Bailey appeared to dismiss the idea that any deal would be put to a public vote. She told the BBC's Andrew Marr show said all Mr Corbyn had to do to fulfil Labour policy was to 'ask for one'.

'Ultimately we want to gain a compromise deal that will satisfy a large consensus across Parliament. And that's our priority,' she said.

It has also emerged that Labour Party chairman Ian Lavery told Mr Corbyn he risks going down in history as the leader who split his party if he backs a second referendum.

French ambassador Jean-Pierre Jouyet arrives at the Cabinet Office 24 hours before the PM is due to meet his President in Paris

Ministers call for Conservatives to woo young before it's too late 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. 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. Advertisement

Mr Lavery, who has twice defied the Labour whip to abstain on second refsaid erendum votes, made the intervention at a meeting of the Shadow Cabinet last week, The Observer reported.

But Labour backbencher and Brexit committee chairman Hilary Benn believes a second referendum 'should be a red line' for Mr Corbyn.

Any deal should 'come with a commitment to put that back to the people - we don't think these things can be separated,' he told Radio 4's The World this Weekend.

After talks between Labour and the Government began last week, Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry there was a 'strong argument' for a new public vote.

Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson went even further and claimed a new referendum was the only way out of the current impasse.

One option being discussed between the two sides is to put a joint deal to Parliament, but with a separate vote on a second referendum.

This would in all likelihood be voted down because not enough MPs on all sides of the Commons support the idea, but Mr Corbyn could argue he had tried to satisfy his party's policy.

Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald warned that a customs union does not 'solve the problem for the north of Ireland' as she visited Westminster for Brexit talks with Jeremy Corbyn.

She told the Press Association a customs union 'probably makes sense for Britain' but said: 'You need to be aware that membership of the customs union alone does not solve the problem for the north of Ireland - we need alignment also with the single market.

'These are the bare minimums that are required just to keep the lights on on our island. I think for our purposes we have to be clear that this Brexit saga cannot go on indefinitely - there actually has to be a conclusion, there has to be an end point.

'Whether there is a deal, and I hope there is, or no-deal, I hope that that doesn't come to pass, but irrespective of whether there's a deal or no-deal or an extension of any duration we are very clear, and the British political system needs to be very clear, that the commitments made to Ireland must be honoured.'

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon suggested there could be an 'exodus' of Labour members if the party were to agree to a Brexit deal which ended freedom of movement.

After Twitter user Jamie Glackin claimed he would be part of a wave of departures under such circumstances, Ms Sturgeon responded: 'I suspect this will be the view of many members/supporters of Scottish Labour should such a deal be done.'

Hard Left shadow chancellor John McDonnell says he is planning for a general election in OCTOBER after a summer Tory leadership battle John McDonnell said he was planning for an October General Election called by Theresa May's replacement Hard left shadow chancellor John McDonnell has put his team on a war footing for a general election in October, he revealed today. Labour's economics supremo believes that after a summer consumed by a Tory leadership battle to replace Theresa May her replacement will call a snap poll to give their position legitimacy. He said that if it happened he planning to be in charge of the Treasury afterwards, telling Tortoise Media 'I bl**dy hope so'. He told the website: 'I am working on October. We have been aware of the prospect of an early election for some time now but I think the timetable is this. 'If Theresa May goes after 22 May they will go straight into a leadership election. The timetable would be mid-July for that new leader to be in place. The new leader goes off to party conference and then there's a general election. 'I am working back from dates in October and getting our team and the campaign team ready and all the prep for government work is being done as well. Yes, we think it will be October.' A host of Tory big-hitters have already started campaigning - some more obviously than others - to replace Theresa May. The Prime Minister has already indicated she would step down after a Brexit was agreed, in order to allow someone else to take charge of the next stage. The hot money is currently on former foreign secretary Boris Johnson and Environment Secretary Michael Gove, plus current Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Home Secretary Sajid Javid. Advertisement

Are Cabinet Brexiteers about to make their move? Leadsom, Mordaunt and Grayling to meet the PM in No 10 as she CANCELS last Cabinet before EU summit

Brexiteer ministers will meet Theresa May in Downing Street today at the start of a crucial week in Britain's departure from the EU.

The talks - including Commons leader Andrea Leadsom, Aid Secretary Penny Mordaunt and Transport Secretary Chris Grayling - emerged after Mrs May cancelled tomorrow's weekly Cabinet.

Brexiteers Liam Fox, Michael Gove and Stephen Barclay have all been seen in No 10 this morning.

Instead of meeting her top team tomorrow Mrs May will fly to Berlin and Paris as she scrambles to seal a delay to Brexit that avoids No Deal on Friday.

The ministers are all part of the so-called 'Pizza Club' that has coordinated the Brexiteer response inside Government as Mrs May has piled defeat on humiliation.

The meeting will fuel rumours senior Leave supporters inside Government will refuse to sign up to a permanent customs union to win Labour backing for the deal.

Ahead of the meeting, hardline Brexiteers launched a new bid to oust Mrs May as Tory MP Mark Francois publicly demanded a new vote on her leadership.

Brexiteers Liam Fox and Michael Gove were seen leaving Downing Street today as the PM is under pressure to leave the EU as soon as possible

Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay visited No 10 today as the Government scrambles to escape the impasse over leaving the EU

Brexiteer ministers including Aid Secretary Penny Mordaunt (pictured last week on Whitehall) will meet Theresa May in Downing Street today at the start of a crucial week in Britain's departure from the EU

Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom and Transport Secretary Chris Grayling will be in the meeting with Mrs May this afternoon

A raft of ministers have threatened to quit the Government if Mrs May pivots to a soft Brexit to salvage her deal, which has been trounced three times by MPs.

But if Mrs May does not move to Labour she faces even more resignations from the Remain wing over the threat of No Deal.

Instead of Cabinet tomorrow, Mrs May will hold a showdown with Emmanuel Macron in Paris as the French President considers his own 'de Gaulle moment' with Brexit and could force Britain out of the EU.

Brexiteer Mark Francois demands 'unofficial confidence vote' in Theresa May's leadership Mr Francois sent a three-page letter to 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady on Monday demanding action be taken against Theresa May over here leadership A senior Tory backbench Brexiteer has demanded Theresa May face a confidence vote by her own MPs before begging EU leaders for a Brexit delay. Mark Francois said that the Prime Minister should be subjected to an informal 'indicative vote' of confidence that would allow disgruntled MPs 'to demonstrate that they have lost faith in her leadership'. In a letter to backbench leader Sir Graham Brady the Essex MP said 'we are living in a world gone mad'. As well as attacking the Prime Minister he also hit out at Brexiteers in her Cabinet who have failed to act even as she seeks a compromise deal with Jeremy Corbyn that could include a customs union. In the letter to 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham, obtained by Sky News, Rayleigh MP Mr Francois said: 'We simply cannot go on like this, with a weak leader, a riven Cabinet and a party in despair. I believe Theresa May has been a failure as leader of our party, which she now threatens to destroy. Hers is a classic example of hubris - and after hubris comes nemesis.' In a swipe at Cabinet Brexiteers he added that the party had been let down by the 'officer class' at the top of Government. 'The so-called 'eurosceptics' in the Cabinet do nothing (save consume vast quantities of pizza,' he wrote. 'Riven by personal ambition they keep their heads firmly below the parapet, many of them hoping that by 'sitting out' this great battle for the destiny of our country, they will somehow inherit the crown. 'They won't. This is because, as a rule of thumb, MPs, let alone our party members, do not generally vote for those they no longer respect.' Advertisement

How a No Deal Brexit COULD happen this week: Wednesday's summit is set to delay leaving the EU by a YEAR - or the UK could crash out on FRIDAY if hardliner Macron makes good on threats

Britain faces the theoretical prospect of a No Deal Brexit on Friday - but few in Westminster believe it will be allowed to happen.

Despite the stalling of cross party talks with Labour, Theresa May appears set on a new delay to Brexit.

She will meet EU leaders in Brussels on Wednesday to formalise her request for a second extension to Article 50. Britain wants to delay until June 30.

But the Prime Minister knows she will have to take what she is given as she will be kicked out of the summit while the 27 leaders agree a way forward.

A six-hour debate at the last summit produced a much shorter two week delay - but this time most expect the EU to kick Brexit a year or more down the road.

French President Emmanuel Macron has threatened to veto any extension to end the stalemate. This is by far the most likely route to a No Deal Brexit this week.

Mrs May will have to agree a delay on the night whatever the political ramifications at home - certain to be explosive on the Brexiteer wing of her party.

MPs will have to rubber stamp a change in the Brexit date but it emerged two weeks ago they have no actual power to stop the PM agreeing a change in Brussels.

Before the summit convenes, Labour and Tory politicians are expected to resume talks to see if a consensus on the final EU-UK trade deal can be struck.

Few in Westminster expect a significant breakthrough without a dramatic climbdown from the Prime Minister on her red lines.

MPs are also likely to debate and vote at least one tomorrow. Rebels who forced through legislation to force the Government to seek a delay are likely to get their law finalised tonight, meaning Mrs May will have to hold a debate on delay tomorrow.

And the PM had signalled she would call indicative votes on Brexit alternatives before the summit if talks with Jeremy Corbyn failed - but there is currently little sign of this being scheduled.

What has Mrs May asked for?

In a letter to Donald Tusk she formally requested an extension to Article 50 that will delay the UK's departure beyond April 12 to June 30 - but she also wants a 'termination clause'.

This would allow the UK to leave on May 22 - the day before European elections - if a deal can be pushed through the UK Parliament.

However, this delay is a carbon copy of that sought by Mrs May before the last emergency summit in March - which was rejected.

What has the EU said?

Mr Tusk said that a 12-month 'flextension' to March 29 2020 is 'the only reasonable way out' of the crisis and has urged leaders of the EU's 27 member states to back him at Wednesday's summit.

Such an extension is likely to spark fury among Tory Brexiteer MPs, with Jacob Rees-Mogg suggesting if we were kept in we should be troublesome to the rest of the EU, politically.

And Mrs May has previously said she would not be able to accept such a delay - suggesting it could prompt her to resign. This could lead to a summer leadership battle in Tory ranks before a new, most likely Brexiteer leader, takes over.

What is happening in the cross party talks?

The Prime Minister has said the divorce deal could not be changed but announced last week she would seek a new consensus with Jeremy Corbyn on the political declaration about the final UK-EU agreement.

Talks broke down on Friday between ministers and officials from both parties, despite previous efforts being hailed as 'constructive'.

In a video yesterday, Mrs May renewed her calls for consensus and talks are thought likely to continue today - but few expect success.

If the talks fail, Mrs May has promised to put options to Parliament and agreed to be bound by the result. Time is short to actually call this vote.

In a second round of indicative votes on Monday night a customs union, Norway-style soft Brexit and second referendum were the leading options - but none got a majority of MPs.

What does Mrs May's shift mean?

Mrs May has abandoned all hope of winning over remaining Tory Brexiteers and the DUP on the terms of her current deal.

Striking a cross-party deal with Labour on the future relationship will require Mrs May to abandon many of her red lines - including potentially on free movement and striking trade deals.

To get an agreement with Labour, Mrs May will need to agree the political declaration should spell out a much softer Brexit than her current plans do.

This might mean a permanent UK-EU customs union or even staying in the EU Single Market.

What if Mr Corbyn says No?

Mrs May said if she cannot cut a deal with Corbyn, she would ask Parliament to come up with options - and promised to follow orders from MPs.

In a second round of indicative votes last week a customs union, Norway-style soft Brexit and second referendum were the leading options - but none got a majority of MPs.

They would probably pass if the Tories whipped for them - but it would almost certainly mean ministers quitting the Government.

Can either option be completed before the PM goes to Brussels?

Yes there is still technically time. The Government would have to table a motion tonight for any such vote was to be held tomorrow.

MPs would then have time the following day to debate what was on offer - and possibly suggest their own changes - before it is put to a vote, probably in the evening.

In practice, talks with Mr Corbyn and his team must have ended this afternoon at the very latest to give time for MPs to have their say if she is to make demand to the EU ahead of Wednesday's summit.

When will Brexit be?

It is hard to say - but it is unlikely to be next week on April 12.

Mrs May has asked for an extension to June 30. Donald Tusk has suggested a year.

There are EU leaders like France's Emmanuel Macron who have played Bad Cop and said they want us gone quickly. But others, including Germany's Angela Merkel, has been more conciliatory, suggesting yesterday she would show more flexibility to get a deal.

The PM clearly still wants to get out of the EU before European Parliament elections have to be held on May 22 but this is ultimately up to Brussels.

Will the EU agree to this?

It is hard to say. The EU has said it is open to further extension if there is a clear purpose and plan. Open ended talks on the future framework are unlikely to qualify.

A clear, negotiable goal for the future framework probably would do. The EU has always said it is open to Britain staying in the Single Market and Customs Union.

Will May resign?

Nodbody knows for sure. Mrs May has announced she would go if and when her divorce deal passed so a new Tory leader could take charge of the trade talks phase.

In practice, it drained Mrs May of all remaining political capital. Most in Westminster think her Premiership is over within weeks at the latest.

As her deal folded for a third time a fortnight ago, she faced immediate calls from Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn so stand down with instant effect.

What is clear is there is already a fight underway for the Tory leadership.

Does is all mean there will be an election?

Probably, at some point though the immediate chances have fallen because of the latest events. The Commons is deadlocked and the Government has no functional majority. While the Fixed Term Parliaments Act means the Government can stumble on, it will become increasingly powerless.

Mrs May could try to call one herself or, assuming she stands down, her successor could do so.

Would May lead the Tories into an early election?

Unlikely. Having admitted to her party she would go if the deal passes, Mrs May's political career is doomed.

While there is no procedural way to remove her, a withdrawal of political support from the Cabinet or Tory HQ would probably finish her even if she wanted to stay.

How is an election called? When would it be?

Because of the Fixed Term Parliaments Act passed by the coalition, the Prime Minister can no longer simply ask the Queen to dissolve the Commons and call an election. There are two procedures instead.

First - and this is what happened in 2017 - the Government can table a motion in the Commons calling for an early election. Crucially, this can only pass with a two-thirds majority of MPs - meaning either of the main parties can block it.

Second an election is called if the Government loses a vote of no confidence and no new administration can be built within 14 days.

In practice, this is can only happen if Tory rebels vote with Mr Corbyn - a move that would end the career of any Conservative MP who took the step.

An election takes a bare minimum of five weeks from start to finish and it would take a week or two to get to the shut down of Parliament, known as dissolution - putting the earliest possible polling day around mid to late May.

If the Tories hold a leadership election first it probably pushes any election out to late June at the earliest.

Why do people say there has to be an election?

The question of whether to call an election finally reached the Cabinet last week.

Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay warned the rejection of Mrs May's deal would set in train a series of events that will lead to a softer Brexit - meaning an election because so many MPs will have to break manifesto promises.

MPs voting to seize control of Brexit from ministers has only fuelled the demands.

Labour has been calling for a new vote for months, insisting the Government has failed to deliver Brexit.

Mr Corbyn called a vote of no confidence in the Government in January insisting the failure of the first meaningful vote showed Mrs May's administration was doomed. He lost but the calls did not go away.

Brexiteers have joined the demands in recent days as Parliament wrestles with Brexit and amid fears among hardliners promises made by both main parties at the last election will be broken - specifically on leaving the Customs Union and Single Market.

Tory MP Andrew Bridgen wants Mrs May replaced with a Brexiteer. He believes it would push Remain Tories out of the party and then allow a snap election with more Eurosceptic candidates wearing blue rosettes.

What might happen?

Both main parties will have to write a manifesto - including a position on Brexit. Both parties are deeply split - in many cases between individual MPs and their local activists.

Under Mrs May, the Tories presumably try to start with the deal. But it is loathed by dozens of current Tory MPs who want a harder Brexit and hated even more by grassroots Tory members.

Shifting Tory policy on Brexit to the right would alienate the majority of current MPs who voted to Remain.

Labour has similar splits. Many of Labour's MPs and activists want Mr Corbyn to commit to putting Brexit to a second referendum - most with a view to cancelling it.

Mr Corbyn is a veteran Eurosceptic and millions of people who voted Leave in 2016 backed Labour in 2017.

The splits set the stage for a bitter and chaotic election. The outcome is highly unpredictable - the Tories start in front but are probably more divided on the main question facing the country.

Labour is behind but knows it made dramatic gains in the polls in the last election with its promises of vastly higher public spending.

Neither side can forecast what impact new political forces might wield over the election or how any public anger over the Brexit stalemate could play out.

It could swing the result in favour of one of the main parties or a new force.

Or an election campaign that takes months, costs millions of pounds could still end up in a hung Parliament and continued stalemate. This is the current forecast by polling expert Sir John Curtice.

Boris is blasted for his 'over-casual attitude' and 'lack of organization' as he gets ANOTHER slap on the wrist for failing to declare his 100k+ stake in Somerset home to Commons authorities

Tory leadership hopeful Boris Johnson has been forced to make a grovelling apology to the ethics watchdog after failing to declare he part-owned a country house for almost a year.

The former foreign secretary bought a 20 per cent share worth more than 100,000 in a Somerset property in late January 2018 and should have registered it with the authorities within 28 days.

But he failed to alert the Commons Standards Committee about his share of the 'rental property' until the middle of January this year.

It today blasted Mr Johnson, a front-runner to replace Theresa May, saying he had displayed 'an over-casual attitude towards obeying the rules of the House', in conjunction with 'a lack of effective organisation within [his] office'.

It is the latest embarrassing run-in with the authorities for Mr Johnson, who was forced to make an apology in the Commons in December after failing to correctly register payments he had received for newspaper columns and books.

He is seen as the favourite to replace Theresa May if, as expected, she quits as Tory leader later this year.

The censure is Mr Johnson's latest brush with the ethics watchdog over problems with him registering his financial interests

The watchdog said it had received an apology from the Uxbridge MP, who claimed he had been 'misled' by the relevant section of the Register of Members' Financial Interests, which governs what MPs have to reveal about their private financial affairs.

The committee said: 'We conclude with concern that these two investigations by the commissioner in rapid succession demonstrate a pattern of behaviour by Mr Johnson.

'While there is no suggestion that he has at any time tried deliberately to conceal the extent of his interests, this latest breach reinforces the view which we expressed in our previous report, that he has displayed 'an over-casual attitude towards obeying the rules of the House', in conjunction with 'a lack of effective organisation within (his) office'.

Boris Johnson made a grovelling apology to the Commons in December (pictured) after he was lashed by a previous standards inquiry for his 'over-casual attitude' to Parliament's rules

'We find it particularly regrettable that Mr Johnson gave an assurance to the commissioner that his registration of financial interests was up to date, and within a very short period it proved not to be.'

It instructed Mr Johnson to meet with the Registrar of Members' Financial Interests in person to receive a full briefing from her on his obligations as a MP to register all relevant interests.

The committee added it would consider any further breaches of the rules as a matter which may call for 'more serious sanction'.

Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Kathryn Stone initiated the probe into Mr Johnson's financial affairs in February off her own back, the report reveals.

While probing his previous failures in December she asked him to confirm his register of interests was up to date and received assurances it was.

But he then registered the property on January 17 this year, stating he had been notified of the purchase of a fifth-share in the building on January 25 the previous year.

In a memo attached to the Committee report today she said Mr Johnson had apologised, but added: 'I do not accept that this was an inadvertent breach of the rules.

'Mr Johnson has co-operated fully with my inquiry, but his failure to check properly that he had brought his Register entry up to date during my last inquiry might be regarded as showing a lack of respect for the House's rules and for the standards system.

'That does not demonstrate the leadership, which one would expect of a long-standing and senior Member of the House, nor compliance with the general principles of conduct.'

In December Mr Johnson stood up in the Commons and apologised for his 'over-casual attitude' to the rules that meant he declared almost 53,000 in outside earnings late.

Mr Johnson insisted it was an 'inadvertent' mistake but told MPs he was making a 'full and unreserved apology'.

The former foreign secretary insisted he had no intention of misleading the House when he failed to report the earnings inside a 28-day deadline.

Most of the payments were for royalties on Mr Johnson's books - the most prominent of which is a biography of Winston Churchill.

One was for the first payment he received from the Daily Telegraph for his 275,000 a year column. The inquiry was triggered by a complaint about this payment after he resigned as Foreign Secretary in July.

Mr Johnson insisted to an inquiry the breaches of the rules were accidental but the Standards Committee said he took an 'over-casual attitude' and ordered him to apologise.

Shadow cabinet office minister Jon Trickett said: 'Boris Johnson's facade of buffoonery will not hide the fact that he has broken the rules for failing to declare his financial interests.

'Worryingly this is becoming a pattern of behaviour: it is the 10th time he has registered his financial interests late.

'Mr Johnson has to realise that these rules are in place to strengthen democracy and ensure the interests of MPs are transparent. He cannot simply run roughshod over them.

'The report notes his lack of leadership in following the rules, which does not bode well should he have ambitions to topple Theresa May.'
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Inspiring black and white photos tell the little known story of patriotic women who relentlessly chopped down trees to help Britain win the Second World War.

Brave women swapped their lives working office jobs in cities to drive tractors, swing axes and brave horrific injuries to ensure the war effort was supplied with vital wood.

When war was declared in September 1939, Britain was almost completely dependent on imported timber but only had seven months worth of it stockpiled.

With men being sent to the front line in their droves, the Woman's Timber Corps, nicknamed the Lumberjills, was established to fell trees, operate sawmills and run forestry sites.

Young members of the Lumberjills use a cross-saw at Grantham Wood to chop a huge felled tree. Britain was almost completely dependent on imported timber throughout the Second World War

A group of women gather round a smokey camp fire on the breaks to sing songs on the Isle of Wight. Women who had no previous experience were trucked off to work in forests across Britain

A groups of smiling Lumberjills hold a huge felled tree at a training camp in Culford near Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk in 1942

Three Lumberjills raise their arms and cheer while wearing their special issue underwear. The Woman's Timber Corps was established to fell trees, operate sawmills and run forestry sites

Hard-working Lumberjills take a break and eat lunch on a pile of logs on the Isle of Wight. Many of the women faced hostility and prejudice from some men who resented women taking these physical roles

Around 15,000 women, some as young as 14, volunteered to leave home for the first time to carry out arduous tasks previously done by men.

Their unstinting work wielding 14lb axes proved crucial in providing timber for aircraft and ship building as well as the mining sector.

Despite this, they faced hostility and prejudice from some men who resented women taking these physical roles.

Researcher Joanna Foat, 47, met with over 100 members of the corps and their descendants for her new book, Lumberjills, Britain's Forgotten Army.

Fascinating Images show women clutching axes, using cross-saws and lugging tree trunks as they took pride in playing their part in the war effort.

They drove tractors and haulage trucks, rode horses and, during their breaks, would gather around the campfire to tell stories.

Inspiring women strip trees with saws. Many had no experience of working outdoors and swapped their lives in the cities to drive tractors and swing axes

A smiling group of Lumberjills pose on top of a stack of wood at a sawmill while wearing their dungarees uniforms. These women worked incredibly hard to fell trees for the war effort

Two young women sit atop a haulage truck carrying bundles of wood felled in the forests. Their unstinting work wielding 14lb axes proved crucial in providing timber for aircraft and ship building as well as the mining sector

The young women of the corps learned the skills of the trade at army style camps before being trucked off being to work in the forests of Britain such as Dalby and Cropton Forests, near Pickering, and Boltby and Kilburn, between Thirsk and Helmsley

While they were felling 10 ton trees, they would often sing a ditty to keep up morale.

It went: 'We're the girls who fell for victory/ We're the girls who chop the trees/ Every time we swing our axes/ It's a stroke for victory.'

However, it was very dangerous work and many Lumberjills suffered horrific injuries, including losing fingers and suffering broken legs and arms due to toppling timber.

One unfortunate Lumberjill, Mary Broadhead, recalled: 'I was on the machine and I had my hand on the piece of wood that I was cutting.

'Then a gust of wind blew straight across the mill and there was sawdust blowing all over and it blew in my face.

'I wanted to wipe it out of my face. But my fingers were near [the] saw and I didn't know what to do.

'Anyway, the wood clinched on the saw, the wood came up and my hand went into the gullet of the saw.

'When it got to the top guard, I couldn't go any further and it just chopped it off corner ways.

'I went to Johnny the engineer and said "I've cut my thumb off".

'He ran up the yard looking for Mr Wilson, the saw doctor, who came running back.

Lumberjills hold axes on their shoulders at a training camp in Culford near Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk in 1942

Posing at a training camp in Wetherby, Leeds, these women were about to be sent off to numerous forests across Britain after learning the trade at an army style camp

Smiling and socialising in the forest, these women wore a mixture of their own clothes and uniform and worked relentlessly to fell trees

'But the lorry had gone down to the garage and there was nothing we could do but wait for the lorry to come back.

'So, I was sat by the stove in the hut and they made me a cup of tea.

'When the lorry returned two hours later, they took me down to the doctor and he said he couldn't do anything with it because the bone was splintered.'

But, in spite of their commitment to the cause, the use of women in the timber trade was frowned upon in many quarters.

One newspaper, The Western Morning News, even greeted the news with the headline 'Forestry Handicap in the South West'.

And the men running the forestry camps often angered the Lumberjills with their condescending attitude towards them.

Lumberjill Olive Edgley stated: 'Captain Blunt's job was to annoy us.

Two women smile and pose on a caterpillar tractor. They drove haulage trucks, rode horses and, during their breaks, would gather around the campfire to tell stories

Members of the Timber Corps use a mobile saw bench in a clearing in the forest. The group disbanded in 1946 and each girl got a letter from the Queen's mother

A Lumberjill of the Women's Timber Corp swings an axe. Many women suffered injuries doing the difficult tasks in the forests

'We worked so hard and never took lunch breaks, but he would always turn up just the moment we sat down.

'It was weird we'd been working our butts off and in all sorts of weather and he'd say "what are you doing girls?"

'I remember one day saying have you any quarrel with the figures we send in and the amount of work we do?'

'No. Right then, just leave us alone.'

The Women's Timber Corps was disbanded in August 1946, with each girl handing back her uniform and receiving a letter from Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, who was its patron.

Yet it was not until 61 years later, in October 2007, that they received their first formal recognition when the Forestry Commission unveiled a memorial in Aberfoyle, Scotland.

There stands a permanent memorial statue of a life-sized bronze sculpture of a Lumberjill dedicated to the members of the Women's Timber Corps.

Ms Foat said she has written this book to highlight the contribution of the women which has been undervalued before now.

She said: 'These young women saw their brothers and friends of the same age get called up to fight in the war and they felt a compulsion to do their bit.

'Many were driven by a sense of adventure and the corps appealed to those who liked the outdoors.

'It was very hard work and there were tough times for them with awful conditions in the winter, but their plight created a real camaraderie and they looked out for each other.

'Sadly, there was the attitude at the time that women were the weaker sex and they faced prejudice, especially at the beginning of the war.

'The overwhelming feeling you get when you speak to these women is that they were given little respect for what they did in the war.

'The Women's Timber Corps were heroines and the role they played in the war effort was of crucial importance.'

Lumberjills, Britain's Forgotten Army, by Joanna Foat, is published by the History Press and costs 14.99.
James Ragonese (pictured) and his wife Nicole accused of treating their child's nanny Cindy Carter like 'property' and making her attend to their 'every whim'

A manager of an upmarket New York restaurant treated his child's nanny like a slave - forcing her to work up to 120 hours a week and sleep in a storage shed containing pool chemicals, according to a new lawsuit.

James Ragonese, the general manager at the Italian eatery Scarpetta in Manhattan, and his wife Nicole are accused of treating Cindy Carter 'like property' and keeping her in 'modern-day indentured servitude', the lawsuit claims.

The 44-year-old was paid $300 a week for up to 120 hours work over a period of almost three years from March 2016, according to her lawyer Justin Marino.

She is suing for, among other things, alleged violations of state and federal wage provisions and noncompliance with record-keeping requirements, seeking damages and unpaid wages for overtime with interest.

The suit, filed in Brooklyn federal court, alleges that Carter was made to call Ragonese 'boss man' and spent her days 'responding to [the] Defendants' every whim'.

As well as looking after the child, the 16-page document alleges that Carter was made to 'perform duties completely unrelated to being a nanny, such as plunging a toilet'.

She was reportedly only offered leftovers to eat and was banned from cooking while the parents were home, with Nicole telling her 'Caribbean food is disgusting'.

During the summer the Ragonese family visited the Hamptons, where Carter's living conditions reportedly worsened and she was forced to sleep in a storage room for pool chemicals without any windows.

'Nicole Ragonese said she could "leave the door open",' according to the suit.

Carter told The New York Post: 'It hurt so bad I cried. I didn't know what to do.'

Ragonese (second left) denies the accusations which his lawyer calls 'completely exaggerated and unfounded'

Ragonese works as the general manager of Scarpetta (pictured), an upmarket Italian restaurant in Manhattan's NoMad district

The family deny the accusations - claiming Carter is out for revenge after they had her arrested for keying their car.

But Carter's lawyer claimed she called the police herself to report a male Ragonese relative for allegedly making inappropriate comments to her.

Dustin Levine, representing the Ragoneses, called the lawsuit's contents 'completely exaggerated and unfounded.'

Levine said his clients paid for Carter's hotel after her arrest.

'She lived in their home, they treated her as family,' Levine added.

She is currently staying in a homeless shelter.
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Rwandans have gathered to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the genocide that left 800,000 people dead.

Speaking during a solemn ceremony, President Paul Kagame said Rwanda is now rebuilding with new hope and added 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, yesterday, attended by several heads of state. 'We Rwandans have granted ourselves a new beginning.'

People held candles during a commemoration ceremony of the 1994 genocide at Amahoro Stadium in Kigali, Rwanda

Rwandans remembered the 25th anniversary of the genocide in which about 800,000 people were killed over 100 days

'We exist in a state of permanent commemoration, every day, in all that we do  Today, light radiates from this place.'

Earlier in the day, Mr Kagame and his wife 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 leaders of Chad, Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Niger, Belgium, Canada, Ethiopia, as well as the African Union and the European Union attended the ceremony.

'I am moved beyond words at this memorial to tragedy,' said Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission.

Rwandans will mourn for 100 days to remember the 100-day mass killing during which Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred by the majority Hutu population

Tens of thousand people attended the commemoration event, lighting candles to remember the 1994 mass killing

The country's population was estimated to be around eight million when the genocide took place 25 years ago in Rwanda

'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 were performed.

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.

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame delivered a speech at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in the capital, saying the country is now more united than ever before and that Rwandans would never turn against each other again

(Left to right) 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 flames of remembrance at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Kigali, Rwanda

Ethiopia's prime minister expressed solidarity with Rwandans and said under Mr Kagame's leadership the country has been more united.

After the ceremony, there was a procession through the capital towards Kigali's National Stadium.

Agnes Mutamba, 25, a teacher who was born during the genocide, said: '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.'

'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.

Rwandans commemorated the worst genocide in recent history during a ceremony attended by several heads of state

Songs, poems and plays about the rebirth of Rwanda after the genocide were performed during the commemoration service

The mass killing of Rwanda's Tutsi minority started on April 6 1994, when a plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down and crashed in Kigali, killing the leader who was an ethnic Hutu.

The Tutsi minority was blamed for downing the plane and groups of Hutu extremists started slaughtering the Tutsi, with support from the army, police and militias.

Mr Kagame's government has accused the Hutu-led government of 1994 of being responsible and has blamed France for turning a blind eye to the genocide.

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, center-right, and First Lady Jeannette Kagame, center-left, lead a "Walk to Remember" procession from the parliament building to Amahoro Stadium in Kigali, Rwanda

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker delivered a speech during the commemoration in Kigali, Rwanda

On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron ordered a group of researchers to carry out a government study into France's role in Rwanda before and during the genocide.

The research is expected to make conclusions within two years.

Rwanda, a small country in east-central Africa, has struggled with ethnic tensions due to the unequal relationship between the Tutsi minority and the Hutus majority.

These classes differences started in the 19th century and were worsened by colonisation.

The country, with a population of about 12 million people, is now striving to rebuild its economy, mainly exporting coffee and tea.

Mr Kagame, de facto leader since the end of the genocide and president since 2000, has won praise for ending that violence as well as improving Rwanda's economy, health care and education.

The poverty rate dropped from 44% in 2011 to 39% in 2014, The World Bank reported.

Child mortality in the country has dropped by two thirds.

Ethnic reconciliation is a cornerstone of the president's rule.

President Kagame was re-elected for a seven-year term in the August 2018.

Since April 2018, Rwandan authorities have discovered mass graves containing about 5,400 bodies of genocide victims

His critics, however, say he is intolerant of criticism and that his government is repressive for jailing opposition leaders.

Rwanda's population was estimated to be around eight million when the genocide took place 25 years ago

Remains are still being found and, last year, authorities found mass graves containing 5,400 bodies of genocide victims.

'Twenty-five years on, the victims and survivors should remain the centre 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.

An annual report by the UN secretary-general identified Rwanda as a country where human rights defenders face reprisals for cooperating with the UN.

Last October, Rwanda announced a gender-balanced Cabinet with 50 percent of women among its members.
A 'large meteor' exploded over Siberia causing 'panic' to witnesses in a major city who feared they had seen a plane on fire.

The space rock incursion visible from Krasnoyarsk in daylight was described as 'bright and noisy with a long sparkling green and yellow tail'.

It was the third major meteor or meteorite event registered over Siberia in four months - and was followed around six hours later by an another 'exploding meteor' further west in Samara.

In the latest incident southern parts of the Samara were lit up in flashes of 'green, then pink and violent', said householders.

Next there was a 'huge flash' causing 'windows and flower pots to vibrate, said a witness called Anna.

In Krasnoyarsk, a frightened local woman said: 'I panicked as it sounded and looked like a plane on fire.

'I got really scared of the noise and shine it created.'

Dash cam footage captures the bright spark first appearing in the sky above Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, Russia as if out of nowhere

Various videos captured the fascinating sight from all angles as hundreds watched the terrifying flash

Spotted from different angles, the meteor appeared to travel parallel to the ground before disapearing

One woman called Svetlana doubted it was a meteor claiming the UFO flew 'parallel to the ground' and 'vanished' in the air instead of falling.

A man said: 'It was incredibly stunning, really beautiful.

'I don't think I've ever seen anything as beautiful as this.'

After it vanished 'we heard a noise - boom, boom! - as if something was exploding in the sky.'

Some residents said the meteorite was 'blindingly bright, akin to the light and sparks created during intense welding work'.

The space rock split into several parts before vanishing in the sky eastwards over the Irkutsk region of Siberia.

It was visible for only around five seconds but its bright flash and booming noise meant it had many witnesses.

'I pulled a phone out of my pocket, but it flew across the sky so fast that I only caught a long white trace it left,' said one woman.

The local ministry of emergencies confirmed a meteor had been registered but said there was no threat to people or infrastructure, reported The Siberian Times.

Expert Viktor Grokhovsky from Ural Federal University, said: 'It exploded quite high in the sky somewhere over Irkutsk region

Part of the Krasnoyarsk meteor which hit on March 15 is reported to have landed in the Podkamennaya Tunguska

A local showing the size of the fragment of rock found in Podkamennaya Tunguska, Russia

'Its structure must have been quite loose given that it split into fragments.'

This was thew third major extraterrestrial incident in four months over Siberia.

Earlier, on 18 December a meteor exploded close to Russia's Kamchatka peninsula north of Japan with a force ten times more powerful than the Hiroshima atomic bomb, according to NASA.

On 15 March a meteorite slammed into Krasnoyarsk region with local reports saying it 'warmed the air' and 'shook the ground' after streaking across the sky in a green, yellow and orange fireball.

Part of this space rock is reported to have landed in the Podkamennaya Tunguska River smashing through 4ft of thick ice.

A bid is to be made to lift the meteorite from the river bottom.

The site is close to the world's 'largest known meteor explosion' known as the Tunguska Event in 1911 which had the force of 185 Hiroshima bombs, wiping out 80 million trees.

The March space rock is now known as the Tura or New Tunguska meteorite.

Experts say the Samara incident was 'most likely a meteor' exploding at high altitude in the atmosphere.
Brisbane shoppers will now be able to order their groceries online from the metro area Woolworths and have them delivered to their house in under two hours.

Delivery Now allows customers to order up to 30 handpicked items, such as food, baby products and medication, from more than 12,000 products from a Woolworths store.

Delivery is offered at a flat fee between $15 and $19, depending on the customer's location from the store, and can be tracked via the Woolworths live map.

Brisbane shoppers will now be able to order their groceries online from the metro area Woolworths and have them delivered to their house in under two hours

General Manager of eCommerce, Annette Karatoni, said that Woolworths understands people's lives get busy and Delivery Now aims to provide an easy solution.

'A lot of customers tell us the idea of packing the baby up and going to the shops is really hard so this is a really good solution for that,' Ms Karantoni said to The Courier Mail.

Ms Karatoni also said what sets them apart from their competitors, such as Aldi and Coles, is that customers can order medicine when they are too sick to leave the house.

'We've also had lots of collections of different medical products that suggest customers aren't well and don't want to leave the house.'

Delivery Now allows customers to order up to 30 handpicked items, such as food, baby products and medication, from more than 12,000 products from a Woolworths store

The only restrictions for customers using Delivery now are in regards to specific items offered at Woolworths.

Customers can not order items staff would need to prepare, such as deli items, or bulky items that would not fit in a delivery truck.

Delivery Now is available in Sydney, Queensland and Melbourne from Woolworth stores in Ascot, Ashgrove, Bulimba, Camp Hill, Paddington and Spring Hill with plans to provide the delivery service in further parts of Queensland.
A robber who was trying to evade arrest by climbing out of a window ended up being trapped 22 floors above the ground in China.

Police officers broke into the man's apartment after identifying him as the suspect in a store robbery in Yiyang, Hunan province.

Video footage of the dramatic arrest shows the suspect desperately clinging onto the windowsill on the side of the building while struggling to balance himself on a narrow ledge.

A robber who was trying to evade arrest by climbing out of a window ended up being trapped 22 floors above the ground in China. He was eventually saved by officers and arrested

The man wailed loudly out of fear as soon as he realised his attempt to flee the police had failed

The man was heard wailing loudly out of fear as soon as he realised his attempt to flee the police had failed.

'If you surrender, you still have a chance,' an officer was heard telling the man. 'You're still young.'

Minutes later, the man gave up and was rescued back into the flat by police officers.

The man stole a shop owner's bank card and withdrew 10,000 yuan (1,140) from her account

'If you surrender, you still have a chance,' an officer was heard telling the man in the video

He had been wanted for robbing the owner of a local shop with a knife on March 24. He stole her her bank card and withdrew 10,000 yuan (1,140) from her account, according to Jiangsu Broadcasting Corporation.

Following three days of investigation, local police located the man's flat and arranged the arrest.

They had also recovered the shop owner's bank card, the suspect's clothes and the knife used in the robbery from a drain.

Minutes later, the man gave up and was rescued back into the flat by police officers

After serving another prison sentence in 2017, the man wanted to use the money he had robbed to start a business with his friend, an officer said

The man is currently in police custody and the case is under investigation, the report added.

According to an officer, the man was previously jailed for three years for a robbery in 2003. Five years later, he was placed in rehab for three months after being caught using drugs.

After serving another prison sentence in 2017, the man wanted to use the money he had robbed to start a business with his friend, the officer said.
An iconic bald eagle has been shot out of its nest in Arkansas - with authorities offering a $6,000 reward as they launch an investigation.

The bird, which is the national symbol of the US, died on March 28 after the deadly shooting on Tennessee Spur Road near Monticello, Drew County.

The mature, female bald eagle's body was taken to Little Rock Zoo, according to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, where staff found it had gunshot wounds.

The female bald eagle was found with gunshot wounds on Tennessee Spur Road last month

'The female eagle's body was found near a nest, and it is believed that the bird was tending the nest at the time of death,' the commission said.

Twitter users hit out at the 'unbelievable' attack.

One woman posted: 'Oh, Arkansas. First a school shooting, then the drunk dudes with a Kevlar vest make national news, and now youre shooting bald eagles? What a sad week in our state! Meanwhile ARleg considers more guns everywhere?!'

Another said: 'If you've heard anything about this...It is your patriotic duty to inform the law!!!'

And one user added: 'Alright. I've seen enough. This country is going to hell in a handbasket.'

A joint investigation between the commission and the US Fish and Wildlife Service has been launched - with a $6,000 reward for tips that lead 'to the arrest and conviction' of the perpetrator.

The bird was found in Drew County, Arkansas, on March 28 and a reward of $6,000 has been offered for tips that lead to a conviction of the culprit

The bald eagle is a large bird of prey native to North America and has been the national symbol and mascot since 1782.

The bird is not bald, despite its name, but its white head on the dark body gives it that illusion from a distance.

The maximum punishment for killing a bald eagle is a $5,000 fine or a year in prison.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Stop Poaching Hotline confidentially on 800-482-9262.
BBC hit gangster drama Peaky Blinders has been accused of glorifying violence and promoting toxic masculinity by a US-based academic.

The award-winning show, which revolves around the lives of the fictional Shelby crime family in post-World War One Birmingham, has become one of the broadcaster's most popular programmes with an average four million people tuning in to each episode.

It is loosely based on a real-life gang who used the same name  referring to their peaked flat caps  and the show is expected to return for a hotly-anticipated fifth series later this year.

But British-born academic Dr George S Larke-Walsh, of the University of North Texas, has published a paper claiming the show's writers use the war as an excuse to justify and romanticise violent behaviour.

The release date for series five has not yet been announced but is expected to air in the summer or early autumn on BBCOne.

BBC hit drama Peaky Blinders has been criticised in an academic paper for glorifying violence. Pictured from left are Paul Anderson, Joe Cole and Cillian Murphy as gangsters Arthur, John and Tommy Shelby, central members of the criminal gang portrayed in the show

Dr George S Larke-Walsh said the show justified the brutal violence by portraying the characters as damaged by World War One. Pictured is Murphy as Tommy Shelby

She claims the characters, including Cillian Murphy's gang leader Tommy Shelby, are all shown to be damaged by the war to excuse their criminal actions.

Dr Larke-Walsh also claims they are made out as Robin Hood-esque characters fighting for survival in a 'corrupt' world while they also use the Shelby family's gypsy heritage as a 'distraction'.

In her paper, seen by The Times, she writes: 'It [Peaky Blinders] utilises nostalgia for nationalism, enacted within displays of extreme aggression as well as promoting regressive masculine ideals ... In the current sociopolitical environment, and associated concerns about the prevalence of toxic masculinity, such presentations no longer feel safely confined to fantasy.'

The paper, titled 'The King's shilling': How Peaky Blinders uses the experience of war to justify and celebrate toxic masculinity, also suggests the show uses Murphy's naked body to 'elicit homosexual desire' but then 'asserts heterosexuality' through brutal violence.

The drama has won a host of awards and has an average audience of around 4million per episode. It has become so successful it has attracted stars such as Oscar-winning actor Adrien Brody, pictured

She added: 'There is no doubt that all audiences are meant to find the characters visually attractive. It is a feature of regressive masculinity that homosexuality must be denied.'

Dr Larke-Walsh previously obtained a PhD in film studies at the University of Sunderland before moving to the US, and has written other papers on The Godfather and The Sopranos looking at the connections between Italian-American crime families.

The producers of Peaky Blinders said the show 'invites viewers to consider the effect of violence on men, and the terrible and long-lasting consequences on both men and women of gang violence, poverty and, most of all, armed conflict'.

Dr Larke-Walsh told the times she is a 'fan' of the Bafta-winning show but wanted to highlight the 'complex nature of its depiction of violent masculinity'.
Lesley Elder, 50, has been jailed for 5 months

A mother who claimed she needed a 2.5m payout from the NHS over a botched operation has been jailed after photos surfaced of her at a hen party in Ibiza.

Lesley Elder, 50, claimed vaginal mesh implant surgery left her unable to work, walk or have sex with her husband.

She also said it led to the break-up of her marriage and left her battling depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

She demanded the seven-figure sum from the NHS - which awarded her 120,000 after the surgery was found to be have been unnecessary - but has been jailed for five months after her story of its consequences unravelled in court.

She claimed it made her a reclusive shadow of her former self but photos of her 'partying after midnight' at her daughter's hen do on the island appeared on Facebook.

She was found in contempt of court by Judge Karen Walden-Smith, who said it was an 'attempt to effectively defraud the NHS' out of more than 2m.

Miss Elder was sentenced in her absence after earlier being taken to hospital when she appeared to swallow a handful of pills in court.

Lesley Elder was photographed enjoying her daughter's hen party in Ibiza (above in straw hat) despite having asked the NHS for 2.5m because surgery had left her unable to walk

In one of the photos, in which she appears to be one of two women wearing a 'mother' sash, not only was Elder 'tagged' (circled, left ) but she herself Liked the photo (right of image)

She demanded the seven-figure sum from the NHS - which awarded her 120,000 after the surgery was found to be have been unnecessary - but has been jailed for five months after her story of its consequences unravelled in court

London's High Court heard that the mother-of-two, from Poole, Dorset, had the operation in 2010 in an attempt to cure a supposed issue concerning her urinary tract.

However, she had been wrongly diagnosed and the operation was 'contraindicated' and 'not necessary', the court heard.

The George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust admitted liability for putting her through the unnecessary surgery.

But it said her claim for more than 2.5m in damages was 'grossly exaggerated' - and a judge ultimately awarded her only 120,000.

In her claim, Miss Elder had said she was severely disabled by the operation, with severe and constant pain in her groin and leg.

She had to use a walking stick to get around, she claimed, and was unable to do many of the normal activities she previously enjoyed.

She was particularly upset that she had not been able to go to her daughter, Tania Bunston's, hen do, she claimed.

She said she needed more than 1m worth of care and support.

In an interview with the Bournemouth Daily Echo in 2017, Elder said: 'It's been horrendous. I don't feel like a woman anymore. I feel everything has gone out of my life.

'My body is just wrecked. It feels like a barbed wire fence inside you.

'I'm now single because nobody really wants to be in a relationship with someone who can't have sex. Some days my mobility is fine but other days it really isn't. It is a living nightmare.'

But after surveillance by private investigators and searches of social media, the truth about her injuries came to light.

She was photographed in an Ibiza nightclub, wearing a straw hat and sash with her daughter and other women, the court was told.

Miss Elder insisted the trip was not a hen party, but simply a holiday.

However, ruling on her case at a county court in 2017, Judge Iain Hughes QC said the party was women-only, all of them wearing t-shirts emblazoned with the words 'Tania's hen party'.

In an interview in 2017, Elder said: 'It's been horrendous. I don't feel like a woman anymore. I feel everything has gone out of my life'

Elder was photographed in an Ibiza nightclub, wearing a straw hat and sash with her daughter and other women, the court heard

Elder said the operation at the George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton, pictured, left her severely disabled with severe and constant pain in her groin and leg

In fact she went on holiday with her daughter and her daughter's friends to Ibiza, pictured, where she partied until after midnight and danced unaided

Surveillance evidence also showed she was not as disabled as she claimed, revealing her able to walk unaided, do her shopping and exercise her dog, he said.

Miss Elder - who hobbled into court with a walking stick and arrived at a previous hearing in a wheelchair - was not seen in any of the surveillance footage using a walking aid, he added.

Judge Hughes ultimately awarded her only 120,000 - less than five per cent of the sum she had claimed.

The case reached the High Court after the NHS Trust launched a bid to have her locked up for contempt of court.

NHS barrister, William Featherby QC, said Miss Elder had told 'lies from top to bottom'.

'This claimant lies about her health to seek advantage,' he told Judge Walden-Smith.

He said it was clear from Judge Hughes' county court judgment that Miss Elder does not need a walking stick.

Her claims of grave disability were 'exaggerated' and 'dishonest', and the 2.5m sum claimed was 'inflated beyond reason', he said.

For Miss Elder, Michael Mansfield QC said her life had indeed been turned upside down by the operation.

Previously, she was a support worker for disabled schoolchildren, a 'dynamic, proactive person who thrived on helping others', he said.

But the suffering she had experienced since the operation caused her to become a changed character, he claimed.

Jailing her, Judge Walden-Smith said Miss Elder's conduct included 'extensive and widespread exaggeration and lies'.

Claiming she had not been able to go to the hen party in Ibiza, when she had in fact 'fully participated', was an 'outright attempt to mislead'.

'On the findings of Judge Hughes, she had been seeking to defraud the NHS out of damages in excess of 2m, to which she wasn't entitled,' she said.

She continued: 'It is quite plain in this case that the custody threshold is crossed.

'This was deliberate and persistent making of false statements for the purpose of falsely recovering significant monies from a publicly-funded body.'

She accepted that Miss Elder had strong mitigation, having suffered a genuine injury and being of previous good character.

But she continued: 'Taking into account all the matters before me and given the great seriousness of this contempt, I have come to the conclusion that the appropriate punishment in this case is one of immediate custody.

'It is not one which I can suspend. Therefore, the sentence of this court is one of immediate custody of five months.'

The hearing had earlier been delayed after Miss Elder was seen apparently swallowing a handful of tranquillisers in court.

But Judge Walden-Smith decided to go ahead in her absence.

She had told her psychiatrist that she might attempt an overdose in court, said the judge.

'She has taken a deliberate step in order to absent herself from this court,' she continued.

'It seems to me it is doing her no good in persistently having this matter put off, because at some stage it has to be dealt with.'

Miss Elder is likely to serve half of her five-month sentence in prison before release on licence.

Helen Vernon, Chief Executive at NHS Resolution said: 'Fraudulent claims for compensation against the NHS take money away from patient care.

'We are pleased that the seriousness of this case, has been recognised by the courts. NHS Resolution is committed to compensating genuine claimants fairly but this case highlights the likely consequences for anyone who tries to pursue a dishonest or exaggerated claim.'
This is the hilarious moment that holidaymakers arriving on an easyJet flight in Majorca were greeted by an ambling flamingo walking in front of their plane.

The plane honked its horn as it had to slow down on arrival to stay behind the slow bird at Palma Airport's Terminal A yesterday morning.

An airport worker who filmed the bizarre incident could be overheard saying: 'We have a pink flamingo and it's no joke. An easyJet plane has had to brake.'

This is the hilarious moment that holidaymakers arriving on an easyJet flight in Majorca were greeted by an ambling flamingo walking in front of their plane

The worker told a colleague over a handheld radio from his car: 'It's in the middle of the runway.

As it spread its wings and flew away from the plane only to land on the tarmac again a few feet away, he said 'now it's leaving' but added 'now it's back on the runway again' when it returned once more.

Spanish air traffic controllers yesterday tweeted a video of the surreal scene and said: 'A pink flamingo this morning welcomed in the passengers arriving at Palma Airport. Very elegant.'

An airport worker who filmed the bizarre incident could be overheard saying: 'We have a pink flamingo and it's no joke. An easyJet plane has had to brake.' Spanish air traffic controllers yesterday tweeted a video of the surreal scene and said: 'A pink flamingo this morning welcomed in the passengers arriving at Palma Airport. Very elegant'

A wildlife control department was alerted but the bird is understood to have left the airport before a team was mobilised to try to catch it.

One social media user described the footage as 'very nice' but warned it could have been a different story if the flamingo had ended up in an aircraft engine as it was preparing to land or take off.

On Friday afternoon a hippopotamus was filmed on a roundabout in the holiday resort of Roquetas de Mar near Almeria in south-east Spain after escaping from a circus.

On Friday afternoon a hippopotamus was filmed on a roundabout in the holiday resort of Roquetas de Mar near Almeria in south-east Spain after escaping from a circus

Stunned drivers videoed the animal as it ate grass on the roundabout near a shopping centre and went for a run.

The enormous animal then showed a surprising turn of pace to run to the other side of the roundabout before it continued around its perimeter.

Circus workers returned it to its pen as police raced to the scene after a series of 999 calls.
President Donald Trump announced Monday that the U.S. is designating Iran's Revolutionary Guard a 'foreign terrorist organization,' in an effort to increase pressure on the country that could have significant diplomatic implications in the Middle East.

It is the first time that the U.S. has designated a part of another government as a terrorist organization.

The designation imposes sanctions that include freezes on assets the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps may have in U.S. jurisdictions and a ban on Americans doing business with it.

'This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft,' Trump said in a statement.

Iran has threatened to retaliate for the decision. Lawmakers from the nation said in a weekend letter that they will 'answer any action taken against this force with a reciprocal action.'

They called the IRGC designation an 'inappropriate and idiotic action' and accused the U.S. of creating and supporting terror in the Middle East with its military interventions in Iraq and Syria.

President Donald Trump announced Monday that the U.S. is designating Iran's Revolutionary Guard a 'foreign terrorist organization,' in an effort to increase pressure on the country that could have significant diplomatic implications in the Middle East

The IRGC is a paramilitary organization formed in the wake of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution to defend its clerically overseen government. The force answers only to Iran's supreme leader, operates independently of the regular military and has vast economic interests across the country.

The designation allows the U.S. to deny entry to people found to have provided the Guard with material support or prosecute them for sanctions violations. That could include European and Asian companies and businesspeople who deal with the Guard's many affiliates.

It will also complicate diplomacy. 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 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.

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.

The move is intended to further isolate Iran and could have widespread implications for U.S. personnel and policy in the Middle East and elsewhere, including in Israel, where embattled prime minister and Trump ally Benjamin Neyanyahu will stand for reelection tomorrow.

A U.S. official told reporters on a call that the policy is a result of 'robust inter-agency' process and and cited terror strikes around the globe that have killed Americans as a reason for immediate action.

'Our ability, our willingness rather, to give them plausible deniability just came to a close,' a senior official said of the announcement.

The official said the designation is something that President Trump has 'long wanted to enact' and insisted that the Iranians 'forced our hand' with their decades-long involvement in terror plots, in response to an allegation that policy announcement was intended as an election eve boost to Netanyahu.

Whether it was or not, Netanyahu framed it that way, telling Trump, 'Thank you, my dear friend.

'Thank you for responding to another important request of mine, which serves the interests of our countries and countries of the region,' he said, according AFP.

Iranian Revolutionary Guard members arrive for a ceremony celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, at the Azadi, or Freedom, Square, in Tehran, Iran

The Trump administration has escalated rhetoric against Iran for months, but this will mark the first such designation by any American administration of an entire foreign government entity. Portions of the Guard, notably its elite Quds Force, have been targeted previously by the United States.

Iran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, seemed to anticipate the designation, saying in a tweet Sunday aimed at President Donald Trump that Trump 'should know better than to be conned into another US disaster.'

It is just the latest move by the Trump administration to isolate Iran. Trump withdrew from the Obama administration's landmark nuclear deal with Iran in May 2018 and, in the months that followed, reimposed punishing sanctions including those targeting Iran's oil, shipping and banking sectors.

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. And in Lebanon, where the Guard has close ties to Hezbollah, which is part of the Lebanese government.

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 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 U.S. forces in the region, and those commanders plan to warn U.S. troops remaining in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere of that possibility, according to a third U.S. 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 U.S. 2,000 troops remain, the U.S. 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 U.S. 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 and Ted Cruz, 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 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 behavior. Just last week, Pompeo's special representative for Iran, Brian Hook, accused Iran and its proxies of being responsible for the death of 608 U.S. troops in Iraq between 2003 and 2011. He cited newly declassified Defense 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.
A teenage girl in Brazil has allegedly confessed to torturing her five-year-old brother to death before eating his severed penis.

Police are investigating the possibility that the crime was linked to a black magic ritual because the body was found on the floor surrounded by several candles.

Maycon Roque's heavily mutilated body was found by his mother last Thursday night after a relative broke into the family house in Sao Roque, southeast Brazil, to find 18-year-old Karina standing beside the child's remains.

Karina Roque, 18, has been arrested and accused of murdering her five-year-old brother before mutilating his body as part of a satanic ritual in Brazil

Detectives said the victim's corpse was found with grotesque injuries.

His head had been partially decapitated, there were knife wounds to his wrists, both eyeballs had been pierced, his feet had been burned.

Karina then allegedly claimed she had 'cut off her brother's genital organs and eaten them.'

According to police, Karina's mother had gone out shopping, leaving her son in the daughter's care.

Police say Karina cut off her brother's penis and ate it after suffocating the youngster with a pillow

When she returned a couple of hours later, she discovered the front door locked.

Local media reports that Karina refused to let her mother in, prompting the desperate woman to fetch her brother-in-law, who kicked the door down.

They horrific scene was so macabre that the mother, who police have not named, had to be supported by neighbours after she passed out from the shock.

The suspect allegedly tried to escape when her uncle and other relatives attempted to restrain her.

Detective Anderson Goes said: 'They tried to prevent her from running but she apparently became very aggressive and started throwing objects.

'Her uncle was hit and injured by a stone and she bit the family dog which attacked her while she was being restrained by relatives.'

Police say Karina later admitted that she lured her brother into her bedroom by pretending they were going to play a game, then suffocated him with a pillow.

Preliminary examinations indicate the child was dead before his body was brutally maimed and his body parts cannibalised.

Forensic investigators reportedly found a burned cell phone, a memory card, a penknife and a small amount of marijuana in the house.

Detective Goes said: 'We believe the cell phone belongs to the suspect and was deliberately damaged by her to possibly destroy any evidence of online contacts.

Officers are now investigating whether Karina was in contact with someone who convinced her to carry out the murder after the teen also destroyed her mobile phone

'We are investigating if the child was killed during some kind of devil worshipping ritual. We want to know if the accused had links on social networks to a group of Satanists or black magic practitioners and if she was encouraged or incited by someone to commit the crime.

'She will also undergo tests to see if she is under the influence of drugs.'

Both the phone and memory card have been sent for analysis.

Family members reportedly told police the teen had never given any problems before, was quiet and reserved and had 'always taken care of her brother'.

The suspect has been charged with murder and the attempted murder of her uncle. She is being held in isolation in a cell at Votorantim Women's Prison in Sao Paulo and placed on suicide watch.

The victim was buried on Friday morning. No family member wanted to be identified or to comment on the tragic case.
Dramatic police footage has captured the arrest of a double murderer who was on the run for 24 hours after he allegedly cut off his ankle bracelet and skipped parole.

Damien Anthony Peters, 50, was last seen at Randwick's Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney's eastern suburbs at around 4.15pm on Sunday.

NSW Police launched a manhunt after they allegedly found his monitoring device four hours later in nearby Kensington.

Dressed in a singlet, pants and wearing headphones, Peters was arrested in Petersham in Sydney's inner-west shortly before 5pm on Monday.

The dramatic moment Damien Peters was arrested in Petersham on Monday afternoon

'Police from the Surry Hills and Redfern Region Enforcement Squads, Operation Odin and the dog unit moved in to effect the arrest in Church Street, Petersham, without incident,' a NSW Police statement read.

Peters was taken to the Newtown Police Station, where inquiries are continuing.

Earlier in the day, Detective Superintendent Rohan Cramsie told reporters: 'It would appear as though the ankle monitoring bracelet has been forcibly removed, possibly cut.'

Damien Anthony Peters, 50, allegedly removed his tracking device while out on parole in NSW

The double murderer was allegedly on the run for 24 hours before he was arrested by police

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.

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.

Detectives investigating Mr Akai's disappearance found Mr Frost's remains in the bath in Peters' flat.
A furious neighbour slapped police with a note threatening to clamp a marked car while they were attending the burglary of a 94-year-old victim.

Officers rushed to a house in Shirley in the West Midlands and parked on a residential street to arrest a thief on Sunday.

But when the force returned to their marked Vauxhall Insignia, they were shocked to discover an angry resident had left a menacing note on the windscreen for parking in a private bay.

A police car was slapped with a note threatening to be clamped while it was attending the burglary of a 94-year-old victim

The note read: 'This car park is for residents only.

'This is just a warning this time if the vehicle is seen parked again it will be clamped.

'Thank you. (Do not ignore).'

West Midlands police blasted the note claiming they parked 'professionally and considerately' while they were fighting a crime.

Officers took to Twitter to express their disappointment that 'not all members of the public appreciate the good work they do'.

West Midlands Force Response wrote: #Solihull #BUnit attended reports or a distraction Burglary in Progress in Shirley. As officers arrived the offender opened the door of the address and was swiftly arrested.

'We then spent some time completing an investigation and safeguarding the 94 year old victim...

'This meant we had to park our car in a parking space. It was parked professionally and considerately. Unfortunately not all members of the public appreciate the good work we do.'

West Midlands police blasted the note claiming they parked 'professionally and considerately' while they were fighting a crime. Stock image

Officers added that they often have to park cars to quickly attend crimes and choose spaces 'for a reason'.

The force added: 'When at incidents we do have to park our car. Wherever we are, we are always there for a reason.'

Member of the public have now been outlawed from clamping vehicles on private land under new legislation that came into force in 2015.

The Protection of Freedoms Act makes it a criminal offence to clamp vehicles on private property to protect motorists from rogue companies and the public.

And those motorists whose vehicles are illegally clamped on private land can now call the police.
She is mocked by critics as the 'Maybot' because of the often robotic delivery of her interviews and speeches to the nation.

But Theresa May has drawn some rare praise for the homespun style of her weekend social media message from Chequers, with one Tory critic saying it was her most 'human'.

But the two-minute clip, delivered while the Prime Minister was relaxing on a sofa in the oak-panelled luxury of her Buckinghamshire retreat, has not enthused everyone.

It prompted a wave of mocking memes on Twitter and attracted criticism from one of the most hardcore of her backbench Brexiteers.

Sitting back with one arm resting on the arm of a sofa, and speaking directly to camera, Theresa May used a colloquial tone to tell voters she disagreed with Labour but claimed on Brexit the two sides agreed on 'ending free movement, ensuring we leave with a good deal, protecting jobs, protecting security.'

Johnny Mercer, the Tory MP for Plymouth Moor View, welcomed the clip, tweeting: 'Excellent, and above all, human. In three years, her best.

'Pretty clear where we are; a disastrous election and the intransigence of some colleagues *on both sides* have left her no choice. No point whinging about it; let's redouble our efforts this week.'

Steve Baker, the deputy chairman of the European Research Group of eurosceptics, told Sky News that it was Mrs may's fault that the UK now faced either getting 'Brexit in name only' or no Brexit at all.

The self-styled 'Brexit hardman' said: 'I struggled to watch the whole thing. We are in this mess because of choices the Prime Minister made.'

Theresa May's video address from Chequers yesterday sparked a wave of Twitter memes tearing into the laid-back style of a leader who usually appears wooden on camera

But the change in style was appreciated by some, including Tory backbencher and former soldier Johnny Mercer

Her comments on Sunday came after Jacob Rees-Mogg called Mr Corbyn's inclusion in talks 'a mistake' and Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom said the Tories were working with him 'through gritted teeth'.

With a note of laughter injected into her delivery, Mrs May said: 'It'll mean compromise on both sides, but I believe that delivering Brexit is the most important thing for us.'

Despite having been heavily criticised for two years for refusing to include other parties in the Brexit process, Mrs May added: 'And when you think about it, people didn't vote on party lines, when it came to the Brexit referendum, and you know I think often that members of the public want to see their politicians working together more often.'

Mrs May's soft Brexit talks with Labour are back on today as the EU holds No Deal crisis talks in Ireland.

The Prime Minister is risking civil war with her own party by pursuing a softer Brexit, with Boris Johnson calling it a 'surrender' and warning his party leader: 'It cannot, must not and will not happen'.

Mrs May paved the way for a customs union deal with Labour last night as she pledged to 'compromise' to ensure Brexit happens after talks broke down on Friday.

Theresa May arrived back at Downing Street this morning ahead of a week that could define Brexit, including a major emergency EU summit on Wednesday where she will ask for another delay

Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright gave a big hint that the PM could be willing to offer Labour a deal and said: 'The conversations with Labour are ongoing, and I believe they will continue today. Everybody needs to compromise  it isnt just the Government. We all need to find a way through [on Brexit]'.

Yesterday, in an informal video statement filmed on a Chequers sofa aimed directly at voters, Mrs May argued she had no choice but to try and find a cross-party agreement with Jeremy Corbyn because otherwise Britain might not leave the EU at all.

She pointed out the referendum campaign was not fought on party lines and said members of the public wanted to see politicians 'working together more often'.

Labour say they are ready to talk today with shadow transport minister Andy McDonald saying Mrs May offering to stay in the customs union 'could be a productive step'.

He added that if Labour's softer Brexit proposition is 'accepted in its totality' it could reduce the argument for a second referendum.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt today said the Prime Minister was leaving 'no stone unturned' to try and resolve Brexit.

Arriving in Luxembourg for a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Councils, Mr Hunt told reporters: 'We are doing absolutely everything we can to try and get a resolution to get Brexit over the line.'

He said the Government was going into the talks with Labour 'sincerely' but said 'in our system' it is 'very, very difficult' for Theresa May to open talks with Jeremy Corbyn.

Theresa May's message in full Theresa May was filmed sitting on a comfortable sofa with a drink by her side in a wood-panelled room at Chequers. It had a more relaxed feel, even down to wobbly camera-work 'Over the last few days, people have been asking me what on earth's been happening with Brexit. 'And I can understand that, because after all it's nearly three years since people voted in the referendum, for the UK to leave the European Union. 'Well 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. 'But Parliament's now rejected that deal three times, and right now as things stand, I can't see them accepting it. 'But at the same time Parliament has also said that they don't want us to leave without a deal. - with no deal. 'Indeed this very week Parliament's been legislating to block no deal. 'So the choice that lies ahead of us is either leaving the European Union with a deal, or not leaving at all. 'Now I think, the Government thinks, we absolutely must leave the European Union., We must deliver Brexit. 'That means we need to get a deal over the line, and that's why we've been looking for new ways - a new approach - to find an agreement in Parliament, and that means cross-party talks. 'And when you think about it, people didn't vote on party lines, when it came to the Brexit referendum, and you know I think often that members of the public want to see their politicians working together more often. 'Now there's lots of things on which I disagree with the Labour Party on policy issues, but on Brexit I think there are some things we agree on. 'Ending free movement, ensuring we leave with a good deal, protecting jobs, protecting security. 'And so we're talking. 'Can we can we find a way through this, that ensures we can get a good deal, and a deal agreed through Parliament. 'It'll mean compromise on both sides, but I believe that delivering Brexit is the most important thing for us. 'I think that people voted to leave the EU, we have a duty as a Parliament to deliver that. 'I want to do that in a good way, that doesn't disrupt people's lives, that protects jobs, protects our security, protects the United Kingdom, and that's what the Government's Kingdom, and that's what the Government's working for.' Advertisement




Officials in east China are forcing its street cleaners to wear GPS-tracking bracelets in order to monitor idle workers.

More than 500 sanitation workers in Nanjing, Jiangsu province have been required to wear the smart bracelets, which would track their location in real time and send out an audio alert if the wearer stopped moving for more than 20 minutes.

The sanitation company removed the alarm feature of the watch after the news last week sparked a public outcry over Big Brother-style surveillance, Chinese media reported.

A sanitation worker in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu province shows reporters the smart bracelet that is used to track his location while on duty

An earlier version of the bracelet sends out an audio alert if sanitation workers stopped moving for more than 20 minutes, sparking public over Big Brother-style surveillance

However, other functions via the bracelet remain, including location tracking and letting the workers clock in for work.

Information from the watch is transmitted to a command centre, which ensures workers stay in their designated work area and are not slacking off, according to a report first published by Jiangsu City Channel last Wednesday.

An unnamed street cleaner told reporters that an alert would be triggered from the bracelet if she stopped moving for more than 20 minutes.

'It will shout "please continue working! Keep it up!",' the woman said. 'There is a big screen somewhere that shows all our locations. If we still fail to move after the alarm goes off, our managers will come and find us.'

A worker said that he is forced to walk up and down the street even though it's already clean

'It will shout "please continue working!",' the worker said. 'There is a big screen that shows our location. If we still fail to move after the alarm goes off, our managers will come and find them'

A clip of the command centre shows a large, wall-mounted screen with dozens of dots indicating the exact location of each sanitation worker in the city

Another worker complained that the wristband forces him to walk up and down the street even though it's already clean.

A clip of the command centre shows a large, wall-mounted screen with dozens of dots indicating the exact location of each sanitation worker in the city.

Yang Haiping, an employee at the centre said that the smart bracelet programme aims to increase workers' productivity, reduce management costs and allow total monitoring of its sanitation workers.

There is also an emergency button on the watch in case the worker is ever in danger.

The surveillance system, implemented in September, is only activated during work hours and will not infringe on the workers' privacy, said Zhang Dongzhong, the company's vice-president.

There is also an emergency button on the smart watch in case the worker is ever in danger

The system, implemented in September, only works during work hours and will not infringe on the workers' privacy, according to Zhang Dongzhong, the company's vice-president

He told Beijing Youth Daily that no one had been punished for information provided by the watches so far.

The report immediately caused a backlash on Chinese social media, with many net users questioning the practicality of the watches and offering their support to the cleaners.

'As long as the streets are clean and the worker has done their job, I don't think the constant monitoring is necessary,' one person wrote on Chinese microblogging site Weibo.

'It's not easy being a sanitation worker, they are always overworked. This is just inhumane,' another user said.

'Why don't you put a watch on our government officials? Send out an alert to them if they take a rest for more than 20 minutes?' one person commented.
Bret Hart's attacker Zachary Madsen (pictured) told police he felt it was the 'right moment' when he jumped the ring on Saturday and tackled the star

The wrestling fan who jumped into the ring and attacked Bret 'The Hitman' Hart while he was giving a speech during the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony told police it was just 'the right moment' to attempt the stunt.

Zachary Madsen, 26, appeared in court yesterday after allegedly rushing past the barriers and tackling WWE legend Hart to the floor during the ceremony at the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn on Saturday night.

During his arraignment on Sunday prosecutors revealed that Madsen had told police: 'I just felt like it was the right moment,' when explaining his motives for the incident.

During the hearing at a Brooklyn criminal court a judge issued Bret Hart and WWE security guard Thaddeus Jones orders of protection against Madsen.

The accused, of Lincoln, Nebraska, was held on $1,500 bond on charges of assault and criminal trespassing.

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

His lawyer requested that the judge not to set bail on the grounds that Madsen was 'agreeable and cooperative' and would struggle to raise the money.

The 26-year-old had been held in September for allegedly stalking mixed-martial artist Haris Talundzic, the New York Post reported, citing Lincoln Police Department records.

The incident involving Hart occurred when the 61-year-old retired wrestler 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.

Madsen, of Lincoln, Nebraska (right), was held on $1,500 bond at his arraignment in Brooklyn

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

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

Hart was standing at the podium alongside Neidhart's daughter when a fan - allegedly Madsen - charged at him.

He 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.

A law enforcement official said at the time that 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.

Zachary Madsen, 26, (pictured) appeared in court Sunday facing charges of assault and criminal trespassing

Madsen is accused of tackling both 61-year-old Hart and a WWE security guard during the Hall of Fame ceremony at the Barclay's Center on Saturday

Hall of Fame wrestler Bret 'The Hitman' Hart during his prime in 1994

'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, 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.
Two British teachers have been detained on drugs charges in Moscow, according to reports in Russia.

The pair, named locally as Domian Osborne and Ian Evans, were held after allegedly attempting to discard bags of mephedrone when they spotted a police patrol near a metro station, Russian media say.

A criminal case for possession of illegal narcotic mephedrone has been opened.

Two British men were reportedly arrested after being found in possession of several bags of mephedrone (file photo)

The press service of Russia's National Guard said suspicions initially focused on a 36-year-old foreigner.

'The man aroused the attention of private security officers on Makarenko Street,' reported RBC citing the National Guard.

'At the sight of a patrol car, the man abruptly turned aside and quickened his pace.

'He tried to discard the light-grey bundles from his jacket pocket.'

The man and his friend were identified as British citizens.

They are believed to be teaching English at a language school in the Russian capital.

They were held near Chistiye Prudy metro station.

A Foreign Office spokesperson told MailOnline: 'We are in contact with the local authorities regarding two British nationals arrested in Moscow yesterday. Our staff will provide consular assistance, if required.'
A New Zealand man has allegedly been caught with an arsenal of weapons including an AK47 assault rifle, a homemade bomb and a semi-automatic rifle.

Whangarei man Daniel Paul Van Houten, 36, was charged with unlawful possession of an explosive device and unlawful possession of a .223 AK47 at Whangarei District Court on Monday, according to the NZ Herald.

Armed police allegedly found the weapons when they raided a house Otaika Road, Whangarei on the North Island from 8am on Friday to Saturday.

Whangarei man Daniel Paul Van Houten, 36, was charged with unlawful possession of an explosive device and unlawful possession of a .223 AK47 (stock image)

Police had a search warrant in relation to the unlawful possession of firearms.

'The Armed Offenders Squad were involved as a precautionary measure,' said Inspector Al Symonds from Northland Police.

'Four firearms have been located at the address.'

The bomb was an improvised explosive device (IED), which is a makeshift bomb made of military and non-military parts commonly used as roadside bombs, police said.

The bomb was an improvised explosive device (IED), which is a makeshift bomb made of military and non-military parts commonly used as roadside bombs (stock image)

Van Houten was also charged with unlawful possession of a semi-automatic .308 rifle, unlawful possession of a pistol Comet Flare gun, unlawful possession of .308 ammunition and unlawful possession of .223 ammunition.

He was denied bail and remanded in custody to appear again later this month.

'Police are not currently seeking anyone else in relation to the search and at this time there is not thought to be any ongoing risk to the public,' Inspector Symonds said.

Gun owners on a New Zealand hunting and shooting forum said that police officers have been turning up at homes and businesses.

'A mate of mine had the cops turn up at his house on Saturday after an image a friend of his had posted to Instagram holding his CAT AR-15 got reported,' one person said.

Rounds of .233 ammunition used for AK47s and AR-15s (stock image). Van Houten was charged with unlawful possession of .223 and .308 ammunition




Australians travelling overseas have been warned to ensure that they have been vaccinated against measles as experts warn of the contagious disease spreading.

The latest case confirmed so far this year, bringing the toll up to 84, was a 30-year-old male international backpacker who caught the disease in a Melbourne hostel.

Australia recorded a total of 2,013 confirmed cases of measles in 2018 and just 81 in 2017.

Australians travelling overseas have been warned to ensure that they have been vaccinated against measles as experts warn of the contagious disease spreading (stock image)

The contaminated man then traveled to several popular interstate locations, including the Opera House, before catching a train to Brisbane and staying at a Highgate Hill hostel.

NSW Health has issued several measles warnings in the past week, including after two infants became infected in Sydney and two unvaccinated Australians brought the disease in from Asia.

Health Minister, Greg Hunt, said 95 percent of the community needs to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity to prevent the spread of the disease.

The contaminated man then traveled to several popular interstate locations, including the Opera House, before catching a train to Brisbane and staying at a Highgate Hill hostel (stock image)

'Immunisation saves lives. The measles vaccine is very effective at protecting lives,' he said in a statement.

He also claimed that 93.5 percent of two-year-old children had received two doses of the medicine.

NSW Health's Dr Jeremy McAnulty claimed the drastic increase in cases Australia was a serious concern.

'We're really worried it could take hold here,' he told AAP.

Dr McAnulty also said that the latest spate of contamination's are a result of foreign travelers bringing the disease in from overseas.

Australians could even catch the disease just by sitting in international airports, he claimed.

'People traveling to London and stopping off in Dubai are exposed to a mass of people from around the world.'

Australia recorded a total of 2,013 confirmed cases of measles in 2018 and just 81 in 2017

It can take up to 10 days for symptoms of the disease to start to appear, but in others a rash can break out within just four days.

Despite symptoms not appearing immediately, people can get infected soon after being exposed, said Dr McAnulty, adding that the best prevention was immunisation.

He said that anyone concerned that they may be infected should report it directly to a doctor, rather than potentially infecting others in a waiting room.

For people who were born after 1965 are unsure if they have been fully vaccinated, public health records are available to check on the Australian Immunisation Register, which has records from 1996 forwards.

World Health Organisation Western Pacific Regional Director, Dr Takeshi Kasai, said measles spreads like wildfire.

'It is the most contagious human disease, and it's very good at seeking out and spreading among even small groups of people who are not immune,' he said.

All people born in 1965 or earlier will already be immune while babies headed overseas can be given one measles shot from nine months old.

Otherwise, anyone can visit a GP for a free vaccination.
A teenager hid her pregnancy then smothered her baby boy to death seconds after it was born before the father threw it in a dumpster, according to a police affidavit.

Jada McClain, 18, and Quaimere Mohammed, 19, both from New Jersey, allegedly hid the pregnancy from McClain's family before she gave birth last week.

The damning affidavit, released by Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office, said Neptune Police Department was told by a friend of McClain that the Neptune High School student had given birth to a baby that later died.

The friend, whose name has not been released, also claimed she was with McClain when she took a pregnancy test in November that appeared to give a positive reading.

McClain was said to have told the friend she was drinking, smoking 'weed' and taking pills to try to kill her baby.

She sent a Snapchat to the friend last Sunday to say she had suffered a lot of pain during the birth early on March 29.

Jada McClain, 18, and Quaimere Mohammed, 19, both from New Jersey have been arrested and charged by police

She did not reveal in this message what happened to her child - named Legend - but sent two pictures of him from her bedroom which showed him 'blue and purple' with 'dry lips' and 'puffy' eyes, the affidavit said.

McClain later told the friend she was bleeding due to the labor but made clear she had not had a miscarriage.

Cops met McClain as she was on her way home from work on Thursday and took her to Neptune station where they said she confessed to murder.

She told them she was dating Mohammed, of Ashbury Park, and found out she was pregnant in July.

She thought she was too young at the time to get an abortion, despite considering it, and said she would have needed her parents' permission to have one under New Jersey law.

But this law was abandoned in the state in 2000.

McClain gave birth at 4am on the toilet in her mother's house but stopped the baby falling into the water.

The affidavit, released by Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office, said Neptune Police Department was told by a friend of McClain that the Neptune High School student had given birth to a baby that later died

After a shower, she put her son on her bed and put pressure on his chest to stop it breathing, the affidavit said.

At 6am the next day she called Mohammed.

The baby was then wrapped in a blanket and put in a bag in her Volkswagen Jetta, the document said.

She picked up Mohammed and they drove to the seaside before going to Mohammed's house and sitting in the parking lot in Washington Village.

It was then that police claimed Mohammed put the baby in the dumpster, which she later pointed out to them.

CCTV footage showed McClain's car pull into the parking lot at 9.30am and Mohammed got out holding what looked like a blue bag of trash.

McClain was charged with first-degree murder on Friday and Mohammed was charged with second-degree disturbing or desecrating the remains of their son - named Legend.

McClain is alleged to have told cops that in the days before Legend was born, the couple had discussed killing the baby.

The affidavit read that Mohammed said 'they have to do what's best for them'.

The investigation continues.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Prosecutor's Office Detective Wayne Raynor at 800-533-7443.

New Jersey's Safe Haven Infant Protection Act gives parents the chance to give up their baby without being arrested if it is under 30 days old.

The child is fostered or adopted.
Safety concerns over scaffolding at a Sydney construction site where an 18-year-old apprentice was killed were repeatedly raised with builders in the weeks before the tragedy, emails reportedly reveal.

Christopher Cassaniti was crushed to death on April 1 after 15-metre high scaffolding collapsed on him and a co-worker in Macquarie Park.

Months earlier, emails purportedly sent from Synergy Scaffolding to the builder, Ganellen, alleged 'lives were at risk' and claimed the danger at the building site was 'starting to get ridiculous', 7News reported.

Daily Mail Australia does not suggest Ganellen caused the collapse, which is being investigated by SafeWork NSW.

The first email, sent in June 2018, pointed out alleged safety oversights - including important parts of the scaffolding being removed.

Emails have revealed that workers on the construction site where 18-year-old Christopher Cassaniti (centre, with his parents) was killed by falling scaffolding were warned about the safety of the site

The first email, sent in June of 2018, pointed out crucial safety oversights including important parts of the scaffolding being removed, putting lives at risk

'One raker tie on Building M level (used to brace the structure) has been removed. This seems to be a recurring theme and this is starting to get ridiculous. I've never had these issues on any site,' the email from Synergy Scaffolding reportedly read.

'This is putting lives at risk and exposing my men to possible issues.'

Three months later, another email was sent to the Ganellen safety officer at the site, again alleging the integrity of the scaffolding had been undermined.

The email allegedly had photos attached showing scaffolding which had crucial elements removed.

'Once again, they shouldn't be touching scaffold, especially the ties... this had been an on-going issue,' the email read.

Daily Mail Australia attempted to contact Ganellan's owner Peter Maneas for comment.

A company spokesman told The Daily Telegraph it would be inappropriate to comment.

'Out of respect for the families involved and with the investigations underway, it would be inappropriate to respond to questions, speculation or do anything that may prejudice or pre-empt the investigations that are underway,' they said.

SafeWork, which is preparing a report for the coroner, is expected to probe the possibility too many bricks may have been stacked on top of the scaffolding, causing it to collapse.

Since the work site death, union officials have called for a safety crackdown.

The emails outlined concerns that parts of the scaffolding had been removed or were missing which was undermining the safety of the structure. Mr Cassaniti is pictured

Speculation has been rife as to what caused the collapse, but CFMEU national secretary Dave Noonan would not be drawn on what he believed had gone wrong (pictured: workers and police gather after one worker is critically injured and another crushed in Macquarie Park)

Shattered workers were seen comforting each other at the Macquarie Park construction site after the tragic accident

Mr Cassaniti was working at the Lachlan's Line site in Macquarie Park, Sydney, on April 1 when part of the scaffolding 'catastrophically' collapsed on top of him.

Mr Cassaiti, who just days earlier celebrated his 18th birthday, and a 39-year-old colleague were buried under the steel poles.

His colleague was pulled from the rubble in a critical condition, but survived the horrific accident.

Speculation has been rife as to what caused the collapse, but CFMEU national secretary Dave Noonan would not be drawn on what he believed had gone wrong.

A mission to create a concrete suburb: The Lachlan's Line project The 13-storey block where the collapse happened was part of a huge project by Greenland Australia called 'Lachlan's Line'. The plan was to develop 900 apartments across six blocks at Macquarie Park. In an update provided earlier this year, the building was said to be closing in on completion with scaffolding being brought down. Up to 350 construction workers were at the site every day, which was run by by construction company Ganellen. The company's website described the apartment block as one that: 'Offers superior design, green open spaces and an unparalleled lifestyle'. 'Perfectly positioned above a bustling town square at the heart of the new Lachlan's Line masterplan, this prestigious new community is located at the gateway to the booming suburb of Macquarie Park.' Following Monday's accident, Ganellen said in a statement: 'Our immediate concern and focus is on the safety of our people and according for those who were in the vicinity of the accident, and ensuring the site is safely secured.' Advertisement

Mr Cassaniti's workmates worked desperately to free him, but he was unable to be saved
This is the moment that a violent brawl erupts between Brazilian politicians disagreeing about the voting process to elect a city mayor.

The dispute began when two lawmakers in Macapa City Council, north Brazil, argued over the validity of a document which called for the suspension of the election.

A video taken from inside the council chamber shows the session descending into mayhem last Thursday, April 4, with dozens of people piling in to the brawl.

This is the horrific moment that a violent brawl erupts between Brazilian politicians in a council chamber in Macapa, north Brazil, after they disagreed about the voting process to elect a new city mayor

Politicians are seen hurling punches and kicks at opponents, with others launching themselves from a central table and on to the mass of brawlers.

Others scream and try to stop the fight, while one man holding a camera films the carnage.

The confusion started when councillor Yuri Pelaes of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB) party, who is sitting on the left at the top table, stands up to present the paperwork to opposition colleague, Caetano Bentes.

But Pelaes gesticulates angrily at the seated politician as he demands that he reads the contents of the document which calls for the mayoral vote to be postponed because of alleged constitutional irregularities.

Apparently riled by the members approach, Bentes, who refuses to read the material, jumps up and shoves his opponent in the chest.

Pelaes then responds with a flurry of punches.

Politicians are seen hurling punches and kicks at opponents, with others launching themselves from a central table and on to the mass of brawlers. Others scream and try to stop the fight, while one man holding a camera films the carnage

The fight between the two is met by loud jeers and screams as others in the chamber race to the top table to join in.

The ruckus lasted for several minutes and spilled over onto the chamber floor, with people being trampled underfoot.

The mass skirmish suspended business for over an hour, as the feuding lawmakers were escorted out of the chamber and warned to cool down.

No injuries were reported.

Once the session was resumed, the election was held with only 12 out of the 23 councillors voting for the new mayor.

Those who refused to participate declared the vote illegal and vowed to challenge the outcome in the constitutional courts.
A teenager has broken down while watching CCTV of the heartbreaking moment she was abandoned by her birth mother just hours after she was born.

Jessica Boatwright made headlines and touched hearts around the nation as a newborn after she was dumped at Liverpool Hospital in Sydney's south-west in 2005.

She hasn't seen her mother since.

CCTV footage captured the chilling moment Jessica's mother entered the hospital's emergency department in the middle of the night, cradling her newborn daughter wrapped in a towel.

Hours later, the woman was captured on CCTV sneaking out of the hospital without her baby girl, which sparked a five month unsuccessful search to track her down.

Teenager Jessica Boatwright (pictured) became emotional while watching CCTV footage of her biological mother for the first time

Now 14, Jessica is on a mission to be reunited with her biological mother - and she wants her to be part of her life.

The year nine student was overcome with emotion when she watched the chilling hospital CCTV of her mother abandoning her, which was made public for the first time when it aired on Monday night's episode of A Current Affair.

'I've never seen this before, so it's a bit emotional seeing it,' an overwhelmed Jessica said.

'I've only ever read the articles and seen pictures but have never actually watched the footage.'

Hospital CCTV has been released for the first time of Jessica's mother entering the hospital in the middle of the night, carrying her newborn daughter

Showing maturing beyond her years, Jessica wants her birth mother to know she doesn't blame her or holds any grudges for leaving her when she was just hours old.

She also wants her mother to know she's living a fabulous life, which she desperately want to share with her missing mum.

'I love you, even though I've never met you. I want her to know ... not to feel terrible and not to feel guilty in any way,' Jessica said.

'Be brave. I'm not going to judge you or anything, no matter what reason. It would be the fairytale ending that I've always wanted.'

Jessica was also recently reunited with her first foster mother Wendy, who took the four-day-old home and cared for her during Jessica's first five months.

With the blessing of her adoptive parents, Jessica Boatwright (left) hopes to track down her birth mother to be part of her life

Her adopted parents Brad and Anna Boatwright have embraced Jessica's decision to find her biological mother.

'Jessica has shown incredible bravery to share the most private aspects of her life in a hope to increase the profile of adoption in our community and in the hope her birth mother might see the program and, we hope, choose to become a part of Jessica's life,' Mr Boatwright posted on Facebook last week.

'To say we are proud of Jessica's courage would be a wild understatement. We hope you all have the chance to see her story and are as inspired by her as we are.'

The Boatwrights are just as excited of the possibility of meeting Jessica's birth mother.

'We'd love to give her a big hug,' Mr Boatwright said.
This is the shocking moment that a 14-year-old carjacker brutally beats a terminally ill grandfather on his own driveway before speeding away.

In the attack, which happened on the morning of Wednesday, April 3, in San Jose, California, 72-year-old retired plumber Hector Estrada said the teenage suspect pulled a gun and demanded his keys.

He was unloading groceries from his car, which was parked on his driveway in Coldwater Drive when he was approached.

This is the shocking moment that a 14-year-old carjacker brutally beats a terminally ill 72-year-old grandfather on his own driveway in San Jose, California, before speeding away

The video, filmed on a security camera recently installed by Mr Estrada, shows the attacker already in the driver's seat, ABC News 7 reported.

Grandfather-of-six Mr Estrada then bravely tries to pull him out.

Mr Estrada, who is suffering from a terminal pulmonary illness, said he refused to hand over his keys and the thief then showed him his gun but he still refused.

'I said no way, I dont care if you have a gun I am not going to give you my keys. So he reached and grabbed them,' he said.

The carjacker then got into the car and tried to drive away and that is when Mr Estrada bravely tried to stop him.

'I reached in and grabbed it and tried to pull him back. He punched me and broke my glasses and that is how I got all these cuts,' Mr Estrada said.

Mr Estrada, who is suffering from a terminal pulmonary illness, said he refused to hand over his keys and the thief then showed him his gun but he still refused. He punched me and broke my glasses,' Mr Estrada said. The carjacker then punched him in the head, leaving Mr Estrada bleeding and unable to see. The suspect then got back in the car and drove away

The suspect allegedly then crashed the car after he tried to drive through a red light and hit another car before fleeing. He was tracked down by officers and held on charges of carjacking, robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and elder abuse

He added: 'I started bleeding and then I couldn't see anymore so I just went around the car and said you are on camera and he said "I don't care"'

The attacker then got back into the car and drove away, but San Jose police said they had a report of a hit and run crash involving Mr Estrada's car just 10 minutes later.

The suspect allegedly tried to drive through a red light and hit another car before fleeing.

He was tracked down by officers that evening and he was held at Santa Clara County Juvenile Hall on charges of carjacking, robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and elder abuse.

Mr Estrada was later interviewed with the cuts to his face and nose. He described the attack that followed after he refused to hand over his keys.
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Britain faces the theoretical prospect of a No Deal Brexit on Friday - but few in Westminster believe it will be allowed to happen.

Despite the stalling of cross party talks with Labour, Theresa May appears set on a new delay to Brexit.

She will meet EU leaders in Brussels on Wednesday to formalise her request for a second extension to Article 50. Britain wants to delay until June 30.

But the Prime Minister knows she will have to take what she is given as she will be kicked out of the summit while the 27 leaders agree a way forward.

A six-hour debate at the last summit produced a much shorter two week delay - but this time most expect the EU to kick Brexit a year or more down the road.

French President Emmanuel Macron has threatened to veto any extension to end the stalemate. This is by far the most likely route to a No Deal Brexit this week.

Mrs May will have to agree a delay on the night whatever the political ramifications at home - certain to be explosive on the Brexiteer wing of her party.

MPs will have to rubber stamp a change in the Brexit date but it emerged two weeks ago they have no actual power to stop the PM agreeing a change in Brussels.

Before the summit convenes, Labour and Tory politicians are expected to resume talks to see if a consensus on the final EU-UK trade deal can be struck.

Few in Westminster expect a significant breakthrough without a dramatic climbdown from the Prime Minister on her red lines.

MPs are also likely to debate and vote at least one tomorrow. Rebels who forced through legislation to force the Government to seek a delay are likely to get their law finalised tonight, meaning Mrs May will have to hold a debate on delay tomorrow.

And the PM had signalled she would call indicative votes on Brexit alternatives before the summit if talks with Jeremy Corbyn failed - but there is currently little sign of this being scheduled.

What has Mrs May asked for?

In a letter to Donald Tusk she formally requested an extension to Article 50 that will delay the UK's departure beyond April 12 to June 30 - but she also wants a 'termination clause'.

This would allow the UK to leave on May 22 - the day before European elections - if a deal can be pushed through the UK Parliament.

However, this delay is a carbon copy of that sought by Mrs May before the last emergency summit in March - which was rejected.

What has the EU said?

Mr Tusk said that a 12-month 'flextension' to March 29 2020 is 'the only reasonable way out' of the crisis and has urged leaders of the EU's 27 member states to back him at Wednesday's summit.

Such an extension is likely to spark fury among Tory Brexiteer MPs, with Jacob Rees-Mogg suggesting if we were kept in we should be troublesome to the rest of the EU, politically.

And Mrs May has previously said she would not be able to accept such a delay - suggesting it could prompt her to resign. This could lead to a summer leadership battle in Tory ranks before a new, most likely Brexiteer leader, takes over.

What is happening in the cross party talks?

The Prime Minister has said the divorce deal could not be changed but announced last week she would seek a new consensus with Jeremy Corbyn on the political declaration about the final UK-EU agreement.

Talks broke down on Friday between ministers and officials from both parties, despite previous efforts being hailed as 'constructive'.

In a video yesterday, Mrs May renewed her calls for consensus and talks are thought likely to continue today - but few expect success.

If the talks fail, Mrs May has promised to put options to Parliament and agreed to be bound by the result. Time is short to actually call this vote.

In a second round of indicative votes on Monday night a customs union, Norway-style soft Brexit and second referendum were the leading options - but none got a majority of MPs.

What does Mrs May's shift mean?

Mrs May has abandoned all hope of winning over remaining Tory Brexiteers and the DUP on the terms of her current deal.

Striking a cross-party deal with Labour on the future relationship will require Mrs May to abandon many of her red lines - including potentially on free movement and striking trade deals.

To get an agreement with Labour, Mrs May will need to agree the political declaration should spell out a much softer Brexit than her current plans do.

This might mean a permanent UK-EU customs union or even staying in the EU Single Market.

What if Mr Corbyn says No?

Mrs May said if she cannot cut a deal with Corbyn, she would ask Parliament to come up with options - and promised to follow orders from MPs.

In a second round of indicative votes last week a customs union, Norway-style soft Brexit and second referendum were the leading options - but none got a majority of MPs.

They would probably pass if the Tories whipped for them - but it would almost certainly mean ministers quitting the Government.

Can either option be completed before the PM goes to Brussels?

Yes there is still technically time. The Government would have to table a motion tonight for any such vote was to be held tomorrow.

MPs would then have time the following day to debate what was on offer - and possibly suggest their own changes - before it is put to a vote, probably in the evening.

In practice, talks with Mr Corbyn and his team must have ended this afternoon at the very latest to give time for MPs to have their say if she is to make demand to the EU ahead of Wednesday's summit.

When will Brexit be?

It is hard to say - but it is unlikely to be next week on April 12.

Mrs May has asked for an extension to June 30. Donald Tusk has suggested a year.

There are EU leaders like France's Emmanuel Macron who have played Bad Cop and said they want us gone quickly. But others, including Germany's Angela Merkel, has been more conciliatory, suggesting yesterday she would show more flexibility to get a deal.

The PM clearly still wants to get out of the EU before European Parliament elections have to be held on May 22 but this is ultimately up to Brussels.

Will the EU agree to this?

It is hard to say. The EU has said it is open to further extension if there is a clear purpose and plan. Open ended talks on the future framework are unlikely to qualify.

A clear, negotiable goal for the future framework probably would do. The EU has always said it is open to Britain staying in the Single Market and Customs Union.

The Institute for Government has mapped out how a crucial week in the Brexit endgame might unfold ahead of a possible No Deal Brexit on Friday

Will May resign?

Nodbody knows for sure. Mrs May has announced she would go if and when her divorce deal passed so a new Tory leader could take charge of the trade talks phase.

In practice, it drained Mrs May of all remaining political capital. Most in Westminster think her Premiership is over within weeks at the latest.

As her deal folded for a third time a fortnight ago, she faced immediate calls from Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn so stand down with instant effect.

What is clear is there is already a fight underway for the Tory leadership.

Does is all mean there will be an election?

Probably, at some point though the immediate chances have fallen because of the latest events. The Commons is deadlocked and the Government has no functional majority. While the Fixed Term Parliaments Act means the Government can stumble on, it will become increasingly powerless.

Mrs May could try to call one herself or, assuming she stands down, her successor could do so.

Would May lead the Tories into an early election?

Unlikely. Having admitted to her party she would go if the deal passes, Mrs May's political career is doomed.

While there is no procedural way to remove her, a withdrawal of political support from the Cabinet or Tory HQ would probably finish her even if she wanted to stay.

How is an election called? When would it be?

Because of the Fixed Term Parliaments Act passed by the coalition, the Prime Minister can no longer simply ask the Queen to dissolve the Commons and call an election. There are two procedures instead.

First - and this is what happened in 2017 - the Government can table a motion in the Commons calling for an early election. Crucially, this can only pass with a two-thirds majority of MPs - meaning either of the main parties can block it.

Second an election is called if the Government loses a vote of no confidence and no new administration can be built within 14 days.

In practice, this is can only happen if Tory rebels vote with Mr Corbyn - a move that would end the career of any Conservative MP who took the step.

An election takes a bare minimum of five weeks from start to finish and it would take a week or two to get to the shut down of Parliament, known as dissolution - putting the earliest possible polling day around mid to late May.

If the Tories hold a leadership election first it probably pushes any election out to late June at the earliest.

Why do people say there has to be an election?

The question of whether to call an election finally reached the Cabinet last week.

Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay warned the rejection of Mrs May's deal would set in train a series of events that will lead to a softer Brexit - meaning an election because so many MPs will have to break manifesto promises.

MPs voting to seize control of Brexit from ministers has only fuelled the demands.

Labour has been calling for a new vote for months, insisting the Government has failed to deliver Brexit.

Mr Corbyn called a vote of no confidence in the Government in January insisting the failure of the first meaningful vote showed Mrs May's administration was doomed. He lost but the calls did not go away.

Brexiteers have joined the demands in recent days as Parliament wrestles with Brexit and amid fears among hardliners promises made by both main parties at the last election will be broken - specifically on leaving the Customs Union and Single Market.

Tory MP Andrew Bridgen wants Mrs May replaced with a Brexiteer. He believes it would push Remain Tories out of the party and then allow a snap election with more Eurosceptic candidates wearing blue rosettes.

What might happen?

Both main parties will have to write a manifesto - including a position on Brexit. Both parties are deeply split - in many cases between individual MPs and their local activists.

Under Mrs May, the Tories presumably try to start with the deal. But it is loathed by dozens of current Tory MPs who want a harder Brexit and hated even more by grassroots Tory members.

Shifting Tory policy on Brexit to the right would alienate the majority of current MPs who voted to Remain.

Labour has similar splits. Many of Labour's MPs and activists want Mr Corbyn to commit to putting Brexit to a second referendum - most with a view to cancelling it.

Mr Corbyn is a veteran Eurosceptic and millions of people who voted Leave in 2016 backed Labour in 2017.

The splits set the stage for a bitter and chaotic election. The outcome is highly unpredictable - the Tories start in front but are probably more divided on the main question facing the country.

Labour is behind but knows it made dramatic gains in the polls in the last election with its promises of vastly higher public spending.

Neither side can forecast what impact new political forces might wield over the election or how any public anger over the Brexit stalemate could play out.

It could swing the result in favour of one of the main parties or a new force.

Or an election campaign that takes months, costs millions of pounds could still end up in a hung Parliament and continued stalemate. This is the current forecast by polling expert Sir John Curtice.
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A herd of white horses galloping through a coastal lake in the south of France have been caught on camera.

The 12 Camargue horses were seen running through the water as the sun set behind them.

They sent water splashing into the air while speeding through the lake near the French town of Sainte Marie de La Mer, near Montpellier, France.

The herd of Camargue horses charge speed through the lake near the French town of Sainte Marie de La Mer, near Montpellier

The white horses stick together as they run through the lake and the sun sets behind them, reflecting itself on the water

Herds of Camargue white horses live in semi-wild conditions in the marshy areas of the region in the south of France

Photographer Scott Stulberg, who took the photos, said seeing the 'beautiful' animals gallop through the lake while the sun reflected on the water was 'magical'.

The Camargue Natural Park area in southern France is made up of wetlands, natural lakes and marshes and includes a large UNESCO biosphere reserve.

Herds of white horses live in semi-wild conditions in the marshy areas of the region, which is located in the Provence in the Alpes Cote d'Azur.

The Camargue horse, which was officially recognised as a breed in 1978, is said to have lived in the region for thousands of years.

Photographer Scott Stulberg, who took the photos, said seeing the 'beautiful' animals gallop through the lake was 'magical'
Households on the NBN are being provided with the same speed internet speeds as their old ADSL connections and paying more for the service, the ACCC says.

The National Broadband Network has been plagued with constant criticisms, delays and problems since the national roll out began in 2009.

And 10 years on, more than a million households are forking out too much for the lowest cost plans, compared to their old ADSL plans.

'We are now observing prices of low-speed NBN plans offered to new customers that are at least $10 per month higher than what consumers paid for equivalent ADSL plans,' ACCC boss Rod Sims said on Monday.

It comes as the disastrous National Broadband Network has been plagued with constant criticisms, delays and problems throughout it's national roll out

'There is a fundamental question of fairness here for those on low incomes.'

Mr Sims warned NBN Co was failing to deliver on its promise of faster and more affordable broadband.

'We also believe NBN Co's entry-level services should be anchored to existing ADSL pricing. This is only fair to consumers because they have no choice but to move to the NBN as their existing services are being withdrawn,' he said.

'But more importantly, consumers that already want the higher speeds that the NBN makes possible also stand to benefit from pricing that reflects the additional value.'

Optus wants to have more control in how the NBN is rolled out, arguing that some households would benefit from connecting its own 5G network

But Optus' chief executive, Allen Lew, says he has a solution to benefit consumers.

Mr Lew, wants telco workers to be able to install and maintain the network which is now available to 75 percent of Aussie homes and businesses.

'This would be a win-win for customers and NBN Co,' Mr Lew told an industry conference in Sydney on Monday.

'The NBN certainly could well be a time bomb but, as an industry, we have the power to work collaboratively with NBN Co to put out the fuse before the inevitable happens.'

Mr Lew also claimed that 5G could bring affordable gigabit speeds quickly to households, where extending fibre or upgrading copper is in the works.

NBN Co CEO, Bill Morrow, speaking at the industry conference in Sydney on Monday

'Customers would get access to faster speeds through the latest technology and NBN Co avoids the capital to upgrade part of its network to achieve ultra-high-speed services.'

The Optus boss says 5G fixed wireless service options should be introduced into the NBN mix where existing service may be limited.

There are currently 600,000 premises connected to the NBN's 4G fixed wireless service but NBN Co has no plan to spread services more widely.

About 8.77 million homes and businesses in Australia are ready to connect to the NBN as of March 28.

Chief executive, Allen Lew, wants telco workers to be able to install and maintain the network which is now available to 75 percent of Aussie homes and businesses

The remaining three million premises are scheduled to be ready to connect by the end of 2020.

Mr Lew also urged NBN Co to follow hardware providers Ericsson, Nokia and Cisco in training Optus to service and install their equipment.

He claimed that customers are confused by the hand-off between sub-contractors, NBN Co and retail service providers, such as Optus and Telstra.

'Customer engagement becomes simpler when they only have one organisation providing their service,' he said.

Optus says it will have 1200 5G sites across Canberra and all mainland states by March 2020

Optus says it will have 1200 5G sites across Canberra and all mainland states by March 2020.

But the coalition is standing by the disastrous NBN roll out, claiming that it would have been more expensive under a Labor government.

'NBN will be completed by 2020, six to eight years sooner and at $30 billion less cost than Labor' approach,' Communications Minister, Mitch Fifield, told the Australian.

NBN Co recorded $1.3 billion in revenue in the second half of 2018, 46 per cent up on the last six months of 2017.
A World War Two veteran who tripped on broken pavement and suffered serious facial injuries has been told by a council he cannot claim compensation - because they were already planning to fix it.

Former Royal Navy sailor Bernie Beckett was out shopping with his daughter Alison Hunt when he stumbled on the broken paving slab and fell, suffering a deep cut above his eyebrow and severe bruising on his face.

The 96-year-old also injured his knees in the nasty fall in Southampton, Hampshire.

When Mr Beckett and his daughter contacted the city council, they were told the authority were already aware of the damage and contractors had been asked to fix it.

Bernie Beckett was out shopping with his daughter Alison Hunt when he stumbled on the broken paving slab and fell, suffering a deep cut above his eyebrow and severe bruising on his face and body

Former Royal Navy sailor Mr Beckett also injured his knees in the nasty fall in Southampton, Hampshire. Pictured: the paving slab that caused the trip

Bernie serving in the Royal Navy as a young man. When Mr Beckett and his daughter contacted the city council, they were told the authority were already aware of the damage and contractors had been asked to fix it

Bernie out raising money for the poppy appeal. Councils can be liable for compensation for injuries and medical costs after someone suffers injury if there has been negligence

The authority told them contractors Balfour Beatty had six months to complete the repairs and during that time it had immunity from compensation claims.

Mrs Hunt said: 'My father hit his head on the pavement outside a Starbucks in Southampton city centre, causing a black eye and a deep cut above his eyebrow.

'He hurt both knees, which are still giving him pain, and his jacket was covered in blood. After the accident, he lost confidence and wouldn't leave his flat.

'Even though he's 96, he still lives independently and is very active. His age played no part in the fall whatsoever.'

Councils can be liable for compensation for injuries and medical costs after someone suffers injury if there has been negligence.

Mr Beckett, from Southampton, submitted a claim for compensation to the city council, asking for 8.50 for his daughter's hospital parking after she rushed him there following the fall.

The pavement that caused the incident outside at Starbucks in Southampton. The council said the damage to the pavement had been spotted a month before the incident

A tape measure showing the gap in the pavement outside a Starbucks in Southampton

He also asked for compensation to cover the cost of new shoes, a new jacket and for the pain he suffered.

The amount of money claimants can receive does vary depending on the level of injury, with facial injuries receiving up to 34,000 and knee injuries up to 73,000.

However, Mr Beckett and his daughter received a letter back from Southampton City Council saying they would not be receiving anything as the damage had been spotted a month before the accident.

As this was the case, they were told the council had six months to repair it.

Mrs Hunt said: 'I'm devastated they didn't cordon off the area to stop pedestrians falling over if they already knew about the defect.

'I think it's disgusting they're not liable for any accidents and are therefore refusing to pay out any compensation.

'They did repair the pavement soon after my father was injured.'

Mr Beckett served in the Royal Navy during World War Two and spent three weeks in hospital after his ship, HMS Batory, was attacked by a German U-boat.

He still helps the Royal British Legion sell poppies every autumn.

Jonathan White, legal director of National Accident Helpline, said: 'Local authorities have a legal duty to maintain pavements and take reasonable steps to repair defects.

'The fact the defect had been identified almost a month before Mr Beckett's accident, but not repaired quickly enough to prevent it, means in our view there is definitely a case to answer.'

But a spokesman for Southampton City Council said: 'Unfortunately it's not always possible for us to repair faults immediately.

'Southampton City Council's highways policy allows up to six months in which to carry out non-urgent repairs although we will try, if possible, to repair within two months.

'This follows standard operating procedure across the country.'
As many as 24 people including three children under 13 have been shot in a weekend of bloodshed in Chicago.

The shootings began at 4am on Saturday and finished around 10am on Sunday - with three adults dying from their injuries.

A horrific daylight attack saw two gunman carry out a mass shooting of six people outside a baby shower in West Englewood.

An eight-year-old boy was hit in the chest and back while a girl, 10, was shot in the shin before the shooters fled on foot at around 6.25pm.

Chicago police work on the scene of a shooting in the 6300 block of South Seeley on Saturday night

The unnamed children are in a critical but stable condition.

Cops have suggested the sickening incident may be gang-related.

'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.

'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.'

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.

A daylight attack saw two gunman shoot six people outside a baby shower in West Englewood. Two children were in hospital

'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.'

'It's part of a larger conflict that's going on in that area,' Guglielmi said.

Violence has tended to increase in the summer months in Chicago, largely attributed to cold weather keeping people indoors and social gatherings in the summer leading to more drunken behaviour.

It was the warmest weekend of the year, according to Todd Kluber, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

Demonte Davis, 19, was also gunned down on West Steuben Street, Morgan Park, where he died at around 4pm Saturday.

A 22-year-old was injured in the attack.

On Sunday, officers were called to South Maryland Avenue, Woodlawn, after a 32-year-old man was shot multiple times in the back at 6.30am.

No one has been arrested after the victim died at Chicago University Medical Center.

The final confirmed death this weekend saw a 52-year-old man shot in the head at around 8.30am Sunday on South Normal Boulevard, Englewood.

Cops believe the incident may be a domestic dispute and a person is in custody.

Chicago police had opened two homicide investigations as of Sunday morning.

Other injuries over the weekend included three people shot in East Garfield Park at 3.30am Sunday as they stood on West Wilcox Street.

A man, aged 34, was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital with a wound on his right leg.

A 26-year-old was taken to Norwegian American Hospital with an injury to his right foot and a 33-year-old man was rushed to a medical center with a bullet wound on his left arm.

Authorities have struggled to contain violence in Chicago, the nation's 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.
The American grandmother who was kidnapped during a safari trip in Uganda began her journey home on Monday amid questions surrounding her release and who paid for it.

Kim Endicott, 56, was seen boarding a helicopter in Inshasha Wilderness Lodge in Queen Elizabeth National Park on Monday after being handed back over to Wild Frontiers Uganda Safaris by her captors on Sunday.

She was kidnapped on April 2 with her driver, Jean-Paul Mirenge Remezo, 48.

The kidnappers demanded a $500,000 ransom which multiple sources say was paid. The US government, Ugandan officials and the company she was traveling with all deny paying it.

'Obviously, somebody must have paid something but it was not us, hand on heart,' a spokesman for Wild Frontiers Uganda, the company she was traveling with which was the presumed benefactor of her ransom, told DailyMail.com on Monday.

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Kim Endicott, 56, is pictured boarding a helicopter to be taken to the Ugandan capital Kampala on Monday. It is not clear if she will return to the US on a State Department plane or if she will fly commercially

Endicott, 56, is pictured on Monday before being flown via helicopter to the capital in Kampala where she will be debriefed by the embassy before flying home. Sources at the lodge said she was in 'good spirits' despite her ordeal

Kimberly is shown being flown out of the camp on a Ugandan police helicopter on Monday

The State Department refused to share details of her rescue or her return to the US citing a 'privacy considerations' which prevent them from commenting.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last week that the US, as a matter of policy, did not give in to kidnappers' demands. Ugandan officials also denied paying any of the ransom to secure her release on Monday.

'I have indicated to you that we don't do ransom,' Ugandan police spokesman Fred Enanga said at a press conference.

Endicott and her driver were dropped off at the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday after days of negotiations.

The safari company spokesman, who declined to give his name, said that for the past week, the US and Ugandan authorities had been working together out of its lodge to try to reach a peaceful solution but that it was the American authorities which led the effort.

He likened it to a 'circus at the lodge', adding: 'There wasn't a single moment we weren't on tenterhooks.'

DailyMail.com obtained footage of the moment Endicott returned to camp, barefoot, in a van after being collected from the Congolese border on Sunday. She was helped inside by armed guards

The US tourist is pictured on Sunday back at the Inshasha Wilderness Lodge after being freed by her captors

Endicott is shown returning to camp on Sunday after being rescued

Endicott was taken from the Queen Elizabeth National Park on April 2. She was rescued on the Congolese border on April 7

He said he did not know who paid for Endicott's release but that it was 'of course', a possibility it was either the US or Uganda.

'It's pretty obvious something happened but there was never $500,000 or any amount paid by us.

'There's a lot of problems in Uganda with this. Everybody's terrified that this is going to make us a target,' he said.

He also angrily denied that it is a rule in Uganda that an armed ranger has to accompany tourists on safaris, a claim made by Uganda Wildlife Authority last week.

Its spokesman said 'you're supposed to have' armed guards while taking a game drive but the tour company Endicott was with denied that it is a rule.

'They are trying to cast the safari company in a bad light. There is no such regulation.

'This was a one off, isolated incident where four guys decided it was a great way to make money,' he said.

President Trump tweeted on Monday that her captors should be brought to justice 'openly and quickly'

Endicott, a Californian grandmother, has not yet spoken. She was taken on April 2 along with her driver on the first night of her trip

His comments come after multiple unnamed sources said it was the tour group which had paid for her to be released.

'Otherwise she wouldn't be back,' one tour worker, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press.

Driver Jean-Paul Mirenge Remezo, 48, was also freed on Sunday

Others confirmed to CBS that it was Wildlife Frontiers Uganda which paid Endicott's ransom.

Endicott and her driver were taken hostage on April 2 and were transported across the border to Congo. They were part of a group night safari when they were taken.

It was the first night of her trip and hers was the first vehicle in a convoy of many which were taking part in an evening safari when she was snatched.

The wildlife company spokesman said there was 'no way' the four kidnappers could have been watching her in advance because it was her first night.

On Monday, President Trump tweeted: 'Uganda must find the kidnappers of the American Tourist and guide before people will feel safe in going there.

'Bring them to justice openly and quickly!'

The only comment the State Department would give is: 'We are aware of reports that a U.S. citizen hostage was recovered on April 7 by Ugandan security officials.

'Privacy considerations prevent us from commenting further at this time.'
The only functional airport in the Libyan capital has been hit by an airstrike amid clashes between rival armed groups for control of Tripoli.

The fighting has sparked fears smugglers could take advantage of the unstable government to launch a fresh wave of migrant boats across the Mediterranean.

The official Facebook page of the Mitiga airport said it had been attacked by a fighter jet on Monday. There were no further details and no casualties were immediately reported.

A video circulated online shows a fighter jet firing and allegedly targeting the airport.

Mitiga airport announced via its official Facebook page on Monday that it had been hit by a fighter jet (pictured)

Libyan National Army aircraft (pictured) have reportedly attacked Mitiga airport - Tripoli's only functioning airport - forcing it to close

Passengers are seen after being evacuated at Mitiga airport in Tripoli on April 8 following airstrikes by both sides of the Libyan conflict

The airport, located five miles east of the city centre originally functioned as a military base.

The fighting for Tripoli erupted last week when the self-styled Libyan National Army, led by Khalifa Hifter, began an offensive against the capital, clashing with rival militias that support the U.N.-backed government.

The Libyan coast guard, operated by UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, is one of the main safeguards against smugglers and caught 15,000 migrants last year.

But that government is now in peril as commander Hafter's forces pushed further into the city on Monday after a weekend of fighting that saw both sides carry out airstrikes around the ruins of the international airport.

There were no immediate reports of casualties but the airport was forced to close following the airstrike

A crater made by an ammunition is seen after an air strike at Mitiga airport in Tripoli today

Airplanes are seen at Mitiga airport after an air strike in the Libyan capital Tripoli today

Fighting in Libya has sparked fears that it could open the gates to a fresh European migrant influx, as people smugglers exploit the chaos to launch boats into the Med (file image)

Thousands of Libyans displaced by the fighting could also join migrants from sub-Saharan Africa in trying to reach Europe, as the UN warns of 'significant population displacement'

Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar's forces are battling for control of an area some 18 miles south of the capital near Tripoli's international airport, which was destroyed in 2014

Commander Khalifa Hafter's forces pushed further into Tripoli on Monday as he attempts to wrest control of the country from UN-backed Fayez al-Sarraj (pictured, government forces near Tripoli's airport)

The European Union's foreign policy chief has called on all sides in the escalating Libyan military conflict to stop fighting and start talking.

Federica Mogherini said Monday that European Union foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg were united in their call for a truce.

Mogherini says all sides in the recent surge in fighting should 'go back to the negotiating table under the auspices of the U.N. and make sure that the Libyan people get what they really want, which is peace and stability for their country.'

The U.N. says that fighting over Libya's capital that erupted last week has already displaced 2,800 people.

The death toll has risen to 49, and many civilians remain trapped by the sudden outburst of violence.

Another 2,800 people have been displaced by the fighting, with the UN warning of 'significant population displacement' if the conflict continues.

Hafter's army, which is thought to be backed by Russian mercenaries, advanced rapidly towards the city over the weekend, prompting US forces to retreat.

A damaged helicopter is grounded at Mitiga airport in Tripoli following airstrikes today

Who is Khalifa Hafter? Born in 1943 in the eastern town of Ajdabiya, Khalifa Hafter was a officer under Gaddafi's command when he seized power in 1969. As a reward for his loyalty and service, Gaddafi promoted Hafter to field marshal and put in charge of Libyan forces in Chad. Defeated by French-backed Chadian forces, Hafter was captured in 1987. Gaddafi, who had long denied the presence of Libyan troops in Chad, cut ties with him - prompting Hafter to vow revenge. During a two-decade exile in the US, Hafter is thought to have plotted with the CIA to overthrow his old master, before returning in 2011 to fight in the uprising against Gaddafi's regime. After the Libyan dictator was deposed and killed, Hafter spent time fighting rebels in the east - where he is popular - before seizing key oil supplies from UN-backed groups. Given access to Russian mercenaries who have provided training to his forces, Haftar has now launched an offensive to seize control of the country. Advertisement

But the advance slowed on Monday as troops moved into urban areas.

Meanwhile the EU called for a ceasefire and the resumption of peace talks. French officials also called for a halt to fighting for fresh negotiations.

Renewed civil war in Libya, splintered into areas of factional control since the 2011 overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, also threatens to disrupt oil and gas supplies and allow Islamist militants - such as ISIS militants fresh off the battlefields of Syria - to exploit the chaos.

The eastern Libyan National Army (LNA) forces of Khalifa Haftar, a former officer in Gaddafi's army, said 19 of their soldiers had died in recent days as they closed in on the internationally recognised government in Tripoli.

The LNA has made air strikes on the south of the city as it seeks to advance into the centre from the disused airport.

But the Tripoli government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj, which reported 11 deaths without specifying on which side, has armed groups arriving from nearby Misrata to block the LNA.

Al-Serraj, 59, who comes from a wealthy business family, has run the Tripoli government since 2016 as part of a U.N.-brokered deal boycotted by Haftar.

The LNA, allied with a parallel eastern administration based in Benghazi, took the oil-rich south of Libya earlier this year before its surprisingly fast push towards the coastal capital.

While that advance was straightforward through mostly sparsely populated areas, taking Tripoli is a far bigger challenge.

The violence has thrown into doubt a U.N. plan for an April 14-16 conference to plan elections as a way out of the anarchy since the Western-backed toppling of Gaddafi eight years ago.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made the latest international appeal for talks to end the fighting.

Hafter's forces claimed to have launched airstrikes on Tripoli's main airport but pro-government forces were pictured still in control on Monday

Forces loyal to the internationally recognised Libyan Government of National Accord drive through Tripoli's old airport on April 8

Hafter's forces are hoping to wrest control of Libya away from Al-Serraj having boycotted the peace talks that established his government

'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,' he said.

A contingent of U.S. forces evacuated at the weekend.

The U.N. mission to Libya called on Sunday for a truce for two hours in southern Tripoli to evacuate civilians and wounded, but it did not appear to have been heeded.

Haftar casts himself as a foe of extremism but is viewed by opponents as a new dictator in the mould of Gaddafi, whose four-decade rule saw torture, disappearances and assassinations.

Haftar 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.

Forces with the Tripoli government have announced an operation to defence the capital called 'Volcano of Anger'.

Allied groups from Misrata down the coast have been moving pickup trucks fitted with machine guns into Tripoli.

The LNA says it has 85,000 men but this includes soldiers paid by the central government that it hopes to inherit. Its elite force, Saiqa (Lightning), numbers some 3,500, while Haftar's sons also have well-equipped troops, LNA sources say.

Since NATO-backed rebels ousted Gaddafi, Libya has been a transit point for hundreds of thousands of migrants trekking across the Sahara in hope of reaching Europe across the sea.

The sudden advance of Hafter's forces towards Tripoli forced US troops to withdraw on Sunday, along with Indian peacekeepers

Federica Mogherini, the EU's foreign policy chief, called for a ceasefire and a return to peace talks on Monday as the conflict raged on
The family of a British Airways pilot who fatally overdosed on sleeping pills after allegedly inhaling poisonous engine fumes are leading a wave of lawsuits being brought against the airline.

Richard Westgate was 43 when he died in 2012 following, according to his family, 'mysterious pains and numbness in his limbs and head' which were caused by exposure to toxic gases that drove him to swallow sedatives to relieve the suffering.

Fresh legal proceedings spearheaded by Mr Westgate's loved ones and backed by almost 100 airline employees have now been brought before the High Court in a 'huge' case which could cost BA tens of millions of pounds.

Richard Westgate, from Marlborough, Wiltshire, was 43 when he died in 2012 following a fatal overdose of sleeping pills which his family claim was caused by ingesting toxic fumes

They claim that the pain caused by regular ingesting of pollutant fumes - known as 'aerotoxicity'- made the pilot, from Marlborough, Wiltshire, self-medicate with pentobarbital and contributed to his death.

In 2017 after the coroner's ruling, his twin brother Guy Westgate claimed the syndrome caused Richard to suffer years of poor health including severe headaches, mental confusion, sight problems and insomnia.

He said: 'He would describe the pain as if his brain was being sandpapered. He couldn't find any other way to describe the severity of the pain.'

And Mr Westgate's family, who are seeking 500,000 in compensation, are just one of some 94 separate claims from airline crew demanding damages payment.

Judge Barbara Fontaine said that while the 94 claims include some actions against other airlines, 'the majority are against BA,' which employs 16,500 cabin crew and 3,900 pilots.

Last month the Unite Union claimed that EasyJet, Thomas Cook, Jet2 and Virgin Atlantic all had aerotoxicity claims made against them.

Judge Fontaine also said that 'many other claims' are waiting in the wings but are 'not yet issued'.

The controversy over aerotoxicity arises from the almost universal practice by airlines of using compressed air taken directly from aircraft engines to pressurise the cabin.

Mr Westgate's (far left, next to twin brother and groom Guy) family have brought a case against British Airways to the High Court

Research has suggested this air, known as 'bleed air', can become contaminated with engine oils and hydraulic fluids, leading to illness among pilots and cabin crew through repeated exposure.

However, the aviation industry has always argued there is no threat to passengers or crew from air from the engines being fed into the plane and breathed.

In April 2017, a coroner overseeing an inquest into Mr Westgate's death ruled that his overdose was accidental, but heard evidence that a post-mortem had revealed damage to his heart and nervous system, which his family say were tell-tale signs of his exposure to aerotoxicity.

Last week at a pre-trial hearing in the action against BA, Michael Rawlinson QC for Mr Westgate's estate told the High Court: 'Richard Westgate was a pilot who was employed by BA. He died on 12 December 2012.

'During an extended period prior to his death he complained of then mysterious pains and numbness in his limbs and head which remained medically unexplained in life. In addition, his cognition was reduced.

Guy Westgate (pictured) said in 2017 that his brother would liken the pain to his 'brain being sandpapered'

'During life he, and thereafter his family, were convinced that his symptoms were caused by exposure to fumes - aerotoxicity.

'Eventually, Mr Westgate started to self-medicate with pentobarbital (sleeping pills) and, on December 12 2012, his ingestion of the same killed him, while he lay in a Dutch hotel room.

'The physical effects of his exposure led to his self-medication and hence was a material contributing factor to his death.

'Mr Westgate's case is just one of a number of cases where aerotoxicity is alleged to have either caused injury or materially contributed to the death,' the barrister said.

Mr Rawlinson claims aerotoxicity causes 'nausea, hypoxia and dizziness' and ultimately damage to the nervous system.

'These are matters of deadly seriousness,' he concluded.

David Platt QC, for British Airways PLC, told the judge that the airline denies liability.

He said there is no proof that ordinary cabin air drawn from the engines causes harm to human health.

'This litigation must be viewed as weak and speculative, given that it challenges a technical, scientific and industry consensus through the propositions upon which the claimants rely,' he told the court.

'Questions of breach of duty are not reasonably straightforward as suggested in the claimants' skeleton argument. They remain very actively in dispute,' he added.

'The key issue is one of medical causation. Can any contaminants in ordinary cabin air cause neurotoxic injury? This is a generic technical question upon which any case will rise or fall,' he said.

Guy Westgate (right) claimed the syndrome caused Richard (left) to suffer years of poor health including severe headaches, mental confusion, sight problems and insomnia

Mr Platt also told the judge that the test case should only involve BA as a defendant, with no need to have cases involving many different types of aircraft or different airlines in the mix.

The case - dubbed the Aircraft Cabin Air Litigation by lawyers - will now return to court at a later date.

On top of potentially facing tens of millions in damages and legal costs should the group action succeed, BA could also face the massive additional costs of making their fleet of planes safe for their employees.

Lawyers for the claimants estimated it would cost the company around 25,000 per aircraft to retrofit a different air filtration system to make the cabin air safe, should the current system be found to be harmful to human health.

It is estimated that around 240 of BA's fleet of 280 planes could need modifying, at a cost of around 6m.

'This is potentially huge for airlines' Mr Rawlinson added.
A pensioner was boiled alive in her bed after she was hit by a powerful jet of hot water from a burst pipe in the street outside.

The 64-year-old woman was asleep at 2am when the horrific accident happened in St Petersburg.

The vicious jet of almost boiling water shattered the windows of her ground floor flat and sprayed her causing severe burns.

The woman was killed by 'severe burns and pain shock' after being hit by the scalding hot jet of water

The unnamed woman died in her flat from 'severe burns and pain shock' caused by the scalding water, say Russian reports.

Her 39-year-old son also asleep in the flat was rushed to hospital in a state of 'deep shock' and acute burns.

Piped hot water in Russian towns and cities is vital to heat flats in cold winters - but accidents can be deadly. The broken main pipeline was almost nine inches in diameter .

Pictures and videos showed a steaming river from the boiling water burst pipe in the street outside the victims' flat.

The damage outside the woman's flat where the burst pipe left an enormous hole in the front lawn

Nearby, a hole opened in the road swallowing a Mercedes van.

Two dozen people living in the block of flats at 2 Komsomolskaya Street in the Krasnoselskiy district of St Petersburg - also in danger of getting burned by hot water jets - were evacuated into a nearby school.

Seven months ago two men died in a cafe when 500 tons of boiling water from a broken pipe flooded the premises.

Resident Nikita Yulgushev posted: 'Dear God - what is happening in St Petersburg?

'I live on the ground floor, too, what do I do? Barricade all the windows? Sell the flat? I won't be able to fall asleep now.'
A woman has narrowly escaped death after being bitten by a shark during a diving lesson in an aquarium tank in north-east China.

The learner diver, named in reports as Nana, was taking a lesson at the Dalian Laohutan Ocean Park in Liaoning province last Friday when a sand tiger shark bit her in the head, local media reported.

The woman was immediately rushed to hospital, where she was treated for wounds all over her scalp, forehead and jaw.

The learner diver, named in reports as Nana, was taking a lesson at the Dalian Laohutan Ocean Park in Liaoning province last Friday when a sand tiger shark bit her in the head

The woman was rushed to hospital and treated for wounds all over her scalp, forehead and jaw

The tank that the woman was swimming in held the aquarium's sand tiger sharks, which are usually known for being docile and pose little to no threat to humans (file photo)

Horrifying photos of Nana's injuries show deep bite marks and cuts on her face and head.

She received more than 70 stitches during a four-hour operation in hospital, according to Liaoning Evening News.

The tank that Nana was swimming in held the aquarium's sand tiger sharks, which are usually known for being docile and pose little to no threat to humans.

An employee told reporters that the shark let go after biting the woman on the head once.

The woman received more than 70 stitches during a four-hour operation in hospital

The victim, named Nana, had purchased the Level 1 diving lesson for 3,600 yuan (410)

She had purchased the Level 1 diving lesson for 3,600 yuan (410) from a local diving club, according to the report.

A text purportedly from the manager of the club said he would cover all the expenses of Nana's surgery and any other necessary cosmetic operations in the future, plus a diving theory lesson.

She remains under observation in hospital and is negotiating compensation with the club, the report said.

The sand tiger shark dwell in the waters of Japan, Australia, South Africa, the Mediterranean and the east coasts of North and South America and is a cousin of the great white shark.

Nan poses in front of the Dalian Laohutan Ocean Park in Liaoning province prior to the incident

While many net users offered their sympathy to the woman, others questioned why were people allowed to swim in a tank full of sharks.

'The park should also be responsible for this. If the shark attacked her further, she would have died,' one person said on Chinese microblogging site Weibo.

'Luckily she wasn't hurt elsewhere. What a risk!' another user said.

'What kind of activity is this? Why would they let her in with the sharks without proper protection?' one person commented.
Thousands of white farmers in Zimbabwe are expected to receive compensation for having had their farms confiscated under former president Robert Mugabe.

The government, which is trying to put an end to the issue, is to start paying back farmers who lost their lands under the land reform almost two decades ago.

Mugabe's government carried out violent evictions of 4,500 white farmers and redistributed their land to around 300,000 black families to redress imbalances from the British colonial rule.

Under Mugabe's government, about 4,500 white farmers in Zimbabwe had their lands confiscated after being violently evicted from them

Robert Mugabe, former president of Zimbabwe, redistributed the lands to black families

The land reform, introduced by Mugabe in 2000, proved a controversial move by the former president and received international condemnation.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government considers the compensation to white farmers as key to fix ties with the West and set aside 13.5 million ($17.5 million) in this year's budget to do so.

The Finance and Agriculture Department released a statement today, saying they would go ahead with the plans.

'The government is committed to finalising compensation to all former farm owners who were affected by the Land Reform Programme,' they wrote.

Zimbabwe's president Emmerson Mnangagwa considers the compensation as key to fix the country's ties with the West

The initial payments will be addressed to those in financial need and full compensation will be paid later.

'The registration process and list of farmers should be completed by the end of April 2019, after which the interim advance payments will be paid directly to former farm owners,' Zimbabwe's ministries of finance and agriculture said.

They added the process to identify and register farmers due to receive compensation is being undertaken by the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) and a committee representing the farmers.

Government officials and former farm owners are valuing the improvements made on the farms, which will help determine the full amount to be paid

Mugabe's government said they redistributed the farms to black families to redress imbalances from the colonial era

Officials and former farm owners are currently valuing the improvements made on the farms, which will help determine the full amount due to be paid. The process should end next month.

The government said it will only pay compensation for infrastructure and improvements on the farms, but not for the land.

Officials are currently talking to international financial institutions about options to raise the full amount to pay farmers.

Colonialists seized some of the best agricultural land in Zimbabwe and much of it remained was kept by white farmers after independence in 1980, while many black farmers were landless.
A woman who reported her partner's ex-wife to the police in Dubai after being called 'horse face' by her on Facebook says she is glad she is now facing jail.

Samah Al Hammadi, 42, told authorities Laleh Shahravesh harassed her on Facebook after Shahravesh discovered that ex-husband Pedro Manuel Coreia Dos Santos had remarried.

After being reported to authorities, Shahravesh was arrested under strict cyber-crime laws last month when they arrived in the United Arab Emirates for his funeral.

Ms Hammadi claims she decided to make the complaint after 'suffering in silence' for over a year and now has no regrets, despite single mother Shahravesh facing up to two years in jail and a fine of 50,000.

Her husband and his new wife Samah Al Hammadi (pictured) were living in Dubai when the Facebook posts were made in October 2016

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

'She has been abusing him, sending emails, even to his boss in the bank, saying I am a b***h, that I took him from her, that she doesn't have money. He sent emails asking her to stop. It did not stop,' she told the Evening Standard.

'It is a crime in Dubai. It is right. I don't feel sorry. She made him [Mr Santos] suffer in the last year of his life. Let the law take part.'

Shahravesh, 55, has previously 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.

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 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.

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.

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 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.'
A couple from New York has vanished after checking out of their hotel room at the end of a Dominican Republic vacation two weeks ago.

Orlando Moore, 43, and Portia Ravenelle, 32, have not been heard from since they checked out of the Gran Bahia Principe Cayacoa in Samana on March 26.

The couple from Mount Vernon, New York, were due to fly home that day but never made it to the airport.

Their families are now frantically appealing for information which could lead to their whereabouts.

Orlando Moore, 43, and Portia Ravenelle, 32, have not been heard from since March 26 when they checked out of their hotel. This is believed to be the last photograph taken of the pair during a horse riding excursion on their Dominican Republic vacation

According to authorities, the pair had hired a rental car and were driving themselves to the airport when they disappeared.

They never returned the car, both their phones are turned off and their families say it is completely out of character for either one to go off-grid.

The pair flew to the island on March 23.

They had been uploading photographs of their trip to social media but have gone silent since the day they vanished.

Moore's worried sister told NBC news that she had been in contact with police both in the Dominican Republic and in the US but that no one has heard anything.

'This is definitely not my brother.

'Hes not going to run off on a hiatus and dont tell his family and his daughter.

'Im scared, I dont know whats going on,' Lashay Turner said.

'When these things happen, you always think of the worst, but we are hoping for the best,' Edith Walters, his 91-year-old grandmother, added.

Ravenelle's family has not spoken publicly and they have privatized her Facebook account.

A spokesman for the State Department told DailyMail.com on Monday: 'We are aware of reports regarding a U.S. couple missing in the Dominican Republic.

The couple's cell phones are turned off and they have not used social media since March 26

Friends say Moore, shown above on one of the last days of his vacation, is a father who would never go off-grid without talking to his family

The couple was due to fly home on March 26 but never showed up at the airport. They had been staying at a hotel near Samana

'The welfare and safety of U.S. citizens abroad is one of the highest priorities of the Department of State.

'We stand ready to provide appropriate assistance to U.S. citizens in need and to their families.

'When a U.S. citizen is missing, we work closely with local authorities as they carry out their search efforts and share information with families however we can.

'Due to privacy considerations, we have no further information to offer at this time.

'For questions regarding investigations in the Dominican Republic, we refer you to local authorities.'

It is not clear which airport the pair were due to fly home from and how far it was from their hotel.

The Dominican Republic is a popular choice for Spring Breakers and, in the resort-heavy area where the couple were staying, there are few safety concerns.
Tourism bosses in Cornwall have complained to the BBC that presenters stand in front of the region during weather reports.

Officials say weather reporters, who typically stand to the left of the screen, often block the west of the county when giving forecasts, meaning Cornwall and the Scilly Isles are obscured.

They also say the region is included in 'throwaway lines' such as predicting rain for the south west when the county is dry - affecting tourism.

Visit Cornwall chief Malcolm Bell says he spoke with senior members of the Met Office and BBC Weather team, including breakfast presenter Carol Kirkwood.

Tourism bosses in Cornwall have complained to the BBC that presenters block the region during weather reports (pictured: Carol Kirkwood)

Visit Cornwall chief Malcolm Bell says he spoke with senior members of the Met Office and BBC Weather team (pictured: Tomasz Schafernaker)

He travelled to London to meet weather presenters at the BBC Studios in London.

Mr Bell said: 'The meeting was a result of several years of moans, lobbying and public criticism.

'We complained about the throwaway lines and presenters standing in front of the Isles of Scilly and sometimes west Cornwall.

'It was a good meeting and they explained they don't know how long they have to speak until the moment they go on air.'

Mr Bell says he stressed Cornwall's unique climate in the meeting - and how a seemingly innocent mention of incoming rain can make a big difference.

'We have seen improvements,' said Mr Bell. 'There are still little grumbles, but good weather apps and online services have made a big difference.'

Mr Bell says he stressed Cornwall's unique climate in the meeting - and how a seemingly innocent mention of incoming rain can make a big difference (pictured: Ben Rich)

Officials say weather reporters, who typically stand to the left of the screen, often block the west of the county when giving forecasts (pictured: Helen Willetts)

The Visit Cornwall chief said the issues he highlighted had the potential to cost his region several million pounds a year.

He added: 'It is a bit of a recurring issue. Weather predominately comes from the west and often when they are doing the weather they start with talking about that.

'They talk about it and move on before giving the correct forecast for the rest of the country.

'But even if it is wet elsewhere it is often very different in Cornwall and the weather has already blown through by the time they talk about it.

'By the way the weather system works it might be wet late morning across the UK but we could have a dry day in Cornwall.

'The normal weather generally comes from the west so we are disadvantaged when they are talking about the rest of the country when we are generally ok.

'It is especially important around times like Easter and this forecast affects people making short breaks. This equates to 25 per cent of our business so that is 400m a year.

'Even if we are talking at around 5 per cent being effected by what they see on the weather forecast we are still looking at about 20m.

'Careless weather words can cost money and I accept sometimes it won't be nice weather. We don't want them to lie but just be accurate and install a bit of caution when the weather looks volatile.'

He added that he would like presenters to think before standing in front of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, saying he would 'just like them to stand back a bit'.

'The Isles of Scilly are small and precious and we need to keep awareness up about them,' he said.

'Standing right in front of them doesn't help at all. They are Cornwall's islands so we feel we need to stand up for them.

'This is an ongoing debate with the Met Office. The biggest determining factor on whether we have a good or a bad year is the weather.

'They have said they will take our issues on board.

'This weekend was a classic as it was not as bad as first forecast and if even a small percentage are put off by this it makes a big difference.'

A BBC spokesperson told MailOnline: 'We welcome feedback from our viewers and know how important it is for our audience to get accurate and up-to-date forecasts whenever they need them.

'BBC Weather management monitors output and takes viewers' comments into account as part of the review process.

'Our forecasts can be accessed on TV, radio, online and through the BBC Weather app, which includes hourly weather data up to 14 days in advance.'
A man who was outraged with his new haircut has decided to seek revenge on his barber in south-west China.

The furious man took matters into his own hands after he became upset at the hairstylist in Nan'an District, Chongqing, pinning down the employee on a chair before shaving his hair off.

CCTV footage of the dramatic incident on March 31 shows the hairdresser being forced to sit still while staring helplessly in the mirror as patches of his hair were shaved off by the customer.

The furious customer (in blue) is seen dragging the barber into a chair before shaving his hair

The man, surnamed Chen, lost his temper after his haircut and got physical with the barber

CCTV footage of the dramatic incident on March 31 shows the hairdresser being forced to sit still while staring helplessly in the mirror as patches of his hair got shaved off by the customer

Prior to the fight, the man was filmed angrily pointing at his head while showing another member of staff a photo on his phone, gesturing that his new haircut was not what he had asked for.

The man, surnamed Chen, then lost his temper and got physical with the barber.

He was heard shouting 'sit down, sit down!' in the video as he attempts to wrestle the young man into a chair.

Prior to the fight, the man was filmed angrily pointing at his head while showing another member of staff a photo on his phone, gesturing that his new haircut was not what he wanted

He was heard shouting 'sit down, sit down!' as he attempts to wrestle the barber into a chair

After he got the employee, surnamed Li, to sit still, he grabbed an electric razor and began shaving the man's hair off.

'I forced him to sit in a chair,' Chen told officers during a video of a questioning at a police station.

'He tried to get away but I pulled him back into the seat,' he said.

The man has been detained by police amid ongoing investigations, according to video news site Pear.

'I forced him to sit in a chair,' Chen said during a video of a questioning at a police station

The young hairdresser was left staring helplessly in the mirror as his head was being shaved

While many net users find the video hilarious, others offered sympathy to both parties.

'Sometimes my hairdresser drives me insane. I think we all have a love-hate relationship with our barbers,' one user commented on Chinese microblogging site Weibo.

'No matter what the hair stylist did to you hair, it's still not right to get violent. He should have demanded a refund instead,' another said.

'I understand his frustration, but it's still a little extreme, one person said.
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Jeremy Corbyn slammed Theresa May's refusal to budge off her red lines tonight after the Prime Minister met Brexiteer ministers and top Tory MPs in Downing Street.

After meeting with his shadow cabinet about the state of the cross-party talks, the Labour leader said he was 'frustrated' the Prime Minister's actions were not matching her calls for compromise.

Mrs May has enraged her own side by inviting Mr Corbyn to talks on finding a compromise that can get her Brexit deal through Parliament. Downing Street and Labour have agreed to more talks between officials tonight.

There are persistent rumours in Westminster Mrs May is poised to over Labour a permanent customs union with the EU after Brexit - despite the the threat of resignations from the Brexiteer wing of her Cabinet if she effectively rules out hopes of new trade deals after Brexit.

But the concession could be the only way to get Labour behind her deal. Mr Corbyn has long demanded a permanent customs union be the basis of the final UK-EU trade deal.

Labour insists it would negotiate a 'UK say' on new EU trade deals once Britain has left the bloc but even if achieved this falls far short of the Leave vision of Britain as a major free trade player on the global stage.

Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the backbench Tory 1922 Committee said there was not 'at the moment' a deal as he left Downing Street this afternoon.

Earlier, Mrs May met Brexiteer ministers including Commons leader Andrea Leadsom, Aid Secretary Penny Mordaunt, Environment Secretary Michael Gove and Trade Secretary Liam Fox and Transport Secretary Chris Grayling earlier.

She held further talks with Remainer ministers including Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd and Justice Secretary David Gauke later.

The meetings come amid claims by the Telegraph that Mrs May's deputy David Lidington is poised to make a written offer to Labour. Talks are ongoing about what it should say on a customs union and new public vote.

Mrs May has cancelled tomorrow's full-blown Cabinet so she can travel to Paris and Berlin for talks on delaying Brexit ahead of an EU summit on Wednesday. There are mounting fears French President Emmanuel Macron could use the summit to trash what is left of Mrs May's plans for a prompt Brexit.

Ahead of No 10 talks, hardline Brexiteers launched a new bid to oust Mrs May as Tory MP Mark Francois publicly demanded a new vote on her leadership.

Unless Mrs May secures a delay to Brexit at the EU summit on Wednesday, Britain will leave without a deal at 11pm on Friday.

Jeremy Corbyn slammed Theresa May's refusal to budge off her red lines tonight after the Prime Minister met Brexiteer ministers and top Tory MPs in Downing Street

After meeting with his shadow cabinet about the state of the cross-party talks, the Labour leader said he was 'frustrated' the Prime Minister's actions were not matching her calls for compromise

Earlier, Mrs May met Brexiteer ministers including Commons leader Andrea Leadsom, Aid Secretary Penny Mordaunt, Environment Secretary Michael Gove and Trade Secretary Liam Fox and Transport Secretary Chris Grayling earlier.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson and Aid Secretary Penny Mordaunt arrived for the meeting of senior minsters today

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. THURSDAY APRIL 11: PM'S FACES MPs Theresa May will return from Brussels with a likely nine to 12 month extension and will outline her plans in the the Commons in the wake of the EU summit. FRIDAY APRIL 12: BREXIT DAY Britain is due to leave the EU without a deal on this date if no delay is agreed. Advertisement

A raft of ministers have threatened to quit the Government if Mrs May pivots to a soft Brexit to salvage her deal, which has been trounced three times by MPs.

But if Mrs May does not move to Labour she faces even more resignations from the Remain wing over the threat of No Deal.

Instead of Cabinet tomorrow, Mrs May will hold a showdown with Emmanuel Macron in Paris as the French President considers his own 'de Gaulle moment' with Brexit and could force Britain out of the EU.

Mr Macron is urging the EU to turn the screw on Britain by demanding 'strict' conditions if Article 50 is extended at a Brussels summit on Wednesday or demand No Deal.

The Prime Minister will also jet to Berlin tomorrow for emergency talks with Angela Merkel - and will be calling some of the other 27 EU leaders in the next 24 hours - as soft Brexit talks with Labour hang in the balance.

She will meet the German Chancellor before the French President ahead of the EU summit in Brussels on Wednesday where she will beg them to delay Brexit until June 30.

But with the EU pushing for a 12-month extension, the PM may ask the two leaders to push her request for a shorter delay as she faces mass ministerial resignations if Brexit is stopped until March 31, 2020.

Mr Macron wants the UK to commit to not to disrupt the EU's business after Jacob Rees-Mogg, the chairman of the European Research Group of Eurosceptic Tory MPs, said Britain should be 'as difficult as possible' in the event of a long extension and frustrate EU budget decisions.

If not he could choose to say 'non' to Mrs May, as General Charles de Gaulle of France did twice when he vetoed Britain's bid to join the EEC in the 1960s.

The EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier is flying to Dublin for emergency talks with Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar amid fears Britain could end up with No Deal.

To avert this Mrs May, who will cancel a crunch cabinet meeting because of her German visit, is risking civil war with her own party by pursuing a softer Brexit, with Boris Johnson calling it a 'surrender' and warning his party leader: 'It cannot, must not and will not happen'.

Brexiteers Liam Fox, Michael Gove and Chris Grayling were seen in Downing Street today (pictured) as the PM is under pressure to leave the EU as soon as possible

Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay visited No 10 today as the Government scrambles to escape the impasse over leaving the EU

Today ERG rebel Mark Francois today wrote a letter to 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady demanding a vote of no confidence in Mrs May's leadership on Wednesday at 3pm - just as she arrives in Brussels.

Prime Minister Theresa May arrives at the back of Downing Street as Brexit talks with Labour are set to start again ahead of a visit to France to meet Emmanuel Macron tomorrow

Mr Francois, a former TA officer who described his time as Europe minister as 'his tour', said today: 'I believe May has been a failure as Leader of our Party, which she now threatens to destroy. Hers is a classic example of hubris  and after hubris, comes nemesis and after nemesis comes psoriasis, the reason we're itching to leave Europe'.

She paved the way for a customs union deal with Labour last night as she pledged to 'compromise' to ensure Brexit happens after talks broke down on Friday.

Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright gave a big hint that the PM could be willing to offer Labour a deal and said: 'The conversations with Labour are ongoing, and I believe they will continue today. Everybody needs to compromise  it isn't just the Government. We all need to find a way through [on Brexit]'.

But Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer said they are waiting for Mrs May's offer and said: 'There aren't any scheduled talks yet but no doubt things will develop today. The ball's in the government's court, we need to see what they come back with. When they do, we'll take a collective position on that'.

In a sign that talks are in the balance junior Brexit minister James Cleverley tweeted in response: 'Hang on a minute!!! Labour have spent months saying 'why won't you listen to our proposals?' Now it sounds like Sir Keir is saying 'we haven't got any proposals, what are yours?'.'

Yesterday, in an informal video statement filmed on a Chequers sofa aimed directly at voters, Mrs May argued she had no choice but to try and find a cross-party agreement with Jeremy Corbyn because otherwise Britain might not leave the EU at all.

She pointed out the referendum campaign was not fought on party lines and said members of the public wanted to see politicians 'working together more often'.

Labour say they are ready to talk today with shadow transport minister Andy McDonald saying Mrs May offering to stay in the customs union 'could be a productive step'.

He added that if Labour's softer Brexit proposition is 'accepted in its totality' it could reduce the argument for a second referendum.

Formal talks between No 10 and Labour broke down on Friday night, but are expected to begin again today after informal contact over the weekend.

In an attempt to break the deadlock, Mrs May could agree to accept elements of Labour's plan for a 'softer' Brexit, including a customs union and alignment with EU rules on employment and the environment.

No 10 is also considering whether to make elements of the deal legally binding to prevent them being torn up by Mrs May's successor. Dubbed a 'Boris-lock' - after Boris Johnson - this would mean putting into law some elements of the agreement so a parliamentary vote would be needed to overturn them.

Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright has called for compromise in Brexit talks between Labour and the Government.

He told the Today programme: 'I think we have to move forward... We must make sure we're all prepared to compromise to fulfil that primary objective.

'What everyone has agreed is that we should sit down and talk sensibly about how we fulfil that objective.

'There's some urgency to it but I do think it's important for everyone to take their responsibilities seriously, whatever party they come from, and try and get to a point where we leave the EU, as people have said they wish to do, and to do it on the best possible terms.

'I think that's achievable. I would prefer we did it on the basis of the Prime Minister's deal... But if we can't do that then let's find another way forward.'

Jeremy Corbyn's Labour will demand a customs union but they appear to be split on whether to demand a second referendum. The EU's leaders are considering whether to give Britain an Article 50 extension with Michel Barnier flying to Dublin for emergency talks

Will 'Bamber' alliance of Boris Johnson and Amber Rudd make it to No 10? Boris Johnson has vowed Tory MPs will not let Theresa May steer the country toward a soft Brexit Jacob Rees-Mogg hailed Amber Rudd as a 'first-class' politician yesterday as MPs claimed she might support Boris Johnson in a leadership alliance dubbed 'Bamber'. The former foreign secretary is keen to win over Miss Rudd to back his tilt at the Tory crown. But the Work and Pensions Secretary is also being wooed by other contenders, including Jeremy Hunt and Michael Gove. Mr Rees-Mogg, chairman of the European Research Group of Eurosceptic Tory MPs, who has hosted 'Back Boris' dinners at his home, paid tribute to Miss Rudd's abilities. Asked about the prospect of Ms Rudd supporting Mr Johnson, he replied: 'Well I've always thought highly of Amber Rudd, and she is a very long-standing friend of my sister and a person of first-class capabilities. I happen to disagree with her on the European issue and there will come a time, although we may find it difficult to believe, when there are other things to talk about than Europe. At that point we will need all the talents arrayed within the party and not just those of Brexiteers.' During the referendum campaign, Miss Rudd, a leading Remainer, attacked Mr Johnson as 'not the man you want driving you home at the end of the evening'. But she was also preparing to endorse him in the subsequent leadership contest until his campaign imploded. The pair often lunch together and are friendly but, by supporting him, Ms Rudd would risk alienating allies who dislike his hardline Brexit views. Some MPs think she is 'stringing him along' and will back a candidate more closely aligned with her own view of Brexit. With Theresa May expected to leave No 10 within weeks if she gets Brexit through, other candidates put themelves forward yesterday. Leader of the Commons Andrea Leadsom, who came second in the contest three years ago, refused to say whether she would run but said her experience of last time had taught her to 'be prepared'. Treasury Chief Secretary Liz Truss, who is also seen as a likely runner, made a pitch to ordinary members by saying they should have a vote on party policy at the Conservative conference. She backed calls for activists to be given a 'free and meaningful voice' at the annual gathering, and presented with 'votable motions' in the main hall of the party conference. Allies of Home Secretary Sajid Javid pointed to polling data showing he was the least disliked leadership contender, with a 'net favourability' rating of minus six, among voters. Mr Johnson's is minus 15 and Mr Gove's minus 22. Advertisement

Allies of the Prime Minister say she is determined to make progress in the talks as she prepares to travel to Brussels on Wednesday, to seek a further extension to Article 50. She has asked for a delay until June 30 with a break clause to allow the UK to leave ahead of European elections on May 22 if a deal has passed by then.

Germany is thought to be sympathetic to a shorter extension, but France is resisting. EU Council president Donald Tusk has suggested the break clause could be accepted, but with a much longer extension of a year.

In the social media clip, filmed sitting on a sofa in the Hawtrey Room at Chequers  the Prime Minister's Buckinghamshire retreat  Mrs May said people had been asking her, 'what on Earth's happening with Brexit?' with nearly three years having passed since the referendum. Suggesting she accepts that her own deal is dead, she said MPs had rejected it three times and 'I can't see them accepting it'.

The Prime Minister also warned that Parliament had rejected a No Deal exit and was now 'legislating to block No Deal'.

While staying in the EU's customs union would allow frictionless trade with other member states to continue, the UK would have to abide by the bloc's tariffs and trade regulations, and it would seriously hamper the country's ability to strike commercial deals with non-EU countries.

A Bill tabled by Tory backbencher Sir Oliver Letwin, which could be used to force Mrs May to delay Brexit, will continue its passage in the Lords today and is likely to receive Royal Assent this week.

As a result of these constraints, Mrs May argued, the only choice was 'either leaving the EU with a deal or not leaving at all'. She added: 'Now I think, the Government thinks, we absolutely must leave the EU. We must deliver Brexit. That means we need to get a deal over the line.'

Her only option was a 'new approach' of holding cross-party talks, she said. 'When you think about it, people didn't vote on party lines when it came to the Brexit referendum. You know I think often that members of the public want to see their politicians working together more often.

'There are lots of things on which I disagree with the Labour Party... But on Brexit I think there are some things we agree on: ending free movement, ensuring we leave with a good deal, protecting jobs, protecting security.

'And so we are talking. Can we find a way through this that ensures that we can get a good deal and a deal agreed through Parliament?' With a laugh, she added: 'It'll mean compromise on both sides but I believe that delivering Brexit is the most important thing for us. People voted to leave the EU (and) we have a duty as a Parliament to deliver that.'

But Mrs May's approach is flatly contradicted by Mr Johnson today.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph he says remaining in a customs union 'would make a total and utter nonsense of the referendum result'.

He claims the Tories would be 'tearing up a promise made thousands of times in Parliament and elsewhere' by acceding to Mr Corbyn's custom union demands.

He adds: 'We would be out of the EU, but in many ways still run by the EU. It would be the worst of both worlds, not just now, but forever  and that is why I find the news so appalling that I don't really believe it.'

Mrs May paved the way for a softer Brexit and said after Parliament rejected her deal and No Deal, the choice was between a deal and staying in the EU

Cabinet ministers were also divided over Mrs May's approach. Treasury Chief Secretary Liz Truss said a flexible extension 'sounds like purgatory' and warned against the UK being stuck in 'limbo'.

EU leaders have 'given up on Theresa May and are now negotiating with MPs directly' As Theresa May heads to Paris and Berlin EU leaders have given up on her, it was claimed today. The bloc's leaders are said to be negotiating directly with MPs after the Cooper/Letwin plot grabbed control of Brexit in the Commons. An EU diplomatic source told The Sun: 'What's annoying us is they're not a real government so we don't have any partners to properly talk to. 'We don't want to be demanding but we've got to manage the process and we don't have another side to manage it with. 'We have no trust in May anymore. We say we're not negotiating with the House but we are. But how can we negotiate with all these different factions?' Advertisement

Leader of the Commons Andrea Leadsom said she was agreeing to the Labour talks 'through gritted teeth'.

But she said the Tories must be willing to give ground to stop Brexit 'slipping away'.

Leadership contender Dominic Raab said it was a 'desperate' decision to hold talks with Mr Corbyn, claiming it was 'potentially disastrous for the nation'.

But Tory MP Johnny Mercer welcomed Mrs May's statement, calling it her 'best in three years'.

Labour splits on Brexit were exposed last night as one third of the party's MPs demanded a second referendum and warned Jeremy Corbyn not to 'bail out' Theresa May.

Eighty MPs, including ten frontbenchers, signed a letter insisting that another Brexit vote is adopted as a red line in Opposition talks with the Government.

They also demanded that an option to Remain be included on the ballot.

They said failing to secure a so-called 'confirmatory vote' would undermine Labour's 'reputation with its membership and electorate', and added: 'Any compromise deal which is now agreed by Parliament will have no legitimacy if it is not confirmed by the public.' The MPs argue it is 'untenable' for Labour not to insist on a public vote, and wrote: 'It is not Labour's job to rescue Theresa May and usher in her successor.' They also warned that any concessions Labour could secure faced being 'ripped up' by whoever takes over from Mrs May as prime minister.

Among those to have signed the letter are business spokesman Chi Onwurah and the party's Treasury spokesman Anneliese Dodds.

French ambassador Jean-Pierre Jouyet arrives at the Cabinet Office 24 hours before the PM is due to meet his President in Paris

Ministers call for Conservatives to woo young before it's too late 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. 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. Advertisement

Labour is deeply divided on a second referendum, with many MPs in pro-Leave seats in favour of a compromise deal to ensure Britain leaves the EU without another public vote.

Last week 25 MPs signed a separate letter calling for Mr Corbyn to rule out a second referendum.

And business spokesman Rebecca Long-Bailey appeared to dismiss the idea that any deal would be put to a public vote. She told the BBC's Andrew Marr show said all Mr Corbyn had to do to fulfil Labour policy was to 'ask for one'.

'Ultimately we want to gain a compromise deal that will satisfy a large consensus across Parliament. And that's our priority,' she said.

It has also emerged that Labour Party chairman Ian Lavery told Mr Corbyn he risks going down in history as the leader who split his party if he backs a second referendum.

Mr Lavery, who has twice defied the Labour whip to abstain on second refsaid erendum votes, made the intervention at a meeting of the Shadow Cabinet last week, The Observer reported.

But Labour backbencher and Brexit committee chairman Hilary Benn believes a second referendum 'should be a red line' for Mr Corbyn.

Any deal should 'come with a commitment to put that back to the people - we don't think these things can be separated,' he told Radio 4's The World this Weekend.

After talks between Labour and the Government began last week, Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry there was a 'strong argument' for a new public vote.

Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson went even further and claimed a new referendum was the only way out of the current impasse.

One option being discussed between the two sides is to put a joint deal to Parliament, but with a separate vote on a second referendum.

This would in all likelihood be voted down because not enough MPs on all sides of the Commons support the idea, but Mr Corbyn could argue he had tried to satisfy his party's policy.
Three schoolgirls in China have drowned in a remote reservoir after one of them fell into the water and the other two tried to save her, according to local reports.

The three friends, one aged 12 and two aged nine, had allegedly been playing unattended by the pond with another friend, also a girl, on top of a mountain.

The first victim fell into the reservoir while trying to wash her hands before the other two jumped in to rescue her, it is said.

Workers at the Yueyang Blue Sky Rescue Team are pictured trying to find the girls in a reservoir in Hunan, China. The three children drowned after one of them had fallen, according to reports

The other two girls allegedly jumped into the pond in an attempt to save their drowning friend. All three children were pronounced dead at the scene after rescuers found their bodies

The incident took place on Saturday afternoon in the village of Jinquan on the outskirts of Linxiang city in Hunan Province.

All of the children were pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.

Police were alerted of the incident by a pedestrian after the fourth girl ran down the mountain to look for help, according to Chen Hua, the head of the rescue team.

The fourth girl had not jumped into the pond.

Mr Chen, who led the Yueyang Blue Sky Rescue Team to the scene, said the reservoir was small and it took 10 officers 15 minutes to recover the girls' bodies.

Different from media reports, he suspected that the three girls had been swimming in the reservoir prior to the tragedy.

Devastated parents cry after the bodies of their daughters were recovered from the reservoir

'When we arrived at the scene, we saw their clothes folded neatly by the shore,' Mr Chen told MailOnline.

It was likely that one of them started to sink and the other two tried to help her, Mr Chen added.

Police are yet to announce details of the case. Further investigation is underway.

It's been estimated that more than 55,000 minors in China are killed in accidents every year. Drowning and road accidents are the two leading causes of death.

In 2017, three young children from the same family drowned in the space of 30 seconds in a Chinese village after one of them fell into a river and the two others apparently tried to rescue the first one.
Some 79 castaways, abandoned on a remote island for two nights when their ferry to the mainland broke down, will finally return home tonight.

Of the group 20 were forced to sleep on camp beds in a church when their ferry broke down leaving them trapped on Lundy Island, 12 miles of the coast of Devon.

Others stayed in 23 properties, a campsite, Wheelhouse and Volunteers' lodge for two nights when the MS Oldenburg suffered a major mechanical failure on Saturday.

Stranded visitors stayed in 23 properties, a campsite, Wheelhouse and Volunteers' lodge when the MS Oldenburg suffered a major mechanical failure on Saturday

Some were left to sleep on the floor of the island pub, the Marisco Tavern, but each visitor was offered all the food and drink they wanted.

The MS Oldenburg has now been fixed and will return the castaways to Bideford, north Devon, by 7.30pm tonight.

Island spokesman Vanessa Shaw said: 'The Oldenburg will sail from Ilfracombe later this morning and passengers will board the ship from the Lundy jetty around 5pm.

The MS Oldenburg has now been fixed and will return the castaways to Bideford, north Devon, by 7.30pm tonight

'It is expected to arrive into Bideford around 7.30pm tonight. Given the tide times the ship cannot arrive in the harbour any earlier than that.

'The sailing will take around two hours and conditions look fine. We would like to thank all the guests for their patience and understanding over the last few days.'

Owen Polley, 35, from Bristol, was one of the people stuck on the island.

Owen arrived on Lundy with his mum for a surprise two-night trip on Thursday and spent Saturday night in a shared room with five strangers.

He said: 'We started hearing whispers about problems with the boat around lunch time on Saturday.

'Then, rather than head down to the jetty, we were all told to go to the tavern.

Owen Polley, 35, from Bristol, was one of the people stuck on the remote island (pictured). Owen arrived on Lundy with his mum for a surprise two-night trip on Thursday and spent Saturday night in a shared room with five strangers

'They told us that the boat had broken and we couldn't get home. They said they were sorting out accommodation for us but it is obviously very limited out here.

'There are double the amount of people here that they can usually accommodate so they really had to squeeze people in.'

Owen said about 20 people slept on makeshift beds in the island's church while others slept in the tavern.

He said: 'I was quite lucky as I was able to share a room in a holiday let with five other people.

'Everyone has been amazing. Staff have given up their rooms to allow people to stay there and we've all been given free meals and drinks.

'We've been making the most of it and have definitely made a few friends.'

A small number of visitors who had to return to the mainland urgently, including an eye surgeon and a patient with a scheduled operation, were transported back by lifeboat yesterday.

The rest of the stranded group are due to be rescued later today.

Evacuee Jo King said: 'They said there was a problem with the boat - they couldn't moor it properly - and they were worried it was going to break up overnight.

'They were concerned the boat mattered most and we wouldn't be going back as planned.'

Mrs King and her husband Derek spent Saturday night in a room in the island's dairy.

Mr King said: 'It was very comfortable. There were people sleeping in the church, and in the old barn. But we were fortunate to end up in the dairy, which was as good as the accommodation we'd paid for.'

Lundy is a three-mile long island off the North Devon coast in the Bristol Channel.

The island has been inhabited for 3,000 years with traces of Bronze and Iron Age settlements and has a current population of about 28.

It got its current name from the Vikings in the 9th Century, who called it Lund-ey, meaning Puffin Island.

The island was sold in 1954 for 150,000 to the Landmark Trust and is kept as a 'tranquil and unaffected place'.

The Landmark Trust, which leases the island, found extra accommodation for those stranded in the island's lodges, campsite, wheelhouse, pub and church.

A spokesman said: 'The people are still here and we gave them all a free breakfast earlier and they have now gone out walking.

'Once they got over the initial hassle of it all they are enjoying their extra time on the island.

'There are only 28 of us who live on the island so we are dealing with a massive number of extra people that we were not expecting.

'The rest of the properties were already all full which is why it has been so difficult but we are helping to straighten everything out and they should be able to get away later today.'

On Saturday morning we reported that the MS Oldenburg had a mechanical problem during a large swell and rough conditions.

The coastguard confirmed that those onboard had been transported back to the island safely.

A spokesman for the island added: 'The Lundy team identified spaces for everyone to stay overnight in the 23 properties, campsite, Wheelhouse, Church and Volunteers' lodge.

'All guests were made as comfortable as possible and given warm bedding and all the food and drink they needed.

'Thank you to everyone involved, including HM Coastguard and all the passengers and guests.'
A senior Tory backbench Brexiteer has demanded Theresa May face a confidence vote by her own MPs before begging EU leaders for a Brexit delay.

Mark Francois said that the Prime Minister should be subjected to an informal 'indicative vote' of confidence that would allow disgruntled MPs 'to demonstrate that they have lost faith in her leadership'.

In a letter to backbench leader Sir Graham Brady the Essex MP said 'we are living in a world gone mad'.

Sir Graham and senior colleagues visited Downing Street for a meeting with Theresa May this afternoon. He left insisting he had 'no intention' of pursuing the plan.

As well as attacking the Prime Minister he also hit out at Brexiteers in her Cabinet who have failed to act even as she seeks a compromise deal with Jeremy Corbyn that could include a customs union.

In the letter to 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham, obtained by Sky News, Rayleigh MP Mr Francois said that the party had been let down by the 'officer class' at the top of Government.

'The so-called "eurosceptics" in the Cabinet do nothing (save consume vast quantities of pizza,' he wrote.

Rayleigh MP and former minister Mark Francois (left, today) has been an emotional and outspoken critic of the Prime Minister and efforts to delay Brexit

Sir Graham Brady was among a large number of top Tories who went to Downing Street to meet Theresa May today

He said Mrs May (pictured arriving at Downing Street today) should face an informal confidence vote - she cannot face an official vote until December under party rules

'Riven by personal ambition they keep their heads firmly below the parapet, many of them hoping that by "sitting out" this great battle for the destiny of our country, they will somehow inherit the crown.

'They won't. This is because, as a rule of thumb, MPs, let alone our party members, do not generally vote for those they no longer respect.'

Mrs May won an official confidence vote in her leadership last December and under Conservative party rules she cannot officially be challenged for a year.

But the hope of such a letter is that seeing a vast majority of her own MPs wanting her gone will provoke Mrs May into resigning.

But in his letter, Mr Francois said she must go. Branding Mr Corbyn a 'committed Marxist, a lifelong CND supporter and a man who would quite willingly disarm this country of its defences', he claimed that the Labour leader was 'taking advice on the negotiations from Sinn Fein/IRA'.

Mr Francois sent a three-page letter to 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady on Monday demanding action be taken against Theresa May over here leadership

He also wrote: 'The so-called "eurosceptics" in the Cabinet do nothing (save consume vast quantities of pizza'

Mr Francois ended with a personal plea: 'We simply cannot go on like this, with a weak leader, a riven Cabinet and a party in despair'

'And if she will not do this then I must ask that you and your colleagues on the executive of the 1922 committee establish an informal "indicative vote" of confidence in the Prime Minister, immediately prior to this Wednesday's meeting of the committee, so that colleagues have an opportunity to demonstrate that they have lost faith in her leadership,' he went on.

'We simply cannot go on like this, with a weak leader, a riven Cabinet and a party in despair.

'I believe Theresa May has been a failure as leader of our party, which she now threatens to destroy. Hers is a classic example of hubris - and after hubris comes nemesis.'

Remainer Lib Dem MP Layla Moran, a Best for Britain supporter, said: 'Mark Francois has a point for once: how can a decision made prior to the full picture being revealed be binding when its consequences are so large?

'It's just a shame that Francois seems to want one thing for himself, while making it his job to prevent the same opportunity being extended to the public.

'Any decision on something as big as Brexit needs to scrutinised by the people. Whatever deal can be agreed on by politicians needs to have the public's sign off.'
Abdul Sadhan, (pictured), was arrested in March of 2018 at his office in Saudi Arabia

The American sister of a man has pleaded for help following claims her brother is being tortured in a prison in Saudi America.

Areej Sadhan, who is based in San Francisco, said her brother Abdul Sadhan, 35, was arrested in March 2018 at his office in Saudi Arabia.

He took up employment for Red Crescent, the equivalent of the Red Cross in Muslim countries, after graduating from Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont.

Areej Sadhan believes her brother was imprisoned by the secret police who did not explain why they took him or where he was going, CBS News reported.

She claimed: 'They refer to his case as an enforced disappearance. 'When someone gets kidnapped or detained and you can't communicate with them at all, they just vanish. This is very, very painful.'

Areej is an American citizen and her mother is too. They live in the San Francisco Bay Area with other family members. She revealed that her brother is not an American citizen.

Areej Sadhan, (left), who is based in San Francisco, said her brother Abdul Sadhan,(right) is being tortured in a prison in Saudi Arabia and she fears he may be killed

Areej said that after graduating from Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, California, he immediately left the United States because his student visa ran out.

She claimed she is extremely concerned because she got an anonymous call from a person who claims to have seen Abdul in a prison getting severely tortured.

'They told me he is in danger and that he might die from the torture and that's when I got very, very scared.

Arreej said that he may have spoken out against the Saudi Government but she is not sure of the circumstances surrounding those claims.

The family are hoping that raising awareness of the case through social media and interviews will shed light on the situation.

They also think pressure could be beneficial given the high-profile death of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Abdul Sadhan, (left), left the U.S. after his student visa expired. He is not an American citizen but his sister Areej, (right) is

Abdul may have spoken out against the Saudi Government but she is not sure of the circumstances surrounding those claims

Khashoggi disappeared on October 2 when he went to the Saudi consulate in Turkey alongside fiancee Hatice Cengiz to obtain divorce papers from his previous marriage so he could remarry.

Turkey concluded that he had been killed soon after walking into the embassy and his body dismembered by a team of Saudi assassins.

The Arab kingdom initially denied the killing. Saudi then changed its story several more times before finally acknowledging that he had been killed in a act of premeditated murder.

The family are hoping that raising awareness of the case through social media and interviews will make a difference and shed light on the situation. Pictured is Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

Abdul Sadhan thinks pressure could be beneficial given the high-profile death of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, (pictured)

But Saudi denied accusations by the regime's critics that Bin Salman had given the order, instead blaming 'rogue elements' of the state.

University of San Francisco professor Stephen Zunes, PhD, claimed the Saudi regime has always been oppressive and isn't affected by media appeals or bad publicity.

He told CBS News: 'Those of us in the Bay Area have a connection with his sister here.

'We have a number of influential members of Congress, including the speaker of the House.

'We can play a particular role in bringing attention to this case and put the kind of pressure that needs to happen.'
A man has drowned after he fell into a river while using a zero-turn lawn mower too close to the water's edge.

Adam Gonzales, 58, was mowing the lawn at 2839 Highway 39, Hunt, Kerr County, Texas on April 4.

Police say he veered too close to the river, and he and the mower toppled in on top of him, pinning him underwater.

But his body was not discovered until much later after he was reported missing. Kerr County Sheriff's Office had to wait until the following day to recover his remains because they needed the Kerrville Fire Department Dive Team's help to lift the heavy mower.

58-year-old Adam Gonzales (pictured) was mowing the lawn at a property where he worked in Hunt, Kerry County, Texas, when he got too close to the water's edge and fell in

His body was discovered in the river, pinned under the water by the weight of the machine

Gonzales' body couldn't be recovered until the next day as police needed Kerrville Fire Department Dive Team's help to lift the heavy mower

Due to the conditions it was decided that Gonzales' body could only be safely recovered at first light the next day on April 5.

Gonzales was from Kerrville and was employed at the Highway 39 property.

According to his obituary he was a father of two described as 'a jack of all trades' and the 'family comedian.'

'Adam was the type that if you called him and needed help on anything he was there,' his obituary reads.
A California father has been arrested for allegedly shooting dead the mother of his young son during a custody exchange at a local police station.

Police in California say Jacob Munn, 30, killed the 27-year-old mother of his child, Brenda Renteria, with a shotgun in front of the Hawthorne police headquarters on Sunday. Renteria died at the scene.

A relative of the victim, who witnessed the shooting, was seen breaking down crying in scene pictures as she was comforted by an officer.

Munn, who has a violent criminal history, initially fled but was arrested in Hawthorne later that night following a manhunt,

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Jacob Munn, 30 (left), has been charged with murder in the shooting death of the mother of his son, 27-year-old Brenda Renteria (right), during a custody exchange

Munn shared a photo of his son warning that he would 'never give up on you'

The couple's 17-month-old son (pictured in a photo shared on Facebook by his father a week ago) escaped unharmed

The couples 17-month-old son was present at the shooting but was not physically hurt. He was reportedly inside the police station at the time, reported KTLA.

I have 30 years with the department and Ive never seen anything like this before, Lt. Scott Hoaglund said in a press conference on Sunday, according to KCAL. Typically a police station is a safe place for people to make a child exchange and I would still recommend that people do that.

A week before the tragedy, Munn posted on his Facebook page a photo of his son and wrote in the caption: 'No matter what i will never give up on you...#RoyalMunnFamily #Family1st #NothinbutLOVE.'

On the day of the killing, he posted a cryptic status update that consisted of a single word: '.SOLID.'

A relative of the victim, who witnessed the shooting, was seen breaking down crying in scene pictures as she was comforted by an officer

The suspect reportedly used a shotgun to kill his ex, after which he fled from the scene, sparking a manhunt

Two days prior, he posted on his page: '.STRONG.'

According to investigators, Renteria had gone to the police station on Hawthorne Boulevard to pick up her son from the child's father.

The mother had asked her family to come with her to the exchange because she feared Munn, KCAL reported.

Munn operates a moving business in Temecula. Pictured on the right is his son as a baby

On the day of the killing, he posted a cryptic status update that consisted of a single word: '.SOLID.'

Two days prior, Munn posted on his Facebook page: '.STRONG.'

While standing outside the lobby of the police headquarters, the parents began arguing.

At some point during the exchange, Munn allegedly produced a shotgun and fired on Renteria, killing her just steps away from the front door of the police station.

He then jumped back in his black Chevy pickup truck and sped off, police said.

The vehicle, with a small cross hanging off the rear-view mirror, was later found abandoned in a Dennys parking lot half a mile south of the police station, but the suspect was nowhere to be found.

The man's abandoned pickup truck was found half a mile south of the police station (pictured)

Jacob Munn was found at 9pm Sunday not far from where his pickup truck was located

It took police about three hours to track down Munn, who was taken into custody in the 4400 block of 134th street in Hawthorne, not far from where his pickup truck was found, at around 9.15pm.

He is being held at the Los Angeles County Jail on $2million bail.

Munn has a prior criminal record that included an arrest in December 2017 on a charge of battery on a former companion

A relative of the slain mother told NBC Los Angeles she and the father of her son had decided to meet in Hawthorne because it was a middle ground between their respective places of residence.

'I do not know if there was a restraining order in place, or if this was just an agreed upon location for them to make the exchange,' Los Angeles County Sheriffs Lt. Scott Hoglund told reporters Sunday. 'I do not know if there were any court papers involved in this.'

Online records indicate that Munn has a prior criminal record that included an arrest in December 2017 on a charge of battery on a former companion.

DailyMail.com can now reveal that Munn is the owner of a moving business registered in Temecula, California, called Lionspaw Movers.

His business' website states that Munn has worked as a mover for the past eight years.

A call to a phone number associated with Munn's moving company went straight to voicemail Monday afternoon.
President Trump launched a bank-shot defense of keeping his personal income tax returns private on Monday, citing objections from a Republican congressman who complained about the politics of weaponizing the IRS filings during the next election cycle.

The House Ways and Means Committee has demanded Trump's last six annual returns from the Internal Revenue Service.

Trump has long pledged to release his income tax filings only after the conclusion of audits that he says the IRS has been conducting for years. No one in the government has demonstrated that those audits exist.

Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan argued on Twitter that 'Dems want Presidents tax returns for purely political purposes!'  a sentiment that Trump retweeted Monday morning.

President Donald Trump began Monday with a tweeted defense of his continuing unwillingness to release his personal income tax returns

Trump cited Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan's claim that the Democrats only want to weaponize the Trump tax returns for political purposes

Trump has long claimed his tax returns are under audit and that legal advisers have told him not to release IRS filings that might need to be amended; that argument falls clat with George Conway, the lawyer-husband of prominent Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway

Jordan, who is the ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Reform Committee, called that '[f]rightening,' but said it 'shouldnt surprise ussame folks used the IRS to target Americans for their political beliefs!'

In a C-SPAN clip Trupm tweeted, Jordan said that 'when you have people in Congress, for political reasons, who are trying to get access to someone's tax returns, that's as wrong as it gets.'

'And I think it should scare every single American.'

George Conway, the lawyer-husband of senior Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, suggested Monday that congressional Demcrats should at a minimum be trying to find out if the president's claims about lengthy audits are true.

'At a minimum, Congress should seek an immediate yes or no answer to the question of whether any of his returns are currently under audit; and if the answer is yes, it should find out which years returns are currently under audit,' he tweeted Monday.

Conway surfaced a May 2016 tweet in which then-candidate Trump insisted that 'my taxes are under routine audit' and [pledged to 'release my tax returns when audit is complete.'

The White House has more recently closed ranks around Trump's personal finances.

Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said Sunday that Democrats will 'never' get the tax returns, 'and they know it.'

'Never, nor should they,' Mulvaney said, throwing down the gauntlet during an appearance on 'Fox News Sunday.'

Gerge Conway (right) owes his visibility to his wife Kellyanne's status as Trump's senior counselor, but his strident anti-Trump arguments have made him a hero in his own right to the president's opponents

Trump also cited Rep. Jordan saying there's no federal law requiring Trump to release his tax returns

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal has requested Trump's personal and business tax returns in a letter to the Internal Revenue Service

'That is not going to happen and they know it,' he claimed. 'This is a political stunt by my former colleagues.'

'Keep in mind that was an issue that was already litigated during the election. Voters know the president could have given his tax returns, they knew that he didn't and they elected him anyway, which is of course what drives the Democrats crazy. They just want the attention on the issue because they don't want to talk to us about policy,' he said.

Trump's personal lawyer Jay Sekulow dismissed the effort on Sunday as a partisan precedent for using the IRS for political purposes.

'What stops another party from doing the same thing?' Sekulow asked on ABC's 'This Week.'

'It's not the law for the United States. We don't have a requirement that presidents do that. This president decided not to because he has an ongoing IRS audit,' he said.

'This idea that you can use the IRS as a political weapon, which is what is happening here, is incorrect both as a matter of statutory law and constitutionally.'

Wednesday's request, in a letter from Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, is viewed by House Democrats as a vital first step toward oversight of Trump's income taxes and business network.

Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said Sunday Democrats will 'never' get hold of President Donald Trump's tax returns

Trump attorney Jay Sekulow accused Democrats of using the IRS as 'political weapon'

Some lawmakers believe the president's personal finances could be rife with conflicts of interest and potential tax law violations.

'It is critical to ensure the accountability of our government and elected officials. To maintain trust in our democracy, the American people must be assured that their government is operating properly, as laws intend,' Neal said in a statement.

He based his request on his committee's oversight jurisdiction of the IRS, and cited a section of the tax code that allows the tax-writing committees to view information on any filer.

That section of law is typically invoked to examine how changes to the tax code could affect taxpayers. There is no precedent for using it to examine a U.S. president's returns.
Jennifer Stewart, 31, faces multiple charges after allegedly stealing a police car following a fight at a Tennessee car wash

A Tennessee woman allegedly stole the police car she was left inside of while the officers were talking to the victim of the fight she was supposedly involved in.

Jennifer Stewart, 31, of Nashville, Tennessee, was arrested and faces multiple charges including evading arrest and vehicle theft, following the incident which began April 4 at about 4pm at National Car Wash in Nashville.

The officers were initially called to the car wash because a woman had allegedly broken into a car and had got into a physical fight with the victim, authorities said in a media alert.

In an effort to separate Stewart from the victim, an officer put Stewart into the backseat of his cruiser and left her there while he went to talk to the victim. It was at this point that Stewart allegedly stole the police car.

Surveillance video was said to have shown Stewart crawling from the backseat through the divider to the front seat and then driving off with the cruiser.

Video of the pursuit, obtained by WKRN, showed at least half a dozen police cars, lights flashing, speeding after the stolen police car.

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Video is said to show Stewart in the back seat of the cruiser. She somehow crawled through the divider to the front seat and managed to drive off with the car

Witness video showed at least half a dozen police cars chasing after the stolen cruiser

Police were able to stop the stolen cruiser by throwing spike strips across a road, flattening the car's two front tires. Stewart was then taken into custody and charged

Officers were able to stop the car and apprehend Stewart after throwing spike strips across a street, which flattened the front tires of the stolen car.

Stewart has been charged with burglary of a motor vehicle, evading arrest, vehicle theft and vandalism and is being held in lieu of a $37,500 bond.

Her arrest affidavit stated that Stewart had broken into a car at the car wash and that she had got into a fight with the victim who she had allegedly stole from, WKRN reported.

Authorities said they will be reviewing the circumstances that led up to the cruiser's theft.
A man is set to go on trial for murdering his wife after his son discovered the remains of his mother in his childhood home two decades after he implicated his own father in her death.

Michael Haim appeared in a Florida court Monday where jury selection for his murder trial was completed.

Aaron Fraser, 29, was three years old when his mother Bonnie Haim disappeared. At the time, he tried to tell police that his 'daddy hurt mommy', but no one believed him and no physical evidence tied his father to the crime, according to the Florida Times-Union.

Even his mother's family members did not believe him. 'The credibility of a child is something that you have to judge in perspective,' Robert Pasciuto, Bonnie's father said in an 2010 episode of the true crime television series Unsolved Mysteries.

Courtesy of News 4 Jax

Michael Haim was initially called a suspect in the case, but he was never charged. At the time, Fraser (sitting in his mother's lap), now 29, was adopted by another family and Bonnie's disappearance remained unsolved

Michael Haim, 52, in court on Monday for the jury selection in his trial

'He's said a couple of things that we know were not true. 'Mom's car is in the lake.' We know her car wasn't there. No one has asked Aaron why did you say mom's car is at the bottom of the lake,' Pasciuto added.

'Aaron also stated that 'Daddy shot Mommy,' 'Daddy placed Mommy in timeout,' and 'My daddy could not wake her up,'' a 2015 arrest affidavit said.

A spent shell casing found where Bonnie was buried was the same type of caliber as a rifle that Michael owned, the affidavit added.

Aaron was adopted to another family and changed his last name to Fraser as Bonnie's disappearance remained unsolved for two decades.

The jury selection in the murder trail begins on Monday in Florida. Michael Haim has maintained that he was not involved with his wife's death. Pictured is the crime scene

Police cordon off the area outside the North Jacksonville home where the remains of Bonnie Haim were found

Courtesy of News 4 Jax

Years later, he won the deed to the childhood North Jacksonville home in a wrongful death lawsuit filed against his birth father.

On December 14, 2014, Fraser begun working with his brother-in-law to demolish the swimming pool in the home's backyard and they made the grisly discovery.

The jury selection was completed Monday for Michael Haim (pictured) who is accused of murdering his wife, Bonnie Haim, in 1993

The excavator they were using cracked a slab of concrete, and Fraser attempted to break it up further with a sledgehammer breaking a water pipe.

As Fraser and his brother-in-law looked for the pipe in the dirt when they came across plastic sheeting or a bag. Fraser broke it open with his shovel.

Fraser told News 4 Jax that he reached inside the bag and initially thought his mother's skull was a 'coconut'.

'It looked like a coconut shell. I had it in my hand. We looked back in the hole and seen teeth,' Fraser told police.

'At that point in time, you could actually see the top of the eye socket. And it was like this part of the head, the top half of the head. I set it back in the hole,' Fraser said.

Bonnie disappeared in January 1993. Her purse was found in a hotel trash bin, and her car was abandoned near the Jacksonville International Airport in Florida.

According to the arrest affidavit, Haim was abusive to his wife and she had made plans to move into an apartment with their son while he was away on a trip.

She had secretly opened a bank account and when Haim found out about it and made her close it, she started giving money to a trusted friend to hold for her.

The trial will begin at 9am on Tuesday, according to Bonnie's family who set up a Facebook page in her memory. Officers seen at the crime scene in 1993

Investigators swarmed Aaron Fraser's childhood home after the discovery of the skeletal remains of his mother in his backyard

Investigators would find a shell casing along with the bones that matched a rifle that was owned by Michael Haim

Bonnie Haim (center) disappeared in January 1993. Her purse was found in a trash bin, and her car was abandoned near the Jacksonville International Airport in Florida. Michael Haim (left) was called a suspect at the time, but he was never charged

At the time, Michael Haim (left) told police that his wife of five years left the home after an argument about their marriage. He was arrested in 2015 after authorities confirmed that a skull found by their son, Aaron Fraser (right, at age three), belonged to Bonnie (right)

The suspect claimed his wife left their home without their son late one night in January 1993 after they had an argument about their marital problems. He also said he went searching for his wife, although he didn't notify law enforcement about her disappearance.

Law enforcement wasn't told about the disappearance until a maintenance worker found her purse and called police.

Haim, who had since moved to North Carolina, was arrested in 2015 after authorities confirmed that the skull belonged to Bonnie.

DNA tests confirmed the remains were those of Bonnie Haim and a medical examiner concluded she died from a homicide 'by unspecified means,' according to the affidavit.

But no one believed Fraser (pictured with his mother) and no physical evidence tied Michael Haim to the crime

Fraser (pictured with his father when he was three) was three years old when his mother disappeared. At the time, he tried to tell police that his 'daddy hurt her'

Michael Haim, now 52, had initially been called a suspect in the case, but he was never charged.

'Michael Haim was the last known individual to have contact with victim,' the arrest affidavit said.

It added: 'The suspect admits that he and the victim were fighting over marital issues and that she was planning to leave and take their child.'

Haim has maintained that he was not involved with his wife's death.

Fraser is expected to testify during the trial.

'We will keep positive thoughts for a competent jury that will hear the truth and make the best decision they can,' the family wrote Monday on a Facebook page dedicated to her memory.
When Virginia Hall, pictured, was born on April 6, 1906, espionage seemed the least likely path for the only daughter of one of Baltimores prominent families. Her mother, Barbara, had hoped for an advantageous marriage to help the familys dwindling fortune, according to a new book, A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell

The odds of success, let alone survival, were not high for Virginia Hall when she was sent to spy behind enemy lines during World War II.

She was a one-legged, 35-year-old American and a former desk clerk. But she flourished where others failed, and helped to build a Resistance network in France when a Nazi victory seemed inevitable. Along the way, Hall was branded the most dangerous spy by the Germans and the Gestapo hunted her relentlessly.

Hall spoke five languages, went by many code names, and could switch her appearance multiple times in an afternoon. She cultivated contacts, planned a daring and successful prison escape for her fellow agents, and later on during the war  with the Nazis hot on her heels  recruited and led guerrilla groups whose sabotage missions of blowing up bridges and cutting off communications helped the Allied effort after D-Day.

A new book, A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell, creates a detailed picture of an extraordinary and tenacious woman who long operated in the shadows, and desired no accolades for her bravery. The book is the basis for a slated movie set to star Daisy Ridley.

This book is an attempt to reveal how one woman really did help turn the tide of history, Purnell wrote.

Repeatedly rejected for a diplomatic position with the U.S. State Department, Hall first worked for British intelligence for what was called the Special Operations Executive, using the cover of a New York Post reporter. Later on, she was an agent for the United States Office of Strategic Services, which was the forerunner to the Central Intelligence Agency.

American Virginia Hall, pictured above in a sketch and a photo, first worked for British intelligence for what was called the Special Operations Executive, or SOE. No one in London gave Agent 3844 more than a fifty-fifty chance of surviving even the first few days. For all Virginias qualities, dispatching a one-legged thirty-five-year-old desk clerk on a blind mission into wartime France was on paper an almost insane gamble, Sonia Purnell wrote in her new book, A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II'

Hall first set up shop in Vichy in the so-called Free Zone, and set about establishing her bona fides for her cover, a reporter for the New York Post. The statuesque, flame-haired newcomer with an aristocratic bearing, Purnell wrote, was able to make inroads, and she became friends with Suzanne Bertillon, who despite working as a censor of foreign press for the Vichy government, helped Hall by setting up contacts throughout the country that provided her with information, which proved vital for the British war effort, such as German troop movements. Above, Hall with Paul Goillot, right, whom she would later marry, and Henry Riley, left, and Lieutenant Aimart, center, in France in 1944

After Vichy, Hall moved to Lyon, where rumblings of rebellion were stirring. She learned how to change her appearance within minutes depending on whom she was meeting, Purnell wrote. Altering her hairstyle, wearing a wide-brimmed hat, putting on glasses, changing her makeup, wearing different gloves to hide her hands, or even inserting slivers of rubber into her mouth to puff out her cheeks: it all worked surprisingly well. Recruiting people for the Resistance, and, moreover, then waiting until action was called for was difficult and Purnell noted that Halls early days in Lyon were extremely rough. Above, Hall, the only woman center right, with those who were part of the Resistance in France against the Nazis in 1944

Despite the Nazis looking for her, Hall returned to France in March 1944  this time working for the United States' Office of Strategic Services. The risk involved was just incredible really, author Purnell told DailyMail.com. Hall was eventually tasked with recruiting guerrilla groups for sabotage. After D-Day on June 6, 1944, when the Allies stormed Normandy in France, Resistance groups were crucial and created serious military diversions that together with massive Allied bombardment prevented the Wehrmacht (German armed forces) from re-forming against the Allied forces father north and south, Purnell wrote. Halls sabotage missions were among the more successful at the time, according to the book. Above, an example of sabotage during the war. A railway bridge in Chamalieres, France was blown up in August 1944

After the war, despite being a hero with field experience, the CIA would fail, at times, to use her talents properly or promote her as they would a man  to the point that Hall became the agencys textbook example of discrimination, according to the book.

She had a lot of rejection during her own lifetime - unbelievably cruel and misguided and awful, Purnell told DailyMail.com. She didnt feel sorry for herself and she didnt complain. She was just determined and had such courage and she just kept at it.

When Virginia Hall was born on April 6, 1906, espionage seemed the least likely path for the only daughter of one of Baltimores prominent families. Her mother, Barbara, hoped for what Purnell called an advantageous marriage to help the familys dwindling fortune.

Nicknamed Dindy, Hall once sported a bracelet of live snakes to school, described herself as cantankerous and capricious, and was a natural leader who got elected class president. She was engaged at aged 19, but broke it off and first attended Radcliffe College (now part of Harvard) in 1924, and then transferred to Barnard College the following year, according to the book.

Hall craved a career and her ambition would take her from Barnard, where Purnell remarked she was an average student, to live in Paris, a mecca for American expats like Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, at aged 20. She studied at the Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques, what is now the prestigious Sciences Po, and at the Konsular Akademie in Vienna.

After three years in Europe, Hall spoke French, German, Spanish, Italian and Russian. She was well-versed in its politics, had a deep and abiding love of France, and as Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini were on the rise, she was thus witness to the dark clouds of nationalism gathering across the horizon, Purnell wrote.

She came back to Maryland in July 1929  months before the stock market crash that was the start of the countrys Great Depression. What remained of her familys fortune was lost, and Hall went to graduate school at the George Washington University in Washington, DC. She then applied to become a professional diplomat with the U.S. State Department but was rejected, with Purnell noting that they seemed unwilling to welcome women in their rank. It would not be the last time.

Nonetheless, Hall started working for the department as a clerk, first at the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw, then in Turkey. It was in Turkey that her life took a different turn.

In December 1933, Hall had organized a shooting exhibition for a type of bird called a snipe, and somehow, while out in the wetlands, she stumbled. As she fell, her gun slipped off her shoulder and got caught in her ankle-length coat. She reached out to grab it, but in doing so fired a round at point-blank range into her foot, Purnell wrote. The wound was serious.

Initially, it seemed as if Hall would recover, but gangrene had taken hold and was fast spreading up her lower leg, and on the brink of death, the doctors amputated her left leg below the knee in a last-ditch bid to save the 27-year-old, she wrote.

The ordeal, however, was not over, and Hall had sepsis, a potentially life-threatening condition caused by the body's response to an infection, according to the Mayo Clinics website. In a tremendous amount of pain, Hall saw her father, who had died almost three years earlier, at her bedside, telling her it was her duty to survive, according to the book. Hall pulled through, and her fathers words would stay with her  especially for the difficult moments that were to come.

Sonia Purnell, the author of a new book, 'A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II,' that chronicles the life of Virginia Hall, told DailyMail.com that she thought Hall felt embarrassed when people wanted to talk about what she did during the war. She wanted to remain undercover and went to work for the CIA. Above, William 'Wild Bill' Donovan, right, who was the head of the United States Office of Strategic Services, awards Hall the Distinguished Service Cross on September 27, 1945 in Washington, DC. According to the book, she was the only civilian woman to receive the medal for 'extraordinary heroism against the enemy'

For the majority of her time behind enemy lines, Virginia Hall, above in an undated self-portrait, was strict about her security protocols and did not have a boyfriend or take a lover, unlike some of her fellow male agents, which led to leaks and other disastrous consequences, according to the book, 'A Woman of No Importance.' When she went into the field, I think she was quite used to be very self-sufficient, she didnt need other people in the same way that a lot of the other agents did, which was their downfall, author Sonia Purnell told DailyMail.com

Virginia Hall, pictured, spoke five languages: French, German, Spanish, Italian and Russian. She studied both in Paris and Vienna, Austria during the 1920s. When she returned to the United States, she went to graduate school in Washington, DC. She then applied to become a professional diplomat with the U.S. State Department but was rejected, with Purnell noting in her new book that they seemed unwilling to welcome women in their rank. It would not be the last time. Nonetheless, Hall worked as a clerk at various American embassies

Hall's life would take a different turn when she posted to work at the consulate in Turkey. In December 1933, Hall had organized a shooting exhibition for a type of bird called a snipe, and somehow, while out in the wetlands, she accidentally shot herself in the foot. To save the then 27-year-old's life, doctors amputated her left leg due to gangrene, according to a new book called 'A Woman of No Importance.' Nonetheless, Hall eventually went back to work, and her first posting after the accident was in Venice. She is seen above making her way around the city sometime in the 1930s

After Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, Hall first tried to join the womens branch of the British army but was denied because she was American. Next, she went to Paris, where she was finally accepted as a volunteer to drive ambulances for the French army, known as SSA, as seen in the inscription above

Hall then attempted to go back to work at the consulate but it was too soon, and in the summer of 1934, she returned to the U.S. She then had repair operations, and was fitted with a new prosthetic that although modern by 1930s standard, it was clunky and held in place by leather straps and corsetry around her waist, Purnell wrote, and despite being hollow, the painted wooden leg with aluminum foot weighed eight pounds.

After learning how to walk again with her false leg, which she named Cuthbert, Hall was back in Europe by November, posted to a consulate in Venice. She then worked in Estonia, and, once again, Hall tried to become a diplomat but was turned down.

Fearful of the future, all hopes of a promotion dashed, pigeonholed as a disabled woman of no importance, she resigned from the State Department in March 1939, Purnell wrote.

On September 1, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland. After traveling to London, Hall first tried to join the womens branch of the British army but was denied because she was American. Next, she went to Paris, where she was finally accepted as a volunteer to drive ambulances for a French regiment.

After her accident, she had been rejected and now she wanted to prove her worth so badly, wanted to prove what she could still do, not what she couldnt do, Purnell told DailyMail.com about why Hall decide to take an insane gamble with her life to volunteer in wartime France.

Hall was sent to the Frances northeastern border on May 6, near the Maginot Line, which was supposed to deter the Germans from invading with its fortifications and weapons. Four days later, the Nazis went around the Maginot Line and quickly overrun the French. By June 22, Marshal Philippe Petain signed an armistice with Hitler, dividing the country into the Occupied Zone, under German rule, and the Free Zone or Vichy France with Petain as its leader.

A chance encounter in Spain would ultimately led to Hall spying for the British. While on the way to England after the French surrendered to the Nazis, Hall met British spy George Bellows in August 1940, according to the book.

The United States was still staying out of the war at that point, and would not join the Allies until after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Britain alone at that time stood against Hitler, and its spy network in France had collapsed, Purnell noted in her book.

Bellows was impressed by Halls courage under fire, powers of observation, and most of all her unqualified desire to help the French fight back, and so he gave her a number to call while in London, according to the book.

The number was for Nicolas Bodington, a senior officer in the independent French or F section of a new and controversial British secret service, she wrote.

The Special Operations Executive had been approved on July 19, 1940, the day that Hitler had made a triumphant speech at Reichstag in Berlin, boasting of his victories. In response, Winston Churchill had personally ordered SOE to set Europe ablaze through an unprecedented onslaught of sabotage, subversion, and spying.

When she arrived in London, it took her some time before she called the number, and Purnell noted that she was loathe to cause her mom any more angst and was headed back to the U.S. However, she couldnt get a ticket and met Bodington.

Hall snapped up the job Bodington offered, and, Purnell wrote, she would be the first female F section agent and the first liaison officer of either sex.

She and the other SOE officers were to build up a Resistance network from scratch in a foreign land behind enemy lines, Purnell wrote, however, no one had really done that before. The early days were marked by repeated failure before Hall, according to the book.

She received a modicum of training, learned the basics of coding and when she could exercise her license to kill. For Hall, her preferred method was what she dubbed the pills, probably the L or Lethal tablets, which were tiny rubber balls containing potassium cyanide that could be used in case she was tortured or to kill, according to the book.

When Virginia Hall was born on April 6, 1906, espionage seemed the least likely path for the only daughter of one of Baltimores prominent families. Her mother, Barbara, hoped for what author Sonia Purnell called an advantageous marriage to help the familys dwindling fortune. Nicknamed Dindy, Hall once sported a bracelet of live snakes to school, described herself as cantankerous and capricious, and was a natural leader who got elected class president, according to the book A Woman of No Importance.' Above, Virginia Hall, right, with her father, Ned, center

Hall spent time at her family's farm, called Boxhorn, above, in Maryland. This experience would serve her later on during the war when she had to live on farms in France. Hall was engaged at aged 19, but broke it off and first attended Radcliffe College (now part of Harvard) in 1924, and then transferred to Barnard College the following year, according to a new book called A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell

Hall, above, craved a career and her ambition would take her from Barnard, where Purnell remarked she was an average student, to live in Paris, a mecca for American expats like Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, at aged 20. She studied at the Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques, what is now the prestigious Sciences Po, and at the Konsular Akademie in Vienna

After three years in Europe, Hall spoke French, German, Spanish, Italian and Russian. She was well-versed in its politics, had a deep and abiding love of France, and as Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini were on the rise, she was thus witness to the dark clouds of nationalism gathering across the horizon, Purnell wrote. On the left, Hall is seen with her older brother John, and, on the right, Hall during her teenage years sporting pigeons as a hat

On August 23, 1941, she left for France.

No one in London gave Agent 3844 more than a fifty-fifty chance of surviving even the first few days. For all Virginias qualities, dispatching a one-legged thirty-five-year-old desk clerk on a blind mission into wartime France was on paper an almost insane gamble, Purnell wrote.

In France, Hall first set up shop in Vichy in the so-called Free Zone, and set about establishing her bona fides for her cover, a reporter for the New York Post.

The statuesque, flame-haired newcomer with an aristocratic bearing, Purnell wrote, was able to make inroads, and she became friends with Suzanne Bertillon, who despite working as a censor of foreign press for the Vichy government, helped Hall by setting up contacts throughout the country that provided her with information, which proved vital for the British war effort, such as German troop movements.

After Vichy, she moved to Lyon, where rumblings of rebellion were stirring. Hall also changed her hair, dyeing it light brown and wearing tweed suits.

She learned how to change her appearance within minutes depending on whom she was meeting, Purnell wrote. Altering her hairstyle, wearing a wide-brimmed hat, putting on glasses, changing her makeup, wearing different gloves to hide her hands, or even inserting slivers of rubber into her mouth to puff out her cheeks: it all worked surprisingly well.

With a little improvisation she could be three or four different women  Brigitte, Virginia, Marie, or Germaine  within the space of an afternoon.

Recruiting people for the Resistance, and, moreover, then waiting until action was called for was difficult and Purnell noted that Halls early days in Lyon were extremely rough.

The SOE sent other agents into France - some had parachuted in - but the new arrivals would make the fateful decision to meet together at one place. The Vichy French police, who were working with the Nazis, arrested them all. Hall, who did not go to the gathering, was left with three other agents, and was working furiously to make up for lost ground, according to the book.

Hall was strict about her security protocols and did not have a boyfriend or take a lover, unlike some of her fellow male agents, which led to leaks and other disastrous consequences.

When she went into the field, I think she was quite used to be very self-sufficient, she didnt need other people in the same way that a lot of the other agents did, which was their downfall, Purnell said.

French dissidents also talked loudly and proudly, and did things like used their own names, Purnell noted in the book. (Later on in the war, there would be rivalry in the Resistance between the Communists and those who supported Charles de Gaulle, the leader of Free France, who was then in London.)

Everyone feared their neighbors ears, she wrote, noting that there were more than 1,500 denunciations a day.

She had once been careless in her life, hadnt she, and she shot her foot off and I mean that very nearly ended her life and it ended a lot of her dreams and hopes. I think she really was determined that she would never be careless again and everything she did would be precise and rehearsed and practiced and planned and prepared, Purnell explained.

Thats how she survived and thats how she succeeded.

In Lyon, Hall was making one of her best contacts: Germaine Guerin, a 37-year-old burning brunette who partly owned a brothel that was frequented by German officers, French police, Vichy officials, and industrialists, and who had access to important commodities such as gasoline and coal, according to the book.

Her clients never thought to doubt her motives let alone search her premises, Purnell wrote. She agreed to make parts of her brothel and three other flats available as safe houses (heated by her illicit coal).

Guerin was to become an unlikely pillar of Virginias entire Lyon operation and one of its most heroic agents.

The women who worked at the brothel also stuck out their necks to get information into Halls hands  they spiked their clients drinks to loosen their tongues, and rifled their pockets for interesting papers to photograph when they slept, according to the book.

Hall 'had a lot of rejection during her own lifetime - unbelievably cruel and misguided and awful, author Sonia Purnell told DailyMail.com. She didnt feel sorry for herself and she didnt complain. She was just determined and had such courage and she just kept at it. Above, the Baltimore Sun ran a story in January 1934 about Hall's accident in Turkey while she worked for the consulate. Hall accidentally shot herself in the foot, and doctors amputated her leg to save her life

After Hall's accident and recovery, she attempted to go back to work at the consulate but it was too soon, and in the summer of 1934, she returned to the U.S. Hall, pictured, then had repair operations, and was fitted with a new prosthetic that although modern by 1930s standard, it was clunky and held in place by leather straps and corsetry around her waist, Purnell wrote, and despite being hollow, the painted wooden leg with aluminum foot weighed eight pounds

Sonia Purnell, left, told DailyMail.com it was a huge amount of detective work to write about Virginia Hall for her new book, A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II, right. When youre writing about a secret agent, they dont make it easy for you, believe me, she said, and then laughed

Hall had successfully organized a Resistance circuit, and word got out about Marie Monin, her alias then, in Lyon. She was able to recruit many different people, such the owner of a lingerie shop, who took messages and signaled with how close or far a pair of mended stockings were in a window, and the elderly women who let the Resistance keep supplies at their antique shop, according to the book.

All knew that the likely price of capture was death, Purnell wrote.

Hall was perhaps too successful  the Nazis were on to the fact that there was a spy in Lyon coordinating people against them, albeit they initially thought it was a man. During a later phase of the war, Lyon and its people would pay the price for their insurgency.

She changed her code name from Marie to Isabelle to then Philomene, according to the book, but the Abwehr, German military intelligence, and the Gestapo were hell-bent  separately and in tandem  on hunting down this notorious agent they knew to be somewhere in the city...

Klaus Barbie, the Gestapos most notorious investigator  who would within a year be awarded the Iron Cross (reputedly by Hitler himself) for torturing and slaughtering thousands of resistants  was also taking a personal interest in Virginia.

The Limping Lady of Lyon was becoming the Nazis most wanted Allied agent in the whole of France, Purnell wrote, referring to Halls gait that was due to her false leg, which she called Cuthbert.

The heat got to be too much, and Hall eventually escaped from France to Spain through an arduous journey that included scaling with Cuthbert an 8,000-foot mountain pass in winter. She made it back to London in January 1943, according to the book.

Purnell wrote: She had set up vast networks, rescued numerous officers, provided top-grade intelligence, and kept the SOE flag flying through all the tumult. She had almost alone laid the foundations of discipline and hope for the great Resistance battles that were to come.

But she wasnt done. Despite the Nazis looking for her, Hall returned to France  this time working for her countrys Office of Strategic Services. She drastically altered her appearance, donning a disguise of an older peasant woman, and even had her teeth ground down, according to the book.

The risk involved was just incredible really, Purnell said.

First, Hall was to scout safe houses for other agents, but she then was tasked with recruiting guerrilla groups for sabotage. She ended up in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, which is in a geographically isolated region that is now known for saving thousands of Jewish lives during the war. She would earn the moniker Madonna of the Mountains, according to the book.

After D-Day on June 6, 1944, when the Allies stormed Normandy in France, Resistance groups were crucial and created serious military diversions that together with massive Allied bombardment prevented the Wehrmacht (German armed forces) from re-forming against the Allied forces father north and south, Purnell wrote.

The movies may sometimes give the impression that success on D-Day marked the end of the worst fighting, but across many areas of France, including Virginias, it created new challenges of its own. The remaining Germans  and their French collaborators  were edgy, afraid, and more brutal than ever.

Halls sabotage missions were among the more successful at the time, according to the book. She would win commendations for her bravery: a Member of the Order of the British Empire, and a Distinguished Service Cross.

What was amazing about Virginia was that she was behind enemy lines for the best part of three years and she survived. That was extraordinary, Purnell said.

However, Purnell said that she thought Hall felt embarrassed when people wanted to talk about what she did during the war. She wanted to remain undercover and went to work for the CIA. But she had a tough life at the agency because she didnt conform to the 1950s kind of idea of the perfect women. She was almost embarrassing because she had done so much in the field behind enemy lines, Purnell said.

She took a lot of flak, but she took some ground as well and she made it possible for future generations to go further than she did.

Hall met her husband, then Lieutenant Paul Goillot, in 1944 during the war. They were married in 1957, and stayed together until her death on July 8, 1982 at aged 76.

Constantly throughout her life she was kind of dismissed as a woman of no importance, Purnell said.

And yet, as we know, she ended up being a very important women indeed.

Virginia Hall, left, met her husband Paul Goillot, right, in 1944 in France. They were married in 1957, and stayed together until her death on July 8, 1982 at aged 76. Above, the couple in an undated photo when they were living in America. After the war, Hall worked for the CIA and the agency would fail, at times, to use her talents properly or promote her as they would a man  to the point that Hall became the agencys textbook example of discrimination, according to a new book A Woman of No Importance'
The trial of four Barclays bankers accused of covering up a multi-billion pound funding deal with the Qataris during the financial crisis has been halted and the jury discharged.

John Varley, ex-chief executive at the bank, Roger Jenkins, Thomas Kalaris and Richard Boath, were all charged with conspiracy to commit fraud.

It was alleged that the bankers raised 11bn in emergency fundraising in 2008, but that 4bn-worth of the investment which came from Qatar was secured by making secret payments to the Gulf state.

John Varley, 63, of west London is the ex-chief executive of Barclays bank who was accused of covering up a multi-billion pound funding deal with the Qataris during the financial crisis

The money was paid in fees after 'essential' investments of approximately 1.9 billion and 2.05 billion were made by the Qataris to Barclays 'to shore up their capital base' and to avoid a Government bailout, the trial, which began in January, heard.

And prosecutors claimed that the bank bosses knowingly hid the staggering fees in to avoid triggering a loss of confidence in the bank.

The deal was the subject of a five-year investigation by the Serious Fraud Office, but today, after a month-long break in the court case, Mr Justice Jay brought the jury back to formally discharge them.

At Southwark Crown Court, he said: 'I cannot underestimate the effort everyone has put on.'

Varley, 63, of west London, Jenkins, 63, of Malibu, California, Boath, 60, of Henley-on-Thames, and Kalaris, 63, of south-west London, had been charged with conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation in relation to Barclays' June 2008 capital raising.

Richard Boath (left), 60, and Roger Jenkins (right), 63, along with John Varley and Thomas Kalaris were charged with conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation in relation to Barclays' June 2008 capital raising

Varley and Jenkins were charged with a second count of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation in relation to Barclays' October 2008 capital raising.

Varley was the boss of Barclays until the end of 2010 and Jenkins left the bank in 2009 and is now based in Malibu, California.

Kalaris, a London-based US citizen, ran the wealth management division of Barclays while Boath ledthe bank's European financial institutions group.

The four all deny conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation in relation to the emergency fundraising which allowed Barclays to avoid direct governmental intervention.

The case is subject to continuing reporting restrictions.
A couple has been banned from practising 'kambo' treatment after a woman who underwent the same controversial procedure died.

Carlie J Angel and Brad T Williams from Christies Beach, south of Adelaide, run a business named Two Wolves - One Body, which offers kambo treatments for a fee.

However, the Health Complaints Commissioner handed down a prohibition order on the pair after Natasha Lechner went into cardiac arrest after participating in a 'kambo ceremony' in her home in Mullumbimby, in northern NSW, on March 8.

A couple has been hit with a prohibition order to stop them from practicing their 'kambo' treatment offers after a woman died in NSW after undergoing the same procedure

Carlie J Angel (pictured) and Brad T Williams from Christies Beach, south of Adelaide, run a business named Two Wolves - One Body which offers kambo treatments for a fee

'The Health Complaints Commissioner has made this Interim Prohibition Order because the Commissioner reasonably believes that the general health service provider named below has contravened a code of conduct,' the order reads.

'It is necessary to make this order to avoid a serious risk to the health, safety or welfare of the public.'

Under new rules the order was able to be applied to the South Australian couple.

The pair posted a statement to their website after they were given the prohibition order.

'The events in NSW were completely unrelated to us as practitioners, and our hearts go out to everyone involved in NSW,' the staement read.

'We understand that the Victorian Dept of Health and Human Services is alarmed by this event and are exercising due caution to protect the public of Victoria.'

The order will be upheld for 12 weeks while the commission investigated the use and validity of kambo treatments

Kambo treatment is the practice whereby the venom of a giant leaf or monkey frog (pictured), usually mixed with saliva or or water, is directly applied to open wounds

The order will be upheld for 12 weeks while the commission investigated the use and validity of kambo treatments.

'As advocates for Kambo, we have full belief in our safety standards and protocols and the safety of Kambo when the appropriate guidelines, precautions and procedures are adhered to,' the website's statement continued.

Commissioner Karen Cusack told The Advertiser she was concerned about the practice which required further investigation.

'I'm incredibly concerned about any services that are claiming to provide health benefits by using the South American poison, kambo,' she told the publication.

'Kambo is often applied into open wounds created specifically for that purpose.'

Kambo treatment is the practice whereby the venom of a giant leaf or monkey frog, usually mixed with saliva or or water, is directly applied to open wounds.

Some of the side effects associated with kambo include severe vomiting, dizziness, fainting and swollen lips or face.

After Ms Lechner's (pictured) ceremony, the 39-year-old's body temperature plummeted and she passed out before dying from cardiac arrest

After Ms Lechner's ceremony, the 39-year-old's body temperature plummeted and she passed out.

An ambulance was called but Ms Lechner could not be revived and was pronounced dead a short time later.

Kambo, although controversial, is a growing trend that is said to purge the body of toxins by making its participants vomit.

Ms Lechner's twin brother, Christian, said his sister's debilitating back pain, which she had been dealing with for more than 20 years, led her to the alternative therapy.

'She was a hairdresser for 20 years and had sciatica and a crushed vertebrae and often cried in pain, she needed back surgery and high doses of pain killers,' he told The Daily Telegraph.

Five deaths have been linked to Kambo across the world since its introduction.

According to the IAKP's website, kambo can have serious adverse side effects or reactions in some people, including seizures and death - especially if it accidentally enters the bloodstream.

Although it is not commonly practiced, Australia has the third-largest number of kambo practitioners in the world behind the US and the UK.
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A burst of red and white on a day of balmy weather is a welcome reminder spring is finally here.

But while the vibrant tulips and narcissus of Arundel Castle promise warmer days to come, a wave of cool Arctic air this week means picnic season is still a way off yet.

Mild conditions have helped 60,000 tulips bloom in a stunning display of 120 varieties at the West Sussex castle's annual Tulip Festival.

It comes as Britain's biggest tulip growers promise a bumper crop this year, with flowers in colour two weeks earlier than usual  and even before rivals in Holland.

Yesterday saw temperatures more typical of May in parts of the country, with 64F (18C) recorded in the South East.

But they are set to plummet over the next few days, bringing overnight frosts in some areas and the arctic air could see temperatures fall below 32F (0C).

Warm conditions have helped 60,000 tulips bloom in a stunning display of 120 varieties at Arundel castle's annual Tulip Festival

Red carpet: Visitors enjoy a vibrant display of 60,000 flowers at Arundel Castle, West Sussex, against the back drop of Arundel Cathedral, before the cold returns this week

Forecaster Peter McAward, of Meteogroup, said: 'We're going to start to see cooler air spreading in from the east which will make it feel much colder overnight.

'Wednesday night into Thursday looks like it will be the coolest part of the week. During the day it will feel more seasonal, except in the East where lingering clouds will really keep temperatures down.

'By the weekend it will feel noticeably colder everywhere with temperatures barely reaching 50F (10C).'

Arundel Castle will attract thousands of visitors to its colourful festival, which runs throughout April.

Head gardener Martin Duncan said: 'Our red and white labyrinth of Apeldoorn tulips and Thalia narcissus will be at its most beautiful towards the middle the month.'

The blooming flowers in Sussex came as yesterday saw temperatures more typical of May in parts of the country, with 18C (64F) recorded

But they are set to plummet over the next few days, bringing overnight frosts in some areas and daytime temperatures that struggle to exceed double figures

However, below average temperatures and widespread frost at night will replace the milder weather of recent days.

In the South West of the country today, there will be shadowy weather with maximum temperatures of about 55F (13C), which is around average for this time of year.

Even the South East of England could experience chilly temperatures of 30F (-1C) overnight during the middle of this week.

But conditions are expected to improve by Easter, with the Met Office saying temperatures are 'likely to recover to near-normal, with warm conditions likely at times, especially in the South and West'.

The London Eye on London's South Bank is shrouded in fog this morning as a London bus crosses Waterloo Bridge

Six-year-old Aimee Everitt runs through a field of tulips in a bulbfield near King's Lynn in Norfolk in the sunshine morning

Tulips at Belmont Nurseries near King's Lynn today have flowered early due to the mix of warm and wet weather this spring

The flowers at the tulip nursery in King's Lynn have bloomed two weeks early this year thanks to the weather conditions

Met Officer forecaster Bonnie Diamond said: 'After what was a generally mild weekend and today being warm in some parts, the temperatures are just going to take a tumble again.

'It is going to feel much cooler than what today will feel. Because it's from an Arctic source, it's going to introduce cooler temperatures to the country as we go through Tuesday and into Wednesday.

'Temperatures are going to be quite cool, especially in the north and eastern parts of the UK. And possibly even below average for the time of year, with some places seeing temperatures in the single figures by day.'

Parts of southern England, the Midlands and Wales will have an unsettled night tonight with showers spreading from east to west. A few heavy bursts of rain are also possible, even with thunder locally.

Northern Ireland will have clear intervals but a few showers are possible here too. The rest of the UK, including much of northern England and Scotland, will have a largely dry night with broken cloud.

A band of rain will linger across southern England and South Wales tomorrow (left), bringing cloudy and wet conditions

A band of rain will then linger across southern England and South Wales tomorrow, bringing mostly cloudy and wet conditions. Further north it will be a largely fine and dry day with sunny spells - but feeling cooler.

On Wednesday, any remaining cloud and rain in the South and South West should tend to clear away, leaving much of the UK with a dry and bright day. Thursday will be largely dry with sunshine but the risk of rain in the East.

Ms Diamond said there will be plenty of dry, sunny weather, but it will be 'noticeably cooler' by midweek, with highs of 48F (9C) in Scotland and 52F (11C) in Newcastle by Wednesday - and frost thanks to clear skies at night.

The top temperature over the weekend was 62.3F (16.8C) in Porthmadog, North Wales, yesterday. The low was 22.6F (-5.2C) recorded in the Aberdeenshire village of Braemar on Saturday.
Irish ISIS bride Lisa Smith has begged to be allowed back into her home country along with her two-year-old daughter, promising she will not try to kill anyone.

Smith, who is currently detained at the Al Hawl refugee camp in northern Syria following the fall of Baghouz, said her daughter is her 'number one priority' and she wants to bring the girl back to the West so she can be educated.

Despite her background in the military, where she was a private in the Irish Defence Forces, Smith denied fighting for ISIS and said she hadn't trained any jihadi fighters.

Smith is believed to have left Ireland in either 2013 or 2014 to join British husband Sajid Aslam, a former supply teacher, in Tunisia before going to Syria.

She claims Aslam was killed in the past three months.

Lisa Smith, 37, a former Irish soldier who left to join ISIS, wants to be allowed back into Ireland along with her daughter after the fall of the terror group's 'Caliphate'

The Dundalk native did admit to attending one military training session, which she said prompted her to remember her own military training.

Asked about her home country, she said: For me, I want to go back to my country.

Explaining why she wanted to do this, she added: Obviously if people are good, you know, and they treat you right and they smile at you, you know.

Ms Smith also defended any possible criticism of her as a mother for travelling to join up with ISIS.

I wasnt a mother when I left. I came as a single person and I thought if I died here, I died, but when I had a child I became different, you know, she said.

Smith (left before her conversion to Islam) claims British ISIS husband Sajid Aslam (right) was killed in the last three months and denies she poses a terror threat

You have to take your child and look after your child, you know. Shes my No.1 priority now; thats why I want to leave and take her home with me and get her educated. People here are not educated.

She strongly denied that she had fought with Isis, claiming she never even owned a gun despite her husband offering to buy her one for self-defence.

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, she said.

I didnt do it. I didnt own a rifle. I didnt teach them anything.

There was actually women teach[ing] their husbands like how to have classes, you know, of how to use the gun, how to do this, how to do that.

I went to one class just to see how the woman was teaching, you know. Just to see what the woman was teaching, and she reminded me of what I used to know because I forgot everything, you know. But I didnt fight...

My husband many times said to me, You want me to buy you one? I said no. He said Its just for self-defence... I said: I dont want, I dont want.

In a filmed interview, Ms Smith said she now wants to go home and raise her daughter in Ireland. She said: 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. Im not, like, out to kill anyone. I dont believe in suicide attacks.

Asked whether she would travel again to such a state, she insisted that she wouldnt as it was her biggest mistake.

Smith (circled) was a former private in the Irish Defence Force and met Bertie Ahern while he was Taoiseach (far left)

Smith has ended up in the Al Hawl refugee camp in northern Syria after Kurdish forces recaptured the town of Baghouz, which was the terror group's last stronghold in Syria

Ms Smith, who previously worked on the Government jet when she was in the Defence Forces, said: I just ran, ran with the crowd like I always do. Ask my mum. I run with the crowd all the time. And thats what I did.

I didnt listen to anyone. I didnt take any advice. I just ran. And I wish I didnt. I wish I had just took my time.

Asked if she should face investigation in Ireland, Ms Smith told the IMoS: 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.

Leo Varadkar has already indicated that Ms Smith would be permitted to return here if she wished.

However, the Taoiseach has said a security assessment would have to be carried to make sure she is not a threat to anyone in Ireland.

Speaking when the presence of an Irish citizen in the Syrian camp was first confirmed, he told the IMoS: There are a couple of things that need to be examined now: a) Does she want to come home? Maybe she doesnt. b) Do the Syrians want to put her on trial? c) We have to perform a security assessment as to whether she is a threat to us.

And finally we have to determine it is actually her.
Three small children and two adults were killed Saturday night when a raging fire destroyed their trailer home in Goodfield, Illinois.

Woodford County Coroner Tim Ruestman declared Ariel Wall, 1, Rose Alwood, 2, Damien Wall, 2, Jason Wall, 34, and Kathryn Murray, 69, dead due to fire-related injuries around 11.55pm Saturday, according to the Associated Press.

Two other unidentified victims who survived the fire were treated and released from a hospital about 20 miles southeast of Goodfield in Peoria, Illinois, the AP reported.

The victims' neighbors could only look on in horror that night as the heat from the fire prevented them from helping.

Neighbors say they could hear screaming coming from this trailer home in Goodfield, Illinois where three small children and two adults were killed Saturday night

The victims' neighbors could only look on in horror that night as the heat from the fire prevented them from helping. It's unclear whether or not the victims had working smoke detectors in their home

Neighbors say the town's volunteer fire department was on scene within six minutes after someone called 911, but the fire still destroyed most of the trailer home and killed all but two people who were inside

Other residents in the trailer community say they are developing an action plan to better handle future fires. They hope to make sure all residents have smoke detectors and fire extinguishers in their homes

'You could hear the screams and then you didn't hear all the screams anymore,' community resident AnnaMarie Siebert told the Journal Star. 'It was total chaos, absolutely heart-wrenching.'

Siebert said her son heard popping and screaming from the fire that night before waking up her and her husband and calling 911.

Her son and husband also rushed out to the scene to try and help, but the heat from the fire prevented anyone from entering the home.

Park manager Shawn Johnson said he tried to enter the home through a window.

Park manager Shawn Johnson said he tried to enter the burning home through a window Saturday night, but the fire was too hot

Neighbor AnnaMarie Siebert said her son woke her and husband up and called 911 after hearing popping and screaming from the burning home Saturday night

'When I come around the corner, the house was pretty much fully engulfed,' Johnson told the Journal Star. 'I did run down by the windows to see if I could see anything, but once I got there, it was just, the heat was overwhelming. I just backed up. There was nothing you could do at that point.'

Neighbors said the town's volunteer fire department was on scene within six minutes of the 911 call, but the fire destroyed most of the home and killed all but two of the people inside.

Right now, it's unclear if the victims had working smoke detectors in their home.

Siebert said the trailer park's residents have decided to put together a community action plan to avoid future fire-related catastrophes.

'Shawn and I are going to work on getting smoke alarms and fire extinguishers in the houses,' she said. 'We're going to reach out to hardware stores and the fire department to see what they can help us with... We're going to find ways to make the community safer. We're going to learn from this tragedy.'
Human traffickers have taken advantage of President Donald Trump's crackdown on immigration, doubling the fee they would normally charge migrants to illegally enter the United States.

The amount charged by traffickers has risen to $7,000 per migrant since Trump took office in 2017.

The fee ensures migrants are ferried from Central America through the northeast Mexican state of Tamaulipas to the East Coast, according to a recent study conducted by the Colegio de la Frontera Norte [Center for the North Border].

The Tijuana-based prestigious learning center also learned that Central American migrants looking to make the life-changing jaunt to the U.S. have paid $2,000 to cross the border from the Mexican cities of Reynosa and Matamoros in Tamaulipas.

Since Donald Trump took over the United States presidency in 2017, human traffickers, also known as 'coyotes', have charged undocumented immigrants up to $7,000 to travel from Central America to the East Coast

Central Americans that have settled in the Mexican border cities of Reynosa and Matamoros are now paying $2,000 to hop across the U.S.-Mexico southern border

President Trump (left) has been frustrated with the high number of border crossings and reportedly blamed Kirstjen Nielsen (right), who resigned Sunday as U.S. Homeland Security Secretary

'The 'coyotes' know perfectly well this situation of waiting and despair, and that means they increase the costs to make [illegal] crossings across the border,' said Oscar Misael Hernandez, a site faculty member, according to Mexican news outlet El Diario.

Hernandez said the asking price to hop across the southern U.S. border has been further 'influenced' by the closings of previous entry points that immigration officials have enforced - one of the many key elements that are a part of the Trump administration's ongoing battle against illegal migration.

News of the 'pay-to-cross' fee hike comes a dally following the resignation of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen amid the White House's growing frustration and bitterness over the number of Central American families crossing the southern border.

Despite Trump's railing against migrant caravans and calling for a wall to be built on the U.S.-Mexico border, the number of immigration crossings have risen.

Agents on the border detained nearly twice as many migrants - 268,044 - in the first five months of the fiscal year that started in October 2018 than were detained in the same period the previous year, numbers reported in March indicated.

February alone had 66,450 arrests - more than almost any month in the last decade.

'The logic of migration, in the last 10 years, has been transformed a lot,' Hernandez said.

According to a recent study conducted by the Colegio de la Frontera Norte [Center for the North Border] in Tijuana, Mexico, migrants are willing to pay up to $7,000 for human traffickers to ferry them up to the East Coast of the United States, a fee that has doubled since Donald Trump became president in 2017

Map showing the border towns in Mexico where for a flat fee of $2,000 migrants can be smuggled across the border

'Nowadays, [illegal] migration is one more business of organized crime groups and it is a very lucrative business, after drug trafficking and arms trafficking,' he added.

Nielsen's resignation comes as President Trump has been threatening to close the border, which economists say would be disastrous for the economy.

Even Republicans have cautioned the president against such a plan.

Publicly she has backed the president's policies, including his controversial move of separating migrant children from their families, as she struggled to keep Trump's faith.


A convicted double murderer who escaped custody spent his time on the run partying at a popular gay nightclub where he was twice asked to leave because he'd had too much to drink.

Damien Anthony Peters, 50, who cut off his ankle bracelet prompting a 24-hour manhunt, reportedly partied at the Stonewall Hotel, a gay nightclub on Oxford Street in Sydney, on Saturday and Sunday night.

He went missing at 4.15pm on Sunday at Randwick's Prince of Wales Hospital and was arrested in Petersham in Sydney's inner-west shortly before 5pm the next day.

Double murderer Damien Peters was kicked out of gay nightclub Stonewall because the manager was concerned he had too much to drink. Staff had no idea about his criminal past

'He was here on Saturday night and Sunday night and he was asked to leave both times,' the club's manager said to the Sydney Morning Herald.

The manager asked Peters to leave because he had too much to drink at midnight on Sunday, and did not know about his murderous history.

'He left straight away. We didn't even get one look and he was gone,' she said.

The dramatic moment Damien Peters was arrested in Petersham on Monday afternoon

NSW Police launched a manhunt that lasted 24 hours after they allegedly found his monitoring device four hours after he went missing later in Kensington.

'Police from the Surry Hills and Redfern Region Enforcement Squads, Operation Odin and the dog unit moved in to effect the arrest in Church Street, Petersham, without incident,' a NSW Police statement read.

Peters was taken to the Newtown Police Station, where he was questioned.

Earlier in the day, Detective Superintendent Rohan Cramsie told reporters: 'It would appear as though the ankle monitoring bracelet has been forcibly removed, possibly cut.'

Damien Anthony Peters, 50, allegedly removed his tracking device while out on parole in NSW

The double murderer was allegedly on the run for 24 hours before he was arrested by police

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.

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.

Detectives investigating Mr Akai's disappearance found Mr Frost's remains in the bath in Peters' flat.
This was the tragic moment a driver allegedly fell asleep behind the wheel and mowed down a boy, who died a day later at a hospital in east-central Mexico.

A CCTV camera recorded the 10-year-old victim walking with his mother and two brothers in the middle of a street last Wednesday morning in Puebla when the speeding vehicle smashed into him.

The boy, whose name was not publicly released, was declared dead Thursday morning at Huejotzingo General Hospital as a result of the injuries he sustained.

WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT

CCTV camera captures the tragic moment a motorist barrels into a 10-year-old boy in east-central Mexico last Wednesday. The child was walking to his elementary school with his mother and two brothers. He passed away at a local hospital Thursday

The driver of the car (right) that crashed into a 10-year-old schoolboy in Mexico told cops he fell asleep behind the wheel

The car then dragged the boy several yards down the street in the neighborhood of Huejotzingo.

The surveillance video showed how the motorist, who was identified as 23-year-old Dionisio, continued his path while the boy's mother rushed to his aid.

The family was just 300 feet from arriving at the entrance of the victim's elementary school.

A mother (center) in east-central Mexico rushed to aid her son (left) and her other son (right) trailed behind before he continued running after driver of the car that ran him over

Sad moment a mother struggles with her son (both pictured left) after a car mowed him over in the middle of a street in Mexico. The young boy passed away the following day at a local hospital

The distraught parent immediately lifted her son from the pavement and placed the injured boy on the sidewalk curb.

His brother was spotted by the video camera racing down the street before he and other residents with the assistance of the police cornered the driver, according to Mexican news outlet Milenio.

The man passed a field sobriety test and was placed in custody of the city's Public Ministry awaiting charges.

According to Mexico's National Institute of Statistic and Geography, in 2017, Puebla ranked seventh with 214 deaths caused by traffic accidents.
Five million holidaymakers could be set for flight mayhem this Easter amid a planned walkout by airport staff across Spain.

Around 60,000 ground handling staff in all airports across Spain are set to go on strike starting on the Saturday of the Easter weekend for an indefinite period.

The Spanish airport workers' unions, Union Sindical Obrera (USO) and Union General de Trabajadores (UGT), say they are planning to negotiate with their staff.

But passengers have been warned that if no deal is reached, the strike will go ahead as planned.

Passengers fill the terminal at Barcelona's El Prat airport during a strike by ground staff in August 2017

The unions confirmed on Monday that all airports across the country would be affected.

According to the unions, they are not happy with clauses in their collective agreements affecting staff contracts when moving from one job to another.

A spokesperson said: 'The USO air sector, together with UGT, has presented a conciliation request prior to the call for a state strike against Aseata, the employer representing all the companies in the ground assistance sector.

'The call for strikes, which [includes] some 60,000 handling workers, are called at all Spanish airports, will begin on April 20.'

'This conflict affects the staff that provide services in companies in the sector, including ground handling services, aircraft and passengers, merchandise and mail, as well as the service of placing and removing gangways, which connect the aircraft with the port terminal.'

The main Easter week will see around five million passengers travelling through the affected airports on 32,500 scheduled flights.
A manhunt is underway for an Afghani man after an alleged brazen attack on a 10-year-old girl in public toilets last Wednesday.

The man, aged between 30 and 50, allegedly assaulted the girl in public toilets at the Blair Athol Sport Community Club, off Leslie Ave, in south-west NSW, between 5pm and 5.30pm.

Special Crime Detectives have now released an audio recording in Hazaragi/Dari language, as well as a computer generated image of the alleged attacker, to appeal directly to the Afghani community to help hunt down the predator.

A manhunt is underway for an Afghani man after an alleged brazen attack on a 10-year-old girl in public toilets last Wednesday

The attacker was in the company of two girls, aged between three and five, near the playground.

It's believed one of the girl's in his company was wearing pink.

Detective Chief inspector Richard Lambert said the man was likely the girls' father or close relative.

The man, aged between 30 and 50, allegedly assaulted the girl in public toilets at the Blair Athol Sport Community Club

He also said that people close to the club rooms, playground, car park or public toilets may have seen the alleged attacker behaving suspiciously or having unusual behaviour, between 4.30pm to 6pm.

'They may not have taken any notice because it may have look quite natural for him to be walking around and specifically walking towards the toilets with young girls,' he told The Advertiser.

'They were not to know he had an ulterior motive.'

SAPOL also released CCTV footage of the young victim from the park on the day, in hope that someone may recall seeing her

Detective chief inspector Lambert also said the attack was particularly distressing because of the age of the victim, the time of day, the fact it was committed during a sport event and while lots of people were around.

'It is very brazen,' he said.

'Because of the nature of the crime being committed, of course it would lead you to wonder about what's occurring to the other two girls as well.

'If the man responsible for this crime is listening... I'd advise you to be aware that this investifation would not stop until you're caught,' detective chief inspector Lamber said.

'It's not a matter of it you would be caught, it's a matter of when.'

The suspect is described to have had dark hair with a fringe that partially covered his forehead and was believed to be wearing a grey top and peach shorts at the time.

Police believe the man lives in the area but did not rule out that he may have driven to the park.

SAPOL also released CCTV footage of the young victim from the park on the day, in hope that someone may recall seeing her.

The attacker has not been linked to any previous reports of sexual assault in the area.
Steven Bishop, of Thornton Heath, south London,

A 'dangerous and unpredictable' right-wing extremist has admitted to planning a suicide bomb attack on a mosque in revenge for the death of the youngest victim in the Manchester Arena bombing.

Steven Bishop, of Thornton Heath, south London, was a supporter of Standing for Britain, a right-wing Pro-Brexit group that highlights crimes said to have been committed by Muslims.

The 41-year-old was said to have an 'obsession' with the Manchester terrorist attack in 2017 and the death of eight-year-old Saffie Rose Roussos.

Kingston upon Thames Crown Court heard he used Facebook and YouTube to view extremist material and then researched explosives and Morden Mosque, said to be his target, on the internet.

He had bought a remote firing system, stock-piled material for a detonator and looked up instructions on how to make home-made explosives.

Police arrested Bishop after he told his recovery worker that he was planning to build a bomb and blow up the mosque in a suicide mission.

Bishop appeared in trial, wearing a white collared shirt and shaven head, and pleaded guilty to possession of explosives substances with intent to endanger life.

Prosecutor Simon Drew told an earlier hearing that Bishop was a 'dangerous and unpredictable man who has a violent past', and had stolen from his mother in the past.

Mr Drew added: 'He has an obsession with the Manchester bombing and other bombings and his searches for Morden Mosque and a variety of other names indicates an anti-Islamic mindset and a wish to take indiscriminate action against Muslims.

On the first day of what was meant to be a two week trial at Kingston Crown Court, Bishop, wearing a white collared shirt and shaven head, pleaded guilty to possession of explosives substances with intent to endanger life.

Bishop was said to have an 'obsession' with the Manchester terrorist attack and the death of youngest Saffie Rose Roussos

The judge, Peter Lodder QC, said there was 'clearly a terrorist context' to the offence, but Tim Forte, defending argued there was no desire to change the government's position.

It can now be revealed that Bishop has a number of previous convictions including two racially aggravated offences and violence.

Bishop had purchased a VPN and TOR browser app for his phone on October 21 last year so that he could surf the dark web undetected.

He then searched on the blog section of the TOR website for the word 'bomb' and the following day searched online for the Manchester bombing and looked for 'Saffie Rose memorial.'

Bishop then looked up the Baitul Futuh Mosque in Morden, not far from his home, which the prosecution allege was the target for his attack.

He also searched for: 'Donald Trump speaks about Manchester Arena' followed by multiple searches around donating to the Saffie fund and Manchester Emergency Fund, before apparently making a donation.

Kingston Crown court heard he used Facebook and YouTube to view extremist material and then researched explosives and Morden Mosque, said to be his target, on the internet

In the early hours of the next day, Bishop looked up firework detonators and how to purchase them and made multiple searches about the Paris, London Bridge and Manchester attacks.

The same day, he used Facebook to send a message saying: 'Hi Eve, that's a emotional video god bless little Saffir to 8 yrs old because of this scum who people call terrorisism [sic] but ther not terrarist there arsehols tbhonest barstards don't worry something bad is going to happen soon mark my words.'

The YouTube video on which he was commenting was produced by Standing for Britain, said to be an emerging right-wing group and contained an anti-Islamic message.

He had been assigned a 'recovery worker' to help him get over drug and alcohol addiction and, on October 26 2018, Bishop started showing her a VPN app he had purchased which meant no one could trace his mobile phone.

He then showed her a Wikipedia page about how to make a bomb and told her he was going to build one and blow up a mosque in a suicide mission.

Bishop went on to tell her that he had purchased Semtex and a detonator on the dark web and showed her the receipts.

She called the police and when they arrived at Bishop's address, he confessed that he wanted to get revenge for an eight-year-old girl killed in the Manchester Arena attack.

He showed them his search history which included references to explosives on the dark web and Morden Mosque.

Police returned to search his address on October 29 and found three multi-shot 'cake' fireworks, two of which had been tampered with.

Bishop was arrested at his mother's home, his phone was seized and several pages of notes found in a drawer in his handwriting which included methods for making high explosives and using the dark web.

In a shed at the address, a suitcase was recovered which was found to contain a lightbulb, battery and firework fuse, for use as an improvised detonator.

A remote-controlled firework firing system was delivered to the defendant's address on October 31.

Experts examined the handwritten notes and found they include a viable recipe for thermite, a high explosive.

Pages six to nine included a list of materials and a viable method to make a more practical powdered high explosive and then plasticise it to make it like Semtex.

'The fireworks with a remote control and a couple of the ingredients from the suitcase could have formed a device which could have been detonated,' Mr Drew said.

Standing for Britain, in which Bishop was a member, has a Twitter page that reads: 'Concerned about the Islamisation of the UK? Join us online. Join us on the streets. Join us in Standing For Britain.'

The group has an active Twitter page that features Tweets by Nigel Farage and Gerard Batten - the leader of UKIP - and gives a justification for the New Zealand mosque attacks.

A YouTube page has videos featuring the fascist leader Oswald Moseley and the anti-Muslim campaigner Tommy Robinson.

In August 2014, Bishop was charged with grievously bodily harm and theft after an 83-year-old woman was left in hospital following a theft from a shop in Wimbledon.

Bishop pleaded guilty to possession of an explosive substance with intent to endanger life under section 3(1)(b) of the Explosive Substances Act 1883.

He had already pleaded guilty to collection of information of a kind likely to be useful to a person preparing an act of terrorism, contrary to section 58 (1) (a) of the Terrorism Act 2000.

Bishop will be sentenced at Kingston Crown Court on April 28.
Female employees in the province of Qinghai in north China are now allowed to take leave for menstrual pain, state media announced today.

The amended regulation, as part of the government's move to improve women's rights in the workforce, grants workers who suffer from severe period pain one to two days off each month without the need to present a doctor's note.

The new rules also protect employees who had abortions and miscarriages and those who were returning to work after maternity leave, according to the All-China Women's Federation.

Female employees in the province of Qinghai in north China are now allowed to take leave for menstrual pain, state media announced today (file photo)

Previously, workers can only apply for menstrual leave with a certificate from a legal medical institute or hospital, according to The Paper.

Now, employees who suffer a miscarriage in the first four months of pregnancy are entitled to to 15 to 30 days of paid leave to recuperate, also without the need to provide a doctor's note.

If a worker has an abortion or a miscarriage between four and seven months of pregnancy, she is entitled to 42 days of paid leave, the report said, adding that those who miscarry at seven months or later are given 90 days to recover.

Menstrual leave has already been implemented in Shanxi, Hubei, Anhui and Ningxia in China, as well as other countries such as Japan, Indonesia and South Korea.

The new rules also protect employees who had abortions and miscarriages and those who were returning to work after maternity leave, according to reports (file photo)

Qinhai (pictured above) is not the first province to offer menstrual leave. The policy has already been implemented in Shanxi, Hubei, Anhui and Ningxia in China, as well as other countries such as Japan, Indonesia and South Korea

However, the regulation received a mix reaction on Chinese social media. Many net users were skeptical that such measures could be strictly enforced.

'Women are already struggling to get hired even without the extra time off,' one person said on Chinese microblogging site Weibo.

'This just gives companies another excuse not to hire women!' another comment read.

'Good luck to all women seeking employment,' another user said. 'From now on, you might have to put "never experiences period pain" on your resume to increase your chances.'

'This is rather impractical. A lot of companies would still be asking proof if female employees use the entitlement,' one user said.

A group of female job-seekers chat in front of a billboard displaying recruitment leaflets at a market. The new regulation in Qinghai received a mix reaction on Chinese social media. Many net users were skeptical that such measures could be strictly enforced

According to previous research, one in 10 women suffer from menstrual cramps so severe that they could interfere with their daily activities.

While gender discrimination in hiring is banned by Chinese labour laws, specific behaviors that have made news in recent years, including job advertisements rife with gender discrimination.

A report published by Human Rights Watch last April found several postings that said 'men only,' ''men preferred,' or 'suitable for men.' In other cases, the company preferred female applicants to be married with children.

In February, a joint-notice released by several ministries banned companies from asking potential female candidates questions such as if they are married or have children.
Two men have been charged with killing and burying two women after one shot himself in the head and confessed the crimes to police.

Jonathan Galligan, 39, and Christian Hurlburt were arrested after Hurlburt admitted to cops they had killed Christin Bunner and Melissa Rhymer in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Police were called to a disturbance at a towing company on Wednesday and found Hurlburt - who reportedly lived there - with his hands behind his back.

Jonathan Galligan and Christian Hurlburt were charged killing and burying Christin Bunner and Melissa Rhymer in Spartanburg, South Carolina

The 41-year-old pulled out a gun and shot himself in the head after refusing to show his hands to the cops.

But he was given medical attention and recovered at a nearby hospital.

Hurlburt summoned officers to his hospital bed on Thursday and said he saw Galligan kill Ms Bunner in December.

He said he helped bury the 27-year-old's body out the back of Galligan's house on Williams Street.

Ms Bunner, from Spartanburg, went missing on December 16 and her family said she had been Galligan's girlfriend.

Ms Bunner went missing in December and her family said she was Galligan's girlfriend. Ms Rhymer was killed in January but was not reported missing

But deputies could not find her body at the address.

Galligan was picked up by police on Friday but - after requesting a lawyer - it was deemed there was too little evidence to hold him.

Hurlburt admitted to killing another woman in January and burying her at the same address - but he claimed not to know her name.

The investigators returned to the house with cadaver dogs later on Friday and discovered Ms Bunner and Ms Rhymer's remains in graves that began 18 inches below the ground.

Police tape marks the area where the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office and Spartanburg County Coroner's were working after two bodies were found buried on the Williams Street property in Spartanburg

Spartanburg County Coroner Rusty Clevenger said: 'The dogs indicated in two areas.

'We went to those two areas and were able to find human remains. They are of two people.'

Ms Rhymer, 40, from Mountville, had not been reported missing and was only identified using her fingertips.

Galligan was spotted by a shop owner on Saturday afternoon following a police appeal on Friday.

Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright holds a picture of suspect Jonathan 'Stretch' Galligan as he speaks to the media on Friday

He was arrested and joined Hurlburt, who had been taken into custody after checking out of hospital.

Galligan was charged with Ms Bunner's death and Hurlburt with killing Ms Rhymer.

Both men were also charged with being accessories after the fact and Hurlburt was charged with being a convicted felon in illegal possession of a gun.

They were jailed and denied bail on Saturday night.

Ms Bunner's mother Renee said at the bail hearing: 'This man took my daughter.'

'She has been missing since December the 16th. Not only did he murder her, but he also tried to bury her.'

The investigation continues as officers try to find a motive for the murders but added that they do not believed there are any more bodies at the house.

It is unclear if Galligan or Hurlburt have lawyers who could comment.
A single dad was run over and almost killed during his third day at a new job on a construction site on the Interstate after his coworker backed over him in his truck.

Daniel Clark, 42, of Westland near Detroit, was working on the site along the I-75 near Troy, when the employee suddenly reversed, unaware he was standing in its path.

Clark had only been at work for three days having been laid off last winter.

Daniel Clark, 42, was performing electrical work in the area when a truck backed into him, whereupon he fell and was run over

Clark suffered broken ribs, a broken pelvis, collapsed lungs, and internal bleeding

Clark is suffering from a number of injuries and has been unconscious since Wednesday. He is currently at Beaumont Hospital Royal Oak where he is in intensive care

Clark is a single parent raising two sons and a daughter after their mother died

Clark's family have now set up a GoFundMe page in the hope of raising money to help pay for his treatment and help his three children.

So far, $35,000 has been raised from donations to the site.

Clark was a single dad of three kids; five-year-old son Nicholas, 17-year-old Peter and 14-year-old daughter Alli.

Peter and Alli's mother had passed away from leukemia six years ago making Daniel their sole carer.

His youngest son, Nicholas, he shared with is ex-wife Julie Clark.

Despite their divorce, the pair have remained close and Julie said she was devastated by his death.

She described the horrific accident at the construction site.

'His buddy... didn't realize that he ran him over, so he dragged him for about five feet,' Julie, said. 'And then when the buddy realized, he called 911.'

'He underwent two emergency surgeries to try to stabilize the bleeding, and then they had to give him some blood, and then he went into ICU, not realizing that there was still internal bleeding,' Clark said to the Detroit Free Press. 'Today will be another surgery to try to stop the internal bleeding.'

Julia Clark, despite being divorced from Daniel, maintains that he is 'the greatest dad ever' and someone who is always willing to help

$35,000 has been raised by GoFundMe so far to help Clark's children. Five-year-old son Nicholas, seen right, together with 14-year-old Alli and 17-year-old Peter, left

Daniel Clark's father, Daniel Clark Sr. posted a message on YouTube to thank the public for their generous contributions

Clark said her ex's pelvic area was injured, his ribs broken, both of his lungs collapsed, and his right lung was punctured.

'He's on a ventilator, he's on a feeding tube, his vitals are somewhat stable, but when he's moved, they fluctuate,' she said. It is likely that Clark may need some aid to help him walk as he recovers.

'He has been laid off all winter long and this was his first week back to work,' the GoFundMe site noted. 'This is a life changing event for Daniel, the doctors have told us he will not be able to walk for at least three months, and if and when he does he will need a cane and could possibly limp due to the damage to his body.'

Things are still very delicate and the family are not sure when Clark will be able to leave the hospital or if he will be in a condition to return to work.

'My aunt called me and she was crying,' said Peter Clark, Daniel's 17-year-old son. 'And my first thought was that my dad died because that's how I found out my mom died - they started crying.'

'You never really realize what someone does for you until they are not there,' said daughter Alli.

'It was heartbreaking to me,' said Peter to Fox2 News. 'He's my best friend. He's always there for me. I've never been so close with someone before.'

It's unclear how long Daniel Clark's recovery might take but he is likely to require assistance for some time given the serious nature of his injuries

Julie told the Free Press that the family is taking things 'hour-by-hour.'

'We're just really all together and we're trying to figure out a game plan, because there wasn't a game plan,' she said. 'It's hard with kids involved. ... They don't know how to feel and what to do.'

Despite being divorced from Daniel, she maintains that he is 'the greatest dad ever' and someone who is always willing to help.

'If there's somebody in need that doesn't have electricity, or if there's an older person that doesn't have the money to pay, he will do it for free. He would take his shirt off his back and give it to someone,' she said.

'Everybody's just completely devastated that something like this would happen to such a good person.'
Ronald Ashley, 53, worked as an Amazon HR executive and became disabled after suffering a fall during a business trip in 2015. He died in the fall of 2016

A bereaved family suing Amazon for $6.5million after accusing the company of driving a former employee to his death have made bombshell claims that CEO Jeff Bezos knew about his plight.

The furious Ashley family are suing Amazon for HR executive Ronald Ashley's death in late 2016, when he succumbed to a heart attack after the company cut off his disability payments.

In documents filed with the New York federal courts last month, the family say Bezos spoke to Ashley on the phone about his treatment by the company and promised he would fix the situation.

But any alleged efforts by the billionaire magnate were in vain, when two weeks later Ashley died of a heart attack.

The Amazon IT manager fell in a hotel shower on a business trip in 2015, breaking bones in his thorax. Amazon delayed and refused to complete his disability payments, the family's lawsuit claims.

By fall of 2016, Ronald had run out of money, racking up credit card debt and facing eviction over unpaid rent, and spiraled into a 'crippling depression', the court documents say.

Amazon's HR staff told him it would be easier for him to resign to get the prescription drug refills and benefits he needed rather than fighting Amazon's decision not to pay his benefits, so he quit the company in October that year.

The Ashley family claim he emailed Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos when the company cut off his disability payments and was surprised when Bezos called him promising to fix the matter, but he died two weeks later before the issue was resolved

Then, in desperation, he emailed his billionaire former boss asking for help, the court documents claim.

'Ronald emailed Mr. Bezos at his jeff@amazon.com email address,' the documents said. 'To Ronald's surprise, Mr. Bezos called him directly.

'Mr. Bezos advised Ronald that he would look into the situation, fix the situation, do right by Ronald, and would be following up directly with Ronald shortly.

'At the direction of Mr. Bezos, Ronald was reinstated with [Amazon] as an ''active'' employee.'

The family claim that Bezos' intervention shows the company knew they were in the wrong, but that the impact of the debacle had already taken its toll on Ashley's health.

'Ronald didn't tell our family that he was struggling financially because he was a very proud person,' the Amazon worker's younger brother, Dwayne Ashley, told DailyMail.com. 'When his savings started to run out the stress started to mount, and it led to the decline of his mental state.'

Two weeks later, Ashley's concerned landlord let herself into his apartment in Bellevue, Washington, and discovered his body. The coroner concluded he had lain there for days after dying from a heart attack brought on by stress.

In their court claim, the Ashleys say Amazon's failure to pay disability benefits was to blame.

'But for Amazon's failure to honor contractually agreed to and/or provide granted benefits and accommodations to Ronald while he was disabled, Ronald would not have passed away,' the court documents say.

His family claim that Bezos' intervention shows the company knew they were in the wrong, according to court documents obtained by DailyMail.com

The family's tragedy was compounded when Ronald's older brother also died of a heart attack a year later, which the family believes was brought on by his devastating grief.

The Ashley family say the company is a 'bureaucratic mess', growing too fast to properly look after its workers.

'I'm furious. He needed this disability pay when he was living, and now he's dead. This has been so hurtful to me and my family,' said Dwayne. 'It's so disrespectful that the company would treat him like that.'

Dwayne said Ronald was a senior IT manager with a salary of around $150,000, an 'incredible' work ethic, and was well-liked at the firm, acting as a mentor for younger staff and often cooking Cajun dishes for his colleagues.

'Ronn was very much a family person. He was always the one that cooked for us on the holidays and gave gifts to everyone,' Dwayne added. 'Because he worked at Amazon he would buy literally hundreds of gifts for everyone. There would be bags of all these wonderful gifts around the tree at Christmas. He was a very generous person.'

The Ashleys have called Amazon's alleged actions 'disrespectful' and 'ironic' as Ronald (pictured far right with his brothers) was 'someone who took care of Amazon employees, and when he needed the benefits himself, they didn't want to give them to him'

Pictured above is the funeral program for Ashley. The family's tragedy doubled when Ronald's older brother also died of a heart attack a year later, which the family believes was brought on by grief

The company has faced previous claims of improperly denying employee benefits and driving workers to their deaths on the intense shop floor of the gargantuan firm's sorting warehouses, but the lawsuit is the first case involving a senior Amazon employee.

The Ashleys ask for at least $6,586,000 from Amazon in their legal complaint filed in New York last year. But the family attorney, Michael Kapin, said the case could cost the company 'tens of millions of dollars' if it goes before a jury.

'Every detail I hear about this case makes my stomach cringe,' Kapin told DailyMail.com. 'I feel so much compassion for the family and what they've had to go through.'

The family claim the firm's failure to pay shows 'the bureaucratic mess at Amazon as a result of the company's rapid expansion. Due to its fast development this corporate gargantuan is unable to keep pace with the imperative requests made by its employees.'

'This whole thing was so hurtful,' Dwayne told DailyMail.com. 'Here's someone who took care of Amazon employees, and when he needed the benefits himself, they didn't want to give them to him. It's so disrespectful and ironic that the company would treat him like that.'
Matricide: John Ralph, 51, has been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting and beating death of his 76-year-old mother

A Tennessee man has been arrested at a Georgia airport trying to flee to Amsterdam after investigators say he killed his elderly mother because she was 'driving him crazy.'

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said in a news release the suspect, 51-year-old John Christopher Ralph, of Elizabethton, Tennessee, was apprehended by federal agents on Saturday night at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

Ralph has been charged with one count of first-degree murder in the shooting and beating death of his 76-year-old mother, Edith Betty Ralph.

The case began unfolding on Saturday, when Edith's caregiver arrived at her home at 171 Reynolds Road in Elizabethton, which she shared with her son, and found her dead.

The woman sustained severe head trauma and was shot multiple times, according to a statement from the Clayton County Sheriff's Office in Georgia.

Edit Ralph was found murdered Saturday inside this Elizabethton, Tennessee, home that she shared with her grown son

Ralph was arrested Saturday night at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport trying to board a flight to Amsterdam

In the course of the investigation, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agents and sheriff's deputies 'developed information' indicating that the woman's son was the killer.

Sheriff Victor Hill, of Georgia, stated that Ralph had made numerous statements to friends and family that his mother was 'driving him crazy.'

On the night of the killing, Hill said John asked his co-workers to take pictures of him at work saying that if anything happened to his mother he would need an alibi.

According to Sheriff Dexter Lunceford, of Carter County, Tennessee, detectives also learned that their prime suspect had purchased a plane ticket for a flight to Amsterdam that was scheduled to depart the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport at around 10.20pm, reported Johnson City Press.

At 9.45pm, Ralph was arrested by officers with the US Customs and Border Protection and US Marshals Service.

Ralph is being held in the Clayton County Jail on a $1million bond while awaiting extradition to Tennessee.
An experienced skydiver, who plunged to his death in a New Jersey neighborhood over the weekend, was not wearing a parachute when his body was found.

Paul Haaf Jr, 54, was found dead in Monroe Township just after 5.30pm on Sunday. He had just jumped from a plane operated by Skydive Cross Keys.

A spokesperson from Skydive Cross Keys said Haaf's parachute deployed after he jumped from the plane.

But witnesses claim that the parachute that was deployed wasn't attached to the skydiver when his body was found.

Paul Haaf Jr (pictured), 54, was found dead in Monroe Township just after 5.30pm on Sunday. He had just jumped from a plane operated by Skydive Cross Keys

A spokesperson from Skydive Cross Keys said Haaf's (left in 2014 and right in 2010) parachute deployed after he jumped from the plane. But witnesses claim that the parachute that was deployed wasn't attached to the skydiver when his body was found

While Haaf was surrounded by a parachute, police say that it was actually the reserve chute (pictured) that was still attached to him when he hit the ground

Authorities (pictured) said they are still searching for the parachute that actually deployed while Haaf was in the air

'I thought it was a jet or a rocket, some kind of rocket going over,' witness Maria Mead told CBS.

'Then it passed over the tops of the roofs on Brookdale and over the trees. I saw a shredded red parachute flailing down and I heard an explosion. Then I heard a really loud bang,' Mead added.

The parachute that Mead described doesn't match the color of the parachute that was found on the cement at the scene. That parachute appears to be white and yellow.

While the victim was surrounded by a parachute, police say that it was actually the reserve chute that was still attached to him when he hit the ground.

Police are still looking for the 'shredded' parachute, which is the one believed to have deployed.

An autopsy determined Haaf died from multiple injuries. His death has been ruled an accident.

Witness Maria Mead (pictured) said she 'saw a shredded red parachute flailing down' and heard an explosion. The parachute that Mead described doesn't match the color of the parachute that was found on the cement at the scene

Haaf leaped out of an airplane that took off from Skydive Cross Keys, the company that operates skydiving jumps. A spokesperson for the company said the skydiver made more than 1,200 jumps in his career

An autopsy determined Haaf died from multiple injuries. His death has been ruled an accident

Rosemary Ilgenfritz told WPVI-TV on Sunday that she 'heard a thud, we thought a car hit somebody then I saw this white thing lying there'.

'It's traumatizing,' said Kayla Maure. 'I didn't see it happen, just seeing his body there is traumatizing.

Neighbors in the area quickly called 911.

Witnesses also said they saw another skydiver leap from the same plane at around the same time as the accident.

Haaf leaped out of an airplane that took off from Skydive Cross Keys, the company that operates skydiving jumps.

He was described as an experienced skydiver with more than 1,200 jumps to his credit.

The Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office is leading an investigation into the accident, with the assistance of the Federal Aviation Administration.
A 'noxious substance' has been thrown in to the faces of a teenage girl and 60-year-old woman from a van in south London.

Metropolitan Police officers rushed to Thornton Heath after the noxious substance attack was reported at 11.44am today.

The two victims were found with facial injuries not considered to be life threatening when officers, London Ambulance Service and London Fire Brigade attended the scene.

Metropolitan Police officers rushed to Thornton Heath after the noxious substance attack was reported at 11.44am today

Jon Ellacott, who lives in Croydon, tweeted: 'What a cowardly attack, on the first day of the Easter holidays.

'What possess someone to drive past in a van and throw a noxious substance at someone? Seriously! What an absolute cowardly thing to do, especially when it was a mother and her kids they threw it at.'

Reports have also suggested there was another child involved in the incident, referring to the 'woman with her kids' and 'the family'.

A spokeswoman for London Fire Brigade said: 'We were called to assist police at 11.48am and it was over at 1.04pm. There were two fire engines in attendance.'

A witness commented how shocking it was the attack was in broad daylight on the first day of the Easter holidays.

Pictured, County Road, Thornton Heath. Reports have also suggested there was another child involved in the incident, referring to the 'woman with her kids' and 'the family'

No arrests have been made, although there are reports on social media that the substance was thrown from a van.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: 'Police were called at 11.44am on Monday, April 8 to reports of a noxious substance attack on County Road at the junction with Norbury Avenue, Thornton Heath.

'Officers attended alongside the London Ambulance Service and London Fire Brigade and found two female victims, one aged in her 60s and another in her teens, suffering facial injuries.

'They were taken to hospital where their injuries have been assessed non life-threatening. No arrests have been made.'
As Donald Trump struggled to understand the angry reactions of his own party leaders to the infamous 'Access Hollywood' tape that almost doomed his White House hopes, he concluded that then-House Speaker Paul Ryan was a mere religious goody two-shoes.

The audio outtake, leaked to a reporter a month before Election Day, showed Trump boasting in 2005 that famous men could easily get away with sexual misconduct. 'When you're a star they let you do it,' he said then. 'You can do anything. Grab them by the p***y.'

Trump met with Ryan on his second day as president-elect, with his wife Melania and Vice President-Elect Mike Pence in tow.

'I get you,' Trump told Ryan, according to a book slated for release this week. 'You're just a Boy Scout. You're also kind of religious, aren't you?'

President Trump met with then-House Speaker Paul Ryan two days after winning the 2016 election and told the younger Republican that he had him all figured out

'I get you,' Trump told Ryan on Nov. 10, 2016. 'You're just a Boy Scout. You're also kind of religious, aren't you?' The pair are pictured that same day at the U.S. Capitol

Authors Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer describe the face-to-face meeting in 'The Hill to Die On,' a book that will hit stores Tuesday.

'When Ryan walked into the Capitol Hill Club, Trump grabbed the Speaker's hand and brought him close in. "I think I got you figured out," Trump said to him. "That thing really rattled you",' they write.

'Yeah, it really did,' Ryan replied.

After Trump's jab about Ryan's religion, Melania chimed in: 'You're like Mike on that, aren't you?'  referring to Pence's well-known evangelical faith.

'I'm a devout Catholic,' Ryan told them, according to Sherman and Palmer. 'And yes, I take that stuff very seriously.'

'Oh, okay,' Trump said. 'You're just a Boy Scout. That's what it is.'

Trump won the election in part on the strength of his unexpected popularity with evangelicals, holding aloft his childhood Bible and winning the support of conservative preachers.

Ryan had reacted viscerally to Trump's 'Grab them by the p***y' comment in an 11-year-old 'Access Hollywood' outtake

Melania piped up about speaker Ryan's clean-cut Christian image: 'You're like Mike [Pence] on that, aren't you?'

Ryan nearly broke with Trump in June 2016, a month before the Republican National Convention, after the presumptive GOP nominee blasted a Hispanic federal judge as hopelessly biased following an unfavorable ruling.

'He's a Mexican,' Trump said then of Judge Gonzalo Curiel. 'We're building a wall between here and Mexico.'

Curiel is of Mexican heritage but was born in the United States.

Ryan called Trump's verdict a 'textbook definition of a racist comment,' but stopped short of rescinding his endorsement of the billionaire who had sliced through a primary field of pedigreed politicians.

After the 'Access Hollywood' tape appeared, however, Ryan dropped the pretense.

Trump was joined by Ryan and other congressional leaders as he formally signed his cabinet nominations into law on Inauguration Day

By the time Ryan retired from Congress this year, he had made his peace with embracing Trumpism while keeping Trump at arm's length

According to Sherman and Palmer, he convened a rare conference call with all of the Republican members of the House of Representatives.

'The Hill To Die On' comes out Tuesday

'Ryan's message on the call was blunt: Republicans should feel free to abandon Trump,' they write.

'I am not going to defend Donald Trump,' Ryan said. 'Not now, not in the future.'

Sherman and Palmer asked Trump why he was willing to overlook Ryan's disloyalty as he took over the White House.

'Because it's life,' he responded, 'and we sort of need each other a little bit.'

By the time Ryan retired from Congress three months ago, he had made his peace with embracing Trumpism while keeping Trump at arm's length.

'To be clear, GOP wins elections when theyre about ideas not when theyre personality contests like Dems & media want,' Ryan tweeted last month. 'Were clearly better off because of @RealDonaldTrump.'
Democratic presidential contender Pete Buttigieg, a breakout star of the 2020 campaign, said if Vice President Mike Pence is mad at people for being gay, it's God he should actually be angry at.

'If me being gay was a choice it was a choice made far, far above my pay grade,' the South Bend mayor said Sunday at the LGBTQ Victory Fund event in Washington D.C.

'And thats the thing I wish the Mike Pences of the world would understand. That if you have a problem with who I am, your problem is not with me. Your quarrel, sir, is with my creator,' he added.

Buttigieg is the first openly gay candidate for president in U.S. history.

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg said if Vice President Mike Pence is mad at people for being gay, it's God he should actually be angry at

Vice President Mike Pence has a long record of opposing gay rights

Buttigieg came out as gay during his June 2015 mayoral re-election campaign, which he went on to win with 78 percent of the vote.

Pence, who has a long record of opposing gay rights, was governor of Indiana at the time.

Buttigeg, 37, has risen rapidly in the crowded field to win the Democratic presidential nomination. He is expected to formally launch his White House bid in South Bend on Sunday.

The national attention has surrounded him, in part, because of his harsh criticism of President Donald Trump and his administration.

On Sunday, however, he dove into more personal terms about what being gay and his marriage to Chasten, a school teacher, means to him.

'When I was younger I would do anything to not be gay,' he told the crowd at the LGBTQ Victory Fund, a political PAC dedicated to increasing the number of openly LGBT public officials in the U.S.

'If you had offered me a pill to make me straight I would have swallowed it before you had time to give me a sip of water,' he said, adding 'Its a hard thing to think about now.'

'Its hard to face the truth there were times in my life when you had shown me exactly what it was inside me that made me gay I would have cut it out with a knife,' he noted.

But he said out of the pain of those early years became joy in the form of his marriage.

'The best thing in my life - my marriage  might not never have happened at all,' he said.

'My marriage to Chasten has made me a better man and, yes, Mr. Vice President, it has moved me closer to God,' he added.

Buttigieg was raised Catholic but has become a devout Episcopalian.

He also slammed evangelical Christians on Sunday for their support of President 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.
American children living in low-income neighborhoods are also at a genetic disadvantage, with a greater risk of growing up to become uneducated and experience teen pregnancy, according to a new study.

Ultimately, children in poor neighborhoods are more likely to leave school early and live shorter lives. But to the extent that those disadvantages could be genetic make it a challenging problem to solve.

Researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health set out to answer that question by examining genetic and geographic data from the UK and the United States to evaluate whether there are links between a child's neighborhood and their genetic risk for poor educational and health outcomes.

They discovered correlations between genes and the neighborhoods where children grow up when it comes to certain negative outcomes  meaning those nature and nurture disadvantages can 'accumulate across generations' as children inherit their parents' genes and neighborhood.

Researchers found that children can have dramatically different educational outcomes depending on the level of poverty in the neighborhood where they grow up (file photo)

Each subsequent age group perpetuates those negative outcomes when they subsequently move into worse-off neighborhoods.

'But genetic risk alone was not enough to explain why children from poorer versus more affluent neighborhoods received less education and were more likely to be Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEET) by late adolescence,' said author Dan Belsky, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia.

'The data on education could explain only a fraction (10-15 percent) of the link between neighborhood risk and poor educational qualifications and NEET status, suggesting that there is ample opportunity for neighborhoods to influence these outcomes,' he added.

That suggests that neighborhood improvements to help elevate people out of poverty could help stave off some of the negative outcomes brought on by genetics or circumstance.

'It turns out that parents' genetics affect their kids in ways that don't depend on those genetics being inherited by their children,' Belsky told DailyMail.com. 'Geneticists refer to them as indirect genetic effects  Neighborhood conditions may be part of this process of "genetic nurture."'

Children who grew up in worse-off neighborhoods were more likely to become obese by age 18, but they did not carry a higher genetic risk for obesity than their peers living in more advantaged neighborhoods. -Candice Odgers, University of California, Irvine

Researchers were surprised to find that when it comes to obesity, one of the most prevalent and costly health problems facing in America, there was no link between neighborhood and genetic risk.

'Children who grew up in worse-off neighborhoods were more likely to become obese by age 18, but they did not carry a higher genetic risk for obesity than their peers living in more advantaged neighborhoods,' said author Candice Odgers, of the University of California, Irvine's Department of Psychological Science.

Similarly, researchers found that children in lower-income neighborhoods were more likely to experience symptoms of mental illness, but 'there was little evidence that the reason for this link was due to genetic risk,' they wrote.

'For physical and mental health problems, postal code and genetic code both predicted children's futures,' they added.
He's running?

The always unpredictable Alec Baldwin might be eyeing a possible run for president it appears, with the actor kicking off the week by announcing his possible candidacy on Twitter.

'If I ran for President, would you vote for me? I wont ask you for any $. And I promise I will win,' declared Baldwin.

Beating Trump would be so easy. So easy. So easy.'

Baldwin then joked about how cost efficient his exploratory committee was, writing: 'These tweets save me millions in polling.'

President Trump has yet to respond to the news, but it is only a matter of time.

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Ready to run: Alec Baldwin hinted that he may run for president on Monday, declaring on Twitter that 'beating Trump would be so easy'

Emmy-winning ego: 'If I ran for President, would you vote for me? I wont ask you for any $. And I promise I will win,' declared Baldwin (above)

Baldwin did not appear on Saturday Night Live this weekend plating President Trump, but had been featured one week prior after the release of the Mueller Report.

He also took issue with a tweet President Trump posted following a February episode of the popular sketch comedy series.

In that episode, Baldwin and the show's writers mocked a number of the comments President Trump has made about border security.

'Nothing funny about tired Saturday Night Live on Fake News NBC! Question is, how do the Networks get away with these total Republican hit jobs without retribution? Likewise for many other shows?' wrote Trump.

'Very unfair and should be looked into. This is the real Collusion!'

Baldwin then took issue to that tweet and suggested that it could put his family at danger.

'I wonder if a sitting President exhorting his followers that my role in a TV comedy qualifies me as an enemy of the people constitutes a threat to my safety and that of my family?' wrote Baldwin.

At odds: President Trump has yet to comment on his possible running mate, but has made no secret of his disdain for Baldwin in the past

He also spoke about Trump on Friday while promoting his new film The Public.

'Trump is someone who you'd have to be clinically insane to think that he was a qualified leader in this country,' said Baldwin.

'What they do is they hate Trump's opposition. They hate liberal Hollywood.'

It is unclear why then Baldwin might be planning a run for president, though he seemed to have lost interest later in the morning.

Twenty minutes after posting those first two tweets, Baldwin was on to other matters, tweeting: 'Hello, @ElizBerkley !! Please follow me that I can DM a request to you.'
A bizarre new ban on birthday party invitations being handed out in the playground at a primary school on Sydney's north shore has sparked outrage.

Parents at Mosman Public School now have to send party invitations to their children's classmates via email to avoid anyone not invited from getting upset or offended.

They were also advised by the school via email to discourage their children from discussing planned festivities while at school, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Parents at one primary school on Sydney's north shore must now send party invitations via email (stock image)

It's understood the school implemented the new ban after a child became upset when they weren't invited to a classmate's party.

'It's going too far, we have to build resilient kids,' one outraged parent told the publication.

'You can't give birthday invitations by paper (at the school), only by email and you must tell your children not to talk about the party.'

Mosman isn't the first school in NSW to impose a bizarre birthday-related ban.

Birthday invitations are no longer welcome at Mosman Public School (pictured)

Birthday candles are banned at Seven Hills West Public School in western Sydney, where only small individual cakes are allowed to brought to school to celebrate.

'We welcome small individual cakes or the like if your child wishes to share his/her birthday with the class. Candles ARE NOT permitted and teachers are UNABLE to cut cakes,' a school newsletter from February this year states.

Bardia Public School in Sydney south-west has also banned teachers from cutting cakes.

Birthday cakes have been banned at Wamberal Public School on the Central Coast since 2017.

St Thomas More Catholic Primary School near Campbelltown in Sydney's south-west followed suit earlier this year.
Illinois Congressman Bobby Rush has called the Chicago police union the 'sworn enemy of black people' as he defended prosecutor Kim Foxx in the wake of the Jussie Smollett saga.

Rush slammed the Fraternal Order of Police on Saturday following their repeated calls for Foxx, the Cook County State's Attorney, to resign after her office dismissed charges against Smollett.

'The FOP is the sworn enemy of black people, the sworn enemy of black people,' the Democratic Congressman said.

'The FOP has always taken the position that black people can be shot down in the street by members of the Chicago Police Department, and suffer no consequences.

Illinois Congressman Bobby Rush has called the Chicago police union the 'sworn enemy of black people' as he defended prosecutor Kim Foxx in the wake of the Jussie Smollett saga

'Let's be clear: Kim Foxx, her battle, is with the FOP and all of their cohorts.'

His comments came after 300 people, including off-duty Chicago police officers, protested outside Foxx's office last week over her handling of Smollett's case.

The actor was accused of staging what he claimed to be a racist and homophobic attack in January.

Among those calling for Foxx's resignation was the president of the police union, Kevin Graham.

He said the Smollett saga was the 'tip of the iceberg' for local authorities upset with Foxx and they had taken a formal vote to show the group's lack of support for her.

'We're saying: this is enough,' Graham said during an appearance on 'America's Newsroom' on Friday. 'We're asking for her to step down, the FOP in Chicago took a vote of no confidence and so did the police chiefs around Cook County.'

Foxx defended the decision to drop the Empire actor's charges during a press conference on Saturday, saying Smollett was treated no differently than thousands of other defendants whose charges were similarly dropped since she took office.

The union has called for Foxx, the Cook County State's Attorney, to resign after her office dismissed charges against actor Jussie Smollet

She made the comments during a defiant and emotional address at the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.'s Rainbow Push Coalition.

Foxx openly wondered if her race had something to do with the harsh criticism she's faced since her office announced that charges against Smollett had been dropped.

'I have been asking myself for the last two weeks what is this really about,' she said. '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.'

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 and that the actor did pay that amount because his $10,000 bond was forfeited.

But Foxx did not address specifics of the case, or the criticism leveled 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.

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.
Critics today warn the government's new plan to clean up the internet could be the most draconian crackdown on online free speech in the Western democratic world, and would impact social media users but not the tech firms it is designed to target.

The Online Harms white paper proposes taking sites offline to UK citizens if the sites fall foul of new regulators, and suggests levying massive fines on companies like Facebook and Google and their employees in an effort to crack down on the spread of child abuse images, terrorism, revenge pornography and hate crime.

But campaigners warn the Culture Secretary's stated aim to make the UK the 'safest place in the world to go online' could mean regulators or even algorithms decide what websites or content Britons can see.

Jim Killock, executive director of Open Rights Group told MailOnline: We are talking about the potential for the most draconian crackdown in the Western democratic world.

Were talking about banning content that the government wont make illegal  it wont legislate to ban it, but it wants companies to do so.

'They're saying "we don't like Facebook so we're going to give Facebook more power to regulate our content more", it's a terrible irony.'

Campaigner Jim Killock, executive director of Open Rights Group, said: 'We are talking about the potential for the most draconian crackdown in the Western democratic world'

The Open Rights Group is a crowd funded organisation which works to protect digital rights including privacy and free speech.

In its analysis of the white paper it warned that 'in its drive to make the internet "safe", the government seems not to recognise that ultimately its proposals dont regulate social media companies, they regulate social media users.

'The duty of care is ostensibly aimed at shielding children from danger and harm but it will in practice bite on adults too, wrapping society in cotton wool and curtailing a whole host of legal expression.'

The organisation warned that 'governments both repressive and democratic are likely to use the policy and regulatory model that emerge from this process as a blueprint for more widespread internet censorship.'

It said firms would protect themselves by creating filters which blocked the uploading of content which might incur fines - but warned such technology would be incapable of differentiating between abusive or harmful content, and content which was parody, comedy, satire or editorial.

Mr Killock added: 'The governments proposals would create state regulation of the speech of millions of British citizens.

'We have to expect that the duty of care will end up widely drawn, with serious implications for legal content that is deemed potentially risky, whether it really is nor not.'

Former Culture Secretary John Wittingdale warned the proposals risk dragging Britons into a 'draconian censorship regime', adding: '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.'

Ex-Culture Secretary John Whittingdale said the new internet reforms risked giving tyrants an excuse to restrict free speech

The proposal to block sites which fall foul of new regulations is one of a slew of reforms set out today in the Government's White Paper on Online Harms, designed to force tech giants such as Facebook, Google and Twitter to clean up harmful material on their platforms.

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.

However, the regulator's rules on terror and child exploitation will have to be approved by the Home Secretary.

Under new rules, any website which allows users to post content will have a legal 'duty of care' to all users

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.

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.'

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.'
Ex-corporal Andy Neal has been locked up in a Dubai prison since October after being wrongly being arrested on drugs charges

A British Army veteran who suffers from PTSD and has spent five months locked up in Dubai on drugs charges says he was subjected to a fake therapy session in an attempt to extract a confession.

Andy Neal, 44, a former corporal, was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after a tour of Afghanistan before being locked up in the United Arab Emirates in October last year.

His family has been begging jailers to allow him to continue therapy, fearing he will suffer a major psychotic break otherwise, but say the treatment he got was actually a barely-disguised attempt to pressure him into confessing.

Mr Neal maintains his innocence and even prosecutors have admitted that there is no evidence against him, but have refused to let him go.

Sue Neal, Andy's mother, told campaign group Detained in Dubai: '[Andy] met with the "psychiatrist" - if that's what he really was - on Sunday.

'They kept Andrew handcuffed and surrounded by aggressive guards and police for the whole time that the so called session lasted for.

'The doctor guy kept asking Andy about the drugs case he is falsely charged with instead of trying to help him with his mental problems.

'Asking him where he had got the drugs, who he had sold them to, what drugs he took himself, and the like.

It was all a sham to try and trick him into saying he did something that they already admit he is innocent of. It makes us scared that they will sentence him anyway, to save face.'

'Andy was really shaken by the whole event. Expecting help and then having to defend against the man who was trying to exploit Andrew's weakness and trick him into confessing something they know he hasn't done.'

Father Maurice added: 'The doctor wouldn't let Andrew explain anything at all.

'He just kept saying to Andrew's face that he didn't really suffer from PTSD, despite him having been diagnosed by the best Army doctors in the UK.

'He told Andy that he was just experiencing "general anxiety", and would prescribe him what he called "an internationally known medicine". Only he wouldn't tell Andy what the medicine was.

'With these kind of attacks and exploitation of a vulnerable, man with mental health issues, we are more concerned than ever that they will frame him just to save face.'

The father-of-two moved to Dubai with his teacher wife (pictured) to run a dog training school after 24 years serving with the British Army

His case has been taken up by the pressure group Detained in Dubai who have said he has been the victim of 'despicable police practice'.

'The police not only failed to competently investigate the case, but have locked up an innocent British family man for over four months,' said Detained in Dubai founder Radha Stirling.

'It is shameful what has happened to Andy. His business is going under and he has missed many family events.'

Mr Neal, who served for 24 years in the army with tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq, was arrested on October 4.

He had been living in Dubai with his family since 2015 where he runs a successful dog training school.

Mr Neal suffers from PTSD and was visited in jail by a doctor, who tried to get him to confess to his crimes

Having been diagnosed with PTSD from his last deployment to Afghanistan, he had settled into the Arab kingdom with his teacher wife and their children aged six and two.

His nightmare began when he returned from work and was suddenly surrounded by seven plain clothes detectives who searched his car.

The army veteran was frogmarched to his apartment where officers carried out another cursory search, emptying a few drawers and looking in cupboards.

His terrified wife was told not to call anyone while Mr Neal was assaulted and told he faced up to 10 years in jail.

The couple were warned if they did not co-operate their children would be taken away.

He told police: 'I do not have anything to do with drugs.'

Even though he pleaded his innocence he was arrested and handcuffed for 17 hours with no food, water or access to the bathroom.

Both his wife's and his phone were confiscated and police drew up a statement in Arabic which he was told to sign.

When Mr Neal complained that he had no idea what it said he was told curtly by an interrogator 'It's exactly what you said'.

Mr Neal, who spent his last years with the army as a member of the Royal Veterinary Corp, later found out he had 'confessed' to buying drugs from a Dutch national called Ray and later selling them to someone he had never met called Ahmed.

Police told him Ahmed had admitted Mr Neal sold him drugs  a lie that would later be revealed in court.

Three weeks ago a man Mr Neal, from Nottingham, was accused of selling drugs to admitted he had lied to police and his damming statement was withdrawn. Now he is awaiting to be formally acquitted and freed

During his first court hearing the police mixed up the evidence and Mr Neal learned he was one of 17 people arrested in a 'drugs sting operation'

When he was asked by a prosecutor about his confession he told them: 'I have not said any of the things in the statement and had no dealings with any of this at all.'

While being held in Dubai's central prison his wife was only allowed to see him once a week.

Friends revealed Mr Neal, who served in the Worcesters and Foresters Regiment, broke down in tears as he spoke with his wife.

Mr Neal, 44, was made to sign a confession which he didn't understand because it was written in Arabic

The British Embassy has offered little support, according to friends, and his parents Maurice and Sue have been frantic with worry while he is being held.

After being held in police cells he was transferred to Dubai's central prison where conditions are far below those of a British jail.

Over the Christmas period Mr Neal had several court hearings cancelled when the prosecutor failed to turn up.

Three weeks ago Ahmed admitted to prosecutors that he had never bought any drugs from Mr Neal and his damming statement was withdrawn.

Police also failed to find any evidence of drug dealing at his home or any telephone calls between him and the other 16 accused.

Despite the case against Mr Neal collapsing the prosecutor said he would make a final decision on his fate by the end of January.

According to Detained in Dubai if Mr Neal is released immediately the prosecutor will have to admit they have been wrong.

But by transferring the case out of Dubai to another court in the UAE it would no longer be their responsibility but the investigation would start from the beginning leaving Mr Neal locked up.

Radga Stirling said: 'Andy should not spend another night in prison, let alone another four months.

'It is shameful that law enforcement has a rubber stamp to ruin people's lives, rob children of their parents and jail innocent people with impunity. Why are forced confessions still standard in the UAE?

'We are calling on Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and MP Mark Spencer to stand up for Andy Neal, a man who has dedicated much of his life to supporting British forces abroad and who was recovering from PTSD following service in Iraq, Afghanistan and Bosnia.'

A Foreign Office spokesman said: 'We are providing assistance to a British man after his arrest in Dubai and are in touch with his family and the UAE authorities.'

A spokesman for the UAE Embassy in London was unavailable for comment.
A Southern California man was arrested Saturday afternoon on suspicion of driving drunk and murder following the death of a veteran officer of the Highway Patrol.

Michael Callahan, 36, of Winchester was booked on the charges following the death of Patrol Sgt Steve Licon, 53, officials said on Sunday.

Driving a Toyota Corolla, Callahan crossed over the right shoulder of the Interstate 15 freeway in Lake Elsinore, hitting Licon and a car that the officer had stopped for speeding.

California Highway Patrol Sgt Steve Licon, 53, a 27 year veteran of the agency, died on Saturday after being hit by a car that crossed right shoulder of Interstate 15

A procession for the motorcycle officer leaves the Inland Valley Medical Center in Wildomar, California on Saturday

Licon was airlifted to the nearby Inland Valley Medical Center where he later died. The four people in the car escaped unharmed.

Callahan is due to appear in court on Wednesday.

Speaking at a news conference on Sunday, Mario Lucio, special services commander of CHP's Inland division, said: 'Investigators believe the recommendation of a murder charge in the case is "completely appropriate".'

'We have uncovered evidence which shows gross negligence both during and before this tragic collision,' he added.

Fellow officers attend the procession for Licon, who was described as 'just an all-around great human being'. The CHP will hold a bell tribute in his honor on Monday

'Investigators believe the recommendation of a murder charge in the case is "completely appropriate",' an official said

Licon, a 27-year veteran of the CHP, is survived by his wife, daughter and stepdaughter.

His body was taken to the Riverside County Coroner's Office in a procession on Saturday night, attended by fellow officers.

The agency will hold a bell tribute ceremony in the victim's honor on Monday.

California Acting Gov Eleni Kounalakis ordered flags to be flown at half-staff at the state Capitol.

Officer Steve Carapia, who knew Licon for six years, said: 'He had a great sense of humor.'

'You could hear him laughing from the sergeant's office. You could hear him coming down the hallway ... Just an all-around great human being.'

He said Licon loved his job and the fact that his office was on a motorcycle.

'This is a tough one,' he said. 'It hits you to the core.'

Members of Licon's family in tears as the officer's body is transferred from Inland Valley Medical Center Wildomar to the coroner's office in Perris

Emergency hospital staff bow their heads in a sea of salutes for fallen officer

Lucio said Licon used to be his sergeant when he was coming up in the agency and helped shape his career and that of many other younger officers.

'He loved mentoring the troops,' Lucio said. 'The guy really spent time developing the officers he supervised.'

He said the sergeant's death should be a strong reminder to the public that drinking and driving is never acceptable.

'We lost a darned good sergeant,' he said. 'He's going to be missed.'

Police departments and officers across the state took to social media to post about Licon.

CHP Commissioner Warren Stanley said Licon was a great leader 'who sacrificed his life serving the people of California'.

CHP Headquarters tweeted that 'our hearts are heavy ... Rest easy brother, we have the watch from here'.

The California Highway Patrol posted a tribute to Licon on the agency's Facebook page
A pet puppy has been seriously injured after its teenage owner slammed it to the ground during an argument with his girlfriend, according to reports in China.

The young owner, said to be 17 or 18 years old, became enraged during the row, so he picked up the three-month-old Labrador and savagely threw it onto the concrete floor in broad daylight.

The female puppy, named Cola or 'Ke Le' in Chinese, was found to have fractures in the pelvis and leg as well as a ruptured spleen. It was rushed to the vet by an eyewitness.

In a fit of rage, the teenage owner, said to be 17 or 18, grabs Cola by the ears before throwing it

The three-month-old puppy ends up landing about one metre away after its owner slammed it

The incident reportedly took place last Wednesday outside a pet shop in the city of Zhenzhou in central China's Henan Province.

Surveillance footage shows the dog owner talking to a young woman outside a shop.

All of sudden, the teenager is seen grabbing a small dog by the ears before smashing it towards the pavement.

The dog landed about one metre away, but managed to stand up on its own.

The owner of the pet store, who was sitting outside, witnessed the horrifying incident.

She can be heard scolding the cruel owner before rushing to pick up the puppy.

The shop owner queried him severely 'what are you doing' and 'what's wrong with you' before shouting 'don't raise it if you don't want to'.

Apparently furious with the teenager's behaviour, the shop owner concluded: 'Why don't you throw yourself?'

An X-ray scan (left) shows the Labrador sustaining a fracture in a leg after the horrific event. It was taken to the vet by the owner of a pet store who saw the teenager abusing the baby dog

An insider told Chinese video news site Pear that the couple had been arguing intensely before the video starts.

The insider also revealed that the young couple told the shop owner that they didn't want the puppy anymore before leaving the scene.

The shop owner then took Cola to the vet, who found multiple wounds around the dog's body. It is believed that the puppy had been abused by the couple for a period of time.

The animal remains hospitalised when the vet treats its bones and spleen.

Users of Chinese messaging app WeChat have been donating money to the puppy after footage of the incident went viral.

A social media account believed to belong to the shop owner shows Cola making slow but steady improvement.

Footage from yesterday shows the little Labrador able to walk slowly on its own. It also enjoys the food brought by a visitor while the vet carries out further treatment on it in Zhenzhou

Footage from yesterday shows Cola stumbling with three legs and eating food by itself.

The shop owner plans to help the dog find a new owner after it makes a full recovery.

While China has legislation safeguarding land-based and aquatic wildlife, it currently lacks any laws to protect animal welfare or prevent cruelty towards animals.

Last month, Guo Changgang, dean of Shanghai Institutes of International Studies from Shanghai University, urged the central government to establish a relevant law to protect companion animals, especially pet dogs, as soon as possible.

Mr Guo submitted the proposal to Beijing during the country's most important political gathering known as the Two Sessions.

Before Mr Guo, animal activists and legal experts in China had already submitted two draft laws to the country's authorities in a bid to put a stop to wide-spread animal cruelty in the country. Both laws are still pending approval.
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Family members were pictured with anguish-stricken faces after learning that a relative of theirs had been shot and killed by soldiers in a shocking case of mistaken identity.

Soldiers in Brazil ended up shooting at a car that they thought belonged to a wanted criminal, when in fact an innocent man was behind the wheel who was taking his family out to a family party on a Sunday afternoon.

Relatives looked distraught as they learned the terrible fate. Their anguish was hardly eased by the fact ten members of Brazil's military were later arrested after the horrific shooting.

It was revealed soldiers fired an incredible 80 shots at the car which was carrying a family of five but which ended up killing a 46-year-old man.

Evaldo dos Santos Rosa was driving to a baby shower with his seven-year-old son, his wife, her stepfather and another woman when soldiers started shooting at them, according to relatives.

The stepfather and a passerby who was trying to help were also injured but the rest of the family was unharmed.

The military initially said in a statement that the soldiers had responded to gunfire from attackers. But police said no arms were found in the car and the military eventually changed its statement.

A relative cries out in agony as she looks at the body of Evaldo dos Santos Rosa slumped over inside his car in the Guadalupe neighborhood, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Luciana dos Santos cries at the scene where her husband's body lies slumped over in their a car that was shot at by members of the armed forces, in the Guadalupe neighborhood, in Rio de Janeiro

The body of Evaldo dos Santos Rosa sits slumped over inside his car as a soldier stands guard nearby

'All evidence points to a homicide,' police investigator Leonardo Salgado told TV news Globo after inspecting the site.

On Monday, the military said soldiers patrolling the area mistook Dos Santos Rosa's car for that of criminals.

'Due to inconsistencies between the facts initially reported and other information later received by the eastern military command, we determined the immediate removal of the military members involved,' the armed forces said in statement. Ten of the 12 men questioned by investigators were under arrest.

Luciana Dos Santos, the victim's wife, went to the morgue Monday to identify her husband's body. In tears, shock, Dos Santos told reporters her seven-year-old thought his father was still alive.

'My God, why did the soldiers do this?' Dos Santos said, almost struggling to breathe.

The son of 46-year-old Evaldo dos Santos Rosa grieves at the scene where his father's body lies in the car

Relatives appear to be in disbelief at what happened as they were travelling to a baby shower on a Sunday afternoon in Rio

The homicide detective Leonardo Salgado, who examined the scene and interviewed witnesses said soldiers had confused the familys white car with another white car stolen nearby

Residents gather to watch the death scene investigation was taking place into the killing

A young resident, a cross shaved into his hair, stands near the death scene investigation of 46-year-old Evaldo dos Santos

Residents gather to watch the investigation. Authorities say soldiers mistook the car driven by Santos Rosa for that of a criminal and was hit by 80 shots fired by members of the armed forces

'Murderers, that's what they are,' said Dos Santos' sister Deborah outside the forensic institute. 'It's like the governor said: Kill first and then see. And that's what they did: First they killed and then they went to see that it was a father, that there was a family inside, that there was a kid inside.'

'This can't keep happening. We want justice,' the victim's 29-year-old son, Daniel, told The Associated Press in a phone interview.

Brazil has the largest number of annual homicides in the world and new President Jair Bolsonaro has vowed to unleash security forces to battle rampant violence.

But the armed forces have long been criticized for extra-judicial killings, especially in the state of Rio de Janeiro. In 2018, the police killed 1,534 people in the state, according to government data.

The body of Evaldo dos Santos Rosa can be clearly seen slumped over inside his car as a soldier stands guard

Ten Brazilian soldiers have been arrested and charged with shooting into a car, firing 80 bullets

Rosa was killed and his wife's stepfather wounded. Relatives say his wife, 7-year-old son and another woman were unharmed
A Labour councillor has been suspended from the party after a Facebook post suggesting 'Hitler had the right idea' about travellers was made in his name.

An investigation has been launched into Bob Murray, who represents Prestatyn on Denbighshire Council in north Wales, after the comment was left on a post by a fellow councillor.

The remarks on a thread by Paul Penlington about a local group of travellers also asked if anyone had any 'gas canisters'.

Mr Penlington branded the post 'vile' and told the BBC's Local Democracy Reporting Service he had deleted it after seeing it.

'I put a post on Facebook informing residents of Denbighshire Council's sensible response to a small group of travellers in my ward.

'I only stated the facts to avoid any misinterpretation as this can be a contentious subject for many people.

'I am absolutely nauseated by the post and quite upset really that my good name has been drawn into this.'

The post was criticised by Travelling Ahead, a traveller, Roma and Gypsy rights group.

Spokeswoman Trudy Aspinwall said: 'These appalling comments published on an online public platform are a hate crime.

'It would be absolutely unacceptable to say this publicly about any other group, and it's particularly concerning if this comes from a publicly-elected representative who has a role in decision making about local plans to improve services for this community.'

Councillor Bob Murray has been suspended by the Labour Party following the Facebook post regarding travellers

Mr Corbyn tweeted his thoughts on International Romani Day this afternoon, saying they had faced a long period of discrimination

Experts have estimated that as many as 500,000 people were killed by Nazis and collaborators during the Porajmos - the Roma Holocaust - in the Second World War.

Mr Corbyn this afternoon tweeted: 'On International Romani Day, we celebrate what Romani culture has given so many countries around the world.

'But we also remember that the Romani have long faced the kind of discrimination that we must and will eradicate to build fairer, more equal societies.'

A Labour Party spokeswoman declined to comment on individual cases but said: 'The Labour Party takes complaints about discriminatory and threatening language extremely seriously, which are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures and any appropriate disciplinary action is taken.'

Councillor Murray has yet to comment.

Jeremy Corbyn met with the party's Welsh MPs today to welcome its latest MP, Newport West's Ruth Jones (front, second from right), to Westminster after last week's by-election win

The suspension came as Labour's anti-Semitism crisis showed no sign of abating.

The opposition leader lost a no confidence motion by the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) 'overwhelmingly' yesterday 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.

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'.

the Jewish Labour Movement today passed a motion of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn declaring him 'unfit to be Prime Minister'

It said the leadership had 'used their influence to protect and defend antisemites', concluding 'Jeremy Corbyn is therefore 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.

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.

Yesterday shadow attorney general Shami Chakrabarti appealed directly to the group in an interview with Sophie Ridge on Sky, 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.'
Killing Eve fans are livid that the new series of the BBC show has aired in America, but they will have to wait an expected three months to see it.

Viewers in the US gushed about the latest outing in the intense drama, as they praised lead actresses Jodie Comer, 26, and Sandra Oh, 47, for their outstanding performances in the first episode of the second season.

But fans of the show in the UK were left fuming as they begged American viewers not to spoil anything and demanded the BBC say when it would be released across the pond. It is not clear when this will happen, but it is expected to be sometime in June.

Jodie Comer in New York on April 5

US fans gushed about the latest outing in the intense drama, and also praised lead actress Sandra Oh (pictured) for her outstanding acting

British viewers vented their anger that it would be months before UK viewers can see Killing Eve despite it having already aired in the US

It appears in the US first, before all eight episodes are uploaded to iPlayer, but this will take months, leaving UK viewers livid.

Taking to Twitter to express their fury, fans demanded the BBC tell them when they could watch the second series of the crime drama.

One user said: 'fuming that america get season two of killing eve in a few hours yet the uk are still waiting for a release date.'

Another said: 'Release Killing Eve into the UK already you monsters.'

British fans of the show were irritated that the show had already begun airing in the US with no release in the UK announced

In complete contrast US fans have been sharing love for the second season's first episode which aired on Sunday, one user wrote: 'so here's the thing if Jodie Comer isn't nominated for every goddamn possible award this year...'

While another added: 'I'd give Villanelle anything! Bravo Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh! Superb acting from both!'

Praising Sandra's take on her role as the MI5 officer, one viewer gushed: 'I love @IamSandraOh and her reactions as Eve so much. So good.'

As UK viewers expressed their frustration, one person suggested British fans could stream the show illegally rather than waiting for it to come out

Although she's a psychopathic killer, one user couldn't help but share their adoration for the character, as they said: 'Oh my god! Villanelle is the funniest! How can you not adore her!! So happy that show is back.'

British fans of the show were irritated that the show had already begun airing in the US with no release in the UK announced.

One fumed: '@KillingEve please stop retweeting comments about s2 ep1. You're spoiling it for your UK viewers'

In complete contrast US fans have been sharing love for the second season's first episode which aired on Sunday

Taking a slightly more aggressive approach, another user said: 'WTF @BBCOne @KillingEve Why is #KillingEveS2 not airing in the UK????? How rude! Sort it out, please!'

Another hit out: 'Isn't it great that Killing Eve is back... if you live in the US... us Brits have no idea when we'll see it, thanks @bbc'

The slick and often gruesome thriller explores the obsessive relationship between MI5 agent Eve and a psychotic and supremely stylish Paris-based assassin named Villanelle.

US viewers said Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh had both been excellent in the programme

Eve knows she must catch the chameleon-like killer before theres another murder but finds herself becoming more fascinated by the beautiful Villanelle  all the time knowing she could be her next victim.

Sandra won a Screen Actors Guild award, a Golden Globe and a Critic's Choice Television award for her performance of the professional but emotionally flawed Eve.

The actress and her co-star Jodie Comer, who plays stylish assassin Villanelle, are both up for the Leading Actress gong at the BAFTA Television Awards 2019.

The hit BBC series has led the BAFTA Television Awards 2019 nominations with a whopping 14 nods, including the Drama Series award.

Intense: The slick and often gruesome thriller explores the obsessive relationship between MI5 agent Eve and a psychotic and supremely stylish Paris-based assassin named Villanelle
Authorities trying to recover a dead body spotted floating off the Hawaii coast had to call off the rescue after a tiger shark started circling and pulled the person under.

Hikers spotted the body in the water about 30 yards off the shore in North Kohala at about 11am on Sunday.

A large tiger shark had started circling the body when Hawaii County fire officials arrived at the scene soon after.

Officials said they made multiple attempts to get the body with a Billy Pugh net but their efforts were thwarted by the hungry predator.

Authorities trying to recover a dead body that was spotted floating in water off a Hawaii cliff face had to call off the rescue after a tiger shark started circling and pulled the person under (file photo)

The body was pulled under water by the shark soon after.

'In the process of putting a Fire Rescue Specialist in the Billy Pugh net to recover the body, a bystander reported that a shark had submerged the body and it was no longer visible,' the county fire department said.

Authorities conducting aerial searches for the person before calling the rescue off when the body didn't reemerge.

The person's belongings, including a backpack, were located on a cliff nearby.

Officials have not released any details about the person.

They said are working to identity the person's next of kin.
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 U.S. amphibious hovercraft departs with evacuees from Janzur, west of Tripoli, Libya, Sunday, April 7, 2019. The United States says it has temporarily withdrawn some of its forces from Libya due to deteriorating security conditions. The pullout comes 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 and protecting diplomatic facilities. [Photo: AP]

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 how many remain in the country.

Footage circulating online showed two apparent U.S. Navy transport craft maneuvering off a beach in Janzour, east of Tripoli, sending up plumes of spray as American forces were ferried from the shore.

India also 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.

Fayez Sarraj, head of government in Tripoli, accused Hifter of "betraying" him.

"We have extended our hands towards peace, but after the aggression that has taken place on the part of forces belonging to Hifter and his declaration of war against our cities and our capital ... he will find nothing but strength and firmness," al-Sarraj said Saturday in televised comments.

Sarraj and Hifter held talks in Abu Dhabi in late February, their first confirmed meeting since November 2018, when they agreed that national elections were necessary, according to the U.N.

Hifter is seeking to capture the capital and seize military control of the whole country before U.N.-sponsored talks due to start next week that were designed to set a time frame for possible elections in the oil-rich country.

The U.N. envoy for Libya, Ghassan Salame, said the U.N. is determined to hold the planned conference.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged Libyan factions to return to negotiations, saying that "there is no military solution to the Libya conflict."

"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," Pompeo said in a statement.

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.

Armed groups behind the U.N.-backed government of national accord, or GNA, have announced an effort to defend Tripoli, vowing to recapture all areas seized by Hifter's forces.

Col. Mohamed Gnounou, a spokesman for GNA forces, said in televised comments Sunday that the counteroffensive, dubbed "Volcano of Anger," was aimed at "purging all Libyan cities of aggressor and illegitimate forces."

The two sides reported that at least 35 people, including civilians, had been killed 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, a 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.
A 'heavily intoxicated' Playboy bunny sunk her teeth into a police officer's forearm - leaving bite marks - after she had also kicked another officer outside her flat, a court heard.

Siobhan Yasmin Tedder, 26, was 'foaming at the mouth' when she clashed with police outside her home at Charleville Road, Hammersmith in London on March 2.

Tedder is employed at the private members-only Playboy Club London in Old Park Lane, Mayfair and pleaded guilty at Westminster Magistrates Court to assaulting PC Tom Burch and Special Constable James Murphy.

A third officer at the scene described seeing 'white foam in the corners of her mouth,' as Tedder screamed: 'Get off me.'

Siobhan Yasmin Tedder, 26, works at the members-only Playboy Club in Mayfair, London and was 'foaming at the mouth' when she assaulted officers

She was bailed until April 23 for a pre-sentence report and alcohol treatment requirement assessment.

Prosecutor Simon Maughan told the court: 'Police officers attended the address after Tedder alleged that she had been assaulted after a night out.

'When they came across her she was heavily intoxicated, under the influence.'

PC Burch said: 'She was clearly drunk, she smelled strongly of intoxicating liquor, her eyes are glazed and she was unsteady on her feet.

'She continued screaming in the communal area at the top of her voice and demanded we arrest her and continued shouting at us.

She was described as being 'heavily intoxicated' when she attacked the officers

'She grabbed the communal hall table and tried to throw it and began alleging that I was sexually touching her.

'She was arrested for being drunk and disorderly and we took her up to the flat and as she climbed the stairs she kicked out with her right leg.

'I was unable to know if she stumbled while drunk or was deliberate.

'We took her outside to wait for the police custody van and she kicked me, raising her knee and driving her foot back into my shin.

'I felt a sharp, stinging pain. She was taken to the floor and then said she was pregnant and started screaming for water.

'She was chomping and I saw her teeth rip her skin.

Special Constable Murphy said: 'She was acting in a manner suggesting she had consumed vast amounts of alcohol mixed with illegal substances.

'She was shouting: ''What do I have to do to get arrested?'' and on the pavement she kicked PC Burch.

'She banged her head on the pavement and while holding my hand over her head she bit my forearm, leaving a visible teeth impression and causing my to scream loudly in pain.

'I washed my arm in the flat's kitchen to minimise the possibility of infection.

'These were extreme levels of violence while we were there to help her as a victim. Her actions were completely unjustified.'

Tedder pleaded guilty at Westminster Magistrates Court to assaulting PC Tom Burch and Special Constable James Murphy

Mr Maughan told the court: 'These are very serious offences. This was sustained, long incident involving someone incredibly intoxicated and violent.

'I do ask for compensation for these officers being kicked and bitten.'

Tedder, who once worked as a 'hair extensionist,' and owned a company called 'The Hair Beautique' was convicted of drink-driving three years ago.
Indianapolis suffered a deadly weekend with six people killed and three others injured by gunfire across the city.

In what appeared to be five unrelated incidents the death toll climbed from 9.30pm on Saturday through to 9.30pm on Sunday, Fox 59 reported.

At least one of the victims, none of whom have been named, was a 17-year-old person who was pronounced dead at the scene.

'You gotta wonder where is the value of life, where is it going, people just randomly killing and not thinking twice about it?' questioned IMPD Lt. Kerry Buckner.

Indianapolis suffered a deadly weekend with six people killed and three others injured by gunfire across the city. At least one of the victims, none of whom have been named, was 17 years old

The first reported incident occurred on the 1700 block of Bellefontaine Street on the citys north side.

Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers responded at around 9.30pm on Saturday to find a male suffering from multiple gunshot wounds lying in the street.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene.

At 9:30pm on Saturday one person was pronounced dead at the scene on the 1700 block of Bellefontaine Street on the citys north side

At 11pm on Saturday, one person was pronounced dead at Kingston Square Apartments in the 7100 block of Twin Oaks Drive

At around 11pm on Saturday, police were called to an apartment located on the 7100 block of Twin Oaks Drive.

A man was found suffering from a single gunshot wound at Kingston Square Apartments, where police said he had been visiting a friend.

That man was also pronounced dead at the scene. The shooter has not yet been identified and no one has been arrested related to that killing.

A single gunshot entered a family's residence in the apartment building, but apparently no one was injured other than the victim, who did not have a relationship with that family.

The family of the man fatally shot arrived on the scene and were also questioned, but no motive has been determined at this time.

At 1am on Sunday, two people (one male, one female) were killed, and three others were wounded on the 3600 block of Roosevelt Avenue at a brown brick building that has no name, but is a known hangout for local motorcycle clubs

Timeline of fatal shootings in Indianapolis over the weekend 9:30pm Saturday: 1 person pronounced dead at the scene on the 1700 block of Bellefontaine Street on the citys north side 11pm on Saturday: 1 person pronounced dead at Kingston Square Apartments in the 7100 block of Twin Oaks Drive 1am on Sunday: 2 killed, 3 others wounded on the 3600 block of Roosevelt Avenue at a brown brick building that has no name, but is a known hangout for motorcycle clubs 3pm on Sunday: 1 male victim, 17, found dead on the 3400 block of Franklin Road near 34th street 9:30pm on Sunday: 1 male victim, 21, pronounced dead at the scene on the 1000 block of North Tuxedo Street Advertisement

On Sunday morning shortly after 1am, authorities well called to an unnamed brown brick building that is widely known as a local motorcycle club hangout on the 3600 block of Roosevelt Avenue.

On the scene police found one male and two females suffering from apparent gunshot wounds, two of whom where transported to a hospital for treatment.

One of the females was pronounced dead at the scene, while the other was reported to be in serious but stable condition at the hospital.

The male victim was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Later, two additional victims were taken to the hospital, with one listed in critical condition and the status of the other unknown.

Authorities said a physical altercation may have preceded the shooting. At least two buses full of potential witnesses were questioned by police.

At around 3pm on Sunday, a 17-year-old male was found by police shot dead in the street on the 3400 block of Franklin Road.

At 3pm on Sunday, one male victim, age 17, was found dead on the 3400 block of Franklin Road near 34th street

Witness said the teen was walking with a friend when a car pulled up, stopped, a person got out and shot the teen.

The final killing occurred at around 9.30pm on Sunday, taking the life of a 21-year-old man.

Police found the man suffering from a gunshot wound on the 1000 block of North Tuxedo Street. Emergency personnel pronounced the man dead at the scene.

'I mean you got a 21-year-old kid down here that didnt even start living life yet, and hes laying there dead because somebody was mad,' Buckner told Fox 59.

Indianapolis Ten Point Coalition Board President Reverend Charles Harrison noted warmer weather often brings an increase in violent behavior in the area.

'When the weather tends to warm up, we tend to have a lot of more violence on the streets. So it should be concerning to all of us, and it's why we have to address it immediately,' Harrison said.

Indianapolis TenPoint Coalition is a 501c3 organization whose mission is 'to reduce Urban Youth Gun Violence and address critical issues in Indianapolis and surrounding area,' according to the organization's website.

The high on both Saturday and Sunday in Indianapolis was 66 degree Fahrenheit, according to timeanddate.com, a website that catalogs historical weather data.

Indiana police are asking anyone with information related to each of the six killings over the weekend to call 317-262-TIPS (8477).

Individuals providing information that leads to a felony arrest may be eligible for a $1,000 cash reward.
Conservative HQ has made an embarrassing U-turn after sending out a mass email saying Britain will be taking part in European Parliament elections on May 23 - before then rowing back to insist the nation could still leave without going to the polls.

Mrs May has insisted for months she does not want Britain to take part in the EU elections and as recently as last week said she wanted to avoid it.

But an email to Tory candidates earlier this evening said: 'Due to the current situation we will be contesting the European Elections on 23 May 2019 and the closing date for nominations is 24 April.'

However, in a later email, Tory chairman Brandon Lewis U-turned on the remarks, which were made by the party's head of candidates Gareth Fox. He suggested Mr Fox's email was only outlining what would happen if this ambition is not achieved.

Running the national election would cost the taxpayer at least 100million and force political parties to spend millions more on campaign materials.

Theresa May (seen outside Number 10 yesterday) has insisted for months she does not want Britain to take part in the EU elections and as recently as last week said she wanted to avoid it

An email (left) sent this evening by Tory head of candidates Gareth Fox said Britain would take part in the European elections. But party chairman Brandon Lewis then rowed back on his remarks (right)

Mr Lewis' email this evening read: The Governments clear policy is to leave the EU with a deal and for the necessary legislation to pass before 22 May so that the UK does not need to participate in European Parliamentary elections.

However, if the UK had not ratified the Withdrawal Agreement and were still a Member State of the European Union on 23 May, we would be under a legal obligation to hold the elections.

With the closing date for the nominations on 24 April, it is clear that we need to make contingency plans as a Part in the event of these elections going ahead.

This is why Gareth Fox emailed you earlier today to outline how we ensure we are prepared for any eventuality.

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. THURSDAY APRIL 11: PM'S FACES MPs Theresa May will return from Brussels with a likely nine to 12 month extension and will outline her plans in the the Commons in the wake of the EU summit. FRIDAY APRIL 12: BREXIT DAY Britain is due to leave the EU without a deal on this date if no delay is agreed. Advertisement

In her letter to EU Council President Donald Tusk on Friday, Mrs May asked for a fresh delay to Brexit that could be cut short if the deal passes in time to avoid the election.

The EU has insisted Britain elect new MEPs if it wants to delay Brexit by extending Article 50 - warning the UK cannot stay in the bloc for longer without them.

The Government has tabled an order enabling EU elections to be held in Britain if the country has not left the EU by the time they take place next month.

The Day of Poll Order sets the date for the elections on May 23, but the Cabinet Office said they would automatically be cancelled if the UK left before then.

Brexiteer MPs reacted with fury after Mr Fox's original email was leaked.

Sources in the hardline European Research Group told MailOnline: 'It's good to know that Theresa May can say bad things with certainty.

'If it's set to destroy the party, she's firm of purpose and pushes on. Corbyn and Barnier are very, very lucky to have her.'

Tory MP Bob Seely said: 'Wish this was a week-late April foo wind-up. If true, let's hope we pull out beforehand.

'This is really going to wind-up our voters, and not surprisingly.'

In other developments today, Yvette Cooper's backbench Bill that would force Mrs May to ask for a Brexit extension rather than leave the EU with no deal was passed by the House of Lords.

It will now be sent back to the House of Commons where MPs will need to agree to amendments to the bill made in the Lords.

Elsewhere, Jeremy Corbyn slammed Mrs May's refusal to budge off her red lines tonight after the Prime Minister met Brexiteer ministers and top Tory MPs in Downing Street.

After meeting with his shadow cabinet about the state of the cross-party talks, the Labour leader said he was 'frustrated' the Prime Minister's actions were not matching her calls for compromise.

Mrs May has enraged her own side by inviting Mr Corbyn to talks on finding a compromise that can get her Brexit deal through Parliament. Downing Street and Labour have agreed to more talks between officials tonight.

There are persistent rumours in Westminster Mrs May is poised to over Labour a permanent customs union with the EU after Brexit - despite the threat of resignations from the Brexiteer wing of her Cabinet if she effectively rules out hopes of new trade deals after Brexit.

But the concession could be the only way to get Labour behind her deal. Mr Corbyn has long demanded a permanent customs union be the basis of the final UK-EU trade deal.

Conservative Party chairman Brandon Lewis leaves the Cabinet Office in central London on April 4

Britain currently has 73 members of the European Parliament following the 2014 election, which Ukip won while it was led by Nigel Farage (pictured in the European Parliament last month)

'Frustrated' Corbyn blasts May for refusing to move her red lines in Brexit talks after meeting with Cabinet Brexiteers in No 10 Jeremy Corbyn slammed Theresa May's refusal to budge off her red lines tonight after the Prime Minister met Brexiteer ministers and top Tory MPs in Downing Street. After meeting with his shadow cabinet about the state of the cross-party talks, the Labour leader said he was 'frustrated' the Prime Minister's actions were not matching her calls for compromise. Mrs May has enraged her own side by inviting Mr Corbyn to talks on finding a compromise that can get her Brexit deal through Parliament. Downing Street and Labour have agreed to more talks between officials tonight. Jeremy Corbyn slammed Theresa May's refusal to budge off her red lines tonight after the Prime Minister met Brexiteer ministers and top Tory MPs in Downing Street There are persistent rumours in Westminster Mrs May is poised to over Labour a permanent customs union with the EU after Brexit - despite the the threat of resignations from the Brexiteer wing of her Cabinet if she effectively rules out hopes of new trade deals after Brexit. But the concession could be the only way to get Labour behind her deal. Mr Corbyn has long demanded a permanent customs union be the basis of the final UK-EU trade deal. Labour insists it would negotiate a 'UK say' on new EU trade deals once Britain has left the bloc but even if achieved this falls far short of the Leave vision of Britain as a major free trade player on the global stage. Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the backbench Tory 1922 Committee said there was not 'at the moment' a deal as he left Downing Street this afternoon. Earlier, Mrs May met Brexiteer ministers including Commons leader Andrea Leadsom, Aid Secretary Penny Mordaunt, Environment Secretary Michael Gove and Trade Secretary Liam Fox and Transport Secretary Chris Grayling earlier. She held further talks with Remainer ministers including Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd and Justice Secretary David Gauke later. The meetings come amid claims by the Telegraph that Mrs May's deputy David Lidington is poised to make a written offer to Labour. Talks are ongoing about what it should say on a customs union and new public vote. Mrs May has cancelled tomorrow's full-blown Cabinet so she can travel to Paris and Berlin for talks on delaying Brexit ahead of an EU summit on Wednesday. There are mounting fears French President Emmanuel Macron could use the summit to trash what is left of Mrs May's plans for a prompt Brexit. Ahead of No 10 talks, hardline Brexiteers launched a new bid to oust Mrs May as Tory MP Mark Francois publicly demanded a new vote on her leadership. Unless Mrs May secures a delay to Brexit at the EU summit on Wednesday, Britain will leave without a deal at 11pm on Friday. Advertisement

Labour insists it would negotiate a 'UK say' on new EU trade deals once Britain has left the bloc but even if achieved this falls far short of the Leave vision of Britain as a major free trade player on the global stage.

Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the backbench Tory 1922 Committee said there was not 'at the moment' a deal as he left Downing Street this afternoon.

Earlier, Mrs May met Brexiteer ministers including Commons leader Andrea Leadsom, Aid Secretary Penny Mordaunt, Environment Secretary Michael Gove and Trade Secretary Liam Fox and Transport Secretary Chris Grayling earlier.

She held further talks with Remainer ministers including Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd and Justice Secretary David Gauke later.

The meetings come amid claims by the Telegraph that Mrs May's deputy David Lidington is poised to make a written offer to Labour. Talks are ongoing about what it should say on a customs union and new public vote.

Mrs May has cancelled tomorrow's full-blown Cabinet so she can travel to Paris and Berlin for talks on delaying Brexit ahead of an EU summit on Wednesday. There are mounting fears French President Emmanuel Macron could use the summit to trash what is left of Mrs May's plans for a prompt Brexit.

Ahead of No 10 talks, hardline Brexiteers launched a new bid to oust Mrs May as Tory MP Mark Francois publicly demanded a new vote on her leadership.

Unless Mrs May secures a delay to Brexit at the EU summit on Wednesday, Britain will leave without a deal at 11pm on Friday.

After meeting with his shadow cabinet about the state of the cross-party talks, the Labour leader said he was 'frustrated' the Prime Minister's actions were not matching her calls for compromise

A raft of ministers have threatened to quit the Government if Mrs May pivots to a soft Brexit to salvage her deal, which has been trounced three times by MPs.

EU leaders have 'given up on Theresa May and are now negotiating with MPs directly' As Theresa May heads to Paris and Berlin EU leaders have given up on her, it was claimed today. The bloc's leaders are said to be negotiating directly with MPs after the Cooper/Letwin plot grabbed control of Brexit in the Commons. An EU diplomatic source told The Sun: 'What's annoying us is they're not a real government so we don't have any partners to properly talk to. 'We don't want to be demanding but we've got to manage the process and we don't have another side to manage it with. 'We have no trust in May anymore. We say we're not negotiating with the House but we are. But how can we negotiate with all these different factions?' Advertisement

But if Mrs May does not move to Labour she faces even more resignations from the Remain wing over the threat of No Deal.

Instead of Cabinet tomorrow, Mrs May will hold a showdown with Emmanuel Macron in Paris as the French President considers his own 'de Gaulle moment' with Brexit and could force Britain out of the EU.

Mr Macron is urging the EU to turn the screw on Britain by demanding 'strict' conditions if Article 50 is extended at a Brussels summit on Wednesday or demand No Deal.

The Prime Minister will also jet to Berlin tomorrow for emergency talks with Angela Merkel - and will be calling some of the other 27 EU leaders in the next 24 hours - as soft Brexit talks with Labour hang in the balance.

She will meet the German Chancellor before the French President ahead of the EU summit in Brussels on Wednesday where she will beg them to delay Brexit until June 30.

But with the EU pushing for a 12-month extension, the PM may ask the two leaders to push her request for a shorter delay as she faces mass ministerial resignations if Brexit is stopped until March 31, 2020.

Earlier, Mrs May met Brexiteer ministers including Commons leader Andrea Leadsom, Aid Secretary Penny Mordaunt, Environment Secretary Michael Gove and Trade Secretary Liam Fox and Transport Secretary Chris Grayling earlier.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson and Aid Secretary Penny Mordaunt arrived for the meeting of senior minsters today

Mr Macron wants the UK to commit to not to disrupt the EU's business after Jacob Rees-Mogg, the chairman of the European Research Group of Eurosceptic Tory MPs, said Britain should be 'as difficult as possible' in the event of a long extension and frustrate EU budget decisions.

If not he could choose to say 'non' to Mrs May, as General Charles de Gaulle of France did twice when he vetoed Britain's bid to join the EEC in the 1960s.

The EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier is flying to Dublin for emergency talks with Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar amid fears Britain could end up with No Deal.

To avert this Mrs May, who will cancel a crunch cabinet meeting because of her German visit, is risking civil war with her own party by pursuing a softer Brexit, with Boris Johnson calling it a 'surrender' and warning his party leader: 'It cannot, must not and will not happen'.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen says she's staying in her job a little longer to ensure a 'smooth transition' of power within the government agency that's helping to oversee the president's border emergency.

She also seemed to address a report that said she refused an order by the president to reinstate family separation at the border, telling reporters outside her home that she continues to support the president's mission at the border.

'I want to make sure that we continue to execute them all with excellence throughout the transition. I share the president's goal of securing the border,' she said. 'I will continue to support all efforts to address the humanitarian and security crisis on the border. And other than that, I'm on my way to keep doing what I can for the next few days. So thank you all for being here.'

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen says she's staying in her job a little longer to ensure a 'smooth transition' of power within the government agency that's helping to oversee the president's border emergency

Nielsen said Sunday night that she would not leave her job until Wednesday, even though she submitted a resignation letter and publicly announced her departure.

The White House did not have an answer for the change of plans on Monday and directed questions to Nielsen.

Trump's spokesman suggested on Fox that Nielsen left the administration over differences with the president on the best way to execute his border security goals.

'Listen she offered her resignation. She resigned and the president moved forward, because look this is probably the most important position right now in the federal government,' White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley said of her departure on Fox News.

He said, 'We've seen such an increase in the influx of people coming into this country. It's time to do things a little differently. And so the president is looking around to reshape his team so that he can have the people in place to carry out his agenda. And quite frankly he has the right to do that.'

Nielsen told reporters waiting on her front lawn just after noon on Monday that she had no new announcements. She suggested that she and Trump were parting ways over the family separation issue and his repeated threats to close the border.

'As you know, DHS has a vast array of missions. I want to make sure that we continue to execute them all with excellence throughout the transition,' she said. 'I share the president's goal of securing the border. I will continue to support all efforts to address the humanitarian and security crisis on the border.'

Nielsen submitted her resignation to President Trump on Sunday evening after months of threats from the president to close the border and cut aid to amid to Central American countries growing frustration with drug trafficking and illegal immigration.

NBC News reported Monday morning that Nielsen also advised Trump not to reverse an order barring family separation.

He appointed U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan to replace her as acting secretary.

McAleenan is not next in line for the job. Claire Grady, the under secretary for management and acting deputy DHS secretary, should become the acting DHS secretary when Nielsen leaves, U.S. law dictates.

Trump would need to fire Grady, too, of he wants to put McAleenan at the top of DHS in an acting capacity, and Washington was holding its breath on Monday for the ax to drop.

Nielsen's extended goodbye seemed to be designed to buy the president time to address the blunder, experts said Sunday after the Trump administration official reversed her immediate departure.

Nielsen says she will not leave her job until Wednesday, even though she submitted a resignation letter and publicly announced her departure

Nielsen submitted her resignation to President Donald Trump on Sunday evening after months of threats from the president to fire her amid his growing frustration with drug trafficking and illegal immigration at the U.S-Mexico border

Nielsen's extended goodbye seem to be designed to buy the president time to address a blunder he made when he fired her

George Conway, husband of White House adviser Kellyanne Conway and a high-powered lawyer, noted that Nielsen's resignation letter said she would be leaving the position immediately

University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck said in a Sunday night tweet that that 6 U.S.C.  113(g) indicates that Grady, and not McAleenan, should be taking over DHS when Nielsen departs.

Kevin McAleenan Kevin McAleenan is the child of immigrants. His mom is from Finland and his father is from Ireland. He has served as the commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection since January 2017. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on March 19, 2018, by a vote of 7719. His confirmation was delayed for three months over allegations from anonymous accusers that he had an affair with a subordinate and bypassed proper channels to fund an immigration detention center. An inspector general investigation cleared him of all wrongdoing. Prior to becoming acting Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, he served as Deputy Commissioner during the Obama administration and had other positions in the agency. McAleenan has also served as the Area Port Director of Los Angeles International Airport. Her received his Juris Doctor Degree from the University of Chicago Law School. Advertisement

'One interesting question is whether @realDonaldTrump was _told_ that Grady automatically becomes Acting DHS Secretary under section 113, and purported to name McAleenan _anyway_, or whether he wasn't so informed, and now has to be told to walk it back,' Vladeck wrote.

George Conway, husband of White House adviser Kellyanne Conway and a high-powered lawyer, noted that Nielsen's resignation letter said she would be leaving the position immediately.

'Her letter said effective April 7yesterday. They must have realized late last night how Trump incompetently botched the naming of her successor without having someone check the statute. But was the resignation letter accepted?' he asked on Monday morning.

Vladeck said in a response, 'Either way, @realDonaldTrumps tweet purporting to name McAleenan as Acting Secretary was wrong. He isnt Acting Secretary today, he wasnt yesterday, and he wont be on 4/11 unless a series of other things (including the firing of Undersecretary Grady) happen b/w now and then.'

Trump announced Nielsen's exit in a Sunday night tweet an hour after news networks reported on an unscheduled visit to the White House in which she was expected to resign.

'Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen will be leaving her position, and I would like to thank her for her service,' Trump tweeted. '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 met with President Trump on Sunday evening and submitted her resignation

Nielsen was with President Trump when he visited the border on Friday afternoon

He announced Sunday that U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin K. McAleenan will be acting Department of Homeland Security secretary

Nielsen shared a copy of her resignation letter on social media. In it, she said she was leaving the department that day, Sunday, April 7.

'I hereby resign from the position of Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), effective April 7th 2019. It has been my great honor to lead the men and women of the Department as its sixth secretary,' she wrote in the letter she posted to Twitter.

Yet, hours later, as questions about the line of succession and Trump's authority to use the Vacancies Act to bypass Grady and put his hand-picked successor at the top of DHS were raised by legal experts, Nielsen said she would remain secretary for a few days more.

'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.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley would not say why Nielsen delayed her departure as he spoke to reporters on Monday morning.

He directed questions to Nielsen about the change of plans. He did not say whether Trump would fire Grady to make way for McAleenan, under questioning from DailyMail.com.

Gidley hinted at tension between Nielsen and Trump in a Fox News interview, in which he said that Trump believed it was 'time to do things a little differently' at the border.

'And quite frankly he has the right to do that,' Gidley said of the shake-up.

He said Trump and McAleenan have a 'very good relationship' and hailed Nielsen's intended replacement.

Trump's displeasure with Nielsen had been apparent for months. He signaled in December when he parted ways with John Kelly, her mentor and former boss, that Nielsen could be next on the chopping block.

She said in a resignation letter that highlighted her successes at DHS that '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.'

Mixed messages: First Nielsen said she'd submitted her resignation to the president

She shared her resignation letter on social media minutes after he announced her departure

Trump also pulled the nomination of Ron Vitiello to lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week. The president said he wanted to move the department in a 'tougher' direction and was withdrawing the nomination.

The moves were reportedly engineered by senior policy adviser Stephen Miller. He did not return a request from DailyMail.com for comment.

NBC News meanwhile reported that Nielsen's demise was related to the administration's family separation policy at the border. The network reported that Trump was trying to reinstate the policy, overriding Nielsen, who reportedly told him that the action would be in violation of a court order and the memorandum he issued last summer.

Gidley said Monday that he had not spoken to the president about the topic.

'I have not heard that,' he said of the reported move to reinstate family separation. 'I don't know if he's had that conversation or not.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristjen Nielsen's resignation letter

Trump has been frustrated with the high number of border crossings and reportedly blamed Nielsen; he's seen with her here in October 2017 when he nominated her to the job

The president's spokesman restated the administration's desire to have a court settlement related to the policy, known as the Flores agreement, overturned.

'Separation of families, now the president has said before he doesn't like that. It's a horrible practice,' he said. 'But Congress has a way to fix that, so we will not be a magnet for people to come here and use children to do it.'

He added, 'It's a horrible disgusting thing for the drug cartels to use children, women, to line their own pockets for profit. Not to mention bringing drugs into this country and what it does to devastate American communities. And so, it's time to fix it, and Congress can do it.'
Paris Shahravesh begged Sheikh Mohammed to allow her mother Laleh to return home

The daughter of a British woman facing jail in Dubai for calling her ex-husband's new wife a 'horse' on Facebook has made a heartbreaking plea for her release.

Laleh Shahravesh was arrested under Dubai's strict cyber-crime laws after she was reported by Samah Al Hammadi for calling her 'horse face' on social media three years ago.

Now her 14-year-old daughter Paris has begged the ruler of Dubai, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, to allow her passport to be returned and let the mother go home.

She described how the pair were stopped at Dubai International Airport and were repeatedly shouted at by officers as they were crying after being separated due to a law banning children from police vehicles.

Hammadi, 42, initially told authorities Shahravesh, 55, harassed her on Facebook after discovering her ex-husband, Pedro Manuel Coreia Dos Santos, had remarried.

After being reported to police, Shahravesh was arrested last month at the airport along with her daughter when they arrived in the United Arab Emirates for his funeral after he died unexpectedly.

Shahravesh has been stopped from leaving Dubai for the last 28 days after first being detained in an immigration room at the airport for four hours.

The 55-year-old then went to Jebel Ali Police Station on March 10 and was forced to sign a statement in Arabic and has been unable to leave Dubai ever since.

Paris Shahravesh wrote to Sheikh Mohammed today begging him to let her mother go after she was arrested so soon after her father's death.

Her ordeal began on March 14 when Laleh and her daughter flew to Dubai's for her ex husband Pedro's funeral

Paris Shahravesh wrote to the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed, today begging him to allow her mother, Laleh, to return home. Pictured is her signature

She wrote: 'I cannot emphasise enough how scared I felt, especially after losing my father just a week before, as I was having to worry about losing my mother as well.

'Yet even though I felt terrified on the day that we arrived, the sick feeling in my stomach only became worse.

'I have not seen my mother in 23 days, and with every passing day, I feel less hopeful of her return. I ask kindly: please, please return my mothers passport, and let her come home.'

Shahravesh was given fresh hope when it was revealed earlier today the case against her could be dropped.

The complainant could reportedly be about to cease all charges after Hammadi said she would not continue 'out of respect' for her late husband's daughter.

She told Sky News: 'One of the last messages he [the late husband] tearfully gave me before his death was that he deeply loved his daughter. I am willing to withdraw this case to honour my husband's love for his daughter.'

Hammadi claimed she decided to make the complaint after 'suffering in silence' for over a year and now has no regrets, despite single mother Shahravesh facing up to two years in jail and a fine of 50,000.

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

'She has been abusing him, sending emails, even to his boss in the bank, saying I am a b***h, that I took him from her, that she doesn't have money. He sent emails asking her to stop. It did not stop,' she told the Evening Standard.

'It is a crime in Dubai. It is right. I don't feel sorry. She made him [Mr Santos] suffer in the last year of his life. Let the law take part.'

Shahravesh has previously 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.

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 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.

Her husband and his new wife Samah Al Hammadi (pictured) were living in Dubai when the Facebook posts were made in October 2016

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.

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.

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'

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.

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.

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 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.

'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.

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

'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.'
A mother murdered her husband by stabbing him in the heart following a row about her leaving the house to buy wine, a court has heard.

Karine Atay, 42, plunged a 12cm knife into 45-year-old Atakan Atay's chest during a confrontation at their Gateshead home in October, Newcastle Crown Court heard today.

The couple's three-year-old daughter Sophie died in 2010 from the childhood cancer neuroblastoma and he had named his local convenience store after her.

The kitchen knife penetrated his body just below a tattoo which read 'Sophie My Endless Love' before the wife said her daughter's name, the jury was told.

Karine Atay (left) stands accused of murdering husband Atakan (centre) eight years after the death of their daughter Sophie (right)

The couple's three-year-old daughter Sophie died in 2010 from the childhood cancer neuroblastoma and Atakan named his local convenience store after her

The defendant denies murder and it is expected she will claim she was defending herself, the court heard.

She told detectives that Mr Atay, a Turkish-born businessman and her husband of almost 20 years, was controlling and violent.

John Elvidge QC, prosecuting, said: 'As on previous occasions, her craving for alcohol led Karine Atay to seek to leave the matrimonial home.

'There was a confrontation but not a grave one until she chose to pick up a knife and use it against her unarmed husband, deliberately and unlawfully stabbing him more than once, delivering a fatal wound that penetrated into his heart and caused his death.'

Mr Atay called the emergency services as he was dying, but was only able to say '999 please' before his breathing became more laboured.

His wife was guided through how to perform chest compressions by the call handler but did not carry out effective CPR, the court heard.

She was then heard saying: 'You're lying. I would never do that to you Atakan. I would never hurt you.'

'There's Sophie. We're going to get you an ambulance. I'm really sorry. I love you so much.'

Newcastle Crown Court heard how Atay knifed her husband just below his tattoo which read: 'Sophie My Endless Love'

Emergency services had to get into their terraced house through a kitchen window as the doors were locked, Mr Elvidge said.

Atay was arrested on suspicion of murder, having initially claimed she had heard her husband having a fight with someone, and saying he had 'enemies'.

The next day she gave a statement to detectives, which Mr Elvidge said was in stark contrast to what she had said during the 999 call and to an officer who went to her house.

Mr Elvidge said: 'Declarations of love and remorse were abandoned in favour of a vitriolic attack on her husband who, she claimed, had subjected her to years of verbal and physical aggression and abuse, had sought to control and degrade her, and attempted to police her drinking.'

She also claimed he once attempted to strangle her.

Atay initially said her husband had 'enemies' who may have killed him before saying she acted in self-defence

The defendant said she had drunk two-thirds of a bottle of wine that night and wanted to get more before the violent struggle started with her husband.

She said she could not remember getting a knife.

Atay said in a statement to police after the attack: 'I'm struggling to cope with knowing I have done it as I know I was arguing and defending myself against him at one point.

Mr Elvidge said Atay had sought help for her drinking in the past, and that police had been called to their home previously when she was found to be drunk and confrontational.

He said: 'In drink she could be volatile, confrontational, aggressive and threatening.'

Mr Elvidge said she had threatened to bite the nose off a hospital security guard in 2015, had two road traffic collisions when she was over the limit and was cautioned for biting a nightclub doorman.

The trial continues and is expected to last four weeks.
This is the first picture of a mother-of-one who died after falling from the eight floor of a London tower block as police continue to question a 26-year-old man on suspicion of murder.

Annabelle Lancaster, 22, was found dead outside the apartment building on Turkey Street in Enfield at around 6pm yesterday before police arrested the man nearby.

Neighbours today remembered Ms Lancaster as a 'lovely' woman who had lived in the area for two years with her partner and young daughter.

Mother-of-one Annabelle Lancaster, 22, died after falling out of an eight-floor window at a block of flats in Enfield, north London

A large police forensic tent has been erected outside the tower block and was being guarded by a police officer today

A friend who only wanted to give her name as 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.

The tower block in Turkey Street, Enfield, today with a police forensics tent at the bottom

'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.'

A neighbour, who did not give their name, told The Standard: 'She was a lovely girl and had lived here for two years.

'She had a little daughter, aged two or three. She lived there with her partner and daughter. It's so very sad.'

A note left at the scene next to bouquets of flowers read: 'Our darling princess, you shined like a star from the moment you opened your eyes to the moment you closed them.

'We love you we love you we love you darling xxxxx.'

The victim and the arrested man knew each other, a Metropolitan Police spokesman told MailOnline.

A note left at the scene next to bouquets of flowers read: 'Our darling princess, you shined like a star from the moment you opened your eyes to the moment you closed them'

Floral tributes were left today near where Ms Lancaster fell to her death

The force 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 where he remains.

'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.'

Ms Lancaster's next of kin have been informed while a post-mortem examination and formal identification will be carried out in due course.

Anyone with information should call police on 101, quoting CAD reference 5516/7 April, Tweet @MetCC or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Double shooting in Leyton just an hour after woman found dead Two men in their 20s were shot around an hour after Annabelle Lancaster was found dead in Enfield. A gunman fired at the two men in Francis Road, Leyton, east London, just before 7pm yesterday 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.
Vietnam veteran Jamie Mintz, 70, was killed at his home after getting into a fight with his granddaughter's boyfriend

A Vietnam veteran was allegedly killed at his home after getting into a fight with his granddaughter's boyfriend.

Officers responded to the scene in Detroit at around 4.38 am on Monday where they found the Jamie Mintz, 70, dead of a gunshot wound to the chest.

Mintz, was killed by the boy, 16, that his granddaughter had allowed into the home, family members claimed.

The teenager was the girls boyfriend, WXYS reported. When Mintz realized the boy was in the house, he asked him to leave.

An argument reportedly ensued which ended with a struggle over a gun. The gun discharged and Mintz was fatally wounded.

The suspect fled and police were still searching for him on Monday afternoon.

It is understood he still had the weapon on his person. It has yet to be confirmed who owns the gun or whether it was legally owned.

The incident happened at a home in the 9900 block of Mansfield, which is on the city's west side near Greenfield and West Chicago.

The happened at a home in the 9900 block of Mansfield, which is on the city's west side

Distraught family members said the victim had surveillance cameras inside and outside the home. However it has yet to be determined if there is footage of the fatal shooting.

They told Fox 2 Detroit that Mintz was a loving family man and a great neighbor.

Mintz had recently celebrated his 70th birthday. Pamela McGee, the victim's sister-in-law said: 'I spoke to him yesterday and he asked me would I come by and I said okay I'll see you tomorrow.

Police officers attend the scene of the shooting where Jamie Mintz succumbed to his injuries

The suspect fled in an unknown direction and police were sill searching for him on Monday

Family members said the victim had surveillance cameras inside and outside the home

'Then they woke me up saying that Jamie is gone, he has been shot.

'Jamie was a good guy, he had no enemies, he was a good father, a good uncle, a good brother-in-law, a good husband.'

Another family friend said: 'I am really in disbelief.' He was so laid back, real easy to talk to, easy-going, real easy to get along with.'

Mintz was married to his wife for 40 years but she died several years ago.
A partner at a top international law firm has set Twitter users alight after he warned 'unsuitably dressed trainees' never to wear brown shoes with a blue suit.

Speaking at Thomson Reuters' 'Transforming Women's Leadership in the Law' conference at London's Hilton Tower Bridge hotel last week, the unnamed city lawyer reportedly told juniors: 'Don't wear brown shoes with a blue suit'.

Legal affairs journalist Catherine Baksi attended the event and tweeted about the lawyer's advice that he was passing on to 'unsuitably dressed trainees'.

A partner at a top international law firm has set Twitter users alight after he warned 'unsuitably dressed trainees' never to wear brown shoes with a blue suit

Legal affairs journalist Catherine Baksi attended the event and tweeted about the lawyer's advice that he was passing on to 'unsuitably dressed trainees. Her post saw a number of other lawyers respond and join in on the debate

Ms Baksi said the comments had been directed towards people from non-traditional backgrounds who perhaps would not know 'unspoken dress code rules'.

She told the Telegraph: 'It's for the dress code law to change,' not the candidates.

The comments sparked a backlash on Twitter, with one criminal solicitor saying: 'Who is this partner? Send him my way and I'll put him straight'.

The comments immediately sparked a backlash on social media, with lawyers saying that the comments were 'a step too far'.

Alon Riza, who works for a legal PR company, said: 'Sounds like lack in sense or fashion; or quite possibly both.

'People should wear what they want.

'The partner should get out of others' wardrobes, or just get out more.

'People see an expert for his/her expertise, not for their dress sense.'

Media law partner, Mark Stephens, replied to the tweet by simply saying: 'S***', before posting a picture of him wearing a blue suit with brown shoes.

Media law partner, Mark Stephens, replied to the tweet by simply saying: 'S***', before posting a picture of him wearing a blue suit with brown shoes

According to the Telegraph, wearing brown shoes with a blue suit is scorned upon by those who stick to the unspoken 'City dress code' and multiple studies suggest that candidates are still judged at interviews based on appearance.

A 2016 study released by the Social Mobility Commission reported that investment banks are less likely to hire men who wear brown shoes to a job interview.
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When it comes to remaining faithful in a marriage, attitude can be everything.

Nearly three quarters (74 percent) of Americans believe it is 'always wrong' to have sex outside of marriage, according to the General Social Survey.

But that leaves 26 percent who think it is rarely, sometimes or always acceptable to stray outside of marriage.

A DailyMail.com analysis of the GSS - which is a comprehensive survey that has tracked American attitudes and beliefs since 1972 - breaks out which groups are more flexible when it comes to extramarital sex, finding that Democrats, white Americans and rich people are more likely to think cheating is sometimes acceptable.

Just 65 percent of Democrats believe it is always wrong to cheat, compared to 86.5 percent of Republicans, according to the General Social Survey

This chart illustrates the share of each political party believes it is always, almost always, sometimes and never wrong to cheat on a spouse

For example, just 65 percent of Democrats believe it is always wrong to cheat, compared to 86.5 percent of Republicans.

To break it down further, 19 percent of Democrats say it's 'almost always wrong' to have sex outside of marriage, while 12 percent believe it's sometimes wrong and 3 percent said it's not wrong at all.

By comparison, 8 percent of Republicans say it's 'almost always wrong,' 4 percent say it's sometimes wrong and 1 percent believe it's not wrong at all.

In addition, nearly three quarters (73.2 percent) of independents believe being unfaithful is always wrong.

'Democrats are more liberal in general - and less religiously based - hence more liberal about personal peccadillos and sexual trespass  not that they approve,' said Pepper Schwartz, a sociologist and sexologist at the University of Washington.

Interestingly, the share of Democrats who say cheating is always wrong has declined since a peak of 82 percent in 2008 - which Schwartz told DailyMail.com could have something to do with the economic downturn that started that year.

'From 2007 to 2011 we had turbulent economic times, and I believe that was a big stressor across the board for people,' she said. 'A lot of people were faced with tumultuous economic decisions which are never good for relationships.'

Meanwhile Republicans have seen a steady rise since 1973 in the share whom believe it's always wrong to cheat.

'Theyre much more churched,' Schwartz said of the uptick among Republicans. 'Their beliefs are that much more under threat.'

Clarissa Silva, a behavioral scientist and researcher who has studied sexual behavior, notes that beliefs may not always be consistent with actions.

'In general, the more politically conservative an American is the more restrictive their public persona on sexual attitudes will be,' she told DailyMail.com.

'However, these differences in attitudes don't always correlate to differences in actions,' she added. 'Studies have found that Republicans cheat more often and are more sexually deviant in their practices than their more liberal peers.'

Attitudes are separate from the reality of stepping out on a spouse: just 15 percent of married women and 25 percent of married men have cheated on a spouse, according to the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. Those numbers rise by about 20 points when emotional and sexual relationships without intercourse are factored in.

More than 81 percent of black Americans say it is always wrong to cheat on a spouse, compared to less than 73 percent of white Americans

The differences also split along racial lines, with African Americans less likely than white Americans to be comfortable with the idea of sex outside of marriage.

More than 81 percent of black Americans say it is always wrong to cheat on a spouse, compared to less than 73 percent of white Americans.

Among white people, 16 percent said it's 'almost always wrong' to stray outside of marriage, while 8 percent said it was sometimes wrong and 1 percent said it was not wrong at all.

Among African Americans, 10 percent said it was 'almost always wrong,' while 8 percent said it was sometimes wrong and 1 percent said it was not wrong at all.

Schwartz noted that African Americans are much more likely to regularly attend church and be committed to a religion than their white counterparts  which could be a factor in how they answered the questions.

Silva, however, said that the reality could be different from survey responses.

'Several studies have found that African American men cheat more than white men,' she said. 'One possible explanation of this dichotomy (between survey data and those findings) is the racial differences in self-perception and locus of control.'

'White men tend to attribute their life circumstances and subsequent decision making to an internal locus of control, the belief that they are responsible for driving their own success, whereas black men feel that their outcomes are attributable to an external locus of control, the belief that external forces determine their outcomes,' she added.

Attitudes also break along educational lines, with the more educated survey respondents more comfortable with the idea of cheating in some situations

Less than 66 percent of the upper class believes it is always wrong to cheat on a spouse, while the 83.3 percent of the poorest Americans feel that way  a more than 23 point spread between the classes

Attitudes also break along educational lines, with the more educated survey respondents more comfortable with the idea of cheating in some situations: 79.6 percent each of those with just a high school degree and those who didn't finish high school believe cheating is always wrong.

That's compared to 65 percent of those with a college degree or higher  a near 15 point difference.

An additional 20 percent of college grads said that cheating is 'almost always wrong,' while 13 percent said it is sometimes wrong and 1 percent said it was not wrong at all.

In a related finding (given the widely accepted link between education level and lifelong earning potential), wealthy Americans are more likely to think cheating is sometimes acceptable.

Less than 66 percent of the upper class believes it is always wrong to cheat on a spouse, while 83.3 percent of the poorest Americans feel that way  a more than 23 point spread between the classes.

The upper class has actually rebounded since 2014, when just 47 percent said it was 'always wrong' to cheat.

'Upper and middle-class Americans tend to use a cost-benefit calculation when deciding whether to have an affair or not,' Silva said. 'This calculation is determined by biological and socioeconomic factors and varies based on gender.'

'Younger and lower-income women cheat to improve their genetic pool or to enhance the outcomes for their current children,' she added. 'Upper and middle-class American men calculate the risk of being caught by divorce settlement risk.'

Some 79 percent of Southerners believe cheating is always wrong  the biggest share in the country  while 73 percent of those in the Midwest, 72.7 percent in the West and just 63 percent in the Northeast share that belief

The survey also reveals regional differences in attitudes about cheating: Southerners are the least likely to believe it's acceptable, while Americans living in the Northeast have the most lax ideas about extramarital sex.

Some 79 percent of Southerners believe cheating is always wrong  the biggest share in the country  while 73 percent of those in the Midwest, 72.7 percent in the West and just 63 percent in the Northeast share that belief.

Schwartz noted that one factor could be that the Southern U.S. is more church based and has higher church attendance  though it's unclear if their actions are consistent with their beliefs.

'These red states have higher divorces than the blue states - and most southern states are red,' she said.

The share of Americans who believe it's always wrong has declined in all four regions of the country since 2014.

Perhaps least surprising was that men are more likely than women to think cheating is acceptable sometimes. Some 78 percent of women think it's always wrong to stray from a marriage, compared to nearly 69 percent of men  a 9 point difference in attitudes.

Silva said the gender findings were a 'good predictor' of actual cheating behavior.

'Several studies show that men do cheat more often than women although the number has increased more for women in the past decade,' she said. 'Some of the leading reasons women cheat are feeling loneliness, sexual dissatisfaction or deprivation ... or from the lack of orgasms and intimacy with their spouse.'

'Leading reasons men cheat differ: insecurity, ego validation, immaturity, inability to terminate the marriage or inability to be alone, impulsivity and misdirected anger that blames his failure on his wife,' she added.
President Donald Trump followed the ouster of his Homeland Security secretary with another pink slip on Monday, reportedly axing the director of the U.S. Secret Service. Trump ordered acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to fire Randolph 'Tex' Alles. CNN first reported the move.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Lee Cissna is also leaving, according to CBS News. So are DHS undersecretary for management Claire Grady and general counsel John Mitnick.

A person with knowledge of USCIS's front office, however, said late Monday that Cissna was still in his job. And Alles told his agency's staff that he wasn't forced out.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement that Alles 'has done a great job at the agency over the last two years, and the President is thankful for his over 40 years of service to the country.'

Alles wrote in a message to his agency that '[n]o doubt you have seen media reports regarding my "firing." I assure you that this is not the case, and in fact was told weeks ago by the Administration that transitions in leadership should be expected across the Department of Homeland Security.'

A White House official denied that DHS leaders beyond Alles and Nielsen left their jobs Monday or were fired. The official noted that DHS distributed a readout on Grady's trip to France for the upcoming G-7 Interior Ministers' meeting on Monday morning, indicating that she held her position as of 10:45 a.m.

The change at Secret Service comes on the heels of an embarrassing episode at Trump's private Mar-a-Lago resort club in Palm Beach, Florida, involving a Chinese national on a club guest list who was arrested with devices bearing computer malware. Secret Service punted responsibility to Mar-a-Lago's private security detail.

President Donald Trump fired U.S. Secret Service Director Randolph Alles on Monday, signaling a plan to toughen the ranks of officials tasked with carrying out his hard-edged border policy

Alles is pictured in the Oval Office with the president in April 2018; he fired Alles less than a day afte rdhowing Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen out the door

President Trump has been growing impatient with the speed and aggressiveness of his immigration policies' adoption

The twin killings of Nielsen adn Alles indicate the strong hand of 33-year-old Trump aide Stephen Miller, a former aide to then-Senator Jeff Sessions who has become the driving force behind the administration's immigration policy

Shoving Alles overboard and driving others out signals the growing authority of Trump adviser Stephen Miller, the 33-year-old former staffer to then-Sen. Jeff Sessions. Alles, Cissna, Grady and Mitnick were on a list of officials Miller targeted for removal as 'too soft,' accoding to a White House official.

A White House source with knowledge of the West Wing's goings on in the past week told DailyMail.com on Monday that Miller had advocated internally for Nielsen's firing, and for Alles to follow her out the door.

Miller is known as a sharp-tongued promoter of hawkish immigration policies that Democrats have complained push the boundaries of federal law and too often challenge court precedents.

Trump fired Nielsen in a tweet on Sunday shortly after meeting with her in the White House residence and hearing her plan for bringing U.S. immigration in line with legal boundaries.

Federal law dictates that as the third most senior Homeland Security official, Grady should have become 'acting secretary' after Nielsen's departure since the number two position is vacant.

Grady's decision to leave is significant because Trump chose to appoint U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan to manage the department until he nominates a permanent secretary.

By quitting now, Grady avoided what could have been a messy fight over who would emerge in charge on Thursday, the first full day after Nielsen leaves on April 10.

Homeland Security under secretary Claire Grady, pictured on Friday in Paris, was set to become acting secretary with Kirstjen Nielsen's departure, but she left instead  clearing the way for Trump's hand-picked 'acting' Kevin McAleenan

Homeland Security Department general counsel John Mitnick (left) announced his departure on Monday, along with Lee Francis Cissna, director of U.S. Customs and Immigration Services

In this artist sketch, a Chinese woman, Yujing Zhang, left, listens to a hearing Monday, April 8, 2019, before federal Magistrate Judge William Matthewman in West Palm Beach, Fla. Secret Service agents arrested the 32-year-old woman March 30 after they say she gained admission by falsely telling a checkpoint she was a member and was going to swim

Secret Service agents arrested Yujing Zhang, a Chinese woman, last week when she tried to enter Mar-a-Lago with two Chinese passports, a thumb drive with malware on it, four cellphones, a laptop and a hard drive.

Zhang's attorney Robert Adler said his client was entitled to be at the presidents private club because she paid $20,000 to attend what she thought was a party later that night  an event that earlier in the week had been cancelled.

'This receipt is evidence of a payment from Ms. Zhang to attend an event at Mar-a-Lago that night,' Adler told U.S. Magistrate William Matthewman of Zhangs payment to Charles Lee, the alleged organizer of the canceled party.

Trump said shortly after the arrest that he was 'not concerned at all' about potential breach by Zhang, who posed for a picture with him at his Super Bowl party this year.

'Secret Service is fantastic. These are fantastic people. And the end result is it was good,' Trump said last Wednesday.

'The result is they were able to get her and she's now suffering the consequences of whatever it is she had in mind but I would say I could not be happier with Secret Service. Secret Service has done a fantastic job from day one. Very happy with them.'

A senior White House official said Monday that the Secret Service shift had been in the works for two weeks and was unrelated to the Mar-a-Lago incident.

Asked if Alles' firing was connected to Nielsen's or part of a broader Homeland Security Department housecleaning, another official said: 'Not that I'm aware of.'

White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley said earlier on Monday that with an influx of illegal immigrants pouring into the U.S. from the south, 'tt's time to do things a little differently.'

Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan will temporarily replace Kirstjen Nielsen after her resignation takes effect

White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley, pictured talking to reporters on Monday, said in a Fox News interview that President Trump hsa 'the right' to reshape his team

'And so the president is looking around to reshape his team so that he can have the people in place to carry out his agenda,' he said during a Fox News Channel interview. 'And quite frankly he has the right to do that.'

The Secret Service is best known for protecting the president and vice president and their families, and those who formerly served in office.

Established in 1865, the agency also investigates and prevents counterfeiting in order to protect the U.S. financial system, and combats computer-based financial crimes.

The Secret Service wasoriginaly a subagency of the Treasury Department, when it was principally an anti-counterfeiting force.

It became a branch of the Homeland Security Department in 2003 as the new post-9/11 agency coalesced around a mission that unified a group of previously far-flung government agencies.
Connor Scothern, 18, said he had moved away from supporting Adolf Hitler because he was 'problematic'

A teen neo-Nazi became disillusioned with banned terror group National Action because it wasn't 'family-friendly', a court heard.

Jurors heard Connor Scothern, 18, had moved away from supporting Adolf Hitler because he felt he was 'problematic'.

National Action was declared a terror group in December 2016 after Labour MP Jo Cox was gunned down by a far right fanatic in June that year.

Scothern, of Bagnall Avenue, Nottingham, is on trial at Birmingham Crown Court charged with belonging to the terror group.

The court heard he continued to message other National Action members after the ban because he was 'lonely'.

Scothern is on trial at Birmingham Crown Court charger with belonging to banned terror group National Action. Pictured: Scothern doing the Nazi salute in front a flag emblazoned with a swastika

Prosecutor Naomi Parsons said: 'Scothern was 15 when he joined National Action.

'He got involved through arguing with people online. He started looking into politics and had right wing views.

'He liked the imagery of National Action and the edginess of their message.

'He emailed [convicted National Action member] Christopher Lythgoe, who told him to set up a Tutanota email account.

'He watched videos about Hitler and the Jews and argued with Lythgoe about them.

'Scothern wanted to feel like part of the group family.

'He did not have many friends and suffered from anxiety.

'They gave him books to read.

'Over time, it became his life.

'He was never given a membership card. It was never that formal.

'He described himself as a Nazi, but never considered himself a white supremacist.

'Being a member involved stickering and leafleting.

Scothern (second left) allegedly wanted a more 'family-friendly, watered-down version of National Action'. Pictured is Scothern with Daniel Ward, Garry Jack, Alex Deakin and Adam Thomas doing a Nazi salute in Dudley

'Scothern only put stickers on lampposts, not anywhere where they could be targeted against specific communities.

'He had been de-radicalising himself. He considered himself a national socialist up until January 1018.

'He did not want National Action to carry on as it was getting him into trouble.

'He bagged all the National Action material he had and got rid of it or burned it.

'Scothern said they kept in contact as autonomous activists, not National Action members.

'He recalled one meeting post proscription when he decided he did not want to be part of it anymore.

'He had started going to college and his best friend now is mixed race.

'Scothern wanted a more family-friendly, watered-down version of National Action, one who saw past Hitler who had become a problematic figure.

'He said the Triple K Mafia chat group was a Nazi joke. It was just people being stupid.

Scothern's fiancee, Alice Cutter, 22, is also on trial charged with belonging to National Action. Jurors have previously heard Cutter entered a Miss Hitler beauty contest and were shown photographs of her pouting for a selfie infront of a Nazi swastika flag

When Cutter was initially arrested she said: 'Arrest me? What the f***? I thought this was his problem?'

'He posted because he was bored and he had nothing else to do.

'He said he stayed in the chat group because he did not know anyone else and was lonely.

'He did not want them to think he had betrayed them.

'He said he was brainwashed into thinking tolerance and homosexuality were Jewish things.'

Scothern is on trial with Mark Jones, 24, Garry Jack, 23 and Alice Cutter, 22.

They all deny being members of National Action after it was proscribed by the Government.

The court also heard police seized a Samsung phone and laptop from Jones which were programmed with the password 'white revolution'.

He claimed he was being 'framed' when he was arrested last September along with his fiancee Cutter at their home in Sowerby Bridge, Halifax, West Yorks.

Ms Parsons told the court: 'Cutter was arrested for membership of National Action.

'She told officers 'arrest me? What the f***? I thought this was his problem?'

'Cutter has no previous convictions and had never been arrested.'

Jurors have previously heard Cutter entered a Miss Hitler beauty contest and were shown photographs of her pouting for a selfie infront of a Nazi swastika flag.

More snaps also showed a heavily made-up Cutter holding a gun.

The trial was adjourned at lunchtime after Cutter became unwell.
A Quebec family traveled home from Florida with their deceased dad in the car to avoid paying expensive US healthcare and repatriation fees.

Canada-US border officers found the body of Fernand Drapeau, 87, of Ormstown, Quebec, inside the back of a van which was being driven home by one of his sons at about 2.30am on March 31. Drapeau's wife was also in the van at the time.

The Drapeaus were stopped at the at Hemmingford, Quebec, border crossing about 15 minutes from their home as they were on their way back from a trip to Florida, according to Le Journal de Montreal.

Canada-US border officers found the body of Fernand Drapeau, 87, of Ormstown, Quebec, inside the back of this van at about 2.30am on March 31. He had been dead for more than a day

The van, which Drapeau's wife was a passenger in, was being driven by his 60-year-old son. Drapeau died during the trip to Florida and the family was returning home with his body

Drapeau was said to have been dead for more than a day, although there did not appear to be any signs of violence on his body.

After being discovered by border agents, Drapeau's body was taken to hospital in Quebec, and then transferred to the morgue for an autopsy, according to officials.

A neighbor told Le Journal de Montreal that Drapeau and his wife frequently traveled to Florida during the winter.

At the start of this trip, Drapeau was said to have suffered some health problems and is believed to have had a heart attack at some point during it, according to the Toronto Sun.

When Drapeau died, apparently the wife and his 60-year-old son decided to return home to Quebec with his body rather than deal with expensive US healthcare and repatriation costs.

It is unclear when exactly Drapeau died, whether his family was negligent in his death or if they will face charges stemming from this incident.
Oprah Winfrey is donating $2million to help rebuild Puerto Rico and support arts and cultural programs in the wake of the devastating 2017 hurricane

Oprah Winfrey is donating $2million to help rebuild Puerto Rico and support arts and cultural programs in the wake of the devastating 2017 hurricane.

The Hispanic Federation and the Flamboyan Arts Fund said in a statement on Monday that half of the donation - $1million - would go to towards the Hispanic Federation's UNIDOS Disaster Relief & Recovery Program to support long-term needs after Hurricane Maria.

The other half of the donation will go to the Flamboyan Arts Fund, which is dedicated to fostering the island's rich heritage of arts, culture and creative development.

Winfrey, one of the most influential media moguls in the U.S., said she was inspired by the efforts of musical theater creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, who took his hit stage show Hamilton to the island for a limited run in January.

'I was so moved by Lin-Manuel Mirandas commitment to bring Hamilton to Puerto Rico and support the community that served him growing up that I wanted to join in the revitalization efforts of an island so rich in culture, beauty and heritage,' Winfrey said in a statement.

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Winfrey said she was inspired by the efforts of musical theater creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, who took his hit stage show Hamilton to the island for a limited run this January. The pair are pictured together during Oprah's Super Soul Conversations in February 2018

Miranda sponsored 23 performances of his Tony award-winning musical in Puerto Rico earlier this year, even reprising his role as Alexander Hamilton for the first time since leaving the original Broadway cast in 2016.

Miranda reprised his role as Alexander Hamilton for the first time since leaving the original Broadway cast in 2016

With some help of Miranda's run in Hamilton, the Flamboyan Arts Fund has raised an estimated $15million for Puerto Rican artists and art institutions.

Puerto Rico is still reeling from the devastation of Hurricane Maria 19 months after the Category 4 storm struck the US territory in September 2017, killing some 3,000 people.

The hurricane caused an estimated $100billion in damage to homes and infrustructure and left much of the island without drinking water or electricity for months.

Winfrey said in her statement: 'The needs of Puerto Rico and our fellow American citizens following the tragic hurricanes are still very real, and the work that has already been done by the Hispanic Federation, Flamboyan Arts Fund and other organizations on and off the island is long from over.'

Puerto Rico is still reeling from the devastation of Hurricane Maria 19 months after the Category 4 storm struck the US territory in September 2017, killing some 3,000 people
Chilling pictures show the aftermath of a what is believed to be a Saudi-led airstrike which killed at least 11 children and injured 54 people.

A total of 54 people in Sanaa, Yemen, were wounded with eleven children in nearby schools pronounced dead after a metal workshop exploded.

There was no immediate comment from the coalition, which has been at war with the Iran-aligned rebels since 2015.

Pictures show children searching for their bags in schools which were abandoned as they escaped the blast.

Pictures show children walking around deserted schools which are littered by bags and hats, abandoned as pupils ran for their lives.

Children and adults are also seen on the streets of Sanaa at a rally day held to appeal for the war to end.

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.

Pictures show the aftermath of a what is believed to be a Saudi-led airstrike which killed at least 11 children and injured 54 people.

Children and adults are also seen on the streets of Sanaa at a rally day holding placards and banners

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.

Yemenis gather outside a school a day after a Saudi-led airstrike hit the neighbourhood in Sanaa

According to reports, at least 11 Yemeni schoolgirls and two men have been killed and another 95 wounded, mostly schoolchildren. A Yemeni schoolgirl and her brother are pictured as they look for her schoolbag

Yemenis are seen during a rally in Sanaa following the airstrike which caused an explosion at a metal factory

Hats and bags are pictured strewn across the floor at a school in Sanaa

There was no immediate comment from the coalition, which has been at war with the Iran-aligned rebels since 2015. Yemeni schoolgirls are seen looking at bags following the airstrike

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

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.

The area has been sealed off after the blast destroyed the metal workshop and damaged nearby schools.

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
A Toronto neurosurgeon pleaded guilty on Monday to the 2016 killing of his physician wife, just days before his trial was due to begin.

Mohammed Shamji, 43, entered a guilty plea to the second-degree murder of Elana Fric-Shamji at a Toronto courthouse.

He faces an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for at least 10 years.

Mohammed Shamji (left) has pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of his wife, Elana Fric Shamji (right), who was found dead in a suitcase in Vaughan, Ontario

Fric-Shamji (left) worked as a family doctor at the Scarborough and Rouge Hospital in Toronto. Her husband (right) was a neurosurgeon at Toronto Western Hospital

A statement read out in court said Shamji killed his wife, then 40, during an argument. She had filed for divorce two days earlier.

Fric-Shamji claimed she had been a victim of domestic violence during their 12-year marriage.

The neurosurgeon, who has been in custody since his arrest on December 2, 2016, stuffed his wife's body into a suitcase where it was discovered dumped the next day by a passer-by near the Humber River in the southern Ontario city of Vaughan.

She was killed from strangulation and blunt force trauma, according to police.

Shamji was arrested at a coffee shop in Mississauga a day after her body was found.

Speaking outside the courthouse on Monday, Ana Fric, Elana's mother, said: 'Justice will never befall us. The only justice we will ever have is if she will come back  and she will never come back.'

News of the murder and Shamji's complicity was met with shock in the Toronto area at the time, particularly within the medical community.

The Shamjis were highly regarded doctors whose marriage produced three children.

The pair posted pictures on social media suggesting a happy couple. However, Fric-Shamji claimed their marriage was marked by domestic violence

Mohammed Shamji (seen left with his wife) was arrested and charged with first-degree murder

Fric-Shamji worked as a family doctor at the Scarborough and Rouge Hospital in Toronto

Fric-Shamji worked as a family doctor at the Scarborough and Rouge Hospital in Toronto.

Before his arrest, Shamji was a neurosurgeon at Toronto Western Hospital and a faculty member at the University of Toronto.

They both had advanced degrees from Duke University in the US.

Witnesses reported hearing the couple arguing at their home on the night of the killing.

Law enforcement officials alleged that Fric-Shamji was hit with a blunt force object in the couple's garage.

Neighbors told the Toronto Sun newspaper that Elana Fric-Shamji had filed for divorce from her husband and that she was in 'good spirits' in the days leading up to her death because she was 'looking toward her new life'.

The couple's 12-year marriage produced three children. Two were in court to hear their father plead guilty

Police believe Shamji (left) killed his wife (right) in the couple's garage after an argument

At the time of the killing, the couple's children  Yasmin, 12; Faiza, 9; and Marius, 3  were placed in the care of her maternal grandparents.

Fric-Shamji's grisly death was a far cry from images the couple presented on their social media accounts, which show a husband and wife enjoying one another's company.

However, sources told the Toronto Sun in 2016 that the marriage was marred by previous incidents in which the police were called to the house.
A Maryland man with a 'hatred of non-Muslim people' is accused of plotting to drive a stolen U-Haul truck into a crowd of people at a convention and tourist destination center in Maryland.

Rondell Henry, 28, from Germantown, was arrested on March 28 at the Waterfront complex in Prince Georges County, Maryland.

Authoities allege that Henry 'wanted to commit mass murder', and had stolen a U-Haul van from a parking lot in Alexandria, Virginia, two days before his arrest.

He held a deep-seated hatred for 'disbelievers' and admitted to the plot in several interviews with authorities, according to court documents seen by The Washington Post.

Rondell Henry, 28, from Germantown, was arrested on March 28. He is accused of plotting to drive a stolen U-Haul truck into a crowd of people at a convention and tourist destination center in Maryland.

He is currently charged with transporting a stolen vehicle, but no terrorism-related counts yet.

Prosecutors detailed the terrorism-related accusations Monday in a detention memo and argued that Henry should remain in jail pending trial. It was argued that Henry stole the van to 'commit mass murder.

'He had no escape plan, intending to die while killing others for his cause,' according to the memo seen by The Washington Post.

The suspect apparently left his job as a computer engineer on March 26 and was 'determined to walk down the extremist path,' prosecutors stated in the court documents.

Henry had a four-door sedan and later stole a larger vehicle with the aim of causing carnage and devastation, prosecutors said.

A detention hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, April 9, 2019, at 12.45 pm in U.S. District Court in Maryland.

According to the complaint, Alexandria Police Department was contacted about a leased U-Haul vehicle that had been stolen at the mall in Alexandria, Virginia.

Prosecutors claim that he stole the U-Haul van and drove around the D.C. area trying to select a location to attack that would generate media attention, prosecutors assert. Pictured is the National Harbor in Maryland where he allegedly planned to drive a truck into crowds of people

Prosecutors claim that he stole the U-Haul van and drove around the D.C. area trying to select a location to attack that would attract media attention

Alexandria Police Department was contacted about a leased U-Haul vehicle that had been stolen from a parking garage at the mall

The driver, who had rented the U-Haul, noticed a man driving a blue BMW follow the U-Haul off I-395 and onto mall property.

He later followed the U-Haul into the parking garage and parked a few spaces away.

When police responded to the garage, they found the BMW near where the U-Haul had been stolen. The BMW was registered to Rondell Henry.

CBS Local reported that the detention documents say Henry had a 'hatred' for those who do not practice the Muslim faith.

Henry is accused of plotting to conduct a car attack, similar to the 2016 truck attack in Nice, France, which was carried out by ISIS. He had allegedly been inspired by videos he watched of terrorists and terror attacks abroad.

Prosecutors claim that he stole the U-Haul van and drove through D.C.trying to select a location to attack that would attract media attention.

The U-Haul van, (pictured), that Rondell Henry, 28, is accused of stealing in what federal authorities contend was a plot to ram pedestrians at National Harbor in Maryland

Allegations against Rondell Henry were made in a court filing Monday as prosecutors in Maryland urged a judge to keep the defendant in custody

Prosecutors claimed that Henry told cops he was 'just going to keep driving and driving and driving' and did not plan on stopping.

'For two years, the defendant has harbored 'hatred' (in his words) for 'disbelievers' who do not practice the Muslim faith,' prosecutors wrote in their motion.

He also watched videos of foreign terrorists beheading civilians and fighting overseas. 'The defendant considered these gruesome actions brave and wanted to emulate them,' the document stated.

He then traveled to Dulles International Airport in Virginia at around 5 am on March 27, but 'the crowds weren't big enough for Henrys plan.'

Henry decided to conduct a vehicular attack, similar to the 2016 truck attack in Nice, France. Pictured are police researchers inspecting the scene where a truck crashed a crowd during Bastille Day celebrations

Paramedics attend to one of the injured on the promenade in Nice, France on 14 July, 2016 on Bastille day in Nice

Terrified people,(pictured), run from the scene of horror near the seafront in Nice, France

Prosecutors said he got out of the van and tried to access a restricted area of the airport by trailing behind person who had security clearance.

Henry could not breach the airport security area and after two hours drove to the National Harbor, prosecutors said.

The motion then states that Henry tried to break into a boat to hide overnight.

When Henry attempted to jump over a security fence from the boat dock, Prince Georges County Police officers arrested him.

Henry faces a maximum sentence of ten years in prison for interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle if he is convicted.
Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd, pictured above in a court in Georgia, is appealing against his conviction over the death of Charlotte Brown

Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd has vowed to pursue his human rights at Europes top court to clear his name.

He is appealing against his conviction over the death of Charlotte Brown  whom he still blames for the tragedy.

But if British courts reject his bid for freedom, he plans to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights  which has the power to rule his trial was unfair.

Yesterday a source close to his legal team in Georgia, where he fled last year, said: He will pursue every avenue to clear his name. Jack knows his rights...

He will take it to the European Court of Human Rights if he can. But he is quietly confident his first appeal will succeed.

Shepherd, 31, was last July convicted at the Old Bailey in his absence for the manslaughter of Miss Brown, 24, who died when his speedboat flipped on the Thames on a drunken first date in 2015.

His legal aid-funded appeal is based on perceived legal errors made by the judge in relation to his police interview.

Miss Brown, 24, died when his speedboat flipped on the Thames on a drunken first date in 2015. He has issued a reluctant apology to Miss Browns parents, but shamelessly continues to blame her for her own death

If it fails, he could ask the Strasbourg court to uphold his human right to a fair trial, claiming he was unable to defend himself properly at the Old Bailey  even though this is because he had absconded.

The Strasbourg court has nothing to do with the European Union and Britain will remain under its jurisdiction after Brexit.

Shepherd, a web designer who spent ten months living incognito in Georgia before a Daily Mail investigation tracked him down, is due to be extradited to the UK tomorrow to start his six-year jail sentence. He is expected to face an Old Bailey judge on Thursday.

He has issued a reluctant apology to Miss Browns parents, but shamelessly continues to blame her for her own death. He claims she was driving his defective speedboat when it hit a floating log.

He said from his cell in the Georgian capital Tbilisi: Her actions led to the fatal accident.

At his trial, prosecutors said that, if it was true, he was even more culpable for her death because as captain he should have known that Miss Brown, a business consultant from Clacton, Essex, had no experience with boats.

If British courts reject his bid for freedom, he plans to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights  which has the power to rule his trial was unfair

Shepherd said: Ultimately, it was her action to accelerate in the manner that she did, even though I failed to prevent her. You see, its shared [responsibility].

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. Things could have been very different.

He admitted some of the moral responsibility for Charlottes death and said he understood why her family blamed him.

Referring to Miss Browns parents, Graham Brown and Roz Wickens, he said: Absolutely, unreservedly, I apologise for the role I played. But the reality is not quite so simple. I am very sorry for what happened. It was a tragedy and if I could do anything to change what happened I really would.

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 ... But also, the choice I felt I faced ...was between running and suicide.

Miss Browns mother said: Nothing he says will bring my daughter back.
Saving the planet is all in a day's work for your average superhero.

So when Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman and Aquaman decided to join forces, the scourge of rubbish certainly took a heavy pounding.

Young litter pickers dressed as their heroes as they spent an afternoon clearing up an historic park.

Costumed children from the Little Collector Crew help rangers at Birkenhead Park, Merseyside pick up rubbish as the Mail's clean-up campaign gathers pace across Britain

The gathering was organised by eight-year-old Elizabeth Gadsdon as part of Tidy Britain Group's Great British Spring Clean, which is backed by the Daily Mail.

Elizabeth, who dressed as Wonder Woman, formed the group last year. It has 23 members who are all primary school children from around the Wirral.

The youngsters volunteer to help rangers at Birkenhead Park, which was the world's first publicly-funded civic park and has two million visitors a year. Elizabeth's mother Faith, 43, a firefighter, said of Sunday's litter pick: 'Elizabeth's group went out looking for small things such as plastic packaging and cigarette ends.

'They filled three bags in the end  one of general waste and another with mixed recyclables.

'There were 23 children and about 20 parents and guardians.'

It's not the first time that Elizabeth's group, who are called the Little Collector Crew, have donned superhero outfits. They did the same at a litter pick for the 2018 Great British Spring Clean.

Ava Newton, seven, and Elizabeth Gadsdon, eight, dressed as their favourite superheroes for the litter-picking drive in Birkenhead Park

The Little Collector Crew grew out of an idea Elizabeth had which her parents put to the park's rangers. To begin with, there were just a handful of children involved but the number has grown.

Mrs Gadsdon added: 'The children who go litter picking also look after the area outside their houses and local parks around the Wirral. Elizabeth arranges for them to have a high vis jacket and graptor  a children's litter picking device  so they can carry on their work throughout each month.'

Laura Williams, the park's ranger who helps run the Little Collector Crew, said: 'Elizabeth and the other children who are doing this are the perfect role models for the younger generation of children. I think it's amazing.'

Paul Davies, the park's manager, added: 'These children send a message that it's not acceptable to drop litter. They volunteer alongside our rangers. The children are wearing superhero costumes because that's exactly what they are. They are going out doing a valuable job, which is helping to protect wildlife.'

There are now 535,272 people signed up for the Great British Spring Clean, which runs until April 23.

Groups and individuals across the country are joining in the effort to remove litter and make parks, open spaces and verges pristine once again.

Full details are available through the Tidy Britain Group's website www.keepbritaintidy.org  including litter picks in your local area needing volunteers.

The Great British Spring Clean will run between March 22 and April 23. Register at gbspringclean.org.

More than 20 children, along with parents and guardians, took part in the clean-up to rid Birkenhead Park of discarded food wrappers and old cigarette ends




Three American service members and a U.S. contractor were killed when their convoy hit a roadside bomb on Monday near the main U.S. base in Afghanistan, the U.S. forces said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

The U.S. and NATO Resolute Support mission said the four Americans were killed near the Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, while three others were wounded in the explosion.

The base in Bagram district is located in northern Parwan province and serves as the main U.S. air facility in the country.

The wounded were evacuated and are receiving medical care, the statement said.

It added that in accordance with U.S. Department of Defense policy, the names of service members killed in action were being withheld until after the notification of next of kin.

An F-16 from the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing stands at Bagram Air Field, about 25 miles north of Kabul, in this January 2017 file photo. Four Americans died after a roadside bomb hit their convoy near the air base on Monday, the military said

In their claim of responsibility, the Taliban said they launched the attack and that one of their suicide bombers detonated his explosives-laden vehicle near the NATO base.

The conflicting accounts could not be immediately reconciled.

The fatalities, which bring to seven the number of U.S. soldiers killed so far this year in Afghanistan, underscore the difficulties in bringing peace to the war-wrecked country even as Washington has stepped up efforts to find a way to end the 17-year war, America's longest.

There are about 14,000 U.S. forces in Afghanistan, supporting embattled Afghan forces as they struggle on two fronts - facing a resurgent Taliban who now hold sway over almost half the country and also the Islamic State affiliate, which has sought to expand its footprint in Afghanistan even as its self-proclaimed 'caliphate' has crumbled in Syria and Iraq.

Last year, 13 U.S. service members were killed in Afghanistan.

The Taliban have continued to carry out daily attacks on Afghan security forces despite holding several rounds of peace talks with the United States in recent months.

U.S. 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 President Ashraf Ghani's administration, which has complained bitterly of being sidelined in peace talks.

The Taliban have refused to meet with the Afghan government, which they view as a U.S. puppet.

Meanwhile, the Taliban have agreed to take part in an all-Afghan gathering later this month in Qatar, where the insurgents maintain a political office.

The Taliban have continued to carry out attacks on Afghan security forces despite holding several rounds of peace talks with the United States in recent months. U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad (above) spent last week in Afghanistan as part of an ongoing push for a peace deal

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.

But the Taliban say they will not recognize any government official attending the gathering as a representative of the Kabul government, only as an individual Afghan participant.

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.
Two Honolulu police officers have been arrested for allegedly forcing a homeless man lick a urinal.

Officers John Rabago and Reginald Ramones, both aged 43, were indicted Friday on federal charges of depriving a man of his civil rights.

A police report says that the two officers were responding to a trespassing complaint at a public restroom in Honolulu, in January 2018, when they found Samuel Ingall, a 37 year old homeless man.

Ingall was known to the police because of his long arrest record. Prosecutors say the cops forced Ingall to then lick the urinal.

Federal authorities knew about the allegations for more than a year before the officers were indicted, said Rabagos defense attorney, Megan Kau.

'This is not a complicated case,' she said. 'This is a case of one man saying that two police officers forced him to a lick a toilet bowl.'

Honolulu police officer John Rabago (in blue) and Reginald Ramones (in black), left, have been accused of forcing homeless man Sam Ingall (right) to lick a urinal

Both officers maintain their innocence and will go to trial to fight the charges, Kau said.

'While this mornings arrests cast a dark shadow on the department, I ask that the public please continue to support the officers who carry out their daily assignments with courage, integrity, and respect for the public,' Chief Susan Ballard said in a statement cited by KITV. 'The two officers who were arrested will have their day in court and be held accountable for their actions.'

The officers have pleaded not guilty to the federal charges against them, which carry a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The alleged incident took place back in January 2018 at a public bathroom on Sheridan Street in Honolulu.

According to a lawyer representing the alleged victim, police officers told his client they would not arrest him for a probation violation stemming from a previous case if he agreed to lick the urinal.

He was forced to essentially do something that's disgusting. His face was forced into a urinal, attorney Myles Breiner said. The police officers thought this was amusing. It wasn't as though he was doing anything illegal but they chose to do this to him because he was vulnerable.

Ramones and Rabago have been indicted on federal charges of depriving a man of his civil rights and placed on leave from the police department

Ingalls relatives say the man has been living on the streets and struggling with drug addiction. He was known to the local police force owing to his extensive criminal record.

His sisters, Mary and Melody Ingall, told Hawaii News Now in February that their brother told them that beyond having to lick the urinal, the officers also made him sit in urine, pushed his head into the toilet and struck him on his arm with a nightstick.

We know our brother. We know when he lies. We know when hes being dishonest, Mary Ingall said. And he was very sincere and very detailed and it never changed, what he said.

Samuels mother, Charity Ingall, who lives in Pennsylvania, labelled her sons alleged treatment at the hands of the authorities an abomination and blamed local officials for failing to help her son following his release from jail in 2016.

According to Rabago's lawyer, the officers were just kidding when they said something in passing about licking the urinal, but a sergeant who was present misinterpreted their remarks and later reported it to their superiors, reported KHON2.

The department placed Rabago, who has 17 years of service, and Ramones, who has 10 years of service, on unpaid leave and took away their badges and service weapons.
Ronald Kessler, a former Washington Post and Wall Street Journal investigative reporter, is the New York Times bestselling author of The First Family Detail: Secret Service Agents Reveal the Hidden Lives of the Presidents, The Secrets of the FBI and The Trump White House.

The ouster of Secret Service Director Randolph D. 'Tex" Alles on Monday was not unexpected, and, in fact, was welcomed by most members of the law enforcement agency, sources tell DailyMail.com.

'The sentiment at the agency is "good riddance,"' they say.

'Alles seemed more interested in making friends with agents than fixing the problems that plague the once-proud agency,' according to agency sources. 'He proved to be the exact opposite of what was needed to reform the agency. '

His idea for trimming costs was to get rid of protection for members of the Trump family.

Nothing changed within the Secret Service since the party-crashing Salahis went prancing into the White House State Dinner back in 2009, or since the Secret Service prostitution scandal in 2012 or since Omar Gonzalez was able to penetrate his way into the White House with a knife before being apprehended in 2014.

The change comes on the heels of an embarrassing episode at Trump's private Mar-a-Lago resort club in Palm Beach, Florida, involving a Chinese national on a club guest list who was arrested with devices bearing computer malware.

Secret Service punted responsibility to Mar-a-Lago's private security detail.

The appointment of Alles on April 25, 2017 was pushed on the president by General John F. Kelly, then Secretary of Homeland Security and later White House Chief of Staff.

Sources tell DailyMail.com that Kelly threatened to quit as DHS secretary if Trump did not appoint Kelly's friend Tex.

According to Steve Bannon, Trump had another nominee in mind: George Milligan, a sharp veteran agent who is chief operating officer of the Secret Service. But General Kelly wanted him [Alles} in the worst way, Bannon said.

Alles is pictured in the Oval Office with the president in April 2018; he fired Alles less than a day afte rdhowing Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen out the door

When he interviewed Alles, Trump was not impressed. Alles volunteered that he knew next to nothing about the Secret Service.

'Apparently it was too much trouble to read books and articles about the agency or to check out the Secret Service website before meeting with the president,' wrote Kessler in The Trump White House.

Agents were unimpressed with Alles and largely ignored him.

Alles not only retained the same senior management that produced so many scandals, he did nothing to change the agency's culture that has led to those scandals and the low morale that has resulted in a shockingly high turnover rate.

At one point Alles actually proposed saving money by withdrawing Secret Service protection of some Trump family members and some aides - unless they had actually received a threat.

Throughout history, none of the assassinations of assassination attempts have been preceded by a threat.

Horrified White House staff immediately shot down Alles' proposal to cut back on protection.

Especially given the hatred directed at Trump and his family, the idea of the director of the Secret Service would entertain dropping protection of the president's family members is inself a scandal and all anyone needs to know about why Alles should be replaced before a tragedy occurs.

Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement that Alles 'has done a great job at the agency over the last two years, and the President is thankful for his over 40 years of service to the country.'

'Mr. Alles will be leaving shortly and President Trump has selected James M. Murray, a career member of the USSS, to take over as director beginning in May.'

Shoving Alles overboard is an indication of the growing power of Trump adviser Stephen Miller, the 33-year-old former staffer to Sen. Jeff Sessions before he was the president's first attorney general.

President Donald Trump fired U.S. Secret Service Director Randolph Alles on Monday, signaling a plan to toughen the ranks of officials tasked with carrying out his hard-edged border policy

The twin killings of Nielsen adn Alles indicate the strong hand of 33-year-old Trump aide Stephen Miller, a former aide to then-Senator Jeff Sessions who has become the driving force behind the administration's immigration policy

A White House source with knowledge of the West Wing's goings on in the past week told DailyMail.com on Monday that Miller has advocated internally for Nielsen's firing, and for Alles to follow her out the door.

Miller is known as a sharp-tongued promoter of hawkish immigration policies that Democrats have complained push the boundaries of federal law and too often challenge court precedents.

Trump fired Nielsen in a tweet on Sunday shortly after meeting with her in the White House residence and hearing her plan for bringing U.S. immigration in line with legal limitations.

Secret Service agents arrested Yujing Zhang, a Chinese woman, last week when she tried to enter Mar-a-Lago with two Chinese passports, a thumb drive with malware on it, four cellphones, a laptop and a hard drive.

Trump said at the time that he was 'not concerned at all' about the potential breach by Zhang, who posed for a picture with him at his Super Bowl party this year.

'Secret Service is fantastic. These are fantastic people. And the end result is it was good,' Trump said last Wednesday.

'The result is they were able to get her and she's now suffering the consequences of whatever it is she had in mind but I would say I could not be happier with Secret Service. Secret Service has done a fantastic job from day one. Very happy with them.'

White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley said earlier on Monday that with an influx of illegal immigrants pouring into the U.S. from the south, 'tt's time to do things a little differently.'

'And so the president is looking around to reshape his team so that he can have the people in place to carry out his agenda,' he said during a Fox News Channel interview. 'And quite frankly he has the right to do that.'

The Secret Service is best known for protecting the president and vice president and their families, and those who formerly served in office.

Established in 1865, the agency also investigates and prevents counterfeiting in order to protect the U.S. financial system, and combats computer-based financial crimes.

The Secret Service was originaly a subagency of the Treasury Department, when it was principally an anti-counterfeiting force.

It became a branch of the Homeland Security Department in 2003 as the new post-9/11 agency coalesced around a mission that unified a group of previously far-flung government agencies.
Samuel Kiwasz was knocked off his treadmill when the SUV smashed through the window

Video captured the moment a driver of a Mercedes SUV crashed through the window of a gym in California, knocking a man off of a treadmill.

Samuel Kiwasz was at Anytime Fitness in Culver City on March 29 when the vehicle burst through the window where he was working out.

Kiwasz flew back into a door, which opened as he hit it, possibly saving his life.

'It's a miracle that I'm alive,' Kiwasz told KTTV.

The female driver got out of the vehicle to check on Kiwasz, and then tried to get back in but was stopped by an off-duty police officer.

Kiwasz described the moment the vehicle smashed through the floor-to-ceiling glass window, positioned in front of the treadmill he was using.

'All of a sudden there was this loud crash and the glass came flying and I got hit,' he said.

'I got shoved back and I went flying and rolled to the side so I wouldn't get crushed.'

Kiwasz had been warming up on the treadmill in preparation for a group fitness class when the accident occurred

'All of a sudden there was this loud crash and the glass came flying and I got hit,' he said

'I got shoved back and I went flying and rolled to the side so I wouldn't get crushed,' he said

Kiwasz was thrown against a door to an office, which was able to open because it was unlocked, giving him space to avoid the path of the treadmills being slammed against the wall by the vehicle

Kiwasz had been warming up on the treadmill in preparation for a group fitness class when the accident occurred.

Kiwasz was thrown against a door to an office, which was able to open because it was unlocked, giving him space to avoid the path of the treadmills being slammed against the wall by the vehicle.

Immediately after the crash staff from the fitness center rush over to Kiwasz and get him to his feet.

Immediately after the crash staff from the fitness center rush over to Kiwasz and get him up

The woman who was driving the SUV can be seen getting out of the vehicle

One employee said Kiwasz had blood in his mouth and on his face, which the worker wiped off.

The woman who was driving the SUV can be seen getting out of the vehicle in socks with no shoes on, to check on Kiwasz.

She then tries to get back into her car, but was prevented from leaving the scene by an off-duty officer who happened to be working out at the fitness center located at 4130 Sepulveda Boulevard.

She is seen wearing socks but no shoes as she checks on Kiwasz. The woman told authorities the brakes on her vehicle failed

She then tries to get back into her car, presumably to leave the scene. An officer, however, who just happened to be working out at the fitness center located at 4130 Sepulveda Boulevard prevents her from leaving until police arrive on the scene

The woman, who has not been identified, told authorities her brakes failed her.

The Culver City Police Department did not immediately return a message from DailyMail.com seeking additional information.
Sergeant Alexander Blackman was arrested in suspicion of murder in 2012 for killing a mortally injured Taliban soldier. In his memoir, Marine A, he recounts his ordeal

The truth was out.

I had just confessed to my beloved wife, Claire, that, while on patrol with my platoon in Afghanistan, I had shot dead a mortally wounded Taliban prisoner who somehow had been clinging to life despite devastating multiple injuries from which I could see no chance of him recovering.

Over the past 12 hours  ever since Id been arrested out of the blue on suspicion of a war crime  Id found myself cast back a year and planted again 4,000 miles away in the hot, danger-filled scrublands surrounding a remote command post in Helmand province.

I had entirely forgotten the incident until, in October 2012, the military police knocked on the door of our house in Taunton and took me away. They showed me a video clip taken in the aftermath of a clash with the enemy, in which I was shown with two of my men allegedly mistreating and verbally abusing a prisoner.

Seeing it had left me unnerved but, most of all, disorientated and confused. It did not represent me or my lads in the best light, nor the light in which I knew we had conducted ourselves across the rest of that hellish six-month period in the autumn of 2011.

As the police interrogated me, I couldnt remember what had happened and I couldnt marry the figure on screen with the person that I really am.

After questioning, I had been allowed to go home, and now the memories began to coalesce.

I recalled how my platoon of mainly young recruits was stuck out in the middle of nowhere with a Taliban insurgent whod been cut to ribbons by a chain gun from an Apache helicopter and was barely alive.

Sergeant Alexander Blackman was arrested for war crimes after an incident in Afghanistan in 2011

He was arrested in 2012 for killing a mortally wounded Taliban soldier and was overwhelmed with memories from his time in Afghanistan

As I had told Claire, faced with the dangerous task of getting him through hostile countryside to a field hospital, I  their veteran sergeant with 16 years active service in the Marines  shot him.

A year on, in my head I could make little sense of what I had done and, in many ways, I still cant. I recalled it as though it were someone else, some other Sgt Alexander Blackman, stranded in a foreign field, scared beyond sense and acting in ways that, for the rest of his days, he would not fully understand.

Was I drawing a line under the events of what had been a hard day under the merciless Afghan sun? At the end of a long, six-month tour where friends had died horribly, was I taking out my frustration on this mortally wounded insurgent, whose Taliban comrades  perhaps even the man himself  had killed and maimed so many British soldiers?

I still do not know if there is any one answer that fits. The only way I can fathom it is to say that, for a brief moment, madness took hold of me. And there, in the sitting room at home with Claire, the idea that I did not understand my own actions seemed to push me towards madness again.

Sgt Blackman told his wife Claire: 'I knew Id done something stupid almost straight way. It came over me like a cloud. Something had shifted in me. And I tried to shrug it off. I said something, anything, to get rid of the moment'. Pictured: Sgt Blackman and Claire

It is a strange, unnerving thing not to understand your own self. The only thing I do know is that I believed, in my head and my heart, that there was no way this insurgent would make it back to a field hospital alive.

Whether I had used my weapon on him or not, the outcome would have been no different. So why did I do it? I have no answer to that.

I told Claire: I knew Id done something stupid almost straight way. It came over me like a cloud. Something had shifted in me. And I tried to shrug it off. I said something, anything, to get rid of the moment.

I looked at the lads and muttered words that would come back to haunt me. Shuffle off this mortal coil, Id said, quoting Shakespeare  even though I cant remember ever seeing or reading Shakespeare in my life.

It was just something to cut through the tension. I just came out with it. I dont know why. It was poor judgment, Claire.

In fact, this was the poorest judgment Id ever made in either my professional or private life, and I said as much to the lads at the time. The mistake, I told them, was mine.

Afterwards, I got them to take the mans fingerprints and samples for DNA, which was normal procedure. Then we bugged out, I told Claire. Extracted ourselves from the location, got back to base and just collapsed.

The next morning, we were back on patrol. The same old fears, the same old dangers. It was another month and more before the tour was over. Claire, I havent thought about it until this day.

There it was. Id told my wife all of it. I didnt know how she would react. What might this mean to her? What might it mean for us?

That was when Claire did one of those incredible things that has always made me thank my lucky stars that shes in my life.

She told me she had my back. That, whatever Id done in Helmand, it was not her place to judge me. That she trusted me implicitly, that whatever my judgment had been, I was still me.

But neither of us knew what was coming next. I prowled the house, conflicted, bewildered, uncertain of myself and my actions  but confident that whatever happened, I could get through it with Claire by my side.

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'

Though I had been interviewed under caution by the military police, Id been released and was free to get on with my military career. I went back to my training post at Shorncliffe Army Camp in Folkestone. My commanding officers knew a search had been conducted of my accommodation there, but they didnt know of my interview at the police station, nor of what crimes I was accused.

For my part, I did not yet know what steps the military authorities would take next, nor even if there would be any steps at all.

Six weeks passed before a trio of military policemen came to get me. Colour Sgt Blackman, I was told, we are arresting you on suspicion of murder.

On my first arrest, Id been thrown and confused by the mention of war crimes, but the word murder hit me harder. There was so little ambiguity, so little room for misunderstanding. The shock piled into me with the force of a rocket as they handcuffed me and escorted me away.

I was driven to Bulford Camp on Salisbury Plain for processing and questioning at the military court centre there. I was still numb as I was booked in and taken to a stark, concrete cell, with only my reeling thoughts and a strip light to keep me company.

Formal proceedings took place in an interview room. On a flickering computer screen that same video was shown again of me and three of my lads carrying the mortally wounded insurgent between us.

In the background, the lads spat curses and the rotor blades of the Apache helicopter made a maelstrom of the air.

The questions came thick and fast: Why were you holding him like that? Why arent you taking more care? What would you have done if it had been one of your guys?

I resisted the urge to tell them that, if it had been one of my own lads injured in that field, Id have flung him over my shoulder and pounded across all the miles that lay between us and our compound. Id have taken every risk to get him to a safe location from where he could be evacuated to a military hospital.

Id have taken every chance, because he was one of my lads, whereas the man we were carrying had spent five months bent on killing us. Even so, we were carrying him the way wed been trained to carry casualties, ever since we were new recruits.

Instead, as advised by the solicitor Id been given, I answered the questions with the same, No comment.

I must have watched every frame of that video countless times, but the next day they had something new for me to see  fresh footage from the same video, but taken a little later on.

My stomach sank as I watched me shoot the mortally wounded insurgent and heard a voice that was hardly recognisable as my own uttering curses that I cannot believe I truly felt.

Over the next days, the video was shown to me many times as the interrogation continued. Id be woken from my cell and taken to an interview room, and sometimes I would catch sight of other prisoners getting the same treatment.

Sergeant Blackman was 'branded a murderer, jailed and dismissed from the Royal Marines in disgrace'. Stock photo

It was then that I realised I was not the only Royal Marine to have been arrested in the investigation. I came to understand that five of us had been arrested. Four of the lads Id brought home safely from that taxing tour were now in cells charged with murder, and all because of something I had done on that one impulsive, tormented afternoon.

It was this that began to weigh on me most of all. As their 38-year-old commanding officer and a father figure to them  some of them were barely half my age and could have been my sons  my sense of having let them down was overwhelming.

After six days of interrogation, the time came when, by law, I either had to be charged or released. And so they now formally charged me with the murder of an unnamed insurgent in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

As I lay in my cell and contemplated what was happening, a chasm seemed to yawn open and drag me down into its darkness. I couldnt sleep. All I had was the deadening knowledge that Id ruined my life. And more than that  Id ruined Claires, too.

Everything Id done throughout 16 years of exemplary service no longer meant anything. The long years Id spent representing my country across the world, fighting for democracy and peace in Iraq and Afghanistan, training up countless other Royal Marines to serve their country with the same honour to which I myself had always aspired, were all just dust.

Sergeant Blackman with his wife Claire in 2017. He has previously said he 'wouldn't have survived' without his wife's help

Some time later, I was finally able to speak to Claire on the phone. Once I started, I couldnt stop. I needed to purge myself of everything I was feeling. The regret, the hopelessness, the terror that Id squandered not just my life, and the lives of the lads whod been out with me, but the life of Claire herself.

I told her: If you want to forget about me, to move on and get on with your life, not waste even more years on me, Ill understand. I wouldnt hold it against you.

I told her that she hadnt asked for this. She hadnt signed up for life with a man charged with murder, who might be separated from her for yet more years to come. What right did I have to ask her to stay by my side?

If I loved her at all  and I did, with every fibre of my being  I had to be willing to let her walk away. My words had petered out, and I heard Claires voice down the phone. Al, Im not going anywhere. I dont want to hear you say those things again. Im here. Its going to be OK.

The next day I was on my way to Colchester Military Prison, along with four other marines, also charged with murder. It was the first time Id seen the lads so close since our return from Helmand.

On the long drive, the Royal Marines who were escorting us pulled into a service station and made a pact with us. We were all going inside to eat and there isnt going to be any problem with that, is there?

Afterwards, when our bellies were full and we were back in the van, it wasnt the food that gave me sustenance. It was the respect wed been shown.

Our fellow Marines still held us in high enough esteem to know that we wouldnt try anything funny.

At Colchester, the five of us were housed in one cell. We decided we would not discuss the case, nor the events of the day in Helmand that had tarnished us all. I wanted to play this by the book and avoid any suggestion of collusion.

We would keep our heads down, be compliant, and remember that we were still Royal Marines.

I was determined to be as model a prisoner here as the model soldier I had aspired to be throughout my 16 years of service.

In spite of all of this, it was difficult not to remember that, only a year earlier, I had been the troop sergeant responsible for these lads in Afghanistan.

When I closed my eyes, the thought of what Id done to these boys, so much younger than me, weighed heavily on my mind.

After a week we were given bail, pending trial  against the wishes of the prosecution, who were insistent that I, in particular, was a flight risk and should not be allowed out. They also argued that I might be a danger to my fellow defendants, which really upset me. It was my first taste of real personal vilification.

Fortunately, the judge disagreed and we were all bailed into the custody of the Royal Marines.

But there were apparently fears that I might self-harm. The wardens at Colchester had detected something in me  some capacity for self-harm, some aspect of depression, that troubled them  and, consequently, one of the conditions of my release was that I should first be appraised and treated in a civilian mental health unit.

I was to be afforded the time and space to decompress from the shock of being arrested and charged with murder. I did everything that I could to be compliant, treating the doctors and other professionals with respect and courtesy.

But I was more coiled than I had ever known I could be. I existed physically in those hospital rooms, but mentally I was thousands of miles away  a year in the past, when wed marched out to that cornfield in Helmand, or a year in the future, into whatever dark places my imagination took me.

After a week I was released from the mental health facility. The depression Id felt after my arrest was real  it had taken me and pulled me under.

But there was still hope. My legal team spoke confidently about the unique circumstances of the incident and how they hoped to exonerate my lads and me of any wrongdoing.

This and reuniting with Claire, who visited me every day, combined to lift me out of it.

When I left the hospital, however, I was not allowed home. I was sent to the Royal Marine Commando Training Centre at Lympstone, near Exeter, where I would continue to work until the trial.

A still of the video, which was used to convict Sergeant Blackman of murdering an Afghani insurgent in 2011

It seems ironic that a man charged with murder was being asked to train other Royal Marines in heavy weaponry. No civilian in my position would have been permitted near the 40mm grenade launchers or 50-calibre machine guns that I was routinely using to train young lads so that they themselves could be sent out to Afghanistan.

I found comfort in the work. The routine of camp life also put me back in a safe space and brought me as close to normality as I could get. At least day to day, I was doing some good for the Royal Marines, whod always been good to me.

One month bled into the next, and I was finally allowed to live at home in Taunton with Claire, subject to a curfew and always being contactable by phone.

Whenever I met my legal team, I came away with a renewed feeling of positivity, but I was determined not to get too far ahead of myself. Take one day at a time was the defining principle of our lives. In the summer, I got news that my trial was scheduled to be held in November 2013.

By now, the charges against two of the lads had been dropped, leaving only three of us to stand in the dock.

I was delighted for the other two, that they would not be found culpable for my own momentary lapse of judgment. Too many people were already being put through the wringer for those fleeting minutes in Helmand Province.

As for the trial, I was always aware that, if there was an unfavourable outcome, it would blow open my world. As it approached, the idea that Id done damage to the reputation of the Royal Marines only grew. I was desperate that my service record should not be reduced to a few scant seconds of action that I still did not properly understand myself.

A conviction would inevitably mean a dishonourable discharge, a stain on a service record that a veteran never really comes to terms with. I needed my good service acknowledged. Id built my sense of self around it my entire adult life.

It was who I was, it was why I was  and if it all boiled down to nothing, well, I was not quite certain how my life would look.

A board made up of my superiors in the Royal Marines and Navy would now determine my future  whether I walked free, or lost it all.

Marine A by Alexander Blackman is published by Mirror Books, price 20. To order a copy for 16 (a 20 per cent discount), go to mailshop.co.uk/books or call 0844 571 0640.

P&P is free on orders over 15. Spend 30 on books and get FREE premium delivery. Offer is valid until April 16, 2019.
Democratic presidential contender Cory Booker introduced legislation Monday to establish a commission to study reparations for a slavery - a hot topic in the battle to take on President Donald Trump next year.

'I am proud to introduce legislation that will finally address many of our country's policies - rooted in a history of slavery and white supremacy - that continue to erode Black communities, perpetuate racism and implicit bias, and widen the racial wealth gap,' Booker wrote on Twitter Monday.

The issue has gathered steam on the Democratic presidential campaign trails as the big field of candidates courts the powerful African-American voting bloc.

Democratic presidential contender Cory Booker introduced legislation to set up a commission to study reparations for a slavery

More and more contenders are backing a type of study or commission to examine whether reparations should be made to African Americans whose ancestors were held in bondage.

A reparations bill sponsored by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee - that calls for a commission to study the issue - is all but certain to pass in the House of Representatives now that Democrats control the chamber.

Booker is proposing a companion piece of legislation that will explore reparations proposals.

He supports Jackson Lee's legislation as does Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

The topic of reparations came up repeatedly last week at Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network conference.

Sharpton is one of the most prominent African American activists in the country and his support is seen as crucial for any candidate courting black voters.

Bernie Sanders, who previously said he did not support monetary reparations for slavery in the past, told Sharpton last week he is willing to back a study on subject should he become president.

'If the House and Senate passed that bill, of course I would sign it,' the independent senator from Vermont said.

Sanders had come under criticism for his lack of support on the issue.

Democratic presidential contender Julian Castro attacked him on the issue last month, asking why he's not willing to write a check to descendants of slaves when he's willing to spend on Medicare for all.

'Why wouldn't we be bold on reparations?' he asked at the South by Southwest festival.

Sanders had told ABC's 'The View' earlier last month that more attention needs to be paid to 'distressed communities' but would not commit to fiscal reparations.

Bernie Sanders, who previously said he did not support monetary reparations for slavery in the past, said last week he is willing to back a study on subject should he become president

Democratic presidential contender Julian Castro whacked at rival Bernie Sanders over reparations for the descendants of slaves

'I think what we have got to do is pay attention to distressed communities: black communities, Latino communities, and white communities, and as president, I pledge to do that,' Sanders said.

Pressed on the issue, Sanders would not say money should be paid to descendants.

'I think that right now, our job is to address the crises facing the American people and our communities, and I think there are better ways to do that than just writing out a check,' he said.

But he gave a stronger sign of report to Sharpton and his crowd of black activists last week.

Beto O'Rourke also announced at the conference he would sign into law legislation calling for a commission to study the issue.

'Yes,' he told attendees. 'Absolutely, I would sign that into law.'

O'Rourke recounted a conversation with Bryan Stevenson, the executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, and said that 'foundational to reparations is the word repair, foundational to repair is the truth.'

Beto O'Rourke also said he would sign legislation to study reparations to Black Americans

Elizabeth Warren has called for Massachusetts has called for a 'national, full-blown conversation' on the issue of reparations

Sen. Kamala Harris also said she would sign such legislation into law

He had previously hinted he would not support reparations.

'I don't believe ... that [reparations] should be the primary or initial focus of the conversation,' he said campaigning in New Hampshire last month.

Sen. Kamala Harris also said she would sign such a bill into law.

Harris told Sharpton: 'When I am elected president, I will sign that bill.'

Warren said the same: 'Yes. I would. I already support that bill.'

The senator from Massachusetts has called for a 'national, full-blown conversation' on the reparations issue.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand also said she would sign the legislation.

'This is a conversation that is long overdue. So, I want to let you know where I stand. I firmly support Congresswoman Jackson Lee's bill to study reparations. As president, I would advocate to Congress to pass that bill, and I would sign that commission into law,' she said.

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.
Two more people are wanted for murder in the case of a California psychiatrist who was found dead in an abandoned car in Las Vegas, just weeks after a Playboy model was arrested over his death.

The body of Dr. Thomas Burchard, 71, was found stuffed in the truck of a car found abandoned on the side of a Las Vegas road on March 7.

It was later revealed he had paid rent for a year for the car's owner - former Playboy Italia and Maxim model Kelsey Turner.

Turner, 25, was arrested for Burchard's murder on March 21 in Stockton, California, and was charged with first-degree murder with a deadly weapon enhancement.

And on Friday, Nevada authorities have issued arrest warrants for Jon Logan Kennison and Diana Nicole Pena, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Both face charges of conspiracy to commit murder and murder with a deadly weapon of an older person.

Warrants have been issued for two more people in connection with the death of Dr Thomas Burchard (left), a California psychiatrist found dead in Playboy model Kelsey Turner's car (right).

She is currently awaiting extradition to Nevada's Clark County.

The connection between Turner and Kennison and Pena is said to be unclear at the moment.

Burchard's body was found in the trunk of Turners Mercedes Benz C300. He died of blunt force injuries to the head, according to the Clark County coroners office.

Turner, 25, was arrested for his murder on March 21. She has been charged with first-degree murder with a deadly weapon enhancement. The two people who have warrants out for them face the same charges. It's unclear what their connection to Turner is, however

Judy Earp, Burchard's longtime girlfriend, said the psychiatrist had given Turner around $300,000 during the time they knew each other.

Earp said that Burchard had signed a lease for a home in Salinas, California where Turner had lived for 'about a year' with her mother and children.

She said Turner had told Burchard that she couldn't qualify for a lease because she had 'bad credit'.

'He helped a lot of people,' Earp told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. 'She had this really sad story. She took the $300,000. I'll just leave it at that.'

Judy Earp, Burchard's longtime girlfriend, said he had given Turner around $300,000 during the time they knew each other

Burchard paid Turner's rent for months but stopped after the 'lease was up'.

'He told her several months before that he was not going to continue,' Earp said. 'He actually paid her money to leave.'

Turner was eventually evicted from the home in Salinas and moved to Las Vegas.

The model's mother told KSBW that Turner and Burchard had known each other 'for years'.

Marcelino Alejandro, Turner's neighbor in the Salinas home, said that there were 'calls for police on a few occasions', as well as parties and disturbances.

An anonymous source told the site that Turner and Burchard had met online.

'He told me he met Kelsey on a website and met up with her and they talked. They had dinner a few times,' the source said.

Earp said that Burchard had signed a lease for a home in Salinas, California where Turner had lived for 'about a year' with her mother (pictured together) and children

The source also claimed Burchard was giving Turner and her mother Samantha 'anywhere from two to four thousand dollars a week, easily'.

He said the last thing that Burchard had told him before heading to Las Vegas was that Turner was being abused by her boyfriend.

Burchard paid Turner's rent for months but stopped after the 'lease was up'. He even paid the model 'money to leave', Earp said

'[He said] it seems Kelsey is having trouble with her boyfriend out there in Vegas because he's hitting her,' the source recalled. 'He's abusing her and she has no money, no where to go.'

The source said Burchard told him he felt 'partially responsible for this'.

Earp criticized the anonymous source, claiming that 'some of the media sources is absolutely so far off, nowhere near the truth'.

But Earp would not elaborate on how Turner and Burchard knew each other, only saying she did not believe the model was one of his patients.

Earp said she and Burchard last visited Las Vegas together in February for a psychopharmacology conference. She declined to reveal why he had returned to the city last month.

Turner's Facebook stated that she was in a relationship with Greg Hagio.

Hagio was arrested for strangulation and domestic battery in Las Vegas in January. The charges were dropped.

Burchard's body was found earlier this month after the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department received a call about a vehicle with a broken window on State Road 147.

The Clark County Coroner's office revealed that Burchard died from blunt force injury to the head. His death was ruled a homicide.

Turner was eventually evicted from the home in Salinas and then moved to Las Vegas

An anonymous source told the site that Turner and Burchard had met online and that he gave her 'two to four thousand dollars a week, easily'

An arrest warrant for Turner was issued on March 15. She was arrested by members of the FBI in Stockton, California almost a week later.

Earp (pictured) would not elaborate on how Turner and Burchard knew each other, only saying she did not believe the model was one of his patients

Turner remains in San Joaquin County Jail awaiting extradition to Clark County. She is next due to appear in court on April 8.

The model had spoken about her money troubles during an interview with Maxim last year, saying she would pay off her student debt if she won the magazine's $25,000 Cover Girl contest. She placed eighth.

Burchard was a psychiatrist at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula. He worked there for nearly 40 years in the hospital's behavioral health program.

A spokeswoman for the hospital said Burchard worked well beyond retirement age because he didn't want to abandon his patients.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department has asked anyone with information about Burchards death to contact Metros homicide section at 702-828-3521. Anonymous tips can be left with Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555.
Three military veterans have handed back their medals to the Prime Minister and her Cabinet in disgust at the decision to prosecute a former paratrooper over Bloody Sunday.

Corporal Jim Kenyon, Captain Steve Garwood and ex-SAS Sergeant Major Mark Billingham all posted their Northern Ireland medals to Downing Street.

They included 23 white feathers  one for each member of the Cabinet  saying they represent cowardice in the face of the enemy. Mr Kenyon said other veterans have contacted him to say they would also hand back their medals in protest.

Corporal Jim Kenyon, (pictured) Captain Steve Garwood and ex-SAS Sergeant Major Mark Billingham all posted their Northern Ireland medals to Downing Street

Northern Irelands Public Prosecution Service announced last month that one veteran, known as Soldier F, would be prosecuted over two murders and four attempted murders allegedly committed in Londonderry on Bloody Sunday almost 50 years ago.

The decision to bring a single prosecution over the shootings was met with fury by families of the Bloody Sunday victims and veterans alike.

Mr Kenyon, 49, who signed up to the Parachute Regiment in 1985 and served one tour of Northern Ireland, said: Soldier F being prosecuted 47 years after Bloody Sunday is a disgrace.

I believe he is a scapegoat for former government failures. The Government has an opportunity to stand up and do what is right and stop this prosecution.

'Three of us have sent our medals back and other veterans have contacted me saying they are going to send back their medals.

The veterans handed in their own medals along with 20 miniatures used on mess dress that they bought. Mr Kenyon, who is a former Mayor of Hereford, said: The politicians have let us down. The Armed Forces should have had an amnesty.

They included 23 white feathers  one for each member of the Cabinet  saying they represent cowardice in the face of the enemy

Mr Kenyon said other veterans have contacted him to say they would also hand back their medals in protest

He posted a video on social media of the medals and feathers, with a voiceover explaining: The Good Friday Agreement gave amnesty to terrorists. It gave no amnesty to the Armed Forces. By receiving the white feather you will always be cowards. By standing up for Soldier F and returning the white feather you will regain some of the support you have lost from the military community.

In their letter to ministers, the three veterans referred to Corporal Derek Wood, who was one of two signalmen killed when they were dragged from their car in Belfast in 1988.

They also mentioned Lance Bombardier Stephen Restorick, who was shot dead in South Armagh in February 1997 while talking and smiling with a Catholic woman.

There are fears that former soldiers who served in the Troubles could face many more years of anguish after solicitors acting on behalf of the families of Bloody Sunday victims confirmed they would appeal against the prosecutors decision.

Under current proposals, a new Historical Investigations Unit will be set up to investigate incidents during the Troubles, meaning troops face years of further probes.

The new body would have a caseload of about 1,700 deaths and aims to complete its work in five years.

A Government spokesman said: We are indebted to the soldiers who served with courage and distinction to bring peace to Northern Ireland.

Although the decision to prosecute was taken by the Northern Ireland Public Prosecution Service, which is independent from Government, we will offer full legal and pastoral support to the individual affected.
A suburban Dallas teenager has pleaded guilty to plotting an Islamic State group-inspired mass shooting at North Texas mall.

Prosecutors say Matin Azizi-Yarand pleaded guilty Monday in state court to solicitation of capital murder and making a terroristic threat.

The 18-year-old was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Azizi-Yarand was arrested last May and indicted in July.

Authorities allege the then-high school student spent more than $1,400 buying weapons and tactical gear, and had been trying to recruit others to help him in the shooting.

U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas Joseph Brown says it's 'extremely rare' for someone to be prosecuted on terrorism charges in state court.

Matin Azizi-Yarand (above) was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Monday after pleading guilty in a Dallas courtroom

Azizi-Yarand was being held in the Collin County jail Monday afternoon.

His attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.

Azizi-Yarand told an informant he planned to release a 'Message to America' explaining his reasons for the attack on Stonebriar Center Mall in Frisco, which was scheduled for mid-May 2018.

Azizi-Yarand, who lived with his parents at the time, began speaking with the FBI informer in January 2018.

The student told the informer he had been reading ISIS manuals on how to carry out attacks, but planned to wait until he turned 18 before carrying out his own so he could buy the rifle himself.

The affidavit quotes him telling the source over Internet messages: 'Look at all the other lone wolves. What training did they have yet they simply killed the kuffar? [disbelievers in Arabic]'

'The brothers in Europe and the brother in New York? Had no military training. It's not about numbers it's about getting a message across to these taghut (non-Muslim) countries.'

The 'New York brother' Azizi-Yarand referred to was most likely Sayfullo Saipov, 29, who killed eight people after driving a rental lorry down a bike path in October 2017.

He then added: 'But I swear I want to achieve Allah's pleasure and kill the kuffar... I've only been reading ISIS magazine guides for performing operations and making bombs.

Azizi-Yarand told an informant he planned to release a 'Message to America' explaining his reasons for the attack on Stonebriar Center Mall (above) in Frisco, which was scheduled for mid-May 2018

'In [ISIS] magazines they have claimed it is not about how many kill but how much money you will make these countries spend in security just for a simple attack although having a high number will get their attention.'

Azizi-Yarand then told the informer he planned to travel to Pakistan, cross into Afghanistan and then join ISIS.

He also sent over several propaganda videos about life under the terror group.

The student said he was struggling to decide whether to join ISIS or perform a terror-attack on American soil, before deciding on the latter and asking if the informer wanted to join him.

He stated: 'We can still [travel to join ISIS] no problem, but then we are just like the rest,' before adding that he had decided on a terror attack and had been going to the gym for physical preparation.

In further messages, Azizi-Yarand discussed ambushing a Hindu temple and even a school because 'it is the perfect place for an attack - just fire where you hear screams'.

After deciding on Stonebriar Center mall, he sent the informant a link to his 'Message to America', a rambling speech in which he accused the U.S. government of bringing terror attacks upon yourselves' by 'bombing Muslims.

The student also sent the informant a document written by Eric Harris, one of the attackers involved in the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, which killed 15 including Harris and co-shooter Dylan Klebold.
The top ten shows include Dad's Army, Only Fools and Horses and Blackadder

The show was set in a seaside hotel in Torquay and only 12 episodes were made

There were only 12 episodes  but every one was nigh-on perfect.

So much so that Fawlty Towers, the 1970s show that gave us the immortal lines dont mention the war and hes from Barcelona, has been named the greatest British sitcom of all time.

The comedy, starring John Cleese and set in a seaside hotel in Torquay, pipped Father Ted and Im Alan Partridge to be crowned the winner in a Radio Times showdown.

Fawlty Towers, set in a seaside hotel in Torquay, starred John Cleese as Basil, Prunella Scales who played wife Sybil, and Andrew Sachs who created hapless Spanish waiter, Manuel. The show ran from 1975 to 1979

Rowan Atkinsons Blackadder came in fourth place, while Dads Army  which ran for 80 episodes  completes the top five.

Cleese, 79, who created the comic monster that was Basil Fawlty in the hit show, said: I was very lucky to be working at the BBC when decisions were taken by people who had actually made programmes.

Of his fellow stars, Prunella Scales who played wife Sybil and Andrew Sachs who created hapless Spanish waiter, Manuel, Cleese said: What a cast! Im proud we are up there with Porridge and Only Fools and Ab Fab and Blackadder and The Office and Reggie Perrin and The Thick of It.

Fawlty Towers co-writer Connie Booth said the show was a success because it allows infantile rage and aggression a field day in a buttoned down, well-mannered English society.

Fawlty Towers has been named the greatest British sitcom of all time, while Dad's Army made the top five

She added: Its unique in being a farce, with all the plot surprises and precision that the style requires. And it doesnt hurt that the star of the show is a six-foot-five comic genius; if he was shorter I cant imagine how it would have worked.

Fawlty Towers was selected by a panel of experts including Richard Curtis and co-creators and writers of Porridge and Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais.

Radio Times TV editor Alison Graham said: In our memories, great comedies are pearls that become more burnished and beautiful through the years. Absence really does make the heart grow fonder.
Zachary Hammond, 18, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and evidence tampering after he allegedly accidentally shot and killed his best friend, 19-year-old Eric Apisa, at his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico last Tuesday

An Albuquerque teen is facing charges after he admitted to accidentally shooting his best friend dead while they were messing around with his gun.

Zachary Hammond, 18, brought out the pistol to show it off to a few friends at his house last Tuesday in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

They were standing in Hammond's driveway when the teen took out the magazine and jokingly pointed the gun at 19-year-old Eric Apisa's face.

The teen told police that the gun 'just went off' and he watched as the bullet struck his friend's forehead.

Investigators determined that Hammond had failed to check the chamber or the safety on the gun before pointing it at Apisa.

The 19-year-old was rushed to the hospital where he died three days later, according to KRQE.

Scroll down for video

Hammond is seen during his arraignment on Sunday. He was released on his own recognizance due to his lack of criminal history but will be subject to GPS monitoring

Friends of Apisa told police that the group had gone to Hammond's home to buy Xanax from him.

After the drug deal, Hammond pulled out the gun he was selling to show it to Apisa.

'Zach stated in the past he and Eric have pointed guns at each other multiple times just to mess around,' police told The Albuquerque Journal.

Hammond hid from police for several days before turning himself in on Friday after his friend was pronounced dead.

He told investigators that he did not remember pulling the trigger. He said after he realized he'd shot his friend he immediately started yelling that he was sorry before fleeing the scene.

Hammond was charged with involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence in court on Sunday.

He was released on his own recognizance due to his lack of criminal history but will be monitored by GPS.

'Because there is an allegation of trafficking a prescription drug that preceded the involuntary manslaughter in this case, I am requiring the highest level of supervision,' a judge told Hammond at his arraignment.

Hammond's girlfriend and Apisa's mother both told authorities that the teens were best friends.

Apisa's mother said she thinks of Hammond as a son and had spoken to him hours before the shooting.
Jeremy Corbyn once branded the Balfour Declaration which gave Jewish people a right to a home in Israel the 'ultimate act of total dishonesty'.

Speaking at an event in 2012, the Labour leader also laughed as he recounted how he had been asked to tear down a statue of the former prime minister.

The 1917 Balfour Declaration announced the British government's support for the establishment of a 'national home for Jewish people' in Palestine.

Jeremy Corbyn (pictured giving speech on Gaza in 2012) once branded the Balfour Declaration which gave Jewish people a right to a home in Israel the 'ultimate act of total dishonesty'

Newly-emerged footage of the event, hosted by the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, shows Mr Corbyn branding the declaration an 'absolute act of dishonesty' which has 'been played out ever since'.

He also talks about giving an 'anti-Imperialist tour of Parliament' to five firefighters from Jenin, Palestine. When they come to the statue of Arthur Balfour (pictured), who was prime minister from 1902 to 1905, one asked: 'Can we tear it down now?'

He also talks about giving an 'anti-Imperialist tour of Parliament' to five firefighters from Jenin, Palestine. When they come to the statue of Arthur Balfour, who was prime minister from 1902 to 1905, one asked: 'Can we tear it down now?'

Mr Corbyn laughs as he describes the encounter, which he said took place in 2010, adding: 'They wanted to just take it away. They had that sense of history.

'We have a responsibility. The Balfour Declaration was an ultimate act of total dishonesty to both the Palestinian and Jewish people seeking some place of safety in the world.'

Last night independent MP Ian Austin, who quit the Labour Party over anti-Semitism, criticised Mr Corbyn  saying the incident was 'further proof of his obsession with Israel and the Jewish state'.

He added: 'This has led in turn to hostility to Jewish people it is no wonder the party has attracted all sorts of racists and extremists.'

A Labour spokesman said the speech was about better teaching of 'the history of Israel-Palestine and the brutality of colonialism, occupation and dispossession'.

Mr Corbyn is pictured with newly elected MP for Newport West Ruth Jones (right) today

Euan Philipps, of Labour Against Anti-Semitism, said: 'By calling the Balfour Declaration "an act of total dishonesty", Jeremy Corbyn appears to show he may hold the lives and human rights of Jews in utter contempt.

'There is nothing "dishonest" about supporting a safe ancestral land for the most persecuted minority in history. His apparent laughter at the prospect of tearing down Balfours statue in Parliament shows he may not be driven by rights for Palestinians, but perhaps by the determination to gleefully strip away rights for Jews only.

'Rights which other peoples enjoy without question.'
Afghan interpreters who served on the battlefield with British troops are being stalked and threatened by Islamic State on Facebook, it can be revealed.

At least six translators, including one still working with UK forces in the capital Kabul, have been directly targeted by name through the social media site's messaging service.

Branded 'spies' and 'infidels', they were told to save themselves and their families by joining IS or face being hunted down.

Afghan interpreters who served on the battlefield with British troops are being stalked and threatened by Islamic State on Facebook, it can be revealed. Afghan interpreters are pictured in Helmand, Afghanistan

The warnings come after the Daily Mail revealed how none of about 50 interpreters promised sanctuary in Britain by Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson (pictured during a visit to Salisbury Plains Training Area) has arrived

A second Facebook threat sent days later to the same interpreters contained the picture of an executed government worker with the message that they could be next.

British officials in Kabul and Afghan intelligence officers are investigating the Facebook threats and how IS obtained the names and personal details of those who served for more than a decade with UK military.

One translator, who worked for more than five years for UK troops and has been threatened in the past by the Taliban, said: 'It is particularly worrying and disturbing that [IS] are able to track us down when we are very careful about personal security.'

The warnings come after the Daily Mail revealed how none of about 50 interpreters promised sanctuary in Britain by Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson has arrived.

Mr Williamson had made the vow last year following the Mail's Betrayal Of The Brave campaign.

A Facebook spokesman said: 'There is absolutely no place on [Facebook] Messenger for those who credibly threaten other people's lives.'

The Ministry of Defence said: 'We recognise the vital role interpreters and local staff played in operations in Afghanistan and we are the only nation with a permanent expert team based in Kabul to investigate intimidation claims.'
Divorce laws are undergoing a radical overhaul to try to limit the blame and bitterness of marital break-up.

The shake-up  the biggest in 50 years  will sweep away the legal principle that one partner should usually be identified as at 'fault' for a split.

The three grounds for an at-fault divorce  adultery, unreasonable behaviour and desertion  will be axed. 'Irretrievable breakdown' becomes the sole reason and it will take just one party to state that a marriage is over.

The legal right for a husband or wife to contest a divorce will also be dropped.

Drawn up by Justice Secretary David Gauke, the reforms follow years of campaigning by family lawyers and judges.

They have been trying to remove the idea of fault, which they say can increase conflict, reduce the chances of reconciliation and undermine relationships with children.

Divorce laws are undergoing a radical overhaul to try to limit the blame and bitterness of marital break-up. 'Irretrievable breakdown' will become the sole reason for an at-fault marriage and either party can state it

Mr Gauke said: 'Hostility and conflict between parents leave their mark on children and can damage their life chances.

'While we will always uphold the institution of marriage, it cannot be right that our outdated law creates or increases conflict between divorcing couples.

'I have listened to calls for reform and firmly believe now is the right time to end this unnecessary blame game for good.'

Critics fear a rise in 'divorce on demand' and more couples splitting. Under existing divorce law, which dates from 1969, there are five grounds for divorce.

Two do not involve any claim of fault  a couple can be divorced after two years of separation if both agree, or after five years if just one wants a divorce.

At-fault divorces are more common, usually because they are quicker.

One ground is adultery, another is unreasonable behaviour, which can include financial irresponsibility, abuse, obsessive behaviour or refusing to have sex. A third reason, desertion, is used only rarely.

Under the new system, divorce will follow after one partner declares the marriage has irretrievably broken down. There will however be a cooling-off period of six months for 'reflection and an opportunity to turn back' before the divorce is finalised.

This is designed to give people a chance to change their minds.

Under the new system, divorce will follow after one partner declares the marriage has irretrievably broken down. There will however be a cooling-off period of six months for 'reflection and an opportunity to turn back' before the divorce is finalised

The new law will allow a couple for the first time to lodge a joint application for divorce. It will keep the two-stage process, where a 'decree nisi' is followed by a 'decree absolute'.

The right to contest a divorce will also go, meaning a husband or wife who wants to save their marriage will be unable to block the process.

Divorce rates are at their lowest in 45 years. But Whitehall assessments have warned that when the new law comes into operation there is likely to be an instant rise in divorce as couples rush to take advantage of it. After that, officials have said, 'there is a possibility that it could impact rates' and produce a long-term increase in the number of married couples splitting.

'If you make something easier then more people will do it,' said Simon Calvert of the Christian Institute think-tank.

'The Government is going to make divorce easier so sadly, as has happened in every previous liberalisation of divorce law, the number of divorces will go up, as will the misery it causes to families.

'This will increase the insecurity that many people feel within their marriages, since it will mean that one partner can simply resign from the marriage, leaving the other partner little time or opportunity to rescue it.'

Mr Gauke intends to bring a legislative bill before Parliament 'as soon as time allows'. However its passage through Westminster may not be unchallenged.

In the mid-1990s John Major's Tory government introduced a no-fault divorce bill which ran into a powerful backbench rebellion. Although eventually passed in 1996, the Family Law Act proved unworkable and was repealed by Tony Blair's government.

Mr Gauke's proposals were welcomed by Christina Blacklaws, president of the Law Society of England and Wales.

She said: 'The Government's decision to introduce a no-fault divorce will help to cut some of the conflict from what can be a highly stressful experience.

'For separating parents, it can be much more difficult to focus on the needs of their children when they have to prove a fault-based fact against their former partner. Introducing a no-fault divorce will change the way couples obtain a divorce  for the better.'

Sam Hall, senior partner at Hall Brown Family Law, said: 'The current system requiring fault is the equivalent of throwing a hand grenade into already difficult situation. This should remove an area of disagreement allowing couples to separate with a greater level of dignity and less conflict'.'

But the Coalition for Marriage group said the plans would only make divorce easier and more common. 'It is an absolute disaster for the institution of marriage,' a spokesman said. 'All this will do is speed up the divorce process.'

Wife trapped in a loveless marriage

The change in the law comes too late for Tini Owens, 68, who says she is trapped in a loveless marriage.

The Supreme Court backed Hugh Owens' right to refuse her a divorce, meaning they must stay married for five years after separating before they can legally split. Judges ruled a joyless marriage is not adequate grounds for divorce if one spouse refuses to agree to it.

Mrs Owens, who is Dutch-born, and Mr Owens, 81, from Liverpool, married in 1978 and have two children.

The change in the law comes too late for Tini Owens, 68, (left) who says she is trapped in a loveless marriage. The Supreme Court backed Hugh Owens', 81, (right) right to refuse her a divorce, meaning they must stay married for five years after separating before they can legally split

The couple built up a 5million-a-year mushroom business but he was accused of putting work before home life, missing family events. He was described as moody and argumentative, and Mrs Owens increasingly 'unloved, isolated and alone'.

Very unhappy, in 2012 she had a ten-month affair, and in 2015 filed for divorce. The case reached the Supreme Court last year. Lord Justice Wilson said they ruled against her with 'great reluctance' and said the law around 'entitlement to divorce' was a 'question for Parliament'.

Divorce lawyer Ayesha Vardag said: 'This kind of law has no place in a civilised society of equals. We do not allow forced marriage. How can we force continuation of marriage?'
Montessa Tate-Thornton, 19, of Nashville, has been arrested

A naked woman arrested on Saturday morning while allegedly brandishing a gun in a Waffle House restaurant is wanted on an outstanding warrant in a 2017 murder.

Montessa Tate-Thornton, 19, of Nashville, Tennessee, was nabbed by police on charges of public indecency and public intoxication after they received a call about a naked woman and man carrying guns at the eatery, according to WKRN.

Tate-Thornton was found without any clothing at the scene, 'screaming, sweating excessively and making incoherent statements', according to an arrest report.

She allegedly admitted to having used marijuana and cocaine.

Police were called to this Waffle House in Nashville, Tennessee, because a duo were behaving erratically and in possession of guns

Larico Nixon, 34, the other nude suspect, was seen running with a gun giving chase to Tate-Thornton. He also allegedly admitted using marijuana, cocaine and crack cocaine, authorities said.

Nixon was charged with being a felon in possession of a weapon, public indecency and public intoxication.

After Tate-Thornton's arrest, police discovered that she had a warrant out regarding the shooting death and robbery of 23-year-old Maxime Assem on December 10, 2017, along with James Gilchrist, 26, who was booked in March.

Assem and the two suspects allegedly returned to his parked car together that night where he was gunned down, WKRN reported at the time.

Larico Nixon, 34, was the other naked person at the Waffle House, allegedly under the influence of drugs himself and chasing Tate-Thornton around with a gun

Gilchrist was accused of firing the fatal shot, but authorities say Tate-Thornton had known the victim and conspired with his killer to rob him.

The 19-year-old is being held in the Metro Detention Facility on more than $165,000 bond.

She faces 10 charges that include aggravated robbery, murder in the first degree, and felon in possession of a handgun.

James Gilchrist, 26, shown here, allegedly conspired to rob Maxim Assem in 2017 along with Tate-Thornton. Gilchrist is accused of firing the shot that killed the robbery victim




Here are the 81 people and entities sent letters and document requests by the House Judiciary Committee on Monday March 4 2019

1. Alan Garten. Trump Organization chief legal officer and executive vice president. Has worked for Trump since 2006

2. Alexander Nix. Former CEO of Cambridge Analytica; former director of Strategic Communication Laboratories Group (SCL). Boasted that Cambridge Analytica 'ran all of [Trump's] digital campaign,' which campaign denies

3. Allen Weisselberg. Chief financial officer, The Trump Organization. Already has limited immunity from federal prosecutors in Michael Cohen probe

4. American Media Inc. Publisher of the National Enquirer magazine. Entered into non-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors in the Michael Cohen probe after being part of deals to silence Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal over claims of sex with Trump

Target: American Media Inc. and its CEO David Pecker - the president's longtime friend -are both in Democratic crosshairs with a letter demanding they hand over documents about dealings with Trump

5. Anatoli Samochornov. Acted as translator for Nataliya Veselnitskaya at notorious Trump Tower meeting

6. Andrew Intrater. CEO of Columbus Nova, which made payments of $500,000 to the Michael Cohen-controlled LLC also used to pay Storm Damiels. Believed to be a cousin of Viktor Vekselberg, sanctioned oligarch whose business in linked to Columbus Nova

7. Annie Donaldson. Deputy White House Counsel, January 2017 to December 2018

8. Brad Parscale. Trump campaign digital president who company was paid $94 million by the campaign. Now 202 re-election campaign manager

9. Brittany Kaiser. Former Cambridge Analytica director turned whistle-blower; has cooperated with Robert Mueller probe

10. Cambridge Analytica. Data-mining company partly owned by mega-donor Robert Mercer, which did work for Trump campaign. Closed in wake of revelation it used Facebook users' personal data acquired by subterfuge

11. Carter Page. Trump campaign foreign policy adviser who was target of FISA 'eavesdropping warrant' over suspected links to Russia. Name appeared in so-called golden showers dossier.

12. Columbus Nova. New York-registered investment company. Described in federal filings as affiliated to group founded by sanctioned Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg

13. Concord Management and Consulting. Sanctioned Russian company owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the oligarch nicknamed 'Putin's chef' who is accused of running troll farms

14. Corey Lewandowski. Trump campaign manager January 2015 to June 2016. Now a political consultant

15. David Pecker. CEO of American Media Inc., publisher of the National Enquirer and longtime Trump friend. Subject to non-prosecution agreement with U.S. Attorney for Southern District of New York over Michael Cohen probe

16. Department of Justice

17. Don McGahn. White House counsel January 2017 to October 2018

18. Donald J Trump Revocable Trust. Legal vehicle that has held all of Trump's business assets since he entered office. Trustees are Donald Trump Jr. and Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg; Eric Trump chairs its advisory board

19. Donald Trump Jr. President's eldest son and one of the trustees of the trust holding his business interests. Agreed to notorious Trump Tower meeting and when offered dirt on Hillary Clinton replied: 'I love it.'

Another focus: Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg (center) has received a letter from Democrats. He and Donald Trump Jr. make up the board of the trust that holds all the president's assets

20. Dylan Howard. Vice president and chief content officer of American Media Inc, publisher of the National Enquirer. In a non-prosecution agreement with the U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York over Michael Cohen probe.

21. Eric Trump. President's second son. Executive vice president of the Trump Organization and chairman of advisory board to the trust that holds his father's business assets

22. Erik Prince. Billionaire founder of controversial security firm Blackwater and brother of Betsy DeVos, the Education Secretary. Met Russian banker close to Putin in the Seychelles in January 2017

23. Federal Bureau of Investigation

24. Felix Sater. Convicted Russian mobster turned Manhattan property developer who had office beside Trump in Trump Tower. Worked with Michael Cohen on Trump Tower Moscow

25. Flynn Intel Group. Company run by now disgraced national security advisor Michael Flynn before taking office that was hired to lobby by a company tied to the Turkish government

26. General Services Administration. Government agency that helps with the running of basic functions such as IT and property procurement. Involved in the lease of the Trump Hotel

27. George Nader. Pedophile Middle Eastern fixer who is cooperating with Mueller probe. Adviser to both United Arab Emirates' de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, and Blackwater billionaire Erik Prince

28. George Papadopoulos. Trump campaign foreign policy adviser convicted of lying to the Mueller probe and jailed. Tried to set up Trump-Putin meetings

Letter: Hope Hicks is being told to hand over documents to Congress

29. Hope Hicks. Trump organization PR who was press secretary to Trump campaign, then successively White House 'director of strategic communications' and communications director. Resigned in March 2018 after admitting she told 'white lies' and DailyMail.com's revelation she was dating Rob Porter, Trump's ex-staff secretary who is accused of beating both his ex-wives. Now chief communications officer for Fox, parent company of Fox News and other Rupert Murdoch holdings not being bought by ABC

30. Irakly Kaveladze. Georgian-American senior vice president of Crocus Group, property firm run by oligarch Aras Agalarov, the billionaire who brokered Trump Tower meeting and tried to do a Trump Tower Moscow deal

31. Jared Kushner. Ivanka Trump's husband and senior adviser to the president. Ran his family's Kushner Companies real estate firm from 2006 to January 2017

32. Jason Maloni. Former personal spokesman for Paul Manafort

33. Jay Sekulow. Personal attorney to Trump since late spring 2017

34. Jeff Sessions. Ex-Alabama senator who was first to endorse Trump. Became attorney general but immediately recused himself from investigations into campaign or president, opening way to Mueller probe, Served January 2017 to November 2018

35. Jerome Corsi. Conspiracy theorist and Roger Stone associate who denies communicating with WikiLeaks about hacked Clinton emails. Has been focus of Mueller inquiry but not charged

36. John Szobocsan. Longtime business partner of late Republican operative Peter Smith. Dead man openly attempted to obtain Hillary Clinton's missing emails

37. Julian Assange. WikiLeaks founder who is holed up in Ecuador's embassy in London

38. Julian David Wheatland. New CEO of Cambridge Analytica, former chairman of its British affiliate

39. Keith Davidson. Attorney for Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal when they cut deals to keep their silence on claims of sex with Trump

40. KT McFarland. Deputy National Security Advisor January 2017 to May 2017 meaning she was deputy to Mike Flynn; nominated as ambassador to Singapore but withdrew in September 2018

41. Mark Corallo. Longtime Republican operative who was spokesman for Trump's legal team until July 2017

42. Matt Tait. Cybersecurity consultant contacted by late Republican political operative Peter Smith when he was trying to get Hillary Clinton's deleted emails

43. Matthew Calamari. Corporate director of security, The Trump Organization and a one-time Trump bodyguard; named by Michael Cohen as one who knew about claims Trump engaged in insurance fraud

44. Michael Caputo. Political adviser to Trump campaign November 2015 to June 2016. Previously worked for politicians in Russia and Ukraine

Pedophile: Middle Eastern fixer George Nader has child sex convictions

45. Michael Cohen. Trump personal attorney who paid Stormy Daniels for her silence. Convicted of offenses including lying to Congress and has turned on the president, who called him a 'rat.' Due to report to prison in May

46. Michael Flynn. National security advisor January-February 2017. Fired for lying about his contacts with Russia and now convicted of lying to the FBI. Conviction was part of Mueller probe with whom he is cooperating. Still to be sentenced

47. Michael Flynn Jr. Son of disgraced national security advisor. Helped run his father's firm and was prolific pro-Trump tweeter who promoted 'pizzagate' conspiracy theory among others. Account now deleted

48. Paul Erickson. Longtime Republican operative who was in a relationship with alleged Russian spy Maria Butina. Tried to set up Trump-Putin meeting at an NRA convention. Indicted on fraud charges

49. Paul Manafort. Veteran Republican operative and political consultant who was Trump's campaign chairman June 2016-August 2016. Convicted in Mueller prosecution of crimes including failing to register as a foreign agent for his Ukrainian lobbying, tax and bank fraud. Facing 25 years in prison

50. Peter Smith (Estate). Republican donor who tried to get the deleted Hillary Clinton emails and contacted what he thought were Russian hackers. Committed suicide day after revealing his activities, leaving wife, three children and three grandchildren

To Russia with love: Publicist Rob Goldstone set up the notorious Trump Tower meeting

51. Randy Credico. New York comedian who texted his associate Roger Stone: 'Julian Assange has kryptonite on Hillary.' Cooperated with Mueller probe

52. Reince Priebus. Chairman of the Republican National Committee January 2011-November 2016. White House chief of staff January 2017-July 2017

53. Rhona Graff. Longtime executive assistant to Trump who has worked with him at the Trump Organization since 1987. Named by Michael Cohen to Oversight Committee as someone who could corroborate his account

54. Rinat Akhmetshin. Soviet military intelligence officer turned lobbyist who was present at notorious Trump Tower meeting and also lobbied in Washington to overturn Magnitsky Act sanctions on Russia

55. Rob Goldstone. British-American publicist for Emin Agalarov who emailed Donald Trump Jr. to set up notorious Trump Tower meeting. Has cooperated with Mueller probe

56. Roger Stone. Veteran dirty trickster and Trump associate charged by Mueller probe with obstruction, false statements and witness tampering. Awaiting trial. At center of claims he was a conduit to WikiLeaks

57. Ronald Lieberman. Trump Organization executive vice president; named by Michael Cohen as one who knew about claims Trump engaged in insurance fraud

58. Sam Nunberg. Roger Stone protege; Trump consultant 2011-February 2014 and parts of 2015. Accused Trump of illegally funneling corporate money into his campaign; has cooperated with Mueller probe

59. SCL Group Limited. New name for Strategic Communications Laboratories, parent company of Cambridge Analytica. Claims to have influenced elections around the world

60. Sean Spicer. Republican National Committee communications director February 2011-December 2016. White House Press Secretary January 2017-July 2017

61. Sheri Dillon. Tax lawyer to Donald Trump and partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in Washington. Being investigated House Oversight Committee on suspicion of making false statements

62. c. White House Deputy Counsel in charge of ethics and compliance January 2017-August 2018. Being investigated House Oversight Committee on suspicion of making false statements

63. Steve Bannon. Ex-investment banker who was Breitbart executive chairman March 2012-August 2016. Chief executive of Trump campaign August 2016-November 2016. Chief counselor and senior strategist to Trump November 2016-August 2017

Reason to smile: Mike Pence is the only man left in Trump's service in this January 2018 picture - and the only one without a demand to hand over documents. Those sent the letter are from left: Reince Priebus; Steve Bannon; Sean Spicer; Mike Flynn

64. Ted Malloch. London-based American academic with history of dubious claims who is associate of Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage and campaigned to be Trump's ambassador to the European Union. Was held by Mueller and appears to have cooperated

65. The White House

66. Trump Campaign

67. Trump Foundation. Family foundation for 'charitable distribution' whose board was Trump, Donald Jr. Ivanka, and Eric Trump and Allen Weisselberg. Under investigation by New York state attorney general who stopped Trump's attempts to dissolve it in 2016; still legally in existence as a result

68. Trump Organization. The entity that controls all Trump's business ventures

69. Trump Transition. Organization chaired by then New Jersey governor Chris Christie May 2016-November 11, 2011, then by Mike Pence

70. Viktor Vekselberg. Ukrainian-Russian billionaire subject to U.S. sanctions. Questioned by Mueller over $500,000 paid to the LLC controlled by Michael Cohen that was also used to pay Stormy Daniels

71. WikiLeaks. Organization led by Julian Assange, which published hacked Clinton emails

72. 58th Presidential Inaugural Committee. Committed headed by Trump friend Tom Barrack. Under investigation already by federal and state prosecutors

73. Christopher Bancroft Burnham. Member of Trump transition team who is now on board of aluminum giant En+ Group, the firm founded by formerly sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who owns a 35 per cent stake

74. Frontier Services Group. Security firm founded by Erik Prince after sale of controversial Blackwater security group

75. J.D. Gordon. Trump campaign's 'director of national security'; pushed for Republican National Committee to change language on arms for Ukraine, removing commitment to arm fight against pro-Russian separatists

76. Kushner Companies. Property holding company led by Jared Kushner from 2006 to January 2017

77. NRA. National Rifle Association. Alleged to have been targeted by Russian spy Maria Butina. Endorsed Trump in May 2016, earlier than previous cycles

78. Rick Gates. Paul Manafort deputy who was deputy Trump campaign chair June 2016-November 2016, then Inaugural Committee deputy chair. Struck plea deal with Mueller February 2018 and is cooperating with probe while waiting to be sentenced

79. Tom Barrack. Founder and executive chairman of Colony Capital private equity group and longtime Trump friend. Chair of inaugural committee and has brokered meetings in Middle East. Interviewed by Mueller probe

80. Tom Bossert. Assistant to the president for homeland security and counter-terrorism, January 2017-April 2018. Fell for a prankster who posed as Jared Kushner

81. Tony Fabrizio. Chief pollster to Trump campaign from May 2015 to Election Day. Questioned by Mueller about whether polling data was shared with Russia
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Theresa May entering the back door of Downing Street from her car after firing the starting gun on Britain's participation in the European Parliament elections

Theresa May fired the starting gun on Britain's participation in the European Parliament elections today as the country headed for a lengthy Brexit delay.

Government officials formally triggered the elections for May 23  at an estimated cost to the taxpayer of 100 million  while the Tories launched a search for candidates.

Only last month, the Prime Minister said it would be 'unacceptable' to take part in the poll, almost three years after the vote to leave the EU.

It is the clearest indication yet that Britain is facing a lengthy delay to Brexit, probably until the end of the year or possibly even longer.

Mrs May will today travel to Berlin and Paris for talks as she tries to persuade EU leaders to agree to only a short extension of Article 50  to June 30  in order to avoid a No Deal Brexit on Friday.

She will formally make her request at an emergency EU summit in Brussels tomorrow.

However, diplomatic sources believe the EU is likely to insist on a much longer delay. Today it was reported EU leaders would consider a nine-month extension until the end of the year, or a 12-month extension until March 2020.

At the same time, MPs could vote today to force Mrs May to seek a longer extension.

Cross-party legislation compelling Mrs May to seek a delay to avoid No Deal was expected to clear Parliament last night. MPs were told they will be able to debate  and potentially vote on  the length of delay she should ask for.

Today the Cabinet Office formally triggered European Parliament elections for May 23, while the Conservative Party launched a frantic search for candidates, with applicants told they need to submit their names by 5pm today.

The decision to hold the elections is an embarrassment for Mrs May. But the EU has made clear it will not approve any delay unless the elections are held.

An email (left) sent this evening by Tory head of candidates Gareth Fox said Britain would take part in the European elections. But party chairman Brandon Lewis then rowed back on his remarks (right)

Tory chairman Brandon Lewis (pictured outside the Cabinet office on April 4) insists the Government still hopes to avoid elections by passing a Brexit deal before May 22. Pictured right: German Chancellor Angela Merkel plays with a handball given to her by the German Handball Federation's president today

The Cabinet Office said it was 'not inevitable' the elections would take place if a deal can be struck in the coming weeks.

But, in a letter to potential Tory candidates, Conservative Central Office said: 'Due to the current situation, we will be contesting the European Parliament elections on May 23.'

Then, in a later email, Tory chairman Brandon Lewis U-turned on the remarks, which were made by the party's head of candidates Gareth Fox. He suggested Mr Fox's email was only outlining what would happen if this ambition is not achieved.

The Governments clear policy is to leave the EU with a deal and for the necessary legislation to pass before 22 May so that the UK does not need to participate in European Parliamentary elections,' he said.

However, if the UK had not ratified the Withdrawal Agreement and were still a Member State of the European Union on 23 May, we would be under a legal obligation to hold the elections.

With the closing date for the nominations on 24 April, it is clear that we need to make contingency plans as a Part in the event of these elections going ahead.

This is why Gareth Fox emailed you earlier today to outline how we ensure we are prepared for any eventuality.

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. THURSDAY APRIL 11: PM'S FACES MPs Theresa May will return from Brussels with a likely nine to 12 month extension and will outline her plans in the the Commons in the wake of the EU summit. FRIDAY APRIL 12: BREXIT DAY Britain is due to leave the EU without a deal on this date if no delay is agreed. Advertisement

Conservative MP Bob Seely said the decision to hold the elections was 'really going to wind up our voters', while Tory Brexiteer Andrew Bridgen said a long delay would 'give time to remove Theresa May and install someone who believes in Brexit'.

But some ministers believe Mrs May could try to cling on until the end of the year if Brexit is delayed in a final bid to secure a legacy for her time in office.

Mrs May began a round of calls to EU leaders in a bid to reassure them the UK will not be a disruptive influence if it remains in the EU for an extended period.

A Cabinet meeting has been cancelled to allow her to travel to Berlin for talks with Angela Merkel.

EU diplomats reacted with alarm last week after Jacob Rees-Mogg urged ministers to be 'as difficult as possible' if a long extension leaves Britain 'stuck in the EU'.

Dutch PM Mark Rutte, who spoke by phone with Mrs May, said it was vital the UK agreed to 'sincere cooperation' with the EU in an extended delay.

Mr Rutte said: 'It is crucial to know when and on what basis UK will ratify the withdrawal agreement. A positive decision hinges also on assurances from UK on sincere cooperation.'

Emmanuel Macron has publicly warned that a further delay is not guaranteed. But diplomatic sources believe the French president is unlikely to succeed in persuading fellow EU leaders to push the UK out without a deal this week.

Zoltan Kovacs, the Hungarian prime minister's spokesman, said: 'Mr Macron's attitude is just one of the 27 and at the end of the day there is going to be a compromise.'

Irish premier Leo Varadkar said he was 'open to extending' the Brexit deadline, while a British source said: 'There is no way the EU is going to refuse a request for a delay.'

However, sources are gloomy about the prospect of Mrs May securing a 'short' delay. One described a delay until the end of this year as a 'best-case scenario'.

Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski quit the ERG  accusing the hard Brexit grouping of putting Brexit at risk. He tweeted: 'Hardcore element of 'unicorn' dreamers now actually endangering Brexit.'

Bill to force Theresa May to seek Brexit delay from EU is signed into law by the Queen after being raced through Parliament

By Chris Dyer for MailOnline

Ps and peers have backed a new law to force Theresa May to seek an extension of Brexit if a no deal scenario becomes likely.

The move places a legal requirement on the prime minister to seek an extension to Article 50 to prevent a no-deal Brexit.

The Commons backed a series of Lords amendments to the European Union (Withdrawal) (No 5) Act after it was rushed through both Houses of Parliament.

Peers gave the European Union (Withdrawal) (No 5) Bill an unopposed third reading after just 10 minutes of debate (pictured)

The cross-party move brought forward by Yvette Cooper and others calls on Mrs May to lay a Commons motion on the extension of Article 50 which could then be amended by MPs.

The Bill was amended by peers to state that nothing in it prevented the Prime Minister from 'seeking or agreeing' an extension, provided it was not earlier than May 22.

Yvette Coopers legislation to extend the Brexit process received royal assent and became law this evening.

Promoted by Labour's Yvette Cooper (seen on April 3), the Bill squeaked through the elected House by just one vote last week

Mrs May is already seeking a further Brexit delay to June 30 and EU leaders will discuss this at an emergency summit on Wednesday.

The Commons move came as Brexit talks between the Government and Labour resumed on Monday.

But there appeared little prospect of a compromise agreement being in place in time for Wednesday's EU meeting, and no chance of it being approved by MPs before the EU27 meet.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the talks were serious, but the Government was sticking to its red lines.

Mr Corbyn said: 'The exchanges with the Government have been serious, but our shadow cabinet expressed frustration that the Prime Minister has not yet moved off her red lines so we can reach a compromise.

'The key issues that we must see real movement on to secure an agreement are a customs union with the EU, alignment with the single market and full dynamic alignment of workers' rights, environmental protections and consumer standards.

'We are prepared to talk and put forward our view, but talks have to mean a movement and so far there has been no change in those red lines.'

The talks step-up a gear on Tuesday with Mrs May's defacto deputy, Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington, and Labour's shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer taking part.

New Tory backlash as Labour return for talks

By Jason Groves and Jack Doyle

Brexit talks with Labour will resume today despite a growing Tory backlash over the prospect of a compromise deal with Jeremy Corbyn.

After four days of inaction, senior figures including Theresa May's deputy David Lidington and shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer are expected to resume face-to-face talks in the hope of identifying a Brexit compromise.

Mr Corbyn last night struck a gloomy note, accusing Mrs May of refusing to abandon key elements of her deal.

Jeremy Corbyn slammed Theresa May's refusal to budge off her red lines last night after the Prime Minister met Brexiteer ministers and top Tory MPs in Downing Street

The Labour leader said: 'We are prepared to talk and put forward our view, but talks have to mean a movement and so far there has been no change in those red lines.'

Last night it was claimed Mrs May was considering whether to take the dramatic step of offering MPs a separate vote on whether to hold a second referendum, in a bid to unblock the deal with Labour.

Sir Keir told Labour MPs at a private meeting that ministers had not yet given in to the party's central demand that the UK must join a permanent customs union.

He said Mrs May was still of a 'mindset' that her deal effectively delivered a customs union 'if only we looked a bit harder'.

EU leaders have 'given up on Theresa May and are now negotiating with MPs directly' As Theresa May heads to Paris and Berlin EU leaders have given up on her, it was claimed today. The bloc's leaders are said to be negotiating directly with MPs after the Cooper/Letwin plot grabbed control of Brexit in the Commons. An EU diplomatic source told The Sun: 'What's annoying us is they're not a real government so we don't have any partners to properly talk to. 'We don't want to be demanding but we've got to manage the process and we don't have another side to manage it with. 'We have no trust in May anymore. We say we're not negotiating with the House but we are. But how can we negotiate with all these different factions?' Advertisement

However, Tory sources insisted a cross-party deal was still possible. 'We're a million miles from this thing collapsing,' said one source familiar with the talks.

The Prime Minister warned last week that a deal with Labour might be the 'only way' to secure an orderly Brexit next month, after MPs voted to reject her own plans for a third time. She had hoped that a deal would be in place in time for her to present to EU leaders at an emergency summit in Brussels.

The two sides are said to be close to agreement on a deal that would ensure the UK remains in step with EU laws on workers' rights and the environment after Brexit. But there is no agreement yet on possible customs arrangements.

And Brexiteer ministers are urging Mrs May to reject Labour's demand to place a 'Boris lock' on any soft Brexit compromise, which would prevent a future Tory leader tearing it up.

A Tory source said Commons leader Andrea Leadsom clashed with Mrs May over the issue yesterday during talks in No10 with ministers including Liz Truss.

Solicitor General Robert Buckland said Mrs May was right to seek a deal with Mr Corbyn and predicted: 'Something approximating a customs arrangement or customs union would be the most likely outcome.' And former Tory minister Nick Boles said there was a 'pretty reasonable chance of a deal', adding: 'On the substance they're quite a lot closer than perhaps people might imagine.'

Michel Barnier, the European Commission's chief negotiator, said the political declaration could be amended 'extremely quickly' if necessary to include a customs union.

But senior ministers continued to warn against signing up to such a deal. Asked if the Government was poised to agree a customs union, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox replied 'no'.

International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said the talks with Labour were 'not the only show in town', adding: 'I have always believed that a customs union was not the best deal for the UK.'

Boris Johnson said: 'If the UK were to commit to remaining in the customs union, it would make a total and utter nonsense of the referendum result. To agree to be non-voting members of the EU, under the surrender proposed by Jeremy Corbyn cannot, must not and will not happen.'
The man who was the most senior official at New Zealands embassy in Washington, D.C. is on trial on Monday for allegedly planting a secret camera inside a unisex bathroom.

Alfred Keating appeared in Auckland District Court in New Zealand on Monday for the start of his trial.

Keating was a commodore in the New Zealand Navy at the time he committed the alleged crime, according to Radio New Zealand.

Henry Steele, the crown prosecutor, told the jury that Keating hid a small black Camscura Micro Hidden Camera in a heating duct on July 27, 2017.

Top naval officer Commodore Alfred Keating (pictured) is accused of hiding a camera in the unisex bathroom at New Zealand's embassy in Washington, D.C.

At the time, Keating was the most senior official at the embassy in Washington (seen above)

Steele said that Keating used blue latex gloves to put the motion activated camera in position.

The crown prosecutor said that Keating was filmed on CCTV entering the bathroom.

That same day, the camera fell out of the heating duct and was picked up by a driver at the embassy, who then put it on a radiator.

Steele showed the jury the camera, which is about the size of a pager.

Another staffer who walked into the bathroom realized it was a camera and handed it to a co-worker, who then reported it to embassy staff, Steele said.

The camera was then sent to New Zealand for forensic testing by police, who found an SD card with 21 video files saved to it.

Henry Steele, the crown prosecutor, told the jury in Auckland that Keating hid a small black Camscura Micro Hidden Camera (like the one seen above) in a heating duct on July 27, 2017

When investigators viewed the videos, they only saw images of peoples feet - which indicates that the camera fell out of position shortly after it was installed in the heating duct.

According to Steele, investigators began searching Keatings laptop in November 2017.

They found a number of internet searches related to the hidden camera, according to the crown prosecutor.

Investigators also say that Keatings DNA was found on the SD card.

Keatings lawyer, Ron Mansfield, denied that his client installed the camera.
The lawmaker who Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated in their June 2016 primary was so confident he would win he didn't use a trove of ammunition he had against her.

Former Rep. Joe Crowley had 'plenty of fodder' to use in the race but didn't, Politico reporters Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer write in their new book, 'The Hill to Die On.'

Crowley, who was on track to succeed Nancy Pelosi as leader of the House Democrats, didn't want to look weak in a contest he was highly favored to win.

Former Rep. Joe Crowley had 'plenty of fodder' had a trove of ammunition to use against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in their Democratic primary

Crowley, who lost to Ocasio-Cortez, reportedly didn't use the information so he wouldn't look weak in front of other Democrats

'Crowley had plenty of fodder he could've used against Ocasio-Cortez, but his top New York campaign operatives decided to take the punches and not hit back,' the authors write, according to the New York Post.

'It wasn't just that Crowley didn't want to go dirty; he thought it would be a sign of weakness in D.C. if he was seen in a tight race against Ocasio-Cortez. He was supposed to be the next Democratic leader, not someone who had to fight for reelection,' they note.

Some of that ammunition included the fact that disgraced politician Hiram Monserrate was quietly backing Ocasio-Cortez.

Monserrate was expelled from the New York Senate in 2010 after being convicted of slashing his girlfriend's face.

Some of Crowley's ammunition included the fact that disgraced politician Hiram Monserrate (above) was quietly backing Ocasio-Cortez

He also served two years in prison for stealing government funds.

Crowley lost the primary and Ocasio-Cortez went to win in November, becoming the youngest member of Congress and a rising star in the Democratic Party.

She has pushed back against Democratic efforts to protect other incumbents in the wake of the her primary victory.

She took to her twitter feed last month to encourage her 3.8 million followers to donate directly to candidates instead of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Ocasio-Cortez and other liberals are upset that DCCC Chairwoman Cheri Bustos is protecting centrist incumbents by ending the committee's business ties with political consultants and pollsters who work for primary challengers.

'The Hill To Die On: The Battle for Congress and the Future of Trump's America' is out on Tuesday.
There can be no doubt that the Government's plans to counter 'Online Harms' unveiled yesterday are based on good intentions. But as the old proverb reminds us, the road to hell is paved with those.

For, no matter how well-meaning, the proposals to regulate the web could give a future less liberal government  perhaps one led by Jeremy Corbyn  the power to clamp down on the thing it most fears: freedom of the Press and free speech.

A week, as they say, is a long time in politics. Just last Friday Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, himself a former Culture Secretary, announced to great fanfare that celebrity human rights lawyer Amal Clooney will be Britain's 'special envoy on media freedom'.

It was supposed to be a signal to the world that Britain will lead the charge against the rise of despotic leaders and the introduction of draconian censorship laws around the world.

Yet three days later, the very same Government of which Mr Hunt is a senior member proposed setting up an official regulator in the UK armed with the sort of repressive powers we associate with totalitarian police states.

Will Special Envoy Clooney lead a designer-heeled demonstration up Whitehall in protest? I wouldn't hold my breath.

Just last Friday Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, himself a former Culture Secretary, announced to great fanfare that celebrity human rights lawyer Amal Clooney (pictured with him at Media Freedom Press announcement) will be Britain's 'special envoy on media freedom', writes MICK HUME

The Online Harms White Paper proposes a sweeping, punitive system of regulation that hopes to remedy a range of problems, from terrorist propaganda and child pornography to 'fake news' and trolling.

In a chilling section that could have been lifted out of George Orwell's 1984, it states the Home Secretary of the day would sign off the rules on terror and child exploitation content.

At the moment, the ostensible targets of these measures are tech giants such as Facebook, Google and Twitter, which have been rightly slated for hosting potentially harmful content.

But give censors an inch and they will take a mile. It would, I predict, be only a matter of time before Britain's proud history of media freedom and freedom of speech lies in tatters.

The White Paper's one-size-fits-all approach would hand extraordinary powers to a new regulator, Ofweb, to fine, restrict and ultimately bar non-compliant websites  regardless of how big they are.

Pictured: Amal Clooney at the G7 meeting in Dinard, France for the launch of the media freedoms campaign

Former Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, now Foreign Secretary, is pictured at the event in Brittany, France on April 5

This means that the same rules that govern behemoths such as Google and Facebook  both of which have expert in-house legal teams and billions of pounds at their disposal  will apply to any website, however small or harmless, that allows users to post comments.

Tory MP and former Culture Secretary John Whittingdale, writing at the weekend, was completely justified in warning that the proposals risk dragging Britain into a 'draconian censorship regime' more akin to China, Russia or North Korea. No other Western democratic state has countenanced similarly far-reaching controls.

Of course, Theresa May is no Putin-style 'strongman' and current Home Secretary Sajid Javid would make an unlikely Kim Jong-un. But once such an apparatus is in place, what is to stop a future, more regressive government from using those powers for its own political ends?

Imagine Labour's blinkered Home Secretary Diane Abbott, entrusted with overseeing the regulator which enforces the rules for what can and cannot be seen online?

While her hapless TV performances in recent years suggest she may not be much good with numbers, we can have a fair notion of what her No 1 target would be.

Since Jeremy Corbyn took control of the Labour Party in 2015, he has waged a shameless Stalinist war on what he sees as the trouble-making media.

His party may not agree about Brexit or much else, but there are no divisions on Labour's front-bench when it comes to bashing the Press.

Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin at a press conference in Moscow today

Deputy leader Tom Watson  himself the recipient of 500,000 of donations in one year from multi-millionaire Max Mosley, an ardent campaigner for stricter Press control  has long crusaded for greater media restrictions.

Years before Watson became Labour's deputy leader, he was a zealous supporter of the celebrity-led Hacked Off campaign for tighter Press regulation.

Back then, he had no qualms about using the victims of phone-hacking as the human shields behind which he could advance his political agenda.

Since his rise to prominence under Corbyn, he has championed the introduction of 'Section 40' measures that would in effect blackmail the media into signing up to Britain's first system of state-backed Press regulation since 1695.

Last summer, in a rare speech spelling out what a Labour government would do, Corbyn also made clear his own disturbing desire for government-approved journalism produced by a tame, state-financed media.

He suggested plans for a special tax on tech giants, not to fund social care or anything useful, but to finance 'public interest journalism' as defined, not by the public, but by a Labour-controlled organisation.

There is no question that the current Labour Party hierarchy would love to nationalise the news to stop the media asking awkward questions of those in power.

'Just because it's on the front page of The Sun or The Mail doesn't automatically make it news,' Corbyn said last summer.

Theresa May is no Putin-style 'strongman' and current Home Secretary Sajid Javid would make an unlikely Kim Jong-un (pictured today). But once such an apparatus is in place, what is to stop a future, more regressive government from using those powers for its own political ends? Asks MICK HUME

What he meant was: 'Just because it's news, doesn't automatically mean it should be allowed on the front page of The Mail.'

Corbyn's contempt for Press freedom has some surprising allies in high places. Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, Britain's top anti-terror cop, last month published an 'open letter' to the media on 'how to report terrorism' following the Christchurch mosque atrocity in New Zealand.

He called for a 'sensible conversation' which seems eminently reasonable. But what ACC Basu was really calling for was powers for the police or other authorities to issue orders to newspapers and TV broadcasters on what they can and cannot publish  something that wouldn't seem out of place in an Orwellian police state.

It's not surprising, therefore, that ACC Basu has expressed his support for the new White Paper. After all, it smoothly followed on from his warning that 'we cannot simply hide behind the mantra of freedom of speech'.

But if there is a 'mantra' being chanted repeatedly in Britain today, it is certainly not in defence of free speech.

Instead, we face a new breed of thought police who preach that society needs even more restrictions on what is permissable to say, hear read and even think.

Freedom of speech and of the Press are the lifeblood of any civilised society. And Britain has led the way in securing those liberties. Our nation's history is awash with heroes who would fight to the death for a free Press, from the Levellers during the English Civil War through to John Wilkes and Thomas Paine in the 18th century.

Brave people went to jail  and even the gallows  to ensure that the Press remained untainted by state interference. Today's politicians would do well to remember their actions.

Racist, sexist and vile online content should always be condemned. But the problem, once you decide to impose new limits, is always the same: who decides where to draw the line?

Should it be the PM or the Home Secretary? A few high court judges? Or Jeremy Corbyn's Shadow cabinet? Or perhaps Simon Cowell and Cheryl?

Or should we just leave it to the unaccountable members of an 'independent' quango such as Ofweb?

When it comes to media regulation, there is no such thing as 'independent'. There are no 'independent' angels hovering on a cloud above the political fray below; everybody has an agenda, an angle, or an axe to grind.

However worthy the motives, every attempt further to restrict freedom of expression inevitably invites more of the same.

Defending media freedom online may not seem the easy, comfortable option. But there is always one thing more harmful than free speech  and that's its opposite.

Mick Hume is the author of Trigger Warning: Is The Fear of Being Offensive Killing Free Speech?

How the new rules work Analysis by Ian Drury for The Daily Mail DUTY OF CARE Under the new rules, tech firms including Facebook, Twitter and Google will have a legal 'duty of care' to users. This will make them responsible for vile content such as child abuse images, 'suicide porn' and extremist propaganda. Failure to remove it could see them fined millions of pounds or even blocked. But as well as the Silicon Valley firms, the proposals apply to any platform that allows users to post comments, including news sites. A WATCHDOG WITH TEETH A regulator, funded by the tech industry, will police the duty of care. It will draw up a legally-enforced code of practice spelling out what social networks and internet companies must do to safeguard users. The independent watchdog will be able to impose penalties and name and shame tech firms that flout the rules. News websites will be covered even though many are already independently regulated. TERROR AND CHILD ABUSE IMAGES Tech firms will face further stringent requirements to ensure child abuse and terrorist content is not disseminated online. The regulator will decide how quickly platforms should remove extremist content, such as the live-streamed New Zealand mosque massacre. Firms must also develop technology to stop certain content getting online. There are fears this could hamper legitimate news coverage or give the Home Secretary powers over what can and can't be said about terrorists. FREEDOM OF SPEECH UNDER THREAT? The White Paper says the regulator will have a legal duty to protect 'freedom of expression', so the crackdown on tech firms is seen by some as a major victory. But there is a risk that a government could use the legislation against opponents and clamp down on dissenting voices on news websites. TROLLING AND DISINFORMATION The proposals would make tech firms tackle 'trolling' and 'disinformation' online. They will also be required to have dedicated fact-checkers, especially during elections. Again this raises the question as to who would decide what is allowed to be said. A malign government could effectively decide the boundaries of public debate  as with the authoritarian regimes in China, Russia and Saudi Arabia. AGE CHECKS Technology firms will have a legal duty to protect children from inappropriate content. They could face significant penalties if they fail to introduce stringent age verification checks. It could mean that millions of children are barred because 40 per cent of under-13s use social media. Advertisement

Critics brand new internet regulation laws the 'most draconian crackdown in the Western democratic world' as they warn it could threaten the freedom of speech of millions of Britons

By Joel Adams for MailOnline

Critics today warn the government's new plan to clean up the internet could be the most draconian crackdown on online free speech in the Western democratic world, and would impact social media users but not the tech firms it is designed to target.

The Online Harms white paper proposes taking sites offline to UK citizens if the sites fall foul of new regulators, and suggests levying massive fines on companies like Facebook and Google and their employees in an effort to crack down on the spread of child abuse images, terrorism, revenge pornography and hate crime.

But campaigners warn the Culture Secretary's stated aim to make the UK the 'safest place in the world to go online' could mean regulators or even algorithms decide what websites or content Britons can see.

Jim Killock, executive director of Open Rights Group told MailOnline: 'We are talking about the potential for the most draconian crackdown in the Western democratic world.

Campaigner Jim Killock, executive director of Open Rights Group, said: 'We are talking about the potential for the most draconian crackdown in the Western democratic world'

'We're talking about banning content that the government won't make illegal  it won't legislate to ban it, but it wants companies to do so.

'They're saying 'we don't like Facebook so we're going to give Facebook more power to regulate our content more', it's a terrible irony.'

The Open Rights Group is a crowd funded organisation which works to protect digital rights including privacy and free speech.

In its analysis of the white paper it warned that 'in its drive to make the internet 'safe', the government seems not to recognise that ultimately its proposals don't regulate social media companies, they regulate social media users.

'The duty of care is ostensibly aimed at shielding children from danger and harm but it will in practice bite on adults too, wrapping society in cotton wool and curtailing a whole host of legal expression.'

The organisation warned that 'governments both repressive and democratic are likely to use the policy and regulatory model that emerge from this process as a blueprint for more widespread internet censorship.'

It said firms would protect themselves by creating filters which blocked the uploading of content which might incur fines - but warned such technology would be incapable of differentiating between abusive or harmful content, and content which was parody, comedy, satire or editorial.

Ex-Culture Secretary John Whittingdale said the new internet reforms risked giving tyrants an excuse to restrict free speech

Mr Killock added: 'The government's proposals would create state regulation of the speech of millions of British citizens.

'We have to expect that the duty of care will end up widely drawn, with serious implications for legal content that is deemed potentially risky, whether it really is nor not.'

Former Culture Secretary John Wittingdale warned the proposals risk dragging Britons into a 'draconian censorship regime', adding: '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.'

The proposal to block sites which fall foul of new regulations is one of a slew of reforms set out today in the Government's White Paper on Online Harms, designed to force tech giants such as Facebook, Google and Twitter to clean up harmful material on their platforms.

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.

Under new rules, any website which allows users to post content will have a legal 'duty of care' to all users

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.

However, the regulator's 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.

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.'

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 prominent Democrat is accusing President Donald Trump of using a version of the same anti-Semitic 'tropes' about 'dual loyalty' that brought condemnation of remarks by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).

Trump made the remark during a weekend speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition, where he referred to embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as 'your prime minister.'

'I stood with your prime minister at the White House to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights,' Trump said, to applause.

The group, who met in Las Vegas, consisted of American Jewish Republicans  not Israelis.

President Donald Trump is under fire for telling American Jews Israeli Prime Minister is 'your prime minister'

House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jerold Nadler (D-N.Y), accused Trump of putting forward the old 'dual-loyalty lie,' used historically to besmirch Jews.

'ICYMI, @realDonaldTrump wades right into the anti-Semitic dual-loyalty lie. I will continue to condemn anti-Semitism from the Right and Left. Trump calls Netanyahu 'your prime minister' to crowd of American Jews,' wrote Nadler, who is Jewish.

Ailing Republican billionaire powerbroker Sheldon Adelson was in the audience wearing a Make America Great Again yarmulke.

Trump was referring to his surprise decision to announce the U.S. would recognize the Golan Heights, seized from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War, as part of Israel.

Nadler tweeted out a report by Business Insider about the comments.

Trump referred to Israeli Prime Minister as 'your prime minister'

Men attending the Republican Jewish Coalition's annual leadership meeting wear red yarmulkes with the word 'Trump' on them, Saturday April 6, 2019, as they wait for President Donald Trump to arrive to speak in Las Vegas

Rep. Jerold Nadler tweeted out a report on Trump's speech

He said he made the decision after talks with U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman and Trump's 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,' according to the president.

Democratic Representative from Minnesota Ilhan Omar apologized after her tweets about Israel came under fire

The group is backed by billionaire Sheldon Adelson

Rep. Jerold Nadler of New York said Trump 'wades right into the anti-Semitic dual-loyalty lie'

'How do you like the idea of me recognizing exactly what we're discussing?' Trump says he told them.

By Trump's account, Friedman was shocked 'like a wonderful, beautiful baby,' asking whether Trump would actually do it.

'I went  Bing!  it was done. We make fast decisions. And we make good decisions,' Trump said.

Nadler was among those House Democrats who condemned Omar when she made remarks that appeared to equate support for Israel with financial contributions. She had tweeted 'all about the Benjamins' in one tweet about Israel, meaning money. She also tweeted that U.S. pro-Israel leaders pushed 'for allegiance to a foreign country.' She ultimately apologized for her remarks.

Trump said of Netanyahu, who is facing a tough reelection: 'How is the race going by the way? How is it? Who's going to win the race. Tell me, I don't know. Well lit's going to be close,' he said, saying there were 'two good people' in it, referencing Netanyzhu and rival Benny Gantz. The elections are Tuesday.




President Donald Trump told Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen that it wouldn't bother him if closing a Texas border checkpoint drove asylum-seekers to enter the U.S. illegally.

'I don't care,' he said, according to people present at an Oval Offices meeting with top officials two weeks ago.

The sources told CNN that Trump ordered Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Nielsen to shutdown the part of entry in El Paso, Texas and reinstate family separation policies.

Migrants line up Monday to speak with U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents after illegally crossing at the port of entry at El Paso, Texas in order to seek asylum in the U.S.

Trump has been pushing to reinstate 'zero tolerance' immigration policies that formerly produced an influx in children being separated from their parents when crossing illegally into the U.S.

Nielsen also said that shutting down parts of the border could halt legal trade and travel while doing little to combat illegal immigration and caravan migrations to the U.S. border.

Both DHS and the White House did not respond to requests to confirm the report.

It appears Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney was able to convince Trump not to close the border at El Paso but continued to push for denying asylum-seekers entry into the U.S.

The past few months Trump has been pushing Nielsen to enforce hard-line immigration policies, similar to ones criticized last year that resulted in the separation of families attempting to illegally cross the border.

On Sunday, Trump announced on Twitter that Nielsen would be leaving the White House and said he was appointing Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Kevin McAleenan as acting secretary.

The move was widely questioned after it became clear that under U.S. federal law the third senior official at DHS, Under Secretary for Management Claire Grady, should become acting director since the number two spot is vacant.

Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke addresses supporters at a kickoff rally in El Paso, Texas on March 30

During the rally, O'Rourke claimed asylum-seekers helped make the city more safe

Reports Monday said that Grady could also be departing her post, potentially clearing the way for Trumps first choice to head the department until a permanent replacement is confirmed.

Beto ORourke, a former Texas congressman and Democratic presidential candidate, said he would absolutely take the wall down in El Paso.

While speaking at a gathering in El Paso March 30, ORourke said that the border city is more safe because of immigrants and asylum-seekers.

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, ORourke said.
This is the moment four people were captured on CCTV fleeing the scene of a murder last night.

A man in his 20s died in the gun and knife attack in East London and this morning his mother was spotted visiting the scene in the aftermath of the horrific attack.

The London Ambulance Service alerted police that a man had been attacked in Manor Park shortly before 9.30pm on Monday.

Scotland Yard said officers went to the street and found the victim 'suffering from what are believed to be knife and gunshot wounds'.

Four people were captured on CCTV fleeing the scene of the murder in East London last night

Forensics are pictured at the scene today in Manor Park, East London, where a man in is 20s was killed in a gun and knife attack

Police remain at the scene in Manor Park, East London, today after a man his his 20s died last night in a knife and gun attack

The officers remain at the scene where they are scouring for evidence today following yesterday's shooting

'Despite the efforts of medics, the male died at the scene,' the force said. An increased police presence was deployed in the area on Monday night as an investigation began.

The area surrounding the scene was sealed off and murder detectives were notified. A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman confirmed a Stop and Search) order has been implemented in the Borough of Newham, which will remain in place until 1.30pm on Tuesday.

Mayor of Newham Rokhsana Fiaz tweeted: 'My deepest condolences to his family today following a devastating incident last night in Manor Park, @NewhamLondon.

'Myself and the Deputy Mayor @grayee, were at the scene last night providing reassurance to local residents and those there who knew the victim.'

A man in his 20s died last night following a knife and gun attack in East London and police remain at the scene today (pictured)

Police officers are investigating in Manor Park (pictured, an officer at the scene today) after a fatal stabbing last night

Irmantas Miniauskas, 31, of nearby Meanley Road, said a team of around six police officers had knocked on his door at about 5am on Tuesday.

'They were knocking on all the doors to see if we heard anything - I didn't hear anything,' he said.

Mr Miniauskas said the area is usually quite safe because it is mostly residential properties. The incident came as London continues to count the cost of violent crime.

On Monday, three teenagers were taken to hospital after being stabbed within minutes of each other in north-east London.

Four arrests were made and the victims' injuries were not life-threatening, Scotland Yard said.

Prime Minister Theresa May recently held a summit on knife crime following a spate of bloodshed across London and the rest of England since the start of 2019.

Police have appealed for any witnesses of the Newham killing to contact them on 101.

Local resident Muhammed, who did not want to give his surname, said the area has a problem with drug dealing.

A large police forensic tent has been erected outside the tower block and is being guarded by a police officer

This is the full list of people who have been murdered in London so far this year, with an additional victim killed on a London Overground train in Surrey

The 45-year-old told the Press Association: 'I didn't hear anything, but I came outside when I saw the lights. It must have been about 9.30pm.

'Violence is quite common round here - my wife gets scared. So many times we've asked them to put (CCTV) cameras up.

'The police have come so many times. Thousands of times they have come and everybody here sees the trouble.'

He said he had heard gunshots in the street a few months ago close to a house he believes is used for drug dealing.

'Three or four cars pulled up the way those (drug dealers) do - they use this one house, that's why the come here a lot,' he said, adding: 'There's no cameras anywhere around here.'

A cordon is in place as police investigate and more officers are expected to be in the area as a result of the killing.

A murder investigation has been launched and a post-mortem will be scheduled in due course, police said.

On Sunday night a woman named locally as Annabelle Lancaster was found dead in the street just before 6pm in Enfield, north London.

A man was arrested nearby on suspicion of murder and taken to a north London police station.

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.

Police cordoned off the area outside a block of flats in Enfield, north London, where a woman in her 20s was found dead

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.

Teenager Zion 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.
Immigration minister Caroline Nokes disclosed the data blunder in the House of Commons

The Home Office has apologised after a data blunder exposed the email addresses of people interested in the Windrush compensation scheme.

An administrative error meant messages sent to some individuals and organisations who had asked to be kept informed about the scheme included other recipients addresses.

Five batches of emails, each with 100 recipients, were affected. Immigration minister Caroline Nokes disclosed the error in the House of Commons.

She said: Data protection requirements have not been met, for which the Home Office apologises unreservedly.

Up to 15,000 eligible claims totalling between 120 million and 310 million are expected to be lodged under the scheme.

Ministers last year faced a furious backlash over the treatment of the Windrush generation  Commonwealth citizens and long-term UK residents who in some cases were denied access to services, held in detention or removed from the country.

Payments will be made to those who suffered adverse effects because they were not issued documents proving their status.
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A sarcophagus containing an Egyptian high priest was opened on live TV Sunday during a special two-hour broadcast by the American channel Discovery.

'Expedition Unknown: Egypt Live' aired from the site outside Minya, which is along the Nile River south of Cairo and its Giza pyramids.

Archaeologists recently discovered a network of vertical shafts at the site which led to tunnels and tombs containing 40 mummies 'believed to be part of the noble elite.'

After exploring other tombs -- finding artifacts like statues, amulets, canopic jars used to store organs, and other mummies including one that had decomposed to a skeleton -- they crawled to the chamber containing the intricately carved sarcophagus.

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An archaeologist brushes a newly-discovered mummy laid inside a sarcophagus, part of a collection found in burial chambers dating to the Ptolemaic era (323-30 BC) in February 2019

The buried priest was found with a massive gold cross laid over the body, as seen above. It's thought mummy was that of a high priest of Thoth, the ancient Egyptian god of wisdom and magic, and dated to Ancient Egypt's 26th dynasty -- the last native dynasty to rule until 525 BC

It took the strength of several people to open.

And the team's efforts had not gone to waste: inside was a pristinely linen-wrapped mummy surrounded by treasure including gold.

'I can't believe this, this is incredible,' exclaimed Zahi Hawass, an Egyptian archaeologist and former antiquities minister, who had taken charge of the expedition with American explorer Josh Gates as the host of the broadcast.

A Discovery spokesman previously told AFP that the project was set up in collaboration with Egypt's antiquities ministry.

Gates said the mummy was that of a high priest of Thoth, the ancient Egyptian god of wisdom and magic, and dated to Ancient Egypt's 26th dynasty -- the last native dynasty to rule until 525 BC.

'Toward the end of Ancient Egypt, the power really was with the high priests and you can see this... almost feels like a royal burial,' Gates said.

After exploring other tombs -- finding artifacts like statues, amulets, canopic jars used to store organs, and other mummies including one that had decomposed to a skeleton -- they crawled to the chamber containing the intricately carved sarcophagus

A newly-discovered mummy wrapped in linen with sarcophagus fragments found in burial chambers dating to the Ptolemaic era (323-30 BC) in Egypt's southern Minya province

Cairo has sought to promote archaeological discoveries across the country in a bid to revive tourism hit by turmoil after the 2011 uprising against Hosni Mubarak.

Asked by AFP about a possible financial deal between the channel and the Egyptian state for permission to film and open the grave, the spokesman for Discovery refused to comment.

'It's a media spectacle in the end -- but it could make people love antiquities and is a good promotional opportunity for tourism, if done right,' an Egyptian archaeologist who asked to remain anonymous told AFP.

However, she asked: 'If money is being paid by a major channel to the ministry to show antiquities, where is it going to end up?'

'Will it go in the state's purse-strings or end up elsewhere? We need more transparency on where the money is going.'

A Discovery spokesman previously told AFP that the project was set up in collaboration with Egypt's antiquities ministry. Dozens of mummies are contained within the tombs, such as those seen above

Cairo has sought to promote archaeological discoveries across the country in a bid to revive tourism hit by turmoil after the 2011 uprising against Hosni Mubarak

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has overseen a crackdown on dissent, banning protests and jailing Islamists as well as liberal and secular activists.

He regularly evokes political stability to draw foreign investment.

The tourism sector has begun to return, with arrivals reaching 8.3 million in 2017, according to government figures.

That still falls far short of the 14.7 million in 2010.

Discovery's broadcast also comes with global interest in Egyptian archaeology generated by a 'once in a generation' exhibition about the pharaoh Tutankhamun, which opened in Paris last month and will tour the world.
The International Space Station is teeming with bacteria and fungi that can cause diseases, a new study found.

They also form biofilms that can promote antibiotic resistance and even stop spacecraft parts from working correctly, scientists warn.

The findings are important to protect the health of astronauts and the safety of crafts on future manned long missions to Mars and beyond.

The International Space Station (pictured) is teeming with bacteria and fungi that can cause diseases, a new study found. They also form biofilms that promote antibiotic resistance and can even corrode the spacecraft, scientists warn

The station - built in 1998 and orbiting around 250 miles (400 km) above the Earth - has been visited by over 222 astronauts and up to six resupply missions a year up until August 2017.

The station's components were built in sterile environments before being sent into orbit and routine monitoring has taken place since.

However, a comprehensive catalogue of what is lurking on inside surfaces has until now been absent.

NASA scientists found that the microbes on the ISS mostly came from people and were similar to those found in public buildings and offices here on Earth.

The most prominent bacteria were Staphylococcus - making up over a quarter (26 per cent) of total species isolated from samples taken - followed by Pantoea (23 per cent) and Bacillus (11 per cent).

They included organisms that are considered opportunistic pathogens on Earth.

That includes Staphylococcus aureus, which made up a tenth of total isolates identified. It is commonly found on the skin and in the nasal passage.

Experts also located Enterobacter, which is associated with the human gastrointestinal tract.

'The International Space Station is the largest human space platform in low Earth orbit - around 400 km above Earth's surface - and for the last 17 years it has been continuously inhabited by an international community of astronauts performing space research,' said paper author and microbiologist Kasthuri Venkateswaran of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

'The ISS is a hermetically sealed closed system, subjected to microgravity, radiation, elevated carbon dioxide, and the recirculation of air through HEPA filters and is considered an "extreme environment."

'Microbes are known to survive and even thrive in extreme environments, and the microbes that are present on the ISS may have existed since the inception of the ISS while others may be introduced each time new astronauts or payloads arrive.'

He added that emerging studies of the 'built microbiome' here on Earth show that the design of offices, classrooms, museums and hospitals influence the assemblages of bacteria, fungi, viruses, and protozoa that end up being unique to each indoor environment.

'Specific microbes in these indoor spaces have been shown to impact human health by influencing our susceptibility to allergies, infectious diseases, or sick building syndrome,' he added.

'The influence of the indoor microbiome on human health becomes more important for astronauts during flights due to altered immunity associated with space flight and the lack of sophisticated medical interventions that are available on Earth.

'In light of an upcoming new era of human expansion in the universe, such as future space travel to Mars, the microbiome of the closed space environment needs to be examined thoroughly to identify the types of microorganisms that can accumulate in this unique environment, how long they persist and survive, and their impact on human health and spacecraft infrastructure.'

Microbes identified on the station included organisms that are considered opportunistic pathogens on Earth, such as Staphylococcus aureus (pictured, stock image), which is commonly found on the skin and nasal passages making up a tenth of total isolates identified

Monitoring bugs in space used traditional culture methods, although it is known that many microbes cannot be cultured with standard techniques.

To fully appreciate the true number and diversity of microbes that survive in the ISS, researchers used traditional culture techniques and gene sequencing methods to analyse surface samples.

The researchers collected surface bacteria and fungi samples from eight locations within the ISS - including from a dining table, exercise platform, sleeping quarters, toilet and a viewing window.

Swabs were taken repeatedly from each site during three different missions across a total period of 14 months, to see how the fungal and microbial populations changed over time as well as between different locations.

The experts found that while fungal communities on the space station remained largely stable, the microbe populations were similar across the ISS but changed as time progressed.

For example, the microbe samples swabbed during the second mission had a higher population diversity than those collected during the other two periods.

The experts believe that these changes may be a result of the different astronauts living on the ISS during each mission.

They found the ISS swabs were similar to other built environments where the microbiome is shaped by human occupation.

'Whether these opportunistic bacteria could cause disease in astronauts on the ISS is unknown,' said paper author and microbiologist Aleksandra Checinska Sielaf, of the Washington State University.

'This would depend on a number of factors, including the health status of each individual and how these organisms function while in the space environment.

'Regardless, the detection of possible disease-causing organisms highlights the importance of further studies to examine how these ISS microbes function in space.'

And many of the organisms detected on the ISS are known to form biofilms that belong to both bacterial (Acinetobacter, Sphingomonas, Bacillus, Burkholderia, Corynebacterium, and Klebsiella) and fungal (Penicillium, Aspergillus, Cryptococcus, and Rhodotorula) genera.

This could pose problems for astronauts if they become infected as biofilms are known to promote resistance to antibiotics while biofilm formation 'could decrease infrastructure stability by causing mechanical blockages, reducing heat transfer efficiency, and inducing microbial influenced corrosion.'

'Some of the microorganisms we identified on the ISS have also been implicated in microbial induced corrosion on Earth,' said paper author Camilla Urbaniak, a microbiologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

'However, the role they play in corrosion aboard the ISS remains to be determined.'

'In addition to understanding the possible impact of microbial and fungal organisms on astronaut health, understanding their potential impact on spacecraft will be important to maintain structural stability of the crew vehicle during long term space missions when routine indoor maintenance cannot be as easily performed.'

'Our study provides the first comprehensive catalogue of the bacteria and fungi found on surfaces in closed space systems and can be used to help improve safety measures that meet NASA requirements for deep space human habitation,' Dr Venkateswaran concluded.

'The results can also have significant impact on our understanding of other confined built environments on the Earth such as clean rooms used in the pharmaceutical and medical industries.'

The full findings of the study were published in the journal Microbiome.
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Hypersonic jet travel across the Atlantic has moved a step closer after scientists successfully tested technology to stop jet engines melting at speeds up to 25 times the speed of sound.

Researchers at Reaction Engines managed to make a 'pre cooler' work at a simulated speed of 3.3 mach or 2,500 mph (4,023kph) - that means large scale hypersonic engines that could be fitted to passenger jets are a step closer to being realised.

Their experimental Synergetic Air Breathing Rocket Engine (Sabre) is designed to be fitted to large aircraft to ferry passengers around the world in hours and deliver goods into orbit for less.

The 'pre-cooler', which lets the aircraft travel at high speed without hot air rushing in and causing the engine to melt was tested at simulated speeds of more than three times the speed of sound.

The next stage of tests will see the technology tested at Mach 5.5 (4,200mph / 6,800kph), and could one day lead to flights between London and New York that take less than an hour.

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UK engineers have completed a milestone test of their new high-speed 'spaceplane' which they say could be able to fly at 25 times the speed of sound (mach 25). Reaction Engines has tested a 'pre-cooler' technology - which allows aircraft to travel faster than ever

Reaction built a testing facility on the ground in Colorado and used a General Electric J79 turbojet engine to replicate the conditions that the vehicle will experience at hypersonic speeds.

The firm hopes to make a reusable vehicle that would combine the fuel efficiency of a jet engine with the power and speed of a rocket.

Reaction, based in Oxfordshire, believe that the aircraft could travel the distance between New York and London in less than an hour when running at it's proposed top speed.

The company also wants to take people and payloads into space and return to Earth.

A spokesperson for Reaction Engines told MailOnline that although this technology is decades away from use in passenger jets, the technology could be used in more immediate applications.

The heat exchanger technology has a wide range of potential commercial applications and the ability to revolutionise the approach to thermal management across a range of industries; from aerospace to motorsport, industrial processes, and the oil and gas industry.

The heat exchanger technology has a wide range of potential commercial applications and the ability to revolutionise the approach to thermal management across a range of industries; from aerospace to motorsport, industrial processes, and the oil and gas industry

The breakthrough test was conducted at the companys newly opened TF2 test facility at Colorado Air and Space Port.

It comes 30 years after Reaction Engines was formed in the UK around an engine cycle concept to enable access to space and hypersonic air-breathing flight from a standing start.

The pre-cooling technology is designed to lower the temperature of the air coming into the engine from more than 1,000C (1,832F) to room temperature in one twentieth of a second.

To do this, the team developed a heat-exchanger to manage very high temperature airflows.

Reaction Engines has tested a 'pre-cooler' technology - which allows aircraft to travel faster than ever. The experimental Synergetic Air Breathing Rocket Engine - Sabre - is designed to drive space planes to orbit and take airliners around the world in just a few hours

The tech is designed to chill air in the inlet of high-speed turbojets for hypersonic vehicles and ultimately will form the basis for the companys Sabre engine for low-cost repeatable access to space.

The goal is to incorporate this technology into their Sabre engine, which would work like an 'air breathing rocket engine'.

It would carry significantly less fuel oxidant than a conventional rocket, making it much lighter.

From take-off to Mach 5.5 (5.5 times the speed of sound), it would take oxygen from the atmosphere, which would be fed into a rocket combustion chamber.

During tests, at simulated speeds of Mach 3.3, or more than three times the speed of sound. To replicate the conditions that it will experience at hypersonic speeds, Reaction built a testing facility on the ground in Colorado and used a General Electric J79 turbojet engine

The tech is designed to chill air in the inlet of high-speed turbojets for hypersonic vehicles and ultimately will form the basis for the companys Sabre engine for low-cost repeatable access to space. The goal is to incorporate this technology into their Sabre engine, which would work like an 'air breathing rocket engine'

Here, it would be ignited along with stored liquid hydrogen and then switch at high altitude, burning liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen from on-board fuel tanks.

Mark Thomas, the Reaction Engines chief executive, told the Times: 'If you can pull it off, it's a game changer. It kicks conventional rocket engines into touch.'

It did this by successfully quenching a 420C (788F) stream of gases in less than 1/20th of a second.

At low altitude and low speeds, it would behave like a jet, burning its fuel in a stream of air scooped from the atmosphere.

At high speeds and at high altitude, it would transition to full rocket mode, combining the fuel with the oxygen carried inside.

They envisage that it would be able aircraft that could travel the distance between New York and London in less than an hour. They also want to take people or payloads into space and return to Earth
A space phenomenon which saw the moon 'swallow' the gas giant Saturn has been captured in stunning footage.

The bizarre event saw the ringed planet eventually re-emerge from the other side of the moon - completing a process called occultation.

This celestial event lasted for 1 hour 44 minutes and was captured by photographer Cory Schmitz in Johannesburg.

Footage was accompanied He posted a standalone picture to Instagram with colouration showing Saturn and its rings in the background, dwarfed by the nearby moon

Footage of the briefly obscured planet disappearing behind the moon was posted to YouTube and Instagram.





Mr Schmitz said in his post: 'The raw view through my planetary imaging telescope from South Africa of the Saturn conjunction and occultation by Earth's moon.'

He posted a standalone picture to Instagram with colouration showing Saturn and its rings in the background, dwarfed by the nearby moon,.

This required two separate images to be combined into a composite, one taking coloured data from the planet and another from the moon.

Mr Schmitz explained: 'It's a composite image made from 2 sets of RGB data, one for the moon and one for Saturn.

Footage of the briefly obscured planet disappearing behind the moon was posted to YouTube and Instagram

The bizarre event saw the ringed planet disappear from view behind the moon and re-emerge 1 hour 44 minutes later - completing a process called occultation

The avid photographer and astronomer dedicated his remarkable achievement capturing the event to his 'late doghild'. He concluded his post with a touching tribute to his now departed pet

'I had to make a composite image because the moon is far greater than the brightness of Saturn.

'To get a decent image I needed to use much higher gain for Saturn, which would blow out the moon exposure.

'So the moon and Saturn were processed separately and combined.'

The avid photographer and astronomer dedicated his remarkable achievement capturing the event to his 'late doghild'.

He concluded his post with a touching tribute to his now departed pet.

'I'm dedicating this image to our late dogchild, Holly, who passed away the night before this event,'it read.

'Usually she would be keeping me company in the backyard when I image, and she was missed this time.'

Learn more about space and this year's Saturn occultations' here.
It could take millions of years for the Earth to recover from climate change if it is serious enough to wipe out mankind, say scientists.

It would take at least 10 million years for the planet to recover from such a catastrophic event, according to latest data.

The impact of modern day climate change has been compare to major extinction events such as the Great Dying that nearly killed all marine life and the extinction of dinosaurs.

Scientists who examined the fossil record say it is the evolutionary processes of microorganisms that limits the speed of recovery.

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It could take millions of years for the Earth to recover from climate change if it is serious enough to wipe out mankind, say scientists. According to latest data, it would take at least 10 million years for the planet to recover from such a catastrophic event

The millions of years it took for the Earth to recover from the extinction of the dinosaurs could offer fresh insight into the planet's recovery from ongoing global warming, say scientists.

The asteroid impact that led to the extinction of dinosaurs is the only event in Earth's history that caused global change faster than present day climate change.

This recovery period of habitats is present in the fossil records from the Great Dying that wiped out nearly all ocean life 252 million years ago, as well as the asteroid strike that killed the dinosaurs.

The researchers at the University of Bristol and University of Texas say that it also confirms the theory that after a major extinction event, ecosystems evolve in a way that takes millions of years for it to thrive again on Earth.

Dr Andrew Fraass from the University of Bristol and Dr Christopher Lowery at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (UTIG) who conducted the research, say that their study is the first to find evidence in the fossil records.

This is in contrast to an alternative theory that says it is environmental changes that is the limiting factor in allowing recovery of life forms on Earth.

A photomicrograph showing 10 species of foraminifera, a type of plankton which the researchers traced through fossil records to find out how they recovered after the Great Dying and the extinction of dinosaurs

The team followed the the recovery period of a tiny microorganism known as planktic foraminifera through fossils which dates back to the extinction of the dinosaurs over 60 million years ago.

The organisms are also known as foram, are aplenty in ocean sediments which meant the researchers could closely track them without any large gaps in time.

They discovered a high level of complexity, such as the development of new traits to create a new species.

This took place before they could fully evolve - a process that slowed down global recovery even when conditions allowed for it.

Their results suggest that while the earth was inhabitable much sooner after these large-scale disasters, evolution of organisms was the limiting factor that slowed the process down.

By looking at fossil records, Dr Chris Lowery (pictured) say it is the evolutionary processes of microorganisms that limits the speed of recovery as environmental changes on Earth allow organism populations and habitats to recover much earlier

This explained why species took millions of years to recover even though much of the planet was technically habitable relatively soon after the 'Great Dying.'

The authors believe that the same recovery period of millions of years applies to all similar events including today's global warming.

Mr Fraass said: 'We're hoping that examining the rest of the planktic foraminiferal record will give us insight into how climate shaped their evolution.

He added: 'With the past, slower, changes in climate we have in the geological record, we should be able to tease out more details about how climate change might impact these important plankton.'

The recovery from past extinctions could offer a road map for what might come after the modern ongoing extinction, which is driven by climate change, habitat loss, invasive species and other factors.

The full report was published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.
Melting glaciers have contributed more than an inch to the world's rising sea levels.

Global warming is causing glaciers to melt which has boosted sea levels by more than an inch (27 mm) since 1961.

A study suggests the total mass lost from glaciers is far more than previously thought.

Based on their findings, the authors suggest that glaciers could almost disappear in some mountain ranges by 2100 (including the Caucasus, Central Europe, Western Canada and the USA and New Zealand).

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Melting glaciers in Russias Arctic territory. This image, recorded by the Sentinel-2 satellite in 2017, shows the blue glaciers on the reddish-brown Franz Josef Land archipelago in the Arctic Ocean (black). The glaciers (blue) are covered with little or no snow (white), which is a clear indicator of significant loss of mass

Glaciers, not including the Greenland or Antarctic ice sheets, account for more than 40,000 cubic miles (170,000 cubic kilometres) of water.

Warming temperatures are causing them to melt and experts now believe melted glaciers account for 25 to 30 per cent of current sea level rises.

Ice loss from all the glaciers is believed to approximately equal to the shrinkage of Greenland's enormous Ice Sheet and far greater than that of the Antarctic.

An international research team combined glaciological observations with satellite measurements to accurately determine changes to glaciers and how this affected sea levels.

Satellite imagery allowed researchers to track the surface of the Earth and provided data on ice thickness and how it has changed over many years.

Researchers were then able to spot ice thickness changes to more than 190,000 glaciers around the world.

Glaciers in Alaska, Patagonia and in the Arctic regions were found to contribute the most to glacier ice loss.

Regional share of glaciers in sea-level rise from 1961 to 2016. Glaciers in Alaska, Patagonia and in the Arctic regions were found to contribute the most to glacier ice loss

Those found in the European Alps, the Caucasus and New Zealand were also affected but due to their relatively small size only play a minor role when it comes to sea levels.

'By combining these two measurement methods and having the new comprehensive dataset, we can estimate how much ice has been lost each year in all mountain regions since the 1960s,' explains Michael Zemp, who led the study.

'The glaciological measurements made in the field provide the annual fluctuations, while the satellite data allows us to determine overall ice loss over several years or decades.'

Global mass loss of glacier ice has increased significantly in the last 30 years and narrowed it down to a ten year window spanning from 2006 to 2016.

This revealed a worrying statistic that 335 billion tons of ice is lost each year from glaciers alone.

This corresponds to an increase in sea levels of almost 1 millimetre per year.

'Globally, we lose about three times the ice volume stored in the entirety of the European Alps - every single year!' says glaciologist Dr Zemp.

The findings were published in the journal Nature.
Hate your job? If you work at IBM or a company equipped with their artificially intelligent employee retention software, your planned two-week's notice may already be old news.

According to a recent panel discussion with IBM's CEO, Ginni Rometty, at a Work Talent and Human Resources Summit in New York, the company's 'predictive attrition' software is now 95 percent accurate in determining when an employee is ready to quit.

Using their predicative software, Rometty says that IBM has been able to preempt employees on the cusp of quitting, bolstering their retention rates, which has reportedly saved them $300 million.

Human resources may need a new name as a host of new software has begun to disrupt jobs and efficiency. Stock image

WHAT IS 'PREDICTIVE ATTRITION' SOFTWARE? Among the many AI-powered tools being developed by IBM for human resources is 'predictive attrition.' The company says its analytical software can crunch data sets and predict which employees may leave the company. From there, IBM says it can preempt an employees departure which saves the expense of training and on-boarding a new employee. IBM's CEO Ginni Rometty says that the software has saved her company $300 million. Advertisement

'The best time to get to an employee is before they go,' said Rometty as reported CNBC.

While the many 'data points' IBM's program uses to predict when employees are most likely to quit are somewhat of a trade secret, a blog post from 2016 describing the use of its Watson Analytics  a smart data program  for the same purpose gives some insight into what may power the tool.

In the post, the company's analytics software takes into account a myriad of factors, the most important of which seems to be overtime hours worked  employees who worked 15 hours of overtime each week are at high-risk of quitting.

Whether employees were compensated fairly for their extra work also play a major role, according to the analysis.

Theoretically, if an employee shows signs that they're ready to leave the company, management or human resources could make overtures in the form of added compensation or other substantive changes in order to prevent the attrition.

According to CNBC, while the software has helped IBM retain employees and make human resources more efficient, it has also helped rid some employees of a job entirely -- specifically, those in human resources.

Rometty said the software has lead to IBM reducing its human resources department by 30 percent globally.

Interdicting employees about to quit isn't the only function of IBM's host of new human resource-based analytics and machine-learning software.

IBM is now capable of judging both present and future performance within a 96 percent accuracy, according to the company. Stock image

The company has also rolled out performance-tracking programs that crunches data on employees' projects, their skills, and weaknesses which they then use to dole out promotions and 'increase efficiency.'

In a more paradigm-shifting twist, the company also uses Watson Analytics to judge not just an employees current performance, but how they might do in the future.

Using its own algorithm, IBM says Watson can predict an employee's future performance with a scary 96 percent accuracy.

For IBM, the use of its human resources software isn't just an internal affair. Analytics programs centered on employee management are also part of its business model. IBM currently sells a suite of tools to other companies that promise greater efficiency and, of course, its hallmark AI-driven prescience.

For the average office worker, even those who aren't yet planning on applying to IBM or the companies that it sells its software too, AI-backed human resources is a matter of fact.

Companies are beginning to cut down their mound of job applications using AI-powered software that selects the 'best' resume based on user input and preference.
Scientists examining potassium have discovered a new state of physical matter where atoms can exist as both solid and liquid at the same time.

The research is said to clear up whether there was a distinct state of matter or the atom structures represented a transition between two stages  whether solid, liquid or gas.

Tests were carried out on the 'simple metal', such as applying high pressures and temperatures, with powerful computer simulations used to study what was known as the chain-melted state.

Scientists examining potassium have discovered a new state of physical matter where atoms can exist as solid and liquid at the same time. The research clears up whether there was a distinct state of matter or the atom structures represented a transition. Artist's impression

Experts from the University of Edinburgh believe more than half a dozen other elements  including sodium and bismuth  are capable of existing in this new state.

It was previously unclear if this structure represented its own distinct state of matter.

By simulating the behavior of roughly 20,000 potassium atoms under extreme conditions, the researchers say theyve confirmed a new, stable state of matter.

Dr Andreas Hermann, of the university's School of Physics and Astronomy, led the study which is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

He said: 'Potassium is one of the simplest metals we know, yet if you squeeze it, it forms very complicated structures.

Experts from the University of Edinburgh believe more than half a dozen other elements are capable of existing in the new state

'We have shown that this unusual but stable state is part solid and par liquid.

'Recreating this unusual state in other materials could have all kinds of applications.'

According to the team, the extreme conditions led to the formation of two interlinked solid lattice structures in the atoms.

These strong chemical interactions allowed the atoms to stay in solid form when heated.

The other atoms melted into a liquid state.

The study was supported by the European Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, and the work was carried out in collaboration with scientists from Xi'an Jiantong University in China.
Facebook's string of recent privacy scandals have made a dent in user trust in the company, a new study has found.

In a survey administered by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal, approximately 60 percent of respondents indicated that they don't trust Facebook with their personal information.

That percentage was greatly higher than the levels of user distrust recorded for rival tech giants like Amazon and Google.

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In a survey administered by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal, approximately 60 percent of respondents indicated that they don't trust Facebook with their personal information

The results come as Facebook has been hit with scandal after scandal over its mismanagement of user data, beginning with the Cambridge Analytica row last March, wherein it revealed some 87 million users' data was harvested and shared with the Trump-affiliated campaign research firm.

For this latest poll, NBC and the Journal surveyed 1,000 adults between March 23rd and 27th.

Six out of ten respondents voiced a lack of trust in Facebook's ability to oversee their private data.

By comparison, about 28 percent don't trust Amazon to protect their sensitive information, while 37 don't trust Google and 35 percent don't trust the federal government.

Additionally, 74 percent of respondents say that social media companies' practice of collecting users' personal data in exchange for free or cheap services is not a fair trade-off, according to the poll.

The overall outlook for social media services was largely negative.

About 57% say they agree with the idea that tech giants like Facebook and Twitter do more to divide the country, compared to 35% who believe they do more to unite the nation

Approximately 57 percent say they agree with the idea that tech giants like Facebook and Twitter do more to divide the country, compared to 35 percent who believe they do more to unite the nation.

And 55 percent say social media platforms do more to spread lies and falsehoods vs. 31 percent who believe it more often spreads news and information.

What's more, 82 percent say social media sites are more likely to waste users' time, compared to 15 percent who say they do more to use Americans' time well.

The negative views about social media transcended political affiliation, gender or geographic location, but younger respondents were more likely to view social media as a uniting force, rather than something that's divisive.

'Social media  and Facebook, in particular  have some serious issues in this poll,' Micah Roberts, a partner at Public Opinion Strategies, which conducted the survey with Hart Research Associates, told NBC News.

'If America was giving social media a Yelp review, a majority would give it zero stars.'

The results weren't all that bad, as 59 of respondents said technology is more beneficial than it is destructive, as it allows for cheaper products and services.

Additionally, some 60 percent of respondents are more hopeful than worried about the effects of continued technological innovation that will arise in the coming years.
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Many of North Americas big cities are paralyzed by gridlocked traffic  and these maps illustrate part of the reason why.

They show the sprawling city transit systems of yesteryear compared to the often stunted versions of 2019. One is left wondering what life would be like in some of these metropolitan areas now if the lines had been kept open, or if the plans laid out had come to fruition.

They have been drawn by New York-based artist Jake Berman. The catalyst for the project, he explained, was being stuck in traffic in Los Angeles and finding himself feeling frustrated at the lack of good mass transit.

So Mr Berman, who was born in San Francisco, set about redrawing old transit system maps, using copies from university collections and public libraries, and modern equivalents using maps put out by each citys respective mass transit authority.

The result is fascinating. Some systems have remained largely intact, while others have been decimated. He said: 'This project is to map the lost subway and streetcar systems of North America. Unlike Western Europe and Japan, which rebuilt their mass transit after World War II, the U.S. and Canada spent three decades tearing out their mass transit and building enormous freeway systems.'

Here we present 22 of the maps Mr Berman has produced, from Los Angeles to Manhattan and Buffalo via Toronto. They are all available for purchase from his website.

Buffalo 1910 vs 2019

 Slide me  In 1910, Buffalo, New York, said Mr Berman, was the 10th-largest city in the United States. Now it's the 81st, behind Chula Vista, California, and Fort Wayne, Indiana. The old map is based on a 1910 book of timetables that he found in the collections of the library of the University of California

Los Angeles 1926 vs 2019

 Slide me  Mr Berman told MailOnline Travel: 'This was the first historical map that I worked on. I was hit with a flash of inspiration while stuck in traffic on the Hollywood Freeway, frustrated with Los Angeles' lack of good mass transit. I worked from source documents that are in the Los Angeles Public Library and the archives of the Los Angeles Metro.' The 1926 system was demolished after World War II

Detroit 1918 plan vs 2019

 Slide me  The Detroit subway plan of 1918 shown here never came to fruition - it failed to pass by one vote, explained Mr Berman. He drew the map shown using an original copy of the plan held in the Columbia University Library in New York City. At the 1920 Census, Detroit had a population of nearly one million people, he pointed out, today it's shrunk to 670,000. 'The one streetcar line existing today is a privately-funded white elephant,' he added

San Francisco 1940 vs 2019

 Slide me  Mr Berman said: 'San Francisco is a bit of an outlier here, as it, virtually alone among American cities, revolted against urban freeways in the 1950s, instead opting to keep much of its prewar streetcar system and overlaying it with a regional subway. The San Francisco Municipal Railway provided me with a copy of their 1940 service guide'

Greater Philadelphia 1974 vs 2019

 Slide me  Mr Berman used the Philadelphia Free Library's 1974 original service guide from its map collection for the historic map on the left. The artist said that the trolley system was dismantled in the 1980s due to 'persistent streetcar shortages'

Manhattan 1939 vs 2019

 Slide me  Mr Berman said: 'The original map I worked off was plotted by George J. Nostrand as an advertisement for the now-defunct Seaman's Bank. At the time, there were three competing subway companies, none of which wanted to show the routes of their competitors'

Dallas 1919 vs 2019

 Slide me  'This map is derived from a pair of period maps that I found in the collections of the (U.S.) Library of Congress, and the Texas General Land Office,' said Mr Berman, 'including routings, timetables and period-correct street names. Dallas is now a sprawling suburban behemoth 50 miles wide and 50 miles long'

Washington, DC 1944 plan vs 2019

 Slide me  This 1944 streetcar scheme never came to fruition. Mr Berman said: 'The region decided to build freeways instead after the Second World War ended. The D.C. Department of Transportation provided me a copy of the plans.' The modern metro system is actually more extensive

Seattle 1997 monorail plan vs 2019

 Slide me  'Seattle built a short demonstration monorail for the 1962 World's Fair, and its citizens voted to expand it to a city-wide mass transit system in 1997,' explained Mr Berman. 'But the Lyle Lanleys of Seattle overpromised and underdelivered. The system's size progressively shrank from 54 miles to 11 miles as construction estimates spiraled, and the whole fiasco was eventually killed eight years later after burning through $120million of public money. The Seattle city archive kindly provided me with a copy of the 1997 plan'

Montreal 1923 vs 2019

 Slide me  The Montreal Tramway Co. was the operator of Montreal's prewar streetcar system. Mr Berman said he found one of its 1923 service guides in McGill University's library. He added: 'In a nod to the modern Metro, both maps use the grey-on-black color scheme of today's system.' The old system was replaced by buses and the modern subway service was modelled on the Paris Metro

Toronto 1932 vs 2019
She decided to go against the advice of her closest friends and family when it came to pursuing Dan Edgar.

But Chloe Sims is left heartbroken after the hunk, 28, backtracks on his suggestion of a first date because he is 'freaked out' by their fledgling romance.

In a preview shown on Sunday night's episode, Chloe, 36, sobs to best pal Pete Wicks as she vents she's 'fed up with his s**t'.

Devastated: Chloe Sims is left heartbroken after Dan Edgar, 28, backtracks on his suggestion of a first date because he is 'freaked out' by their fledgling romance

In the upcoming scenes, Dan's fear of commitment seems to be getting the better of him as he sits Chloe down for a chat.

While he agreed to taking the Essex beauty on a first date last week, having a change of heart, he tells her: 'Listen the date thing did freak me out'.

Hitting back Chloe, who previously gushed she believes Dan could be 'The One' and marriage material, replied: 'Listen I don't want to go on a f***ing first date with you now anyway'.

Freaked out: In the upcoming scenes, Dan's fear of commitment seems to be getting the better of him as he sits Chloe down for a chat

Upset: In a preview shown on Sunday night's episode, Chloe, 36, sobs to best pal Pete Wicks and vents she's 'fed up with his s**t'

Feeling the pressure: He tells her: 'Listen the date thing did freak me out'.

Hurt: Hitting back Chloe, who previously gushed she believes Dan could be 'The One' and marriage material, replied: 'Listen I don't want to go on a first date with you now anyway'

But despite managing to conceal her emotions to Dan, Chloe then cried her eyes out to Pete as she told him: 'I'm so fed up with his s**t'.

Earlier on in the episode, Georgia Kousoulou clashed with Courtney Green, after Courtney meddled into their budding relationship by saying Dan was still in touch with his ex Amber Turner.

During their conversation, Georgia blamed Courtney, who is best friends with Dan's former flame Amber, for rocking the boat as she lays into her.

Georgia began: 'When were hearing your opinion, it just looks bitter on your behalf, because youre not in the friendship group.'

Romantic woes: But despite managing to conceal her emotions to Dan, Chloe was then seen crying her eyes out to Pete as she told him: 'I'm so fed up with his s**t'

Seething with rage, she added: 'And if you carry on, and people carry on with these opinions, its going to f**k it up for them.'

Standing up for herself Courtney responded: 'For me, it is a bit of a shock. Im not saying they shouldnt be together, but youve got to see it from my point of view.

'Its one of my best friends ex-boyfriends so when they move on it does get weird.'

Georgia is not swayed as she reminded Courtney that Amber is 'no longer in the picture' as she does not star in the Essex show.

Disappointment: Chloe has made no secret of the fact she believes Dan could be her knight in shining armour and was thrilled when he asked her out on a first date last week

Courtney then spilled: 'Amber and Dan are still in contact with each other. This is what Im hearing.

'I dont think Dan is good enough for Chloe, thats just my opinion. I dont think hes good enough for his ex.'

Reeling at this revelation, Georgia spouted: 'They aint hurting anyone, let them be. Everyone needs to f**k off, theyre upset. Theyre getting s**t from every angle. They dont need all these f**king opinions that are so irrelevant to their lives.'

Fiery :Earlier on in the episode, Georgia Kousoulou clashed with Courtney Green, after Courtney meddled into their budding relationship

The chat followed on from scenes that aired last weekend that showed Courtney and Diags catching up on Dan and Chloe's unlikely love story.

Diags suggested Dan had gone against the rules by getting close to one of his friend's family members.

He said: 'Our group of boys we just don't get with each others family, it's just a thing that we don't do because it just causes a whole load of agg.'
She's arguably the most controversial bride ever to appear on Married At First Sight.

But during Sunday night's reunion episode, Ines Basic won over fans after she showed off a more vulnerable side.

Twitter erupted after the 29-year-old legal assistant appeared genuinely hurt as she sought answers from her former flame Samuel Ball.

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'Why am I actually feeling bad for her?' Married At First Sight's Ines Basic FINALLY won public support on Sunday night after showing her vulnerable side while confronting Samuel Ball

Ines initially told producers she didn't want to deal with Sam, before later deciding to confront him at the dinner party.

When Sam tried to explain that he ended their affair because he is 'independent', she snapped back: 'I'm independent! No-one pays my f**king bills for me'.

Looking visibly upset, she continued: 'I buy my own f**king Gucci bags. The shoes on my feet, I f**king bought them.'

Seeking closure: Ines initially told producers she didn't want to deal with Sam, before later deciding to confront him at the dinner party

Following her confrontation with Sam, Ines was escorted out of the dinner party by her fellow bride Jessika Power.

'I can't believe this guy,' she said, feeling humiliated.

Later, she confessed: 'I know I have done a lot of things wrong, but I came here genuinely looking for love. It is really hard.'

Settling scores: Twitter erupted after the 29-year-old legal assistant appeared genuinely hurt as she sought answers from her former flame

Many MAFS fans who previously disliked Ines revealed on Twitter that her emotional display at the dinner party changed their opinion of her.

One person wrote, 'Someone stop me from feeling bad for Ines,' while another added: 'Am I... feeling bad for... INES?'

Ines, who fled Bosnia as a child and lived in refugee camps throughout Eastern Europe before arriving in Australia, was originally paired with Bronson Norrish on Married At First Sight.

But she soon established herself as a 'villain' after subjecting her husband to relentless verbal abuse during their honeymoon.

'Why am I feeling bad?': Many MAFS fans who previously disliked Ines revealed on Twitter that her emotional display at the dinner party changed their opinion of her

Later, Ines became even more hated when she cheated on Bronson with part-time actor Sam, who was still married to Elizabeth Sobinoff at the time.

But their affair ended in tears after Sam got cold feet and told Ines he didn't see a future with her, despite making promises they would be together.

Married At First Sight continues Monday at 7:30pm on Channel Nine
She recently endured a painful split with her Married At First Sight TV 'husband' Mike Gunner.

But that hasn't derailed Heidi Latcham's plans to start a family.

According to NW magazine, the 38-year-old radio host is considering having a baby on her own.

'She will make a fantastic mum': Married At First Sight's Heidi Latcham 'to start a family on her own' following her split with Mike Gunner

A source told the publication that while she was hoping that Mike would be 'the one' she was going to have children with, the curly-haired blonde may brave motherhood alone.

'She really did think he'd (the father of her child) be Mike. But at the end of the day Heidi just wants to be a mum, and if she has to go it alone as a single parent then so be it,' a source told the publication.

'Heidi will make a fantastic mum. And any child would be lucky to have her as a parent. She's be so fun.'

Going it alone: A source told the publication that while she was hoping that Mike would be 'the one' she was going to have children with, the curly-haired blonde may brave motherhood alone

Clucky: Heidi is seem marveling over her friend's baby bump several years ago in this Instagram photo

Heidi admitted to the magazine that while they were in a relationship, she and Mike often discussed having a baby, but things didn't go to plan.

'I wanted to start a family (with Mike), definitely. I also talked about having kids with a few of my ex-boyfriends. We would say, "Oh, you know I want this many kids"... but it never happened,' she explained.

'It was painful and I missed her': Meanwhile, Mike recently broke his silence on his split from Heidi, revealing that they broke up three weeks after she moved in with him

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Heidi for comment.

Meanwhile, Mike recently broke his silence on his split from Heidi, revealing that they broke up three weeks after she moved in with him.

The Married At First Sight star, 44, claimed he 'couldn't make Heidi happy' when they lived under the same roof on the Gold Coast.

The electrician added that their break-up was 'painful' and that he missed Heidi after they parted ways.

'I did miss Heidi for quite a while. It was a painful breakup for me, they always are,' he told 9Honey.

'I imagined that the freedom and independence we both lacked in the experiment would make our lives easier.

'I simply couldn't make Heidi happy and at this point we decided that we would be better to leave it there and remain friends. It was a difficult period for us both.'

During Sunday's finale reunion episode, Heidi confirmed that she and Mike had split.

The pair arrived at the reunion separately and avoided one another throughout the dinner.

It's over: Mike said: 'I imagined that the freedom and independence we both lacked in the experiment would make our lives easier. 'I simply couldn't make Heidi happy'

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.'
Married At First Sight groom Mike Gunner has revealed he is 'off the market' following his split with TV 'wife' Heidi Latcham.

The couple broke up three weeks after she moved in with the 44-year-old electrician, and Mike says he is now trying his best to heal his broken heart.

Speaking to Goulburn Valley's Hit 96.9 Josiah & Elly Show, he said he was taking some time out of the dating game.

'Off the market': MAFS star Mike Gunner, 44, (pictured) has revealed he is no longer available while speaking about his love life to Hit 96.9 Josiah & Elly Show on Monday

'After last night I just want to lick my wounds for a bit,' Mike said, appearing emotional after watching the reunion special.

He went on to say that he wanted to 're-group' following his relationship with Heidi, which he characterised as being full of 'silly fights.'

Mike added that it would be unfair to put 'anyone else' through a relationship if he wasn't ready for it while dealing with his feelings.

'I'm not on the market to be honest with you at this point,' he said.

Healing: Speaking to Goulburn Valley's Hit 96.9 Josiah & Elly Show , he said he was taking some time out of the dating game

Mike has previously been linked to aspiring model Casey Stewart, 26, who is the daughter of Gina Stewart, otherwise known as the 'World's Hottest Grandma.'

Given his rise to the spotlight, Mike lamented that it would be difficult to date given the amount of interest in his private life.

'Anytime I go out for a coffee with anyone, I will have paps around wanting to know who it is,' he claimed.

'But I'm definitely going to remain a single man until I'm good and ready.'

Elsewhere, Mike spoke about his relationship with former 'wife' Heidi, confirming the couple broke it off after her 'move' to the Gold Coast.

The globe-trotting lothario went on to describe his relationship with the radio announcer as 'frosty.'

'I wish I could tell you that it wasn't. But unfortunately it is, so I have to be honest about that,' Mike said, sounding forlorn.

'We don't have a lot to say to each other anymore. It's really sad.'

On or off? Mike has previously been linked to aspiring model Casey Stewart, 26, who is the daughter of Gina Stewart, otherwise known as the 'World's Hottest Grandma
She recently denied she was expecting her first child with her fiance, Cameron Merchant.

But Married At First Sight star Jules Robinson did little to quell the speculation on Monday morning when she was seen clutching her tummy.

The beauty, 36, patted her midsection her she made her way into the Channel Nine's studios in Willoughby, Sydney, for an appearance on the Today show.

Fueling the rumour mill! MAFS' Jules Robinson clutched her tummy while out with fiance Cameron Merchant in Sydney on Monday morning, following pregnancy speculation

Ahead of her breakfast TV interview, Jules arrived makeup free.

Dressed in a knee length floral frock and wedged heels, the reality TV personality showcased her signature chic style.

A casual Cameron sported cargo shorts and thongs while carrying a small suitcase containing his smarter clothes for the live interview.

What's going on here? The beauty, 36, patted her midsection her she made her way into the Channel Nine's studios in Willoughby, Sydney, ahead of an appearance on the Today show

Jules and Cameron, who got engaged on the show during their final vow ceremony, have faced pregnancy rumours throughout the series.

After a magazine claimed she was expecting in February, Jules told Nova's Fitzy & Wippa: 'No, no. I wished, but no'.

As fans continued to speculate, Jules told E! News in March that most of the theories come from the fact she has put on weight in recent months.

Natural beauty: Ahead of her breakfast TV interview, Jules arrived makeup free

Casual Cam: A casual Cameron sported cargo shorts and thongs while carrying a small suitcase containing his smarter clothes for the live interview

'There's been a few photos of me,' said Jules. 'I think when you move in with someone, gone are the single life dinners of Ryvitas, and tomato on toast!'

Despite this, during an interview with Who magazine last week, the couple continued to discuss their plan to have children.

'I'm hoping I have twins to get it done in one day,' said Jules, when asked if they'd like to have a 'big family' together.

On Sunday, Jules and Cameron announced their engagement to their co-stars at the final party, revealing their plans to marry on their one-year anniversary of meeting.
The ITV soap has never shied away from hard-hitting storylines.

And Emmerdale is set to get even darker as Victoria Barton is reportedly set to be raped during a night out.

The character, played by Isabel Hodgins, 25, will be brutally attacked after heading to town with her pals on a dangerous night which also sees paedophile Maya Stepney finally exposed and one character shockingly stabbed.

Shock attack: Emmerdale is set to get even darker as Victoria Barton, played by Isabel Hodgins, 25, (above) is reportedly set to be raped during a night out

A source revealed to The Sun: 'Theyve got a gritty storyline around a big night out where loads of the ladies go clubbing.

'Paedo Maya will finally be outed. But the bombshell is Victoria will get raped in a horror twist that will send her down a dark path.'

Victoria has had her fair share of heartache of late, having recently split up with boyfriend Ellis Chapman - who was also present on the night out.

Last year she was left devastated when husband Adam Barton went on the run after confessing to the murder of Emma Barton - with Victoria recently learning that the real culprit was in fact Adam's mum Moira Dingle.

Dark twist: The character will be brutally attacked after heading to town with her pals on a dangerous night out

Tough time: Victoria has had her fair share of heartache of late, having recently split up with boyfriend Ellis Chapman - who was also present on the night out

So far it hasn't been revealed who Victoria's attacker is, but one thing's for sure, things won't be easy for her in the aftermath of the ordeal, with the chef looking set to go down a dark path.

Meanwhile, fans will no doubt be thrilled that the sickening storyline between teacher Maya and pupil Jacob Gallagher will finally be coming to an end.

For months viewers have watched as Maya has slowly groomed partner David Metcalfe's teenage stepson, with the two recently stepping things up by taking their romance to a sexual level.

And while David has so far remained oblivious to what's been going on under his own nose, there will soon be firework's as Maya's devious deeds are finally revealed.

Downward spiral: So far it hasn't been revealed who Victoria's attacker is, but things won't be easy for her in the aftermath of the ordeal, with the chef looking set to go down a dark path

Caught out? Meanwhile, fans will no doubt be thrilled that the sickening storyline between teacher Maya and pupil Jacob Gallagher will finally be coming to an end

The TV insider further added to the publication: 'The night also sees a stabbing. There will be blood and violence to grip the Dales as they go dark to compete with their soap rivals.'

The unlucky character has so far remained a mystery and their fate is unknown - will there be another death in the village?

The gritty plot comes on the back of former Emmerdale series producer Kate Oates' move from Coronation Street to rival soap EastEnders.

Busted: While David has so far remained oblivious to what's been going on under his own nose, there will soon be firework's as Maya's devious deeds are finally revealed

Kate has won critical acclaim in her positions on both ITV soaps, with the producer known for her gripping and hard-hitting storylines.

The source added: 'With Kate at EastEnders, Emmerdale producers are worried that shes going to take over the soap crown.'

MailOnline have contacted Emmerdale representatives for comment.

Emmerdale airs weekdays at 7pm on ITV.
Queen + Adam Lambert have announced a stadium tour of Australia in February 2020, following the blockbuster success of Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.

Original band members Brian May and Roger Taylor will be accompanied on stage by longtime collaborator Adam Lambert, who has replaced the late Freddie on vocals.

'We are ready for Australia and raring to get back with our new show,' Roger, 69, said in an official statement on Monday.

Coming next year! Queen + Adam Lambert has announced a stadium tour of Australia in February 2020, following the blockbuster success of Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. Pictured (left to right): Adam Lambert, Roger Taylor and Brian May

The Rhapsody Tour will begin on Thursday 13 February at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium, followed by a show on Saturday 15 February at Sydney's ANZ Stadium.

The group will then travel to Melbourne for a concert on Wednesday 19 February at AAMI Park, followed by a performance at Perth's Optus Stadium on Sunday 23 February.

Adelaide Oval will host the band on Wednesday 26 February, before they wrap up their six-date tour at Metricon Stadium on the Gold Coast on Saturday 29 February.

'Watch out, Australia!' Founding band member and lead guitarist Brian May (left) told fans on Monday to expect something 'ambitious'

The Rhapsody Tour - Australian dates

Thursday 13 February - Brisbane - Suncorp Stadium Saturday 15 February - Sydney - ANZ Stadium Wednesday 19 February - Melbourne - AAMI Park Sunday 23 February - Perth - Optus Stadium Wednesday 26 February - Adelaide - Adelaide Oval Saturday 29 February - Gold Coast - Metricon Stadium Advertisement

The Australian shows are expected to be part of a wider tour incorporating several dates across East Asia.

Founding band member and lead guitarist Brian, 71, told fans on Monday to expect something 'ambitious'.

'This is a great opportunity,' he said. 'Our last tour featured our most ambitious production ever and got us our best notices ever. So we decided to rip it apart and get even more ambitious. Watch out Australia!'

Adam, 37, added: 'We have a brand new visual spectacle that will re-frame these iconic songs and we are excited to reveal the show to Australian fans.'

Queen first collaborated with Adam during the 2009 finale of American Idol.

They have since performed 180 concerts together under the official name Queen + Adam Lambert.

The Rhapsody Tour will also feature Spike Edney on keyboard, Neil Fairclough on bass guitar and Tyler Warren on percussion.

Tickets go on sale Monday April 15 at 10.30am AEST at Ticketek.com.au, with a Telstra Thanks pre-sale commencing on Wednesday April 10
Kanye West's church has been in full swing since the start of the year.

And now, four months in, the gatherings are becoming increasingly exciting as North West, 5, grabbed a mic to lend her vocals to the worship on Sunday in Los Angeles.

As she sang and danced, her dad, 41, also paid tribute to late icon, Nipsey Hussle, during the service.

Budding star:as North West, 5, grabbed a mic to lend her vocals to Kanye West's Sunday church service in Los Angeles

While every facet of Kanye's innovative spiritual gathering is electrifying, the icing on the cake was watching as him and 38-year-old Kim Kardashian's young daughter stole the show.

The toddler proved fashion sense runs in the family as she wore a bright orange, silk Kimono style pant and top set.

North rocked sneakers that were white as snow with her bright ensemble.

And keeping her hair off her face in the heat, the little girl wore her locks pulled up into two top knots on either side of her head.

Already showing off the talent her father has passed on to her, North grabbed a microphone and stood front and center as the choir sang behind her.

She belted out the lyrics to Stevie Wonders hit, As, with her Grammy award winning dad letting loose behind her.

A star is born: She belted out the lyrics to Stevie Wonders hit, As, with her Grammy award winning dad letting loose behind her

As the band performed an epic beat, Kim's eldest daughter moved her mic up closer to the audience to give them an even better show.

Getting bold with it, she eventually ripped the handheld part of the device off the stand and really got into the groove of things.

Kim proudly boasted about her rising star on Instagram with a video of the action.

Clearly amused by her daughter's need for attention, Kim captioned her clip saying, 'Look at her moving to the front,' accompanied by a laughing face emoji.

While North let her diva spirit free, Kanye slowed things down a bit at one point to honor the late Nipsey Hussle.

Switching to audio of Nipsey's voice speaking words of encouragement to anyone listening, the church attendees paid tribute to the icon who was murdered exactly one week ago at the age of 33.

Blaring over the speaker, which Kanye was DJing, Hussle's voice rang out saying, 'You all stay focused, work hard, believe in yourselves.'

Making an appearance: At the star studded worship experience were numerous stars, including Jaden Smith, 20, and big wig music producer, Rick Rubin, 56

At the star studded worship experience were numerous stars, including Jaden Smith, 20, and big wig music producer, Rick Rubin, 56.

Kanye and the two famous names in the music industry went out for lunch after the Sunday set.

Decked out in all white with tan sneakers, Kanye was dressed in the standard minimalist uniform he's chosen for his congregation.

Each week, performers in the church wear muted tones of white, grey or tan, often paired with beanies.

Jaden on the other hand, wore a black t-shirt and silver chain as Rubin was casual in a plain white shirt and black pants.

Style: Jaden on the other hand, wore a black t-shirt and silver chain as Rubin was casual in a plain white shirt and black pants

Monochromatic: Decked out in all white with tan sneakers, Kanye was dressed in the uniform he's chosen for his congregation

According to Kim her husband's new creation is more of a 'healing experience' than a religious ceremony.

Kim said the musical service is intended to be therapeutic for the participants, rather than 'preaching' about religion.

Talking with Elle magazine about the most star studded church gathering ever created, the mother of three said: 'Its honestly more like a healing experience for my husband. Its just music; theres no sermon.'

'Its definitely something he believes in - Jesus - and theres a Christian vibe. But theres no preaching. Its just a very spiritual Christian experience,' the reality star said.

Kim and Kanye share daughter, Chicago, 1, and son, Saint, 3, together and are expecting their fourth bundle of joy via surrogate soon.
Line of Duty

Rating:

Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins for Stand Up To Cancer

Rating:

There are times when Line Of Duty (BBC1) is not so much a police thriller, more a can of alphabetti spaghetti upended on toast.

Even before the summary of last weeks events was over, viewers were bombarded with the hijack of ED-905 and a mopi-C-1601 redacting info on a UCO embedded in an OCG.

Thankfully, Ted Hastings, the lovable Superintendent played by unlikely heart-throb Adrian Dunbar, marched into the office of the DCC (Deputy Chief Constable) and explained all about the Under Cover Officer, the Organised Criminal Gang and the stolen heroin shipment.

Ted Hastings, the lovable Superintendent played by unlikely heart-throb Adrian Dunbar, explains all in Line of Duty

As for the mopi-C-1601 . . . look, it doesnt matter. Gaffer Hastings understands and thats what counts. Of LODs eight million viewers, over half werent concentrating on the swirling initials anyway.

They were going all melty at Teds Northern Irish growl. If the Reverend Ian Paisley had been a roguish ladies man, thats how he might have sounded.

Most of this episode of writer Jed Mercurios splendidly mind-bending serial was taken up with explanations.

Coppers Steve and Kate (Martin Compston and Vicky McClure) called an office meeting to spell out The Story So Far.

Then the chief villain (Stephen Graham) kidnapped Steve at gunpoint and handcuffed him inside his car, in order to explain that he was actually one of the good guys.

Hes a UCO (remember those?) battling to unmask a corrupt cop so important he only has one initial . . . H. Without anything being said, all the camerawork encourages us to suspect Hastings is H.

Vicky McClure, who plays Kate in the splendidly mind-bending series, spells out the story in the most recent installment

We glimpse him listening at doors left ajar, and watching through Venetian blinds. Of course, its a bluff. Nothing in a Mercurio drama is that simple. Unless its a double bluff . . . and were meant to discount the most obvious solution.

Skinny-dip of the weekend Her Maj (Jenna Coleman) was togged out in a neck-to-knees cossie for her swim in Victoria (ITV). Not so hunky footman Joseph, whose clothes just fell off, Kenny Everett style . . . all done in the best possible taste! Advertisement

As if that wasnt confusing enough, it turns out Maneet the disgraced policewoman (left bleeding to death with her throat cut at the end of episode one) was on a private crusade to expose the gang by herself.

Hilton, the ACC (Assistant Chief Constable) who killed himself in a previous series, was probably murdered  and please dont go muddling your ACC with your AC, because that stands for Anti Corruption.

Small wonder that Steve no longer appears to trust Kate. My advice is, dont believe anyone who claims to know whats going on. All I can be sure of is that its a BAFTA  Brilliant Acting, Forget The Acronyms.

Line Of Dutys trademark interviews are childs play compared with the brutal interrogations meted out on Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins (C4). Loose Women star Andrea McLean was dragged into a dungeon with a hood over her head, to have three shaven-headed instructors scream in her face and demand to know why she looked so anxious.

Loose Women star Andrea McLean, 49, was the oldest of the celebs in Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins for Stand Up To Cancer

Andrea, 49, was the oldest of the 12 celebs who signed up to a special forces training camp in the Chilean Andes. She didnt mind the brutal parade-ground work-outs or being pushed out of a helicopter into an icy lake, but she really didnt like it when the boys raised their voices.

Former MP Louise Mensch had no problem with the shouting. Shes accustomed to the bellows of loud-mouth Commons Speaker John Bercow, after all.

Louise was injured in the copter jump, and had to quit . . . but not before she managed the most magnificent name-drop, citing as her inspiration Arnold Schwarzenegger, who in later life has become a friend of mine.

Its all for Stand Up To Cancer, so well forgive her.
She vowed to lead a healthier lifestyle by saying goodbye to alcohol.

And Kate Moss appears to be reaping the rewards of a sober lifestyle as she emerged radiating beauty the morning after Marc Jacobs' wedding in New York City on Sunday.

The 45-year-old fashion model illustrated her age-defying looks and svelte figure as she stepped out in a chic black ensemble.

Healthy: Kate Moss, 45, emerged radiating beauty the morning after Marc Jacobs' wedding in New York City on Sunday

Kate glided along the Manhattan pavement in a black silk shirt that featured a faint animal print and a pair of bootleg trousers.

The British native oozed sophistication as she strutted her stuff in black heeled boots and carried a small leather bag.

The blonde continued her stylish show by donning over sized black shades which she used to push her tresses out of her face to greet and wave at fans.

Icon: The sober fashion model illustrated that her looks are age-defying and figure is still svelte as she stepped out in a chic black ensemble

Looking fresh-faced, the mother-of-one appeared to go make-up free after being glammed-up to the nines the night before.

The iconic model's stepping out comes after she and her daughter Lila Grace Moss Hack, 16, attended designer Marc Jacobs' star-studded wedding to Char Defrancesco in the Big Apple on Saturday.

The runway star donned a burgundy coloured full-length dress for the occasion, which featured bold silk panels on either side of her shoulders.

Model behavior: Kate glided along the Manhattan pavement in a black silk shirt that featured a faint animal print and a pair of bootleg trousers

Following in her mother's fashion footsteps, Lila donned a metallic gold strapless mini dress, which featured sash detailing.

After Marc tied the knot, the Moss' attended a black tie reception at the swanky Manhattan eatery The Grill where a host of stars joined them including Gigi and Bella Hadid, Naomi Campbell and Emily Ratajkowski.

Kate is said to have marked a year of being teetotal in September after deciding to overhaul her life and focus on her health following the premature deaths of some of her closest friends.

A source told The Sun on Sunday: 'Kate is like a new woman and a much better version of herself. She is focused, professional and glowing with health.'

Striking: Looking fresh-faced, the mother-of-one appeared to go make-up free after being glammed-up to the nines the night before

These boots are made for walking: The British native oozed sophistication as she strutted her stuff in black heeled boots and carried a small leather bag

They added of her success: 'Everyone is amazed at how well she has done in not drinking for a whole year, considering what she used to be like.

'But she has found it easier as time has gone on  and when you see her she is actually more chatty and confident as she doesnt have that fake confidence that drinking gives you.'

Kate has been in the modelling game for 30 years after she was scouted by a talent spotter at JFK airport, in New York City just aged 14.

Big night out: On Saturday the model and her daughter Lila Grace Moss Hack, 16, attended designer Marc Jacobs' star-studded wedding to Char Defrancesco

Purple perfection: The runway star donned a burgundy coloured full-length dress for the occasion, which featured bold silk panels on either side of her shoulders

And while she always looks fantastic, the catwalk stunner confessed she still gets 'jitters' when she struts her stuff on the runway all these years later.

'I still get nervous when I walk on set,' she told LOVE magazine in January. Kate elaborated: 'I still kind of think, "OMG I don't know what I'm thinking", then I get on set, then one pic is done, then I know what I'm doing.

'It's more about figuring who the character is that I'm playing or who I'm going to play that day. Figuring out who that is, then I'm OK.'
Married At First Sight's Tamara Joy confronted Jessika Power and Daniel Webb over their affair during Sunday night's reunion episode - but the scene never aired on TV.

A furious Tamara, 30, stormed over to the couple and demanded answers, but for some reason footage of their argument was left on the cutting room floor.

Only a glimpse of their confrontation was shown, perhaps accidentally, when the three of them could be seen arguing in the background as Cyrell Paule spoke to Michael Brunelli at the dinner table.

Lost footage: Married At First Sight's Tamara Joy (pictured) confronted Jessika Power and Dan Webb over their affair during Sunday's reunion episode - but the scene never aired on TV

They appeared on screen for just a split second, and it's the only evidence available that Tamara did at least try to confront Jessika and Dan at the dinner party.

Why producers decided to edit out this tense argument remains a mystery.

Interestingly, earlier in the episode, Cyrell told Tamara that 'out of all the females here, [she] should be the angriest' at Jessika.

This would suggest that Tamara's unaired argument with Jessika and Dan hadn't happened yet, or Cyrell was not aware of it.

Edited out! Only a glimpse of the confrontation was shown, perhaps accidentally, when the trio could be seen arguing in the background as Cyrell Paule spoke to Michael Brunelli at the table

Later on during the dinner party, Tamara was spotted in the background happily sitting between Jessika and Dan as if nothing was wrong.

A source told Daily Mail Australia that producers may have decided to cut the scene between Tamara, Jessika and Dan after it failed to live up to expectations.

'Producers had high hopes for a huge clash, but in reality, they got the complete opposite,' said the insider.

'Tamara did approach Jess and Dan to discuss their affair with some anger and resentment, but after a couple of minutes she forgave them and wished them well.

'She said she didn't want any hostility and was happy to see them happy. Her main issue was that they didn't tell her about the affair earlier, which they apologised for.'

All's well that ends well! Later on during the dinner party, Tamara was seen in the background happily sitting between Jessika and Dan as if nothing was wrong

The source added that the scene may also have been cut because it portrayed Jessika in a positive light.

'She was really apologetic which didn't match the "villain" edit Tara [McWilliams, MAFS' executive producer] wanted for her,' they said.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Channel Nine for comment.

Married At First Sight continues Monday at 7:30pm on Channel Nine
Better late than never.

After some worrisome moments, an apologetic Cardi B made her grand arrival at the yearly beauty festival, Beautycon, in New York City four hours late on Sunday.

And the superstar rapper did not skimp when it came to making a bold fashion statement, dressed in a full-length fur ensemble.

The event came just hours after the 26-year old hit back at a fan who called her out for not being a better role model.

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Bold: Cardi B commended attention at Beautycon NYC in a full length fur ensemble on Sunday

The in-demand star's appearance at Beautycon got delayed due to her late night performance at the grand opening of Kaos Dayclub & Nightclub at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas On Saturday.

After a morning hustle from Sin City to New York, Cardi was greeted by some tense fans who were eagerly waiting for her to take the stage.

But still, she did not disappoint, dressed in her white and orange-brown shaded fur outfit that came complete with an embedded light brown blazer.

Keeping with her eye-catching style, she wore a white oversized floppy hat over her long straight black tresses and a pair of gold pumps.

My bad: After a four hour delay, the rapper hit the stage at the yearly beauty festival

Personal style: The fashion risk taker's outfit included an embedded light brown blazer

added touch: The I like It hitmaker also wore a white floppy hat over her long raven tresses

So sorry: The superstar apologized for hitting the stage four hours late and blamed the delay on being overbooked this weekend

Giving back: Cardi offered fans who waited for her to arrive a free gift by going to support@beautycon.com

The Bodak Yellow hitmaker commanded attention both on the red carpet and on stage, which included a special appearance by her sister, Hennessy Carolina, and moderator Moj Mahdara.

Sensing some tension for her tardiness, the typically bold-speaking star couldn't have been more apologetic.

She even took to her Instagram to offer a free gift for those who waited to see her.

'Hey guys I had such a great time at Beautycon,' she said in a video. 'Sorry for me being late I didn't realize I was overbooked. It was crazy, from getting to Vegas to over here [New York].'

She and a representative then offered fans to go at support@beautycon.com for a free gift.

Reality world: Cardi first came to prominence as a regular castmember of Love & Hip Hop

Making her mark: The rapper had her breakthrough in music when several of her posts and videos went viral

Sisterly love: Cardi's sister Hennessey Carolina (right) was a special guest for the event

While traveling from Las Vegas, Cardi struck a more stern tone when she responded to a fan on Twitter that called her out for some of the things she posts on social media.

'I love you ALOT but I don't agree with the messages you've been sending us young girls,' the fan tweeted. 'So many of us look at you as a role model and that should send a very loud message.'

Cardi not only explained herself but went a step further and said she has to stay true to herself.

'For these past two years I been watching what I say and I haven't been myself. I been feeling trap and sad cause it's not ME.'

She added: 'But everybody tell me  to be this rolemodel and guess what ? People still spit my past right in my face so for now imma be my old self again.'

Many of Cardi's followers have since come to the defense of the I Like It rapper.

Strike a pose: The bold rapper let fans and photographers know that she had arrived

Getting real: The Bodak Yellow hitmaker hit back at a fan who criticized her for not being a better role model with her social media posts

If the day wasn't busy enough for Cardi, she also took to social media to point out the resemblance her eight-month old daughter, Kulture, has to her younger sister, Hennessey Carolina.

Bro this is weird. i gave birth to another Hennessy @hennessycarolina,' she wrote in the caption of a side-bys-de snap of the two at the same age.

Cardi shares her daughter with husband Offset, who is best known for his work in the hip-hop and trap music trio Migos.
It's been over 20 years since they first paired up in the international buddy cop comedy Rush Hour.

Now Chris Tucker is hinting that he and Jackie Chan are on board for a fourth installment in the series.

The 47-year-old comedian posted an Instagram photo referring to the possible film shortly after wishing the action superstar a happy 65th birthday on Sunday.

Rush Hour 4? Chris Tucker, 47, is hinting that he and Jackie Chan, 65, are on board for a fourth installment in the series after a photo of the two raising four fingers

Chris shared a picture to Instagram of Jackie Chan and himself embracing while each putting up four fingers.

The picture was accompanied by a confusingly worded caption: 'Oh I know I dont think Im seeing what Im seeing what Im thinkin.'

Though the Friday star didn't specify when the photo was taken, it looked to be of a recent vintage.

Best buds: Shortly before hinting at the possible collaboration, he shared another photo of the Police Story actor and himself for Jackie's 65th birthday

Shortly before hinting at the possible collaboration, he shared another photo of the Police Story actor and himself.

'Today is Jackie's birthday,' wrote. 'I want to wish my boy Jackie Chan a Happy Birthday!!'

Jackie was born in 1954 in Hong Kong, at the time a United Kingdom Overseas Territory.

His last widely-released film in the US was The Foreigner, a political revenge thriller that saw him showing off the stunt work that first made him a star.

Happy B-day! 'Today is Jackie's birthday,' wrote. 'I want to wish my boy Jackie Chan a Happy Birthday!!'; pictured on March 10 in Beijing, China

Jackie and Chris played Chief Inspector Lee and Detective James Carter, respectively, in the Rush Hour series.

Rush Hour 2 was released in 2001 and Rush Hour 3 followed in 2007.

In January, while speaking on the Winging It podcast with Vince Carter and Kent Bazemore, he clarified a bit about the early status of the new sequel.

'Its not in pre-production,' he explained. 'We're working on a few things [for] the script. Jackie wants to do it. I want to do it. The studio wants to do it.'

'Were trying to get it together. It looks like its getting together right,' he added.

Closer than ever: In 2017, Chris said Rush Hour 4 isn't in pre-production yet, but a script was being tinkered with; pictured March 23 in Phoenix, Arizona

Jackie has been promising a sequel go back to 2017, when he spoke with the radio station Power 106 Los Angeles.

'[Its coming] next year,' he said at the time. 'For the last seven years, weve been turning down the script, turning down the script. Yesterday, we just agreed.'

He added that his co-star would need to agree, which he definitely does now.

'Its about [having] time to make it,' clarified the Drunken Master star. 'Otherwise, Rush Hour 4, were all old men. I tell Chris Tucker, Before we get old, please do Rush Hour 4.'

Looks like they're closer than ever.
She's expecting her first child with her Bachelor beau Matty 'J' Johnson in just nine weeks.

And glowing Laura Byrne is looking sensational.

Sharing a gorgeous photo of her burgeoning bump to Instagram, the 32-year-old reality star jokingly captioned the image, '31 weeks and a complimentary boob job'.

'Complimentary boob job': Pregnant Bachelor star Laura Byrne showed off her bare baby bump in a low-cut top on Monday and joked about her growing bust

She also shared a series of photos demonstrating that despite the saying 'pictures don't lie', they don't necessarily tell the whole story either.

The jewellery designer added three photos to her Instagram story, two of which showed her with her sheer black top down over her belly, with the words 'Instagram..... It's all about those angles'.

In the final image she lifted her top to reveal her bare bump, which she captioned simply with the word 'Mate!'

Instagram Vs reality: She also shared a series of photos demonstrating that despite the saying 'pictures don't lie', they don't necessarily tell the whole story either

Popping out to say hi! In the final image she lifted her top to reveal her bare bump, which she captioned simply with the word 'Mate!'

The Bachelor lovebirds celebrated the upcoming arrival with a baby shower held at Watsons Bay Boutique Hotel in Sydney last week.

Showing off stunning pregnancy figure in lavender dress from Bec + Bridge, Laura couldn't wipe the smile off her face as she celebrated with family and friends.

The loved-up pair, who have been together for two years since the 2017 series, also packed on the PDAs during the extravagant event.

At one point Matty was seen leaning in to kiss his girlfriend on the balcony of the harbourside venue.

Sealed with a kiss: Laura and Matty J packed on the PDA at their extravagant pastel-hued baby shower held at Watsons Bay Boutique Hotel in Sydney earlier this month

The couple have yet to find out the sex of their bundle of joy, so opted for baby blue, soft pink, violet and mint green decorations.

Laura posted several snaps of the pastel-hued party on Instagram.

'Ohhhh BABY!!! Yesterday we celebrated Baby Johnson with all the family, friends and pastel we could muster. Im so full to the brim of love and completely off my tits on sugar,' she gushed.

'We cant wait to meet this little human we have made. It still completely blows my mind that we have no idea if we are Mum and Dad to a little girl or boy - 10 WEEKS TO GO!! To all our family and friends who made yesterday so very special, we love you!!'

With a little help from their friends: The loved-up couple were joined by a slew of their family and friends at the chic Sydney soiree

She also joked about all of her friends becoming babysitters for the couple's bub.

'(Please keep an eye on the mail as we will be sending out your baby sitting roster shortly),' she added.

Meanwhile, the couple recently sparked speculation that they are engaged.

And they fuelled rumours by receiving a dance lesson from Dancing With The Stars judge, Tristan MacManus.

'Im so full to the brim of love': The couple, who have yet to find out the sex of their bundle of joy, opted for baby blue, soft pink, violet and mint green decorations at the baby shower

While some fans speculated that the pair were rehearsing for their rumoured wedding, the lesson was actually for an upcoming dance-off between Matty and his Nova 96.9 co-host Matt de Groot.

Matty J and Laura have a close relationship with Matt, with the couple attending the radio host's wedding to journalist Bronte Coy in the Kangaroo Valley recently.
Her 38th birthday is only days away, but Alessandra Ambrosio decided to celebrate early with friends.

The former Victoria's Secret Angel partied on a beach in Malibu with her friends.

She showed off some PDA with her boyfriend Nicolo Oddi.

Ageless: Alessandra Ambrosio decided to celebrate her 38th birthday early on a beach in Malibu with her boyfriend Nicolo Oddi and friends

The 5ft9in model showed off a busty birthday display with her beige bikini top.

She covered up on the breezy day with a cream-colored jacket with tropical scenes stitched into it and red and white fringe.

Her long toned legs and taut tummy were highlighted by her cut-off jean shorts.

Alessandra's brunette tresses were stylishly messy, and she let them hang loose in the wind.

Showing off: The 5ft9in model showed off a busty birthday display with her beige bikini top

Bundled up: She covered up on the breezy day with a cream-colored jacket with tropical scenes stitched into it and red and white fringe

Legs for days: Her long toned legs and taut tummy were highlighted by her cut-off jean shorts

Flaunting it: Alessandra's brunette tresses were stylishly messy, and she let them hang loose in the wind

The Brazilian beauty spent plenty of time with her fashion designer boyfriend Nicolo.

The two cozied up away from the rest of the crowd and embraced.

They kissed as Alessandra tenderly touched his face.

The super model and Nicolo were confirmed as a couple in the summer of 2018.

He's the founder and CEO of Alanui, a Milan-based label specializing in knit wear. He created the brand in 2016 with his sister, Carlotta Oddi.

The Ralph Lauren model and Nicolo were first spotted cuddling at the HQ2 Nightclub in July 2018 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, according to Page Six.

'The two were very affectionate with each other, kissing and, when she wasn't dancing, they had their arms around each other,' a source told the site at the time.

Two lovers: The Brazilian beauty spent plenty of time with her fashion designer boyfriend Nicolo

By themselves: The two cozied up away from the rest of the crowd and embraced

Romantic: They kissed as Alessandra tenderly touched his face

New couple: The super model and Nicolo were confirmed as a couple in the summer of 2018

Fashion friendly: He's the founder and CEO of Alanui, a Milan-based label specializing in knit wear which he started in 2016

Also present at the festive outing was Alessandra's former fiance Jamie Mazur, the founder of RE/DONE jeans.

The two were engaged from 2008 until their split, which was first reported by Us Weekly in March 2018.

They seem to have split amicably, though, since he showed up to celebrate her birthday.

The former lovers shares two children, 10-year-old Anja and six-year-old Phoenix.

Alessandra and Nicolo were reportedly dating as early as August, just five months after the split was made public.

Public sighting: The Ralph Lauren model and Nicolo were first spotted cuddling at the HQ2 Nightclub in July 2018 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, according to Page Six

Warming up: 'The two were very affectionate with each other, kissing and, when she wasn't dancing, they had their arms around each other,' a source told the site at the time

Masture relations: Also present at the festive outing was Alessandra's former fiance Jamie Mazur, the founder of RE/DONE jeans

Long engagement: The two were engaged from 2008 until their split, which was first reported by Us Weekly in March 2018

In 2016, she told Cosmopolitan that time apart was essential to making her then-relationship work.

'I travel all the time, so I think that helps keep the spark alive, because its not like Im here every day,' she explained. 'I'm not an everyday-at-home kind of person.'

She expanded further on worklife balance while speaking with the Khaleej Times.

'What I try and do is be very selective with work. Obviously, my priorities are my two kids, so I'm always there for them,' she said.

'But they know that their mummy has to work and she has to travel,' she added. 'When I can, I bring them with me...'
Schappelle Corby celebrated her fifth anniversary of being freed from Bali's notorious Kerobokan Prison just weeks ago.

And it appears the convicted drug smuggler is taking full advantage of her freedom as she holidays with her boyfriend, Ben Panangian, 38, in Thailand.

On Monday, Schappelle took to Instagram with an image of herself posing hand-in-hand with Ben on Nai Yang Beach in Phuket as an Air Asia plane flies close behind them.

Convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby, 42, enjoys a luxurious holiday in Thailand with jailbird boyfriend Ben Panangian, 38, just weeks after announcing she's hoping for a 'miracle baby' with him

'He is my Four Leaf clover; hard to find & lucky to have,' she wrote in the accompanying caption.

She then asked her 173,000 followers to tag their own 'four leaf clover'.

This isn't the first time she has publicly professed her love for Ben.

Interesting: Last year, during another holiday in Vietnam, the former beauty therapist posted a bizarre photo of her with her hands interlocked with what appeared to be Ben's feet

Last year, during another holiday in Vietnam, the former beauty therapist posted a bizarre photo of her hands interlocked with what appeared to be Ben's feet.

The caption, a simple hashtag, read: 'I'mstillwearingthesmileyougaveme'.

In a video, the pair are seen holding hands as they ascend a staircase up to a temple - with the caption reading: 'Love me love all of me #wartsandall'.

Warts and all: In a video posted to her Instagram last year, the pair are seen holding hands as they ascend a staircase up to a temple - with the caption reading: 'Love me love all of me #wartsandall

Schapelle has been vocal recently about her desire to have children with Ben, saying in the lead up to her holiday that she will be trying to conceive while on holiday.

Speaking to Women's Day in March, Schapelle revealed she was hoping for a 'miracle baby'.

'We've been able to meet each other once per year since my deportation from Bali two years ago,' she said. 'We are hoping to become pregnant on this trip together.'

Ready to start a family: Schapelle Corby, 42, has revealed she is hoping for a 'miracle baby' with her jailbird boyfriend Ben Panangian, 38. Pictured together on holiday last year

'We're starting our day at 6:30am with a 45-minute jog together. It's important to us to keep up our fitness on our travels as we are hoping to conceive,' she added.

Sadly, the couple only spend 'two precious weeks a year together' because Ben is unlikely to be granted an Australian visa due to his criminal record.

Schapelle says she can return to Indonesia if she chooses, but does not feel 'comfortable' doing so yet.

Instead, she and Ben meet in countries where visas are not required for entry.

Schapelle became a household name after she was arrested in October 2004 at Bali's Ngurah Rai Airport with 4.1kg of marijuana wrapped in plastic inside her boogie board bag.

She was later sentenced to 20 years in prison, but after a series of sentence reductions was released on parole in February 2014 after nine years behind bars.

In May 2017, she was deported back to Australia amid a media frenzy.
They became firm friends during their recent stint on Dancing With The Stars.

And Constance Hall, 35, revealed to Instagram Stories on Monday, that she's staying at Cassandra Thorburn's $8 million waterfront property in Sydney's Cremorne.

The mummy blogger said she's 'a very lucky woman' to be temporarily residing at the home her pal.

'I'm a lucky woman': Constance Hall [left] revealed on Monday that she's staying at Cassandra Thorburn's $8 million Sydney waterfront property

In the short video, Constance stood on the balcony of Cassandra's multi-level abode, and offered fans a glimpse of the stunning vista.

She sported a beige bohemian-style ensemble and accessorised with oversize sunglasses.

Her tousled locks framed her face and she added a slick of bold pink lipstick.

'Good morning Sydney': Constance, 35, took to Instagram Stories on Monday, giving her followers a glimpse of the stunning vista from Cassandra's home

'No doubt you're all wondering what the f**k I'm doing at this chic as f**k posh palace,' Constance began.

'My beautiful friend Cassandra Thorburn told me that I [along with four of her children] would be able to stay at her house,' she continued. 'Getting a couple of hotel rooms just doesn't fit the budget.'

Constance said she was 'so bloody thrilled' as people often extend an invite to stay at their home, but never follow through.

'I gave her so many opportunities to back out. I was like, 'Are you sure? Are you sure?'' she said.

'We're all here and we've been made to feel so at home. I'm a very lucky woman,' Constance added.

Situated in Sydney's lower north shore, the abode offers uninterrupted waterfront views.

Design: Situated in Sydney's lower north shore, the interior features a spacious living area with a pool looking out onto the balcony

With entertaining in mind, the interior features a spacious living area with a pool looking out onto the balcony.

A kitchen with a marble island is large enough to boast state-of-the-art equipment.

Cassandra and Karl announced their separation in September 2016 after 21 years of marriage.
Billie Faiers tied the knot with Greg Shepherd last month, marking the occasion with lavish week-long celebrations at the five star Kuramathi Maldives resort.

And the newlywed couple have jetted off on yet another holiday together, with Billie sharing snaps from their family trip to Dubai over the weekend.

The former TOWIE star, 29, made her fans green with envy when she shared another sizzling bikini snap with her new husband Greg and their youngest child Arthur, two.

Busy: Newlyweds Billie Faiers and Greg Shepherd have jetted off on yet another holiday together, with Billie sharing snaps from their family trip to Dubai over the weekend

Billie showed off her incredible figure in a white polka dot two-piece as she posed with her loved ones minus daughter Nelly, four.

She captioned the image: 'My Mr Sheps ... #happysunday #holiday'.

The star appeared determined to keep the celebrations going, showing off her selection of cocktails consumed throughout the day.

Billie and Greg also posed for a sweet selfie, looking more in love than ever.

Smitten: Billie and Greg also posed for a sweet selfie, looking more in love than ever

The holiday comes after Billie was grilled by Phillip Schofield on This Morning, asking her whether she had 'cut a deal' to pay for her extravagant wedding.

Noting that Billie had around 95 guests, Phil, 56, estimated that had she paid for the guests' trip to the Maldives, the big day would have set her back 229,000.

He said: 'My God, you must be earning beautifully to do this. This is the Kuramathi Resort in the Maldives.

Living it up: The star appeared determined to keep the celebrations going, showing off her selection of cocktails consumed throughout the day

Holiday glam: The mother-of-two showed off her picture perfect hair and make-up look during her Dubai getaway

'So we had a look, if you were to stay there next Saturday it would be 650 a night, that would be 4,588 for a week for the superior beach villa.

'The whole week for 100 guests, 229,000. So you must have got a deal there. 229,000 for your wedding?

But Billie who appeared on the show with sister Sam, 28, said it 'wasn't quite that,' as she giggled awkwardly.

Newlyweds: The pair are fresh from their lavish week-long wedding party at the five star Kuramathi Maldives resort

Phillip then grilled her further after claiming she didnt get a discount, saying: 'Right, so they did give you a deal?'

Billie then said: 'We had the beach houses and split them in two, it really helped us out with the rooms and stuff.'

Billie's wedding to Greg reportedly caused upset among other guests in the Maldives, some of whom had paid up to 12,000 for their trip of a lifetime.

Despite there being more than one complaint and a rep for KUONI telling MailOnline that a handful of guests had to be spoken to, Billie said it wasn't the case.

She said: 'To be honest, most of them were absolutely rubbish. There was a guest complaint because we was a little bit noisy around the pool one day.

'But when you get 100 people together we're gonna be a little bit noisy.'
Line Of Duty saw writer Jed Mercurio set a new Personal Best in the field of Head-Spinningly Complicated Storylines, smashing his own British record (created last week).

The bad news was we still had four episodes left, and the chances were it wouldnt necessarily all be explained in the finale either.

The second instalment proved even more intriguing and internecine than the first. So fiendish and murky viewers probably still had a hundred issues they were left wondering about at the end.

Puzzled: Was DI Kate Fleming Jed Mercurios next victim? Could AC-12 stop Stephen Grahams ARMY of Balaclava Men? Was Steve Arnotts ex too good looking not to be corrupt?

Here are just 15 questions we needed answers to after Episode Two.

1. Does Jed Mercurio actually write Line Of Duty sitting at his desk in a balaclava?

Not just a balaclava that is. Although you wouldnt bet against it...

2. Is the number of Balaclava Men going to double every episode?

Stephen Grahams gang originally consisted of a handful of thug (plus Lisa McQueen). This week he had a veritable army of Balaclava Men  all with machine guns.

Thinking out of the box: 15 questions we needed answering after Line Of Duty

3. Could Supt. Ted Hastings have looked any more nervous/suspicious, watching from his office as DS Arnott and DI Fleming questioned Jane Cafferty or when she told them it was not Lisa McQueen whod recruited her to the OCG but a police officer?

Only by muttering Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!

4. Whose photo did Cafferty pick out from the selection of corrupt high-ranking cops (from various series) made by DI Fleming?

Although it seems unlikely it was Ted Hastings  because he wasnt on AC-12s wall - Arnott and Fleming reacted by looking gutted.

5. Did the way Supt. Hastings had killed OCG member Robert Denmoor suggest that he was corrupt?

Big question: Could Supt. Ted Hastings have looked any more nervous/suspicious, watching from his office as DS Arnott and DI Fleming questioned Jane Cafferty or when she told them it was not Lisa McQueen whod recruited her to the OCG but a police officer?

DS John Corbutt reminded Steve Arnott that Denmoor had been surrounded by armed police (almost certainly ensuring his arrest) when he was shot by the AC-12 boss. Hastings also looked decidedly nervous when Arnott mentioned Denmoor in his briefing.

6. Did the way Supt. Hastings seemed to be falling apart also suggest he was corrupt?

Teds life in a squalid hotel was like Alan Partridges - only worse. (His toilet didnt flush for example.) His missus wanted a divorce and had met someone else, rejecting his embarrassing plea a man needs a wife.

How about this? Did the way Supt. Hastings seemed to be falling apart also suggest he was corrupt?

A dalliance from Series 3 was also back in his mind after the return of Gill Bigeloe, now legal counsel for the Police Crime Commissioner  i.e. the other side, problematic depending what she knew.

7. What the hell was The Kettle Bell Complex?

Apart from something else that had come back to haunt Hastings?

8. What will DS Arnott do about DS John Corbett now that hes said No to his request to help him discover who H is, albeit through unconventional/illegal means?

Surely now that he knows the UCO embedded in the OCG has not gone rogue, Steve has no choice but to change his mind and endorse Corbetts maverick tactics.

Have you guessed it? Apart from something else that had come back to haunt Hastings?

9. Which minor characters so far only lurking in the background will turn out to be corrupt?

 PC Tatleen Sohotra didnt look that happy when Hasting told her he was rescinding Maneet Bindras dismissal meaning she died in the line of duty

 Detective Sergeant Alison Powell was accused by Corbett and Inspector Cameron of pushing him in the direction of low-level targets rather than identify H

 Steve Arnotts ex, DS Sam Railston, seemed unfeasibly keen to catch up (possibly to get information?)

10. Was DS Arnott completely mad turning down his ex-girlfriend DS Sam Railston when she asked him up for a coffee/drink/a catch up?

Serious question: When Supt. Hastings told the PCC were the best in the business was he actually kidding?

Steve may be one of the only cops in the show who isnt bent but saying no to such a super-fox was criminal, particularly considering his rather pathetic existence away from the office.

11. When Supt. Hastings told the PCC were the best in the business was he actually kidding?

The chances of AC-12 getting to the bottom of everything certainly seem minimal. After all, theyve spent years failing to spot corrupt cops they were working for or with. The latest of these was PC Maneet Bindra who they had no clue was corrupt (until Tatleen exposed her)  and then again when she actually wasnt (until they heard Maneets recordings). Unfortunately, Maneet had now been murdered - at the exact spot where ACC Derek Hiltons body had been found in 2017.

Hiltons death was assumed to be suicide, DI Fleming noted. By AC-12 yes. None of us ever thought it likely hed hung himself sitting down on that jetty. Now, its looking more possible he was killed, Kate realised, a bit late.

As for Steve Arnott, like Fleming he had swallowed every word that John Corbetts wife Stephanie told them about not being in touch with him - and she wasnt even a criminal or a cop. He not only believed Jane Caffertys version of the hijack but insisted we checked her out. She was clean! In fact, like the rest of her team killed in the hijack, she wasnt.

The clueless Arnott was then easily rumbled by the OCG, having waited for them to make contact and filmed by a kid on a bike.

Awkward: The clueless Arnott was then easily rumbled by the OCG, having waited for them to make contact and filmed by a kid on a bike

12. Does the underlying theme of characters suffering/being susceptible because of their kids bode badly for DI Kate Fleming?

Characters who have been overtly connected to and then jeopardise by threats to their children have included: Maneet Bindra, Jane Cafferty, and even John Corbutt, who showed his soft side by asking his wife to let him listen to his kids sleeping down the phone. For the second week running, Line Of Duty also featured an uncharacteristically soppy scene showing DI Fleming at home, cooing over her children. She told Steve Arnott her promotion has given me a chance to make up for all that (time working undercover). Im just glad Mark and I are making a proper go of things again and I can be a proper mum. Worrying, to say the least.

13. Why does DI Fleming keep telling people shed worked undercover?

Pictured: Does the underlying theme of characters suffering/being susceptible because of their kids bode badly for DI Kate Fleming?

The way Kate told Jane Cafferty and Stephanie Corbett was surely not just implausible but too gratuitous not to be significant? She also kept discussing it with Steve Arnott. Hasnt she heard of the maxim loose lips sink ships? You wouldnt be surprised if the gang she was embedded in catches up with her. Or her family...

14. Now that AC-12 had realised ACC Hilton wasnt H after all, who was?

Ted Hastings seems too flaky to run such a complex criminal organisation. The smart money has to be on Detective Chief Superintendent Hargreaves, who often pops up without doing enough to attract suspicion.

15. Could it be possible that Steve is actually H?

What if he was really called Steve Harnott?
She spoke out about the cruel fat-shaming incident she was subjected to during her recent holiday to Barbados.

But Olivia Buckland got the last laugh as she posed for a sizzling lingerie snap on her Instagram page on Sunday.

The Love Island star, 25, set pulses racing as she slipped into a purple lace bra and briefs while working her magic in front of the camera.

Sizzling: Olivia Buckland set pulses racing as she she slipped into a purple lace bra and briefs in a raunchy snap posted to her Instagram page on Sunday

Showing off her extensive collection of tattoos, the reality TV personality pouted into the lens as she posed on a velvet sofa in her Essex home.

Olivia wore her blonde locks straight and opted for rose pink make-up as she promoted Boux Avenue underwear to her army of fans, writing: 'I'm a better me when I'm with you.'

The snap comes two weeks after the television star revealed she had been body-shamed while on holiday in Barbados with husband Alex Bowen, 26.

On Twitter, she wrote: 'Wowwww so one of the guys who runs the jet skis out here just thought it fine to tell me I had put on weight & that I needed to watch myself.

Strike a pose: The Love Island star, 25, pouted into the lens as she snapped a selfie while wearing skintight PVC trousers and a white crop top hours later

Outrage: The raunchy snap comes two weeks after the television star revealed she had been body-shamed while on holiday in Barbados with husband Alex Bowen, 26

'I tried to laugh it off saying 'married life' and he continued to say I needed to just be careful and go back to what I was. Cheers for that.'

She went on to say: 'Wish I had gave him a good earful but I was so shock I walked away. Oh well.

'Sometimes life will show you these kind of people and you gotta take a breath and turn the other cheek.'

Olivia opened up about the incident in an interview with new! magazine, admitting it reduced her to tears and that it was even more of a 'kick in the teeth' because she had been hitting the gym hard before her trip.

'A kick in the teeth': The fat-shaming incident occurred while Olivia and Love Island 2016 co-star Alex were on a Caribbean holiday late last month (pictured)

She explained: 'I did cry. I'm annoyed I let it get to me but I'm just a normal girl. To hear comments calling me fat is such a kick in the teeth.

'You can't pretend it doesn't hurt because I'm a normal, real person who has feelings, and no one likes hearing nasty things about them.'

Olivia and Alex met on series two of Love Island back in the summer of 2016.

The couple got engaged in New York in late 2016 after a whirlwind romance, and hosted the first ever Love Island wedding at Gosfield Hall, Essex, in September 2018.
She has the taste of both worlds flitting between her homes in sunny Miami and busy London.

And Kimberley Garner opted for a spot of sunshine when she slipped into a bikini and roamed across the golden sands, in Miami in recent days.

The former Made In Chelsea star, 29, displayed her enviable petite frame in a halterneck white bikini from her own Kimberley London range.

She's in holiday mode! Kimberley Garner slipped her envy-inducing figure into a microscopic white thong bikini in Miami in recent days

Kimberley barely covered her assets because of the swimwear's skimpy design and the golden pendant on the side of the briefs drew eyes to her hips.

Grains of sand were dusted all over Kimberley's amazing body when she hit the beach following her splash around in the shallow end of the sea.

The former reality star readjusted her microscopic thong bikini which perfectly framed her peachy posterior while she larked about across the sandy shores.

Saucy backshot! The former reality star readjusted her microscopic thong bikini which perfectly framed her peachy posterior while she larked about across the sandy shores

But it's no surprise Kimberley was already back on the social scene shortly after she arrived back in London as she said the British capital was always her home.

In a cosy chat with MailOnline, the blonde admitted she flew to Miami after purchasing a dream home in the coastal city.

'I worked very hard last year and had even moved home for a few months to save money,' she explained.

'I really had my head down working to concentrate on goals, but achieved it on New Years Eve, praise God, and flew over here. Completing the sale on the plane over.'

Reflecting on her new home, the swimwear designer confessed it is a world away from her former busy life in London.

'Its right on the beach, and really is a dream come true,' she explained. 'I am over doing the interior design, going for a beachy chilled vibe for the place.

Comeback: But it's no surprise Kimberley was already back on the social scene shortly after she arrived back in London as she said the British capital was always her home

'I wont be moving here, as London is one hundred percent home, but really overjoyed and proud to have achieved it.'

Although the reality personality is a swimwear designer, she is now following in her familys footsteps and venturing into high-end property development.

After extensive renovations, the former reality star is said to have increased the value of a house which she bought in 2013 for 1.2 million, by over 1 million.

The starlet's choice to go into property has resulted in her London pad doubling in value over a five-year period.
Penelope Benson is going where no 'plus-size' model has gone before.

The 32-year-old Sydney native has just been signed to IMG Models, one of Australia's biggest modelling agencies.

She's the first 'plus-size' model to ever be signed with the agency.

New gig: Penelope Benson (pictured) is going where no 'plus-size' model has gone before. The 32-year-old has just been signed to IMG Models, one of Australia's biggest modelling agencies

But in an interview with The Daily Telegraph on Monday, Penelope admitted the Australian modelling industry still had 'a long way to go'.

'There have been so many positive changes but there are still only a couple of agencies representing us,' she explained.

Despite having only recently been signed by IMG, Penelope has already carved out quite the portfolio.

Making history: Penelope is the first 'plus-size' model to ever be signed with IMG Models in Australia. . Pictured in a recent social media snap

Changes: In an interview with The Daily Telegraph on Monday, Penelope admitted the Australian modelling industry still had 'a long way to go'. Pictured in a recent social media snap

She's previously modeled for Vogue Italy, Cover Girl USA, RM Williams, Myer and David Jones.

Most recently, she's fronting the range for Cotton On's new Curve range.

In the modelling world, 'plus-size' is considered to be an Australian size 10 and over.

Quite the catalogue: She's previously modeled for Vogue Italy, Cover Girl USA, RM Williams, Myer and David Jones. . Pictured in a recent social media snap

Because of this, Penelope said she feels uncomfortable with the term 'plus-size' and prefers to use 'curve'.

And she praised IMG for embracing curvy models along with everyone in between.

'Where I am at IMG, I don't sit on a special board anymore, I don't sit in another spot on the website. It's just women,' she added.
She juggles motherhood to her three children with her successful acting career and entrepreneurial work with The Honest Company.

And Jessica Alba enlisted the help of her eldest mini-me daughter Honor, 10, when shopping for groceries at a branch Gelson's in Los Angeles on Sunday.

The actress, 37, opted for low-key chic in a striped sweater by Sanctuary and pink sunglasses as she joined her lookalike daughter for a walk.

Noticeable: Jessica Alba and her mini-me daughter Honor were spitting image of each other as they went food shopping at Gelson's, in California on Sunday

The Fantastic Four star donned a pair of distressed jeans, ripped on one of the knees, and backless pink mules.

With her mobile on loud speaker, Jessica juggled her food shopping in a bag over her shoulder while she toted a bright white handbag which contained her essentials.

Mini-me daughter Honor was stylish in a striped playsuit, chunky boots and a frayed denim jacket while she gave her mother some company on the food shop.

Double take! Mini-me daughter Honor was stylish in a striped playsuit, chunky boots and a frayed denim jacket while she gave her mother some company on the food shop

Jessica raises her three children Honor, 10, and Haven, seven, as well as her one-year-old son Hayes with her husband Cash Warren.

The couple first crossed paths while filming the Fantastic Four in 2004 and they married four years later in Los Angeles in 2008.

As both a mother to three children and a Hollywood actress, Jessica admitted juggling her work/life balance has been difficult even with just two children.

So it's no surprise she gets the help of her eldest daughter Honor to look after her young son Hayes since welcoming the third child to her brood.

Big family! Jessica raises her three children Honor, 10, and Haven, seven, as well as her one-year-old son Hayes with her husband Cash Warren

The mother-of-three stressed she doesn't let her Haven walk around with her youngest child because she is only seven years old.

She told E! News: 'I feel like I just didn't have enough time in the day with two and I still feel that way, but I feel like we giggle a lot more.

'Haven I don't trust walking with him around cause she is 7, but Honor can throw him on her hip and like walk around and, like do things.

'The kids are really into him and it's teaching them how to nurture in a way and take care of a little person. They realize that he needs so much.'
Chris Hemsworth has revealed he'd 'love to' play James Bond after Daniel Craig hangs up his gun-holster for good with Bond 25.

The actor, 35, expressed his interest in the role while talking with Balance magazine on Monday, after the publication pointed out his critically-acclaimed performance as British Formula One driver James Hunt made him a perfect candidate.

He explained: 'When we were shooting Rush someone had said that and I thought, "Cool, if this is my audition tape, then great." I don't think you'll ever meet anyone who doesn't want to have a crack at James Bond. I'd love to do it.

Up for it: Chris Hemsworth revealed to Balance magazine on Monday that he'd 'love to' play James Bond after Daniel Craig leaves the role of 007

'But that's up to so many elements and is way beyond myself; it's not one you can pitch yourself on to either,' the Thor star added quickly.

Chris added: 'It's something that the community of Bond fans, Barbara Broccoli and the whole crew there agree on, and it has to be a very organic decision from them. There have been a lot of names thrown out there and a lot of brilliant people can tackle that one.'

Indeed, there have been a number of different actors tipped to play 007, including Idris Elba, Richard Madden and Tom Hiddleston.

Daniel is set to become the longest-standing James Bond, as the 51-year-old actor will beat his predecessors to be the longest-serving Bond this Wednesday with a record-breaking 4,527 days in the role.

Candid: Of replacing Craig (pictured in Casino Royale), Chris was quick to add that it's 'up to so many elements and is way beyond myself; it's not one you can pitch yourself on to either'

He can do it: The actor expressed his interest in the role after the publication pointed out his performance as British Formula One driver James Hunt made him a perfect candidate

Daniel, who took to our screens with his debut Bond film Casino Royal in November 2006, will beat former Bond actor Roger Moore, who lasted 4,526 days in the role and Sean Connery, who spent nine years as Bond, to be the longest-serving actor with a licence to kill.

Pierce Brosnan, who made his first appearance in the Bond movies with Goldeneye in 1995, spent seven years in the iconic role before handing it over in 2002.

While Timothy Dalton, who took to our screen with The Living Daylights in 1987, spent three years in the role and George Lazenby only one with his Bond film On Her Majestys Secret Service in 1969.

Daniel's record-breaking achievement comes after he said 'I would rather slash my wrists than play James Bond again' in 2015.

Iconic: Daniel is set to become the longest-standing James Bond, as the actor will beat his predecessors to be the longest-serving Bond with a record-breaking 4,527 days in the role

The comments, which came after the release of the movie Spectre, were later cleared up in an interview with American talk show host Stephen Colbert in 2017.

While speaking on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Daniel said: 'It was two days after I finished shooting the last movie. I went straight to an interview and someone said would you do another one?

'And I went 'no' and instead of saying something with style and grace I gave a really stupid answer.'

During the show, Daniel also confirmed that he would be reprising his role as the British Secret Service agent for the 25th Bond film, which is set for release in 2020.

Excited: Chris also talked about the Marvel Cinematic Universe where he plays God of Thunder Thor, and said he was 'genuinely proud' of Thor: Ragnarok (pictured) and Avengers: Endgame

Chris also talked about his latest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Avengers: Endgame, where he will reprise his role as God of Thunder Thor.

The actor admitted he has 'never been more excited' for the franchise to return, as he felt that filming the superhero flick felt like a 'once in a lifetime opportunity'.

Thor has been a staple part of the franchise since the character's self-titled debut film in 2011, which spawned two more solo flicks and a spot on the Avengers team from day one.

Discussing his character's latest solo outing in Thor: Ragnarok, the Australian star admitted he was 'genuinely proud' of the film as it felt like a 'turning point' for him as an actor, as well as for the Asgardian deity himself.

Avengers: Endgame is released in UK cinemas on April 25, and in screens across the USA on April 26.
She's been enjoying the luxury surroundings of the Ananda in the Himalayas following her son Damian's 17th birthday last week.

And Elizabeth Hurley, 53, continued to enjoy the five-star resort's facilities as she shared a sizzling Instagram video of her cooling down in the pool while wearing a dazzling bikini on Monday.

The age-defying star, who is known for her roles in Bedazzled and Austin Powers, put on an eye-popping display in the crystal-embellished triangle bikini top from her swimwear brand, Elizabeth Hurley Beach.

Bikini babe: Elizabeth Hurley, 53, continued to enjoy the five-star resort's facilities as she shared a sizzling Instagram video of her cooling down in the pool while wearing a dazzling bikini on Monday

The Royals actress accentuated her ample cleavage in the saucy garment before she worked her angles.

Upping the ante, she at first put her hands through her loose brunette hair before she turned towards the pool's fountain and lapped up the water.

The short social media video had her 1.2million followers commenting in their droves underneath, applauding her incredible appearance.

One fan penned: 'How on earth do you still look 25? What's the secret?'

Soaking it up: The age-defying star, who is known for her roles in Bedazzled and Austin Powers, put on an eye-popping display in the crystal-embellished triangle bikini top from her swimwear brand, Elizabeth Hurley Beach

Pool party: The Royals actress accentuated her ample cleavage in the saucy garment before she worked her angles

'Still look smoking,' another shared. 'Queen of Bikini'.

Even model Abbey Clancy weighed in on the saucy clip and wrote: 'How hot are you?'

Her daring post comes a day after she showcased her incredible figure in a scarlet swimsuit as she continued her envy-inducing getaway in style.

Fans: The short social media video had her 1.2million followers commenting in their droves underneath, applauding her incredible appearance

Model behaviour: Even model Abbey Clancy weighed in on the saucy clip

The star took to her Instagram account to share her 'greetings' from her luxury hotel, posting a number of sizzling snaps.

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 were just some of the A-list guests who descended upon The Box, in Soho, to ring in Lily James' 30th birthday.

And Poppy Delevingne and her husband James Cook seemed to be in good spirits as they headed to London's debaucherous nightspot for the celebrations on Sunday.

The fashionista, 32, put on a stylish display as she stepped out in an off-the-shoulder black midi dress which showcased her slender figure.

Glamorous: Poppy Delevingne looks stylish in an off-the-shoulder black dress as she steps out with husband James Cook for Lily James' 30th birthday bash in Soho on Sunday

Boosting her height in gold heels, Poppy kept her look simple as she accessorised with a pair of jewel heart earrings.

The star pulled her blond locks back into a messy ponytail, while she wore light touches of make-up to highlight her pretty features.

While James looked sharp in a red velvet jacket which he donned over a polka-dot shirt and black jeans, which he paired with a white trainers.

The couple looked smitten with one another, as Poppy linked arms with her husband while they walked through the streets of London.

Stunning: The star pulled her blond locks back into a messy ponytail, while she wore light touches of make-up to highlight her pretty features

Poppy and James tied the knot in a lavish ceremony in Knightsbridge back in 2014, following a two-year engagement.

The couple became engaged in October 2012, when he popped the question with a bespoke Anya Hindmarch memories box embossed with the words 'Will you marry me?' and filled with pictures of them together.

After the church affair, the couple then headed to trendy London hot spot Chiltern Firehouse for their wedding reception, alongside a host of famous friends and family.

Birthday girl: Lily James kicked off her 30th year rather unsteady on her feet as she threw a star-studded raucous birthday bash with her boyfriend Matt Smith and fellow guests

Meanwhile the style star has been continuing her acting career, as she is due to appear in the new series of Riviera in two months' time.

Poppy will play Daphne, the socialite daughter of Lady Cassandra, who will come into the fold from the very start of series two.

In the drama, widower Georgina Clios (Julia Stiles) is desperate to discover more about the mysterious death of her billionaire husband Constantine.
Harry Reid was recast as Ben Mitchell in EastEnders last year - seeing him replaced with newcomer Max Bowden.

And while this must've been a difficult pill to swallow, it transpires that the young actors are in fact friends!

Co-star Jamie Borthwick, who plays Jay in the BBC soap, took to Instagram over the weekend to upload a snap of him with both Harry and Max - all looking more than harmonious together.

Ben X Ben: Harry Reid was replaced as Ben Mitchell in EastEnders with Max Bowden. And while this must've been a difficult pill to swallow, it transpires that the young actors are in fact friends

Jamie captioned the snap: 'Dont worry everyone, were all friends. So happy I can share this moment with my Ben brother. #BenMitchell #Ben10 @harryreidactor @bowden5.'

Fans were reeling from this, clearly surprised that the ousted former-Ben is chummy with his replacement.

'Glad u all getting [on] well [sic],' one person commented.

'Im certain that this is a picture that everyone was hoping to see. And what a lovely picture it is too,' another remarked.

Ben V-VI: The character has been portrayed over the years by six different actors, the most recent being Harry Reid and Max Bowden

'I miss @harryreidactor as Ben  but oh well this pic made me feel much better now welcome to the family @bowden5 [sic],' another posted.

A fourth added: 'Great pic @jamie_b10 I think @bowden5 is great as Ben. Lovely to see @harryreidactor with you both.'

Some had to do a double-take, likening the moment to when Doctor Who regenerates.

Many also called for Harry to return to the role, claiming 'there is only one Ben'.

Long-serving character: Ben is the son of Phil [pictured, played by Steve McFadden] and Kathy

When Harry left EastEnders, it appeared to be amid some confusion.

The actor was allegedly assured there wouldn't be a recast, but was then told otherwise a week before it was announced by the BBC.

He told Digital Spy at the time: 'They told me that they were going to recast him about a week before it was announced. To be honest, I was shocked because I didn't expect that they were going to recast the role.

'I was told that they weren't going to recast. But at the same time, it didn't upset me, which is what a lot of the fans are saying.

Max - the new Ben - cropped up for the first time last month.

The one with all the Bens: Ben was born on an episode of the soap on on 21 March 1996, portrayed by Matthew Silver [top left] between 1996 and 1998. The part then went to Morgan Whittle [top right], who played Ben as a toddler between 1999 and 2001. In 2006, Charlie Jones [bottom left] took on the role. Ben was replaced again in 2010 by Joshua Pascoe [bottom right]

The character - who is the son of Phil and Kathy - has been portrayed over the years by six different actors.

Ben was born on an episode of the soap on on 21 March 1996, portrayed by Matthew Silver between 1996 and 1998. The part then went to Morgan Whittle, who played Ben as a toddler between 1999 and 2001.

The character didn't feature in EastEnders after that for five years, but returned in 2006 with Charlie Jones in the role. Ben was replaced again in 2010 by Joshua Pascoe, until 2012.

The character disappeared again until 2014, with Harry in the part. Ben was then written out of the show in early 2018. The character was reintroduced in March 2019, with the role recast once again, with Max in the part.
Chelsea Handler has a crush.

The 44-year-old comedian dropped by The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Monday and made quite the confession about the new man who has captured her heart: Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

The Chelsea Lately star was out and about promoting her new memoir Life Will Be The Death of Me when she made the revelation.

A little crush: Chelsea Handler revealed on Ellen that she is 'sexually attracted' to Special Counsel Robert Mueller during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Monday

In the book, Handler gushes about her thing for the head of the investigation into Russian meddling into the U.S. 2016 presidential election as well as Donald Trump's alleged collusion.

'Let's talk about your love life, right now you're in flux,' Ellen began.

The 61-year-old queen of daytime teed up the bombshell by hinting that Handler's book was 'very revealing' and brought up the fact that she was 'looking forward to the Mueller report.'

'I'm sexually attracted Robert Mueller,' Chelsea blurted out.

Star! The 44-year-old was on the show to promote her latest book Life Will Be The Death of Me, out on April 9

'I have daddy issues like I explain in my book,' she continued. 'I've been attracted to older men for quite some time.'

The Are You There Vodka? It's Me Chelsea author joked that as she got older, the men 'get really old.'

After eliciting laughs from both DeGeneres and the audience, Handler plowed on with her explanation.

'I'm sexually attracted Robert Mueller,' Chelsea blurted out during the interview

'I have daddy issues like I explain in my book,' she continued. 'I've been attracted to older men for quite some time.'

'From what I can tell under his business attire there is a six- to eight-pack,' Chelsea mused. 'He was a marine. If you can keep your act together for that long I want to talk about penetration.'

For her part, Ellen sat stone faced in silence, seemingly fighting the urge to giggle.

'I mean, what you just did felt very judgy,' Handler quipped at Ellen's deadpan expression.

'From what I can tell under his business attire there is a six- to eight-pack,' Chelsea mused. 'He was a marine. If you can keep your act together for that long I want to talk about penetration.'

In print: In her new book, Chelsea waxes poetic about her feelings for the famed investigator

In the book, Chelsea waxes poetic on all the reasons she caught feels for the investigator.

'I'm not embarrassed by my feelings for Robert Mueller,' she penned according to Just Jared. 'I am legitimately attracted to him and everything he stands for I suspect there will be a lot of people naming their baby boys Bob after this whole s**tshow is over.'

The book was written before the report wrapped up and submitted to the Attorney General.

On the rocks: Ellen questioned Handler about her feelings regarding the Special Counsel now that the Mueller report had been submitted and the public summary was a disappointment to dems in Capitol Hill

A four page summary of the report was released publicly and didn't go over too well with democrats in congress.

Mueller did not charge President Trump with any crimes related to Russian collusion and stated that he could not determine if there was enough evidence to charge the President with obstruction of justice with the caveat that it was not an exoneration.

In response to the few details about the report, Handler said is sticking by her man.

'I'm not going to give up on him,' she emphatically told Ellen.

'I'm not going to give up on him,' she emphatically told Ellen.

The former late night host explained that she wanted to see the full report and make a determination.

She joked that she has hope for them still but respects the fact that he is married.

'I'll do this on TV until he contacts me,' she joked.

Issues! Chelsea called Ellen out for being 'judgy' about her crush

Adding that there is 'a whole community of Mueller lovers' out there in the world.

Ellen chimed in that there are likely just two, Handler and her friend Mary McCormack but Chelsea shut her down by noting that she wasn't 'attracted to men.'

The host then rattled off two of Hollywood's leading hunks, Ryan Gosling and Justin Timberlake, who've both caught her eye.

Handler's memior is out Tuesday April 9.
Daniel Webb was left horrified after watching footage of his girlfriend Jessika Power propositioning Nic Jovanovic during MAFS' season finale on Monday night.

And shortly after the reunion episode aired, the embattled couple argued over the incident during a live interview on 9Life's Talking Married.

The Perth model, 27, and the Gold Coast single dad, 35, engaged in a rather awkward lovers' tiff on national television over Jessika's inability to be 'honest' about hitting on Nic, 29, earlier on in the experiment.

Guest panellist and Today show fill-in Ben Fordham began the chat by explaining the pair had just engaged in an expletive-laden exchange during the ad break.

'You guys just had a dispute, there were some f-bombs going back and forth,' Ben said.

'It seems to me that the tension is still pretty strong,' he added.

'Yeah, look it is,' the former rugby league player responded from the pair's shared home on the Gold Coast.

'We're not having a fight on national television!' MAFS' Jessika and Dan argued on Monday's Talking Married after he was forced to watch footage of her hitting on Nic

Dirty laundry: The Perth model and the Gold Coast single dad, 35, were seen engaging in a rather awkward lover's quarrel on national television over Jess' failure to be 'honest' she 'hit on Nic' during their secret rendezvous on the experiment

'There were some f-bombs going back and forth!' Guest panellist and Today show fill-in Ben Fordham (left) began the chat by explaining the pair had just engaged in an expletive-laden exchange during the ad break

'It raises huge trust issues for me, and that's what we've been struggling with over the last few months in our relationship,' Dan explained.

Jessika went on to confess she 'did hit on Nic,' before Dan declared: 'That's the first time she's admitted it to me just right now.'

However seconds later Jessika seemingly backtracked, saying she'd only admitted it because it's what her boyfriend wanted to hear.

'I don't feel like I did, but it's obviously what Dan wants to hear': However seconds later Jessika seemingly backtracked, saying she'd only admitted it because it's what her boyfriend wanted to hear

Breaking point: Daniel became visibly irritated during Jessika's spiel as he was heard audibly sighing and covering his face with his hands in exasperation

'I wasn't interested in being with Nic, I wasn't interested in swapping with Nic looking back on it, it looks like I did hit on him and that's what everybody here wants me to admit, so yeah I'm admitting it for Dan.'

'I don't feel like I did, but it's obviously what Dan wants to hear.'

Daniel became visibly irritated during Jessika's spiel as he was heard audibly sighing and covering his face with his hands in exasperation.

'It's not what I wanted to hear,' Daniel remarked seconds later.

'We're not having a fight on national television,' Jessika countered.

Awkward: On Monday's finale Dan was forced to watch Jessika proposition Nic Jovanovic

On Monday night's finale Dan was openly horrified and disgusted as he watched footage of Jessika making a sexual pass at Nic, on the very same night she and Dan shared their first kiss.

Upon seeing the video clips, the entire group was horrified, with Cyrell Paule snapping: 'Jess, I'm just gonna say it. Your legs are like 7-Eleven.'

Nic however insisted that he wasn't comfortable with the flirting from Jess, saying: 'I just didn't want to be in that situation. I didn't want to be in that room.'

A fuming Dan then confronted Nic, saying: 'Honest, man to man, did she have a crack at ya?' but Nic refused to answer at first.

Outspoken: The comments come after Jessika's flirtation with Nic was exposed on Monday's episode. Upon seeing the video clips, the entire group was horrified, with Cyrell Paule (left) snapping: 'Jess, I'm just gonna say it. Your legs are like 7-Eleven'

Finally he uttered: 'Okay, yeah, I felt like she was hitting on me. Yeah, one hundred percent'.

Jess complained that she was being unfairly judged, saying: 'It looks like I've gone from Nic to Dan, which I haven't'.

A hurt Dan admitted: 'I can't deny what I saw there. There was an instance there where I saw her sitting on the couch, the way she was talking to Nic, and it just felt like that I was on the couch talking to her, that's how she talks to me.

A hurt Dan admitted: 'I can't deny what I saw there. There was an instance there where I saw her sitting on the couch, the way she was talking to Nic, and it just felt like that I was on the couch talking to her, that's how she talks to me'

'That's probably the biggest thing, to be honest with ya. I honestly feel like I've just been played. Yeah, I'm hurting right now, looking at that.'

He continued: 'I honestly did come here to find love, and I fell in love with Jess, I did. I've hurt a lot of people doing what I've done, in order to feel something for Jess.

'I'm just like... I feel like I'm a piece of s**t, honestly. I've got a lot to think about, I really do' he concluded.

On Monday, Dan spoke about witnessing the deception on TV, along with the entire cast of the show, and admitted he and Jess briefly split.

Nope! Nic Jovanovic (right) insisted that he wasn't comfortable with the flirting from Jess, saying: 'I just didn't want to be in that situation. I didn't want to be in that room'

Talking to TV Week, the car broker said he felt 'betrayed' by the footage, which shows Jessika tell Nic that she feels 'sexually attracted' to him.

'I felt betrayed, [but] I always had a gut feeling something wasn't right. I really did Something didn't add up,' he said.

'I was in love with this girl, and to see that unfold on TV in front of the group, I felt like I was played for a fool.'

Dan said that after filming had completely wrapped, he broke it off with the aspiring Instagram model.

And although he claims they have since rekindled their romance, Dan said there are a number of hurdles the pair have to get over before they get back to normal again.

Dan said: 'I honestly did come here to find love, and I fell in love with Jess, I did. I've hurt a lot of people doing what I've done, in order to feel something for Jess. I feel like I'm a piece of s**t, honestly. I've got a lot to think about, I really do'

'I'm sure she has trust issues with me too, because we did both go behind our partner's backs to establish our relationship. And if we can do it to our partners why not to each other?' he said.

Jessika has also spoken out their breakup, telling NW Magazine that after he saw her proposition Nic on the couch, he 'felt like he was my third choice. And that didn't make him feel happy,' she explained.

'We separated for two weeks and in that fortnight we didn't talk for a total of three days... we picked ourselves up and realised our feelings belonged outside the bubble of the experiment.'

Jessika has stood by that she and Dan remain a couple, and says they tell each other they love each other every day.
Shanna Moakler shared a bikini photo over the weekend.

The 44-year-old star looked very slender as she wrote in her caption that she is still happy that she had surgery in 2018. The former Playboy model has been candid about her tummy tuck and liposuction.

'6 months post op from my #mommymakeover with @leifrogersmd I am so thankful and so happy with my results,' said the former beauty queen.

Thrilled to be lean: Shanna Moakler shared a bikini photo over the weekend. The 44-year-old star looked very slender as she wrote in her caption that she is still happy that she had surgery in 2018

Work it: The former Playboy model has been candid about her tummy tuck and liposuction

She added, 'This wasnt for weight loss! It was to fix my tummy muscles! I finally feel confident in a bikini again.

'Editing my YouTube video on my experience and journey now! Hopefully will have it up soon!

'It was a long healing process but Im really glad I did it! Thanks to all the other moms who sent me encouraging messages! p.s ignore my messy room.'

Red alert: In January she shared this before and after with the caption, 'Ok ten year challenge, Ill see your ten and raise you 14! ( this adds up to 24 its a poker term ) this is my actual swimsuit from #missusa Im actually 35lbs heavier now'

She was standing in her bedroom and there was clothes strewn on her bed.

The actress was in a green string bikini and her waistline looked very small.

In December she also posed in a bikini.

The ex of Oscar De La Hoya and Travis Barker took to Instagram to share a stunning photo where she looked slender in her undies. She said the recovery process was not easy, but she is feeling better than ever.

New look: Moakler showing off her body in December, five weeks after surgery

More to her: Moakler at the Single Mom's Awards held at The Peninsula Beverly Hills in 2016

She was with boxer De La Hoya for several years and together they have Atiana.

In 2004 she wed Travis Barker and they have kids Alabama and Landon. They divorced in 2008.

In December she wrote, 'Alright guys I am 5 weeks post op! I am starting to see a difference still really swollen and some discoloration from bruising but all the lumps and weird pockets by my scar are gone and that makes me really happy, as that was what really bothered me, even though I hid it really well.

'I'm still wearing compression garment for another three weeks!

With her man: Here the beauty is seen with Blink 182 vet Travis Barker. In 2005 she starred on the reality television series Meet the Barkers with Travis

'It's been a long recovery but I feel a ton better. I have more energy and I can't wait till I get the ok to get back to the gym.

'I can also stand up straighter.

'I will be doing a while YouTube video on this and posting before and after once I'm fully recovered!

She also thanked Leif Rogers, MD of Beverly Hills.

Moakler got her star as the winner of the Miss New York USA pageant in 1995 and was originally the first runner-up at Miss USA 1995.

She was eventually crowned Miss USA after Chelsi Smith won Miss Universe.

In 2001 she landed a Playboy magazine cover after Hugh Hefner approved of her.

Her second big love: Shanna, Travis and kids Alabama and Landon. They wed in 2004 and divorced in 2008. Seen in 2010

After signing with manager Robert Semon, she landed the USA Network television series Pacific Blue in 1998.

Then in 2005 she went on to star in the reality television series Meet the Barkers with Travis of Blink-182.

Then came E!'s Bridalplasty in 2010 and the VH1 reality series, Hollywood Exes in 2014.

The blonde beauty has also dated Billy Idol and Dennis Quaid.
She rose to fame as Maeve Wiley in Netflix's hit series Sex Education.

And Emma Mackey put on a stylish display as she attended the fourth day of the Cannes Series Festival in the French Riviera on Monday.

The beauty, 23, cut a colourful figure in a blue midi skirt embellished with dozens of lemons and a white bardot top as she enjoyed the warm spring weather.

Stylish: Emma Mackey put on a stylish display as she attended the Cannes Series Festival in the French Riviera on Monday

Emma paired her chic ensemble with a yellow cross body bag and wore her brunette locks in loose curls as she stepped out of the Hotel Martinez.

She finished off her look with a pair of black stiletto heels and wore gold hoop earrings for the occasion.

The British-French actress is attending the Cannes Series Festival as a jury member to judge programmes from across the world.

Warm weather: The beauty, 23, cut a colourful figure in a bright blue lemon print skirt and a white bardot top by De La Vali as she enjoyed the warm weather

Chic: Emma paired her chic ensemble with a yellow cross body bag and wore her brunette locks in loose curls as she stepped out of the Hotel Martinez

And she cut a low-key figure at the event on Sunday in a vivid purple jumper and light wash straight cut jeans.

Emma wore the same yellow bag and gold hoop earrings as on Monday as she posed outside the venue.

The actress recently discussed what it was like filming sex scenes in Sex Education with her on-screen boyfriend in a post #MeToo environment.

Colourful: She finished off her look with a pair of black stiletto heels and wore gold hoop earrings from Missoma for the occasion

She told ES magazine: 'The nudity and the sex stuff was fine, because I knew I had to do it. We had a workshop and worked with an intimacy co-ordinator.

'We were sorted really, there was a lot of self-love in the show, some full nudity and some half nudity.'

Before the actress relocated to the UK, she grew up in the rural idyllic Sable-sur-Sarthe, north-west France, and was educated at a Catholic School.

Model behaviour: Emma cut a low-key figure at the event on Sunday in a vivid purple jumper and light wash straight leg jeans

All smiles: Emma wore the same yellow bag and gold hoop earrings as on Monday as she posed outside the venue in a jumper by Hayley Menzies

She said: 'It was really... nice, I went to a Catholic school and did loads of sport and I was really happy. I loved studying and was very bookish. It was quite a sheltered existence.'

However after arriving in Leeds to study English Language she experienced a shock to the system and described having to 'toughen up'.

She said: 'Yeah. I had to toughen up a bit. People made me realise I was quite innocent and oblivious to certain things. I wanted to make people like me.'

Emma stars in Sex Education alongside Gillian Anderson and Asa Butterfield.
They are starring in the sequel to 2017 American action comedy film, The Hitman's Bodyguard.

And Samuel L. Jackson and Ryan Reynolds were spotted shooting tense gun point scenes as filming got under way for the The Hitman's Wife Bodyguard in Croatia on Monday.

The pair were embroiled in a heated confrontation, with Samuel, 70, who plays notorious hitman Darius Kincaid, pulling out a gun on a bloodied Ryan, 42, before punching him square in the face.

Confrontation: Samuel L. Jackson and Ryan Reynolds were spotted shooting tense gun point scenes as filming got under way for the The Hitman's Wife Bodyguard in Croatia on Monday

Samuel looked like he meant business as he challenged Ryan, who plays leading man Michael Bryce, at the harbour.

His character Darius pulled out the gun from his jeans, pointing it at a suited Michael.

With angry purple bruises already forming on his forehead, eyebrow and nose, a startled Michael holds up his hands pleading Darius not to pull the trigger.

Punch: The pair were embroiled in a confrontation, with Samuel, 70, who plays notorious hitman Darius Kincaid, punching a bloodied Ryan, 42, square in the face

Hitman: Samuel looked like he meant business as he challenged Ryan, who plays leading man Michael Bryce, and pulled out a gun at the harbour

Scared: With angry purple bruises already forming on his forehead, eyebrow and nose, a startled Michael holds up his hands pleading Darius not to pull the trigger

Fearing for his life: During the tense exchange, Darius punched Michael, with such force the bodyguard's legs gave way, causing him to collapse to the ground

During the tense exchange, Darius punched Michael, with such force the bodyguard's legs gave way, causing him to collapse to the ground.

An angry Darius, continued to question a winded Michael as he lay on the floor, with the pair looking at something on an iPhone.

Filming for the sequel got under way last month, with Frank Grillo joining the cast.

Back in May last year, it was announced Reynolds, Jackson and Salma Hayek, who plays Darius' wife Sonia Kincaid, were in early talks to reprise their roles.

It was later announced Hollywood legend, Morgan Freeman, was joining also joining the cast.

Interrogation: An angry Darius, continued to question a winded Michael as he lay on the floor, with the pair looking at something on an iPhone

Coming to blows: The hitman then helps Michael, who is covered in blood up from the floor

Leading man: The first film revolved around bodyguard Michel Bryce, played by Ryan, who must deliver hitman Darius Kincaid, Samuel, from London to the Hague for trial

The first film, directed by Patrick Hughes, revolves around bodyguard Michel Bryce, played by Ryan, who must deliver hitman Darius Kincaid, Samuel, from London to the Hague for trial.

The pair have just 24 hours to get from the U.K. to The Hague, the seat of the government in The Netherlands, and the only thing standing in their way is a villainous Eastern European dictator, played by Gary Oldman.

The film received mixed reviews, with critics praising Reynolds and Jackson's chemistry but criticizing the cliched plot and execution.

This time Michael is enlisted by Jackson and Hayek's character's to join them on a mission along the Amalfi Coast.

Filming will take place in Italy, Croatia, Bulgaria and United Kingdom.
ER alum Julianna Margulies and her attorney husband Keith Lieberthal listed the swanky three-bedroom SoHo apartment they've owned since 2004 for $5.75M last week.

The married couple of 12 years originally bought the 2,500-square-foot property for $2.44M, but it has since undergone an extensive redesign by Vicente Wolf.

The condo is located inside 25 West Houston Street where their neighbors reportedly included Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi and rapper Kanye West, who recently sold his $3M pad.

Moving on up! ER alum Julianna Margulies and her attorney husband Keith Lieberthal listed the swanky three-bedroom SoHo apartment they've owned since 2004 for $5.75M last week

'There's just this sense of calm here,' the 52-year-old native New Yorker previously told Architectural Digest.

Each room boasts stunning Manhattan views from every window flooding the open plan living and dining room with natural light.

Julianna and Keith's master suite features Asian-themed decor, unique grass-cloth walls, and a large walk-in closet.

And the kitchen has state-of-the-art stainless-steel appliances, and steel shelves suspended above a white center island.

'There's just this sense of calm here': The married couple of 12 years originally bought the 2,500-square-foot property for $2.44M, but it has since undergone an extensive redesign by Vicente Wolf

Family of three: Margulies and Lieberthal are likely looking for a bigger space as their 11-year-old son Kieran Lindsay gets older(pictured in 2015)

Margulies and Lieberthal are likely looking for a bigger space as their 11-year-old son Kieran Lindsay gets older.

On Sunday, the Good Wife alum revealed the reason she didn't reprise her character Alicia Floreck in spin-off The Good Fight was because CBS All Access 'wouldn't pay me.'

Co-creator Robert King had considered having Alicia return to face off against Diane (Christine Baranski) in a three-episode arc during the third season.

'I'm not a guest star; I started the whole thing with The Good Wife,' Julianna told Deadline.

Spin-off: On Sunday, the Good Wife alum revealed the reason she didn't reprise her character Alicia Floreck in spin-off The Good Fight was because CBS All Access 'wouldn't pay me'

Julianna told Deadline: 'I'm not a guest star; I started the whole thing with The Good Wife. I wanted to be paid my worth and stand up for equal pay. if Jon Hamm came back for a Mad Men spinoff or Kiefer Sutherland wanted to do a 24 spinoff, they would be paid' (pictured in 2014)

'I wanted to be paid my worth and stand up for equal pay. if Jon Hamm came back for a Mad Men spinoff or Kiefer Sutherland wanted to do a 24 spinoff, they would be paid.'

The Sarah Lawrence grad added: 'To be perfectly honest, I was shocked. I was more surprised than hurt. I thought, "What are you worth? If you are worthless, if you are not valued for your work, than what's the point?"'

During her seven seasons (2009-2016) starring as the litigator on the CBS political drama, Margulies won two Emmys, a Golden Globe, and two SAG Awards.

The Upside actress will next play Dr. Nancy Jaax in the Ebola virus miniseries The Hot Zone, which premieres May 27 on National Geographic.
Kim and Kourtney Kardashian were on drop-off duty this week.

The Keeping Up With the Kardashians stars smiled with their two daughters, North, five, and Penelope, six, as they headed back to school on Monday.

Kim, 38, shared the snap of the happy foursome on social media.

Back to school! Kim and Kourtney Kardashian were on drop-off duty at school this week with their daughters North, five, and Penelope, six, in a new snap Kim posted to Instagram on Monday

'Spring Break is over,' the mogul wrote in the caption.

Kim and Kourt looked like active momma's both wearing sneakers and black leggings with long sleeve tops.'

Kourtney, 39, had her hair pulled into a high messy bun and a pair of sunglasses perched on top of her head.

Meanwhile, Kim kept her ultra long raven locks down, parted in the middle and neither realty star appeared to be wearing makeup on their flawless skin.

Family time! The foursome smiled for the camera in the social media post with the girls in uniforms at an undisclosed school

Cousins and best friends North and P (as her family calls her) were matching in school uniforms of blue plaid skirts and navy Polo shirts.

Penelope kicked her look up a notch with a designer twist, sporting a pair of kids Princetown leather slingback loafers that cost a whopping $365.

'P is such a little beachy lady,' Aunt Kendall Jenner commented on the post.

She was likely referring to Penelope's long sandy brown hair with sun kissed blonde streaks.

Thick as thieves: The cousins are closer than ever, frequently dressed in matching looks by their moms

North made her own fashion mark with her uniform by donning thick opaque white tights and high top white converse sneakers.

Her long hair was slicked back into a high ponytail on the top of her head with a plume of curls coming out of the spout.

Kim, Kourtney and P all grinned for the camera but North's expression wasn't too sure about this whole ordeal.

She sat perched on her famous mom's knee with the leg of a stuffed animal behind her.

On the DL: Notorious for airing their private lives publicly, the reality royality keeps details about their children's schooling under wraps

While the Kardashians are very public with their lives on their hit reality show, now in it's 16th season, they keep certain things under wraps.

Not much is known about the schooling for their famous offspring, for instance.

In addition to North, Kim and Kanye have son Saint, three and Chicago, one, as well as another baby boy due in May via surrogate.

Her older sister Kourtney is mom to Mason, nine, Penelope, six and Reign, four.

Change of heart: Kourtney, who is mom to Mason, nine, Penelope, six and Reign, four, previously home schooled Mason

Kourtney had previously home schooled her eldest son Mason, however that seems to have changed at least for Penelope.

Kim and Kanye haven't revealed the details about the school where the two cousins go but the KKW mogul previously admitted that sometimes she has to bribe her Kindergartner to head to class.

'Sometimes I have to bribe her to go to school and be like, "Do you want to put on some makeup?" and she'll say, "Okay,"' Kim told Us Weekly.

She continued: 'I'll put on fake makeup, and she won't know because she's not looking in the mirror, but she thinks it's all on her face, and we'll be driving to school, and she'll say, "Mom, do I still have it on?" And I'm like, "Yes, you sure do."'
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Paige Butcher slipped into a turquoise string bikini over the weekend for a R&R little time on the beach while in Maui, Hawaii.

The 39-year-old Australian star was with her little daughter Izzy, aged two, whom she had with her 58-year-old fiance, movie star Eddie Murphy.

Mother and daughter looked happy to get some sun as they headed in and out of the water.

Oh mama: Paige Butcher slipped into a turquoise bikini over the weekend for a little time on the beach while in Hawaii. The Australian star, 39, was with her little daughter Izzy, aged two

Splish splash: Mother and daughter looked to be happy to get some sun as they headed in and out of the water

Paige looked incredibly toned with sculpted arms, lean legs and a very slender tummy.

The blonde beauty - who has appeared in the 2003 Diane Keaton movie Something's Gotta Give - pulled her hair back and added Ray-Ban sunglasses and a gold watch.

Izzy wore an orange bikini top and a matching skirt with her hair pulled back as well.

It was only five months ago that Paige welcomed Eddie's 10th child.

She must hit the gym daily: Paige looked incredibly toned with sculpted arms, lean legs and a very slender tummy. The blonde beauty pulled her hair back and added sunglasses and a gold watch

Max Charles Murphy was born on November 30, weighing six pounds, 11 ounces and measuring 19 inches long.

'Both mother and son are doing well,' a rep for the couple told People at the time.

Eddie and Paige confirmed in September that they were engaged, although no wedding date has been announced yet.

Sweet child: Izzy wore an orange bikini top and a matching skirt with her hair pulled back as well

The whole family was there: Eddie was not seen, but several of his family members were there

A source told People in late August that the couple wanted to have 'a younger sibling for their daughter'.

'They live a pretty low-key life,' the source said in August. 'They are all about family. Paige is very close to Eddies kids.'

Along with Eddie's first child with Paige, two-year-old Izzy, the comedian has eight other children from four different women.

The future Mr and Mrs Murphy: Butcher and Murphy attend the premiere of Cinedigm's Amateur Night in 2016 in Hollywood

All fine here: The cuple with his ex Nicole as well as two of their daughters Bria and Shayne

Eddie's oldest child is 29-year-old Eric, who he had with then-girlfriend Paulette McNeely, and he had his second child, 28-year-old Christian, with another girlfriend, Tamara Hood.

His next five children were with his first wife, Nicole Mitchell, who he was married to from 1993 to 2005 - Bria, 29, Miles, 26, Shayne, 24, Zola, 18 and Bella, 16.

He also has a daughter Angel, 11, with former Spice Girl Melanie 'B' Brown.
Jenny Powell has revealed she was struck down by a cyst that nearly cost her 53,000 just four days into a three-month sabbatical to Florida.

The star, 50, was rushed from the Seaquarium in Miami to a nearby hospital after a 'twinge' in her side turned into 'excruciating' pain.

On-site medics worried that the 'searing pain' could be the TV star's appendix and recommended she sought medical attention immediately, the Mirror reported.

Shock: The Loose Women regular, 50, was rushed from the Seaquarium in Miami to a nearby hospital after a 'twinge' in her side turned into 'excruciating' pain

The family - Jenny and her daughters Pollyanna, then three, and Constance, then 10, had embarked on the holiday in 2012 with her new partner Martin.

Jenny said: 'It felt like we were at the beginning of this great adventure, but within 45 minutes of the first twinge I was doubled up and my left side felt so excruciating I burst out crying.

'I knew that US medical bills could be astronomical and I was so worried it could cost thousands as Martin chucked us all into the car and we headed to hospital. By the time we got there I couldn't stand up straight. I was doubled up in pain, needed a wheelchair and was puking up from the agony.'

Holiday: On-site medics worried that the 'searing pain' could be the TV star's appendix and recommended she sought medical attention immediately

Bonding: The family - Jenny and her daughters Pollyanna, then three, and Constance, then 10, had embarked on the holiday in 2012 with her new partner Martin (pictured)

Jenny underwent MRI and CT scans at the hospital which revealed she had a dermoid cyst in her left ovary which was around the size of an orange.

The abnormal, sac-like growths tend to develop during in a woman's skull, lower back, ovaries or face during her reproductive years.

The cysts can be removed through keyhole surgery, and Jenny was told hers could be taken out that day and only leave two very small scars behind.

By 6pm, the Celebs on the Ranch star was about to undergo the operation.

The surgery went well for the mother-of-two - but Jenny was sure she hadn't bought any travel insurance to foot the 53,000 ($70,000) bill.

Family: Jenny underwent MRI and CT scans at the hospital which revealed she had a dermoid cyst in her left ovary which was around the size of an orange (Pictured with Connie and Pollyanna)

Luckily, she remembered a bank account she used with her ex-husband Toby Baxendale had provided travel insurance automatically - and she had never closed it.

She said: 'I remember saying, "I'll just phone my bank now" and with the sweat running off my forehead, dialling the number and saying, "I'm just confirming, because I know it must all be in place..."

'When they said "Yes, that's all fine, carry on" it was the biggest relief.'

Jenny recently spoke on Kate Thornton's White Wine Question Time podcast, where she discussed how she met her now-fiance Martin.

In 2009, she divorced her husband, Toby, after three years of marriage before she later met Martin.

Operation: The cysts can be removed through keyhole surgery, and Jenny was told hers could be taken out that day and only leave two very small scars behind

She told the star: 'I was in Pret a Manger at Euston waiting to get the train back up to Manchester and this Adonis walks in, I thought "Bloody hell, hes alright".

'And I just put my head down because I was ogle-ing him, and this shadow loomed over me and it was him asking if he could sit down.'

She continued: 'He was chatting away and he said, "Do you want my number?" And I said "What for?" I mean, what girl says that to a fit bloke?

'He went, "Well, you obviously havent been dating very much because now, in this day and age, I dont put any pressure on you; Ill give you the option. I will give you the number, then you can walk away and then you can think about it".

'So I grabbed the number off him. I texted him saying: "Im a mature woman, I dont play games. My names Jenny. This is me. This is my number. Whatever".

'He rang that night, and asked if he could take me out to dinner.'
Jordyn Woods' mother Elizabeth Woods is not happy that online retailers are selling merchandise with her daughter's face and quote on the front.

The momager took to Instagram to tell her followers that they have not approved of the items and are not profiting from them.

The products - which include T-shirts and pillows - shows Jordyn during her Red Table Talk with Jada Pinkett-Smith where she says 'I don't need your situation.' The interview was conducted after she was caught kissing Khloe Kardashian's boyfriend Tristan Thompson which split the couple up.

Not impressed: Jordyn Woods' mom Elizabeth slammed companies cashing in on the family's 'situation' amid the drama between her daughter, Khloe Kardashian and Tristan Thompson

'We are well aware that many people have been selling merch,' Elizabeth began.

'If you are aware of any companies selling merchandise and trying to benefit from our situation, please tag them below.'

Elizabeth then shared she did not want her followers to think they were profiting from the items.

Getting onto the situation: 'If you are aware of any companies selling merchandise and trying to benefit from our situation, please tag them below'

Carrying on: Jordyn and Elizabeth have been spending the past few days in London as part of a promo tour for her lashes collaboration with Eylure

'We would like for the world to know that we have not authorized any of this and have not profited from any of these sales whatsoever. Thank you for all the support and love #teamigotthis,' she continued.

One image saw Jordyn's face on a pillow with the caption: 'I don't need your situation.'

The beauty notoriously said those five words during her interview with Jada.

Cashing in: One image saw Jordyn's face on a pillow with the caption: 'I don't need your situation'

Breaking her silence: The quotes were taken from Jordyn's sit-down interview with Jada Pinkett-Smith's show Red Table Talk

Jordyn and Elizabeth have been spending the past few days in London as part of a promo tour for her lashes collaboration with Eylure.

The former Kardashian-Jenner friend was shunned from the family back in February after she had gotten close to Khloe's beau Tristan during a house party.

The former model for Khloe's Good American brand subsequently moved out of Kylie's guest house and was cut off from the family.

And after Jordyn said she only casually kissed Tristan goodbye after a night of partying, Khloe tweeted she was a 'liar.'

Devastated: After Jordyn said she only casually kissed Tristan goodbye after a night of partying, Khloe tweeted she was a 'liar' - Khloe was also seen in he new KUWTK trailer yelling at Jordyn and telling her she broke up her family

Friends no more? Jordyn first rose to fame as the best friend and side-kick of Kylie Jenner. She even lived in her guest house

In a trailer for season 16 of KUWTK, Khloe is also heard telling Woods that she ruined her family.

A source told Us Weekly: 'Kylie took a little break from filming Keeping Up With The Kardashians and recently got back into filming and its been a struggle and difficult.

'She was very upset about the situation with Jordyn and also just didnt want to deal with it and have to address it.'

But she did add Jordyn to her Twitter page since then, hinting the two might be making up.
The sequel to Coming To America was announced last week by Paramount Pictures.

And on Monday costume designer Ruth E Carter shared on social media that she had joined the project.

The fashion wizard held onto her the Oscar she won this year for her work on Black Panther as she posed next to the sequel's main stars Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall.

On board: The sequel to Coming To America was announced last week by Paramount Pictures. And on Monday costume designer Ruth E Carter shared on social media that she had joined the project. Here she is seen with the film's star Eddie Murphy

Happy to be here: And the star also posed with the film's other star, Arsenio Hall. Carter won an Oscar for her work on Black Panther

'GOOD MORNING MY NEIGHBORS! It's official! Preliminary fitting for Coming to America 2 with Prince Akeem, Semmi and Oscar,' she said.

Carter is best known for Spike Lee's films School Daze, Do The Right Thing, Jungle Fever and Malcolm X.

In the original 1988 movie Eddie played Prince Akeem, who flies from Africa to Queens, New York to find a wife he can respect.

Thanks! 'GOOD MORNING MY NEIGHBORS! It's official! Preliminary fitting for Coming to America 2 with Prince Akeem, Semmi and Oscar,' she said

He then falls for the woman whose father is Akeem's boss at a fast food restaurant.

Arsenio plays his assistant Semmi who is not too fond of Queens and wants to return to the good life in Africa.

Craig Brewer is set to direct after having just directed Murphy in Dolemite Is My Name.

New to the US: In the original 1988 movie Eddie played Prince Akeem, who flies from Africa to Queens, New York to find a wife he can respect

Kenya Barris is rewriting a script by original Coming to America writers Barry Blaustein and David Sheffield.

Murphy is producing with Kevin Misher and Barris is exec producer.

Sheffield told Good Morning America in June that he and his co-writer Barry Blaustein were called by Murphy to write a draft of the sequel.

She has it all: He then falls in love with his boss' daughter, played by Shari Headley

'Eddie called us and said, "We're going to do a sequel. We have a notion and an idea,"' he said.

'It began with the notion that Eddie['s character Prince Akeem] has to find his son, who can become the king because the country has this tradition that the eldest male [will take the throne],' Sheffield said.

'So it's Eddie pursuing his long lost son, whos an American. That was the basis of it. That was the beginning.'

Big daddy: James Earl Jones played Akeem's father, who was the king of his country. On the right he is Jones seen in 2015. He is most famous for voicing Darth Vader in Star Wars

Back: John Amos played Akeem's boss who owned a fast food restaurant that was very similar to McDonald's. Here, right, Amos is seen in 2017 in Santa Monica, California

The writers drafted the script in the summer of 2017.

'Everyone seemed to love it,' he added.

But then Paramount brought in Black-ish creator Kenya Barris to work on the script.

It has also been reported that Shari Headley (as Akeem's wife) will be back as will John Amos (Akeem's new father in law) and James Earl Jones (Akeem's King father).
Kate Hudson repped her new eco-friendly clothing line Happy X Nature while out and about with her daughter Rani Rose and babydaddy Danny Fujikawa in Manhattan on Monday.

The 39-year-old Oscar nominee held Rani in a carrier while clad in the HXN $128 'Adventure Utility' acid-wash jean jacket and $78 HXN 'Pop' yellow floral pants.

The daughter of Goldie Hawn is rumored to be engaged to the 32-year-old Lightwave Records founder, whom she originally met in 2002 through his stepsisters Erin & Sara Foster.

Representing: Kate Hudson wore her new eco-friendly clothing line Happy X Nature while out with her daughter Rani Rose and babydaddy Danny Fujikawa (L) in Manhattan on Monday

Danny edited and composed the music for Kate's first promo for her 'easy, free-spirited fashion that minimizes our impact on non-renewable resources.'

Later that day, Hudson Insta-storied a video of their six-month-old princess while simultaneously announcing her other company Fabletics' new gifs.

The Pretty Fun author also has a 15-year-old son Ryder with her ex-husband, Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson; as well as a seven-year-old son Bingham with ex-fiance, Muse frontman Matt Bellamy.

'It's great. Seeing the boys with her,' the Golden Globe winner told Good Morning America last Thursday.

You like? The 39-year-old Oscar nominee held Rani in a carrier while clad in the HXN $128 'Adventure Utility' acid-wash jean jacket and $78 HXN 'Pop' yellow floral pants

Fiance? The daughter of Goldie Hawn is rumored to be engaged to the 32-year-old Lightwave Records founder, whom she originally met in 2002 through his stepsisters Erin & Sara Foster

Family affair: Danny edited and composed the music for Kate's first promo for her 'easy, free-spirited fashion that minimizes our impact on non-renewable resources'

'I feel like I tear up every day because Ryder is so big. He's 15 now and to see him with his sister and to be a real helper...

'Everyone's so happy and I feel, right now...even though it's chaotic, the energy is calm and loving and peaceful right now and I'm just in a great place.'

Kate plans on her 40th birthday being a blow-out bash on April 19.

'Oh my god, yes! I'm a last-minute kind of Aries girl. So it will happen. It'll be a blow out,' Hudson confirmed.

'Happy baby!' Later that day, Hudson Insta-storied a video of their six-month-old princess while simultaneously announcing her other company Fabletics' new gifs

'It's great. Seeing the boys with her': The Pretty Fun author also has a 14-year-old son Ryder with her ex-husband, Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson; as well as a seven-year-old son Bingham with ex- fiance, Muse frontman Matt Bellamy (pictured January 2)

The Golden Globe winner told GMA last Thursday: 'Everyone's so happy and I feel, right now...even though it's chaotic, the energy is calm and loving and peaceful right now and I'm just in a great place'

'At this point, I just want to tell everybody, Hey, Im gonna have a party, and then everybody shows up. I personally, with having a baby, feel like I deserve a really good hangover. I've been so good, I've been so busy. I've been breastfeeding like crazy and I just want some martinis. I want to sleep in. [That'd be] really nice.'

Acting-wise, the Marshall actress shaved her head to play a sober drug dealer taking care of her autistic sister (Maddie Ziegler) in Sia Furler's directorial debut, Music, which is due out later this year.

'I think it might be good,' the Australian 43-year-old told Rolling Stone in August.

'It's not exceptional yet...I'm a little bit ashamed I couldn't make it exceptional. That was my dream, to make the first movie an exceptional work. But what are you gonna do? I'm only human.'
Kourtney Kardashian took a quick trip to Finland earlier this month.

The eldest Kardashian was in the Scandinavian country to celebrate her 40th birthday early, according to UsWeekly. Her actual birthday falls on April 18.

Not only were her three kids Mason, nine, Penelope, six, and Reign, four, with her, but so was her ex Scott Disick as well as his current girlfriend Sofia Richie.

Vacay! Kourtney Kardashian took a quick trip to Finland earlier this month. The eldest Kardashian was in the Scandinavian country to celebrate her 40th birthday early, according to UsWeekly

Brrr: The 39-year-old star was also seen in this red hoodie with white sunglasses

Family: Not only were her three kids with her, but so was her ex Scott Disick as well as his current girlfriend Sofia Richie. Seen in 2017

The Poosh.com creator stayed in the Arctic TreeHouse Hotel in Rovaniemi, Finland.

And she posted about the modern-looking place on Sunday on her Instagram stories.

The designer of the hotel, Studio Puisto Architects, reposted the photo on their account.

Richie, 20, also shared a photo from the location, captioning it 'The North Pole.' She was seen walking out of a log caption in all black.

There was also a glam shot of her indoors in a sweater and boots which could have been from the hotel.

A source told the site that Kourtney often spends time with Scott and Sofia and 'they are in a good place.'

There seemed to be no sign of Kim or Khloe on the trip and it is not known if cameras for Keeping Up With The Kardashians were there.

She made the trip north: Richie, 20, also shared a photo from the location, captioning it 'The North Pole.' She was seen walking out of a log caption in all black

Winter beige: There was also a glam shot of her indoors in a sweater and boots which could have been from the hotel

So tight: Scott and Sofia have been dating for two years; seen in December 2017

In March Kourtney told the Today show that they 'travel together' and thinks it's 'a good message to show other people.'

History: Kourtney and Scott began dating in 2006 after meeting through Joe Francis

They all vacationed together in Mexico four months ago and said they are 'one modern family.'

'Things are totally fine. It wasn't a surprise that Sofia went away with them  it was a family trip. Sofia and Scott are together, they are in love and she's part of the family now,' explained an insider to Us. 'Everyone really likes Sofia. She's really sweet and she's so good with the kids. They all get along.'

Kourtney and Scott began dating in 2006 after meeting through Joe Francis.

In 2009 they split but they get back together and welcome son Mason in December 2009. In 2012 they welcomed Penelope and then Scott spun out of control after both his parents die.

Reign is born in July 2015 and soon after he and Kourtney split after he was seen getting close to his ex Chloe Bartoli.

Not fun: Kourtney and Scott did not seem to get along great on season 16 of KUWTK

Out of touch: Kourtney told Scott on Sunday's KUWTK that she did not want to lead him on. But Scott shot back that he is in a committed relationship and that would not happen

In November 2016 they got back together for a while but three months later he is seen with models.

In May 2017 Kourtney started to date Younes Bendjima and then they made it official, but they split last year.

Scott has been with Sofia for almost two years.
The Widow marks Kate Beckinsale's first TV project in twenty years, making its debut episode on Monday evening an anticipated event.

But viewers who tuned into the ITV drama were left feeling lost by the confusing timeline and multiple plot points.

Created by the sibling duo behind The Missing, Liar and Baptiste, The Widow follows Kate's character Georgia, whose aid-worker husband had been reported dead after a plane crash in the Congolese jungle three years ago.

Return: The Widow marks Kate Beckinsale's first TV project in twenty years, making its first episode on Monday an anticipated event but viewers were left baffled by the ITV drama

Her life is thrown into chaos when she catches a glimpse of her supposedly dead husband on a news broadcast when in northern Wales, leading her to travel to Africa to try to discover what really happened to her husband.

The drama time hopped between the events of the plane crash and Georgia's investigations three years later, while also intertwining plotlines from other characters such as a mysterious blind man who had travelled to the Netherlands in the hopes of regaining his sight.

Viewers were soon taking to Twitter in a bid to find out what was going on as they admitted the timeline hops had left them baffled.

MIA: The Widow follows Kate's character Georgia, whose aid-worker husband had been reported dead after a plane crash in the Congolese jungle three years ago

'Hand on heart I haven't got the faintest idea what's going on', tweeted one lost viewer.

'Oh dear I keep missing the "3 years early/later" year captions, so lost with time lines' agreed another, while one fan had some advice for the show, writing:

'They needed to give her a fringe or glasses to help me work out which bit is flashback! #TheWidow #whenarewe.'

Others were left baffled by a scene which saw Georgia's suitcase being stolen when she arrived in Africa, with many pointing out the character's less than stressed reaction.

Investigations: Her life is thrown into chaos when she catches a glimpse of her supposedly dead husband on a news broadcast, leading her to travel to Africa to find out the truth

Help! Viewers were soon taking to Twitter in a bid to find out what was going on as they admitted the timeline hops had left them baffled

'Why is she not more bothered about her suitcase getting robbed??' asked one exasperated viewer,' as another fan cottoned onto another unbelievable plot point:

'As far fetched as #TheWidow has been so far, asking (and getting) a receptionist in an NHS walk in centre to rewind the news was unbelievable!'

Overall though, viewers were delighted to have Kate back on the small screen, with one huge fan tweeting: 'They're trying to make Kate Beckinsale look rough but she still looks beautiful.'

Here's an idea: One fan had some advice for the show, writing: 'They needed to give her a fringe or glasses to help me work out which bit is flashback! #TheWidow #whenarewe.'

Who's that? Intertwining plotlines from other characters such as a mysterious blind man who had travelled to the Netherlands in the hopes of regaining his sight also baffled fans

'Gripped by @ITV #TheWidow @KateBeckinsale is fabulous', wrote another.

Speaking to this week's issue of Radio Times, Kate revealed why it has taken her so long to return to a TV role: 'The last time I did a TV series I was getting my A-level results. And I remember I did Emma on ITV a long time ago,' she recalled

'When I was younger I got a bit blindsided by suddenly finding myself pregnant and having to be a mum.

'I've been saying for years, "When my daughter goes to college, then I'm going to be able to go off and do jobs that are far away."'

Fans: Overall though, viewers were delighted to have Kate back, with one huge fan tweeting: 'They're trying to make Kate Beckinsale look rough but she still looks beautiful'

It wasn't long after Kate's daughter Lily had moved away for college that the actress was offered the lead role in the ITV drama - which was created by the sibling duo behind The Missing, Liar and Baptiste.

She said: 'They said, "Do you want to go to South Africa for six months and do The Widow?"

'It felt like, "OK, it came around a little bit sooner than I was anticipating it's a bit of a leap of faith and I'm a bit scared and I don't really want to but OK."'

The Widow continues on ITV on Tuesday April 9.
Married At First Sight's Lauren Huntriss has claimed she received hardly any screen time during the two-part finale as 'punishment' for publicly criticising the show.

The 32-year-old, who was paired with 'ex-virgin' Matthew Bennett, only appeared for a few seconds in background and reaction shots on Monday's episode.

In a since-deleted Instagram comment, Lauren alleged that her mysterious absence was the direct result of her 'p**sing off' a senior MAFS producer.

Scroll down for video

Was she punished for speaking out? Married At First Sight bride Lauren Huntriss (right) says she was edited out of Monday night's finale for publicly criticising the show

Allegations: In a since-deleted Instagram comment, Lauren alleged that her lack of screen time was the direct result of her 'p**sing off' a senior producer

She wrote: 'You know you've p**sed MAFS off when you get two seconds [of] screen time... Love you'.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Channel Nine for comment.

Lauren has publicly criticised MAFS producers, and is understood to have broken her contract with Channel Nine and Endemol Shine Australia by doing so.

Blacklisted? Lauren, who was paired with Matthew Bennett on Married At First Sight, only appeared for a few seconds in background and reaction shots on Monday night's episode

During an unauthorised interview with The Kyle and Jackie O Show in February, Lauren said she 'deserved' to tell her story despite efforts to silence her.

When asked by a listener if producers cared about the participants' well-being, she replied: 'I don't know. I like to think that they are humans [and] have feelings and compassion, but I don't know...'

She later said it was irresponsible for producers to put certain people on television because they weren't mentally prepared for it.

Bad girl: Lauren has previously criticised MAFS producers, and is understood to have broken her contract with Channel Nine and Endemol Shine Australia by doing so. Pictured on The Kyle and Jackie O Show in February

Lauren had previously claimed on Facebook that she was pressured into delivering certain 'lines' for producers.

In one controversial scene on MAFS, she told Matthew she 'used to be a lesbian'. But according to Lauren, she was pressured into saying this because her previous admission ('I used to see women') apparently 'wasn't dramatic enough'.

Speaking on Kyle and Jackie O afterwards, she said: '[The producers] will say to you, "We'll keep you here all day until you say what we want you to say"'.

Bombshell: In one controversial scene on MAFS, Lauren told Matthew she 'used to be a lesbian'

Claims: But according to Lauren, producers told her to say this because her previous admission ('I used to see women') apparently 'wasn't dramatic enough'

Last month, Lauren ruffled feathers yet again when she appeared to spoil MAFS' ending by revealing in an Instagram comment that 'only one couple' stayed together after the experiment.

'[It's] all for ratings sadly. They mismatched all of us except for one couple,' she wrote, seemingly referring to the loved-up Jules Robinson and Cameron Merchant.

Married At First Sight season seven will return to Channel Nine in 2020.
Burundi soldiers on patrol during a controversial May 2018 referendum that allowed President Pierre Nkurunziza to extend his stay in office

Burundi on Friday released the first 142 prisoners from a promised 3,000 detainees to promote reconciliation, the justice minister said, but critics said it was only to ease pressure on crowded jails.

Justice minister Aimee-Laurentine Kanyana attended a release ceremony in the prison at Gitega, the new official political capital of the small east African nation, for the first batch of released prisoners.

President Pierre Nkurunziza promised the prisoner releases in December 2018, the third time he has granted mass pardons to prisoners since the country spiralled into crisis in 2015, sparking mass arrests.

The government has said the releases are to promote "national reconciliation". But opposition and civil society groups in exile say no political prisoners are to be released and that the move is just to free up more space in jail.

Prisons are massively overcrowded. Burundi has 11 prisons with a capacity for some 4,000 prisoners, but are currently housing more than 11,000 people, according to the rights group Aprodeh.

Those earmarked for release are serving sentences for relatively petty crimes.

"This decree... unfortunately excludes some 4,000 political prisoners who languish in Burundian prisons," said Aprodeh director Pierre-Claver Mbonimpa.

Burundi has been in turmoil since Nkurunziza sought in April 2015 a fiercely-contested third term in office.

The violence has claimed at least 1,200 lives and displaced more than 400,000 people between April 2015 and May 2017, according to estimates by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has opened an investigation.
Japan's Emperor Akihito at his accession to the Chrysanthemum Thone on November 12, 1990. Alongside him is Empress Michiko

Emperor Akihito ascended to the Japanese throne on November 12, 1990 in a tightly choreographed ceremony steeped in tradition but with hints of modernity.

Akihito, aged 56, had already succeeded his father, Emperor Hirohito, immediately on his death the previous year after the longest reign in Japan's history.

His official enthronement ceremony took place at the end of a long period of mourning and in the presence of 2,500 dignitaries including royalty from around the world.

It was the first such event under Japan's post World War II pacifist constitution in which the emperor was no longer revered as a "living god", becoming only "the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people."

Ahead of Akihito's April 30 abdication in favour of his son, here is an account -- based on AFP's reporting from the time -- of the day that he took the throne.

- Ancient tradition -

In a break with the past, the Chrysanthemum Throne had been moved for the occasion to Tokyo from the former imperial capital of Kyoto, where all previous enthronements had taken place.

Installed in the Imperial Palace, the large octagonal black-and-gold structure, topped by a great golden phoenix, had next to it a slightly smaller throne for Empress Michiko.

They overlooked an internal court adorned with two rows of banners under which were lined up 20 imperial guards, 40 bearers of ceremonial objects and 12 gong and drum players, an AFP report described.

The ceremony lasted half an hour, starting when members of the imperial family, wearing traditional layered costumes, slowly entered the throne room.

Only Akihito's mother, the Empress Dowager, was absent, being ill.

Akihito was the last to enter. He wore a ceremonial costume whose form has not changed since Japan's Heian period (8-12th centuries) and is made up of multiple layers of silk robes and a black headdress.

Michiko, who arrived just ahead of her husband, wore a "junihitoe", a multi-layered kimono weighing nearly 10 kilograms (22 pounds).

- Foreign royals -

Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu calls "banzai" or "long live the emperor" after Akihito's enthronement on November 12, 1990 in Tokyo

"It is a bit like Japan has returned to the Heian era," one impressed guest said.

Among the nearly 500 foreign dignitaries in attendance were about 70 heads of state and 20 prime ministers as well as US vice president Dan Quayle.

In the front row were Belgium's King Baudouin and Queen Fabiola. Behind them were 20 members of other royal families, including the Prince and Princess of Wales, Charles and Diana.

- 'Banzai!' -

In one of the signs that Akihito would be closer to the people than his more formal father, he shunned the ancient language usually used for such occasions, "speaking very politely but comprehensibly to the ordinary Japanese", AFP reported.

"I proclaim my enthronement to those at home and abroad," declared the 125th emperor of Japan from his elevated throne.

Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu responded briefly, standing upright to address the emperor -- another departure from past custom. He then exclaimed "banzai" ("long live the Emperor") three times, joined by the 2,500 invitees.

Two hours later, the imperial couple -- now in Western dress with the empress in a white gown and a small tiara -- walked out of the palace under a radiant sun and climbed into an open-topped Rolls Royce.

Smiling, they waved to the gathered crowds as the car travelled the nearly five kilometres (three miles) to the Akasaka Palace, their residence.

- Closer to the people -

Thousands of police were deployed along the route, two or three deep, in front of the 100,000 people who had turned out to see their new emperor.

Akihito "does not want to be inaccessible, living as a recluse in his Tokyo palace as did his father," AFP reported ahead of the ceremony.

Japan's Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko drive through Tokyo on the day of his enthronement on November 12, 1990

"A reserved man, who is quite solitary, he appears in public smiling and warm, sporting well-cut double-breasted suits, breaking with the formal style of his father before whom Japanese had to bow very low and lower their eyes," one story said.

But the day was not without trouble: police reported around 30 incidents in Tokyo before and during the enthronement ceremony, including fires in Shinto religious shrines and underground trains. They were blamed on anti-imperial far-left groups.
Measures that Facebook says it is considering after the Christchurch attacks, which claimed the lives of 50 people, include barring people who have previously violated its community standards from livestreaming

New Zealand's privacy regulator on Monday accused Facebook of failing to cooperate on tackling livestreaming in the wake of the Christchurch mosques massacre, saying founder Mark Zuckerberg was "disingenuous" about its systems.

The gunman livestreamed his rampage at two mosques on March 15 on Facebook, with the footage proliferating widely online despite the platform saying it "quickly" removed the footage.

Privacy Commissioner John Edwards said Zuckerberg was "disingenuous" in saying bad actors were going out of their way to circumvent Facebook's systems.

"They actually didn't have any systems to detect the events in Christchurch," Edwards to Radio New Zealand, adding that a delay on livestreaming would be a good interim measure.

"It is a technology that is capable of causing great harm... He (Zuckerberg) can't actually tell us, or won't tell us, how many suicides are livestreamed, how many murders, how many sexual assaults.

"In fact I've asked Facebook exactly that last week and they simply don't have those figures or won't give them to us."

Zuckerberg said last week that a delay on live feeds was not on the cards despite pressure on the US firm to crack down on the sharing of violent video or images.

Edwards added that the social network needed to step up and be responsible for the content that the site hosts.

"This is a global problem. The events that were livestreamed in Christchurch could happen anywhere in the world," he added.

"They have been responsible for appalling content that set the preconditions for genocide in Myanmar. They have enabled their service to be manipulated by Russian trolls to influence the outcome of elections."

Australia last week passed controversial laws that could see social media executives from firms such as Facebook or YouTube face jail for failing to take down violent extremist content quickly.

Measures that Facebook says it is considering after the Christchurch attacks, which claimed the lives of 50 people, include barring people who have previously violated its community standards from livestreaming.
Supporters of challenger Prabowo Subianto are just as vociferous as those who want to re-elect President Joko Widodo

A small army of "hoax busters" in Indonesia is trying to hold the line against a swarm of fake news that threatens to sway millions of voters as the world's third-biggest democracy heads to the polls.

While many countries fret about the explosion of online falsehoods, observers say Indonesia's enormous social media audience -- and low levels of digital literacy -- make its April 17 polls particularly vulnerable.

A whopping 130 million people -- about half the population -- spend an average of over three hours daily on social media, one of the highest rates globally.

Analysts say much of what they are reading about the 245,000 candidates, who are standing for everything from the presidency to local legislative seats, is untrue.

The online battle is particularly fierce over the reputations of President Joko Widodo, who is running for re-election, and his challenger Prabowo Subianto.

Both are hit daily with false reports and doctored headlines circulated by fans, detractors and for-hire fake news fabricators known as buzzers.

Misinformation emerged in the 2014 election, which Widodo won, said Ari Nurcahyo, a political analyst at the Para Syndicate think tank.

"Now it's much more difficult to contain so the effect is more destructive, not only for the candidates but also for society," he said.

"If it's not dealt with properly then we'll have serious issues even after the election."

- Hoaxes, hate speech -

Fears are growing that fake news is cracking open social and religious fault lines in the Southeast Asian nation of 260 million, which has significant ethnic and religious minorities, including Hindus, Christians and Buddhists.

Indonesia's reputation for religious tolerance has already been tested in recent years by extremist violence and the increasingly prominent voice of Islamic hardliners.

"What scares me is when hoaxes are mixed with hate speech because they often use false information to spread animosity along on ethnic, racial and religious lines," said Ferdinandus Setu, spokesman for Indonesia's communication and information ministry.

Fears are growing that fake news is cracking open social and religious fault lines in Indonesia

The ministry created an 80 person, around-the-clock fact-checking team to debunk hoaxes and other fake news, with officials announcing the results at regular press briefings.

Joining the offensive are hundreds of volunteers at the NGO Mafindo, which is among two dozen organisations that belong to a unique digital verification coalition called CekFakta -- linked to Indonesia's top news outlets.

Widodo, who still leads Subianto by a wide margin, has blamed false information for hurting his chances in vote-rich West Java, the Muslim majority country's most populous province.

Online, Widodo haters say he is selling off the country to China and other foreign interests.

Or they claim he is a communist, intent on banning the daily call to prayer and legalising gay marriage -- unpopular moves that the practising Muslim has never advocated.

But Subianto also has online detractors who air falsehoods such as that the retired general wore smart glasses to give him an unfair edge during televised presidential debates.

"Both sides are playing with rumours, altering facts and data," said Syamsuddin Haris, a political analyst at the Indonesia Sciences Institute.

Despite the huge volume of fake news, pollsters say that among committed supporters of either presidential candidate, false stories make little difference either way in terms of their voting choice.

The real target -- and the places the hoaxes can make a difference -- is the undecided voters which are estimated to number as much as 15 percent of the huge electorate and maybe enough to tip the balance.

- 'False narrative' -

Facebook, which has a fact checking partnership with AFP, has banned political advertisements from outside Indonesia ahead of the polls, and shut hundreds of accounts and pages linked to a group accused of spreading hate speech and false claims.

Police have also cracked down, rounding up freelance fakers and members of the Muslim Cyber Army (MCA), a cluster of loosely connected groups that attack the government and stoke religious extremism on social media.

A whopping 130 million people - about half Indonesia's population - spend an average of over three hours daily on social media

Despite a string of arrests, online trolls are still trying to confuse with claims like boxes of cash were found inside a crashed helicopter carrying a political candidate, suggesting she was corrupt.

Photos of the downed helicopter -- which were real -- were accompanied by false stories about the money.

"Many people can tell when a photo or video has been doctored, but the problem is when they're real but the accompanying narrative is false," said Mafindo co-founder Aribowo Sasmito.
SOFIA, April 8 (Reuters) - These are some of the main stories in Bulgarian newspapers on Monday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

-- Bulgarias Black Sea resort of Sunny Beach has been ranked the best value destination in Europe for a bargain beach break, for the sixth consecutive year, Post Office UKs 2019 Holiday Costs Baramoter said (Trud, Monitor, 24 Chasa)

-- Military personnel could be sent to the border with Greece to help police in case of migrant crisis, Interior Minister Mladen Marinov said. Bulgaria has already strengthened its border patrols and is ready to implement a crisis management plan (24 Chasa, Monitor)

-- Some 72 percent of Bulgarians (seven out of ten aged 16 or over), rated their health status as good or very good, data from the Eurostat analysis on Europeans' health status in 2017 showed (Trud, Monitor)

-- Cases of measles in Bulgaria have more than doubled in a month, reaching 282 at the end of March, the Health Ministry said. Of the cases, 227 involve children younger than nine, of whom 103 are between one and four years old
The Coalition of Christian Nurse Practitioners Opposes the American Nurses Association Proposed Position Statement: 'The Nurse's Role When a Patient Requests Aid in Dying'

NEWS PROVIDED BY

April 8, 2019

BRISTOL, Tenn., April 8, 2019 / Christian Newswire / -- A draft statement by the American Nurses Association regarding a nurse's role when a patient requests physician-assisted suicide corrupts the role of a nurse. The nursing profession has a historical record of assisting patients with comfort, increasing and/or sustaining quality of life, seeing life's intrinsic value and providing holistic family support, not aiding in the death of their patients.

"We do not feel that any nurse has an ethical obligation to assist a patient with killing themselves, and we condemn the shift in verbiage from physician-assisted suicide to 'aid in dying,'" states Sara Hellwege, chair of the Coalition of Christian Nurse Practitioners (CCNP). "While the American Nursing Association (ANA) states that 'nurses are prohibited from administering AID,' it seems they are, in fact, advocating for the action to be included within the nursing scope of practice."

A patient's voluntary request for physician-assisted suicide does not make it ethical or permissible. The idea of a nurse acting as an accomplice by encouraging the transfer of a lethal dose of medication is morally repugnant to the foundational principles of nursing and those who value the innate dignity of human beings.

"We contend that it is our responsibility as professionals to be frank with patients about behaviors that could cause self-harm, and we have a fiduciary duty to them," Hellwege said.

"We also must consider what may occur with vulnerable patients' compounding socio-economic factors to which this may be a dangerous, persuasive agenda for those who may lack resources. These policies directly target kind-hearted citizens who may not want to financially burden their families, creating a duty to die," Hellwege continued.

Instead of advocating for such a dangerous policy statement shift by the ANA, CCNP recommends the following:

 Train more palliative care physicians and advanced practice nurses

 Encourage better identification and treatment of depression

 Promote perinatal and adult hospice

 Mobilize communities to provide emotional and relational end-of-life support to struggling patients and families

"We challenge our legislative bodies to modify laws to allow autonomous practice by certified palliative care NPs working to prescribe adequate pain control at the end of life-removing barriers of physician oversight which cause an undue burden on patients and the healthcare system. We must highlight that just because something is legal, does not make the action morally correct," Hellwege continued.

CCNP challenges the ANA to not adopt this policy, as it requires nurses to compromise their integrity by going against their religious and moral convictions, inhibiting their religious liberty and political freedoms, if they were to participate in facilitating the act by acquiring medication, arranging referral to a supportive provider or speaking of Physician-Assisted Suicide in a positive light.

The Coalition of Christian Nurse Practitioners is a Specialty Selection of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations.

SOURCE Christian Medical & Dental Associations

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By Roli Srivastava

MUMBAI, April 8 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - India's ruling party promised cheap sanitary pads, workplace creches and quotas to get more women into parliament on Monday, seeking to woo female voters ahead of a general election.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) devoted an entire chapter to what it called women's empowerment in its election manifesto, published days before voting starts on Thursday.

About 432 million of India's voters are female and they are a major focus for parties competing for power in the world's largest democracy.

Women's safety is a particular focus, with the main opposition Congress party promising to set up a separate agency to investigate crimes against women, amid concerns that they have been neglected in the past.

But women's rights advocates accused both parties of tokenism, saying they had taken little concrete action while in power.

"The need of the hour is to focus on women as many more women are (now) talking about these issues," Geeta Menon told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"But this is tokenism. What does it mean in the real sense," said Menon, secretary of Stree Jagruti Samiti, a charity that promotes domestic workers' rights.

The BJP said it would set up fast-track courts, promising "strict provisions" to ensure speedy prosecutions for rape and other offences against women.

Six years after the rape and murder of a student on a bus in Delhi sparked national outrage, safety remains a key concern among Indian women.

Government data shows reported cases of crime against women rose by 83 percent between 2007 and 2016, when there were four cases of rape reported every hour.

QUOTAS

Both major parties vowed to improve women's participation in the workforce, with the BJP promising to treble the number of workplace creches to free women up from childcare.

Congress promised a series of measures including night shelters for female migrant workers, hostels and safer transport services.

Both parties pledged to make it easier for women to access sanitary products - a key issue in a country where many cannot afford them.

The BJP saying it would expand an existing scheme offering pads for just one Indian rupee (1.5 U.S. cents), while Congress said it would install sanitary pad vending machines at public places, schools and colleges.

The two main parties committed to reserving a third of seats in the national parliament and state assemblies for women.

Women currently hold just 12 percent of seats in the lower and upper houses of parliament combined, compared to a global average of 23 percent, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, a global body.

A bill to introduce a quota was passed by the upper house in 2010, but has since stalled despite pledges by successive governments to enact the legislation, and only 668 of the 8,251 candidates in the last election were women.

"Both parties have had the chance to pass this bill. The BJP had (an) absolute majority (in the) past five years, so why do they have to promise it now," said Kalpana Sharma, a journalist who writes on gender issues.

The BJP is widely expected to retain power after the election, though with a much smaller mandate, hit by concerns over a shortage of jobs and weak farm prices.

($1 = 69.5640 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Roli Srivastava @Rolionaroll; Editing by Claire Cozens. Please credit Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, property rights, and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)
Our beloved neighbour Pakistan seems scared.

The same foreign minister of Pakistan, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who recently admitted to having in-depth knowledge about Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Maulana Masood Azhars health, has once again shocked the world by saying that India had new aggression plans up its sleeve, which will be unfurled somewhere between April 16 to April 20.

Why is this shocking? For two reasons, to be specific.

1.). The revered minister based these allegations on strong intel inputs. We wonder how Pakistan has been suffering at the hands of terrorism if they have this strong an intel, or whatever they call it to camouflage their everyday cock-and-bull stories;

2.). Doesnt it sound more like an astrological prediction? Like a Shubh Mahurat? Did they just control+F J&K on our seven-phase election chart and thus reach this preposterous conclusion? (Anantnag: April 23, 29, May 6; Baramulla: April 11; Jammu: April 11; Srinagar, Udhampur: April 18). Ladakh will go to the polls on May 6. Hence, the story has not stretched that far.

In quite a dramatic press conference (with enough of voice modulation), the Pakistani foreign minister did exactly what a minister of the cabinet of peacenik Imran Khan (who almost won the Nobel Peace Prize) should not have done  fear-mongering.

He also took the entire responsibility of what he was saying.

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.

But so much for that. The Pakistani minister also comes across as quite a good story-teller.

In his press conference, he enacts the imagined conversation between our PM Narendra Modi and the heads of India's armed forces.

According to Pakistan, the mahurat starts on April 16 and ends on April 20. (Photo: Reuters)

He (Modi) says that you have permission to carry out action. They (heads of armed forces) say, 'We have selected targets which are of a military nature. And it is not essential that those targets would be limited to Kashmir ... So, a new talk of military action is going on there and a new message about a military action is being given out," he concluded.

Apart from scaring his country  and daring India  the Pakistani minister also slammed the international community for their silence.

But we know the reason for this sudden trepidation.

It is quite unfortunate that poor Pakistan has never seen 'free and fair' elections without bloodshed.

According to reports, over 200 people died in the weeks leading up to the 2018 election, which finally gave its verdict in favour of a 'Naya Pakistan' under the leadership of wohi purana Imran Khan. On election day, at least 31 people were killed in a bomb blast in Quetta  an attack later claimed by ISIS.

So, the Pakistanis are scared thinking that the situation may be the same in its 'separated at birth' twin India as well. Only, they fear, the bloodshed could be on their side of the border.

Oh well. Let the Pakistanis live as they do  where the mind is with fear. And, quite likely, little else.

Also Read: These election promises were made on April 1. Seriously!
On being asked why he selected Wayanad  a Muslim-dominated constituency  as his second choice to fight the Lok Sabha polls, Congress President Rahul Gandhi said he wanted to send a message of oneness in the country. He further added that the BJP and RSS posed a threat to the nations culture and were undermining its age-old traditions of pluralism.

What he didnt say  or what no one asked him  was why he had chosen to contest the election from a seat which was not just Muslim-dominated, but has many sections which are carrying forward a pan-Islamic agenda against the secular notions of India, at the cost of moderate Islam.

Apart from the Muslim League (which is a part of the Congress-led UDF alliance in Kerala)  whose leadership in the 1900s was responsible for the Partition of India and the formation of Pakistan  the Islamic groups supporting Rahul in Wayanad have a frightening air about them when it comes to social harmony and national security. Amongst these groups reportedly are the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), whose social wing  the People's Front of India (PFI)  has been accused of the worse forms of anti-Hindu and anti-Christian campaigns in its pan-Islamic garb. The organisation has also apparently been accused of links with the Islamic State.

The reportedly objectionable activities of the PFI are listed as below:

1). Since its inception 12 years ago, the PFI has been accused of various anti-social and anti-national activities. The allegations made reportedly include connections with various Islamic terrorist groups. It has faced charges of kidnapping, murder and intimidation and various acts of religious extremism. It has also reportedly organised arms training camps for Muslim youth. In 2012, the government of Kerala informed the High Court that the activities of PFI are inimical to the safety of the country and that it is "nothing but a resurrection of the banned outfit Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) in another form.

2). Over two dozen PFI workers were accused of attacking and cutting off the hand of a Christian academic in Kerala in 2010, accusing him of insulting the Prophet. The SDPI, which has a presence in 17 Indian states, is believed to be funded by Qatar-based Wahabi businessmen. Amongst the key leaders of SDPI in Kerala reportedly are a Mohammed Koya, founder member of the now-banned Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). SIMI members formed the Indian Mujahideen in 2007-2008 and reportedly carried out bomb blasts in many Indian cities. The SDPI has been also been accused of forcibly banning the recitation of Vande Mataram in private schools in Kerala.

3). The SDPI  which has a presence in 16 states, including North Indian states like Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan  has got an ultra-aggressive student wing called Campus Front of India (CFI). The CFI is apparently trying to radicalise moderate Muslims in other Indian states. The SDPI and its social and student wings follow the Ahle Hadees brand of Wahhabi Islam  which is also followed by the Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan and its founder Hafiz Saeed.

The SDPI has refused to put up a candidate in Wayanad  seemingly in tacit support to Rahul Gandhi.

The Congress is known for a pro-Muslim stand. But the Wayanad contest is not without its layers. (File Photo: PTI)

CPM accuses Rahul

The Kerala unit of the CPM has accused Rahul Gandhi of taking help from Muslim communal forces to remain in power. Kerala CPM secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan reportedly said, "The Muslim League, which has formed an alliance with Jama'at-e-Islami and SDPI (the political party of fundamentalist organisation NDF), has more influence in Wayanad than Congress and so, in effect, Rahul Gandhi will be contesting as the joint candidate of the Congress-Jama'at-SDPI alliance."

The Jamat that Balakrishnan is talking about is represented by its political wing, Welfare Party of India (WPI), a Wahhabi party which is reportedly also supporting Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad. The national president of WPI is Jamat-e-Islami leader and All India Sunni Muslim Personal Law Board member SQR Ilyas who happens to be the father of the JNU student leader Umar Khalid  an accused in the JNU sedition case.

Both the SDPI and WPI reportedly have an understanding that they will not cross each other in the political and electoral arenas  perhaps because they have similar ideologies. While SDPI is entirely Ahle Hadees, the WPI has both Ahle Hadees and Deoband followers. Both Ahle Hadees and Deoband are seen as the Indian version of Wahhabi Islam, besides the missionary wing of Deoband called 'Tabligh Jamaat'.

Ilyas was the President of SIMI in 1983. But to those who have tracked his activities for long, he is apparently best known as the advocate of a Muslim-dominated polity in India, which aims to create a situation where no party can form a government without Muslim votes.

In the news before: SQR Ilyas, national president of Welfare Party of India and Jamat-e-Islami leader. (Photo: Wikimedia commons)

In an interview in 2003, Ilyas had justified posters pasted by the-then SIMI workers in Delhi saying "Destroy Nationalism and Establish Khilafat (Muslim rule based on Sharia)". He had reportedly told the interviewer, What is wrong in the poster? Nationalism is a fascist idea while Khilafat movement was supported by Congress and its leaders Gandhiji and Pandit Nehru.

He was alluding to what was, in my view, the historic mistake committed by the Congress and its leaders in 1920, of supporting the pan-Islamic Khilafat movement of India to reinstate the Sultan of Turkey. The Sultan had been dethroned by the British. This was meant to be a trade-off with Indian Muslims, to draw them towards the freedom movement.

It was a quid pro quo. But I would say the Khilafat move of the Congress sowed the seeds of pan-Islamism in the country, which subsequently led to the Partition of India.

The vision of converting India to Islam?

Once, I, as associate editor-in-charge of India Today in Gujarat, was present when he delivered an out-and-out pan-Islamic speech under the banner of Jamat-e-Islami on January 1, 2006, at the Mehdi Nawaz Jung Hall in Ahmadabad. Addressing the Muslim crowd in the hall, as I heard him, Ilyas regretted why India couldn't be entirely converted to Islam even though Islam had been in India for 800 years. He said, to my hearing, The Dalits, the exploited and the deprived of this country are waiting for Islam to show them the true path, but what was wrong in our strategy that we couldn't bring them on the true path?

He paused and added, to my recollection, On my last trip to Pakistan, Muslims there told me that Indian Muslims have done a great job since 1947. They told me when India was partitioned, Indian Muslims were suspected of being Pakistan loyalists. However, today, their influence in India is such that the Indian government cannot take any major decision without the veto of the Muslims.

Rahul Gandhi has chosen to contest from Wayanad. The decision could be a tricky one for the Congress. (Photo: PTI)

What they are saying is not wrong. Today, there are states like Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and West Bengal where no party can form the government without Muslim votes. We have to increase the number of such states in the country and create a situation where no political party can form a government without Muslim votes."

Narendra Modi and Amit Shah proved him wrong by winning Assam and UP for a BJP-led coalition in 2016-2017. But that is a different matter.

UPA's anti-communal Bill

Rahul's decision to contest from Wayanad now apparently with the support of pan-Islamic forces is not surprising if one recalls the Anti-Communal Bill that the Congress was trying to introduce reportedly under the direction of pro-minority and ultra-left NGOs in 2011. The Bill reportedly promised to literally divide the country by giving large-scale concessions to Muslims at the cost of the secular credentials of the country.

The idea of the Bill, which apparently has provisions like making mandatory the posting of a certain percentage of Muslim policemen in every police station, had to be dropped in the face of severe criticism  not just by opposition parties but also a section of Congressmen. By contesting from Wayanad, Rahul might have also nullified the gains the Congress made by playing the soft Hindutva card in the past two years.

The policy of appeasing pan-Islamist Muslims  instead of not engaging common Muslims on the developmental agenda  could prove costly for Congress.

Clearly, to my mind, with Rahuls electoral fight via the reported help of pan-Islamic forces  some quite crass  the Congress has hit a new low.

Also, this comes at a time when the party is being relentlessly targeted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party on the national security front. Perhaps the party might not be able to recover from this blow in the form of open alignments with pan-Islamic forces because it might be stuck with the label of being a Muslim party  or a party that has no hesitation in aligning itself with the most communal and anti-India elements in the Muslim Wahhabi community.

Moderate Muslims support Modi

On the other hand, it came as a total surprise last week when a significant number of burkha-clad Wahhabi Muslim women came out in support of the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Saharanpur area of Uttar Pradesh  interestingly, where the international headquarters of both the Deoband and Ahle Hadees schools are located.

The contention of these women was that they had benefitted from Modis development agenda in the form of scholarships for their children, banning Triple Talaq and other developmental measures undertaken by his government for the Muslim community.

The perfect policy is of engaging with common Muslims on the development agenda  and fighting their pan-Islamic leadership.

In fact, the Minority Affairs Ministry under Union Minister MA Naqvi in Modis cabinet has, in my view, done a better job of implementing the developmental agenda for the Muslim community than the previous Congress-led UPA Government.

Clearly, the Congress will have to rethink its strategy on minorities if it wants to remain relevant in the long-term.

Also read: The manufactured myth of Hindu terror  Part 2
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Medtronic Plc is a medical technology company, which engages in the development, manufacture, distribution, and sale of device-based medical therapies and services. It operates through the following segments: Cardiac and Vascular Group; Minimally Invasive Technologies Group; Restorative Therapies Group; and Diabetes Group. The Cardiac and Vascular Group segment consists of products for the diagnosis, treatment, and management of cardiac rhythm disorders and cardiovascular disease. The Minimally Invasive Technologies Group segment focuses on respiratory system, gastrointestinal tract, renal system, lungs, pelvic region, kidneys, and obesity diseases. The Restorative Therapies Group segment comprises of neurostimulation therapies and drug delivery systems for the treatment of chronic pain, as well as areas of the spine and brain, along with pelvic health and conditions of the ear, nose, and throat. The Diabetes Group segment offers insulin pumps, coninuous glucose monitoring systems, and insulin pump consumables. The company was founded in 1949 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.

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Saga plc provides general insurance, package and cruise holidays, and personal finance products and services in the United Kingdom. The company operates in three segments: Insurance, Travel, and Other Businesses and Central Costs. It offers car, home, health, travel, landlord, boat, motorhome, caravan, pet, and personal accident, breakdown cover, building, content, renter, holiday, and holiday home insurance. The company also operates and delivers package tours and cruise holiday products; and provides equity release and care funding advice, savings accounts, credit cards, and wealth management services, as well as shares ISA and share dealing services. In addition, it offers mailing house services; retirement benefit schemes; and publishes Saga Magazine, as well as repairs automotive vehicles. The company was formerly known as Saga Limited and changed its name to Saga plc in May 2014. Saga plc was founded in 1950 and is headquartered in Folkestone, the United Kingdom.

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Albert Mining Inc., a junior mining exploration company, acquires, explores for, and develops mineral resource properties in Canada. The company primarily explores for gold, zinc, copper, diamond, base metals, precious metals, and lithium deposits in Quebec. It also offers computer aided resources detection system that enables mineral exploration professionals identify areas with a high statistical probability of similarity to known areas of mineralization. In addition, the company provides data mining, target generation, project management, and financing services. The company was formerly known as Majescor Resources Inc. and changed its name to Albert Mining Inc. in June 2017. Albert Mining Inc. was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada.

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Bardoc Gold Limited engages in the exploration and development of mineral properties in Australia. The company primarily explores for gold and manganese deposits. Its flagship project is the Bardoc Gold Project located in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. The company was formerly known as Spitfire Materials Limited and changed its name to Bardoc Gold Limited in November 2018. Bardoc Gold Limited was founded in 2007 and is based in North Fremantle, Australia.

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 8)  The Bureau of Immigration (BI) said it is studying possible actions against internet personality and businessman Xian Gaza for allegedly making false claims about evading arrest in the airport and fleeing the country despite supposedly having three arrest warrants.

In a statement Monday, the BI said there were no arrest warrants against Gaza when the immigration desk at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport checked his records before he boarded his flight to Hong Kong on September 30, 2018.

"Since he had no derogatory record when he left, he was cleared for departure. It was quite uneventful and ordinary, really. No Hollywood-level storyline, just regular immigration clearance," BI Spokesperson Dana Sandoval said.

On Sunday, Gaza posted a series of photos on Facebook detailing how he deliberately booked three flights  to Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong  two of which were decoys to mislead the cops. He checked in all of them but only boarded the Hong Kong flight.

Gaza said the immigration desk identified his arrest warrants but allowed him to proceed to the boarding gate since he had no hold departure order (HDO) to his name. The immigration desk immediately called the police to arrest him as he rushed to board the plane.

Police officers were able to catch up with the plane but Gaza hid in the restroom, before the officers left to check his other flights, the post said.

Sandoval said the encounter with the immigration officer was fabricated. She assured that if Gaza had any derogatory record, he would have been held up at the airport and prevented from flying out. She explained that the BI coordinates with courts on any HDOs and arrest warrants.

Sandoval added that booking multiple flights would also not have worked as decoys.

"The story is preposterous, similar to other claims he made in the past. If you know regular airport procedures, his story sounds silly. Ang daming [There are many] loopholes. Booking numerous flights will not help evade police. Everything is recorded in our systems, with one click you'll know which flight a person really took," Sandoval said.

Sandoval said Gaza's viral post is a "cause for concern", saying he is a security risk for "making a mockery of airport procedures for attention."

Gaza first gained internet fame after proposing a date with actress Erich Gonzales through a giant billboard display in Morayta, Manila on July 1, 2017.

In April 2018, Gaza surrendered to authorities after he was accused of swindling people of money. He was released on bail the next day. Two months later, a court sentenced him to five years and six months in jail for issuing checks that bounced.
Sedans are still sought after by many despite the rising demand for SUVs.

The top three contenders - Ciaz, City and Verna - make up almost 90 per cent of sales in the segment.

Volkswagen Group has two cars and their combined sales are still not more than half the sales figures of any of the top three contenders.

Sedans are still sought after by many despite the rising demand for SUVs.

The Toyota Yaris continues to languish at the bottom of the segment.

SUVs are all the rage these days but the compact sedan segment also reported a ~5 per cent increase in sales in March 2019. The total segment sales for the month of March stood at 11,821 units. Lets take a look at the numbers to find out how each of the compact sedans fared.

March 2019 February 2019 MoM Growth Market share current(%) Market share (% last year) YoY mkt share (%) Average sales (6 months) Honda City 3432 3273 4.85 29.03 31.61 -2.58 3666 Hyundai Verna 3201 3299 -2.97 27.07 28.03 -0.96 2929 Maruti Suzuki Ciaz 3672 3084 19.06 31.06 29.18 1.88 3692 Skoda Rapid 729 898 -18.81 6.16 6.16 0 894 Toyota Yaris 339 350 -3.14 2.86 0 2.86 407 Volkswagen Vento 448 351 27.63 3.78 4.99 -1.21 469

Takeaways

Top spot up for grabs: Maruti Suzukis Ciaz claimed the top spot on the list for the month of March. However, the Honda City and Hyundai Verna, which are second and third respectively, are very close to the Ciaz on the list and it wouldnt be surprising to see the top three cars exchange spots in the month of April. Amongst themselves, these three sedans constitute almost 90 per cent of cars sold in the compact sedan segment.

Volkswagen Group cars in dire need of an update: Volkswagen has two entries in this segment - the Vento and the Skoda Rapid (Skoda is owned by Volkswagen). Their combined sales figures arent even half of either the City, Verna or Ciaz. Both the Vento and the Rapid have existed in the Indian market for quite a long period and are in dire need of an update if they want to stay in contention. It is expected that the next generation of these sedans will come to India only by 2021. The next-gen versions of both sedans will be underpinned by the MQB A0-IN platform.

Toyota Yaris fails to appeal: Although it is one of the newer additions to the group, the Yaris holds the bottom spot on the list this month as well. Suzuki and Toyota have agreed that the Ciaz will be shared between the two and it remains to be seen what happens to the Yaris post that.

Disclaimer: This article has not been edited by Deccan Chronicle and is taken from a syndicated feed. Photos: CarDekho.
Mahindra's pick up range, which caters to the cargo transport segment, comprises brands such as Bolero Maxi Truck, Bolero pik-up, Bolero Camper and Imperio.

Mumbai: Auto major Mahindra & Mahindra on Monday said its pick up vehicles' domestic sale crossed 1.5 lakh units in domestic marker during the fiscal ended March this year.

The pick up range has sold 1,62,000 vehicles in FY-2019, compared to 1,49,121 vehicles in FY-2018, logging a 9 per cent growth, thereby posting the highest-ever annual sales growth in the segment since the launch, the company said in a release.

Mahindra's pick up range, which caters to the cargo transport segment, comprises brands such as Bolero Maxi Truck, Bolero pik-up, Bolero Camper and Imperio.

The company commands as high as 58 per cent market share in the 2-3.5 tons light commercial vehicle (LCV) category.

"The journey towards achieving this over 1.5 lakh units milestone of pickups in fiscal 2018-19 is a proud moment for us. We are grateful to all our customers and for the success of our newly-launched Maha Bolero Pickup 1.7T. Mahindra has the widest range in this segment today," said Veejay Ram Nakra, the company's chief of sales and marketing for automotive sector.

At present, the pick-up segment in India has sales of over 14,000 vehicles per month and is growing rapidly, the company said, adding Mahindra groups market share in the segment stood at 58 per cent in FY19.
The companies had said in a filing on Friday that they will merge operations in a share-swap deal.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said it has not yet approved a merger proposal of private-sector lender Lakshmi Vilas Bank Ltd and Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd.

Responding to media speculation that the presence of two nominee directors of RBI on the board of Lakshmi Vilas Bank implies RBIs indirect approval of the deal, the central bank said the deal does not have its approval at this stage.

It is also clarified that presence of additional directors nominated by the RBI on the Board of LVB (Lakshmi Vilas Bank) does not imply any approval of the RBI of the merger proposal, the central bank said in a statement on Saturday, adding that the directors have no view on the deal.

It said it will examine the proposal upon receiving it from the parties in line with regulatory guidelines.

The companies had said in a filing on Friday that they will merge operations in a share-swap deal.

Shareholders of the Chennai-based bank will get 0.14 share in Indiabulls for every share held in the lender, according to terms of the deal disclosed on Friday.
The bids have to be submitted by April 10. (Photo: PTI/File)

New Delhi: State Bank of India (SBI) on Monday invited bids for stake sale in ailing Jet Airways.

SBI, which is the lead lender of a consortium of domestic lenders that has extended loans to Jet Airways, is looking for "change in control and management" of the carrier, according to a public notice.

SBI Capital Markets would be assisting and advising the lenders on the bid process. The bids have to be submitted by April 10. The lenders' consortium has taken control of the airline under a debt recast plan.

Under the debt resolution plan approved by the Jet Airways' board on March 25, lenders have taken a majority stake in the airline and are set to infuse Rs 1,500 crore. Besides, the carrier's founder and promoter Naresh Goyal as well as his wife Anita Goyal quit the board.

The shareholding of Goyals has come down to 25 per cent from 51 per cent earlier. Acute financial crunch has forced the airline to ground aircraft, cancel flights and delay payment of salaries, including to pilots.

Last week, the lenders said they would pursue resolution plan for the carrier in a time-bound manner under the present legal and regulatory framework.

"The lenders are cognisant that the outcome of efforts of the lenders will depend on the interest shown by the parties on sale of stake in the company," the statement issued by lenders had said.
The document inviting bids has set Rs 2,000 crore as the minimum asset under management in the case of financial investors or even those with Rs 1,000 crore available for investment in the previous fiscal could bid.

Mumbai: Lenders of Jet Airways have invited initial bids to buy as much as 75 per cent of the cash-strapped airline. The potential bidder should have a net worth of at least Rs 1,000 crore ($144 million) in the preceding financial year, or at least three years of experience in the airline business. Bids should be submitted by April 10.

As per the invitation of bids made on Monday by State Bank of India, strategic investors could be non-resident Indians, foreign nationals or persons of Indian origin.

The document inviting bids has set Rs 2,000 crore as the minimum asset under management in the case of financial investors or even those with Rs 1,000 crore available for investment in the previous fiscal could bid.

Private equity funds and sovereign wealth funds are also eligible for placing their bids, which have opened on Monday.

The bid document also says that the number of investors in a consortium bidding for the company is limited to three with shareholding of an individual member not being less than 15 per cent.

Shares of Jet Airways closed 3 per cent higher at Rs 264. The airline requires Rs 8,500 crore to get back to be in shape.

The government is also keen on rescuing the airline as the country gets into election mode.

With jobs of 23,000 employees at stake, the Modi government does not want the second largest airline in the country to collapse.

Lenders led by State Bank of India said last week that "other options" may be considered if efforts for the stake sale don't produce the desired result, without elaborating on what the other options.

The bank group had agreed to take a 50.1 percent stake at an effective cost of Re 1 through the issuance of 11.4 crore new shares in an attempt to bail out the carrier.
A banking analyst said, This is just an enabling resolution. Last year, it raised equity capital of Rs 24,000 crore and did not raise any tier-I capital last year.

Mumbai: Private lender HDFC Bank on Monday said it plans to raise up to Rs 50,000 crore this financial year by issuing bonds on a private placement basis. The bank proposes to issue perpetual debt instruments, tier-II capital bonds and long-term bonds.

We wish to inform you that the bank proposes to raise funds by issuing perpetual debt instruments (part of additional tier-I capital), tier-II capital bonds and long-term bonds (financing of infrastructure and affordable housing) up to a total amount of Rs 50,000 crore in the period of next 12 months through private placement mode," the countrys largest lender by market capitalisation said in a regulatory filing.

The bank said its board will consider the proposal at its meeting on April 20, when it will also announce its quarterly results.

A banking analyst said, This is just an enabling resolution. Last year, it raised equity capital of Rs 24,000 crore and did not raise any tier-I capital last year.

Meanwhile, the bank cut its marginal cost-based lending rate (MCLR) by 5 to 10 basis points across various tenors. The new rates are effective April 8.

The bank cut its overnight MCLR to 8.30 per cent from 8.35 per cent and one-month rate to 8.30 per cent from 8.40 per cent. The three-month MCLR has been revised to 8.40 per cent from 8.45 per cent, six-month rate to 8.50 per cent from 8.55 per cent, one-year rate to 8.70 per cent from 8.75 per cent, two-year rate to 8.80 per cent from 8.85 per cent and three-year rate to 8.95 per cent from 9 per cent.

The move, which will bring relief to its borrowers, comes after the RBI cut the repo rate by 25 basis points last week.
oreign portfolio investors (FPIs) pumped in Rs 33,980 crore in Marchthe largest monthly inflow in the markets history. And in the first five trading sessions of April, they have pumped in Rs 8,634 crore more into the markets.

Mumbai: The massive foreign fund flows into the Indians markets over the past couple of months have baffled investors. Many are now questioning the colour of the money that is buying into Indian equity when political and micro economic uncertainties loom large.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) pumped in Rs 33,980 crore in Marchthe largest monthly inflow in the markets history. And in the first five trading sessions of April, they have pumped in Rs 8,634 crore more into the markets.

The huge buying comes after foreign fund outflow in the 2018-19 fiscal, where FPIs turned net sellers to the tune of Rs 44,500 crore.

Some experts feel that some large funds are betting on the election outcome where the NDA is likely to come back to power. The market has made record highs on the back of this buying even as domestic funds have turned net sellers.

I am a little nervous about it. This looks like money which comes into different markets basically to play specific events and it may go from one market to the other quite fast. Right now, it doesnt look like the money is here for good, said the Singapore-based fund manager Samir Arora, Founder and Fund Manager, Helios Capital in an interview to a business television channel.

Some feel that Sebi, in order to attract overseas dollars in the wake of falling rupee in 2018, diluted Know Your Cleint norms for foreign investors and allowed creation of a new category of Eligible Foreign Investors (EFI), and many FPI are now investing under this route.

These flows are anything but genuine foreign investors. It is those who don't want to give their identity, KYC, for regulatory purposes who are using the EFI structure from Ahmedabad, a market expert said.

Those EFIs opting for relaxed guidelines--meaning who dont wish to give details of ultimate foreign beneficiary owner--must retain a part of their original investments in India for a pre-defined period.

EFI can be a single person entity willing to retain a part of original investment in India on a non-repatriation basis. They can take out any or all or profits and on repatriation and keep up to 25 per cent of original investments for three years.

Why these investors, currently a very large proportion, are willing to lock up funds in India but don't wish to give full KYC? an expert asked.

Some feel that improved outlook on India is triggering this buying. Improvement in the country's macro outlook as well as expectations of the formation of a stable government at the Centre brought foreign money back into the Indian markets, analysts said.

Foreign funds believe that there is high likelihood of a stable government. Also, globally the liquidity situation has eased, which means higher inflows for emerging markets," said Naveen Kulkarni, Head of Research, Reliance Securities.
Mumbai: The battle for Rampur in Uttar Pradesh is no less than a Bollywood potboiler. In her first rally after her induction as BJPs candidate for the constituency, Jaya Prada broke down recalling the threats she had received from Azam Khan earlier, her nemesis at the upcoming polls. I left Rampur and active politics because they [Samajwadi party] tried to attack me with acid, she lamented. Incidentally, it was Azam Khan who had persuaded her to contest the 2004 Lok Sabha polls. But in the next election, Khan vehemently opposed her candidature in 2009 elections but she won, nonetheless. The actress-turned-politician returns to Rampur after five years and says, I am very happy to see the people of Rampur who have welcomed me with open arms and are supporting me.

Jaya Prada, who came into the limelight with Rishi Kapoor-starrer Sargam in 1985, has been known to be reserved in her conversations but years in politics has made her resilient. My political career has enriched my knowledge about staying away from negative vibes. I create a positive aura and am able to speak in front of lakhs of people only because I have learnt my lessons well. I am dedicated, adamant and committed. Although these three qualities can be considered as minus points in a woman but for me, this is a blessing. People have a wrong notion that film stars dont make good politicians. I must tell those who address stars with derogatory comments that people like us work for the betterment of their constituency with heart and soul.

The politician believes that women can bring a positive change in politics. Even in the political arena, we need good people to join politics. I believe women can lead the country.

As the election arena heats up, the veteran actress is not affected by the mudslinging and name calling that is routinely being inflicted on her. You will only read in books that women have the right to equality. The scenario is much different in real life. Women politicians dont get much support and girl power is being suppressed. The 33% Women Reservation Bill is yet to be passed. For ages, women have been subjected to not getting equal rights as men. Even in the Assembly, they have been routinely attacked and this has been ongoing for years. Ministers like Lalu Parasd Yadav were totally against passing the reservation bill.

When asked if she expected to be fielded from Rampur instead of Rajahmundry where she originates from, Jaya says, I would love to file my nominations from the South Constituency. But its our Party decision. I am happy to get immense support from the people of Rampur. All I can say If I win, I will work for the well being of the people here, especially the women folk and the farmers, she concludes.
Megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who is currently busy shooting for his Hindi-Tamil bilingual film, Tera Yaar Hoon Main starring actors S.J. Suryah and Baahubali fame actor Ramya Krishnan, was all set to play a Pakistani protagonist in Oscar-winning sound designer Resul Pookuttys directorial debut.

But as things worsened between the two countries, Sr Bachchan decided to quietly back out from the project.

Resul had been discussing the script for his directorial debut with Bachchan saab for two years now. He loved the peace message in Resuls Indo-Pak story. Resul waited for Bachchan saabs dates and they were finally supposed to go on the floors, but because of the worsening relations between the two countries, Bachchan saab had second thoughts, reveals a source in the know.
With Tollywood celebrities joining Jagan Mohan Reddys YSR Congress Party en masse, rumours are swirling that they are getting paid huge amounts or expensive gifts to campaign for and join his party.

N. Chandrababu Naidu

Among the recent entrants are the Rajasekhar couple, Jayasudha and her son, Mohan Babu and family, Sivaji Raja, anchor Syamala, actress Hema, writers Kona Venkat and Chinni Krishna and senior actor Ali.

Meanwhile, the Telugu Desam Party cannot boast of any new recruits and is stuck with only the old hands, prompting Chandrababu Naidu to criticise all the film personalities who joined the YSRCP as having no work, and hence gravitating towards the party.

Among the first to react to his statement was actress Jayasudha who angrily retorted, Its totally wrong that we were paid a huge amount to join the party. I strongly condemn Naidus comment that we dont have work and thats why we joined the YSRCP. We are all busy with our films, but we decided to join because we are expecting change in AP.

She added that though some people from the industry served the Telugu Desam Party for years, they didnt get anything in return. Citing the example of actor Ali, Jayasudha said, He served the TDP for nearly 20 years and yet, Naidu gave him nothing. He could have appointed him for any cultural or arts related association, but he didnt do so.

Further, she compared CBN with the late YSR. Unlike Naidu, YS Rajasekhar Reddy garu appointed Dharmavarapu Subramanyam as head of the Andhra Pradesh Cultural Association when the actor was campaigning for the party, she added.

Stating that this is not the first time that the industry people are campaigning for a party, the actress said, The same Chandrababu Naidu requested the film industry to campaign for his party in the 1994 elections and we all obliged him then. He always uses the film industry, but when he has to give back to the people, he doesnt do anything.

Claiming to be in the know about the familys private matters, Jayasudha stated she did not want to rake up any controversies. We film actors know so many things. I acted with N.T. Rama Rao in his last two films and he shared so much of his personal life with me. Even Mohan Babu knows many things. So Naidu cannot say whatever he wants, she cautioned.

The actress also came down heavily on Pawan Kalyan for not responding to Chandrababus comment about film personalities. Pawan Kalyan is new to politics and I support him, but he should come out in support of the film industry people when leaders like Naidu speak something wrong, she added, I participated in many programmes with other actors to raise funds when Cyclone HudHud hit Visakhapatnam a few years back. Perhaps Naidu has forgotten about it and is now criticising me for not doing anything.
9 in 10 people who experience mental health problems, report facing stigma and discrimination; more than half say they experience that stigma the most at work. (Photo:Representational/Pexels)

London: The topic of mental health is always spoken about in hushed tones, whether it is in a family set-up or in the workplace. Despite celebrating mental health awareness days, many bosses are still not accommodating when it comes to mental illness. Employees prefer to lie about some sort of physical pain rather than address the mental health issue, reports The Guardian.

9 in 10 people who experience mental health problems report facing stigma and discrimination. More than half say they experience that stigma the most at work, said Andrew Berrie, employer programme manager at the Time to Change campaign. Although things are improving, 95% of employees would prefer to call in sick rather than reveal the truth, he added.

There is a huge disconnect between what senior leaders think the culture and openness is, and what it actually feels like on the frontline, observed Geoff McDonald is the co-founder of minds@work, a network of professionals seeking to build psychologically healthy workplaces.

McDonald narrated an incident of a senior executive who remarked in a mindfulness class that so these are the people who cant cope in my business. This kind of attitude is what indicates that the attitude towards mental health has not changed.

Organisations do not know the reality of what their employees go through. Dr Beverly Flint, a clinical psychologist from Camden and Islington NHS Mental Health foundation trust said, They assume that no one in their office has mental health issues. I tell them: But you do, you just dont know about it. You will have people in the workplace who have a diagnosis.

We are constantly told that mental health is similar to physical health. It is used in the context that, like a broken leg, mental health issues too can affect anyone; there is no need to be ashamed.

But the most obvious difference between the two is that- a broken leg has a definitive and diagnosable cure. It will heal like every other broken leg and it may not break again. But that is not quite how mental health and its treatment works.

Despite it working differently, employers have a legal responsibility to treat both kinds of illnesses in the same way, said Richard Martin, head of mental health at consultancy Byrne Dean. Employers can allow staff to take time off work for appointments, or work from home if its helpful or even reallocating tasks that they find stressful, suggests Berrie.

Knowing when to take time off for mental health problems can be tricky. Different diagnoses require different solutions. Some need temporary relief and time off work, while others need a more permanent solution to deal with a long-standing condition.

With the opening up of the dialogue, one can hope employees will face less stigma and more support when it comes to mental illness.
Renowned wrestler Bret Hart was tackled while he was giving a speech during the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony at Barclays Center. (Photo: 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. The attacker was promptly subdued by several people, including other wrestlers, who came to Harts defense. Hart, 61, is OK.

The person ran toward the ring from the crowd, spectator Alan Fisher told The Associated Press. I couldnt 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.

New York City Police arrested 26-year-old Zachary Madsen, of Lincoln, Nebraska. He faces assault and criminal trespass charges. Madsen had a previous run-in with a fighter in Lincoln. Hes awaiting trial for violating a protection order obtained by 23-year-old mixed martial arts fighter Haris Talundzic. Talundzics manager, Nick Goodwin, said the two were former friends and training partners.

Goodwin said Talundzic 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 Madsens mental stability. Goodwin 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. His threats toward Haris, along with Haris friends and family, were aggressive and violent in nature, Goodwin said in a statement.
The accused, who allegedly wanted to party with women at the PG, later assaulted Bhaskar's brothers who rushed to his rescue. (Representational Image)

Bengaluru: The Bandepalya police have arrested the man who along with his associates assaulted a ladies PG owner and his two brothers in Mangammana Palya for not letting them inside to party.

The accused, Babu (39), a resident of Mangammana Palya, is an interior designer. Babu and his drunk associates allegedly went to Green House Ladies PG and jumped the gates to enter it.

When the accused were banging on the doors, PG owner Bhaskar Reddy told the men to leave the building immediately but he was assaulted.

The accused, who allegedly wanted to party with women at the PG, later assaulted Bhaskar's brothers who rushed to his rescue.

In his complaint to the police, Reddy said that Babu, who was drunk, said that he and his associates wanted to drink and party with women at the paying guest accommodation. When he objected, they started banging on the doors, he complained to the police.

Following the incident, a complaint was filed and Bandepalya police arrested Babu. The police are searching for the other accused involved.

The police have booked Babu and his associates under Sections 307 (attempted murder), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting with a deadly weapon) and 149 (unlawful assembly) of the IPC.
During the investigation, it came to light that the accused had collected private pictures of the girl on his mobile phone through the app which he had installed secretly on the girls phone. (Representational Images)

Hyderabad: A 27-year-old man from the city who sexually assaulted a girl by blackmailing her with private pictures of herself and forced her to undergo three abortions was arrested by the Malkaj-giri police on Sunday.

The police found that the accused, Sai Teja, 27, had installed an application on the womans phone which captured her images and sent them to his phone without her knowledge.

On March 23, the girl, who is pursuing her graduation, lodged a complaint with the Malkajgiri police that she had been cheated by Sai Teja, an unemployed resident of Ramnagar in Musheerabad.

She said Sai Teja had sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions by threatening that he would put her private pictures on the net if she did not give in to her. She alleged that he made her pregnant thrice and forced her to undergo an abortion each time.

During the investigation, it came to light that the accused had collected private pictures of the girl on his mobile phone through the app which he had installed secretly on the girls phone.

The Malkajgiri police said that the sister of the accused and the victim were classmates. They were studying B.Pharm at a college in Boduppal. While dropping his sister to college, Sai Teja met the victim and befriended her. Later, he got intimate with the girl and proposed marriage to her.

Sai Teja installed an AVS (audio-video streamer) application in the victims mobile phone without her knowledge. With the aid of the application, he collected private pictures and videos of her. He used those images and videos to blackmail her and demanded that she should extend sexual favours to him, a Malkajgiri police officer said.

The victim gave in to the pressure and the blackmail. He took her to hotels and sexually assaulted her multiple times, the officer said.

The police arrested Sai Teja on Sunday and remanded him in judicial custody.
On Monday, sleuths arrested Sahil Khan, Zaheer and Shankar, hailing from Kadapa district, for sending innocent persons to Kuwait without clearance. (Representational Image)

Hyderabad: The RGI Airport police on Monday arrested three persons from Kadapa, for acting as sub-agents in issuing fake visas to the job aspirants who wanted to leave to Kuwait.

The Cyberabad Police, which busted a human trafficking racket 15 days ago, had arrested 18 persons including an airlines staff and a constable, for conniving with the agents who were issuing fake visit visas to job aspirants.

On Monday, sleuths arrested Sahil Khan, Zaheer and Shankar, hailing from Kadapa district, for sending innocent persons to Kuwait without clearance.
The drama came to light when the police received a clue that the girls were seen by someone in the locality leaving on two motorcycles on Saturday midnight.

Kochi: The Njarakkal police on Monday arrested three persons on charges of abduction and alleged sexual abuse of three young girls, including two minor sisters, at Kuzhuppilly. The arrested were identified as Najmal, 26, of Maya Bazar, Vishnu, 25, and Shijil, 29, of Kuzhuppilly.

The issue started on Sunday afternoon when the father of the minor girls found them missing from the home at Edavanakkad and alerted Njarakkal police following which a case for missing persons was registered.

In the evening, around 5 p.m., the elder of the minors returned home and told the police that her younger sister and another girl in the neighbourhood had gone missing in the sea at Kuzhupilly. She said that the three had attempted suicide in the sea and that she had to back out.

The drama came to light when the police received a clue that the girls were seen by someone in the locality leaving on two motorcycles on Saturday midnight.

The police said that the minor girl had known the accused Vishnu, who sent his friends Najmal and Shijil on two motorcycles to pick up the girls at midnight. The accused gave beer and drugs to the girls when they reached the beach following which they were allegedly sexually abused. Seeing all this, the elder girl got panicked and fled the scene, said a police official.

The other two girls, in an intoxicated state, walked around and slept on the terrace of a house there. They were spotted along the beach area only on Sunday afternoon. On Sunday evening, all the three accused were taken into custody. Cases were registered against them under relevant sections of PoCSO Act, Juvenile Justice Act, Abkari Act and IPC. Najmal and Vishnu are the fifth and sixth accused in a murder case and were out on conditional bail. They were produced before the court and remanded.
The local people first admitted the girl at Primary Health Centre at Edappal.

MALAPPURAM: Changaramkulam police, here, arrested a CPM area committee member on Sunday for brutally beating up a 10-year-old ragpicker nomad girl who has been admitted at Medical College Hospital (MCH), Thrissur with serious injuries. The culprit, C. Raghavan, is a former president of Vattamkulam panchayat near Ponnani.

According to police, the incident took place when the victim along with few other girls were collecting abandoned iron pieces from the premises of a building owned by Mr Raghavan.

The accused rushed to the spot and attacked her with a sack packed with iron pieces. The local people first admitted the girl at Primary Health Centre at Edappal.

Changaramkulam Inspector Manesh K.P. told DC that the sections to be slapped are yet to be finalised as the police is waiting for the report from the hospital. "If it is grievous injury we will be forced to slap non-bailable sections", he said.

Meanwhile, Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala demanded action against the policemen who failed to admit the girl at hospital. Mr Chennithala also visited the girl at the primary health centre.

It was the intervention of Congress workers that foiled the attempts of police, he said.
Air Vice Marshal R.G.K. Kapoor, at a media briefing, showed radar images to assert that an F-16 of the Pakistan Air Force was shot down by the Indian Air Force. (Photo: ANI)

New Delhi: The Indian Air Force on Monday said it has "irrefutable evidence" of shooting down an F-16 aircraft of Pakistan Air Force during the February 27 aerial combat.

Air Vice Marshal RGK Kapoor, at a media briefing, showed radar images to assert that an F-16 of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) was shot down by the Indian Air Force.

The IAF has more credible information and evidence that is clearly indicative of the fact that PAF has lost one F-16 in the air action on February 27, he said.
The tension between the two countries triggered by the Pulwama strike appeared to have eased slightly in the last couple of weeks. (Representational Image)

New Delhi/Islamabad: India on 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 five permanent members of the UN Security Council were apprised about it. In a strongly worded statement, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Ravesh Kumar called Qureshi's comments a "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.

In Islamabad, the Indian Deputy High Commissioner was summoned to Pakistan Foreign office and he was issued a warning against "any misadventure" by India. The claim by Qureshi came nearly six weeks after India struck the biggest terrorist training camp of Jaish-e-Mohammed deep inside Pakistan in retaliation to 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. In the dogfight, Pakistan downed a MiG-21 Bison jet and captured an IAF pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1. India had shot down a Pakistani F-16 but Islamabad has been denying that it lost any jet in the aerial combat. Kumar said it has been made clear to Pakistan that it cannot absolve itself of the 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.

Sources said the Indian deputy high commissioner clearly conveyed to Pakistan foreign office about India's position on Pak-sponsored terror, asserting that Islamabad must take concrete action against terror groups based in that country. 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 home town of Multan that India is 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."

The tension between the two countries triggered by the Pulwama strike appeared to have eased slightly in the last couple of weeks. Pakistan on Friday announced that it will release 360 Indian prisoners, mostly fishermen as a "goodwill gesture". The two countries held a meeting relating to the Kartarpur corridor last month.
The NIA had carried out searches in February at seven locations of separatists in Kashmir, including that of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, in connection with the case. (Photo: ANI)

New Delhi: Kashmiri separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq arrived in Delhi from Srinagar on Monday to appear before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for questioning in connection with a terror funding case.

Earlier, he had refused to appear before the investigating agency.

"I will not travel to Delhi, nor will I turn up for any investigation come what may," the Mirwaiz had said during his Friday sermon on March 15 at historic Jama Masjid in Srinagar.

The NIA had carried out searches in February at seven locations of separatists in Kashmir, including that of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, in connection with the case.

The agency had claimed to have found several incriminating documents, including letterheads of different terrorist organisations as well as high-end communication systems, during the searches.

According to it, the teams had also found electronic devices including laptops, e-tablets, mobile phones, pen drives, communication system and DVRs.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: While Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah have been attacking Congress president Rahul Gandhi for contesting from Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency repeatedly, it has become the responsibility of the KPCC leadership to defend him saying he is not banking on Muslim league votes alone. Already, CWC leader A. K. Antony has kicked off his attack against the BJP as well as the Left leadership since Saturday.

Ever since Rahul Gandhis candidature was announced from Wayanad, it is alleged by the Congress leadership that there is a concerted effort from the BJP camp to unleash communal tension where they have been claiming that he ran away from Amethis Hindu constituency to Wayanads Muslim constituency.

As per the census report of 2011, Amethi has got a Hindu and Muslim populations of 66.50 percent and 33.04 percent respectively. On the other hand, Wayanad districts Hindu population is 49.48 percent and Muslim population comes to 28.65 percent.

Senior Congress MLA Thiruvanchoor Radhak-rishnan told DC that there is a hidden agenda by the Modi caucus to create communal tension in North India by highlighting that Rahul Gandhi has ran away to a Muslim dominated constituency.

Modi has been misusing his official powers where he is making deliberate efforts to create communal tension against the oath he had taken when he became the Prime Minister. Why cant he and his team understand the statistics prevailing in Wayanad Lok Sabha seat? said Thiruvanchoor.

Antony had visited the houses of the slain Youth Congress leaders, Sarat-hlal and Kripesh on Sun-day at Periya in Kasara-god where he came down heavily against the LDF governments murder politics.

A Congress leader close to him told DC that by the time Antony reaches Wayanad district during his ongoing road show, he will don the role of a sharp shooter against the BJP. It should be recalled that Antony along with the top brass of the AICC leadership were keen on fielding Rahul Gandhi from a state where Congress was in the Opposition. K. P. Anil Kumar, senior KPCC general secretary told DC that it is high time the BJPs top brass read history books.

When the BJP entered in to alliances with PDPs Mehbooba Mufti in Jammu and Kashmir and also in Haryana with Om Prakash Chautala, did Modi not notice the colour of their flags? Rahul Gandhi is fighting from Wayanad to see as one India and not to wreck the secularism, said Anil Kumar.

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 has made it clear that the TRS will support the demand for special status for Andhra Pradesh.

GO No. 111 prohibits industries, major constructions, and residential colonies in the catchment areas of Himayatsagar and Osmansagar, extending up to 10 km from the full tank level of the reservoirs.

But Mr Rao said that the two reservoirs were no longer sources of drinking water as the city is getting water from the Godavari and Krishna rivers.
Training of Sri Lankan defence personnel in India became an explosive issue during the tenure of late AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa as CM in TN.

Chennai/Colombo: India and Sri Lanka on Monday agreed to enhance bilateral cooperation in the defence sector, including Indian training of Sri Lankan military personnel, as foreign secretary Sanjay Mitra called on President Maithripala Sirisena.

Soon after the meeting, the President's office issued a statement saying India and Sri Lanka have agreed for enhanced cooperation in the areas of security and defence including regional security. Also, India has agreed to train Sri Lankan defence personnel, it said.

Training of Sri Lankan defence personnel in India became an explosive issue during the tenure of late AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa as Chief Minister in Tamil Nadu. She had demanded the expulsion of two Sri Lankan officers from the Defence Staff Services College in Wellington near Ooty and the Indian Defence establishment had to relocate them in a training facility elsewhere in the country.

With the crucial elections only days away, the announcement from Colombo that it has been able to secure training facilities for its military officers in Indian defence establishments could embarrass the BJP-AIADMK coalition in its campaign for the April 18 poll.

While the politicians and pro-Eelam activists in Tamil Nadu have been stoutly opposed to India providing training facilities for the Sri Lankan military personnel, the Indian Government is justifiably concerned that shutting the doors on Colombo would push the Sinhala rulers deeper into the embrace of the enemy  Pakistan and China  who have offered similar training and military collaboration offers.

Arriving on a two-day visit to Sri Lanka on Sunday, Mitra has started on a long string of high-level meetings aimed at strengthening defence cooperation between the two neighbours at a time when there is much consternation in India over Colombo's excessive engagement with China.

Mitra is also meeting his counterpart Hemasiri Fernando and chief of defense staff Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne, besides visiting the central town of Kandy and the north central town of Anuradhapura.
New Delhi: The Indian Air Force said on Monday that it had credible evidence clearly indicating that Pakistan Air Force lost one F-16 in the dogfight on February 27.

There is no doubt that two aircraft went down in the aerial engagement on February 27. One of the two was a Bison of IAF while the other was a F-16 of PAF conclusively identified by its signature and radio transcripts, said Air Vice- Marshal R.G.K. Kapoor, assistant chief of air staff (operations).

During the media briefing at the defence ministry, he showed radar images of the engagement where in one picture MiG 21 Bison and F16s could be seen.

Second slide shows Paks fighter jet disappeared

In the second slide captured after a few seconds, the targeted F16 had disappeared from the screen but MiG21 could still be seen.

The F-16 crashed and fell across the LoC in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, said Air Vice Marshal Kapoor.

Radar picture shows Pakistans F16 has vanished and MiG21 Bison still can be seen on the radar.

The Air Vice Marshal said that due to security and confidentiality concerns we are restricting the information being shared in the public domain.

He said that two aircraft had gone down on that day in the same area separated by around 1 to 1:30 minutes.

Indian Army posts in the vicinity of the LoC in Jhangar sector have visually sighted two separate parachutes.

The first sighting was in West, in general area Sabzkot and the second was after a few minutes in Southwest general area Tandar, he said

On February 27, IAFs MiG 21 Bison piloted by Wing Commander Abhi-nandan Varthaman had chased and shot down one of the F16 which had fallen into Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK). During the chase Wg Cdr Varth-aman MiG21 has also got hit and he had to eject in PoK.

Analysis of electronic emissions have shown that the aircraft picked up by the intercepts from Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) and radio transcripts indicated F-16s in the area directly in front of Wg Cdr Abhinandans aircraft, he said.

He said the Pakistan Air Force fired multiple AMRAAM missiles which were defeated by use of counter measures and tactical maneuvers.

The Air Vice Marshal said that Indian Air Force achieved its objectives of a successfully striking the terrorist camp at Balakot and thwarting the PAF attack against our military installations.

PAF was unable to achieve its military objectives, he said.
The Congress also released a list of 125 questions of broken promises made by the BJP in its 2014 manifesto, including key iss-ues of jobs, 50 per cent rise in farmers income, checking price rise and corruption and bringing back black money.

New Delhi: The Opposition led by the Congress on Monday dubbed the BJPs election manifesto a Jhansa Patra (deception document) and a bubble of lies and said it would have been better had they issued a maafinama instead and apologised to the nation for failing to fulfil the promises made.

West Bengal chief minister and Trinamul chief Mamata Banerjee blamed the Prime Minister for not helping the state financially and being busy with foreign tours during his entire tenure.

CPI(M) secretary general Sitaram Yechury termed the BJPs manifesto as the latest round of Jumlas.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal said that the BJPs manifesto was a fresh set of jumlas.

Highlighting the Congress thrust on promising justice to people if voted to power, senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel said the BJP document was lies versus justice.

The Congress also released a list of 125 questions of broken promises made by the BJP in its 2014 manifesto, including key iss-ues of jobs, 50 per cent rise in farmers income, checking price rise and corruption and bringing back black money.

Mr Patel said the Congress manifesto had a picture of people, but the BJP document had only Prime Minister Narendra Modi on its cover.

Congress chief spok-esperson Randeep Surje-wala said Modis central mantra is to trap people by deception. He termed the manifesto a failed attempt by a failed person.
While there are six lakh Lingayat voters here, Muslims, Kurubas and backward castes are the deciding factor as they together make up 70 per cent of its population. (Representational Image)

Hubballi: With North Karnataka seeing a Modi wave, the Congress is banking heavily on Muslims, Kurubas and backward castes in Haveri constituency. While there are six lakh Lingayat voters here, Muslims, Kurubas and backward castes are the deciding factor as they together make up 70 per cent of its population.

Party candidate D.R. Patil who is related to Congress campaign committee chairman, H K Patil, is, however, having a hard time winning over the Muslim voters as he beat Mr Saleem Ahmed from the community in the race for the ticket when Muslims have represented the constituency in 10 of the last 15 Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress is more confident of the Kuruba vote as former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah belongs to the community. Kurubas are identified with the Congress as our leader Siddaramaiah belongs to the community. The BCs will not desert the party either as they have faith in Congress leaders of the community, including Dy CM G. Parameshwar, says Congress leader I.G. Sanadi.

Although he claims Mr Patil will attract the Lingayat voters too as he belongs to the community and has a clean image, BJP candidate Shivakumar Udasi is a Lingayat and has the Modi wave going for him.

The other discouraging factor for Mr Patil is that only two MLAs of the eight in the constituency belong to the Congress, giving the BJP the advantage as it has five legislators and support of independent MLA, R Shankar, who was dropped from the Cabinet. But not everything is going the BJP's way either as its former MLA Shrishailappa Bidaruru is all set to join Congress. Mr Bidaruru, who has represented Ron and Gadag in the assembly, has considerable support in the constituency which could help the Congress. The party is also counting on Mr H.K. Patil's influence in Gadag coming to its aid.
Ooty: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswamy on Monday blamed DMK chief M.K. Stalin for the death of his father M. Karunanidhi and said the government would investigate the charge, which he claimed, was made by even some DMK members.

Instead of taking his father abroad for special treatment when his speech got impaired despite the other parameters being normal, Stalin kept him "in house arrest for nearly two years", the CM said at his poll rally at Coonoor.

"Though Karunanidhi was keeping good health otherwise, he was unable to speak due to some underlying health issue. It could have been treated and he could have been cured had he been taken abroad for treatment. Stalin did not do it. To get to the political forefront and out of selfish motive, Stalin kept his father in house arrest for nearly two years. Even some DMK members are talking about this now.

And so the government will order investigation into the mystery shrouding Karunanithi's death" CM Palaniswamy said. He said Stalin was making baseless charges of corruption against the AIADMK Government whereas he had now fielded as his party candidate someone who had spent time in jail in connection with the 2-G case. He was referring to the Nilgiris DMK candidate A. Raja.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday sought a response from former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar on the CBIs plea seeking his arrest in the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam.

A three-judge bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna granted a weeks time to Rajeev Kumar to file his reply to the CBIs plea which also included a direction to recall the apex courts earlier order directing that no coercive action be taken against him.

In its application CBI said that during the tenure of Rajeev Kumar as Bidhan Nagar Comm-issioner when he was also a part of the SIT looking after day-to-day functioning, He by his inaction or otherwise facilitated Saradha Group to illegally operate and further collect Rs 805.77 crore during 2012-13, and Rose Valley group to illegally operate and collect Rs 6865.85 Crore during 2012-14.

The CBI said that even after Kumar appeared for questioning before the CBI officials in terms of the Supreme Court order, he remained elusive and evaded all pertinent questions.
Tirupati: The Tirupati Urban District Police has finally made a breakthrough in the two-month-long crowns theft case and arrested a man in Mumbai on Monday.

It may be recalled that on February 2, three golden crowns weighing 1,351 grams and worth approximately Rs 50 lakh were stolen in broad daylight from the Govindaraja Swamy temple in Tirupati. The theft rocked the TTD which administered the temple.

Police launched a hunt across the country to nab the burglars.

On Monday, the Mumbai police took Akash Pratap Sarode, a native of Nanded district in Maharashtra, into custody at Dadar police station in Mumbai. Sarode has confessed to having committed the crime. He has also confessed that he had pledged the three stolen crowns for Rs 3 lakh to a local jeweller, who was also taken into custody by the police, the police officer said.

Sarode has been taken to Tirupati for further questioning while the police are trying to retrieve the crowns.

The police are also trying to find out if Sarode had any local support to carry out the theft.
The Supreme Court on Monday asked the CBI to apprise it of the status of the ongoing trial in a case involving former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in connection with a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case and listed his bail plea for hearing on April 15. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday asked the CBI to apprise it of the status of the ongoing trial in a case involving former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in connection with a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case and listed his bail plea for hearing on April 15.

The CBI told a bench of Justices S A Bobde and S A Nazeer that Kumar, who was a sitting MP in 1984, was the "kingpin" of the massacre of Sikhs in the national capital in 1984.

"This is a gruesome offence of massacre of Sikhs. He (Kumar) was the leader and he was the kingpin of this," Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the CBI, told the bench.

Mehta also told the bench it would be a "travesty of justice" if Kumar is enlarged on bail as he is facing trial in another 1984 anti-Sikh riots case at Patiala House district court here.

The bench said that it would hear on April 15 bail plea of Kumar, who was convicted and sentenced to life term by the Delhi High Court in connection with a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.

The case in which Kumar was convicted and sentenced relates to the killing of five Sikhs in Delhi Cantonment's Raj Nagar Part-I area of southwest Delhi on November 1 and 2, 1984, and burning down of a Gurudwara in Raj Nagar Part-II.

Anti-Sikh riots had broken out after the assassination of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984, by her two Sikh bodyguards.
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Partys poll manifesto released Monday detailed the governments achievements these last five years, sharpened its focus on security and welfare without falling back on party core issues such as the Ram Mandir and the Uniform Civil Code.

We will explore all options to build the Ram Mandir as soon as possible in a harmonious manner, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said after the manifesto was launched in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and other top party leaders.

The manifesto is also committed to annulling Article 35A of the Constitution, as the provision is discriminatory against non-permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir.

The manifesto or sankalp patra (document of promises) was based on the theme of a Sankalpit Bharat, Shashakt Bharat (Determined India, Empowered India).

Nationalism is our inspiration, we aim to reach the last man in the queue, and give the country good governance, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.

Modi, while emphasising the salient points of the manifesto, said it was his duty to take India on one mission, one direction.

We should think how by 2047, India could become a developed country. We will work hard in the next five years, from 2019 to 2024, to build a solid foundation for that dream, Modi said.

Speaking first, Amit Shah lauded the five-year rule of Narendra Modi, stating that he had provided India a decisive government. India's development from 2014 to 2019 will be written in golden words in history, Shah said, adding, He has dared to carry out air and surgical strikes on the very foundation of terror.

He spoke of the development work done in the last five years. He said the party has made 75 pledges in the manifesto, promising to fulfill all expectations of the people by the time India turns 75.

Shah harped more on the governments efforts to deal with terrorism, saying, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sent out a strong message that India cannot be taken lightly.

After the manifesto release, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the document touched upon every section and region. It is a visionary and practical document, he said.

A 13-member team led 15 sub panels under Singh to prepare the manifesto. Amit Shah also said the document has been prepared after consulting nearly six crore people.

Singh also said peoples faith in Narendra Modi has increased. Development is now fast paced. We made procedural and structural changes. We gave a responsible, sensitive government with firm commitment, Singh said.

Explaining the BJPs manifesto, Singh said, With promises made in this manifesto, we are taking a step towards building a 'New India.' We had a zero tolerance policy towards terrorism, it will continue till terror is eliminated completely. Singh also said strike capabilities of armed forces would be strengthened with modern equipment.

Sankalp Patra is a vision document that lists expectations of 130 crore Indians. We launched 300 raths, 4000 mann ki baat events and 110 samvad programmes, said Rajnath Singh, explaining the work behind the manifesto.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the manifesto was prepared with a strong national vision, not with a tukde tukde or Ivy League mindset. This manifesto is rooted in Indian reality, he said, adding, Our new policy, new doctrine of striking terror at its very origin has received global recognition.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said: We are working for a stable and strong government, whereas the Opposition is working to form a weak collation government.

The Congress manifesto had put major thrust on welfare measures, including a promise of giving Rs 72,000 to the poorest 20 per cent households in India.

Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley had on 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.

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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. (Photo: File)

Lucknow: 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 news 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 politics."

"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 news 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.

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Vijayawada: AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu got his grandson Devansh and daughter-in-law Brahmani to join the Telugu Desam campaign on Sunday. He said that people of AP were like his family and asked the public to work for the development of AP state like his family.

Mr Naidu said Devansh was asking him where he was going every day, and he had brought the child and Ms Brahmani to show them the campaign at Nandigama.

He alleged that Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had given Rs 1,000 crore to YSRC president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and YSRC candidates were distributing the money to voters to lure them.

He assured that the TD on retaining power would provide Godavari water to upland areas of Krishna district.

He said as the farmers were suffering due to lack of Krishna water from Nagarjunasagar, he would complete the Chintalapudi lift irrigation scheme to bring Godavari river water to upland areas of Nandigama.

Mr Naidu said the TD government had fulfilled all the promises made in the 2014 election manifesto. He said the old age pension was increased 10 times and Rs 2,000 per month was being distributed. The pension amount will be increased to Rs 3,000 per month.
Keshav Maurya's statement came a day after he had targeted Mayawati on her remark at a Deoband rally, where she had asked the Muslim voters not to split their votes. (Photo: File)

Lucknow: Seeking to drive a wedge into their anti-BJP alliance, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said on Monday that BSP president Mayawati will be "ditched" by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav after election results are announced on May 23, "and then, only the BJP will support her".

"The Samajwadi Party has never given due honour to Dalits. In 1995, when Mayawati was attacked at the State Guest House here by SP leaders on the directions of Mulayam Singh Yadav, the BJP had saved her. Now, his son Akhilesh will dump her after May 23 and the BJP will support her," he told news agency PTI in an interview.

"Whenever Mayawati is in crisis, the BJP supports her and will continue to do so in the future too," Keshav Maurya added.

Asserting that the BJP is pro-Dalit, the UP Deputy Chief Minister said, "At Kumbh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi washed the feet of sanitary workers to give them due honour. Our party leaders are always there for Dalits."

About Congress's prospects in the upcoming general election, he said irrespective of the tall claims of the opposition party, its strength would be reduced further after the elections. "The BJP is going to form the government under the leadership of PM Modi again, with Uttar Pradesh giving it 74 plus seats."

The state accounts for the highest number of 80 Lok Sabha seats in the country.

Keshav Maurya's statement came a day after he had targeted Mayawati on her remark at a Deoband rally, where she had asked the Muslim voters not to split their votes.

"Her statement clearly indicates that she has only used Dalits as a vote bank and has not respected them. She has started hating them after their tilt towards the BJP after the saffron party empowered them. She has now appealed to the Muslims to vote for her but the community knows the reality of the SP-BSP-RLD alliance," he said.

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Visakhapatnam: Jana Sena president K. Pawan Kalyan tried to rouse Telangana sentiment again, criticising YSRC chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy for taking the support of TS Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.

Addressing a public meeting in Anakapalli in Visakhapatnam district on Sunday he noted that Mr Reddy was saying that the TS government would support AP for getting special category status. Can Jagan make KCR release a statement that he would support SCS for AP, he asked. Criticising Mr Rao for interfering in AP elections, Mr Kalyan said, If KCR has an interest in AP politics then he can field TRS candidates. There is no need to support Jagan. How can KCR support Jagan when he had stopped Jagan from entering TS in the past?
Udupi: Attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy asked people to think seriously about the contributions of the PM before deciding whom to vote for.

If people think Prime Minister Narendra Modi has provided excellent administration, they can vote for him but before that, they should think about his contributions to the country, Kumaraswamy said.

Demonetisation has completely crippled the economy of the country due to which he had to borrow 4.52 trillion crore. GST too is a complete failure. People are facing trouble because of these measures. They should think twice before voting, he said.

He also attacked BJP candidates for asking for votes in Modi's name. The BJPs Nalin Kumar Kateel and Shobha Karandlaje are asking people to see Modis face and vote. Modi has a makeup man with him due to which his face glows all the time. We on the other hand have a bath in the morning and toil under the sun throughout the day due to which our faces get dark, Kumaraswamy mocked.

He expressed confidence that the coalition would win more than 20 seats in Karnataka. Yedyurappa (state BJP president) claims he will win 28 seats. Probably that is the number of seats which the BJP will win in the whole of South India, he ridiculed.

Commenting on Minister G.T. Deve Gowdas statement that Modi would be the next Prime Minister, Kumaraswamy said that it could be his analysis. I do not feel Modi will become Prime Minister again, he said. He blamed the BJP for attacking him despite he having given good administration. The BJP has not allowed me to work in peace in the last nine months. But I know I have given good administration. Of the 11,170 crore loan waiver, already Rs 6,500 crore has been released of which Rs 80 crore is for the coastal region. Udupi has been provided Rs 1,070 crore under various project. There has not been even one riot in the coastal region after I came to power, he said. The country has seen many PMs. Is Modi the only strong PM? Did not Vajpayee provide security to the country? Wasnt the country secure till Modi came to power? What is Modis contribution to the coastal region? he said. Were there any bomb blasts when Deve Gowdaji was Prime Minister? There was no Indo-Pak conflict when he was PM, the CM added.

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Bengaluru: Coming down heavily on the BJP's poll manifesto which was launched on Monday, Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah on Monday termed it a bundle of lies and charged that Prime Minister Narendara Modi's five-year term at the Centre saw only the handing out of sops to his capitalist friends while the Congress party wherever it is in power, is busy wiping the tears of the poor.

Kickstarting his campaign rally for Bangalore Central candidate, Rizwan Arshad here, Mr Siddaramaiah said, Mr Modi is equally responsible for allowing the corrupt and his industrialist friends to loot and scoot from the country. His term in power has brought smiles to the rich man's face and tears to the poor. On the other hand, the waiving of farmer loans in Karnataka and the launch of several Bhagyas are enough to prove that the Congress is busy helping the poor.

Terming the BJP manifesto as a bundle of lies, Mr Siddaramaiah wondered what was new in the manifesto? Be it Ram Mandir or the common civil code, they all have been their agenda ever since the BJP was formed 30 years ago. Theirs is nothing but a bundle of lies, he said. Training his guns on state level BJP leaders, Mr Siddaramaiah quipped that of late, those who looted the state are prefixing chowkidar to their names. This is nothing but an insult to honest chowkidars who toil day and night for a menial salary. Be it BJP state president, B.S. Yeddyurappa, BJP national president, Amit Shah, BJP leaders like Katta Subramanya Naidu and many leaders who have been to jail for committing crimes, they are prefixing chowkidar to their name. I think this is one of the worst insults for honest chowkidars, he contended.
However, the then BJP MP candidate Endala Laxminarayana lost the Nizamabad election even though the Modi wave hit the entire country. In this context, union minister Nirmala Sitaraman declared that the Turmeric Board was not viable and there were no plans to set it up. (Reprsentational image)

Nizamabad: Farmers distress on lack of remunerative prices for turmeric and red jowar was ignored for the last two decades. Vexed with this, they have entered into the political arena to register their protest and draw the attention of the entire country. The major political parties, the Congress, BJP and TRS have been facing an embarrassing situation due to the agitation of farmers.

Actually, around 1,000 farmers had planned to file nominations for Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency, but after scrutiny and withdrawals, only 179 are in the fray. Turmeric and red jowar crops are cultivated in Nizamabad district on a large scale and exported to foreign countries and other states in India.

Farmers have demanding a Turmeric Board on the lines of the Tobacco Board since the 1990s. Under the aegis of the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch (SJM), turmeric farmers conducted a series of agitational programmes during the UPA regime.

In the 2014 general elections, farmers fielded SJM leader Kotapati Narasimha Naidu as an independent MP candidate from Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency, but he failed to impact the election. TRS candidate K. Kavitha assured a Turmeric Board if she won as MP, but in vain. The strained relations between the BJP and TRS during 2014-2016 did not yield any result.

However, the then BJP MP candidate Endala Laxminarayana lost the Nizamabad election even though the Modi wave hit the entire country. In this context, union minister Nirmala Sitaraman declared that the Turmeric Board was not viable and there were no plans to set it up.

During the Congress government in 2004-2014, red jowar farmers stir turned violent in Nizamabad district and led to police firing in Armoor. After the formation of TS, the TRS cleared `11 crore arrears to red jowar farmers, fulfilling an election promise.

Speaking to this newspaper, farmers leader Kotapati Narasimham Naidu said that the Centre should respond on the Turmeric Board issue. We welcome the decision of farmers to contest in the Lok Sabha elections to highlight the price issue, he said. Mr Naidu felt that farmers contesting does not mean that they are against the TRS or sitting MP Kavitha, all political parties are responsible.

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Hyderabad: Telangana state Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has made it clear that his party, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, will support the demand for special status for Andhra Pradesh.

Responding to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidus comment expressing doubts about his support, Mr Rao said, I am saying this from Telangana soil, that the TRS will support special status for AP. Mr Naidu is asking Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy if KCR told him in his ear about supporting special status for AP. I am saying this openly, there is no need to tell it in anyones ear; we dont do any conspiracy like Naidu.

Mr Rao was addressing what could be his last public meeting before the elections at Vikarabad in Chevella Lok Sabha constituency.

He repeated what he has said on many occasions that the TRS will win 16 Lok Sabha seats and the MIM will win one in Telangana. In Andhra Pradesh, Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy will win a good number of Lok Sabha seats. About 35 to 36 MPs from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are enough to fight for special status for Andhra Pradesh, Mr Rao said.

He said in AP, Mr Naidu will have to forfeit his deposit, according to the latest survey he has seen.

Addressing the huge gathering in Vikarabad, Mr Rao also said he will not interfere in the Polavaram project even though he was opposed to it as it has done an injustice to Telangana, which should get a share of the water.

We want our share of 1,000 TMC of Godavari water. We will extend support to Polavaram project, we have no objection if Andhra people utilise the water rather than it going waste in the sea, the CM said. We are not like Chandrababu, who abuses me and Telangana every day. We wish to develop Andhra people also. Andhra people are good, we are not against Andhra people; we have differences with some politicians like Naidu, Mr Rao declared.

Mr Rao said that the BJP and Congress have released their manifestos, and both parties have copied several schemes from Telangana such as Rythu Bandhu, and he is very proud of that.

Playing up the importance of regional parties, he said neither the BJP nor the Congress will come to power and thus regional parties will play a key role. If people vote for the TRS and it wins 16 Lok Sabha seats, he will play a key role in bringing qualitative change in national politics and also to develop Telangana state.

Rao said if the TRS candidate in Chevella wins with one lakh majority, he will scrap GO No 111 of 1996 to give relief to farmers and others.

Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses et all. Happy reading.
Whether or not Narendra Modi returns as Prime Minister, the end of the Lok Sabha campaign will find him presiding over a sadly degenerated Bharatiya Janata Party. Lal Krishna Advanis Nation First, Party Next, Self Last blog was not only prescient but also poignant for being rooted in personal experience.

The past often appears rosy in retrospect, especially when the present is tinged with bitterness. Not everyone regarded Mr Advani in his heyday as the epitome of the respect for diversity and freedom of expression that he now says is the essence of Indian democracy. Morarji Desais Janata Party regime, when Mr Advani held the information and broadcasting portfolio, treated Indira Gandhi as an enemy rather than an adversary. If his exchanges as Leader of the Opposition with P.V. Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh indicated greater political decorum, it was mainly because of the Congress leadership.

Perhaps chivalry didnt quite reach the heights of Saphadin, brother of the legendary Saladin, Sultan of Egypt and Syria, sending Richard the Lion Heart a fresh mount when his horse was wounded in battle in a 12th century crusade. But so great was trust and respect that Mr Narasimha Rao and Dr Singh discussed their revolutionary reforms with Mr Advani and obtained his blessings even before disclosing them to their Cabinet colleagues. Its also impossible to imagine any BJP functionary today complimenting the Congress leadership on taking more radical steps in one month than past governments in 43 years, as Govindacharya, the general secretary, did in 1991.

Such cooperation has become unthinkable. The deterioration disfigures all parties but most of all the BJP, which has transformed itself into what Shatrughan Sinha calls a one-man show and two-man army. No saffron brigade politician would have the aplomb with which Rahul Gandhi brought the house down by declaring I love Narendra Modi at last Fridays packed interactive session in Pune. When some students chanted Modi! Modi!, a smiling Congress president responded: Its fine, no problem. That mature insouciance was of a piece with the jauntiness with which Mr Gandhi once crossed over to the Lok Sabha treasury benches after thundering against the Prime Minister for nearly an hour and hugged the startled Mr Modi.

You can abuse me, you can call me Pappu, but I dont have a speck of hatred against you. I will take this hatred out of you and turn it into love  was his disarming explanation. Old hands may have recalled Jawaharlal Nehrus friendly relations with opponents like Hiren Mukherjee of the CPI orthe Swatantra Partys Minoo Masani.

Some might call it playacting. But playacting demands a measure of cordiality and a certain civilised level of behaviour. It indicates that the actor can set aside his primary concerns for the time being and expend thought and action on conveying goodwill. That was absent when Mr Modi twisted a students question in an attempt to ridicule Mr Gandhi and ended up by cruelly jeering at dyslexic patients. It didnt go down well. Mocking differently-abled people marks a new low in our political discourse  was one tweeted criticism. There was no trace of humour either in the Prime Ministers clumsy attempt to hammer out the acronym sharab from the names of three Opposition parties, Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Lok Dal and Bahujan Samaj. A whole anthology can be compiled of similar graceless remarks by other BJP stalwarts that reflect poorly only on the speakers.

If Congress politicians seem on the whole to indulge less in such cheap cracks, it may be because for historical reasons many of them  at least at the top  tend to speak in English. Despite the social transformation of recent years, language is still largely a function of class and heredity. Listening carefully to the political discourse, its clear that politicians who use one of the Indian languages are generally more given to vituperative outbursts than their English-speaking colleagues. Language both shapes and reflects thinking. Many words and phrases that pass muster in Bengali or Hindi are impolite in English, which is burdened with the norms and values of Englands ruling elite.

As Rajiv Gandhi once lamented, it was difficult explaining to Giani Zail Singh in Hindi that he couldnt sack the Prime Minister and Cabinet just because they were said to hold office at the pleasure of the President. Apart from the underlying the discipline of an English-speaking culture, the subtleties and nuances of the language impose their own restraints.

A related and perhaps more relevant factor is the Sangh Parivars ascendancy. Many mainline BJP politicians would probably shrink from the antics associated with organisations like the Bajrang Dal, Ram Sene, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and various Jagran Manches. It is also possible that the party entrusts its dirty work to roughs and toughs for whom religion means ghar wapsi, lynching Muslims, attacking bars and discos, desecrating churches and pretending to elevate cattle above humans. The social milieu from which many vigilantes are drawn and their innocence of legislative or administrative responsibility also explain a licence that reeks of the streets rather than any office or debating chamber. It means nothing to them that scholastic independence is confined in the straitjacket of bigotry; they probably believe fervently in the absurd fantasies derived from myths and legends that make India the laughing stock of the world.

Clearly, Mr Advani finds this vulgarisation caused by the overlapping of party and Sangh Parivar painful only because he feels victimised. But the vulgarisation is undeniable when adversaries are enemies and those who disagree are demonised as anti-national. The shift in tone evident in the poisoned rhetoric of senior leaders and their tasteless jokes at the expense of opponents  which is one of the most destructive developments of recent times. It doesnt augur well for public life in the years to come.

The writer is a senior journalist, columnist and author
The government has recently passed an order that allows the movement of only military vehicles on the national highway that links Jammu to the Kashmir Valley on two days of the week  Sundays and Wednesdays. Along with withdrawal of armed security from top figures of mainstream political parties, a move that exposes them as soft targets for terrorist guns especially in election season, the overt militarisation of the highway is probably the most confidence-disruptive step that could have been thought up. It also mocks our democratic credentials and offers a justification to elements globally that are not well-wishers of this country to say Kashmir is under a military dispensation.

When the order was passed recently, the government said it was a temporary measure until the election as more forces had to be inducted for the duration of the Lok Sabha polls. This is far from being a convincing argument. Polls have been held very successfully in Kashmir before, but the lifeline of the Valley was never closed to civilians. Moreover, only the Parliament election is being held now, though Assembly polls are also due. This makes the election exercise a relatively lighter one, requiring far fewer troops to supervise it.

Before Independence and Partition, in the era of the maharaja, the only metalled road that linked India to the Valley ran from Rawalpindi to Srinagar. The Kashmiri was not an Indian national. There were border checkposts and customs barriers between two distinct domains. When the Jawaharlal Nehru government began work on the 350-km highway, among other things, it was also to establish an emotional connect between the people of Kashmir and the rest of India. This connect has been rendered fragile for several reasons over time, and closing the highway to civilians cannot but make the Valley feel more isolated and more resentful. Thats a perfect recipe for exploitation by Pakistan.

The Narendra Modi government has clearly not thought things through, relying on military means alone in Kashmir. Between 2000 and 2014, the situation had been on the mend but the drastic change in policy by the present government has brought on great trouble. The striking disinclination on the governments part to play a political hand in Kashmir has alienated practically the entire Valley. The middle ground has vanished.

Last Sunday was the first day the highway was off limits to civilians. Mehbooba Muftis PDP came out on the streets protesting. The National Conference too said sharp things. The coming Wednesday may further reveal the picture.

The decision concerning civilians and the highway comes in the backdrop of a host of other decisions that have left Kashmiris perplexed and sullen  withdrawal of security for not only separatist leaders but also leading politicians who hold up Indias standard in a sensitive and dangerous region. The only thing to do is to rescind the absurd order.
The people of the Maldives have given the Maldivian Democratic Party an unprecedented two-thirds majority of 68 seats in the 87-member Majlis that went to the polls on Saturday, giving President Ibrahim Solih, who took office seven months ago, a free hand to tackle the multiple challenges of ending corruption and reviving a flailing economy. More important, it brings Mohammed Nasheed, the man behind this impressive landslide, back to the front and centre of the Maldivian polity after five years in the political wilderness.

Victory is particularly sweet. In spearheading a comeback that reduces his arch-rival and China-leaning former President Abdulla Yameen to a footnote in history, as it does the Gasim Ibrahim-led Jumhooree Party, with four and seven seats respectively, the MDP leader finally has the numbers to push through his promise of sweeping reforms. This time, without hindrance from the Opposition, that was led in recent months by a newly-vociferous Gasim who upped the ante over Yameens continued incarceration.

India, whose voice was heeded in Washington and London, must bank on the hope that the Maldives breaks free completely from Beijings hold. The Asian superpower invested some $3 billion in the islands as part of its Belt and Road Initiative, that has reduced Maldivian builders to penury. Will President Solih go back on the Chinese infrastructure projects that risk sinking the economy?

The scale of victory mirrors the time that Mr Nasheed himself won power in 2008 after Maumoon Abdul Gayoom stood down after 30 years in power. This time, however, it also strengthens his hand in executing another turnaround, and possibly ending the executive presidential system. What comes next? A Prime Minister Mohammed Nasheed?
The 2019 Lok Sabha elections could be a turning point for West Bengal; not just its politics. It could be the end of the social contract among the people, just under three-fourths of whom are Hindus and the remaining 27 per cent of whom are Muslims, to keep the state out of the politics of communalism and protect its crafted image as a socially liberal, politically secular space.

Political parties across the spectrum arrived at a consensus that in the aftermath of Partition, West Bengal could not afford to engage in politicising identity, based on religion or place of origin. It now seems that West Bengal is prepared to play identity politics and this is in sync with the Bharatiya Janata Partys concerted effort to bring the state within its embrace.

The BJPs repeated promise that when it returns to power at the Centre it will roll out the implementation of the National Register of Citizens and the Citizenship Amendment Bill as a principal campaign pitch in West Bengal is a declaration that the era of consensus is over. The trope of a Hindu majority that will be swamped by the Muslim minority has become central to its appeal. It combines insecurity and fear, frustration and aspiration in a mix that makes it easy for Narendra Modi to talk about Mamata Banerjee as a sponsor of the side that wants to break up India, a speed breaker to development and basically an advocate of anti-nationals.

Enabling this potentially hazardous shift is the gradual appropriation and domination of the narrative of identity by the spectre of Partition and the phantoms that haunt the approximately six million people who came out of East Pakistan and sought refuge in West Bengal. In 1971, the population of West Bengal was 44 million. The genocide in Bangladesh pushed the next wave of approximately two million refugees across the border, some temporarily and many multiples more permanently, who then became settlers, initially illegal and then legalised by stealth. By 1981, West Bengals population was 54 million. In 2018, it was 100 million.

In the BJPs reconstruction, the only political legacy that seems to matter in West Bengal is that of Partition. The narrative of dispossession is being worked by the BJP to infuse a sense of insecurity in segments of West Bengals population. Proof of citizenship problems affecting 23 lakh Hindus and 21 lakh Muslims in neighbouring Assam seems to have rubbed off on people who came and settled in West Bengal from East Pakistan after 1947.

Even though the status of this population is not open to examination, the anxiety of those who came after 1971 could impact the outcome in at least two seats in North 24-Parganas and Nadia districts. The BJP is hoping to seduce a section of Scheduled Caste voters in Bongaon constituency, a part of which is the stronghold of the Matua Samaj, by dangling citizenship papers to those who have lived in West Bengal for more than six years. It is the BJPs vote bank creation, because it promises to delegitimise the Muslims and champion the Hindus.

Incorrect and incoherent as this storyline is, cherry picking its emphases from the political history of West Bengal after the division, it has hit on two strong sentiments that hold the Bengali imagination and self-constructed identity in thrall. Based on this reconstruction, Amit Shah has set a target of 23 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal; that has now been pared down to the party will hit double digits in the number of seats it wins.

In West Bengals 70-year history, the BJP (or its earlier Jan Sangh avatar) has had no significant role. The other part is that it is not, as yet, though pretty close, to becoming a native of the place. It is a party that arrived in the state just about 20 years ago; it gained political credibility when Mamata Banerjee partnered the National Democratic Alliance governments under Atal Behari Vajpayee, starting in 1999. Its voteshare has risen and fallen, peaking with the Narendra Modi wave at 17 per cent in 2014 and dropping to just over 10 per cent in 2016 in the panchayat elections. In Amit Shahs arithmetic, the 10 per cent is either good enough to win 23 seats or the BJPs voteshare will see a vertiginous increase in 2019.

Oddly enough, neither Narendra Modi nor Mamata Banerjee is prepared to acknowledge that anti-incumbency can upset all their calculations. Just as much as the BJPs campaign is built on another Modi wave hoisting it to a second term, Mamata Banerjee seems to think that the BJP will not do well in West Bengal because voters will choose her  the symbol of a peoples government by Ma-Mati-Manush, the Trinamul war cry in its spectacular triumph over the 34-year Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led government-over them.

West Bengal has always been an outlier in Indian politics. Will voters switch en masse over to the BJP? Will voters fall for the religion-identity bait? Will local anger against the Trinamul Congress push voters over to the BJP? Trinamuls eroding appeal will be tested in constituencies with obviously weak nominees, like Moon Moon Sen from Asansol against Babul Supriyo, who almost did not get renominated. And the struggle to oust the BJP from Asansol just got tougher after S.S. Ahluwalias nomination from Durgapur-Bardhaman against the Trinamul Congress Sanghamitra Mamtaz. Denial that the Trinamul has built up its own political capital of anti-incumbency could affect the party in the border districts of North 24-Parganas, Nadia, Murshidabad and further north in Cooch Behar, Alipurduar and Darjeeling, as well as non-border districts of Birbhum-Bardhaman-Medinipur, where anti-incumbency could be the tipping factor.

The problem is that within the BJP and its fan club in West Bengal, no one can actually come up with the list of hits that will catapult the party into double digits. The majority of its star nominees are shape shifters, some from the Trinamul and an odd one or two from the CPI(M) and the Congress; Arjun Singh in Barrackpur, Nishith Pramanik in Cooch Behar, Bharati Ghosh, a former IPS officer and Mamata Banerjees onetime daughter, in Ghatal, Medinipur. 2019 will mark the assimilation of the BJP into the crowd of political parties in West Bengal, if it wins any number of seats over nine. If it does not, then it will show up its lack of organisational strength and leadership resources.
In this image taken from video on Thursday, April 4, 2019, and distributed by Roscosmos Space Agency Press Service, Russian cargo ship Souz FG with the Progress MS-11 takes off from the launch pad at Russia's main space facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The cargo ship is carrying fuel, food, water, oxygen and other supplies for the space station, which currently has three Americans, two Russians and one Canadian aboard. (Roscosmos Space Agency Press Service photo via AP)

An unmanned Russian spacecraft carrying more than three tons of cargo has set a record time for a trip to the International Space Station, docking with the orbiting outpost in three hours and 21 minutes.

The Progress freighter blasted off Thursday from the Russian launch facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, and docked with the station after two orbits.

It was 19 minutes faster than the previous record set by another Progress ship in July, according to the Russian space agency Roscosmos.

The cargo ship is carrying fuel, food, water, oxygen and other supplies for the space station, which currently has three Americans, two Russians and one Canadian astronaut on aboard.

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Each of the iPhones that were replaced would cost Apple around $600, which amounted to a whopping $895,800 in the entire scam, reports NYT.

Two college students in the United States were detained for a fake iPhone scheme that amounted to a whopping $900,000 loss for Apple. The two students were Chinese nationals that were on a legal study visa in the US. The report from The New York Times stated that the two kids robbed Apple of more than 1,500 iPhones that were claimed under warranty.

The scam was pretty simple. Oregon college students would raise a claim with Apple that their iPhones would not turn on or charge at all. Then they would ship the phones to the Apple service centre and in return, Apple would send them a brand new iPhone as a replacement.

Apples replacement service is pretty well-known to be quick and efficient. They would immediately send out a replacement for a dead phone as part of their warranty terms. However, by the time the faulty handset would reach the iPhone office for inspection/repairs, it would be too late as the replacement units would already reach the customer.

The two students, identified as Quan Jiang and Yangyang Zhou, would then sell off the replaced original iPhones to customers out of the country and get a cut from the profit. This money would then be sent to their parents, who would deposit the amount in a bank account that can be accessed from the US.

The issue was noted by Apple around two years ago after customs officers seized a few too many shipments coming in from Hong Kong that contained counterfeit iPhones, reported NYT. The consignments contained Apple products with the logos and design features of an iPhone. However, the shipping methods and packaging raised the suspicions that the phones were counterfeit.

Investigations into the matter revealed that the shipment was headed to Zhous mailing address, and also involved one neighbour and another friend in Corvallis. With leads from Apple about the warranty claims, the investigators zeroed in on 3,069 phones that Jiang claimed on warranty, citing no power and charging issues. While around 1,500 claims were rejected, the other 1,500+ claims were approved by Apple. And each claim was honoured with a new Apple iPhone as a replacement. Since Apples process involved honouring an immediate replacement for every phone that is returned dead or has charging issues, the new iPhones were shipped to the customer. However, technicians at Apple figured out that the phones were fake only when it was too late.

Jiang told the investigators that he had submitted around 2,000 iPhones in 2017 alone and that he had involved his family, friends and relatives in the process.

Each of the iPhones that were replaced would cost Apple around $600, which amounted to a whopping $895,800 in the entire scam, reports NYT.

Jiang is presently accused of trafficking in counterfeit goods and is detained under GPS monitoring, while Zhou is accused of submitting false and misleading information on export declarations. In 2018, Jiangs house was searched by federal agents and around 300 fake iPhones, along with shipping and warranty submission records were found.

In August last year, Zhou was detained at San Francisco airport when he was about to leave for China. He was spotted with a new iPhone unit still inside a factory box. Investigators could tell from the box that it was a replacement unit box and not a retail box, but Zhou told them that it was given to him by Jiang as part of a debt payment.

The first court hearing was held last week and Jiang was told not to interact with Apple while the case continues.

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The four poachers, who survived, were arrested and will appear in court in due course. (Representational Photo)

South Africa: Five suspected poachers entered Kruger National Park in South Africa last week to kill rhinos, according to authorities. In the end only four left the park alive.

The fifth, allegedly, was killed by an elephant and later eaten by a pride of lions, park officials said in a statement.

Glenn Phillips, director of Kruger National Park, made it clear that entering the park on foot is not wise as it has many dangers and the incident is one of recent attempts to do so.

The four poachers, who survived, were arrested and will appear in court in due course. They will remain in custody until Friday, pending bail, reported Times Live, a news site in South Africa. Authorities have launched a thorough investigation into the poachers death and his companions.

Police official Leonard Hlathi told Times Live that the elephant attacked abruptly, killing the man in a flash. The accomplices carried his body to the road so that trespassers could find it in the morning. They then vanished from the park, Hlathi said.

The poachers informed the dead mans family, which then called Don Englishregional ranger for Skukuzuthe most popular game reserve in the country. Don English assured them, that he would do whatever he could to recover the body.

A search party of rangers on foot and a few in air scoured the area on Wednesday but there was no trace of the dead man. They resumed their efforts on Thursday and finally found the remains of the body near Crocodile River. This area, according to Kruger National Park website, is a popular destination for lions. It also houses a considerable chunk of Rhino population. The team could only find the dead mans head and his pair of pants. The rest, as suspected, was eaten up by the lions.

It is a sorry site to see daughters, mourning the loss of their father, in such a state, said Phillips offering his condolences for the dead man. Its worse to see that we are only able to recover so little of him.

After the arrests of the other 4 poachers, authorities seized two .375 hunting rifles and ammunition. They were charged with firearm possession without a licence and trespassing, as reported by Times Live.

South Africa is home to 80 per cent of the worlds rhino population.
The 46-year-olds departure marks the end of a tortured relationship with her boss, who blamed her for a recent spike in the number of migrants coming through the Mexico border and reportedly felt she wasnt tough enough to implement his policies. (Photo: AP)

Washington: US President Donald Trump on Sunday announced Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, the front-line defender of the administrations controversial immigration policies, would leave her position.

The 46-year-olds departure marks the end of a tortured relationship with her boss, who blamed her for a recent spike in the number of migrants coming through the Mexico border and reportedly felt she wasnt tough enough to implement his policies.

Trumps announcement comes days after he and Nielsen visited the Mexican border where the president delivered a message to would-be illegal immigrants and asylum seekers: Our country is full.

He had previously threatened to close the US-Mexico border if Congress and Central American governments did not act to stem a flow of migrants that saw Nielsen last week order an emergency surge of personnel to handle the situation.

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.

On Friday, US media reported that Trump also pulled his nominee to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement department -- saying he wanted someone tougher to lead the department -- a sub-agency of Nielsens.

The personnel shake-ups were seen by observers as a signal the president wants to tack an even harder line in his crack down on illegal immigration.

Family separations

Nielsen initially joined the Trump administration in January 2017 as a an assistant to Trumps first DHS secretary, John Kelly. When Kelly moved to the White House as Trumps chief of staff in July 2017, Nielsen went with him as his deputy.

But by October 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 departments purview.

But most notably, she has become the face of the Trump administrations fierce anti-immigration policy.

That includes the widely condemned practice 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 that saw Democrats demand she resign, 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.

Although Trumps ambiguous announcement left the details of her exit up in the air, Nielsens relationship with the president has long been said to be difficult.

But despite reports he complained constantly about her performance -- and that he believed she was not harsh enough -- she remained steadfastly loyal.

Last month, she defended the presidents declaration of a national emergency to secure funding for his pet project: a wall on the US-Mexico border.
Washington: 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.

Nielsens 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 presidents 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 on 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.

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 the flow of migrants.
Canberra: Animal rights activists in Australia broke into abattoirs and chained themselves up to protest against the meat industry on Monday. Over 100 protesters also blocked one of Melbournes main intersections, before many were removed and arrested.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the activism was damaging to farmers livelihoods.

He criticised the activists as shameful and un-Australian and said, this is just another form of activism that I think runs against the national interest. Farmers should be able to farm their own land, he told radio station 2GB.

He later called on state authorities to bring the full force of the law... against these green-collared criminals. Australia is second only to the US for meat consumption per person, according to the World Economic Forum. The nations livestock industry accounts for more than 40 percent of its agricultural output.

The protests took place in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland and aimed to raise publicity about animal treatment and the ethics of eating meat. We want people to go vegan - we want people to stop supporting animal abuse, one campaigner, Kristin Leigh, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Animals are suffering in ways that most of us could never imagine. It is not about bigger cages - it is about animal liberation, he said. Police said 38 protesters were arrested in Melbourne. A further nine were arrested at an abattoir in Goulburn, 168km south of Sydney, after they chained themselves to machinery.

The Australian Meat Industry Council said butcher shops had been under a sustained attack by campaigners.

This has to stop and stop now. We need to look at the 99 percent of people in Australia that are looking to and wanting to consume red meat products," said chief executive Patrick Hutchinson.
Vijay Mallya is wanted in India for an alleged fraud and money laundering charges amounting to an estimated Rs 9,000 crores. (Photo: File)

London: A UK High Court judge has denied embattled liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya permission to appeal against his extradition order to India to face alleged fraud and money laundering charges amounting to Rs 9,000 crores.

The 63-year-old former Kingfisher Airlines boss had filed the application in the High Court after UK home secretary Sajid Javid signed off on a Westminster Magistrates' Court order for his extradition to face the Indian courts back in February.

"The application for permission to appeal was refused by Mr Justice William Davis on 05/04/2019," said a spokesperson for the UK judiciary.

"The appellant (Mallya) has five business days to apply for oral consideration. If a renewal application is made, it will be listed before a High Court judge and dealt with at a hearing," the spokesperson said.

The application seeking leave to appeal had been passed on to a single judge, who was to make a decision on the basis of papers submitted as part of the application.

Now that the judge on papers application has been rejected by Judge Davis, Mallya has the option to submit for a renewal.

The renewal process will lead to a brief oral hearing during which Mallya's legal team and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)  on behalf of the Indian government  will renew their respective claims for and against an appeal for a judge to determine if it can proceed to a full hearing.

Mallya has been based in the UK since March 2016 and remains on bail on an extradition warrant executed by Scotland Yard in April 2017.

In her verdict at the end of a year-long extradition trial in December last year, Judge Emma Arbuthnot had ruled that the "flashy" billionaire had a "case to answer" in the Indian courts.
Bucharest: Romanias former president Ion Iliescu has been ordered to stand trial for crimes against humanity for his role in the deadly aftermath of the 1989 revolution that toppled the countrys communist regime, prosecutors said Monday.

It is a particularly important moment for Romanias justice system that is fulfilling a debt of honour to history, chief prosecutor Augustin Lazar told reporters.

The announcement caps a long-running investigation made more difficult by an official reluctance to revisit the 1989 revolution's bloody aftermath.

Iliescu, now 89, had been a minister in the government of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and went on to lead the National Salvation Front, which took control of the country after the uprising which began in the western city of Timisoara on December 16, 1989.

Iliescu was elected president in 1990 and served another term from 2000 to 2004. Iliescu was indicted last December with three others. Two of them  former deputy PM Gelu Voican Voiculescu and former air force commander Iosif Rus  will also stand trial.

The case against former PM Petre Roman has been dropped for lack of evidence. Prosecutors accuse Iliescu and Voiculescu of directly spreading misinformation through televised appearances, contributing to the institution of a generalised psychosis.
Former Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra sanctified the judiciarys reluctance to reform itself by resolving cases speedily while stating marital rape should never be made a crime.

I dont think that marital rape should be regarded as an offence in India, because it will create absolute anarchy in families and our country is sustaining itself because of the family platform which upholds family values, he said at a conference on Transformative Constitutionalism in India on Monday.

Justice Misra described the notion of criminalising marital rape as an idea borrowed from other nations and not applicable to India. Over a 12-month period from 2015 to 2016, the National Health and Family Survey revealed that 5.4% of Indian women had informed census workers that their husbands had used physical violence in order to force them into sexual intercourse.

The weight of the former CJIs words seemed to hit many young women gathered for the conference hard.

When Shankara Prasad, a proponent for a more transparent government, broached the subject of speeding up legal cases, Justice Misra absolved the judiciary of the responsibility for the backlog of cases by saying the briskness of which a court case is disposed of depends on people and their lawyers.

Mohan Peiris, a former Chief Justice of Sri Lanka, described the judiciarys sense of detachment as being as much a sign of the systems belief in its own sophistication as its obliviousness about what people want. We are in the stars; our feet are not on the ground, he said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party promised in its manifesto released on Monday that if it was allowed to remain in power for five more years, it would work towards establishing a Comity of Nations against International Terrorism as a voluntary multi-lateral forum based on the principles of the draft Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT).

The BJP's manifesto indicates that if the party continued to lead the government in New Delhi after the Lok Sabha polls, India would no longer wait for the UNGA to adopt the convention. It would bring like-minded nations together to build a bloc to coordinate global war on terrorism.

We are committed to taking concrete steps on international forums against countries and organizations supporting terrorism, and we will take all necessary measures to isolate such countries and organizations on the global stage, the BJP said in its poll-manifesto.

The BJP manifesto has no reference to the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). However, it refers to the BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation)  a bloc comprising seven landlocked countries dependent on Bay of Bengal for maritime purposes. The manifesto vows to extensively leverage forums like the BIMSTEC.

Foreign policy university

The party also promised to establish a full-fledged first-of-its-kind University of Foreign Policy to focus on academic study and research on foreign policy and geopolitical issues relevant to India, and would help train diplomats of India and the nations friendly to India.

The BJP promises to create an "International Space Technology Alliance" for better coordination and cooperation on issues related to space technology in order to ensure that the benefits of the space technology reach all, especially the smaller countries.

What is Comity of Nations against International Terrorism?

In 1996, India had proposed the adoption of the CCIT at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). The UN is yet to adopt it, as the negotiations over the draft of the convention at the Sixth Committee of the international organisation could not make progress in the past 23 years.

The differences among the UN member nations over the definition of terrorism have led to the impasse. Pakistan has been lobbying hard to dilute the draft proposed by India, by seeking to add qualifiers to the definition of terrorism, seeking to exclude from its ambit what it describes as "fight for right of self-determination".

New Delhi has been routinely calling upon the international community to help end the impasse over the proposed CCIT at the UNGA, particularly after the major attacks carried out in India by the terrorist outfits based in Pakistan.

After the attack on Indian Army camp at Uri in northern Kashmir in September 2016, New Delhi decided against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Islamabad for the SAARC summit to be hosted by Pakistan Government two months later.

Bhutan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh rallied behind India and wrote to Nepal  currently the chair of the bloc  that the regional situation was not conducive to hold the summit. Maldives too joined the bandwagon later, thus forcing postponement of the summit indefinitely.

While the impasse over the SAARC continued since 2016, New Delhi focussed more on the BIMSTEC, which comprises Myanmar and Thailand, apart from five of the eight SAARC nations  India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Nepal.
This summer, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu has been literally sweating it out, touring every nook and corner of the state canvassing for his Telugu Desam Party.

But, Naidu has not even bothered to visit the Kuppam Assembly constituency from where he is seeking re-election for the seventh consecutive term. In fact, Naidu did not even come to Kuppam to file his nomination and, some local leaders did it for him.

Naidu is supremely confident that voters of Kuppam will not let him down. He has won all the six elections in the past by bagging over 60% of the total votes polled, since 1989.

Naidu's confidence against his YSRCP rival K Chandramouli, a former IAS officer, stems from the fact that he has successfully implemented scores of developmental works and welfare schemes in this arid area.

"Thirty years ago when Naidu was elected as Kuppam MLA, the area was extremely backward in every respect. Now, we have good roads, water facility, 24x7 power supply to agricultural pump sets and schools in all villages. We ourselves are funding his campaign as we want to see him as chief minister again," says Lakshminarayana of Solishettypalli in Santipuram mandal. Raniyamma of Somapuram adds that there is no need for "Anna" to visit.

Naidu government's Pasapu-Kumkuma scheme has been a big hit among women, who outnumber men in Kuppam. Launched this February, Pasupu-Kumkuma aims to provide financial help to women registered with self-help groups. Each beneficiary is provided Rs 10,000 cash and a smartphone.

The YSRCP cadre agrees that Kuppam has seen all-round development under Naidu. They are seeking votes by highlighting irregularities and corruption in implementation of schemes, manipulation of land records to favour TDP supporters and harassment of the common man by the local TDP leaders, says Nanda Kumar of YSRCP, a prominent leader of the Balija community.

The prospects of YSRCP, which lacks a formidable leader in Naidu's home district of Chittoor, winning the polls appear bleak. The morale of the YSRCP cadre has taken a beating as their candidate Chandramouli has been hospitalised due to serious illness and, has stayed away from the campaign.

Chandramouli, who belongs to the dominant Vannikula Kshatriya community, had lost the 2014 elections to Naidu (a Khamma by caste) by over 47,000 votes.
A huge amount of cash meant for distribution in the Lok Sabha polls during the first phase has been confiscated by the Telangana police in the last two days. The police also arrested six people for transporting the unaccounted money in huge denominations.Disclosing this at a press conference here City Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar said that Rs 4.92 crore unaccounted cash was seized fewer than eight police station limits. Task Force officers from West, North and Central Zones participated in this operation. Persons were arrested from Panjagutta, Malakpet and Banjara Hills police station limits.Police during a raid in an apartment in Somajiguda, arrested M Satwik Reddy and Sourav Goyal, both businessmen from Rajendra Nagar, for having an amount of Rs 26.19 lakh of unaccounted money. Also on a tip-off, North Zone Task Force team intercepted a car near Moosarambagh and took into custody T Kasinath Reddy, a businessman Bhukya Ravi, driver of that car. They were carrying Rs 34.30 lakh cash. The money the CP said was meant for distribution at the Malkajigiri constituency.On Sunday, the West Zone Task Force team apprehended one Mallareddy Srinivas, for transporting Rs 1 crore illegally. As the accused failed to corroborate the source of the cash police took him into custody. Police seized the cash and car and handed them over to the Income Tax Department for further investigation.Meanwhile, the Central Zone Task Force team along with the local police intercepted one car near Basavatarakam Cancer Hospital at Road No 10 in Banjara Hills and apprehended one person B Seenaiah, a driver who was carrying Rs 1 crore. The driver upon investigation revealed that the money was meant for Nalgonda constituency.According to a statement the police also seized unaccounted money during their checking at Panjagutta (Rs 26 lakh), Osmania University police station (Rs 47.75 lakh), Golconda (Rs 2 lakh), SR Nagar (Rs 3.65 lakh), Jubilee Hills (Rs 1.49 crore) and in Tappachabutra police station limits Rs (4 lakh), totaling Rs 4.92 crore cash.
Indian Army on Monday received the first batch of Dhanush artillery guns  a desi howitzer based on the Bofors technology.

The 155 mm x 45 Calibre artillery was manufactured by the Gun Carriage Factory, Jabalpur  one of the units of the Ordnance Factory Board  using the Bofors FH-77B gun technology, after the Defence Ministry dusted off the old Bofors licensing agreement and asked the OFB to make an indigenous one to deal with the shortage of artillery guns.

The Jabalpur unit went a step ahead and improved upon the original gun. Dhanush weighs 700 kg more than Bofors and has an 87 mm longer barrel.

As a result of such changes, Dhanush not only has a superior range of 38 km compared to Bofors, which can fire up to 27 km, but several of its functions are automated.

For instance, the desi Bofors has an auto laying system based on the Fire Control Computer System as compared to the manual system of the original one.

Dhanush incorporates inertial navigation system, an onboard ballistic computer, direct day and night firing system, a modern target acquisition system and a communication system to make the weapon compatible with the Indian army's Project Shakti  creation of the Artillery Command, Control and Communication Centre.

Weighing less than 13 tonnes, with a high ground clearance of 400 mm, Dhanush is the most manoeuvrable artillery system and can be deployed in any terrain. It will provide the much-needed muscle to Indian Army in the days to come, Gagan Chaturvedi, deputy director general at the OFB said in a media statement.

Indian Army has placed an order for 114 of these guns at a cost of nearly Rs 1,700 crore (Rs 15 crore apiece)

The handing over ceremony took place at Jabalpur in the presence of Saurabh Kumar, Director General Ordnance Factories and Chairman of the Ordnance Factory Board; Ajay Kumar, secretary, Defence Production in the Defence Ministry and Lt Gen PK Srivastava, the Director General of Artillery in the Indian Army.

However, the delivery comes nearly three years behind schedule as the gun experienced hiccups during the trials. The muzzle of one of the guns was broken and the barrel exploded, leading the OFB engineers to rework on those problems.

Once the problems were resolved, the final trials in Jaisalmer in June 2018 in which the guns fire 50 rounds a day at the peak of the summer was a resounding success.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 8)  The Department of Information and Communications Technology on Monday said it plans to finalize by the end of April a list of 1,000 sites nationwide for building common towers for telecommunication firms.

DICT Acting Secretary Eliseo Rio Jr. said the list of common tower sites will include government properties as well as areas where telco providers Globe Telecom and PLDT-Smart already have towers they are willing to share with Mislatel Consortium, the newest player.

"We are hoping na ma-identify namin 'yung [that we could identify the] 1,000 within two weeks from now," Rio said after the House committee on information and communications technology hearing.

After identifying the possible locations for building common towers, Rio said the department will draft a policy on the matter in the next two to three months.

DICT data show the country needs an additional 50,000 cell sites in the next seven years to keep up with consumer demand for mobile and internet services.

There are currently 19 local and foreign companies interested to build common telco towers.

Rio says telco subscribers can expect better service at lower cost once the common towers are in place since these will expand coverage and improve signal quality.
Americans are at odds with themselves, not just across political lines, but within their own systems of belief. That tension wont easily clear until individuals stop to ask, Why are we doing what were doing?

Its a powerful but simple question. A CEO observing falling profits, for instance, wont hesitate to question why an ailing subsidiary should continue to lose money. A farmer with failing crops will examine what variable to change rather than persisting in a losing strategy.

Individual Americans would benefit from asking it more of themselves.

A WSJ/NBC poll released Friday found Americans hold negative views of social media. Clear majorities believe Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the like are a waste of time, that they spread lies and unfair attacks, and that they divide the country.

Yet, nearly 70 percent of Americans report using social media each day.

In a similar vein, national news analysts and talk show commentators would have the nation believe politics, parties and winning elections is what matters most to U.S. citizens.

The data, however, are clear: Americans dont define themselves by their politics  not even close. When provided a list of 14 items with which people may identify themselves, 47 percent of respondents had their children among the top three choices and 40 percent picked American, according to a Scott Rasmussen poll, released Thursday. Additionally, 37 percent included their faith as a top pick.

A scant 7 percent included their political affiliation, and only 1 percent named politics as their top defining attribute.

Those numbers are consistent with the results of the 2018 Deseret News American Family Survey, which found respondents define themselves first as a parent or spouse, then as a member of their religion and their community. Political party fell near the bottom of the list.

In both instances  social media use and self-identification  actions dont align with beliefs. Its worth asking why.

In the case of technology, it comes as no shock phones and apps are addicting, especially when Silicon Valley insiders admit to making them that way. The compulsive nature of the medium brings users back, sometimes against their better judgement.

A simple solution to align technology use with beliefs is to disconnect for one hour a day, one day a week and one week a year. Stepping away, even momentarily, quickly brings answers to the question, Why are we doing what we are doing?

A similar force might be at play when it comes to Americans identity. While the political arena wasnt designed to be addicting, it nevertheless attracts those who feel compelled to defend their tribe.

Aligning the perceived importance of politics with Americans true identity  centered in family, faith and country  requires stepping outside personal bubbles, engaging with people who disagree, avoiding instant certainty and simply listening.

Asking, Why are we doing what were doing? would bring positive change to a host of issues. It would help commentators see the nation as so much more than political parties, aid individuals in stepping away from wasteful distractions and unearth conversations about the values Americans admire most.
SALT LAKE CITY  Dont call it a comeback. Winter is about to return to the Salt Lake valley this week.

A late season winter storm will arrive in Utah this week, according to the U.S. National Weather Service in Salt Lake City.

The storm will hit northern and central Utah on Tuesday night and last until early Thursday. Snow is expected to fall throughout the valley, according to NWS.

*Return of Winter Alert* A late season winter storm is expected to impact portions of northern and central Utah later Tuesday into early Thursday. Snow levels are expected to fall to valley floors Posted by US National Weather Service Salt Lake City Utah on Sunday, April 7, 2019

The amount of snow remains uncertain. The NWS predicts 3 inches in the valley with higher numbers on the benches. Rain is expected to hit first and turn into snow as the storm rolls on.

KSL Weathers Dan Guthrie predicts there will be a rain/snow mix by Wednesday and Thursday

The NWS recommends preparing for winter driving conditions Tuesday night into Wednesday morning in northern and central Utah.

Snow will fall on trees that already have leaves, which could cause power damage and outages.
SOUTH SALT LAKE  A man who police say was "firing indiscriminately throughout the city" was shot and killed following a dramatic high-speed chase that ended with a hail of bullets on a busy State Street after crashing into the front of a store.

Harold Vincent Robinson, 37, of West Valley City, was pronounced dead at the scene.

"One of the officers involved in the pursuit said that (Robinson) was leaning out the window and firing the rifle back toward the officers during the chase, said Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown. "I'm not sure where those rounds went."

Cellphone video recorded by witnesses who were nearby when the fleeing white pickup truck crashed into the front of Princess Alterations and Leatherwork, 3339 S. State, shows more than 20 officers converging on the truck after 15 to 20 seconds of continuous gunfire  dozens upon dozens of shots.

"It's like at nighttime when somebody throws firecrackers outside," one witness said. "All you could hear is bam bam bam bam. You could hear them shooting rapidly."

Dozens of shell casings littered State Street near 3400 South after officers from multiple local, state and federal agencies opened fire on Robinson, who police believe robbed two convenience stores at gunpoint before firing shots  apparently at random  at several locations throughout Salt Lake City and while leading officers on the chase.

Police did not say Monday how many officers fired their weapons at the gunman, but there were unconfirmed reports of at least a dozen.

One Unified police officer suffered a "very minor" injury from a bullet that ricocheted and grazed him, said Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera. That officer was treated at the scene and did not go to the hospital, she said.

Amazingly, Rivera said there were no other reports of major injuries anywhere despite the numerous bullets that were fired. However, she said evidence was being collected at as many as 15 crime scenes, most of which were areas where shots were fired. The sheriff encouraged anyone who was injured or who witnessed Monday's events to contact police.

The shootout happened at a busy section of State Street where there are many restaurants and businesses.

Both Rivera and Brown praised the response of all law enforcement agencies that worked together and "ran into the face of danger to stop the threat quickly.

"If it hadnt of been for the cooperation of these brave officers out here  this could have been drastically different, the chief said.

Officers from Salt Lake police, Unified police, the Utah Highway Patrol, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives were on the scene.

First shots

The dramatic series of events began just after 10 a.m. when a Holiday Oil, 2729 W. 4700 South in Taylorsville, was robbed at gunpoint.

Kendall Brigman was at the store buying a soda when a woman at the counter screamed, "We're being robbed!"

Brigman said he saw a tall man back away from the counter with a gun drawn.

"The two girls behind the counter dropped to the floor," he said. "He backed out of the store with the gun drawn, holding it with both hands."

The man got into a white pickup truck, backed up rapidly and headed south on 2700 West, according to Brigman.

Rivera said at 10:37 a.m., a 7-Eleven at 911 E. 3300 South in Millcreek was robbed at gunpoint and shots were fired. No injuries were reported.

At 10:42 a.m., the first reported shots were fired downtown when witnesses said "bursts of rapid fire" erupted near the entrance of the Sheraton Hotel, 150 W. 500 South.

One witness said between eight and 12 shots were fired at a specific window of a hotel room on the first floor. What appeared to be bullet marks could be seen on the brick building and there was shattered glass in the parking lot.

Video from witness. Crash and gunshots happened shortly after. pic.twitter.com/uNTUnLL1SU  DNews Crime Team (@DNewsCrimeTeam) April 8, 2019

Dave Garrison, of St. Louis, Missouri, saw the gunfire as he walked out of the hotel.

"I think my guardian angels were with me. I could have walked out that main entrance. I could have walked right by that gentleman," he said. "I guess it wasnt my time. Its sad and surreal. Stuff like this just puts stuff into perspective.

"I just got so damned scared, to be honest with you," Garrison said.

He said he called 911 and gave the police dispatcher as much information as he could, including a description of the truck and its broken driver's side rear window. "The (window) tint was hanging off of it," he said.

As of Monday, Brown said he did not know if the gunman was specifically targeting anyone at the hotel.

The chase

Police were still trying late Monday to piece together how many places Robinson fired shots in the downtown Salt Lake area.

Paramedics were called to 500 South and 200 East on reports of a car being shot, but no one in that area reported being injured. Shots were also reported near the Matheson Courthouse at 450 S. State.

According to a recording of police dispatcher scanner traffic from Broadcastify, shots were also reported near 100 S. Main. At one point, the man is described by witnesses as having a silver handgun.

An officer spotted the white pickup going east on 300 South. From there, according to police following him, he made turns on several downtown streets, including 500 East, 800 South and eventually State Street.

"Confirm, he has an AR-15 in his hands as hes driving, an officer chasing Robinson is heard telling others on his police radio.

At 1300 S. State an officer reports, "Firing rounds out the window. Two shots fired."

As the situation became more intense, an officer in the pursuit states, "We gotta get up there and shoot this guy. Hes a danger to everybody," according to scanner traffic.

Officers were also setting up spikes at several locations on State Street. As Robinson approached 3300 South, officers prepared to conduct a PIT manuever to hit and stop his vehicle.

"Stay off that drivers side, his window is down," an officer warns on the police radio. "Be aware of the AR."

One witness said he saw a swarm of police cars chasing the truck at 3300 South. At the intersection of 3300 South and State, a police car was hit.

I ducked into the parking lot right before he hit the cop car in the intersection. I was sitting right here as all the shots rung out, the witness said, estimating a dozen officers fired their weapons.

There was a lot of shots fired.

Brown said he wasn't sure whether there was an exchange of gunfire or whether only officers fired their weapons.

Another witness said he saw the truck and the whole SLC police department fly by. It was the craziest thing. But no one was moving out of the way because no one knew what to do because there's so many cars behind us.

"I thought it was a funeral procession or something, said witness Fernando Tepox.

He said he believes police may have used a spike strip just north of 3300 South to slow down the fleeing truck.

Just as the officers attempted to pin him in because of the heavier traffic near 3300 South, Robinson suddenly went through the northbound lanes of State Street and crashed into the front of Princess Alteration. An officer exclaims on his police radio a short time later, "Suspect down, suspect down!"

Near 3400 South, dozens of bullet casings could be seen covering the southbound lanes. A Salt Lake police patrol vehicle also had part of its bumper torn off.

Monday afternoon, Salt Lake Mayor Jackie Biskupski thanked officers in a message on Twitter.

"Incredibly grateful to our law enforcement agencies today who once again ran into danger to confront what could have been a real tragedy in our city," she wrote.

Background

According to state court records, Robinson has a lengthy history of mostly misdemeanor crimes, many of which were later dismissed after they were filed. In June, a charge of assault was dismissed when the states witness failed to show up for court.

In 2003, he was convicted of assault that caused substantial body injury, court records state. Two counts of aggravated kidnapping and robbery were dismissed as part of a plea deal.

In a separate 2003 case, a charge of aggravated kidnapping was dismissed when the states witness again failed to show.

Robinson, acting as his own attorney, filed several civil lawsuits against various federal, state and local government agencies and officers, according to records in U.S. District Court.

In May 2002, a federal judge sentenced Robinson to 42 months of probation for possessing a sawed-off shotgun. He appealed the conviction but it was upheld. As a convicted felon, he was not allowed to own a gun.

Fourteen years later, he sued the U.S. attorney general and head of the ATF seeking to possess a gun again. A federal judge dismissed the case, but Robinson filed an appeal this past February.

Also in 2016, Robinson sued port of entry agents for the Utah Department of Transportations Motor Carrier Division and a UHP trooper after an altercation in Kanab while delivering watermelons to Salt Lake City. Robinson alleged that the incident forced him to close the doors to his minority owned trucking company, Robinson Logistics.

In 2015, Robinson filed a civil rights lawsuit in federal court against several Provo police officers after a confrontation while he was working as a tow truck driver. A judge dismissed the case in 2016.
SALT LAKE CITY  An environmental group filed a lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management, challenging a Price field office decision to move forward with a vegetation removal project to boost conditions of sage grouse habitat in the Tavaputs Plateau.

The Friday suit in U.S. District Court for Utah said the federal agency's findings of "no significant" impact after it analyzed the restoration project was illegal and violated environmental laws.

The 4,048-acre project approved in September includes 2,546 acres within two wilderness study areas  Desolation Canyon and Jack Canyon, according to the suit.

Removal of pinion and juniper trees would occur through bull-hogging, or mastication, in which the trees are uprooted and shredded, according to the suit.

A 2017 study from Oregon State University found sage grouse populations improved by as much as 25 percent after the encroaching conifer trees were removed. Tthe treatment is used throughout the West to improve habitat for the sage grouse, which faces threats from wildfires, industry, invasive vegetation and industry activity.

The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, however, objected to the vegetation removal through mechanical means in the wilderness study areas and disagreed with the BLM's conclusion that it could proceed with the vegetation project because it complied with regulations.

"Here, BLM did not follow the express terms of the Price resource management plan with regard to management of (wilderness study areas)," the suit said.

Phase 1 of the project took place in fall of 2018 and did not occur in the wilderness study areas, but Phase 2, which has yet to be carried out, would impact those lands that are supposed to be managed for their wilderness characteristics, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit is demanding the federal court find the project in violation of environmental laws and to rescind approval of the vegetation treatment.
SALT LAKE CITY  Jon Huntsman Jr., the former Utah governor currently serving as President Donald Trump's ambassador to Russia, could be a candidate for governor in 2020.

A source told the Deseret News that Huntsman has not ruled out what would be his third run for Utah governor after winning the office in 2004 and being re-elected in 2008.

Huntsman, who will mark two years in Moscow this fall, had no comment about a possible run for governor, saying there is "nothing to consider until our current commitment is done."

He left a previous ambassador posting to China under President Barack Obama after less than two years in 2011 to run for president. Huntsman had resigned during his second term as governor to take the position with the Democratic administration.

When Huntsman stepped down as governor, then-Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert assumed the state's top elected office. Herbert has won elections for the remainder of Huntsman's term as well as for two full four-year terms.

Herbert, who is not expected to run again next year, declined to comment on a possible Huntsman candidacy. A number of Republicans are already eyeing what would be an open seat for the first time in 15 years.

The list of potential GOP gubernatorial candidates includes Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, former Utah House Speaker Greg Hughes, former Congressman Jason Chaffetz and Josh Romney, the son of Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah.

Cox, who is Herbert's second lieutenant governor, said he is grateful for Huntsman's service to Utah and the nation.

"In fact, I personally owe him a debt of gratitude," Cox said. "If he didn't resign early, it's very unlikely I would later get a chance to serve as lieutenant governor with Gov. Herbert."

Cox said he believes "having more choices for governor is good for Utah. When the time is right, my family and I will make a decision and we wish former Gov. Huntsman and his family the very best on whatever they decide."

Hughes did not respond to a request for comment. Both Chaffetz, who became a Fox News contributor after resigning from Congress in 2017, and Josh Romney declined to talk about Huntsman.

There's no question an entry into the race by Huntsman would shake up the GOP field.

"If he were to run again it would be a major earthquake in the gubernatorial landscape," said Chris Karpowitz, co-director of BYU's Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, "a surprising and very consequential change."

Jason Perry, head of the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics, said if Huntsman "decides to come back to Utah and run for governor, it will have an immediate and significant impact on this race and who decides to run."

Perry, who has been a chief of staff to Herbert, said Huntsman would be a front-runner in the race after leaving Utah "as a very popular governor. His experience has only increased since then."

Because of that experience in high-profile international positions under two administrations, Perry said Huntsman has something unique to offer voters in the upcoming election.

"What we know is he does love the state of Utah," Perry said. "If he did have an interest in getting in this race, it would be to promote the state of Utah. And he would take his world view into that office."

For the past decade, Huntsman has lived in Beijing; Washington, D.C.; and Moscow, something Karpowitz said might be used against him by his opponents in a race for governor to suggest he's no longer aware of the challenges faced by Utahns.

"His attentions and concerns have been elsewhere," Karpowitz said.

But he said there's little chance any candidate in the race would be able "to match his experience in national and international politics, and so I'm sure he will have arguments about how that experience could pay off for the state of Utah."

Especially since he held key roles in such politically diverse administrations.

"There aren't many people in that category. I certainly didn't expect that he saw his future back in Utah politics again. On the other hand, he was seen as very effective as governor and was very popular," Karpowitz said.

Since Huntsman became U.S. ambassador to Russia in 2017, he lost his father, billionaire businessman and philanthropist Jon Huntsman Sr. Last year, Huntsman Jr. revealed to the Deseret Newshe had been diagnosed with stage 1 skin cancer.

Also, he was suspected of writing an anonymous op-ed in the New York Times in September 2018 that was highly critical of Trump, something Huntsman made a point of officiallydenying in a statement from the embassy in Moscow.

There has long been speculation that Huntsman's ultimate political goal is to be named U.S. secretary of state, a post he has reportedly been considered for in the past in both the Obama and Trump administrations.

A run for Utah governor "certainly keeps his name in the political conversation," Karpowitz said. But he said that may have to wait until someone else is in the White House, "another Republican down the road or even the right Democrat."
SALT LAKE CITY  A judge on Monday scheduled a trial for a former nanny accused of sexually abusing a Utah Orthodox rabbi when he was a child  a case that has led many to disclose their own stories of abuse to the faith leader.

In February, when Rabbi Avrohom "Avremi" Zippel came forward both in a courtroom and in the Deseret News, "I did it kind of to get it off my chest," he recalled Monday.

"It ended up being a far more supportive and empowering experience than I ever could have imagined."

The 27-year-old Utah Chabad emissary acknowledges the case is far from over. A five-day trial will begin Oct. 28 for Alavina Fungaihea Florreich, 69, who has denied allegations that she abused him repeatedly over a decade in his family's Salt Lake City home. Her attorney, Jonathan Nish, declined comment Monday.

In the two months since he came forward publicly, Rabbi Zippel has heard from several from within Utah and the Jewish community  and others outside  who told him they also were sexually abused by a caregiver but previously had not told anyone. His story has resonated with men in particular.

"I felt that the vulnerability that I decided to show in light of this has been well-received by other men, you know. People have appreciated it and felt able to open up about it. I think blessedly our culture is changing, slowly, in terms of the stigma of abuse, in terms of the stigma of male victims of abuse, and I think that's a blessing. If your actions can shine a light, then that's the responsibility that you have."

Rabbi Zippel testified at a preliminary hearing in February that he was 8 years old when the abuse began. It continued intermittently until he was 18, mostly in a guest bathroom, where Florreich appeared naked and encouraged him to remove his own clothes before she touched him or had him touch her, he testified.

Elizabeth Smart, who at age 14 was abducted from her Salt Lake home in 2002 and was held captive for nine months, attended the February hearing to show her support for Rabbi Zippel. She called the rabbi a hero.

Florreich is next due in court for an August hearing ahead of trial. She has pleaded not guilty to five counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony, and two counts forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony.
SALT LAKE CITY  A man believed to be a rhino poacher was killed by an elephant in a South African park last Thursday and later had his remains eaten by a pride of lions, according to park officials, The New York Times reports.

Officials at Kruger National Park said the mans family was notified of his death by his accomplices, who informed them that their relative had been killed by an elephant while the group was poaching a rhino in the park last Tuesday.

Park officials conducted an on-ground and in-air search for the mans body after his family contacted them, but did not immediately find his remains due to retreating daylight, according to TheNew York Times.

The remains of the man, who has been left unidentified by park officials, were found Thursday, according to CBS News.

There were indications on the scene that a pride of lions had devoured the mans body, leaving only a skull and a pair of pants, according to park officials.

Four of the mans alleged accomplices were arrested last week, according to TheNew York Times.

Glenn Phillips, the managing executive of KNP, commended search party members and offered condolences to the family 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, Phillips said in a statement, according to CBS. 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.

Kruger National Park is billed as South Africas most exciting African safari destination with vast landscapes and spectacular African wildlife.

KNP is also known for being home to Africas Big Five: elephants, lions, rhinos, leopards and buffalos. The KNP is reportedly home to between 9,000 and 12,000 white rhinos and around 600 black rhinos.

According to the KNP, rhinos in the park are being poached and butchered at an alarming and escalating rate.

In February of this year, four poachers were arrested in the KNP, one who was also a South African National Parks employee, according to South Africas Independent Online.

KNP reports that poachers in the park are highly organized and have sophisticated technology at their disposal.

Park officials have been working with crime units and prosecutors to end poaching in the country, according to the KNP.
SALT LAKE CITY  The House and Senate on Monday passed legislation that will implement drought contingency measures for the Colorado River  the West's hardest-working river under pressure from nearly two decades of extreme drought.

"This is a totally unique bill," said Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah. "What we have done is allow the seven affected basin states to get together and work out a solution and bring it to us and we in Congress didn't screw it up too badly."

Multiple representatives from the seven Colorado River Basin states  Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, California and New Mexico  spoke on the urgent need for states to implement flexible water savings to ward off possible shortage declarations in the coming years.

In particular, congressional representatives stressed that while this past winter delivered outstanding hydrological conditions in many of the basin states, one good year is not a reason to relax.

"It is not an infinite resource, water, it is a finite resource and we need to treat it that way," said Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., and chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources.

Both he and Bishop have been shepherding the bipartisan bill, which authorizes the U.S. Department of Interior's Bureau of Reclamation to enact its provisions.

The water from the Colorado River is not only the lifeblood for farmers and ranchers in eastern Utah, it also supplies drinking water to the rapidly growing Wasatch Front, said Rep. Ben McAdams, D-Utah.

Both Lake Powell and Lake Mead appear to be operating as designed but both are at uncomfortably low levels. Congress needed to act quickly so that the new agreement can be implemented, and water conservation efforts can begin.

Added Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz.: "The importance of the Colorado River to the West and to my home state cannot be overstated."

The plans are designed to keep Lake Mead, in particular, from dropping below a level at which shortages would be declared and allow states to embark on water-saving strategies to keep more flows in the river, even as demands grow.

It awaits President Donald Trump's signature.
Proven technology significantly reduces risk, time-to-market and overall cost

Belgium, April 8, 2019  Sofics bvba, a leading semiconductor integrated circuit IP provider announced that it has expanded its TakeCharge Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) and Analog IO portfolio with solutions for the TSMC 7nm FinFET process. Sofics has already verified its TakeCharge Analog IOs and ESD protection clamps on a wide variety of processes, including CMOS, SOI and FinFET technologies across various fabs and foundries.



Sofics is a foundry independent semiconductor IP provider that has supported 60+ fabless companies worldwide with customized/specialty Analog I/Os and on-chip ESD protection. Most foundries provide I/O libraries for free. However, for several application types the general purpose I/Os introduce all kinds of limitations. Fabless companies using Sofics IP can enable higher performance, higher robustness and reduce design time and cost. The technology is silicon and product proven in more than 3000 mass produced IC-products.



Interface ESD protection in FinFET technology is challenging. The FinFET circuits fail easily under stress and the traditional ESD concepts are not effective anymore. Moreover, for advanced applications free GPIO libraries introduce limitations on the circuit performance due to excessive parasitic capacitance, leakage or voltage tolerance.



Our specialized interface solutions enable product reliability and manufacturing yield for the leading-edge applications in the worlds most advanced foundry process, said Koen Verhaege, CEO of Sofics. This defines one of our key roles in the IP eco-system: reducing time-to-market and optimizing customer profit by mitigating the risk, expenses and delays of ESD re-design. The cells provide competitive advantage through improved yield, reduced silicon footprint and enable high speed, higher operating voltages and complex architectures.



Whether it is 0.18um CMOS or 7nm FinFet does not really matter. Fabless companies will always benefit from a shorter timeline and a lower cost combined with the confidence of a working solution.



TakeCharge cells as well as robust I/O solutions are readily available from Sofics.

About Sofics

Sofics stands for Solutions for ICs. We are a foundry independent IP provider with a track record in on-chip robustness for ESD, EOS and EMC. Leveraging an extensive patent portfolio, more than 70 licensees, product proof in more than 50 processes, generates on average every day one new IC volume production release including Sofics IP.






We want to blame Julia Roberts Eat Pray Love, but the truth is foreign tourist visiting India have always had a set template. The spicy food, public commute adventures, a customary trip to Taj Mahal, finding spirituality and of course explore the magic that is Bollywood- whether its a general tourist or Hollywood celebrities, this is what everyone does.

Following suit this time is none other than the Men In Black star, Will Smith who is behaving like every foreign tourist in India ever and honestly it is pretty adorable. Smith has been spending quite a lot of time in India and here are 5 of the most cliche foreign tourist things he has done so far in India.

The Haridwar Trip





For most western countries, India is only relevant to spiritual discovery, and honestly they are not wrong. We do have deep spiritual roots in our very culture, but it is adorably comical how Will Smith, like all foreign tourists ever, did some soul searching on the banks of Ganges in Haridwar and learnt new things about himself.

The Bollywood Dance





Somehow westerners have always had this terrific curiosity about Bollywood and especially Bollywood dancing. Will Smith took it a notch higher and now we will see him in the Radha song in Student Of The Year 2.

Some More Dose Of Bollywood





But, Will Smiths Bollywood obsession does not end with one song alone. Most tourists who know the first thing about Bollywood, would probably be familiar with Karan Johar and Ranveer Singh even if they cant meet him. But because its Will Smith he had a great time hanging out with them as Ranveer taught him how to be a Bollywood star!

Trying Public Commute





Well, to be honest, we can understand why foreign tourists, including Will Smith, find our public commutes, especially auto rickshaws so fascinating.

The Taj Mahal Trip





And the ultimate cliche! How can any India trip be complete without a visit to the grand old Taj Mahal?
Statement by the Tanaiste on the 25th Commemoration of the Rwanda Genocide

Statement

The Tanaiste Simon Coveney stated:

On the 25th Commemoration of the Genocide, I wish to express solidarity with the people and government of Rwanda. We remember the more than 800,000 women, men and children who lost their lives in the most horrific circumstances. Today, Ireland joins with Rwanda to honour the memory of the victims and express solidarity with the survivors of the Rwanda genocide, their children and all Rwandans.

On this solemn occasion, #Kwibuka25 reminds us of the consequences of hate speech and division based on ethnicity. It is a reminder of the responsibility of the international community to protect all peoples from genocide and crimes against humanity.

ENDS

Press Office

7th April, 2019

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Google is using more cards to represent search results now.

If were honest, search results shown by Google Assistant on Android smartphones have generally been quite pleasing to the eye. In an effort to make whats good better, Google is improving the quality of its results some more so theyre visually more sophisticated and informative. The search engine giant reported a list of changes made to Google Assistant for Android in a recent blog post.

Search results to questions like, Events in Mountain View or Why is grass green? now show up as cards with the key information more clearly presented, writes Google in its blog post. In addition, Google has enabled access to a few commonly used online tools on Google Assistant for Android. Examples of these tools include, tip calculator, metronome music pacer, bubble level, colour picker, and mortgage calculator.

Googles updated tools are bound to help users seeking quick reference. For a long time now, an Android user has had the ability to open up a simple calculator by typing calculator in their Google Search bar. Google wants to take simple yet useful features like this to the next level on its popular virtual assistant, Google Assistant. In its blog post, Google also shows how cards that previously stacked up horizontally now stack up vertically for better screen space utilisation.

For some questions, the most helpful response might be showing you links to a variety of sources from across the web to learn more. In these cases, youll see the full set of search results from the web. When relevant, these results may include the existing ads that youd see on Search today, writes Google in its blog post. Sadly, Google hasnt mentioned whether this visual refresh in Google Assistant will make it to the iOS version or not.

Related Read: Google I/O 2019 schedule goes live, covers Android Q, Stadia, Google Assistant
Haters of the little 'eject' icon on the taskbar, rejoice!

For nearly two decades now, the Windows user base has remained divided into two major factions: those who safely eject their USB storage drives before unplugging them, and those who dont. After Microsofts recent support article on the matter, the former will get a chance to say, Oh, thank god! and the latter, a chance to say, We told you so! Windows 10 now uses a different default policy that no longer requires you to use the Safely Remove Hardware process before unplugging a USB storage device.

Windows defines two main policies, Quick removal and Better performance, that control how the system interacts with external storage devices such as USB thumb drives or Thunderbolt-enabled external drives. Beginning in Windows 10 version 1809, the default policy is Quick removal. In earlier versions of Windows the default policy was Better performance, writes Microsoft in its recent support article. "If you select Better performance, we recommend that you also select Enable write caching on the device," Microsoft adds.

The two removal policies for external storage media

The Quick removal policy keeps storage operations going in such a way that USB storage devices can be unplugged at any time without needing the Safely Remove Hardware process. On the other hand, the Better performance policy ensures improved system performance. When in effect, it lets Windows cache write operations to the external USB drive. However, to protect data integrity on the external device, it requires the use of the Safely Remove Hardware process.

For those not aware of Safely Remove Hardware, its a safety procedure performed by the user before unplugging any USB storage device. It involves finding the Safely Remove Hardware icon on the taskbar, right-clicking it, and selecting the hardware to be unplugged. Windows recommends the use of the safe ejection process to avoid data corruption on flash and external hard drives. However, the procedure has been considered unnecessary or even annoying by many seasoned Windows users in the past, leading to the formation of the faction that doesnt believe in ejecting devices safely.

Inline image courtesy: Microsoft

Related Read: Microsoft will let you defer Windows 10 May Update for up to 35 days
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CINCINNATI (AP)  A crane operator in Cincinnati had to call 911 for rescue after his arm was partially severed in an accident nearly 300 feet up in the air.

A fire official says the crane operator made the call after a cable sliced underneath his arm Friday.





. . .
Subscriber content preview

SEATTLE  A low-rise commercial strip at 7001-7011 California Ave. S.W. has sold for a little over $3.1 million, according to King County records. The seller was JLW LLC, which had owned the four parcels for decades.

The buyers were two LLCs, one of which, related to Blueprint Capital, is planning 15 townhouses.





. . .
For those in Sydney who enjoy a drop of liquid gold every now and then, youll do well to seek out Sydneys best whisky bars. Not all are in plain sight and not all are on ground level, but the allure of going on a hunt to seek out the finest single-malt Scotch, or to discover the next best whisky from Japan makes Sydneys whisky bars even more special.

Whether you enjoy it in a highball, on the rocks or neat, theres a whisky bar for you in Sydney to do it just the way you like.

Bancho

10 Thomas Ln, Haymarket, 2000

Bancho

There isnt much to choose from in the way of hidden whisky bars in Sydney when compared to the world, which makes Bancho even more impressive. Launched by the same crew behind Surry Hills cult small bar, Tokyo Bird, Bancho is an entirely different vibe with high ceilings and a warehouse-style space thats been converted into a fine drinking establishment with some of the most coveted Japanese and international whisky brands on offer. Go for the impeccable service and whiskies, stay for the lively and sophisticated atmosphere.

The Baxter Inn

152/156 Clarence St, Sydney, 2000

The Baxter Inn

This elusive little whisky bar is also a must-find; both for newbies who want to cultivate a bit more knowledge and serious whisky buffs. What we love isnt just the moonshine  and there are around one hundred and fifty-six varieties of that to slake your thirst  but the pantomime of The Baxter Inn.

Through the beat-up door and down into the bar (an old loading dock), and youre confronted by meticulously-groomed and snappily-dressed bartenders running up and down and zipping along those brilliant rolling library ladders, and scampering across the counters to reach the bottles of grog they need from the backlit wall.

Its phenomenal. Its treat for all the senses, not just the palate, and we felt as if wed stepped back in time to some New Orleans speakeasy. A night spent sampling the amber delights at The Baxter Inn is like participating in a show, a show in which its perfectly acceptable and, indeed, expected, to get a little sozzled. Did we mention the complementary pretzels?

The Doss House

77/79 George St, The Rocks, 2000

The Doss House

Like a bit of old world charm with your glass of whisky? The Doss House oozes as much charisma as David Beckham in leather pants riding a majestic white horse. Okay, wrong type of charisma, but The Doss House does do good whisky alongside spirits and cocktails. Set in a basement amongst the sandstone walls and fireplaces, those who drop in will also be greeted with a stunning terrace area. Not bad for a space which used to be occupied a boot maker, boarding house, doctors surgery and opium dealer, some of which have been entwined within the interiors of the five cosy bar spaces.

Tokyo Bird

Commonwealth St & Belmore Lane, Surry Hills, 2010

Tokyo Bird

Hakushu, Kaukubin, Yamazaki; they sound like the names of legendary samurai, but theyre just three whiskies that form part of the huge selection that awaits those who are burning for a drop from the Land of the Rising Sun.

They happily grill shitake mushrooms and eggplant and, whats more, theyll help you match your culinary selections with the whisky that will most handsomely complement them. Theres a range of whiskies to suit every budget, so if youre still riding the lightening on Sunday morning after a big Saturday night, and feel like keeping the session alive then hit up Tokyo Bird.

Its a hard place to beat, especially if you want to go somewhere a little more exotic. But, like a couple of other bars on this list, it takes a wee bit of finding. Well worth it when you do though. Go early to avoid the wait.

Shady Pines Saloon

4/256 Crown St, Darlinghurst, 2010

Shady Pines Saloon

Okay boys, heres the short of it. Were in love, and we dont care who knows it, because for us this is IT.

The whisky bar to end all whisky bars, and the only place we want to go to get on the sauce. Of course, its the big brother of the aforementioned Baxter Inn, so, of course, its a bloody ripper. You dont survive over five years in Darlinghurst, as a bar business by taking the piss. And yet, it almost feels as if that is exactly what this bar is about, with taxidermy galore and ridiculous stuffed fish on the walls and tacky bar paraphernalia.

But its perfect, right down to the peanut shells crunching under your shoes. You look back up the stairs you just came down, and youre half-expecting a couple of cowboys to come tumbling down them and smash through a table. Its just fantastic. As if youve stepped into an old Western dive thats been combined with your quintessential Canadian local ski-town tavern.

We ordered, quite literally, a shot of whisky and the bartender  without batting an eyelid  cracked down a glass, poured us a dram of cheap bourbon (what we assume was the Shady Pines version of a house wine) and zipped off with our cash. You will never have a bad night or time here.

Shirt Bar

Shop 7b/100 Barangaroo Ave, Barangaroo, 2000

Shirt Bar

Excuse us whilst we rein our minds away from the Westworld-esque environment of Shady Pines, and settle it more comfortably in Shirt Bar.

This has taken the sometimes-humdrum activity of quality shirt shopping, and made it a lot more bearable. Its very Mad Men  thats the most common recurring comment made about this Sydney whisky bar  and although the selection encompasses far less than the other bars on this list, its the novelty factor that is so alluring.

For many gentlemen out there it boils down to one question: Why shop sober when you can shop after a couple of doubles? The answer may lie in the flashy purple but perfectly fitting business shirt you might wake up with the following morning.

The Clock Hotels Whisky Room

The Clock, 470 Crown St, Surry Hills, 2010

The Clock Hotels Whisky Room

This is a whisky lair that inspires dedication to the cause. A place where you really need to learn to love that distinctive burn, because although the bartenders will happily mix you the whisky-based cocktail of your choice, somehow it feels a little off.

Its as if on entering The Whisky Room (the name itself invites no nonsense) then it is only fitting that you imbibe the demon drink in its purest form.

The selection is very decent, and we think this is the perfect training ground for any wannabe whisky-heads whore keen to expand their knowledge from Jim Beam into the realms of Glenmorangie, Jura and beyond.

J&M

1 Angel Pl, Sydney, 2000

J&M

So, you want to feel like a boss, like a player, like a big dog, in short; like a Magnificent Bastard. Well, good sir, Sydneys very own J&M might just be the place for you.

Youll be shown to your seat and all of a sudden you feel as slick as Russell Crowe in A Good Year. The Chesterfield couches and the overall old world feel of the place are more than adequate to seduce you into thinking that yes, you can wring a little more out of the damned credit card, old boy.

Any other worries are smoothed away as the trolley service arrives with your dram of choice, and the only regret youll be left with is that those bastards in government outlawed smoking cigars inside. Youre kept warm and snug in J&M, tucked away from the harsh realities of the world outside in a little time-capsule, with only your glass of 12 year-old Glenfiddich for company.

And yes youll have a tin of sardines on buttered toast to nibble on, because what the bloody hell else would you have?

The Wild Rover

75 Campbell St, Surry Hills, 2010

Wild Rover

If whisky is your poison then it would be foolish and rude to omit a visit to a Sydney staple with an Irish essence running through its polished wooden and bare brick bones.

Wild Rover is one of those bars thats also a haven. Its cosy and welcoming, and their whisky co-op means that you can even track your way through their extensive collection as you drink (yay!) whilst also seeing how many of your dollars youve wisely spent (boo) on your new hobby.

Theres good craic to be had here and good whisky, and many men would consider themselves rich men with that.

Sokyo

Level G, The Darling The Star, 80 Pyrmont Street, 2009

Tokyo

If eating at Chase Kojimas flagship Sydney restaurant isnt an option then there is the next best thing  sitting at the adjoining bar to sample some fine Japanese whisky amongst a cranking atmosphere. The bartenders here are also qualified to match food with your drink so snacking is also a good idea in the case that you get peckish. Their specialty extends beyond just Japanese specialities, with Scottish and Irish blends also on offer.

The Roosevelt

32 Orwell St, Potts Point, 2011

The Roosevelt

Step back into the glitzy era of Americas bar scene with this upscale New York whisky and cocktail bar located in the heart of Sydneys Potts Point.

The Roosevelt is run by the geniuses behind Melbournes Eau de Vie so that automatically explains its exceptional approach to cocktail making. Half of the fun comes from the experience of watching dapper bartenders in bow ties and suspenders make drinks right in front of you via a cocktail trolley equipped with liquid nitrogen.

If you like your whisky neat with a side of old world Hollywood and a 1940s gangster vibe, The Roosevelt is perfect for your posse. Did we mention theres also a private poker den out back?

Grain

199 George St, Sydney, 2000

Grain

Hidden within Sydneys Four Seasons Hotel is one of the citys best drinking spots for the liquid gold. Besides the stunning woodgrain decor and relaxing atmosphere, Grain also offers one of Australias largest whisky selections alongside killer bar food. The bartenders here know their stuff so patrons are often encouraged to try something new in order to surprise their palette. Boutique beers and crafted cocktails are also on offer, but thats not why youll be here.

Sydney Whisky Bars FAQ
I-T raids entities linked to Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath

Income tax officials on Sunday raided the residences of Praveen Kakkad, a former officer on special duty to Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath and a former police officer of the state, as also two others who had links with Nath.

In a pre-dawn raid, Income Tax officials conducted searches at the residence of Praveen Kakkad, who was officer on special duty (OSD) to Kamal Nath after the Congress-led government came to power in the state last year.

The raid began at 3 am at Kakkads residence in Vijaynagar in Indore.

Sources in the department said close to Rs11 crore was unearthed during the operations, and documents were recovered during searches on the premises in Delhi, MP and Goa. The tax department is yet to issue details of seizure from the searches.

The pre-dawn crackdown has triggered a political storm in MP even as tax officials maintained that the searches were conducted based on information of large cash movement.

Kakkad previously worked in the state police and also worked for former union minister Kantilal Bhuria, the sitting MP from Ratlam Jhabua, before joining the Congress.

I-T officials carried out simultaneous raids at the residences of two others who had links with the Kamal Nath - Rajendra Miglani, a former advisor to Nath and executives linked to his brother-in-laws firm Moser Bayer and his nephew Ratul Puris company, according to news agency PTI.

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.

It may be noted that both Kakkar and Miglani had resigned from their posts just before the Lok Sabha polls were declared.

Kakkads family is associated with a number of businesses, including hospitality. The raids are also being conducted against Kolkata-based businessman Paras Mal Lodha, I-T officials said.

I-T officials said searches were conducted at 50 locations in New Delhi, Bhopal and Indore.

The searches are linked to suspected movement of hawala money during the ongoing polls season and tax evasion, they said.

Ratul Puri was last week grilled by the Enforcement Directorate in Delhi in connection with the Rs3,600-crore AgustaWestland helicopters purchase probe.

MP Congresss media cell vice president Bhupendra Gupta, also a former OSD to Nath, claimed the BJP government is targeting opposition leaders due to political enmity. He cited the barring of CBI investigations against Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and DMK leader M K Stalin, which, he said, was political vendeta.

I-T officials conduct raid at residence of MP CMs close aide in Delhi

However, the BJP hit back, saying thieves were now having a complaint against the watchman.

Black money worth crores was recovered during the Income Tax Departments raid at the house of 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, BJPs national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said.

The raids started around 3 am when tax officers, escorted by CRPF jawans, arrived at the addresses in hired cars. State police said have no clue to the raids. Local I-T officials said the raids were handled by Delhi teams and they had little involvement in it.

However, reports said, local police tried to intervene on behalf of the state government, allegedly to save the Congress party's face in the upcoming elections.
AgustaWestland case accused Michael says 'FAM' is for family and 'AP' for Ahmed Patel: report

Christian Michael, the alleged middleman arrested in the in the Rs3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam, is reported to have admitted that FAM and AP mentioned in the diary of another arrested accused, Sushen Mohan Gupta, stood for family and Ahmed Patel, respectively.

The British-born arms agent, however, is yet to open up on another term `RG mentioned in Guptas dairy.

Ahmed Patel is a senior Congress leader and close aide of former party president Sonia Gandhi.

It is popularly believed that `RG bay either be Rajeev Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi and it is all about the Gandhi family and their cohorts.

While filing a supplementary charge sheet in the case, the Enforcement Directorate told the court of Special CBI Judge Arvind Kumar that they were trying to identify one "RG" whose name finds multiple mentions in Guptas diary.

ED's special public prosecutors DP Singh and NK Matta told the court that entries of more than Rs50 crore have been made in the name of RG in Gupta's diary, according to a Times Now report.

Gupta, on the other hand, is trying to mislead investigators, claiming that RG stands for one Rajat Gupta.

"More than Rs50 crore shown to have been received from 'RG' between 2004 to 2016, whereas the 'RG' identified by Gupta, i.e. Rajat Gupta, had admitted to have cash transactions wish Sushen from 2007 onwards and the same are being quantified," the agency told the court.

Rajat Gupta, on his part, has denied any connection to the transactions that were made in the name of RG. He said he is not the person referred to as RG in the diaries.

During interrogation, Sushen Mohan Gupta has also revealed the name of Ratul Puri, nephew of Madhya Pradesh CM and Gandhi family loyalist Kamal Nath, according to the Times Now report.

The development came as the ED informed the court today that it has managed to trace the trail of kickbacks to the tune of 70 million euros in the VVIP chopper deal. The agency said in the 3000-page supplementary charge sheet that Michel and other accused in the case received kickbacks to the tune of 42 million euros.

According to the ED, the remaining 28 million euros were routed by co-accused lawyer Gautam Khaitan, Rajeev Saxena and his wife Shivani, and their firms.

Filing the supplementary charge sheet, the ED said it has yet to find out who all got the kickbacks in the deal.

"We have traced the routing of 70 million euros that had come from AgustaWestland in the form of kickbacks," ED's counsel and Special Public Prosecutor DP Singh told the court.

The agency today named two firms -- Global Services FZE and Global Trade and Commerce Limited, besides David Syms, alleged partner and director of Michel's firms, as accused in the case. The special CBI court will now consider the charge sheet on April 6.

The United Arab Emirates government had extradited Michel to India in December last year. He is currently lodged at the Tihar Jail in Delhi and is facing CBI and ED cases related to the AgustaWestland chopper deal.
UK High Court rejects Vijay Mallya's petition against extradition

The UK High Court on Monday rejected an application filed by fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya against moves for his extradition, a step closer to bringing him back to India to face trial for alleged fraud, money laundering and violation of Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).

Mallya, who had appealed against the decision of UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid to extradite him to India, will get half-an-hour for making oral submissions to save himself from being extradited.

The Westminster Magistrates Court had, on 9 December 2018, ordered Mallyas extradition to stand trial on charges brought by the CBI and ED.

Javid, the UKs senior-most Pakistani-origin minister, had to make a decision within two months of the day the case was sent. The UK Home Office confirmed in February that the minister had signed Mallyas extradition order.

The 62-year-old, owner of the defunct Kingfisher Airlines, is wanted for wilful default of over Rs9,000 crore loan from lender banks in India.

Vijay Mallya's fortunes have been sinking lately, with defence lawyers recently telling Indian banks that he is willing to cut his spending to a comparatively lower amount of 29,500 pounds a month.

Lenders to the beleaguered businessman are now seeking to seize about 258,000 pounds stashed in his account. Mallya is accused of wilfully defaulting on loans taken by Kingfisher Airlines. They also allege that Vijay Mallya continues to lead a "lavish lifestyle" despite his legal challenges.

Reports, meanwhile, said Mallya continued to spend about 18,300 pounds a week, with his weekly expenditure on groceries alone adding up to over 1,000 pounds a week.
Little did I think that over forty years after hearing the poet Michael Hartnett give a mesmerising performance of his Death of an Irishwoman in Listowel, that I would hear it quoted with equal passion in Simple Simons in Donegal town.



Ignorant, in the sense

she ate monotonous food

and thought the world was flat,

and pagan, in the sense

she knew the things that moved

at night were neither dogs nor cats

but pucas and darkfaced men,

she nevertheless had fierce pride.

But sentenced in the end

to eat thin diminishing porridge

in a stone-cold kitchen

she clenched her brittle hands

around a world

she could not understand.

I loved her from the day she died.

Im having coffee with owner Finbar Rock and not only delighted that he is a poetry lover but I share reminisces about the late Michael, who became a dear friend and a great influence on my subsequent love of verse.

Finbar calls Hartnett a real File but the first poem that impacted with home was Seamus Heaneys Digging.

Finbar pictured in Morocco



Heaney himself recalled that: The day I entered St Columbs College, my parents bought me a Conway Stewart pen. It was a special afternoon, of course. We were going to be parting that evening; they were aware of it, I was aware of it, nothing much was said about it.

But we went with a driver who was taking us to the school - a friend of my fathers - we went from Derry, where the school was, over the Border into Donegal, and in a shop there bought this Conway Stewart fountain pen.

And the poem about the fountain pen links back to that day of uncoupling from the parents, being left behind at the school; its about the breaking of a link as much as anything else. And the use of the pen to establish a different kind of link.

Coincidentally, Finbar collects Conway Stewart fountain pens, and as we chat, the busy entrepreneur note takes with a flourish as he accepts phone calls and messages.

Life began for him on the Falls Road in Belfast. He went to St. Teresas Primary School and one of his earliest memories is the local priest riding a white horse sidesaddle!

Although he recalls vividly the onset of the Troubles, he concedes: For youngsters it was also very exciting.

My father was from Ballymena and mum was from Dublin. They were trade unionists so I grew up acknowledging their philosophy of uniting the Catholic and Protestant working classes.

Donegal played a crucial role in the lives of family and neighbours. Friday evening, you headed to Donegal. It was the bolthole...the escape. In the 1970s the county was in your blood.

Little surprise then that he would settle here eventually. Before that move some 20 years ago, he packed a lot of experience and geography into his life.

He spent 16 years in Guernsey where he met his Geordie wife, Mary. Son Jack is multi-linguist who has worked in Madrid, the Vatican, currently in Vietnam and can speak all the relevant languages. Daughter Toni runs the very popular Tonis Bistro in Donegal town and Simple Simons Health Food Store is up and running almost ten years.

He puts its success down to the commitment and passion of the staff and there are plans afoot to extend the front of shop to facilitate the increasing popularity of coffee and chat.

He loves long distance walking...whether it be The Camino or Morocco but his favourite is In Through Port to Maghery. Its simply the best!

As regards Donegal town, he compliments it for location,a great business centre and crucially People have time for one another.

Finbar and Seamus Maguire are also launching a really exciting initiative to coincide with Earth Hour on Saturday, March 30.



Earth Hour is now the worlds largest grassroots movement for the environment, inspiring millions of people to take action for our planet and nature.

They are proposing to use the money that might otherwise have been spent on single use plastic posters to donate an indigenous Irish tree for each and every child in the Donegal Municipal District of primary school age.

As Finbar says: We are all aware of the devastating effects of accelerating climate change and staggering biodiversity loss and how this threatens our planet. Earth Hour 2018-2020 endeavours to spark never-before-had conversations on the loss of nature and the urgent need to protect it.

Before we part, Finbar once more reminds me of the beauty of Michael Hartnetts poem: if Kathleen Ni Houlihan is a metaphor for Ireland, then Hartnetts Irishwoman sums up beautifully all that we have lost, yet must retain, in our collective memories and imaginations:

She was a summer dance at the crossroads.

She was a card game where a nose was broken.

She was a song that nobody sings.

She was a house ransacked by soldiers.

She was a language seldom spoken.

She was a childs purse, full of useless things.
Donegals only representative in the upcoming European Elections said he was both surprised and delighted to be the only local name on the ballot paper.

And with the recent withdrawal of sitting MEP Marian Harkin, 30-year-old People Before Profit candidate, Cyril Brennan from Lisahullly, Ballyshannon. is the only candidate from the north west Donegal/Sligo Leitrim area.

The father of two, who is a HSE employee, said the HSE contained some institutional rust and described the new CEOs salary as obscene.

He also said it was time that real manufacturing jobs came back to Donegal and the north west which would be much better than the lower paid tourism jobs that the government are promoting.

Cyril Brennan with Richard Boyd Barrett TD and family members, Vanessa, Maeve and Alanna PICTURE: MATT BRITTON

I am surprised that I am the only candidate for Donegal and am surprised that Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein have not put forward a candidate, he said.

This is their stronghold and Donegal has always been a republican county yet they have not chosen a candidate after running two candidates five years ago.

But I am delighted to be the only candidate as it is a great chance to raise the profile of the party, not just in Donegal but in the north west.

Donegal needs progressive policies, it needs socialism and we need to take some of the wealth out of Dublin and spread it around in the less well off areas.

He added: Europe-wise we should not be supporting an effective European army with the EU.

And it is very hard to invest in new industries, because the Irish governments budget has to be run past the other 27 members states

We need to get money to invest in public land and to get away from the current governments privatisation policies.

Voice

We need a voice in Europe to push our policies.

Mr Brennan said the people of Donegal have been forgotten with austerity from successive governments.

The 'recovery' is in the big cities and it has yet to come to Donegal, he said.

We need the Common Agricultural Policy from Europe to be more evenly distributed, too many farmers are leaving the land.

We also need more control over our fisheries and there are huge trawlers over-fishing in our waters.

On jobs in Donegal and the north west, he said: The government have been pushing tourism and low paid jobs for years, but we need to get past that and get back the jobs that we have lost to other European countries.

We can achieve that by making sure that Donegal is an area to do business and the proper infrastructure is in place and the big thing now is broadband in this technological age.

We are still struggling to get broadband.

And we need to get two more Bank Holidays and move towards a four-day week.

When asked about how money is spent on and by the HSE he said:

There is institutional rust where managers are replaced and nothing changes, we need to re-evaluate it.

The hospitals are in a mess but the reason there are no street protests is because the organisation is so big and affects so many people.
A recent survey commissioned by Prospa found that more than half (54%) of small business owners spend at least 6 days a week on their venture, with one in four (28%) working 7 days. When faced with the pressures of running a small business  from managing cashflow to acquiring customers to organising a new fit-out  finding time to think about a potential cybersecurity threat can be a major challenge.

Many small businesses dont consider themselves to be as vulnerable as larger enterprises, yet a survey from Chubb reveals the majority (60%) said they have experienced a cyber incident in the last twelve months. Small businesses are actually a more attractive target because their systems are often less advanced. Its also a numbers game  with more than 2 million small businesses in Australia, its only a matter of time before a hacker stumbles upon easy prey.

Gone are the days of protecting a physical network, ensuring firewalls are configured, and buying and installing security software. Todays tech savvy small business owners are rapidly adopting cloud-based technology because its convenient, easy to use, low cost and effective. Fortunately, these benefits also apply to cybersecurity. Any small business owner can take a few simple steps to dramatically improve their protection and give themselves the best shot at avoiding an attack or minimising the impact.

Backup and Verify

You may have heard this a million times, but often the simplest acts can have the biggest impact. Dont rely on cloud services alone to automatically backup your information, as they can often be incomplete or not fit for purpose. Take a regular export of the data or generate a backup file, and store at least two copies in different physical locations. Wherever these locations are, ensure only the right people have access. Always test the backups each time you create them. They are useless if theyre not working correctly.

Multifactor Authentication (MFA)

The cloud brings unprecedented levels of convenience and efficiency, but with this comes different risks. If youre able to login to your systems from any device or location, so can a potential hacker. If your password falls into the wrong hands, an attempted breach could occur before you even realise. Multifactor authentication (MFA) requires two or more authentication factors such as a password and SMS to confirm your identity. This not only makes it far less likely that a hacker will be successful, it also alerts you to the risk. Luckily, most cloud software allows you to remember me for a short period, which saves you the hassle of having to authenticate each time. An app like Google Authenticator allows you to use MFA even when youre travelling overseas without mobile reception.

Train Employees

Phishing or fraudulent emails are often one of the simplest ways to breach a business. Employees are often the target, so even if you manage the finances, make sure everyone on your team understands the risks and knows what to look for. Train your staff to be wary of unsolicited calls or emails, especially where the email involves a financial request, file transfer or request for information. In most cases its best to contact the sender directly to confirm legitimacy. A quick google search will yield you hundreds of pages about how to identify a phish.

Antivirus

Ensure your systems have antivirus installed. While many attacks such as phishing are malware-less in this day and age, its still sensible to have antivirus software set up. Being cautious when receiving and sending emails and browsing is the most effective way to protect yourself, but its never a bad thing to have an additional safety net in place, and its usually free.

The most important thing to remember for any business of any size is that you have limited resources  whether it be time or budget. Use these resources carefully and protect what matters most to the business. For an e-commerce company, this might mean prioritising the primary website whereas for a cafe you may want to focus on ensuring email accounts and internet banking platforms are secure.

Its vital to understand that contrary to popular assumptions, small businesses are not just vulnerable to cyberattacks, they are deliberate targets. And these attacks can be devastating. The above steps however can help strengthen your defences and hopefully give you some peace of mind.

Charn Tangson manages the Cyber Security function at Prospa, Australias number one online lender to small business.


By Jon Queally

A new research paper by American and European climate scientists focused on Arctic warming published Monday reveals that the "smoking gun" when it comes to changes in the world's northern polar region is rapidly warming air temperatures that are having  and will continue to have  massive and negative impacts across the globe.

The paper new paper  titled Key Indicators of Arctic Climate Change: 19712017  is the work of scientists at the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland in Copenhagen (GUES).

"The Arctic system is trending away from its 20th century state and into an unprecedented state, with implications not only within but beyond the Arctic," said Jason Box of the GUES, lead author of the study. "Because the Arctic atmosphere is warming faster than the rest of the world, weather patterns across Europe, North America and Asia are becoming more persistent, leading to extreme weather conditions. Another example is the disruption of the ocean circulation that can further destabilize climate: for example, cooling across northwestern Europe and strengthening of storms." John Walsh, chief scientist at AUF's research center, was the one who called arctic air tempertures the "smoking gun" discovered during the research  a finding the team did not necessarily anticipate. "I didn't expect the tie-in with temperature to be as strong as it was," Walsh said. "All the variables are connected with temperature. All components of the Arctic system are involved in this change." The study, published Monday as the flagship piece in a special issue on Arctic climate change indicators published by the journal Environmental Research Letters, is the first of its kind to combine observations of physical climate indicators  such as snow cover, rainfall and seasonal measurements of sea ice extent  with biological impacts, such as a mismatch in the timing of flowers blooming and pollinators working. According to Walsh, "Never have so many Arctic indicators been brought together in a single paper." This three-and-a-half minute video put together by the research team, explains its methodology and findings in detail:

The new study comes as temperature records in the polar regions continue to break record after record. Last week, climatologists said Alaska experienced the highest March temperatures ever recorded. Statewide temperatures averaged 27F degrees last month, a full 4 degrees higher than the record set in 1965. Brian Brettschneider, a climatologist with the International Arctic Research Center at University of Alaska Fairbanks, told the Anchorage Daily News, "We're not just eking past records. This is obliterating records." Also last month, as Common Dreams reported, the UN Environment Programme (ENUP) warned in a far-reaching report that winter temperatures in the Arctic are already "locked in" in such a way that significant sea level increases are now inevitable this century. Rising temperatures, along with ocean acidification, pollution, and thawing permafrost threaten the Arctic and the more than four million people who inhabit it, including 10 percent who are Indigenous. But, as UNEP acting Executive Director Joyce Msuya noted at the time, "What happens in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic." That warning was echoed by the researchers behind the new study out Monday. Their hope, they said, is that the findings about air temperatures and the delicate interconnections between the climate and other natural systems in the Arctic will "provide a foundation for a more integrated understanding of the Arctic and its role in the dynamics of the Earth's biogeophysical systems."

Reposted with permission from our media associate Common Dreams.
DOYLESTOWN >> A homeless couple was sentenced on Monday, Dec. 13 for two violent carjackings and an attempted carjacking in Newtown Township and Middletown Township in November 2020, sending two people to the hospital. Eric Meehan, 29, and Ashley Young, 32, both pleaded guilty on Oct. 12 to two counts each of robbery of a motor vehicle and aggravated assault...
What are the most dangerous U.S. cities for migratory birds?

That's the question answered by a new study published last week in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, which looked at the problem of light pollution. Seventy percent of bird species present in the U.S. are migratory, and more than 80 percent of those species migrate at night. The increasing light pollution of cities attracts the avian travelers, who then crash into buildings. Building collisions kill an estimated 600 million birds in the U.S. every year, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, which led the study.

The researchers created two lists for the cities that pose the greatest risk to birds during both the spring and fall migratory season, based on both geography and light pollution.

Spring

Chicago Houston Dallas Los Angeles St. Louis Minneapolis Kansas City New York Atlanta San Antonio Fall Chicago Houston Dallas Atlanta New York St. Louis Minneapolis Kansas City Washington, DC Philadelphia

"Chicago, Houston, and Dallas are uniquely positioned in the heart of North America's most trafficked aerial corridors. This, in combination with being some of the largest cities in the U.S., make them a serious threat to the passage of migrants, regardless of season," lead study author and Rose Postdoctoral Fellow at the Cornell Lab.Kyle Horton said. The rest of the top cities vary between fall and spring, since in the spring more birds travel through the central U.S., and a large number also travel up the West Coast. In the fall, more birds migrate along the Atlantic Coast. "Now that we know where and when the largest numbers of migratory birds pass heavily lit areas, we can use this to help spur extra conservation efforts in these cities," Cornell Lab Rose postdoctoral fellow and study co-author Cecilia Nilsson said. Some conservation groups are already aware of the problem. Chicago Bird Collision Monitors Director Annette Prince told NPR that her group finds 5,000 to 6,000 birds impacted by collision in a square-mile section of downtown Chicago every year. Sixty percent of them die on impact. "Many of these birds are already in serious decline for other reasons," Prince told NPR. "So when they're hitting buildings, this is adding to the loss of the healthy members of their species by needless collision." Some solutions include the National Audubon Society's Lights Out program, which encourages communities to dim their lights during peak migration season.
At least 70 people have died in flooding caused by heavy rainfall in Iran since mid-March, as forecasts for more wet weather have prompted additional evacuations in the country's south, Al Jazeera reported Sunday.

The floods have caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damages to agriculture and water infrastructure across the country and forced thousands to flee their homes. Since March 19, around 1,900 cities and villages have been inundated, Iran's Mehr News Agency reported.

"The destruction is high," director of international relations at the Iranian Red Crescent Society Mansoureh Bagheri told NPR. "I can say regarding the agriculture, regarding the infrastructure, regarding the livelihood, the impact is high."

So far, around 24 of the country's 31 provinces have been impacted by the rain, Bagheri told NPR. The Islamic Republic News Agency gave a brief timeline of the flooding:



The disaster began with heavy rainfalls in the northern provinces of Iran since March 19, and continued across Iran with flash floods in southern, central and western provinces.

The largest number of deaths, 21, occurred in the southern province of Fars, where a month's worth of rain fell in a few hours and caused dramatic flash flooding in the city of Shiraz.

The second largest number of deaths took place in Lorestan province in the west, where 15 people died.

Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abdolhashem Hassannia said Saturday that road access to 275 villages in the province were blocked and that 200 bridges and 400 kilometers (approximately 248.5 miles) of roads had been destroyed.

"The level of the damages left by the recent floods has been unprecedented during the past century," he was quoted as saying by Iran Labor News Agency (ILNA), as Al Jazeera reported.

The most recent warnings center on Khuzestan province in the south, which borders Iraq and has many rivers and dams. Authorities say 400,000 people could be impacted by the flooding.

The floods have upped tensions between the U.S. and Iran over U.S. sanctions, which make it harder for Iran to receive humanitarian aid.

Iranian Red Crescent Society head Ali Asghar Peyvandi said that the U.S. had blocked transactions to the country via 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," Peyvandi was quoted as saying by the Iranian Students News Agency, as Al Jazeera reported. "It's impossible to transfer cash from other countries as well as the International Federation of [Red Cross and] Red Crescent Societies."

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement April 2 blaming the Iranian government for mismanagement, as CNN reported.

"These floods once again show the level of Iranian regime mismanagement in urban planning and in emergency preparedness. The regime blames outside entities when, in fact, it is their mismanagement that has led to this disaster," Pompeo sad. "The United States stands ready to assist and contribute to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, which would then direct the money through the Iranian Red Crescent for relief."

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif responded on Twitter by criticizing the U.S. government's response to its own extreme weather events.

"It seems the U.S Secretary of State is unaware of the mismanagement of natural disasters in the U.S. over the past two years, and hence opines  in an unprofessional, interventionist and demagogic manner  on Iran's management of the horrific and unprecedented floods which simultaneously afflicted 24 provinces," Zarif said.
Nearly fifty animals were rescued from a zoo in Gaza Sunday where animals had died from exposure and starvation, Reuters reported.

The animals, including five lions, five monkeys, four ostriches, three peacocks, two wolves and a hyena, were moved from a zoo in Rafah, Gaza to Jordan Sunday by the animal welfare charity Four Paws. The group said it was its largest rescue mission to-date. Most of the 47 animals will stay in animal sanctuaries in Jordan, while two of the lions were flown to South Africa Monday.

"The intensive work of the last weeks has brought our team to its limits. To examine and load almost 50 animals in just a few days was a huge challenge," Four Paws veterinarian and Head of Mission Amir Khalil said. "Thanks to the cooperation of all authorities, it was possible for us to bring the animals safely out of Gaza. From Israel to Palestine and Jordan, it was impressive to see how these three nations worked together for the animals from Rafah."

The Rafah Zoo came under international scrutiny at the beginning of 2019 when four lions cubs froze to death because of harsh weather and inadequate housing, Four Paws said. Also in 2019, the zoo's owner declawed a female lioness so that visitors could play with her. A petition circulated by Four Paws to close the zoo gained more than 150,000 signatures. Khalil told Reuters that the cages were too small for the animals and their children. Zoo owner Fathy Jomaa blamed Israel and Egypt's ongoing blockade of Gaza and the territories' deteriorating economy for his inability to properly care for the animals. Jomaa ultimately contacted Four Paws about moving them to a new location, BBC News reported. "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. "I hope they find a better place to live." The zoo, which opened in 1999, had been the oldest zoo in Gaza, but many animals had been collateral damage in rocket attacks and armed conflict.
A suspected rhino poacher was trampled to death by an elephant and then eaten by lions after entering South Africa's Kruger National Park, South African National Parks said.

The poaching of rhinos has emerged as a major problem in South Africa in recent years. Kruger National Park (KNP), which is home to the world's highest concentration of rhinos, is often a target. In 2015, more than 70 percent of the rhinos poached in the country were poached from the park, The Guardian reported.

"Entering Kruger National Park illegally and on foot is not wise, it holds many dangers and this incident is evidence of that," KNP Managing Executive Glenn Phillips said in a statement. "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."

According to contrasting official reports in South Africa's Times Live, the man entered the park with a group of fellow poachers either April 1 or 2. Once the men were in the park, "suddenly an elephant attacked and killed one of them," Police Brigadier Leonard Hlathi told Times Live. His accomplices brought his body to a roadside before leaving the park, then told one of his family members. KNP GM of Communications and Marketing Isaac Phaahla explained what happened next: "The family then called Skukuza regional ranger Don English who, after assuring the family that he would do everything possible to recover the remains and bring them closure, arranged a search party.



"Rangers on foot, accompanied by members of the KNP Airwing flew over the area that was described by the family but due to failing light, could not locate the body.



"The team resumed the search on Thursday morning, with further information provided after four of the deceased's alleged accomplices, who had been arrested during the previous evening by the Komatipoort SAPS.



"During this search, which was boosted with a further complement of field rangers, the remains of a body were discovered.



"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." Three of the man's accomplices were taken into custody and appeared in court April 5. They were charged with possessing arms and munitions without a license, conspiracy to poach and trespassing, and are being held until April 12. African rhinos are poached because their horns are believed by some practitioners of Eastern medicine to be an aphrodisiac, CNN explained. In some parts of the world, rhino horn is more valuable than cocaine. Black rhinos in particular are considered critically endangered. From 1970 to 1995, their numbers fell from 65,000 to 2,400. That number has climbed somewhat in the last 20 or so years to 5,000, most of which live in South Africa, Namibia, Kenya and Zimbabwe.
By Tara Lohan

Last year a terrible accident in India made headlines around the world. Late one February night, a speeding train struck a herd of elephants crossing the tracks, instantly killing two adults and two calves. A third adult died soon after.

It wasn't an isolated incident. Over the past 30 years train collisions have killed more than 220 elephants in India alone.

Most of those incidents don't generate international headlines; nor do the deaths of thousands of additional animals killed by trains worldwide each year. In fact most wildlife-train collisions go unnoticed, their fatalities left uncounted  which has made it difficult for experts to study the problem and mitigate its impacts.

That puts us woefully behind similar research to reduce vehicle-wildlife collisions on roads, an active field of research for the past two decades. That's because car-animal collisions present a greater danger to human safety and property, according to a 2016 study surveying the emerging field of railway ecology. "Despite the field of road ecology rapidly expanding and the large footprint created by railways, there is a prominent lack of research related to railways and their effects on wildlife," the study found. Here's what we do know: Like roads, railways fragment habitat and can affect all kinds of wildlife in varying ways. Collisions are the most common cause of mortality, but some animals die from electrocution or being stuck between the rails, leaving them susceptible to predation, starvation or dehydration. Exactly how many animals die is a bit of a mystery. Railway mortalities are usually not as visible to the public as roadkill, and railways can be harder to access for research and data collection, the 2016 study found. The little research that has been done on railways and wildlife has been largely limited in both scope and geography. The majority of studies have looked at large mammals, mostly in North America and Europe, with some attention paid to elephant strikes in India. "The mammal species receiving the most attention are frequently the larger ones, such as moose, bears or elephants as they cause more damage to trains, disrupt the normal operation of the train network, or hold higher conservation and economic status," according to the editors of the 2017 book Railway Ecology. Understanding how to curb wildlife deaths from trains means first understanding what draws animals to the tracks in the first place, which is not always easy. New research is working to close that knowledge gap, identify problem areas and find cost-effective solutions.

Deer on the railway tracks in New York Photo by Timothy Vogel, CC BY-NC 2.0

The timing of this research, experts tell us, is important. With rail transit of products and materials on the rise and high-speed rail networks expected to grow as we work globally to lower our carbon footprint, the number of fatalities could soon increase unless we devote more resources to additional research and mitigation. Railway Barriers Rail tracks can make for tough times if you're a toad  even a big one. In Brazil a 2018 study found an estimated 10,000 Cururu toads (Rhinella marina) and related species, often called giant toads, were dying every year along a 500-mile stretch of railway. Researcher Rubem Dornas says they still don't know exactly why so many toads die, but it appears the tracks formed a barrier the toads can't cross while migrating. Despite the large size of the toads, which average about 4 to 6 inches in length, the researchers found they may not be able to jump or climb over rails more than 6 inches high. "We think the main problem is the barrier effect caused by the rails," said Dornas. Not all the fatalities are the result of being run over by passing trains. Some of the toads appeared to have died from desiccation due to extreme heat from the tracks. Most horrifyingly, others showed signs of barotrauma, where a sudden change in air pressure from the fast-moving train causes the inner organs to be blown out  the toads literally exploded from the inside. While additional research would help to better understand the problem and its population-level impacts for the toads, Dornas says that providing passage underneath the rails could be a useful solution. A 2018 study of endangered gopher tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus), which have been known to cross railways near the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida, came to a similar conclusion. "We predict that nearly all tortoises in the vicinity of railways are susceptible to becoming entrapped or experiencing reduced movement and dispersal," the researchers wrote. They recommended trenches that can create a safe passage underneath the tracks and an escape route for those that get caught between rails. While smaller in size, these trenches are similar in concept to corridor bridges and tunnels that are commonly used to help animals safely cross roadways. And while crossing structures may be used occasionally for railways  like a "landscape" bridge over railway tracks that was opened in Stockholm, Sweden in 2017  it's far less common. The biggest reason is simply financial  the structures take resources to build, and so far more investments have been devoted to reducing wildlife collisions on roads than rails.

Wildlife overpasses, like this one in British Columbia, are more common for roads than rails. Photo by B.C. Ministry of Transport, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

That could change with more interest in railway ecology and cheaper building options. ARC Solutions, a project of the Center for Large Landscape Conservation, held a recent design competition to rethink the materials and engineering used in wildlife overpasses to make them more sustainable and affordable. If those concepts come to fruition, it could mean an easier lift to develop safer crossing systems for all kinds of wildlife over both roads and rails. Warning Systems Getting animals over or under tracks safely is helpful when a railway is an obstacle. But, as researchers found in Alberta, Canada, railways can also be a destination. And that requires a new set of solutions. Concern over grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) deaths on the Canadian Pacific Railway between Banff and Yoho national parks has prompted years of study. "The causes for attraction of bears to the rail are really surprisingly complex and variable among individuals," said Colleen Cassady St. Clair, a professor of biological sciences at the University of Alberta, who has been leading a team to determine why grizzlies end up on railways and how to prevent their deaths. "There just isn't a single simple solution." The biggest reason is that railways are a good place for a bear to find food. For one thing, the trains can spill grain from their cargo cars, leaving behind a steady supply of free food. The very existence of the railways also opens up avenues for grizzly dining. The carcasses of deer and other ungulates struck by trains are an attractant for bears. Railways are slightly warmer than adjacent forests, which attracts ants, another grizzly food, researchers have found. And palatable vegetation also grows along the tracks, providing grizzlies with a wide range of edible choices. This "edge habitat," according to a 2017 study co-authored by St. Clair, has "higher species richness, diversity and cover for seven of the eight most commonly-occurring species that are consumed by grizzly bears." Buffaloberry, a local fruit that's an important source of nutrients for bears pre-hibernation, was even found to have more fruit, ripen earlier and have higher sugar content within 15 meters of the railway lines compared to the nearby interior forest.

Food that grizzly bears like, including berries, has been found to grow more abundantly near rail tracks. Photo by Christian Tauber, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

More food along railways means the possibility of more train strikes on bears. So what to do about it? One tactic would be to limit the growth of vegetation that attracts bears and other wildlife, or, as Canadian Pacific Railways has done, remove vegetation from along the tracks that could obscure sight and sounds lines to make approaching trains easier to see and hear at certain problem locations. But St. Clair favors a different approach, developed by one of her graduate researchers, Jonathan Backs. He invented a warning system using a vibration sensor on the track that, farther down, triggers a ringing bell sound and flashing light 30 seconds before a train passes by a hotspot that has been designated for mitigation. Acoustic warning systems have been developed elsewhere. Poland is testing a system that deters wildlife from approaching trains by loudly broadcasting recordings of barking dogs and alarm calls of other animals. Japan is testing a similar system. St. Clair says that these acoustic warning systems are promising, but it's too early to determine how effective they'll ultimately be. One drawback could be that if predator sounds are used as a deterrent and no predator ultimately appears, animals will stop associating those warning sounds with a risk. To avoid that potential pitfall, the warning system that Backs is developing in Alberta has a key difference: It's not meant to scare the animals, but to teach them. "Our idea with this approach was to help the animals learn that these warning signals, which are not scary in themselves, are reliably associated with the train coming, which most animals seem to find scary," said Backs. "And then the animals would learn to get out of the way when they receive these warning signals rather than waiting for the train to arrive." Backs says he's still analyzing the data he has collected from trials of the warning system, but preliminary results are encouraging  and not just for bears. Other large animals appear to leave the tracks around six seconds earlier when the system is used. And that's another reason St. Clair is excited about the potential of this system. Public interest in grizzlies helped spur the research, but the mitigation can be useful for all kinds of wildlife and all over the world. "The principles potentially apply to all animals," she said. Backs says there is still more work to do to prove the concept and then find partner organizations to implement it. "The most important thing for me is to get it out there and make it real and put it in the hands of people who are working hard to keep animals safe," he said. "It might end up being only one part of a broader toolbox  different solutions are appropriate in different situations  but it's exciting that this could actually be used to save lives." And for the field of railway ecology, more research is still needed, too, says St. Clair. "We need a broader understanding of where mortality is a real problem, for which species and what the circumstances are that generate locations of higher vulnerability," she said. "Some ongoing work in Banff is trying to put together an entire database of animals that have been killed on the rail and determine what environmental and train operational factors seem to contribute to that vulnerability. With that information it will be possible to be more surgical, if you will, in applying the right kind of mitigation."

Reposted with permission from our media associate The Revelator.
(Photo: WFP/Marco Frattin)Aerial views from drones and World Food Programme rescue helicopters clearly show the scale of the devastation in Mozambique in April 2019. i

They came from governments, the United Nations, civil society, churches and other faith-based organizations to discuss the impact of Cyclone Idai that has wreaked death, havoc and destruction on Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe in recent weeks.

Meeting at the World Council of Churches in Geneva on April 5, WCC deputy general secretary Dr. Isabel Apawo Phiri, who is from Malawi, said the gathering was called with a focus on protecting the poor and people in vulnerable situations.

"The gathering has been effective in awareness raising. In this way, we are trying to show there is a need for partnership between the churches and government," which she said should work hand in hand to "respond to the disaster that has happened already."

Governments and international agencies believe the death toll from the climate-induced disaster is at least 1,000 and likely to climb higher as hundreds of thousands have been left displaced, homeless and traumatized.

More than 1,000 cases of cholera have been confirmed in Mozambique now that the inland ocean that formed is slowly starting to drain, leaving vast areas of stagnant water, World Food Programme reports.

It's almost three weeks since tropical cyclone Idai ripped through central Mozambique, killing more than 500, destroying houses and leaving whole villages and towns submerged.

Ninety percent of the port city of Beira , with some 600,000 residents, the base for humanitarian efforts , was underwater and some 1.8 million Mozambicans are now in urgent need of some form of assistance.

Top diplomats from the three neighboring countries attended along with Alwynn Javier, head of Humanitarian Affairs for the WCC's ACT Alliance; Roland Schlott, humanitarian coordinator for the Lutheran World Federation - World Service and Constanza Martinez Sr the United Nations representative for World Vision International; as well as a member of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and others from the WCC and non-governmental organizations.

The WCC deputy general secretary, whose title entrusts her to work on public witness and diakonia, said the gathering was organized in the spirit of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 17: Revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.

It was also looking at SDG 11.5: reduction of the number of deaths and the number of people affected by disasters, including water-related disasters, with a focus on protecting the poor and people in vulnerable situations.

Mozambican ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva Amadeu Da Conceicao thanked the WCC for organizing the event that has created a regional disaster in Southern Africa and for coming to the assistance of the affected countries.

'SERVE ALL PEOPLE'

"By organizing this gathering, WCC is showing its engagement to serve all the people of the world in both good and bad times," said the ambassador.

Cyclone Idai is regarded as one of the worst tropical cyclones on record to affect Africa and the Southern hemisphere as a whole," he said describing how it made landfall on the evening of 14 March in the city of Beira in the centre of Mozambique.

The United Nations said that 1.7 million people were in the path of the cyclone.

In Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe as well, leaving a trail of death and displacement, the cyclone resulted in a loss of communication, damage and destruction of health, education and water facilities, economic and social infrastructures.

The latest figures indicate that 598 people have been confirmed dead, 1,641 injured, 283,554 families have been affected by the cyclone which corresponds to 1,416,024 people.

Scores of health units were destroyed, and there is a fear of the spread of water-borne diseases.

Zimbabwe's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva Taonga Mushayavanh also thanked the WCC for the event.

'COMFORT AND SUPPORT'

"It provides us with both comfort and support as we share fellowship with other members of the community especially in these difficult times, these times of our greatest need when so many lives have been lost.

"Indeed, the churches were among the first responders in terms of providing the centers to aggregate disaster assistance in the wake of the cyclone," said Mushayavanh, thanking churches and faith-based organizations as well as the international community for their response.

He said the education facilities in some provinces of Zimbabwe had been severely disrupted, many of which he said were started by missionaries and are "still run by churches, your members."

Malawi's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Geneva Loudon Mattiya, said his country had launched an international appeal for emergency humanitarian relief assistance and that more than 730,000 people are in need.

"Failure to adequately respond to current humanitarian needs is likely to have far-reaching consequences, facing such areas as crop production and food insecurity, water and sanitation issues, outbreaks of water-borne diseases and the increased risk of the spread of HIV and AIDS during the displacement period," said Mattiya.

Phiri said one sobering observation made by Matthew Ross, WCC program executive for Diakonia and Capacity Building, was that the international response to the cyclone that flattened the Australian city of Darwin in 1974 has been massive, but the response to Cyclone Idai was relatively muted "because it is in Africa."

The three diplomats said their governments are preparing appeals for development plans to seek to overcome the disaster induced by climate change that has once again heavily impacted people from countries that are poor in material riches.

The churches' humanitarian organizations outlined their response plans as well.
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According to the Institute of Race Relations, South Africas neighbours have thrown aside resource nationalism and it has to be asked why the South African government is not able to accept the good-practice lessons of these experiences and do the same.

Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe have abandoned compulsory state carry-provisions in their mining sectors. Instead of focusing on restrictive measures, we would suggest that our government follow its neighbours and rather concentrate on policies encouraging foreign and local investment in the mining sector, whether this is foreign investment or local investment.

An increase in restrictive government regulation of the sector and participation in the sector will most likely lead to a decrease in new investment. This will, in time, lead to a reduction in employment levels. Mining constantly needs new investment, even in maintaining existing operations. The investment to maintain existing operations is called stay-in business capital expenditure, and it can be described as expenditure that maintains the mines existing production capacity at a certain level.

This expenditure is required to develop new areas of production as the old areas are mined out and these investment decisions must be made on an ongoing basis, so investment in the mining sector is also concerned with these brownfields expansion projects, as well as completely new (greenfields) projects.

If a prospective project is sufficiently large, investors may be prepared to invest in the cost of applying for the various government approvals. The junior mining sector in South Africa is at a big disadvantage when it has to fund these, as well as the exploration costs.

New investment decisions to expand existing production will be negatively affected if the cost of compliance with the regulatory environment affects the investment hurdle rate at which these projects are approved.

The Minerals Council of South Africa (formerly the Chamber of Mines) has established an Emerging Miners Desk to assist emerging miners, but this assistance is advisory in nature, and the compliance costs are still a big factor. In a report titled Developing a viable emerging and junior mining sector in South Africa by the Chamber of Mines, the following comment was made:

At virtually every workshop with emerging miners the DMR is raised as a challenge in the development of mining projects. The key issues raised are delays in issuing mining rights, misinterpretation of the law and in some cases duplicating mining rights.

These barriers have been recognised and lobbied for some time now. In a Business Day report, Bernard Swanepoel, chairperson of the Small Business Initiative, asked for junior companies to be excluded from provisions in the charter, sending a document outlining the reasons to the participants in negotiations around the formulation of a new charter. The document stated the following:

The cost of compliance, red tape, lack of finance, the time it takes to get a mining permit and lack of infrastructure make it difficult for junior miners to enter and stay in business.

There have been some encouraging signs that the regulatory burden is being eased. These include the recent withdrawal of the Mineral Resources Development Amendment Bill and the earlier draft of the revised Mining Charter.

A policy review in the sector could be designed to ease the barriers to investment in key areas, especially those that constitute barriers to entry such as the issuing of exploration permits and the transfer of mining rights. In particular, the discretionary power to transfer a right should be removed, as the delays in transferring rights delay transactions, create uncertainty and inhibit investor appetite for these deals.

There have been calls for more state participation in the mining sector, including for the setting up and expansion of a state mining company. South Africas recent experiences with state-owned enterprises in terms of governance and procurement issues are, however, well documented and this does not bode well for the idea of launching large-scale state funded mining ventures.

Capital allocation decisions are difficult for state-owned enterprises as the investments have long lead times while SOEs may not have the long-term time horizons required for these types of venture.

The capital allocation decisions of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are likely to be skewed towards decisions that favour employment creation, resulting in balance sheet strain if stay-in-business capital investments are compromised. This could compromise funding of ongoing capital to sustain current levels of production. It will also apply to investment in the expansion of brownfields projects, leading to pressure on employment levels.

South Africa needs a completely new mind-set in mining policy formulation. We must develop policies that free up the sector. This will require a big shift in governments current debate and have a political dimension, especially among those lobbying for more state control and government participation.

The focus of the regulatory environment must change from one creating an environment deterring investment to one encouraging investment.

Contact Owen Murphy, BDO Africa Desk, Tel 011 488-1700, omurphy@bdo.co.za

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Thank you to Media Masters Publicity for these awesome books! As always, all opinions are my own.

When it comes to Easter baskets, I dont like to fill them up with candy. Our kids get enough sugar as it is, and with multiple Easter gatherings with various family groups, the amount of junk food we come home with is sometimes overwhelming. One thing we DO always love to put in Easter baskets is books, and I turned to Media Masters Publishing to add some of their new titles to our Easter baskets!

Who is Afraid of Little Wolf? by Yayo Kawamura is an enchanting board book that follows Little Wolf as he searches for someone to play with and carries a simple yet profound message about prejudice and preconceived notions. Little Wolf is bored, and so he asks some other animals to play. But no one wants to join him because their parents have told them not to play with wolves. But when Little Wolf meets a bee, she is brave enough to play. The others see theres nothing to be afraid of and decide to join in. With bold colors and appealing characters this book packs a powerful lesson about overcoming prejudices and not judging someone before you know them. I absolutely love this book and I think its an especially important message for our kids in this day and age. by Yayo Kawamura is an enchanting board book that follows Little Wolf as he searches for someone to play with and carries a simple yet profound message about prejudice and preconceived notions. Little Wolf is bored, and so he asks some other animals to play. But no one wants to join him because their parents have told them not to play with wolves. But when Little Wolf meets a bee, she is brave enough to play. The others see theres nothing to be afraid of and decide to join in. With bold colors and appealing characters this book packs a powerful lesson about overcoming prejudices and not judging someone before you know them. I absolutely love this book and I think its an especially important message for our kids in this day and age.

Buy it: Amazon

The Song of Spring by Hendrik Jonas. One bird has forgotten which sound to make. He tries Woof, and meets a dog, who encourages him to try Oink, with the expected result. Each successive call adds another animal friend to the page. Will the young bird find another bird friend? As young readers are introduced to each type of animal and their sounds, Hendrik Jonas clever illustrations grow increasingly crowded. The result is a beautiful celebration of friendship that will delight young children everywhere. Our three year old son is going to LOVE this book since he loves animals of all kinds. Its finally spring and birds are calling out to each other inby Hendrik Jonas. One bird has forgotten which sound to make. He tries Woof, and meets a dog, who encourages him to try Oink, with the expected result. Each successive call adds another animal friend to the page. Will the young bird find another bird friend? As young readers are introduced to each type of animal and their sounds, Hendrik Jonas clever illustrations grow increasingly crowded. The result is a beautiful celebration of friendship that will delight young children everywhere. Our three year old son is going to LOVE this book since he loves animals of all kinds.

Buy it: Amazon

Wilderness: Earths Amazing Habitats by Mia Cassany and illusrtated by Marcos Navarro takes young readers to the planets wild regions, including forests, jungles, tundras, and deserts to discover the animals that call it home. Beautifully colored and intricately detailed illustrations depict places as exotic and wide-ranging as Senegals Niokolo-Koba National Park, Russias Sikhote-Alin mountain range, the Sinharaja Forest Reserve in Sri Lanka, Daintree National Park in Australia, the Mexican desert, and Chinas bamboo forests. The animals that live in these remote places, cleverly hidden in the trees, plants, and flowers, create a marvelous challenge for young readers to find and identify. Each spread contains more than twenty different species including birds, snakes, frogs, iguanas, leopards, tigers, gorillas, pandas, and wolves. Our six year old daughter is very interested in animals and geography right now, so this will be right up her alley.

Buy it: Amazon

Wild Bios: Frida Catlo is the first title in a new series of biographies featuring well-known historical figures with a surprising twist that makes them accessible and engaging for even the youngest readers. Meet one of historys greatest figures in this adorable board book with an animal twist! Famous Meowxican painter Frida Catlo was a pioneer for female artists. With hilarious puns and colorful illustrations, this book brings Fridas legacy to life for babies and parents alike! As a former art major, this book really appeals to me. With its bright colors and adorable puns, I cant wait to share Frida Kahlo with my kids.

Buy it: Amazon

The Story of Rock and The Story of Rap are the first tune-tastic titles in a new series introducing little ones to music history, in fun rhyming text with pop culture references sure to entertain parents and charming illustrations to enthrall little learners. The Story of Rock: From Elvis Presley to Beatlemania, from Janis Joplin to David Bowierock has transformed through generations while ringing true with passionate sound. Rock along with the greats in this delightful baby book that introduces little ones to the rockers that started it all! From The Story of Rap: Lay down a baby beat and learn all about the history of rap! From Grandmaster Flash to Kendrick Lamar, rap has shaped generations and brought a voice to the voiceless. Bop along with the greats in this adorable baby book that introduces little ones to the rappers that started it all! These books are just straight up fun, and a great way to introduce our kids to some of the bands and rappers I listened to growing up.

Buy The Story of Rock: Amazon

Amazon Buy The Story of Rap: Amazon

Hoo Hoo Who? is a catchy and interactive book written and illustrated by Mary Maier with speech pathologist Lauren Horton. Mouses Surprise Party is today, but Owls glasses are broken. Its a good thing you came along! Can you use the clues to help Owl figure out which guest is at the door? Hoo hoo who could it be? Children are encouraged to use expressive language while reading this adorable book that focuses on the importance of WH- questions for optimal language development. Straight up adorable and great for learning too, I cant wait to give this book to our kiddos for Easter! is a catchy and interactive book written and illustrated by Mary Maier with speech pathologist Lauren Horton. Mouses Surprise Party is today, but Owls glasses are broken. Its a good thing you came along! Can you use the clues to help Owl figure out which guest is at the door? Hoo hoo who could it be? Children are encouraged to use expressive language while reading this adorable book that focuses on the importance of WH- questions for optimal language development. Straight up adorable and great for learning too, I cant wait to give this book to our kiddos for Easter!

Buy it: Amazon

Hi there! Im Amber, a 32 year old wife and mom of two from central Minnesota. I love to travel and to be outside with my kids anywhere the weather is warm! When I have a spare free moment, I love to read and scrapbook as well as binge-watch Netflix long after the kids are asleep. I drink too much Caribou Coffee and have a real sweet tooth but also try very hard to consume organic foods and use eco-friendly, fair trade products as much as possible. I also love socializing and sharing about my favorite products! www.emilyreviews.com/

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HSBC gets rowing to raise funds for charity

Staff at HSBC in Douglas will be holding a rowing event today in aid of Cancer Research UK.

It follows the Oxford v Cambridge Boat Race which took play on Sunday.

Workers at HSBC House on Ridgeway Street will be competing with other offices in Jersey and Guernsey to see which island team can row the furthest.

Taking it in turns to row on static machines, staff will be rowing between 9am and 5pm.

People visiting the branch today will be able to donate and HSBC staff will also be donating.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 8)  Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Acting Secretary Eliseo Rio Jr. said Monday there's no evidence that a controversial internet character caused the death of an 11-year-old boy.

"Upon investigation, wala po nakapag-directly relate sa [no one can directly link the] death and Momo challenge. The death was maybe caused by some psychological problem of the child," Rio said in the House committee on information and communications technology hearing on the issue.

The Momo Challenge supposedly involves a fictional character telling children through messaging apps or YouTube to do a series of tasks including self-harm and suicide.

Rio said the police investigated the boy's phone and found no trace of the communication that supposedly happened between him and the characater.

"The police also investigated. Wala silang nakita doon sa sinasabi ng [They did not see anything on what was said by the] parent on the momo challenge that was being subscribed to by the child," he added.

But the DICT chief added investigators were unable to do a forensic examination of the boy's phone because his parents refused.

Despite finding the Momo Challenge to be a hoax, Rio said they are working with telco firms and the National Telecommunications Commission to send text blasts reminding parents to supervise their children when surfing the internet.
Europe approves dapagliflozin for Type 1 diabetes, thanks in part, to UB research

Commission cites trial led by Dandona in announcing approval for Type 1 diabetes

This is a novel oral treatment for Type 1 diabetes, which, when used as an adjunct to insulin, improves the predictability of blood sugar control and provides a real quality of life benefit for patients with the disease. 

BUFFALO, N.Y.  An oral medication developed to treat patients with Type 2 diabetes has been approved by the European Commission for patients with Type 1 diabetes, in large part due to pioneering research conducted and advanced by a University at Buffalo researcher.

In its announcement last month approving the Type 2 diabetes drug dapagliflozin for adults with Type 1 diabetes when insulin doesnt provide adequate blood sugar control, the European Commission cited DEPICT-1 and DEPICT-2, randomized clinical trials that demonstrated how it benefits patients with Type 1 diabetes.

DEPICT-1 was led by Paresh Dandona, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Medicine in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB. He was the studys principal investigator and lead author on the paper reporting the trials results in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology in November 2017.

Our pioneering work has led to the licensing of dapagliflozin for Type 1 diabetes in Europe, Dandona said. This is a novel oral treatment for Type 1 diabetes, which, when used as an adjunct to insulin, improves the predictability of blood sugar control and provides a real quality of life benefit for patients with the disease.

Dapagliflozin is marketed under the brand name Forxiga in Europe and Farxiga in the U.S.; it is currently under regulatory review in the U.S. and Japan as an adjunct treatment to insulin for patients with Type 1 diabetes.

For decades, Dandona has been motivated to find new treatments for Type 1 diabetes, which is still addressed with multiple daily infusions of insulin, which, he likes to point out, was discovered nearly a century ago. He has led the field in exploring potential treatments to use as adjunct therapies with insulin since his published work on another Type 2 diabetes drug, liraglutide, in 2011.

The sad state of Type 1 diabetics has haunted me since I started my fellowship in endocrinology in the United Kingdom in 1975, said Dandona, a physician with UBMD Internal Medicine, who also sees patients at the Diabetes and Endocrinology Center of Western New York.

DEPICT-1, which stands for Dapagliflozin in Patients with Inadequately Controlled Type 1 diabetes, was the first global multicenter investigation of dapagliflozin to test its efficacy and safety for Type 1 diabetes. The double-blind, randomized, three-arm, phase 3 multicenter study was conducted at 143 sites in 17 countries, including the U.S. It was funded by AstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers Squibb, the companies that partnered to develop dapagliflozin.

The results demonstrated that when this drug, a sodium glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitor (SGLT-2), was administered as an adjunct therapy in addition to the insulin that patients with Type 1 diabetes need to survive, it significantly improved outcomes. In the study, approximately half of the patients taking dapagliflozin reduced their A1C levels by more than .5 of 1 % without experiencing severe drops in blood sugar (hypoglycemia). Dapagliflozin exerts its plasma glucose-lowering effects by inducing the excretion of glucose in the urine.

Dandona is currently leading a study, funded by JDRF, the leading global organization funding Type 1 diabetes research, to determine if dapagliflozin and another Type 2 diabetes drug together with insulin might be a potent triple therapy for improving outcomes in Type 1 diabetes.

For more information about that study, contact Jean Hejna at 716-535-1850 or Zahid Sayeed at 716-535-1853.
11 civilians killed in Assad regime attacks

On Sunday shelling and rocket fire by regime forces killed 11 civilians in several areas of Idlib.

Eleven civilians were killed and 40 others injured on Sunday in rocket attacks by regime forces and Iran-backed militias in Syrias northwestern Idlib province, according to sources with the White Helmets civil defense agency.

11 DEAD 40 INJURED

The attacks targeted the towns of Maarat Al-Numan, Saraqib and Kafranbel as well as the villages of Maarat Horma, Tal Mannas and Al-Nayrab, the sources said. Attacks were also reported in Hama province's towns of Kafr Zita, Al Hwaiz, Hawija, Al-Sharia and Qalaat Al-Madiq located in Al-Ghab plain.

Attacks were also reported in Hama province's towns of Kafr Zita, Al Hwaiz, Hawija, Al-Sharia and Qalaat Al-Madiq located in Al-Ghab plain. Earlier reports had put the death toll from the attacks at three.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agreed on last September to turn Idlib into a de-escalation zone in which acts of aggression would be strictly prohibited.

Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating conflict that began in 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected severity.
Cappadocia hosts over 440,000 visitors in Q1

The number of tourists visiting world-famous scenic region surges 14.5% year-on-year in the January-March period.

Turkey's world-famous scenic Cappadocia region attracted 440,686 visitors in the first quarter of 2019, reaching the six-year peak.

THE REGION PRESERVED AS A UNESCO'S WORLD HERITAGE LIST

Cappadocia is famous for its unique "fairy chimney" volcanic cones, valleys, underground cities, boutique hotels and houses carved into rocks, churches, chapels, and shelters used during the early years of the Christian faith. It also allows tourists to enjoy a birds-eye-view of the historical sites with hot air balloon trips. The region, located in Central Anatolia's Nevsehir province, is preserved as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism figures revealed that the number of tourists visiting Cappadocia surged 14.5% year-on-year in the January-March period. In the three-month period, the top three touristic sites in the region were Goreme Open Air Museum, Kaymakl Underground City, and Derinkuyu Underground City.

Mustafa Durmaz, head of the Goreme (a historical town in the region) Tourism Development Cooperative, said Cappadocia saw one of its busiest seasons in the first quarter of 2019 compared to the past years. "The active period through the end of 2018 gave hints that the intensity would continue this year," Durmaz said in an exclusive interview with Anadolu Agency. Durmaz noted that sector representatives made all preparations in advance to provide the high quality of touristic services.

"In this period, Cappadocia hosts foreign visitors mostly from the Far East and Europe," he said. He said as soon as the weather becomes warmer, the current accommodation capacity will reach its limits.

Durmaz also said the student groups across Turkey should prefer day-trips to visit the region in the spring months, as there is an accommodation shortage due to the high hotel occupancy rates.
Israel arrests brother of Palestinian Tamimi

It remains unclear the reason behind the arrest and the Israeli army has yet to issue an official statement.

Israeli forces detained the brother of Palestinian resistance icon Ahed al-Tamimi in a raid in the occupied West Bank early Monday, according to his mother.

"ISRAELI SOLDIERS RAIDED OUR HOUSE"

"An Israeli force raided our home in the village of Nabi Sali near Ramallah and arrested my son Mohamed," Nariman al-Tamimi told Anadolu Agency. "By arresting my son, the Israeli army is trying to break the will of our family," she said. Video footage posted on the mother's Facebook page showed Israeli forces surrounding the son as his sister Ahed was shouting at soldiers.

Al-Tamimi's sister has already been in Israeli custody for several months now. In late July, Israeli authorities released Ahed al-Tamimi and her mother after both had served eight months behind bars. The 17-year-old was arrested in late 2017 and was later slapped with an eight-month jail term for attacking an Israeli soldier.

In 2012, Istanbuls Basaksehir Municipality granted al-Tamimi the prestigious Hanzala Courage Award for defying Israeli soldiers who had just arrested her brother.

21 PALESTINIANS ARRESTS

The Israeli army rounded up 21 Palestinians during overnight raids carried out across the occupied West Bank, according to the military on Monday. In a statement, the army said the individuals had been detained for suspected involvement in popular hostile activities. It, however, did not elaborate on the nature of these alleged "activities."

The Israeli army carries out frequent arrest campaigns across the West Bank including occupied East Jerusalem on the pretext of searching for wanted Palestinians.

According to Palestinian figures, roughly 5,700 Palestinians including a number of women and children are currently languishing in Israeli detention facilities.
May to meet Merkel in Berlin for Brexit talks

British Prime Minister Theresa May will meet Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Tuesday to discuss Brexit, a spokesman for the German government said on Monday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet British Prime Minister Theresa May in Berlin on Tuesday, a government spokesman has announced on Monday.

EU LEADERS TO DISCUSS MAY'S REQUEST

Speaking at a news conference in Berlin, government spokesman Steffen Seibert said Merkel will receive May in the Chancellory tomorrow, but he declined to make any comment on British premiers request for a further delay to Brexit until June 30.

In a letter she wrote to the European Council, President Donald Tusk on Friday said May asked for a further delay to Brexit after she suffered a humiliating defeat at the Parliament on her EU withdrawal agreement. Following her talks in Berlin, May is expected to travel to Paris for a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.

EU leaders are scheduled to meet in Brussels on Wednesday for a special summit to discuss Mays request. Local media reported earlier that the EU was considering to offer Britain a flexible extension until the end of 2019, with an option to leave earlier if the withdrawal agreement is ratified.
Campus News

Plastic pollution will be topic of talk by former EPA official

By DAVID J. HILL

Is there a product besides plastic thats more omnipresent in peoples lives today? Its everywhere, and in everything, from straws and Styrofoam, to grocery bags and water bottles.

Theres also a lot of it in the ocean  so much so that within the next decade there will be 1 pound of plastic for every 3 pounds of fish. Thats according to Judith Enck, the former regional administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Enck is now leading Beyond Plastics, a nationwide movement to engage college students and community leaders around the country in reducing plastic pollution.

Enck will visit UB next week to give a talk, and to meet with UB students and representatives from community organizations. Her talk is one of numerous events taking place during Sustainability Month at UB. Enck hopes her visit  and the information presented  will inspire people to put pressure on their local governments to address the issue.

The problem is just getting worse, says Enck, who served as EPA regional administrator during the Obama administration, overseeing environmental protection in New York, New Jersey, eight Indian Nations, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Encks project is based at Bennington College in Vermont, where, as a senior fellow in the Center for the Advancement of Public Action, she works with Bennington students to tackle the issue of plastic pollution.

Encks talk is set for 6 p.m. April 11 in room 2220 of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB. Registration is required for the free event. Visitors should use the entrance at Main and High streets and sign in with security upon entering.

The timing of Encks visit is perfect. State lawmakers just made New York the second state in the U.S. to ban most types of single-use plastic bags. The measure allows individual counties to charge a fee of 5 cents on paper bags when the law takes effect next March.

Thats great, Enck says, but theres more to be done. Much of the plastic thats getting into bodies of water is coming from the land, whether its runoff from city streets or litter.

The issue also has social and economic impacts, not just environmental, says Sadie Kratt, the Student Associations assistant director of environmental affairs. Its time for talks like these, because theyll bring the solutions, she said.

While in Buffalo, Enck will plug a model bill shes proposed, called the Plastic Trifecta. It calls for the elimination of Styrofoam, would make plastic straws available upon request only, and bans plastic bags while placing a fee on paper bags. Its all aimed at curbing the countrys proclivity for producing plastic packaging.

It wont be easy.

We cant recycle our way out of this problem. Were producing too much plastic, so we need to make less. Its that simple. But its complex because as consumers we have very little choice, says Enck. You can be a vigilant, environmentally-conscious shopper, but its very hard to avoid plastic packaging.

Kratt says plastic pollution is an issue students see around campus every day. There are grocery bags in trees, straws that get half-buried in soil, and just immense amounts of plastic being throw away, she said.

UB has made strides to help cut down on plastic  this semester, Campus Dining and Shops unveiled new drink-thru lids that eliminate the need for straws  but to be successful, Kratt says the university has to take a triple bottom line approach.

We must cover people, planet and profit. If were going to get rid of single-use plastics such as straws or plastic bags, we must find something thats economically viable for the university to replace it with, said Kratt, a junior majoring environmental geoscience and geographic information systems.

I hope students leave feeling like they can make a difference by avoiding plastic packaging and using alternative products. This issue is very large and when students make the personal choice of not using plastic, it extends the impact far and wide.
Netanyahu suggests a non-negotiable Jerusalem plan

Netanyahu listed three "basic conditions" to accept the US-promoted "deal of the century".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has listed conditions to accept a US back-channel peace plan known as "deal of the century", in a move seen by analysts as aiming to court voters ahead of Tuesday's general election.

"DEAL OF THE CENTURY"

In an interview with Israel Hayom newspaper, Netanyahu, the leader of the right-wing Likud Party, said he had not coordinated with Donald Trump about the "deal of the century" but forwarded "three basic conditions." According to Netanyahu, these conditions are; "No single settler will be uprooted from the West Bank, the West Bank will remain under Israeli control, and Jerusalem will not be divided."

Commenting on the situation of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank and the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip, Netanyahu said he refuses the return of the PA to power in Gaza, citing that Israel is benefiting from the Palestinian division.

The PA swiftly condemned and rejected Netanyahu's remarks, calling them "irresponsible," according to the official Wafa news agency. Nabil al-Khatib, a lecturer in political science and international relations at Birzeit University in the West Bank, told Anadolu Agency that Netanyahu's remarks "represent a continuation of the known positions of the Israeli government." "The deal of the century will not be far from the core of the Israeli position," he said.

He stressed that the Palestinian position towards the US administration and its plan "must continue to reject the principle of American mediation, and therefore refuses to deal with any US proposals."

Netanyahu's Likud Party and Blue and White political alliance led by Benny Gantz are considered the main rivals in Tuesday's polls to elect members of Knesset (Israel's parliament).
No YPG forces in US safe zone plan with Turkey

After Turkeys strong-minded attitude on not letting terror organizations take place in the Syria safe zone plan, US government goes back on the YPG deal.

Pentagon had announced that a few hundred troops would remain in Syria after the US pullout in order to create a safe zone along the Turkey-Syria border. US President Donald Trump had also announced the safe zone plan in Syria after his meetings with President Erdogan.

NO YPG FORCES ON THE SAFE ZONE

Trump had expressed the desire to work together to address Turkeys security concerns in northeast Syria while stressing the importance to the United States that Turkey does not mistreat the PYD/YPG.

President Erdogan had said that Turkey expected the safe zone to be set up within a few months, otherwise, the country would establish a buffer area without the help of other nations. He had added that the zone will aim to protect Turkey from "terrorists", referring to the US-backed YPG terror organization that controls areas in northeastern Syria along the Turkish border.

US government has changed its policy after Turkeys decisive statements.

Washington is working with Turkey on a safe zone of some length along the Turkish border and the zone would have no YPG/PKK forces, the US Special Representative for Syria Engagement said. "Were working with Turkey to have a safe zone of some length along the Turkish border where there would be no YPG forces because Turkey feels very nervous about the YPG and their ties to the PKK. James Jeffrey, who also serves as the special envoy for the anti-Daesh coalition, said at a news conference at the State Department.
Trump designates Iran's Revolutionary Guards a terrorist

Trump on Monday designated Irans elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a foreign terrorist organization, an unprecedented step that raises tension in the Middle East.

Iran has warned it will take reciprocal action against Washington for its move against the Guards, the countrys most powerful security organization.

It is the first time the United States has formally labeled another countrys military a terrorist group.

"GLOBAL TERRORIST CAMPAIGN"

The IRGC is the Iranian governments primary means of directing and implementing its global terrorist campaign, Trump said in a statement. The designation makes crystal clear the risks of conducting business with, or providing support to, the IRGC, Trump said. If you are doing business with the IRGC, you will be bankrolling terrorism.





Critics have warned that the move could open US military and intelligence officials to similar actions by unfriendly governments. The United States has already blacklisted dozens of entities and people for affiliations with the IRGC, but not the organization as a whole.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a strident critic of Iran, has pushed for the change in US policy as part of the Trump administrations tough posture toward Tehran. Pompeo told a news conference the designation will take effect in one week.

The announcement comes shortly before the first anniversary of Trumps decision to pull out of a 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran and to reimpose sanctions that had crippled Irans economy.
UK condemns Israel over occupied West Bank plans

Acting minister Mark Field urges Israel to halt counterproductive action.

Britain on Sunday condemned Israeli state over plans for new settlements in occupied West Bank. Urging Israel to

THE CALL TO STOP THE ACTION

The UK strongly condemns the Israeli authorities advancement on 5 April of plans and tenders for yet more settlement units across the West Bank, Mark Field, acting minister for the Middle East said in a statement. Field said the recently revealed plans for new settlements follows the announcement in December for over 2,000 units. Settlements are illegal under international law and undermine the physical viability of the two-state solution, he said.

Urging Israel to halt such counterproductive action, British minister called for all parties to commit to further efforts to de-escalate current tensions and create the right environment for a just and lasting peace.

Netanyahu vowed to annex the occupied West Bank if he wins the general election, which is slated for April 9. "We will ensure that we are in charge on the ground. And we will impose sovereignty over the settlements in Judea and Samaria," he said in an interview with Israeli television on Saturday. In a separate interview on Sunday, Netanyahu said new housing units will be added into settlements. Were going to continue controlling the entire territory west of the Jordan, he said, in reference to the occupied West Bank.

Roughly 650,000 Jewish settlers currently live on more than 100 settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. International law views the West Bank and East Jerusalem as "occupied territories" and considers all Jewish settlement-building activity there as illegal. The Palestinians, for their part, want both these territories along with the Gaza Strip for the establishment of a future Palestinian state.
Yellow Vests take to the streets of Paris for 21st week

Protestors take to streets as part of protests against French president, which resulted in 43 arrests.

Yellow Vest protestors on Saturday took to the streets across France, marking the 21st consecutive week of mass demonstrations against President Emmanuel Macron.

43 PEOPLE WERE ARRESTED

The protestors gathered at Republique Square and marched towards La Defense, a major business district outside Paris. Brief brawls erupted between police and the protestors. According to French media, 43 people were arrested in Paris.

Eight protestors, including Yellow Vest movement's leader Eric Drouet, were fined for attempting to stage the protest on Paris' Champs-Elysees Avenue. Last Saturday protests were banned on the street.

French interior ministry said that 22,300 people participated in Saturday's protests while yellow vests claimed this figure was 73,420. In addition to Paris, protests were held in two northern cities of Rouen and Lille.

Yellow Vest protests began in November 2018 as a reaction to rising fuel costs, which later turned into deadly anti-government riots. The protests have left 11 people dead and more than 2,000 injured, according to the French government. Some 8,400 people have been arrested since the beginning of Yellow Vest protests and about 2,000 were remanded in custody.
A new Tel Aviv University study suggests that the genetic profiles of two extinct mammals with African ancestry -- woolly mammoths, elephant-like animals that evolved in the arctic peninsula of Eurasia around 600,000 years ago, and Neanderthals, highly skilled early humans who evolved in Europe around 400,000 years ago -- shared molecular characteristics of adaptation to cold environments.

The research attributes the human-elephant relationship during the Pleistocene epoch to their mutual ecology and shared living environments, in addition to other possible interactions between the two species. The study was led by Prof. Ran Barkai and Meidad Kislev of TAU's Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures and published on April 8 in Human Biology.

"Neanderthals and mammoths lived together in Europe during the Ice Age. The evidence suggests that Neanderthals hunted and ate mammoths for tens of thousands of years and were actually physically dependent on calories extracted from mammoths for their successful adaptation," says Prof. Barkai. "Neanderthals depended on mammoths for their very existence.

"They say you are what you eat. This was especially true of Neanderthals; they ate mammoths but were apparently also genetically similar to mammoths."

To assess the degree of resemblance between mammoth and Neanderthal genetic components, the archaeologists reviewed three case studies of relevant gene variants and alleles -- alternative forms of a gene that arise by mutation and are found at the same place on a chromosome -- associated with cold-climate adaptation found in the genomes of both woolly mammoths and Neanderthals.

The first case study outlined the mutual appearance of the LEPR gene, related to thermogenesis and the regulation of adipose tissue and fat storage throughout the body. The second case study engaged genes related to keratin protein activity in both species. The third case study focused on skin and hair pigmentation variants in the genes MC1R and SLC7A11.

"Our observations present the likelihood of resemblance between numerous molecular variants that resulted in similar cold-adapted epigenetic traits of two species, both of which evolved in Eurasia from an African ancestor," Kislev explains. "These remarkable findings offer supporting evidence for the contention regarding the nature of convergent evolution through molecular resemblance, in which similarities in genetic variants between adapted species are present.

"We believe these types of connections can be valuable for future evolutionary research. They're especially interesting when they involve other large-brained mammals, with long life spans, complex social behavior and their interactions in shared habitats with early humans."

According to the study, both species likely hailed from ancestors that came to Europe from Africa and adapted to living conditions in Ice Age Europe. The species also both became extinct more or less at the same time.

"It is now possible to try to answer a question no one has asked before: Are there genetic similarities between evolutionary adaptation paths in Neanderthals and mammoths?" Prof. Barkai says. "The answer seems to be yes. This idea alone opens endless avenues for new research in evolution, archaeology and other disciplines.

"At a time when proboscideans are under threat of disappearance from the world due to the ugly human greed for ivory, highlighting our shared history and similarities with elephants and mammoths might be a point worth taking into consideration."

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American Friends of Tel Aviv University supports Israel's most influential, comprehensive and sought-after center of higher learning, Tel Aviv University (TAU). TAU is recognized and celebrated internationally for creating an innovative, entrepreneurial culture on campus that generates inventions, startups and economic development in Israel. TAU is ranked ninth in the world, and first in Israel, for producing start-up founders of billion-dollar companies, an achievement that surpassed several Ivy League universities. To date, 2,500 US patents have been filed by Tel Aviv University researchers -- ranking TAU #1 in Israel, #10 outside of the US and #43 in the world.
DALLAS, April 8, 2019 -- People under age 40 who are diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes are more likely to have or die from cardiovascular disease than those of similar age without diabetes and the excess risks were more pronounced in younger women, according to new research in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation.

Researchers also found the excess risk for death, regardless of cause, for people diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes at age 80 or older significantly decreased and was the same as those of similar age without diabetes.

"Our study shows the differences in excess diabetes risk are tied to the how old the person is when they are diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes," said Naveed Sattar, M.D., Ph.D., lead author of the study and professor of Metabolic Medicine at the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom.

Obesity rates have steadily increased in high-income countries and in young people over the last 30-40 years. As a result, more adolescents and young adults are being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes more than ever before, according to the study.

This is the first study to compare the excess risks of dying from or developing cardiovascular disease in people diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and to adjust the risk for such outcomes given how long a person has had diabetes -- an independent risk factor associated with cardiovascular disease risk.

Using data from the Swedish National Diabetes Registry, researchers followed 318,083 Type 2 diabetes patients and 1,575,108 age, sex and county-matched people as a control group from 1998 to 2013 for heart disease-related conditions. Death resulting from heart disease or any other cause was followed from 1998 to 2014.

Patients with Type 2 diabetes and similar aged controls had their risk for developing heart disease, heart attack, stroke, hospitalization from heart failure and atrial fibrillation assessed. Researchers also evaluated death from cardiovascular disease and any other conditions.

During a median follow-up of nearly two and half years, researchers compared results to control participants of similar age without Type 2 diabetes and found:

Participants diagnosed before age 40 with Type 2 diabetes had the greatest excess risk for death, stroke, heart attack, heart failure or atrial fibrillation.

Women generally carried higher excess cardiovascular disease and mortality risks than men in most categories.

Excess risks for cardiovascular disease and life years lost declined steadily with the age of diagnosis.

"This suggests we need to be more aggressive in controlling risk factors in younger Type 2 diabetes populations and especially in women," Sattar said. "And, far less effort and resources could be spent screening people 80 and older for Type 2 diabetes unless symptoms are present. Furthermore, our work could also be used to encourage middle-aged people at elevated diabetes risk to adopt lifestyle changes to delay their diabetes by several years."

The study followed a majority white European population, so additional studies examining the role of cardiovascular disease in non-white populations who have Type 2 diabetes are needed.

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Co-authors are Araz Rawshani, M.D.; Stefan Franzen, Ph.D.; Aidin Rawshani, M.D.; Ann-Marie Svensson, Ph.D.; Annika Rosengren, M.D.; Darren McGuire, M.D.; Bjorn Eliasson, M.D.; and Soffia Gudbjo?rnsdottir, M.D. Author disclosures are on the manuscript.

The Swedish Association of Local Authorities Regions, Swedish Heart and Lung Foundation, and Swedish Research Council funded the study.

Additional Resources:

Available multimedia is on right column of release link - https://newsroom.heart.org/news/people-under-40-diagnosed-with-type-2-diabetes-face-excess-risk-of-cardiovascular-disease-death?preview=225879f359c21ea4ca8bdf0e3c929f9f

After April 8, view the manuscript online.

Eating nuts may reduce cardiovascular disease risk for people with diabetes

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Orlando, Fla. (April 8, 2019)--Teenagers with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may benefit from more sleep to help them focus, plan and control their emotions. The findings--the first of their kind in young people with ADHD--will be presented today at the American Physiological Society's (APS) annual meeting at Experimental Biology 2019 in Orlando, Fla.

ADHD is one of the most common neurobehavioral disorders among children and adolescents. People with ADHD often have trouble with executive function, which are skills that contribute to being able to focus, pay attention and manage time. Executive function challenges in young people may interfere with academic performance, social skills and emotional development. Previous research has found that a lack of sleep contributes to poorer executive functioning in typically developing adolescents, but teens with ADHD have not been studied.

Researchers from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center measured executive function in adolescent volunteers with ADHD after two separate sleep trials. The volunteers spent a week in which their sleep was restricted to six and a half hours per night, followed by a week in which they were allowed to sleep up to nine and a half hours each night. After each trial, the research team administered the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function, Second Edition (BRIEF2), a widely used measure of executive function in children up to age 18. The BRIEF2 assesses executive function areas such as working memory, planning and organization, emotional control, initiation and inhibition.

The tests showed significant deficits in all of the assessed areas following the sleep-restriction week as compared to the sleep-extension week. "Increased sleep may significantly [and positively] impact academic, social and emotional functioning in adolescents with ADHD, and sleep may be an important future target for future intervention," the researchers wrote.

Chaya Fershtman, a research assistant at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, will present the poster "Sleep restriction worsens daily life executive functioning in adolescents with ADHD" on Monday, April 8, in the Exhibit Hall-West of the Orlando County Convention Center.

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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.
Washington, DC - April 8, 2019 - A team of investigators has identified a cluster of four patients harboring Escherichia coli carrying a rare antibiotic resistance gene, mcr-1. That gene renders the microbe resistant to colistin, an antibiotic of last resort against some multidrug-resistant infections. Three of those patients showed no symptoms, raising the risk of spread. The research is published in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

"Our findings were part of a prospective surveillance study of patients with a weakened immune system, and our characterization of these isolates had originally missed this type of resistance, since it is not identified by conventional drug susceptibility testing," said principal investigator Anne-Catrin Uhlemann, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. "While mcr-1 has been described from other parts of the world, it has been very rare in the US."

Using whole genome sequencing, the investigators found that the bacteria in each patient, while closely related to each other, were not identical. "We then reviewed the clinical course of each individual and noted that the first patient had presented with an infection, whereas the other three only carried the bacteria in their feces," said Dr. Uhlemann. "None of these three patients developed an infection with these bacteria."

"The detection of this cluster demonstrates the potential for silent dissemination of mcr-1 in the US hospital setting, through asymptomatic colonization," said Dr. Uhlemann. "Our findings represent the earliest known documented healthcare-associated cluster of mcr-1 in the United States, and predates a recent report that occurred in 2017." However, Dr. Uhlemann emphasized that the team's molecular survey of more than 500 samples detected no additional cases, and that "colonization was not associated with clinical infection."

The research grew out of a concern with the growing prevalence of antimicrobial resistance, said Dr. Uhlemann, noting that current predictions suggest that by 2050 resistant infections might cause more deaths than cancer.

"We routinely examine the stool samples from patients undergoing liver transplantation for colonization with drug-resistant bacteria," said Dr. Uhlemann. "Our findings highlight the need for ongoing surveillance of mcr-1 and other forms of transferrable resistance to polymyxins [a type of antibiotic] in the US."

They further suggest that patients with a weakened immune system are at particular risk to acquire these types of bacteria, and are important to study. In order to stop further spread of emerging forms of polymyxin resistance, further surveillance approaches need to recognize that clinical isolates may only represent the tip of the iceberg of the burden of asymptomatic colonization.

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The American Society for Microbiology is the largest single life science society, composed of more than 32,000 scientists and health professionals. ASM's mission is to promote and advance the microbial sciences.

ASM advances the microbial sciences through conferences, publications, certifications and educational opportunities. It enhances laboratory capacity around the globe through training and resources. It provides a network for scientists in academia, industry and clinical settings. Additionally, ASM promotes a deeper understanding of the microbial sciences to diverse audiences.
BOSTON--Dr. Erica Walker, a postdoctoral researcher at Boston University School of Public Health's Department of Environmental Health, has launched Community Noise Lab, an interdisciplinary research lab that will explore the relationship between community noise and health. Using real-time sound monitoring, smartphone technology, laboratory-based experiments, and community engagement activities, the lab will work with Boston-area communities to address their specific noise issues.

"We hope to inform, empower, and impact the communities we work with, while using their experiences to strengthen and advance our research," Dr. Walker said.

Community Noise Lab operates on the hypothesis that community noise negatively impacts residents' mental and physical health. To explore this hypothesis, researchers will partner directly with communities on their unique issues, such as highway noise pollution, overhead aircraft sounds, and outdoor summer concerts. "We like to call this approach ride-sharing science," Dr. Walker said, "While our final destination is public health, we will share our ride with others who have their own noise-related journeys and destinations."

Partnering with local activist groups, Community Noise Lab is working in four affected communities in Greater Boston: The Fenway (working with Fenway Quality of Life); Mission Hill (working with Mission Hill Health Movement); East Boston and Milton (working alongside the Eagle Hill Civic Association and Air Inc.); and a community in Andover (working with a local group of organized residents).

Community Noise Lab's work will be documented on the lab's research website designed by Yonatan Girma of Adulis, Inc. Each community has a webpage on the site and the Community Library will be a place where anyone can access and download fact sheets, reports, and data.

Dr. Walker's research on the impacts of community noise is funded by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The two-year, $410,000 grant will fund a real-time sound monitoring network, which consists of a series of eight rotating sound stations; upgrades to Community Noise Lab's smartphone app, NoiseScore, which allows residents to objectively and subjectively describe their environmental soundscape and map their responses in real time; a laboratory-based experiment examining the neurological underpinnings of noise exposure; and a series of community engagement activities ranging from sound walks to podcasts.

"Studies have shown that unpleasant and unwanted noise can trigger stress, contribute to cardiovascular-related hospital admissions and influence our health in other ways,'' said Nancy Barrand, senior program officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "We are excited to learn what Dr. Walker and her team uncover from this pioneering work to help us better understand sounds impact on community health."

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About Boston University School of Public Health:

Founded in 1976, the school offers master's- and doctoral-level education in public health. The faculty in six departments conduct policy-changing public health research around the world, with the mission of improving the health of populations--especially the disadvantaged, underserved, and vulnerable--locally, nationally, and internationally.
A case study in CMAJ highlights the dangers of taking too much vitamin D.

A 54-year-old man, after returning from a trip to Southeast Asia where he spent much of his holiday sunbathing, showed increased levels of creatinine, suggesting kidney damage or malfunction. After referral to a kidney specialist and further testing, it was discovered that he had been prescribed high doses of vitamin D by a naturopath, who recommended a dose of 8 drops every day. Over 2  years, the patient, who did not have a history of bone loss or vitamin D deficiency, took 8-12 drops of vitamin D daily, totalling 8000-12 000 IU. As a result, he had very high levels of calcium in the blood, which left him with significant kidney damage.

"Although vitamin D toxicity is rare owing to a large therapeutic range, its widespread availability in various over-the-counter formulations may pose a substantial risk to uninformed patients," writes Dr. Bourne Auguste, a Clinical Fellow in Home Dialysis at Toronto General Hospital and the University of Toronto.

The recommended daily allowance is 400-1000 IU, with 800-2000 IU recommended for adults at high-risk of osteoporosis and for older adults.

"Our experience informs us that patients and clinicians should be better informed about the risks regarding the unfettered use of vitamin D. Given new findings from the US Preventive Services Task Force, current Canadian guidelines regarding its use in low-risk individuals should be revisited," the authors suggest.

"Use of vitamin D drops leading to kidney failure in a 54-year-old man" is published April 8, 2019.

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Most children inherit both their postal code and their genetic code from their parents. But if genetic factors influence where families are able to live and children's health and educational success, improving neighborhoods may not be enough. Latest research at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and University of California at Irvine, provides new insights into the highly debated question of whether the neighborhoods that children live in influence their health and life chances.

This is the first study to bring together genetic and geographic data to test links between children's neighborhood and genetic risk. The findings are published online in Nature Human Behavior.

The research team led by Dan Belsky, PhD assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School, and Candice Odgers at the University of California, Irvine Department of Psychological Science, linked the genomic, geographic, health, and educational data of thousands of children living in Britain and Wales. They found that children growing up in worse-off neighborhoods also carried higher genetic risk for poor educational outcomes and earlier childbearing. The authors replicated their findings in the U.S.-based Add Health Study, where they found that gene-neighborhood correlations may accumulate across generations as young people with higher genetic risk for poor educational attainment and younger age at first birth were both born into, and subsequently moved into, worse-off neighborhoods.

"But genetic risk alone was not enough to explain why children from poorer versus more affluent neighborhoods received less education and were more likely to be Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEET) by late adolescence," said Belsky, who is also with the Columbia Aging Center. "The data on education could explain only a fraction (10-15 percent) of the link between neighborhood risk and poor educational qualifications and NEET status, suggesting that there is ample opportunity for neighborhoods to influence these outcomes."

"Surprisingly, for obesity, one of the most prevalent and costly health problems facing this generation, we found no link between neighborhood and genetic risk," observed Odgers. "Children who grew up in worse-off neighborhoods were more likely to become obese by age 18, but they did not carry a higher genetic risk for obesity than their peers living in more advantaged neighborhoods."

Similarly, for mental health problems, children in worse-off neighborhoods experienced more symptoms of mental disorder, but there was little evidence that the reason for this link was due to genetic risk. For physical and mental health problems, postal code and genetic code both predicted children's futures.

Analyses were based on data from The Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study, which has followed 2232 twins born in England and Wales in 1994-1995 into young adulthood, and The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, which followed 15,000 American secondary school students into adulthood. For "polygenic scoring" the investigators combined information across the genome based on recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of obesity, of schizophrenia, of age-at-first-birth, and of educational attainment. Neighborhood risk assessment and Neighborhood Mobility Analysis tools are described in the paper's Supporting Details.

Using Google Street View and high-resolution geo-spatial data enabled the researchers to capture key features of the neighborhoods where the children lived. Odgers developed the virtual assessments used in the study. "Advances in both genomics and geospatial analyses are rapidly positioning us to make new discoveries. Here, they allowed us to identify outcomes, like obesity and mental health, where neighborhoods are most likely to have unique impacts." But, she added "this is only a first step in tackling the critical question of whether changing neighborhood conditions can improve children's lives across these domains."

"In our study, polygenic risk scores showed a link between genetics and neighborhoods for teen pregnancy and poor educational outcomes. This finding suggests that we should consider neighborhoods when interpreting the results of studies searching for genes related to these outcomes and also that we should consider genes when examining the effects of neighborhoods," said Belsky. But, he cautions that "polygenic risk scores are an evolving and still imperfect tool. They can help us test whether genes and neighborhoods are related. But they cannot tell us how."

Genetic risk accounted for only a fraction of the differences between children living in different types of neighborhoods. According to Belsky and Odgers this provides some reason to hope that "targeting neighborhoods -- especially for physical and mental health -- will be enough to improve children's life outcomes."

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Co-authors' institutions are: Duke University, Stanford University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Kings College, UK; and University of Exeter, UK.

The study was supported by the Medical Research Council (UKMRC G1002190); NICHD (HD077482), Google, and the Jacobs Foundation. The Add Health Study is supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P01HD31921, R01HD073342, and R01HD060726), with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations.

Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Founded in 1922, the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health pursues an agenda of research, education, and service to address the critical and complex public health issues affecting New Yorkers, the nation and the world. The Columbia Mailman School is the third largest recipient of NIH grants among schools of public health. Its over 450 multi-disciplinary faculty members work in more than 100 countries around the world, addressing such issues as preventing infectious and chronic diseases, environmental health, maternal and child health, health policy, climate change & health, and public health preparedness. It is a leader in public health education with over 1,300 graduate students from more than 40 nations pursuing a variety of master's and doctoral degree programs. The Columbia Mailman School is also home to numerous world-renowned research centers, including ICAP and the Center for Infection and Immunity. For more information, please visit http://www.mailman.columbia.edu.
Many older adults live in ethnically diverse rural settings where they face a higher burden of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD) as well as delayed detection due to health inequities. Furthermore, cultural perceptions about aging could add to disparities in recognizing and treating AD in these populations.

According to the Alzheimer's Association, the 400 percent increase in Medicaid/Medicare and out-of-pocket spending for AD care of $259 billion in 2017 highlights the need for preventive care, especially among higher-risk underserved rural groups.

Research targeting AD in rural populations has been scant, and many research reports have not distinguished between urban and rural participants. There is a critical need to assess AD knowledge in people living in rural areas in a way that matches their socioeconomic, educational and cultural needs.

Researchers from Florida Atlantic University's Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing have addressed this need by developing a novel tool called the "Basic Knowledge of Alzheimer's Disease" (BKAD). The survey consists of 32 items used to measure and assess AD knowledge in rural and underserved communities, based on topics related to symptoms, risk factors, screening, prevention, treatment and care.

For the study, published in the journal Aging & Mental Health, the researchers put the BKAD to the test at senior centers in five underserved, rural communities in Florida (the Glades) and Appalachian Virginia, West Virginia, Alabama and North Carolina.

Results of the study show that three-fourths of the participants knew that annual cognitive screening is recommended for older adults, but only one-fourth had been previously screened. Sociodemographic findings revealed that a majority of participants (86 percent) would partake in annual memory screenings if offered, regardless of their education or health literacy level.

More than 75 percent of the participants believed that staying socially, mentally and physically active is important. They also believed that there is medication that could help (68 percent for Glades participants and 69 percent for Appalachian participants). Almost all of the participants (90 percent) agreed with the statement, "the sooner you get help for AD, the more chance you have to slow it down."

In contrast, the lowest scores were related to personal disease risk such as, "nothing can be done to reduce the risk of AD" (less than 70 percent answered correctly) or "people with a history of diabetes, high blood pressure or stroke are at greater risk of AD" (61 percent answered this correctly). Another low scoring question (about one-third answered incorrectly) was related to the new finding that sudden vision changes may indicate AD risk. Other knowledge gaps were related to symptoms such as, "people with AD could remember things if they just tried harder" or "people with AD always go through a violent stage."

"We must provide culturally effective Alzheimer's disease education to correct misconceptions, decrease stigma, and bring awareness to the need for routine cognitive screening in populations at risk," said Lisa Kirk Wiese, Ph.D., senior author and an assistant professor in FAU's College of Nursing, who developed the BKAD with co-authors Christine L. Williams, DNsc, a professor and director of the Ph.D. program, and Ruth Tappen, Ed.D., the Christine E. Lynn Eminent Scholar and Professor, both in FAU's College of Nursing.

Important sociodemographic findings show that almost all Florida Glades participants (99 percent) wanted to participate in memory screenings as compared to Appalachian participants (62 percent). Slightly more Florida Glades participants saw providers routinely (94 percent) as compared to Appalachian participants (88 percent). Yet, about the same number (22 and 25 percent respectively) reported previous memory screening by a provider. Interestingly, Appalachian participants had higher average years of education and health literacy compared to the Florida Glades participants. Only 66 percent of the Florida Glades participants graduated high school and only 20 percent attended school beyond the eighth grade.

"Results from our study confirm the positive fit, reliability, and validity of our survey in underserved populations and also provide insights about the impact of health literacy and education, the knowledge gaps that exist in two diverse rural settings, and the differences in reported willingness to be screened for Alzheimer's disease," said Wiese. "Determining these knowledge gaps in varied populations and settings is essential to designing effective educational and awareness programs."

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David Newman, Ph.D., an associate professor and statistician in FAU's College of Nursing also co-authored the study.

The researchers also acknowledge Tyler Kirk, a native Appalachian and graduate of West Virginia University, who served as a research assistant for five years.

This study was supported by The Association of Community Health Nursing Educators.

About the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing:

FAU's Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing is nationally and internationally known for its excellence and philosophy of caring science. The college is ranked No.1 in online graduate nursing programs in Florida and No. 23 in the nation by U.S. News and World Report. In 2017, with a 100 percent pass rate on the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN), FAU BSN graduates, first-time test takers, ranked among the highest (No.1) in Florida and the United States. FAU's Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing is fully accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE). For more information, visit nursing.fau.edu.

About Florida Atlantic University:

Florida Atlantic University, established in 1961, officially opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University, with an annual economic impact of $6.3 billion, serves more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students at sites throughout its six-county service region in southeast Florida. FAU's world-class teaching and research faculty serves students through 10 colleges: the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, the College of Business, the College for Design and Social Inquiry, the College of Education, the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the Graduate College, the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing and the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. FAU is ranked as a High Research Activity institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The University is placing special focus on the rapid development of critical areas that form the basis of its strategic plan: Healthy aging, biotech, coastal and marine issues, neuroscience, regenerative medicine, informatics, lifespan and the environment. These areas provide opportunities for faculty and students to build upon FAU's existing strengths in research and scholarship. For more information, visit http://www.fau.edu.
Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), in Chile's Atacama Desert, will help to obtain answers on the formation and evolution of these exotic environments, as well as the possibility of life there

In the past three decades, almost 4,000 planet-like objects have been discovered orbiting isolated stars outside the Solar System (exoplanets). Beginning in 2011, it was possible to use NASA's Kepler Space Telescope to observe the first exoplanets in orbit around young binary systems of two live stars with hydrogen still burning in their core.

Brazilian astronomers have now found the first evidence of the existence of an exoplanet orbiting an older or more evolved binary in which one of the two stars is dead.

The study resulted from a postdoctoral research project and a research internship abroad, both with scholarships from Sao Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP. Its findings have just been published in the Astronomical Journal, owned by the American Astronomical Society (AAS).

Leonardo Andrade de Almeida (https://bv.fapesp.br/en/pesquisador/265214/leonardo-andrade-de-almeida), first author of the article, told as follow: "We succeeded in obtaining pretty solid evidence of the existence of a giant exoplanet with a mass almost 13 times that of Jupiter [the largest planet in the Solar System] in an evolved binary system. This is the first confirmation of an exoplanet in a system of this kind."

Almeida is currently a postdoctoral fellow of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), having conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Sao Paulo's Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences (IAG-USP), where he was supervised by Professor Augusto Damineli, a coauthor of the study.

Clues followed by the researchers to discover the exoplanet in the evolved binary called KIC 10544976, located in the Cygnus constellation in the northern celestial hemisphere, included variations in eclipse timing (the time taken for each of the two stars to eclipse the other) and orbital period.

"Variations in the orbital period of a binary are due to gravitational attraction among the three objects, which orbit around a common center of mass," Almeida said.

Orbital period variations are not enough to prove the existence of a planet in the case of binaries, however, because binary stars' magnetic activity fluctuates periodically, just as the Sun's magnetic field changes polarity every 11 years, with turbulence and the number and size of sunspots peaking and then declining.

"Variations in the Sun's magnetic activity eventually cause a change in its magnetic field. The same is true of all isolated stars. In binaries, these variations also cause a change in orbital period due to what we call the Applegate mechanism," Almeida explained.

To refute the hypothesis that variations in the orbital period of KIC 10544976 were due only to magnetic activity, the researchers analyzed the effect of eclipse timing variation and the magnetic activity cycle of the binary's live star.

KIC 10544976 consists of a white dwarf, a dead low-mass star with a high surface temperature, and a red dwarf, a live (magnetically active) star with a small mass compared to that of our Sun and scant luminosity due to low energy output. The two stars were monitored by ground-based telescopes between 2005 and 2017 and by Kepler between 2009 and 2013, producing data minute by minute.

"The system is unique," Almeida said. "No similar system has enough data to let us calculate orbital period variation and magnetic cycle activity for the live star."

Using the Kepler data, they were able to estimate the magnetic cycle of the live star (red dwarf) based on the rate and energy of flares (large eruptions of electromagnetic radiation) and variability due to spots (regions of cooler surface temperature and hence darkness caused by different concentrations of magnetic field flux).

Analysis of the data showed that the red dwarf's magnetic activity cycle lasted 600 days, which is consistent with the magnetic cycles estimated for low-mass isolated stars. The binary's orbital period was estimated at 17 years.

"This completely refutes the hypothesis that orbital period variation is due to magnetic activity. The most plausible explanation is the presence of a giant planet orbiting the binary, with a mass approximately 13 times that of Jupiter," Almeida said.

Formation hypotheses

How the planet orbiting the binary was formed is unknown. One hypothesis is that it developed at the same time as the two stars billions of years ago. If so, it is a first-generation planet. Another hypothesis is that it formed out of the gas ejected during the death of the white dwarf, making it a second-generation planet.

Confirmation of its status as either a first- or second-generation planet and its direct detection as it orbits the binary could be obtained using the new generation of ground-based telescopes with primary mirrors exceeding 20 meters, including the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) installed in Chile's Atacama Desert. The GMT is expected to see first light in 2024.

FAPESP will invest US$40 million in the GMT, or approximately 4% of the telescope's estimated total cost. This investment will guarantee 4% of the telescope's operating time for studies by researchers from Sao Paulo State (read more at: agencia.fapesp.br/28569).

"We're probing 20 systems in which external bodies could show gravitational effects, such as KIC 10544976, and most are only observable from the southern hemisphere. The GMT will enable us to detect these objects directly and obtain important answers on the formation and evolution of these exotic environments, as well as the possibility of life there," Almeida said.

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About Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)

The Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is a public institution with the mission of supporting scientific research in all fields of knowledge by awarding scholarships, fellowships and grants to investigators linked with higher education and research institutions in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. FAPESP is aware that the very best research can only be done by working with the best researchers internationally. Therefore, it has established partnerships with funding agencies, higher education, private companies, and research organizations in other countries known for the quality of their research and has been encouraging scientists funded by its grants to further develop their international collaboration. You can learn more about FAPESP at http://www.fapesp.br/en and visit FAPESP news agency at http://www.agencia.fapesp.br/en to keep updated with the latest scientific breakthroughs FAPESP helps achieve through its many programs, awards and research centers. You may also subscribe to FAPESP news agency at http://agencia.fapesp.br/subscribe.
Hundreds of different bacterial species are living inside your mouth. Some are highly abundant, while others are scarce. A few of these oral bacteria are known pathogens. Others are benign, or even beneficial.

Scientists know the genetic makeup of about 70 percent of oral bacteria. What they don't know is which species would live the longest without nutrients in a "battle royale"--so they decided to find out. The results help explain how certain dangerous bacteria are able to persist in a sterile hospital environment and infect patients.

In a paper publishing later this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, researchers from the Forsyth Institute, the J. Craig Venter Institute, the University of Washington, and the University of California, Los Angeles, describe their discovery that three closely related species of bacteria belonging to the family Enterobacteriaceae outlived all other oral bacteria in long-term starvation or "doomsday" experiment.

"A number of species from that family are known to cause infections in hospitals," said Dr. Xuesong He, an Associate Member of Staff at the Forsyth Institute and co-author of the study.

To create a battle of bacteria, researchers placed hundreds of samples of oral bacteria from human saliva into test tubes. The bacteria, which are accustomed to living in the nutrient-rich mouth, were starved in their new environment. Each day, scientists checked the samples to see which bacteria were still alive.

Nearly every bacterial species died within the first couple of days. But three species--Klebsiella pneumoniae, Klebsiella oxytoca, and Providencia alcalifaciens--survived the longest, with Klebsiella pneumoniae and Klebsiella oxytoca surviving for more than 100 days.

Researchers were surprised to find that Klebsiella were among the champions of this bacterial combat. In their natural environment of the oral cavity, Klebsiella are considered an underdog. They account for only about .1 percent of all microbes in the mouth. But in an extreme environment deprived of all nutrients, Klebsiella reigned supreme while the bugs normally found in high abundance rapidly died off.

How did Klebsiella pull off such a feat? To answer this question, scientists analyzed the genome of the bacteria on the first day of "battle" and then again on day 100.

"When we look at the genome content, it turns out that these Enterobacteriaceae species have larger genomes than other oral bacteria, giving them the capacity to tap into more diverse energy sources," said Dr. He. The researchers found that the Klebsiella had undergone genetic mutations that may have allowed them to survive and continue to function, even without a food source.

Scientists describe Klebsiella species as opportunistic pathogens. In healthy people, they live in the mouth peacefully, crowded by other microbes and unable to grow or cause trouble. But outside the mouth, where few other bacteria survive, Klebsiella is king. They persist on hospital surfaces, like sinks or tables. If a patient with a compromised immune system makes contact with Klebsiella, that patient could develop an infection.

"Oral fluids like saliva are a rich source of bacteria and viruses. We want to understand how pathogens, that are typically rare, can become dominant and then also persist for long periods outside the body to be later transmitted," explains co-author Dr. Jeff McLean, a Professor at the University of Washington.

Infections by Klebsiella can result in a number of dangerous conditions including pneumonia and meningitis. One of the reasons Klebsiella infections are so dangerous is that Klebsiella are particularly adept at developing resistance to antibiotics, as well as transferring this drug resistance to neighboring bacteria.

"The finding that these Klebsiella species survive longer than their more benign neighbors in mixtures of saliva is likely to have a great deal of clinical significance, as multiple virulent outbreaks of antibiotic-resistant Klebsiella have been traced back to hospital sinks and drains," said Dr. Jonathon L. Baker, Ph.D. Baker is the Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Fellow in the Department of Genomic Medicine at the J. Craig Venter Institute and lead author of the study.

This research also helps illuminate a key ecological dynamic of bacterial communities.

"From a big picture point of view, this is a huge step forward towards understanding microbial social structure and ecology," said Dr. Wenyuan Shi, CEO and Chief Scientific Officer at the Forsyth Institute. "This study begins to address a fundamental question in biology--how, evolutionarily, was a microbial community built, and what takes place as the community dies?"

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The International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) has recognized Dr Babalyan for her longstanding support of IOF initiatives and outstanding work on behalf of national and regional osteoporosis education and advocacy

Dr Varta Babalyon, President of the Armenian Osteoporosis Association, an IOF member society, has been awarded the 2019 IOF Committee of National Societies (CNS) Medal. The Medal was presented on April 5, 2019 at the World Congress on Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases in Paris, France.

The CNS Medal recognizes an individual who has made an important contribution to the cause of osteoporosis prevention through active participation in CNS activities and by expanding IOF's messages and outreach in his/her country. The CNS, comprising more than 240 patient and medical societies worldwide, is IOF's core membership committee. Its membership represents the world's largest single network of national and regional organizations dedicated to the prevention of osteoporosis and fragility fractures.

Professor Jean-Yves Reginster, Chair of the CNS and IOF Board member, stated:

"Varta Babalyan's great commitment and efforts on behalf of osteoporosis patients and healthcare professional education in Armenia have been extraordinary. In addition, she has shown exemplary support of IOF initiatives. Notably, Dr Babalyan has been instrumental in the organization of the IOF International Summits for Eurasian and Eastern European Countries, with last year's Summit, hosted in Yerevan by the Armenian Osteoporosis Association, bringing together IOF member societies from 19 countries."

Dr Philippe Halbout, IOF CEO, added:

"It is an honour to present this Award to Dr Babalyan. Through her important work at the national and regional level, she has helped to raise awareness of osteoporosis, and brought osteoporosis and fracture prevention to the attention of healthcare providers and policy makers."

Varta Babalyan, M.D. trained as a doctor in general practice and as a family physician. She has also had a successful career in the pharma and medical device industry. In this capacity she developed her organizational skills and advanced through multiple positions, including as country manager and business developmental manager. Reflecting a strong dedication to bone health, Dr Babylon has served as the president of the Armenian Osteoporosis Association since 2014. In 2016 she was named director of the newly founded Osteoporosis Center of Armenia. The Osteoporosis Center of Armenia supports existing healthcare programs and hospitals in the country by providing doctors and patients with advice and information about osteoporosis. It is also an important resource for educational outreach and research.

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World Congress on Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis & Musculoskeletal Diseases (WCO-IOF-ESCEO Paris 2019):

Held jointly by IOF and ESCEO, the Congress took place in Paris, France, from April 4-7, 2019. WCO-IOF-ESCEO is the world's largest annual forum for the presentation of clinical research and new advances in the prevention and management of bone, muscle and joint disorders, including sarcopenia and frailty. Further information and congress abstracts are available at

http://www.wco-iof-esceo.org #OsteoCongress

About IOF:

The International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) is the world's largest nongovernmental organization dedicated to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis and related musculoskeletal diseases. IOF members, including committees of scientific researchers as well as more than 240 patient, medical and research societies in 99 locations, work together to make fracture prevention and healthy mobility a worldwide heath care priority. http://www.iofbonehealth.org http://www.facebook.com/ @iofbonehealth

About ESCEO:

The European Society for Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis & Musculoskeletal Diseases (ESCEO) is a non-profit organization, dedicated to a close interaction between clinical scientists dealing with rheumatic disorders, pharmaceutical industry developing new compounds in this field, regulators responsible for the registration of such drugs and health policy makers, to integrate the management of osteoporosis and osteoarthritis within the comprehensive perspective of health resources utilization. The objective of ESCEO is to provide practitioners with the latest clinical and economic information, allowing them to organize their daily practice, in an evidence-based medicine perspective, with a cost-conscious perception. http://www.esceo.org
When cancer escapes the immune system, our defenses are rendered powerless and are unable to fight against the disease. Chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR T cells) represent a promising immunotherapy strategy, developed with the aim of tackling tumors head-on. But the occurrence of relapse in some patients remains a challenge. Scientists at the Institut Pasteur have identified the precise function of CAR T cells in a bid to optimize future therapies.

One of the strategies used to combat cancer is based on modification of the patient's T lymphocytes (also known as natural killer cells) to make them recognize the target molecule CD19 expressed by the tumor, so that they can eliminate it. Clinical trials have proved to be remarkably effective, leading to the use of this technique in adults and children to treat blood cancer (B-cell lymphomas and leukemia). But some patients suffer relapses. To improve therapies in future, scientists from the Institut Pasteur set out to elucidate the precise workings of CAR T cells.

The inner workings of immunity

Marine Cazaux and Capucine Grandjean, together with their colleagues in the Dynamics of Immune Responses Unit (Institut Pasteur/Inserm) led by Philippe Bousso, in collaboration with scientists from the Universities of Manchester (UK) and Leiden (NL), visualized CAR T cells battling a tumor for the very first time. Using a novel high-resolution in vivo imaging technique, they observed the bone marrow of mice with lymphoma. This enabled them to investigate the overall behavior of CAR T cells and to visualize in real time the interactions between CAR T cells and the tumor, as well as tumor death (imaged using an ingenious technique that changes the color of cancer cells after they die). Even if some CAR T cells are more active than others, they demonstrated that in general, a CAR T cell is capable of directly killing a tumor cell within approximately 25 minutes of recognizing its target.

The key role of CAR T cells in the fight against cancer

"Mathematical simulations based on our experimental data confirm that the efficacy of CAR T cells is primarily based on their ability to engage and directly kill the cancer cell rather than recruiting other immune cells to the tumor site," explains Philippe Bousso. These simulations also demonstrated that the number of CAR T cells that are able to infiltrate the bone marrow plays a major role in treatment efficacy.

A significant obstacle for this infiltration is that CAR T cells in the bloodstream encounter tumor cells and B lymphocytes that also express the target CD19. The team observed that CAR T cells form cellular aggregates which become trapped in the pulmonary circulation, preventing their migration to the tumor site. Reducing the number of cells expressing CD19 before the injection of CAR T cells significantly improved the overall survival of the mice.

The research also revealed differences in activity level depending on the anatomical site. CAR T activity was stronger in the bone marrow than at other tumor sites (e.g. the lymph nodes), enabling it to exert selective pressure on tumor cells and resulting in the emergence of cells no longer expressing CD19.

"By identifying the strengths and weaknesses of CAR T cells in action, this research opens up new avenues for exploiting and optimizing the activity of CAR T cells in patients," concludes Philippe Bousso.

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To watch the video of the visualization of CART cells in action: https://www.pasteur.fr/en/research-journal/news/immune-cells-fighting-blood-cancer-visualized-first-time
Using information from two national surveys, researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Guttmacher Institute have found that in some metropolitan areas, more than a quarter of young, African American men reported having sexual intercourse before age 13, and for about 45 percent of them, the sex was either unwanted or experienced with "mixed feelings."

The researchers caution that while self-reporting surveys have limitations, they say similar results drawn from multiple data sources suggest that rates of underage male sex in metropolitan areas are substantially higher than previously estimated using only national data.

They also find that race, ethnicity and location play a larger than appreciated role.

The researchers say their study, described in the April 8 issue of JAMA Pediatrics, points to the need for better and much earlier access not only to sex education, but also sexual health clinics, family planning and parenting services, and mental health counseling services for inner city male youth, particularly if they have experienced unwanted sex.

"Young men having sex before age 13 usually haven't received the appropriate sex education and services, and we need a better system to respond to their needs," says Arik Marcell, M.D., M.P.H., senior author of the study and associate professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins Children's Center. "The cultural double standard about sexual behavior in the United States, in which it is OK for young boys, but not girls, to be sexually active, has prevented us from effectively addressing male adolescents' vulnerabilities and their healthy sexual development," Marcell adds.

Currently, 24 states and the District of Columbia mandate sex education at some level. Although most adolescents receive some form of sex education between grades six and 12, with some as early as grades four or five, the researchers say what they learn is highly dependent on their region, school and parents' decisions to allow them in the classes. In 2014, fewer than half of high schools and only 20 percent of middle schools delivered sex education covering all 16 critical sexual education topics identified by the CDC, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

"I have heard boys and adolescents talking about their first sex encounters in a way that suggests they didn't anticipate, understand or know what was happening or what's appropriate and what's not," says Marcell, "I was concerned that such early sex experiences happening to boys could be unwanted and influence their future health. We used the data available to us in these surveys to attempt a better look at the scale and pattern of this problem across the nation."

Young men who reported in the national family growth survey that they first had sex before age 13 described a range of attitudes about this experience. Only 55 percent said that their first sexual experience was wanted, while 8 percent said it was unwanted and 37 percent said they had mixed feelings about it.

The investigators underscored the importance of recognizing young people's perspectives, and also noted that reports of whether a first sexual experience was wanted may be influenced by gender and race expectations, stereotypes, peer pressure and coercion.

"Too often, the sexual health needs of young men are overlooked," says Guttmacher Institute researcher Laura Lindberg. "Outdated attitudes and harmful gender stereotypes leave many young men without needed information and services."

Researchers say the study looked only at age at reported first sex, and that further efforts are needed to look at behaviors over time and how this affects their future sexual experiences.

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The study was funded by a grant from The JPB Foundation and the Guttmacher Center for Population Research Innovation and Dissemination, under National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 R24 HD074034).

The researchers declare no conflicts of interest.

This press release is modified from a press release prepared by Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit research institute focused on reproductive health and policy, which has offices in Washington, D.C., and New York.
A team of scientists headed by Maik Behrens from the Leibniz-Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich has identified the receptor responsible for the bitter taste of various salts. These include medically used Epsom salt. The discovery helps to elucidate the physiological mechanisms by which Epsom salt affects the heart or gut.

The team has now published the findings in the journal Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications (DOI: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2019.03.139). It also includes scientists of the German Institute of Human Nutrition.

Salt with physiological effects

Magnesium sulfate, also known as hair salt or Epsom salt, is probably the best-known bitter-tasting salt. The naturally occurring mineral is named after the British city of Epsom, where it was already extracted from spring water in 1697. Even today, it has its place in medicine, for example, to treat constipation or certain cardiac arrhythmias.

Receptor for magnesium, manganese and iron ions

Maik Behrens and his team have now succeeded, with the help of a cellular test system, in identifying a receptor that reacts to Epsom salt or to salts containing magnesium or divalent manganese and iron ions. It is the bitter receptor TAS2R7, one of the 25 different bitter receptor types that people possess.

More than just taste sensors

As gatekeepers in the mouth, bitterness sensors warn against the ingestion of potentially toxic substances. In addition to phytochemicals such as caffeine these also include drugs such as chlorphenamine (antihistamine). Another group of substances represent certain salts, which can lead to significant side effects when consumed in too high doses.

Recent studies indicate that the receptors not only act as taste sensors, but also mediate physiological effects of bitter substances. Thus, bitter receptors are found in organs such as the heart or intestine. "Interestingly, both organs respond to the supply of magnesium salts," says study leader Behrens. An overdose of magnesium salts has been shown to lead to a drop in blood pressure, cardiac arrest, severe diarrhea and vomiting, the researcher said. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the respective physiological reactions are still not clear to date.

The researchers are convinced that the discovery of the Epsom salt receptor will help to better understand the physiological effects of minerals and to develop new therapeutics for, for example, heart disease.

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Original Publication: Behrens M, Redel U, Blank K, Meyerhof W (2019) Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, DOI: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2019.03.139. The human bitter taste receptor TAS2R7 facilitates the detection of bitter salts

Contact:

Dr. Maik Behrens

Section II, Working group Taste Systems Reception & Biosignals

Leibniz-Institute for Food Systems Biology

at the Technical University of Munich

Tel.: +49 816171 2987

Email: m.behrens.leibniz-lsb@tum.de

Press Contact:

Dr. Gisela Olias

Press and Public Relations

Leibniz-Institute for Food Systems Biology

at the Technical University of Munich

Tel.: +49 816171 2980

E-Mail: g.olias.leibniz-lsb@tum.de

http://www.leibniz-lsb.de

Read more about the potential physiological functions of "taste" receptors:

Not just good for smelling and tasting -

Chemoreceptors offer approaches for the development of new drug therapies

Odor and taste receptors are found not only in the nose and mouth. Recent studies indicate that they perform other functions in the body, for example, in the immune system or the regulation of metabolism. Therefore, they could serve as starting points for computer-assisted development of new therapeutics. A review article of the Leibniz-LSB@TUM now summarizes the current data situation on this topic.

Di Pizio A, Behrens M, Krautwurst D. (2019) International Journal of Molecular Sciences, DOI: 10.3390/ijms20061402. Beyond the flavor: the potential druggability of chemosensory GPCRs

What do taste receptors in the brain do?

Taste receptors are not only good for tasting, because they are also found on cells of organs that are involved in the hormonal regulation of the body. These include the brain, the pancreas and the thyroid gland. A recent review article of the Leibniz-LSB@TUM summarizes what science has known so far about possible functions of taste receptors in the (neuro)endocrine system.

Behrens M, Meyerhof W (2019) J Neuroendocrinol, DOI: 10.1111/jne.12691. A role for key receptors in (neuro) endocrinology?

Read more about the Leibniz Institute:

The Leibniz-Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich (Leibniz-LSB@TUM) has a unique research profile. Its researchers combine methods of basic biomolecular research with analytical methods of bioinformatics and analytical high-performance technologies. Their goal is to decode the complex ingredient profiles from raw materials to the final food products and to elucidate their function as biological active molecules on humans. Based on their studies, the scientists develop products, which are as healthy as they are tasty. These foods will help to provide a sustainable and sufficient stream of food for future generations. In addition, the new scientific findings will be used to develop personalized nutritional concepts that, for example, help people with food intolerance without compromising quality of life and endangering their health.

The Leibniz LSB@TUM is a member of the Leibniz Association, which connects 95 independent research institutions. Their orientation ranges from the natural sciences, engineering and environmental sciences through economics, spatial and social sciences to the humanities. Leibniz Institutes devote themselves to social, economic and ecological issues. They conduct knowledge-oriented and application-oriented research, also in the overlapping Leibniz research networks, are or maintain scientific infrastructures and offer research-based services. The Leibniz Association focuses on knowledge transfer, especially with the Leibniz Research Museums. It advises and informs politics, science, business and the public. Leibniz institutions maintain close cooperation with universities - among others, in the form of the Leibniz Science Campuses, industry and other partners in Germany and abroad. They are subject to a transparent and independent review process. Due to their national significance, the federal government and the federal states jointly fund the institutes of the Leibniz Association. The Leibniz Institutes employ around 19,100 people, including 9,900 scientists. The entire budget of all the institutes is more than 1.9 billion euros.
Bold great tits lay their eggs earlier when under threat, the shy ones put it off. Such personality differences help maintain the biological variation essential for the survival of populations, as Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich biologists have now shown.

Bird populations can adapt to environmental change, as revealed by their flexible choice of the optimal time for rearing their chicks. Thus high temperatures induce them to begin nest building and egg-laying early in the year. In colder years, they tend to postpone the whole business until later. Natural selection favors such behavioral adaptability - provided that the required variation is available, i.e. genetic variants are present that confer 'phenotypic plasticity' on local populations. A study of great tits (Parus major), carried out by LMU behavioral biologist Niels Dingemanse and his doctoral student Robin Abbey-Lee, has now shown that this adaptability is in part attributable to differences in character and 'personality' between individuals. Their findings appear in the online journal Nature Communications.

In addition to ambient temperatures, the level of predation has an influence on the timing of nesting behavior, as fledglings are particularly vulnerable to attacks by birds of prey. The European sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) is a major predator of great tits. Sparrowhawks brood at a time when the new generation of tits is at the fledgling stage, which ensures that there will be plenty of food available for their young families. Conversely, great tits react to the hawks' presence by deferring breeding, in order to reduce the risk to their own offspring. As soon as they hear the call of the hunting sparrowhawk, they become markedly more alert and sing less often. "In previous studies, however, we found that not all birds display this reaction to the same degree," says Dingemanse. "Different individuals exhibit different personalities, and some are more explorative, daring and more aggressive than others."

Abbey-Lee and Dingemanse have now investigated whether these differences in character contribute to variation in the timing of breeding at the population level. During the breeding season - from April to June - the researchers exposed birds in a total of 12 tit populations to either the recorded call of the sparrowhawk or the song of the harmless blackbird.

The results showed, under these two conditions, character differences indeed had an impact on the timing of the breeding season. The more daring birds eagerly explore their local environment and normally breed late. But when confronted with an imminent threat - implied by the apparent presence of actively hunting sparrowhawks - they began breeding earlier than usual. The less valiant pairs behaved in exactly the opposite way. In the end, the two personality types achieved essentially equal levels of breeding success. The study's authors conclude from this that variation in character and personality does contribute to phenotypic plasticity in the timing of breeding periods in the population as a whole. "In this way, populations can also become more resilient in the face of anthropogenic alterations of their environments, such as climate change," Dingemanse points out.

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A study by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators has found wide variation in the use of different hospital units - intensive care or general medical units - to deliver a type of advanced respiratory support called non-invasive ventilation. The team's report published in Critical Care Medicine found no differences in length of stay or in-hospital deaths among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) receiving this treatment that were associated with whether they were treated on a general medical unit or an intensive care unit (ICU).

"Even hospitals in the same city deliver respiratory care differently," says lead and corresponding author Laura C. Myers MD, MPH, of the MGH Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. "Some hospitals try to bring critical care resources to the general medical unit to avoid transferring patients - which can be disruptive to their care - while others centralize critically ill patients in the ICU. Our goal was to document the variation in practice and determine whether hospitals more likely to deliver non-invasive ventilation on the general medical unit have equivalent outcomes after adjusting for patients' severity of illness."

Non-invasive ventilation delivers respiratory support through a mask rather than through an endotracheal or tracheostomy tube. For their study, the investigators used data from 424 hospitals from the State Inpatient Database maintained by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. They selected 12 states - Arkansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Utah, Vermont and Washington - that provided information on whether a patient was treated in an ICU and analyzed data from 2014, before the imposition of penalties for COPD readmissions.

Of more than 5,000 patients receiving non-invasive ventilation whose data were analyzed, 48 percent were treated on a general medical unit, while 52 percent were treated in an ICU. While some hospitals delivered almost all non-invasive ventilation in the ICU, others delivered almost all of it on the general medical unit. As might be expected, when patients were treated on the general medical unit, costs per hospitalization were around $1,500 less. Patients in higher-ICU-utilizing hospitals also had a greater likelihood of receiving invasive monitoring, such as the placement of central/arterial lines, which could reflect the need to monitor key respiratory parameters and deliver life-saving medications. But there was little difference in the incidence of organ failure, which is a marker of severity of illness, between lower- and higher-ICU-utilizing hospitals. The difference in the average number of organ failures per patient between the lowest- and highest-ICU-utilizing hospitals was only 0.15, which is strikingly small, Myers notes.

She says, "We may be able to deliver safe and less costly respiratory care on the general medical unit, but we have to acknowledge the limitations of our data. It's not clear from this retrospective study whether patients who received the invasive monitoring - central/arterial lines - in the ICU actually needed it to achieve outcomes equivalent to those of patients on the general medical unit or whether that represented a lower threshold for intensive care specialists at some hospitals to do such procedures when patients are admitted to the ICU."

Further studies may reveal the reasons why hospitals have such variations in policies regarding the delivery of non-invasive ventilation. "Based on the data we analyzed, we cannot advocate for standardizing a single policy across all hospitals," says Myers. "Going forward, we'd like to use a qualitative approach to understand the range of hospitals' policies. Some hospitals have team 'huddles' prior to initiating non-invasive ventilation on a general medical unit, a practice we follow at MGH. Others require pulmonary consultation if patients do not improve within a certain time frame. Still others may have dedicated respiratory floors with specially trained respiratory nurses/therapists available. A network-based study may help us determine whether a specific method of care delivery is associated with better outcomes, which we could then test in a prospective trial."

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Co-authors of the Critical Care Medicine report are Paul Currier, MD, MGH Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine; and Mohammad Kamal Faridi, MPH, and Carlos Camargo Jr. MD, DrPH, MGH Department of Emergency Medicine. the study was supported by an MGH Innovation Grant and funds from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Massachusetts General Hospital, founded in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH Research Institute conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the nation, with an annual research budget of more than $925 million and major research centers in HIV/AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer, computational and integrative biology, cutaneous biology, genomic medicine, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, regenerative medicine, reproductive biology, systems biology, photomedicine and transplantation biology. The MGH topped the 2015 Nature Index list of health care organizations publishing in leading scientific journals and earned the prestigious 2015 Foster G. McGaw Prize for Excellence in Community Service. In August 2018 the MGH was once again named to the Honor Roll in the U.S. News & World Report list of "America's Best Hospitals."
Heavy-duty trucks, such as the 18-wheelers that transport many of the world's goods from farm or factory to market, are virtually all powered by diesel engines. They account for a significant portion of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, but little has been done so far to curb their climate-change-inducing exhaust.

Now, researchers at MIT have devised a new way of powering these trucks that could drastically curb pollution, increase efficiency, and reduce or even eliminate their net greenhouse gas emissions.

The concept involves using a plug-in hybrid engine system, in which the truck would be primarily powered by batteries, but with a spark ignition engine (instead of a diesel engine). That engine, which would allow the trucks to conveniently travel the same distances as today's conventional diesel trucks, would be a flex-fuel model that could run on pure gasoline, pure alcohol, or blends of these fuels.

While the ultimate goal would be to power trucks entirely with batteries, the researchers say, this flex-fuel hybrid option could provide a way for such trucks to gain early entry into the marketplace by overcoming concerns about limited range, cost, or the need for excessive battery weight to achieve longer range.

The new concept was developed by MIT Energy Initiative and Plasma Fusion and Science Center research scientist Daniel Cohn and principal research engineer Leslie Bromberg, who are presenting it at the annual SAE International conference on April 11.

"We've been working for a number of years on ways to make engines for cars and trucks cleaner and more efficient, and we've been particularly interested in what you can do with spark ignition [as opposed to the compression ignition used in diesels], because it's intrinsically much cleaner," Cohn says. Compared to a diesel engine vehicle, a gasoline-powered vehicle produces only a tenth as much nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollution, a major component of air pollution.

In addition, by using a flex-fuel configuration that allows it to run on gasoline, ethanol, methanol, or blends of these, such engines have the potential to emit far less greenhouse gas than pure gasoline engines do, and the incremental cost for the fuel flexibility is very small, Cohn and Bromberg say. If run on pure methanol or ethanol derived from renewable sources such as agricultural waste or municipal trash, the net greenhouse gas emissions could even be zero. "It's a way of making use of a low-greenhouse-gas fuel" when it's available, "but always having the option of running it with gasoline" to ensure maximum flexibility, Cohn says.

While Tesla Motors has announced it will be producing an all-electric heavy-duty truck, Cohn says, "we think that's going to be very challenging, because of the cost and weight of the batteries" needed to provide sufficient range. To meet the expected driving range of conventional diesel trucks, Cohn and Bromberg estimate, would require somewhere between 10 and 15 tons of batteries "That's a significant fraction of the payload" such a truck could otherwise carry, Cohn says.

To get around that, "we think that the way to enable the use of electricity in these vehicles is with a plug-in hybrid," he says. The engine they propose for such a hybrid is a version of one the two researchers have been working on for years, developing a highly efficient, flexible-fuel gasoline engine that would weigh far less, be more fuel-efficient, and produce a tenth as much air pollution as the best of today's diesel-powered vehicles.

Cohn and Bromberg did a detailed analysis of both the engineering and the economics of what would be needed to develop such an engine to meet the needs of existing truck operators. In order to match the efficiency of diesels, a mix of alcohol with the gasoline, or even pure alcohol, can be used, and this can be processed using renewable energy sources, they found. Detailed computer modeling of a whole range of desired engine characteristics, combined with screening of the results using an artificial intelligence system, yielded clear indications of the most promising pathways and showed that such substitutions are indeed practically and financially feasible.

In both the present diesel and the proposed flex-fuel vehicles, the emissions are measured at the tailpipe, after a variety of emissions-control systems have done their work in both cases, so the comparison is a realistic measure of real-world emissions. The combination of a hybrid drive and flex-fuel engine is "a way to enable the introduction of electric drive into the heavy truck sector, by making it possible to meet range and cost requirements, and doing it in a way that's clean," Cohn says.

Bromberg says that gasoline engines have become much more efficient and clean over the years, and the relative cost of diesel fuel has gone up, so that the cost advantages that led to the near-universal adoption of diesels for heavy trucking no longer prevail. "Over time, gas engines have become more and more efficient, and they have an inherent advantage in producing less air pollution," he says. And by using the engine in a hybrid system, it can always operate at its optimum speed, maximizing its efficiency.

Methane is an extremely potent greenhouse gas, so if it can be diverted to produce a useful fuel by converting it to methanol through a simple chemical process, "that's one of the most attractive ways to make a clean fuel," Bromberg says. "I think the alcohol fuels overall have a lot of promise."

Already, he points out, California has plans for new regulations on truck emissions that are very difficult to meet with diesel engine vehicles. "We think there's a significant rationale for trucking companies to go to gasoline or flexible fuel," Cohn says. "The engines are cheaper, exhaust treatment systems are cheaper, and it's a way to ensure that they can meet the expected regulations. And combining that with electric propulsion in a hybrid system, given an ever-cleaner electric grid, can further reduce emissions and pollution from the trucking sector."

Pure electric propulsion for trucks is the ultimate goal, but today's batteries don't make that a realistic option yet, Cohn says: "Batteries are great, but let's be realistic about what they can provide."

And the combination they propose can address two major challenges at once, they say. "We don't know which is going to be stronger, the desire to reduce greenhouse gases, or the desire to reduce air pollution." In the U.S., climate change may be the bigger push, while in India and China air pollution may be more urgent, but "this technology has value for both challenges," Cohn says.

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The research was supported by the MIT Arthur Samberg Energy Innovation Fund.

Related links

PAPER: "Flex fuel gasoline-alcohol engine for near zero-emissions plug-in hybrid long haul trucks." https://www.sae.org/publications/technical-papers/content/2019-01-0565/

ARCHIVE: Getting the world off dirty diesels Http://news.mit.edu/2018/mit-researchers-gas-alcohol-engine-getting-world-off-dirty-diesels-0613
[Points]

Development of batch 19-core optical amplifier in each of C and L band

715 Tb/s transmission of 345 wavelength channels with PDM-16QAM modulation over 2,009 km

Record throughput-distance product for link using SDM amplifier and largest data transmission of any long-haul transmission demonstration

The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT, President: Hideyuki Tokuda, Ph.D.) and Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. (Furukawa Electric, President: Keiichi Kobayashi) jointly report a record SDM transmission experiment using multi-core fiber amplifier. Furukawa Electric developed a 19-core Erbium-doped-fiber amplifier utilizing cladding-pumping technology in order to share electrical power between the large number of spatial channels. The amplifier was then integrated into NICT's state of the art transmission test bed of for a record transmission demonstration. Fully decoded optical data transmission of 715 Tb/s was achieved over a distance of 2,009 km using coded polarization division multiplexed (PDM) -16 quadrature-amplitude modulation (QAM) of 345 carriers over the C and L band in a re-circulating transmission loop.

Previously, short-distance, high-capacity transmission in high-core count EDFAs and long-distance transmission in a C-band 7-core amplifier was achieved. This demonstration showed high-core count cladding pumped EDFAs are suitable for high throughput transmission over 1,000s km in both C and L band.

The results of this demonstration(1) were selected for presentation as a post-deadline paper at the 2019 Optical Fiber Conference (OFC 2019), the world's largest event for optical communications research.

[Background]

Single mode, multi-core fibers (MCFs), multi-mode fiber, or a combination of both have been used in numerous high-capacity and long distance SDM transmission demonstrations(2). However, SDM technologies are also driven by the need for hardware integration and energy savings. As such, the successful development of SDM amplifiers is crucial for commercial realization of SDM technologies. In particular, large core-count cladding pumped multi-core erbium doped fiber amplifiers (MC-EDFAs) offer potential to integrate hardware(3) and significantly reduce the number of pump lasers respective to the number of spatial channels(4). Furthermore, such amplifiers are not only compatible with equivalent MCFs, but may also amplify several lower core-count MCFs, arrays of single-mode fibers or even signals from few-mode fibers. Previously large capacity was reached over short distances in a high-core count EDFA(5) and long distance transmission was achieved using a C-band 7-core amplifier(6). This demonstration showed high-core count cladding pumped EDFAs are suitable for high throughput transmission over 1,000s km in both C and L band, achieving the highest throughput-distance product of any SDM amplifier experiment of 1.44 Exb/s x km.

[Achievements]

The partners have performed a record data-throughput x distance experiment using an SDM amplifier. NICT constructed a recirculating transmission test-bed around the 19-core, cladding-pumped EDFA developed by Furukawa Electric.

The transmission system is made up from the following four main technologies.

19-core cladding pumped EDFA for C + L band transmission

19-core multi-core fiber and recirculating transmission set-up

An optical frequency comb light source generating 345 wavelength channels

PDM 16-QAM multi-level transmitter with 4 bit of data per symbol per wavelength

The amplifier was used to amplify signals in 19 cores simultaneously using two un-cooled multi-mode laser pumps per band. The combined pump power was 13.7 W and 43.5 W for the L-band and C-band EDFs respectively, equivalent to conversion efficiencies from electrical power of 40.3 % and 41.6 %.

[Future Prospects]

We are promoting R&D of innovative technology that achieves the early adoption of international standardization by industry-academia collaboration for establishing next-generation optical communication infrastructure technologies which can smoothly accommodate traffic for big data and 5G services. The results of this work were presented as a post deadline at the 2019 Optical Fiber Conference (OFC 2019), held in San Diego, USA from 3 to 7 March 2019.

###

[References]

(1) Ben Puttnam, Georg Rademacher, Ruben Luis, Tobias Eriksson, Werner Klaus, Yoshinari Awaji, Naoya Wada, Koichi Maeda, Shigehiro Takasaka and Ryuichi Sugizaki, '0.715 Pb/s Transmission over 2,009.6 km in 19-core cladding pumped EDFA amplified MCF link' In Proc. Optical Fiber Conference (OFC) 2019 paper Th4B.1

(2) T. Mizuno et al. "Dense Space Division Multiplexed Transmission Over Multicore and Multimode Fiber for Long-haul Transport Systems," J. Light. Technol. 34(6), pp. 1484-93, 2016

(3) J. Sakaguchi et al., "19-core MCF transmission system using EDFA with shared core pumping coupled in free-space optics" Opt. Exp., 22 (1), pp. 90-95, 2014

(4) S. Takasaka et al., "Increase of Cladding Pump Power Efficiency by a 19-Core Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier," In Proc. ECOC'17 pp TH.2.D

(5) T. Kobayashi et al., "1-Pb/s (32 SDM/46 WDM/768 Gb/s) C-band Dense SDM Transmission over 205.6-km of Single-mode Heterogeneous Multi-core Fiber using 96-Gbaud PDM-16QAM Channels," In Proc. OFC'17 pp. Th5B

(6) K. Igarashi et al., "Super-Nyquist-WDM transmission over 7,326-km seven-core fiber with capacity-distance product of 1.03 Exabit/s x km," Opt. Exp., 22(2), pp. 1220-28, 2014
Svalbard reindeer adapt to dramatic climate change in a way that may foreshadow the future for other arctic species

Think of reindeer on Norway's Svalbard archipelago as the arctic equivalent of sloths. It's not a perfect analogy except that like tropical sloths, Svalbard reindeer move as little as possible to conserve energy.

This, combined with the fact that they don't have any predators, allows them to stay in the same area year round, nibbling on the tiny grasses, herbs and sedges they can find.

When snow comes, they simply paw it away and keep nibbling. It's a lifestyle that has allowed Svalbard reindeer to persist over the millennia, long enough for them to adapt physiologically and evolve into a separate subspecies.

But over the last few decades, the warming climate has brought more rain and less snow in some winters. These rain-on-snow (ROS) events can cause ice to form on the ground. The ice coats the reindeer's preferred food and causes them to starve-- a potential catastrophe.

In a study just published in Nature Communications, researcher Brage Bremset Hansen, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics (CBD) and colleagues describe how they modeled the effects on reindeer population dynamics if icing becomes the norm, rather than an extreme event.

In other words, will climate change make Svalbard's reindeer go extinct?

"In the past, some rare icing events have been shown to cause population crashes," the researchers said. "An intuitive expectation would be to predict more population crashes and hence a greater extinction risk with continued warming."

But as is often the case with life, it wasn't that simple.

Decades of reindeer -- and rain -- data

To explore this question, the researchers relied on reindeer data collected each year since 1994 by their co-authors from the James Hutton Institute (UK), the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences.

During that time, reindeer calves were captured and marked each spring and re-sighted in August.

Using this information and a biological model called an Integrated Population Model, or IPM, the researchers created what amounts to a detailed picture of the Svalbard reindeer population --with annual population sizes, survival and reproduction rates for six female age classes.

They also used historical data on the yearly amount of ROS since 1962 to obtain what they called an icing, or "winter harshness" proxy, which allowed them to look at how ROS affects population dynamics.

Equipped with these tools, the researchers were able to make projections of how the reindeer population they studied would change given different future ROS scenarios.

Saved from oblivion by extremes?

When the researchers ran the models to see what would happen, they found that the reindeer population behaved in a counterintuitive way under future scenarios where conditions were harsher, meaning when the ROS frequency increased.

"If ROS conditions remain the same as observed in the past, the probability that the population goes extinct is actually much higher than under the likely future scenario of very high ROS frequencies," said Marlene Gamelon, a CBD researcher who was also the co-first author of the paper with Hansen.

The key, the researchers found, was that extremely harsh winters with ROS events could only cause a population crash if animal density was high, because that was when competition for food was great.

Even under these conditions, only the most vulnerable animals, the youngest and the oldest, die. Females, weakened by the lack of food, were less likely to have calves.

The entire population was not only smaller following a crash, with less competition for food, but was also composed of prime-aged animals, less vulnerable to subsequent ROS events.

If one bad winter with lots of icing followed almost right after the first, the researchers found it essentially had no effect on the population. The small, robust population hadn't aged that much and was not at risk of starvation.

"The interactions between climate effects, density and age structure explain why our study population did not crash in recent icy winters," the researchers said. "In other words, internal population restructuring modifies and buffers the effects from climate change." Several good years could lead to a crash

The model estimated that only after several good years in a row, the Svalbard reindeer population would have grown enough, with enough vulnerable young and old individuals, that a bad winter would cause the population to crash.

"One important message from our study, supported by past observations of this population, is that the impact of a harsh winter on the population is far less dramatic if it happens soon after a previous harsh winter," the researchers said.

Steve Albon, from the James Hutton Institute, initiated the Anglo-Norwegian reindeer study south of Longyearbyen 25 years ago.

"When we started our studies, rapid climate warming of the magnitude seen in recent decades was unimaginable," he said. "But without following hundreds of individual reindeer throughout their long lives we would never have acquired the data to understand their responses to the changing environment."

"Nonetheless, however detailed our data, without the novel population models that showed us the nuances of the likely consequences of continuing climate change, our predictions of the future population dynamics of this charismatic animal would be very likely wrong."

Finding may have relevance across the Arctic

And so, for this reindeer population, anyway, a series of icy winters one right after the other may not necessarily be such a bad thing.

"This study provides the first evidence that fluctuations in population size of long-lived species are actually dampened when extreme climate events become frequent," the researchers said.

They think that this kind of buffering by internal mechanisms is probably not specific to reindeer. Given that, "(it) should be considered when scientists predict the ecological effects of changes in climate, and especially changes in extreme events."

But as the researchers also point out, Svalbard is a "hotspot for winter climate change."

Other parts of the Arctic are lagging behind and will likely see more ROS events as global temperatures continue to rise, but as long as these extreme weather events still happen infrequently, that could cause populations to crash.

"These kinds of crashes are exactly what has been observed recently in some caribou and reindeer populations across the Arctic, but they are unlikely to reflect future population dynamics," Hansen said. "The more common these events, the less dramatic the fluctuations."

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Reference: More frequent extreme climate events stabilize reindeer population dynamics. Brage B. Hansen et al. Nature Communications 2019. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09332-5.
A New Jersey law requiring hospitals and nursing homes to publicly report the number of patients per nurse has led to better nurse staffing ratios, a Rutgers study found.

The study, in the journal Policy, Politics, & Nursing Practice, is the first to evaluate the effectiveness of the public reporting requirement. It found that since the law went into effect in 2008, the number of patients per nurse decreased in 10 of 13 specialty areas of care across New Jersey.

"Nurse staffing, particularly for registered nurses, has been shown to have a direct impact on patient outcomes, such as rates of infection, falls, heart attacks and even death. Insufficient nurse staffing also can affect a patient's length of stay in the hospital," said lead researcher Pamela de Cordova, an assistant professor at Rutgers School of Nursing. "By reporting and analyzing the data and ensuring that nurses are included in staffing discussions, patient outcomes can be improved."

The legislation requires hospitals to post detailed information about nurse staffing levels, including the number of patients assigned to each staff type, within sight of patients. Hospitals also must submit the information each month to the New Jersey Department of Health, which posts the information online.

New Jersey is one of only five states to require hospitals and nursing homes to report nurse staffing numbers. But de Cordova said many patients are likely unaware of the information or unable to interpret the staffing numbers. She recommends improvements in the data collection process, coupled with public outreach to inform patients and nurses.

"Publicly available, scientifically validated information can help patients become more informed and empowered when making decisions about their health care and where to obtain it," she said. "For nurses in New Jersey, being cognizant of this law can also empower them to choose to work in hospitals with the best staffing. Nurses can also become more knowledgeable about existing staffing policies and use that information to advocate for better quality of care for patients."

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A global study of the burden of kidney disease will be released at the World Congress of Nephrology on Friday, April 12. Developed by the International Society of Nephrology the Global Kidney Health Atlas (GKHA) will reveal the global burden of kidney disease and the impact social, economic and political factors have on access to treatment. More than 2 million people die every year worldwide because of little or no access to dialysis or kidney transplantation. An embargoed media release (embargo 2am Friday, April 12 Australian Eastern Standard Time) will be available from 00:01am Wednesday April 10.

Also, on Friday 12 April, the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) Global Kidney Policy Forum in Melbourne will be held to discuss the challenges of providing kidney health in the Oceania and South East Asian region where it's estimated that up to ten million people die every year from kidney disease.

The session, which will be attended by the world's experts in the field, will be closed to the media but an embargoed media release (embargo: 1 pm Friday, April 12 AEST) will be available from 00:01am Wednesday April 10.

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Shark and ray species commonly caught in the Mediterranean and Black seas are not being reported in official statistics, new research from the Sea Around Us initiative at the University of British Columbia shows.

A new study published in Marine Policy reveals that 97 per cent of the sharks and rays caught and brought to market domestically by fleets from the European, North African and Middle Eastern countries that surround these seas are not reported by species.

"The Mediterranean and Black Seas have historically harboured a high diversity and abundance of sharks and rays, but now between between 53 per cent and 71 per cent of them face an elevated risk of extinction," said Madeline Cashion, lead author of the study, who carried out the research at the Sea Around Us initiative at UBC's Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries.

By not keeping track of the different species of sharks and rays that they are bringing to port, countries may be further threatening those already at risk.

"Part of the problem is that many sharks and rays in the region are caught as bycatch in fisheries targeting other species and are brought to port either because there is a small market for them or because, by law, they cannot be thrown back at sea," Cashion said. "If neither fishers nor authorities keep detailed records of what is being caught, then it's very difficult to detect declines and design effective measures to protect threatened species."

Despite the lack of reporting, Cashion found in her research that sharks and rays have become increasingly rare following centuries of exploitation and the more recent expansion and intensification of fisheries in the Mediterranean, in particular of the non-European ones. In many cases, catch data is the only source of information to know if species still exist where they were historically found.

"The problem is that detailed catch data is hard to come by because species identification can be very tricky," Cashion said. "Good reporting relies on the financial and logistical support of governments and fisheries management organizations. Fishers can't be expected to take it on alone."

Given the threats posed by the fishing industry to at-risk sharks and rays due to the lack of specific information, the researchers call for a better implementation of existing data collection and reporting policies.

They also call for official statistics to start accounting for fish that are caught and thrown back into the ocean and those that are caught incidentally.

"To understand the real trends of shark and ray exploitation and abundance, we need to know what is discarded at sea because not all species survive after being pulled up by a net," said Daniel Pauly, co-author of the study and the Sea Around Us Principal Investigator. "For example, 98 per cent of scalloped hammerheads die but when it comes to thornback rays, only 2 per cent of them perish. We just need to know what is being caught."

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The study "Official catch data underrepresent shark and ray taxa caught in Mediterranean and Black Sea fisheries" was published in Marine Policy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2019.02.041
The findings of the new study, published on The Lancet's EClinicalMedicine, will now be incorporated by the NHS into the Saving Babies' Lives care advice information for pregnant women

RESEARCH spearheaded by a University of Huddersfield lecturer has shown that pregnant women can lower the risk of stillbirth by sleeping on their side and NOT on their back.

Now the finding forms part of official NHS guidance designed to bring about reductions in the number of babies who are stillborn in the UK - amounting to nine a day, or one in every 225 births.

Dr Tomasina Stacey is Reader of Midwifery Practice at the University. She carried out her doctoral research while based at Auckland University in New Zealand, investigating whether sleeping position was a factor in stillbirth. She concluded that the small proportion of pregnant women who sleep on their backs did run a higher risk, because the weight of the uterus can reduce blood flow to the baby.

Her findings from this initial exploratory study were described in an article published by the British Medical Journal. It was the first study to report maternal sleep-related practices as risk factors for stillbirth. It triggered further research, culminating in a large-scale international project that gathered data from New Zealand, the UK, Australia and the USA.

This study included 851 bereaved mothers and 2,257 women with ongoing pregnancy and has now resulted in a multi-authored article available in EClinicalMedicine, published by The Lancet.

The chief finding is that going to sleep lying on the back from 28 weeks of pregnancy increased the risk of stillbirth by 2.6 times. This heightened risk occurred regardless of the other known risk factors for stillbirth.

The UK charity Tommy's, which funds research into miscarriage, stillbirth and premature birth, has included Dr Stacey's findings about sleep position in its advice to pregnant women. And now the NHS has incorporated them in its Saving Babies' Lives care bundle - a dossier of advice issued as part of a push to halve the rate of stillbirths in the UK.

The care bundle states: "In later pregnancy (after 28 weeks), it is safer to go to sleep on your side than on your back". It advises practitioners to "encourage women to settle on their side when they go to sleep or have a day-time nap, rather than on their back. A woman who wakes up on her back shouldn't worry, but should settle to sleep again her side".

Sleeping position remains an important strand of Dr Stacey's research. It originated when she and a team at the University of Auckland - including her PhD supervisor Professor Lesley McCowan - were investigating the relatively high rates of stillbirth in New Zealand.

"We decided to look at a range of modifiable risk factors and this was one of them," said Dr Stacey.

"The next phase is to ensure that there is consistent advice from healthcare professionals and we will be looking to see if there are ways of helping to support women to sleep in the side position.

"Only a small proportion of women will be affected," continued Dr Stacey. "But the studies that we did following the first findings suggested that women were quite happy to change their going to sleep position if it was better for their babies."

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Professor Thomas Muller and Professor Hans Briegel have been carrying out research on a machine learning model for several years. Their model differs significantly from alternative artificial intelligence (AI) learning models. The philosopher from Konstanz and the theoretical physicist from the University of Innsbruck integrate methods of philosophical action theory and quantum optics. Their "Projective Simulation" learning model has already been successfully applied in basic research. Together with the Innsbruck physicist Dr Katja Ried, the researchers have now adapted this AI model for realistic application to biological systems. The current issue of the scientific journal PLoS One discusses how the learning model can be used to model and reproduce locusts' specific swarming behaviour.

Demand for models that are "closer to biology"

To carry out their interdisciplinary collaborative research, the scientists utilized data on locust behaviour from the Cluster of Excellence "Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour" in Konstanz, which carries out internationally leading research on collective behaviour and is being funded through the German Excellence Strategy since the beginning of 2019. Biologists in particular are demanding that models explaining collective behaviour be designed to be "closer to biology". Most current models were devised by physicists who assume that interacting individuals are influenced by a physical force. As a result, they don't necessarily perceive individuals within swarms to be agents, but instead, as points such as interacting magnetization units on a grid. "The models work well in physics and have a good empirical basis there. However, they do not model the interaction between living individuals," says Thomas Muller.

AI rules allow agents to learn

"Projective Simulation" is a learning model originally developed by Hans Briegel and is based on agents who do not react to events in a pre-programmed fashion. Instead, they are capable of learning. These "learning agents" are coded as individuals with different behavioural dispositions who interact with their environment by perceiving and reacting to sensory input. For this purpose, they follow AI rules that allow them to use their previous individual experiences to adjust their actions.

On the one hand, this learning process involves quantum physics-based random processes during which all potential courses of action are considered. On the other hand, the action theoretical principle of reinforcement learning comes into play, which is based on rewarding certain outcomes. "We give a reward if the agent moves with the others in a well-ordered manner. In time, an agent realizes: when perceiving certain things, it is better to react in a way that will lead to a reward. We do not preset the right course of action in a particular situation, but we do ensure that it is achieved through the interaction between the agents," explains Thomas Muller.

Learning model can reproduce collective behaviour

Thomas Muller, Katja Ried and Hans Briegel, who currently holds a three-year visiting professorship at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Konstanz, have applied this learning model to a locust's specific and well-researched swarming behaviour. In a confined space, the insect's movement behaviour corresponds to the size of the swarm. If there are only a few individuals, the locusts move in a disordered fashion. In larger numbers, they move together as a unit. In very large numbers, they move as a unit and in the same direction. Since the researchers were initially interested in simply testing their learning model, they utilized a qualitative description of the locusts' behaviour in place of raw data. In this way, they were, in fact, able to qualitatively reproduce the locusts' behaviour.

Looking ahead, Thomas Muller believes that future research in this area will benefit from large data sets on animals, such as schools of fish with their dynamic behavioural patterns. "Modelling fish would probably be a good but also very complicated next step in making our learning model even more realistic," concludes Muller.

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Facts:

Katja Ried, Thomas Muller, Hans J. Briegel: Modelling collective motion based on the principle of agency: General framework and the case of marching locusts. February 20, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0212044

The "Projective Simulation" learning model was successfully tested on locust data

Interdisciplinary research collaboration between the theoretical physicists Professor Hans Briegel and Dr Katja Ried at the University of Innsbruck and the philosopher Professor Thomas Muller at the University of Konstanz

Funded in part through a so-called "XXX-Gastprofessur" (XXX visiting professorship) for three years by the State of Baden-Wurttemberg

Note to editors:

You can download a photo here:

https://cms.uni-konstanz.de/fileadmin/pi/fileserver/2019/Bilder/mit_kuenstlicher_intelligenz.jpg

Caption: Professor Thomas Muller

Copyright: Ulrike Sommer

Contact

University of Konstanz

Communications and Marketing

Phone: + 49 7531 88-3603

E-Mail: kum@uni-konstanz.de

- uni.kn
Researchers from Penn and Harvard are the first to make archaeological use of U2 spy plane imagery, and have created a tool that allows other researchers to identify and access the Cold War-era photos

In the 1950s and early '60s, with the Cold War at its peak, the United States flew U2 spy planes across Europe, the Middle East, and central eastern Asia, taking images of interesting military targets. Though the missions typically connected Point A to Point B, say an air field and an important city, in many cases the camera kept recording between those spots, capturing thousands of photos of the desert, steppes, fields, and villages below.

Such a collection can represent a goldmine for landscape archaeologists like Emily Hammer of the University of Pennsylvania and Jason Ur of Harvard University. But for decades, all film and documents from these missions--code-named CHESS by the U.S. government--remained classified. And even when they became public in 1997, they weren't indexed or scanned.

Until now, the majority of this kind of historical aerial documentation came from the CORONA spy satellite program, which the U.S. ran between 1959 and 1972. But only the highest-resolution CORONA images, taken during the program's final five years, are useful for most archaeological purposes. The U2 photos are earlier and a higher resolution than even the best CORONA images, offering the chance to see historical features undecipherable by CORONA or already gone by the time of those missions.

Knowing the potential insight offered by the U2 images, Hammer and Ur began sifting through the materials. By analyzing thousands of high- and low-resolution frames, they discovered many historical and archeological features, including prehistoric hunting traps, 3,000-year-old irrigation canals, and 60-year-old marsh villages no longer visible today. The work, which they published in the journal Advances in Archaeological Practice, represents the first archaeological use of U2 spy plane imagery--and a new and exciting window into history.

"The photos provide a fascinating look at the Middle East several decades ago, showing, for example, historical Aleppo long before the massive destruction wrought in the ongoing civil war," says Hammer, an assistant professor in Penn's Near Eastern languages and civilizations department. "Plus, the work and the accompanying online resources will allow other researchers to identify and access U2 photos for the first time."

Hammer and Ur have both conducted research in the Middle East for decades, in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. They've also both used CORONA spy satellite imagery extensively. However, many of those image sets didn't date back as far as Hammer wished they would. "We knew that U2 spy planes must have taken thousands of images across large parts of the Middle East, but there was no easy way to access or reproduce the film negatives," she says.

A chance encounter with Lin Xu, a researcher who had retrieved U2 images of his hometown in China, led Hammer and Ur to press on. "Seeing the amazing quality of those archival photos," Hammer says, "we knew that it would be worth the detective work it would take to build a systematic index of them."

It wasn't an easy process. Ahead of time, they had to select the film rolls they wanted moved from the National Archives' storage center in Kansas to the aerial film section in Maryland. Once there, the researchers unspooled hundreds of feet of film over a light table to identify pertinent frames, then photographed the negatives in pieces using a 100-millimeter macro lens. Later, they stitched together and adjusted each frame, before geo-referencing the photos using GIS software to match up images with coordinates of real-world places.

Despite the tedium of some of the individual tasks, the process excited Hammer. "As you turn the spool of a film roll following the path of the U2 plane, you may not know exactly what you'll see in unfamiliar places, so there's often a sense of exploration and discovery," she says. "Other times, the pilots were flying over regions I knew by heart from travel and study, and I would almost hold my breath, hoping that the plane had veered just a little to the right or left."

The hours of work paid off, revealing many important archaeological features, including prehistoric hunting traps called desert kites in eastern Jordan, an Assyrian canal system in northern Iraq, and marshes in southern Iraq, case studies the researchers highlighted in their paper.

Desert kites, stone-wall structures that date back 5,000 to 8,000 years, were used to trap gazelle and other similar animals. The dry desert of eastern Jordan preserved many of them, but agricultural expansion in western Jordan dismantled or destroyed many more. The satellite images bring them back to life, showcasing a web of diamond-shaped enclosures with what look like long kite tails, offering the best view, to date, of these important hunting tools.

The second feature, the canal system in northern Iraq, provides insight into how an early empire maintained its power and governed, Hammer explains. "The Assyrians built the first large, long-lasting, multi-cultural empire of the ancient world, so many people are interested in how they organized territory, controlled people, built their huge cities, and managed the land," she says. "The irrigation system fed the royal capitals, made agricultural surplus production possible, and provided water to villages."

Finally, the U2 images of southern Iraq present the layout, size, and environmental position of Marsh Arab communities in the late 1950s and early 1960s, many of which disappeared after massive hydroelectric dams in Turkey, Syria, and Iraq impounded the rivers, and especially after the government of Saddam Hussein deliberately drained the marshes. Before that, "people lived a unique lifestyle there for thousands of years, herding water buffalo, building houses and all manner of things out of reeds, living on floating islands of reeds, planting date palms, and fishing," Hammer says. "Now we can study the spatial organization, demography, and lifestyles of these communities."

Though the three archaeological features represent different historical time scales, going back thousands of years or just decades, they all demonstrate how humans are changing the natural landscape, often in ways visible only from a 70,000-foot view.

Aerial images like those from the U2 spy missions allow archaeologists like Hammer and Ur to travel back in time. "The activities of ancient human communities frequently left large-scale traces on the landscape," Hammer says. "You can't see these patterns when you're standing on top of them, but just like stepping back from the blobs of paint on an Impressionist painting reveals the full picture, aerial and satellite imagery allow the patterns to emerge."

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Emily Hammer is an assistant professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations in the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also in the Anthropology and Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World graduate groups and is part of the Price Lab for Digital Humanities.

Jason Ur is a professor of anthropology in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University and director of its Center for Geographic Analysis.
Japan has an increasing percentage of young adults with no history of heterosexual vaginal intercourse. Public health experts at the University of Tokyo completed the most detailed analysis of national fertility survey data to date to understand trends in sexual experience over the past three decades.

"Previous news reports about virginity rates among Japanese young adults were a bit sensationalist, only included never-married individuals, and did not distinguish virginity rates by age group," said Dr. Peter Ueda, an expert in epidemiology and public health and leader of the research project.

The new analysis presented estimates for the whole Japanese population, more clearly defined the age and socioeconomic status of people who have never had heterosexual intercourse and compared trends over time.

Heterosexual inexperience in women aged 18 to 39 years old increased from 21.7 percent in 1992 to 24.6 percent in 2015. The respective numbers for men were 20 percent and 25.8 percent. When the numbers are broken down to smaller age ranges, the trend towards increased virginity rates is observed even among adults in their 30s.

For people between 30 to 34 years old in 1987, 6.2 percent of women and 8.8 percent of men reported no heterosexual experience. In 2015, the numbers jumped to 11.9 percent of women and 12.7 percent of men.

For people between 35 to 39 years old in 1992, only 4 percent of women and 5.5 percent of men reported no heterosexual experience. In 2015, the numbers jumped to 8.9 percent for women and 9.5 percent for men.

The data were collected by the National Fertility Survey of Japan, designed and implemented approximately every five years by the Japanese National Institute of Population and Social Security Research. The researchers used data from seven surveys conducted between 1987 and 2015, each including between 11,553 and 17,859 adults aged 18 to 39 years old.

Sex and money

Men were more likely to have had intercourse if they had permanent, full-time employment and lived in cities with more than 1 million inhabitants. Compared to those with the highest incomes, men in the lowest income categories were 10 to 20 times more likely to have no heterosexual experience.

"Although the discussion around cause and effect becomes very complex when considering who becomes sexually experienced and who remains a virgin, we show that heterosexual inexperience is at least partly a socioeconomic issue for men. Simply put, money talks," said Cyrus Ghaznavi, first author of the study.

Women were more likely to have had intercourse if they had lower personal incomes, which researchers speculate may be because married women are more likely to have had sex and be full-time homemakers without a salary.

Japan leading global trends

Japanese adults are having their first heterosexual experiences later than their counterparts in other countries, and a substantially larger proportion remain inexperienced into their 30s.

In comparable surveys from the U.K., U.S. and Australia, rates of heterosexual inexperience are around 1 to 5 percent in adults in or around their 30s. Survey data from other high-income countries indicate that sexual inactivity among young adults might be increasing, so Japan might be leading the global trend of sexual inactivity.

"Sexual inactivity or inexperience, whether voluntary or not, should not be exoticized, ridiculed, or necessarily considered a concern for everyone. More research is needed on reasons for sexual inactivity and how mating market dynamics might be evolving due to online dating, shifting expectations in romantic and sexual relationships, and changing values, lifestyles, and labor market trends," said Ueda.

No data on same-sex experience

The survey asks about sexual experience with someone of the opposite sex using a Japanese word that implies vaginal intercourse (seikosho), but it does not explicitly define different types of sex, as is common in similar surveys used in other countries.

The researchers assumed all married adults have had sex. Japan does not yet have marriage equality for same-sex couples. The survey asks no questions about same-sex sexual experience.

When the researchers made estimations to account for people who report no heterosexual intercourse but may have had same-sex intercourse, around 5 percent of people, or one in 20, aged 30 to 39 years old would still lack sexual experience.

Experienced but inactive

Relevant to the national fertility rate and public health implications but not investigated by the survey are people who have had intercourse in the past, but have since become sexually inactive.

"The most informative aspect of sexual inactivity involves those who have opted out of or are, for some reason they cannot control, excluded from the mating market, regardless of their previous sexual experience. We'd like to investigate those dynamics in future work," said Ghaznavi.

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Research Paper

Cyrus Ghaznavi, Haruka Sakamoto, Daisuke Yoneoka, Shuhei Nomura, Kenji Shibuya, Peter Ueda. 2019. Trends in heterosexual inexperience among young adults in Japan: analysis of national surveys, 1987-2015. BMC Public Health. DOI: 10.1186/s12889-019-6677-5

Related Links

Department of Global Health Policy: http://www.ghp.m.u-tokyo.ac.jp/

Graduate School of Medicine: http://www.m.u-tokyo.ac.jp/english/

Professor Kenji Shibuya webpage: http://www.ghp.m.u-tokyo.ac.jp/profile/staff/kshibuya/

Research Contact

Dr. Peter Ueda, M.D., Ph.D.

Department of Global Health Policy, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, JAPAN

Tel: +46-720-129-076

Email: peter.ueda@gmail.com

Dr. Peter Ueda is available for interview in English and Japanese via telephone or e-mail.

Press Contacts

Ms. Caitlin Devor

Division for Strategic Public Relations, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8654, JAPAN

Tel: +81-(0)3-5841-0876

Email: press-releases.adm@gs.mail.u-tokyo.ac.jp

About the University of Tokyo

The University of Tokyo is Japan's leading university and one of the world's top research universities. The vast research output of some 6,000 researchers is published in the world's top journals across the arts and sciences. Our vibrant student body of around 15,000 undergraduate and 15,000 graduate students includes over 2,000 international students. Find out more at http://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/ or follow us on Twitter at @UTokyo_News_en
Pet cats can recognize their own names if their names are used regularly by their owners, according to new results by a team of researchers in Japan.

The research was performed largely within the lab of Professor Toshikazu Hasegawa from the University of Tokyo with Atsuko Saito, Ph.D., first author of the research paper. Saito is now an associate professor at Sophia University in Tokyo.

Evolution of social cats

This is the first project to study cats' ability to understand human voices. Other research projects have discovered that apes, dolphins, parrots, and dogs can understand some words spoken by humans.

Saito speculates that mammals like dolphins and apes are naturally social animals and are therefore more inclined to interact with humans and respond to human cues.

"In comparison to those other species, cats are not so social. Cats interact with us when they want," said Saito.

Projects to understand simple social behaviors like name recognition in cats may give clues to how we humans became social. Both humans and cats have evolved through the process of self-domestication, where the population rewards certain traits that then become increasingly common in future generations.

"There may be a common feature in the evolutionary process of sociality between humans and cats. Since cats are still evolving to become more domesticated, there is a possibility that we can see the process of evolution of sociality by investigating the social cognition in cats," said Saito.

What's in a name?

To test if a cat recognized its name, researchers tested the name against other similar-sounding nouns. For example, a cat named Kari would also hear recordings of the words hifu (skin) and shuto (capital city).

Researchers played recordings of their own voices and the cat's owner's voice saying five words: the first four words were the similar-sounding nouns and the final, fifth word was the cat's name.

Researchers decided that cats responded to their name if they ignored recordings of other words, but moved their ears or heads when they heard their name. Cats rarely responded more enthusiastically, for example by moving their tails or bodies or by using their voice.

Cats who showed habituated weak responses to other similar-sounding nouns or the names of other cohabiting cats were significantly more likely to show strong responses to their own names.

Researchers state that a cat that did not respond to its name may still be able to recognize its name.

"Their lack of response may be caused by their low motivation level to interact with humans, or their feelings at the time of the experiment," said Saito.

Saito offers simple advice to any cat owners wishing to increase their communication with their cat: "Please interact with your cat when she shows that she wants to interact with you."

Single or many cats?

Researchers also tested if cats can distinguish between their own names and those of other cohabitating cats. Cats living in homes were more likely than cats living in a cat cafe to distinguish between their own names and the names of cohabitating cats.

Cat cafes are businesses where people pay for a drink and to interact with the many cats who live in the cafe.

Researchers suspect that owners use their cats' names specifically at home, whereas cat cafe visitors may use the cats' names interchangeably.

About the research

Researchers analyzed data from 77 different cats in the research project, which was broken into four separate experiments performed over three years.

Cats studied in the research were between six months to 17 years old, a mix of male and female, and were mostly mixed breeds. Most cats were spayed/neutered and all but one were indoor-only cats.

About the researchers

Professor Toshikazu Hasegawa is now retired from the University of Tokyo.

Research scientist Kazutaka Shinozuka, Ph.D., from the RIKEN Center for Brain Science also contributed to this research.

Background Information

According to previous research, cats can distinguish between their owner's voice and a stranger's voice, can follow a person's pointing finger to find hidden food, and may change their behavior depending on their owner's facial expressions.

Well-trained dogs can differentiate between 200 to 1,000 human words or labels.

Worldwide, over 600 million cats live with humans. Japan has 9.5 million pet cats and 8.9 million pet dogs.

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Journal Article

Atsuko Saito, Kazutaka Shinozuka, Yuki Ito, Toshikazu Hasegawa. 2019. Domestic cats (Felis catus) discriminate their names from other words. Scientific Reports. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-40616-4 http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/s41598-019-40616-4

Related Links

Hasegawa laboratory (Japanese only): http://beep.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/

Atsuko Saito laboratory (Japanese only): https://sites.google.com/view/atsukosaito/

2013 Dog research: https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/focus/en/articles/a_00186.html

2013 Cat research: https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/focus/en/articles/a_00138.html

Research Contact

Atsuko Saito

Department of Psychology, Faculty of Human Sciences, Sophia University, 7-1 Kioicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan

Tel: +81-(0)3-3238-3810

Email: atsaito@sophia.ac.jp

Press Contact

Ms. Caitlin Devor

Division for Strategic Public Relations, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8654, JAPAN

Tel: +81-3-5841-0876

Email: press-releases.adm@gs.mail.u-tokyo.ac.jp

About the University of Tokyo

The University of Tokyo is Japan's leading university and one of the world's top research universities. The vast research output of some 6,000 researchers is published in the world's top journals across the arts and sciences. Our vibrant student body of around 15,000 undergraduate and 15,000 graduate students includes over 2,000 international students. Find out more at http://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/ or follow us on Twitter at @UTokyo_News_en.
A new preclinical study from University of Texas at Dallas researchers may help explain why migraine is three times more common in women than men.

In research published online April 8 in the Journal of Neuroscience, a protein implicated in the development of migraine symptoms caused pain responses in female rodents, but not in males, when introduced into the meninges, the protective tissue layers surrounding the brain.

Most previous preclinical investigations of migraine and the protein, called calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), used only male animals, leaving the question of neurobiological sex differences unanswered, said Dr. Greg Dussor, the corresponding author of the study and an associate professor of neuroscience in the UT Dallas School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

"This is the first study to show that CGRP might act differently between sexes," said Dussor, Fellow, Eugene McDermott Professor. "It also shows that CGRP can have a pain-related effect in the meninges, which is something that has been questioned in the literature previously."

Migraine -- a condition defined by severe periodic headaches often accompanied by nausea, vision disturbances and light or sound sensitivity -- is the most common neurological disorder worldwide and the second-leading cause of disability. Despite CGRP's well-established role in migraine, it is unknown where in the body it contributes to the condition.

"We already know CGRP has a prominent role in migraine. It's been investigated for more than 30 years," Dussor said. "CGRP is produced both in the central nervous system -- the brain and spinal cord -- and in the peripheral nervous system, which goes everywhere else, including the meninges. But it can't move between the two; it's too large to cross the blood-brain barrier that shields the central nervous system."

The neurons that innervate the meninges signal the pain of a headache. However, because of the full range of symptoms and phases involved in migraine, the condition is believed to start in the brain.

The experiment involved injecting small doses of CGRP into the dura mater, the outermost layer of the meninges. Only the female animals experienced headache symptoms. The researchers observed a similar pain response in the female animals' paws when injected there.

"That response shows that females may be more sensitive to CGRP throughout the body, not just the meninges," Dussor said. "But we don't know what that means for other types of pain yet."

The reasons for migraine's prevalence in females are likely complex. Because the male rodents were unaffected by introducing CGRP into the meninges, Dussor said the study does suggest that CGRP-based signaling from the meninges may contribute to the female-biased nature of this disorder.

In the wake of CGRP gaining more attention in migraine prevention research, the Food and Drug Administration has recently approved three therapeutic drugs that block the protein.

"Although CGRP plays a clear role in migraine, this does not imply that migraine is exclusively a CGRP-based disorder," Dussor said. "This is just the beginning of demonstrations showing that CGRP might act differently in women."

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The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health. Additional authors from UT Dallas include Dr. Ted Price BS'97, Eugene McDermott Professor of neuroscience; Dr. Michael Burton, assistant professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences; Dr. Carolina Burgos-Vega, a research assistant who earned her PhD from UT Dallas in 2017; and Amanda Avona MS'18, a doctoral student in neuroscience. Dr. Armen Akopian, associate professor of endodontics at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, also contributed to the research.
Researchers awarded up to $35 million by NIH to develop and test vaccines and post-infection treatments

GALVESTON, Texas -- The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Profectus Biosciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Mapp Biopharmaceutical and Genevant Sciences Corp. have been awarded up to $35 million to advance the development of rapid-acting vaccines and broad-spectrum treatments of the highly-lethal hemorrhagic fever viruses Ebola and Marburg.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services considers both Ebola and Marburg to be Tier 1 pathogens, meaning they are agents with the highest risk of being deliberately misused by bioterrorists to cause mass casualties and produce devastating effects to the economy, critical infrastructure and public confidence. The unprecedented 2013-16 epidemic of Ebola in West Africa resulting in over 28,000 cases and 11,000 deaths demonstrated the ability of filoviruses to emerge in new regions.

The recent award, to Dr. Thomas Geisbert, a professor in UTMB's department of microbiology and immunology and a member of the Institute for Human Infections and Immunity, is to continue a highly successful collaborative Center of Excellence for Translational Research supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health. The grant funds will be distributed over five years.

Geisbert is an internationally recognized virologist, with more than 29 years of hands-on experience performing BSL-4 studies, which require the highest level of biosafety containment.

There are no vaccines or treatments approved for human use against filoviruses, and infection causes high mortality rates that range between 50 and 90 percent.

The researchers will continue to develop and test new vaccines and broad spectrum treatments to address this critical problem.

"We are very excited about this new grant that focuses on developing a rapid acting vaccine as well as combining several of the most promising post-exposure treatments that have shown the ability to completely protect animals against these deadly viruses," said Geisbert. "We are very grateful for the support we have received from NIAID/NIH and look forward to working with them and with our corporate partners to further develop these most promising interventions for human use."

Geisbert will collaborate with John H. Eldridge of Profectus Biosciences, James E. Crowe Jr. of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Larry Zeitlin of Mapp Biopharmaceutical, Inc., James Heyes of Genevant Sciences Corp., and with Alexander Bukreyev of UTMB.

"Naturally occurring human monoclonal antibodies isolated from the white blood cells of survivors are exciting molecules for prevention and treatment of filovirus infections," said Crowe, who directs the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center. "The antibodies can be used as biological drugs, and they also reveal the protective portions of the viral antigens that can be targeted by rational vaccines."

The CETR will conduct three interdependent research projects, supported by the Galveston National Laboratory at UTMB. The GNL has been operational for 10 years and serves as an important resource in the global fight against infectious diseases.

"We look forward to determining the onset of protection provided by our vaccines," said Eldridge, chief science officer of Profectus' vaccine division. "Ebola and Marburg are both highly pathogenic, rapidly progressing infections with narrow windows for intervention."

"RNAi is a powerful tool in the fight against filoviruses and infectious disease, and Genevant's nucleic acid delivery platforms help unlock its full potential. We look forward to a productive collaborative effort with UTMB and the other exciting technologies involved." Said Heyes, senior vice president for technology development at Genevant.

All the investigators are involved with a variety of patents related to the development of countermeasures against infectious diseases.

The grant awarded to Geisbert is NIH Award No. U19AI142785.

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ABOUT UTMB: Texas' first academic health center opened its doors in 1891 and today has four campuses, four health sciences schools, four institutes for advanced study, a research enterprise that includes one of only two national laboratories dedicated to the safe study of infectious threats to human health, a Level 1 Trauma Center and a health system offering a full range of primary and specialized medical services throughout the Texas Gulf Coast region. UTMB is a part of the University of Texas System and a member of the Texas Medical Center.

ABOUT VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) is one of the nation's leading academic medical centers and is the largest comprehensive health system in Tennessee. Its core missions are the delivery of patient care, performing biomedical research and training future leaders in health care.

ABOUT MAPP BIOPHARMACEUTICAL, INC.: MappBio was founded in 2003 to develop novel monoclonal antibody-based pharmaceuticals for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, focusing on unmet needs in global health and biodefense.

ABOUT PROFECTUS BIOSCIENCES, INC.: About Profectus BioSciences, Inc. Profectus BioSciences, Inc. is a clinical-stage vaccine platform company developing novel vaccines for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases and associated cancers. Profectus' vaccines are based on the company's proprietary vaccine delivery platforms to provide protection against emerging infectious diseases of public health and biodefense importance such as Ebola, Marburg, Chikungunya, Zika, the equine encephalitis viruses, and respiratory syncytial virus; and therapeutically targeting virally infected cells and cancers associated with hepatitis B virus (HBV), human papilloma virus (HPV), herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). For more information, please visit http://www.profectusbiosciences.com.

ABOUT GENEVANT SCIENCES CORP.: At Genevant, we aim to deliver innovative and meaningful therapies that improve the lives of people through our diverse pipeline of nucleic acid-based medicines. By pursuing a multiple modality "pan-RNA" approach to drug discovery and development, we are well-positioned to select and advance the best therapeutic approach for each disease area. Our rapidly growing pipeline is founded on our proprietary ligand conjugate platform and best-in-class lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery technology, which enabled the first RNAi product approval. Through our own internal development programs and strategic partnerships, we are committed to transforming the future of human health.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is responsible for tracking hate crimes across the country, but the data are notoriously unreliable. Despite the FBI recording an all-time high in hate-motivated incidents in 2017 (the most recent year's statistics available) the number is likely much higher. Low reporting from victims to police and inconsistent reporting from police to federal authorities have created a massive gap in how we understand hate in America.

Researchers from the University of Utah want to fill that gap with an app.

Emily Nicolosi, researcher, and Richard Medina, professor of geography, along with the DIGIT Lab developed an app that allows people to report incidents of hate. The first of its kind, the app accepts reports beyond crimes captured in police records. Users from around the country can document all incident types, from derogatory epithets written in bathrooms to slurs yelled from a car window in addition to violent assaults.

"The major problem we're dealing with is that hate crimes are so underreported, not only to police, but from police to the federal government," said Nicolosi. "There are cases when it can be difficult to report hate to the police, especially for undocumented people. We're hoping that this could be a space where people feel comfortable."

The researchers and the DIGIT lab are housed in the Department of Geography at the U. The app, called the Hate Incident Reporting System, is currently available on Google Play and should be available on Apple's App Store shortly.

"We decided to create this while we were doing research on hate crimes. The overall quality and completeness of available data is terrible," said Medina. The FBI defines a hate crime as "a criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender or gender identity."

"This is about research. We have no motivation to be biased. We'd like to see it used nationally to get better hate incident statistics, and to understand why, how, and where people are active in hateful incidents, and how that offends or hurts people," said Medina.

How it works

The app's mission statement reads:

"Our interest in hate incidents goes beyond criminal actions and seeks to gain knowledge of all forms of hate, including constitutionally-protected hate speech. By collecting reports of all hateful actions, we hope to generate a better understanding of hate, so that it might be more effectively addressed at local, regional and national levels."

All reporting is confidential--any data used for research purposes is anonymized and the Institutional Review Board has approved their methods. The app askes for a location the incident occurred and includes an option to add a photo or video. Users then classify the incident out of multiple types of bias: religion, disability, gender, identity, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and other.

Then the user chooses the category from propaganda, property damage, verbal, violent Propaganda could include something like posters on college campuses, and verbal could be someone yelling a homophobic slur.

"These things are more fleeting, and can be easily captured by the quick use of the app," said Nicolosi. "It will hopefully make people feel like they have a voice to report hate somewhere, feel like their being heard. They'll know that we're adding it to our research effort and are looking for solutions."

The app is still in the pilot stage. As more people use it, they'll make modifications and eventually scale it up. The researchers acknowledge that false reporting is possible, however there are safeguards. Photos and videos provide some proof, and a big event can spark multiple reports.

The app also provides definitions and links to resources.

Filling the massive data gap

Two federal agencies track and report on hate crime incidents, victims, offenses and perpetrators; the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program receives data from crimes pursued by local law enforcement agencies, and the Bureau of Justice Statistics National Criminal Victimization Survey (NCVS) collects both reported and unreported to police. However, the two sources have wildly different statistics--the NCVS reported that there are about 250,000 hate crime victims per year, while the UCR data estimated just over 8,800 victims in 2017. The NCVS found that more than half of all hate crimes were not reported to the police.

One issue is that local, state, university and tribal law enforcement agencies are not required to report hate crimes to the FBI database. Additionally, states have varying definitions for which groups can be victims of hate. For example, some states exclude bias against sexual orientation. For years Utah's hate crime law listed no specific groups at all, making it nearly impossible for prosecutors to charge an incident as one motivated by hate. This year, both chambers of Utah's state legislature passed a bill that would define protected groups and allow judges to increase penalties for perpetrators of hate-motivated crimes.

The app will not only benefit hate crime research, but could also catch alarming patterns that signal violence.

"We want to catch trends before anything violent happens, these types of things come in waves. If we see spikes in activity, then we might be able to prepare for any bigger violent issues," said Medina. "We're not profiting off of this. We're doing this for the public. We're going to communicate what's happening in your community."

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Wyss Center, Geneva, Switzerland - A new paper published in Nature Reviews Neurology suggests that recent advances in deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson disease could lead to treatments for conditions such as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), Gilles de la Tourette syndrome and depression. The authors of the paper, from the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG), University of Geneva, University of Tubingen and the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering, argue that bi-directional electrodes which can both stimulate and record from deep brain structures - known as closed-loop DBS - could have applications beyond Parkinson disease.

Other bi-directional brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have been in development in recent years, notably for the real-time signal processing of neuronal activity to allow control of a robotic arm directly from the brain in people with paralysis.

Professor John Donoghue, Director of the Wyss Center: "Interestingly the fields of brain-computer interfaces for movement restoration and deep brain stimulation for Parkinson disease have developed largely independently. Deep brain stimulation researchers tend to be neurologists or neurosurgeons while brain-computer interface researchers are often neuroscientists, roboticists and engineers. By working together and sharing information we can learn from each other and potentially expand the reach of this technology so that it can help more people."

DBS is typically used to relieve the shaking and rigidity associated with Parkinson disease. Although it has been tried in more than 40 other brain targets, very few other disease indications for the treatment have been established. The latest closed-loop DBS systems sense changes in the brain following stimulation and automatically adapt the level of the next stimulating pulse accordingly. This adjustment in the way that stimulation is delivered allows for tailored, accurate treatment that may prove suitable for other disorders.

Other areas that might benefit from closed-loop DBS include OCD - although early trials indicate that there may be a time delay before improvements are seen, Gilles de la Tourette syndrome - for the treatment of both movement tics and psychiatric symptoms, and depression - although early trials indicate that the exact position of the electrodes and stimulation parameters are critical.

The authors warn against the use of DBS for purposes beyond disease and call for strong ethical standards that require both artificial intelligence and neural interfaces to respect and preserve people's privacy, identity, agency and equality.

Neurostimulators with sensing capabilities are still in their infancy. They have still only been used in research settings and so closed-loop DBS is not yet a long-term treatment solution for Parkinson disease, or any other disorder. These new systems will however soon become commercially available and when they do they will bring with them new treatment possibilities and new hope.

These questions will be discussed at OptoDBS2019, the third edition of an international meeting held at Campus Biotech, Geneva later this year.

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'Biomarkers for closed-loop deep brain stimulation in Parkinson disease and beyond' by Walid Bouthour, Pierre Megevand, John Donoghue, Christian Luscher, Niels Birbaumer & Paul Krack was published in Nature Reviews Neurology on 1 April 2019 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41582-019-0166-4

For further information please contact:

Jo Bowler, Media and Public Relations Manager

Desk: +41 (0) 58 201 03 09

Mobile: +41 (0) 79 861 10 68

johanna.bowler@wysscenter.ch

Twitter: @Wysscenter

About the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering, Geneva, Switzerland

The Wyss Center is an independent, non-profit, neurotechnology research and development organization. The Center provides the expertise, facilities and financial resources to transform creative neuroscience research into clinical solutions that will improve the lives of people with nervous system disorders.

The Center's experienced multidisciplinary neurotechnology development team from industry and academia provides the integrated scientific, engineering, clinical, regulatory and business expertise required to guide high risk, high reward projects on their journey from research to product.

Based at Campus Biotech in Geneva, Switzerland, the Center provides advanced neuroscience and engineering facilities for the development of technology that will prevent, diagnose or treat nervous system disorders, or has the potential to improve lives.

The Center has ongoing projects in movement restoration, stoke rehabilitation, neural circuits, sensory function, and advanced technology. It is currently seeking new partners from anywhere in the world that can fill scientific or technical gaps in the development of novel neurotechnologies in current Wyss Center projects.

A major goal of the Center is to ensure that innovative neurotechnologies advance until they are sufficiently mature to attract corporate partnerships, venture funding, or other mechanisms necessary to make them broadly available to society.

Established by a generous donation from the Swiss entrepreneur and philanthropist Hansjorg Wyss, the Wyss (pronounced "Veese") Center, is a partner in a progressive new neuroscience hub at Campus Biotech. http://www.wysscenter.ch/

About OptoDBS 2019

June 20 - 22, Campus Biotech, Geneva, Switzerland.

The OptoDBS 2019 meeting will discuss the current state-of-the-art therapies for DBS and ask how a better understanding of neural circuit dysfunction in pathology could inspire novel protocols. A particular emphasis will be on novel DBS indications such as obsessive compulsive disorders (OCD), depression or addiction.

https://optodbs.ch/

About the University of Geneva

The University of Geneva (UNIGE) enjoys worlwide recognition and ranks amongst the top 100 best universities in the world. Founded in 1559 by Jean Calvin and Theodore de Beze, it welcomes more than 17 000 students in its nine faculties and fourteen interdisciplinary centres and constantly strengthens its links with the International and Non-Governmental Organisations based in Geneva, one of the world's capitals for multilateralism. A member of the League of European Research-intensive Universities, the UNIGE fullfills three missions: education, research and knowledge-sharing. http://www.unige.ch

About The HUG: Care, Teaching, and leading-edge research

The Geneva University Hospitals (HUG) comprise eight public hospitals and two health clinics. Their missions include providing health care to the community in all medical specialties, contributing to training physicians and health professionals, and conducting medical research as well as finding treatments. The HUG operate as a national reference centre for influenza and emerging viral infections, as well as for liver disease in children and paediatric liver transplant. They are a WHO Collaborating Centre in seven areas. In 2017, with their 11,560 staff, the HUG treated 63,000 inpatients, 118,000 emergencies, and more than a million outpatients, and performed 27,041 surgeries and 4,182 birth deliveries. The HUG ensure the training of 945 physicians, 2,230 interns and 203 apprentices. They collaborate closely with the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Geneva, the WHO, CHUV, EPFL, CERN and other actors in the Lemanic Health Valley on a number of training and research projects. The HUG have an annual budget of 1.9 billion Swiss francs.

More information on:

the HUG: http://www.hug-ge.ch - presse-hug@hcuge.ch

Activity Report, Key Figures, and Strategic Plan: http://www.hug-ge.ch/publications-hug
Armed separatists patrolling in an Anglophone Community Facebook

Armed Separatists, locally called Amba Boys, have been accused of raping a 14-year-old girl in Ako, Donga-Mantung Division of the North West region.

A popular blogger MimiMefo, says she was alerted by a relative of the victim, who said some boys known as Amba boys, raped the victim in her fathers house.

He continued that a woman who was present at the time of the incident, tried to shout, but one of the boys pulled out the gun and fired bullets in the air, threatening to kill the woman if she dared raise an alarm.

A worker at the village dispensary said they are assisting the girl medically but regrets that other serious damages in the course of the forceful penetration cannot be handled by the medical centre.

The father of the victim on his part, disclosed, he is helpless in the face of all intimidation meted out on him, his daughter and his entire family, following the incident.

Further reports from Donga Mantung Division indicate that a man paid fifteen thousand francs and offered his goat to fighters just to safe his daughter from being raped. Few days after the incident, he secretly sent his daughter out of the locality to avoid further threats.





In Mbambe land, Ako subdivision, thirteen teenage girls have been forced to marry suspected Amba fighters against the will of the girls, their parents and family members, a source disclosed to the site.

Villagers also accuse the gunmen of committing adultery with their wives with impunity.

However, representatives and supporters of armed secessionists, have often argued that those carrying out the acts are fake Amba boys, who are into the war for personal gains. Secessionist leaders abroad, have often argued that some government officials are sponsoring these fake Amba groups to blackmail their struggle for independence.

Critics have rather blamed these Amba boys, for failing fish out those they claim are sponsored by the regime. They have often condemned their excesses, blaming them for misleading the population.
SAN FRANCISCO, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- EdgeVerve Systems [https://www.edgeverve.com/], a subsidiary of Infosys [https://www.infosys.com/], today announced the launch of CollectEdge at LendIt Fintech USA 2019. CollectEdge is an Artificial Intelligence powered product designed to help lending organizations reduce delinquency rates, boost recoveries, improve operational efficiencies and enhance customer experience.

https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/847965/EdgeVerve_Infosys_Lo... [https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/847965/EdgeVerve_Infosys_Lo... ]

With native AI and advanced machine learning capabilities, CollectEdge [http://www.edgeverve.com/collectedge/?cmpid=PressRelease_Col...] redefines collections by improving the accuracy of risk segmentation models and appropriate collection strategies. An over the top data driven application, CollectEdge generates accurate predictions and suggestions to help automate decision making and alleviate bottlenecks in business processes. Some of the benefits offered by CollectEdge are reduced charge-offs, real-time decision making and optimized collections outreach, resulting in tangible business outcomes.

Julie Signorille, Executive Vice President and Consumer Banking Chief Operating Officer, Citizens Bank, said, "Citizens Bank makes continuous investments in innovation to improve end-to-end customer experience, from origination to servicing and collections. In partnership with EdgeVerve Systems, we are modernizing our collection processes with real-time insights into delinquency rates, better risk segmentations and customized contact & calling strategies."

Atul Soneja, Senior Vice President and Global Head - EdgeVerve and NIA, said, "CollectEdge brings true digital disruption to the collections function by balancing risk mitigation and enhancing customer experience. Harnessing the power of 'explainable AI', CollectEdge is a plug and play product that makes the adoption of artificial intelligence easy for the lender and offers faster time to value. I am confident that the product will reduce provision liabilities and also enhance the customer experience."

About EdgeVerve Systems Ltd.

EdgeVerve Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of Infosys, develops innovative software products and offers them on premise or as cloud-hosted business platforms. Our products help businesses develop deeper connections with stakeholders, power continuous innovation and accelerate growth in the digital world. We power our clients' growth in rapidly evolving areas like banking, interactive commerce, distributive trade, customer service and enterprise buying and help them navigate their digital journey with our AI enabled Automation and Business Solutions.

At EdgeVerve, we are making constant strides towards transforming enterprises by providing AI enabled Business Applications, leveraging the Infosys Nia(TM) Platform with capabilities across the Automation continuum. Today EdgeVerve products are used by global corporations across financial services, insurance, retail and CPG, life sciences, manufacturing and telecom.

Finacle, our industry-leading digital banking solution suite is the choice of financial institutions across 100 countries to service more than a billion consumers and 1.3 billion accounts.

To know more, visit www.edgeverve.com [https://www.edgeverve.com/]

About Infosys

Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. We enable clients in 45 countries to navigate their digital transformation. With over three decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we expertly steer our clients through their digital journey. We do it by enabling the enterprise with an AI-powered core that helps prioritize the execution of change. We also empower the business with agile digital at scale to deliver unprecedented levels of performance and customer delight. Our always-on learning agenda drives their continuous improvement through building and transferring digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our innovation ecosystem.

Visit www.infosys.com [https://www.infosys.com/] to see how Infosys can help your enterprise navigate your next.

Safe Harbor

Certain statements mentioned in this release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements regarding our future business expectations intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, and unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2018. These filings are available at www.sec.gov [https://www.sec.gov/]. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. The company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the company unless it is required by law.

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/847965/EdgeVerve_Infosys_Lo... [https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/847965/EdgeVerve_Infosys_Lo...]

CONTACT: For further information, please contact: PR_Global@infosys.com
BREXIT UPDATE: Into Monday afternoon, the Pound Sterling (GBP) remained range-bound against both the US Dollar and Euro, drifting slightly lower amid continued reports that talks between PM May and Corbyn had failed to yield an impasse-breaking deal.

When asked how efforts to find a way forward were progressing, Shadow Brexit Secretary, Keir Starmer, said "We havent found that yet, adding "There arent any scheduled talks yet but I have no doubt things will develop today."

Elsewhere, comments from Foreign minister, Jeremy Hunt, suggested the government could soften on their "red lines", although it wasn't clear the degree to which May will bow to Labour pressure, given pressure from Eurosceptic Tory's to strike a hard line. Speaking to reporters, Hunt said "You cant go into any of those discussions with big red lines because otherwise theres no point in having them. But we are very clear about the type of Brexit we want. Thats in our manifesto and weve made that clear, before a meeting with EU foreign ministers. Hunt added that "What Ill be saying to my colleagues in the European Union today is that you can see from this that Theresa May is leaving no stone unturned to try and resolve Brexit. They want Brexit to be resolved as quickly as possible, so do we, so do the British people."

Findings of research by the Hansard Society, released on Monday suggested the British public were at the end of their tether with Brexit with confidence in the political system slumping to it's lowest level in the 15 year history of the survey. With talks expected to continue between May and Corbyn, focus remains on related news-flow on Monday while on Tuesday May is expected to meet with German and French leaders ahead of Wednesday's emergency EU in a bid to persuade the EU leaders to extending Article 50. On the British , currency analyst Lee Hardman of MUFG wrote "We are assuming another extension will be granted, but it is far from a done deal and there could be number of twists and turns in the week ahead resulting in a volatile pound."

With just days to go until the April 12th Brexit deadline, Prime Minister May and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn were set to continue cross-party talks on Monday in a bid to find a joint agreement on how the UK should withdraw from the European Union.

Hopes of a deal being reached before the special EU summit (Wednesday) are limited given the lack of reported progress so far.

While it's widely expected EU leaders will grant a further delay, given the lack of a deal and the requirement that EU leaders vote unanimously, the risk of a refusal can't be ruled out.

For the Pound Sterling, despite the looming deadline and fractured political landscape, May's offer to engage in cross-party talks saw hopes of a 'softer' Brexit rise, in turn keeping the GBP generally supported.

The chances of a no-deal remain remote but at the same time a satisfactory outcome anytime soon also seems highly unlikely and this is containing the pound in a fairly narrow trading range, said chief markets analyst at XTB, David Cheetham. Into what could be another massive Brexit week, Leader of the House of Commons, Andrea Leadsom, stated the need for the government to compromise on "red lines", given the priority is a UK withdrawal from the EU.

Speaking to the BBC, Leadsom said "Specifically provided we are leaving the European Union then it is important that we compromise, thats what this is about and it is through gritted teeth, adding "the most important thing is to actually leave the EU."

Other UK lawmakers were openly pessimistic about cross-party talks yielding a deal. Labours legal policy chief, Shami Chakrabarti told Sky news that "Its hard to imagine that we are going to make real progress now without either a general election or a second referendum on any deal she can get over the line in parliament."

While facing fierce criticism from Eurosceptics from within her own Party, the PM continued efforts to persuade hard-line Brexiteers to get behind any forthcoming deal lest face a potential route to abandoning Brexit altogether.

May said "I think, the government thinks, we absolutely must leave the European Union ... that means we need to get a deal over the line, adding "the longer this takes, the greater the risk of the UK never leaving at all."

Let me explain what's happening with Brexit.pic.twitter.com/gjGkvFk8fT  Theresa May (@theresa_may) 7 April 2019

Last week saw PM May officially request a longer Brexit delay, until June 30th, in a bid to buy time to secure a deal. However, given the upcoming EU elections (late May), EU leaders are expected to request a longer delay - should a deal not be passed before elections begin. Kristoffer Kjr Lomholt of Danske bank wrote "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."

Above: Brexit Scenario Probabilities - Danske Bank

Last week saw reports of a potential "flextension" of up to a year with the option to withdraw earlier should a deal be struck in the interim period.

While a longer delay means immediately avoiding a no-deal exit, it also runs the risks of becoming a protracted period of uncertainty, weighing on both the UK's economic activity and the Pound Sterling and, if recent levels of progress are anything to go by, could tee the UK up for another cliff-edge scenario further down the road.

Eurosceptic and head of the European Research Group (ERG), Jacob Rees-Mogg, said that if the EU grants a longer delay, he would favour an approach which causes as much chagrin to EU counterparts as possible.

Speaking to Sky news, Ress-Mogg said "If we are forced to remain in we must be the most difficult member possible, adding "When the multi-annual financial framework comes forward, if were still in, this is our one in seven year opportunity to veto the budget and to be really very difficult. Meanwhile, outspoken anti-EU Tory, Boris Johnson, wrote that Conservatives should do everything they can to stop a deal which includes a permanent customs union.

In his Daily Telegraph column, Johnson wrote "If the UK were to commit to remaining in the customs union, it would make a total and utter nonsense of the referendum result, adding "o agree to be non-voting members of the EU, under the surrender proposed by Jeremy Corbyn  it cannot, must not and will not happen. For the session ahead, political news-flow on both sides of the channel could be key drivers for Sterling price action with a focus on cross-party talk progress - or a lack thereof - as well as any indications as to which direction EU leaders will lean on a Brexit delay at their upcoming summit.
GBP/CAD DAILY UPDATE #2: The Pound to Canadian Dollar exchange rate traded in a narrow range on Tuesday afternoon, with the pairing stuck at around C$1.7366 ahead of the upcoming EU summit on Wednesday.

The summit will see EU leaders discuss whether to grant the UK another extension on Brexit and will ultimately determine whether or not the UK crashes out of the EU without a deal on Friday.

At the same time, the Canadian Dollar struggled to find any momentum on Tuesday as crude prices began to edge away from Mondays highs.

GBP/CAD DAILY UPDATE #1: The Pound Sterling to Canadian Dollar exchange rate drifted lower during Monday's session to trade flat into Tuesday with the GBPCAD last seen at CA$1.73951. Despite an underwhelming building permits release and sliding employment, the Loonie found support from surging oil prices which reached a 2019 best of above $71 per barrel while Brexit uncertainty left the British  muted.

State Street Bank manager, Bart Wakabayashi, wrote "Themes such as U.S.-China trade talks and Brexit are turning rather stale and no longer providing the currency market with as much incentive. The rally in crude gave the market something to focus on under such conditions." Amid a data-sparse session, focus will be on PM May's meetings with European leaders ahead of Wednesday's crucial EU summit, from which we should see a verdict on a further Brexit extension.

For the Loonie, Thursday's OPEC meetings could be a key focus with the crude-coupled currency likely to gain should member states decide to cut supply further.

Pound Canadian Dollar (GBP/CAD) Exchange Rate Flat as Canadian Building Permits Slump

The Pound Sterling Canadian Dollar (GBP/CAD) Exchange Rate remained muted, and the pairing is currently trading at an inter-bank rate of CA$1.7448.

Data released this afternoon revealed that Canadian building permits fell by a further -5.7% in February which likely dampened sentiment in the Loonie.

This is the second consecutive contraction, with permits sliding by a revised -6% in January.

The decline in February was largely due to lower construction intentions for multi-family dwellings.

It was also revealed that the value of permits for residential buildings slumped by -8.5% to $4.9 billion, the lowest level since April 2017.

Meanwhile, the House of Lords is expected to vote on Labour MP Yvette Coopers Brexit Bill later today.

Sterling (GBP) Flat Ahead of Further Cross-Party Talks

With just five days before the UK is due to leave the European Union, the Labour party have said it hopes that there will be further cross-party discussions early this week.

Communication between the Prime Minister and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is set to continue this week.

On Sunday, Rebecca Long-Bailey, a member of Labours negotiating team said the mood during discussions was positive and hopeful, and suggested that further talks were likely to take place early this week.

Meanwhile on Sunday, Theresa May tweeted a video message outlining her reasons for negotiating with the opposition.

In the laid-back address, the Prime Minister said:

We absolutely must leave the European Union [] that means we need to get a deal over the line and thats why weve been looking for new ways  a new approach  to find an agreement in Parliament.

People didnt vote on party lines when it came to the Brexit referendum. And I think members of the public want to see their politicians working together more often.

Canadian Dollar (CAD) Muted as Canadian Economy Sheds 7,200 Jobs

On Friday, data revealed that the Canadian economy shed 7,200 jobs in March following two months of strong gains.

This helped Canada post its best quarter of job creation since late 2017, and the two months of gains was the countrys best start to a year since 1981.

Data also showed that despite the economy shedding a number of jobs, the unemployment rate remained steady at 5.8%.

Commenting on the data, a CIBC Economist, Avery Shenfeld said:

The party had to end at some point, since Canadian jobs data had outrun other signposts of economic growth so dramatically making the small retreat in employment in March not much of a surprise.

The 7K drop in employment comes on the heels of huge job gains in January-February.

Pound Canadian Dollar Outlook: GBP/CAD Exchange Rate to Fall as UK Retail Sales Slide?

On Tuesday evening, the Pound (GBP) could fall against the Canadian Dollar (CAD) following the release of the BRCs like-for-like retail sales.

If sales contract for a second consecutive month with data suggesting Brexit pessimism held back consumers, it is likely sentiment in Sterling will be dampened.

Looking towards the end of this weeks session, the Canadian New Housing Price Index data is due to be released on Thursday.

If housing prices contract in February for the second consecutive month or remain stagnant as the index has since August 2018, the Pound Canadian Dollar (GBP/CAD) exchange rate could rise.
GBP/AUD FORECAST UPDATE #2: The Pound to Australian Dollar exchange rates drifted lower on Tuesday afternoon, falling to a low of AU$1.8284 as ongoing Brexit uncertainty dragged on sentiment.

This comes as Theresa May went on a last minute charm offensive in Paris and Berlin in an attempt to persuade

Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel to back her request for a short Brexit extension.

EU leaders will decide on Wednesday whether to grant May another Brexit delay or leave the UK to face a no-deal Brexit on Friday, an outcome that will unnerve most GBP investors.

GBP/AUD FORECAST UPDATE: Firming commodity prices, resurgent risk-appetite and Brexit jitters prompted the Pound Sterling to Australian Dollar exchange rate to a joint April low of AU$1.82757 in early Tuesday trading.

Overnight Aussie Home loans figures helped support the antipodean with the number of new loans granted rising by 2.0%, significantly beating forecasts of a further 3.0% decline.

Commenting on the data and its implications for central bank monetary policy, head of FX at ASB Bank, Tim Kelleher, wrote ""Things in Australia aren't looking as bad as we think they are, apart from the housing market. It means the Reserve Bank of Australia can be a little bit patient." Brexit will remain crucial for the cross as Prime Minister May meets with her French and German counterparts ahead of Wednesday's all-important emergency summit of EU leaders at which they'll decide on whether to grant a further Brexit delay.

Brexit Anxiety Prompts Fresh Pound Sterling Australian Dollar (GBP/AUD) Exchange Rate Decline

Uncertainty over Brexit kept the Pound Sterling to Australian Dollar (GBP/AUD) exchange rate under pressure at the start of the week as fears of the UK crashing out of the EU without a deal persisted.

The mood towards the Pound soured even as Theresa May returned to Brussels in order to meet with EU leaders and press for a short extension of the Brexit deadline.

Although there were reports of progress towards a Brexit compromise between May and the Labour leadership this was not enough to prevent GBP exchange rates trending lower on Monday.

Support for the Australian Dollar, meanwhile, strengthened in the face of bets that the US and China are approaching a trade agreement.

GBP/AUD Exchange Rate to Remain Under Pressure Ahead of Brexit Deadline

Demand for the Pound is unlikely to see any significant improvement in the near term, with investors wary ahead of Fridays Brexit deadline.

Unless Theresa May agrees another deadline extension with EU leaders the GBP/AUD exchange rate looks set to remain biased to the downside this week.

If a sense of clarity over the UKs future relationship with the EU starts to emerge, though, the Pound could recover some of its recently lost ground.

On the other hand, if May fails to secure a further extension of the current deadline GBP exchange rates may come under further pressure as the risk of a no-deal Brexit intensifies.

Australian Dollar (AUD) Exchange Rates Vulnerable to Softer Lending Landscape

AUD exchange rates could find fresh encouragement on the back of Februarys Australian home loans and investment lending figures, meanwhile.

Forecasts point towards home loans bouncing back from the previous months -1.2% contraction, delivering modest growth of 0.5% on the month.

While investment lending is expected to remain within negative territory any improvement on Januarys contraction may give the Australian Dollar a modest boost against its rivals.

However, if Australian lending shows signs of weakening as consumers and businesses rein in their borrowing this could offer the GBP/AUD exchange rate some support.

Weaker UK Retail Sales to Add to Pound Sterling (GBP) Exchange Rate Downtrend

Further weakness could be in store for the Pound on Tuesday as investors anticipate another month of contraction from the BRC like-for-like sales data.

Evidence of a continued deterioration in retail sales would give investors fresh cause for concern over the outlook of the UK economy.

If consumers show fresh signs of taking a more cautious approach in response to growing Brexit-based uncertainty the GBP/AUD exchange rate could extend its downtrend further.

On the other hand, if sales return to a state of growth for March this may encourage bets of a stronger first quarter gross domestic product reading.
Hi everyone,



Quick question, does anyone know if the new 491 visa requires us to work in our nominated occupation only?



I have done some research and have only found that you will need to work for 3 years and gain the minimum income (yet to be disclosed). It never mentions anything about working on your nominated occupation only (unless you are sponsored by an employer).



Yet, I have seen people commenting on other posts that you must work under your occupation code. If anyone knows or has any links to this information, I would appreciate it. Thanks!
Monday, April 8, 2019

When you are a federal prison wife, your main role is to be a source of love and support for your spouse. Finding the strength to fulfill your role as a federal prison wife, while taking care of lifes other obligations can be overwhelming. It is said that the family of an incarcerated person serves a sentence of their own. Getting support for yourself and practicing self-care is crucial. This list is RDapDans top 10 tips for federal prison wives to practice self-care and combat depression and anxiety.

1. Our number one suggestion for prison wives is exercise. It is scientifically proven that exercise elevates your mood. Prison wives need all the endorphins they can get, so be sure to fit some form of exercise into your daily routine.

2. Prison wives should read bout other women who have lived (and thrived) through this. There are several publications on life as a prison wife. Here are a few we recommend:

Doing Time Together: Love and Family in the Shadow of the Prison

Family Arrested: How to Survive the Incarceration of a Loved One

3. Prison wives should use this time apart to grow. Meditate, pray, and practice interspection.

4. Federal prison wives should write their spouses daily. Inmates love receiving letters, it makes their day. The letter could be as simple as describing your trip to the grocery store, it does not matter, they will be happy to read it. Letter writing is a way for federal prison wives to feel connected to their spouse during incarceration.

5. Dan suggests that prison wives start a daily blog, YouTube channel or even just journal. Documenting your feelings is extremely therapeutic. RDAPDan started his YouTube channel when facing federal prison, keeping his vlog going is what got him through some of his darkest times.

6. Eliminate toxic people from your life. Being a prison wife is no small feat, everyone will have an opinion about you standing by your spouse. Constantly hearing negative opinions will take a toll on you. Remove negativity from your life.

7. Prison wives often have long nights filed with anxiety and worry. Worry is like a rocking chair, it will keep you busy, but it won't take you anywhere. Stop staying up all night with worry. Drink some chamomile tea and get yourself some sleep. Sleep can have a huge effect on how you feel both emotionally and physically and not getting enough will make everything seem even worse.

8. Federal prison wives should eat at right for self-care. The food we eat has the potential to either keep us healthy or contribute to weight gain or diseases, but it can also keep our minds working and alert. Some of the most amazing self-care foods include blueberries, nuts, green leafy veggies, and broccoli.

9. Call or email Dan to help talk you through this. He is readily available for his clients and their families.

10. Join a support group for federal prison wives. There are several online communities of federal prison wives, ready to offer support or even just a listening hear. You do not have to go through this alone.

The following are support groups and communities waiting for you to reach out, starting with Strong Prison Wives and Families, a group Dan stands behind. His interview with the founder of the group, Ro Clausen, can be viewed below.

Strong Prison Wives and Families

Prisoners Wives, Girlfriends, & Partners

Prison Wives-Mothers-Daughters-Prayer Group

For the Lives of Prison Wives

If you are feeling suicidal seek help immediately. IMMEDIATELY call the suicide helpline:

1-800-273-TALK (8255).
More than 340 miles from home, Lon Munsey was wheeled into an operating room at Northeast Baptist Hospital for a total knee replacement.

He was nervous, but at least five of his co-workers at a Walmart in North Texas had gone to the same hospital, with good results.

They came back singing high praises, Munsey said. Its a great deal for the people that know about it.

Walmart and other major U.S. corporations are sending workers to hospitals around the country that theyve deemed Centers of Excellence for various surgical procedures. Its a way to improve quality of care for their employees and to cut health care costs.

Walmart covers 100 percent of the cost of care, travel, lodging and meals for the patient and a caregiver.

In recent years, the mega-retailer has contracted directly with top-performing hospitals to negotiate the best deal, often at half the going price, on several common procedures.

Northeast Baptist, owned by Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare, was designated a Center of Excellence under the travel program 13 months ago. Northeast is part of a network of hospitals that include Johns Hopkins, Scripps Mercy and the Mayo Clinic.

Walmart and other major companies such as McKesson and Lowes have sent more than 250 workers to Northeast for joint replacement and weight-reduction surgeries.

Related: University Health System to invest $170 million in new medical record technology

Out-of-state patients usually arrive at San Antonio International Airport on a Monday and are picked up by a hired sedan. They meets their surgeons Tuesday, go into surgery Wednesday and recover for a week at a local hotel before flying home.

As the largest employer in the U.S., Walmart is spending billions of dollars on health care each year for its employees and their families. Because health insurance expenses can be unpredictable, Walmart and other large employers are essentially taking insurers out of the equation by self-insuring their workers.

More than 5,000 Walmart health plan members have participated in the travel care program, according to the retailer. The company is looking to avoid unnecessary surgeries and reduce post-procedure complications.

Lisa Woods, a senior director of health benefits at Walmart, designed the program with Pacific Business Group on Health and Health Designs Plus.

They estimate that Walmart, Lowes and McKesson saved an estimated $19.4 million combined through the spine and joint surgery programs in 2017.

The benefit to patients is significant, including receiving the highest quality of care possible, Woods said.

Among the employees who had joint replacement surgery at Center of Excellence sites, they had shorter hospital stays and lower readmission rates, and they returned to work sooner.

Dr. David Fox, a San Antonio orthopedic surgeon who performs around 600 knee and hip surgeries a year, said Northeast Baptist was picked for its quality.

Still, the rigorous screening process took nearly two years.

Its a pretty well-orchestrated program, Fox said. The rules and the structure are good for outcomes.

Often, workers can get back to their jobs after eight weeks of recovery, he said.

Under the travel program, surgeons are required to stay in contact once their patients return home so they can track their recovery. Patients living in rural areas dont always have access to specialists, and Fox said hes used FaceTime with a patients primary care doctor to ensure the patient is on the mend.

Related: Bexar County sees 11 percent plunge in Obamacare enrollment

Many of the patients hes seen through the program have been in bad shape. By the time many of these patients see providers in the travel program, their condition has gotten to the point that they cant put off treatment any longer.

These patients are hard workers. Theyre grateful and theyre honest, he said, adding that many ask when they can return to work.

Fox is Lon Munseys surgeon. Munsey, 64, has worked on his feet all his life: as an auto mechanic for 20 years, then as a Walmart associate for 19 years in the electronics and wireless department.

Hes already been cleared for surgery on his other knee  after his knee replacement last week and before returning to work at a Walmart store outside Burkburnett, near the Oklahoma state line.

Lons wife, Carrie Munsey, who sat by his side, went through her own total knee replacement in December. She will likely have to pay 20 percent of the $64,000-plus bill for the surgery, or at least $12,8000.

Shes glad her husbands bill is covered at least.

This is the new wave of health care, said Nanette Costanza, 64, another one of Foxs out-of-state patients. They roll out the red carpet. They really do.

Before Costanza was a greeter at a Sams Club in Covington, La., for seven years, she was a professional ballet dancer for four decades and then a fitness instructor. A car accident led to rapid degeneration of her hips. She used a cane for four years.

Mobility is a big part of my life, and I couldnt stand long enough to brush my teeth, she said.

She needed two complete hip replacements but wouldnt have been able to afford the surgery at a nearby hospital, so she looked into her companys Centers of Excellence program.

It was an extraordinary experience, she said. Its given me my life back.

Laura Garcia covers the healthcare industry in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her stories and more local coverage on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | laura.garcia@express-news.net | Twitter: @Reporter_Laura
Sleuthing through dusty old papers and online newspaper archives, Charlotte Cox believes she has uncovered unknown details about the history of what we now call Fiesta San Antonio. And playing a lead role in the century-old drama was Pompeo Coppini, the Italian-born sculptor perhaps best known for the Alamo Cenotaph and the Littlefield Fountain at the University of Texas at Austin.

Some of Coxs research confirmed what was already known: that Coppini designed what might be the first Fiesta medal, he organized the Knights of Omala (Alamo spelled backward) to run what was then called the Spring Carnival, and that the events first royal was King Selamat (tamales in reverse).

But her research might be the first time we know who who was responsible for evolving the early Battle of Flowers tradition into what we now think of as Fiesta.

It was Coppini who, in 1905, pushed the idea of raising money to save and preserve the Alamo by holding a weeklong Spring Carnival  an event that could be viewed as the predecessor of todays 11-day Fiesta. He also helped organize what is likely the first-ever nighttime parade, pre-dating Fiesta Flambeau by 40 years.

Finally, the organization he created and led to run the carnival included several prominent members of the community who later went on to found the Order of the Alamo and the Texas Cavaliers, which to this day play important roles in the annual celebration.

We always thought Coppini had a hand in starting Fiesta, we just never had the proof, said Cox, president of the Coppini Academy of Fine Arts, located in Coppinis former home in Olmos Park. She did most of her research at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History in Austin, where Coppinis papers are held, and online at newspaperarchive.com.

Two years ago, what could be considered the first Fiesta medal  a 2-inch pressed-bronze disc (or badge as it was called at the time), embossed with the words San Antonio Spring Carnival Apr 1905 was discovered among Coppinis archives, securing his place in the Fiesta firmament. But Coppinis interest in the weeklong carnival likely started after he worked with Adina De Zavala, a friend and well-known preservationist, and philanthropist Clara Driscoll to save the long barracks, or convento, on the Alamo grounds from a developer who wanted to put a hotel there.

On ExpressNews.com: New, or relatively new, Fiesta events to try in 2019

According to his 1949 autobiography, From Dawn to Sunset, Coppini started looking for a way to prevent something like this from happening again.

At the time, the city already celebrated a Spring Carnival and Flower Fete commemorating the battle of San Jacinto and held under the auspices of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. The carnival included a circus and street fair, band concerts, wild animal shows and several parades, including the Battle of Flowers, which had been held annually since 1891, and a parade of baby carriages (with the precious darlings tucked in them, according to a story in the April 18, 1904 San Antonio Express).

Coppini, who its said was something of a showman, apparently proposed expanding the event, with proceeds going to help preserve and protect the Alamo. On March 21, 1905, the short-lived San Antonio Gazette reported that Coppini promised nothing less than a week of festivity and on a scale calculated to dwarf all similar celebrations throughout the state.

The new Spring Carnival would be run by a group he created and led made up of the citys leading businessmen and artists first called the Chili Thirteen, later, the Knights of Omala and sometimes the Phunny Phellows.

In addition to several daytime parades, the festival also included one held at night. On April 25, 1905, the Express described it: Electricity, that marvel of the age, was never more marvelous. The hand that controlled it, which sent its confusing, darting, colored rays streaking far out into the night from the walls or roof of some  building ablaze with colored incandescents had gotten the one hundredth degree of beauty out of it.

Although the Knights of Omala would continue to run the festival only until 1911, Coppinis influence continues to be felt.

On ExpressNews.com: Cenotaph sculptor claimed key role in Alamo preservation

John Carrington, whod been a founding member of the Chili Thirteen, went on to found the Order of the Alamo in 1909. One of the oldest Fiesta organizations, its members meet once a year to choose the next years queen and her court, which are then presented in a coronation featuring the duchesses, princess and queen bedecked in famously dazzling, hand-beaded gowns and trains.

Then in 1926, Carrington formed the Texas Cavaliers, who choose each years King Antonio, which could be seen as the successor of king Selamat. King Antonio presides every year over The Texas Cavaliers River Parade. Coppini also once described the Knights of Omala as the chavaliers (knights in French) of the Alamo, although theres no evidence that thats where the Cavaliers name originated.

Commander of the Texas Cavaliers Phil Bakke said he was completely surprised when he first heard about Coppinis involvement with the early days of Fiesta.

I think knowing what we now know only adds to the richness of the tradition, he said.

Cox, who refers to Coppini as the father of Fiesta, did

It didnt take long, she said. He was a meticulous record keeper.

Richard A. Marini is a features writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | rmarini@express-news.net | Twitter: @RichardMarini
Welcome to Kumba Archives

Kumba, the economic capital of Cameroons South West region is going through very trying times. The crisis in the countrys North West and South West Regions that has since morphed into an armed struggle is taking a heavy toll on the local population.

One tomato costs FCFA 100 up from FCFA 25. Prices of basic necessities have skyrocketed but income is dwindling, Larry Itoe, a Kumba local laments.

The situation has of recent been compounded by a 10-day lockdown of Fako Division announced April 4 by separatists.

The lockdown, according to Chris Anu, Secretary of Communication and Spokesperson of the Ambazonia Interim Government, is meant to frustrate the Limbe Festival of Arts and Culture, FESTAC, which began on April 6 to run up to April 13. Going by Anu, such events like FESTAC should not be taking place in times of war, and especially at a time when people are mourning their loved ones. He added that the Interim Government had earlier informed the authorities of Limbe to put such a celebration on hold.

The lockdown has thus grounded traffic along the Buea-Kumba highway, making it impossible for supplies to reach the area.

Kidney patients undergoing dialysis in Kumba are unable to travel to Buea and Douala for their sessions. It is so sad that we have to go through so much pain for no fault of ours, a local says.

Cement in short supply

The closure of major cement sales points in the town of Kumba for over a month, following restrictions placed by separatists on the sale of cement in Kumba from Douala has greatly affected the population, particularly, contractors and business persons who solely depend on it for survival.

It is against this backdrop that sand dealers in the town of Kumba are presenting the difficulties they are encountering as a result of the non-supply of cement.

According to the President of Meme Sand Transporters Union, Humphrey Kalingo, the scarcity of cement has had a negative toll on their business, given that the demand for sand has drastically reduced. He says this makes it difficult for them to provide for their families.

You know when there is no cement, the sand business cannot move. Sand goes with cement. For quite a long time now, we have not been able to work because there is no cement. It is really affecting us because the chain behind the sand and cement is a long one. It includes so many millions of people like the block moulders, builders, plumbers even the carpenters, electricians as well as sand scoopers, we are really in a difficult situation, the President noted.

Another sand dealer tells Cameroon-Info.net that things have been so difficult to the point where he is unable to cater for the needs of his family.

Nothing is moving for months now. We come here every day, yet we go home empty handed, unable to provide for our families, he says.

Another class of persons hit by the shortage are contractors and individuals who have been forced to suspend their projects indefinitely.
Texas Catholic leaders have joined Southern Baptists in their support of a bill that would allow churches to share former employees sexual abuse and misconduct allegations without being sued.

The bill, filed last month in the Texas Legislature by Southern Baptist minister and McKinney Rep. Scott Sanford, comes as Catholics and Southern Baptists  the nations two largest faith groups  wrestle with sexual abuse crises.

Sanford said the legislation would help prevent sexual predators from moving into unsuspecting churches, an issue that was detailed in Abuse of Faith, a recent investigation by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News that found at least 700 victims of sexual abuse or misconduct by Southern Baptist church leaders and volunteers since 1998.

In some of those cases, the newspapers found, churches did not alert other congregations about allegations against former employees out of fear of lawsuits. The Texas bill would give immunity to those who make such disclosures in good faith.

Though the two faiths are voicing similar support for the bill, there are important distinctions in their structures. Southern Baptists profess that each of the denominations 47,000 cooperating churches are self-governing and autonomous, and church leaders thus normally dont interfere in the business of other congregations. Nor does the SBC track ordinations, most of which are done at the local level.

The Catholic Church, meanwhile, is far more hierarchical, and it extensively tracks where clergy have worked and sexual abuse allegations made against them. Those records have proved integral to investigations such as the one conducted by the Pennsylvania attorney general last year.

On Monday, hours after the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston announced it was investigating allegations that a local priest had fathered a child with a parishioner overseas, a Catholic official testified that the bill would assist in eradicating the evil of sexual abuse.

The bishops believe that transparency in this painful matter of sexual abuse can assist healing for survivors and transformation for our society, said Jennifer Allman of the Austin-based Texas Catholic Conference of the Roman Catholic Bishops of Texas.

The bill, she said, is consistent with Pope Francis proclamation that there is absolutely no place in ministry for those who would sexually abuse another person.

Protect the vulnerable

An official with Texas largest Southern Baptist group voiced similar support, but said that churches need to protect the vulnerable whether we are shielded or not.

We know of churches and institutions that have written policies never to disclose the reason for a termination to anyone seeking a job reference, said Ben Wright, a Cedar Park-based pastor and an official with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. The sole purpose of these policies is to minimize exposure to civil liability. But we are not ordinary businesses. We believe that it rests on us a moral obligation that demands more.

Sanford said his bill shines a light on the sexual abuse that thrives in secrecy.

That sentiment has been welcomed by victims of sexual abuse and advocate groups such as the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a national organization started in response to Catholic abuses in the 1990s. But those groups also say that more should be done to protect victims, some of whom have been targeted with defamation suits by those they accuse of abuse.

The bill should help to drive more reporting of abuses, Michael Norris, of Houstons SNAP chapter, said Tuesday.

But, he added, there should be some verbiage in there about protecting the victim. Theyre not thinking about protecting the victim.

Easier to prosecute

SNAP continues to push for more sweeping changes to the states statute of limitations for civil lawsuits. Texas and other states have reformed such laws for criminal cases, but changes to civil rules have sometimes been quashed by lobbyists for groups that include the Catholic Church, Boy Scouts of America and insurance companies, according to Marci Hamilton, an expert on child sexual abuse laws.

In Texas, the window for reporting criminal sexual abuses of children was broadened more than a decade ago. Its precisely why Tarrant County prosecutors were able to indict Anne Marie Millers alleged abuser last summer.

Wright, the Texas Southern Baptist official, cited a story similar to Millers when testifying in support of HB 4345 on Monday.

Miller was a teenager in Fort Worth when she says she was groomed for sex by a local seminary student.

In 2007, she contacted the Southern Baptist Conventions International Missions Board after learning her alleged abuser was working there, prompting an internal investigation that concluded that the man, Mark Aderholt, more likely than not had abused Miller. Aderholt soon after resigned, though mission board officials declined to alert his future employers in other states about the claims in part because of fears of civil litigation, they later said.

He was extradited last summer from South Carolina to Texas, where his criminal case is ongoing.

Miller on Tuesday called the bill a very good step in the right direction, but said SBC entities such as the IMB need to be held accountable for past failures.

robert.downen@chron.com

Twitter.com: @RobDownenChron
When Tech. Sgt. Steven Bellino walked into his squadron commanders office in San Antonio three years ago Monday with two handguns and a knife, a stellar career that had seen him rise through the Armys enlisted ranks had come to an inglorious end.

Bellino had fought with distinction in Afghanistan, learned Arabic and Spanish, and graduated from Ohio State University with honors  but his perfectionist disenchantment with supervisors had followed him into civilian life and had cut short his stint as an FBI special agent.

He had tried to restart a military career with Air Force special operations training at Joint Base San Antonio-Lacklands Medina Annex. But now his many achievements lay in ruins.

After going AWOL and facing an other-than-honorable discharge, Bellino had a final mission: kill the man who ran the Air Forces battlefield airmen training program, Lt. Col. William Schroeder, and then himself. Both were elite warriors, but Bellino was being driven out of the tribe, believing that his instructors here had tried to humiliate him.

The findings of an exhaustive probe by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, obtained by the San Antonio Express-News under the federal Freedom of Information Act, said Bellino had known that the brief, violent showdown would likely end the way it did, by him putting a gun in his mouth and pulling the trigger.

Steven Bellinos military career 1993 - Bellino enters the Army at age 18. 1997 - A psychological examination given as part of the Special Forces' assessment and selection process includes an interview in which Bellino claims to have eaten uncooked human flesh. No diagnosis is made. 2002 - Bellino leaves active duty and enters the Ohio National Guard and Ohio State University, graduating magna cum laude six years later with a bachelor's degree in psychology and a 3.77 GPA. Deploys to Kuwait with the Ohio Guard from November until July 2003. 2004-07 - Works for Marquez Vance Marquez Inc., a security contractor, providing high-threat protective services for intelligence officers in combat theaters. 2008-09 - Bellino deploys to Afghanistan with the Ohio Guard. 2011 - Joins the FBI, receives top secret clearance. 2012-15 - Leaves the Ohio National Guard, serves in the Massachusetts National Guard. 2013 - Bellino resigns from the FBI after clashing with a supervisor. 2015 - Bellino starts the Air Force pararescue training course July 27. He quits and leaves town Aug. 3, returns Aug. 13, and is charged with AWOL. In September and November he turns down an Article 15, a form of non-judicial punishment, telling a lawyer it would mean his "life was over as he knew it." April 5 2016 - Bellino accepts an Article 15, with an other-than-honorable discharge. April 8 2016 - A first sergeant summons Lt. Col. William Schroeder from his office after seeing Bellino has arrived for an appointment armed. Bellino curses his commander and says, "I have watched you ruin ... airmens' lives." The two struggle and the first sergeant calls 911. The base is locked down. SOURCES: Air Force Office of Special Investigations report; documents and interviews provided by Bellino's two brothers. See More Collapse

What can I do? What do you need from me? 1st Sgt. Tiwanda Griffin-Greer asked Bellino as he sat in front of her desk outside Schroeders office at 8:30 a.m. April 8, 2016. He had placed a Glock handgun in the lap of his Air Force blue suit dress uniform, its barrel facing her, according to the report.

Its too late for that, he replied.

Seeing that Bellino was armed, Schroeder lunged and wrestled with him as Griffin-Greer fled the office. Moments later, shots were fired and the men fell to the floor. A base lockdown ensued.

Bellino, 41, who grew up in Parma, Ohio, and Schroeder, 39, of Ames, Iowa, were dead by the time paramedics arrived. The murder-suicide sent shock waves through the Air Force.

The report couldnt say when Bellino decided to kill, whether it was an act of revenge or if he thought he could force changes in the 342nd Training Squadron, which Schroeder led.

If he killed only himself, it would have been about him, the 406-page report said. If he killed the commander, it was bigger than himself.

On ExpressNews.com: Tracing the arc of Steven Bellinos steep descent

Schroeder had been the object of Bellinos growing rage for months. That morning, they were supposed to discuss an Article 15, a form of nonjudicial punishment that would end Bellinos military career for good. No suicide note was found. Bellino had written a farewell note the previous August in which he said, I do not like this world, and I do not want to be a part of it any longer.

Warnings that Bellino was mentally unstable, including his perception that individuals and commanders he worked with violated his sense of honor, had accumulated long before he came to Lackland.

Bellino joined the Army at 18. He had been suspended or expelled in high school, and he once was arrested at Fort Bragg, N.C., for letting air out of car tires in a parking lot, his only infraction as a soldier.

In a 1997 psychological test, he admitted to vandalizing property, starting fires, fighting and breaking rules he didnt agree with, which may have been adolescent misconduct at the age of 22, the OSI report states.

But he also claimed to have eaten uncooked human flesh.

If a joke, (he) had poor judgment to share such a response, the report said. If it was a fact, it is clearly disturbing and a crime.

On ExpressNews.com: Lackland gunman had been a standout soldier

Bellinos antipathy for both Schroeder and the instructors in the Air Force training program fit a pattern. One friend from high school told investigators of Bellinos dislike, as a soldier, of those in authority who he thought had abused their rank.

Air Force investigators stated that a fellow soldier in Bellinos Ohio National Guard unit said that Bellino could function in society and in his unit but was mentally unstable and had an irrational hatred for certain people in positions of authority.

Two people in the unit agreed that he was unstable but could not get him help because there was no mechanism at the time to refer soldiers for psychological screening without the commission of an overt act. That rule has since changed.

Bellino had to have somebody, an authority figure, to pit himself against, one soldier said, according to the OSI report. The soldier described Bellino as functionally insane.

Yet most people who knew Bellino  and his high standards and achievement through years as an Army Ranger, Green Beret and military contractor with stints in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo and Bosnia  were stunned to learn that he had committed murder.

His twin brother, Mike Bellino Jr., asked to comment on the OSI conclusions, called him the ultimate soldier, warrior and hero.

Our hearts go out to the families of the victim, the first responders and all those affected, he added. Even though this was a tragedy, the Steven we knew had many wonderful qualities. Its very difficult for us to accept that he acted that day with any premeditation. Special operations was his life. His service was what he was most proud of.

Things might have ended differently if Bellino had taken a deal offered by prosecutors months before. It would have allowed him to leave the service with a general discharge under honorable conditions. Bellino went through three lawyers, rejecting the offer and hoping to expose injustices in the battlefield airmen training program by facing Schroeder in a court-martial.

That deal was off the table on the day they met. An other-than-honorable discharge, which could result in lost benefits, had been approved days before.

Given (Bellinos) entire adult life had been dedicated to the pursuit of special operations work and being a warrior, to no longer have that opportunity would likely have been devastating, the report stated.

Bellino had come to blame Schroeder and his instructor group for ending his career. He believed that the Air Force training squadron unfairly tried to drum out prior-service troops, himself and a handful of former Green Berets in particular.

On ExpressNews.com: Gunman in Lackland murder-suicide had 66 rounds of ammunition

Schroeder, in turn, believed that Bellino repeatedly had changed his attorneys as a delaying tactic.

The OSI report found that some people in the training pipeline shared Bellinos view that instructors in the Pararescue-Combat Rescue Officer Indoctrination Course singled out trainees from other services for mistreatment. But many others told investigators they saw nothing wrong with the way the program was run.

The course fueled a growing anger within Bellino, who lived by a rigid, idealistic code outlined in an unpublished book, A Gentlemans Guide to Combat, in which he and co-authors wrote that ethics are a black-and-white matter. It isnt clear when the book was written.

Weak men coerce and strong men lead, it said in one passage on ethics. The point we are building up to is there is nothing morally wrong with removing evil men and women from the face of the planet when they are intent on taking your life.

On ExpressNews.com: Commander went out swinging in Lackland murder-suicide

Bellino wrote a self-evaluation at the request of Dan Conway of San Antonio, his final lawyer, that described having close calls and haunting memories that triggered symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, one of them an incident in which in he unintentionally killed a young Afghan girl with an M203 grenade launcher during a firefight. The OSI report also described him as deeply affected after having to kill puppies born to a dog that lived near his military unit.

An Air Force psychologist found him competent to stand trial on the AWOL charge. The Air Force denied a defense request that it hire a consultant, prompting Conway to arrange a psychiatric examination in the months leading up to the shooting.

Bellino was going to have to pay out of pocket for it, Conway said.

Sig Christenson covers the military and veterans in San Antonio, Bexar County and the nation. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | sigc@express-news.net | Twitter: @saddamscribe
San Antonios candidates for mayor and city council were confronted Sunday by a crowd that called on them to expand affordable housing and protect longtime residents from being displaced by development.

The occasion was an accountability session held by COPS/Metro Alliance at St. Patricks Catholic Church Parish Hall on the East Side. About 550 people, including congregants from more than a dozen churches, clapped and cheered as candidates committed to support a six-item agenda developed by the grassroots organization.

COPS/Metro  short for Communities Organized for Public Service and the Metro Alliance  has held accountability sessions for municipal elections for the past four decades. Sundays crowd was smaller than the 750-person gathering in April 2017, but people cheered passionately for the agenda items.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio mayors fundraising far outstrips his primary challenger, but unions could help narrow the gap

Mayor Ron Nirenberg and his leading challenger, city councilman Greg Brockhouse, both committed to supporting all six items, as did the 16 city council candidates who attended. As in past sessions, candidates were limited to yes or no answers. Audience members corrected those who elaborated by adding "absolutely" or "I promise."

Both mayoral candidates pledged to pursue with great urgency a program to prevent displacement of residents as a result of gentrification.

Nirenberg and Brockhouse also committed to make $11.65 million available for home rehabilitation to arrest decay and help homeowners stay in their neighborhoods.

COPS/Metro asked the council and mayoral contenders to commit to a $9.50 per hour minimum wage for employees of firms with city contracts  and all the candidates in attendance did.

Although city employees are paid at least $15 per hour, contract workers make as little as $7.25, the organization said. Our tax dollars should not provide poverty wages for those employees, the agenda said.

Candidates also agreed to support raising city funding for Project Quest, a 25-year-old job-training organization, from $2.2 million to $2.5 million, and to maintain a $500,000 legal defense fund for citizen-children whose parents have been deported.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio City Council OKs $1 million policy for low-income families facing rising housing costs, eviction

"We want to live in a city that invests in its people," the Rev. Jimmy Drennan, pastor at St. Margaret Mary Church, said as he outlined the alliance's goals. "Incentives make rich developers richer. Everything that COPS and Metro Alliance ask for does not make our organization richer, it makes our city richer."

The crowd joined him in chanting "invest in us," before six members of the alliance acted out "the trial of the Decade of Downtown."

Their verdict: the development boom was "guilty of ignoring San Antonio's working families."

COPS/Metro called for "the decade of the neighborhoods."

After responding to the six agenda items, council candidates were allotted 30 seconds each to make their case to voters. Nirenberg and Brockhouse were given one minute each.

For the first time in a generation, this city  your city  is making housing a priority, Nirenberg said. He pledged to continue to work on behalf of the defense of immigrants and to ensure educational and career opportunities for all.

Brockhouse, who represents District 6 on the West Side, said that since the day I got elected, the number one thing Ive been doing is fighting City Hall to make sure neighborhoods are not forgotten.

He said he opposed the Decade of Downtown and that as mayor he would try to lower property taxes so families can keep more of your paychecks.

Sister Jane Ann Slater, chancellor of the Archdiocese of San Antonio and a COPS/Metro leader, said the agenda items were matters of urgency. Higher wages and protection against displacement are essential, she said, adding that neighborhoods are being destroyed.

LTeitz@express-news.net
Kom IDPs receiving symbolic "baby cocoyam" from Queen Mother Whatsapp

A ceremony to rally, identify and assist Internally Displaced Persons(IDPs), from the Fondom of Kom, Boyo Division of the North West region, took place on Sunday in Bamenda and Yaounde.

For the first time, the Queen Mother of Kom left her palace, for Yaounde and Bamenda, following an ongoing war that has led to several displaced persons from the land of Kom to the North West regional capital and nations capital.While donating her quota to the displaced persons in a ceremony led by her representative, the Queen Mother through a speech encouraged those who have been assisting displaced people, and urged them to live in love, peace and Unity.

 The breastmilk and food which you are sharing here today is a token of my love to you. By this same token, I empower all my children to share the love and develop love attitudes towards all and sundry, irrespective of colour, race or tribe. Let our incessant love for one another, flow beyond geographical, racial and tribal lines. Let us be each other's keeper.

She called on all sons and daughters of Kom to emulate her values by being truthful, honest, kind and proactive. She asked them to shun bitterness, discrimination, hatred, jealousy, dishonesty and other harmful traits.

The food items contained the traditional baby cocoyam" meal called alang-a-wain, which she indicated that she harvested from her farm in Laikom. She urged them to accept the gifts, though to her, very small in quantity, they should use it to soften their hearts as the crisis persists.

Since the Anglophone crisis became bloody, a wave of killings and attacks took place in Boyo division, which led to the displacement of several people. Many couldnt bury their love ones, due to the constant gun exchanges between military and armed separatists. Till date, Kom is feared for harbouring one of the biggest groups of armed separatists, as the crisis ensues.

An Elite of Kom, Secretary General to the Bamenda City Council, Jude Waindim, explained that it was quite unusual for the Queen Mother to be displaced but the situation couldnt keep her in the palace.

"For the Queen Mother herself to be displaced, it has never been heard in history. We are lucky that of the many Fondoms, especially the Paramount Fondoms in the grassfield, the Fon of Kom is still in his palace. But most of the Fons have gone out of their palaces. And must of the children of the Kom Fondom are out of the land. It is not a joking matter. The magnitude is huge, said Ntumfoyn Waindim Jude. And you can imagine that the Kom community in Bamenda, hosts thousands of people who have been displaced just like 40km away from here. Can you imagine that it is 10 months now, I, Ntumfoyn cannot even go to Kom. I think enough is enough and I think its time for us to see this stop.

The effects of the Anglophone crisis is enormous on the people of Kom, as women have not be able to go to the farm(their main source of income), parents are unable to take care of their kids, businesses are shut down.
Jefferson Bank is moving forward with plans to build a 12-story tower to house its new headquarters in a burgeoning financial district on the booming Broadway corridor.

Hundreds of banking workers will relocate just north of downtown in the coming years as financial companies increasingly opt to move from the North Side to the urban core, where companies feel they can attract younger talent.

Were proving that we dont have to be so sprawled out, District 1 City Councilman Roberto Trevino said.

On ExpressNews.com: Filling in San Antonios skyline: An update on 10 major downtown construction projects

San Antonio-based Credit Human is expected to move more than 430 employees from its headquarters at 6061 W. Interstate 10 to a new 10-story building that will sit just outside the Pearl mixed-use development on Broadway. Bank of America has signed a lease to occupy 2 floors of a neighboring six-story building.

Silver Ventures, which developed the Pearl, is building the two-tower complex with the help of $8.8 million in tax abatements and rebates from the city and Bexar County.

Broadway was the heartbeat of our city when I was a kid, said Bill Shown of Silver Ventures. Its really fun to watch it become the heartbeat of our city again.

Before the burst of development thats remaking the corridor, stretches of Broadway were a moonscape of abandoned car dealerships, vacant lots and empty buildings.

Its unclear how many of Jefferson Banks 400 employees will move from its current headquarters at Loop 410 near Harry Wurzbach on the Northeast Side to the planned tower. The banks executives bought 1.7 acres in June, taking up nearly the entire block northeast of Broadway and East Grayson, catty-corner to the two-tower complex that will house Credit Human and offices for Bank of America.

The Jefferson Bank tower will have 180,000 square feet of office space spanning seven floors, a portion of which the bank plans to lease to other tenants, said Plack Carr of Milam Real Estate Capital, the local firm developing the property. The building will also feature four levels of parking and ground-floor retail.

Milam plans to break ground on the tower by the end of the year and expects construction to last 22 months, Carr said.

Plans for the building will go before the citys Historic Design and Review Commission this month.

On ExpressNews.com: W Hotel in the works for downtown San Antonio, sources say

With Jefferson Bank joining an increasingly bustling corridor, traffic  which already backs up during rush hour  is expected to worsen.

The city is using $42 million in bond funds to decrease the number of lanes for cars on Broadway and make the thoroughfare more friendly to cyclists and pedestrians. Fewer lanes and slower speed limits on Broadway will, counterintuitively, aid the flow of car traffic as workers take advantage of other transportation options, including increased bus service along the thoroughfare, Trevino said.

Officials, he said, anticipated business growth when adopting the Broadway corridor plan in a 2017 bond package.

The two-tower Silver Ventures complex will feature five floors of parking, Shown said. But two of those floors were designed so they can be converted into office space should driving habits change, he said.

Weve been a very car-centric city, Trevino said. It has kept us from being a multimodal city. This is demonstrating that we can be a multimodal city and attract investment into an area.

Another newcomer to the area, Alamo Colleges, is building its new headquarters at the northeast corner of Alamo and Josephine, a block east of Broadway.

Also, developer GrayStreet Partners plans to build a a 20-story hotel and office tower at 1603 Broadway. Luxury hotel chain W Hotels is in talks to open a 195-room upscale hotel at the tower. Marriott International has said it projects that the hotel will open in January 2022.

On ExpressNews.com: Mixed-use development with apartments proposed for storage facility near downtown San Antonio

In addition, GrayStreet plans to redevelop 23 acres on Broadways east side into a mixed-use development with office space and retail.
Friendlys is closing restaurants in Danbury, Southbury and Waterbury among 23 closures throughout the Northeast, with the company not stating how many jobs it is cutting.

The ice cream parlor company is based in Wilbraham, Mass. and has 17 locations in Connecticut. Friendlys told franchisees on Monday it is closing locations where it leases coming up for renewal.
GREENWICH  When a high-powered editor visits a small French town, stumbles upon an unpublished manuscript and decides to publish it, it sparks a hilarious who-done-it that is the premise of Le Mystere Henri Pick.

The film, directed by Remi Bezancon and written by acclaimed author David Foenkinos, will make its U.S. debut on the opening night of the 15th annual Focus on French Film Festival, hosted in Greenwich, Stamford and New York City.

Were really excited about this movie, film critic Joe Meyers said. Its a real crowd-pleaser  about the sources of literary genius, done in an accessible, fast-passed, thriller-style way. Its a strong film to open festival with.

The film will be shown at Bow Tie Cinemas on Railroad Avenue at 8 p.m. Friday, April 26.

It will follow the opening gala, which will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. that night, hosted at the Greenwich Arts Council by Les Maitres Cuisiniers de France and LAcademie Culinaire de France. The gallery will feature film posters from festivals since 2005.

The festival invited Camille Cottin, the lead of The Mystery of Henri Pick, to attend the festival. Cottin is also a main star in Call My Agent, a popular French-language Netflix show about a group of movie agents hustling to keep their company afloat after their boss unexpectedly dies.

The organizers saw the film in Paris and chose it for two reasons: It would be making its U.S. premiere, and would be of interest to middle and high school students, who will see it as part of the festivals outreach and education mission.

Its a literary caper for all ages, said Renee Amory Ketchamm, president of the Alliance Francaise of Greenwich. Thrilling, wonderful, upbeat; a light movie with educational ramifications for students that will also entertain the opening night audience.

Audience members will take a virtual journey to Brittany, organizer Sylvie Sergent said.

The film represents French cinema well, Meyers said, because the industry still makes solid, mainstream comedy-dramas for smart adults.

This speaks to me in a stronger way than most Hollywood films Ive seen over last six months, he said. Weve lost our way with films geared toward teenagers and young adults.

Foenkinos is an award-winning novelist, Sergent said. She compared him to Andy Warhol because, like the celebrated artist, Foenkinos became sick when he was young, and his creative genius started while he was bedridden.

The organizers are trying to find a way to Skype in Foenkinos at the festival, Ketcham said.

Nine other films will be shown for the first time in the U.S. at in the festival:

* The Impossible Love, a drama directed by Catherine Corsini

* Lola and Her Brothers, a dramatic comedy directed by Jean Paul Rouve

* Mothers Instinct, a drama thriller directed by Olivier Masset-Depasse

* In the Move for Love, a romantic comedy directed by Romane Bohringer and Philippe Rebbot

* A Colony, a drama directed by Gennevieve Dulude-De Celles

* To the Ends of the World, a war drama directed by Guillaume Nicloux

* The Apollo of Gaza, a documentary directed by Nicolas Wadimoff

* Virtual Attraction, a romantic comedy directed by Sophie Picciotto

* A Clever Crook, a comedy directed by Lucas Bernard

The drama Paper Flags, directed by 19-year-old Nathan Ambrosioni, makes its premiere on the East Coast.

Three other films will make their Connecticut premiere: the documentary Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy Blache, directed by Pamela Greene; the family-friendly animated film Dilili in Paris, directed by Michel Ocelot; and comedy drama Invisibles, directed by Louis-Julien Petit.

In addition to five days of films, the festival will host a round-table breakfast at Bow Tie Cinemas at 11 a.m. April 27, when Meyers will speak with Quebecois and French directors about film.

Were going to hear from two young directors with their first films, which have been widely acclaimed in other festivals, Meyers said.

One is Paper Flags, which Ambrosioni conceived of when he was 18. The film follows a returning prisoner who moves in with his sister and the relationship they build.

If I had watched without knowing anything, Id be amazed to know it was the product of a teenager, Meyers said. It's a very adult film, very raw. ... Its the start of what I think is going to be an incredible film career. I cant imagine what hell be doing five years from now.

Additional screenings and parties will be held April 29 at the Avon Theatre, and a closing night film and gala on April 30 at the French Institute Alliance Francaise in Manhattan.

For more information on the events, visit focusonfrenchcinema.com/.

jo.kroeker@hearstmediact.com
MONROE  The Monroe Police Departments ninth annual Plunge at the Park, which took place Saturday, raised about $55,000 for Special Olympics Connecticut.

The event, co-sponsored by local police, fire, EMS and Special Olympics Connecticut drew 110 volunteers to dive into the waters of Great Hollow Lake, in the name of raising money and awareness for the states athletes with special needs.
STAMFORD - The site of the old police headquarters at Bedford and Hoyt streets is scheduled for an unheard-of use for a downtown acre.

Grass.

The 1955 building has been approved for demolition but the city now has no plans for the parcel except top soil and seed, Director of Administration Michael Handler said.

The only mandate now is to demolish it, remediate the land, and leave it as is until some future date when we decide what the use should be, Handler said. Some people may want to sell it, but I think its better to protect it and see what the citys needs will be down the line.

Handler said the lot  adjacent to the state courthouse on one side, the new police headquarters on the other, with large apartment complexes across the street  will not be used for two things residents may want.

It will not be a dedicated park, or dedicated for parking, he said.

The acre at the edge of downtown is too valuable for that, he said. He does not even want it to be a temporary park or parking lot, Handler said.

Once you do that, its hard to change to another use. My concern is that if people start to treat it as a neighborhood park, and the city finds a use for it five years down the road, people will feel like theyre losing something. I hate to do that to people, Handler said. The same is true for parking spaces. Once people start parking cars there, the city will never get it back from them.

Still, Handler said, I really would not want to put an ugly chain-link fence around it once it becomes a field of grass.

There is no easy way to preserve it for a future use, he said.

According to tax records, the land last year was valued at $3.3 million, though its not known what price it would fetch on the market. The city obtained the acre at no cost in 1940, tax records show.

Last week the Board of Representatives approved demolition of the old headquarters  a $4 million project that will include containing lead and asbestos known to exist in the building, and restoring the site to level ground. Mayor David Martin requested the demolition because a renovation would be cost-prohibitive, according to a letter he sent to the board.

The new $43 million, 94,000-square-foot police headquarters next door is set to open May 7, according to police.

It will have a gun range with moving targets that will be large enough to drive in a police vehicle to simulate a street shooting. It will have a lobby with 20-foot ceilings, several interview and meeting rooms, community space, and a lounge and lockers for officers. The 214-space parking garage will house the departments maintenance division and motorcycle unit.

The old headquarters was slightly more than half that size. The department so outgrew it that the training division, Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Squad, Motorcycle Unit, Bomb Squad, Special Response Team and K-9 Division had to work out of other buildings.

For years, the city provided bottled water for the building because lead levels in the drinking water were so high. Five years ago officials posted warning signs for asbestos, and hundreds of officers filed notices with the state claiming compensation for illnesses they said were brought on by the airborne fiber, which can cause cancer.

Handler said other city buildings are old, too, which is why he wants to hold onto the parcel at Bedford and Hoyt streets. One such building is Central Firehouse on Main Street.

If the fire station has to be remodeled and we need a temporary site for it during construction, we might put it at Bedford and Hoyt. Or there may be value in selling the parcel where the fire station is, and creating a public-safety complex at Bedford and Hoyt, he said. Or there may be a use Im not even thinking of.

Handler said the city has other land  he mentioned the parcels on Haig Avenue in Springdale  that it makes sense to sell.

I would put Haig Avenue up for sale as soon as possible, he said. It doesnt have value to the city.

The opposite is true for the acre at Bedford and Hoyt, he said.

I see no point in selling that because the greater worth is in the use, Handler said. There is no money to build anything right now, so I would rather wait for a few years and see what comes up.

acarella@stamfordadvocate.com; 203-964-2296.
National Coordinator of Mission 21(left) ,handing over sample of Laptop to YOP's coordinator. Whatsapp

Youth Outreach Programme(YOP) has received laptops and a printer, from Swiss Ambassador, H.E Pietro Lazzeri, through the countrys based Mission 21 nongovernmental organisation.

Cameroons national representative of the Basel Mission faith based NGO, Togho Lumumba Mukong, said he was particularly interested in YOP's programme of occupying some displaced youths or victims of the ongoing sociopolitical unrest in Bamenda, by training them in Information and Communication Technology(ICT) as well as volunteerism.

They therefore talked to the Swiss Ambassador, on YOP's activities, which pushed the diplomat to assist in his own little way.

Mr. Togho lamented over the sufferings of the population of North West and South West regions, which he says has been recorded in Switzerland and they wanted to respond in their own way

The coordinator of YOP, Omer Songwe, said it was important for these youths to move along with the changing times.

"One of the things that we have been doing, is teaching the children ICTs and we all know that the global trend is that things are moving more towards an ICT world. We are trying to get young people to be able to become ICT experts, to be able to use a gadget that is released even today, said the trainer.

He said the laptops and other gadgets will help them, since they don't have enough gadgets .

YOP is building the capacity of Young people as well as women, so that they meet up with societal demands, when the crisis comes to an end. Some of the youths attending this programme, narrated painful memories of the crisis. The case with 18 year old Nguh Valentine, who said he was beaten by armed men for daring to go to school and having a mother as a teacher. He explained how suspected secessionists stormed their residence in Ntaturu, a neighbourhood in Bamenda, and beat him up. He ran away and hasnt been to school since. He says studying ICTs, is another education path and a win-win for him.

As an objective, Mission 21 sends out a message of hope for a fairer world. All across the world, they are committed to promoting peace, improving education and healthcare, and combating poverty  especially for women; and they also carry out educational work in Switzerland. As an international institution with a long-term development cooperation programme, they are striving to attain the United Nations sustainable development goals and currently involved in over 100 projects spanning 20 countries throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America, in collaboration with more than 70 partner churches and partner organisations
FAIRFIELD  Nearly a week and a half after Attorney General William Barr sent Congress his four-page summary of special counsels Robert Mueller report, protests were coordinated nationwide April 4, calling for the release of the entire report.

Fairfield residents and activist groups werent going to be left out.

Over 60 people gathered at Fairfields Town Hall Green from 5 to 6:30 p.m., according to Fairfield resident and the events organizer Sharon Pistilli.

The bottom line is that people are learning that each one of us is a citizen of the U.S. and we have a responsibility to our democracy, Pistilli, an RTM member of District 3 and a leader of Fairfield Standing United, said.

Do not Barr the Mueller report, release it now! one of the several signs read at the April 4 event in Fairfield.

The nationwide event was organized via MoveOn, a liberal group, with the hashtag to #ReleaseTheReport. Protestors rallied in the hundreds and in the thousands in cities like Boston, Houston, Los Angeles and D.C.

Protestors also gathered in neighboring Norwalk in favor of the release of the Mueller report. Counterprotestors also showed up, incuding some who drove back and forth with a #MAGA sign on their truck and signs decrying CNN as fake news, a now typical chant at Trump rallies.

Were taking action across the country today to demand Muellers full report and underlying evidence are made public, a statement on MoveOns website read. We deserve the full report and congressional leaders and the American people expect it now.

The famed Mueller report, which was concluded in late March, has yet to be fully released.

Barrs summary noted President Donald Trumps campaign did not coordinate with Russia and no conclusion was reached on whether Trump obstructed justice.

Steve Sheinberg, chairman of the Fairfield Democratic Town Convention, called the four-page summary issued by Barr a whitewash and also supported for the release of the Mueller report.

For the event, Pistilli dressed up as Lady Liberty.

Its important to let readers know that individual citizens can have an impact, Pistilli said. Its worth it and individual people do have the power to be heard.

humberto.juarez@hearstmediact.com
FAIRFIELD  Hundreds of area residents committed to ending sexual abuse and violence will march in support of victims and survivors on April 27 during The Center for Family Justices seventh annual Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event.

For the seventh consecutive year, the event will be led by its chairman, former Fairfield Police Chief Gary MacNamara, who will walk the one mile route along Fairfields Post Road wearing a towering pair of red high heel pumps to show his support for victims and survivors of sexual violence. This year, MacNamara will slip on his heels in his new role as Director of Public Safety & Government Affairs at Fairfields Sacred Heart University.

The walk, CFJs signature event during Sexual Assault Awareness Month, has grown from just a few hundred walkers when it began in 2012 to an important community happening which last year drew more than 1,350 walkers to downtown Fairfield.

This years Walk a Mile in Her Shoes sponsor is Aquarion Water. It is presented by CFJ in collaboration with the Fairfield Police Department and CFJs White Ribbon Task Force, a group of male community leaders committed to ending domestic and sexual violence.

Proceeds from this years walk will help support Camp HOPE America-Connecticut, the first trauma-informed summer camp and year-long mentoring program in New England for children impacted by domestic and sexual violence.

This years Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event will include delegations from the police departments in the six communities CFJ serves, including Bridgeport, Easton, Fairfield, Monroe, Stratford and Trumbull. The walk will also include participants and leaders from several local corporations and area high schools and colleges.

Our walk has grown and evolved into a fun, but powerful way to send a message that men also care about ending gender-based violence, said Debra A. Greenwood, President & CEO of The Center for Family Justice. Each year, we have seen a growing awareness in the communities we serve that we all have role to play in breaking the cycles of sexual violence.

Greenwood thanked MacNamara for his continued support of the effort. Were also thrilled that under Gary MacNamaras continued leadership the walk has grown into such a meaningful display of community spirit and activism.

MacNamara said that after retiring from his role as Fairfields Chief of Police last October, many people asked him if he would continue as Walk a Mile chairman. But I didnt lead the walk because I was Fairfield Police Chief, he explains. I walk because it is important to show support for victims and survivors and to encourage the prevention of sexual assault in our communities. The question should really never be why I walk; it should be, Why dont you walk with us?

Founded in California in 2002 by community activist Frank Baird, Walk a Mile began in support of a local sexual assault crisis center. It has since grown into a world-wide movement that includes the participation of tens of thousands of adults and children. While the Fairfield event is noteworthy for the role men play in raising awareness, anyone is welcome and encouraged to participate or form a fundraising team to benefit CFJ.

This years Fairfield event begins promptly at 8 a.m. at the Fairfield Train Stations Mill Plain Road entrance. Registration begins by 7:30 a.m. The walk will conclude at Fairfields Old Town Hall, where there will be brief closing ceremonies.

This event takes place rain or shine.

To discuss team or individual participation and sponsorship opportunities please contact CFJs Chief Development Officer Robert Hojnacki at (203) 334-6154 ext. 121 or rhojnacki@centerforfamilyjustice.org of Development & Events Coordinator Chalae Satawhite at csatawhite@centerforfamilyjustice.org

To register for the walk, please visit centerforfamilyjustice.org

The Center for Family Justice Inc. (formerly The Center for Women and Families of Eastern Fairfield County Inc.), brings all domestic, sexual and child abuse services - crisis intervention, police, prosecutors, civil/legal providers, counseling - under one roof, in its headquarters in Bridgeport.. Together, it works to break the cycle of violence by helping those in crisis restore their lives.
GREENWICH  A teenager from Greenwich is facing charges of burglary and larceny in connection with a break-in the west end of town Jan. 16, police said.

The burglary was on Henry Street, according to the arrest report. Police said Darius McGrath of Armstrong Court took a music speaker from a residence after gaining entry in the early morning hours.
STAMFORD  A New Haven man celebrating his birthday at Stamfords Mystique strip club early Sunday had his own weapon turned against him as he and his son were badly wounded in a melee, police said. It was one of two assaults to take place at a Stamford strip club this weekend.

Capt. Richard Conklin said police are looking for three men who got into a fight at the Mystique Gentlemans Club with the intoxicated man celebrating his 51st birthday with his two sons. The New Haven man had his knife taken from him after he pulled it on the trio and he was stabbed in the back and the back of the head.

Conklin said the man and his son, who was also severely injured by the knife, were treated and released from Stamford Hospital.

It appears the father got quite intoxicated and at some point put hands on a dancer, which started a disturbance. He was removed from the club by security, the police captain said. At some point a black BMW pulled up and blocked their car in with three people in it and assaulted the father and one of the sons very severely. It appears the father pulled the knife to defend himself and that knife was taken from him and he was stabbed with his own knife in the back and the back of his head.

The sons, both from Fairfield, are 22 and 30 years old.

Conklin says his investigators are looking at the possibility that the disturbance earlier caused inside Mystique with the dancer might have sparked what happened a little later in the parking lot.

The black BMW appears to have targeted the man and his two sons because when the BMW pulled into the clubs parking lot, it immediately blocked the car belonging to the man and his two sons.

It seems like they were bent on attacking them, Conklin said.

Because of that, police are looking into whether the dancer may have called some friends to settle the score with the father from New Haven.

Conklin said investigators are pulling videos and talking to witnesses to see if the three are connected to dancer.

The New Haven man did not leave immediately after being kicked out of the club. He stayed for some time in the parking lot, yelling and threatening the bouncers who had thrown him out, while his sons tried to get him to leave, Conklin said.

Conklin said police are also looking into whether the actions taken by Mystique employees may have had some bearing on the incident, say, by over serving the father.

Mystique, in the past, has come under investigation by the police department, which has sent referrals about their actions to the state Liquor Control Commission.

A police investigation into the February 2017 car-crash deaths of Thomas Molgano, 20, and Lucas Salem, 20, revealed that Molgano, who was driving when he hit a tree on Hope Street, had been illegally served liquor at Mystique, Vinnys Backyard and Tracks on the same night the two died.

Also this weekend, police say a Norwalk man was struck by a car outside Harry Os Club on Selleck Street on Stamfords West Side at 1:44 a.m. Saturday.

Police said the man was walking with a club dancer on Selleck Street when a vehicle pulled up and three men got out and began chasing him. While the men chased him the driver threw the transmission into reverse and got the vehicle up to a high rate of speed before striking the man and throwing him from five to 10 feet, police said.

jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com
ZANESVILLE, Ohio  The Ohio Forestry Association (OFA) recently named James E. Beadnell of Bergholz, Ohio, the Ohio Master Logger of the Year.

Beadnell started his business in 1985 and has a reputation for doing the best job possible on his timber harvest sites.

Jeremy Scherf, ODNR service forester who nominated Beadnell for the award, shares that Beadnell frequently comments that if my job isnt right, I shouldnt be doing this at all.

The announcement was made during the OFA annual meeting, March 6-7, in Columbus. Jims wife Twila and stepson Clint Carpenter were there to share in his award acceptance.

While Beadnell does buy some of his own timber, he mostly contract cuts for DeNoon Lumber Company.

Owner Bill DeNoon has stated that Jim is one of his most reliable loggers and he does great with difficult jobs.

Master loggers

The Ohio Forestry Association maintains a safety training and voluntary certification program for logging contractors and their employees known as the Ohio Voluntary Master Logging Company Program.

The program involves training loggers in chain saw safety, Best Management Practices (BMP) for soil and water protection and first aid and CPR. Through the certification program, each logger must complete periodic re-certification keeping up to date on innovations, techniques and industry issues.

The logger is also required to be a member of a local chapter, which are regionally organized group of loggers who meet to maintain their continuing education credits and the stay abreast of timber industry issues.

Beadnell has been a member of the Steel Valley Loggers Chapter since its organization in 2000.

For more information about the chapter contact the district office at 740-264-9790 or imoore@jeffersoncountyoh.com.
Governor Okalia Bilai Bernard opens Limbe FESTAC 2019 Atia Azohnwi

The Governor of the South west region, Bernard Okalia Bilai has announced that the city of Limbe, under the stewardship of Government Delegate to the Limbe City Council, deserves the respect of the entire nation of Cameroon. Governor Okalia said this on April 6, during his key note address at the opening ceremony of the 6th edition of the Limbe Festival of Arts and Culture, Limbe FESTAC 2019.

The governor noted that since inception in 2014, the festival has continued to grow bigger and better, and it presents itself as the most unique instrument for the consolidation of peace and unity. Okalia Bilai did not only congratulate the vision bearer of Limbe FESTAC, Motanga Andrew Monjimba, but also the entire Limbe populace, who massively turned out for the event.

Going memory lane, South west governor talked about the coming of Rev Alfred Saker to Victoria in 1858, at which time he maintained there were no Anglophones/Francophones, they were simply an indigenous coastal peoplepeople who have gone ahead to constitute our country Cameroon.

Also, he urged investors and the private sector as well as internal and external elites to put more effort in investing, sponsoring and supporting the powerful initiative.

Vision bearer of Limbe FESTAC, Motanga Andrew Monjimba described the population of Limbe as friendly, peace-loving and dynamic. He greatly appreciated Governor Okalia for presiding at the ceremony for the 3rd time since inception.

Motanga mentioned that the festival has not been a bed of roses but they are ready to stay the course.

Five years on, Limbe FESTAC has become a reference festivalwe are unshakeable in our resolve to make Limbe FESTAC become not only a strong symbol but a leading and reference festival in Cameroon and well beyond our borders, he said.

He equally talked of the festivals next level - the introduction of a raffle draw. The objective is two-fold; increase a wider participation by our community members and also to increase means of self-sustainability. He went further to urge the population to buy their tickets of FCFA 1000 so as to stand a chance of winning the lofty prizes offered in the raffle draw, notably the Toyota Yaris car worth FCFA 15 million.

Going back to the reasons behind the organization of the yearly cultural jamboree, Motanga explained that The Limbe City Council, convinced that development is a wholesome process, decided to invest in our arts and culture just as it has done in other areas. We have done so because of the inherent values in our arts and culture, he explained, and urged other partners and sponsors to get on board and support the mission. He noted the efforts of partners like CDC and SONARA, as well as sponsors like Dangote Cement, for their material and financial support. He equally appreciated the entrance of Camtel, which has decided to begin partnership with the festival in this 6th edition.

Impressed with the massive crowd which turned out for the opening ceremony, Motanga pressed on that This year, more than ever before, we want to see the massive participation of each and every member of the Limbe community. Limbe FESTAC is by the people, Limbe FESTAC is for the people, Limbe FESTAC belongs to the people. Limbe FESTAC is a vivid manifestation of the peaceful co-existence of all our cultures and tribes in Limbe and here in Limbe, we live together as one, the vision bearer emphasized.

At the end of the ceremony, the authorities present, including among others the General Manager of CDC Franklin Njie, Board Chair of SONARA Bertha Ndoh, Fako East MP Gladys Etombi and other MPs, visited the various stands at the cultural village where they got to see the caliber of artifacts and products on display at Limbe FESTAC 2019.

The colour and ambiance during the opening ceremony of Limbe FESTAC 2019 proved that indeed, the festival has gone to the next level. The beautiful parade of the caravan depicting beauty, culture, history, sports, strength and spiritual battles as well as displays from neighbouring countries like Nigeria and Benin caught the attention of all present and many attested to the fact that, truly, Cameroon is Africa in miniature.

The raffle draw takes place on Friday April 12 while the festival ends on Saturday.
NFU Scotland has told the newly-appointed farming minister Robert Goodwill that ongoing Brexit uncertainty has been 'hugely damaging' to farmer confidence.

The union pressed the agricultural industrys priorities for Brexit at a meeting on an Aberdeenshire farm with Defra's new farming minister, Robert Goodwill.

Mr Goodwill, who took over the role recently following the resignation of George Eustice, toured two farms in Aberdeenshire with union officials and two Scottish MPs.

Within his role at Defra, the Minister is taking on responsibility for a wide range of issues impacting farmers  notably the governments Agriculture Bill, and scenario-planning for various possible Brexit outcomes.

During the meeting, NFU Scotland reiterated the importance of the government finding a deal with the EU that ensures continued 'free and frictionless' trade with the EU.

The union highlighted that the ongoing uncertainty of the Brexit process has been 'hugely damaging' to farmer confidence and that it is 'vital' the government and MPs consider the needs of business in getting a Withdrawal Agreement over the line.

The Minister was also warned that the import tariff schedule the government has put on the table in the event of a no-deal does not provide 'fair protection' across the agricultural sectors from market failure  urging a rethink.

Meanwhile, NFU Scotland pressed for 'urgent and accelerated engagement' from government on what it is the whole agricultural sector will require if there is to be a no-deal outcome in terms of preventing market failure and mitigating the impact for the different agricultural sectors in the event of market upheaval.

Davie Winton, North East Regional Chairman of NFU Scotland, said: Within weeks of Mr Goodwill coming into post, we have managed to get him onto farms in Scotland to discuss directly with us the key issues affecting farmers and crofters and the impact Brexit could have on them.

This meeting follows months and years of intensive lobbying by NFU Scotland since the referendum to the UK government to ensure that Brexit ensures a bright future for Scottish farmers and crofters.

He added: That means continued free and frictionless trade with the EU; the protection of domestic production standards; access to EU and non-EU workers; and a fresh, new agricultural policy that is genuinely fitted to the profile of Scottish agriculture.
Former farming minister George Eustice has said there is 'no guarantee' that the forthcoming Agriculture Bill will become law amid continued Brexit uncertainty.

The MP for Camborne and Redruth, who resigned as Defra minister last month, said the bill containing plans for agriculture policy outside the EU is under 'genuine threat'.

The bill aims to provide a range of enabling powers to ensure stability for farmers as the UK exits from the EUs Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

First published in September 2018, it sets out how farmers and land managers will in future be paid for public goods, such as better air and water quality and improved soil health.

The bill is currently awaiting a date for the report stage in the House of Commons after passing the committee stage in November last year.

However, speaking to James Somerville-Meikle from the Countryside Alliance, Mr Eustice said that there is a genuine threat that we will lose Brexit altogether and therefore future policies on agriculture and fishing may be for the birds.

He called for the UK to re-join the European Free Trade Association and maintain close regulatory alignment with the EU to try and gain consensus in parliament.

Mr Eustice served in Defra from 2013 until he resigned last month to help build a consensus in Parliament on how to leave the EU. He said he is determined to find a final settlement on this horrendous dispute that has been raging for three years.

The last three years of my life have been dedicated to crafting new Bills on fisheries and agriculture I feel desperately sad that all of that work is in danger now of being lost altogether, he said.

Meanwhile, farming leaders have welcomed a bill in parliament which, if approved by the Lords, would enshrine in law that the UK must ask the EU for a long Brexit extension.

The European Union (withdrawal) (no 5) bill, tabled by Labours Yvette Cooper and the Conservative's Oliver Letwin, passed through the House of Commons by a margin of one earlier this week.

If the bill is passed through the House of Lords, at the earliest to be expected by Monday 8 April, it would effectively rule out a no-deal Brexit.
The Farmers' Union of Wales has launched its campaign 'It's okay to talk' to shine a light on mental health issues in the farming industry.

The campaign, now in its second year, is launched in co-operation with mental health charities, spotlighting issues that can result in tragedy across the rural community.

Poor mental health continues to be the biggest health topic in the UK - one in four people have been diagnosed with a mental illness and in farming, this issue continues to be of great concern.

A recent survey shows that 81% of farmers under the age of 40 believe that mental health is the biggest hidden problem facing farmers today, and 92% believe that promoting good mental health is crucial if lives are to be saved.

Agriculture carries the highest rate of suicide of any occupation, and at this time of year the pressures of lambing, long hours working alone late into the night, with little rest and often no one to talk to, can increase the pressures on farmers.

Farmers' Union of Wales (FUW) President, Glyn Roberts said: The stiff upper lip is typical within the rural farming community and most farmers just get on with things.

Many may be hiding problems from themselves and their families and friends and talking about personal feelings is uncomfortable for.

He added: Weve faced some pretty low-points as a farming community in the last few years, TB, price volatility and, especially now, uncertainty about our future post-Brexit, which puts a strain on us all.

Now its time to break the stigma attached to mental health and remember Its okay to talk.

The union said the acronym 'A.L.G.E.E' can help people deal with those who are suffering with mental health issues.

A.L.G.E.E

A - Ask how they are feeling- asking someone if they are suicidal isnt going to make them do it. Be patient, wait for them to talk, maybe they want to talk to someone else.

L - Listen, the most important thing. Dont be judgemental, treat them with respect. Show you really care, that you see things from their point of view. The touch of a hand or a hug can go a long way.

G - Give reassurance - these feelings can be overcome, things can and do change. Help is out there and there is hope

E - Encourage them to get professional help.

E - Encourage self help, give practical support and help with any extra pressure. What to do if they have suicidal feelings - who to contact, what to do.
Police are appealing for more information after a pregnant sheep was shot and killed by thugs in North Yorkshire.

The incident happened between 10pm on Monday 1 April 2019 and around 10am the following day in Kirkby Malham near Skipton.

The sheep was in a field with the rest of its flock near to an area known as Acraplatts.

The sheep, who was pregnant at the time, has died from her injuries along with her lambs.

North Yorkshire Police are now appealing for witnesses and information following the incident.

As part of their enquiries officers are appealing to anyone who has any information about the incident or saw any suspicious activity in the area.

It follows a similar incident in February earlier this year in Derbyshire, when a gunman shot a sheep in the face leaving the vet with no other option but to put it down.

Data shows rural crime cost the UK 44.5m in 2017 with the future trend showing a rise in this form of crime as thieves become more brazen as they target the countryside.

Anyone with any information that could assist the investigation should contact North Yorkshire Police on 101, select option 2, and ask for CHRIS TIDMARSH. You can also email christopher.tidmarsh@northyorkshire.pnn.police.uk.

If you wish to remain anonymous, you can pass information to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Please quote the North Yorkshire Police reference number 12190059254.
A new benchmarking project for Scottish arable farmers will analyse the actual costs per crop to give businesses a more accurate picture.

The year-long pilot project will analyse machinery and labour costs alongside variable inputs to give farming businesses a greater understanding of true costs per crop.

It will combine the findings of the data with lean management tools to help maximise the margins of 25 arable farming businesses in central and North-East Scotland.

The project, spearheaded by 4sight Farming, has been funded by the Scottish government and the EU.

Eric Anderson, senior agronomist with Scottish Agronomy, who initiated the project in partnership with four other organisations, said farmers' data 'must work for them in the future' amid continued uncertainty.

As much as 53% of wheat production costs are associated with machinery, fuel and labour inputs, yet there are no large-scale benchmarking projects that deliver an accurate picture of these costs per crop, he explained.

By attributing fixed machinery and labour hours to each block of land, it will be clearer to farm business owners where efficiencies can be made, and, when combined with lean management tools, create opportunity to transform fixed costs for greater margins.

He said that with no clear commitment from the Scottish government on the transitional changes after the UK leaves the EU, it is 'more important than ever' for farmers to have a 'full understanding' of their business costs.

This could be the difference between a farming business being fit for the future and struggling to make it work, he said.

Any part of the business that is using resources but is not adding to the end product needs to be analysed and corrected, Mr Anderson said.

He explained how the data produced from the project combined with lean management can change a farming business.

Figures show that with the loss of BPS payments, 40% of wheat-growing land  and 60% of land for other combinable crops and potatoes  will not yield enough to cover actual production costs.

A lean management approach could be merging blocks of land to reduce movement between fields or simply widening a gateway so a combine can move independently between fields without the cost of labour and fuel for a tractor and trailer to deliver the header, he said.

As well as analysis of the data they gather, all 25 farmers involved will benefit from workshops on lean management, financial planning and data protection workshops.

George Noble of SAOS, which works with farming cooperatives across Scotland, said that the status quo is 'unsustainable' and will be 'exacerbated', and farmers need to make effective decisions based on the data available to them.

This project will allow farmers to make more informed decisions and also demonstrates the potential of co-operation and collaboration to achieve what would be impossible to resource and fund as an individual, he said.
British dairy will take centre stage at a major food event in Canada as figures show exports of cheese to the country are increasing.

A selection of high-quality dairy products from the UK will arrive at SIAL Toronto at the end of April.

The premier food innovation event will see more than 18,000 visitors attend from more than 50 countries.

Latest figures show UK cheese exports are enjoying a period of strong growth. Overall, 2018 saw volumes increase by 11 per cent compared to the previous year  mostly due to higher cheddar exports, which were up 14 per cent.

In terms of value, cheese exports were worth 10 per cent more than in 2017, with cheddar contributing most to this growth.

Shipments to Canada have also risen over the last three years. The UK exported a total of 1,451 tonnes of cheese to the country last year.

During the three-day event in Toronto, visitors will be able to sample the delights of Cheddar, Wensleydale, Lancashire and Stilton, among others.

Levy-board AHDB is returning to the event and will be joined by four British dairy producers; Bradburys, Somerdale, Quickes and Singletons.

As well as showcasing cheese, the event will provide exporters with the opportunity to meet with key influencers and potential buyers from the Canadian retail and food service sectors.

AHDB Senior Export Manager, Lucy Randolph said: SIAL Canada is an incredibly important event for industry as it is highly regarded by buyers around the world. It provides us with the perfect place to showcase the premium quality cheese we are producing in the UK.

She added: We are seeing exports of cheese to Canada increasing, but there is still the opportunity for further growth. This is why attending events such as SIAL Canada is imperative if we are to increase trade with this important market.

The dairy industry is looking to increase exports to countries outside the European Union amid ongoing Brexit negotiations.

Latest figures show that UK dairy exports increased last year but with most products going to the European Union.
The Welsh government is being warned that farmers 'remain concerned' over major proposals to shake up public land access.

Proposals include changes to current restrictions on Countryside Rights of Way (CRoW) access land to allow organised games, camping, hang-gliding and para-gliding on all access land.

But farming unions fear the proposals buried within the consultation 'Sustainable Management of Natural Resources' (SMNR) will have major repercussions for farmers.

Deputy Minister for Housing & Local Government, Hannah Blythyn AM, said on Friday (5 April) that the government will progress significant changes to access rights and facilitate an assumption of non-motorised multi-use on access land and the public rights of way network.

This will provide the public, such as cyclists and horse riders, with many more opportunities to access the outdoors.

The Minister also confirmed that minor technical reforms will be progressed as soon as a suitable legislative vehicle can be identified, including enforcing placing dogs on a short fixed lead in the vicinity of livestock at all times of year and amending the technical provisions around creating, diverting and extinguishing rights of way.

She also announced that an independent Access Reform Group will be established to consider in detail how the more significant changes to access rights should be implemented including multi-use paths and reducing restrictions on open access land.

But NFU Cymru Rural Affairs Board Chairman, Hedd Pugh said there are concerns for farmers, namely surrounding changes to multi-use access rights on public rights of way and access land.

Changes could see thrill-seekers, as the Minister has described them, being granted increased rights on farmland across Wales. It is important to recognise that access is not always responsible and it is farm businesses across Wales who bear a disproportionate burden of this, he said.

Mr Pugh added that the proposals also do little to address farmers fears that they could end up incurring increased costs and liabilities as a result of extended access.

Most farmers will be able to tell you of cases where anti-social behaviour and dog worrying, for example, has had an emotional and financial impact on their farm and yet they are the ones left holding the bill, he said.

Farmers understand better than most the positive benefits of time spent outdoors in our wonderful Welsh countryside. Farmers manage over 80% of the land area of Wales, providing the backdrop for the Welsh tourism industry, and Wales is already home to more public rights of way per square km than any other UK nation.

He added: We want the public to enjoy access to the great outdoors, but this must be managed in a manner that is safe for the custodians of the land and access users.
Uh-oh! It could be you, or it could be us, but there's no page here.
Ayuk Tabe au tribunal Facebook

Today, Monday April 8, 2019 promises to be another tense and stormy day at the Yaounde Military Court the trial of separatist leader Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe and nine other members of his team resumes.

Locals in the two Anglophone regions work up to a ghost town day with spades of gunshots reported in some parts of Buea. This comes on the heels of Sundays gunshots that rented the air in some parts of Buea, including the student residential areas of Molyko. When the Ambazonia leaders are appearing in court, the masses in Cameroons North West and South West regions are forced to stay under lcok and key for fear of the unknown.

Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, Tassang Wilfred, Nfor Ngala Nfor, Dr Henry Kimeng, Dr Cornelius Kwanga, Dr Fidelis Che, Prof Awasum Augustine, Dr Egbe Ogork, Barristers Eyambe Elias and Shufai Blaise are standing trial for their role in the unrest that has enveloped Cameroons North West and South West regions.

The tension in court between the new judge Misse Njone and the defense team is expected to reach a palpitating crescendo given that the collapse last Friday March 29, 2019 of one of the suspects, Barrister Elias Eyambe forcing the judge to adjourn for today.

During the last appearance, Misse Njone first identified all ten detainees, read out their charges and went on to arraign them. He asked whether or not they were guilty of the charges leveled against them.

It was Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe, leader of the self-proclaimed state of Ambazonia who replied thus: I cannot answer that question. The defense team would then weigh in to oppose an attempt to arraign the suspects. They argued that the accused persons cannot be arraigned before a panel of judges consisting of two assessors  Ngouongue and Edou Mewoutou Armand  who had previously been recused.

The team of lawyers defending the Ambazonia leaders said they had filed an appeal against an earlier ruling passed by the previous presiding judge, Colonel Mem Michel. The judge had ruled that all the accused persons will be judged in Yaounde even when the defense team had argued that their clients are either refugees or asylum seekers. They said a mandamus for the military tribunal to transfer the case file to the Appeal Court had been filed.

Military judge Misse Njone denied seeing a copy of the said appeal even though the defense lawyers would insist that the court had been served with three copies of the appeal file. It is at this point that the judge suspended proceedings, resuming after about an hour.

When the judge questioned the quality of the appeal, the lawyers fired back. This exchange again necessitated another suspension of the hearing for well over four hours.

As the went tarried on, Barrister Eyambe collapsed, apparently due to the midday heat that was very much felt in the courtroom. A medical team from the clinic at the military tribunal only showed up thirty minutes later after some family members and friends had aided him to regain consciousness.

After putting Barrister Eyambe through a routine first aid procedure, he was then taken to the clinic for intensive care.

Colonel Engono Thadee Constant, military prosecutor at the Yaounde Military Tribunal is said to have cautioned members of the defense counsel to be responsible, avoid any unnecessary blockade and allow the case to take its normal course.

Four hours later, all were back in the courtroom for the session to resume except Barrister Eyambe Elias who was still on his sick bed.

After a four hour break, the judge would then order that the matter be adjourned April 8 on grounds that the matter cannot go ahead in the absence of one of the accused persons, Eyambe who was still on his sick bed.
Here's What Anupam Kher Tweeted

''So some people from my fraternity have issued a letter for public to vote out the present constitutionally elected government in the coming elections. In other words they are officially campaigning for opposition parties. Good!! At least there are no pretensions here. Great.''

Swara Bhaskar Hits Back Saying 'It's Called Democracy'

''Yes, it's called democracy sir :) :) :) Bharat Mata ki Jai!''

Anupam Kher Agreed To What Swara Bhaskar Said...

''Agreed!!! As long as it is not confused with #Intolerance when others use it. Jai Ho and Jai Hind.''

Alia Bhatt's Mother Soni Razdan Hits Back At Anupam Kher

''Anupam if you can align yourself to the present Govt why would you think others doing the same is any different? Just curious.''

Anupam Kher Replies To Soni Razdan

Anupam Kher replied to Soni Razdan by saying, ''Dearest Soni! It was an observation. Not a complaint.'
'Sudeep Is Very Special To Me'

While talking to First News Kannada, Ragini said, " I would like to thank each and every actor I have worked with. But, Sudeep is very special to me. When I first started working with him, I didn;t know a single word from Kannada. I didn't know how to act or danc

She Didn't Know Who He Was!

Ragini further added, " I didn't know who Sudeep was when I made entry to the industry. He was the one who taught me how to act when we started shooting for Madakari. The Ragini you've seen in the film is exactly the female version of Sudeep."

Ragini Hates These People

When asked to share a few difficulties she faced during her Sandalwood journey, Ragini said, "I am a very bold person, therefore, I haven't faced any such obstacles. But, I have seen people with double standards. The ones that play games exist everywhere. I feel like beating them up. Otherwise, I have not had any other issues."

Her Career So Far

The 28-year-old actress has featured in other regional films too besides Kannada. She's acted in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi movies. Also, she's been nominated a couple of times for Filmfare Award under Best Actress category.
On JDS' Comment

When asked what he has to say about JDS's comment on Sumalatha's caste, Yash said, "The ones that lack common sense tend to say such things. A woman becomes a part of the family she's married. She can't be called an outcast or Naidu only because the elections are nearing. The fact that she belongs to Amabreesh's family wouldn't change.

A Disgrace To All Women

"The comment they have made is a disgrace to all women. Sumalatha is Ambareesh's wife. She's Mandya's daughter-in-law. It is extremely wrong on their part to be saying such things about a woman," he further added.

Unwanted Attention

The actor also spoke about the politicians taking a dig at them for the involvement in politics despite belonging to the film industry. He said, "If they feel we can't achieve much, they should stay quiet. Looks like they are time and again saying things to get unwanted attention."

'These words will remain'

"I have seen how these politicians were close to Ambareesh, once upon a time. You shouldn't ruin relationships. These words will remain on our minds even if the relationship breaks. Elections come and go. I request them to refrain from making such comments," he told First News Kannada.

Yash On Kumaraswamy's Mockery

Addressing what HD Kumaraswamy had said about him and Darshan, Yash said, "I do not have the capacity to understand what the CM of Karnataka HD Kumaraswamy is trying to say. Maybe the public can. Let the public decide who has cheated and who is being fair."
"Most organisations would like to provide their employees with a regular income in retirement rather than a flexible pensions pot. "

One in eight participants thought it was likely or very likely that their organisation would provide CDC benefits in the next six years, provided the required legislation is passed.

The government recently approved plans to make CDC pensions more widely available. CDC schemes, which are already popular in Denmark and the Netherlands, pay out a regular income from a collective fund rather than producing an individual 'pension pot'.

Willis Towers Watson's research found that although the majority of firms offer an individual DC arrangement for their employees, 66% would prefer to offer a pension providing a regular income throughout retirement, rather than a pensions pot.

The organisations expecting to provide CDC by 2025 currently have a range of pension arrangements in place - DB, DC or a mixture of the two. This indicates that initial appetite for CDC could come from employers with a variety of current arrangements, not just those with a DB arrangement and in a similar position to Royal Mail (who have committed to provide CDC when legislated for).

Around a third of participants (34%) thought that their scheme members would struggle to understand the nature and variability of CDC pensions. This was a key theme in the Governments response, which admitted that "misunderstanding around the nature of CDC benefits will be the single biggest risk a scheme will face".

The Government plans to enable a variety of different CDC structures and designs such as master trusts or other multi-employer solutions. Over half the participants in the poll (58%) thought master trusts would be the most suitable form of delivery for their organisation.

Simon Eagle, senior drector in Willis Towers Watsons retirement business, said: New things usually take time to catch on. While only a minority of organisations are expecting to be part of the first wave of Collective Defined Contribution benefit provision, our data shows that most organisations would like to provide their employees with a regular income in retirement rather than a flexible pensions pot. This suggests there may be further appetite for CDC provision in the longer term.
Professor Fiona Wood, co-inventor of the RECELL System, described her experience treating more than 3,500 patients using RECELL and resulting benefits, including reduced time to healing and decreased length of hospitalization

The publication of the RECELL System pivotal trial in the treatment of second-degree burns was selected as a top journal publication for 2018

AVITA Medical (ASX: AVH, OTCQX: AVMXY), a global regenerative medicine company, announced that interim results describing clinical outcomes for pediatric patients treated using the RECELL System were presented at the American Burn Association (ABA) 51st Annual Meeting in Las Vegas by Jeffrey Carter, MD, FACS University Medical Center New Orleans Burn Center and LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine. Patients enrolled in the Investigational Device Exemption (IDE), Compassionate Use and Continued Access studies had mixed-depth and full-thickness (third-degree) burns and were treated with the combination of Spray-On Skin Cells prepared using the RECELL system and widely meshed autografts. Patients in the studies experienced excellent healing outcomes, with 98% of wounds healed four weeks after treatment. Dr. Carter's presentation describing the treatment of pediatric patients was selected as a "Best of the Best Abstract" out of more than 500 abstract submissions to the ABA meeting.

Another one of the ten presentations related to the RECELL System at the ABA meeting was a long-term review of patient outcomes by the co-inventor of the technology, Professor Fiona Wood, AM, Burns Service of Western Australia, Fiona Stanley and Perth Children's Hospitals. Professor Wood described her experience treating more than 3,500 patients with burns and other cutaneous injuries. In addition, the 2018 publication of the RECELL System pivotal trial in second-degree burns in the Journal of Burn Care Research was recognized during the "The Year in Review: The Top Journal Publications" session of the ABA meeting.

The RECELL System uses a small amount of a patient's own skin to prepare Spray-On Skin Cells at the point of care in as little as 30 minutes, providing a new way to treat thermal burns. The RECELL System was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in September 2018 for the treatment of acute thermal burns in patients 18 years and older. The pediatric presentation includes a class of patients that fall outside of the currently approved U.S. product labeling. Healthcare professionals should read the INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE RECELL Autologous Cell Harvesting Device (https://recellsystem.com/) for a full description of indications for use and important safety information, including contraindications, warnings and precautions.

Best of the Best Abstract Pediatric Burn Care

Dr. Carter presented data showing that 98% of mixed-depth/full-thickness burn Injuries in pediatric patients treated using Spray-On Skin Cells in combination with widely spaced meshed autografts were healed within four weeks of treatment. The presentation, titled "Evaluation of a Pediatric Population Treated for Burn Injuries Using an Autologous Skin Cell Suspension: Interim Analysis," described the interim outcomes for 23 pediatric patients with a median age of 6.7 years old (ranging from 0.8 to 16.0) treated under FDA-IDE approved Compassionate Use and Continued Access programs. In patients with extensive burn injuries, lack of available donor skin is a major limitation achieving permanent closure; and the longer a wound remains open, the more susceptible a patient is to infection. In the U.S., one-third of burn injuries occur in children, and the availability of donor skin for traditional meshed autografts is even more limited in pediatric patients with extensive injuries. The use of the RECELL System, a donor skin sparing technology that enables rapid definitive closure of burn wounds, has the potential to improve patient outcomes.

In this study of pediatric patients which included those with life-threatening thermal burn injuries, Spray-On Skin Cells prepared using the RECELL System were applied in combination with widely meshed split-thickness autografts to achieve definitive closure using minimal donor skin. A total of 107 burn injuries were treated in the study, and 98% achieved definitive healing within four weeks of treatment. Importantly, for patients with greater than 50% total body surface area (TBSA) burns, treatment with the combination of Spray-On Skin Cells and widely meshed split-thickness autografts achieved the same high rate of healing at week four as patients with smaller burns (burns equal to or less than 50% TBSA) treated with the same combination. In addition, in the study the donor sites on all patients were treated with Spray-On Skin Cells, and 62.5% of the donor sites were healed within a week of treatment, and 100% were completely healed within two weeks of treatment.

"This interim analysis supports the use of the RECELL System as a viable option for treatment in these deeper burn injuries in pediatric patients," said Dr. Carter. "In this vulnerable patient population, we observed excellent clinical outcomes with 98% of wounds healing within four weeks of treatment, and with the majority of burn sites having cosmetic outcomes rated as satisfactory or equivalent compared to uninjured skin. The early healing of donor sites contributed to a decrease between harvest times for patients with limited donor skin availability."

Co-Inventor of the RECELL System Describes More than Ten Years of Experience with the RECELL System

Professor Wood described her long-term experience treating more than 3,500 patients using the RECELL System in a presentation titled "10 years of clinical experience using point of care non cultured autologous skin cell suspension harvested using the RECELL System." Professor Wood, the co-inventor of the technology forming the basis for the RECELL System, provided an analysis of the long-term impact of the integration of the RECELL System as the standard of care in a health system providing burn care to a population of 2.6 million in Western Australia. For more than a decade, the RECELL System was used in the treatment of more than 3,500 patients, 90% of which had acute burn injuries, 9% were treated for scar revision, and 1% had other wounds. More than 700 of these patients were pediatric patients, with approximately 50% suffering scald injuries.

"Our use of cell-based therapies which ultimately evolved into the RECELL System was driven by our desire to reduce the time to healing and improve the outcomes for our burn patients. The quality of life must be worth the pain of survival," said Professor Wood. "Treatment using the RECELL System was associated with a reduction in the number of surgical procedures, earlier intervention, and reduction in time to healing and length of stay. The RECELL System facilitated early intervention and wound healing as a solo treatment in partial-thickness injuries, and in combination with traditional techniques in deeper injuries with limited donor sites. Using a cumulative outcome index, intervention within one week of injury was associated with significantly improved outcome at three months which was maintained at one-year post injury."

ABOUT AVITA MEDICAL LIMITED

AVITA Medical is a regenerative medicine company with a technology platform positioned to address unmet medical needs in burns, chronic wounds and aesthetics indications. AVITA Medical's patented and proprietary collection and application technology provides innovative treatment solutions derived from the regenerative properties of a patient's own skin. The medical devices work by preparing Spray-On Skin Cells, an autologous suspension comprised of the patient's skin cells necessary to regenerate natural healthy epidermis. This autologous suspension is then sprayed onto the areas of the patient requiring treatment.

AVITA Medical's first U.S. product, the RECELL System, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in September 2018. The RECELL System is indicated for use in the treatment of acute thermal burns in patients 18 years and older. The RECELL System is used to prepare Spray-On Skin Cells using a small amount of a patient's own skin, providing a new way to treat severe burns, while significantly reducing the amount of donor skin required. The RECELL System is designed to be used at the point of care alone or in combination with autografts depending on the depth of the burn injury. Compelling data from randomized, controlled clinical trials conducted at major U.S. burn centers and real-world use globally, reinforce that the RECELL System is a significant advancement over the current standard of care for burn patients and offers benefits in clinical outcomes and cost savings. Healthcare professionals should read the INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE RECELL Autologous Cell Harvesting Device (https://avitamedical.com) for a full description of indications for use and important safety information, including contraindications, warnings and precautions.

Funding and technical support for the development of the RECELL System is provided by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), under the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, under ongoing USG Contract No. HHSO100201500028C. Programs funded under the BARDA contract include two randomized, controlled pivotal clinical trials, the Compassionate Use and Continued Access programs, development of the health economic model demonstrating the cost savings associated with the RECELL System, and two randomized, controlled clinical trials in pediatric burn patients.

In international markets, AVITA Medical's products are marketed under the RECELL System brand to promote skin healing in a wide range of applications including burns, acute wounds, scars and vitiligo. The RECELL System is TGA-registered in Australia and CFDA-cleared in China.

To learn more, visit www.avitamedical.com.

CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This letter includes forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of words such as "anticipate," "expect," "intend," "could," "may," "will," "believe," "estimate," "look forward," "forecast," "goal," "target," "project," "continue," "outlook," "guidance," "future," other words of similar meaning and the use of future dates. Forward-looking statements in this letter include, but are not limited to, statements concerning, among other things, our ongoing clinical trials and product development activities, regulatory approval of our products, the potential for future growth in our business, and our ability to achieve our key strategic, operational and financial goal. Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain. Each forward- looking statement contained in this letter is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statement. Applicable risks and uncertainties include, among others, the timing of regulatory approvals of our products; physician acceptance, endorsement, and use of our products; failure to achieve the anticipated benefits from approval of our products; the effect of regulatory actions; product liability claims; risks associated with international operations and expansion; and other business effects, including the effects of industry, economic or political conditions outside of the company's control. Investors should not place considerable reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this letter. Investors are encouraged to read our publicly available filings for a discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements in this letter speak only as of the date of this release, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any of these statements.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190407005041/en/

Contacts:

U.S. Media

Sam Brown, Inc.

Christy Curran

Phone: +1-615-414-8668

christycurran@sambrown.com

O.U.S. Media

Monsoon Communications

Sarah Kemter

Phone: +61 (0)3 9620 3333

Mobile: +61 (0)407 162 530

sarahk@monsoon.com.au

Investors:

Westwicke Partners

Caroline Corner

Phone: +1-415-202-5678

caroline.corner@westwicke.com

AVITA Medical Ltd

Dale A. Sander

Chief Financial Officer

Phone: +1-661-367-9178

dsander@avitamedical.com
SINGAPORE and MANILA, Philippines, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Excelity Global, one of the largest Payroll providers in the Asia Pacific region, today announced launch of its collaboration with the Philippines' leading digital wallet company GCash. It offers the employers and the employees HCM services and disbursement of salaries and reimbursements in their GCash account. The combined technology of Excelity and GCash gives users a seamless experience from their payroll needs to disbursement of salaries and their shopping experience on the wallet market place with a single touch journey.

GCash in turn offers the employees added benefits such as promos, cash backs, discounts, access to wallet market place, shopping to financial services to loans, insurance, and more. Users have given a big thumbs-up to this as their payroll partner now is not limited to their professional arena (from payslip to attendance) but also beyond this and thus helping them fulfil their needs with a touch on their phone and giving them extended benefits from their digital wallet partner.

"With two out of three Filipinos unbanked, and with no formal access to credit, GCash offers solutions that gives the nation financial convenience, whether it's from simply buying load, to sending money anywhere in the Philippines, and even with shopping online or using QR codes. These features are directly integrated with Excelity's payroll clients through the GCash App and the GCash Mastercard," said Anthony Thomas, President and CEO of Mynt. "We're very happy that Excelity Global have partnered with us," he added. Mynt is the operating company of GCash.

GCash will also be offering Excelity's SaaS-based HR/Payroll platform to all their enterprise clients to enable the Payroll to Payout program extensively. Excelity's experience in serving 1.2 million employees per month will now become affordable to every SME in Philippines.

Jeya Kumar, Executive Chairman, Excelity Global, said, "We have invested heavily in the technology to create an environment that is loved by the employers and employees. Last year, we launched cloud-based ExcelityHCM, which has received a very good response from the industry. Now we intend to extend this experience further for users as the world moves from offline to online and move our focus from UX to EX. We and our partner, GCash, believe that this will disrupt how payroll has been done historically and not only for users but employers also tend to benefit from this as it adds to employee value proposition. Excelity Global is proud to be the first company in Asia Pacific to rollout a payroll to payout program.

Kumar added that Excelity will now be rolling out their Payroll to Payout offering in Japan, Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and India in the next three quarters.

About GCash

GCash is the Philippines' first and leading mobile money wallet. Through the GCash App, customers can easily purchase prepaid airtime; pay bills at over 400 partner billers nationwide; send and receive money anywhere in the Philippines; pay using QR codes at over 40,000 partner merchants; and invest money at money market funds through the convenience of their smartphone.

GCash have lead the fintech services industry since its establishment in 2015. These advancements were made possible by the innovative culture of the company and its unending commitment to provide finance for all. GCash is a subsidiary of Mynt (Globe Fintech Innovations, Inc).

For more information, visit http://www.gcash.com. For social media and promos, visit facebook.com/gcashofficial, twitter.com/gcashofficial, and instagram.com/gcashofficial.

About Excelity Global

Headquartered in Singapore, Excelity Global Solutions is the Asia's largest HCM solutions service provider with more than 20 years' experience, working with close to 500 clients across 20 countries in the Asia Pacific region. A leading HR outsourcing partner in the region, Excelity Global has payroll delivery centers set up in Singapore, India, China, Malaysia and Philippines; and takes pride in delivering more than 1.2 million payslips a month. Excelity Global operates its proprietary payroll platform in 14 countries in the Asia Pacific region, delivered through Managed Service and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) models.

For more information, visit https://www.excelityglobal.com/

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/698357/Excelity_Logo.jpg
Forbes Ventures Plc - Notice of AGM

8 April 2019

FORBES VENTURES

("Forbes" or the "Company")

Notice of Annual General Meeting

Forbes announces that Notice convening an annual general meeting of the Company, to be held at 9.00 am on 2 May 2019 at Room 3, The Helix Rooms, Alderley Park, Alderley Edge, Cheshire SK10 4TF, was posted to shareholders in the Company on 6 April 2019.

A copy of the Notice is available on the Company's website at www.forbesventures.co.uk.

The Directors of Forbes accept responsibility for the contents of this announcement.

ENDS

For further information, please contact:
Sodexo expands its UK home care business with the acquisition of The Good Care Group

Paris / London, April 08, 2019 - Sodexo, world leader in Quality of Life services, announces the acquisition of The Good Care Group, a leading player in the live-in care market in the UK.

Founded in 2009, The Good Care Group provides tailored live-in care services to consumers, in their homes, who require assistance to live independently, or, have complex care needs. It is one of the few businesses of its type to be rated 'Outstanding' by the Care Quality Commission in the UK.

The acquisition enables Sodexo, present in the UK home care market through Prestige Nursing + Care, to expand its offer, while meeting the needs and preferences of consumers by providing high quality live-in care services, with the expertise to tailor the care for those individuals living with dementia or other specialist conditions.

As the growing aging population seeks more personalized and more personable care solutions, that often means staying in the home. With this acquisition, Sodexo is expanding its services in the UK live-in care market and will be ranked second nationally in the live-in care market and among the top five in the private-paid care market.

Following the acquisition, Jonathan Bruce, currently Managing Director of Prestige Nursing + Care, will become CEO of Sodexo's home care business in the UK, supported by Belinda Berkeley, currently Managing Director of the Good Care Group, as Managing Director. Together they will lead the strategic development of Sodexo's UK home care business comprised of Prestige Nursing + Care and The Good Care Group. Dominique Kent, currently COO of The Good Care Group, will lead the continued growth of The Good Care Group as Managing Director and continue her role as Vice Chair of the UK Home Care Association.

Sarosh Mistry, CEO Sodexo Home Care Worldwide, said: "Both Sodexo and The Good Care Group share a common mission to help our consumers age in their homes as independently and comfortably as possible. This cultural alignment is key to Sodexo and it is its core values that makes The Good Care Group such a natural fit into Sodexo's Worldwide Home Care business. The Good Care Group has built a very successful business in the UK, based on delivering high quality live-in care. Together, we see tremendous opportunity to offer a choice of home care solutions to consumers with complex care needs."





Fiona Lowry, CEO of The Good Care Group said: "The Good Care Group mission is to provide the highest quality home care services, enabling people to enjoy staying in their own homes and community for as long as possible. We are proud to have enhanced the quality of life for many consumers in the UK. Now as a part of Sodexo, we have a shared commitment to improving the quality of life of those we serve and expanding the care we can provide."





About Sodexo

Founded in Marseille in 1966 by Pierre Bellon, Sodexo is the global leader in services that improve Quality of Life, an essential factor in individual and organizational performance. Operating in 72 countries, Sodexo serves 100 million consumers each day through its unique combination of On-site Services, Benefits and Rewards Services and Personal and Home Services. Sodexo provides clients an integrated offering developed over more than 50 years of experience: from foodservices, reception, maintenance and cleaning, to facilities and equipment management; from services and programs fostering employees' engagement to solutions that simplify and optimize their mobility and expenses management, to in-home assistance, child care centers and concierge services. Sodexo's success and performance are founded on its independence, its sustainable business model and its ability to continuously develop and engage its 460,000 employees throughout the world.

Sodexo is included in the CAC 40, FTSE 4 Good and DJSI indices.

Key figures (as of August 31, 2018)



20.4 billion euro in consolidated revenues



460,000 employees



19th largest private employer worldwide



72 countries



100 million consumers served daily



14 billion euro in market capitalization (as of January 22, 2019)

About The Good Care Group

The Good Care Group was founded in the UK in 2009 with a vision of becoming the leading provider of high-quality home care services that enable people to live well in their home for longer. The Good Care Group delivers live-in care 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Care is delivered at the home of the consumers and its business philosophy is focused on its commitment to delivering quality care to those who need assistance to live independently, are dealing with debilitating or serious health conditions.

The Good Care Group operates under two brands: The Good Care Group and Oxford Aunts.

The Good Care Group is registered with the UK government regulators - the Care Quality Commission (CQC) - and is rated OUTSTANDING, the highest possible rating.

With around 1050 employees, The Good Care Group has an annual revenue of 32M (FY18).

Contacts

Media Investors Mathieu Scaravetti

Tel: +33 1 57 75 81 28

mathieu.scaravetti@sodexo.com (mailto:mathieu.scaravetti@sodexo.com)

Virginia Jeanson

Tel: +33 1 57 75 80 56

virginia.jeanson@sodexo.com (mailto:virginia.jeanson@sodexo.com)



Attachment
TAKING A SHOT FOR GOOD TO RAISE FUNDS FOR SIR RICHARD BRANSON'S VIRGIN UNITE

TO HELP THE YOUTH OF HURRICANE DAMAGED VIRGIN GORDA

SAN FRANCISCO, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- At PLAE, the mission of the company is to encourage everyone to play, no matter their age. But in certain parts of the world, people don't even have access to play - because their everyday community is focused on survival. On the island of Virgin Gorda, in the British Virgin Islands, the community is still rebuilding nearly two years after Hurricane Irma - and the youth of the island have been left with few resources for their after-school development.

PLAE kicks off GAME OF THROWS - a fun and simple social challenge to encourage people around the world to "Take a Shot" for the kids of Virgin Gorda. For everyone who posts a video of themselves shooting any kind of ball into any kind of basket, and tags @goplae GameOfThrows, PLAE will donate $1* to Virgin Unite for its projects on Virgin Gorda in support of creative activities in art, dance, music and sports.

"I met frontline humanitarian leader Linda Cruse, while she was running her Race4Good event during a recent trip to Necker Island," explains founder and chief designer Ryan Ringholz. "I was incredibly moved by the experience and wanted to collaborate on this effort. Linda introduced us to Virgin Unite who, alongside its partners, are doing incredible work in the BVI. Leveraging PLAE's creativity with Linda's expertise to help solve real world challenges and using play as a tool of engagement for social good is a win-win-win for all."

Anyone who wants to play GameOfThrows can support Virgin Gorda via several avenues:

They can post and tag their video on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter

They can use code VIRGINGORDA at checkout and PLAE will donate 10% of net sales

at checkout and PLAE will donate 10% of net sales They can donate directly at https://virg.in/SupportVirginGorda

"We believe deeply in the power of play to effect change at the individual level and on a global scale," adds Ringholz. "Linda's leadership and dedication to these worldwide challenges are inspiring and we look forward to empowering people to participate in real change through this collaboration."

PLAE's Game of Throws Challenge ends April 30, 2019.

* $1 per video posted, up to $10K.

*PLAE will be fundraising for Virgin Unite and its projects focused on supporting local communities and the long-term reconstruction of the BVI, in the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Virgin Unite will fund, support and work with local partners on the ground. Virgin Unite and its trustees retain ultimate discretion over the donation and control as to which specific projects and charities those funds are used to support. In the unlikely event that Virgin Unite cannot use the funds for these purposes or if there are surplus funds Virgin Unite may use donations received to support the other important work of Virgin Unite.

ABOUT PLAE

PLAE is the next-gen global lifestyle brand that enables people to be who they are and do what they love. We believe fervently in the power of play and are driven by the desire to make play accessible to everyone, regardless of age or ability. With fun as our north star, we approach challenges through the lens of kid-thinking, forgetting about what is or isn't possible and focusing on making products that look great, feel amazing, and do good. PLAE It Forward is just the beginning of how, together, we can effect real change. PLAE is sold exclusively online and at Nordstrom. For more information visit www.plae.co.

ABOUT LINDA CRUSE

Linda is a frontline humanitarian, leadership expert, author and inspirational speaker. In the late 1990s, temporary blindness brought on by stress forced Linda to reassess her life. This incident was Linda's wake-up call and the catalyst for real change. Within months Linda sold everything she owned, took a leap of faith and started a new life as an international humanitarian. Since 2005, Linda has taken her leadership experience and developed unique leadership programs for business, programs specifically designed to develop emerging leaders and attract top talent.

ABOUT VIRGIN UNITE

Virgin Unite is the entrepreneurial non-profit foundation of the Virgin Group and the Branson family, which focuses on collaborative impact for the long run. They work across a range of issues such as environment, entrepreneurship, the future of business, health, criminal justice, and equality for all. Together with some great partners, they have inspired and incubated a number of wonderful collaborations - like The Elders, Ocean Unite, Carbon War Room, The B Team and The Branson Centre for Entrepreneurship - which have spurred much needed change in the world. Since Hurricane Irma, Virgin Unite alongside its partners on the ground have supported many charitable projects and initiatives across the BVI.

CONTACT: Dana Sarbeck

WILDFIRE PUBLIC RELATIONS

M: (213) 361-8166

dana@wildfirepublicrelations.com

Video - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/847735/Plae_GameofThrows_2019_0404_v3_4.mp4
Nfon Victor Mukete Archives

It was a dramatic scene as Senators met in plenary, Friday night to examine and adopt the bill on decentralization ahead of imminent regional council elections.

In the presence of members of government and in what was supposed to be a question and answer session, Senator Nfon Victor Esemingsongo Mukete, eldest member of Cameroons senate went out of himself, mounted the rostrum and held the house spellbound with an emotional outburst.

The Paramount Ruler of the Bafaws said the pain is too much for the people of the North West and South West Regions, wondering why the authorities in Yaounde have decided to be indifferent.

In a move that shocked many, Nfon Mukete insisted that only a return to federation can restore normalcy in the restive Anglophone regions.

The system has failed, federation is the only way. Ten states federation so each region can manage its affairs. Why are people afraid of federation? I am not talking like this because the country should be divided. No! I fought very hard for the reunification of Former Southern Cameroons and Former La Republique du Cameroun. And I can never destroy it. But the country should be federated. Look at America, South Africa, Switzerland, Nigeria, Canada, Belgium, Germany, Mexico, Russia and Rwanda, Senator Nfon Mukete is quoted as saying.

He is said to have hit his walking stick on the assembly floor saying:

What is all these nonsense? My people are dying; they are suffering and we are playing games here in Yaounde. We should be careful. I dont care. Go and tell anybody. Go and tell Paul [Biya]. Quote me anywhere.

Senate sources say even the sound of a falling pin could be heard as many watched the eldest lawmaker in bewilderment.

Enter Senator Kemende Henry Gamsey, Esq.

After the Friday night drama at the Senate, we got to Barrister Kemende Henry Gamsey who was all happy with Senator Nfon VE Muketes outing. He goes on to expound on some of the issues the eldest senator raised.

When you discover that you are left alone and that no other person can speak with a better conviction, even if you are about to die, you will utter the last words. Nfon Mukete like his peers of the yesteryears  John Ngu Foncha, ST Muna, Jua  is also leaving the scene very unhappy with what is happening.

He was like saying his last words. It was like a dying declaration. It was like making his last declaration that okay, if I will be ignored also, then I leave the country so you can do whatever you want to do with it. I am not responsible.

He was like saying his last words as far as the conduct of the affairs of the union between the Former Southern Cameroons and Former La Republique du Cameroun is concerned.

He said this is not what we mean when we talk about local governance. It is not what you are doing, putting everything under the control of the governors and SDOs and DOs. This is not what we intended. If you people are continuing in this light, I am not there with you. He was so disappointed and I am happy that it came from him  the last of the patriarchs.

Nfon Mukete is a founding father of this reunified Cameroon. He is leaving the scene very dissatisfied because he expected so much from this law on regional councils. He thought with what is happening, this would have been a good opportunity for us to have effective devolution of power, so that people in every region can manage their affairs in the interest of the local population. But what do we have? We have a makeshift type of local governance  one that is very much tied to the administration and the Centre which is Yaounde. Contracts will still be coming from Yaounde. Only limited powers are being given to the regional councils.

What they call regional council is a duplication of the local councils. It is still under the regional governors. It is like giving the governor his own council, after giving that of Senior Divisional Officers (SDOs) and Divisional Officers (DOs). Since the SDOs are managing the City Councils and Local Councils with the aide of the DOs, they have decided to create Regional Councils so that governors can have theirs. The Governors and the Minister within their sphere of competence will supervise the Regional Councils.

Nfon Mukete mounted the rostrum with the intention of asking a question, but he ended up addressing the house. He was expressing his disgust over what has turned out to be regional councils.

Why cant we operate like in America? He said the population of some regions in this country is more than that of some existing states.

He said each region is endowed with a lot of resources; that we cannot be pretending to say that some regions are poor. There is no region that is poor in this country, that hasnt got resources that can be exploited to run the local councils. He said each region can manage her affairs in a way that can be sustainable.

Why cant the regions have the powers to manage their affairs, to have equipment and construct their roads? This tells you that the crisis rocking the former Southern Cameroons is not a respecter of persons.

SDF position

Barrister Kemende who is at the Senate on the ticket of the opposition Social Democratic Front, SDF went on to restate the position of his party. He regrets that the government is sticking to decentralization on grounds that the constitution presents Cameroon as a decentralized unitary state that shall so remain.

The SDF believes that this entire decentralization struggle is a piecemeal solution to a problem that we know. They are solutions guided by personal interest and greed. It is a show of power drunkenness. People who have enjoyed power for ages dont want to let it go. They think that to be in power means controlling everything in the country. The SDF position remains the same. We want federation. We want a substantial devolution of powers, not decentralization.

Senator Nfon Muketes position has rekindled the spirit of challenging the statusquo. It has given some of us the courage to speak out. Nfon Mukete has done it as a father, as one of the founders of this nation. He has actually proven to us that we have not been mistaken when we stood up against what is happening.

Every region is capable of being a state and be allowed to manage its own educational system, judicial system and much more. The central authority should only have limited powers.
SUNRISE, Florida, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- ReloQuest Inc., is excited to announce we have been shortlisted in four categories by the Forum for Expatriate Management for the upcoming 2019 Expatriate Management & Mobility Awards (EMMAs.) Selected for making an outstanding contribution in the categories of:

Best Vendor Partnership, Corporate Organization-Specialist Provider Most Innovative Use of Technology-Assignee Management Most Innovative Use of Technology -Bespoke Solutions Global Mobility Professional of the Year-Darin Karp, ReloQuest Founder, and CEO.

ReloQuest will be participating in the Americas Summit, visit us at booth B-1; allow us to demonstrate the many ways ReloQuest can impact your success.

The EMMAs, hosted annually by the Forum for Expatriate Management, celebrate extraordinary contributions to the Global Mobility industry. The Summit will discuss current and future trends across the complex field of expatriate management. The event takes place Thursday, May 23rd, at the Marriott City Center Hotel, Dallas. The judges will be looking for evidence of a significant, consistent record of achievement considering such features as quality of service delivery, innovation, knowledge, excellent customer service, and overall professional reputation.

As a B2B (Enterprise) and B2E (employee) technology solution, ReloQuest supports our clients, their assignees, and suppliers. ReloQuest innovation includes options determined by specific, measurable and reportable KPI's providing the employee full control of the experience while staying within the company guidelines.

"ReloQuest is an enterprise and self-service business resource allowing access for global mobility professionals and assignees to improve their relocation experience. Predictive analytics provide insight well beyond the traditional manual approach used in the relocation industry," said Darin Karp, Founder & CEO of ReloQuest Inc., a leader in enterprise data and analytics.

ReloQuest has become the largest open global marketplace and altered the competitive landscape for temporary housing by giving suppliers equal visibility and facilitating global reach to corporate housing, hotels, and serviced apartments in most cities around the world. ReloQuest represents a network of verified suppliers in 85+ countries including North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. https://reloquest.com/rq-supplier-network.php

About ReloQuest

ReloQuest is a business solution that allows companies and employees to search, compare, and book corporate apartments and hotels around the world. As a multi-award-winning platform, 100 % transparent ReloQuest provides forecasting data, metrics and actionable insight to source better options and minimize corporate risk.

Media Contact: Jeana Giordano

Jgiordano@reloquest.com

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Teradata now provides as-a-service offerings for analytics at scale in public, private and hybrid cloud environments

Teradata (NYSE: TDC), the industry's only Pervasive Data Intelligence company, today announced three new offerings for its Teradata Vantage platform, reflecting Teradata's commitment to offering as-a-service capabilities to meet the needs of their customers. These capabilities provide choice and flexibility for customers operating on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, private cloud or hybrid cloud environments. New offers include (1) adding AWS Marketplace as a channel for consuming Teradata software on an as-a-service basis, (2) introducing a turnkey on-premises offer which provides key cloud benefits while remaining within customers' data centers and (3) driving a new hybrid cloud disaster recovery service to complement a firm's physical infrastructure with an on-demand secondary system in the cloud. By leveraging automation and Teradata's unique expertise in managing complex analytic environments at scale, organizations can focus instead on finding answers to their toughest business challenges.

Today's enterprises are increasingly turning to cloud-based, as-a-service offerings to move faster, be more responsive and add capabilities as needed, while ensuring they remain on the latest software release and reduce the drag of technical debt. Teradata addresses these requirements and more as each new as-a-service offering extends the value and application of Vantage, Teradata's flagship platform that was designed to simplify analytic ecosystems and de-risk decision-making, even at scale. In addition to providing access to 100 percent of an organization's information, Vantage consolidates analytic silos into a single platform. The location of the data or workloads is not a deterrent, since the same Vantage software runs on every deployment option.

"Vantage has already been picked up by customers faster than any other product in Teradata's history," said Reema Poddar, Chief Product Officer at Teradata. "We're enormously proud of that, and we also understand that many of our users would prefer to have as-a-service options for Vantage. We have delivered that capability and today we are extending it to ensure all of Teradata's customers, regardless of where they stand in their cloud or analytic journey, have an as-a-service offering to choose from. Teradata Vantage is tailor-made to help enterprises get the most return from their investments and focus on what truly matters: getting answers through real-time intelligence, not managing IT infrastructure."

Now available as-a-service on AWS, Microsoft Azure, Teradata Cloud and on-premises, Teradata Vantage empowers firms to consume the company's market-leading analytic capabilities any way they prefer, in the environment they prefer. This choice and flexibility is highly supportive of a hybrid cloud environment and ensures that Teradata customers aren't held back from, or forced into, decisions about when and how to leverage the cloud in conjunction with their on-premises analytic ecosystems. Once an as-a-service subscription has been activated, users can spin up Vantage's capabilities rapidly, accelerating time-to-value with the ability to scale up or down quickly on a self-service basis as business requirements change. Teradata monitors and manages the infrastructure, guarantees system availability and offers the lowest cost per query at scale of any analytics platform on the market today.

The following as-a-service offerings add to, and replace, the existing offerings launched under the IntelliCloud brand.

Vantage: Now available as-a-service through AWS Marketplace

Simplifying the process for subscribing to Teradata services, new options for Teradata Vantage allow customers to purchase some of the most up-to-date, innovative and effective analytic environments as-a-service on AWS. This new offering was designed to ease procurement by allowing customers to subscribe via what is often a pre-approved and preferred channel, making it easy to consume Vantage through an elastic, flexible capacity, as-a-service pricing model.

Existing AWS Marketplace users can bypass the time-consuming and frequently challenging process of gaining approval for a new purchase channel. The contract will be between the customer and AWS Marketplace and will appear on the monthly AWS statement as a single, simple transaction for the integrated package of Vantage software, AWS infrastructure and Teradata environment services.

Backed by the power of Vantage, firms subscribing through AWS Marketplace will find a unified, integrated environment delivering the best analytic functions and engines, accommodating preferred tools and languages, plus providing flexible support for multiple data types, formats and heterogeneous data stores.

Vantage: Now available as-a-service for on-premises deployments

Enterprises often have pre-existing large, long-term investments in their own data centers and infrastructure, creating associated data gravity and difficulties in moving to the cloud. Despite the attraction of hybrid cloud computing environments, many of these businesses choose to remain on-premises due to preference or regulatory requirements. The ideal solution would deliver the benefits of cloud consumption agility, flexibility and seamless elasticity without the trouble of moving data and applications offsite.

With Vantage, these customers gain the managed and elasticity advantages of the cloud and the industry's only platform for pervasive data intelligence, all while remaining within a physical domain they know and trust near the associated people, data and application ecosystem. Better yet, Teradata's as-a-service package of hardware, software and services is provided with minimal disruption to a company's analytic ecosystems or ongoing business operations.

To provide this "best of both worlds" hybrid cloud solution, Teradata provisions Vantage software and purpose-built infrastructure within an organization's data center and then monitors and manages the environment remotely. This approach allows Teradata customers to utilize their existing training, workflow, procedures and software customizations, thereby maximizing return on previous analytic investments.

Disaster Recovery As-a-Service

Another critical offering for organizations with on-premises deployments is Teradata Disaster Recovery As-a-Service (DRaaS), a hybrid cloud business continuity offering designed to mitigate the effect of catastrophic events. The unexpected loss of a production analytics system could mean more than just lost revenue; unplanned downtime can lead to loss of data and business reputation, decreased client satisfaction and retention, reduced employee morale, productivity issues and legal entanglements.

With the company's new DRaaS offering, Teradata employs the pay-as-you-go nature of the cloud to ensure customer business operations can continue with minimal disruption. For such organizations, Teradata provisions and manages cloud infrastructure, guarantees the recovery time and provides the assurance and assistance they need. Firms can back up and store their data in the cloud as frequently as desired and spin up the rest of the system only when needed a modern, cost-efficient approach to secondary systems which are rarely used but sorely needed in the event of a disaster scenario that renders the company's primary environments inoperable.

For many on-premises Teradata customers, DRaaS is also the first step in implementing a bimodal, hybrid cloud environment which takes advantage of the flexibility and elasticity that cloud provides while also potentially fulfilling a corporate cloud mandate.

Availability

As-a-service offerings for Vantage are now available via AWS Marketplace in most AWS Regions globally.

Vantage is also now available as-a-service for on-premises customers with substantial data ecosystems and investments.

As-a-service options for Vantage can also be purchased directly through Teradata using AWS, Azure or Teradata infrastructure.

Vantage Machine Learning and Graph engine as-a-service offerings will be available later this year.

For customers with on-premises Teradata systems also using Dell EMC Data Domain and Veritas NetBackup, Teradata Disaster Recovery As-a-Service is now available using AWS infrastructure in most AWS Regions globally; support for Teradata DRaaS using Azure infrastructure will be added later this year.

In addition to the standardized offers above, Teradata can also provide architecture, migration, project management and database administration assistance to customers wanting to leverage the skills and experience of a team that has done substantial quantities of successful enterprise-class migrations and implemented dozens of effective disaster recovery solutions for Teradata systems.

About Teradata

Teradata transforms how businesses work and people live through the power of data. Teradata leverages all of the data, all of the time, so you can analyze anything, deploy anywhere and deliver analytics that matter. We call this pervasive data intelligence. And it's the answer to the complexity, cost and inadequacy of today's approach to analytics. Get the answer at teradata.com.

The Teradata logo is a trademark, and Teradata is a registered trademark of Teradata Corporation and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and worldwide.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190408005232/en/

Contacts:

MEDIA

Jennifer Donahue

858-485-3029

jennifer.donahue@teradata.com
LONDON, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Centrica plc, the international energy and services company with brands including British Gas, Bord Gais Energy and Direct Energy, is introducing Responsible Business Ambitions out to 2030.

The Ambitions set out 15 long-term goals, focused on four areas: customers; climate change; colleagues; and the communities in which Centrica operates.

Regarding climate change mitigation, Centrica believes strongly in precautionary action and has set out clear goals to 2030, which are aligned to the Paris Agreement, in areas where it can make a real difference as a responsible energy and services company:

Helping customers reduce their emissions by 25%, directly contributing 3% via its products and services, which is equivalent to the annual emissions of 2.5 million UK homes. In addition, Centrica's actions will indirectly reduce customer emissions through providing insight and influencing policy.

Enabling a decarbonised energy system by delivering 7GW of flexible, distributed and low carbon technologies, which is comparable to more than 10% of the UK's current peak demand.

Reducing Centrica's internal emissions by 35% in the ten years to 2025 and by 2030 demonstrate that we are on track with Paris , and develop a path to net zero by 2050.

Centrica has already reduced its own emissions by 80% over the last decade and is a global leader in action and disclosure on climate change, having retained its A- rating with CDP which runs the global disclosure system that enables companies, cities, states and regions to measure and manage their environmental impacts.

Iain Conn, Group Chief Executive, said: "Our Responsible Business Ambitions bring the company's purpose to life. We are, of course, here to satisfy the changing needs of our customers and to deliver long-term shareholder value. Together our Ambitions give meaning to the goal of 'helping you run your world in ever more sustainable ways.' We've been active in all of these areas for many years, and we wanted to bring them all together and set specific targets out to 2030 that will accelerate the positive impact we can have in society.

"Our Ambitions are not going to be easy, but it is the right thing for us to set challenging goals and they will help us deliver better long-term sustainable value for all our stakeholders."

For more details about Centrica's Responsible Business Ambitions, watch Iain Conn's video at www.centrica.com/Ambition2030.

Notes to editors:

Using the UN Sustainable Development Goals as a guide, we have mapped the challenges facing society against our business capabilities, to better understand how we can make the greatest difference.

Centrica's 2030 Responsible Business Ambitions also include:

Doubling the number of female recruits into Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) roles, up to 40%.

Supporting 2,500 young people not in education or employment with skills development opportunities.

Encouraging employees to share their skills by volunteering over 100,000 days.

Building a more inclusive workforce by helping 1 million carers stay in or return to work via active promotion of carer-positive policies.

Applying new energy technologies to drive positive change by delivering 5 billion of value for communities, including 300 million in energy efficiency savings to public and essential services

The Ambitions build on Centrica's strong credentials:

Awards for diversity and inclusion which includes Business in the Community's Best Employers for Race Award and Centrica's Group Chief Executive being ranked as a Top 30 Ally Executive in the Financial Times' OUTstanding 50 Ally Executives 2018 List.

Following the company's first steps into connected care, Hive Link won an award for innovation in the Tech for a Better World category at the Consumer Electronics Show, the world's largest consumer technology event.

About Centrica plc:

Centrica plc is an international energy and services company. Everything we do is focused on satisfying the changing needs of our customers. We aim to deliver shareholder value through returns and growth, be a trusted corporate citizen, an employer of choice and to be known as a forward-looking energy and services company.

We supply energy and services to more than 25 million customer accounts in the UK, Ireland and North America through brands such as British Gas, Direct Energy, Bord Gais Energy and Hive, all supported by around 15,000 engineers and technicians.

We have three global business divisions: Centrica Consumer, Centrica Business and Exploration & Production. All are underpinned by investment in technology.
SAN FRANCISCO, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- EdgeVerve Systems, a subsidiary of Infosys (NYSE: INFY), today announced the launch of CollectEdge at LendIt Fintech USA 2019. CollectEdge is an Artificial Intelligence powered product designed to help lending organizations reduce delinquency rates, boost recoveries, improve operational efficiencies and enhance customer experience.

With native AI and advanced machine learning capabilities, CollectEdge redefines collections by improving the accuracy of risk segmentation models and appropriate collection strategies. An over the top data driven application, CollectEdge generates accurate predictions and suggestions to help automate decision making and alleviate bottlenecks in business processes. Some of the benefits offered by CollectEdge are reduced charge-offs, real-time decision making and optimized collections outreach, resulting in tangible business outcomes.

Julie Signorille, Executive Vice President and Consumer Banking Chief Operating Officer, Citizens Bank, said, "Citizens Bank makes continuous investments in innovation to improve end-to-end customer experience, from origination to servicing and collections. In partnership with EdgeVerve Systems, we are modernizing our collection processes with real-time insights into delinquency rates, better risk segmentations and customized contact & calling strategies."

Atul Soneja, Senior Vice President and Global Head - EdgeVerve and NIA, said, "CollectEdge brings true digital disruption to the collections function by balancing risk mitigation and enhancing customer experience. Harnessing the power of 'explainable AI', CollectEdge is a plug and play product that makes the adoption of artificial intelligence easy for the lender and offers faster time to value. I am confident that the product will reduce provision liabilities and also enhance the customer experience."

About EdgeVerve Systems Ltd.

EdgeVerve Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of Infosys, develops innovative software products and offers them on premise or as cloud-hosted business platforms. Our products help businesses develop deeper connections with stakeholders, power continuous innovation and accelerate growth in the digital world. We power our clients' growth in rapidly evolving areas like banking, interactive commerce, distributive trade, customer service and enterprise buying and help them navigate their digital journey with our AI enabled Automation and Business Solutions.

At EdgeVerve, we are making constant strides towards transforming enterprises by providing AI enabled Business Applications, leveraging the Infosys Nia Platform with capabilities across the Automation continuum. Today EdgeVerve products are used by global corporations across financial services, insurance, retail and CPG, life sciences, manufacturing and telecom.

Finacle, our industry-leading digital banking solution suite is the choice of financial institutions across 100 countries to service more than a billion consumers and 1.3 billion accounts.

To know more, visit www.edgeverve.com

About Infosys

Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. We enable clients in 45 countries to navigate their digital transformation. With over three decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we expertly steer our clients through their digital journey. We do it by enabling the enterprise with an AI-powered core that helps prioritize the execution of change. We also empower the business with agile digital at scale to deliver unprecedented levels of performance and customer delight. Our always-on learning agenda drives their continuous improvement through building and transferring digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our innovation ecosystem.

Visit www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise navigate your next.

Safe Harbor

Certain statements mentioned in this release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements regarding our future business expectations intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, and unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2018. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. The company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the company unless it is required by law.

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LONDON, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Chubb today announced the appointment of Jonathan Kennett as Head of Financial Institutions for the UK and Ireland and Chubb Global Markets (CGM), the insurer's London Market wholesale and specialty arm.

In this role, Jonathan will have responsibility for the leadership, strategy and performance of Chubb's Financial Institutions business in the UK and Ireland and CGM after a restructure merged the two underwriting teams.

The appointment is with immediate effect and Jonathan will report to Matthew Shaw, Division President, Chubb Global Markets and Hilda Toh, Financial Lines Manager, UK and Ireland.

Jonathan, who was previously Financial Institutions Manager for the UK and Ireland, joined Chubb in 2017. Before that he held a number of senior leadership roles at several insurers and reinsurers including AIG, Munich Re and Zurich.

Matthew Shaw, Division President, Chubb Global Markets said:

"I am delighted to welcome Jonathan to this new and important role. The restructure of our underwriting teams has been untaken to enable the seamless delivery of our Financial Institutions offering, focused around broker and customer needs. Jonathan has a broad knowledge and depth of experience across the financial institutions business and is well placed to further develop our products, coverage and service in this area."

About Chubb

Chubb is the world's largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company. With operations in 54 countries and territories, Chubb provides commercial and personal property and casualty insurance, personal accident and supplemental health insurance, reinsurance and life insurance to a diverse group of clients. As an underwriting company, we assess, assume and manage risk with insight and discipline. We service and pay our claims fairly and promptly. The company is also defined by its extensive product and service offerings, broad distribution capabilities, exceptional financial strength and local operations globally. Parent company Chubb Limited is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CB) and is a component of the S&P 500 index. Chubb maintains executive offices in Zurich, New York, London, Paris and other locations, and employs approximately 30,000 people worldwide. Additional information can be found at: chubb.com/uk

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BOCA RATON, FL / ACCESSWIRE / April 8, 2019 / National Legal Staffing Support recently announced that they plan on accepting new reviews from past clients. The goal for the near future is to have enough reviews for people to read through when deciding on whether or not to utilize the company services.

Finding proper legal process outsourcing can be a very difficult thing to do online. Not only are there a lot of options, but there are a lot of companies that simply are unable to provide the service at the highest rate possible. Not only that, but experience is usually lacking as well, and the vetting process can be very time-consuming in general.

By accepting review articles, National Legal Staffing Support Boca Raton FL is hoping to make a future clients a lot more comfortable with the process in general. The company offers a single resource for a variety of services, mostly focusing on general office support and management for law firms and attorneys out there all around the United States.

Currently, people are encouraged to read through the website and see all the services that are provided by the company. In many cases, some lawyers do not even realize just how many different waste time and money can be saved by using outsourcing such as this. By working only with experts in various disciplines involving the legal process, it frees up time and energy for other focuses.

There is no limit or a minimum word count when it comes to review articles submitted to the company. Currently, they are just looking for people to explain their positive experience with the company. Even those people who have some constructive criticism are encouraged to provide feedback as well. It just comes down to providing potential clients with the best information possible in order to help them make a decision.

When a person does submit a review to the company, they are allowing them to utilize it on the website or in other publications. It will not necessarily be posted, but in many instances it will be shared with a number of people to help advertise the company as much as possible. Currently based in Boca Raton, Florida, expansion is on the mind of the company right now. They are hoping to continue to grow their brand across the United States while also connecting with other attorneys along the way.

Reviews from actual clients are always going to be the best possible way to get feedback that can be useful. It is one thing for a company to describe everything that they offer, but actual feedback is going to allow people to see the real side of the company. This is usually where the best companies are able to differentiate themselves from the competition, which is why National Legal Staffing Support Boca Raton FL feels confident enough that they can really start to shine.

For more information on writing National Legal Staffing Support reviews, make sure to visit the website at http://www.nationallegalstaffsupport.com/. There is a lot of information available there for people to sift through so that they do everything according to plan. Right now, people will have about two months to submit their review so that it can be under consideration. Those who are picked will receive a thank you note from the company so that their time and effort is not completely overlooked. There is no cap on the number of review articles that they will except, so anyone willing to share their story will be considered. In most cases, the review will only take a few minutes as long as a person is willing to share a little bit of how the whole process went for them from beginning to end.

contact@nationallegalstaffsupport.com

SOURCE: National Legal Staffing Support

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/540808/National-Legal-Staff-Support-Now-Accepting-New-Reviews
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / April 8, 2019 / DIGATRADE FINANCIAL CORP (OTC.PK: DIGAF), https://www.facebook.com/DIGATRADE, an OTC digital asset trade desk for institutions, and financial technology company, intends to expand the usefulness of cryptocurrency in real-life situations through convenience and security initiatives that make cryptocurrency more practical and desirable in everyday uses - including improved integration with credit cards.

Digatrade's recently announced acquisition of Securter online credit card security technology is only one part of a multi-prong approach by Digatrade to become a fintech innovation-driven company. Making cryptocurrency more relevant for ordinary situations and real-world behaviour by consumers, merchants and institutions is Digatrade's ambition. With Securter now on-board, Digatrade will begin announcing a series of cross-disciplinary applications of its fintech agenda, and growing industry ties.

Digatrade holds three guiding principles for the company, for the benefit of its cryptocurrency interested shareholders. The first is to implement a business model that makes the company immune to downward fluctuations in Bitcoin and other altcoin valuations. The second is to solve actual problems and increase functionality of cryptocurrency transactions, not merely replicate payment methods and payment corridors that already exist. The third is to follow a multi-stakeholder model that goes beyond only addressing consumer experiences to include the perspective of vendors for two-sided transactional ease, non-commercial institutions whose interests may not be as remote as they imagine and governments who are not yet clear in their policies but may in fact become enormous beneficiaries across their vast operations. Digatrade believes that the "government as cryptocurrency adversary" mindset is outmoded.

At the heart of Digatrade's innovation program is a focus on the huge untapped development and commercialization opportunities in the underlying blockchain technology ecosystem. Digatrade CEO, Brad Moynes, explains: "It's easy to get lost in the theory of what's possible. We are collaborating with thought leaders in this field to mine the technology itself and deliver really useful applications that are not already overdone in this space. An example is something as basic as being able to buy cryptocurrency easily, securely and in small quantities by credit card and to spend it just as easily and securely, by multiple methods. Our increased credit card security expertise is perfectly suited, but even that is just the tip of the iceberg of what we have in mind. Digatrade is advancing again, according to plan."

President of Digatrade's Securter division, Steve Epstein, adds more for the company's current shareholders: "It has been strategic that we have not been boasting in detail about our high-quality development relationships. There are secrecy considerations, competitive issues and intellectual property phases to protect. We have been in patent pending mode and are well connected to incredible experts. They deal with things that most people would simply not understand because these systems work in the background. Digatrade/Securter's goal is to make that technology useful and to monetize our innovations. When we have permission to start announcing our operating relationships, then our shareholders will see that Digatrade has a tremendous future. I am looking forward to being able to talk more about those relationships, soon. In the meantime, we will be introducing our Securter management team in upcoming announcements about our growing internal capabilities."

ABOUT DIGATRADE

DIGATRADE is a Financial Technology "Fintech" company that offers buy-side cryptocurrency transactions and liquidity to institutions through its proprietary over-the-counter trade desk. The company is also developing a next generation platform for security in the online credit card payment system, globally, through its Securter subsidiary. Digatrade Financial Corp. is located in Vancouver, British Columbia, and publicly listed on the OTC.PK under the trading symbol DIGAF. DIGAF is a reporting issuer in the Province of British Columbia, Canada with the British Columbia Securities Commission "BCSC" and in the United States with the Securities Exchange Commission "SEC".

ABOUT SECURTER

Securter Systems Inc is a Digatrade subsidiary that is developing proprietary, patent-pending credit card payment platform innovations to significantly increase the security of online credit card payment processing, globally. Securter technology reduces immense losses by financial institutions and merchants that arise from fraudulent credit card use. Securter technology also protects cardholder privacy by eliminating the need to distribute credit card details to multiple commercial 3rd parties, where such information is ordinarily stored, becoming vulnerable to theft or manipulation. Securter technology can and will be integrated into complementary payment methods and fintech protocols, including cryptocurrency and other blockchain derivatives to come. Securter has internal R&D capability and management as well as external fintech business relationships to support Digatrade's overall business mission.

CORPORATE CONTACT INFORMATION:

Digatrade Financial Corp

1500 West Georgia Street, 1300

Vancouver, BC V6G 2Z6 Canada

Tel: +1(604) 200-0071

Fax: +1(604) 200-0072

www.digatradefinancial.com

investors@digatrade.com

Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains certain "forward-looking information". All statements, other than statements of historical fact, that address activities, events or development that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future constitute forward-looking information. This forward-looking information reflects the current expectations or beliefs of the company based on information currently available to the Company. Forward-looking information is subject to a number of significant risks and uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking information, and even if such actual results are realized or substantially realized, there can be no assurance that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on the Company. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, but are not limited to, the possibility of unanticipated costs and expenses. Any forward-looking information speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Although the Company believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking information are reasonable, forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such information due to the inherent uncertainty therein.

SOURCE: Digatrade Financial Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/541234/Greater-Cryptocurrency-Convenience-and-Security-Ahead-with-Digatrades-Intended-Credit-Card-Integration
Regulatory News:

Total (Paris:FP) (LSE:TTA) (NYSE:TOT) and the Ministry of Oil and Gas of the Sultanate of Oman (MOG) have signed a Heads of Agreement (HoA) for the award to Total of an exploration license on Block 12 with significant prospective gas resources.

Under the terms of this HoA, both parties will finalize in the coming months, on an exclusive basis, a definitive agreement that will grant to Total 100% working interest and operatorship of the exploration block 12, located in Central Oman.

This new agreement was signed after Total, the Ministry of Oil and Gas and Oman Oil Company (OOC) reached a new milestone to implement their integrated gas project, which entails developing the gas resources of the Greater Barik area (Blocks 10 and 11), as well as building and operating a liquefaction plant to offer a bunkering service and supply Liquefied Natural Gas as a fuel to marine vessels.

"Having been present in Oman for more than 80 years mostly in the oil sector, Total is pleased to have the opportunity to bring its expertise in the natural gas value chain to the Sultanate of Oman. After the agreement reached on the integrated gas project of the Greater Barik area, the entry into exploration Block 12 represents a new exploration opportunity to unlock additional gas potential and to contribute to income growth and job creation in the country," stated Patrick Pouyanne, Chairman and CEO of Total.

Spread over 10,000 km2, Block 12 is located onshore, in the northern part of Block 6 and to the south of the Greater Barik area (including Mabrouk North East and Mabrouk West fields).

Total's exploration program on the block will comprise seismic acquisition and drilling commitments, with the drilling of a first well in 2020.

Total in Oman

In Oman, Total's SEC production was 38,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2018. Total holds 4% interest in the onshore Block 6 (operated by Petroleum Development Oman), as well as in the Oman LNG (5.54%) and Qalhat LNG (2.04%).

About Total

Total is a major energy player, which produces and markets fuels, natural gas and low-carbon electricity. Our 100,000 employees are committed to better energy that is safer, more affordable, cleaner and accessible to as many people as possible. Active in more than 130 countries, our ambition is to become the responsible energy major.

Cautionary note

This press release, from which no legal consequences may be drawn, is for information purposes only. The entities in which TOTAL S.A. directly or indirectly owns investments are separate legal entities. TOTAL S.A. has no liability for their acts or omissions. In this document, the terms "Total" and "Total Group" are sometimes used for convenience where general references are made to TOTAL S.A. and/or its subsidiaries. Likewise, the words "we", "us" and "our" may also be used to refer to subsidiaries in general or to those who work for them.

This document may contain forward-looking information and statements that are based on a number of economic data and assumptions made in a given economic, competitive and regulatory environment. They may prove to be inaccurate in the future and are subject to a number of risk factors. Neither TOTAL S.A. nor any of its subsidiaries assumes any obligation to update publicly any forward-looking information or statement, objectives or trends contained in this document whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190408005630/en/

Contacts:

Total

Media Relations: +33 1 47 44 46 99

presse@total.com

@TotalPress

Investor Relations: +44 (0)207 719 7962

ir@total.com
Paris, 8 April 2019 - At the same time as it published its 2018 earnings, Altamir announced that its Supervisory Board would propose to shareholders, at their Combined Shareholders' Meeting of 29 April 2019, the payment of a dividend of 0.66 per share, or 3% of NAV as of 31 December 2018.

The dividend, slightly higher than that paid in 2018, will be paid on 2 July 2019 (ex-dividend date: 28 June 2019).

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

About Altamir

Altamir is a listed private equity company (Euronext Paris-B, ticker: LTA) founded in 1995 and with an investment portfolio of nearly 1bn. Its objective is to provide shareholders with long term capital appreciation and regular dividends by investing in a diversified portfolio of private equity investments.

Altamir's investment policy is to invest via and with the funds managed or advised by Apax Partners SAS and Apax Partners LLP, two leading private equity firms that take majority or lead positions in buyouts and growth capital transactions and seek ambitious value creation objectives.

In this way, Altamir provides access to a diversified portfolio of fast-growing companies across Apax's sectors of specialisation (TMT, Consumer, Healthcare, Services) and in complementary market segments (mid-sized companies in continental European countries and larger companies across Europe, North America and key emerging markets).

Altamir derives certain tax benefits from its status as an SCR ("Societe de Capital Risque"). As such, Altamir is exempt from corporate tax and the company's investors may benefit from tax exemptions, subject to specific holding-period and dividend-reinvestment conditions.

For more information: www.altamir.fr

Contact

Claire Peyssard Moses

Tel.: +33 1 53 65 01 74

E-mail: investors@altamir.fr

------------------------



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Regulatory News:

NANOBIOTIX (Paris:NANO):

Not for release, publication or distribution, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States, Canada, Australia or Japan. This press release is not intended as an offer and is for informational purposes only.

NANOBIOTIX (the "Company") (Euronext: NANO ISIN: FR0011341205), a clinical-stage nanomedicine company pioneering new approaches to the treatment of cancer, intends to issue up to 2,566,666 new ordinary shares of a nominal value of 0.03 ("New Shares"), representing approximately 13.07% of the Company's issued ordinary share capital, by means of an accelerated bookbuild offering reserved to a specific class of investors (the "Offering

The New Shares will be issued in the Offering without shareholders' pre-emptive rights pursuant to the 30th resolution of the combined ordinary and extraordinary general meeting of the shareholders of the Company held on May 23, 2018 and in accordance with Article L. 225-138 of the French Commercial Code, after the decision of the Company's executive board dated today, following the approval of the Company's supervisory board on March 27, 2019. The Offering will be open only to investment funds and companies investing on a regular basis, or having invested more than 5 million over the 36 month-period preceding the Offering, in "small cap" or "mid cap" emerging growth companies in the healthcare or biotechnology industry ("Eligible Investors

The Offering will commence immediately and is expected to end before markets open on the regulated market of Euronext Paris tomorrow, subject to acceleration or extension. The Company will announce the results of the Offering as soon as practicable thereafter in a subsequent press release. Settlement of the Offering and the admission of the New Shares to trading on Euronext Paris are expected to occur on or about April 11, 2019.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the Offering to accelerate its development, with a main focus on preparing for the launch of its Phase II/III clinical trial in Head and Neck cancers in the United States.

Among Eligible Investors, the Offering is open to institutional investors (i) in France and elsewhere outside the United States in reliance on the exemption from registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933 (the "Securities Act") provided by Regulation S promulgated under the Securities Act and (ii) in the United States in reliance on the exemption from registration under the Securities Act provided by Section 4(a)(2) thereunder.

After giving effect to the Offering, the number of ordinary shares that will have been issued by the Company over the last 12 months will represent less than 20% of the current share capital of the Company. Therefore, a prospectus approved by the French financial markets authority (Autorite des marches financiers the "AMF") is not required.

Jefferies International Limited ("Jefferies") is acting as Sole Bookrunner for the Offering.

In connection with the Offering, the Company has entered into a lock-up agreement, which restricts the issuance of additional ordinary shares ending 90 days after settlement and delivery of the New Shares, subject to customary exceptions as well as the ability to request a waiver from the Sole Bookrunner (including to permit a potential U.S. initial public offering, which the Company does not expect to occur within 30 days post admission of the New Shares). The Company's management board members and supervisory board members are also subject to a lock-up until June 30, 2019, subject to customary exceptions and the ability to request a waiver from the Sole Bookrunner.

This press release contains inside information within the meaning of Article 7(1) of the EU Market Abuse Regulation.

The Company draws the public's attention to the risk factors related to the Company and its activities presented in section 1.5 of the reference document (document de reference) filed with the AMF under number D.17-0470 on April 28, 2017 as well as in its 2017 annual financial report published on March 29, 2018, both of which are available free of charge on the website of the Company (www.nanobiotix.com).

In addition, investors are invited to consider the following risks: (i) the market price for the Company's shares may fluctuate and fall below the subscription price of the shares issued pursuant to the Offering, (ii) the volatility and liquidity of the Company's shares may fluctuate significantly, (iii) sales of Company's shares may occur on the market and have a negative impact on the market price of the shares, and (iv) the Company's shareholders could undergo a potentially material dilution resulting from any future capital increases that are needed to finance the Company.

About NANOBIOTIX

Incorporated in 2003, Nanobiotix is a leading, clinical-stage nanomedicine company pioneering new approaches to significantly change patient outcomes by bringing nanophysics to the heart of the cell.

The Nanobiotix philosophy is rooted in designing pioneering, physical-based approaches to bring highly effective and generalized solutions to address unmet medical needs and challenges.

Nanobiotix's first-in-class, proprietary lead technology, NBTXR3, aims to expand radiotherapy benefits for millions of cancer patients. Nanobiotix's Immuno-Oncology program has the potential to bring a new dimension to cancer immunotherapies.

Nanobiotix is listed on the regulated market of Euronext in Paris (Euronext: NANO ISIN: FR0011341205; Bloomberg: NANO: FP). The Company's headquarters are in Paris, France, with a U.S. affiliate in Cambridge, MA, and European affiliates in Spain and Germany.

Disclaimer

This announcement is an advertisement and not a prospectus within the meaning of Directive 2003/71/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 November 2003, as amended (the "Prospectus Directive

In France, the Offering described above will take place solely as a placement to a category of institutional investors, in accordance with Article L. 225-138 of the "Code de commerce" and applicable regulations. The Offering does not constitute a public offering in France, as defined in Article L. 411-1 of the "Code monetaire et financier" and no prospectus reviewed or approved by the Autorite des marches financiers will be published.

With respect to Member States of the European Economic Area (including France), no action has been taken or will be taken to permit a public offering of the securities referred to in this press release which would require the publication of a prospectus in any Member State.

This press release and the information it contains is not an offer to sell, nor the solicitation of an offer to subscribe for or buy, New Shares in the United States or any other jurisdiction where restrictions may apply. Securities may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration under the Securities Act or an exemption from registration thereunder. Nanobiotix does not intend to register the New Shares under the Securities Act or conduct a public offering of the New Shares in France, the United States, or in any other jurisdiction.

This communication is being distributed only to, and is directed only at (a) persons outside the United Kingdom, (b) persons who have professional experience in matters relating to investments falling within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the "Order"), and (c) high net worth entities, and other persons to whom it may otherwise lawfully be communicated, falling within Article 49(2) of the Order (all such persons together being referred to as "relevant persons"). Any investment or investment activity to which this communication relates is available only to relevant persons and will be engaged in only with relevant persons. Any person who is not a relevant person should not act or rely on this communication or any of its contents.

Solely for the purposes of each manufacturer's product approval process, the target market assessment in respect of the New Shares has led to the conclusion in relation to the type of clients criteria only that: (i) the type of clients to whom the New Shares are targeted is eligible counterparties and professional clients only, each as defined in Directive 2014/65/EU, as amended ("MiFID II"); and (ii) all channels for distribution of the New Shares to eligible counterparties and professional clients are appropriate. Any person subsequently offering, selling or recommending the New Shares (a "distributor") should take into consideration the manufacturers' type of clients assessment; however, a distributor subject to MiFID II is responsible for undertaking its own target market assessment in respect of the New Shares (by either adopting or refining the manufacturers' type of clients assessment) and determining appropriate distribution channels.

This distribution of this press release may be subject to legal or regulatory restrictions in certain jurisdictions. Any person who comes into possession of this press release must inform him or herself of and comply with any such restrictions.

This press release has not been independently verified and no representation or warranty, express or implied, is made or given by or on behalf of any of Jefferies or any of its parent or subsidiary undertakings, or the subsidiary undertakings of any such parent undertakings, or any of such person's respective directors, officers, employees, agents, affiliates or advisers, as to, and no reliance should be placed on, the accuracy, completeness or fairness of the information or opinions contained in this press release and no responsibility or liability is assumed by any such persons for any such information or opinions or for any errors or omissions. All information presented or contained in this press release is subject to verification, correction, completion and change without notice.

Jefferies is acting exclusively for the Company and no one else in connection with the Offering and will not regard any other person (whether or not a recipient of this press release) as its client in relation to the Offering and will not be responsible to anyone other than the Company for providing the protections afforded to its client nor for providing advice in relation to the proposed Offering. Jefferies is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the United Kingdom.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190408005661/en/

Contacts:

Nanobiotix

Communications Department

+33 (0)1 40 26 07 55

contact@nanobiotix.com

Investor Relations Department

+33 (0)1 79 97 29 99

investors@nanobiotix.com

Media Relations

France Springbok Consultants

Marina Rosoff

+33 (0)6 71 58 00 34

marina@springbok.fr
Addition of Cirruseo to enhance Accenture's ability to help clients leverage Google Cloud technology to accelerate innovation and digital transformation

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) has entered into exclusive negotiations to acquire Cirruseo, a leading pure-play Google Cloud services provider in France. The acquisition requires prior consultation with the relevant works councils and would be subject to customary closing conditions. Financial terms of the transaction are not being disclosed.

The acquisition would strengthen Accenture's expertise in Google Cloud in the French market and more broadly across Europe by enhancing its ability to help clients apply Google Cloud technologies in an industry-specific context, at speed and at scale. Cirruseo's expertise would also fortify Accenture's ability to help clients accelerate innovation by leveraging the cloud to analyze increasing volumes of data and create hyper-personalized client experiences, all with secured architectures.

"The addition of Cirruseo would be a significant step forward in our growth strategy in France, bringing a strong team of Google Cloud specialists to Accenture," said Olivier Girard, Accenture's Geographic Unit managing director for France and Benelux. "The combination of Cirruseo's mastery of Google Cloud technologies with our expertise in digital marketing, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity would enhance our ability to deliver a unique end-to-end service offering to help clients with their digital transformations."

Bhaskar Ghosh, group chief executive of Accenture Technology Services, added, "At a global level, the acquisition of Cirruseo would demonstrate Accenture's commitment to investing in the skills and capabilities needed to help our clients apply new technologies to accelerate innovation and achieve business outcomes. Growing our Google Cloud capabilities enables Accenture to continue to bring the new to life for our global clients across industries, at scale, each and every day."

Providing consulting and implementation services for Google Cloud Platform and G Suite solutions, Cirruseo has nearly 100 highly skilled Google Cloud professionals and is a Google Cloud Premier Partner, as well as a certified trainer for Google Cloud technologies. Since its creation in 2011, Cirruseo has helped more than 600 clients, including some of the largest French companies, define and execute their Google Cloud-based strategies.

"As the demand for Google Cloud services is booming, joining Accenture is an exciting opportunity for us to help even more organizations benefit from the potential of Google Cloud to drive innovation," said Herve Romain, co-founder and CEO of Cirruseo. "The combination of our deep expertise in Google Cloud technologies with Accenture's industry knowledge and experience in global large-scale cloud initiatives would allow us to bring highly differentiated end-to-end services to the market."

Cirruseo's deep experience with Google Cloud's artificial intelligence solutions, including data analytics and machine learning tools, would further reinforce Accenture Applied Intelligence's leadership position in delivering applied intelligence solutions to clients.

Cirruseo would enhance Accenture's end-to-end Intelligent Software Engineering and Intelligent Cloud Infrastructure Services and will complement the existing capabilities of the Accenture Google Cloud Business Group, which is focused on developing industry based solutions in high-growth areas to accelerate clients' adoption of Google Cloud. Accenture has more than 2,600 Google Cloud practitioners and has delivered more than 21,000 cloud transformations in nearly every industry.

About Accenture

Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries and all business functions underpinned by the world's largest delivery network Accenture works at the intersection of business and technology to help clients improve their performance and create sustainable value for their stakeholders. With 477,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture drives innovation to improve the way the world works and lives. Visit us at www.accenture.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Except for the historical information and discussions contained herein, statements in this news release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "may," "will," "should," "likely," "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "projects," "believes," "estimates," "positioned," "outlook" and similar expressions are used to identify these forward-looking statements. These statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. These include, without limitation, risks that: Accenture and Cirruseo will not be able to close the transaction in the time period anticipated, or at all, which is dependent on the parties' ability to satisfy certain closing conditions; the transaction might not achieve the anticipated benefits for Accenture; Accenture's results of operations could be adversely affected by volatile, negative or uncertain economic and political conditions and the effects of these conditions on the company's clients' businesses and levels of business activity; Accenture's business depends on generating and maintaining ongoing, profitable client demand for the company's services and solutions including through the adaptation and expansion of its services and solutions in response to ongoing changes in technology and offerings, and a significant reduction in such demand or an inability to respond to the changing technological environment could materially affect the company's results of operations; if Accenture is unable to keep its supply of skills and resources in balance with client demand around the world and attract and retain professionals with strong leadership skills, the company's business, the utilization rate of the company's professionals and the company's results of operations may be materially adversely affected; Accenture could face legal, reputational and financial risks if the company fails to protect client and/or company data from security breaches or cyberattacks; the markets in which Accenture operates are highly competitive, and Accenture might not be able to compete effectively; changes in Accenture's level of taxes, as well as audits, investigations and tax proceedings, or changes in tax laws or in their interpretation or enforcement, could have a material adverse effect on the company's effective tax rate, results of operations, cash flows and financial condition; Accenture's profitability could materially suffer if the company is unable to obtain favorable pricing for its services and solutions, if the company is unable to remain competitive, if its cost-management strategies are unsuccessful or if it experiences delivery inefficiencies; Accenture's results of operations could be materially adversely affected by fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; as a result of Accenture's geographically diverse operations and its growth strategy to continue geographic expansion, the company is more susceptible to certain risks; Accenture's business could be materially adversely affected if the company incurs legal liability; Accenture's work with government clients exposes the company to additional risks inherent in the government contracting environment; if Accenture is unable to manage the organizational challenges associated with its size, the company might be unable to achieve its business objectives; if Accenture does not successfully manage and develop its relationships with key alliance partners or fails to anticipate and establish new alliances in new technologies, the company's results of operations could be adversely affected; Accenture's ability to attract and retain business and employees may depend on its reputation in the marketplace; Accenture might not be successful at acquiring, investing in or integrating businesses, entering into joint ventures or divesting businesses; if Accenture is unable to protect its intellectual property rights or if Accenture's services or solutions infringe upon the intellectual property rights of others or the company loses its ability to utilize the intellectual property of others, its business could be adversely affected; changes to accounting standards or in the estimates and assumptions Accenture makes in connection with the preparation of its consolidated financial statements could adversely affect its financial results; many of Accenture's contracts include payments that link some of its fees to the attainment of performance or business targets and/or require the company to meet specific service levels, which could increase the variability of the company's revenues and impact its margins; Accenture's results of operations and share price could be adversely affected if it is unable to maintain effective internal controls; Accenture might be unable to access additional capital on favorable terms or at all and if the company raises equity capital, it may dilute its shareholders' ownership interest in the company; Accenture may be subject to criticism and negative publicity related to its incorporation in Ireland; as well as the risks, uncertainties and other factors discussed under the "Risk Factors" heading in Accenture plc's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and other documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Statements in this news release speak only as of the date they were made, and Accenture undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements made in this news release or to conform such statements to actual results or changes in Accenture's expectations.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190408005826/en/

Contacts:

Hannah Unkefer

Accenture

+1 206 839 2172

hannah.m.unkefer@accenture.com

Francois Luu

Accenture France

+33 1 53 23 68 55

francois.luu@accenture.com
Santiago, Chile--(Newsfile Corp. - April 8, 2019) - Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN) (OTCQX: IVPAF) announced today that Executive Co-Chairman Robert Friedland will be giving a keynote presentation at the 18th CRU World Copper Conference in Santiago, Chile, on April 9, 2019 at 11:30am local time.

The World Copper Conference attracts more than 500 delegates and is one of the most important gatherings in the mining industry.

Mr. Friedland will provide updates on the rapid progress being made in the mine development of the Kamoa-Kakula Copper Project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a joint venture between Ivanhoe, Zijin Mining Group and the DRC government, and Ivanhoe's ongoing exploration initiatives to discover additional thick, near-surface, ultra-high-grade copper in the Kamoa North and adjacent Western Foreland areas.

Mr. Friedland's presentation will mark the 10th anniversary of the unveiling of the Kamoa Copper Discovery made by Ivanhoe's geological team, details of which he revealed to attendees of the 2009 CRU World Copper Conference.

"Ten years ago, I told delegates at this conference that we had made a 'major copper discovery of historic importance' at our Kamoa Project," said Mr. Friedland. "Today, I am proud to say that the combined Kamoa and Kakula discoveries now rank as the world's fourth-largest copper deposit, with copper grades that are the highest, by a wide margin, of the world's top 10 copper deposits. And, our team of talented geologists and geoscientists continue to make new, high-grade discoveries to further expand the project's copper resources.

"Now, with the help of our joint-venture partner, Zijin Mining, and our strategic shareholder, CITIC Metal, Kamoa-Kakula is on track to become one of the world's greatest copper mining complexes, with projected, peak annual copper production expected to exceed 700,000 tonnes."

Qualified person

The scientific and technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Stephen Torr, P.Geo., Ivanhoe Mines' Vice President, Project Geology and Evaluation, a Qualified Person under the terms of National Instrument (NI) 43-101. Mr. Torr is not independent of Ivanhoe Mines. Mr. Torr has verified the technical data disclosed in this news release.

Ivanhoe has prepared a current, independent, NI 43-101-compliant technical report for the Kamoa-Kakula Project titled "Kamoa-Kakula 2019 Integrated Development Plan" dated March 18, 2019. Detailed information about assay methods and data verification measures used to support the scientific and technical information is set out in the Kamoa-Kakula Technical Report, which is available under Technical Reports at www.ivanhoemines.com and on Ivanhoe Mines' SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.

About Ivanhoe Mines

Ivanhoe Mines is a Canadian mining company focused on advancing its three principal projects in Southern Africa: the development of new mines at the Kamoa-Kakula copper discovery in the DRC and the Platreef palladium-platinum-nickel-copper-gold discovery in South Africa; and the extensive redevelopment and upgrading of the historic Kipushi zinc-copper-germanium-silver mine, also in the DRC. The company also is exploring for new copper discoveries on its wholly-owned Western Foreland exploration licences, adjacent to the Kamoa-Kakula mining licence.

Information contacts

Investors

Bill Trenaman +1.604.331.9834

Media

North America: Kimberly Lim +1.778.996.8510

South Africa: Jeremy Michaels +27.82.772.1122

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/43945
Telecom operator Bharti Airtel has received market regulator SEBI's approval to raise up to Rs 25,000 crore through rights issue, according to sources

New Delhi: Telecom operator Bharti Airtel has received market regulator SEBI's approval to raise up to Rs 25,000 crore through rights issue, according to sources.

The board of the company had approved the rights issue proposal in February.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has given green signal to the rights issue of Airtel, the sources said.

When contacted, Bharti Airtel spokesperson said, "the company is in process of obtaining requisite approvals and shall make necessary announcements at an appropriate time".

The board has earlier approved the rights issue to raise up to Rs 25,000 crore through issuance of fully paid up shares at a price of Rs 220 per share, and an additional Rs 7,000 crore via foreign currency perpetual bond issue.

The company had said the capital infusion will help it continue investments in future rollouts to build large network capacity and create content and technology partnerships to ensure strong customer experience.

Last month, Airtel received a commitment from its single-largest shareholder Singtel, promoters, and GIC Singapore to participate in the Rs 32,000 crore capital raising programme.

Singapore telecom major SingTel said it will infuse Rs 3,750 crore in Bharti Airtel by subscribing to the proposed Rs 25,000 crore rights issue of the company, while GIC Private Limited, on behalf of Singapore government and Monetary Authority of Singapore, has made a commitment of Rs 5,000 crore in the proposed programme.

Indian telecom players, including Airtel and Vodafone Idea Ltd, have outlined mega fundraising programmes to arm themselves with firepower to take on market competition intensified by Reliance Jio as well as pare debt.

Recently, the board of directors of India's largest telecom operator Vodafone Idea cleared the planned Rs 25,000-crore rights issue at a price of Rs 12.50 per equity share.
Carlos Ghosn, who holds French, Lebanese and Brazilian citizenship, has denied charges against him and also called on the French government for help.

Tokyo/Paris: The wife of former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn has left Japan and flown to Paris to appeal to the French government to do more to help him.

Japanese prosecutors arrested Ghosn for a fourth time on Thursday on suspicion he had tried to enrich himself at the automakers expense, in another dramatic twist that his lawyers said was an attempt to muzzle him.

I think the French government should do more for him. I dont think hes had enough support and hes calling for assistance. As a French citizen, it should be a right, Carole Ghosn told the Financial Times in an interview before boarding a flight out of Japan late on Friday.

Carlos Ghosn, who holds French, Lebanese and Brazilian citizenship, has denied charges against him and also called on the French government for help.

France, which holds a 15 percent stake in Nissans alliance partner Renault, said it was monitoring the situation.

We fully exercise consular protection. The French ambassador is in regular contact, an official from French President Emmanuel Macrons office said on Sunday.

The wife of Carlos Ghosn has been received by the (Elysee) Secretary General during his (Ghosn) previous incarceration, the official added.

'A different person'

Carole Ghosn said her husbands previous 108-day imprisonment had left him 'a different person' and that normal life under bail conditions had been impossible.

Tokyo prosecutors, Ghosns lawyer and his spokesperson were not immediately available for comment.

Public broadcaster NHK said on Sunday that prosecutors suspected Ghosn siphoned off 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 said.

Such a request gives judges the power to question on a mandatory basis witnesses who refuse to testify, according to NHK.

Ghosns lead lawyer, Junichiro Hironaka, said on Thursday prosecutors confiscated Ghosns mobile phone, documents, notebooks and diaries, along with his wifes passport and mobile phone.

The FT said prosecutors had confiscated his wifes Lebanese passport in a dawn raid on their apartment in central Tokyo on Thursday morning, but did not discover her US passport.

Im all alone here. Its traumatising what happened, she was quoted as saying while awaiting her flight.

Under Japanese law, prosecutors will be able to hold 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.

The additional charge would likely prolong Ghosns trial, which is expected to begin later this year, his lawyer has said, adding that loss of access to Ghosns trial-related documents could put his client at a disadvantage in fighting his case.

Ghosn faces charges of financial misconduct and aggravated breach of trust over allegedly failing to report around $82 million in salary and temporarily transferring personal financial losses on to Nissans books during the financial crisis.

Released on $9 million bail on 6 March, the executive says he is the victim of a boardroom coup.

The scandal has rocked the global auto industry and shone a harsh light on Japans judicial system.
Investors pumped in more than Rs 1.11 lakh crore in equity-oriented mutual fund (MF) schemes in 2018-19, a decline of 35 percent compared to Rs 1.71 lakh crore inflows in 2017-18, according to the industry data

New Delhi: Investors pumped in more than Rs 1.11 lakh crore in equity-oriented mutual fund (MF) schemes in 2018-19, a decline of 35 percent compared to Rs 1.71 lakh crore inflows in 2017-18, according to the industry data.

However, this was the fifth successive year of net inflows in equity mutual funds, according to the Association of Mutual Funds in India's (AMFI) data.

In 2017-18, the markets were on a roll but in 2018-19 the markets were very volatile due to various factors, including border tensions with Pakistan, AMFI Chief Executive Officer N S Venkatesh said.

There was a steep correction in small and mid-cap stocks also. The market volatility and corrections pulled down net inflows in the equities in 2018-19, he said.

"But despite that the current inflows of Rs 1.11 lakh crore is a substantial investment by the mutual fund industry into the equities segment which is more than FII investments into the country," he added.

The flows into equity funds in 2018-19 were lower than the flows in 2017-18 primarily due to the equity markets displaying a fair bit of volatility which made some investors take a break from making fresh equity investments, said Kaustubh Belapurkar, manager research, Morningstar.

According to the AMFI data, net inflows into equity funds, which also include equity-linked saving schemes (ELSS), were Rs 1,11,423 crore in 2018-19 as against Rs 1,71,069 crore in the preceding fiscal.

Net inflows in these funds were Rs 70,367 crore in 2016-17, Rs 74,024 crore in 2015-16 and Rs 71,029 crore in 2014-15, respectively.

However, they had witnessed a net outflow of Rs 9,269 crore in 2013-14.

The assets under management (AUM) of equity MFs stood at a record high of Rs 7.73 lakh crore at the end of March 2019 as against Rs 7.50 lakh crore in March 2018, an increase of 3 percent.

During 2018-19, the SIP (Systematic Investment Plans) accounts grew by 51 lakh to 2.62 crore from 2.11 crore in March 2018.

Besides, SIP contribution to the industry surged to Rs 92,693 crore in 2018-19, from Rs 67,190 crore in the preceding fiscal.

MFs are investment vehicles made up of a pool of funds collected from a number of investors. The funds are invested in stocks, bonds and money market instruments, among others.
Jet Privilege has partnerships with 25 foreign carriers and any member can choose a carrier of choice to fly abroad by redeeming their JPMiles, although taxes need to be paid separately for such flights.

The American morbid fascination for monetising just about everything is perhaps the zenith of financial engineering. Mortgage companies sell off their receivables maturing over a leisurely period spanning on an average 15 to 20 years to a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) at a discount so it can issue bonds on the strength of such post-dated receivables.

Unlocking the value of illiquid or dormant assets is the pithy description given for such transactions with the title for the entire convoluted process being securitisation. The 2008 financial crisis having its epicenter in the US mortgage market for securitisation that rocked the entire world for a very long time with its aftershocks still being heard has had something to do with this brinkmanship.

The lengths to which the securitisation process goes is amazing and mind-numbing. A power producer can securitise all its future earnings spanning, say 30 years and raise enough money. There is a leap of faith in thisthe power company will operate at full capacity for all times to come, technological obsolescence would not touch this power company and coal (if it is a coal-fired power generator) would be available for all times to come and so forth.

Something similar is talked about in awed tones in the financial circles in India. Jet Privileges Private Limited (JPPL) is the SPV in this context. It was carved out of Jet Airways Ltd first as a unit in 2012 and then demerged or carved out as a separate standalone company in 2014 in which Etihad has 50.1 percent stake.

In fact, Etihad made this a prior condition in 2013 when it arrived on the horizon  it will invest $600 million in Jet Airways only if Jet Privileges was created. Thus, Etihad is the major investor in JPPL with an investment of $150 million that is a part of its overall investment of $600 million in Jet Airways.

What is the role of this SPV JPPL? Well, it was created as a crown jewel away from the glare of the humdrum of airlines routine operations. It can be likened to promoters of cutting-edge technology companies parking their patents in a closely-held company so that the manufacturing/service company does not lay claim to the technology and that the inventor can earn a tidy royalty from the manufacturing/service company year after year.

To be fair, JPPLthough also a closely held company, exists and ensures for all the shareholders being its 100 percent subsidiary.

And how does the financial world expect JPPL to bail out Jet Airways? Well, JPPL is the custodian of Jet Airways loyalty programme which is nothing but frequent flier-cum-high class flier programme. Point Loyalty, a global management consultancy focused on airline loyalty programmes, had valued JPPL at $1.131 billion (about Rs 7,300 crore) last year based on the average rupee exchange rate in November.

A back-of-the-envelope calculation showed that the reward-point sales totaling 35 billion JPMiles can be redeemed to buy around 4.2 lakh round-trip flights to London or around 3 lakh round-trip flights to New York, Chicago or Canada. If paid in cash, the flights to Europe would cost Rs 3,000-5,000 crore, and those to US-Canada would cost Rs 6,000-7,000 crore in the current season, considering the range of air fares offered by various airlines during the April-May period.

According to JPPLs reward scheme design, a one-way flight from India to Europe costs 42,000 JPMiles and a flight to New York, Chicago or Toronto costs 60,000 JPMiles. JPPL has split the global air-map into 13 different zones and from any airport in one zone to another zone costs a specific number of JPMiles.

Jet Privilege has partnerships with 25 foreign carriers and any member can choose a carrier of choice to fly abroad by redeeming their JPMiles, although taxes need to be paid separately for such flights.

Can JPPL salvage the sagging fortunes of Jet Airways as State Bank of India (SBI) and other banks have exposure to the tune of massive Rs 8,500 crore? It is contended rather ambitiously that JPPL has attracted several private equity firms. May be. But investors pay for what is brought to the table.

Can JPPL securitise the entire expected revenue of Rs 7,300 crore or so from its privilege programmes which in turn can be handed over to its parent Jet Airways so that it can emerge from its long financial crisis with its head held high? Investors are intelligent enough to read through the privilege programme and its financial implications.

The entire Rs 7,300 crore of possible revenue is not profit; there are operating costs for any airline plus overheads so much so that the entire airline industry the world over is mired in losses barring a few like Lufthansa. The cost of a share is supposed to be the present value of future dividend streams.

SBI and other banks are now neck-deep into Jet Airways with board room and promoter status. They would clutch at anything. JPPL may be the island of excellence but would it be the saviour of both Jet Airways and the banks that now have to sink or swim with Jet Airways? That is the question.

(The writer is a senior columnist and tweets @smurlidharan)
Acute financial crunch has forced Jet Airways to ground aircraft, cancel flights and delay payment of salaries, including to pilots.

Mumbai: The bidding process for stake sale in the cash-starved Jet Airways is likely to commence from Monday as the bid document is still to be given a final shape, a source said.

The SBI-led consortium of 26 lenders, which now has the management control of the full-service carrier under a debt-recast plan, last Thursday said bid for the stake sale in Jet Airways airline would be issued on 6 April.

"The expression of interest (EoI) for stake sale in Jet Airways will now be issued Monday (8 April)," said the source.

Accordingly, the last date for submission of the bids, which was 9 April earlier, is also likely to be extended by a day to 10 April, he said.

SBI is the lead lender to Jet Airways, which has a debt burden of Rs 8,000 crore.

Under the debt resolution plan approved by the Jet Airways' board on 25 March, lenders have taken majority stake in the airline and are set to infuse Rs 1,500 crore funds. Besides, the carrier's founder and promoter Naresh Goyal as well as his wife Anita Goyal quit the board. The shareholding of Goyals have come down to 25 percent from 51 percent earlier.

Acute financial crunch has forced the airline to ground aircraft, cancel flights and delay payment of salaries, including to pilots.

Amid uncertainty over future of Jet Airways, the consortium of SBI-led lenders last Thursday said bids for selling stake would be invited on April 6 and other options would be explored in case the stake sale efforts do not result in an "acceptable outcome".

After taking stock of the current situation at the airline, which is currently operating less than 30 planes, the lenders said they would pursue resolution plan for the carrier in a time-bound manner under the present legal and regulatory framework.

"The lenders are cognisant that the outcome of efforts of the lenders will depend on the interest shown by the parties on sale of stake in the company," the statement issued by lenders last week said.

"Whilst all efforts will be made for the stake sale by lenders, other options may be considered by the lenders should these efforts not result in an acceptable outcome," it said.
The debt-laden Jet Airways had missed the due date in end March and reportedly approached the MNC banks to avert any stern action against the airline.

After defaulting payments to domestic lenders, Jet Airways has now delayed payments to foreign banks, including Citibank to the tune of $18 million, which the troubled airline had borrowed to purchase 10 Boeing 777 planes, said media reports. The move reportedly has put its own planes in trouble.

The debt-laden Jet Airways had missed the due date in end-March and reportedly approached the MNC banks to avert any stern action against the airline, said a report in The Economic Times.

The report said that these banks had lent to Jet Airways after guarantees from the Export-Import (EXIM) Bank of the US which can be invoked in case of a default.

A guarantee invocation could sound the death knell for Jet Airways as the US institution would likely deregister and then repossess the planes.

Meanwhile, uncertainty prevails over the emergency funding of Rs 1,500 crore that Jet Airways was to get from a lenders' consortium led by State Bank of India (SBI).

The airline may not get the full amount and it may come down to Rs 200 crore in a best-case scenario as lenders led by SBI await Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) fresh norms for debt restructuring after the Supreme Court last week struck down the central banks controversial 12 February circular, according to a Times of India report.

The report quoting Jet Airways sources said that the private carrier is now in a big trouble as a small funding may not help it live long enough to wait for the bigger infusion that is required.

Meanwhile, the state-run SBI on Monday invited bids for stake sale in ailing Jet Airways. SBI is looking for "change in control and management" of the carrier, according to a public notice, said a PTI report.

SBI Capital Markets would be assisting and advising the lenders on the bid process. The bids have to be submitted by 10 April.

The lenders' consortium has taken control of the airline under a debt recast plan.

Under the debt resolution plan approved by the Jet Airways' board on 25 March, lenders have taken a majority stake in the airline and are set to infuse Rs 1,500 crore.

Besides, the carrier's founder and promoter Naresh Goyal as well as his wife Anita quit the board. The shareholding of Goyals has come down to 25 percent from 51 percent earlier.

Acute financial crunch has forced the airline to ground aircraft, cancel flights and delay payment of salaries, including to pilots.

Last week, the lenders said they would pursue resolution plan for the carrier in a time-bound manner under the present legal and regulatory framework.

"The lenders are cognisant that the outcome of efforts of the lenders will depend on the interest shown by the parties on sale of stake in the company," the statement issued by lenders had said.

 With PTI inputs
The once-ignored mid-cap IT companies have seen a spate of deals over the past few weeks including hostile takeover offers and buyouts

Its a trend that has caught many by surprise and just cant be ignored by Dalal Street and the broader tech sectorthe once-ignored mid-cap IT companies have seen a spate of deals over the past few weeks including hostile takeover offers and buyouts of promoter stake. No surprise that mid-cap IT stocks have suddenly become investors favourite on hopes of merger and acquisition opportunities with leading tech players globally.

The latest deal announcement relating to mid-cap tech companies came on the weekend. And Baring Private Equity Asia and related entities have signed definitive agreements to purchase approximately 30 percent shareholding in NIIT Technologies from NIIT and other promoter entities at Rs 1,394 per share for nearly Rs 2,627 crore. In addition, the overseas acquirer will acquire an additional 26 percent stake via an open offer price of Rs 1394 per share.

The above deal is being done at approximately 19.9 times estimated consolidated earnings of NIIT Technologies for the financial year ended 31 March 2020.

Rajendra Pawar, chairman, NIIT Technologies, in a media statement said, NIIT Technologies has long-standing relationships with marquee customers globally in several verticals including travel, banking and insurance. The involvement of Baring Private Equity Asia will provide further impetus to take the company to the next level of growth.

Earlier, in late March 2019, L&T had launched possibly the first hostile takeover of a tech company in India, by acquiring a 20.3 percent stake in Mindtree from VG Siddhartha and his related entities for Rs 980 per share along with placing an order to purchase an additional 15 per cent from the bourses and an open offer to purchase an additional 31 percent stake. And at the time of making the announcementL&T had valued Mindtree at nearly 19 times estimated March 2020 earnings.

Both the above announcements have resulted in mid-cap stocks being valued at similar levels to leading players in the Indian IT sector including TCS and Infosys. TCS, at Fridays close of Rs 2051.5, trades at nearly 22.8 times estimated March 2020 earnings, and it is 19.9 times for Infosys.

Investor interest on Dalal Street, both domestic and foreign investors, has largely been focused on the leading players like TCS, Infosys and Wipro, given their size and ability to implement complex IT projects on a global scale. However, analysts at leading brokerage houses tracking the IT sector highlight that attention is now shifting to mid-cap IT players, given their niche skills in outsourcing services and artificial intelligence along with hopes of merger and acquisition opportunities with leading tech players globally.

Meanwhile, Gartner, a global research and advisory company, had earlier forecast that global IT services segment would grow 4.7 percent y-o-y to $ 1.03 trillion during calendar year 2019 and 4.8 percent y-o-y during calendar year 2020.

Indian IT companies largely operate in the above segment and provide various global outsourcing services to a diverse group of sectors ranging from automobiles to insurance. Also, large and mid-cap Indian IT players are moving up the value chain in terms of services offered to global clients including artificial intelligence and data analysis, and it should help these players to grow their revenues over the next few quarters.

Nevertheless, in the key US market, the Donald Trump administration over the last two years has made it tougher for Indian IT professionals to get a H-1 B work visa or get it renewed, and to deal with this situation Indian players have hired more local staff in that country. Hiring American and foreign workers is more expensive vis-a-vis staffing costs in India and its puts pressure on operating margins on Indian tech companies.



Investors on Dalal Street react

NIIT Technologies had ended Fridays trade at Rs 1349.5 and it has gained nearly 54 percent over the past one year. The stock had reached its 52-week high of Rs 1,425 on 3 September 2018.

Meanwhile, Mindtree ended Fridays close at Rs 952.3 and has witnessed some profit taking since L&T had made its announcement. The stock had reached its 52-week high of Rs 1181.9 on 11 September 2018 but then slumped nearly 36 percent to Rs 752.6 on 26 October 2018, at a time when the broader market was under intense selling pressure due to the liquidity crisis. The stock has gained nearly 26 percent since late October 2018.

Investors in mid-cap IT stocks should hold on to their holdings given strong global growth possibilities in calendar year 2019 coupled with possible M&A opportunities with leading tech companies.

(The writer is a senior columnist)
Earlier on 4 February, the tribunal had said that until further orders of the NCLAT or the Supreme Court, no one can sell, alienate, or create third-party rights over RCom's assets.

New Delhi: The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Monday said it would decide on the insolvency of debt-ridden Reliance Communications (RCom).

RCom has pleaded the tribunal to go ahead with insolvency proceedings against it as it is unable to pay dues to its lenders. Swiss telecom gear maker Ericsson, which received its unpaid dues of Rs 550 crore from RCom last month following a Supreme Court order, is opposing the move.

A two-member bench headed by chairman Justice S J Mukhopadhaya also observed that if insolvency proceedings against RCom are allowed, then Ericsson would have to return Rs 550 crore.

"Why one party will take amount and let the financial creditors suffer," said the NCLAT, adding that either it may quash RCom bankruptcy proceedings in NCLT or allow bankruptcy case to proceed.

The appellate tribunal also said that it would consider the reply filed by the Department of Telecom (DoT) over the RCom's plea against the show cause notice issued by it over spectrum charges due on 30 April, the next date of hearing.

"DoT reply would be considered on April 30. Let us be very clear which are the assets of corporate debtor, whether they have some right of asset. Can you take away licence? If yes, what is the value of the company (RCom) then," the NCLAT said.

The NCLAT's direction came during the hearing of applications moved by three RCom executives.

Earlier on 4 February, the tribunal had said that until further orders of the NCLAT or the Supreme Court, no one can sell, alienate, or create third-party rights over RCom's assets.

The NCLAT on 26 March stayed the two notices issued by the DoT to RCom over cancellation of its spectrum licence for a delay in payment.

Its two-member bench had also stayed the DoT's letter dated 20 March, 2019, to Axis Bank to encash the bank guarantee of Rs 2,000 crore given by the Anil Ambani group firm.

On 15 May, 2018, the Mumbai bench of NCLT had admitted an insolvency petition filed by Ericsson against Reliance Communications and two of its subsidiaries seeking to recover unpaid dues.

However, on 30 May NCLAT granted a conditional stay on insolvency proceedings against RCom and its subsidiaries  Reliance Infratel and Reliance Telecom.

The tribunal had directed RCom and its subsidiaries to pay Rs 550 crore to Ericsson India in 120 days, failing which it will direct insolvency proceedings against the company.

On 1 February, RCom had informed that it has decided to opt for insolvency proceedings following its failure to sell assets for paying back its lenders.

Last month, Anil Ambani warded off a possible jail term as RCom cleared dues of Ericsson on March 18 with money received from elder brother Mukesh Ambani.

Anil Ambani made a Rs 550 crore payment, including interest, to Ericsson just a day before the expiry of the deadline set by the Supreme Court to clear dues or face a three-month jail term.
The RBI would examine the proposals once it receives them from the merging entities

Mumbai: Denying reports of it approving the merger of Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) and Indiabulls Housing Finance (IHFL), the Reserve Bank of India has said that the merger does not have its nod so far and it would examine the proposals once it receives them from the merging entities.

The board of Lakshmi Vilas Bank on Friday had approved a scheme of amalgamation with the IHFL. Some media reports cited the presence of two RBI-nominated additional directors on the bank's board as an indirect approval by the apex bank.

"It is clarified that the merger announcement does not have any approval of the RBI at this stage. It is also clarified that presence of Additional Directors nominated by the RBI on the Board of LVB does not imply any approval of the RBI of the merger proposal," the central bank said in a statement on Saturday.

"The Additional Directors have clearly mentioned at the meeting that they have no view on the proposal," it said.

The RBI statement further noted that it would examine the proposals as per extant regulatory guidelines and directions and when it receives them from the entities concerned.

The Lakshmi Vilas Bank also issued a statement on Saturday saying the RBI nominee directors did not participate in the voting or express any views.

"The bank also wishes to clarify that the process of applying to the Reserve Bank of India is now on hand. There has been no prior informal notification to the regulator," it said.
The ambitious 277.3 km long eight-lane greenfield project connecting Salem and Chennai under the Centre's Bharatmala Pariyojana scheme aims to cut travel time between the two cities.

Chennai: The Madras High Court Monday quashed land acquisition process for the Rs 10,000 crore Salem-Chennai eight-lane green corridor project, holding it required a mega realignment as the proposed route would have an adverse effect on environment.

Madras High Court quashes acquisition proceedings for the Tamil Nadu government proposed SalemChennai eight-lane green corridor project. pic.twitter.com/4dA3rfDisL  ANI (@ANI) April 8, 2019

A special bench of Justice T S Sivagnanam and Justice Bhavani Subbarayan passed the order allowing a batch of petitions by 35 land owners and PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss.

The bench observed the project would have an adverse effect on the environment, water bodies and it needed a mega realignment.

The court had on 14 December, 2018, reserved orders on the batch of petitions, challenging land acquisition proceedings.

The ambitious 277.3 km long eight-lane greenfield project connecting Salem and Chennai under the Centre's Bharatmala Pariyojana scheme aims to cut travel time between the two cities by half to about two hours and 15 minutes.

However, it has has been facing opposition from a section of locals, including farmers, over fears of losing their land, besides environmentalists who are against felling of trees for it.

The court ruled that public hearing and prior environmental clearance from the Union government was mandatory.
Auto industry has approached the government to cut GST on passenger vehicles and two-wheelers from 28 percent to 18 percent to compensate the sector, which is expected to see price hike in range of 10-15 percent with the coming of new emission and safety regulations

New Delhi: Auto industry has approached the government to cut GST on passenger vehicles and two-wheelers from 28 percent to 18 percent to compensate the sector, which is expected to see price hike in range of 10-15 percent with the coming of new emission and safety regulations.

The industry fears that with the increase in prices, the demand for their products would be impacted.

Currently, automobiles attract peak GST rate of 28 percent with additional cess ranging from 1 per cent to 15 percent, depending on the length, engine size and type.

"We want the government to be sensitive to the fact that BS-VI emission introduction (from Apri1, 2020) and other safety regulations will add to the cost. If it adds to the cost it is likely to lead to a slowdown in the demand," Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) President Rajan Wadhera told reporters here.

If the demand goes down, government collection of taxes would also go down, he added.

"Therefore, for a win-win situation, we are seeking a 18 percent GST (Goods and Services Tax) in automobiles," Wadhera said.

A price hike of even 10 percent would impact the sales of the two-wheeler segment, which currently witnesses offtake of over 22 million units annually, he said.

"In PVs also, the prices are going to go up in the range of 10-15 percent due to technology and safety enhancements. There also we need serious considerations by the government so that it is a win-win situation for all," Wadhera said.

Earlier this year, Maruti Suzuki India Managing Director and CEO Kenichi Ayukawa had sought a reduction in taxes on automobiles in order to create demand and develop the industry.

Major two-wheeler companies like TVS Motor Company, Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Auto had also demanded a GST rate cut on two-wheelers.
Singapore government on Monday sold 6.8 crore shares of realty giant DLF for Rs 1,298 crore through open market transaction, with its stock price tumbling sharply by over 8 percent

New Delhi: Singapore government on Monday sold 6.8 crore shares of realty giant DLF for Rs 1,298 crore through open market transaction, with its stock price tumbling sharply by over 8 percent.

Singapore government held around 7.32 crore shares in DLF as on 31 December, 2018 quarter. These shares were worth 4.11 percent stake in the realty company.

In a bulk deal transaction on the NSE, Singapore government has sold nearly 6.8 crore shares of DLF at Rs 191.01 per share, translating the deal at Rs 1,298 crore.

Sources said that Singapore government has probably sold its share to rejig its portfolio and book profit as the company has significant exposure of about 1.7 billion dollar through its two joint ventures.

Singapore government through its sovereign wealth fund GIC has two joint ventures with DLF. In December 2017, GIC invested Rs 9,000 crore to acquire 33.43 percent stake in DLF's rental arm. It had also invested around Rs 2,000 crore to pick up 50 percent stake in DLF's two housing projects at Moti Nagar in Delhi.

As per NSE bulk deal data, French investment fund Societe Generale has picked up 2.08 crore shares of DLF at Rs 191 per share.

According to the sources, HSBC and other investors who had participated in DLF's recent QIP issue have also bought shares in this block deal.

The bulk sale of shares by Singapore government has come close in the heels of DLF's Rs 3,200 crore QIP issue where the realty company sold 17.3 crore shares at Rs 183.4 per share.

Shares of the company closed at Rs 184.60, 8.43 percent lower on the NSE, while at BSE it cracked 8.36 percent to Rs 184.65.
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.
Today's top stories: The BJP is likely to release its manifesto for the Lok Sabha election today, Congress slams the central government over I-T raids against Kamal Nath's associates, and more

BJP likely to release Lok Sabha election manifesto today

The BJP will release its manifesto on Monday for the Lok Sabha polls scheduled to start from 11 April, with issues of development and national security set to be its key highlights. Top party leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party 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 percent 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.

Narendra Modi to campaign in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu; Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi to hold joint rally

With only a few days to go for the first phase of the Lok Sabha election, Modi will address public meetings in Maharashtra's Osmanabad, Karnataka's Chitradurga and Mysore, and Tamil Nadu's Coimbatore.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi and party general secretary for eastern Uttar Pradesh Priyanka Gandhi are set to address three election rallies in Saharanpur, Shamili and Bijnor districts of the western Uttar Pradesh, where polling is scheduled to take place in the first phase.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath will also address a rally in Uttar Pradesh's Bijnor, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli and Baghpath.

BJP, Congress launch Lok Sabha election campaign themes

With the tag line "Phir ek bar, Modi sarkar", the BJP on Sunday unveiled its campaign highlights, which included the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government's "befitting" reply to terrorism by "hitting terrorists by entering enemy territory".

Launching the campaign, party leader Arun Jaitley said the choice for people in polls will be between the "cohesive and tested" rule of Modi and "chaos and mahamilawat" offered by the Opposition. The party's campaign will centre on Modi's five-year performance, including on the national security front, "honesty", and his ability to take big decisions, Jaitley told reporters.

The main Opposition party Congress too announced its campaign theme on Sunday. 'Ab Hoga Nyay' will be its slogan for the Lok Sabha polls. The party launched a campaign centered 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'.

India rejects claim of another attack on Pakistan as 'preposterous'

India on 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 16 and 20 April, adding five permanent members of the UN Security Council were apprised about it.

In a strongly worded statement, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Ravesh Kumar called Qureshi's comments a "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.

Congress slams Centre after IT raids on Kamal Nath's associates

The Income Tax Department Sunday launched pre-dawn raids at 52 locations, including in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh, against close aides of Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath and others on charges of tax evasion and hawala transactions.

A team of nearly 200 officials from I-T department and state police swooped down on the premises at around 3 am and recovered undisclosed cash amounting to Rs 10-14 crore, PTI quoted I-T officials as saying. 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.

Locations in Indore, Bhopal, Goa and Delhi (Green Park) were raided and included Nath's former officer on special duty Pravin Kakkar, former adviser Rajendra Miglani and executives linked to his brother-in-law's firm Moser Bayer, and his nephew Ratul Puri's company.

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.

Bidding process for Jet Airways likely to begin from today

The bidding process for stake sale in the cash-starved Jet Airways is likely to commence from Monday as the bid document is still to be given a final shape, reports said. The SBI-led consortium of 26 lenders, which now has the management control of the full-service carrier under a debt-recast plan, last Thursday said bid for the stake sale in Jet Airways airline will be issued on 6 April.

"The expression of interest (EoI) for stake sale in Jet Airways will now be issued Monday (8 April)," a source was quoted by PTI as saying.

Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony to be investigated in the UK over their subscription services

The UKs Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has begun an investigation into the three companies business practices over their subscription renewal methods. The objective of CMA's investigation is to ensure that the auto-renewal policies enforced by Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo give consumers enough notice before charging more money.

KXIP and SRH look to bounce back from disappointing losses as they square off at Mohali

Kings XI Punjab and Sunrisers Hyderabad will clash in match 22 of IPL 2019 on Monday. Both teams will look to bounce back from disappointing losses in their respective previous matches. While KXIP lost their previous match to CSK by 22 runs, SRH succumbed to a 40-run win against MI. Both KXIP and SRH have six points each with three wins from five matches.
Efforts by Facebook to regulate misinformation during Indian elections began more than 18 months ago.

As the Indian general elections loom on the horizon, scrutiny of social media platforms such as Facebook has intensified. The BJP and Congress have both been accused of playing a part in a widespread misinformation campaign on social media platforms. Facebook is now looking to prevent the abuse of its platform during election time.

A statement released by Ajit Mohan, Managing Director & Vice President of Facebook, said that the company will work towards making Facebook and its family of apps fair and free from interference, both foreign and domestic.

He also revealed that Facebook is removing around one million abusive accounts every day using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Mohan said efforts to regulate misinformation during Indian elections began more than 18 months ago with detailed planning and risk assessment across Facebook and its platforms. Key focus areas include "blocking and removing fake accounts, fighting the spread of misinformation, stopping abuse by domestic actors, spotting attempts at foreign meddling, and taking action against inauthentic coordinated campaigns."

Facebook has also launched a new political ad transparency tool, which is said to give people a clearer idea of who posted the ads users see on their news feed. Facebook also runs any political ad with a Paid for by or Published by disclaimer and houses it in a searchable Ad Library for seven years. This Ad Library is a repository for ads where one finds out how much money was spent as well as demographics of those who saw it.

(Also Read: Misleading takedowns: Facebook needs to be a lot more transparent when it comes to banning pages, groups)

The social media giant also claims that it's "gotten better at using artificial intelligence and machine learning to fight interference". The company blocks or removes approximately one million accounts a day using AI.

Facebook has also expanded its partnerships to third-party fact checkers which cover a wide variety of Indian languages including English, Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, and Gujarati. These fact-checkers also provide correct facts below a story that has been deemed to be false in the news feed.

Recently Facebook also joined in a voluntary code of ethics for the general elections with the Election Commission of India (ECI). Facebook has also launched two new products in India "Candidate Connect" and Share You Voted. The former is designed to give voters accurate information about the candidates in this year's election and the latter lets people share with friends that theyve cast their ballot in the elections.
Starting from 2005, the stories around how Muslims were indulging in love jihad to lure Hindu girls became a topic of conversation at almost every meeting of the Sangh in Dakshin Kannada. These activities were further fuelled when BJP came to power in 2008.

Editor's note: This is the seventh reported piece in an 18-part series on the contemporary history of Hindutva in coastal Karnataka. The series features interviews, videos, archival material and oral histories gathered over a period of four months.

Read other articles of the series here

***

VHP, Bajrang Dal start public awareness campaign against love jihad

(As reported in Karavali Ale on 3 January, 2018)

Mangaluru: VHP, Youth wing of Bajrang Dal and Durga Vahini are starting a public awareness campaign about 'love jihad' said M.B.Puranik, the working president of VHP. According to Puranik, during the two- week program, ward 3 and village level meetings would be held and a movement would be carried on after uniting the Hindu society. He alleged that 'love jihad' is a conspiracy to convert Hindu girls to Islam.

***

The first time Vidya Dinker, a professor and environmentalist, heard of love jihad

"A BJP Corporator was driving me back from a program. One of his lackeys, who was sitting in the back seat nudged him and pointed to a lodge at Lal Bagh as we drove past it. 'Sir, mool aapuni au' (Sir, that happens here)'. I remember him saying. When I asked what this guy was talking about, the corporator said 'love jihad'. That was the first time I heard this phrase. It was 2004."

***

Account of a college student about moral policing incident that she witnesses and her ordeal thereafter

"I am a final year criminology student. I am from Kerala and I study in Mangaluru.

In October 2017, my friend was visiting Mysore. I was showing him around the city and as a ritual that I follow when anybody visits Mangalore, I took him to Sulthan Battery. Sultan Battery is a regular spot for all college-going students of Mangaluru. The ferry trip to the beach is something I particularly enjoy. That afternoon, after showing my friend around the beach, we were walking back towards the ferry pick up point, when I noticed a bunch of police officers abusing two girls.

They looked younger than me and seeing them in tears, I instinctively walked up to them. I noticed that there were two other men with these girls, who looked like they were in their early twenties. This seemed to be the reason why the police had been summoned. The police were in the process of talking to the families of both the girls when another person came up to the girls and started taking photos of them. He abused them and said he'll put their photos on Facebook.

When I told him to back off, he turned his abuse towards me. Since I don't speak either Tulu or Kannada, I didn't understand his abuse but his body language was threatening and aggressive. The police continued to abuse the girls and me for intervening. The girls were taken to Barke Police Station after the altercation. They held my hands and asked me to accompany them. I couldn't say no.

What transpired at the police station is a different story.

A senior officer turned his full attention to me and my friend. He took one look at my hijab and asked me how I could be with my friend at a beach since he was a Hindu. They asked for the numbers of our parents, knowing fully well that we were adults. They called our parents and asked how they were okay with a Muslim girl and a Hindu boy interacting openly like this. Even after our parents told the police to back off, their policing didn't stop. I tried to explain to the cop that I am a criminology student and that the male friend was with me for work. But there was no end to this man's discontentment.

After the police humiliated the girls, the family reached the station. The man taking their photos continued to say that he will expose them on social media and the cops didn't stop him. I submitted a complaint to the Commissioner of Police. I submitted the same complaint to the Department of Women and Child Welfare. Nothing came out of it."

***

I was in the Mangalore sessions court. It was 2012. The chief judicial magistrate was scheduled to hear the bail applications of those accused of beating and molesting a bunch of college-going girls while they were having a birthday party at a private resort in Padil.

After the pub attacks of 2009, the resort attack of 2012 had brought Mangaluru back to the national headlines. Hordes of men had barged into a private party on the pretext of 'love jihad'. They attacked the girls (all of which was caught on camera). The horrifying visuals of what transpired there left many in shock. But in the court, this wasn't the cause of concern.

"If it was my daughter who was indulging in such acts, I would applaud these men for their actions," said advocate PP Hegde appearing on behalf of the accused men, most of whom were activists of the Hindu Jagranna Vedike. For the next half an hour, all I heard was about how women in Mangaluru were spinning out of control due to the influence of a variety of forces  from Muslims to western culture, everyone was blamed.

It's difficult to decide whether the judge was mocking the lawyer when he agreed with him. Almost everybody in the court was having a difficult time controlling themselves from breaking into an applause every time the lawyer said 'our girls need to be controlled' or 'if they get information about love jihad, ofcourse they had to go and check'.

From time to time, the public prosecutor, late advocate Purushottam Poojary tried to intervene and request the court to stick to what needed to be done  ascertain if a prima facie case can be made out from the charges or reject bail on those grounds. But no, the approach of the courtroom, on that day, wasn't about looking at the events at Padil as orchestrated moral policing.

Outside the courtroom, the conversations weren't very different than that of a classroom, bus stop or a restaurant. The popular opinion on the street was that the women had no business being at the resort. The video where the men chase after the women, beat and pull at their clothes didn't seem to have much effect on anyone.

Over the years, I realised that all popular 'programs' of the Sangh, with the intent of garnering quick attention, are designed around women. In the absence of a sensible breed of women leadership, there is close to nobody who vehemently disputes these narratives. The most speculated theory in Dakshin Karnataka, both by the media and Sangh Parivar alike, is love jihad.

Love jihad, according to Asha Jagadeesh of Matra Mandali is when "Hindu women are brainwashed by Muslim men to convert and marry them. These women are then used for different purposes, either to produce many babiess or for some anti-national activities." The term grew popular after 2001, owing to a local and a global shift in the manner in which Islam and Muslims are looked at.

Starting from 2005, the stories around how Muslims were indulging in love jihad to lure Hindu girls became a topic of conversation at almost every meeting of the Sangh in Dakshin Kannada. These activities were further fuelled when BJP came to power in 2008.

Asha Jagadeesh is the 'anti love-jihad' face of the Sangh in Coastal Karnataka. Asha has been working for the Sangh since 1989. She started out as an Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) student leader and was elevated to the BJP National Council a few years ago.

There are no registered cases of forced marriage or conversion in Dakshin Karnataka though, as Asha alleges. In 2009, parents of an 18-year-old filed a habeas corpus after she married a Muslim alleging love jihad. The High Court of Karnataka directed the CID to investigate if there were instances of 'love jihad' in Karnataka. In 2014, the High Court closed the case after noting the observation from the report submitted by CID DGP D V Guruprasad.

His report, while categorically stating that girls and boys were marrying across religions, said: "There is no organised attempt by any group of individuals to entice girls/women belonging to Hindu or Christian religions to marry Muslim boys with the aim of converting them to Islam". Asha insists that there are enough cases but they can't expose the victims. "Their lives will be destroyed. But we've enough evidence."

Allegations of Muslims misbehaving or trying to lure Hindu women have been systemically grilled into the consciousness of the people of the region by the Hindu organisations in Coastal Karnataka. The 1998 riots in Surathkal sparked off after a youth from Hindu Jagrana Vedike attacked a Muslim for being in love with a Hindu girl.

On the contrary, retired DSP Jayanth Shetty recollects that the rumour was that a Muslim had molested a Hindu girl. In most such instances, these rumours go unverified. But weeks before this, the Hindu Jagrana Vedike had been conducting meetings and distributing material in Surathkal warning Hindu girls about the dangers of Muslim men.

The policing of interaction between youths from different religious backgrounds are common. It happens within the family, at the university and in public spaces. In one such incident, an inter-religious couple lost their lives after their car slipped off the road and plunged into the Netravti. The accident happening when the couple was being chased by right wing activists from Taneerbhavi Beach.

When Anita Bangera of Barimaru village went missing in 2009, the local police told her parents that hers was a case of love jihad too and that she had eloped with a Muslim man. Shortly after, processions were carried out by right wing organisations against 'love jihad'. But Anita's parents pressured the police to investigate further.

A couple of years later, it emerged that Anitha was killed by a 49-year-old school teacher called Mohan. He allegedly lured her with the promise of a dowry-less marriage and poisoned her with cyanide. He had killed twenty other women in Dakshin Karnataka with the same modus operandi.

Most of these cases had been registered as missing cases. Each case had been used by Hindu organisations to allege that they were cases of Muslims kidnapping 'Hindu' girls. Backing them were regional media houses, who further popularised the term 'love jihad'. A YouTube search will throw up how the term and the tropes it is associated with has been indiscriminately used by the regional media of Karnataka.

***

Conversation between a college student and her friend, which was leaked to the Press in November 2017:

I won't leave him, understand? What will they do, kill me? Let them.

But do you really need this? Didn't you find any Hindus? Hy do you have to go after these Mulsims?

Why should I love Hindus? They've only used me, all of them are abusive bastards, Muslims are much better.

Wait, don't cry, don't be afraid.

A: Who is afraid? What are you saying? I am not afraid.

No, but tell me, why do you want to go after this Muslim guy?

What is this Muslim, Muslim you keep saying? He has been my friend for seven years. Everytime I faced problems, he has stood by me.

Okay listen, he will help, you know. Tomorrow he will impregnate you and dump you. That is what they do.

Fine, no problem, I'll live with it. Did I ask for anybody's help?

What is this, aren't you ashmed of yourself? Can't you think about your family?

Ashamed? I want him and no matter who does what, I will be with him.

And what if they kill him? What will you do then?

Let's see. I'll see how anybody touches him.

I can't believe you are behaving like this for a Muslim who only wants to impregnate you.

That is between me and him. Who are all of you? How is it your business?

If you are saying you were duped by a Hindu before, then you shouldn't love again. Why do you want to go after a Muslim?

What are you saying man? Don't I have the right to love? Who the hell are these Bajrang Dal people to tell me what to do?

Don't you dare abuse Bajrang Dal. Because of people like you, only all Hindu girsl are getting spoilt. These Muslims are waiting for this only.

See, if you have something against indiivudlas, talk about them, why do you have to abuse the religion?

See, Muslims are only players. They are going to convert you, you watch.

Why will I convert? I will be the way I want to, he will be the way he wants to. What is this nonsense that you are talking?

Muslims will impregnate you and dump you. I don't kno why you are behaving this cheap.

Will you stop your Hindu-Muslim rhetoric? We fell in love, and we didn't think about Hindu-Muslim.

Where is this son of a wh*** Muslim from? Where is he?

Why do you care?

See, I am talking to you as a sister, as a friend, I am trying to save you from this.

No need. Who asked you for help? Leave me and my family alone.

Leave? No, we can't. After all, this has happened, you must be dreaming to think that we'll leave you. No, we can't, we will find a solution.

***

Breaking news in Kannada regional channels the next day:

They say love doesn't have ears and eyes but there are some who say that love doesn't have religion as well. These are times when we are hearing of instances of love jihad sweeping the state of Karnataka. "Hindu yuvathi hagi hindugalenae bavarsinu bilitaidhalae obba Drug addict hudugi" (Insipte of being a Hindu, a drug addict girl calls Hindus bastards)

***

A 20 second video surfaced on social media two days after with this statement by the girl:

"That conversation that I had with my friend yesterday was wrong. Members of Durga Vahini have showed me what life is. It was wrong on my part to fall in love with a Muslim. I won't leave Hindu Dharma and my caste. I apologise for everything I said yesterday. Sorry." The video is still available on social media. Photos of the girl continue to be circulated on WhatsApp groups and social media pages.

***

Shaheeda was 23 when she made it to headlines in newspapers in Karnataka. It had been a year since she had converted to Islam. Unknown to her parents, she was attending Quran classes whenever she could find time from work. Things went downhill when a local tabloid carried her photo questioning why a Hindu girl was visiting a Madrassa.

Fearing violence from her family, Shaheeda escaped from home and sought help from a friend, whose father was a known Muslim leader. Within a day, Shaheeda's parents filed a habeas corpus petition at the Karnataka High Court. From a local tabloid, the headlines now moved to all regional papers. Right wing organisations, like VHP and Bajrang Dal, had already started sharpening their tongues and knives, pledging retribution.

Shaheeda appeared in court but the judge insisted that she return to her parents. When she refused, they told her to stay at a government shelter till the issue was resolved. "At some level, I also knew that the court will send me back to my parents if I didn't do anything drastic. So I decided to get married," says Shaheeda.

This was happening in the aftermath of the riots which rocked the region after the demolition of Babri Masjid. Shaheeda had also received death threats. "Nobody was forthcoming to marry me. There was a lot of fear. I had almost lost hope when Aslam appeared." Aslam had just started working when he heard about Shaheeda. They were married in the next couple of weeks and appeared in the court together.

Shaheeda told the judge that she chose Islam after studying the religion and without any coercion. She said that she feared obstruction to her practising her religion of choice if she were returned to her parents. She requested the court to let her live with her husband. The court, noting that she was a major, accepted her decision. On the day that the order was pronounced, more than a 100 right wing activists gathered at the high court. Fearing harm to Shaheeda, the judge let her use the exit reserved for judges to leave the court.

It has been 25 years since this happened. Shaheeda has acquired two degrees since  one in Journalism and another in social work. She heads a national women's organisation and is also an entrepreneur, in addition to being a mother of three. In retrospect, Shaheeda wonders what would have happened if this had happened now. "At the least, there was no social media then. Or else, I would have faced an ordeal similar to Hadiya's. Or maybe worse."
The Election Commission has 'strongly advised' the Ministry of Finance that any action by its enforcement agencies during election time should be neutral and non-discriminatory and the poll panel should be kept in the loop.

New Delhi: The Election Commission Sunday "strongly advised" the Ministry of Finance that any action by its enforcement agencies during election time should be "neutral" and "non-discriminatory" and officials of the poll panel should be kept in the loop about such actions.

The EC's advice came in the backdrop of the Income Tax Department's raids in Madhya Pradesh on Sunday and in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh in the recent past on politicians and people connected to them.

Since the Model Code of Conduct came into force on 10 March, the I-T department has carried out several raids on political leaders and their associates, which the Opposition has dubbed a misuse of central agencies during poll season.

There have been nearly 55 raids in the recent past by agencies under the Finance Ministry.

The poll panel's advice came amid allegations that the government was using the agencies to target rival parties in the election 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 11 April and counting will held on 23 May.

The Opposition has alleged that rival parties are being singled out by the ruling dispensation in the poll season.

The EC 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 the conduct of free, fair, ethical and credible elections.

The EC said it is understood that all enforcement agencies working under the administrative control of the finance ministry's revenue department must be undertaking enforcement actions based on inputs and actionable intelligence, as per extant laws.

The Income Tax Department on Sunday launched pre-dawn raids at 52 locations, including in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh, against close aides of Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath and others on charges of tax evasion and hawala transactions, officials said.

A team of nearly 200 officials from the I-T department and state police swooped down on the premises at around 3 am and recovered undisclosed cash amounting to around Rs 10 to 14 crore, they said.

Sources added that 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.
The I-T dept launched raids at 52 locations against close aides of Kamal Nath and others on charges of tax evasion and hawala transactions.

Reacting to the raids on Kamal Nath's associates, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday in an exclusive interview with Network18 editor-in-chief Rahul Joshi asked why no action be taken against scams and corruption.

"I didn't raise the finger against corruption, corruption is an issue for us. Just see what happened in Bhopal. 'Bhrasht' Nath can say anything but it doesn't matter (reference to Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath and the I-T raids on his close aides). Shouldnt action be taken against scams and corruption?" asked Modi.

The Income Tax department on Sunday launched pre-dawn raids at 52 locations, including in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh, against close aides of Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath and others on charges of tax evasion and hawala transactions, officials said. According to a press release from the Ministry of Finance over 300 I-T officials participated in the operation in the three states.

Officials from I-T department and state police swooped down on the premises at around 3 am 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 the 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 Praveen Kakkar, 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 of 52 premises being searched. The properties linked to Ashwin Sharma, allegedly associated with Kakkar, in Bhopal's Platinum Plaza residency were also covered during the operation.

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

#WATCH Bhopal: Argument breaks out between CRPF and Madhya Pradesh Police officials outside the residence of Ashwin Sharma, associate of Praveen Kakkar (OSD to Madhya Pradesh CM, where Income Tax raids are underway. #MadhyaPradesh pic.twitter.com/ltXNnESE3b  ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2019

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  ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2019

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 Kakkar's residence in Vijay Nagar area and other places linked to him, sources said.

Searches were also conducted at Kakkar'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.

"Searches in Madhya Pradesh have detected widespread and well-organised racket of collection of unaccounted cash of about Rs 281 crore through various persons in different walks of life including business, politics and public service. A part of the cash was also transferred to the headquarter of a major political party in Delhi including about Rs 20 crore which was moved through hawala recently to the headquarter of the political party from the residence of a senior functionary at Tughlak Road, New Delhi," the release said.

A total of 252 liquor brand bottles, firearms and hide-skins of tiger 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 searches in Delhi in the group of a close relative of the senior functionary have further led to seizure of incriminating evidence including cash book recording unaccounted transactions of Rs 230 crore, siphoning off money through bogus billing of more than Rs 242 crore and evidence of more than 80 companies in tax havens. Several unaccounted/Benami properties at posh locations in Delhi have also been detected," the release said.

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.

Kakkar, 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 Madhya Pradesh.

Kakkar'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 chopper deal. Reacting to the raids, a Congress leader in Madhya Pradesh accused the BJP-led central government of targeting opposition leaders for "political vendetta".

Madhya Pradesh 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 MK Stalin had to stage protest against the Centre."

The BJP hit back saying thieves were now having a complaint against the 'watchman'. "Black money 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.

With inputs from PTI
Addressing a press briefing in New Delhi, AVM Kapoor read out the IAF statement, which said that the two aircraft, MIG-21 Bison and F-16, went down during aerial combat.

Air Vice Marshal RGK Kapoor on Monday said that the Indian Air Force (IAF) has "irrefutable" evidence that Pakistan used an F-16 jet on 27 February, which was shot down by IAF's MiG-21 Bison flown by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman.

Addressing a press briefing in New Delhi, AVM Kapoor read out the IAF statement, which said that the two aircraft, MIG-21 Bison and F-16, went down during aerial combat.

"F-16 of Pakistan Air Force (was) conclusively identified by its electronic signature and radio transcripts," read the statement.

The IAF claimed that the F-16 disappeared from radar after the pilot of MIG-21 struck it. Air Vice Marshal Kapoor also said that there is credible evidence indicative of the fact that Pakistan has lost one F-16 but, due to security reasons, the information was not presented on public domain.

Air Vice Marshal RGK Kapoor: Have more credible evidence that is clearly indicative of fact that Pakistan has lost one F-16 however due to security and confidentiality concerns we are restricting the information being shared in the public domain pic.twitter.com/XrtXGOOvP8  ANI (@ANI) April 8, 2019

During an aerial engagement after the Balakot air strikes, a MIG-21 Bison was shot down and its pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman captured by Pakistani authorities.

In the Balakot air strike, India claimed to have killed "largest" Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) camp and also to have brought down a Pakistani F-16 the following day. Meanwhile, Pakistan refuted the claims of India of striking down the terror camp in Balakot and also rejected its assertion of bringing down the F-16 fighter plane.

Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan on Saturday accused the BJP of "whipping up war hysteria", saying its false claim of downing a Pakistani F-16 has "backfired", days after a leading United States 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 that it had conclusive proof of shooting down a PAF F-16 on 27 February. Reacting to the Foreign Policy report, Imran took to Twitter to criticise the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (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 Pak 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.

The Indian Air Force on 28 February displayed pieces of the 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 one of its planes had been downed by the IAF. 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. "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.

Lara Seligman of the magazine later updated the story, saying "the F-16s Pakistan bought from Jordan have also been included in the count and even third-party transfers of US equipment must go through the US government". Reacting to the report, the IAF asserted that it had shot down an F-16 aircraft of the PAF on 27 February during aerial combat.

With inputs from PTI
The NIA had carried out searches in February at seven locations of separatists in Kashmir, including that of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, in connection with the case

New Delhi: Kashmiri separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq arrived in Delhi from Srinagar on Monday to appear before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for questioning in connection with a terror funding case.

Earlier, he had refused to appear before the investigating agency.

"I will not travel to Delhi, nor will I turn up for any investigation come what may," Mirwaiz had said during his Friday sermon on 15 March at historic Jama Masjid in Srinagar.

The NIA had carried out searches in February at seven locations of separatists in Kashmir, including that of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, in connection with the case.

The agency had claimed to have found several incriminating documents, including letterheads of different terrorist organisations as well as high-end communication systems, during the searches.

According to it, the teams had also found electronic devices including laptops, e-tablets, mobile phones, pen drives, communication system and DVRs.
The MHRD will release the NIRF ranking 2019 of top Universities, Colleges and institutes of the country for the year 2019. The rankings will be announced under nine categories  Overall, Universities, Engineering, Colleges, Management, Pharmacy, Medical, Architecture, and Law.

NIRF ranking 2019 | The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2019 India Rankings will be released on Monday. President Ram Nath Kovind will announce the varsity rankings for different fields and courses.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development will release the list of India's top universities, colleges and institutes for the year 2019. The institutes will be ranked under nine categories  overall, universities, engineering, colleges, management, pharmacy, medical, architecture and law.

The rankings are based upon various parameters  teaching, learning and resources, research and professional practices, graduation outcomes, outreach and inclusivity, and perception. People can check the NIRF 2019 list on the official website nirfindia.org once it is released.

In 2018, the best 'overall' institute was the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru. The Indian Institute of Technology-Madras was adjudged the best engineering college, and the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad, the best management institute.

Check out the NIRF's top 10 universities for 2018:

1) Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru

2) Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

3) Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi

4) Anna University, Chennai

5) University of Hyderabad

6) Jadavpur University, Kolkata

7) University of Delhi

8) Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore

9) Savitribai Phule Pune University

10) Aligarh Muslim University
Hindu nationalism, once fringe, has now taken a central place in India's politics ahead of the Lok Sabha election, and the cow has become a symbol of this growing nationalism.

New Delhi: 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.

As India heads toward elections beginning this week, taking up arms for "mother cow" is part of a broader campaign to impose ancient Hindu religious values across a multicultural country. As with similar movements across the world, Hindu nationalism, once fringe, has now taken a central place in India's politics.

The movement is led by the party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who grew up chanting slogans and practicing maneuvers at nationalist training camps. Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party seek to retain power in the elections by promoting Hindutva  a Hindu way of life  instead of secular pluralism. A fresh mandate for Modi could embolden efforts to mold the world's largest democracy of 1.3 billion people into a stringently Hindu nation.

"I think what Modi has successfully done is just to normalise bigotry," said writer and historian Mukul Kesavan. "What we have already seen is a shift of the common sense of the republic way to the right."

Scenes of religious nationalism are now common in India.

In New Delhi and Ayodhya, a city in Uttar Pradesh state, tens of thousands of men in saffron armed with swords and the name of the Hindu Lord Ram painted on their foreheads shouted anti-Muslim epithets. They demanded a temple to Ram at a site where Hindu hardliners tore down a 16th-Century mosque in 1992, sparking riots that left about 2,000 people dead. Hindu groups say the mosque was only built after Muslim invaders destroyed a temple dedicated to Ram.

Elsewhere in Uttar Pradesh, the government spent unprecedented sums on the Hindu Kumbh Mela festival that ended last month, with Modi and the chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, himself a Hindu monk, appearing in countless posters. Three months earlier, Adityanath's state government replaced the Muslim name of the host city, Allahabad, with Prayagraj, a Sanskrit word from Hindu religious texts. The name change from Muslim to Hindu is one of many in recent months.

A Modi-appointed committee of scholars is also studying DNA samples to prove that today's Hindus are descendants of India's first inhabitants and to establish that Hindu scriptures are fact and not myth.

Asked whether the Modi government is forcing Hinduism on its people, Abinav Prasoon, a spokesperson for India's information ministry, said "this is a political thing, and we cannot comment on it".

Even the Taj Mahal has not escaped the Hindu political agenda. Despite being a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the mausoleum built by Muslim Mughal emperor Shah Jahan was not included as a listed attraction by the Uttar Pradesh tourism ministry in 2017. Chief minister Adityanath said foreign dignitaries should be gifted with the Bhagavad Gita, a Hindu religious text, instead of a replica of the monument.

The cow has become a symbol of this growing nationalism.

About 280 people were injured in more than 100 attacks by vigilantes between May 2015 and December 2018, Human Rights Watch said in a recent report. Kamal's group has been involved in some of the most gruesome assaults on suspected cow smugglers.

"Violence is wrong but if the matter involves protecting a mother, all is fair," Kamal said.

At least two men involved in assaulting suspected cow smugglers are also candidates in the upcoming parliamentary polls. Even the Opposition Congress party, long associated with the secularism of its co-founder and India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, has pushed to protect cows. In Congress-controlled Madhya Pradesh state, authorities jailed two men suspected of illegally transporting cows under the National Security Act, which allows for detention in cases of threats to state security.

As Brahma Chellaney, a professor of strategic studies at the New Delhi-based Center for Policy Research, put it: "While the US is ruled by cowboys, India is ruled by cowmen."

Cowwomen, too, it seems.
The crisis in Indian agriculture is unlikely to subside soon. Leaders must prepare farmers for climate change. Agitation alone can't drive farmer politics.

Throughout Prime Minister Narendra Modis term in office, agrarian distress has been an evergreen theme. The collapse of prices of most crops, particularly pulses, fruits, vegetables and milk, forced farmers to come on to the streets of Delhi and Mumbai. There have been violent protests in various other parts of the country. Loans, drought, input prices: the list of farmer grievances is a long one.

However, the country is yet to see the emergence of a credible, pan-India farmer leadership. The tallest kisan leader, Charan Singh, espoused farmers cause from the 1960s to 1980s. He is still remembered in Uttar Pradesh for his action to dismiss 28,000 agitating patwaris who were seen as colluding with zamindars. Sharad Joshis Shetkari Sanghatana and MD Nanjundaswamys Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha were also active in the 1980s. Joshi was intellectually the ablest among farm leaders. He coined the term Bharat vs India and focussed on remunerative prices for farmers for sugarcane, cotton and onion. His heart, however, was not in politics.

Coming from the same region in western Uttar Pradesh as Charan Singh, Mahendra Singh Tikait enjoyed huge support in the farming community. In 1988, he organised an agitation of about five lakh farmers at the boat club in New Delhi. Raju Shetti of Swabhimani Paksha was an MP in the outgoing Lok Sabha from Hatkanangle, Kolhapur. He has been a strong voice of farmers but he also does not have a nationwide following.

The social significance of farmer leadership cannot be overstated. Charan Singh and Tikait were pioneers of Hindu-Muslim unity in western UP. In 1989, Tikait led a movement for safe return of a Muslim girl who had been abducted. Continuing this tradition, Charan Singhs son Ajit Singh has been working hard to heal the wounds of communal poison, which reached a climax in Muzaffarnagar in 2013-14.

Farm leaders play a critical role in unifying farmers on the basis of common programme rather than on communal or caste agenda. Part of the reason for the lack of a strong leadership is that farmers in different parts of India face very different challengessome of which involve contradictions between different sections. Scarcity of water is a perennial issue for farmers in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana. Falling water table bothers farmers of Punjab, Haryana and western UP. In Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and the Northeast, procurement at minimum support price (MSP) is virtually absent. Sugarcane farmers in Uttar Pradesh face enormous delay in payment by sugar mills. Building a common thread for all farmers is no easy task.

https://www.firstpost.com/politics/fractured-land-fissured-ballot-6394231.html

A recent development is the formation of the All India Kisan Coordination Committee (AIKCC), an umbrella body of 191 farmer organisations from different parts of the political spectrum. Its collective leadership has the potential to represent interests of farmers from various regions of India.

Yogendra Yadav, Avjit Saha and VM Singh have been at the forefront of AIKCC. Yadav has effectively used his academic credentials coupled with social media to continuously highlight farmers issues ranging from MSP to loan waiver. AIKCC has also been supporting the private members bills moved by Shetti for one-time debt write-off and making MSP a legal right.

AIKCC has the potential to provide a platform on which farmer organisations can strive to reach a consensus on issues like genetically modified seeds, Indias subsidy-reduction commitments to the World Trade Organization and so on. But this kind of a system also has limitations when it comes to electoral politics. The cost of contesting polls has been rising. The Election Commissions limit of `70 lakh for expenditure in a parliamentary constituency is hardly taken seriously by anyone. It must be difficult for farm leaders to raise money. Industry captains would not oblige them and anonymous electoral bonds are of no use to them.

So, we should not expect emergence of farm leaders having all-India appeal. The crisis in Indian agriculture is unlikely to subside a day too soon. Farm leaders have to realise that Indian MSPs cannot continue to be much above the global prices for a long time. They have to embrace scientific and technological advancement. They have to prepare farmers for climate change. They need to embrace the idea of fewer people depending on agriculture. Agitation alone cannot be the basis for a durable farmer politics.

(Siraj Hussain retired as Union Agriculure Secretary. Currently, he is Visiting Senior Fellow with ICRIER)
Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's ideas on contemporary Hindu society and culture reveal a curious mix of liberalism and conservatism.

By Amiya P Sen

The life and works of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay (183894) represent some of the most vital aspects of Hindu Bengali life and culture in the late 19th century, such as the intellectual creativity and emotive passion, social anxieties and political ambitions, positive energy and reactionary self-defence. He was one of the first two students to graduate from Calcutta University and was promptly offered employment in the provincial civil services. As a man equally well-read in the philosophical discourse of post-Enlightenment Europe as in indigenous tradition, he attempted to meaningfully interpret the West for India and India for the West. In hindsight, it appears as though of the two enterprises, the former was perceptibly more successful.

Towards the end of his life, growing bureaucratic discrimination, racial arrogance and sharper social and political inequalities emerging in a colonised world made him more cautious, circumspect, and in some ways, culturally apologetic. In the 1880s, he was drawn into protracted controversy with Christian evangelists, who expressed contempt for heathen superstition and idolatry, and even with Indian reformist groups like the Brahmo Samaj, whom he accused of thoughtlessly aping the West.

Later in life, Chattopadhyay was anguished by the way Western society and scholarship had misapprehended and misrepresented India and its people. When asked to translate some of his popular novels into English, he declined to do so, alleging that with its limited understanding of India and its institutions, Europe was more likely than not to cast unjust aspersions on Hindu practices. For instance, the taking a second wife could be misconstrued as a polygamous habit, whereas it was simply a practice common to the upper caste, aristocratic society and not rooted in sheer sensuousness or the bodily needs of the Indian male.

Whether in Bengal or elsewhere, Chattopadhyay is known as a pioneering and successful novelist. In all, he wrote about 15 novels and numerous essays. The Bongodarshan, a Bengali monthly he edited for a number of years, took Bengali journalism to new heights and substantially contributed to the development of the Bengali language and literature. Widely circulated in urban households, this journal opened up new vistas of knowledge for its readers, familiarising them with history, philosophy, religion, literature and popular science. Some of his romantically charged novels found a good number of female readers.

Chattopadhyay was also instrumental in alerting the Hindu Bengali intelligentsia of the moral and intellectual challenges thrown at the Indian mind by the contemporary West, and the unique experience of colonised subjection. He could clearly perceive that India was being increasingly drawn into extractive global capitalism and modern ways of life but for which she was rather ill-prepared. Chattopadhyays greatest gift to his contemporaries, though, was the hermeneutic attempt at suitably redefining his own tradition in the light of some unprecedented challenges. He performed this by adopting a historical-dynamic view of tradition and one that was to be judged by contemporary notions of reason and utility. In locating an urtext for the Hindus comparable to the Bible for Christians and the Koran for Muslims, Chattopadhyay settled upon the Bhagavad Gita.

He significantly subjected this ancient, canonical text to modern methods of textual criticism; and his commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, though respectful of classical commentators like Adi Shankara, sharply disagreed with their views. The belief that traditions evolved with time allowed Chattopadhyay to adopt a dynamic, rather than static, view of the past. He answered Western-Christian critiques of Hinduism by projecting the Hindu deity Krishna as both god and man. Just as Europeans like David Friedrich Strauss and Ernest Renan had reconstructed a historical Christ through Biblical criticism, Chattopadhyay produced in his magnum opus, the Krishna Charitra (1892) a much-sanitised Krishna, having discarded a bewildering mass of medieval folk and classical literature allegedly burdened by myths and irrational accretions. On the whole, Chattopadhyay was religious and, unlike several forbearers, believed in God incarnating in human form and in divine interventions in history. In 19th century India, this helped end the great influence that deism once had on the Hindu mind.

It is often overlooked that some of his early writings were on popular sciences. Elsewhere too, he encouraged Baconian methods of observation and inductive reasoning. His interest in emerging disciplines like anthropology and sociology enabled him to interpret Hindu ideas and practices in a new light. For instance, he related the origin of Hindu festivals to agrarian production cycles, and not to religious myths. Though essentially a vernacular scholar and intellectual, Chattopadhyay was on the side of Western education and modern forms of knowledge. This connects him to both Raja Ram Mohan Roy (17721833) and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (182091), who discouraged state patronage of traditional Hindi education. It must be admitted, though, that he was also critical of certain Western ideas or ideologies, such as utilitarianism and positivism, both of which he found unsuitable for India.

Chattopadhyays ideas on contemporary Hindu society and culture reveal a curious mix of liberalism and conservatism. He bemoaned Hindu excesses and obscurantist practices, advocated female education and a new sensibility in gender relations. One of his female characters in the novel Krishnakanter Will (1878) is heard saying that only that man ought to be respected as a husband as deserved that respect. On the other hand, in late-19th century Bengal, he was one of the staunchest opponents of both widow remarriages and the legal abolition of multiple marriages among men. In his essay Dharmatattva (1888), he draws a parallel between a devotees reverence for god and the love and loyalty a woman ought to have for her husband.

Chattopadhyay is also rightly associated with the burgeoning Hindu nationalism in his day, a sentiment which often resurfaces in several of his novels, such as Anandamath (1882), Rajsingha (1882) and Sitaram (1887). And yet, he appears to have uncritically accepted the British colonialist portrayal of Indias past, particularly the vilification of Indo-Muslim rule and the accompanying belief in the British having rescued India from tyranny, ignorance and oppression. In some of his novels, Muslims are made scapegoats, an approach which only further sharpened the communal divide between the Hindus and Muslims in years to come.

The cry of Vande Mataram was essentially directed at urban, middle-class Hindus, apparently excluding both non-Hindus and the Hindu depressed castes, who mostly inhabited rural spaces and exhibited a very different culture. It is also often overlooked that Chattopadhyay did not envision a fully de-colonised India  an attitude that is partly explained by his serving the colonial bureaucracy. However, in his novel Anandamath he did make the important point that Indians first ought to bring themselves up to the level of knowledge and skills that the British themselves had acquired, before prematurely taking to an armed and violent struggle against an alien ruling class and the colonialist state.

Such inner ambiguities and tensions in 19th century Bengal were poignantly represented in Chattopadhyays life and work. It was a time when accepting Western forms of modernisation had to be delicately balanced with serious self-reflexivity and cultural introspection. It is to Chattopadhyays credit that he performed this task quite admirably.

***

Amiya P Sen is a historian with an interest in the intellectual and cultural history of modern India, and has written extensively on Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, including Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay: An Intellectual Biography (2008).

***

This article is a part of Saha Sutra on www.sahapedia.org, an open online resource on the arts, cultures and heritage of India.
The stage is set for a high stakes battle in Karnataka's Bangalore South Lok Sabha constituency, considered a BJP stronghold, where the saffron party's Tejasvi Surya, a newcomer, will take on Congress veteran BK Hariprasad

Bengaluru: The stage is set for a high stakes battle in Karnataka's Bangalore South Lok Sabha constituency, considered a BJP stronghold, where the saffron party's Tejasvi Surya, a newcomer, will take on Congress veteran BK Hariprasad.

Union minister Ananth Kumar had held the seat since 1996. Kumar passed away last year and the BJP has fielded Surya (28), who is a lawyer and party's youth wing leader, this year. The BJP's choice of candidate came as a surprise to many in the party who were expecting Kumar's wife, Tejaswini Ananth Kumar, to get the ticket.

Dismissing reports of differences within the party unit over his nomination, Surya exuded confidence that the BJP would once again retain the seat. "It takes time for things to settle down when a fresh development takes place. After a roadshow of party president Amit Shah, things have changed. I am getting support and blessings of senior leaders including V Somanna and Ashok," he said.

"They have also been campaigning for me. I am expecting people to vote for (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi and I am least bothered about media reports about differences (within the party unit)," he added.

In the 2014 general election, the Congress had fielded Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani. He managed to poll 36.39 per cent votes against Kumar's 57 per cent.

Kumar was considered a moderate saffron leader. His success was attributed to his ability to reach out to Brahmins and Vokkaligas - who account for about 10 per cent each of the total electorate of 22.16 lakh. In contrast, Surya is perceived as a staunch RSS ideologue who doesn't shy away from making pro-Hindutva statements that sometimes make minority voters uncomfortable.

The debutant asserted that his chances of winning are high as the BJP holds five out of eight assembly seats in Bangalore South."I am pretty confident that the BJP will win from this constituency which has eight assembly segments. I do not believe in strategy based on caste politics, but the caste composition is favouring us," Surya said.

"There are 5.5 lakh Brahmin voters in the seat. According to available data, it also has 4.5 lakh Vokkaligas, 3 lakh Muslims and about 1 lakh Christian, SC, ST and OBC voters," the BJP candidate said.

On the other hand, Hariprasad, who hails from backward community of Idigas, is confident that his party will benefit from people's disappointment with the BJP-led NDA government. "I am confident that voters cutting across communities will vote for my party. People are dissatisfied with the Narendra Modi-led government," he told PTI. It has failed to fulfil its promises including creating two crore jobs and bringing back black money, he added.

Backward classes cumulatively account for about 40 per cent of votes and Muslims and Dalits account for 30 per cent in the constituency.

The Congress candidate also hopes for transfer of JD(S) votes. "The JD(S), our coalition partner, has huge pockets in assembly segments like Basavanagudi, Padmanabhanagar and Bommanahalli. Our alliance with Deve Gowda and his party is benefitting us," he said.

Hariprasad, with an experience of almost two decades, said his vision is to protect the nation and the Constitution. "I am fighting for defending democracy and restoring democratic institutions. I want 33 per cent reservation for women to be implemented. I want to bring back the glory and the cosmopolitan culture of Bengaluru," he said.

Historically, the constituency has registered a low voter turnout of less than 50 per cent.

Hariprasad said Congress workers are encouraging voters to exercise their right to franchise. "Our workers are sweating it out to educate people to come out and vote in large numbers to get a strong and stable government at the Centre," he said.

Lok Sabha polls will be held in seven phases from 11 April to 23 May. Polling will be held in Bangalore South in the second phase on 18 April. Results will be announced on 23 May.
The BJP manifesto for the Lok Sabha election includes a number of proposals for information technology and e-governance.

The BJP on Monday released its manifesto for the Lok Sabha election, describing it as a "Sankalp Patra". Besides national security, good governance and the Ram Temple, information technology and e-governance form key aspects of the poll document.

The party proposes to mature into a new technology-driven platform called PRAGATI  Pro-active Governance and Timely Implementation. Through PRAGATI, the BJP aims to do away with bottlenecks that major projects face on a regular basis through video conferencing with officials across the country.

For farmers, the party proposes to strengthen the electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) by taking it to other mandis. The e-NAM scheme, which was launched on 14 April, 2016, is an online trading platform for agricultural commodities in India, facilitating farmers, traders and buyers to sell their products online. The e-market helps stakeholders discover better prices and facilitates smooth marketing of their produce to take them to other mandis.

For villages, the BJP says in its manifesto that it will ensure that every gram panchayat is connected with a high-speed optical fibre network by 2022. Through village-level, high-speed broadband services, the party proposes to provide a range of services, such as tele-medicine, tele-education and agriculture-related advisories.

The Narendra Modi government has laid 3,01,154 kilometres of optical fibre cable, connected 1,21,652 gram panchayats with these cables and installed related equipment at 1,16,411 gram panchayats, which are service ready.

The party also proposes to launch a dedicated e-commerce portal to enhance the availability of organic produce to the doorsteps of consumers.

Moreover, the BJP says it will raise the incentives its government already provides to expand digital transactions. These incentives include giving Rs 150 to customers for carrying out 10 transactions using the BHIM app on mobiles.

The party launched the National Digital Library of India and provided access to e-books and many other papers to students free of cost. The government is already working on multiple schemes in the education sector, such as Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM), SWAYAM PRABHA, e-Pathshala, the Shagun portal, the National Repository of Open Educational Resources, improving Information and Communications Technology infrastructure at Kendriya Vidyalayas.

The party also aims to cover all the secondary schools under the Operation Digital Board. It proposes to further promote research orientation in higher education institutes by providing students free access to leading journals.

Furthermore, the BJP party has proposed to achieve complete digitisation and modernisation of courts. As per the e-Committee of the Supreme Court of India, 16,845 courts have been computerised till date. So far, in phase II of the operation, 166.09 crore electronic transactions were recorded for e-courts through e-Taal portal.

Apart from e-courts, the party also proposes to ensure end-to-end digitisation of government processes. It says it will enable digital delivery of government services. Its Common Services Centres offer over 300 digital services. The BJP also said it will develop a single-window mechanism to handle compliance and dispute resolution.

To make India a world leader in e-mobility, the BJP said it has allocated Rs 10,000 crore to launch a programme to promote the use of clean energy and battery-operated vehicles. The party said it will work on this front to ensure the expansion of this new mobility experience.

Furthermore, the BJP manifesto said the party will strengthen the MADAD portal and turn it into a one-stop destination for Indians living abroad seeking information and services. The Consular Services Management System (MADAD) was set up for users to register grievances pertaining to the consular services offered by Indian missions abroad.

Additionally, the BJP manifesto said the party will send an Indian to space in an Indian spacecraft as part of 'Gaganyaan' mission. It has also proposed to set up an Island Information System for coastal security.
If there is one big takeaway from the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) election manifesto ahead of 2019, it is that the party has promptly walked into a deadly trap of competitive populism laid by the Congress, especially after latter's populist measure of promising Rs 72,000 minimum income for 20 percent of the poor.

If there is one big takeaway from the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) election manifesto ahead of 2019, it is that the party has promptly embraced the risk of competitive populism. The BJP manifesto promises three key announcements  zero-interest loans to farmers for up to Rs one lakh; expanding the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Yojana to all farmers (against those holding cultivable land less than 2 hectares); and pension to small and marginal farmers and small shop owners in the country.

On the face it, these are obvious baits to pacify the farmers' community which is reeling under major agrarian crisis that has hit farm incomes and employment. Along with the promise of Rs 6,000 to all farmers, up to Rs 1 lakh interest-free loans and pensions for all farmers and small shop owners, the BJP manifesto gives a clear advantage to BJP on the populist chart.

However, these schemes, without a doubt, are an immense fiscal burden and create considerable damage to the fiscal discipline if implemented in its entirety. The existing Pradhan Mantri Kisan Yojana, which offers Rs 6,000 to farmers annually, carried some logic. It targeted those with small land holdings. The government could argue that it wanted to uplift small agricultural workers with tiny landholdings who suffer most in the event of an agricultural crisis.

Distributing this to all farmers, however, lacks logic and destroys the original purpose. Now, even the wealthy farmer can avail the Rs 6,000. It also raises questions on the intent of the scheme, reducing it to a mere poll plank and only contributing as a further pain to government finances. Add the additional burden of pension being offered to all farmers and small shop owners, it becomes a fiscal bomb.

Remember, these aren't one time exercises but a recurring expense. Where will the money come from?

Naturally, should these schemes go live, lot of arithmetic will come to play probably cutting down critical expenditure and adding to the tax burden of middle class households. Not a good idea for an ambitious economy already fighting a large-scale unemployment crisis. Interestingly, there isn't much to discuss in the BJP manifesto as to how to deal with the unemployment problem.

Similarly, the zero interest loan upto Rs one lakh announced in the BJP manifesto, can have disastrous consequences on the banking sector, assuming that the onus to implement this will fall on already struggling PSU banks. Logically, there will be a rush to all bank branches to get interest-free agri loans. Agricultural loans already carried very low interest (about 3-7 percent) and now these are being made free of interest. Most PSU banks are already sitting on huge agricultural NPAs, and an even a bigger shock is awaits in he form of Kisan credit card loans.

The fresh populist shocker from BJP will be even more difficult for banks to handle. One can't even rule out large-scale fudging of documents by non-farmers to get interest-free loans. When it comes to fiscal burden on account of planned populist schemes, both the BJP and the Congress arent very far from each other.

A back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that the total burden of Rahul and Congress' minimum income promise will be Rs 3.6 lakh crore. Thats 1.7 percent of the countrys Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Remember, we are talking about an economy that has breached the fiscal deficit target for three consecutive years and is struggling to mop up revenues to keep its balance sheet healthy.

Such schemes, designed for elections and giving fiscal prudence a total miss, will have enormous implications on the fiscal front no matter who comes to power. It re-emphasises the fact that Indian politicians give far greater importance to freebies and will go to any extent to win votes by totally undermining good economics. The idea seems to be about throwing free money to all. Competitive populism has taken the centre stage ahead of the 2019 elections.
The BJP manifesto tells the masses that development and nationalism are complementary, not antidote to each other

Those who though that the BJPs 'Sankalp Patra' for 2019 parliamentary polls would carry something in terms of offering a greater dole for greater mass of Indian population to counter Congress Nyuntam Aay Yojana (NYAY) or Minimum Basic Income Scheme (MBIS) would be disappointed that it didnt contain anything of that sort. The party did promise pension for senior citizens from the farming community, removal of ceiling of five acres to compensate farmers' input to the tune of Rs 6,000 per year, overhaul of GST and some benefits for small businessmen and traders but that was short of details to qualify for what are called populist promises.

There is no ready data available, but given the fact that population boom in India led to fragmentation of land holdings, the number of individual farmers owning two hectares or five acres of land would be small. The quiet inclusion of this section in PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojna (PMKSNY) has bigger political significance  this section may be small but this is a section of influential persons of dominant castes in rural areas. Not only do they tilt opinion balance, they often influence voting pattern in their respective domain.

The "left out" feeling may not have augured well for BJP and the Narendra Modi government in the Lok Sabha Election 2019. According to BJP manifesto committee chairman and home minister Rajnath Singh, the removal of two hectare ceiling for the beneficiaries of PMKSNY was done at the behest of the prime minister.

The BJP leadership chose to broadly focus on two things or a mix of two broad things  first, party or Sangh Parivars ideological moorings on nationalism with all its contours, strong military, strong security infrastructure, abrogation of Article 370 relating to special status to Jammu and Kashmir, removal of Article 35A from the Constitution relating to property right in Kashmir, exploring possibilities of construction of Ram temple, Uniform Civil Code, protecting cultural heritage and so on.

Second, the stress on ideologically neutral issue of development, make India $5 trillion economy by 2025 and $10 trillion economy by 2032, eight percent plus growth rate for next five years, mission mode on water, mega investment in agriculture and building infrastructure and time bound fulfillment of 75 promises on 75th anniversary of Indian Independence in 2022.

The reiteration of core ideological issues at length in the manifesto is a message to the party and Sangh Parivars support base that after being in power for five years and while seeking another five year term in office it has neither forgotten, nor has deviated from its beliefs which for all these decades have been binding force for the saffron Parivar. The Vajpayee government in 2004 had suffered a perception loss even among its traditional support base and consequent election because it was felt that it had deviated from its core values of Hindutava and nationalism.

By making a heady mix of nationalism and development, the BJP sought to tell the masses and its critics that development and nationalism were, in fact, complementary to each other, not antidote to each other.

The BJP believes that it is going to comfortably return to power and thus it was important for it to make promises which was consistent with actual deliverable situations, as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said "its a sankalp (vow) of a government which is going to continue in power".

Four leaders Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley who spoke before Modi stressed on issues of nationalism, how nation first was important for nations advancement, unity and integrity. Jaitley said that in a season of manifestos, it is not prepared with 'tukde tukde' mindset, is not prepared with Ivy league mindset, it is prepared with strong nationalist mindset rooted in Indian realities".

Jaitley compared the situation between 2014 and 2019, from cynicism, gloom, corruption, indecisiveness and policy paralysis to hope and a government which was decisive and delivered goods to people. Today, development of deterrent is India's best defence in cyber space and outer space, striking terror at heart of it and rejects idea of Balkanisation (reference to Congress manifesto), the finance minister said adding that it was clear what kind of government people would like to elect.

Sushma Swaraj called the Lok Sabha Election 2019 as a fight between appeasement and public delivery.

The way Modi shaped his speech was noteworthy. He didnt go on issues of nationalism or indulged in any kind of rhetoric. He simply said whatever the speaker before him said. He was putting his signature to that and went ahead about talking of his vision of future India. He talked about how he would like India to celebrate and dedicate 75 years of Indian independence in 2022, even going to 100 years of Indian Independence 2047, in the league of developed nations, in the league of super powers.

Modi talked only about development and how his government (believing that he would be re-elected) would take the course, making belief in development a mass movement. He knows that people overwhelmingly voted for him in 2014 because he generated vote and would vote for him again in 2019 if he is able to stand on count of delivery and sustain that popular hope generated in him. He thus keeps on talking about the developmental aspects, building toilets, cleanliness campaign, electricity and gas connection to every household, direct benefit transfer, housing to poor and so on.

From that delivery plank, Modi said that India missed the opportunity of welcoming the 21st Century with the right ideas and right delivery mechanism. People say the 21st Century would be of Asia, the question is should India lead it, he asked.

The 45-page BJP manifesto for the 2019 parliamentary polls concludes with a quote and a picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, The nation will never stop, never bow before anything, never get tired, we have to scale new heights... achieve enormous progress in years to come."

He is also on the cover of this document.
In the BJP manifesto for the Lok Sabha election, issues of development and national security set to be its key highlights, besides schemes to woo farmers, youth and women.

New Delhi: The BJP will release its manifesto for the Lok Sabha election scheduled to start from 11 April on Monday, with issues of development and national security set to be its key highlights.

Top party leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP 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 percent households in India, the ruling party is likely to make a slew of promises to woo various sections of the society, especially farmers, youth and women, besides the downtrodden.

Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley on 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.
Despite denying lobbying for a BJP candidate of its choice, Kuki National Organisation is not shy in expressing its political leaning.

Imphal: Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP has got a shot in the arm in Outer Manipur constituency where support from the Kuki militants could prove to be a gamechanger.

Various hill-based militant organisations, which are in talks with the government after signing suspension of operation (SoO) agreements, are now openly throwing their weight behind candidates of their choice. Kukis comprises about 30 percent of the 10.6 lakh electorate in the Lok Sabha seat held by the Congress now.

In February, two Kuki groups  Kuki National Organisation's (KNO) and Zomi Re-Unification Organisation  had allegedly written to BJP president Amit Shah lobbying for a party ticket to BJP Manipur unit's vice-president H Shokopao Benjamin Mate. KNO, has, however, denied writing the letter which was shared widely on social media.

Late last month, the saffron party subsequently announced Mate as its candidate from Manipur's outer parliamentary seat comprising 28 Assembly constituencies.

The BJP candidate has denied any links to the recommendation letters. Stating that he has no knowledge of any such endorsement from underground Kuki outfits, Mate said if they did so, it was their wish.

He dubbed the recommendation letters bearing the insignia of Kuki militant groups as cheap politics being played by some groups to mar his name before elections.

I have made a categorical clarification on the issue that I have not taken any support from any underground elements. It was raised before I got the ticket. It is a foregone case now, Mate told 101Reporters.

A prominent leader of Kuki Inpi Manipur, the apex body of the Kuki tribes, revealed that despite the diktats of militant groups to cast their votes for the BJP candidate, Kuki villagers would never vote for a communal party who have stopped making Good Friday a state holiday in Gujarat.

"Even if Kuki militants coerce villagers to vote for BJP, they will say yes in their presence but vote for someone else because no one would know," the Kuki leader said.

Did Congress MP buckle under KNO pressure?

Party sources said two-time sitting Congress MP Thangso Baite didn't submit his candidature for the party ticket this time because the veteran wants to return to state politics. The letter allegedly sent by KNO, however, claims that the Congressman had graciously obliged their request of not filing his nomination for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Denying all such reports, KNO spokesman Seilen Haokip says it would be ridiculous for them to write such a letter and then put it out on the social media. One should not take WhatsApp forwards seriously, he said raising the issue of fake WhatsApp news.

On the condition of anonymity, a Kuki student leader, however, said it was perhaps true that the Kuki militant organisations wrote to the BJP president.

Having signed the SoO agreement, KNO says their men will exercise their franchise this time. The government has always set up polling booths even in the designated camps for people to cast their votes. So, for KNO to support a party or candidate is simply exercising their constitutional rights, Haokip says.

Despite denying lobbying for a BJP candidate of its choice, KNO is not shy in expressing its political leaning. The outfits spokesperson says he would want to cast vote for a government that has done a favour to their community by allowing them to express their political views.

It is normal for any organisation or individual to reciprocate whatever has been favourably done for them. The current dispensation has engaged the Kukis in a political dialogue which was denied to them for the last 70 years. The same privilege was given to NSCN(IM) a long time ago. According to the Kukis, NSCN(IM) are perpetrators of all kind of havoc but the government talks to them, the KNO spokesperson explains.

The Naga factor

Refusing to be dragged into the issue, Naga Peoples Front (NPF) working president Morung Makunga said if someone claims that Kuki militants support the BJP candidate then another one might say that NPF's candidate Lorho S is backed by National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak- Muivah).

"NSCN(IM) is in talks with the Indian government. Kuki outfits are also under SoO agreement. There's no point in mudslinging. Both are trying to solve their issues, so there is no point in commenting whether they have nexus with these underground outfits or not, the NPF leader said.

Observing that both the BJP and NPF are strong contenders this time from the Lok Sabha seat, Makunga said National People's Party (NPP) Thangminlen Kipgen may upset the applecart because his party is bereft of any communally-driven politics.

In Outer Manipur parliamentary constituency, the voice of the Nagas cannot be ignored for they account for about 40 percent of the votes.

Local media reports suggest that the former Hills Area Committee chairman Thangminlen Kipgen was asked to withdraw his candidature on 28 March by the leader of a Kuki underground outfit. Kipgen admitted that he was asked to withdraw his candidature on the last date of filing nominations but denied KNO chief PS Haokips involvement.

NPF has also raised questions over postal ballots being dispatched to the designated camps of Kuki underground outfits. "There is no separate electoral roll for those in these designated camps which hardly have over 300 cadres. However, large boxes containing over a thousand postal ballots are being dispatched in these camps, Makunga said.

Meanwhile, various Zeliangrong civil society groups have alleged that NSCN(I-M) cadres are openly campaigning for the NPF candidate. Earlier, Zeliangrong United Front had warned the Naga militant outfit and its frontal organisation UNC to refrain from interfering in poling activities in Zeliangrong-inhabited areas.

The author is Imphal - based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com.
Patidar leader from Gujarat, Hardik Patel, who recently joined the Congress, on 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.

Mumbai: Patidar leader from Gujarat, Hardik Patel, who recently joined the Congress, on 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 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.
Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's comment at Coochbehar district that Mamata Banerjee and the TMC of suffering from fear psychosis of Modi, Banerjee warned him not to threaten her as it will be the biggest mistake

Nagrakata: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying he needs to be thrown out of both the chair and politics for the betterment of the country.

"Modi did not have time to look after the farmers and the middle-class, as he was busy touring the globe for 4.5 years of his five-year term," Banerjee told a rally.

"When elections are knocking at the door, Modi is threatening everybody and blabbering lies," Banerjee alleged, claiming he would get the first prize if there was a competition of telling lies.

"In this election, people would stick a leucoplast on his lips so that he is not able to tell lies. For the sake of the country he should not only be ousted from his chair (PM post) but also ousted from politics," she said.

Hitting out at the prime minister's comment on Sunday at Coochbehar district that Banerjee and the TMC of suffering from fear psychosis of Modi, Banerjee warned him not to threaten her as it will be the biggest mistake.

She said, "During the five years, he has been touring the globe for 4.5 years. What was he doing when farmers were committing suicides across the country? What was he doing when people died due to demonetisation and crores of people lost their jobs?"
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanth have been to Ghaziabad multiple times in recent months.

Ghaziabad: The BJP is banking on issues of development and national security as it takes on the SP-BSP-RLD combine in Ghaziabad, where a resurgent Congress in urban areas has made it a keen contest.

Spread over Loni, Muradnagar, Sahibabad, Ghaziabad and Dhaulana assembly segments, the constituency has 27 lakh voters, up from the 23 lakh in 2014, when the Bharatiya Janata Party's VK Singh rode high on the "Modi wave" and won with a thumping majority.

The former army chief, who was labelled as an "outsider" because of his Haryana origin and still fighting that tag, had raked in 7.58 lakh votes, 56 percent of the total votes polled. He alone had pulled nearly two lakh more votes than the 14 other candidates and NOTA combined.

Among the 12 candidates in the fray are Singh (67), Congress' Dolly Sharma (33), an MBA with a political lineage; and the Samajwadi Party's Suresh Bansal (70), a former MLA backed by the Bahujan Samaj Party, Rashtriya Lok Dal and the Aam Aadmi Party.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanth have been to Ghaziabad multiple times in recent months.

"Development, nationalism and national security are our key poll planks this time," Prithvi Singh, a six-time BJP state executive member, told PTI.

The BJP is counting on the extension of the metro rail line, the work on NH-24, opening a domestic terminal at the Hindon airport.

Singh, the minister of state for external affairs, reiterated bringing in projects worth Rs 32,000 crore, including a regional rail transport system (RRTS) that would connect Delhi and Meerut via Ghaziabad.

Ghaziabad also moved from 351st rank in cleanliness index in 2017 to 13th in 2018. "Some works have been done and some others remain in pipeline. If we do not get another chance, those works may not get completed," he added.

The Samajwadi Party claims that nothing more has come to Ghaziabad since the Akhilesh Yadav government was succeeded by the BJP.

"People are angry over the local issues. In fact, the BJP workers have admitted, but hesitantly, that they cannot get work done. The MP should be local and available to the people. The traders and businessmen are unhappy about GST and demonetisation," said Sanjay Yadav, former Ghaziabad president of the SP.

The Congress claims that the BJP had given nothing to Ghaziabad.

"People are paying tax and they deserve better facilities. Basic infrastructure and traffic problems are an issue. The MP has done nothing on these fronts," Congress spokesperson Rajiv Tyagi said. He points out that his party has a plan for industrial panning and hassle-free traffic in Ghaziabad.

"When the BJP can waive loans of farmers, why cannot they do it for the poor, the farmers? Our state governments have proved this can be done," Tyagi said.

Lawyer-activist Neeraj Saxena, 56, claimed that the constituency was suffering from rampant illegal construction, encroachment, poor healthcare and transport system.

"We are taxpayers. We deserve basic amenities and it is the responsibility of elected representatives to deliver that," said Saxena, a Ghaziabad resident since birth.

Political observers believe civic issues might influence voting among the mixed, urban crowd of Sahibabad (9.48 lakh) and Ghaziabad (4.48 lakh), while caste factor may play an important role in Loni (4.91 lakh), Muradnagar (4.43 lakh) and Dhaulana (3.94 lakh) segments.

Considered a BJP stronghold with a combined Brahmin-Vaishya voters, a traditional supporter of the party in the region, of around 10 lakh, the constituency is also home to six lakh Scheduled Castes, 5.5 lakh Muslims, 1.5 lakh Jats, around 50,000 Yadavs, among others in the electorate, according to poll observers.

"We are likely to win again but our victory margin may go down. The alliance (SP-BSP-RLD) is going to make some impact. Yadavs and Muslims won't support us. It's the Jat votes that will get divided," a senior local BJP leader told PTI requesting anonymity.

Congress' Tyagi claimed that his party's vote bank is intact and the Congress candidate has appeal in urban areas, even as the BJP's Singh said the "infighting" in the Congress will spell doom for it despite "no question mark on Dolly Sharma as an individual".

The SP's Yadav said even if the alliance candidate Bansal gets the vote share on the same trend as in 2014, the SP-BSP-RLD could breach this BJP seat.

Notably, the SP had initially planned to field Surendra Kumar Munni, its current district-unit president and a Brahmin face, but was replaced by Bansal, a Vaishya, after the Congress nominated Sharma, to ward off split in Brahmin votes.

"Honestly, this time there is not even the so-called Modi wave, so we are hopeful. Once we win, this Brahmin-Bania tag from Ghaziabad will also get removed. It's only because of the BJP," he said.

The AAP, which had last time got around 89,000 votes with Shazia Ilmi (who joined the BJP post-2014 polls) as its face, has stepped up its campaign for consolidating anti-BJP votes.

"AAP has some influence in urban areas like Vaishali, Kaushambi and Indirapuram, so it may do something little but even that would matter if the fight gets close," he added.

Of the total voters in Ghaziabad, which goes to polls on Thursday during the first leg of the seven-phase election, 15.17 lakh are male, 12.08 lakh female and 109 third gender.
Voters are willing to overlook the failures of Modi and continue trusting him because the prime minister has convinced them that his intentions are noble.

In the interests of fairness (and perhaps also for a not-so-lofty motive of grabbing eyeballs, gaining TRPs and getting page-hits), there is an attempt in the media to always set up every election as a grand battle of equals. As if both sides are equally matched and only the shrewd and unpredictable Indian voter is aware of the truth. Opinion polls and surveys, however meticulously and carefully done, are never taken seriously. The attempt is towards a build-up that reaches the climax on the day of results, when depending on the results, pundits may say either "I told you so", or "no one saw it coming."

This time-tested formula of building up tension before every election is pointless before this edition of the Lok Sabha polls, because the answer is evident to all except those who indulge in willful suspension of disbelief or cannot afford to acknowledge the reality. Barring a miracle or an act of god, expect the BJP-led NDA to retain power and Narendra Modi to extend his term as prime minister for another five years, if we are to go by pre-poll surveys.

This premature verdict is not induced by faith. It is an inference drawn from surveys, long-term trends and current realities. The thing to consider, before we delve into the pointers provided by surveys, is that Modi has approached his tenure of prime ministership like no other before him. He has strived over the course of five years to communicate with the masses at a granular level on a regular basis. And he did this by bypassing the formal lines of communication and creating new channels. He has relied on a direct approach, instead of communicating through the traditional media.

Using technology old and new (such as radio and social media) and showing an almost inexhaustible energy to hold rallies and speeches all through his tenure (over and above those during the election campaign), Modi has taken prime minister-to-people and people-to-prime minister communication to the next level. He has presented a model for others to emulate.

As an article in The Times of India notes, through regular radio broadcasts, social media interactions, and personal appearances at hundreds of functions and rallies each year, he has successfully conveyed to the average Indian that he is sincere, hardworking and decisive. Many may have specific complaints about unfulfilled promises. But few doubt his unwavering commitment to the nation and its people.

The importance for a politician to remain in close touch with the people is often understated. Many critics and pundits are flummoxed by an apparent contradiction in voter behavior. They correctly detect a sense of disillusionment among the electorate over the illusive achhe din. They correctly assess the collective worry of the young over lack of jobs and the level of rural distress. Yet, for all the unmet promises and sense of disappointment with Modi, a majority of voters still seem to be taken in by him and prefer him by a mile over other candidates.

As an article in Washington Post points out, Despite the governments many foibles, from the inability to address the rising tide of rural distress to the disastrous consequences of demonetisation, there is a simple truth animating public opinion: All told, most voters like Modi. A lot.

What may have escaped many critics  leading to their confusion over why those who are apparently dissatisfied with the Modi government and still willing to bet on the prime minister solving their problems if given another five-year extension  is that when a politician manages to persuade the people that his intentions are right ("saaf niyat") through a relentless effort to stay in close touch, then that politician surprisingly gets a lot of leeway for failure.

Simply put, voters are willing to overlook Modis failures and continue trusting him because the prime minister has convinced them that his intentions are noble, he works hard and doesnt shy away from taking even tough, unpopular decisions. Despite all the miseries caused by demonetisation and GST, Modi continues to reap electoral dividends through a deeper, karmic rationale at play. And Modi has largely been successful in conveying this impression through his painstaking effort to remain in close contact with the electorate.

Modi has also been helped in no small measure by the listlessness of his political opponents, who have offered no alternate vision for the countrys future except a desperate desire to unseat him. Their lack of mutual understanding, internal inconsistencies, varying ambitions and geographical limitations have added to the impression that Modis opposition is a motley crew interested only in self-preservation. Modi has hammered home this difference by launching a presidential style of campaign, knowing that his rivals are in no position to offer the name of a challenger.

The result of this is evident. The second iteration of the National Trust Survey conducted by Firstpost-IPSOS polled 31,621 voters from 2 to 22 March from 287 urban wards and 582 villages in 62 socio-cultural regions. The exercise covered 334 parliamentary constituencies and was spread over 329 districts across 30 states/union territories of India.

The survey, that has 95 percent confidence interval and 5 percent margin of error, finds that the prime ministers popularity has transcended geographical and social divides whereas the BJPs popularity is constrained by these divisions. Compared to the previous round of the National Trust Survey conducted in November-January 2018, it was found that preference for Modi as the next prime minister has increased by 10 percentage points. Modi, who enjoyed approval rating (52.8 percent) levels two times more than Rahul Gandhi (26.9 percent) has now doubled the lead to four times, 63 percent against 16 percent. The perception around Modis performance as prime minister has also gone up in similar proportions.

The survey also points out that Modi punches above the weight of his party and in many ways, Modi is contesting the election on his partys behalf instead of the other way around in Indias representative democracy. It is also interesting to note that Modis popularity is higher in West Bengal and Odisha than that of BJP, and it raises the possibility that BJPs seat share may go up in these crucial eastern states because the election is perceived as a mandate on Modi.

When it comes to trust, that ephemeral commodity that politicians strive for, it is worth noting that the electorate trusts Modi more than even the Supreme Court. His trust level at 51.7 percent is next only to the armed forces at 60.1 percent. This explains a key finding in the survey and one that has commentators grappling for explanation.

If this election was to be fought on parameters such as the state of the economy, jobs, dip in farm incomes and distress in rural economy, incumbent Modi would have to give a lot of explanations. Curiously, however, public faith in Modi is primarily built on abstract notions, not concrete issues, due to voters perception of him creating a better image of India abroad, capacity for taking big risks, bringing big changes and taking care of the country. Politicians strive to gain the electorates faith because trust has the power to mitigate and even overcome reality, and Modi seems to be doing well on this score.

Other surveys corroborate this reality. The CSDS-Lokniti 2019 pre-poll survey conducted in March this year indicates that Modis popularity (43 percent) has rebounded from what it was in May 2018 (34 percent) to touch May 2017 figures (44 percent), and it is significantly higher than even the May 2014 level (36 percent)  the year he stormed to power.

The survey also points out that the dissatisfaction level with the Modi government has ebbed, and the satisfaction measure is now almost back to the pre-demonetisation high. More significantly, anti-incumbency sentiment seems to have weakened in the past one year. Other pointers include a rise in the number of respondents (34 percent) who believe the state of economy is now better, up from 26 percent in January 2018 and 19 percent in May 2014.

An opinion survey by Times Now-VMR predicts that the NDA will return with 279 out 543 seats in the Lok Sabha. The survey, which was carried out between 22 March to 4 April, 2019, interacted with 14,300 respondents, projected 149 seats for the Congress-led UPA while the Others (parties not aligned to either the BJP or Congress, are expected to win 115 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Finally, compared to last year, for half of the respondents, Modi seems to have delivered on his promise of achhe din.

These findings are subject to appropriate disclaimers, but they point towards a truth that many Modi critics reflexively deny. The prime minister enjoys a high level of trust and the voters are willing to give him at least one more chance to build on the foundation that he has laid over the course of five years. It is nobodys case that there are no dissatisfactions with the Modi government but surveys, anecdotal experiences and the dynamism of Modis well-attended campaign rallies are suggestive of the fact that voters consider him to be the man best suited to deal with the country's problems and take India to greater heights.
Hurt by Patels' anger, the BJP in Gujarat is now putting it money on the OBCs as well as the tribals, who along with Patels account for 60 percent of total votes in the state

Ask any patel about his political allegiance, and he is quick to retort, "P to P na vote aape na (a patel will always vote for a patel". Period. It might be difficult for an outsider to understand this colloquial connotation, but its commonly used in Gujarat, especially during the election time. In the current heat of the elections, P for Patel is a resounding call all over.

To get an idea of how powerful the 'P' factor is in the electoral landscape of Gujarat, take a look at some hard facts. Patels constitute 14 percent of the total 63 million population of Gujarat and 21 percent of its voter population. Anandiben Patel, the first lady chief minister of Gujarat, belonged to the Patidar (Patel) stock. When she was sworn in, the then BJP party chief RC Fardu was also a patel. Seven of the 24 ministers in her cabinet were Patidars and 42 of the total 182 legislators were from the same community. During the 2017 state Assembly election, all roads led to Patel doors as they have the capacity to tilt the balance in 75 to 80 of the 182 Assembly constituencies.

Patels, mainly agricultural land owners have played a dominant control over a large number of industries in Gujarat. For instance, Nirma, Cadila Healthcare, Lincoln Pharmaceuticals, Suzlon Group, Surya Group, Parswanath Group, Harekrishna Diamonds are all owned by patels. Most of the ceramic industry of Morvi is in the hands of Patels.

Everything was hunky-dory for the BJP till Hardik Patel emerged on the scene. In a quick turn of events, he turned the powerful Patel constituency against the BJP. Patels were strong BJP supporters till then and by extending their en bloc support to the BJP in successive elections, they had changed the BJPs fortune for good. Thanks to their support, BJP was able to form its first government in Gujarat in 1995. BJP strongman and patel leader from Saurashtra, Keshubhai Patel had become the first ever BJP Chief Minister in the state.

BJPs rise

The Patels disenchantment with the Congress had begun in 1985 when Congress leaders Madhavsinh Solanki and Jinabhai Darzi had created the KHAM (Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi, Muslim) caste formation to win a record 149 of the total 182 seats in 1985 and Madhavsinh Solanki was anointed the chief minister of the state. Winning 149 seats is a record which has not been broken so far  even by Narendra Modi in his previous two state elections. The Patels, upset by the Congress' neglect of their clout, choose to cast their lot with the BJP ensuring their steady rise in the state's power structure. Except for a 16-month break when their senior leader Shankersinh Vaghela broke away to form his own regional outfit and come to power with Congress support, it has been BJP all the way. The Congress was last elected to power in 1985 which is more than 34 years ago.

A good number of the BJP leaders share in private that it was sheer mishandling of the agitation by Hardik Patel, convenor of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) that has led to the current scenario.

The Patidar agitation for OBC quota and reservation in government jobs and colleges had begun on 6 July, 2015, with small rallies in towns dominated by them. The PAAS had successfully mobilised Patels in the 18-35 age group at a rally in Surat on 17 August when an estimated crowd of 4.5 lakh showed up, bringing the city of diamond and textile units to a grinding halt. This had unnerved the Anandiben-led BJP government in Gandhinagar.

Patidar stir

"This agitation ran for 55 days without a trace of violence, but when 20 lakh people turned up at the GMDC ground in Ahmedabad on 25 August, the state government instigated the violence as they (government) did not want us to stay in newspaper headlines," Hardik had said immediately after the lathi-charge and violence that had resulted in the death of five persons and many more in subsequent violence in many other cities across Gujarat. The violence saw the rise and further rise of 22year-old Hardik Patel as the most dominant Patel leader in the state.

The Congress party saw an opportunity to win back Patels and acted fast to bring them in its fold. Under pressure, the BJP government had even introduced 10 percent quota for economically weaker sections through promulgation of an Ordinance but it was too late. Moreover, it was challenged in the high court, which struck it down.

The Congress had pressed into service its best legal brains to work and come up with a formula that was placed before PAAS representatives at a specially convened meeting at the Gujarat Congress headquarters in Ahmedabad by Kapil Sibal. PAAS evaluated the proposal through its own legal advisors and later Hardik had announced that PAAS has accepted the formula and will support the Congress in the ensuing election. In the process, the BJP had lost the backing of the Patels. Patel bigwigs in the BJP were so furious that deputy chief minister Nitin Patel had fumed: "Fools have given a formula and fools have accepted it."

The Patels' bonhomie with the Congress (after 34 years) claimed its first head in the BJP. Weakened by the Patidar agitation which careened out of control, Anandiben fell out of favour after the Una lynching of four Dalit youths for skinning a dead cow and was replaced by Amit Shah protegee Vijay Rupani.

Losing grip

Patels' anger against the BJP soon started showing its impact on the fortunes of the ruling party. Angry Patidars voiced their dissent against the ruling BJP in local self-government elections in November 2015 that marked the resurrection of Congress in Gujarat. Though the BJP retained its urban hold winning all six municipal corporations albeit with a considerably whittled down margin, the party suffered severe losses in rural Gujarat. Congress wrested 23 of the 31 district panchayats and picked up 134 of the total 230 tehsil panchayats while the BJP was left with only 67 of them. In at least 8 districts BJP failed to win a single tehsil panchayat.

In 2010, BJP had won 83 per cent or 269 of the 323 local self-government bodies. In 2015, it lost 44 percent of them, winning just 126. In 2010, BJP had bagged 547 seats in 24 district panchayats. This time, the Congress won 596 seats in 31 district panchayats. In just three years of Modis departure from Gujarat, the state was in a mess and the ruling BJP in a quandary as to how to deal with the situation. The Congress, on the other hand, which had been reduced to the margins, started brimming with confidence and raring to take on the BJP during the upcoming Lok Sabha election.

Seriously hurt by Patels anger, the BJP top brass is now putting its money on the OBCs, tribals and Patels. All together, these three communities make up for approximately 60 percent votes. As per available statistics, the OBC population is about 26 percent, Patel 14 percent and tribals form around 19.23 percent. The forward castes make up for 13.46 percent while Muslims account for just 1.92 percent.

In the current seat distribution, both principal parties have kept in mind the caste arithmetic. BJP has allotted 23.7 percent seats to Patels, 30.76 percent to OBCs, 19.23 percent to tribals (ST), 7.69 percent to SC, 19 percent to upper class and none to Muslims.

Congress, on the other hand, has given 30.76 percent seats to Patels, 30.76 percent to OBCs, 19.23 percent to STs, 3.4 percent to Muslims and 7.69 percent to upper class and 7.69 percent to SC candidates.

Wooing the Patels

As the seat allocation clearly indicates, Congress has seriously worked to win back Patels by giving them much higher number of seats as compared to the 2014 Lok Sabha election when only 19.23 percent seats were given to them. BJP has also fielded more Patels this time compared to the 2014 Lok Sabha election.

It is difficult to hazard a guess whether 'P for P' will also help the Ps of the BJP, especially when Hardik is going around all 26 seats in the state, appealing for votes for Congress candidates. Patel's plans to contest the Lok Sabha Election 2019 hit a roadblock recently when the Gujarat High Court rejected his plea seeking a stay to his conviction in the 2015 Vispur rioting case. His appeal in the Supreme Court did not get him any relief. After joining the Congress party, Hardik was declared a candidate from Jamnagar seat, but after his debarment, his close aide Gitaben Patel is fielded from the Ahmedabad seat.

Confined to his constituency of Jamnagar, Hardik was a much better choice for the BJP. However, free of a specific constituency responsibility, the young Patel is likely to do much more damage now.

The seriousness of the situation is not lost on Prime Minister Narendra Modi as no one knows the odds weighing against his party. It is because of this that he has raised the frequency of his visits to his home state. He knows that he will have to use his personal appeal to sway voters and therefore he plans to carpet bomb the state.
Mayawati and Akhilesh may have come together to fight the BJP, but its constant reiterations that the Congress poses no threat are more than likely a farce.

"After Independence, for a long time, the Congress and BJP were in power... even in Congress-ruled states, wrongful practices came to notice... so they eventually lost voter base..."

These remarks by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati, made at the first joint rally organised by her party in Deoband along with the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and Samajwadi Party, touch upon what can be considered the alliance's primary concern  their voter base.

When the Samajwadi Party and BSP announced their alliance in Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha election, it took many a political analyst by surprise as the popular opinion was that they would join hands with the Congress, as well, to take on the ruling BJP. The move was even more unexpected as Mayawati had lent support to the Congress  albeit begrudgingly  to help the party get the numbers to form governments in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

When announcing her decision after the Assembly election results were declared in December 2018, the BSP chief had emphasised that the move was to ensure that they kept the BJP out of power, not because her party supported the Congress. In fact, in March, Mayawati ruled out the possibility of an alliance with the Congress "in any state".

After the former rivals came together in Uttar Pradesh, shunning the Congress, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav had said that he had "immense respect" for Congress president Rahul Gandhi, but the grand old party was kept out of the SP-BSP alliance in Uttar Pradesh to correct the "poll arithmetic" necessary defeat the BJP.

"If you take out the number of seats in Uttar Pradesh, you will notice that the BJP government doesn't have the majority. BJP keeps talking about social engineering. So I also decided to correct my poll arithmetic and did it through this alliance," Akhilesh had 'explained'.

Both former Uttar Pradesh chief ministers have repeated time and again that their ultimate goal is to dethrone the BJP. Why then did they not include the Congress in the alliance to prevent a division of votes? Akhilesh's explanation does not explain much.

The SP-BSP combine lays bare the clear contradiction between the objective the entire Opposition has put forward of keeping the BJP from winning a second mandate  as well as taking the country away from the rigid direction towards which it's headed  and the determined refusal of Mayawati and Akhilesh to include the Congress in its alliance. If this political game ultimately splits the anti-government votes, the BJP will enjoy the last laugh.

If we observe the statements made by both Mayawati and Akhilesh at the rally in Deoband on Sunday, it appears as though they might have realised this conundrum. The BSP and SP presidents appealed to Muslims to not "waste their votes" on the Congress.

"I would like to tell Muslim voters to not waste their vote on the Congress. The Congress is not in this fight. We are fighting the BJP, and we will win," she asserted, changing her tactic to accuse the grand old party of being more interested in taking boat rides and cutting secular votes than listening to the woes of farmers.

Besides the failures of the Narendra Modi government and its unfulfilled promises, wrongdoings by the Congress and consolidation of Muslim voters were the focus of the rally  further highlighting that the prospect of losing minority votes to the Congress may finally have the SP-BSP combine rattled.

However, what drives home this point is the location the alliance chose to hold the first of its joint rally  Deoband, Muslim dominated and home to Islamic seminary Darul Uloom. Deoband is one of the five Assembly segments of the Saharanpur parliamentary constituency in Western Uttar Pradesh, where Muslims make up 40 percent of the voters. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Congress candidate Imran Masood is being seen as a strong contender against the BSP-SP's joint candidate Haji Fazlur Rehman and the BJP's Raghav Lakhanpal. Although Masood had lost to Lakhanpal in the 2014 polls, the tables are believed to have turned since the 2017 Dalit-Rajput violence in Saharanpur. It's a three-way contest this time, which indicates that the SP-BSP combine's Deoband rally was an attempt to prevent the transfer of minority votes to the Congress.

Foes-turned-allies Mayawati and Akhilesh may have initially come together to fight the BJP alone. While this may still be its primary objective, its constant reiterations that the Congress poses no threat in Uttar Pradesh are more than likely a farce. The two parties fear losing supporters from the vote bank they share with the Congress.

As per their seat-sharing deal, the Samajwadi Party will contest in 37 seats and the BSP in 38 of the 80-seat Uttar Pradesh Assembly. The RLD will contest in three seats  Mathura, Baghpat and Muzaffarnagar. The SP-BSP coalition left the Lok Sabha seats of Rae Bareli and Amethi for United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, respectively. The Congress has also left seven seats for the alliance, which the SP-BSP did not take very well.
Given that the UK High Court has rejected Vijay Mallya's plea challenging Westminster Magistrate's Court extradition order in the week when incumbent BJP goes to poll seeking its re-election, it is definitely going to benefit the party

With the Lok Sabha election campaign at its peak, with the first phase of elections to be held on 11 April, every hits and misses by the ruling BJP will have a wider political ramifications. And in this context, the increased chances of Vijay Mallyas extradition might benefit BJP significantly while costing Congress one of its salvos against the BJP.

Within an hour of the UK High Court rejecting Vijay Mallyas application to file an appeal against his extradition order passed by the Westminster Magistrates Court in December last year, Twitter users sprang into action and celebration with hashtags sarcastically welcoming the fugitive businessman to tweets of bring-back-Mallya flooding the social media space.

In December last year, Westminster Magistrates Court had ordered Mallyas extradition to stand trial on charges brought by the CBI and ED. Following which Mallya had filed an application of appeal to the UK High Court, which today while rejecting the Mallyas plea, upheld the Westminster Magistrates Court decision.

Now, the only option left for the beleaguered business tycoon is to appeal to the UK Supreme Court to stop his extradition. Following the rejection of his appeal, now Mallya will get an opportunity to present oral submissions. If the court find merit and Mallya's lawyer is able to convince the court by bringing in some new document or material that can make strong case for fresh trail, then only Mallya can save himself from being sent back to India.

Mallya who fled the country in 2016 was arrested in April 2017 on an extradition warrant. After that a nine months trail led to the Westminster Magistrate's Court judgment.

Mallyas arrest and the Westminster Magistrate's Court judgment ordering his extradition was seen as a major diplomatic win for India. However, his appeal led to the delay in extradition. Now, with high court rejecting his appeal, it has further increased the chances of Mallyas extradition.

Vijay Mallya had fled the country after defaulting on loan payments to the tune of Rs 9,000 crore to a consortium of 31 banks. India has been seeking Mallyas extradition on charges of fraud and money laundering.

While Mallyas defense has argued that his inability to pay the loan was due to business failure, the prosecution has claimed that Mallya had intentionally defaulted the loan.

And this allegation of his willfully defaulting the loan amounts, taken from several banks and the fact that he fled the country without making attempts to pay it earned him the fugitive tag.

His escape and extradition became a major political issue with Congress accusing the BJP of allowing him to flee the country. On the other hand, BJP pointed out the fact that all the loans to Mallya were sanctioned during Congress-led UPA regime.

Last month, the arrest of Nirav Modi, the main accused in the $2 billion Punjab National Bank scam case, in London by the Scotland Yard was projected as a major boost to India's efforts to bring back the fugitive diamantaire.

The arrest came after a London court issued an arrest warrant against Nirav in response to a request by the ED for his extradition in a money laundering case.

His arrest was seen as a result of strong diplomatic negotiations under Modi and helped the BJP assert its claim of India emerging as a stronger nation-state under Modi.

While the opposition and critics of the BJP government rejected all high claims as optics, the fact remains, that in a poll year such news is bound to help the BJPs prospects.

'Mallya ran away with the hard earned money of people' was a narrative that was built around his escape. He was projected as an enemy of the country and bringing him back was projected as major challenge for BJP.

Now with his appeal been rejected, his extradition has become more probable. Given that it has happened in the week when incumbent BJP goes to poll seeking its reelection, it is definitely going to benefit it.

And at the same time Congress who has been attacking BJP on this ground might lose one of its salvos.
Shubham Agarwal

It's been over five years since Xiaomi set forth to test the Indian waters. It began with just one product, the Xiaomi Mi 3, and for three months, operated through a single employee. Today that employee is the companys Global VP and MD for India, Manu Kumar Jain. But thats not the only factor which has progressed.

Since those humble beginnings, Xiaomis empire has spiralled out of the underdog status and into a gargantuan household name with products spanning across a vast gamut of lifestyle as well as electronics categories. It rose to the top of the smartphone market, a position held by Samsung for ages.

But other than making India its second home, Xiaomis expansion in the country has proved instrumental for several stodgy sectors as a whole. Sectors such as televisions, soundbars, fitness accessories, air purifiers which were either nearly non-existent before Xiaomis arrival or were dominated by companies that had grown way too comfortable (with the dearth of any sort of resistance or friction), have suddenly become exciting.

(Truly) disrupting industries

By pairing an affordable pricing model and premium materials, Xiaomi managed to breathe fresh life into these categories and planted the seeds for new ones. In the past year, companies such as Samsung have been forced to revamp their strategy in a hope to retaliate.

Smart bands, for instance, were barely active in early 2015. However, later when Xiaomi brought its entry-level Mi Band to India, the market witnessed a sharp uptick. Both in terms of sales and the number of challengers craving for a share in this newly discovered segment. Mi Band and its successors have been the undisputed leaders in the fitness band category.

Wearables category (specifically smart bands) exploded in 2016, with several brands coming in, commented Navkendar Singh, research director at IDC. With a head start and a better insight into what users want, Xiaomi has been also able to retain its lead in spite of the influx of new, cheaper options.

As per Counterpoint Research estimates, Xiaomi had 44 percent of the smart band shipment volume share in 2018, grew from 27 percent shipment share over the last year, said Pavel Naiya, senior analyst, Devices and Ecosystem, Counterpoint Research.

Similarly, Xiaomi introduced India to air purifiers in September 2016. Sure, there have been a few players in this segment before, but the idea of these devices was still largely absent in Indians minds. This was too followed by a deluge of new competition with brands such as Dyson and Samsung entering the space.

But the one that had the most impact and was desperately crucial for the Indian electronics market was Xiaomis Mi TV launch. In the past, smart televisions in India were both overpriced and plagued with an underwhelming experience. Xiaomi mended both with a series of models at various price points. Today, Xiaomis televisions have grown so much in popularity that mobile-only Xiaomi Preferred Partner stores are now (profitably) selling them as well.

(Also Read: Xiaomi Mi LED TV 4X Pro 55 review: Arguably the best TV under Rs 40,000)

Plus, Xiaomis Mi TV lineup severely affected players like Samsung who are selling mostly identical products at about double the price. To strike back, the Korean manufacturer recently announced a new range of Flipkart-exclusive smart, 4K televisions in the same price segment as Xiaomis Mi TV. Whether that will put a pause on Xiaomis televisions growth, which has reached the magic figure of one million TVs sold in merely nine months, remains to be seen.

In smart TVs, Xiaomi entered in 2018. As a result, the smart TV category grew by almost 80 percent, in which Xiaomi contributed to about 60 percent of this growth. Xiaomi is now the largest brand in the category with more than a quarter of the share, said IDCs Singh. Even in air purifiers, Xiaomi is one of the largest players (although the market is seasonal, geographically concentrated), but it definitely helped democratise the concept of air purifiers because of affordability and marketing by Xiaomi. The launch timing also helped for this category actually, he added.

Counterpoints Naiya agrees as well and stated, With increasing competition, product prices have curved by the market dynamic. As a result, we are seeing other top OEMs are launching budget products, be it air purifiers, smart TVs and other smart appliances, etc.

Incidentally, research firms like IDC didnt even actively track smart televisions before 2018.

So how did Xiaomi, a company which started with one device, predict these trends and built a sweeping ecosystem in just a couple of years?

Feedback, feedback, feedback

If you ask Xiaomi, the answer is rather straightforward. Since the new products it introduced in India weren't necessarily new and were already on sale in China, the excitement around these products was already there. Mi TVs, for instance, had created a buzz here much before they began officially selling. To get a pulse of the market demand, Xiaomi regularly brings demo pieces and based on community feedback, decides which space to target.

The brand actively engages with Mi Fans through several social media channels and regular Mi Fan meetups wherein they share their inputs on Xiaomi products. This is often crucial in helping determine the preferences of consumers and analysing the current consumer trends in the market. Xiaomi also has five Mi Home Experience Stores which house several products above and beyond what we sell in India. All our consumers can go and try these devices, and give us feedback on which products they would like to see in India., explained Raghu Reddy, head of category and online sales, Xiaomi India.

Personal experiences of Xiaomis personnel and current events contribute further to this approach allowing the company to instantly capitalise without spending much on research.

With the rising air pollution levels in metropolitan cities of India and the increasing concerns over its effects on health, we felt the strong urge to find a smart solution to this issue, and help Mi Fans and their loved ones cope with this concern. This led to the evaluation of the Mi Air Purifier category being introduced in the Indian market in the year 2016 and Mi AirPOP (pollution masks) being introduced in 2018, added Reddy.

When Xiaomi figures out where to move next, it goes through another essential process which others often overlook. Its the fact that India is unlike other markets and not every technology product is compatible here in its original form.

Competitive pricing is just one part of the puzzle

Xiaomi didnt call it a day after releasing cheaper alternatives loaded with high-end features on the products it sells. Others like Vu (in the television industry) have tried that trick before and in some ways, thrived as well. But its easy to forget that price is a fragile advantage to live on and can be undercut by anyone if it comes to that. The disappearance of Indian smartphone brands such as Karbonn, Micromax and others from the top five in quarterly results is an example of that.

(Also Read: The Xiaomi smartphone buying guide: From Poco F1, Redmi Note 7 Pro to Mi A2)

Therefore, to ensure their rise cannot be mimicked and countered by sheer brute force, Xiaomi reengineers its products so that they are fit for the Indian market. The software Mi TV runs on  Patchwall is the epitome of this. It offers a custom interface which marries the best of both worlds ie. the smart chops of Android TV such as the ability to play your favourite movies or shows with your voice command and the large catalog of cable on which most Indians still heavily rely on, using a single extra connector, so that you dont have to switch between the TV remote and your DTH providers remote

We at Xiaomi take major efforts to localise our product development efforts and operations before we introduce any new product or category in India. For instance, when we decided to launch the Mi Air Purifier 2S (Review) in India  we had to integrate technology in the Air Purifier which would enable it to switch on automatically once the power is re-connected. Since power outage isn't an issue in China, the product originally did not have that capability but was built in especially for India, said Reddy.

Putting the pieces together

The why behind assembling an ecosystem is imperative to Xiaomis success too. Even though Indias smartphone industry has, unlike the rest of the world, managed to keep its head over water, it wont be long before it reaches saturation.

Phones arent Xiaomis only revenue source. It bills itself as an internet company with arms spread in IoT gadgets, advertisements and more. That model has consistently worked for the company in China and its essentially trying to replicate the same in India.

Unlike years ago, internet connectivity and smartphones are more accessible than ever in India. Smart home and lifestyle devices, as a result, are expected to take charge in the next year or so and Xiaomi doesnt want to be left behind whenever that happens in full swing. Being more than just a smartphone company also augments its brand in India which predominantly is still stuck in the budget segment.

When a smartphone as a device category reaches a point of commoditisation in terms of design language and hardware and it becomes more difficult to make money in smartphone space, as consumers hold on to their phones longer, it makes it important for a brand to look at other smart device categories. As consumers become more comfortable in using smartphones, aided by inexpensive data access the smart home and lifestyle device categories will be the next growth frontiers in next 2  3 years, said IDCs Singh.

Services  the next growth segment

Moreover, services play a vital role in Xiaomis multifaceted strategy and the company has begun to leverage its vast reach in India to push its in-house platforms. That includes Mi Video, Mi Music which is powered by Hungama Music, Mi Pay for UPI payments, and more. Its quite evident from Xiaomis plans that it will most likely be competing with the likes of Netflix and Spotify with its online streaming platform investments. Xiaomi is looking to monetise its utility apps too, like Mi Drop which has bagged over 100 million downloads.

In a recent interview, Manu Kumar Jain said Xiaomi will be investing a significant portion of the recent Rs 3,500 crore fund infusion to expand into services. Its also worth noting that Xiaomis e-commerce website today stands at the third position right behind Amazon and Flipkart.

But that doesn't absolve Xiaomi from some of the practices it employs, especially when it comes to pushing advertisements in customers' faces through its MIUI user interface, or Patchwall for that matter. MIUI was even found to be pushing advertisements in the Settings menu of Xiaomi phones. While it will be impossible to escape advertising, considering Xiaomi claims to make less than 5 percent profit margins on hardware products, it should ensure that customers have the options to opt out (in an idiot-proof manner) of being bombarded with ads in every single menu. Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun has promised that MIUI 11 will cut down on pesky ads. Let's hope this is taken care of.

In addition to ads, another more serious news emerged last week of Xiaomi's Mi Browser as well as the Mint browser having a security flaw which would let hackers spoof URLs. As Xiaomi expands its services portfolio, it will have to be more vigilant about these things, which can mar a user experience and in some cases even lead to fraud.

By gradually broadening its lineup  on the hardware and software front  Xiaomi is now growing confident with its position and brand image enabling it to aggressively infiltrate more categories. These signs can be easily found in its recent developments too. Compared to a couple of years ago, Xiaomi today announces a new non-smartphone product every few months and has launched about a dozen in just the past year yielding an ever-shifting goal post for its fellow contenders.

The company has brought with it a wave of upgrades for categories that gravely needed them. With a network of exclusive stores and official retail partners, Xiaomi has, in the process, also paved a path that will be a little too demanding for others to keep up with or imitate. Xiaomi has already set up eight manufacturing plants to further lower costs and over a thousand service centers throughout the country.

In the coming months, Xiaomi is expected to try to reinvigorate a handful of critical industries like water purifiers, washing machines and the most awaited  laptops. Hell, there's even speculation on a Mi Cooker launch. This would be just the beginning, though, as Xiaomi has still only brought a quarter of its entire portfolio to India so far.

The author is a freelance technology journalist from Ahmedabad. He tweets from @phonesoldier
tech2 News Staff

Researchers at ETH Zurich have demonstrated a new, cheaper and faster way of building genomes than ever before.

The team created the first fully computer-generated DNA sequence  "Caulobacter ethensis-2.0"  which doesn't correspond to a living, existing organism.... yet. But, the genome sequence was constructed into a physical DNA molecule and placed inside an existing organism with a similar genetic sequence.

The synthetic C. ethensis-2.0 is based on the genome of a well-researched, harmless species of freshwater bacteria known as Caulobacter crescentus. In nature, the bacterium thrives in spring water, rivers and lakes worldwide but isn't pathogenic, i.e., it doesn't infect plants or animals. It is often picked up as a model organism by scientists studying life processes in bacteria.

The genome of C. crescentus has roughly 4,000 genes, only 680 of which are crucial to its survival, an earlier study has shown. Bacteria with this minimal genome seemed to be viable and functional when artificially recreated in a laboratory.

A pair of ETH researchers have now taken this minimal genome of C. crescentus to another level  chemically synthesising it from scratch as a single, continuous ring-shaped chromosome. Prior to this study, bringing an artificial genome 'alive' was seen as a tour de force. Their interests were two-fold: to make it much easier to make synthetic genomes, and to address the fundamental question of whether synthetic biology can create "living", functional organisms akin to natural biology.

But one of the two researchers that led the project said that it was also intended as a test of our understanding of genetics.

"Our method is a litmus test to see whether we biologists have correctly understood genetics, and it allows us to highlight possible gaps in our knowledge," Beat Christen, one of the lead researchers from ETH Zurich, said in a press release.

Only 580 of the 680 artificial genes engineered in the synthetic genome functioned normally, and researchers intend to troubleshoot before giving it another go.

"With the knowledge, we have gained, it will be possible for us to improve our algorithm and develop a fully functional genome version 3.0," Christen added.

Artificial microorganisms have many potential applications, including in biotechnology to produce complex pharmaceutically-active molecules and vitamins and the production of DNA vaccines. It can also be universally applied in any microorganisms, and not just Caulobacter. The technology could bring down the cost of creating and sequencing DNA sequences and the likelihood of mutations, simply because the probability of errors becomes lower with shorter sequences.

As promising as the results of the study appear, it opens up ethical and moral questions akin to gene editing technology CRISPR. Are we ready to create synthetic life forms?

Well, the ETH Zurich researchers "stand ready to contribute to that discussion" whenever the rest of us are.
tech2 News Staff

Israel's first mission to the Moon  the Beresheet spacecraft  has completed its long and winding journey out of Earth's orbit and entered the Moon's orbit on 4 April, pulling off an important manoeuvre ahead of its planned soft landing on the Moon next week.

The SpaceIL team leading the mission celebrated the successful milestone, called "lunar capture", by releasing some stunning images of the Moon's far side taken by the spacecraft.

The lunar capture move shifted the Beresheet spacecraft into an elliptical orbit around the Moon, bringing it as close as 500 kilometres from the Moon's surface.

A tweep enquires about whether the view gave the mission team any information about life on the Moon, prompting an interesting no-comment response from them.

We are legally prohibited from commenting on this subject. https://t.co/G6evnZoYac  Israel To The Moon (@TeamSpaceIL) April 8, 2019

The spacecraft is aiming to make history twice: as the first private-sector Moon landing, and the first from Israel.

The NGO SpaceIL and state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries launched Beresheet (Hebrew for Genesis) from Cape Canaveral Air Force base in Florida on 22 February on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

SpaceIL's chosen landing site for Beresheet on the moon. Image courtesy: NASA/The Planetary Society

So far, only Russia, the United States and China have made the 384,000-kilometre (239,000-mile) journey and landed on the Moon.

"The lunar capture is a historic event in and of itself  but it also joins Israel in a seven-nation club that has entered the Moon's orbit," SpaceIL chairman Morris Kahn told Agence-France Presse. "A week from today we'll make more history by landing on the Moon, joining three superpowers who have done so."

Kahn is expected to speak about the mission and answer questions in an interactive YouTube Live session at 7 pm IST (4.30 pm local time in Israel).

For Israel, the landing itself is the main mission, followed by the spacecraft carrying out some measurements of the lunar magnetic field using a scientific instrument onboard.

It also carries a "time capsule", loaded with digital files containing a Bible, children's drawings, Israeli songs, memories of a Holocaust survivor and the blue-and-white Israeli flag.

With inputs from AFP
Press Trust of India

NASA scientists, including one of Indian origin, have found that the International Space Station (ISS) is teeming with bacteria and fungi, creating a microbial environment in the orbital laboratory similar to gyms and hospitals on Earth and putting astronauts at health risk.

Scientists created a comprehensive catalogue of the bacteria and fungi found on surfaces inside the ISS.

Knowledge of the composition of the microbial and fungal communities on the ISS can be used to develop safety measures for NASA for long-term space travel or living in space, the US space agency said in a statement.

"Specific microbes in indoor spaces on Earth have been shown to impact human health. This is even more important for astronauts during spaceflight, as they have altered immunity and do not have access to the sophisticated medical interventions available on Earth," said Kasthuri Venkateswaran, from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in the US.

"In light of possible future long-duration missions, it is important to identify the types of microorganisms that can accumulate in the unique, closed environments associated with spaceflight, how long they survive and their impact on human health and spacecraft infrastructure," said Venkateswaran, corresponding author of the study published in the journal Microbiome.

The researchers found that microbes on the ISS were mostly human-associated. The most prominent bacteria were Staphylococcus (26 percent of total isolates), Pantoea (23 percent) and Bacillus (11 percent). They included organisms that are considered opportunistic pathogens on Earth, such as Staphylococcus aureus (10 percent of total isolates identified), which is commonly found on the skin and in the nasal passage, and Enterobacter, which is associated with the human gastrointestinal tract.

On Earth, they are predominant in gyms, offices, and hospitals, which suggests that the ISS is similar to other built environments where the microbiome is shaped by human occupation.

"Whether these opportunistic bacteria could cause disease in astronauts on the ISS is unknown. This would depend on a number of factors, including the health status of each individual and how these organisms function while in the space environment," said Aleksandra Checinska Sielaff, from JPL.

"Regardless, the detection of possible disease-causing organisms highlights the importance of further studies to examine how these ISS microbes function in space," said Aleksandra Checinska Sielaff, from JPL.

"Regardless, the detection of possible disease-causing organisms highlights the importance of further studies to examine how these ISS microbes function in space," said Checinska Sielaff.

Some of the microorganisms identified on the ISS have also been implicated in microbial induced corrosion on Earth. However, the role they play in corrosion aboard the ISS remains to be determined, the researchers said.

They used traditional culture techniques and gene sequencing methods to analyse surface samples collected in eight locations on the ISS, including the viewing window, toilet, exercise platform, dining table and sleeping quarters, during three flights across 14 months.

This allowed them to examine if and how the microbial and fungal populations differed between locations and over time.

Researchers found that while fungal communities were stable, microbial communities were similar across locations but changed over time.
tech2 News Staff

Cameras on NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars have captured an amazing new sight: a solar eclipse by both of the Red Planet's moons, Phobos and Deimos.

The MastCam camera on the rover was equipped with special solar filters that allowed the rover to stare directly at the Sun (and solar eclipses) as the two orbiting moons passed between Mars and the Sun, NASA said in a statement.

Curiosity watched and recorded Deimos eclipsing the Sun on 17 March, followed by Deimos nine days later, on 26 March.

The Martians moons are very different compared to Earth's, with the biggest difference being their size. Phobos is 17 miles in diameter, and Deimos even smaller, at just 9 miles. The Earths' Moon, on the other hand, is roughly 3,500 kilometres wide.

Thus, eclipses on Mars look nothing like the ones we see on Earth, where the Moon completely or nearly blots out the Sun at its peak.

The larger of the two Martian moons, Phobos, still manages to cast a shadow on Mars and darken the sky for a very short period of time. A second camera on Curiosity caught a glimpse of this shadow of Phobos on the Martian landscape on 25 March at sunset.

Martian solar eclipses are nothing new or fancy to the mission team as they've been witness too many through the eyes of Curiosity and other rovers in the past, the statement says. Apart from being a pretty cool thing to look at (Who doesn't love an extraterrestrial eclipse?), recording these events also serves a scientific purpose, helping researchers fine-tune what they know about the moon's orbit around Mars.

Phobos and Deimos, despite being tiny, may hold clues to their formation and that of other natural satellites, which makes them interesting prospects for scientific exploration. The Japanese space agency intends to send a mission to Phobos and Deimos in the near future  the Mars Moon Exploration probe, or MMX. The mission involves collecting samples from both moons and returning them to Earth for researchers to study.
By Elias Biryabarema KAMPALA (Reuters) - An American tourist and her driver have been rescued unharmed after being kidnapped in a national park in southwestern Uganda last week, the Ugandan authorities said 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

By Elias Biryabarema

KAMPALA (Reuters) - An American tourist and her driver have been rescued unharmed after being kidnapped in a national park in southwestern Uganda last week, the Ugandan authorities said 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, referring to the tourist.

Ugandan government spokesman Ofwono Opondo said in a tweet that driver Jean Paul had also been rescued from Congo and that the kidnappers had escaped.

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.

Abductions and related attacks on tourists are rare in Uganda and the last such incident occurred in 1999.

Then, an American couple, four Britons and two New Zealanders were killed along with four Ugandan guides after being ambushed by gunmen in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, a few kilometres south of the Queen Elizabeth park. Survivors said the killers appeared to be Congo-based Hutu rebels.

Queen Elizabeth National Park is one of most visited in the East African country, with tourists flocking there to see lions, hippos, crocodiles and various types of antelope.

(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Catherine Evans)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Thousands of protesters held a sit-in outside Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir's residence in central Khartoum on Sunday, having camped there overnight after the biggest demonstration in months of protests against his 30-year rule, witnesses said.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Thousands of protesters held a sit-in outside Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir's residence in central Khartoum on Sunday, having camped there overnight after the biggest demonstration in months of protests against his 30-year rule, witnesses said.

There have been sustained protests against Bashir and his National Congress Party since Dec. 19. Security forces have fired tear gas, stun grenades and live bullets to disperse protesters and dozens have been killed during demonstrations.

Bashir has refused to step down, saying that his opponents need to seek power through the ballot box.

Sudan suffered a total power blackout on Sunday, the ministry of water resources, irrigation and electricity said without giving an explanation for the outage. Electricity was later restored in some areas.

Since the sit-in began on Saturday, security forces have fired tear gas several times in an attempt to clear the protesters, but thousands remained.

Apparently emboldened by the success of similar but much larger protests in Algeria, which forced ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to step down last week, Sudanese activists called for Saturday's protests. The demonstrations marked the anniversary of the 1985 military coup that overthrew autocratic president Jaafar Nimeiri after mass protests against his rule.

The protesters urged the military to side with them once more in their bid to push Bashir out of power.

Apart from Bashir's residence, the compound -- the most heavily-guarded in Sudan -- also houses the defence ministry and the headquarters of the powerful National Intelligence and Security Service.

Thousands of protesters also gathered in Khartoum's Burri neighbourhood on Sunday, where they blocked several main roads, witnesses said.

On Saturday at least one person died during protests in Omdurman, across the Nile from Khartoum, state news agency SUNA said without providing detail on the cause of death.

The person killed was a laboratory doctor who succumbed to his injuries, according to a statement from an opposition doctors' committee. Medical staff have played a prominent role in the protests.

SUNA said other civilians and police officers were wounded on Saturday in Omdurman, the scene of protests late into the evening that subsided by Sunday morning.

The sit-in outside the compound appeared to mirror 2011 Arab Spring protests, in which demonstrators in Cairo and other Arab capitals camped out in public squares for days to demand a change in rule.

Police and security forces on Saturday blocked all bridges leading to the capital's 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. Hundreds of people were crossing into Khartoum from Omdurman via Victory Bridge by foot on Sunday morning, a Reuters witness said, as cars stood at a standstill for hours.

(Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz; Writing by Yousef Saba and Lena Masri; Editing by Sami Aboudi, Raissa Kasolowsky and David Goodman)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
LONDON (Reuters) - A British man whose partner died after being exposed to nerve agent Novichok was told by Russia's ambassador that Moscow could not have been behind the attacks because they would have 'killed everyone', he told the Sunday Mirror newspaper. Charlie Rowley, who was also exposed to Novichok after coming across a perfume bottle contaminated with the nerve agent last year, met Russian Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko on Saturday to ask him why Moscow had killed his girlfriend

LONDON (Reuters) - A British man whose partner died after being exposed to nerve agent Novichok was told by Russia's ambassador that Moscow could not have been behind the attacks because they would have "killed everyone", he told the Sunday Mirror newspaper.

Charlie Rowley, who was also exposed to Novichok after coming across a perfume bottle contaminated with the nerve agent last year, met Russian Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko on Saturday to ask him why Moscow had killed his girlfriend.

"But I didn't really get any answers. I just got Russian propaganda," Rowley told the Mirror. "The ambassador kept saying the substance definitely wasn't the Novichok they had made because if it was, it would have killed everyone."

The embassy said in a statement Moscow still wanted a transparent investigation into the March 4, 2018 attacks in the English city of Salisbury but accused the British authorities of "hiding the circumstances of the incident".

Last year, British prosecutors identified two Russians they said were operating under aliases - Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov - whom they accused of trying to murder former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter with a military-grade nerve agent. Dawn Sturgess, Rowley's partner, died in July.

Britain charged the two men in absentia with attempted murder and said the suspects were military intelligence officers almost certainly acting on orders from high up in the Russian state. Russia has denied any involvement in the poisonings.

(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper and Andrew Osborn in Moscow; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Aviation regulators around the globe grounded the Boeing ( BA -0.96% ) 737 MAX in March, after the latest version of Boeing's workhorse jet suffered its second fatal crash in the span of five months. Boeing had already been developing updated pilot training procedures and changes to the software that controls its 737 MAX jets, and now it is racing to finalize those proposed fixes.

A few days ago, Boeing operated a test flight using the updated software, and the results were promising. That said, the FAA and other regulators around the world aren't going to let the Boeing 737 MAX return to the skies until they are certain that the airplane is safe to fly. Industry Focus: Energy host Nick Sciple and Motley Fool contributor Adam Levine-Weinberg discuss what that means for Boeing and its customers and when the 737 MAX might be cleared for takeoff again.

A full transcript follows the video.

This video was recorded on April 4, 2019.

Nick Sciple: Boeing had introduced after the first crash some procedures that pilots should follow if you had an issue with this anti-stall device. What we're seeing from the early reports out of the investigation of this Ethiopian Airlines crash is that those pilots actually had followed those procedures. So that, again, is additionally concerning. Boeing needs to go revisit how to handle the software. Do we have any idea, or is it just developing, how long this uncertainty around the MAX may play out? Or is it just wait-and-see at this point?

Adam Levine-Weinberg: Boeing actually did a test flight just this week, with the new software changes that it's proposed. It's definitely going to a somewhat slow process. Boeing still needs to verify all the data, make sure that the fixes that it's planning are going to work. Once it's done that, then it gets handed off to the FAA and to other aviation safety regulating organizations around the world. Given the scrutiny that both Boeing and the aviation safety community is under right now, I think it's fair to expect at least a month, maybe two months of testing. And then, if all goes well, at that point, you could see the FAA and other countries start to lift the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX.

Sciple: Sure. So, obviously, with the grounding of the MAX looking to be prolonging at least for the coming weeks, maybe a couple of months, airlines that operate this aircraft are going to be in a state of flux moving forward.
Hong Kong: CE visits Tokyo

Chief Executive Carrie Lam toured the University of Tokyo and nursing homes on her Japan visit today.

In the morning, Mrs Lam visited the University of Tokyo's startup support facilities and encouraged the school to deepen collaboration with Hong Kong universities, particularly on innovation and technology.

Mrs Lam then visited two nursing homes where she learned about the operation of intelligent equipment for improving elderly peoples communication and mobility.

Noting that both places are facing the challenge of an ageing population, she said there is much Hong Kong can learn from Japan's experience in the provision of elderly care services.

Mrs Lam also toured the National Cancer Center Japan, which is committed to promoting genomic medicine for cancer treatment.

She expressed the hope that the centre would boost collaboration with the Steering Committee on Genomic Medicine in Hong Kong.

The steering committee was established by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government at the end of 2017 to lead the study on strategies for developing genomic medicine.

In the evening, Mrs Lam and Chinese Ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce of Hong Kong and the China Enterprises Association in Japan to enhance collaboration and exchanges.

This story has been published on: 2019-04-08. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 8)  Malacanang on Monday clarified said that President Rodrigo Duterte's threat to declare a revolutionary war was said merely out of frustration.

In a statement Monday, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the comment was addressed to the enemies of the state, and was not meant to threaten the Filipino people.

"If the statement came across as a threat, it was not made on a whim but brought about by a series of acts committed against the people," Panelo said, citing national issues including the government's war on drugs, corruption, and rebellion.

"The threat, if it is a threat, is not against the people but precisely against their enemies, the criminals, the people manning the illegal drug industry, the corrupt bureaucrats, the greedy politicians, the communist rebels, foreign and local terrorists, and other enemies of the state," he added.

The chief executive, in a speech Thursday night, also threatened to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus and have his critics arrested-- a statement slammed by the opposition and his detractors.

But Duterte's outburst was not in connection with acts committed by criminals or enemies of the state against the people, as Panelo said.

The President was reacting to Senator Franklin Drilon's comment on Duterte's order for a review all government contracts. Drilon had said the administration should respect the sanctity of government contracts.

"P****** how dare you say that to me Mr. Drilon. Sa inyo 'yan eh [It's in your court]," he said. "Ayusin ninyo 'yan [Fix it]. I will not honor 'yung bullshit ninyo. Eh ano kung magkagulo tayo? [So what if we go to war?]," Duterte said in his speech.

The Constitution states under the Bill of Rights that "the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended except in cases of invasion or rebellion when the public safety requires it."

The writ is a safeguard against unlawful detention. It is issued by a court or judge to compel those holding a prisoner to produce the detainee in court and prove that that person's incarceration is lawful.

Panelo said the Constitution is a "dynamic instrument" and that it is Duterte's duty to "quell the attacks on the people and to save the state."
Anytime Fitness Is Poised To Make History As The First Franchise On All Seven Continents

Milestone gym will be on board new Antarctica21 polar vessel: Magellan Explorer

SOUTH SHETLAND ISLANDS, Antarctica - April 8, 2019 // PRNewswire // - Anytime Fitness, the world's largest and fastest-growing fitness club chain, is about to make history. No other franchise in the world has ever had locations on all seven continents. That will soon change when the first Anytime Fitness gym opens in Antarctica a few months from now.

"People used to think that our mission, 'To improve the self-esteem of the world,' was unrealistic," said Chuck Runyon, the CEO and a co-founder of Anytime Fitness. "But we're very serious about it. And when we reached an agreement last year involving the opening of several dozen gyms in Morocco [Africa], we knew that our next destination had to be Antarctica."

Anytime Fitness currently has more than 4,500 gyms serving 4,000,000 members in nearly 40 countries on six continents. The company's first gym in Antarctica is currently being built on board a new adventure expedition ship operated by Antarctica21. The ship, Magellan Explorer, is a boutique luxury vessel, custom built in Chile for Antarctic air-cruises, with a capacity for 69 passengers.

Video: Discover Magellan Explorer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfPTtU1Efv8&t=15s

"The treaties and conventions that govern Antarctica, coupled with subzero temperatures during the winter months, make building a fitness club on the continent extremely challenging, if not impossible" said Francesco Contini, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Antarctica21. "However, we were in the early stages of planning the buildout of Magellan Explorer, when Anytime Fitness first contacted us last fall about building a gym in Antarctica. We quickly recognized our shared values regarding the benefits of active, adventurous lifestyles. Building an Anytime Fitness gym on board our newest ship is yet another means of providing our guests first-class facilities and services."

Life Fitness, a long-time preferred vendor for Anytime Fitness, will equip the gym with state-of-the-art cardio and strength-training machines, along with a wide array of free weights and other high-tech exercise equipment  making it the first fitness equipment manufacturer to outfit gyms on all seven continents.

"We realize that the guests on board Magellan Explorer will be getting plenty of exercise during their daily explorations," said Runyon. "But many people who lead active lifestyles like to begin their days with a workout or a stretching session  no matter what's on their agenda. One of the coolest things about Anytime Fitness is, if you join one gym, you get to use all 4,500 gyms around the globe. The polar adventurers aboard Magellan Explorer won't need to be Anytime Fitness members to use the ship's gym. But I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of them already are [members]. Accordingly, we're brainstorming ideas, right now, regarding how to reward and honor the very first person who works out at Anytime Fitness gyms on all seven continents."

Magellan Explorer is set to sail its inaugural voyage on November 28, 2019. It will depart from Punta Arenas, Chile and head to Antarctica. The vessel will be the third ship in Antarctica21s fleet, offering air-cruise expeditions as far as the Antarctic Circle. A typical voyage with Antarctica21 begins with a private 2-hour flight from Punta Arenas to Antarctica, where guests board the ship and start their expedition cruise, bypassing the stormy Drake Passage in the process.

During their time in Antarctica, participants disembark daily by Zodiac boat and explore stunning landscapes together with a team of expert polar guides. Guests can also see penguin colonies, magnificent icebergs, and various species of whales. Antarctica21 operates its air-cruises yearly during the austral summer, between December and February.

Video: Antarctica21, the world's first air-cruise to Antarctica: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cvB2RUlxmk

"We're extraordinarily proud to partner with Antarctica21," said Dave Mortensen, the president and co-founder of Anytime Fitness. "Ever since the first Anytime Fitness gym opened in Cambridge, MN in 2002, it's been our goal to foster health and happiness everywhere possible. We're truly doing that now  plus penguins."

About Anytime Fitness

For 11 consecutive years, Anytime Fitness has been the fastest-growing gym franchise in the world, averaging 300 new gyms per year while serving 4,000,000 members at 4,500 gyms on five (soon to be all seven) continents. Open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, Anytime Fitness prides itself on providing its members with convenient fitness options and friendly, personal service in well-maintained facilities which feature top-quality exercise equipment. Anytime Fitness gyms are now open in nearly 40 countries. All franchised gyms are individually owned and operated. Join one gym and use them all.

About Antarctica21

Motivated by a desire to make Antarctica accessible to travelers who wished to avoid the stormy Drake Passage, in 2003 Antarctica21 pioneered the Antarctic air-cruise model. Operating a fleet of small jets and small expedition ships, Antarctica21 offers boutique-style wilderness adventures that combine a direct flight to Antarctica with an expedition cruise. A proud member of the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO), over the last 16 seasons Antarctica21 has completed over 180 fly and cruise expeditions to the region. The company prides itself on offering environmentally responsible small-scale journeys that give travelers the optimum balance between active exploration and a high-quality hospitality experience. The company is currently accepting reservations for their 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons.

Experience the interactive Multichannel News Release here: https://www.multivu.com/players/English/8444152-anytime-fitness-all-seven-continents-antarctica21-ship

SOURCE Anytime Fitness

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InterContinental Hotels & Resorts Restores 18th Century Landmark in the World Capital of Gastronomy

The highly-anticipated InterContinental Lyon - Hotel Dieu will open this summer, following an extensive four-year restoration to one of the citys most iconic buildings

April 08, 2019 // Franchising.com // Nestled in a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the landmark InterContinental Lyon - Hotel Dieu will open in June 2019. Located in a former hospital that operated for more than eight centuries until 2010, the historical building has been lovingly restored to offer a contemporary haven in the heart of the city centre.

The hotels 360-metre long facade overlooks the Rhone River, and the hotels breath-taking Soufflot Dome, towering 72 metres high, has been one of the greatest ever private renovations of a classified site in France since 2013, involving more than 800 craftsmen. The majestic Dome will be the heart of the hotel, boasting a magnificent bar, Le Dome, which will act as a meeting place for hotel guests and locals alike.

InterContinental Lyon - Hotel Dieu will offer 104 rooms and 35 suites, half of which have views of the Rhone River, while the others overlook the Fourviere or the Grand Hotel-Dieu with its tree-lined inner courtyards. The Duplex Suites, accessed from the upper level, boast large windows extending up to the ceiling, honouring the original architecture of this historic building, and offering uninterrupted views of the Rhone River. The exclusive Presidential Suite, with its powder pink tones and elegant floral motifs, will be the largest suite in the city.

The hotels interior designer Jean-Philippe Nuel, is an international leader in hotel design. Drawing on the history and background of the site, Nuel has created a decorative concept that manages to be, in his own words, both monastic and sophisticated, highlighting the buildings original contrast between the former hospital, and the striking richness of its exterior architecture. This contrast is particularly obvious in the decor of the Grand Dome; the choice of fabrics represent simplicity combined with luxury; delicate Lyon silks from the Maison Verel de Belval, contrast with less elaborate fabrics. The same juxtaposition can be found in other public areas and in the rooms. The contemporary design emulates a sense of luxury which combines the history of the unique building and meets the expectations of global luxury travellers.

Situated on the ground floor, the hotels restaurant Epona, named after a popular goddess of Gaulish Celtic mythology, patron saint of horse riding and travel, will offer dishes closely linked to Lyon's gastronomic culture thanks to Chef Mathieu Charrois. His signature dish will revisit the legendary quenelle (a type of local dumpling) along with other dishes typical of the area.

The 1,325 m2 conference centre of InterContinental Lyon - Hotel Dieu, LAcademie, comprises of 12 meeting rooms including a 433 m2 plenary conference room. The hotels spa and fitness facilities will include a Hamman, 24-hour gym, sauna and steam room as well as Pilates and Yoga classes.

Club InterContinental members will be able to enjoy outstanding views of the area from the private Club InterContinental Lounge that offers a bird's eye view of the premises.

Lyon is Frances third largest city, located at the intersection between the Rhone and the Saone Rivers. Although famed for its gastronomy, art and culture, Lyon was also a pioneer in the silk-weaving industry, and was once known as the silk capital. Lyons illustrious silk trade remains evident in the citys architecture with streets that feature beautiful former silk weavers houses, and many heritage sites that offer insight into the silk trade, which continues to this day.

InterContinental Hotels & Resorts is the largest luxury hotel brand in the world with more than 200 InterContinental hotels open worldwide and 60 in the pipeline, set to expand the brands portfolio in the most sought-after destinations around the world. This year will see InterContinental Hotels & Resorts open stunning resorts in the Maldives, Hayman Island, Phuket and Beppu as well as the brands return to Edinburgh in the historic George Street.

This opening marks the 6th InterContinental Hotel in France, joining the family of InterContinental Paris  Le Grand, InterContinental Paris - Avenue Marceau, InterContinental Carlton Cannes, InterContinental Marseille  Hotel Dieu and InterContinental Bordeaux Le Grand Hotel.

The InterContinental Lyon - Hotel Dieu is managed by Madelijn Vervoord, former General Manager of the InterContinental Marseille  Hotel Dieu.

Standard rooms at InterContinental Lyon - Hotel Dieu will start from 250.

About IHG

IHG  (InterContinental Hotels Group) [LON:IHG, NYSE:IHG (ADRs)] is a global organisation with a broad portfolio of hotel brands, including Regent Hotels & Resorts, InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, Hotel Indigo, EVEN Hotels, HUALUXE Hotels and Resorts, Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts, voco Hotels, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Holiday Inn Club Vacations, Holiday Inn Resort, avid hotels, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites.

IHG franchises, leases, manages or owns more than 5,600 hotels and approximately 837,000 guest rooms in more than 100 countries, with more than 1,900 hotels in its development pipeline. IHG also manages IHG Rewards Club, our global loyalty programme, which has more than 100 million enrolled members.

In February 2019, IHG acquired Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas, adding 16 hotels (1,347 rooms) to its system and 18 hotels to its development pipeline.

InterContinental Hotels Group PLC is the Groups holding company and is incorporated in Great Britain and registered in England and Wales. More than 400,000 people work across IHG's hotels and corporate offices globally.

Visit www.ihg.com for hotel information and reservations and www.ihgrewardsclub.com for more on IHG Rewards Club. For our latest news, visit: www.ihgplc.com/media and follow us on social media at: www.twitter.com/IHGCorporate, www.facebook.com/IHGCorporate and www.linkedin.com/company/intercontinental-hotels-group

Media Contact:

Lauren Moment-Walker

lauren.momentwalker@ihg.com

+44 (0) 1895 512 663

SOURCE IHG  (InterContinental Hotels Group)

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Photo: CTV News

A pair of Vancouver residents are fighting their fifth eviction notice in six years.

CTV News reports Dave Brighton and Antonia Allan have lived in two of seven units of a Coal Harbour boarding house-style home for over 10 years.

Landlord Brent Wolverton attempted to evict six tenants living in the house in 2013, claiming a property manager wanted to move in. The Residential Tenancy Branch, however, ruled in favour of the tenants.

The tenants have defeated multiple eviction attempts through the Residential Tenancy Branch since then, including one in December 2018.

Im decorating my tree and theres a knock at my door and the next thing I know, Im standing there with an eviction notice and Merry Christmas to you too, Brighton told CTV News.

The retiree says hes stressed about the situation and worries about having to find a new place to live in an unaffordable city while he lives on an old-age pension.

The building was hit with an order by the City of Vancouver in 2017, due to problems with the fire escape that prevents the third floor from being used. The garage and rear stairs are also in need of significant work.

In the latest eviction notice, the landlord claimed his adult children want to move in.

Recently, with young adult children who want to live downtown, we have made the decision to remove the house from the rental market and have it occupied by family, which is our right to do, Wolverton wrote in a statement to CTV News Vancouver.

Area MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert believes the landlord is abusing the process.

You can't have it both ways. You can't say, I want my son to live there, but it's in such horrible repair no one could live there, said the politician.

The Residential Tenancy Board agreed in March and ruled the landlord has not met their burden of proof to show that the two sons will be occupying this home.

The landlord appears to remain committed to following through with an eviction.

We regret that the tenants and ourselves are being dragged through this by the Rental Tenancy Branch. We wish there was a better way. We are not acting with malice or any ill intent towards the tenants. We simply want our home back and are now feeling taken advantage of, said Wolverton in a statement to CTV.

The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing said the director of the compliance unit will be investigating the situation, noting tenants have a right to be free of harassment and a right to peace, quiet and privacy in their homes.

with files from CTV Vancouver
Photo: The Canadian Press Canadian Space Agency astronaut David Saint-Jacques is seen on a live monitor from the International Space Station.

David Saint-Jacques has joined select company, becoming just the fourth Canadian astronaut to take part in a spacewalk and the first in 12 years as he began a roughly seven-hour mission today.

Saint-Jacques' and NASA astronaut Anne McClain officially began their spacewalk just after 7:30 a.m. EDT according to the U.S. space agency, when they switched to battery power, officially disconnecting from the International Space Station.

The Canadian's spacewalk comes on his first posting to the station, which began in December.

The jobs the pair are expected to perform include relocating a battery adaptor plate, upgrading the station's wireless communication system and connecting jumper cables along the midpoint of the station's main truss to give Canadarm2 an alternative power source.

Canadarm2 is a sort of robotic hand that is crucial to maintaining the space station, and the cables would allow the arm to make repairs in case of an outage without requiring a spacewalk.

Canadian Space Agency robotics flight controllers will provide support to the astronauts from mission control in Houston.

Retired Canadian astronaut Dave Williams, who is commenting on the spacewalk from the agency's headquarters in suburban Montreal, says Saint-Jacques was in good spirits when he spoke to him.

Williams holds the Canadian record for the most spacewalks, having spent a total of just under 18 hours outside the space station three times during a 2007 mission.

Williams was also the last Canadian until Saint-Jacques to have performed a spacewalk.

The other two astronauts to have performed the feat are Steve MacLean in 2006 and Chris Hadfield  the first Canadian spacewalker  in 2001.
Galveston, TX (77553)

Today

Cloudy early with some clearing expected late. Areas of patchy fog. Low around 70F. Winds SE at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy early with some clearing expected late. Areas of patchy fog. Low around 70F. Winds SE at 10 to 20 mph.
Photo: The Canadian Press This cover image released by Chronicle Books shows "Last Week Tonight With John Oliver Presents A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo," written by Marlon Bundo with Jill Twiss and illustrated by EG Keller.

Not everyone was amused by the John Oliver send-up of a picture book by the wife and daughter of Vice-President Mike Pence.

"Last Week Tonight With John Oliver Presents A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo," in which the Pence's family bunny turns out to be gay, was among the books most objected to in 2018 at the country's public libraries. The bestselling parody ranked No. 2 on the list of "challenged" books compiled by the American Library Association, with some complaining about its gay-themed content and political viewpoint.

Oliver's book, credited to staff writer Jill Twiss, was a response to the Pences' "A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo" and to the family's conservative social viewpoint. The Pences themselves did not publicly object, and daughter Charlotte Pence has even said she purchased a copy of the "Last Week Tonight" book, noting that proceeds were going to charities for AIDS and suicide prevention for LGBTQ youth.

The library association announced Monday that Alex Gino's "George," a middle-grade novel about a transgender child, was No. 1 on its list. Others included Angie Thomas' bestseller about a teen girl whose friend is shot by police, "The Hate U Give" (drug use, profanity, "anti-cop" bias); and Dav Pilkey's "Captain Underpants" series (same-sex couple, "encouraging disruptive behaviour").

The report also includes Raina Telgemeier's "Drama," Jay Asher's "Thirteen Reasons Why," Sherman Alexie's prize-winning 'The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian," Mariko and Jillian Tamaki's "This One Summer" and Judy Schachner's "Skippyjon Jones" series. Books included on the list in previous years range from "To Kill a Mockingbird" to the "Harry Potter" series.

The ALA usually lists 10 books, but included 11 this year because two tied for 10th place: Gayle E. Pitman's and Kristyna Litten's "This Day in June," and David Leviathan's "Two Boys Kissing," both cited for LGBTQIA+ content and both among those burned last October in Orange City, Iowa, by the director of a "pro-family" group called Rescue the Perishing.

Deborah Caldwell Stone, interim director of the library association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, said the protests from parents and other local residents about gay content reflected a "pushback" as "writers work to be more inclusive of underrepresented or marginalized communities."

The list is part of the association's "State of America's Libraries Report" and comes at the start of National Library Week, which begins Wednesday. The ALA defines a "challenge" as a "formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness." The list is based on news reports and on accounts submitted from libraries, although the ALA believes many challenges go unreported. The association tracked 347 challenges last year, compared to 356 in 2017.

"The number has been fairly steady over the past few years," Stone said.

The ALA did not have a number for books actually pulled from library shelves or moved to an adult section.
Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2021.
On the back of the release of his second studio album Free Spirit, American sensation Khalid is returning to New Zealand.

After selling out the New Zealand leg of his American Teen tour in 2017, Khalid will return for one show on Thursday 21 November.

The 21-year-old has been pumping out the hits in 2019 and we are loving his latest collab with Disclosure, Talk.

We can't wait to have him back!

KHALID - FREE SPIRIT TOUR

Thursday 21 November

Spark Arena | Auckland, NZ

All Ages

FRONTIER MEMBERS PRE-SALE

via frontiertouring.com/khalid

Runs 24 hours from: Monday 15 April 4pm or ends earlier if pre-sale allocation exhausted

GENERAL PUBLIC ON SALE

Begins: Wednesday 17 April 11am

ticketmaster.co.nz | Ph: 64 9970 9700
Direct flights may be launched between US and Georgia - GeorgianJournal
Photo: CTV News

The family of a North Vancouver senior couple says it has finally heard from them after a harrowing kidnapping ordeal in Uganda.

"It's with a happy heart that I talked to my mom this morning," Natalie Jurrius told CTV News on Sunday. "She's not willing to chat with me right now about her ordeal, and I can understand that."

Martin and Barbel Jurrius were on a safari vacation when their group was ambushed by gunmen on April 2 in Uganda's Queen Elizabeth National Park.

The family found out about the kidnapping of two other members of the tour group through media coverage, and was waiting anxiously for word.

"This has been a harrowing few days for the family. As you can imagine, without any government agencies letting us know anything, we've been beside ourselves," said Natalie.

Uganda Police say the two who were kidnapped have been rescued and are "in good health and in the safe hands of the joint security team."

The kidnappers are still at large after demanding a US$500,000 ransom.

"I'm just glad that everything turned out the way it did. It could've turned out a lot worse, and I'm glad the other people were found, too. That's a blessing," said Natalie.

The couple is scheduled to return to Vancouver in a week.

 with files from CTV Vancouver
Lenovo Z6 Pro confirmed to feature Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 SoC News oi-Vivek Lenovo Z6 Pro will be a camera-centric smartphone

Lenovo is all set for the launch of the Lenovo Z6 Pro, which is a camera-centric flagship smartphone from the company, focused mainly on the video related features.

The company has now shared a new teaser image of the smartphone, which re-affirms that the Lenovo Z6 Pro will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 SoC, the latest flagship chipset from Qualcomm. Considering the teaser image, the smartphone has the main camera unit with a dual LED flashlight and a couple more sensors. The device is most likely to embrace the glass sandwich design with gradient back panel.

Hyper Video feature

The Lenovo Z6 Pro is expected to offer Hyper Video feature, and the company is yet to reveal the exact technologies and features related to the Hyper Video. Unlike most of the flagship smartphones of 2019, the Lenovo Z6 Pro has a single camera unit, and the device is most likely to come with a 48 MP Sony IMX 586 sensor, the same camera sensor used in the Redmi Note 7 Pro or the Honor View20.

The device is most likely to run on Android 9 Pie OS with a custom skin on top. The camera UI on the Z6 Pro is expected to receive a significant UI design overhaul with a lot of "pro" features.

5G support

Along with the standard variant with 4G LTE and VoLTE support, the company is also expected to launch a 5G variant of the Lenovo Z6 Pro with Snapdragon X50 or the Snapdragon X55 5G modem.

Fast charging

Just like most of the flagship smartphones of 2019, the Lenovo Z6 Pro will support fast charging (27W), which is expected to refill the battery from 0 to 100% in less than 120 minutes. The company is most likely to use a USB type C charge delivery system with a dedicated 3.5mm headphone jack.

Source

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Photo: The Canadian Press Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks during the National Action Network Convention in New York, Friday, April 5, 2019.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is quieting critics who questioned whether he could recapture the energy of his upstart 2016 campaign, surpassing his rivals in early fundraising and establishing himself as an indisputable front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Less than two months into his second White House bid , no other declared candidate in the crowded Democratic field currently has amassed so many advantages: a $28 million war chest, a loyal and enthusiastic voter base and a set of clearly defined policy objectives.

That puts Sanders on markedly different footing than during his first White House run, creating new challenges for a candidate whose supporters relish his role as an underdog and an outsider. He now carries the weight of high expectations and will face heightened scrutiny over everything from the cost and feasibility of his government-funded policy proposals to his tax returns, which he has not yet released. He initially blamed "mechanical issues" for the delay, and his campaign now says he wants to wait until after the April 15 tax filing deadline to fulfil his promise to release a decade worth of returns .

Sanders has largely embraced his new front-runner status. More than any other candidate, he draws explicit comparisons with President Donald Trump in his campaign remarks, previewing his approach to a general election faceoff with the incumbent Republican. Behind the scenes, Sanders is also building out a larger, more diverse campaign operation, responding to criticism that his 2016 organization skewed too heavily white and male. Campaign officials say the 2020 campaign staff  roughly 100 people and growing  is majority female and 40 per cent people of colour.

Still, Sanders' message and style hasn't changed from 2016, when he stunned many Democrats by mounting a formidable challenge to Hillary Clinton and besting her in more than 20 primary contests.

After briefly acquiescing to his advisers' suggestions that he reveal more about his upbringing and personal history, Sanders has returned to his comfort zone: delivering lengthy campaign speeches chockablock with the same policy prescriptions he campaigned on during the 2016 campaign. In Davenport, Iowa, on Friday night, Sanders spent 63 minutes outlining his views on health care, criminal justice reform and economic inequality.

"With your help, we are going to complete what we started here," Sanders told the 1,200-person crowd, referring to his virtual tie with Clinton in the 2016 Iowa caucuses.

Sanders' approach underscores his belief that his success in 2016 was not a fluke or simply a function of being the next best alternative to Clinton. His advisers argue the populist economic message Sanders has espoused for years, often in obscurity, has now been embraced not only by a slew of his Democratic rivals, but also Trump.
Update: As of 3:15 p.m. Wade Simonson has been located and was found safe.

Valley County Sheriff Tom Boyer is asking the public for help in locating a missing Valley County man. Wade Thomas Simonson was last seen by his wife at their home in Saint Marie last Thursday, April 4. He had driven away in a gray 2003 Corvette, Simonson's wife had thought he was on his way to visit his parents. Since Thursday, the only sign of Simonson was in Havre where he is thought to have withdrawn money from his bank account.

He is described as a 54-year-old, white male. He stands about 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighs around 200 lbs. He is mostly bald, with thin gray hair, and a short goatee. He has green eyes and wears contacts. It is unknown what Simonson had been wearing when he was last seen, but he does have a long, surgical scar on his right jawline starting below the ear. He also has a circular scar on his left wrist and a 10 to 12 inch scar down his back on the left side.

The Montana license plate of the gray Corvette reads "BREE".

The VCSO asks that if you have any information about Simonson, the car or his suspected whereabouts to call dispatch at 406-228-4333.
Novichok Survivor Gets 'Propaganda' In Meeting With Russian Ambassador To U.K.

By RFE/RL April 07, 2019

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 wasn't the Novichok [the Russians] had made because if it was it would have killed everyone."

With reporting by dpa and the BBC

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/novichok-survivor- gets-propaganda-in-meeting-with-russian- ambassador-to-u-k-/29866041.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.

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Islamabad 'has intel about India plan to attack Pakistan'

Iran Press TV

Sun Apr 7, 2019 02:35PM

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi says Islamabad has "reliable intelligence" that India has planned a likely attack against Pakistan in the third week of April.

Talking to reporters in the southern city of Multan, Qureshi said on Sunday that the attack could take place between April 16 and 20.

"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," the Pakistani minister said.

He said that the ambassadors of the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council in Islamabad have been informed about the alleged plan two days earlier.

"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.

Qureshi added that the attack was aimed at "increasing diplomatic pressure against Pakistan," but he did not elaborate on what evidence Pakistan had or how he could be so specific about the timing.

There was no immediate reaction from India.

Relations between the two arch-rivals nose-dived after a bombing in Indian-administered Kashmir on February 14 killed 40 Indian paramilitary troops and was later claimed by a Pakistan-based militant group.

New Delhi, which blamed Pakistan for supporting the militants behind the blast, launched retaliatory aerial raids inside Pakistani territory for the first time in decades.

Tensions escalated as Pakistani and Indian jets fought over the skies in Kashmir. The situation only partially calmed down when an Indian pilot who had been captured in the fighting was returned by Pakistan in a gesture of goodwill. Sporadic fighting has continued, as Pakistani and Indian soldiers exchange fire over the Line of Control (LoC), the de-facto border dividing Kashmir.

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their partition and independence from Britain in 1947. The disputed region is claimed in full by both sides, which have fought three wars over it.

India regularly accuses Pakistan of arming and training militants and allowing them across the restive frontier in an attempt to launch attacks. Pakistan strongly denies the allegation.

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US warship carrying F-35s crosses South China Sea to join drills in Philippines

Iran Press TV

Sun Apr 7, 2019 01:42PM

A US navy warship carrying a fleet of F-35 stealth fighter jets has crossed South China Sea to join upcoming joint drills with Filipino naval forces, a move that could add up to ongoing tensions between Washington and Beijing over the US military presence in the region.

The USS Wasp amphibious assault ship was spotted this week sailing in the disputed waters carrying 10 US Marines F-35B fighter jets on board, local media reported Saturday.

The ship was heading toward Subic Bay in the Philippines, where it would join annual Balikatan military drills involving 4,000 Filipino soldiers, 3,000 US servicemen and 50 Australian troops.

This year's iteration of Balikatan exercises will include a live fire drill at the gunnery range in Crow Valley, Capas, Tarlac on Wednesday as well as a joint amphibious landing on the shorelines of Zambales the next day.

The drills would also include counter-terrorism missions, urban operations training, aviation operations and bilateral planning.

The F-35B Lightening II aircraft on board the Wasp were also slated to carry out aerial missions before the maneuvers end on April 12.

The USS Wasp had twice the usual number of fighter jets on board, probably as an experiment to test the US military theory that Wasp-class warships can double-function as small aircraft carriers. The Pentagon plans to reduce the number of the aircraft carriers in its fleet to 10 by 2040.

Beijing has not yet commented on the ship's passage through the disputed waters of the South China Sea, over which China and a number of other neighboring nations -- including the Philippines-- claim sovereignty.

The Chinese government regularly reacts to the US military's so-called "freedom of navigation" sails in the waters, which Washington insists are aimed at protecting maritime travel in the sea.

Over $5 trillion dollar in maritime trade passes through South China Sea every year.

Washington sends warships and military aircraft near Chinese islands in the sea on a regular basis to challenge China's claims. Beijing has slammed the operations as "provocations," repeatedly calling on the US to remove its ships from the region.

The US has been expanding its military presence in the region as part of President Donald Trump's new military strategy, which shifts focus from the Middle East Region to the Pacific region to confront China and Russia as main threats to US national security.

China has yet to respond to the new development.

Russia, on the other hand, has said that it will send three warships to the Philippines in the coming days.

The Philippine navy said in statement that Russia's anti-submarine ships Admiral Tributs and Vinogradoy and sea tanker Irkut will drop anchor at the Port of Manila on Monday on a five-day goodwill visit.

"The Philippine Navy will render customary welcome ceremony upon arrival of the vessels to be followed by a press briefing with both navies' key officials," said Filipino Navy Capt. Jonathan Zata.

Another Filipino navy commander told Philstar Global that the Russian port call was a reciprocal visit in response to last year's historic visit of the strategic Filipino sealift vessel BRP Tarlac to Russia's Pacific Fleet headquarters in Vladisvostok.

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Photo: The Canadian Press

Nissan's shareholders ousted the automaker's former chairman Carlos Ghosn from its board on Monday, seeking to shut the door on an era capped by scandal.

More than 4,000 people gathered at a Tokyo hotel for a three-hour extraordinary shareholders' meeting and signalled their approval for dismissing Ghosn with applause. They also approved the appointment of French alliance partner Renault SA's Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard to replace Ghosn. Renault owns 43 per cent of Nissan.

"I will dedicate my energy to enhance the future of Nissan," said Senard, who was introduced to the shareholders at the meeting's end. He promised to do his best to keep the automaker's performance on track.

Ghosn was first arrested in November for allegedly underreporting his compensation and for breach of trust. He was released on bail in early March and then re-arrested for a fourth time last week. The latest arrest involves new allegations that $5 million from a Nissan Motor Co. subsidiary meant for an Oman dealership was diverted to a company effectively controlled by Ghosn.

Ghosn says he is innocent. He has suggested the accusations were made by some at Nissan hoping to remove him from power.

Nissan's Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa and other top managers bowed low in apology to shareholders.

"I deeply, deeply apologize for all the worries and troubles we have caused," Saikawa said. "This is an unprecedented and unbelievable misconduct by a top executive."

At the meeting, which was closed except to stockholders but livestreamed, angry shareholders demanded an explanation for how wrongdoing on an allegedly massive scale had gone unchecked for years.

One shareholder said Nissan's entire management should resign immediately. Saikawa said he felt his responsibility lay in fixing the shoddy corporate governance at Nissan first, and continuing to lead its operations. Another shareholder asked if Nissan was prepared for a damage lawsuit from shareholders since its stock price has plunged.

Nissan shareholder Ken Miyamoto said he was disappointed.

"It is really such a pity as he was a brilliant manager," Miyamoto said of Ghosn before heading into the meeting. "I guess he became complacent as people kept praising him too much."

Yokohama-based Nissan, which makes the Leaf electric car, March subcompact and Infiniti luxury models, was on the brink of bankruptcy when Renault sent Ghosn to turn it around two decades ago.

The alliance, which now includes smaller Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors Corp., rivals auto giants Volkswagen AG of Germany and Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp. in global sales. But like other Japanese manufacturers it has been dogged by scandals over bogus inspections and other misconduct.

The allegations of breach of trust involved having Nissan shoulder investment losses that Ghosn say caused the company no losses. He says payments to a Saudi businessman that prosecutors are questioning were for legitimate services. He says the compensation he allegedly underreported was never decided on or paid.

During Monday's meeting, Saikawa, the CEO, outlined the findings of an internal investigation, such as 13 years' worth of consulting fee payments to Ghosn's sister. He told shareholders the company will stick by the alliance, fix its governance problems and make Ghosn's ouster "a turning point."

"We had allowed a system in which wrongdoing could be carried out without detection," he said.

The shareholders also gave a green light Monday to removing from the board a former executive director, Greg Kelly, who has been charged with collaborating with Ghosn in the alleged misconduct.

Ghosn's detention following his arrest on April 4 has been approved through April 14 but could be extended. The date of his trial has not been set.

His lawyers in Japan said they plan to show a videotape of Ghosn's comments on Tuesday and take questions afterward. The comments were recorded before his arrest.

Ghosn's wife Carole Ghosn, who was with her husband in Tokyo when he was arrested last week, appealed to French President Emmanuel Macron for help.

"I'm asking that we allow him the presumption of innocence like all French citizens, and France must do something," she told France's RTL radio.

Carole Ghosn, who left Japan for France on Friday, described his arrest as humiliating. Japanese investigators confiscated her Lebanese passport, but she said she used her American passport to leave the country.

"I'd never been so proud of him because he remained dignified. He held his head high and he was calm," she said.
Palestine demands international criminal investigation into Israeli settlements

Iran Press TV

Sun Apr 7, 2019 12:42PM

Palestine has demanded an immediate international criminal investigation into the Tel Aviv regime's policy of settlement expansion and expropriation of Palestinian territories.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates announced in a statement on Sunday that the ongoing settlement expansion at the expense of Palestinian land erodes the credibility of the United Nations and its relevant institutions, and points to the world body's failure to implement Security Council Resolution 2334.

The statement added that this expansionist behavior is in sync with public statements of Israeli officials and leaders concerning their refusal to go back to the pre-1967 borders, and a demand to impose Israeli law on settlements in the occupied West Bank, the latest of which was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's pledge to annex the settlements if re-elected.

The ministry further noted that it will continue its contacts and discussions with the International Criminal Court (ICC) regarding Israel's push to construct more settler units in various parts of the West Bank, particularly the occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds and its surrounding areas, to accommodate a large number of Jews there and change the demographic makeup in the area.

The statement then shed light on the ongoing linkage of Israeli settlement blocs to each other, warning that such a practice would undermine any chance for a viable and sovereign Palestinian state within the borders of June 4, 1967.

On Saturday, Israel's so-called Civil Administration's High Planning Committee approved the construction of 770 new housing units at Beitar Illit settlement, located 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) south of Jerusalem al-Quds.

The new units are planned to be built on privately owned land in the Palestinian villages of Nahalin and Wadi Fukin in addition to Husan town, located nine kilometers west of Bethlehem.

In February, Ir Amim, an Israeli NGO opposing Tel Aviv's settlement expansion activities, published a new map that illustrated an "accelerated, intensifying chain of new facts on the ground in the most historically contested and politically sensitive part of Jerusalem [al-Quds]: the Old City and adjacent ring of Palestinian neighborhoods," which help reinforcement of settlement plans.

The NGO pointed to a number of Israeli-sponsored settlement campaigns inside Palestinian neighborhoods, including "settler initiated evictions of Palestinians, takeovers of their homes, and the expansion of settler compounds," in addition to the use of the so-called "touristic settlement sites" as "key points" contributing to the campaigns.

Ir Amim said the supposed tourism and archaeology projects "assume a central role in Israeli settlement policy."

About 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.

The UN Security Council has condemned Israel's settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.

Less than a month before US President Donald Trump took office, the United Nations Security Council in December 2016 adopted Resolution 2334, calling on Israel to "immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem" al-Quds.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.

The last round of Israeli-Palestinian talks collapsed in 2014. Among the major sticking points in those negotiations was Israel's continued settlement expansion on Palestinian territories.

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Pakistani FM Claims India Preparing Military Attack

By RFE/RL April 07, 2019

Pakistani Foreign Minister Mahmood Qureshi said he has "reliable intelligence" that India will attack his country later this month and has informed the UN about the matter.

Qureshi said in the southern town of Multan on April 7 that the attack could take place between April 16 and 20.

He did not elaborate or say what information he has that suggests an Indian attack could soon be made but said Prime Minister Imran Khan had agreed to make the information public.

Qureshi said Pakistan had told the five permanent members of the UN Security Council about the possibility of the attack.

India's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to the Pakistani claim.

The Pakistani minister's comments come as tensions nearly boiled over between the two nuclear-armed neighbors after a series of violent incidents in February.

On February 14, a suicide car-bombing claimed by Pakistan-based militants in the Indian-controlled, disputed territory of Kashmir killed at least 40 Indian security members.

Pakistan denied any role in the attack.

Two weeks later, the threat of a broader conflict breaking out rose dramatically when India launched an air strike on what it said was a militant training base. That led to a series of dogfights over the Kashmir frontier.

The next day Pakistan shot down an Indian fighter jet and captured its pilot. 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 was shot down.

Pakistan said on April 6 that India had not shot down any of its planes. Islamabad blamed India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for "whipping up war hysteria" over those claims.

But India said it stood by its claim and had proof that it had downed the Pakistani jet.

Pakistan closed its airspace during the standoff but most air traffic has since resumed and the country's biggest airports have reopened.

With reporting by AFP and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/pakistani-fm-claims-india- preparing-military-attack/29866097.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.

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Netanyahu Vows To Annex Jewish Settlements In Occupied West Bank If Reelected

April 07, 2019

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 Netanyahu's 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

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/netanyahu- vows-annex-jewish-settlements-west-bank -reelection/29865861.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.

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Germany Grounds Military Flights to Afghanistan  Reports

Sputnik News

20:14 07.04.2019

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Germany has grounded military flights to a training camp in Afghanistan until the end of April after Azerbaijan closed airspace to NATO planes, Spiegel said Sunday.

Germany's Bundeswehr has been flying its A310 transport planes weekly to the northern city of Mazar to rotate personnel, the Spiegel news magazine said.

But a routine flight in late March had to be cancelled after Azerbaijan refused to give NATO a transit permit. Germany will rely on US C-17s to carry troops to the Afghan camp using a different route.

 Sputnik

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Berlin's Military Budget Endangers NATO - German MP

Sputnik News

14:27 07.04.2019

Earlier in April, US President Donald Trump rebuked Germany for "not paying their fair share" to NATO as Berlin now plans to spend 1.25 per cent of its gross domestic product on the alliance's needs by 2024, which is lower than the two per cent guideline.

Germany cutting its military budget may pose a threat to NATO, German Free Democratic Party member Bijan Djir-Sarai was quoted by the Bild magazine as saying.

"Germany has become a security risk for the entire alliance. Those who act unreliably and contrary to [bilateral] agreements endanger NATO's capabilities. It was high time for Germany to give up this embarrassing behaviour and invest more in its own security", Djir-Sarai underlined.

His remarks came after US President Donald Trump stressed that even though he had "a great feeling for Germany", the country is "not paying what they should be paying".

"We're paying for a big proportion of NATO, which is basically protecting Europe. They're paying close to 1 per cent", Trump said, in a nod to Germany's plans to spend about 1.25 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on the alliance in the next five years.

Berlin's failure to meet the alliance's agreement to spend two per cent of its GDP on defence has emerged as a source of tension between Germany and the US.

Earlier, German Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged to boost the country's military spending up to 1.5 per cent of its GDP by 2023.

However, the budget plan presented by German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz in mid-March stipulates that the expenditures will decrease after a rise next year.

Washington, which according to NATO's statistics, spends 3.6 per cent of its GDP on the alliance, insists that its partners should reach the agreed guidelines by 2024 at the latest. US President Donald Trump has long bemoaned the situation within the alliance, with only five of the 28 members following the two per cent guideline

 Sputnik

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India Dismisses Islamabad's 'Reliable Intel' on Upcoming IAF Attack

Sputnik News

13:07 07.04.2019(updated 18:38 07.04.2019)

This comes a day after Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan slammed India's governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for purportedly trying to use false claims of Pakistan using an F-16 in the February dogfight between the two countries to promote "war hysteria".

India has rejected claims that it has been planning a new attack as irresponsible and preposterous:

"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 spokesperson of Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

Shortly before that, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has claimed that he has "reliable intelligence that India is planning a new attack on Pakistan" which may take place between 16 and 20 April.

"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", Qureshi said.

He added that New Delhi's planned attack aims to "increase diplomatic pressure against Pakistan." India's Foreign Ministry is yet to comment on the matter.

Meanwhile, the Indian Deputy High Commissioner has been summoned to the Pakistani Foreign Ministry which warned India against "any misadventure".

This followed Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan's statement that India's governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is attempting "to win elections through whipping up war hysteria and false claims of downing a Pakistani F-16 [fighter jet] has backfired with US Defence officials also confirming that no F-16 was missing from Pakistan's fleet".

The air battle involving the Indian Air Force (IAF) and Pakistan Air Force (PAF) took place on 27 February, but some of the details remain unclear as the two sides gave conflicting reports on the matter.

Islamabad claimed that it downed two IAF MiG-21 planes in response to the February 26 Indian air raid on an alleged terrorist camp on Pakistani territory and arrested their pilots. One of them was released as a "peace gesture" several days later.

The Indian government, in turn, argued that the country lost only one plane and its forces managed to down a PAF F-16  an aircraft that was provided to Islamabad by the US.

The IAF strike came after a suicide car bombing by Pakistan-based militants in Indian-controlled Kashmir killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police on 14 February.

The 27 February air battle led to an escalation of New Delhi-Islamabad tensions, resulting in multiple cross-border exchanges of fire and several Pakistani drones allegedly violating Indian airspace. New Delhi claims to have downed a number of these drones.

 Sputnik

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US-Led Afghan Peace Effort Gains Momentum

By Ayaz Gul April 07, 2019

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."

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Pakistan Says India Planning Another Military Attack

By Ayaz Gul April 07, 2019

ISLAMABAD  Pakistan warned Sunday that rival India is planning to launch a fresh military assault against the country, calling for the international community's 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 Pakistan's decision to release the pilot to India two days later effectively defused the threat. American defense officials have reportedly refuted India's 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.

Anjana Pasricha contributed to this report from New Delhi.





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Rwanda's President Leads Ceremonies Marking Genocide Anniversary

By Edward Rwema April 07, 2019

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame has led commemorations marking the 25 anniversary of the genocide that killed hundreds of thousands of people with a stern warning to those with plans to destabilize the country.

"For those from here or from outside who think our country has not seen enough of a mess and want to mess with us, in defense of those children you saw and our nation, I want to say, we will mess up with them big time," Kagame told thousands of people gathered to remember those killed in 1994. "We claim no special place, but we have a place to claim. The fighting spirit is alive in us. What happened here will never happen again."

In the lead up to 25th genocide commemoration, tensions have been mounting between Rwanda and Uganda.

Rwanda accused Uganda of supporting groups opposed to the government in Kigali. Uganda rejects those accusations.

A frequent guest to commemoration events, Uganda President Yoweli Museveni was absent this time. He was represented by his foreign affairs minister Sam Kuteesa.

"We are the last people in the world who should succumb to complacency. The suffering we have endured should be enough to keep our fighting spirit alive," said Kagame.

The commemoration began with lighting of the flame and laying of wreaths at the Kigali Genocide memorial where close to 250,000 remains were buried. In all, about 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered by ethnic Hutu extremists.

Honore Gatera, coordinator of Kigali memorial center said the flame they were lighting was a symbol of courage and resilience that Rwanda has shown for the past quarter of a century.

Young Rwandans, aged 25 years and representing the new generation of Rwanda, handed over the flame that will burn for the next 100 days to Kagame. One of them said "This is a light of remembrance, the light of life."

President Kagame thanked countries who have been with Rwanda through its journey of reconstruction.

"On a day like this, when language fails, the first words that come, are words of gratitude. To you, the friends by our side on this heavy day, including the different leaders present, we say thank you, he said. "In 1994, there was no hope, only darkness. Today, light radiates from this place."

President Paul Kagame also paid tribute to foreigners who helped survivors and later died too.

"Joining us today are families from other countries, whose husbands, fathers, sisters, and aunts were claimed by the same deadly ideology," said Kagame. "The only comfort we can offer is the commonality of sorrow, and the respect owed to those who had the courage to do the right thing."

A notable absentee at the commemoration was French President Emmanuel Macron, whose country stands accused of aiding the genocide. Macron proposed an annual day of commemoration for the Rwanda genocide on Sunday, according to AFP.

A Rwandan-born Member of Parliament Herve Berville who was orphaned in the 1993 violence led the French delegation.

Belgium, which colonized Rwanda. was represented by Prime Minister Charles Michel, who admitted part of responsibility of Belgium in the 1994 genocide.

Michel said genocide was a failure of the international community. He said he was moved by the courage, resilience and empathy of the Rwandan people.

In a tweet, British Prime Minister Theresa May wrote, "Today I am reflecting on the thousands of lives lost in the Rwandan genocide 25 years ago. This was a tragedy and it remains as important as ever to make sure such atrocities are not repeated."

Sunday's ceremonies marked the beginning of 100 days commemoration.

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Trump, White House Aides Rebuff Accounts of Damaging Mueller Report

By Ken Bredemeier April 07, 2019

U.S. President Donald Trump and White House officials on Sunday rebuffed reports that release of special counsel Robert Mueller's full report on the 2016 Trump campaign's contacts with Russia would prove more damaging than the initial conclusion that neither Trump nor his aides conspired with Moscow to help him win.

Trump said on Twitter, "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!"

Attorney General William Barr is reviewing the nearly 400-page report and says he plans to release it in the coming days after redacting confidential information, such as secret grand jury testimony or foreign intelligence that was included in the report.

Late last month, Barr released a four-page summary of the report saying that Mueller had concluded that Trump and his campaign had not colluded with Russia. At the same time, Barr said the prosecutor had reached no conclusion whether Trump, as president, had obstructed justice in trying to thwart the investigation.

Barr quoted the report in his summary as saying on the obstruction question that "while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him."

With Mueller failing to reach a decision on obstruction, Barr, a Trump appointee as the country's top law enforcement official, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein decided that obstruction charges against Trump were not warranted. Trump has claimed the report totally exonerates him, "no collusion, no obstruction, no nothing."

But according to news accounts, Mueller's prosecutors have told associates they were dismayed at the cryptic account of the Mueller report issued by Barr, saying the full report is a more damaging account of Trump's actions. Democratic opponents of Trump in Congress, and some Republicans, have called for release of the full Mueller report, with one Democratic-controlled committee in the House of Representatives last week voting to subpoena the full report and supporting material.

Trump attorney Jay Sekulow told ABC News does not believe the full report will be "more damaging" for Trump.

Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, told Fox News that Democrats "really did believe" that Mueller would conclude that Trump had colluded with Russia, saying, "The Democrat Party is contaminated with Trump Derangement Syndrome."

"If we give the Democrats all 400 pages unredacted that's not going to be the end of the inquiry," Mulvaney said. "Then they're going to want another thousand pages that went into making it. This is not about getting to the truth. This is a political show by the Democrats."

House Democrats have also asked the country's tax agency, the Internal Revenue Service, to turn over the last six years of Trump's federal tax returns, which, breaking custom from previous presidents the last four decades, Trump has refused to disclose.

Mulvaney said Democrats will never see Trump's tax returns, "nor should they."

Sekulow said that "if necessary," 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."

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Photo: The Canadian Press Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen

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 many 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 the Department of Homeland Security and had already withdrawn the nomination for another key immigration post, the development Sunday was unexpected.

Still, it was unclear how McAleenan would immediately assume the role. The agency's undersecretary of management, Claire Grady, is technically next in line for the job.

Nielsen travelled 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 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 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, who says she's staying on until Wednesday, 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 defence 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.

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.

Rep. Joaquin Castro, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, was critical of Nielsen, saying she spent her tenure "championing President Trump's cruel anti-immigrant agenda," and he called McAleenan's appointment "deeply disturbing."

"He cannot be trusted as Acting DHS Secretary based on his record of prioritizing Trump's harmful policies that undermine national security and the economy, and hurt vulnerable families and children at the border," Castro, a Texas Democrat, said in a statement.

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.
India Looks to Roll Out More Space Weaponry After Satellite-Killer Test

Sputnik News

14:02 07.04.2019

The successful test of India's brand new anti-satellite weapon last month has drawn criticism from NASA and Pakistan, but New Delhi does not plan to stop yet. The capabilities under development include directed-energy and laser weapons - arms that have been popularised by video games but have not been seen in real life yet.

India has been developing "space deterrence" technologies which would be able to knock out enemy satellites, the country's military research chief has revealed.

"We are working on a number of technologies like DEWs (directed-energy weapons), lasers, electromagnetic pulse (EMP) and co-orbital weapons etc. I can't divulge the details, but we are taking them forward," G. Satheesh Reddy, the head of India's military R&D agency DRDO, told reporters on Saturday, according to The Times of India.

Directed-energy weapons, which today still remain experimental, generate a targeted non-lethal or lethal beam; types of DEWs include lasers, microwave weapons, sonic weapons, and particle-beam weapons.

Co-orbital anti-satellite weapons are satellites armed with, for instance, explosives or lasers, which can destroy or disrupt an adversary's space assets.

G. Satheesh Reddy was quoted as saying that the government is to decide on the "weaponisation" of anti-satellite systems or the creation of an Aerospace Military Command, adding that India does not intend to carry out additional tests of its new "satellite-killer".

"Space has gained importance in the military domain. The best way to ensure security is to have deterrence," he added.

Last month, India became the fourth nation to possess a satellite-destroying weapon, joining Russia, the United States, and China. On 27 March, the country conducted an anti-satellite missile test, hitting a defunct Indian satellite at an altitude of 300 kilometres.

This news raised concerns from the US space agency, NASA, and India's arch-foe, Pakistan. NASA called the test "unacceptable" and claimed that 400 pieces of debris which emerged as a result of the satellite destruction could pose a threat to the International Space Station (ISS). India, however, rebuffed the claim and said that the space junk was not a danger to the station.

Islamabad, for its part, branded India's test "a matter of grave concern" with ramifications for "long-term sustainability" and regional security.

G. Satheesh Reddy described the missile as a "direct-ascent, kinetic kill weapon", adding that it is "feasible" to hit multiple satellites with multiple launches of such missiles, which can go as high up into space as 1,000 kilometres.

 Sputnik

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IRGC warns about consequences of US decision

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, April 7, IRNA -- The Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) on Sunday warned Washington about the consequences of the US decision to label this Iranian force a terrorist group.

If Americans adopt such an unwise decision and undermine Iran's national security, the IRGC will implement reciprocal measures based on the Islamic Republic establishment policies, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari said.

He noted that if the US labels IRGC a terrorist group, the American forces deployed in the West Asia region will not enjoy the tranquility that they are experiencing today.

On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported such a move against IRGC by Washington could come as early as Monday.

Responding to the report, a vast majority of lawmakers in Iran's parliament issued a statement threatening to designate elements of the US military a terror group.

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Tehran, Baghdad agree to establish gas supply network

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, April 7, IRNA -- The development of joint fields, the reconstruction of old Iraqi refineries, the establishment of a gas supply network and the export of technical and engineering services are the most important oil agreements between Tehran and Baghdad.

The above remarks were made by Iran's Deputy Minister of Petroleum for International Affairs and Commerce Amir Hossein Zamanian.

He stressed on Sunday that the talks will be held between senior Iranian and Iraqi energy officials.

'The construction of the pipeline from Basra to Abadan is raised for the transfer of the product that we hope will be implemented. Iran has vast capabilities in the oil, gas and petrochemical industry, which can be used to engage with the Iraqi side,' he pointed out.

Deputy Minister of Petroleum for International Affairs and Commerce added that Iran is unique in terms of gas distribution network in the world, and no country in the world has such a gas supply network.

Accordingly, Iraq wants to develop its gas distribution network with the participation of Iran.

He stated, 'Now politically, it's the best opportunity to increase partnership and cooperation in the oil industry in two countries.'

According to him, a number of Iraqi students will study in oil engineering at the University of Tehran.

In another development, the Iranian Economy Minister during a joint meeting with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, as well as the Minister of Planning underlined on further development of economic cooperation based on specific and operational plans.

'The Islamic Republic will develop economic cooperation is serious and unrestricted, and we expect to have a diverse, broad, long-term cooperation as consolidated political relationship in this area,' Farhad Dejpasand said on Sunday.

He pointed to the meetings between the two countries' leaders, and said, 'It is now time to reach agreement on the operational and transparent plans, with such a strong will to develop bilateral relations.'

According to Dejpasand, Tehran and Baghdad can cooperate in the field of civil engineering, in particular construction of roads, tourism, technical and engineering services, construction of dam, power plant, hospital and chain stores.

Pointing out that Iran and Iraq can cooperate on the services and trade sectors and insurance services by having deep and extensive cooperation between customs and central insurers, the high-ranking official stated that according to the volume of foreign trade between Iran and Iraq, this country has the second rank among the Islamic Republic's partners, and in order to develop economic and all-out relations, Tehran is ready for any kind of cooperation based on maintaining common interests.

Governor of Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Abdolnaser Hemmati and Iraqi Finance Minister Fuad Hussein, in a meeting in Tehran on Sunday, discussed ways to boost bilateral trade and to balance exports and imports between the two countries.

The two officials also talked on ways in which Iraq could pay its debts to Iran.

Speaking to reporters, the CBI governor said that the volume of trade between the two countries is in a satisfactory condition and given the existing capacities, Iran and Iraq can create balance between bilateral exports and imports.

Hemmati said that Iran and Iraq do banking interactions in Iraqi Dirham which is key to enhancement of banking relations between the two neighboring countries.

Iran's Minister of Industry, Mining and Trade also announced the formation of a Joint Iran-Iraq Commerce Committee, and said that an Iranian delegation in the near future will travel to Iraq.

Addressing Iran-Iraq business-economic conference held at the Iranian Chamber of Commerce, Reza Rahmani said memoranda of understanding (MoUs) were signed during the recent visit by the Iranian president to Iraq in the areas of Shalamcheh railway, business visa facilitation, health and oil.

'Some of these memoranda of understanding were being implemented and the preparations for the implementation of other sectors were also provided,' Rahimi said.

He added that during the visit by the Iraqi prime minister also several other MoUs were signed in the fields of modernizing the country's industries, improvement of infrastructure and establishing industrial townships.

According to the Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade, facilitating the issuance of visas for the Iranian businessmen is another agreement between the two sides on the basis of which a one-year visa will be issued to Iranian traders this year.

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Iraq hails Iran's oil projects despite US sanctions

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, April 7, IRNA -- Iraq praised Iranian oil sector for continuing its activities during the reimposition of the US sanctions.

Iraq has praised Iranian oil sector for continuing its activities during the reimposition of US sanctions.

"I have been impacted after hearing the work that's been done in Iran oil sector," Iraq Oil Minister Thamer Al-Ghadhban said following a visit to Energy Industries Engineering and Design (EIED), an Iranian oil firm.

"Your activities during the sanctions is praisable. We have suffered hard times under the sanctions and we know how hard it is," he added.

The Iraqi minister also expressed hope that joint oil projects be devised and implemented.

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Iran eyes $20bn trade with Iraq in next 2 years

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, April 7, IRNA -- Iran says it plans to reach 20 billion dollars in volume of annual trade with Iraq in the next two years.

"Our strategy to develop economic and political cooperation with Iraq is to hit the target of $20 billion trade in 2021 (1400, according to the Persian calendar)," said Iranian First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri addressing the joint Iran-Iraq business forum that was held at Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) in Tehran on Sunday afternoon.

"Materializing this target has an important role in quantitative and qualitative development of ties and elevating economic indices between the two countries," he added.

Current annual trade volume between Iran and Iraq stands at 12 billion dollars, according to Jahangiri.

A large number of Iranian and Iraqi businessmen and women took part in the joint business forum that tries to ease bilateral trade and facilitate further economic relations.

He stressed that Tehran will stand by Baghdad in the reconstruction period, saying his country has always supported Iraq's sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity, political security and stability.

"Iraq has entered a period of reconstructing itself in a bid to successfully go through the challenges, obstacles as well as pursue a political process based on democracy and political stability,' Jahangiri mentioned.

The Iranian official noted that his country is ready to engage in mutual and multilateral cooperation in a bid to accelerate Iraq's reconstruction and economic development.

He said Iranian firms are prepared to set up joint companies with Iraqi economic operators as well as third parties to take up big projects in the Arab country.

The first vice president criticized "illegal and brutal" US sanctions that go against development of bilateral relations between Iran and Iraq.

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Iran, Iraq explore ways to boost bilateral trade

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, April 7, IRNA -- Governor of Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Abdolnaser Hemmati and Iraqi Finance Minister Fuad Hussein, in a meeting in Tehran on Sunday, discussed ways to boost bilateral trade and to balance exports and imports between the two countries.

The two officials also talked on ways in which Iraq could pay its debts to Iran.

Speaking to reporters, the CBI governor said that the volume of trade between the two countries is in a satisfactory condition and given the existing capacities, Iran and Iraq can create balance between bilateral exports and imports.

Hemmati said that Iran and Iraq do banking interactions in Iraqi Dirham which is key to enhancement of banking relations between the two neighboring countries.

He underlined the need to remove obstacles on the way of activities of Iranian banks in Iraq and vice versa.

The Iraqi minister, for his part, expressed satisfaction over the growing trade and political relations between Tehran and Baghdad.

Hussein said that balancing trade would benefit the interests of both countries.

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Iran prepares bill to counter US possible act against IRGC: MP

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, April 7, IRNA -- A senior lawmaker said on Sunday that Iran's Majlis (Parliament) has prepared a double-urgency bill which will be approved in case the US takes possible measures against the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).

Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, chairman of Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, made the remarks at the parliament open session held in Tehran this morning.

"The Trump administration is preparing to designate Iran's IRGC a foreign terrorist organization,' the Wall Street Journal, a New York-based international daily quoted the US officials as saying on April 5.

Falahatpisheh said if it happens, Iran declares the US military forces as a terrorist group like Daesh (ISIS).

The member of parliament went on to stress that the IRGC has played effective role in the fight against terrorism, and the US step to designate IRGC as a terrorist group will practically serve terrorists.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the move was designed as 'a step that would vastly escalate the American pressure campaign against Tehran, but which has divided the US officials'.

In a related development, 255 out of 290 Iranian lawmakers issued a statement on April 7, stressing that the Majlis will respond reciprocally to any measure against the IRGC forces.

Majlis through its statement described IRGC as one of the great achievements gained after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran.

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Iran firm on defense in face of US threats: Minister

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, April 7, IRNA -- Iranian defense minister said that the US, by denying humanitarian aids to Iranian people, has one again proved its hostility toward the nation and made the country more determined in upgrading its self-defense capabilities, .

The Americans showed that their problem with Iran is not limited to the Islamic system, Brigadier General Amir Hatami said, adding that they even prevented the life saving supplies to reach Iran's flood-hit regions.

'The situation will impell the defense industry to take longer strides for manufacturing defensive products with higher qualities and standard much heavier,' he added.

Expressing sympathy with the families who lost their loved ones in the recent flood, the Iranian General said that his ministry would use all technical and engineering capabilities to render services to the affected people.

He said the defense ministry will stand with them until the stability in the flood-stricken areas is restored.

Referring to the reports by the US research centers that had predicted death of thousands of Iranian people in the flash floods, the minister said the number of casualties was far less than what they expected thanks to the measures taken by the supreme leader and the efforts made by the cabinet, as well as the Armed Forces.

Iran has been struggling with flash floods due to unprecedented heavy rains since March 19, coincided with the eve of New Year in the country. The phenomenon claimed the lives of at least 70 people and left thousands injured and displaced.

The disaster got at the center stage in the international arena after the US unilateral sanctions on Iran prevented the humanitarian aids and organizations from accessing Iranian flood-hit people.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif blasted the measures and described them as 'economic terrorism'.

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Iran prepares double-urgency bill to designate US armed forces as terrorists

ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency

Sun / 7 April 2019 / 16:13

Tehran (ISNA)  Chairman of National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of Iranian Parliament announced that a double-urgency bill has been prepared to put US' military on the terror blacklist alongside ISIS.

In an interview with ISNA, Chairman of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh said, "As Washington is trying to designate the Islamic Revolution Guards as a terrorist organization, we have prepared a double-urgency bill to name US military a terror organization alongside ISIS".

Mentioning that three main fractions of Iran's parliament support the bill, Falahatpisheh added, "However we believe that we shouldn't play in US' ground of extremism, the fact is that we have to follow the principles of retaliation and fighting against terrorism".

Stressing that IRGC has had a prominent role in fighting against terrorism, the Iranian lawmaker said, "With putting IRGC in terror blacklist, US has actually served terrorists. The double-urgency bill is prepared and as soon as US puts IRGC on its blacklist, we will put the tit for tat measure on the agenda and approve the double-urgency bill".

End Item

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Iran, Iraq to cooperate in air defense area

ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency

Sun / 7 April 2019 / 15:24

Tehran (ISNA)  "We may feel some air threats along western borders which was discussed in a meeting with Iraq's army chief of staff and we planned to have bilateral cooperation in air defence area to reach a better coordination," Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Bagheri said.

On the sidelines of a meeting with Iraqi Chief of Staff General Othman al-Ghanimi, General Bagheri told reporters, "Iran-Iraq relation is different from relations with other countries and we have common threats and interests".

"Forces of the two countries should improve their cooperation towards mutual purposes," the Iranian general stressed.

Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces added, "We also reached good understandings over cooperation in military training, joint drills and transmission of Iran's military experience to Iraq. The discussed cooperation will be finalized in the near future".

Regarding US troops' presence in Iraq, General Bagheri said, "The issue of US forces' presence in Iraq has also been discussed in the meeting. The Iraqi side assured us that it will carry out more control measures and the presence of the troops is only for training and they are under control of Iraq's army".

End Item

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Photo: Oliver Daily News

A Penticton judge had some strong words for a South Okanagan hunting guide Monday, as she fined him more than $24,000 for hunting black bears with bait.

James Darin Wiens, 51, pleaded guilty last year to three Wildlife Act charges stemming from an international investigation into Vaseux Creek Outfitters.

Working on a confidential source, the BC Conservation Officer Service enlisted the help of two American conservation officers who went undercover as clients seeking to hunt a black bear.

During the hunt over the span of four days in 2016, the officers observed Wiens pouring fryer grease and dog food at various locations in the bush to attract bears. A bear was shot and killed by the group at one of the baited sites.

Judge Michelle Daneliuk ruled Monday baiting the bear "transformed it into a sitting duck.

This was not a hunt, this was a shooting gallery created by Mr. Wiens, she said.

This is dishonourable and disgraceful conduct on the part of someone that has been benefiting from the privilege, as licensed by the Province of B.C., to hunt animals for profit throughout his entire adult life.

Wiens has operated his hunting guide business for more than 30 year after inheriting it from his father, leading Daneliuk to remark, if there is anyone that knows what he was doing was wrong, it would be Wiens.

Daneliuk ordered Wiens pay an $18,000 penalty to the Habitat Conservation Trust Fund, $500 in court fines, surrender the rifle used to slay the bear and pay back the $6,300 he collected from the undercover officers for the hunt.

The Crown had sought a $25,000-$30,000 penalty while the defence suggested $7,500.

Prior to her sentencing, Daneliuk warned Wiens that she had the authority to issue much larger fines or even jail time for the offences and would do so should he reoffend.

Wiens remains licensed to operate as a guide outfitter in the Oliver area, but may be subject to sanction through a curtailment of operating area, suspension of license or termination of licence by provincial regulators now that hes been convicted.
IRGC warns reciprocal action against US forces if labeled 'terrorist'

Iran Press TV

Sun Apr 7, 2019 01:58PM

The chief commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) warns that the elite force will put reciprocal action against the US forces on its agenda if Washington labels it as a "terrorist organization."

"If the Americans make such a silly move and endanger our national security, we will implement and put reciprocal measures on our agenda based on the policies of Iran's Islamic establishment," Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari said on Sunday.

He added that if the US designated the IRGC as a terrorist organization, the American army and security forces would not experience peace and calm in the Middle East anymore.

The administration of US President Donald Trump is expected to designate the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization as early as next week, according to a US official.

The designation decision, formally under the State Department's purview, has been made as part of the White House's increasingly aggressive strategy towards Iran.

The US has already blacklisted dozens of entities and individuals affiliated with the IRGC, but not the entire force.

The IRGC, which has roughly 125,000 military personnel and enjoys growing public support, is also actively cooperating in construction, infrastructure and relief projects.

Iran MPs vow to reciprocate any US action against IRGC

In a related development on Sunday, the majority of Iranian lawmakers expressed their full support for the country's Armed Forces, particularly the IRGC, pledging to respond in kind to any action taken by the US against the elite force.

In a statement read out at the Iranian Parliament (Majlis), 255 lawmakers emphasized that the security of Iran and its Armed Forces are major red lines for the country's parliamentarians.

"In case of any measure by the US president or any other institution against the IRGC, we will start a double-urgency reciprocal measure, which will make the US leaders, who have been behind the formation of terrorist groups in the region and supported them, regret their stupid move," the Iranian lawmakers' statement said.

It added that the IRGC is one of the greatest achievements of the Iranian people, which has its roots in the Article 150 of the Iranian Constitution as a branch of the country's Armed Forces  and has helped regional governments and nations a great deal in the fight against terrorism.

Majlis prepares double-urgency motion on Trump's IRGC decision

Meanwhile, a senior Iranian lawmaker announced later on Sunday that the Iranian parliament has prepared a double-urgency motion to counteract a possible measure by the United States to put the IRGC on its blacklist of foreign terrorist organizations.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an open session of the parliament, head of the Majlis Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, said, "We have prepared this double-urgency motion according to which as soon as this step is taken by America, we will put its military personnel on our blacklist of terrorist groups along with Daesh."

The MP added that all three major factions in the Iranian parliament support the motion, adding, "The IRGC has played a pivotal role in countering terrorism and by putting the IRGC on the list of terrorist groups, America has practically provided a service to terrorists."

'Trump's IRGC decision will drag US into quagmire'

In a related development, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's supporters seek to drag the United States into a quagmire by pushing the Trump administration to designate the IRGC as a terror group.

"#NetanyahuFirsters who have long agitated for FTO designation of the IRGC fully understand its consequences for US forces in the region," Zarif said in a post on his official Twitter account on Sunday, adding, "In fact, they seek to drag US into a quagmire on his behalf."

Advising Trump against taking such a mistaken step on the IRGC, the top Iranian diplomat said, Trump "should know better than to be conned into another US disaster."

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Iran, Iraq 'agree on aerial defense cooperation'

Iran Press TV

Sun Apr 7, 2019 10:02AM

Iran's top military commander says the country and its neighbor Iraq have agreed to cooperate in the area of air defense to fend off the challenges facing their respective air spaces.

Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Baqeri made the announcement to reporters following a meeting in Tehran with his visiting Iraqi counterpart, Lieutenant General Othman al-Ghanimi, Tasnim News Agency reported on Sunday.

The cooperation, Baqeri said, will be aimed at confronting aerial threats.

The meeting addressed "the integrated defense of Iran and Iraq's skies, because we might sense threats coming from the direction of [our] western borders," he added.

"Accordingly, it was agreed that the countries' air defense sectors work together and more coordination be made in this regard," the Iranian commander said.

Baqeri said the two sides also agreed on potential training cooperation, the transferring of Iran's defensive experiences to Iraq, and joint military exercises. Agreements on these, he added, will be finalized during a future visit by the Iraqi military chief.

Ghanimi was in the Iranian capital as part of a delegation accompanying Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi. On Saturday, the delegation met with Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani.

Baqeri cited the Iraqi commander as saying that Baghdad would be exercising stricter control on the United States' military presence on its soil.

The American forces are only there to train Iraqis and their activities are under the Iraqi Army's oversight, Baqeri added, citing al-Ghanimi.

In his meeting with Ghanimi, Ayatollah Khamenei had stressed that the Iraqi government should make sure that US forces leave Iraq as soon as possible.

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Iranian Deputies Warn U.S. Of Retaliation If Revolutionary Guards Designated Terror Group

By RFE/RL's Radio Farda April 07, 2019

Iranian deputies say they will take reciprocal action against the United States if Washington designates the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (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 parliamentarians, the state news agency IRNA reported on April 7.

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 on its Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) 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.

Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, the chairman of parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said in an April 6 tweet: "If the IRGC is placed on America's list of terrorist groups, we will put that country's military on the terror blacklist alongside [the extremist terror group] ISIS."

IRGC commander Mohammad Ali 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 programs, according to the Congressional Research Service.

With reporting by Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iranian-deputies-warn- u-s-of-retaliation-if-revolutionary-guards- designated-terror-group/29866211.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.

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Iran, Iraq to Boost Air Defence Ties as Khamenei Urges Swift US Troop Exit

Sputnik News

18:19 07.04.2019

The Iraqi commander also pledged that Baghdad would take stricter control of the US' military presence on Iraqi soil. This comes a day after Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei called on Baghdad to ensure that US troops leave Iraq "as soon as possible".

Tehran and Baghdad have agreed to bolster bilateral "aerial defence cooperation" to specifically fend off challenges facing their air spaces, Mohammad Baqeri, chairman of the Chiefs of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, told reporters on Sunday.

Bageri made the announcement after meeting with Iraqi counterpart Othman al-Ghanimi in Tehran earlier in the day.

The top Iranian commander stressed that the talks focused on "the integrated defence of Iran and Iraq's skies, because we might sense threats coming from the direction of [our] western borders".

Baqeri added that the two sides also agreed on possible joint military exercises, with the relevant agreements expected to be clinched during Ghanimi's next visit.

Baqeri also quoted the Iraqi commander as promising that Baghdad would continue to keep an eagle eye on the US' military presence in Iraqi territory  a statement that came a day after Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei urged Baghdad to ensure US troops leave Iraq "as soon as possible".

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 in 2020.

During a surprise visit to Iraq late last year, President Donald Trump said that he has "no plans at all" to remove US troops from the Middle Eastern country, stressing his interest in wanting more soldiers deployed there from Syria.

Referring to the huge sums of money that are being spent on the US military base in Iraq in an interview with the CBS, Trump made clear that one of the reasons he wants to keep it is "to be looking a little bit at Iran because Iran is a real problem".

On 1 May 2018, the US Defence Department announced it was disbanding the command structure it had set up almost four years ago to assist the Iraqi military and security services in their fight against Daesh*.

20 March 2019 marked the 16th anniversary of the launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the US-led invasion of Iraq which started in 2003 as part of a declared war against international terrorism. In 2009, US troops were withdrawn before being redeployed in 2014, when the US-led coalition started to launch strikes on Daesh targets following the terror group's meteoric rise.

*Daesh (ISIL/ISIS/Islamic State), a terrorist group banned in Russia and a number of other countries

 Sputnik

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Three-year plan to rebuild Iraq's electricity industry formulated

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, April 7, IRNA -- Iran's Minister of Energy says a three-year plan to rebuild the Iraqi power industry has been formulated which will increase Iraq's power generation capacity by 30 percent.

Addressing Iran-Iraq Business Conference held in Iran's Chamber of Commerce on Sunday, Reza Ardakanian while outlining some principles of the three-year plan to rebuild the Iraqi power industry, said with the implementation of this program, in three years, Iraqi power losses are reduced from 50 percent to 20 percent which means a 30 percent increase in the country's electricity generation capacity.

According to the Minister of Energy, the reconstruction of Iraq's existing power plants, the training of manpower and the construction of equipment manufacturing factories are among the other goals set out in the three-year plan that the implementation of this program is dependent on private sector cooperation and expressed the hope that the manufacturing and management companies participate in this program.

Ardakanian emphasized that within this three-year period, whenever it is necessary to export electricity to Iraq, it will be carried out within the framework of the export contract.

The minister added that Iran's vision of contributing to the reconstruction of Iraq is far from a look at the market in the area. Other countries are only looking for the Iraqi market, but the look of Iran is very different.

In another part of his remarks, he said, 'Each development program needs infrastructure, and the power industry plays a decisive role in the realization of these programs.'

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UN calls for 'urgent' Libya truce as clashes escalate

Iran Press TV

Sun Apr 7, 2019 05:58PM

The United Nations (UN) has called for an "urgent" ceasefire near Libya's capital, Tripoli, as forces loyal to a Libyan strongman advance on the capital to seize the city and bring down the UN-backed government there.

Libya is 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).

A self-styled general, Khalifa Haftar, who enjoys the loyalty of a group of armed militia, has taken it upon himself to protect the government in Tobruk. And while he has participated in reconciliation talks with the GNA, he has recently ordered his forces  the so-called Libyan National Army (LNA)  to invade the seat of the internationally-recognized government, namely Tripoli.

Armed forces loyal to the GNA have been fighting back.

On Sunday, the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) urged the warring sides to hold an urgent two-hour ceasefire for the southern outskirts of Tripoli to allow the evacuation of civilians and the wounded.

Earlier in the week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern regarding the situation in Libya after his attempts to convince Haftar to halt his offensive failed.

On Saturday, Haftar's military spokesman, Col. Ahmad Almismari, said in a presser that LNA forces had captured four towns in the offensive toward the capital. The forces also announced on Sunday that they had conducted their first air raid on a Tripoli suburb, despite calls by the international community to halt hostilities.

Meanwhile, the Libyan Health Ministry said that at least 21 people had been killed and 27 others wounded since the start of the LNA offensive, without specifying whether civilians had been among the casualties. A day earlier, the LNA had announced that 14 of its forces had been killed in the fighting.

On Saturday, Sarraj warned of a "war without a winner" and announced that reinforcements were pouring into the capital from several regions to defend the city against Haftar's forces. Haftar is "motivated by personal interests and his own delusions" and is trying to "plunge the country into a cycle of violence," Sarraj said.

Reports said that powerful armed groups from the western city of Misrata and fighters from Zentan and Zawiya  all battle-hardened militiamen who took part in a 2011 uprising in the country  had already joined the battle against the LNA.

UN insists to hold national conference

Meanwhile, Hassan Salame, a senior UN envoy, said in a press conference in Tripoli on Saturday that the world body was "determined" to hold a conference to explore the possibility of holding elections on time despite the current surge in fighting.

The UN aims to hold the conference in the southwestern town of Ghadames on April 14-16 to weigh the possibility of elections as a way out of Libya's factional anarchy.

UAE, Saudis, Egypt back Haftar: Report

On Saturday, Middle East Monitor quoted a senior Libyan general as saying that there are Emirati and Egyptian weapons being used by Haftar's forces in the battle to capture the capital and oust the GNA.

The general stressed that Saudi Arabia gave Haftar the green light for his attack and supplied him with money in order to take over Libya's west.

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.

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US withdraws troops from Libya amid 'increased unrest'

Iran Press TV

Sun Apr 7, 2019 03:42PM

The US military has announced a temporary withdrawal of its forces from Libya amid an upsurge of fighting in the North African country.

The US Africa Command (AFRICOM) said in a statement on Sunday that it had temporarily evacuated an unspecified contingent of US forces from Libya, citing the deteriorating security situation in the wake of fighting between two rival administrations in the oil-rich 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," the statement read.

The AFRICOM did not elaborate on the size of the troop contingent or the place they had been moved to.

"The command is making the personnel adjustments in response to the evolving security situation. US Africa Command will continue to monitor conditions on the ground in Libya, and assess the feasibility for renewed US military presence, as appropriate," the AFRICOM said in the statement.

Libya has been the scene of increasing violence since 2011, when former dictator Muammar Gaddafi was killed in a NATO military intervention that followed a popular uprising.

Gaddafi's ouster created a huge power vacuum, leading to chaos and the emergence of numerous militant outfits, including the Daesh terrorist group.

The North African country is now divided between two rival governments  the House of Representatives, which is based in the eastern city of Tobruk and under the command of Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar, and the internationally-recognized government of Fayez al-Sarraj, or the Tripoli-based unity Government of National Accord (GNA).

The AFRICOM statement came as the so-called Libyan National Army (LNA), led by Haftar, have reportedly advanced into the capital's southern outskirts and taken its former international airport.

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.

Haftar's troops, who are backed by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, have been slowed in their advance amid "intensive" airstrikes by forces backing the GNA.

The recent escalation prompted the UN Security Council to call for an emergency meeting behind closed doors on Friday.

The United Nations has already voiced deep concerns about the escalating tensions. It plans to hold a conference later this month in the Libyan city of Ghadames to discuss a political solution to the conflict.

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Libya's Western-backed PM accuses Haftar of betrayal over Tripoli offensive

Iran Press TV

Sun Apr 7, 2019 07:43AM

Libya's Western-backed Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj has accused his rival General Khalifa Haftar of betraying him by initiating a military push against the capital, that risks plunging the nation into civil war.

The head of the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) said in a televised speech on Saturday that Haftar had "stabbed us in the back" by launching "a coup."

Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) said its forces had advanced into the capital's southern outskirts and taken its former international airport, prompting Sarraj to warn in a televised address of a "war without a winner."

"We have 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," Sarraj said.

Haftar's troops, which are backed by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, have been slowed in their advance amid "intensive" airstrikes by forces backing the GNA.

The airstrikes came as fresh fighting flared south of Tripoli despite warning from several European foreign ministers to Haftar not to countenance any further military action.

Armed groups allied to Sarraj moved machinegun-mounted vehicles from Misrata towards the Libyan capital to defend the city.

Sarraj also called on the international community to stop attempts to militarize the oil-rich country, in a veiled rebuke of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.

"And a last word to the countries that support Libyans fighting: fear God and stop interfering in our affairs. The tables will turn one day. God protect Libya," he said.

A senior Libyan general said on Saturday that Haftar's forces were using Emirati and Egyptian weapons in their push to capture the capital. Saudi Arabia has also given Haftar the green light for the offensive and supplied him with money, he added.

"The three Arab countries support Haftar's militias in order to create a new Sisi in Libya," said Mohammad al-Qunidi, who is chief of the military intelligence loyal to Sarraj, referring to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

According to British daily The Guardian, Haftar met King Salman of Saudi Arabia on March 27 in Riyadh apparently to discuss his offensive plans.

The United Nations has voiced deep concerns about the escalating tensions. It plans to hold a conference later this month in the Libyan city of Ghadames to discuss a political solution to the conflict.

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 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.

Apart from the three Arab countries backing Haftar, some European governments that once contributed to the NATO military operation to oust Gaddafi have also offered the Libyan strongman 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.

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UN Appeals for Humanitarian Truce in Libya

By Edward Yeranian April 07, 2019

The United Nations has issued an "urgent appeal" for a two hour truce in the suburbs of Tripoli to evacuate civilians and those wounded, as forces loyal to military commander Gen. Khalifa Haftar continue a push aimed at taking the capital.

Libya's U.N. backed prime minister, Fayez Sarraj, has called the action by Haftar an attempted coup. Haftar and his forces apear to have gained ground along the outskirts of the capital but Sarraj says government troops are prepared to confront them.

UNSMIL, the U.N. mission in Libya, has urged all parties in the area to respect a two hours humanitarian truce.

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.

The tensions in the region have led the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) to relocate some of its forces from Libya. But AFRICOM, which provides military support to diplomatic missions and counterterrorism activities in Libya, says it remains committed to a secure and stable state, and will "assess the feasibility for renewed U.S. military presence, as appropriate."

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."

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Russia, China to ink contract on jointly developing heavy lift helicopter

Iran Press TV

Sun Apr 7, 2019 10:16AM

Russia and China will soon sign a "contract of the century" on the joint development of a new-generation advanced heavy transport helicopter.

According to Russian media, the two sides have been in talks for years to prepare a contract on the creation of an updated version of the Mi-26 Russian-made helicopter.

The new helicopter will "be even better than the Mi-26 helicopter," said Valentin Padalka, an honored military pilot of the Russia Federation.

He said the aircraft will is equipped with an integrated airborne radio subsystem that simplifies operation and automates flight missions.

"With the joint efforts from Chinese and Russian designers, the world's greatest helicopter will be produced," he added.

"China boasts advanced technology while we have rich experience in producing helicopters. Combining the two advantages, we will certainly make a perfect aircraft," Padalka said.

The first of the 40-tonne jointly developed helicopter will be delivered by 2030.

Trade turnover between Moscow and Beijing topped an all-time high earlier this year, surpassing $107 billion in January, just one month after it hit the previous record of $100 billion.

This has concerned the US, with American intelligence officials saying earlier this year that closer cooperation between China and Russia poses increased threats to the national security of the United States.

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday the amount of money that the US, China and Russia spend on weapons production could be better spent elsewhere.

"As you know China is spending a lot of money on military, so are we, so is Russia and those three countries I think can come together and stop the spending and spend on things that maybe are more productive toward long-term peace," Trump said during a meeting with Chinese vice premier Liu He in Washington.

In response, the Chinese vice premier said he thought it would be a good idea. Moscow also reacted to the suggestion, saying that the idea deserved attention and further discussion.

Trump, however, announced last year that Washington would withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) signed toward the end of the Cold War in 1987.

The treaty  seen as a milestone in ending the Cold War arms race between the two superpowers  banned ground-launch nuclear missiles with ranges from 500 kilometers to 5,500 kilometers and led to the elimination of nearly 2,700 short- and medium-range missiles.

Russia has previously warned that the collapse of the agreement would spark an arms race.

President Vladimir Putin has said Moscow will not deploy any new missiles unless Washington does so, because Russia does not want to enter a new arms race with the US.

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Shareholders of Nissan Motor on Monday voted to remove former chairman Carlos Ghosn from its board amid allegations of financial misconduct. Al Jazeera reported that the shareholders also voted out another director, named Greg Kelly, and replaced Ghosn with Renault Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard.

The announcement came after Ghosn was reportedly fired as the chairman of both Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors following his arrest in December, after which he stepped down as the chairman and CEO of French carmaker Renault.

Last week, the Tokyo District Court approved the detention of the 65-year-old until April 14 after Ghosn was arrested once again for the fourth time on Thursday by Tokyo prosecutors on suspicions of aggravated breach of trust.

This detention period can be extended for 10 more days if the court allows, meaning Ghosn is unlikely to be released any time soon.

Ghosn's re-arrest on Thursday comes days after he was released on bail by a Tokyo court after spending 108 days in detention, during which he was indicted on charges of aggravated breach of trust and underreporting his remuneration for Japanese carmaker Nissan Motor.

Prosecutors in Tokyo believe that Ghosn allegedly misused Nissan's funds for personal use through a dealership in Oman. They suspect that some funds, out of the USD 34 million paid to the dealership, were used to pay for a yacht, which was used by Ghosn.

The former Nissan chief faces three separate charges. The first two relate to the alleged deferring of around USD 80 million in income and concealing this in official documents to shareholders.

Whereas, according to the third charge, Ghosn attempted to transfer personal losses to Nissan and paid a Saudi contact, who provided collateral from company funds.

Just before his arrest on Thursday, Ghosn took to Twitter to announce an upcoming press conference earlier slated to take place on April 11.

However, Ghosn has denied the allegations and described his re-arrest as "outrageous and arbitrary".

"Why arrest me except to try to break me? I will not be broken. I am innocent of the groundless charges and accusations against me," he said.

He added that his arrest is an attempt by "some individuals at Nissan" to "silence him" and mislead the prosecutors.

The former CEO called for a free trial and expressed confidence that he would emerge innocent if tried fairly.

-ANI
Trump's recognition of Golan annexation violates UN Charter: Russia's Lavrov

Iran Press TV

Sun Apr 7, 2019 03:22PM

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has condemned US President Donald Trump's recognition of the Israeli regime's "sovereignty" over the occupied Golan Heights, stressing the need for a political solution to the conflict in Syria in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 2254.

"We reject the US president's decision on the occupied Syrian Golan, which flagrantly violates the UN Charter," Lavrov said at a joint press conference with his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi in Amman on Sunday.

On March 25, Trumped signed a proclamation, formally recognizing Israel's sovereignty over Golan Heights. The announcement came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House.

Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, in a statement, called the US decision a "blatant attack on the sovereignty and territorial integrity" of Syria.

"The liberation of the Golan by all available means and its return to the Syrian motherland is an inalienable right," according to the statement carried by Syria's official news agency SANA, which added, "The decision ... makes the United States the main enemy of the Arabs."

The Arab League condemned the move, saying that "Trump's recognition does not change the area's status."

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said it was impossible for Turkey to accept the US decision on the Golan Heights.

Elsewhere in his Sunday remarks, Lavrov noted that any settlement of the conflict in Syria must fall within the framework of UN Security Council Resolution 2254, which endorses a road map for a peace process in Syria, and sets out the outlines of a nationwide ceasefire.

He noted that the fight against terrorism should be done without any double standards.

'US must allow displaced Syrians to leave al-Rukban camp'

The top Russian diplomat then pointed to the appalling situation at al-Rukban refugee camp near Syria's frontier with Jordan, stating that the United States should allow displaced civilians stranded there to return to their homes.

"The United States occupies the al-Tanf area, backs terrorists there and hinders humanitarian aid access to the [Rukban] camp, whose residents are suffering from catastrophic conditions," Lavrov said.

He pointed out that US statements on solving the problem of the camp are untrue as Washington seeks to justify its illegal presence in the region.

The Russian official also urged the United States to end its occupation of al-Tanf region and allow displaced Syrians who are caught in al-Rukban camp to leave, noting that the United Nations confirms that most of the civilians there would like to return to their homes.

'Trump's Golan decision violates international law'

The Jordanian foreign minister, for his part, reiterated his country's firm position that the Golan Heights is an occupied Syrian territory in accordance with international resolutions.

Safadi added that Trump's declaration on the occupied Golan violates international law.

The Jordanian foreign minister also emphasized the need for a political solution to the crisis in Syria that would preserve the Arab country's unity, independence and restore its security, stability and important role in the Middle East region.

He also pointed to the difficult situation in al-Rukban camp, clarifying that most of its residents want to return to their homes according to UN surveys.

The United Nations says about 45,000 people, mostly women and children, are trapped inside al-Rukban, where conditions are desperate. This is while Geneva-based international aid agency, Doctors Without Borders, has put the number there at some 60,000.

Last October, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said people in al-Rukban had been without access to food and humanitarian aid for several months, highlighting that the tough situation was further complicated with a closed border by Jordan.

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Terrorist attack kills 5, including medics, in Syria's Hama

Iran Press TV

Sun Apr 7, 2019 02:04PM

At least five people have been killed and more than a dozen others wounded in a terrorist rocket attack on a hospital in Syria's western-central province of Hama, state media report.

Syria's official news agency SANA reported that rockets landed on the entrance of the Masyaf National Hospital and on some surrounding residential buildings in Masyaf City on Sunday morning.

Of the five people killed in the attack, two were nurses working at the hospital, the report further said, adding that at least 15 other civilians  four of them also hospital staff  sustained injuries, some of them critically.

"This was not the first time terrorist groups launch rockets at the hospital. However, it was the most criminal attack yet," SANA quoted the director of the hospital, Dr. Maher Younis, as saying.

Other reports said terrorists from the Takfiri Hayat Tahrir al-Sham launched the attack.

SANA added that Syrian government troops, supported by the Russian air cover, launched a heavy retaliatory missile and artillery attack targeting the areas where the rockets were believed to have been fired from.

Masyaf is situated some 25 kilometers south of the demilitarized zone around militant-held Idlib. Furthermore, several key roads, which link Syria's Mediterranean coast with the country's central regions, pass by the city.

Russia, which has been assisting Syria in its fight against terrorist groups since September 2015, maintains an air defense base in the vicinity of Masyaf, where an S-400 air defense missile system is reportedly deployed.

Foreign-backed militancy, supported by the United States and many of its Western and regional allies, erupted in Syria in 2011.The militants and Takfiri terrorists overran large swathes of Syria's territory before government forces retook almost all of them with help from its allies.

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May Says Brexit Choice Narrowed to Leaving EU With Deal or Remaining in Bloc

Sputnik News

02:34 07.04.2019

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - UK Prime Minister Theresa May ruled out the option of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union with no deal on Saturday, saying that London would either get a divorce deal passed or remain in the bloc as the UK Parliament opposed a no-deal Brexit.

"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," May said, as quoted by the Guardian newspaper.

Brexit delays increase the chance of the United Kingdom remaining in the European Union, according to the prime minister.

"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," May underlined.

On Friday, the UK prime minister wrote to European Council President Donald Tusk to ask for a Brexit extension until June 30.

Moreover, May would face pressure to step down from her fellow Conservative members of the UK parliament if Brexit delays force the United Kingdom to take part in the elections to the European Parliament, slated for next month, according to the media outlet.

"I and many other Conservatives would prefer leaving the EU on World Trade Organisation terms to any humiliating long extension that forces us to take part in the European elections," Nigel Evans, the executive secretary of the 1922 Committee, a parliamentary group consisting of all Conservative backbencher members of the UK lower house, said.

The UK government and Brussels reached a divorce deal late last year, but the UK parliament has refused to back the agreement and cannot agree on any alternative measures. The country was supposed to have left the bloc on March 29 but missed the deadline.

The European Union gave London until April 12 to either come up with an alternative solution or leave without a deal on that day.

 Sputnik

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English French

PRESS RELEASE

8 April 2019

Aeroports de Paris SA

Transfer of commercial flights from Ataturk to New Istanbul Airport

TAV Istanbul had the right to operate Ataturk Airport International and Domestic Terminal Building, Parking Garage and General Aviation Terminal for 15.5 years, from 03.07.2005 00.01 hours until 02.01.2021 24.00 hours as per the lease contract entered into with State Airports Authority ("DHMI"). However, by the Turkish authorities decision, all commercial flights have been transfered to the new Istanbul Aiport, as of April 06 2019 02:00. Following this transfer, TAV will provide DHMI with all the assets it has built on the airport.

In the TAV Airports' Public Disclosure made on January 22, 2013 TAV Airports announced that in the formal letter addressed to their company by State Airports Authority (DHMI), DHMI had stated that it would reimburse TAV Airports for loss of profit that may be incurred due to opening of the New Istanbul Airport before the end of TAV Istanbuls lease period which ends on January 3, 2021 and independent companies may be consulted for the calculation of the total amount of the loss of profit.

The compensation for loss of profit for early termination of Ataturk Airport operations is currently being evaluated by DHMI and TAV. Independent companies are also consulted as part of these evaluations. TAV expects to receive a formal notification of this compensation from DHMI.

Investor Relations: Audrey Arnoux, Head of Investor Relations +33 1 74 25 70 64 - invest@adp.fr

Press contact: Lola Bourget, Head of Medias and Reputation Department +33 1 74 25 23 23

Groupe ADP develops and manages airports, including Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Paris-Orly and Paris-Le Bourget. In 2018, the group handled through its brand Paris Aeroport more than 105 million passengers and 2.3 million metric tonnes of freight and mail at Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly, and more than 176 million passengers in airports abroad through its subsidiary ADP International. Boasting an exceptional geographic location and a major catchment area, the Group is pursuing its strategy of adapting and modernizing its terminal facilities and upgrading quality of services; the group also intends to develop its retail and real estate businesses. In 2018, group revenue stood at 4,478 million and net income at 610 million.

Registered office: 1, rue de France, 93 290 Tremblay-en-France. Aeroports de Paris is a public limited company (Societe Anonyme) with share capital of 296,881,806. Registered in the Bobigny Trade and Company Register under no. 552 016 628.

groupeadp.fr

Attachment
CABORCA, Mexico, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mexus Gold US (OTCQB: MXSG) (Mexus or the Company) President and CEO Paul Thompson wants to thank Mexus shareholders for their continued support and patience. In addition, Mr. Thompson wishes to commend mine manager Cesar Lemas and his crew, who are now shareholders of Mexus, who have been working 7 days a week to put the Santa Elena mine into production.



The crushing and milling circuit has been successfully tested and run. Mr. Thompson and Mr. Lemas have decided that the oil seals on the 54-inch cone crusher should be replaced before permanent production begins. The cone crusher has been disassembled and awaits the arrival of the new parts. Mexus expects the plant to be repaired and operational by April 15th.

Mexus continues to consolidate equipment which will be needed for its mining operation. Mexus new front-end loader has arrived and is being used to move material as needed. The blast hole drill has been imported and is expected to arrive at the Santa Elena mine site April 8th. The company recently purchased a Cat D4G with a 6-way blade and rippers. This lite weight but powerful piece of equipment will allow the crushed ore, delivered by conveyor, to be spread on the heap leach pad without compaction.

About Mexus Gold US

Mexus Gold US is an American based mining company with holdings in Mexico. The fully owned Santa Elena mine is located 54km NW of Caborca, Mexico. Mexus also owns rights to the Ures property located 80km N of Hermosillo, Mexico. This property contains 6900 acres and has both gold and copper on the property. Founded in 2009, Mexus Gold US is committed to protecting the environment, mine safety and employing members of the communities in which it operates.

For more information on Mexus Gold US, visit www.mexusgoldus.com .

Stan Berk phone # 805-206-5816

William T. Bogard phone # 949-351-0207

Cautionary Statement

Forward looking Statement: Statements in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including the failure to complete successfully the development of new or enhanced products, the Company's future capital needs, the lack of market demand for any new or enhanced products the Company may develop, any actions by the Company's partners that may be adverse to the Company, the success of competitive products, other economic factors affecting the Company and its markets, seasonal changes, and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The actual results may differ materially from those contained in this press release. The Company disclaims any obligation to update any statements in this press release.
Oslo (Norway), 8 April 2019  PCI Biotech (OSE: PCIB), a cancer focused clinical-stage company developing innovative therapeutics that address significant unmet medical needs today announced final confirmation of successful safety read-out for the Phase I Extension study in inoperable bile duct cancer patients which currently are left without effective local treatment options. The appointed Cohort Review Committee (CRC) completed a formal review confirming the Companys preliminary report that no adverse reactions have been reported that would limit the delivery of up to two fimaChem treatments in the pivotal RELEASE study with registration intent. The Phase I Extension study is now completed and recruitment will be formally closed.



The clinical data from the Phase I Extension study include a total of seven patients receiving fimaChem treatment and five of these received two treatments. Three of the five patients that received two fimaChem treatments had measurable disease at baseline and one of these had an overall partial tumour response according to RECIST at 6 months, one had stable disease and one had progressive disease due to the appearance of new lesions.

A post-study follow-up of the patients is ongoing. Five patients were alive at last censoring (December 2018  mid-February 2019), which all had been treated with two fimaChem procedures. Patient numbers are limited and it is too early to put any significance to the emerging survival data with 5 of 7 patients still being alive, but currently this translates to an interim median Overall Survival of approximately 12 months including all 7 patients, i.e. similar to best comparable published data on gemcitabine/cisplatin treatment alone.

Per Walday, CEO of PCI Biotech, said: "With this positive safety clearance for repeated treatments, PCI Biotech is now fully focused on execution of the pivotal phase and we are eager to see the benefits fimaChem hopefully can provide to the patients in need of better local treatment options."

The pivotal RELEASE study has the potential of accelerated/conditional marketing approval as a first-line treatment given the rare disease status and high unmet medical need. Based on todays positive safety data the RELEASE study will be initiated with up to two fimaChem treatments and include a seamless safety review by an Independent Data Monitoring Committee (IDMC) when eights patients have completed two treatments.

About the RELEASE study

The pivotal RELEASE study design is based on the outcome of meetings with the two leading regulatory authorities European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The study programme consists of a single open randomised two-arm study with 186 patients (93 patients per arm), having a control arm with the standard of care (SoC) treatment of up to eight cycles of the chemotherapies gemcitabine and cisplatin, and an experimental arm with up to two fimaChem treatments in addition to SoC. The studys primary endpoint is progression free survival (PFS), with overall survival (OS) as a key secondary endpoint. The study includes an interim analysis of PFS followed by analysis of objective response rate (ORR), with the potential of accelerated/conditional marketing approval. In addition, the study contains several other secondary endpoints that provide the opportunity to generate robust comparative data of importance for market acceptance of fimaChem as a first-line treatment for inoperable bile duct cancer.

The RELEASE study is expected to start during the first half of 2019; the interim analysis of PFS and objective response rate (ORR) for potential accelerated/conditional marketing approval is expected to be available approximately 36 months after study initiation, while the final analysis is expected approximately 50 months from initiation. The pivotal study will be executed in clinical sites that first will open in Europe, followed by a roll-out in the U.S.

Contact information:

Per Walday, CEO

pw@pcibiotech.no

Mobile: +47 917 93 429

About PCI Biotech

PCI Biotech is a biopharmaceutical company focusing on development and commercialisation of novel therapies for the treatment of cancer through its innovative photochemical internalisation (PCI) technology platform. PCI is applied to three distinct anticancer paradigms: fimaChem (enhancement of chemotherapeutics for localised treatment of cancer), fimaVacc (T-cell induction technology for therapeutic vaccination), and fimaNAc (nucleic acid therapeutics delivery).

Photochemical internalisation induces triggered endosomal release that is used to unlock the true potential of a wide array of therapeutic modalities. The companys lead fimaChem programme consists of a clinical Phase I/II clinical study in bile duct cancer, an orphan indication with a high unmet need and without approved products. fimaVacc applies a unique mode of action to enhance the essential cytotoxic effect of therapeutic cancer vaccines, which works in synergy with several other state-of-the-art vaccination technologies. fimaNAc utilises the endosomal release to provide intracellular delivery of nucleic acids, such as mRNA and RNAi therapeutics, thereby addressing one of the major bottlenecks facing this emerging and promising field.

For further information, please visit: www.pcibiotech.com



Forward-looking statements

This announcement may contain forward-looking statements, which as such are not historical facts, but are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions. These assumptions are inherently subject to significant known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors. Such risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other important factors could cause actual events to differ materially from the expectations expressed or implied in this announcement by such forward-looking statements. PCI Biotech disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.
Press Release Highlights:



Oxidation boundaries on the NI 43-101 inferred resource estimate at DeLamar and Florida Mountain are estimated at:

 24% oxide mineralization

 29% transitional mineralization

 47% unoxidized mineralization

   Recoveries of 83.3% gold (Au) and 39.7% silver (Ag) have been achieved in bottle-roll tests on six oxide composite samples from Florida Mountain

Recoveries of 72.4% Au and 23.4% have been achieved after only 23 days of a 63-day preliminary column leach test on the same oxide sample composites from Florida Mountain

Preliminary column leach test-work indicates the potential for successful heap leaching of material at Florida Mountain

Mine/mill reconciliation study: 10 years of historic monthly production from the 1980s and 1990s has been reconciled and shows only a minor decrease in mill (grind/agitated leach/Merrill Crowe) recoveries in mineralized material from the processing of material from mixed oxidation states (oxide, transitional and unoxidized), boding well for future processing options to be outlined in the upcoming Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) in H2

Some of the deeper unoxidized mineralization from DeLamar may be less amenable to direct cyanidation treatment and will require alternative processing (such as flotation). Historical test-work on unoxidized material has demonstrated good recoveries in sulfide concentration, fine grinding and cyanidation (Hazen Research Inc. study)

Future processing options currently being investigated for the upcoming PEA include:

 Heap leaching with Merrill Crow

 Gravity concentration

 Agitated leaching with Merrill Crow

 Standard crush/grind/flotation with concentrate regrind/leaching

 Standard crush/grind/floatation with shipment of concentrates, and possible tailings leach

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Integra Resources Corp. (TSXV:ITR ; OTCQX:IRRZF) (the Company or Integra) is pleased to announce an update on metallurgical test-work that is on-going at the DeLamar Project in support of the PEA which is scheduled for completion in early H2, 2019.

George Salamis, President and CEO, commented, "As Integra advances with numerous studies, we continue to increase the value of the DeLamar Project by reducing risks, in this case metallurgical risk, and highlight future processing possibilities. While expanding the already sizeable gold-silver resource at DeLamar via the drill bit is a large value-driver, demonstrating a clear direction for efficient low-cost gold and silver extraction, the metallurgy, is equally as important. These latest metallurgical results and stringent definitions of oxidation states, while preliminary, are exceptional. A high level of development and production optionality, including a number of lower cost processing options, remains one of the distinct hallmarks of the DeLamar Project and one of the primary reasons for acquiring the Project.

Tim Arnold, Integras Vice President of Project Development, highlighted, The amount of in-situ oxide and transitional gold-silver mineralization on both the DeLamar and Florida Mountain Deposits was a positive confirmation to the team. Equally as exciting, recent interim test-work from Florida Mountain oxide shows excellent recoveries, 83.3% Au and 39.7% Ag in bottle roll tests and 72% gold and 23% silver in column-leach tests, after a short leach period of only three weeks. Lastly, an exhaustive study looking at historic milling of oxide, transitional and unoxidized ore over an 8-year period in the 80s and 90s, representing approximately 5.5 years of production, showed only a slight downturn in overall mill recoveries when oxide ores were mixed with transitional and unoxidized materials. In these recent studies the breakdown of mineralization types, the recovery rates, and the lack of high variability amongst the various mineralization-types have surpassed our expectations. We are pleased with the progress and de-risking elements that the metallurgical studies have provided thus far and look forward to a full range of processing options to be outlined in the PEA.

Oxidation States of the DeLamar and Florida Mountain Deposits

Inferred resource estimates for the DeLamar and Florida Mountain Deposits were published in February of 2018 and are summarized in Table 1 below. To view the complete press release, please click on the following link:

https://www.integraresources.com/site/assets/files/2510/18-02-08_florida_mountain_maiden_resource_vfinal2_pdf.pdf

Table 1. DeLamar Project Inferred Mineral Resource at a 0.3 g/t AuEq cut-off grade

Tonnes g Au/t oz Au g Ag/t oz Ag AuEq g/t AuEq oz Florida Mtn 36,605,000 0.57 675,000 14.12 16,621,000 0.74 870,000 DeLamar 117,934,000 0.41 1,592,000 24.30 91,876,000 0.70 2,673,000 Total 154,539,000 0.45 2,267,000 21.92 108,497,000 0.71 3,543,000

1. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.

2. Mineral Resources are comprised of all model blocks at a 0.3 g AuEq/t cutoff that lie within an optimized pit and below the as-mined surface

3. Gold equivalent = g Au/t + (g Ag/t  85)

4. The effective date of the DeLamar area resource estimate is October 1, 2017

5. The effective date of the Florida Mountain area resource estimate is January 30, 2018.

6. The estimate of mineral resources may be materially affected by geology, environment, permitting, legal, title, taxation, sociopolitical, marketing or other relevant issues.

7. Rounding may result in apparent discrepancies between tonnes, grade, and contained metal content

At the time of writing the NI 43-101 report, Integras independent engineering consulting firm Mine Development Associates (MDA), of Reno NV, did not have the benefit of assessing the break-down of inferred resources per oxidation state (oxide, transitional and unoxidized). Over the last year, Integras exploration team has exhaustively compiled oxidation-state data from the inherited historic drill database of 2,620 drill holes (228,273 m), and the 84 drill holes (27,300 m) drilled by Integra since March 2018. This data was layered into the inferred resource models at DeLamar and Florida to produce a well defined characterization of the division of oxide, transitional and unoxidized mineralization on the project.

The resulting breakdown of oxidation states, as a percentage of the 2018 inferred resource tonnes, is highlighted in Table 2 below.

Table 2. DeLamar Project Characterization of Mineralization by Oxidation State

Source Oxide Transitional Un-oxidized DeLamar 24 % 21 % 55 % Florida Mountain 23 % 55 % 22 % Total 24 % 29 % 47 %

To view a visual depiction of the block model for the DeLamar Deposit with mineralization characterized by state of oxidation, please click on the following link:

https://www.integraresources.com/site/assets/files/2572/dm_redox_state_image_vuse.pdf

To view a visual depiction of the block model for the Florida Mountain Deposit with mineralization characterized by state of oxidation, please click on the following link:

https://www.integraresources.com/site/assets/files/2572/fm_resource_breakdown_by_redox_vuse.pdf

The Company now has an enhanced understanding of the breakdown of oxidized and unoxidized mineralization on the two deposits. In particular, the amount of oxidized and transitional mineralization came as a positive surprise to management, enhancing the likelihood of lower cost heap-leach options in future studies on a significant portion of the resource. Various processing options will be examined and outlined in future studies for the portions of the resource less amenable to direct cyanidation.

DeLamar Project Current and Historical Metallurgical Summary  Heap Leaching

Ongoing test-work at McClelland Labs, in Reno NV, is showing excellent potential amenability of Florida Mountain oxide mineralization to future heap leaching scenarios. Six samples were collected from various depths on the deposit ranging from surface to over 300 m vertical, prepared and crushed to 80% passing 12.5mm. Bottle-roll sampling on the six oxide composite samples yielded average recoveries of 83.3% Au and 39.7% Ag. Preliminary, on-going column leach test-work on these same oxide sample composites from Florida have yielded interim recoveries of 72.4% Au and the 23.4% Ag, after only 23 days. With a further 40 days of leach time remaining, indications are good that mineralized material from Florida Mountain will potentially be amenability to heap leaching.

These recoveries are estimates based on assayed head grades and interim (incomplete) column test metal extractions. Final recoveries will be recalculated based on actual test head grades (final solution extraction + tail assay). Cyanide consumption levels, even in the early stages of column leaching, are typical for heap leaching of oxide materials.

Column leach residency is scheduled to continue for a further 40 days and recoveries are expected to only improve from an already excellent base. These results confirm that Florida Mountain oxide material is likely to support heap leach processing in the future.



Column testing for gold and silver cyanide leachability of Florida core samples is being conducted by McClelland Labs of Reno, Nevada, under the direction of Jack McPartland, consulting metallurgical engineer.

In addition to historic commercial milling at DeLamar and Florida Mountain, past column leaching on oxide ore demonstrated potentially economic recoveries. Thirty-three column cyanide leach tests were conducted in the late 1980s, aimed at heap leach amenability of the DeLamar and Florida Mountain oxide mineralization types. This included 27 tests on samples from Florida Mountain and six tests on samples from DeLamar. Column test feed sizes ranged from nominal 20 cm (8 inches) to nominal 0.64 cm (1/4 inch). The 27 column leach tests run on samples from Florida Mountain gave an average gold recovery of 81%. Silver recoveries from the Florida Mountain column tests averaged 40%.

Average column leach test gold and silver recoveries from the DeLamar samples historically were 64% and 24% respectively. None of the tests from DeLamar gave a gold recovery of less than 54%. More sampling and further testing of DeLamar oxide mineralization under column leach test conditions is being conducted and is expected to be ready by June of this year.

At both DeLamar and Florida Mountain, none of the previous heap leach testing showed unusually high reagent consumptions.

Important New Study Findings: Historically Mined Oxide-Transitional-Unoxidized Mineralized Material vs. Milling Recoveries

A recent study was also conducted on the historical mining of oxidized, transitional and sulfide mineralized materials and the effect of oxidation on historical mill recoveries over a cumulative period of 5.5 years. Integra staff, together with external consultants, compiled monthly production records for 178 mined mineralized blocks in the DeLamar area, based on historical records from blast-hole sampling and other records, which were then used to make production solids.

These production solids were used to report known oxidation states from the block model that was created. The oxidation model itself was comprised of 1.5 x 1.5 x 1.5 m blocks, which match the 1.5 m reverse circulation (RC) samples that dominate the data. The logged oxidation codes of these samples were used to assign oxidation state values to each of the model blocks by nearest-neighbor assignment using a horizontal search parameter. Thus, each 1.5 x 1.5 x 1.5 m block had a single oxidation assignment, and each production solid was made up of many individual blocks. This allowed for the compilation of the percentage of oxidized, transitional, and unoxidized material in each production solid over a cumulative period of 5.5 years of historical milling.

The results of this study, summarized in Table 3 below, represent a very positive outcome in Managements view.

Table 3. Historically Mined Mineralization Characterized by Oxidation vs. Milling Recovery at DeLamar

Avg Mill Recov Source No. of Months Ox Trans Un-ox Au Ag N. DeLamar 14 54 % 35 % 11 % 92 % 83 % Sommercamp 51 65 % 10 % 26 % 91 % 78 % South Wahl 48 84 % 11 % 5 % 91 % 76 % Glen Silver 65 88 % 8 % 5 % 91 % 76 % All Pits 178 78 % 11 % 11 % 91 % 77 %

As depicted in the graphs linked below, the data showed only a slight downgrade trend for gold and silver recoveries for mineralized material historically processed from the oxide, transitional and unoxidized (sulfide) mineralization types using milling and agitated leaching. Gold and silver recoveries, irrespective of oxidation states , still trended in an economically acceptable range of recoveries (Gold 85% to 95%, and Silver 70% to 85%), using conventional milling and agitated leaching. The average gold and silver recoveries of the 178 mining areas examined was 91% and 77%, respectively, while the mill feed from these mining areas is estimated as being comprised of 78% oxidized, 11% transitional, and 11% unoxidized materials.



To view a graph outlining the monthly mill gold recovery versus percentage of unoxidized material at the DeLamar Deposit, please click the link below.

https://www.integraresources.com/site/assets/files/2572/dm-fm_au_recov_vuse.pdf

To view a graph outlining the monthly mill silver recovery versus percentage of unoxidized material at the DeLamar Deposit, please click the link below.

https://www.integraresources.com/site/assets/files/2572/dm-fm_ag_recov_vuse.pdf

Each point on the graphs linked above show the oxidation state for each monthly mining area and the associated gold and silver mill recoveries for that month. It is important to note that for each month, mineralized material from other mining areas was also milled along with the mineralized material from each of the mining areas represented by the points on the graphs, which precludes the direct assignment of monthly gold and silver recoveries to any single mining area, and therefore oxidation state. However, the data indicates that mill recoveries did not significantly decrease when unoxidized materials were included in the mix of mineralized materials milled in any of the months studied.

Subject to further study, and considered as a trade-off versus heap leaching, conventional leach/CCD (cyanidation followed by countercurrent decantation with Merrill Crowe solution recovery) may be an option to economically recover gold and silver in the future on the project, both in the oxide, transitional and certain zones of unoxidized (sulfide) materials. Current testing indicates that some of the deeper unoxidized mineralization from DeLamar may be less amenable to cyanidation treatment and will require alternative processing (such as flotation).

As the multiple ongoing studies leading in to the PEA are progressing, it is known that a significant amount of oxide and transitional mineralization exists, in-situ, at both the DeLamar and Florida Mountain Deposits. In summary, this study concludes that changes in oxidation states, while minor, do not have a materially negative (ie. still within the range of economically acceptable) effect on gold and silver recoveries. This bodes well for future processing options that are being studied in the upcoming PEA.

DeLamar Project Historical Metallurgical Summary  Milling

Historic testwork by Hazen Research Inc. conducted on the DeLamar Mine area between 1974 and 1989 reported recoveries from Floatation Rougher and Cyanidation to be 78.9% Au and 87.2% Ag and >88.8% Au and 88.4% Ag respectively.

From 1977 to 1999, processing at DeLamar and Florida Mountain consisted of milling, agitated cyanide leaching and CCD/Merrill Crowe solution recovery, with gold-silver dore produced on site, yielding average mill recoveries of 96.2% for gold and 79.5% for silver. Average mill head grades of mineralized material mined from open pits (oxide, transitional and unoxidized ore) was 1.17 g/t Au and 87.1 g/t Ag.

Mineralized material was sourced mainly from DeLamar until late 1994, when material from Florida Mountain was added to the mill feed. Historically, blending of DeLamar and Florida mineralized material was conducted to mitigate clay content at DeLamar.

A Knelson gravity concentrator was added to the mill in December 1995 due to the presence of coarse gold, further enhancing recoveries

DeLamar Project Test-work Ongoing

Processing options being investigated by McClelland Labs for the upcoming PEA include:

Heap Leach with Merrill Crow

Agitated Leach with Merrill Crow

Standard Crush/grind/float with concentrate regrind/leach

Standard Crush/grind/float with shipment of concentrates to Nevada, and possible tailings leach

All potential future processing options are being studied to allow for maximization of processing options and economic outcomes in the PEA.

Ongoing metallurgical test work, conducted by McClelland Labs, is expected in June, 2019, and includes the following:

Column and bottle roll testing on DeLamar and Florida Mt. oxide and transition mineralized material (crush size, recoveries and kinetics)

Flotation test work on DeLamar and Florida Mt. transition and unoxidized mineralized material (optimize grind, reagents, mass pull/recovery)

Concentrate test work (regrind, leaching, recoveries, mass pull and qualities/penalty elements)

Float tails test work (leaching of tails; recoveries and qualities)

Flotation concentrate testing, including evaluation of pressure oxidation followed by cyanidation and roasting followed by cyanidation

The Company expects to report on the findings of this metallurgical study before mid-year.

On-going Field Program: Drilling and PEA Study Work

Field work continues on-site in Idaho. The Company has completed a total of 5,200 meters of drilling in 11 drill holes since the beginning of the year, focussed on the southern extent of the Sullivan Gulch Zone. Integra recently added a 2nd drill rig (core drill rig) to the field campaign and plans to drill approximately 20,000 meters this year. Assay results from these recently completed holes are expected in the coming weeks.

Additional field studies, including an updated resource estimate in support of the upcoming PEA, are also on-going.

Qualified Person

The scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Tim Arnold of Reno, Nevada, who serves as Integras Vice President of Project Development, and is a professional engineer and "qualified person" within the meaning of National Instrument 43- 101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

About Integra Resources

Integra Resources Corp. is a development-stage company engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of mineral properties in the Americas. The primary focus of the Company is advancement of its DeLamar Project, consisting of the neighbouring DeLamar and Florida Mountain Gold and Silver Deposits in the heart of the historic Owyhee County mining district in south western Idaho. The first exploration program in over 25 years is currently underway on the DeLamar Project with more than 20,000 meters completed for 2018 and a further 20,000 meters scheduled for 2019. The management team comprises the former executive team from Integra Gold Corp.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

George Salamis

President, CEO, and Director

CONTACT INFORMATION

Corporate Inquiries: Chris Gordon, chris@integraresources.com

Company website: www.integraresources.com

Office phone: 1 (604) 416-0576

This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "budget", "scheduled", "forecasts", "estimates", "believes" or "intends" or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results "may" or "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In this news release, forward-looking statements relate, among other things, to: statements about the estimation of mineral resources; magnitude or quality of mineral deposits; anticipated advancement of mineral properties or programs; future operations; future exploration prospects; the completion and timing of mineral resource estimates; the length of the current market cycle and requirements for an issuer to survive in the current market cycle; future growth potential of Integra; and future development plans.



These forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of Integra at the time such statements were made. Actual future results may differ materially as forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Integra to materially differ from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors, among other things, include: possible variations in mineralization, grade or recovery rates; actual results of current exploration activities; actual results of reclamation activities; conclusions of future economic evaluations; business integration risks; fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions; fluctuations in securities markets; fluctuations in spot and forward prices of gold, silver, base metals or certain other commodities; fluctuations in currency markets (such as the Canadian dollar to United States dollar exchange rate); change in national and local government, legislation, taxation, controls, regulations and political or economic developments; risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development and mining (including environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected formations pressures, cave-ins and flooding); inability to obtain adequate insurance to cover risks and hazards; the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions on mining; employee relations; relationships with and claims by local communities and indigenous populations; availability of increasing costs associated with mining inputs and labor; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development (including the risks of obtaining necessary licenses, permits and approvals from government authorities); and title to properties. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of Integra believes, or believed at the time, to be reasonable assumptions, Integra cannot assure its shareholders that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking statements, as there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended.

Readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. Except as required by law, Integra assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law.
BANGOR, MAINE, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Husson announced today that it has entered into an agreement with the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce to provide all of the employees of their member organizations, who enroll in any of the Universitys Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs, with a 10 percent tuition discount.



Working professionals in the greater Bangor area are interested in obtaining the advanced knowledge available in our MBA programs in order to make their organizations more successful, said Melissa Rosenberg, director of graduate admissions at Husson University. Working with the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce has provided us with the opportunity to extend higher education services to these professionals at a special discounted rate.



The 10 percent reduction in tuition costs applies to all of Husson Universitys MBA programs. These include the traditional Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree with a general/corporate focus and Husson MBA programs with concentrations in biotechnology and innovation, data analytics, healthcare management, hospitality management, organizational management and risk management.



Those who follow the admissions procedures to become graduate students at Husson University will also receive a $50 application fee waiver.



Reaching your goals in business today means you have to make a commitment to lifelong learning, said Deb Neuman, president and chief executive officer of the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber is grateful to Husson for offering this discount on behalf of our members. We hope everyone in the local business community will take this opportunity to invest in themselves.



Organizations most valuable assets are their people, continued Neuman. An investment in workforce development by employers through Hussons MBA program will strengthen the balance sheets of area companies and the economy of our region.



Any employees of the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce membership who have completed a bachelors degree from a recognized, accredited institution, are eligible to enroll in Hussons MBA program. This includes individuals who have completed bachelors degrees in disciplines other than business. To assist these students, Husson will offer a leveling course or courses that can be taken online. This will provide these students with the background business education theyll need to successfully complete their MBA studies.



In addition, any Chamber members employees who have completed some graduate coursework, are welcome to apply for transfer credit. Individuals interested in applying transfer credits to their MBA program should contact Husson University Graduate Admissions by calling them at (207) 404-5661 or emailing them at graduateschool@husson.edu . They are also more than happy to answer any other questions individuals may have about this program and the admissions process.



Choosing to enroll in the MBA program at Husson University is a smart choice, said Dr. Marie Hansen, JD, SHRM-SCP, dean of the College of Business. Husson University is Maines largest College of Business. With over a century of experience in business education, we can provide students with the knowledge they need to take their careers and their organizations to the next level.



For more than 120 years, Husson University has prepared future leaders to handle the challenges of tomorrow through innovative undergraduate and graduate degrees. With a commitment to delivering affordable classroom, online and experiential learning opportunities, Husson University has come to represent superior value in higher education. Our Bangor campus and off-campus satellite education centers in Southern Maine, Wells, and Northern Maine, provide advanced knowledge in business; health and education; pharmacy studies; science and humanities; as well as communication. In addition, Husson University has a robust adult learning program. According to a recent analysis by U.S. News & World Report, Husson University is the most affordable private college in New England. For more information about educational opportunities that can lead to personal and professional success, visit Husson.edu .

Attachments
TORONTO, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Euro Sun Mining Inc. (TSX: ESM) (Euro Sun or the Company) is pleased to provide a corporate update and comment on the current strategy regarding development of the ten million gold equivalent ounce Rovina Valley Project (RVP).



In response to many questions from shareholders regarding the Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) released on February 20th, 2019, and subsequently filed on SEDAR on April 1st, 2019, we would like to review the approach being taken for development at RVP so that all investors have a clear understanding of the ultimate value of this world class gold development project.

The PEA outlines a robust project producing on average 108,000 oz of gold and 13.3 million lbs of copper per year for 12 years (139,000 Aueq ounces per annum) in Phase One of development exploiting the Colnic deposit initially. Colnic currently hosts ONLY 29% of the exploitable resources at RVP.

Initial CAPEX for Colnic is estimated at US$339 million. This is primarily allocated at US$33 million for capitalized pre-stripping and US$264 million for the 7.2 million ton per annum processing plant. As the project will be built with dry stack tailings, not wet tailings, the sustaining CAPEX will be quite low for operations of this size. Typically, significant sustaining capital is allocated to tailings dam lifts throughout the life of mine, which are not the case in a dry stack operation.

RVP has been designed to be one of the most environmentally responsible gold projects globally due to the lack of a wet tailings facility and without the use of cyanide anywhere in the project. In order to meet these strict standards the decision for dry stack tailings with no cyanide was undertaken by both the Company and the Government of Romania. The Company would have a lower capital budget and lower operating costs if a traditional wet tailings facility were to be built. Using cyanide in a closed circuit would have generated higher recoveries and therefore higher tax revenues for the Government.

G. Scott Moore stated: Rovina is a clear example of a project thats meets todays investor mandate for Environmental Social Governance (ESG) companies in which to invest. A conscientious decision was made by both Euro Sun and Romania to make this a better environmentally and socially responsible project and not just to maximize profitability at the expense of all stakeholders.

Background

The PEA of April 23, 2010 (the 2010 PEA), currently on SEDAR, outlined a large-scale operation at RVP highlighting the simultaneous exploitation of both open pit deposits; Colnic and Rovina; combined with the underground deposit Ciresata, at a mining rate of 16.2 million tones per annum with initial capex estimated in 2010 at US$545 million.

The final ratification for the mining license, completed in November 2018, took much longer than both the Company and Government of Romania anticipated. As such, work on the BFS was limited due to regulatory access to perform certain works programs which the company is only entitled to initiate once the Mining License is ratified.

Under securities law, economics of a mineral resource have to refer to a valid NI 43-101 technical report. As the 2010 PEA was almost 10 years out of date and described a much larger and more complex project, it was decided to initiate a new preliminary economic assessment with a focus on a staged approach to development at RVP.

The current PEA is predicated on that staged approach; to deliver a project that is buildable, financeable and permittable as a single mining asset company.

The PEA now includes an updated Mineral Resource Estimate for RVP as at 2019. This has now replaced the 2012 NI 43-101 resource statement and incorporate current metal prices and operating parameters. Secondly, the PEA for RVP announce the results of the preliminary economic assessment for the exploitation of the Colnic open pit; the initial phase of development of its Rovina Valley Project. The Company is applying a staged, multi phase development approach for RVP. RVP consist of the Colnic and Rovina open pit deposits and the Ciresta underground mine. The PEA considers the Colnic mineral deposit only but does include the processing facilities which will be used in treating both Colnic and Rovina ore. Sequencing for the Rovina open pit and Ciresta underground mine will be undertaken in a separate study at a later date. All amounts are in US dollars unless otherwise indicated.

PEA HIGHLIGHTS

Average annual gold equivalent production of 139,000 ounces



Colnic production of 1,675,168 Gold Equivalent ounces (1,301,176 ounces Au) over 12 years



Avg. AISC of $752/oz (net of copper credit)



Processing rate of 20,000 tonnes per day incorporating flotation and dry stack tailings deposition.



Pre-Tax NPV 5% of $218.1 million and IRR of 15.4% at $1,325/oz gold and $3.10/lb copper



Initial capital costs of $339.7 million (total CAPEX of $352 million)



Average metallurgical recoveries of 82% for gold and 89% copper without utilizing cyanide

Table 1: Preliminary Economic Assessment Highlights

Base Case Assumptions Gold price (base case) $1,325/oz Copper price (base case) $3.10/lb Gold recovery 82% Copper recovery 89% Mine Life (Phase I) 12 years Mining rate 20,000 tonnes per day Mine Parameter Average annual gold equivalent production 139,000 ounces Average annual gold production 107,987 ounces Average annual copper production 13,261,854 pounds Average gold grade g/t 0.5 Average copper grade % 0.10 Colnic LOM Strip ratio (waste to ore) 2.2 Capital Costs Pre-strip capital $33.5 million Initial capital $306.1 million Total CAPEX $352 million Operating Costs All-in sustaining costs $752/ ounce AuEq Mining costs $2.18 /tonne moved Milling costs $7.05 /tonne milled G&A costs $0.50 /tonne milled Cash Flow Pre-Tax NPV (5% discount rate) $218 million Pre-Tax IRR 15.4% Post-Tax NPV (5% discount rate) $169 million Post-Tax IRR 13.5%

The PEA was prepared by Lycopodium Minerals Canada Limited and AGP Mining Consultants Inc. The technical report dated April 1, 2019 related to the PEA results is available on SEDAR, in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101)

Rovina Valley Project Resource Update 2019

Table 2: Rovina Valley Project 2019 Mineral Resource Estimate at base case cut-off grades (as of February 19, 2019)

Resource

Category Tonnage

(MM t) Au

(g/t) Cu

(%) Gold

(MM oz) Copper

(MM lbs) Au Eq*

g/t Au Eq*

(MM oz) Measured Rovina (open-pit) 32.1 0.36 0.29 0.37 208.5 0.53 0.83 Colnic (open-pit) 29.2 0.65 0.12 0.61 74.3 0.82 0.77 Ciresata (underground) 28.5 0.88 0.16 0.81 102.2 1.13 1.03 Total Measured 90.0 0.62 0.19 1.78 385.1 0.91 2.63 Indicated Rovina (open-pit) 74.2 0.27 0.22 0.64 364.6 0.60 1.44 Colnic (open-pit) 106.5 0.47 0.10 1.62 227.5 0.62 2.12 Ciresata (underground) 125.9 0.74 0.15 3.01 413.4 0.97 3.92 Total Indicated 307.2 0.53 0.15 5.26 1,005.5 0.76 7.47 Total Measured & Indicated 396.0 0.55 0.16 7.05 1,390.6 0.79 10.11

*Au eq. determined by using a long-term gold price of US$1,500 per ounce and a copper price of US$ 3.30/lb. Metallurgical recoveries are not taken into account for Au eq.

Base case cut-off grade used in the table are 0.35 g/t Au eq. for the Colnic deposit and 0.25% Cu eq for the Rovina deposit, both of which are amenable to open-pit mining and 0.65 g/t Au eq. for the Ciresata deposit which is amenable to underground bulk mining.

For the Rovina and Colnic porphyries, the resources are pit-shell constrained using Lerchs-Grossmann algorithm pit optimizer and market metal values of $1,500/oz Au price and $3.30/lb Cu price, with net prices after smelter payables, concentrate transport, smelter charges, and royalty of US$1,384/oz Au and US$2.61/lb Cu for Colnic and US$1,286/oz Au and US$2.59/Ib Cu for Rovina. Flotation metallurgical recoveries used are: Colnic 81.5% gold, 88.5% copper and Rovina 73.2% gold, 94.7% copper.

Rounding of tonnes as required by reporting guidelines may result in apparent differences between tonnes, grade and contained metal content.

These mineral resources are not mineral reserves as they do not have demonstrated economic viability

At both the Rovina and Colnic deposits, there are higher-grade portions of each deposit that outcrop at surface. These areas represent higher grade porphyry core mineralization that can allow cut-off grade optimization in mining scenarios. As an example, the higher-grade mineralization at Colnic contains measured plus indicated resources at >0.70 g/t Au eq of 46 million tonnes at 0.75 g/t Au and 0.12% Cu. At the Rovina deposit, the higher-grade mineralization contains measured plus indicated resource at >0.50% Cu eq of 30 million tonnes at 0.48 g/t Au and 0.34% Cu. Ciresta has a continuous zone of high-grade gold and copper mineralization in the core of the deposit that persists at depth that is suitable for extraction with an underground bulk-mining method. At Ciresta, the measured plus indicated resource of this core at >1.0 g/t Au eq contains 58 million tonnes at 1.04 g/t Au and 0.18% Cu.

About Euro Sun Mining Inc.

Euro Sun is a Toronto Stock Exchange listed mining company focused on the exploration and development of its 100%-owned Rovina Valley Gold and Copper Project located in west-central Romania. The property hosts 10.11 million gold equivalent ounces (7.05 million ounces of gold grading 0.55 g/t and 1,390 million pounds of copper grading 0.16%).

Qualified Persons

The mineral resources stated in this press release have been reviewed and approved by the following independent qualified person, as defined by NI 43-101:

Mr. Pierre Desautels, P.Geo, a Principle Partner of AGP is responsible for the mineral global mineral resource estimate and is an independent qualified persons as defined by NI-43-101

Mr. Gordon Zurowski, P.Eng, a Principle Partner of AGP is responsible for the mining aspects of the resource estimate and is an independent qualified persons as defined by NI-43-101

Mr. Desautels and Mr. Zurowski confirmed that they have reviewed the information in this release as it relates to the mineral resource estimate. The complete Technical Report has been filed on SEDAR at www.SEDAR.com.

Mr. Randy Ruff, P.Geo, an employee of Euro Sun and a qualified persons as defined by NI 43-101 has also reviewed the contents of this press release relating to the mineral resource estimate.

Further information:

For further information about Euro Sun Mining, or the contents of this press release, please contact Investor Relations at info@eurosunmining.com

Caution regarding forward-looking information:

This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, without limitation, statements regarding the PEA, the Technical Report and mineral resource estimates at RVP. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including risks inherent in the mining industry and risks described in the public disclosure of the Company which is available under the profile of the Company on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the Company's website at www.eurosunmining.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

The TSX does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.
SANTA ANA, Calif., April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Allied Universal , a leading security and facility services company in North America, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Securadyne Systems, a security systems integration company based in Dallas, Texas. The deal is expected to close on April 15, 2019. This acquisition will combine a leading U.S. security services company with a world-class technology solutions provider, which will serve as a platform for providing technology-enabled security solutions on a global scale. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded by CEO Carey Boethel in 2011 in partnership with Pamlico Capital, Securadyne Systems specializes in integrated security solutions by offering security consulting, design, engineering and installation. With revenues in excess of $73 million and more than 300 employees, Securadyne has a branch network of more than 17 locations across the United States.

Our new acquisition of Securadyne Systems supports our long-term strategy to become the leader in the security technology market, said Steve Jones  CEO of Allied Universal. As security needs change and evolve, Allied Universal will offer clients cutting-edge technology and service that will help make their security programs more effective and efficient to better protect their employees and assets.

As a result of this acquisition, Securadyne Systems will become the technology service platform upon which Allied Universal will build out global systems integration capabilities. This new tech platform will be rebranded as Allied Universal Technology Services, which will be headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The Securadyne team will be joining Allied Universal under Allied Universal Technology Services. Boethel will become President of the combined enterprises under the direction of Jones. Ty Richmond, who formally oversaw Allied Universal Security Systems, will now be responsible for Risk Advisory and Consulting Services and Allied Universals international business.

Allied Universal Technology Services, a highly advanced, comprehensive and integrated tech solution, will help clients mitigate risk with the ultimate goal to prevent incidents and protect people and assets. Most importantly, Allied Universal Technology Services all-inclusive service approach offers intelligent and seamless technology solutions from access control and video surveillance to threat monitoring services and Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven security management tools to installation and service. Allied Universal Technology Services will offer clients electronic access control, video surveillance, fire/life safety, alarm monitoring, emergency communications, technological threat management and response, and other smart tech innovative solutions, including a broad array of hosted /managed services via Allieds Monitoring and Response Center (MaRC), and the Global Security Operating Center (GSOC-as-a-Service).

During our acquisition integration planning, I have witnessed first-hand not only the strong culture fit, but also the compelling growth synergies that exist between our two organizations, said Boethel  CEO of Securadyne. In addition to our systems integration platform, we are excited to now offer our clients a comprehensive approach to security to include security guarding, consulting and investigations, executive protection, alarm monitoring and a broad array remote technology services.

Once the acquisition is completed, Allied Universal Technology Services will employ over 500 employees with 27 locations and will be positioned as the fourth largest security systems integrator in the United States.

Advisors to Allied Universal for this transaction included Ernst & Young (EY) and Sheppard Mullin.

Raymond James and Alston & Bird represented Securadyne Systems on the deal.

About Allied Universal

Allied Universal, a leading security and facility services company in North America with over 210,000 employees and revenues over $7.1 billion, provides unparalleled security services and technology solutions. With offices located throughout the nation as well as internationally (Canada, Columbia, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and the United Kingdom), Allied Universal is responsible for protecting client sites covering multiple specialty sectors such as higher education, healthcare, retail, commercial real estate, government and corporate campuses, etc. Supported by vast experience gained from being in business for over 60 years, Allied Universal provides proactive security services and cutting-edge smart technology to deliver evolving, tailored solutions that allow clients to focus on their core business. Through world-class customer service, highly advanced systems and cohesive technology solutionsAllied Universal is there for you. For more information, please visit www.aus.com .

About Securadyne Systems

Securadyne Systems is a security systems integrator founded in 2011 providing enterprise-class security solutions. The company is headquartered in Dallas, Texas with 17 branches throughout the South, Southeast and Northeast US, with regional hubs in Dallas, Pensacola, Raleigh and Boston. Securadyne has over 300 employees and is ranked 8th by SDM Magazine in the 2018 Top Systems Integrators Report. Additional information is available at www.securadyne.com .

Media Contacts:

Nancy Thompson, Vorticom Public Relations

Phone: 212-532-2208 Email: nancyt@vorticom.com

Vanessa Showalter, Allied Universal/PR Manager

Phone: 714-619-9744 Email: Vanessa.Showalter@aus.com




Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 8)  Senator Richard Gordon said he will continue to defend the law he authored requiring to have two big license plates on motorcycles, following the President's suggestion to revisit the policy.

Gordon said they should implement the law since it has already received President Rodrigo Duterte's and the Congress's approval. The Senator said he would not want to butt heads with the President but he will defend the law if necessary.

"Hindi ko kailangan makipagbanggaan, Presidente yan eh, pero syempre ipaglalaban ko yang batas namin na inakda ng Kongreso, di ba? Otherwise hindi na tayo dapat maging three branches of government," Gordon told CNN Philippines' Newsroom Ngayon.

[Translation: I don't need to butt heads. He's the President anyway, but I will fight for our law which was approved by Congress, right? Otherwise we shuoldn't be the three branches of government.]

On Saturday, the President said he was seeking to suspend the Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act he signed into law last month to ensure riders' safety, suggesting that the law should only require a bigger back license plate instead of an additional plate on the front of the motorcycles. He also raised to lower the fines for violating riders.

Gordon said Duterte may be "misinformed" on the law.

He argued that they would only be requiring plates in the form of decals or stickers on the front of the motorcycles, which is proven safe.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo also said the President may have been misinformed about the issue, saying he may have thought the additional plates would endanger the riders. Panelo said Duterte initially signed the law with the people's protection in mind.

"He signed it kasi yung batas na yun, protection ng general public. Since may mga motorista na nagreklamo, ang feeling ng Presidente natin, suspendihin muna, pag-aralan muna natin," Panelo told reporters Monday.

[Translation: He signed it because that law was for the protection of the general public. Since there have been motorists complaining, the President felt we needed to suspend the law first to study it further.]

Land Transportation chief Assistant Secretary Edgar Galvante said he is amenable to Duterte's suggestions. However, he also maintained that two big plates will not pose a threat to the riders' safety.

On changing the law

The Senator said that in order to include the suggestions made by the President, Duterte would have to ask another Senator to amend the law. However, Gordon said he would consider making amendments to the policy only after they have implemented and tested it.

"Ang suggestion ko is subukan muna natin, implementahin muna natin, tingnan natin kung ganun talaga ka-sama 'yan sa kung sinasabi ng mga tao na ayaw nila niyan," he said.

[Translation: My suggestion is to try it first, to implement it and see if it is really dangerous.]

Gordon argued that the safety of the public amid a growing number of riding-in-tandem crimes is an alarming concern.

"Ang hinahabol ko ay araw-araw may napapatay. Sino magsasalita para sa namamatay? Nakakalaban ba 'yang mga orphan? Nakakalaban 'yang mga widow?...Saan ang katarungan doon?," he said.

[Translation: What I am fighting for is that everyday there is someone who is killed. Who will speak for the dead? Can the orphans defend themselves? Can the widows defend themselves? Where is the justice there?]

He assured that the riders do not have to worry about their safety.

"Hindi niyo ako kaaway. Hindi kayo masasaktan dito I promise you at kayo ay namimislead. Dapat subukan niyo muna at para magawa natin ang sebisyo sa tao," Gordon told the public.

[Translation: I am not your enemy. You will not be hurt by this, I promise you and you are being mislead. You should try it first so we can serve the people.]
Indian and Pakistan relations is always a matter of world interest. Past few months, the tensions among the two countries were not good. Since the Pulwama terror attack on Indian security personnel troop has shaken the sentiments of Indians and demands were raised to boycott all the relations with Pakistan. Now, a Pakistani actress and comedian Bushra Ansari has come up with her new song which is calling for a feeling of peace between two countries.

Bushra along with her sister Asma Abbas and Neelum Ahmed Basheer has created a unique rap song which took no time to went viral on the social media. In her latest rap song, you will get Indian song touch and she has also added the two Indian hit tracks i.e. Jhumka Bareli wala and Kala Shakalaka. Check out the viral song:

The song was uploaded by name of, Humsaye Maa Jaye. In the video, the two women can be seen sitting on the two different sides of the wall. Both women from India and Pakistan, are asking about the well-being of each others home. Also, wondering about why are the countries heading towards war-like conditions?

Bushra explained the video as, A music video that goes beyond war and borders to the hearts of people living so close, and yet so far away.

Meanwhile, the video has garnered over 2 lakh views and got some amazing responses from all directions on social media.

Also read: Have you heard these 90s hit Bollywood songs rap created by YouTuber Lilly Singh? Twitterati cant hold their excitement
TORONTO, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- VitalHub Corp. (the Company or VitalHub) (TSXV: VHI) is pleased to announce that it has licensed its MCAP patient flow software solution to Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) in Qatar. HMC is the main provider of secondary and tertiary healthcare in Qatar and one of the leading hospital providers in the Middle East.

VitalHubs recently acquired subsidiary, Oak Group International (Oak), has licensed its web-based patient flow software, MCAP (Making Care Appropriate for Patients), to HMCs Continuing Care Group to support the implementation of Qatars National Continuing Care Strategy.

This agreement follows the completion of a Patient Flow and Care Management Review (Review) using the MCAP software that was delivered in partnership with the professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). The Review used the MCAP solution and its evidence-based criteria to identify opportunities to optimize admission and discharge processes at a number of HMCs continuing care facilities.

HMC piloted Oaks MCAP solution as part of a series of retrospective reviews across a number of its acute care, rehabilitation, and long-term care facilities in 2016. HMC commissioned MCAP because the real-time evidence-based decision-support capability will assist clinicians and case managers in determining the most appropriate level of care and care setting for patients.

Oaks relationship with HMC began via the Patient Flow and Care Management Review and has resulted in a material licensing opportunity in 2019. VitalHub sees a significant opportunity to develop recurring revenue opportunities through the introduction of the MCAP solution and partnerships with professional services organizations wherein application of MCAP will help demonstrate cost-saving and quality improvement opportunities related to the optimization of service delivery.

The development of our relationship with Hamad Medical Corporation serves an important validation of VitalHubs ability to convert patient flow and care management reviews into concurrent-use licensed products, said Dan Matlow, CEO of VitalHub Corp. Moreover, our ability to cultivate and mature relationships with prestigious hospital groups such as HMC demonstrates our ability to serve the criteria and needs of the Middle East market.

ABOUT VITALHUB:

VitalHub develops mission-critical technology solutions for Health and Human Services providers in the Mental Health (Child through Adult), Long Term Care, Community Health Service, Home Health, Social Service and Acute Care sectors. VitalHub technologies include Blockchain, Mobile, Patient Flow, Web-Based Assessment and Electronic Health Record solutions.

The Company has a robust two-pronged growth strategy, targeting organic growth opportunities within its product suite, and pursuing an aggressive M&A plan. Currently, VitalHub serves 200+ clients across North America. VitalHub is based in Toronto, Canada, with an offshore development hub in Sri Lanka. The Company is publicly traded on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "VHI".

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT

This press release includes forward-looking statements regarding the Corporation and its business, which may include, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the appointment of a new directors. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "is expected", "expects", "scheduled", "intends", "contemplates", "anticipates", "believes", "proposes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Such statements are based on the current expectations of the management of each entity, and are based on assumptions and subject to risks and uncertainties. Although the management of each entity believes that the assumptions underlying these statements are reasonable, they may prove to be incorrect. The forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this release, including the share consolidation proposal, may not occur by certain specified dates or at all and could differ materially as a result of known and unknown risk factors and uncertainties affecting the companies, including risks regarding the technology industry, failure to obtain regulatory or shareholder approvals, market conditions, economic factors, the equity markets generally and risks associated with growth and competition. Although the Corporation has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed. Except as required by applicable securities laws, forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and the Corporation undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Dan Matlow

Chief Executive Officer, Director

(416) 727-9061

dan.matlow@vitalhub.com
TORONTO, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MediPharm Labs Corp. (TSXV: LABS) (OTCQB: MLCPF) (FSE: MLZ) (MediPharm Labs or the Company) a global leader in specialized, research-driven cannabis extraction, distillation, purification and cannabinoid isolation, is pleased to announce the formation of its new Science Advisory Committee (the SAC), comprised of an internationally esteemed group of expert scientists, researchers and medical professionals.

The SAC will collaborate with the MediPharm Labs management team on advancements in the emerging fields of cannabinoid extraction and cannabinoid-based derivative science. This work will serve to further enhance the Companys manufacturing platform and research practices, assist management in evaluating commercial opportunities related to technologies, testing and methodologies and provide guidance on partnerships with globally preeminent academic and medical institutions for cannabis research.

We are extremely proud to bring together this distinguished group of experts. Each member brings a specialized expertise across the fields of extraction, chromatography, formulation, commercial development and pharmaceutical or physician approaches to cannabis science and medicine, said Pat McCutcheon, CEO of MediPharm Labs. Together with our senior leadership team, the Science Advisory Committee will be instrumental as we advance the MediPharm Labs platform to drive continued and future growth, develop IP and remain on the forefront of cannabinoid-based derivative research and manufacturing globally.

Science Advisory Committee Mandate

The SACs mandate is to advise and assist MediPharm Labs in harnessing the potential of cannabis through innovation, best practices, thought leadership and strategic alliances in support of MediPharm Labs vision of being The Trusted Global Leader in Industrial-Scale Manufacturing of High-Quality, Cannabinoid-Based Derivatives.

Inaugural members of the Science Advisory Board include:

Jerry King, PhD

Dr. King is a world-renowned extraction expert with more than 53 years of experience in supercritical fluid technology, chemical separations, chromatography, and applied chemical engineering & chemistry. Prior to joining the department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Arkansas, he was Program Manager/Research Scientist in the Supercritical Fluid Facility at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Dr. King was also the Lead Scientist of the Critical Fluid Technology Group at the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research. His research interests include the development of critical fluid technology for food and agro-material processing, materials science, and analytical applications, and his work in industry has included HPLC methods development for biotechnology, installation of process chromatography, and industrial analysis of saccharides and starch polymers, commercialization of processes dealing with environmentally-benign production of value-added agricultural and botanical materials, and CO2  based cleaning and micro-electronics production. His R & D activities have involved extensive interaction with government regulatory agencies such as FSIS, FDA, FGIS, EPA, and DOE as well as Euro-based agencies. He has authored over 275 publications (191 are peer-reviewed, including three patents) in Supercritical Fluid Extraction, Supercritical Fluid Chromatography, and related separation techniques; and has lectured extensively on these subjects over the past 40 years at national and international symposia. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Supercritical Fluids, Italian Journal of Food Science, Journal of the American Oil Chemical Society, INFORM, and is a member of ACS, AIChE, AOCS, IFT, AOAC, ASTM, and US or international critical fluid technology groups. He is a Vice President of the International Society for the Advancement of Supercritical Fluids. Dr. King received his B.Sc. in Chemistry and continued with graduate studies at Butler University and the University of Utah. In 1973, he received his Ph.D. in surface characterization studies using chromatographic methods from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, and conducted postdoctoral research in physical chemistry at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Dr. King was named Scientist of the Year at NCAUR in 1993, and elected to Whos Who in America, among many other awards, designations and acknowledgements for merit.

Miriam McDonald, MSc

Miriam is currently the Director of Pharmacy at Health Sciences North, Northern Ontarios largest hospital located in Sudbury. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from the University of Toronto and a Master of Science in Pharmacology from Queens University. Her career has encompassed positions as the Executive Director of Community Development at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, and CEO of the Northeastern Ontario Medical Education Corporation wherein she worked throughout northern Ontario to facilitate community-based medical clinical education. She also served as Director of Planning and Development of Cambrian College, Executive Director of Cambrian Foundation, and Director of Pharmacy, Director of Rehabilitation Services and Assistant Executive Director of Therapeutic Services at Laurentian Hospital. She was Project Coordinator for the planning and construction of the Glenn Crombie Special Needs Centre, the Northern Centre for Advanced Technology, and the Northeastern Cancer Centre. She is the author and co-author of several health-related papers and studies and is very active in the community both on a personal and professional level. She has been recognized by Northern Ontario Business as a Woman of Influence, was the recipient of the Sudbury Business and Professional Womens Club highest honor  the Bernardine Yackman Award, and has served on the Womens Health Council of Ontario and Ontario Judicial Appointment Advisory Committee. Raised in northern Ontario, her strongest interest is in projects that address access to health, education, and information technology in northern Ontario.

Arshad Hack, MHA, MD

Dr. Hack is a practicing Family Physician with over 10 years of clinical experience throughout the full spectrum of clinical medicine. Over this period, Dr. Hack has become widely respected as an engaged and empowered patient advocate, visionary leader, and innovator. In addition to his busy clinical practice which includes acute inpatient medicine as a Hospitalist, outpatient medicine, obstetrics, palliative care, and long-term care, he has held the position of the Chief of Family Medicine at Joseph Brant Hospital, Burlington, Ontario since 2010. Dr. Hacks experience includes playing a key role in the interdisciplinary development of the Geriatric Assessment Clinic - a clinic focused on further meeting the needs of our aging community and their families  as , well as his role in Quality as the Medical Director of the Rehabilitation and Complex Continuing Care Program at Joseph Brant Hospital. Dr. Hack is a systems thinker with a passion for collaboration, integration, quality management and evidence-based medicine. He always strives to enhance the patient experience in the health care system through his own personal care and systems influence and works with teams to continuously move patient outcomes further forward. Dr. Hack works as a health care consultant, helping other organizations enhance the quality of care, and efficiency in providing such care. Dr. Hack holds an Honours Degree in Botany and Human Biology from the University of Toronto. He subsequently completed his Masters in Health Administration from Dalhousie University. While working as a hospital administrator at Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care where he planned the development of the integrated Brain Health Clinic, he found his passion for clinical medicine and completed his Medical Degree at the University of Connecticut. He returned to Canada in 2007 to further hone his skills in Family Medicine at McMaster University and utilize his skill set for the benefit of his community and all Canadians. Dr. Hack holds an Assistant Clinical Professorship at McMaster University in the Department of Family Medicine, and is actively involved in medical education, both with Family Medicine Residents, and medical students.

Markus Roggen, PhD

Dr. Roggens latest project, Complex Biotech Discovery Ventures, is a fundamental research laboratory and Contract Research Organization to the cannabis industry. His industry experience is in crop protection, plant analytics and pharmaceutical manufacturing, and his research interests lie in the metabolite composition and behaviour throughout the production cycle, Supercritical Fluid Extraction process optimization, and development of innovative therapeutic formulations. Dr. Roggen received his master in science degree from Imperial College, London, UK in 2008, his graduate degree is organic chemistry at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich in 2012, and was awarded an DAAD postdoctoral fellowship to pursue further training in physical organic chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla from 2013-2014. He has held numerous positions in the cannabis industry including Laboratory Director for Davinci Laboratories of California, and Vice President, Extraction at the cannabis manufacturer, OutCo. Dr. Markus Roggen is also a trusted advisor and mentor for multiple start-ups, start-up accelerators and organizations. He has held advisory positions at Bloom Automation, a cannabis robotics company, Redfield Proctor, a waste management company, and was former co-chair of the NCIA Scientific Advisory Committee.

Matt Archibald

Matt has enjoyed a 20+ year career in developing, managing and improving commercial operations for the Natural Products, Pharmaceutical and Cannabis Industries. His early work history included grafting rare species, clonal propagation, planting and harvesting, whereby he improved efficiency through project management, mechanization, and automated continuous flow processing at industrial scale. Matt developed new products and production techniques for his clients in the Natural Health Products and Supplements industries including vacuum-evaporated concentrates, isolation of polysaccharides, spray-dried extract powders and ethanolic extracts. In 2003, he co-owned and led Hawaii Phytomedicine and Associates where he employed distillation for the purposes of a new concentrate product line and expanded his addressable market with the rigorous standards of the EU Norm, USDA National Organic Program and Japan Agricultural Standard organic certifications. In 2010, Matt founded and continues to lead Botanical Process Solutions, which facilitates R&D, product development and manufacturing development for cannabis entrepreneurs in North America. His specialized consultancy work spans: Equipment design; Facility design and management; Intellectual property and brand licenses; Certified organic nutrient systems with the highest available nitrogen and phosphorous on the market for cannabis; Cannabis processing expertise in supercritical CO2; Short path and rolled film high vacuum distillation; Continuous and Semi-Continuous winterization; Decarboxylation; Terpene fraction distillation; Terpene isolation; Infused Product Formulation; and through his partner network, automated packaging, filling and capsule solutions as well as Centrifugal Partition Chromatography.

Les Brown, PhD

Dr Leslie Brown, Managing Director of AECS-QuikPrep Ltd is a practising method development chromatographer and chromatography instrument designer. Les founded AECS in 1983, with the company initially specializing in chromatography method development and chromatography instrument design for blue-chip pharmaceutical, agrochemical, environmental and instrumentation clients. AECS later evolved to become AECS-QuikPrep Ltd (AECS), shortly after the company became involved in an AECS-designed and retailed product, the Quattro Counter Current Chromatograph (CCC) in 1993. Since 1993, Les has constantly been involved in the evolution of CCC and Centrifugal Partition Chromatographs (CPC) instrumentation. In addition to instrument design, Les has also been a prime instigator of novel methodology development techniques for countercurrent/liquid-liquid chromatography/extraction. Les has given innumerable lectures on CCC/CPC worldwide, published peer reviewed papers, two book chapters on CCC, and trained users in CCC/CPC, in approximately 20 countries since the early 1990's. Les has been involved in cannabinoid purifications for over ten years. AECS has many Quattro CCC, Quattro CPC, and Partition CPC users for cannabis and other target compound-based purifications worldwide. Les has led projects with operational scale ranging from laboratory research projects from milligram, grams, kilos per day, to potentially multiple tonnes per annum in GMP production. Projects have included commissioning work for a major American Blue-Chip Pharmaceutical Company for high throughput, combinatorial research. Les still enjoys working in the laboratory on challenging research, either for contract chromatography method development projects, or novel custom purification of known targets and unknown bio-actives, from natural products and synthetic research projects. AECS is one of the longest established chromatography instrument design and production manufactures in the United Kingdom. Now in collaboration with their partners, Couturier, France, they are undoubtedly the World Leaders in HSCCC / HPCCC / HPL-LC / CPC / HPCPC. Les has co-published CCC papers with researchers in UK, France, Brazil, and China as well as successfully supported and/or co-authored multiple-million Euro research grant applications with different European-based Universities and Corporate clients. Les completed his BSc (Hons) in 1974 at the University College of Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom, his PhD at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom in 1978, and was a Research Fellow at Plymouth Polytechnic, United Kingdom from 1978 to 1983.

About MediPharm Labs Corp.

Founded in 2015, MediPharm Labs has the distinction of being the first company in Canada to become a licensed producer for cannabis oil production under the ACMPR without first receiving a cannabis cultivation licence. This expert focus on cannabis concentrates from our cGMP (current Good Manufacturing Practices) and ISO standard clean rooms and critical environments laboratory, allows MediPharm Labs to produce purified, pharmaceutical-like cannabis oil and concentrates for advanced derivative products. MediPharm Labs has invested in an expert, research-driven team, state-of-the-art technology, downstream extraction methodologies and purpose-built facilities to deliver pure, safe and precisely-dosed cannabis products to patients and consumers. MediPharm Labs private label program is a high margin business for the Company, whereby it opportunistically procures dry cannabis flower and trim from its numerous product supply partners, to produce proprietary cannabis oil concentrate products for resale globally on a private label basis.

Through its subsidiary, MediPharm Labs Australia Pty. Ltd., MediPharm Labs has also completed its application process with the federal Office of Drug Control to extract and import medical cannabis products in Australia.

For further information, please contact:

Laura Lepore, Vice President, Investor Relations & Communications

Telephone: 705-719-7425 ext 216

Email: investors@medipharmlabs.com

Website: www.medipharmlabs.com

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSXV) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION:

This news release contains forward-looking information and forward-looking statements (collectively, forward-looking statements) within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as expects, or does not expect, is expected, anticipates or does not anticipate, plans, budget, scheduled, forecasts, estimates, believes or intends or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results may or could, would, might or will be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In this news release, forward-looking statements relate to, among other things, expected future growth, expected development of intellectual property, expected GMP certification and the establishment of operations in Australia. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; the inability of MediPharm to obtain adequate financing; and the delay or failure to receive regulatory approvals. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. Except as required by law, MediPharm assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change.




NAPLES, Fla., April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HealthLynked Corp (OTCQB: HLYK) (the Company), a leader in digital healthcare technology, today announced the appointment of Richard Williamson as Vice President of Marketing. A veteran of the competitive technology sector, Williamson will help HealthLynked solidify its brand identity and strengthen its national marketing strategy.



Richard brings to HealthLynkeds marketing team considerable knowledge gained from over 20 years of experience working as a marketing and creative director, sales manager, and has extensive experience in media development and corporate communications. He comes to HealthLynked from seven years at the marketing helm of Lithos Robotics Corporation, where he shaped the marketing and product development strategies that helped the company carve out a dominant share of the law enforcement robotics and tactical communications market. He expanded Lithos sales into Europe, Canada, and Australia.

Williamson was previously the Director of Media Development for Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) from 1996-1999, helping establish the fledgling institution as one of the premier distance learning and tech-savvy universities in the U.S. He has worked both as a corporate and agency-based marketing professional for more than twenty years.

Williamson received his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro after studying advertising and media at Buffalo State College. He also attended the University of Bristol in the UK, where he studied literature and art history.

Richard brings a great variety of experience to HealthLynked, said Michael Dent M.D., HealthLynkeds Chairman and CEO. His leadership and insight will be invaluable to building the HealthLynked brand as we expand our network of providers and increase the number of patient members.

Dr. Dent continued, Richards extensive marketing background and creativity will play a key role as we continue to introduce new and innovate products to our members.

Williamson was eager to join the HealthLynked team. Its rare that one finds a company that is absolutely at the cutting edge of it technology niche, he said. HealthLynked not only has the first-hand experience of the health services provider, but also the business savvy to make a better, more responsive product that will change the industry landscape.

About HealthLynked Corp.

HealthLynked Corp. provides a solution for both patient members and providers to improve healthcare through the efficient exchange of medical information. The HealthLynked Network is a cloud-based platform that allows members to connect with their healthcare providers and take more control of their healthcare. Members enter their medical information, including medications, allergies, past surgeries and personal health records, in one convenient online and secure location, free of charge.

Participating healthcare providers can connect with their current and future patients through the system. Other benefits to providers include the ability to utilize the HealthLynked marketing tools to connect with their active and inactive patients to improve patient retention, access more accurate and current patient information, provide more efficient online scheduling and to fill last minute cancelations using our real time appointment scheduling all within our mobile application. Healthcare providers pay a monthly fee to access these HealthLynked services.

For additional information about HealthLynked Corp. visit www.healthlynked.com and connect with HealthLynked on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Forward Looking Statements

Forward-Looking Statements in this press release, which are not historical facts, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Our actual results, including as a result of any acquisitions, performance or achievements may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the use of words such as may, could, expect, intend, plan, seek, anticipate, believe, estimate, predict, potential, continue, likely, will, would and variations of these terms and similar expressions, or the negative of these terms or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by our management, and us are inherently uncertain. We caution you not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which are made as of the date of this press release. We undertake no obligation to update publicly any of these forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, new information or future events, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting forward-looking statements, except to the extent required by applicable laws. If we update one or more forward-looking statements, no inference should be drawn that we will make additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking statements. Certain risks and uncertainties applicable to our operations and us are described in the Risk Factors section of our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K or Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and in other reports we have filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. These reports are available at www.sec.gov.

Company Contact:

George OLeary

Chief Financial Officer

goleary@healthlynked.com

Investor Relations Contact:

Jim Hock

Hanover International Inc.

Investor Relations

jh@hanoverintlinc.com
CALGARY, Alberta, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PHX Energy Services Corp. ("PHX Energy" or the "Corporation") (TSX: PHX) announces that its Board of Directors (the Board) has approved a $10 million increase to the Corporations 2019 capital expenditure program (the 2019 Program). With this increase the Corporation now anticipates spending $25 million in capital expenditures during the 2019-year. PHX Energy expects to dedicate the majority of the additional capital expenditures toward increasing the capacity of its fleet of Velocity Real-Time Systems (Velocity) for activity in early 2020. The remainder of the increase to the 2019 Program is anticipated to be allocated toward maintenance of the Velocity and performance motor drilling fleets, including Atlas performance drilling motors (Atlas).



Given the Corporations position as one of the leading technology providers and the favourable industry conditions in the US market, PHX Energy anticipates that its US growth will continue through 2019. PHX Energys Velocity fleet has been operating at full capacity for a number of quarters and the Corporation expects that additional systems will be required to meet the ongoing demands for this technology. The initial 2019 Program of $15 million is intended to be primarily dedicated towards Atlas, and the addition of further Velocity systems will allow the Corporation to pair these technologies on a greater number of wells, which gives PHX Energy a significant competitive advantage.

PHX Energys Canadian operations began to see the impacts of the typical spring break-up period in March, and the Corporation is currently utilizing the slower period in the Canadian industry to provide additional capacity to the US market. It believes this will lead to activity gains in the US during the upcoming quarters. PHX Energy will continue to proportionally deploy its high performance technologies, including Velocity and Atlas, throughout North America and remains committed to maintaining its healthy Canadian market share while focusing on its US expansion.

PHX Energy will continue to take a disciplined approach toward growth and believes the increase to the 2019 Program will aid in further improvements in profitability. The 2019 program is expected to be financed from a combination of cash flow from operations and the Corporations unused credit facilities, if required.

About PHX Energy Services Corp.

The Corporation, through its directional drilling subsidiary entities, provides horizontal and directional drilling technology and services to oil and natural gas producing companies in Canada, the US, Russia and Albania. PHX Energy also provides EDR technology and services.

Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this document constitute "forward looking statements" and/or "forward looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws (collectively referred to as "forward looking statements"). When used in this document, the words "may", "would", "could", "will", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", foresees, and similar expressions, are intended to identify forward looking statements. Such statements reflect the current views of PHX Energy with respect to future events, programs and operating performance and speak only as of the date of this document. In particular, this document contains forward looking statements pertaining to the Corporation's 2019 capital expenditure program, including the increase to the program and the anticipated expansion in the Corporations Velocity fleet and timing thereof, the source of funding for the 2019 program, the allocation of the 2019 program, the potential impact of the increased Velocity capacity on the Corporations operations and profitability, the anticipated increase in US activity and growing demand for the Corporations fleet.

Forward looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties, should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results and will not necessarily be accurate indications of whether such results will be achieved. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these statements as a number of factors could cause actual results to defer materially from the results discussed in these forward looking statements, including but not limited to those factors referred to under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Corporation's Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2018. Although forward looking statements contained in this press release are based upon what the Corporation believes are reasonable assumptions, the Corporation cannot assure investors that actual results will be consistent with these forward looking statements. The forward looking statements in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Unless otherwise required by law, PHX Energy does not intend, or assume any obligation, to update these forward looking statements.

For further information please contact:

John Hooks, CEO; Michael Buker, President; or Cameron Ritchie, Senior Vice President Finance and CFO

PHX Energy Services Corp.

Suite 1400, 250 2nd Street SW

Calgary, Alberta T2P 0C1

Tel: 403-543-4466 Fax: 403-543-4485 www.phxtech.com
BURLINGTON, Mass., April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Veracode , a leading provider in application security testing (AST), today announced that Catherine Reid has joined the Veracode team as Chief Human Resources Officer to lead the development of the companys human resources strategy and contribute to future growth through employee engagement programs, recruitment and technology.



Reid brings more than 15 years of experience in developing and executing talent management strategies and managing complex human resource operations in global organizations.

At Veracode, Reid will report to Chief Executive Officer Sam King and is responsible for guiding human resources best practices, partnering with leaders across the organization to foster collaborative relationships between global offices, and leading the effort to attract and retain highly qualified global talent.

Todays technology workforce is seeking great career opportunities coupled with a passionate, engaged culture thats making an impact in how people live, said Reid. Our culture at Veracode has always been what has attracted such talented individuals from around the world, and I look forward to enhancing it with energetic employee engagement, hiring to enable our expansion in key regions, and working with leadership to ensure employee needs are a foremost focus. Im excited to begin my journey with Veracode.

We are thrilled to welcome Catherine to the Veracode team. Our employees will benefit from the knowledge and experience she has built during the course of her career that will further enrich our high-performance culture, said CEO Sam King. She is joining at an exciting time of growth for Veracode that lends itself to a strategic HR leader who will help us scale accordingly with a motivated global workforce. We are proud of our track record, our positive culture and diverse workforce. With Catherines leadership, we look forward to further empowering our employees to accomplish their best work, and being among the best global cybersecurity firms to work for.

Most recently, Reid was head of human resources for EBSCO Information Services and previously held HR leadership positions with Thomson Reuters in London, Boston and Washington, D.C. Previously, she was HR Manager for LM Ericsson in Dublin and worked as a Compensation and Benefits Consultant for Mercer. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from Trinity College Dublin and a Master of Business from University College Dublin.

About Veracode

With its combination of automation, process, and speed, Veracode becomes a seamless part of the software lifecycle, eliminating the friction that arises when security is detached from the development and deployment process. As a result, enterprises are able to fully realize the advantages of DevOps environments while ensuring secure code is synonymous with high-quality code.

Veracode serves more than 2,000 customers worldwide across a wide range of industries. The Veracode Platform has assessed more than 8 trillion lines of code and helped companies fix more than 36 million security flaws.

Learn more at www.veracode.com , on the Veracode blog and on Twitter .

Copyright  2019 Veracode, Inc. All rights reserved. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Trevali Mining Corporation (Trevali or the Company) (TSX: TV, BVL: TV; OTCQX: TREVF, Frankfurt: 4TI) is pleased to announce that its Board of Directors has appointed Ricus Grimbeek as President & Chief Executive Officer.

We are thrilled to welcome Ricus Grimbeek as Trevalis President and CEO, said Jessica McDonald, Chair of the Board. Ricus brings extensive global experience to Trevali, both as a corporate executive and as a mine operator, and has a proven track record of operating safe and efficient businesses with a focus on asset optimization and strong cost performance. He combines deep knowledge of mining processes and technology, and decades of hands-on global mining experience, with a progressive approach to mining that places a high priority on safety, sustainability and responsibility. The Board is confident that Ricus is the right leader to unite our assets with a common focus on operational optimization to efficiently grow production and enhance value for all stakeholders.

With its portfolio of producing assets and talented team, Trevali is extremely well-positioned for success. I am delighted to join this exciting company and lead it to its full potential, said Mr. Grimbeek.

Mr. Grimbeek will assume his responsibilities on April 23, 2019. At that time, as previously announced, Dr. Mark Cruise will step down as President and CEO.

Added Ms. McDonald: We are pleased this transition has been accomplished so smoothly and in a timely manner. We have every confidence Trevalis positive momentum in 2019 will continue to build into the future under the leadership of our newly-appointed President and CEO.

Ricus Grimbeek is a mining engineer with nearly three decades of progressive experience in the resource sector, with a proven track record working at all levels of the business. An experienced mining executive, before joining Trevali he was Chief Operating Officer of Vale Base Metals North Atlantic where he held responsibility for the overall operating and financial performance of 16 mining and refining operations in four countries. Previously, he was President and COO of South32 Australia, overseeing six operations in Australia and Colombia. Mr. Grimbeek has also served as Asset President of Aluminium Australia, Head of Group HSEC for BHP Billiton, President and COO of BHP Billitons Ekati Diamond Mine, Executive Vice President Mining and Concentrating for Lonmin Platinum.

Mr. Grimbeek holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Mining) from the University of Pretoria, has completed the Management Development Program from the University of Orange Free State, and holds an Advanced Certificate in Mine Ventilation from the Chamber of Mines.

ABOUT TREVALI MINING CORPORATION

Trevali is a zinc-focused, base metals company with four mines: the 90% owned Perkoa mine in Burkina Faso, the 90% owned Rosh Pinah mine in Namibia, the wholly-owned Caribou mine in the Bathurst Mining Camp of northern New Brunswick in Canada, and the wholly-owned Santander mine in Peru.

The shares of Trevali are listed on the TSX (symbol TV), the OTCQX (symbol TREVF), the Lima Stock Exchange (symbol TV), and the Frankfurt Exchange (symbol 4TI). For further details on Trevali, readers are referred to the Companys website (www.trevali.com) and to Canadian regulatory filings on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors of

TREVALI MINING CORPORATION

Jessica McDonald (signed)

Jessica McDonald, Chair

Contact Information:

Steve Stakiw, Vice President - Investor Relations and Corporate Communications

Email: sstakiw@trevali.com

Phone: (604) 488-1661 / Direct: (604) 638-5623

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of the Canadian securities legislation and forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, Section 21E of the United States Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, or in releases made by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, all as may be amended from time. Statements containing forward-looking information express, as at the date of this news release, the Companys plans, estimates, forecasts, projections, expectations, or beliefs as to future events or results. Such forward-looking statements and information include, but are not limited to, statements relating to the transition to a new President and Chief Executive Officer and the Companys optimization, growth, and value enhancement strategies.

These statements reflect the Companys current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies. If any assumptions are untrue, it could cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements.

Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause the Companys actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to those risks described in the Companys annual information form for the year ended December 31, 2018, which is available on the Companys website (www.trevali.com) and filed under our profile on SEDAR (www.sedar.com). Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty or reliance on forward-looking statements. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated, described or intended. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements or information to reflect changes in assumptions or changes in circumstances or any other events affecting such statements or information, other than as required by applicable law.

Source: Trevali Mining Corporation
RESTON, Va. and SPOKANE, Wash., April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- RiskLens, the leading provider of cyber risk quantification (CRQ) and cyber risk management software, today announced that a powerful syndicate of new and existing investors  led by Paladin Capital Group  invested $20.55 million in Series B funding to support the companys continued 100 percent year-over-year global growth. Existing investors of the company participating in this Series B funding  Paladin Capital Group, Dell Technologies Capital and Osage Venture Partners  are joined by F-Prime Capital, the global venture capital firm affiliated with FMR LLC, the parent company of Fidelity Investments, and MassMutual Ventures, the venture capital arm of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual). MassMutual currently utilizes the RiskLens software.



The investment will fuel expansion across Sales, Marketing, Engineering and Professional Services departments and enable RiskLens to retain and grow its market leading position in the emerging cyber risk quantification space.

RiskLens has forever changed the way large organizations assess, manage and report on cyber risk, by translating the impact of threats and vulnerabilities into the financial language of the business that everyone understands: dollars and cents, said Nick Sanna, Chief Executive Officer at RiskLens. Were giving Boards of Directors, CISOs and Cyber Risk teams what was once thought impossible  a decision-support platform and a system of record that allows them to make cost-effective decisions regarding the prioritization of security initiatives and the rightsizing of those investments. RiskLens is currently the only software platform that can help clients establish quantitative and financially-oriented cyber risk management programs. We are proud to have our existing investors expand their commitment to our success and are thrilled to be joined by F-Prime Capital and MassMutual investors given their prowess in the financial services and insurance sectors.

The RiskLens Platform is the only enterprise-class, Software as a Service solution built on the Factor Analysis of Information Risk ( FAIR ) standard - now trusted by more than 4,500 leading professionals in security and risk, and represented within 8 out of the Fortune 10, 75% of the Fortune 50 and nearly 30% of the Fortune 1,000 organizations.



RiskLens supports clients across the globe, across more than nine vertical industries through direct engagement and a growing list of prestigious alliance partners. The company recently announced integrations with leading software providers in the Governance, Risk and Compliance space  RSA, ServiceNow and RSAM  as well as professional services partnerships with PwC Australia, Wipro and TUV Rheinland Opensky.

As early believers in RiskLens since our participation in the Series A funding, weve seen first-hand the rapid shift of market momentum towards cyber risk quantification and the capabilities of its experienced management team in driving growth, said Mourad Yesayan, Principal at Paladin Capital Group and RiskLens Board Member. We believe that RiskLens is poised to become the de-facto standard in how enterprises around the globe assess, communicate and manage cyber risk. Were delighted to be partnering with a syndicate of top investors to continue fueling the companys success.

New RiskLens investor Gaurav Tuli, Partner at F-Prime Capital, adds: There continues to be a dire need for managing and communicating cyber risk at the executive level in large enterprises. In speaking to many of the premier customers that are using RiskLens, it became clear that RiskLens is uniquely positioned to bring a battle-tested approach to cyber risk quantification that for the first time, enables customers to make risk-based business decisions. With the global growth of the FAIR standard, the track record of the RiskLens management team, and the companys forward leaning product vision, we are excited to support the category leader in cyber risk quantification.

Mark Goodman, Managing Director at MassMutual Ventures adds: We have a unique view into the disruption RiskLens is bringing to the cyber risk management space as MassMutual is an existing RiskLens client. As many other leaders in cybersecurity and risk believe, RiskLens will soon become a ubiquitously trusted solution across all major enterprises. This data point, married with our analysis of the unique market opportunity and market leading position RiskLens enjoys, made our investment decision quite easy.

About RiskLens

RiskLens is the leading provider of quantitative cyber risk management software. Its platform is recognized as a mission-critical business application for cybersecurity and risk teams across the Fortune 1,000. RiskLens empowers large enterprises and government organizations to manage cyber risk from the business perspective by quantifying that risk in monetary terms. Clients depend on RiskLens solutions to better understand and communicate their cyber risk exposure in financial terms, prioritize their risk mitigations, measure the ROI of their security investments, and meet regulatory demands calling for the quantification of cyber risk. RiskLens is the only cyber risk quantification software purpose-built on FAIR, the standard quantification model for information security and operational risk. For more information visit the RiskLens website at www.risklens.com.

About Paladin Capital Group

Paladin Capital Group was founded in 2001 and has offices in Washington DC, New York, Silicon Valley, London, and Luxembourg. As a multi-stage investor, Paladin focuses on best-of-breed companies with technologies, products and services that meet the challenging global cyber security and digital infrastructure resilience needs for commercial and government customers. Paladin has over $1 billion in committed capital across multiple funds. Follow the firm on Twitter @Paladincap or visit their website at www.paladincapgroup.com .
CHICAGO, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Bastian Solutions debuted the Bastian Solutions Shuttle System, a robotic materials handler with unparalleled efficiency and flexibility made possible with parts designed and built through additive manufacturing. The additive parts of the robotic Shuttle Systemincluding the fingers, joints and elboware made with polymers, giving the robotic materials handler more dexterity and efficiency, as the lightweight material allows for a smaller motor and requires less power to execute its daily operations than with its previous metallic parts.



Bastian Solutions, a Toyota Advanced Logistics company, worked with Fast Radius to fully implement additive design and manufacturing into the Shuttle System. The additive parts for the product are made at Fast Radius Chicago headquarters, one of the most advanced industrial-grade additive manufacturing facilities in North America. Forty-five percent of the final build-of-material (BOM) for the arm of the Bastian Solutions Shuttle System robotic picker will be produced using additive manufacturing. The parts are manufactured using HP Multi Jet Fusion 3D printers and Carbon printers.

"We envisioned that additively manufacturing specific parts would make the Bastian Solutions Shuttle System the most efficient and agile robotic picker available on the market, said Ron Daggett, Vice President of Technology and R&D, Bastian Solutions. The additive manufacturing process will enable us to customize each robot picker to fit a customers particular warehouse environment.

Fast Radius platform supports companies like Bastian Solutions in identifying potential applications, conducting engineering and economic evaluations, accelerating new product development, and ultimately manufacturing industrial-grade parts in Fast Radius factories at-scale with the latest additive technologies.

Developing a new process for a robotic arm and using advanced additive materials to design lifelike fingers and joints is a reflection of Fast Radius mission to make new things possible, said Lou Rassey, Chief Executive Officer, Fast Radius. The nature of additive manufacturing enabled us to create and test over a thousand prototype parts for Bastian Solutions in under 20 months until we arrived at just the right ones for this unique piece of equipment.

A portion of the Bastian Solutions Shuttle Systems parts and prototypes, including the durable polymer joints that give the robotic arm its power and dexterity, were made with HP 3D printers using Multi Jet Fusion industrial-grade technology. Additional parts, including the proprietary fingers/gripper for the robotic arm were developed using Carbons Digital Light Synthesis (DLS) technology and unique materials, notably EPU 40.

Multi Jet Fusion is a viable solution for everything from prototyping and small-run 3D production to large-scale, full-production 3D manufacturing, said Michelle Bockman, global head of 3D printing commercial expansion and development, HP. The genie has left the bottle on the adoption of industrial-scale 3D production, and it keeps accelerating.

Were excited that Carbon DLS technology and innovative materials are playing a critical role in bringing the Bastian Solutions Shuttle System to market, said Dana McCallum, Head of Production Partners for Carbon. Carbon DLS technology and EPU 40 resin made it possible for Fast Radius to manufacture a texture on the robots finger that allows the robot to pick up any part, of any size. This couldn't have been achieved using traditional manufacturing methods and is a great example of what kind of innovation is possible with digital manufacturing, specifically Carbon DLS technology and unique materials.

Bastian Solutions will display the new additively manufactured Shuttle System at ProMat 2019, held April 8-11 at McCormick Place in Chicago.

About Bastian Solutions

Bastian Solutions, a Toyota Advanced Logistics North America company, is a material handling systems integrator, providing automated solutions for distribution, order fulfillment and manufacturing centers around the world. By combining data-driven designs, scalable material handling systems, and innovative software, the company helps clients across a broad spectrum of vertical segments become leaders in their industries. Bastian Solutions specializes in supply chain consulting and material handling system designs that include technologies ranging from entry-level to advanced automation such as high-speed conveyor sortation, goods-to-person systems, mobile and industrial robotics, supply chain software, and custom automation engineering. Today, the company also engineers and manufactures many of its own products including ZiPline Conveyor and Exacta Supply Chain Software.

Founded in 1952 and headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, Bastian Solutions has grown into a global corporation with 20 U.S. offices and international operations in Brazil, Canada, India and Mexico. For more information, visit https://www.bastiansolutions.com .

About Fast Radius

Fast Radius is the leading provider of additive manufacturing solutions, including application discovery, product design and testing, production-grade manufacturing and global fulfillment. From entirely new products uniquely enabled by additive manufacturing to global supply chain solutions leveraging a virtual warehouse, Fast Radius brings the future of manufacturing and the supply chain to its clients. Fast Radius is recognized as one of the 16 companies best implementing technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution by the World Economic Forum ( WEF )the only company honored that is based in North America. Fast Radius is headquartered in Chicago, with offices in Atlanta, Ga and Singapore, as well as a production hub on-site at the UPS Worldport facility in Louisville, Ky. Visit www.fastradius.com for additional information.

Contact Info:

Lindsay Baish

Fast Radius

lindsay.baish@fastradius.com
Herndon, VA, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) today announced their participation in the upcoming Tom Tom Summit & Festival in Charlottesville. Active in supporting the expansion of business ownership and scalable ventures in Virginia, CIT has designed sessions to empower and promote the states entrepreneurial ecosystem. In 2018, CIT introduced their Virginia Founders Fund, which supports entrepreneurs traditionally underrepresented in venture capital, such as minorities, women and veterans. Additionally, the firms recent investments in Ario, Tympanogen, NOVI, and DroneUp highlight their continued success in accelerating innovation, imagination, and the next generation of technology and technology companies across a broad range of industries throughout the Commonwealth.



CIT understands that it is critical to build ecosystems around companies in order to help them reach their full potential, said Ed Albrigo, President and CEO of CIT. We are eager to infuse the Tom Tom Festival with the same spirit by hosting and participating in events that will enable entrepreneurs to connect with various corporations and investors. The event will be a celebration of the leaders who are shaping our cities and communities.



At this years Tom Tom Summit & Festival, which runs from April 8-14, attendees will find CIT at the following events:



Mid-Atlantic Angel Summit @ Tom Tom, presented by CIT

Thursday 4/11 3:00-5:00pm

Violet Crown: Theater 2, 200 W Main St.



A convening of seed and early-stage investment professionals in the Mid-Atlantic, this event is open to accredited investors (with a conference badge) from Virginia and beyond. This two-hour event will cover regional investment trends and will end with a primer on how valuation at the earliest stages of a companys lifecycle influence investor returns and company trajectory. This is a great opportunity to learn and network with your future co-investors. *This event is only open to accredited investors*



Speakers: Thomas Weithman (Moderator), Chief Investment Officer, CIT and Managing Director, CIT GAP Funds; Alex Euler, Investment Director, CIT GAP Funds





Accelerator Company Showcase, presented by CIT

Friday 4/12 11:00am-12:00pm

Common House: Vinegar Hall North, 206 W Market St.



This one-of-a-kind mega demo day features select companies from the regions top accelerator programs. No long pitches or PowerPoints, just a short and oh-so-sweet intro to companies developing innovative solutions to complex problems in security, life sciences, smart-city technologies and within the enterprise.



Moderator: Marco Rubin, Senior Investment Director, CIT





Connecting Virginias Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, presented by CIT

Friday 4/12 2:00-3:00pm

Common House: Vinegar Hall North 206 West Market St.



An opportunity to hear directly from members of the Administration and other senior business leaders as they discuss current and future Commonwealth programs, incentives and initiatives that foster innovation, entrepreneurship and regional collaboration.



Speakers: Ed Albrigo, Chief Executive Officer, CIT; Robby Demeria, Deputy Secretary of Commerce & Trade for Technology, Office of the Governor





CIT is looking forward to another exciting Tom Tom festival, with more participation from seed and early-stage investment professionals this year than ever, said Alex Euler, Investment Director, CIT GAP Funds. We strongly believe that establishing relationships with investors in the earliest stages of a company's lifecycle influence returns and company trajectory, and hope our presence at an event like Tom Tom will help more companies learn skills and best practices that will allow them to achieve their goals.





About Tom Tom Summit & Festival

The Tom Tom Foundations signature event is a weeklong festival of ideas and culture that takes in Charlottesville, Virginia, each April in conjunction with Thomas Jeffersons birthday. This cross discipline, multi-venue experience transforms the historic downtown and empowers the innovators, who are envisioning a brighter future. For more information, please visit: https://tomtomfest.com/.





About The Center for Innovative Technology

The Center for Innovative Technology (CIT), a nonprofit corporation, has been Virginias primary driver of innovation and entrepreneurship since 1985. CIT accelerates the next generation of technology and technology companies through commercialization, capital formation, market development and revenue generation services. To facilitate national innovation leadership and accelerate the rate of technology adoption, CIT creates partnerships between innovative technology start-up companies and advanced technology consumers. To learn more, please visit www.cit.org. You can also follow CIT on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.





About CIT GAP Funds

Recently named Virginias most active investor by CB Insights, developer of a tech market intelligence platform that analyzes millions of data points on venture capital, startups, patents, partnerships, and news mentions to predict future technology trends. CIT GAP Funds joined an impressive list of VCs, including Californias Andreessen Horowitz, New Yorks Lerer Hippeau Ventures, and Washington D.C.s New Enterprise Associates.



CIT GAP Funds makes seed-stage equity investments in Virginia-based technology, clean tech and life science companies with a high potential for achieving rapid growth and generating significant economic return for entrepreneurs, co-investors and the Commonwealth of Virginia. CIT GAP Funds investments are overseen by the CIT GAP Funds Investment Advisory Board (IAB). This independent, third-party panel consists of leading regional entrepreneurs, angel and strategic investors, and venture capital firms such as New Enterprise Associates, Grotech Ventures, Valhalla Partners, Harbert Venture Partners HIG Ventures, Edison Ventures, In-Q-Tel, Intersouth Partners, SJF Ventures, Carilion Health Systems, Johnson & Johnson, General Electric, and Alpha Natural Resources. For more information, please visit www.citgapfunds.org.









Attachments
Boston, MA, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --



At the World Medical Innovation Forum 2019, Partners HealthCare today announced a commitment to put artificial intelligence (AI) in the toolbox of all of its researchers and clinicians. These efforts, being spearheaded by the MGH & BWH Center for Clinical Data Science (CCDS), focus on providing researchers and clinicians with access to data, GPU (graphics processing unit) compute capacity and supporting software required to develop their own AI algorithms to be implemented in the clinical environment.





CCDS is planning broad roll-out to the Partners system over the next 12 months and is already offering AI capabilities and support services. This announcement aligns with national and global trends towards democratization of AI capabilities through increasingly collaborative efforts between academic organizations, technology companies and organizations like the American College of Radiology (ACR) that work to establish standards for the field.

Currently, focused and siloed pockets of domain expertise in AI reside within specific departments or labs at several large academic medical centers, but making AI an enabling technology across the field of healthcare has been a challenge for many facilities, said Keith Dreyer, DO, PhD, FACR, FSIIM, Chief Data Science Officer, Partners HealthCare. The truth is, you dont have to be a computer scientist or data scientist to participate in the creation of AI  we are just starting to see increasing availability of tools to enable on-premises development of AI models by clinicians.

The trend is punctuated by the recent announcement of a free software platform (AI-LAB) being released by the ACR to allow radiologists to develop, validate and implement AI within their own facilities. AI-LAB is a core component of ACRs vision for the democratization of AI in radiology. The free, vendor-neutral software solution will allow radiologists to work with patient data within their own secure IT environments, while providing opportunities to share AI datasets and algorithms with other institutions. The objective is to facilitate the development of more versatile, generalizable and accurate models  a principle known as transfer learning.

Through collaboration with Nvidia and The Ohio State University (OSU), CCDS has demonstrated the ability for new transfer learning approaches to generate algorithms that are more robust and adaptive to local variation. The specific project involved the transfer of a cardiac Computed Tomography Angiography (CTA) model, which was co-developed with Nvidia, to OSU where it was re-trained using OSU data. The resulting model was more accurate and required less effort to train, validate and test. Ittai Dayan, MD, Executive Director of Operations at CCDS underscores the spirit of collaboration. The concept of transfer learning means that sites can collaborate in building more highly performant algorithms without having to share sensitive patient data  this collaborative approach will dramatically accelerate the rate at which new algorithms are developed and integrated into the clinical workflow.

The announcement at the World Medical Innovation Forum in Boston, a global conference focusing on the intersection of AI and clinical care, reflects the vital role of innovation in transforming healthcare. The ability for new technologies, like AI, to have a meaningful impact in the field of medicine is highly dependent on collaboration between stakeholders with a unified goal of improving patient lives. At the conference, clinicians, industry and government leaders, entrepreneurs and venture investors are exploring where AI meets clinical care, including the requisite sensitivity to patient data and standards.

To see more of CCDS work at the Forum, visit the CCDS booth onsite on the 3rd floor of the Westin Copley.

About Partners HealthCare

Partners HealthCare System is an integrated health system founded by Brigham and Womens Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. In addition to its two academic medical centers, the Partners system includes community and specialty hospitals, a health insurance provider, community health centers, a physician network, home health and long-term care services, and other health-related entities. Partners is one of the nations leading biomedical research organizations and a principal teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School.

About the MGH & BWH Center for Clinical Data Science

Founded in 2016, the MGH & BWH Center for Clinical Data Science is a joint center formed by Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Womens Hospital to transform healthcare by translating the latest advances in artificial intelligence (AI) into improved health outcomes and greater operational efficiency. With deep academic research expertise, access to significant computational power and data resources, and extensive product development and industry experience, the CCDS is uniquely positioned to improve the detection, diagnosis, treatment, and management of diseases through the application and commercial translation of AI techniques.
Hours after Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi claimed that India is planning a new attack on the neighbours like Balakot air strikes, the Minister of External Affairs (MEA) on Sunday rubbished its claim and termed it as irresponsible and preposterous. MEA said that it was aimed at whipping up war-hysteria in the region. MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar in the statement 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 a terror attack in India."

Earlier in the day, at his residence in Multan, Qureshi claimed that, 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 also added that ambassadors of the permanent members of the UNSC in Islamabad had been informed about "the new plan" of India two days ago.

"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, Qureshi said.

Rejecting the claim, the Centre has 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. 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 BJP government further added, "India reserves the right to respond firmly and decisively to any cross border terrorist attack."

Also read: Jammu and Kashmir: Over 400 politicians get back security cover after complaint to Election
High Level Professional in The Food Service, Convenience Store, and Export Markets

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MamaMancini's Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB: MMMB), a manufacturer and marketer of specialty pre-prepared, frozen and refrigerated all-natural food products (as defined by the United States Department of Agriculture), today announced the hiring of Allan Sabatier as Vice President of Business Development to head MamaMancinis entry into the Food Service and Alternate market segments. Mr. Sabatier joined the organization on April 1, 2019.

Mr. Sabatier has extensive perishable foods industry experience with a focus on Food Service and Alternate channels. He has held senior executive positions in sales and marketing for major food companies including Dole, Del Monte, Ready Pac Foods and ConAgra. At MamaMancinis Mr. Sabatier is charged with developing business opportunities with food service distributors; chain restaurants; convenience stores; health and eldercare institutions; college and universities, corporate commissaries and kitchens; casinos; and export distributors.

Carl Wolf, chairman and CEO of MamaMancinis, said, "We are pleased to have a sales executive the caliber of Allan Sabatier to lead us in developing this new and exciting component in our business. The food service channel has the potential of being larger than the grocery store channel in which we currently compete. Allan is a true industry professional and we are very excited about selling into these new segments. We believe this more than doubles our addressable markets and we look forward to Allans contributions in the coming years to dramatically expand our business.

Mr. Sabatier previously work with Carl Wolf at Alpine Lace Brands, Inc. in the 1990s, where Mr. Wolf was chairman and CEO. Mr. Sabatier, as Vice President of Sales, was instrumental in leading Alpine Lace to national distribution before it was sold to Land O Lakes with Merrill Lynch serving as the financial advisor in the transaction. Mr. Wolf commented, It will be a pleasure to work with Allan again. He accomplishes what he sets out to do.

Mr. Sabatier said, "This is going to be fun. The MamaMancinis product line is outstanding and we expect to see major growth in the future in this untapped market for the Company. I look forward to working with Carl again to develop this opportunity."

About MamaMancinis

MamaMancini's is a marketer and distributor of a line of beef meatballs, turkey meatballs, and chicken meatballs all with sauce, five cheese stuffed beef, turkey and chicken meatballs all with sauce, and original beef and turkey meat loaves products. In addition, the Company sells Chicken Parmesan, Stuffed Pepper Mix, Sausage n Peppers, Sunday Dinner and Chicken Alfredo. The Company's sales have been growing on a consistent basis as the Company expands its distribution channels, which includes major retailers such as Publix, Shop Rite, Jewel, Lunds and Byerlys, SUPERVALU, Safeway, Albertsons, Whole Foods Market, Shaw's, Kings, Roche Bros., Key Foods, Stop & Shop, Giant, Giant Eagle, Foodtown, Sam's Club, Costco, Pavillion Stores, HEB, Rouses, Hannaford, Kroger, Shoppers, Marsh, King Kullen, Central Markets, Weis Markets, Ingles, and The Fresh Market. The Company sells to distributors such as Sysco, AWI, UNFI, SUPERVALU, Kehe, Burris Logistics and C&S Wholesale Grocers. In addition, the Company sells a wide variety of its products through QVC, the world's largest direct to consumer marketer, via on air presentations, auto ship programs, and direct purchases through the internet.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. "Forward-looking statements" describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as "may," "future," "plan" or "planned," "will" or "should," "expected," "anticipates," "draft," "eventually" or "projected." You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, and other risks identified in the Company's 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2017 and other filings made by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Contact:

Carl Wolf

Chairman and CEO

MamaMancinis Holdings, Inc.

Stock Symbol: MMMB

973-985-0280
PORTLAND, Ore., April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On April 8, 2019, the Oregon Coalition for Living Well with Serious Illness formally launches and affirms its commitment to building a person-focused ecosystem to better support patients and their caregivers across Oregon. As a collaborative network of cross-institution, cross-sector stakeholders, the coalitions mission is to educate, communicate and connect in order to help people with serious illness and their caregivers live well. Working together, the coalition has made quality of life for people and families its top priority and looks to implement an innovative model for Oregonians and possibly the nation.



Inspired by the transformative work of the Massachusetts Coalition for Serious Illness Care, Peggy Maguire, President and Board Chair of Cambia Health Foundation, and Tony Back M.D, University of Washington, met with an audience of 20 Oregon health care stakeholders in June 2018 to gauge interest and determine the feasibility of a coalition. The response was overwhelmingly positive. As a result, plans for an innovative, collaborative initiative in Oregon, focused on delivering a person-centered ecosystem for serious illness care were announced during the Coalition to Transform Advance Care (CTAC) National Summit on Advanced Illness Care in November 2018.



Today the Oregon Coalition includes more than 40 different individuals and organizations representing physicians, nurses, hospices, hospital and health systems, social workers, policymakers, consumers, caregivers, researchers, advocates and community-based organizations. Coalition members self-selected to participate in one of four workgroups: landscape mapping, silo busting, model building, and culture shifting and are actively working to catalyze a new vision for serious illness care.



Our ability to improve care for vulnerable patients and their caregivers requires a cultural shift that focuses on what matters most to the person not solely on whats the matter with them, said Peggy Maguire, president and board chair, Cambia Health Foundation. Through the collaborative efforts of the Oregon Coalition for Living Well with Serious Illness, we will drive change that moves us from a fragmented health care system to a person-centered model of care that prioritizes quality of life for people and families.



"Oregon has the opportunity to become a national leader in addressing the needs of patients living with serious illness and their families, said Tony Back MD, University of Washington Medicine. Bringing together diverse voices from across the health care system enables the Oregon Coalition for Living Well with Serious Illness to breakdown existing silos and move palliative care forward.



About the Oregon Coalition for Living Well with Serious Illness



Envisioning a more person-focused model of care for people and families with serious illness, the mission of this collaborative ecosystem is to educate, communicate and connect to help people with serious illness and their caregivers live well. The Oregon Coalition for Living Well with Serious Illness is made up of 40 different individuals and organizations that includes; AARP Oregon, AgeRight Care Management Solutions (Marquis), Aging and People with Disabilities Oregon Department of Human Services, Alzheimer's Association OR & SW Washington Chapter, American Heart Association, American Lung Association Oregon Chapter, Bridge Builder Strategies, Bridges Pediatric Palliative Care OHSU Doernbecher Children's Hospital, Cambia Health Foundation, Cambia Health Solutions, Catholic Charities Oregon, Cedar Sinai Park, Central City Concern, Congressman Earl Blumenauer , Oregon DHS/APD/SOQ, Familias en Accion, Health Insight, Housecall Providers Care Oregon, Kaiser Permanente, Many-to-One Facilitators, Multnomah County Disability, Aging and Veterans Services, National POLST Paradigm, Oregon Health & Sciences University, OR State Rep Andrea Salinas, Oregon Business Council, Oregon Health Care Association, Oregon Hospice & Palliative Care Association, Oregon Medical Association, Oregon Patient Safety Commission, Oregon Senator Rob Wagner, PCORI, Portland Community College, Portland State University, Providence Health System, Providence Health System Home Health, Regence BCBS, Social Ventures Partners International, Supportive Care Coalition Providence St. Joseph Health, The Springs Living, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, United Healthcare, Retiree Solutions, University of Portland, University of Utah College of Nursing and University of Washington.

Attachment
Q1 2019 Production highlights include:



Q1 production of 19,125 oz of gold, 264,114 lbs copper and 5,564 oz silver for a total of 19,778 gold equivalent (AuEq) oz



Record tonnage of 26,846 tonnes treated in process plant, at average grade of 23.6 g/t gold and 0.48% copper, achieving recoveries of 93.7% for gold and 93.9% for copper



No lost time injuries (LTIs) recorded

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- K92 Mining Inc. (K92 or the Company) (TSX-V: KNT; OTCQX: KNTNF) is pleased to announce record production of 19,778 oz AuEq for first quarter of 2019 (Q1) at its Kainantu Gold Mine in Papua New Guinea.

During Q1, K92 produced 19,125 oz of gold, 264,114 pounds of copper and 5,564 oz of silver or 19,778 AuEq oz (based on a gold price of US$1,300/oz; silver US$16.5/oz; copper US$2.90/lb). Q1 production represents a new record for the Kainantu Gold Mine, being almost 20% higher than the previous record production of 16,451 AuEq oz achieved in Q4 2018. Recoveries for Q1 averaged 93.7% for gold and 93.9% copper.

Mining operations in Q1 continued to focus on Kora North and comprised cut and fill stope mining from the K1 vein from the 1185 mRL level as well as development tonnes from the K2 vein on the 1170 mRL level and K1 on the 1205 mRL level.

The blend of primarily K1 material with some and K2 material provided an average head grade to the process plant for Q1 of 23.6 g/t Au and 0.48% Cu. The gold head grade was above and the copper grade below the anticipated long-term average grades due to the higher proportion of K1 treated during the quarter.

Further financial details regarding Q1 and annual production for 2019 will be available in the Companys upcoming annual financial statements.

Table 1 - Q1 2019 and 2018 Annual Production Data

Q4 2018 2018 Total Q1 2019 Tonnes Processed t 24,806 79,487 26,846 Feed Grade Au g/t 21.77 19.13 23.6 Feed Grade Cu % 0.33% 0.38% 0.48% Recovery (%) Au % 94.76% 93.68% 93.7% Recovery (%) Cu % 93.57% 92.98% 93.9% Metal in Conc Prod Au Oz 16,451 45,810 19,125 Metal in Conc Prod Cu t 77,460 277.27 119.78 Metal in Conc Prod Ag Oz 3,095 10,069 5,564 Gold Equivalent Production Oz 16,844 47,237 19,788

John Lewins, K92 Chief Executive Officer and Director, stated, The production results for the first quarter are significantly above budget with an almost 20% increase in gold production in comparison to the best previous quarter. Importantly, tonnes processed during the quarter also increased by almost 10%, despite the process plant being shut down for over a week during March to allow for annual maintenance of all major components to be completed.

During the quarter, the Company commissioned the new underground dewatering system which is an extremely important part of our infrastructure. The installation of the pipework for this system extending the entire length of the incline from Kora North to surface was a significant undertaking which resulted in some disruption to operations. It was therefore pleasing that new production records could be achieved during this period.

With a formal commitment to our expansion during the quarter, an additional mobile plant was ordered and some equipment already in transit we look forward to continuing to build our production capacity during the balance of 2019.

During Q1 the Company announced that a commencement of the expansion of the Kainantu Gold Mine in Papua New Guinea, with a goal of doubling current capacity to 400,000 tonnes per annum and increasing annual production to an average of 120,000 ounces of gold equivalent (oz AuEq).

Based on the preliminary economic assessment (PEA) published in January 2019, the major results from the decision to expand production include:

Total Capital Expenditure for 2019 is projected to be US$30 million, comprising US$12 million in expansion capital, US$8 million in sustaining capital and US$10 million in capital development;



Production is projected to be 68-75,000 oz AuEq in 2019 and 115-125,000 oz AuEq in 2020;



Cash Costs are expected to be between US$580 and US$620 per oz AuEq, and All In Sustaining Costs (AISC) are expected to be US$780 to US$820 per oz AuEq in 2019, dropping to Cash Costs below US$500 per oz AuEq and AISC below US$700 per oz AuEq in 2020;



Employment is expected to increase from the current 650 to 750 by the end of 2019, and to 800 by the end of 2020, with over 96% of all positions in-site being filled by PNG Nationals;



Based on the results of the PEA:

Total production over the next 13 years would be 1.33 million oz Gold and 130 million lbs Copper;

Total Revenue for the period would be over US$2 billion;

Royalty payments for the period would be US$50 million;

Total tax paid to PNG Government for the period, from payroll and corporate tax, would total US$300 million;

Total sustaining capital of US$202 million would be required over the period; and

Net Cashflow would be US$1.03 billion, the Net Present Value (NPV 5 ) would be US$710 million pre-tax, or US$559 million after tax, and the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) would be in excess of 350%.



The PEA is preliminary in nature and includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the PEA will be realized. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The Companys decision to expand production is not based on a feasibility study of mineral reserves demonstrating the economic and technical viability of the expansion. As a result, there is increased uncertainty of the economic and technical risks of failure associated with the decision.

K92 engaged H and S Consultants Pty Ltd to complete a Mineral Resource Estimate for the Kora North Deposit (Table 1). This resource together with the previously reported Kora Mineral Resource Estimate dated March 2017 (Table 2) provide the resource base for the updated PEA.

K92 engaged Mincore Pty Ltd (Mincore) to complete a PEA for the expansion of the existing processing plant to double its capacity to approximately 400,000 tonnes per annum. The study found that the current crushing, milling and concentrate handling circuits have sufficient capacity to treat the Kora mine material at a rate of 400,000 tpa, subject to upgrading the crushing and flotation circuits and plant services. The estimated total cost of such expansion and upgrading would be US$3.7 million, including EPC and commissioning with a contingency of 10%.

The technical report containing the PEA, titled, Independent Technical Report, Mineral Resources Estimate Update and Preliminary Economic Assessment of Kora North and Kora Gold Deposits, Kainantu Project, Papua New Guinea with an effective date of September 30, 2018 (the Technical Report) was prepared by Anthony Woodward BSc (Hons.), M.Sc., MAIG, Simon Tear BSc (Hons), EurGeol, PGeo IGI, EurGeol, Christopher Desoe BE (Min)(Hons), FAusIMM, RPEQ, MMICA, Lisa J. Park, BEng (Chem), GAICD, FAusIMM. Refer to the Companys news release dated January 8, 2018 for a summary of the results of the PEA. The PEA can be found under the Companys profile on SEDAR.

The Company engaged Australian Mine and Development Pty Ltd (AMDAD) to undertake the PEA mine plan for Kora and Kora North, which involved:

applying financial and processing parameters to determine cut-off grades for stope design.

generating three-dimensional stope shapes and mining inventory using the CAE Mineable Shape Optimiser (MSO) program.

creating a conceptual development layout to suit the MSO inventory.

producing a project cash-flow model.

producing a simple mining schedule as input to the cash-flow model.

The key results from the PEA for the combined Kora North and Kora deposits are as follows:

Could have a 13-year operating life and treat 4.9 million tonnes @ 9.0 g/t Au, 20 g/t Ag & 1.3% Cu (11.0 g/t Au Eq*);

Could achieve an estimated pre-tax NPV of US$710 million (US$559 million after-tax) using current metal prices, exchange rate and a 5% discount rate;

Initial capital cost estimated to be US$13.6 million, including US$3.7 million for the plant upgrade identified in the Mincore Scoping Study;

The additional combined development and sustaining capital cost is estimated at US$202 million spent over the life of mine;

Operating cost per tonne estimated to be US$163/tonne for the first five years and US$153/tonne thereafter;

Cash cost estimated to be US$429/oz Au Eq (inclusive of a 2.5% Net Smelter Royalty) and AISC of US$615/oz Au Eq;

Production of an estimated 135,000 Au oz and 2,100 Cu tonnes over a 5-year period from 2019 through to 2023, with average production of 90,000 Au oz and 6,500 Cu tonnes for the balance of the life of mine; and

Current metal prices used were: Au - US$1,300/oz; Ag  US$15/oz; Cu  US$2.90/lb.

*AuEq  calculated on above Current Metal Prices.

The Kora North resource estimate was defined after just twelve months of underground exploration drilling.

Table 2 - Kora North Mineral Resource Estimate

Global Mineral Resources Kora North Gold-Copper Mine - October 2018 Category Tonnes Gold Silver Copper AuEq Mt g/t Mozs g/t Mozs % Mlbs g/t Mozs Measured 0.15 18.7 0.09 8.9 0.04 0.5 1.6 19.6 0.09 Indicated 0.69 11.6 0.26 14.1 0.31 0.8 11.8 12.9 0.29 Total M & I 0.85 12.9 0.35 13.1 0.36 0.7 13.3 14.1 0.39 Inferred Total 1.92 10.7 0.66 13.3 0.82 0.7 29.5 11.9 0.74

M in table is millions.

The Mineral Resources estimate was prepared and verified by Simon Tear (PGEO), consultant to the Company and a director of independent consultancy of H & S Consultants Pty. Ltd., Sydney, Australia (October 2018).

Key Assumptions and Parameters

Mineralization comprises two parallel, steeply west dipping, N-S striking quartz-sulphide vein systems, K1 & K2, within an encompassing dilatant structural zone hosted by phyllite. An additional structure, the Kora Link, has also been defined and provides a possible link between the two main vein systems.

Underground drilling consists of diamond core for a range of core sizes depending on length of hole and expected ground conditions. Sampling is sawn half core under geological control and generally ranges between 0.5m and 1m. Underground face sampling is completed for every fired round and is to industry standard.

QAQC data indicated no significant issues with the accuracy of the on-site analysis.

Core recovery of the mineral zone was initially 90%, this has improved to >95%. There is no relationship between core recovery and gold grade. Geological logging is consistent and is based on a full set of logging codes covering lithology, alteration and mineralization.

The geological interpretation of the vein systems is represented as 3D wireframe solids snapped to a combination of diamond drillhole data and underground face sampling. Definition of the wireframes is based on identified gold mineralisation in drillcore nominally at a 0.2g/t Au cut off in conjunction with geological control/sense and current mining widths.

Gold Equivalent (Au Eq) g/t was calculated using the formula Au g/t +(Cu% x 1.53) + Ag g/t x 0.0127. (No account of metal recoveries through the plant have been used in calculating the metal equivalent grade. However, production is currently achieving 93% metal recovery for both gold and copper and gold is currently providing 95% and copper 5% of the total revenue of the mine).

Gold price US$1,300/oz; Silver US$16.5/oz; Copper US$2.90/lb.

The mineral resource estimate for the Kora deposit is based on the technical report prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (NI 43-101), and titled, Mineral Resource Update and Preliminary Economic Assessment of Irumafimpa and Kora Gold Deposits, Kainantu Project, Papua New Guinea," with an effective date of March 2, 2017. This provides additional information on the geology of the deposits, drilling and sampling procedures, lab analysis, and quality assurance/quality control for the project, and additional details on the resource estimates. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.

Table 3  Irumafimpa and Kora/Eutompi Resource Estimates

Resource by Deposit and Category Deposit Resource

Category Tonnes Gold Silver Copper Gold Equiv Mt g/t Moz g/t Moz % Mlb g/t Moz Irumafimpa Indicated 0.56 12.8 0.23 9 0.16 0.28 37 13.4 0.24 Inferred 0.53 10.9 0.19 9 0.16 0.27 74 11.5 0.20 Kora/Eutompi Inferred 4.36 7.3 1.02 35 4.9 2.23 215 11.2 1.57 Total Indicated 0.56 12.8 0.23 9 0.16 0.3 4.0 13.4 0.24 Total Inferred 4.89 7.7 1.21 32 5.06 2.0 218 11.2 1.76

M in table is millions. Reported tonnage and grade figures are rounded from raw estimates to reflect the order of accuracy of the estimate. Minor variations may occur during the addition of rounded numbers. Gold equivalents are calculated as AuEq = Au g/t + Cu%*1.52+ Ag g/t*0.0141.

K92 Mine Geology Manager and Mine Exploration Manager, Mr. Andrew Kohler, PGeo, a Qualified Person under the meaning of Canadian National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, has reviewed and is responsible for the technical content of this news release. Data verification by Mr. Kohler includes significant time onsite reviewing drill core, face sampling, underground workings and discussing work programs and results with geology and mining personnel.

On Behalf of the Company,

John Lewins, Chief Executive Officer and Director

For further information, please contact the Company at +1-604-687-7130.

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.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION: This news release includes certain forward-looking statements under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. All statements that address future plans, activities, events, or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur are forward-looking information, including statements regarding the realization of the preliminary economic analysis for the Project, expectations of future cash flows, the proposed plant expansion, potential expansion of resources and the generation of further drilling results which may or may not occur. Forward-looking statements and information contained herein are based on certain factors and assumptions regarding, among other things, the market price of the Companys securities, metal prices, exchange rates, taxation, the estimation, timing and amount of future exploration and development, capital and operating costs, the availability of financing, the receipt of regulatory approvals, environmental risks, title disputes, failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated, accidents, labour disputes, claims and limitations on insurance coverage and other risks of the mining industry, changes in national and local government regulation of mining operations, and regulations and other matters.. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.
NEW ORLEANS, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC (KSF) and KSF partner, former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors of pending deadlines in the following securities class action lawsuits:



CVS Health Corporation (CVS)

Class Period: 5/21/2015 - 2/20/2019

Lead Plaintiff Motion Deadline: April 26, 2019

SECURITIES FRAUD

To learn more, visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-cvs/ .

Weight Watchers International, Inc. (WTW)

Class Period: 5/4/2018 - 2/26/2019

Lead Plaintiff Motion Deadline: May 3, 2019

SECURITIES FRAUD

To learn more, visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nasdaqgs-wtw/ .

Conagra Brands, Inc. (CAG)

Class Period: 6/27/2018 - 12/19/2018; shares issued either in or after the October 2018 public offering.

Lead Plaintiff Motion Deadline: April 23, 2019

SECURITIES FRAUD, MISLEADING PROSPECTUS

To learn more, visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-cag/ .

Bridgepoint Education, Inc. (BPI)

Class Period: 3/8/2016 - 3/7/2019

Lead Plaintiff Motion Deadline: May 10, 2019

SECURITIES FRAUD

To learn more, visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-bpi/ .

If you purchased shares of the above companies and would like to discuss your legal rights and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact KSF Managing Partner, Lewis Kahn, toll-free at 1-877-515-1850, via email (Lewis.Kahn@KSFcounsel.com), or via the case links above.

If you wish to serve as a Lead Plaintiff in the class action, you must petition the Court on or before the Lead Plaintiff Motion deadline.

About

Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC, whose partners include the former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is a law firm focused on securities, antitrust and consumer class actions, along with merger & acquisition and breach of fiduciary litigation against publicly traded companies on behalf of shareholders. The firm has offices in New York, California and Louisiana.

To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com .

Contact:

Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

Lewis Kahn, Managing Partner

lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com

1-877-515-1850

1100 Poydras St., Suite 3200

New Orleans, LA 70163
English French





NANOBIOTIX LAUNCHES A CAPITAL INCREASE BY MEANS OF AN ACCELERATED BOOKBUILD OFFERING

Paris, France, April 8, 2019  NANOBIOTIX (the Company) (Euronext: NANO  ISIN: FR0011341205), a clinical-stage nanomedicine company pioneering new approaches to the treatment of cancer, intends to issue up to 2,566,666 new ordinary shares of a nominal value of 0.03 (New Shares), representing approximately 13.07% of the Companys issued ordinary share capital, by means of an accelerated bookbuild offering reserved to a specific class of investors (the Offering).

The New Shares will be issued in the Offering without shareholders pre-emptive rights pursuant to the 30th resolution of the combined ordinary and extraordinary general meeting of the shareholders of the Company held on May 23, 2018 and in accordance with Article L. 225-138 of the French Commercial Code, after the decision of the Company's executive board dated today, following the approval of the Company's supervisory board on March 27, 2019. The Offering will be open only to investment funds and companies investing on a regular basis, or having invested more than 5 million over the 36 month-period preceding the Offering, in small cap or mid cap emerging growth companies in the healthcare or biotechnology industry (Eligible Investors).

The Offering will commence immediately and is expected to end before markets open on the regulated market of Euronext Paris tomorrow, subject to acceleration or extension. The Company will announce the results of the Offering as soon as practicable thereafter in a subsequent press release. Settlement of the Offering and the admission of the New Shares to trading on Euronext Paris are expected to occur on or about April 11, 2019.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the Offering to accelerate its development, with a main focus on preparing for the launch of its Phase II/III clinical trial in Head and Neck cancers in the United States.

Among Eligible Investors, the Offering is open to institutional investors (i) in France and elsewhere outside the United States in reliance on the exemption from registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933 (the Securities Act) provided by Regulation S promulgated under the Securities Act and (ii) in the United States in reliance on the exemption from registration under the Securities Act provided by Section 4(a)(2) thereunder.

After giving effect to the Offering, the number of ordinary shares that will have been issued by the Company over the last 12 months will represent less than 20% of the current share capital of the Company. Therefore, a prospectus approved by the French financial markets authority (Autorite des marches financiers  the AMF) is not required.

Jefferies International Limited (Jefferies) is acting as Sole Bookrunner for the Offering.

In connection with the Offering, the Company has entered into a lock-up agreement, which restricts the issuance of additional ordinary shares ending 90 days after settlement and delivery of the New Shares, subject to customary exceptions as well as the ability to request a waiver from the Sole Bookrunner (including to permit a potential U.S. initial public offering, which the Company does not expect to occur within 30 days post admission of the New Shares). The Companys management board members and supervisory board members are also subject to a lock-up until June 30, 2019, subject to customary exceptions and the ability to request a waiver from the Sole Bookrunner.

This press release contains inside information within the meaning of Article 7(1) of the EU Market Abuse Regulation.

The Company draws the publics attention to the risk factors related to the Company and its activities presented in section 1.5 of the reference document (document de reference) filed with the AMF under number D.17-0470 on April 28, 2017 as well as in its 2017 annual financial report published on March 29, 2018, both of which are available free of charge on the website of the Company (www.nanobiotix.com).

In addition, investors are invited to consider the following risks: (i) the market price for the Company's shares may fluctuate and fall below the subscription price of the shares issued pursuant to the Offering, (ii) the volatility and liquidity of the Company's shares may fluctuate significantly, (iii) sales of Companys shares may occur on the market and have a negative impact on the market price of the shares, and (iv) the Companys shareholders could undergo a potentially material dilution resulting from any future capital increases that are needed to finance the Company.

***

About NANOBIOTIX

Incorporated in 2003, Nanobiotix is a leading, clinical-stage nanomedicine company pioneering new approaches to significantly change patient outcomes by bringing nanophysics to the heart of the cell.

The Nanobiotix philosophy is rooted in designing pioneering, physical-based approaches to bring highly effective and generalized solutions to address unmet medical needs and challenges.

Nanobiotixs first-in-class, proprietary lead technology, NBTXR3, aims to expand radiotherapy benefits for millions of cancer patients. Nanobiotixs Immuno-Oncology program has the potential to bring a new dimension to cancer immunotherapies.

Nanobiotix is listed on the regulated market of Euronext in Paris (Euronext: NANO / ISIN: FR0011341205; Bloomberg: NANO: FP). The Companys headquarters are in Paris, France, with a U.S. affiliate in Cambridge, MA, and European affiliates in Spain and Germany.

Contacts

Nanobiotix



Communications Department

+33 (0)1 40 26 07 55

contact@nanobiotix.com







Investor Relations Department

+33 (0)1 79 97 29 99



investors@nanobiotix.com Media Relations



France - Springbok Consultants

Marina Rosoff

+33 (0)6 71 58 00 34

marina@springbok.fr





Disclaimer

This announcement is an advertisement and not a prospectus within the meaning of Directive 2003/71/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 November 2003, as amended (the Prospectus Directive).

In France, the Offering described above will take place solely as a placement to a category of institutional investors, in accordance with Article L. 225-138 of the Code de commerce and applicable regulations. The Offering does not constitute a public offering in France, as defined in Article L. 411-1 of the Code monetaire et financier and no prospectus reviewed or approved by the Autorite des marches financiers will be published.

With respect to Member States of the European Economic Area (including France), no action has been taken or will be taken to permit a public offering of the securities referred to in this press release which would require the publication of a prospectus in any Member State.

This press release and the information it contains is not an offer to sell, nor the solicitation of an offer to subscribe for or buy, New Shares in the United States or any other jurisdiction where restrictions may apply. Securities may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration under the Securities Act or an exemption from registration thereunder. Nanobiotix does not intend to register the New Shares under the Securities Act or conduct a public offering of the New Shares in France, the United States, or in any other jurisdiction.

This communication is being distributed only to, and is directed only at (a) persons outside the United Kingdom, (b) persons who have professional experience in matters relating to investments falling within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the "Order"), and (c) high net worth entities, and other persons to whom it may otherwise lawfully be communicated, falling within Article 49(2) of the Order (all such persons together being referred to as "relevant persons"). Any investment or investment activity to which this communication relates is available only to relevant persons and will be engaged in only with relevant persons. Any person who is not a relevant person should not act or rely on this communication or any of its contents.

Solely for the purposes of each manufacturers product approval process, the target market assessment in respect of the New Shares has led to the conclusion in relation to the type of clients criteria only that: (i) the type of clients to whom the New Shares are targeted is eligible counterparties and professional clients only, each as defined in Directive 2014/65/EU, as amended (MiFID II); and (ii) all channels for distribution of the New Shares to eligible counterparties and professional clients are appropriate. Any person subsequently offering, selling or recommending the New Shares (a distributor) should take into consideration the manufacturers type of clients assessment; however, a distributor subject to MiFID II is responsible for undertaking its own target market assessment in respect of the New Shares (by either adopting or refining the manufacturers type of clients assessment) and determining appropriate distribution channels.

This distribution of this press release may be subject to legal or regulatory restrictions in certain jurisdictions. Any person who comes into possession of this press release must inform him or herself of and comply with any such restrictions.

This press release has not been independently verified and no representation or warranty, express or implied, is made or given by or on behalf of any of Jefferies or any of its parent or subsidiary undertakings, or the subsidiary undertakings of any such parent undertakings, or any of such persons respective directors, officers, employees, agents, affiliates or advisers, as to, and no reliance should be placed on, the accuracy, completeness or fairness of the information or opinions contained in this press release and no responsibility or liability is assumed by any such persons for any such information or opinions or for any errors or omissions. All information presented or contained in this press release is subject to verification, correction, completion and change without notice.

Jefferies is acting exclusively for the Company and no one else in connection with the Offering and will not regard any other person (whether or not a recipient of this press release) as its client in relation to the Offering and will not be responsible to anyone other than the Company for providing the protections afforded to its client nor for providing advice in relation to the proposed Offering. Jefferies is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the United Kingdom.

Attachment
CALGARY, Alberta, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The 2019 Scotiabank CAPP Energy Symposium takes place April 16-17 at the Delta Toronto Hotel. This premier energy conference connects Canadas upstream oil and natural gas industry with the investment community. Presentations, discussions and keynote speakers will address how the upstream industry adjusts to challenging market conditions while emerging stronger in the future and prepared for long-term supply growth.



The 2019 Scotiabank CAPP Energy Symposium features more than 130 institutional investors, 70 corporate presenters and prominent guest speakers.

When: Tuesday, April 16, 2019  7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Wednesday, April 17, 2019  7:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. When: Delta Toronto Hotel 75 Lower Simcoe Street, Toronto, Ont. Who: More than 130 oil and natural gas institutional investors, and more than 70 corporate presenters, including CAPP oil and natural gas producer member companies, pipeline and upstream service sector companies. Speakers: April 16, 2019 Opening keynote: Delivering a Canadian LNG mega project to meet global energy demand Andy Calitz, CEO, LNG Canada Lunch keynote: Investing in Oil and Natural Gas?!?!....perspectives on energy investment globally and in North America Jackie Forrest, Senior Director, ARC Energy Research Institute Panel: ESG and Canadas Hydrocarbon Business in a Global Context Andrew Chisholm Deborah Ng, Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Ben Brunnen, VP of Oil Sands, Fiscal and Economic Policy, CAPP Sarah Neilson, RBC Asset Management Panel: Unlocking the Value of Western Canadian Natural Gas Myron Stadnyk, President and CEO, ARC Resources Ltd. Jeffery Tonken, President and CEO, Birchcliff Energy Ltd. Tracy Robinson, SVP and GM, Canadian Natural Gas Pipelines, TransCanada Corp. April 17, 2019 Lunch keynote: Recovering Investor Confidence After a Decade of Foreign-Funded Activism: A Path Forward Vivian Krause, Researcher and Writer Presentations: Corporate presentations continue throughout the conference. Companies provide overviews, followed by Q&A sessions. Media Pass: All media are required to register with elisabeth.besson@capp.ca in advance of the conference or present credentials at the registration desk. A media pass is required to attend any portion of the symposium. The 2019 Scotiabank CAPP Energy Symposium is a registration-required business conference and is not open to the public.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) represents companies, large and small, that explore for, develop and produce natural gas and oil throughout Canada. CAPPs member companies produce about 80 per cent of Canadas natural gas and oil. CAPP's associate members provide a wide range of services that support the upstream oil and natural gas industry. Together CAPP's members and associate members are an important part of a national industry with revenues from oil and natural gas production of about $101 billion a year. CAPPs mission, on behalf of the Canadian upstream oil and natural gas industry, is to advocate for and enable economic competitiveness and safe, environmentally and socially responsible performance.

For additional information:
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Covelli Enterprises , the largest franchisee of Panera Bread , is once again partnering with The Dan Marino Foundation (DMF) to celebrate Autism Awareness. Starting Monday, April 8th through Sunday, April 14, Panera will sell one-of-a-kind Pieces of Hope for Autism cookies, which were specially designed to represent the symbol for autism and will be sold in all 31 cafes in Broward County and Palm Beach Counties in honor of World Autism Awareness month. 100% of the proceeds from all Pieces of Hope for Autism cookie sales will be donated to DMF.



Since 2010, Covelli Enterprises has donated more than $2 million in the areas it serves to support various autism organizations, schools, and centers in providing services, scholarships, research, treatment, advocacy, and resources for families. We pride ourselves on being in our 9th year of partnership with The Dan Marino Foundation  they are the pioneers of helping people with autism and learning disabilities in South Florida.

The puzzle piece cookie consists of Panera Breads famous shortbread topped with sweet white icing and an edible sugar decal and is made entirely free of any artificial colors, flavors, additives or preservatives.

The Pieces of Hope for Autism campaign is our largest company-wide initiative that we host every year. It involves more than 215 participating Panera locations in eight states and the hard work of more than 450 bakers to create these special, life-changing cookies, said Sam Covelli, Owner | Operator of Covelli Enterprises. We put everything we have behind this one-week campaign because our cookies have made such a significant difference for our partners and those with autism within the communities we serve.

Panera Bread will also be collecting funds in all thirty-one (31) bakery-cafe locations through their Operation Doughnation boxes located next to the registers at each cafe now through May 31, 2019.

Were proud to once again partner with Covelli Enterprises - Panera Bread for the 9th year. Our Foundation appreciates their leadership in showing acceptance and their generosity in giving back to the autism community. Every cookie purchased makes a difference. The Pieces of Hope for Autism cookies are the best, just like the Panera Bread team that bakes them, said Dan Marino, Chairman of The Dan Marino Foundation.

Panera Bread is encouraging Pieces of Hope campaign supporters to share photos of their cookies on social media using #everycookiecounts. Cookies may be pre-ordered online at www.covelli.com/autism .

About Covelli Enterprises

Covelli Enterprises operates 315 Panera Bread bakery-cafes in eight states. Headquartered in Warren, Ohio, Covelli Enterprises is the single largest franchisee of Panera Bread, LLC. In 2018, Covelli Enterprises donated more than $32 million to hunger relief agencies and non-profit organizations. www.covelli.com

About The Dan Marino Foundation

The Dan Marino Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)3 organization was established by Dan and Claire Marino, motivated by their experiences in raising their son, Michael, who is diagnosed with autism. For over 27 years, the Foundation has been a leader in innovation and change, "empowering individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities. For more information, please visit danmarinofoundation.org , marinocampus.org or ViTADMF.org .
Lithuanian English

On the initiative and decision of the Board of the public joint stock company Invalda INVL the Ordinary General Shareholders Meeting of the public joint stock company Invalda INVL (identification code 121304349, the registered address Gyneju str. 14 Vilnius, Lithuania) is to be held on 30 April 2019 at 9:00 a.m. in the premises located in Gyneju str. 14, Vilnius).

Registration of the shareholders will start at 8:30 a.m.

The total number of shares of the Company amounts to 11,865,993 and the number of shares granting voting rights during the Ordinary General Shareholders Meeting amounts to 11,560,137. ISIN code of the shares of the Company is LT0000102279.

Persons who are shareholders of the Company at the end of the General Shareholders Meeting accounting day, i.e. 23 April 2019, will have a right to participate and vote at the General Shareholders Meeting personally or by proxy, or to be represented by the person with whom an agreement on the transfer of voting rights is concluded.

The day of accounting of rights is 15 May 2019.

The agenda of the Ordinary General Shareholders Meeting of the public joint stock company Invalda INVL includes:

Presentation of the public joint stock company Invalda INVL consolidated annual report for 2018. Presentation of the independent auditor's report on the financial statements and consolidated annual report of the public joint stock company Invalda INVL. Approval of the consolidated and stand-alone financial statements for 2018 of the public joint stock company Invalda INVL. Resolution regarding profit distribution of the public joint stock company Invalda INVL. Resolution regarding purchase of own shares of the public joint-stock company Invalda INVL. Resolution regarding the specific number of ordinary registered shares of the public joint-stock company Invalda INVL for which during year 2019 shall be offered stock options contracts and regarding the price of the shares. Resolution regarding increase of authorised capital of the public joint stock company Invalda INVL. Class, number, nominal value and minimum issue price and payment of the issued shares. Cancellation of the pre-emptive right of shareholders of the public joint stock company Invalda INVL to acquire shares issued by the Company. Amendment of the Articles of Association of the public joint stock company Invalda INVL and approval of the new wording of the Articles of Association.

The draft resolutions of the Ordinary General Shareholders Meeting of the public joint stock company Invalda INVL:

1. Presentation of the public joint stock company Invalda INVL consolidated annual report for 2018.

Shareholders of the public joint stock company Invalda INVL are presented with the consolidated annual report of the Company for 2018 (there is no voting on this issue of agenda).

2. Presentation of the independent auditor's report on the financial statements and consolidated annual report of the public joint stock company Invalda INVL.

Shareholders of the public joint stock company Invalda INVL are presented with the independent auditor's report on the financial statements and consolidated annual report of the Company (there is no voting on this issue of agenda).

3. Approval of the consolidated and stand-alone financial statements for 2018 of the public joint stock company Invalda INVL.

To approve the consolidated and stand-alone financial statements for 2018 of the public joint stock company Invalda INVL.

4. Resolution regarding profit distribution of the public joint stock company Invalda INVL.

To distribute profit of the public joint stock company Invalda INVL as follows (thousand EUR):

1) Retained earnings (loss) at the beginning of the financial year of the reporting period; 44,279 2) Net profit (loss) for the financial year; 343 3) Profit (loss) not recognized in the income statement of the reporting financial year  impact of applied new standards; 960 4) Transfers from reserves; 0 from the reserve for the acquisition of own shares 0 from the mandatory reserve 0 from share premium 0 from share based payments reserve 0 5) Shareholders contribution to cover loss (if all or part of loss is covered by the shareholders) 0 6) Distributable profit (loss) in total; 45,582 7) Profit transfers to the legal reserves; 0 8) Profit transfers to the reserves for own shares acquisition 0 9) Profit transfers to the reserve for granting equity incentives 0 10) Profit to be paid as dividends; 0 11) Profit to be paid as annual payments (bonus) and for other purposes; 0 12) Retained earnings (loss) at the end of the financial year. 45,582

5. Resolution regarding purchase of own shares of the public joint-stock company Invalda INVL.

Until the day of the General Shareholders meeting the reserve for the purchase of own shares which is equal to EUR 9,888 thousand is not used.

To use the reserve (a part of it) for the purchase of own shares and to purchase shares in Invalda INVL under these conditions:

1) The goal for the purchase of own shares - to ensure shareholders a possibility to sell companys shares.

2) The maximum number of shares to be acquired - the nominal value of own shares may not exceed 1/10 of the share capital.

3) The period during which the company may purchase its own shares - 18 months from the day of this resolution.

4) The maximum and minimal one share acquisition price: the maximum one share acquisition price - value of consolidated equity per one share calculated according to the last publicly announced data of the consolidated equity of Invalda INVL before the decision of the Board is taken; minimum one share acquisition price - EUR 1.

5) The conditions of the selling of the purchased shares and minimal purchase price: Purchased own shares (including the shares acquired before the adoption of this decision) may be cancelled by the decision of the General Shareholders Meeting or by the decision of the Board granted the right to acquire the shares for the employees upon conditions of the Rules for Granting Equity Incentives, or sold by the decision of the Board upon the condition that minimum sale price for one share isnt lower than value of consolidated equity per one share calculated according to the publicly announced data of the consolidated equity of Invalda INVL before the decision of the Board is taken, and the sale procedure will ensure equal possibilities for all shareholders to purchase these shares.

The Board of Invalda INVL is delegated on the basis of this resolution and the Law on Companies of the Republic of Lithuania to organise purchase and sale of own shares, to organise purchase and selling procedure of own shares and to determine an order and timing for purchase and sale of own shares as well as the amount of shares and shares price, and to complete all other actions related with purchase and sale procedure of own shares.

From the date of this resolution the resolution of the General Shareholders Meeting on 30 April 2018 on the acquisition of own shares expires.

6. Resolution regarding the specific number of ordinary registered shares of the public joint-stock company Invalda INVL for which during year 2019 employees shall be offered stock options contracts and regarding the price of the shares.

It is offered for the employees of Invalda INVL and of the companies, in which Invalda INVL owns 50 per cent or more of shares, during the year 2019 to sign stock options contracts, on the basis of which, according to the procedures and terms established in stock options contracts, in year 2022 employees will be able to exercise the right to acquire up to 80,000 ordinary registered shares of Invalda INVL of EUR 0.29 nominal value, by paying for every acquired share EUR 1 (one). The acquisition price of shares is fixed; it does not change depending on performance results of the company and / or other companies of the group or on ordinary registered share price of Invalda INVL on a regulated market.

7. Resolution regarding increase of authorised capital of the public joint stock company Invalda INVL.

Increase the authorised capital of the joint stock company Invalda INVL by additional monetary contributions from EUR 3,441,137.97 to EUR 3,456,480.71.

8. Class, number, nominal value and minimum issue price and payment of the issued shares.

The authorized capital of Invalda INVL is increased by issuing 52,906 ordinary registered shares with a nominal value of EUR 0.29.

The minimum issue price of one share is EUR 1 (minimum total issue value - EUR 52,906).

The issue price of newly issued shares is paid in cash. The share subscription agreements are concluded until 12 June 2019, the maturity date is until June 14, 2019.

If not all shares are subscribed for during the subscription period, the authorised capital will be increased by the sum of the nominal values of the subscribed shares. On the basis of this decision, the Board of the Company must amend the Articles of Association and the number of shares accordingly in the Articles of Association and submit the amended Articles of Association to the Registrar of Legal Entities.

9. Cancellation of the pre-emptive right of shareholders of the public joint stock company Invalda INVL to acquire shares issued by the Company.

Pursuant to the provisions of Article 57 of the Law on Companies of the Republic of Lithuania, to cancel the pre-emptive right of the shareholders of Invalda INVL to acquire 52,906 ordinary registered shares with a nominal value of EUR 0.29 each.

Priority will be revoked according to decision of the General Meeting of Shareholders held on 29 April 2016, on the basis of which employees of the public joint-stock company Invalda INVL and employees of the companies where more than 50 per cent of the shares are owned by the Company, signed stock option contracts to acquire 52,906 ordinary registered shares of the public joint-stock company Invalda INVL.

Accordingly, the pre-emptive right to acquire the newly issued 52,906 ordinary registered shares of the public joint-stock company Invalda INVL is granted to the employees of the joint stock company Invalda INVL and employees of the companies with more than 50 per cent of the shares owned by Invalda INVL, who have concluded the aforementioned option contracts (the list of employees who are entitled to acquire the newly issued 52,906 ordinary registered shares of the public joint-stock company Invalda INVL is stored in the premises of Invalda INVL, in order to ensure the protection of employee's personal data the list of employees is not published).

10. Amendment of the Articles of Association of the public joint stock company Invalda INVL and approval of the new wording of the Articles of Association.

Taking into account the decisions of the agendas items 7, 8,9 and in accordance with the Law on Companies of the Republic of Lithuania, to approve the new wording of the Articles of Association of the public joint stock company Invalda INVL (the draft Articles of Association is attached), changing the entire text of the Articles of Association (without separately approving the amendment of each clause of the Articles of Association).

To authorise Darius Sulnis, the president of the public joint stock company Invalda INVL, to sign the new wording of the Company's Articles of Association.

The documents related to the agenda, draft resolutions on every item of agenda, documents what have to be submitted to the General Shareholders Meeting and other information related to realization of shareholders rights are published on the Companys website www.invaldainvl.com section For investors, also available in the office of Invalda INVL (Gyneju str. 14, Vilnius) during working hours. Phone for information +370 5 279 0601.

The shareholders are entitled: (i) to propose to supplement the agenda of the General Shareholders Meeting submitting draft resolution on every additional item of agenda or, then there is no need to make a decision - explanation of the shareholder (this right is granted to shareholders who hold shares carrying at least 1/20 of all the votes). Proposal to supplement the agenda is submitted in writing sending the proposal by registered mail to the Company at Gyneju str. 14, Vilnius, Lithuania, or delivered in person to the representative of the Company or by sending proposal to the Company by email info@invaldainvl.com. The agenda is supplemented if the proposal is received no later than 14 days before the General Shareholders Meeting; (ii) to propose draft resolutions on the issues already included or to be included in the agenda of the General Shareholders Meeting at any time prior to the date of the General Shareholders meeting (in writing, sending the proposal by registered mail to the Company at Gyneju str. 14, Vilnius, Lithuania, or delivered in person to the representative of the Company or by sending proposal to the Company by email info@invaldainvl.com) or in writing during the General Shareholders Meeting (this right is granted to shareholders who hold shares carrying at least 1/20 of all the votes); (iii) to submit questions to the Company related to the issues of agenda of the General Shareholders Meeting in advance but no later than 3 business days prior to the General Shareholders Meeting in writing sending the proposal by registered mail to the Company at Gyneju str. 14, Vilnius, Lithuania, or delivered in person to the representative of the Company or by sending proposal to the Company by email info@invaldainvl.com. The company reserves the right to answer to those shareholders of the Company who can be identified and whose questions are not related to the company's confidential information or commercial secrets.

Shareholder participating at the General Shareholders Meeting and having the right to vote, must submit documents confirming personal identity. Each shareholder may authorize either a natural or a legal person to participate and to vote on the shareholder's behalf at the General Shareholders Meeting. A power of attorney issued by a natural person must be certified by a notary. The representative has the same rights as his represented shareholder at the General Shareholders Meeting. The authorized persons must have documents confirming their personal identity and power of attorney approved in the manner specified by law which must be submitted to the Company no later than before the commencement of registration for the General Shareholders Meeting. A power of attorney issued in a foreign state must be translated into Lithuanian and legalised in the manner established by law. The Company does not establish special form of power of attorney.

Shareholder is entitled to issue power of attorney by means of electronic communications for legal or natural persons to participate and to vote on its behalf at the General Shareholders Meeting. No notarisation of such authorization is required.

The power of attorney issued through electronic communication means must be confirmed by the shareholder with a safe electronic signature developed by safe signature equipment and approved by a qualified certificate effective in the Republic of Lithuania. The shareholder shall inform the Company on the power of attorney issued through the means of electronic communication by e-mail info@invaldainvl.com not later than on the last business day before the General Shareholders Meeting. The power of attorney and notification must be issued in writing and could be sent to the Company by electronic communication means, if the transmitted information is secured and the shareholder's identity can be identified.

The Company is not providing the possibility to attend and vote at the General Shareholders Meeting through electronic means of communication.

Shareholder or its representative may vote in writing by filling general voting bulletin, in such a case the requirement to deliver a personal identity document does not apply. The form of general voting bulletin is presented at the Company's webpage www.invaldainvl.com section For Investors. If shareholder requests, the Company shall send the general voting bulletin to the requesting shareholder by registered mail or shall deliver it in person against signature no later than 10 days prior to the General Shareholders Meeting free of charge. The filled general voting bulletin must be signed by the shareholder or its authorized representative. Document confirming the right to vote must be added to the general voting bulletin if an authorized person is voting. The filled general voting bulletin must be sent by the registered mail to the Company at Gyneju str. 14, Vilnius, Lithuania, or delivered in person to the representative of the Company no later than the day before of the General Shareholders Meeting.

The person authorized to provide additional information is:

Darius Sulnis, President of Invalda INVL

E-mail Darius.Sulnis@invl.com

Attachments
Lithuanian English

Invalda INVL, one of the Baltic regions leading asset management groups, had equity of EUR 65.5 million at the end of 2018, or EUR 5.67 per share (respectively 2.36% and 2.5% more than at the end of 2017). According to audited results published by the company, Invalda INVLs profit for 2018 was EUR 0.34 million, or 97% less than in 2017.

Profit in 2018 was the smallest in the last several years because markets were unfavourable for growth in the value of investments. We also invested significantly in the asset management business and in attracting new clients. We think the work that has been done and the investments that have been made will positively impact the groups growth and results already in the coming years, said Darius Sulnis, the president of Invalda INVL.

The groups client assets under management at the end of 2018 totalled EUR 675 million, which is 10.4% more than a year earlier (EUR 611.5 million).

Asset management business

According to Darius Sulnis, the asset management business is strategic for Invalda INVL, and the priority is to ensure the successful management of entrusted assets.

In many of the worlds financial markets, 2018 was the worst year since the last financial crisis. While most of INVLs products were and are the best or among the best in the market and generate long-term returns for investors, in 2018 results were negative, and clients experienced a total loss of 21.9 million euros. Were glad that in the first quarter of this year those results were essentially reversed, Sulnis said.

Revenue from asset management grew 4.2% in 2018 to EUR 7.4 million, though due to rapid expansion, the overall result for the asset management business was a loss of EUR 0.7 million.

Work establishing the INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund was done in 2018. On its first closing in February 2019, EUR 106 million was raised and the INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund became the largest private equity investment fund in the Baltics. Great attention was also paid making retail services more user-friendly and accessible. Moreover, changes and investments were made related to the 2019 2nd pillar pension funds reform and the presentation of 3rd pillar pension fund opportunities.

We can already see the positive effects of this work. Were happy to be able to introduce new significant investment opportunities and to contribute financially and with our work to the growth of individual companies, the country and region, Darius Sulnis said.

Investments

At the end of 2018, the fair value of the Invalda INVL groups investments in investment products it manages was EUR 26.4 million. Of them, the most significant investments were in INVL Baltic Real Estate, the INVL Emerging Europe Bond Subfund, Moldova-Agroindbank, and INVL Technology.

We hold the principle that Invalda INVL should invest free funds together with INVL clients. We think coinciding interests have a positive influence on stakeholders mutual trust and encourage long-term collaboration, Darius Sulnis said.

In October 2018, Invalda INVL together with clients and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) as well as the private equity manager Horizon Capital (Invalda INVL, Horizon Capital and the EBRD formed a consortium that acts via the UK-based company HEIM Partners) invested in Moldovas largest commercial bank Moldova-Agroindbank.

Invalda INVL also has other historical investments, whose total value was EUR 30.5 million. The largest of them are the investments in Siauliu Bankas and Litagra.

Although there wasnt significant growth in the value of our own assets last year, we worked actively with our holdings. Changes that were made are positively impacting the operations of the specific businesses and should increase those businesses value, Darius Sulnis said.

Although Invalda INVLs profit was the smallest in the last several years, he said, given the growing asset management business, positive changes at business holdings, and investments made, it can be said that the year was important and that the work done will positively influence the groups growth and performance in the future.

The companys published audited results are to be approved at the annual general meeting of shareholders. At the shareholders meeting, it will be proposed to increase the companys share capital in order to realize stock options for group employees granted in 2016. Additionally, approval of the signing of options contracts with employees of group companies for results of 2018 will be proposed, as will the terms and conditions for signing the options contracts. And as in previous years, it is planned to propose permitting the company to buy back its own shares.





The person authorized to provide additional information is:

Darius Sulnis, President of Invalda INVL

E-mail Darius.Sulnis@invl.com

Attachments
SOUTHAMPTON, United Kingdom, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Maru Group (Maru or The Group), the technology-enabled market research and customer insights company, today announces the alignment of Maru/edr to the groups wider advisory insights brand, Maru/Matchbox.



Following the recent announcement of Maru/Motothe groups Latin American businessbecoming part of the professional services brand, Maru/edr will also align to become Maru/Matchbox. The change will better strengthen and integrate the companys multi-market offer and technology across North American, Latin American and European offices.

Our UK business is a major success and I believe that this change will provide further momentum and alignment of our multi-market offer and proprietary technology-based innovations to our clients, said Group CEO, Ged Parton.

As we approached our twenty-year anniversary and reflected on our increasingly dynamic client offering across both solutions and markets, we decided to adopt the Maru/Matchbox name to offer an even wider solution set to UK and international clients, said Gary Topiol, Maru/Matchbox UK, CEO. Were excited to strengthen our relationship with our sister companies in both North and South America and look forward to bringing an increasing pace of insight innovation to both our clients and the wider marketplace, he added.

About Maru/Matchbox

Maru/Matchbox has been pushing the boundaries of the customer market insights space for over a decade. We are a sector-focused consumer intelligence firm delivering better client outcomes. Our expert teams are deeply invested in key sectors of the economy, delivering insights and analysis backed by superior quality data.

We leverage the powerful combination of action-oriented advisory insight and proprietary cutting-edge technology placing the Voice of the Customer at the heart of important business decisions.

About Maru Group

Maru is a technology-enabled market and customer insights company, whose brands are leading the way in the provision of research, insight and advisory services powered by cutting-edge technology and innovation. The Group is quickly emerging as an exciting challenger brand, disrupting the traditional market research and insights industry.

Established in 2016 by industry veteran Ged Parton, Maru uses in-depth knowledge of industry sectors and its state-of-the-art technologies to equip its clients with targeted and relevant insights at speed. These insights enable Marus clients to adapt their corporate strategy and innovate quickly to stay ahead of the competition.

The Group is developing a portfolio of market-leading companies with growth characteristics, talented management teams and collaborative cultures that prize intellectual generosity.

Maru is backed by Primary Capital Partners LLP, a UK-based provider of private equity finance for high potential and growth companies.
TORONTO, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd. (TSX: WDO) (Wesdome or the Company) today announces upcoming changes to the Board of Directors (the Board).

At the Companys upcoming 2019 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (AGM), Mr. Charles Page will retire as Chairman and director and will not stand for re-election. In addition, Mr. Rowland Uloth will also be retiring from the Board and will not stand for re-election at the AGM.

Pursuant to the Boards succession plan, following the AGM and pending his re-election to the Board, Mr. Warwick Morley-Jepson will be appointed as the new independent Chairman of the Board. Mr. Morley-Jepson has more than 35 years experience in the mining industry within operations, project and business development in the precious metal sector. He served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Kinross Gold Corporation from October 2014 to December 2016, and as Senior Vice President, Operations, and Vice President and Regional Vice President - Russia, between October 2009 and October 2014. Prior to joining Kinross, Mr. Morley-Jepson served as Chief Executive Officer of SUN Gold, a privately-held gold mining company with interests in Russia and Kazakhstan. Prior to that he was Managing Director of Barrick Africa, Barrick Platinum South Africa and three Russian-based companies in the Barrick group, and spent several years with Placer Dome leading their South African project and business development efforts. Mr. Morley-Jepson graduated in the faculty of Mechanical Engineering (HND) at the Technicon Witwatersrand, now part of the University of Johannesburg. Mr. Morley-Jepson has been an independent director of the Board since June 2017.

Mr. Page commented, During my tenure as a director and then Chair of Wesdome in 2015, the Company has seen steady production growth at the Eagle River Mine as a result of operational improvements and exploration success from the aggressive programs launched. Since 2016, the cash flow this asset generates has financed all exploration and development at the Kiena Complex, which has uncovered a new high-grade gold system that is being considered for a mine re-start. As the Company transitions from a junior to intermediate gold producer, the time has come to hand the reins over to Warwick Morley-Jepson. His extensive knowledge, skills and experience as a mine operator positions him well to assume the Chair role as the Company enters this new stage. I am tremendously proud of the achievements of Wesdome to date. The Company has established solid operational performance, exploration successes, and delivered excellent shareholder returns along the way. With this progress, there remains much upside, and I look forward to continuing with the Company as a technical advisor. I wish to take this opportunity to thank all our shareholders for their confidence and trust during my tenure as Chair.

Mr. Duncan Middlemiss, President and CEO, added, On behalf of the Board and management, I would like to thank both Charlie and Rolly for their many years of service and valuable contributions to the Company. Their knowledge, commitment, and guidance have contributed greatly to the success of Wesdome and our vision of becoming Canadas next mid-tier gold producer.

2019 Director Nominees

In connection with the AGM, the Company is pleased to announce that the Governance and Nominating Committee has recommended, and the Board of Directors (the Board) has approved, six director nominees, including new independent director nominee Mr. Brian Skanderbeg.

Mr. Skanderbeg has been the founding President and CEO of GFG Resources Inc. since July 2016. Previously, he was President and CEO of Claude Resources Inc. (CRJ) which was acquired by SSRM Inc. for $337 million in June of 2016. He joined CRJ in March 2007 as Exploration Manager, before assuming the roles of Vice-President of Exploration and Chief Operating Officer. He also worked for Goldcorp Inc., Inco Ltd. and Helio Resources Corp., holding positions in both exploration and operations. Mr. Skanderbeg holds a B.Sc. in Geology from the University of Manitoba and an M.Sc. in Exploration Geology from Rhodes University, South Africa. He brings extensive experience in the exploration and evaluation of gold systems, operational management, cost and asset optimization and strategic analysis. He has been a licensed professional geologist in the Province of Saskatchewan since 2007.

In addition to Mr. Skanderbeg who will stand for election at the AGM, Charles Main, Duncan Middlemiss, Nadine Miller, Warwick Morley-Jepson and Bill Washington will stand for re-election.

2019 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders

The Company invites shareholders to attend the AGM being held at 10:00 a.m. ET on Tuesday, May 14, 2019 at the TMX Broadcast Centre located at 130 King Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M5X 1C9. Shareholders of record as of the close of business on April 1, 2019, being the record date, will be eligible to vote at the meeting. Complete details of the AGM are contained in the Companys 2019 Management Information Circular, which will be available on the Companys website and on SEDAR at www.sedar.com on April 9, 2019.

ABOUT WESDOME

Wesdome Gold Mines has had over 30 years of continuous gold mining operations in Canada. The Company is 100% Canadian focused with a pipeline of projects in various stages of development. The Eagle River Complex in Wawa, Ontario is currently producing gold from two mines, the Eagle River Underground Mine and the Mishi Open pit, from a central mill. Wesdome is actively exploring its brownfields asset, the Kiena Complex in Val dOr, Quebec. The Kiena Complex is a fully permitted former mine with a 930-metre shaft and 2,000 tonne-per-day mill. The Company has further upside at its Moss Lake gold deposit, located 100 kilometres west of Thunder Bay, Ontario. The Company has approximately 135.8 million shares issued and outstanding and trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol WDO.

For further information, please contact:

Duncan Middlemiss or Lindsay Carpenter Dunlop President and CEO VP Investor Relations 416-360-3743 ext. 2029 416-360-3743 ext. 2025 dmiddlemiss@wesdome.com ldunlop@wesdome.com 220 Bay Street, Suite 1200 Toronto, ON, M5J 2W4 Toll Free: 1-866-4-WDO-TSX Phone: 416-360-3743, Fax: 416-360-7620 Website: www.wesdome.com

This news release contains forward-looking information which may include, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the future financial or operating performance of the Company and its projects. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as plans, expects, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates, or believes or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this press release and the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances, managements estimates or opinions should change, except as required by securities legislation. Accordingly, the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company has included in this news release certain non-IFRS performance measures, including, but not limited to, mine operating profit, mining and processing costs and cash costs. Cash costs per ounce reflect actual mine operating costs incurred during the fiscal period divided by the number of ounces produced. These measures are not defined under IFRS and therefore should not be considered in isolation or as an alternative to or more meaningful than, net income (loss) or cash flow from operating activities as determined in accordance with IFRS as an indicator of our financial performance or liquidity. The Company believes that, in addition to conventional measures prepared in accordance with IFRS, certain investors use this information to evaluate the Company's performance and ability to generate cash flow



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ZAGAME Automotive Group (ZAG) chief executive Michael Winkler is confident the leading prestige motor vehicle retailers new repair and restoration facility in Melbournes north-west will bring in extra customers  and will expand its reach across Australia and abroad.

The 4000-square-metre operation at Tullamarine has four restoration bays available and offers OEM-standard repairs for high-end brands such as Rolls-Royce, Ferrari and Lamborghini, to name a few, as well as a restoration operation for classic cars, which can be completely restored to showroom standard.

In an interview with GoAuto, Mr Winkler said the program could help to broaden ZAGs reach internationally, starting with Australasia and eventually moving further into the Asian market.

Zagame has traditionally been associated with Melbourne, where automotive operations commenced in 1999, and has recently expanded into Adelaide.

When asked how broad the scope could be for restoration customers, Mr Winkler said there was no geographic limit to how far it can expand.

I wouldnt limit it, Id even say worldwide to be bold, he said.

But thats not going to happen next Monday morning  its a matter of establishing a reputation and going forward from there.

The first thing you need to have is the infrastructure  we certainly have that now. Weve had the expertise in-house for quite some time, and weve been doing work on a one-off basis for quite some time already, its just that we havent trusted it out to the road yet.

And well end up doing a couple of showcase products to communicate our abilities.

Mr Winkler said the restoration operations would start off slowly, building up over the coming years and hopefully culminating in such a high quality of restoration as to be shown at classic car shows such as the Pebble Beach Concours dElegance.

So far, the facility has restored a 1978 Porsche 911 Turbo, and is in the process of rejuvenating a Ferrari Dino.

Three more Dinos and a 250 Testa Rossa are also in the pipeline to be restored by Zagame.

Featuring specifically trained technicians, Zagame Autobodys Bespoke division also includes a high-end repair operation, which offers the chance for supercars to be repaired on-site, instead of shipping them to their home countries or having a specialised technician travel out to fix them.

Along with its own internationally trained mechanics, the facility features state-of-the-art work bays and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of expensive and sensitive diagnostic equipment, sometimes designed specifically for one model of car.

With a multitude of glass panels and viewing areas, ZAG is also encouraging owners to visit and observe the repair process, with the goal of turning what might have been a negative experience into a positive one.

Mr Winkler said the involved experience of its restoration process will help bring new customers to the company.

These days, particularly in the luxury end, its all about the experience and the feeling of being welcome, the knowledge that you will be completely taken care of if something goes wrong, he said.

(Customers are) willing to pay what the price of these cars are, but they just want the peace of mind to say, I want to drive and I dont want any hassles.

And what were doing out at Tullamarine is really a supplement to that, that should something go wrong, or should you wish an enhancement to your car whether its a clear wrap or a colour wrap or some innovative wheels or styling, blacking out or the windows, or whatever it is that interests you, we can take care of it.

He added that the response from customers who have toured the facility has been overwhelmingly positive, and that the unique nature of the repair facility made it a particularly valuable asset for ZAG.

Its been overwhelming  it would have to be for a customer, he said.

I think its fairly unique in terms of what you can offer. Im certainly not aware of something similar existing in the marketplace here or even overseas.

The Road to Recovery podcast series
TMAC Resources Inc. (TSX: TMR) (TMAC or the Company) is pleased to report first quarter 2019 results for production and certain operating metrics for the underground mine and processing plant. TMAC will release its financial results on May 1, 2019 as described below.

FIRST QUARTER 2019 PRODUCTION SUMMARY

Production: 40,050 ounces of gold produced

Sales: 39,200 ounces of gold sold

Mining: 1,600 tpd, with a grade of 10.2 g/t

Processing Plant: 1,610 tpd, with a feed grade of 10.3 g/t, and 84% recovery

Jason Neal, President and Chief Executive Officer of TMAC, stated, In the first quarter we produced a record 40,050 ounces of gold, 18% more than the previous quarter, which drives improved financial performance. Importantly, the Doris underground mine is ramping up nicely, achieving a record production rate of 1,600 tonnes per day at a grade of 10.2 g/t compared with the previous quarters 1,330 tonnes per day at a grade of 8.6 g/t, a 20% higher underground mine tonnage production rate than Q4 2018. We continued to commission our processing plant retrofit, focused on increased gravity recovery and improved stability, with a realized recovery of 84% for the full quarter. We had improvement throughout the quarter and finished strong. As recoveries continue to stabilize and approach our targets, we will push throughput harder, driving our next step in growth.

Jason Neal continued, Concurrently, we released very exciting exploration results for Doris North BTD, Madrid Naartok East and Suluk zones. The recent BTD results, which thus far are largely in areas that will be mined in 2019, show consistent visible gold in high-grade drill hole intercepts. The Naartok East results are defining a higher-grade zone near surface. The Suluk results inform planning for potential future bulk sample and underground exploration which is currently being evaluated.

QUARTERLY PRODUCTION RESULTS Q1 2019 Q4 2018 Q3 2018 Q2 2018 Q1 2018 Gold Production (oz) 40,050 34,080 33,100 23,140 20,650 Plant Throughput (tpd) 1,610 1,800 1,390 970 930 Feed Grade (g/t) 10.3 7.8 10.1 10.0 10.9 Recovery (%) 84 82 80 82 71 Mine Production (tpd)(1) 1,600 2,310(2) 1,130 790 990 Mined Grade (g/t)(1) 10.2 7.4(2) 8.4 9.6 8.1 (1) Includes incremental ore from development (2) Includes production of 90,200 tonnes at 5.9 g/t from surface mining the crown pillar at Doris; without this material, underground production alone was 1,330 tonnes per day at a grade of 8.6 g/t

FIRST QUARTER 2019 FINANCIAL RESULTS  CONFERENCE CALL AND WEBCAST

TMAC plans to release its first quarter 2019 financial results after market close on Wednesday, May 1, 2019. Senior management will host a conference call and webcast to discuss these results on Thursday, May 2, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. (ET).

Conference call and webcast details:

Thursday, May 2, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. ET Webcast www.tmacresources.com Toll Free (North America) 1-800-319-4610 Toronto 416-915-3239 International 604-638-5340 An archive of the webcast will be available on the Companys website.

CONFERENCE ATTENDANCE

April 8, 2019

Jason Neal, President and Chief Executive Officer, will attend the 2019 CIBC London Gold Forum taking place in London, United Kingdom.

April 911, 2019

Jason Neal, President and Chief Executive Officer, will present on Wednesday April 10, 2019 at 11:30 a.m. GMT +1 at the 2019 European Gold Forum taking place in Zurich, Switzerland.

ABOUT TMAC RESOURCES INC.

TMAC Resources operates Hope Bay located in Nunavut, Canada. The property and operations are remote but not isolated, serviced by both a port and airstrip. Hope Bay is an 80 km by 20 km Archean greenstone belt that has been explored by BHP, Miramar, Newmont and TMAC over a period spanning more than 30 years. In that time, more than $1.5 billion of sunk expenditures have been spent in exploration and evaluation, surface infrastructure, and mine and process plant development. TMAC began producing gold in early 2017 from Doris, its first mine at Hope Bay, and processed gold at the Doris Plant which originally had nameplate capacity of 1,000 tonnes per day and expanded to 2,000 tonnes per day midway through 2018. Hope Bay has 4.8 million ounces of measured and indicated resources at Doris, Madrid and Boston deposits, largely within 350 metres of surface. There is potential to grow these established deposits considerably at depth, and then grow resources further through the prioritized exploration of the more than 90 other identified regional targets. TMAC is now permitted to produce from both Madrid and Boston.

FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

This release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws that is intended to be covered by the safe harbours created by those laws. Forward-looking information includes statements that use forward-looking terminology such as may, will, expect, anticipate, believe, continue, potential or the negative thereof or other variations or comparable terminology.

Forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and management bases forward-looking statements on a number of estimates and assumptions at the date the statements are made. Furthermore, such forward-looking information involves a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual plans, intentions, activities, results, performance or achievements expressed or implied. See Risk Factors in the Companys Annual Information Form dated March 11, 2019 filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com for a discussion of these risks.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190407005029/en/

Contact

TMAC Resources Inc.

Jason Neal

President and Chief Executive Officer

416-628-0216

Lisa Wilkinson

Director, Investor Relations and Strategic Development

416-628-0216

www.tmacresources.com
TORONTO, April 8, 2019 - First Cobalt Corp. (TSX-V: FCC, ASX: FCC, OTCQX: FTSSF) (the "Company") is pleased to announce President & CEO, Trent Mell will be presenting at the Fastmarkets MB Battery Materials 2019 conference in Shanghai, China this week.

In conjunction with this conference, Mr. Mell will be meeting with a number of potential investors to discuss restart scenarios for the First Cobalt Refinery in Ontario, Canada. Conference participants include some of the world's largest cobalt miners, battery makers and electric vehicle companies.

Trent Mell, President & Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"Asia is the most important hub for electric vehicle investment today  China's EV sales are anticipated to grow from just over 500,000 units in 2018 to over 5 million by 20251, while North American companies such as Tesla are in the process of building new factories in Shanghai. As we have now demonstrated the First Cobalt Refinery can produce battery grade material, I look forward to advancing discussing with potential partners."

On April 3, 2019, the Company announced that it successfully produced a high purity battery grade cobalt sulfate using the First Cobalt Refinery flowsheet. The First Cobalt Refinery is a hydrometallurgical cobalt refinery in Ontario, Canada, approximately 600 kilometres from the U.S. border, accessible by road or rail.

The First Cobalt Refinery has the potential to produce either a cobalt sulfate for the lithium-ion battery market or cobalt metal for the North American aerospace industry or other industrial and military applications. Once operational, the Refinery would become the only North American producer of refined cobalt for the North American EV market.

About First Cobalt

First Cobalt is a Canadian-based pure-play cobalt company and owner of the only permitted primary cobalt refinery in North America. The Company is exploring a restart of the First Cobalt Refinery in Ontario, Canada, which could produce 2,000 tonnes of cobalt sulfate or metallic cobalt per year. First Cobalt's main cobalt project is the Iron Creek Cobalt Project in Idaho, USA, which has Inferred mineral resources of 26.9 million tonnes grading 0.11% cobalt equivalent, or an alternative underground-only scenario of 4.4 million tonnes grading 0.3% cobalt equivalent.

On behalf of First Cobalt Corp.

Trent Mell

President & Chief Executive Officer

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.

Cautionary Note Regarding Estimates of Resources

Readers are cautioned that mineral resources are not economic mineral reserves and that the economic viability of resources that are not mineral reserves has not been demonstrated. The estimate of mineral resources may be materially affected by geology, environmental, permitting, legal, title, socio-political, marketing or other relevant issues. The mineral resource estimate is classified in accordance with the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum's "2014 CIM Definition Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves" incorporated by reference into NI 43-101. Under Canadian rules, estimates of inferred mineral resources may not form the basis of feasibility or pre-feasibility studies or economic studies except for Preliminary Economic Assessment as defined under NI 43-101. Readers are cautioned not to assume that further work on the stated resources will lead to mineral reserves that can be mined economically. An Inferred Mineral Resource as defined by the CIM Standing Committee is "that part of a Mineral Resource for which quantity and grade or quality are estimated on the basis of limited geological evidence and sampling. Geological evidence is sufficient to imply but not verify geological and grade or quality continuity. An Inferred Mineral Resource has a lower level of confidence than that applying to an Indicated Mineral Resource and must not be converted to a Mineral Reserve. It is reasonably expected that the majority of Inferred Mineral Resources could be upgraded to Indicated Mineral Resources with continued exploration."

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may contain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (together, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities laws and the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, are forward-looking statements. Generally, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of terminology such as "plans", "expects', "estimates", "intends", "anticipates", "believes" or variations of such words, or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results, performance and opportunities to differ materially from those implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements are set forth in the management discussion and analysis and other disclosures of risk factors for First Cobalt, filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although First Cobalt believes that the information and assumptions used in preparing the forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on these statements, which only apply as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed times frames or at all. Except where required by applicable law, First Cobalt disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

_________________ 1 Source: BNEF

SOURCE First Cobalt Corp.
PHOENIX, April 8, 2019 - Uptick Newswire Stock Day Podcast welcomed GFG Resources Inc. (OTCQB: GFGSF) ("the Company"), a North American precious metals exploration company focused on district scale gold projects in tier one mining jurisdictions, Ontario and Wyoming. President and CEO, Brian Skanderbeg, joined Stock Day host Everett Jolly.

Jolly began the interview by noting that this is the Company's first time on the Stock Day Podcast and then asked Skanderbeg to share some background information on the Company. Skanderbeg explained that he has been working in the gold sector and gold space for around 20 years. The Company was built two years ago and focuses on discovery stage opportunities. "The goal here is to make the next relevant discovery in the gold space," stated Skanderbeg.

Jolly then asked about the Company's projects in Canada. Skanderbeg explained that the Company acquired the land in Canada about one year ago and has been exploring the site ever since. So far, the potential of the site seems substantial and the Company has recently announced exciting findings in that area.

Skanderbeg then shared that working in the gold exploration industry takes a high level of skill, especially as this district continues to evolve. He further explained that the industry lacks growth overall, which is why the Company is dedicated to focusing on the discovery stage of their projects. "when considering the challenges of this sector, you have to look at them as opportunities.", stated Skanderbeg. He also stated that throughout 2019 the Company will be advancing both of their current projects astronomically.

"At our project in Wyoming, we've brought in best-in-class partners," stated Skanderbeg when explaining how the Company plans to progress with their current projects over the next year. He further shared that the program designed to facilitate their current projects will launch in July.

Jolly then asked why shareholders should be excited about the Company. Skanderbeg shared that the Company's two projects are expected to generate plenty of exciting news and findings. The Company is currentlyfull funded to executetheir exploration program and has seen a rise in shareholder interest. Skanderbeg closed the interview by sharing that the team behind the Company is exceptionally credible and explained that right now is an excellent time to get involved as a shareholder.

To hear Brian Skanderbeg's entire interview, follow the link to the podcast here: https://upticknewswire.com/featured-interview-ceo-brian-skanderbeg-of-gfg-resources-inc-otcqb-gfgsf/

Investors Hangout is a proud sponsor of "Stock Day", and Uptick Newswire encourages listeners to visit the company's message board at https://investorshangout.com/

About GFG Resources Inc.

GFG Resources is a North American precious metals exploration company focused on district scale gold projects in tier one mining jurisdictions, Ontario and Wyoming. In Ontario, the Company owns 100% of the Pen and Dore gold projects, two large and highly prospective gold properties west of the prolific gold district of Timmins, Ontario, Canada. The Pen and the Dore gold projects have the same geological setting that hosts most of the gold deposits found in the Timmins Gold Camp which have produced over 70 million ounces of gold. In Wyoming, the Company has partnered with Newcrest Mining Ltd. through an option and earn-in agreement to advance the Rattlesnake Hills Gold Project. The geologic setting, alteration, and mineralization seen in the Rattlesnake Hills are similar to other gold deposits of the Rocky Mountain alkaline province which, collectively, have produced over 50 million ounces of gold.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

CAUTION REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

All statements, other than statements of historical fact, contained in this news release constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (referred to herein as "forward-looking statements"). Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the future price of gold, success of exploration activities and metallurgical test work, permitting time lines, currency exchange rate fluctuations, requirements for additional capital, government regulation of exploration work, environmental risks, unanticipated reclamation expenses, title disputes or claims and limitations on insurance coverage. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate" or "believes", or the negative connotation thereof or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results, "may", "could", "would", "will", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved" or the negative connotation thereof.

All forward-looking statements are based on various assumptions, including, without limitation, the expectations and beliefs of management, the assumed long-term price of gold, that the Company will receive required permits and access to surface rights, that the Company can access financing, appropriate equipment, and sufficient labor, and that the political environment within Canada and the United States will continue to support the development of mining projects in Canada and the United States. In addition, the similarity or proximity of other gold deposits to the Rattlesnake Hill Gold Project, the Pen Gold Project, and the Dore Gold Project is not necessarily indicative of the geological setting, alterationand mineralization of the Rattlesnake Hills Gold Project, the Pen Gold Project and the Dore Gold Project.

Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of GFG to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to: actual results of current exploration activities; environmental risks; future prices of gold; operating risks; accidents, labour issues and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining government approvals or financing; and other risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties are not, and should not be construed as being, exhaustive.

Although GFG has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. In addition, forward-looking statements are provided solely for the purpose of providing information about management's current expectations and plans and allowing investors and others to get a better understanding of our operating environment. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements in this news release are made as of the date hereof and GFG assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable laws.

For further information, please contact:

GFG Resources Inc.

Brian Skanderbeg, President & CEO

Phone: (306) 931-0930

or

Marc Lepage, Vice President, Business Development

Phone: (306) 931-0930

Email: info@gfgresources.com

Website: www.gfgresources.com

Stay Connected with Us

Twitter: https://twitter.com/gfgresources

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gfgresources/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GFGResourcesInc/

About Uptick Newswire and the "Stock Day" Podcast

Founded in 2013, Uptick Newswire is the fastest growing media outlet for Nano-Cap and Micro-Cap companies. It educates investors while simultaneously working with penny stock and OTC companies, providing transparency and clarification of under-valued, under-sold Micro-Cap stocks of the market. Uptick provides companies with customized solutions to their news distribution in both national and international media outlets.Uptick is the sole producer of its "Stock Day" Podcast, which is the number one radio show of its kind in America. The Uptick Network "Stock Day" Podcast is an extension of Uptick Newswire, which recently launched its Video Interview Studio located in Phoenix, Arizona.

602-441-3474

https://upticknewswire.com/

SOURCE: Uptick Newswire

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/541292/Uptick-Newswire-Hosts-GFG-Resources-Inc-on-the-Stock-Day-Podcast-to-Discuss-the-Massive-Potential-of-2019-Projects
Halifax, April 8, 2019 - Ucore Rare Metals Inc. (TSXV: UCU) (OTCQX: UURAF) ("Ucore" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on the legal proceedings in Nova Scotia commenced on December 11, 2018.

On March 25, 2019, the Nova Scotia Supreme Court confirmed amendments to Ucore's pleadings. The amendments expressly seek injunctive relief against IBC Advanced Technologies, Inc. ("IBC"), as well as explicitly seeking redress for IBC's alleged breach of the Option to Purchase Agreement between the parties and unlawful interference with Ucore's economic relations, as well as declaratory relief entitling Ucore to proceed with the purchase of IBC as laid out in the Option to Purchase Agreement.

Ucore has also moved to convert the proceedings to an action (see "Note 1" below), including requesting that a judge of the Supreme Court closely manage the proceedings to advance them as efficiently as expeditiously as possible. Known as "case management", the Court has granted Ucore's request.

Since commencing proceedings on December 11, 2018, Ucore has diligently attempted to move the matter towards a full and final determination without unnecessary expense or delay. While IBC has yet to file a formal defence, in the interim the following has occurred:

On February 27, 2019, an interim injunction (see "Note 2", below) preserving the Option to Purchase Agreement was issued by the Court, with IBC's consent; Although Ucore's motion for an interlocutory injunction (see "Note 2", below) was adjourned from March 20, 2019, at IBC's request, the Court has confirmed the motion will proceed on April 30, 2019; and In response to IBC's attempt during these proceedings to seal voluminous information from the public record, on March 22, 2019, the Court granted only a limited time for IBC to do so. IBC subsequently elected not to proceed with its more permanent sealing motion scheduled for April 4, 2019.

Ucore was pleased that, on April 1, 2019, the Court set a further swift schedule to address any remaining motions, including addressing IBC's belated contention of jurisdiction on April 23, 2019, and declining to extend the temporary sealing order (currently set to expire May 3, 2019).

Ucore has contested, and will continue to contest, any attempt by IBC to limit the information which Ucore can or must disclose to its shareholders as required by Canadian provincial securities legislation and the requirements of the TSX Venture Exchange. Ucore will also continue to press for confirmation of the validity and enforceability of the Option to Purchase Agreement, so that the legal proceedings may be concluded quickly and efficiently.

"Ucore has received tremendous shareholder feedback and response supporting the Company's commitment to securing the acquisition of IBC," said Ucore President & CEO, Jim McKenzie. "The Company has transferred substantial sums of our shareholder funds to IBC since 2014, and intends to secure a significant return on investment on behalf of our stakeholders. The Ucore executive team has maintained a steady and measured conduct throughout our relationship with IBC and this dispute, and intends to continue to do so. Our shareholders have a right to transparency and it is our desire to share the contractual agreements at the center of this dispute when permitted by the Court. Ucore is well positioned to deliver on its promise of transitioning as a world leader in the provision of revolutionary nanotechnologies to the minerals extraction industry."

More information on the Nova Scotia proceedings can be obtained in person at the Law Courts, 1815 Upper Water Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Since January 4, 2019, IBC has pursued parallel civil litigation proceedings in Utah, against which Ucore has disputed the validity of the Utah jurisdiction. More information on the Nova Scotia and other proceedings, generally, can be obtained under the Company's profile on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) or by contacting Mark MacDonald, Vice President Business Development at (902) 482-5214 or info@ucore.com.

Note 1: Action vs. Application

In Nova Scotia there are two different types of legal proceedings that can be started: Actions and Applications. There are procedural differences between them that affect how the litigation advances, and certain procedures are only available for Actions or Applications. Case management, for example, is a procedure only available in Actions.

Note 2: Interim Injunctions vs. Interlocutory Injunctions

Generally, an injunction requires a party to do or not do a certain action. There are three types of injunctions: interim, interlocutory, and permanent. Interim injunctions are brief and cover the period from when a situation arises to when the parties can appear before the Court with a more fulsome evidentiary record. An interlocutory injunction covers the period from a motion on the more fulsome evidentiary record, to the end of the litigation as a whole. Permanent injunctions last from the end of litigation and are awarded to a successful party.

About Ucore

Ucore Rare Metals is a development-phase company focused on rare metals resources, extraction and beneficiation technologies with near term potential for production, growth and scalability. The Company has a 100% ownership stake in the Bokan-Dotson Ridge Rare Earth Project. On March 31, 2014, Ucore announced the unanimous support of the Alaska State Legislature for Senate Bill 99 (2014), which authorized the AIDEA to issue up to USD $145 Million in bonds for the infrastructure and construction costs of the Bokan-Dotson Ridge Rare Earth Project.

Ucore's vision and plan is to transition to become a leading nanotechnology company that provides mineral separation products and services to the mining and mineral extraction industry. This vision includes the development of a Strategic Metals Complex (initially announced on Nov. 15, 2016) in Ketchikan, Alaska and the development of the Company's rare earth minerals property located at Bokan Mountain in Alaska (technical report filed on SEDAR on March 14, 2013).

For further information, please contact Mr. Jim McKenzie, President & CEO of Ucore Rare Metals Inc. at: +1 (902) 482-5214 or visit <http://www.ucore.com>.

Cautionary Notes

This press release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release (other than statements of historical facts) that address future business acquisition activities (including any related required financings), timelines, litigation outcomes, events or developments that the Company expects, are forward looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance or results and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Ucore has assumed that it will in the near future be able to obtain interim financing and sufficient additional financing to acquire IBC in compliance with the terms contemplated in the existing agreements with IBC and its shareholders holding a majority of its shares. Ucore has also assumed that there will be no material adverse findings in its upcoming expected comprehensive due diligence review of IBC. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include: Ucore not being able to raise sufficient funds to acquire IBC (including the non-acquisition payments owed under the previous and existing agreements); adverse capital market conditions; unexpected due diligence findings; unexpected or adverse outcomes in the currently outstanding litigation matters between Ucore and IBC; resistance to or noncompliance by IBC or its key shareholders with the existing agreements; the emergence of alternative superior metallurgy and mineral separation technologies; the inability of IBC to retain its key staff members and clients; the inability of IBC to protect its intellectual property; unexpected transaction costs or other deal completion setbacks; the availability and procurement of any required interim financing that may be required; and general economic, market or business conditions.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined by 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/43936
Santiago, April 8, 2019 - Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN) (OTCQX: IVPAF) announced today that Executive Co-Chairman Robert Friedland will be giving a keynote presentation at the 18th CRU World Copper Conference in Santiago, Chile, on April 9, 2019 at 11:30am local time.

The World Copper Conference attracts more than 500 delegates and is one of the most important gatherings in the mining industry.

Mr. Friedland will provide updates on the rapid progress being made in the mine development of the Kamoa-Kakula Copper Project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a joint venture between Ivanhoe, Zijin Mining Group and the DRC government, and Ivanhoe's ongoing exploration initiatives to discover additional thick, near-surface, ultra-high-grade copper in the Kamoa North and adjacent Western Foreland areas.

Mr. Friedland's presentation will mark the 10th anniversary of the unveiling of the Kamoa Copper Discovery made by Ivanhoe's geological team, details of which he revealed to attendees of the 2009 CRU World Copper Conference.

"Ten years ago, I told delegates at this conference that we had made a 'major copper discovery of historic importance' at our Kamoa Project," said Mr. Friedland. "Today, I am proud to say that the combined Kamoa and Kakula discoveries now rank as the world's fourth-largest copper deposit, with copper grades that are the highest, by a wide margin, of the world's top 10 copper deposits. And, our team of talented geologists and geoscientists continue to make new, high-grade discoveries to further expand the project's copper resources.

"Now, with the help of our joint-venture partner, Zijin Mining, and our strategic shareholder, CITIC Metal, Kamoa-Kakula is on track to become one of the world's greatest copper mining complexes, with projected, peak annual copper production expected to exceed 700,000 tonnes."

Qualified person

The scientific and technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Stephen Torr, P.Geo., Ivanhoe Mines' Vice President, Project Geology and Evaluation, a Qualified Person under the terms of National Instrument (NI) 43-101. Mr. Torr is not independent of Ivanhoe Mines. Mr. Torr has verified the technical data disclosed in this news release.

Ivanhoe has prepared a current, independent, NI 43-101-compliant technical report for the Kamoa-Kakula Project titled "Kamoa-Kakula 2019 Integrated Development Plan" dated March 18, 2019. Detailed information about assay methods and data verification measures used to support the scientific and technical information is set out in the Kamoa-Kakula Technical Report, which is available under Technical Reports at www.ivanhoemines.com and on Ivanhoe Mines' SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.

About Ivanhoe Mines

Ivanhoe Mines is a Canadian mining company focused on advancing its three principal projects in Southern Africa: the development of new mines at the Kamoa-Kakula copper discovery in the DRC and the Platreef palladium-platinum-nickel-copper-gold discovery in South Africa; and the extensive redevelopment and upgrading of the historic Kipushi zinc-copper-germanium-silver mine, also in the DRC. The company also is exploring for new copper discoveries on its wholly-owned Western Foreland exploration licences, adjacent to the Kamoa-Kakula mining licence.

Information contacts

Investors

Bill Trenaman +1.604.331.9834

Media

North America: Kimberly Lim +1.778.996.8510

South Africa: Jeremy Michaels +27.82.772.1122

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/43945
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Now that President Obama is prepping for his Jan. 21 swearing-in, he may want to give some thought to the big federalism issues lurking in the background. Let me tee up the top five challenges on the national agenda.First is Obamacare. Although health care was perhaps the No. 2 issue in the campaign, behind jobs and the economy, the critical role of the states and how to pay for health reform received less attention. Mitt Romney savaged Obamacare as a trillion dollar federal takeover of the U.S. health-care system. In reality, the states are the epicenter of the program, with a complex web of federal guidelines and a bucket of incentives that encourages states to create and manage their own private insurance marketplaces. Similarly, Romney would have given each state the power to craft a health-care reform plan that [was] best for its own citizens, with Obamacare-like protections for pre-existing conditions and guarantees that children could remain on family health plans until age 26.Obamacare depends on figuring out how to create health exchanges and make them work -- and how the feds will step in if the states dont step up. Romneys plan had many of the same elements, but without the crucial state mandate. Moreover, both programs imagine incentives, but neither side knows how to pay for them. Some Republicans are thinking they could stop health reform in its tracks by defunding it, but that could create bigger financial problems for the states. In the next few years, the gap between promises and funds could matter much more than the differences between the parties positions.The second challenge is Medicaid, the sleeper health-care issue in the campaign -- that is, for everyone but state officials. Obamacare expanded Medicaid and mandated that states expand coverage too. The Supreme Court struck down the latter requirement, and left it up to the states to opt in or out. Romney thought the best approach was converting Medicaid into a block grant, which would have led to questions of just how much of a federal subsidy Medicaid would need.But the biggest question by far is how to fund the nursing home costs of baby boomers. Medicaid pays for two-thirds of all nursing home residents, and that could grow as boomers live longer and outlive personal savings that were hammered by the collapse of so many 401(k)s. A block grant debate would reignite the big Obamacare battles, but it would only scratch the surface of the Medicaid programs long-term questions.Third is education. Obama and Romney agreed on local flexibility. Obama championed his Race to the Top plan, while Romney supported tough No Child Left Behind standards and suggested the federal government should have less control. On higher education, where Americans are increasingly worried that the ballooning cost of college is becoming unsustainable, Romney and Obama agreed that college was important -- and so was controlling its cost. However, neither candidate had any real plan for how to cut costs or finance their larger visions for higher ed. Thats a real problem for state and local governments scrambling to cover rising tuitions and expenses, and college students hoping for a boost in federal aid.The fourth challenge is whether or not to issue another stimulus. State and local governments are still struggling to recover from the devastating blow the Great Recession inflicted on their budgets. The Rockefeller Institute of Government reported that in August state revenues had finally returned to pre-recession levels, but the housing collapse continued to plague property tax revenues. These continuing budget problems are a drag on the recovery, and the loss of state and local government jobs has contributed to unemployment. But another round of federal stimulus would be politically unpalatable.Fifth is the role of state governments as incubators of presidential candidates. The 2016 presidential campaign started long before the 2012 race ended, and the early handicapping puts governors at the head of the pack.Among the Democrats, theres New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Maryland Gov. Martin OMalley, along with mayors Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles, Cory Booker of Newark, N.J., and even San Antonios Julian Castro, whose convention speech earned him kudos and national attention.Even more Republican governors are on the early short list, including Chris Christie of New Jersey, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, John Kasich of Ohio and Texas Gov. Rick Perry. (Not to mention former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.) The brutal inside-Washington budget games over the next few years will give the army of outsiders -- both Democrats and Republicans -- a strong shot in 2016.How does this top five list add up? In the next four years, state and local governments are going to be at the very front of domestic policy, even for policy issues like health care where the feds have gotten most of the headlines. Theres enormous room for innovative and entrepreneurial state and local action, but little (if any) prospect of federal cash. Clearly, the future belongs to the bootstrappers.
The state of California is taking the reins to remedy its acute housing shortage with proposed zoning standards for housing construction near job and transit centers. But not everyone is on board. Some city leaders and housing activists call the effort a one-size-fits-all mandate that undermines local authority and allows developers to profit while doing little to meet affordable-housing goals. The tension in California, like places across the country, is as much about-- cities or the state -- as it is about the solution itself.Given the great resources needed to make a dent in the problem, the cross-jurisdictional nature of housing markets, and the sometimes-fierce local opposition to increased density, state support of housing affordability is vital. However, the need to mitigate neighborhood impacts such as residential displacement, to engage communities in meaningful compromises, and to nurture cultural shifts toward acceptance of all housing types (and people) means that city leadership is also critical.In other words, neither cities nor states can do it alone. So where do we go from here?While conducting research with state municipal leagues on local tools to address housing affordability , my colleagues and I uncovered cases where a commitment to ensuring that all people have a place to call home has compelled constructive relationships and complementary policy positions between cities and their states.Seattle's new Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) ordinance, for example, demonstrates a model that is grounded in local leadership but with state guardrails. Under state law, cities can mandate affordable housing only if developers are granted something of equal value in return, such as a tax incentive or zoning changes to allow taller or larger structures. MHA offers zoning changes that increase capacity to build in designated growth areas. The state zoning requirement serves the city's policy goal of creating more housing options overall while providing a degree of political cover to local officials to promote density.The culmination of more than 200 community meetings and dozens of public hearings, this ordinance represents years of debate, trade-offs and compromise -- all of which resulted not only in unanimous approval by the city council but also a cultural shift in how residents perceive the role of zoning in everyday life and inclusive growth. Yet no one is suggesting that MHA is a perfect solution. "This is a significant step that will have lasting impact, but it is not enough," said Seattle City Council member Teresa Mosqueda. "We will continue to acknowledge and dismantle the legacy of racist redlining and historical exclusionary land use and zoning policies."As housing pressures mount in Minnesota, state Rep. Brad Tabke, a former mayor of the Twin Cities suburb of Shakopee, is leading an effort to transform state tax liabilities into funding for local affordable housing. The proposed Minnesota Housing Tax Credit Contribution Fund would allow residents and businesses with tax liabilities to receive a tax credit if they contribute to a statewide affordable-housing pool or to specific development or rehabilitation projects in their communities. Modeled after a successful North Dakota program, the bill is receiving rare bipartisan support and the backing of regional organizations, business leaders and local-government leaders. It would be of particular benefit to smaller and more rural communities that have less access to federal tax-credit programs and state resources.In Utah, rapid population and economic growth prompted cities to work with the legislature and the state Commission on Housing Affordability to develop Affordable Housing Modifications legislation. The goal of the new law is not only to increase housing options for all incomes in high-growth areas but also to promote regional integration of housing and transportation. Under the legislation, for cities to be eligible for state transportation dollars they must include moderate-income housing components into local general plans."Cities do not control the cost inputs of housing such as land, labor, materials and tariffs, or the profit that a developer can make from building one type of housing over another," said Cameron Diehl, executive director of the Utah League of Cities and Towns. "The new legislation leverages the most powerful housing-affordability key that cities do hold -- planning -- while not punishing them for what they do not control." The state established a minimum set of requirements for cities -- a "floor" -- but collaborated with local governments to develop some two dozen options for how they can approach the housing mandate in ways that consider local circumstances.Despite agreement that housing affordability is a defining crisis of our time, answers have not come easy. The push and pull of "who leads" has slowed advancement of solutions, while millions continue to struggle to find affordable homes near job opportunities. But promising policy initiatives from places ranging from Seattle to Minnesota to Utah demonstrate that cities and states can leverage their respective strengths to forge more collaborative, effective and sustainable housing policy solutions.
If you live in a rural area, theres a good chance that the nearest hospital is in a precarious financial situation. According to the consulting firm Navigant, at least 21 percent of the nations rural hospitals are at high risk of closure; iVantage, a health analytics firm, describes 27 percent of the hospitals as vulnerable. Indeed, at least 95 rural hospitals have closed since 2010, according to the University of North Carolinas Sheps Center for Health Services Research.The problems are complex and multifaceted. Continued out-migration, low health-care reimbursement rates and increasingly complex health needs in rural America are among the factors contributing to a problem with no easy solutions.The majority of the closures have occurred in the Southeast, where most of the states that chose not to expand Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act are clustered. Not only did the states decision against expanding Medicaid limit the hospitals revenues, but the federal law also imposed additional fiscal burdens, requiring expensive technology upgrades while imposing new payment limits. Of the three states in the region that did expand Medicaid through 2017, Arkansas, Kentucky and Louisiana, only Kentucky has experienced any rural hospital closures since 2010, with three facilities shuttered since its Medicaid expansion, according to UNCs research.By contrast, in Texas, which has not expanded Medicaid, 21 rural hospitals have closed since 2013, according to John Henderson, CEO of the Texas Organization of Rural and Community Hospitals. If state lawmakers had chosen to expand the program, it would have made a big difference, Henderson says. Im not going to say we would have had zero rural hospital closures, because we still have population problems and issues around federal sequestration, he says, referring to automatic spending cuts that took effect in 2013. But when you dont expand Medicaid, those issues snowball.Henderson says he expects to see more hospitals in rural Texas cut services or close this year. Ive been traveling around the state, and with my eyeball test Id say 20 to 30 of our 160 rural hospitals are vulnerable, he says.Where closures have been reversed or averted, the solutions have largely been community driven, says Alan Morgan, CEO of the National Rural Health Association. In Crockett, Texas, for example, a shuttered hospital reopened in 2018 when two Austin-based doctors decided to invest in it. And a hospital outside Waco evaded closure in 2018 when McLennan County voters approved a dedicated property tax to keep the facility afloat. That was remarkable because the property tax passed in a county that hates taxes, Henderson says. They knew the alternative was an outcome they couldnt live with.Its questionable, though, whether such community-by-community action is a practical long-term solution. There arent many signs of movement in Congress to offer relief, and experts say efforts so far at the state level have left much to be desired. But some of the new governors -- both Democrats and Republicans -- have declared the issue a legislative priority for 2019. In Texas, for example, theres talk of a higher reimbursement rate for Medicaid patients.No matter how state policymakers tackle the issue, there is a growing sense of urgency. When a hospital closes, you see that the community falls down, Henderson says. Pharmacies close, grocery stores close, companies choose not to locate to a place where their employees wont have access to a hospital.More is at stake, it seems, than convenient access to the services hospitals provide.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill Sunday that will raise the legal age for purchasing cigarettes, e-cigarettes and other tobacco products from 18 to 21 statewide."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," Pritzker said in a statement.Public health advocates have been trying for years to raise the legal age in Illinois, arguing that people are less likely to become smokers if they haven't started by the time the turn 21. Lawmakers approved the bill last monthfor the second time in as many years after then-Gov. Bruce Rauner vetoed an earlier version last year.When the law takes effect July 1, Illinois will join seven other states that have raised the smoking age to 21: California, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon and Virginia.Chicago saw a 36 percent decline in cigarette and e-cigarette use among 18- to 20-year-olds after raising its legal purchasing age to 21 in 2016, according to a 2017 Chicago Department of Public Health survey.In addition to Chicago, 34 other localities in Illinois have adopted similar laws raising the legal age to 21. One takes effect June 1 in unincorporated Cook County.In addition to raising the purchasing age, the bill Pritzker signed Sunday does away with penalties for underage possession. Businesses, however, will still face fines and other sanctions for selling to people under 21.While the bill passed the legislature by wide margins with bipartisan support, opponents argued that it will hurt businesses and drive tobacco users to buy in other states or on the black market.
Part of a Broader Effort

In late 2016, the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue advertised to fill the position of director of lottery sales. Seventy-one applications flowed in from around the U.S., including from three individuals who had held that job in other states.This usually high response rate was the result of a new technique in the Keystone State: using clear words and plain English to advertise vacant job positions.Previously, the Department of Revenue would have filled the lottery sales post from a list of candidates who had applied to the position of Administrative Officer 5. From the applicants perspective, you wouldnt know what the job was or where the job was, says Reid Walsh, deputy secretary for human resources and management.With Pennsylvanias new vacancy-based posting system, fully implemented for non-civil service jobs in April 2017 and for civil service positions a year later, bureaucratic titles have been evolving. Instead of seeking an IT manager 3, the state advertised for what it wanted: Director of the office of data and digital technology. Similarly, when the state was looking for a new enterprise recruitment manager, thats exactly what it asked for, and not, as it had in the past, for a Human Resources Analyst 4.Though a growing number of state and local governments are working on changing the way they post job vacancies and how they describe jobs, this is still only an emerging approach. In a study released at the end of last month by the National Association of State Chief Administrators, only 18 percent of chief administrators said their state had updated and modernized job descriptions, roles and classifications to a great extent or a very great extent.Successful efforts to increase the number of qualified applicants for public sector jobs are critical. Weve written repeatedly about the difficulties in hiring at a time of low unemployment, noting in our March 25 Governing column that while job postings in state government went up by 11 percent between 2013 and 2017, the number of job applicants dropped by 24 percent.This is hardly the only step Pennsylvania has taken to increase its applicant pool. In the past, the state has been quagmired in a number of now-antiquated approaches to hiring. Today, its in a leadership position in terms of the number and speed of initiatives its undertaking.The state has rebuilt its recruiting office, improved its use of social media, begun work on a new branding initiative to sell the state as a good place to work, launched new internships (including one specifically geared toward people with disabilities), and started to analyze data from its applicant tracking system.But the biggest changes have been aimed at the states 1960s-era civil service system, which we described in a February 2016 Governing feature as among the most stringent in the country. In 2016, the Pennsylvania legislature began to act to make its civil service system less rigid, not through a wholesale civil service reform, but in an effort to retain civil service protections while making the system more workable.One significant change lets agencies decide whether a written exam given alongside other applicants in a classroom setting could be replaced with an evaluation of experience and training -- information garnered from an application that can be filled out remotely. We still call it an exam, and the candidate still receives a score, says Jason Swarthout, director of the states talent management office. But its easier for them and more like a regular job application process and it removes barriers.Since April 2018, 300 written exams have been dropped. Another 400 exams, mostly for less-common positions, are still in place, according to the Office of Administration.One of the biggest advances in Pennsylvanias hiring occurred last summer, when the legislature passed a bill to bring all hiring responsibilities under the Office of Administration. Prior to that, only 30 percent of hires fell under the jurisdiction of that office; the rest were overseen by the Civil Service Commission.This was a contentious move. Civil Service Commission Chair Bryan Lentz argued that placing civil service hiring under an executive branch agency would bring back patronage-based political hiring -- the kind of thing that civil service historically was meant to wipe out. But arguments voiced by executive branch officials, combined with numerous complaints from state and county agencies and job seekers, won the day.In oral and written testimony, then-Secretary of Administration Sharon Minnich said the split hiring system created a confusing situation for job seekers who were faced with two different Pennsylvania systems for posting jobs, two separate job websites, two processes for applicants to understand and navigate, and from the agency side, two different hiring offices with which to work.From the Office of Administrations point of view, the bill did not alter merit hiring principles. It only changed who administered them. As Minnich told senators in an April 2018 hearing, duplication and inefficiency arent necessary to enforce the law.
Fearful in Focus Groups

Different Cultures and Faiths

This two-block commercial strip of the Midwood neighborhood features a mosque, halal markets and restaurants, and tailor shops with colorful shalwar kameez pantsuits, all catering to the Pakistani immigrant community wedged between a Jewish neighborhood and a Mexican enclave on Coney Island Avenue.Fear and distrust of government questions have a long history here. A local advocacy group, the Council of Peoples Organization, originally the Council of Pakistan Organization, got its start in 2002 as a liaison among Pakistani immigrants, the FBI and other authorities after the terrorist attacks of 9/11.In the past two years, anti-Muslim violence and the Trump administrations restrictions on travel from some Muslim-majority countries have renewed those fears and tensions  and created new challenges for community organizations trying to get people to participate in the 2020 census.For advocates and public officials, a complete count is necessary to maximize the areas political representation and federal funding. But many immigrants from Muslim-majority countries such as Pakistan are wary. For many, U.S. Census forms recall registration requirements imposed by authoritarian regimes in their native countries  not to mention the special registration that the U.S. government imposed on some immigrants after 9/11.After 9/11, we lost about a third of our community. People were being harassed and detained. People were hired to spy on us. A lot of people just picked up and left and went to Canada or Europe, said Kashif Hussain, a 41-year-old Pakistani-born engineer who runs the Pakistani American Youth Society in Midwood.The neighborhood only now has recovered most of its immigrant Muslim population, Hussain said. But people still have a hard time believing the United States wants to count them to help distribute funds that would help them.People look around and say, Where is this money? Thats how they think, said Hussain. People just hear the hateful rhetoric from the government and think nothing good is going to come out of it in the Trump era, and they look at everything that happens with a lot of suspicion.The Census Bureaus task next year is to count all U.S. residents, no matter their background or citizenship.But when the bureau held focus groups in Michigan composed of Arabic speakers, it found that immigrants were wary of answering questions from the government, even from census workers, and assumed their answers would be shared with other government agencies. Even recruiting Arabic speakers for the focus groups was more difficult than it was for other groups, a 2018 Census Bureau report said.About 4.6 million U.S. residents have roots in majority-Muslim countries, though many are not Muslims. Three-quarters are U.S. citizens, and 41% are American-born.There are more than 1.2 million Arabic speakers in the United States, two-thirds of them immigrants.The immigrant is not going to trust the census employee when they are continuously hearing a contradictory message from the media every day threatening to deport immigrants, one member of an Arabic focus group said, according to a 2017 Census Bureau report.People of Middle Eastern and North African descent, a group that includes many immigrants from Muslim-majority countries, also expressed lack of confidence in the confidentiality of information they might give to the Census Bureau, according to another census report in January 2019.Every single scrap of information that the government [gets] goes to every single intelligence agency, thats how it works, said one participant in a Middle Eastern-North African focus group for English speakers, according to the report.Such responses indicate that a new citizenship question, which is facing a legal challenge that has reached the U.S. Supreme Court, could affect Muslim immigrant participation, said William Frey, the demographer at the Brookings Institution who wrote a 2018 report on census participation issues.In light of the current administrations significant pushback against immigrants, especially Muslims and other people of color, the census could become a divisive, politically charged exercise, Frey wrote in the report, adding that an undercount of such people would undermine the very democracy [the census] was intended to uphold.Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island together have almost a quarter-million immigrants from Muslim-majority countries, about 4% of the total population in those boroughs. That makes them laboratories for strategies to avoid an undercount.Some Virginia and Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C.; Macomb County, Michigan, north of Detroit; and Fort Bend County in suburban Houston also have high percentages of immigrants from Muslim-majority countries. Predominant countries of origin range from Pakistan in Brooklyn, Houston and parts of Virginia, to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Iraq and Iran in other areas.The American Community Survey data used to count immigrants includes the largest Muslim-majority countries, but not some smaller ones or the Palestinian territories.Like the Arabic speakers who participated in the Michigan focus groups, people are nervous in Midwoods Urdu-speaking Pakistani community, as well as among recent arrivals from Uzbekistan, who speak the Uzbek language.Our clients see the news. They hear the term Muslim ban and they know that Trump is president and the administration wants them out of here, said Ryan Campbell, a staff attorney who counsels immigrants at Midwoods Council of Peoples Organization.We can tell them that its all confidential, that the census wont share this information, but Im not sure I would believe it if I were in that position.The Trump administrations travel ban on some Muslim-majority countries doesnt include Pakistan. Nevertheless, many Pakistanis in Midwood view it as a sign of government hostility toward Muslims. It has been particularly hard on immigrants who still have close family ties to the old country, Campbell said.I just spoke to a woman from Yemen who has to make the wrenching decision whether to visit her dying mother, and then maybe not being able to get back, said Campbell. The latest version of the ban affects Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, as well as North Korea and Venezuela.Mohammad Razvi, the Pakistani former shopkeeper who founded the Council of Peoples Organization in 2002, said he thinks Midwood was undercounted in 2010 despite outreach efforts.During the 2010 census, more than 30% of Midwood households failed to respond to mailings, requiring costly and fallible follow-up interviews, according to HTC 2020, a visualization of response rates by the Center for Urban Research at the City University of New York. The center rated Midwood as one of the nations hardest-to-count areas.The Council of Peoples Organization wants to avoid an undercount so it can secure the maximum federal funding for community programs, such as a senior center and a new halal Meals on Wheels program. To help achieve that goal, the council will make a plea for census participation at all public events, from Pakistan Day celebrations to ceremonial iftar meals during Ramadan, which starts May 5.But not all immigrants from Muslim-majority countries, or those with roots there, have the same suspicion of authorities.Los Angeles County has the largest number of immigrants from Muslim-majority countries  more than 230,000, almost half of them from Iran. But Iranian immigrants are more likely to have left Islam than other nationalities, according to the Pew Research Center. Many secular Iranians fled the country after the Iranian Revolution in 1979, according to a 2017 survey by the research center. (The Pew Charitable Trusts funds both the Pew Research Center and Stateline).This diverse demographic includes different ethnicities, cultures and faiths, said Diana Crofts-Pelayo, a spokeswoman for California Complete Count, a state-funded $154 million outreach program.Ali Akbar Mahdi, a sociologist at California State University, Northridge, and a former editor of the journal Iranian Studies, said most Iranians who came after the revolution will happily fill out census forms next year.They are going to cooperate, he said. They are grateful that this country gave them a place to stay, even though they do have to deal with the American public and the media that often assumes that, if youre from the Middle East, you must all be the same.Even in Midwood, some see tensions easing with time and the arrival of more immigrants from Muslim-majority countries.9/11 was a long time ago, said A.C. Razvi, a Pakistani immigrant and store owner who arrived in the United States as a child 38 years ago. He is Mohammad Razvis brother.But A.C. Razvi said there are frequent reminders that some people remain hostile to Muslims. He cited a recent unexplained attack by a stranger on a woman wearing a hijab on the street in Midwood.I dont even have the words to describe it, Razvi said of the incident. Its just sad.
Possible Reform

Creating Options

(TNS)  As cyber charter school enrollment grew over the last decade, Carbondale Area School Districts budget reserves disappeared.Now operating with a $2.5 million deficit, the district started its own cyber program last year, joining a growing number of districts trying to find relief.The 37 school districts in Northeast Pennsylvania pay a combined $42 million in cyber charter school tuition each year. The total amount paid  and the way the state determines tuition  has many people calling for reform.Cyber charter schools are privately operated, publicly funded schools authorized by the state and paid for by school districts. Advocates say cyber schools provide options for families seeking choice for their childrens educations. Children learn virtually on charter school-provided computers, at no cost to the families.The cost comes to the districts instead.Bills in the state House and Senate would allow districts with their own cyber programs to stop paying tuition to cyber charter schools. If a student decided to attend a cyber charter school, the family would be responsible for the tuition.Education Voters of Pennsylvania, a statewide public education advocacy organization, also called for reform. In a February report, the group found that by basing cyber school tuition on what it actually costs to educate a child virtually, districts statewide could save more than $250 million annually. In NEPA, savings could be as much as $24.5 million each year. In the 2017-18 school year, 2,799 students in Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike, Susquehanna, Wayne and Wyoming counties attended cyber charter schools.There are great proposals with cyber legislation, said Robert Mehalick, Carbondale Area superintendent. If that would come to fruition, it would be tremendous.Pennsylvania bases cyber charter tuition on the cost of educating a student in physical school buildings, with no relationship to the actual instructional costs for regular and special education instruction online.In NEPA, those tuition costs range from $8,032 per non-special education student in Carbondale Area, to $14,718 for a non-special education student from Wallenpaupack Area. Even if students from both districts attend the same cyber charter school, those districts pay different tuitions. For a special education student, costs range from $16,225 in Hazleton Area, to $34,863 for Mountain View, according to the report from Education Voters. The group used 2016-17 numbers in its calculations.With students learning from computers at home, charter schools have lower costs than school districts. The schools have a higher student-to-teacher ratio than district schools and frequently use recorded programs that can be re-used in many classes or for students individually. Infrastructure is greatly reduced. In spite of this different cost structure, the state bases tuition on the cost of educating a child in the school district buildings and not on the actual cost of providing a cyber education, according to the organization.The report found that basing cyber school tuition on what it costs school districts to provide a full-time cyber education  $5,000 per student or less per year for a regular education student  and basing tuition for special education students on the states special education funding formula, would save more than $250 million annually statewide.Beyond concerns about academic performance, with cyber charter schools generally having lower proficiency rates than traditional school districts, local educators want to increase financial accountability.Bob McTiernan, executive director of the Northeastern Educational Intermediate Unit and a former superintendent, knows about the issues of cyber charter school tuition.I think its unfairly tapped into district resources, he said. Districts arent paying the cyber schools the actual costs to educate. ... The cost to educate a student in cyber is irrelevant.Many students who attend cyber charter schools were previously homeschooled or enrolled in private schools. When the student moves to a cyber school, the district in which the student resides picks up the cost. When students leave a district to attend a cyber charter school, the district cannot reduce fixed costs enough to make up for the cost of the tuition bill, according to Education Voters.Meanwhile, Senate Bill 34 and House Bill 526, both introduced earlier this year and referred to their respective education committees, could change whether the cyber charter schools receive any funding at all.If districts offered comparable online programs, families would have to pay to send their children elsewhere. Members of the Scranton School Board voted unanimously last week to support the legislation.State Sen. John Blake, D-22, Archbald, signed on as a cosponsor of the Senate bill. While hoping lawmakers establish a bipartisan commission on charter school reform, something must be done immediately to ease school districts burdens, he said.All were trying to do is level the playing field here, he said. I would hope it garners bipartisan support.State Rep. Tarah Toohil, R-116, Butler Twp., has cosponsored the bill in the House. Efforts to reach her were unsuccessful.Ana Meyers, executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools, called the efforts blatant attacks.The legislations that have been recently introduced would eliminate public school choice for parents by forcing students to remain with a district that does not serve and meet the expectations of families, she wrote in a statement. Cyber charter schools are schools of choice in Pennsylvania whose demand has continued to increase dramatically over the past few years. Parents actively choose to leave a district because it does not meet their childs needs or has failed their child either academically or from a relationship standpoint.Students are leaving school districts for a reason, and districts must look at the cause, she said.The coalition believes that cyber charter schools are a positive option for many families. We understand that for many others they may be perfectly satisfied with their neighborhood school, Meyers wrote. The bottom line is simple: It should be up to the parents, who know their children best, to decide where their child attends school, and these parents deserve to have cyber charter schools as an option. In Pennsylvania, we are fortunate to have public school choice. Limiting the types of public school choice offered will not result in better outcomes for students.School district leaders say they want to continue to give children the option of learning virtually, but want to do it in a way that reduces cost and gives students school district diplomas.I relish the competition, McTiernan said. If theyre doing it better, we need to do better.The NEIU offers the Northeast Online Learning Academy, or NOLA. About 450 students from 10 districts in the region  Carbondale Area, Lakeland, Mid Valley, Montrose, Mountain View, North Pocono, Riverside, Valley View, Wallenpaupack Area and Wayne Highlands  take classes through the online platform. The districts pay about $3,000 for a student to take five core classes.The Scranton School District launched its cyber school in fall 2017. With 302 students taking classes, the program has doubled in enrollment from this time last year.We find the program is extremely successful, and weve had tremendous growth and interest, Superintendent Alexis Kirijan, Ed.D., said.Some of those 302 students returned from cyber charter schools, and others wanted to try a new option for learning, said Erin Keating, Ed.D., the districts chief of leadership development and school operations. Some of those students spend half their day learning a trade at the Career Technology Center of Lackawanna County, and spend the rest of the school day taking core academic classes online. Scranton also used the cyber program for summer school classes and for a winter credit recovery program.The district pays the Apex Learning platform $187,000 a year for unlimited licenses, and district teachers staff the cyber school. Working out of the library at West Scranton High School, a small team of cyber teachers  some full time and others who teach a class or two a day  are available to meet with students. Students can participate in all extracurricular activities and receive a district diploma at graduation.Carbondale Area started its own cyber program last year. Seventeen of the 40 students now in the program came back from cyber charter schools, Mehalick said.The district also has one of Lackawanna Countys two brick-and-mortar charter schools  Fell Charter School  within its boundaries. The district spends more than $2 million of its $24 million budget on charter school tuition. The other brick-and-mortar charter school, the Howard Gardner Multiple Intelligence Charter School, is on East Mountain in Scranton.In the cyber program, Carbondale Area assigns each student a teacher to act as a case manager and has constant communication with the student. The district can provide the virtual option for $2,200 a child, instead of the more than $8,000 per student Carbondale Area would pay to a cyber charter school.Its an alternative way of learning, Mehalick said. For some its perfect. But, its not for everyone.
The term 5G-assisted surgeries may soon become commonplace in hospitals. Doctors in China have recently used the newer, faster Internet connection to assist on operations happening hundreds of miles away.One such procedure took place earlier this month when a cardiologist at Guangdong General Hospital assisted in a heart surgery taking place at Gaozhou Peoples Hospital 400 kilometers (248.5 miles) away. Thanks to a 5G Internet connection that was 10 times faster than a 4G mobile connection, Huiming Guo used a 4K ultra-high definition live video to watch and issue instructions throughout the four-hour operation.Advanced Internet technology can save our doctors a lot of time because they dont have to travel as much. They can use that time to save more lives, said Zhiwei Zhang from Guangdong General Hospital at a press conference.
Franz Tost has insisted the Toro Rosso and Red Bull driver stable is still in good order amid accusations that the setup is in crisis as drivers struggle to make the step up from the junior team.

In recent years several highly thought of drivers have failed to make the step up to Formula 1 causing former drivers to return. Pierre Gasly has been the latest to come into the spotlight with the French driver struggling for form in his first two races for Red Bull.

Brendan Hartley, Daniil Kvyat are two other victims with the Russian is back in F1 with Toro Rosso. Kvyat is in his third spell at the constructor but Tost denied the claims about the driver programme, which was once filled with talent.

No, it is nonsense that the Red Bull young driver program is in crisis, Tost told Motorsport.com.

There would only be a crisis if we had no drivers from our programme at Red Bull and Toro Rosso.

Tost also praised Red Bulls current pair of Max Verstappen and Gasly: But we have Max [Verstappen], who can win races and hopefully also the championship; the talented and fast Pierre and two fantastic riders at Toro Rosso."
The US Department of Energys (DOEs) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) announced up to $20 million in funding (DE-FOA-0002107) for the Design Intelligence for Formidable Energy Reduction Engendering Numerous Totally Impactful Advanced Technology Enhancements (DIFFERENTIATE) program.

DIFFERENTIATE aims to enhance the productivity of energy engineers in helping them to develop next-generation energy technologies. The program seeks to develop machine learning tools that:

Enhance the creativity of the hypothesis generation (i.e., conceptual design) process by helping engineers develop new concepts and by enabling the consideration of a larger and more diverse set of design options during the hypothesis generation phase;

Enhance the efficiency of the high-fidelity evaluation (i.e., detailed design) process by accelerating the high-fidelity analysis and optimization of the hypothesized solution; and

Ultimately reduce (ideally eliminate) design iteration by developing the capability to execute inverse design processes in which the product design is effectively expressed as an explicit function of the problem statement.

In order to organize these efforts, DIFFERENTIATE identifies six general mathematical optimization problems that are common to many design processes.

It then conceptualizes several machine learning tools that could help engineers execute and solve these problems in a manner that dramatically accelerates the pace of energy innovation.

These projects will seek to develop enhanced artificial intelligence and machine learning tools. Proposals are expected to explicitly identify a selected challenge problem, an anticipated solution, a data acquisition strategy, major development risks, and an anticipated path to market for the final tool or software utility developed.

Up to $5 million of the $20 million allocated by ARPA-E under this funding opportunity will be made available specifically for small businesses under ARPA-Es Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, with the $15 million balance available to all applicants.
Hyundai Motor Company has opened its Hyundai CRADLE Berlin office in Germany establishing its third CRADLE office worldwide, with additional bases in Silicon Valley (USA) and Tel Aviv (Israel).

Hyundai CRADLE is Hyundai Motor Groups corporate venturing and open innovation business, which partners and invests in promising global startups to accelerate the development of advanced future technologies that align with the companys long-term strategic direction such mobility services, smart cities, and eco-friendly technologies.

CRADLE Berlin will lead the regional market operation and identify startups, universities and strategic partners that focus, amongst others, on Disruptive Innovation being developed in the European region.

To date, CRADLE has partnered with several European ventures, accelerators and innovation platforms, and started executing its investment strategy:
A rebate project to increase access to electric vehicle (EV) chargers throughout Californias Sacramento County is launching with up to $15.5 million in funds available for qualifying local businesses and nonprofit organizations.

The rebates will be available through the Sacramento County Incentive Project to install both commercial-grade Level 2 chargers and high-powered DC fast chargers. The project is an initiative of the California Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Project (CALeVIP), which works with local community partners to develop and implement regional incentive projects for charging infrastructure that supports the adoption of EVs statewide.

CALeVIP and its regional projects are implemented by the Center for Sustainable Energy and funded primarily by the California Energy Commissions Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program. Californias goal is to get 5 million EVs on its roads by 2030 to reduce carbon emissions and to support those vehicles by installing 250,000 chargers statewide.

In Sacramento County, the Energy Commission is funding $14 million and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) is providing $1.5 million. SMUD has also committed to invest all its revenue generated by this project from the states Low Carbon Fuel Standard Program to support additional community EV charger installations.

Currently, there are more than 10,000 EVs and nearly 700 EV chargers in public locations throughout Sacramento County, according to SMUD officials.

CALeVIP is currently accepting applications from eligible Sacramento businesses and public entities for DC fast charger installations with rebates of up to $70,000 per charger or 75% of the total installation projects cost, whichever is less. Rebates for Level 2 chargers are up to $6,000 per connector. Applicants can apply for multiple charger rebates.

Additional funding is available for installations in disadvantaged communities, with up to $80,000 for DC fast chargers and up to $6,500 for Level 2 chargers.

Level 2 chargers deliver 15-35 miles of electric driving range per hour of charging and are suited for locations where drivers are parked for a few hours. DC fast chargers can power most EVs and provide over 100 miles of driving range per hour of charging, which is suited for deployment along major travel corridors for on-the-go charging.

A national nonprofit organization, CSE manages statewide incentive programs for electric vehicles and electrical vehicle charging infrastructure in California, New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

CALeVIP also currently offers incentive projects in a four-county area of Southern California and in Fresno County with other projects planned throughout the state. CALeVIP is currently funded for $77 million, with the potential to receive up to $200 million.
Steffen Stamp

General Electric is absorbing another big fine for its practices during the tenure of former CEO Jeff Immelt, with the European Commission fining the company $58 million.

GE failed to disclose sufficiently to the European Union regulatory body GEs wind turbine product development pipeline, in its initial application to take over the wind rotor manufacturer LM Wind. The companies reached the $1.65 billion deal in October 2016, weeks after GE moved its headquarters to Boston from Fairfield.
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
GREENWICH  More than 20 local students strutted down the runway in the hottest spring fashions from Richards at the annual Breast Cancer Alliance Junior Committee Fashion Show on Sunday.

Students from Greenwich High School, Greenwich Academy, Brunswick School, Sacred Heart Greenwich, Stanwich School, Bronxville High School, Fairfield Prep, Hackley School, Harvey School and Iona Prep took to the runway.
GREENWICH  The wave of fraud-attempts at banks and stores around the region is continuing, with three New York City men arrested in central Greenwich in two separate incidents on the same day involving fake financial documents, police said.

In the first incident on April 4, a Bronx man entered the Chase bank on Greenwich Avenue and attempted to withdraw $5,000 from an account, according to the arrest report. Police were notified of suspicious activity, and officers said William Ayala, 50, of Davidson Avenue, had a fraudulent New York drivers license, a fraudulent credit card and personal information of another person.
GREENWICH  Now that police have determined the identity of a homeless man whose skeletal remains were found at a nature park in Old Greenwich, investigators are now hoping to put together the story of the Stamford mans life and untimely death.

Police have not made any determination yet for the cause of death for Peter Robinson, who was about 50 years old. A DNA analysis confirmed he was the person found in a wooded area off a busy town road nearly two years ago, but a number of questions have yet to be answered.

Its being classified as a sudden death, police spokesman Lt. John Slusarz said Monday, using the law-enforcement term for a death was unattended and unverified by medical authorities. Were investigating it as every other sudden death is.

A relative of Robinsons in Connecticut was notified about his death, Slusarz said. Police said they were working on establishing an outline of Robinsons life and activities before he was found dead in Old Greenwich. Authorities said he was homeless and had been living in the Stamford area.

No clear forensic evidence has been made available to establish a cause of death. Its under investigation, hopefully the medical examiner will be able to make a determination, the lieutenant said.

The discovery of the skeletal remains was made by by town public-works employees on April 26, 2017, at Helen Binney Kitchel Park, near the Perrot Memorial Library.

After the grisly discovery was made April 26, 2017, at Helen Binney Kitchel Park, near the Perrot Memorial Library, police conducted an extensive search of the area. Divers scoured the little brook running through the area and found other bones in the waterways nearby.

Authorities did not say which database yielded the DNA match the made the identification positive.

The area where the body was found was littered with cans, bottles and food wrappers, as if the site had become a destination for a person or persons squatting in the woods of the nature park.

Anyone who may have known Robinson is asked to contact the Greenwich Police Tips Hotline at (203) 622-3333 or email Tips@greenwichct.org.
Netflix, Amazon and Google Play have 21:9 movies you can watch on Xperia 1 and 10

While 16:9 is considered the standard for TV, theres more 21:9 content that you might have thought  that fits perfectly on Sonys 2019 flagship (Xperia 1) and mid-range smartphones (Xperia 10 and Plus).

Two-thirds of Netflix original movies are filmed in 21:9, recent examples include the popular Birdbox and Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle. Most of its original TV series, however, are presented in 18:9.

By the way, Netflix is testing $0.95 mobile-only plans in India and Malaysia. These plans are valid for a single device for a week and stream video in SD. There are higher resolution plans available at $1.8, $2.3 and $2.8 a week.



Google Play, Netflix and Amazon Video have 21:9 movies to stream and buy

If you are an Amazon Prime subscriber instead, theres Venom (from Sony Pictures no less) and Arrival, which are 21:9 movies. Google Play also has UltraWide content, including the Black Panther and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom movies.

Some games have adopted the new aspect ratio as well, including Arena of Valor.

PS. you can see a user-curated list of 21:9 movies (sorted by their IMDb rating) over here (a Google Docs spreadsheet).

Source
On April 23, AMD will hold a meeting with the company's partners to discuss the next generation of Ryzen CPUs and the upcoming graphics architecture Navi. What exactly AMD will reveal on the presentation is unclear, but it is likely to address release dates and product details.

AMD will hold a partner meeting on April 23 to share information about the planned products in the 7nm process. Specifically, these are the upcoming Navi GPUs and the Ryzen 3000 processors with Zen 2 architecture ("Matisse"). Since this is a closed event, AMD has no specific information on the content discussed. It is also an event for North American partners. Meetings with partners from other regions will take place later. Wccftech suspects that the partners at the event will be given the planned release dates of this year's products.

AMD seems to be planning an announcement presentation of the products, or even a launch, at the Computex 2019, which will start May 28th and ends June 1st in Taipei. This is also supported by the fact that AMD opens this year's Computex with a keynote . Such an opening conference is quite a thing, it will be interesting to see what AMD will actually reveal, announce or introduce on the presentation.

"I am honored to host the opening keynote this year and to provide new details on AMD's Next Generation high performance platforms and products," said Su. In the press release, the Ryzen 3000 CPUs and Navi graphics cards are explicitly mentioned.






Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 8)  Businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles has sought the dismissal of her plunder case in relation to the alleged diversion of former Senator Jinggoy Estrada's pork barrel.

In her demurrer to evidence received by the Sandiganabayan Fifth Division on March 28, Napoles said the prosecution failed to point out any public officer as the main plunderer. She said there is no plunder if the private individual amassed wealth.

"It must be shown that the public officer was principally and ultimately benefited or enriched, and not a private person," the motion read.

Napoles also said the prosecution failed to reach the P50-million threshold required of a plunder offense.

She is accused of conspiring with Estrada to pocket some P183 million in public funds through fake nongovernment organizations. But since no main plunderer was identified, Napoles said the amount should be divided between the four individuals facing a plunder charge in relation to Estrada's pork barrel.

"Considering that none was adjudged to be the main plunderer, each of the four accused would amount for the aliquot amount of only P45,948,437.50 million or exactly  of the alleged ill-gotten wealth," Napoles said.

She also questioned the credibility of Benhur Luy, her cousin and former employee-turned-state witness.

Napoles is facing several other plunder charges involving the pork barrel or Priority Development Assistance Fund of former lawmakers.

She was convicted of plunder before the Sandiganbayan First Division in relation to the pork barrel of former Senator Bong Revilla. Revilla was acquitted.




Haiti - 216th Anniversary : Floral Offering of President Moise to Toussaint Louverture





On Sunday as part of the commemoration of the 216th anniversary of the death of the precursor of independence, Governor General Toussaint Louverture, President Jovenel Moise accompanied by acting Prime Minister Jean Michel Lapin, Presidents Me Rene Sylvestre (Court Cassation), Carl Murat Cantave (Senate) and Gary Bodeau (Chamber of Deputies) laid a wreath at the foot of the Toussaint Louverture monument in the Champ de Mars.



For this ceremony of homage to Toussaint Louverture, were also present among others several Ministers of the Government, Secretaries of State, members of the high state Major of (FAd'H), the National Police of Haiti (PNH), local elected officials and the diplomatic corps.



The Haitian Diplomatic Missions of France, accompanied by some members of the Haitian community paid a tribute to the precursor of Haiti's independence at the Pantheon Museum.



A ceremony that was followed by a parade of soldiers of the Armed Forces of Haiti and agents of the PNH in memory of Toussaint Louverture.



"Today marks the 216th Anniversary of the death of the forerunner of Haitian independence, the hero of a people, of an ideal. Toussaint Louverture, your dream of freedom still covers us today and we must fight to make this freedom real in all levels of our society. May your fall remind us of how much faith we have in our roots, that we can remain a people, a free and proud nation," said Port-au-Prince Mayor Ralph Youri Chevry,



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-27395-haiti-social-216th-anniversary-of-the-death-of-toussaint-louverture.html



S/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - FLASH : DR begins processes of delimitation of its maritime borders





The Dominican Chancellor Miguel Vargas signed last week a contract with Me Paul Reichler partner lawyer representing the American firm Foley Hoag LLP, for the provision of legal advice to the National Commission for the delimitation of the Dominican maritime borders, of which Vargas is the President, in negotiation processes with neighboring countries.



Recall that in a decree dated June 20, 2018, this Dominican Commission has a mandate to assess the state of the Dominican Republic's maritime borders and to make recommendations to President Medina. It has the necessary powers to direct the corresponding processes with a view to reaching agreements in this area.



The decree states that the Dominican Republic has signed maritime delimitation agreements with Colombia and Venezuela. Meanwhile, the borders with Haiti, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Turks and Caicos Islands, British Overseas Territory), the United States of America America (Puerto Rico) and the Kingdom of the Netherlands (Aruba and the Netherlands Caribbean) are still pending.



At the first meeting of this Commission in October 2018, its members decided to use highly qualified national and international advisers to carry out the technical and legal studies necessary for the proper fulfillment of contractual obligations.



Chancellor Vargas explained that the objective was "to define our maritime borders in the terms permitted by the law of the sea [...] We know that we have started a path that may be longer or shorter, but we also know that we do so inspired by the defense of national interests and always respecting the national and international legal framework."



Reacting to this information, former Deputy Jean Tholbert Alexis, fearing that the maritime territory of Haiti would be violated, urged President Moise to create a Commission that could work with that of the Dominicans. However, he expressed concern over the weakness of Haitian diplomacy and the Government's lack of capacity to take measures to protect national interests with foreign countries including the neighboring Republic.



SL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - News : Zapping...





Arrest of an American at the airport

Saturday The National Police of Haiti (PNH), members of the Narcotics Trafficking Brigade, arrested an American national who was preparing to leave Haiti for Miami (USA) with a sum of 200,000 Americans not declared.



Promise of the Minister Evelyne Sainvil

At the closing of the National High Level Forum on Thursday "Women, Peace and Political Participation - Ann Chita Pale" https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-27368-haiti-politic-without-women-there-is-no-balance-dixit-martine-moise.html Evelyne Sainvil, the Minister for Women's Affairs and Women's Rights, promised in her speech to further promote the potential of women in Haiti, stressing that "women need to more and more strengthen their presence in the spheres of power in Haiti"



Gary Bodeau on tour in Washington DC

Deputy Speaker Gary Bodeau, Speaker of the Lower House, left Haiti on Sunday for Washington, DC, to attend the Global Parliamentarians' Conference as part of a four-day tour (April 7-11). He should also discuss with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) economic aid for Haiti and talk during his tour with various officials of the US State Department and Congress in charge of Haiti issus.



Standards for International Partners

On Thursday, the Ministry of the Environment presented a paper outlining the methods that international partners must adopt when intervening in Haiti. This document, which has benefited from the technical and financial support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), aims to better guide international aid by specifying the standards set by Haiti in carrying out actions in the field.



Reconciliation between the IFC and the Chancellery

Thursday Tessa Jacques Antoine, Director General of the Center for Investment Facilitation (CFI) met Chancellor Edmond Bocchit, as part of a courtesy visit aimed at bringing the two institutions together.



Technical consultations on the amendment

Senator Kedlaire Augustin (PHTK), President of the Special Constitutional Amendment Commission, announces a series of technical consultations on the main lines of the amendment in order to deepen the work already done by the Chamber of Deputies.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Published on 2019/04/07 | Source

A soldier patrols a trail near the border town of Goseong, Gangwon Province on Wednesday.

South Korea is opening up three hiking trails leading up to the demilitarized zone so civilians access the area for the first time since the armistice in 1953.

Advertisement

The trails will lead out of the three border towns of Paju, Cheorwon and Goseong. The government plans to start a pilot trail late this month in Goseong that visitors can use to get as close as possible to the DMZ. The opening dates for the trails in Paju and Cheorwon have not been set.

Some are concerned about safety since the trails will lead through certain areas where the military is active. But civilians will be escorted by heavily armed soldiers and wear bullet-proof vests and helmets.

The Defense Ministry is in discussions with UN Command to get approval for civilians to enter the DMZ and ensure their safety.

Those hoping to walk along the trail in Goseong can apply for a draw on the websites of the Ministry of Interior and Safety and the Korea Tourism Organization starting April 11.
Last updated 4/8/2019 at 11:56am

Havre Police Department

A summons was issued after a caller at U.S. Highway 2 West business reported a marijuana smell Friday at 11:11 a.m.

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A Child and Family Service caller reported a complaint Friday at 11:43 a.m.

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Officers were called to a vehicle crash at 12:17 p.m. Friday on First Street West.

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Friday at 1:23 p.m. a caller at a First Street West establishment asked for an officer to investigate suspicious activity.

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A caller on First Street Northeast asked Friday at 9:17 p.m. to speak with an officer.

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A joint was reported found at a First Street West establishme...
A Havre lawmaker said declines in projected revenue could require the state Legislature to once again go into a special session.

My understanding is revenue projections are down and if (Legislative Fiscal Division) doesnt accept those revenue projections then we very likely will end up back here in Helena for a special session, probably in the summer, Rep. Jacob Bachmeier, D-Havre, said from Helena during a legislative teleconference Friday in Havre.

Bachmeier said most of the proposals to increase state revenue were shot down in the Legislature, although he mentioned a couple o...
On average, over 130 people in the United States die from opioid abuse every day. The abuse of such substances has become a national crisis, with the CDC reporting more than 700,000 deaths from 1999 to 2017. In 2017, over half of drug overdose deaths were due to opioid abuse.

This is significant for the pharmaceutical industry  the problem primarily comes from the doctors office, not the streets. While we may think of illegal drugs like heroin when the term opioid comes up, it encompasses many legal prescription medication, including painkillers or synthetics like fentanyl.

Statistically, most opioid deaths come from prescription opioids . These highly addictive prescriptions can cause users to become dependent on them. When the prescribing physician ends the regimen, these users often move on to illegal drugs. For medical professionals, this possibility increases their responsibility to be on the lookout for addicts and prescribe cautiously.

One of the basics of pharmacology is understanding how to administer medication  finding the right medication at the right dose and on the right schedule for each patient. Being alert and monitoring for addiction is an essential piece of this puzzle.

Recognizing the Signs

Medical professionals need to keep informed about addiction and be able to recognize the signs of it. If more prescribing physicians are able to detect symptoms of dependence early on or predict addictive behavior, then they could strike a severe blow to the opioid crisis.

What are some of the signs of opioid addiction ? Well, some common traits of opioid addicts are changes in personality, behavior, and appearance. Behavioral changes present themselves in the forms of social withdrawal, notably poor performance at school or work, and getting into financial or legal trouble. Additionally, the physical changes that accompany opioid addiction are apparent in the individuals actions. They may act clumsier or have slurred speech. But you may also see them displaying chronic flu symptoms, like a runny nose or bloodshot eyes.

If friends and family attend doctor appointments with those suffering from addiction, then physicians may want to warn them of other signs that they could recognize by being close to the patient. New friend groups, mood swings, and a need for money are all potential signs of addiction. As a doctor, nurse, or other medical professional, its important that you consider what happens when you arent there to see it.

Medical Professionals Holding Themselves Accountable

Medical professionals need to hold themselves accountable for the medications they prescribe to people. A patients medical history, personal chemistry, and the severity of their pain should always be considered before an opioid is prescribed to them. While these rules are nothing new and this is a common belief among medical authorities, theyre not always properly enacted due to compromised interests.

For instance, when prescribing a medication, its always wise to always consider the therapeutic objective to the drug. Further, a key part of ethical prescribing is to use full disclosure when discussing the risks of the drug . But money has sometimes overshadows ones pharmacological knowledge.

In other words, doctors have sometimes forgone full safety measures due to what amounts to bribery from pharmaceutical companies. Recognizing how different drugs affect a persons biology, keeping up to date on new findings, and documenting a patients history and journey with drugs is vital to ensure wise medical decisions. However, being in bed with Big Pharma has led some clinicians to turn a blind eye to what the best path of action is for patients.

Anti-Addiction Methods

Where theres power to prescribe opioids, there is also power to subscribe drugs that combat dependency. For instance, drugs like suboxone now exist to work against short-acting opioid dependence. Heroin users can use suboxone to wean themselves off of their addiction. On the other hand, suboxone can also be addictive and displays opioid effects itself, so prescribing it requires care.

There are other drugs that are important in this fight as well. One of the most notable for fighting opioid overdoses is naloxone , sold under the brand name Narcan. Public training lessons exist for friends and families of users that teach individuals how to apply Narcan in the case of an emergency. Additionally, scientists are working on anti-opioid vaccines , though theyre not yet on the market. And of course, detox and therapy programs are always important.

But what the problem really comes down to is the unnecessary prescription of opioids in the first place. Alternatives to opioids include over-the-counter medication, exercise and physical therapy, and less dangerous prescription drugs. Doctors need to consider these before opioids and not let compromised interests influence their prescription decisions.

A Post-Opioid World

We can only hope that the future sees a decrease in opioid addiction, but in order for that to happen, there has to be change to the prescription systems we now have. Professionals, uncompromised by external influences, need to be on the lookout for patients prone to addiction, and opioid alternatives need to be widely adopted. A post-opioid world could be ours if we choose it, but at this point we require fundamental changes to the systems at play. To alter them means rethinking how the healthcare world works.

Are you a medical professional thats dealt with an opioid abuser? How did you handle it? Were curious to know, so please leave your story in the comments below!
THE Queens Flight will be back at RAF Benson this month for the first time in almost 25 years.

The Royal Air Forces VIP transport Squadron, 32 (The Royal) Squadron, will return to its historic home temporarily until October.

The short relocation is necessary due to runway resurfacing work takling place at RAF Northolt in West London, where 32 Squadron is currently based.

The Queens Flight was established as the Kings Flight at RAF Benson in 1936, when Edward VIII was on the throne, and remained there for more than half a century.

In 1996, 32 (The Royal) Squadron was formed at RAF Northolt from the merger of the Queens Flight and 32 Squadron to provide VIP transport to UK military and government leaders.

Group Captain Adam Wardrope, station commander at RAF Benson, said: In our 80th anniversary year, we are delighted to temporarily welcome 32 (The Royal) Squadron back to RAF Benson. We have been working closely with our colleagues at RAF Northolt to ensure that we can deliver the same outstanding level of service to their passengers while minimising the impact on our local community.

While those in the local area will see BAe 146 aircraft, and on occasion small helicopters transporting passengers, operating alongside the RAF Benson Puma and Chinook helicopters for the period, we do not expect there to be a significant increase in air traffic.

We are also working closely with other local airspace users to ensure that air safety is maintained for all.

At times, there will also be visiting Leonardo AW109 helicopters, which are similar in size to the Puma helicopters that have operated at Benson for many years

Wing Commander Caz Viles Officer commanding 32 (The Royal) Squadron, said: RAF Benson is the historic home of VIP flying for the Royal Air Force, so we are grateful and honoured to return there during the runway works at Northolt.

Although the squadrons location will be different our role remains the same: to get the right person to the right place at the right time.

The Northolt and Benson teams have been working together brilliantly to make that happen.

In October, a 23 million contract to resurface the runway at RAF Northholt was awarded to Lagan Aviation Infrastructure.

The work will extend the life of the runway by 10 to 15 years and ensure military flying operations continue.

RAF Northolt, which is the last military airfield inside the M25, is home to 33 supported units.

RAF Benson says it cannot give details of aircraft operations but does not expect there to be a significant impact on the community. It has asked residents to remain vigilant and report anything of a suspicious nature to the RAF Police or Military Provost Guard Service at RAF Benson on (01491) 837766 ext 7450 or (01491) 827247.

Meanwhile, the base has asked Benson Parish Council for permission to erect no drone zone signs in areas that are likely to be used for drone flying, notably Sunnyside recreation ground. Areas falling within 5km of the airfield are inside the zone.

Benson Parish Council chairman Bill Pattison said: There will be signs going up in places where they think people might go and fly a drone. Its so open around here it could be anywhere.

With the possibility of dignitaries being in the area now as well, they are going to be really stringent.

Councillor John Sharman asked if the base would consult with the council, saying: I dont like signs.

Cllr Pattison replied: They have said they are not going to go silly with it.
THE number of beds at the Sue Ryder hospice in Nettlebed has been reduced by half.

The charity closed six of its 12 beds at Joyce Grove on Monday, saying they were no longer needed because of a drop in demand for inpatient care.

At the same time, the number of patients being cared for at home has soared.

Sue Ryder says the move doesnt represent a cut in services because the beds have been out of use for some time and have only now been removed because it wanted to ensure the trend was not temporary.

Over the past six months the bed occupancy rate has been between 50 and 60 per cent at most and on several weeks it dropped to 40 per cent or less and there were occasions when as few as four people were on the ward.

The charity made the decision to reduce the number following talks with the Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group, which is responsible for health services across the county.

Staff were informed in an internal memo last week. No nursing staff are expected to lose their jobs but some will be offered new roles with the hospices community care service, which will be one year old next week.

Holly Spiers, Sue Ryders director of hospices and fund-raising, says more people are using its outpatient hub, which is based at the hospice and has a phone line to nurses who provide specialist advice or rapid response care.

If a patient being cared for at home wants to spend their final day or two at the hospice, transport can be arranged.

When the hub opened as a pilot scheme, the charity said it would better meet patients needs as demand for inpatient stays had fallen by 12 per cent since 2014 while demand for nurses to visit patients at home had almost trebled in that time.

Since then, nurses have made 7,709 visits within the community compared with 1,742 in the previous year. Mrs Spiers said: The decision was taken following several occasions where occupancy fell to within the 40 per cent bracket and there were times we had only four people on the ward. It makes sense from a business point of view because the demand isnt there.

Low occupancy has been a constant over the past three to five years so it isnt a fluctuation and this decision is supported by our clinical team. It was only taken after analysing our data over a significant period and wont affect anyone needing a bed or patient care generally.

This is an ongoing trend and isnt anything new  weve just decided to proactively manage it by closing beds that havent been used for some time. To put it in context, our other hospices run at occupancy rates of between 70 and 90 per cent and with more beds.

Across the country and across all health services, more people want the opportunity to be looked after at home. It doesnt only affect end-of-life care but home is the preferred place of death for many so weve created a much broader and more holistic service offering a wider choice.

The take-up for the community service has been fantastic, especially considering that it doesnt serve a large population, while feedback from patients and their families has been overwhelmingly positive.

I have no doubt that this is right direction to take and Im proud of what the team has achieved.

We hope to keep all our staff as we move through this journey and will be offering people the chance to move into community roles so our nursing establishment will remain the same.

Sue Ryder, which has run the Nettlebed hospice for more than 35 years, intends to sell the building and move both the community hub and the remaining beds to another location in South Oxfordshire.

It says the Grade II listed building, which was erected in 1908 and also has 27 acres of grounds, is expensive to maintain and difficult to reach in bad weather.

It does not expect to leave before next year and says it will take over an empty space at an existing site rather than building its own premises.

In 2014, the hospice was due to move into a new purpose-built 12-bed facility on the second floor of Townlands Memorial Hospital in Henley to form part of a 16 million health campus.

However, the charity pulled out of the agreement with the NHS because it would have needed more space elsewhere and didnt want to be spread across more than one site.

In August, Mrs Spiers announced that up to four beds could be cut after the sale but said the charity would not seek to have fewer than eight. However, this followed a period when the occupancy rate had been nearer to 70 per cent.

The news drew criticism from some patients who said they did not wish to die at home and claimed most people in their situation felt the same way.

Relatives of patients claimed their loved ones were only being cared for at home because they had been refused beds as there was no room at the hospice.

Mrs Spiers said: We still have beds at Nettlebed and still plan to have them at another location for patients who either want them or for whom complex symptoms or social situations make it impossible to be cared for at home.

We dont anticipate a huge spike in demand for beds in future because if that was going to happen wed have seen it by now.

Having looked at the data and considered multiple scenarios, our clinicians do not believe it is possible and have confirmed that the current number of six is right.

Were now exploring options using the data generated from the pilot to determine what shape our future will take.

Its very much our intention to relocate all our services together but at this stage we have nothing more to share about the locations.

I understand that people are very keen to know where were moving to and I wish I could share that or give a timeframe for further announcements but I cant as it all depends on discussions with third parties.

However, it is progressing and were trying to move as quickly as we can within those constraints.

We are extremely keen to get across that beds are not going to be lost and that none has been lost this time because theyve been void for many months.

In the memo to staff, hospice director Maria Turnbull said: Offering more patients the opportunity to be cared for at home has already demonstrated a number of advantages, including reducing the number of unnecessary admissions to local hospitals and our inpatient unit.

We will, of course, continue to closely monitor occupancy levels and demand. It is our absolute intention for every one of our current staff to have the opportunity to remain with us as we develop our service.

May I take this opportunity to thank you all very much for your continued hard work and support, enabling us to be there when it matters for more and more people across South Oxfordshire.

Ian Reissmann, chairman of the Townlands Steering Group, said: When we met with Sue Ryder last August we made the case for retaining a central bedded institution alongside the at-home service as there was clear support for this.

Were concerned that this reduction could make the hospice unviable by losing the economy of scale. While they are seeking new premises, were worried that it may have to close before a suitable venue is found if, for example, it loses staff and cant replace them.

Keeping vacant beds open is not a good thing but demand does rise and fall and when it rises above six then local people may have to look elsewhere. The last number they told us they needed was eight.

The hospice is a well-loved community institution and we are seeking reassurances that it will continue to be available.
THE new High Sheriff of Oxfordshire says she wants to champion unsung heroes during her year of office.

Sylvia Jay also plans to highlight problems in the justice system by organising a series of lectures.

The former civil servant, who lives with her husband, a retired diplomat, in Ewelme, will take up the post officially at a ceremony at Oxford Crown Court on Tuesday.

Lady Jay was nominated for the role by former high sheriff Tom Birch Reynardson, whom she had met, in 2015.

I felt very flattered, of course, but I didnt really know much about it, she says.

Im very excited because its an opportunity to find out about all the good things that are going on in Oxfordshire and some of the difficulties as well.

Many people have had no civic recognition in the form of an honour but they have all done these amazing things for years. Its a real privilege to find out about that work and really heartwarming.

All these unsung heroes play a huge part in making our community viable. Its also an opportunity to see new opportunities for community integration.

High sheriff is the oldest secular office in the UK, apart from the Crown, and dates from Saxon times when the Shires were formed.

Initially high sheriffs acted as judges and collected taxes, levies and dues on Crown land.

Such was the unpopularity of their duties that many of those who were nominated for the job tried to avoid taking it.

As a result, the practice of pricking the name of the chosen high sheriff with a bodkin on a sheet of vellum came into being, probably around 1400s. A hole in the vellum could not be repaired or removed.

The monarch still carries out this practice.

There has been a high sheriff from Ewelme before  Thomas Chaucer, son of the author and poet Geoffrey, whose tomb is in Ewelme church.

Today, the high sheriff is chosen by committee, usually comprising the Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, at least one deputy lieutenant, the countys bishop or bishops, the chief constable and the current high sheriff.

Duties include participating in civic and community events and functions, offering encouragement to those engaged in supporting the voluntary sector and those most in need, pursuing themes and initiatives which bring communities together and benefit the social fabric of the county and ensuring the wellbeing of High Court judges when in Oxfordshire.

Lady Jay says: Theres a lot to be said for tradition as long as it evolves.

Some high sheriffs do a great deal of very worthwhile fundraising. Im not a clever fundraiser so I thought I would try to raise awareness of difficulties in our justice system, in particular our prison service and probation service.

Ive always volunteered in prisons. As a student I went to America and worked in a correctional institution in Kentucky for the Quakers. When I went to London as a student I prison-visited in Holloway, Belmarsh, Wandsworth and Brixton.

Lady Jay also prison-visited Fleury-Merogis Prison in France where she met women serving sentences for acting as drug mules.

She was inspired by the work of prison and social reformer Elizabeth Fry.

She says: She was a Quaker and she thought it was often unjust to separate women from their families when often what they were put in prison for was, in her view, trivial and almost unavoidable, like stealing some money to buy food for children. That was always at the back of my mind.

What is fair and isnt fair is important and it struck me as a fundamentally important thing that society had to try do something about it.

The main concern is that society should have a justice system that works and, although my role is not at all political, no one can be unaware of the problems in finding enough judges and the problems in the probation service which have been partially transferred to the private sector.

The main statistic that always sticks in my mind is two thirds of people coming out of prison are back in within about two years.

We dont seem to have got that right and in an awful lot of cases prison isnt rehabilitating people to resume their roles in society.

It costs about 70,000 a year to keep someone in prison, just a normal prison. Im not saying prison isnt the best place but it doesnt look as if its working for rehabilitation. There are some good examples, of course.

Lady Jay says she left the Quakers in her late twenties and returned to the Church of England because I missed the singing!

Her chosen charities for the year are Aspire Oxford, which helps former prisoners find homes and work, Fine Cell Work, which teaches needlework skills to prisoners, mostly men, Crisis and The Arts in Oxford, which help homeless and other vulnerable people find homes, new skills and jobs, and the Institute of Food, Brain and Behaviour in Oxford.

Money will be raised for the charities at the lectures.

Lady Jay, who has lived in Ewelme for more than 20 years, also plans to host a party on the village playing field on August 24 to thank residents.

She said: We knew Ewelme as we spent our honeymoon in a little cottage rented by my husbands uncle on the Hicks estate in Britwell Salome. We walked all around, including to Ewelme.

She joined the civil service in 1971 and worked for the Ministry of Overseas Development on and off until resigning when her husband was appointed British ambassador to France in 1996.

She also worked for the Civil Service Commission to help recruit graduate entrants into the service and the French treasury.

In 1989 she helped set up the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The bank, which opened in 1991, was established following the collapse of communism in the East to help build a new, post-Cold War era in Central and Eastern Europe.

It has invested more than 130 billion euros in a total of more than 5,200 projects.

When her husband took up his appointment Lady Jay moved to Paris with him.

She says: My husband would be the first to say he doesnt do a great deal of domestic management so he delegated to me the running of the household.

There was a chef and his team and a housekeeper and her team, two social secretaries, an accountant, maids and a butler and his team.

I organised that and made sure people had adequate job descriptions and helped ensure the household ran very well for all the guests because we entertained 12,000 to 14,000 a year.

In those days we had nine guest bedrooms and well over 1,000 people a year came to stay  official guests. It was quite a hands-on role.

She entered the private sector on her return from France in 2001 as director general of the UK Food and Drink Federation.

She restructured the organisation and revised its membership so that then very small companies, like Duchy Originals and Rachels Organic, joined as well as larger firms like Sainsburys and Compass.

She was vice-chairman and then chairman of LOreal UK from 2005 to 2013.

Her husband became head of the foreign office in 2002, retiring in 2006, and now sits as a cross-bencher in the House of Lords.

Lady Jay also served as a non-executive director of a number of large companies and continues to be on the boards of Lazard, a financial advisory and asset management firm, and the Casino Supermarket Group.

Her voluntary work has mainly been to do with prison reform and the Pilgrim Trust, which she chaired from 2005 for 10 years, as well as the conservation of churches.

She was made a CBE in 2005 and a Chevalier of the Legion dHonneur in 2008.
A COUPLE from Henley have won their wedding worth 10,000.

Kate Terry and Glenn Dixon, of Greys Hill, thought it was an April Fools joke when they were told they had won the online competition run by Badgemore Park in the town.

The couple, who have been engaged for eight years, but couldnt afford a wedding ceremony, will tie the knot at the venue on Saturday, September 14.

Among their guests will be their children, Betsy, five, and one-year-old Harry.

Miss Terry, 36, said: Its unbelievable. Were over the moon.

Their prize includes:

 The ceremony and evening party and disco with food and drink for up to 50 guests.

 The brides wedding dress and grooms suit and a hat for the mother of the bride.

 The wedding cake of their choice and wedding breakfast.

 A bridal hairstylist, a bridal bouquet and bouquets for up to four bridesmaids or flower girls plus a range of bridal beauty treatments.

 A hen party, wedding favours, bespoke gifts and Prosecco.

 Two VIP airport lounge passes and 100 towards their honeymoon.

The couple will also spend their first night as newlyweds in Badgemore Parks bridal suite. There were exactly 40 entries to the competition, which was published on the venues social media sites. The winner was chosen on Monday.

Miss Terry, who is an account manager for Primary Times in Henley, said: We never dreamed that wed win the competition. We thought, Were just going to enter and see what happens.

We just cant believe it still and we cant wait  its only five months away.

Theres lots of planning but its really exciting. Ive just got the really easy part and lovely things like choosing my dress and the flower girls outfits and tasting the wine and picking the cake.

Im going to be 37 the day before and Im sure well do something the night before but nothing too crazy!

The couple were notified by Aspen Weatherburn, who runs communications and social media company Hello Henley and was one of the judges. Miss Terry said: We thought it was an April Fools joke. I said, Its a joke, isnt it? and she said, No, I promise. I was crying and probably screaming down the phone  poor Aspen!

Everyone we told, 60 per cent said, Yeah, whatever, its an April Fool.

Miss Terry was told about the competition by two friends who sent her a link to Badgemore Parks Instagram page.

Despite not expecting to win, the couple went to look around the venue anyway.

Miss Terry said: Part of it was you get free venue hire just for entering the competition so we thought wed just go and have a look and see what its like. Mr Dixon, 38, who works as a Sky TV engineer, said he was shocked to learn of their success.

Its still sinking in, he said. Weddings are pricey and its something we have been wanting to do for such a long time.

We were always going to get married, it was just a case of when our finances would allow us.

You can do it on the cheap and not have all the people you want there or you can save up and spend all that money in one day.

Now it will come around quickly. Weve got a holiday in Devon in August and then itll be wedding time and Ill probably squeeze in a stag do as well.

Miss Terry said most of her family would be there as they live locally. Her mother Sue Fixsen lives in Wallingford, her brothers, Steve and James, live in Wilson Avenue and Goodall Close, Henley, respectively and her sister Sarah Butcher lives in Belle Vue Road.

Her eldest brother, Shane, has already booked his flight from Dublin ready for the day.

Mr Dixon will invite his parents John and Maggie, who live in Chipping Norton, his brother William, who lives in London and will be his best man, and his four aunts.

The couple, who have lived in Henley for four years, met at a friends 30th birthday party at a pub in Dalston in East London in 2009 when they both lived in the city.

We just hit it off, said Miss Terry. Glenn did actually propose to me on Guy Fawkes night in Villa Marina in Henley.

We have never been able to get married financially. I guess things in day-to-day life like paying bills, council tax and rent and putting petrol in the car were more important.

A wedding was like a distant dream that hopefully might happen one day, so its incredible that we have got this opportunity.

We have 50 people in the package but I guess theres going to be at least 100.

Betsy said, Oh, but are you still going to want me? She doesnt really get it but knows shes going to be a princess for a day and a flower girl and shes really excited about wearing a dress.

I still cant get my head around it. Glenn and I keep looking at each other and saying, Oh, my God. Were just so grateful.

The other judges were Jon and Di Connell, the owners of Badgemore Park, Henley Mayor Glen Lambert and Henley Standard editor Simon Bradshaw.

Mr Connell, managing director, said: Were delighted that such a well-deserving local couple has won our fantastic wedding prize.

The competition generated a great deal of interest and the judging panel had a difficult task. My thanks go to all the other local companies who supported the competition and particularly to Aspen Weatherburn who not only had the idea but managed all aspects of it for us.

We are greatly looking forward to helping Kate and Glenn through every step of their journey on the way to making sure their big day is all they could ever want it to be.

In addition, we have decided to offer all the other entrants free venue hire should they wish to hold their wedding in our beautiful grounds.

PRIZES were provided by Badgemore Park, Five Star Honeymoons, Katie Jane Whitlock, Kate Finegan Floral Design, Dolce Lusso Cakes, Sugar Lily Cakery, Cup Of Rosie, Ana Harmony Beauty Salon, Tips N Toes by Sam Dal Lago, Poppy Wilson, Natures Kisses, Into the Woods Glamping, Liz Felix Millinery, Dazzlin Events, Gorvett and Stone, Reids of Henley, HoT Creative UK and Prosecco Colucci.
A PUB in Henley which has been closed for about a month is to reopen with a focus on wine.

Hofs will open at the former Station House pub premises in Market Place on Saturday (April 13).

Christopher Hof becomes the third landlord of the Brakspear-owned venue in about 16 months.

The pub will sell more than 25 wines, served by the glass, bottle and in flights of three or five glasses.

Mr Hof, who is from South Africa, is offering wines from smaller vineyards around the world, coupled with advice and education.

He has been supplying handcrafted South African wines to restaurants around the world since 2009 but this is his first retail outlet.

Mr Hof said: Hof's is all about bringing the vineyard to the customer, helping them to further their wine appreciation. We have all the well-known wine styles, as well as some more unusual ones not widely available in the UK, so we have something for wine novices and connoisseurs alike.

Although we're serious about our wines, Hof's has an informal, friendly vibe. People are welcome to join us for a glass of a wine they already love, or let us choose a flight of new styles that will expand their wine horizons. And weve a full bar to cater for customers who prefer beer, spirits or soft drinks.

As well as wine, Hofs will sell Brakspear cask ales and a full range of draught products as well as a selection of bottled beers and cocktails.

Food will be available from April 26, when the kitchen reopens, and will focus on meat and fish dishes from South Africa, Germany, Switzerland and Japan, with a deli section offering salt beef bagels, boerewors and biltong, all made on site. Food to share also features on the menu.

Ahead of opening, Hofs has undergone a refurbishment, designed to reflect its wine credentials. Training has also been given to 10 members of staff, led by front of house manager Sophie Meldau, who has worked for Hof's wine business for years, delivering wine tastings and events around the world.

Brakspear chief executive Tom Davies said: "We're delighted to welcome Christopher, Sophie and their team to Brakspear and to Henley.

Their proposition of handcrafted wines and wine education is quite distinct from anything else currently offered in the town and were confident Hofs will quickly find an appreciative audience. We look forward to helping them grow their business with Brakspear.

The pub had been run by Robert Ryan and Marcus Hopkins on an interim basis since from June last year.

They took over when Tim Wilson and Jayne Faulkes, who already ran the Ship in Marlow, left after less than a year in charge.

The pub, which was previously Henley police station, first opened as the Henley Brew House in 2012 when it was owned by the City Pub Company and used to sell beers brewed on site.

Brakspear bought it two years later and it was run by Christian Evans until he terminated his tenancy for personal reasons in early 2016.

The pub remained closed until November that year, when it re-opened under restaurateur Darren Gillett and head chef Marianne Wit.
Cocaine and cannabis worth 100,000 was seized by gardai following a routine traffic stop in South Dublin over the weekend.

Officers attached to a road traffic unit searched a car in the Rathfarnham area on Saturday afternoon.

Members of the DMR South Division Roads Policing Unit stopped the car as part of a routine check along the Grange Road.

When they searched the car they discovered a quantity of cannabis, which will be analysed, with an estimated street value of 5,000.

Warrant

A man in his 40s was arrested at the scene and taken to Rathmines Garda Station, where he was questioned under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984.

Following from the discovery of the cannabis in the vehicle, gardai obtained a warrant to search a house at Glenmore Court in Rathfarnham.

During their search of the property, gardai say they discovered a further quantity of cannabis and cocaine with an estimated street value of close to 100,000.

The man arrested as part of the investigation has been charged and will appear before a sitting of Dublin District Court this morning.

It is the latest drug bust in the capital following operations in both Finglas and Lucan last week.

In a separate raid last Tuesday, gardai targeting organised crime groups in the Lucan area carried out a joint intelligence- led operation.

A search was carried out of a house in the area which led to a package containing around 12kg of cannabis herb being seized.

The drugs, which have an estimated street value of around 240,000, will be analysed later in a bid to determine their exact value.

The operation involved members of the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (DOCB), and the Revenue Commissioners Customs Service as well as gardai from the Ronanstown Drug Unit.

A 44-year-old woman was arrested at the scene and held under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice (Drugs Trafficking) Act 1996 at Lucan Garda Station.

Gardai said that investigations into the Lucan seizure are ongoing.
The Capuchin Day Centre has donated 5m to the housing and homeless charity Peter McVerry Trust to acquire homes for people in need.

Brother Kevin Crowley of the Capuchin Day Centre said that "the growing homelessness crisis is a major concern to us".

"We provide shelter during the day where people can receive food, clothing, showers, medical care and other necessities for daily living," he said.

"The generosity of the public is what makes this place special and enables us to do all that we possibly can for those in need. The growth in families requiring our services is truly shocking and it troubles us greatly that children in our country have nowhere to call home.

Expertise

"Recently we have been looking at how, given the generosity of our donors, we can best respond to the crisis. We are not a housing organisation. We don't have that expertise.

"After careful consideration and advice, we decided to fund a housing initiative via Peter McVerry Trust to secure a minimum of 25 housing units for those in greatest need.

"We are always aware that our donors place enormous trust in us to determine how best to use our resources.

"We are grateful to every single person who has donated to us as it helps to care for and respond to the needs of those who use our service with a sense of respect and dignity."

In deciding to share the resources, the Capuchin Day Centre obtained the advice of the charities regulator to ensure that all the details of the donation were organised in line with best practice.

"We are familiar with the Peter McVerry Trust and we know the good work that they are doing, and we know that this is going to be put into very good use," Br Crowley told the Herald.

He said that he was saddened to see mothers and children "coming in here and then going off to a hotel in the evening time. That to me is appalling".

Every Monday, the centre gives out baby food and nappies to up to 300 families, while up to 600 people attend dinner at the day centre.

Meanwhile, Pat Doyle, chief executive of the Peter McVerry Trust, told the Herald: "We are an approved housing body, and they came to us. We put a plan together as to how we would use the money."

He said that the Capuchin Day Centre wanted to assist specific groups, including families in need in hotels and B&Bs, rough sleepers and care leavers.

The donation has already been made and the new social housing units sourced to date are all over Dublin and Kildare, Mr Doyle said.

Biggest

"It is a great initiative. The public are always asking, 'Why don't you work together more?' There is so much to be done. No one organisation has the key," he said. "It's the biggest single donation we have ever had."

He pointed out that both Fr McVerry and Br Crowley are recipients of the Freedom of the City of Dublin.

"It's a strong message," he added.
Husband and wife team Stephen and Ruth Deasy of Bear Market Coffee shop which may be the first in Ireland where customers cannot pay with cash. Photo: PA

A new Dublin coffee shop is going cash-free so staff can concentrate on giving better customer service.

Bear Market Coffee, in George's Street, owned by Ruth and Stephen Deasy is believed to be the first in Ireland to ban cash completely. Ruth said cutting out the cash means less stress for their baristas.

"We do get times where everyone comes in together, with 20 or 30 people in the queue," she said.

"We've found that the person on the till is quite stressed trying to sort out change so they're not really engaging or explaining different cakes that we have because they're under pressure to get down the line.

"With contactless, the customer just taps their card so they can spend more time talking to staff or explaining what they want and everything can be done really efficiently."

Machines

Bear Market partnered with Magnet Networks, a telecommunications and data connectivity provider, to include a pre-order app and wifi.

"We have so many lines that if one goes down another can pick up. We've two tills, two credit card machines. The till system will be on a different wifi from our customers so there's no crossover," said Ruth.

"It's really secure, really high-end, so we've hopefully thought of everything."

She said the idea came after a visit to a cashless store in New York.

"We thought it was a lot more relaxed and a quicker process," she added. "When we started looking at our figures, we found that around 80pc of our sales were on card."
Romi Ramtohul had been living on his wits, court was told

A drunken chef tried to headbutt a passing car as he jumped dangerously in and out of traffic in Dublin city centre, a court heard.

Romi Ramtohul (44) had been homeless, drinking too much and "living on his wits" when the incident happened, his lawyer told Dublin District Court.

Ramtohul, who gave a city centre hostel as his address, pleaded guilty to being drunk and a danger to traffic, as well as threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour.

He was fined 200.

A garda sergeant told the court that last December 31 the accused was seen by gardai out in traffic at a junction at Parnell Street.

He was jumping in and out of traffic, causing cars to brake suddenly to avoid collision.

He also tried to headbutt a car that drove past.

Shout

In a separate incident, the court heard, gardai saw the accused drinking from a can of Guinness on Moore Street on February 11 and told him to put the can in a bin.

Ramtohul started to shout at the top of his lungs and was arrested when he would not stop.

The accused is from Mauritius and has been in Ireland for 13 years, his solicitor John O'Doherty said.

He had previously worked as a chef but had a fall and began suffering seizures and had not worked since.

Ramtohul was "living on his wits", Mr O'Doherty added, pointing out his offences were all alcohol-related.

He said his client "on occasion drinks too much" and what happened was due to this and the fact his mental health was "not where it should have been".

There was "no violence in him", Mr O'Doherty said.

"Well, he was trying to headbutt a car," Judge Brian Smyth remarked.
John Gilligan has been spotted in Spain while awaiting a court hearing in the North over money laundering and criminal property allegations.

Bemused onlookers saw Gilligan (67) at the Ryanair check-in desk at the airport in Alicante on Friday.

Gilligan remains on bail after he was allegedly caught last August trying to take 23,000 in a suitcase on a flight from Belfast to Spain.

One witness said the thug was less than pleased about being asked to pay a 25 fee for carry-on baggage.

"We were all queuing up for the flight back. Gilligan was standing with another couple and as the steward walked down she seemed to spot that his bag was oversized for free carry-on," the witness told the Sunday World.

"It was basically like a big briefcase and she asked him to come up to the desk.

"It was funny really because a lot of people in the queue would have known who he is, but obviously the staff were Spanish and his name meant nothing to them.

"When he got to the desk he was told he'd have to pay the fee to bring the bag on board and he was really put out.

Stewing

"He basically went off on one then, saying it was a scandal and a sham and that Ireland - whatever that had to do with it - was the most corrupt country on Earth."

The witness said Gilligan eventually paid the carry-on fee but was "stewing".

During a bail hearing in January he promised the judge at Coleraine Magistrates' Court he would turn up for his case.

"I wouldn't run," he said, adding that he had been turning up at court cases "since 1966".

The prosecutor said the directing officer in the case made a decision to proceed on two charges. The second charge is possessing criminal property. Gilligan has denied both.

When told that the case was not going to the crown court, District Judge Liam McNally said that "dramatically" changed the issue of bail.

The prosecutor confirmed that if found guilty, the maximum sentence the accused could face would be six months.

Gilligan had already served five months on remand, the equivalent of a 10-month sentence.

The prosecutor said investigators had concerns about the defendant absconding.

However, Judge McNally said if Gilligan did not come back to court, the case against him would proceed in his absence and if convicted he could lose any bail and surety along with the cash seized at the airport.

Judge McNally granted bail on the sum of 500 (580) along with an independent surety of 5,000 (5,800).

Another condition was that Gilligan has to report to a police station in Belfast on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
The site of the dig near Liam Cosgraves former home

Land surrounding the home of former taoiseach Liam Cosgrave could be an important Bronze Age settlement.

A survey has established the 5.2-hectare site on Scholarstown Road in Knocklyon, south Dublin, as an area of considerable archaeological potential.

It was bought for development by Ardstone Homes after Mr Cosgrave's death in 2017 aged 97, and there is potential to build up to 200 houses on it.

However, a survey of the site surrounding the former taoiseach's bungalow has revealed a settlement and burial site that could go back to the Bronze Age.

The Herald previously revealed that the remains of up to 60 bodies could be on the site.

Now, as part of Ardstone's planning application, the findings of the archaeological survey carried out by the developers have been revealed.

According to the survey, submitted by Archer Heritage Planning, the site is not listed on the Record of Monuments and Places, and as such has no current statutory protection.

No features of the archaeology were visible above ground, and only became apparent when a geophysical survey, which reads information under the surface, was carried out.

This highlighted a probable enclosure in the north-eastern section of the site. Test excavations carried out last August confirmed the presence of a ring fort type of enclosure and human remains. 34 grave cuts were recorded.

"A preliminary assessment would indicate that there are a minimum of 37 burials at this location, with more potentially surviving," the survey says.

A number of other features, including two bowl furnaces, a potential kiln, three post holes and two pits were also found, indicating people had settled there.

Significant

The finds are believed to be early medieval, with possible burials from an earlier time.

Sources have told the Herald some of the burials probably date back to the Bronze Age.

"The initial assessment has identified significant associated archaeological potential," the survey says.

It adds that the works planned by the site owners would have a "direct, negative and permanent" effect on the remains unless mitigation measures are implemented.

"Significant archaeological remains have been identified within the site, and established it as an area of considerable archaeological potential," the survey says.

The National Monuments Service has said the impact on the site could be mitigated by 'preservation by record', meaning findings would be documented and photographed prior to work going ahead.

News that the site is of potential archaeological significance has created a lot of interest in the Knocklyon, Rathfarnham and Templeogue areas.

Local councillor Deirdre O'Donovan has said she is organising a public meeting with an archaeologist to give locals an overview of the report.

"We cannot underestimate the value of this find and it is too important to be lost to a housing development in an area where 4,000 new homes are already planned," she said.

"What we need is more facilities and resources in this area, and this could be a very valuable one."
Chino, CA (91710)

Today

Mostly cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Low 37F. WSW winds shifting to NNE at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Low 37F. WSW winds shifting to NNE at 10 to 15 mph.
Medically relevant compounds can often be found in nature. To make them suitable for drugs, they need to be isolated from their natural sources. If sufficient quantities of the agent cannot be isolated in that manner, chemical synthesis comes into play. Without chemical synthesis, many agents were not available for the industrial production of drugs. Phil S. Baran of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, USA, aims to develop the perfect synthesis. His methods and reagents are applied in fundamental chemical research and in the production of pharmaceuticals. They are commercially marketed with much success. In honour of his outstanding achievements, he is being awarded the Inhoffen Medal by the Friends of the HZI, the sponsors' association of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI).

HZI and Technische Universitat Braunschweig celebrate the award of the Inhoffen Medal which is given in recognition of world-leading research in the field of total synthesis of natural agents. In just a short period of time, Phil Baran has revolutionised the synthesis of organic natural compounds and set innovative impulses in synthetic methodology as well," says Prof Peter H. Seeberger, laudator and director of the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, in honour of Baran's achievements.
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.
Tufts University engineers have developed a novel fabrication method to create dyed threads that change color when they detect a variety of gases. The researchers demonstrated that the threads can be read visually, or even more precisely by use of a smartphone camera, to detect changes of color due to analytes as low as 50 parts per million. Woven into clothing, smart, gas-detecting threads could provide a reusable, washable, and affordable safety asset in medical, workplace, military and rescue environments, they say. The study describes the fabrication method and its ability to extend to a wide range of dyes and detection of complex gas mixtures.

While not replacing the precision of electronic devices commonly used to detect volatile gases, incorporation of gas detection into textiles enables an equipment-free readout, without the need for specialized training, the researchers say. Such an approach could make the technology accessible to a general workforce, or to low resource communities that can benefit from the information the textiles provide.

The study used a manganese-based dye, MnTPP, methyl red, and bromothymol blue to prove the concept. MnTPP and bromothymol blue can detect ammonia while methyl red can detect hydrogen chloride - gases commonly released from cleaning supplies, fertilizer and chemical and materials production. A three-step process "traps" the dye in the thread. The thread is first dipped in the dye, then treated with acetic acid, which makes the surface coarser and swells the fiber, possibly allowing more binding interactions between the dye and tread. Finally, the thread is treated with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), which creates a flexible, physical seal around the thread and dye, which also repels water and prevents dye from leaching during washing. Importantly, the PDMS is also gas permeable, allowing the analytes to reach the optical dyes.

"The dyes we used work in different ways, so we can detect gases with different chemistries," said Sameer Sonkusale, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Tufts University's School of Engineering who heads the Nano Lab at Tufts and is corresponding author of the study. Sonkusale's team used simple dyes that detect gases with acid or base properties. "But since we are using a method that effectively traps the dye to the thread, rather than relying so much on binding chemistry, we have more flexibility to use dyes with a wide range of functional chemistries to detect different types of gases," he said.

The tested dyes changed color in a way that is dependent and proportional to the concentration of the gas as measured using spectroscopic methods. In between the precision of a spectrometer and the human eye is the possibility of using smart phones to read out and quantify the color changes or interpret color signatures using multiple threads and dyes. "That would allow us to scale up the detection to measure many analytes at once, or to distinguish analytes with unique colorimetric signatures," said Sonkusale.

The threads even worked under water, detecting the existence of dissolved ammonia. "While the PDMS sealant is hydrophobic and keeps water off the thread, the dissolved gases can still reach the dye to be quantified." said Rachel Owyeung, lead author and graduate student in the Tufts Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. "As dissolved gas sensors, we imagine smart fabrics detecting carbon dioxide or other volatile organic compounds during oil and gas exploration as one possible application."

Since repeated washing or use underwater does not dilute the dye, the threads can be relied upon for consistent quantifiable detection many times over, the researchers said.
Agustin, the mother of three children, said that she and dozens of other families have not received 1.2 billion rupiah ($85,000) compensation they are entitled to in Indonesia because they refused to sign a "release and discharge" document that extinguishes their right to sue Lion Air, Boeing or their subsidiaries.
United Andhra Pradesh catapulted the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to power, both in 2004 and 2009, by giving the grand old party more than 30 seats on each occasion. In fact, the South of the Vindhyas, especially Andhra Pradesh, always stood firmly loyal to the Congress even in its worst times. Indira Gandhi herself was elected from Medak (now in Telangana). At a time when the Congress was decimated in north India in 1977 owing to the fallout of the imposition of the Emergency, Andhra Pradesh sent 41 Congress Members of Parliament to Delhi. But today, after the bifurcation of the state, the two Telugu states seem to be turning into a nemesis for the party at a time when it is desperately trying to revive itself. And the party has only itself to blame for this. The self-centred manner in which it dealt with the question of the demand for the separate state of Telangana made the Congress hugely unpopular. This isnt so just in the residuary Andhra Pradesh, which is aggrieved with what it believes to be an arbitrary bifurcation, but also in Telangana, where the party claims to have met the long standing aspiration of the people. This self-destructive political manoeuvring of the Congress will now play into the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Desperate to compensate for the losses in north and west India, the saffron brigade hopes to capitalise on the political failure of the Congress in dealing with the people who stood behind it in its hour of crisis. The BJP on its own has little or no stake in both the Telugu states. One, the denial of special category status as promised during the bifurcation debate in Parliament made the BJP fall out of favour in Andhra Pradesh. Two, its failure to locate itself properly vis-a-vis the TRS made it largely irrelevant in Telangana.

Despite this, the Congress is not gaining much. The TRS and YSR Congress are expected to win a sizable number of seats, and the BJP is set to benefit from it. The two parties, which now claim to be non-BJP and non-Congress in the pre-poll setting, are more likely to join the NDA in the post-poll scenario. The TRS finds the Congress as its principal political rival in Telangana. Thus, it cannot prefer a party at the Centre that challenges it in the state. The YSR Congress chief, YS Jaganmohan Reddy, fell out with the Congress leadership and still has a bitter personal rivalry with Sonia Gandhi. Besides, now that his arch rival, N Chandrababu Naidu, has rallied other regional parties under the Congress leadership, YS Jagan is compelled to stay away from the grand old party. Thus, notwithstanding hostile rhetoric, both the TRS and the YSR Congress are prospective allies of the BJP.

In 2014, the BJP-led NDA won 73 of 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, and 62 of 65 seats in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. It also completely swept Gujarat and Delhi. Thus, 2019 cant see the NDA do any better in these states. This is why the party is hoping to increase its tally in south and east India. But the backlash of the citizenship Amendment bill in the North-East temporarily dented the BJPs hopes in the region. The North-East, which was once the stronghold of Congress, is seeing the BJP trying to repair its strategy and stitch up alliances. But, how far will this pacify the anger generated by the controversial bill is anybodys guess. The formidable arithmetic due to Congress -Janata Dal(S) alliance in Karnataka hits the BJP hard. It had won 17 out of 28 seats in the state in 2014. The BJP is hoping for significant gains in Odisha and a foothold in Kerala owing to Sabarimala agitation.

But it remains clear that the BJPs prospects in both the Telugu states are bleak. The estrangement with the TDP and the disenchantment over special status will decimate the party in Andhra Pradesh. And the failure to take a clear stand on TRS is costing it dearly in Telangana. However, it is the arrogance with which the Congress handled the Telugu people, which will prove to be a major advantage for the NDA in the form of allies in the TRS and YSR Congress.

K Nageshwar is author and professor, department of communication and journalism, Osmania University

The views expressed are personal
Recently, President Trump again publicly derided India for high tariffs. Withdrawal of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) benefits to Indian exports looms. Economic and trade discussions between the two countries continue to be difficult with persisting unresolved issues.

However, after Indias anti-satellite (ASAT) missile test on March 27, the United States spoke of its strong strategic partnership with India, and asserted that it will continue to pursue shared interests in space and scientific and technical cooperation. This was a far cry from its pre-1998 criticism of Indias missile and nuclear programmes.

Earlier, following the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammad organised terrorist attack in Pulwama in Jammu & Kashmir on February 14, there was widespread international support for India, and condemnation of terrorism. The US response, nevertheless, was the most supportive, recognising the link to Pakistan, which most others did not, and asserting Indias right to self-defence. This was publicly indicated by the US after the telephone conversation between Indias National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval, and John Bolton, his US counterpart. Following the Indian action on February 26, striking targets in Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa beyond not just the Line of Control but also the international boundary, the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, like India, described it as a counter- terrorism action. The US, along with others, worked on Pakistan for the quick release of Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, and has since repeatedly reiterated the need for Pakistan to take credible and sustained action against terrorist groups operating from territory under its control.

French support for India closely followed the US. It took the lead, joined by the US and the UK in reintroducing a proposal at the United Nations Security Council for listing of Masood Azhar as a global terrorist. It has taken a similar initiative to get a European Union listing. Pakistan would have been a bit disappointed by the Chinese reaction, which spoke of support for sovereignty and territorial integrity (and could, by implication, be seen as critical of Indian action), but otherwise emphasised de-escalation and did not criticise India directly. Similarly, Russias reaction should give us reason to ponder in India, because it did not expressly support India in the Pakistan context. It also articulated a willingness to enhance counterterrorism cooperation with both countries, which would seem in India to be out of place when there was an attack in India sponsored by a Pakistan-based group.

In this background, as India heads into general elections starting April 11, and as manoeuvring for 2020 US Presidential elections picks up, it is worthwhile to assess how the India-US relationship has evolved over the past five years, and the portends for the future. This would be critical since India would continue to face some significant security challenges. Pakistan has taken only cosmetic action against terrorist groups, including the LeT and the JeM after Pulwama, and the February 26/27 cross border/LoC exchanges when it came under enhanced international scrutiny. It has also since deemed as insufficient the information provided by India regarding involvement of the Jaish in the Pulwama attack. As US works on steps to exit Afghanistan, there would be worries about reversion to the pre-2001 situation and safe haven for terrorist groups. Chinas economic and technological rise has implications in Indias neighbourhood in South Asia, the Indian Ocean and the Pacific.

Since 2014, there have been changes of government both in India and the US. In India, the change enabled some new dynamic and energy to be infused. Under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the relationship had initially been transformed dramatically with the signing of the civil nuclear cooperation agreement in 2008. However, it had languished over 2012-13 with trade frictions coming to the fore.

The National Democratic Alliance government was able to build on some of the earlier decisions and also create new opportunity. It signed the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) in August 2016, and COMCASA (Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement) later. These would enable interoperability and enhanced sharing of information. Reports indicate that text of an Industrial Security Agreement has also been worked out, which would enable greater Indian private sector participation in India-US defence projects, and in the global US defence value chain.

Similarly, the Trump administration has built on some of the earlier Obama administration decisions, introduced some new positive dynamic of its own, but also intensified frictions in some areas.

Following the Obama declaration of India as a Major Defence Partner, Trump has placed India under STA 1 technology authorisation, on par with its closes allies, and shown a readiness for higher level technology releases for India. The India-US-Japan Trilateral, and Quadrilateral with Australian participation has been sustained.

However, on trade there is now more coercive action, and notification of withdrawal of the GSP benefits to India and tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from India ostensibly on national security grounds.

Pakistan has come under enhanced pressure, with aid suspended, placed under Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list, and IMF loan negotiations not proceeding to its satisfaction. Post Pulwama, the US again came down heavily, demanding effective action from Pakistan. However, the US needs cooperation from Pakistan, as it seeks an exit from Afghanistan, and Trump has spoken of a possible meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Despite recognising the need for Chinas cooperation in his discussions with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, Trump has taken stronger tariff and other measures against Chinese trade and forced technology transfer practices. Chinese technology acquisitions in the US have come under enhanced scrutiny, and the US is leading a campaign to push back against Chinese penetration in 5G technology.

Trends and recent supportive US action would suggest that the positive trajectory of the India-US relationship should endure whatever emerges from the popular mandates in 2019 and 2020. The Indo-Pacific will provide convergence. Afghanistan could be both a challenge and opportunity. There needs to be enhanced attention by both to geo-economic aspect of their strategic partnership.

Arun Singh is former Indian ambassador to the United States

The views expressed are personal
Equality may be a fiction but nonetheless one must accept it as the governing principle, wrote BR Ambedkar in a controversial speech he prepared but did not deliver at the 1936 Annual Conference of the Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal of Lahore. One hundred and twenty eight years after his birth, the reluctant architect of Indias modern constitution reminds us just how difficult it is to administer equality.

Representative democracy, a bastion of political equality, is bursting at the seams in India. The countrys population has more than tripled since the making of the Constitution, and citizens political representation at the national level has not kept pace. A Pew Research Center survey released last week found that 33% of Indians are not satisfied with the way democracy is working. The ratio of representation is abysmal: each parliamentarian today represents, on average, almost 2.5 million constituents.

Given Indias massive population, high representation ratios seem par for the course. But when seen in comparative context, the problem becomes untenable. Indias representation ratio is over five times that of the worlds most populous country (China), and over three times that of the third most populous country (the United States). Even when compared to other populous Commonwealth nations, which share a common origin of institutions, Indias representation ratio is the worst by some distance. Pakistan, Nigeria, and Bangladesh, among others, all fare considerably better. Indias philosophical underpinnings and demographic reality are at stark odds with one another.

Such an imbalance creates an insurmountable gap between the ideal and the implementation of representative democracy. We name two of the ways in which it does so. First, there is insufficient legislative capacity to meet demand. Too few parliamentarians are responsible for protecting the welfare of too many citizens. With mounting pressure for politicians to attend to their constituents grievances, there is little time left for MPs to fulfil their core constitutional obligation: lawmaking. The 16th Lok Sabhas track record is evidence of a malfunctioning legislature. According to the PRS Legislative Research, this Lok Sabha sat for 331 days, against a 468-day average for all previous full-term Lok Sabhas. Increasing the number of parliamentarians may reduce the burden of constituency engagements, enabling MPs to focus on more productive lawmaking. Improving legislative capacity cannot, in and of itself, repair Indias broken system of checks and balances, but it can certainly provide some relief to time-constrained politicians.

Second, the competition for a static number of seats has bloated campaign financing. As MP candidates cater to ballooning constituencies, they pour more money into capturing their electorates votes. Wealth has become a principal marker of a candidates electability. Senior Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, Neelanjan Sircar, notes that the median wealth of competitive MP candidates has risen sevenfold between 2004 and 2014. With rising barriers to entry enclosing the political arena, candidates have sought to circumvent the Election Commission of Indias stringent campaign finance limitations by turning to unaccounted funds.

The next delimitation exercise is due in 2026. It is crucial to have legitimate solutions on the table by then. Many scholars and practitioners have suggested interventions that are sensitive to the Indian political economy, of which we discuss two.

The first, as Alistair McMillan notes, is to expand the Lok Sabha through constitutional amendment. The three previous delimitation exercises of 1952, 1963 and 1973 have successfully done this. Thus, there is precedent to creating new seats in Parliament. McMillan proposes increasing the size to 647 Members in the Lok Sabha stating that no state would lose out in any redistribution. Moreover, the Lok Sabha at 647 would still be smaller than the British House of Commons, with 650 legislators to represent a population of 63 million. While this certainly calls for a more rigorous debate around the numbers, it is an option that legislators should consider.

The second is to empower the Rajya Sabha in line with the US Senate, which enables equal representation across states. In India, the Rajya Sabha was designed to provide an outlet for regional representation through indirect election but was given no teeth. The principle of representative democracy legitimates a reimagination of the Rajya Sabha, such that it can be a conduit for the voice of the people as much as the Lok Sabha. This would allow India to facilitate regional representation in the Union more effectively than is done today. It can draw on the experiences of countries like the United States, Brazil, South Africa, Spain, and Russia that have bicameral legislatures designed to create avenues for both proportional and regional representation.

To Ambedkar, The soul of Democracy is the doctrine of one man, one value .From his writings, we can infer that the democratic apparatus is not always able to translate this principle into action. Still, as more countries fall prey to democratic backsliding, India has a responsibility to preserve the integrity of its institutions. On the eve of a decisive general election, India should commit to shaping agile structures of government that remain both sensitive to a shifting demographic reality and true to the constitutional pact of a democratic republic.

Reva Abrol is an analyst and Prakhar Misra is an associate at IDFC Institute, a think/do tank, Mumbai

The views expressed are personal
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 8)  The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Monday raised Alert Level 3 in several districts in Libya in the wake of escalations and violence in the country.

In a statement, the DFA urged Filipinos in Tripoli and nearby areas within a 100-kilometer radius of the capital to consider repatriation "to avoid getting caught in the middle of ongoing clashes between rival factions."

"The Philippine Embassy in Tripoli gave the recommendation to raise the Alert Level following the escalation of the fighting that included the shelling of residential areas in the outskirts of the capital," the DFA said in a statement.

Here are the following districts covered by the Alert Level:

Tajoura

Ghot Romman

Qaraboli

Qasr Khiyar

Esbea

Tarhuna

Bani Waled

Gharyan

Aziziya

Warshifana

Zawia

Surman

Sabratha

The DFA added that Filipino workers will not be allowed to travel to Libya and the affected areas until the situation in the country stabilizes and the alert level is lowered back to 2.

Charges D'Affaires of the Philippine Embassy in Tripoli Elmer Cato said the Mitiga International Airport was hit by airstrikes, but added they are still getting more information.

"There was a change in the situation on the ground and as we speak, we're checking on our kababayans in or near the Mitiga airport which was hit reportedly by airstrikes," he told CNN Philippines.

Cato said they have kept their lines open for Filipinos who wish to avail of the repatriation via social media.

"Most of them would prefer to wait and see. We've been trying to convince them the past few days but we still have not been able to convince a lot of them to avail of the repatriation offer," he said.

Cato assured the public the Philippine Embassy in Tripoli will remain open for Filipinos who seek assistance.
Whats common between Haqeeqat (1995), Border (1997), 1971 (2007) and Lakshya (2004)? Well, they are all much-loved Hindi movies based around Indian armed forces and military personnel. Right from the start, Hindi film-makers have taken inspiration  albeit intermittently  from real-life incidents vis-a-vis Indias military forces and soldiers.

Saluting bravery

Interestingly though, Bollywoods 2019 calendar has kicked off with two such biggies  Uri: The Surgical Strike and Kesari. And now, weve learnt that over 10 films based around Indian armed forces or military personnel are in various stages of production. For starters, big names such as Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Bhushan Kumar and Abhishek Kapoor along with producer Mahaveer Jain are set to make a film on the February 26 air strikes on Jaish-e-Mohammad facilities in Pakistans Balakot.

Thats not all. Ajay Devgn-starrer Bhuj  The Pride of India revolves around the life of an IAF Wing Commander, Vijay Karnik, who was in charge of in charge of Bhuj airport during the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war. They are our real heroes, and we are all extremely proud of our armed forces, says Bhushan, who also produces Bhuj. We may have heard about certain incidents vis-a-vis our armed forces and army-persons through newspapers or TV, but showing what happened behind the scenes makes such stories more interesting as well as engrossing, he adds.

Tales of valour

Currently, Janhvi Kapoor is busy with Kargil Girl, a biopic of IAF pilot Gunjan Saxena, who is known as Indias first-ever woman combat pilot. Plus, Meghna Gulzar is set to make a film on the life of late Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw. Our soldiers are the pride of the nation. So, its great that film-makers are taking up such great stories. Also, its easy to identify with those tales as we have heard about them at some point, says trade analyst Taran Adarsh. Also in the pipeline is a film on Gabbar Singh Negi, a soldier in the British Indian Army during the First World War and a recipient of the Victoria Cross.

Also read | Ajay Devgn on daughter Nysa being trolled: She is just 14, people forget that and talk rubbish

So, the big question is: are there too many films on armed forces/soldiers? Bhushan doesnt think so. Its not like everyone is attempting films on the same incident/subject. So, that shouldnt actually be a cause of worry, he says. Adarsh concurs, and says: It all depends on how a script is worked out, and how a director brings the story alive on the big screen. Ultimately, it all boils down to the treatment [given to the story].

Big responsibility

Actors and film-makers, though, want to rather focus on the quality of the films. Says Sidharth: It [a film on late Vikram Batra] is possibly the most challenging and toughest role of my life. Its also an emotional responsibility to play that character because the family of Vikram Batra felt that I can play his role. Vijan too finds a film on Arun Khetarpal a huge responsibility with an extremely inspirational message. What he did and the kind of life he lived was absolutely exemplary and unbelievable.

Akshay sums the mood by saying that he finds himself extremely grateful and fortunate that he could bring out such a brave and inspirational story [of Battle of Saragarhi] to people.

Also in the pipeline the following films:

1) Late Vikram Batra: Sidharth Malhotra is set to play the Kargil martyr in his new film.

2) Late Arun Khetarpal: Producer Dinesh Vijan teams up with Sriram Raghavan for a film on the life of the youngest recipient of the Param Vir Chakra  posthumously  at 21.

3) Bishnu Shrestha: Himesh Reshammiya has reportedly bought the rights of a biopic on the army officer who fought against 40 armed hijackers in a running train.

4) Rifleman Jaswant Singh Rawat: Sushant Singh Rajput will star in Rifleman, reportedly based on the soldiers life, who attained martyrdom during the Sino-Indian War in 1962.

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Paparazzi is the reason fans get to see candid moments of their beloved celebs. As for the celebs, while some love to get papped, others are okay with the paparazzi but dont want their kids to get clicked, especially when it can lead to brutal social media trolling.

Sometime back, Kajol and Ajay Devgns daughter Nysa was badly trolled, even body-shamed for her airport look. The 14-year-old was wearing a blue long hoodie dress and the moment the photo was uploaded online, people started commenting on her looks, that she forgot to wear her pants etc.

Ajay Devgn says that the entire incident hurt not just Nysa, but the entire family. Ajay sounded quite disturbed while talking about the incident.

She is just a 14-year-old and I feel, at times, people forget that and talk rubbish. She was wearing such a long shirt and she was also wearing shorts. Now because of the length of the shirt, her shorts werent visible and the kid got trolled for that, says Ajay in one breath, adding, I dont know what kind of people these are and because of them we are paying the price. I request the paparazzi to at least leave the children alone.

Why are they paying the price for their famous parents? I dont think any child is okay with paparazzi. They want their space. They want to not dress up every time they step out, so its very sad when such things happen, he says.

The actor goes on to say that his children have kept him grounded. Ajay makes sure that he only associates himself with films that the entire family can watch together. And he also accepts that they are honest when it comes to judging his work.

Also read: Kajol reveals how nobody wanted Ajay Devgn and her to marry

My son is critical about a lot of things. A few days back [during the promotions of Total Dhamaal] I was watching something on my iPad and [Yug] was watching TV, so I told him he has watched enough TV and its time for him to sleep. He pointed at my iPad and said why am I on it then? When I said I work all day and get this one hour only to unwind, he said to me, but you are not working, you are only doing promotions. He is that blunt, says Ajay with a laugh.

Ajay also adds that if they dont like any of his films, they dont think twice before expressing themselves. Ask him if he and Kajol would be okay with their kids joining the industry, and he says, Right now, Nysa is studying in Singapore. And I feel she is not interested in films as of now. But yes, it will be completely her choice. Same goes for Yug. We will support them in whatever career choices they make, he says with a smile.
A lot of work and personal commitments have been keeping Bollywood celebrities busy these days. With just 10 days to go before the release of Kalank, actors Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, Madhuri Dixit and Sonakshi Sinha have been actively promoting the film. The group of four was spotted during one such outing in their casual avatars.

Sonakshi Sinha, Alia Bhatt, Madhuri Dixit and Varun Dhawan during Kalank (Varinder Chawla)

Actor Kartik Aaryan has just wrapped up the first schedule of his Imtiaz Ali film with Sara Ali Khan. The actor was spotted at a studio during an ad shoot.

Suniel Shettys son Ahan Shetty is all set to make his film debut with the RX 100 remake opposite Tara Sutaria, who is currently working on her Bollywood debut, Student of the Year 2. The two were spotted together in Bandra.

Kartik Aaryan, Tara Sutaria and Ahan Shetty spotted in Mumbai. (Varinder Chawla)

Kartik Aaryan clicks a selfie. (Varinder Chawla)

Several Bollywood celebrities were spotted with their kids at a Mumbai restaurant. Hrithik Roshan was seen accompanying his sons Hridhaan and Hrehaan whereas Sanjay Dutts wife Maanyata Dutt was seen with kids Shahraan and Iqra.

Hrithik Roshan with sons Hridhaan and Hrehaan (Varinder Chawla)

Maanyata Dutt with kids Shahraan and Iqra. (Varinder Chawla)

Actor Malaika Arora continues to remain in news for her regular outings with rumoured boyfriend Arjun Kapoor and her inspirational workout videos. The former reality show judge was spotted at an outing with sister Amrita Arora on Monday and looked stunning in a black and white outfit.

Malaika Arora and Amrita Arora spotted in Mumbai. (Varinder Chawla)

A host of Bollywood stars have been regular visitors on dance reality shows Super Dancer Chapter 3 for the promotion of their films. But this week, veteran actor Waheeda Rahman and Asha Parekh will be the chief guests on the show. The two legendary actors were seen shooting for the episode on Monday.

Waheeda Rahman on Super Dancer Chapter 3. (Varinder Chawla)

Shilpa Shetty on Super Dancer Chapter 3. (Varinder Chawla)

Geeta Kapoor, Asha Parekh and Waheeda Rahman on Super Dancer Chapter 3. (Varinder Chawla)

Dhadak actor Janhvi Kapoor is currently working on her next film, Kargil Girl, based on the life of pilot Gunjan Saxena. The actor was seen during her regular gym routine along with sister Khushi Kapoor. The two were twinning in black and white. Uri: The Surgical Strike actor was also spotted visiting her yoga class during the day.

Janhvi Kapoor and Khushi Kapoor at the gym. (Varinder Chawla)

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Actor Kareena Kapoor has been confirmed to be a part of Irrfan Khans Hindi Medium sequel, Angrezi Medium. Kareena and Irrfans co-star from the film, Radhika Madan made the announcement through an Instagram post on Sunday.

She shared a picture of a clapboard for the film on the first day of shoot. In her post, she also tagged #kareenakapoor, ending weeks of speculation around the film and its female lead. As excited as the man behind!So so so grateful for this new journey. @irrfan @homster @maddockfilms #kareenakapoorkhan #dineshvijan, she captioned the picture.

Hindi Medium was directed by Saket Choudhary and released in 2017. It starred Irrfan and Pakistani actor Saba Qamar in lead roles. The film was based on Indias education system and was a commercial hit and appreciated by critics as well.

A source close to the actor earlier told IANS: She is playing the lead role in the film and might turn into cop mode for it. The film will be shot in London and Radhika will reportedly play Irrfans daughter who wishes to pursue higher education in the UK.

Kareena recently wrapped up filming for her next film, Good News. The film also stars Akshay Kumar, Diljit Dosanjh and Kiara Advani. The film is all set to hit the big screens on September 9, 2019. She will begin shooting for Karan Johars sixth directorial, Takht, later this year.

Also read: Malaika Arora dances to Chaiyya Chaiyya in yoga pants on World Health Day. Watch video

Angrezi Medium will be Irrfans first project since getting diagnosed with Neuroendocrine Tumour in March 2018. Irrfan had shared his diagnosis on Twitter. The unexpected makes us grow, which is what the past few days have been about. Learning that I have been diagnosed with NeuroEndocrine Tumour as of now has admittedly been difficult, but the love and strength of those around me and that I found within me has brought me to a place of hope. The journey of this is taking me out of the country, and I request everyone to continue sending their wishes. As for the rumours that were floated NEURO is not always about the brain and googling is the easiest way to do research.To those who waited for my words, I hope to be back with more stories to tell, he wrote in a tweet.Irrfan was last seen in debutant Akarsh Khuranas Karwaan alongside Mithila Parker and Dulquer Salmaan.

Film critic and trade analyst, Taran Adarsh put out on Twitter some exclusive information about the film. Emotional moment when Irrfan joined us for #AngreziMedium, says producer Dinesh Vijan... Xclusiv info on the film: Irrfan runs a mithai shop. Deepak Dobriyal plays his brother and Manu Rishi, their cousin, all rivals in mithai biz. Radhika Madan plays Irrfans daughter.

Irrfan plays a sweetshop owner in the film. His brother and cousin too runs a similar sweet shop. All three are rivals to each other.

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Actor Priyanka Chopra bid the greatest goodbye to the weekend as she danced the night away with her sisters-in-law Sophie Turner and Danielle Jonas. Latest videos from the Jonas Brothers concert in Minneapolis, Minnesota, show the girls dancing together while their significant others -- Nick Jonas, Joes Jonas and Kevin Jonas -- enthral the audience with their performance.

A fan video showed Priyanka teaching Sophie and Danielle the hook step to Galla Goodiyaan even as they danced to Sucker. The girls caught on quickly and soon, all three of them could be seen doing it in unison. Pictures from the night show Priyanka and Sophie in a black outfits while Danielle wore a chequered shirt to the party.

Priyanka, Sophie, Danielle, Nick, Joe and Kevin were partying non stop over the weekend. They enjoyed a great party in Penn State on Saturday where they danced with their fans and even did body shots off one man. Sophie and Joe poured drinks for everyone while Priyanka and Nick handed them out. Watch videos:

Nick also shared a video of an exhilarated crowd from the concert. A friend of ours took this from the crowd tonight. What a moment. #year3000 @jonasbrothers, he captioned a video that showed thousands of fans singing and dancing together to their songs.

Priyanka shared pictures of all three J Sisters on Friday. The #Jsisters are finally together!! @daniellejonas @sophiet, she had captioned a picture from a private jet with Sophie and Danielle. A second picture showed all six of them together. Its #thejonai comin atchya!, she captioned it.

While Priyanka, Sophie and Danielle appeared in the video of Jonas Brothers first comeback single Sucker, the three are not part of the groups latest number titled Cool. Nick, Joe and Kevin have said that they intend on going all out with the reunion. They will soon embark on a world tour and will be featured in an accompanying Amazon Prime video documentary series.

Priyanka will soon be seen in Shonali Bose The Sky Is Pink with Farhan Akhtar and Zaira Wasim. She is producing and acting in a film on Rajneesh communitys Ma Anand Sheila. Recently, Avengers: Endgame co-director Joe Russo also revealed that he is in talks with her for a future project.

Sophie will be seen in the final season of Game of Thrones, which releases on Sunday. She will also be seen as Jean Grey in upcoming X-Men movie, The Dark Phoenix.

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Actor Sara Ali Khan just wrapped up the first shooting schedule of her Imtiaz Ali film with Kartik Aaryan a few days ago and flew to New York for a much deserved break. The actor skipped Imtiaz and Kartiks wrap up bash in Delhi to take some time off for the trip.

Updating about her whereabouts, Sara posted a picture on her Instagram account from the city and captioned it, Just wandering in the city of dreams. Thank you @bookingcom for this exciting escape. Cant wait to re-explore nyc! #ad #bookingyeah #sohonyc #nostalgia #memories. The actor can be seen dressed in warm clothes with a shopping bag in hand.

Sara also shared few more glimpses of her outing in her Instagram stories.

Sara Ali Khan shared her pictures from her New York vacation in her Instagram stories.

The actor who made her Bollywood debut with Kedarnath in December last year saw her second release, Simmba in the same month. She is now working on her third film - - Imtiaz Ali directed Love Aaj Kal 2.

Sara had also posted a picture from the cake-cutting ceremony post the schedule wrap to which Kartik had commented, Will miss you and your madness.

Later, Kartik had shared a video from the wrap up party and wrote along with it, Ahun Ahun Ahun @imtiazaliofficial And Its a wrap for us !!! Schedule 1. Exactly after a month .. Thank you #Delhi for all the Love. We missed you @saraalikhan95 @wearewsf !!!

The original 2009 film Love Aaj Kal starred Saras actor father Saif Ali Khan opposite Deepika Padukone. Talking about Sara featuring in the films sequel, Saif had said in a statement, Its a lovely movie and Im very excited in particular that Sara is working with Imtiaz Ali. I wish both the young stars -- Sara and Kartik Aaryan the best.

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A new picture of actor Shah Rukh Khans daughter Suhana has gone viral on social media. In the picture, Suhana is seen with a big smile on her face, showing off her glamourous look.

The star kid, who shuttles between London and Mumbai, can be seen wearing a white top and a pair of black jeans. Suhana has been pursuing her higher studies in London. She also often visits her home in Mumbai and is spotted with her best friends, Ananya Panday (daughter of actor Chunky Panday who will soon to make her Bollywood debut with Karan Johars Student of the Year 2) and actor Sanjay Kapoors daughter Shanaya. Just recently, Suhana and Ananya were snapped outside Shanayas residence, in a car, and laughing their hearts out.

Also watch: Suhana Khan grooves with friends at dance rehearsal

Also read: Malaika Arora dances to Chaiyya Chaiyya in yoga pants on World Health Day. Watch video

In early March, a video of Suhana went viral. It showed her dancing with her pals to a song by Kenny Loggins called Footloose . In the past too, her father Shah Rukh has shared pictures from the school and college plays that she has been part of. While a bunch of next generation of star kids are set of Bollywood debut, Shah Rukh has made it clear that both his kids will get into films only after finishing their education. While Suhana is in London, her older brother Aryan is the US for studies. Shah Rukhs wife Gauri Khan, too, shares pictures of her kids.

Suhana made her magazine cover debut last year with Vogue India. While the star kid looked a natural before the camera, the shoot itself drew sharp reaction on Twitter. People questioned the fairness of having her on the magazines cover, without achieving anything yet. The magazine and Shah Rukh were accused of promoting nepotism.

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Jet Airways India Ltd.s lenders invited initial bids to buy as much as 75 percent of the debt-laden carrier, starting a process that will determine the future of Indias oldest surviving private airline.

Potential buyers must submit their interest by April 10, State Bank of India Ltd., the lead creditor, said in a document Monday. A strategic bidder should have a net worth of at least 10 billion rupees ($144 million) in the preceding financial year, or at least three years of experience in the airline business.

The airline is credited with successfully breaking the monopoly of state-run Air India Ltd. and was once Indias second-biggest carrier, but its fleet has dwindled to 26 planes from 124 as recently as January. Accumulated losses in nine of the past 11 years have caused Jet Airways to delay payments to banks, lessors and employees, while its founder Naresh Goyal was forced to cede control of the carrier.

Shares of Jet Airways fell 1.5 percent to 252.30 rupees as of 9:42 a.m. in Mumbai, extending this years losses to 9.1 percent. The stock dropped 67 percent last year.

Jet Airways, part-owned by Abu Dhabis Etihad Airways PJSC, needs 85 billion rupees to get back on its feet after a fare war by budget airlines wiped out profits and it racked up debt of more than $1 billion.

The fate of Jet Airways is crucial to the legacy of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he faces an election that begins April 11 after holding power for the last five years. While he remains the favorite in the polls, his party has faced setbacks of late and he has been criticized for not living up to a key election promise to create 10 million new jobs a year. A collapse of Jet Airways, with 23,000 employees, could further dent his credentials.

Consortiums submitting bids should have no more than three members, with each holding a share of no less than 15 percent, according to Mondays document.

After qualified bidders are selected, they will be provided access to the companys data and the bid document.

Lenders led by State Bank of India said last week that other options may be considered if efforts for the stake sale dont produce the desired result, without elaborating on what the options could entail.

The bank group had agreed to take a 50.1 percent stake at an effective cost of 1 rupee through the issuance of 114 million new shares in an attempt to bail out the carrier. It was a maneuver that was allowed under a framework outlined by the Reserve Bank of India last year for companies with a negative net worth as a temporary measure. However, a surprise ruling by Indias top court last week squashed that framework and raised questions once again about the airlines future.

Its unclear what happened to as much as 15 billion rupees of immediate funding that banks said last month they would provide the carrier. Earlier, the Indian government was said to be looking into options to save jobs at Jet Airways, including by asking other airlines such as low-cost operator SpiceJet Ltd. to consider taking over some aircraft, according to people familiar with the matter.
More than a decade after it was first proposed, congestion pricing is all set to become a reality in New York City.

Last week, the New York state legislature approved the plan to charge those driving into the central business district of Manhattan from next year. A first in the United States, this congestion tax will raise funds to fix the citys ailing subway and bus network, and thin out streets that have become strangled by traffic, the New York Times reported last month.

Unlike New York Citys subway, which was operationalised more than a century ago, the Delhi Metro, which began service in 2002 and is still expanding, needs no immediate resuscitation, although funds raised from a congestion tax can help prevent frequent fare hikes and pay for the last-mile connectivity service. The Delhi government could also use the extra fund to revive its depleted bus service.

But the primary motivation behind congestion pricing  making drivers pay for the congestion they cause on roads  is also about a fair deal in Delhis context. Vehicle registration in the national capital, which is one of the most polluted cities in the world, has already crossed the 10-million mark. Even the countrys most extensive road network cannot accommodate more.

Probably that is why Delhis Lieutenant Governor (L-G), last year, asked authorities to explore the possibility of imposing a congestion tax on certain stretches through an Electronic Road Pricing system that would deduct the fee when vehicles entered a highly congested zone during peak hours.

Although the idea is yet to gain political momentum, the L-Gs proposal was not new. For years, experts, government panels and Parliamentary committees have recommended congestion pricing and road space rationing for Delhi. But, there is broad agreement that it cannot be done without fixing basic connectivity.

Right now, Delhis public bus fleet size is at a nine-year low, although the government has promised to roll out 3,000 CNG-powered and 1,000 electric buses in the next couple of years. The national capital region (NCR) already has a 373-km Metro network but the rollout of 427 new electric buses for last mile connectivity will still take time.

In 2017, the L-G had commissioned decongesting of 77 arterials by improving road geometry, building pedestrian infrastructure and clearing them of encroachments and illegally parked cars. It is still a work in progress. To further improve pedestrian facilities, the Delhi Development Authority last month made public a policy to improve walkability that will, to start with, fix 19 key locations.

But even after the backend is fixed, how many of us will be willing to chuck our cars to take public transport or just walk to the nearest destination?

Discouraging private vehicles does not just require political courage. It also needs peoples support.

It took Singapore, which, in 1975, became the worlds first country to levy a congestion tax, a year to convince people about its benefits. Gopinath Menon, a former chief transportation engineer, had said in an email interview last year that his government tried to make the deal palatable by promising better land-use, smoother traffic, new roads and better public transportation.

Also Read | Delhi must learn decongestion from Singapore

Swedens Stockholm chose to demonstrate the benefits of congesting taxing by launching a seven-month trial in 2006. A year later, it made the tax permanent after a referendum approved it by a margin of 52 to 45. By 2011, public support for road pricing stood at nearly 70% and above 50% even among those who paid the fees most often, reported Streetsblog NYC.

In Beijing, authorities have dovetailed congestion pricing into the citys low-emission zone policy to curb air pollution. In 2016, the World Resources Institute (WRI) China partnered with Beijing Jiaotong University to conduct a three-year public opinion survey with 26,000 respondents. The report published in The City Fix, a WRI blog, said that while both support for and resistance to the policy decreased, the size of the neutral middle went up.

Even as it works on public support for congestion pricing, Beijing put in place other measures. In 2011, it introduced a lottery to restrict the number of new cars. The annual quota for new vehicles fell from 240,000 in 2013 to 100,000 in 2018, a Bloomberg Businessweek report said.

Based on their licence plate number, each car has to stay off roads for one day in a week. As many residents were registering their car outside the city, from November 2019, cars without a local license plate will not be allowed to drive within the city for more than 84 days per year, the report said.

The least Delhi could do is to revive its car-free pilot project, which was launched with much fanfare in 2015 only to be abandoned too soon. As megacities make significant leaps to beat congestion, lets take a small step in the right direction to keep the public debate going.

shivani.singh@hindustantimes.com
The number of cash and gold smuggling cases busted at the Delhis Indira Gandhi International airport has been increasing every year, according to data from the customs department.

The data showed that cases of gold smuggling saw a three-fold increase in the past three years. As per the data accessed by HT, 26 cases of illegal cash seizures were reported from the IGI airport in the financial year (FY) 2016-2017 which went up to 31 in 2017-2018 and then to 64 in FY 2018-2019.

Additional commissioner of customs (IGIA) said that the cash seized also included foreign currency. The number of persons arrested with illegal cash too increased from 10 during 2016-17 to 54 last year.

Similarly, the data also shows a spurt in gold smuggling cases. In 2016-2017, gold smuggling cases busted at the Delhi airport was 95, which grew to 253 in the next fiscal of 2017-2018.

The additional commissioner said that, over the last fiscal, the customs department has busted smugglers who have tried various means to sneak in or travel out of the country with illegal gold and cash.

In one case, a young Russian woman was caught with two kg gold bars concealed in her shoes, the officer said.

She was coming in as a tourist from Bangkok. She had an itinerary of different tourist destination in India so that she can dodge the customs. In another case, a Sri Lankan passenger arrived at the Delhi airport posing as a domestic passenger. He changed his flight at the transit area in Chennai but we caught him with around 1.4kg gold concealed under the soles of his shoes, the customs officer said.

Gold smugglers have also tried using elderly passengers as carriers.

In two different instances, two old age persons coming on wheelchairs were caught carrying 1.5kg gold each. They had worn specially designed vests inside their trousers, the officer said.

In some cases, the currencies were also found concealed inside the leaves of news papers, in between gift wrappers and even in sole of footwear. In one case, foreign currency was found concealed by an alleged smuggler in his rectum, the additional commissioner said.

Further, the customs department at Delhi airport have also caught travellers smuggling commercial items as high end watches, silver jewellery and restricted or prohibited items like drones.
The Delhi police arrested six men, who ran a gang that forged profiles of travellers to make them look like frequent fliers to smoothen the process of acquiring a visa.

Police said the six men used fake immigration stamps and bank documents to forge a travellers background. Sixty-two fake passports and 28 fake immigration stamps of Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and India were recovered from the suspects, who were arrested in an operation that lasted a fortnight.

Deputy commissioner of police (IGIA) Sanjay Bhatia said that in the early hours of March 2, they were informed of a coupleSunita Kumari and Ravinder Singh, both Indian nationalsthat was flying to Canada on a Canadian visa via Air Canada, but had no travel history in the immigrations passenger log.

There was no arrival and departure record against the couples passport in the system. The Indian immigration stamps affixed on their passport were also found to be fake. It was suspected that they had created fake travel history to get the Canadian visas by forging the Indian immigration stamp and they were arrested, the DCP said.

During the probe, Sunita and Ravinder were questioned. They revealed that they wanted to settle in Canada and therefore, approached one of their friends, Shyam, who introduced them to an agent named Vicky, alias Jitender, whose shop was near Brahm Sarovar in Kurukshetra.

Jitender charged the couple Rs 6 lakh to make a Canadian visa. He contacted another agent Sachin Kumar, who took both the passengers to Chandigarh and arranged for their visas. Sachin also arranged for fake immigration stamps to make both the passengers look like frequent travellers. On this, our teams tracked down Jitender and he was arrested from Haryanas Kurukshetra about a fortnight ago, Bhatia said.

Jitender told the police that Sachin procured the fake immigration stamps and pasted them on the couples passports.

Acting on the information, we arrested Sachin Kumar on March 27. Sachin told us that he had given the couples passports to one Saurav who got the forged immigration stamp affixed to make the couple look like frequent travellers. We learnt that Saurav also runs an English speaking institute in Kurukshetra. Two days later, on March 29, we arrested Saurav, DCP Bhatia said.

Sixty-two passports of different travellers and 28 fake immigration stamps of countries, including India, Malaysia, Australia and Singapore, were recovered from Saurav.

On Sauravs instance, the police arrested one Mukesh Goyal on Saturday from New Colony in Kurukshetra, Haryana. Goyal disclosed that till date he had prepared 20-25 fake immigration and bank stamps for Saurav and his associates in exchange for money, Bhatia said.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled municipalities appear headed for another face-off with the city government asking the civic bodies to pay the 25 crore fine imposed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) for failing to curb air pollution.

The NGT had penalised the state government in December last year on a petition filed by two city residents Satish Kumar and Mahavir Singh, alleging pollution caused due to the burning of plastic, leather, rubber and other waste materials in north-west areas of Delhi, particularly Mundka, Tikri Kalan, Ranhola, where many footwear factories operate.

In an April 5 letter to the north and south municipal corporations, the governments urban development principal secretary Raajiv Yaduvanshi stressed that it was for the civic bodies to pay up the fine. He reasoned that since local bodies were responsible for setting up the infrastructure to collect, segregate and dispose plastic waste under the plastic waste management rules, the fine should be paid by the municipalities.

HT has a copy of the letter. Yaduvanshi wrote that while north body should pay 18 crore, its south counterpart should pay the rest, 7 crore. The letter cited total failure  of the civic bodies in handling plastic waste.

Senior municipal officials said the government directive was unfair. A senior South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) official, requesting anonymity, said, The government has not even notified the Plastic Waste Management bylaws for Delhi and they think they can push the burden of the penalty on us.

A North Delhi Municipal Corporation official, who also requested anonymity, said, When NGT ordered the fine on December 3, we sent teams to lift over 50,000 tonnes of plastic and leather waste from factories in Mundka and adjoining villages. The waste was sent to our waste-to-energy plant in Narela-Bawana. This actually comes under the revenue department of Delhi government. We did their job without charging a penny and now they are asking us to pay the fine too, he added.

A spokesperson for SDMC said, We have received the letter from the Delhi government but havent sent a response.

North Delhi municipal commissioner Varsha Joshi said, I havent received any letter yet, so cant comment.

Asked about the letters, Yaduvanshi declined comment. If the SDMC says that they have received such a letter, it must be true, he said.

Chairman of the Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA), Bhure Lal, said, Payment of the fine is a matter between the political and official authorities and only they can decide it.
The former Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed made a spectacular return to electoral politics with his Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) winning more than two-thirds of the seats in the 87-member Parliament. The return of Mr Nasheed in the election last Saturday comes after the victory of Ibrahim Mohamed Solih in the September 2018 presidential election and completes the political transformation in Male. Mr Solih had defeated the pro-China despot Abdulla Yameen, who had jailed his political opponents and Supreme Court judges, curbed civil liberties, encouraged political Islamisation and actively cocked a snook at India.

Mr Yameen could get away with his authoritarian and provocative activities on the back of Chinas support. His dealing with China has put the Maldives neck deep in debt. The Solih government took a long time figuring out the tangled web of deals that had got the Maldives into such a massive problem. The results of Saturdays elections are significant because the Parliament can exercise checks over such abuse of executive authority as was seen during Mr Yameens rule. In November 2017, he had got a free trade agreement with China approved by the Parliament in an emergency sitting with the opposition members not even attending. Mr Solihs victory and Mr Nasheeds return, therefore, are good signs for the resurgence of democracy in the atoll nation.

India has reasons to be pleased with these developments. Prime Minister Narendra Modi even visited the Maldives for Mr Solihs inauguration in November 2018. However, it would be a mistake to assume that Chinas influence has vanished from the Maldives. To begin with, debt itself allows China to exercise considerable leverage. One has seen it happen in Sri Lanka where the change in government did not lead to extermination of Chinese role in its economy and politics. India has had a natural geographic advantage over China in South Asia. However, with deeper pockets and a bigger military muscle, China has largely been able to offset Indias primacy in the region. Electoral victories of democratic forces are good for India, but not enough to overcome the China challenge.
A day after at least 30 men, carrying batons, sticks and swords had allegedly forced the closure of meat shops in Dundahera near the Delhi-Gurugram border, the police on Sunday arrested two members of a Hindu right-wing group for allegedly threatening owners to close their shops during Navratri.

An FIR was registered based on a video, shared multiple times on social media, in which members affiliated to a right-wing group could be seen pulling down shutters and demanding closure of meat shops in Dundahera near Udyog Vihar.

Birem Singh, assistant commissioner of police (ACP), Udyog Vihar, said the police had arrested two men, who claimed to be members of Hindu Sena, from Dundahera and raids were on to round up other suspects.

In the complaint, six people have been named and at least 25 others are unidentified. We are trying to identify people from the video. Police are probing if the said meat shops had obtained licences. However, people cannot take the law into their hands and force the closure of shops by brandishing weapons, said ACP Singh, adding that a police control van had been stationed in the village.

A case was registered against the accused men under sections 148 , 149, and 506 of the IPC and section 25/54/59 of The Arms Act at Udyog Vihar police station on Sunday, the police said.

Around 11pm on Saturday, members of several right-wing outfits in the city had assembled near the Old Railway station and claimed to have shut at least 100 meat shops in sectors 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 21, 22, Palam Vihar, Palam Vihar, Badshahpur, Om Vihar, Surat Nagar, Sadar Bazar, Anaj Mandi Dhanwapur, Dundahera, Molaheda and Sikandarpur.

Ritu Raj, state president of Hindu Sena, said that the arrested persons, Rajesh alias Chika, and Pramod were associated with Hindu Sena for the last six months. There is no complainant in the case. Police have merely taken cognisance of the video and lodged a case. If they have launched a probe against us, they should also prosecute health department officials and municipal corporation officials who have not taken action against the illegal meat shops in the city.

On Sunday, meat shops in Dundahera remained closed and the shop owners said that they are planning to return to their native villages in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar for the next eight days. The same thing had taken place last year during Navratri and we were forced to close the shop, said Rehman, who owns a dhaba.

Police said the suspects are Dundahera residents and are involved in real estate business.

Members of Sanyukt Hindu Sangharsh Samiti, which had demanded the closure of illegal meat shops on Sunday distanced themselves from the case. Our group is not associated and has no links to the suspects, said Mahavir, a senior functionary.

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All the remaining superheroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe came together for a monumental press conference for Avengers: Endgame in Los Angeles on Sunday. From Brie Larson to Robert Downey Jr, all were present for the special promotional event, moderated by actor and filmmaker Jon Favreau.

Favreau began the event with a touching gesture towards all the other MCU characters and actors who could not make it to Avengers: Endgame following the event of last years Infinity War. He said that they had left a few seats vacant for the characters who lost their lives after Thanos deadly finger snap.

He dropped the curtain of stage to reveal Danai Gurira, Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Don Cheadle, Marvel head Kevin Feige and directors Anthony and Joe Russo. Clearly things look a little different in the post-Infinity War Marvel Cinematic Universe, Favreau said about the gaping empty seats on the stage. They were later filled by Chris Evans, Brie Larson, Karen Gillian, Paul Rudd, Jeremy Renner and Mark Ruffalo.

Jon Favreau just introduced the #AvengersEndgame press conference in devastating fashion, reminding us half of them dead. pic.twitter.com/mYWf4NOkqc  Brandon Davis (@BrandonDavisBD) April 7, 2019

Twitter users got emotional on seeing the empty seats. This is absolutely not funny, my lawyer will be in contact, wrote one. My Sunday was fine then @MarvelStudios did a press conference leaving half the seats empty for the dead #Avengers, wrote another.

Also read: Shah Rukh Khans daughter Suhana gets into diva mode, stuns in a new picture

happy 19 days until avengers end(of my life)game press photo tours are ALREADY ruining my life and also marvel went so far as to leave empty seats for the fallen during a press conference and i just ????  its christa (@christaanicole) April 8, 2019

They left empty seats for the 'fallen' at the Avengers Endgame press tour.



w o w pic.twitter.com/U6vF0JAhlw  GeekyGibbs (@GeekyGibbs) April 8, 2019

me when i noticed they kept half the seats empty pic.twitter.com/j7Gsi2eMfW  peter parkour (@peter_parkerson) April 7, 2019

empty seats for the fallen avengers omg I got chills  https://t.co/PHjMEzOSeE  samantha doyle (@sammyjeanss) April 7, 2019

A fan also noted how the set-up for Infinity War and Endgame press conference was exactly same but the number of people was reduced to half. There are no Tom Holland, Tom Hiddleston, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Chadwick Boseman and other members of the team. Check out the comparison:

The setup for the "@Avengers: Endgame" Press Conference was the same exact setup as it was for "#AvengersInfinityWar"! The empty seats at the "#AvengersEndgame" Press Conference reflected towards the heroes that were once there, last year; but now theyre all empty seats. #Thanos pic.twitter.com/yDhz2zYQEb  Vahn (@ImAFilmEditor) April 8, 2019

At the press conference, the stars and the filmmakers dodged all spoilers but still gave some fun tidbits from the film. Brie Larson revealed that the film will always be special for her as she shot for it before Captain Marvel, making it the first time she played the powerful superhero.

Robert Downey Jr was also asked about the scene in Avengers: Infinity War in which he watches Peter Parker turn to dust in his arms. Downey had a quirky reply: I love the lighting in that scene. I look so shredded.

Mark Ruffalo said being a part of the press conference was a bittersweet experience for him. According to New York Times journalist Kyle Buchanan, he said: Were all talking like were dead. He added that actors are vagabonds, and this franchise is the closest thing we have to continuity

Avengers: Endgame returns to theatres on April 26.

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It was a call to the Interactive Voice Response system of Emirates Airlines in Dubai about a flight booking, but it provided the National Investigation Agency with a crucial evidence to nail a Pakistani national, Dubai-based Mohammad Kamran, as the head of the Lashkar-e-Taibas funding activities in India.

This is perhaps the first time an enquiry with an airlines automated system is being used by the agency for such a purpose.

Two weeks ago, NIA filed a charge sheet naming Kamran, Delhi-based Mohammad Salman and Rajasthan-based Mohammad Salim, for conspiring to create logistics bases and sleeper cells for LeTs financial arm, Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation. The cells were sought to be created in Delhi and Haryana in the garb of religious work. Salman, who was receiving instructions and funds from Dubai, and Salim were arrested in September 2018.

HT has accessed the details of the charge sheet.

To establish that Kamran (who is currently absconding), in association with LeT chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the mastermind of the Mumbai terror attacks, and FIFs deputy chief Shahid Mehmood were sending terror funds to India, NIA needed their voice samples to match with evidence collected during investigations. With its intelligence revealing that Kamran recently made an enquiry with Emirates Airlines in Dubai about a booking, NIA reached out to the airlines local office, which provided a recording of the call.

Also read | Naga rebels supplying arms to Maoists, says NIA probe

The agency compared this with telephone intercepts of conversations featuring Kamran that it recovered in the form of a CD from the residence of Arif Ghulambashir Dharampuria, an associate of Kamran, in Valsad, Gujarat, in January. The CD contained the voices of Kamran and Mehmood . Mehmoods voice sample was also taken from a video on YouTube, an interview with a TV channel in Pakistan.

According to NIA, forensic experts confirmed that Kamrans voice on the CD and the Emirates IVR recording matched. Similarly, Mehmoods voice on the CD and YouTube video also matched.

Referring to a particular conversation between Kamran and Mehmood, the NIA charge sheet says, The voice samples prove that Kamran is having conversations with Shahid Mehmood in respect of funds transfers and movement to an African country in connection with some religious work as per the CD recovered from the house of Dharampuria. Dharampuria and Abdul Aziz Behlim are two Indians who work closely with Kamran in Dubai.

According to the agencys charge sheet, Salman, a resident of Nizamuddin, received Rs 57.22 lakh from Kamran through hawala channels. He used these funds to ostensibly construct a mosque  Khulafa-e-Rashideen  in Palwals Uttawar village and for marriages of Muslim girls.

However, according to NIA, Salman was indoctrinated to carry out some special work once the construction of the mosque was completed.

Analysis | Pakistan must realise that any action against JeM is in its own interest

FIF, registered as a charity in Pakistan, has been blacklisted by the United Nations Security Council but it continues to raise funds for terror activities of LeT through bank accounts opened using pseudonyms. Its funding comes from madrasas, Pakistan government, its spy agency ISI, its army, businessmen and non-resident Pakistanis.

FIF presents itself as a relief and charitable organisation that collects funds for natural disasters, but India and the international community have repeatedly opposed its activities. It is used by LeT and Jamaat-ud-Dawa for anti-India terror activities.
An Uttar Pradesh man has lodged a complaint with the police against Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan on Sunday for allegedly calling chief minister Yogi Adityanath neech or lowly during an election campaign in the states Rampur.

Laxmikant Saini, a resident of Swar locality of Rampur, filed the police complaint against Khan for his remark made at a public meeting in Tanda against Yogi Adityanath on April 5.

Yogi Adityanath is not only the chief minister of UP but is also the head priest of Gorakhnath Mutt. The remarks against Yogiji have upset the people as well as the saints and hence there is a need to act against him, Saini said in his police complaint.

Azam Khan knows that he is losing. Thats why he is getting desperate and making remarks which he hopes would help him polarise the electorate. But he should know that his tactics now lie exposed, he said.

The Rampur Police did not confirm if they intend to register the complaint against Khan, who is known for his controversial comments.

Earlier in April, Azam Khan was booked for his inflammatory speeches against Rampurs district administrative officials, hours after he filed his nomination papers as the SP-BSP alliance candidate from the Rampur Lok Sabha seat. The FIR was lodged on the complaint of local Congress leader Faizal Lala Khan.

The senior SP leader has held the Rampur assembly constituency for almost 33 out of the last 39 years.

Bollywood actor-turned-politician Jaya Prada will be taking on Khan as the BJP candidate from the seat. Jaya Prada is a two-term former member of Parliament from Rampur and had contested on the Samajwadi Partys ticket. She was first introduced in Rampur by Khan, who is believed to have played a key role in her first win.

Subsequently, the relationship between the two soured which led to Jaya Prada quitting the Samajwadi Party. She joined the Bharatiya Janata Party only recently and was promptly named as its candidate against Khan.

Khan, on his part, has again attacked Jaya Prada for making comments against him.

Speaking at a public meeting in Shahbad, Khan said soon after she was named the BJP candidate from Rampur, Jaya Prada had said she was going to Rampur to kill a demon.

I, who begged for your children, one who got a grand university constructed so that your children could study, one who got roads laid and water tanks constructed is being referred to as a demon. She is calling me a demon who needs to be beheaded and thats why the BJP has sent her here, Khan said.

Uttar Pradesh, which sends the maximum number of members at 80 to Parliament, will go to polls in all the seven phases from April 11 to May 19. The results will be declared on May 23.
The Supreme Court on Monday ordered the Election Commission to increase the cross-examination of slips from VVPATs of five EVMs in every constituency instead of one in the Lok Sabha election 2019.

The top courts order came in response to a petition filed by 21 opposition parties, which sought that 50% of the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail must be verified. Many opposition parties claim that EVMs are susceptible to tampering and initially wanted that the government go back to use of paper ballots.

Many opposition parties claim that EVMs are susceptible to tampering and initially wanted that the government go back to use of paper ballots. After the Election Commission ruled it out, opposition parties demanded that at least 50% votes be verified.

We are of the view that if the number of EVMs in respect of which the VVPAT is subjected to physical scrutiny is increased from one to five, neither additional manpower would be required nor will the declaration of results will be delayed by any substantial period of time, the top court said.

VVPAT machines, attached to electronic voting machines, display the name of the candidate and their symbol on a piece of paper after a vote is cast. The voter can see the paper through a glass display for seven seconds before it drops into a sealed container.

In fact, if the said number is increased to five, the process of verification can be done by the same team of officers, it said.

The poll watchdog matches the VVPAT slips for only one polling booth in each constituency at present.

The 2019 Lok Sabha election would be the first where all voting machines would be attached with VVPAT machines but the poll body has not specified yet how many of these would be counted. It had engaged the Kolkata-headquartered Indian Statistical Institute for its recommendation.

The Election Commission had announced that VVPATs will be used in all polling stations along with EVMs while announcing the schedule of this summers general elections.

It had earlier rejected demands that 30% of the VVPAT slips should be counted. It had then argued that counting paper slips for a third of the countrys 87 lakh electors would be a logistical nightmare.

Also read: Opinion: For democracys sake, EVMs must have proper VVPAT-based audit

The Supreme Court in a 2013 judgment had held that VVPAT was an indispensable requirement of free and fair elections. This judgment, argue the petitioners, made the VVPAT system inherent and intrinsic to the very basic structure of the Constitution.
Senior BJP leader and Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday took a jibe at the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Congress alliance in Tamil Nadu, saying it was a sinking ship, prompting the DMK to attack its understanding with the ruling AIADMK in the state.

Rajnath Singh, who was addressing an election rally in Tamil Nadus Perambalur, lashed out at the DMK-Congress poll pact saying, it is not a secular progressive alliance but just a corrupt alliance.

We have formed a strong alliance in Tamil Nadu and across the country. However, Congress has forged an alliance with the DMK in Tamil Nadu. In the past, the DMKs government was dismissed by the Congress. However, the DMK still has joined hands with Congress. This alliance will not win in the upcoming Lok Sabha election. The DMK-Congress coalition is a sinking ship, Singh said.

The DMK and Congress have sealed the seat-sharing deal in Tamil Nadu for the upcoming Lok Sabha election. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) will contest 20 out of Tamil Nadus 39 Lok Sabha seats and leave the rest for its allies, including the Congress. The party has left nine seats in Tamil Nadu for the Congress.

The BJP and AIADMK have also struck an alliance for the Lok Sabha election 2019 under which the national party will contest five parliamentary constituencies in Tamil Nadu.

Reacting to Rajnath Singhs comments, Tamil Nadu Congress MLA S Vijayadharani said the alliance between the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the Bharatiya Janata Party was opportunistic and unsuitable.

The DMK and Congress parties alliance is a natural one. However, the AIADMK-BJP alliance is opportunistic and unsuitable. As the home minister travels on a sinking ship (AIADMK-BJP alliance), his phobia makes him say that our alliance in a sinking one, Vijayadharani said while speaking to the Hindustan Times.

The DMKs arch-rival and ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) swept the Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu in 2014 and won 37 out of the 39 seats. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) managed to win just one seat while the DMK and Congress failed to win any.

The Union home minister also said that India does not want to wage war with Pakistan but only wants to destroy terrorist camps in the neighbouring country, referring to the IAFs airstrikes in Balakot and Pulwama terror attack in February.

India is not against Pakistan. We dont want to wage war with Pakistan. We respect their sovereignty. However, we are acting against terrorists. If terrorists from Pakistan are attacking our soldiers, we have no choice than destroying their camps in Pakistan, Rajnath Singh said.

The minister also pointed out, India is not against Pakistani people and their soldiers.

He further claimed that India has moved up to the fifth rank in the developing countries list.

During the UPA regime, India had very poor ranking among the developing countries list. However, under PM Narendra Modis guidance, the nation has emerged as the worlds fifth fastest developing country, he said.

The home minister said that the Congress government had just built 20 lakh toilets in their tenure. We made 90% of India equipped with toilets, he noted.

Tamil Nadu has the most Lok Sabha seats  39  after Uttar Pradesh (80), Maharashtra (48) and West Bengal (42).

Voting in all the 39 constituencies in Tamil Nadu will be held during the second round of seven-phased Lok Sabha election 2019 on April 18. The results will be declared on May 23.
Vaishnavi Divakar Bhomle, 20, was in the ninth standard when her father, a farmer of cotton in the village of Ashta in Maharashtras Wardha district, committed suicide in 2014. He owed 1 lakh to a finance company, a loan he was unable to pay back after the first five installments. He had further loans of 92,000 to an agri-business centre, 82,000 to the local bank, 50,000 to money lenders, and 50,000 to relatives. Not mentioning his growing burden to anyone in his family, he kept going to his field where one day he consumed poison. He walked back home at lunch time and died, leaving his wife, Savita, to care for Vaishnavi, a younger daughter and an older son.

HER FATHERS DREAM

Vaishnavi feared it was the end of her education. But it was her fathers dream that she become a doctor. She had won the best-student award in the seventh standard at her high school in Wardha. In the eighth, she had even won a study trip to Bangalore funded by a rotary club. Savita was determined to see the dream through. Vaishnavis uncle took her in for the tenth boards in which she scored 84%. Then they threw her out, asking her family to fend for itself. At the time Savita was working from 7am to 7pm on two acres of land yielding barely 4 quintals of cotton and an income of 35,000-40,000 a year. Savita handed over the family moped to Vaishnavi and made her commute 15km from Ashta to her school every morning. Vaishnavi passed her 12th with 61%.

Unaware of how to apply for the common medical entrance exam, she missed the deadline and ended up pursuing a Bachelors degree in Science (biology and zoology) at a college in Wardha, and rented the cheapest available room at 1,500 a month. That has now gone up to 2,000. Even though Vaishnavi shares the space with a classmate, she lives in constant fear of not being able to pay the rent. She plans to complete a PhD in Science and write the entrance test for the Maharashtra Public Service Commission as well as take the Thalathi Bharti exam for an administrative post in the zilla parishad. She finds it hard to negotiate the scholarship applications, however, without the access to a mobile phone on which to receive the OTP. She cant even apply for an Aadhaar card for the same reason. There are many like me who dont have phones, what are we supposed to do? she asks.

UPS AND DOWNS

The scholarship forms cant be submitted until payment is made through an ATM within the college or over the internet. She does not have access to either. To open an account that is eligible for an ATM card she needs a minimum of 1,000, but she cant spare that much money. I feel this is where the Modi government has complicated even the good things they have done, she said, referring to the central governments digital push in rural areas. The application fees add up, costing 250 to 500 in stamp duty. It leaves her constantly asking others for help. Some oblige, but occasionally people get annoyed with her neediness. To make matters worse, her state government scholarship endowment for Class 11 and 12 still hasnt arrived.

Her encouragement comes from the teachers. Even though she joined college two and a half months late, she was among the students who passed all term exams at first attempt. She is also a poet and includes spontaneously composed Marathi poetry with every submitted essay.

Prayatna sodun man -- doosre kahi sure kare -- ashach ya dukhya kahi -- avadhe ayushya nighun zaye

Athaparyanth shiklelya ya shithhalalya Kay arthh paoon hoi-- rozgar namiloo denari -- kashi hi berozgaari tai? ... she writes.

My mind says I should stop trying -- and try something else -- in such sorrow -- my whole life will pass me by

Till now all that/ the balm that I have gained from what I have studied -- what meaning will it have then -- it wont even allow us our daily wages -- what kind of unemployment is this, sister?

She would have liked to get a part-time job using her typing or computer skills, or worked at a store, but her hectic course schedule doesnt allow for that. Every moment counts. The exams I am attempting are all highly competitive. Its all on me. Its what my father died for; its what my mother lives for.

She thinks about her father a lot. When Im happy I wish he was here to see it. When I am sad I think if he hadnt done what he had, we could all have been happier. Either way his suicide is always with me, she says.

THE LAND OF FARMERS

Her mother is now a woman farmer, and she the daughter of a farmer who committed suicide. Political promises dont match up to their lived realities. She was too young to understand what the Congress was like when it was in power at the time her father died, she says. But now that she has seen what the BJP is like, she would like to give the Congress a chance. I like Rahul Gandhi and his mother. I feel like they try to understand farmers. I feel Narendra Modi spent his tenure going to foreign countries and establishing rapport there. If he had spent that time strengthening the farmers community, we would be much stronger now. We are a krishikshetra, the land of farmers. The governments focus should be on us.

Still, she does admit that some of the ruling governments initiatives have improved lives in her village. Thanks to the Swachh Bharat campaign, families now have toilets. Women sat in ghunghat inside homes and were fully exposed on the streets. I am thankful that has stopped because of this, she says. The gas cylinder scheme has allowed her family to own a cylinder but they only use it when there is money to spare. Her mother still relies on the chulha largely. A cylinder is a must for her in the city, though, and takes 1,000 out of her budget. To survive, she cooks two meals at once and uses one cylinder for 7-8 months.

And her preference for the Congress doesnt translate into complete belief in the partys promises.

When we hear promises like 6,000 will be given we think these are just words. We dont believe it will actually happen because they dont explain where the money will come from. How will they give it to so many people? she said about the Congress partys election promise of minimum income guarantee to the poorest 20% families.

HER OBSTACLES

Among the things her family and farming community need is an affordable solution for watering their fields and options for vocational work women can do from home. Schemes that offer jobs in cities are of no use because again we have to struggle to commute or to pay rent. Also, remember that agriculture offers a certain level of income thats why we keep at it. This is what we know to do, this is convenient to do, and this is what gives us returns. Provide us jobs that offer comparable returns, then only women like my mother will choose that over farming.

She pointed out that for women who study and work in cities or in semi-urban areas, the government needs to provide affordable hostels. I need the government to bring out schemes that help me to keep studying while I work and also to live affordably because these are my obstacles.

Her struggles have increased her knowledge and curiosity about politics, society, and the economy, she says. For women of my generation we are living through circumstances that are making us participate very thinkingly in this politics and this society. I value my vote because I know what it means now. I know what employment means to people, what a loan waiver can mean for a family on the brink of life and death. These are not just words or assurances.
The general who oversaw the Indian Armys 2016 surgical strikes in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir has warned that growing Indian impatience and a strong response to terror incidents could escalate the conflict to a war-like situation, adding the country should not rule out dialogue with the neighbour.

In a report on Indias National Security Strategy authored for the Congress party, former Northern Army Commander Lieutenant General DS Hooda (retd) said the events following the February 14 Pulwama suicide attack clearly established new redlines in Indias response to Pakistan-sponsored terrorism.

BJP Manifesto: Sushma Swaraj outlines PM Modis diplomatic success

However, there is no doubt that military actions carry the risk of escalation and this needs to be factored into our future plans, he wrote in the 41-page report.

There is a need to have a sustained and long-term strategy to build consistent pressure on Pakistan to desist from supporting terror. Diplomacy and economic isolation will play a large part in this strategy, he noted in the report. He said talks with Pakistan must be structured, and pursued based on results.

He said even after three decades of conflict, Jammu and Kashmir remained Indias biggest internal security challenge. Violence has significantly dipped from its peak in 2001 that saw over 4,500 deaths in the state. However, from a low in 2012, there has been a steady increase in violence levels in the past six years, he said.

The report said the strife in the border state was fuelled by two critical factors: Pakistans constant support to terror, and a sense of anger and alienation among sections of the population in Kashmir valley.

On China, he said the ongoing border talks had reached no breakthrough and focus of negotiations must shift to accurately defining the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

This too is a complicated task but if successful, will go a long way in preventing the occurrence of flashpoints like Depsang, Chumar, and Dokalam. He said India must be prepared to strongly contest any violation of its perception of the LAC.

Hooda picked holes in the militarys capability shortfalls.

Most of the armys equipment is in the vintage category The air force is faced with a reducing fighter strength The navy faces a capability gap in conventional submarines, naval utility helicopters

The report said India should continue to build up its triad of land, air, and sea-based missiles and modernise its older land missile systems for deterrence against nuclear threats. He added that India needs to start building up a missile defence system to protect major cities.

Speaking about the report, he said: The Congress party are seeking public comments on the report so that they can refine it and adopt it as their vision of a national security strategy. He added that his team will assist the party if some explanations are required on the report or if it is to be further refined.

Congress has put up the report on our website in order to invite suggestions from various security experts across India as well as ordinary people, ex-servicemen, serving officers, think-tanks etc, so that our national security apparatus is based upon open discussion and deliberation. We will then study everything before deciding which portion of the report to include. We are thankful to Lt Gen Hood for the effort he has made, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said.
The Indian Air Force on Monday released radar images to rebut Pakistans claim that it hadnt lost a US-manufactured F-16 fighter jet in the February 27 dogfight. The IAF said there was more credible evidence available to establish that Pakistan Air Force had lost one F-16 in the air action.

But the IAF is restricting the information being shared in public domain due to security and confidentiality concerns, Air Vice Marshal RGK Kapoor, Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Operations) said.

Officials said the Air Force also had evidence in the form of radio-telephony intercepts of the Pakistan Air Force F-16 strike package and ground wireless intercepts but would not place this evidence in public domain due to security and confidentiality concerns.

The fact is that the IAF had achieved its objectives of successfully striking the Balakot camp and thwarting the retaliatory PAF attack against Indian military installations that followed on February 27, Air Vice Marshal Kapoor said.

The AWACS radar image of the engagement area west of the Line of Control opposite Jhangar clearly establishes that there were a bunch of F-16s opposite Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman. In a second image taken 10 seconds later, one of the F-16s disappeared.

Thats the F-16 the PAF lost, the IAF officer said.

It is believed to have been the first ever kill of an F-16 by a MiG-21 Bison, fighter jets of two different generations.

Also Read | Over in 90 seconds: Officers detail India, Pakistan air duel along border

Pakistan had, however, insisted that the PAF did not lose any fighter jet in the engagement over the skies of Nowshera in Rajouri district of Jammu Province, the first aerial dogfight between the two air forces since the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. Islamabad had also insisted that it did not use the US-made F-16 combat jets in the February 27 air action.

Last week, however, there was a shift in Islamabads stand when Pakistan military said it had the right to use any aircraft for its self-defence. Prior to this statement, Islamabad had claimed that it had only used JF-17 Thunder jets, developed jointly with China, in the February 27 engagement with India and that its aircraft had shot down two Indian Air Force jets. India contested both points, saying it lost only one MiG-21 and that an F-16 was shot down.

In the new statement, Pakistan military arms media wing said it was immaterial whether F-16s or JF-17s were used. It described the events of February 27 as part of history now and said no Pakistani F-16 was hit by the Indian Air Force.

A report in the Foreign Policy magazine, however, waded into the row last week when it claimed that US defence personnel had recently conducted a physical count of Pakistans F-16s and found none missing. The US defence ministry spokesperson, however, told Hindustan Times that the department wasnt aware of any investigation like that.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday questioned separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq in connection with its terror-funding probe in Jammu and Kashmir, an official with knowledge of the matter said.

Farooq, chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, was asked questions about a hi-tech communication device that was recovered from his residence on February 26 this year, and his alleged links with the terror organisations, the official said. The separatist leader had skipped previous two summons, issued on March 11 and March 18, by the central anti-terror probe agency. He appeared before it on Monday after he was assured that he would be provided security. As soon as he arrived at the Delhi airport, he was assigned security officers.

Before reaching the NIA headquarters for questioning, Farooq tweeted, In Delhi today with my colleagues for the NIA summons, efforts to malign leadership for its political stand wont work. Inspite of harassment #Hurriyat will continue to seek peaceful resolution of the #Kashmir issue, urge people back home to stay calm and peaceful.

Farooq has been asked to come to the NIA headquarters for questioning on Tuesday as well. Another NIA officer said they are investigating people linked to terror funding besides those who instigated stone pelting on security forces, were involved in burning down of schools and damage of government establishments.

The agency has already named Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed, Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin and 10 others in its chargesheet filed in January 2018 in J&K terror funding case.
India is committed to working closely with the Maldives to deepen the partnership between the two sides and to assist the Indian Ocean archipelagos socio-economic development, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on Monday.

Modi called Solih to congratulate him on the Maldivian Democratic Partys (MDP) victory in parliamentary elections. He also spoke to former president Mohamed Nasheed, the leader of the MDP, and congratulated him on the momentous victory, according to a statement from the external affairs ministry.

The significant victory of MDP signifies a resounding endorsement of the policies and efforts of its leaders, who have worked with deep commitment for the people of the Maldives, Modi told Solih.

Modi welcomed the successful completion of elections, which marked the consolidation of democracy and strengthening of democratic institutions. He reiterated Indias commitment, in keeping with its neighbourhood first policy, to work closely with the Maldives to deepen the bilateral partnership and assist the archipelago in line with its requirements for socio-economic development.

While speaking to Nasheed, Modi lauded the participation of all democracy-loving forces in deepening the roots of democracy in the Maldives and offered Indias continued assistance for this objective, the statement said.

Following talks between Modi and Solih in New Delhi in December, India had said it will provide $1.4 billion as financial aid to the Maldives, which is grappling with mounting Chinese debt. The two sides had also signed four agreements that will boost cooperation in areas ranging from healthcare to defence.

The talks were aimed at resetting bilateral ties following the defeat of pro-China strongman Abdulla Yameen in presidential elections in October.

The MDPs sweeping victory in the parliamentary elections could give Solih a free hand to restore political freedoms and tackle corruption. The MDP is set to become the first party to win a majority in Parliament since the Maldives became a multi-party democracy in 2008 after decades of autocratic rule.
The ban on civilian traffic along the lifeline highway that connects Kashmir with the outside world came into effect on Sunday amid protests.

The government on Wednesday said civilian traffic on the 249 km Udhampur-Baramulla highway would be banned from 4 am to 5 pm every Sunday and Wednesday for national elections until May 31 for exclusive troop movement. The ban followed the February 14 car bombing along the highway that left 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel dead.

Police, paramilitary and Army soldiers enforced the ban on civilian traffic along the highway from early in the morning on Sunday.

It seems Kashmir is under a security crackdown. Is this humanity? Our rulers should understand that this is extremely unjust, said Abdul Rashid Shah, who had to walk several kilometers with his granddaughter in his lap to reach Srinagars railway station crossing.

Many link roads connecting the highway were also blocked using barbed wires.

The government on Saturday named 18 officials to oversee the ban and help people in distress travel on the highway. The magistrates were deployed at all intersections on the highway.

Queues of people particularly sick were seen near the vehicles of the officials asking for permission slips.

The closure of the highway will directly affect at least seven districts. Hundreds of schools, colleges, banks and hospitals fall on this highway.

The administration called their arrangements for restrictions on highway successful. In a statement, governor Satya Pal Malik-led administration said special passes were given to 493 vehicles in Pulwama, Anantnag, Budgam and Baramulla districts.
The Madras High Court on Monday quashed land acquisition proceedings as well as a government order (GO) for the Rs 10,000-crore Chennai-Salem greenfield 8-lane Expressway project, passing through farmlands and reserved forest.

The 277-km project is part of the Centres ambitious Bharatmala Pariyojana  I, which involves laying of around 35,000 kms of national highways before 2022. With an outlay of ~5,35,000 crore, this was aimed at decongesting six national corridors. The Bharatiya Janata Party and the ruling party in the state, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), have been strong votaries of the expressway, running close to Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswamis native Edappadi town in Salem district.

One of the petitioners against the project is Anbumani Ramadoss, MP of the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), which has joined hands with the AIADMK-BJP combine for the Lok Sabha polls that begin on April 11.

Land acquisition for the project, for which the government order was issued in February last, resulted in massive protests by farmers in five districtsSalem, Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, Thiruvannamalai, and Kancheepuram. Green activists too joined them as the project threatened the ecologically sensitive Kalrayan hill range of the Eastern Ghats. Quashing the land acquisition proceedings and striking down the GO, a division bench of Justices TS Sivagnanam and V Bhavani Subbaroyan held that environmental clearance was mandatory for the project which would have an adverse impact on forest cover and water bodies. The bench also rejected the project feasibility report by a consultant, dismissing it as a mere a cut and paste work.
The Assam Police said they are investigating an incident in which a man was allegedly thrashed and forced to eat pork.

Rakesh Roushan, superintendent of police (Biswanath), said the police had registered a first information report after they received a complaint from one Shaukat Ali that he was assaulted, called a Bangladeshi and forced to eat pork on Sunday.

In a video which was circulated on social media, a middle-aged man with grey beard is seen being thrashed by a mob comprising mainly youngsters. In the video, the mob is heard asking the man, Why did you come to sell beef? Roushan said the incident happened on Sunday evening in Biswanath town, where Ali runs an eatery which serves meat.
With 115 Lok Sabha seats  the most in any phase in this summers parliamentary elections  including all 26 from his home state Gujarat set to go to the polls on April 23, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will have to take a call this week on whether he inaugurates the first Hindu Temple in Abu Dhabi by video, or in person on April 19-20.

At least three officials in the Prime Ministers Office in South Block confirmed that given his very heavy political commitments, the decision on how he will inaugurate the Swami Narayan temple in Abu Mureikha, 30 minutes from capital Abu Dhabi, has been left to the PM.

The Swami Narayan sect has considerable influence in the state of Gujarat. The land for the temple was given by Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi after Modis first visit as PM to UAE in 2015.

If he does choose to visit, apart from the religious messaging, Prime Minister Modi will also receive the King Zayed medal in recognition of his pivotal role in strengthening ties between two nations. Announcing the highest decoration for PM Modi, Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan tweeted: We have historical and comprehensive strategic ties with India, reinforced by the pivotal role of my dear friend, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who gave these relations a big boost. In appreciation of his efforts, the UAE President grants him the Zayed Medal.

Since he came to power in 2014, Modi has worked hard to build goodwill and forge close ties with West Asia, particularly Saudi Arabia and the UAE. He has used his National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, former Counter-Terrorism Envoy Asif Ibrahim, Research and Analysis Wing Chief Anil Dhasmana and Indian Ambassadors to the West Asian nations to achieve this. Out of the six awards given to PM Modi in the past five years, four are from Islamic nations. These include the King Abdulaziz Sash Award (April 3, 2016) from Saudi Arabia; the Amir Amanullah Khan Award (June 4, 2016) from Afghanistan; the Grand Collar of the State of Palestine (February 10, 2018); and the Zayed Medal (April 4, 2019). The other two awards received by PM Modi were the UN Champions of the Earth Award (September 26, 2018) and Seoul Peace Prize on October 24, 2018.

Modis outreach has been built on common platforms of counter-radicalisation, counter-terrorism and broad-based economic growth. His foreign policy regarding West Asia has paid rich dividends with countries such as Saudi Arabia and UAE totally blocking any anti-India activity on their territory and more than happy to deport Indian origin criminals back home.
Eight months after three minor girls died of starvation in a room in a three-storey building in an urban slum in East Delhi, the other 30-odd families in the same building  each lives in a room that is eight feet by four feet  are still awaiting the ration cards promised during the wave of shock and government action that followed the deaths.

Right opposite the room where the three girls died lives the family of Ayesha Khatoon, 34. Its been 13 years since her family moved to Delhi from a small village in Uttar Pradesh in search of a livelihood, but she still hasnt managed a ration card.

Following the deaths on July 24 last year, the Delhi government promised to provide all families in the building with ration cards so that they could avail the governments food security schemes.

Only those with an annual income of less than 1 lakh are entitled for subsidised wheat and rice under the National Food Security (NFS) Act, 2013.

The building, at Mandawalis Talab Chowk, has around 45 windowless rooms, almost all as small as the Khatoon home, across three floors. The three girls lived there with their father and a mentally unstable mother.

We had all the legal documents required for getting a ration card but since the room is on rent the officers wanted the landlords photo-identity proof, which he would just refuse to give. After the girls died of hunger, an army of officers visited the place and recorded details of each house, assuring us that cards would be made, said Khatoon showing a receipt saying her ration card application form had been submitted on August 2.

Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia visited the building on July 26 and assured residents that their cards would be made. Sisodias office declined comment on the issue.

The last time the residents checked at the local Kalyan Vas circle office on April 1, the status of the applications still showed pending.

A senior official from the Kalyan Vas office, who did not wish to be named, said that a lot of applications are still being processed: All new applications are in waiting. We are considering the pending applications in a chronological order, according to year when we received the application. Currently we are considering applications that were received or rejected in 2014-15 for various reasons.

He added that the department is short-staffed.

Khatoon says her family urgently needs the rations.

The room rent is 2,500 besides the electricity bill and water supply charges. We make around 7,000 -8,000 every month. Getting at least basic foodgrains on ration will help us. Both she and her husband are engaged in stitching work.

Her story finds an echo in almost every room.

Soon after the girls death, officials came to the building and recorded videos of all the families. They told us that our cards would be made within three months. I filled up the form. Nobody has returned to check on us since, said Gita, 29, holding on to her receipt tightly.

Apart from Sisodia, local member of Parliament, Manoj Tiwari of the Bharatiya Janata Party too visited the building in the aftermath of the tragedy.

The families are hoping that political leaders will come to their rescue now, with the Lok Sabha elections round the corner.

Another resident, Munni Devi, 55, said: Most people here have Aadhaar cards issued on their village address. The officials at the ration card office told us to get the address changed to apply for the card. That will take money she cant afford, Devi added.

Other residents said they were fleeced by some private agents for getting Aadhaar cards made and do not want to go through the process again.

The lanes leading up to the yellow-coloured building are unpaved with open drains. The area outside is used both as a parking space as well as a garbage dump.

According to officials in Delhi governments food and civil supplies department, under current rules, eligible applicants are required to have the same address on the Aadhaar card as the one where they currently reside.

Under the public distribution system, a module is being developed by the Centre to enable beneficiaries to procure ration anywhere in the country with the card issued to them on the permanent address or any other place. Till the system comes into implementation, applicants have to submit Aadhaar having a Delhi address, said a senior official who asked not to be named.

Anjali Bhardwaj of the Delhi Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan, an NGO, said: The National Food Security Act is a rights-based legislation. Making identity proof such as Aadhaar mandatory for procuring ration leads to exclusion of the poorest. Most of these people are migrants working as manual labourers; making them subject to proof for basic right to food is not acceptable. We have also filed a PIL in the Delhi HC in this regard.

The NFSA provides for transparency and accountability, under which a food state commission had to be set up in each state for grievance redressal.

The commission has still not been set up in Delhi and many people are denied their right to food. Under the Act, the state is required to conduct periodic social audits of such areas, which too has not been done, said Arvind Singh of Matri Sudha , an NGO that works in the area of child welfare.
The Supreme Court on Monday asked former Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar to respond to Central Bureau of Investigations plea seeking permission to carry out his custodial interrogation in connection with the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam.

The top court had on February 5 restrained the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from taking coercive steps against Kumar but directed him to appear before the agency and faithfully cooperate with it.

The CBI has now sought modification of the order so that it can arrest and interrogate Kumar. Asking Kumar to give its reply, the SC bench said it would take up CBIs plea on April 15.

The bench then asked two private telecom companies to hand over whatever details Central Bureau of Investigation has sought from them, including the call data records and exchange of communication between the two service providers had with the Kolkata police before the central agency took over the probe subsequent to an SC order.

Senior counsel appearing for the two companies, however, submitted the telecom firms had handed over what was sought by the CBI.

Senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for Kumar, asked the court to direct CBI director to file, settle or approve the affidavits the agency is filing before it.

Singhvi said his client had no faith in M Nageswara Rao, former interim CBI director and at present a joint director, since his wife is being probed by the West Bengal police in a 2017 case.

The bench did not accept Singhvis request.
The UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) will hire services of its retired personnel right from the linesmen to chief engineers through an outside service provider to meet the staff crunch in view expanding consumer base.

The corporation on Friday issued a circular to this effect after the UPPCL board of directors gave nod to the proposal for hiring retired and experienced staff through an outside agency.

We have engaged Shreetron India Ltd, a Government of India enterprise to provide the retired manpower to us on terms and conditions decided by the corporation, said a UPPPCL official.

The UPPCL will engage its retired staff on a contract basis for a fixed tenure and salary denying them any administrative and financial powers.

Among the retired personnel that the corporation has decided to hire include linesmen, technicians, junior engineers, clerks, accountants , private secretaries, under secretaries, joint secretaries, additional secretaries, executive engineers, superintending engineers and chief engineers etc.

The monthly wages fixed for them range from 21,665 for technicians, linesmen etc to 89,208 for chief engineers.

All the retired personnel already working in the UPPCL will be hired again if so needed after their contract is over through the Shreetron India Ltd, the circular said.

The UPPCL, according to sources, had decided to hire services of its retired staff as an emergency measure to meet the growing work.

The corporation had added more than 1 crore new consumers during last one year and half without creating new posts or filling the vacant ones in that proportion, the sources said.
In another legal win for India, a judge in the appeals court of the high court has rejected controversial businessman Vijay Mallyas application for permission to appeal against home secretary Sajid Javids February 4 order to extradite him to India.

Mallya had applied to the court on February 14 and the Home Office submitted its response within the stipulated 20 days. Legal experts say the case is usually allowed to go for a full appeals hearing if new grounds or evidence not previously considered in lower courts are cited.

A spokesman for the judiciary said on Monday: The application for permission to appeal was refused by Mr Justice William Davis on 05/04/2019. The appellant has 5 business days to apply for oral consideration.

If a renewal application is made, it will be listed before a High Court judge and dealt with at a hearing, he added.

The refusal suggests that the judge may not have seen merit in Mallyas application. Further options before Mallya include approaching the Supreme Court, which usually grants permission to appeal if a case involves a matter of public interest; and submitting a representation to the home secretary.

Also read: Beer king Vijay Mallya may have to curb his $24,000-a-week life

The recourse to representation to prevent extradition on human rights and grounds possibly on new facts has been previously used by Tiger Hanif, who is wanted in India in connection with blasts in Surat in 1993.

Tiger Hanif lost all legal challenges in 2013, but has since made representations to prevent extradition to the home secretary, who has not yet taken a decision.

Facing charges in India of financial irregularities amounting to over Rs 9,000 crore, Mallya has been putting forth his version of events through social media in recent weeks, most recently on March 31 following an interview to a television channel by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Also read: Vijay Mallyas extradition will speed up trial, jail barrack ready for him: ED

In a series of tweets, Mallya used the reported financial problems of Jet Airways to plug his case, demanding that his assets placed before the Karnataka high court be used to pay off banks and other creditors, adding: It will help them to save Jet Airways if nothing else.

Noting that banks were reportedly bailing out Jet Airways, Mallya said: I invested 4000 crores into Kingfisher Airlines to save the Company and its employees. Not recognised and instead slammed in every possible way.

The same PSU Banks let Indias finest airline with the best employees and connectivity fail ruthlessly. Double standards under NDA, he added.

Wishing banks had similarly bailed out his Kingfisher Airlines, he said: BJP spokesman eloquently read out my letters to PM Manmohan Singh and alleged that PSU Banks under the UPA Government had wrongly supported Kingfisher Airlines.

Media decimated me for writing to the PM. I wonder what has changed now under the NDA Government.

Mallya has previously taken to twitter to seek to change the narrative that he stole money from India and fled, reiterating that he had offered to return the loans, wondering why the government was not taking up the offer.
As the political discourse edges past cat videos and family photos on timelines, thousands of people are keeping track of posts being shared on social media platform Facebook to scan if any of these violate the policies against hate speech and fake news; or have the potential to impact the upcoming general elections in India.

Teams across operational centres in Menlo Park, India, Dublin and Singapore scan videos, audio and the written word while Indias elections get underway.

A little over 900 million people are registered as voters for the seven-phase general election beginning April 11, which is being fought as much on the social media stratosphere as in the constituencies.

This operations centre workforce - 40 teams of 30,000 people across the globe - that includes experts from across sectors such as cyber security and engineering has been put in place after the social media giant faced heat from governments and privacy watchdogs in the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica controversy, which exposed privacy lapses on the platform.

Typically, the forensic exercise - of earmarking a post or an account, handing it over to the operations teams that run 24X7, for investigation to assess if it qualifies for a take-down - is completed in hours.

According to Kaushik Iyer, engineering manager for civic integrity at Facebook, these teams determine what content is acceptable and does not breach the code of ethics. In India, doctored videos and audio with an aim to misrepresent are one of the major challenges for the company says his colleague Rita Aquino, who is the Indian elections lead for civic integrity.

To assuage the concerns of the election commission that holds elections, the government and the political parties, all of which have expressed concern over the possible misuse of the platform, the company says it has tweaked its operations to ensure more checkpoints for stopping misinformation flow.

Over the last 18 months, we built systems that allowed us a picture of trends that are building in India, so that we can find content harmful for community and take action, said Aquino. Part of the preparations for the Indian elections was planning scenarios and running through simulations so that the teams could test the systems for handling crisis, she explained.

Katie Harbath, public policy director for global elections at Facebook, said there are five main pillars that work is carried out on. ...The first is cracking down on fake accounts, when we look at bad activity that could be happening on the platform, most people are not using their real identity. We use a combination of automatic systems and humans to find these accounts. We have increased our safety and security team from 10,000 to 30,000 people over the last year-and-a-half. Most of these accounts are detected even before they are reported to us.

Facebook, she said, is good at detecting automatic creation of accounts while enforcing transparency in advertising has been the other big step.

The third is reducing the distribution of false news. Here, we look at it in three ways: what content to remove because it violates our policies, where is the problematic content so that we can reduce its reach and how can we give the community additional context on who it is that is sharing this information, she said.

Governments and civil society were up in arms and alarm bells were set off when news reports in 2018 revealed that Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm, had harvested the personal data of millions of peoples Facebook profiles without their consent and used it for political purposes.

While the Congress in the United States summoned Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify, last November, a joint hearing of lawmakers from nine countries including UK, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Ireland, Latvia and Singapore had some tough questions for the company on its handling of misinformation online.

The social media giant also faced flak for not doing enough to limit foreign interference, allegedly out of Russia, during elections in the United States and the European elections.

In India, where the election commission has already flagged concerns over the potential of social media as a spoiler; a parliamentary committee in March told Facebook to ensure that its platform and those of its photo-sharing site Instagram and messaging app WhatsApp are not misused to create divisions, incite violence, pose a threat to Indias security, or let foreign powers meddle in the general election.

While the social media giant is in the process of sharpening its response and defences ahead of the upcoming European Union (EU) elections and the polls in Australia; the sheer scale of the Indian elections that comes with specific challenges such as the diversity of languages and dialects will be the litmus test of its safeguards.

In India, for instance, we recognised the linguistic diversity and the need to prepare for it. We did some of this work during the last state elections and the one core technique that we have invested in is in improving our ability to use machine translation. We also need to understand the ways in which people use our platform, said Iyer.

He said in India specifically, the company invested in improving coverage of photos and videos. We have invested in better translation so that we can match the ways in which people speak and understand concepts and so that we can listen to the voice of the community, said Iyer.

Learning from past elections

Though the company claims to be continually learning and improvising on the ground, handling of issues during the Brazil and the US election has helped create a plan for India as well.

In Brazil, we saw the value of taking quick decisions to protect against violative content. In the US, we found that coordinating with government, civil society as well and building proactive measures was very valuable. In that elections, we were able to detect harmful content and were able to take down 45,000 pieces of voter suppression before anybody reported it to us, said Aquino.

On the lessons that were learnt during the assembly elections in five states in India last year, she said: ...We found hate speech against specific castes and religious groups were on the rise. So what we did was improve our ability to understand languages outside of the Hindi belt and we also bolstered our understanding the social and political landscape of each state. I can say now that we can detect hate speech on the platform and are able to act on it.

Ajit Mohan, the managing director cum vice president of Facebook, in a separate blog post on Monday said the company is relying on using artificial intelligence and machine learning to fight interference. For example, these tools help us block or remove approximately one million accounts a day. They also help us, at a large scale, identify abusive or violating content, quickly locate it across the platform and remove it in bulk. This dramatically reduces its ability to spread, he said.

On the process of insulating the elections from interference, he said the process was started 18 months ago with a detailed planning and risk assessment across platforms. ...The findings allowed us to concentrate our work on key areas, including blocking and removing fake accounts; fighting the spread of misinformation; stopping abuse by domestic actors; spotting attempts at foreign meddling; and taking action against inauthentic coordinated campaigns, Mohan said.

Working with govt

Earlier this month, the company took down over 700 pages linked to individuals that it said were associated with the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party for spamming other users. Has the platform received requests from the government to take down accounts or content that could impact national security or elections? Harbath said it hasnt.

She said even though the company receives inputs from the government, civil society and other third party organisations that monitor the elections, it does not necessarily guarantee that Facebook will take action. We will look at every single report that comes to us to make our own determination, if it violates our community standards, does it violate local law or what is the right action that we can take. We do that to make sure that we are not letting biases creep into the decisions we make, she said.

Monitoring social media

Zuckerberg recently called for legislation in the areas of harmful content, election integrity, privacy and data portability. Is the company prepared for monitoring of its platform?

Habarth said while the company is doing its bit to tackle problems, it cannot do so alone.

These are unprecedented times we find ourselves in...one area I have been thinking about is regulation of political communication space, she said.

WhatsApp and virality of fake news

WhatsApp with an estimated 200 million users in India has emerged as an easy platform for quick dissemination of posts. It found itself in hot water after a spate of incidents of fake news shared on the platform led to over dozens of violent episodes that ended in fatalities. The platform has already introduced features such as limiting the number of forwards and partnering with Checkpoint Tipline for fact-check of the shared posts. It is also in the process of beta testing a feature that will label frequently forwarded messages, so when a message has been forwarded four times; the user will be allowed to forward if further only once. The features that allow users to give consent before being added to a group and the limit on sharing messages were rolled out in India first.

(Smriti Kak was in the US as a guest of Facebook.)
2019s battle of the campaigns will be between the Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJP) Phir Ek Baar, Modi Sarkar (A Modi government again) versus the Congresss Ab Hoga NYAY (Justice now, but also a play on the partys promised income guarantee scheme NYAY), with both parties announcing their campaign themes in the Capital on Sunday.

Both launches come just four days before the first phase of polling.

The Congresss campaign theme was announced by the partys chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala at a conference that also featured other party leaders, including Anand Sharma and Pawan Khera.

The BJPs slogan was announced by the head of its publicity committee, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, in a conference that featured, among others, Union minister Piyush Goyal and BJP general secretary Bhupender Yadav.

The BJPs campaign would have sub-themes, Jaitley said at the conference: Kaam Karnewali Sarkar (A government that works); Imaandar Sarkar (A government that is honest); and Bade Faisele Lenewali Sarkar (A government that takes big decisions).

The Congresss creative campaign places party president Rahul Gandhi at the core of the theme. It reflects his personal style which is informal, real and helps him connect easily and genuinely with people... Simplicity, genuineness, honesty as opposed to hollow, empty slogans and fake promises is the approach the Congress publicity campaign takes, Sharma said at the news conference.

Both parties also released their theme songs for 2019 on Sunday. The Congresss official campaign song has lyrics by Javed Akhtar and conceptualised by filmmaker Nikhil Advani. The party ran into trouble with the Election Commission of India on Saturday, with the poll watchdog objecting to certain words in the song. Senior party leaders said the concerned lyrics were removed by the party late on Saturday.

The BJPs campaign song raised issues of corruption and development efforts while asking voters to ensure another term for the Narendra Modi-led government.

While launching the campaign theme, Jaitley said the choice for people in the elections will be between the cohesive and tested government of PM Modi and chaos and mahamilawat offered by 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. His partys campaign with the tag line of Phir ek bar, Modi sarkar (Modi government, once more) will centre on the Modis five-year performance, including on the national security front, honesty, and his ability to take big decisions, among other issues, Jaitley added.

The poor, the middle class and the neo-middle class will be at the centre of the BJPs electioneering, Jaitley said, and took a swipe at the Congress for not even saying a word on the emerging middle-class when it launched its manifesto.

The Union minister said these promises are not for future as the government has fulfilled them in its five-year term.

The BJP will launch its manifesto on Monday.

The Congresss manifesto titled We will deliver focused on the issues of agrarian crisis and unemployment, and the minimum income scheme that guarantees ~72,000 a year to the poorest 20% households in the country.

The visuals in the Congress campaign feature Gandhis interactions with people over the last few years. It will revolve around key promises mentioned in the partys manifesto, including the NYAY scheme, unemployment, universal health care, doubling education budget, the womens reservation bill, and a separate farm budget.

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 for unemployed youth, farmers, women, our Dalit Adivasi brothers and sisters, justice for the businessmen that the badly executed GST [goods and services tax] has ruined, Sharma said.

The Congress campaign has been designed by digital media firm Silver Push. The song and the videos launched by the party have been created by media group Percept Limited. Digital firms Nixon and Digital Box also worked on the campaign.

The exercise had six sub-groups visiting and interacting with various categories of people, including farmers, unemployed youth, women, businessmen, MSMEs and students. We found that demonetisation, economy and unemployment emerged as the bigger issues. Around these issues we asked creative agencies to weave out a campaign for us; in the meantime our manifesto was taking shape and NYAY scheme became the spine of our manifesto. Hence, we decided to focus on NYAY and then the slogan Ab hoga NYAY was born, said senior party leader Pawan Khera.

Khera said that in comparison with the BJPs Lok Sabha campaign, which has mainly revolved around national security and the Balakot airstrike, the Congress was firm on sticking to peoples issues.

During our interactions with the people, when we asked them the simple question: what is it that you like about the Congress, the feedback we got was they know how to govern; we kept that in mind, we also asked what they did not like and took into account the criticism. We asked them what they did not like about the Modi government and the top most response was demonetisation. NYAY basically remonetises the rural economy, Khera added.

According to a senior leader who asked not be named, the Congresss publicity committee had to change the order of the slogans it had planned to go ahead with after the partys manifesto was launched.

After the manifesto launch, certain things got rearranged. Slogans such as Jan jan se nata hai, sarkaar chalana ata hai became number two in the order, Ab hoga NYAY become number one. Other slogans in the pipeline included Kaam kaam, samman and Milao haath badlaav se, the Congress leader said.

Commenting on the campaign theme launches of the Congress and BJP, professor Mahesh Rangarajan of Ashoka University said: The narrative of the BJP is performance and the promise of continuing that. They have spun around its slogan from last time. It symbolises the figure of Modi  what he symbolises, that he is as big as the party, his centrality to the new BJP post the Atal-Advani era. Congress on the other hand, is going with a similar theme of its 2004 slogan Congress ka haath, aam aadmi ke saath much more than Garibi Hatao of 1971, reaching out to have-nots and also those who wish they were much better off. NYAY is not just referring to the minimum income scheme but is also a play on the word.

(With agency inputs)
BJP president Amit Shah on Monday listed the steps taken by the Narendra Modi-led NDA government to what he said brought India on the world stage and tackled several domestic issues plaguing the country.

Amit Shah was speaking at the event to release the BJPs manifesto or Sankalp Patra just two days ahead of the Lok Sabha election 2019. Prime Minister Modi, Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj were among those present at the launch of the manifesto at the partys headquarters in New Delhi.

The last five years from 2014 to 2019 were golden years for India. It was for the first time after 30 years that a full majority government came. Despite a majority, we formed the NDA government, Amit Shah said.

Also read | One mission, one direction is our mantra: PM Modi at BJP manifesto release for Lok Sabha polls

Watch: Nationalism, farmers, youth- Focus of BJPs 75-point manifesto

There was a time India did not matter in front of the world and in the last five years, the entire world has taken cognisance of us, he said.

In five years, the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken 50 major decisions for the betterment of the country and transformed the country, Amit Shah said.

The BJPs manifesto was prepared after consulting six crore people. When we came to power in 2014, our country was ranked as the 11th major economy and today, it stands as the fifth major economy, Shah said.

We are going forward with 75 resolutions that we can fulfil by the year 2022 when India completes 75 years of independence, he added.

Also read: The HT view | In BJPs 75-point manifesto, 3 strands that stand out

The ruling party focussed on pension schemes for small and marginal farmers and Rashtriya Vyapari Ayog for the trading community, days after the Congress vowed to bring about several welfare measures, including a grant of Rs 72,000 to the poorest 20% households in the country, if voted to power.

The party also reiterated its promise of building the Ram Mandir made in the last elections, saying the temple will be built as soon as possible in a harmonious environment.

Union home minister Rajnath Singh-led manifesto committee of the BJP had decided to form 15 sub-panels to reach out to the different group of voters in January this year.

Also read: The BJP manifesto

The 20-member manifesto committee included Union ministers Arun Jaitley, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Nirmala Sitharaman, Thaawarchand Gehlot, Piyush Goyal, and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. It also has former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Bihars deputy chief minister Sushil Modi, his Uttar Pradesh counterpart, Keshav Prasad Maurya, among its members.

Polling will be held in seven phases across the country from April 11 to May 19. The results will be declared on May 23.

Also Read | BJP Manifesto 2019: BJP manifesto not prepared by tukde tukde mindset but with nationalist vision: Arun Jaitley
The guest list of CPI candidate, Kanhaiya Kumar, on April 9, when he files his nomination papers for the Begusarai Lok Sabha seat, promises to be a star-studded one, with Bollywood celebrities expected to attend the jamboree.

Leading the pack in what promises to be Kanhaiyas show of solidarity, could be the famous Bollywood couple of Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi.

The poet, lyricist, screenwriter and recipient of the Padma and the Sahitya Akademi awards, and his wife, a noted film, TV and theatre actress, are, however, yet to confirm their participation.

We expect them (Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar) to come either for the April 9 show or even later, when the campaigning peaks, said Prince Kumar, younger brother of Kanhaiya.

The show also promises to have glitz and glamour. Swara Bhaskar, who shot to fame with her supporting role of a bride-to-be in the commercially successful romantic comedy Tanu Weds Manu (2011), is also expected to attend Kanhaiyas nomination, claimed Prince.

Gurmehar Kaur, a student activist and author, and Shehla Rashid Shora, a politician and Ph.D. student at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, also figure in the tentative guest list.

Prakash Raj, a multilingual film actor, film director, thespian and politician, will also join Raj is contesting the Bengalore Central Lok Sabha seat as an independent candidate. Among those certain to be here on the day of nomination are Hardik Patel and Jignesh Mevani, said Prince.

While Hardik led the Patidar reservation agitation before joining the Congress, Jignesh, a social activist and lawyer, is a legislator from the Vadgam constituency in Gujarat.

Also extending solidarity with Kanhaiya could also be Rohit Chakravarti Vermulas mother. A Ph.D student at the University of Hyderabad, who took on the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad over the screening of a documentary Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai at Delhi University, Vermula raised his voice for a casteless society before committing suicide.

The mother of Najeeb Ahmed,the JNU student who went missing under suspicious circumstances, is also expected.
YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy has blamed both the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of failing Andhra Pradesh and said he would support at the Centre whoever fulfils the demand for a special category status for the state.

He spoke to Aurangzeb Naqshbandi about the national and assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh on April 11, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhis minimum income scheme. Edited Excerpts:

What are the key issues in this election?

It is going to be a battle between credibility versus betrayal. [Chief minister] Chandrababu Naidu has betrayed Andhra Pradeshs people. His entire governance, his promises of 2014 and what he delivered all have fallen flat. This also includes the special category status. He was with the BJP for four years and his MPs were in the NDA [National Democratic Alliance] cabinet. Yet he did nothing about it. Corruption is also a big issue and in Andhra Pradesh, it has gone way beyond anybodys imagination. People see through it. Then you have Amravati scam. Naidu knew where the capital was coming and he intentionally misled that capital was coming elsewhere and then he and his benamis bought land where the capital was actually coming. After they bought land, he announced the capital there. This actually translates to insider trading or breach of oath of secrecy. After they bought land, he ensured that the majority of such land was not acquired and got the adjoining land acquired. Whatever he acquired in the disguise of land pooling, he started giving to people of his choice at whatever rates he wanted. That is a big scam.

Are you confident of ousting Telugu Desam Party this time?

Last time, the difference between winning and losing was barely 1%. Today, the situation is totally different. Last time, Naidu had no anti-incumbency against him. He was in the Opposition and he could lie and people believed his lies. He also projected his nine years of chief ministership as experience and he also had a little bit of Modi euphoria and a little bit of Pawan Kalyan factor on his side. All that put together gave him those numbers in 2014.

You have linked your support to the next dispensation at the Centre to the special category status.

We have no faith in the national parties. Both the Congress and the BJP have betrayed us. On the floor of Parliament, Congress assured special category status at the time of [Andhra Pradesh]s bifurcation [in 2014]. The BJP supported it and went a step ahead by promising 10 years of special category status. So, Congress betrayed us by breaking the state against our wishes and also by not incorporating this promise in the AP Reorganisation Act. Had they done so, we could have gone to the Supreme Court. They [BJP] have also failed us. The BJP included this in its manifesto and Modi promised 10 years special category status in Tirupati in 2014. And when he was in a position to deliver, he did nothing. So, he also cheated us. There is an element of mistrust when it comes to national parties. We will have good numbers God willing and thanks to KCR [Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao]. He [KCR] has also pledged support to our special category status demand. His 17 MPs added to our 25 will become a big chunk. God willing, it looks like a hung Parliament. So, for anybody wanting to form a government at the Centre, our support will be crucial. And our demand would be special category status. You sign and we are with you, whosoever it is.

How important is the Pawan Kalyan factor this time?

A: Last time, all those who sympathised with Pawan Kalyan voted for Chandrababu Naidu. This time, there is a tacit understanding between Naidu and Pawan Kalyan with the sole intention of splitting the anti-incumbency vote. But even then, I dont think any anti-incumbency vote will split. Everybody who sympathised with Pawan Kalyan earlier voted for TDP and now that he has formed his own outfit (Jana Sena), the vote split will happen on the TDP side not ours.

Chandrababu Naidu has accused you of joining hands with KCR who is considered a major proponent of bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. He also calls you a B-team of BJP. What is your counter?

See, how anybody can say that we (TRS and YSRCP) have an understanding with BJP when there is no alliance. Where is the BJP? Moreover, what is BJPs strength in my state that there should be any alliance with them? None of the national parties command any vote share in Andhra Pradesh. Why should there be an alliance? After the elections, God knows who would become the Prime Minister. As far we (TRS and YSRCP) are concerned, we are pretty focused. Once the elections are over and the numbers come out, whosoever wants to form the government, I presume they would come and look up to us and promise to fulfill our aspirations, our dream and honour the word that was given to us on the floor of Parliament. KCR garu and we dont have an alliance but an understanding that one supports the other. He has come forward to support our cause. I dont think that is causing any damage to my party in my state that was broken five years ago. All parties, including the Congress and the TDP, had then supported the division. How is it okay when TDP and Congress come together and fight the assembly elections in alliance in Telangana? Naidu had even tried to negotiate a truce with KTR (TRS working president KT Rama Rao) who had called on him to offer condolences on the death of his brother-in-law Hari Krishna. Naidu himself has shamelessly accepted that. Naidu then said that he had requested KTR garu to form an alliance with TDP and because they rejected they were compelled to go with Congress. Naidu made these statements in the assembly and even to the media. In fact, it is good thing that two neighbouring states are coming together for a cause  that is special category status. This is a good sign and should be welcomed by all and this man (Naidu) makes statements what suits his purpose.

Why are the other opposition leaders such as Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal and Farooq Abdullah campaigning against you?

This is unfortunate. They are doing it at the behest of the Congress party. Congress is playing this game behind the scene. They all are constituents of UPA (United Progressive Alliance). One by one, they are coming to Andhra Pradesh and campaigning for Naidu who has a tacit understanding with Congress.

What is your take on the BJPs nationalism narrative and Congress talks about jobs etc?

Modi has exhibited a strong will in whatever he could do. He has also exhibited strong leadership qualities. Maybe that would fetch him some marks elsewhere in the country. I do not know but as far as Andhra Pradesh is concerned, none of the national parties will score well.

What do you think of the Congress partys promise of minimum income guarantee scheme? Is it doable?

Rahul Gandhijis promise is a sham. He said this scheme is applicable to everybody whose income is less than Rs 12000 per month. The concept is good but the implementation is important. Basically, one should have the heart to do it with all sincerity. That is lacking here. See, he (Congress president Rahul Gandhi) himself said that this constitutes 20% of the population or five crore families which translates to 25 crore people. But the numbers are wrong. I tell you an example of my own state. Out of the total population of 5 crore, we have 4.2 crore people whose income is less than Rs 6000 per month in rural areas. So, the math is that 80% of the total population in this country has an income of less than Rs 12000 per month. So, their (Congress partys) entire calculation is wrong. So, you want to do good to the people, get your math right.
Former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) president H D Deve Gowda on Monday predicted the defeat of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Lok Sabha elections, but said no party would be able to form the government at the Centre without the support of the Congress.

Addressing an election rally in support of the Telugu Desam Party at Tiruvuru in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh, the JD (S) chief referred to the formation of the United Front government comprising non-BJP coalition of regional parties supported by the Congress party between 1996 and 1998.

The United Front government proved that regional parties could come to power Now, it is the time for all the regional parties to come together again and wrest power from the BJP. The TDP president (Chandrababu Naidu) played a major role at the Centre at that time and he is playing a key role in bringing all the parties together on one platform. It is a major achievement to bring all the like-minded regional parties together, he recalled.

Gowda described Naidu as a prospective Prime Minister of India. Chandrababu Naidu has been bravely fighting against the misrule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He has raised his voice against the misuse of the central investigation agencies and weakening of several other institutions. Naidu has all the requirements of becoming the Prime Minister of the country in future, the former Prime Minister said.

Gowda charged Modi with weakening democracy by engineering attacks on the political rivals by central agencies. There is an undeclared emergency in the country. Income Tax raids are carried out on the opposition parties. Madhya Pradesh Chief Ministers relatives were also targeted. So were the political opponents of the BJP in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu. Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal were subjected to I-T harassment too, he pointed out.

The former Prime Minister also faulted the Election Commission for adopting what he alleged was a partisan attitude against non-BJP parties. Never before had the EC shifted so many officials based on frivolous complaints. The general feeling among the people is that the EC was acting according to the directions of the BJP government against the opposition-ruled states, he alleged.

Addressing the rally, Naidu said the opposition parties would file a review petition in the Supreme Court not against its direction to the Election Commission to count five per cent of slips obtained from VVPAT (Voter-verified paper audit trail) machines in every constituency.

He said the opposition would appeal for at least 25 percent VVPAT slips in every constituency. Naidu is among those filed petition for the counting of at least 50 percent VVPATs.
In what appeared to be a bid to claim the mantle of young Dalit leader, the presence of a large number of Bhim Army supporters at the venue of the joint SP-BSP-RLD rally in Deoband on Sunday prompted Bahujan Samaj Party leaders to introduce party chief Mayawatis nephew Akash to supporters on Sunday.

Bhim Army supporters thronged the rally ground with posters and pictures of their leader Chandrashekhar Azad, shouted slogans in his favour and claimed their organisation was working for the empowerment of Dalits across the state just like the BSP.

Jostling with BSP workers for space at the rally ground, they said the Bhim Army chief was also mobilising Dalits to defeat the BJP in the Lok Sabha election.

In a tweet after the rally, Chandrashekhar thanked the Bhim Army supporters for participating in the rally with his posters.

It shows the love among the Dalits for me. The Dalits are uniting against the BJP, he said.

Apparently to counter the Bhim Army move, BSP leaders introduced Akash to the party supporters after Mayawati, SP chief Akhilesh and RLD president Ajit Singh concluded their speeches. Akash was present on the dais along with Mayawati and BSP national general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra. The BSP supporters lauded Akash when he was introduced as the young leader of the party.

Also Read | Only we can challenge BJP, says Mayawati at UP Oppn rally

Earlier too, Akash had accompanied Mayawati to political meetings and rallies. He was present with Mayawati in crucial meetings with Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow when the duo announced their pre-poll alliance for the Lok Sabha election.

Akash, who holds an MBA degree from a prestigious institute in London, accompanied Mayawati to Shabbirpur village in Saharanpur district on May 23, 2017 to meet Dalits who were allegedly tormented by Thakurs. He interacted with the local leaders and villagers. Akash, son of Mayawatis brother Anand Kumar, has been managing the BSPs social media cell, according to party insiders.

Although Mayawati had maintained a distance from the social media, a BSP leader said Akash convinced his aunt to open an account on the micro blogging site Twitter. A BSP leader, who did not wish to be named, said Akash was being groomed by Mayawati to manage the party affairs after her.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has complained to the Election Commission (EC) against BSP chief Mayawati over her remarks at the BSP-SP-RLD rally in Deoband (Saharanpur) on Sunday.

UP BJP vice president JPS Rathore, in a written complaint to the EC, said Mayawatis statement appealing to Muslims to not vote for a particular party was akin to inciting communal feelings. We have requested the election commission to act against Mayawatiji so that such remarks arent made during elections, Rathore said.

Meanwhile, chief electoral officer (CEO), UP said he will send the BJP's complaint and the recordings of the speeches at the rally to the Election Commission of India for follow-up. CEO, UP, L Venkateshwar Lu says: "We have sought recordings of all the three star campaigners, that is, BSP chief Mayawati, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and RLD chief Ajit Singh."

He further said that the returning officers of all the 80 Lok Sabha constituencies have been directed to provide speech recordings and clips of ampaigners to the CEOs office.
The condo is a penthouse unit in the building, with 4 baths, two fireplaces and transitional finishes by Bulley & Andrews, according to listing information. The unit also has a covered balcony, a 1,000-square-foot deck with views to the east and north, floor-to-ceiling windows with motorized shades and a white gourmet kitchen with a butlers pantry, professional appliances, an island and a breakfast bar.
The BSP-SP-RLD alliance chiefs came together on one platform here on Sunday, for the first time, displaying the might of the alliance and blasting the BJP and Congress for their wrongdoings and wrong policies even as they promised to meet the peoples aspirations if the alliance came to power at the centre.

The alliance leaders -- BSP chief Mayawati, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and RLD chief Choudhary Ajit Singh  slammed the BJP for misuse of CBI, pending sugarcane dues, exploitation of Dalits and tribals and unemployment.

BSP chief Mayawati asked the people not to pay attention to the Sharab remark (made by PM Narendra Modi recently.

Modi will be frightened after getting feedback of such a massive turnout of people at this rally, she said, claiming that BJP will be soon out of the power unless something is done to the EVMs.

Congress remained out of power due to its wrong policies and BJP will be out of power because of their wrong doings and wrong policies, she said and added that chowkidari and jumlebaji will not help the BJP.

Appealing to Muslims to vote for the alliance, the BSP chief asked them not to allow their vote to get divided but ensure victory of the alliance candidates to defeat the BJP. Modi ke saath, Yogi ko bhi bhagana hai, she said.

Attacking the PM, the BSP chief said that he had failed to fulfil even one fourth of the promises made by him and is misleading the people.

They (BJP) have spent thousands of crores on publicity, which otherwise could have been spent on the welfare of the people, she said and charged them of patronizing the capitalists.

Mayawati promised permanent employment to youths if the alliance came to power.

Referring to reservation to upper castes given by the Modi government, Mayawati claimed that it will not do much for them. She also said our borders are not secure. She appealed the gathering not to allow the BJP to come to power as they would do anything to get votes and distract them.

Taking on the Congress, she warned the people against falling into the trap of their manifesto, saying that they will put it aside after the elections. Mayawati added that the Congress promise of Rs 6000 per month is not a definite plan to remove poverty. BSP does not issue a manifesto as: We believe in work, not in hollow promises, she said. Mentioning Indira Gandhis 20-point programme to eradicate poverty, she said nothing happened. Also BJPs promise of Rs 15 lakh is a joke and their Sabka saath, sabka vikas has turned out to be a jumla.

She also appealed to people to vote for the alliance candidates from Bijnor (Malok Nagar, BSP), Saharanpur (Fazlur Reham, BSP), Kairana (Tabassum Hasan, SP), Muzaffarnagar (Ajit Singh, RLD) and Baghpat (Jayant Chaudhary, RLD) who were all present on the dias.

Akhilesh Yadav claimed that this election was going to create a history. He said that Saharanpur reminds him of the existence of Maa Shakumbhari Peeth and Deobands Darul Uloom.

Attacking Modi and the BJP, he said their leaders came here to spread hate but they dont want to speak about their promises. He came as chaiwala and we all believed in their lies of Rs 15 lakh. Now they are here as chowkidars.

This election will decide the future of the country and the alliance will make a new PM, said Akhilesh asserting that the alliance will keep the heritage of Choudhary Charan Singh alive and fulfill the dreams of Dr Ambedkar and Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, who had dreamt of such an alliance. Like Mayawati, Akhilesh, too, raised the issues of pending sugarcane dues to farmers, unemployment and also sluggish pace of development of the country.

This government has been bad days instead of good days (acche din). GST has destroyed business of small traders, he said while blaming the BJP for dividing the people more than the British.

This election is to bring change, spread harmony and remove hatred, said the SP chief while claiming that in Kairana they have abolished hatred as not even a single vote was divided there. He said referring to 2018 Kairana by-poll .

Attacking both the BJP and Congress, Akhilesh said they are alike as their policies are same.

In his address RLD chief Choudhary Ajit Singh also attacked the BJP and told the people that their enthusiasm showed that the BJP would be defeated.

He said the alliance wanted happiness for farmers, jobs for youths and a good life for everyone and asked the gathering Modi ke ache din aa gaye kya?

This election is to save the nation, said Singh and added that for the first time four judges of the Supreme Court had said that democracy was in danger. He also said that the CBI was being misused.

Taking a dig at PM, Singh said Ye bhagwan hum sab ko Modi jaisa fakir bana de.

Calling Mayawati as the leader of the country, Singh said sugarcane rates were increased in Mayawati and Mulayam governments and stern action was being taken against defaulters but now high courts directions for payment of farmers dues are being overlooked.
The central Congress leadership has identified around six to eight Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan that require special attention, said a party official familiar with the matter.

The seats include those where the candidate is new or receiving opposition within the party or the party is in direct contest with the BJP. Jaipur-City, Jaipur-Rural, Ajmer, Bhilwara, Rajsamand, Jhalawar-Baran, Ganganagar and Nagaur are being considered among such seats.

In a meeting with the state and central leaders including chief minister Ashok Gehlot, AICC general sectrary Avinash Pande and deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot on Saturday, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi asked them to pay special attention on the seats where local leaders opposed the partys official candidate or the BJPs candidate is strong, the party official said on the condition of anonymity.

There were talks of changing candidates on six seats, but later the state leaders reportedly assured Gandhi to fix the situation in two days.

The last of filing nominations for phase-I of the Lok Sabha election in Rajasthan is April 9.

The Congress leader said Rahul Gandhi has asked the state leaders to constantly monitoring the seats in question, take ground level feedback and ensure that the party campaign runs smoothly. The state leaders have are been asked to publicise Congress manifesto, especially the minimum income guarantee scheme (the NYAY scheme), which, the party believes, will to prove to be game changer.

It has been learnt that the office of Gandhi is also taking random feedback on the campaign of party candidates campaign and challenges through telephonic calls. A call from Gandhis office was received on Saturday, which asked how the candidate campaign is being run, challenges, and is the election material provided etc, said a Congress worker in Jaipur, on the condition of anonymity.

AICC president Rahul Gandhi and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi are likely to hold road shows and rallies in Rajasthan in order to boost the prospects of party candidates.

Meanwhile, a section of the Congressmen has started questioning various surveys conducted by the party at different levels and even one conducted through Shakti application.

Resentment and dissatisfaction after ticket distribution is usual phenomenon, but on such a scale at as many as eight LS seats is a concern, especially when around three months exercise was made for candidate selection, said another Congress worker, who did not want to be named.

Lok Sabha elections 2019: Here is all you need to know about Rajasthan
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ally Shiv Sena won 41 out of the 48 seats in Maharashtra in the 2014 elections. Notwithstanding a lot of tension since, including contesting the 2014 assembly elections separately, the two parties have decided to continue their alliance for the 2019 elections. The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) too have come back into an alliance after parting ways during the assembly elections.

The Congress-NCP have contested all general and assembly elections in Maharashtra together since 2004, except the October 2014 assembly election. In the five elections the two parties contested together, their combined vote share has declined in every successive election: from 42% in the 2004 general election to 34% in the 2014 general election (See Chart 1).

While this may indicate that the alliance has been losing ground in the state, the vote share figures hide behind them the ability of the alliance to win seats even with a lower vote share. Its seat share to vote share ratio ( an indicator of a partys ability to convert popular support into seats) continuously increased in four elections held between 2004 and 2009. It dropped only in the 2014 general elections (see Chart 2).

Another set of figures shows that the Congress-NCP alliance has become more vulnerable over time in terms of winning seats. Its median margin of victory has been on a decline: it was higher than the BJP-Sena alliance in the two elections in 2004, very close to it in the two elections in 2009 and nearly five times less than it in the 2014 general elections. This means the alliance has increasingly been unable to manage a huge lead over its opponents even in the seats it wins (see Chart 3).

The statistics show that the Congress-NCP alliance will have to work on its chemistry with voters and win over a section of BJP-Shiv Sena supporters to register any significant improvement in its electoral fortunes compared to 2014.
The epicentre of the Green Revolution and home to a crumbling 370-year-old hunting lodge , or Shikargah, built by Mughal emperor Shahjahan, Jaunti village near Kanjhawla in outer Delhi is waiting for a tourism facelift.

Jaunti is one of the four model villages adopted by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Udit Raj in northwest Delhi in 2014 under Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY).

Raj had announced to develop rural tourism in the village and surrounding areas, but it still remains a promise as no significant progress has been achieved so far on this front. Jaunti is still to get a hospital  the nearest is at least 12km away in Pooth Khurd.

There are pluses, though. The village got a makeover as its roads were revamped and lit with LED streetlights; new bus shelters, toilets and a community hall have also come up.

Steeped in History

Jaunti, which falls near Delhi-Haryana border, boasts of a rich past. At the heart of the village, on a mound, is the 17th century Shikargah built in the 1650s.

The lodge was once a double-storeyed fortress surrounded by a wall. According to the villagers, Shahjahan, along with his queens, used to come to this fortress for hunting as the entire area used to be a forest.

Today, most of the fortification, including the main gateway, have collapsed. Rampant illegal constructions inside and around the monument have diminished the grandeur of the Mughal era royal forest house and damaged its original structure such as the lakhori brick walls, arches, halls, sandstone columns and pyramidal roofs.

In the 1960s, MS Swaminathan, credited as being the father of the Green Revolution, began his famous experiment here  30 superior varieties of wheat were sown here beginning the process of making the country self-sufficient in food grain.

Rural Tourism Project

Residents in the area hope that the government will take advantage of the villages reputation and develop it into a tourist hotspot.

We have a rich history and heritage. From a Mughal era monument to a large pond, this village has everything to be developed as a tourism destination. The MP has also promised to make it happen but despite his efforts things are yet to be done in this connection, said a 66-year-old villager Baljeet Singh.

After adopting the village, Raj had promised to develop rural tourism in the village by restoring the glory of the monument, refurbishing the pond, constructing cafes, plazas and development of street art. There was also a plan to explore the possibility of using the existing pond for aqua culture and boating and developing a separate pond for livestock.

Several agencies such as administration department, Delhi Urban Arts Commission (DUAC), Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation (DTTDC) were roped in to develop the village as tourism destination but it could not be done.

Raj said he had not gone back on his promise of developing tourism in the village. He did, however, add that things were moving at a slow pace.

We are working on the project. Recently, 10-acres was given to the Delhi tourism department from the gram sabha, for developing rural tourism in the village. This project will not only improve tourism in the region but also generate employment for the local youths, Raj said.

Rekha Vohra, director of the Jaunti village development project, said that the project was very much on track. She said that it was being done in cooperation with several agencies, so it was taking time.

The project is on. The progress has been slow on this front because of multiplicity of the agencies. Last year, we had conducted several meetings and visits to the village with the officials of revenue, tourism, archaeology departments in this connection, she said.

Despite repeated attempts, a Delhi government spokespersons could not be reached for comment.

Work Done by MP

The residents were happy with the MP for the works done by him in the village. They said that most of the promises he made were delivered barring construction of a hospital. A resident of the village, Rajendra Singh said that lots of works are done such as construction and revamp of roads, lying of water pipelines, street lights, and entrance gate on Kanjhawala road, construction of a park, toilets and community hall.

We want a hospital. For treatment we have to either go to government hospitals in Pooth Khurd or Mangol Puri which are around 12 km from the village. It is a long pending demand but no one be it the MP or the MLA could really do much about it, he said.

The residents also expressed concern about a high tension power line passing over a part of the village and wanted it to be removed.

Raj said he had spent his funds on number of works such as construction of roads, open gyms, sewer work. The process of bringing a 200 bed hospital is on. Land has been identified for this purpose. It is taking time because of lack of support from the Delhi government, Raj said.
The Muslim majority constituency of Kishanganj in Bihar has turned into a hotbed of political rivalries with nine political parties, national and regional, fielding their nominees for the Lok Sabha elections.

Five independent candidates are also in fray, making the political contest in Kishanganj a highly competitive one. Spread over six assembly segments, the Kishanganj Lok Sabha constituency has earned the nickname of being the political capital of Seemanchal.

Political parties which have fielded their nominees in the elections include- Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Congress, All India Majlis-e Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), Trinamool Congress (TMC), Bahujan Mukti Morcha (BMM), Janata Dal-United (JD-U), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Jharkhand Miukti Morcha (JMM) and Shiv Sena.

Of the total 14 contestants, there are 8 Muslim candidates who will contest from this constituency, which has a Muslim population percentage of 56% and is adjacent to Indo-Bangladesh and Indo-Nepal borders, crisscrossed with West Bengal.

Triangular contest

The main contest in the seat is likely to be a triangular one between the Congress, JD(U) and AIMIM.

Dr Md Javed, Congress MLA from Kishanganj has been given a ticket as a Congress nominee for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. JD(U)S Mahmood Asraf, who contested from Kishanganj in 2009 but lost, is the partys nominee this time.

AIMIMS Bihar chief Akhtarul Iman, known in political circles as Owaisi of Bihar, is the partys candidate for the seat. The party is desperate to fill the political vacuum in Kishanganj after the deaths Seemanchals two big Muslim leaders, RJDS Mohammed Taslimuddin and Congresss Mohammad Asrarul Haque.

Iman withdrew from the electoral arena in between electioneering in 2014, saying that for him winning election hardly mattered.

He was contesting on a JD(U) ticket after resigning from RJD and later left both RJD and JD(U) to join AIMIM. Iman who was once regarded as a true disciple of Taslimuddin, but later distanced from him and joined hands with AIMIM. After Taslimuddins death, he became the first to claim his political legacy in Seemanchal.

Iman, a firebrand speaker, is very impressed by Owaisi and wants to play safe politics by keeping away from both NDA and UPA, a senior Congress leader said and declared him a potential politician of Seemanchal after the death two-time parliamentarian Maulana Asrarul Haque Qasmi last year.

Whether it is NDA or UPA, no leader and no party has worked for the progress of Seemanchal in general and Kishanganj in particular and I am sure people have made up their minds to reject both the political alliances here, AIMIM nominee Akhatrul Iman said.

Both Congress and JD (U) confident of win

Dr Md Javed is confident of winning the seat, claiming it has been a strong bastion of the party.

People want to bring Congress back to power and Seemanchal is going to contribute a lot to the kitty of the party.

JD(U) nominee Syed Mahmood Asraf is pinning all hopes on Nitish Kumars charisma. Not only Seemanchal, but whole Bihar has witnessed tremendous development under the regime of Nitish Kumar and people have made up their minds to give him wholehearted support in both the Lok Sabha elections and the forthcoming assembly elections.

Congress legacy

Kishanganj constituency, which came into existence in 1957 has been a citadel of Congress party with seven wins.

No political party has won the seat thrice at a stretch. Md Tahir the first MP of Congress party who won the seat in 1957 and 1962 lost to PSP candidate Lakhan Lal Kapoor in 1967.

Jamilur Rahman of Congress won thrice in 1971, 1980 and 1984. In 1977, he was defeated by Halimuddin Ahmed of Bharatiya Lok Dal (BLD).

Md Maulana Asrarul Haque of Congress won the seat in 2009 and 2014. Md Taslimuddin also won the seat thrice, once on a Janata Dal ticket in 1996 and twice as an RJD candidate in 1998 and 2004 elections.

Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) had also won the seat once in 1999 when its nominee Syed Shahnawaz Hussain managed to win the seat, defeating Taslimuddin by a slender margin of 8,648 votes.
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath waved at the crowd waiting patiently to hear him for hours as his plane descended for landing in Assams Hojai on Saturday. The turnout was significant. So were the chants for Adityanath, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)s star campaigner.

Adityanath, who is the head priest of the Gorakhpurs Gorakhnath Mutt, has followers also in Assam, where the BJP formed its first government in 2016. Jogiji zindabad [long live Yogi], the person managing the stage began. The restless crowd joined in with: Zindabad, zindabad. The chants grew louder when Adityanath was introduced as Hindu hriday samrat [the darling of Hindus].

Soon Adityanath began his address. He repeatedly mentioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi. He hailed Modi and ridiculed Gandhi as the crowd applauded.

Adityanath took off hours earlier for campaigning in Assam and Odisha, which have 35 seats in Lok Sabha. The BJP has been trying to make inroads into states like Odisha. It has peaked in its western and north Indian strongholds like Uttar Pradesh, where it won 71 out of 80 seats to return to power in 2014.

Adityanath left for campaigning after replying to an Election Commission (EC) notice over his Modi ki sena [Modis Army] remarks about the Prime Ministers stand on terrorism at a rally. The poll panel let him off with a mild censure and asked him to be careful in future.

In his address in Hojai, Adityanath worded his praise of Modis stand on terrorism differently. He pointed out the army had been proactive in countering terrorists under Modi.

He referred to a strike against terrorists on the Myanmar border following the attack in Manipurs Chandel district that left 18 soldiers dead in 2015. He also spoke about the surgical strike after the attack on an Army camp in Jammu and Kashmirs Uri in 2016 and the February 26 aerial strike in Pakistans Balakot in response to the February 14 Pulwama terror attack in which 40 paramilitary troopers were killed.

You saw how the army pushed back the Chinese in Doklam, Adityanath said, referring to the over two-month stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops in 2017 near the borders of India, Bhutan, and China. This is the difference in leadership. The army is the same, but the leadership is different and the results are here for all to see, he said. Under Modi, we do not feed Biryani to terrorists, we feed them bullets.

Adityanath targeted the Congress for being hand in glove with Maulana Badruddin Ajmal-led All India United Democratic Front (AIDUF) in Assam.

Ajmal ruined Assam and now the Congress has taken its support, Adityanath said.

The Congress has no tie-up with the AIUDF, which is contesting only three out of Assams 14 seats. In 2014, the Congress and AIUDF won three seats each while the BJP secured seven Lok Sabha seats in Assam.

AIUDF leader Aminul Islam said his party has never been part of the government in the state. What are they blaming us for?

Congress spokesperson, Rhituporna Konwar, called Adityanaths comments plain lies and rubbish . It is the BJP which has an understanding with the AIUDF.

Adityanath attacked Congress president Rahul Gandhi over his move to contest also from Keralas Wayanad along with his family pocket borough  Amethi. Rahul Gandhi fled to Wayanad as he is sure of losing Amethi. You would have seen his nomination and rally in Kerala, where one neither saw the [Congresss symbol] panja [hand] nor the Indian flag. All that one saw was the crescent moon and star flag of the Muslim League, said Adityanath, referring to the flags of Congress ally, the Indian Union Muslim League, in Kerala.

He addressed two rallies in Odisha on the phone after his chopper could not take off due to lack of time and attacked chief minister Naveen Patnaik. Like Rahul Gandhi, Naveen Babu, who has been Odisha chief minister for decades, has fled from Bijepur and is contesting from Hinjili. Leaving his seat and contesting from another shows his failure, he said.
Poll rallies of Congress President Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi cancelled

Imran Masood, Congress candidate from Saharanpur: For now the Rahul Gandhi-Priyanka Gandhi Vadras rallies has been cancelled at all three places (Shamli, Bijnor, Saharanpur), due to bad weather. We are planning Priyanka jis road show tomorrow, reports news agency ANI.

Imran Masood, Congress' candidate from Saharanpur: For now the program (Rahul Gandhi-Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's rallies) has been cancelled at all three places (Shamli, Bijnor, Saharanpur), due to bad weather. We are planning Priyanka ji's road show tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/tGvK4h9Kpj  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 8, 2019

Congress slams BJP manifesto

The Congress on Monday slammed the BJP manifesto. You cant mislead everyone, all the time, the Congress said at a press conference.

Nationalism, farmers, youth focus of BJPs 75-point manifesto

To develop India, development has to be made into a mass movement: PM Modi

To develop India, development has to be made into a mass movement, and a successful result of that is swacchta, today swachhta is a mass movement.

The country you build from 2019-2024 will pave way for 100 years of free India: Modi

In 2047, India will complete 100 years of freedom. The country you build from 2019-2024 will pave the way, prepare the foundation for that India. Our next generation is going to decide the future of 2047 India. And we have big goals for this generation. We have big plans to take the nation ahead in next 5 years, that it paves way for 2047 India.

We will form separate Jal Shakti Ministry: PM Modi

Focusing on water resources, we will form separate Jal Shakti Ministry.

2014-2019 experience, success helped us create this manifesto: PM Modi

The experience, the success we tasted from 2014 to 2019, helped us create this manifesto.

Nationalism is our inspiration, governance our mantra: PM Modi

Nationalism is our inspiration, governance our mantra, said PM Modi at BJP manifesto launch in New Delhi.

We have decided to work on multidimensional level: PM Modi

We want to move forward in every sector that requires growth. To run a country, we have decided to work on a multidimensional level.

75 years, 75 goals: PM Narendra Modi

For 75 years of free India, we have 75 goals. We have one mission, one nation agenda which we will certainly take forward.

Thanks for the support of last 5 years: PM Modi

PM Modi takes the stage and starts his speech by thanking everyone.

56 out of 57 countries said let Pak not come when it threatened to boycott OIC meet: Sushma

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Indias optic fibre network has spread far: Sushma Swaraj

Indias optic fibre network has spread far. India ranks higher on ease of doing business.

Unlike others, we are not here with ghoshna patra, we are here with sankalp patra: Sushma Swaraj

Other parties came to you with their ghoshna patra, but we are here with a sankalp patra. We are not here to make announcements.

Our new policy of striking terror in its origin has received global recognition: Arun Jaitley

Our new policy, new doctrine of striking terror in its origin has received global recognition: Arun Jaitley at launch of BJP manifesto

Previous govts gave slogans, Modi govt gave resources to poor:: Arun Jaitley

Previous governments has only given slogans, PM Modi government gave resources to poor. Taxes were only reduced, not increased. The idea was to provide more money in the pocket of the people, so they could spend it.

BJP manifesto is rooted in Indian reality: Arun Jaitley

This manifesto is not prepared with a tukde-tukde or Ivy League mindset. Its rooted in Indian reality. Those who failed in the past decades cant manufacture fresh idea. 2014 was election in cynical environment. Modi held hope then.

BJP will spend 25 lakh crore on rural development: Rajnath Singh

BJP promises to spend 25 lakh crore on rural development in next five years.

Toilet and drinking water for every home: Rajnath Singh

Toilet and drinking water for every home. Double the length of national highway.

100% electricity and LPG cylinders: Rajnath Singh

Seats in management institute and engineering colleges will be increased. 100% electricity and LPG cylinders.

BJP released party poll manifesto on its official website

The BJP released the party Lok Sabha elections 2019 manifesto on its official website.

Pension schemes got small and marginal farmers: Rajnath Singh

Ever farmer will get benefit of Kisan Samaan Nidhi irrespective of land holding. Pension schemes got small and marginal farmers. Rashtriya Vyapari Ayog will be set up for trading community. It will be very effective commission. Pension also for small shopkeepers.

Will ensure passage of citizenship bill in Parliament with respect: Rajnath Singh

BJP will ensure passage of Citizenship Amendment Bill in Parliament with utmost respect to every states cultural value.

Will explore all alternative options for Ram temple construction: Rajnath Singh

All alternative options will be explored for construction of Ram temple in a most conducive manner.

We have zero tolerance policy to terror: Rajnath Singh jots down key points from BJP manifesto

Lets jot down the main points of manifesto... We have zero tolerance policy to terror. We are committed to nationalism. Will check infiltration. Citizenship amendment bill - we will pass in parliament and implement it.

We touched base with crores of people: Rajnath Singh

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Peoples faith in PM Modi has increased: Rajnath Singh

People faith in modi has increased. Development is now fast paced. We made procedural and structural changes. We gave a responsible, sensitive government with firm commitment.

We touched every section and region to discuss the details of manifesto: Rajnath Singh

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PM Modi, Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh release BJP manifesto

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We are taking 75 sankalp to change India by 2022: Shah

We are taking 75 sankalp, to change india by 2022, 75th year of independence.

BJP manifesto was prepared after consulting 6 crore people: Amit Shah

BJP manifesto was prepared after consulting 6 crore people, says Shah at BJP manifesto for Lok Sabha elections 2019.

In last five years, entire world has taken cognisance of India: Shah

There was a time India did not matter in front of world, in last five years, entire world has taken cognisance of us. There is not a single allegation of corruption against Modi government.

2014 to 2019 were golden years for India: Amit Shah

2014 to 2019 were golden years for India. First time after 30 years that a full majority government came. Despite majority, we formed NDA government. We have strengthened national security.

I am here to remind you of 2014: BJP supremo Amit Shah

I am here to remind you of 2014. The then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi was announced as the PM candidate.We came out with manifesto on who we want to run the country.

Rajnath Singh-led manifesto committee to form 15 sub-panels

Union home minister Rajnath Singh-led manifesto committee of the BJP had decided to form 15 sub-panels to reach out to the different group of voters like farmers, youth, women, businessmen and others.

BJP to crowdsouce its manifesto?

The BJP had said in January this year that it will crowdsource its manifesto for the Lok Sabha election 2019. It had also said it will hold events across the country over the next few months to get inputs from different sets of voters for the purpose.

BJP likely to make a flew of promises

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is likely to make a slew of promises to woo different sections of the society, especially farmers, youth and women, besides the poor after the Congress gave welfare measures, including a promise of giving 72,000 to the poorest 20% households in India, a major thrust as part of its poll promise.

PM Modi reaches BJP office, received by Amit Shah

Prime minister reached the BJP office in New Delhi for the launch of party manifesto for Lok Sabha elections 2019. PM Modi was greeted by BJP supremo Amit Shah.

Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives at BJP headquarters, the party will release their manifesto for #LokSabhaElections2019 shortly. pic.twitter.com/f71GqU58Ly  ANI (@ANI) April 8, 2019

Congress president Rahul Gandhi to address 3 poll rallies in Uttar Pradesh

Congress President Rahul Gandhi will be in Uttar Pradesh today to address 3 public meetings.

Congress President @RahulGandhi will be in Uttar Pradesh today to address 3 public meetings. Watch him live on our social media channels.



FB: https://t.co/NPOcx4pW6n



YT: https://t.co/g2POk6TV2t pic.twitter.com/1Bc5izDVak  Congress (@INCIndia) April 8, 2019

Kamal Hasans MNM releases its 2024 election manifesto

Tamil Nadu: Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) releases their 2024 election manifesto Kovai 2024 for Coimbatore, reports news agency ANI.

Tamil Nadu: Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) releases their 2024 election manifesto 'Kovai 2024' for Coimbatore. pic.twitter.com/lFUG13fy4w  ANI (@ANI) April 8, 2019

Rashtriya Janata Dal releases their manifesto

Patna: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) releases their manifesto for Lok Sabha Elections 2019, reports news agency ANI.

Patna: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) releases their manifesto for #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/fKrq848Bft  ANI (@ANI) April 8, 2019

Schools in Hapur to remian closed from 9 to 11th April in of LS polls

All schools in Hapur district to remain closed from 9 April to 11 April in the light of the first phase of Lok Sabha Elections 2019 on 11 April, reports news agency ANI.

All schools in Hapur district to remain closed from 9 April to 11 April in the light of the first phase of #LokSabhaElections2019 on 11 April.  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 8, 2019

BJP to release its election manifesto

BJP president Amit Shah to release BJP election manifesto in presence of BJP parliamentary committee at 11 am today.
External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday dared Congress president Rahul Gandhi to give up his security if he felt terrorism was not a major issue in India.

Targeting the Congress over its manifesto that advocated withdrawal of sedition law, she alleged that Rahul Gandhi and alliance leaders could not feel the pulse of the nation.

We want to question Rahul Gandhi as to how countrys safety could be ensured with offence of sedition withdrawn as stated in Congress manifesto. Rahul Gandhi once said that terrorism is not an issue while other opposition leader said that job not terrorism is issue. If terrorism is not an issue for him than why is Rahul Gandhi remain in midst of SPG protection and should give it up said Swaraj.

The minister was in Agra to address a meeting of BJP IT cell workers. She urged them to avoid controversial statements, saying BJP has many positive claims to make.

Emphasising on direct campaigning, Swaraj said campaigning through social media cannot be a substitute for direct contact with voters and should be in support of it.

Also read: Lok Sabha elections 2019: Congress manifesto charter to weaken India, says Arun Jaitley

Election is like war and thus we need to equip party workers with correct facts and convincing statements, which can be derived from statements of senior leaders and spokespersons. We are going for election with nationalism, good governance, public welfare and antodaya, said Swaraj.

She underlined that the NDA government has been able to deal with issues firmly because it has a full majority.

We were able to deal with issues firmly because ours was a government with full majority. Alliance governments are not at ease in dealing with issues firmly. The government led by AB Vajpayee was an alliance government and therefore faced constraints, she said.

Swaraj counted Indias action against Pakistan after the Pulwama terror attack as one of the governments major successes.

Pushing Pakistan into a corner on the international platform through diplomacy was a big success. After the surgical strike in wake of Pulwama attack, Pakistan feared more action by India. When diplomats from 17 countries asked if India would carry more such attacks, we clarified that we were not going to aggravate the situation but made it clear that India would not be a silent spectator if a similar mistake was repeated by Pakistan, said the minister.

We not only singled out Pakistan internationally on the issue of terrorism, but put them in a tight spot at the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) summit, added Swaraj.

In 1969, Pakistan had objected to Indias participation in the OIC and the then foreign minister of India had to return without attending the meet. But this time, OIC chose to invite India and Pakistans seat was left vacant, claimed the minister.
The Congress on Monday cited the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)s 2014 poll document and released a list of its 125 broken promises as the ruling party issued its manifesto ahead of the seven-phase national elections that begin on April 11.

The list of the broken promises relates to issues of jobs, 50% rise in farmer income, price rise, corruption and bringing back black money stashed abroad.

Today, the countrys 125 crore people are demanding answers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 125 promises made before coming to power. People will not accept your deception document anymore and time has come for you to pick your bags and go, said Congress spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala.

Congress leader Ahmed Patel contrasted his partys manifesto released last Tuesday, which had a picture of the people, with that of the BJP. He said the BJPs manifesto only has Prime Minister Narendra Modi on its cover. On one hand is the public on the Congresss manifesto cover, while the BJP document has only Modis picture depicting me and only me. I feel this BJP manifesto is lies versus justice. I feel it is lies and only lies. It would have been better if they issued an apology as in the last five years they had nothing to show.

In its manifesto, the BJP has pledged zero tolerance towards terrorism, pension for small and marginal farmers among other things.

Surjewala said Modi has poisoned the peoples confidence in the government. He pointed out the BJP manifesto does not talk about 15 lakh in every bank account.

Surjewala was referring to a speech Modi made in the run-up to the 2014 elections in which he said every poor household may get 15 lakh if the black money stashed abroad is brought back.

Surjewala added the BJP manifesto does not talk about building smart cities, Skill India scheme and cheap petrol or diesel either. The people understand you well and you stand exposed before them and thus they will not be won over by your gimmicks and lies anymore. You can befool some people sometimes and some people always, but all the people cannot be befooled all the time.

Surjewala cited issues like the launch of Goods and Services Tax in 2017, and the 2016 demonetisation of 500 and 1,000 notes. He added they were missing from the BJPs manifesto and that Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and union ministers Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj did not address them.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee attacked the BJP over the promise of passing the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill to drive out infiltrators. If you vote for them [BJP], they will turn you all into refugees in your own country. We will never allow NRC [National Register of Citizens] and the Citizenship Bill in our state, she said.

In its manifesto, the BJP has promised to expeditiously complete the NRC, which excluded over 4 million people from a draft list in July as part of a campaign to identify and deport illegal Bangladeshi immigrants from Assam. The manifesto said the process will be extended to the countrys other parts.

National Conference (NC) chief Farooq Abdullah referred to the BJPs promise of abrogating Constitutions Article 370 that gives Jammu and Kashmir special status. He added the states accession to India in 1947 will also not stand if they remove the provision. I swear by Allah, I think this is the wish of Almighty. We will get freedom from them [if the provision is removed], Abdullah said.

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said the BJP was playing with the fire which will turn the entire region into ashes. The BJP has failed on all fronts. Now, it is raking such issues through which it will try to garner votes. Article 370 binds Jammu and Kashmir with India and acts as a bridge. When this bridge is demolished, then Indias control over Kashmir becomes illegal

Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said the BJPs reiteration of its promise to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya was a part of the attempts to sharpen communal polarisation.

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati said the BJP has failed to fulfil its promises and has no moral right to release a fresh manifesto. She added the BJP should have released an action taken report instead. Barring a handful of capitalists, the 130 crore people are still waiting for the promised achhe din [good days] and 15 lakh.
Starting Tuesday, there will be an exodus of passengers from various parts of Telangana to different parts of Andhra Pradesh for the next two days as the worlds largest electoral exercise begins.

At least a million voters belonging to Andhra Pradesh, mostly settled in Hyderabad and its surrounding districts, would be leaving for their native places to cast their votes on April 11 for the assembly and Lok Sabha seats.

According to an estimate made by YSR Congress party and submitted to the Election Commission of India, more than two million voters have registered their votes both in Andhra and Telangana, as they have been residing in Telangana for several years on account of their jobs and business activities, but have families and properties in their native places.

However, they cannot vote in both the places now due to the conduct of elections simultaneously in both the Telugu states in the first phase of polling. But, at least half of them would be exercising their franchise in Andhra, a YSR Congress party leader said on condition of anonymity.

Trains from Hyderabad to different parts of Andhra Pradesh were booked well in advance. The South Central Railway announced running of 53 special trains from Hyderabad to different parts like Vijayawada, Srikakulam, Narsapur, Tirupati and Kakinada.

Between April 8 and 10, we are running 16 special trains to Andhra and Rayalaseema regions towards Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Guntakal, Kurnool and Tirupati, South Central Railway public relations officer Shakeel Ahmed said.

He, however, did not attribute it to the elections alone. During summer season, it is quite common to run special trains as per the demand. Since the demand for the next three days is more, we have decided to run extra trains to Andhra and Rayalaseema regions, he said.

The state-run road transport services have also been witnessing huge rush. According to a senior official in Telangana State Road Transport Corporation, instructions have been issued to all the regional bus depots to run special buses depending on the demand and rush.

The seats in regular hi-tech bus services and sleepers have already been booked well in advance. So, we are arranging special buses for the coming three days. For the regular buses, we dont charge any extra money. But for special buses, we will fix the fare depending on the demand, he said.

The RTC official, however, said political parties of Andhra have also been hiring RTC buses to transport a big number of voters from Telangana to Andhra. There is a huge demand from the political parties for extra buses. We shall supply them according to the availability, he said, refusing to spell out which party is hiring how many buses.

On the other hand, private bus operators are capitalising on the rush of voters from Telangana to Andhra and have increased their fares abnormally. According to the data obtained from Redbus.in, as against the normal fare of Rs 600 to Rs 750 per seat in an air-conditioned super-luxury semi-sleeper buses, the fares have gone up from a minimum of Rs 1500 to a maximum of Rs 2,900 per seat on April 10.

Independent political analyst S Ramakrishna said it was no surprise that such a huge number of settlers were rushing to Andhra to cast their votes despite heavy train and bus fares.

For the first time, elections are keenly fought in Andhra Pradesh after bifurcation and for political parties, every vote counts. Secondly, the voting pattern of settlers is divided, as was witnessed in the recent Telangana elections in some constituencies like Kukatpally. So, their voting will play a crucial role in deciding the fate of the parties in Andhra, he said.
Easter might be the biggest brunch day of the year, bringing friends and families together to celebrate the holiday and the beginning of spring with heaping plates of food, festive sweets and maybe a visit from the Easter Bunny. These 20 Chicago and suburban spots are serving special menus or buffets for the occasion, and youll want to book now to avoid having to hunt for a last-minute reservation.
The Bharatiya Janata Party released its manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections on Monday, three days before the first phase of polling. Drafting a vision for the future, or making a set of commitments, for a party which has been in power for five years is a challenge because it gives rise to an obvious question -- of why these promises had not been fulfilled in the preceding five years.

The BJP has addressed this quagmire by focusing on both what it considers to be its achievements since 2014, especially in the realm of rural welfare and infrastructure, and the unfinished tasks ahead. This ties in with the larger pitch that PM Narendra Modi has been making in his campaign rallies; of having fulfilled basic needs, and seeking an opportunity to fulfill aspirations.

There are three significant strands in the manifesto. The first is what the BJP clearly considers its strength in this election: nationalism or national security. It speaks of decisive action against terrorism, and taking steps to end infiltration. It promises to speed up defence purchases, though this will raise questions about how defence spending is not commensurate with its needs.

Watch: Nationalism, farmers, youth- Focus of BJPs 75-point manifesto

Also read | One mission, one direction is our mantra: PM Modi at BJP manifesto release

The manifesto reinforces the partys commitment to the Citizenship Amendment Bill and while the BJP has sought to reassure the Northeast its concerns about an assault on its distinct identity will be taken care of, this is bound to generate a backlash in the region once again. The BJP has also reiterated its traditional position on Jammu and Kashmir of abrogating Article 370 and 35A.This stand of the BJP manifesto is primarily aimed at appealing to its core base, projecting Modi as the only leader capable of making India secure, and the party as the only force committed to nationalism.

The second major strand of the manifesto is its focus on rural India. A consistent critique against this government over the past few years has been the fact that there is agrarian distress, and farmer incomes have actually dipped.

The BJP once again reiterated its promise of doubling farmer income by 2022, a claim most experts are skeptical of. But more specifically, it said that it would invest 25 lakh crore over the next five years in rural India; it would expand the PM Kisan scheme, of providing 6000 annually, to each farmer, and it would provide interest free loans for up to Rs 1 lakh. With these promises, the BJP is clearly trying to address what could be a vulnerability vis-a-vis its electoral prospects in rural areas. But whether it indeed leads to a much needed structural transformation in agriculture and whether fiscal implications of expanding the Kisan scheme have been thought through is not clear.

The third strand is the manifestos promises on the economy and employment. This once again has been an area of perceived weakness for the government. The BJP has spoken of further improving Indias rank in the ease of doing business; improving the share of manufacturing in GDP; increasing exports; supporting entrepreneurs; and identifying champion sectors where younger people can be productively engaged. India indeed needs all this. But BJP will have to do a lot more in credibly communicating how India will address its unemployment crisis.

With the Congress manifesto already out, and the BJPs manifesto released, there should now be a more informed, robust debate between all political actors on what is the best roadmap for India and who can provide it. Voters deserve no less.

Also read | BJP manifesto 2019: BJPs 75 promises for India @ 75 years focuses on farmers, nationalism
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday released its Sankalp Patra, the poll manifesto for the seven-phased 2019 Lok Sabha elections beginning April 11.

The document, while focusing on nationalism, farm sector, infrastructure and governance, lays stress on youth with several promises for their welfare.

Here is the BJP manifesto summed up in 15 points:

Zero tolerance approach to terrorism

The manifesto says: Our security doctrine will be guided by our national security interest only. This is exemplied by the surgical strikes and the air strikes carried out recently. We will firmly continue our policy of Zero Tolerance against terrorism and extremism and will continue to follow our policy of giving a free hand to our security forces in combating terrorism.

National security

The manifesto promises to speed up the purchases of outstanding defense related equipment and weapons. In order to well equip the Armed Forces, the document promises to continue to take focused steps to strengthen the strike capability of the Armed Forces.

Watch: Opinion I Manifesto vs Manifesto: Analysing BJP & Congress 2019 promises

Citizenship amendment bill

On the citizenship issue, the BJP promises to enact the Citizenship Amendment Bill for the protection of individuals of religious minority communities from neighbouring countries escaping persecution. We will make all efforts to clarify the issues to the sections of population from the Northeastern states who have expressed apprehensions regarding the legislation. We reiterate our commitment to protect the linguistic, cultural and social identity of the people of Northheast. Hindus, Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs escaping persecution from Indias neighbouring countries will be given citizenship in India, the document says.

Art 370, 35A in Jammu and Kashmir

On Article 370, the BJP said it has the same position on the matter since the time of the Jan Sangh. We are committed to annulling Article 35A of the Constitution of India as the provision is discriminatory against non-permanent residents and women of Jammu and Kashmir. We believe that Article 35A is an obstacle in the development of the state, the document says.

Pension for small and marginal farmers

The manifesto promises a pension scheme for all small and marginal farmers in the country so as to ensure social security to them on reaching 60 years of age.

Roadmap for 5 trillion dollar economy

On economic front, the manifesto says that India was branded as fragile five in 2014 and within five years, we have turned India into a bright spot that is not only the fastest growing major economy of the world but also enjoys macroeconomic stability. We aspire to make India the third largest economy of the world by 2030. This implies that we commit to make India a US $ 5 trillion economy by 2025 and US $ 10 trillion economy by 2032.

On Sabarimala

We will undertake every effort to ensure that the subject of faith, tradition and worship rituals related to Sabarimala are presented in a comprehensive manner before the Honble Supreme Court. We will endeavour to secure constitutional protection on issues related to faith and belief, it says.

On Ram mandir

On the issue of Ram temple at Ayodhya, the Sanklap Patra says : We reiterate our stand on Ram Mandir. We will explore all possibilities within the framework of the Constitution and all necessary efforts to facilitate the expeditious construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

Uniform Civil Code

Article 44 of the Constitution of India lists Uniform Civil Code as one of the Directive Principles of State Policy. BJP believes that there cannot be gender equality till such time India adopts a Uniform Civil Code, which protects the rights of all women, and the BJP reiterates its stand to draft a Uniform Civil Code, drawing upon the best traditions and harmonizing them with the modern time, the document says.

Foreign policy

While pursuing our national developmental and security interests, the ancient Indian vision of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam will form the basis in our global co-operation for progress, prosperity, peace and security, especially with friendly countries and neighbours. Besides working to secure and safeguard global commons, we will strengthen our role as first responder for disaster relief and humanitarian assistance and develop partnerships for disaster resilient infrastructure.

Benami properties, economic offenders

Promising to crack down on benami properties and illegal foreign bank accounts, the Sankalp Patra promises to expedite efforts to bring fugitive economic offenders back to India and prosecute them for their crimes.

Simultaneous elections

The BJP in its manifesto expresses its commitment to the idea of simultaneous elections for Parliament, State assemblies and local bodies. The party promises to build consensus on this issue with all other parties.

Accessible healthcare

The manifesto says, While providing annual health cover of Rs. 5 lakh to 10.74 crore poor families under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana under Ayushman Bharat, we also initiated a programme to set up 1,50,000 Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs) by 2022. Till date 17,150 HWCs have become functional. We will take up the programme of HWCs to next level. We will target provisioning of telemedicine and diagnostic laboratory facilities at these HWCs by 2022 to ensure quality primary medical care to the poor at his doorstep.

Opportunities for youth

On opportunities for the youth, the manifesto promises to create jobs by providing more support to the 22 major Champion Sectors identified as the main drivers of Indian economy. We will optimally leverage the untapped employment-generation of potential of sectors such as defence and pharmaceuticals, the document says

Women in workforce

On welfare of women, the manifesto says that they would be made equal partners in and equal beneficiaries of the progress and prosperity of the nation and the party would formulate a comprehensive Women in Workforce roadmap focused on dramatically increasing the female workforce participation rate over the next five years.
Its a piquant situation as the two political combinations, which have raised a war cry to defeat the BJP in Uttar Pradesh and oust its government from New Delhi, are eating into each others vote banks more than that of the party they intend to defeat.

The party leaders themselves fear loss of about 20-odd seats because of this division of votes and are pinning their hopes on some tactical understanding at the eleventh hour.

Interesting, senior Congress and SP leaders, while laying emphasis on a dialogue between their party high commands to save some seats from going to the BJPs kitty, sounded exasperated with one of them telling the other to talk to his leadership and explain. Their contention being that there could be some tacit understanding between the SP and Congress on some seats even if BSP leader Mayawati remained recalcitrant.

Thus while rank and file of the three opposition parties feel stopping the BJP in the tracks is imperative to their 2022 political ambitions, the leaderships have somehow linked their survival in the state politics to their performance in the forthcoming elections, which they feel will have a direct bearing on their political health as a weakened BJP would leave political space for them to resurrect in 2022. They can then go full hog and win the assembly polls, which are still three years away.

The BJP leadership is obviously smiling though their spokesman Chandra Mohan says,We are contesting this election on the issue of national security and image of our Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But in private many of the party leaders concede the presence of an offensive Congress will help offset some of the damage that the alliance was causing to their party.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has made it clear that besides winning seats in the upcoming elections, the party president Rahul Gandhi has tasked her to form a Congress government in Uttar Pradesh, where it has been out of power since 1989. SP national president Akhilesh Yadav, while refusing to comment on Congress campaign and selection of candidates says, Congress is more interested in rebuilding the party than defeating BJP. Mayawati, who spurned the Congress offer for an alliance, too, is not sparing in flaying the grand old party.

Also Read | Only we can challenge BJP, says Mayawati at UP Oppn rally

How are they damaging each other?

The three are reciprocating each others political gesture. The SP and BSP have decided not to field any candidate in Amethi and Rae Bareli, from where Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi will be seeking re-election to the Lok Sabha.

The Congress has reciprocated by staying away from seven such constituencies, including Mainpuri (Mulayam Singh Yadav), Kannauj (Dimple Yadav), Muzaffarnagar (Ajit Singh), Firozabad (Akshay Pratap Singh) and Azamgarh (Akhilesh).

Barring the family seats, a study of some constituencies indicate that one of the two factors working to the BJPs advantage, despite anti-incumbency, is the sharp division in the partys anti votes. The other factor is Modi and his resurrected popularity after Balakot air strikes.

Also Read | Lok Sabha elections 2019: Mayawati flays BJP, Congress at first gathbandhan rally in UP

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav with his wife Dimple Yadav. The SP is fighting the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh in alliance with BSP and RLD. (HT Photo )

Cutting into each others votes?

Bijnore is a constituency from where the two prominent Dalit women leaders of the country were elected MP -- former speaker Meira Kumar (Congress) and Mayawati (BSP) had won the elections from this Muslim dominated constituency in 1985 by-poll and 1989 polls. What paved their victory was over 40 per cent Muslims along with Dalits.

After SP-BSP formed an alliance, it was considered a safe seat for them as their candidates  Shahnawaj Rana and Malook Nagar -- had ended second and third in 2014.

Now the Congress has not only entered the scene but fielded a strong candidate, Naseemuddin Siddqui, a onetime close lieutenant of Mayawati. He has replaced by a weaker candidate Indira Bhati.

Badaun, which is considered a safe bet for SP, both because of sitting MP Dharmendra Yadavs image and a formidable Yadav-Muslim combination, has turned tricky after the entry of Salim Shervani of Congress. It is generally believed that Salim may not win the seat but will certainly take away Muslim votes much to the chagrin of the SP leadership.

Congress UP president Raj Babbar was initially tipped to contest from Moradabad, known as the brass city which had also shot into limelight after it had elected Mohd Azhruddin in the 2009 polls. But Congress replaced Raj Babbar by Imran Pratapgarhiya, a Muslim who is again going to cut into the alliance votes.

However, most interesting is the Saharanpur seat from where Imran Masood, whom chief minister Yogi Adityanath had described as son-in-law of terrorist Masood Azhar, has been fielded by Congress. Imran is a strong candidate, who had lost the seat to BJP by a margin of 65000 votes in a highly polarized election.

Ironically Mayawati has also fielded a popular Muslim leader Haji Fazrul Rehman, banking on Jatav-Muslim combination. A graduate from Aligarh Muslim University, Rehman owns meat and food processing units.

Priyanka Gandhis visit to Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar had irked Mayawati no end as she saw it as a move to take away her Dalit support.

In fact the entire Rohelkhand region, which has a sizeable Muslim population, is becoming a bone of contention between the alliance and the Congress for the simple reason that while SP-BSP wish to retain their formidable vote bank of Muslim and Jatavs, the Congress is struggling to win them back before the 2022 elections. The BSP has decided to field senior party leader Girish Chandra Jatav from reserved Nagina seat.

A close aide of Mayawati, Jatav was earlier appointed zonal coordinator of the party in the West UP. The Congress has announced to field Omvati Devi Jatav.

Muslims in general wanted a grand alliance between the opposition to end any confusion.

Initially it was believed that Priyankas campaigning would help the opposition take away Brahmin votes from the BJP. But Congress, under her leadership, may dent both Dalit-Muslim votes, much to the discomfort of alliance. The partys move to align with the Jan Adhikar Party is seen as a move to penetrate the Dalit vote bank.

The other examples where the opposition parties are damaging each other are Etawah, Sambhal, Fatehpur Sikri, Bahraich and Sitapur to name a few.

A senior Congress leader, who was against the alliance, said we cant put a lock on our party by playing second fiddle to the overbearing SP-BSP. We have been losing elections, but we have to resuscitate our original vote bank of Muslims, Dalits and Brahmins, which was grabbed by the alliance and BJP in 1990s.

Truly , both SP and BSP, who have rotated power since the mainland parties lost much of their vote base to them in the 1990s, are equally keen to repeat their performance of 2012 and 2007 assembly polls when they had won a majority in the state assembly. Congress revival would hurt their plans.

Their political space had drastically shrunk in the 2014 election, which was swept by the BJP.

In what could easily be described as the worst performance of all the three political parties, the BSP had even failed to open its account; the Congress had ended with two seats in their kitty and SP with five family seats.

Contrary to the general perception that people prefer national parties in the general elections while voting for regional parties in state polls, both have been able to make their mark in the Lok Sabha polls in successive elections. Even Congress managed to win 21 seats in 2009.

Lok Sabha election 2019: Here is all you need to know about Uttar Pradesh
In the first case, a 21-year-old was duped of 52,000. The victim, had responded to an advertisement on OLX regarding the sale of a two-wheeler, last year. The accused promised to send the bike by courier, after the victim deposited the said amount into his bank account. When the bike failed to arrive, the victim filed a complain at Sahakarnagar police station.

In the second case, a 28-year-old woman was duped of 49,998. According to the complaint filed at Alankar police station, the victim received a call from an unidentified person, claiming to be from Amazon stating she had received an offer, to purchase a Dell laptop. The victim deposited the said amount via Paytm to the accused. Umesh Mali, assistant police inspector, Alankar police station, is investigating the case.

The third case was lodged at Kondhwa police station. The complainant, a 25-year-old was duped of 7,000 by the accused who had posted an advertisement to sell his laptop on OLX. The accused asked the victim to deposit the said amount, in advance, as shipping charges . The incident took place in November 2018. Mahadeo Kumbhar, police inspector crime, Kondhwa police station, is investigating the case.

In the fourth case a twenty-four-year-old filed a complaint at Kondhwa police station, stating he has been duped of 3.46 lakh. The accused had demanded the said amount in various instalments, from the victim under the pretext of completing formalities, who was looking to secure a job for his younger brother. The crime took place last year, via multiple online transactions. Anil Patil , senior police inspector, Kondhwa police station, is investigating the case.
The Trump administration on Monday designated Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization, using the listing for the first time against a part of another government in an unprecedented and historic development marking a new escalation in tensions with Iran.

Today, I am formally announcing my administrations plan to designate Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including its Qods Force, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), Trump said in a statement. This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft.

The designation, which takes effect after a week, will enable the United States to pursue criminal prosecution of foreign officials and entities found dealing with the IRGC, which, along with its parts, has been sanctioned before. In 2017, the US designated IRGC a Specially Designated Global Terrorist; in 2007, it was sanctioned for supporting Irans nuclear and ballistic weapons programme; and in 2011 and 2012 for alleged human rights abuses.

The United States designated Iran a state sponsor of terrorism in 1984 and has accused it of supporting Hizballah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Kataib Hizballah, al-Ashtar Brigades. On Monday, Washington said Iran employs terrorism as a central tool of its statecraft and uses the IRGC to direct and carry out its global terrorist campaign.

The White House went on to hold the IRGC directly involved in a number of terrorists attacks around the world, from a plot to attack the Saudi ambassador to Washington in 2011 to activities in Germany, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Kenya, Bahrain, Turkey, and others.

A state department fact-sheet on the designation listed a September 2018 US court ruling that held Iran and the IRGC liable for the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia in which 19 Americans were killed

In 2012, the statement, went on, IRGC Qods Force operatives were arrested in Turkey for plotting an attack and in Kenya for planning a bombing. And German authorities uncovered an alleged terrorist plot involving IRGC operative in September 2017.

The new designation comes as part of the Trump administrations strategy to maximize pressure on Teheran to force it to give up nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles programme and end its malign activities in the region, a phrase the US has used for alleged Iranian support for terrorism and disruptions in the region. President Trump took the United States out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, called the nuclear deal, in May, 2018, and has snapped back the sanctions lifted by the Obama administration.
Pakistans leaders should respect Afghanistans sovereignty instead of calling for an interim government in Kabul as this is tantamount to direct interference in the countrys internal affairs, Afghan foreign ministry spokesperson Sibghatullah Ahmadi said Monday.

Reacting to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khans calls for putting in place an interim government to push talks with the Taliban, Ahmadi said on phone from Kabul that Khan had repeated his remarks despite widespread criticism in Afghanistan.

These remarks are against good neighbourly relations and international law. We always protest against such comments, he said.

Pakistans leadership has to respect Afghanistan as a sovereign and independent country. We hope they will change their mind, he added.

On Saturday, the Afghan foreign ministry summoned a Pakistani diplomat to explain Khans latest remarks and to protest over what it deemed as explicit interference in Afghan affairs as tensions flared between the two neighbours.

Also read: Afghanistan snubs Imran Khan, says dont interfere in internal affairs

In late March, Afghanistan recalled its envoy from Pakistan over Khans suggestion that forming an interim government in Kabul might boost talks between the US and the Taliban. The ambassador returned after Pakistan clarified Khans remarks had been misunderstood.

Ahmadi said Afghanistan is still waiting for an explanation from Pakistan on Khans latest remarks, made while addressing a rally at Jamrud in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province on Friday.

We are waiting for an explanation. The last time, they had given an explanation, after which we sent our envoy back to Islamabad. Unfortunately, the latest remarks were a surprise as we didnt expect such a statement, he said.

Over the past month and a half, Afghanistan has demanded explanations from Pakistan four times over matters related to talks between the US and the Taliban. Pakistan has sought to position itself as a key player in the talks led by US special representative for Afghan reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad.

Khan has suggested an interim government in Kabul can help resolve problems in the talks and also accused President Ashraf Ghanis government of being an obstacle to peace. He also said talks can be successful only if there is a neutral interim government that can hold free and fair presidential elections.
US President Donald Trump on Sunday announced Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, the front-line defender of the administrations controversial immigration policies, would leave her position.

The 46-year-olds departure marks the end of a tortured relationship with her boss, who blamed her for a recent spike in the number of migrants coming through the Mexico border and reportedly felt she wasnt tough enough to implement his policies.

Trumps announcement comes days after he and Nielsen visited the Mexican border where the president delivered a message to would-be illegal immigrants and asylum seekers: Our country is full.

He had previously threatened to close the US-Mexico border if Congress and Central American governments did not act to stem a flow of migrants that saw Nielsen last week order an emergency surge of personnel to handle the situation.

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.

On Friday, US media reported that Trump also pulled his nominee to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement department -- saying he wanted someone tougher to lead the department -- a sub-agency of Nielsens.

The personnel shake-ups were seen by observers as a signal the president wants to tack an even harder line in his crack down on illegal immigration.

Family separations

Nielsen initially joined the Trump administration in January 2017 as a an assistant to Trumps first DHS secretary, John Kelly. When Kelly moved to the White House as Trumps chief of staff in July 2017, Nielsen went with him as his deputy.

But by October 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 departments purview.

But most notably, she has become the face of the Trump administrations fierce anti-immigration policy.

That includes the widely condemned practice 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 that saw Democrats demand she resign, 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.

Although Trumps ambiguous announcement left the details of her exit up in the air, Nielsens relationship with the president has long been said to be difficult.

But despite reports he complained constantly about her performance -- and that he believed she was not harsh enough -- she remained steadfastly loyal.

Last month, she defended the presidents declaration of a national emergency to secure funding for his pet project: a wall on the US-Mexico border.
Three US lawmakers have urged the Trump administration to oppose the IMF bailout Pakistan is seeking to tide over a foreign exchange crisis arguing Islamabad will use it to pay off debt it owes China under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor projects.

We write to express our deep concern over attempts made by the Government of Pakistan to seek a bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund to retrieve debts incurred from predatory Chinese infrastructure projects, the lawmakers, Republicans Ted Yoho and George Holding and Democrat Ami Bera, wrote to secretaries Michael Pompeo and Steven Mnuchin in a joint letter last Friday.

Pakistan owes China billions under the project, a figure that has ranged from $10 billion to $40 billion; Beijing has disputed the higher figure. Islamabad has asked the IMF for a bailout package to tide over a foreign exchange crisis, and discussions are on over conditions.

The United States can determine the outcome of these talks as the largest contributor  17%  to the IMF kitty of $475 billion. And US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has already made it clear that Pakistan will not be allowed to use the bailout package to pay off Chinese loans. This was reiterated by David Malpass, a senior treasury official who has since been named to head the World Bank, at a congressional hearing this past week.

The US has also sought to link the IMF package to Pakistan meeting its obligations as laid out by the Financial Action Task Force, which tracks and tackles money laundering and terrorism funding.

The lawmakers cited Sri Lanka as an example of Chinas predatory debt-trap diplomacy. Colombo has had to hand over a port made with Chinese loans to the Chinese for 99 years because its unable to pay off the debt.
A black activists daughter crossed the color line and reinvented herself

A SMALL PERFUME BOTTLE dyed green and labeled Belle Haleine, Eau De VoiletteBeautiful Breath, Veil Waterby iconoclastic artist Marcel Duchamp sold at auction at Christies in 2009 for $11,489,968. The title Duchamp gave this enigmatic objet is believed to allude to Belle Da Costa Greene, an imperious figure who ran J.P. Morgans library, a few steps down Madison Avenue from the financiers former Manhattan residence.=

Fresh off the boat from France in 1915, Duchamp had needed money; a mutual acquaintance put him onto Greene, who in her capacity as Morgans librarian hired the new arrival as a translator. Greene let Duchamp go after six weeks, a period during which Greene doubtless

irked and intrigued the artist, as she did so many others. The bottle originally held a Rigaud brand perfume, Un air embaume, and was made of peach-colored glass. Duchamp dyed the container green, perhaps an allusion to the Belle Da Costa Greene story as well as a play on her family name. Aficionados (see Decoding Duchamp, below) argue that in creating the work Duchamp was encoding references to his temporary patroness. The artist used the piece as an element on the cover of the only issue of the modernist magazine New York DADA, produced in collaboration with the versatile, innovative American artist Man Ray in 1921. He did not display the work until 1965, 15 years after Greene died.

Duchamp was among a circle of artists and scholars acquainted with the green-eyed Greene, who for her time lived the fast life. She dressed and behaved flamboyantlydrinking and smoking, traveling solo, enjoying numerous suitors, and conducting an affair with a married man. Greene had entered Morgans orbit in 1905 through the bankers nephew, Junius Morgan, an acquaintance from her job. Greene and the younger Morgan, both bibliophiles, worked at the Princeton University Library in New Jersey. Introduced by Junius, Greene, who was 26 but claimed to be 23, hit it off with the 64-year-old tycoon. Morgan hired her as a librarian, in which role she not only oversaw and curated his burgeoning collection of antiquities but ran personal interference for and read aloud to Big Chief, as she called the Wall Street dynamo. Asked later if she had been one of Morgans many mistresses, Greene would laugh and say, We tried.

Feted for her professional acumen, wit, and style, Belle Da Costa Greene lived a life of self-invention, propelled by drive and audacity. She came of age at a time of particular poignancy, in her own life and in the nations, rising to a position of power and personal satisfaction rare for a woman of that timeor any time. Fortune brought her into contact with Junius Morgan; preparation readied her to wow his plutocrat uncle. The rest was Belle Greenes doing. She survived two world wars and a depression, shepherding the Morgan Library for decades following its namesakes death in 1913. Her secret, like Duchamps bottle, lay in the packaging.



Four decades before the youthful Belle arrived at the Morgan Library, Richard Greener, an African-American born in Boston in 1844 to free black parents, was trying to get into college. His paternal grandfather was an African-American schoolteacher; his maternal grandfather was Spanish, from Puerto Rico. A ravenous reader, the youth, whose skin tone bespoke his mixed ancestry, took classes at

Oberlin College and Dartmouth College and spent senior year at Phillips Andover Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, that elite schools first black student. Mentors helped him gain admission to Harvard University, from which he graduated in 1870, another African-American first. Greeners thesis, on Irish land tenancy, won that years Bowdoin Prize.

Upon graduation Greener moved to Philadelphia, where he became principal of a school. In that capacity he was part of a delegation that traveled to Washington, DC, to lobby President Ulysses S. Grant for a federal civil rights law. He and Grant became acquainted, and he also met and married Genevieve Ida Fleet, born into a well-educated, musically inclined, and light-skinned family of free blacks. In 1873, Greener accepted a professorship at the University of South Carolina at Columbia, which was integrating under Reconstruction-era federal oversight. Greener, the institutions first African-American faculty member, taught, tutored under-prepared black students in Greek, Latin, math, philosophy, and logic, organized the university library, and earned a degree from the law school. He was so avid a book lover that he assembled a personal collection of African-Americana, including a copy of Benjamin Bannekers 1792 Almanac. In 1876 he submitted a paper on Rare and Curious Books to the American Philological Association, to which he belonged.

In late 1876 the government began to withdraw federal troops from the South. By 1877 white supremacists again controlled South Carolina state institutions, driving blacks out of positions of influence. Greener moved Genevieve and their two children back to Washington, then to New York City, where he practiced law, wrote, and was a Republican activist. He managed the organization assigned to build a memorial to Ulysses Grant. His work required much travel, which along with other stresses shredded his marriage. By 1897, Greener was listing his address as his New York office; in 1898, he and Genevieve, now parents to five, separated formally. They never divorced. To support her offspring, Genevieve Greener taught music. New York lacking an official definition of race, she and her children apparently identifiedand were identified by othersas white.

The fourth Greener child, Belle, received some training in library science. Heidi Ardizzone, author of a 2007 Belle Greene biography, An Illuminated Life, found Greeners name on a list of students enrolled in a bibliography class at Amherst Colleges Fletcher Summer Library School. Belle Greener also may have attended Teachers College at Columbia University. By the time Richard Greeners olive-skinned daughter was applying for a job with Princeton Universitys library in 1901, however, Belle Greener had vanished, replaced by Belle Da Costa Greene. She and her siblings had all plugged Da Costa into their names; should anyone remark on her complexion, Belle mentioned Portuguese ancestry.

Greenes literary and artistic background may have produced the addition. In 1515 Flemish illuminator Simon Bening had created his masterpiece Da Costa Hours for a Portuguese family. The name means of the coast, implying borders between land and sea, fact and fiction, black and white, wealth and poverty.

White Belle Greene had options unavailable to black Belle Greener, especially in segregated Princeton, New Jersey. Hiring on at the university library, Greene roomed during the work week with a Princeton family; biographer Ardizzone suspects Greenes hosts, who also had a library connection, may have been passing as well. Weekends Belle lived with her mother in an apartment on West 122nd Street near Columbia University on Manhattans Morningside Heights, an address Greene kept for years, even after going to work for Morgan.

From the start of her career with Morgan in 1906, Greene was an arts-and-lit it girl. Her love of fashion and flamboyance attracted

invitations to sit for artists. Favoring fashionable gowns and pearls, she liked to say, I am a librarian, but I dont have to dress like one.

Photographs and sketches abound that show her appearing cool, composed, and self-aware. Magazines featured the luminous, green-eyed gamine. As J. P. Morgans librarian, Greene commanded the cantankerous bankers campaign to assemble a collection of artworks, books, and other antiquities he hungered for. She shared Morgans passion for medieval European art, particularly illuminated manuscripts. To advance the cause, she cultivated contacts and experts. She traveled to Europe, working her way into artistic and literary circles. She haggled. At least once, she smuggled. In 1910, the library acquired Da Costa Hours.

Greene could scarcely have landed in a more public, yet protected spot. In 1902 Morgan, a voracious collector of all kinds of art, had hired star architect Charles McKim to design a library adjacent to his home at Madison and 36th Street. Four years later, the magnificent result resembled a three-room palazzo of Renaissance Italy, with vaulted ceilings and two stories of glass-front bookcases to protect Morgans treasures. Greene told Morgan she wanted his library to be preeminent, hoping someday to outdo the British Museum and Frances Bibliotheque Nationale. Within two decades the Morgan collection comprised more than 46 illuminated manuscripts and nearly 5,000 books, as well as etchings and drawings. Morgan favored early European works and antiquities, but he also had corralled domestic

treasures such as the diaries of Henry Thoreau and Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Among Greenes intimates was Bernard Berenson, a prominent art critic, appraiser, and philandering husband who spent most of his time in Italy and London. For years Greene and Berenson sustained an intense relationship, first as master and apprentice, becoming lovers in 1908, and ending as platonic friends. Greene burned Berensons letters to her, but Mary Smith Berenson, who tolerated her husbands affairs, preserved correspondence to him, including Greenesa kaleidoscopic showcase of an extravagant personality that really deserves a reading in full. In 1909, Greene wrote, I wonder if any living being has greater imaginative powers than I. From a 1910 letter: My fate is bound round my neck in bonds of iron, rather gold, glittering gold and locked with the Eternal $. Greene never wrote about race and only seldom mentioned blacks; when she did, it was with an arch dismissiveness. Between the lines wavers a sense that the relationship soured after Berenson impregnated her, apparently resolved in England by an abortiona procedure not readily available in the United States.

Berenson had his own identity issues. Born a Jew named Bernhard Valvrojenski in Lithuania in 1865, he was 10 when his family emigrated to Boston and changed its name and 20 when he was baptized an Episcopalian. Educated at Harvard, he lived his life as a Christian or secular European. Berenson and Greene remained in close contact throughout her more than three decades with the library.

No evidence exists that Greene discussed her ancestry with Berenson, although she did allude to gossip about herself, including other less than surreptitious romances. I really had to laugh at your last letter complaining of all the scandal you were hearing about meI suppose they say everythingbut what difference does it make? she wrote. Ive come to the conclusion that I really must be grudgingly admitted the most interesting person in New York, for it is all they seem to talk about. The endlessly jealous Berenson, consumed with cupidity and curiosity, guessed to friends that his paramour had Malay blood. In a 1909 letter to Berenson, Boston art patron and client Isabella Stewart Gardner hinted at Greenes racial background, urging Berenson not to bruit her musings about. Decades later, speculation surrounding Greene still was percolating through a 1934 letter from a bookseller to Princeton librarian M.L. Parrish:

Miss Bella [sic] da Costa Greene is fortyish with brown hair and wears horn-rimmed spectacles. My first impression of her was that she looked bloated as if she had a touch of dropsy or perhaps drank too much, although she is not overly heavy and still not thin. She has a bulbous nose (perhaps caught from the numerous photographs of her patron, many of which hang, stand and lie about her office) and her skin must be very swarthy, for, she wore white powder which made her look kind of speckled gray, like the negro you see pouring dusty cement into the mixers on building construction jobs. She was dressed in a sort of classic garment of black velvet relieved here and there by bits of chartreuse lace. She has short, stubby fingers and chews her nailsto the quick.

J.P. Morgan died in 1913. Greene fretted that son and heir Jack would abandon the library. She lobbied him to keep the operation goingand succeeded in building a close, jesting relationship. In 1924, for example, she writes, In regard to the Tennyson items, which personally I loathe, it is a question of perfecting your already very large and fine collection of imbecilities. To which Morgan replies, I reluctantly confirm that we ought to have the Tennyson idiocies.

Greene ran the Morgan Library the rest of her life, not only organizing and constantly enlarging the collection but also directing its exhibitions and lecture programs. Her late employer had left her $50,000today, $1.27 million. That largess enabled her to buy and combine two apartments into a residence for herself and her mother on 40th Street in Manhattans Murray Hill neighborhood, a few blocks from the Morgan Library. The inheritance an

d her library salary helped her and her family navigate Depression-era America.

All but one of Greenes four siblings remained close by in New York. Nephew Robertson of younger sister Theodora Genevieve, known as Teddyhad joined Belles household after his mother married for a second time in 1921. Belle became the youths legal guardian. Serving in the European theater during World War II, Robert committed suicide. That same year, Greene faced another crisis when Jack Morgan died unexpectedly of a stroke. She feared for the librarys future but her second patron had planned for his fathers creation to continue as a public institution, and Greene oversaw its shift in status and the appointment of her successor.

Over her 40-year career, Belle Greene achieved celebrity without revealing herself. Richard Greener, who never shied from revealing himself, passed nearly unnoticed into history.

Long after leaving the Palmetto State, Richard Greener referred to himself as a South Carolinian in exile, suggesting how he must have thrilled to the freedom and possibility of his years there before bigotry renewed itself. Back in Washington, DC, with his wife and their

children, Greener worked as a lawyer and dean of Howard University Law School. In 1881, he collaborated on legal appeals by the first two West Point cadets of African descent, Henry Ossian Flipper and Johnson Chesnut Whittakerhigh-profile cases that involved false accusations of embezzlement and self-mutilation shot through with racism and expressive of the limits of legal redress then available to African-Americans. Upon Ulysses Grants death in 1885, a commission formed to build a monument to the hero and former president. That body, whose membership included J. P. Morgan, invited Greener to become the commissions only African-American participant and to manage day-to-day operations. The Greeners moved to New York City.

Greener was prominent enough in the black community to draw criticism for the comfort he displayed interacting with white elites; similarly, the ease with which Genevieve Greener and their children mingled with Caucasians had tongues wagging. Richard Greener did not shy from the spotlight aimed at black activists. He was paid for speaking engagements, including debates with Frederick Douglass, who was much his senior. Greener endorsed racial pride.

The Negro in America was not to lose his identity by absorbing with the dominant race, but to endeavor to do something as a Negro, Greener said in 1877. He wrote trenchantly on the topic. In The White Problem, an 1894 essay in the Cleveland Gazette, an African-American newspaper, he argued that blacks had established a decisive record of accomplishment and service, only to find their way barred by white resistance: If character, reputation, manly accomplishments, the heights reached, the palm won, still find any black hero a `marked man, because of no fault of his own, and church and society, home and club, united in thus ostracizing him and his children, then is it not demonstrated that it is not the Black but the White Problem, which needs most serious attention in this country?

Greener was speaking and writing from painful experience. His multiple degrees and many achievements had been no guarantors of income. His support of causes as diverse as Irish independence and womens suffrage put him at odds with the more cautious Booker T. Washington, who seemed never to support Greener and who in fact may have undermined the other mans opportunities.

Greeners constant struggle to support his family figured in his and his wifes 1897 separation. Their children remained with her; he announced he would support them only to age 18. In 1898, in another first for his race, Richard Greener accepted a position as a U.S. government commercial agent. He was stationed at Vladivostok, Siberia.

Around the time her father was moving out of the family home, college student Belle was, with her siblings and mother, living in Manhattan on West 99th Street, a white neighborhood, shortening the family name, and, in the 1890/1900 census, identifying as whitea declaration that may have been easier in New York City, whose population at the time was less than 2 percent black. In this switch, the Greeners/Greenes were not alone in the United States. Between 1910 and 1920, 400,000 Americans of mixed racial background nationwide disappeared from census rolls.

In Russia, Greener began a second family with a Japanese woman. Explanations vary as to why he returned to the United States in 1905,

according to Katharine Reynolds Chaddock, author of the only Greener biography, 2017s Uncompromising Activist. The formerly high-profile figure, likely isolated by education and personal intensity, now had less interest in activism, although he offered to mediate between Booker T. Washingtons accommodationists and a harder-line wing led by W.E.B. DuBois. Greener helped draft the 1909 statement that led to the establishment of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. I have never aspired to be a leader, the frequent pioneer said. I still believe and preach the doctrine that each man who raises himself elevates the race.

Greener spent his final years living near the University of Chicago with three female cousins and working as a lawyer, lecturer, and newspaper essayist. He died in 1922 at age 78, his reputation gradually dimmed until 2014, when a cache of his diplomas and business documents turned up in an attic in one of the poorest neighborhoods on Chicagos South Side. Harvard and the University of South Carolina acquired the materials and subsequently honored himHarvard with a portrait in the Annenberg Library, the University of South Carolina with a nine-foot bronze likeness outside one of the campus libraries. None of the papers sheds light on Greeners remove from his family with Genevieve.

Belle Greene burned her personal papers. She retired from the Morgan Library in 1948 but kept her hand in with regular visits. She was 71 when she died in 1950. Obituarists alluded to rumors about her family passing for white, but she seems never to have been identified publicly as Richard Greeners daughteror privately by her long-time employer, who had known Greener in the 1880s, when they served together on the Grant memorial commission. The only record of contact between Greener and his American family is correspondence from Vladivostok with daughter Louisa. The connection between the sophisticated, stylish doyenne of the Morgan Library and the roving intellectual and activist was obscured until 1999, when J.P. Morgan biographer Jean Strouse found Belle Greeners 1879 birth certificate, which lists Richard Greener as her father. Father and daughter may have met once after he left the family; her biographer notes a passage in a letter alluding to a 1914 trip Greene made to Chicago for important personal business to meet in secret someone she had not seen in 20 years. Late in his life Greener enjoyed a loving correspondence with a daughter from his family in Siberia, who may never have known of her fathers heritage and travails.

Parallels between Richard and Belle are unmistakable: love of books, flamboyance, ebullience. The two also stand in contrast to one another. As Belle Da Costa Greene, Belle Greener never had to straddle boundaries of racial identity and community that entangled Richard Greener. She mostly eschewed politics, secure on her glittering percha position inconceivable for Belle Greener and her black father, who never concealed his ancestry. She had wealthy patrons; he stood alone, animosity all about him. Where Greene enjoyed extraordinary success and prosperity, Greener, unusually well-educated for his times and circumstance, frequently found himself excluded and often out of work. His activism on racial injustice threatened whites. His ease with whites aroused envy and suspicion among blacks. Sheltered by the Morgan fortunes aegis of wealth and privilege, Greeners daughter blossomed, achieving distinction for herself and the institution she directed. But no one there could have been unaware of her taste, her intelligence, her dynamism, a New York Times critic wrote in 1949. For it was Miss Greene who transformed a rich mans casually built collection into one that ranks with the greatest in the world.

Her father would have been proud.

_____

Decoding Duchamp

No other artist is as closely linked to conceptual art as Marcel Duchamp, who toyed with viewers expectations, creating works that puzzled and infuriated, including pieces he termed readymades, such as Fountain, a porcelain urinal he boldly submitted for display at a New York City exhibition in 1917. He also loved to fool with identity, famously creating his own alter ego, Rose Selavy, as a play on the sounds of

Eros cest la Vie (The passion of love, thats life). Details encoded in Duchamps Belle Haleine go beyond changing the bottle from orange to green. The label shows Duchamp dressing fashionably, as Belle Greene might. The titleBelle Haleineis a play on the French dessert, poire belle Helene, a chocolate-dipped pear. Eau de Violette is close to eau de voile meaning veilwater, a possible reference to Greenes adopted middle name, Da Costa. A more intricate reference appears in a 1921 letter from Duchamp to artist Francis Picabia that includes a pun about bitterness shrinking the Negro. Paleontologist and Duchamp decoder Stephen Jay Gould linked shrinking to Greene axing the r from Greener and the bitterness of blanching her blackness. All of this is conjectural. Another element to the puzzle is that Belle Haleine is also the first time Duchamp identified Rose Selavy as Rrose, a hint that the added r might refer to the letter Belle Greener discarded to become Belle Greene. Sarah Richardson
Part of it is just getting people comfortable with the food, he said. The food itself is great, and people are really into it when they try it. You just kind of have to get them to take that first bite. I think its going to be a good fit at the food hall, and Im excited to get it out to a larger crowd of people.
C hance led Russian artist and historic carver and gilder Anastasya Martynova to her unusual home and studio in Deptford, south-east London, which she restored with architect Alex Nikjoo.

Developers were keen to demolish the cold, damp former Baptist mission and build flats.

The small brick mission comprised a large meeting room, its slate roof supported by crossed timber trusses, and a small linked building at the back under a low roof, holding four loos and a kitchen.

A dropped ceiling hid the soaring hall roof space, there was no outside space and it had resident rats.

What it cost Mission of 1,595sq ft in 2015: 700,000 Cost of work: 450,000 Value now of 1,870sq ft three-bedroom, two-bathroom home: 1.3 million

Though not listed, it was historically interesting, built in 1906 as a memorial to Baptist and philanthropist Joseph Mead, a director of biscuit maker Peek Frean.

In 2015, when Martynova saw it, an artist friend was using it as a studio. He had removed the false ceiling, so she glimpsed its potential.

TAKE A TOUR

TODO: define component type brightcove

But with no rooflights, and metal grilles over the large triple front window, it was miserable and uninhabitable.

Martynova, 36, came to England aged seven with her mother, a barrister, and her grandparents. Her grandfather, industrial designer Yuri Soloviev, taught her to design and make things.

An oak staircase leads to a mezzanine and roof terrace a floor above / Juliet Murphy

After school she took a theatre design BA, then worked at the BBC for six years, becoming an art director. After that, a chance meeting with an artist friend led to her studying carving and gilding at City & Guilds art school.

At the time, her three-bedroom Victorian flat on the main road in New Cross was nice, but too noisy. When her course ended, she began looking in historic, quirky Deptford.

The friend who owned the old mission hall was moving abroad, so Martynova asked if hed sell it to her. He said he was just about to suggest the same thing. A few weeks later, it was hers.

She loves this area, steeped in history and a sense of community: Next door is an old rag-and-bone merchant and when I bought this, he said, Princess, if anyone gives you any trouble, well give them a knock.

This talented artist had taken on a challenge, but she is a doer. Someone recommended young architect Alex Nikjoo, who was setting up on his own. They met at the end of 2016, and he was keen to help transform the hall into an amazing home.

Martynova wanted good light, an outside space, to keep the meeting room as intact as possible and to create warmth and comfort.

She also wanted to restore the attractive though plain historic exterior, unblock windows and refresh the pebble-dashed front.

But the thing that excited me most was to add a roof terrace at the back, she says.

For a project this big and unusual, you need persistence as well as vision and theres always the need to get planners on board.

Planners eventually agreed to the terrace and the vast triangular wall of glass leading to it, which are not visible from the front. Large conservation skylights set along the pitched roof add more light.

Martynovas input mainly concerned light, storage and colour but she says it was an enjoyable collaborative effort throughout. When Nikjoo designed solid sides on the oak stairs up to the mezzanine, Martynova requested a balustrade, to let light through.

She suggested full-height doors to the bedrooms and chose the elegant pale grey wall colour for the main room. She handpicked the granite for the kitchen island, putting it unpolished side up, designed the dining table and made the verre eglomise splashback and the gilded, carved mirror.

Personal touch: Anastasya Martynova made the stunning glass splashback herself / Juliet Murphy

Now shes filling the space with plants. With its svelte polished floor and smart Tom Dixon pendants, the hall now looks like your dream of an artists studio.

Getting it this way took longer than she expected, but the build was a fast eight months. One day I went along and there was a digger excavating inside the hall, the back building was acro-propped, and I thought, what have I done?

Thats normal on a job this large. Theres often a moment when the expensive purchase appears to be turning to rubble. But bit by bit, a real home soared from the chaos.

The building got a silky concrete floor instead of rotting boards, then insulation and a restored front including replaced semicircular windows and smart grey render.

Then came the mezzanine with an upstairs studio and new roof terrace, while the back section became three bedrooms and two bright bathrooms.

Chance can indeed be a fine thing.
After weekend-long negotiations, the musicians of the Chicago Symphony Orchestras negotiating committee will present results of the talks to the membership tonight, according to a statement from the Chicago Federation of Musicians. Results of the meeting will be available at the conclusion of the meeting.
If you want to get inside the Capitol, the easiest and fastest way is to arrive at the same time as the people who work there. The U.S. Capitol Visitors Center, accessed from the East Front of the Capitol, opens at 8:30 a.m.  a half-hour before some senators and representatives begin public office hours. The Visitors Center begins offering its free 45-minute guided tours at 8:40 a.m., and starts new ones every 10 minutes. Visitors can reserve slots online, but if you haven't, an early arrival is usually your best chance for first-come, first-served passes. And on your way out, you'll notice how the lines to get through security have grown throughout the morning.
Now Open

8 April 2019

Embassy Suites by Hilton, a global brand of upscale, all-suite hotels from Hilton (NYSE: HLT), announced today the opening of a new-build in downtown Grand Rapids. Embassy Suites by Hilton prides itself on offering guests an approachable and stress-free experience at each of its hotel properties.

The stylish Embassy Suites by Hilton Grand Rapids Downtown features modern industrial decor and is located in the Monroe North neighborhood. The hotel's balcony rooms offer stunning views of the Grand River and visitors will have convenient access to the many hiking trails and bike paths that Grand Rapids boasts. Guests will also be in close proximity to the DeVos Place Convention Center, Van Andel Arena, Grand Rapids Art Museum and numerous restaurants and breweries.

Owned and managed by Suburban Inns, this upscale all-suite hotel features 250 two-room and studio suites with all the comforts of home. Each suite comes equipped with free Wi-Fi, a large HDTV, mini-fridge and microwave, and the two-room suites' amenities include a living area, sofa bed, two HDTVs and private bedroom.

Guests staying at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Grand Rapids Downtown can start their day with a free made-to-order breakfast in the morning and unwind at night with complimentary drinks and appetizers daily at the Evening Reception. The hotel also offers six flexible meeting spaces to accommodate up to 250 guests, a 24-hour convenience market, a 24-hour business center, a 24-hour fitness center and an indoor pool designed in the iconic mitten shape of Michigan that features an indoor/outdoor spa
Appointment

8 April 2019

In advance of the highly anticipated opening of the first Four Seasons hotel in Spain, Christoph Schmidinger has been appointed opening General Manager to oversee the new luxury hotel set to open in late 2019. Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences Madrid will be located in the heart of the historical city centre, converting several spectacular heritage buildings into a 200-room hotel and 22 Private Residences.

Schmidinger started his Four Seasons career 25 years ago, and after a series of international assignments in Singapore, Chicago, Atlanta, Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur, he assumed leadership at the landmark Four Seasons Hotel New York in Midtown Manhattan, overseeing several other properties as Regional Vice President. His ascent in the company continued when he was appointed General Manager and Regional Vice President to the company's flagship property in Asia, Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong, where he has been since 2014.

Under his leadership, Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong, home to the first Cantonese restaurant in the world to earn three Michelin stars, set the global record for the most Michelin stars at a single hotel. The Hotel has also been widely regarded as one of the finest luxury hotels in China, and around the globe.

Truly an international individual, Schmidinger has travelled extensively, starting at a young age with his family, and speaks four languages. Combining his love for travel and hospitality, he studied at the Certificate of Hotel and Tourism Administration Academy in Salzburg, Austria before holding managerial positions at renowned hotels around the world, and then joining Four Seasons.
Press Release

8 April 2019

LONDON  Accor and Marriott International maintain the top room counts among parent companies operating in in the Middle East, according to STR.



As part of the STR 500, the company will release the top 50 companies and brands in the Middle East during this week's Arabian Hotel Investment Conference (AHIC) in Ras Al Khaimah.



Accor (34,327 hotel rooms) and Marriott International (33,757) were the only two companies with at least 30,000 rooms in the region as of 28 February 2019. Using that same cutoff date, the two largest brands in the Middle East are Millennium Hotels and Resorts (8,852) and Movenpick Hotels & Resorts (8,454), which is owned by Accor.



"Supply remains a hot topic in the Middle East when looking at both the recent impact on performance as well as how much new inventory continues to be developed as part of 'mega events' and economic initiatives," said Philip Wooller, STR's area director for the Middle East & Africa. "The growing presence of so many major global companies and brands speaks to the importance of the Middle East as developers identify growth opportunities in this sector of real estate. The region will certainly be key on the global development landscape for years to come."



Top 10 (ranked by room count in the Middle East)

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Photo: STR

Wooller will be one of several STR executives in attendance at AHIC. Two of those executives will present on 10 April.
Press Release

8 April 2019

AMFORHT (World Association for Hospitality and Tourism Education & Training) which is an NGO recognized by the United Nations for training and Education in hospitality, gastronomy and tourism industry has chosen Paris to celebrate its 50th anniversary - President Philippe FRANCOIS announces the color: "Hotel training must lead its educational revolution"!

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Created in 1969 by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), and recognized since 2017 as the interlocutor of the United Nations for hospitality and tourism training and education, AMFORHT has just gathered in Paris some 160 personalities coming from 31 countries for its 50th anniversary's celebration.

The French National Assembly, represented by the Deputy Pascale FONTENEL-PERSONNE, President of the Tourism Group, wished to join this event, not only by opening the Hotel de Lassay to the guests, but also participating in the debates in collaboration with the UNWTO, the IH & RA, ACCOR Group, the GNI, and the Ministers, Ambassadors, Presidents and international personalities.

The French Ministers, Jean-Baptiste LEMOYNE, Jean-Michel BLANQUER and Muriel PENICAUD welcomed the delegates by recalling the fundamental role of the training in the trades of tourism and services and underlining the excellence of the French know-how in this field.

"Millennial generation and the globalization of the hospitality and tourism trades should force us to rethink training quite fundamentally. Our "way", our tools, our methods, our teaching rhythms become obsolete not only in the face of a booming industry, but also in the face of an exponential global growth training market and, finally, in the face of students who are not at all the same people as 10 years ago! Let's review our strategy fundamentally" says Philippe FRANCOIS!
Press Release

8 April 2019

WASHINGTON -- Executive Vice President of Government Affairs of the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) Brian Crawford issued the following statement in response to the passage of the Violence Against Women Act by the House of Representatives:

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"As an industry, hotels have been investing in employee and guest safety for decades, working with experts to continuously update protocols and procedures that keep both employees and guests safe. In honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month this April, AHLA launched a month-long campaign along with our member companies and national partners to raise public awareness about sexual assault and reaffirm the hotel industry's commitment to providing a safe and welcoming environment for all employees - men and women - and guests.

"This commitment to safety and security is why we applaud today's bipartisan action in Congress, which recognizes the need to expand protection for victims of violence, a critical issue from which no industry is immune.

"As part of our month-long campaign, AHLA's 2019 Board of Directors united against sexual violence with an open letter in The Wall Street Journal, and by wearing jeans as part of a social media movement ahead of Peace Over Violence's Denim Day on April 24. In addition to this initiative throughout April, AHLA, with the support of most major hotel brands, recently unveiled the 5-Star Promise, a commitment protect employees and guests against harassment assault, and trafficking. This pledge is a first of its kind promise focused on how we help protect our employees, particularly women who are often the victims of these crimes. We are fully committed to working, day in and day out, to ensure America's hotels are secure places for all those who work in and visit them.

"AHLA praises our Congressional leaders for their bipartisan efforts by passing the Violence Against Women Act. Safety is a never-ending challenge, and the hotel industry is highly committed to be part of the solution. Protecting our employeesas well the millions of guests who stay in American hotel rooms each dayis critically important to our industry," concluded Crawford.

Serving the hospitality industry for more than a century, the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) is the largest national association solely representing all segments of the eight million jobs the U.S. lodging industry supports, including brands, hotel owners, REITs, franchisees, management companies, independent properties, bed and breakfasts, state hotel associations and industry suppliers. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., AHLA proudly represents a dynamic hotel industry of more than 54,000 properties that supports $1.1 trillion in U.S. sales and generates nearly $170 billion in taxes to local, state and federal governments.
Press Release

8 April 2019

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- EHL Group has created the EHL Alliance, a "business club" designed to leverage EHL's resources and knowledge, offering its members the possibility to tap into the best minds, research and network in global hospitality management.

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Designed by EHL Advisory Services, EHL Group's consulting and training company, the new EHL Alliance will be accessible by way of a yearly membership that can be tailored to the size, capacity and needs of each member. A broad range of benefits have been engineered specifically for schools, hospitality companies and individuals who wish to become part of the EHL Alliance. These include discounted or privileged access to consultancy services, education, training and research, knowledge sharing with EHL's faculty and innovation centers, priority access to EHL's young talents for recruiters, access to networking events and more.

"All entities of EHL Group - whether the consulting company, the University in Lausanne or the Professional School in Graubunden - seamlessly interlock to propose a wide range of services and educational offers. Today, we are extremely happy to extend this capacity beyond the Group and respond to what has been a recurring demand from our industry partners. Our network has grown organically and exponentially over 125 years, now the time has come to create a formal structure that explicitly categorizes the many benefits of an ongoing relationship with EHL Group", explained Michel Rochat, CEO of EHL Group.

IHG a founding member of EHL Alliance

On April 4th, the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has become a founding member of the EHL Alliance. Already a longstanding friend of EHL, IHG has decided to formalize its relationship with EHL Group, the world's top hospitality management education group. "The Alliance is a business club bringing together the best of the hospitality industry as well as leaders from very different sectors such as watchmaking, agri-food, health, sports, banking. This agreement marks the culmination of several years of collaboration between IHG and EHL students and alumni. We very much look forward to taking hospitality to new heights, hand in hand with IHG", explained Olivier Roux, Senior Managing Director of EHL Advisory Services. The international network of schools certified by EHL Group is also an integral part of the EHL Alliance.

"We're incredibly proud of our colleagues, who come together from all backgrounds, to create a special culture and make IHG an outstanding place where everyone is truly welcome.

As we continue to grow and build our business for the years ahead, we are excited to have partnered with some of world's most prestigious hospitality schools, such as EHL. Through these relationships, and a range of other programs, we aim to continue to inspire, engage and nurture some of the best industry talent. I'm looking forward to seeing these partnerships further support a new generation of IHG leaders", enounced Ranjay Radhakrishnan, Chief Human Resources Officer, IHG.

About EHL Group

EHL Group encompasses a portfolio of specialized business units that deliver hospitality management education and innovation worldwide. Based in Lausanne, Switzerland, the Group includes:

Ecole hoteliere de Lausanne (EHL) is an ambassador for traditional Swiss hospitality and has been a pioneer in hospitality education since 1893 with over 25,000 alumni worldwide. EHL is a leading university that provides a range of on-campus and online learning solutions, including undergraduate, graduate and certificate programs to talented students from 119 different countries.

Swiss School of Tourism and Hospitality (SSTH) has been one of the leading hospitality management schools for hotel specialists for 50 years. SSTH delivers Swiss-accredited professional training and higher education in its newly renovated 19th century spa-hotel in Passugg, Graubunden, to Swiss and international students from 20 countries.

EHL Advisory Services is a consulting and executive training company in hospitality, active in more than 30 countries, which supports the development of the hospitality industry.
Joseph Patterson was the editor of the Tribune and helped to run the 1908 presidential campaign of Eugene Victor Debs, founder of the Socialist Party. A child of immense wealth, Patterson was drawn to socialism because he was horrified by the conditions Chicagos poor had to endure. Reading an expose of life in the Stockyards neighborhood, he moved there to see it for himself.
Press Release

8 April 2019

Lisbon, Portugal - The first UNWTO Mayors Forum for Sustainable Urban Tourism, co-organized by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the Ministry of Economy of Portugal and the Lisbon Municipality concluded Friday in Lisbon, Portugal. The event gathered Mayors and high-level city representatives from around the world, UN agencies and the private sector, to design a shared leadership aimed at ensuring that tourism helps creating cities for all.

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Under the theme 'Cities for all: building cities for citizens and visitors', the forum explored issues and solutions for developing and managing tourism in cities in a way that promotes economic growth, social inclusion and environmental sustainability.

In a time of intense debate over the growing number of tourists and the livability and sustainability of cities, the forum exchanged ideas and good practices on urban tourism and destination management, discussed innovative tools and public policies on urban tourism at the national and local levels and way of promoting the integration of tourism into wider national and local urban development agenda.

"The income generated from tourism contributes significantly to the socio-economic and cultural development of many cities and its surroundings. Yet, the growth of urban tourism also creates important challenges in terms of the use of natural resources, socio-cultural impact, pressure on infrastructure, mobility, congestion management and relationship with host communities. Tourism policies should thus be designed as integrated urban policies that promote a well-balanced city economically, socially and environmentally" said UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili opening the event.

The Portuguese Minister of Economy, Pedro Siza Vieira, acknowledged that "tourism is a major driver for the Portuguese economy. Portugal welcomes this first Mayors Forum as an international stage for discussing the challenges that urban tourism faces and how local communities can benefit the most from tourism. The Lisbon Declaration is a firm commitment from all participants so that tourism contributes materially to the Sustainable Development Goals".

The Portuguese Secretary of State for Tourism, Ana Mendes Godinho, added that "social sustainability in tourism is one of the main priorities in our 2027 Tourism Strategy. We launched a Sustainability Program for the development of projects by the civil society that involve local populations and tourists so that tourism leaves value in the territories".

The Mayor of Lisbon, Fernando Medina, said "The growth of tourism has important and positive economic impacts. Yet for managing such growth, ensuring sustainability and safeguarding the quality of life of Lisbon's citizens requires more investment in infrastructure. In Lisbon, we are implementing measures such as increasing transport capacity and investment in urban infrastructure catering for residents and tourists."

Issues discussed include big data and innovative solutions, new business models, creative cities and events, infrastructure, resources and planning, local community engagement and empowerment and how to ensure the full inclusion of tourism in the wider urban agenda.

Participating in the Forum were Gustavo Santos of Argentina, Secretary of State for Tourism of Argentina, Ana Mendes Godinho, Secretary of State for Tourism of Portugal, Isabel Oliver, the Secretary of State for Tourism of Spain, Mayors and Vice Mayors of 15 cities around the world (Barcelona, Bruges, Brussels, Dubrovnik, Helsinki, Madrid, Moscow, Paris, Porto, Prague, Punta del Este, Tbilisi, Sao Paulo and Seoul), UNESCO, UN Habitat, the World Bank, the European Committee of the Regions as well as Amadeus, Airbnb, CLIA, Expedia, Mastercard and Unidigital.

The Forum adopted the Lisbon Declaration on Sustainable Urban Tourism, in which participants reinforced their commitment to align urban tourism policies with the United Nations New Urban Agenda and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, namely Goal 11 - 'Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable'.

The Lisbon Declaration on Sustainable Urban Tourism will be presented at the twenty-third session of the General Assembly of UNWTO, to be held this September in St. Petersburg, Russia.

During the event, UNWTO Secretary-General and the Mayor Bakhyt Sultanov of Nursultan (Kazakhstan) signed an agreement for the hosting of the 8th UNWTO Global Summit on Urban Tourism, to be held on 9 to 12 October 2019.
Supplier News

8 April 2019

HT-NEXT, New Orleans - GlobalReach Technology has added new guest Wi-Fi features to its Hotspot 2.0 solution, giving hospitality brands the benefit of communicating through, and monetizing their Wi-Fi service, without the need for loyalty program guests to log-on through a captive portal. The new capability comes ahead of the launch of the Hotspot 2.0 Release 3 standard.

Today's announcement sees GlobalReach add interstitial functionality to its Hotspot 2.0 guest experience, which complements traditional captive portal pages. The new feature enhances the frictionless Wi-Fi sign up process by allowing the brand to smoothly deliver location-aware, guest-segmented communications.

Recognizing the value of the digital space to boost engagement, conversions and spend, users can now review terms and conditions, and see brand-controlled communications and promotions from this feature. For example, hospitality brands could welcome guests as they enter the lobby, reward them with a promotion, or prompt them to book their next stay, using this message.

The Wi-Fi Alliance launches Hotspot 2.0 Release 3 on April 15. GlobalReach was a contributor to this specification, which is a significant step towards removing friction by enabling guests to login seamlessly. However, it is expected to be at least 18 months before adoption is mainstream. The GlobalReach development bridges this gap and adds new, Release 3-like capabilities today.

Chris Bruce, GlobalReach managing director said: "This innovation enables hospitality brands to allow their loyalty program customers to get online smoothly, which will make a major contribution to improving guest satisfaction."

The GlobalReach Hotspot 2.0 solution allows easy, secure and frictionless Wi-Fi connectivity and monetization. Users download a one-time profile to their devices for automatic login to hospitality Wi-Fi networks and seamless roaming across a brand's properties. Hospitality brands have full control of policies that can trigger location- or event-specific guest communications and promotions via a single dashboard. Paired with rich presence and location analytics, the solution fosters better guest engagement and service monetization.

The new capability is included in the GlobalReach Technology Hotspot 2.0 OSU today. Talk to Chris Bruce, managing director, at HT-Next, New Orleans to see more.
Opinion Article

8 April 2019

In the lead up to the 2019 Arabian Hotel Investment Conference (AHIC), we asked a number of industry partners how they synchronise for success.

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Oxford Dictionaries defines 'synchronisation' as the 'operation or activity of two or more things at the same time or rate.' It is in a literal sense that the hospitality industry can be considered as already a frontrunner in the art of synchronised operations.

Different functions - from front office to back of the room services - are all efficiently integrated to ensure that the guest receives seamless service that helps build loyalty and sustained revenue.

The traditional values associated with hospitality - of delighting guests and giving them a home away from home experience - continue to define the industry, and if any function falls behind, the entire 'customer journey' is compromised leading to loss of face for the hotel operator and disgruntled guests.

While appearing simplistic, the integration of services to make every guest's visit memorable is at the heart of our industry - and that is what defines our success.

But there are new challenges - and that means, we must evaluate the hospitality landscape and how we 'synchronise' our operations from fresher perspectives. Old rules and formulaic approach would only take us so far - the last mile of the customer journey can only be enhanced if we look at how we function from the viewpoint of our guests.

Let us look at the two big shifts that we must prepare ourselves for: The first, no points for guessing, is the digital transformation that we are witnessing in every walk of life. Digitisation has altered the rules of hospitality - not as much in the ground-rule of ensuring a warm, personalised and attentive service - but in how we prepare ourselves to welcome the new digital-savvy customer.

In the digital era, word-of-mouth has become a prominent force to reckon with - not in its literal spirit - but in its digital counterpart - the online reviews. Guests do not hesitate to make their displeasure (less so, their delight, which we must assume is human tendency to amplify the bad over the good) known in public forums, which are pored over by guests before they make hotel or restaurant bookings.

Everything online is also social, meaning, it can be shared and disseminated so fast that no hotel operator can be caught napping while a negative review is doing the round. That calls for responsiveness and agility - not only to address the guest's concerns but to take corrective measures where needed.

Digitisation, however, also brings tremendous potential for positive change. By reimagining every touch point of the customer journey through a digital focus, we can effectively meet their aspirations as well as surprise and delight them.

The second key shift is the extraordinary intersection we witness today in terms of our guest profile. While the new era of our guests - the Millennials - is young, tech-savvy and know what they want, we also need to look at the Baby Boomers and the Gen Z, each with their specific interests and expectations from a hospitality provider.

This means, while evolving to meet the needs of the new generations, we also need to find that delicate balance, where we do not alienate those who have not embraced the digital world and seek hospitality for its tried and tested norms. We must continue to set exceptional standards in everything we do because that is fundamental to our industry and indeed our raison d'etre.

Alongside, we must leverage the digital era to tap the enormous opportunity it opens for our industry to grow. It is true that online travel agencies and new models of hospitality have emerged.

But, we have the force of history on our side. From the inns of ancient Rome and medieval Europe to highly evolved hotels of today, we have witnessed change and responded to them in good measure. That is why the key task before us to succeed would be to integrate every function in as seamless a manner as possible - by using the two powerful tools of genuine customer service and efficient digitisation.

The word hotel has its origins in the French hotel -and its etymology lies in the more profound world 'care' than 'accommodation.' If we focus on that magical word, care, there is no stopping us in our onward journey.
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In an effort to promote a healthy and active lifestyle within Native American communities, Nike has launched the N7 campaign which has been running strong for over a decade now. Every year, the Nike N7 project leads to some incredibly fashionable shoes and apparel that gets Nikeheads excited every time. While not much is known about what the N7 collection will look like this year, it appears as though some information has been revealed as to one of the shoes that will be released.

According to the Instagram user @zsneakerheadz, an N7 Air Jordan 8 will be released on November 7th for $200 USD. The shoe will use Pendleton fabrics and will also feature some of the Oregon-based company's signature patterns. As far as the colorway, it is currently being listed as "Thunder Grey/Light Graphite-Gold Suede-Black." This will certainly make for a clean shoe that features some interesting details.

As of right now, the existence of this shoe is only a rumor, although the above account has been pretty accurate in the past when it comes to divulging early information.

Stay tuned for any updates regarding this shoe as we'll be sure to provide them once they become available.
The Los Angeles Times reports that William Carvan Isles II, better known as Bill Isles, passed away last month in his Southern California home surrounded by family members at the age of 78.

His son Duane Isles revealed that the founding member of the legendary group died after a battle with cancer. Isles left the O'Jays in 1965 and would go on to marry his wife of 52 years, Laurel. Bill would return to the group in 1971 in the capacity of a tour manager until 1974. This time period marked the creation of the O'Jays' biggest hits, including "Back Stabbers," "Love Train," and "For The Love Of Money."

The O'Jays' influence in hip-hop is well-documented with their "Back Stabbers" cut being sampled one more than one occasion by the likes of Drake, Raekwon and Gucci Mane. While "Cry Together" has found itself interpolated in cuts by Ja Rule and The Diplomats. Even the late Nipsey Hussle used the O'Jays' "Who Am I" cut in his 2013 "All Get Right"

A public memorial service for Isles will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday at New Venture Christian Fellowship in Oceanside followed by a public burial at Eternal Hills Memorial Park.
Back in March, Conor McGregor became the topic of conversation once again as he was caught on camera in Miami smashing a phone out of the hands of a fan and then destroying it. At the time, many believed Conor had turned over a new leaf, although it was all for naught as McGregor was arrested and sued for battery, assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

According to TMZ, McGregor and the alleged victim, Ahmed Abdirzak have now reached a settlement. Abdirzak was originally seeking $15,000 from McGregor, but new documents have been filed asking for the lawsuit to be closed. Abdirzak spoke to TMZ a couple of days after the incident and explained his experience.

Via TMZ Sports:

"As soon as he came to shake my hand, he pulled me in and he grabbed my phone and he started smashing it and all his security guards literally surrounded me, pushed me out the way, and he's stomping on it. [McGregor] was just like, 'Get the f--k out my face. Move,' and then I was like, 'Yo, sir, can I have my phone back?' There was a security in his entourage around him and I asked him if I could get my phone back and it was like, 'Yo, move, man. You better listen to what Conor says.' McGregor picked the phone up, put it in his pocket, laughed, and then he got in his SUV and they drove off. That's when the hotel manager come to me and said, 'Listen, I'll sort this out. Don't worry.'"

In the report, it states that McGregor can still face up to six years in jail if convicted for his role in the incident. The Irish UFC champion is due in court later this week.
Despite being one of the best players in the world, Kevin Durant is also one of the most sensitive. We all remember his burner account scandal in which he was defending himself on Twitter from the hoards of fans who were giving him hell for joining the Golden State Warriors. To this day, Durant still receives criticism for that decision, although very few people lay blame on the Warriors. Well, this weekend during a San Antonio Spurs and Cleveland Cavaliers broadcast, Richard Jefferson did just that.

Jefferson was a part of the 2016 Cavs team that upset the Warriors in the finals. During the broadcast, he said "Where I come from in the park and the street when you lose to someone the first words that come are 'run it back.' They didn't do that. They were like 'We need to reload. We're going to get our big brother.'"

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bv9_XEzBN5d



Durant clearly took exception to the comments as he defended his Warriors squad in the House of Highlights Instagram comments section, saying "Everybody from the streets now."

Image via Complex

That's when Jefferson replied with a lengthy comment.

"My single mom left L.A. trying to make sure one of her 3 boys didn't get shot up killed on the same corner my dad did," Jefferson wrote. "I think we can both relate to single moms with that struggle."

https://twitter.com/_/status/1115050588771770368



Considering just how great Durant is, he should probably just avoid these altercations. Although it appears as though he's happy to engage in the smoke.

[Via]
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 8)  Maynilad Water Services, Inc. (Maynilad) will consider to withdraw its arbitration case against the government, according to its chairperson Manuel Pangilinan.

Pangilinan was quoted in media reports as saying that the water concessionaire is willing to drop the arbitration proceedings if it settles tariff issues with the government.

"To clarify, Maynilad Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said that Maynilad will consider dropping our arbitration cases if we are able to fully settle all issues with the government. He noted that Maynilad has been working with government on the tariffs, and there has been progress made in that effort," Maynilad told CNN Philippines.

Pangilinan's statement came after Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo last week said President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered a review of the concessionaire agreement with water providers Maynilad and Manila Water following the water crisis in March.

Singapore's high court last September ruled in favor of Maynilad in its arbitration with the government, ordering the latter to compensate the water concessionaire for revenue losses amounting to P3.4 billion.

The foregone revenue was incurred after the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) refused to implement Maynilad's tariff adjustment from 2013 to 2017. The ruling was finalized in October 2018 after the Philippine government decided to no longer move forward with the case.

However, Malacanang said the government can still prosecute Maynilad officials even if the company drops the case.

"If a crime has been committed, then we should prosecute regardless whether the parties involved have withdrawn," Panelo said in a media briefing.

The spokesperson said the administration will have to wait yet for the recommendation of Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra on the matter.

"I've not heard of that. We will wait for the recommendation of the Secretary of Justice on that," he said.
It was between darkness and coming into dawn, so I could see how someone would think this, Mazza said. We are thankful that this person reported to us though, and we do not want to discourage residents from making reports in the future.
A proposed rule that would classify gig economy workers as independent contractors and allow the tech companies that hire them to avoid paying unemployment taxes has provoked the outrage of worker advocacy groups that view the measure as opening the door to exploitation. The proposal is also sparking opposition among small businesses who worry the change will make it harder for them to compete with app-based services.

Robert Moser, for example, employs about 60 at his Maid Brigade cleaning service franchise in Houston. His company provides health insurance, paid vacation and an occupational accident policy, all costs that app-based services can avoid if they classify workers as independent workers. He fears the lower costs would allow the tech companies to undercut his prices and his business.

If they dont have any overhead, they can charge a lower hourly rate, by a lot, Moser said. If we can get the customer on the phone, we can explain and justify (our prices), but not all customers understand. If its two-thirds the cost, theyll say, I will go with them.

The rule, tentatively approved by the Texas Workforce Commission in December, has become particularly controversial because of the intense lobbying by Handy, an app for booking home cleaners and other home services. State lobbying disclosure records show that Handy, headquartered in New York, began lobbying the workforce commission in 2017 to classify workers who get hired for on-demand work through online platforms as independent contractors.

Emails obtained through a public records request and released by a workers advocacy group show that the commission essentially adopted the language proposed by Handy. The three-member commission is scheduled to consider finalizing the rule Tuesday.

The commission denies it was unduly influenced and says the proposed rule is a response to a changing workplace. The rise of the gig economy has created relationships between workers and digital platforms that are wide-ranging and difficult to define, and the proposed rule aims clarify those relations, according to the commission.

If finalized, it would classify most workers who use a digital platform to perform work on-demand as independent contractors while exempting the companies from paying state unemployment benefits.

We want to ensure that current rules regarding employment status determination sufficiently address this newer employment model, workforce commission spokeswoman Lisa Givens said in a statement.

In a statement, a Handy spokesperson said, Handy is dedicated to developing policy that both provides protections and benefits for workers and addresses the changing nature of work such that all businesses can successfully grow in the modern economy.

Level playing field?

If the state changes the classification of on-demand workers from apps such as Handy, Uber and Grubhub, it may hinder the ability of local businesses that provide similar services to compete on a level playing field, business owners said.

Amanda May, the owner and founder of The Purple Fig, a residential and commercial cleaning service in Austin, said about 10 percent of her monthly revenue goes toward health insurance for her 22 employees. The business also provides them with paid sick leave and matching 401K contributions.

May said that the entrance of gig economy companies into the market has made it tougher to recruit workers. The hourly wage working for a digital platform is often higher than what she pays, which, she conceded, can look attractive to workers. But when you look more closely, she said, on-demand companies dont provide benefits or reimburse workers for costs they occur for supplies and travel, as her company does.

I wish I could lay it out  what the true take-home cost is on that  after you take out your gas, supplies and taxes, May said. The proposed rule, by making it easier for companies such as Handy to do business in the state, would make it even harder for us to compete in the very limited employee pool with such low unemployment.

Gig economy companies argue they are not employers, but rather intermediaries between people buying and selling services. Gig work is attractive to people looking for flexible hours and supplemental income. Hosts using the lodging service Airbnb make the most among gig economy participants, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, earning a median of $440 per month in 2017.

Impact to workers

Juliet Barbara, of the Workers Defense Project, said the group is most concerned that the new rule could extended to other workers, such as construction employees who are often misclassified as contractors. The organization said it was concerned that companies could take advantage of the rule by simply calling their workers marketplace contractors if they use a digital application.

She said independent contractors normally maintain control over the work they do, negotiating their compensation and conditions with clients and setting their hours. But some gig economy companies, for example, dictate when they workers can take time off, Barbara said.

RELATED: Texas Workforce Commission stacks the deck against workers

In the past, Handy workers have come forward to allege the company controls them like employees with harsh penalties for missed jobs and requirements for high ratings to continue earning competitive wages and getting work. The National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint against Handy in 2015 over the classification of its workers as independent contractors. The case is still open.

These businesses have a lot to gain by classifying workers as independent contractors, Barbara said of the proposed Texas rule. This sets a dangerous precedent.

Conflict of interest

The proposed rule by the TWC lays out nine conditions that must be met by app-based companies for their workers to be considered independent contractors. Seven of those criteria are nearly identical to the language proposed on behalf of Handy.

For example, both the language proposed by Handy and language in the proposed rule in the rule of both Handy define a market place contractor as any individual entering into an agreement with a n online platform.

Handys lobbyists and others have pushed for similar rules or legislation across the country. Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Tennessee and Utah have approved marketplace contractor laws that treat most gig workers as contractors. Four states, Alabama, California, Colorado and Georgia, have rejected such proposals.
Less than two months after the first long-term contract for U.S. crude to be sent to India, American supply is making further inroads into the Saudi stronghold in the Asian nation.

India -- where oil demand is growing faster than anywhere else in the world -- is set to get its debut shipment of cooking fuel from the U.S. this week. The liquefied petroleum gas cargo aboard Clipper Sun is expected to arrive at Ennore on the South Asian nations east coast on April 11, according to shipping data and intelligence firm Kpler SAS.

At least three more tankers are headed to India from the U.S., the first cases of direct LPG shipments on this route, Kpler said in an emailed report on Friday. About 95 percent of the South Asian countrys LPG imports come from the Middle East, mostly Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

EXPORTS: Bipartisan group aims to boost natural gas exports to Mexico

The shipments open up a new market for U.S. LPG as Americas trade war with China has almost drained exports to that Asian market. Meanwhile, India is scouting for supplies to meet soaring demand as cargoes from the Middle East shrink as a consequence of the deal between OPEC members and their allies to reduce crude production. The scramble for shipments has boosted premiums for the fuel.

We see the U.S. taking the incremental market share from Saudi Arabia, Thomas Olney, a Singapore-based analyst at industry consultant FGE said, adding that the kingdom is able to sell to China at a very substantial premium. Thats forced India to source cargoes from further away, he said.

Cargo Demand

Indias three state-oil companies issued rare spot tenders seeking more than half a million tons of LPG for delivery in March and April, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The country usually purchases cargoes containing equal quantities of propane and butane gases, byproducts of crude production and refining. The U.S. primarily exports propane.

EXPANSION: U.S. net gas exports more than double in 2018

However, butane export capacity in the U.S. is set to increase in the second half of this year. Enterprise Products Partners LP, one of the biggest operators of American petroleum export terminals, is expanding its Houston facility, which will become operational this year and be able to switch between propane and butane loadings. Another exporter, Targa Resources Corp., also expects higher volumes for overseas shipments.

This year, all things being equal and if tariffs imposed by China remain in place, India will have to turn to the U.S. to provide the incremental cargoes, Olney said.

2019 Bloomberg L.P.
Chef Charles Clark has long had a passion for rose, which is fortuitous because he lives and works in Houston, where the cool pink wine pairs perfectly with our steamy climate. Further, the Spanish-inflected cuisine at his Ibiza Food & Wine Bar couldnt be more rose-friendly.

Thats not a coincidence. Just out of culinary school in the mid-1990s, Clark had helped open a long-defunct restaurant just off Allen Parkway near Stages Repertory Theatre. It it was there that he met an older couple who came in one night and asked me if Id like to go work in Spain. I said, When do we leave? That sounded like paradise to me. I had no girlfriend, no ties to Houston really.

He saw the adventure as a huge learning opportunity, an experience he would eventually capitalize on with Ibiza.

Nobody was doing real Spanish cuisine (in Houston) back then, Clark said. Arturo (Boada) was touching on it, but that was it.

He honed his kitchen skills in Marbella, on the the Costa del Sol  and says he got turned on to rose because I really didnt have any money. I was making 300 bucks a week or something like that.

Ibiza Food & Wine Bar 2450 Louisiana; 713 524-0004; ibizafoodandwinebar.com Hours: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays; 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays; 4-9 p.m. Sundays Clientele/vibe: Across-the-board mix of businesspeople, rendezvousing friends and date-night diners. A groundbreaking spot when its doors opened in 2001 - I didn't know what or where "Midtown" was when Clark told me he was launching a Spanish-themed restaurant there - the still-sleek spot has now been around long enough for a second generation of Houstonians to start making memories there. Wine philosophy/list: All the world's important regions are in play, with Spain getting its fair share of attention with about 25 selections, both white and red. Bottle prices start around $20 and top out at $272 for a 2013 Sassicaia. Some 30 wines are available by the glass from $8 to $18 and 15 different roses from $20 to $40 per bottle. Clark and his business partner, Grant Cooper, pioneered the low-markup concept - rarely as much as double the wholesale price of a bottle - that thankfully has been adopted by a number of other local restaurant groups. The aforementioned Tuscan heavyweight, for example, retails at Total Wine for just under $200. D.R. See More Collapse

I would go to the big supermarket where the cheapest wines were always roses, selling for just 2 or 3 bucks a bottle. And Id see everybody else drinking them. You just ordered rose. The label didnt matter.

But later, after returning to Houston as the chef at Tosca, one of downtowns first new-wave dining spots, he was vacationing on the Caribbean island of St. Barts when he first tasted a delicious, classic Provencal rose called Les Valentines. That label caught his eye. Today, two decades later, it happens to be his pink of choice on Ibizas wine list.

Clarks current favorite wines at Ibiza:

2017 Chateau les Valentines Cotes de Provence Rose

The property covers some 35 hectares in rose country above Frances Cote dAzur and has been a source of fruit for Provencal pinks for more than a century, selling grapes to the local cooperative until Gilles and Pascale Pons took it over in 1997. (The Valentines name combines those of their children, Valentin and Clementine.) The certified organically farmed cinsault and grenache vines that contribute to the blend are 30 years old on average.

Pairings: Clark suggests his ox tongue pastrami with sunchoke aioli, arugula, fennel and crispy sunchoke. (And I loved it with the Wagyu meatballs appetizer because of the spices in the sauce.)

Price: $30 for a bottle

2016 Sandhi Santa Barbara Chardonnay

Owned by Houstonian Steve Webster, the small-production winery was founded in 2010 by Master Sommelier Rajat Parr, Charles Banks  former owner of the monster cult wine, Screaming Eagle  and winemaker Sashi Moorman. The Wente clone chardonnay fruit is sourced from prime sites in the Sta. Rita Hills, Santa Maria Valley and Santa Ynez AVAs, and the resulting wine, Moorman says, offers aromas of citrus flowers and fruit notes of limes and lemons along with toasty notes from the oak.

Pairing: Try it with the pan-roasted branzino with lemon basil nage sauce, spinach and couscous.

Price: $28 for a bottle

sportywineguy@outlook.com

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Like most things in life, even steak night has gotten complicated. It used to be that your dad would light a charcoal fire in the back yard and throw on some thick steaks from Safeway. Salt, pepper, A1, a salad with Good Seasons dressing, and life was good.

That was good enough, too, for a young Aaron Franklin, who remembers his fathers steak routine, heavy on the Lawrys seasoning: Hed always cook a T-bone, about an inch thick or something like that, on a grill with charcoal  nothing special or specific about it, Franklin said. His grill was likely just a shallow hotel pan with a grate on top of it. But those flavors  really salty and beefy - have always stuck with me.

In Franklin Steak: Dry-Aged. Live-Fired. Pure Beef, Franklin and co-author Jordan Mackay get to those elemental salty beefy flavors. Nothing about that route to steak magic, however, is simple. Though the elements are few, a perfect steak is not without myriad variables, as the authors set out at the beginning of the new textbook. Whenever they were asked how they were going to drum up enough copy to fill a single book about steak, Franklin and Mackay reacted incredulously: How can we ever meaningfully cover steak in just one book?

On HoustonChronicle.com: Steakhouse tops Alison Cooks list of Best New Restaurants

How to choose a steak in the store Grocery-store beef these days is often cut at a central processing facility and delivered to the stores, meaning the counter people just lay it out without needing to know anything about the cuts. Here are a few tips to take out some of the guesswork: 1. Take your time and really inspect the cuts. Every piece of steak is different, so it pays to make sure each one is great. You wouldn't buy an expensive pair of pants without trying them on, would you? 2. Choose the freshest steaks. All the meat in the supermarket looks red. This is because special packaging is used that allows the myoglobin in the meat to combine with oxygen to "bloom," or turn a bright, attractive shade of red. However, if you detect brown or gray on the steaks, it means the iron in the myoglobin is oxidizing. That's not necessarily a sign of spoilage but rather just a steak that's been sitting around longer. 3. Go for thicker steaks. Even if the outside shows more oxidation, a thicker steak will have a greater proportion of fresh, unexposed meat. 4. Prepackage or under glass? Not always, but usually, grocers put their best meat in the case. The case generally holds a better selection of cuts as well. 5. Do look for fat. Marbling is not the sole source of flavor in a steak, but it is a good indication of what will turn juicy and sweet. Exterior fat, though you don't want to pay for too much of it, can help the steak cook more evenly and slowly. 6. Avoid connective tissue. Look for steaks that have large, single muscles or muscle groups. When you can see several individual muscles in a piece of beef being offered as a steak, pass up the cut. The connective tissue separating the muscles will toughen during fast cooking, making large parts of the steak inedible. 7. Avoid the fancy store-created brand names. This is how stores have learned to sell lower-grade meat. Go for well-marbled, upper Choice for the best quality-to-price ratio. Source: "Franklin Steak" 'Franklin Steak: Dry-Aged. Live-Fired. Pure Beef' By Aaron Franklin and Jordan Mackay Ten Speed Press 224 pages; $29.99 See More Collapse

But they have. At 224 pages, Franklin Steak is a detailed treatise on the centerpiece for what many Americans consider the ultimate dinner. Less a cookbook and more an instructional guide for the properties governing steak and its preparation, Franklin Steak is even more meat-and-fire nerdy than their 2015 best-seller, Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto.

This was a lot more difficult, said Franklin, the James Beard Award-winning pitmaster of what many consider the worlds greatest craft-barbecue joint, Franklin Barbecue, which he owns with his wife, Stacy Franklin. When Jordan and I did the barbecue book, he followed me around with a little tape recorder, taking in weeks and weeks of me rambling. He transcribed it and organized it. With the steak book, we actually had to cook stuff. I know we cooked at least a hundred New York strips.

There were just as many bone-in rib-eyes, tomahawks, T-bones, hanger and bavette steaks, flatirons and skirts to sear. But Franklin fans can expect a book thats much more than the union of meat and fire. The authors begin with a lesson on beef history and genetics, types of cattle, and how cattle are raised and fed before segueing into beef branding, beef grading, butchering and steak cuts. Next comes beef aging and cooking  including a super-eggheady dive into cooking equipment in which Franklin builds an elaborate, hybrid hibachi  before a scholarly chapter on charcoal, wood and fire-building, including the Franklin Formation grill setup. It isnt until the end of the book that recipes and cooking methods are explained.

Those who are looking for a single, definitive recipe for the holy grail of steak will be disappointed. There isnt one. Rather, like Franklin Barbecue, the steak book is heavy on methodology and technique. For instance, the authors go into depth on the benefits of dry-aging (even offering instructions on how to dry-age at home) and the joys of salting.

BBQ STATE OF MIND PODCAST: Alison Cook, Greg Morago and J.C. Reid have beers with Aaron Franklin and Rodney Scott

Its a lot to take in. But the fundamentals are what drive Franklin Steak. After this immersion into marbling, butchering, the science of fat and heat dynamics, you may never look at a steak in quite the same way.

And that may be among the books underlying messages. The loose premise is to encourage people to eat less meat but better quality of meat, Franklin said.

Still, the authors outline a handful of ways to get at what they consider a perfect steak. For those who dont have a lot of patience, tools or time, Franklin suggests starting with what you consider the best result. What do you want the piece of meat to look like? Start there and work backward, he said. If you have a skillet, use a skillet. If you have a grill, use a grill.

Whats clear from Franklin Steak is that the countrys leading authority on smoked meats has come a long way from his post-teen years living in Austin, when grilling constituted the cheapest charcoal and the cheapest grocery-store steaks seasoned with iodized salt packets filched from the taco stand: It was absolutely the least expensive, foulest way to eat steak, but we still felt like kings.

Today, Franklin happily admits his steak game has grown up. Preparing steak requires very little in terms of money, thought, time, and equipment, he writes. But a sublime steak? That requires a fair bit of moola, consideration, patience and accessories.

As Franklin Steak meticulously details.

Recipe: Aaron Franklins Hot and Fast Method for great steak

Recipe: Salsa Verde from Franklin Steak

Recipe: Garlicky Sauteed Mushrooms from Franklin Steak

greg.morago@chron.com

twitter.com/gregmorago
2015 E. Guigal Cotes du Rhone

Overall score: 19 (9 for quality, 10 for value)

Our tasters: Gave it a unanimous recommendation with four scores of at least 9. Earthy, ripe and juicy. Blackberries on the noses, black cherry flavors.

My score: 9.1. I found the wine to be equal parts earthy and elegant with many layers of flavors  and I scored it a 10th of a point higher than the 2015 La Bernardine Chateauneuf-du-Pape that we also tasted, which sells for $67.99.

Blend: Syrah (50 percent), grenache (40) and mourvedre (10)

Vineyards: Guigal works with 80 growers in Frances Southern Rhone Valley, most of them on the west side of the river, but the vineyards are similar with sedimentary, limestone and granite soils featuring pebbles and alluvial deposits. The vines average 35 years in age and yield about 2.1 tons per acre.

Vintage: It was the best in the Southern Rhone since 2010 with a good yield of healthy, ripe fruit, although the ripening season was long and very hot. Guigal predicts the wine will go down as one of its best-ever Cotes du Rhones, equal to the 1998 and 2005.

Winery/winemaking: The cellars are in Ampuis, 30 minutes from Lyon, Frances gastronomic capital. Traditional harvesting is followed by temperature-controlled vinification, then a long maceration period. The wine is aged in oak barrels for 18 months.

Winemaker notes: Deep and dark red, its intensely aromatic on the nose with black fruits and spices. The palate is full, round and yet also racy. Round and smooth tannins present themselves throughout the full bodied, ample, complete wine, which has a long finish, with elegance and finesse accompanying the abundance of fruit and well-balanced tannins.

Critical acclaim: Robert Parkers Wine Advocate awarded a score of 91: This medium to full-bodied wine finishes long and silky, avoiding any of the vintage's hard tannins, while still boasting the concentration to drink well through at least 2023.

Pairings: Charcuterie, pates and wild game

Price: $11.97 at Spec's
WASHINGTON  Kirstjen Nielsen, the homeland security secretary, resigned Sunday after meeting with President Donald Trump, ending a tumultuous tenure in charge of the border security agency that had made her the target of the presidents criticism.

I have determined that it is the right time for me to step aside, Nielsen said in a 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 Americas borders and which have contributed to discord in our nations discourse.

Nielsen had requested the meeting to plan a way forward at the border, in part thinking she could have a reasoned conversation with Trump about the role, according to three people familiar with the meeting. She came prepared with a list of things that needed to change to improve the relationship with the president.

The move comes just two days after Trump, who has repeatedly expressed anger at a rise in migrants at the southwestern border, withdrew his nominee to run Immigration and Customs Enforcement because he wanted the agency to go in a tougher direction.

Trump in recent weeks had asked Nielsen to close the ports of entry along the border and to stop accepting asylum-seekers, which Nielsen found ineffective and inappropriate. While the 30-minute meeting was cordial, Trump was determined to ask for her resignation. After the meeting, she submitted it.

Trump has ratcheted up his anti-immigration message in recent months as he seeks to galvanize supporters before the 2020 election, shutting down the government and then declaring a national emergency to secure funding to build a border wall, cutting aid to Central American countries and repeatedly denouncing what he believes is a crisis of migrants trying to enter the country.

He took aim again Sunday night after announcing Nielsens departure, tweeting, Our Country is FULL!

Nielsen said on Twitter she plans to stay on as secretary through Wednesday in order to assist with an orderly transition. The abruptness was unusual because the Department of Homeland Security currently does not have a deputy secretary, who would normally take the reins. The president said in a tweet that Kevin McAleenan, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, would take over as the acting replacement for Nielsen, who became the sixth secretary to lead the agency in late 2017.

But by law, the undersecretary for management, Claire Grady, who is currently serving as acting deputy secretary, is next in line to be acting secretary. The White House will have to fire her to make McAleenan acting secretary, people familiar with the transition said. Grady has told colleagues that she has no intention of resigning to make way for McAleenan.

Among the possible replacements for Nielsen in the long term is Ken Cuccinelli, the former Virginia attorney general who is a favorite among conservative activists and who fits the profile Trump wants the next homeland secretary to have, people familiar with the discussions said.

Nielsen had been pressured by Trump to be more aggressive in stemming the influx of migrant crossings at the border, people familiar with their discussions in recent months said.

Her entire time in the job was spent batting back suspicion from the president, even as he told people he liked how she performed on television and enjoyed dealing with her personally. He initially was skeptical because of Neilsens previous service in the George W. Bush administration, and then because she was close to John F. Kelly, the presidents former chief of staff.

The president called Nielsen at home early in the mornings to demand that she take action to stop migrants from entering the country, including doing things that were clearly illegal, like blocking all migrants from seeking asylum. She repeatedly noted the limitations imposed on her department by federal laws, court settlements and international obligations.

Those responses only infuriated Trump further. The presidents fury erupted in spring 2018 as Nielsen hesitated for weeks about whether to sign a memo ordering the routine separation of migrant children from their families so the parents could be detained.

In a Cabinet meeting surrounded by her peers, Trump castigated her repeatedly, leading her to draft a resignation letter and to tell colleagues that there was no reason for her to lead the department any longer. By the end of the week, she had reconsidered and remained in her position, becoming an increasingly fierce supporter of his policies, including the family separations.

Trump and Stephen Miller, the presidents top immigration adviser, have privately but regularly complained about Nielsen. Lou Dobbs, a Fox News host who is one of the presidents favorite sounding boards, has also encouraged Trumps negative views of her handling of the migrant crisis.

Neilsen lost a powerful protector when Kelly, her mentor, left his job as White House chief of staff at the beginning of the year. Kelly was the Trump administrations first homeland security secretary and lobbied for Nielsen to replace him.

Multiple White House officials said she had grown deeply paranoid in recent months, after numerous stories about her job being on the line. She also had supported the ICE nominee Trump withdrew, Ronald D. Vitiello, and her support for him was described as problematic for her with the president. Trump felt Vitiello did not favor closing the border, as the president again threatened to do in a tweet Sunday night.

In early 2019, as the number of migrant families from Central American countries surged to unprecedented levels, the presidents fury at Nielsen did, too. He repeatedly demanded that she cut off foreign aid to the Central American countries even though the funding was the responsibility of the State Department. She repeatedly deflected his demands.

One day after Nielsen traveled to Honduras to sign a regional compact with officials from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, Trump cut State Department funding for the countries.

Nielsen embraced the presidents crisis language as apprehensions of migrants at the border shot up to thousands per day. But in recent days, the president made public moves to undercut her authority, leaking news that he might nominate an immigration czar to assume oversight of the issue at the heart of Nielsens department.

On Friday, Trump traveled with Nielsen and McAleenan to Calexico, California, to describe what they called a crisis.

While the number of border crossings is not as high as in the early 2000s, the demographic of migrants has shifted largely from individual Mexicans looking for jobs  who could easily be deported  to Central American families, overwhelming detention facilities and prompting mass releases of migrants into cities along the border.

Nielsen estimated last month that border officials had stopped as many as 100,000 migrants in March.

But despite the trip and several stories about how much better her relationship with Trump was, Nielsen never learned how to manage him, people familiar with their discussions said. He often felt lectured to by Nielsen, the people familiar with the discussions said.

And his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was not an admirer of Nielsen, several administration officials said. That came to a head recently as Kushner had inserted himself into immigration discussions.

While Trump often blamed Nielsen for the surge in migrant crossings, she will be remembered for leading the department during the Trump administrations zero tolerance policy at the southwestern border, which initially resulted in the separation of thousands of migrant children from their families.

An intense backlash ensued, and the Department of Homeland Security was unprepared to deal with separating nearly 3,000 children from their parents.

Hampered by misstep after misstep, Kirstjen Nielsens tenure at the Department of Homeland Security was a disaster from the start, said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the Houses committee on Homeland Security. It is clearer now than ever that the Trump administrations border security and immigration policies  that she enacted and helped craft  have been an abysmal failure and have helped create the humanitarian crisis at the border.

Trump eventually moved to halt the family separations, though the government struggled in some cases to reunite those it had already separated.

By naming McAleenan acting secretary, Trump is installing another veteran of previous administrations, not a loyal foot soldier of Trumps campaign.

Married to a Salvadoran immigrant, McAleenan is a lawyer who wrote an honors thesis at Amherst College on marriage equality and applied to the FBI after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Described by colleagues as a savvy political operator, McAleenan worked cooperatively with Obama administration officials but later embraced Trumps agenda, which included unshackling Border Patrol agents from restrictions that the previous administration had imposed.

McAleenan was also one of three Department of Homeland Security officials who had urged Nielsen to sign the memo authorizing the routine separation of migrant families at the border.

The Department of Homeland Security, which has a budget of more than $40 billion and more than 240,000 employees, is an amalgam of 22 government agencies that was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It is responsible for everything from protecting the nation from cyberattacks to responding to natural disasters.

At 46, Nielsen was the youngest person to lead the sprawling department, and an unlikely choice for the job.

In the months immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks, she helped set up the Transportation Security Administration, now an agency within the department. She also worked as a special assistant to President George W. Bush on natural disaster response while serving on the White House Homeland Security Council.

When Trump moved Kelly to the White House in July 2017, Nielsen moved with him. As the principal deputy chief of staff, she enforced Kellys attempts to regulate access to Trump in the Oval Office, including the presidents schedule  irritating White House staff members, who complained she was uncompromising.

Kelly later backed Nielsen to succeed him at the Homeland Security Department, though she was criticized as too inexperienced for the job by Democrats and anti-immigration groups. Trump, however, said she was ready on Day 1.

There will be no on-the-job training for Kirstjen, Trump said in October 2017, announcing her nomination for the post.

But by the following spring, Nielsen was telling associates she was miserable in the job.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times
Scott Cameron, who died in 2015, was president of the organization. He managed Waters during his late-career revival in the 1970s, and was executor of Waters estate. His widow, Elizabeth Cameron, has for more than a year failed to appear either in person for court hearings, or via a video link that would allow her to participate from Florida, where she lives.
Kurt Steenson stood in his backyard, gazing upward and wondering aloud how long he would be able to enjoy the towering trees that drew him and his wife to buy their home in Spring Branch three decades ago.

A city of Houston contractor had just clear-cut a wide swath on each side of a drainage ditch being improved behind Steensons home  and the excavator was headed his way.

This forest has been here since before there were any houses built, Steenson said, his arms wide. Look at this loblolly pine. This is the kind of thing the city wants to get rid of.

Residents on Warwana Road stand to lose perhaps 15 feet of what effectively has been part of their yards for decades as the city and the Harris County Flood Control District seek to reclaim the full width of a long-neglected drainage channel in the name of flood prevention.

Similarly, across town, business owners in a cluster of car shops off the Southwest Freeway will lose dozens of parking spots along their already cramped street as city crews dig out the pavement  and the inadequate pipes underneath  and restore the neighborhoods open ditches.

In both areas, property owners are fighting the projects, upset that the efforts may erase amenities they have come to view as permanent in the decades since local officials last did any apparent work on the local drainage infrastructure.

Both projects highlight the tension between public officials urgency to mitigate flooding in the Hurricane Harvey era and residents distrust of officials claims that those efforts will be worth the disruption.

It is a change. And were going to have to have change if were going to really make a dent in our flooding problem, said Jim Blackburn of Rice Universitys Severe Storm Prediction Education and Evacuation from Disasters Center. Theres nothing easy about any of this, but its going to be absolutely essential if were going to solve these problems.

Such tussles likely will become more common. That partly is because difficulties in identifying whether the Warwana ditch was the responsibility of the city or county has led the flood control district to identify 100 miles of these orphan ditches  channels with murky ownership that have not been touched in years  that its staff plan to begin maintaining.

It also is partly because local officials will have ample resources to ramp up drainage work. County voters last year approved a $2.5 billion bond for flood control projects, and the city and county expect to receive a combined $2 billion in federal infrastructure funding as part of the regions recovery from Hurricane Harvey.

Will there be an instance where something similar happens again? Im 99 percent sure, yeah, said Matt Zeve, deputy executive director for the flood control district. But, hopefully, we will have done our job communicating with the affected community, letting them know why were doing it, answering their questions.

Two projects, same questions

The city-county Warwana project will remove fences and sheds from the sides of the east-west channel and then clear sediment from that trench and a north-south ditch that flows into it from the adjacent Shadow Wood subdivision. In some areas, the channels will be deepened or widened.

The city project off the Southwest Freeway will improve roadside ditches and culverts along Star and Schumacher lanes between Chimney Rock and Fountain View. Property owners who want to restore their on-street parking and who did not get permits when they originally covered the ditch would need to pay for the replacement culvert, said Tanu Hiremath, a managing engineer with Houston Public Works.

In both cases, residents and business owners said they do not understand why their streets were chosen, saying local flooding problems are limited. Both groups say muddled information about the projects justification and scope have bred distrust, including theories that political forces are at play.

Hiremath said eight of the 55 homes on Briarwild and Warwana west of Witte Road, both of which drain into the Warwana ditch now slated for improvements, have flooded repeatedly. She added that the majority of residents there who have not flooded opposed a ditch improvement project on those streets last year.

Data from the citys 311 help line show property owners on the streets that drain to the Warwana ditch called in seven reports of flooding and 47 reports of drainage issues from 2013 through 2018; property owners on Star or Schumacher reported 17 instances of drainage issues during that time.

Even if five properties out of there flooded and it can be alleviated, we owe it to those five properties, Hiremath said.

Councilwoman Brenda Stardig, who represents the area, agreed.

Can you imagine if they hadnt maintained it and somebody flooded? Were just trying to keep water out of peoples homes, she said. I know its frustrating for some people, but I think in the long run we can make it right.

Zeve echoed that.

We dont have the right as licensed professional engineers or as public employees to ignore a problem once were made aware of it, he said. If there was to be a rainfall event and someone did flood and they said, You knew about this and you did nothing, thats a worse scenario than disturbing these people if they dont want to be disturbed.

Painful progress

Steve Costello, the citys Harvey recovery czar who has overseen Houstons flood control efforts since 2016, said these nascent efforts to reclaim neglected drainage infrastructure  one of the recommendations of a task force he convened after Harvey  often have been frustrating.

Were going to have this pushback whenever were starting to reclaim the right of way, Costello said. When we come into these areas that have been like that for years and decades, people dont want to be changing things, and we probably have to do a better job of interfacing with them to describe what were doing and why were doing it.

On Warwana, that pushback has been intensified by what officials said was a city contractors overzealous approach to clearing encroachments. The firm was to scoot back fences and clear trees from the channel itself, Hiremath said. The contractor, however, removed nearly every plant in a more than 40-foot swath  including some trees on private land outside the drainage easement, Zeve said  before an outcry from residents halted the work.

City and county staff met last month and agreed the city contractor would clean up the site, move back encroaching fences, then withdraw, letting a county crew finish work in the channel using smaller equipment. The flood control districts director of infrastructure, Sandra Musgrove, said her crew will be snaking our way around trees, leaving as little footprint as possible. Hiremath said the city is drafting a plan to plant new trees in the area that was denuded.

The clear-cutting only heightened residents suspicions that the project was not the simple desilting city officials had promised, Steenson said. It also did not help that answers to some basic questions  Where will the improved channel stop to the east? What will its new width and depth be?  were unclear, or that residents public information act requests to the city were denied.

I dont want it to seem like were selfish because we want to keep our yards, Steenson said. I think the ditch maintenance is a good idea. But the city has done nothing but obfuscate. Why cant they just be straight with us?

To the south on Star Lane, there is no lush tree canopy to fret over. Still, Daniel Zabihi, who has run a chemical testing laboratory there for nearly two decades, said he wishes the city would perform basic maintenance rather than risk putting people out of business by taking away needed parking spaces. Zabihi said one of his buildings took on water during Harvey, but he still opposes the project.

If all the ditches are clean, the culverts are clear, theres really not much issue with flooding, Zabihi said. If its a hard rain like Harvey, we live in Houston  youre going to get a little bit of water in no matter what the city does. Theres no need for them to spend $1 million on this project. They need to go use it in Meyerland or somewhere like that.

mike.morris@chron.com

twitter.com/mmorris011
Labwana Jackson said she simply wanted to help people stay off the street when she opened her boarding home about five months ago in south Houston.

She operated a second boarding home close by, authorities say, but didnt get the required permits to run such facilities for people who need mental health or physical care.

The deaths of two residents  one from an overdose and one after a fight  in the past six months have prompted intense scrutiny from authorities of two boarding houses that Jackson is connected to. Houston police issued more than 30 Class C misdemeanor citations to Jackson for lacking permits, and investigators are looking into whether Jackson operates any additional boarding homes in Houston.

Im not a troublemaker, Jackson said. I try to take care of people ... Some of these (residents) dont even have families. I spend Thanksgiving with these people.

Jackson is one of an unknown number of boarding home owners who had been operating without local oversight, even after Houston city leaders approved stricter permitting and inspection requirements last year. The new ordinance followed several fatal fires in unregulated and unsafe multi-residential housing facilities in 2017. A Houston Chronicle investigation found that the city provided little scrutiny, spotty inspections and inadequate enforcement of regulations at the facilities.

Local ordinance Previously, homeowners had to register with the city and keep basic safety equipment on hand, such as fire extinguishers, first aid supplies and working smoke alarms. Boarding home owners also had to undergo a criminal background check. The new ordinance also requires they keep a roster with resident names, medical history and prescribed medication. It also requires first-year building code inspections, a certificate of occupancy, framed beds and annual life safety inspections. See More Collapse

Jacksons case shows progress in implementing the ordinance, as she could be required to close the homes and pay hefty fines for not meeting new requirements. It also reflects the complexities in regulating facilities that house vulnerable populations in the city.

The Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee is scheduled to discuss the progress of the ordinance April 18 at City Hall.

I do think this is a good example of why its so important that we have this ordinance in place, and that what the city said would happen in response to the ordinance is taking place, said Lara Cottingham, the chief of staff for the citys Administration & Regulatory Affairs office.

The new law

Boarding homes are defined as facilities that provide lodging and personal care services to three or more people who are elderly or have disabilities.

The city ordinance, approved in March 2018, added teeth to existing regulations for boarding homes and other multi-residential facilities.

Previously, a local ordinance only required homeowners to register with the city and keep basic safety equipment on hand, such as fire extinguishers, first aid supplies and working smoke alarms. Boarding home owners also had to undergo a criminal background check.

The new ordinance adds several requirements. Owners are now supposed to keep a roster with resident names, medical history and prescribed medication. It also requires first-year building code inspections, a certificate of occupancy, framed beds and annual life safety inspections.

If home operators meet these requirements, they receive the necessary permit. If they continually refuse to comply, police can issue citations or the city can shut them down, Cottingham said.

That was the big pushto have a permit, Cottingham said. Because there were folks who failed fire inspections, didnt have appropriate building code requirements, and there was nothing the city could do (under the old law).

Two deaths

Police said Jackson leased both of her boarding homes within 2 miles of each other one at 4633 Knoxville and the other at 5943 Southville.

Jackson said she doesnt operate the boarding home on Southville, but simply lives there with her husband and daughter.

An accidental death on November 18 brought police to the boarding home, however. Medical examiner records show Laurel Lee Nagle overdosed from a mixture of multiple drugs, including fentanyl and alprazolam, also known as Xanax.

Four residents lived there at one point, including people with disabilities, police said.

The following month, Houston police mental health officers visited the home and issued 17 citations for various building and fire code violations, as well as operating without a permit.

At Jacksons Knoxville home, resident Franklin Earl Thompson died March 2 after a fight with another resident. Houston police said they started investigating the death, but the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences has yet to determine the cause.

Police have declined to release information about the other man in the fight, citing the investigation.

At the time of the incident, police had already received a report that Jackson was operating the Knoxville home without permits. A nearby resident called the citys 311 number on Jan. 18 to report a possible boarding home, Houston police spokesman Kese Smith said.

That day, officers went to the home and gave Jackson another 17 citations for operating the boarding home without a permit and without the requisite inspections. If shes found guilty, she could owe fines of up to $2,000 each for some citations, particularly those involving building code violations, police said.

Smith said five people were living there at the time, including people with mental and physical disabilities.

Working with the owners

Houston Police Officer Jason Llorente who works for the departments boarding home investigation division, said police didnt shut down the Knoxville home at the time because they wanted to work with Jackson to get the home up to code  a common practice under the new ordinance.

There is a need for this type of care for people in the city of Houston, Llorente said. Writing citations typically does work with the majority of the boarding homeowners  It takes longer with others.

Its not clear whether adherence to the new law would have prevented the deaths.

The ordinance doesnt require Jackson to be on site at all times, and residents are free to come and go as they please, Llorente said. Jackson said she wasnt at the home when Thompson died. Most of the residents can take care of their own medical needs, she said.

The law was devised in response to deadly fires, but compliance creates an overall safer environment for residents who could be dealing with addiction or mental or physical disabilities, he said.

When the clients are in the boarding home, provided with a nice and safe space, theyre generally happy, and you have less incidents that occur at the homes that are following the law and permitted, he said.

A complex case

In addition to stricter safety requirements, the city council also clarified the difference between boarding homes, lodging facilities, alternate housing and correctional facilities.

While boarding homes provide lodging for people with disabilities, lodging facilities simply house three or more unrelated people for compensation.

The difference between alternate housing facilities and correctional facilities is more specific.

Both provide housing for adults on some form of administrative release from a penal institution. Correctional facilities provide rehabilitation or training for residents, while alternate housing facilities only provide a living space for three or more adults on administrative release, according to the definition on the city website.

Each facility comes with its own set of requirements under the new ordinance.

Thompson, the man who died at Jacksons boarding home on Knoxville, was on mandatory supervision with the Texas Department Criminal Justice at the time of his death, TDCJ spokesman Jeremy Desel said.

He had been reporting to his parole officer since May 2011 after serving time on a charge of aggravated sexual assault with a deadly weapon, according to TDCJ. He previously faced numerous assault and robbery charges in Harris County in the 1980s, records show. He was a lifetime registered sex offender, records show.

Thompsons son, Michael Brown, and Cottingham questioned how he ended up in a facility without permits.

I was wondering how he was even there, Brown said, after learning that the home wasnt permitted. His parole officer accepted that, because she knew where he was.

Desel confirmed that Thompsons parole officer knew he was in the home and visited the location. However, the parole officer wasnt checking to see whether the building met city requirements. Parole officers only check whether the home fits the needs of the offenders, Desel said.

Various city permitting issues, with so many cities in Texas, arent something that were necessarily tasked with staying on top of, he said. Because every city has different rules and restrictions.

If two other people on administrative release from TDCJ were living at the home, Jackson would need a permit to operate as an alternate housing facility, police said.

Unintended consequences

Jackson said she first met Thompson at a hospital but couldnt remember who referred him to her home on Knoxville, and its unclear how he ended up at the house following his release. Desel said there was no indication he violated the terms of his mandatory supervision.

Jackson said Thompsons death was a shock. They spoke often, and she occasionally took him to the hospital when he needed it, she said.

Mr. Franklin was a good person, she said. I never meant for him to get hurt.

Jackson said she also cared for Nagle, who had a long history of drug abuse before her death, according to Nagles daughter, Jenifer Martin.

Martin said she only spoke to Jackson briefly on one occasion. Jackson appeared to take a genuine liking to her mother, and she told Martin she was trying to help with her drug addiction, Martin said.

I have compassion because I know how difficult my mom was, Martin said. She was maddening and caused so much trouble... and I could tell Labwana was upset. My mom was very difficult. Whatever she did while my mom was there, I completely believe she worked her tail off.

Martin said she couldnt speak to any of Jacksons violations. She believes Jacksons intentions were genuine.

But you have to be responsible, Martin said.

julian.gill@chron.com
The two carried the boy to his mother, who ran down the steps of the house and laid her son on the ground before applying pressure to his wounds. As she waited for paramedics, the mother tried to calm the boy, reminding him to breathe and repeating, You going to be OK, the woman said.
The Houston area is still feeling the impact of severe storms on Sunday that brought rain, heavy winds and a tornado.

South Houston High School remained closed Monday after strong winds damaged power lines and knocked out electricity to the area. It's unclear whether the damage was directly related to a confirmed tornado in the adjacent city of Pasadena.

School officials said on Facebook that CenterPoint was working to resolve the issue.

National Weather Service meteorologist Don Oettinger said some damage indicated the tornado was an EF1, but its strength is likely closer to an EF0, he said.

According to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), EF0 tornadoes usually bring wind gusts between 40 and 72 mph. EF1 tornadoes bring winds between 73 and 112 mph.

Now Playing: Residents in areas outside of Houston say they experienced severe damage from storms Sunday night. Heavy rain and at least one tornado passed through the city of Pasadena, according to National Weather Service. Some residents in Dayton said excessive winds nearly knocked down power lines and left entire blocks without power for several hours. Video: Sandra Orozco

Elsewhere in the Houston area, the winds affected more than just power lines. Dozens of photos of broken trees crushing homes and fences circulated on social media.

One neighborhood near Lake Houston was littered with tree branches. The storm completely uprooted some larger trees in the area.

BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: Get your Houston breaking news alerts delivered to your inbox

The severe weather also reached parts of Dayton, with residents mostly reporting fallen trees and broken power lines. Dayton resident Sandra Orozco said her in-laws home located off County Road 6023 was nearly destroyed by the high winds and called the damage "a disaster."

"It was just really strong winds....no tornado although it felt like one," Orozco said. "[It was] super windy [and] we did lose power."

Orozco said the storm blew open the front door of her in-laws' home and they were forced to take cover during the remainder of the severe weather.

"They put something heavy in front of the door...and they just prayed for nothing bad to happen to them," Orozco said. "[I] never imagined the outcome would be like this... My husband told me it was supposed to rain Saturday so when it didn't rain Saturday I didn't expect anything for Sunday. But boy was I wrong."

STORM AFTERMATH: South Houston High School closed as power outage persists following tornado

Dayton resident Tamara Lynn Sayeh said an electric pole in her backyard was knocked over and came close to hitting her home. She said around 7 p.m. last night a transformer blew up outside her home and her family was without power for about eight hours.

"The wind was excessive," Sayeh said. "Everyone on our street lost power."

Sayeh said several of her neighbors are still without power as of Monday morning.

"I'm very surprised at the damage around Dayton," Sayeh said. "I've been here for 10 years and [have] never seen Dayton tore up so badly...within minutes the storm was here."

Julian Gill is a digital reporter in Houston. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, houstonchronicle.com. | julian.gill@chron.com | NEWS WHEN YOU NEED IT: Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message | Sign up for breaking news alerts delivered to your email here.
When the fire alarm blared at Santa Fe High School on May 18, substitute teacher Flo Rice ushered the students in her gym class out of the building. As they walked down a hallway, Rice heard a sound so deafening that she thought a bomb went off.

It was the sound of a gunman opening fire inside the school  which she didnt realize until he shot her.

I fell through the door and hit the ground, Rice said. When I sat up, I saw my legs. One was broken, and then I realized I could see gunshot wounds through my legs, and I realized it was not a bomb, and that I had been shot.

Eleven months later, Rice has progressed from using a wheelchair to walking with a cane. She has physical therapy three times a week and is being treated for symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. She still has visions of her friend Ann Perkins  also a substitute teacher who taught gym that day  lying dead on the sidewalk in front of her.

Rice has spent months talking to other survivors, substitute teachers and the families of victims as she tries to piece together what happened that day, when 10 people were killed and 13 were wounded.

For subscribers: Ten months after Santa Fe shooting, families still seek answers

She says its no coincidence the two adults who died, Perkins and Cynthia Tisdale, were both substitute teachers.

Substitutes werent trained on how to respond to bomb threats or active shooters, and they didnt have keys for doors in the school, Rice said. They didnt have access to the schools computer system to communicate with other faculty, and the phones inside the classrooms didnt work, she said.

If she had received active shooter training, Rice said she might have recognized the sound she heard as gunshots and walked her students in the opposite direction - away from the hallway and the shooters line of fire.

I didnt know what a gun sounded like going off inside a building, Rice said. I thought it was a bomb, so I was still thinking, We need to get out this door and outside the building.

Lawmakers have consulted with Rice as they craft bills requiring emergency training and other resources for substitute teachers.

We couldnt lock a door

When Rice testified in support of one of those bills on March 26, she noted that another substitute teacher who saw the shooter approaching dialed the numbers they were given in case of emergency, but no one answered. And when he couldnt reach 911 due to a poor connection inside the classroom, he pulled the fire alarm  something that he might not have done if he had the same training as a full-time teacher. Threat assessment experts warn against pulling fire alarms, as doing so could send people out of rooms and into hallways, where they may be targets.

For subscribers: A blast. Then chaos.

But even if they could have identified the noise as gunfire or reached an outside line for help, the substitutes had no keys and couldnt lock their classroom doors to keep the shooter out, Rice said in an interview. A substitute teacher in the art room, for example, could not unlock a back door that led outside, and was instead trapped with several students when the shooter came in, Rice said.

We had asked for keys for a very long time, and we were always told they were in the process of it, Rice said. We couldnt lock a door, we couldnt lock kids in a room, we couldnt unlock a door and let kids out of a room.

If a substitute teacher at Santa Fe needed to lock or unlock a door, they were told to have a full-time employee do it for them, Rice said. But it wasnt uncommon for an entire hallway of classrooms to be filled with substitute teachers, especially if a department was out for training, she said.

Then no one had a key in that entire hallway, Rice said.

This is more than just a shooting

When state Rep. Greg Bonnen visited Rices home last year, she called on lawmakers to make sure substitutes are just as prepared for emergencies as full-time teachers. Under current state law, schools are only required to train district employees  not substitutes  to respond to emergencies.

This session, Bonnen, R-Friendswood, filed House Bill 17, which would require schools to provide substitute teachers with emergency response training and ensure access to campus buildings, communication devices and the materials necessary to carry out the duties of a district employee during an emergency.

An event like the shooting at Santa Fe occurs on one day, Bonnen said in a statement to the Houston Chronicle. If a substitute employee is on duty that day, they need to have the basic knowledge and skill set needed to cope with the unfolding situation in the same manner as a full-time employee.

In the Senate, state Sen. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, filed legislation with similar provisions for substitute teachers.

It is crucial that substitutes have the same emergency training and resources as teachers because our childrens lives depend upon it, said Rice, who is supporting both bills.

The bills, which would enact sweeping reforms in school security in Texas, are pending in committee. They include more mental health resources on campus and up to $100 million for security upgrades.

Steve Perkins, whose wife, Ann, was fatally shot, is also advocating for training for substitute teachers.

That means saving some lives in the future, Perkins said. This is more than just a shooting. This could be a fire, this could be some type of medical issue, it could be anything out of the normal. The school should have procedures on what the substitute teachers should do.

Perkins believes the school failed to protect his wife  even as she and other substitutes grew increasingly anxious after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. last February, and a lockdown at Santa Fe two weeks later, he said.

From what I understand, there were no procedures to help protect or keep safe substitute teachers in Santa Fe High School, Perkins said. They had nothing.
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If Ive got to go and kiss the ring of the alderman for everything, for a license to have a block club party or whatever it is, and there is a catalog of all the things that are run through the aldermanic offices, that is fundamentally a problem, she said. And its the tens of thousands of touches that an alderman has on a regular basis with constituents who think they have to give some additional thing to get access to basic city services, that is the corrosive effect. And its obviously worse when an alderman takes that power and then tries to monetize it for him or herself.
Songwriters vs Big Tech: Has The Tide Turned? [David Israelite]

[UPDATED] In this guest post, National Music Publishers Association head David Israelite explores how social media has shifted public opinion toward the songwriters and music publishers in their battles with Spotify, YouTube and other music services.

_____________________________________

By David Israelite of the National Music Publishers Association [NMPA], This first appeared on Variety.

Since the dawn of the digital revolution  when suddenly the value of songs was an afterthought to the ease with which users could access them  creators livelihoods have been on a steady decline. From Googles YouTube to Spotify, these tech giants growing power seemed impossible to combat and any effort to do so was vilified as censorship and a threat to the tech boom that was remaking America.

This hit a fever pitch in 2011 when lobbying campaigns against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) firmly pitted a free and open Internet against music creators. While the bill was certainly flawed, the fear campaign run by big tech set creators back significantly. The Internet won in convincing fashion, and many in the creative community thought we were permanently trapped in a losing battle against tech giants with billion-dollar valuations and even bigger platforms to crush the individual small-business songwriters who made much of the raw material on which they built their empires.

These individual creators had almost no bargaining power and an even smaller voice as the people firmly behind the music. And while the issues SOPA was confronting were very different than the issues creators face today, this was a new low for those looking to be seen as business partners with big tech.

Then something interesting happened.

Suddenly, social media  often hosted by the same companies looking to take advantage of songwriters  allowed hard-working creatives to socialize, promote their work and expose how egregious their payments from streaming had become. Superstars who started as songwriters, like Taylor Swift, weighed in to remind everyone that once the songwriters dry up due to fractions-of-pennies payments, there will be no more music-filled apps, no festivals to hashtag and no more streaming companies offering endless music for almost nothing.

These voices propelled change. The first milestone was a trial in Washington  about as far from the music meccas of Los Angeles and Nashville as one can get. The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) heard months of testimony  including that of hard-working songwriters  and in a decisive decision, determined that songwriters deserved a raise. This meant more than just more money  this was a bellwether for what music creators could accomplish when they spoke and worked together.

The next test came in the form of the Music Modernization Act. The idea that laws created in 1909 could withstand the iPhone, much less music apps that give someone access to every song recorded in a matter of minutes for mere dollars, is laughable. However, the idea that the digital companies would ever come to the table to work together on legislation was even more far-fetched. The reason they ultimately agreed to attempt reforming the law had nothing to do with wanting to pay more  financially they were benefitting from the outdated one  but it had everything to do with songwriters knowing their power and knowing they had been legally taken advantage of for years.

A string of settlements and lawsuits forced the biggest streaming companies in the world to come to Congress and work alongside creators to find a solution: essentially a raise for songwriters and no more unpaid money in exchange for a formalized blanket license. This deal was unfathomable 10 years ago, but today, it speaks to the fact that creators are no longer being sidelined when it comes to streaming  they are at the center of the conversation.

This shift in the balance of power isnt limited to the United States. Just last month, The European Union (EU) backed whats been labeled Article 13 which essentially tells tech companies they must take some responsibility for distributing infringing content. Until now, the burden was squarely on the side of individual artists and songwriters to police endless content online and request things be taken down. While massive tech companies have fear-mongered for months saying that this will put an end to memes, gifs, and all sorts of creative expression online, as the BBC put it, it means they would need to apply filters to content before it is uploaded, something tech companies are perfectly capable of doing and should have been doing all along. Dont worry  memes and gifs are still perfectly legal, and the liability is not placed on the people, its on the platforms.

Whats astounding about this progress is the imbalance of influence is so dramatic. It is remarkable that anyone could stand up to the likes of Google, Amazon, Spotify and the other tech titans who amass more power every day. However, it proves that while these companies may harness data, music continues to strike a nerve that cannot be ignored. People dont just care about the music that moves them, consumers also care about the people who create it, and everyone from governments to Gen Z are no longer buying the notion that tech companies must operate unchecked at the expense of musicians.

Right now, Spotify is testing this theory. The aforementioned raise given to writers by the Copyright Royalty Board recently went into effect, but almost immediately Spotify, along with Amazon, Google and Pandora, appealed the rate increase to try to stop it. Spotify went as far as to try to convince writers it would be good for them  while failing to explain why. This lawsuit means that the increases that songwriters so deserve are in jeopardy, and songwriters must recognize that the progress that has been made is fragile and the battle is not yet won.

Spotifys move was particularly troubling as it has engaged in a significant public relations campaign targeting songwriters  labeling them Secret Geniuses, never mind the backhanded compliment  it spent millions on billboards and parties to promote the idea that it valued what songwriters created. However, while courtrooms in Washington arent as visible as Grammy parties, what Spotify is doing with its right hand here in D.C. is much more important than the PR it has done with its left. If successful, its lawsuit could set songwriters back decades.

Its important to note that the CRBs decision which Spotify is appealing also showed that paying songwriters more doesnt mean users have to spend more. Today, more people pay to stream music than ever, but songwriters arent seeing that uptick, and the courts decision said services like Spotify had to change its business models to give songwriters more of the money the platforms were keeping for themselves. Scare tactics used by certain platforms that imply costs will go up for consumers are just more misdirection.

Make no mistake, music creators need interactive streaming services as partners. While they could do better, these platforms incentivize paying for music, something many thought was a bygone notion. But we must be careful to avoid Stockholm Syndrome and accept partners who underpay and challenge the value of what we create behind cloak of a courtroom.

If big tech is smart, it will look at the last few years and realize that the balance of power and public opinion are shifting. Today music creators are a force to be reckoned with and they must collaborate with creators instead of bullying them. Streamings future depends on it, and it wont be at our expense much longer.

David Israelite is the President and CEO of the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA). Founded in 1917, NMPA is the trade association representing American music publishers and their songwriting partners.

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Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech) and Aalto University, along with Forum Virium Helsinki and the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, have obtained 15 million of funding from the Horizon 2020 programme in addition to 17 million of co-financing from the Government of Estonia for the Finest Twins project.

The funding will be used to establish the Smart Cities Centre of Excellence in Tallinn. This will be the first global centre of excellence focusing on developing top-level research and innovative solutions for cross-border smart cities. The innovative concepts and solutions will be tested and implemented in Tallinn and Helsinki before being scaled globally.

Jaak Aaviksoo, Rector of TalTech, emphasises: This is the largest ever competitive R&D grant in Estonia. The Estonian Research Council has compared the Teaming Grant to receiving a R&D Oscar Award. The funding recognises that TalTech and Aalto researchers can innovate modern cities towards more citizen-oriented and sustainable futures. The project will last 7 years and aims to create a centre with top-level international research expertise in smart cities while also strengthening research cooperation between the two universities.

The initiator of the project, Dr Ralf-Martin Soe from the Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance at TalTech, explains that Finest Twins is a broad and multidisciplinary project covering a number of research areas, including user-orientated built environment design; smart transport; digital services; data and cybersecurity; and renewable energy solutions.The concept of the Centre was developed as part of his PhD thesis at Nurkse Department.

We are very happy that we can boost the collaboration between two leading tech universities of Finland and Estonia, Aalto and TalTech. It is a bit surprising how little joint projects and activities these two partners have, although they are just around 100 kilometers apart. The Finest Twins CoE aims to take over best practices and expertise of Aalto researchers working on fields connected to smart city and replicate best parts in TalTech with the help of Forum Virium Helsinki, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications of Estonia and also supported by cities of Tallinn and Helisnki, said Dr Soe

Helsinki and Tallinn will start building together and researching smart city digital services which span borders and work together seamlessly, explains Aalto university Professor of Usability and User Interfaces, Marko Nieminen.

An Urban Open Platform and Lab for connecting Talsinki

The Urban Open Platform and Lab, to be co-designed by Forum Virium Helsinki, TalTech and Aalto, will build on the Centres research outputs to design and trial joint pilot-projects for the two smart cities. For example, robot cars are a typical example of smart transport, and smart street lighting seeks to improve not only energy-saving goals but aesthetic and safety considerations as well.

The platform can be used to try out ideas in real-life environments. For example, digital micro-payments enable whole new business models for the Internet of Things, but we dont yet know what consumer behaviour will actually be like. Therefore, real-life testing environments will open up interesting research possibilities, Professor Nieminen continues.

Among other things, the project will also involve research of local renewable energy production and smart electricity distribution solutions. Also, because smart cities make use of a huge amount of data, the project will require data analysis and data security expertise as well.

The goal is to develop an open research and development ecosystem that combines research and services and product development both for public administration and commercial business activities. The Finest Twins project is coordinated by TalTech. The project partners are Aalto University, the City of Helsinki innovation company Forum Virium Helsinki, and the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communication. The project is also open to innovation collaborations with dozens of Estonian and Finnish of companies interested in smart city development and innovation projects.
Lions Club member Art McConnell helps Betty Barron and Russell Blake with a magnifier. Residents council member Judy Codogni is at right. PreviousNext

Adams Lions Donate Magnifiers to Williamstown, North Adams Commons

The magnifying light is portable.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  The Adams Lions Club has shined some light at Williamstown Commons  along with some magnification to make residents' game play easier.

The facility's resident council last week was presented with three floor-style magnifying lamps from club member and District 33Y Governor-elect Art McConnell.

"We use them for our jigsaw puzzles," said activities director Janice Paquette. "We keep them close to our puzzle tables so you can see the little pieces and where they need to go ... but we've also had some folks who have macular degeneration who have also asked if they could have something this in the facility."

Council member Betty Barron tried out the magnifier, deeming it useful as colleagues Russell Blake and Judy Codogni watched.

"As long as everybody knows where they are," responded Blake.

Paquette said each of the three units in the facility would have one light and that they were easily portable so could be moved around when needed. The club also donated two more magnifying lights to North Adams Commons.

"We have a lot of people who love to do puzzles as well and the lighting isn't always the best in different areas," said Tammy Larabee, who accepted the lights on behalf of the North Adams facility. "And there are some who love to do their word searches."

McConnell said the Lions Club is all about service and had been looking to do a little more outreach within the community.

"Unfortunately, a lot of our patrons here are from Adams so we wanted to reach out and help," he said.

It was discussions with Sarah Kline, also a Lion and a director of admissions and marketing at Williamstown Commons, that prompted the idea of donating the lights. Kline had suggested replacing a specialty bulb on one of the older magnifiers that had burnt out and was difficult to replace.

"Putting together one of our [Lions Club] primary focuses is sight, Artie and I talked about that," she said, and had come back to the facility asking what it needed. "One thing we talked about was readers, having folks come to the facility and read, but he wanted to know what can we do now ... Perhaps they'd like to donate a bulb. Then it was a light, and then why not three and it went from one lamp to five lamps."

McConnell chuckled at the idea the club would donate just a light bulb.

"All of Massachusetts Lions donate to Mass Lions Eye Research to fund research at $1 million a year," he said. "Since 1968, Lions International has donated over a billion dollars for relief aid in most disasters."

The local Lions are most known for their focus on vision  funding eye research, running a mobile eyesight van that has so far served 12,000 people and providing eyeglasses and hearing aids through another foundation. It also sponsors the Hoosac Valley High School Leo Club and awards scholarships.

"We've increased to go to diabetes awareness, childhood cancers, and emergency sight and hearing that we also deal with," McConnell said. "We're the largest service organization with 1.5 million members in over 200 countries."

The district is looking strengthen the smaller North Adams club and do more service projects in the immediate community, like donating to nursing homes and first-responders.

"North Adams has been noted to give money to all of these organizations," he said. "They give scholarships each year ... they were the first ones to buy the Jaws of Life for the North Adams Fire Department."

McConnell has been recruiting for North Adams over the past couple weeks and a luncheon is planned for potential members on Thursday, April 11, at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in the city. Those interested in learning about the Lions or attending the lunch can contact McConnell at 413-822-7309 or ajmwalt@aol.com

Anyone interested in reading to residents at Williamstown Commons can contact the activities director at 413-458-2111.




iciHaiti - RD : Nearly 10,000 Haitians deported !





Members of the "Cerco Fronterizo" Task Force and Intelligence supported by Dominicans in Border Surveillance, in collaboration with the Directorate General of Migration (DGM), during migration control operations at the border points of Jimani, Elias Pinas, Pedernales and Dajabon, arrested during March, 9,861 Haitian citizens on the Dominican territory where they resided irregularly, including several hundred Haitians intercepted in vehicles in the provinces of Santiago, Barahona, Bani, San Cristobal and Azua.



During operations, members of the military agency deployed drones and helicopters and other sophisticated equipment to monitor and detect illegal Haitians.



After registration our compatriots were repatriated to Haiti by immigration officers by different border posts. According to the DGM, all Haitians repatriated to Haiti had the status of irregular migrants.



Recall that since the beginning of the year more than 33,000 Haitians have been deported to Haiti or returned to the border.]



See also :

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-27316-icihaiti-dr-981-haitians-in-irregular-migration-situation-deported.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-27256-icihaiti-social-dominican-migration-continues-its-hunt-for-illegal-haitians.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-27199-icihaiti-dr-657-haitians-deported-to-haiti.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-27180-icihaiti-dr-more-than-9-000-haitians-deported-or-turned-back-to-the-borders-in-february-2019.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-27105-icihaiti-dr-expulsions-continue-without-respite.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-27025-icihaiti-dr-1-204-haitians-deported-to-haiti.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-26903-icihaiti-dr-552-haitians-deported.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-26826-haiti-dr-migration-maintain-the-pressure-1-153-haitians-deported.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-26744-haiti-rd-nearly-340-000-haitians-deported-or-sent-back-to-haiti-in-3-years.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-26682-icihaiti-social-more-and-more-difficult-to-live-illegally-in-the-dominican-republic.html



SL/ iciHaiti


















EU confirms it wants short-term fisheries arrangement with UK

by Jennifer Rankin

April 05,2019 | Source: The Guardian

The EU has confirmed it wants a short-term arrangement with the UK on fishing quotas in the event of a no-deal Brexit.



Karmenu Vella, the European commissioner for fisheries and maritime affairs, said he wanted to see that the EU and the UK would decide to continue to give access to each others waters. Otherwise, the part of the EU fleet, which depends on access to UK waters would risk significant negative economic consequences in the event of a no-deal Brexit.



The EU has drawn up a regulation that would maintain fishing quotas for 2019.



While Brussels has insisted that no mini-deals would be allowed in a no-deal Brexit, it hopes to preserve some existing arrangements for the rest of the year, if the UK reciprocates, to ease the economic shock of the UK crashing out of the EU.



Fish caught in British waters are worth about 585m (502m) a year to EU27 countries and accounts for a substantial part of the catch for eight of them. Half the fish landed by Belgian boats is caught in British waters.



No-deal Brexit also raises questions about fish and chips in the UK, as the Britain imports most of its cod and more than half of its haddock. An EU official said fish and chips was a trade issue and not a fisheries issue, meaning that the UK would have to import white fish.



The British fishing industry also relies on European consumers to buy fish UK customers are less keen on, such as mackerel and herring.



Fish will be one of the most emotive issues in the Brexit talks. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has described fishing rights as a lever to guarantee that the EU gets what it wants from the future relationship with the UK. The scallop wars last year between French fishermen and their British counterparts also revealed how quickly disputes can escalate.

 2019 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies

Theme(s): Fisheries Development and Aquaculture.
15 fishermen from Aceh detained in Thailand for alleged border violation

April 07,2019 | Source: The Jakarta Post

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.

 2016 - 2019 PT. Niskala Media Tenggara

Theme(s): Communities and Organisations.
Were going to have a great relationship, he told reporters and elected officials assembled. You know, we had four years where the mayor and the governor didnt talk to one another, Pritzker said, referencing the seemingly cold political relationship between onetime personal friends Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who was at Sundays event, and then-Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner. And I said all along throughout the (mayoral) campaign that I would work with whoever won. Everybody said (during the campaign) who you going to vote for, who you going to vote for? Whats important is Is the governor going work with the mayor? And will the mayor work with the governor? And already I can tell we will.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the designation is intended to increase pressure on Iran, isolating it further and diverting some of the financial resources it uses to fund terrorism and militant activity in the Middle East and beyond. But, in addition to the potential for Iranian retaliation, it complicates a delicate balance for U.S. personnel in at least two key countries.
Gangs body of work, however, has earned our respect and fueled our optimism about the prospects for her OHare design. Part of her task will be to incorporate feedback from critics, the community and her own group of architects and engineers before ground is broken in 2023. The Department of Aviation notes that the plan is conceptual at this stage and, as built, will meet accessibility requirements. At least one more team will be involved in airport design as well: The second-place finisher will potentially complete other pieces of the project.
Imperial Valley News Center

Governor Newsom in El Salvador to Meet with International Aid Organizations, Human Rights and Central American Officials

San Salvador - A week after President Trump announced cuts in federal aid to Central American countries, Governor Gavin Newsom today becomes the first California Governor to travel to the region, where he will examine root causes of migration and join the world community in being part of a solution to the challenges in El Salvador and Central America more broadly. In addition to meeting with the President of El Salvador, Salvador Sanchez Ceren, President-elect Nayib Bukele and U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador Jean Manes, Governor Newsom is scheduled to meet with local officials, human rights organizations, faith leaders and families affected by violence and poverty in the region.

Californias past, present and future are linked with Central America. Nearly half of all Salvadoran immigrants to the United States  approximately 680,000 people  live in California, said Governor Newsom. They are central to our states story. And while the White House casts families fleeing violence as invaders, California is proudly a state of refuge.

The United States has a unique responsibility to organize a meaningful and humane regional response to the root causes driving families from their homes in Central America. As Washington abdicates its responsibility on the world stage and in the region, California will step up to be part of a multilateral solution, added Governor Newsom.

The nearly 1.4 million immigrants from El Salvador, representing one-fifth of its population, account for the second-largest Latin American group in the United States, after Mexicans. Nearly half  approximately 680,000 Salvadorans  live in California. They make up the largest population of Salvadorans in any U.S. state. El Salvadors rate of people driven from their homes due to violence and conflict  3,600 out of every 100,000 inhabitants  is second only to Syria. In 2016, El Salvador was the second leading country of nationality, next to China, for persons granted defensive asylum in the United States.

The Governor will be joined by Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo, the only Salvadoran serving in the California Legislature, and First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom.

Last month, Governor Newsom met with Central American community leaders in Los Angeles to discuss Californias efforts to provide relief and humanitarian aid to asylum seekers fleeing poverty and violence in their home countries.

As the White House vilifies asylum seekers, California is providing an alternative to the reckless anti-immigration agenda emanating from Washington. 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.
Imperial Valley News Center

Pharmaceutical Companies Agree to Pay a Total of Over $122 Million to Resolve Allegations They Paid Kickbacks

Washington, DC - The Department of Justice Thursday announced that three pharmaceutical companies  Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc (Jazz), Lundbeck LLC (Lundbeck), and Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Alexion)  have agreed to pay a total of $122.6 million to resolve allegations that they each violated the False Claims Act by illegally paying the Medicare or Civilian Health and Medical Program (ChampVA) copays for their own products, through purportedly independent foundations that the companies used as mere conduits.

When a Medicare beneficiary obtains a prescription drug covered by Medicare, the beneficiary may be required to make a partial payment, which may take the form of a copayment, coinsurance, or a deductible (collectively copays). Similarly, under ChampVA, patients may be required to pay a copay for medications. Congress included copay requirements in the Medicare program, in part, to serve as a check on health care costs, including the prices that pharmaceutical manufacturers can demand for their drugs. The Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits a pharmaceutical company from offering or paying, directly or indirectly, any remuneration  which includes money or any other thing of value  to induce Medicare or ChampVA patients to purchase the companys drugs. This prohibition extends to the payment of patients copay obligations.

Pharmaceutical companies undercut a key safeguard against rising drug costs when they create assistance funds to serve as conduits for the companies to subsidize the copays of their own drugs, said Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt of the Department of Justices Civil Division. These enforcement actions make clear that the government will hold accountable drug companies that directly or indirectly pay illegal kickbacks.

We are committed to ensuring that pharmaceutical companies do not use third-party foundations to pay kickbacks masking the high prices those companies charge for their drugs, said U.S. Attorney Andrew E. Lelling. This misconduct is widespread, and enforcement will continue until pharmaceutical companies stop circumventing the anti-kickback laws to artificially bolster high drug prices, all at the expense of American taxpayers.

Jazz and Lundbeck each entered five-year corporate integrity agreements (CIAs) with OIG as part of their respective settlements. The CIAs require the companies to implement measures, controls, and monitoring designed to promote independence from any patient assistance programs to which they donate. In addition, the companies agreed to implement risk assessment programs and to obtain compliance-related certifications from company executives and Board members.

These kickback schemes harm Medicare and the public, said Gregory E. Demske, Chief Counsel to the Inspector General. OIG CIAs, such as those with Jazz and Lundbeck, are designed to reduce future risks to patients and taxpayer-funded programs. OIG decided not to require a CIA with Alexion because it made sweeping and fundamental organizational changes following the bad conduct. The changes included hiring a new eight-member executive leadership team and changing half of the members of its Board of Directors. In addition, 40 percent of Alexions employees are new and the company relocated its corporate headquarters.

These settlements demonstrate the FBIs commitment to safeguard the Medicare program and ensure that patients receive treatment solely based on their medical needs, said Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division. Not only did these companies undermine a program that was set up to assist patients in decreasing the cost of their drugs, but they threatened the financial integrity of the Medicare program to which we all contribute and on which we all depend.

Kickback schemes undermine the integrity our nations healthcare system, including healthcare benefits administered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, said Special Agent-in-Charge Sean Smith, VA Office of Inspector General, Northeast Field Office. The VA Office of Inspector General, along with our law enforcement partners, will continue to aggressively pursue these investigations and exhaust all efforts to uncover these schemes.

The governments allegations in the three settlements being announced today are as follows:

Jazz: Jazz sells Xyrem, a narcolepsy medication with Gamma Hydroxybutyrate (GHB)a central nervous system depressant and controlled substanceas its main active ingredient. The government alleged that, in 2011, Jazz asked a foundation to create a fund that would pay the copays of Xyrem Medicare patients and that the foundation agreed to establish a Narcolepsy Fund, to which Jazz became the sole donor. The government alleged that Jazz knew that, although Xyrem accounted for a small share of the overall narcolepsy market, the fund almost exclusively used Jazzs donations to pay copays for Xyrem and required non-Xyrem patients on competing products to obtain a denial letter from another assistance plan before helping them. The government further alleged that, in conjunction with establishing this fund, Jazz made Medicare patients ineligible for Jazzs free drug program and instead referred Xyrem Medicare patients to the foundation, enabling Jazz to generate revenue from Medicare and induce purchases of the drug, rather than continuing to provide these patients with free drugs. Meanwhile, Jazz raised the price of Xyrem by over 150 percent from 2011 through the end of the relevant time period.

Jazz also sold Prialt, an injectable severe chronic pain medication. The government alleged that Jazz asked the same foundation to create a fund ostensibly to assist patients with the co-pays of any severe chronic pain drugs, but which, in practice, almost exclusively paid Prialt Medicare copays. Shortly after creating the fund, the foundation allegedly told Jazz that when severe chronic pain patients seeking assistance with other drugs contacted the foundation, it would refer them elsewhere. The government alleged that Jazz was also aware that the fund did not appear on the foundations website, thereby minimizing the number of non-Prialt patients seeking assistance from the fund. Jazz has agreed to pay $57 million to resolve the governments allegations.

Lundbeck: Lundbeck sells Xenazine, the only drug that was approved to treat chorea associated with Huntingtons disease until a generic version became available until 2015. The government alleged that Lundbeck was the sole donor and made millions in payments to a fund at a foundation that ostensibly provided financial support only for patients with Huntingtons Disease. However, Lundbeck allegedly referred Xenazine patients with many other conditions to this foundation, which then paid the Xenazine copays for these unapproved uses from its Huntingtons Disease fund. The government further alleged that, in June 2014, after the foundation determined that its Huntingtons Disease fund would no longer pay the copays of patients taking Xenazine for non-Huntingtons disease uses, Lundbeck agreed to repurpose some of its prior donations to the Huntingtons Disease fund to a general fund at the foundation for the purpose of paying these patients Xenazine copays, and made subsequent unrestricted payments to the foundation with the understanding that the foundation would use these payments to pay Xenazine copays for these same patients. Lundbeck allegedly asked the foundation whether there was a risk that this practice would be viewed as not compliant with the foundations HHS-OIG Advisory Opinion, and the foundation allegedly replied that [t]hey dont know what we use the general fund for.

The government also alleged that, at the time it was engaged in the foregoing conduct, Lundbeck had a policy of not permitting Medicare or ChampVA patients to participate in its free drug program for Xenazine, which was open to other financially needy patients, even if those Medicare or ChampVA patients could not afford their copays for Xenazine. Instead, in order to generate revenue from Medicare and ChampVA and to induce purchases of Xenazine, Lundbeck allegedly referred financially needy non-Huntingtons Disease Xenazine patients to the foundation, which resulted in claims to Medicare and ChampVA to cover the cost of the drug. Lundbeck has agreed to pay $52.6 million to resolve the governments allegations.

Alexion: Alexion sells Soliris, which, from Jan. 1, 2010, through June 30, 2016, was indicated for certain uses to treat patients with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) and atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS). The cost of Soliris, based upon its list price and indicated dosing recommendation, can be approximately $500,000 per year. The government alleged that Alexion made donations to a Complement-Mediated Disease (CMD) fund at a foundation to pay the Medicare copay obligations of patients taking Soliris and to induce those patients purchases of Soliris. Alexion allegedly knew that the price it set for Soliris could pose a barrier to patients purchases of it. In particular, the government alleged that Alexion approached the foundation in January 2010 to request that it create a fund to provide financial assistance to Soliris patients, including by paying patients Soliris Medicare copays and other medical expenses for Soliris patients. Over the next several months, Alexion and the foundation allegedly discussed the coverage parameters for the fund, including Alexions desire that the foundation not support a patient with any of these [CMD] diagnoses for other reasons tha[n] Soliris therapy. After the fund opened, Alexionthe sole donor to the fundallegedly understood that the foundations provision of financial assistance to a patient was contingent on the patient taking Soliris. Alexion allegedly noted internally that it needed to be diligent in letting the foundation know if a patient had stopped taking Soliris so that Alexions donations would not be used on patients who were not starting or maintaining Soliris therapy.

Meanwhile, the government alleged that Alexion had a general practice of not permitting Medicare patients to participate in its free drug program, which was open to other financially needy patients, even if those Medicare patients could not afford their copays for Soliris. Instead, in order to generate revenue from Medicare and induce purchases of Soliris, Alexion allegedly referred Medicare patients prescribed Soliris to the foundation, through the foundations referral portal software. Allegedly, the referral portal reported information back to Alexion confirming those Soliris patients who were approved for copay or other financial assistance from the foundation, and detailed the foundations payments to them, which resulted in claims to Medicare to cover the cost of Soliris. Alexion has agreed to pay $13 million to resolve the governments allegations.

The governments resolution of these matters illustrates the governments emphasis on combating healthcare fraud. One of the most powerful tools in this effort is the False Claims Act. Tips and complaints from all sources about potential fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement, can be reported to the Department of Health and Human Services at 800-HHS-TIPS (800-447-8477).

These investigations were conducted by the Justice Departments Civil Division and the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Massachusetts, in conjunction with the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and the Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General.

The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only; there has been no determination of liability.
Imperial Valley News Center

Brothers Who Allegedly Ran Unlicensed Financial Advisory Business Out of Parents Encino Home Face Charges

Los Angeles, California - Two brothers who allegedly operated an unlicensed investment advisory business out of their parents Encino home were arrested on federal wire fraud charges for an alleged scheme in which they used false account statements to hide multi-million dollar losses of their investors funds.

Motty Mizrahi, 46, of Encino, and Sassi Mizrahi, 53, of Sherman Oaks, were arrested and made their initial appearances today in United States District Court.

According to the criminal complaint filed in this case, Motty Mizrahi falsely portrayed himself as a licensed broker, certified public accountant, and experienced trader who employed sophisticated financial option- and insurance-hedging strategies through the brothers business, MBIG Company. The Mizrahi brothers operated MBIG out of their parents home in Encino, court documents state. From November 2012 until March 2019, Motty Mizrahi raised millions of dollars from investors, promised them guaranteed returns between 2 percent and 3 percent per month, and assured them that their funds could be withdrawn after an initial holding period on an on-demand basis. Motty Mizrahi allegedly submitted phony monthly account statements that purported to show consistent monthly gains and also falsely showed that MBIGs account balances were between $6 million and $9 million. However, Motty Mizrahi instead lost the investors money  losses he and Sassi Mizrahi denied when confronted by victims who unsuccessfully demanded their money back, the affidavit states.

The complaint also alleges that Motty Mizrahi distributed to investors a financial prospectus that contained false and fraudulent representations concerning MBIGs past investment performance. The Mizrahi brothers also allegedly misled investors about their companys E*Trade brokerage account, which was supposed to be used for investors money but in reality did not exist. Instead, Motty Mizrahi routed all victim-investor funds into his own personal trading account, the affidavit states. After E*Trade closed Motty Mizrahis personal accounts, Motty and Sassi Mizrahi allegedly continued to mislead investors by assuring them that MBIG had an E*Trade account containing adequate balances to cover the victim-investors initial investments.

If convicted on the wire fraud charges, the defendants would each face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

A criminal complaint contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

In a related action, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil fraud action against Motty Mizrahi and MBIG Company and obtained emergency relief including a temporary restraining order and an asset freeze order against the defendants.

The criminal case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

This matter is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Adam P. Schleifer of the Major Frauds Section.
Sinaloa Cartel Money Launderer Pleaded Guilty to Laundering $13 Million in Hard Narcotics Proceeds

San Diego, California - A man from Tijuana, Mexico pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to managing and supervising an extensive international money laundering organization that smuggled, from the United States to Mexico, through Southern California and elsewhere, under his direction, $13 million of narcotics proceeds.

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Departments Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Robert S. Brewer Jr. for the Southern District of California and Special Agent in Charge Dave Shaw of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) San Diego Field Office, made the announcement.

Cesar Hernandez-Martinez, 29, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit international money laundering before U.S. Magistrate Judge Bernard G. Skomal. Hernandez-Martinez was extradited from Mexico to the United States in September 2018. The narcotics -- multi-kilogram quantities of cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin  were smuggled into the United States from Mexico by a drug trafficking organization that Hernandez-Martinez acknowledged was a part of, or affiliated with, the Sinaloa Cartel. Through his plea agreement, Hernandez-Martinez admitted that, from approximately April 2013 until November 2015, he owned and operated currency exchange houses in Tijuana that received smuggled proceeds. Hernandez-Martinez further admitted to knowing that these smuggled proceeds were from narcotics trafficking activity in the United States. According to the plea agreement, Hernandez-Martinez also coordinated couriers involved in smuggling this currency from the United States to Mexico, ensuring that they picked up the currency from the correct sources who were primarily located in Southern California.

Hernandez-Martinez will be sentenced on July 8, 2019 before U.S. District Judge Roger T. Benitez. Three other defendants previously entered guilty pleas in this case and have been sentenced including:

Joel Acedo-Ojeda, 34, of Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit international money laundering and was sentenced to serve 135 months in prison and ordered to pay a $20,000 fine;

Omar Ayon-Diaz, 40, of Tijuana, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit international money laundering and was sentenced to serve 120 months in prison and was ordered to pay a $15,000 fine; and

Osvaldo Contreras-Arriaga, 31, of Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import cocaine and was sentenced to serve 132 months in prison and pay a $1,000 fine.

HSI San Diego conducted the investigation. Senior Trial Counsel Mark A. Irish of the Criminal Divisions Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Lawrence A. Casper of the Southern District of California are prosecuting the case.
Defense Department Employee Sentenced to Prison for Receipt of Child Pornography

Arlington, Virginia - An Alexandria, Virginia, man was sentenced Friday to nine years in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release for receipt of child pornography.

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Departments Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger of the Eastern District of Virginia, Assistant Director in Charge Nancy McNamara of the FBIs Washington Field Office and Chief Michael L. Brown of the Alexandria Police Department made the announcement.

Edward Thomas Parsons, 64, a former physical security specialist with the Department of Defense, pleaded guilty on Sept. 12, 2018 before Senior U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton of the Eastern District of Virginia to receipt of child pornography.

According to admissions made in connection with his guilty plea, Parsons and his co-defendant, Bradley Robert Segert, administered an online group chat on Kik Messenger, a mobile messaging application, dedicated to soliciting child pornography from other Kik users. Between January 2015 and August 2015, Parsons received and distributed images and videos of child pornography from this Kik group chat. In addition, through the course of its investigation, law enforcement seized Parsonss personal desktop computer and cell phone and found hundreds of images and videos of child pornography on the devices.

FBI Washington Field Offices Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force is investigating the case. The Task Force is comprised of agents of the FBI, U.S. Marshals, and detectives from the Prince William County Police, Fairfax County Police, Loudoun County Sheriffs Office, Metropolitan Police, Alexandria City Police, Arlington County Police, Leesburg Police, Virginia State Police and the Offices of Inspector General of several federal agencies. Trial Attorneys James E. Burke IV and William G. Clayman of the Criminal Divisions Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) are prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.
U.S. Attorney Announces the Indictment of Fentanyl and Heroin Darknet Vendors

Sacramento, California - A Rancho Cordova woman was indicted on Thursday, charged with distribution of fentanyl and oxycodone and other opioids as a result of a coordinated operation by the U.S. Attorneys Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service that has identified, disrupted, and prosecuted illegal operators on the darknet.

U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott, FBI Special Agent in Charge Sean Ragan, HSI Special Agent in Charge Ryan L. Spradlin, DEA Special Agent in Charge Christopher Nielsen, and USPIS Inspector in Charge Rafael E. Nunez made the announcement today.

U.S. Attorney Scott stated: Building on the seizure and shut-down of the AlphaBay criminal marketplace in 2017, the cases we are discussing today continue to send a clear message, that if you choose to engage in criminal transactions on the darknet, you will have federal law enforcement from every district and state across the nation pursuing you. There is no hiding, no safety, and no anonymity in the darknet.

The darknet supports an illegitimate commerce system where criminals think they can anonymously traffic dangerous substances and goods into the Unites States, said Ryan L. Spradlin, Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge for northern California. HSI is watching and taking down criminals by using innovative technology and uniquely trained analysts and special agents to uncover this type of illicit and dangerous activity. Our country is in the midst of a serious opioid addiction crisis; and some users will do anything to get their hands on drugs like fentanyl. Tens of thousands of people die every year from overdosing on opioids. We all need to do our part to police the streets and all corners of the internet to make sure people do not have unlimited access to these potentially deadly substances.

The darknet has become a one-stop shop for individuals peddling powerful opioids, like fentanyl, because of the anonymity it seemingly offers to those who seek to evade detection. As these investigations demonstrate, sophisticated technology is no match for law enforcement when resources and expertise are combined to achieve a common public-safety goal. We will identify and prosecute those who distribute drugs under this illusion of secrecy, stated DEA Special Agent in Charge Chris Nielsen.

San Francisco Division Inspector in Charge Rafael Nunez of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service stated, Postal Inspectors are continuously working with the U.S. Attorneys Office and our partners in law enforcement in operations just like this one to keep dangerous drugs out of the communities we serve.

The operation, which was initiated in September of last year, has yielded 14 arrests, four indictments, and 40 search and tracking warrants. In addition, agents have seized $423,912 in U.S. currency, $1,937,410 in cryptocurrency, four vehicles, two pill presses, and six firearms. Agents have also made large seizures of narcotics, including heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, marijuana, and oxycodone.

Two recent cases exemplify the work of the coordinated operation.

United States v. Carrie Alaine Markis, et al. (Case No. 2:19-cr-062 JAM):

On April 4, 2019, a federal grand jury returned a six-count indictment against Carrie Alaine Markis, 42, of Rancho Cordova, charging her with distribution of fentanyl, distribution of oxycodone, and conspiracy.

According to court documents, Markis was a registered California nurse who sold more than 20,000 prescription opioid pills and products on various darknet sites, including Silk Road 2.0, Pandora, and AlphaBay. Between 2013 and 2016, she purchased legitimate prescriptions from willing sellers. Then, she resold these pills and patches through her darknet business, Farmacy41, which she ran from her Rancho Cordova home.

Markiss business operated on Silk Road 2.0 from November 2013 through May 2014. During this time, Markis sent private messages to her customers revealing that she was a licensed California medical professional. She sold more than 8,500 hydrocodone pills and more than 2,500 oxycodone pills. In combination with other sales of morphine, hydromorphone, fentanyl, and methadone, Markis earned about $230,000 in Bitcoin at the time.

Markiss Farmacy41 business operated on Pandora from December 2013 through August 2014. During this time, she again sold more than 2,500 hydrocodone and more than 2,000 oxycodone pills. In combination with other sales of morphine, hydromorphone, methadone, and fentanyl, she completed about 393 transactions and earned about $122,000 in Bitcoin at the time.

On AlphaBay, Markis operated her Farmacy41 business from November 2015 through April 2016. There, she completed about 262 transactions for hydrocodone, oxycodone, morphine, methadone, and fentanyl. At the time, her Bitcoin earnings were worth about $74,000.

Federal agents searched Markiss residence on January 24, 2019, and found about $1.8 million in Bitcoin held on a cold storage cryptocurrency wallet. Agents also found about $234,000 in cash. Markis was arrested on a federal complaint and made her initial appearance in court on January 25, 2019.

Andrea Michelle Jordan, aka Jill Jordan, 52, was arrested April 4, 2019, in Elk Grove. According to court documents, Jordan allegedly purchased legitimate pill and patch prescriptions from sellers in the area and then provided these to Markis, who then sold them to customers through Markis Farmacy41 darknet storefronts.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Beck is prosecuting the case. If convicted, Markis faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine. Any sentence, however, would be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables. The charges are only allegations; the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

United States v. Jason Keith Arnold, et al. (Case No. 2:19-cr-043-MCE):

On March 7, 2019, a federal grand jury returned a five-count indictment against Jason Keith Arnold, 45, David Lee White, 49, and Alicia Marie McCoy, 30, all of Chandler, Arizona, charging them with distribution of heroin and methamphetamine, and conspiracy. According to court documents, Arnold, White, and McCoy operated the vendor accounts TheSickness and SicknessVersion2 on Dream Marketplace, through which they conducted more than 3,000 transactions for heroin and methamphetamine to customers throughout the country.

Federal agents conducted several undercover purchases of heroin from SicknessVersion2 from May 2018 through October 2018. In the parcels received by agents, the purchased heroin was placed inside Haribo Gold gummy bear packages. All of the parcels were mailed from the Chandler, Arizona area. One of the undercover purchases was paid for with a postal account controlled by Arnold. Agents conducted surveillance of post offices in the Chandler, Arizona region and were able to determine that White and McCoy were mailing a large volume of parcels and were purchasing thousands of dollars in stamps. Arnold, White, and McCoy also held accounts at a cryptocurrency exchange company in which they exchanged hundreds of thousands of dollars in Bitcoins for U.S. currency.

On February 21, 2019, federal agents executed search and arrest warrants at Arnolds residence, his tattoo shop, and a motel room occupied by White and McCoy. In the motel room, agents found heroin, and methamphetamine. Agents also found heroin at Arnolds residence.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Grant Rabenn and Paul Hemesath are prosecuting the case. Arnold made his initial appearance in Phoenix, Arizona on February 22, 2019. White made his initial appearance in Sacramento, on March 21, 2019. McCoy made her initial appearance in Sacramento, on March 7, 2019.

If convicted of conspiracy, Arnold, White, and McCoy face a maximum statutory penalty of life in prison, a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison, and a $10 million fine. If convicted of distribution of a controlled substance, Arnold, White, and McCoy face a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine. Any sentence, however, would be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables. The charges are only allegations; the defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

These and other cases are the product of investigations by the Northern California Illicit Digital Economy (NCIDE) task force, which is composed of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the United States Postal Inspection Service. The Rancho Cordova Police Department and Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General assisted in U.S. v. Markis.

These cases were brought in conjunction with the Joint Criminal Opioid Darknet Enforcement (J-CODE) Team. Established within the FBIs Hi-Tech Organized Crime Unit, JCODE is an initiative announced in January 2018, targeting drug trafficking, especially fentanyl and other opioids, on the darknet. Building on the work initiated with the takedowns of Silk Road and AlphaBay, the FBIs J-CODE team brings together agents, analysts, and professional staff with expertise in drugs, gangs, health care fraud, and more, and our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners from across the U.S. Government, to focus on disrupting the sale of drugs via the Darknet and dismantling criminal enterprises that facilitate this trafficking.
CBS Credit Union Manager Allegedly Embezzled $40 Million Faces Bank Fraud, Identity Theft Charges

Los Angeles, California - A long-time manager at CBS Employees Federal Credit Union is in federal custody on a criminal complaint alleging he embezzled $40 million from his employer over two decades and spent the money on gambling, expensive cars and watches, and travel by private jet.

Edward Martin Rostohar, 62, of Studio City, has been charged with two felony counts: bank fraud and aggravated identity theft. He was arrested on March 12 and has been ordered detained as both a flight risk and an economic danger to the community. Rostohars arraignment is scheduled for April 18.

The charges against Rostohar were made in conjunction with the announcement by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), a federal agency that regulates credit unions, that it has liquidated CBS Employees Federal Credit Union and discontinued its operations after determining CBS Employees was insolvent with no prospect of restoring viable operations on its own. University Credit Union, located in Westwood, immediately assumed CBS Employees assets, loans, and all member shares.

According to an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint, beginning before 2000 and continuing until this month, Rostohar used his position as a manager at the credit union, a federally insured financial institution, to make online payments from the credit union to himself or by forging the signature of another credit union employee on checks made payable to himself.

The alleged scheme was exposed beginning on March 6 when a credit union employee found a $35,000 check made payable to Rostohar, and the check did not include the reason for the high dollar amount, according to court documents. The employee conducted an audit of the credit union checks issued since January 2018 and discovered $3,775,000 in checks made payable to Rostohar and which contained the forged signature of another employee without the employees knowledge or consent. On March 12, the credit union informed Rostohar that he had been suspended from his job after an internal investigation uncovered irregularities in the performance of your job duties, according to court documents. Later that day, Rostohars wife called 911 and told the dispatcher that her husband had stolen money from work and was leaving the country, court papers state. Rostohar was taken into custody and admitted that he stole money from the credit union for 20 years, beginning by paying the monthly balances on his personal credit cards with funds from the credit unions online accounts or by forging checks, and later by forging his coworkers signature on credit union checks and depositing them into his personal accounts, court papers state. Rostohar allegedly estimated he stole $40 million from the credit union. An NCUA examination up to February 28 revealed a potential loss to the credit union of $40,541,130.

Prior to his 30 years of employment at the CBS Employees credit union, Rostohar was an examiner at NCUA, court documents state. Rostohar allegedly told law enforcement that this background gave him knowledge of what NCUA examiners look for when examining credit unions and allowed him to avoid detection, the affidavit states. Rostohar allegedly said he gambled away much of the money and spent the rest on traveling by private jet, buying expensive watches, and giving his wife a weekly allowance of $5,000. He also said he purchased two cars  a Porsche and a Tesla  with money he stole from the credit union, court papers state. Rostohar allegedly also admitted to starting a business in Reno, Nevada in December 2018, and he wrote tens of thousands of dollars worth of checks to himself to cover the businesss cost as well as to pay a $5,000 monthly mortgage on a home in Reno he recently purchased.

If convicted on both charges, Rostohar faces a statutory maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison and a $1 million fine on the bank fraud count and a mandatory consecutive term of two years in federal prison on the aggravated identity theft count.

A complaint contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

This matter is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Los Angeles Police Department.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Andrew Brown of the Major Frauds Section.
NOTICE OF AVAILABILITY OF FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT AND FINDING OF NO SIGNIFICANT IMPACT for the Alamo River Vegetation Control Project

Calexico, California - NOTICE OF AVAILABILITY OF FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT AND FINDING OF NO SIGNIFICANT IMPACT for the Alamo River Vegetation Control Project:

AGENCY: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security

ACTION: Notice of Availability

SUMMARY: U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is advising the public of the availability of a Final Environmental Assessment (EA) and Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for the proposed mechanical removal and herbicide treatment of vegetation (Proposed Action) within the Alamo River (Project Area) near the city of Calexico, California. CBP has prepared a Final EA and FONSI to identify and assess the potential environmental impacts associated with these vegetation control efforts, which would preserve line of sight for U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) agents and reduce hiding opportunities within the Project Area.

The Project Area for the Proposed Action is located along the Alamo River in the city of Calexico on the southernmost edge of Imperial County, California. The Alamo River originates in Mexico about two miles south of the United States/Mexico border. Water within the river is dominated by agricultural return flows from the Imperial Valley.

The Project Area consists of 12.93 acres of the Alamo River bordered to the south by the United States/Mexico border, to the east by irrigated agricultural fields, and to the west by a sand and gravel business and irrigated agricultural fields.

The Draft EA was made available for public review for a period of 30 days beginning November 1, 2018 to December 1, 2018. Four comment letters were received during this period and have been addressed in the Final EA.

ADDRESSES: The Final EA and FONSI are available at the following libraries:

Camarena Memorial Library, 850 Encinas Avenue, Calexico, CA,

El Centro Public Library, 1140 North Imperial Avenue, El Centro, CA.

The Final EA and FONSI are also available electronically at: https://www.cbp.gov/about/environmental-cultural-stewardship/nepa-documents/docs-review
Minnesota Man Sentenced to 16 Years in Prison for Receipt and Distribution of Child Pornography

Fresno, California - Terrence Goldberg, 35, of Brook Park, Minnesota, was sentenced to 16 years in prison, to be followed by 15 years of supervised release for two counts of receipt and distribution of child pornography, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced.

According to court documents, investigators in Rochester, New York detected Goldberg sharing child pornography files in 2016 from a location at which a childrens camp operated in Madera County, California. When agents located Goldberg in North Fork, California, on July 11, 2016, he was actively downloading child pornography files outside of a church. Goldberg admitted that he had been downloading child pornography and consented to a search of electronic devices that he had been using. He then relocated to Minnesota, and investigators with FBI offices in Minnesota and Wisconsin opened their own investigations after they detected Goldberg sharing child pornography files from October 2016 through May 2017. As part of those investigations, a search of Goldbergs residence was conducted on May 26, 2017, and he was arrested. A magistrate judge in Minnesota ordered Goldberg detained and returned to California where an indictment had been filed on June 1, 2017.

A restitution hearing has been set before U.S. District Judge Dale A. Drozd on June 24.

This case is the product of an investigation by the FBI offices in Rochester, New York; Minneapolis, Minnesota; La Crosse, Wisconsin; and Fresno, California with assistance from the Madera County Sheriffs Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney David Gappa prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys Offices and the Criminal Divisions Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.
Animal lovers feel a sense of impotence at trophy hunting and other abuses. A wildlife camera recently captured a horrific illegal killing in Alaska of a mother bear and her two screaming cubs. These incidents shouldnt happen, and when they do there should be consequences. At stake is humankinds responsibility to act as steward for the planets natural environment as well as individual animals. Without protections, entire species may be wiped out in the wild.
Former Leader of Honduran Cocaine Trafficking Organization Sentenced to 37 Years in Prison

Washington, DC - The former leader of a large-scale Honduran drug trafficking organization was sentenced Friday to 37 years in prison for trafficking thousands of kilograms of cocaine bound for the United States.

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Departments Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger for the Eastern District of Virginia and Special Agent in Charge Jesse R. Fong of the Drug Enforcement Administrations (DEA) Washington Field Division, made the announcement.

Noe Montes-Bobadilla, 35, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Liam OGrady for the Eastern District of Virginia. According to court documents, Montes-Bobadilla, was the leader of the Montes-Bobadilla drug-trafficking organization, or Los Montes, one of the largest drug cartels in Honduras. Los Montes dominated the drug-trafficking activity in the area of Francia, Honduras, in the Department of Colon. At that location and in the neighboring La Mosquitia region, Montes-Bobadillas organization and associates received shipments of cocaine sent via boats, clandestine aircraft, and even submarines by Colombian suppliers. Each shipment generally carried hundreds of, if not more than a thousand, kilograms of cocaine. Montes-Bobadilla worked closely with other drug-trafficking organizations, such as Los Valles and Los Cachiros, to import the cocaine in Honduras and transport it north through Central America and Mexico to its ultimate destination, the United States. To protect his cocaine-trafficking operations, Montes-Bobadilla bribed law enforcement officers and officials, and engaged in numerous acts of violence, including murder. Through these efforts, Montes-Bobadilla and his organization distributed thousands of kilograms of cocaine destined for the United States.

Montes-Bobadilla was a violent leader of one of the largest drug-trafficking organizations in Honduras, said U.S. Attorney Terwilliger. The resources and collaborative efforts used to investigate this massive drug trafficking organization is a prime example of the extraordinary investigative capabilities of federal law enforcement and prosecutors here in the Eastern District. My sincere thanks to the DEA and the prosecution team for their outstanding work on this high-impact, international drug trafficking organization - also known as a DTO.

This is a prime example of how federal and state agencies can work together to make a major impact on a local, state, national and inter-national scale, said Jesse R. Fong, Special Agent In Charge for the Drug Enforcement Administrations (DEA) Washington Field Division. DEA would like to give special thanks to the Virginia State Police for their tireless contribution in bringing Noe Montes-Bobadilla and his organization to justice.

The case was investigated by the DEA as part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF), Operation Harpoon through DEAs HIDTA Task Force in Annandale, Virginia. The OCDETF program is a federal multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional task force that supplies supplemental federal funding to federal and state agencies involved in the identification, investigation, and prosecution of major drug trafficking organizations. The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking, weapons trafficking and money laundering organizations, and those primarily responsible for the nations illegal drug supply.

Assistance in the investigation and prosecution was provided by the Virginia State Police, FBIs Washington Field Office, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Attorneys Offices for the Southern District of New York, the Middle District of Florida, and the Southern District of Florida. Assistance was also provided by the Honduran National Police.

Trial Attorney Anthony T. Aminoff of the Justice Departments Criminal Division, Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Thomas W. Traxler and James L. Trump of the Eastern District of Virginia prosecuted the case.
Two Honolulu Police Department Officers Charged With Federal Civil Rights Offenses

Honolulu, Hawaii - Honolulu Police Department officers were arrested Friday and charged in federal court with civil rights violations.

John Rabago, 43, and Reginald Ramones, 43, were charged in an indictment unsealed today with one count of conspiring to deprive a person of his civil rights, and one count of acting under color of law to deprive the same individual of his civil rights. Specifically, the indictment alleges that on Jan. 28, 2018, Officers Rabago and Ramones deprived an individual of his constitutional right to be free from an unreasonable seizure by a law enforcement officer.

An indictment is merely an accusation and the defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty. The indictment carries a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.

The case was investigated by the Honolulu Division of the FBI, and is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Tim Visser of the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas J. Brady. Assistant U.S. Attorney Marion Percell also participated in the investigation.
A toxic boss can ruin your work life. It can be stressful to go to work, be at work--even think about work.

Here are a few strategies to help manage a toxic boss:

1. Internalize that this is not your fault

When you're in the grips of an emotional bully, it's important to not take what they say to heart. Whether they use words, body language, passive-aggressive emails, or talking behind your back, you can start to believe what they say about you: that you don't work hard; that you're bad at your job; that you're stupid.

You are not bad, wrong, or stupid. Your toxic boss calling you those things doesn't make them true. In fact, your boss is the one displaying wrong behavior.

The trick is to not just intellectually grasp that this is not your fault but internalize it. Positive self-talk is critical when you're regularly exposed to an emotional bully.

2. Document everything

Get everything in writing. Whether your boss promises a raise; a day off; snacks in the kitchen; or fewer hours on weekends, write down the conversation and the date. There's a possibility you'll need this in court later.

Speaking of legal action, know your rights. Review the labor laws and copyright laws for your state or area, and look at contracts you signed (including nondisclosure and noncompete agreements). Toxic bosses often break the law, sometimes in egregious ways.

If it comes to it, don't be afraid to get an attorney, especially for labor law violations. Your city or state will often provide free help if your boss is doing shady stuff.

3. Take frequent walks

If you've just been energetically or emotionally "attacked" by your toxic boss, take a walk. Literally. Walking has been proven to soothe your nervous system, and your stress hormones just spiked. If you can walk outside in nature (even just a few trees), even better. Numerous studies point to the positive effect of nature on your nervous system.

4. If you can, scream in your car later

It's important that you don't bottle up your anger (which you have a right to). Pretend your toxic boss is in the passenger seat and say all the things you can't say because they're unprofessional, with all the profanity you want. Don't hold it in; get it out. This is particularly helpful if you're going home to loved ones. Get out the worst of it so you can be present with your family.

5. Support and validate co-workers

Toxic bosses affect everyone to one degree or another. If you witness your boss attacking someone else, find a way to let them know it's not their fault, either. There's a difference between gossiping and listening and empathizing. Helping your colleagues also helps you see the situation from a different angle and grasp just how bad it is.

Know, too, that you will not be getting a good reference from your toxic boss. Let the idea of that go, and instead look for and cultivate allies. Other people (including those colleagues you're supporting) will vouch for you and your work.

6. Connect with people you love

When you're in the throes of a bully, your tendency may be to withdraw into yourself, lick your wounds, and just watch Netflix after work.

Of course, take a night off if you need to. But know that human connection is what's going to get you through this. Now more than ever, it's important to spend quality time with people you love, who love you. If you want to talk about the situation, great--but sometimes you don't need to process it anymore. You just need to remember what it's like to share a meal with a close friend, laugh, and feel joy.

7. Seriously consider quitting

The fact is, a lot of these strategies are just stopgap measures, because working for a toxic boss is exhausting. It takes immense energy reserves to manage the stress, and on top of that try to do your job.

If it's getting to the point where you are regularly experiencing anxiety or depression because of this person (or the overall work environment), quit as soon as you safely can. Exposure to stress hormones over time is very, very bad for your physical and emotional health. There are obviously circumstances where you need to stay for survival reasons, but if you are in a position to get out, do it.
In a lot of ways, founding a company is like raising a child. There's a lot of love and learning, and inevitably, there will be growing pains.

This month marks the 10th anniversary of the founding of my company, Affectiva (my youngest child just turned 10 years old too!). Reflecting on Affectiva's--and my personal--journey, I've realized a few key things.

1. Be clear on your core values. They will guide you.

Values are key to defining your company. I remember sitting down with my co-founder, Rosalind Picard, and establishing our values when we started out--among them, privacy and respect for consent. These are especially important topics in the artificial intelligence industry: The technology has the potential to do a lot of good, but, in the wrong hands, can be used unethically.

But it's not enough to have values. You also have to practice what you preach. And I'll admit that there were times when we were tested. For example, at one point we were offered funding to use our technology for surveillance. We desperately needed this capital, but the use case jeopardized our values, so we walked away. It was a tough decision, but in sticking to our values, we ultimately worked on other use cases that would allow our technology to have a much more positive impact on society.

As our values have been front-and-center from day one, it's been amazing to see our employees, partners, and clients come together to uphold these shared beliefs. Their passion and commitment to helping us realize our vision has shown me the importance of following your core values time and time again.

2. Become an expert and persevere.

We founded Affectiva with the understanding that there was a gap in human-to-machine interaction. We knew that the technology and devices that people use had a lot of IQ, but were severely lacking in EQ, or emotional intelligence. As a result, our interactions with technology were somewhat limited: they were transactional, and oftentimes even ineffective. We saw a huge opportunity to change that.

We set out to define this new category: Emotion AI. Over the last 10 years, we've honed our technology and expertise to pioneer what is now a rich ecosystem of Emotion AI players. I am incredibly proud of not only our team and partners in developing this new technology, but also of our customers, and others in the market, who recognized the potential for this kind of technology, and contributed to bringing our vision to life.

It wasn't an easy path though. Because we were building technology that had never been built before, there were challenges along the way. People doubted us and we came up against skeptics, but you have to ignore the naysayers and persevere.

3. Be patient and acknowledge that the market has to be ready for your vision.

At the same time, it's not enough to have a killer product or groundbreaking technology. The market has to be ready.

Years ago, we were building A.I. technology ahead of the market. People conceptually understood our vision for emotion A.I., but they weren't sure how it would manifest in the future. With that in mind, we spent a lot of time articulating why emotion A.I. was important, outlining use cases, and explaining where it would add value in its future forms.

In the meantime, the market began to shift. With camera phones and the "selfie revolution," people became more comfortable with interacting with their camera--which is key for us, as our emotion A.I. works (in part) by analyzing facial expressions. And, as conversational agents like Siri and Alexa rose in popularity, people started to get more comfortable interacting with A.I.

I know this is an experience that other organizations face too, especially with emerging technologies--sometimes, it can be challenging to be the first. But it's exciting and it's ultimately a journey that you take great pride in.

4. Don't be isolated and remember your social responsibility.

On that journey, it's important to be inclusive in whom you approach for perspectives--internally and with external advisers and friends of the company.

I'm incredibly proud of the diverse team we've built at Affectiva--they're diverse in age, background, ethnicity, gender, and life experience, which is key to building impactful, responsible technology. The topic of responsibility extends beyond your organization though. Companies have a responsibility to address ethical issues that come with new technology.

Rumman Chowdhury, Accenture's global lead for responsible A.I., once said: "It's not just about improving the technology; it's about improving the society behind the technology." If you work in isolation as a company, dismissing outside voices and overlooking societal impact, you're not only doing your company a disservice, but the communities impacted by your company also suffer.
Rian Johnson has responded to rumours that Star Wars: Episode IX director JJ Abrams may retcon the character Reys (Daisy Ridley) parentage.

During Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which Johnson directed, Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) revealed that Reys parents were merely filthy junk traders rather than Skywalkers.

However, Abrams  who also directed Star Wars: The Force Awakens  reportedly had different plans for the leading hero, with actor Simon Pegg saying Abramss ideas had been undone slightly by The Last Jedi.

Johnson was quizzed about whether Abrams changing Reys parents would matter by MTV, telling the publication over the weekend: I want to let go of all my expectations. I want to sit back. I want to be entertained. I want to be surprised. I want to be thrilled.

I want him to do stuff that I wasnt expecting him to do, and just go along for the ride. For me, thats why I go to the movies, you know?

Star Wars films  ranked worst to best Show all 11 1 /11 Star Wars films  ranked worst to best Star Wars films  ranked worst to best 11. Star Wars: Episode II  Attack of the Clones (2002) The prequel trilogy has lived on in infamy, but the true low point of this low point in the Star Wars franchise must be Attack of the Clones, the dry, crusted middle of the cinematic sandwich. While Revenge of the Sith has some sense of completion and The Phantom Menace has some sense of wonder, all Attack of the Clones has is a CGI Yoda bopping about the screen like an unswattable fly while battling Christopher Lees Count Dooku. Its a film driven by unnecessary desires: from the space politics, to Boba Fetts backstory, to Padme and Anakins romance. The latter is the most insufferable, since George Lucas never had much of an ear for dialogue, as notoriously pointed out by Harrison Ford when he declared on set: George, you can type this s***, but you sure as hell cant say it. Which leads us to one of the worst line readings in cinematic history, when Hayden Christensens Anakin laments: I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating  and it gets everywhere. Rex Features Star Wars films  ranked worst to best 10. Star Wars: Episode III  Revenge of the Sith (2005) Hollywood has increasingly made the assumption that darker means better when it comes to cinema  it explains why the Harry Potter films look like they were made while someone gradually turned down the dimmer switch on the studio lights. Of course, audiences know that darker sometimes means that your protagonist-turned-villain becomes a youngling-murdering, amateur street magician-looking sourpuss. Anakins arc here comes to a whimper of an ending, underlined by the much-derided decision to have Darth Vaders first moments onscreen involve him howling Noooooo! up to the sky like a mournful hound. That said, Ewan McGregor confirms here that he managed to escape the franchise largely unscathed, as this instalment sees him have the most fun with the clunky dialogue (see: Hello there! and I have the high ground!). Rex Features Star Wars films  ranked worst to best 9. Star Wars: Episode I  The Phantom Menace (1999) The Phantom Menace escapes slightly ahead of the rest of the prequel trilogy, if only for the fact it remembers these films are meant to be fun once in a while. The pod race  its a good scene! Darth Maul is all looks, zero follow through  its embarrassing to act like youve won, only to be cut in half and sent hurtling down an exhaust pipe  but his inclusion in the film did introduce one of the best musical themes in Star Wars history, John Williamss Duel of the Fates. However, the space politics are a particular drag here, with all the talk of trade disputes, and, of course, it's obligatory to mention the terror that is Jar Jar Binks. Rex Star Wars films  ranked worst to best 8. Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) Although its the weakest of the new generation of Star Wars films, Solo still holds up as a fun romp worthy of Han Solos rascal reputation. Alden Ehrenreich picks up on enough of Harrison Fords mannerisms to sell the character without sliding into imitation, while Donald Glover is a scene stealer from the very moment he walks on screen as Lando Calrissian. Its a lost opportunity, then, that the film is otherwise slowed down by an impulse to offer backstory to as many aspects of Hans character as possible. Did we really need to know how we got the name Solo? Really? Rex Features Star Wars films  ranked worst to best 7. Star Wars: Episode IX  The Rise of Skywalker Director JJ Abrams, like the hero of an ancient prophecy, was destined to make both enemies and allies with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. There will be arguments. And there will be arguments about the arguments. There will be obsessive deconstructions and over-interpretations of each frame and intake of breath. But, at the end of the day, this is still a Star Wars film in its very bones, muscle, and sinew. Whatever controversy Abrams might have brewed up with his artistic choices, he still captures magnificently the soul of this series: that unwavering hope that the powerless can win, despite the odds. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Star Wars films  ranked worst to best 6. Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) Theres a lot to wrap up in the concluding chapter of the original trilogy. The result is a few odd turns for the sake of plot convenience. What does one do with a character as enigmatic as Boba Fett? Why, have him topple into the Sarlacc pit within the first 20 minutes! How does one put to rest the love triangle hinted at in A New Hope? Why, insert a revelation that Luke and Leia are, in fact, brother and sister! Even the second Death Star oddly feels sillier than The Force Awakens and its third attempt at a giant ball in space, since The First Order at least had the excuse that their obsessive admiration of the Empire may have clouded their judgement. That said, theres still plenty of charm to be found here and the Ewoks arent all that bad. Before you dismiss them as irritating merchandise opportunities, its worth remembering that they have absolutely no qualms about killing and eating people. Rex Features Star Wars films  ranked worst to best 5. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) If Rogue One is any indication of Disneys plans for the franchise and its future, then theres no cause for concern. The first of the A Star Wars Story spin-offs, it shifts into gear with ease, soothing audiences by not straying too far from the familiar timeline while introducing a full set of new characters and a grittier tone. Stylistically, it feels more like a Vietnam War movie and is proof of how far a gifted director like Gareth Edwards can stray from the franchises usual formula and still feel grounded in the same world. Plus, you have to admire the guts it takes to deliver an ending like that Rex Features Star Wars films  ranked worst to best 4. Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015) Disney made a very smart move with The Force Awakens. As the first Star Wars film of a new generation, it not only had to make its own mark, but feel familiar enough that it welcomed fans back with open arms. The balance is hit perfectly here. Thats largely due to the films new trio of central heroes, who radiate the same kind of warmth, bravery, and spirit that carved a special place in peoples hearts when they were first introduced to the franchises original stars. Daisy Ridleys Rey, John Boyegas Finn, and Oscar Isaacs Poe honour Star Wars's past while striding into its unknown future. It also helps that the film has landed on a villain like Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), whose drive and complexity may see him surpass even Darth Vader by the end of his story in Episode IX. Rex Features Star Wars films  ranked worst to best 3. Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017) Any divisiveness the film attracted certainly proved one thing: heres a Star Wars film that actually took a creative risk. And what a bold, ambitious, and ultimately beautiful risk that was. Director Rian Johnson took the cinematic legacy presented before him and added a new richness to its textures. He allowed heroism to go beyond the clean divide between good and evil; through Luke and Rey, we were taught not to be ashamed of our doubts but to grow stronger because of them. We were taught not to use destiny as a crutch, but to know when to forge our own paths. The Last Jedi is a soulful film told through some of the most striking cinematography of the entire franchise. Rex Features Star Wars films  ranked worst to best 2. Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) Its the place where it all began. The Star Wars franchise has only become the success it is today because of how purely revolutionary the first instalment was as a piece of Hollywood filmmaking. It is, to this day, one of the most successful examples of the modern epic, endlessly imitated but so rarely with the same heart or ambition. George Lucas tapped into one of the most timeless qualities of storytelling: its ability to let us see and understand our own world through the eyes of another. Star Wars has become so iconic because, even on such a grand scale, we know and relate to the emotions at hand  fear, love, or a desire to do whats right. Rex Features Star Wars films  ranked worst to best 1. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) The Empire Strikes Back is remarkable in its ability to pursue real emotional stakes. Its closing moments, the final note to its symphony of sacrifice and tragedy, leaves us with the single, delicate emotion that is hope, blooming in the darkness as our heroes set out to save Han and restore the Rebel Alliance. What A New Hope built up by making us fall in love with these characters, The Empire Strikes Back recouped in sharing with us their pain and their fears. Darth Vaders reveal that hes Lukes father has, of course, found its place in history, but theres an equal sense of emotional resonance in the moment Leia and Han depart, moments before hes trapped in carbonite. When Leias I love you is returned by Hans I know  a line written by Harrison Ford himself  were reminded of how magical Star Warss sense of storytelling can be, condensing everything that these two characters feel for each other into five simple words. Rex Features

Johnson is working on his own trilogy of Star Wars films, revealing that LucasFilm and Disney are still working out the upcoming slate of films.
Gwendoline Christie has spoken about being deeply distressed by the final season of Game of Thrones.

The actor, who plays Brienne of Tarth on the HBO show, made the comment while speaking on Good Morning America.

I was doing some work in Canada, and I woke up at 4am, checked my e-mail because I heard the scripts might be coming through, and they dropped in, she said.

I sat there, and I read them all the way through from the start to the end. And it was a real emotional roller coaster, because things happened that deeply startled me, upset me.

I went bright red in the face. I had to put them down, I was sort of walking around. I had to go out for a walk It was a really extraordinary experience, and I realised they had pulled out all the stops for this one.

Game of Thrones characters - ranked Show all 70 1 /70 Game of Thrones characters - ranked Game of Thrones characters - ranked 70. Rickon Stark Played by: Art Parkinson : Art Parkinson Easily the most annoying Stark child  an impressive feat next to Bran  Rickon was at least handed one hell of a death scene: taken out by an arrow courtesy of Ramsay Bolton. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 69. Robin Arryn Played by: Lino Facioli : Lino Facioli Robin Arryn is remembered by most Thrones fans as being the 10-year-old breastfed by his mother (still weird). That's about it. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 68. Renly Baratheon Played by: Gethin Anthony : Gethin Anthony The Rickon of the Baratheon brothers. His claim to the Iron Throne was tenuous, considering his older brother, Stannis, was still alive. When Stannis's shadow monster came to kill him, it was only good news for the show. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 67. Leaf Played by: Kae Alexander : Kae Alexander A lot of mystery may surround Leaf, one of the show's mythical Children of the Forest, but her noble sacrifice to save Bran, Meera and Hodor from a horde of wights robbed her of any worth. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 66. Tommen Baratheon Played by: Dean-Charles Chapman : Dean-Charles Chapman Another boring younger brother. Whereas Joffrey was pure evil, Tommen was innocent and, inevitably, very boring. His cat, Ser Pounce, was an asset to the show. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 65. Lysa Arryn Played by: Kate Dickie : Kate Dickie Lysa, the creepy sister to Catelyn Stark, was first seen with Robin Arryn, her 10-year-old son, latched to her breast. Her death  being pushed through the Moon Door  couldn't have come sooner. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 64. Benjen Stark Played by: Joseph Mawle/Matteo Elezi : Joseph Mawle/Matteo Elezi Having gone missing in season one, Benjen returned during season six to save his nephew, Bran. The moment was a surprise to TV watchers  book readers, however, had long speculated that Coldhands was an undead version of the Stark. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 63. Syrio Forel Played by: Miltos Yerolemou : Miltos Yerolemou The ill-fated Syrio's appearance way back in season one was a formative experience for one Arya Stark (Maisie Williams); he's the one who helped her on her way to becoming the vengeful assassin fans know and love today. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 62. Jeor Mormont Played by: James Cosmo : James Cosmo Father of Jorah Mormont, Jeor was an honourable leader of the Night's Watch  perhaps to a fault. After giving Jon Snow the sword Longclaw, Mormont inadvertently showed the Stark bastard that Valerian steel can cut through White Walkers. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 61. Roose Bolton Played by: Michael McElhatton : Michael McElhatton Let's be honest: it's hard to really like as scheming a character as Roose Bolton, the man who orchestrated the violent Red Wedding  the most infamous scene in the show's six-year history that saw the death of Robb, Catelyn and Talisa. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 60. Ellaria Sand Played by: Indira Varma : Indira Varma Ellaria Sand may have been a more enticing creation on the page, but in the series, her screen time regrettably amounts to reacting to loved ones being killed off in increasingly awful ways. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 59. Grand Maester Pycell Played by: Julian Glover : Julian Glover The secretly sprightly Pycell had seen a lot of things in his time, but there's an element of "unfulfilled potential" surrounding Glover's character whose late betrayal of Cersei Lannister saw a grisly end to his life of luxury at King's Landing. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 58. Three-Eyed Raven Played by: Max von Sydow : Max von Sydow Perhaps it was the casting of Max von Sydow that heightened anticipation for the Three-Eyed Raven in the series, but the half-hearted story arc left a lot to be desired. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 57. Gilly Played by: Hannah Murray : Hannah Murray Gilly's long journey from Craster's Keep to Winterfell sounds exciting on paper. But, unfortunately, she has been merely a passenger on Sam's journey for far too long. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 56. Daario Naharis Played by: Michael Huisman : Michael Huisman The man who won the heart of Daenerys Targaryen, only to be left behind in Essos. Ed Skrein originally played the character, but was soon replaced after the actor landed a role in Deadpool. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 55. Shae Played by: Sibel Kekilli : Sibel Kekilli Oh Shea. Her ill-fated betrayal  sleeping with Tywin (Charles Dance)  was a slap in the face not just for lover Tyrion, but the viewer also. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 54. Grey Worm Played by: Jacob Anderson : Jacob Anderson Leader of the Usullied, Grey Worm remains unmoved at all times  unless around Missandei. While their romance can be heartwarming, it's hard to invest in two characters who are so wooden. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 53. Talisa Maegyr Played by: Oona Chaplin : Oona Chaplin To be fair to Robb Stark's wife Talisa, should she have avoided being murdered in arguably the most horrific way during the Red Wedding, she would most likely have been higher on this list. Alas. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 52. Shireen Baratheon Played by: Kerry Ingram : Kerry Ingram All the Greyscale-suffering Shireen ever wanted to do was read stories in her chamber, but due to her impressionable power-hungry father, Stannis, she was tragically reduced to ashes after being sacrificed to the Lord of Light. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 51. Viserys Targaryen Played by: Harry Lloyd : Harry Lloyd Viserys wanted the Iron Throne at any cost, giving away his own sister in exchange for an army. Dany, though, had other plans. Her new husband, Khal Drogo, covering Viserys in molten gold made for one of the show's most memorable death scenes. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 50. Maester Luwin Played by: Donald Sumpter : Donald Sumpter The kindly Maester Luwin was one of the nicest characters in the first few seasons, becoming a stand-in father for Bran and Rickon while the Starks endured horrors elsewhere. He was eventually killed when Ramsay Bolton took over Winterfell. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 49. Thoros of Myr Played by: Paul Kaye : Paul Kaye Thoros spent the majority of his time on the show resurrecting Beric and was most recently seen wielding his flaming sword alongside Jon Snow beyond the wall. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 48. Mance Rayder Played by: Ciaran Hinds : Ciaran Hinds Ciaran Hinds brought an intensity to Mance Rayder, a character who would otherwise have got lost in the crowd. As a result, his death at the hands of Melisandre was unexpectedly affecting. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 47. Podrick Payne Played by: Daniel Portman : Daniel Portman Ever loyal, Podrick Payne has become a fan favourite for being surprisingly brave in the face of adversity. He and Brienne of Tarth make an excellent duo. HBO/Helen Sloan Game of Thrones characters - ranked 46. Euron Greyjoy Played by: Pilou Asbk : Pilou Asbk While Euron Greyjoy may have only joined the show in season six, his presence was immediately felt. A wildcard character, Greyjoy's cut-throat, power-hungry nature has proven exciting to watch. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 45. Jaqen H'ghar Played by: Tom Wlaschiha : Tom Wlaschiha Jaqen H'ghar  one of the Faceless Men of Braavos  had such promise, but ultimately ended up being the one responsible for sapping Arya's story of the energy she'd had seasons before, alongside The Hound (Rory McCann). HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 44. Missandei Played by: Nathalie Emmanuel : Nathalie Emmanuel Missandei has somehow managed to come up trumps within the new world order, being an advisor to Dany. However, her stilted nature can make for some awkward encounters  but at least she and Grey Worm are happy together. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 43. Ygritte Played by: Rose Leslie : Rose Leslie Ygritte  the Wildling lover of Jon Snow  will go down in Thrones lore for providing the series the with oft-quoted famous line: "You know nothing, Jon Snow." Spoken with a northern accent, obviously. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 42. Hot Pie Played by: Ben Hawkey : Ben Hawkey Has an actor ever been more suited to a role? Ben Hawkey, after all, has gone on to run a bakery of his own, even selling Thrones-themed goods. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 41. Walder Frey Played by: David Bradley : David Bradley One of the orchestrators of the Red Wedding, Walder Frey was a lurching, terrifying villain. When Arya unmasks herself and kills the old man, it's a sweet, sweet moment of revenge. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 40. Gendry Baratheon Played by: Joe Dempsie : Joe Dempsie The true heir to the Iron Throne. Gendry may have spent a few seasons rowing out at sea, but his return hints at big things to come for the Baratheon bastard. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 39. Robert Baratheon Played by: Mark Addy : Mark Addy Mark Addy brought a certain gravitas to Robert Baratheon, making him a believably world-weary king. Despite only having a few scenes, his character's presence is still felt on the show thanks to Gendry. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 38. Barristan Selmy Played by: Ian McElhinney : Ian McElhinney After being fired by the Lannisters, Selmy pledged allegiance to Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), bridging the gap between two of the show's key characters. He was also a bloody good warrior. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 37. Yara Greyjoy Played by: Gemma Whelan : Gemma Whelan Lily Allen was initially wanted for the role of Theon's sister. However, she declined: 'I felt uncomfortable because I would have had to go on a horse and he would have touched me up and s***.' Seeing as Allen's brother, Alfie, had already been cast as Theon, it was probably for the best. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 36. Margaery Tyrell Played by: Natalie Dormer : Natalie Dormer Margaery Tyrell was one of Game of Thrones's biggest players, wheedling her way into the Lannister family politics and actually becoming Queen for a spell. Her number was up the moment she made an enemy of Cersei, and her fiery death, while underwhelming, was a huge moment. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 35. Samwell Tarly Played by: John Bradley : John Bradley There's a theory going around that Samwell Tarly, who trains as a maester, is actually the author of the Song of Ice and Fire  AKA the book series. In other words, Sam is George RR Martin. Go figure. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 34. Osha Played by: Natalia Tena : Natalia Tena The underused Osha was our very first wildling, an unpredictable knife-wielding danger to the characters we loved. Her subsequent evolution into Stark servant was interestingly played, which made the fact she was sidelined for multiple seasons, before being brought back just to be unceremoniously offed, a travesty. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 33. Ramsay Bolton Played by: Iwan Rheon : Iwan Rheon Ramsey cut off Theon's penis and sent it to the Greyjoy's father. He imprisoned and raped Sansa Stark. He killed Rickon Stark in front of his brother. And Ramsay eventually died by being fed to his own dogs. A terrifying death for a terrible human. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 32. Night King Played by: Richard Brake, Vladimir Furdik : Richard Brake, Vladimir Furdik The embodiment of evil. Why, exactly, the Night King marches South to destroy mankind remains somewhat a mystery. But, whatever the reason, he's a terrifying foe. Winter has, as the Starks say, finally come. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 31. Beric Dondarrion Played by: Richard Dormer : Richard Dormer Beric danced on the outskirts of the series until its third season when he surfaced as the leader of the Brotherhood Without Banners. His introduction paved the way for the Lord of Light's ability to resurrect the dead, a mystical sub-plot that would become very important for Jon Snow. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 30. Bran Stark Played by: Isaac Hempstead Wright : Isaac Hempstead Wright It says a lot that Bran Stark has become marginally more interesting since he sacrificed his personality in favour of becoming the spiritualistic heart of the series. His role in the final season looks set to be a huge one what with the long-standing theory that he could become the fearsome Night King. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 29. Theon Greyjoy Played by: Alfie Allen : Alfie Allen While Theon starts as a cocky kid, after being neutered by Ramsay he becomes the annoyingly weak Reek. Thankfully, Theon comes back around again in the later seasons, but not without us still hating his guts for not saving Sansa sooner. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 28. The High Sparrow Played by: Jonathan Pryce : Jonathan Pryce While at first a seemingly wise old man, the High Sparrow quickly becomes a tactical villain, using his newfound powers under King Tommen to turn King's Landing into his own domain. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 27. The Mountain Played by: Hafor Julius Bjornsson : Hafor Julius Bjornsson The hulking Clegane brother known as The Mountain  now a zombie-esque servant to Cersei  may not have come face-to-face with lots of characters in the series, but his presence is known by all in Westeros. His biggest moment? Battering poor Oberyn's head into mush. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 26. Khal Drogo Played by: Jason Momoa : Jason Momoa To the world he's now Aquaman, but for a brief time, Jason Momoa was Khal Drogo, the beloved Dothraki husband of his Khaleesi, Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke). HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 25. Jon Snow Played by: Kit Harington : Kit Harington Every show needs a hero, and they do not come more obvious than Jon Snow. Rising from discarded bastard to King of the North, his climb has been one of the show's best storylines. A shame, then, that Snow can be such a bland person, doing only what is right and seemingly having no faults. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 24. Stannis Baratheon Played by: Stephen Dillane : Stephen Dillane With his propensity to make tough decisions for the greater good, Stannis could have been a heroic warrior. However, the Baratheon brother's continual fall from grace  including sacrificing his own daughter and murdering his own brother  were horrendous decisions that eventually doomed him. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 23. Hodor Played by: Kristian Nairn : Kristian Nairn Once you get over the fact that Kristian Nairn was essentially getting paid to repeat the word "Hodor" over and over, it's hard to deny that Bran Stark's protector was a heartwarming addition to the show. His death  the breathtaking "Hold the Door" sequence  will go down as one of the show's most memorable moments. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 22. Tywin Lannister Played by: Charles Dance : Charles Dance Stannis was a horrible father. His two favourite children became incestuous lovers, and he blamed his youngest for the death of his wife. Without Tywin, though, the Lannister family would not be nearly as riveting as they are to watch. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 21. Tormund Giantsbane Played by: Kristofer Hivju : Kristofer Hivju Tormund has some of the best lines in the series, particularly when expressing his admiration for Brienne. Here's one of the least explicit: "I want to make babies with her. Think of it. Great big monsters. They'll conquer the world!" HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 20. Daenerys Targaryen Played by: Emilia Clarke : Emilia Clarke "Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen, First of Her Name, the Unburnt, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains, and Mother of Dragons." Every time Dany meets someone new, she forces Missandei to read out her entire CV. I guess everyone would if theirs was as impressive. Dany really has had a great journey to the top  a shame she could not have come to Westeros slightly earlier. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 19. Olenna Tyrell Played by: Dianna Rigg : Dianna Rigg Olenna's scenes were always ones to cherish. The Queen of Thorns was as cunning as the best of them and seemed like she could worm her way out of any situation, all from the comfort of her own chair. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 18. Jorah Mormont Played by: Iain Glen : Iain Glen Poor Ser Jorah. Dany may be 25 years younger than him, but that never stopped the disgraced warrior from loving her. He even fought off Grey Scale to fight by her side. If that's not true love, then what is? HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 17. Davos Seaworth Played by: Liam Cunningham : Liam Cunningham Liam Cunningham's performance as the curt Davos Seaworth has quietly been one of the best things about the series since his introduction. As Jon Snow's kingly advisor, he's recently seen himself thrust into the heart of the series and, simply put, Game of Thrones would be a less enjoyable show without him. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 16. Melisandre Played by: Carice van Houten : Carice van Houten Lest we forget that Melisandre is actually a shrivelled old witch who has been manipulating men for hundreds of years. Her faith in the Lord of Light, though, could very well be misplaced. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 15. Oberyn Played by: Pedro Pascal : Pedro Pascal Few shows can bring in characters midway through their run that have such an impact as Oberyn. The Viper quickly became a fan favourite, and his death remains one of the show's most squirm-inducing moments. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 14. Eddard "Ned" Stark Played by: Sean Bean : Sean Bean Killing off a main character during a show's first season was practically unheard of before Game of Thrones. Yet, as dictated by George RR Martin's books, they cut off Sean Bean's head without a second thought, setting the tone for everything to come. No death has impacted the Thrones quite as much since. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 13. Varys Played by: Conleth Hill : Conleth Hill Early on in the series, it was hard to pin down Varys, a slippery eel of a character who has "little birds" fluttering around Westeros, feeding back crucial information. Going into the final season, his true intentions are clear: he's all for Daenerys taking the Iron Throne, even if he doesn't live to see the day (I have to die in this strange country, just like you," Melisandre prophesied last season). HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 12. Bronn Played by: Jerome Flynn : Jerome Flynn Perhaps the show's best wise-cracking side-kick, Bronn only has one loyalty: money. Paired with either of the Lannister lads, Tyrion or Jaime, Bronn makes for excellent company. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 11. Robb Stark Played by: Richard Madden : Richard Madden Before Bodyguard, Richard Madden was the extremely temporary king of Westeros. Robb was a man of honour, trying to bring light to the Thrones universe. He was a likeable presence who ruled with his heart, an act that ultimately saw him die during the infamous Red Wedding in season three. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 10. Brienne of Tarth Played by: Gwendoline Christie : Gwendoline Christie Brienne is a reassuring force of good in a world filled with scheming layabouts. She's also one of the most deadly. Her time on the series has been spent protecting the likes of Renly Baratheon, Catelyn Stark and Jaime Lannister, the latter of which made for an interesting turn as it put her at odds with her loyalty. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 9. Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish Played by: Aidan Gillen : Aidan Gillen There would be no Game of Thrones without Littlefinger. The silver-tongued manipulator had Jon Arryn killed, setting off a snowball that turned into an avalanche. As smart as he may have been, Littlefinger was finally outplayed by his own pupil, Sansa Stark. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 8. Sansa Stark Played by: Sophie Turner : Sophie Turner Sansa has perhaps had the most interesting story arc of any character on Thrones. Beginning as a cliched annoying teenager, she gradually became a stone-cold killer, capable of holding Winterfell and outsmarting even Littlefinger. With any luck, she could sit upon the Iron Throne when the war is over. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 7. Arya Stark Played by: Maisie Williams : Maisie Williams Arya Stark, arguably the greatest character of the first few seasons, was one of the biggest victims of the series overtaking George RR Martin's source material. Her limited screen time, due to being away from the central action, robbed us of classic moments that we're grateful she's been a part of in an otherwise lacklustre season eight. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 6. Sandor "The Hound" Clegane Played by: Rory McCann : Rory McCann From his regular delivery of the phrase"F** the king" to that chicken scene, The Hound is a reckless creation whose high ranking on this list can be attributed to the searing performance from Rory McCann. Most effective when paired with Arya Stark. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 5. Joffrey Baratheon Played by: Jack Gleeson : Jack Gleeson No character has been as hated by the fandom as Joffrey. His wicked ways and disgusting behaviour haunted the show's first four seasons. You never knew what was going to come next: whether he was about to behead your favourite character or start crying to his mother. It made for thrilling television. But, as The Hound says, "F**k the King". HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 4. Catelyn Stark Played by: Michelle Fairley : Michelle Fairley The lady of Winterfell, Catelyn Stark, became the show's honorary lead after the untimely beheading of her husband, Ned (Sean Bean) at the end of season one. As she tried to take control of spiralling events in the second and third run, Thrones was handed its most resilient character. Michelle Fairley's guttural cry of anguish before meeting her tragic end during the Red Wedding will always be the show's most horrific moment. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 3. Jaime Lannister Played by: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau : Nikolaj Coster-Waldau If the characters above Jaime in this list are the show's greatest characters, Jaime is the show's most disarming. The Lannister brother  the Kingslayer  started the series as a long-haired bad guy of the tallest order, but his humbling over the past few seasons have seen him inch his way into the hearts of viewers. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 2. Tyrion Lannister Played by: Peter Dinklage : Peter Dinklage Blamed for the death of his mother and hated for being a dwarf, Tyrion turned to drink and prostitutes to numb the pain. However, Tyrion has a fierce intellect, capable of outsmarting the toughest enemies (and offering cutting lines that George RR Martin says often take weeks to write). More importantly, despite being betrayed and cast away time and time again, Tyrion selflessly only wants the best for the people of Westeros. A true hero. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 1. Cersei Lannister Played by: Lena Headey : Lena Headey The Mad Queen, alone on the Iron Throne. Cersei has, over the course of seven seasons, seen her three children die, driven her lover/brother away, blown up a church with a half dozen major characters inside, arranged the death of her husband (King Robert) and attempted to have her other brother (Tyrion) killed multiple times. Yet, thanks to Lena Headey's empathetic performance, you still feel sorry for the terrifying Queen of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. As one of the most complicated character to have ever reached television screens, there's no denying her place as the best Thrones character to date. HBO

The forthcoming season of Game of Thrones marks the final six episodes of the entire show. Christie previously warned that fans will need therapy following the finale.

The final season of Game of Thrones reaches TV screens 14 April. The show will be available on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV in the UK. Read everything you need to know about the forthcoming season here.
Earth is likely to take millions of years to recover from the destruction currently being inflicted by humanity, scientists have warned.

A speed limit on the rate of evolution means it will take at least 10 million years for the worlds diversity to return to pre-human levels, according to a new study.

Manmade climate change is decimating ecosystems and currently wiping species out at such a rate that scientists have concluded we are living through the sixth mass extinction.

Previous mass extinctions have come about as a result of asteroids or periods of natural climate change, and researchers can learn about the future by looking for clues from these past events.

In the new study, researchers used the remains of plankton called foraminifera, which are well-preserved throughout the fossil record, to measure the changes in species number and diversity over time.

Glacier collapse shows climate impact Show all 20 1 /20 Glacier collapse shows climate impact Glacier collapse shows climate impact An iceberg floats in a fjord near the town of Tasiilaq Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact Meltwater pools on top of the Helheim glacier near Tasiilaq Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact Safety officer Brian Rougeux works with student Febin Magar to assemble a radar dome while working in a science camp on the side of the Helheim glacier Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact Airplane Mechanic, David Fuller, left, works with a local worker to move a Nasa Gulfstream III during a pre-flight inspection before a flight to support the Oceans Melting Greenland research mission Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact Meltwater pools on top of the Helheim glacier Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact Earth Science Flight Programs Director at Nasa, Eric Ianson, looks out at the Greenland ice sheet Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact Glacial ice is seen from the window during the Nasa flight Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact Oceanographer David Holland's science camp on the side of the Helheim glacier Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact An iceberg floats in a fjord near the town of Tasiilaq Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact A large crevasse forms near the calving front of the Helheim glacier Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact Safety officer Brian Rougeux uses a drill to install antennas for scientific instruments that will be left on top of the Helheim glacier Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact Tabular icebergs float in the Sermilik Fjord after a large calving event at the Helheim glacier Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact Radar Engineer, Ron Muellerschoen, monitors data collection inside a NASA Gulfstream III flying above Greenland to measure loss to the country's ice sheet Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact GPS tracking equipment is left on top of the Helheim glacier REUTERS Glacier collapse shows climate impact Sunshine lights up the Helheim glacier Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact A glacial terminus above the east coast of Greenland REUTERS Glacier collapse shows climate impact Student Febin Magar watches as leftover wood burns in a research camp Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact Tabular icebergs float in the Sermilik Fjord after a large calving event Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact Oceanographer David Holland repairs a broken GPS module at his research camp Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact An iceberg floats in a fjord near the town of Tasiilaq Reuters

They assessed the stretch of time following the end of the Cretaceous period, when an asteroid is thought to have wiped out the dinosaurs and much of life on Earth.

From this study, its reasonable to infer that its going to take an extremely long time  millions of years  to recovery from the extinction that were causing through climate change and other methods, said Dr Andrew Fraass, of the University of Bristol, who co-authored the study.

Like many other creatures, the foraminifera plankton were devastated by the asteroid strike, but the ones that survived bounced back fairly quickly.

However, their group as a whole was a shadow of its former self, with far less diversity than existed before impact.

It took millions of years for new characteristics to evolve so the plankton could spread out and fill every available space.

Scientists have been aware of a lag in the replenishment of life following mass extinctions, but have tended to assume it was the result of lasting environmental effects.

The new research, published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, suggests it is the rate of evolution that is the limiting factor.

We see this in our study, but the implication should be that these same processes would be active in all other extinctions, said Dr Christopher Lower, from the University of Texas, who led the study.

I think this is the likely explanation for the speed limit of recovery for everything.
Supreme launched its latest collaboration with French fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier today.

The highly anticipated collection includes both menswear and womenswear, with items ranging from spray-painted denim jackets to faux-fur plaid coats in bright colours.

Floral athleisure sweatpants and matching sweatshirts, leather holsters and bomber jackets have also been released as part of the collaboration, as have sunglasses, cologne and sneakers.

Photos from the collection see Madonnas daughter, Lourdes Leon, model a pair of printed red trousers emblazoned with the slogan f*** racism and an oversized pinstripe blazer.

Leon is a fitting choice considering Gaultier designed Madonna's now-iconic cone bra bodices for her 1990 Blond Ambition tour. The anti-racism message is a nod to Gaultiers Fight Racism collection of the 90s.

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In another photo from the collection, a model shows off a brown bomber jacket (also available in grey) combined with a reversible backpack.

A pinstripe vest and matching pants offer a more business-like look to the line, which is rounded out with Hawaiian-inspired button downs.

Of the partnership, the French designer, who rose to prominence in the 80s, told Australian Vogue: I have been including elements of sportswear in my collections from the very beginning.

With Supreme, this inspiration will find its way to a new generation.

As for his inspiration for the collection, Gaultier was in part inspired the exchange of cultures on Pariss streets.

Gaultier is the latest designer to partner with Supreme, which has released collaborations with Louis Vuitton, Thom Browne, Comme des Garcons and North Face in the past.

The collection is available in-store in New York, Brooklyn, LA, London, and Paris and online, and in Japan on 13 April.

Supreme x Jean Paul Gaultier comes weeks after Supreme announced a new collection with Italian menswear brand Stone Island for spring/summer 2019.

In the past, collaborations from the streetwear designer have sold out in record time, with this one likely to be met with the same excitement.

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"Supreme is BREAKING my heart with that Gaultier collab," one person wrote on Twitter ahead of the launch.

Another said: "I've never been into Supreme but that Jean Paul Gaultier collection needs me."
A coffee shop in Dublin may be the first in Ireland to have gone cashless, where customers cannot pay with cash.

Bear Market Coffee, situated on George Street in Dublin, is completely cash-free and owned by Ruth and Stephen Deasy.

Mrs Deasy says that going cash-free allows the coffee shop to provide better customer service, while also ensuring baristas don't experience unnecessary stress on the job.

"We do get times where everyone comes in together, with 20 or 30 people in the queue," she says.

"We've found that the person on the till is quite stressed trying to sort out change, so they're not really engaging or explaining different cakes that we have because they're under pressure to get down the line."

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Mrs Deasy explains that encouraging customers to pay for their purchases via contactless payments means that "everything can be done really efficiently".

The co-owners had the idea to make the coffee shop cash-free after visiting a cashless store in New York, which they found was "a lot more relaxed".

The coffee chain was first launched by Mr and Mrs Deasy in 2013, who met as architecture students at Dublin School of Architecture.

After doing some investigating, Mr and Mrs Deasy discovered that 80 per cent of the purchases at Bear Market Coffee were already being made on card.

The branch of Bear Market Coffee on George Street is the coffee chain's recently opened flagship store.

Other branches are located on Main Street Blackrock, on George's Dock and on Pembroke Street Lower in Dublin.

In addition to going cashless, Bear Market Coffee on George Street has also partnered with telecommunications company Magnet Networks to allow customers to pre-order their purchases via an app.

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In September 2018, the landlord of a traditional pub in Freston, near Ipswich, claimed it was the first in the UK to stop taking cash payments.

The Boot implemented a cashless system in which customers could only for their purchases by card or through their phones.
Bakers from the fifth series of The Great British Bake Off reunited over the weekend to celebrate the nuptials of fellow contestant Martha Collison.

The wedding was made especially sweet thanks to the culinary talents of the former Bake Off participants in attendance.

Series winner Nancy Birtwhistle, finalist Richard Burr and Claire Goodwin, who was eliminated by Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood in the first episode, were among those who baked cakes in celebration of Collison's marriage to accountant Michael Haywood.

Chetna Makan, who made it to the semi-final in 2014, shared a series of photographs on Instagram of herself and her fellow bakers at the wedding.

"What a day! Having known @marthacollison since she was 17, watching her get married to @mbhaywood27 yesterday was just lovely and beautiful and even more special since we had the whole Bake Off family there to celebrate!" Makan wrote in the caption.

"Also an honour to make her cake with all the other bakers, love each and everyone one of them!" she added.

Burr also shared a selection of pictures from the wedding on Instagram, remarking that it was "great to have a Bake Off catch up".

From the cakes they created in honour of Collison's wedding, it's apparent that the Bake Off contestants continue to vary when it comes to their baking styles.

Birtwhistle decided to create a blush pink Prinsesstarta, a Swedish layer cake, which she made with raspberry jam, Genoise sponge, pastry cream and a Swiss meringue buttercream crumb coat.

Goodwin opted to take a more chocolatey approach, creating a three-tiered cake complete with chocolate pretzels, Galaxy bars, chocolate truffles and mini gold eggs.

Several Bake Off fans expressed their delight on social media over the contestants' reunion.

"I think this is the actual definition of friendship goals," one person tweeted.

"This is the wholesome content the world needs right now," someone else commented.

At 17, Collison was the youngest contestant ever to appear on the Great British Bake Off when she competed in 2014.

Now 22, the baker has released two cookery books and writes a weekly column for the Waitrose weekend newspaper.

Following her wedding, Collison shared a photo of herself and Haywood which shows the couple holding hands after exchanging their vows.

"The most joyful day ever," she wrote in the caption.

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For all the latest news on the Great British Bake Off, click here.
It means that our most vulnerable adults are at increased risk of infections, falls, bedsores, malnutrition, anxiety and neglect. Bedsores  an effect clearly tied to staff neglect  are not small things. Left untreated or mistreated, they can evolve into a Stage 4 wound in a week. That person is not allowed to be in assisted living anymore. There is no choice other than a nursing home. If the person is not strong enough for the invasive surgery, the bedsore never heals. Even if kept clean and dry, it tunnels and spirals deep into the tissue. Individuals do not die from a bedsore. Instead, they suffer slow, consistent, awful pain, none of which would have happened with proper staff care and oversight. It could happen to anyone.
Matching my Type A personality, Ive always had a Type A menstrual cycle  textbook, punctual, predictable to the hour. When I went into the bathroom one morning early this winter and didnt need a tampon, I knew I was pregnant. Five minutes later, two pink lines confirmed it.

Some time later, I woke with cramps and back pain and a text from my doctors office. My scheduled sonogram had been cancelled  bad weather. Immediately, I left a message with the answering service: will the office open by the afternoon? Im experiencing pain; I think something is wrong. The doctor who called back was kind and professional and wondered, I think, whether I was an overly nervous first-timer. Cramps can be common, she said reassuringly. I should be concerned only if there was a lot of blood.

It turns out my miscarriage was Type A, too. I hung up the phone and promptly started to bleed.

My job as a columnist is to write about gender. In general, in the specific, in the way we talk about it or dont talk about it. When I got the position, a friend joked that I was now a Professional Woman, as in, a portion of my paid vocation involved being female and thinking about what it meant.

I never viewed my work so personally, not until the day after the bleeding began, when the nurse handed me a paper gown and motioned towards the exam table. All at once, what was happening felt specifically ladyish: the cramps, the stirrups, the matter-of-fact kindness of the office staff, the implied secrecy of the ordeal. It happens to more women than youd expect, the nurse told my husband and me. Its one of those things nobody likes to talk about.

Recommended Michelle Obama opens up about miscarriage and use of IVF to conceive

I nodded, and mentally planned how to not talk about it. How to excuse my work absence by claiming the flu  we hadnt told many people about the pregnancy. How to spare everyone else the messiness.

Meanwhile, the journalist part of me was mentally scrolling through the hundreds of women and men during my career who had not spared me their messiness. Who had let me into their stories, who had allowed me into their weddings and HIV tests, their abortions and church services, and who had talked with me about their sexual assaults, their abuse, their triumphs and traumas.

Ive been thinking a lot about my job. Ive been thinking about how the decade I spent as a reporter provided an asymmetrical intimacy  asking for other peoples experiences while never sharing my own. And it costs something to share your story. Its hard. People are never sure whether reporters will tell them the right way.

Ive been wondering whether writing about gender should require me to mine my own experiences with it.

Being a person having a miscarriage does not feel like being a journalist writing about it; it does not lend itself to rational thought.

Beyonce opened up about her miscarriage to Oprah Winfrey in 2013 (OWN)

It lends itself to thoughts such as: did this happen because I took a couple of Excedrin for a migraine the day before? Because I shovelled snow that morning, or cleaned the tub with Clorox instead of organic baking soda?

Was it because the pregnancy was a surprise, and it had taken my husband and me the better part of a month to wrap our minds around it? My initial panic was over weird, frivolous things: wed finally bought a sleeper sofa for the spare room and now wed have to make it a nursery instead. One time, during a slap-happy conversation about Washingtons insane daycare fees, Id joked, We cant do it! Maybe the pregnancy will just vanish?

I laughed when I said it, but inside, here is what I was picturing: the rocking chair that could replace the sofa, Halloween with a young Hermione Granger, the boutonniere of a gawky kid at prom. I was picturing a wish.

Migration Blanket: struggles, hopes and dreams of refugee women Show all 15 1 /15 Migration Blanket: struggles, hopes and dreams of refugee women Migration Blanket: struggles, hopes and dreams of refugee women A Migration Blanket created by women from Somalia, Yemen, Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Senegal Ashley Carr Migration Blanket: struggles, hopes and dreams of refugee women The piece aims to show the challenges these women face with integration in the UK as well as their ambitions Ashley Carr Migration Blanket: struggles, hopes and dreams of refugee women This shows the hardship faced by an African asylum seeker who was imprisoned while being pregnant. She described it as one of the worst experiences of her life and says she doesnt know how she got through it Ashley Carr Migration Blanket: struggles, hopes and dreams of refugee women Memories of war still fresh in the mind of a Yemini refugee fleeing conflict  she says its a daily struggle to deal with war memories and bloodshed Ashley Carr Migration Blanket: struggles, hopes and dreams of refugee women Salma Zulfiqar worked with the women as part of the project Creative Expressions by Women on the Move Ashley Carr Migration Blanket: struggles, hopes and dreams of refugee women This is created by an asylum seeker from Asia who wants to be free of being moved constantly by authorities to different housing. She was moved at least half a dozen times since arriving in the UK, but was recently granted asylum Ashley Carr Migration Blanket: struggles, hopes and dreams of refugee women The finished Migration Blanket Ashley Carr Migration Blanket: struggles, hopes and dreams of refugee women This was created by a Somali refugee and expresses how she feels Muslim women wearing the hijab are portrayed in society Ashley Carr Migration Blanket: struggles, hopes and dreams of refugee women Created by a South Asian asylum seeker who wanted to show that she has been separated from her parents and loved ones, having left her homeland. She said the loss of family and extended family has left her heartbroken Ashley Carr Migration Blanket: struggles, hopes and dreams of refugee women A selection of the pieces created Ashley Carr Migration Blanket: struggles, hopes and dreams of refugee women Journalist, author and anti-racism campaigner, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown addressed the women during a creative session and inspired their artwork by sharing her personal stories of integration Ashley Carr Migration Blanket: struggles, hopes and dreams of refugee women This creation shows the threat of being moved constantly when living in a temporary house as an asylum seeker Ashley Carr Migration Blanket: struggles, hopes and dreams of refugee women This piece represents the cultural image for theatre and shows the cultural divide for many migrant and refugee women in Birmingham Ashley Carr Migration Blanket: struggles, hopes and dreams of refugee women Many of the women taking part in the project have had tragic journeys and have recreated them on canvas Ashley Carr Migration Blanket: struggles, hopes and dreams of refugee women Shows the journey of a Yemeni refugee fleeing conflict in her homeland Ashley Carr

Sadness is a complete emotion, a multivitamin of an emotion. Even when you fully understand that yours is minor compared to that of others.

A friend texted an article while I was writing this paragraph: Pregnant teacher speaks out after being stabbed multiple times during carjacking. My God, I thought. Nothing that terrible happened to me.

A colleague wrote a brave, wrenching article about her stillbirth, and how social networks assumed she was still pregnant. My God, I thought when I read it, my hurt was so mundane.

What are we looking for when we tell stories? Do stories deserve to be told when theyre mundane and happen to lots of women? Should a gender columnist write about the extraordinary, or should she also try to talk frankly about the regular, common sadnesses that are discussed mostly in whispers?

Is that the job  to figure out how we fit together, to search for the secret undercurrents of emotion that run through all of humanity?

In the end, what complicated the sadness for me was kindness. When I eventually emailed my boss, I didnt invent the flu. I told her what had happened, feeling inexplicably embarrassed  me and my dumb lady pain  but she wrote back, not embarrassed. The next day, she sent the loveliest crate of oranges and pears.

My mother sent flowers. My father sent four boxes of cherry cordials. My in-laws sent chocolate. My best friend, knowing Id find comfort in numbers, sent her dissertation, on reproductive loss. My husband, grieving himself, was still the one to go out in a blizzard to buy paracetamol and walk the dog and search for vegetarian matzo ball soup.

I took two sick days  and thank God I have a job with sick days, and thank God I needed only two of them, and thank God I have health insurance and money for lab tests  surrounded by the type of unfathomable, undeserved kindness that centres the universe when its most off-keel.

Here is a thing people may not realise. A miscarriage takes days. It can take weeks. It seems like its instantaneous because its always talked about in the past tense: I had a miscarriage. But as time passed, I thought about how I could address it in the present tense. To the telemarketer on the phone: not now, Im bleeding. To a co-worker needling me about a deadline: could this hold until next week? Im waiting for a wish to slowly ebb out of my body.

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At one point, I sat in the bedroom thinking about how, if this were a novel, now is when Id eat ice cream. But I couldnt fathom dessert; wed bought apple fritters a few days before when I was still pregnant. Id eaten half of one; the rest were still sitting reproachfully on the counter.

What I could fathom doing in that moment was watching a comic book movie, something with fight scenes and quippy dialogue. I could fathom Iron Man bantering with Captain America, and I could fathom nothing else.

When I went downstairs, my husband had listlessly turned on the television. What was playing on cable, in the tenderest and oddest of mercies, was Marvels The Avengers.

So we sat and watched. I had a miscarriage and we watched The Avengers. The dog needed another walk, and my sister called, and I thought about the kindness and sadness and messiness that binds us all together, and I bled, and bled, and we watched The Avengers and I admired the sheen in Chris Hemsworths hair.

 Washington Post
Faced with disturbing reports about near persistent harassment confronting women working at Lloyds of London, the insurance market has called last orders on one of the final redoubts of the Citys old-school booze culture.

As part of a code of conduct to be unveiled this week, people attempting to enter the market under the influence of drugs or alcohol will have their passes confiscated.

The rationale is that a significant number of reported incidents of disgraceful behaviour towards female workers have been linked to drink.

Im told the markets bosses were genuinely stung by them, and mean what they say about changing its culture.

Obviously, actions speak louder than words. But they have secured the support of the institutions various stakeholders for this and other measures designed to stamp out what has been going on.

That should not be underestimated. As those with experience of covering it will be well aware, Lloyds is a very political place. It is the sum of many different parts, which frequently find themselves in conflict.

Getting them all on the same page can sometimes feel like herding cats.

Although being seen as a holdout on this issue would not be a good look for any of them, its one thing for institutions to sign up to the proposed changes, quite another for individuals to go along with them too.

The market says its a case of time gentlemen please when comes to boozy lunches. And, given whats been going on, about time too.

But there will undoubtedly be those who hold out against what they perceive as the death of another hallowed part of the old City of London, and who feel the new rules dont apply to them.

Lloyds is not only a political place, its a conservative place (with a small c).

Pity the security guards, who will be on the front line of this. They have an unenviable task. How will they react when a powerful and influential broker staggers in half-cut after overindulging over lunch, and starts making threats when theyre told to surrender their pass and go home?

Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 /13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled  leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: Europes largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid 3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rues contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped 4m off of Flybes revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airlines estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year.

Im told theyve received training and Lloyds insists that they will have its full support in taking a tough line with miscreants.

Passes they seize will be dispatched to the chairs of the businesses where miscreants work, with a note explaining why. But what if the person seeking to return to their desk after having one too many glasses of wine is the chair? See how it could get interesting?

Regardless, there may have to be a quite a few of those notes sent out to get the message home and make the market the safe and inclusive place its bosses say they want it to be. Change hasnt always come easily to Lloyds. The scandal itself proves that.
Theresa May as an online Wyatt Earp, bringing order to the wild west big tech has been operating in for too long? As legacies go it's a lot better than Brexit.

The Prime Ministers name was all over announcement of her government's Online Harm white paper, launched to coincide with yet another letter to the EU asking for an extension to Article 50 as Britain teeters on the cliff edge of a disaster of her own making.

So were those of Digital Secretary Jeremy Wright and Home Secretary Sajid Javid, a contender to replace her. The white paper promising a new regulator to enforce strict new standards that tech companies like Facebook, Twitter will be told to abide by is officially a joint effort between their departments.

You can understand why they all want a piece of this one. It is (for once) good politics.

New Zealands privacy commissioner has just blasted Facebook as morally bankrupt pathological liars on his twitter feed over the hosting a livestream of the Christchurch mosque attack that left 50 people dead. Closer to home the suicide of teenager Molly Russell in 2017 remains in the spotlight thanks to the disturbing material found on her Instagram account and her parents understandable fury towards the tech company. They hold the Facebook subsidiary to be partially responsible for her death.

Also prominent alongside the politicians in the launch announcement were Barnados, the NSPCC, Childnet, the Dianna Award and Internet Matters.

That represents a powerful coalition in favour of ideas such as imposing a duty of care on internet businesses, together a demand that they shield people from potentially harmful content. Executives could be made personally liable in the event of breaches. They could lead to financial penalties.

The latter makes sense when you consider the questionable impact that fines representing a tiny fraction of quarterly revenues have when levied on corporations alone. But it will go down like a wet weekend in Barrow in Furness with the Americans, who arent overly fond of people telling their top companies how they should be doing business.

The proposed legislation will apply to any company that allows users to share or discover user generated content or interact with each other online. Most of them are based across the Atlantic.

The other issue with whats being proposed is how it squares with Britains stated aim of being the best place in the world to start a new digital business.

Im told any new regulator will be required to operate a risk based approach, offer support to start ups and pay due regard to innovation.

Nonetheless, businesses tend to be wary of regulation, even when it may prove, in the long term, to be good for business. There are always other places you can go.

However, other places may ultimately follow suit because the current situation is untenable. With new outrages seemingly emerging every week, even parts of the tech industry recognise that. And if the UK loses some business because of its stance on the online safety of children, that's frankly a price worth paying.

The likes of Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg, among others, have called for a global approach, but that could easily be seen as an attempt to frustrate change. The weakness of the Paris Climate Accords, and the patchy observance of them in response to something that represents a clear and present danger to the future of life on this planet tells you all you need to know. What price digital regulation when compared to that.

Others have already raised issues of free speech in response to what the government has served up. That merits careful monitoring given the antipathy of governments towards that.

Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 /13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled  leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: Europes largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid 3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rues contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped 4m off of Flybes revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airlines estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year.

On the other hand there's an awful lot online that could be likened to running into a crowded theatre and shouting 'fire'. It ought to be possible to strike a balance between the need for a free and open debate while at the same time calling time on harmful content that gets kids killed, either directly through inciting their suicide, or indirectly through, say, convincing their parents to skip getting them vaccinated against potentially deadly diseases.

There are many issues with these plans that need to be worked through, and there are very real questions about whether this administration has the competence to be able to do that. It's also possible to be very cynical about the motivations of a government in desperate need of a win and a Prime Minister who is apparently bent upon putting her legacy above her countrys best interests.

But doubts aside, on this issue ministers would appear (for once) to be in the right ball park.


Scientists have found a new state of physical matter  which allows atoms to exist as both solid and liquid at the same time.

Atoms in physical material have been typically thought to be in one of three states: they were either solid, liquid, or they were gas. But researchers have discovered some elements that can take on properties of two different states, posing a complication to that view.

Scientists have not been sure whether those intermediate states were their own state of matter, or if they just represented a transition between the two.

New research clears up that dispute, and point to the fact that it is a distinct state of matter, known as "the chain-melted state". And now researchers hope it can be further examined to find more uses for the unexpected discovery.

Subjecting potassium to extreme environments  such as pushing it up against high pressures and temperatures  were combined with powerful computer simulations to allow scientists to study the unusual state.

Science news in pictures Show all 20 1 /20 Science news in pictures Science news in pictures Pluto has 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen Pluto has a 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen that is doing strange things to its surface, Nasa has found. The mysterious core seems to be the cause of features on its surface that have fascinated scientists since they were spotted by Nasa's New Horizons mission. "Before New Horizons, everyone thought Pluto was going to be a netball - completely flat, almost no diversity," said Tanguy Bertrand, an astrophysicist and planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center and the lead author on the new study. "But it's completely different. It has a lot of different landscapes and we are trying to understand what's going on there." Getty Science news in pictures Over 400 species discovered this year by Natural History Museum The ancient invertabrate worm-like species rhenopyrgus viviani (pictured) is one of over 400 species previously unknown to science that were discovered by experts at the Natural History Museum this year PA Science news in pictures Jackdaws can identify 'dangerous' humans Jackdaws can identify dangerous humans from listening to each others warning calls, scientists say. The highly social birds will also remember that person if they come near their nests again, according to researchers from the University of Exeter. In the study, a person unknown to the wild jackdaws approached their nest. At the same time scientists played a recording of a warning call (threatening) or contact calls (non-threatening). The next time jackdaws saw this same person, the birds that had previously heard the warning call were defensive and returned to their nests more than twice as quickly on average. Getty Science news in pictures Turtle embryos influence sex by shaking The sex of the turtle is determined by the temperatures at which they are incubated. Warm temperatures favour females. But by wiggling around the egg, embryos can find the Goldilocks Zone which means they are able to shield themselves against extreme thermal conditions and produce a balanced sex ratio, according to the new study published in Current Biology journal Ye et al/Current Biology Science news in pictures Elephant poaching rates drop in Africa African elephant poaching rates have dropped by 60 per cent in six years, an international study has found. It is thought the decline could be associated with the ivory trade ban introduced in China in 2017. Reuters Science news in pictures Ancient four-legged whale discovered in Peru Scientists have identified a four-legged creature with webbed feet to be an ancestor of the whale. Fossils unearthed in Peru have led scientists to conclude that the enormous creatures that traverse the planets oceans today are descended from small hoofed ancestors that lived in south Asia 50 million years ago A. Gennari Science news in pictures Animal with transient anus discovered A scientist has stumbled upon a creature with a transient anus that appears only when it is needed, before vanishing completely. Dr Sidney Tamm of the Marine Biological Laboratory could not initially find any trace of an anus on the species. However, as the animal gets full, a pore opens up to dispose of waste Steven G Johnson Science news in pictures Giant bee spotted Feared extinct, the Wallace's Giant bee has been spotted for the first time in nearly 40 years. An international team of conservationists spotted the bee, that is four times the size of a typical honeybee, on an expedition to a group of Indonesian Islands Clay Bolt Science news in pictures New mammal species found inside crocodile Fossilised bones digested by crocodiles have revealed the existence of three new mammal species that roamed the Cayman Islands 300 years ago. The bones belonged to two large rodent species and a small shrew-like animal New Mexico Museum of Natural History Science news in pictures Fabric that changes according to temperature created Scientists at the University of Maryland have created a fabric that adapts to heat, expanding to allow more heat to escape the body when warm and compacting to retain more heat when cold Faye Levine, University of Maryland Science news in pictures Baby mice tears could be used in pest control A study from the University of Tokyo has found that the tears of baby mice cause female mice to be less interested in the sexual advances of males Getty Science news in pictures Final warning to limit "climate catastrophe" The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued a report which projects the impact of a rise in global temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius and warns against a higher increase Getty Science news in pictures Nobel prize for evolution chemists The nobel prize for chemistry has been awarded to three chemists working with evolution. Frances Smith is being awarded the prize for her work on directing the evolution of enzymes, while Gregory Winter and George Smith take the prize for their work on phage display of peptides and antibodies Getty/AFP Science news in pictures Nobel prize for laser physicists The nobel prize for physics has been awarded to three physicists working with lasers. Arthur Ashkin (L) was awarded for his "optical tweezers" which use lasers to grab particles, atoms, viruses and other living cells. Donna Strickland and Gerard Mourou were jointly awarded the prize for developing chirped-pulse amplification of lasers Reuters/AP Science news in pictures Discovery of a new species of dinosaur The Ledumahadi Mafube roamed around 200 million years ago in what is now South Africa. Recently discovered by a team of international scientists, it was the largest land animal of its time, weighing 12 tons and standing at 13 feet. In Sesotho, the South African language of the region in which the dinosaur was discovered, its name means "a giant thunderclap at dawn" Viktor Radermacher / SWNS Science news in pictures Birth of a planet Scientists have witnessed the birth of a planet for the first time ever. This spectacular image from the SPHERE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope is the first clear image of a planet caught in the very act of formation around the dwarf star PDS 70. The planet stands clearly out, visible as a bright point to the right of the center of the image, which is blacked out by the coronagraph mask used to block the blinding light of the central star. ESO/A. Muller et al Science news in pictures New human organ discovered that was previously missed by scientists Layers long thought to be dense, connective tissue are actually a series of fluid-filled compartments researchers have termed the interstitium. These compartments are found beneath the skin, as well as lining the gut, lungs, blood vessels and muscles, and join together to form a network supported by a mesh of strong, flexible proteins Getty Science news in pictures Previously unknown society lived in Amazon rainforest before Europeans arrived, say archaeologists Working in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, a team led by archaeologists at the University of Exeter unearthed hundreds of villages hidden in the depths of the rainforest. These excavations included evidence of fortifications and mysterious earthworks called geoglyphs Jose Iriarte Science news in pictures One in 10 people have traces of cocaine or heroin on fingerprints, study finds More than one in 10 people were found to have traces of class A drugs on their fingers by scientists developing a new fingerprint-based drug test. Using sensitive analysis of the chemical composition of sweat, researchers were able to tell the difference between those who had been directly exposed to heroin and cocaine, and those who had encountered it indirectly. Getty Science news in pictures Nasa releases stunning images of Jupiter's great red spot The storm bigger than the Earth, has been swhirling for 350 years. The image's colours have been enhanced after it was sent back to Earth. Pictures by: Tom Momary

They showed parts of both liquid and solid states. When subjected to those conditions, most of the elements formed into a lattice structure, of the kind that would be expected in a solid  but there was also a second set of atoms that were in a liquid arrangement.

Recommended The International Space Station is teeming with bacteria and fungi

The University of Edinburgh scientists in the study found that more than half a dozen other elements, including sodium and bismuth, were able to reach the state if they were put into the right environments.

Dr Andreas Hermann, of the university's School of Physics and Astronomy, led the study which is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

He said: "Potassium is one of the simplest metals we know, yet if you squeeze it, it forms very complicated structures.

"We have shown that this unusual but stable state is part solid and part liquid.

"Recreating this unusual state in other materials could have all kinds of applications."

The study was supported by the European Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, and the work was carried out in collaboration with scientists from Xi'an Jiantong University in China.
A Labour MPs constituency office windows have been smashed in what she suspects may have been an attempt at intimidation over her stance on Brexit.

The damage to the office of Helen Goodman, MP for Bishop Auckland in County Durham, was inflicted on Saturday and comes amid an increasingly febrile atmosphere in Britain over its exit from the European Union (EU).

Ms Goodman, who backed Remain in the 2016 but voted to trigger Article 50 two years ago to respect the result of the referendum, is calling for a so-called soft Brexit and late last month voted to keep the UK in a customs union.

Feelings may be running high but violence like this is quite unjustified, Ms Goodman tweeted on Sunday. Fortunately, because it was Saturday night, no one was in the office or hurt.

The MP, a former work and pensions minister, told The Independent police were investigating, but that in all probability the incident was motivated by anger at Britains failure to leave Europe. Ive had a lot of abuse on social media lately, she added.

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

Durham Constabulary has been contacted for comment.

Images posted on social media showed a hole had been punched into the glass of the offices front door, while one of the buildings windows had been shattered.

I hope its just an accident but the level of hatred in politics is rising to an unsafe and violent level, one Twitter user who shared the images said.

I do not know who did this, but this sort of yobbish behaviour is totally unjustified and does not help us to find a way forward for the country, Ms Goodman told The Northern Echo on Sunday.

She continued: We live in a free country and attempts to intimidate through violence are wrong.

Its so unfair on my staff. They are entitled to work free from fear, and also its bad for constituents who need urgent help. Well have to review our security at the office.

 'People have been asking me what on earth's happening with Brexit?' Theresa May gives an update

It comes just weeks after another Labour MP, Peter Kyle, was advised to move offices after his Hove constituency office windows were shattered in a possible Brexit-related attack.
Warm weather in the UK last summer saw the extremely rare Large Blue and Black Hairstreak butterflies in their highest numbers since records began.

The population of the threatened Large Blue rose by half, while that of the endangered Black Hairstreak was up by more than 900 per cent.

More than two-thirds of British butterflies thrived in 2018 though the heat was not ideal for all, as some grassland species struggled when drought conditions dried out their food plants.

It is also thought that the cold snap in February and March may have helped the survival of caterpillars and chrysalises.

Despite the rise, last year was still about average and the Butterfly Conservation reported that there has been an decline in the overall butterfly population since records began more than 40 years ago.

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The Butterfly Conservations Professor Tom Brereton said: 2018 brought some welcome relief for butterflies following five below average years in a row.

But, there were not as many butterflies around as we might have expected given the fabulous weather over much of the butterfly season and overall 2018 ranked as barely better than average.

It remains to be seen what the knock-on effects of the 2018 heatwave will be. We know that extreme events such as this, which are set to increase under climate change, are generally damaging to butterflies.
Demonstrators in 70 cities around the world are preparing to take part in a mass protest against the organised hunting of endangered wildlife and importation of animal body parts.

The coordinated action on Saturday will call on world leaders to close loopholes that leave species including lions, giraffes, elephants and rhinos at risk of being driven to extinction.

In London, hundreds of demonstrators are set to march on Downing Street to deliver a letter to Theresa May calling for imports of trophies to be banned, signed by celebrities including Star Trek actor William Shatner.

Britain is among the nations most responsible for allowing wildlife annihilation to continue, according to the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting (CBTH). The UK is one of 12 countries whose hunters have taken at least 1,000 trophies and brought home more than a ton of ivory.

Hunters globally have taken home 100,000 African elephant trophies since the 1980s, campaigners said.

Wildlife photographer of the year Show all 26 1 /26 Wildlife photographer of the year Wildlife photographer of the year A polar bear's struggle - Highly Commended Justins whole body pained as he watched this starving polar bear at an abandoned hunter's camp, in the Canadian Arctic, slowly heave itself up to standing. With little, and thinning, ice to move around on, the bear is unable to search for food. Justin Hofman / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Curious Encounter - Shortlisted Cristobal Serrano, Spain. Any close encounter with an animal in the vast wilderness of Antarctica happens by chance, so Cristobal was thrilled by this spontaneous meeting with a crabeater seal off of Cuverville Island, Antarctic Peninsula. These curious creatures are protected and, with few predators, thrive. Cristobal Serrano / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Bond of brothers - Winner David Lloyd, New Zealand / UK. These two adult males, probably brothers, greeted and rubbed faces for 30 seconds before settling down. Most people never have the opportunity to witness such animal sentience, and David was honoured to have experienced and captured such a moment.The picture was taken in Ndutu, Serengeti, Tanzania. David Lloyd / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Fox meets fox - Highly Commended Matthew Maran, UK. Matthew has been photographing foxes close to his home in north London for over a year and ever since spotting this street art had dreamt of capturing this image. After countless hours and many failed attempts his persistence paid off. Matthew Maran / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Three Kings - Highly Commended Wim Van Den Heever, South Africa. Wim came across these king penguins on a beach in the Falkland Islands just as the sun was rising. They were caught up in a fascinating mating behaviour the two males were constantly moving around the female using their flippers to fend the other off. Wim Van Den Heever / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year One toy, three dogs - Highly Commended Bence Mate, Hungary. While adult African wild dogs are merciless killers, their pups are extremely cute and play all day long. Bence photographed these brothers in Mkuze, South Africa they all wanted to play with the leg of an impala and were trying to drag it in three different directions! Bence Mate / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Clam Close-up - Shortlisted David Barrio, Spain. This macro-shot of an iridescent clam was taken in the Southern Red Sea, Marsa Alam, Egypt. These clams spend their lives embedded amongst stony corals, where they nest and grow. It took David some time to approach the clam, fearing it would sense his movements and snap shut! David Barrio / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year The Orphaned Beaver - Shortlisted Suzi Eszterhas, United States. A one-month-old orphaned North American beaver kit is held by a caretaker at the Sarvey Wildlife Care Center in Arlington, Washington. Luckily it was paired with a female beaver who took on the role of mother and they were later released into the wild. Suzi Eszterhas / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Ice and Water - Shortlisted Audun Lie Dahl, Norway. The Brasvellbreen glacier moves southwards from one of the ice caps covering the Svalbard Archipelago, Norway. Where it meets the sea, the glacier wall is so high that only the waterfalls are visible, so Audun used a drone to capture this unique perspective Audun Lie Dahl / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Teenager - Shortlisted Franco Banfi, Switzerland. Franco was free diving off Dominica in the Caribbean Sea when he witnessed this young male sperm whale trying to copulate with a female. Unfortunately for him her calf was always in the way and the frisky male had to continually chase off the troublesome calf. Franco Banfi / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Resting Mountain Gorilla - Shortlisted David Lloyd. The baby gorilla clung to its mother whilst keeping a curious eye on David. He had been trekking in South Bwindi, Uganda, whenhe came across the whole family. Following them, they then stopped in a small clearing to relax and groom each other. David Lloyd / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Painted Waterfall - Shorltisted Eduardo Blanco Mendizabal, Spain. When the sun beams through a hole in the rock at the foot of the La Foradada waterfall, Catalonia, Spain, it creates a beautiful pool of light. The rays appear to paint the spray of the waterfall and create a truly magical picture. Eduardo Blanco Mendizabal / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year The Extraction - Shortlisted Konstantin Shatenev, Russia. Every winter, hundreds of Steller's sea eagles migrate from Russia, to the relatively ice-free northeastern coast of Hokkaido, Japan. They hunt for fish among the ices floes and also scavenge, following the fishing boats to feed on any discards. Konstantin took his image from a boat as the eagles retrieved a dead fish thrown onto the ice. Konstantin Shatenev / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Shy - Shortlisted Pedro Carrillo, Spain. The mesmerizing pattern of a beaded sand anemone beautifully frames a juvenile Clarkii clownfish in Lembehstrait, Sulawesi, Indonesia. Known as a 'nursery' anemone, it is often a temporary home for young clownfish until they find a more suitable host anemone for adulthood. Pedro Carrillo / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Red, Silver and Black - Shortlisted TinMan Lee, USA. Tin was fortunate enough to be told about a fox den in Washington State, North America, which was home to a family of red, black and silver foxes. After days of waiting for good weather he was finally rewarded with this touching moment. Tin Man Lee / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Isolated - Shortlisted Anna Henly, UK. Snapped from a helicopter, this isolated tree stands in a cultivated field on the edge of a tropical forest on Kauai, Hawaii. The manmade straight lines of the ploughed furrows are interrupted beautifully by natures more unruly wild pattern of tree branches. Anna Henly / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Sound Asleep - Shortlisted Tony Wu, USA. This adult humpback whale balanced in mid-water, headon and sound asleep was photographed in Vavau, Kingdom of Tonga. The faint stream of bubbles, visible at the top, is coming from the whales two blowholes and was, in this instance, indicative of an extremely relaxed state. Tony Wu / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year All That Remains - Shortlisted Phil Jones, UK. A male orca had beached itself about a week before Phils visit to Sea Lion Island, Falkland Islands. Despite its huge size the shifting sands had almost covered the whole carcass and scavengers, such as this striated caracara, had started to move in. Phil Jones / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Ambush - Shortlisted Federico Veronesi, Kenya. On a hot morning at the Chitake Springs, in Mana Pools National Park, Zimbabwe, Federico watched as an old lioness descended from the top of the riverbank. Shed been lying in wait to ambush any passing animals visiting a nearby waterhole further along the riverbed. Federico Veronesi / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Gliding - Shortlisted Christian Vizl, Mexico. With conditions of perfect visibility and beautiful sunlight, Christian took this portrait of a nurse shark gliding through the ocean off the coast of Bimini in the Bahamas. Typically these sharks are found near sandy bottoms where they rest, so its rare to see them swimming. Christian Vizl / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Otherworldly - Shortlisted A school of Munk's devil ray were feeding on plankton at night off the coast of Isla Espiritu Santo in Baja California, Mexico. Franco used the underwater lights from his boat and a long exposure to create this otherworldly image. Franco Banfi / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year The Bats Wake - Shortlisted Antonio Leiva Sanchez, Spain. After several months of field research into a little colony of greater mouse-eared bats in Sucs, Lleida, Spain, Antonio managed to capture this bat mid-flight. He used a technique of high speed photography with flashes combined with continuous light to create the wake. Antonio Leiva Sanchez / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Under the Snow - Shortlisted Audren Morel, France. Unafraid of the snowy blizzard, this squirrel came to visit Audren as he was taking photographs of birds in the small Jura village of Les Fourgs, France. Impressed by the squirrels endurance, he made it the subject of the shoot. Audren Morel / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Unique Bill - Shortlisted Rob Blanken, The Netherlands. The pied avocet has a unique and delicate bill, which it sweeps like a scythe, as it sifts for food in shallow brackish water. This stunning portrait was taken from a hide in the northern province of Friesland in The Netherlands. Rob Blanken / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Family Portrait - Shortlisted Connor Stefanison, Canada. A great grey owl and her chicks sit in their nest in the broken top of a Douglas fir tree in Kamloops, Canada. They looked towards Connor only twice as he watched them during the nesting season from a tree hide 50 feet (15 metres) up. Connor Stefanison / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year A dog jumps to catch a disc during a dog frisbee competition in Poznan via REUTERS

Elephant populations plummeted from 1.3 million to just over 400,000 over the same period, according to CBTH investigators.

Action for Elephants UK, which organised the protests and the letter, say Britains laws on trophy hunting are even more lenient than those in the US. The regulations have allowed 2,500 animal parts to be imported over the past decade  many from cheetahs, lions, leopards, hippos, bears and zebras.

It is the fifth such annual march to Downing Street, and protests will also be held in Birmingham and Bristol.

About two tons of ivory have also been brought home by British hunters, as well as elephant ears, trunks, feet, tails and skins.

Legal trophy hunting is driving species already hit hard by poaching, habitat loss and human-wildlife conflict further towards extinction.

From 1985 to 2015 the amount of ivory poached rose 12-fold, the CBTH found.

Recommended Alarm as global wildlife body to consider halting ivory trade bans

The protests are aimed at leaders of countries signed up to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites), a treaty regulating wildlife trade. Cites is meeting next month in Sri Lanka, where African nations are expected to push for lower protections for elephants and reopen the ivory trade.

Cites allows hunters to have permits to kill even protected animals facing extinction but activists are calling for an end to such practices. Demonstrators also want a ban on captive breeding of protected animals for their parts, which they say fuels the illegal trade.

MPs from all parties have signed a parliamentary motion calling for a UK ban on trophy imports.

The letter, signed by more than 70 wildlife groups, MPs and lords, tells the prime minister: The government can expect full and enthusiastic support from the British public for this move.

Recommended Ministers break pledge to ban lion hunt trophy imports to UK

Shatner added: How does the insanity of killing these magnificent animals, of which there is only a handful left, conserve them? A trophy animal is the best of the brightest of the breed.

Biologist Ian Redmond said trophy hunting killed the animals with the strongest genes most sought-after by tourists and filmmakers. He added that in elephant populations, knowledge of surviving extreme weather is held by elders, so killing them reduces a groups survival chances.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said that under Cites rules trophies can be imported only under strict regulations.
After more than two years of talks, could the UK be about to call time on Brexit by revoking Article 50?

What does revoking Article 50 mean?

The Lisbon Treaty set out the rules of EU membership, and Article 50 was the part that dealt with quitting the bloc.
Theresa May will undertake a whirlwind tour of European capitals in a bid to secure more time to lock in a withdrawal deal before Brexit.

The prime minister will meet both German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Emmanuel Macron, who has taken a more bullish position with the UK over Brexit.

Ms May has cancelled her weekly cabinet on Tuesday to facilitate the meetings, and is also expected to hold a series of calls with other leaders.

It comes as she continues in cross-party discussions with Labour in a bid to chart a course forward, though no face-to-face meetings were scheduled as of Monday morning.

The prime minister is expected to see Ms Merkel in Berlin on Tuesday afternoon, before heading to Paris for a meeting with Mr Macron.

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

Ms Mays spokesperson said: She always engages with European leaders in the lead-up to council. This is obviously a unique council, that is particularly focused on Brexit.

The prime minister set out a clear ask in her letter to Donald Tusk on Friday in terms of an extension and she believes its important that she can set out the rationale for that ask as widely as possible in the lead up to council.

At an emergency European Council summit on Wednesday night, Ms May will seek a short extension to the Article 50 negotiating period, to allow her more time to get some kind of Brexit deal through the House of Commons.

While Ms Merkels influence on the outcome is clear, Mr Macrons position has come under increased scrutiny because he has appeared, publicly at least, more willing to allow the situation to move towards a no-deal Brexit.

The prime minister is also due to speak to a number of other European leaders by telephone later today, with officials suggesting the ring-around will be wider then before other summits.

The trips before Wednesdays council mean that the usual Tuesday cabinet meeting will be struck off, a gathering which could have seen sparks fly amid Brexiteer anger at the apparent shift towards a softer Brexit.

Solicitor general Robert Buckland told the BBCs Westminster Hour that a customs union would bring an end to freedom of movement and amounts to delivering on the vast majority of the aims of Brexit.

 Brexit: Chancellor Philip Hammond insists government has 'no red lines' in crisis talks with Labour

The Independent understands that ministers hope further talks with Labour could occur on Tuesday evening, though it is unclear at this point if they plan to set out an offer of a compromise to the partys leader Jeremy Corbyn to facilitate the talks.

While there was briefing over the weekend that Ms May is considering offering Labour a customs union in all but name as an incentive to reach a deal, no plan had been tabled by Monday morning.

Ms May is likely to highlight the ongoing process with Labour when she goes to Brussels, as a reason that European leaders should grant the short extension to Article 50 that she wants, rather than a long one.

In the end, it is likely that the extension may be long, but with a potential escape route if the UK can find a way of gaining a parliamentary majority for a Brexit deal.
A customs union with the European Union is the most likely outcome of talks between Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn, a government minister has admitted.

In remarks that risk further inflaming tensions in the Conservative Party, the solicitor general Robert Buckland insisted his party needed to compromise to salvage Brexit.

Labours key demand is for a customs union with Brussels, but Brexiteers vehemently oppose anything that would restrict the UKs ability to strike independent free trade deals post-Brexit.

It also comes after the prime minister addressed the public in a video on Sunday, acknowledging her own UK-EU agreement was unlikely to command the support of parliament and hinted she was prepared to make a significant compromise.

As talks between Labour and the government entered a second week, Mr Buckland told BBC Radio 4s Westminster Hour a customs union will bring an end to freedom of movement and amounts to delivering on the vast majority of the aims of Brexit.

Cliffs of Dover lit up in Brexit protest Show all 5 1 /5 Cliffs of Dover lit up in Brexit protest Cliffs of Dover lit up in Brexit protest Campaign group Led By Donkeys projected this statement by Nigel Farage on the Cliffs of Dover on the evening of April 4 @ByDonkeys / Twitter Cliffs of Dover lit up in Brexit protest Campaign group Led By Donkeys projected this statement by former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab on the Cliffs of Dover on the evening of April 4 @ByDonkeys / Twitter Cliffs of Dover lit up in Brexit protest Campaign group Led By Donkeys projected this message to the EU on the Cliffs of Dover on the evening of April 4 @ByDonkeys / Twitter Cliffs of Dover lit up in Brexit protest Campaign group Led By Donkeys projected this message on the Cliffs of Dover on the evening of April 4 @ByDonkeys / Twitter Cliffs of Dover lit up in Brexit protest Campaign group Led By Donkeys projected this message on the Cliffs of Dover on the evening of April 4 @ByDonkeys / Twitter

Its not perfect but, frankly, in this particular hung parliament none of us can get perfection, we need to compromise, he said.

The solicitor general added that something approximating a customs arrangement or customs union would be the most likely outcome of the process.

But on Monday in a column for The Daily Telegraph, former foreign secretary Boris Johnson warned that Tory MPs would not allow Ms 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 wrote.

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.

At the close of last week there was no sign of a breakthrough with talks between Mr Corbyn and the prime minister, as Labour accused Ms May of failing to offer compromise or change and accused her of refusing to come forward with anything new.

But speaking on Sunday in a video message recorded in her Chequers country retreat, Ms May said both sides will have to compromise in the cross-party discussions.

She said a new approach in cross-party talks with Labour was needed as the choice that lies ahead of us is either leaving the EU with a deal or not leaving at all.

Ms May added: Itll mean compromise on both sides but I believe that delivering Brexit is the most important thing for us.
 Close What does a no-deal Brexit mean?

MPs have voted in favour of a new law to extend the Brexit process and prevent the UK from crashing out of the EU without a deal.

The Commons backed a series of Lords amendments to Labour MP Yvette Cooper's backbench bill on Monday night after it was rushed through both Houses of Parliament.

It came as prime minister Theresa may prepared for a whistle-stop tour of European capitals in a bid to secure a Brexit delay ahead of a crucial EU summit on Wednesday.

Ms May was warned not to "surrender" to Labour after a senior minister signalled she was planning to cave in to Jeremy Corbyn's customs union demands.

Tory divisions burst into the open when solicitor general Robert Buckland suggested the prime minister could compromise on a softer Brexit - triggering an immediate backlash from Eurosceptics.

Prominent Brexiteer Mark Francois called for a vote to allow Tory MPs to demonstrate they have "lost faith" in Ms May's leadership and warned she could "destroy" the party.

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Theresa May is heading to Europe to appeal to France and Germany for an extension to Brexit talks that could see Britain locked into what furious Tory rebels have branded second class EU membership.

The prime minister will plead with President Emmanuel Macron and Chancellor Angela Merkel for a delay to the UKs departure to avoid crashing out without a deal. She will likely be forced to accept strict conditions.

Mr Macron has indicated he could not stand the UK using its continued presence to disrupt EU business as suggested by some Brexiteers, with particular concern about the blocs budget being obstructed.

As well as promising not to interfere in EU business, Ms May will have to convince European leaders that cross-party talks with Labour are progressing, despite Jeremy Corbyn criticising the PM for failing to compromise on her Brexit red lines.

Tory Brexiteers are already seething at the prospect of a further delay to Britains departure, let alone the idea that it would be to secure a deal approved by Mr Corbyn.

One cabinet source told The Independent: The idea that we would go through all that to then be in some sort of second class EU membership, where were in but without a say on anything, how has Brexit come to that?

A meeting of top ministers in Downing Street is said to have been punctuated by a rant from senior cabinet eurosceptic Andrea Leadsom about the dire state of Brexit.

Signs of tensions boiling over also emerged when Conservative Brexiteer Mark Francois MP called for a vote this week to allow Tory MPs to demonstrate they have lost faith in Ms Mays leadership.

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

But with the party splitting behind her, she will head to Berlin for a meeting with Ms Merkel at lunchtime on Tuesday and then on to Paris later in the afternoon.

France has warned that the UK must provide a plan with clear and credible political backing in Westminster if it is to receive a further extension to the two-year Brexit process, which was initially intended to end on 29 March.

But Mr Macron has also promised that his country will never abandon Ireland, in an apparent indication that he will stop short of insisting on a no-deal Brexit this Friday  the new official departure date.

It means that to secure the delay  likely to be much longer than the one Ms May wants  the prime minister will have to give guarantees to Mr Macron that the UK will not use its continuing presence as a departing EU member to disrupt the blocs business.

One government insider said: They read the British papers in Europe, they know some people here say that if we stay in for the rest of the year we should create havoc.

In her letter to Mr Tusk on 5 April requesting an extension, Ms May laid the ground for the guarantees by promising the UK would continue to act as a constructive and responsible [EU member] in the accordance with the duty of sincere cooperation throughout this unique period.

Ahead of meetings with the two leaders expected on Tuesday, the prime minister also advocated an extension with other key figures including Dutch PM Mark Rutte, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council president Donald Tusk.

 'People have been asking me what on earth's happening with Brexit?' Theresa May gives an update

Mr Rutte said it would be crucial for the EU countries to know when and on what basis the UK would ratify its withdrawal agreement. And he said they would need assurances of sincere cooperation from London before granting an extension.

Mr Tusk has recommended a one-year extension to the Brexit process, with a break clause allowing an earlier departure if a withdrawal deal is ratified in Westminster.

Brexit talks between the government and the Labour Party were resuming on an official level on Monday evening after four days of little apparent progress.

Asked if the government was being serious about the discussions, Mr Corbyn said: Talks have to mean a movement and so far there has been no change in those red lines.

He added: We are looking for movement. Because we do not want to see a crashing out of the EU with no deal.

In jointly released statements, Downing Street and Labour said technical talks were restarting after dialogue by phone and email over the weekend, with further talks likely for Tuesday.

But the much mooted suggestion that the PM would offer Mr Corbyn a customs union as an incentive to back her Brexit deal was yet to come on Monday evening.
This week is set to be a crunch week for Brexit talks: if the UK cant get another extension, it crashes out on Friday without a deal (unless it decides to revoke Article 50). EU leaders will decide whether to grant an extension  and how long it might be  at a meeting on Wednesday in Brussels.

Heres how things will go:

Monday

Michel Barnier is visiting Ireland on Monday (AFP)

EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier has flown to Dublin for urgent talks with the Irish PM Leo Varadkar. Theyll give a press conference in the afternoon when theyre done.

Ireland  which has the most to lose from a no-deal  is the most positive of the 27 member states about granting Britain an extension, and the Taoiseach met with other EU leaders like Macron and Merkel last week to try and persuade them they shouldnt risk it.

Will Ireland be told to hold the line, or will the Commission end up shifting to help its member state? It could be a compromise, and we may not really know the outcome until later in the week.

Meanwhile in Westminster, a cross-party bill aimed preventing a no-deal Brexit is expected to get Royal assent tonight. The Cooper-Letwin bill gives MPs the power to tell the prime minister to request a longer extension of Article 50  she currently only wants a short one. This could be crucial in talks, because some EU states want the UK to accept a long extension rather than the short one the prime minister has asked for.

Tuesday

Macron and Merkel will feature on Tuesday (Getty)

EU affairs ministers from the 27 EU countries will meet in Brussels early on Tuesday morning to prepare for Wednesdays summit. These so-called general affairs council meetings are about preparing the ground for the leaders the next day.

Once the ministers have made their positions known, therell be a press conference, and depending on progress, we might have a pretty good idea of what the consensus on the continent is about an extension  or whether there is one yet.

Some hours after this, Theresa May is due to pay last-ditch visits to Emmanuel Macron in Paris and Angela Merkel in Berlin to try and persuade them of her point of request for a short extension.

Dont expect much from these visits: as we know, ministers will already have been meeting earlier in the morning and laying out their positions. There could always be a surprise, but historically, the prime ministers visits to EU capitals havent yielded any.

There's been some speculation that prime minister could use Tuesday to call for further indicative votes in parliament on the way forward, if there's no progress in talks with Labour  though it doesn't look likely at the moment.

Wednesday

Theresa May shakes hands with European Council President Donald Tusk (Reuters)

EU leaders will gather in Brussels at 6pm on Wednesday  an unusually late summit. The only thing on the agenda is whether to grant the UK a Brexit extension.

We dont know the exact format of the discussion yet, but if past precedent if anything to go by the prime minister will probably be given a chance to address the 27 leaders, who will then go off by themselves and figure it out without her present.

Given the late start and the contentiousness of the issue, we could be in a for a long night. The last couple of Brexit discussions have run very late. Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker are expected to give a press conference when the debate is finished announcing the result.

Thursday

Theresa May speaks in the House of Commons (EPA)

Whatever happens in Brussels, you can expect fall-out in Westminster on Thursday. Will there be resignations from the Cabinet? Or will things settle down?

Friday

Two Brexit protesters face off outside parliament (Getty)

Friday 12 April is currently Brexit day. Will it be Brexit day by the time it rolls around? If an extension is granted, well have a new one.
Conservative ministers vying to succeed Theresa May have sought to boost their credentials by urging the party to do more to appeal to young people.

Seven cabinet ministers widely believed to be planning leadership bids are among more than 40 MPs who have endorsed a new report calling for the Conservatives to move to the centre ground to win over younger voters.

The report, by think-tank Onward, says there are 3 million voters under the age of 35 who would consider voting Conservative if the party adopted a more moderate agenda.

It was backed by 42 Conservative MPs from the 2015 and 2017 parliamentary intakes, plus potential leadership candidates Jeremy Hunt, Sajid Javid, Michael Gove, Matt Hancock, Liz Truss, Penny Mordaunt and Dominic Raab.

The report, titled Generation Why?, found that just 16 per cent of under-35s said they would vote Conservative, although 28 per cent  around 3 million voters  said they would consider doing so if the party changed.

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The study found that the Tories support was dangerously skewed towards older voters, with the age at which a voter was more likely to vote Conservative than Labour having soared from 34 before the 2017 general election to 51 today.

Onward 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 Partys future.

The only way to regain a majority is to focus on winning over a younger generation of voters  if the Conservatives do not, they risk being pushed to the sidelines, unable to govern. But there is hope, with our report showing that there are 3 million young undecided voters who would consider voting for the party.

The study found that 83 per cent of Conservative voters were over the age of 45, with almost half (48 per cent) being older than 65.

It also found that Labour had a significant poll lead among younger voters on every policy issue. Among all voters, the Conservatives had a clear lead only on matters of defence and security, while Labour was more popular even on traditionally Tory issues such as crime, immigration and taxation.

Onward proposed a 10-point plan to win over those votes, including pledges to lower taxes, reduce the deficit, tackle inequality and control immigration. This should go hand-in-hand with a renewed focus on winning the support of female and ethnic minority voters, it said.

The proposals were endorsed by almost all of the main Conservative leadership candidates.

Who could succeed Theresa May as Conservative leader? Show all 9 1 /9 Who could succeed Theresa May as Conservative leader? Who could succeed Theresa May as Conservative leader? Boris Johnson Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson has long been hopeful, he previously stood in the leadership contest that followed the Brexit vote and has at many times since been thought to be maneuvering himself towards the goal. He remains a darling of the party's right wing, particularly those in the ERG, and is the most popular choice among Tory voters but his leadership bid would be fiercely opposed by many MPs PA Who could succeed Theresa May as Conservative leader? Michael Gove Environment secretary Michael Gove is another member who has long wanted to be leader. He has lately been known for rousing his party in the commons, his recent speeches on the Brexit deal and Labour's no confidence motion have overshadowed the Prime Minister's. He has been loyal to the Prime Minister, partly to shed his reputation as a backstabber who abandoned Boris Johnson to stand against him in the 2016 leadership election Getty Who could succeed Theresa May as Conservative leader? Dominic Raab Former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab has emerged as a favourite to be the Brexiteer candidate in a contest to succeed to Ms May. He displayed a grip on detail in his role as Brexit secretary. When asked recently if he would like to become prime minister he replied "never say never" Getty Who could succeed Theresa May as Conservative leader? Rory Stewart International development secretary Rory Stewart is pitching himself as the sensible candidate, promising to rule out both a second referendum and a no-deal Brexit. He was only recently promoted to the cabinet, previously serving as prisons minister, where he caught headlines with a pledge to resign if he could not reduce levels of violence within a year PA Who could succeed Theresa May as Conservative leader? Esther McVey The former work and pensions secretary announced that she will be standing for the leadership when May leaves. McVey is the first to explicitly state that she intends to stand. She resigned from the cabinet in protest over May's Brexit deal AFP/Getty Who could succeed Theresa May as Conservative leader? Sajid Javid Home secretary Sajid Javid is said to have a plan in place for a leadership race. He made headlines over Christmas when he declared that people smuggling over the English channel was a "major incident" and more recently when he revoked the citizenship of ISIS bride Shamima Begum. Son of a bus driver, he wants the Conservatives to be seen as the party of social mobility PA Who could succeed Theresa May as Conservative leader? Jeremy Hunt Foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt was recently thought to be the favourite in the event of a leadership race as he could sell himself as the man to unite the party. Critics worry that his long stint as health secretary could return to haunt him at a general election. He has reportedly been holding meetings with Tory MPs over breakfast to promote his leadership PA Who could succeed Theresa May as Conservative leader? Andrea Leadsom Following the Prime Minister's second defeat over her Brexit deal, Leader of the house Andrea Leadsom hosted a dinner party at which "leadership was the only topic of conversation", The Times heard. Leadsom ran against Theresa May in the 2016 leadership election before dropping out, allowing May to become Prime Minister AFP/Getty Who could succeed Theresa May as Conservative leader? Priti Patel Former international development secretary Priti Patel is thought to be positioning herself as a contender. One MP told The Independent "she knows she's from the right of the party, the part which is going to choose the next leader, so she's reminding everyone she's there." Patel left the government late in 2017 after it emerged that she had held undisclosed meetings with Israeli officials PA

Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, said: Our record in office  turning round the economy, creating 1,000 jobs a day  mean we should be the natural political home for the next generation.

Our focus on enterprise, public services, family and home ownership are values we hold in common with younger people. Its up to us to demonstrate our priorities are connected with the lives of young people today.

One of his main rivals in the race to succeed Theresa May, home secretary Sajid Javid, said: Unless we can win over younger and ethnic minority voters we cannot achieve a majority at the next election. Its as simple as that.

Health secretary Matt Hancock said the Tories had to work harder to bring people with us as we work towards a positive, optimistic and outward-looking future for the UK, while Michael Gove, the environment secretary, said: Its clear that young people want to see government taking action on the environment.

Penny Morduant, the international development secretary, suggested the Onward study showed the Tories must refocus on winning over younger generations who were turning away from the centre right in unprecedented numbers  especially the many young women who will now not even consider voting Conservative  while chief secretary to the Treasury Liz Truss said it showed young had a powerful sense of fairness and wanted to see barriers broken down [to give] everyone a fair shot in life.

 Theresa May: MPs react to PM's vow to step down

Dominic Raab, the former Brexit secretary, said it was absolutely crucial that Conservatives broadened the partys appeal among young aspirational voters.

The report was published as several leadership hopefuls made fresh pitches for support.

Writing in the Sunday Times, Mr Hancock said the Conservatives needed to show the compassion and human connection that drove so many younger people. Nobody wants to hang out with the person always pointing out the problems, rather than the one hopeful about the solutions, he said.

Ms Truss, meanwhile, told BBC Radio 5Live she was not thinking about the leadership but was instead talking about ideas and concentrating on how the Conservative Party could reinvent itself.

Speculation about a potential pact between Amber Rudd and Boris Johnson grew when senior Brexiteer Jacob-Rees Mogg, who is reported to be backing Mr Johnsons bid to be party leader, poured praise on the pro-EU work and pensions secretarys first-class capabilities and said there would soon be a time when we will need all the talents that are arrayed within the Tory party, not just those of Brexiteers.

Asked about a possible leadership bid, House of Commons leader Andrea Leadsom told the BBCs Andrew Marr Show she would be thinking about that when the time came.
Social media companies including Facebook and Twitter will be legally required to protect their users under government plans to introduce a regulator.

The long-awaited government proposal, which would also see bosses of companies personally liable for harmful content on their platform, will ensure internet firms meet their responsibilities, which will be outlined by a mandatory duty of care.

The era of self-regulation for online companies is over, culture secretary Jeremy Wright said.

Voluntary actions from industry to tackle online harms have not been applied consistently or gone far enough.

The joint white paper from the Home Office and Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport says the regulator will have the power to issue substantial fines, block access to sites and potentially impose liability on individual members of senior management.

Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Show all 15 1 /15 Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Facebook is born On 4 Feb, 2004, 19-year-old Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg launched a website called 'TheFacebook' from his dorm. Within 24 hours the college social network had more than 1,000 users Wikimedia Commons Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Winklevoss twins sue Zuckerberg Within one week of launching, fellow Harvard students Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narendra accused Zuckerberg of stealing their idea. It would be four years later when the resulting lawsuit was finally settled Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Open for business The social network finally opened it platform to everyone on 26 September, 2006. The move proved the catalyst in supercharging the site's already explosive growth PA Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Billion-dollar bid Yahoo offered $1 billion to buy Facebook in September 2006 but Zuckerberg turned it down. 'I dont know what I could do with the money,' Zuckerberg reportedly said. 'Id just start another social networking site' Reuters Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network In the money In September 2009, almost five years since the site launched, Facebook turned a profit for the first time Getty Images/iStockphoto Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Taking the lead Facebook overtook MySpace in 2010 to become the worlds most popular social network Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Taking on the tech giants In 2011, Google launched its own social network that it hoped would knock Facebook from its perch. Despite its initial success, Google+ ultimately failed and will be shut down completely in 2019 Getty Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Facebook goes public On 18 May, 2012, Facebook went public. The initial public offering raised $16 billion  the third largest in US history Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Gobbling up the competition Facebook acquired Instagram in April 2012 for $1 billion, consolidating its position as the world's leading social network Reuters Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network One billion users On 4 October, 2012, Zuckerberg announced that Facebook had hit 1 billion users. 'If youre reading this: thank you for giving me and my little team the honour of serving you,' he wrote in a blog post Getty Images Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Expanding its empire In February 2014 Facebook acquired the messaging app WhatsApp for $19.3 billion REUTERS/Dado Ruvic Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Two billion users In June 2017, Facebook passed the 2 billion user milestone REUTERS/Dado Ruvic Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Privacy scandal On 17 March 2018, news broke that UK firm Cambridge Analytica had harvested data from around 87 million Facebook users for the purpose of political profiling in the build up to the 2016 US presidential elections Shutterstock Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Record profits Despite the scandals and subsequent #DeleteFacebook campaign, Facebook posted record profits just before its 15th anniversary, the equivalent of $7.37 from each of its 2.32 billions users iStock/Independent Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Unhappy users A study found that people are happier when they dont use Facebook, adding to mounting evidence surrounding the impact social media has on mental health Rex Features

The government is currently consulting on whether a new regulator is needed to enforce the rules or if they should use an existing one such as Ofcom.

The measures come amid concerns about the growth of violent content, disinformation and inappropriate material online.

In March, the father of Molly Russell urged the government to introduce regulation on social media platforms in response to the suicide of his 14-year-old daughter, who was found to have viewed content related to depression and suicide on Instagram before her death.

Prime minister Theresa May said the proposals were a result of social media companies failure to self-regulate.

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.

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.

The regulation will be applicable to companies of all sizes  from social media platforms to file hosting sites, forum, messaging services and search engines.

The proposal also calls for powers to force internet firms to publish annual transparency reports about the harmful content on their platforms and how they are addressing it.

Companies including Facebook and Twitter already publish reports of this nature.

In March, Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg wrote an op-ed calling for governments to play a more active role in establishing regulation for the internet.

The home secretary, Sajid Javid, said 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.

 Guy Verhofstadt calls Mark Zuckerberg 'a genius who has created a digital monster'

However, former culture secretary John Whittingdale warned ministers risk creating a draconian censorship regime in their attempt to regular internet firms.

He feared the plans would send the wrong message to other countries which censor their 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.

He added that the UK regulator must not give the despots an excuse to claim that they are simply following an example set by Britain.

Daniel Dyball, UK executive director at the Internet Association, criticised the current scope of the proposals for being extremely wide, which could hinder their implementation.

The internet industry is committed to working together with government and civil society to ensure the UK is a safe place to be online. But to do this we need proposals that are targeted and practical to implement for platforms both big and small, he said.

We also need to protect freedom of speech and the services consumers love. The scope of the recommendations is extremely wide, and decisions about how we regulate what is and is not allowed online should be made by parliament.

The proposal received a positive response from childrens charities which have campaigned for regulation.

Peter Wanless, chief executive of the NSPCC, said it would make the UK a world pioneer in protecting children online, and Barnardos chief executive Javed Khan said the announcement was an important step in the right direction.

Anne Longfield, the Childrens Commissioner for England, welcomed the proposed legislation but added that it needed to be backed up by robust penalties.

The social media companies have spent too long ducking responsibility for the content they host online and ensuring those using their apps are the appropriate age, she said.

Any new regulator must have bite. Companies who fail in their responsibilities must face both significant financial penalties and a duty to publicly apologise for their actions, and set out how they will prevent mistakes happening in the future.

In response to the proposals, Facebooks UK head of public policy Rebecca Stimson said the company was looking forward to working with the government to ensure the regulation is effective.

A 12-week consultation will now take place before the government publishes its final proposals for legislation.

Agencies contributed to this report
Mozambique has confirmed more than 3,100 cases of cholera since the outbreak was declared weeks ago in the wake of Cyclone Idai.

Six people have died from the acute diarrhoeal disease in the past two weeks after the floods left tens of thousands of people stranded in camps with few toilets and little clean water.

Health workers are now battling to carry out a mass vaccination in the storm-hit city of Beira following a delivery of nearly 900,000 doses last week.

It has been described as the most ambitious campaign ever conducted using the one-dose oral cholera vaccine strategy by the humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders.

The UN specialist coordinating the relief effort, Julien Graveleau, said he was quite optimistic of success despite the challenges.

Of course, the numbers will be increasing but I believe were ready for it, he added.

Aftermath of Cyclone Idai Show all 19 1 /19 Aftermath of Cyclone Idai Aftermath of Cyclone Idai dec-Cyclone-Idai-3-0.JPG Josh Estey/Care Aftermath of Cyclone Idai dec-Cyclone-Idai-12-0.jpg Karel Prinsloo/Disasters Emergency Committee Aftermath of Cyclone Idai dec-Cyclone-Idai-2-0.jpg Karel Prinsloo/Disasters Emergency Committee Aftermath of Cyclone Idai dec-Cyclone-Idai-10-0.jpg Karel Prinsloo/Disasters Emergency Committee Aftermath of Cyclone Idai dec-Cyclone-Idai-15-0.jpg Josh Estey/Care Aftermath of Cyclone Idai dec-Cyclone-Idai-14-0.jpg Josh Estey/Care Aftermath of Cyclone Idai dec-Cyclone-Idai-19-0.jpg Karel Prinsloo/Disasters Emergency Committee Aftermath of Cyclone Idai dec-Cyclone-Idai-9-0.jpg Karel Prinsloo/Disasters Emergency Committee Aftermath of Cyclone Idai dec-Cyclone-Idai-11-0.jpg KB Mpofu/Christian Aid Aftermath of Cyclone Idai dec-Cyclone-Idai-16-0.jpg Josh Estey/Care Aftermath of Cyclone Idai dec-Cyclone-Idai-1-0.jpg Josh Estey/Care Aftermath of Cyclone Idai dec-Cyclone-Idai-4-0.jpg Corrie Butler/British Red Cross Aftermath of Cyclone Idai dec-Cyclone-Idai-6-0.jpg Karel Prinsloo/Disasters Emergency Committee Aftermath of Cyclone Idai dec-Cyclone-Idai-5-0.jpg Corrie Butler/British Red Cross Aftermath of Cyclone Idai dec-Cyclone-Idai-13-0.jpg Karel Prinsloo/Disasters Emergency Committee Aftermath of Cyclone Idai dec-Cyclone-Idai-7-0.jpg Richard Nyoni/Christian Aid Aftermath of Cyclone Idai dec-Cyclone-Idai-18-0.jpg Karel Prinsloo/Disasters Emergency Committee Aftermath of Cyclone Idai dec-Cyclone-Idai-8-0.jpg Karel Prinsloo/Disasters Emergency Committee Aftermath of Cyclone Idai dec-Cyclone-Idai-17-0.jpg Josh Estey/Care

Mozambiques health ministry said that more than 70 per cent of the vaccines had been administered by Sunday morning, partly thanks to megaphone-wielding promoters handing out doses in busy streets in Beira and elsewhere.

At the citys popular Shoprite grocery, people knocked back the doses like shots in a bar and walked on.

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We were prepared really for the worst, said Francisca Baptista da Silva, a project coordinator for Doctors Without Borders. But for the moment we are controlling it.

Outside one cholera treatment centre in the Beira neighbourhood of Pioneros, a woman sold bottled water while passersby stepped carefully around fetid pools of water in the street.

Its a big problem, said Rosa Zimbane, who reported herself healthy so far, as an ambulance arrived carrying two women with small children.

Treatment for cholera can involve simple rehydration but the disease can kill within hours and more severe cases need intravenous drips.

Inside the centre more than a dozen people lay on beds with two buckets at the ready. One was for vomiting.

Dr Katrien Duquet, also of Doctors Without Borders, said that they had seen fewer cases of cholera than expected overall.

It never spiked to the level we thought, she said. But people are still afraid of cholera. We are not claiming this is over.

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In the village of Bopira more than 1,300 people have been drinking from the local pond and other muddy pools left behind by Cyclone Idai.

The vaccine is normally given in two spaced-out doses but a single dose, which offers six months of coverage, is effective in emergencies, according to the charity.

At least 847 people have been reported killed by Cyclone Idai and the associated flooding across Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi since it made landfall in Beira on 14 March. More than 3 million people have been affected, mostly in Mozambique.

Additional reporting by agencies
A hunter who has killed more than 5,000 elephants and 50 hippos has said he is 10,000 times unrepentant.

Zimbabwean Ron Thomson has been identified as a prolific wildlife hunter in a new report revealing how elephant populations have plummeted by about two-thirds.

As well as thousands of elephants, the 80-year-old states on his website he has also shot dead more than 800 buffalo, up to 60 lions (including six man-eaters), up to 40 leopards, about 50 hippos and many more.

The father of two, who spent his life as a game ranger in African national parks, denied being motivated by bloodlust and insisted he killed to help populations survive.

If key species were not reduced, their growing numbers would destroy their own habitats, Mr Thomson said.

Wildlife photographer of the year Show all 26 1 /26 Wildlife photographer of the year Wildlife photographer of the year A polar bear's struggle - Highly Commended Justins whole body pained as he watched this starving polar bear at an abandoned hunter's camp, in the Canadian Arctic, slowly heave itself up to standing. With little, and thinning, ice to move around on, the bear is unable to search for food. Justin Hofman / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Curious Encounter - Shortlisted Cristobal Serrano, Spain. Any close encounter with an animal in the vast wilderness of Antarctica happens by chance, so Cristobal was thrilled by this spontaneous meeting with a crabeater seal off of Cuverville Island, Antarctic Peninsula. These curious creatures are protected and, with few predators, thrive. Cristobal Serrano / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Bond of brothers - Winner David Lloyd, New Zealand / UK. These two adult males, probably brothers, greeted and rubbed faces for 30 seconds before settling down. Most people never have the opportunity to witness such animal sentience, and David was honoured to have experienced and captured such a moment.The picture was taken in Ndutu, Serengeti, Tanzania. David Lloyd / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Fox meets fox - Highly Commended Matthew Maran, UK. Matthew has been photographing foxes close to his home in north London for over a year and ever since spotting this street art had dreamt of capturing this image. After countless hours and many failed attempts his persistence paid off. Matthew Maran / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Three Kings - Highly Commended Wim Van Den Heever, South Africa. Wim came across these king penguins on a beach in the Falkland Islands just as the sun was rising. They were caught up in a fascinating mating behaviour the two males were constantly moving around the female using their flippers to fend the other off. Wim Van Den Heever / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year One toy, three dogs - Highly Commended Bence Mate, Hungary. While adult African wild dogs are merciless killers, their pups are extremely cute and play all day long. Bence photographed these brothers in Mkuze, South Africa they all wanted to play with the leg of an impala and were trying to drag it in three different directions! Bence Mate / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Clam Close-up - Shortlisted David Barrio, Spain. This macro-shot of an iridescent clam was taken in the Southern Red Sea, Marsa Alam, Egypt. These clams spend their lives embedded amongst stony corals, where they nest and grow. It took David some time to approach the clam, fearing it would sense his movements and snap shut! David Barrio / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year The Orphaned Beaver - Shortlisted Suzi Eszterhas, United States. A one-month-old orphaned North American beaver kit is held by a caretaker at the Sarvey Wildlife Care Center in Arlington, Washington. Luckily it was paired with a female beaver who took on the role of mother and they were later released into the wild. Suzi Eszterhas / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Ice and Water - Shortlisted Audun Lie Dahl, Norway. The Brasvellbreen glacier moves southwards from one of the ice caps covering the Svalbard Archipelago, Norway. Where it meets the sea, the glacier wall is so high that only the waterfalls are visible, so Audun used a drone to capture this unique perspective Audun Lie Dahl / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Teenager - Shortlisted Franco Banfi, Switzerland. Franco was free diving off Dominica in the Caribbean Sea when he witnessed this young male sperm whale trying to copulate with a female. Unfortunately for him her calf was always in the way and the frisky male had to continually chase off the troublesome calf. Franco Banfi / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Resting Mountain Gorilla - Shortlisted David Lloyd. The baby gorilla clung to its mother whilst keeping a curious eye on David. He had been trekking in South Bwindi, Uganda, whenhe came across the whole family. Following them, they then stopped in a small clearing to relax and groom each other. David Lloyd / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Painted Waterfall - Shorltisted Eduardo Blanco Mendizabal, Spain. When the sun beams through a hole in the rock at the foot of the La Foradada waterfall, Catalonia, Spain, it creates a beautiful pool of light. The rays appear to paint the spray of the waterfall and create a truly magical picture. Eduardo Blanco Mendizabal / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year The Extraction - Shortlisted Konstantin Shatenev, Russia. Every winter, hundreds of Steller's sea eagles migrate from Russia, to the relatively ice-free northeastern coast of Hokkaido, Japan. They hunt for fish among the ices floes and also scavenge, following the fishing boats to feed on any discards. Konstantin took his image from a boat as the eagles retrieved a dead fish thrown onto the ice. Konstantin Shatenev / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Shy - Shortlisted Pedro Carrillo, Spain. The mesmerizing pattern of a beaded sand anemone beautifully frames a juvenile Clarkii clownfish in Lembehstrait, Sulawesi, Indonesia. Known as a 'nursery' anemone, it is often a temporary home for young clownfish until they find a more suitable host anemone for adulthood. Pedro Carrillo / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Red, Silver and Black - Shortlisted TinMan Lee, USA. Tin was fortunate enough to be told about a fox den in Washington State, North America, which was home to a family of red, black and silver foxes. After days of waiting for good weather he was finally rewarded with this touching moment. Tin Man Lee / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Isolated - Shortlisted Anna Henly, UK. Snapped from a helicopter, this isolated tree stands in a cultivated field on the edge of a tropical forest on Kauai, Hawaii. The manmade straight lines of the ploughed furrows are interrupted beautifully by natures more unruly wild pattern of tree branches. Anna Henly / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Sound Asleep - Shortlisted Tony Wu, USA. This adult humpback whale balanced in mid-water, headon and sound asleep was photographed in Vavau, Kingdom of Tonga. The faint stream of bubbles, visible at the top, is coming from the whales two blowholes and was, in this instance, indicative of an extremely relaxed state. Tony Wu / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year All That Remains - Shortlisted Phil Jones, UK. A male orca had beached itself about a week before Phils visit to Sea Lion Island, Falkland Islands. Despite its huge size the shifting sands had almost covered the whole carcass and scavengers, such as this striated caracara, had started to move in. Phil Jones / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Ambush - Shortlisted Federico Veronesi, Kenya. On a hot morning at the Chitake Springs, in Mana Pools National Park, Zimbabwe, Federico watched as an old lioness descended from the top of the riverbank. Shed been lying in wait to ambush any passing animals visiting a nearby waterhole further along the riverbed. Federico Veronesi / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Gliding - Shortlisted Christian Vizl, Mexico. With conditions of perfect visibility and beautiful sunlight, Christian took this portrait of a nurse shark gliding through the ocean off the coast of Bimini in the Bahamas. Typically these sharks are found near sandy bottoms where they rest, so its rare to see them swimming. Christian Vizl / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Otherworldly - Shortlisted A school of Munk's devil ray were feeding on plankton at night off the coast of Isla Espiritu Santo in Baja California, Mexico. Franco used the underwater lights from his boat and a long exposure to create this otherworldly image. Franco Banfi / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year The Bats Wake - Shortlisted Antonio Leiva Sanchez, Spain. After several months of field research into a little colony of greater mouse-eared bats in Sucs, Lleida, Spain, Antonio managed to capture this bat mid-flight. He used a technique of high speed photography with flashes combined with continuous light to create the wake. Antonio Leiva Sanchez / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Under the Snow - Shortlisted Audren Morel, France. Unafraid of the snowy blizzard, this squirrel came to visit Audren as he was taking photographs of birds in the small Jura village of Les Fourgs, France. Impressed by the squirrels endurance, he made it the subject of the shoot. Audren Morel / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Unique Bill - Shortlisted Rob Blanken, The Netherlands. The pied avocet has a unique and delicate bill, which it sweeps like a scythe, as it sifts for food in shallow brackish water. This stunning portrait was taken from a hide in the northern province of Friesland in The Netherlands. Rob Blanken / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year Family Portrait - Shortlisted Connor Stefanison, Canada. A great grey owl and her chicks sit in their nest in the broken top of a Douglas fir tree in Kamloops, Canada. They looked towards Connor only twice as he watched them during the nesting season from a tree hide 50 feet (15 metres) up. Connor Stefanison / Natural History Museum Wildlife photographer of the year A dog jumps to catch a disc during a dog frisbee competition in Poznan via REUTERS

He also accused western conservationists of spreading fraudulent lies to extract money from the public while understanding nothing about managing wildlife.

Elephant numbers have sunk from about 1.3 million in the 1980s to about 400,000, according to an investigation by the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting (CBTH).

The Great Elephant Census, finalised in 2016, showed 352,271 African savanna elephants in 18 countries, down 30 per cent in seven years.<r

Mr Thomson denied being a trophy-hunter or culling animals, arguing his job was major population reduction.

He said he no longer regularly hunts but may do so if invited. Ive done enough in my lifetime to satisfy any bloodlust people may think I have. It wasnt bloodlust  it was my job," he said.

When he raised a rifle to an animal, he thought Ive got to kill it absolutely with one shot, he told The Independent.

I didnt have any sentiment. Im totally unrepentant, a hundred  ten thousand  times over for any of the hunting Ive done because thats not the problem. The problem is weve got a bunch of so-called experts from the West telling us what to do. Im a trained university ecologist  I must surely know something about this.

Recommended Surge in African elephant killings for ivory leads to drop in numbers

I wish I could take you by the shoulders and shake you hard and say dont assume everything youve heard is correct, he said. The African elephant is nowhere near extinct. People who say this are animal-right-ist NGOs who ask for money and tell lies to get it. When you have a healthy population you must ensure they dont increase beyond the capacity of their habitat.

The CBTH found 1.7 million trophies were legally traded between 2004 and 2014, including 200,000 from threatened species.

Lions fared worst, suffering the biggest increase in trophy hunting among key species since 2004.

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Eduardo Goncalves, founder of the campaign, said: Trophy hunting is a cruel and abhorrent hangover from colonial times. The recent surge in elephant hunting shows the industry is out of control.

Operations sometimes overstock but that is rare in natural populations, he said.

The African elephant population as a whole is in very serious decline," he said. There are numerous instances of management culling being used as a cover for trophy-hunting. Hunting and culling can create more human-wildlife conflict issues than they solve. If you remove a mature elephant bull from a herd, young males often display behaviour similar to juvenile delinquency among humans. This causes more conflict and persecution.
Authorities are looking for someone who shot and killed a female bald eagle last month in Arkansas.

The eagle  the national emblem of the US  was found in Drew County in southeastern Arkansas on March 28, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

After it was found, the body of the bird was taken to Little Rock Zoo, where it was revealed to have died from gunshot wounds, according to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

The female eagles body was found near a nest, and it is believed that the bird was tending the nest at the time of death, the AGFC said.

The AGFC also said a joint investigation has been launched and a reward of up to $6,000 is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible.

Endangered African grey parrots trafficked for the pet trade Show all 10 1 /10 Endangered African grey parrots trafficked for the pet trade Endangered African grey parrots trafficked for the pet trade African greys during transportation Endangered African grey parrots trafficked for the pet trade An African grey parrot kept as a pet in Scotland World Animal Protection Endangered African grey parrots trafficked for the pet trade Birds caged in Qatar; feather plucking caused by stress and boredom is common in captive birds World Animal Protection Endangered African grey parrots trafficked for the pet trade An African grey parrot kept as a pet in Scotland World Animal Protection Endangered African grey parrots trafficked for the pet trade An African grey parrot kept as a pet in Scotland World Animal Protection Endangered African grey parrots trafficked for the pet trade An African grey parrot kept as a pet in Scotland World Animal Protection Endangered African grey parrots trafficked for the pet trade Poached African greys are caged before being taken to Kinshasa, from where they are trafficked World Animal Protection Endangered African grey parrots trafficked for the pet trade Birds being put in a basket for transport to market TL2 project / Lukuru foundation Endangered African grey parrots trafficked for the pet trade African greys crammed into crates for transportation Endangered African grey parrots trafficked for the pet trade African greys crammed into crates

In the US, the bald eagle is protected by the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Lacey Act.

Although the species was removed from the list of endangered species in 2007, it is still illegal to harm one of the birds, with those found guilty of killing or injuring a bald eagle facing possible prison time.

In addition to a maximum sentence of two years in prison, perpetrators also face a fine of $250,000 under the law.

The bald eagle has been the emblem of the US since 1782 and is meant to represent freedom.

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Authorities are urging anyone with information to contact the AGFCs Stop Poaching Hotline at 800-482-9262.
Jair Bolsonaros administration is considering axing an independent panel for Brazils environmental policy in a move that activists warn could lead to increased deforestation, documents have revealed.

Brazils president proposed creating a government council of political appointees to replace the National Council of the Environment (known as Conama), which has almost 100 members, including representatives of independent environmental and business groups.

Conama helps protect the 60 per cent of the Amazon rainforest that is in Brazil, which scientists see as crucial for efforts to slow global warming.

The new body, proposed in a policy roadmap drafted by Mr Bolsonaros transition team, would consist of five presidential appointees and environment minister Ricardo Salles  one of the authors of the plan.

The documents, first published by the Brazilian Climate Observatory environmental group, were obtained and verified by the Associated Press.

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

Brazils Environment Ministry did not reply to a request for comment.

Part of the transition plan has already come into force. The countrys forestry service, aimed at promoting knowledge, sustainable use and widening of forestry coverage, was transferred to the agriculture ministry on Mr Bolsonaros second day in office.

On the same day, the agriculture ministry was given the power to determine the limits of indigenous lands, rather than Brazils official indigenous rights agency.

As a congressman and candidate, Mr Bolsonaro often questioned the reality of climate change and cast environmental groups as foreign-influenced meddlers restraining Brazils economic growth by holding back mining and agriculture.

Recommended How Jair Bolsonaro can be stopped from trashing the Amazon rainforest

His stance has similarities to the views of Donald Trump, who before taking office described the US Environmental Protection Agency as a disgrace that largely should be dismantled.

The authors of Mr Bolsonaros transition plan say Conama is a confusing body that acts emotionally, without due technique, being subjected to ideological interference.

In another transition team document, lawyer Antonio Fernando Pinheiro Pedro argues that its decisions have led to the emission of norms and standards that are far from reality.

In an interview shortly after his election, Mr Bolsonaro complained that it could sometimes take a decade to get an environmental licence. That will not continue, he said.

While officials have not yet formally proposed the smaller council, there has already been increased friction over Conama. Security guards blocked alternate members of the council from joining the main meeting at a March session in the capital of Brasilia, breaking a long tradition of wide-open debate in Brazils top environmental council.

Carlos Rittl, executive secretary of the Brazilian Climate Observatory, which includes several nonprofit groups, said he believed that chaotic meeting was more evidence that the plan (for a smaller council) is indeed being implemented.

Deforestation ended 2018 on the rise. It is on the rise in 2019, but we havent heard a word from the minister about that. We have heard about limiting the access to civil society so we cant have a fair discussion, Mr Rittl said.

 Channel 4's Carnival Wars looks at Bolsonaro's impact on the country's LGBT community

Former environment minister Rubens Ricupero speculated the new administration may have delayed creating the new council because of public anger over the collapse of a mine dam near the city of Brumadinho in January that killed at least 223 people, with 70 still missing.

Mr Ricupero noted Mr Bolsonaros chief of staff suggested closing the environmental ministry during the campaign, but said that the powerful agribusiness lobby was afraid such a move would damage trade and has prevented any such move.

The Bolsonaro transition plan also suggested closing the federal agency that oversees conservation zones, such as national parks and biological reserves, and issues fines for violation of environmental laws there. Many of those penalties are never paid, but several Brazilian agribusiness leaders have complained about them over the years.

Pinheiro Pedro, the transition team lawyer, wrote that the agency should be folded into the Environment Institute, which enforces other environmental legislation and aims to promote the sustainable the use of natural resources. He said the two have the same objective and streamlining environmental governance is key to avoid international interference.

Mr Rittl, of the Brazilian Climate Observatory, said he believed that change would reduce oversight in key areas by diluting the focus of regulators.

Environmentalists also criticised the language used in the transition documents, though the tone echoes Mr Bolsonaros own pronouncements.

The plan says NGOs involved in climate change discussions are uncontrollable organisms that need to be stopped so the system is closer to ministerial control. It also contends Brazils environmental governance is crafted to give jobs to political appointees, describing that as a risk to national sovereignty.

Emilio Bruna, a tropical ecologist focused on the Amazon who is based at the University of Florida, said the transition plan showed the worst fears about Mr Bolsonaros presidency were starting to come true.

Scientists are not only concerned about the government not creating new protected areas, but also the downgrading of existing protections in the rainforest, he said.

There was already a culture of impunity, but now its being reinforced.

Agencies contributed to this report
A Democratic congressman from California is said to be set to enter the 2020 presidential race on a platform of gun control, and is to receive the backing of a survivor of the Parkland school shooting.

Reports say Eric Swalwell with make the announcement on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, where he is due to appear with Cameron Kasky.

Mr Kasky was among the survivors of the shooting last year at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in which 17 students and staff were killed and a further 17 injured.

Mr Swalwell, 34, who represents Californias 15th congressional district, said last week he believed gun control needed to be at the top of everybodys mind as the country prepared for the 2020 elections.

He told The Atlantic he would be taking part in a so-called town hall event with Mr Kasky close to the scene of the February 2028 shooting.

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

We are doing a town hall in Parkland, he said. And I do believe that gun safety has to be a top 2020 issue.

The congressman, who has recently been visiting the politically crucial state of Iowa ahead of a possible run, has been among the leading campaigners for tightening regulations surrounding firearms that in 2018 killed at least 14,611 Americans.

That figure did not include cases of suicide.

 Parkland survivor David Hogg tells Donald Trump 40,000 Americans dying a year from gun violence 'a pretty damn good' national emergency

Last year, he said the government should outlaw military-style semiautomatic assault weapons that are used in many of the mass shootings that plague the country.

He said existing owners should be forced to sell their weapons to the government of else face prosecution, a major departure from prior gun control proposals.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 8)  Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea downplayed criticisms raised over an investigative report on President Rodrigo Duterte's family wealth.

In a statement Monday, Medialdea argued that the presidential family members' Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth that were used by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism in its reports were submitted years prior to Duterte's term as chief executive.

"The SALNs covered by their request have been submitted years before (Duterte) became President and are not in the possession of OP (Office of the President)," Medialdea said.

The series of reports conducted by the 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 their SALNs.

READ: Duterte slams investigative journalists for probe into family's wealth: 'Pera-pera lang 'yan'

The reports likewise found that Sara Duterte-Carpio's law firm with her husband Atty. Mans Carpio was not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission despite being in business for 10 years.

The PCIJ added the three Dutertes saw "spikes" in wealth while in public office.

Medialdea, however, noted how critics and detractors have been "nitpicking" on the President's SALN.

"They have tried to make an issue out of even the minutest detail in hopes to pin the President for some wrongdoing but to their dismay their efforts had all failed," the Executive Secretary said.

"The President remains committed to his cause to eradicate corruption and rid of the govt of corrupt officials."

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo, on the other hand, insisted the Duterte family has "properly" declared their assets.

"Kung hindi niya dineclare (if he did not declare), that's the time na (that) he should be explaining and (he) should be prosecuted for not putting that in the SALN. He already explained it. He said whatever money he has, it came from his mother," Panelo said in his media briefing Monday.

"What is prohibited is when you do not declare your assets. But he has declared them, so what is the hulabaloo?" he added.

Panelo added the Duterte family members also have businesses, which have contributed to their wealth over the years.

CNN Philippines' Ina Andolong contributed to this report.
Bernie Sanders has emerged as an early front-runner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination as candidates battle for support in a crowded field.

The Vermont senator, who launched a surprisingly strong challenge against Hillary Clinton in 2016, is hoping to build on the momentum from his last presidential campaign.

Mr Sanders has surpassed his rivals in early fundraising, earning $18.2m (14m) in the first six weeks of the 2020 campaign, and has developed a sophisticated campaign team since his first run.

Following his 2016 campaign, he created the political group Our Revolution, which has collected information on voters and organised events in early voting states.

The organisation has helped establish Mr Sanders as a figurehead for progressive Democrats, helping to elect candidates such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib in the 2018 midterms.

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

Mr Sanders won more than 20 primary contests against Ms Clinton in 2016 as a clear outsider and supporters argue popular demand for the senator's brand of self-described democratic socialism has not decreased.

"Donald Trump campaigned on economic terms as faux Bernie Sanders. It was taking his language and selling it to the American people," said Faiz Shakir, Mr Sanders' campaign manager.

"And now how do you defeat faux Bernie Sanders? You defeat him with real Bernie Sanders."

However, some Democrats worry weaknesses in Mr Sanders 2016 campaign remain, such as criticism that his team was too heavily white and male and concerns that his left-wing policy platform could turn away swing voters.

Despite enthusiasm for Mr Sanders' campaign, critics also say he performed poorly with black voters who overwhelmingly backed Ms Clinton in 2016.

Notably, Mr Sanders lost the South Carolina primary by more than 45 points.

"I understand that a lot of people took a lot of things out of the South Carolina results," Mr Shakir said.

"We are going to continue to court and address these issues directly, but we are operating with a great deal of confidence that this is going to be a particular demographic that supports Bernie Sanders at the end of the day."

Sanders advisers have argued he has addressed the weakness by working to build relationships with black leaders in South Carolina and other Southern states, while making racial inequality and criminal justice more prominent issues in his campaigning.

Campaign officials also argue that his 2020 team will be more diverse with current campaign staff reportedly being majority female and 40 per cent people of colour.

We were criticised for being too white; that was a correct criticism, Mr Sanders said on the Breakfast Club radio show in March.

We were criticised for being too male; that was a correct criticism. Thats going to change.

 Bernie Sanders says 'thousands of people will literally die' if Donald Trump scraps Affordable Care Act

In early polling, Mr Sanders has shown his popularity from 2016 has not disappeared, as polling averages put him up to 10 percentage points above other declared Democrats.

However, he is still behind former vice-president Joe Biden, who has indicated that he is planning to run but has not formerly announced a campaign.

Critics also argue Mr Sanders' position in polling is partly due to name recognition at this point, with himself and Mr Biden being the two most well-known candidates.

In a large field of candidates, other Democrats such as senators Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Cory Booker could challenge once they receive more national coverage.

Other outsider candidates, such as Beto ORourke and Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg, could also pose a threat, much like Mr Sanders did to Ms Clinton in 2016.

While Mr Sanders has become a household name in US politics, he is not universally liked by Democrats, with some blaming him for Ms Clinton's election defeat to Mr Trump.

Some also note that progressive candidates he endorsed in the 2018 midterms, such as Stacey Abrams and Andrew Gillum, were defeated.

Voting in the Democratic presidential primary is not set to begin until February 2020.
Ilhan Omar asked God to forgive Donald Trump for attacking her just hours after the arrest of a Trump supporter who threatened to kill the Democratic congresswoman.

A man from New York was arrested on Friday after the FBI said he phoned up Ms Omars office and told a staff member: Why are you working for her, shes a f***ing terrorist. Ill put a bullet in her f***ing skull.

He later told bureau investigators he loves the president and that he hates radical Muslims in our government, according to a criminal complaint filed by prosecutors.

Shortly after his arrest, Mr Trump mocked Ms Omar at a Republican Jewish Coalition event in Las Vegas. Pretending to thank the congresswoman for supporting Israel, he said: Special thanks to Representative Omar of Minnesota. Oh, I forgot. She doesnt like Israel. I forgot. Im so sorry.

Ms Omar responded late on Saturday, tweeting in both English and Arabic, My Lord, forgive my people for they do not know; a phrase echoing Jesus last words in the Gospel of Luke: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.

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

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.

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, later apologised for the comments.

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.
Kirstjen Nielsen, the US homeland security secretary who helped enforce President Trump's zero-tolerance immigration policies, has resigned amid claims of a contentious working relationship with the US leader.

According to The New York Times, Ms Nielson has had a rough ride since she took the job in December 2017 and was "regularly berated" by Trump, who is said to have demanded that she take a more aggressive approach to tighten immigration.

During her tenure, Ms Nielsen became the face of the Trump administrations hard-line immigration policy, under which anyone who crossed Americas border illegally was referred to the Justice Department for prosecution.

She was notably tasked with defending Trumps plan to build a wall on the border with Mexico and the separation of migrant children from their families.

In May 2018, it was reported that she drafted her resignation letter after Trump berated her in front of other Cabinet secretaries over the influx of migrant crossings at the border.

'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 is said to have criticised her after she hesitated for weeks about whether to sign a memo ordering the routine separation of migrant children from their families so that the parents could be detained.

Despite her loyalty, leaks from the White House in November 2018 suggested she would be out by the end of the year as Trump allegedly complained constantly about her performance.

She was reportedly asked to close all ports of entry and stop allowing individuals requesting asylum into the country, a move she reportedly did not support or consider effective.

A senior administration official told CNN that Ms Nielsen believed the situation was becoming untenable with the President becoming increasingly unhinged about the border crisis and making unreasonable and even impossible requests.

In her resignation letter, Ms Nielson placed blame on Congress and courts for the ongoing border crisis, saying limitations were imposed on her department.

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. Our country and the men and women of DHS deserve to have all the tools and resources they need to execute the mission entrusted to them.

Bennie Thompson, the Democratic chairman of the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, said Ms Nielsens tenure at DHS was a disaster from the start but insisted she couldnt be used as a scapegoat for Trumps cruel policies.

It is clearer now than ever that the Trump administration's border security and immigration policies  that she enacted and helped craft  have been an abysmal failure and have helped create the humanitarian crisis at the border, Mr Thompson said in a statement.

It is truly unfortunate that Nielsen refused to take responsibility for her actions and was simply unable to lead and stand up to the president for his misguided, wall obsessed anti-immigrant agenda.

The president publicly thanked Ms Nielsen for her service in a tweet on Sunday night.

I am pleased to announce that Kevin McAleenan, the current US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner, will become Acting Secretary. I have confidence that Kevin will do a great job!

She is the latest high-profile figures to leave his administration.
US homeland security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has resigned, Donald Trump announced on Twitter.

The president publicly thanked Ms Nielsen for her service in a tweet on Sunday night.

He said that US customs and border protection commissioner Kevin McAleenan would step into the role in the interim.

The reason for Ms Nielsens departure is not yet clear. The 46-year-old had held the position since December 2017.

Her resignation later did not contain a hint of controversy, unlike others who have left the Trump administration.

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

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.

Ms Nielsen travelled to the US-Mexico border on Friday with Mr Trump to participate in a roundtable with border officers and local law enforcement.

There she echoed the presidents comments on the situation at the border, though she ducked out of the room without explanation for some time while Mr Trump spoke.

As they toured a section of newly rebuilt barriers, Ms Nielsen was at Mr Trumps side, introducing him to local officials.

There have been persistent tensions between the White House and Ms Nielsen almost from the moment she became secretary, after her predecessor, John Kelly, became the White House chief of staff.

She 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 General Kelly left the White House last year, Ms Nielsens days appeared to be numbered. She had expected to be pushed out last November, but her exit never materialised.

During the government shutdown over Trump's insistence for funding for a border wall, her 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.

During her tenure, Ms Nielsen had to defend a number of Mr Trumps controversial policies, such as his plan to build a wall on the border with Mexico and the separation of migrant children from their families.

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Demonstrators shouted shame at Ms Nielsen as she was eating at a Mexican restaurant in Washington, DC, in June, forcing her to leave.

She was a consistent defender of the US president, at one point telling senators she could not remember Mr Trumps controversial s***hole countries remark, which he allegedly made in a meeting she attended.

She also dutifully pushed Mr Trumps immigration policies, including funding for his border wall, and defended the administration's practice of separating children from parents, although she would later work to end the policy.

Last May, it emerged that she came close to quitting after the president berated her in a cabinet meeting about immigration.

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Agencies contributed to this report
Attorney general William Barr is set to appear before Congress for the first time since he received Robert Mueller's Russia report  and Democrats say they plan on grilling him on it as soon as they have the opportunity.

The eyes of Washington - and of observers around the world - have been fixed on Mr Barr since last month when the special counsel submitted his report to the justice department after nearly two years of investigating Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.

Democrats have already indicated that they are planning a push beyond Mr Barrs testimony on Tuesday and Wednesday, and say they want to bring in Mr Mueller himself at some point to explain his findings.

In order to ask special counsel Mueller the right questions, the committee must receive the special counsels full report and hear from attorney general Barr about that report on May 2. We look forward to hearing from Mr Mueller at the appropriate time, tweeted House judiciary committee chairman Jerry Nadler.

Shortly after Mr Barr received the Mueller report last month, he penned a short letter to Congress indicating that Mr Muellers team had found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. In that letter, Mr Barr also said he had determined not to prosecute Donald Trump for obstruction of justice.

Mueller investigation: The key figures Show all 12 1 /12 Mueller investigation: The key figures Mueller investigation: The key figures Robert Mueller is the special counsel overseeing the investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election, and potential obstruction of justice by the president. Mr Mueller has a pristine reputation in Washington, where he was previously in charge of the FBI. Throughout his investigation, he and his team have been notoriously tight lipped about what they know and where their investigation has led. REUTERS Mueller investigation: The key figures Former FBI director James Comey was the catalyst that led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller. Mr Comey was fired by the president after Mr Trump reportedly asked him to drop his own Russia investigation. Mr Trump has long maintained that the investigation is a "witch hunt". AFP/Getty Images Mueller investigation: The key figures Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein had authority over the special counsel investigation for much of the two years it has been active. Mr Rosenstein found himself with that responsibility after then-attorney general Jeff Sessions recused himself from that oversight. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Attorney general Jeff Sessions's decision to recuse himself from oversight of the special counsel investigation may have cost him his job in the end. Mr Sessions resigned last year, after weathering a contentious relationship with Donald Trump who vocally criticised his attorney general for taking a step back. Mr Sessions recused himself from the oversight citing longstanding Justice Department rules to not be involved in investigations overseeing campaigns that officials were apart of. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Attorney General William Barr is currently responsible for oversight of the special counsel investigation. Mr Barr's office will be the first to receive the Mueller report when it is finished. His office will then determine what portion or version of that report should be delivered to Congress, and also made public. EPA Mueller investigation: The key figures Michal Cohn is the president's former personal lawyer, who has been helping the special counsel investigation as a part of a plea deal over financial crimes, and campaign finance crimes, he has pleaded guilty to. Among those crimes, Cohen admitted to facilitating $130,000 in hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign. Cohen has said he did so at the direction of Mr Trump. Cohen has also admitted that he maintained contacts with Russian officials about a potential Trump real estate project in Moscow for months longer than Mr Trump and others admitted. The talks continued well into 2016 during the campaign, he has said. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Stormy Daniels has alleged that she had an affair with Donald Trump in 2006, soon after Melania Trump gave birth to Baron Trump. The accusation is of particular importance as a result of the $130,000 hush money payment she received to keep quiet about the affair during the 2016 campaign. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Paul Manafort was Donald Trump's former campaign chairman. Manafort was charged alongside Rick Gates for a slew of financial crimes, and was convicted on several counts in a Virginia court. He then pleaded guilty to separate charges filed in a Washington court. Manafort has been sentenced to just 7.5 years in prison for his crimes  in spite of recommendations from the special counsel's office for a much harsher sentence. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures George Papadopoulos was one of the first individuals associated with the Trump campaign to be charged by the Mueller probe. He ultimately received a 14 day prison sentence for lying to investigators about contacts he had with Russian officials. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Roger Stone is a well known political fixer and operative, who has made a name for himself for some dirty tactics. He has been charged by the Mueller probe earlier this year, and he has been said to have had prior knowledge that WikiLeaks planned on publishing stolen emails from the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016. Getty Images Mueller investigation: The key figures Rick Gates was charged alongside former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort for a range of crimes. Gates, who worked alongside Manafort for a pro-Russia Ukrainian political party. The two were charged with conspiracy and financial crimes. Gates pleaded guilty. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Former national security adviser Michael Flynn was one of the first casualties of the Russia scandal, and was forced out of his position in the White House weeks after Donald Trump took office. Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to "willfully" making fraudulent statements about contacts he had with Russian officials including former Russian ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Flynn then lied to Vice President Mike Pence about that contact. REUTERS

In the time since, though, reports have surfaced indicating that members of Mr Muellers team felt as though the attorney general let the president off easy, leading to demands among Democrats for the report to be released in full.

Certainly the Mueller report will come up," congressman Matt Cartwright, a Democrat, told Fox News, while discussing Mr Barrs planned testimony.

I may ask about that, but probably not, the Pennsylvania politician continued. Until the actual redacted version of the Mueller report comes out, were all just kind of stabbing around in the dark about whats going to be left out.

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Mr Barrs visit to Capitol Hill comes as the justice departments budget is being considered in Washington, although that process is likely to be overshadowed by the Russia questions that have captivated the US for much of the Trump presidency.

While Mr Barr can expect some tough questioning from Democrats in the House and Senate appropriations committees, the forums are not known for the kinds of political grandstanding that was seen during the testimony of other key players in the Russia investigation like Michael Cohen or James Comey.

The Houses committee is chaired by Representative Nita Lowey, a New York Democrat who is rarely featured in national press reports. Her Republican counterpart is representative Kay Granger.

The Senate committee, meanwhile, is chaired by senator Richard Shelby, a Republican from Alabama. The top democrat on that committee is senator Patrick Leahy.

Mr Barr has indicated he plans on sending a redacted version of the Mueller report to Congress sometime later this month, and that the Justice Department is currently working to ensure that sensitive information  like grand jury information and information related to ongoing investigations  is redacted.

It is unclear how satisfied democrats in Congress will be with the report, and many have already made demands for the entire, unredacted report.
Donald Trump sought to reinstate his controversial family separation policy, clashing with a now departing cabinet member over the issue, according to a new report.

The presidents calls to once again systematically separate migrant families  many of them arriving at the nations southern border legally while seeking asylum  reportedly put him at odds with Kirstjen Nielsen, the sixth secretary to the Department of Homeland Security.

The "collision" was first reported by NBC News on Monday.

The homeland security chief told Mr Trump the agency was unable to reinforce his policy as it defied federal court orders prohibiting the measure, multiple sources told the outlet.

Moreover, Ms Nielsen reportedly reminded the president he would be overturning his own executive order, which he signed to end the separation of migrant families after widespread backlash spilled over into nationwide protests and major demonstrations on Capitol Hill.

Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Show all 14 1 /14 Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Immigrant children, many of whom are separated form their parents, are housed in Texas' tent city Reuters Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border A two-year-old Honduran asylum seeker cries as her mother is searched and detained near the US-Mexico border Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Undocumented migrants ride on the top of a freight train referred to as the beast, or La Bestia Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border A cage inside a US Customs and Border Protection detention facility in Texas Reuters Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US Border Patrol Academy All new agents must complete a months-long training course at the New Mexico facility before assuming their posts at Border Patrol stations, mostly along the US-Mexico border Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US-Mexico border fence A group of young men walk along the Mexican side of the US-Mexico border fence in a remote area of the Sonoran Desert Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US-Mexico border fence in the US Man looks through US-Mexico border fence into the US in Tijuana, Mexico Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US-Mexico border fence US Border Patrol agent Sal De Leon stands near a section of the US-Mexico border fence while stopping on patrol on in La Joya, Texas Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US Border Patrol Academy US Border Patrol instructor yells at trainees after their initial arrival to the academy Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Memorial service in Guatemala Families attend a memorial service for two boys who were kidnapped and killed in San Juan Sacatepequez, Guatemala. Crime drives emigration from Guatemala to the United States, as families seek refuge from the danger Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Arrests on the border Undocumented immigrants comfort each other after being caught by Border Patrol agents near the US-Mexico border Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Detention holding facility A boy from Honduras watches a movie at a detention facility run by the US Border Patrol Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Mexican farm workers Mexican migrant workers harvest organic parsley at Grant Family Farms in Wellington, Colorado Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Mexican family in Arizona A Mexican immigrant family sits in the living room of their rented home in Tuscon, Arizona. The family that Arizona's new tough immigrant law had created a climate of fear in the immigrant community. Getty

Ms Nielsen, who was expected to stay on as the head of the agency until Wednesday, oversaw the implementation of the zero tolerance policy and defended the Department of Homeland Security under Mr Trump when grilled on Capitol Hill last year.

She has repeatedly denied the administration ever separated families at the border, despite public evidence, Congressional hearings and press reporting all indicating families were in fact separated under her watch. We do not have a policy of separating families at the border, she wrote in June 2018, adding, Period.

The secretary released a statement on Sunday saying it was a great honour to serve in the role.

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.

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Ms Nielsen added, I hope that the next Secretary will have the support of Congress and the courts to fully secure Americas borders and which have contributed to discord in our nations discourse.

Ms Nielsen would be replaced by Kevin McAleenan, the commissioner of US Customer and Border Patrol under Mr Trump, who has reportedly not ruled out reinstating the presidents zero tolerance policy.
Donald Trump has designated Irans elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a foreign terrorist organisation  the first time the US has formally done so with a countrys military.

The US had already blacklisted dozens of people and entities with alleged connections to the IRGC.

This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognises the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finance, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft, Mr Trump said in a White House statement.

The IRGC is the Iranian governments primary means of directing and implementing its global terrorist campaign.

The designation makes crystal clear the risks of conducting business with, or providing support to, the IRGC, Mr Trump continued. If you are doing business with the IRGC, you will be bankrolling terrorism.

Secretary of state Mike Pompeo, a strident critic of Iran, has pushed for the change in US policy as part of the Trump administrations tough posture towards Tehran. He said the move will take effect next week.

The designation imposes sanctions including freezing assets the IRGC may have in US jurisdictions and a ban on Americans doing business with the organisation.

After the decision, Iran labelled the US military a supporter of terrorism.

In an announcement signalling it would reciprocate the move, Tehran accused Washington of posing a threat to peace.

In an indignant response reported by state TV, Irans Supreme National Security Council said: This unwise and illegal measure is a major threat to regional and international stability and peace ... Iran labels the American regime as a supporter of terrorism.

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

The US decision allows it to to deny entry to people found to have materially supported the guard or prosecute them for sanctions violations. That could include European and Asian companies and businesspeople who deal with the guards many affiliates.

It will also complicate diplomacy. 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.

 Floods continue to deluge Iran after third week of bad weather

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 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.
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Donald Trump has labelled Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organisation in an unprecedented move that could have lasting consequences for the United States.

The president declared for the first time in history that another government entity was a terror group, potentially making it more difficult for American diplomats and other officials working in the region.

The move arrives a day after the president accepted of Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, with whom he has repeatedly clashed over his administrations more hardline immigration policies, as he seeks more drastic action to address the crisis at the US southern border.

Ms Nielsen's departure on Sunday was followed by the resignation of Randolph Alles, who was in charge of the Secret Service but had apparently fallen out of Mr Trump's good graces weeks ago.

Those two resignations were expected to be followed by more departures in the Department of Homeland Security in the days or weeks to come as a part of a phase that some in the media have begun to call a purge.

Criminals who worked for Trump Show all 5 1 /5 Criminals who worked for Trump Criminals who worked for Trump Michael Cohen Former lawyer for Donald Trump was sentenced to three years in prison on counts involving evading income tax, false disclosure of the hush money paid to Stormy Daniels and another hush money charge Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Paul Manafort Former campaign manager for Trump Manafort was found guilty in February 2018 of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account. The crimes occurred prior to his appointment in Trump's campaign Getty Criminals who worked for Trump George Papadopoulos Former Trump campaign adviser Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in October 2017. He had lied about making contact with a professor who claimed that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton. He was sentenced to 14 days in jail Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Michael Flynn Former White House National Security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in December 2017. He had lied about conversations that he had with the Russian ambassador to the US during Trump's Presidential campaign. He was not given prison time due to his "significant assistance" to the Mueller investigation Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Rick Gates Deputy chairman of Trump's presidential campaign Gates pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in February 2018 AFP/Getty

Also in the news was Devin Nunes, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, who made eight criminal referrals to the attorney-general, William Barr, over the leaking of Mr Trumps phone calls with ex-Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and former Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto and national security adviser Michael Flynns calls to a Russian ambassador.

Coming up this week, attorney general William Barr is slated to testify before both the House and the Senate on his department's budget for the coming year.

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But, that testimony is likely to veer of track a bit as democrats grill him about the contents of the Mueller report, which he received last month.

Mr Barr as pledged to send the report to Congress in the coming weeks, but it remains to be seen just how much of the report might be redacted.

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Donald Trump has told Uganda that tourists will not "feel safe" visiting the country until authorities find the kidnappers who took a US tourist and her guide from a national park.

"Uganda must find the kidnappers of the American Tourist and guide before people will feel safe in going there. Bring them to justice openly and quickly!" Mr Trump tweeted on Monday morning.

It comes after Ugandan officials confirmed on Sunday the pair - abducted from Elizabeth National Park last week - had been rescued.

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 president tweeted at the time.

Kimberly Sue Endicott and her guide were captured during an evening game drive by an armed gang who demanded $500,000 (383,427) in ransom for her safe release.

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"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.

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.

Mr Trump's demand of Uganda came amid a flurry of tweets in which he railed against attempts by Congress to gain access to his tax returns and Robert Mueller's now-completed investigation into whether his presidential campaign colluded with Russia.
Chinas government is forcing millions of people to download an app promoting president Xi Jinping and his Communist Party, according to reports.

Tens of millions of people use the Study the Great Nation (Xuexi Qiangguo) app, which allows users to earn points by following news about Mr Xi, such as watching videos of his international visits or answering quiz questions about economic policies.

Critics warn the apps popularity is engineered by Communist Party officials, who put pressure on citizens to use the app and punish those who ignore it.

Study the Great Nation, which is a pun on Mr Xis name (Xuexi can be read as Study Xi), was developed by technology giant Alibaba and launched earlier this year.

It has since become the most downloaded app for Apple devices in the country, surpassing messaging app WeChat and viral media app TikTok, with state media claiming it has more than 100 million registered users.

Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China Show all 20 1 /20 Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China An employee enters a train in the Huawei's Ox Horn campus at Songshan Lake in Dongguan Reuters Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China A worker cleans a waterway as office buildings are seen at Huawei's new Ox Horn Research and Development campus in Dongguan, near shenzen Getty Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China An area of Huawei's Ox Horn campus modelled after Cesky Krumlov in Czech Republic Getty Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China The real Cesky Krumlov in Czech Republic Getty Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China Employees sleep in their cubicle in the research and development area after lunch at the Bantian campus in Shenzhen Getty Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China An area of Huawei's Ox Horn campus modelled after Heidelberg in Germany Getty Images Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China Employees play basketball on a court within the staff housing complex at the end of the workday at the Bantian campus in Shenzhen Getty Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China A replica of the Karl Theodor Bridge in Huawei's Ox Horn campus Getty Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China The real Karl Theodor Bridge in Heidelberg, Germany Getty Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China Huawei's Ox Horn campus at Songshan Lake in Dongguan Reuters Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China Employees ride the bus home at the end of the workday from the company's Bantian campus in Shenzhen Getty Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China Huawei workers eat their subsidised lunch in one of many large cafeterias at the company's Bantian campus in Shenzhen Getty Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China Reception staff walk in front of a large screen showcasing different technologies in the foyer of a building used for high profile customer visits at the campus in Shenzen Getty Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China An employee reads in the staff library on a break at the company's Bantian campus in Shenzhen Getty Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China An area of Huawei's new Ox Horn campus modelled after a European City Getty Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China Servers are seen inside Huawei's factory campus in Dongguan Reuters Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China The conductor waits for a train in the Huawei's Ox Horn campus at Songshan Lake in Dongguan Reuters Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China A general view shows the research and development centre at Huawei's Ox Horn campus AFP/Getty Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China Employees works on a mobile phone production line at Huawei's factory campus in Dongguan Reuters Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China An office building on the Huawei campus in Dongguan AFP/Getty

The app has been compared to Chairman Maos Little Red Book which was widely distributed during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s.

He is using new media to fortify loyalty towards him, Wu Qiang, a political analyst in Beijing, told The New York Times.

Thousands of Communist Party officials have reportedly been ordered to ensure citizens use the app, with schools criticising students with low scores and companies ranking employees based on their usage.

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Many employers reportedly require workers to submit daily screenshots to document their progress on the app or deduct pay if the app is not used frequently.

Its a perfect example of propaganda in the Xi era ... that appeals to Chinas large online population, Manya Koetse told AFP in February.

Ms Koetse studies social trends in China as the editor of Whats on Weibo, based on the popular social media website Sina Weibo.

The app is thought to be the latest attempt to solidify Mr Xis control over China.

Mr Xi is considered one of the most powerful Chinese leaders since Mao and could rule the country indefinitely  the Communist Party removed presidential term limits in March 2018.

 Chinese woman Dong Yaoqiong live-streams herself spraying ink on poster of Xi Jinping

The presidents political theory, known as Xi Jinping Thought, was officially incorporated into the Constitution of the Communist Party of China in 2017, putting him among the countrys most significant leaders.

Efforts to crack down on criticism in recent years have included banning search terms related to political dissent and banning Winnie the Pooh, due to memes likening the character to Mr Xi.

It is not known how closely the government can track users on Study the Great Nation, although the app requires a mobile number to register and a national identification number for some features.

You cannot divert attention away from it, Haiqing Yu, an Australian professor who studies Chinese media, told The New York Times.

Its a kind of digital surveillance. It brings the digital dictatorship to a new level.
Vegan activists have been called un-Australian" by the country's prime minister after dozens were arrested during nationwide protests against the meat industry.

Scott Morrison hit out at reports that animal rights demonstrators had broken into farms and slaughterhouses in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria.

At one abattoir in Goulborn, activists chained themselves to a conveyor belt and had to be cut free by police. Another protest near Warwick ended after around 20 activists negotiated the release of three sheep.

A further 100 protesters also brought traffic to a standstill at a major junction in Melbourne and blocked the entrance of the citys aquarium.

Mr Morrison called for state governments to take action against the protesters.

Tens of thousands protest against Australia Day Show all 8 1 /8 Tens of thousands protest against Australia Day Tens of thousands protest against Australia Day Invasion Day protesters march down a street during Australia Day in Brisbane, Australia. EPA Tens of thousands protest against Australia Day Invasion Day protesters march down a street during Australia Day in Brisbane, Australia. EPA Tens of thousands protest against Australia Day Invasion Day protesters march down a street during Australia Day in Brisbane, Australia. EPA Tens of thousands protest against Australia Day Invasion Day protesters march down a street during Australia Day in Brisbane, Australia. EPA Tens of thousands protest against Australia Day Invasion Day protesters march down a street during Australia Day in Brisbane, Australia. EPA Tens of thousands protest against Australia Day Invasion Day protesters march down a street during Australia Day in Brisbane, Australia. EPA Tens of thousands protest against Australia Day Invasion Day protesters march down a street during Australia Day in Brisbane, Australia. EPA Tens of thousands protest against Australia Day Protesters shouts slogans as they march through the streets of Sydney in an "Invasion Day" rally on Australia Day. AFP/Getty Images

Asked about the protests by radio host Alan Jones on 2GBs breakfast show, Mr Morrison said: What you have just described is shameful, it is un-Australian. The real thing thats going on here, is this is just another form of activism that I think runs against the national interest. And the national interest is people being able to farm their own land.

Mr Morrison also described the activists as green-collared criminals while out campaigning in Brisbane.

If there are farmers that are in a position to bring a civil action against these groups looking to undermine their livelihood, the commonwealth is totally open to supporting them in a test case to show these green criminals, he said.

Three men and six women aged between 21 and 61 have been charged in relation to the protest at Southern Meats in Goulburn. Another 38 people were arrested in Melbourne, including a 15-year-old and a 17-year-old.

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Campaigner Kristin Leigh, director of Vegan Rising, told ABC News: We want people to go vegan, we want people to stop supporting animal abuse. I dont believe any good person supports whats happening in slaughterhouses and so-called farms today, these are places of exploitation of innocent vulnerable beings.

Animals are suffering in ways that most of us could never imagine. Its not about bigger cages, its about animal liberation.
New Zealands privacy commissioner has described Facebook bosses as morally bankrupt pathological liars in a forthright attack on the social media giants handling of the Christchurch mosque shootings.

John Edwards's comments came after Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg rejected calls to introduce a delay on its livestreaming service because it would interfere with the interactivity of videos.

Facebook cannot be trusted. They are morally bankrupt pathological liars who enable genocide (Myanmar), facilitate foreign undermining of democratic institutions... Mr Edwards wrote on Twitter.

"[They] allow the live streaming of suicides, rapes, and murders, continue to host and publish the mosque attack video, allow advertisers to target Jew haters and other hateful market segments, and refuse to accept any responsibility for any content or harm.

They #dontgiveazuck," Mr Edwards added. He later deleted the tweets "because of the volume of toxic and misinformed traffic they prompted".

Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Show all 15 1 /15 Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Facebook is born On 4 Feb, 2004, 19-year-old Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg launched a website called 'TheFacebook' from his dorm. Within 24 hours the college social network had more than 1,000 users Wikimedia Commons Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Winklevoss twins sue Zuckerberg Within one week of launching, fellow Harvard students Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narendra accused Zuckerberg of stealing their idea. It would be four years later when the resulting lawsuit was finally settled Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Open for business The social network finally opened it platform to everyone on 26 September, 2006. The move proved the catalyst in supercharging the site's already explosive growth PA Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Billion-dollar bid Yahoo offered $1 billion to buy Facebook in September 2006 but Zuckerberg turned it down. 'I dont know what I could do with the money,' Zuckerberg reportedly said. 'Id just start another social networking site' Reuters Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network In the money In September 2009, almost five years since the site launched, Facebook turned a profit for the first time Getty Images/iStockphoto Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Taking the lead Facebook overtook MySpace in 2010 to become the worlds most popular social network Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Taking on the tech giants In 2011, Google launched its own social network that it hoped would knock Facebook from its perch. Despite its initial success, Google+ ultimately failed and will be shut down completely in 2019 Getty Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Facebook goes public On 18 May, 2012, Facebook went public. The initial public offering raised $16 billion  the third largest in US history Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Gobbling up the competition Facebook acquired Instagram in April 2012 for $1 billion, consolidating its position as the world's leading social network Reuters Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network One billion users On 4 October, 2012, Zuckerberg announced that Facebook had hit 1 billion users. 'If youre reading this: thank you for giving me and my little team the honour of serving you,' he wrote in a blog post Getty Images Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Expanding its empire In February 2014 Facebook acquired the messaging app WhatsApp for $19.3 billion REUTERS/Dado Ruvic Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Two billion users In June 2017, Facebook passed the 2 billion user milestone REUTERS/Dado Ruvic Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Privacy scandal On 17 March 2018, news broke that UK firm Cambridge Analytica had harvested data from around 87 million Facebook users for the purpose of political profiling in the build up to the 2016 US presidential elections Shutterstock Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Record profits Despite the scandals and subsequent #DeleteFacebook campaign, Facebook posted record profits just before its 15th anniversary, the equivalent of $7.37 from each of its 2.32 billions users iStock/Independent Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Unhappy users A study found that people are happier when they dont use Facebook, adding to mounting evidence surrounding the impact social media has on mental health Rex Features

Facebook faced criticism after the Christchurch gunman used the platform to livestream some shootings, in which 50 people were killed and 50 more wounded on 15 March.

The privacy commissioner suggested his country could follow Australia by introducing laws which could lead to executives of social media companies being jailed over violent content on their platforms.

Mr Edwards said governments needed to come together and force the platforms to find a solution to violent material on livestreams.

"It may be that regulating, as Australia has done just in the last week, would be a good interim way to get their attention and say, 'Unless you can demonstrate the safety of these services, you simply can't use them'," he told Radio NZ.

Mr Zuckerberg has defended his company's livestreaming service, which he said is mainly used for positive reasons, but Mr Edwards described that defence as disingenuous.

He cant actually tell us, or wont tell us, how many suicides are livestreamed, how many murders, how many sexual assaults, the privacy commissioner added.

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In fact, I asked Facebook exactly that last week and they simply dont have those figures or wont give them to us.

Facebook has also been criticised for its role in Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election and its failure to stop the spread of hate speech in Myanmar, where minority Rohingya Muslims face persecution.

In response to Mr Edwardss post, Facebook said it was taking steps to strengthen the rules for using Facebook Live, address hate on its platforms, and support New Zealand's community.

"We are deeply committed to strengthening our policies, improving our technology and working with experts to keep Facebook safe," the statement added.

New Zealands justice minister Andrew Little said last week that his government will review the obligations of social media companies.

He said he had asked officials to look at the effectiveness of current hate speech laws and whether there were gaps that need to be filled.

Agencies contributed to this report
The Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov has been freed from house arrest, 20 months into a detention widely criticised as unreasonably severe.

Yet the abrupt change of direction from Russian authorities  announced on Monday morning in a hearing at Moscows Meshchansky courtroom  offers few clues on his eventual sentencing.

Mr Serebrennikov, 49, still stands accused, along with three others, of defrauding the Russian state to the tune of 133m rubles (1.5m). He has denied the charges, describing them as absurd, but few expect grace from a system that returns less than 0.1 per cent non-guilty verdicts.

The court order, which changed detention conditions to a no-travel order, also released Mr Serebrennikovs co-defendants Sofia Apfelbaum and Yury Itin from house arrest.

Immediately after the decision, the director said he would soon return to working at the Gogol Centre, the Moscow theatre that he rebuilt into an experimental hub since taking over in 2012.

Despite the limitations placed on him during detention  he was banned from using a phone or the internet  Mr Serebrennikov has remained remarkably productive, putting on new shows to critical acclaim in Russia and Europe.

In pictures: US banker jailed by Russian court for fraud Show all 14 1 /14 In pictures: US banker jailed by Russian court for fraud In pictures: US banker jailed by Russian court for fraud 2019-02-15T185050Z-1041913715-RC11E657B970-RTRMADP-3-RUSSIA-BUSINESS-DETENTION.JPG REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva In pictures: US banker jailed by Russian court for fraud 07372543.jpg EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV In pictures: US banker jailed by Russian court for fraud 1125031857.jpg Sergei Bobylev\\TASS via Getty Images In pictures: US banker jailed by Russian court for fraud 1125022312.jpg Sergei Bobylev\\TASS via Getty Images In pictures: US banker jailed by Russian court for fraud 1125022291.jpg Sergei Bobylev\\TASS via Getty Images In pictures: US banker jailed by Russian court for fraud 07372494.jpg EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV In pictures: US banker jailed by Russian court for fraud urn-publicid-ap.org-93277d8c217f4568b96b8b1904b7e396.jpg AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko In pictures: US banker jailed by Russian court for fraud 07372493.jpg EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV In pictures: US banker jailed by Russian court for fraud 1125031852.jpg Sergei Bobylev/TASS In pictures: US banker jailed by Russian court for fraud 1125031860.jpg Sergei Bobylev\\TASS via Getty Images In pictures: US banker jailed by Russian court for fraud 1125032009.jpg Sergei Bobylev\\TASS via Getty Images In pictures: US banker jailed by Russian court for fraud 2019-02-15T152441Z-650771727-RC114BA8B5A0-RTRMADP-3-RUSSIA-BUSINESS-DETENTION.JPG REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva In pictures: US banker jailed by Russian court for fraud AFP-1DH711.jpg VASILY MAXIMOV/AFP/Getty Images In pictures: US banker jailed by Russian court for fraud 1125062626.jpg Sergei Bobylev\\TASS via Getty Images

Now is the time for celebration, he told journalists outside the courtroom. Immediately, soon, Ill be back. Its not easy psychologically, but I have a lot of things to do. We have shows, rehearsals to get on with.

Mr Serebrennikovs dramatic arrest in August 2017 was the first time a director of such prominence had been arrested since Vsevolod Meyerhold was taken by Stalins secret police in 1939.

State prosecutors claimed Mr Serebrennikov had headed up a crime syndicate that embezzled a government grant awarded to develop experimental theatre.

Initially, they said he had taken money for a play that never saw the light of day.

After it was pointed out that the play was not only performed, but received theatrical awards, charges were changed to other supposed financial irregularities.

Supporters say the charges against the director are politically motivated. Mr Serebrennikov regularly touches on taboo subjects for Russia  from homosexuality to political protest.

His ongoing detention has become a cause celebre, with hundreds of artists and cultural figures signing letters in support. But Mr Serebrennikov has also been defended by liberal elements within the system itself.

President Vladimir Putins own press secretary Dmitry Peskov attended the premiere of Mr Serebrennikovs controversial Nureyev at the Bolshoi Theatre in December 2017, for example, and was even seen applauding. A few rows away was Alexei Kudrin, the former finance minister considered close to the president. Mr Kudrin later said it was unfair that the director was not allowed to attend his own premieres.

Mr Putin has offered contradictory positions on the affair. At one point, he called investigators fools. Later, he walked back the position, suggesting that serious economic crimes were involved.

On Monday at a press conference, Peskov refused to comment on Mr Serebrennikovs release from house arrest.

There had been evidence of dealmaking behind the scenes last week, with a judge delaying a final decision on an appeal by Mr Serebrennikovs lawyers to release him from house arrest.

Courts can occasionally soften detention terms in prominent cases when there is a need to look merciful Zoya Svetova

Zoya Svetova, a prominent human rights activist, prisons expert and columnist for news site MBK Media, told The Independent the decision was the result of power games behind the scenes.

Dont forget this is Byzantium, she said.

Courts can occasionally soften detention terms in prominent cases when there is a need to look merciful.

What it didnt do was offer any positive sign about the eventual verdict, she said. That would be decided, as it always was, in the corridors of Kremlin.

She said: Unfortunately, its been clear for some time that Mr Serebrennikov is headed for a conviction and custodial sentence.
US sanctions are preventing aid from reaching Iran after flash flooding claimed at least 70 lives and left 86,000 people homeless, according to the Red Crescent Society.

The humanitarian organisation said it was unable to obtain foreign financial assistance for the victims of the disaster as a result of the inhuman measures reintroduced by Donald Trump last year.

Instead the Red Crescent are reliant on non-financial help, such as a recent rescue package of boats and equipment worth 300,000 (260,000) from Germany.

No foreign cash help has been given to the Iranian Red Crescent society, the group said in a statement. With attention to the inhuman American sanctions, there is no way to send this cash assistance.

It came after Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused the US of economic terrorism and claimed that secretary of state Mike Pompeo was trying to take abnormal and politically-driven advantage of the suffering of human beings afflicted by natural disasters.

Flash flooding kills at least 19 in Iran Show all 10 1 /10 Flash flooding kills at least 19 in Iran Flash flooding kills at least 19 in Iran Cars are piled after being swept up in flash flooding in Shiraz in south-central Iran AFP/Getty Flash flooding kills at least 19 in Iran Vehicles are swept to the roadside in flash flooding in Shiraz in south-central Iran Reuters Flash flooding kills at least 19 in Iran Military vehicles rescue people after flash flooding in the north Iranian of Agh Ghaleh AP Flash flooding kills at least 19 in Iran The northern Iranian village of Agh Ghaleh - shown here on March 23 - has been flooded over the past week AFP/Getty Flash flooding kills at least 19 in Iran The northern Iranian city of Agh Ghaleh - shown here on March 23 - has been flooded over the past week AFP/Getty Flash flooding kills at least 19 in Iran Clean-up efforts after flash flooding in Shiraz in south-central Iran Reuters Flash flooding kills at least 19 in Iran Residents of the northern Iranian village of Agh Ghaleh - shown here on March 23 - walk in a flooded street. The town has been flooded over the past week AFP/Getty Flash flooding kills at least 19 in Iran Cars are piled after being swept up in flash flooding in Shiraz in south-central Iran AFP/Getty Flash flooding kills at least 19 in Iran Cars are piled after being swept up in flash flooding in Shiraz in south-central Iran AP Flash flooding kills at least 19 in Iran The northern Iranian city of Agh Ghaleh - shown here on March 23 - has been flooded over the past week AFP/Getty

Mr Pompeo had earlier accused Irans clerical establishment of mismanagement in urban planning and in emergency preparedness, while indicating the US was willing to assist the relief effort.

The floods, which mainly affected the northeast and southwest of the country, were caused by exceptionally heavy rainfall which has hit the country since 19 March.

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Irans government has promised to compensate all losses but the budget is already stretched due to a sharp reduction in oil exports as a result of sanctions.

The US is also said to be planning to ramp up the pressure on Iran even further by designating the Revolutionary Guard a foreign terrorist organisation.

Around 60 groups, such as al-Qaeda, Isis and Hezbollah, have been designated by the defence department as foreign terrorist organisations, but this would be the first to apply to a state-run military.

However officials have raised concerns that the move could complicate US diplomatic efforts and may even prompt Iran to retaliate against US forces in the region.

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Additional reporting by Reuters and Associated Press
Iran has labelled the US military a "supporter of terrorism" after Donald Trump's administration blacklisted the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

In an announcement signalling it would reciprocate the unprecedented move, Tehran accused Washington of posing a "a major threat to regional and international stability and peace".

The decision to list the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organisation marked the first time the US has formally branded another country's military a terrorist group.

In an indignant response reported by state TV, Iran's Supreme National Security Council said: "This unwise and illegal measure is a major threat to regional and international stability and peace ... Iran labels the American regime as a supporter of terrorism."

Tensions between the two countries have mounted since Mr Trump pulled his country out of a 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran last May and reimposed sanctions that had crippled Iran's economy.

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

The US has already blacklisted dozens of people and entities with alleged connections to the IRGC, but had until now refrained from doing so to the entire organisation.

The designation imposes sanctions that include freezes on assets the IRCG may have in US jurisdictions and a ban on Americans doing business with it.

Mr Trump said: "This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognises the reality that Iran is not only a state sponsor of terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft."

In response, Iran's Supreme National Security Council said it has designated the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) and all its forces as terrorist and labelled the US a "supporter of terrorism".

The semi-official Fars news agency reported the statement after Iran's foreign minister said he wants to include the Middle East-based US military forces on his country's "terrorist groups" list.

The IRGC is a paramilitary organisation formed in the wake of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution to defend its clerically overseen government.

The force answers only to Iran's supreme leader, operates independently of the regular military and has vast economic interests across the country.

The new designation allows the US to deny entry to people found to have provided the Guard with material support or prosecute them for sanctions violations. That could include European and Asian companies and business people who deal with the Guard's many affiliates.

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It will also complicate diplomacy. 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.

The state department currently designates 60 groups, such as al-Qaeda, Isis, Hezbollah and numerous militant Palestinian factions as "foreign terrorist organisations".
Israelis go to the polls on Tuesday to vote in a national election that could see incumbent right-wing prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu secure a fourth consecutive term in office  making him the longest-serving premier in the countrys history.

The campaign trail for the 120-seat Knesset has been a fraught one. It has been blighted by cross-border flare-ups with Gaza that have nearly tipped into war, and the possible indictment of Netanyahu on corruption charges.

What is going to happen?

Israels 6 million or so eligible voters have from 8am until 10pm on Tuesday to vote. We expect preliminary exit poll results at 10pm local time (8pm GMT) with the final results being announced the early hours of Wednesday morning.

No single party has ever won an outright majority in the Knesset: coalition building is the norm. Once the winner is announced they begin talks with Israels president to try to form a government. In the last election in 2015 it took Netanyahu and his Likud Party four weeks to pull together enough support from other parties to get a majority of seats.

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

Whos on the ballot?

The election has been dominated by the right-wing Likud party and its leader Netanyahu. The former Israeli army commando has become a divisive figure for his hardline stance against the Palestinians and more recently the multitude of potential corruption cases against him.

That said, he has also won significant support among Israelis for overseeing the move of the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and the recent decision by US president Donald Trump to recognise Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights.

His main rival is elections newcomer Benny Gantz, the countrys former chief-of-staff who led the 2014 military campaign in Gaza. Gantz formed the Blue and White Party, a powerful centrist alliance with opposition figure Yair Lapid, as well as two other ex-army chiefs.

There have been some unexpected wild cards taking centre stage. The newly formed far-right Zehut party, led by firebrand Orthodox settler Moshe Feiglin, has surged in popularity on the back of its promise to decriminalise cannabis. Final polls released on Friday showed the party securing as many as six seats, which could make them coalition lynchpins.

Who is expected to win?

Although polls in Israel have been proven to be wrong in the past, in the final surveys published on Friday, all bar two show Gantzs Blue and White Party beating the Likud by a very narrow margin, on average 30 to 28 seats.

That said, every single poll shows that the right bloc (which is more likely to be led by Likud) will sweep to victory over the left. It remains to be seen whether the Blue and White Party will be able to hold on to their narrow lead, and then whether it can draw together enough support from other parties to form a coalition.

In a distant third is Israels Labour Party with around 10 seats.

What are the most controversial issues?

Netanyahus decision to oversee a merger of his key coalition partner Jewish Home with Jewish Power sparked outcry from all sides of the political divide, including powerful pro-Israeli lobby groups in America.

Jewish Power is an offshoot of the banned Kach movement, which was outlawed by Israel and the US because of its racist and extremist views. Many fear if Netanyahu wins, Israel will have its most right-wing, ultra-nationalist government of all time.

Netanyahu further courted controversy by vowing to annex the occupied West Bank in a recent TV interview, with many warning this would end all chance of peace with the Palestinians and damage Israels security, diplomatic and economic interests. While pre-elections promises in Israel are notoriously apocryphal, commentators in Israeli papers warned he may be forced to follow through with his promise.

Gantz has not avoided controversy either. Aside from rumours his phone was hacked by the Iranians, he was criticised in pro-Palestinian quarters for a pre-elections campaign video.

The short clip showed a running death toll of Gazans who were killed during the 2014 war that he oversaw.

For Israels 1.9 million Arab population, cancelling or altering the controversial nation-state law has been at the heart of their elections demands and has also driven an elections boycott campaign.

The legislation promotes the creation of Jewish-only settlements, removes Arabic as an official language and defines national self-determination as the unique right of the Jewish people.

On more lighthearted matters, legalising cannabis has become a big elections hot topic with parties like Zehut storming to popularity with this demand as their main ballot battle cry.

Are the corruption cases against Netanyahu and the chance of indictment impacting the elections?

Surprisingly the February announcement by Israeli attorney general Avichai Mandelblit that he planned to charge Netanyahu in three corruption cases has had little impact on the leaders popularity in the polls.

Netanyahu, who denies all the charges, is set to face a pre-trial hearing after the elections which Mandelblit will issues his final decision. If he is indicted, Netanyahu will be the first serving Israeli prime minister to stand trial while in office.

That said, most of his coalition partners have vowed to stick by him.

What is at stake for Israelis?

For many secular or left-leaning Israelis there are concerns that another Netanyahu government will be the most right-wing and hawkish yet, particularly given the relationship with the far-right Jewish Power party. That said, many are unclear what a Gantz-led government would look like, given he has been fairly vague and has ex-Likud figures on his party.

What does this mean for the Palestinians?

There are fears Netanyahu will follow through with his threats to extend Israeli sovereignty over the occupied West Bank, particularly after Trumps Golan Heights announcement.

On the other hand Netanyahu has repeatedly pulled back from launching a full military operation in Gaza, which is something Gantz and other parties have criticised him for.
Just hours before polling booths open across Israel, the countrys election front runners launched frantic campaigns to rally support  incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu issued a string of controversial promises and warnings that the right was in danger, while chief rival ex-army chief Benny Gantz called for historic need for change.

Most of the ten final polls before the elections gave Lt. General Gantz his elections partner Yair Lapid and their centrist alliance the Blue and White Party a narrow lead over Mr Netanyahus right-wing Likud party in the hotly contested race.

But all concluded that in the end a right bloc will win a resounding victory over the left, signalling a Likud-led ruling alliance was more likely to form the next government.

Under pressure, Mr Netanyahu, who is looking to secure a fourth-consecutive term in office and the title of longest-serving Israeli prime minister, controversially vowed to annex the occupied West Bank sparking uproar.

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

At a packed rally in Jerusalems Mahane Yehuda market on Monday he warned crowds that his partys decade-hold on power, and so the right, was in the jeopardy.

His critics, including chief rival Gantz, accused him of re-launching a gevalt campaign, a Yiddish exclamation for alarm, by scaring people to the polling booths. During the last elections in 2015 he was accused of inciting racism when he deployed similar warning tactics by saying the right-wing bloc was is "in danger" as "Arab voters were heading to the polls in droves.

Some of our people are complacent, they believe the media which is trying to put them to sleep. Theyre saying all is fine, this is in our pocket, but it isnt, Mr Netanyahu told the packed market, where supporters replied with boos.

We must close the gap against Lapid and Gantz. It's late but not too late! He later tweeted.

Lt. Gen Gantz meanwhile, said on Monday that his party was one foot away from victory but warned the polls were too close. He said his party still needed a few "tens of thousands more votes" to make that victory happen.

There is a historic need to change the government, he was quoted by Israeli paper Haaretz as saying.

"[Netanyahu] launched a huge 'oy gevalt' campaign to stay in power despite the indictments, but we will not give him that.

Mr Netanyahu also appeared to take credit for a decision by Donald Trump on Monday to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as a terror organisation, drumming up further support.

Tweeting initially in Hebrew, Mr Netanyahu thanked Mr Trump for responding to" his request to designate the elite Iranian force.

We will continue to act together in any way against the Iranian regime that threatens the state of Israel, the United States and the peace of the world, he wrote.

The news came just two weeks after Mr Trump controversially recognised Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights in a signing ceremony that Mr Netanyahu attended in Washington.

The declaration, denounced by critics as electioneering, marked an eleventh-hour turn around in Mr Netanyahus popularity which had been blighted by the countrys attorney-general announcement he planned to indict the embattled leader in three corruption cases.

Retired Israeli general Benny Gantz, one of the leaders of the Blue and White political alliance, takes a picture with his supporters a day ahead of the electoral polls (JACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images)

Mr Netanyahu, who denies all the charges, is set to face a pre-trial hearing after the elections before the final decision is declared. If he is indicted, Netanyahu will be the first serving Israeli prime minister to stand trial while in office.

Polling booths will open at 8am on Tuesday morning across the country with exit polls expected at 10pm local time.

Once the winner is announced they will start negotiations with Israels president to form the new government.

No party has ever secured a majority of Israels parliament and so the winning party is usually tasked with building a coalition with other parties.
A military offensive by a Libyan warlord against the countrys capital has done what years of negotiations and talks have failed to do  unite the countrys powerful western militias in an all-out effort to defend Tripoli.

Already at least 41 people have been killed and dozens more injured in clashes inside and outside of the capital, as the UN and EU struggled to put an end to the conflict that has pitted the countrys two main armed alliances against each other for control of the city of 1.2 million.

The UN said Monday that more than 2,800 people had been displaced by the fighting, which has blocked emergency services and damaged power lines.

Reports emerged that airstrikes had hit Mitiga International airport, the only aviation gateway into the capital.

A small contingent of US forces, focused on monitoring Isis, and Indian peacekeepers evacuated western Libya over the weekend as the fighting escalated.

Libyans do not need any more fighting among themselves, Federica Mogherini, foreign policy chief for the EU said on Monday.

Libyans need dialogue and political agreement among themselves.

In pictures: Isis' Libyan stronghold of Sirte Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: Isis' Libyan stronghold of Sirte In pictures: Isis' Libyan stronghold of Sirte Isis in Sirte Isis fighters parade through in Sirte in 2015 In pictures: Isis' Libyan stronghold of Sirte Isis in Sirte Islamic State (IS) group jihadists on the outskirts of Libya's western city of Sirte AFP/Getty In pictures: Isis' Libyan stronghold of Sirte Isis in Sirte A photo of a billboard in Sirte, Libya, listing seven rules for women's clothing, saying they must be loose-fitting and undecorated HRW/social media In pictures: Isis' Libyan stronghold of Sirte Isis in Sirte Isis militants process down a street in the coastal city of Sirte in Libya this week; the group has heralded Libya as its strategic gateway to attack Europe AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Isis' Libyan stronghold of Sirte Isis in Sirte An Isis lecture on Sharia at the Ouagadougou complex in Sirte, Libya, in 2016. HRW/social media In pictures: Isis' Libyan stronghold of Sirte Isis in Sirte A sign reading "The city of Sirte, under the shadow of Sharia" as smoke rises in the background while forces aligned with Libya's new unity government advance on the eastern and southern outskirts of the Islamic State stronghold of Sirte on 9 June. Reuters In pictures: Isis' Libyan stronghold of Sirte Isis in Sirte Fighters loyal to Libya's GNA prepare to launch attacks against Isis as they continue their resistance on the outskirts of the western city of Sirte Getty In pictures: Isis' Libyan stronghold of Sirte Isis in Sirte Forces loyal to Libya's UN-backed unity government are seen during clashes with jihadists of the Islamic State (IS) on the western outskirts of Sirte on June 2, 2016. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Isis' Libyan stronghold of Sirte Isis in Sirte Forces loyal to Libya's UN-backed unity government fire during clashes with Isis around 14 miles west of Sirte on June 2, 2016. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Isis' Libyan stronghold of Sirte Isis in Libya

Khalifa Haftar, the self-declared field marshal of an armed force backed by Persian Gulf monarchies and Russia, declared war on the militias controlling the capital four days ago, launching a surprise offensive hyped by sympathetic social media accounts and pan-Arab television channels.

It was a shock that he decided to march on Tripoli, said Hassan al-Houny, a chief advisor to Libyas recognised prime minister, Faiez Serraj, whose government is anchored in Tripoli and was planning on attending 14 April peace talks with Mr Haftar.

Then suddenly he decided to attack the capital, he told The Independent from Mr Serrajs offices.

But an umbrella group of militias from Tripoli and powerful armed forces from Misurata and Zintan  that had long been wary of each other  have rushed to the capitals aid, vowing to defend Mr Serrajs UN-backed government against Mr Haftar.

Several of the militias in Zintan, a city in the countrys western mountains often at odds with Misurata, have even vowed to take the fight to Mr Haftar in the east, where he is headquartered.

Unexpectedly this united the western militias, said Emad Badi, a London-based Libya expert at the Middle East Institute, in Washington.

What were seeing is the largest mobilisation in the west of Libya since 2014, if not 2011. A big chunk of forces in western Libya see Haftar as an existential threat.

Recommended Foreign powers jostle for the spoils of another Libyan civil war

Mr Haftars latest gambit for the capital, launched as UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, was in Tripoli ahead of peace talks scheduled later this month, might have amounted to overreach.

His forces have vowed they will not stop until they have cleansed Tripoli of militias, and signalled there was no hope of rapprochement with the recognised authorities.

Any man carrying a weapon in his hand against us is a target. If he hands over his weapons or stays at home, he will be safe, Mohamed Ghuneim, a spokesman for Mr Haftar told The Independent.

Some of Mr Haftars allies, including Egypt, France, and the UAE, appeared to have been taken aback, though the Kremlin and some of its allies appear eager to support him.

The UN Security Council in a statement on Friday identified his forces as the aggressors, calling for an end to the hostilities.

Recommended US moves troops out of Libya as fighting surges between rival groups

In a rare statement identifying him by name, US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, on Sunday also called on Mr Haftar to step back: We oppose the military offensive by Khalifa Haftars forces and urge the immediate halt to these military operations against the Libyan capital, he said.

Mr Haftar, a former colonel in the armed forces of Muammar Gaddafi who spent decades in exile in Virginia, assembled a collection of militias to restore to the country in 2014.

He has since conquered much of eastern Libya, including the second largest city Benghazi. He recently succeeded in taking control of chaotic southern cities near the countrys oil installations.

Less than two weeks ago he visited Saudi Arabias King Salman, and has been receiving Saudi social media support for his military campaign.

But some wonder whether Mr Haftar has miscalculated. It wouldnt be the first time.

He got over-excited and ordered this full-scale offensive thinking it wouldnt trigger a larger mobilisation Emad London-based Libya expert at the Middle East Institute

He vowed in 2014 to take control of Benghazi from Islamist militias within weeks  it took three years and cost near-complete destruction of much of the city.

Many of his victories have been the result of militias quickly flipping sides rather than risk casualties.

Some analysts speculated that this time, Mr Haftar aimed to seize a few towns outside of Tripoli and promote them across his television outlets to shock the capital into a quick submission, or at least to bolster his position ahead of now-scuttled UN-brokered talks in the western city of Ghadames.

He got over-excited and ordered this full-scale offensive thinking it wouldnt trigger a larger mobilisation, said Mr Badi.

He was gambling on getting more forces on his side. Now theres no advantage for Haftar here militarily speaking, aside from the element of surprise that has since faded.

Misurata, Libyas third city, boasts battle-hardened and well-equipped militias that are seen as among the countrys most powerful armed forces.

We will stop at nothing, we will go right to the end, annihilating his every attempt at aggression, Ahmad Maitiq, deputy prime minister of the Tripoli government, told the Italian daily La Stampa on Monday.

Haftar must stop and go back to where he came from, otherwise we will force him to do so.

 Two armed forces mobilise in Libya

Mr Haftars offensive has also elevated the stature of Mr Serraj, who is blessed by the UN as an interim leader but lacks a loyal armed force. He has been attempting for months to coax Mr Haftar into a deal that would stitch back together Libyas fragmented government.

Militias in the Libyan capital had reluctantly backed Mr Serraj in a gamble to win international legitimacy, but now say they are wholeheartedly behind him.

We have the duty to defend the capital from any illegitimate military movements, Ahmed Bin Salam, spokesman for Tripoli Special Deterrent Forces, told The Independent.

Inside Tripoli however, there was fear.

People are afraid that Tripoli will become another Benghazi, said Hana, a 33-year-old director of an international firm inside Tripoli.

While Mr Haftar enjoys some support, he also has many enemies, and others who despite both the militias running the city but also fear the type of military regime the self-declared field marshal would implement.

The cities he is controlling are suffering the same issues as the cities hes not controlling: shortage of cash, electricity and no jobs, said Hana.

We have the duty to defend the capital from any illegitimate military movements Ahmed Bin Salam, spokesman for Tripoli Special Deterrent Forces

Yet many residents took the conflict in stride, especially after word spread that Misurata would be defending the city.

According to Tunisian state radio, there was no sign of increased traffic at the land border at Ras Ajdir, which has for eight years been the gateway out of Libya for residents fleeing conflict.

Gone are the days when residents of Tripoli rushed to the markets to stock up on food and supplies ahead of armed conflict engulfing the city.

After eight years of near-continuous battles and skirmishes that have seen the capitals airport completely destroyed, heavy gunfire rattle the nights and thick plumes of black smoke rise up over the city of 1.2 million, ordinary people are immune to panic.

Im not afraid, said Rayan, a 28-year-old manager at an international organisation and mother of an infant child, speaking from Tripoli. After having so many civil wars we dont care about this one.
Europes biggest budget airline is cutting several UK domestic routes  partly in response to the worldwide grounding of the Boeing 737 Max, it is believed.

Ryanair had planned to reduce its frequent daily links from Belfast International and Edinburgh to London Stansted from the end of the summer schedules in October.

Between the Scottish and English capitals, the service averaging four flights a day is being cut to just four a week  with none on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Ryanair is also cutting back its Stansted-Belfast service from three a day to two a week.

These are two of the relatively few routes on which Ryanair competes airport-to-airport with easyJet, which generally means it is not as profitable as 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

But it is thought that the planned cull was brought forward as a result of the worldwide grounding of the Boeing 737 Max after the Ethiopian Airlines tragedy in May.

Ryanair has ordered 135 of a special variant of the new jet, known as the Max 200, which includes an extra eight seats.

Recommended Flybe cancellations continue as crew shortages bite

Forty jets are due to arrive over the coming year, with the first originally expected to arrive at Stansted, Ryanairs main base, in April ahead of starting flights on 14 May. But there is no indication of when aviation authorities will allow the 737 Max to fly.

Ryanair is faced with several choices: keeping older aircraft in its fleet for longer than expected, chartering in extra capacity or thinning out its schedules  and it looks as though the aforementioned domestic services have been chosen for cancellation.

The freed-up planes can then be used on higher-yield services.

Thousands of passengers are already booked on the now-cancelled flights from Belfast and Edinburgh to Stansted. Ryanair is offering a transfer to one of the surviving services, or a full refund.

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But as with the pilots roster fiasco in the autumn of 2017, European air passengers rights rules require Ryanair to buy tickets on other airlines  which in this case means easyJet.

The Independent has asked Ryanair for comment.

Meanwhile, pilot and cabin crew shortages at Ryanairs rival, Flybe, are continuing to cause cancellations.

The working week began with at least 10 flights cancelled: Belfast City to London City and Manchester, and the return legs; two round trips between Edinburgh and Manchester; and the first rotation of the day between the Scottish capital and London City.

A spokesperson for Flybe said: We have stabilised the situation and our teams are working hard to deliver for our customers.

London City airport is experiencing cancellations due to poor visibility. British Airways and Lufthansa have grounded flights from Dusseldorf and Frankfurt respectively.
Q I am trying to book return flights from UK to Tirana in Albania in August 2019 and noticed the ridiculously high costs for the return leg. Its definitely increased since last summer. Any idea whats going on?

Alistair R

A Fares between the UK and southeast Europe are through the roof in August  basically because demand is outstripping supply. For example, to reach Athens on the morning of 2 August, prices range from 172 on Ryanairs Stansted departure to 345 on BAs lunchtime link from Heathrow (and yes, those are one-way basic economy fares).
As the presidential campaign heats up, so too has the movement to abolish or otherwise neutralise the electoral college.

Some advocates argue that it 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. Representative Steve Cohen of Tennessee 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.)

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

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." Anti-Federalist 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 behaviour.

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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.

It's safe to say the electoral college is here to stay. But in accepting that, we shouldn't pretend as though the electoral college is part of some grand bargain that the founders enacted to balance the country. It's not. Instead, it's a relic of the 18th century that failed in some of its most important intended purposes.

The Washington Post
Who will save Libya? Variously described as a renegade general through to strongman and full field marshal, Khalifa Haftar clearly believes he is the one to bring order and unity  though not democracy and human rights  to the miserable, fractured, failed state of Libya.

From his base in the east of the country, he has already taken control of the oil-rich southern provinces in a blitzkrieg earlier this year. Now, emboldened by his unexpectedly rapid and easy gains, he is set upon capturing the capital Tripoli, and with it the remaining parts of the country he does not yet rule, mostly the old western province of Tripolitania. Tripoli is itself host to four rival militias; while Isis has established its foothold south of the city of Sirte. Human trafficking; modern slavery; rape as a weapon of war; the abolition of human rights; no jobs; no prosperity; Libya has become a kaleidoscope of horror.

Mr Haftars self-styled Libyan National Army (it is anything but) has shown itself capable of casually violating the rules of war  not least now by the bombing of the Libyan capitals last functioning airport. Civilians are collateral damage; his commanders and their troops are protected from the attentions of the international court.

By all accounts the UN-recognised government and the various armies camped there in Tripoli will put up a struggle, and the city will not fall without some bloody hand-to-hand, street-to-street fighting through rubble that could echo some of the worst episodes in the conflicts in Syria and Iraq. If Libya is ever to be united under this would-be dictator  once a disciple of Colonel Gaddafi  it will first have to be broken. The Haftar offensive is uncomfortably reminiscent of the ruthless strategy of President Assad.

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Like Syria, Iraq and Yemen, the conflict in Libya has its origins in an arbitrary colonial era drawing of borders; more recently misguided, however well-intentioned, intervention by foreign powers; and owes its medieval brutality and persistence to its status as a proxy battleground. Libya was always a ramshackle assemblage of ancient provinces dating back to the Ottoman Empire and beyond. The end of the Gaddafi regime in 2011 was sponsored through air power exercised by David Cameron and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France. As President Obama later pointed out, the greater part of the fault, as in Iraq, lay in the failure to plan for the aftermath of the removal of a dictator who had held an arguably artificial state together for four decades. Libya fell into a state of civil war from which it has never recovered.

Today the people of Libya find themselves being used in a proxy war. Nations line up on either side on an almost random basis. Oil interests, never frankly acknowledged, motivate some of their support, with the various powers making bets on who will eventually prevail and rule over the nations vast reserves of oil and natural gas. Mr Haftar has the better of this cynical international coalition: Egypt, France, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the UAE and Russia support his enterprise in varying degrees. The United States and Britain seem unsure as to which dog to pick in this particular scrap.

Even old Sunni/Shia and regional identities, let alone lofty ideas about national aims or values, seem less important in this war than a simpler, cruder battle for supremacy  gang warfare writ large.

It is an obvious tragedy. Libya could be one of the richest nations, per capita, on Earth thanks to its natural resources, yet its people are barely an afterthought in this naked struggle for control.

The beleaguered UN-endorsed government of national accord in Tripoli, under prime minister Fayez Mustafa al-Sarraj is backed by Italy, the former colonial power and the Saudis enemies the Qataris. Matteo Salvini, deputy prime minister of Italy, pours scorn on President Macrons motives in backing Mr Haftar  oil money. For Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, Libya is simply an alternative site to Yemen for them to rain bombs down on one anothers proxy forces.

The truth is that no one can save Libya. The European Union has admitted as much  declaring that there can be no military solution. The UN envoy to Libya, Ghassan Salame, has also limited himself to urging all sides of the fighting to deescalate and commit to the political process. None of Mr Haftars backers in the UN or EU seems to have yet got round to telling him that, and ordering restraint upon him, assuming they even could. The heir of Gaddafi has arrived at the gates of Tripoli.
Another day, another member of the Trump administration leaves.

The latest departure is Trump's Homeland Security Secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen. Summoned to the White House on Sunday evening, Nielsen reportedly didn't have any intention of quitting. But Trump wanted her out and so she "resigned."

Interestingly enough, in her resignation letter, she says nothing of Trump, writing, "It has been my great honor to lead the men and women of the Department as its sixth Secretary."

Nielsen became an increasing indirect target of Trump's railing about the chaos at the border with the president promising to get "tougher." Nielsen's greatest sin, it appeared, was to inform the president that federal laws and international protocols limited her ability to do whatever Trump demanded.

Trump's dismissal of Nielsen raises the question of how he expects to do anything "tougher." Nielsen will have the legacy of enforcing Trump's strict family separation policy. It's difficult to imagine anyone coming in and being more stringent than her.

If anything, it shines a light on just how deluded President Trump is at it relates to the operation of the federal government. At best, one can say the government moves methodically and can't deal with Trump's impetuous moves that zig, then zag, move forward and back just as quickly.

Trump's penchant for acting on impulse is part of the reason his administration is in such tatters a mere two years after getting sworn in. Turnover in an administration is common, but it typically happens after a president gets re-elected and before the start of the second term begins, leaving time for an orderly transition.

Nielsen's departure marks at least the sixth time (not counting those who moved from one role to another) a cabinet secretary left the administration after getting forced out, fired or resigning. If the public learned anything from Trump's first two years, it's he doesn't have much patience, a necessary requirement when implementing sweeping changes to policy.

Trump sees laws and regulations limiting his power as a nuisance, and thus he rants and raves to get what he wants, or, worse, fails to inform the very people in charge of the policies he wants to implement, making knee-jerk Twitter announcements.

Trump's ham-fisted attempt to withdraw troops from Syria cost him arguably the brightest and most reliable cabinet secretary he had, James Mattis. Mattis resigned, and Trump reversed his decision for the withdrawal several weeks later. Had he consulted with top military advisers at the time, Trump might have avoided the embarrassment.

 Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen says US democracy 'is in the crosshairs'

And the president hurts the case he made to American voters that he "chooses the best people" to work for him by acting this way. During the 2016 campaign, he boasted his work in the business world required he hire people to assist in realizing his vision be "the best" at what they do.

In addition to Nielsen, Trump managed to force out or fire political colleagues including Tom Price, Ryan Zinke, Jeff Sessions, David Shulkin, and Rex Tillerson. By contrast, through the first two years of the three previous administrations, only Clinton had one cabinet-level change when Secretary of Defense Les Aspin resigned in 1993 following the death of 18 US soldiers in Mogadishu, Somalia.

It's difficult to see how one can effectively preside over the office of the presidency when the very people put in charge overseeing the departments carrying out Trump's policies can't manage to stay in office. The heads of the cabinet agencies typically act as the go-between for the president and Congress, providing testimony and information requested by members and committees.

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

Keeping those wheels greased assists in helping to carry out the president's agenda, and Republicans in Congress cant help but get frustrated at President Trump's ability to rock the boat at a time when the situation demands steadiness.

For Trump, the buck doesn't stop with him. Everything is always someone else's fault or the fault of something beyond his control such as the "fake news" media.

Unfortunately, Trump likely won't change and that's why he's stuck with so many people holding down "interim" and "acting" positions. If the current pace keeps up, Trump will go into an election year with a skeleton crew cabinet and people unwilling to take over those empty spots. There's nothing to indicate it won't happen  and that's not only bad for the president but for the country as well.

Jay Caruso is the deputy editor of the Washington Examiner magazine
When 12 Catalan pro-independence leaders filed into Spains Supreme Court in Madrid this February and sat down on its smart, burgundy-coloured benches, media and public interest in the trial of the century, as it has been dubbed here in Spain, could not have been higher.

The 12, including former Catalan vice-president Oriol Junqueras, face charges including rebellion, sedition and the misuse of public funds, mostly linked to the illegal pro-independence referendum in October 2017. Rebellion alone carries a maximum prison sentence of 25 years.

Watching from outside the police lines in February  beyond the bag checks, the barriers and the block on anybody without accreditation from approaching any closer than 100 metres of the courts front doors  I could see a group of some 50 hard-right sympathisers chanting slogans about the unity of Spain and yelling insults at the 100 or so pro-Catalan supporters on the other side of the street.
President Donald Trump announced today that he will designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps a foreign terrorist organisation. It is the first time the US has classified an entity of a foreign government as terrorist and I have little doubt that such an unprecedented move will have serious consequences for Iran and across the Middle East.

In retaliation, Irans National Security Council announced today that they will designate the US Central Command a terrorist group themselves, and treat American forces in the Middle East the same way they treat members of Isis. Mohammad Ali Jafari, head of the IRGC, has said that if the United States makes such a dumb move that threatens Irans national security, his forces will plan retaliatory missions and American forces in West Asia will not stay in peace.

This is how an escalation starts in the Middle East: first with a war of words and statements, then policies and actions that can easily get out of hand in an already volatile region. Iranian Revolutionary Guards and American forces have been in close contact in places like Iraq and Syria, sometimes even fighting against the same enemy  as has been the case with Isis.

In this context, then, its clear to see is why American military commanders have been the main opponents of Trumps decision. Top Pentagon and CIA officials, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier, are concerned that such a move would allow hard-line Iranian officials to justify deadly operations against Americans overseas, especially Special Operations units and paramilitary units working under the CIA.

But theres one person who is definitely happy about the situation: Benjamin Netanyahu, the hardline prime minister of Israel who has consistently worked to prevent any diplomacy between the United States and Iran and historically encouraged military conflict between the two. In fact, he personally tweeted Donald Trump to thank him, writing: Thank you, president @realDonaldTrump for your decision to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organisation. Once again you are keeping the world safe from Iran aggression and terrorism.

Heres the problem: Trumps policy of maximum pressure is going to weaken moderates in Iran and strengthen the position of hardliners like the IRGC. An external threat like this will force the Iranian political elite, including critics of the hardliners, to unite behind the IRGC in a way they may never have done before.

Abdollah Ramezanzadeh  a prominent reformist politician and the former spokesman for the government of President Mohammad Khatami, who was arrested and jailed by hardliners during the 2009 election protests  condemned the IRGC designation in a conversation with me earlier.

We dont want war and want gradual reform in Iran, he told me. We are hoping to convince Iranian hardliners to allow more civil liberties and [to allow] participation in the political process and decision-making, which is not easy. But Trumps actions will only stop these reforms.

Flash flooding kills at least 19 in Iran Show all 10 1 /10 Flash flooding kills at least 19 in Iran Flash flooding kills at least 19 in Iran Cars are piled after being swept up in flash flooding in Shiraz in south-central Iran AFP/Getty Flash flooding kills at least 19 in Iran Vehicles are swept to the roadside in flash flooding in Shiraz in south-central Iran Reuters Flash flooding kills at least 19 in Iran Military vehicles rescue people after flash flooding in the north Iranian of Agh Ghaleh AP Flash flooding kills at least 19 in Iran The northern Iranian village of Agh Ghaleh - shown here on March 23 - has been flooded over the past week AFP/Getty Flash flooding kills at least 19 in Iran The northern Iranian city of Agh Ghaleh - shown here on March 23 - has been flooded over the past week AFP/Getty Flash flooding kills at least 19 in Iran Clean-up efforts after flash flooding in Shiraz in south-central Iran Reuters Flash flooding kills at least 19 in Iran Residents of the northern Iranian village of Agh Ghaleh - shown here on March 23 - walk in a flooded street. The town has been flooded over the past week AFP/Getty Flash flooding kills at least 19 in Iran Cars are piled after being swept up in flash flooding in Shiraz in south-central Iran AFP/Getty Flash flooding kills at least 19 in Iran Cars are piled after being swept up in flash flooding in Shiraz in south-central Iran AP Flash flooding kills at least 19 in Iran The northern Iranian city of Agh Ghaleh - shown here on March 23 - has been flooded over the past week AFP/Getty

Azar Mansoori, deputy head of the Peoples United Party, Irans largest reformist organisation, and a critic of hardliners, also tweeted in support of the IRGC. She told me: Our priority is the countrys national interest and no foreign government has the right to threaten that. The US governments actions will make the path to democracy in Iran more difficult. It will help hardliners put more pressure on the Rouhani administration to violate international agreements such as the nuclear deal, and to not join the FATF and other related agreements.

Ironically, designating the IRGC a terrorist group will not have serious economic consequences for those who run the military force. In fact the IRGC has benefited (yes, benefited) from US sanctions over the years, due to its massive share in the Iranian economy. Economic sanctions on Iran have created a dark financial ecosystem where state and private actors engage in non-transparent trade and financial dealings which allow them to circumvent the sanctions. That has created a breeding ground for massive corruption in the country; the IRGC and its collaborators have been key benefactors.

Economic sanctions have been hurting ordinary Iranians more than any military or government entity. Just in recent weeks, devastating floods across Iran hit hundreds of villages and towns, killed at least 70 people, destroyed thousands of homes, farms, livestock, schools, roads, and bridges, and cost millions of dollars in damages that will take years to recover. All during an economic crisis in the country that has been enhanced by US sanctions. These same sanctions have limited Irans ability to receive financial aid from abroad in a time of crisis. Trump administration officials keep repeating that they support the Iranian people  but their actions suggest the opposite.

Negar Mortazavi is an Iranian-American journalist and political commentator based in Washington DC and a Consultant Editor for The Independent. Follow her on twitter @NegarMortazavi
Dublin Zoo has announced the birth of an adorable baby western lowland gorilla.

The infant was born on April 1 to first-time mother Kafi and father Bangui.

Dublin Zoo has been unable to determine the gender of the infant as its mother has been keeping the baby close to her chest.

The newborn is the first offspring of Bangui since his arrival at Dublin Zoo last year.

Helen Clarke-Bennett, Team Leader of the African Plains at Dublin Zoo said: "Kafi is doing a fantastic job so far as a first-time mother, keeping the young baby physically close in these crucial early stages. Bangui is proving to be an attentive father and at night has been sleeping close to Kafi and the baby. Kafi seems comfortable and at ease and we expect her to mix with the rest of the gorilla troop very soon."

Bangui arrived at Dublin Zoo in 2018 following the death of long-time alpha male silverback Harry.

Bangui was quickly accepted as the new alpha-male of the troop and has begun his transformation into a silverback gorilla.
A general view of construction work on the O Cualann Cohousing affordable housing scheme in Ballymun North Dublin (Niall Carson/PA)

Irelands construction sector continues to grow, though the rate of expansion eased last month, figures have indicated.

The Ulster Bank Construction Purchasing Managers Index, a benchmarked measure for assessing economic activity, also recorded a surging rate of job creation in March.

The PMI found that house building was the fastest growing area within the wider construction sector.

Readings below 50 on the index indicate a drop in activity, readings above 50 indicate growth.

The higher the reading the faster the growth rate.

Simon Barry, chief economist at Ulster Bank Republic of Ireland, noted that the headline index figure for the industry in March, which recorded a slowing growth rate, came on the back of a strong February.

Irish construction firms continue to experience rapid growth in their activity levels, according to the latest results of the PMI survey, he said.

A decline in the headline PMI index, from 60.5 to 55.9, indicates that the pace of expansion did ease back in March.

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However, this follows a very strong February performance and the still-robust level of the PMI signals that Irish construction continues to expand at a solid rate.

Mirroring the pattern of the headline PMI, the sectoral sub-indices also painted a picture of moderating growth in March, though the housing and commercial indices both remain at levels consistent with ongoing solid activity growth, particularly so in the case of housing which was the fastest-growing category for a third month in a row.

Encouragingly, respondents reported a marked pick-up in the pace of job creation, with the employment index rising to a very elevated reading of 59.6 in March, matching a nine-month high.

The demand for construction workers continues to be underpinned by new business which continued to rise solidly in March, though at a slightly slower pace than the very rapid rate recorded in February.

Furthermore, firms themselves remain optimistic about the coming year, with 43% of respondents anticipating higher output levels over the year ahead, with expectations of stronger customer demand cited as an important source of support.

However, sentiment about the sectors prospects did moderate slightly in March.

This was amid reports from respondents that Brexit risks and uncertainties are weighing on perceptions of the construction outlook, albeit that the March PMI survey results indicate that construction continues to outperform both manufacturing and services where Brexit risks are more pronounced.
Simon Harris: The Health Minister wants patients to see the benefits. Photo: PA

The Health Minister has suggested that criticism of a rollout of out-of-cycle smear tests is politically motivated.

It emerged last week that the former clinical director of CervicalCheck, Dr Grainne Flannelly, warned senior officials that repeat smear tests would fundamentally undermine the screening programme before the Health Minister Simon Harris announced the free tests in April last year.

It was stated in the Dail chamber that 79,500 women are currently waiting for results after a backlog was created by the increase of tests.

Harris has serious questions to answer. His decision has damaged cervicalcheck and harmed women due to the anxiety created. Book stops with him.  Lisa Chambers (@lichamber) April 3, 2019

It has also been reported that Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan was in favour of a more restricted form of free tests.

When asked about the reports, Mr Harris said that both he and Dr Holohan worked closely when making the decision.

The facts show that myself and Dr Holohan worked together to make sure that women could have reassurance in relation to repeat smears, he said.

I think the idea to reduce the decision to one of one tweet is extraordinarily dismissive of the legitimate concerns women had.

Its very easy now, a year on, for everyone to be wise in hindsight, but this was a very frightening time where we couldnt provide reassurance to women about this, and they were already making their own health care decisions to go to their GP.

Were we going to add insult to injury to the debacle of CervicalCheck and tell women they had to pay?

My Secretary General, and the Director General of the HSE both told the health committee that I never received any contrary advice, and my decision was consistent with the Chief Medical Officers advice.

Its disappointing that some people are choosing to play party politics with such an important issue in womens health.

I think more than disappointing  its crass, it might be the time of the political cycle were in, but that does nothing to serve womens health.

Mr Harris has also been forced to defend a letter from the deputy director general and chief operations officer of the HSE last week, halting recruitment and overtime for the next three months.

Here is the letter referred to in todays @Independent_ie article by @Philip_Ryan. Its incomprehensible that @SimonHarrisTD would allow the @HSELive to bring this in!https://t.co/BWNbAqWpeD pic.twitter.com/kG3LlrMUnA  Alan Kelly TD (@alankellylabour) April 7, 2019

Political opponents have condemned the decision as ill-judged as the HSE struggles to deal with a number of issues including trolley numbers and a recruitment and retention crisis in the nursing sector.

Mr Harris admitted that he was not aware of the letter, which was obtained by Labours Alan Kelly, however he says parts of the letter have been taken out of context.

Every single year we hire many thousands of people into the Irish health service, whats important is that hospital managers adhere to a plan and hire in appropriate areas, he said.

We cant have a situation where we vote through a budget in the Dail, and we say; Hire X amount of nurses, hire X amount of doctors, and then individual health mangers go off and do their own thing anyway.

The letter has been selectively quoted, when its read in full, it doesnt apply to groups that have provided recruitment plans.

Its a message from managers, that says; If you want to grow the number of people in your organisation send in your plans, and if you dont well have to scrutinise you further.

So I would hope now what health managers will do is use the coming days to submit robust plans.
Ireland's Prime Minister Leo Varadkar is welcomed by European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier ahead of a meeting in Brussels, Belgium October 4, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman

Michel Barnier will hold talks with Leo Varadkar in Ireland later ahead of this week's crunch summit in Brussels.

The EU's chief Brexit negotiator will discuss the latest developments with the Taoiseach in Dublin on Monday afternoon.

Mr Barnier will also meet Tanaiste and Foreign Affairs minister Simon Coveney and Finance Minister Paschal Donohue.

The engagements at Government Buildings in the city come prior to the meeting of the EU27 on Wednesday when European leaders will discuss Theresa May's request for a further Brexit extension.

At the weekend, Mr Varadkar said his own preference was for a longer extension than the June 30 date proposed by the UK.

"What we want to avoid is an extension that just allows for more indecision and more uncertainty," he added.

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Mr Varadkar also said the prospect of one of the EU27 saying no to any form of extension at the European Council meeting was "extremely unlikely".

The Taoiseach said any country that vetoed a further Brexit extension would not be forgiven by other member states.

Mr Barnier's visit is the latest evidence of intensifying diplomatic exchanges between the Dublin government and key EU figures in the Brexit process.

Last week, Mr Varadkar held bilateral meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Dublin.
Justification: Theresa May defended holding talks with Labour, in a video message filmed at her Chequers country retreat. Photo: Downing Street/PA Wire

British Prime Minister Theresa May is to make a last-ditch attempt at shepherding the UK out of the EU as she seeks a compromise with the Labour Party.

Ahead of a crucial week in the Brexit saga, the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier will meet with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in Dublin today to discuss the shape of any extension that may be granted by the EU27.

It is expected that leaders will offer Mrs May a year to sort out Brexit - which raises the possibility of both a Tory leadership battle and a general election - when they meet at an emergency council summit in Brussels on Wednesday.

Despite the threat of a crash-out Brexit largely receding, the default position currently remains that the UK will leave the EU on Friday with no deal.

Mr Varadkar will brief Mr Barnier today on Ireland's no-deal preparations during the visit which is seen as a show of solidarity by the Irish Government.

In London, talks are expected to continue between the Conservatives and Jeremy Corbyn's Labour - but it is clear that both parties have a long way to go to bridge the gap and reach a consensus.

Labour's business spokeswoman Rebecca Long-Bailey, a member of the party's negotiating team, said while it was "disappointing" that there had not been any shift in the Government's red lines, "the overall mood is quite a positive and hopeful one".

Labour's 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 UK's ability to strike free-trade deals through being bound by tariffs set by the EU.

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In a video message filmed at her Chequers country retreat, Mrs May said: "There are lots of things on which I disagree with the Labour Party on policy issues. But on Brexit I think there are some things we agree on: ending free movement, ensuring we leave with a good deal, protecting jobs, protecting security.

"And so we are talking. Can we find a way through this that ensures that we can get a good deal and a deal agreed through Parliament?

"It'll mean compromise on both sides but I believe that delivering Brexit is the most important thing for us."

Any compromise would need to come with a lock mechanism that would make it "Boris-proof". Labour is keen that any agreement reached could not later be ripped up by a future Conservative leader such as Boris Johnson.

Jostling has already begun in the Tory Party in the race to replace Mrs May, who has pledged to resign once her deal is through.

The behind-the-scenes attempts to get a foothold on any leadership battle come as Mrs May faces down a furious backlash in her party at all levels over her handling of the Brexit debacle, which saw her lose three parliamentary votes on her deal and her decision to work with the Labour Party on a compromise.

The party is said to be losing out on donations and struggling to round up volunteers to fill canvass teams.

A potential alliance between Mr Johnson and Amber Rudd is seen by supporters as a way of bridging the party's Brexit divide.

The so-called 'Bamber', or Boris and Amber, plan would see the work and pensions secretary back Mr Johnson for the leadership in the hope that her influence would mean other MPs from the Remain wing of the party would follow.

As cross-party talks on Brexit continue, Sinn Fein's president Mary Lou McDonald will hold talks with Mr Corbyn today and will impress on him the need to protect Irish interests no matter what the end result of Brexit is.
Theresa May effectively ruled out a fourth vote on her Brexit deal, as she was vilified for softening the image of Jeremy Corbyn ahead of a "compromise" with him.

The prime minister said her Withdrawal Agreement had been rejected three times by MPs in Parliament and "right now, as things stand, I can't see them accepting it".

She also ruled out a no-deal Brexit, saying: "The choice that lies ahead of us is either leaving the European Union with a deal, or not leaving at all."

Her remarks came as MP Rebecca Long-Bailey, the shadow business minister, said Labour would "very, very strongly" consider voting to revoke Article 50 if the EU refused an extension.

In her video message to the nation yesterday, Mrs May said she agreed with Labour on a number of issues, including "protecting security" - even though Mr Corbyn, the party's leader, has been previously described by the government as "a threat to national security" because of his support for terrorist groups.

She also said she agreed with Labour on Brexit issues including "ending free movement, ensuring we leave with a good deal and protecting jobs".

In an attempt to justify her talks with Mr Corbyn, which are expected to resume today, Mrs May said: "People didn't vote on party lines when it came to the Brexit referendum, and you know I think often that members of the public want to see their politicians working together more often."

Asked for his reaction to Mrs May's positive words about Mr Corbyn, Peter Bone, the Conservative Eurosceptic MP, said: "Fury doesn't do it justice. Not just me but my campaign meeting on Saturday were appalled. The prime minister said he was not fit for government."

He added: "There are questions about his past and links to the IRA and that sort of thing and they don't understand why she isn't talking to our allies, the DUP, who are keeping us in government, but she has suddenly gone to someone who she says is unfit for government and whose judgment is appalling."

Justine Greening, the former education secretary, said the talks with Mr Corbyn were "toxic", while Dominic Raab, the former Brexit secretary, said teaming up with Mr Corbyn was "potentially disastrous for the nation".

Mrs May used an uncharacteristically personal approach in her latest attempt to explain the Brexit chaos to voters, sitting on a sofa at Chequers rather than standing behind a lectern as she usually prefers.

She said her Brexit deal had been rejected three times by MPs, and "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 prime minister said a no-deal Brexit had also been rejected by Parliament, which is today expected to finalise a new law that would force Mrs May to request an Article 50 extension to avoid a no-deal exit on Friday - the date Britain is due to leave the EU.

Ms Long-Bailey said if the EU refused to grant an extension to Article 50, leaving Britain with a choice of no deal or no Brexit, Labour would do "all we can" to avoid leaving with no deal, and revoking Article 50 altogether "is something that we would consider very, very strongly".

Mr Corbyn is under fresh pressure from his party to demand a second referendum on any deal that emerges from the talks after 80 Labour MPs wrote to him insisting it should be a condition of any agreement with Mrs May.
European Chief Brexit Negotiator Michel Barnier and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar during discussions on the latest Brexit developments at Government Buildings, Dublin Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins

THE EUs chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has warned British politicians that they will have to answer the Irish question before anything else can be discussed in a no-deal scenario.

After meetings with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Tanaiste Simon Coveney and Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe in Dublin, Mr Barnier said Ireland will be the EUs priority if there is a disorderly Brexit.

The EU will stand fully behind Ireland. You have our full support. The backstop is currently the only solution we have to found to maintain the status quo on the island of Ireland, he said.

Addressing the prospect of no-deal, Mr Barnier sent out a clear message about how the EU would react.

We would not discuss anything with the UK until there is an agreement on Ireland and Northern, citizens rights and the financial settlement, he said.

The statement is likely to be close analysed in London where Prime Minister Theresa May has employed the help of Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn to try avoid a no-deal scenario.

Their talks are understood to be based around the possibility of the UK entering a customs union with the EU, something Mr Barnier said he would be open to.

We all hope that these talks will produce a positive outcome, the Frenchman said.

We can be much more ambitious in our future relationship with the UK.

He said the existing political declaration on the post-Brexit relationship between the UK and EU can provide for a range of outcomes including a customs union.

This work can be done extremely quickly, he said.

Mr Barnier also discussed Irelands preparations for a no-deal scenario - but would not take questions after making a short statement at Government Buildings.

He said the EUs goals are to protect the Good Friday Agreement, peace on this island and the integrity of the single market.

I am confident we will find operational solutions, he said.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar added that if the UK crashes out this Friday, the consequences would be a shared challenge for Ireland and the EU.

He said a no deal exit will be damaging for everybody.

Speaking about the EU Council meeting on Wednesday, where it will be decided whether the UK should get a Brexit extension, Mr Varadkar said leaders would have different views but Im confident of reaching an agreement.

The Taoiseach has spoken with British Prime Minister Theresa May by phone this evening.

Following his meeting the EUs chief negotiator, Mr Varadkar discussed the possibility of delaying Brexit with Mrs May.

The Taoiseach repeated his openness to an extension of the deadline, a brief statement said afterwards.

Mr Varadkar also had talks with the leaders of the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Malta this evening.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has spoken with British Prime Minister Theresa May by phone this evening.

Following his meeting the EUs chief negotiator, Mr Varadkar discussed the possibility of delaying Brexit with Mrs May.

The Taoiseach repeated his openness to an extension of the deadline, a brief statement said afterwards.

Mr Varadkar also had talks with the leaders of the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Malta this evening.
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.

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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.

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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".
European Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan has said that he remains hopeful that common sense might prevail in relation Brexit but remained tight-lipped on no-deal plans for the Irish border.

In a briefing on Brexit preparations in Brussels, Commissioner Hogan stressed that "no deal makes no sense."

"Despite the madness of Brexit I still think common sense might prevail. He said a no-deal outcome was simply crazy and said there was too much at stake for both the UK and the EU.

On plans for dealing with issues related to agriculture produce crossing the Irish border in the context of a no-deal, Commissioner Hogan said the outcome of the negotiations in London will dictate what the EU response should be.

"If there is a customs union and regulatory alignment between the EU and UK then, of course, we will have business as usual.

"If there is a no deal, we see our responsibilities under the Good Friday Agreement to prevent a hard border on the Ireland of Ireland.

"We see the various statements arising from meetings between the Taoiseach, President Macron and Chancellor Merkel last week and they seem to be assured that there will be a plan produced that will meet the logistical and practical difficulties and also one that is able to do so in the context of not having hard border infrastructure on the Island of Ireland.

Commissioner Hogan committed to farmers last week that there will be no cut to direct payments when the UK leaves the EU.

Speaking in Kerry Hogan said that while the UK leaving the EU will result in a 12bn hole in the EU budget, it will not result in a cut to farmers' direct payments.

He has previously indicated that Ireland is in line for a major share of a 500m package in EU farm supports if a no-deal Brexit happens.

Commissioner Hogan said that 'regrettably' the EU a lot of experience in agriculture of dealing with a market disturbance.

"We have experience from foot and mouth disease and the BSE outbreak. We have been preparing for the consequences of a no-deal Brexit,"he said in Brussels on Monday.

The Agriculture Commissioner said the EU has a five-point support plan for the farming sector in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

This includes intervention buying, aids to private storage, a relaxation of state aid rules to support farms, mobilising low-interest loans from the European Investment Bank, and additional promotions in emerging markets.

Mr Hogan indicated to the Farming Independent that the global figure for market supports is 500m but there will be an emphasis on keeping product moving rather than a return to the bad old days of large intervention stockpiles. He said expanding markets in China, Japan and Mexico are among the possibilities here.
The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) in Northern Ireland today announced plans to take enforcement action against herd keepers who breach the testing requirements of the 2016 BVD Order.

Herds with significant numbers of untested animals born since 1 March 2016 (when compulsory testing commenced) will be contacted and given 30 days to have these animals tested. Failure to do so may result in prosecution.

Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) is a highly contagious viral infection which currently affects over 7pc of cattle herds in Northern Ireland.

The disease is spread by persistently infected (PI) and transiently infected (TI) animals. PI animals are the most important as they are infectious for their entire lifetime, continuously shedding very high levels of the virus.

Initially they often appear normal but usually they become ill at an early age with most dying before they reach breeding age or slaughter weight.

Chief Veterinary Officer, Dr. Robert Huey, said: Since BVD testing became compulsory we have seen a significant drop in the prevalence of BVD, however, it is disappointing that a small number of herd keepers continue to keep untested animals. Some of these are likely to be persistently infected with BVD virus so they are a disease risk, both to the current herd and to neighbouring herds.

BVD eradication is dependent on herd keepers being aware of the status of their animals and taking appropriate action. The Department has a responsibility to ensure the legislation is adhered to and we will seek to enforce this through the courts if necessary.
A well-known Tandragee man who had reached his 106th year will be laid to rest today.

William (Billy) Duffy had been weeks from celebrating his 106th birthday when he passed away on Friday. His funeral mass will take place at 11am today in St James' Church, Tandragee, followed by interment in Ballinabrack Cemetery.

Mr Duffy was born in Greenwich Village, New York, in 1913 to parents who were originally from Co Armagh.

His family returned to Northern Ireland when he was a young boy, after his mother died in a tram accident. The former SDLP Mayor for Armagh, Sharon Haughey-Grimley, said that Mr Duffy would be sadly missed. "I had the pleasure of visiting him on his 100th birthday as Lord Mayor. He was a real character, one of Tandragee's finest," she wrote on social media.

"Thinking of his family and all who knew him as he will be sadly missed. What a life well lived, just short of 106! Rest in Peace Billy." Mr Duffy was a dairy farmer, and was often seen walking his cattle through Tandragee town before he retired at the age of 80. He had met his late wife Dolores at a church disco.

She passed away in December 2017, at the age of 84. The couple had eight children - Monica, Deirdre, Liam, Blathnaid, Oisin, Grainne, Meabh and Brid - as well as many grandchildren and great grandchildren.

He is also remembered as the dearly loved brother of Margaret and the late Sadie, Malachy, Maureen and Maurice. Mr Duffy made headlines on his 100th birthday because he never received any birthday greetings from either the Queen, the Irish President or the United States. The problem stemmed from the fact that he was still a US citizen, but had not lived there for more than 90 years.

Speaking to the Irish News in 2016, his daughter Grainne said that he replied "no comment" when asked his nationality.

"The US authorities claimed that because he wasn't living in the US he wasn't entitled to their bounty and as he wasn't born here, he didn't get official recognition from the Queen or President Higgins," she said.

"President Higgins did, however, invite him down to Dublin for tea and biscuits." His daughter added:

"He used to consider himself American, but after being refused recognition on his birthday, he just felt he didn't belong anywhere. "He never went back to the US after he moved here and the furthest he travelled was going to Blackpool for the day."
Fergal Anderson, his wife Emanuela Russo and their baby Nessa at their farm in Kilrickle, Loughrea, Co. Galway.

THE Department of Agriculture needs new policies on sustainable farming if rural Ireland is to thrive, says Fergal Anderson, a vegetable producer developing his family's smallholding near Kilrickle in Loughrea, Co Galway.

Fergal was one of the organisers of the recent Talamh Beo meeting in Galway.

The gathering was called to raise the profile of small farmers on the national agenda and ensure that the needs and problems of the small farmer, especially in the West, are addressed by the agri authorities.

Fergal believes that the small farmer in Ireland is being "greenwashed" from the farming agenda as the Department of Agriculture, Bord Bia, the co-ops and the big farm organisations focus their energies on scale rather that sustainability.

The 37-year-old says that the future of the small farmer is in peril.

He is equally insistent that the fertiliser-intensive management regime used in Irish farming will have negative consequences in the long term.

"We have to get this problem of greenwashing the small sustainable farmer off the national agricultural agenda stopped, and Talamh Beo is the only farming organisation highlighting the problem", Fergal says.

"The future of farming, especially small farms in isolated rural areas, should be a matter of national discussion by our politicians and media in the same way as our health service and housing problems are."

Fergal - who worked in Brussels with the pan-European sustainable farming organisation La Via Campesina before returning home to Galway seven years ago to develop his vegetable enterprise, Leaf and Root Farm - believes the Department of Agriculture could be doing more for the sector.

Apart from his farmer activism, Fergal is busy developing his business; at the moment, his main customers are "local".

He supplies Loam restaurant in Galway city, run by Michelin-starred chef Enda McEvoy, year-round.

From June to December he runs a community supported agriculture (CSA) scheme with a cohort of some 30 local customers whom he supplies with delivered vegetable boxes on a weekly basis.

Fergal works the land - which was purchased by his parents some 35 years ago - with Italian partner Emanuela Russo, whom he met while working in Brussels.

The couple have a one-year-old daughter, Nessa.

Only two to three acres of the 30-acre holding are under vegetables, but this is likely to increase over time, and there is also an orchard; some 25 acres are woodland.

Fergal describes the land in Kilrickle as "free-draining shallow soil, which requires a lot of manuring".

Away from his business, his main interest is campaigning for sustainable farming and a swing away from the high-density beef and dairy regimes which dominate Irish agriculture at the moment, and the top-down culture that "dominates every enterprise sector in Irish agriculture".

Avowedly against feed lots, the overuse of fertiliser on land and the general commercially-driven culture of the Irish agri sector - not to mention using soya or anything resembling soya as animal feed - his ideal world would see the small sustainable farmer being as important on the Irish agri landscape as the bigger operations down south and in the midlands.

Will it happen, I ask?

"It has to," Fergal replies. "We need to take positive steps to save rural Ireland and the small farmer.

"We have to improve the situation because everything is pointing in one direction at the moment, and that direction is not good for rural Ireland."

In conversation with Ken Whelan
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.



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TECHNOLOGY giant Amazon is investing in a wind farm in Co Donegal, as part of a wider push by its AWS arm to rely entirely on renewable energy.

Amazon.com announced the renewable energy project in Ireland as part of a larger announcement that also includes schemes in Sweden and the United States.

It fits with a long-term goal to power all Amazon Web Services (AWS) global infrastructure with renewable energy.

The a 91.2 MW wind farm Donegal wind farm will be built without subsidies, the first of its kind in Ireland.

The Donegal wind farm project will be developed by Cork based Invis Energy, and is expected to in production by the end of 2021.

Amazon will also purchase 91 MW of power from a new wind farm in Backhammar, Sweden, which is expected to deliver renewable energy by the end of 2020. The wind farm project in Tehachapi, California is expected to bring up to 47 MW of new renewable energy capacity by the end of 2020.

Once complete, these projects, combined with AWSs previous nine renewable energy projects, are expected to generate more than 2,700,000 MWh of renewable energy annually.

AWSs investment in renewable projects in Ireland illustrates their continued commitment to adding clean energy to the grid and it will make a positive contribution to Irelands renewable energy goals, said Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

As a significant employer in Ireland, it is very encouraging to see Amazon taking a lead on this issue. We look forward to continuing to work with Amazon as we strive to make Ireland a leader on renewable energy.
Irish video-game company Keywords Studios saw its revenue jump 66pc to 250.8m in 2018.

On a like-for-like basis revenue increased 10pc.

Adjusted profit before tax increased by 65pc 37.9m, according to annual results from the group.

The acquisition of eight businesses during the year contributed to the companys performance.

Meanwhile, adjusted basic earnings per share were up 53pc to 47.75c.

However, the group said it had been impacted by the insolvency of four of its clients, some of which was caused by the 'Fortnite effect' on the industry.

"The phenomenally successful Fortnite game attracted some 200 million players during the course of the year and in so doing disrupted other games which we support," the group said.

Last year the Dublin-based group launched Keywords Ventures to make modest investments in innovations that it said will benefit its clients.

Andrew Day, CEO of Keywords Studios, said: The group delivered a strong performance in 2018 as we increased our share of the growing video games market and expanded our range of services.

This considerable progress has further improved our quality of earnings and moved us higher up the value chain with our customers.

Looking to 2019 and the company, which has already made two acquisitions this year, said it expected capital expenditure to be lighter than last year.

We are actively reviewing acquisitions from which we will continue to be selective, with many businesses excited about the strong platform Keywords could potentially provide for their services and people, Mr Day added.
It seldom happens that a division of a big, noisy conglomerate can find itself and blossom forth like a butterfly, emerging from the chrysalis. Indeed it may be a bit romantic to think that this is what happened to the British soft drinks producer Britvic, but the company is having something of a golden period at the moment.

Once a subsidiary locked firmly in the interior of a brewing giant, Britvic in the last decade and a bit has been able to capitalise on all the health-giving qualities of its products, detaching itself from the modern world's newest demon - too much sugar.

While other soft drinks producers are having to battle with the challenges that obesity is presenting and are having to deal with the knock-on political effects on ballooning government health budgets, Britvic leads something of a charmed life. It has moved its portfolio to drinks with low or no sugar products and virtually all its products are below or exempt from the sugar tax level.

Britvic has fought for its place in the sun since it first started producing fruit drinks 80 years ago. It has been owned by major players in the drinks game like Showering and Allied Breweries. Fourteen years ago the company was floated, allowing its then shareholders Whitbread, Pernod and Intercontinental Hotels to realise their investment. Recently, Pepsi sold its long-held 4pc shareholding but this decision has no impact on its bottling and marketing arrangement.

Britvic, the UK's second biggest soft drinks company, produces carbonated soft drinks, water and cordials with operations in the UK, Ireland, France and Brazil, generating revenues of 1.5bn (1.74bn). Most of its operations in the UK and Ireland are concentrated on soft drinks, while its French operation focuses on fruit juices. The company had the advantage that its leading brands have strong market positions like Tango and Robinsons (UK), Teisseire (France), Ballygowan and Club Orange (Ireland) and Brazil's De Fruita.

Given its history, it is hardly surprising the UK is Britvic's largest market with 60pc of total revenues. Last year was not easy for the company, following the collapse of a major UK distributor, Conviviality, the introduction of the British sugar tax and the completion of a major investment programme. The company also had to cope with the CO2 shortage which held it back from making the most of last summer's heat wave. To prevent empty shelves it was forced to scale back advertising and focus on its fruit juices.

The company faces some challenges beyond its home market. Britvic France, which accounts for 18pc of group revenue, is facing problems of falling sales. While the majority of the decline was in private label, its branded products also saw a modest reduction.

The situation in Brazil is no better. It acquired two soft drinks companies in the last four years - one with the wonderful name of Impessa Brasilera de Babidas Alimentos, followed by the purchase of Bela Ischia. They contribute 12pc to group revenues but trading is "challenging" with economic uncertainty and a difficult consumer environment.

Overall, the group delivered a strong performance in challenging conditions with good revenues and earnings growth. Revenues rose 5pc to 1.5bn and profits were 175m (203m), up from 145m five years ago. Britvic is near the end of its investment programme and should see an improvement in reducing its high debt.

The stock is trading at a record high of 9.55 (11.08), up 40pc on the year. Capital expenditure is expected to reduce in future years which should see a surge in free cash flow. The market is impressed by recent performance and values the group at 2.5bn (2.9bn).

In normal circumstances one could expect a step-change in the coming years, but like most UK shares how Brexit pans out is of concern.

Nothing in this section should be taken as a recommendation, either explicit or implicit to buy any of the shares mentioned.
The UK will today push ahead with a dramatically tougher regime to force online platforms to take greater responsibility for content found to encourage terrorism and child sexual exploitation and abuse.

"Put simply, the tech companies have not done enough to protect their users and stop this shocking content from appearing in the first place," Home Secretary Sajid Javid said in a statement released by his office.

"Our new proposals will protect UK citizens and ensure tech firms will no longer be able to ignore their responsibilities."

The UK move goes beyond proposals in Ireland, where a new statutory role of online safety commissioner is currently being created by the Government.

However, it will not have the power to fine or prosecute companies like Facebook and Google at the same scale as the new UK law.

Instead, Communications Minister Richard Bruton says the commissioner's office will be mandated to issue "administrative" fines. Asked about the size of such potential fines, Mr Bruton drew comparisons with the Australian online safety commissioner, who can impose a maximum fine of Aus$500,000 (316,000).

The new online safety commissioner will be able to set in train criminal prosecutions against social media firms that do not co-operate with takedown requests from the commissioner's office.

A commissioner is not expected to be appointed before the end of 2019. It is currently being discussed between Government and industry representatives.

Under the new UK laws, technology firms including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter will face "substantial" fines and even a UK ban if they don't remove content that encourages terrorism, child sexual exploitation and abuse if illegal content is not taken down within a short and pre-determined timeframe.

Technology companies' directors could also be made personally liable for companies' failures, the UK Home Office said.

The UK's Home Office, responsible for law and order issues, will today launch a public two-week consultation, including to examine the exact levels of fines following the legislation's launch.

The need for a new law over a voluntary code has been highlighted by the terrorist attack in New Zealand last month in which 50 Muslims were killed while footage was live-streamed online.

Search engines alongside online messaging services and file-hosting sites will also come under the remit of a new UK regulator.

Annual reports on what companies have done to remove and block harmful content will be required, and streaming sites aimed at children, such as YouTube Kids, will be required to block harmful content such as violent imagery or pornography. (Additional reporting: Bloomberg)
Nissan shareholders have approved removing its former chairman, Carlos Ghosn, who faces allegations of financial misconduct, from the Japanese carmaker's board.

The approval was shown by applause from the more than 4,000 people gathered at a Tokyo hotel for a three-hour extraordinary shareholders' meeting.

Other votes had been submitted in advance.

Ahead of the vote, Nissan's top executive apologised to its shareholders for the scandal at the Japanese carmaker and asked them to approve Ghosn's dismissal.

Chief executive Hiroto Saikawa and other Nissan executives bowed deeply in apology to shareholders attending the meeting.

Shareholders also approved the appointment of French alliance partner Renault's chairman Jean-Dominique Senard to replace Ghosn.

Renault owns 43pc of Nissan.

Mr Senard, introduced to shareholders at the meeting's end, thanked them and promised to do his best to keep the carmaker's performance on track.

"I will dedicate my energy to enhance the future of Nissan," said Mr Senard.

They likewise also gave a green light to removing from the board a former executive direct, Greg Kelly, who has been charged with collaborating with Ghosn in the alleged misconduct.

Angry shareholders demanded an explanation for how wrongdoing on an allegedly massive scale had gone unchecked for years. The meeting was closed except to stockholders but live-streamed.

One shareholder said Nissan's entire management should resign immediately.

Mr Saikawa said he felt his responsibility lay in fixing the shoddy corporate governance at Nissan first, and continuing to lead its operations. Another shareholder asked if Nissan was prepared for a damage lawsuit from shareholders since its stock price has plunged.

"I deeply, deeply apologise for all the worries and troubles we have caused," Mr Saikawa said. "This is an unprecedented and unbelievable misconduct by a top executive."

He outlined the findings of an internal investigation, such as payments of a consultation fee to Ghosn's sister for 13 years. The investigation has also found too much power had been focused in one person, he said.

Ken Miyamoto, 65, a Nissan shareholder, said he was disappointed.

"It is really such a pity as he was a brilliant manager," Mr Miyamoto said of Ghosn before heading into the meeting.

"I guess he became complacent as people kept praising him too much."

Ghosn says he is innocent of all allegations and has suggested the accusations were made by some people at Nissan hoping to remove him from power.

He has been charged with under-reporting his compensation in financial documents, and with breach of trust in having Nissan shoulder investment losses and making suspect payments to a Saudi businessman.

Ghosn says the compensation was never decided on or paid, no investment losses were suffered by Nissan, and the payments were for legitimate services.

Ghosn was arrested in November, released on bail in early March and then re-arrested for a fourth time last week.

The latest arrest was in connection with fresh allegations that $5m sent by a Nissan subsidiary and meant for an Oman dealership was diverted to a company effectively controlled by Ghosn.

His detention on that allegation has been approved through April 14 but could be extended. The date of his trial has not been set.

Yokohama-based Nissan, which makes the Leaf electric car, March subcompact and Infiniti luxury models, was on the brink of bankruptcy when Renault sent Ghosn to turn it around two decades ago.

The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Motors alliance now rivals car giants Volkswagen of Germany and Japanese rival Toyota in global sales.

Mr Saikawa told shareholders the company will stick by the alliance, fix its governance problems and make the ouster of Ghosn "a turning point".

"We had allowed a system in which wrongdoing could be carried out without detection," he said.
More than six months after the United States, Mexico and Canada agreed a new deal to govern more than $1tn 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 September 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 United States has its next presidential contest in 2020, and Canada holds a federal election in October.

The delay means businesses are uncertain about the framework that will govern future investments in the region.

"The USMCA is in trouble," said Andres Rozental, a former Mexican deputy foreign minister for North America.

Though he believed the deal would ultimately be approved, Mr Rozental said opposition from US Democrats and unions to labour provisions in the deal, as well as bickering over tariffs, made its passage in the next few months highly unlikely. Canada's Parliament must also ratify the treaty and officials say the timetable is very tight.

Mr Trump, a Republican, has shown frustration with the Democratic-led US House of Representatives for failing to sign off on the USMCA. He has threatened to pull out of the old pact, the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), if Congress does not hurry up.

If that happens, the three nations would revert to rules that were in place before 1994.
Keith Richards and Mick Jagger's falling out, once upon a time, wasn't so much a marriage break-up. It was more a civil war between two of the biggest ego maniacs in the music industry.

Listen to this account from Chris Kimsey who co-produced the Stones's Undercover album in 1983: "That was the worst time I'd ever experienced with them. We recorded a lot of it in Nassau [Bahamas], then mixed it in New York at the Hit Factory. I would get Mick in the studio from like, midday until seven o'clock, then Keith from like, nine o'clock till five in the morning. They would not be together. They specifically avoided each other. Mick would say, 'When's he coming in? I'll be there later'. After about a week, it was killing me. And it was such silly things, like one would say, 'What did he do?' And I'd play a bit, and the other would say, 'Get rid of it'."

The human riff Keith Richards channelled his anger at control freak Jagger - over Jagger's solo albums like 1985's MTV-schmoozing She's The Boss and 1997's super-smooth Primitive Cool, and over Jagger's naked indifference to the Stones - with his debut solo album Talk Is Cheap in 1988. With the help of Bootsy Collins, Maceo Parker, the Memphis Horns, Patti Sciafia, Mick Taylor, Michael Doucet and Stanley "Buckwheat" Dural, Talk Is Cheap swung and rocked like a Stones album no longer did.

On You Don't Move Me, there was no doubt who Richards was singing about: 'You made the wrong motion/ Drank the wrong potion/ You lost the feeling/ Not so appealing/ Why do you think you got no friends?/ You drove them all around the bend/ Now you wanna throw the dice/ You already crapped out twice," Richards snarled in reference to Jagger's She's The Boss and Primitive Cool.

Elsewhere you had the Exile on Main Street-sounding looseness of Big Bang, Whip It Up and Take It So Hard.

"Mick Jagger's recent solo may be high on style and sass, but it's tough to beat Talk Is Cheap for real primitive cool," wrote David Frickle in his 1988 review in Rolling Stone magazine.

"Indeed, Richards's first solo album is a masterpiece of underachievement. He does nothing more or less than what he's always done on Stones records, slicing and dicing classic blues and Berryesque motifs into junkyard-dog guitar growls, singing in a shaky tortured-tonsil yelp that makes Jagger sound like Metropolitan Opera material."

To mark the 30th anniversary of Richards's incendiary solo album, Talk Is Cheap is reissued in a deluxe edition together with six unreleased bonus tracks: covers of Eddie Taylor's Big Town Playboy ("Walk the streets all day, come home late at night") and Jimmy Reed's My Babe, a demo of Mark On Me plus three quintessentially Keef instrumentals.

Talk Is Cheap gets better with age. Like its creator.
Health Minister Simon Harris was blindsided by a letter detailing a virtual recruitment freeze in the HSE.

A letter detailing a plan to stall recruitment and overtime for a three-month period was obtained by Labour Party health spokesman Alan Kelly.

The Tipperary TD said the fact the minister was not aware of the letter was "amazing". He spoke with the minister yesterday who confirmed he was not aware of the letter.

In the letter, Liam Woods, the HSE deputy director general and chief operations officer, informed management of hospital groups that recruitment and overtime is being stalled.

It is based on "financial pressure in the system arising from the high levels of recruitment in 2018 and the consequential impact in 2019 and the need to live within the resources".

Only development posts for new and expanded services will be exempted but all other recruitment will pause.

However, the embattled health minister spoke with the HSE yesterday and said he was assured "recruitment restrictions will not be introduced unless hospital managers fail to outline their budget plans".

"Health managers need to submit recruitment plans and credible plans will be supported. Groups that do not submit such plans need to be scrutinised," said Mr Harris. "We allocated a 16bn budget to the health service and it is important that budgets are adhered to."

The Fine Gael minister insisted the service plan for this year provides for recruitment across the health service.

"We have increased the number of nurses, doctors and therapists every year. That will continue this year," he said.

Cost

The Department of Public Expenditure last year warned levels of recruitment in the health service - running at 371 staff per month - were not sustainable when combined with the ongoing cost of pay deals and other health service pressures such the cost of drugs.

That review suggested staffing levels for doctors and nurses is back beyond the levels in place in 2009 when calculated per 1,000 of population.

A HSE spokeswoman said yesterday it must comply with its statutory obligations and remain within its allocated budget.

Meanwhile, separate figures reveal the HSE has appointed more than one manager a week in the nine months between May last year and this February.

Managerial ranks - ranging from those in middle-ranking jobs up to the highest level of the HSE as national directors - rose significantly over that time, sparking fresh fears of excessive bureaucracy at the price of frontline care.

It meant there were 1,353 managers in the HSE in February compared with 1,299 at the end of May, according to Fianna Fail spokesman on health Stephen Donnelly, who obtained the figures.

"You will be hard-pressed to find any other area of the health service where employment has grown at such a rate," he said.
Simon Harris: The Health Minister will say that he acted on advice. Photo: Aoife Moore/PA

Health Minister Simon Harris will stand over his decision to offer free repeat smear tests to women during the CervicalCheck scandal, insisting it matched advice given by his top medical adviser.

The Department of Health was commenting in the wake of claims that chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan was not in favour of a blanket offer of tests last April.

At the time, the Government was under massive pressure and many thousands of anxious women wanted to re-do their cervical screening.

Mr Harris is under pressure to be more specific about the advice he received before the decision to offer the free repeat tests.

It is being blamed for contributing to a backlog of 80,000 tests and delays of up to 33 weeks for a result.

Separately, the HSE has identified labs that could provide extra capacity for processing screening tests and it is hoped that contracts can be finalised in the coming weeks.

Junior Minister Sean Canney, however, said "nothing is ruled out" when asked if the screening programme could be paused in order to address the backlog.

"I think we should get the extra capacity and see how that works instead of taking knee-jerk reactions to stop it," the Independent minister said.

It has been reported that Dr Holohan was in favour of a more restricted form of offer of free tests last year.

But a spokeswoman for the department said the decision was to offer the tests to any woman who was concerned about her health, "where her GP felt she should have a further test as part of her reassurance".

"This decision was made in good faith to address the considerable fears of the many anxious women in Ireland," she said.

The minister's decision and the announcement on April 28 were consistent with advice received from his officials, she added. "The advice of the chief medical officer to the minister was reflected in the press statement issued on April 28."

It said: "For any woman who has had a CervicalCheck smear test and where her GP feels she should have a further test as part of her reassurance, the minister has asked CervicalCheck to make the necessary arrangements, including payment provision. These arrangements will be confirmed next week."

Dr Holohan's advice was followed in the decision to offer a woman a consultation first with her GP to talk over the issues involved. If she still wanted a test this could be granted.

The offer ended at the end of last year, but the HSE has been attempting to secure extra capacity over several months to clear the backlog.

Fianna Fail spokesman on health Stephen Donnelly wants the minister to release all emails the department received from the national screening service setting out advice on the free repeat tests.
Michaella McCollum and Scotswoman Melissa Reid stand as they are questioned by police in Lima airport 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.

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?"

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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.

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"Recounting tales of vicious guards, psychotic inmates and horrendous prison conditions, the story is truly shocking.

"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.
The heartbroken mother of a toddler critically injured in a Cork hit-and-run revealed surgeons will attempt to revive him from a medically induced coma next week.

Young parents Paul Higgins and Aisling Sexton said they have been "totally overwhelmed" by messages of support for little Zac (2).

Ms Sexton said it was "a miracle" that Zac survived.

He was left with multiple critical injuries when he was hit by a Mazda saloon shortly before 4pm last Monday at Castle Meadows off the Skehard Road.

He was later transferred to Temple Street Children's Hospital in Dublin for specialist care.

"[Zac] got a big knock to his tummy but it didn't damage anything. There are all kinds of broken bones including a broken collar bone. Please God, they will all heal," Ms Sexton told RedFM.

"The [Temple Street] hospital staff said they could not believe it - it's a miracle that he is alive. Zac took the full brunt of the impact and it was at high speed too. All we can do is hold his hand, pray for him, sing to him, you know.

"I would give anything to swap places with my little boy. I have prayed, prayed and prayed that he will wake up and be OK."
Struggles with depression and suicidal feelings led Lisa Smith down the path of Salafist Islam - even though she did not initially "trust Muslims", she says.

Her journey brought her to Syria with a jihadist husband, and has ended with her begging to be brought home from the Al-Hawl refugee camp on the Iraqi-Syrian border, along with her two-year-old daughter Ruqayya.

Speaking from the camp, Ms Smith recalled how she began her conversion - which happened around the time she was living in Dundalk and working in the Irish Defence Forces.

"I was looking for answers, some people go through life and they're looking for answers, they're reading books, why are we here? They're asking questions," she said.

"I was very depressed in life. I didn't want to live anymore. I was one of these people that was like suicidal, you know, because there's no answers.

"I don't know what's going on. So if you don't get answers, you're probably going to end up killing yourself.

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"You're reading Christian books, reading spiritual books, going to spiritual healers, going to fortune tellers.

"You're just trying to grab on to everything to keep yourself sane. So then I came across Islam and that was it," she said.

Despite her interest, Smith said she did not initially trust Muslims.

"I didn't trust Muslims and I didn't trust Islam because of the stories.

"But as I learned I just knew it was all lies about Muslims being terrorists. It's not what I represent," she said.

Ms Smith claims to have been radicalised online by an American jihadi who she spoke to via Facebook.

She claims she did not meet extremists in the country, but heard of several people who were "Irish" while in Isil territory.

"Someone told me [Dublin-born suicide bomber] Khalid Kelly was here and I was like, 'What?'

"I saw a video or two of him and I really didn't take a liking to him," she added.

The latest revelations follow Ms Smith's interview at the weekend, when she spoke of her desire to return to Ireland with her two-year-old daughter.

She says the child was born to a British father, Sajid Aslam, who she says died in the past three months.

Aslam was a jihadist whose first wife was Lorna Moore, originally from Co Tyrone in Northern Ireland. Moore was jailed in the UK after authorities discovered her attempts to reach her jihadist husband with their children.

Ms Smith converted to Islam while in Dundalk, but divorced her first husband who would not come with her to Syria despite her pleas.

She later married Aslam, she says, because she was not allowed to live alone as a woman. But she regrets her decision and wants to return to Ireland, particularly for the sake of her young daughter.

The Al-Hawl camp is based in the desert on the border between Iraq and Syria and is home to nearly 80,000 people, despite only being designed to house about 10,000.

"For me, I want to go back to my country," the former member of the Defence Forces told the 'Mail on Sunday'.

"[My daughter's] my number one priority now, that's why I want to leave and take her home with me and get her educated."

Ms Smith denies she ever fought for Isil and did not even own a gun, and that her Army training was irrelevant.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has already indicated 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.

He previously said he would be "very loath to revoke anyone's citizenship provided there are a citizen by right or acquired their citizenship appropriately".

He said he thought it was "bad practice" to revoke someone's citizenship and "leave them to be somebody else's problem".

Asked if she should face investigation in Ireland, Ms Smith said: "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."

But Ms Smith will not be fast-tracked out of the camp according to Syrian and Irish sources.

It may take several months to process her exit as NGOs are currently overwhelmed by the unexpected number of civilians emerging from Isil territory.

Many foreign women do not hold passports.

Some of the foreign women housed with Ms Smith, in an excluded section of the camp, are known to frequently riot.

The women are described as "radical" by camp workers and security personnel.

Some personnel have been attacked by women who refused to engage with services and whose children face a higher rate of malnourishment.
TRIBUTES have been paid to a 'truly remarkable' Irish aid worker following her death in a road accident in Guatemala.

Sally O'Neill died alongside three others in a crash at Mirador Juan Dieguez almost 200 miles from Guatemala City on Sunday.

From Dungannon she worked for charity organisation Trocaire for almost 40 years having joined when the organisation was just five years old working with to help the poor, the marginalised and victims of human rights abuses. She retired from Trocaire in April 2015 after 37 years of service.

The 69-year-old had been Trocaires Head of Region for Latin America based in Honduras. Despite retirement she continued to have influence through her work.

She is survived by her husband and three children.

President of Ireland Michael D Higgins paid tribute to Mrs O'Neill. He said knowing her was a privilege. He said working with Trocaire Sally distinguished herself for four decades through her commitment and unstinting belief in the dignity and inherent equality of all human being.

"I was privileged to have her as a friend and will never forget the brilliant guidance and assistance she provided on so many occasions and in so many places," he said.

"I thank her for her work, in most recent years, as a member of the High-Level Panel for the Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad.

"She will be missed by so many, but most acutely by her family, her wide circle of friends and her former colleagues in Trocaire."

Trocaire's chief executive said news of the death had caused "shock and devastation" describing Mrs O'Neill as "truly remarkable".

Caoimhe de Barra said: "We are heartbroken by this news. Sally was the heartbeat of Trocaire for almost 40 years. She was a truly remarkable person.

"Trocaire was only five years old when Sally joined. Sally built the foundations of the organisation. She embodied our values and through her courage and commitment to human rights touched the lives of so many people.

"I was with Sally last week in Guatemala. Despite having officially retired, she remained a driving force for human rights in Central America."

Sally worked primarily on Trocaire projects in Latin America but she was also involved in providing famine relief in Ethiopia in the mid-1980s and established Trocaires programme in Somalia in the early 1990s in response to the famine.

Throughout her career Sally worked on the frontline during some of the most significant global humanitarian crises.

She worked in Central America at a time when civil wars were being fought in El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. She oversaw humanitarian aid to more than two million refugees in the Central American region during those conflicts years.

Sally led delegations of politicians and bishops to Central America so they could see the suffering, translating for Archbishop Oscar Romero six weeks before he was murdered.

In 1982, Sally and Michael D Higgins (who was then a TD) visited El Salvador to investigate reports of a massacre in the village of El Mozote. They were initially refused entry into the country but were eventually granted access. They uncovered evidence of a massacre of civilians and their report from El Mozote made its way onto the pages of the international media, including the New York Times and Washington Post.

"Her early work in Central America was ground-breaking," continued President Higgins.

"Sally understood the importance of combining tangible assistance and practical compassion with the pursuit of long-term solutions to the root causes of poverty, marginalisation and oppression. Through her work she empowered countless people and she was relentless in calling on those with power to bring their influence to bear on the policies and politics that affected those most vulnerable.

"With the same professionalism, ease and conviction as Sally ONeill led delegations of politicians and bishops to witness the suffering of marginalised communities throughout Central America, she was able to bring those previously without a voice to the corridors of power at international conferences."

Sally was appointed by President Higgins as a member of the High Level Panel for the Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad in 2012 and awarded the Hugh OFlaherty Humanitarian Award in 2011. In July 2017 she was conferred with an honorary Doctor of Law degree by the University of Ulster.

Following her retirement, Sally continued to work in a voluntary capacity as a facilitator with prisoners and migrants in Honduras, where she lived. As well as her ongoing work with human rights organisations in Central America, she lectured in Development Studies in the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Honduras in Tegucigalpa.

"Her drive, passion and commitment was as strong as ever," Caoimhe de Barra added, "Sally was much beloved by communities and human rights activists throughout Central America.

"She dedicated her life to improving the lives of others. Her legacy will live on through the thousands of people whose lives she helped to improve.

"Our hearts go out to Sallys family, particularly her children Roger, Rhona and Xio, and her husband, Roger. Although we still cannot believe she is gone, we know that she left an incredible footprint on the world."
The remains of Noel Whelan are brought from St. Josephs Church, Bonnybrook, Dublin after his funeral mass.

There were heartbreaking scenes in a Dublin church as a baby scan and a pink blanket were brought to the altar at the funeral of a young Coolock dad-to-be who was fatally stabbed last Saturday week.

Noel Noelie Whelan (22) died from stab wounds, after an alleged incident at a house in Castlecurragh Heath in Mulhuddart on March 30.

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Mr Whelan was treated at the scene by emergency services personnel but pronounced dead a short time later.

At St Josephs Church in Bonnybrook, in Coolock earlier today. family, friends and neighbours packed the pews yesterday to pay their respects to Noel, who was described as a gentleman, a hard worker, and a man who put others before himself.

He is survived by his partner Shannon, parents Noel and Denise, brothers Martin, Lar and Sean, and sisters Nicola, Andrea, Katlyn, and Jodie.

His partner Shannon Whelan wept openly as she was comforted entering the church.

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A relative who spoke at the end of the mass thanked the Gardai, the emergency crews who attended the scene, and the doctors and nurses of Beaumont Hospital, and to everyone who contributed to a GoFundMe page to raise funds for the family.

Noelie put others before himself, he oozed affection and kindness. He had integrity and honour. He loved his family and friends, and he loved Shannon, he said.

He loved his mam and his dad, his brothers and sisters, his music, his work, and motor cars. But he loved Shannon with all his flesh, all his bones, and all his heart, he added.

The man then told a story about how after killing yet another car Noelie stayed up until three or four oclock in the morning fixing it so he could take Shannon to work the next day.

He added that Noelie would kiss his mother hello and goodbye every day, and one night when he was walking Shannon home after a night out her new high heels were hurting her, so he gave her his comfortable trainers and wore the high heels himself for a laugh.

A heartbroken relative named Edel also spoke, saying they were trying to make sense out of something so senseless, trying to console our loved ones who are inconsolable, and trying to find a reason when there is no reason.

She said Noelie would be forever a partner to Shannon, and forever a daddy to your baby girl he will never get to hold.

I see how loved you are by all who knew you. I see your photos and smile at the silly way you posed in most of them. I see how devastated our family are now you are gone. I see your friends stricken with grief at the loss of their brother. I see you in my dreams, Edel added.

Sweet smile and heart, sweet natured, laugh, and humour. Sweet kindness and thoughts. Sweet dreams in your slumber. Sleep tight pal, she finished.

Other symbols brought to the altar to represent Noelies life were his guitar, his tie, his high-viz jacket, and a photograph.

After requiem mass Noels remains were brought to Balgriffin cemetery for burial.

A 45-year-old man has since been charged with Noels murder.

Mark Whelan, who is not related to Noel, was brought before Blanchardstown District Court where his lawyer told Judge Paula Murphy she had "serious concerns about his psychiatric well-being and the safety of others".

The judge then ordered that Mark Whelan should receive medical help after he was remanded in custody.
A MINISTER whose home was targeted by protesters at the weekend is to seek new laws to protect politicians.

Defence Minster Paul Kehoe was escorted from his Wexford home by gardai, along with his wife and children, after a group calling themselves 'Dublin Fingal Battalion' gathered outside.

The group has previously staged demonstrations outside the residences of ministers Simon Harris, Richard Bruton and Paschal Donohoe.

Mr Kehoe told Morning Mix on South East Radio that he is to meet with Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan to discuss the new trend.

Children should not have to witness this, they are not in politics, they are not the elected representative of the people, Im the elected person, the elected person has a constituency office in Enniscorthy for over 17 years now and that is where people can protest, the minister said.

He believes that legislation should be introduce because its becoming too prevalent, its an invasion of privacy and frightening on young people.

I believe this is something that should be legislated against and its becoming too prevalent that there are people protesting outside peoples homes, Mr Kehoe said.

I will be speaking with Minister Charlie Flanagan on this. I actually didnt think much of this but when it happens outside your own home it is totally, totally different.

It brings you to a different perspective, you understand what people go through, you understand what families go through. More importantly, you understand what children go through.

Asked by presenter, Alan Corcoran, if the protest would make his consider leaving politics, Mr Kehoe replied: Wont say walk away, but it does question your involvement in politics and public life absolutely, Id be telling you a total black lie if I didnt say that because I never brought my own family... I never put up photographs of my kids online.. on Facebook or Twitter because I want to protect them from the public life that I lead.
INDEPENDENT Senator Mary Alice Higgins, the daughter of President Michael D Higgins, has confirmed she is running in the European Elections.

She is seeking a European Parliament seat in the Dublin constituency.

Ms Higgins was nominated by 60 members of the public who gathered in Dublin this morning.

Candidates can either be nominated by a party, pay a financial deposit, or secure 60 signatures to get on the ballot paper.

There was a Commissioner of Oaths on hand to witness the nomination forms being signed at an event in Smock Alley Theatre today.

Ms Higgins said, "I chose this method of nomination because it reflects what I want for the EU, a more direct connection with the public.

"Europe is more than its institutions, it is made up of places and people and shared principles."

She said the Dubliners who nominated her did so because of her record of "championing the best ideas from Europe while also pressing for positive reform."

She said that if elected she wants to ensure that Ireland makes its voice heard in debates on equality, environment, economy and peace.

According to Ms Higgins Europe has historically played an important role in improving quality of life in Ireland, raising employment standards and supporting equal rights.

However, she said that during the years of austerity, ground was lost and trust eroded.

"The problems currently facing communities in Dublin around housing, childcare, poverty and precarious work are echoed in cities across Europe."

She said collective solutions are needed and responding to these challenges will require "imagination and investment".

Ms Higgins said: "The next chapter for Europe must be written by its people, including the people of Dublin, I will be asking them to elect me as an energetic, informed and determined advocate for and with them."

Ms Higgins said she has never tried to use the connection with her father in her own political career.

She also said: "I dont think it would be appropriate for him to endorse any candidate.

"Anybody who has seen me in politics knows that Ive never used or sought to use that connection.

"Its never been part of any of my platform or any of my materials."

She added: "I really have respected the separation of powers and I think Ive proven that in my work in the Seanad over the last few years."

Ms Higgins said that growing up in an "activist household" has been of benefit to her, saying: "Ive seen what people can do if theyre working together.

"For me the greatest boost is it has given me that sense of the solidarities we need, the fact that sometimes change seems impossible and you might be out on your own on it but that it does happen and it does come.

"I think being part of campaigns from an early age, yes thats given me a sense of if you work, if you push the ideas, if you forge the connections and you put new ideas out there, that you can gather momentum."

She listed campaigns she has worked on including Repeal, Marriage Equality and the successful divorce referendum in the mid-1990s.
Senior civil servants' pay is outstripping Taoiseach Leo Varadkar's by more than 18,000 following a wage hike last week.

New figures from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform reveal the salaries of the most high-ranking secretaries general of government departments have hit 204,020 a year.

Their wages stood at 197,117 last year - so have climbed by almost 7,000 - and are above the public sector pay cap for recruits.

Those in the second most senior civil service grade known as 'secretary general II' earn 193,819 following the pay increase on April 1.

They include secretaries general at the Department of the Taoiseach and Department of Finance and Public Expenditure.

But Mr Varadkar's salary has been fixed at 185,350 for the past six years as senior politicians turned down pay rises after a public outcry. This came after it emerged they were due increases while a 5 hike in the State pension was delayed.

A spokesperson at the Department of Public Expenditure said the Taoiseach, Tanaiste, attorney general and ministers waived the increase due last week. They also waived pay rises due under the public sector wage agreement.

But they won't lose out when their pensions are calculated as these will be based on their gross salary had they taken the increases.
This year kids were able to watch 'Period. End of Sentence' and immediately go to work on the issues raised in the film. Hopefully this small event helps students to not only become more socially-conscious, but to also recognize that they can take concrete action to make their world a better place," said Popovich.
We meet next to Treaty Stone across the river from the imposing battlements of King John's Castle as the Shannon waters roar by. This is the heart of Willie O'Dea's political fortress in Limerick city.

It's a typical day down in his constituency and Willie is up for a bit of canvassing.

Later he will attend a funeral - "the family would be offended if I didn't go" - and listen to the concerns of residents about mould and damp in their houses. That will be followed by another two-hour canvass and an evening constituency clinic as well as other meetings.

"I left home this morning and told my wife Geraldine I will be home at 11 tonight," he says with a rueful smile, and on an average day he is likely to be as good as his word.

Expand Close Willie O'Dea with Ann Marie Clancy. Photo by Don Moloney / Facebook

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O'Dea makes no apologies for being an operator who believes that all politics is local, and happily dismisses claims by metropolitan pundits that he is overly preoccupied by the parish pump on his peregrinations through Limerick.

"The local work keeps you grounded, and keeps you in touch with the big national issues like housing and health," he says, after a woman has a quiet word in his ear about some domestic problem.

This week there were reports that in the run-up to May's local elections, many young candidates are dropping out of politics because they simply cannot hack it.

Councillors, many of whom were only elected in 2014, are bowing out because of the demands on their time, the relatively scant rewards - and the risks they might be subjected to abuse.

The bristles on O'Dea's moustache may be a lighter shade of grey and his relentless walking through his constituency is not quite as brisk as it once was, but at the age of 66 and after 46 years in politics, he still has the stomach for the fight as one of the biggest vote-getters in the country.

As he walks door-to-door in the Lee Estate with local election candidate Christy McInerney, O'Dea seems to know his constituents intimately, and they all seem to know this instantly recognisable figure. If the name of a voter somehow eludes the veteran politician, he greets them as "my friend" - until a party worker quietly comes to his assistance.

Expand Close Willie O'Dea on the campaign trail with candidate Christy McInerney. Photo by Don Moloney / Facebook

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Trademark moustache

One constituent tells me on his doorstep that O'Dea even canvasses on Christmas Day. It is unlikely to be true, one of the many legends that surrounds the politician, but another voter, Geraldine Reidy, offers a plausible explanation as to why O'Dea consistently amasses one of the biggest votes in the country.

"He will always get back to you if you have a problem. Willie does things for people," says Geraldine. "If he can do it, he will do it. With some of the others, you might as well be talking to a wall."

If electioneering is a form of marketing, brand recognition is also crucial to the O'Dea machine, and it can help if you have a prop. Jack Lynch and the British prime minister Harold Wilson smoked pipes. Winston Churchill had his cigars and bow ties. And O'Dea can be spotted from a long distance by his trademark moustache.

Motorists honk their horns and wave as they pass the man known locally as "the Limerick Taoiseach".

Some have tried in the past to persuade him to shave off the moustache for charity, but he has resisted the temptation, joking to those who enquire: "My wife says if I shaved it off, she'd have to see more of me."

O'Dea says he was delighted to be featured on a video by the plastic-bag wearing comedians The Rubberbandits. It has brought him recognition from a whole new generation on his home turf. He tells me he's met teenagers on the doorstep who greet him enthusiastically and ask: "Where are The Rubberbandits?"

As he goes door-to-door, O'Dea tells me he is confident that Fianna Fail can continue its recovery - with the shine rapidly coming off Leo Varadkar's Fine Gael Government.

"What made Leo attractive to the public was that he could present himself as someone who was not a politician, but you can't do that after a year or more as Taoiseach.

"Now the public no longer regards him as an exotic leader, because there are real question marks over competence - and he is presiding over a government that is making a lot of mistakes."

O'Dea says he is not surprised that Varadkar's personal ratings are down in the polls, because he hears it on the doorstep.

The Fianna Fail spokesman on Social Protection has a clear idea of where his party should stand on the political spectrum: "We are a left-of-centre party and Fine Gael is right of centre.

"One of the reasons why we have a housing crisis is that, deep down, Fine Gael does not want to build social housing. The reason is brutally simple. They won't get votes in social-housing areas."

Not so long ago, in some Limerick council estates, the dominance of drug gangs had become so pervasive that armed gardai mounted checkpoints.

But as we amble through the Lee Estate, O'Dea is gratified that the situation has improved dramatically now that gang leaders are in jail. There is no tension in the air and the politician exchanges jokes with passers-by across the street.

After joining Fianna Fail in 1973 as the son of a cumann chairman in Kilteely, Co Limerick, O'Dea worked as a lawyer and accountant before entering the Dail at his second attempt in 1982. He had been part of a Fianna Fail think tank that helped to frame the notorious 1977 election manifesto that won the party its last majority with promises of giveaways and goodies.

Despite his reputation as an unsurpassed vote getter, O'Dea's climb up the political ladder to become a cabinet minister in 2004 was relatively slow.

That could be explained by the fact that early in political career he was a member of a group of party malcontents known as the "gang of 22" that was staunchly opposed to Charles Haughey as party leader.

"I was never friends with Charles Haughey and was always seen as part of the opposition to him," recalls O'Dea. "I had worked in the financial sector in Dublin and rumours about him were rife - and I reckoned there was no smoke without fire."

If he is scathing about Varadkar and Fine Gael, O'Dea is almost as critical of those in his party such as Haughey who gave it the reputation as the plaything of big developers and tycoons.

"The idea of Fianna Fail as the builders' party took root," he says, voicing his opposition to the notorious Galway tent - the party's fundraising hospitality tent at the Galway Races during the Bertie Ahern years.

"I didn't believe it was right. It was enabling people to flaunt their wealth and their connections, real or otherwise, with leading members of the government. It was distasteful and it did not help the Fianna Fail image."

Hidden homelessness

After his stint on the canvass in an area known as the Island, O'Dea takes me to Katie Daly's pub, where he meets local residents from the Convent Street area who are having problems with dampness and cracks in their walls.

Sipping sparkling water in the back of the pub, O'Dea becomes quite indignant about the housing issue and the continuous overcrowding in the Accident and Emergency ward of University Hospital Limerick.

"It maddens me that when I am meeting people who are homeless day in, day out, that the Government announces a new plan, but nothing is happening. "It is not only that people are living in hotels, hostels and hubs, there is also a hidden phenomenon of homelessness where three or even more generations of a family are living in one house and it is totally overcrowded."

O'Dea says that during a recent visit to the A&E ward at the local hospital, he nearly had to beat his way through trolleys.

"It was like a scene from the Bible, with people trying to grasp the sleeve of my coat."

O'Dea is unapologetic about his regular attendance at the funerals of constituents - a phenomenon that has led him to be dubbed the "grim reaper".

"It's a different culture in certain parts of Dublin," says the TD. "Outside the Pale, if people know you, they expect you to go."

O'Dea met wife Geraldine in the showband era at a dance in the popular ballroom in Dromkeen. "I am an appalling dancer," he tells me, conjuring up images of a flailing Charlie Chaplin. "My dancing is almost as bad as my singing."

O'Dea readily admits that being a politician requires a lot of sacrifice in terms of family life.

"My wife is not really interested in politics. She doesn't like politics," he says. "I'm lucky in one way not to have had kids - I don't know how I could have related to my kids in terms of the time commitments of a politician. It must be difficult."

He rarely goes on holidays, dislikes the sun, and prefers to take breaks in Devon and Cornwall.

As he heads off to meet more constituents, the Limerick poll-topper says he almost gave up politics completely during the crash when Fianna Fail was almost wiped out. But supporters persuaded him to fight on and he was one of the few big-hitters to survive.

"It was traumatic at the time. I never thought I would see the day when you would ring a doorbell, and you would be apprehensive. I wondered whether Fianna Fail would survive."

But eight years on, O'Dea has no such apprehensions and is confident his party can return to government. Younger politicians, put off by the gruelling nature of the trade, may call it a day, but O'Dea will battle on - and nobody will be surprised if he tops the poll again in Limerick.
Lest we forget: A Rwandan boy covers his face from the stench of dead bodies in this 1994 file photo. REUTERS

A woman 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 more than 800,000 lives.

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.

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 dont fade despite people saying time is a healer. Its just you learn how to cope, she said at a special commemoration with aid agency Bothar yesterday.

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 whole life was changed overnight.

Expand Close The Mayor of Limerick City and County of Limerick, Cllr James Collins, Egwyge Roussard and Chantal Mutesi at the solemn gathering in Limerick for the 25th anniversary of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Photo: Sean Curtin True Media / Facebook

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Whatsapp The Mayor of Limerick City and County of Limerick, Cllr James Collins, Egwyge Roussard and Chantal Mutesi at the solemn gathering in Limerick for the 25th anniversary of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Photo: Sean Curtin True Media

Commemorating, remembering our loved ones today and at the same time acknowledging whats happening; the courage, the faith and the progress weve made  I couldnt be prouder.

Fellow Rwandan Edwige Roussard said the commemoration, held near Bothars headquarters in Limerick, meant a lot to those who lived through it.

I left Rwanda when I was five but its my home country. And I have family there and I also lost some members of my family, she said.

Im really glad to see how the Irish and Limerick people are dedicated to remembering what happened in Rwanda.

The pair were joined by Limerick City and Council Mayor James Collins at OBrien Park to plant a birch tree, recognised 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.

Niamh Mulqueen, Bothar chief operating officer, said that despite the agencys years of work in Rwandan, the genocide still shows how cruel life can be.

When we hear the stories that weve heard today it can actually stop you in your tracks, she said.

However, I think an important message to take away from 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.

Addressing the event, Mr Collins said it was only right 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.

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 Bothar 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, as the animals are sacred in their culture.

Last year it also sourced and sent out five pedigree Irish bulls, purchased by the Rwandan government, to enhance the countrys breeding programme. Irish cattle provide six times the yield of the Rwandan equivalent.
A general view of a Syrian refugee camp. Ireland is one of more than 25 countries liaising with US authorities in relation to repatriation of citizens from the war-torn region. Photo: REUTERS

There are several Irish people in the Syrian camp where Dundalk woman Lisa Smith is being held, according to local information.

It is understood there are currently three Irish citizens in the Al-Hawl camp - Ms Smith, her two-year-old daughter Ruqqaya and the young son of Isil suspect Alexandr Bekmirzaev.

Bekmirzaev, who is originally from Belarus but who has Irish citizenship, is currently being held in prison in northern Syria.

His wife, who is an Irish resident, is also believed to be in the Al-Hawl camp.

However, the Department of Foreign Affairs last night declined to comment on reports of other Irish citizens being held in the camp.

Local sources on the ground in Syria also said that an Irish citizen, believed to be from the west of Ireland and who was reported to have been in Isil territory, has not been accounted for along with another family that includes a teenage boy.

Speaking from the Al-Hawl camp, Ms Smith said she wanted to return home. She said her daughter was her "number one priority" and she wanted to bring her to Ireland so she could be educated.

The former member of the Defence Forces insisted she did not fight for Isil and did not train any fighters for the terror group.

Ireland is one of more than 25 countries liaising with US authorities in relation to repatriation of citizens from the war-torn region.

However, it is understood that one factor in the discussion around repatriating Ms Smith is the US is likely to demand Ireland takes other passport holders back, including any who travelled to the region to fight with Isil.

The US State Department called earlier this year for countries to take their citizens who have been detained by the Syrian Democratic Forces and deal with them through domestic judicial systems.

Ms Smith and her child's repatriation has been complicated by the fact there is no Irish diplomatic presence on the ground and it is considered to be too unsafe to send Irish officials to the region.
Police have defended their response to the recent spate of ATM thefts across Northern Ireland, saying they "can't be everywhere at once".

The PSNI is under pressure after brazen thieves used a digger to rip a cash machine from the wall of O'Kanes Filling Station in Dungiven, Co Derry, yesterday morning.

This brings the total number of ATMs stolen this year to nine following eight separate incidents.

But in a Facebook post, an officer at PSNI Craigavon said police simply couldn't predict which cash machine would be targeted next.

Expand Close 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 / Facebook

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Whatsapp 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

"I could sit for hours at an ATM but no sooner am I round the corner than a team of crooks arrive," the officer said.

"The idea that we can watch them 24/7 is pure fiction."

Meanwhile, Detective Chief Inspector David Henderson acknowledged the concerns of the public and business community, saying police remained determined to catch those behind these "despicable" crimes.

"I cannot emphasise this enough: we are committed to catching those responsible and have a dedicated team of detectives working across Northern Ireland specifically focusing on this crime.

Expand Close An ATM has been stolen from a cash machine in Dungiven. Credit: Cop/vosa watch Derry / Facebook

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"We will continue to work closely with the banking and retail sectors in a bid to prevent any further attacks and bring the reckless actions of these brazen criminals to an end."

Det Chief Insp Henderson also said the public had a role in stopping ATM thefts

"To catch the people responsible we need the public's support," he said.

"We need the public to report anything suspicious and to come forward to us if they have any information about who the culprits are."

CCTV footage of the latest ATM theft in County Londonderry shows the raiders using a digger to remove the machine and drive off with it in just over four minutes. More from @tv_KevinSharkey at 13:30 and 18:30 on @BBCNewsline. pic.twitter.com/YOE6pzCIjh  BBC Newsline (@bbcnewsline) April 8, 2019

His comments follow questions over whether a PSNI task force has been allocated enough resources to catch those responsible.

Retail NI chief executive Glyn Roberts said: "I don't doubt the commitment of individual officers, they are totally dedicated and committed to trying to catch these gangsters. I just want to ensure that all aspects of the PSNI are pushing in the right direction.

"It's very hard to protect your business against a digger that's going to smash holes in the side of your premises."

DUP MLA and Policing Board member Keith Buchanan called for police to step up their investigation.

"Police must ensure that adequate resources are focused on this crime, which is disproportionately impacting upon rural communities," he said.

"These are areas where many have already seen their local bank branch close, and ATM machines are the only source available to access their money."

The DUP will raise the issue with the Chief Constable this week.

Shop owners Martin and Josie O'Kane said they are unlikely to replace the stolen ATM.

"The men who did this are just scum," Mr O'Kane 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."

Unlike recent incidents, the digger used to forcibly remove the machine was not burned out.

As forensic officers dusted the machinery for fingerprints, the O'Kanes took the decision to reopen the shop.

"We're in shock, but there's no point crying over spilled milk," Ms O'Kane said.

"Our ATM definitely got a lot of use. The community will miss the facility. There's another one at the very top of Dungiven but it's off the main road, we're on the main road and used very much."

Sinn Fein councillor Kathleen McGurk expressed concern that Dungiven may soon be left without any cash facilities for residents following Ulster Bank's closure in 2018, it was the last of the banks in the area.

"There's no incentive any more for the shopkeepers to keep ATM's on their premises. It's just making them targets for these attacks.

"It's just another blow to the local community. These rural communities really need these facilities; these attacks are abhorrent."

Recent months have seen ATMs stolen from businesses in Ballymena, Moira, Omagh, Dungannon, Newtownabbey and Irvinestown.
Professor Niall Tubridy knows the look all too well. After all, it only happens "every hour or so". He'll be in the middle of explaining a treatment plan to a patient when they'll begin to observe him in a slightly glazed way. And, when he's finished talking, the first question will be: "Any chance of tickets to the show?"

That's The Late Late Show. For Niall, in case you hadn't spotted the resemblance, is the brother of that other Tubs. And however much respect the former commands as a neurologist at St Vincent's Hospital in Dublin and one of the foremost national experts on multiple sclerosis (MS), it's hard in this celebrity obsessed era, not to be defined in relation to his famous sibling.

"It's mostly funny," Niall says. "It is a constant source of good stories. Initially your ego might make you want to bring it back to yourself but you get over it very quickly. I've found it can actually help. I work with that potential issue (the connection with Ryan) rather than against it.

He works with it so much in fact that he thought of calling his new book, on unusual cases he's dealt with over the course of his career, Any Chancers. In the end he settled on another title - Just One More Question: Stories From A Life In Neurology - and in the book he discusses situations which the lay person might not even guess were related to neurology, such as the chef who goes for his usual morning walk, and loses his memory for the next six hours; the painter who believes her left hand is her guardian angel; and the eager young lover whose head 'explodes' every time he orgasms.

Expand Close Ryan Tubridy / Facebook

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The accounts are interlinked with descriptions of Tubridy's family life and his slow progression from the surety and blinkered focus of youth to the uncertainty and empathy of middle age.

It's a compelling account - almost certain to induce a mild hypochondria - which is fitting since Tubridy broadly describes the cases in his book as instances of people "thinking they are losing their mind". The detective work of diagnosis described in the book reveals the surprising overlap between neurology and psychiatry, something to which Tubridy says both patients and the medical community are somewhat resistant. "Psychiatry and neurology were quite far apart once upon a time, but the gap has closed," he explains. "We don't know what's wrong with around 30-40pc of patients who present around the world with neurological-type symptoms. That type of patient will either have a psychosomatic illness or a psychiatric illness, which is probably causing them anxiety and now their anxiety is worse because they think there is something physical wrong with them as well."

The stigma around mental health issues and addiction hangs over his diagnoses of these colourful symptoms. Many of his patients protest that they have not been drinking. "They push back against psychiatric diagnoses. It's also a particularly Irish thing to suspect drinking: so and so's on the sauce or whatever."

Tubridy says the psychiatric implications arise by a process of elimination in his work. "From the doctor's perspective, when there isn't somewhere to focus with a brain scan or the wires are working, then you have to look at option three: is the brain under stress to the extent that it's not working at the automatic level. When that seems to be the case you go into the psychological hinterland of, perhaps, looking at Cognitive Behavioural Therapy - people still have to live. So regardless of why they're sick you still have to help them to have a good life."

At times in the book Tubridy draws elements of social work, psychology and anthropology into his broad understanding of patients and their motivations. "This is the brain we're talking about, so the contributory facts will be legion," he explains. "Your relationship, your kids, your previous experiences; they all come into it."

Tubridy's own experience and family have clearly shaped him. He grew up in Dublin, the eldest of four children. It was a family with a galaxy of political and media connections. His father, Patrick, who died in January 2013, was a doctor and the only son of the Fianna Fail TD Sean Tubridy. Niall's grandfather on the other side of the family, Todd Andrews, was a close associate of Eamon de Valera. And among his uncles were a government minister, David Andrews, and an MEP, Niall Andrews. The comedian David McSavage is a first cousin.

When Tubridy was in his teens he went off the rails a bit, drinking and smoking and hanging out with older boys. Around this time his parents' marriage also began to fall apart. "It was very upsetting for everyone, not least because of the social embarrassment that separated families suffered in early-1980s Ireland," he admits in the book. "It was still an unusual event in those years and, while undoubtedly the best thing for all concerned in the long run, it made us feel somewhat 'other' for a few years. As a result, my siblings and I are incredibly close and have all made our own ways fairly independently since our teenage years. It is remarkable now to reflect on how my parents, like so many of their generation, married and settled down so young."

"It was not fine, it was traumatic for all involved, of course it was, he explains to me. "But strangely we all got on fairly well, at least we did afterwards. I'm not going to paint a Pollyanna picture, but it wasn't as bad as other people seem to have had it. In the greater scheme of things it was the right thing to happen."

Unusually, given the presumptions in family law at that time, he went to live with his father, while his younger siblings stayed with their mother. "I was 17, so I had a choice," Niall explains. "I was heading into medicine, so it seemed right to be near him and we didn't want him to be on his own after (the split)."

His medical training took him all over, first the country, then the world. He went to the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, before spending a few years in Beaumont. After that he went for six months to the Adelaide for neurology training. Stints in London, Paris and finally Australia followed, before he came home to take up his current post in St Vincent's Hospital in Dublin. During all those years he never felt tempted to marry or have children. I wonder why was that.

"I didn't really want to settle down, I met some amazing women but somehow I never crossed that last line," he explains. "It was mainly to do with me. Being single you spend more time on your own; it depends on if you call that a cost, or a perk. I spend a lot of time reading and going for walks. I'm not afraid of my own company."

His specialisation within neurology is the treatment of and research into MS but he also deals with patients who have other neurological illnesses, like Parkinson's disease and motor neurone disease (MND). I wonder how he handles having to tell some unlucky individuals that they are probably going to die?

"I think it takes a toll but not as deleterious as you might think," he explains. "You value life more, you make sure you have a bit of fun when you can, you don't take yourself too seriously. You've got one turn at the proverbial merry-go-around. If you've told someone they're going to die, it stays with you that night. If you tell four or five people in the same day it can stay for you for weeks or even years."

When he was starting out in medicine other doctors warned him off neurology because of how little could be done for patients in those years. While treatments have advanced hugely there are still some patients who can't be helped. He writes in the book of his own father, who specialised in dealing with people with alcoholism, being wary of being confronted by former patients.

Does Niall ever encounter anger towards him from those individuals who can't be helped?

"Any doctor who says they haven't dealt with that has buried their head in the sand," he responds. "You're dealing with people who are facing their own mortality and if that doesn't make you angry I don't know what will. I don't think it's always necessarily directed at the doctor so much as the situation. If they perceive you are not going to be helpful any more, as is sometimes the case, they can get angry. Of course I'd find it strange if they didn't get angry."

In the book he recounts a case of a man who has apparently fallen under the spell of a quack. When Tubridy tries to reason with him the man produces a photo with a picture of his four children, explaining that he has to try "something" for the sake of his family. Tubridy clearly has sympathy for such a viewpoint, but, given that cancer quackery has recently been made illegal in Ireland, does he think the same kinds of laws should apply to those who offer desperate neurological patients unproven therapies?

"I wouldn't stop people from accessing whatever therapies they want because in my experience when you try to do that you alienate people," he says. "If there is evidence for stem cell treatment we should have it in Ireland. We send people over to London who are unresponsive to other treatments for MS. It's a very 'end of the line' type treatment. If it was someone close to me I'd prefer it done in an organised fashion through us, rather than, say, someone having a fundraiser and going off and doing their own thing. It needs to be done here and be regulated but I wouldn't stop people."

He says that some patients are more challenging than others - middle aged men particularly seem eager to reassert their "alphaness" by going overboard with whatever advice he dishes out. "If I say go for a light walk after dinner they'll run 26 miles and then develop knee problems to go with whatever other issues they have," Tubridy smiles.

To what does he attribute the creeping mistrust of doctors, the conspiracy theories that they might be in the pockets of big pharma?

"It's a more generalised mistrust of politicians, the church and other pillars of society," he explains. "You have British politicians saying people are sick of experts - but when you have a complex problem you need an expert. People can be desperate if they're not getting better and they'll try to regain control. Sometimes I'll ask people to give me the list of advice they've gotten from friends and family and they'll say to me 'have you got a couple of hours?'"

As someone at the coal face in the health service, does he think meaningful reform will ever be possible?

"If I could answer that I'd be a politician," he responds. "Anyone can identify the problems but the real question is can we find the solutions. There are good and bad areas but most people just have one or two soundbites in terms of how they think about the health service - long waiting lists and trolleys for instance. Our team reduced waiting lists for neurology from two or three years to 12-14 weeks but once people cotton on to that they try to get into your queue and somehow the waiting lists go up again."

What does he think when he hears criticisms, such as the perennial one that consultants are overpaid?

"Well, you could hold that view but we are making life and death decisions. And you don't always leave the work at home, it's demanding. You train for a long time. It's not an easy path."

It seems so far away from the continual reinvention and 'winging it' nature of journalism, and yet, in the colourful, thoughtful descriptions in his book, you sense that there is a frustrated journalist in this Tubs, too.

Does he ever wonder what it would be like to deal with the renown of his younger sibling?

"For me, his level of fame would be too much, but he loves it," he replies. "We are similar in many ways, but not that one. He has endless time for people when they come up to him. He doesn't get irritated, and most of the time he enjoys it. For me, it would be a prison."

'Just One More Question: Stories From A Life In Neurology' is published by Penguin, priced 12.99

Prof Tubridy's most unusual cases

* Not tonight darling

A young couple went to see Prof Tubridy, and the man told the doctor that he was getting splitting headaches after sex, which they were nevertheless having quite a lot of.

The man turned out to be suffering from coital cephalalgia, or, predictably, 'sex headache'. It can be a result of tension or, more seriously, a haemorrhage, Tubridy explains.

His patient's problem was alleviated when he stopped using a nitrate spray he'd bought which was supposed to induce sexual performance but instead gave him that age old excuse to get out of sex.

* Angel lies

A young woman with the bohemian aura of Helena Bonham Carter arrived at Tubridy's clinic in Melbourne. She had lost contact with her family, but preferred not to talk about that. She claimed to be receiving messages through one of her hands, which was her "guardian angel". She seemed perfectly sane in every other respect. Tubridy arranged psychotherapy for this patient but she never kept the appointments and he points out her case to medical students to show the limitations of advice.

* Forget-me-not

A Canadian chef living in Dublin was taken to hospital by his wife, to whom he was asking the same question over and over again: "Where am I?"

The man turned out to be suffering from Transient Global Amnesia.

"The unfortunate individual loses their short-term memory and the ability to lay down new memories for up to 24 hours," Tubridy explains. "It can be provoked by immersion in water (hot or cold) or extremes of exertion and excitement."

Luckily, the man made a full recovery.
You might hate Monday, but you'll love our weekly pick of Ireland's top travel offers...

36.99: May sales with Aer Lingus

A May sale sees Aer Lingus offering flights to Europe from 36.99 each-way. Book by midnight tonight (April 8), for travel between May 1-31 to destinations including Amsterdam, Vienna and Milan. aerlingus.com.

281pp: Fab Fuerteventura

Travel Republic has a week's self-catering in Fuerteventura, including flights, from 281pp based on a May 23 departure. Accommodation is at the 3-star Maxorata Beach Apartments in Corralejo. 01 536-0820; travelrepublic.ie.

299pp: Sleep Retreat at Inchydoney

What price a good night's sleep? At Inchydoney Island Lodge & Spa, it's 299pp. That will buy you two nights B&B, a Sleep Tight ritual including massages and a facial in the Island Spa, and complimentary Elemis amenities in your room. Access to spa pools is also included. 023 883-3143; inchydoneyisland.com.

489: Emirates Easter sale

Emirates has several special return fares at the moment, including Dublin to Dubai from 489, Hong Kong from 529 and Bangkok from 519. Book between April 8 and 23 for travel from April 18 to March 31, 2020. emirates.ie.

1,315: Bucket list sales with Sunway

Sunway has several bucket list holidays for under 2,000pp, including an all-inclusive 5-star week in the Dominican Republic from 1,315pp this May, and a nine-night trip to Vietnam this August 31 from 1,790pp. 01 231-1800; sunway.ie.

NB: All travel deals subject to availability/change.
Clancy Barracks in Islandbridge was sold back in the noughties to private Irish investors for residential development, ie homes to sell. The construction cost of adaptation and new build wasn't going to be cheap. Loans were undertaken, and then there was that cliff drop in construction we all suffered from in some form.

Last year, I was working on a conservation report for a protected structure across the road from Clancy Barracks, and a Dublin City Council conservation officer recommended the property should be treated in the high standard of restoration as Clancy Barracks. I went over and had a look. The massive residential adaptation is quite startling. And very attractive with significant landscape patterns.

The original red-brick barracks provided sleeping and eating quarters for soldiers and quite elegant accommodation for the officers' mess. Now it is converted into handsome terraced houses and apartments. There are new-build, medium-rise apartment blocks within the grounds.

Residents would be privileged to live here with the leafy banks of the Liffey nearby, the charming War Memorial Park and the extensive Phoenix Park. Islandbridge has gone very upmarket. I found a reception area within the grounds and thought I'd ask for a sales brochure to give my sons some idea of what they needed to save for.

The receptionist said: "We have no sales brochures." "Then how would I know the sales prices?" I asked. "Nothing is for sale. These are all rental only," she replied.

And that is the New Dublin; global corporate investors, aka vulture funds, such as Kennedy Wilson, can take over Irish development land for a modicum of what the original investor paid, and redevelop and adapt historic architecture, with high-end finishes and interiors on an economy of scale. And simply rent them high, not needing to sell. Renting in Ireland is not covered by protective legislative framework and that is causing serious issues for workers trying to maintain an address for a relevant period of time.

According to a new report by Savills Ireland, more than 1.1bn was spent by vulture funds on multi-unit residential schemes in 2018 - that's 29.6pc of last year's total property investment. According to Savills, 2,923 residential units were block-purchased by vulture funds last year, a five-fold increase on 2017, resulting in more than 1.1bn spent on multi-unit residential investments in 2018, compared with 113m in 2017. The most badly affected region for affordable house purchase or rental is, of course, Dublin where 81pc (2,273) of all residential units were scooped up.

Unlike Irish property developers of the past and the long wait for planning, vulture funds can do forward-purchase deals, resulting in de-risking schemes and helping them to get on-site.

The Savills' report found that corporate investors accounted for 11pc of all residential units bought in 2018 (and 8.1pc since 2012).

On the one hand this suggests that the increasing vulture-fund activity accelerates housing supply, but only for rental and not at affordable cost. There is an expansive population working in Dublin and other cities in global companies with income for short-term rent. But the long-term housing availability for the low-pay, general working population is not being addressed.

According to Dr John McCartney, director of research at Savills: "Rising house prices and tight mortgage lending have driven a big shift from owner-occupation to private renting. The number of households renting in Dublin rose by 10.8pc last year, and nearly 27pc of all households are now in the private rented sector. This has led to strong rents and negligible vacancy - factors which are obviously attractive to investors."

This does not suggest that people prefer to rent, it merely suggests they cannot afford to get a mortgage due to high house prices and low income.

This is an issue the Government must address, it is not appropriate on a human, and negligible on a housing, rights scale that vulture funds are accommodated with purchase agreements more than the working population. The increasing number of homeless lying in sleeping bags on the streets is a sharp indicator of what is going wrong, not right.

Dr McCartney says new residential supply is now coming on-stream but the residential market is likely to remain under-supplied until at least 2022, and this should ensure continued investor appetite for well-located residential investments. Again, this is boosting the vulture funds' access to housing, but not making it amenable or affordable to the local population.

The Irish are familiar with developers buying land, waiting years for zoning, then waiting years for planning, eventually building not exactly high-end homes, and selling them off the drawings to people who want a home - people who don't want to use their hard-earned income to continually support a landlord. This increase in rent-only developments is not in our culture.

Affordable housing was available in the not too distant past. And a mortgage was affordable with two incomes. Nowadays, renting a one-bed apartment is barely affordable with two incomes. I know this as my eldest has moved home after four years in an apartment to try to save, rather than keep profiting a landlord.

A recent UN report criticised Ireland for "failing to regulate corporate landlords and protect tenants' human right to secure housing". This Government has been talking about managing the crisis since 2011. But it's got worse and worse.
At just after 5am, the catering staff wheeled in a trolley laden with bottles of Johnnie Walker Red Label whisky. It was in the good old/bad old days of EU marathon farming talks which rarely, if ever, ended before breakfast. That EU decision-making process was called "consensus by attrition" - "we'll keep you at it until you do a deal" to you and me. And the early morning offer of a "whacker" to agriculture ministers and their advisers was designed to boost the innate optimism from an emerging new day, and make compromises finally happen.

We were in the Luxembourg EU conference centre in late June 1996, a pre-9/11 time when security was not driven by total paranoia, and a long-time journalist could at times roam corridors that were technically off-limits. At the time, the UK was rightly in the firing line in another big row, this one about the BSE mad cow disease which left it at serious odds with all its EU neighbours.

It was a harbinger of the times we have been living through since another less hopeful dawn on Friday, June 24, 2016, when we learned that our nearest neighbour, and one of our strongest trading partners, was abandoning the EU trade bloc upon which Ireland had pledged so much of its national fortunes.

By now, some of us would be minded to hit the credit union, club together and sponsor that whisky cart, if only it yielded some relief via a serviceable Brexit outcome.

But us Brexit addicts, a subset of the political anoraks, we know that, even though something is about to happen, this issue ain't going away soon.

Today begins a two-day countdown to Wednesday and another EU leaders' Brexit summit. Everybody across the EU capitals remains fixated by what is likely to emerge from London.

The Brexit deal-or-no-deal deadline remains this Friday at 11pm.

Conservative-Labour talks aimed at jump-starting plans for Brexit continue amid more hope than confidence. Prime Minister Theresa May reluctantly reached out to Labour last Tuesday after the Westminster parliament rejected her EU-UK divorce deal for the third time.

The furious rhetoric from pro-Brexit MPs in her Conservative Party continues unabated. And three days of bargaining between the Conservatives and Labour appear far from yielding a compromise agreement. But like all these intense talks, it depends who you listen to.

Yesterday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn blamed the government, saying it showed no willingness to budge from its previous Brexit positions. But Labour business spokeswoman Rebecca Long-Bailey was more hopeful, saying that talks would continue. She told the BBC that the overall mood was quite a positive and hopeful one - despite the government's disappointing failure to shift its stance on several issues.

"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 the coming days, and we are willing to continue the talks as we know the government are," she said.

"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," Ms Long Bailey added.

Those red lines are proving to be a major albatross for the UK prime minister. They include her ill-starred insistence that the UK leave the EU customs union and the border-free single market as part of Brexit.

Labour wants to continue a form of EU-UK customs union and stick closely with the single market. That would be a great help to Ireland, north and south, so fingers crossed.

On Saturday, Theresa May publicly admitted that given three defeats for the EU-UK provisional deal she signed off on November 25 last, that "there is no sign it can be passed in the near future". Hence the Conservative-Labour talks.

But Mrs May warned that any form of Brexit could "slip through our fingers" unless a cross-party compromise is found.

Hard-line Brexiteers in her party remain vehemently opposed to any proposal that would continue to bind the UK to the EU tariff rules and also restrict the UK's ability to make its own trade deals across the globe. Labour's Ms Long-Bailey again insisted her party wants to avoid a no-deal Brexit "in any situation".

That means the main opposition party remains prepared to cancel Brexit rather than see the UK crash out of the EU with no agreement in place. Such an outcome would wreak economic havoc in Ireland, the UK and many bordering EU trading partners. It would also disrupt travel throughout Europe.

Yet the Conservative ardent Brexiteers remain unfazed by the no-deal prospects. The Conservative leader of the UK parliament, Andrea Leadsom, said yesterday that a no-deal scenario wouldn't be "nearly as grim as many would advocate".

Doing no favours to the cross-party negotiators, she also said the Conservatives were talking to Labour "through gritted teeth" to find a compromise. The radical pro-Brexiteer insisted the bottom line remained that the UK was leaving the EU one way or another as soon as possible.

So, Wednesday offers another EU leaders' summit meeting - and another Brexit extension. On March 21, the leaders opted to postpone Brexit day, originally set for March 29, until April 12, this coming Friday. But that deadline came with certain conditions.

Simply put, the UK has until Friday to approve the existing withdrawal agreement, or radically change course and seek a further delay to Brexit. Otherwise it will crash out of the EU without an agreement.

Theresa May has written to the remaining EU countries seeking another postponement that would extend the departure date to June 30. This is based on hopes of an alternative deal from these talks with Labour which she might be able to put through the London parliament in a matter of weeks.

The UK will get an extension because the consequences of a no-deal crash-out by the EU's second largest, and the world's fifth largest, economy are unthinkable. But many of the remaining 27 EU member states want to attach strict conditions designed to end this rolling car-crash drama soon.

Dates and timing were a big deal last time the EU leaders met. It will be no different on Wednesday.

EU Council chairman Donald Tusk, who will chair the summit, has suggested putting everything off until next March. That would prevent a series of stop-start cliff-edge deadlines continually fomenting chaos.

But opponents of the idea warn that it could lead to more negotiating sclerosis, pointing out that an immediate deadline finally crystallised issues and focused minds.
Ireland's housing crisis is hit by new problems every day. Today we learn big investors find housing more lucrative than their more usual resort of putting money into commercial or retail property.

Last year the bigger investors spent more than 1bn buying up almost 3,000 homes in Ireland. New research suggests that, despite some successes in providing increased housing supply, the rent spiral around Dublin will continue.

By one projection, we can expect a 17pc rent hike around the capital over the coming three years. To some degree, we knew of this trend via specific news reports in recent weeks of big investors buying up whole blocks of new homes.

The trend has meant that even those few lucky enough to be in a position to start the home-buying process do not get to the starting gate. They are locked out of the market by these so-called "cuckoo funds".

We should not be surprised. Since the dawn of money and commerce, investors have gone to the places and sectors which offer the best returns. Any entrepreneur who sees scarce supply, rising rents and tight mortgage-lending rules, will simply follow the money.

Equally, the entry of such big business groups has attractions for developers and builders. It offers them a ready market and a supply of money to continue in business.

But one in 10 homes bought in Dublin last year was bought by corporate investors. This is a growing trend and one fifth of what they bought was outside the capital, reminding us that this is not a Dublin-only phenomenon.

The development has the potential to also fundamentally change the housing market in this country. It could mean a serious and permanent reversal of the high level of home ownership in Ireland, something which fed into social cohesion and national fellow-feeling. It is also part of a global trend. Last month the United Nations warned Ireland specifically - along with Czech Republic, Denmark, Spain, Sweden and the US - about the potential fall-out from big corporations engaging in the house market.

The UN warned that tax incentives and poor tenant rights made it easier and more attractive for big business to become major players in the housing market. Ireland's housing crisis is likely to continue for several more years at least, making it a magnet for these big investors.

None of this is encouraging news - though we should not be overly surprised. But it does make us fully aware of another obstacle put in the way of the only real solution to our current malaise: providing more affordable homes at an acceptable standard.

We fear things in the housing market are likely to worsen before any hope of improvement. The only real way forward for hard-working people, who are entitled to have a secure home at an affordable price, is an imaginative and radical building programme.

And that must happen immediately - if not sooner.
TV actress Allison Mack has pleaded guilty to charges that she was involved in a scheme to turn women into sex slaves for the spiritual leader of a cult-like group.

Mack, 36, wept as she admitted her crimes and apologised to the women who prosecutors say were exploited by Keith Raniere and the purported self-help group called NXIVM, based in upstate New York.

I believed Keith Ranieres intentions were to help people, and I was wrong, Mack told a Brooklyn judge.

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Mack  best known for her role as a young Supermans close friend on the series Smallville  said that after months of reflection since her arrest, I know I can and will be a better person.

The actress is to be sentenced on September 11 on two racketeering counts that each carry maximum terms of 20 years in prison. Sh is expected to face far less time under sentencing guidelines.

The plea means Mack will avoid going to trial with Raniere, wealthy heiress Clare Bronfman and another member of Ranieres inner circle, Kathy Russell. All have pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing.

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About two hours after Macks guilty plea, potential jurors got their first glimpse of the jailed Raniere at a proceeding where they were instructed on questionnaires to be filled out as a first step in the selection process.

Opening statements are scheduled for April 29 for a trial that is expected to last up to six weeks.

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The question of who jurors would see at the defence table had remained unanswered after new allegations that Raniere exploited a teenage girl.

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The accusations gave his co-defendants even further incentive to seek separate trials and engage in plea negotiations.

Court papers allege NXIVM formed a secret society of women who were branded with Ranieres initials and forced to have sex with him.

Defence lawyers have insisted any relationship between Raniere and the alleged victims, including an unidentified actress and other women expected to give evidence against him at trial, was consensual.

On Monday, Mack said that at Ranieres direction, she obtained compromising information and images of two unidentified women  called collateral within the group  that she threatened to make public if they did not perform so-called acts of love.

The jury questionnaire covers several topics, including asking candidates for their opinions about rich individuals and people who engage in relationships with multiple sexual partners and whether they believe that people under the age of 17 should be able to consent to sex with adults.
Barclays faces the prospect of having to raise fresh capital unless it scales back its investment banking operations, activist investor Edward Bramson has warned.

Mr Bramson, who holds a 5.5% stake in Barclays through his investment vehicle Sherborne, is calling for a board seat at the British lender, as well as petitioning the bank to shrink its corporate and investment banking arm.

In a letter to fellow investors ahead of the banks AGM next month, he said that if Barclays continues on its existing course, it would represent a real threat that more new capital will need to be raised to fund the under-fire division.

We believe that any new capital invested in the corporate and investment bank is almost certain to cause an immediate destruction of shareholder value, Mr Bramson wrote.

He compared Barclays to troubled German lender Deutsche Bank, arguing that they have similar strategic weaknesses and have pursued similar product and customer strategies, describing the lenders woes as a cautionary sign.

Pointing to lacklustre shareholder returns, the activist also took aim at Barclays management, saying: Uncontrollable factors, such as Brexit, do not account for Barclays underperformance.

The cause is, we believe, the boards prolonged pursuit of a strategy that is not grounded in the fundamental realities of the global corporate and investment bank marketplace.

Mr Bramson is calling for a judicious rebalancing of the corporate and investment bank strategy, which would reduce the need for new external capital and result in a lower risk business.

His comments come just weeks after Barclays embarked on a radical executive and organisational shake-up, with Tim Throsby, the boss of investment banking, quitting the lender.

Mr Throsby was drafted in two years ago from JP Morgan, but an overhaul of the division will see the unit split into three  global banking, global markets and corporate banking  each with its own head reporting directly to chief executive Jes Staley.

Mr Staley has himself admitted that the corporate and investment bank is not yet where we need it to be and needs to show higher returns.

However, Mr Staley and outgoing chairman John McFarlane have rejected Mr Bramsons vision, saying the activists interests are not aligned with those of the bank or of long-term shareholders.

In a strongly worded circular, they argued that Mr Bramsons presence at the top table would not be in the best interests of shareholders as a whole, adding that his appointment would be detrimental and result in significant disruption.

The annual meeting will take place on May 2, when shareholders will vote on whether to appoint Mr Bramson to the board.
Libya has been divided between various armed groups since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Photo: REUTERS

Fighting has flared in the suburbs of Tripoli as Gen Khalifa Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) intensified its assault, despite a UN appeal for a ceasefire.

An "urgent" two-hour truce was sought to allow the evacuation of civilians and the wounded from southern parts of the capital, where troops loyal to the internationally recognised government of national accord were battling to halt the LNA assault.

But the violence saw no sign of abating yesterday, with Gen Haftar's forces launching at least one air strike. Witnesses reported hearing rockets firing to the south of the city.

It was the LNA's first use of air power in the battle and followed pro-government air raids on Saturday.

Clashes were concentrated in Wadi Raba, a farming area, and the disused international airport, south of the capital. Gen Haftar's forces claim to have seized the airport.

Col Mohamed Gnounou, a spokesman for pro-government forces, said a counter-offensive had been launched to push Gen Haftar back.

Pro-government forces have been reinforced by powerful militia groups from the north-western cities of Misrata, Zintan and Zawiya. The health ministry said at least 21 people were killed and 27 wounded in the fighting.

Libya has been divided between various armed groups since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame delivers a speech marking the 25th anniversary of the 1994 Rwanda genocide at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Kigali, April 7, 2019. REUTERS/Jean Bizimana.

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," Mr Kagame said at the ceremony attended by several heads of state.

"We Rwandans have granted ourselves a new beginning.

Expand Close Rwandan youth participate during the 25th Commemoration of the 1994 Genocide at the Kigali Genocide Memorial at the Amahoro stadium in Kigali, Rwanda April 7, 2019. REUTERS/Jean Bizimana / Facebook

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Whatsapp Rwandan youth participate during the 25th Commemoration of the 1994 Genocide at the Kigali Genocide Memorial at the Amahoro stadium in Kigali, Rwanda April 7, 2019. REUTERS/Jean Bizimana

"We exist in a state of permanent commemoration, every day, in all that we do ... Today, light radiates from this place."

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.

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Whatsapp A participant gestures near a night vigil candle during a commemoration ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, at the Amahoro stadium in Kigali, Rwanda April 7, 2019. REUTERS/Jean Bizimana

"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.

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.

Ethiopia's prime minister expressed solidarity with Rwandans and said under Mr Kagame's leadership, seeds of unity and never again had been sowed.

Then followed a procession through the capital to Kigali's 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.

"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.

Mr 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.

On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron ordered a government study into the country's role in Rwanda before and during its 1994 genocide.

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, 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, Mr Kagame's 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 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.
Hands across borders: African Union Commission chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, his wife Jeannette and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker light the flame of hope during a ceremony in Kigali. Photo: REUTERS/Baz Ratner

Rwandan President Paul Kagame has begun a week of solemn ceremonies to commemorate the lives of 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutus murdered during the Rwandan genocide, a three-month-killing spree that began 25 years ago.

Mr Kagame laid a wreath at the Gisozi genocide memorial site, where over a quarter of a million people are buried, before the government began an afternoon of speeches and song.

"There is no way to fully comprehend the loneliness and anger of survivors and yet over and over again we have asked them to make the sacrifices necessary to give our nation new life.

"Emotions had to be put in a box," Mr Kagame said.

"We are far better Rwandans than we were. But we can be even better still. We are the last people in the world who should succumb to complacency."

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. The attackers have never been identified.

Among the legacies of the genocide is the International Criminal Court, which grew out of tribunals to prosecute those responsible for atrocities committed in Rwanda and during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
Laleh Shahravesh (right), a single mother from London, who campaigners have claimed is facing two years in jail in Dubai for allegedly using disparaging language about her ex-husband's new wife on Facebook Photo: Detained in Dubai/PA Wire

A British single mother has been arrested in Dubai with her teenage daughter over Facebook posts which branded her ex-husband's new wife a "horse", campaigners say.

Laleh Shahravesh, 55, faces two years in jail and a 50,000 fine over posts allegedly written three years ago after she discovered that her former partner, Pedro, had remarried, the Detained In Dubai group said.

In one post, she wrote: "I hope you go under the ground you idiot. Damn you. You left me for this horse."

Ms Shahravesh, from Richmond, south-west London, was arrested with her daughter Paris, 14, at Dubai Airport when the pair visited on March 10 for Pedro's funeral, one week after his death from a heart attack, aged 51.

They were held for 12 hours before Ms Shahravesh's passport was seized, Detained In Dubai said.

She had been married to Pedro for 18 years and they lived together in Dubai, where he worked for HSBC, for eight months before she returned to Britain with their daughter.

A few months later, in 2016, she unexpectedly received divorce papers and saw from photos on Facebook that Pedro, who is Portuguese, had remarried.

In another comment, which she wrote in Britain, she said: "You married a horse you idiot."

Detained In Dubai said her arrest, under strict cybercrime laws which also include a ban on sharing charity pages online, was "simply unreasonable".

The posts, written in Farsi, were reported by Pedro's new wife, Samah Al Hammadi, 42, from Tunisia, the group said.

Ms Shahravesh 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."

Paris has been allowed to return to Britain but Ms Shahravesh must remain in the country and faces further court proceedings on Thursday.

Ms Shahravesh added: "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."

She said she has lost her job at a homeless shelter, could lose the flat she shares with her daughter and has borrowed 5,000 from her family.

"My life is in ruins, and that is even before the huge fines and jail I am facing here," she said.

Radha Stirling, chief executive of Detained In Dubai who represents Ms Shahravesh, said the country's cybercrime laws render "almost every visitor to the country a criminal".

"I have spoken with Laleh, her mother, sisters and daughter Paris," she said.

"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."

A Foreign Office spokesman said its staff are supporting a British woman and her family following her detention in the United Arab Emirates.

The spokesman added: "We are in contact with the UAE authorities regarding her case."
As legislators dial in to get this right, I anticipate theyll be able to do this quickly because of the urgency of this topic, Hain said. Then its going to come down on local police to drive it home and make sure we are engaging with our community so they are aware of gun laws and we are doing everything we can on an enforcement level to detect illegally possessed firearms and get them off our streets.
Sajid Aslam was a supply teacher turned alleged jihadist, whose first wife was a Northern Irish trainee maths teacher, jailed for planning to take her children to Syria to join him.

Aslam (34), from Walsall, in the West Midlands, met Lorna Moore at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2000. She converted to Islam to marry Aslam three years later.

He was believed to be head of a Walsall network of Isil sympathisers. He left his wife and children in August 2014 and the last reports, prior to Lisa Smith's interview, placed him in Syria. Meanwhile, in May 2016, Moore, from Omagh, Co Tyrone, was jailed for two-and-a-half years at the Old Bailey in London, for planning to take her children to Syria to join her husband.

Moore, who had been brought up as a member of Mountjoy Presbyterian Church, 8km from Omagh, failed to reveal to the British authorities that Aslam had travelled to Syria.

And she concealed plans to take their three children, including an 11-month-old baby, to the war zone.

The jury believed that Moore knew her husband was part of a network travelling to Syria, and British police suspected women were being lured to the Isil territory to have children.

When sentencing Moore, Old Bailey judge Charles Wide described her as a "very strong character" who "knew perfectly well" of her husband's "dedication to terrorism".

The judge said one of the most "troubling" matters about the disgraced teacher was her ability to tell "lie after lie".

However, residents in Mountjoy who'd known Moore growing up, referred to her as a "quiet, decent wee girl". Some felt sympathy for her.

On the day her husband travelled to Syria, the mother took her children to Butlin's holiday camp in Skegness.

Aslam's friend Ayman Shaukat (28) was convicted of preparing terrorist acts by helping Aslam travel.

Aslam later sent Shaukat a coded text of a link to the R&B song 'I Made It (Cash Money Heroes)', by Kevin Rudolf, when he arrived in Syria. And within months, Moore booked flights to Palma, Majorca, with intent to travel to the war zone.

Her plan was given away by a text from another Isil fanatic's wife, in Turkey, who wrote: "See you there."

The former teacher told the British authorities she would "never" put her children's lives at risk, stating: "They mean the world to me."

She claimed her marriage was over after Aslam became abusive and that they'd continued to live together only for the sake of their children.

Moore's father Noel claimed his daughter had been jailed wrongly, and that she hadn't known her husband had travelled.

"It was a miscarriage of justice," he told the BBC. "It couldn't be anything else. My daughter didn't know where the man was going. I think the whole thing's rubbish.

"Somebody's been accused of something they didn't do and getting two-and-a-half years jail for it.

"She didn't know the man was going to go away. He didn't come home after a week of holidays."

The court heard claims Aslam had told his family he was teaching in refugee camps in Turkey.

But his sister, Sarwat, told jurors he was in touch during the trial saying he wanted to "start a dialogue with police about coming home".

Lisa Smith said she since married Aslam and that he was the father to her daughter.

She also claimed he had been killed in the past three months in Syria.
Larry the cat sits outside Downing Street, as uncertainty over Brexit continues, in London, Britain April 8, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls

Larry the cat sits outside Downing Street, as uncertainty over Brexit continues, in London, Britain April 8, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls

Britain's Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Amber Rudd is seen outside Downing Street, as uncertainty over Brexit continues, in London, Britain April 8, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls

Britain's Secretary of State for Housing James Brokenshire, Secretary of State for Justice David Gauke and Secretary of State for Scotland David Mundell are seen outside Downing Street, as uncertainty over Brexit continues, in London, Britain April 8, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls

Brexit talks between the British government and the UK Labour Party were resuming on an official level on Monday evening after four days of little apparent progress.

In jointly released statements, Downing Street and Labour said "technical" talks were restarting after dialogue by phone and email over the weekend.

Expand Close Larry the cat sits outside Downing Street, as uncertainty over Brexit continues, in London, Britain April 8, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls / Facebook

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Whatsapp Larry the cat sits outside Downing Street, as uncertainty over Brexit continues, in London, Britain April 8, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls

There was no official confirmation of BBC reports that the British government had made a fresh offer of a legislative "lock" to prevent a future Conservative leader from unpicking any agreement reached by Theresa May.

With only two days to go to a crunch Brussels summit at which the other 27 EU member states will decide whether to grant the UK Prime Minster's request for a further delay to Brexit, Downing Street insisted Mrs May was treating the cross-party talks with "urgency".

But there appeared little prospect of a compromise agreement being in place in time for Wednesday's EU meeting, and no chance of it being approved by MPs before the EU27 meet.

The UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the talks were serious, but the British government was sticking to its red lines.

Mr Corbyn said: "The exchanges with the Government have been serious, but our shadow cabinet expressed frustration that Mrs May has not yet moved off her red lines so we can reach a compromise.

"The key issues that we must see real movement on to secure an agreement are a customs union with the EU, alignment with the single market and full dynamic alignment of workers' rights, environmental protections and consumer standards.

Expand Close Britain's Justice Secretary David Gauke (left), Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary James Brokenshire (centre) and Scottish Secretary David Mundell (right) leave 10 Downing Street, London. Kirsty O'Connor/PA Wire / Facebook

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Whatsapp Britain's Justice Secretary David Gauke (left), Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary James Brokenshire (centre) and Scottish Secretary David Mundell (right) leave 10 Downing Street, London. Kirsty O'Connor/PA Wire

"We are prepared to talk and put forward our view, but talks have to mean a movement and so far there has been no change in those red lines."

Mrs May is to make a whistle-stop trip to Berlin and Paris for last-minute talks with Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron on the eve of the emergency summit.

And she spoke by phone with European Council president Donald Tusk, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, Dutch PM Mark Rutte and Malta's Joseph Muscat to set out the case for extending the Brexit process to June 30.

The unanimous agreement of all 27 is needed to avoid the UK leaving without a deal on Friday.

Expand Close Britain's Justice Secretary David Gauke (front, centre), Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary James Brokenshire (rear, right) and Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock (left) leave 10 Downing Street, London. Kirsty O'Connor/PA Wire / Facebook

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Mr Tusk has recommended a one-year extension to the Brexit process, with a break clause allowing an earlier departure if a withdrawal deal is ratified in Westminster.

Following his call with Mrs May, Mr Rutte said it would be "crucial" for the EU27 to know "when and on what basis" the UK will ratify its Withdrawal Agreement.

He said they would need assurances of "sincere co-operation" from London before granting an extension.

Speaking during a visit to Dublin, the EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said the UK could not escape demands for a 39 billion (45m) payment and a "backstop" for the Irish border by quitting without a deal.

"If the UK were to leave the EU without a deal we would not discuss anything with the UK until there is an agreement for Ireland and Northern Ireland as well as for citizens' rights and the financial settlement," Mr Barnier told Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

"You have our full support and, I have said before, the backstop is currently the only solution we have found to maintain the status quo on the island of Ireland."

The Taoiseach said he was "confident" of agreement on an extension at Wednesday's summit.

Tuesday's weekly meeting of Cabinet has been cancelled due to Mrs May's travels, with no rescheduled date announced. A number of Cabinet ministers attended Downing Street for a scheduled meeting of the EU subcommittee on Monday.

Mrs May has angered Tories by holding talks with Labour, with Brexiteers including Boris Johnson concerned that she will accept a customs union as the price for a deal with Jeremy Corbyn.

Negotiations stalled after Labour said that Mrs May refused to set out any changes to her Brexit red lines.

Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said the ball was "in the Government's court".

He told the BBC: "At the moment we're waiting to see what the Government is putting on the table as a proposal.

"All they have done so far is to indicate various things but not to change the Political Declaration, so the ball is in the Government's court.

"We need to see what they come back with and when they do we will take a collective position on that."

In a video message recorded in her Chequers country retreat at the weekend, Mrs May said both sides in the cross-party talks will have to compromise.

Mrs May acknowledged she could not see the Commons accepting her deal in its current form and MPs would not agree to a no-deal exit.

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.

She hopes to have a solution ratified in time to allow the UK to leave the EU by May 22, avoiding the need to take part in European Parliament elections the following day.

But Mr Johnson warned that Tory MPs will not allow Mrs May to "surrender" to Mr Corbyn, who is demanding involvement in a post-Brexit customs union arrangement with the EU as part of the price for Labour support.

"If the UK were to commit to remaining in the customs union, it would make a total and utter nonsense of the referendum result," said the former foreign secretary in his regular column in the Daily Telegraph.

"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."

Another prominent Brexiteer, Mark Francois, called for an "indicative vote" among Tory MPs on the PM's future on Wednesday to send a signal to the Brussels summit that Mrs May has lost the confidence of her own side and cannot deliver a Brexit deal.

But it is understood that the executive of the backbench 1922 Committee considered this option last week and decided it was not appropriate at this stage. A formal confidence vote cannot take place until December.

Meanwhile, the House of Lords was continuing its consideration of Yvette Cooper's backbench Bill forcing the Prime Minister to request a Brexit extension rather than leave the EU with no deal.
The Israeli military vehicle rolled slowly through the dark streets of Beit Ummar, a Palestinian town in the southern occupied West Bank.

It was the summer of 1988. For the previous six months, thousands of Palestinians had been confronting Israeli forces in an uprising that would later be known as the First Intifada.

In the front seat was Benny Gantz, a young officer. The night was suddenly lit up by Molotov cocktails exploding all around the vehicle. The Israeli soldiers jumped out with assault rifles raised but their attackers had already fled.

"Other commanders would just say shoot everywhere. But not Benny," said Dan Emergui, one of the soldiers. "He's calm and he's cool. If he doesn't have a reason to shoot, he won't."

Three decades after the ambush, Mr Gantz is again trying to hold his nerve under fire, this time in the midst of the ugliest election campaign in recent Israeli history.

The 59-year-old son of Holocaust survivors, who rose to be Israel's top general, has led his centrist Blue and White coalition to within striking distance of toppling Benjamin Netanyahu after a decade in power. The final polls before tomorrow's election show Blue and White winning more seats than Mr Netanyahu's Likud party.

However, the same polls also show right-wing parties with a narrow majority in parliament, which might be enough to keep Mr Netanyahu in office. In a last-minute bid to win over right-wing allies, Mr Netanyahu promised over the weekend that he would annex all Israeli settlements in the West Bank, a step he has shied away from in the past.

Mr Gantz's campaign has been relatively light on policy. On security, he has taken similar positions to Mr Netanyahu and sometimes tried to outflank him in hawkishness.

He refuses to say whether he supports the idea of a Palestinian state and has promised to continue Israel's campaign to drive Iran out of Syria and seek better relations with the Gulf Arab states.

His main pitch to voters is that he is the candidate of decency while Mr Netanyahu, who is facing criminal corruption charges, is prepared to tear Israel apart to hold on to power. "We are speaking about a corrupt man who is destroying the country," Mr Gantz said.

Meanwhile, Mr Netanyahu and his allies have pummelled Mr Gantz as a paranoid delusional and tried to scare Jewish voters with claims he would bring the Arab minority parties into government.

Mr Gantz suspects the prime minister's aides were behind the leak of a report that his phone was hacked by Iran, which prompted Mr Netanyahu to claim his opponent was vulnerable to blackmail by Israel's enemy.

Several measures indicate how much Israel has shifted to the right lately. Around 63pc of Jewish Israeli voters identify as right-wing, compared with just 15pc for the left and 18pc who consider themselves centrist. Surveys show young Israelis, who grew up amid a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings in the early 2000s, appear more right-wing than their parents' generation.

Mr Gantz hopes his appeals for national unity, bolstered by his military credentials as the chief of staff who commanded Israeli forces during the 2014 Gaza War, will be enough to turn the tide.

His main advantage is a wave of anti-Netanyahu sentiment among liberal Israelis, with voters saying they are tired of Mr Netanyahu rather than enthused about Mr Gantz. ( Daily Telegraph, London)

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Laleh Shahravesh (right), a single mother from London, who campaigners have claimed is facing two years in jail in Dubai for allegedly using disparaging language about her ex-husband's new wife on Facebook Photo: Detained in Dubai/PA Wire

THE daughter of a British woman arrested in Dubai over Facebook posts which branded her ex-husband's new wife a "horse" has begged its ruler to let her come home.

Laleh Shahravesh, 55, faces two years in jail and a 50,000 fine over posts allegedly written three years ago after she discovered that her former partner, Pedro, had remarried, the Detained In Dubai group said.

Ms Shahravesh, from Richmond, south-west London, was arrested with her daughter Paris, 14, at Dubai Airport when the pair visited on March 10 for Pedro's funeral, one week after his death from a heart attack, aged 51.

They were held for 12 hours before Ms Shahravesh's passport was seized, Detained In Dubai said.

The teenager, who has returned to Britain, has written to the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

She said in the letter published by Detained in Dubai: "I have not seen my mother in 23 days, and with every passing day, I feel less hopeful of her return.

"I ask kindly: please, please return my mother's passport, and let her come home."

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Ms Shahravesh had been married to Pedro for 18 years and they lived together in Dubai, where he worked for HSBC, for eight months before she returned to Britain with their daughter.

A few months later, in 2016, she unexpectedly received divorce papers and saw from photos on Facebook that Pedro, who is Portuguese, had remarried.

In one post, she wrote: "I hope you go under the ground you idiot. Damn you. You left me for this horse."

In another comment, which she wrote in Britain, she said: "You married a horse you idiot."

She 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."

Ms Shahravesh's posts, written in Farsi, were reported by Pedro's new wife, Samah Al Hammadi, 42, from Tunisia, Detained In Dubai said.

Radha Stirling, chief executive of Detained In Dubai, said Ms Hammadi had since posted on Facebook that she was considering retracting her statement out of respect for Paris.

She said: "We are delighted to hear that the complainant is considering dropping the charges, however it should never have become such an issue because the Dubai prosecution should not have allowed it to escalate as far as it has."

The group said her arrest, under strict cybercrime laws which also include a ban on sharing charity pages online, was "simply unreasonable".

In her letter to Sheikh Mohammed, Paris said of the initial detainment: "I cannot emphasise enough how scared I felt, especially after losing my father just a week before, as I was having to worry about losing my mother as well.

"Yet even though I felt terrified on the day that we arrived, the sick feeling in my stomach only became worse."

She said her crying mother had been yelled at by police and had to sign a document in Arabic which she did not understand, and that the arrest had left her "without the closure that I had wished to gain from attending my father's funeral".

Jeremy Hunt, the UK's Foreign Secretary, told reporters in Luxembourg the Government was "concerned" by the situation.

"Our diplomats in the UAE have enormous experience in dealing with consular cases as we saw from the Matthew Hedges case and so she is getting the best possible service from the FCO," he said.

Mr Hedges was pardoned by the UAE in 2018 after he had been given a life sentence for spying for MI6, which was denied by Britain.

Ms Shahravesh must remain in the country and faces further court proceedings on Thursday.

Ms Shahravesh added: "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."

She said she has lost her job at a homeless shelter, could lose the flat she shares with her daughter and has borrowed 5,000 from her family.

"My life is in ruins, and that is even before the huge fines and jail I am facing here," she said.

Ms Stirling said the country's cybercrime laws render "almost every visitor to the country a criminal".

Responding to Mr Hunt's comments, she said: "Laleh and her family are unaware of any diplomatic intervention and feel wholly abandoned by their government."

A UK Foreign Office spokesman said its staff are supporting a British woman and her family following her detention in the United Arab Emirates.

The spokesman added: "We are in contact with the UAE authorities regarding her case."
US President Donald Trump is removing the director of the U.S. Secret Service, the agency that provides protection for him and other top U.S. officials, the White House said on Monday, a day after the removal of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.

The dismissal of Secret Service Director Randolph "Tex" Alles comes amid major leadership changes at the sprawling Department of Homeland Security. The Secret Service director reports to the Homeland Security secretary.

Expand Close U.S. President Donald Trump greets his Secretary of Homeland Security nominee Kirstjen Nielsen in the East Room of the White House in Washington, U.S., October 12, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/ / Facebook

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Whatsapp U.S. President Donald Trump greets his Secretary of Homeland Security nominee Kirstjen Nielsen in the East Room of the White House in Washington, U.S., October 12, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/

The first sign of the overhaul came late on Thursday, when Trump abruptly pulled his nomination of Ron Vitiello as director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of DHS. Trump described that move as part of a policy change "going in a tougher direction."

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said James Murray, a career Secret Service agent, will take over the Secret Service in May.

A senior administration official said Trump asked for Nielsen's resignation when the two met at the White House on Sunday. Trump also announced that Kevin McAleenan, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner, would become acting DHS secretary.

One official described the firings to CNN as "a near-systematic purge" at the Department of Homeland Security. Fox News cited sources as saying Alles' removal was part of a transition in leadership at DHS.

Expand Close U.S. President Donald Trump addresses the Republican Jewish Coalition 2019 Annual Leadership Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., April 6, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo / Facebook

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Whatsapp U.S. President Donald Trump addresses the Republican Jewish Coalition 2019 Annual Leadership Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., April 6, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

The removal of Alles marked the latest in a long line of firings and resignations of senior officials in the Trump administration, a list that has included the secretaries of state, defense, homeland security, interior, veterans affairs and health and human services, the attorney general and numerous senior White House aides.

Trump, seeking re-election in 2020, has taken a hard line toward immigration since becoming president in January 2017, and the issue may be a central theme in next year's race.

Nielsen, who oversaw Trump's bitterly contested immigration policies during her tumultuous 16-month tenure, resigned amid a surge in the number of migrants at the border with Mexico.

Her departure had been long rumored particularly after criticism of the administration's 2018 family separation policy at the border with Mexico and as U.S. border officials estimated that 100,000 migrants were apprehended at the southern border in March, the highest level in a decade. Trump was so frustrated about the increase that he announced he would cut off U.S. aid to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

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Alles, appointed to the post by Trump in April 2017, previously held a senior job at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency and served 35 years in the U.S. Marine Corps before retiring as a major general in 2011.

The Secret Service is responsible for protecting senior U.S. officials including the president and vice president, former presidents and visiting heads of state. The agency also is charged with enforcing counterfeiting laws and safeguarding the payment and financial systems of the United States.

CNN reported that Trump in recent weeks empowered his hard-line conservative aide Stephen Miller to lead the administration's border policies and quoted the official as saying Miller's plans amount to a wholesale decapitation of the Department of Homeland Security's leadership.

L. Francis Cissna, director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency, and department General Counsel John Mitnick also are expected to be out of their jobs soon, CNN reported.

The Secret Service also came under scrutiny last week after a Chinese woman carrying electronic devices bluffed her way through security checks at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Out: Kirstjen Nielsen stepped aside before she was pushed. AP photo

Donald Trump suffered another resignation last night when Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen quit amid frustration about the crackdown on the border.

President Donald Trump immediately replaced her with Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan, a longtime border official who is well-respected by members of Congress and within the administration.

Trump aides had been eyeing a staff shake-up at Homeland Security and had already withdrawn the nomination for another key immigration post but Ms Nielsen's resignation came as a surprise.

She travelled to the US-Mexico border on Friday with Mr Trump to participate in a round-table with border officers and local law enforcement. There she echoed Mr Trump's comments on the situation at the border. As they toured a section of newly rebuilt barriers, Ms Nielsen was at Mr Trump's side, introducing him to local officials.

Privately, she had grown increasingly frustrated by what she saw as a lack of support from other departments and increased meddling by Trump aides, sources said.

She went into a meeting with Mr Trump yesterday not knowing whether she'd be fired or would resign, and she ended up resigning.

Expand Close Mick Mulvaney. Photo: REUTERS / Facebook

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There have been persistent tensions between the White House and Ms Nielsen almost from the moment she became secretary, after her predecessor John Kelly became the White House chief of staff in 2017. Ms 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 around the border and on other matters like protected status for some refugees.

Once Mr Kelly left the White House last year, Ms Nielsen's days appeared to be numbered. She had expected to be pushed out last November, but her exit never materialised.

In recent weeks, as a new wave of migration taxed border resources and Mr Trump tried to regain control of the issue for his re-election campaign, tensions flared anew.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump's current chief of staff has insisted the president's tax returns will never be handed over to Democratic politicians.

The defiant stance by Mick Mulvaney flies in the face of an effort in Congress to learn more about the real estate mogul's personal finances.

Asked on 'Fox News Sunday' whether congressional Democrats would succeed in obtaining the Republican president's tax returns, Mr Mulvaney said: "No, never. Nor should they."
The Comanche Nation is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a dispute affecting a rival tribe's gaming facility in Oklahoma.

The tribe contends the Chickasaw Nation should not have been able to open a new casino on land that was recently placed in trust. A petition asking the justices to accept the case was filed on March 14.

"The Comanche had no choice but to bring this challenge," the filing states . "The Chickasaw Nation already has two dozen casinos bringing in more than a billion dollars a year. It is setting up yet another casino at Terral, Oklahoma, less than 45 miles down river from the Comanche Red River Hotel and Casino at Devol."

The Comanche Nation's pleas have so far fallen on deaf ears. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals essentially said there was no case last December, after a federal judge refused to block the new casino from opening.

Indianz.Com on Google Maps: Chickasaw Nation Gaming Facilities

The Chickasaw Nation opened the RiverStar Casino in March 2018. It's located in Terral, just a few miles from the Texas border, a major gaming market that the Comanche Nation also depends on for its Red River Hotel and Casino

"The operation at Devol is the economic lifeline of the Comanche Nation: The sixty million dollars in net annual revenue that flow from the Red River Hotel and Casino  just 6% of the yearly take from Chickasaws several dozen operations  is more than 60% of the funds necessary for the Comanche to sustain vital tribal operations and social service programs."

The Bureau of Indian Affairs approved the land-into-trust application for the casino on the last full day of the Obama administration in January 2017. Indianz.Com published the deed from the acquisition around that time.

But the Trump administration held up the official notice of the acquisition until July 2017. That didn't stop the Chickasaws from breaking ground on the project before securing formal approval for the casino.

Generally, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act bars casinos on land placed in trust after 1988. But an exception in Section 20 of the law allows gaming on properties located within the boundaries a former reservation in Oklahoma.

According to the BIA, the site in Terral qualifies for such an exception. The Comanches, however, contend the Chickasaws never exercised jurisdiction over the land as required by IGRA.

"The latest acquisition for the benefit of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma - a tribe already operating approximately two dozen post 1988 gaming operations to the tune of a billion dollars annually - is an existential threat to the economic lifeline of the Comanche Nation, the Red River Hotel and Casino at Devol, Oklahoma," the petition states.

The Chickasaw Nation operates nearly two dozens casinos , more than any other tribe in Oklahoma and more than any other tribe in the United States.

The federal government's response is due May 2, according to Docket No. 18-1261

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The Cherokee Nation is "extremely disappointed" with a federal judge's decision to strike down Oklahoma's American Indian Arts and Crafts Sales Act, The Tahlequah Daily Press reports.

The tribe supported HB2261 because it required "Indian" art to be produced by citizens of federally recognized tribes. But Judge Charles B. Goodwin on March 28 ruled that such a requirement conflicts with the federal Indian Arts and Crafts Act , which also includes citizens of state recognized tribes.

"The Cherokee Nation is extremely disappointed in the federal ruling in the Western District of Oklahoma," Chuck Hoskin, the tribe's chief of staff, told the paper. "Our state is home to 38 federally recognized tribes and thousands of tribal citizens immersed in our rich culture and tradition"

Hoskin is a former state lawmaker. He was the primary sponsor of HB2261, which became law in 2016.

Peggy Fontenot , a citizen of the Patawomeck Indian Tribe, challenged the law in federal court. She has exhibited her photography, jewelry and other works at the popular Red Earth Native American Cultural Festival in Oklahoma and could have been fined, or even put in jail, under the Oklahoma statute.

"This is a great victory for Peggy, and a stern rebuke to state legislatures that would abuse their lawmaking authority to favor politically connected groups," the Pacific Legal Foundation said in a March 29 blog post. The group has disputed the legality of the Indian Child Welfare Act and has challenged tribal protections for sacred sites

Turtle Talk has posted documents from the case, Fontenot v. Hunter . The state has not decided whether it will appeal, The Daily Press reported.

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Partisan House vote renews Violence Against Women Act, Senate fate unclear

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WASHINGTON  Two months after it let the Violence Against Women Act lapse, the House voted Thursday to renew the 25-year-old law that extends protections for victims of domestic violence.

While no one in the House disagreed with the goals of the bill, Republicans accused the Democratic majority of dressing it up like a Christmas tree with liberal amendments that could doom it in the Senate.

Those included provisions to take guns from abusers  a move the GOP said violated the Second Amendment, drawing an angry reply from Democrats who accused the other side of bowing to the National Rifle Association.

The final vote was 263-158 , with just one Democrat voting against the measure and 33 Republicans crossing the aisle to support it. In Arizonas delegation, the vote split straight down party lines, with all five Democrats voting for it and all four Republicans opposing it.

Juana Majel-Dixon, an officer of the National Congress of American Indians, welcomed the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, saying it will allow tribes to continue to prosecute non-tribal members for domestic assaults of Native American women. Photo by Luv Junious / Cronkite News

We all want to protect women and children and VAWA has typically received wide-ranging bipartisan support. However, this legislation fails to do that. said Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Peoria, a survivor of domestic abuse herself who voted against the bill H.R.1585 ) Thursday.

But Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Phoenix, said voting for the bill was easy, particularly in a state like Arizona, which he said was in the top 10 states in the nation for deaths resulting from domestic violence.

There are so many victims, particularly in Arizona, Stanton said after the vote. I dont know why they voted against it, whatever reason it may have been youre overthinking it. Supporting victims is the right thing to do.

The Violence Against Women Act was first passed in 1994 and has been reauthorized, and tweaked, about every five years since then. The current version expired during the government shutdown over the holidays, was temporarily renewed before expiring again in February.

The act funds shelters and domestic violence prevention programs, as well as making it easier for tribal courts to prosecute non-tribal abusers, and expanding protections to people in same-sex relationships.

Supporters of the Violence Against Women Act at a rally outside the Capitol Thursday after the House approved a renewal of the law, that had lapsed two months ago. Its future in the Senate is less certain. Photo by Luv Junious Cronkite News

The bill also improves tribal law enforcement agencies access to federal crime databases in hopes of holding non-Native predators accountable for crimes on reservations.

Juana Majel-Dixon, secretary of the National Congress of American Indians, said VAWA will help tribes prosecute non-Native people who commit crimes on tribal lands, an area were tribal courts previously had no jurisdiction.

Unless the tribe had an agreement with a person that was non-native and married into your society to be governed by the laws, there were no laws that protected us and our tribal police, Majel-Dixon said.

But the latest version of the bill also included provisions that Republicans said were added only to score political points and which are sure to make it harder to pass in the Senate.

One of those changes is a new provision that aims to close the boyfriend loophole by barring some people convicted domestic violence cases from buying a gun. Critics said it could deny a gun to someone with misdemeanor convictions of stalking or domestic abuse, which Lesko said in a statement infringes on Second Amendment rights by taking away a gun owners right to due process.

Lesko and others also latched on to language in the bill aimed at increasing protections for transgender abuse victims by letting them have access to womens shelters.

By allowing biological males who identify as women to be placed in shelters and prisons right next to vulnerable women, women could be put in even more danger, Lesko said

Democrats said references to the bills protections for biological males was little more than a dog-whistle appeal to bigots, and said the transgender language was just another protection for a potentially abused group.

Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Tucson, said in a tweet she voted to reauthorize the bill because it extends the Rape and Prevention Education grant program and expands training for school-based and campus health centers.

THREAD: As a survivor of domestic violence, this issue is so important to me. I am co-chair of the Bipartisan Working Group to End Domestic Violence and wanted to work with my colleagues to pass a VAWA reauthorization that every member of Congress could support.  Congresswoman Debbie Lesko (@RepDLesko) April 4, 2019

But Lesko warned that Democrats took too many liberties with new provisions, and its unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled Senate. She said Congress should be more focused on bipartisan efforts, rather than a bill that is a non-starter in the U.S. Senate  that will not be signed by the president.

Stanton didnt see it that way. He said he was very heartened by the vote to benefit more women in Arizona, which he said does not provide resources to help victims of domestic violence.

Thats a tragedy, he said.

-Cronkite news reporter Luv Junious contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared on Cronkite News and is published via a Creative Commons license . Cronkite News is produced by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University

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What difference does it make to have Native Americans in Congress? This.

Congress voted to pass Violence Against Women Act; Legislative path ahead is complicated by sharp divisions over human rights, gun provisions

Indian Country Today

What difference does it make to have Native Americans in the Congress? The debate last week about the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act provided a textbook answer.

Rep. Sharice Davids, Ho Chunk, D-Kansas, sat in the speakers chair presiding over the floor debate . Rep. Deb Haaland, Laguna Pueblo, D-New Mexico, introduced amendments that could make the law more effective in Indian Country, and Rep. Tom Cole, Chickasaw, R-Oklahoma, made the bipartisan case telling Republicans about the big picture significance of the bill while urging Democrats to find a compromise that will ensure the bill becomes law.

And the fourth tribal citizen in Congress? Rep. Markwayne Mullin, Cherokee Nation, R-Oklahoma, continued his record of voting against the Violence Against Women Act . Mullin is vice chair of the Native American caucus in the House. .

The House passed this expanded version of the Violence Against Women Act, including the renewal of the tribal provisions, as well as new measures to improve the collection of data and provide resources to American Indians and Alaska Natives living in cities. And amendment by Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, would give five Alaska Native villages new authority to prosecute sexual crimes in a pilot program.

Congress voted 263 to 158 in favor of H.R.1585, the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2019 . Thirty-three Republicans joined the majority Democrats in favor of the measure, but the legislative path through the Senate is complicated by the sharp divisions in Congress and the country.

President Bill Clinton signed the act into law in 1994 and it was reauthorized with large majorities in 2000, 2005 and 2013. Despite opposition by House Republicans in 2012 due to its protections for LGBTQ people, Native American women, and undocumented immigrants, it was ultimately reauthorized in 2013.

As tribal leaders, we have no greater priority than protecting our women, children, and elders, said Juana Majel, Pauma Band of Luiseno Indians, co-chair of the task force on Violence Against Women for the National Congress of American Indians. Too often, we as Native women are invisible but today, we celebrate and thank the representatives here for seeing us, for standing with us, and for fighting with us.

Majel urged the Senate to move quickly to take up this legislation because victims in Indian Country cannot wait. We will not accept a bill that leaves Native victims behind. They are counting on us.

Rep. Haaland said after the measure passed that previous versions of the law had a blind spot.

I belong to a community where women are 10 times more likely to be murdered than the national average  and the silent crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women is linked to violence, she said. The Violence Against Women Act we passed today is more inclusive and there are provisions targeted specifically at getting justice for women in Indian Country. The protections for tribal communities will have an important impact for children, tribal officers, and the silent crisis of missing and murdered Native women.

Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska): Safety in Native Villages

Rep. Cole said on the floor that he was again voting for the law and said the issue should not be partisan. There are compelling things about this legislation that I believe particularly are consistent with my own views and my own voting record on tribal sovereignty and protection of Native women, Cole said. And I want to be supportive where I can be.

There are provisions in this version of the reauthorization with which I profoundly disagree  those are particularly related to the Second Amendment, Cole said. This includes a misguided provision to strip someone of their right to possess a firearm following a misdemeanor conviction.

Cole said the Democrats will have to compromise in order for the legislation to actually become law. My Democratic friends are going to have to do something they havent done so far: actually compromise. And theyll have to compromise with the Republican Senate and a Republican president, or this important legislation will not come into law.

Another Republican who voted for the measure was Alaskas Young. In his floor speech, Young said women in Alaska Native villages suffer the very highest sexual abuse rates in the nation. Alaska Native women are over-represented in the domestic violence survivor population by 250 percent.Alaska Natives comprise about 19 percent of the states population yet are 47 percent of the reported rape survivors, he said.

Yet Native villages currently lack any effective tools to criminally prosecute the offenders," Young said. "The remoteness and isolation of Native villages  most of which are not connected to the road system and only accessible by air  makes it difficult to prevent violence and care for the survivors.

My amendment will open the door to a meaningful pilot project to help overcome these limitations by crafting an Alaska solution to a unique Alaska problem, Young said. Currently, the bill would create an Alaska Native jurisdiction pilot program for five villages, but only covers Native lands that are largely outside of villages. These lands are not where most people live, and therefore not where crimes are committed. My amendment will add jurisdiction for all lands inside Alaska Native villages to cover where the majority of violence actually occurs.

The legislation moves to the Senate where many of the House priorities come to an end. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell decides which legislation will even come up for a vote in that body. While there is bipartisan support for the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, there is also significant opposition because of the expansion of transgender rights and a provision that strips gun rights from people convicted of misdemeanor abuse or stalking. The law currently applies only to felony convictions.

The National Rifle Association scored the legislation as an anti-Second Amendment vote. The scorecard is often cited in election materials.

The bill would also end the so-called boyfriend loophole that expand gun prohibitions to include dating partners convicted of abuse or stalking charges.

Re-authorizing the Violence Against Women Act will help ensure that all survivors of violence and abuse can receive the support, protection, and justice they deserve.



I was honored to preside over the House Floor as we passed this historic piece of legislation. pic.twitter.com/0loDKapA1f  Rep. Sharice Davids (@RepDavids) April 4, 2019

That division was particularly intense in the floor debate. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Michigan, was jeered by Republicans as she made her case for those provisions. Why would you not close a simple loophole that says if someone has been convicted  convicted, not accused!  convicted of domestic violence, that they not have access to a gun, she said. Do not let the NRA bully you.

That is one of the provisions that some Republicans in the Senate hope to remove. Leader McConnell has called for a clean extension of the act without the new provisions. And Senators Dianne Feinstein, D-California, and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, are working on another version of the legislation.

Rep. David said it was an honor to preside over the debate. Re-authorizing the Violence Against Women Act will help ensure that all survivors of violence and abuse can receive the support, protection, and justice they deserve, she said. I was honored to preside over the House floor as we passed this historic piece of legislation.

Mark Trahant is the editor of Indian Country Today . He is a member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes . Follow him on Twitter @TrahantReports

This story originally appeared on Indian Country Today on April 7, 2019.

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From addict to peer: how Medicaid expansion gave one man a shot at redemption.

Montana Free Press

In the early hours of January 31, 2015, Jason McNees found himself driving a stolen Silverado the wrong way down Fourth Avenue in Billings, high on opioids and meth, in a mental fog.

I didnt even process what I was doing until I was across town, in this stolen vehicle, McNees said. Then Im like, Oh, I could get in a whole lot of trouble for this. I could go to prison.

It was McNeess lowest point, and his story couldve ended there, defined by drugs and addiction. He has a family history of chemical dependence. McNees said his mother first gave him meth when he was 16. She died of an overdose in 2008.

Instead, McNees opted to use Medicaid expansion health-care coverage to take control of his dependency. Hes now off Medicaid and helping people who struggle with the problems that plagued him only a few years ago.

I guess Id be one of those successful graduation stories that senators and everybody like to hear so much about, McNees said.

Montanas expansion program is set to expire this summer. Lawmakers are currently scrambling to find a way to extend the program in a way that satisfies both the Republican-led Legislature and the states Democratic governor.

Amidst the fray, another bill has emerged that would secure the future of peer support, a type of therapy led by people who have been down the same road as McNees. Peer support specialists use their experiences to connect with people suffering from addiction and mental illness. Senate Bill 30 , sponsored by Sen. Jen Gross, D-Billings, would fund peer support by allowing clinics to bill the services to Medicaid.

I think the idea of peer-to-peer mentoring of any kind really speaks for itself, Gross said. We are more likely to relate, understand and be more open to someone who has a shared experience.

But formidable barriers stand in the way of SB 30. The bill hinges heavily on renewed Medicaid expansion coverage in Montana, but uncertainty hangs over whether that program will continue.

Coping with pain

If it werent for Medicaid expansion, McNees said, I wouldve went right back to using drugs.

Still, his road to recovery wasnt easy.

McNees said his addiction to opioids began while attending college in Great Falls in the early 2000s. One day, while working at an auto-detailing shop, he felt a pain in his right side that dropped him to his knees. After multiple trips to surgeons, urologists and oncologists, he was diagnosed with schwannomatosis, a rare chronic condition that causes benign tumors to grow on his nerves. Doctors prescribed him opiates to cope with the pain.

After college, McNees chased the oil boom to North Dakota. He ended up with a new doctor who put him on a more powerful drug, OxyContin, and, McNees said, steadily increased the dose. At the height of his use, McNees said, he was taking 350 milligrams of OxyContin a day.

In hindsight, McNees called it irresponsible.

Heavy doses of opioids like that are for end-of-life and cancer patients. I dont think they should be used on someone whos a high-functioning young adult, McNees said. Thats clearly going to end in addiction.

Eventually the doctor stopped prescribing the opioids. McNees had used the drugs to manage chronic pain for nearly 15 years, and suddenly had no way to get them.

I turned to meth to detox, McNees said. There werent any other options available at that point, and I was really sick.

He moved back to Montana in 2014. Sometimes he stayed with his sister-in-law. Sometimes he was homeless.

It was during this rough patch that McNees stole the truck in Billings. McNees said hed gone to the city to meet up with a friend, but the friend stood him up. It was a cold winter night, and McNees said he was high and disoriented with nowhere to take shelter.

Once McNees realized what hed done, he said, he tried to return the stolen Silverado to where hed taken it.

I went the wrong way down a one-way street and got pulled over, he said. The rest is history.

News reports from the time document a high-speed police chase as well. McNees was arrested later that morning. He spent two years in jail.

That was difficult, but Im also grateful for that whole process, McNees said. [It] led me to where I am today.

Jason McNees struggled for years with an opioid addiction. Montanas Medicaid expansion program helped him access treatment and take control of his dependency. Photo by Tess Dana for Montana Free Press

The route to recovery

State lawmakers approved Medicaid expansion through the HELP Act in 2015. Expansion provides health-care coverage to individuals and families making less than 138 percent of the federal poverty level. About 96,000 state residents are currently enrolled in the program.

By 2017, McNees had moved to the Boyd Andrew Community Services pre-release center in Helena, where he prepared to re-enter the world after incarceration. Counselors encouraged him to sign up for coverage under Montanas Medicaid expansion.

Medicaid marked a turning point in his life. It was the first time McNees ever had health insurance.

My first inclination as an addict was to go back to what Ive always known, McNees said. I went to [the doctor] and basically asked for opioids, like, can I have this prescription? And he writes whatever prescription I ask for.

But McNees stopped himself from getting the prescription filled. He recognized patterns in his behavior.

I could see myself in this downward spiral, McNees said. I could identify the things that have been in my past and what life is going to be in my future if I choose to go back down this route, because thats where its always led. Addiction ends in incarceration.

He opted instead to use his Medicaid coverage to take control of his dependency.

Treatment for opioid addiction isnt cheap. The initial doctors visit can run $300, and medications cost hundreds of dollars each month. Medicaid covered all of those costs. It also covered some of the counseling McNees sought at the Leo Pocha Memorial Clinic at the Helena Indian Alliance

McNees said it was his seventh time getting help. This time, it worked.

I excelled really quickly in my recovery. I think a lot of the reason was I was able to be accountable to myself, he said. Also, I was being treated more humanely, more like a human. I didnt feel like I had to be dishonest about my past.

Traditional addiction counseling didnt work for McNees.

I was always told, This is what youre going to do, this how youre going to do it, this is the only way it works. If you dont like it, theres the door, McNees said.

Experts say thats where alternative, non-clinical assistance programs like peer support can help.

Our peer support specialist has a credibility that I as a professional, regardless of how many degrees or how many years, simply cant bring, said Earl Sutherland, a licensed psychologist who oversees peer support at the Big Horn Valley Health Center, during a hearing about SB 30.

Those with mental health and substance use disorders are more likely to continue treatment when they can connect with someone who intimately understands their struggles, Sutherland said.

Peer support specialists are supervised by a psychologist, social worker, or licensed therapist. The benefit of working with peers instead of medical professionals lies in the peers real-world experience. They also cost less than seeing a doctor.

The state of Montana began certifying peer support specialists in 2017. When Gross first presented her bill in January, she said the state counted 22 licensed specialists, although not everyone offering peer support has or needs a license.

Peer support services are currently funded through a mix of grants, volunteer work, administrative funds, and other revenue, according to health professionals and clinic directors who spoke in favor of SB 30. Those funds can be sporadic, and theres no guarantee theyll be available in the long term.

As a certified peer support specialist, youve come out on the other side. Youre in recovery and youve gotten to the point where youre ready to reach down and help somebody up, said Joel Peden, with Montana Centers for Independent Living, during a hearing. Thats what these positions do, but like everything else in the world, it takes funding.

If SB 30 passes, peer support would be billable to Medicaid, creating some stability for the services and the peer counselors who fill those roles.

This bill matters for so many reasons. Its no secret that we have huge problems with substance abuse and mental illness, Gross said. Our jails are overcrowded. Services have been cut to the bone, into the bone. Peer support service can make a huge difference.

Sen. Jen Gross, a Democrat from Billings, is the sponsor of a bill in the Montana Senate to allow clinics to bill peer support services to Medicaid. Photo: Jen Gross

Fiscal potholes

Representatives from tribal nations, rural clinics, and urban treatment centers have voiced support for SB 30, as have lobbyists with the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the ACLU of Montana, and Disability Rights Montana.

The only voice to testify against the bill comes from the governors office.

Montanans really expect us to have a balanced budget, one that doesnt spend more than it brings in, Gov. Steve Bullock said during a meeting with the press Wednesday.

When Gross first presented her bill at the start of the legislative session, the Governors Office of Budget and Planning issued a fiscal note. It estimates the latest draft of SB 30 would cost the state more than $1 million a year, assuming Medicaid expansion continues.

The state health department estimates 5,018 adults would be eligible for peer support under SB 30, and 61 percent of those people will sign up for the service by 2021.

Gross disagrees with those calculations. Only state-certified specialists would receive Medicaid payments under her proposal. She doubts there will be enough specialists to meet the departments estimated demand, at least in the beginning.

I dont think its realistic, Gross said of the health department estimates. I think it takes time for these services to ramp up, to get individuals licensed, and also for the target population to become aware that this is a service available to them.

The budget offices fiscal note also doesnt take into account the amount of money the state would save, Gross said.

Gross points to studies that found benefits to peer support services, like a 2006 evaluation in Georgia that found peer support services cost the state $997 per patient each year, compared to $6,491 annually for day treatment.

While the governor and his budget director both said they supports the policy goals behind SB 30, the problem lies with the cost. If Medicaid covers peer support services, the federal government will pick up most of the tab. But the state would still be on the hook for a portion  at least 10 percent of the costs by 2020 if Montana renews Medicaid expansion, and up to 35 percent for traditional Medicaid recipients.

Weve got to make sure were funding whatever services are provided, Bullock said. I have a lot of respect for Sen. Gross. Well take a close look at [SB 30] if it gets here, but weve also got to figure out how to pay for all of this.

It appears Gross may have found a solution.

The Senate passed an amendment to the state budget April 4, allocating $2.5 million for the biennium from state medical marijuana tax revenues to SB 30s peer support services.

Both SB 30 and the revised budget now await approval in the House.

Meanwhile, the question of Medicaid expansions future looms large. The program will sunset in June unless the Legislature agrees on a way to extend it. The expansion bill with the most promise of becoming law, House Bill 658, adds adds additional work and eligibility requirements. It was tabled in a Senate committee Friday, only for the chamber to revive the bill hours later.

I would say [SB 30] is inextricably tied to Medicaid expansion, Gross said. It is literally nothing but a guessing game as to what this is actually going to cost while we have the moving target that is Medicaid expansion.

Reducing stigma

After getting clean, McNees became a trained and state-certified peer support specialist. He works at the Helena Indian Alliance in the very clinic that guided him on his recovery path.

He approached the clinic about starting a peer support program after receiving treatment there for a year and a half. He now has his own office with walls painted cobalt blue. He sees between four and six clients a day, with an average caseload of 50 people. His clients include both men and women as young as 19 and as old as 74.

The Helena Indian Alliance pays for McNeess position with a federal grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, but those funds are set to run out this year.

Although McNees now has a stable job that allowed him to move off Medicaid, the states expansion program remains integral to many of the people he helps. It could secure his employment future, too, if SB 30 becomes law.

Probably 98 percent of the people I serve are on Medicaid, and the majority are on Medicaid expansion, he said.

While the Helena Indian Alliance remains neutral on whether Medicaid expansion should continue, McNees supports the program if Montana lawmakers can find a way to fund it. He also supports HB 30. Hes appeared at the Capitol to voice his support twice since the bill was introduced.

I think its a big part of my passion, the advocacy, he said. To reduce the stigma that goes along with opioid addiction and medically assisted treatment, the stigma thats attached to being a Medicaid recipient, all those kinds of things.

Leia is an award-winning reporter who has covered the environment and public policy in Colorado, Utah, and now the Montana capital. She has a master's degree in journalism from the University of Colorado Boulder. Contact her at llarsen@mtfp.org or (406) 465-3386.

This story originally appeared on Montana Free Press on April 8, 2019. It is published under a Creative Commons license

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History: Stealing Lakota land

Oglala have not ceded one acre of land

Native Sun News Today Editorial Contributor

RAPID CITY From the corner window of his downtown law office, Oglala Sioux tribal attorney Mario Gonzalez can look out across a bustling cityscape, at dark, pine mantled ridgelines that run fifty miles west to the Wyoming border, and tower to 7,244 feet, the highest point east of the Rocky Mountains.

Called Paha Sapa by the Lakota people, Gonzalez has spent most of his life battling to maintain his tribes claim to an ancient mountain range they consider the sacred heart of their world. That world stretched from northern Colorado to central North Dakota, from central Wyoming to eastern South Dakota. It is debatable when the Oglala first established dominion over this vast territory, but that dominion was well established before the United States became a country.

Throughout that half century legal struggle, challenges have come from many fronts and in many forms, but Gonzalez has held to one overarching assertion The Oglala Sioux Tribe has not ceded one acre of land. This assertion can be defended by reviewing the chronology of land lost to the government, and by the finding of the Indian Claims Commission (ICC) itself concerning the 1868 Treaty:  the evidence is overwhelming that the Sioux would never have signed the treaty if they thought they were ceding any land to the United States.

France laid claim to much of the American heartland, but relinquished that claim to the United States in 1803, via the Louisiana Purchase. This purchase would eventually be processed through a system of interaction, between invading European powers, and the aboriginal inhabitants of the invaded land, called the Doctrine of Discovery. The technical aspects of that relationship were laid down in 1823 by Chief justice John Marshall in Johnson v McIntosh

The Sioux Nation signed treaties at Fort Laramie in Wyoming in 1851 and 1868. Photo: Paul Hermans

According to Gonzalez, All Indian land was regarded as aboriginal title land, and a tribe had to show they used the land for a long time (ICC wording) before they could establish aboriginal title. To get recognized title you had to enter into a treaty with the United States where the United States recognized the title, or an Act of Congress recognized it, and once recognized, it came under the protection of the Fifth Amendment. Aboriginal title is not protected by the Fifth Amendment, but recognized title, is.

Under the Doctrine of Discovery, Gonzalez explains, a European nation that discovers a new territory, has the right to extend their dominion over that territory, and that includes their own laws and regulations over that territory. But according to Johnson v McIntosh, the Indians right of occupation was just as sacred as the fee simple of the Whiteman, so you couldnt just disregard it. Under the Doctrine of Discovery, the discovering nation could not get fee simple title to the land without extinguishing the underlying aboriginal title of the natives. The United States bought the right to extinguish aboriginal title from France, and the United States got the right to extend dominion over the area, but they also got the right to extinguish aboriginal title. They didnt actually get possession of the land.

That reality necessitated treaty based relationships with tribes, most capable of formidable hostile reaction if they perceived a threat, the Oglala being a textbook example. In 1825, the tribe sat down with government representatives.

That was our first treaty, Gonzalez said, that recognized our relationship with the United States.

Chairman Harold Frazier leads in the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe riders who arrived at Fort Laramie in Wyoming after a 350-mile trek from South Dakota. Photo by Richie Richards / Native Sun News Today Riders from the Oglala Sioux Tribe. Photo by Richie Richards / Native Sun News Today

Hundreds gathered for a historical four-day event in April 2018 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868

Nine years later, in 1834, a Congressional Act stated: No purchase, grant, lease, or other conveyance of lands, or of any title or claim thereto, from any Indian nation or tribe of Indians, shall be of any validity in law or equity, unless the same be made by treaty or convention entered into pursuant to the Constitution.

This Act reiterated the Doctrine of Discovery, that aboriginal title became recognized title, protected by the Fifth Amendment, through treaties.

The thing to keep in mind about the Doctrine of Discovery is it was just rationale, and in this case, a method whereby the Louisiana Purchase could be unreservedly transformed from aboriginal title to recognized title, to land ceded, from tribe to government, through the signing of treaties. To that end, the United States had a long term plan, and the next stage was the 1851 Reservation Policy Appropriation Act. Gonzalez: The goal was to create Indian reservations and reduce tribal land holding to make more room for non-Indian settlement, and to turn tribes like the Sioux from a hunting culture into a farming culture. To make them farmers.

To begin transforming vast tracts of aboriginal territory into the United States proper, the government needed a treaty. The 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty, given 20/20 hindsight, was the beginning of the end for the traditional Oglala. The territory of the Lakota and their Yankton cousins, had to be better defined. The 1851 stipulated territory was still vast, at 60-million acres, but boundaries had now clearly been drawn, boundaries that could be addressed, and most importantly, reduced, by subsequent treaty machinations, more so than mutually understood agreements.

One can only speculate what the next step would have been had not the bloodiest war in United States history put the entire plan on indefinite hold. The Civil War ended in 1865, and settlers and miners began moving up the Bozeman trail in great numbers, disturbing the bison haunts of the Powder River country west of the Black Hills. Red Cloud protested, the government did nothing, so the Oglala and their allies went on the warpath.

Unlike many previous Indian wars, the United States had taken hold of a tiger tail, and did not hand the Lakota and their allies a single defeat. Not surprising, then, Red Cloud went to the Fort Laramie peace treaty negotiations in 1868 figuring he was in a pretty good bargaining position. As with the 1851 Treaty, the Oglala had zero intention of ceding a single acre, and according to the Indian Claims Commission findings, at no time during these negotiations, did they ever do so. There were 34 million acres outside the 26 million acre Great Sioux Reservation, established by the 1868 Treaty, but the Lakota did not agree to ceding a single acre of that land.

It was their understanding this was a peace treaty, to end the Powder River War, because they had no Indian Law lawyers to inform them that a deadly threat loomed in the form of the Doctrine of Discovery, and that the entire intent of treaties was not to make peace, or establish respected boundaries, or mutually beneficial relationships, but to transform aboriginal title to recognized title, and then transform recognized title into land for the Whiteman and cubby hole reservations for what remained of the Indian.

Forced to the bargaining table by a tribe they could not readily defeat militarily, the United States was laying in the negotiation weeds, and once they got the tribes to the peace treaty table, they got them to sign a document, a document which became a different document with altered language.

James Giago Davies is an enrolled member of the Oglala Lakota tribe. He can be reached at skindiesel@msn.com

Copyright permission Native Sun News Today

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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Testifying before Congress is an essential part of the job for the leader of the Bureau of Indian Affairs but somehow the Trump administration's pick has managed to escape accountability despite pledging to do so during her confirmation process.

That changes this week as Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney finally makes her first appearance on Capitol Hill. Her testimony before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on Wednesday comes nearly a year after her nomination hearing before the panel , almost 10 months after being confirmed to the post and nearly nine months after starting work in the nation's capital.

"Assistant Secretary Sweeney looks forward to the opportunity to testify before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee on April 10, 2019 to discuss 'Building Out Indian Country: Tools for Community Development,'" a spokesperson for the BIA told Indianz.Com in advance of the hearing.

In another time, Sweeney's lack of visibility would have been seen as a snub to the legislative branch. When "Famous" entrepreneur Dave Anderson , who served in the role during the George W. Bush administration , failed to appear before the same committee only two months after being sworn in, he was roundly criticized by the legendary Ben Nighthorse Campbell , a former U.S. Senator.

"He seems to have taken a hike on us," Campbell, a citizen of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe who was serving as the Republican chairman of the committee, said of Anderson . "He's just not around most of the time when he should be."

But it goes without saying that the Trump era is a different one. When Indianz.Com asked staff for Sen. John Hoeven (R-North Dakota), the current chair, to comment on Sweeney's invisibility on Capitol Hill, they would only confirm that she has agreed to testify.

"Administration witnesses are determined by the Secretary of the Department," an aide for the Republican majority otherwise told Indianz.Com, referring to the head of the Department of the Interior

Staff for Sen. Tom Udall (D-New Mexico), the outgoing vice chair of the panel, also declined to offer specifics when asked about Sweeney, who had simply answered "Yes" when asked a simple question during her confirmation process: "Are you willing to appear and testify before any duly constituted committee upon request of the Congress on such occasions as reasonably required to do so?"

In responses to written questions from the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Tara Sweeney promised to be responsive to Congressional inquiries and to testify when asked.

Sweeney has in fact had plenty of opportunities to testify before Congress. Since she joined the Trump administration last July, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs has held nearly a dozen hearings , including one in her home state of Alaska , others on programs under her preview at Interior and still even more regarding issues on which she said she has pledged to take action, such as the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women

The House Committee on Natural Resources , which oversees issues affecting indigenous peoples , has convened an equally large number of hearings in that time but Sweeney has never appeared before that panel either.

The spokesperson for the BIA acknowledged that Congressional committees have asked Sweeney to testify on more than one occasion. But the Trump administration -- or, more specifically, the Secretary of the Interior -- chose not to send her to Capitol Hill for those prior hearings.

"Assistant Secretary Sweeney has been invited to testify [in the past], and it was determined that it was more appropriate to have the bureau directors associated with those issues testify," the spokesperson told Indianz.Com when asked whether Sweeney has taken a "hike" on Congress.

ASIA Sweeney provided an #IndianAffairs Update and answered questions at the Inter-Tribal Association of Arizona's luncheon yesterday.



Thank you for the invitation to speak. pic.twitter.com/m3x8fteXbn  Indian Affairs (@USIndianAffairs) March 14, 2019

Sending subordinates to testify is a common practice for any administration but it has made Sweeney look even more disconnected. When asked about a well-known and widely-supported bill to protect the homelands of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe , she mistakenly told the National Congress of American Indians that the Trump administration didn't know anything about it.

"We have not been asked whether or not we would be supportive until now," Sweeney said last October in her first appearance before NCAI , the largest inter-tribal advocacy organization in the U.S.

In fact, the Secretary of the Interior had sent one of those bureau directors -- in this instance, the "acting" director of the BIA -- to a hearing on the bill last year, one in which the official said he was unable to relay the Trump administration's position on the matter.

Sweeney gave her answer even after conferring with her top aide -- Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary John Tahsuda , who has been on the job since June 2017 and has testified numerous times before Congress -- while both were standing on the stage at NCAI's milestone 75th annual convention last October.

She then offered what might have been seen as a hopeful comment, though one that ended up underscoring her apparent lack of pull within the Department of the Interior, the federal agency with the most responsibilities in Indian Country.

"Generally, we would be inclined to support it," she told tribal leaders of the effort to protect tribal homelands. But recent developments have shown that the needle hasn't moved with Sweeney, who is the first Alaska Native woman to serve as Assistant Secretary, serving as the Trump administration's face of Indian policy.

Yesterday, ASIA Sweeney hosted a meeting with several Tribal Leaders from the New England Region.



Thank you, Tribal Leaders, for the great discussion.#IndianAffairs pic.twitter.com/bxLkzw0PWD  Indian Affairs (@USIndianAffairs) March 7, 2019

A key example was a messy meeting that had been billed as a historic gathering with leaders of tribal nations, the first of its kind in the Trump era. Sweeney was the only Senate-confirmed official at the session in D.C. yet was forced to share the table at the front of the room with two lower-level aides from the White House, neither of whom have significant experience in Indian issues.

But barely 30 minutes into it, Sweeney and her counterparts lost control. The president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the rest of his delegation ended up walking out in protest and other leaders said the White House failed to bring purpose and direction to what could have been an important step in resetting the administration's troubled relationship with Indian Country.

One tribal leader put it bluntly: "It was a shitshow."

And just last week, the House Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples of the United States took testimony on a new version of the Mashpee Wampanoag bill, as well as another measure to fix the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Carcieri v. Salazar , a long-standing priority of Indian Country. But the Trump administration was a no-show, with Interior not even bothering to send a bureau director to the testify at the hearing

DOI Associate Deputy Secretary Jim Cason and ASIA Tara Sweeney attended this morning's @NCAI1944 State of Indian Nations.#SOIN2019 #ECWS19 #IndianAffairs pic.twitter.com/6oTq3BhLs1  Indian Affairs (@USIndianAffairs) February 11, 2019

Sweeney's most immediate predecesor, though, was there, albeit in a new role. Kevin Washburn, a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation who served as the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs during the later years of the Obama administration, reminded everyone of how difficult it can be for someone in that position to appear before Congress.

"Former Chairman Young, I've missed you these past few years," Washburn said in reference to Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), who is known as the dean of the U.S. House of Representatives because he is the longest-serving member of the chamber.

The room erupted in laughter. As a forceful advocate for Indian County's issues , Washburn occasionally clashed with Young, a former chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources and a former chairman of the House Subcommittee on Indian, Insular and Alaska Native Affairs, which was the predecessor to the current Indigenous Peoples panel.

"I'm ruling that out of order," Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona), the current chair, said in jest.

Young did not chime in with any comments and Washburn, who now serves as dean of the University of Iowa College of Law , went on to testify about the need for a Carcieri fix and for improved tribal consultation policies.

But to many in Indian Country, the current climate in which budgets for critical programs are slashed , key positions go unfilled for years and long-settled understandings of law and policy are undermined , is no joke. The Trump administration has repeatedly proven itself to be a disaster when it comes to their interests, tribal leaders and their advocates assert, with no one on the Trump team seemingly able to respond to and correct the attacks on the trust and treaty relationship coming out of Washington.

"You guys need to be there in their face, to speak to them, to bring them to the understanding" of the federal government's obligations, Kitcki Carroll, the executive director of the United South and Eastern Tribes told Sweeney at the organization's meeting in Washington, D.C., last month.

And even though Sweeney hasn't appeared before Congress, she has taken the heat in appearances before organizations like NCAI and USET. She appears responsive to concerns that he isn't using her position as effectively as some might wish.

"You should be able to rely on us to be that advocate," Sweeney told leaders of USET. "We take the trust responsibility seriously."

THE HONORABLE TARA MAC LEAN SWEENEY

Assistant Secretary  Indian Affairs

U.S. Department of the Interior

Washington, DC MS. JODIE HARRIS

Director, Community Development Financial Institutions Fund

U.S. Department of the Treasury

Washington, DC MR. HENRY CHILDS II

National Director, Minority Business Development Agency

U.S. Department of Commerce

Washington, DC MS. JACQUELINE PONTI-LAZARUK

Chief Innovation Officer, Rural Development

U.S. Department of Agriculture

Washington, DC THE HONORABLE MARK THOMPSON

Lieutenant Governor, Acoma Pueblo

Board Member, Indian Pueblo Cultural Center

Albuquerque, NM

The hearing before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs takes place at 2:30pm Eastern on Wednesday in Room 628 of the Senate Dirksen Office Building. The witness list follows:

Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Notice

Join the Conversation

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The Pakistani navy is unlikely to take part in Chinas maritime parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the Chinese navy to be held in Chinas east coast later in April and the reason for this non-participation is believed to be the heavy deployment done by Indian navy in the Arabian Sea. The Hindustan Times reported. India, however, will take part in the parade with two warships participating in the parade, the PTI reported.

The Liaoning, China

Pakistan navy was expected to send two ships to attend the parade which is going to be inspected by President Xi Jinping on the coastal city of Qingdao on April 23.

The tensions were high between India and Pakistan after the Pulwama attack on February 14th in which more than 40 CRPF soldiers were martyred. In response, India has launched a pre-emptive non-military action in Pakistan by destroying a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) camp using IAF Mirage 2000.

In response, Pakistan on February 27, had breached Indian Air Space and an air skirmish between the two air forces had happened after which Indian pilot was captured by Pakistan. Though Wing Commander Abhinandan was returned by Pakistan, tension is still high.

Reuters/Representational Image

Yesterday, fueling the tensions, Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that India is planning another attack on Pakistan between April 16 to 20. India in response rubbished the Pakistan ministers claims.

Two Indian naval ships  INS 'Kolkata' and 'Shakti'  would take part in the Chinese Navy's 70th anniversary of celebrations later this month.
The newly constructed toilets built under the Swachh Bharat Mission in Jatwada, which falls in the jurisdiction of the municipal corporation, have been rendered useless as there is no provision for water, thereby forcing residents to defecate in the open.

A year after chief minister Devendra Fadnavis declared the state to be free of open defecation, people in the drought-hit villages are still forced to opt for the traditional route to relieve themselves.

In an alarming revelation, people living under the municipal limits are also subjected to similar unhygienic conditions due to the failure of the civic administration to supply water.

toi

Around 500 families living near Ambar Hill in ward no. 4, Chetananagar, within the municipal limits, do not have access to roads, drainage or even water supply.

Local Amol Dehahe said that though the ward was a part of Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) for the last 30 years, the situation in the area that fell under the rural administration was relatively better.

Vandana Chavan and her family shifted to the area an year ago but her parents are unhappy.

"The toilets have been constructed under the government scheme but there is hardly any water. We go to a hill behind the area in the morning to relieve ourselves," said Chavan. Menstruation for Chavan's 14-year-old daughter is, therefore, a nightmare.

bccl/representational image

Stating that having a toilet in the area was a luxury, resident Meena Ramesh Shinde said that most residents in her area were daily-wage workers and that only a handful could afford such a luxury. "We cannot pay the rent to live in the middle of the city so we have to bear the brunt," said Shinde.

The area lies at the foot of Ambar Hill named after 16th century Ethiopian military leader Malik Ambar. Unfortunately, the hill with a rich heritage has been reduced to a defecation spot.

"There is an abandoned house at the hill which has been transformed into a public toilet. Women atleast get a little privacy there. The stink, however, is unbearable," said homemaker Anita Danke.

youtube/representational image

Ayyub Patel, who owns a plot in the locality, said that due to lack of rain, the nearby Harsul lake had dried up and the ground water levels had reduced to as low as 500 feet, making people dependant on tankers. Currently, there is no tanker supply to the area by AMC and private water tankers charge Rs 100 for 200 litre of water.

Residents claimed that the corporator paid a visit to the area only once during the last election. Meanwhile, fed up with water crisis, many people have vacated their houses and left.

Engineer at the water works department Narayan Giri said that laying new pipeline in the area was not possible until the parallel pipeline project from Jayakwadi was completed. "If localities in Jatwada want tankers from AMC, they will have to pool in and pay in advance," said Giri.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 8)  The head of Metro Manila's airports is ready to give up his seat after the President warned of a military takeover if the situation in the airport does not improve.

"Kung 'yan po ang direktiba ng ating pangulo, hindi po dapat tayo kumontra, kelangan po suportahan natin ang ating pangulo," Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) General Manager Ed Monreal said Monday.

[Translation: If that is the directive of our president, we shouldn't fight it, we need to support our President.]

His statement comes after President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday threatened a takeover of the Philippine Air Force in the airports.

Monreal said he has not yet received the order from the President.

The National Union of People's Lawyers (NUPL) said the military can only perform duties outside of its traditional role during a state of lawless violence, national emergency, or martial law.

"It is specifically provided in the constitution that no active member of the armed forces can be appointed to any civilian post, if you put them all together, this proposal, plan, threat, however you look at it does not appear to have any constitutional basis," NUPL President Edre Olalia said.

In December 2018, the United States Department of Homeland Security said security in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) did not meet international standards.

The Philippine government then said it made security measures in the airports a top priority.

A consortium of seven big business firms has also been contracted to rehabilitate, operate and maintain NAIA. These include Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc., AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp., Alliance Global Group Inc., Asia's Emerging Dragon Corp., Filinvest Development Corp., JG Summit Holdings Inc. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp.

Duterte had likened the takeover to that in the Bureau of Customs, where two multi-billion peso illegal drug shipments happened during the terms of former Commissioners Nicanor Faeldon and Isidro Lapena.

CNN Philippines' Correspondent Makoi Popioco contributed to this report.
The shooter, who is still at large, is believed to have fled the scene in a dark-colored vehicle, police said. The shooting, Rogers said, appears to have been a targeted act.
Search is not just about getting answers to questions, but about bringing relevant and useful information to users when they need it. Whether you are researching a topic, exploring a new subject or just looking to validate things you already know, Google Search can help you in many different ways.

Over the years Google has developed newer features, and tools to improve your search experience and help you discover more on the web.

But did you know, Google can also be your co-researcher when you are juggling with numbers? We bring you these five super cool Google Search features to create that Math magic for you.

1. Figure out who owes what: Simply search for [tip calculator], enter the cost of your meal, and the percentage you want to tip. You can even ask Google to help you split the bill evenly with your friends.

Use Google to calculate your tip when youre in a restaurant

2. Convert cash instantly: If youre heading out on a trip, avoid the Math hustle and let Search help you with currency conversions. Search for something like [INR 500 in USD] and youll get a box with the current exchange rate and an interactive graph to let you explore the change over time.

Get real-time currency conversions right on Google

3. Track your Calorie intake: You can search for nutritional information within Search. For example, you can ask how much fat is there in chocolate cake? or how much sugar is there in tomato sauce? and Google will break down the nutritional stats for you.

Find out the number of calories in your everyday foods

4. Check how to say massive numbers correctly: Find it hard to spell out lengthy figures, Search is here to help as we make you find the correct way to spell out the number in words. Try it for 6006131520

Type in any long number and add =english to the end of your search

5. Get easier access to finance information: Keep in the know about the latest market news, performance information about stocks and in-depth insights about companies with Google Finance tab. For instance, try searching for NIFTY, and youll get a complete market analysis and recommendations on other stocks to follow based on your interests.

On your Google Search homepage, click the Finance tab from More and browse your interest

As Google looks forward to consistently evolve your Search experience, these tips will make it easier than ever to get a quick answer to your daily tasks. Now, spend less time and energy in juggling with numbers and put more of brain to pop that big life idea.
Look, no one has time for unnecessary work, there's always too much on our minds. So when your laptop tells you to "safely remove" your USB stick connected to it, you're wondering what difference it makes. Thankfully, you don't have to worry about this anymore.

With Windows 10 update 1809, Microsoft is now changing the default setting applied to USB drives and other removable media. Instead of Better Performance, the old setting, they're now set to Quick Removal.

Basically what that means is, you can feel free to just yank out that flash drive or hard disk connected without any worry.

The change comes via the October 2018 just rolling out. As Microsoft explains, "Windows defines two main policies, Quick removal and Better performance, that control how the system interacts with external storage devices such as USB thumb drives or Thunderbolt-enabled external drives. Beginning in Windows 10 version 1809, the default policy is Quick removal."

This means you don't have to go right click the icon and go through the whole safe hardware removal process. However, the trade-off here is a drop in performance, meaning your USB drive will have slower transfer rates.

If you'd rather have the old system back, there's an easy way to trigger it. Simply connect the device to your computer, and go to the File Explorer. There, identify letter associated to your removable drive. Then right click on the Start Menu and select Disk Management. Right click on the drive label you want and select Properties. Under that menu, select the Policies tab and select "Better Performance". But if you're doing that, Microsoft also suggests you select the "Enable write caching on the device" option.

Again, if you do this, don't forget to safely disconnect your USB device each time, otherwise you could risk losing your data.
The European Space Agency (ESA) is launching another mission to an asteroid in 2023. They will be carrying out their objectives alongside a NASA mission to the same space rock. The difference is, the ESA's spacecraft will eventually attempt to fly itself.

ESA

This will be a particularly helpful feature in future spacecraft. After all, it's not just space agencies like NASA and ESA launching satellites, even tech companies have gotten in on the act. That means our orbit is steadily getting more and more cluttered by discarded rocket boosters, satellites, and space junk.

And it doesn't help when we add more of it for no reason too. So a spacecraft being able to navigate itself in the great beyond, and avoiding all this debris on its own, means less of a workforce strain on space agencies.

Named 'Hera', after the Greek goddess, the ESA spacecraft is an orbital vehicle meant to visit the asteroid Didymos and its tiny satellite, nicknamed Didymoon. Hera will be launching to the asteroid alongside NASA's Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA) mission.

The AIDA mission's objective will be to carry out what NASA is calling a Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART). The test is for a future planetary defense system for Earth, where NASA is aiming to crash a spacecraft into an incoming asteroid and deflect it away from impacting our planet. For this, one spacecraft will crash straight into the asteroid, bringing with it two cubesats to examine the surface.

Hera will instead detach from the launch vehicle and get into orbit around Didymos, in order to observe the collision from a distance. After that, it will also swoop in to examine the crater to judge how well the test went off.

But here's where Hera is vastly different. For this major part of the mission, the ESA spacecraft will be remotely controlled from headquarters as usual. After that however, the spacecraft will, hopefully, fly itself.

You see, ESA is outfitting the Hera orbiter with a variety of sensors and navigation systems similar to what's in self-driving cars here on Earth. So, rather than waiting the several minutes it would take to receive and then carry out commands from us, it can just pilot itself based on readings it receives.

"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.
People who know the importance of education know what it stands for and how it can change someone's life. While not everyone is lucky enough to have access to quality education, some people go the extra mile to make sure they don't squander the opportunity they get.

Case in point: A class ten girl from Thrissur, Kerala was seen riding a horse in her school uniform with her bag on her back. According to a tweet accompanying the video, she was going to the school to write her class ten final exam.

The video of the incident has gone viral on social media and has also been shared by Mahindra Group Chairman - Anand Mahindra. He posted the video and wrote Brilliant! Girls education is galloping ahead...A clip that deserves to go viral globally. This, too, is #IncredibleIndia.

Here is the tweet:

Brilliant! Girls education is galloping ahead...A clip that deserves to go viral globally. This, too, is #IncredibleIndia https://t.co/y1A9wStf7X  anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) April 7, 2019

Mahindra termed this girl a hero in another tweet and asked people on social media to share her whereabouts.

A Facebook user named Anant Narayan revealed that the girls name is CA Krishna and she studies in Holly Grace School in Thrissur. The girl also told Manorama News that on the last day of the examination, she decided that she would ride the horse and go to school.

People could not stop themselves from praising the courageous girl:

1.

....awesome...she is such a graceful horse rider....  renuka (@rrenuka3241) April 7, 2019

2.

Really incredible.   atul agarwal (@i_am_atul_leo) April 7, 2019

3.

Brilliant    Kundan Kumar Singh (@dev_kundan) April 7, 2019

4.

Very nice.n all the best for ur exams...  Uroojkhan (@Urooj62447866) April 7, 2019

5.

This clip evoked mixed emotions in me,a smile and a tear.The whole image is just very powerful!!.It shows that any child (especially a female) if provided with right resources and an encouragement can easily reach for the stars.May God bless her  J_B_07 (@J_B_07) April 7, 2019

6.

Awesome !!  Nikhil Sachdeva (@Clapboardnick) April 7, 2019

7.

That girl had some horsepower! Brilliant. Hope her exams went well.

Wonder how she plans to appear for her XII boards?  Chowkidaar Parag (@paragp) April 7, 2019

This video is proof that it is just society that differentiates between a girl and a boy, because there is nothing a girl cannot do.
In a shocking incident, a 19-year-old girl got to know that she was pregnant, just 45 minutes before her daughter was born. The mother, Emmalouise Leggate, noticed a bump on her stomach on July 16, 2018, but had no idea that she was pregnant.

Nine months later, Leggates grandmother rushed her to a nearby hospital where she delivered a baby girl in a car park. Leggate said that she had no idea that she was pregnant and had taken her regular contraceptive pills. She also said that she had a flat stomach until right before she gave birth.

Kennedy News and Media

According to reports, Leggate was rushed to the hospital but her labour time was so short that she had to deliver the baby even before she could reach the hospital.

"I was really shocked afterwards. It didn't feel real. My nanna was in that much shock that she didn't want to believe it. We were really lucky she was okay. I hadn't taken a pregnancy test, I had no symptoms, nothing. Nothing at all, Leggate was quoted by LadBible.

Kennedy News and Media

"The doctors couldn't explain why I didn't have a bump. They just told me that she must have been sitting in my lower back and that it is quite common, added Leggate.

The 19-year-old has now gained some weight but is still not showing much change around the belly area.
That's always a constant fear in the back of every Dreamer's head because we all have an expiration date on us: Indian American attorney Parthiv Patel. (Parker McCay photo)
Prosecutor Diane Gujarati has been re-nominated by President Donald Trump for a district judge seat on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. (Asian American Bar Association of New York photo)
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (center), Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah (2nd R), Finance Minister Arun Jaitley (right), Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj (left) and Home Affairs Minister Rajnath Singh (2nd L) take part in an event to launch the party's election manifesto in New Delhi on April 8, 2019. Voting will begin April 11 in the worlds largest election. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)
Mike Thiel, who was among the vendors from across the Midwest who set up for the event, had on hand an old rifle. It had been used, he said, to train young Italian boys about firearms before they entered into battle for against Allied troops during World War II.
Production in Inner Mongolia remains suspended following the mining accident which resulted in the deaths of 21 workers in late February at mine in West Ujimqin Banner operated by Yinman Mining.

It is not clear how much production...
A team of engineers at Tufts University has developed a series of 3D printed metamaterials with unique microwave or optical properties that go beyond what is possible using conventional optical or electronic materials.

The fabrication methods developed by the researchers demonstrate the potential, both present and future, of 3D printing to expand the range of geometric designs and material composites that lead to devices with novel optical properties.

In one case, the researchers drew inspiration from the compound eye of a moth to create a hemispherical device that can absorb electromagnetic signals from any direction at selected wavelengths. The research was published today in the journal Microsystems & Nanoengineering, published by Springer Nature.

Metamaterials extend the capabilities of conventional materials in devices by making use of geometric features arranged in repeating patterns at scales smaller than the wavelengths of energy being detected or influenced.

New developments in 3D printing technology are making it possible to create many more shapes and patterns of metamaterials, and at ever smaller scales. In the study, researchers at the Nano Lab at Tufts describe a hybrid fabrication approach using 3D printing, metal coating and etching to create metamaterials with complex geometries and novel functionalities for wavelengths in the microwave range.

For example, they created an array of tiny mushroom shaped structures, each holding a small patterned metal resonator at the top of a stalk. This particular arrangement permits microwaves of specific frequencies to be absorbed, depending on the chosen geometry of the mushrooms and their spacing. Use of such metamaterials could be valuable in applications such as sensors in medical diagnosis and as antennas in telecommunications or detectors in imaging applications.

Other devices developed by the authors include parabolic reflectors that selectively absorb and transmit certain frequencies. Such concepts could simplify optical devices by combining the functions of reflection and filtering into one unit. The ability to consolidate functions using metamaterials could be incredibly useful, said Sameer Sonkusale, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Tufts University's School of Engineering who heads the Nano Lab at Tufts and is corresponding author of the study.

It's possible that we could use these materials to reduce the size of spectrometers and other optical measuring devices so they can be designed for portable field study.

The products of combining optical/electronic patterning with 3D fabrication of the underlying substrate are referred to by the authors as metamaterials embedded with geometric optics, or MEGOs. Other shapes, sizes, and orientations of patterned 3D printing can be conceived to create MEGOs that absorb, enhance, reflect or bend waves in ways that would be difficult to achieve with conventional fabrication methods.

There are a number of technologies now available for 3D printing, and the current study utilizes stereolithography, which focuses light to polymerize photo-curable resins into the desired shapes. Other 3D printing technologies, such as two photon polymerization, can provide printing resolution down to 200 nanometers, which enables the fabrication of even finer metamaterials that can detect and manipulate electromagnetic signals of even smaller wavelengths, potentially including visible light.

The full potential of 3D printing for MEGOs has not yet been realized, said Aydin Sadeqi, graduate student in Sankusale's lab at Tufts University School of Engineering and lead author of the study. There is much more we can do with the current technology, and a vast potential as 3D printing inevitably evolves.

###

Other authors contributing to the research include Hojatollah Rezaei Nejad, post-doctoral fellow, and Rachel Owyeung, graduate student at Tufts University School of Engineering.

This work was supported by U.S. Army Cooperative Agreement #W911QY-15-2-0001, and the Office of Naval Research grant #N0014-15-1-2550.

Sadeqi, A., Nejad, H.R., Owyeung, R.E., Sonkusale, S., Three-dimensional printing of metamaterial embedded geometrical optics, Microsystems & Nanoengineering, (April 8, 2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41378-019-0053-6

About Tufts University

Tufts University, located on campuses in Boston, Medford/Somerville and Grafton, Massachusetts, and in Talloires, France, is recognized among the premier research universities in the United States. Tufts enjoys a global reputation for academic excellence and for the preparation of students as leaders in a wide range of professions. A growing number of innovative teaching and research initiatives span all Tufts campuses, and collaboration among the faculty and students in the undergraduate, graduate and professional programs across the university's schools is widely encouraged.
At a recent county board executive committee meeting, board members expressed concern that there has been little research on how the pilot program would work and what costs would be passed on to the clerks office as it assumes the roles of the affected township clerks. Last month, Will County Executive Larry Walsh and Will County Board Speaker Denise Winfrey, D-Joliet, sent a letter to Manley asking her to hold the measure until more information was available.
By bringing people together for a walk and a chat we can help keep them mentally and physically healthy, and connect with residents to promote overall health and well-being, said Sara Smith, Apia business development manager and program lead. As well as regular group walks, the program helps build an understanding of the local communities in which we operate so we can provide them better experiences and help strengthen the connections between customers.

Apias Steppin Out program is available on the following schedule:

Apia Charlestown - Fridays - 8:30am

Apia Shellharbour - Thursdays - 7:45am

Apia Port Macquarie - Thursdays - 8:30am

Apia Geelong - Thursdays - 10:00am

Apia Hobart - Thursdays - 9:15am

Apia Coolangatta - Tuesdays - 8:00am

Apia Mornington - Tuesdays - 10:00am

Apia Devonport - Tuesdays - 2:30pm

Apia Launceston - Tuesdays - 9:45am

Apia Mandurah - Tuesdays - 9:00am

Apia Albury - Wednesdays - 8:30am

Apia Maroochydore - Wednesdays - 8:30am

Apia Bundaberg - Wednesdays - 8:30am

Apia Ballarat - Wednesdays - 9:00am

Apia Coffs Harbor - Wednesdays - 9:00am

All community members are welcome to join in.
The insurers that have been approved by the Southeast Asian country are Prudential, Manulife, Dai-ichi Life Holdings, AIA, and Chubb.

Nikkei Asian Review reported that Myanmars decision to welcome the five companies marks the first time that its heavily-state-controlled economy has permitted foreign ownership in its insurance market. As of 2017, Myanmars life insurance premium revenue was only at $13 million. Previously, the government held a long monopoly over the states insurance business, only recently opening the market to private companies in 2013.

The government also said that it would issue business licenses to foreign insurers, allowing them to open representative offices. But officials only introduced license application procedures earlier this year as preparing the criteria for screening applicants took longer than they had expected.

According to a forecast by Dai-ichi, Myanmars insurance market will expand nearly a hundred times over to $1.3 billion in just a decade following the markets opening.

The five companies are expected to start operating in the country by the end of 2019, following procedures for the establishment of subsidiaries and other requirements.

Myanmar has also revealed that, by May, it will also select other foreign insurers to form joint ventures with local providers under a 35% ownership restriction.
As an insurer, were in a unique position to help people and communities in their times of need  the QBE Foundation and our work with our charity partners is one of the ways we do this, said Bettina Pidcock, QBE Foundation chair. Importantly, we recognise that certainty of funding is a challenge for the not-for-profit sector and ongoing support is vital to success. Provision of continued support and multi-year commitments allows us to address this, support longer-term projects, leverage momentum and ultimately achieve a deeper and broader impact long term. Beyond a financial contribution, our partnerships also allow our people to get involved in many ways, including volunteering, fundraising, and other activities and events which raise awareness of the various causes.

Pidcock said the foundation will be seeing more multi-year partnerships in action in 2019 than ever before.

For example, this year well be broadening out our work with R U OK? by funding and supporting its R U OK? in Sport campaign, Pidcock said. The campaign will launch later this year and through our multi-year partnership well continue to share its critical peer-to-peer support message with the sporting community for years to come. Another example is our work with McGrath Foundation. Our donation directly funds McGrath QBE Breast Care Nurse, Vicki Bell who weve supported since 2014 and our agreement means well continue funding her work until 2021, at a minimum.

QBE Foundation also has a number of programs in place to support its many advocacies. Additional programs for staff include local grants up to $10,000, donating through workplace giving, fundraising effort support through employee matching, and the opportunity for employees to be paid to volunteer at their cause of choice.
Since 2013, the Elite Brokers list has been among the most popular features in the Insurance Business editorial calendar, attracting applications from across the country and ultimately showcasing some of Australias most successful insurance professionals.

Of course, this year is no different  the brokers included in the 2019 list range from industry veterans with 40 years under their belt to relative newcomers with just five years experience in the field.

Location also seems to have little bearing on success with brokers based everywhere from regional towns and suburban hubs to bustling city centres  and everywhere in between.

One thing, however, remains consistent across the board  all brokers included in the list have demonstrated a natural talent in their chosen field and an unwavering passion for helping their clients.

As always, Insurance Business would like to congratulate the brokers included in this years list and thank all those who participated in the nomination process.

Methodology

The Insurance Business ranking system is an objective means of ranking the best-performing insurance brokers in the country  not just those with the biggest portfolios or the largest clients.

Each broker was required to supply their own details to be eligible, along with details of a contact who could verify those figures. The criteria included:

 Number of policies written

 Total revenue

 Revenue per policy

 Number of clients

 New clients

 New client revenue

 Client retention

Each broker was ranked in each of these measurements, and the sum of all of their rankings was calculated to determine the overall winner.
Ten teams comprised of both students and alumni from Lakehead University and Confederation College participated in the hackathon. Teams had 24 hours to propose and develop solutions to insurance-related issues.

Themes explored during the event include changing demographics, severe weather events, the sharing/gig economy and trends such as the mounting costs of insurance fraud and cybersecurity.

Industry partners were present at the event to provide guidance and insight to participants. Partners included Gore Mutual Insurance, Policy Works, BoBTrak, BrokerLift and ClientDesk

At the end of the 24-hour period, the teams presented their ideas to a panel of judges; three winners were awarded cash prizes. A release said that the winning team came up with a solution that addressed fraudulent claims reporting using AI. The runner-up proposed a mobile app to reward improved driving performance and tackle retention rates. The bonus prize was awarded to a team that pitched a method to deal with commercial fleet risk profiles via telematics.

Its important for us to support events like this because harnessing technology to provide better insurance products and outcomes helps the communities we service, said Jones & Associates Insurance president Jeff Jones in a statement.

Gore Mutual director of digital Sachin Rustagi added that the company is committed to helping drive innovation culture in the insurance industry. Rustagi also said that Gore Mutual is pleased that its broker and technology partners participated in the event.

We hope to see some of the hackathon teams transition their ideas forward to a pilot phase to help further innovation in our industry, the director remarked.
American International Group (AIG) has announced the appointment of Kathleen Zortman as president and CEO of Private Client Group, General Insurance. Zortman will be based in New York and will report to Peter Zaffino, CEO of AIG General Insurance and global chief operating officer. She will also serve as a member of the general insurance executive leadership team and will join the company in the coming months.

In her new role, Zortman will lead AIGs global high-net-worth portfolio and take responsibility for strategy, underwriting and distribution in the companys private-client business. She will also manage the portfolios product lines, including personal auto, umbrella and homeowners policies.
Hub Internationals M&A push does not appear to be slowing down, as the multinational insurance broker acquires yet another insurance agency.

This time, Hub has purchased Corey Steinbach Insurance Agency, a full-service firm in Felton, MN that specializes in crop insurance. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Food safety inspectors in New York state failed to take action in response to hundreds of serious health code violations, according to a state audit published Friday.

Officials from state Comptroller Thomas DiNapolis office analyzed 984 violations categorized by local health inspectors as Class I  the most serious classification. They found that 73% of the violations resulted in no significant enforcement action, such as a fine or closure.

The violations included failure to properly refrigerate food and allowing food to be touched by sick employees, DiNapoli, a Democrat, said in a statement.

Failing to hold those with serious violations accountable could be a recipe for disaster, DiNapoli said.

Auditors also found errors in inspection data and problems with the way information about inspections is reported and shared between offices.

Local health departments blamed a lack of funding or staff for the problems identified by the state, according to the audit.

In New York state, inspections of restaurants and other facilities serving food are carried out by a mix of state officials and local health departments.

Inspectors look for unsanitary conditions, food contamination, pests or other violations of the state health code at more than 96,000 restaurants, cafeterias, bars and other food service establishments around the state.

State and local health departments conducted more than 417,000 inspections between Jan. 1, 2014, and Sept. 18, 2017, the period covered by DiNapolis audit. Those inspections uncovered more than 1.2 million sanitary violations.

State health officials acknowledged some of the problems and said they would review policies to ensure local inspectors are following the rules.

In its formal response, the states Department of Health noted that often serious violations identified by inspectors are rectified immediately by staff and require no further action.

Additionally, agency spokeswoman Jill Montag noted the auditors found no indication that inspectors violated regulations or the law.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics New York Restaurant
A judge has ordered the owner of a foreclosed ski club in Vermont to pay about $2.1 million to a club member who is unable to sell back 20 memberships he bought in 2015.

The Brattleboro Reformer reports the judge issued his ruling on two counts of breach of contract against Hermitage Club founder Jim Barnes and Hermitage Club LLC last month.

Under the agreement, Robert Coffin, of Massachusetts, was to pay $65,000 per membership. The Hermitage would later buy them back at $75,000 each after 13 months, $85,000 each after two years or $95,000 each after three years.

Barnes and Hermitage Club now owe Coffin $1.9 million in damages and about $203,000 in interest from February 2018.

Neither Barnes nor an attorney responded to the complaint.

Information from: Brattleboro Reformer

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Legislation
Revenue coming from the new tax, if approved, would have helped cover the costs related to inspections of residential and commercial properties, he said. Officials now will look to improve communication with residents to try and alleviate the issue.
East Providence, R.I.-headquartered Starkweather & Shepley Insurance Brokerage Inc. (S&S) has elected Elizabeth Lowe to the board of directors.

Lowe, president of Custom House Risk Advisors (CHRA), is the first female on the board in the companys history.

As President of CHRA, Lowe leads Starkweathers Real Estate Risk Solutions, an industry specific practice group focused solely on assisting real estate investment trusts (REITs), private equity investment firms and other large real estate owners, managers and developers.

Prior to joining S&S, Lowe was a senior risk management consultant at Robert M. Currey & Associates of Boston, Mass., where she worked for more than seven years.

Source: Starkweather & Shepley Insurance Brokerage Inc.
Authorities are shutting down an eastern China industrial park after 78 people were killed last month by a chemical explosion, the city government said Friday.

Local departments have met to discuss how to eliminate chemical plants with low safety standards and severe pollution issues, Yancheng city said in an online statement, noting that the site of last months deadly blast  Xiangshui Chemical Industrial Park  will be completely shut down.

In 2017, an explosion that killed 10 at a nearby plant prompted the State Administration of Work Safety to dispatch inspectors. They discovered over 200 safety hazards at Yancheng chemical factories, including 13 at the Tianjiayi plant where the most recent explosion occurred.

The blast ultimately claimed 78 lives and left dozens with severe injuries, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

The government will support the construction of No-Chemical Zones and raise standards for those regions that do house chemical enterprises, the Yancheng city statement said.

Last months explosion used blood to teach us a lesson, it said.

China experiences frequent industrial accidents despite orders from the central government to improve safety at factories, power plants and mines.

Among the worst accidents was a massive 2015 explosion at a chemical warehouse in the port city of Tianjin that killed 173 people, most of them firefighters and police officers. That blast was blamed on illegal construction and unsafe storage of volatile materials.

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Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics China Chemicals
The largest ever money laundering scandal in Europe is rippling through the regions banks.

It began in the Baltics and has engulfed several Nordic lenders, notably Denmarks Danske and Swedens Swedbank, who had large Baltic operations.

Here are some facts about Europes problems.

HOW DID THE CURRENT SCANDAL EMERGE?

The Baltics proximity to Russia has traditionally made them vulnerable to illegal financial flows from their neighbor.

U.S. investigators raised concerns about some of the regions banks early last year, prompting domestic and European watchdogs to investigate.

WHICH BANKS HAVE BEEN AFFECTED SO FAR?

The first to be hit was Latvias ABLV, which was liquidated last year after U.S. accusations of money-laundering activities.

The scandal spread to the Estonian branch of Danske Bank , Denmarks largest lender, which is now facing probes in several countries for handling 200 billion euros ($224 billion) in suspicious transactions of Russian money between 2007 and 2015.

Swedens Swedbank has recently been drawn into the scandal, after it was reported it handled some of the same payments that went through Danske, leading to the dismissal of its chief executive last week.

COULD IT SPREAD TO BANKS BEYOND THE BALTICS AND NORDICS?

Other lenders that helped process suspicious payments from the Baltics could also be in the frame. Deutsche Bank, which acted as a correspondent bank to Danske, is under investigation over its links to the money.

IS THE PROBLEM LIMITED TO FLOWS FROM RUSSIA TO THE BALTICS?

Money from Russia and former Soviet Union countries does not only go to the Baltics. Cyprus and Malta are among the EU states that are most welcoming of these flows, data show, with Pilatus Bank in Malta shut down last year following a U.S. probe on its owner and after allegations of suspicious transactions involving Azerbaijans ruling elite.

But the problem is not limited to Russian flows. EU-based criminal organizations, such as Italian mafias, launder most of their illegal proceeds in the largest EU states, estimates show.

ING, the Netherlands largest financial services provider, was forced by the Dutch regulator to pay a $915 million fine last year over money laundering. Its Italian business is also under investigation over similar allegations.

HOW MUCH COULD THIS COST BANKS?

A lot. EU banks payed over $16 billion in fines between 2012 and 2018 because of lax money-laundering checks, rating agency Moodys said in a report on Tuesday, with U.S. regulators levying more than 75 percent of those fines.

Now the allegations have stepped up, so could the fines.

WHO SUPERVISES THIS AND WHY DID SO MUCH MONEY GET LAUNDERED?

Despite money-laundering being a cross-border crime, it is not tackled at EU level but almost exclusively by national authorities, who often lack the capabilities to counter it.

In some cases domestic supervisors have shown little interest in acting, as reputational damages could hit national economies. Maltas financial supervisor has been found in breach of EU law over the Pilatus case, and the EU is investigating the Estonian regulator after the Danske scandal.

Many banks do not report all suspicious transactions as their due-diligence units are often understaffed.

Reports are not standardized, often producing irrelevant data and hampering cooperation among national supervisors.

WHAT ARE THE DIFFICULTIES IN DETECTING THESE FLOWS?

EU rules to fight money laundering have been overhauled, but some loopholes have never been closed. They are also applied differently and EU states are often late in executing them.

States, including Luxembourg and Germany, use loopholes in EU rules that allow them not to disclose fines on banks in breach of money-laundering rules. This vastly reduces the effectiveness of sanctions which are mostly feared by lenders for their reputational impact.

In the latest reforms, EU legislators added stricter transparency requirements on companies owners, but allowed them to remain hidden in some cases. Money-laundering is often conducted through shell firms whose owners are unknown.

Data that could raise alarm bells, such as the share of non-resident deposits or oversized cross-border flows, are collected at national level, often without details of final beneficiaries. No-one checks them at EU level.

The EU has also failed to agree an updated list of jurisdictions that pose money-laundering risks because of lax rules. This reduces banks ability to spot dodgy payments.

(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio in Brussels; additional reporting by Anthony Deutsch in Amsterdam; editing by Alexandra Hudson)

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Topics USA Europe Russia
The Federation of European Risk Management Associations (FERMA) is concerned about proposed cyber insurance guidelines being developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), calling them premature and inappropriate.

The proposed standard, ISO/IEC 27102, encompasses information security management guidelines for cyber insurance. FERMA explained that ISO is currently in the final stages of approving guidelines for cyber insurance, which are meant to help IT experts when considering cyber insurance. However, no other insurance product is the subject of an ISO standard, FERMA emphasized.

Cyber insurance is evolving rapidly in the face of fast technological development. Insurance buyers are working out their needs and the insurance industry is analyzing how it can provide cover without unquantifiable exposures. It is too early to agree a standard, said emphasized FERMA board president Jo Willaert, in a statement.

In any case, we are not clear why a standard for cyber insurance should be intended for IT security experts, added Willaert. As we have consistently argued, cyber security is an enterprise risk and its management, which includes insurance, requires the involvement of risk professionals.

FERMA said its concerns about the ISO project are echoed by insurance industry representatives and FERMA members, which include other European risk management associations, including the UK risk management association, AIRMIC; the French association, AMRAE, and the Belgian association.

FERMA urged other member associations to help ensure their national standardization bodies are aware of the concerns of the whole insurance market. (FERMA comprises 22 risk management associations in 21 European countries, which represent nearly 4800 risk managers.)

This project began three years ago, under the leadership of the ISO Information Technology technical committee (ISO/IEC JTC 1) but without sufficient and adequate involvement from the insurance industry, said FERMA.

ISO representatives were not available for a comment.

We appreciate the importance of a well-defined scope and intention for cyber insurance, including the insurers information requirements, but it must be agreed by all stakeholders, commented Philippe Cotelle, FERMA board member.

He said, FERMA, Insurance Europe and broker representatives began working together last year, publishing Preparing for Cyber Insurance. (Insurance Europes members the national insurance associations in 34 countries, representing 95 percent total European premium income).

We believe it would be more effective in developing a sustainable cyber insurance market for us as stakeholders to continue working together, added Cotelle. Our publications are accessible for free for IT security experts who have an interest in cyber insurance.

Source: Federation of European Risk Management Associations (FERMA)

Topics Cyber Europe Market Risk Management
With floodwaters again inundating parts of Missouri, the state Senate has backed legislation that could limit local tax breaks offered for new developments in flood plains.

A bill given initial approval would prohibit new tax increment financing projects in areas designated as flood plains by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The ban would apply everywhere except in the Kansas City area, which was exempted by an amendment from a Kansas City-area lawmaker.

Flooding and development tax breaks are both common in Missouri  and are not a wise combination, said Sen. Andrew Koenig, who is sponsoring the legislation.

Incentivizing dollars into a flood plain is bad policy, and it potentially causes more flooding downstream, said Koenig, a Republican from the St. Louis suburb of Manchester.

A tax increment financing district, known as a TIF, allows a portion of the increased tax revenues resulting from a development to be used to pay for it instead of going to schools, fire districts and other local governmental entities. For 2018, the state Department of Revenue received reports from 449 TIF projects in 109 municipalities with anticipated project costs of over $39 billion, of which more than $15 billion was anticipated to be eligible for reimbursement through the tax breaks.

After devasting flooding in 1993, some communities fortified levees to better protect developments in flood plains. But such developments have remained controversial, because high levees along rivers can funnel water to other communities downstream, which may then experience more extensive flooding.

A 2002 state law sought to prohibit new TIF projects in flood plains in St. Charles County, which had seen extensive development along the Missouri River.

This years legislation sought to apply a similar ban statewide. But the Senate on Wednesday adopted an amendment by Sen. Mike Cierpiot, a Lees Summit Republican, exempting Clay, Jackson and Platte counties. Cierpiot said the Kansas City area has hundreds of millions of dollars in developments in flood plains that havent had recent issues with flooding.

The legislation also narrows the criteria for which local governments can declare an area blighted to redevelop it with tax incentives. The bill deletes the criteria of improper subdivision or obsolete platting and factors that create a menace to morals. That still leaves plenty of other grounds to declare an area blighted, including inadequate street layout, unsafe conditions and factors that constitute an economic or social liability to the public health and welfare.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Legislation Flood Missouri Kansas
Republican lawmakers in Kansas pressed ahead with allowing the state Farm Bureau to offer health coverage to members that doesnt satisfy the Affordable Care Act, a state-level effort to circumvent an Obama-era law that President Donald Trump wants to replace.

The Kansas House approved an insurance bill on an 84-39 vote that includes provisions to exempt health coverage offered by the Farm Bureau from state insurance regulation, anticipating that the nonprofit group could offer lower-cost products to thousands of individuals and families. The Senate approved the bill Thursday on a 28-12 vote, so it goes next to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly.

The bill had overwhelming support from GOP legislators and faced strong opposition from Democrats, but Kelly hasnt taken a public position on it. The Kansas proposal is patterned after a Tennessee law in place for decades, and Iowa enacted a law last year.

The votes in Kansas demonstrated the Farm Bureaus political clout, particularly in rural areas, where Republicans dominate politics. The bill also had the support of most urban and suburban GOP lawmakers who continue to oppose the 2010 federal health care overhaul and argue that its mandates have driven up health insurance premiums and hurt the economy.

Its just another option, said House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins, a conservative Wichita Republican and insurance agent.

Passing the bill was among the last significant actions Kansas legislators took before starting an annual spring break set to last until May 1. They put off a vote on a proposed $18 billion-plus budget for the state fiscal year beginning in July until after the break.

Some Democratic critics of the Farm Bureau bill tried unsuccessfully to block its passage by appealing to rural Republicans who support expanding the states Medicaid health coverage for the needy in line with the Affordable Care Act. The House passed a modified version an expansion plan from Kelly last month, but the Senate has yet to take it up.

Theres more than one piece thats going to solve what were facing, said Rep. Jason Probst, a Democrat from south-central Kansas. We should hold this part of the puzzle up until they take action on their part of the puzzle.

Farm Bureau officials said they expect about 42,000 people eventually to take its coverage if the law passes, promising lower rates than plans complying with federal mandates. They believe the takers would be individuals who either have no coverage or struggle to pay for individual coverage.

Kansas has seen the number of individual coverage plans offered through the federal ACA marketplace decline to 23 for 2019 from 42 in 2016, according to the Kansas Insurance Department. While average rate increases for 2019 were smaller than in past years, theyve sometimes previously topped 25 percent, according to annual reports from the department.

Republicans repeatedly have cited premium increases as a reason to repeal the ACA since Trumps election in 2016, but a drive in Congress to do it stalled when they couldnt agree on a replacement. Trump this week deferred another push until after the 2020 election.

The Farm Bureaus new coverage would avoid state regulation because the new Kansas law simply would declare that its not insurance.

Critics said companies offering traditional health insurance coverage would face unfair competition. They also focused on how Farm Bureau would be able to set higher rates or reject coverage for people who have pre-existing medical conditions, something the Iowa law allows.

To drive home their argument that legislators dont know yet what a Farm Bureau plan might cover, critics said the lack of regulation would allow it to pay for elective abortions. A 2011 state law prohibits such coverage in group health plans, requiring people to buy separate abortion policies.

Supporters of the bill  many of whom strongly oppose abortion  brushed aside the criticism as desperate.

Farm Bureau officials have said they pushed for permission to offer health coverage because members are asking for more choices.

They are clamoring for some kind of solution, said Rep. Don Hineman, a moderate Republican from western Kansas who also supports Medicaid expansion. The potential consumers for this product are begging us to do it.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Legislation Agribusiness Oklahoma Kansas
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.

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.

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 said that Rasmussen and his strong bench of leaders has helped ready Nationwide for long-term success even as the board searches for his successor.

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.

Rasmussen also 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 recognized for its culture of 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.

Source: Nationwide

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Johnson & Johnson won the latest trial over claims its iconic baby powder can cause cancer, as a jury in Long Beach, California, rejected a lawsuit brought by a 65-year-old retired teacher who claimed the product was contaminated with asbestos.

The J&J victory Friday comes the week after the company settled three cases alleging baby powder caused a rare asbestos-connected cancer. Two, in Oklahoma and California, were settled during trial. The other, in New York, was settled less than two weeks before trial was set to begin.

Plaintiff Robert Blinkinsop was diagnosed in July 2017 with mesothelioma, a rare cancer of the lining of the lung generally caused by asbestos exposure. Blinkinsop used Johnsons baby powder daily for personal hygiene from 1977 to 1994 and on his children from 1992 to 1996, his attorney, Mark Bratt, said at trial. He also used the companys Shower to Shower talc product.

J&J is facing more than 13,000 lawsuits linking baby powder and another talc product, Shower to Shower, to ovarian cancer or mesothelioma. More than two dozen trials have been scheduled in U.S. courts in 2019.

Todays jury unanimously ruled that Johnsons Baby Powder does not contain asbestos and was not the cause of the plaintiffs disease, Kim Montagnino, company spokeswoman, said in an emailed statement. This conclusion is aligned to the decades of clinical evidence and scientific studies by medical experts around the world that support the safety of Johnsons Baby Powder.

Blinkinsops attorney said he was shocked and disappointed by the verdict.

Given the hundreds of positive historical tests from J&J showing asbestos in its talc containing baby powder, as well as J&Js ongoing decision to use deceptive testing techniques that allow for false negative results  we have no doubt asbestos was, and currently still is in J&Js talc baby powder products, Bratt said in a statement. Asbestos in baby powder is a huge public health concern that is far bigger than just this case.

The companys record at trial has been mixed so far. The company lost a $29 million jury award in a California mesothelioma case March 13 and won a defense verdict in a New Jersey trial March 27, the same day it settled the three cases.

Several of the first trials resulted in plaintiffs verdicts, including one for $4.69 billion in St. Louis in 2018 to 22 women with ovarian cancer. But J&J has been able to win reversals of three of the first five jury awards.

The company has also won other defense verdicts in cases alleging links between baby powder and mesothelioma beyond the New Jersey trial.

Some of the verdicts include awards against J&Js talc supplier, Imerys America, which filed for bankruptcy protection in February.

Lawyers for Blinkinsop and his wife Karen alleged that J&J knew for decades that its talc contained asbestos yet didnt warn or protect customers. People at J&J made some really poor decisions in the past, which led to Blinkinsops exposure to asbestos, Bratt said. Talc and asbestos were found in Blinkinsops lung tissue, he said.

Blinkinsops condition is terminal, he testified at trial. Its not curable, he said. The doctors have all said the same thing that if everything goes well, I might survive three years, he told jurors. Never any guarantee about the quality of life during that time.

The companys attorney told jurors here is no asbestos in J&J talc products and its talc didnt cause Blinkinsops illness. For over 40 years we have been working with the best scientists, the best universities and the best laboratories who have all confirmed our products do not contain asbestos, defense attorney Bruce Hurley said.

Blinkinsop could have been exposed to asbestos while working on construction jobs, he said.Mr. Blinkinsops mesothelioma was not cause by Johnsons baby powder, Hurley said. Cosmetic talc does not cause mesothelioma.

The case is Blinkinsop v. Albertson Co., BC677764, Superior Court, Los Angeles Co. (Long Beach).

Related:

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.

Topics California
American International Group, acting under a homeowners insurance policy it issued for comedian Bill Cosby, has settled defamation claims filed by seven women against the entertainer.

Terms of the settlements were not disclosed in the court documents filed by the womens lawyer, Joseph Cammarata, in U.S. District Court in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Each Plaintiff is satisfied with the settlement, Cammarata told the court.

The settlement must still be approved by the judge.

The women had claimed Cosby sexually abused them years ago but suits on those allegations were barred by statutes of limitations. They filed the defamation lawsuit now being settled after Cosby said they were lying.

Cosby, who is serving a 10-year prison sentence in Pennsylvania following his conviction on charges he drugged and sexually assaulted another woman more than a decade ago, criticized AIG for settling the claims through his lawyers in an April 5 Tweet on social media:

They have proven that they do not have the best interest of their clients in mind, which will cause them to lose an overwhelming amount of business. I (Bill Cosby) will never settle any defamation claims, I will continue to pursue my counterclaims.

Another social media post read:

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. Mr. Cosby vehemently denies the allegations brought against him in these defamation suits and he maintains his innocence.

AIG issued a statement that it does not comment publicly on specific claims issues.

However, AIG spokesman Matthew Gallagher told CNN, Certain insurance policies provide insurers with the authority to resolve claims when the insured has been informed.

Cosby has counterclaims pending against the women who sued him. In informing the court of the settlement offer, the lawyer for the women said they would seek to have those claims dismissed.

This is not the first time that AIG and Cosby have been at odds. The insurer resisted having to defend Cosby against the defamation suits under a homeowners policy. AIG had argued that Cosbys policies excused it from defending and indemnifying him against personal injury claims arising out of sexual misconduct, as distinct from personal injury claims such as defamation.

However, judges in Massachusetts and California sided with Cosby and ruled in 2016 that AIG did have to defend Cosby, although left open until after a trial or settlement was the question of whether AIG must indemnify Cosby for damages he may be required to pay the women.

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Topics Claims AIG
Facial recognition technology was already seeping into everyday life  from photos on Facebook to police scans of mugshots  when Joy Buolamwini noticed a serious glitch: Some of the software couldnt detect dark-skinned faces like hers.

That revelation sparked the Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher to launch a project thats having an outsize influence on the debate over how artificial intelligence should be deployed in the real world.

Her tests on software created by brand-name tech firms such as Amazon uncovered much higher error rates in classifying the gender of darker-skinned women than for lighter-skinned men.

Along the way, Buolamwini has spurred Microsoft and IBM to improve their systems and irked Amazon, which publicly attacked her research methods. Last Wednesday, a group of AI scholars, including a winner of computer sciences top prize, launched a spirited defense of her work and called on Amazon to stop selling its facial recognition software to police.

Her work has also caught the attention of political leaders in statehouses and Congress and led some to seek limits on the use of computer vision tools to analyze human faces.

There needs to be a choice, said Buolamwini, a graduate student and researcher at MITs Media Lab. Right now, whats happening is these technologies are being deployed widely without oversight, oftentimes covertly, so that by the time we wake up, its almost too late.

Buolamwini is hardly alone in expressing caution about the fast-moving adoption of facial recognition by police, government agencies and businesses from stores to apartment complexes. Many other researchers have shown how AI systems, which look for patterns in huge troves of data, will mimic the institutional biases embedded in the data they are learning from. For instance, if AI systems are developed using images of mostly white men, the systems will work best in recognizing white men.

Those disparities can sometimes be a matter of life or death: One recent study of the computer vision systems that enable self-driving cars to see the road shows they have a harder time detecting pedestrians with darker skin tones.

Whats struck a chord about Boulamwinis work is her method of testing the systems created by well-known companies. She applies such systems to a skin-tone scale used by dermatologists, then names and shames those that show racial and gender bias. Buolamwini, whos also founded a coalition of scholars, activists and others called the Algorithmic Justice League, has blended her scholarly investigations with activism.

It adds to a growing body of evidence that facial recognition affects different groups differently, said Shankar Narayan, of the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington state, where the group has sought restrictions on the technology. Joys work has been part of building that awareness.

Amazon, whose CEO, Jeff Bezos, she emailed directly last summer, has responded by aggressively taking aim at her research methods.

A Buolamwini-led study published just over a year ago found disparities in how facial-analysis systems built by IBM, Microsoft and the Chinese company Face Plus Plus classified people by gender. Darker-skinned women were the most misclassified group, with error rates of up to 34.7%. By contrast, the maximum error rate for lighter-skinned males was less than 1%.

The study called for urgent attention to address the bias.

I responded pretty much right away, said Ruchir Puri, chief scientist of IBM Research, describing an email he received from Buolamwini last year.

Since then, he said, its been a very fruitful relationship that informed IBMs unveiling this year of a new 1 million-image database for better analyzing the diversity of human faces. Previous systems have been overly reliant on what Buolamwini calls pale male image repositories.

Microsoft, which had the lowest error rates, declined comment. Messages left with Megvii, which owns Face Plus Plus, werent immediately returned.

Months after her first study, when Buolamwini worked with University of Toronto researcher Inioluwa Deborah Raji on a follow-up test, all three companies showed major improvements.

Amazon Results

But this time they also added Amazon, which has sold the system it calls Rekognition to law enforcement agencies. The results, published in late January, showed Amazon badly misidentifying darker-hued women.

We were surprised to see that Amazon was where their competitors were a year ago, Buolamwini said.

Amazon dismissed what it called Buolamwinis erroneous claims and said the study confused facial analysis with facial recognition, improperly measuring the former with techniques for evaluating the latter.

The answer to anxieties over new technology is not to run `tests inconsistent with how the service is designed to be used, and to amplify the tests false and misleading conclusions through the news media, Matt Wood, general manager of artificial intelligence for Amazons cloud-computing division, wrote in a January blog post. Amazon declined requests for an interview.

I didnt know their reaction would be quite so hostile, Buolamwini said recently in an interview at her MIT lab.

Coming to her defense Wednesday was a coalition of researchers, including AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio , recent winner of the Turing Award, considered the tech fields version of the Nobel Prize.

They criticized Amazons response, especially its distinction between facial recognition and analysis.

In contrast to Dr. Woods claims, bias found in one system is cause for concern in the other, particularly in use cases that could severely impact peoples lives, such as law enforcement applications, they wrote.

Its few publicly known clients have defended Amazons system.

Chris Adzima, senior information systems analyst for the Washington County Sheriffs Office in Oregon, said the agency uses Amazons Rekognition to identify the most likely matches among its collection of roughly 350,000 mug shots. But because a human makes the final decision, the bias of that computer system is not transferred over into any results or any action taken, Adzima said.

But increasingly, regulators and legislators are having their doubts. A bipartisan bill in Congress seeks limits on facial recognition. Legislatures in Washington and Massachusetts are considering laws of their own.

Buolamwini said a major message of her research is that AI systems need to be carefully reviewed and consistently monitored if theyre going to be used on the public. Not just to audit for accuracy, she said, but to ensure face recognition isnt abused to violate privacy or cause other harms.

We cant just leave it to companies alone to do these kinds of checks, she said.

Associated Press writer Gillian Flaccus contributed to this report from Hillsboro, Oregon.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics InsurTech Tech Washington Law Enforcement Massachusetts Data Driven Amazon
Two major chemical plant fires near Houston just 17 days apart closed schools, leaked toxic chemicals into coastal waters and killed a worker, but theres a good chance they wont lead to big industry crackdowns in oil-friendly Texas.

Federal investigators have yet to announce what caused either fire  the first in March that triggered shelter-in-place warnings amid elevated levels of benzene in the air and a second that left one worker dead and two others critically injured.

The blazes sent plumes of ominous black smoke billowing into the sky and drew widespread attention, but there are already signs that any new safeguards will be slow in coming, if they come at all. The fires havent slowed the progress of industry-backed bills that would, in the view of environmental groups, give oil producers paths to easier permitting and weaker enforcement. There were also proposals to siphon money from clean-air programs just days after the first fire triggered an air quality warning.

Meanwhile, long-shot proposals by Democrats to slap plants with tougher fines appear all but dead this year, while another that would set new rules for above-ground storage tanks has also languished.

Local officials say tougher state penalties would be a good start to deterring more accidents.

I would hope that if one thing we take away from this is that we need to look at the enforcement scheme and process the state uses to make sure they mean something, said Rock Owens, the managing environmental attorney for Harris County, who testified Thursday during the first legislative hearing about the fires.

New lawsuits his office filed against Intercontinental Terminals Co. and KMCO  where the fires occurred  amount to the third time each operator has been sued by Harris County in the past decade. Some resulted in penalties of $25,000 per day and per violation, the maximum amount under state limits that were last raised in 2011.

It just hasnt been enough to get people to stop doing what they need to stop doing, Owens said.

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board and other agencies are investigating the fires. The first produced a plume of smoke that could be seen for miles and burned for days. Schools closed over air quality warnings and petrochemicals from the tanks seeped into nearby bayous and the Houston Ship Channel after a dike adjacent to the facility failed.

The second fire happened after a tank at a KMCO chemical plant in Crosby that was holding a flammable chemical caught fire and burned for more than 5 hours before it was extinguished.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner announced on April 5 that the city will roll out an alert system that would notify residents of emergencies, including air quality warnings.

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued the plants over allegations that they violated the Texas Clean Air Act, a move welcomed by both Democrats and environmental groups. State environmental officials would get more money under a tentative budget plan.

But attempts to tighten industry regulations generally fail in the Republican-controlled Legislature.

I dont know that I have concerns about the industry necessarily, said Republican state Rep. Ed Thompson, the vice chairman of the House environmental regulation committee. I think what we really need to get our arms around is what were doing as a state, in terms of inspection of these facilities and making sure that theyre operating in the proper way. Accidents do occur.

After a fertilizer plant near Waco exploded in 2013 and killed 15 people, Texas strengthened some rules for storing ammonium nitrate and gave more authority to the state fire marshal. But some lawmakers viewed the changes as insufficient after some recommendations, such as requiring sprinkler systems, were excluded over concerns that they would be too burdensome on business.

When its a major headline-grabbing incident, the state will usually take some sort of action but its usually pretty narrow in addressing the fundamental problems were seeing, said Luke Metzger, executive director of the advocacy group Environment Texas. My fear is that after this fades from the headlines, the state will go back to business as usual.

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Topics Texas Legislation Energy Oil Gas Pollution Chemicals
An Arkansas judge has rejected a request to dismiss the states lawsuit against three drugmakers that alleges they made false marketing claims about the benefits and risks of opioids, contributing to an increase in opioid abuse that led to overdose deaths.

Court records show Pulaski County District Judge Morgan Welch on April 5 denied the motion by Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson and Endo Pharmaceuticals.

The companies argued that federal law gives the federal Food and Drug Administration authority over the labeling of approved drugs.

The ruling first reported by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette says the lawsuit alleges fraudulent marketing of opioids, not a failure to comply with labeling requirements.

Thousands of similar lawsuits are pending nationwide against dozens of drugmakers and Purdue recently settled such a lawsuit with the state of Oklahoma for $270 million.

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Topics Legislation Claims Drugs
A growing number of lawsuits are springing from the ashes at a Houston-area chemical plant that caught fire this week killing a worker.

Two plant employees filed separate state suits Wednesday against KMCO LLC, claiming the company failed to maintain a safe work environment or give them proper training ahead of the Tuesday fire in Crosby.

Harris County, where the plant is located, also sued the company Wednesday under state environmental laws.

Randy Villaloboz and Arturo Martinez are each seeking more than $1 million in damages. The county asked for unspecified civil penalties.

KMCO said that two workers remain hospitalized in critical condition after the fire. Authorities havent released its cause.

The company said its focused on caring for workers and protecting the environment and will address legal claims at the proper time and place.

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Topics Lawsuits Texas Workers' Compensation Chemicals
North Carolinas former top insurance regulator said Friday he never performed favors for a big-money donor and he relied on staff experts when his agency approved changes benefiting the businessman now charged with trying to bribe the states current insurance commissioner.

Wayne Goodwin, now the state Democratic Party chairman, said in his first interview since federal indictments were unsealed last week that he always trusted financial experts on his staff and acted within the law. The states GOP chairman is among those facing charges, and other Republicans and Democrats are facing questions about donations from mega-donor Greg Lindberg.

Goodwin hasnt been accused of wrongdoing. But his Republican successor said in an interview this week that under the Democrat, Lindberg insurance companies were allowed to move far more money out of claim-paying reserves than was the previous norm. Goodwin argues his potential political rival is simply attempting to tie him to the scandal.

During Goodwins eight-year tenure ending in early 2017, the state Insurance Department sharply raised the amount of money Lindbergs insurers could move out of claim-paying reserves into other companies under his corporate umbrella. Some of the life-insurance assets were invested in higher-paying, higher-risk loans to non-insurance companies in which Lindberg holds a stake, a spokesman said in a statement last month.

Anything that would have been done would have either been done by a subject-matter expert or would have been raised briefly to my attention and I said, `What do you think? Is this appropriate? Is this your recommendation? I really dont recall any of the details, Goodwin said.

North Carolina, unlike some states, lacks hard limits on insurers investing assets with related companies. One guideline that state insurance regulators often apply is limiting invested assets in affiliated companies to 10%.

Mike Causey, the Republican who defeated Goodwin in 2016, said his predecessor let the investment cap for Lindbergs companies rise to 40%.

There were some exceptions made here and it was different than what they had done with other companies, he said.

Lindberg has shifted at least $2 billion accumulated from insurance-policy premiums into other businesses in the network of companies he controls, the Wall Street Journal reported in February.

Lindbergs net worth was about $1.7 billion at the end of 2017, a spokesman said in a statement last month.

I would like to have known that, Goodwin said. That certainly would have been a major red flag to me and it appears from what Im reading that there are things that have happened or are happening that not even the subject-matter experts expected.

Goodwin said he has been given no indication that he is a target of federal investigators.

Lindbergs Global Bankers Insurance Group sought and received the explicit approval of his affiliate investment strategy from Goodwins agency when he moved his insurance operations to North Carolina about five years ago, company spokesman Scott Lindlaw said in an email.

Significant discussions took place between Mr. Lindberg, his then-management team and NCDOI staff prior to their agreement to permit Mr. Lindberg to pursue this investment strategy. Mr. Lindbergs investment strategy was approved in advance by the NCDOI, Lindlaw wrote in an email.

After Causey took over in 2017, the agency expressed concern about the size of the related-company investments and Lindbergs North Carolina-based insurance companies have downsized them with the goal of cutting to 10% of assets, Lindlaw said.

Lindberg, his associates John D. Gray and John V. Palermo Jr., and state Republican Party Chairman Robin Hayes were accused in federal indictments unsealed this week of trying to bribe Causey to give Lindbergs insurers easier oversight. Lindbergs demands allegedly included replacing a deputy responsible for examining Global Bankers accounts. In return, Causey could get up to $2 million in reelection campaign help, the indictment said.

Lindberg has contributed more than $7 million since 2016 to state and federal candidates and committees, significantly favoring Republican causes.

At their first meeting in November 2017, Lindberg asked Causey to call insurance commissioners in other states to vouch for Lindberg in his effort to close deals in their states. Causey refused to say in the interview whether he made those calls to help Lindberg. Causey hasnt been accused of wrongdoing.

Goodwin, who didnt rule out challenging Causey, said the Republicans criticisms of him are an attempt to tie him to the scandal.

I did not take any action in my official capacity in exchange for any campaign contributions or anything like that. I am outraged and shocked to learn what the Republicans have done, Goodwin said.

Lindberg and his wife contributed almost $20,000 to Goodwins unsuccessful 2016 campaign. Lindberg also contributed $450,000 to an independent group that bought campaign ads supporting Goodwin, including $100,000 nearly a year after Goodwins loss, according to state campaign finance records. The committees treasurer was alleged bribery co-conspirator Palermo. The committee shut down in May.

Goodwin has also been paid for consulting work on behalf of Global Bankers and Eli Global, Lindbergs broader conglomerate of insurance and other companies.

Meanwhile, U.S. Reps. Richard Hudson, Patrick McHenry and Ted Budd, who received Lindberg contributions, said theyre giving the money to charities, their spokesmen said Friday. Rep. Mark Walkers spokesman did not respond to how the congressman is treating Lindbergs donations.

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Topics North Carolina
In return for a promised $2 million payout, federal prosecutors say, the investor who has recently been North Carolinas biggest political donor wanted something from the states top insurance regulator: go easy on his insurance companies.

Now Greg Lindberg is facing bribery and conspiracy charges, and his substantial political donations are under scrutiny. The state Republican Party chairman indicted along with Lindberg, former congressman Robin Hayes, on April 3 relinquished his party activities to an interim manager until new party elections in June.

Lindberg has contributed more than $7 million since 2016 to state and federal candidates and committees, significantly favoring Republican causes. For example, he gave the North Carolina Republican Party almost $1.5 million in 2017 and 2018, and $500,000 to the states Democrats, according to state campaign finance records.

The elected official with potentially the most at risk politically from the indictment is Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, who is gearing up to challenge Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper in 2020. Forest has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

Forest hasnt received a direct campaign donation from Lindberg, but two political committees supporting him or other Republican statewide candidates have received more than $2.4 million from the Durham businessman since early 2017. Forest has taken credit for that fundraising. Employees for Lindbergs Eli Global LLC and Global Bankers Insurance Group have given more than $11,000 to Forests campaign committee within the past three years, finance reports show.

Forest, who was the featured guest in September 2017 when Global Bankers celebrated its corporate headquarters ribbon-cutting in Durham, called the indicted defendants friends of mine but said last week the charges had nothing to do with his campaign.

These were good guys, Forest said. This is a bad situation. Theres nothing good about this situation that they find themselves in. Obviously, I believe in justice being done, and we need to certainly follow this process and make sure that justice is done.

Lindberg gave $1 million in late 2017 to Truth and Prosperity, a super PAC that promoted Forest during his winning 2016 reelection campaign for lieutenant governor, campaign reports show. Truth and Prosperity can receive unlimited amounts of money from individuals or businesses but cant coordinate spending with Forest. Yet state law allows Forest to raise the money for the super PAC.

Forest campaign spokesman Hal Weatherman said Forest was never interviewed or questioned by investigators. Forest said that Lindberg never asked him for favors and he has no control over what Truth and Prosperity does with the money. A spokesman for Truth and Prosperity didnt respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday.

In the second half of 2017, Lindberg also gave more than $1.4 million to the NC Republican Council of State Committee, an organization backing GOP candidates for statewide executive office like Forest, according to campaign filings. Forest is chairman of the committee, which collected $1.6 million total during the 2017-18 election cycle. A pro-Forest mailer announcing his exploratory bid for governor this year was paid by the committee. Sixteen of the 20 Facebook ads the committee purchased featured Forest.

Forest said the Council of State committee leaders would have to meet to discuss how to handle Lindbergs donations.

Lindbergs money also supported four North Carolina Republicans in the U.S. House. The biggest beneficiary appeared to be Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Walker of Greensboro, whose campaign and committees backing him got more than $230,000.

Most of that came from a $150,000 Lindberg contribution in February 2018, the only donation of that size from him listed on the Federal Election Commission website. Federal prosecutors said Lindberg made a $150,000 contribution to a political committee backing Public Official A on the same February 2018 date he learned the politician was willing to help sway Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey.

Walkers spokesman, Jack Minor, said last week that he couldnt confirm if Walker was Public Official A, but that Walker was never a target of the investigation.

Federal prosecutors said April 2 that Causey, a Republican, had alerted law enforcement voluntarily to help them uncover what they label a corruption scheme involving those who were indicted.

One Democrat Lindberg backed was Causeys predecessor as commissioner, state Democratic Party chairman Wayne Goodwin. Lindberg gave almost $10,000 to Goodwins unsuccessful 2016 campaign and another $450,000 to a committee that produced pro-Goodwin commercials, state campaign finance records show.

Goodwin spoke with The Associated Press on Friday, defending his interactions and saying there had been no wrongdoing. Goodwins public relations firm also issued a statement confirming that after his re-election defeat, Goodwin did work for Lindbergs companies and other consulting clients.

Goodwin said he is not a target of federal prosecutors and sought to distance himself from the kind of money-for-favors Lindberg is accused of seeking from Causey.

I do not recall being asked to take or direct any action to help Greg Lindberg or his companies during my time as Insurance Commissioner and do not recall him or his companies being raised for my review, Goodwin said in a statement.

His consulting work involved attending conferences and receptions to keep dozens of the firms clients, including Eli Global and Global Bankers Insurance, up-to-date with industry developments and insights, Goodwin said. My consulting services for Eli Global and Global Bankers Insurance have long since ended.

Associated Press writer Jonathan Drew in Raleigh, North Carolina, contributed to this report.

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Topics North Carolina
An investigation has determined that a July 2017 wildfire that destroyed more than 40 homes in Northern California was sparked by a defective electrical panel at a Butte County home.

The state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said that prosecutors have reviewed the case and decided not to file charges in the matter.

The blaze broke at a home southeast of Oroville and spread to more than 6,000 acres before being contained more than a week later. It destroyed 41 homes, damaged 36 others and was the first of Butte Countys four major wildfires in 2017.

David Hawks, chief of CalFires Butte County unit, said the fire serves as a reminder to residents to keep electrical and other ignition sources in good repair and clear of flammable materials.

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Topics California Catastrophe Natural Disasters Wildfire
Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidlers criminal investigations unit has extradited Kreidlers insurance fraud most wanted suspect Jessica Epler from Pennsylvania to face felony charges of theft and insurance fraud in Spokane County.

Epler has been on Kreidlers most wanted list since September 2018. Law enforcement officials in Leesport, Penn., arrested Epler during a traffic stop there on March 18. She waived her right to contest the extradition at a court hearing on March 22. Kreidlers detectives escorted her to Spokane County Jail on March 27, where she remains in custody while she awaits a hearing.

According to Kreidlers investigation, Epler added a diamond ring valued at $4,000 to her fiances renters insurance policy in 2016. She filed a mysterious disappearance claim with the insurer, Liberty Mutual, on Oct. 2, 2016. Epler was an employee of Liberty Mutual at the time of the claim. She said she put the ring in her purse while she was out with friends and her purse went missing. Investigators found records showing that Epler sold the ring to a Spokane pawn shop on Sept. 26, 2016.

Kreidlers CIU investigates insurance fraud and works with the Washington State Patrol and state and local prosecutors on criminal cases.

Topics Fraud Washington
Montego Bay, Jamaica - April 8, 2019 (Investorideas.com Newswire) The Willows Farms Limited recently received a green light to start business, as they were awarded their conditional approval for five licenses from the Cannabis Licensing Authority. The company is on a mission to help diversify Jamaica's economic base. Jamaica is set to emerge as an indigenous leader in the medical cannabis space. Consequently, the country is perfectly positioned with a spotlight on producing safe and effective high-grade strains for future exports worldwide.

Due to the international expansion of medicinal cannabis, The Willows Farms welcomes the opportunity to introduce our initiative to strategic partners. The objective is to forge an alliance of integrity that supports a systemic framework to diversify wellness. This benefit is certain to enable monetization opportunities within branding license, land segments, and community infrastructure.

"We're thrilled to be part of a select group of businesses who can participate in the early-stages of the legal medical cannabis market in Jamaica," said Monique Drayton, the Director of Communications for The Willows Farms. While Jamaica has been known for many cultural sentiments, its ideal atmospheric conditions are prime for this agricultural pursuit.

The Cannabis Licensing Authority issued

The Willows Farms the following licenses:

Cultivator's License (Tier 3) (Over 5 acres)

Processing License (Tier2) (> 200 sq. meters)

Research & Development (Experimental) License

Retail (Herb House  Without Facilities for Consumption) License

Transport License

"The Cultivator's License Tier 3 is particularly important, because we have over 500 acres of land that we've earmarked to use in the development with a significant portion being dedicated to grow medical cannabis. We're actively seeking experienced partners who are ready to harness this seismic venture right away," added Monique Drayton. The Willows Farms plans to serve various purposes for educational opportunities, economic growth with a sustainable trading base, and strategic wellness training programs conducive to safe learning environments.

Despite the number of competitors entering the cannabis market, The Willows Farms is appropriately positioned to be a premier producer. The strength of Jamaica's tourism market, through historical intention and interest, has been the conduit of successfully attracting attention to produce high grade cannabis strains. As a result, The Willows Farms is excited to support this health & wellness endeavor byway of adding a strong presence to Jamaica's already culturally rich community.

The Willows Farms has assembled a network team of qualified professionals and invaluable resources. This therapeutic business model has been strategically designed to collaborate with universities to generate optimal opportunities for students interested in pursuing the cannabis industry's research and development process. With the conditional approval and usable land space, The Willows Farms is currently making provisions to start operations in this rapidly evolving market. The legalization of medical cannabis has provided an unprecedented platform for licensed cannabis businesses to finally reach previously underserved, prescribed patients. With that, the fundamental goal is to successfully establish a credible, international brand focused on creating new jobs to facilitate financial freedom for the systemic roots of Jamaica.

Contact

The Willows Farms Limited

Representative

hello@thewillowsfarms.com

P: 305-537-6597

www.thewillowsfarms.com

About The Willows Farms Limited:

The Willows Farms is proud to be a conditionally approved medical cannabis cultivator, processor, transporter, research & developer, and retailer.

We are committed to producing a high quality product with valued integrity cultivated by local farmers and grown in the most natural, tropical atmosphere. Moreover, we strive to ensure that it is available to prescribed patients who are in need of accessible and affordable medical cannabis. Our strengths run through our bloodline to help drive research and innovation, create jobs across the island, and bring international investments that will fuel the growth and development of the economy.

Disclaimer/Disclosure: Investorideas.com is a digital publisher of third party sourced news, articles and equity research as well as creates original content, including video, interviews and articles. Original content created by investorideas is protected by copyright laws other than syndication rights. Our site does not make recommendations for purchases or sale of stocks, services or products. Nothing on our sites should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell products or securities. All investment involves risk and possible loss of investment. This site is currently compensated for news publication and distribution, social media and marketing, content creation and more. Contact each company directly regarding content and press release questions. Disclosure is posted for each compensated news release, content published /created if required but otherwise the news was not compensated for and was published for the sole interest of our readers and followers. More disclaimer info: http://www.investorideas.com/About/Disclaimer.asp. Disclosure this news is a paid for news release on the Investorideas.com newswire by The Willows Farms Limited Learn more about costs and our newswire service https://www.investorideas.com/News-Upload/

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April 8, 2019 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Regulation, last year's total rumble. Yes or no, risky or safe?

Everybody who's a part of the blockchain movement already is looking for an answer to that specific situation. One of the cases where obtained knowledge seems to point towards is the tokenization of assets.

Massive investment opportunities are the benefits typically reserved for the few. Decentralized blockchain network can change that. Just like bitcoin is significantly changing the financial landscape, a blockchain asset tokenization can make investing in real world assets far more convenient and efficient.

With this method, tangible assets can be divided into small units increasing their liquidity and enabling more market participants to join. Regulation would not be an issue but an answer if the right conditions where to appear. Enter Tokenize-IT.

Tokenize-IT is the very first fully compliant platform for creating, launching and investing in tokenized assets:

Companies can conduct a compliant security token offering for verified accredited investors with both fiat and digital currency contribution options.

Through our bank-grade compliancy standards, we ensure full KYC/AML due diligence is completed before an investor participates on our platform and meets accredited investor status.

In Costa Rica, the equivalent of the Securities Exchange Commission, called SUGEVAL , issued a regulation two years ago which stated that cryptocurrencies are seen as commodities, not as securities.

, issued a regulation two years ago which stated that cryptocurrencies are seen as commodities, not as securities. Tokenize-IT has been granted broker/dealer license from the commodities exchange and acquired a currency exchange license for al G10 currencies which allows the company to separate crypto from fiat; solving the conflict of missing the asset classes.

Foreign technology companies can apply for an International Free Zone space. When granted, your cryptocurrencies initiative/business is tax exempt for ten years.

Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO), personalized experiences, immediate solutions, and quality assurance practices you will not find anywhere else. We listen to our customers, take advantage of data and technology creating a seamless experience that provides great service and support.

Tokenize-IT is located in Costa Rica, mostly because of the countries policies towards cryptocurrency, and it's world renowned BPO services.

Issues on liquidity of assets, fractional ownership, diversification of risk, newer models for raising capital, control over investment, a big decrease in the number of intermediaries and liquidity can be solved with Tokenize-IT's resources.

There are many assets that can be moved to blockchain: stocks, real estate properties, gold, even fine art. The main point is to tokenize very expensive assets that only a few can afford at the moment. You can be a merchant, or you can be a trader who is willing to diversify their assets portfolio and be subjected to little less investment risk.

This company is part of a bigger project that will certainly push the blockchain world forward. Be a part of the solution, not the problem. For more information on this project follow this link:

Https://www.tokenizeit.cr

http://gbttechnologies.com

https://genesisexchange.io/

Genesis Exchange and Wallet App by Genesis Blockchain Technologies (GBT) @GenesisBlockch GBT is a powerful cryptocurrency centralized / decentralized exchange which will include a broad range of services and benefits from cryptocurrency and blockchain markets development, while avoiding complications and risks arising from crytocurrency ownership, transfer, and exchange.You can Download the Genesis Exchange and Wallet App at Google Play and on the Apple App Store. Learn more at http://www.mygenesis.io

Disclaimer/Disclosure: Investorideas.com is a digital publisher of third party sourced news, articles and equity research as well as creates original content, including video, interviews and articles. Original content created by investorideas is protected by copyright laws other than syndication rights. Our site does not make recommendations for purchases or sale of stocks, services or products. Nothing on our sites should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell products or securities. All investment involves risk and possible loss of investment. This site is currently compensated for news publication and distribution, social media and marketing, content creation and more. Contact each company directly regarding content and press release questions. Disclosure is posted for each compensated news release, content published /created if required but otherwise the news was not compensated for and was published for the sole interest of our readers and followers. More disclaimer info: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Disclaimer.asp. Disclosure: Genesis Blockchain Technologies is a paid sponsor of the #CryptoCorner podcast at Investorideas.com https://www.investorideas.com/crypto-corner/

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April 8, 2019 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Maurice Jackson of Proven and Probable covers the five Cs with the CEO of Riverside Resources, including his company's take on copper, prospects in Canada, and the Cecilia deposit in Sonora.

Maurice Jackson: Joining us for a conversation is Dr. John-Mark Staude. He is the president and CEO of Riverside Resources Inc. (RRI:TSX.V; RVSDF:OTCQB), "Where Knowledge Is Golden."

We brought you on today to discuss the five Cs, which are copper, Cecilia, cash, Canada and capital structure. Beginning with copper: John-Mark, what do the supply-and-demand fundamentals indicate long term regarding copper?

Dr. John-Mark Staude: We really believe copper is in a long-term upswing. Myself, I worked in the copper business with Magma Copper and BHP Copper. Now Riverside has built a copper portfolio to be ready for this now-growing upswing. I think the demand from Chinafrom Asia[as well as] the growth in the United States and throughout the world, along with electric cars, electrification [means] copper is in demand, and we're ready for it. Mexico, being a major copper producer, is a wonderful place to be developing copper projects.

Maurice Jackson: Speaking of the project portfolio, let's delve into it. Dr. Staude, last April I attended a site visit with you in Sonora, Mexico, and we visited the Cecilia gold-silver project. The value proposition before us on the Cecilia has enormous potential. For someone new to the Cecilia gold-silver project, please tell us about it.

Dr. John-Mark Staude: That's the second C: Cecilia. And the thing we like about it is the location. It's in a major mining trend, where gold is being produced by other mining companies, gold and silver companies like Premier Gold Mines Ltd. (PG:TSX) and First Majestic Silver Corp. (FR:TSX; AG:NYSE; FMV:FSE), as well as the recent big discovery by SilverCrest Metals Inc. (SIL:TSX.V). Riverside, at the Cecilia project, has a major district, over 60 square kilometers' tenure, big-scale potential for a mega-discovery. It was great to have you up there, Maurice. In fact, I was there last week. We're progressing, getting ready to do drilling. In the next quarter, we'll see continued results from the Cecilia. We're really excited by that for Riverside for 2019.

Maurice Jackson: Walk us through the Cecilia. What type of lithology is prevalent there?

Dr. John-Mark Staude: For us, the key lithology is a rhyolite dome. The thing about a dome is it's the right type of impulse, the type of thing that can have gold mineralization. Also, they're veins, and those veins have high grade. The veins are inside of sediments. Those sediments are the typical types of sediments that have gold mineralization. Major mines around Mexico: For us, it's a great type of geology, so we really like the Cecilia project.

Maurice Jackson: Can you provide us with some grade intervals that have Riverside confident that this could be a game changer?

Dr. John-Mark Staude: One of the virtues we really like is the proximity to the surface. Gold mineralization, one- and two-ounce gold on the main hill. . .also, gold in the Cecilia one, the larger area. Those types of things are exactly [what] we like: high-grade gold, one- and two-ounce gold, half an ounce gold. Those types of mineralizations over long distances of strike lengthwe've been able to follow with 500600 meter-long strike lengths of these veins. Great project. Really exciting for Riverside to be moving ahead with. It's 100% owned by Riverside.

Maurice Jackson: What are the latest developments coming from the Cecilia project?

Dr. John-Mark Staude: The key three things right now, first is bigger ground. The district is big, and we keep picking up more ground. That's huge. We're really consolidating the major play. The second is high grades. We're following the veins along strike, and getting good results along those strikes continuing. The third is, the tracking of multiple targets. We've been able to develop quite a few targets, and now we're upgrading those targets, getting them ready for drill. We'll get the drill permits completed for the larger area. We already have the permits for the Cerro Magallanes, and then we're ready to go. Riverside is so excited by the Cecilia project. We're on track, on budget, and it's really going well for us.

Maurice Jackson: Sticking with Sonora, Mexico, John-Mark, Riverside has been active on another project, the Sandy project. Please provide us with an update.

Dr. John-Mark Staude: The Sandy is good. It's out in the Sandy Desert. Sonora is a desert area, and we think underneath that sand, where we have an outcropping area with high-grade gold and big structures, those structures are the orogenic gold-style, which is affiliated with the big mines that are run by companies like Fresnillo Plc (FRES:LSE) and Alamos Gold Inc. (AGI:TSX; AGI:NYSE). Big structures like the Chanate mine, the Noche Buena mine, the Herradura mine. Riverside at Sandy is in the right place, the right type of geology, and the big scale potential.

We believe we are on the right path based on what we have staked. We use our database, where we try to take knowledge and turn it into gold, [which] is exactly what Riverside stated it would do. With the Sandy project [we] would show delivery of our promises. Now we move that ahead. We're very excited about these type of high-quality projects, and a low cost of acquisition for Riverside gives us huge upside with limited risk.

Maurice Jackson: Moving onto the third C, which is cash. John-Mark, allow me to be the first to congratulate Riverside on a successful oversubscription on your recent financing, which we were proud to participate in. What would you like to say to shareholders?

Dr. John-Mark Staude: First, [I'd like] to say thank you. We went back to existing shareholders, and many of them actually participated in the financing. It's often difficult to raise capital, but for Riverside, we've tried to deliver what we've promised, and we really appreciate the shareholders.

Second, as we put out in the news release, we're so excited now that we have capital of over $3.5 million (CAD) with no debt. Riverside's in a great position to grow, not just in Mexico but beyond Mexico. That cash allows us to do multiple things: Cecilia, further growth and do additional transactions. Riverside's in a great position. Cash is king, and Riverside was able to get that cash and through financing, which has us really excited for 2019, 2020, 2021. Great position for Riverside shareholders.

Maurice Jackson: Let's move onto to the fourth C, which is Canada. Is Riverside actively participating in anything in Canada? And if yes, what can you share with us?

Dr. John-Mark Staude: Yes, we are. We've actually had properties in the past for porphyry copper in British Columbia. . .We are based in Vancouver, so Riverside has a good ability to operate here. We have been acquiring and working on different grounds, and we're putting those together. And I think the thing that we'll be seeing is news flow of the development of an additional portfolio, and then joint venture partners on it. Riverside likes the prospect generator model, and Riverside's very keen to diversify into Canada, because it is a great jurisdiction to work [in]. We have a lot of partners that people want to work on projects here, so it fits with our skill set to diversify. So Canada's been going well, and we raised the cash, and now we're diversifying and growing. We'll be at conferences and beginning to progress that in the next six and eight months.

Maurice Jackson: Let's move onto the final C, which is capital structure. Please update everybody on the new capital structure.

Dr. John-Mark Staude: That's one of the most important things, and Riverside has been so careful. We now have 62 million shares out. We're in a very good structured position, [and] continue to be a tight share structure. After 13 years as a public company, we're glad to actually have the cash, and we think now, with that tight share structure, we can continue to grow as a prospect generator. It's a great place to be. Myself, I've participated quite a bit in this current financing, and I participated in the other financings, and to date I've never sold a share of Riverside. I wish I had more shares. I'm glad to have a big share book, and Riverside doesn't have too many shares out, and capital structure's intact, doing well for Riverside.

Maurice Jackson: Dr. Staude, what is the next unanswered question for Riverside Resources? When can we expect an answer, and what determines success?

Dr. John-Mark Staude: The next key thing for us is really refining those drill targets at Cecilia. I think in the next 25 days, next month, we will have results, and we will have the results from our sampling. What will determine success will be. . .One is making sure we have all the access for the big targets. Second [is the] continuity of those targets, then third is confidence in those targets. Riverside will drill the targets ourselves. We really like the Cecilia project. We've been progressing it ourselves, and we see great value. The market has not given us the respect we think we deserve, so Riverside's pushing it ahead ourselves. We're very excited by this in the coming months.

Maurice Jackson: John-Mark, what keeps you up at night that we don't know about?

Dr. John-Mark Staude: It's so important to diversify and we really want to, so for us, keeping me up at night is us delivering growth in Canada now. We've been able to do it in Mexico quite well. We know we can do it, but we know shareholders want to see it, so right now, we're working on that and looking forward to providing updates on our progress in Canada. And with that, it'll show that we're able to diversify, as we've done in the past. We know we can do it, but we want to do it with power, by creating great value for our shareholders.

Maurice Jackson: Sir, the last question: what did I forget to ask?

Dr. John-Mark Staude: Well, you're always so good at asking questions. I think you've covered a lot of things. I think the other thing. . .to ask how is Riverside [is] going to grow. And the way we continue to grow is with those projects, with joint ventures, and lastly, because we'll actually add more skilled people. Riverside will be adding other key people to help us grow; in the next six months, we'll be actually looking to spread out and expand beyond where we are in Riverside, with power and growth. So I think that'll be the next step to grow, that will deliver in Mexico, will deliver on Canada, and where we're going next. We're really excited by that, so Riverside's a great place to be holding shares today.

Maurice Jackson: Dr. Staude, for someone [who] wants to get more information on Riverside Resources, please share the contact details.

Dr. John-Mark Staude: Please come to our website, rivres.com, or give us a call at (778) 327-6671.

Maurice Jackson: And as a reminder, Riverside Resources trades on the TSX.V: RRI, and on the OTCQB: RVSDF. Riverside Resources is a sponsor of Proven and Probable, and we're proud shareholders of Riverside Resources for the virtues conveyed in today's message. And last but not least, please visit provenandprobable.com, where we provide mining insights and bullion sales. You may reach us at contact@provenandprobable.com.

Dr. John-Mark Staude of Riverside Resources, thank you for joining us today on Proven and Probable.

Maurice Jackson is the founder of Proven and Probable, a site that aims to enrich its subscribers through education in precious metals and junior mining companies that will enrich the world.

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5) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the interview or the decision to write an article until three business days after the publication of the interview or article. The foregoing prohibition does not apply to articles that in substance only restate previously published company releases. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own shares of Riverside Resources, a company mentioned in this article.

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Legalize marijuana already: Now that recreational marijuana legalization in Illinois is imminent and is no longer a just distant possibility, skittish politicians are suddenly saying we need to slow down and discuss it some more. Thats just a stalling tactic. Theres nothing that needs to be said that hasnt been said a thousand times before. I thought we were past this nonsense. We need to contact our state senators and state representatives, and tell them to stop this pussyfooting around.
The operator of the country's only care and rehabilitation centre for those with acquired brain injuries believes attempts are being made by adjoining landowners to obstruct a much-needed extension to the facility through a right-of-way claim, the Commercial Court has heard.

Costern Unlimited Company owns St Doolagh's Park nursing home in Balgriffin, near Malahide in north Dublin.

It currently operates a 72-bed facility and applied for planning permission to double that capacity at a cost of 5.5m.

However, a company called Balgriffin Developments lodged an objection claiming Costern is not entitled to use a right-of-way over the land where the extension will go and which Balgriffin says it is the owner of.

Costern managing director, Keith Robinson, said in an affidavit that Balgriffin Developments is controlled by Patrick and Robert McGuigan and that its (Balgiffin's) interest in the land was acquired from another company also controlled by the McGuigans. That second company is called Woodlawn Building Services which also has a nursing home in the area.

Mr Robinson said Costern had an agreement with Woodlawn that neither company would object to each other's planning applications.

However, he said, Costern was not aware at the time it made this agreement with Woodlawn that it (Woodlawn) had transferred ownership of certain lands to Balgriffin Developments.

It was now clear this ownership transfer was done with a view to allowing Woodlawn "escape its obligations" under the Costern/Woodlawn non-objection agreement, Mr Robinson said.

Balgriffin is being used as a vehicle to breach and undermine that agreement "in the belief it can rely on a separate legal personality to escape sanction," he said.

Despite requests to Balgriffin to withdraw its objection to the planning application, it declined to do so, he said.

Today, Mr Justice Robert Haughton agreed to Costern's application to have the case against Balgriffin and Woodlawn dealt with in the fast-track Commercial Court.

Hugh O'Keeffe SC, for Costern, said there had been a development in the last week with a refusal of the application for permission for the 72-bed extension. However, the planning authority indicated a 32-bed extension would be acceptable.

Counsel said despite this there was still an urgency to the matter being dealt with in the commercial list.

Damien Keaney BL, for the defendants, said while his clients were not strongly objecting to the case being admitted, there was an issue about whether it was necessary to have the matter dealt with at the "breakneck speed" with which the Commercial Court deals with cases. Costern will have to submit a new planning application, a process which is likely to take some time.

Mr Justice Haughton said while the court's procedures are speedy, they were not quite breakneck and it would at least be autumn before the case would be heard. He was prepared to admit it to the commercial list.
More than 11% of residential accommodation sold in Dublin last year was acquired by corporate investors, who spent more than 1bn on such property, according to estate agent Savills Ireland.

The company said corporate investors block-purchased 2,923 residential units in the capital in 2018, representing a fivefold increase on 2017 levels.

In total, more than 1.1bn was spent by such investors on Dublin-based residential units last year, compared to 113m in 2017.

Savills said market conditions are keeping investor appetite in the Dublin residential homes market at very strong levels.

Rising house prices and tight mortgage lending have driven a big shift from owner-occupation to private renting, said John McCartney, director of research at Savills Ireland.

The number of households renting in Dublin rose by 10.8% last year, and nearly 27% of all households are now in the private rented sector. This has led to strong rents and negligible vacancy - factors which are, obviously, attractive to investors, he said.

Savills also said that while new residential supply is coming on-stream, the housing market is likely to remain under-supplied until at least 2022.

This, it said, should ensure continued investor appetite for well-located residential investments.

Savills Irelands director of investments Fergus OFarrell said the increased activity of institutional investors in the Dublin market has been beneficial as it is helping to accelerate the much-needed supply of accommodation.

The latest edition of Ulster Banks monthly construction index shows that while building activity  led by housing and commercial projects  continued to grow in March, the month showed a notable slowdown in growth.

Ulster Bank chief economist Simon Barry said this was largely due to the month being compared to February when a very rapid rate of growth was recorded. Mr Barry noted that job growth in the building sector equalled a nine-month high in March.

However, company sentiment wobbled, with Brexit uncertainties weighing on construction outlook.
Jakeline Romero remembers how, as a small child, she sensed the excitement of people in her community that a mining company was coming to the area.

For the small farmers of La Guajira in remote northern Colombia, just getting by was hard work. The land was good but the infrastructure was poor, public services scarce, incomes low and luxuries non-existent. It was hoped the company would create new jobs and opportunities that would help lift living standards generally.

But the Cerrejon coal mine didn't supplement their income - it supplanted their whole way of life.

Jakeline's uncle, Venancio, was one of the first to see what was happening. "He took work in the mine when it was setting up," says Jakeline.

I was just a child of six or seven but I remember him saying, and excuse my language, but he had a job cleaning the bathrooms and he said - 'this land belongs to us so why am I cleaning the gringo's shit?'

It was a cruel awakening for him - the realisation that the fertile land that fed the people was being swapped for coal and toilet blocks.

Venancio began to speak out and question whether any more land should be signed over to the mine. And then he disappeared.

His family do not accuse the company of involvement in his disappearance - any one of a number of groups or individuals may have decided he was a troublemaker who needed to be silenced.

But his niece is in Ireland to talk about how 34 years of the Cerrejon mine has utterly changed the lives of the people of La Guajira and in particular her own people, the Wayuu, the largest indigenous group in the region, and to appeal for help in closing it.

Invited by the Latin America Solidarity Centre as part of the groups annual Latin America Week, her story has relevance for any country that is slow to wean itself off fossil fuels - but there is a particular link to Ireland.

The coal from the Cerrejon mine, one of the largest in the world at 690 square kilometres, is distributed solely through a company based in Dublin, CMC Coal Marketing, which had revenues of 2.4 billion in 2017.

One of its customers for many years has been the ESB which has bought millions of tonnes of coal for burning in the Moneypoint Power Plant.

Thats despite the pleas of human rights and environmental campaigners who have long highlighted concerns about human rights abuses, environmental degradation and the health effects of the mine.

Cerrejon denies their claims and can produce copious reports to show that it is in compliance with all laws and standards. The ESB says it is also satisfied with standards there.

In response to recent queries by this newspaper, Cerrejon stated that La Guajira was arid semi-desert" and that limitations in access to public services, education, health care and difficulties in governance are reflected in the high poverty rates. It said agriculture made up just 5% of the economy.

The implication is that Cerrejon is the only source of productivity and prosperity in the region. Jakeline smiles and grimaces simultaneously at the companys assessment of her homeland. La Guajira was 60% agriculture before the mine - the mine reduced it to 5%," she says through an interpreter.

"And if the region is getting riches and tax revenues from the mine, why is it still the second poorest region in Colombia in terms of access to public services?

She says life in La Guajira 30 years ago was completely different:

Being able to be on our own land, being able to produce our own food, having access to our own water - this is how it was.

The people blame the mine for the disappearance of almost 30 water sources, all tributaries of the Rancheria River, and for the pollution of others.

Under the expansion plans, the mine also wants to dam the Palomino River. They are not doing that to provide better water access for the people.

Lack of water is one of the reasons she says landowners were persuaded to sell their land. Some also lacked negotiation skills and entered deals they did not fully understand. Others, she says, were intimidated into it.

Those were just the individuals - entire communities have been moved to make way for the expansion of the mine and while Cerrejon says resettlement is always a measure of last resort, Jakeline says it normal practice for the mine. Once the land is given to the mine, there is no going back.

"There are new rules and laws on land use in La Guajira. The land is officially designated by the government as a mining region so the local policies and laws prohibit owners from selling land for agriculture and the government cant invest in agriculture in the region."

Those who object can expect intimidation. Mining areas are heavily militarised and paramilitaries are also allowed operate with little restriction:

We dont know who took my uncle, if it was military or paramilitary. It was terrible because, for the Wayuu, the rituals around death are very important but we never found him.

Venancio is just one of many community leaders to be killed or disappeared in Colombia. In the last three years alone, 400 activists have been murdered.

Jakeline is acutely aware of the dangers. As spokeswoman for Fuerza de Mujeres Mayuu, the Wayuu Womens Force, she has received numerous threats and she wishes it was only she who received them: When women speak out, the threats are different. They will not come and shoot me in the head like they might do to a man. They make threats through your children.

Jakeline has been told that her two daughters, now aged 20 and 16, are at risk from her activities. They even told me they will disappear my mother, she says.

She chose to gather women in particular to the cause because she says their maternal instinct is to protect: Mother earth is like the one who gave birth to all of us."

She feels strongly the need to protect mother earth from the "violence" of environmental degradation.

She also feels that women have struggled to have their voices heard in male-dominated governments, local authorities and security forces and that their struggle mirrors that of mother earth.

Jakeline's family and friends are understandably nervous for her. People tell me I should not go out of the house, she says.

"But also my family inspires me and keeps me going. They tell me that I am not alone and now that we're in this struggle we must continue. The way I see it, if I'm silent, they've done the damage to me, they have won."

Jakeline is giving a public talk in University College Cork tomorrow (Tues, April 9) from 6.30-8pm in the O'Rahilly Building, Room G27. Full details of Latin America Week are on www.lasc.ie
Members of a band which was originally formed to compete in a primary school talent competition, have just signed a deal with a UK record company.

Fusion guitarist Jake Ellis, 19, from Clonakilty and lead vocalist Micheal Collins, 16, who is still in 5th year at Maria Immaculata Community College in the nearby town of Dunmanway, have signed the EP deal with MHM Records Ltd and are now on schedule to launch their first single:

We have recorded five songs and the first is to be released in early May, said Jake, recalling that it all began when he and Micheal recorded a single together last September.

In November, the duo submitted the single to MHM for consideration and, a month later, were messaged by a talent scout from the A&R division of MHM Records.

They picked up on the song, and the contract came from there, said Jake.

The band was formed several years ago for their primary schools talent competition, Scoilavision, by Jake, classmate Jack Archibald, and a number of other pupils, all of whom were in sixth class at Scoil na mBuachailli in Clonakilty.

We had a number of conversations with the A&R man over Skype and then the decision was made to fly us to London, said Jake.

In late February, the pair flew to London to record a number of songs with MHM.

Were very excited about this because it means that our music will be strongly promoted across social media, and our profile as a band will be really heightened, said Jake.

We hope to tour the band after the release. The single will help us take things to the next level. Wed really like to tour in Ireland and the UK, and further abroad if everything goes to plan.

And, while nothing has been confirmed as yet, music fans can look forward to seeing Fusion perform at some of the Irish music festivals this summer.

Our band has been going since 6th class in primary school, said Jake.

Everything started with the Scoilavision contest at Scoil na mBuachailli.

Over the years, different people had played with Fusion as the band changed and developed. Current lead vocalist Micheal Collins has played with Fusion for the past two years.

After a while, the band whittled down to myself and Micheal Collins, with Jack Archibald joining us for live gigs, said Jake.

Wed like to pay tribute to Scoil na mBuachailli which encouraged us strongly to perform from a young age.
The Government has been called on to put together a proper bid for Ireland to host the new European Labour Authority (ELA), with Cork flagged as a viable location.

The proposed EU agency will have a 50m budget with over 140 staff but no location has been decided yet.

Labours Ireland South candidate and ICTU president Sheila Nunan told the Irish Examiner: Now would be a great opportunity for Ireland to put together a serious bid for the ELA, and I think Cork would be the ideal location.

The Government tried last year to attract two other major agencies that were moving from London because of Brexit. In the end, Amsterdam was chosen as a location for the European Medicines Agency while Dublin lost out to Paris on a bid to host the European Banking Authority.

Ms Nunan wants the same type of Government-backed bidding campaign for the new labour agency and for Cork to be considered as the location.

The new agency will facilitate access for individuals and employers to information on their rights and obligations. It will support co-operation between EU countries in cross-border enforcement and disputes.

Ms Nunan said: The Government recently spent millions on two failed campaigns to attract the European Banking Authority and European Medicines Agency that are being moved from London following the decision of the UK to leave the EU.

She added: If we could attract the ELA to our southern city it would also showcase the commitment of the Government to balanced regional development, and in particular boost business for Cork Airport.

It is understood only Cyprus and Slovakia have declared intentions so far to bid for the agency.

A spokesman for Employment Minister Regina Doherty said there is no plan to bid for the agency. Furthermore, one of the selection criteria is that preference be given to countries that joined the EU in 2004, he said, and Ireland already has Eurofound, an EU agency that oversees working standards in the union.

Meanwhile, efforts to resolve the Brexit deadlock will continue today ahead of a deadline later this week which could see Britain crash out of the EU.

EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier will meet Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in Dublin where British prime minister Theresa Mays latest request to extend the deadline until June 30 will be discussed. The visit is viewed as a show of solidarity with the a no-deal looming, ahead of an EU summit this week and with growing pressure on Dublin to compromise.

Mr Varadkars spokesman reiterated last night that he is open to a Brexit extension as long as it comes with a plan. The withdrawal agreement would not be renegotiated and any talks [with Britain] must focus on the future relationship [with the EU], he added.
Doctors involved in vital clinical research have warned that the Department of Healths interpretation of the new European data protection rules could force them out of research because of a requirement to obtain explicit consent before processing a patients data.

A review of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the departments interpretation of it - the Health Research Regulations (HRR) 2018  says the explicit consent requirement will be problematic for most (if not all) ongoing research when the re-consenting of patients is required.

Explicit consent means the patient must give an express statement of consent.

The participant may not be alive, or, if alive, may wish to put behind the difficulties of a previous illness, according to the authors of the review published in the Journal of Irish Medical Science. In this context, re-consenting... could be upsetting and stressful to both living participants and their relatives.

Further difficulties are posed by the time and resources needed to obtain re-consent, the review says.

Prior to GDPR and HRR, the main aim for researchers was to strike an appropriate balance between the patients right to personal data privacy and the desirability of making data available for research, the review says.

Gerry McElvaney, president of the academy and co-author of the review, said at the very least the regulations as applied in Ireland, will place a significant extra burden of work on Irelands clinical researchers.

And at their worst, they will force individuals and institutions out of the clinical research field, which will result in significant loss of the Irish knowledge economy and lead to the detriment of patient care, said Prof MvElvaney.

Concerns are also raised in relation to retrospective patient chart reviews for research purposes. Anyone processing patient data in this respect must have some sort of mechanism in place by May 1 that addresses explicit consent. The review says there is no guidance as to how this can be done.

Reconsenting is a major issue when drawing on biobanks for research purposes, the review says.

Not using the millions of valuable and carefully documented tissues archived in Irish pathology departments and in the many designated biobanks for research, poses the most serious threat to health research progression, say the authors.

Explicit consent will be particularly problematic for research involving patients who lack the capacity to consent.

This is an area of great concern, particularly in the fields of emergency medicine and in the treatment of those with intellectual disability, the review warns. There is significant danger that these individuals will be denied access to life-saving treatment in the event of too draconian an application of the HRR.

According to the review, entitled GDPR: an impediment to research, Ireland is the only country of the 28 EU member states to insist health researchers obtain explicit consent.

The review recommends that chart reviews for medical research be permitted for those involved in the care of the patients under review and that broad consent rather than explicit consent be sought for biobanking of tissues.

- The Academy is hosting a public meeting at 6.30pm this evening at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Stephens Green, to discuss the review.
A High Court challenge has been brought over a decision by a three-person committee set up by the Department of Education to uphold the expulsion of a secondary school student for bringing a knife to school.

In proceedings brought through his mother, the boy claims the decision is flawed on grounds including that a member of the committee was a past pupil of the school from which he was expelled. The parties cannot be identified for legal reasons.

The second-year student was expelled from the secondary school he attended, located in the south of the country late last year.

The teen appealed that decision to the Department of Education which appointed a three-person committee under Section 29 of the 1998 Education Act ,known as a Section 29 Committee to consider the appeal. The committee upheld the school board's decision.

At the High Court on Monday Derek Shortall Bl for the teen said his client had been expelled over what was "a very serious matter."

Counsel said that his client's mother attended the appeal and was assisted by an independent advocate. Counsel said it is their case the teen was not afforded fair procedures at the hearing by the committee.

The advocate was ruled out of order at the hearing by the committee member when the advocate attempted to raise questions about that member.

Counsel said there was a "community of interest" between one of the committee members and the school. The committee member was a past pupil of the school, counsel said.

The advocate says that during the hearing, the committee member treated both the teen's mother and the advocate himself with total disrespect, was argumentative, disparaging, disrespectful, offensive and was wholly disinterested in submissions concerning fair procedures.

The advocate also said he was accused by the committee member during the hearing of failing to have the students interests in mind, of having delayed matters, and was accused of making false statements.

The advocate further claims that at the hearing the committee member also allowed the school to present its case before the teen's mother was finished hers.

That particular member should never have been part of the committee and should have voluntarily stood down before the hearing commenced in January, counsel said.

In his action against the Secretary General of the Department of Education and Science, and the three-person committee, the teen seeks an order from the High Court quashing the decision to disallow his appeal.

He also seeks various declarations including that there was reasonable apprehension and suspicion of perceived bias in respect of the committee as one of its members was a past pupil of the school, and that the member should have stood down when asked to do so by the pupil's advocate.

He further seeks to have his appeal against his expulsion remitted back to the Department for a fresh reconsideration.

The teen's secondary school is a notice party to the proceedings. Permission to bring the challenge was granted, on an ex parte basis, by Mr Justice Seamus Noonan on Monday.

The Judge made the matter returnable to a date later this month.
Irish Water has appealed to farmers, ahead of the spraying season, after finding pesticides breaching EU levels in several public water supplies.

While there is no threat to public health from the exceedances, the utility said its important that farmers follow best practice in the handling, storage, and spraying of pesticides, so as to protect public drinking water sources and prevent breaches of the drinking water regulations.

Irish Water said exceedances in pesticides in public water supplies (PWS) are on the increase across Donegal, Cavan, Galway, Mayo, and Monaghan.

MCPA, which is used to kill rushes on wetland, is one of the most commonly found. It usually ends up in drinking water as a result of careless storage, handling, or improper application.

Cypermethrin, glyphosate, and fluroxypyr have also been found at levels above EU limits.

In Cork, Irish Water has found traces of MCPA above EU levels in the Glanmire, Glengarriff, and Macroom PWS, and an exceedance of the weedkiller 2,4-D in the Glanmire public water supply.

The regulations are so stringent that a single drop of pesticide is enough to breach the drinking water limit in a small stream for up to 30km.

Irish Waters regional drinking water compliance specialist, Deirdre OLoughlin, said 82% of the countrys drinking water supplies come from surface water sources (water from rivers, lakes, and streams).

Such supplies are vulnerable to contamination from land and animal run-off.

She said Irish Water said it is working with the National Pesticide and Drinking Water Action Group, chaired by the Department of Agriculture, to encourage farmers, and other users of pesticides, to follow best practice during spraying season.

Dr Aidan Moody, chair of the NPDWAG, said such a partnership approach is needed to reduce the risk posed by pesticides.

Users of pesticides should make sure that they are aware of the best practice measures that should be followed to protect water quality, he said.

Irish Water has produced an online video to help farmers reduce pesticide risks, including knowing how much pesticide to buy and use, how to store it safely, how to observe buffer zones, and advising them not to spray if rain or strong wind are forecast within 48 hours.

Advice is also available on the Teagasc website.
Gardai in Ballymun have renewed their appeal to the public to help trace the whereabouts of missing man Jon Jonsson.

The 41-year-old Icelandic man was last seen in Whitehall, Dublin, at approximately 11am on Saturday, February 9.
Irish farmers will be eligible to a suite of aid measures and other financial support in the case of a no-deal Brexit, EU Commissioner Phil Hogan has announced.

Speaking in Brussels, Mr Hogan said farmers in Ireland and other EU countries will be eligible for a mix of some or all of public intervention, private storage aid, withdrawal schemes and targeted aid will form the package of support.

Most significantly, Mr Hogan said the Commission is looking at state aid rules, in which case it will be for the Member States to provide support.

Just recently, the Commission adopted a new Regulation which has provided for an increase of 66% in the level of de minimis support that can be granted in the agricultural sector through state aid, he said.

Irish farmers are likely to be among those most negatively affected by a no-deal Brexit, which is currently due to happen on Friday, but Mr Hogan said there is still time for common sense to prevail.

This scenario may yet be averted, bearing in mind the shared commitment to protect the Good Friday Agreement and avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland, he said.

Speaking as the EU's chief Brexit negotiator arrived in Dublin and British Prime Minister Theresa May was in Berlin to meet Angela Merkel ahead of a meeting with Emmanuel Macron in Paris, Mr Hogan said a no-deal scenario would have significant disruption to certain agricultural markets.

We have to come to the conclusion that the European Commission has a legal obligation to intervene and we will. Early intervention has the benefit of providing not alone support to our farmers, but gives confidence to the market of the Commission's commitment to the agri-food sector and avoids the development of a potentially much bigger crisis in the longer-term, he said.

He warned that Britain in a no-deal scenario is prepared to slap relatively high tariffs on a number of animal products, such as beef, poultry, pigmeat and cheese as well as such products as sugar and rice.

It is clear that a number of Member States will bear the brunt of these proposed tariffs, because of their exposure already to the UK market for those products, he added.
While seated on the pews in the wood-panelled interior of Bandon Courthouse a few days ago, redemption arrived. Brian Hogan was back at the wheel.

The 39-year-old was cleared to receive a public service vehicle (PSV) licence, after successfully appealing against an earlier decision, by Chief Supt Con Cadogan, to refuse his application under the Taxi Regulation Act  specifically, that he was a right and proper person.

To win, Mr Hogan had to take to the stand to explain exactly where his life had been, and how it had now taken him from sledgehammers through doors and the pounding monotony of addiction to a new existence as a family man seeking to serve the community.

But, first, the background.

Chief Supt Cadogan told Judge James McNulty that he had received Mr Hogans application on January 8, explaining how the powers to grant the licence have been devolved to officers of his rank, under the Taxi Regulation Act.

He told the judge that section 10 of the act sets out the various conditions that must be met, including the applicants suitability to be granted a licence and any previous convictions that may be of relevance.

I gave it serious consideration, the chief supt said. He refused the application and returned it on March 20.

Brian Hogan had not hidden any previous convictions. Written down on the form was a conviction from November 6, 2009, at Ennis District Court  aggravated burglary  for which he had received a two-year suspended sentence. A year earlier, he had been convicted for unlawful possession of drugs, at Ennistymon District Court. A decade before that, he had received the Probation Act, for intoxication and threatening and abusive behaviour in Ennis.

Mr Hogan admitted to all, but said in relation to the burglary, there were mitigating circumstances, and he replied no to the question of having any addictions and admitted he attended counselling.

Chief Supt Cadogan had trawled the records in relation to the aggravated burglary. At 2am on August 8, 2009, Hogan and two others entered an apartment block in Ennis, allegedly seeking a male who had earlier robbed two elderly people, with a view to retrieving those items.

They went to the wrong apartment and the sledgehammer was used to put in the door, Chief Supt Cadogan said. Finding the right apartment, the man they were seeking was not there. The court heard the apartment in question was frequented by drug addicts and Judge McNulty noted that, given a conviction a year earlier, Mr Hogan was not in a position to be chastising others.

Brian Hogan took the stand and said he had had a serious drink-and-drug problem from the age of 14 through to when he hit 30. The apartment-block incident, he said, was to retrieve what had been stolen from people he knew, an elderly couple who had been tied up by someone he also knew. My motives were right, my actions were wrong, he said.

Not long after all this, Brian Hogan sought help. First, he went to the Rutland Centre, in Dublin, and then, after a few months, he moved to Fellowship House, in Cork, part of the Tabor Group. When I went in there, my life turned around, he told the judge.

That is possibly an understatement. His last drink was St Patricks Day, 2010. So successful was his stint at Fellowship House, and then, afterwards, at Sober House, that, in an unusual move, they gave him a job as a groundsman. He stayed there for four-and-a-half years.

Now married with children, he said he cant work on building sites any more and so set about acquiring a taxi licence. He has a job sorted since before last Christmas. He regularly attends his AA meetings and spent 1,000 on getting the licence. I turned my life around, he said. All I am waiting on is the clearance.

Sgt Paul Kelly queried why he had written no to the question about persistent misuse of alcohol or any drug dependency.

Mr Hogan said: That was my life 10 years ago. When I signed that thing, I dont class myself as an alcoholic or a drug addict anymore. He said he had a problem, but not an ongoing addiction.

As for the sledgehammer incident, he admitted, at the time, to trying to take the law into his own hands, something he regretted in hindsight.

I was in a totally different frame of mind, he said. Hed also drunk a bottle of whiskey that day. There was no intention to rob anyone, he said, but to have what was robbed returned.

The judge asked Mr Hogan his views on An Garda Siochana and the work they do now. He reassured the judge: They have a job to do and I respect that. Could the gardai count on him going forward? the judge asked. If I can help, I will help, he replied.

Then, Audrey Cullen, an addiction counsellor, previously with Fellowship House and now in private practice, took the stand.

She said that by the time she met Brian, on March 23, 2010, he was already showing huge progress and, in fairness to him, he has never turned back.

He was consistently determined to be in recovery.

He got an extended stay at Sober House, adding that he was an asset on our own team.

It was fairly unprecedented  normally, we wouldnt lean at all on clients  and not everyone who enters Fellowship House progresses to Sober House. His extended stay became a job and he is still in very regular contact with the staff there, which Ms Cullen said was fairly unusual.

He is so reliable, so dependable, she told the court, adding that entry to Sober House meant having to be sober of body and sober of mind.

He has been that for the past nine years, she said. He comes back to gratitude meetings religiously, every month.

Addiction is not curable, but it is arrestable, she said.

As for his negative response to questions about drink-and-drug dependency, she said: When you are in recovery, you are not an active addict any more.

It was left to Judge McNulty to effectively rule on whether or not Brian Hogan had more road left in him.

He commended the work of the chief supt and said he understood entirely the objections that had been raised.

He is doing what society would expect him to do, the judge said of the senior garda.

That professional decision was made in good faith, he continued, but, in every civilised society, there is the right to appeal and Brian Hogan had availed of it.

Those previous convictions were 10 years ago and more. The court must acknowledge all that has been said by Brian Hogan and on his behalf, Judge McNulty said.

The conclusion of the court is that this man has made a commendable and sustained recovery from serious addiction that affected him as a teenager and a young man.

Among those watching this unfold was a young man earlier convicted of offences, including possession of cocaine, and about whom a report had been provided to court, outlining concerns that he may be prone to developing a drug dependency.

His father was seated beside him, everything sinking in that there might be another way.

Outside, later on, the solicitor common to both cases said, Im glad he was there to hear that.

As for Brian Hogan, Judge McNulty said: He has a history not only of recovery, but a history, after recovery, of giving back and coming back, giving back to others in addiction and coming back with an attitude of gratitude for recovery.

This is a day for celebrating his rehabilitation, his recovery, and his redemption. The court will be allowing his appeal.

And with that, Brian Hogan, no longer of Ennis, Co Clare, but now with an address in Kinsale, Co Cork, was finally back on the right road.
A man who regularly sexually abused his step-daughter in the family home while her mother was working has been jailed for 12 years.

The Central Criminal Court heard the 42-year-old man, a foreign national who admitted defilement of the child, initially thought the crime was OK under Irish law but now accepts it is not.

He was later convicted by a jury, after a trial, of charges of raping his step-daughter. His lawyer told the court he does not accept those verdicts.

In her victim impact statement, the girl said the family were experiencing financial and other implications from the man no longer being in the home. She said she sometimes felt these were her fault.

She said she now suffers self-esteem, worry and stress issues. She was unable to sleep and her school work suffered.

She said she had broken down when she heard the verdict. I sometimes feel as if I am at the bottom of the ocean, she said, with no light at all. She does not want to see the man again, the court heard.

Last January, the man pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to three counts of defilement of a child under the age of seventeen years old on dates between March and June 2017.

He had pleaded not guilty to one count of oral rape, 12 counts of rape and three counts of defilement of the same girl on dates between 2011 and 2017. He also denied a further count of sexual exploitation of the girl in July 2017.

The jury convicted him of all these charges in January. The victim was aged between 11 and almost 16 years old at the time of the offences.

Mr Justice Michael White said the offences had been a serious violation of a child which involved a very serious breach of trust as the man had been in a position of authority. He also noted the length of time the offences continued and the severity of the abuse.

He took into account that the man was an Irish citizen of foreign extraction with very little English and prison would be more difficult as a result. He also noted the man had no previous convictions and had been a good provider.

The judge said he was particularly disturbed by the fact that the intolerable abuse was happening as a matter of rote.

When you think of the nature of the offences, it does not bear thinking about, said Mr Justice White. The judge imposed concurrent sentences totalling 12 years.

A local garda told Vincent Heneghan SC, prosecuting, that the abuse began with oral rape when the victim was 11 years old and the man later began having sex with her on a highly regular basis in the family home while the child's mother was away working.

The sexual abuse continued until June 2017 when she was 15 years old. After making a disclosure to members of her family she made a complaint to gardai in July 2017.

The count of sexual exploitation refers to a phone call between the victim and the man, which was heard on loudspeaker by family members in July 2017. The accused invited the child to have sex with him for 200.

The court heard the man effectively controlled the victim during the time of the offences in a domestic situation where he was in a position of authority.

Damien Colgan SC, defending, said his client accepted what he did was wrong and stands over his guilty pleas in relation to three charges of defilement. He said the man does not accept the jury verdicts on the other counts.

He said the man had no previous convictions, a good work history and had abided by all his bail conditions. He asked the court to take into account that the man would be serving his sentence as a foreign national in an Irish prison.
Transport chiefs have been accused of limiting competition and of protecting local hackney drivers after a refusal to grant extra licences for proposed new rural taxi services.

Junior Health Minister Jim Daly has made a complaint about the National Transport Authority (NTA) and its rules on the new rural taxi services to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC).

In a letter to the consumer watchdog, obtained by the Irish Examiner, Mr Daly criticised the NTAs refusal to grant extra licences for his proposed service  dubbed Ruxi  to get people to pubs, hospitals and church among other places. It stems from the NTAs decision to protect existing hackney operators, he argued.

The minister, frustrated by the decision, has raised competition law concerns and said he cannot understand why a state agency, whose role is to enable public passenger services, would refuse licences on the sole basis of protecting existing operators in areas.

The NTA position, it appears, has put the brakes on his Ruxi plans in parts of the country.

In a letter written to CCPC chairperson Isolde Goggin on February 12, Mr Daly said: This proposal is not designed just to meet current needs to pubs, restaurants, etc, but also to bring about a culture change which allows people to know that if, at any given time, they wish to go somewhere, be it a hospital, church, shop or pub, they can get there and back without wondering if the local hackney operator is on duty at all or even has their phone turned on.

Under Mr Dalys plans, the Uber-style taxi system would help combat social isolation.

The idea in part came after a crackdown on drink driving sparked a backlash in rural Ireland.

In other countries, an Uber app allows drivers to use their private cars to carry paying passengers.

But, despite sending his plans to the NTA for rural drivers here to do the same thing, Mr Daly has seen his project stalled.

In his letter to the consumer watchdog, he added: I am struggling to understand why consideration of existing private operators in an area, are influencing the decision making process by the NTA to issue additional local area hackney licences, as they are applied for by private individuals.

As I understand competition law, it is expressly prohibited to limit or control production or markets as appears to be the case in this instance.

Mr Daly said he had reservations around a state agency refusing extra driving licences just to preserve the rates of existing operators.

He also told the CCPC: If we are successful with the introduction of a new service (by pilot initially), this success will be solely dependent on the availability of a large quantity of vehicles operating in local areas.
Quickie divorces will not become the norm in Ireland if voters remove the waiting period for separating couples from the Constitution, the Governments referendum campaign director has said.

Culture Minister Josepha Madigan insists that TDs, current and future, will instead handle divorce rules responsibly and that Ireland will not see separation rates shoot up to levels seen in Russia.

Writing in the Irish Examiner today, Ms Madigan appeals to voters to back her and the Governments proposal to reduce from four to two years the time couples must live apart before they can divorce.

She writes: 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 where a couple have 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.

The current four-year wait exacts an enormous toll on people who cannot move on with their lives, adds Ms Madigan.

Her remarks comes after claims by opponents of the referendum, including the Iona Institute, a conservative Catholic think-tank, that the constitutional change would indeed in future allow quick divorces here.

Iona director David Quinn previously told Today FM that he had no issue with the proposed four-year to two-year change, but opposed removing terms from the Constitution to allow TDs instead to decide.

He said: If it is left up to the Oireactas to decide, it will be two years initially but it will only go in one direction and that will be to make it quicker and quicker to get divorced.

However, Ms Madigan also rejects the claim that marriage will be easy to leave under proposed changes.

Opponents also claim getting out of a marriage should not be made quick and easy, she said. 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.

She says a two-year wait is enough to allow couples time to obtain legal advice on property, pensions access and maintenance.

The vote on reducing the divorce waiting period and taking the decision on this out of the Constitution will be held in just under seven weeks, coinciding with the local and European elections. It is over two decades since divorce was legalised in Ireland, after voters only just supported it in 1995.

However, recent opinion polls suggest up to four in five voters want divorce waiting times reduced or done away with completely.

Ms Madigan, who initiated the vote plans, points out that divorce rates in Ireland are on a par with those in Europe. They are nothing like levels in Russia which leads the way for quickie divorces, she says.

The minister, a family law solicitor, has been appointed campaign director for Fine Gael. She also insists TDs would handle with care any new power to legislate for divorce.

If passed, this Oireachtas will treat this issue with respect and I have no doubt our successors will also deal with it responsibly going forward, she said. This is a moderate proposal, not radical as some suggest.
Homeowners in a west Dublin apartment complex expressed frustration yesterday that, nearly two years after major fire safety defects were discovered, they have not been told how much they will have to pay to make their homes safe.

Defects were discovered throughout Verdemont, Blanchardstown, following a fire in May 2017, after which more than 100 residents had to move out of their homes.

The 274 homeowners in the apartment and duplex complex were told initially that the estimated cost for remedial work would be around 50,000 each.

Yesterday, a meeting of owners and residents was told that this had been revised, but there has been no information on actual costs.

The 2017 fire was the second to occur in the complex. In 2002, a young couple, Mick Farrell and Louise Wall, died in a fire in their apartment. The complex had been completed the previous year by McInerney Construction.

Following a Garda investigation, the local superintendent recommended a prosecution against the builder, but the DPP declined to prosecute.

The following year, the Dublin City coroner wrote to Final County Council expressing fire safety concerns that had emerged at the inquest into the deaths. No follow-up investigation was conducted on foot of those concerns.

Two sisters of Ms Wall were at yesterdays meeting.

Two people lost their lives, we dont want anybody else to be lost, Lisa Wall told the meeting.

We lost two people dear to us and went everywhere to investigate what happened but doors were shut in our faces. Thank God there wasnt a life lost the last time [in 2017] but something has to be done about it.
Precious bumblebees have been on the wing since January, perhaps courtesy of climate change. Only females survive the winter.

Awakening from hibernation, each must find a place to nest and to lay eggs that will hatch into infertile workers. These will help her build a colony. But how does she house-hunt? Do bumblebees set up home locally or head for pastures new?

At Queen Mary University London, James Makinson and his colleagues fitted tiny radar antennas to the backs of captive bumblebees. When the bees emerged from their winter sleep, they were released to the wild at a research site in Hertfordshire.

Birds and mammals have a gold-rush mentality; a first come, first served approach. It was thought that bumblebees did likewise, opportunistically grabbing the best seats, the weaker ones losing out. But, the Queen Mary research shows otherwise.

The experimental bumbles, newly emerged from hibernation, spent most of their time hiding in vegetation on the ground. Two or three times an hour, they made furtive flights of ten to twenty seconds duration, before going to ground again.

Although they have internal compasses that allow them to fly in straight lines, the bees did not travel in a particular direction, nor did they return to their natal sites. Short flights, made over several weeks, would eventually carry them several kilometres from their origins.

Could artificial rearing, and carrying antennas on their backs, explain this odd behaviour? No, the researchers say. Tracking wild bumbles showed that they behave in the same way as the domesticated ones. So, why do bees do this?

After the long winter sleep, bees need rest and recreation to regain their strength and develop their ovaries. There are advantages, also, to locating colonies well away from the natal ones; young queens can distribute themselves more evenly throughout the countryside. Creatures which disperse, like the Portuguese navigators of old, discover new areas to exploit and avoid competition for dwindling resources at home.

Establishing colonies in virgin territory might offer pioneers better breeding prospects. Genetic analyses show that bee colonies can be established far from a queens origins. Bumblebees imported to Chile moved up to 200km in a year.

Going elsewhere also helps avoid consanguinity; a wanderer is less likely to mate with a close relative. Young male mammals avoid incest by moving away from where they were born, while their sisters tend to remain closer to home. Birds adopt a similar strategy, although the roles are usually reversed: females disperse, while their brothers stick around.

Male swallows return to the same barn year after year; their sisters and daughters set up home some distance away. A queen bee will have been fertilised prior to hibernation, but dispersal fosters genetic diversity among her later descendants. Our bees are in trouble and need help.

These findings, the researchers claim, suggest practices that may be valuable for conservation efforts ... friendly corridors between conserved landscape catches could be beneficial. It may also be helpful to leave vegetation, such as leaf litter and long grass, undisturbed until late in the spring, giving queen bumblebees safe places to rest.

James Makinson, et al. Harmonic radar tracking reveals random dispersal pattern of bumblebee queens after hibernation. Scientific Reports. 2019.
It's lovely to hear of someone from home doing well, and, of late, television programmes have been devoted to ex-pats whove hit the big time in New York real estate, successes in Hollywood, and those working for the rich and famous, but we rarely hear of the more low-key and often unexpected successes which the Irish have abroad.

One is luxury upholsterer Aiveen Daly from Cork, who, after studying Russian and business at Trinity College moved to London in the time-honoured fashion.

After several years in the corporate world in marketing, she developed what is now one of the most sought-after luxury upholstery studios in the business.

My degree took me into a sensible job working in marketing for a magazine publisher, but I wanted something creative, she explains.

Prompted by a lifelong love of textiles and sewing, she enrolled in an upholstery course by night and she instantly fell in love with the craft.

Ditching the day job, she set up a little studio in north-west London upholstering a collection of exquisite chairs she called Stiletto, made to her own designs and often inspired by her

appreciation of fashion and couture.

Its little more than a decade ago since I first visited that studio located above her workshop.

At the time a team of upholsterers beavered diligently with an incredible eye for detail, applying beautiful luxury fabrics onto the frames of Stiletto chairs as Aiveen and I sat down with a cup of tea to chat.

When I started, I saw that upholstery was stuck in terms of design and innovation, she explains, Everything was about the fabric to choose rather than what to do with it, so I started experimenting with different techniques.

Recalling her early days, she tells the story of working to a deadline to complete a white silk Stiletto chair late one New Years Eve which was needed the next day for a photoshoot with Vogue magazine.

In the finishing stages her work was stymied when she pricked her finger with a sewing needle and spilt a tiny speck of blood onto the upholstery.

Aiveen Daly's Mandala ottoman made in luxury tobacco cotton velvet.

It meant ripping off the fabric and starting all over.

But its this attention to detail which has helped garner her studio a reputation for meticulous work, along with her constantly evolving innovation in the use of materials and techniques, and her eye for design.

Everything is done inhouse so quality control is exacting; where tools like surgeons scalpels are employed to get a clean finish on leather, and where, sometimes, they even make their own tools to accomplish the quality of workmanship expected by a discerning clientele.

The workshop has since moved to new and bigger premises nearby, converting the old one into a showroom for clients and commissioning interior designers to view Aiveens upholstery, textile panels and accessories for projects often located in places like Shanghai, Lagos, New York, Rio and Mumbai.

Currently the workshop is busy producing for a French chateau, an eight-roomed penthouse in Mayfair where the commission is for headboards, tie-backs, inserts into joinery and wall panels, plus another for 24 hand-beaded dining chairs to take up residence in a royal palace in Qatar.

Aiveen Daly's Flower headboard is decorated in meticulous detail, elevating it to an artwork.

These are people with multiple homes, Aiveen explains, where everything is bespoke, even down to their photo-frames.

"We have to use the best of fabrics and trimmings as they have the best of everything  art, properties, clothes, cars.

"We buy in detailing for our work from the same companies as Fendi and Chanel  although not the same stuff, but the same quality.

Typically, each chair, headboard or decorative panel takes days and days to make to achieve precision, where pleats, folds and the application of beading and other decorative detailing has to be exact.

For all that, it remains a craft business with just half a dozen skilled employees producing such high-end products.

Ever innovating, Aiveen has now launched a collection of cushions which can be bought on her website.

Like all her work, theyre exquisitely made to the standard of couture, reflecting the luxe materials, craftsmanship and time-consuming techniques applied to her bespoke work.

With conversion from sterling to euro, they start at close to 600.
Jeff Kinneys books have sold 180 million copies, been made into four feature films, and are beloved by children throughout the world, but the author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid never thought for one second that he had written a story for younger readers.

He was sure that his debut novel was aimed at adults and belonged in the humour section of the bookshop.

It was quite a shock when his publisher told him otherwise.

But just two weeks after Diary of a Wimpy Kid was released in 2007, it entered the New York Times bestseller list, where it stayed for a full five years.

Jeff is now one of the worlds most successful writers.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid was voted The Best Childrens Book of the Last Decade, in a Blue Peter poll, beating JK Rowlings Harry Potter to the top spot.

Jeffs combination of simplistic cartoon illustrations and stories of the average life of a 12-year-old is a winning one.

Greg Heffley, the appealing, self-obsessed star of the Wimpy Kid series, is no hero, which may explain why the books are so popular.

I think that the reason the books work is that they act as a sort of mirror for kids, says Jeff.

The situations that Greg is in are mostly relatable.

And those situations are universal, appealing to readers anywhere.

Jeff says the biggest surprise and delight for him over the last five or six years has been meeting children in countries as diverse as Ireland, Brazil, and China who enjoy my books because they see themselves in the characters situations.

Jeff has met his Irish fans several times.

Ireland has been so great to me, he says.

It always ranks up there with the highest per capita readers of Diary. Its always really exciting to go to there because the fans are so enthusiastic about it.

His latest book, Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid, which he describes as his funniest yet, is a new departure for 48-year-old Jeff.

This time the story is told by Rowley Jefferson, Gregs best friend.

For Jeff, writing about the same universe from a different perspective, infusing something new into the familiar, was both exciting and challenging.

He has said that his books wouldnt exist without the upbringing he had or the family that he has.

My family is in there in a sort of mixed-up funhouse kind of way, he says.

I wouldnt say the books are literally true but there are true moments throughout the books.

Jeff was born on an Air Force base in Maryland. His father worked as an analyst for the Pentagon and his mother ran a pre-school.

He has described it as a typical American childhood, and he feels this has helped him in writing about ordinary things.

The Diary of a Wimpy Kid books stay in this world; their stories are very small.

My challenge as a writer is to keep finding aspects of childhood that I havent explored yet.

"In this book, Im writing about home improvements and moving, a family uprooting itself.

"Theres always something that I havent yet explored because childhood is a big universe.

Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid, his 14th book, is only the first of Jeffs stories to be published in 2019.

The next instalment in the Wimpy Kid series will be released later this year.

Just got the first copy of Rowleys Journal. It comes out in a month! pic.twitter.com/Y5m5PnhRiN  Jeff Kinney (@wimpykid) March 10, 2019

Jeff credits his mother for his work ethic.

She showed me that you can do your day job and pursue your dreams at night.

It took Jeff nine years of working evenings and weekends to complete Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

Despite the phenomenal success of the series, he only gave up his day job last April.

He had worked on an educational games website, which featured his cartoon strip.

I was definitely always aiming to get the story published, but what the internet did for me was that it allowed me to release it in daily instalments.

"It basically propelled me to keep writing because I knew I had an audience.

He was also getting valuable feedback. He says that, ironically, although it was released on a childrens site, he was mainly hearing from adults.

At the time he wasnt surprised, as they were his intended audience.

In a sense, I was very naive. Because my father collected comic strips and I read them as an older teen and a young adult, I thought of comics as being for a general audience, and for grown-ups.

The young Jeff loved Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck by US cartoonist Carl Barks.

He wrote these great stories; these epic, globe-trotting stories that made a huge impact on me.

Jeff went to college on a military scholarship and it was there that he began work on a cartoon strip.

He changed direction after his freshman year and began studying computer science.

He had planned to work as a federal agent, but when he left college, there was a hiring freeze.

I always intended to have a career that paid the bills in computer science, he says.

My cartooning was my rock star dream, that was the thing I was going to work on at nights and weekends and hope I could break through.

Although he had yearned to be a newspaper cartoonist, he realised that he didnt have the artistic talent: I had to find a different way to get my cartoons published.

He could write though, and his childlike drawings for Diary of a Wimpy Kid, coupled with his sharp observations of tweenage life meant that even though his intended audience for the changed, his work didnt.

It was ready to go, he says when he first found a publisher. I cant think of a word that I changed.

"Maybe a sentence or two, it really stayed the same in essence.

He says the standout moment of his career was simply getting published in such a strange format.

The first print run for Diary of a Wimpy Kid was 15,000 copies. For Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid it is 3m.

Jeff was amazed when his debut become a New York Times bestseller a mere fortnight after publication.

Its the stamp that every writer wants to get. It was something that I didnt even consider when I wrote the book.

"It debuted at number seven and it eventually got to the number one spot later that year.

Im really excited about this one... there are now Wimpy Kid emojis! Thanks to @baretreemedia for bringing this to life! https://t.co/KmxyqqhW07 pic.twitter.com/MATkX4MeSD  Jeff Kinney (@wimpykid) October 23, 2018

He says getting onto the bestseller list was the most pure expression of joy he and his wife Julie ever had.

He had only just written his third book when Time magazine named him one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2009.

He found this so incredible that he originally thought it was his agent playing a practical joke.

He later said he wasnt even the most influential person in his own house.

That same year, he spoke at the World Economic Forum at Davos, addressing political and business leaders.

That was a wild ride, for sure. I talked about how I wrote my books. Im sure if I looked over that speech, I wouldnt be too impressed.

Since then, he has met then-president Barack Obama in the White House for the Easter Egg roll, spent extended periods of time with former president George HW Bush and had lunch with his son George W Bush.

You dont realise how many times you see a presidents image and how its burned into your psyche, and its really weird to have that persons attention or to be sitting across the table from them.

He also received child-rearing advice from Barbara Bush.

He and Julie have two sons, Will and Grant, who are 16 and 13 respectively.

We really strive to give our kids as normal a life as possible, and I asked her how she kept things normal for her kids, given that her husband was governor at that time.

"She said why would you want to be normal? She was really encouraging me to embrace the extraordinary circumstances of my life.

However, Jeff, who has lived in Plainsville, Massachusetts  the name says it all  for the last 17 years, seems happy to revel in small-town life.

The former cub scout leader says the biggest change his success has brought is that he and Julie have been able to improve their town when they opened a bookstore and cafe called An Unlikely Tale.

Its very much a labour of love for Jeff.

A lot of Massachusetts towns are very depressed; we were able to build this really beautiful three-storey building and invite the worlds best authors here.

"The bookstore is the centre of my professional life, and that never would have been without the success of the books.
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.
The recent splendid spell of weather prompted some readers to inquire if we had yet heard the cuckoo. The answer is no, though this early harbinger of summer should soon be making its presence known.

It arrives in Ireland around now and its distinctive call can be heard until late June. It would not be a surprise, however, if the repetitive cuck-coo sound is already echoing through the Burren, Co Clare, and Connemara, Co Galway, which are among the best places for the cuckoo in terms of numbers.

In many ways, the Burren leads the way when it comes to nature conservation, where a number of state agencies work with 330 farm families to protect habitats, including that of the cuckoo, in a 22,000-hectare area.

Dr Brendan Dunford, who has worked in the Burren Programme (BP) for many years, has described some Burren farmers as pioneers in managing their land for nature through the programme.

Further recognition came recently when Pat and Oliver Nagle were among the winners of Together for Biodiversity Awards run by the Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT).

The BP adopts a farmer-centred approach, supporting farmers to improve their environment. Farmers are rewarded for their performance using a simple, field-based scoring system which reflects the environmental health of each, species-rich field. Payments are based on the score, thereby encouraging farmers to continuously raise performance. For fields with low scores, land-owners can avail of an allowance to improve matters.

Since 2010, the Nagles have dedicated themselves to improving the environmental and agricultural condition of the farm. They have, for instance, removed invasive scrub and restored dilapidated field walls.

They have also walled off springs to protect them from livestock damage and these watering points have become habitats for a range of species such as frogs, newts and water beetles.

Such has been the Nagles performance that their farm is the only one in the entire programme where all their fields now score 10 out of 10; the average score is 7.4.

And the results are there for all to see. The well-grazed, rough grasslands are colourful and species-rich, hosting an array of bees, butterflies and birds. Skylarks and cuckoos abound, as do moths and butterflies.

In summertime, the place is alive with colour and sound. Wild flowers, including a range of orchid species, are abundant.

With nature declining at a startling rate, Kieran Flood, of the IWT, says urgent action is needed at all levels of society. This awards scheme highlighted the actions being carried out right now by community groups, schools, farmers, businesses and individuals.
26,000 migrants here have no papers and they work for much less than the minimum wage, with no access to social welfare or health care. They are filling labour market gaps and so the Migrant Rights Centre of Ireland wants their status regularised. Joyce Fegan reports.

They change your babys nappy. They help with your childrens homework. They care for your elderly parent.

They have no rights and live on much less than the minimum wage. Just as America has undocumented Irish, Ireland has its own undocumented migrants.

According to the Migrant Rights Centre of Ireland, there are between 20,000 and 26,000 undocumented migrants in Ireland. Some 89% of them have jobs, with 32% of them working in the food and accommodation sector, 29% in domestic work, and 13% in cleaning and maintenance jobs  84% of these people have lived here for more than five years.

However, though some have PPS numbers and pay tax, they have no access to social welfare or healthcare.

Some of them came to Ireland on student visas, others had residency permits cancelled because of the breakdown of a marriage, and some came with nothing, but needed to earn a living and send money home.

We try to draw the parallels between how the profile of the undocumented Ireland now is the exact same (as the undocumented Irish abroad). When we say the exact, what we mean is long-term, making a contribution, under the radar, getting on with life and work, said Helen Lowry, deputy director of the MRCI.

The MRCI is connecting these undocumented migrants with the labour market shortages in Ireland, as a bridge towards a documented status. There are a couple of other countries in Europe who have experienced migrants coming to fill labour market shortages and the two that would spring to mind are Italy and Spain. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, they would have had people coming to fill specific labour market shortages.

In both of those cases, they had introduced a series of regularisation schemes afterwards, for people who had come to fill those shortages, who were now living in the country long-term, so they could come forward and regularise their status, said Neil Bruton, from the MRCI.

The Government did introduce a scheme for undocumented migrants who had entered Ireland as students, on the back of a court judgement. The scheme was opened for three months, from October 15, 2018, to January 20, 2019, to nationals from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) who were resident in Ireland and who had held a valid student permission during the period of January 1, 2005, to December 31, 2010.

However, the MRCI says this scheme did not deal with the largest cohort of Irelands undocumented migrants. You have to welcome any steps that were taken with forward-thinking and planning. It will regularise people in the low thousands. But that is not the only cohort of undocumented people in Ireland.

The scheme was high-specific and very restrictive. What wed be looking for is more sensible measures that look at the current reality, so we recognise the reality of the situation we have here in Ireland today.

The MRCI is working towards connecting Irelands long-term undocumented, who are working in areas like construction, care and hospitality, with work visas, as there are labour shortages. Anecdotally, what we can see is that people are working in sectors that theyre now calling for non-EU migrants to come to Ireland (to work in).

The Irish Examiner asked both the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Business, Enterprise, and Innovation (DBEI) for their response to undocumented migrants in Ireland.

A spokeswoman for the DBEI said the department had no role in relation to undocumented migrants.

A spokesman from the DoJ recommended that anyone who is living illegally in Ireland should bring themselves to the attention of the authorities. Only when that happens can any examination of their case be undertaken by the State.

The spokesman said the claim that 89% of undocumented people are working is a matter to be investigated by the relevant employment and taxation authorities.

He added that Ireland is an open and welcoming society, where 120,000 people have been granted citizenship through naturalisation, since citizenship ceremonies were introduced, in 2011.

It was very tough leaving my country. My boy was only 1

Irene came to Ireland in 2007, to earn money to cover her sons medical costs in the Philippines.

She currently works four different jobs to support both herself here and her children at home, whose homework she does over video call.

Im 44 years old. I came here 12 years ago. I work as a full-time childminder, part-time carer, Im selling properties and Im a balloon artist. So Im doing all those jobs to pay the rent and the bills and Im sending money to the Philippines for my kids. So I work to cover all those expenses.

Both of my kids are back in the Philippines. My daughter will graduate from university in May, she took fine arts and my son is only 13, says Irene.

Her entire reason to come to Ireland was to earn more money to cover high medical fees at home. It was a tough choice, as her youngest child was only a baby at the time.

It was a very tough decision leaving my country. The kids were very small, very young. My boy was only 1.

I came to the decision because he had a congenital heart disease. I didnt need to go abroad to work. I was a government employee.

But what happened was, since my boy has this problem, of course I spent all my money on treatment. I got some support because I was a government employee, but it only covered half of the costs, and then they stopped helping because it was so expensive.

I said to my sister who was working here in Ireland: Can you please help me? I didnt think Id be long here, just to get a little bit of capital. It was hard to leave him. But I said to myself I had to be tough. I thought Id only be here a year, but because of increasing needs, I had to stay, she explains.

Being an undocumented person in Ireland, Irene worked long hours and below the minimum wage when she first arrived. Now she has a new employer who is very supportive.

I changed then and it was a big improvement and my new employer was very supportive of my situation. They consider me as a fundamental part of their family. Thats what she (my employer) is always saying to me: She is a fundamental part of the family. They can go away without worrying. The kids are happy, says Irene.

However, thoughts of her own children are always with her.

Its always on the back of your mind, youre looking after the kids really well and I cant do it for my own. We have seven hours difference and Ireland is behind, so I ring the kids in the morning to make sure they have all their homework done.

Or theyll take photos and send me their work, like essay corrections, says Irene. Im also helping my daughter rephrasing her thesis and with her research.

Something that has made her feel less alone is her work with the Justice for the Undocumented (JFU) campaign, through the Migrant Rights Centre of Ireland (MRCI).

My first project was forming a human shamrock on Sandymount Strand, Irene says.

The following week we met the President. Seeing the work, I said: Oh I want to get involved and learn our rights.

I also want to help the people who arent aware that there is a campaign. So I help a lot in bringing members to the campaign, spreading the word.

She points out that the life of the undocumented migrants here in Ireland is exactly the same as the life of the undocumented Irish in the US.

We want the Government to recognise the reality that we are already here  we are working and we are contributing to the economy and we want to keep contributing by paying tax, but we are waiting for the Government to sort out our status so we can do that.

We have our roots down here, we just want to continue with our lives, says Irene.

When we had our second child, it was a very scary time

Shyam, a chef who has been in Ireland for eight years, has sometimes worked for 60 to 72 hours a week on 6 an hour. Picture: Dave Meehan

Shyam has lived in Ireland for eight years, leaving one child in his home country in the hope of making a better life for his entire family.

At times, he has worked 72 hours a week earning just over 400, because of his undocumented status.

I am from south east Asia. Im living here eight years. I am working as a chef in a restaurant. Ive always lived in Dublin and Ive always worked in a restaurant. I have two kids, one in my country and one here. I left my youngest when she was 18 months, so shes 10 now. Ive changed job five times in these eight years, says Shyam.

While he is undocumented, he did receive a PPS number several years ago, meaning he pays tax and now can earn the minimum wage.

The PPS number has made work life easier. I get better work, I pay tax and employers give us a chance when you have a PPS number. Before I had the PPS number, I was working in a restaurant and they said they could give me a job but they couldnt pay me the minimum wage. We were in trouble so I said: Yes, no problem, Ill take the 5 or 6 an hour, because we didnt have any options, we had nowhere else to go.

We had to look after our children and we had to look after family at home. Id work 60 to 72 hours a week on 6 an hour. We just had one job in my house. That had to cover all expenses, there was no support if anything went wrong, nothing here, it was a very difficult situation, explains Shyam.

His wife became pregnant with their second child, an experience he describes as very scary because of the lack of certainty.

When we had our second child, it was a very scary time. We just got support from the MRCI (Migrant Rights Centre of Ireland) and our community as well, a very scary time. It was very hard for us, very, very hard.

Renting can be hard, because we share a room and it can be hard because we have a child. Some people like it and some people dont like it, says the father-of-two.

Shyam said he was well aware of the disadvantages of arriving in Ireland as an undocumented migrant, but unable to claim asylum as he was only an economic migrant and not fleeing persecution, war, or discrimination, he felt he had no option but to leave his home country where jobs are scarce.

In my country, the pay is low, there are no jobs, and coming here I could get a good job. And I can send 100 home, thats 10,000 rupees. We had no options so we took the risk to come here. I had to work. I had to support my family.

I couldnt claim asylum because I didnt have any problems, I was only an economic migrant, he says.

My daughter (in his home country) always asks: Daddy, come soon, but I cant. If I go there and do the same work in my country, Ill earn 100 a month.

I cant give my child as good of an education and support my family and myself as well. I cant go back there even to see my family.

If I had my papers, I could go back and meet my family and then come back here and work. I support my family at home all the time and their education, thats why we are here, he adds.

Shyam now considers Ireland his second home, and a stable country compared to his own.

His wish is that the Government would extend work permits to those who live here as undocumented, especially those working jobs where there are labour market shortages.

We enjoy our life here, its a home, Ireland is our second home. We just want to be regularised. If I got the work permit, I can contribute to society. We are good workers. I have many job offers now, but if I get my papers I can get good money and earn 600 or 700 a week.

If the Government was able to have a scheme for hospitality jobs it will be very beneficial for both parties, he says.

They have a dream in their heart

Accountant Mohammad has been awaiting a decision on his right to remain in Ireland since 2017. Picture: Dave Meehan

Mohammed works as an accountant in a large corporation. His residency visa was cancelled in 2017, after he informed immigration services that his marriage had ended. He has been living and studying in limbo ever since, unable to return home to care for his parents.

My name is Mohammed and I am 31 years old, Im living in Ireland since September 2006, so nearly 13 years now. I came here as a student. I did my bachelors degree and Im doing my professional accounting exams right now, he says.

Mohammed arrived in Ireland with his appropriate documents and made a life here, working 40 hours a week while doing his degree. He later married, but the relationship did not last.

I was married in 2013, and my marriage didnt work out. I let immigration know that my wife wasnt living here anymore. Then they cancelled my residency visa and since then, almost two years now, they havent given me any final decision, explains Mohammed.

He has lived in limbo since 2017, awaiting a decision on his right to remain in Ireland, while continuing to work and study. It means he has been unable to return home to his parents.

My father had open heart surgery in 2012, and consequentially he is on medication. My mum had an accident and broke her leg. I am the eldest son, so sometimes I feel as the eldest son I am not helpful to my parents because when they need to go to the doctor they need to ask somebody else, a total outsider. My dad is still OK, but he is over 60. As the eldest son, I feel bad. I cannot be helpful to my parents, its so painful sometimes, he explains.

He says his father asks continually about when he is coming home to visit.

He has undocumented friends who have lost family members and were unable to attend their funerals.

One of my friends  his sister died, a few days ago, he couldnt go, he couldnt go to attend her funeral.

One of my other friends is so unfortunate that he lost his mother and father both in a gap of two months last year. But he also could not go back home to see his parents for the last time.

He wants the Irish Government to take the time to look at the cases of Irelands undocumented and see the contribution they make to society and the economy.

If I was talking to Charlie Flanagan or the Taoiseach, I would say only one thing: Please, please check our backgrounds. Check our backgrounds since we have moved to Ireland, what have we done? If you think, by using your honest judgement, that we have done something wrong, please dont give us a residency permit.

But this is my 110% belief  everybody is clean. Every single person who is undocumented is very clean, their background is very clean. They have a dream in their heart but Government just need to make some space for that.

Please allow us to stay in this beautiful country with pride, where we feel like home.

We treat them as our own parent  thats how we love

Debra has been living here for 12 years. She has never met her seven grandchildren who live in the Philippines. Picture: Dave Meehan

Debra has seven grandchildren she has never met. Originally from the Philippines, she has lived in Ireland undocumented for more than a decade, working as a carer.

I arrived here in Ireland through a tourist visa. I am living here 12 years and now I am 59. When I arrived here, I worked as a cleaner for six years. Then the family I worked for separated, so I got another job as a carer, for a doctor, and when he died, the family passed me to their relative where I work now, explains Debra.

In her first role as a carer, she found herself in the fortunate position of receiving sick pay from her employer even though she was undocumented.

The first time as a carer, they paid me by the hour and more than the minimum wage. They were very kind. If I got sick they would pay me the whole week  very kind. They were very good people. They saw what I did and how I cared for their husband.

When that man died and I go to another person, to a lady who suffers from dementia. Having dementia is really, really tough. Its hard work taking care of a person with dementia. The lady I look after, they pay me good pay, they are very kind, says Debra.

Having left the Philippines 12 years ago to seek work and a better life here, she left her family behind.

At home I have two daughters. They are married and have a job. They have children. I am a grandmother to seven grandchildren. I have never met them.

Im really used to it. Im happy talking to them on the phone but its hard when they want me to go home. They keep asking me to go home, but I say I cant, she says.

She convinces the children by explaining that she will no longer be able to send clothes and sweets to the Philippines from Ireland if she returns.

I tell them the reason is I cant send them shoes, I cant send them chocolate, and I cant send them biscuits if I go home. But lonely? No. I am happy working here. My employer is very good and I live in an apartment with Filipino people. For 12 years, I consider Ireland my second home. I am happy working and living here, she says.

Debra is part of the campaign group Justice for the Undocumented (JFU), which seeks to pave a pathway to papers for Irelands undocumented.

Before joining the JFU, Debra lived in a state of panic that she would be ejected from Ireland at any time.

Before I joined this campaign I really, really had this experience of nearly jumping out the window of Dublin Bus, because I thought the ticket inspector was a Garda, says Debra.

She believes if she could receive a work permit or visa for Ireland and become documented, she would be able to visit her family in the Philippines and then return to her life here.

I think the Government have to look at what we do, what we contribute to the economy of Ireland, what help we extend to families, when were looking after their parents.

The only thing I ask for is regularisation for the undocumented carers. I know they know what we contribute, what help we extend to the Irish family, what we do.

We look after them heartily, lovingly, seriously. We treat them as our own parent, as our own grandparent, thats how we love and thats how we love the person we look after.
Manchester and Barcelona have an unusual amount in common this week.

As the British continue to agonise about how to leave the EU, or whether to leave at all, the Catalans are preoccupied with events in Madrid where the leaders of their independence movement are on trial for rebellion.

There are huge differences between Brexit and independence for Catalonia of course, but both raise big questions about identity and democracy, and both are centred on deeply divisive referendums. In addition Manchester voted to stay in the EU, unlike the rest of Lancashire, and Barcelona came out narrowly in favour of remaining part of Spain, unlike the rest of Catalonia.

Football was probably not in the minds of the Manchester voters, although United have always seen themselves as a European club, but it weighed in the balance in Barcelona.

The club has historically been a standard bearer for Catalan identity and resistance to Madrid. But that is not the same as secession. Barcelona fans fly the Catalan flag with pride, but many of them also identify with Spain. The risk of being thrown out of La Liga is a real one  hostility extends well beyond Madrid  and the alternatives are not attractive. So the club has been careful to steer a course between the two factions.

As it happens Barcelona could well be crowned champions of Spain on the same weekend as the Spanish general election, which would scupper plans for parading the trophy through the city. On Saturday they cleared the final big hurdle in their race towards title number 26, beating Atletico Madrid 2-0. An 11-point lead, plus their head-to-head advantage, means they can now focus on Europe, with the added spice of a possible final against Pep Guardiola or maybe a decisive showdown between Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Atletico proved a tough nut to crack, even when reduced to 10 men after Diego Costas wild outburst concerning the referees mother. At that point Barca had over an hour to win the game, but with Atleti goalkeeper Jan Oblak in superb form they held out till the final five minutes. It took a brilliant curving shot from Luis Suarez to win it, followed by a clinical Messi finish  his 43rd goal in 40 matches.

It has been suggested that Messi is not quite what he was. He drew a blank in all four matches against Real Madrid this season; he has seemed weary in some games. But he still has a special ability to score in match after match: 10 in 12 games a few months back and more ominously 10 in his last six games now.

Uniteds concern tomorrow will be that he can be more deadly away from home, when he finds extra space. He struck twice against Tottenham in the second half when they were chasing the game, and again when Barcelona beat Sevilla at the end of February.

Barcelonas late scoring spurts, with Messi and Suarez in tandem, may be the other big concern. Just as against Atletico, they did it in their last away game against Villarreal, scoring in the 90th minute and again three minutes into added time.

That 4-4 draw should give United some encouragement, even though Barcelona put out a weakened side, with Messi, Gerard Pique and Ivan Rakitic starting on the bench. Two up early on, their defenders lost concentration and Villarreal might have held on for a win but for a late red card.

Marc-Andre ter Stegen is a good goalkeeper, but was at fault for at least one of those goals, and as ever they are happier going forward than defending. Arguably they have been lucky with red cards for opponents in both their most recent league games. But that ability to up their intensity in the final stages of a match is even more marked in Europe than in the league: eight of their 19 goals in the Champions League have been scored in the last 15 minutes.

In midfield they are less inventive than in the heyday of Xavi and Iniesta, but with the possible return of Arturo Vidal alongside Sergio Busquets they have more edge to their game, as well as the pace and trickery of Malcom and Ousmane Dembele in reserve.

Dembele has been preferred by Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde, but still has to receive clearance to play after being out injured. The ferociously determined Malcom could be the bigger threat. Named after Malcolm X, he caught the eye in the group stage against Inter, scoring two minutes after coming on as a substitute. Since then hes scored against Real Madrid at Camp Nou  always a popular act  and is desperate to prove himself after a good 25 minutes on Saturday. Yet it may be that another Brazilian with an English-sounding name  Arthur  is more suited to Valverdes plans at Old Trafford.

The disappointment of Barcelonas shock 3-0 defeat in Rome 12 months ago still haunts them, and Messi in particular. The Champions League is the trophy that really matters, particularly after Real Madrids three consecutive triumphs. This is a less devastating Barcelona than United faced in those two finals of 2009 and 2011, but they are a very efficient side with ruthless finishers. United achieved the impossible in the second leg against PSG, they may have to do it again to reach the semi-final.
Colombian Jakeline Romero is in Ireland to highlight the harm wrought by a 690 sq km mine, which distributes its coal through a Dublin-based firm, writes Caroline ODoherty.

Jakeline Romero remembers how, as a small child, she sensed the excitement of people in her community that a mining company was coming to the area.

For the small farmers of La Guajira in remote northern Colombia, just getting by was hard work. The land was good, but the infrastructure was poor, public services scarce, incomes low, and luxuries non-existent. It was hoped that the company would create new jobs and opportunities that would help lift living standards generally.

However, the Cerrejon coal mine didnt supplement their income. It supplanted their whole way of life.

Jakelines uncle, Venancio, was one of the first to see what was happening.

He took work in the mine when it was setting up, says Jakeline.

I was just a child of six or seven, but I remember him saying, and excuse my language, but he had a job cleaning the bathrooms and he said: This land belongs to us, so why am I cleaning the gringos shit?

It was a cruel awakening for him: The realisation that the fertile land that fed the people was being swapped for coal and toilet blocks.

Venancio began to speak out and question whether any more land should be signed over to the mine.

Then he disappeared.

His niece is in Ireland to talk about how 34 years of the Cerrejon mine has utterly changed the lives of the people of La Guajira and, in particular, her own people, the Wayuu, the largest indigenous group in the region, and to appeal for help in closing it.

Invited by the Latin America Solidarity Centre as part of the groups annual Latin America Week, her story has relevance for any country that is slow to wean itself off fossil fuels, but there is a particular link to Ireland.

The coal from the Cerrejon mine, one of the largest in the world at 690 sq km, is distributed solely through a company based in Dublin, CMC Coal Marketing, which had revenues of 2.4b in 2017.

One of its customers for many years has been the ESB, which has bought millions of tonnes of coal for burning in the Moneypoint Power Plant.

Thats despite the pleas of human rights and environmental campaigners, who have long highlighted concerns about human rights abuses, environmental degradation, and the health effects of the mine.

Cerrejon denies their claims and can produce copious reports to show that it is in compliance with all laws and standards. The ESB says it is also satisfied with standards there.

In response to recent queries by this newspaper, Cerrejon stated that La Guajira was arid semi-desert and that limitations in access to public services, education, healthcare, and difficulties in governance are reflected in the high poverty rates. It said agriculture made up just 5% of the economy.

The implication is that Cerrejon is the only source of productivity and prosperity in the region.

Jakeline smiles and grimaces simultaneously at the companys assessment of her homeland.

La Guajira was 60% agriculture before the mine; the mine reduced it to 5%, she says through an interpreter.

And if the region is getting riches and tax revenues from the mine, why is it still the second poorest region in Colombia in terms of access to public services?

She says life in La Guajira 30 years ago was completely different.

Being able to be on our own land, being able to produce our own food, having access to our own water, this is how it was, says Jakeline.

The people blame the mine for the disappearance of almost 30 water sources, all tributaries of the Rancheria River, and for the pollution of others.

Under the expansion plans, the mine also wants to dam the Palomino River. They are not doing that to provide better water access for the people.

Lack of water is one of the reasons she says landowners were persuaded to sell their land. Some also lacked negotiation skills and entered deals they did not fully understand. Others, she says, were intimidated into it. Those were just the individuals, entire communities have been moved to make way for the expansion of the mine and, while Cerrejon says resettlement is always a measure of last resort, Jakeline says it normal practice for the mine.

Once the land is given to the mine, there is no going back.

There are new rules and laws on land use in La Guajira, she says.

The land is officially designated by the government as a mining region, so the local policies and laws prohibit owners from selling land for agriculture and the government cant invest in agriculture in the region.

Those who object can expect intimidation. Mining areas are heavily militarised and paramilitaries are also allowed to operate with little restriction.

We dont know who took my uncle, if it was military or paramilitary, says Jakeline. It was terrible, because, for the Wayuu, the rituals around death are very important but we never found him.

Venancio is just one of many community leaders to be killed or who disappeared in Colombia. In the last three years alone, 400 activists have been murdered.

Jakeline is acutely aware of the dangers. As spokeswoman for Fuerza de Mujeres Mayuu, the Wayuu Womens Force, she has received numerous threats and she wishes it was only she who received them.

When women speak out, the threats are different, says Jakeline, who has been told that her two daughters, now aged 20 and 16, are at risk from her activities.

They will not come and shoot me in the head like they might do to a man. They make threats through your children. They even told me they will disappear my mother.

Jakeline says she chose to gather women, in particular, to the cause, as their maternal instinct is to protect.

Mother Earth is like the one who gave birth to all of us, she says.

She feels strongly the need to protect mother earth from the violence of environmental degradation.

She also feels that women have struggled to have their voices heard in male-dominated governments, local authorities, and security forces, and that their struggle mirrors that of Mother Earth.

Jakelines family and friends are understandably nervous for her.

People tell me I should not go out of the house, but also my family inspires me and keeps me going, she says.

They tell me that I am not alone and now that were in this struggle we must continue. The way I see it, if Im silent, theyve done the damage to me, they have won.

Jakeline is giving a public talk in University College Cork today, from 6.30pm-8pm, in the ORahilly Building, Room G27. Full details of Latin America Week are on lasc.ie
Delaying or watering down Brexit will give its supporters just what they want  a grievance, says Therese Raphael

The Remainer side of the great Brexit divide might be tempted to feel a little smug right now. Things are finally looking up. Its what lies around the corner that should scare them.

There is almost no prospect of Britain leaving the EU without a deal after last weeks dramatic parliamentary vote. Instead, Conservative prime minister Theresa May and Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn are talking  to each other.

Her people and his are trying to find a compromise, that dirtiest of words in British political life.

If parliament can agree on a deal before the elections to the European Parliament on May 23, Britain will very likely end up with a much closer relationship with the EU than leavers want  perhaps in the form of a customs union or staying in the single market itself.

If not, Britains exit date will face a prolonged delay, or even a referendum that could see Brexit reversed.

All of that sounds copacetic to Remainer ears. But heres a friendly warning: Be careful what you wish for. Europe looks increasingly weak, divided and rudderless.

If that persists, the argument from Brexiters that Britains EU compromise was unnecessary and damaging will gain fresh ammunition.

In fact, it has already started. Speaking at a recent Chatham House event, the Brexit-supporting Cambridge professor Robert Tombs noted: Its now clearly impossible for any member state to leave the EU without a crisis. And the EU has no plans for reform.

And so the logical deduction is that the EU will face in future a growing series of crises, economic, social, and political, to which there is no visible solution.

Brexit, says Prof Tombs, could have been good for the EU, proving its flexibility and willingness to change.

Instead it has shown its defensiveness, its rigidity and its contempt for democracy, he says.

There is something to this case. There was a moment  lets call it Peak Europe  around the time when the EUs Brexit negotiating mandate was established, when European officials declared in solidarity that were all Irish now, the German economy looked invincible, and French president Emmanuel Macron seemed the apotheosis of homo politicus. That has now passed.

The eurozone isnt in recession yet, but the data looks bad. Germanys manufacturing base is reeling from the slowdown in Chinas economy and US president Donald Trumps protectionism.

The consumer remains stalwart, but if that confidence wavers, the impact around the eurozone would be substantial.

Industrial production is falling in states such as Italy and business confidence is down too. In Spain, youth unemployment is still running at more than 30%. France is hitting its deficit limits just as Macrons big restructuring plans have been delayed or scaled back.

And then there is the eurozone itself, a currency union designed with a potentially fatal hole in its heart  the lack of a fiscal union to address its major imbalances. The EU has patched this up as best it could after the financial crisis. But its more ambitious reform plans have stalled.

Politically, Europe looks more fractious too. Nationalist, populist parties are on the rise and may be well-represented in the European Parliament after Mays elections. Poland and Hungary continue to thumb their noses at EU institutions and basic principles of democracy.

All of this is grist for the Brexiter mill. If Europe were to suffer a serious crisis  an economic crisis in one member state that metastasises  the finger-wagging and fist-shaking will be visible from across the channel.

Remainers have some reasonable arguments to make in return: They will note that they never said Europe is perfect  some even claimed that it is deeply and irretrievably flawed  but membership offered benefits that simply cant be matched by any of those that come from being outside the bloc in our hyper-connected world.

They will also note that Britain always played a moderating and often hugely important role inside Europe before Brexit; the blocs problems may well be even worse now than they would have been with full-throated British input. And if Europe sneezes, Britain will still catch a cold; that is just how geographic proximity works.

The bad news for Remainers is that opponents of the May-Corbyn deal (or extension) will weaponise the EU no matter what. Even if there is no big crisis that tears Europe apart but, as is more likely, a prolonged sclerosis, euroscepticism will return on steroids.

Leavers will regard the limbo of an extension or a soft Brexit as a frontal attack on Britains identity and a sacrifice of what could have been. It would mark the death of a vision, and they will never move on to the acceptance stage of grieving. They will be parked in anger and denial.

The betrayal narrative has already started. Nigel Farage, the former head of Ukip, has set up a Brexit Party to run in the European elections. One Brexiter warned that it will rise like a phoenix, sucking voters away from Conservatives.

Or hear one of Brexits biggest proponents, Conservative lawmaker Jacob Rees-Mogg.

If a long extension leaves us stuck in the EU we should be as difficult as possible, he tweeted. We could veto any increase in the budget, obstruct the putative EU army and block Mr Macrons integrationist schemes.

These are not the words of calm, reasoned political debate. Not only will this feud continue to rip at the fabric of the Conservative Party, it will be a major disrupting force in British politics. Far more Britons now identify themselves by how they voted in the 2016 EU referendum than by party. The betting markets think an election will come well before 2022, because how can any prime minister manage with these divisions?

Author Michael Morpurgo notes that Brexit isnt one divorce, but two. The second, between the two opposing sides in the referendum, will be bitter and fester for years.

Therese Raphael writes editorials on European politics and economics for Bloomberg Opinion. She was editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal Europe.
Her husband joined the River Forest-Oak Park Kiwanis last year, and their first Kiwanis event was off to an exciting start as Keneipp won the first split-the-pot. They planned to use the winnings not just for dinner but more raffles  another way to help someone else experience camping under the stars.
Democrats will "never" see US president Donald Trump's tax returns, said White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney as a new front opened in the confrontation between the administration and Congress.

Mr Mulvaney accused Democrats of engaging in a "political stunt" and wanting "attention" after the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Representative Richard Neal, asked the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) to provide six years of Mr Trump's personal tax returns and the returns for some of his businesses.

"That is not going to happen and they know it," Mr Mulvaney told Fox News Sunday.

Last week, Massachusetts Democrat Neal, one of only three congressional officials authorised to request tax returns, requested Mr Trump's personal and business returns in a letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig.

He asked for returns covering 2013 through 2018. He also asked for the documents in seven days, setting an April 10 deadline.

An obscure 1924 statute includes no exceptions to Mr 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 the returns are provided without the taxpayer's consent.

Still, Mr Mulvaney claimed the law provides for lawmakers to review individual tax returns but "political hit job is not one of those reasons".

His comments echoed those made by Mr Trump's lawyers who argued the Democratic request "would set a dangerous precedent" if granted.

Mr Trump broke with precedent when he chose not to release any tax returns as a presidential candidate.

Mr 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".

Mr Trump has said he will not release the information because he is under audit, something he reiterated again Friday while visiting the US-Mexico border.

"I'm under audit. When you're under audit you don't do it," Mr Trump said.

IRS officials have said taxpayers under audit are free to release their returns.

Mr Trump claimed at a news conference following his election in November 2018 that the filings are too complex for people to understand.

William Consovoy, whose firm was retained by Mr Trump to represent him on the matter, said in a letter Friday to the Department of Treasury's general counsel that the tax code zealously guards taxpayer privacy.

He said requests for tax returns "must have a legitimate legislative purpose".

Mr Neal has said he made the request to review the IRS policy of auditing the tax returns of all sitting presidents and vice presidents, saying, "little is known about the effectiveness of this programme".

"On behalf of the American people, the Ways and Means Committee must determine if that policy is being followed, and if so, whether these audits are conducted fully and appropriately," Mr Neal said when unveiling his request for Mr Trump's returns.

Utah Senator Mitt Romney, the Republican Party's 2012 presidential nominee who has been an occasional critic of Mr Trump's, called Democrats' actions "moronic".

He told NBC's Meet The Press that he believes Mr Trump should release his tax returns, but by demanding them, "I think the Democrats are just playing along his handbook."
Business 5 Foreign Firms Licensed to Enter Myanmar's Fledgling Life Insurance Market

A local insurance company in Yangon. / Htet Wai / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  Myanmar has for the first time allowed foreign insurance companies to operate in the countrys life insurance market.

The Ministry of Planning and Finance announced on Friday that it has granted licenses to five foreign companies to sell life insurance: Chubb Tempest Reinsurance of the United States; Dai Ichi Life Insurance of Japan; AIA of Hong Kong; Prudential of England; and Manufacturers Life Insurance of Canada.

Local companies that can provide life and general insurance can team up with foreign firms with offices in Myanmar to improve their competitiveness, Planning and Finance Ministry Director General U Zaw Naing told The Irrawaddy.

We have permitted foreign companies in order to improve the life insurance market in our country, which is the least developed in ASEAN, he said.

The move will provide the public with a wider choice of options and help reduce customers premiums.

The Finance and Planning ministry will monitor the new entrants activities to make sure local companies can compete.

U Soe Win Thant, however, director of Global World Insurance Co., is worried that the foreign firms will swamp the local market.

Because they are both financially and technically superior to local companies, they will lead the market, he said.

In addition to one government-run provider, there are currently 11 local private insurance companies in Myanmar  eight are licensed to sell both life and general insurance while three may sell life insurance only.

Under the existing laws, only 35 percent of a local company may be owned by foreign investors.

While CB Insurance Executive Director U Thaung Han is optimistic that the five foreign insurance companies  all leading firms in the international insurance market  will help develop the domestic market dramatically, he is also concerned that their operations will challenge local companies.

But it is not that foreign companies can have an immediate impact on local companies. Moreover, the ministry will also regulate the market, he said.

According to private insurance companies, only 1 percent of the countrys population is interested in having life insurance, and most of the insurance bought is for vehicle and fire insurance.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.
In Person Kyaukphyu BRI Projects a Bigger Threat Than Myitsone

Journalist and author Bertil Lintner in interviewed with The Irrawaddy. / The Irrawaddy

Amid growing public concern about Chinese-backed development projects in Myanmar, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will leave for Beijing late this month to attend the second Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) summit. During her meeting with the Chinese President Xi Jinping there, she is quite likely to discuss the Myitsone Dam, the most controversial Chinese project in the country so far. As well the Myitsone dam, another important China-backed development project is now underway on the shore of Bay of Bengal in Myanmars western state of Rakhine. Prior to Daw Aung San Suu Kyis visit to China, The Irrawaddy talks to Bertil Linter, a Swedish journalist and author who has been covering Myanmar and Southeast Asia for nearly four decades, on Chinas major involvementfrom development projects to the peace processin the country.

The momentum to cancel the Myitsone dam is building in Myanmar. This coincides with State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyis upcoming visit to China where she will attend the second BRI summit. She has been very vague about her stance on the dam and some articles written by the NLD (National League for Democracy) party members have been indicating that the dam should get the go-ahead. Government leaders are suggesting the dam is downsized or relocated. Moreover, several projects which the current government has agreed to implement with China have not been disclosed to the public. What is your opinion on this?

I believe Daw Aung San Suu Kyi must be aware of the fact that it would be political suicide to agree on a resumption of the Myitsone project. With elections coming up next year, any Myanmar politician would have to think carefully before agreeing to such a controversial, and hugely unpopular, project like this one. We all remember how much she was against it when she was in opposition. Why does she appear to have softened her stance on the matter? Thats a question that should be posed to her.

On the Myitsone issue, China has become more aggressive in pressuring Kachin groups and the Myanmar government to accept the project. This seems to be unprecedented and some say that the Beijing leaders have demonstrated their stronger influence over this government compared to previous ones, including U Thein Seins and the regime led by Snr-Gen Than Shwe. If so, why? What is your view?

I am actually very surprised at Chinas attempts to have the Myitsone project restarted. Beijing must be aware of how much resentment, and anti-Chinese sentiment, it causes among the public at large. If the Chinese really want to improve their image in Myanmar, they should scrap the project altogether, not push the public into becoming more anti-Chinese than they already are.

The attention and public emotion surrounding the Myitsone project are understandable but the Kyaukphyu port project has received less attention from CSOs (civil society organizations) and the media. Reports also suggest plans to build a high-speed railroad connecting Chinas southern city of Kunming and the Kyaukphyu port in the Bay of Bengal are back on track. Debt-trap concerns and fears of compromised sovereignty are growing. Many think Kyaukphyu is more important than Myitsone and Myanmar officials have quietly expressed their concern to us. Your view will be appreciated.

Yes, Chinas main interest in Myanmar is Kyaukphyu, not Myitsone. The high-speed railway from Yunnan to Kyaukphyu, the deep-sea port there and the proposed economic zone in the same area would give Chinas landlocked interior provinces an outlet to the Indian Ocean. But its not only a question of exporting goods to and from Myanmar, Kyaukphyu is strategically important for the entire BRI project which includes Chinese interest in, and perhaps also control of, ports in the Indo-Pacific region.

We have seen many external or foreign players in Myanmars peace process under U Thein Sein we had the UN, western peace-makers and even the United States involved and highly-paid peace brokers and advisors flocked into Myanmar. But under the current government the conflict deepened. China seems to be playing a key role in current peace process efforts. Almost all ethnic insurgent groups in the north are backed by China. It seems a bleak future is awaiting conflict-ridden Myanmar and the new outbreak of conflict in Rakhine State between the Arakan Army (AA) and government forces is a major concern. Do you think China can be an honest broker in peace process in Myanmar?

Unlike all the Western peacemakers, China has vital strategic interests in Myanmar which it wants to defend and promote, and that is the so-called China-Myanmar Economic Corridor and Beijings wider strategic designs for the entire Indo-Pacific region. Chinas relations with the ethnic groups in the north, and they make up more than 80 percent of all armed, non-state actors in Myanmar, also gives it an advantage over the Western peacemakers who dont seem to understand what they have gotten themselves into. And it is important to remember that China is not interested in peace, meaning a final, peaceful solution to Myanmars civil wars and ethnic conflicts. China wants stability which it can use to its strategic advantage. China does not want war because that would cause unrest along the common border and a flood of refugees into Yunnan, but an unresolved conflict, over which it can exercise control, is definitely in its interest, at least for the foreseeable future  and that means until China gets what it wants in Myanmar, access to the Indian Ocean. The actual, so-called peace process is secondary, just part of a policy with wider ramifications.

Myanmar army generals are cunning and manipulative but they seem to understand China as they have institutional memories and fought against communists and insurgents backed by China in the past. So they took a neutral role to rebalance Myanmar under U Thein Seins government. But the current government does not seem to have such institutional memories and emotions to strike a balance. Whats your opinion on that?

Whatever we may think of the Myanmar Army and its abysmal human-rights record, they are fiercely nationalistic and see themselves as guardians of the countrys sovereignty. Keeping China, an old adversary which once gave massive support to the Communist Party of Burma, at bay should be seen in that perspective. Thousands of Tatmadaw (Myanmar military) soldiers died in that war, killed by Chinese bullets, and many older officers have not forgotten that. The largely civilian government may see things differently. It appears to be more willing to appease China, perhaps because China is the main investor in Myanmar and the countrys main foreign trading partner.

Some said that the Wests pressure on the government is pushing the country into Chinas orbit. Do you buy that?

Definitely, and China is taking full advantage of that to enhance its own strategic interests in Myanmar.
News ANALYSISManipulation Suspicions Mount in Thailand's Post-Coup Election

Activists protest election results in Bangkok, Thailand on March 31, 2019. / Reuters

BANGKOKThailands first general election since a 2014 army coup has been touted by the ruling military junta as a return to democratic rule, but two weeks after the vote, results are still unclear and allegations of manipulation are mounting.

Since the March 24 vote, figures linked to a democratic front of opposition parties say they have come under increasing pressure from police and the military.

The Election Commission has also indicated it would use a complex allocation formula for 150 party seats in the House of Representatives in a way that would likely dilute the opposition alliances seats in the 500-seat lower house.

The Election Commission has said it wont announce even provisional winners of the 150 party seats until May 9, saying it needs time to order by-elections and vote recounts as well as to disqualify candidates who broke election laws.

But critics say the time gap allows the military-royalist establishment to manipulate results and disqualify opponents of the pro-army Palang Pracharat party that seeks to keep junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha in power as an elected prime minister.

The leading opposition Pheu Thai party, made up of loyalists to army-ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, sees the delays and legal actions as an attempt to deny the democratic front enough seats in the House needed to block the main junta-linked party from unrestrained lawmaking power.

After the election  the majority of the people feels a sense of hopelessness and distrust for the election process, said Pheu Thais secretary-general, Phumtham Wechayachai.

People are talking about the Election Commissions part in supporting the extension of power by the National Council for Peace and Order, he said, using the juntas formal name.

The Election Commissions secretary-general, Jaroongwit Phumma, told Reuters the body is not helping the pro-military party.

The election commission is neutral and adheres to the law. We dont take sides or help one particular party, Jaroongwit said.

Palang Pracharat said it does not gain any advantages over opposition parties.

Its completely false to say that the election commission is helping Palang Pracharat. This is an attempt to discredit us, the partys deputy spokesman Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana told Reuters.

Sedition charge

However, opposition figures say they are being targeted.

Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, the leader of the youth-oriented Future Forward Party which did surprisingly well in the vote, was charged on Saturday with sedition on a junta complaint dating back to 2015  a case that could see his party disbanded.

Online campaigns have also cast Thanathorn as anti-monarchy, a serious crime in Thailand, where the monarchy is revered without question.

Thanathorn denies being against the monarchy and all charges against him.

Its the establishments desire to stir hatred, fear, and mistrust among the people, creating legitimacy for the military to take over and stay on, Thanathorn said last week.

Winthai Suvaree, a spokesman for the junta, said the charges against Thanathorn were not aimed at weakening the opposition and were entirely unrelated to current political events.

Abnormal election

The rules of the election were written in the 2017 junta-backed constitution, which critics said were aimed at ensuring military influence in Thai politics.

Among the new provisions is that the Senate, the 250-seat upper house of parliament appointed by the junta, must approve the prime minister in a combined vote with the House, which previously solely voted on the premier.

That means the junta-backed party and its allies have to gain only 126 seats in the House to install Prayuth as prime minister, while the opposition would need 376 votes for their potential candidate.

Still, days after the March 24 vote, the democratic front claimed through its own calculations that it would gain at least 255 House seats  not be enough to form a government but potentially allowing it to block the military-backed party from having free rein.

Last week, however, the election commission indicated the complex formula to calculate allocation of the 150 party list seats will round up decimals to give seats to 11 small parties although their popular votes did not meet a previously described threshold required to earn even one seat.

This is an irregularity that reflects an effort to block the democratic front from forming the next government, said Pheu Thais spokeswoman Ladawan Wongsriwong.

Widening the list would cut seats from top popular vote getters and could reduce seats for Future Forward from around 87 to 80, potentially hurting the democratic fronts claim of House majority.

Its an abnormal election from the outset. Its a game where the junta wrote the rules and appointed the referee, who is also acting abnormally, said Yingcheep Atchanont, project manager at legal-monitoring group iLaw.

Palang Pracharat has repeatedly said it reaps no benefits from the constitution.

Sonthirat Sontijirawong, the Palang Pracharat secretary-general, has said the party would begin talks to form the next government only after the kings official coronation on May 4-6.

Bad people

The election comes after nearly 15 years of turmoil, during which conflicts between supporters of ousted former premier Thaksin and his establishment opponents manifested in street protests, violent clashes, and two military coups.

On the eve of the vote, King Maha Vajiralongkorn made an unexpected statement, recalling a comment made by his late father on the need to put good people in power and to prevent bad people from  creating chaos.

Six days later, the king revoked royal decorations that had been awarded to Thaksin, citing his 2008 corruption conviction and for fleeing the country to escape prison.

The military also stripped Thaksin of a pre-cadet schools achievement award as well as deleting his name from the schools hall of fame.

Thaksin continues to be a threat to the position of power of the establishment, Pavin Chachavalpongpun, associate professor at Kyoto Universitys Center for Southeast Asian Studies, told Reuters.
Asia Bangladesh Posts Border Guard to St. Martins Island for 1st Time in 22 Years

Border Guards Bangladesh personnel alight a civilian vessel to begin their deployment on St. Martins Island on April 7, 2019. / BGB

The Bangladeshi government on Sunday redeployed over 100 Border Guards Bangladesh personnel armed with heavy weapons to St. Martins Island, the countrys southernmost point. It is the first time in 22 years the force has been based on the island off Coxs Bazar, and reinforces an existing Bangladesh Coast Guard deployment there, officials said.

In a statement, Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) said on Sunday afternoon the force had been deployed to the countrys southernmost border on St. Martins with heavy weapons at the direction of the government.

The statement, signed by BGB spokesperson Muhammad Mohsin Reza, said the BGB was last deployed to the island in 1997.

Now, we are instructed to deploy our personnel to guard every inch of our territory. We started deploying over the last two days and today we instate one of our companies with weaponry We have started our duties, BGB headquarters official Colonel Motiur Rahman told The Irrawaddy on Sunday evening when asked about the sudden deployment.

Diplomatic sources in Dhaka told The Irrawaddy on Sunday evening that the deployment comes amid Myanmars recent building of a steel structure along the Naf River on the Myanmar side of the border without informing Bangladesh authorities. Bangladesh also fears a further escalation of the conflict inside Myanmar following a recent helicopter gunship attack in Rakhine States Buthidaung Township, which left at least six Rohingya villagers dead and 13 injured on April 3.

A serving diplomat who closely watches developments inside Myanmar said Bangladesh is also concerned about the existence of an estimated 17,000 IDPs across the border in Rakhine state.

On April 4, Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, at another meeting with top BGB officials and civil administrators from border districts, said Bangladesh wanted to maintain an amicable relationship with Myanmar and had held several bilateral meetings, but expressed doubts about whether Myanmar really wanted to maintain similar relations with Bangladesh.

A video shared with The Irrawaddy showed BGB personnel in military gear marching on St. Martins after alighting a civilian ship.

The BGB officials said a ship used to transport personnel was escorted by the Coast Guard to the island.

Asked about the sudden deployment to the island, another senior BGB official recalled the prime ministers recent directive to top brass about Bangladeshs position toward Myanmar.

According to the Dhaka-based Daily Star, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on April 4 said her government would keep up its efforts to repatriate displaced Rohingya through negotiations and refrain from engaging in any conflict with Myanmar.

Since they [Myanmar] are our close neighbors, we will never engage in any conflict with them [Myanmar]. Rather well have to continue efforts so that theyll take back their nationals through negotiations, she said during a visit to the Defense Ministry in the capital Dhaka.

The deployment comes during a five-day border conference between BGB and the Myanmar Police Force that began in Naypyitaw on April 6.

BGB director-general Major General Md Shafeenul Islam is leading the 11-member Bangladeshi team, while the 17-member Myanmar team is headed by Police Brigadier General Myo Than, chief of the general staff of Myanmar police.

The BGB officials said at the meeting that discussions are slated to be held on the inflow of narcotics, particularly yaba; curbing terrorism on the border; a ceasefire on the frontier; curbing intrusions across the border; joint patrols and other issues.

A press conference on the meeting is scheduled to be held on Tuesday.

Asked whether the deployment to St. Martins had any connection to Myanmars repeated inclusion of St. Martins on an official map, Coxs Bazar deputy commissioner and district magistrate Kamal Hossain said the deployment was meant to increase security, especially in the fight against drug smuggling and human trafficking.

On Feb. 14, the Bangladeshi Foreign Ministry summoned Myanmars acting ambassador to protest against the continued inclusion of St. Martins Island in Myanmar territory on a map posted to an official Myanmar website.

Following the summons, acting Myanmar Ambassador Aung Kyaw met Bangladeshi Foreign Ministry director-general for Southeast Asia M Delwar Hossain at the ministry. The director-general asked the envoy to take steps to correct the map by excluding St. Martins Island from Myanmar territory.

The Dhaka-based daily New Age then reported that the ambassador was told that the Myanmar authorities continued to show the island as a part of Myanmar despite a formal protest from Bangladesh on Oct. 6, 2018 demanding immediate corrective measures.

In reply, Myanmar informed Dhaka via a diplomatic note that the agency in question had removed all links making false claims to the island.

However, the Foreign Ministry said on March 14, it has been noticed with great concern that the advanced interactive section of the website of the Department of Population Under the Ministry of Labor, Immigration and Population of Myanmar containing various geographic data on Myanmar still shows the similar data gradients such as population and land type of the island [belonging to] Bangladesh has been shown as the area of Myanmar.

Given that the error persisted despite Myanmars assurances that it would be permanently addressed, the ministry said, it can only be construed as a deliberate act.

Bangladesh insists the island has never been part of Myanmar, citing documents dating back to 1937, when the British colonizers separated Myanmar from British India. Dhaka says there is an ulterior motive behind drawing and sharing the map of Myanmar including St. Martins on websites, according to a report published in the Dhaka-based daily New Age following the meeting.

The row over the forged maps has flared up again as the two countries engage in diplomatic efforts to start repatriation from Bangladesh of ethnic minority Rohingya refugees to their ancestral home in Myanmars Rakhine State, according to the New Age report.

An estimated 738,000 Rohingya refugees have fled violence in Rakhine since Aug. 25, 2017, according to the UN.

The Rohingya influx took the number of undocumented Myanmar nationals and registered refugees in Bangladesh to about 1,116,000, according to estimates by UN agencies and the Bangladeshi Foreign Ministry.
Burma 143K Tons of Trafficked Timber Seized Over 3 Years

Authorities inspect a saw at an illegal logging site in Kyunhla Township, Sagaing Region. / Forest Department

NAYPYITAW  More than 143,000 tons of trafficked hardwood have been seized since the current administration took office three years ago, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservations Forest Department.

Thanks to tip-offs from members of the public, we were able to make those seizures, the departments deputy director-general, U Kyaw Kyaw Lwin, told The Irrawaddy.

Over the same period, it said, more than 20,000 alleged timber traffickers were arrested and 9,460 pieces of machinery and 1,163 chainsaws were also seized.

In a press release on Thursday, the department said that most of the seizures were made possible by its community-based system to monitor illegal logging and alert authorities.

The department also pays cash rewards for reports of illegal logging, paying out more than 7 million kyats in the 2016-17 fiscal year, more than 40 million kyats in the 2017-18 fiscal year, and more than 67 million kyats in 2018-19 fiscal year, said U Kyaw Kyaw Lwin.

Because Forest Department staff and forestry police are overstretched in border areas, the department had to seek the help of the Defense Ministry in some cases this year.

Because the commander-in-chief of defense services agreed to cooperate, we were able to seize 1,356 tons and 38 pieces of machinery and arrest 111 smugglers in February and March. We cant do without the assistance of the military in border areas were the security forces are limited, he said.

Setting the amount of forested area against the number of staff, each Forest Department officer effectively has to cover 9,000 acres, he added.

Department staff are sometimes attacked by the traffickers they are pursuing. From 1998 to the end of March, eight staff including an assistant director were killed and 47 were injured, according to U Kyaw Kyaw Lwin.

Without the cooperation of ethnic armed groups and the military, or Tatmadaw, they would have little success combating illegal logging, said Lower House lawmaker U Aung Kyaw Kyaw Oo.

The Forest Department alone would not be able to do it. Only when both the Tatmadaw and armed groups participate in forest conservation will it be successful, he said.

Lower House Lawmaker U Kyaw Soe said the seizures were just the tip of the iceberg, adding that the involvement of some local authorities in the trafficking also made it more difficult to fight illegal logging.

Timber from Myanmar is smuggled mainly to China.

The Forest Department auctions off about 80 percent of the timber it seizes.

Myanmar has banned the export of logged timber since 2014. The current administration has also restricted logging since 2016 in a bid to curb deforestation.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.
Burma Jailed Arakanese Politician, Author Transferred to Yangons Insein Prison

Dr. Aye Maung talks to the media during a court appearance in Sittwe in October 2018. / Min Aung Khine

YANGONArakanese politician Dr. Aye Maung and author Wai Hin Aung were transferred from Sittwe Prison in Rakhine State to Insein Prison in Yangon Region on Saturday afternoon, but the families said they were not informed about the transfer.

The District Court of Sittwe on March 19 sentenced the pair to 20 years in prison for high treason and another two years for defamation, to be served concurrently. They were arrested in January last year in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State, for remarks they made earlier that month at an event in Rathaetaung Township commemorating the 233rd anniversary of the fall of the Arakan Kingdom to the Burmese in 1785. They were prosecuted in September.

Both men are now at Insein Prison, according to the families and their lawyers. Both families told The Irrawaddy they were not told of the prison transfers by officials.

U Tin Maung Win, the son of U Aye Maung, told The Irrawaddy on Monday the failure to inform the families about the prison transfer, showed a lack of fairness, adding that the government had neglected them.

The families heard about the transfer on Saturday evening at around 8 p.m. and arranged to fly to Yangon and meet their loved ones on Monday, according to U Thein Win, the brother of U Wai Hin Aung.

U Thein Win said that despite making the trip to Yangon, the relatives were not sure they would be meeting the two men.

We heard they were transported on a flight, so we assume they must be in Insein Prison, he said. And this [Monday] morning, Wai Hin Aung told me that they did not know in advance of the transfer, either. The prison officers took them to meet the higher officials before the prison doors were shut at sunset and then sent them by airplane to Yangon on Saturday afternoon at around 6 p.m.

Under the National League for Democracy-led government, the practice of prison transfers is similar to the old times, said Daw Aye Nu Sein, a lawyer for U Wai Hin Aung, referring to the prisoners of conscience under previous military regimes, who were transferred from prisons in their own townships to distant locations, making it difficult for their families to pay prison visits.

U Aye Maungs lawyers appealed to the Rakhine State Court on March 28, and are waiting for a date for the appeal proceedings. The State Court is still considering whether to accept the appeal, said U Aung Kyaw Sein, a lawyer for U Aye Maung.

U Aung Kyaw Sein told The Irrawaddy the appeal was based on the fact that there was no precedent for someone being convicted of high treason over the content of a speech.

With regards to the alleged libel action as reported in the state media, the lawyer said the witnesses statements against the two men were unsubstantiated, adding that their conviction was legally controversial. The advocate said they would wait for the Rakhine State Courts decision and, if needed, would further appeal to the Union-level court.

U Wei Hin Aungs legal team has yet to submit an appeal, as he wants to wait until April 21, the end of the Thingyan water festival, during which Myanmar celebrates its traditional New Year, according to his lawyer.

It is customary for the Myanmar president to release prisoners, including political prisoners, during the annual Myanmar New Year holidays, which fall on April 13-17 this year.

Whether such an amnesty will be held this year will depend on the incumbent governments policy on presidential pardons, U Aung Kyaw Sein added.
The conversations are meant to be two-way, not debates, Kling said. Readers had 83 conversations with the 11 books at the initial event last year. Conversations may take about 30 minutes and registration is not required. Readers may talk to people in groups, but are discouraged from entering a conversation with a book who is already checked out.
Burma Military Captain, Squadron Killed by AA Rebels in N. Rakhine

A photo posted on the Arakan Armys information website on Saturday allegedly showing the weaponry seized in Fridays attack. / AA Info Page

YANGON  A Myanmar military, or Tatmadaw, captain and his entire squad were killed during a clash with troops of the Arakan Army (AA) in a remote area of northern Rakhine States Buthidaung Township on Friday, according to military sources and relatives of the victims.

Brig-Gen Zaw Min Tun of the Office of the Commander in Chief acknowledged that Capt. Chit Ko Ko was killed along with some other troops in a battle with the AA on Friday. He declined to provide a total death toll of army troops.

A long-time friend of Capt. Chit Ko Ko, Saw Lwin Saw, wrote a post on his Facebook page on Friday claiming that the crew comprised not more than 20 soldiers led by Capt. Chit Ko Ko was ordered by their commander to attack AA fighters in Buthidaungs War Net Yone region situated near the border with Bangladesh on Friday.

The squad was unexpectedly surrounded on every side by AA rebels. In the fighting, his friend was hit with a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) and afterwards, other government troops were not able to retrieve his body, he said.

Saw Lwin Saw said that his friend had been on duty in Monywa, Sagaing Region, but was recently summoned for reinforcement to Ann Township, Rakhine State where the militarys Western Command has their base. Some Facebook users took to the social media platform to criticize Capt. Chit Ko Kos senior commander for failing to supply additional troops while his crew was surrounded.

The Arakan Army (AA) announced battle updates via its website on Saturday, reporting that its fighters had fought with about 150 military troops from the Ann-based Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) No. 373 in the War Net Yone region, close to the border on Friday and that about 12 government soldiers were killed.

The AA posted photos a number of pieces of military equipment which they seized from LIB No.373 troops, including a 9 mm pistol which is commonly used by high-ranking officers in the Myanmar military, a 60 mm mortar, four artillery shells, seven assault rifles, one remote control jammer, one RPG, more than one thousand 5.56 ammunition rounds and other military accessories.

According to the AA announcement, it clashed with government troops in Buthidaung, Kyauktaw and Mrauk-U townships in the first week of April. It stated that fighting in Kyauktaw Townships Phauk Pe mountain range killed at least three government soldiers on Friday and up to 10 in battles on Saturday.

Last month, the Presidents Office spokesperson U Zaw Htay told reporters in Naypyitaw that at least 12 civilians have been killed in battles between the military and the AA within three months.

Last Wednesday, a military helicopter attack at Buthidaung Townships Saidin waterfall, where several hundred Rohingya were harvesting bamboo and making rafts, killed at least six and wounded more than 10 Rohingya.

U Zaw Htay said the government military had killed a total of 58 AA fighters while the AA and other Arakanese civil society groups pointed out that most of the victims were shot dead by government troops in their villages without armed engagement and that 27 police had been killed but he refused to answer questions on the total death toll of military troops. Between December 2018 and April 2019, the army admitted three times that high ranking officers, including majors and captains, were shot dead by the AA without elaborating on the specific number of deaths.

In March, the AA seized a temporary tactical base belonging to the military in Buthidaung Township which borders Chin States Paletwa Township.
Burma NLD's U Soe Lwin Elected Deputy Mayor of Yangon

Newly elected Yangon Deputy Mayor U Soe Lwin speaks to reporters at Yangon City Hall on Monday. / Emily / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  U Soe Lwin, who won a seat on the executive board of the Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) as a candidate for the National League for Democracy in last months municipal election, was voted deputy mayor of Myanmars largest city and commercial capital on Monday.

[Yangon residents] will see change. We contested the election because we want change. We will try as much as we can within the limited timeframe, he told reporters.

U Soe Lwin was chosen in a secret ballot by the 11 members of the executive board, including the five incumbents and the six elected on March 31.

The executive board originally consisted of nine members  the mayor, four appointees and four elected representatives  but has been expanded to include two more elected seats.

U Soe Lwin ran on March 31 in Constituency 3 against nine other candidates including well-known figures such as model Htet Htet Htun, businessman U Khin Hlaing and Ko Aung Khant.

The 65-year-old engineering graduate was a building contractor and is currently a commercial rubber grower.

In my campaign I spoke about what I would do regarding stray dogs and traffic jams if I were elected. But I am deputy mayor now; I am responsible for everything. I will focus my efforts based on the reports of the central executive board members, U Soe Lwin said.

In addition to the six people elected to the YCDC executive board, the March 31 poll saw 99 municipal officers elected at the township level  three positions each in 33 townships.

Of the 105 seats up for grabs, the NLD secured 89 and independents the remaining 16

As Yangon residents said, we want hard workers. There are a lot of needs in Yangon, and it would be best if each and every municipal official is dutiful, said Yangon resident Daw Su Myat.

The new YCDC Law, which took effect in June, allows for the replacement and recall of both appointed and elected members. It also aligns the term of the YCDC with that of the Union president and stipulates that municipal elections must be held within three months of a new Union government taking office.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.
Burma Soldiers Kill 7 Villagers, Including 3 Children, over Motorbike in Karen State

Soldiers take part in an Armed Forces Day parade in Naypyitaw in March 2018. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

Three children were among seven civilians killed when two Myanmar Army soldiers opened fire in Anan Kwin village in Karen States Kya-In Seikkyi Township on April 5, according to local sources. The youngest child killed was just 1-and-a-half years old, and one person was wounded in the attack, they said.

The two soldiers were detained by the Myanmar Army (or Tatmadaw) after attempting to flee. The Army said it would prosecute them.

The incident occurred on April 5 when the two soldiers asked two families to let them use a motorbike, but the villagers refused to hand it over.

The two soldiers came to ask for a motorbike from [the villagers]. They refused, as it was nighttime. [The soldiers] arrived in civilian clothes, carrying guns. So, who would give it to them? They killed everyone when the people refused to give them the motorbike, said U Tin Myo Oo, a regional lawmaker representing Kya-In Seikkyi Township for the National League for Democracy.

The two soldiers reportedly arrived after midnight. After killing the victims, they took the motorbike and drove away.

I heard that the two were charged under three articles including Article 302 [for murder], the lawmaker said.

The two families lived near Light Infantry Battalion 339 based in Anan Kwin village, where they worked as mechanics, repairing motorbikes and cars. They were Muslims, and had lived in the area for a long time.

One of the soldiers was from Light Infantry Battalion 275, a frontline unit. He was arrested on April 6. Another soldier was from LIB 339 based in Anan Kwin village. He was arrested on April 5 at a different location. The two are currently in the custody of the Myanmar Army.

U Tin Myo Oo said he had not yet heard whether the surviving family members would be paid compensation by the Army.

The Irrawaddy tried to reach Colonel Maung Maung Latt, a spokesman for the Armys Southeast Regional Command based in Moulmein, Mon State, for comment on Monday, but a person answering his phone said the colonel was in a meeting.

On April 6, Col. Maung Maung Latt told the Karen Information Center that the Army would take action against the two soldiers.
Burma Without Territory, the Shanni Armys Difficult Path to Recognition

Members of the Shanni army, the Shanni Nationalities Army. / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  Our ethnic group didnt take up arms so we have been bullied a lot. I couldnt stand it, so I joined this group to do my fair share, said female medical soldier Sein Sein of the Shanni Nationalities Army (SNA).

Founded in July 1989 on the India-Myanmar border, the SNA set up a headquarters in 2009 on a mountain called Nwe Impha at the border. It is said that the SNA was born of Nwe Impha. In the Shanni language, nwe means mountain and impha means stone mat.

The armed group now has bases in Hkamti, Homalin and Tamu in Sagaing Region which borders with India. It is also active in Mohnyin, Mogaung, Waingmaw, Hpakant and other parts of Kachin State. It has three brigades891, 972, and 753and over 1,000 troops.

The SNA is led by Sao Meim Liam and Sao Khun Aung, and has five objectivesto gain statehood, to fight against drugs, to establish a genuine federal Union, to build unity among all the Shan sub groups, to develop the Shanni region, and to conserve ecological balance.

Though we are not in Shan State, we are a Shan tribe. We live in Kachin State and Sagaing Region, so we are not consolidated. The Kachin say we are a vassal of the Bamar, and Myanmar government troops say we are the Kachin armed groups informants. We formed the SNA to claim the fundamental rights of our Shanni people, said the commander of Brigade 891 Lt-Col Sai Aung Meim.

Shanni people have had their own monarchs since time immemorial, he said. Mohnyin Saopha Sao Long, Wuntho Saopha Sao Aung Myat and Hkanti Long (Putao) Saopha were most prominent Shanni saophas, or rulers.

After Myanmar fell under British rule in 1886, Wuntho Saopha Sao Aung Myat fought back against the British forces, but was eventually quelled by the invaders.

According to Shanni people, Myitkyina, Mohnyin and Bhamo districts in todays Kachin State, and Kalay, Hkamti, Mawlaik, Katha and Tamu districts in todays Sagaing Region originally belonged to them.

But when the Bamar planned to regain independence together with the Frontier Areas from the British, ethnic groups demanded the right to secession. The Bamar governments Anti-Fascist Peoples Freedom League (AFPFL) and the Kachin gambled Shanni State for their political ambitions, said Shanni people.

In his book From Panglong Spirit to the Genuine Democratic Federal Union, ethnic leader Khou Marko Ban wrote, Prime Minister U Nu (AFPFL) told [Kachin leader] Sama Duwa Sinwa Nawng that besides Myitkyina, Bhamo would also be incorporated in forming Kachin State in the [1947 Constitution], and that the position of Kachin State chairman shall be reserved for Kachin ethnic people; and Kachin leaders have to abandon their demand of the right to secession in exchange for that. Sama Duwa accepted his proposal.

Similarly, Kalay, Hkamti, Mawlaik, Katha and Tamu districts were incorporated into Sagaing Region which was formed according to 1974 Constitution. As a result, Shanni State was completely removed from the map of Myanmar.

We are not demanding a new state, we just want to get our statehood back, said SNA Private Sai Mein.

Sai Lu Jien, a Shanni ethnic resident of Homalin Township in Sagaing said he believes the SNA can fulfill the statehood dream of the Shanni people.

We believe that SNA can get us a Shanni State which existed for a long time in history. And we are ready to provide any assistance for the SNA, anytime, he said.

However, the SNA will have to negotiate with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the Kachin and other ethnic people as well as the government and the Myanmar military (or Tatmadaw) about their statehood dream. Political analysts say the negotiation process will not be smooth.

They have the right to demand, but whether it is possible or not depends on the reality, said ethnic affairs analyst U Maung Maung Soe.

An AFPFL conference held prior to Myanmars independence laid down seven requirements that ethnic groups had to fulfill in order to claim self-administration.

The SNA said the Shanni ethnic group meet all those seven requirements, including having a clear geographical border, a language that is not Burmese, an ethnic identity, a distinct culture and an appropriate population for economic sustainability.

We will try to build unity with Shan from other regions. Sagaing Region and Kachin State are adjacent to each other. We Shanni deserve more than self-administration, so we are demanding statehood, said Lt-Col Sai Aung Mein, who is also on the central executive committee of the SNA.

While Shanni people are dreaming of their own state, there is still a need to unify the Shanni political forces. Although there is so far only one Shanni political party, the Tai-Leng Nationalities Development Party (TNDP), Shanni forces in Kachin and Sagaing are also planning to form another political party which they are tentatively calling the Shanni Nationalities Party.

It is the Shanni people who frequently conquered the Burmese empire. It is our Shanni people who established the confederation of Shan State, chairman of the TNDP U Sai Htay Aung told The Irrawaddy in July 2018.

Only later, we became less united. Then we fell under colonial rule. The British suppressed Wuntho Saopha U Aung Myat when he rose against them. Our territory was divided in two Kachin and Sagaing  after independence. As Shanni were put into separate administrative areas, they have become distant, he added.

While the government and Tatmadaw are making efforts to persuade ethnic armed groups to sign the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), the SNA has been left out.

Other ethnic armed groups have called for full inclusion in the peace process, yet they are keeping silent about the SNAs demand.

Shanni activists accept that obtaining statehood is a long journey for Shanni people, many of whom lack political awareness, and many of whom are inflicted by the scourge of drugs.

We are working to be able to sign the NCA. Only by signing the NCA, we will be able to engage more in the Shanni nationalist movement. We have to be included in the NCA framework, said Lt-Col Sai Aung Mein.

While the government has a policy not to recognize new ethnic armed groups, it should take prompt steps to put out the fire before it grows out of control. If the government decides against inviting the SNA to sign the NCA, they should at least hold political dialogue in order to prevent the problem from getting worse with time.

If the government does nothing in response and it [the SNA] becomes weak automatically as time passes by, it is no problem. But if the government tries to address it only after it grows bigger like the AA (Arakan Army), which has expanded from a few dozen to several thousands, it might not be easy then. The government needs to see this problem as an urgent political issue. If it does, it will be able to prevent the fire before it blazes, said U Maung Maung Soe.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko
World China Wants to Work with EU on Trade, Premier Writes Before Summit

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is welcomed by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini ahead of a meeting in Brussels, Belgium on March 18, 2019. / Reuters

BERLINChina 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 Mondays 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 Beijings 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 Chinas 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.
Editorial Once Again, Myanmars Media in the Cross Hairs

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Like never before, Myanmars media are under serious threat. Private and independent news outlets and their journalists have been receiving death threats since last week for their coverage of the fighting between government troops and the Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic Arakanese armed rebel group seeking greater autonomy in Rakhine State.

Since mid-March, the two sides have accused each other of opening fire on civilians. The Tatmadaw claims such incidents occur because AA troops try to mingle with local residents.

The civilian causalities of the conflict have dominated the headlines of local publications.

Early last week, prominent local media including The Irrawaddy, Eleven, 7 Day, the Voice, Mizzima and others received threats, either verbally by phone or digitally via fake email accounts, to their safety and that of their employees. The message can be summarized thus: Dont write anything bad about the AA. Otherwise, we will blast your office.

The anonymous callers and emailers did not claim to be from the AA, but the contents of their threats are clearly related to the organization.

Threats have been made from both sides of the conflict. On Sunday, another email from a group calling itself Myochit Tatmadaw (Patriotic Army) with a subject line reading: the last warning hit the inboxes of The Irrawaddy and the Burmese-language services of the RFA, BBC and VOA. The email warned the recipients not to post any text, picture, audio and video files to damage the Myanmar Armys dignity and image when it comes to the AA. If not, you will face the same fate as Ko Par Gyi and Saw O Moo. Reporter Ko Par Gyi was killed in custody by the Army in 2014, while Saw O Moo was a Karen community leader and environmental activist shot dead by the Myanmar Army in April last year. The sender and content of the threats were the same as those of an email sent earlier to the Rakhine-based Development Media Group by an organization identifying itself as the Pro-Army Group or Patriotic Army Group. It warned the media outlet to stand with the Myanmar Army, otherwise the safety of its journalists couldnt be guaranteed.

Whoever is behind the threatsboth the AA and the Myanmar Army have denied making themthey constitute an act of the most serious violence against the media as a whole, creating a climate of fear with the aim of promoting one-sided and biased news that misinforms the people.

Furthermore, any threat to a lawful profession is unlawful.

The Irrawaddy has reported extensively on fighting between the AA and government troops since the outbreak of clashes in January, presenting views from both sides, as well as follow-ups on local people displaced by the fighting. As a news organization that has always reported every issue surrounding Myanmar without fear or favor, we totally condemn these threats. Be assured, we will not be cowed by so-called safety warnings from anonymous messengers.

More broadly, the death threats are putting Myanmars fledgling media freedoms at risk. Since the dawn of the era of press freedom in 2012, the countrys journalists have never faced a shortage of threats. Buddhist nationalists have brandished knives in their faces for their strong reporting favoring interfaith solidarity in the country. The government and military have targeted them for allegedly breaching the State Secrets Act and Unlawful Association Act over their reporting and traveling in rebel-controlled areas for news gathering. Individuals and the opposition party have filed lawsuits against them for exposing their shady business deals and corruption-tainted past. Now the attempted intimidation comes in the form of death threats from those who allegedly support the AA and the Army. All these threats are more or less a distraction to journalists who are doing their job. If they can no longer properly do what they are supposed to do, the public will sufferespecially from exposure to the fake news that has proliferated in todays social media-driven era.

It should go without saying that news outlets will never be discouraged by such intimidation. We understand that the threatened news outlets are preparing to submitsome already have donecomplaints over the threats to the government. Serious threats against members of a particular profession have been made. The authorities concerned must take the complaints seriously, and take steps to protect journalists. Myanmars top leaders shouldnt hesitate to tackle the problem for the sake of the survival of democracy in the countryespecially when their watchdog is under threat of death.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 8)  Former Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. is not pleased with the move of his predecessor and a former graft buster to ask the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute Chinese President Xi Jinping over Beijing's incursions in portions of the South China Sea claimed by Manila.

"I think it's political hogwash, to put it simply and politely," Yasay told CNN Philippines' The Source on Monday.

Yasay said the communication filed by former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario and former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales to ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda implies that Xi and President Rodrigo Duterte worked together in violating human rights and that Manila is not doing anything about this.

"It is really intended at the end of the day, not to improve our position with respect to what China is doing in this area, but more to embarrass the President," Yasay said. "I think, no matter how you look at it, the bottomline is just plain politics."

Del Rosario and Morales, who were both appointed by former President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, have denied that politics is behind their bid to haul Xi, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Zhao Jianhua to the ICC. They did not include Duterte in their communication to the ICC.

Anne Marie Corominas, a lawyer for the former Philippine officials, said that Duterte is not among the people they want prosecuted as he had no hand in China's alleged dredging and blocking of FIlipino fishermen in the West Philippine Sea, a portion of the South China Sea claimed by the Philippines.

The two former officials said China's activities have permanently destroyed the environment and caused Filipino fishermen to lose their livelihood, so Xi, Wang and Zhao should be charged with crimes against humanity for ordering and allowing these activities.

While denying politics, Del Rosario and Morales said in their communication that the present political climate in the Philippines is not conducive to any investigation or prosecution concerning the crimes allegedly committed by Beijing, citing Duterte's "deferential attitude" and "love" for Xi.
The April 2 election marked the first contested election for Rotering since she took office in 2011. She captured 72.4% of the vote, fending off a challenge from Bob Crimo, who finished with 27.6% of the vote, according to the Lake County Clerks office.
Monday, April 8th, 2019 (1:33 am) - Score 3,218

The UK Government is to publish a new Online Harms White Paper that proposes to establish a regulator for internet content, which among other things would be tasked with forcing websites to remove bad content (e.g. hate speech, fake news) and even blocking or imposing fines upon those that fail to comply.

Until now most of the online world has tended to operate through a system of self-regulation. Sadly some of those content providers have struggled to tackle recent challenges, such as election interference by foreign states (e.g. fake news propaganda), stamping out terrorist or criminal material online. Not to mention the plague of internet trolling (i.e. people who post generally abusive or harmful content) and fake news.

Lest we forget that the 2017 Conservative Party Manifesto promised to take steps to protect the vulnerable and give people confidence to use the internet without fear of abuse, criminality or exposure to horrific content. Indeed the principle of what theyd like to deliver is perfectly understandable, although there could be some negative consequences (more on that later).

Broadly speaking the new paper proposes to introduce a legal duty of care upon internet websites, which would be enforced by Ofcom or a new regulator via a code of practice. The key proposals are as follows.

Brief Summary of the Proposals  Establish a new regulator for internet content (possibly Ofcom, but yet to be decided).  Companies that ignore the rules could face huge fines and bosses who are proven to have been negligent of their responsibilities could also be held personally liable.  Social media sites will be expected to tackle a range of problem areas including inciting violence / spreading violent content (including terrorist content), encouraging self-harm or suicide, fake news / spreading disinformation, cyber bullying, child exploitation and abuse content.  Websites may also need to implement measures to prevent children accessing inappropriate material (Age Verification again?)  The rules will focus upon major social networks (Facebook, Twitter etc.) but also target smaller file-hosting sites, online forums, messaging services and even internet search engines.  Websites that fail to comply could be blocked. We assume this would have to be carried out by UK broadband ISPs, like the forthcoming porn blocks, and is thus likely to be easily circumvented.

The key focus of all this is clearly intended for the eyes of major content providers, with Twitter and Facebook being primary targets. On the other hand some would argue that theyve already taken significant steps to tackle such content and that rushing toward regulation may end up being counter-productive.

Theresa May, UK Prime Minister, said: 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. Online companies must start taking responsibility for their platforms, and help restore public trust in this technology.

Commercial websites, like those mentioned above, are highly likely to try and reduce their liability for bad content by introducing automated filtering systems, which are notorious for being overzealous and unable to understand context (e.g. people joking about blowing up a city vs actual terrorist discussions). The end result is usually significant over-blocking of lawful content (mass censorship).

In keeping with that theres the age old problem of how you define hate speech, as well as who decides what is fake news online in the first place and then separates that from related content, which may include criticism of the same subject, as well as satire, the right to cause offence, political free speech and so forth. Automated filters wont get this right.

Meanwhile theres still a big question mark over the accuracy and effectiveness of online Age Verification systems. Not to mention that the huge scale of recent hacks and personal data thefts has resulted in people becoming less likely to trust online services with their personal data, which doesnt bode well for anybody thinking of asking their users for more personal data or even financial details.

The Governments former culture secretary, John Whittingdale, has already spoken about the risk of creating a draconian censorship regime and of harming free speech like already happens in a number of places. 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.

UPDATE 9:31am

Details of the new code of practice, updated digital charter and online harms white paper have now been published. A consultation on the white paper will run until 23:59 on 1st July 2019.

UPDATE 3:18pm

The UK Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) has warned that ISPs will face growing challenges if required to block non-compliant sites.
Image courtesy of Gloria Keh

Interview: Gloria Keh

Luca Curci talks with Gloria Keh during THE BODY LANGUAGE 2019 at THE ROOM Contemporary Art Space.

Gloria Keh began painting as a child. Initially to supplement her pocket money, but now by the grace of God, she paints only for charity, with 100% of sales from her paintings being donated to charities of her buyers choice. Gloria believes in service to humanity. That we have taken so much from Mother Earth, and it is time we give back. Hence, she founded Circles of Love in 2008, a charity outreach programne, using her art to fundraise to support the needy. At 67, Gloria has showcased her works in 50 exhibitions both in her home country, Singapore, as well as internationally. She is the receipient of 9 international art awards.

Art is my life. My religion. My painted prayers, said Gloria.

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Image courtesy of Gloria Keh

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Luca Curci  Which subject are you working on?

Gloria Keh  A new series of black and white works on large canvases  abstracts with a graphic slant. As I love working on books, am currently working on a series of mandalas on paper on Chakras, the energy centers of the body.

LC  Whats your background?What is the experience that has influenced your work the most?

GK  I began painting as a child, as my late father, Martin Fu, was an oil painter. I sold my little artworks as a child mainly to artists who worked in an advertising agency. They bought my works to support me, encourage me to continue to paint, and some said that they liked the way I used colors and got some ideas from my works. Guess as a child, I just painted with wild abandon. With great freedom. Without editing and being concerned if a curator was going to like my work or not. But as an adult, I had to earn a living as a journalist, and only in my 40s, more than 20 years ago, did I devote myself fulltime to art. The experience that most influenced my passion for art and convinced me this was my path, was a mandala experience in a mandala class held in the Theosophical Society in Melbourne, Australia. The date was September 11th, 1997, and I was drawing a mandala that expressed my fears. I made a very colorful mandala mainly of orange and yellow with an explosion of bright colors radiating from the centre. The teacher reminded us to date our mandala, and I could not understand why symbolically, my fears were so bright in colors. Especially when others painted dark colored mandalas. Years later, after that infamous 9/11 when tragedy rocked New York city and changed our world, hence giving rise to the age of terrorism, I could finally understand my mandala of 9/11 in 1997. This made me respect the power of the mandala, and until the day I die, I will continue to make mandalas. This is my spiritual practice that I believe influences all my other works, especially my abstracts. Because of this incident, I learnt to trust my intuition above everything else, and hence I paint purely by intuition.

LC  Where do you find your inspiration?

GK  Mainly from Mother Nature, from music and poetry. And very often am inspired by the most insignificant of things, like a reflection on a small puddle of water, or an interesting shape of a stone. Also, the more I paint, the more I draw, the more I am fired to paint something else. It is as if each artwork is a springboard to another. To me, thats a very personal form of inspiration, coming from my Higher Self.

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Image courtesy of Gloria Keh

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LC  Did your style change over the years?

GK  I do not believe in painting in just one style. There are days I enjoy and need to just make art for my own personal pleasure. And daily I keep an art journal. In fact I keep more than one art journal, of varying sizes, and depending on my moods, I paint in some of them, or in all of them. Maintaining an art journal is an essential need for me  to paint, and share, and NOT sell. To engage in art for the sheer joy of it, and not for commercial reasons. And there are no doubt many days when I just have to express on large canvases. Yes, my style has changed through the passage of time. As a child I painted with great freedomthen for a while, I painted what was commercially viable. But now I paint what I want, when I want, and am less controlled. My style of art has come a full circle. I believe in freedom and dont follow manmade rules. I believe art is all about freedom. My sole and soul purpose is to paint. And to quote Saint Francis Xavier: What doth it profit a man, if he gains the whole world but suffers the loss of his soul.

LC  What is the most challenging part about creating your artwork?

GK  My physical limitations that have come about with medical and ageing issues. The lack of physical strength. That I am unable to work for the long stretches of hours that I could before. This is very frustrating at times. Now physiotherapy dictates that I change my bodily positions every hour or so, and I just find this extremely difficult when I am in the zone. So I persist and pay dearly the price of physical pain in pain-ting.

LC  We were attracted by your last artistic production.Has the artwork presented been created for the festival or as part of pre existing works?

GK  I have an ongoing Mother/Woman series because I love the female form. Woo-man that was exhibited at the festival was painted for my husband, and it hangs in his office. I had never promoted/exhibited it before, but felt it was appropriate for your theme The Body Language. Hence, decided to send it on a nice holiday to Venice. Lucky painting.

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Image courtesy of Gloria Keh

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LC  In which way the artwork presented in our exhibition is connected with the festivals theme?

GK  The title Woo-man is a play of the words to woo man. Without saying a word, the painting woos. And it woos not just men but women as well. The woman in the work is faceless. She does not speak, nor see, nor hear, nor smell, but uses the language of her body to allure, captivate and stir the imagination. The woman has long flowing hair, and this symbolises a very strong etheric and energy body thats essential for body language.

LC  Do you think ITSLIQUID GROUP can represent an opportunity for artists?

GK  Yes, most definitely so. That an artist can share the beauty and message of his or her work on an international platform. Art is a form of beauty, and beauty, which is also a form of healing, must always be shared.

LC  What are the suggestions about our services? Is there something more can provide to artists?

GK  I am very happy with the high level of services provided by your group. My only setback is the high courier costs in sending the works to Italy, and then bringing the works back to Singapore, but thats an issue not within your groups control. Perhaps a digital art exhibition on a big screen for foreign artists living outside of Europe might be an added attraction at your events? For artists like me, living in faraway Singapore, and who do not attend the events, it would be great to have more photos of our art at your shows. I know you do post general photos taken at your event but perhaps some more personalised photos of members of your staff with our exhibited works would be super.

LC  What do you think about ITSLIQUID platform?

GK  Personally, I have no complaints and thats why I have been participating in your shows for the past few years. I appreciate the professionalism of the group and am grateful for the support and help of your patient and kind staff. Am certainly looking forward to a long working relationship with your esteemed group.

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Global web host Amazon Web Services launched its AWS EdStart start-up accelerator last year, but is already seeing impressive results for at least two Australian entrepreneurs.

AWS EdStart provides AWS credits, mentorship, access to architect expertise, access to venture capitalists and more, explains Vincent Quah, Regional Head  Education, Research, Healthcare and Not-For-Profit APAC Public Sector AWS. However, entry is limited to companies that are under five years of age, have less than $10 million revenue, and importantly, are focused on the educational sector and its customers come from that sector.

We want to create an ecosystem for education tech startups, Quah said.

We help them understand the AWS range of service and design an architecture that scales up and takes security into consideration, he said. We provide AWS promotional credits so when they use the cloud services they can focus on the business solutions they deliver.

Companies do not graduate from AWS EdStart and are free to remain in the program, with continuing access to architects for guidance on new AWS services.

AWS has already seen successes in Australia, the likes of School Bytes and Saasyan, both of which have a clear solution and value for their customers.

School Bytes

School Bytes has the remarkable story of being founded by Blake Garrett as a year 12 student in 2015.

I was sitting in the office with office staff, who were printing a thousand pieces of paper. They were all individual statements of accounts, credit card requests and so on and were bundling them together. I asked why are you doing this? They said once a term, at least, they have to print out all these to request permission notes and other important parent correspondence, collate and fold them and put them into an envelope. I felt this was crazy, giving me the idea to streamline communication between the school and parents, Garrett explains.

The young entrepreneur built his first version of School Bytes which he installed at his high school alma mater, Chatswood High School, to email statements to parents, and also enable parents to pay online via a portal. They could see P&C committee items, permission notes and all sorts of useful items.

Garrett considered studying at University but his primary school, Artarmon Public, heard of Chatswood High Schools new software and were keen to get in on this new found productivity. The primary school offered to pay and Garrett knew he truly had found a genuine and widespread need, with schools seeking efficiencies in their administration.

Now 326 NSW Government schools are using the system. The AWS EdStart program helped immensely with scalability and uptime to meet demand, the installed base doubling year on year.

The company has grown to seven staff, with another four to five about to be hired, to keep up with demand for the features schools are requesting.

Theres no soon end to School Bytes market, with about 2,200 Government schools in NSW alone.

Garrett built School Bytes as a hobby to help Chatswood High School; he didnt imagine three years later he would have hundreds of schools using it on a daily basis.

Saasyan

Greg Margossian is an experienced IT professional and while consulting several years ago observed two private school clients were trying to manage their duty of care to students cyber well-being via web filtering or firewall blocking of bad websites, and thats as far as it went.

One school discussed with Margossian how much better it would be if there was a piece of software, deliverable over the cloud, that was simple enough for non-IT people to report on web activity, or add and remove blocks, or similar functions.

This was a problem worth solving, he thought and created Saasyan, a SaaS solution with Web filtering and reporting. The school purchase the product and other schools came along interested in what it could do for them.

While Saasyan already made managing web filtering vastly simpler for schools than logging a ticket for a specialised resource to modify router configurations, the product developed as schools discussed with Margossian their pastoral care obligations, and how data around potentially dangerous Internet activity or cyber-bullying, would provide very helpful visibility.

For example, if a student was searching for a suicide hotline on a regular basis the school could identify this and refer the student to counselling staff, Margossian explained.

Other schools wanted to control classroom content, either allowing or preventing student access to particular Internet services with simple actions they could perform.

Saasyan now has five full-time employees and is looking to hire two more.

The company joined AWS EdStart in August 2018 and Margossian states it has been helpful to receive cloud credits, participate in meetups, and have access to AWS solutions architects and other resources who act as a sounding board.

The whole area of cyber-welfare or e-citizenship is new and schools are coming to realise how important it is, Margossian says. It just takes a Google search to see if someone has a bad social profile. It is important and schools have to be diligent in educating kids, he said.
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.
Within Reach

Ron Stokes-Walters wasnt sure if he was Hopkins material at first.

After finishing an undergraduate degree in English Literature at the University of Tennessee, Stokes-Walters joined the Peace Corps for a two-year program, which he extended into a third year. He'd started out teaching English in Northern Benin in a remote area when a cholera outbreak struck the community where he was living. The absence of support received by local health care actors and the spread of fear and rumors about the outbreak's origins prompted Stokes-Walterss interest in public health, specifically the various cultural and social factors that impact a community's health. In his third year, he shifted to working in a public health position in sanitation where he met people from all over the world working in WASH development in the region.

As he finished his Peace Corps service, Stokes-Walters began thinking about graduate school in public health.

Obviously, when you search for public health schools, Hopkins is at the top, he says. It seemed like every other person I met in the development community where I was serving [in the Peace Corps] was a Bloomberg School alum. But I thought it was out of reach for me at first. I didnt have a hard science background or a strong base in technical research methodology.

Then, one of Stokes-Walterss supervisors, himself an MPH alum, suggested that he look into different programs at the Bloomberg School. This is how Stokes-Walters found the Master of Science in Public Health program in International Health.

Stokes-Walters knew he wanted to pursue work in international health and, through his experience with the Peace Corps, knew he wanted to focus on social and behavioral interventions. He also knew he needed a solid background in areas like biostatistics and epidemiology without being completely overwhelmed by math, he jokes.

I wanted to focus more on research like health behavior change, health communications, things like that, he recalls. I was browsing through the different degree programs and found I was qualified for the MSPH.

Another potential roadblock, hed assumed, would be cost. But when Stokes-Walters crunched the numbers, Hopkins came up as the most affordable option.

Baltimore has a lower cost of living than other cities with top-rated schools of public health, and the MSPH program to which Stokes-Walters applied required only one year of coursework plus a capstone.

On top of the cost savings incurred by those factors, a friend and alum told Stokes-Walters to look into the masters tuition scholarship (MTS), which provides eligible students in certain programs a 75 percent tuition discount during the second year of study.

The MTS is a department-dependent scholarship, and requirements vary slightly for each department. Stokes-Walterswho was accepted to the MSPH program in International Healthwas able to complete all of his coursework in the first year of the program and then finished the programs required internship credits in the second year. (For more details about the MTS, please view the department breakdown on the Scholarships page.)

Every other program I got into was a traditional two-year program where you take classes every single semester, he says. In total [at Hopkins], I paid a year and a quarter of tuition rather than two years of tuition plus a higher cost of living.

But cost savings turned out to be only one benefit of choosing Hopkins. Another plus: the opportunity to conduct field research in a place to which he already had a strong connection.

Beyond Coursework: Global Health Established Field Placement

Stokes-Walters was in the midst of his MSPH in Social and Behavioral Interventions coursework when his mentor, Peter Winch, mentioned a research project in West Africa that might align with his interests. As one of the PIs for the project, Winch encouraged him to check it out. Theres a way to have it funded, and I think youd be a good fit for it. You should apply, Stokes-Walters remembers Winch telling him.

Eager to get back to working in francophone West Africa, Stokes-Walters applied for the Global Health Established Field Placement project in Guinea and was accepted. Under Winchs supervision, the team was working in a collaboration led by Helen Keller Internationals Guinea country office on a study of the various decision-making processes driving food choices in informal mining communities, with the goal of creating a Behavior Change Communications toolkit and policy recommendations for local actors.

The team was charged with interviewing individuals who, lured by the possibility of better economic prospects, abandoned their farms to go work in the mines. With more reliable paychecks, the former farmers now had money to spend on foodonly no one was growing food anymore. What had been an agricultural society was no longer producing its own food.

Theyre not farming anymore so they have money to buy food. But they have to buy food because they arent farming anymore, Stokes-Walters says. Im really interested in exploring how that might be affecting some of the choices people are making about the food that they eat and how it might be impacting their nutritional status.

The Guinea research project was focused on how farming-turned-mining community members define and talk about the food they eat, as well as gaining a better understanding of what was available in these communities. Stokes-Walterss work involved capturing the nuances of language and cultural contexts. In past experiences of implementing behavior campaigns and surveys, he had worked with materials typically created by researchers in Western cities or even a nearby capital, and then translated into French or a local language.

A lot of stuff gets lost in translation, he says. How you phrase something in the local language really impacts the way that its understood.

It is critical that when a behavior change communication strategy is developed, its written in a way that will match up with what people understand about food and about health, he says.

Joseph Lamile Songbono, Lecturer Universite Julius Nyerere de Kankan and DFC Guinea Study Team Supervisor (left) with Ron Stokes-Walters.

Stokes-Walters was also thrilled to be back in West Africa. Shortly before Tabaski, the Islamic holiday also known as Eid al-Adha, in August 2018, he and a team of researchers were en route to one of their work sites, an isolated village in Guinea. Just north of Sierra Leone and due west of Mali, Guinea has a thriving mining trade, and communities of miners have popped up around what were traditionally agricultural areas. Stokes-Walters and his team were headed to one of these communities.



The group first needed to cross the Niger River. It was early evening rush hour at the crossinglocals were herding large groups of livestock in anticipation of Tabaski, when animals are slaughtered for feasts in honor of Ibrahim and his willingness to sacrifice his son. Amid the noise and throngs of people at the crossing, Stokes-Walters found a moment of peace.

It was one of the few times [during that trip] that I was able to stop my brain a little bit and just appreciate. The river crossing was really pretty and the sun was going down. I thought, I like this. This is what Im familiar with. This was exactly where he wanted to be.

Career Catalyst

Ron Stokes-Walters graduated with his MSPH in December 2018. His Global Health Established Field Placement had affirmed his desire to work internationally on public health project development and implementation.

One of the reasons I enjoy this work so much is that there are very concrete things that will be done with the research that directly impact those communities, he says.

Theres a Shakespeare quote thats stuck with me for a whileLight, seeking light, doth light of light beguile. Research knowledge just for the point of knowledge is useful up to a certain point, but I believe there always needs to be some future use for it.

In February 2019, Stokes-Walters began working as a research support officer with Action Against Hunger-USA. In this role, hell help develop new research proposals and opportunities and help design new strategies and priorities for identifying drivers of undernutrition.

Its right up my alley in terms of the type of operational and programmatic research I want to be involved in! he says.

As it turns out, Stokes-Walterswith his drive, research focus and international experience working in program development in West Africawas absolutely Hopkins material.

By Lindsay Smith Rogers

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Tramble was set for trial April 29 on the home invasion case, but defense attorney John Murphy said Monday that, with the new charges being more serious than the charges against him in the first case, that trial would likely be postponed.
TORONTO, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- G2 Goldfields Inc. (TSXV:GTWO) (formerly Sandy Lake Gold Inc.) (TSXV:SLAU) (the Company) commences trading today under the new Company name and symbol TSXV:GTWO on a consolidated basis of one (1) new common share for every two (2) existing common shares (see press release of Sandy Lake Gold Inc. dated April 4, 2019 available at SEDAR.com).

The Company is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Stephen Stow as an Independent Director of the Company. Mr. Stow has been an adviser, investor, and executive engaged in various resource driven opportunities and startups for the last 30 plus years. He has global executive experience in management of private and public companies. Mr. Stow served as the President & CEO of Odin Mining & Exploration Ltd from 1994, until it became Lumina Gold Corp. in 2015, and since 2015 has remained a director. Mr. Stow currently serves as an Independent Director of Amarillo Gold Corporation.

Patrick Sheridan, CEO of G2 Goldfields commented: "We are grateful to have Stephen join our Board of Directors, his global experience will be a valuable addition to the Company in advancing its exploration strategies in the Americas.

Sandy Lake gold project update

The Company also reports the continuation of the diamond drilling program at the NW Arm of the Weebigee Claim package. A total of 5 diamond drill holes varying in length from 240 meters to 340 meters have been completed to date; drilling at DDH 6 is underway.

The core is currently being logged and split for assay. This orientated core logging program will enable our geological team to determine the structural and lithological controls of the mineralisation encountered in the NW Arm where the current program has been focussed.

G2 Goldfields Inc. wishes to thank the Chief, Council and members of the Sandy Lake First Nation for their support and assistance as we continue to build upon a long term beneficial relationship of economic and community development.

Gold mineralisation at Sandy Lake is hosted within a greenstone sequence of Volcanics, Sediments and Banded Iron Formation analogous to the Musselwhite district located 150km to the SE. This drill program in the NW Arm, where previous outcrop sampling has returned values of up to 113 g/t gold, will target zones of high chargeability within magnetic (iron rich) units around the closure of a regional scale, SE plunging fold.

About G2 Goldfields Inc.

G2 Goldfields Inc. is a Toronto based mineral exploration company focused on the exploration and development of the Sandy Lake Gold project in Canada and proposed acquisition of the Aremu - Oko and Peters Mine properties in Guyana.

The Sandy Lake gold project comprises an approximate 51,000 hectares of contiguous mineral claim units in the underexplored Sandy Lake Archean Greenstone Belt in Northwestern Ontario. In 2014, a limited drill program in the western part of the Sandy Lake claim package returned high grade gold intercepts of 12.86 Au g/t over 6.85 meters and 12.17 Au g/t over 6.2 meters (see press release of Goldeye Exploration Ltd. dated April 9, 2014 available at SEDAR.com).

The Aremu  Oko and Peters Mine properties are 2 of the 4 past producing historical mines in Guyana. The properties total approximately 25,888 acres and are located in the Cuyuni-Mazarumi Region (Region 7) of north-central Guyana in the Guiana Shield.

All scientific and technical information in this press release has been prepared under the supervision of Dan Noone (Director of G2 Goldfields Inc.), a qualified person within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Noone (B.Sc Geology, MBA) is a member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists.

For further information please contact:

Patrick Sheridan

Executive Chairman & CEO

(416) 628-5904

Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains certain forward-looking information and statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. The use of any of the words expect, anticipate, continue, estimate, may, might, will, project, should, believe, plans, intends and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking information and/or statements. Forward-looking statements and/or information are based on a number of material factors, expectations and/or assumptions of G2 Goldfields which have been used to develop such statements and/or information but which may prove to be incorrect. Although Sandy Lake believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements and/or information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements as G2 Goldfields can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. In addition to other factors and assumptions which may be identified herein, assumptions have been made regarding, among other things: receipt of all applicable regulatory and shareholder approvals to complete the Acquisition; results from planned exploration and drilling activities; future plans for operational expenditures; the accuracy of the interpretations of exploration and drilling activity results; availability of financing (including with respect to the Private Placement) to fund current and future plans and expenditures; the impact of increasing competition; the general stability of the economic and political environment in which G2 Goldfields has property interests; the general continuance of current industry conditions; aboriginal matters; the timely receipt of any required regulatory approvals; the ability of G2 Goldfields to obtain qualified staff, equipment and/or services in a timely and cost efficient manner; the ability of the operator of each project in which G2 Goldfields has property interests to operate in a safe, efficient and/or effective manner and to fulfill its respective obligations and current plans; future commodity prices; currency, exchange and/or interest rates; and the regulatory framework regarding royalties, taxes and/or environmental matters in the jurisdictions in which G2 Goldfields has property interests. The forward-looking information and statements included in this news release are not guarantees of future performance and should not be unduly relied upon. Such information and/or statements, including the assumptions made in respect thereof, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results and/or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information and/or statements including, without limitation: risks associated with the uncertainty of exploration results and estimates, currency fluctuations, the uncertainty of conducting operations under a foreign regime, exploration risk, the uncertainty of obtaining all applicable regulatory approvals, the availability of labour and/or equipment, the fluctuating prices of commodities, the availability of financing and dependence on the management personnel of the Corporation, other participants in the property areas and/or certain other risks detailed from time-to-time in G2 Goldfields public disclosure documents (including, without limitation, those risks identified in this news release and G2 Goldfieldss current managements discussion and analysis). Furthermore, the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as at the date of this news release and the Corporation does not undertake any obligations to publicly update and/or revise any of the included forward-looking statements, whether as a result of additional information, future events and/or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable securities laws.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy and / or accuracy of this release.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Asanko Gold Inc. (Asanko or the Company) (TSX, NYSE American: AKG) is pleased to announce initial drill results from the Tontokrom exploration target, part of the Asanko Gold Mine (AGM) concession area in Ghana, West Africa. The AGM is a 50:50 joint venture (JV) with Gold Fields Ltd (JSE, NYSE: GFI) which is managed and operated by Asanko.

Drilling Highlights - Tontokrom Target

Hole TTPC19-001 intersected 13.0m at 2.62 grams per tonne gold from 128m

Hole TTPC19-002 intersected 22.0m at 1.24 grams per tonne gold from 156m

Hole TTPC19-002 intersected 39.0m at 1.82 grams per tonne gold from 189m

Hole TTPC19-004 intersected 12.0m at 1.45 grams per tonne gold from 199m

Hole TTPC19-006A intersected 11.8m at 1.69 grams per tonne gold from 182m

Hole TTPC19-006A intersected 22.9m at 1.48 grams per tonne gold from 242m

Hole TTPC19-006A intersected 16.4m at 2.38 grams per tonne gold from 280.6m

Commenting on the drilling program, Greg McCunn, Chief Executive Officer, said: The results from the Phase 1 drilling program at Tontokrom are very encouraging, with results from six of the nine holes drilled confirming the consistency of mineralization along the shear corridor. We believe there is a strong potential for a major discovery at the South Camp and Im pleased to see the commitment to exploration by our joint venture. We will shortly commence initial drilling on our second target, Fromenda, where historical drilling by a previous owner shows significant promise. The planned 5,000 meter program is designed to both confirm and expand upon previous drilling.

Exploration Strategy

The AGM JV holds a major land package of 21,300 hectares on the Asankagrawa Gold Belt. In 2017, the Company undertook a prospectivity analysis assessing the potential of identified exploration targets based on structural architecture, geochemistry, geological mapping and topography. An exploration strategy was developed, in collaboration with our JV partner, to test high priority targets in order to replace mining depletion with resources near existing mining operations and infrastructure as well as test potential new discoveries. In 2019, the JV plans to spend US$8 million on exploration including approximately 10,000 metres of drilling as well as additional geochemistry, ground geophysics, field mapping and trenching work.

Tontokrom Target

The Tontokrom target is located on the Miradani Mining Lease, which covers an area of 14.3km2 and is approximately 10km south of the AGM processing plant, along the northeast southwest Asankrangwa structural corridor, which hosts all nine of the AGMs gold deposits (Figure 1).

The area is highly prospective and the site of major historic small scale and alluvial mining operations. Multiple historical geochemical anomalies are coincident with the target, and primary and secondary structures known to control mineralization in the belt have been interpreted from the airborne VTEM and magnetic surveys and extensively mapped on the ground.

Five historic trenches with encouraging results were excavated in the Tontokrom area by Ashanti Goldfields in the 1990s. Despite this, the Tontokrom target has not been previously drill tested. The area has been subjected to small scale mining activities for over 25 years, which have excavated a small pit over a portion of the target measuring 320m long by 150m wide and is estimated to be approximately 30m deep from the current land surface (Figure 2).

Phase 1 Drill Program  Tontokrom Target

A Phase 1 drill program was designed to test the approximately 320m strike length of the existing pit. The 3,139m program consisted of 12 holes pre-collared to various depths with reverse circulation (RC) drills and completed with HQ diamond drilling (Figure 2). Due to poor ground conditions surrounding the existing pit, drill holes were set back from the pit edge resulting in deeper holes than would normally be drilled in a Phase 1 drilling program. Despite this, of the 12 holes completed in the program, nine were drilled to their intended depth and three were abandoned due to poor ground conditions before reaching their intended targets. Phase 1 drilling has now been completed with results received for six of the nine drill holes (Table 1).

Drilling results are encouraging, with economic intercepts being encountered in five of the six completed drill holes. TTPC19-003 was drilled NE of the existing pit and did not intercept economic mineralization. Significant intercepts encountered in TTPC19-006A, drilled furthest to the southwest, indicate that mineralization is open along strike and will be tested in a Phase 2 drilling program at a later date.

Table 1: Significant intercepts from the first six holes of the Phase 1 drill program*

Hole ID From To Interval Grade Intercept (m) (m) (m) (g/t) TTPC19-001 128 141 13 2.62 13m @ 2.62 g/t TTPC19-001 162 172 10 1.07 10m @ 1.07 g/t TTPC19-002 68 85 17 1.1 17m @ 1.10 g/t TTPC19-002 91 107 16 1.73 16m @ 1.73 g/t TTPC19-002 149 152 3 25.53 3m @ 25.53 g/t TTPC19-002 156 178 22 1.24 22m @ 1.24 g/t TTPC19-002 189 228 39 1.82 39m @ 1.82 g/t TTPC19-004 199 211 12 1.45 12m @ 1.45 g/t TTPC19-006A 182 194 12 1.69 12m @ 1.69 g/t TTPC19-006A 242 265 23 1.48 23m @ 1.48 g/t TTPC19-006A 281 297 16 2.38 16m @ 2.38 g/t

*Note: For full drill intercepts and relevant sections, please see Appendix 1 of this news release.

Fromenda Target

A second drill program has been designed to drill test the Fromenda Target, which is located approximately 10kms further southwest of the Tontokrom Target along the same highly prospective Fromenda Shear Corridor.

The target was historically drill tested by PMI Ventures Ltd. (PMI Gold Corporation Pty Ltd.) in 2003 and 2004 producing significant exploration results (refer to Table 2) that warrant a new round of drilling. The program is expected to drill approximately 5,000m of RC and DD focusing on confirming historic mineralization and stepping out along strike and to depth, and will commence in Q2 2019.

Table 2: Historic key drill intercepts on the Fromenda Target*

Hole ID From To Interval Grade Intercept (m) (m) (m) (g/t) FNBRC007 14 23 9 13.83 9m @ 13.83 g/t 03FBRC036 0 4 4 25.30 4m @ 25.30 g/t 03FBDDH001 44 74 30 2.63 30m @ 2.63 g/t 03FBDDH007 48 62 14 5.58 14m @ 5.58 g/t 03FBDDH007 68 72 4 10.89 4m @ 10.89 g/t 03FBDDH012 6 12 6 2.29 6m @ 2.29 g/t 04FBDDH005 5 12 7 9.71 7m @ 9.71 g/t 04FBDDH007 14 23 9 8.76 9m @ 8.76 g/t 04FBDDH007 59 86 27 4.89 27m @ 4.89 g/t FNBRC009 23 70 47 1.13 47m @ 1.13 g/t FNBRC010 2 7 5 6.99 5m @ 6.99 g/t 03FBRC036 36 41 5 6.13 5m @ 6.13 g/t

*Note: Historical drill resulst can be found in news releases issued by PMI Gold Corp at various times in 2003 and 2004, these releases are available at www.sedar.com

QA/QC

Drill samples are being analyzed at the Intertek Laboratory in Tarkwa, Ghana by 50g fire assay. Initial observations indicate some coarse gold component and follow up screen fire assay analysis is being considered. Intervals are calculated using a 0.5 g/t cut-off and three metres maximum internal dilution. Reposted widths are drilled intervals and true widths vary depending on drill orientation and are not fully understood at this time. Assay values are uncut.

Qualified Person Statements

Benjamin Gelber (P.Geo), Group Geology Manager, is the Asanko Qualified Person, as defined by Canadian National Instrument 43-101 (Standards of Mineral Disclosure), who has approved the preparation of the technical contents of this news release.

About Asanko Gold Inc.

Asankos flagship project, located in Ghana, West Africa, is the jointly owned Asanko Gold Mine with Gold Fields Ltd, which Asanko manages and operates. The Company is strongly committed to the highest standards for environmental management, social responsibility, and health and safety for its employees and neighbouring communities. For more information, please visit www.asanko.com.

Forward-Looking and other Cautionary Information

This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address estimated resource quantities, grades and contained metals, possible future mining, exploration and development activities, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes the forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements should not be in any way construed as guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices for metals, the conclusions of detailed feasibility and technical analyses, the timely renewal of key permits, lower than expected grades and quantities of resources, mining rates and recovery rates and the lack of availability of necessary capital, which may not be available to the Company on terms acceptable to it or at all. The Company is subject to the specific risks inherent in the mining business as well as general economic and business conditions. For more information on the Company, investors should review the Company's Annual Form 40-F filing with the United States Securities Commission and its home jurisdiction filings that are available at www.sedar.com.

Neither Toronto Stock Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Note to US Investors Regarding Mineral Reporting Standards:

Asanko has prepared its disclosure in accordance with the requirements of securities laws in effect in Canada, which differ from the requirements of US securities laws. Terms relating to mineral resources in this press release are defined in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects under the guidelines set out in the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum (the CIM Council) Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves (the CIM Definition Standards). The Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) has adopted amendments to its disclosure rules to modernize the mineral property disclosure requirements for issuers whose securities are registered with the SEC. As a result of the adoption of the SEC Modernization Rules, SEC will now recognize estimates of measured mineral resources, indicated mineral resources and inferred mineral resources that are substantially similar to the corresponding terms under the CIM Definition Standards. In addition, the SEC has amended its definitions of proven mineral reserves and probably mineral reserves to be substantially similar to the corresponding CIM Definitions. United States investors are cautioned that while the above terms are substantially similar to CIM Definitions, there is no assurance any mineral reserves or mineral resources that the Company may report as proven reserves, probable reserves, measured mineral resources, indicated mineral resources and inferred mineral resources under NI 43-101 would be the same had the Company prepared the reserve or resource estimates under the standards adopted under the SEC Modernization Rules.

Appendix 1

Table 3: Collar location table for Tontokrom Phase 1 exploration drilling program

Hole ID Easting Northing RL Azimuth Dip Depth RC Pre-collar

(m) Total Depth

(m) TTPC19-001 611065.81 691976.53 145.04 130 -45 111 248.7 TTPC19-002 610979.25 691931.85 144.49 130 -45 111 255 TTPC19-003 611137.33 692015.77 145.27 130 -45 66 249 TTPC19-004 610918.42 691900.85 147.29 130 -45 102 300 TTPC19-005 611210.78 691736.45 163.23 310 -45 114 360 TTPC19-005A 611212.42 691734.05 163.35 311 -45 114 422.5 TTPC19-006 611125.58 691690.12 165.93 310 -45 61 61 TTPC19-006A 611126.64 691691.45 165.85 310 -45 102 350 TTPC19-007 610930.97 691916.97 153 130 -58 102 101.5 TTPC19-008 610931.32 691919.15 146.27 130 -58 72 453.2 TTPC19-009 610976.27 691930.68 144.82 130 -61 60 366.2 TTPC19-010 611047.36 691998.69 145.35 130 -56 65.5 350

Table 4: Initial drill results from the Tontokrom Phase 1 exploration program

Hole ID Easting Northing Elevation Azimuth Dip Depth (m) From (m) To (m) Length (m) Grade (g/t) Grade Thickness (m) TTPC19-001 611066 691977 145.04 130 -45 248.7 87 89 2 3.22 6.44 128 141 13 2.62 34.06 Including 132 139 7 4.08 28.56 152 154 2 0.97 1.94 162 172 10 1.07 10.70 197 206 9 0.69 6.21 TTPC19-002 610979 691932 144.49 130 -45 255 68 85 17 1.1 18.70 91 107 16 1.73 27.68 114 116 2 1.76 3.52 120 122 2 1.2 2.40 149 152 3 25.53 76.59 156 178 22 1.24 27.28 189 228 39 1.82 70.98 Including 211 218 7 3.40 23.80

Hole ID Easting Northing Elevation Azimuth Dip Depth (m) From (m) To (m) Length (m) Grade (g/t) Grade Thickness (m) TTPC19-004 610918 691901 147.29 130 -45 300 32 38 6 0.61 3.66 84 88 4 0.95 3.80 105 107 2 1.92 3.84 150 152 2 1.08 2.16 160 174 14 0.82 11.48 182 189 7 1.52 10.64 199 211 12 1.45 17.40 TTPC19-005 611211 691736 163.23 310 -45 360 229 231 2 1.04 2.08 TTPC19-005A 611212 691734 163.35 311 -45 422.5 294 296.5 2.5 0.99 2.48 307 309.3 2.3 0.81 1.86 312.73 321 8.27 1.12 9.26 342 345 3 1.27 3.81 TTPC19-006A 611127 691691 165.85 310 -45 350 17 19 2 0.56 1.12 36 39 3 1.67 5.01 182 193.8 11.8 1.69 19.94 201 203 2 0.82 1.64 242 264.9 22.9 1.48 33.89 270.6 275 4.4 9.24 40.66 280.6 297 16.4 2.38 39.03 Including 293.5 294.5 1 19.09 19.09 305.1 309.3 4.2 1.7 7.14 315 319.1 4.1 2.19 8.98

Notes:

Intervals calculated with a 0,5 g/t cut-off and three metres maximum internal dilution

True widths vary depending on drill orientation

UTMs are WGS84 - Zone 30N

All grades are uncut
Aurora, Ontario / TheNewswire / April 8, 2019 - Tri Origin Exploration Ltd. (TSX-V: TOE) ("Tri Origin" or the "Company") is pleased to report updated information and exploration plans for the coming season at its key gold and base metal projects in northern Ontario.

GOLD ZONE MODELLING AND ASSAYING AT SKY LAKE PROJECT

At the Company's Sky Lake project 25 kilometres southwest of the Pickle Lake Gold District in northwest Ontario revisions to modelling of gold deposits partially delineated by shallow drilling conducted during the 1950's has been completed. This work has clarified the continuity and extent of the deposits and has led to the identification of important target areas along the 1.5 kilometre long trend of known gold mineralization. In addition, previously unreported assays for 33 grab samples of volcanic, sedimentary and sulphide-bearing altered rock collected in the vicinity of this gold trend were received by the Company. Of these, 7 returned values of greater than 1.0 gram of gold per tonne ("g/t") and an additional 9 samples returned values between 0.1 and 1.0 g/t. The majority of these samples were collected along a 500 metre long corridor which is interpreted to correlate with the surface projection of the gold deposits. Outcrop exposure at the property is limited and it is significant that this amount of gold was detected in random sampling only where permitted by outcrop exposure. Furthermore, a previously unknown zone of gold mineralization located 750 metres to the southwest returned values of up to 1.2 g/t of gold.

Management is encouraged by these results. The partially delineated gold deposits at Sky Lake are open along strike and at depth. The next phase of work is to conduct "deep-looking" induced polarization ("IP") surveying along this gold-enriched trend to detect and prioritize depth extensions of the known deposits. These extensions will be targeted for upcoming drilling.

GOLD ZONES TARGETED FOR CONTINUED DRILLING AT NORTH ABITIBI PROJECT

Analytical work and geophysical modelling have been ongoing over the winter season at the Company's North Abitibi gold project located 150 kilometres north and northeast of the Kirkland Lake and Timmins Mining Districts, respectively. A preliminary diamond drilling program completed at the North Abitibi project (Tri Origin News Release December 5, 2018) targeted "deep" IP responses and results were positive with all of the holes drilled intersecting gold mineralization. Consistent, strongly anomalous gold-bearing rock has been traced in two zones with a collective strike length of over 2.5 kilometres. Drill holes along this mineralized trend are tightly-spaced although only shallow drilling has been conducted with intersections rarely exceeding 150 metres in depth. A drill program is planned to test the zones at deeper levels.

A key result from the recent modelling is that it has enabled the interpretation of technical results from a previously completed deep IP survey to be tied directly and accurately to gold zones in drill holes. With the exception of an area at the Road Gold Zone excavated by Tri Origin, all of the North Abitibi property is covered by a mantle of glacial overburden. Because of this, matching of geophysical responses to their actual geological source and confirming which geophysical responses are due to gold-bearing rock is of considerable importance. The knowledge recently gained will enhance targeting of future drill holes at the many yet to be drilled IP anomalies in the vicinity of known gold zones.

The next phase of work at North Abitibi is to test for orebody-scale gold lodes extending to depth within the district-scale, near-surface zone of gold mineralization outlined to date.

GOLD ASSAYS AT TRI ORIGIN'S SOUTH ABITIBI GOLD - COBALT PROPERTY

Significant areas of gold enrichment have been delineated at the Company's South Abitibi project in the Cobalt-Temagami region of Ontario. South Abitibi covers a 15 kilometre by 5 kilometre area located 20 kilometres southwest of the town of Cobalt along the south margin of the Abitibi Greenstone Belt. Sampling programs were conducted on behalf of an Alliance entered into between Tri Origin and Sumitomo Metal Mining Canada Ltd. to explore for gold and base metals in the southern Abitibi. During Alliance activities, assay results from surface sampling were not released publically by Tri Origin due to the structure of the Alliance agreement. During late 2018, Sumitomo informed Tri Origin of its withdrawal from the Alliance. This has now left Tri Origin with a 100% interest in the South Abitibi project.

Over 100 grab samples were taken while prospecting around exposed Abitibi belt rocks within a northwest-trending corridor 10 kilometres in length by 2 kilometres wide. Gold content in 10 of these samples was above 1.0 gram of gold per tonne ("g/t"). An additional 50 of these samples reported assay values between 0.1 and 1.0 g/t. As reported in a Tri Origin news release of August 8, 2018, a newly discovered zone of pyritic, gold mineralization was intersected in two drill holes located 450 metres apart which returned assays of up to 1.49 g/t of gold across 0.5 metres and an adjacent 1 metre interval grading 0.54 g/t. These were the only two holes located within the larger-scale trend of surface gold occurrences and no previous exploration has been conducted at this newly recognized occurrence. The geophysical anomaly representing this gold occurrence was not the primary target of either drill hole and similar geophysical anomalies remain undrilled. The relationship between gold occurrences identified during regional prospecting and those intersected by preliminary drilling remains to be understood. Further field work is required to determine the continuity and extent of these newly discovered gold-bearing rocks.

In addition, during Alliance activities a number of cobalt occurrences were identified within Proterozoic-age sedimentary rock and Nipissing diabase which cover the Abitibi belt rocks across most of the property. Cobalt was not a focus of Alliance activities and these occurrences were not investigated. The cobalt occurrences also require detailed field evaluation.

Management believes that the South Abitibi property warrants additional exploration for gold in the predominately covered Abitibi Greenstone Belt rocks and also for cobalt in the younger, sedimentary cover rocks and Nipissing diabase sills. The Company is designing programs to advance the South Abitibi project based on these recent results. It will consider whether to conduct this work in-house or to seek joint venture partners to advance the project.

The Company looks forward to continuing its exploration activities to evaluate high-priority targets at its key projects during 2019. Shareholders will be informed of the details of each program as they are commenced.

For further information, please refer to the Company's website www.triorigin.com or SEDAR www.sedar.com or contact:

Dr. Robert Valliant, President

Tri Origin Exploration Ltd.

Tel: (905) 727-1779

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Tri Origin Exploration Ltd. is publicly listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the trading symbol TOE. Tri Origin is a leading Canadian exploration company with gold and base metal projects in Canada.

Gold analyses of samples from the Sky Lake, North Abitibi and South Abitibi projects were conducted by SGS Canada Inc. of Lakefield, Ontario using SGS fire assay-atomic absorption method GE_FAI313 with a detection limit of 1 ppb of gold.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT: Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This press release may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to vary materially from targeted results. Such risks and uncertainties include those described in Tri Origin's periodic reports including the annual report or in the filings made by Tri Origin from time to time with securities regulatory authorities.
Maybe another reason why most Lake County voters flunked their civic duty was the lack of contested races in many municipalities, school and park districts. Some communities couldnt even find hopefuls to run for office. Such as in Lake Villa where three trustee posts were up for election, but only two candidates filed, according to the clerks tallies.
North Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 8, 2019) - Lion One Metals Limited (TSXV: LIO) (OTCQX: LOMLF) (ASX: LLO) ("Lion One" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that its recently appointed technical advisor, Quinton Hennigh and its geology team, have undertaken a thorough evaluation of its 100% controlled Tuvatu high-grade gold deposit and adjacent tenure within the Navilawa caldera, Viti Levu, Fiji and developed aggressive plans to explore the full extent of this very large gold system.

Lion One controls all of the large Navilawa caldera, an expansive alkaline gold system of which the Company's Tuvatu high-grade vein deposit is a small part. Alkaline gold deposits share geologic similarities with low sulfidation epithermal vein deposits, but can now be considered to constitute their own class of gold deposit. Alkaline gold systems commonly display the following characteristics:

Demonstrable connection to alkaline magmatism, both volcanic and plutonic.

Large, often nebulous alteration systems dominated by potassium enrichment.

General scarcity of silica within the alteration assemblage and in veins. While quartz is often present, veins are often dominated by potassium feldspar and carbonate minerals.

Limited clay alteration.

Overall low abundance of sulfide minerals.

A large vertical profile, often in excess of 1,000 m.

Gold deposition driven by fluid phase separation, hydrothermal "flashing," cooling and fluid mixing.

"Veins" that are commonly comprised of interconnected narrow veinlets. Individual veinlets commonly display extremely high gold grades such that a few small veinlets can carry economic mineralization over mineable widths.

"Spider web" like networks of veins sometimes displaying a feeder structure at their core.

Multiple mineralized centers within the great gold system.

Gold occurring as native gold, gold tellurides, gold-bearing pyrite.

Enrichment in elements including As, Te, Mo, Zn, F and Bi.

Ag-to-Au ratios generally 1-to-1 or less.

Large gold endowment. Alkaline gold deposits are some of the largest gold deposits on earth. Examples include Cripple Creek (Colorado), Lihir and Porgera (PNG), Macassa (Ontario) and Vatukoula (Fiji).

In late 2017, Lion One was informed it had won the tender process for the remainder of the Navilawa caldera, a large alkaline magmatic complex measuring approximately 7 km in diameter and situated approximately 40 km southwest of the large Vatukoula alkaline gold complex. In order to fully define the extent of gold mineralization at Navilawa, Lion One plans to undertake specialized stream sediment sampling using a technique called bulk leach extractable gold ("BLEG") over the entire concession area. BLEG sampling produces highly sensitive results that can help define and prioritize mineralized areas. Work will commence after the rainy season has concluded. Results will help guide further prospecting and target identification.

To better define the underlying structural controls that hosts the high-grade vein network in the Navilawa caldera, an initial CSAMT (controlled-source audio-frequency magnetotellurics) program will be undertaken. CSAMT is the lead targeting tool utilized in other world class alkaline systems such as at Cripple Creek, Colorado, where it is used to identify mineralized structural zones to depths of up to 1,000m. Lion One also plans to collect closed-spaced gravity measurements to help elucidate structural controls. Geophysical surveys can commence following the rainy season. CSAMT and gravity surveys will help identify potentially mineralized structures to enable Lion One to better target future drill holes.

Lion One team of geologists will continue their ongoing prospecting and mapping program while the BLEG sampling and geophysical programs are underway. Numerous areas where historic high-grade rock chip samples have been collected are ready for immediate follow-up rock chip sampling. Return of BLEG results is expected to generate further areas for follow-up prospecting. Lion One's immediate goal is to generate a pipeline of new drill targets.

Data from the programs described above is expected to generate a large inventory of drill targets. Lion One envisions a two-tier approach to drill testing the Navilawa gold complex:

Large step-out drilling around the known Tuvatu high-grade vein system: The vein network at Tuvatu remains open in all directions and at depth. At least six areas, all within 500 m of the existing resource, and all situated within the Company's existing mining license appear to potentially host significant extensions of this important vein network. Once structural controls have been better-defined by CSAMT, Lion One plans to develop a large step-out drill program beyond Tuvatu in order to demonstrate this deposit is significantly larger than currently perceived. New targets within the Navilawa caldera complex: Multiple untested mineralized areas are readily evident from historic soil and rock chip sampling. Most of these need further refinement through CSAMT, prospecting and mapping. Lion One believes BLEG sampling will generate further new targets to add to this long list. The Company envisions generating an inventory of at least 10 new drill targets by the latter half of 2019. Drill testing new targets will be critical to demonstrating multi-million ounce potential at Navilawa.

Qualified Persons

Stephen Mann P. Geo, Managing Director, is a "Qualified Person" as such term is defined in National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information included in this News Release.

About Lion One Metals Limited

Lion One Metals Limited is a Canadian exploration and development company focused on advancing its 100% owned and fully permitted Tuvatu Gold Project towards production. Lion One envisions a low-cost high grade underground gold mining operation at Tuvatu coupled with district-scale exploration upside of the adjoining Navilawa Caldera, located near the Nadi International Airport on the island of Viti Levu in the South Pacific island nation of Fiji.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of Lion One Metals Limited

"Walter Berukoff"

Chairman & CEO

Contact Investor Relations

Toll Free (North America) Tel: 1-855-805-1250

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are forward looking information. Generally, forward-looking information may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "proposed", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases, or by the use of words or phrases which state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, or might occur or be achieved. This forward-looking information reflects Lion One Metals Limited's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to Lion One Metals Limited and on assumptions Lion One Metals Limited believes are reasonable. These assumptions include, but are not limited to, the actual results of exploration projects being equivalent to or better than estimated results in technical reports, assessment reports, and other geological reports or prior exploration results. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Lion One Metals Limited or its subsidiaries to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such risks and other factors may include, but are not limited to: the early stage development of Lion One Metals Limited, general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; the actual results of current research and development or operational activities; competition; uncertainty as to patent applications and intellectual property rights; product liability and lack of insurance; delay or failure to receive board or regulatory approvals; changes in legislation, including environmental legislation, affecting mining, timing and availability of external financing on acceptable terms; not realizing on the potential benefits of technology; conclusions of economic evaluations; and lack of qualified, skilled labour or loss of key individuals. Although Lion One Metals Limited has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Lion One Metals Limited does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--TMAC Resources Inc. (TSX: TMR) (TMAC or the Company) is pleased to report first quarter 2019 results for production and certain operating metrics for the underground mine and processing plant. TMAC will release its financial results on May 1, 2019 as described below.

FIRST QUARTER 2019 PRODUCTION SUMMARY

Production: 40,050 ounces of gold produced

Sales: 39,200 ounces of gold sold

Mining: 1,600 tpd, with a grade of 10.2 g/t

Processing Plant: 1,610 tpd, with a feed grade of 10.3 g/t, and 84% recovery

Jason Neal, President and Chief Executive Officer of TMAC, stated, In the first quarter we produced a record 40,050 ounces of gold, 18% more than the previous quarter, which drives improved financial performance. Importantly, the Doris underground mine is ramping up nicely, achieving a record production rate of 1,600 tonnes per day at a grade of 10.2 g/t compared with the previous quarters 1,330 tonnes per day at a grade of 8.6 g/t, a 20% higher underground mine tonnage production rate than Q4 2018. We continued to commission our processing plant retrofit, focused on increased gravity recovery and improved stability, with a realized recovery of 84% for the full quarter. We had improvement throughout the quarter and finished strong. As recoveries continue to stabilize and approach our targets, we will push throughput harder, driving our next step in growth.

Jason Neal continued, Concurrently, we released very exciting exploration results for Doris North BTD, Madrid Naartok East and Suluk zones. The recent BTD results, which thus far are largely in areas that will be mined in 2019, show consistent visible gold in high-grade drill hole intercepts. The Naartok East results are defining a higher-grade zone near surface. The Suluk results inform planning for potential future bulk sample and underground exploration which is currently being evaluated.

QUARTERLY PRODUCTION RESULTS Q1 2019 Q4 2018 Q3 2018 Q2 2018 Q1 2018 Gold Production (oz) 40,050 34,080 33,100 23,140 20,650 Plant Throughput (tpd) 1,610 1,800 1,390 970 930 Feed Grade (g/t) 10.3 7.8 10.1 10.0 10.9 Recovery (%) 84 82 80 82 71 Mine Production (tpd)(1) 1,600 2,310(2) 1,130 790 990 Mined Grade (g/t)(1) 10.2 7.4(2) 8.4 9.6 8.1 (1) Includes incremental ore from development (2) Includes production of 90,200 tonnes at 5.9 g/t from surface mining the crown pillar at Doris; without this material, underground production alone was 1,330 tonnes per day at a grade of 8.6 g/t

FIRST QUARTER 2019 FINANCIAL RESULTS  CONFERENCE CALL AND WEBCAST

TMAC plans to release its first quarter 2019 financial results after market close on Wednesday, May 1, 2019. Senior management will host a conference call and webcast to discuss these results on Thursday, May 2, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. (ET).

Conference call and webcast details:

Thursday, May 2, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. ET Webcast www.tmacresources.com Toll Free (North America) 1-800-319-4610 Toronto 416-915-3239 International 604-638-5340 An archive of the webcast will be available on the Companys website.

CONFERENCE ATTENDANCE

April 8, 2019

Jason Neal, President and Chief Executive Officer, will attend the 2019 CIBC London Gold Forum taking place in London, United Kingdom.

April 911, 2019

Jason Neal, President and Chief Executive Officer, will present on Wednesday April 10, 2019 at 11:30 a.m. GMT +1 at the 2019 European Gold Forum taking place in Zurich, Switzerland.

ABOUT TMAC RESOURCES INC.

TMAC Resources operates Hope Bay located in Nunavut, Canada. The property and operations are remote but not isolated, serviced by both a port and airstrip. Hope Bay is an 80 km by 20 km Archean greenstone belt that has been explored by BHP, Miramar, Newmont and TMAC over a period spanning more than 30 years. In that time, more than $1.5 billion of sunk expenditures have been spent in exploration and evaluation, surface infrastructure, and mine and process plant development. TMAC began producing gold in early 2017 from Doris, its first mine at Hope Bay, and processed gold at the Doris Plant which originally had nameplate capacity of 1,000 tonnes per day and expanded to 2,000 tonnes per day midway through 2018. Hope Bay has 4.8 million ounces of measured and indicated resources at Doris, Madrid and Boston deposits, largely within 350 metres of surface. There is potential to grow these established deposits considerably at depth, and then grow resources further through the prioritized exploration of the more than 90 other identified regional targets. TMAC is now permitted to produce from both Madrid and Boston.

FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

This release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws that is intended to be covered by the safe harbours created by those laws. Forward-looking information includes statements that use forward-looking terminology such as may, will, expect, anticipate, believe, continue, potential or the negative thereof or other variations or comparable terminology.

Forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and management bases forward-looking statements on a number of estimates and assumptions at the date the statements are made. Furthermore, such forward-looking information involves a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual plans, intentions, activities, results, performance or achievements expressed or implied. See Risk Factors in the Companys Annual Information Form dated March 11, 2019 filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com for a discussion of these risks.
Q1 2019 Production highlights include:

Q1 production of 19,125 oz of gold, 264,114 lbs copper and 5,564 oz silver for a total of 19,778 gold equivalent (AuEq) oz



Record tonnage of 26,846 tonnes treated in process plant, at average grade of 23.6 g/t gold and 0.48% copper, achieving recoveries of 93.7% for gold and 93.9% for copper



No lost time injuries (LTIs) recorded

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- K92 Mining Inc. (K92 or the Company) (TSX-V: KNT; OTCQX: KNTNF) is pleased to announce record production of 19,778 oz AuEq for first quarter of 2019 (Q1) at its Kainantu Gold Mine in Papua New Guinea.

During Q1, K92 produced 19,125 oz of gold, 264,114 pounds of copper and 5,564 oz of silver or 19,778 AuEq oz (based on a gold price of US$1,300/oz; silver US$16.5/oz; copper US$2.90/lb). Q1 production represents a new record for the Kainantu Gold Mine, being almost 20% higher than the previous record production of 16,451 AuEq oz achieved in Q4 2018. Recoveries for Q1 averaged 93.7% for gold and 93.9% copper.

Mining operations in Q1 continued to focus on Kora North and comprised cut and fill stope mining from the K1 vein from the 1185 mRL level as well as development tonnes from the K2 vein on the 1170 mRL level and K1 on the 1205 mRL level.

The blend of primarily K1 material with some and K2 material provided an average head grade to the process plant for Q1 of 23.6 g/t Au and 0.48% Cu. The gold head grade was above and the copper grade below the anticipated long-term average grades due to the higher proportion of K1 treated during the quarter.

Further financial details regarding Q1 and annual production for 2019 will be available in the Companys upcoming annual financial statements.

Table 1 - Q1 2019 and 2018 Annual Production Data

Q4 2018 2018 Total Q1 2019 Tonnes Processed t 24,806 79,487 26,846 Feed Grade Au g/t 21.77 19.13 23.6 Feed Grade Cu % 0.33% 0.38% 0.48% Recovery (%) Au % 94.76% 93.68% 93.7% Recovery (%) Cu % 93.57% 92.98% 93.9% Metal in Conc Prod Au Oz 16,451 45,810 19,125 Metal in Conc Prod Cu t 77,460 277.27 119.78 Metal in Conc Prod Ag Oz 3,095 10,069 5,564 Gold Equivalent Production Oz 16,844 47,237 19,788

John Lewins, K92 Chief Executive Officer and Director, stated, The production results for the first quarter are significantly above budget with an almost 20% increase in gold production in comparison to the best previous quarter. Importantly, tonnes processed during the quarter also increased by almost 10%, despite the process plant being shut down for over a week during March to allow for annual maintenance of all major components to be completed.

During the quarter, the Company commissioned the new underground dewatering system which is an extremely important part of our infrastructure. The installation of the pipework for this system extending the entire length of the incline from Kora North to surface was a significant undertaking which resulted in some disruption to operations. It was therefore pleasing that new production records could be achieved during this period.

With a formal commitment to our expansion during the quarter, an additional mobile plant was ordered and some equipment already in transit we look forward to continuing to build our production capacity during the balance of 2019.

During Q1 the Company announced that a commencement of the expansion of the Kainantu Gold Mine in Papua New Guinea, with a goal of doubling current capacity to 400,000 tonnes per annum and increasing annual production to an average of 120,000 ounces of gold equivalent (oz AuEq).

Based on the preliminary economic assessment (PEA) published in January 2019, the major results from the decision to expand production include:

Total Capital Expenditure for 2019 is projected to be US$30 million, comprising US$12 million in expansion capital, US$8 million in sustaining capital and US$10 million in capital development;



Production is projected to be 68-75,000 oz AuEq in 2019 and 115-125,000 oz AuEq in 2020;



Cash Costs are expected to be between US$580 and US$620 per oz AuEq, and All In Sustaining Costs (AISC) are expected to be US$780 to US$820 per oz AuEq in 2019, dropping to Cash Costs below US$500 per oz AuEq and AISC below US$700 per oz AuEq in 2020;



Employment is expected to increase from the current 650 to 750 by the end of 2019, and to 800 by the end of 2020, with over 96% of all positions in-site being filled by PNG Nationals;



Based on the results of the PEA:

Total production over the next 13 years would be 1.33 million oz Gold and 130 million lbs Copper;

Total Revenue for the period would be over US$2 billion;

Royalty payments for the period would be US$50 million;

Total tax paid to PNG Government for the period, from payroll and corporate tax, would total US$300 million;

Total sustaining capital of US$202 million would be required over the period; and

Net Cashflow would be US$1.03 billion, the Net Present Value (NPV 5 ) would be US$710 million pre-tax, or US$559 million after tax, and the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) would be in excess of 350%.



The PEA is preliminary in nature and includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the PEA will be realized. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The Companys decision to expand production is not based on a feasibility study of mineral reserves demonstrating the economic and technical viability of the expansion. As a result, there is increased uncertainty of the economic and technical risks of failure associated with the decision.

K92 engaged H and S Consultants Pty Ltd to complete a Mineral Resource Estimate for the Kora North Deposit (Table 1). This resource together with the previously reported Kora Mineral Resource Estimate dated March 2017 (Table 2) provide the resource base for the updated PEA.

K92 engaged Mincore Pty Ltd (Mincore) to complete a PEA for the expansion of the existing processing plant to double its capacity to approximately 400,000 tonnes per annum. The study found that the current crushing, milling and concentrate handling circuits have sufficient capacity to treat the Kora mine material at a rate of 400,000 tpa, subject to upgrading the crushing and flotation circuits and plant services. The estimated total cost of such expansion and upgrading would be US$3.7 million, including EPC and commissioning with a contingency of 10%.

The technical report containing the PEA, titled, Independent Technical Report, Mineral Resources Estimate Update and Preliminary Economic Assessment of Kora North and Kora Gold Deposits, Kainantu Project, Papua New Guinea with an effective date of September 30, 2018 (the Technical Report) was prepared by Anthony Woodward BSc (Hons.), M.Sc., MAIG, Simon Tear BSc (Hons), EurGeol, PGeo IGI, EurGeol, Christopher Desoe BE (Min)(Hons), FAusIMM, RPEQ, MMICA, Lisa J. Park, BEng (Chem), GAICD, FAusIMM. Refer to the Companys news release dated January 8, 2018 for a summary of the results of the PEA. The PEA can be found under the Companys profile on SEDAR.

The Company engaged Australian Mine and Development Pty Ltd (AMDAD) to undertake the PEA mine plan for Kora and Kora North, which involved:

applying financial and processing parameters to determine cut-off grades for stope design.

generating three-dimensional stope shapes and mining inventory using the CAE Mineable Shape Optimiser (MSO) program.

creating a conceptual development layout to suit the MSO inventory.

producing a project cash-flow model.

producing a simple mining schedule as input to the cash-flow model.

The key results from the PEA for the combined Kora North and Kora deposits are as follows:

Could have a 13-year operating life and treat 4.9 million tonnes @ 9.0 g/t Au, 20 g/t Ag & 1.3% Cu (11.0 g/t Au Eq*);

Could achieve an estimated pre-tax NPV of US$710 million (US$559 million after-tax) using current metal prices, exchange rate and a 5% discount rate;

Initial capital cost estimated to be US$13.6 million, including US$3.7 million for the plant upgrade identified in the Mincore Scoping Study;

The additional combined development and sustaining capital cost is estimated at US$202 million spent over the life of mine;

Operating cost per tonne estimated to be US$163/tonne for the first five years and US$153/tonne thereafter;

Cash cost estimated to be US$429/oz Au Eq (inclusive of a 2.5% Net Smelter Royalty) and AISC of US$615/oz Au Eq;

Production of an estimated 135,000 Au oz and 2,100 Cu tonnes over a 5-year period from 2019 through to 2023, with average production of 90,000 Au oz and 6,500 Cu tonnes for the balance of the life of mine; and

Current metal prices used were: Au - US$1,300/oz; Ag  US$15/oz; Cu  US$2.90/lb.

*AuEq  calculated on above Current Metal Prices.

The Kora North resource estimate was defined after just twelve months of underground exploration drilling.

Table 2 - Kora North Mineral Resource Estimate

Global Mineral Resources Kora North Gold-Copper Mine - October 2018 Category Tonnes Gold Silver Copper AuEq Mt g/t Mozs g/t Mozs % Mlbs g/t Mozs Measured 0.15 18.7 0.09 8.9 0.04 0.5 1.6 19.6 0.09 Indicated 0.69 11.6 0.26 14.1 0.31 0.8 11.8 12.9 0.29 Total M & I 0.85 12.9 0.35 13.1 0.36 0.7 13.3 14.1 0.39 Inferred Total 1.92 10.7 0.66 13.3 0.82 0.7 29.5 11.9 0.74

M in table is millions.

The Mineral Resources estimate was prepared and verified by Simon Tear (PGEO), consultant to the Company and a director of independent consultancy of H & S Consultants Pty. Ltd., Sydney, Australia (October 2018).

Key Assumptions and Parameters

Mineralization comprises two parallel, steeply west dipping, N-S striking quartz-sulphide vein systems, K1 & K2, within an encompassing dilatant structural zone hosted by phyllite. An additional structure, the Kora Link, has also been defined and provides a possible link between the two main vein systems.

Underground drilling consists of diamond core for a range of core sizes depending on length of hole and expected ground conditions. Sampling is sawn half core under geological control and generally ranges between 0.5m and 1m. Underground face sampling is completed for every fired round and is to industry standard.

QAQC data indicated no significant issues with the accuracy of the on-site analysis.

Core recovery of the mineral zone was initially 90%, this has improved to >95%. There is no relationship between core recovery and gold grade. Geological logging is consistent and is based on a full set of logging codes covering lithology, alteration and mineralization.

The geological interpretation of the vein systems is represented as 3D wireframe solids snapped to a combination of diamond drillhole data and underground face sampling. Definition of the wireframes is based on identified gold mineralisation in drillcore nominally at a 0.2g/t Au cut off in conjunction with geological control/sense and current mining widths.

Gold Equivalent (Au Eq) g/t was calculated using the formula Au g/t +(Cu% x 1.53) + Ag g/t x 0.0127. (No account of metal recoveries through the plant have been used in calculating the metal equivalent grade. However, production is currently achieving 93% metal recovery for both gold and copper and gold is currently providing 95% and copper 5% of the total revenue of the mine).

Gold price US$1,300/oz; Silver US$16.5/oz; Copper US$2.90/lb.

The mineral resource estimate for the Kora deposit is based on the technical report prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (NI 43-101), and titled, Mineral Resource Update and Preliminary Economic Assessment of Irumafimpa and Kora Gold Deposits, Kainantu Project, Papua New Guinea," with an effective date of March 2, 2017. This provides additional information on the geology of the deposits, drilling and sampling procedures, lab analysis, and quality assurance/quality control for the project, and additional details on the resource estimates. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.

Table 3  Irumafimpa and Kora/Eutompi Resource Estimates

Resource by Deposit and Category Deposit Resource

Category Tonnes Gold Silver Copper Gold Equiv Mt g/t Moz g/t Moz % Mlb g/t Moz Irumafimpa Indicated 0.56 12.8 0.23 9 0.16 0.28 37 13.4 0.24 Inferred 0.53 10.9 0.19 9 0.16 0.27 74 11.5 0.20 Kora/Eutompi Inferred 4.36 7.3 1.02 35 4.9 2.23 215 11.2 1.57 Total Indicated 0.56 12.8 0.23 9 0.16 0.3 4.0 13.4 0.24 Total Inferred 4.89 7.7 1.21 32 5.06 2.0 218 11.2 1.76

M in table is millions. Reported tonnage and grade figures are rounded from raw estimates to reflect the order of accuracy of the estimate. Minor variations may occur during the addition of rounded numbers. Gold equivalents are calculated as AuEq = Au g/t + Cu%*1.52+ Ag g/t*0.0141.

K92 Mine Geology Manager and Mine Exploration Manager, Mr. Andrew Kohler, PGeo, a Qualified Person under the meaning of Canadian National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, has reviewed and is responsible for the technical content of this news release. Data verification by Mr. Kohler includes significant time onsite reviewing drill core, face sampling, underground workings and discussing work programs and results with geology and mining personnel.

On Behalf of the Company,

John Lewins, Chief Executive Officer and Director

For further information, please contact the Company at +1-604-687-7130.

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.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION: This news release includes certain forward-looking statements under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. All statements that address future plans, activities, events, or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur are forward-looking information, including statements regarding the realization of the preliminary economic analysis for the Project, expectations of future cash flows, the proposed plant expansion, potential expansion of resources and the generation of further drilling results which may or may not occur. Forward-looking statements and information contained herein are based on certain factors and assumptions regarding, among other things, the market price of the Companys securities, metal prices, exchange rates, taxation, the estimation, timing and amount of future exploration and development, capital and operating costs, the availability of financing, the receipt of regulatory approvals, environmental risks, title disputes, failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated, accidents, labour disputes, claims and limitations on insurance coverage and other risks of the mining industry, changes in national and local government regulation of mining operations, and regulations and other matters.. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.
Vancouver, British Columbia / TheNewswire / April 8, 2019 (TSXV: NRG, OTCQB: NRGOF, Frankfurt: X6C) - Newrange Gold Corp. ("Newrange" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that, further to the Company's press release of March 21 of this year, the US Bureau of Land Management (the "BLM") has issued a decision accepting Newrange's proposed assumption of permits and bonding for the Merritt decline and related activities on the Pamlico Project including collecting the permitted 1,000 ton bulk sample. Under the terms of the permits the Company will increase its reclamation bond by posting an additional US$11,359 with BLM bringing the Company's total bond to US$27,784 by May 23, 2019.

The Merritt decline is 3 x 4 x 200 meters in dimension and was developed by the prior owners in 2013 at a cost of US$2-3 million. At that time, the decline was specifically permitted with the BLM for test mining and collecting the above-mentioned bulk sample. Newrange's assumption of these permits ensures continued access to the important and valuable Merritt decline where the Company's previously announced saw cut channel sampling yielded 75.5 meters of near surface, oxide gold mineralization averaging 2.92 grams gold per metric tonne (g/t Au). This large mineralized zone, typical of observed mineralization at Pamlico, is crossed by numerous high-grade structures including 13.2 meters averaging 17.25 g/t Au, 4.6 meters at 10.84 g/t Au, 1.5 meters at 36.9 g/t Au, 1.5 meters at 104.75 g/t Au, and others. A map of the decline sampling results may be viewed on the company's website at the following link: Click Here

"Transferring the BLM permits into the Company's name is an important step in advancing our exploration of the Pamlico Project," stated Robert Archer, CEO. "This will allow us to put together a comprehensive program for larger scale metallurgical and geotechnical tests that will have a significant impact on future resource and reserve estimates."

The bulk sample will be used to generate a "break of mine" sample that will more accurately reflect the conditions likely in an actual production scenario including rock fragmentation, work indices, power requirements, rock mechanics and even the most desirable mining methods. This material will then be used to assess various concentration and extraction methods for Pamlico mineralization including screening, conventional milling, reagent consumption, heap leaching and vat leaching.

Newrange has also purchased the major underground equipment necessary to extract the contemplated bulk sample including a single boom Secoma drill jumbo and a 2-yard Eimco underground LHD style loader.

Mr. Robert G. Carrington, P. Geo, a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, the President and Chairman of the Company, has reviewed, verified and approved for disclosure the technical information contained in this news release.

About Pamlico

Located 12 miles southeast of Hawthorne, Nevada, along US Highway 95, the project enjoys excellent access and infrastructure, a mild, year-round operating climate and strong political support from Mineral County, one of the most pro-mining counties in the pro-mining state of Nevada. The Pamlico project covers the historic Pamlico group of mines, as well as the nearby Good Hope, Gold Bar and Sunset mines.

Discovered in 1884, the district rapidly gained a reputation as being one of Nevada's highest-grade districts. Held by private interests for most of its history, the property remains underexplored in terms of modern exploration.

About Newrange Gold Corp.

Newrange is an aggressive exploration and development company focused on near to intermediate term production opportunities in favorable jurisdictions including Nevada, Colorado and Colombia. With numerous drill intercepts of near surface oxide gold mineralization to 340 grams gold per metric tonne the Company's flagship Pamlico Project is poised to become a significant new Nevada discovery. Focused on developing shareholder value through exploration and development of key projects, the Company is committed to building sustainable value for all stakeholders. Further information can be found on our website at www.newrangegold.com.

Signed: "Robert Archer"

CEO & Director

For further information contact:

Sharon Hebgin Dave Cross

Corporate Communications Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary

Phone: 760-898-9129 Phone: 604-669-0868

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Website: www.newrangegold.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statement:

Some of the statements in this news release contain forward-looking information that involves inherent risk and uncertainty affecting the business of Newrange Gold Corp. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements.
Vancouver, BC / TheNewswire / April 8th, 2019 - iMetal Resources Inc. (TSXV: IMR) ("iMetal" or the "Company") is pleased to announce iMetal has received the results of a helicopter-borne versatile time domain electromagnetic (VTEM(TM) plus), and horizontal magnetic gradiometer geophysical surveys covering the upper half of the Gowganda West Project, located 20 km from Gowganda, Ontario and 90 km from Kirkland Lake, Ontario. The property is accessible year-round by road and serviced by excellent infrastructure.

VTEM and Magnetics Survey

Based on the geophysical results obtained over a total area coverage is 42 km2, and total survey line coverage of 589 line kilometers, iMetal has identified 3 large EM anomalous zones and all have been described as good conductors as provided by Geotech. These EM anomalous zones also have associated magnetic anomalies. The three defined targets exhibit different depths of burial as indicated on the 3D Resistivity-Depth image (RDI) block model. The EM anomalous targets that have been identified on the property are in areas that are yet to be explored by the iMetal's team.

These airborne EM anomalies will be followed up with ground geophysical Induced Polarization (I.P.) surveys to ground proof the VTEM anomalies and locate potential drill targets. A follow up diamond drilling program will be planned to carry out testing of prioritized targets.

Johan Grandin, iMetal President and CEO, commented: "We are very excited about the results of the VTEM survey over Gowganda West. The results have identified several major new exploration targets, including targets that are near surface and with substantial strike lengths. The results of this survey demonstrate that we are yet to fully explore the most prospective and largest targets in our land package. We intend to drill these targets in Q2, 2019."

The location of the VTEM anomalies with a scalable map can be found on www.imetalresources.ca/vtem/

We seek safe Harbor.

The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Dave Gamble P.Geo., a qualified person as defined under NI-43-101.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS,

"Johan Grandin"

President & CEO, iMetal Resources Inc.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Tel. (604)-739-9713

510-580 Hornby St., Vancouver, BC, V6C 3B6 / https://imetalresources.ca

iMetal Resources Inc. is a Canadian based exploration company focused on the acquisition and exploration of prospective resource properties. iMetal is focused on advancing its Gowganda West Project in Ontario, Canada. iMetal trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker symbol IMR. For further information, please call 604- 739-9713 or visit iMetal's website at www.imetalresources.ca.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
OTTAWA, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc. (Cornerstone or the Company) (TSXV-CGP) (F-GWN) (B-GWN) (OTC-CTNXF) announces the Environmental License for diamond drilling at its Bramaderos gold and copper project in Ecuador has been issued by the Ecuadorian Ministry of Environment.

Figures and photos related to this news release can be seen in PDF format by accessing the version of this release on the Companys website (www.cornerstoneresources.com) or by clicking on the link below: Click Here.

Cornerstone, and its joint venture funding partner ASX listed Sunstone Metals Inc., have mobilized a drill rig to the Bramaderos site (see Photo 1) and drilling is expected to commence shortly.

First assay results are expected in late May to early June based on an anticipated time frame of 2-3 weeks to complete the first drill hole to a depth of ~500m, followed by 1-2 weeks to complete logging and sampling of the drill hole, and anticipating a turn-around time of approximately 4 weeks for sample preparation and assay results.

Drilling will commence at the Limon target where surface trenching assayed 97.6m at 0.71g/t gold and 0.23% copper over a poorly outcropping porphyry system (see news release 18-18 dated May 29, 2018).

The initial drill program is anticipated to be approximately 5,000m and will also include holes at Bramaderos Main to follow up on historical drilling that intersected 248m at 0.56g/t gold and 0.14% copper and recent surface trenching that delivered 615m at 0.52g/t gold and 0.11% copper (see news release 18-17 dated May 9, 2018), and at West Zone where surface trenching has delivered 15.6m at 6.1g/t gold (see news release 17-40 dated November 8, 2017) (see Figure 1).

About Bramaderos

The Bramaderos concession is owned by Cornerstone subsidiary La Plata Minerales S.A. (PLAMIN), which has signed a binding letter of intent with Sunstone Metals Ltd. (formerly Avalon Minerals Ltd.) (ASX: STM), whereby Sunstone has the right to earn a 51% interest in the project by spending US$3.4 million over 3 years to complete a phase 1 drill program. If this first option is earned, Sunstone can go to 70% by funding a bankable feasibility study, and can go to 80% by financing 100% of the cost of construction of a mine and mill (see news release 17-08 dated April 10, 2017).

Qualified Person:

Yvan Crepeau, MBA, P.Geo., Cornerstones Vice President, Exploration and a qualified person in accordance with National Instrument 43-101, is responsible for supervising the exploration program at the Bramaderos project for Cornerstone and has reviewed and approved the information contained in this news release.

Sampling and assaying

Rock samples are collected by PLAMINs personnel, placed in plastic bags, labeled and sealed, and stored in a secure place until delivery by PLAMIN employees to the LAC y Asociados ISO 9001-2008 certified sample preparation facility in Cuenca, Ecuador.

Rock samples are prepared crushing to 70% passing 2 mm (10 mesh), splitting 250 g and pulverizing to 85% passing 75 microns (200 mesh) (MSA code PRP-910). Prepared samples are then shipped to MS Analytical Services (MSA), an ISO 9001-2008 laboratory in Langley, BC, Canada, where samples are assayed for a multi-element suite (MSA code IMS-136, 15.0 g split, Aqua Regia digestion, ICP-AES/MS finish) and gold by Fire Assay (MSA code FAS-111, 30 g fusion, AAS finish). Over limit results for Cu (>1%) are systematically re-assayed (MSA code ICF-6Cu, 0.2 g, 4-acid digestion, ICP-AES finish). Gold is assayed using a 30 g split, Fire Assay (FA) and AAS finish (MSA code FAS 111). Over limit results for Au (>10 g/t) are systematically re-assayed (MSA code FAS-415, FA, 30g., gravimetric finish).

Soil samples are dried at low temperature, screened to 80 mesh (MSA code PRP-757), a 15 grams portion is then assayed for a multi-elements suite (MSA code IMS-136, Aqua Regia digestion, ICP-AES/MS finish).

Quality assurance / Quality control (QA/QC)

The MSA Analytical Laboratory is a qualified assayer that performs and makes available internal assaying controls. Duplicates, certified blanks and standards are systematically used (1 control sample every 20-25 samples) as part of PLAMINs QA/QC program. Rejects, a 100 g pulp for each rock sample, are stored for future use and controls.

About Cornerstone:

Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc. is a mineral exploration company with a diversified portfolio of projects in Ecuador and Chile, including in the Cascabel gold-enriched copper porphyry joint venture in north west Ecuador. Exploraciones Novomining S.A. (ENSA), an Ecuadorean company owned by SolGold Plc and Cornerstone, holds 100% of the Cascabel concession. Subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, including SolGolds fully funding the project through to feasibility, SolGold Plc will own 85% of the equity of ENSA and Cornerstone will own the remaining 15% of ENSA. SolGold Plc is funding 100% of the exploration at Cascabel and is the operator of the project.

Further information is available on Cornerstones website: www.cornerstoneresources.com and on Twitter. For investor, corporate or media inquiries, please contact:

Investor Relations:

Mario Drolet; Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ; Tel. (514) 904-1333

Due to anti-spam laws, many shareholders and others who were previously signed up to receive email updates and who are no longer receiving them may need to re-subscribe at http://www.cornerstoneresources.com/s/InformationRequest.asp

Cautionary Notice:

This news release may contain Forward-Looking Statements that involve risks and uncertainties, such as statements of Cornerstones beliefs, plans, objectives, strategies, intentions and expectations. The words potential, anticipate, forecast, believe, estimate, intend, trends, indicate, expect, may, should, could, project, plan, or the negative or other variations of these words and similar expressions are intended to be among the statements that identify Forward-Looking Statements. Although Cornerstone believes that its expectations reflected in these Forward-Looking Statements are reasonable, such statements may involve unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors disclosed in our regulatory filings, viewed on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. For us, uncertainties arise from the behaviour of financial and metals markets, predicting natural geological phenomena and from numerous other matters of national, regional, and global scale, including those of an environmental, climatic, natural, political, economic, business, competitive, or regulatory nature. These uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially different than those expressed in our Forward-Looking Statements. Although Cornerstone believes the facts and information contained in this news release to be as correct and current as possible, Cornerstone does not warrant or make any representation as to the accuracy, validity or completeness of any facts or information contained herein and these statements should not be relied upon as representing its views after the date of this news release. While Cornerstone anticipates that subsequent events may cause its views to change, it expressly disclaims any obligation to update the Forward-Looking Statements contained herein except where outcomes have varied materially from the original statements.

On Behalf of the Board,

Brooke Macdonald

President and CEO

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Government of Niger to Acquire 10% stake in Madaouela Project for US$14.5 million. Madaouela Mining Permit to expand and include an additional 5.96 Million Pounds of Measured and Indicated Resources. Surrounding Madaouela Exploration Permits to be renewed for 9 years. Non-Brokered Private Placement Underway.

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 8, 2019) - GoviEx Uranium Inc. (TSXV: GXU) (OTCQB: GVXXF) ("GoviEx" or "Company") today announces the receipt of a letter (the "Support Letter") signed by the Honourable Hassan Braze Moussa, Minister of Mines, Republic of Niger supporting a commercial framework reached between GoviEx and the Government of Niger ("Government") during previously held high-level meetings. The Support Letter further directs GoviEx and the respective Ministry of Mines representatives to work together to finalize and document these commercial understandings, the intention of which is to rapidly progress GoviEx's flagship Madaouela uranium project in Niger (the "Madaouela Project").

GoviEx's Executive Chairman, Govind Friedland, commented: "This is the culmination of more than 12 years of relentless work and millions of man hours by GoviEx management and our Nigerien community. It takes time to get things done in a responsible, sustainable and professional manner. We welcome this meaningful partnership with our host Government and the people of Niger. Through these series of agreements, the Company and the Niger Government are laying the foundation necessary to develop the Madaouela Project in a fair and equitable way for the long-term benefit of all stakeholders, and we are grateful for the support of all who have contributed to our success."

The Honourable Hassan Braze Moussa noted the importance of continuing to develop Niger's mineral resources in partnership with the investment community, declaring: "Niger is a country with many mining investment opportunities and economic, social and political conditions that are conducive to the pursuit of development of a sector considered strategic by the Niger government." He added, "The government has instituted a mining policy aimed at a mutually beneficial balance, while safeguarding the interests of the nation and investors."

The key commercial terms now agreed in principle between the Government and GoviEx will need to be finalised in definitive agreements and remain subject to Government, GoviEx Board of Directors, and other regulatory approvals. Notwithstanding, a summary of these key terms included in the Support Letter are listed below:

The Government will acquire a 10% working interest in the Madaouela Project, in addition to its 10% free carried interest provided under the 2006 Niger mining code.

The Government will purchase this additional 10% by electing to convert approximately US$14.5 million of requested payments comprised of the final 7 million acquisition payment and settlement of previously challenged area taxes (US$6.6 million) between GoviEx and the Government related to the Madaouela Project. Following finalization of this transaction the Company will be effectively debt-free.

Following conversion, GoviEx will also enjoy a tax abatement period up through to successful project financing for mine construction and project development, the terms of which will be more fully described in definitive documentation.

GoviEx will further retain a right of first refusal to acquire the Government's 10% working interest in the Madaeoula project on any proposed sale by the Government.

GoviEx's existing mining permit (the " Madaouela 1 Mining Permit ") will be expanded to include previous mineral resources discovered by GoviEx in the Agaliouk permit.

") will be expanded to include previous mineral resources discovered by GoviEx in the Agaliouk permit. The expansion of Madaouela 1 Mining Permit will add a further 5.96 million pounds (Mlb) U 3 O 8 in the Measured and Indicated categories. 1

O in the Measured and Indicated categories. GoviEx will be granted renewed 9-year permit terms for its Madaouela 2, 3 and 4, and Anou-Melle exploration permits, which had reached the end of their exploration periods under the 2006 Niger mining code. These renewals allow GoviEx to maintain its highly prospective mineral exploration potential alongside its mine development program for the Madaouela Project.

The commercial understandings agreed in the Support Letter further positions GoviEx to advance the Madaouela Project as a fully permitted uranium project, currently with 60.54 Mlb U 3 O 8 in total Probable Mineral Reserves and a predicted 21 year mine life.1 GoviEx believes the factors influencing the uranium market fundamentals and the uranium price are improving and continues to prioritize completion of a feasibility study, and negotiations with debt providers and off-takers interested in the Company's long-term uranium development project.

The Company today also announces that a non-brokered private placement offering of up to approximately 15,882,353 units ("Units") at a price of C$0.17 per Unit (the "Private Placement") is being conducted, is nearly fully subscribed and expected to close on or about April 12th. Each Unit consists of one (1) Class A common share and one (1) Class A common share purchase warrant (a "Warrant") of the Company. Each Warrant shall entitle the holder to purchase one Class A common share of the Company for a period of 36 months at US$0.21 during the first 12-month period, the US$0.24 during the second 12-month period and the US$0.28 during the third 12-month period. A cash finder's fee of 6% may be payable on all, or a portion, of the Private Placement. All securities issued under this Private Placement will be subject to a hold period of four months plus one day from the date of issue.

Completion of the Private Placement will be subject to regulatory approvals, including the final approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

The net proceeds from the Private Placement will be used to fund continued exploration and development activities on the Company's assets, working capital and for general corporate purposes.

An independent NI 43-101 technical report was prepared for the Madaouela Project in 2015 to a prefeasibility level of confidence. The report titled "An Updated Integrated Development Plan for the Madaouela Project, Niger" has an effective date of August 11, 2015, and a revision date of August 20, 2015, and is available at GoviEx's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Qualified Persons

The scientific and technical information disclosed in this release has been reviewed, verified, and approved by Dr. Rob Bowell, a chartered chemist of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a chartered geologist of the Geological Society of London, and Fellow of the Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Materials, who is an independent Qualified Person under the terms of National Instrument 43-101 for uranium deposits.

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.

About GoviEx Uranium

GoviEx is a mineral resource company focused on the exploration and development of uranium properties in Africa. GoviEx's principal objective is to become a significant uranium producer through the continued exploration and development of its flagship mine-permitted Madaouela Project in Niger, its mine-permitted Mutanga Project in Zambia, and its other uranium properties in Africa.

Information Contacts

Govind Friedland, Executive Chairman

Daniel Major, Chief Executive Officer

+1-604-681-5529

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

www.goviex.com

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All information and statements other than statements of current or historical facts contained in this news release are forward-looking information.

Forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties concerning the specific factors disclosed here and elsewhere in GoviEx's periodic filings with Canadian securities regulators. When used in this news release, words such as "will", "could", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "may", "potential", "should," and similar expressions, are forward- looking statements. Information provided in this document is necessarily summarized and may not contain all available material information.

Forward-looking statements include those with respect to the anticipated finalization of definitive agreements to solidify the key commercial terms included in the Support Letter and as set out herein, which have been agreed to in principle between the Government and GoviEx; the Company's ability to raise funds under the Private Placement, the proposed closing date and anticipated use of the proceeds of the Private Placement.

Although the Company believes the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurances that its expectations will be achieved. Such assumptions, which may prove incorrect, include the following: (i) GoviEx and the Government will successfully enter into and complete definitive agreements to solidify the key commercial terms included in the Support Letter and as set out herein; (ii) GoviEx will be successful in its efforts to identify and secure subscribers under the Private Placement; (iii) the subscribers under the Private Placement will complete the subscriptions they have agreed to make under their subscription agreements; (iv) all necessary corporate and regulatory approvals, including TSX Venture Exchange acceptance, will be obtained; (v) the Private Placement will close on or about the date as anticipated; and (vi) the price of uranium will remain sufficiently high and the costs of advancing the Company's mining projects sufficiently low so as to permit GoviEx to implement its business plans in a profitable manner

Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations include (i) the inability or unwillingness of the Government to enter into or complete definitive agreements with the Company that solidify the key commercial terms included in the Support Letter and as set out herein; (ii) the Company's failure to make effective use of the proceeds of the Private Placement; (iii) the failure of the Company's projects, for technical, logistical, labour-relations, or other reasons; (iv) the Company's inability to obtain TSX Venture Exchange acceptance of the Private Placement; (v) a decrease in the price of uranium below what is necessary to sustain the Company's operations; (vi) an increase in the Company's operating costs above what is necessary to sustain its operations; (vii) accidents, labour disputes, or the materialization of similar risks; (viii) a deterioration in capital market conditions that prevents the Company from raising the funds it requires on a timely basis; and (ix) generally, the Company's inability to develop and implement a successful business plan for any reason.

In addition, the factors described or referred to in the section entitled "Financial Risks and Management Objectives" in the MD&A for the year ended December 31, 2017, of GoviEx, which is available on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com, should be reviewed in conjunction with the information found in this news release.

Although GoviEx has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements, there can be other factors that cause results, performance, or achievements not to be as anticipated, estimated, or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate or that management's expectations or estimates of future developments, circumstances, or results will materialize. As a result of these risks and uncertainties, no assurance can be given that any events anticipated by the forward-looking information in this news release will transpire or occur, or, if any of them do so, what benefits that GoviEx will derive therefrom. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this news release are made as of the date of this news release, and GoviEx disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise such information, except as required by applicable law.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of any of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful, including any of the securities in the United States of America. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933 (the "1933 Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for account or benefit of, U.S. Persons (as defined in Regulation S under the 1933 Act) unless registered under the 1933 Act and applicable state securities laws, or an exemption from such registration requirements is available.

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES
Romanias former president Ion Iliescu has been ordered to stand trial for crimes against humanity for his role in the deadly aftermath of the 1989 revolution that toppled the countrys communist regime, prosecutors said Monday.

It is a particularly important moment for Romanias justice system that is fulfilling a debt of honour to history, chief prosecutor Augustin Lazar told reporters.

The announcement caps a long-running investigation made more difficult by an official reluctance to revisit the 1989 revolutions bloody aftermath.

Iliescu, now 89, had been a minister in the government of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and went on to lead the National Salvation Front, which took control of the country after the uprising which began in the western city of Timisoara on December 16, 1989.

Iliescu was elected president in 1990 and served another term from 2000 to 2004.

It is now up to a Romanian high court to set a date for the trial.

Iliescu was indicted last December with three others.

Two of them  former deputy prime minister Gelu Voican Voiculescu and former air force commander Iosif Rus  will also stand trial.

The case against former prime minister Petre Roman has been dropped for lack of evidence.

Prosecutors accuse Iliescu and Voiculescu of directly spreading misinformation through televised appearances and press releases, contributing to the institution of a generalised psychosis.

Their pronouncements increased the risk of instances of friendly-fire, chaotic shooting and contradictory military orders, prosecutors have said, with 862 people killed after December 22 when Iliescu took control.

The mens actions also allegedly helped lead to the conviction and execution of Ceausescu and his wife through a mock trial.

Iliescu will also have to answer accusations of crimes against humanity over the smashing of a protest in Bucharest in 1990 that left four people dead.

Both Iliescu and Voiculescu have denied any wrongdoing with Voiculescu describing the accusation as an act of political revenge.

According to prosecutors, 275 people have already faced legal action over their role in the attempted crushing of the uprising.

However, according to victims support groups, only a few dozen have been convicted.

The fall of Ceausescu came at the end of a momentous year in which communist regimes collapsed across central and eastern Europe  with the Berlin Wall coming down in November  presaging the demise of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991.
Sudanese protesters on Monday called on the army to hold talks on forming a transitional government, as thousands braved a deadly crackdown for a third day to urge the military to back them.

The east African country has been rocked by more than three months of protests that erupted over a hike in bread prices before transforming into nationwide demonstrations against President Omar al-Bashirs iron-fisted 30-year rule.

At the biggest rally so far, thousands of protesters have since Saturday been camped out around the army headquarters in Khartoum which also houses Bashirs residence and the defence ministry.

They are calling on the military to protect them and to back calls for Bashir to resign.

When the army is here, we have no fear, protesters flashing victory signs chanted as military vehicles with soldiers fanned out around the complex, onlookers said.

Riot police have fired tear gas at the protesters, but they have failed to dislodge them.

Officials say 38 people have died in protest-related violence since December.

Interior Minister Bushara Juma said seven protesters died on Saturday when forces tried to disperse them and 15 were wounded along with 42 members of the security forces. In all, 2,496 protesters were arrested.

The group spearheading the protests on Monday appealed to the army for talks on forming a transitional government.

We call on the Sudanese armed forces to talk directly with the Alliance for Freedom and Change for facilitating the peaceful process of forming a transitional government, said Omar el-Digeir, a senior member of the group.

Digeir said the protest organisers had also formed a council to initiate talks with security forces and the international community aimed at agreeing a transition that gives power to a transitional government that represents the wish of the revolution.

We reiterate our peoples demand that the head of the regime and his government have to immediately step down, Digeir said.

Reading from a statement, he also called on the armed forces to withdraw their support for a regime that has lost its legitimacy and to support the peoples alternative for a transition to a civilian democratic government.

 Protecting the people 

Since protests erupted across Sudan in December agents of the powerful National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) and riot police have cracked down on demonstrators, but the army has not intervened.

Soldiers put up barricades in streets near the army compound after reinforcements of intelligence agency members and riot police arrived in the early hours, witnesses told AFP.

After that, security forces began firing tear gas at protesters, one said on condition of anonymity.

Gunshots were also heard, witnesses said, but it was unclear who fired.

Some activists on the ground said it was the army shooting in the air, but this could not be confirmed independently.

Protest organisers urged the military to protect the demonstrators.

We want you, the young officers and soldiers, to remain committed to the role of the national army, which is of protecting the people, said the Sudanese Professionals Association.

A few hours later security personnel again fired tear gas at the demonstrators, witnesses said.

Protest organisers urged the residents of Khartoum and nearby areas to join the demonstrators.

Crowds of people carrying food and water were later seen walking towards the complex to take part in the protest, according to onlookers.

Some companies have told employees not to come into work until further notice.

The rally outside the army headquarters has been the largest since protests began on December 19 in the central town of Atbara, quickly spreading to the capital and towns and cities across the east African country.

The European Union said an unprecedented number of people had come out calling for change since Saturday.

The people of Sudan have shown remarkable resilience in the face of extraordinary obstacles over many years, the EUs External Action Service said.

Their trust must be won through concrete action by the government.

 Economic mismanagement 

The protesters accuse Bashirs administration of economic mismanagement that has led to soaring food prices and regular shortages of fuel and foreign currency.

Sudans security council on Sunday said the demands of the protesters have to be heard after a meeting chaired by the veteran leader.

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.
I live in Wadsworth. I would like to know what the Village Board is doing about the disaster they have at 41 and Wadsworth Road. They have two restaurants at the same lot. They dont have the parking. The help has to park on the northwest corner of Wadsworth Road on 41 and come to work. They have to go home through six lanes of traffic. Something should be done. Is there a state or a county limit on how many parking places you have to have before you can open a restaurant? You cannot use parking half a mile away.
I opened my News-Sun and I saw in Talk of the County three or four items against our president once again talking about John McCain. John McCain was a pilot in the Vietnam War who was shot down. That does not make him a hero. You obviously dont know anything about him. You think that McCain was a hero. I dont know if you are a Vietnam Vet or just misguided. If youre older than 50, go to your local library and take out about three or four books about him. If youre younger, youll get a sanitized version if you look for books online. He was actually a bad dude. I used to support him. Im a conservative. At first, he was a conservative in the Senate. But his life after Vietnam, before Vietnam and the way he was, he was actually not a good guy.
Yesterday, a friend called me and asked for prayers for a newborn baby, a little girl who was born when her mom was only 25 weeks pregnant. The baby is in stable condition in a newborn intensive care ward. At the same time, pro-abortion legislators now want abortion legal through all nine months of pregnancy in Illinois, as well as New York and some other states, so that a baby 14 weeks more developed than the little baby I mentioned can be killed within the moms body. It is so immoral. It is so contrary to all common sense and reason. It is contrary to science. They also want to stop parental notification in Illinois. They want to pass a bill that would allow teenagers who cannot even go on a field trip without a parents permission to have an abortion without needing their parents permission, even young teenagers. The abortion supporters are just crazy.
A 9-year-old girl in Iowa is being hailed as a hero for quickly springing into action and making a call to 911 that potentially saved her babysitter's life.

In December, KCCI reports babysitter Caitlin Rogers was looking after Madelyn White and her four younger siblings in Centerville. Their parents were in the Twin Cities.

Madelyn called her mother after the babysitter fell asleep and blood started coming from her mouth.

Madelyn's mother told her to hang up the phone and call 911. Dispatchers stayed with her until emergency responders got to the scene. She kept her sibling calm during the whole ordeal.

Rogers told KCCI she had a seizure is now on medication. She doesn't remember much of what happened but is thankful for Madelyn's help.

Madelyn got two awards at a recent City Hall meeting: junior firefighter and citizen of the month.
Sitinee Sheffert said she discovered her own love of crafting when her children were young, and she wanted to share that love with other organizations who served those in need. After noticing there werent many resources where people could connect their craft to a charity it could benefit, Sheffert began her own website, Giving Artfully (www.givingartfully.com).
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 8)  A former Foreign Affairs secretary belittled the territorial row between the Philippines and China, saying people should see the "bigger picture" in the relations between the two countries.

"What is important, as we should always understand, is keeping stability and peace in the region, realizing fully well that this present area of conflict is a small matter compared to the bigger picture that we must pursue," former Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. told CNN Philippines' The Source on Monday.

Yasay doubts that the territorial dispute between Manila and Beijing will be resolved even by the next generation and said the two countries should be pursuing other "urgent priorities."

"Like relating into other relationships of commercial transactions, people to people contacts, making people understand each other, cultural exchanges and so on. These are priorities and these can also help resolve the conflict in the future," he said.

The former Foreign Affairs chief said this following reports that some 300 Chinese vessels were spotted near the Philippine-occupied and claimed Pag-asa Island, which the Department of Foreign Affairs hit as "illegal." Manila has already protested this.

President Rodrigo Duterte told China in a speech last Thursday to "lay off" Pag-asa Island, warning that he will tell soldiers to "prepare for suicide mission" if the East Asian giant touches the land mass.

But Duterte later clarified that he would opt for a compromise on the presence of Chinese vessels in the area, as Manila will "never win" against the military might of Beijing.

Yasay said Manila "can only do so much" about China's incursions into Philippine territory as it cannot fire off the first shot at Beijing, even if it is "not scared" to do so.

"It is not because we're scared. It's because it's the right thing to do. We are bound by the rules under international law. We cannot use force," he said.

He added that opening fire at the vessels spotted near Pag-asa Island, a land mass claimed and occupied by Manila for decades, may lead to war, with China invading and seizing the island.

The UN charter bans its members from using force against other member-states unless the UN Security Council authorizes collective action to maintain or enforce international peace and security or unless in self-defense in the event of an armed attack against a country.

"They (China) violate the rules about provocative acts, about the use of force and intimidation to get what they want, then let them fall under international law," Yasay said.

He added, "There is nothing that we can do about it unless China starts shooting our fishermen. If they did that, that's something else."

It was reported in 2017 that a Chinese speedboat fired seven times at a Philippine fishing vessel. This was followed by reports of harassment of Filipino fishermen by Chinese coast guard personnel in the following years.

However, despite diplomatic protests appearing to be the only recourse to Beijing's moves in the West Philippine Sea, an area of the South China Sea claimed by Manila, Yasay admitted that during his stint, the East Asian giant did not respond to the four notes verbale he filed.

He also said that he spoke with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Zhao Jianhua over incursions of Beijing, but they only reiterated their position and told him that they will look into his protests.

Current Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro "Teddy Boy" Locsin Jr., previously told CNN Philippines that Manila is only sending diplomatic protests "at a brick wall" as it is "powerless" and Beijing is "indifferent."

Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and Yasay said that the Philippines must protest China's actions or else it would be deemed to have acquiesced to whatever China was doing in its waters.
A: I have been getting in trouble for trying to make money for as long as I can remember. In middle school, I got a detention for selling candy. I got an in-school suspension at Maine South for selling McDonalds in the school cafeteria. Ive always enjoyed making money and cars. So, I became a car dealer. Ive been buying and selling cars since I was 16. I received a dealers license when I was in college. Selling cars was the only thing I thought to do after I graduated college.
JUNCTION CITY, Ore. -- A ranch owner in Junction City is sounding the alarm after preparing for the Willamette River behind his ranch to flood.

Matt Hogan, the owner of Rolling H Ranch, spent his Sunday morning preparing his ranch for high waters.

"We got all the equipment out and got the horses out ... 25 horses this morning," Hogan said.

According to the National Weather Service, water in the Willamette River near Harrisburg is expected to rise about 15 feet Sunday night.

Hogan said the Army Corp of Engineers is expected to open flood gates on the Willamette River near his ranch.

"Nobody told us anything, which is why I'm concerned for other people on the river," he said.

Hogan moved all his horses to a safe place in fear of water pouring into the barn. However, he said relocating the animals cost him several thousands of dollars.

"Who knows what I'll also need to pay for when we come back and see what happened," he said.

Hogan wants to encourage others to take a look at the National Weather Service's website for the latest flooding information.

To visit the National Weather Service's website, click here.
You probably already know that most Americans have to file their 2018 federal tax return by April 15, 2019 (as we told you earlier). For most states with an income tax (there are nine states with no income tax), the state return is also due on April 15 this year. However, some states give you more time to file  such as Maine.

States With Tax Deadlines After April 15 in 2019

State Due Date Delaware April 30 Hawaii April 22 Iowa April 30 Louisiana May 15 Maine April 17 Massachusetts April 17 New Mexico April 30 (if e-filed) Oklahoma April 22 (if e-filed) Virginia May 1

Residents of the Pine Tree State have until April 17, 2019, to file their state tax return on Form 1040ME. However, that's actually the due date for filing federal tax returns in Maine, which the state simply adopts for its own filing deadline.

Why do Mainers get two extra days to file their federal return, you might ask? Well, it's because the IRS can't require returns to be filed on a legal holiday  even a state commemoration. Patriot's Day, an official holiday in Maine that commemorates Revolutionary War battles, falls on April 15 this year. That means the federal due date is pushed to April 16. However, Emancipation Day is on April 16 in Washington, D.C. This holiday honors the end of slavery in the District of Columbia. Because D.C. holidays impact tax deadlines for everyone in the same way federal holidays do, Emancipation Day bumps the federal due date for Maine residents back an additional day to April 17.

Taxpayers in Maine who can't file their state return by April 17 get an automatic six-month extension. But an extension only allows more time to file your return; it does not allow additional time to pay any tax due.

For information about other states with delayed tax filing deadlines, see 9 States Where You Can File Your State Tax Return After April 15.
You probably already know that most Americans have to file their 2018 federal tax return by April 15, 2019 (as we told you earlier). For most states with an income tax (there are nine states with no income tax), the state return is also due on April 15 this year. However, some states give you more time to file  such as Massachusetts.

States With Tax Deadlines After April 15 in 2019

State Due Date Delaware April 30 Hawaii April 22 Iowa April 30 Louisiana May 15 Maine April 17 Massachusetts April 17 New Mexico April 30 (if e-filed) Oklahoma April 22 (if e-filed) Virginia May 1

The deadline for filing Massachusetts Form 1 for the 2018 tax year is April 17, 2019. The Bay State celebrates Patriots' Day, which commemorates Revolutionary War battles, on April 15. In addition, Emancipation Day, which marks the end of slavery in Washington, D.C., falls on April 16. Because the IRS doesn't enforce filing deadlines on legal holidays (even state ones), federal tax returns from Massachusetts residents aren't due until April 17. Massachusetts is following along and allowing state returns to be filed by April 17 to coincide with the federal deadline.

Massachusetts taxpayers who can't file on time are automatically granted a six-month extension to file their state return as long as they pay at least 80% of the total tax due by April 17.

For information about other states with delayed tax filing deadlines, see 9 States Where You Can File Your State Tax Return After April 15.
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What company made more profit last year than Exxon, Apple, Amazon and Facebook combined? Is it General Electric, Ford or Canopy Growth? No  its Saudi Aramco.

Over the last several years, Saudi Aramco has been responsible for 1 out of 8 barrels of oil consumed worldwide. Thats a lot of oil production considering global oil demand is 100 million barrels per day.

I think youd agree with me that given those 2 previous statements, this company is one of the most important businesses operating in the world today.

Only the secrecy of the Rothchilds wealth supersedes the mystery and ambiguity of the oil reserves of Saudi Aramco. For decades, the financial performance and oil reserves have been one of the companys best kept secrets. That data was limited to a tiny circle of executives and government officials.

Now, thanks to a corporate bond offering, audited financial statements and verified hydrocarbon reserves that data has been released.

And its big.

Ive followed Saudi Arabia and Saudi Aramco for years. In 2016, I wrote a piece stating that the new Saudi King, Mohammed bin Salman, would be a game changer for the country.

In my New York Times Bestseller, The Colder War I wrote a whole chapter on Saudi Aramco. Let me condense it down to a simple short essay.

In 1933 when a Concession Agreement was signed between Saudi Arabia and the Standard Oil Company of California (now Exxon Mobil), Saudi Aramco was formed. Over the following decades, the Saudis and their partners would grow the business into the worlds largest oil business and the worlds most profitable company.

In 1973, the Saudi government bought a 25% interest in Aramco, increasing that interest to 60% the following year. In 1980, the Saudi government increased its interest in Aramco to 100% and to this day still retains 100% ownership in Saudi Aramco.

Today, Saudi Aramco doesnt just produce oil, it refines it as well.

The company operates one of the worlds largest refining businesses, with net throughput of 3.7 million barrels per day.

The largest refinery in North America is not Buy American, but rather a Saudi Aramco owned refinery.

How ironic is it that Saudi Aramco ships Saudi oil to get refined on American soil in a Saudi owned refinery to sell to Americans?

You cant make this stuff up.

Yes, youre reading that right, the largest oil refinery in North America is owned by Saudi Arabia. Its the Motiva refinery in Port Arthur, Texas. And it has refining capacity of 635,000 barrels per day. Motiva was originally owned through a joint-venture with Shell. But the Saudis acquired 100% of the operation in 2017.

Do not bet against the Saudi King Mohammed bin Salman or against Saudi Aramco.

How Much Oil Does Saudi Aramco Produce?

In 2018, Saudi Aramco produced 13.6 million barrels per day of oil equivalent, including 10.3 million barrels per day of crude oil and condensate.

Saudi Aramco is by far the largest oil producing company in the world. Below is a chart which compares Saudi Aramcos production to the other super majors.

Lets take a closer look Saudi Aramcos production on a per field basis. Youll see 5 oil basins make up 70% of Saudi Aramcos total oil production.

How Close are the Saudis to Running Out of Oil?

Contrary to many articles and pieces of research Ive read, the short answer is not even close.

Conventional production alone is expected to last over 50 years. Once unconventional production kicks in, that can easily double.

Saudi Arabian hydrocarbon formations host 256 billion barrels of oil equivalent proved reserves. Thats enough to satisfy over 50 years of production at current levels. Over 200 billion barrels of proven reserves are crude oil.

Below youll see the proven reserves remaining for each of the key Saudi Aramco fields and the Reserve Life (Proven Reserves  Production) for each field.

Make no mistake  Saudi Aramco is the behemoth of all oil companies.

According to the reserve report released by third-party petroleum engineers, on December 31st 2018, more than 80% of the Kingdoms proved crude oil reserves were in hydrocarbon reservoirs that were less than 40% depleted.

Compared to other oil super majors, Saudi Aramco crushes the competition in terms of reserves. Below is a chart which compares the proven reserves of Saudi Aramco versus the super majors.

What are Saudi Aramcos Production Costs?

Blessed with world class hydrocarbon reservoirs, the Saudis produce barrels of oil at a fraction of the cost of the rest of the worlds largest oil companies.

A good way to compare oil company production costs is by using the lifting cost per barrel calculation. This metric takes total production costs divided by total production. Its an apples-to-apples metric which allows you to compare any oil companys financial statements very quickly. A low number indicates low cost production, whereas a high number would indicate high cost production.

Below you will see Saudi Aramcos dominance in lifting costs when compared to the other super majors.

For further comparison, Saudi Aramco has far lower lifting costs than even the most efficient and largest U.S. shale producers. Below is a chart which compares Saudi Aramcos production costs to large U.S. shale oil producers.

Remember the whole War on Shale the media was babbling about in 2014-2016? Dont bet against Saudi Aramco  you will lose.

Peak Oil?

Ive read so many nonsense and ill-advised conspiracy nut job pieces on Peak Oil. There is no Peak Oil.

The release of audited financials and reserves should silence a lot of critics of Saudi Aramco. For years there have been many experts suggesting that the Saudi fields were depleted, and that the Saudis didnt really have low cost production. This report suggests otherwise. And as per usual, Saudi Aramco is one step ahead of the herd.

Just as I stated in January 2016, I will say it again: Do not bet against MBSyou will lose. The futures for Saudi Aramco and MBS look very bright, even at $45 oil. And even brighter at $55 oil. And incredibly bright and powerful at $65 per barrel or higher.

The oil markets are very dynamic and ever changing. It may surprise you that oil is the best performer out of any major commodity this year. Its never been more crucial to be up to date.

My team and I spend hours every week monitoring all corners of the oil sector. If you dont want to spend countless hours grinding through due diligence on your own, Katusas Resource Opportunities members get access to the best of my research every month.

For a taste, check out some of my free oil market research like our Oil Stock Value Monitor, in our Market Intelligence Center.

Regards,
By Melanie Burton

MELBOURNE, April 8 (Reuters) - Rare earths miner Lynas Corp said on Monday it is considering initial ore processing near its Australian mine, as Malaysia stepped up pressure on the company already in the midst of a takeover struggle.

Lynas, the world's only major producer of rare earths outside China, has been locked in a dispute with the Southeast Asian nation, which has told it to remove years of accumulated waste at its Malaysian processing plant in order to have its licence renewed.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Friday companies interested in acquiring Lynas had pledged to decontaminate low-level radioactivity from mined ore before shipping it to the country. Mahathir did not identify any company. Lynas last month rejected a $1.1 billion takeover approach by Australian retail-to-chemicals conglomerate Wesfarmers . Lynas Chief Executive Amanda Lacaze said on Monday that Lynas had been considering building new processing facilities for months in addition to its Malaysian operations as part of expansion plans and as a way to mitigate risk from any regulatory changes in Malaysia.

Initial ore processing to reduce levels of radioactivity would mean building a cracking and leaching plant at a cost of about A$100 million over three years, according to a research report by brokerage CLSA. Lynas was considering five locations, Lacaze said, but gave no details on cost or timing.

"We have been giving great consideration to ... our future industrial footprint," she told an analyst and investor call. "We remain confident that we can agree a path forward with the Malaysian government which is good for Malaysia and good for our business."

Lynas mines rare earths at Mount Weld in Western Australia and currently ships the concentrated material to an $800 million processing plant in Kuantan, Malaysia, where it stores thousands of tonnes of waste.

Mahathir said even Lynas could operate in the country as long as raw materials coming to Malaysia were cleaned.

His comments come after Malaysia's Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) told Lynas in December that it must export stockpiles of a type of residue from its processing plant by Sept. 2, when its full operating stage licence is due for renewal. In February, Lynas said that exporting the residue within the mandated timeline was "unachievable".

Lynas shareholders played down the likelihood of Lynas being forced to close its plant in Malaysia.

"The PM has said he wants the plant to keep operating and stay open in Malaysia. My expectation then would be that the plant's licence must be maintained," said Matthew Ryland of Greencape Capital, the company's second-biggest shareholder.

Lynas said it was seeking clarification from the Malaysian government on its latest comments, but had not yet heard back.

Wesfarmers said it welcomed the Malaysian comments which were consistent with talks it had had with senior government officials.

"We look forward to more detail from the government about Lynas' operating licence certainty, to assess the conditionality of our proposal," it said in a statement.

(Reporting by Melanie Burton; additional reporting by Aditya Soni in Bengaluru and Paulina Duran in SYDNEY; Editing by Peter Cooney and Richard Pullin)
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New Gold Inc. (TSX and NYSE American: NGD) announces first-quarter gold-equivalent production of 123,263 gold-equivalent ounces, leaving it on track to meet annual guidance of 465,000 to 520,000 gold-equivalent ounces. The Rainy River Mine reported in-line gold-equivalent production of 62,278 ounces, well up from 40,016 in the same period a year ago. The New Afton Mine produced 60,986 gold-equivalent ounces, down from 73,717 in the year-ago period. Consolidated first-quarter output included 79,398 ounces of gold, 136,513 ounces of silver and 19.5 million pounds of copper. We are encouraged by the progress made at Rainy River during the first quarter as we re-position the operation for efficient and sustainable mining. Concurrently, we continue to prioritize the completion of the remaining construction and the optimization of the life of mine plan in order to position the operation to deliver free cash flow starting in late 2020, says Renaud Adams, chief executive officer.

By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com





Kirkland Lake 1Q Gold Production Jumps 57%

Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. (TSX, NYSE: KL; ASX: KLA) reports first-quarter output of 231,879 gold ounces, an increase of 57% from 147,644 in the same quarter a year ago. Both Fosterville and Macassa achieved record production in Q1 2019, largely reflecting strong grade performance, as well as higher levels of mill throughput at Fosterville, says Tony Makuch, president and chief executive officer. The company says it ended the January-March quarter on track to achieve its full-year 2019 production guidance of 920,000 to 1 million ounces of gold. Production at Fosterville is expected to be weighted to the second half of 2019 as development advances to depth into the high-grade Swan Zone, Kirkland Lake says. Record production at Fosterville totaled 128,445 ounces, more than double the 63,843 ounces produced in the first quarter of 2018. Record production at Macassa was 72,776 ounces, an increase of 35% from 54,038 ounces in the year-ago period.
Stuff reports:

Sir Anand Satyanand offered to withdraw as head of the countrys largest ever state inquiry amid worries about a perceived conflict of interest because of his Catholic faith.

Documents obtained by Stuff show Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin rejected the former Governor Generals offer, instead asking him for a plan to combat any risk to the integrity of the Royal Commission into Historical Abuse in State Care and Care in Faith-Based Institutions.

Child abuse survivors are calling for Satyanands resignation offer to be accepted. They say his position risks tainting the inquirys credibility  already mired in setbacks.

This is pathetic prejudice. Just as one shouldnt treat all Muslims the same, it is also bigoted to treat all Catholics the same.

To suggest that someone cant preside over the Royal Commission because they are Catholic, and some of the abuse happened in Catholic institutions, is nuts. This is defining someones entire being, on the basis of their religion.

Sure if Sir Anand had been a member of the clergy or a high official in the church, there might be a conflict. But merely being a Catholic is not a conflict.

Network of Survivors of Abuse in Faith-Based Institutions spokeswoman Liz Tonks said the group had doubts about Satyanand, and any other Catholic commissioner, to be dispassionate and unbiased.

Which is sheer prejudice. It is saying that they believe Satyanands religion outweighs everything else and he is incapable of being unbiased. This is a man who was a Judge for 13 years, am Ombudsman for 10 years and Governor-General for five years. But because he is also Catholic that counts for nothing it seems.

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I think people are starting to realize based on what they want to do thats not the best path for them, she said. I think both (parents and schools) are being supportive of that.
The $1.8 million in new equipment also includes voting machines with touch-screen features that can be modified for people with disabilities, and will alert voters if, for example, they select one candidate in an at-large race in which they can select two before they submit a ballot.
We would like to take this opportunity to remind you to continuously work with your children on safety practices going to and from school, school officials said. Please remain mindful of your surroundings when picking up and dropping off your children.
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Thank you Indiana Supreme Court Disiplinary Commision for finding that Attorney General Curtis Hill is not above the law that he swore to uphold. Further finding that if it is unprecedented, it is because it was unusual for an AG to commit a criminal act. Republicans need to step up and do what is right and show him the exit.
You are here: Business

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.
Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor started a three-day trip to Japan on Sunday to attend a symposium for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.



The symposium, jointly held by Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, will be on Tuesday in Tokyo, site of one of the world's best-known and largest bay areas.

Lam will speak at the event, as will Guangdong Governor Ma Xingrui and Macao's Secretary for Administration and Justice Sonia Chan Hoi-fan.

Japan's State Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yoshihiro Seki will attend and also address the symposium, according to the full-day event's website. Around 500 Japanese business leaders and executives are also expected to attend.

In the afternoon, two panel discussions will be held, one themed on innovation and technology, and the other on smart health.

Top enterprises from Japan, the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao - in industrial, technological, financial and medical sectors - will join the discussion and explore further collaboration.

This overseas promotion underscores China's determination to advance the development of the 11-city cluster, as well as its firm adherence to the opening-up policy, said Sun Bushu, deputy director of the South China City Research Association.

Sun said the event presents a significant opportunity for the Bay Area to enhance its international reputation and influence because Tokyo Bay - one of the world's top three bay areas - has been closely linked to Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta in business and trade.

In 2017, Japan was Hong Kong's fourth-largest trading partner, according to the SAR's Trade and Industry Department, and Hong Kong was Japan's eighth-largest trading partner. Bilateral trade in goods between the two that year amounted to HK$381.9 billion ($48.7 billion).

Registration for the symposium was closed on March 29, because it was fully booked, according to its website.

A similar seminar was held in Paris in June, with Hong Kong, Guangdong and Macao jointly promoting Bay Area business opportunities.

Lam, according to the Hong Kong Chief Executive's Office, will meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Foreign Minister Taro Kono.

She also plans to meet with business leaders, as well as leaders of innovation and technology-related organizations and institutions, and she will visit eldercare and medical facilities.

At a media briefing on Tuesday, Lam said Japan is a vast market and she aims to explore on her trip how Japanese businesses and research institutions can become involved in the Bay Area's development.

The Greater Bay Area, covering 56,000 square kilometers with a combined population of 70 million by the end of 2017, aims to become a world-class Bay Area that provides quality life to its residents.
(CNN)  Dozens of animal rights activists were arrested as coordinated protests brought one of Australia's biggest cities to a brief standstill Monday amid calls for sweeping changes to the country's meat industry.

The biggest protest appears to have taken place in the Victoria capital of Melbourne, where more than 100 activists blocked a busy intersection in the center of the city, CNN affiliate Nine News Australia reported. Some were believed to have chained themselves to vehicles in the street, police said, with 38 people -- including three teenagers -- arrested.

"We want to show we're regular people who have had enough, we are killing the planet and killing animals at rates that are just unacceptable," one of the organizers, Christine Lee, told Nine News.

Australia's beef industry is one of the country's most lucrative businesses, accounting for almost 2% of GDP, according to trade group Meat and Livestock Australia. Cattle farming is one of the most significant contributors to rising greenhouse gas emissions on the planet, and consumption patterns across the globe have showed no sign of slowing down.

"Drastic times call for drastic measures so that is why we're here today," Lee said.

Victoria Police Superintendent David Clayton said the activists "caused considerable disruptions to thousands of people attempting to navigate through the CBD during peak hour."

Elsewhere, nine people were arrested in New South Wales' Southern Tablelands after chaining themselves to a conveyor in a slaughterhouse, police said.

Another group of activists entered a Queensland slaughterhouse early Monday and tried to take three sheep. A police spokesman said "the situation was resolved peacefully and without incident" and the sheep were later returned.

The coordinated action drew a swift rebuke from Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

"This is just another form of activism that I think runs against the national interest," he said on a local radio talk show. "And the national interest is people being able to farm their own land."

Morrison said the government would support agriculture workers in filing civil suits against protesters who harm their businesses.

"The Commonwealth is totally open to supporting them in a test case to show these green-collared criminals that you don't get to pull the rug from under our Aussie farmers," he said.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Australia animal activists shut down streets and storm slaughterhouses."
The fatal crashes of two Boeing 737 Max jets six months apart have set off a flood of lawsuits against the manufacturer, subcontractors and the two airlines.



Lawsuits alleging wrongful death, negligence and product liability have been filed in Chicago, Boeing's headquarters. A judge hearing the cases in Chicago or anywhere in the United States could order them transferred to Indonesia or Ethiopia, sites of the two crashes.

"The federal court is likely to delay doing anything at this point because the investigation is still in process," Robert Rabin, a law professor at Stanford University, told China Daily. "Probably, the court will postpone further action on the cases until circumstances of the accidents are clear."

The possibility of a substantial award draws plaintiffs to file lawsuits to Chicago, located in Cook County.

"The legal system in the US tends to be more generous by way of awarding damages than anywhere in the world," Mark Dombroff, an attorney in Alexandria, Virginia, told China Daily. "There's a perception that juries in Cook County end to be more generous giving plaintiffs awards than in other places."

The cases could be consolidated into a class-action lawsuit. Or, Boeing could reach out-of-court settlements with family members of the victims and eliminate the need to go to trial.

A total of 346 passengers and crew died in the two crashes. Juries hearing the case will be asked to decide if a defect in the system led to the cashes and if Boeing adequately informed airlines of the potential hazard.

Both the Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air flights flew erratically after takeoff, apparently after experiencing difficulty with an automated anti-stall device.

A possible plus for Boeing: The 737 Max, introduced three years ago, has been flown safely all around the world. Also, neither airline involved in the crashes purchased optional safety equipment that may have kept the planes in the sky.

A preliminary report by Dagmawit Mogies, Ethiopia's minister of transportation, concluded the flight crew on the doomed March 10 flight from Addis Ababa followed Boeing's stated procedure in attempting to turn off the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System. If the nose of a Boeing Max jet rises, threatening a midair stall, the system automatically points the plane's nose down to gain speed needed to stay aloft. It's not certain the automated system sent the planes into fatal dives.

Family members of those killed in the Ethiopian Airlines crash may have a stronger claim than the relatives of the Lion Air victims.




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.
Infrared cameras have captured images of at least three yellow-throated martens, a protected animal species in China, in the Markog River basin in northwest China's Qinghai province, researchers have said.

It is the first time that the animal has been spotted in the plateau province, according to Zhao Xiang with the Shanshui Conservation Center, which leads the research.

The biodiversity survey started last December as researchers set up 60 infrared cameras throughout the Markog River basin, located at the headwater of the Yangtze River, China's longest river. Three of the cameras have recorded 10 images of the martens.

The cameras also spotted other rare animal species in the area, including the white-lipped deer and Alpine musk deer, both under top national protection.

The survey showed the area has a good environment and rich biodiversity, according to staff with the Sanjiangyuan Ecological Protection Foundation.
Villa Madama is a prominent house that was built in Rome in the sixteenth century and decorated with Renaissance masterpieces inspired by Raphael's works of art. Since 1937, when it was leased to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and 1941 when it was purchased by the Senate, it has been the place where important agreements were sealed  such as the one in 1984 between the Italian Republic and the Vatican. It is in the same Villa Madame that Italy recently signed 29 accords with China. These accords will perhaps symbolically contribute to a modern renaissance of Italy's national economy.



Italy is not the first European country to officially join the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Others such as Greece, Portugal and members of the 16+1 scheme had already agreed to jointly advance the construction of the BRI with China. But what is significant is that Italy is the first country in the G7 family to sign a relevant memorandum of understanding with China. Rome's decision shows the importance a leading European economy accords to the Belt and Road Initiative, its ambition for win-win results and its determination to defy Brussels' neo-Cold War mania.

In one of his March speeches, Italian Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio, who had already visited China twice, allayed the concerns by political camps which criticized Italy's participation in the BRI. He did this by placing the "Sino-Italian honeymoon" in Italy's interest and argued that it can serve to boost the country's made-in-Italy agenda. This is indeed what can happen in the medium and long-term.

The Italian coalition government, composed of a left-wing party, the Five Stars Movement, and a right-wing one, the League, came to power last year by promising better times to Italian citizens after years of austerity, and painful but necessary reforms. Ensuring the continuous rise of exports is among Italy's priorities to reinforce its economy. The general volume of exports shows a gradual increase in the last few years. According to data from the Italian Economic Development Ministry, this volume increased from 412.2 billion in 2015 to 417.2 billion in 2016, 449.1 billion in 2017 and 462.8 billion in 2018. China was the 10th most important export market for Italy last year and further room for improvement is evident. A similar upward trend is observed since 2015 with a slight exception in 2018. In 2015, Italian goods worth 10.4 billion were exported to China compared with 11 billion in 2016, 13.4 billion in 2017 and 13.1 billion in 2018.

However, Italy still lags behind other EU countries in its export volume to China. Eurostat data shows that Germany has the lead, exporting goods worth 93.7 billion in 2018, followed by the U.K. (23.3 billion) and France (20.8 billion). Italy's ranked fourth in the EU. It is therefore understandable for the Italian government to set new objectives and consider the U.K.'s and France's export numbers as targets to aspire to. Among the recent Sino-Italian accords signed in Villa Madama, some stipulate for closer bilateral cooperation on the potential export of Italian meat  frozen pork and bovine ovum  as well as fresh Italian agricultural products and wine to China.

Beyond exports, the win-win collaboration between China and Italy can also be realized in infrastructure works. The development of ports is another area worth looking into as some Chinese companies are already present in this sector. In 2016, for example, COSCO purchased a 40 percent stake in APM Terminal Vado Holdings, which operates a terminal at Vado Port. In 2017, a consortium made up of the China Communications Construction Company, Ltd. (CCCC) and two Italian companies, 3Ti Progetti Italia and E-Ambiente, signed a contract on the design of Phase 1 of the Venice offshore port. Following the signing of the memorandum of understanding between Beijing and Rome, Chinese interest in investing is expected to grow. The strategic geographical position of Italy makes it a critical passage for the realization of the Belt and Road Initiative. The ports of Palermo, Ravenna, Trieste and Venice will possibly offer new connections between the maritime and land routes, should the appropriate investments take place.

But it is not all about business. The will to forge partnerships on culture, science and research was not absent in Villa Madama. Better knowledge exchange between the two countries will also contribute to better understanding between both parties.

China needs to learn more about the world, and the outside world needs to learn more about China. Italy has embraced this vision and even its previous government had looked favorably upon Beijing. Italy's former Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, for instance, attended the first Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in May 2017. Certainly, the new MoU on the BRI is advancing the Sino-Italian bilateral partnership and pushing it to new heights.

George N. Tzogopoulos is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:





http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/GeorgeNTzogopoulos.htm





Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.





If you would like to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinion@china.org.cn.
Road signs are installed to warn tourists not to enter the core zone of Mount Qomolangma National Nature Reserve in China's Tibet Autonomous Region, a move to better conserve the environment of the world's highest mountain, April 6, 2019. (Photo/Xinhua)






Its a sunny day in March and Machine Planet is flying a single-engine Cessna over Northern California. Hes cruising at 1,500 feet toward a massive lot leased by electric-car maker Tesla. His mission: to burst the Tesla bubble. And make some money doing it.

What he sees today makes his eyes widen: more than 100 car-carrier trailers, the kind you see on highways hauling new cars to dealers. Theyre lined up in neat rows. Empty. Idle.

Ten days left in the quarter, and theyre just sitting there, said Machine Planet, peering down at the remote landscape outside Lathrop. Tesla bought those trailers to aid what Chief Executive Elon Musk said will be an unprecedented wave of new car deliveries in March. But to Machine Planet  thats the name he uses on Twitter  the scene just confirms his suspicions that there are lots all around the U.S. filled with unsold Tesla cars. (He and others claim to have counted 52.)

If you spend any time on the Twitter hashtag $TslaQ, you know what this means to Tesla short sellers. They believe the lots full of new Model 3s  and Models S and X vehicles, too  show Tesla has reached a cliff in demand for its vehicles. When the rest of the world finally admits the companys days as a fast-growth story are numbered, they say, its stock price will crash, creating a bonanza for investors who, like Machine Planet, have bet big that Teslas shares are grossly overvalued.

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The pilot banks his plane hard to the left and starts snapping pictures with a Canon 6D.

For as long as there have been stock markets, there have been short sellers wagering that companies will fail. Their notoriety stemmed from their dirt-digging tactics. Napoleon supposedly called them enemies of the state. Some blamed them for the stock market crash of 1929.

Short seller Jim Chanos took a position against Enron and won when the company was revealed to be an accounting fraud. Bill Ackman claimed Herbalife was a pyramid scheme; he slunk away after five years, the company still intact.

But the war on Tesla is unique. Musk has used Twitter to cultivate a cult-like following as a tech revolutionary. Fittingly, his nemesis is a social media swarm, made up largely of anonymous contributors with made-up names and colorful avatars.

Tesla has said there is no mystery to the car-filled lots  they are distribution points for final delivery to customers. As to the empty trailers, a Tesla spokeswoman said not all our carriers would be in use at all times. Some might be in maintenance.

(Raul Allen / For The Times)

The sidewalk spy

Machine Planet belongs to a large and growing network of Tesla skeptics who connect on Twitter through $TslaQ  Teslas stock symbol, followed by Q, a stock exchange notation for a company in bankruptcy. Which Tesla, to be clear, is not. What Tesla is, relatively speaking, is heavily shorted: About 32.7 million of its shares, or 27.7% of those available for trade, have been borrowed by short sellers and then sold. They must be paid back at some point  at a lower price, the shorts hope.

Pronounced Tesla-Q, the channel has emerged as a crowd-sourced stock research platform. Contributors divide up research duties according to personal interest and ability, with no one in charge.

Some use commercial databases to track Tesla-loaded ships from San Francisco to Europe and China. Some are experts at automotive leasing or convertible bonds. Some repost customer complaints about Tesla quality and service. One contributor, whose Twitter handle is TeslaCharts, assembles collected data to offer graphical representations of Teslas own reports and $TslaQs findings.

And some do reconnaissance, posting photos and videos of Tesla storage lots, distribution centers, even the companys Fremont assembly plant as seen from above.

A major aim is to change the mind of Tesla stock bulls and the media. The research helps individual short sellers decide when to move in and out of the stock. But its clear from the posts that $TslaQ can be just as vitriolic as Tesla fans are adoring.

I go out of my way to listen to them because I want to hear the worst things people can come up with about stocks I have a position in, said Ross Gerber, head of Santa Monica portfolio management firm Gerber Kawasaki, who is impressed by much of $TslaQs research.

But hes been subject to personal attacks from some $TslaQ members, and said too much emotion from the short sellers can degrade some of the solid research they offer up.

A lot of their premise is emotional, he said. They hate Musk. They think hes a fraud; they think hes a liar.

Although activist investors have been around for years, the networked nature of this research and publicity campaign is new, said Byoung-Hyoun Hwang, a Cornell University finance professor whos studied social medias effect on financial markets. The diversity of perspectives, not just a diversity of opinions, could be very valuable, he said.

Most $TslaQ posters try to remain nameless, citing the repercussions faced by some Tesla critics, including death threats to some $TslaQ members and harassment by Musk himself.

(Raul Allen / For The Times)

On a Hawthorne sidewalk not far from another Musk company, SpaceX, a man raises his iPhone to get a good camera angle.

Its after dark. Model 3s by the hundreds are parked inside a lighted-up three-level parking garage. The cars are covered in dust. According to the man, some have been in there for months.

I wanted Tesla to make it, he says as he taps the big red button. Im a car guy, man. The Model S was a great car, especially when they came out with the dual motor.

The man says he works for a short seller who goes by the Twitter handle Latrilife. In return for scouting out and monitoring Tesla delivery centers and storage sites around L.A., he gets $20 an hour.

Such storage practices are extremely unusual in the auto industry, said Bill Hampton, a Detroit veteran who runs AutoBeat Daily, an online industry newsletter.

Tesla doesnt have traditional dealers, whose lots are filled with Fords, Chevys and Hondas awaiting buyers. That could account for some of Teslas scattered inventory, he said.

But cars shouldnt be sitting in staging lots for that long under any circumstances, he said, unless you have too many cars.

Tesla declined to discuss the cars in the Hawthorne lot.

Montana Skeptic gets outed

$TslaQ has no leader, but it does have a hero. His name is Lawrence Fossi, a lawyer and New York money manager who contributed to the Twitter hashtag as well as investor site Seeking Alpha under the moniker Montana Skeptic  until he was exposed by Musk.

According to Fossi, after he was outed on Twitter last July, Musk personally called the small investment office he works for. Musk told his boss he wasnt happy about the online activity and threatened to sue Fossi for defamation. (Tesla doesnt dispute that Musk contacted the company.)

Meanwhile, Teslas public relations department sent emails to the media naming Fossi and encouraging reporters to call his boss  phone number included. The communications executive involved declined to discuss that matter.

I had never before heard from Tesla or Elon Musk to correct anything I wrote, Fossi said. I would have been happy to correct anything that was wrong.

Fossi said he didnt take the lawsuit threat seriously, but I couldnt afford to drag my boss into this. So he quit writing for Seeking Alpha and deactivated his Twitter account.

Oh and uh short burn of the century comin soon. Flamethrowers should arrive just in time.  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 4, 2018

Musk won the first round, Fossi said. But $TslaQ gained more visibility and followers in the months that followed. The Tesla short thesis, Fossi said, is getting a lot more coverage than it would have gotten if Musk had kept his big mouth shut, which is apparently beyond his capacity.

Musk declined to be interviewed for this story. But the $TslaQ phenomenon clearly vexes him. He calls Twitter a war zone and regularly attacks short sellers. His taunts sometimes produce a stock price boost.

Starting last May, Musk amped up his battle with the shorts, promising the short burn of the century on Twitter. On July 23, four days after Machine Planet posted photos of hundreds of cars parked at a facility outside Stockton, Musk phoned Montana Skeptics boss. And on Aug. 7, Musk issued his infamous 420 tweet, in which he claimed he had funding secured to take Tesla private at a premium price  $420 a share.

Some short sellers got burned as the stock price immediately rose by nearly 13%. But so did bull investors who thought the deal was real. It wasnt, and by Aug. 20, as reality sank in, Tesla shares were down almost $100 a share, or 25% from pre-tweet levels. The episode landed Musk in deep trouble with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Musk settled fraud charges in September, but the SEC has since asked a federal judge to hold him in contempt of court, saying he violated terms of the agreement with subsequent tweets. Last Thursday, the judge told the SEC and Musk to work out a remedy.

(Los Angeles Times)

Exactly. Short-sellers are value destroyers. Should definitely be illegal.  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 4, 2018

The short thesis gained traction last week when Tesla announced a dramatic drop in deliveries in the years first quarter  Model 3 deliveries fell 19% from the previous quarter, and older Models S and X models tumbled 56%.

The fundamental narrative around Tesla appears more clouded than we have seen in several years, Morgan Stanley stock analyst and Tesla bull Adam Jonas wrote well before the numbers were released, in a March 20 investment note. Tesla bull Gerber says the numbers were a bit light but sees great things ahead for the company.

Tesla insists that U.S. orders for the Model 3 are strong, and that the company simply couldnt deliver all ordered vehicles in the first quarter. And it says, even with the sharply lower deliveries, the Model 3 was the top-selling midsize luxury sedan.

Teslas stock closed at $274.96 on Friday, down from an all-time high of $385 in September 2017. Wall Street sentiment on the company has chilled. Several Wall Street analysts have lowered their stock price targets in recent weeks.

A threatening fax

Citing the case of Fossi, several $TslaQ contributors agreed to talk only if they could remain anonymous.

Contributors to $TslaQ contacted by The Times said they feared retribution from Musks most extreme supporters. Some say they have received death threats over Twitter. Paul Huettner, an investment banker in New York City who dares use his real name, said he received a message threatening his family on an old-fashioned fax machine. In the header, it said, From: Elon Musk.

Huettner didnt believe Musk was involved, but he found the message frightening and reported it to the FBI.

Machine Planet is 60 years old, tall and trim. The semiretired marketing executive worked at several well-known Silicon Valley companies. Now hes a contract consultant, an avid pilot and an investor with an eye for overvalued stocks. He scored well, he said, with big short bets against Bear Stearns and Lehman Bros. in the early days of the Great Recession.

Tesla first attracted Machine Planets attention about three years ago, he said, because it seemed as much a cult as a company.

If you went by media reports, you got the impression that Elon Musk was the only guy who worked there, he said. I always see that as a bad sign. I mean, Steve Jobs, all his lieutenants became pretty well known. I put Tesla on my background list.

In April 2018, laid up after surgery, he listened to a lively conversation about the short case on the irreverent financial markets podcast Quoth the Raven.

I found there was this whole community of people studying this company. I got sucked in completely over the next two months.

He started shorting.

He had nothing against Musk at the time. It was purely financial. My opinion of Musk was very neutral, he said. The double landing of SpaceX rockets? I was impressed as anybody else.

But he noticed car-buyer demand was a big topic on $TslaQ. Contributors posted Google satellite shots of lots in remote locations, far from the companys Fremont factory, where cars were being stored.

One spot was in Lathrop, not far from Stockton, in an unirrigated section of the Central Valley known as the dust bowl. A couple of $TslaQ contributors had spotted an ad for Tesla jobs there. They found what seemed like hundreds or thousands of Model 3s being trucked into a lot through a gate and behind fences. But they couldnt get a good look inside.

So I flew to Lathrop, Machine Planet said. There was this amazing moment when I realized the entire facility was packed with cars. More than 3,000, he said.

That was entirely the moment where we went from kind of believing Elon about demand and not being able to build enough cars to [finding evidence that] the cars are either not sold or not salable.

(Raul Allen / For The Times)

The Shorty Air Force is born

Headed back to the airport, he tweeted his findings: The SAF can confirm thousands of cars at Lathrop. Photos tonight. 7/19/2018 4:31 p.m.

He got a tweet back. SAF?

Shorty Air Force, he said. Hed made the name up on the spot.

By the time hed landed, $TslaQ contributor Zach Hanover had designed a Shorty Air Force shoulder patch logo based on a World War II design.

The flyover nudged others into action.

Latrilife, who says he has six figures invested in short bets that Teslas stock price will plummet, hired a helicopter to photograph the Hawthorne garages top level, the view of which was inaccessible from the public sidewalk. We dont trespass, Latrilife noted.

One man started sending a drone over automobile auction houses, posting videos of Teslas stored there.

(Raul Allen / For The Times)

A loosely formed Shorty Ground Force began posting pictures of Teslas stored for weeks on lots across the country. Crow Point Partners, an investment firm with a short position in Tesla, periodically posted pictures of Model 3s parked in Norwood, Mass., covered in deep snow. The snow recently melted, but most of the cars are still there, the firm contends.

Just last Tuesday, a $TslaQ contributor posted a video that appeared to show dozens of Teslas parked on the fifth floor of a shopping mall parking garage in Buena Park.

Follow the solar panels

In an age of social media Photoshop fakes, it pays to be leery about anything that appears on Twitter or elsewhere online. So The Times flew with Machine Planet and spent a day in Los Angeles with Latrilife and the man he hired to take photos.

A reporter roamed a public parking lot outside the Crunch Gym in Burbank, where more than 100 Teslas sat. The vehicle identification numbers showed that many were manufactured in 2018.

Machine Planet has created a website called Crowdsourced Tesla Research at tslaq.org, in part to escape the snark and hot takes that infect Twitter. He said readers could draw their own conclusions, but we think there are at least 10,000 unsold Model 3s out there.

He backs up his assertion with data from IHS Markit, a market research firm, as reported recently in the New York Times: Tesla said it delivered 245,000 cars in 2018. Most were in the United States. But IHS said only 164,000 were registered nationwide.

An IHS spokeswoman said the timing of reported sales could account for some of the difference, but for the full story, your questions are best to be addressed to Tesla.

The shorts say distorted sales claims fit with a long list of hyperbolic and misleading Musk statements:

His 2017 assurance to Wall Street analysts that they should have zero doubt Tesla would hit a production level of 10,000 cars a week by the end of 2018. The company has yet to achieve a steady rate of half that number.

Or his 2016 solar tile demonstration, a product that was supposed to revolutionize the residential solar market by embedding solar panels into the roof itself. But the tile he held in his hands turned out to be a nonfunctional mock-up, and more than two years later, the technology isnt ready for commercial distribution, though Tesla continues to take deposits from customers.

Machine Planet says his interest in Musk is both pecuniary and personal.

If I didnt have an opportunity to personally profit from this and cover my expenses, I wouldnt be here, he said. But this guy attacks us. Justice is important too.

russ.mitchell@latimes.com

Twitter: @russ1mitchell
More than four months after the closure of FilmStruck, Criterion Collections library of classic films has officially returned to the streaming realm.

Criterion Channel, a subscription service owned and operated by New York-based Criterion Collection, launched Monday with more than 1,000 cinematic oldies and important contemporary films, including such landmarks as David Lynchs The Elephant Man and the Coen brothers Blood Simple.

The new service was announced in mid-November following a social media outcry after AT&T Inc.-owned WarnerMedia said it was shutting down FilmStruck, which previously showcased the Criterion films as well as Warner Bros. classics.

FilmStrucks Nov. 29 demise sparked fears among cinephiles that it would become harder for people to access older films and rarities online. Acclaimed filmmakers including Guillermo del Toro, Edgar Wright and Steven Spielberg lobbied to save the service in some fashion.

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The new standalone Criterion Channel will charge subscribers $10.99 a month, or $100 for those who pay for a full year at once. People who signed up early received a discount. In addition to the Criterion Collections robust library, the service will include licensed films from major and independent studios, the group said.

Like FilmStruck, Criterion Channel aims to organize collections of movies for movie lovers to discover hidden treasures and view behind-the-scenes features not available on other services.

One of the apps featured collections, Columbia Noir, highlights pulpy films produced by Columbia Pictures in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, such as Fritz Langs The Big Heat (1953) and Jacques Tourneurs Nightfall (1957). Another highlights 14 films by French New Wave pioneer Agnes Varda, who died at 90 last month. The Criterion Edition of Mildred Pierce features a full-length documentary on Joan Crawfords career.

Other featured gems this month include:

Barbara Lodens Wanda.

Four features and six shorts by David Lynch.

Seven films by Italian screenwriter Suso Cecchi dAmico.

Billy Wilders Ace in the Hole.

Musical gangster comedy Bugsy Malone, starring a young Jodie Foster.

Criterion Channel will have new films and programs added daily, the collection said.

Movies from the Criterion Collection also are expected to become part of WarnerMedias upcoming multi-tier streaming service, which is expected to launch in late 2019. Pricing and programming details for WarnerMedias larger service have not been announced.

ryan.faughnder@latimes.com

@rfaughnder
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A U.S. tourist and her tour guide who were kidnapped in Uganda's Queen Elizabeth National Park on Tuesday by unknown gunmen have been rescued.

Ofwono Opondo, Uganda's government spokesman tweeted that the American tourist and her guide, who doubled as driver, were rescued on Sunday by the Ugandan security forces.

"Rescued alive from the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo), safely back in Uganda. The kidnappers have escaped and operations continue," said Opondo.

Polly Namaye, Uganda police spokesperson, said the duo have been returned to the western district of Kanungu where they were abducted from on Tuesday.

"Thanks to the untiring efforts of the teams carrying out this operation. More related information will be shared with you as soon as we get it," said Namaye in a press statement.

The tourist and her guide were ambushed and abducted near Katoke Gate at Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda's most popular tourist destination.

The kidnappers reportedly demanded a ransom of 500,000 U.S. dollars.
Veteran cable news host Greta Van Susteren is returning to television with a new Sunday public affairs program that will aim to be a must-stop for 2020 presidential candidates and their ad dollars.

Station ownership group Gray Television will announce the new entry Monday at the National Assn. of Broadcasters annual gathering in Las Vegas. Van Susterens program Full Court Press will air Sundays starting in September in the 93 markets where the Atlanta-based Gray owns television stations and on Weigel Broadcasting stations in Chicago and Milwaukee.

Gray is also syndicating the program nationally, offering it to other stations in markets where it does not own an outlet.

Full Court Press will cover national politics while using the resources of Grays TV stations news operations to provide local context to the issues covered. The program will also use Grays national investigative reporting team, which provides its segments to stations and the streaming video channel InvestigateTV.

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Its perfect for the presidential campaign, Sandy Breland, senior vice president for local media for Gray, told The Times. But it will be through the local lens of our stations. We find that more than ever our viewers want to know how decisions in Washington will have an impact in their community.

Van Susteren, 64, was a staple of cable news for 23 years after starting out as a legal expert for CNNs coverage of O.J. Simpsons murder trial. She had her own show on CNN, spent 14 years as a prime-time host on Fox News  replaced by Tucker Carlson in November 2016  and most recently had a six-month stint at MSNBC, which ended in June 2017.

Van Susteren joined Gray in February as a national political analyst. She is also a contributor for the government radio service Voice of America.

Van Susterens straight-ahead nonpartisan style made her a tougher fit for cable news, where ratings have soared for opinionated hosts such as Carlson and MSNBCs Rachel Maddow in the highly polarizing era of the Trump White House. The broadcast TV stations where Full Court Press will air still appeal to viewers looking for political talk on Sunday mornings, thanks to such long-running programs as NBCs Meet the Press and CBSs Face the Nation.

While Gray plans to roll Full Court Press nationally, the program is expected to immediately attract locally targeted political advertising. The company owns three stations in Iowa, where the Democrats will hold their first caucus in the race to pick the partys nominee to oppose President Trump in 2020, and has outlets reaching early primary states such as New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Gray also has a presence in Florida, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, all states that will be battlegrounds in the national election.

While TV stations have felt the pressure of increased competition from online video and shrinking audiences, political advertising has remained a reliable source of revenue, especially in presidential election years.

Van Susteren told The Times in an interview that she expects Grays geographical reach to help in booking presidential candidates to appear on the program.

Politics begins in local markets, Van Susteren said. I am now the local media. Im going to reach their voters.

Van Susteren, who worked her entire on-air career in cable before signing on with Gray, says she believes more viewers will be turning to free over-the-air broadcast stations for news and information as consumers continue to drop their pay TV subscriptions.

This is a really good time for local television, she said.

Sinclair Broadcast Group has also been adding personnel to provide political coverage for its TV stations.

The Baltimore-based company, known for requiring its stations to carry politically conservative segments, has recently hired former Fox News host Eric Bolling and its former Washington correspondent James Rosen. Both were fired by Fox News over sexual harassment allegations.

stephen.battaglio@latimes.com

Twitter: @SteveBattaglio
While working at a hair salon in Santa Monica, Ryan Blake played a role.

Blake recalls acting like a stereotypical gay dude at the business, not a 22-year-old gender nonbinary individual who doesnt necessarily identify as either male or female, which can find expression in pronoun usage or dress.

Its not he or him. Blake uses they or them.

I knew in my heart that if I came into work like this, said Blake  gesturing to their black cardigan, black skirt, tights and heeled boots  it would be a problem.

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I just wasnt comfortable even reaching that conversation cause I knew it wouldnt go well, said Blake, who felt coming out as gender nonbinary could mean being treated differently, or worse, losing their job.

So Blake never did, and thats why the stylist could be found recently at the first job fair for transgender, gender nonbinary and nonconforming individuals sponsored by the St. Johns Well Child and Family Center in South Los Angeles.

The event at Los Angeles Trade-Tech College, which was not unprecedented, drew more than 700 job seekers from a community that often faces employment discrimination for its diverse gender identity or expression.

But on this day, more than 70 employers were assembled, including corporate giants such as Hilton, Sony, Starbucks and Viacom. And in seeking qualified job candidates for positions including sales, marketing and entry-level executive assistants, the companies were taking a definite stance in supporting a community whose rights have been debated  both politically and culturally  for well over a decade.

During the Obama administration, there were advances in transgender rights, such as the historic lifting of a ban on military service. But under President Trumps conservative agenda there has been a rollback, including a U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding Trumps decision to reinstate the military ban  and the revocation of federal policy that allows public school students to choose the bathroom consistent with their own gender identity.

The trans community faces some of the steepest barriers, said George Luna-Pena, who attended the fair and runs the diversity apprenticeship program for the Broad museum. For us, its an opportunity to create a hiring process that is inclusive.

Rex Wilde, program director at Trans Can Work, an L.A.-area advocacy group and a job-fair partner that offers companies gender inclusivity training, said employers are taking the initiative in creating an inclusive workplace.

Its no longer an issue of if you have a transgender employee, its a matter of when you have a transgender employee, said Wilde, who uses they and them pronouns too.

A job fair at Los Angeles Trade-Tech College for L.A.'s transgender community had a large turnout. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

The group, which has trained some 300 businesses since its inception three years ago, has seen the number of companies and businesses requesting training double over the last year, at least partially because of state law.

Senate Bill 396, a bill approved in 2017, requires California employers with 50 or more workers to hold training on harassment based on gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation.

And starting this year, SB 179, also known as the Gender Recognition Act, allows Californians to choose the gender-neutral option of nonbinary on their drivers license. It also makes it easier for them to change official documents to reflect their gender.

But while California is considered one of the most progressive states in offering protections for gay, bisexual and transgender employees, trans employees still suffer discrimination.

A study of data from 2015 to 2017 by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law and the California Health Interview Survey found there are an estimated 80,000 transgender Californians in the workforce.

But about 15% of 3,453 California transgender residents surveyed in 2015 reported being unemployed, about three times higher than the state unemployment rate, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality. About a third of them reported living in poverty.

People in the transgender, gender nonbinary and nonconforming community also face difficulties staying employed.

Fifteen percent of California respondents said they lost a job because of their gender identity or expression, and 26% reported being fired, denied a promotion, or not being hired for a job they applied for because of their gender identity or expression, the survey found.

One reason is that members of the community dont enjoy the same rights that women, minorities and people with disabilities have long fought for: Currently, there is no federal law that prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression.

That may change if the U.S. Supreme Court decides to hear the case of Aimee Stephens  a transgender woman who reportedly was fired from her job after coming out to her boss  and rules on whether transgender employees are protected under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

But companies that count themselves as progressive arent waiting on definitive legal opinions.

In recent years, more companies are adhering to nondiscrimination policies and gender transition guidelines and adding access to inclusive healthcare, according to the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, which releases an annual report rating workplaces on LGBTQ equality.

In its 2019 report, it designated more than 570 businesses as being a Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality, compared with 13 companies in 2002. The report also found that 853 employers are now offering transgender-inclusive health benefits. That includes 62% of the Fortune 500-ranked businesses.

Among the top-rated companies is Starbucks, which broadened its healthcare coverage in 2012 to include gender reassignment surgery, said Bailey Adkins, a spokesperson for the coffee chain.

The company also covers procedures for transgender partners of employees, including surgery for breast reduction or augmentation, facial feminization and hair transplants.

We think that level of accessibility to healthcare is important and we are constantly evaluating and innovating our benefits to be more valuable for our partners, Adkins said.

Stephen Divenere, a director of talent acquisition at Viacom, said the St. Johns event was the third time the company attended a job fair for transgender people.

After the media company attended a job fair held by the Los Angeles LGBT Center, it invited people from the center to speak to the companys hiring team about the needs of the community.

The Los Angeles LGBT Center has hosted a job fair for the transgender and nonconforming community for the last 11 years, said Eden Anai Luna, manager of the Transgender Economic Empowerment Project at the center.

In recent years, more corporations have reached out and participated in the job fairs, said Luna, who also uses they and them pronouns.

The empowerment project helps prepare and match transgender job seekers with potential employers, who also receive training, Luna said. The number of small businesses requesting training has increased by about 10 to 20 each year for the last 10 years, to the point that 482 businesses have been trained.

Now companies are having questions like, Well what does professional attire look like for someone whos nonbinary? Luna said.

Teyana Garcon, of Los Angeles, attends the job fair at Los Angeles Trade-Tech College. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles)

Wendy Musell, president of the California Employment Lawyers Assn., said she thinks the companies are having the same reaction as they did when they began to embrace the gay, lesbian and bisexual communities.

I think these companies are understanding that theres some incredibly talented applicants out there that are untapped, Musell said, and by demonstrating that its a safe and welcoming environment, they not only get excellent employees, but they also get brand loyalty from the LGBT community from both employees and customers.

Something else that may be driving the outreach is a need to expand the pool of prospective employees, given record low unemployment, which dropped to 3.8% nationwide in March and to 4.2% statewide in February. However, Musell said that companies would seek to expand their hiring to transgender employees only if they had already made a commitment to be more inclusive.

Michael Prejean and Evan Rego, who are both transgender men, found support in Bay Area-based coffee shop chain Peets Coffee, which recruited at the job fair.

Rego, a store manager, said he came to Peets after transitioning. They didnt skip a beat when it came to the paperwork, which can be complex with name changes, he said. At Peets, I was definitely Evan.

Prejean, who is also a store manager, decided to transition after working at Peets for eight months. At first, he said, he was worried about how others would respond, as well as the possibility of being rejected.

But Prejean said his experience was smooth, from the small things  such as getting an email with his new name and seeing Michael on the weekly schedule  to the big things, such as the company health insurance covering his gender reassignment surgery costs. He had to cover co-pay costs only.

I couldnt have asked for more, said Prejean, who has been with the company for four years.

One of the balancing acts transgender people face in applying for jobs is figuring out when to out themselves, says Taj Jackson, a black trans woman at the job fair looking for a job that offered more stability than her current one at a bridal store.

Even when youre applying to a job, you want to be as transparent as possible, but you dont know how someone will take it, Jackson, 27, said. Its hard to take that chance.

Indeed, horror stories still abound.

Teyana Garcon, a transgender woman from Los Angeles, was at the job fair after looking for work for almost a year.

Garcon said she was hired for a job as a parking attendant, only to find out right before starting that she was let go. Garcon attributed it to the employer finding out she was transgender.

A lot of people are just uncomfortable with what they dont understand, she said.

But Garcon, a student at Santa Monica College studying music, said she attended the job fair with a positive mind-set. She had just finished updating her official documents with her new name, and she was determined to find a job with an employer who accepted her.

I want to be hired so bad, she said.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is teaming up with Tesla Inc. to comply with stricter European Union emission rules.

FCA is using an EU open pool option that allows automakers to group their fleets together to meet carbon dioxide emission targets. The company declined to comment on a Financial Times report Sunday that its paying Tesla hundreds of millions of euros for the arrangement.

The whole point of a CO2 credit market is to leverage the most cost-effective ways to reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions in the market, FCA said in a statement. The purchase pool provides flexibility to deliver products our customers are willing to buy while managing compliance with the lowest cost approach.

Calls to Teslas office in Amsterdam went unanswered outside business hours in Europe.

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A notification on the European Commission website shows Fiat Chrysler formed an open pool with Tesla on February 25. Mazda and Toyota are also forming an open pool. The EUs target for average new-car emissions of CO2 will decline from 130 grams to 95 grams by 2021.
Meng Wanzhou steps out of her $4.2-million mansion, a GPS monitor strapped to her ankle, and slips into a chauffeured black SUV. Then shes off, largely free to roam the shops and restaurants within 100 square miles of Vancouver, Canada, until her 11 p.m. curfew.

So goes another day of house arrest for Meng, chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies Co. and daughter of the billionaire founder of Chinas biggest telecom provider. It is, by all appearances, a comfortable life for someone at the center of a complex power game.

Mengs arrest at the behest of the U.S.  which wants to extradite her on grounds she tricked banks into potentially violating Iran sanctions  has sparked an unprecedented diplomatic row. Nine days after her Dec. 1 arrest during a stopover in Vancouver, China detained two Canadians on national security grounds. And this week, a China court imposed a death sentence, after a one-day trial, on a Canadian found guilty of drug smuggling.

How Mengs case will be resolved remains unclear, though shes become an object of fascination in a city where her family owns two homes and where she spent downtime when she wasnt running Huaweis finances. Tourists stop by to take selfies outside her home near a 2,000-acre park overlooking the Pacific Ocean, where she is ensconced with her husband and daughter.

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Mengs bail terms include the GPS monitor, an 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew, and 24-hour surveillance by a private security firm, Lions Gate Risk Management Group. Their job is to ensure she doesnt violate the conditions of her release. She pays the hefty bill for that monitoring, which includes two guards at a time and a driver.

If I were on The Price is Right, Id say thats about $7,000 a day, or more than $2.5 million a year, said Nicholas Casale, a former police detective. Casale structured Bernie Madoffs bail agreement and acted as monitor for the disgraced money manager for about three months.

Mengs long leash following her $7.5-million bail is unusual, he said; normally, the defendants movements and communications would be restricted.

You cant just go to dinner or go shopping, Casale said.

The conditions of Mengs house arrest are in stark contrast to another corporate titan  former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn  who is confined at a Tokyo detention center. He arrived in handcuffs, plastic slippers and a rope around his waist in court last week. Meng is also faring better than the two Canadians detained in China, who have had scant consular access.

That hasnt stopped Chinas envoy to Canada from protesting Mengs treatment. In a fiery op-ed published in an Ottawa newspaper last week, Ambassador Lu Shaye railed against Western egotism and white supremacy of those who have criticized China for detaining the Canadians, in what was widely seen as retaliation.

Have they shown any concern or sympathy for Meng after she was illegally detained and deprived of freedom? Lu wrote in the Hill Times.

Lu told reporters in Ottawa Thursday that Meng is innocent, adding the case is politically motivated. He also defended the detentions of Canadians, saying they werent retaliatory.

The extradition process for Meng Wanzhou could drag on for months or years. (Jonathan Hayward / Associated Press)

Meng, 46, sported a purple Hermes scarf and Bottega Veneta handbag when she first reported to her bail supervisor in Vancouver on Dec. 12. Renovations, meanwhile, are underway at her other $12.3-million mansion in one of Vancouvers toniest neighborhoods, where a truck from a high-end closet designer was parked outside recently. Her defense indicated shed like to move there when its ready. If she does, shell be two doors down from the U.S. consul generals residence, where the star-spangled banner flaps on the front lawn.

Getting glimpses of her daily life is difficult  her guards appear to have taken on the responsibility of shielding her from the public eye. When Bloomberg News journalists parked on the street next to her home last week and identified themselves as press, one guard took photos of the license plate as another sped over in his white SUV to block their vehicle. As Meng slipped out of her house in her Lululemon jacket, the guard began accusing the journalists of damaging his car before later acknowledging hed obstructed them.

Still, the outings and postcard views mask a darker reality for Meng: This extradition process could drag on for months and possibly years, if history is any guide. And the odds are high that she will be extradited in the end.

The tilt of the Crown in these cases is extradite, extradite, extradite, said Robert Currie, a professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia who specializes in international law. Canadas extradition law is unbalanced to the point where a number of critics, including me, have said its unfair.

The U.S. must turn over its formal extradition request by the end of January. It hasnt made the request yet, a justice department spokesman said in an email Thursday. Canadas Justice Minister David Lametti can reject the request or order extradition hearings to begin. Its not clear if that will happen before Mengs next court date in February.

Lametti cant arbitrarily refuse. His ministry would have to determine that fraud doesnt constitute a crime in Canada  an implausible finding. Furthermore, in Canada, the extradition judge has to accept whatever evidence the U.S. presents at face value  the proceedings dont consider the strength of the evidence or the likelihood of conviction.

Canadian judges end up approving about 90% of extradition requests because the system makes it nearly impossible to mount a defense, says Gary Botting, a Vancouver-based lawyer whos been involved in hundreds of extradition cases.

They say Jump, and Canada says How high?, he said.

For her part, Meng has hinted at how shed like to spend her time during what could be a years-long ordeal.

Shed like to apply for a PhD in business administration at the University of British Columbia, whose campus sits near her home. In an awkward twist, the school is receiving $2.3 million from Huawei to fund research on 5G, the next-generation mobile network technology that the U.S. wants to block the company from developing.

Ive been working hard for 25 years, she said through her lawyer during her bail hearings last month. If released, my only simple goal would be to spend time with my husband and daughter. I havent read a novel in years.
A dusty fracker deep in the North Dakota oil fields scrambles into his shiny new pickup truck and pushes the electronic ignition. He settles in as the calming fragrance of cedar wafts from the vent. Reaching behind, he pulls a cold kombucha from the built-in chiller. As a man-made starscape flickers on the headliner, he sits back and lets the truck drive him home.

Of course, this vehicle doesnt exist, at least not yet. Although U.S. factories are stamping out increasingly opulent and expensive pickup trucks  some cracking the $80,000 mark  the creature comforts and tech-drenched amenities on these machines still fall years behind what buyers typically find on similarly priced luxury cars.

Step into the top trim of a half-ton pickup these days, and youll find a small herds worth of buttery leather, enough bins and wireless-charging docks to keep things Marie Kondo-tidy, excellent Wi-Fi and a suite of active safety features such as lane warnings and automated cruise control. Impressive? Yes, but only relative to the rough-and-tumble recent past of the American truck. These kinds of features and digital safety chaperones have been available on Subarus for years.

Whats missing from these trucks is the next level of opulence that comes standard on a swanky sedan that costs just as much. Truck infotainment screens still cant be navigated with hand gestures like those of a BMW, the glove compartments arent stocked with fragrance atomizers like those from Mercedes-Benz, the sound systems cant be set to mimic the acoustics of the Gothenburg Concert Hall (like Volvos), and none of these high-end pickups will drive itself around like a low, louche Cadillac  or, for that matter, a Tesla.

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The reason is that such perks would cut the huge profit margin that comes with selling pickups in a country obsessed with urban cowboy street-cred.

While swanky sedans are now accented with soft-close doors, power sunshades and audio systems that protect eardrums in advance of a crash, top-shelf pickup trucks are still touting Ice Blue ambient lighting. Ford Motor trims the cockpits of its Lincoln sport utility vehicles in open-pore ash, though the fanciest versions of its main moneymaker, the F-150, are sold with Genuine Wood accents.

At General Motors, the price of GMCs Sierra pickup can easily be pushed north of $70,000, but the infotainment screen never gets much bigger than an iPhone. Those opting for GMs Cadillac CT6, however, will enjoy an additional 2.2 inches of touch screen.

Evan Steiner, a ski dad with a Labrador retriever, is one of many migrating from German sedans to a big, burly truck. He recently ditched his Volkswagen Jetta and bought a Toyota Tundra (the big one) in a loaded configuration that starts at $50,330. I was tired of having a Tetris puzzle every time I wanted to put stuff in the car, he said.

Steiner and his two kids gush about their new whip, but he had to pay extra for a bed liner. Moreover, hes puzzled that the steep sticker price didnt cover push-button ignition, which became table stakes in the luxury game years ago and is now available on the Jetta he jettisoned.

The average price of a truck now hovers at $50,000, in large part because of ultra-expensive models that fetch far more. To be fair, the price of a truck needs to cover a bunch of things the financial engineers in Stuttgart, Germany  hometown of Mercedes-Benz and Porsche  dont have to worry about: massive engines, a lot more steel and aluminum, tie-down anchors, bumper steps and LED lights.

On a contemporary half-ton truck, a side mirror alone can double as a bathroom vanity and the running boards often extend and retract automatically. Manufacturers have also developed intricate systems to monitor and counteract swaying trailers. GMC trucks will soon have a transparent trailer feature, which creates a video feed from 15 cameras so the driver can see behind the hitched rig.

Theres a lot more capability and versatility on a truck, compared to a luxury sedan, said Phil Brook, GMC vice president of marketing. The cheapest version of Fords market-leading F-150 starts at about $28,000, though 1 in 10 F-150 buyers spent more than $60,000, according to data from Edmunds.

Theyve really evolved into no-compromise vehicles, said Ford truck marketing head Todd Eckert. But at the end of the day, a truck has to be a truck.... Fragrances and things of that nature are typically not things that our customers are interested in.

Even with those caveats, the financial engineers have factored in plenty of cushion for these machines. Pickups remain the most profitable niche of the auto industry  up to $10,000 per vehicle  because of the wide gap between the price of the rigs and the cost of what goes in them.

However, todays consumer is pretty woke, and the profit padding hasnt gone unnoticed. In a recent survey, 68% of truck owners said that they felt pickups were overpriced, according to CarGurus Inc., an online marketplace for new and used vehicles. More darkly for truck-mongers, some 17% of those respondents said their next vehicle would not be a pickup.

Ive started to wonder how much gravy there is in the pickup market going forward, said Madison Gross, director of customer insights at CarGurus.

Whats more, truck buyers probably pay more attention to the sticker price than those kicking the tires on a German sedan because they are more likely to buy than rent. Recently, fewer than 1 in 5 of Americas full-size trucks left the lot under lease, compared with 56% of premium luxury cars.

No doubt, those who design big rigs will soon close the amenities gap. The SUV riches being raked in by Bentley, Lamborghini, Rolls-Royce and the rest of the bluest blue-blood brands has emboldened pickup engineers. It turns out, surgeons and swap-traders like to off-road at least as much as Costco dads. Indeed, roughly one-third of truck buyers are adding a vehicle to their garage rather than replacing one, according to Cox Automotive.

We can continue to expand on the top end but at the same time continue to deliver to the core, Eckert said of Fords truck strategy. Obviously, were always aware of whats happening across the industry.

Ford has probably been keeping a close eye on Ram, its crosstown rival in Auburn, Mich. About a year ago, the perennial third-string player unveiled its most lavish truck to date. The Ram rig was loaded with all-new goodies, including reclining rear seats, a 12-inch touch screen, active-noise cancellation, headlights that steer around corners and a Harman Kardon sound system with 19 speakers. In the months since, Rams share of the full-size truck market surged to 24% from 19% as it swiped spendthrift buyers from more pedestrian machines.

GMC, meanwhile, is working on that little touch screen. When asked if buyers can expect a higher gear of luxury on coming iterations, Brook, the brands marketing head, said: It sounds like youve been at some of our product-planning meetings. Most GMC customers can buy anything they want, he said, and a little more than one-third of them have recently been opting for the brands Denali treatment  its most expensive trim.

The trucks, in short, will be getting even fancier  and fast. The only question is whether the price will tick up even more. There are no doubt plenty of people who would drop six figures on an F-150. Soon, they may get their chance.
Tesla Inc. followed a disappointing deliveries report by cutting another swath of sales staff across the country as the electric-car maker continued to pare back personnel and shift its ordering process online.

The company dismissed several dozen sales team members on Thursday in Chicago; Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Tampa, Fla., according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the details were private. Tesla confirmed the cuts but declined to discuss specifics, including the number of personnel affected.

The staff reductions are part of the retail retrenchment Tesla announced in February. Chief Executive Elon Musk has said the decision to close some showrooms and embrace an online-only ordering model is designed to save money as the company ramps up production of cheaper Model 3 sedans and prepares to launch new models including the Model Y crossover next year.

The cuts made last week affected teams known internally as inside sales, which were tasked with reaching out to potential customers and inviting them to test-drive cars, the people said. After the retail strategy revamp, these employees were reassigned to tasks such as taking inbound calls, helping with deliveries and even washing and detailing vehicles, the people said.

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Tesla still has operations at the three locations, according to the company. It still has inside sales teams in Fremont, Calif., and Las Vegas, the people said.

One affected employee in Tampa, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that 20 inside sales advisors and two managers were informed around noon Thursday that their positions there were being eliminated. An employee who worked in Brooklyn said the team there was also informed Thursday. Both said the teams were informed of the terminations via conference call and that they were effective immediately.

The dismissals are just the latest shakeup at Tesla as part of a zigzagging approach to its retailing strategy that has rattled investors and stoked confusion. Ten days after signaling an almost complete withdrawal from physical stores, the company backtracked and said more Tesla locations would stay open than planned, though some would continue to be evaluated.

Musk, 47, wrote to employees in February that Tesla would evaluate all areas of its sales and marketing organization in the following weeks, with some being cut and other employees transitioning to different parts of the company.
Welcome to California Inc., the weekly newsletter of the L.A. Times Business Section.

Im Business columnist David Lazarus, and heres a rundown of upcoming stories this week and the highlights of last week.

Trading resumes Monday after some upbeat economic news Friday. Hiring rebounded in March as employers added a solid 196,000 jobs, up sharply from Februarys much smaller gain. The unemployment rate stayed at 3.8%, near the lowest level in almost 50 years.

Looking ahead

Hate speech: The House Judiciary Committee has called in execs from Google and Facebook for a hearing Tuesday in response to online hate speech and racially motivated violence, including the New Zealand mosque shooting in March. The committees announcement calls social media platforms worldwide conduits to spread vitriolic hate messages into every home and country.

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Financial checkup: The House Financial Services Committee will hold a series of meetings starting Tuesday with a look at how well banks are investing in lower-income neighborhoods. On Wednesday, the chiefs of the nations largest banks will testify about their institutions 10 years after the financial crisis, while Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin will give his annual report on the state of the international financial system.

The Mouse speaks: Walt Disney Co. on Thursday hosts an investor day at its Burbank headquarters to share details about its upcoming Disney+ services and its broader strategy to take on Netflix in streaming. How much will it cost? When will it launch? Maybe well finally find out.

New Movies: Hellboy returns to movie screens Friday. David Harbour stars as the Big Red One in this reboot. Hell have his work cut out for him after Ron Perlmans epic turn in the part. Also opening is Big-like Little, in which Regina Hall swaps lives with her 13-year-old self and hilarity ensues.

Wingardium Leviosa: Universal Studios Hollywood will unveil a new light show Saturday on the walls of Hogwarts castle, relying on cutting-edge laser mapping technology. Universal says the show will feature the darkest creatures and villains, including the powerful dark wizard Lord Voldemort. The attraction will run from April 13 to 28, then return from May 25 to 27.

The agenda

Mondays Business section explores the looming arrival of a cashless society  a change Amazons new breed of no-cash convenience stores is hastening. Some lawmakers are worried. They say the growing number of cashless stores and restaurants around the country will further marginalize low-income people at a time when inequality is already the highest in more than half a century.

Story lines

Here are some of the other stories that ran in the Times Business section in recent days that were continuing to follow:

Sinking Lyft: Shares of Lyft Inc. dropped below their IPO price of $72 in a rough second day of trading for the San Francisco ride-hailing firm. Although stocks often falter on their second day, sinking below their issue price is a black eye. For Lyft, part of the trouble could stem from investor concerns that the companys path to profitability continues to be very murky.

Game on: After a series of stumbles, Snap Inc. announced a new suite of products for the companys disappearing-message app, Snapchat  including a major new social gaming platform integrated into Snaps existing structure for group chat. The marquee title in the lineup is Bitmoji Party, which allows users to compete in wacky mini-games against their friends, with avatars that are digital versions of themselves.

737 slowdown: Boeing will temporarily cut production of 737 Max planes as the company continues work on a software upgrade to the flight control system implicated in two fatal crashes. By mid-month, the Chicago aerospace giant will reduce production of its 737 Max planes from 52 per month to 42 per month. The cutback is intended to focus more personnel on software certification and returning the grounded plane to flight.

Hollywood strife: The Writers Guild of America failed to reach an agreement with Hollywood talent agencies Saturday when the current franchise agreement negotiated in 1976 was set to expire. Writers are upset that talent agencies, flush with outside capital, are moving into production deals that could put the agencies interests out of alignment with theirs.

Disappearing perks: Loyal customers of the former Starwood Hotels & Resorts are fuming over problems accessing their room upgrades and other earned perks since Marriott International acquired Starwood in 2016 and merged the reward programs. Marriott acknowledges the new program is plagued with problems and says it is investing in technology, personnel and training to fix the program.

What were reading

Some recent stories from other publications that caught our eye:

The doctor is in: Employers, including Walmart, increasingly want a say in which doctors their workers see, according to the Wall Street Journal. Singling out doctors is an ambitious effort by employers to wrest more control over health spending, which is projected to pick up with labor-market strength. Health plans have narrowed the choices available to insured workers.

Bad medicine: Blink Health wanted to change the way drugs were sold, says Bloomberg. Then things got messy. The startup has been entangled in lawsuits and shadowed by deals that saw industry partners turn from friend to foe, competition from two defecting employees, a threat from Amazon itself and no end of bad blood along the way.

Close enough: With former Vice President Joe Bidens touchy-feely issues in mind, the New York Times explores how close is too close, especially in the workplace. However the allegations against Mr. Biden play out politically or in the press, the boundaries of personal space will always remain somewhat fluid and, except in the most obvious cases, open to interpretation. If you arent sure, ask first.

Tray tables up: The Atlantic takes wing with what it calls the bizarre economics of airplanes, particularly when problems arise. Strange things can happen when a business is based on millions of people flying around in $100 million metal boxes that can take a year to build.

Empty shelves: President Trump was wise to back off his threat to close the southern border, experts say. As Time magazine reports, it would have a devastating economic impact. Shelves will start looking half-empty within a few days, and within a week, they really are half-empty, says the president of the Fresh Produce Assn. of the Americas.

Spare change

We all want to be really good at something. In Gentry Steins case, its walking the dog (and a whole lot more). Thanks to this awesome Wired video, you can see what it takes to be a yo-yo world champion.

For the latest money news, go to www.latimes.com/business. Mad props to Laurence Darmiento for helping put this thing together.

Until next time, Ill see you in the Business section.
The United Kingdom joined a growing global backlash against technology companies such as Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc., proposing fines and bans if social-media platforms fail to curb illegal activity.

The government outlined plans for an industry-funded regulator that would police the technology companies platforms for harmful content, such as incitement to terrorism and child sexual exploitation. The move is part of a push to hold the companies accountable, and fines for breaches of the new law could reach as high as 4% of global turnover, Digital Secretary Jeremy Wright said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.

There is an acceptance that some form of regulation on social media is inevitable, Wright said on Monday. Companies will be subject to internet rules wherever they are.

The U.K. plan follows steps by Australia, the European Union and others to increase scrutiny of tech companies that until now have largely avoided any form of industry regulation. Last week, Australia passed legislation that included potential prison sentences of up to three years for executives who fail to remove abhorrent material from their platforms.

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In the U.K., too, enforcement powers could go as far as imposing liability on individual company managers. The government laid out the proposals as it opened a 12-week consultation Monday.

European lawmakers are also voting Monday on removal rules for online terrorism content, part of a broader EU effort to make platforms increasingly liable for what their users post.

The U.K. proposal wasnt universally welcomed. The Institute of Economic Affairs, a pro-market research group, labeled the plans draconian and more likely to do harm than good by holding back innovation. Giving the government power to dictate what content is appropriate sets a dangerous precedent, Director General Mark Littlewood said.

Following the March 15 mosque attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand, that left 50 people dead, Facebook and Alphabet Inc.s YouTube faced worldwide condemnation for failing to take down quickly a video livestreamed by the alleged gunman.

Damian Collins, a member of the U.K.s ruling Conservative Party who chairs the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, cited the New Zealand terrorist attack as a reason for introducing regulation.

A regulator should have the power to investigate how content of that atrocity was shared and why more was not done to stop it sooner, he said.

The U.K.s proposed laws will apply to any company that allows users to share or find content or interact with each other online, such as social-media platforms, file-hosting sites, public discussion forums, messaging services and search engines.

Other proposals outlined by the government include a code of practice that could include requirements to minimize the spread of misleading information, and an annual transparency report on harmful content.

Even in the home country of Facebook and Google, opposition has been growing. After a plethora of congressional hearings, a bill that would have restricted online political advertising lost steam when its sponsor, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), died. But U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Tulare) has sued Twitter, while Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a Democratic presidential candidate, last week complained Facebook has too much power.
Jenna Bush Hager launched NBCs Today With Hoda and Jenna on Monday with a little help from her dad, former President George W. Bush.

W. sent his daughter well wishes, along with her mother and mother-in-law, as she took over fourth-hour, co-hosting duties from Kathie Lee Gifford, whose last day on the show was last Friday.

Hey, Jenna, your old dad here on film to tell you how much I love you and how proud I am of you. I know youll do a fabulous job, he said.

Keeping with the fourth-hour tradition of tears, Hager, 37, began crying, and the tissue box belatedly dropped from the ceiling to wipe away her tears.

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.@jennabushhagers dad, mother and mother-in-law wanted to wish her well on her first day!  pic.twitter.com/mLiHaVC11h  TODAY with Hoda & Jenna (@HodaAndJenna) April 8, 2019

The hosting duo also tried out a new pregame catchphrase, settling on Lets go, yall to kick things off. It did not go as planned, prompting Hager to say, So far, were off to an OK start.

Several of her other family members, including twin sister Barbara Bush, were also featured in a video montage celebrating the former Today correspondent and contributors new post. Hager has frequently been a fill-in host during the freewheeling hour.

Gifford, who left her longtime perch to focus on her feature film, music and book projects, also tweeted her approval, writing, Congratulations @JennaBushHager !!So happy for you.

Follow me: @NardineSaad
Mireille Enos won high praise for her leading role in The Killing, playing a tightly wound detective investigating the murder of a teenage girl.

Her partner in that drama was Joel Kinnaman, who played a more street savvy investigator who often clashed with Enos character.

Enos and Kinnaman are paired again in Amazons Hanna, about a teenage lethal weapon raised and trained by her father. Kinnaman plays Hannas father, while Enos plays a ruthless CIA operative determined to kill them both.

In an Emmy Contenders chat in the Los Angeles Times video studio, Enos discussed how thrilled she was when she leaned she would be teaming up again with Kinnaman.

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It was music to my ears, she said. Joel is my number one best partner Ive ever gotten to play with.

She added that their chemistry is tied to their mutual approach to life, saying they both come from a place of generosity.

Another big thrill for the petite actress was getting physical in a rough fight scene with two armed male agents who take her out in the forest with orders to kill her.

It was awesome, she said. I do practice martial arts. Im a second-degree black belt in taekwondo. The producers built this fight that was totally within my wheelhouse.

Armed only with a knife, Enos character dispatches both agents.

The director of photography choreographed the scene so it was shot in a single take without cutting. It was a very exciting day, she said.
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The death toll in the clashes near the Libyan capital Tripoli between forces of the UN-backed government and the eastern-based army rose to 21, according to the Ministry of Health.

"Based on information from the central operation chamber of the Ministry of Health, the casualties are 21 dead and 27 injured," the ministry said.

The army, led by Khalifa Haftar, has launched a military campaign on Thursday to take over western Libya, particularly Tripoli where the UN-backed government is based.

Earlier on Sunday, spokesman of the government's forces announced launching a counter military operation against the army troops.

The army 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 Gaddafi's regime in 2011.




Fred Segal has come full circle. A new Malibu store, which opened this weekend, is at 3900 Cross Creek Road, amid a cluster of retail spaces originally developed by Fred Segal himself between 1973 and 1980. From the front entrance, it is possible to look across the street to 3835 Cross Creek Road  today, the Malibu Country Mart  where the original Fred Segal Malibu sold denim, apparel and accessories for most of the 1970s.

For many, the retailers Jeans Bar and shop-in-shop concepts have been a seamless part of the Los Angeles experience since Segal began selling denim from a 300-square-foot shop on Santa Monica Boulevard in 1961. So on Saturday afternoon, fans flocked to Malibu Village to celebrate the opening of the new Fred Segal outpost.

Many brought their dogs along  one woman even brought her chicken  and shoppers of all ages took turns snapping Instagram photos in front of the retailers iconic ivy wall (which for this location had to be done indoors thanks to the citys building codes). Attendees inched their way through the packed space  the Malibu store is a fraction the size of the flagship Sunset Boulevard location, but still features the shop-within-a-shop concept, which divides apparel and accessory categories according to different vignettes.

Heewon Lim was one of several shoppers who brought their dogs to the opening of Fred Segal Malibu. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

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Whether to recall a fashion triumph or a fashion regret, many there were happy to share their memories of Fred Segal purchases. Insurance executive Mark Goldsmith, who drove from Calabasas, recalled visiting Fred Segals original store on Santa Monica Boulevard in 1961 or 1962, when his mother purchased him a pair of pants and vest that were kind of slim and tight. Crazily, it was this kind of short gaucho vest that had a zipper on the side, which isnt common for men to wear. I used to wear it to school. Nobody laughed at me because that was my style. It was either that or Ohrbachs, and I preferred the Fred Segal look.

Sharon Lee, a 34-year-old Los Angeles native and founder of the handmade wallpaper company Krane Home, also remembered shopping with her mother at Fred Segal. My mom bought my sister an outfit, she said. I was 14 and not old enough to fit into the clothes, but I was so jealous and mad because I wanted the same orange velvet bellbottom jeans. I made her turn around in the parking lot to buy me a pair because I threw such a fit  and that was my first purchase.

Mark Goldsmith recalls going to the original Fred Segal in the early 60s and his mother buying him a short gaucho vest that had a zipper on the side. Nobody laughed at me, because that was my style, he said. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Several of Fred Segals wholesale partners were in the mix as well. Coral Chung said Fred Segal Malibu will be one of the two bricks-and-mortar partners of her otherwise direct-to-consumer accessories brand Senreve. Many of the brands they carry, such as ours, arent widely available at other stores, so that makes their offering very special, she said. She too recalled her first Fred Segal purchase: I was 11 or 12 and begged my friends older sister to take us [shopping]. I didnt have a ton of allowance money and was obsessed with chokers; I bought my first choker there. I think I wore it every day for a whole year.

Segals granddaughter, Molly Segal, was on hand. I grew up going to Fred Segal Santa Monica, she said. I got my first haircut there, and every single item of clothing that I can remember. But the one I remember most was when I was 9 years old, getting my first Juicy Couture matching sweats and sweatshirt. I wore it to school for a week straight.

Molly Segal, middle, the brand manager of Maris Collective and Fred Segals granddaughter, was greeted with hugs during the opening of the Malibu store. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Today, Molly Segal is a brand manager at Maris Collective, the retail consultancy that operates the womens department at Fred Segal Sunset; she also oversaw the merchandising of Fred Segal Malibus apparel, accessories, jewelry and gifts assortment. She said her grandfathers legacy of experiential retail still permeates the Fred Segal brand. I see it everywhere. Everything I did from a branding perspective, from the interactions with customers to this opening celebration, is what he and my family represents, she said. When he started the original Fred Segal Malibu [in 1975], there was no fashion retail here at the time. There was nowhere to get together except the beach, so when he built the first store, there was a playground so people and families could come together. It was never just about shopping. It was about how everyone comes together and wants to be together and create a wonderful experience.

When it was Segals turn to pose with the ivy wall for an Instagram photo, a bystander approached her and said that while the new store might be in a different spot, it was easy to feel the similarities to what the original represented. Its not always about what Im going to sell, how much we can do, its about creating a wonderful environment for everyone involved, said Segal. I think the way forward for retail is customer experience. When you can really connect with the consumer, it can create a totally different environment.

Sharon Lee said that when she was 14, she visited Fred Segal with her mother and older sister, and threw such a fit"in the parking lot that her mother agreed to go back inside and buy her the same pair of orange velvet bellbottom jeans that her sister had just gotten. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Channeling and perhaps even condensing that legacy is what Fred Segals new majority owners are banking on.

Jeff Lotman, chairman of Global Icons, the brand licensing firm that in March acquired a majority stake in Fred Segal, said by phone that the companys focus would primarily be on opening stores internationally as well as developing a private-label brand.

We have a presence in Taipei and Malaysia, but we want to build up China and Korea, he said. And for private label, were going to start off with a tight athleisure collection available at the new Malibu store. The price point between Neimans and Nordstrom is the sweet spot were going for. Tees, tops, outerwear, shorts for men and women. Then were going to license other categories around it. Were committed to creating a private-label brand.

Visitors to Fred Segal Malibu will notice that at 4,000 square feet, the store is about one-fourth the size of the retailers Sunset location. Theres also an even smaller shop inside LAXs Tom Bradley International Terminal. While some might see the smaller sizes as a problem, Allison Samek, chief executive of Fred Segal, feels otherwise, suggesting that they could be a way forward for the brand in an otherwise bleak retail climate.

Fred Segal Malibu is a fraction of the size of the stores flagship Sunset Boulevard location, but still features the shop-within-a-shop concept. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

We wanted to figure out how to put our story into a smaller footprint because we generally have only had very large stores, she said of the Malibu shop. The LAX store doesnt have our signature shop-in-shops; its just a multi-brand. Malibu is the first time weve done shop-in-shops in a smaller footprint. Its a great showcase for what we could potentially do internationally.
Given that were in the midst of a street food renaissance, its surprising that onigiri isnt easier to find in this country. The Japanese rice and nori snacks, also called musubi, are portable, inexpensive, endlessly variable and, yes, delicious. In Japan, you can get excellent iterations of the stuff everywhere, even in department stores.

Rice & Nori, a casual counter restaurant in downtown L.A.s Little Tokyo, is the debut project from two longtime restaurant chefs, and it specializes in the addictive triangular finger food.

Mika Nakata Shenefelt and Regina Chen opened Rice & Nori the day before Thanksgiving, next door to the sprawling Marukai market in Weller Court. A light and spacious dining room surrounds the counter, where you order from a menu of onigiri, hand rolls, sashimi, salads, pickles and desserts (matcha tiramisu!). Specials lately included oden, the homey Japanese one-pot dish; and tonjiru, a pork and miso soup.

Its comfort food, said Shenefelt on a recent morning. Its mostly stuff we like to eat.

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Shenefelt and Chen met at the Pasadena French-Japanese restaurant Maison Akira; both chefs are former corporate chefs and graduates of the now-closed Le Cordon Bleu in Pasadena.

The onigiri at Rice & Nori are meticulously shaped packages of rice, often still warm, wrapped with sheets of nori. Whats inside can vary among a long list of fillings, including salmon with yuzu miso, Spam and egg, umeboshi (sour plum) and others.

Onigiri may be finally starting to gain more traction in Los Angeles, thanks to this shop and a few others, including farmers market pop-up Mama Musubi, and the Santa Monica casual restaurant Sunny Blue.

Theres an onigiri place in Japan that has a Michelin star, said Shenefelt, smiling.

123 Astronaut Ellison S. Onizuka St., Suite 103, Los Angeles; (213) 628-3114; rice-nori.business.site. Instagram: @riceandnorirestaurant.

amy.scattergood@latimes.com

Instagram: @AScattergood
Adelanto city officials are parting ways with the federal government and a private prison company, ending the high desert citys role in overseeing the management of Californias largest immigrant detention facility.

Its the latest in a string of similar decisions by local governments to terminate their contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement over immigrant detention, bowing to the pressures of state laws that limit the interaction between local officials and federal immigration enforcement agents.



For the record: A previous version of this article stated that the Orange County Sheriffs Department will stop holding ICE detainees on Aug. 1, 2020. The department will change its policy this August.

But because of the complexities of contract law, these moves could actually end up expanding immigrant detention. By withdrawing from their contracts, and no longer serving as go-betweens, California municipalities could make it easier for ICE to go directly into business with private prison companies and sidestep limits imposed by state law on expanding detention facilities.

In letters dated March 27 to ICE and the private prison company GEO Group, City Manager Jessie Flores announced that Adelantos contract with both entities will end in 90 days.

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Sources: California Department of Justice, Census Bureau (Kyle Kim / Los Angeles Times Graphics)

Florida-based GEO Group runs 12 other immigrant detention facilities throughout the country. With nearly 2,000 beds, the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in San Bernardino County is one of its largest. Detainees are held for civil immigration-related offenses, not for criminal prosecution.

The facility has been widely criticized for a number of problems, including inadequate medical care and serious safety violations. A Department of Homeland Security inspector generals report made public last year disclosed that a Nicaraguan man had died there, found hanging in his cell from his bed sheets, and that two other detainees had tried to hang themselves.

Detainees routinely hold hunger strikes to protest conditions. A recent report by the California state auditor found that Adelanto has failed to properly oversee the management of the facility.

Federal regulations require ICE to conduct a competitive public bidding process before awarding a contract to a company interested in managing the daily operations of a detention facility. But most ICE facilities operate the way that Adelanto has, under intergovernmental service agreements.

The local governments serve as administrative vehicles, either passing funds between ICE and private prison companies or accepting funds to hold immigrants in local jails. The agreements allow ICE to quickly expand bed space instead of constructing new federal government-owned facilities.

Critics have argued that using local governments as go-betweens allows ICE to circumvent the lengthy public bidding process and avoid responsibility in the event of any abuse or harm to detainees, including fatalities.

As immigrants have been detained in record numbers, the Trump administration has sought to expand detention capacity. In early February, ICE detained an average of 49,000 people a day, up from about 34,000 a day in 2012.

Just ahead of his trip Friday to the southern border in California, Trump withdrew his nominee to run ICE because he wanted the agency to move in a tougher direction.

Until last year, there were 10 facilities in California housing immigrants in deportation proceedings for extended periods. By this summer, the state will be down to six. Officials in Sacramento and Contra Costa counties decided last June and July, respectively, to stop holding immigrants in their jails for deportation. And last month, the Orange County Sheriffs Department announced that it will stop holding ICE detainees in the James A. Musick and Theo Lacy facilities starting in August.

The move in Adelanto follows a similar contract termination in McFarland, which oversaw the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in Bakersfield until last month. ICE cited unusual and compelling urgency in a notice explaining its justification for allowing GEO Group to continue operating the 400-bed center for another year, without McFarlands involvement, while it prepares to conduct a public bidding process.

A pair of California laws passed in 2017 aimed to block the expansion of immigrant detention facilities in the state by prohibiting local governments from establishing new contracts with for-profit prison companies and ICE, or expanding existing ones.

In a statement, ICE spokeswoman Lori Haley said the agency was exploring all options to keep its facilities open. However, ICE does operate a national system of detention bed space and will house detainees in other facilities as needed, she said.

Adelantos City Manager Flores, Mayor Gabriel Reyes and representatives of GEO Group did not respond to requests for comment.

But Flores told the San Bernardino Sun that his decision to end the contract was based on budgetary constraints preventing the city from being able to adequately oversee the facility. The decision didnt require a city council vote, but Flores asked council members for their input last week during a closed session.

Mayor Pro Tem Stevevonna Evans said she was the only one on the five-member council to disagree with the move. Evans, who was elected last November, said she was concerned that, by ending its contract with GEO Group and ICE, the city would forfeit its ability to monitor the troubled facility.

Evans said Flores idea to cancel the contract goes back to late February, when she walked in on a meeting between him and GEO Group Chief Executive George Zoley over the possibility of ending the contract. She said they explained that ending the contract would alleviate the city of potential future litigation.

Evans said she had wanted to establish an oversight committee for the detention facility.

At that February meeting, Evans said, Zoley also explained that state law prohibited the company from expanding operations  unless the city backed out of the contract.

In fiscal year 2017, Adelanto transferred more than $71 million in payments from ICE to GEO Group. In return, GEO has paid the city a yearly fee of about $1 million to oversee the distributions. Evans said that Zoley assured city leaders that they would continue receiving payment even after they ended the contract.

City leaders, including Evans, met again with Zoley before last weeks closed-session council meeting. She asked if the council could put the decision question on the calendar and allow for public comment. But the others appeared to be in a hurry, she said.

I think theres a way bigger picture that the council and our city manager arent seeing, she said. For me, it was too many red flags.

Flores told inspectors with the state auditors office that the only involvement the city has with the facilitys operation is to sign monthly invoices from GEO and then to transfer federal funds the city receives when ICE pays the invoices. Adelanto leaders said they were unaware of previous inspection reports detailing serious problems at the facility.

Liz Martinez of Freedom for Immigrants, a nonprofit that advocates for the elimination of immigrant detention, said she was alarmed by what she saw as an attempt by GEO Group to circumvent state law in keeping the Adelanto center open. Martinez said she worries what could happen if the company contracts directly with ICE to keep the facility open.

For so long, cities like Adelanto and McFarland were part of the system  they were complicit in the system, she said. They cant just wash their hands of this by terminating the ICE agreement. If anything, they have a greater responsibility to know whats happening there.

Emily Ryo, law and sociology professor at USC who studies immigrant detention, said she wouldnt be surprised if GEO Group contracts directly with ICE to keep the Adelanto facility open. State law cant block the expansion of detention space under that type of contract.

It has sort of transferred more power to the private prison industry in a way that I think wasnt intended, she said of the law. And without a local government as the middleman, she added, its dangerous in the sense that we know private prison companies are much less transparent and accountable to the public.

To the extent that ICE is desperate to have these facilities stay open, she said, these private prison companies are going to have a lot of leverage.

andrea.castillo@latimes.com | Twitter: @andreamcastillo
Orange County resident Kimberly Endicott had been dreaming about her big trip to Africa.

Endicotts friend Pam Lopez, who met the Costa Mesa resident through her work as an aesthetician, said it was Endicotts lifelong goal 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 guarding the group.

Then, last week, officials said Endicott and a guide were kidnapped. After several tense days, she and the guide were released.

Here is what we know:

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How was she kidnapped?

Endicott was on an evening game trip in a car driven by Congolese national Jean-Paul Mirenge Remezo. The group, which included two other tourists, was 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.

Ugandan police said Wednesday they had dispatched an elite group of police officers, military personnel and wildlife authority officials to assist in the search for Endicott and Remezo. 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.

American tourist Kim Endicott, right, and field guide Jean-Paul Mirenge a day after they were rescued following a kidnap by unknown gunmen in Ugandas Queen Elizabeth National Park. (Wild Frontiers)

How was she rescued?

Some details remain unclear, especially on the issue of a ransom.

Authorities said Endicott and her guide were found unharmed Sunday morning. CBS News reported that Endicott was found barefoot, her pants were ripped and she appeared utterly depleted.

The 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.

Local authorities tried to downplay the incident.

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.

Its unclear when Endicott will return to Orange County. She was shown alive and smiling Monday on local news reports.

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.

Was ransom paid?

That is an issue of debate, according to the Associated Press.

I have indicated to you that we dont do ransom, Ugandan police spokesman Fred Enanga told reporters Monday.

A Uganda-based tour official told the AP, however, that a ransom was paid to secure Endicotts freedom. Otherwise she wouldnt be back, he said.
Police are looking for a man they say stabbed two people in Boyle Heights on Sunday night.

The attack happened at Soto Street and Wabash Avenue about 9 p.m., said Officer Greg Kraft, a spokesman with the Los Angeles Police Department.

The victims did not immediately report the crime, authorities said. The two traveled from Boyle Heights to Monterey Park, where they then called 911. They were taken to a hospital with stab wounds and were listed in stable condition, Kraft said.

The attacker fled the scene and officers are still searching for him, police said. Few details about his description were available.

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Officer Drake Madison said the stabbings are not related to a series of slashings around South Los Angeles, Lynwood and South Gate. Lenrey Briones, 19, was charged in those attacks and is accused of cutting the faces of four men, four women and a 13-year-old boy between March 20 and April 1 while riding his bike.

This is a totally isolated incident, Madison said of the Boyle Heights stabbings.

alejandra.reyesvelarde@latimes.com

Twitter: @r_valejandra
Teams from San Bernardino, Los Angeles and San Diego counties are searching the Mt. Baldy area for two hikers who have been missing since Saturday.

Eric Desplinter of Chino Hills and Gabrielle Wallace of Rancho Cucamonga were reported missing after they didnt return from a hike in the San Gabriel range north of Upland.

Desplinter, 33, and Wallace, 31, were last seen at 10 a.m. on Saturday before they were believed to be headed toward Cucamonga Peak, authorities said.

A search was initiated after deputies responded to the area where the hikers vehicle was parked and attempts to call them were unsuccessful.

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The San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department dispatched helicopters and volunteers on foot over the weekend from a command post in the Mt. Baldy area, according to a release. On Monday, the department requested additional resources from the California Office of Emergency Services.
A public memorial service for slain rapper Nipsey Hussle is set for 10 a.m. Thursday at Los Angeles Staples Center.

Tickets for the service will become available at 10 a.m. Tuesday via axs.com to California residents only. Residents must enter their ZIP code in the promo code box. There is a four-ticket limit per household.

Tickets are complimentary and will be available only electronically through the AXS mobile app, which is free to download.

Doors open at 8 a.m. More information is available at staplescenter.com/NipseyHussle.

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A celebrated rapper and activist, Hussle was gunned down outside his clothing store on Slauson Avenue on March 31. The 33-year-old musician and Grammy-nominated artist was a pillar in his South L.A. neighborhood and praised for helping others in the community.

Hussles death came a day before a scheduled meeting with LAPD Chief Michel Moore and Police Commissioner Steve Soboroff to talk about ways he could help stop gang violence.

Hussle had two children: a son with his girlfriend, Lauren London, and a daughter from a previous relationship.

Eric Holder, 29, is accused of shooting Hussle and has been charged with one count of murder, two counts of attempted murder and one count of possession of a firearm by a felon. Police allege Holder had gotten into a dispute with Hussle earlier in the day and returned with a gun and started shooting.
An off-duty San Bernardino County sheriffs deputy shot and killed his brother after the man attacked other family members with a knife at a party over the weekend, authorities said.

San Bernardino County sheriffs deputies responded to calls at 9:12 p.m. Saturday that someone had been shot in a Bloomington house, authorities said.

Investigators from the departments homicide detail determined that an argument had broken out among several family members in the front yard of the home and that Israel Miranda Jr., 28, had assaulted some relatives with a knife, the department said in a news release.

Mirandas brother, Humberto Miranda, a 26-year-old off-duty deputy, shot his brother during the assault, San Bernardino authorities said. Israel Miranda was taken to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

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During the altercation, another family members hand was cut, but he refused medical treatment, officials said.

Miranda was on parole and had a history of violence, the department said. He previously had been convicted of assault with a deadly weapon, according to court records.

The investigation will be submitted to the San Bernardino County district attorneys office for review.

javier.panzar@latimes.com

Twitter: @jpanzar
Sydney Brenner, a multitalented biological giant who helped decipher the genetic code, discover how its information is put to use and laid the groundwork for DNA sequencing technology, has died at the age of 92.

Brenner, who died Friday in Singapore, was also famed for research on a tiny worm, Caenorhabditis elegans, which became a model organism for studying animal life. Many of its genes turned out to have human equivalents, leading to insights into human biology.

For the C. elegans research, Brenner, John Sulston and Robert Horvitz shared the 2002 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. It also earned Brenner an informal title he didnt much care for: father of the worm.

Brenners seven-decade career spanned the globe, and he was active in science until the end. He spent the last part of his life in Singapore, where he advised that country on its biotechnology policy.

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The South African native also performed research in Britain and San Diego, where he served on the faculty of the Salk Institute, which he joined in 1976, and Scripps Research. Brenners research led to the formation of several companies, including the San Diego biotech Combichem.

He was one of the most important figures in molecular biology for the last 50 years, said genome expert J. Craig Venter, who knew him for decades. There wasnt a major breakthrough in the early days that he didnt play some role in. He was a walking history of the whole field.

Venter said that while the worm research was significant, it was far from his most important contribution to science.

Venter said Brenners work on the genetic code was fundamental. He teamed up with scientists led by Francis Crick, who with James Watson discovered the double-helix structure of DNA.

In a 1961 paper, the team outlined the triplet code by which DNA spells out the instructions for proteins. A sequence of three DNA letters specifies one of 20 amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, along with a stop sequence signaling that the protein is complete.

Certain three-letter sequences are redundant, spelling out the same amino acid. Scientists at Scripps Research led by Peter Schultz took advantage of that redundancy to engineer bacteria that produce a 21st amino acid, giving it the power to make proteins not found in nature.

In related work, Brenner helped discover messenger RNA, the carrier molecule that copies the DNA code and carries it into the cell for protein synthesis. The discovery of mRNA led to development of antisense drugs by Carlsbads Ionis Pharmaceuticals. These drugs intercept mRNA to block or alter protein production.

Later on, Brenners discoveries became the basis for what is known as next generation sequencing, which offered greatly improved speed over existing technologies. It combines reading multiple copies of DNA in parallel with repeated sequencing to reduce errors.

The technology was used in a company he co-founded, Lynx Therapeutics, which was acquired in 2005 by Solexa. In 2007, Illumina purchased Solexa, making its next-gen technology the core of its products.

At Scripps Research, he collaborated extensively with Richard Lerner, its former president, and faculty member Kim Janda, among others. CombiChem, the San Diego biotech, was founded by a team including Janda and Scripps Research colleagues Dale Boger and Chi-Huey Wong.

Janda, a chemist, said Brenner was a close friend to his family and mentor since they met three decades ago.

In 1992, Brenner and Lerner proposed a method in molecular synthesis that employed a bar code tag that precisely described the steps used to create each molecule.

The method married DNA with combinatorial chemistry, a way of rapidly making many kinds of molecules in vast quantities. The DNA, added step by step in the synthesis, served as the tag. So when scientists found a rare hit in a molecule, they didnt have to figure out how it was produced.

That proposal was ahead of its time. But genetic technology has matured since then, partly due to Brenners own work on DNA sequencing. This method of making DNA-encoded libraries is now used by drug companies as a way of cataloging the vast numbers of molecules they work with, so the rare hits can be easily replicated.

Everybody uses DNA-encoded libraries today, Janda said. And thats something Sydney came up with.

Born in Germiston, South Africa, in 1927, Brenner earned degrees in medicine and science in 1947 from Johannesburgs University of the Witwatersrand, the Salk Institute said in a biography. Brenner moved to Oxford University in 1952 to pursue his doctorate in physical chemistry.

While at Oxford, he became engrossed in DNA and developmental genetics research. He joined the University of Cambridge in 1956 and shared an office with Crick for nearly 20 years.

Brenners co-discovery of messenger RNA led to his first Lasker Award in Basic Medical Research; he later received a second Lasker Award in honor of his outstanding lifetime achievements.

We all owe much to Sydney. With his passing, we have lost a great scientist and a good friend, said Salk professor Terrence Sejnowski, holder of the institutes Francis Crick Chair.

Brenner is survived by his children, Belinda, Carla and Stefan. His wife, May, died in 2010.

Fikes writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Sunday that leaks of U.S. President Donald Trump's "Deal of Century" on Mideast peace are worrying.

Lavrov said Russia does not have information about the deal, but the leaks of some of its details are worrying, at a joint press conference in Amman with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi.

The Russian official described the developments in the Palestinian issue as worrying to Russia, adding that the international community should be committed to the Arab peace initiative and all relevant UN resolutions.

"All unilateral attempts will not lead to anything good. We are concerned with the U.S. decisions on the Golan Heights and Jerusalem and the negative U.S. attempts including what is known as the Deal of Century," he told reporters.

The Russian official voiced his country's support for the two-state solution, condemning the U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

He called on the international community to abide by the international resolutions in this regard and the Arab peace initiative, adding that the U.S. decision is illegal and invalid.

Safadi said that Jordan does not have information about the details of U.S. President Donald Trump's Deal of Century on Mideast peace.

The minister said that "we do not know the details of the deal and we do not know what the U.S. will say."

Jordan's position in this regard is constant and was reiterated by King Abdullah II of Jordan repeatedly, said Safadi.

"The only solution is to end the Israeli occupation and to enable the Palestinians to attain their legitimate rights in line with the two-state solution that ensures their right to statehood and freedom with East Jerusalem being the capital of their state," said Safadi.

On Syria, Safadi reiterated the call for a political solution, voicing support for all efforts to restore stability in the country.

Also on Sunday, King Abdullah II of Jordan met with the Russian minister and discussed regional developments.

The meeting stressed the need for continued coordination to enhance the regional security and stability.




Cho Yang-Ho, the chairman of Korean Air who built L.A.s highest skyscraper but whose leadership was marred by family scandals including his daughters infamous nut rage incident, died at a hospital in Los Angeles, the company said Monday.

Cho had been indicted in South Korea on charges including embezzlement and tax evasion. His death, two weeks after shareholders voted to remove the 70-year-old from the airlines board, will probably force a court to dismiss his criminal case.

The company did not specify his illness or provide other details, but a senior Korean Air executive said Cho had been receiving treatment for an unspecified lung illness since late last year and that his condition had worsened rapidly after the shareholder vote.

Despite his troubles in his native South Korea, Cho is perhaps best remembered in Los Angeles for building the Wilshire Grand Center. The hotel-and-office project, which soars 1,100 feet and is emblazoned with Korea Airs logo, was intended to signify the growing influence of South Korean immigrants in Los Angeles.

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Mayor Eric Garcetti called the $1.35-billion tower, the highest in the West, a new tent pole for Los Angeles, where Cho served for years on the Board of Trustees at USC. He and all three of his children earned degrees there.

He was an avid and loyal supporter of USC and a mighty member of the Board of Trustees who was so supportive not only financially but also with his time and commitment to helping USC gain popularity in Asia, said real estate developer Rick Caruso, chairman of USCs board. Wilshire Grand represents his belief and commitment to the region.

Notable deaths of 2019 

Cho was previously convicted of tax evasion in 2000, facing charges with his father and brother. The Chos were charged with receiving millions in rebates when they purchased airplanes from Boeing and Airbus and evading taxes on the money.

The Cho family also faced intense criticism after company employees alleged they were subjected to mistreatment and tantrums.

Chos eldest daughter, Cho Hyun-ah, formerly the head of the airlines cabin service, received worldwide notoriety in 2014 after she ordered a Korean Air passenger plane to return to a New York terminal because she was angry that the crew served her macadamia nuts in a bag instead of on a plate.

Cho Hyun-ah was sentenced to one year in prison for violating aviation law but was released early when a higher-level court suspended the sentence.

Chos wife was summoned last May by South Korean police to question her about allegations that she abused and assaulted employees. Lee Myung-hee was accused of physically or verbally abusing more than 10 former and current employees of Korean Airs parent company.

Chos younger daughter, Cho Hyun-min, also was investigated by state prosecutors for potential assault connected to the hurling of a cup of water during a business meeting. No charges were filed.

The scandals severely tarnished the Cho familys image, while highlighting public criticism about South Koreas chaebol, a privileged group of family-owned conglomerates that have been tied to corruption and exploitive behavior.

Before his reputation was marred by scandals, Yang Ho Cho, who led Korean Air since 1992, had been credited for overseeing the companys growth into one of Asias biggest airlines. Korean Air, which began in 1969 with eight planes, now operates 166 aircraft with international flights to 111 cities in 43 countries.

Cho was also the chairman of the Hanjin Group, a global transportation conglomerate of dozens of companies that includes the airline. He also was the co-chairman of the Korea-U.S. Business Council and vice chairman of the Federation of Korean Industries.

He was involved in the bidding process and preparations for the 2018 Winter Olympics held in South Koreas ski resort town of Pyeongchang and headed the Olympic organizing committee for two years before stepping down in 2016.

Cho  survived by his wife, two daughters, a son and five grandchildren  grew up in Incheon, where he played in the parking lot of his fathers burgeoning transportation business.

He attended boarding school in the U.S. and returned to South Korea to earn an engineering degree from Inha University before his father sent him to USC to earn a masters degree in business. He later earned a doctorate in business administration from Inha.

In a 2014 interview, Cho recalled visiting Southern California in 1974 on a honeymoon trip with his new bride only to get lost amid the dark, empty industrial buildings and shuttered shops of downtown Los Angeles.

Cho remembers he could find no one on the streets to ask for directions to his hotel. It is unlikely today that anyone will have trouble finding Chos $1.35-billion skyscraper, a passion project that houses an InterContinental hotel, several floors of office space and five restaurants.

From Olympic Boulevard, you can directly see this building, the tallest and in the center of the downtown skyline, Cho said when it opened. All the Korean community in L.A. is very proud of this.

The colorful Korean Air logo atop Wilshire Grand will be lit in monochromatic black and white as a symbol of mourning, said Chos friend and business associate Christopher Martin, chairman of AC Martin, the Los Angeles architecture firm that designed the tower and managed its development.

This was Chairman Chos project, and he made every single decision in its creation, Martin said. He had a dream of a very beautiful hotel that would be the highest quality in Los Angeles and he was unrelenting.

Just before it opened, Cho stopped on the open-air lounge atop the Wilshire Grand Center to snap a photo of the spire that rises about 175 feet above the building, giving it the bragging rights as the tallest in the West, surpassing the U.S. Bank Tower on Bunker Hill, which opened in 1989.

Korean Air passengers arriving on more than 30 flights a week from Incheon would be able to see it from the air as their planes circle into LAX, he said.

After 25 years, he said, I have achieved my dreams.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Four years ago, South Coast Repertory broke new theatrical ground with Vietgone, playwright Qui Nguyens semi-factual account of his parents experience as Vietnamese refugees adapting to their new life in America.

Now, six fictional years have passed and theyre back in Poor Yella Rednecks  like Vietgone a world premiere at SCR  and theyre making the most of it in a foreign land called Arkansas where El Dorado rhymes with Laredo.

Times are tough and life is tougher as both Tong (Maureen Sebastian) and her husband, Quang (Tim Chiou), encounter money problems and temptations in this rousing sequel cleverly directed by May Adrales.

Its a return visit for Sebastian and Adrales  they all helped create Vietgone, along with supporting actors Paco Tolson, who also interprets the playwright/narrator character, and Samantha Quan, who does impressive double, triple and even quadruple duty.

Tong and Quang have a young son now  played by a puppet animated by two other actors (shades of Avenue Q) and known only as Little Man. He finds assimilation quite difficult, although hell grow up to be the playwright, Qui Nguyen.

Quans sexy Texas character provides steamy distraction for Chiou, while Tong tinkers with the awkward Bobby, played by Tolson. Chiou does a credible job of showing compassion for his wife and children back in Vietnam while fiercely maintaining his love for Tong.

Of the company, Sebastian shines most brightly as she navigates the challenges posed by a culture she struggles to comprehend. And she excels in a martial arts face-off with two store employees whove caught her shoplifting  an incident the writer says is based in fact.

Samantha Quan plays the grandmother to Little Man, a puppet that represents playwright Qui Nguyen as a young boy. The world premiere of Poor Yella Rednecks is running at South Coast Rep through April 27. (Photo by Jordan Kubat)

The most colorful figure, however, is Quans rendition of Tongs feisty, foul-mouthed mother whos determined that her grandson cling to his heritage. Her character has picked up just a little English, primarily the four-letter words.

The hip-hop vocal style popularized in Hamilton is employed throughout this production, though not quite as prominently. Lawrence Kao is credited as hip-hop consultant.

Arnulfo Maldonados multi-scene setting is imaginative, while Lap Chi Chus lighting design and the costumes created by Valerie Therese Bart increase the atmospheric effect.

Whether or not youve seen Vietgone, the rousing, often-ribald Poor Yella Rednecks stands on its own as abundantly entertaining. Its a taste of clashing cultures with a whiff of factual flavor at South Coast Repertory.

IF YOU GO

What: Poor Yella Rednecks

Where: South Coast Repertory Segerstrom Stage, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

When: Tuesdays through Sundays at varying curtain times until April 27

Cost: Start at $23

Information: (714) 708-5555; scr.org

Tom Titus reviews local theater for TimesOC.

For more news and features about Orange County, visit TimesOC.com or follow us on Twitter @timesocofficial.
Californias native species and its precious water resources are in serious need of some Trump insurance.

The state has laws that safeguard threatened wildlife and regulate water quality. But they are muscles and sinews that function only because they are attached to the bones of strong federal environmental laws adopted by forward-looking Congresses and presidents since the 1970s. Now those federal bones are beginning to dissolve.

President Trump came into office declaring global warming a hoax perpetuated by China, the drought a figment of Californians imagination and environmental protections a plot to undermine the U.S. economy. His departments and agencies have moved to weaken or eliminate dozens of protections, and the rollbacks are coming so fast its not always possible for the state to keep up.

It is time for the state to protect itself by adopting SB 1.

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Its not for lack of trying. On Tuesday, the State Water Resources Control Board approved new standards to protect Californias wetlands and seasonal streams and ponds that are slated to lose their current federal protection under the Clean Water Act as part of the Trump administrations rollbacks. The water boards nick-of-time move is welcome  but state water regulators had been working on it for a decade and probably sped up the process in response to the rollback. They and other bureaucracies cant possibly move fast enough to defend against Trump efforts to eliminate species protections in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta or elsewhere in California.

Thats why the state needs Trump insurance. Lawmakers are now considering such a policy in the form of Senate Bill 1. Written by Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) and a handful of her colleagues, the bill would prevent environmental backsliding by keeping in place  this time as state standards  the federal protections of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Endangered Species Act as they existed prior to Jan. 20, 2017. Thats the day Trump took office.

In other words, it keeps in place the status quo.

The bills opponents in agriculture and industry complain that it imposes new uncertainty, making it more difficult and costly to plan construction projects or expand ongoing operations. But they have it exactly wrong. The bill eliminates uncertainty by keeping current standards and regulations.

Their actual reason for opposing SB 1 is more likely that they were looking forward to the kind of deregulation that would make it easier for them to foul rivers and streams, divert water and take other actions that could harm birds, fish and other animals. Those are exactly the kinds of rollbacks that California cant afford.

State rollbacks could still occur if warranted, even if the bill becomes law. Species could still be removed from the states endangered list, upon evidence that their numbers and prospects for survival have recovered. Rules for draining wetlands or filling in streams could still be changed. But it would be up to state lawmakers and regulators, and not just officials in Washington.

Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute 

Opponents may also be unhappy with a provision of the bill that keeps in place the current level of labor protections for all workers in California  under workplace safety and whistleblower regulations, for example  even if the Trump administration lowers them nationwide. For most Californians, thats one more good reason to support SB 1.

One less noticed feature of the bill is that it protects Southern Californias water supply by preventing the State Water Project  which delivers water from the delta to L.A. and adjacent areas  from shouldering the environmental responsibilities of the federal Central Valley Project, the parallel system that irrigates San Joaquin Valley farmland.

The Trump administration has tried to increase exports of delta water to farmers, leaving less water in the San Joaquin River and its tributaries to sustain migrating salmon. Without SB 1, if the Central Valley Project pumps too much, it could fall to the State Water Project to keep river flows within current environmental standards, leaving less water to send to Southern California residents.

An earlier version of SB 1 was introduced last year but never made it to the governors desk. Since then, the danger of Trump rollbacks has only grown. It is time for the state to protect itself by adopting SB 1.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
The ascent of Dr. Abiy Ahmed to the post of prime minster in Ethiopia a year ago was a rare positive story in a year filled with grim news globally. Within months of taking office, his administration released tens of thousands of political prisoners, made peace with neighboring Eritrea, took positive first steps to ensure free and independent elections, and welcomed previously banned groups back into Ethiopia. It was an astonishing turnaround in a short period.

But the progress has created new challenges. Ethiopias rapid transition away from authoritarianism unleashed waves of dissatisfaction and frustration that had been crushed by the ruling party for decades. If Abiy (Ethiopians are generally referred to by their first names) cant maintain law and order and come up with a plan to address the causes of that anger without repressive measures, his countrys considerable gains will be threatened.

There arent many success stories around the world as nations transition from authoritarianism to democracy. Ethiopia has a chance to become a model, but it will need significant help confronting its challenges.

Theres no evidence that Abiys administration has a clear strategy for addressing these growing tensions.

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As Ethiopians have become less afraid of voicing opinions, long-standing grievances have taken on new intensity. Disputes over access to land and complex questions of identity and administrative boundaries have led to open conflicts and score-settling, often along ethnic lines. Dissatisfaction has also been growing over long-standing questions about who gets to govern and manage the rapid growth of the capital, Addis Ababa. The rising tensions across Ethiopia have led to the displacement of more than2 million people since Abiy took office. And as tensions increase, this number is likely to rise.

Social media, meanwhile, has grown in popularity, and it is awash with hate speech. Firearms are flooding into many parts of the country. And local and federal authorities are losing control over security in many parts of the country. Its a toxic mix with critical nationwide elections coming up in just over a year.

Progress is hampered by the lack of action from Abiys government, which has done little to calm inter-ethnic tensions and remedy the underlying issues. And institutions that could resolve such complex grievances are not yet seen as independent enough to address them in a nonpartisan way, following years of ruling party control. And perhaps most worryingly, theres no evidence that Abiys administration has a clear strategy for addressing these growing tensions.

As Abiys popularity has waned, so has support for his reform agenda. There is mounting concern that Ethiopia risks becoming ungovernable if conflict and insecurity continue to rise. Some insist that if that happens a return to authoritarianism is the only way to keep the country together. It is not too late for Abiy to turn this situation around and build on the seeds of democracy he nurtured in his first few months in office. But a plan of corrective action, restoration of law and order, and some confidence-building measures are urgently needed from Abiys government.

Many Ethiopians living in the diaspora, including in the Los Angeles area, have backed Abiys effort at bringing democracy to Ethiopia. Ethiopians living abroad have raised more than $1 million to help some of those displaced by conflict.

Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute 

Their efforts should be backed by the U.S. and other Western nations who have key long-standing partnerships with Ethiopia, including in the areas of migration, counter-terrorism and economic growth. They need to ensure that Abiys experiment with democracy succeeds. Should it fail, there would be dire humanitarian consequences for this country of over 100 million, many of whom protested against bullets and arrests from security forces for years in the hopes of a transition to a more rights-respecting government.

The United States and its allies can best support Ethiopians by continuing to offer praise for the reforms while also asking sometimes difficult questions about how Abiys government plans to restore law and order and address underlying grievances, and by determining what role the United States and other allies can play in making this happen. In Abiy, Ethiopia has a leader who, based on available evidence, genuinely wants that transition but may need a helping hand.

The next year is likely to determine how history remembers Abiy  and how democratic principles fare in Ethiopia.

Felix Horne is the senior Ethiopia researcher at Human Rights Watch.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen left her position Sunday. Heres the text of her resignation letter:

Mr. President,

I hereby resign from the position of Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), effective April 7th 2019. It has been my great honor to lead the men and women of the Department as its sixth Secretary. 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. I join all Americans in thanking them for their sacrifices and those of their families.

For more than two years of service beginning during the Presidential Transition, I have worked tirelessly to advance the goals and missions of the Department. I am immensely proud of our successes in transforming DHS to keep pace with our enemies and adversaries  whether it is in cyberspace or against emerging threats from new technologies.

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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. 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 Americas borders and which have contributed to discord in our nations discourse. Our country  and the men and women of DHS  deserve to have all the tools and resources they need to execute the mission entrusted to them.

I can say with confidence our homeland is safer today than when I joined the Administration. We have taken unprecedented action to protect Americans. We have implemented historic efforts to defend our borders, combat illegal immigration, obstruct the inflow of drugs, and uphold our laws and values. We have responded decisively to record-breaking natural disasters and helped Americans rebuild. We have prevented the disruption of U.S. elections and guarded against foreign interference in our democracy. We have replaced complacency with consequences in cyberspace, we are holding digital intruders accountable, and we are stepping up our protection of American networks. We have thwarted terrorist plotting against our homeland and launched new efforts to block terrorists and criminals from reaching our shores. And we have ramped up security measures to make it harder for our enemies and adversaries to attack us, whether it is with drones, chemical and biological weapons, or through other means.

Thank you again for the privilege to serve the American people and to lead the outstanding men and women of the Department of Homeland Security. Supporting these patriots has been the honor of a lifetime.

Sincerely,

Kirstjen M. Nielsen

Secretary of Homeland Security
U.S. Secret Service Director Randolph Tex Alles is leaving the Trump administration amid a shake-up in the upper echelon of the Department of Homeland Security.

The White House confirmed the departure on Monday, adding that James M. Murray, a career member of the Secret Service, would take over the position in May.

The departure comes amid a spate of turnover across the Department of Homeland Security that began last week when Trump withdrew his Immigration and Customs Enforcement directors nomination to stay on permanently.

And then on Sunday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen announced her resignation.

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After Nielsens departure, an empowered Stephen Miller, the immigration hawk White House senior advisor, is also eyeing the removal of Lee Francis Cissna, according to two administration officials who spoke with the Associated Press. Cissna is director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which runs the legal immigration system.

Alles, a former Marine general, was recommended to the post by former White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Eric Swalwell, a four-term Bay Area congressman whos grown into a cable TV fixture as a slashing and unremitting critic of President Trump, formally announced Monday his long-shot bid for the 2020 Democratic nomination.

Fittingly, he chose national television as the venue to declare his intent, saying on CBS Late Show with Stephen Colbert he would go big on the issues we take on, be bold in the solutions we offer and do good in the way we govern.

Swalwell, 38, has essentially been running for president for the better part of the last two years. Still, he will have to work to distinguish himself in a crowded field approaching 20 contestants.

He is neither the youngest candidate nor the only millennial in the Democratic race  South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg is 37  and he shares his Northern California political base with Sen. Kamala Harris, a former district attorney across the bay in San Francisco.

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Eric Swalwell wants to be president, and why the heck not? 

His positions on major issues are shared by most other Democrats running, among them support for universal healthcare, higher taxes on the wealthy and a more aggressive federal effort to fight climate change.

One way he plans to stand apart is making gun control a central focus of the campaign, starting with his first appearance as a declared candidate at a town hall Tuesday near Parkland, Fla., where 17 people were killed last year in a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High.

Another distinction is his birthplace, in rural Iowa, where Swalwell lived until age 5, when his family moved to California. The congressman has all but taken up formal residency in the state, which casts the first ballots of the presidential nominating process.

Much of the rest of his time has been spent on the cable television airwaves, where he regularly criticizes Trump and his associates. A member of the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees, Swalwell has repeatedly accused the president of colluding with Russia during the 2016 election, pressing his assertion even after special counsel Robert S. Mueller III found no grounds for criminal prosecution.

I stand by what I said about seeing evidence of collusion, Swalwell said on MSNBC after Atty. Gen. William Barr issued his four-page summary of Muellers report. If [Trump] has a problem with that, he can sue me. And I promise you I would win in court.

Swalwell kept up the assault Monday in a video declaring his candidacy. Donald Trump was bold, Swalwell said in the two-minute travelogue showcasing his life and career. But a lot of what he was bold about was bull.

Whos running for president and whos not 

Swalwells pugnacity, which has helped deliver him more than 500,000 Twitter followers, is matched by his personal ambition.

A former Alameda County prosecutor, he was appointed in 2006 to the Heritage & Cultural Arts Commission in Dublin, the East Bay Area suburb where he attended high school, and in 2008 was elevated to the city Planning Commission. Two years after that, he was elected to the City Council.

Then, just a few months into his term, Swalwell launched an insurgent campaign that successfully ousted the dean of Californias congressional delegation, fellow Democrat Pete Stark, after 40 years in Congress. Swalwell has been handily reelected three times since.

He has said, however, he will not seek to return to the House after 2020, which could result in a scramble among local politicians for a rare open seat in the Democratic-leaning district.

mark.barabak@latimes.com

Twitter: @markzbarabak
Shortly before ousting Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, President Trump said hell take an even tougher tack on border policies that for more than two years, by his own measure, have failed to deter immigration.

Some fear that may include a return of the reviled family separations that Trump was forced to back away from last year, as well as more firings.

But experts cautioned that replacing high-level personnel may not be enough to salvage an immigration policy that isnt working and has been reined in by the courts and Congress.

In the latest example of the administrations string of losses in court, late Monday a federal judge in San Francisco issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration policy forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico.

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Roughly 1,000 asylum seekers have been forced to remain in Mexico since the administration announced that policy early this year. The judge gave the administration until April 12 to seek a stay from the court of appeals.

It comes as White House advisor Stephen Miller takes a more prominent role in implementing an immigration policy he has largely orchestrated behind the scenes since Trump took office.

In addition to urging the president to push out Nielsen, Miller, a long-time immigration hardliner, is thought to have other administration officials in his sights.

On Monday, Trump made the surprise announcement that U.S. Secret Service Director Randolph Tex Alles would be replaced. Both Nielsen and Alles were closely associated with former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, who resigned last year after falling out of favor with Trump.

On Thursday night, Trump blindsided many administration officials by abruptly withdrawing the nomination of a career official, Ronald D. Vitiello, to head Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Millers going to clean house, said a former White House official, calling Alles Kellys best friend. The former official, who did not want to be identified speaking about his one-time colleagues, predicted more departures. Hes firing all of Kellys people.

RELATED: 5 misconceptions about the U.S.-Mexico border 

Nielsen, Trumps second Homeland Security secretary, was pushed out largely due to frustration over a recent spike in asylum-seeking Central American families and Trumps growing annoyance that she wouldnt take more aggressive steps.

Country is FULL! Trump tweeted shortly after announcing her imminent departure.  Will Close Southern Border If necessary...

For Trump and his closest aides  particularly Miller  the tough rhetoric is a red-meat handout to a base they see as critical to winning the White House again in 2020.

At the same time, the moves may be intended to mask the fact that their strategy to ramp-up immigration enforcement has failed to reduce near-record numbers of asylum seekers and families. Hemmed in by U.S. immigration law, a Democratic-led House and the realities of the border, critics and supporters alike wonder where the president can actually go from here.

Stephen Miller and the administration ran out of options, and resorted to eating their own, said Blain Rethmeier, who worked in President George W. Bushs White House with Nielsen. Literally absent Congress and the courts, every option has been exhausted.

Miller is consolidating his already considerable power over White House immigration and border security policy, and proving he still very much has the presidents ear.

Much of Millers clout comes from Trumps familiarity with him, said Corey Lewandowski, a former campaign manager for Trump who still spends time with the president.

Hes been there obviously since January 16 so hes a known commodity, Lewandowski said.

Tim Naftali, a presidential historian at NYU, raised concerns about the direction of the administrations latest moves, which he argues are about more than immigration policy.

This is about how we as Americans define ourselves, Naftali said. He is looking for people who will implement the harshest, meanest approach to immigration since the 1920s. And hell keep cycling through people until he finds an implementer of his cruel vision.

RELATED: How border patrol chases have spun out of control, with deadly consequences 

Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports less immigration to the United States, agreed theres not much more a Homeland Security secretary can do, unless the White House demands more dramatic action, such as setting up tent cities along the border.

Im just not sure that its something a different DHS secretary can do, rather than the White House making the decision, he said.

Krikorian does not believe shutting down the border will be back on the agenda any time soon, given that Trump made the bluster and then retreated.

Resuming family separations may also be tricky since Trump signed an executive order to stop the practice and spoke out publicly against separations  and a federal judge issued a nationwide injunction to block the practice, ordering the government to reunite families.

For her part, Nielsen made clear Monday that she wont be abandoning her consistent support of the presidents policies and wont be trying to undermine him after her departure later this week.

I share the presidents goal of securing the border, Nielsen said outside her townhouse in Alexandria, Va. I will continue to support all efforts to address the humanitarian and security crisis on the border.

Nielsen had been among the most controversial of Trumps Cabinet secretaries, given Trumps mandate to push boundaries on immigration, an issue that he considers central to his political standing. But her vocal defense was not enough to save her job.

With Trump naming Kevin McAleenan, the Customs and Border Protection commissioner, as acting head of DHS, the administration will soon have no CBP chief. There are also legal questions about why Trump did not follow the mandated line of succession by elevating the deputy Homeland Security secretary, who is also in an acting role.

In an administration already rife with record turnover, the rapid personnel changes could exacerbate internal conflict at the Homeland Security department, the third-largest in the federal government, even as it grapples with what Nielsen and others have termed a system-wide meltdown in handling border security and immigration.

Krikorian described a turf war between ICE and Border Patrol, and questioned whether McAleenan will be nominated to permanently lead the department.

Is McAleenan just a placeholder? said Krikorian. I just dont get the sense that hes going to bring about any kind of systemic change  [DHS] Headquarters is full of people who just arent really super enthusiastic about the presidents broad agenda on immigration.

Mark Morgan, a former FBI official who served as chief of Border Patrol under President Obama, said White House officials need to stop expecting that Congress is going to do their job and reform immigration laws.

DHS is going to have to address this issue all alone, he said. He said the administration should keep up the pressure on Mexico to do more to stop migrants from transiting the country to the U.S. border increase the number of immigration judges to more quickly adjudicate cases.

Morgan said he doesnt believe the White House will resume family separations, but added that immediate action must be taken  even if it risks legal action.

We have to do something, he said. Even if we lose in the courts, we still gotta do something to stop the incentive [to migrate].
A case could be made that no policy area has been more dominant since President Trump took office than illegal immigration  which is a bit astounding when you consider where things stood a little more than two years ago.

In fall 2016, just before that years historic presidential election, only 7% of Californias likely voters called illegal immigration the states most pressing problem. By the beginning of 2019, it had tripled and become the top answer from Californians  no doubt a reflection of the rhetoric on both sides of an issue placed front and center by the president and the intense debate over his administrations actions.

As the new week begins, illegal immigration again tops the news both from the Trump administration and from Gov. Gavin Newsom  one for an unexpected departure, the other for a closely watched arrival.

Sign up for the Essential Politics newsletter 

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NIELSEN IS OUT AT HOMELAND SECURITY

For Trump, his celebrated trip to Calexico and boasting of enhanced border security were quickly eclipsed by the sudden departure of Kirstjen Nielsen, his second Homeland Security secretary.

Nielsen resigned on Sunday, and its hard to imagine the decision  announced by the president on Twitter  as entirely her own.

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 wrote in her resignation letter that was later made public.

She lasted about 18 months in a job that was constantly in the spotlight, becoming synonymous with the Trump administration decision to split up thousands of migrant parents from their children. Kevin McAleenan, the head of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, will become acting secretary.

NEWSOM IN EL SALVADOR: FIRST INTERNATIONAL TRIP

The timing of both Nielsens departure and the presidents Southern California trip may help Newsom get a little extra attention for his three-day trip to El Salvador.

The governor and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, arrived in San Salvador on Sunday. And he wasted no time in aligning himself with the people of the Central American nation instead of with the leader of his own country.

I think right now you have a president that talks down to people in this country, talks past them, demoralizing folks living here and their relatives in the United States, Newsom said of Trump. I think its important to let folks know thats not our country, thats an individual in our country, who happens, at this moment, to be president.

The governor began his trip with a visit to the tomb of Oscar Romero, the Catholic priest who was granted sainthood last year and was murdered in 1980 for speaking out against El Salvadors government.

Newsom is scheduled to meet with the nations top officials on Monday and U.S. representatives. A key question were watching is how much of the trip is a critique of Trump and how much focuses on what  if any  role California can play in the regions migration crisis.

NATIONAL LIGHTNING ROUND

-- Volunteers are struggling to help hundreds of asylum seekers released from U.S. government custody with little help navigating what comes next.

-- 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.

-- Attorneys for the presidents former attorney, Michael Cohen, are asking members of Congress to help keep him out of prison.

-- Senior U.S. Treasury official David Malpass has been appointed president of the World Bank Group, placing a loyalist of President Trump at the helm of the development lender.

-- Ernest F. Fritz Hollings, the silver-haired Democrat who helped shepherd South Carolina through desegregation as governor and served six terms in the U.S. Senate, died over the weekend. He was 97.

POT DELIVERIES TO CALIFORNIA CITIES THAT MAY NOT WANT THEM

If you had to pick an issue with the power to upend Californias new era of legalized marijuana, this would be it: a major fight over the legality of pot deliveries into cities that might not want them.

On Thursday, 24 cities that restrict the sale of pot inside their borders filed a lawsuit against the Newsom administration. They alleged that deliveries into their communities are a violation of the states pot-legalizing law, Proposition 64.

The promise to the voters and to the cities and counties who went neutral on Prop. 64 was that they would be able to decide what types of commercial cannabis would be available within their community, said Douglas L. White, an attorney for the cities.

The regulations surrounding marijuana sales and licensing are complex, and the lawsuit only further highlights the challenges that lie ahead in implementing the law voters overwhelmingly embraced in 2016.

TODAYS ESSENTIALS

-- Housing consultant Jennifer LeSar has seen her business boom in recent years, mirroring the rise in power of her spouse, California Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins. Some warn that government agencies and companies may be trying to curry favor with Atkins by contracting with LeSar.

-- Newsom took a family vacation before heading to El Salvador, and his office refused to disclose where he was.

-- California state lawmakers and Mexican officials met on Friday to discuss how to tackle cross-border water pollution in the Tijuana River.

-- Assembly Bill 392, introduced after the Stephon Clark shooting, is being billed as the nations tightest restrictions on use of force by law enforcement. But the measure is unlikely to lead to more police prosecutions, supporters and opponents both say.

-- Siebel Newsom endorsed the expansion of unpaid family leave in California last week, long before her husband had weighed in on the legislative proposal.

-- The last time Californians voted in a presidential primary, there was widespread confusion among unaffiliated independent voters about how they could cast a ballot. A prominent Democratic legislator has a plan to change that.

-- A task force led by powerful California political attorneys might ask that the states campaign watchdog agency be banned from confirming the existence of investigations. Others say the public has the right to know whats going on.

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Gov. Gavin Newsom knelt on a pew Sunday in the lower level of the Catedral Metropolitana, quietly saying a prayer before the tomb of Saint Oscar Romero at the start of a trip to better understand the history of violence and oppression the countrys hero for the poor died trying to end.

In a book filled with messages from dignitaries who toured the site before him  former President Obama made a symbolic visit in 2011  Newsom said he wrote that when he was a young Catholic, he never imagined he would visit the martyrs resting place as a governor of California trying to modestly live out some of the values that Saint Romero practiced.

I think right now you have a president that talks down to people in this country, talks past them, demoralizing folks living here and their relatives in the United States, Newsom said of President Trump. I think its important to let folks know thats not our country, thats an individual in our country, who happens at this moment to be president.

The governor chose the smallest country in Central America as the backdrop for his debut on the worlds stage to observe its socio-economic conditions, which send tens of thousands of Salvadorans fleeing for the U.S. each year.

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But the journey nearly 3,000 miles from the state he governs also affords Newsom a key political opportunity to counter Trumps immigration narrative to an international audience, a move that could boost his national profile for future campaigns and help position him as a progressive leader of the resistance.

Political insiders say Newsom is seeking to establish himself as a politician who rolls up his sleeves and works on the ground to find solutions for a crisis, contrasting his style with that of other Democrats who sound off about the presidents policies from afar.

Hes trying to take into consideration a more humane approach by changing the narrative to the world, that the United States is not just filled with politicians who threaten people to get what they want and that he is willing to listen, said Douglas Carranza, chair of the Department of Central American Studies at Cal State Northridge. I think [Democrats] are still looking for the speaker of that narrative.

When Newsom walked off the jetway Sunday at an airport named for Romero, he became what state historians believe to be the first sitting California governor to step foot on Salvadoran soil.

He announced his trip on March 28 in front of a half-dozen television cameras in Los Angeles hours after Trump tweeted a warning that he could close the southern border.

The day after Newsoms announcement, Trump said he planned to cut off over $500 million in foreign aid to El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala as a punishment for migration.

It belies common sense and good public policy, Newsom said of the presidents foreign policy in Central America. Im not going to put up with it. And Im not just going to act in accord and just send a press release in response.

A governor has little ability to address immigration, which is controlled at the federal level, and some have criticized Newsoms trip as a publicity play toward a campaign for a higher office in the future. The governor has said he wont run for president in 2020.

If Trump wins reelection, Gavin Newsom will be the No. 1 candidate on everyones list, said Mike Madrid, a political consultant who worked for Newsoms Democratic challenger, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, in the 2018 gubernatorial primary. This is all about raising his national profile, driving the issues matrix and positioning himself for future aspirations.

Jack Pitney, a professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College, said the trip helps Newsom bolster his standing among progressives in the Democratic Party, who are sympathetic to the plight of immigrants and hostile to Trump.

If he thinks he wants to be president someday, this is a rational thing for him to do, Pitney said. He cared enough to show up  that would be the sound bite. He cared enough to come to El Salvador.

The governor flatly denied that political aspirations motivated his trip in a conversation with reporters Sunday evening, saying he needed to get a sense of things on the ground.

I do think it benefits the people of my state to have a deeper understanding and a different perspective than the one being pushed by the Trump administration, Newsom said. I dont think you can be governor of California and not have that as a deep part of your portfolio and responsibility.

Immigrant advocacy groups hailed Newsoms decision to visit El Salvador  a country with a population of more than 6 million that has been bypassed by other governors  as long overdue recognition of the important bond between California and the country. The U.S. is home to nearly 1.4 million Salvadoran immigrants, 680,000 of whom live in California.

Newsom intends to meet this week with the incoming and outgoing presidents of El Salvador, talk with human rights groups, visit a holding center for deportees returning to the country and host discussions on gang violence and job training programs for youth.

Its historical, said Carlos Vaquerano, executive director of Clinica Monsenor Oscar A. Romero, a healthcare clinic founded by Salvadoran immigrants in Los Angeles. I have met other governors in the past. I have never met a governor in the first three months of office who decided to go to my country.

Its common for California governors to travel to different parts of the world on trade missions to promote business interests in the state.

Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a frequent traveler who promised to be a super-salesman for California, visited Japan, Israel, Canada, Europe, China, Mexico and other countries during his tenure.

Newsoms predecessor, former Gov. Jerry Brown, took his first trip abroad to China two years after taking office in 2011. Brown later emerged on the international stage as the unofficial ambassador for the U.S. on the environment when Trump announced plans to pull out of the Paris Accord, and the governor traveled to more than a half-dozen nations to discuss climate change.

When visiting Latin America, most of the states governors have chosen to promote trade and make alliances in Mexico. Some, including former Gov. Gray Davis, have made a point to travel to the country first and ahead of other international trips. Reviews of the state archives and newspaper articles found no evidence of a California governor ever visiting El Salvador.

Newsom said he chose El Salvador because of the large volume of people from the country seeking legal asylum in the U.S., ranking second only to China. The governor has also cited his familiarity with the Salvadoran population in San Francisco, where he was mayor from 2004 to 2011, and his recognition that immigration at the southern border is a complex issue that involves countries other than Mexico.

The Northern Triangle is the new issue that we have to address and I think you can only address it by understanding it, Newsom said, referring to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Weve spent a lot of time focusing on Mexico, trying to understand Mexico. Its time to put that same kind of intention in Central America. Lets start with El Salvador.

Newsom is traveling with First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles), several staff members from his office and a personal security detail. The trip will be paid for by the California State Protocol Foundation, a nonprofit funded by special interests and formed to pay for gubernatorial excursions. The governors office has declined to answer questions about the expected cost of the trip.

More than 20,000 Salvadorans began the process to seek asylum in the U.S. in fiscal year 2018. The two nations share a complicated history.

Romero was named archbishop in 1977 and quickly became a social activist and outspoken critic of the oligarchy in El Salvador after the murder of a fellow priest who advocated for the rights of workers. He earned international attention when he wrote a letter to then-President Carter asking the U.S. to stop funding the conservative anti-communist military, which has been linked to death squads that committed atrocities against the people of El Salvador during a 12-year civil war. A United Nations commission concluded that a Salvadoran army major gave the order to assassinate Romero in 1980.

Academics and historians blame the countrys problems on the war, unlivable wages for workers, political corruption and the rise of violent street gangs, and say U.S. efforts to support the war and deport gang members back to El Salvador helped destabilize the country.

Carranza said that by visiting sites dedicated to Romero, Newsom is positioning himself as a champion for human rights and the Salvadoran diaspora in the U.S.

Many Salvadorans living in the U.S. hope Newsoms desire to better understand the root causes of migration will result in more state aid to programs in California that serve immigrants.

Newsom helped shepherd a bill through the Legislature to provide $5 million to organizations in the San Diego region providing shelter to asylum seekers and assist them in connecting with their sponsors in the U.S. Hes pledged to approve an additional $20 million next year.

The governor is also proposing that an expansion of Medi-Cal, the states healthcare system for low-income people, include eligibility for immigrants living in the country without legal authorization up to age 26.

At the news conference last month, Newsom discussed the possibility of opening trade offices in Mexico and Central America to foster new business developments. Others have implored him to consider ways to help attract companies to El Salvador.

Advocates hope the trip will allow Newsom to meet the people of El Salvador, understand their struggle and endear him to their cause.

Its very different from talking to a professor than seeing it firsthand, said Carrillo, a Salvadoran immigrant. Our connection as a state to the country is incredibly deep. If the governor and California can play a role in advocating for the necessity to continue foreign aid, I think thats one of the biggest things we can do.

More stories from Taryn Luna 

taryn.luna@latimes.com

Follow @tarynluna on Twitter.
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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.
A bill to ban cosmetic surgeries on children born with atypical genitalia was shelved for the year before lawmakers could vote on it amid opposition from doctors who said medical decisions should be left up to parents.

Similar legislation is being considered in other states, but the effort by intersex advocates in California will not be taken up again until January. The bill once again demonstrated the clout of the doctors lobby in Sacramento, with physician associations arguing the bill was too broad and that it sought to legislate complex medical decisions.

The legislation, Senate Bill 201 by state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), would have required that a child be old enough to consent to genital surgeries that are not medically necessary. The Senates business and professions committee held a hearing on the bill April 1, but its chairman, Sen. Steve Glazer (D-Orinda), delayed a vote until Monday in the hope that Wiener could work through concerns raised by medical associations.

Ahead of the vote, Wiener said Glazer asked that the bill be held until January to give more time to work with the opposition.

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We put out ideas to address concerns raised by medical associations, but they have refused to negotiate other than to offer amendments that delete the bill, Wiener said. Im committed to this bill. This is a civil rights issue for these children.

Advocacy groups for intersex people  individuals with varying differences in their reproductive or sexual anatomy  have been fighting to postpone genital surgeries that they say do more harm than good. They argue that instances in which the gender of a child is unclear have resulted in cosmetic surgeries on infants in which the genitalia constructed do not match the identity of the person later in life.

Surgeries in which an infants gender is not ambiguous, but instead the genitalia are not typical, carry risks like any other procedure, supporters argue. Those risks should be weighed by the patient in cases where there is not an immediate medical need for surgery, Wiener said.

One of the bills key supporters, an intersex advocacy group called interACT, said they will continue to work toward passing SB 201.

While the delay is disappointing, interACT and our allies remain confident working towards protecting as many intersex children as possible, said Kimberly Zieselman, executive director of the group.

The California Medical Assn., an influential lobbying arm of doctors in the Capitol, and the Societies for Pediatric Urology both opposed the bill, saying the government should not legislate medical decisions or interfere in the difficult decision a parent makes in consultation with a doctor.

The medical groups also argued that the age of consent was unclear and that the bill was overly broad as to which surgeries it applied to, such as hypospadias, a condition affecting 1 in 200 male infants at birth in which the opening of the urethra is on the underside of the penis.

[The bill] was so overreaching, said Dr. Patrick McKenna, a pediatric urologist in Illinois and past president of the American Assn. of Clinical Urologists. It would have prevented many children from procedures that are not considered intersex.

McKenna said the medical groups opposed to SB 201 are willing to work toward a compromise on a far more narrow bill, but that they do not support any bans on the procedures. Instead, they would like to see a requirement that sets a minimum number of specialists who would consult parents of an infant where the gender is not clear. McKenna said there are only a handful of those cases each year in California.

The decision on surgery, however, should remain with parents in consultation with their doctor, he said.

We feel strongly that parents shouldnt be excluded from decision making, McKenna said.

melody.gutierrez@latimes.com

Follow @MelodyGutierrez on Twitter and sign up for our Essential Politics newsletter.
By the end of the century, the manifold consequences of unchecked climate change will cost the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars per year, according to a new study by scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency.

Those costs will come in multiple forms, including water shortages, crippled infrastructure and polluted air that shortens lives, according to the study in Mondays edition of Nature Climate Change. No part of the country will be untouched, the EPA researchers warned.

However, they also found that cutting emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, and proactively adapting to a warming world, would prevent a lot of the damage, reducing the annual economic toll in some sectors by more than half.

Experts called the report the most comprehensive analysis yet of the staggering diversity of societal impacts that climate change will have on the American economy.

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It is an extraordinarily ambitious project, said Solomon Hsiang, an economist at UC Berkeley who was not involved in the study.

According to the Fourth National Climate Assessment, climate change will cost many sectors of the U.S. economy billions of dollars per year by 2090 under a high-emissions scenario (RCP8.5). A more moderate scenario (RCP4.5) would significantly reduce damages, it said. (Fourth National Climate Assessment)

The analysis is not the first to calculate the costs of global warming and the benefits of curtailing emissions. There have been numerous prior attempts, including a 2006 report commissioned by the British government that found unmitigated warming could reduce global gross domestic product by as much as 20%.

Many more have followed, but all reach the same general conclusion, said Brenda Ekwurzel, director of climate science at the Union of Concerned Scientists: The cost of inaction is really high, and [the cost of] reducing emissions pales in comparison.

What sets the new study apart, she said, is its astonishing level of detail. It explores how 22 different impacts of climate change  from rising sea levels to longer pollen seasons to the economic prospects of ski resorts  will play out across the nation.

There are no regions that escape some mix of adverse impacts, wrote authors Jeremy Martinich and Allison Crimmins.

The findings clash with the views of President Trump and many of his appointees, who have repeatedly downplayed the risks of climate change. The EPA did not make the study authors available for interviews.

The report summarizes years of work by scores of scientists as part of the EPAs Climate Change Impact and Risk Analysis.

For each type of impact, researchers modeled the effects of climate change under a scenario in which the world took no serious actions to reduce emissions. They also considered a more moderate scenario  one not ambitious enough to meet international goals of keeping warming to about 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial levels but aggressive enough to limit global temperature rise to about 2 degrees C.

Some of the results came out in the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released last year.

Among them were the sobering projections that damage to coastal property, primarily on the Gulf and East coasts, will reach $120 billion per year by 2090; lost labor productivity due to hotter temperatures, particularly in the South and Midwest, will cost $155 billion per year; and deaths from extreme heat waves and cold snaps will equal $140 billion per year.

When asked about those conclusions in November 2018, Trump told reporters, I dont believe it.

The new study offers an even richer picture of the EPAs analysis, said Ekwurzel, who contributed to the climate assessment. It shows how many of the effects of climate change break down by state  and often by individual county or watershed.

Its kind of like, all politics is local. Climate change is the same, she said: Every place will face a unique combination of climate impacts.

The results align with those of a 2017 study led by Hsiang, which suggested that the southern U.S. will be particularly hard hit thanks to the converging effects on coastal property, labor productivity and extreme temperature mortality. But the new analysis shows that no region will be exempt from losses.

For instance, most of the northern half of the country will experience greater air pollution because of climate change. The Midwest will see more harmful algal blooms, like those that have choked Lake Erie in recent years. And the Northwest will experience a spike in electricity demand, mainly for cooling, and endure more severe flooding.

Inland floods, like those that affected Colorado in 2013, are projected to increase in many parts of the country under climate change. (Dana Romanoff / Getty Images)

A handful of places could enjoy small economic gains in certain sectors. The results suggest that some parts of the inter-mountain West may get a boost in water supply, for example.

But California wont be so lucky. Residents have already become familiar with some of the climate impacts that will become more common in the state, such as wildfires and flooding.

The study suggests that climate change will also bring more mosquitoes that carry West Nile virus. It will increase the temperatures of streams and lakes, reducing oxygen levels and harming water quality. Heavy river flows will put many bridges at risk, and intense heat will buckle rail lines.

The report also makes one of the first attempts to study the connections between various climate impacts. For instance, the authors note that energy costs will rise more dramatically in places where increased energy demand coincides with reduced water supply, because many power plants require water for cooling.

However, the researchers point out that the high cost of climate impacts can be recast as the benefits the country stands to reap by cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Keeping warming closer to 2 degrees would prevent tens of billions of dollars in lost labor productivity, extreme temperature mortality and energy costs alone.

Across all sectors, that works out to between $250 and $600 of savings per person per year by the end of the century, the researchers calculated.

You can really save the U.S. economy lots of money, Ekwurzel said.

In some cases, reducing emissions will not be enough to avoid impacts. For instance, coastal areas will see more sea-level rise in coming decades, even if the world acts swiftly.

So the researchers considered how efforts to adapt to a warmer world might reduce economic damages.

They found that measures such as elevating buildings and constructing seawalls could significantly decrease damage to coastal properties. Maintaining roads and railroads  preferably before they fall into disrepair  could also offset many of the costs of climate impacts.

Adam Wilson of Griffin, Ind., cools off as road crews pave U.S. 41 during a 2006 heat wave. Across the country, lost labor productivity due to hotter temperatures could cost $155 billion per year by the end of the century. (Kevin J. Kilmer / Associated Press)

Overall, however, experts said the study still probably underestimates the true cost of climate change.

There are big uncertainties, but in general, the uncertainties always err on the side of making it more damaging, said Frances Moore, a climate change economist at UC Davis who was not involved in the study.

Thats because no study can include every sector of the economy, and some impacts  like the potential for global warming to fuel violent conflicts and spur migration  are almost impossible to quantify but will most likely add to the burden, she said.

Even so, Hsiang said the new research lays the groundwork for a meaningful conversation about the risks of letting climate change continue unabated.

The climate may be one of the largest economic assets this nation holds, he said. We should manage it with the seriousness and clarity of thought that we would apply to managing any asset that generates trillions of dollars in value.
Funding for a new facility for the Boys & Girls Club of Burbank and Greater East Valley got a big boost from a longtime partner this week.

The Walt Disney Co. donated $1 million to the local nonprofit during a ceremony on Thursday at Providencia Elementary School, near where the Boys & Girls Club plans to build a 16,000-square-foot facility as its new main club.



For the record: This updated version contains information about how many children the Boys & Girls Club of Burbank and Greater East Valley serves overall.

The Walt Disney Co. is pleased to make this contribution and fund the construction of a new main club facility, said Elissa Margolis, the companys senior vice president of enterprise social responsibility, in a statement. The impact of this new club will more than double the number of members served by the Boys & Girls Club and provides a safe place that meets the diverse needs of our local youth.

The clubs proposed new location, which is planned for a lot behind Providencia, is not too far away from its current site at 2244 N. Buena Vista St.

Shanna Warren, chief executive of the local Boys & Girls Club, said her organization entered into a long-term lease and joint-use agreement with the Burbank Unified School District to secure a new location for the club.

We will build this amazing facility, taking into consideration some of the needs that [Providencia] has, so that their teachers can use parts of our building during the day, she said. Its a great partnership.

Warren added that Burbank city officials have been a big help for the organization, and hopes they can continue assisting as the organization looks for additional funding.

Should the nonprofit reach its goal of about $6 million, the new building would give the organization some much-needed additional space.

With Disneys donation, the local Boys & Girls Club has raised roughly $2 million, so far.

The local facility currently serves between 75 and 100 children during the school year and about 400 kids during the summer, Warren said. The organization, overall, has 20 locations and serves more than 3,800 children, she added.

With that large number of children at the current local main club, Warren said she and her staff have had to improvise how they use the limited space. In some cases, children from different grade levels have to work in the same area.

The proposed new facility, Warren said, would hopefully give children of varying needs a dedicated space to learn.

With the new building, were tripling our space, but its more about having specialized programs for kids of different ages, she said.

The donation from Disney did not come by happenstance. Warren said she reached out to the local company, which for many years has helped the local Boys & Girls Club, sometime in March, and approached its officials with plans for a new facility.

We cant just go to them and ask them for money, Warren said. We have to be able to show them that we have a plan and a budget. It was a process where we worked together.

After submitting the proposal, Warren said she and her staff just waited to see if the animation company would be willing to help.

Because its taken us 10 years to make this happen, I havent expected anything, Warren said. I figured that wed ask and hope for the best. Id like to think that we have a pretty close relationship to them and they do a lot for not just my Boys & Girls Club but all Boys & Girls Clubs. I was definitely hopeful, but its a lot of money, and the most money Ive ever asked for. I just said a lot of prayers.

anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com

Twitter: @acocarpio
The Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or Metro, is looking to create an easier way for public-transit users to get from the middle of the San Fernando Valley to the San Gabriel Valley by implementing a bus rapid-transit system.

However, residents told transportation officials during a community meeting at the Buena Vista Branch Library in Burbank Thursday night that the proposed project may be unnecessary, and that improving on existing services should be their priority.

The proposed bus project would start from the North Hollywood Metro station and work its way to Pasadena, either by traveling on surface streets or taking the 134 Freeway, said Scott Hartwell, project manager for Metro.

Hartwell described bus rapid transit as light rail on rubber tires, in which the bus would use a mixture of dedicated travel lanes, streets and freeways, as well as have fewer stops to get riders to their destinations quickly.

Metro currently operates several bus rapid-transit routes, including the Metro Orange Line in the San Fernando Valley.

The agencys preferred street route would be about 18 miles long, in which buses would travel south on Lankershim Boulevard, east on Riverside Drive, north on Olive Avenue, east on Glenoaks Boulevard, south on Brand Boulevard, east on Broadway and continue onto Colorado Boulevard until reaching Pasadena City College.

As an alternative, the preferred freeway route would have the bus traveling on the 134 Freeway, make a quick detour in Burbank at Olive and hop back onto the freeway at Buena Vista Street before ending in Old Pasadena.

This is really the first bite of the apple for community input to really help us through this, Hartwell said. There will be plenty more opportunities for public input along the way. We want to get this thing right.

There are some alternative routes that Metro officials have identified for both the street-based and freeway-based routes.

Instead of taking the 134 Freeway from the North Hollywood, Hartwell said the bus could go north toward Hollywood Burbank Airport and use the 5 Freeway before connecting to the 134.

However, many residents were concerned about an alternative street route that would have the bus travel down Chandler Boulevard, which is already being used as a bikeway.

Hartwell said Chandler was considered in the project because a portion of the street is a Metro right-of-way.

He added, however, that he and his colleagues have heard loud and clear from the community that using Chandler is not an option.

Burbank resident Paul Dyson, who was member of the citys Transportation Commission for several years, said some of Metros proposals, especially the freeway route, are similar to existing bus routes and would be redundant.

Dyson added that the Metro 501 bus route, which currently offers rides from the North Hollywood station to Pasadena, has low ridership, which makes him question how successful the proposed rapid-transit line would be.

There is no existing railroad right-of-way that they can use, so the only alternatives are to use existing streets, and that makes it either slow or its going to be disruptive to the existing traffic, he said. Its a real dilemma.

Dyson continued, I dont think its even worth it. Metro should focus their resources and make existing routes better.

anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com

Twitter: @acocarpio
Chipotle Mexican Grill will move its headquarters from Denver to Newport Beach this year, the restaurant chain announced Wednesday.

The announcement comes about three months after Chipotle announced it had selected Brian Niccol, the former head of Irvine-based Taco Bell, as its chief executive officer. Chipotle has weathered outbreaks of food-borne illnesses in recent years.

In order to align the structure around our strategic priorities, we are transforming our culture and building world-class teams to revitalize the brand and enable our long-term success, Niccol said in a statement Wednesday.

Well always be proud of our Denver roots, where we opened our first restaurant 25 years ago, he added.

Chipotles transition from its Denver and New York City offices will take place over the next six months.

The company will bring most of its corporate functions to Newport, including operations, business development, marketing, communications, finance, supply chain, food safety, technology and human resources. Support functions will be consolidated at an existing office in Columbus, Ohio.

The company will close its Denver and New York offices after the transition.

The consolidation of offices and the move to California will help us drive sustainable growth while continuing to position us well in the competition for top talent, Niccol said.

A Newport Beach spokeswoman said the city found out about the planned move Wednesday and didnt know where in town the headquarters would set up shop.

Steve Rosansky, head of the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce, said hes looking forward to working with Chipotle, which has about 2,400 restaurants.

I think its great that we can have a national brand like Chipotle here in Newport Beach, Rosansky said.

The move will affect about 400 employees in Denver and New York, with some being offered relocation and retention packages. The companys roughly 70,000 restaurant and field operations employees are not part of the reorganization.

Chipotle is known for its burritos, burrito bowls, tacos and salads, which are assembled to order in front of customers.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHD
A proposed mixed-use development that would add 1,057 residential units and thousands of square feet of office and retail space north of the 405 Freeway in Costa Mesa cleared an initial hurdle Tuesday night when the City Council agreed to let it continue through the local review process.

The 6-1 vote  with Councilwoman Sandy Genis opposed  still leaves the One Metro West community far from the finish line. Looking ahead, the project would require preparation of an environmental impact report and the city would need to accept a general plan amendment and zoning change for the site.

Even if it sails through City Hall, the proposal would eventually land in the court of public opinion, as Costa Mesa residents would have the final say on whether to approve it.

Measure Y, a 2016 ballot initiative, requires public approval of projects that entail a general plan amendment or zoning change and would add 40 or more dwelling units or 10,000 or more square feet of commercial space.

Measure Y is doing what its supposed to at this point, right? Councilwoman Andrea Marr said. We can talk about this project all we want from the dais, but ultimately this will go to a vote of the people and  will be one more opportunity to demonstrate what the citizens of Costa Mesa really care about.

One Metro West would include studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments in three residential structures with integrated parking garages, 6,000 square feet of retail, a 25,000-square-foot office building and 1.7 acres of open and park space on a 15.23-acre site at 1683 Sunflower Ave.

The property, just west of South Coast Collection, currently contains a 345,400-square-foot industrial building.

Supporters of One Metro West said it would fit like a glove in an area of the city that is home to several significant employers  such as IKEA, Vans corporate headquarters, the Automobile Club of Southern California, SOCO and a future office, retail and dining campus called the Press  but is bereft of homes where those employees can live.

One Metro West, they said, is an opportunity to add much-needed housing to the city without affecting Costa Mesas traditional neighborhoods and would give its residents the opportunity to live, work, shop and socialize without having to get in their cars. The project also would include onsite amenities such as swimming pools, a gaming center, fitness center, bowling alley and coffee bar.

We all love Costa Mesa and understand that, whether we create change or react to it, whether were in support of it or against it, change comes, said Brent Stoll, a partner at Rose Equities, the firm behind the project. The question in front of us today is, Do we watch this change happen or do we embrace it?

As part of the project, Rose Equities proposes installing pedestrian and bikeway upgrades on Sunflower and Hyland avenues, as well as a bike parking/active transportation hub.

The aspect of the project that seemed most popular, however, was the inclusion of affordable housing. Rose Equities has committed to designating 15% of the units for people with incomes considered low, very low or moderate.

It is definitely a step in the right direction and is a broader strategy in addressing the need to increase the supply of affordable homes for residents in the city, said Linda Tang of the Kennedy Commission, an Irvine-based affordable-housing advocacy group.

Renderings show some of the possible architectural styles at One Metro West. (Courtesy of Rose Equities)

While many members of the public who spoke Tuesday favored the project, a few detractors expressed concern over whether the new buildings, some proposed to be six and seven stories tall, would pour light into homes on the other side of the 405.

Traffic, as is often the case in Costa Mesa, also was raised as a potential issue, with some saying the project would further stress streets and freeway ramps in the area.

Others said the project should provide more parkland than what is proposed or that the proposal could jeopardize one of the citys important commercial and industrial cores.

I believe this project will be a problem for our community going forward, Genis said. I believe it will set a terrible precedent for conversion of land, which should be devoted to good-paying jobs, to more millennial housing.

However, most council members said they favored studying the concept further. Mayor Pro Tem John Stephens said he thinks the project has a lot of potential.

There are some details that need to be ironed out, but Im really glad that you brought this forward and Im really appreciative of your commitment to our community, Stephens told Stoll and his team.

We plan to be good neighbors and part of this community for decades to come, Stoll said.
Two Newport Beach doctors are among six people facing insurance fraud charges in connection with an alleged $22-million urine test billing scheme that authorities say operated through sober-living homes in Orange County until 2014.

Dr. Carlos Montano, 61, of Newport Beach and Dr. Suzie Schuder, 70, of Corona del Mar are accused of writing unnecessary prescriptions for urine drug tests multiple times per week for employees of Compass Rose Recovery homes and affiliated businesses, according to the Orange County district attorneys office.

Montano is facing a felony count of conspiracy to commit medical insurance fraud, three counts of insurance fraud and possible sentencing enhancements on allegations of property damage over $3.2 million and aggravated white-collar crime over $500,000.

He pleaded not guilty to all charges Monday, according to Orange County Superior Court records. Montano is in Orange County Jail with bail set at $13.15 million. He is due back in court July 27.

Schuder is facing the same charges and a fourth count of insurance fraud, according to court records.

Schuder, who is in Orange County Jail with bail set at $3 million, is expected to be arraigned June 2 in Superior Court.

If convicted, Montano and Schuder could face 16 years and eight months and 17 years and eight months in state prison, respectively.

Prosecutors allege that Pamela Ganong, 61, of La Jolla and Philip Ganong, 63, of Bakersfield, who operated Compass Rose Recovery throughout Southern California with homes in cities including Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa, concocted a scheme to overbill insurance companies for the collection of urine for drug tests.

The Ganongs are each charged with a count of conspiracy to commit medical insurance fraud, 13 counts of insurance fraud and 26 counts of money laundering, with possible sentencing enhancements on allegations of property damage over $3.2 million, money laundering over $2.5 million and aggravated white-collar crime over $500,000. They pleaded not guilty to all charges Monday.

Authorities allege that between 2012 and 2014, the Ganongs fraudulently listed residents and non-residents of sober-living homes as employees of their four businesses  William Mae Co., Compass Rose Recovery, Compass Rose Staffing and Ghostline Labs  and expanded their health insurance policy to cover nearly 100 people, according to the district attorneys office.

Prosecutors contend the Ganongs started Compass Rose Staffing, a temporary-labor agency, in January 2013 to act as a front for their scheme.

The Ganongs and their son William, 33, of Bakersfield are accused of submitting bills of more than $1 million to Aetna, Anthem, Cigna and UnitedHealthcare for drug testing themselves and other associates.

Pamela Ganongs sister, Susan Lee Stinson, 63, of Carlsbad, is accused of dropping off paychecks at her sisters sober-living facilities and sending emails to doctors hired by the Ganongs requesting urine drug test prescriptions.

Prosecutors allege the family switched insurance carriers multiple times to try to avoid being caught.

To further the scheme, prosecutors claim, the Ganongs hired Montano and Schuder, who are accused of writing urine drug prescriptions beginning at three times per week and increasing to seven times per week for most of the couples employees.

In exchange for the test orders, the doctors received 20% of the net insurance proceeds from the billing and a per-patient fee of $200, prosecutors say.

According to prosecutors, Ghostline Labs used sober-living home addresses in Costa Mesa as the address for the business. Prosecutors say Ghostline paid Schuder $21,784 for work in 2012 and 2013.

hannah.fry@latimes.com

Twitter: @HannahFryTCN

ALSO

Huntington Beach man sought in connection with credit card fraud ring

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Man killed in motorcycle crash in Costa Mesa is identified
A Costa Mesa woman and her driver, who were 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, 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.

Endicott was traveling in a car on an evening game drive with Remezo and two other tourists in the national park April 2 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 April 3 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.

American tourist Kim Endicott, right, and field guide Jean-Paul Mirenge a day after they were rescued following a kidnap by unknown gunmen in Ugandas Queen Elizabeth National Park. (Wild Frontiers)

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.
An 18-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence following a crash in Fountain Valley late Friday night, authorities said.

Alex Nieves, of Santa Ana, was taken into custody after officers responded to the crash near Harbor Boulevard and Edinger Avenue just before midnight, according to police.

Nieves was driving a white Chevrolet SUV southbound along Harbor when he struck a pole, leaving all six people inside the vehicle with minor injuries.

No other vehicles were involved.

The vehicles occupants, all adults, were transported to a nearby hospital and have since been listed in stable condition, police said.

None of their injuries were believed to be life-threatening.

Nieves was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol and was booked into Orange County Jail, police said.

According to police, a nitrous oxide tank was found in the vehicle and may have been a factor in the crash.

No other details have been released.
With input from a professor and graduate students at UC Irvine, a database hosted by Emory University in Atlanta now provides a more holistic look at the intra-American slave trade between the 16th and 19th centuries.

Emory launched Slave Voyages in 2008 as a digital memorial containing thousands of trans-Atlantic slaving expedition records. The updated site now hosts videos, maps and a 3-D rendering of a slave ship.

But the most significant addition is a new intra-American database, which documents about 10,000 individual voyages  and counting. Information about the ships, their owners, captains and travel dates is aggregated along with details about the captives, their origins and survival rates.

Now were able to see this all across the Spanish colonies from Mexico to Buenos Aires, this significance of internal slave trade, said UCI associate professor Alex Borucki, who co-led the database research and contributed about 750 entries. Ships from other places in the Americas  from British, Dutch and Portuguese colonies into the Spanish colonies. Thats something that was known but in a fragmented way. Now we have a consistent tool that we can do comparative research with.

As co-leader of the project, Gregory OMalley, an associate professor at UC Santa Cruz, also provided entries with help from graduate students and at least 20 international scholars.

I saw the transportation, where people were sent to, and the circulation and movement of human beings, and [it] was shocking, said Katherine Kat Cosby, a UCI graduate student who worked on the project. It made me rethink the scope of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Though most are aware that Africans were enslaved and brought to North America by European colonialists, the routes  the research reminds  were not always so direct.

When you think about the African diaspora, its not just a dialogue between a specific place in Africa and the Americas, Borucki said. Its a vertical dialogue between different places in the Americas  Cuba, Jamaica, Curacao. These voyages were not in the trans-Atlantic database because they were internal. Now, theyre in the intra-American database.

A 2016 National Endowment for the Humanities grant funded the project, which required two years of principal research. Borucki said one of the most difficult parts of the endeavor was organizing reams of slave ship data into a comprehensive database.

This database is not the only tool about the slave trade, he said. Its important, and it should be put in comparison and connected. We needed a quantitative gathering of these sources in order to have a bigger picture of the Africans and their descendants in this horrific process.

Though the website update is now complete, Borucki said the team plans to continue adding names of captives and crew members on specific voyages already aggregated in the databases.
 Flash

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang will travel to Europe on Monday for a series of high-level meetings to consolidate China-Europe cooperation at a time when changes and uncertainties are rattling the European continent.

The visit, which will last till Friday, will take Li to Brussels for an annual gathering with European Union (EU) leaders, and to Croatia for an official visit and a leaders' meeting of China and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs).

This is the first overseas trip to be made by the Chinese premier this year and is set to inject new impetus into the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership.

"We believe that this meeting will take the China-EU dialogue and cooperation to a new level, and strengthen the stability, mutual benefit and strategic significance of our relations," said Zhang Ming, head of the Chinese Mission to the EU.

Global significance

At the time of the visit, Brexit uncertainty is looming large over Europe. EU leaders are scheduled to hold an emergency summit on Wednesday to decide whether to give Britain more time to leave the regional bloc, only two days after Li's arrival.

Li is expected to send a message in support of European integration process, as well as the EU's unity and growth, said Wang Yiwei, a professor with the Institute of International Affairs of Renmin University of China.

China, a consistent supporter of the EU, has always been an advocate for unity, a multi-polar world and multilateralism, he said.

The Chinese premier's trip comes just weeks after Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visits to Italy, Monaco and France in March. The almost back-to-back visits demonstrate the importance China attaches to its relations with Europe.

Leaders of the two sides will exchange views on bilateral ties and major international and regional issues of common concern, and witness the signing of cooperation documents covering energy, competition policies and other areas, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Chao told a press briefing on Wednesday.

China and the EU are enjoying a sound development of ties, close high-level connections, deepening cooperation and robust people-to-people exchanges, the senior diplomat noted.

In the ninth round of the China-EU High-Level Strategic Dialogue last month, China and the EU reached "Ten-point Consensus," which upholds multilateralism and supports an open world economy.

"The global significance of the China-EU relations is becoming prominent," said Zhang.

Cooperation & competition

Beijing values its comprehensive strategic partnership with Brussels. Fostering a sound relationship with the EU has long been a priority of its foreign policy.

The EU has been China's largest trading partner for 15 years in a row and China has become the EU's second largest trading partner, according to China's Ministry of Commerce.

Official statistics from the ministry show that two-way trade between China and the EU hit a record high of 682.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, up 10.6 percent year-on-year.

The two sides are also building up consensus and efforts under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, achieving fruitful results.

Cooperation between China and the EU is expecting better opportunities, with China's recently-adopted unified foreign investment law, a landmark legislation that will provide stronger protection and a better business environment for overseas investors.

"Despite mounting uncertainties in global trade, trade between China and Europe continues to enjoy good momentum. It shows that cooperation between China and Europe has a solid footing and great potential," said Cui Hongjian, head of the Department for European Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, a Chinese think tank.

In March, the European Commission defined China simultaneously as a cooperation partner and economic competitor and systemic rival and proposes 10 actions for EU heads of state or government to discuss and endorse, according to the commission's press release.

"With the constant deepening of cooperation, there will be competition in areas such as economy and trade, which is quite normal. Moderate and benign market competition helps stimulate each of us to develop better and makes China-EU cooperation more resilient and vibrant," Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at a joint press conference with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini last month in Brussels.

Admitting competition is "not a bad thing," Zhang said. "Competition and cooperation are two sides of one coin. Competition is not a you-lose-I-win and winner-takes-all game."

Meanwhile, Zhang argued that China and the EU, while adopting different political systems, are not necessarily becoming rivals.

"I think cooperation is the keynote of China-Europe relations. As for competition, the two sides need to work out a better way to deal with it," Cui added.

China-CEEC cooperation

This year's China-CEEC leaders' meeting will be held in the Croatian city of Dubrovnik.

Initiated in 2012, the mechanism has gained wide support from the 16 CEEC countries, and has knitted together an all-round and multi-tiered cooperation framework.

In recent years, China-CEEC cooperation has been adapting to the constantly changing environment in Europe, and moving forward productively within the framework of China-EU relations and in accordance with rules of the EU, said Cui.

According to China's Commerce Ministry, Chinese enterprises have so far invested over 10 billion dollars in the 16 CEEC countries. Cooperation in areas like transportation, energy and production capacity has yielded fruitful results.

Statistics from China's General Administration of Customs show that the trade volume between China and the 16 CEEC countries reached 82.23 billion dollars in 2018, marking a 21-percent growth year-on-year.

In addition, China and the CEEC countries focused on closer subnational cooperation last year, and achieved significant progress in such areas as economy and trade, science and technology, education as well as people-to-people exchanges.

The annual gathering is of great significance to promoting steady, long-term development of China-CEEC cooperation as well as China-EU relations, said Wang Chao, the Chinese vice foreign minister.

"Spring is unfolding early in Brussels," said Zhang. "The China-EU relations are also breathing in fresh spring air."
A Westminster man pleaded not guilty Monday to a murder charge stemming from an alleged DUI crash that left a 25-year-old woman dead in Fountain Valley.

Jonathan Truong St. Thomas, 24, was allegedly driving a Lexus GS sedan at 110 mph south on Magnolia Street near Mint Avenue at about 11:35 p.m. on Oct. 13, 2017, when the crash occurred.

Prosecutors allege St. Thomas blood-alcohol content was .15%  nearly twice the legal limit  at the time of the collision.

Fountain Valley police wrote in an Orange County Superior Court affidavit that St. Thomas was racing another vehicle when he lost control, slid across the painted median into wrong-way traffic on Magnolia and crashed into a Toyota sedan.

The driver of the sedan, Melanie Barlow, 25, of Fountain Valley was taken to UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange and pronounced dead.

Barlows vehicle was severely damaged. Firefighters had to cut the roof off the car to get her out.

A witness told police that she saw the Lexus speed through a red light at McFadden Avenue prior to the crash, according to an affidavit.

The person was driving like he wanted to die, the witness said.

If convicted, St. Thomas faces 15 years to life in state prison.

St. Thomas, who is listed as an assistant manager in jail records, is being held in Orange County Jail in Santa Ana in lieu of $1 million bail. He is expected to appear in court this week for a pretrial hearing.

As police were investigating the crash, another man identified by police as Matthew Earl Snoyman, 34, drove a pickup truck through the barricades, triggering an officer-involved shooting, authorities alleged.

Snoyman faces one count each of driving with a blood-alcohol level over the legal limit and driving under the influence of alcohol, both misdemeanors, as well as two felony counts of assault on a peace officer. He has pleaded not guilty, court records show.

hannah.fry@latimes.com

Twitter: @HannahFryTCN
A standoff between a La Crescenta man and officers from the Los Angeles Police Department ended Wednesday afternoon when the man took his own life.

The man killed himself some time after 1 p.m. in the 2400 block of Harmony Place after an hours-long standoff with police. Officers had attempted to serve a warrant at the mans home in the morning.

A spokesperson for the LAPD could not say how the man killed himself except it was from a self-inflicted wound.

Lt. Gary Harman, a spokesman for the Crescenta Valley Sheriffs Station, said the man refused to comply and barricaded himself in the home. He then told the officers he was armed, Harman added.

Authorities had been in negotiations with the man to get him to surrender peacefully before he killed himself.

According to TMZ, the man was identified as Joshua Corbett, who had been previously sentenced to five years of probation for stalking actress Sandra Bullock.

The LAPD spokesperson could not confirm if the man was in fact Corbett. The spokesperson could also not comment on why a warrant was being served at the home.

andy.nguyen@latimes.com

Twitter: @Andy_Truc

UPDATES:

1:45 p.m.: This article was updated with information about the end of the stand-off.

This article was originally published at 11:25 a.m.
Glendale police focused on vehicle scofflaws last Wednesday during a special enforcement operation that saw 62 drivers cited for not displaying their license plates.

Dubbed Operation Paper Plates, the enforcement was done in conjunction with the Los Angeles County Task Force for Regional Auto Theft Prevention and targeted vehicles without front or rear license plates in an effort to curb vehicle theft and fraud. Drivers cited either had cars with paper dealership plates or without plates at all.

In addition to issuing citations, the Glendale Police Department towed one vehicle because the driver was not licensed and two other cars that had expired registrations.

Outside of the special enforcement operation, the department will continue to cite drivers for not properly displaying their license plates.

Its safe to say that it will not be the last time well [do this], Sgt. Dan Suttles, a department spokesman, said.

While cracking down on paper license plates is not a constant priority for Glendale police, Suttles said officers will occasionally target drivers based on community feedback. He said department officials rotate the focus on different problems in the city based on what theyre hearing from residents and what officers have observed.

As soon as we put in a lot of effort toward one thing, something else becomes prevalent, Suttles said.

He added that most people driving with paper license plates are legitimately waiting for their permanent plates to arrive, while only a small fraction are doing so for nefarious reasons.

A bill that was signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown two years ago will help take the guesswork out of determining which is the case starting in January.

AB516 will require car dealerships to put temporary plates on vehicles once they are sold. The plates will display a report-of-sale number and an expiration date for when the temporary identification is no longer valid.

Dealerships currently issue a small, temporary registration sticker displayed on the corner of a cars windshield.

Suttles said it will be interesting to see what effect that law will have in Glendale. If an officer observes a vehicle with plain dealership plates after January, the driver is more likely to be pulled over, he said.

andy.nguyen@latimes.com

Twitter: @Andy_Truc
Former longtime La Canada resident and broadcasting personality Dick Sinclair passed away last month in Palm Desert, where hed made his home in recent years. He was 91.

Best known for his work on the syndicated Polka Parade, the affable Sinclair regularly accepted invitations to emcee events and to otherwise assist the La Canada community, where he and his wife Marge lived for several decades.

According to an obituary that was published this month in the Desert Sun, Sinclair, born in 1925, knew by the time he completed high school that he wanted to become a radio announcer. During the summer following his graduation he took a gig at a Montana radio station. He then went on to study at the University of Utah until the beginning of World War II, when he enlisted and was assigned to the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service in the South Pacific.

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It was during the war that Sinclair, who established military radio stations on various islands including Guadalcanal  where he was based  launched Polka Parade, which featured, as its name suggests, polka tunes. According to the radio website laradio.com, Sinclair first aired the show to an all-G.I. audience and met another man who would also become well-known in the Southland for his broadcasting career, George Putnam.

After the war, Sinclair moved to Southern California, where in 1950 he began working at radio station KIEV. A program director and host, Sinclair also worked at station KFI, from 1954 to 1968, before returning to KIEV, where he remained until 2000, according to laradio.com. It was while he was with KFI that he developed the television program Polka Parade for KTLA and served as its host.

Recently, Sinclair hosted a radio show featuring polkas on CNN Talk Radio.

In an interview Wednesday, Cam Currier, a former associate of Sinclairs, spoke highly of the broadcaster, both as a businessman and as a devoted father of four children.

Dick was one of the most accomplished men Ive ever met and one of the nicest men Ive ever met, said Currier, who worked with Sinclair at KIEV radio station in Glendale from 1980 to 1997. He was a fine man, a very responsible man and he had a good family. He came up in an era of broadcasting that will never be seen again.

--

Carol Cormaci, carol.cormaci@latimes.com

Twitter: @CarolCormaci
Joining a host of Southland cities, La Canada Flintridge is preparing for an anticipated influx of electronic scooters  the kind currently clogging rights-of-way in Santa Monica and Venice  vowing to regulate them even if it means partnering with their makers.

City Council members acknowledged La Canada has not yet been bombarded by the dockless scooters, distributed by companies like Bird and Lime and rented through simple cellphone apps, but should be considering potential problems before they begin.

Once they hit an area they hit it hard, so Id like to see us get ahead of it, Mayor Terry Walker said during a discussion on the topic at Tuesdays regular council meeting.

Several scooters were recently left unattended in the parking lot of one retailer and removed days later with no further incident reported. In October, members of the city Public Safety Commission discussed the issue of shared mobility devices and recommended the city take no action but enforce use under the California Vehicle Code.

Council members said Tuesday theyd prefer to develop some kind of ordinance, to be employed through a temporary pilot program, to further assure the city would not be liable for accidents or blocked pedestrian access occurring on sidewalks, which falls outside the purview of the vehicle code.

The biggest issue for me is you drive down the street and see 10 of them lined up, said Councilman Mike Davitt. It would be nice to have a few things in play.

City Manager Mark Alexander and City Atty. Adrian Guerra said they looked to several other cities for precedent. Beverly Hills instituted a six-month ban and was sued, Alexander said, while West Hollywood passed an ordinance last June prohibiting unpermitted uses, but allowing the scooters to travel through the city and fining companies for each abandoned unit.

Guerra said other cities welcomed the scooters as a low-cost means of accessing public transportation and reducing vehicle travel. Cities can partner with scooter manufacturers who can control vehicle use remotely, capping speed limits and making them unusable at certain times or in certain areas.

If the council was interested in working with these companies, we would be able to attempt to negotiate those kinds of issues, where they park and trying to keep it with the city monitoring the number that are in the city, he added.

Ultimately, the City Council directed staff to prepare a temporary pilot program that would regulate the operation and disbursement of shared mobility devices in the public right of way and invite manufacturers to speak with officials and potential partner on a monitoring plan.

City employees prep for moving day

La Canadas current city hall building will be closed intermittently in February as employees make final plans to move into a new headquarters building in the citys Town Center in coming weeks, City Manager Mark Alexander told the City Council Tuesday.

The current building at 1327 Foothill Blvd. will be closed this Friday, Feb. 8 and again on Feb. 15. Employees will begin their move during the Presidents Day weekend, with the bulk of the move happening on Saturday, Feb. 16, Alexander said.

On Feb. 20, the city will officially reopen for business in the new location. The regular City Council meeting scheduled for Feb. 19 will be cancelled to accommodate the move, while the councils March 5 meeting will be planned for Lanterman Auditorium as a contingency in case construction is not fully complete.

March 19 will mark the first council meeting to take place in the new location. On that day, a dedication and ribbon cutting ceremony is scheduled to take place, Alexander said.

Miss LCF Court introduced

Also Tuesday, council members were formally introduced to the Miss La Canada Flintridge Court, crowned during the Jan. 17 La Canada Flintridge Chamber of Commerce Installation, Awards and Coronation event.

Coordinator Katherine Markgraf introduced Queen Francesca Christensen of Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy and princesses La Canada High Schools Audrey Raulli, Sarah Peck from FSHA, Flintridge Preparatory Schools Sophie Lin and Kat Hightower from Campbell Hall School in Studio City.

I always find it fascinating to see the court when they first come and then to see them at the end of the year, said Mayor Walker. I think youre going to find it a really rewarding experience.

sara.cardine@latimes.com

Twitter: @SaraCardine
Hello, my name is John Cherwa and welcome back to our horse racing newsletter as we look deeper into the jockeys no-whip card on Friday.

Friday is the next biggest day of the meeting. It starts with a California Horse Racing Board meeting that morning to determine how much authority it has should Santa Anita decide it wants to transfer any of its dates. Then, it continues with a purpose pitch by the Jockey Guild, which plans to run the card under futuristic rules where the jockeys arent allowed to use the riding crop.

There was speculation that both trainers and the betting public would stay away from the card. Well, we have half that answer. The trainers werent looking to make a statement. Here are the current field sizes for Friday, in order: 8, 6, 5, 9, 11, 4, 7, 9. Doesnt look that out of whack. I do know there was no organized effort by the trainers to freeze the entry box and make a point.

So, lets look at the jockeys. Well, J.C. Diaz has six mounts; Edwin Maldonado and Geovanni Franco has five; Tiago Pereira and Ruben Fuentes have four. Drayden Van Dyke , and others, have three.

So, whos missing? Mike Smith and Flavien Prat . They are both out of town at Keeneland and Oaklawn. So, nothing to read into that.

Also named on a horse on Friday is Victor Espinoza , who is not a member of the guild. Technically, he wouldnt have to abide by the guild directive of no whips. However, according to his agent, Brian Beach , Victor plans to ride without a whip if that is what the other jockeys are doing.

So, all of this will make Friday very interesting. This is a chance for the bettors to weigh in on the no-whip rule. Will they be passive? Will they affect the mutuel handle? Stay tuned to our web, print and newsletter editions to be among the first to know.

And, on another note, Santa Anita had previously planned only three-day racing weeks the next two weeks. So, sorry to disappoint, but the newsletter wont be back until Friday.

Not sure this is an official who goofed but it does bear clarifying. In Sundays newsletter, I declared Vasiika the best $40,000 claim ever. Well, taking nothing away from Vasilika, but on Oct. 16, 2016, Peter Miller picked up Stormy Liberal from a 6 -furlong down the hill claimer at Santa Anita. He won that race. The price? Yup, you can guess. Well, two Breeders Cup wins and an Eclipse Award later you can make a pretty compelling case of Stormy Liberal being the best $40,000 claim. Long as were talking Peter Miller, if you missed it on Saturday, Cal-bred horse of the year Spiced Perfection won the Grade 1 Madison Stakes at Keeneland. Congrats.

We dont see a lot of longshots in the Santa Anita stakes schedule but Sunday was one of them as Danuskas My Girl won the Grade 3 $100,000 Las Flores Stakes for older fillies and mares going six furlongs by 3  lengths.

Danuskas got such a big heart, Franco told Mike Willman of Santa Anita. I knew it the second time I rode her, she showed me she had lots of hear [Sunday], the only way to steal this race was to just go. I knew she would fight them off whenever they got close to her and she sure did.

She could feel [runner-up] Emboldened coming and she just kept on going. I let her know Dream Tree was coming and she responded well, she was still finishing strong.

Always looking to add more subscribers to this newsletter. Cant beat the price. If you like it, tell someone. If you dont like it, then youre probably not reading this. Either way, send to a friend and just have them click here and sign up . Remember, its free, and all we need is your email, nothing more.

Santa Anita Charts Results for Sunday, April 7. Copyright 2019 by Equibase Company. Reproduction prohibited. Santa Anita, Santa Anita Park, Arcadia, California. 61st day of a 61-day meet. Cloudy & Firm

FIRST RACE. 1 Mile Turf. Purse: $57,000. Allowance. 3 year olds and up. Time 23.85 48.12 1:12.18 1:23.93 1:35.39

Pgm Horse Wt PP St    Str Fin Jockey $1 7 The Street Fighter 122 7 5 2hd 21 2 22 1ns Pereira 3.20 6 Lostintranzlation 119 6 3 11 11 11 1 22 Rosario 4.00 1 Fast as Cass 124 1 1 31 41 31 3hd 3 Franco 21.60 2 Continental Divide 122 2 6 61 71 5hd 41 41 Desormeaux 4.20 3 Plain Wrap 124 3 9 9 9 8hd 51 5 Delgadillo 79.30 5 Cono 122 5 8 81 8 9 9 6 Talamo 21.00 9 Feeling Strong 118 9 7 7 6hd 71 7 7nk Prat 9.40 4 Mobou 118 4 2 5hd 5 6 6hd 84 Smith 7.40 10 Brave Helios 124 10 4 4hd 3hd 41 8hd 9 Van Dyke 28.30 8 Jet Set Ruler 124 8 10 dnf Bejarano 3.90

7 THE STREET FIGHTER 8.40 4.80 3.40 6 LOSTINTRANZLATION 5.00 3.80 1 FAST AS CASS 8.40

$2 ROULETTE (BLACK) $2.60 $1 EXACTA (7-6) $26.40 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (7-6-1-2) $167.92 $1 SUPER HIGH FIVE (7-6-1-2-3) $20,680.20 50-CENT TRIFECTA (7-6-1) $169.80

WinnerThe Street Fighter Ch.h.5 by Street Boss out of Silver Swallow, by Alphabet Soup. Bred by Bruce Headley & Andrew Molasky (CA). Trainer: Bruce Headley. Owner: Bruce Headley. Mutuel Pool $256,513 Roulette Pool $226 Exacta Pool $138,835 Superfecta Pool $58,976 Super High Five Pool $89,719 Trifecta Pool $89,630. ScratchedNap Lajoie, Rinse and Repeat, Unbridled Ethos.

THE STREET FIGHTER stalked three deep then outside a rival, continued off the rail on the backstretch and alongside a foe on the second turn, bid outside the pacesetter in midstretch and narrowly edged that one late under left handed urging. LOSTINTRANZLATION sped to the early lead, angled in and set the pace inside, came a bit off the rail into the stretch, fought back inside the winner through the final furlong and continued gamely. FAST AS CASS saved ground stalking the pace throughout and edged a rival for the show. CONTINENTAL DIVIDE pulled along the inside and steadied leaving the first turn and gain five eighths out, saved ground stalking the leader, came out into the stretch and was edged for third. PLAIN WRAP angled in and saved ground off the pace, cut the corner into the stretch and improved position inside. CONO pulled between horses early, chased outside a rival, swung four wide into the stretch and could not summon the needed late kick. FEELING STRONG chased three deep, came out four wide into the stretch and lacked the needed rally. MOBOU was in a good position chasing the pace between horses to the stretch and also lacked the necessary response. BRAVE HELIOS close up stalking the pace three deep to the stretch and weakened. JET SET RULER broke a step slowly then was pulled up just after the start but walked off.

SECOND RACE. 6 Furlongs. Purse: $33,000. Claiming. 3 year olds and up. Claiming Price $25,000. Time 22.78 46.42 58.66 1:11.44

Pgm Horse Wt PP St   Str Fin Jockey $1 5 Tough But Nice 122 5 4 11 11 12 12 Franco 5.00 2 Best Two Minutes 122 2 6 3hd 42 31 2 Desormeaux 6.20 1 Don't Stalk Me 124 1 3 2hd 2hd 2hd 32 Bejarano 4.00 6 Conquest Cobra 124 6 5 51 52 54 42 Rosario 1.80 4 Jimmy the Juice 122 4 1 4 3hd 41 51 Fuentes 18.70 3 Annie's Candy 122 3 2 6 6 6 6 Prat 2.50

5 TOUGH BUT NICE 12.00 8.20 5.00 2 BEST TWO MINUTES 6.00 3.60 1 DON'T STALK ME 3.40

$2 ROULETTE (GREEN) $10.00 $2 DAILY DOUBLE (7-5) $56.00 $1 EXACTA (5-2) $31.70 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (5-2-1-6) $31.59 50-CENT TRIFECTA (5-2-1) $62.30

WinnerTough But Nice Dbb.g.6 by Good Journey out of Try to Be Nice, by Vindication. Bred by BG Stables (KY). Trainer: Hector O. Palma. Owner: BG Stables and Palma, Hector O.. Mutuel Pool $179,507 Roulette Pool $280 Daily Double Pool $52,701 Exacta Pool $85,576 Superfecta Pool $30,361 Trifecta Pool $52,289. ClaimedConquest Cobra by Branch, William, Buster, William and Cohen, Mark. Trainer: Mark Glatt. Scratchednone.

TOUGH BUT NICE sped to the early lead, set the pace a bit off the rail then inside on the turn, came a bit off the fence again in the stretch and held on gamely under some left handed urging. BEST TWO MINUTES close up stalking the pace between horses, continued alongside a rival in the stretch and edged that one for second. DON'T STALK ME well placed stalking the pace inside, came a bit off the rail in the stretch and lost second late. CONQUEST COBRA stalked four wide on the backstretch and off the rail on the turn, came three wide into the stretch and lacked the needed response. JIMMY THE JUICE stalked three deep between horses on the backstretch and three wide on the turn and into the stretch and weakened. ANNIE'S CANDY between rivals early, chased a bit off the rail, fell back on the turn and also weakened.

THIRD RACE. 1 Mile. Purse: $57,000. Allowance Optional Claiming. Fillies and Mares. 3 year olds and up. Claiming Price $40,000. Time 24.77 48.93 1:13.81 1:26.56 1:39.86

Pgm Horse Wt PP St    Str Fin Jockey $1 4 Withholding Info 122 4 3 41 4 1hd 12 12 Talamo 0.60 1 Kaydetre 124 1 5 1 1 2 21 22 Blanc 11.90 6 Zusha 122 6 4 52 52 53 31 32 Franco 4.50 3 Sutro 124 3 6 6 6 6 6 44 Smith 5.50 5 Convince 124 5 2 3hd 31 41 41 54 Gutierrez 7.40 2 Mongolian Humor 122 2 1 2 2hd 3hd 52 6 Fuentes 24.00

4 WITHHOLDING INFO 3.20 2.60 2.10 1 KAYDETRE 6.80 3.60 6 ZUSHA 2.60

$2 ROULETTE (RED) $2.80 $2 DAILY DOUBLE (5-4) $19.80 $1 EXACTA (4-1) $10.50 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (4-1-6-3) $7.14 50-CENT TRIFECTA (4-1-6) $14.50

WinnerWithholding Info Dbb.f.4 by Midnight Lute out of Executiveprivilege, by First Samurai. Bred by Michael Pegram, Karl Watson & PaulWeitman (KY). Trainer: Bob Baffert. Owner: Watson, Karl, Pegram, Michael E. and Weitman, Paul. Mutuel Pool $157,872 Roulette Pool $312 Daily Double Pool $22,800 Exacta Pool $85,450 Superfecta Pool $38,458 Trifecta Pool $60,261. Scratchednone. 50-Cent Pick Three (7-5-4) paid $35.30. Pick Three Pool $63,882.

WITHHOLDING INFO angled in and stalked a bit off the rail, came out leaving the backstretch, bid four wide on the second turn to gain the lead, came in a bit into the stretch, kicked clear under some urging while drifting to the inside in the stretch and proved best. KAYDETRE went up inside to gain the lead into the first turn, set a pressured pace along the rail, fought back leaving the second turn, could not match the winner in the drive but was clearly second best. ZUSHA four wide into the first turn, stalked outside, bid five wide on the second turn, fell back some a quarter mile out, entered the stretch four wide and picked up the show. SUTRO chased a bit off the rail, came out into the stretch and lacked a rally. CONVINCE stalked early then bid three deep to press the pace, continued three wide between foes on the second turn and into the stretch and weakened. MONGOLIAN HUMOR drifted out a bit into the first turn, bid between horses leaving that turn to prompt the pace between horses to the stretch and also weakened.

FOURTH RACE. 1 1/8 Mile Turf. Purse: $57,000. Allowance Optional Claiming. Fillies and Mares. 3 year olds and up. Claiming Price $40,000. Time 23.36 47.81 1:11.44 1:35.74 1:47.75

Pgm Horse Wt PP St    Str Fin Jockey $1 5 Animosity 124 4 2 11 11 1 11 11 Van Dyke 1.90 7 Guiliana 122 5 5 4 4 41 5 2hd Prat 1.90 4 Gratzie 124 3 4 31 31 3hd 3hd 3nk Franco 2.30 3 Sapphire Kid 124 2 1 22 23 21 41 4 Roman 6.00 1 Trust Fund Kitty 122 1 3 5 5 5 2hd 5 Blanc 14.00

5 ANIMOSITY 5.80 3.00 2.80 7 GUILIANA (FR) 3.40 2.60 4 GRATZIE (GB) 2.40

$2 DAILY DOUBLE (4-5) $11.00 $1 EXACTA (5-7) $7.40 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (5-7-4-3) $3.70 50-CENT TRIFECTA (5-7-4) $9.95

WinnerAnimosity Grr.f.4 by Animal Kingdom out of Coup de Coeur, by Exchange Rate. Bred by Spendthrift Farm LLC (KY). Trainer: Patrick Gallagher. Owner: Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners. Mutuel Pool $211,941 Daily Double Pool $24,657 Exacta Pool $92,955 Superfecta Pool $28,666 Trifecta Pool $51,521. ScratchedPeter's Kitten, Prima Valentina. 50-Cent Pick Three (5-4-5) paid $17.80. Pick Three Pool $25,163.

ANIMOSITY pulled her way to the lead outside a rival, angled in and set the pace a bit off the rail, responded when challenged leaving the backstretch and on the second turn, inched away again just off the inside into the stretch and held on gamely under urging. GUILIANA (FR) broke out some and a bit slowly, angled in and chased outside a rival, came three deep into the stretch and got up for the place four wide on the line. GRATZIE (GB) angled in and stalked the pace inside, came out leaving the second turn and three wide into the stretch and edged rivals for the show between foes late. SAPPHIRE KID stalked inside then a bit off the rail, bid outside the winner leaving the backstretch and on the second turn, continued between foes through the drive and was edged for third. TRUST FUND KITTY saved ground stalking the pace throughout and was edged for a minor award along the inside.

FIFTH RACE. 6 Furlongs. Purse: $57,000. Allowance Optional Claiming. 3 year olds and up. Claiming Price $40,000. Time 22.01 45.48 57.94 1:11.21

Pgm Horse Wt PP St   Str Fin Jockey $1 5 Soul Streit 124 4 5 1 1hd 22 1 Van Dyke 1.40 2 Coil Me Home 124 1 7 7 6hd 41 2 Rosario 3.60 7 There and Back 124 6 3 41 31 31 3 Mn Garcia 2.30 8 Adens Dream 124 7 1 21 21 1hd 46 Pedroza 7.50 3 Paddock Pick 124 2 6 62 52 51 5ns Talamo 34.50 6 Candy Cornell 124 5 4 51 7 7 62 Roman 42.30 4 Passionate Reward 124 3 2 3hd 41 6hd 7 Prat 10.70

5 SOUL STREIT 4.80 2.80 2.20 2 COIL ME HOME 4.00 2.40 7 THERE AND BACK 2.80

$2 ROULETTE (RED) $3.60 $2 DAILY DOUBLE (5-5) $17.20 $1 EXACTA (5-2) $7.70 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (5-2-7-8) $5.53 $1 SUPER HIGH FIVE (5-2-7-8-3) $150.60 50-CENT TRIFECTA (5-2-7) $10.55

WinnerSoul Streit B.r.4 by Maclean's Music out of Yodeladytoo, by Swiss Yodeler. Bred by Pat Doran & Dennis Doran (IN). Trainer: Bob Baffert. Owner: BCKH Stable and Baffert, Natalie J.. Mutuel Pool $283,411 Roulette Pool $211 Daily Double Pool $38,618 Exacta Pool $139,269 Superfecta Pool $71,354 Super High Five Pool $9,380 Trifecta Pool $103,834. ScratchedTreasure Hunter. 50-Cent Pick Three (4-5-5) paid $5.90. Pick Three Pool $59,467. 50-Cent Pick Four (5-4-2/5/6-1/5) 2358 tickets with 4 correct paid $49.55. Pick Four Pool $153,137. 50-Cent Pick Five (7/11/12/13-5-4-2/5/6-1/5) 2108 tickets with 5 correct paid $239.95. Pick Five Pool $588,320.

SOUL STREIT had speed between rivals then angled in, dueled inside, fought back to the front under left handed urging past midstretch, inched away in deep stretch and held gamely. COIL ME HOME a bit slow into stride, was taken off the rail early and chased off the inside, continued outside on the turn and four wide into the stretch and got up for the place three deep on the line. THERE AND BACK stalked three deep then outside a rival, came out some in the stretch and split horses on the line to edge a foe for third. ADENS DREAM angled in and dueled outside the winner, put a head in front in midstretch, fought back past midstretch, could not match that one late and was edged nearing the wire for a minor share. PADDOCK PICK settled off the rail chasing the pace, came three wide into the stretch and lacked a rally. CANDY CORNELL stalked between horses, fell back some a bit off the rail, continued just off the inside on the turn and weakened. PASSIONATE REWARD bobbled some at the break, angled in and stalked inside, continued along the rail on the turn and in the stretch and had little left for the drive.

SIXTH RACE. 6 Furlongs. Purse: $23,000. Maiden Claiming. 3 year olds. Claiming Price $30,000. Time 22.58 46.26 1:12.66 1:19.77

Pgm Horse Wt PP St   Str Fin Jockey $1 11 Jack's a Diva 124 10 3 61 31 22 1 Rosario 0.50 12 Fortnite Dance 124 11 1 2 1hd 1hd 23 Van Dyke 7.20 7 Derby Storm 117 6 6 31 53 51 3 Diaz, Jr. 84.70 5 John's Intuition 124 4 4 11 22 32 41 Fuentes 7.30 8 Mad At Money 124 7 8 82 8 73 5hd Pereira 84.00 6 Samurai Jack 124 5 2 41 41 41 6 Pedroza 5.70 4 Herdsman 124 3 10 92 7hd 6hd 71 Mn Garcia 42.90 1 Meadway 124 1 11 101 102 84 85 Flores 98.70 2 Calder Vale 124 2 9 11 11 11 95 Figueroa 42.70 10 Sky Glory 124 9 5 5hd 6hd 9 101 Blanc 53.30 9 Vezuchiy 117 8 7 7 93 101 11 Velez 16.80

11 JACK'S A DIVA 3.00 2.40 2.20 12 FORTNITE DANCE 5.40 4.00 7 DERBY STORM 13.60

$2 ROULETTE (RED) $320.00 $2 DAILY DOUBLE (5-11) $6.80 $1 EXACTA (11-12) $7.30 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (11-12-7-5) $141.12 50-CENT TRIFECTA (11-12-7) $125.25 $1 X-5 SUPER HIGH FIVE (11-12-7-5-8) Carryover $2,147 $2 CONSOLATION DOUBLE (5-3) $5.00

WinnerJack's a Diva B.c.3 by United States out of Destiny's Diva, by Limehouse. Bred by Northwest Stud (FL). Trainer: John W. Sadler. Owner: Hronis Racing LLC. Mutuel Pool $284,888 Roulette Pool $310 Daily Double Pool $35,288 Exacta Pool $168,122 Superfecta Pool $85,192 Trifecta Pool $111,611 X-5 Super High Five Pool $2,813. ScratchedDieci, Fright Night. 50-Cent Pick Three (5-5-11) paid $5.70. Pick Three Pool $54,274. 50-Cent Consolation Pick Three (5-5-3) paid $3.90.

JACK'S A DIVA stalked outside, bid three deep nearing the stretch then outside the runner-up, gained the advantage under left handed urging in deep stretch and gamely prevailed. FORTNITE DANCE angled in and stalked outside a rival, bid alongside the pacesetter to gain the lead on the turn, fought back off the rail into and through the stretch but could not quite match the winner late. DERBY STORM stalked between horses then a bit off the rail on the turn, came out three deep into the stretch and got up late for the show. JOHN'S INTUITION sped to the early lead, set the pace a bit off the rail then inside, drifted out a bit on the turn then angled back to the fence and dueled inside, continued along the rail in the drive and was edged for third. MAD AT MONEY angled in and saved ground chasing the pace throughout and lacked the needed rally. SAMURAI JACK between horses early, angled in and chased inside, came out in upper stretch and could not offer the necessary response. HERDSMAN broke a bit slowly, settled three deep chasing the pace, went up four wide on the turn and into the stretch and also lacked the needed rally. MEADWAY broke inward and slowly, saved ground throughout to no avail. CALDER VALE dropped back a bit off the rail on the backstretch and turn and was not a threat. SKY GLORY chased between horses then off the rail, split rivals three deep on the turn, came three wide into the stretch and weakened. VEZUCHIY chased outside a rival then between horses on the turn and also weakened.

SEVENTH RACE. 1 1/8 Mile Turf. Purse: $59,000. Allowance Optional Claiming. 3 year olds and up. Claiming Price $62,500. Time 23.97 48.67 1:12.54 1:36.00 1:47.61

Pgm Horse Wt PP St    Str Fin Jockey $1 6 Souter 124 6 1 21 21 21 1hd 1 Van Dyke 3.10 4 Dreams of Valor 122 4 2 1hd 1 1hd 23 21 Maldonado 9.40 2 Sejo 124 2 7 42 3hd 41 31 3ns Bejarano 4.00 9 Maestro Dearte 122 9 5 51 51 61 6 4 Franco 6.40 5 Starting Bloc 122 5 4 8hd 10 10 7hd 5 Prat 5.90 7 Accountability 124 7 3 3 43 3hd 4hd 61 Pereira 13.10 10 Lazzam 122 10 6 71 81 91 81 7hd Blanc 26.10 3 Move Over 122 3 9 10 9hd 5hd 5hd 8nk Sanchez 30.90 1 Magic Musketier 122 1 8 6hd 6hd 8hd 9 92 Espinoza 35.50 8 Conquest Lemonraid 122 8 10 9hd 7 7hd 10 10 Rosario 3.80

6 SOUTER (GB) 8.20 4.60 3.20 4 DREAMS OF VALOR 9.00 6.80 2 SEJO (IRE) 4.00

$2 ROULETTE (BLACK) $2.10 $2 DAILY DOUBLE (11-6) $15.00 $1 EXACTA (6-4) $41.50 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (6-4-2-9) $127.22 $1 SUPER HIGH FIVE (6-4-2-9-5) $5,796.40 50-CENT TRIFECTA (6-4-2) $132.05

WinnerSouter (GB) Dbb.g.5 by Poet's Voice (GB) out of Storming Sioux (GB), by Storming Home (GB). Bred by Rabbah Bloodstock Limited (GB). Trainer: Mark Glatt. Owner: Red Baron's Barn LLC and Rancho Temescal LLC. Mutuel Pool $299,312 Roulette Pool $494 Daily Double Pool $36,117 Exacta Pool $169,110 Superfecta Pool $80,723 Super High Five Pool $4,781 Trifecta Pool $118,072. ScratchedFull of Luck (CHI), Oscar Dominguez (IRE). 50-Cent Pick Three (5-11-6) paid $7.05. Pick Three Pool $57,946. 50-Cent Consolation Pick Three (5-3-6) paid $6.10.

SOUTER (GB) prompted the pace outside the runner-up, took a short lead in the stretch and held on gamely under left handed urging. DREAMS OF VALOR angled in and set a pressured pace inside, fought back along the rail through the stretch and continued willingly to the end. SEJO (IRE) saved ground stalking the pace, came out into the stretch and just held third. MAESTRO DEARTE chased off the rail then three deep into and on the second turn and into the stretch and was edged for the show between foes late. STARTING BLOC settled between horses then a bit off the rail, came out on the second turn and four wide into the stretch and finished well late. ACCOUNTABILITY three deep early, stalked outside a rival, came three wide into the stretch, was between horses through much of the final furlong and lacked the needed late kick. LAZZAM (GB) angled in and settled outside a rival then between foes leaving the backstretch and on the second turn and could not offer the necessary late response. MOVE OVER (GB) saved ground stalking the pace, was in a bit tight midway on the backstretch, got through between foes into the second turn, angled back to the rail and did not rally. MAGIC MUSKETIER saved ground chasing the pace, dropped back on the second turn and also lacked a rally. CONQUEST LEMONRAID was in a good position stalking the pace three deep to the stretch and had little left in the final furlong.

EIGHTH RACE. 6 Furlongs. Purse: $100,000. 'Las Flores Stakes'. Fillies and Mares. 4 year olds and up. Time 21.63 44.83 57.24 1:10.23

Pgm Horse Wt PP St   Str Fin Jockey $1 6 Danuska's My Girl 120 6 4 11 11 11 13 Franco 20.60 8 Emboldened 120 8 9 91 91 61 2nk Talamo 4.20 9 Show It N Moe It 120 9 2 3hd 51 41 3hd Bejarano 4.30 3 Lady Suebee 120 3 5 4hd 4hd 31 4 Rosario 8.30 7 Dream Tree 122 7 3 21 21 2hd 53 Smith 1.10 2 Spectator 120 2 7 83 8hd 83 6 Prat 11.50 5 Phantom Proton 120 5 6 6hd 6hd 7 7 Gutierrez 75.50 1 Amuse 120 1 8 51 3hd 5hd 85 Van Dyke 12.10 10 Moon Kitty 120 10 1 71 71 93 98 Roman 61.80 4 True Royalty 122 4 10 10 10 10 10 Gryder 108.00

6 DANUSKA'S MY GIRL 43.20 15.60 8.60 8 EMBOLDENED 5.60 3.80 9 SHOW IT N MOE IT 3.40

$2 ROULETTE (BLACK) $7.60 $2 DAILY DOUBLE (6-6) $218.20 $1 EXACTA (6-8) $112.70 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (6-8-9-3) $146.63 50-CENT TRIFECTA (6-8-9) $207.60 $1 X-5 SUPER HIGH FIVE (6-8-9-3-7) Carryover $5,594

WinnerDanuska's My Girl B.m.5 by Shackleford out of Amaday, by Dayjur. Bred by Fernandez-Robles Family Trust &Flying H Stables (KY). Trainer: Jerry Hollendorfer. Owner: Bad Boy Racing LLC. Mutuel Pool $399,237 Roulette Pool $433 Daily Double Pool $41,912 Exacta Pool $200,645 Superfecta Pool $120,241 Trifecta Pool $156,136 X-5 Super High Five Pool $7,329. Scratchednone. 50-Cent Pick Three (11-6-6) paid $91.00. Pick Three Pool $45,937.

DANUSKA'S MY GIRL had speed between foes then inched away, set the pace off the rail, continued off the inside in the stretch and drew away under some urging and good handling. EMBOLDENED settled outside then alongside a rival, came out leaving the turn and four wide into the stretch and gained the place late. SHOW IT N MOE IT had speed outside then stalked three deep, came four wide into the stretch and edged a rival for the show between foes late. LADY SUEBEE stalked between horses, angled to the inside in the stretch and was edged for third. DREAM TREE had speed between rivals then stalked three deep, angled in some on the turn, came out into the stretch and weakened some late. SPECTATOR saved ground chasing the pace, came out into the stretch and lacked the needed rally. PHANTOM PROTON chased off the inside then between foes leaving the backstretch, continued just off the fence on the turn and lacked the needed late kick. AMUSE saved ground stalking the pace on the backstretch and turn and into the stretch and weakened. MOON KITTY chased three deep on the backstretch and turn and into the stretch and also weakened. TRUE ROYALTY angled in and settled off the pace inside, saved ground on the turn and into the stretch and had little left for the drive.

NINTH RACE. 1 Mile Turf. Purse: $32,000. Maiden Claiming. 3 year olds and up. Claiming Price $50,000. Time 23.77 47.50 1:11.62 1:24.12 1:36.13

Pgm Horse Wt PP St    Str Fin Jockey $1 2 Holy Ghost 124 2 6 92 93 92 6 1 Franco 4.40 9 Indoctrination 124 9 1 31 51 5 3hd 2 Prat 1.20 4 Zorich 118 4 5 2hd 3 1hd 1hd 3 Van Dyke 18.90 10 Aussie Fox 124 10 10 82 4 41 2 41 Fuentes 7.30 8 Dawood 124 8 3 51 6 7hd 7hd 5 Gutierrez 10.00 5 Armed Wall 124 5 7 61 81 6hd 81 6 Maldonado 40.70 3 Indy Jones 118 3 2 1hd 1hd 2 41 7 Flores 137.00 7 Caecilius 118 7 9 10 10 10 10 8 Pedroza 40.30 1 Scrambled 124 1 4 4hd 71 81 9hd 9hd Pereira 7.80 6 Single Me Out 124 6 8 7 2hd 3hd 5hd 10 Talamo 6.60

2 HOLY GHOST 10.80 4.20 3.00 9 INDOCTRINATION (IRE) 2.80 2.40 4 ZORICH 7.40

$2 ROULETTE (BLACK) $5.00 $2 DAILY DOUBLE (6-2) $261.20 $1 EXACTA (2-9) $14.30 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (2-9-4-10) $56.31 $1 SUPER HIGH FIVE (2-9-4-10-8) $4,627.70 50-CENT TRIFECTA (2-9-4) $95.85

WinnerHoly Ghost Ch.g.4 by Ghostzapper out of A Jealous Woman, by Muqtarib. Bred by Donald Ladd, Richard Reid, Niles DickeyLLC & et al (KY). Trainer: Vladimir Cerin. Owner: Bowley, Joe, Carmody, Brian, Cieminis, Andy, Frankham, David, Hanna, Brian, Hooper, Paul J., Ladd, D. Mutuel Pool $443,414 Roulette Pool $273 Daily Double Pool $128,980 Exacta Pool $263,093 Superfecta Pool $147,780 Super High Five Pool $45,727 Trifecta Pool $195,463. ScratchedSilent Musketier, Sooner Better, Tastemaker. 50-Cent Pick Three (6-6-2) paid $288.80. Pick Three Pool $132,625. 50-Cent Pick Four (3/11/13-6/11/12-6-2) 894 tickets with 4 correct paid $552.50. Pick Four Pool $647,118. 50-Cent Pick Five (1/5-3/11/13-6/11/12-6-2) 385 tickets with 5 correct paid $1,123.45. Pick Five Pool $567,035. 20-Cent Pick Six Jackpot (2/5/6-1/5-3/11/13-6/11/12-6-2) 68 tickets with 6 correct paid $1,224.50. Pick Six Jackpot Pool $154,732. Pick Six Jackpot Carryover $35,423.

HOLY GHOST saved ground off the pace, was in tight into the second turn, came out on that bend and six wide into the stretch and rallied under some left handed urging to get up late. INDOCTRINATION (IRE) dueled three deep then stalked a bit off the rail on the backstretch and second turn, re-bid between horses in the stretch to gain the lead past midstretch but could not hold off the winner. ZORICH dueled between horses then outside a rival, battled between foes leaving the backstretch and on the second turn, took a short lead leaving that turn, fought back between foes in the stretch and held third. AUSSIE FOX four wide into the first turn, came out on that turn and went up five wide on the backstretch to press the pace four wide on the second turn and in the stretch and was edged for the show. DAWOOD stalked three deep, was in tight between horses leaving the backstretch, continued outside on the second turn and five wide into the stretch and was outfinished. ARMED WALL pulled between horses in a bit tight into the first turn, stalked just off the rail then between rivals into and on the second turn, swung four wide into the stretch and could not quite summon the needed late kick. INDY JONES had good early speed and dueled inside, fought back into the stretch and until past midstretch and weakened late. CAECILIUS steadied when squeezed back in the early going, pulled then settled a bit off the rail then inside, came out into the stretch and lacked the needed rally. SCRAMBLED saved ground stalking the pace, lacked room along the rail in midstretch and again late and could not get out. SINGLE ME OUT stalked three deep on the first turn then went up four wide on the backstretch, dueled three wide between foes into and on the second turn and into the stretch and weakened in the final furlong.
Tens of millions of Nigerians ready to elect their next president woke up to some bewildering news on Saturday morning: Elections were off.

Around 3 a.m., while most of the nation slept, the countrys electoral commission announced that the vote was being postponed for a week, citing vague logistical problems.

Voters with smartphones found out on WhatsApp and Twitter. Others, after making long, expensive trips to cast their ballots in Africas largest exercise in democracy, showed up in the morning to find empty polling stations.

On Saturday in the capital, Abuja, a sense of deflation imbued the dusty air. Streets were largely empty, and vendors at the normally frenetic Wuse market sat, waiting for customers. In the Hilton hotel downtown, international election observers decamped from convoys of black SUVs and sat beside the pool, awaiting further instruction.

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The worst thing is theyve been saying were well prepared, said Yunana Adam, playing volleyball with his friends in Usafa village, on Abujas outskirts, to work off some steam.

Only to cancel at the eleventh hour! his friend Hussein Iliya, wearing a purple Lakers jersey, chipped in. Its just not done. Its not done.

Safu Abdulsalam, who sells fish in Usafa, on the outskirts of the Nigerian capital Abuja, says shes disappointed that the Feb. 16 vote was delayed a week. (Krista Mahr / Los Angeles Times)

The election, now scheduled for Feb. 23, pits incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari, who has pinned his reelection campaign to maintaining a sense of continuity, against the former vice president and businessman Atiku Abubakar, who has vowed to revive the sluggish economy and create millions of much-needed jobs.

Atiku accused Buhari of orchestrating the postponement to make it harder for Nigerians to get out and vote.

The Buhari administration hopes to disenfranchise the Nigerian electorate in order to ensure that turnout is low on the rescheduled date, Atiku said on Twitter. You can postpone an election, but you cannot postpone destiny.

Adam and Iliya, who both support Atiku and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), echoed that sentiment on the sidelines of their game. They didnt postpone yesterday. They postponed on the day, Iliya said. Something is fishy.

Buhari condemned the Independent National Electoral Commissions late decision, and denied meddling in its affairs. He asked Nigerians to remain peaceful, patriotic and united to ensure that no force or conspiracy derail our democratic development.

But supporters of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) werent happy either.

So much money wasted, said Wale Lawal, a tailor in Usafa, who still plans to vote for Buhari next week. How many people are dying of hunger in this country? They do what they like.

The election stakes are high, with many Nigerians frustrated over the economys slow recovery from recession, rampant unemployment and years of conflict in the northeast, where the fight against Boko Haram rages on. Nigeria recently surpassed India as the country with the most people living in extreme poverty.

All of this has made for an unusually bitter campaign season, in which fake news and disinformation targeting young voters has deepened divides in a country already split along ethnic and religious lines, observers say.

Its not the first time that Nigeria has delayed national elections. In 2011, elections were delayed after voting had already started in some locations, and in 2015, they were delayed for several weeks due to security lapses.

On Saturday afternoon, the INEC said bad weather had prevented flights from getting election materials to some parts of the country, and that suspicious fires in several local INEC offices destroyed election materials.

The one-week adjustment was a painful one for INEC, but necessary in the overall interest of our democracy, INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu told a large meeting of political party members, candidates and observers in Abuja. He denied the delay was due to political influence.

His audience did not hold back in expressing their frustration.

Why wait until 2:30 a.m. when most decent Nigerians have gone to bed? demanded APC National Chairman Adams Oshiomole. Its a huge shock . Why didnt you inform us 48 hours before?

To groups following the movement of election materials, the delays didnt come as a total surprise as it became clear that some hadnt made it out to local polling stations the day before the vote.

If materials dont get to a state capital by the day before elections, you might be in trouble, says Agianpe Ashang, a senior program officer with the Policy and Legal Advocacy Center, part of a civil society body monitoring elections.

She dismissed the idea there was anything nefarious about the delay, chalking it up to a series of miscalculations by the INEC. Things werent being communicated.

At Tutunwada Secondary School, one of the polling centers in the capital, the building where voters should have been lined up all day to cast their ballots was locked and dark inside, and the school grounds nearly empty.

Princewill Okwara, a university lecturer, sat outside reading a book, hoping the class he normally takes here on weekends would be back in session since the election was called off.

I feel so bad. We all prepared to perform our civic responsibility, he said. Earlier in the morning, hed been the one to deliver the news to a hopeful voter that it wasnt happening. It came too late, he lamented. It came too late.

Mahr is a Times special correspondent.
When citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo go to the polls next Sunday, attention will be focused on the race to succeed Joseph Kabila, the president of nearly 18 years. But away from the spotlight, theres another battle going on: Women are fighting for a place in politics.

Africa has made huge strides in womens political representation in recent decades. Some nations now have higher percentages of women in parliament than many European countries. But Congo lags far behind. Women make up only 9% of the National Assembly, putting the country far below the 24% average for sub-Saharan Africa.

Some Congolese women are fighting to change that. But the fight is slow and they face significant barriers: a society that frowns on women in leadership positions, financial hurdles and the governments failure to enforce gender parity laws.

In a country with one of the highest rates of gender inequality in the world, these women say that getting a seat at the table is key to making Congo a better place.

We want women to bring another way of governing, not to make laws for individual benefit, but for the good of the community. Chantal Moboni Mpeme, a candidate for provincial Assembly

When there are problems in the DRC, its women who suffer the most, said Chantal Moboni Mpeme, a candidate to represent Kinshasas Limete municipality in the provincial Kinshasa Assembly. Only 7.8% of the assemblys current membership are women.

When theres a rebellion, its the women who are raped, she said. When theres no water, its the women who will struggle to be able to cook and wash. When there is no electricity, its women who are suffering, because theyll need an additional budget to buy charcoal.

Since long ago, weve been ruled by men, but today the country is suffering, she added. We want women to bring another way of governing, not to make laws for individual benefit, but for the good of the community.

Mpeme will compete in an election that is finally taking place after a two-year delay, as Kabila clung to power despite constitutional term limits dictating he step down in 2016. The election was originally scheduled for this Sunday, but at the last minute was postponed one more week to Dec. 30.

Voters will elect a new president as well as members of the National Assembly and provincial legislatures. Kabila chose a former interior minister, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, as his preferred successor, and two opposition candidates are facing off against him. But there is widespread concern that the vote will not be credible, and a win by Shadary, who is under European Union sanctions for human rights abuses, is likely to be contested. That could lead to violence in a country already dealing with armed insurgencies and humanitarian crisis.

Despite abundant natural resources, Congos 80 million people are some of the poorest in the world, and women lag behind men by almost every socioeconomic indicator. Mpeme, 46, has long worked to change that, but now she wants to do so from a more powerful position.

Shes a member of the Engagement for Citizenship and Development party, whose leader, Martin Fayulu, is one of the candidates for president. Mpeme is in charge of communication for the womens wing of the party, and she runs a civil society organization that promotes womens rights.

As a defender of women, I would prefer to be in a place where laws are made and written, so I can have more influence on womens situation, she said.

Kinshasa Assembly candidate Chantal Moboni Mpeme at the headquarters of her party, Engagement for Citizenship and in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. Holly Pickett / For The Times

In 2008, Congos neighbor Rwanda became the first country in the world to have more women than men in its legislative body. Today, the country still leads the world in terms of female political empowerment, with women comprising 61% of its lower house of parliament. Rwanda adopted a gender quota in a new constitution in 2003, mandating that at least 30% of members of parliament be women. Beginning the 1990s, many countries in Africa adopted various kinds of gender quotas. Fifteen African countries now have legislatures in which women make up at least 30% of members.

Research suggests there are tangible advantages to securing more seats for women, even in autocratic countries with weak parliaments. Studies show that such legislative bodies are more likely to adopt laws that apply to women, such as statutes on gender-based violence, family law and land rights, said Gretchen Bauer, a University of Delaware professor who studies womens political leadership in Africa.

But research also indicates that leads to wider societal changes, including increased acceptance of women as leaders and increased voter participation by women. People change their ideas about what women can do if they see women in positions of power, Bauer said.

Congo mandates gender parity in national, provincial and local institutions and in national elections. But there are no penalties for breaking the law and it is widely ignored. In the last election, in 2011, just 12% of candidates were women. And despite womens efforts, there appears to be no improvement in this election  local media say the participation rate is about 12% again.

A woman in Africa is considered like a person who should just stay at home and take care of her children, said Charleine Tumba Muntu, a member of the African Democratic Union party from Kinshasa who is running for a seat in the National Assembly. When a woman wants to get involved in politics, she said people tell her: Youre a woman  what are you going to do in politics?

National Assembly candidate Charleine Tumba Muntu sits beneath photographs of people, including Nelson Mandela and Che Guevara, venerated by her party, the opposition African Democratic Union, at party headquarters in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. Holly Pickett / For The Times

Muntu is fortunate that her family supports her political career. Her husband encourages her, as does her father, a former politician himself. But she faces one of the other significant barriers to women candidates: money. Candidates in Congo often have to finance their own campaigns, and women are far less likely than men to have the resources to do so.

To run for office, Muntu said, requires financial means. And women dont have a chance to work due to traditional marriage, so these women dont have financial means.

Congolese Member of Parliament and MLC party General Secretary Eve Bazaiba pumps her fist while fellow party members cheer, after she was the first to add her name to the official petition for the presidential candidacy of Jean-Pierre Bemba in Kinshasa, on Aug. 23, 2018. Holly Pickett / For The Times

One woman who has been able to beat the odds is Bazaiba. As secretary general of the Movement for the Liberation of Congo, she led the party while former rebel leader and Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba faced war crimes charges in the Hague. (His 2016 conviction was overturned this year.) Bazaiba is also a deputy in the National Assembly, and in her sleek office in the partys headquarters, she spoke about the importance of getting more women in office.

Even if we just have one woman in politics, things change, she said. But many women in politics will transform politics in favor of the general interest, because one woman on her own can lose against the system, but when you have many women, theres strength in numbers.
Since Ethiopia announced plans nearly a decade ago to build a massive hydroelectric dam along the Blue Nile tributary, the Egyptian government has waited in dread at the prospects that its freshwater lifeline could slow by as much as 25%.

Alternately threatening and negotiating, Egyptian officials have sought to scuttle or minimize the impact of the planned 6,450-megawatt facility. But the project has moved inexorably forward and construction, slowed by contracting corruption allegations, is nearly two-thirds complete.

With the dam now due to open next year, the specter of a military confrontation has waned and negotiators are instead debating how long the process of filling the dam should take  with Ethiopia planning to fill it in three years and Egypt asking for 15 years to better prepare for the future.

We dont have any other resource in Egypt except the Nile water, warned professor Nader Nour el-Din, a soil and water expert at Cairo University. This will harm Egypt.

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It has long been said that without the River Nile, there would be no Egypt.

Running the length of the country from its southern border with Sudan north into the Mediterranean Sea, the Nile provides more than 90% of Egypts fresh water. Though mainly a desert, Egypt has been gifted with a fertile strip along the Nile for farming and water. Roughly 95% of the nations people reside in the Nile Valley.

With the country already facing major water and food scarcities, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, or GERD  set to be the biggest hydropower plant in Africa  is regarded as a national security threat as well as a stain on Egypts historical dominance of the revered river.

The Nile, Egypts lifeline in the desert, comes under threat 

Some experts have predicted a loss of more than half the farmland in a country with a population approaching 100 million.

Egypt produces only 50% of the food needs of the total population, said Gamal Siam, an agricultural economist at Cairo University. Even without the dam, we will have more shortages because with the increasing population the water available for irrigation is decreasing.

As it stands, Egypt is already below the United Nations water poverty threshold, with the dam endangering the livelihoods of half of the countrys population who work directly or indirectly in agriculture, said Nour el-Din, the soil and water expert.

In Ethiopia, on the other hand, the $4-billion dam is being hailed as a national achievement as big as Aswan High Dam in Egypt was in the 1960s. Nour el-Din insists its unfair to compare the two.

We are a downstream country, he said, we are the end country and there is no other country after us.

Egypt gets 85% of its water share from the Blue Nile that has its source in Ethiopias Lake Tana and just 15% from the White Nile. The two tributaries meet in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, before the river moves on to Egypt.

Egyptians have for centuries enjoyed the lions share of the Niles water, a status confirmed by colonial-era agreements of 1902 and 1929 made by the British and a 1959 bilateral treaty between Egypt and Sudan. The latter allocated Egypt 55.5 billion cubic meters of Nile water and Sudan 18.5 billion cubic meters.

The Ethiopians have long viewed the status quo as unfair as they seek to develop their own impoverished economy.

Unfortunately, the Nile has never been governed by law nor common sense, said Wondwosen Seide, an Ethiopian analyst based in Sweden, who was previously at the Intergovernmental Authority on Development  an eight-country trade bloc in Africa.

In 2011, while Egypt was in the throes of revolution, Ethiopia announced the dam construction project, aimed at extending electricity to the roughly 60% of Ethiopias population that has no access. The goal has been to transform Ethiopia into the regions primary energy exporter.

The potential shift in geopolitics in northeast Africa resulted in a war of words.

In 2013, Egypts then-president, Mohamed Morsi, warned that if his countrys Nile water diminishes by one drop then our blood is the alternative, though he insisted he wasnt calling for war.

Between 2011 and 2017, Egyptian and Ethiopian leaders framed the GERD dispute in stark, hyper-nationalist terms and exchanged belligerent threats, a report published last month by the International Crisis Group said. Politicians in Cairo called for sabotaging the dam. Media outlets in both countries compared the two sides military strength in anticipation of hostilities.

Over time, though, threats of bloodshed have receded.

I dont think both the Egyptian and Ethiopian government think Nile War is possible. They have come a long way and passed a point of no return as far as war is concerned, said Seide, the Ethiopian analyst.

The tension is overblown, agreed Tim Deedy, a researcher focusing on security issues at the Washington-based Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy think tank.

The election last year of Ethiopias new prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, further minimized the possibility of conflict.

Compared to his predecessor, Ahmed has proven much more successful in facilitating successful negotiations with Egypt and Sudan, Deedy said, as evidenced by a tripartite agreement signed in May 2018 to continue dialogue in meetings every six months.

Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia also agreed to set up a scientific committee to analyze the effects of filling the dam.

During a news conference in Cairo last year, Ahmed promised Egyptians, I swear to God, we will never hurt you, after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi pressed him to swear in front of the Egyptian people that he wouldnt harm the countrys Nile water share.

Sisi, for his part, conceded there was no military solution and called ongoing talks a breakthrough, expressing a sense of optimism echoed by Sileshi Bekele, Ethiopias minister for energy, irrigation and electricity. We managed to actually find a number of win-win approaches, he said.

But progress toward an agreement on the key issue of the filling period of the reservoir behind the dam remains slow.

The focus is likely to be hampered by more immediate internal matters such as a current wave of nationwide protests in Sudan against its leader, Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir. The demonstrations, which have gone on for more than 100 days, represent a threat to Bashirs autocratic three-decade rule.

To a lesser degree, Ethiopias prime minister is having issues strengthening his political position.

Still, Ethiopian analyst Seide is optimistic that the dam dispute will be resolved and that the negotiations will have a long-lasting, positive effect on Egyptian-Ethiopian relations.

But before they get there, he added, there will be more bumpy roads.

Islam is a special correspondent.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, facing a hotly contested bid for a fourth term, tweeted on the eve of the election that the Trump administration designated Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization at his request.

Thank you, my dear friend, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, for having decided to designate Irans Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization, he wrote in Hebrew on Twitter on Monday. Thank you for responding to another of my important requests, which serves the interests of our countries and countries of the region.

His English-language thank you note posted later omitted taking credit, but said of Trump, Once again you are keeping the world safe from Iran aggression and terrorism.

In Israel, the move by the Trump administration is being viewed by some as an election eve gift to Netanyahu.

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Trump administration designates Irans Revolutionary Guard a terrorist group 

Raz Zimmt, a Tel Aviv University expert on Iran, said in an interview with The Times, The timing appears connected to the elections, even if the subject has been under discussion for some time.

Shimrit Meir, a Middle East analyst, tweeted that the timing, of course, is last-minute help from afar for pal Netanyahu.

Meir, however, expressed doubt that the gambit would have much effect. It is difficult to believe that a single undecided Israeli voter will decide one way or the other due to this decision, but it means a few more hours in which Iran and Trump and Netanyahu and the Iran deal will be talked about.

Immediately after the State Department announcement, and 12 hours before polls open, interim Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz effusively thanked Trump, saying the decision will weaken Irans ability to advance its nuclear program and support terror in the region.

He added that the change in policy will also significantly strengthen Israels ability to fight against Iranian aggression in Syria and the area.

Israelis were not alone in viewing the Trump administration move as a last-minute assist to Netanyahu.

In a Sunday tweet anticipating the Trump decision, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif issued what sounded like a threat against U.S. forces in the Middle East.

Netanyahu Firsters who have long agitated for FTO designation of the IRGC fully understand its consequences for US forces in the region, he wrote on Twitter. 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.

Netanyahu, with the rightist Likud Party, is vying to be the longest-serving prime minister in Israels history. But after a criminal indictment on corruption charges, the 69-year-olds reelection is not assured.

Israels Netanyahu, consummate political survivor, faces voter test and legal peril 

The new centrist Blue and White party of his opponent, former Israeli army chief Benny Gantz, has been polling strongly.

Netanyahu has made his close alliance with Trump a hallmark of the 2019 electoral campaign. Its a sharp contrast to the years of friction with then-President Obama and Netanyahus accusation that Israels future had been endangered by that administrations signature foreign policy initiative toward Iran, the nuclear pact from which the Trump administration withdrew.

In a statement, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said the significant American move on the Revolutionary Guard is another step in the policy of maximizing pressure on Iran, led by the United States and which Israel is a partner in.

The American decision was a result of an Iranian terror policy ... sowing havoc in the Middle East and the entire world, the ministry said, from Syria and Lebanon to Argentina and Buenos Aires.

Tarnopolsky is a special correspondent.
cherylsb63/iStock(NEW YORK) -- The United States Postal Service announced that it is issuing a new commemorative stamp honoring the late President George H. W. Bush.



The stamp, which is now available for pre-order, will be available for delivery following a first-day-of-issue ceremony, which will be held on Bush's birthday, June 12, at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.



"Great honor to be with Bush family and our advisory council members @Bush41Library for the unveiling today of the new @USPS postage stamp that will be released this June in honor of the 41st President's 95th birthday," Bush family spokesman Jim McGrath tweeted on Saturday.



The stamp was designed by Phil Jordan and is the latest addition to its "Forever" collection, according to a USPS announcement. It is a portrait of Bush painted by artist Michael J. Deas based on a 1997 photograph taken by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders.



"The 41st president guided the United States 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. An advocate for public service, Bush 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 announcement says.



George Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st president of the United States, died at age 94 on Nov. 30, 2018. He was laid to rest next to his wife, former first lady Barbara Bush and his daughter Robin at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, Texas.

Copyright  2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
(CNN)  The United States military pulled a contingent of its troops from Libya on Sunday amid a surge in violence in the capital city of Tripoli, America's top commander for Africa said.

"The security realities on the ground in Libya are growing increasingly complex and unpredictable," Marine Corps Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, head of US Africa Command, said Sunday in a statement. "Even with an adjustment of the force, we will continue to remain agile in support of existing US strategy."

The American forces, who provide military support for diplomatic missions, counterterrorism activities and improving regional security, have been relocated temporarily in response to "increased unrest."

Col. Chris Karns, spokesman for Africa Command, reiterated that the movement of troops would not impact the force's ability to respond to threats and targets.

"For security reasons, I won't pinpoint where these forces will flow," said Karns. "It is important (that) groups, such as ISIS, don't have an exact map of our whereabouts, but instead we use our finite resources on the continent to adjust swiftly, efficiently, and employ with maximum effect."

Years of chaotic fighting in the war-torn country have reached a crescendo in recent days as General Khalifa Haftar pushes to take control of the capital.

On Sunday, his so-called Libyan National Army (LNA) said it had launched airstrikes targeting UN-backed forces in southern Tripoli.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement calling on Haftar to stop the offensive.

"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," he said in a statement Sunday.

Saying there is "no military solution to the Libya conflict," Pompeo called on Libyan leaders and other international partners to return to UN mediated negotiations.

The United Nations Mission to Libya (UNSMIL) called for a "humanitarian truce" from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. local time in the south of the city, urging rival forces to halt fighting so that ambulances could safely extract civilians injured in clashes.

Forces under the command of the renegade Libyan general made a surprise advance Thursday on the capital, where the country's UN-recognized government, the Government of National Accord, has its base.

The GNA has announced a counteroffensive to defend Tripoli as Haftar's troops draw closer.

On Sunday, spokesman for the GNA's armed forces, Mohammed Qanouno, heralded the launch of a military operation dubbed "Volcano of Rage," aimed at "cleansing all Libyan cities from the outlawed," Tripoli-based Libya Al-Ahrar TV reported.

In the eight years since Moammar Gadhaffi was deposed and killed in the 2011 conflict, Haftar has been one of a handful of strongmen to take advantage of the nation's descent into disarray.

Based in the city of Benghazi, Haftar already wields control over much of eastern Libya, but he has his sights set on claiming Tripoli.

Warring militia occasionally spar for control over the heavily populated capital, which has prevented the UN-recognized and Western-backed government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj from fully grasping the reins of power.

In the mix are multiple tribes competing for control of Libya's dwindling oil wealth, as well as militant groups, including ISIS, scattered across the vast country.

"To our army stationed on the border of Tripoli today, we continue the march of struggle and response to the appeal of our people in the capital as we promised them," Haftar said in an audio recording posted on his media office's Facebook account on Thursday.

He added that "safety of our foreign guests and our institutions" should be ensured.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres was in Benghazi last week for talks with Haftar to push for an international peace deal, but left empty handed. Following their meeting, Guterres said he was leaving Libya "with a heavy heart and deeply concerned. I still hope it is possible to avoid a bloody confrontation in and around Tripoli."

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) have raised concerns over how the ongoing clashes will impact refugees and migrants stuck in detention centers in the area.

"The safety of migrants in detention is especially concerning should there be an escalation in military action," IOM Director General Antonio Vitorino said in a statement on Friday. "The fate of all Libyan civilians and the safety of humanitarian workers also remains an overriding concern."
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Lori Lightfoot, the newly elected mayor of Chicago, pledged on Saturday to do everything possible to strengthen the city's relationship with China.

Lightfoot made the remarks when she visited Chinatown in Chicago after she was elected the 56th mayor of Chicago, the third largest city in the United States.

"I think it's really important that we recognize Chicago, of course, is a global city and China has to be part of our future. We have a good, shared relationship for business and also cultural affairs," said Lightfoot, adding that she looks forward to working with the Chinese Consul General in Chicago on those missions.

Lightfoot said that the history of Chinese Americans in the United States is really the story of America.

"We have you come from far away. You toil under difficult circumstances and in challenging circumstances. But the thing that unites the (Chinese) community and makes it so important to the American story is the perseverance, the hard work in the commitment to forge a better life for your families, for your children and to really contribute to the American dream," said Lightfoot.

"I'm committed to making sure that the Chinatown will continue to grow and thrive. And let me underscore that we are far more responsive to the needs of this community. You are going to be reflected on in our administration," Lightfoot promised, adding that she will make sure that the Chinese community will get fair representation not only at the city level but the state level.

Born in 1962, Lightfoot had been president of the Chicago Police Board before announcing candidacy for Mayor of Chicago in the 2019 elections.

Lori Lightfoot won an overwhelming victory in Chicago's mayoral race on April 2, becoming the city's first openly gay mayor and the first African-American woman to serve as chief executive.
Thousands of people scrambled to flee the violence in and around Tripoli, the United Nations said Monday, as a warplane attacked the Libyan capitals only functioning airport amid an escalation in fighting.

Maria do Valle Ribeiro, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Libya, said in a statement that about 2,800 people had fled the clashes since late last week, when Gen. Khalifa Haftar began his onslaught to seize the capital.

The violence in some areas was so intense that civilians were unable to leave and emergency services were unable to reach them, according to another U.N. report. An additional 1,300 refugees and migrants in detention centers near the front lines were also in danger.

The U.N.-backed Government of National Accord earlier reported that at least 32 people, including civilians, had been killed in fighting around Tripoli since Thursday.

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Haftar, a warlord who aspires to unite the country under the sword of his self-declared Libyan National Army, continued his offensive on Tripoli despite widespread condemnation, including by the U.S., as well as tenacious resistance by rival militias who rallied to defend the city, the official governments seat of power.

The fighting, which saw both sides wield their rudimentary air forces, shut down the airfield at Mitiga after a strike by what were thought to be planes loyal to Haftar on Monday afternoon.

Ghassan Salame, the U.N.s special envoy to Libya, condemned the attack, saying in a statement that it constituted a serious violation of international humanitarian law which prohibits attacks against civilian infrastructure.

Seven years after it was liberated, the only thing certain in Libya is uncertainty 

Since the ouster of Libyan dictator Moammar Kadafi during the Arab Spring revolts of 2011, the oil-rich country has been controlled by a kaleidoscopic mix of militias that experts say are loyal to a bevy of international actors, including France, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt.

After years of chaos, the factions coalesced around rival authorities in the countrys east, and in the west in Tripoli.

Last week, Haftars forces launched a multi-pronged offensive that closed in on Tripoli from the west and the south. It was considered a bid to impose a fait accompli ahead of U.N.-brokered peace talks with the official government slated for this month.

Haftar had long vowed to march on the capital, which had enjoyed a measure of stability since 2016 under the U.N.-sanctioned government and militias.

Nevertheless, Haftar insisted residents there would welcome liberation at his hands, a view partly reinforced when his troops encountered relatively little resistance as they overran parts of southern Libya this year.

But what was meant to be a quick blitz sputtered before an all-out defense by Tripoli-based militias and their allies. By Sunday, the government had launched a counteroffensive it dubbed the Volcano of Anger; the clashes were a harbinger of civil war.

The escalation comes before a flurry of diplomatic maneuvers that  at least outwardly  aim to restore the tenuous peace that was to have culminated in talks between Haftar and the government. Salame met on Monday with Fayez Serraj, head of the Government of National Accord.

U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo said in a statement, We have made clear that we oppose the military offensive by Khalifa Haftars forces and urge the immediate halt to these military operations against the Libyan capital. This unilateral military campaign against Tripoli is endangering civilians and undermining prospects for a better future for all Libyans.

A U.S. amphibious hovercraft departs with evacuees from Janzour, Libya, west of Tripoli, on April 7, 2019. (Mohammed Omar Aburas / Associated Press)

Citing security conditions, the U.S. has temporarily withdrawn some of its forces from the nation, a military official said Sunday.

Pompeo said in his statement that a political solution was the only way to unify the nation: There is no military solution to the Libya conflict.

Yet observers say any chance of stopping the fighting lies not in Tripoli but in Paris and Abu Dhabi.

Haftar, a 75-year-old onetime ally of Kadafi who has portrayed himself as relentlessly anti-Islamist, enjoys strong support from France and the UAE. Both have lavished his forces with money and materiel, and stationed special forces units and intelligence operatives to back his successive campaigns.

Saudi Arabia and Egypt are also allies, and Libyan officials have worked with the EU to curb migration from the countrys Mediterranean coast.

He has also been shielded by other countries, including Russia, which on Sunday watered down a U.N. Security Council statement to call on all Libyans to stop fighting rather than specifically name Haftars forces.

Salame called for an immediate halt to air operations so as to limit the chance of a full outbreak of conflict and the effective start of a civil war.

But he directed his appeal not to Libyans but abroad, asking all member states to use their influence over the parties to stop further conflict and engage in immediate dialogue to reach a political solution.
Amid scattered violence, Nigerians went to the polls Saturday to elect a president, a week after a jarring postponement of the vote was announced just five hours before polling stations had been due to open.

At least sixteen deaths were reported in eight states as voters turned out to decide between two septuagenarian front-runners, President Muhammadu Buhari and former vice president Atiku Abubakar, among more than 70 candidates.

In the northern city of Daura, the home of Buhari, police were stationed around town as men and women stood in separate lines at busy polling stations.

When the president cast his ballot, a crowd of supporters cheered him on.

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So far so good, Buhari, 76, told reporters. When he asked whether he would congratulate Abubakar, 72, if he won, Buhari said he planned to congratulate himself: Im going to be the winner.

Election results are likely to be announced early in the week.

Before polls opened, suspected Islamist militants reportedly staged an attack in northeastern Yobe state, and residents of Maiduguri in neighboring Borno state reported hearing gunshots, which police later said were not a threat.

In addition to the deaths reported by the Situation Room, a network of civil society organizations monitoring the vote, the group also reported problems at several polling stations around the country, including ballot boxes being hijacked and carted away by unknown hoodlums, attempts to intimidate voters, and voter card reading machines not working.

In the vote to lead the economic powerhouse of nearly 200 million people, both leading candidates ran tough campaigns yet appeared to have left many young voters uninspired. By focusing on growing ethnic and religious divisions, they also upped the risk of postelection violence like the country has endured after previous votes, observers said.

Buhari, a former military leader elected in 2015 in the nations first peaceful transfer of power, campaigned on maintaining continuity  not a particularly catchy platform, but after years of violent political transitions, one appealing to Nigerians who view the president as having a steady hand and a commitment to fighting corruption.

For Nigerians to make meaningful progress, we have to kill the cancer of corruption and lawlessness, said Imam Musa Mansur, a 54-year-old teacher in Daura. That is exactly what Buhari is doing in the midst of many daunting challenges.

Opponents said that Buhari failed to defeat the militant group Boko Haram  one of his key campaign promises four years ago  and that he moved too slowly to revive an economy limping out of recession while millions of Nigerians struggle to find work and feed their children.

Abubakar , a wealthy businessman who has previously run for president four times, positioned himself as the pro-investment candidate, promising sweeping economic reforms and pledging to create millions of jobs.

His supporters said that the country needs a change  and that Nigerians need to send a message to politicians that if they dont deliver, theyll be voted out.

Last weeks delay, which the electoral commission chalked up to logistical challenges, shook the confidence of many of Nigerias 84 million registered voters, sparking conspiracy theories that could undermine faith in the final election result.

Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province, which splintered off from Boko Haram, warned residents in the restive northeast not to vote.

For people in more stable parts of the country, the last-minute move reinforced a latent mistrust in the countrys political process, said Saeed Husaini, an analyst with the risk consultancy firm Control Risks.

There does seem to be some apathy, particularly among the middle class, and even a sense of resignation, he said.

Buhari himself fanned concerns over security during Saturdays vote when he said this week that anyone trying to illegally interfere with elections will do so at the expense of his own life.

The head of the army also issued a dark warning.

The unity of Nigeria is not negotiable, said Chief of Army Staff Tukur Yusuf Buratai on Wednesday. Those who seek to undermine our democracy by interfering in our electoral process must be seen as enemies of Nigeria and dealt with appropriately.

In Daura, the atmosphere on voting day was calm. The roads were empty due to traffic restrictions, and children used the day to play outside with friends or carry buckets of water to their houses.

Voters standing in long lines said they were happy to be given a chance to do their civic duty.

I left my house early this morning, saying, Oh, God! Let there be no postponement again!  said Mairo Muhammad, a 78-year-old grandmother wearing a white veil, standing in line with other women waiting to vote.

Its not about me. I want to be confident that the grandchildren I leave behind have a good country they can be proud of.

Special correspondents Abubakar reported from Daura, Nigeria, and Mahr from Cape Town, South Africa.
The U.S. military on Tuesday announced its deadliest airstrike against the Al Qaeda-linked Shabab extremist group in Somalia in nearly a year, killing about 60 fighters.

The U.S. Africa Command said Fridays airstrike occurred near the Shabab-controlled community of Harardhere in the central province of Mudug. No civilians were injured or killed, it said in a statement.

It was the largest U.S. airstrike since one on Nov. 21 killed about 100 Shabab fighters. The statement gave no further details about what was targeted, and a U.S. Africa Command spokesman said it was not a camp.

The U.S. military has carried out more than two dozen airstrikes, including drone strikes, this year against the Shabab, the deadliest Islamic extremist group in sub-Saharan Africa.

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Somalia on Sunday marked the first anniversary of the Shababs deadliest attack, a truck bombing in Mogadishu, the capital, that killed more than 500 people. It was one of the worlds deadliest attacks since Sept. 11 and the worst extremist attack ever in Africa.

The U.S. Africa Command spokesman said the airstrike had no link to the anniversary.

The United States, which also has targeted a small number of fighters linked to the Islamic State group in northern Somalia, has increased its military presence in the long-chaotic Horn of Africa nation since early 2017 to about 500 troops after President Trump approved expanded operations.

The Shabab, which seeks to establish an Islamic state in Somalia, continues to hold parts of the countrys southern and central regions after being chased out of Mogadishu several years ago. The group, estimated at several thousand fighters, still carries out deadly attacks against high-profile targets such as hotels and checkpoints in the capital and other cities. It also remains a threat in parts of neighboring Kenya.

Although some observers have questioned the effectiveness of airstrikes by the U.S. and Kenya and raised concerns about civilians being killed, the U.S. military maintains that they reduce the groups ability to plot future attacks and disrupt its leadership networks and degrade its freedom of maneuver within the region.

Somali forces in the next few years are expected to take over responsibility for the countrys security from an African Union peacekeeping force, which already has started withdrawing hundreds of personnel.

The U.S. says it continues to support that transfer even as some American military officials have joined African Union officials and others in expressing concern that Somalias forces are not yet ready.
With a new de facto American Embassy in Taiwan nearly completed, a spokesperson announcing the opening of the 161,000-square-foot, privately run compound said last week that U.S. Marines have periodically protected the organizations headquarters since 2005 and did not rule out future deployments.

For years, the U.S. had not commented on the presence in Taiwan of any military personnel, who are said to have operated discreetly inside the compound of the American Institute in Taiwan rather than standing guard at entrances.

The vague acknowledgement from a spokesperson for the American Institute in Taiwan could ruffle feathers again in China, which has long claimed that Taiwan is a part of its territory. It is the latest in a series of incidents over the past year with the potential of further roiling U.S.-China relations.

Over the last nine months, U.S. Navy ships have passed five times through the Taiwan Strait separating the island from China. And less than a month ago, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said her government had asked Washington for a package of American-made F-16V fighter jets.

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China, meanwhile, flew two fighter jets March 31 over its median line with Taiwan, a surprise to defense officials on the island. A Chinese report the next day said the flyover was prompted by the actions of Washington, not Taipei.

Over the years, the U.S. has taken a series of measures demanded by Beijing to avoid a formal diplomatic presence in Taiwan. The American Institute is a nonprofit organization composed of former U.S. government officials who retire or take leave to work there  processing visas and handling other consular services  so as not to upset relations.

With each generation, the people of Taiwan feel more Taiwanese  and less Chinese 

Across the globe, more than 1,000 Marines work in a security group guarding more than 175 missions. But any military presence whatsoever in Taiwan remains a touchy subject.

China would express anger and sound warnings to the United States if more Marines reach Taipei, predicted Alexander Huang, a strategic studies professor at Tamkang University in Taiwan. But it might temper any protestations if the only presence remains Marines guarding the de facto embassy, he said.

A sale of American-made F-16Vs fighter jets, on the other hand, would more certainly outrage Beijing, said Alex Chiang, international relations professor at National Chengchi University in Taipei. Whether that goes forward or not is an indicator of strength in U.S.-Taiwan ties, Chiang said.

U.S. officials technically have 120 days after a sales request to evaluate which military hardware best matches Taiwans needs and reports have emerged that the White House has put the sale of jets on hold until a major trade agreement is reached between the U.S. and China.

A trade deal and the timing of a Taiwan arms sale may be correlated, Huang said, but the sale is unlikely to hinge on Sino-U.S. agreements. The bargaining chip is not the fighter jets, its the timing, he said.

President Trump has particularly championed closer Taiwan relations, in part to pressure China over trade issues, political scholars have said. His administration has approved two other arms sales to Taiwan, including a $1.42-billion package announced in June 2017.

U.S. officials see Taiwan as part of a chain of Western-allied democracies in East Asia. The American Institute spokesperson said in late March that Taiwan plays a key role in maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region and that its efforts to maintain its self-defense capability are critical to regional stability.

U.S. officials have called out China over its diplomatic and military pressure against Taiwan since 2016, when voters on the island elected Tsai. The president, backed by a pro-independence party, rejects unification with China.

Now with China escalating the pressure on Taiwan, the atmosphere here in D.C. is one that points to rising support of Taiwan, said Yun Sun, East Asia Program senior associate with the Stimson Center think tank in Washington.

China had flown military aircraft near Taiwan a dozen times before the most recent median line incident and has sent aircraft carriers through the Taiwan Strait. It has also persuaded five countries to switch diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing since 2016.

Sorties by ships and aircraft in ways that signal hostility toward Taiwan are relatively low-cost for China, said Denny Roy, senior fellow at the East-West Center, a research organization in Honolulu. These will probably continue and might intensify.

Taiwan would support any deployment of Marines at a U.S. diplomatic property, a Cabinet spokesman said in mid-2018.

Tsai said last month that Taiwan will become more active in aligning ourselves with other like-minded countries facing issues with China.

We are taking a much more aggressive approach to counteract the Chinese governments infiltration of our society and economy, as well as their interference in our domestic affairs, she said in a speech hosted by the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank.

Jennings is a special correspondent.
For those who monitor worldwide boat safety, the fact that one of the latest ferry catastrophes occurred in Tanzania, killing about 225 people, did not come as a shock.

Tanzania has one of the worst ferry safety records in the world, according to the Worldwide Ferry Safety Assn. in New York. There have been several deadly accidents on Lake Victoria, Africas largest freshwater lake and a vital economic hub in East Africa, and off the nations coast in the Indian Ocean.

Ferries in Tanzania are exceedingly dangerous, said Neil Baird, a retired maritime publisher who has been tracking ferry accidents for decades. Its human error. Criminal incompetence would be the best way of putting it.

But safety on domestic ferries is hardly Tanzanias problem alone. Hundreds of people die every year in ferry accidents around the world and nearly 21,000 people have died in ferry accidents since 2000, according to the Worldwide Ferry Safety Assn.

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While many of the fatalities take place on boats in the developing nations of the Philippines, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Tanzania, wealthier countries, like South Korea, have had deadly ferry incidents in recent years as well. In 2014, the Sewol ferry sank en route from Incheon on South Koreas northwestern coast to the resort island of Jeju, resulting in more than 300 deaths  many of them students.

One of the most common causes of fatal ferry accidents is overloading or overcrowding  officials in Tanzania reportedly have said a preliminary investigation found that overloading appeared to be the main reason for the tragedy last week. Bad weather, old or substandard vessels and poor crew training are also regular factors.

Overcrowding can influence the stability of a vessel and peoples ability to get out of danger, but theres a strong financial component to the matter, said Roberta Weisbrod, executive director of the ferry safety group.

People make more money if they overload, Weisbrod said. In some countries, weve found that the price of tickets is set artificially low by the government. In order to even cover costs, theres this incentive to overload.

The cost of a ferry ticket varies widely depending on the country and length of the journey.

Though the International Maritime Organization, the U.N. agency responsible for marine shipping, regulates passenger ships that travel in international waters, like cruise ships, domestic ferries do not fall under its watch.

The IMO has issued safety standards for domestic ferries, which some countries have used in forming their own regulations, and the body has worked with individual governments on ferry safety, including the Tanzanian government, to improve the safety of passengers traveling on Lake Victoria.

The organization emphasizes the importance of avoiding overcrowding and keeping an accurate passenger manifest in those guidelines, and has also made a safety video that it distributes to ferry terminals around the world which warns customers about the dangers of boarding an overcrowded ferry.

The guidelines also urge that ships purchased secondhand be evaluated before being put into use for ferry service, and that voyages should be planned and tracked carefully as they progress, among other measures.

But many countries dont make use of the IMO standards, Baird said, which he chalks up to corruption and political interference.

IMO has no ability to interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign member states, Baird said. They can only work by persuasion  or moral-suasion, lets say.

A spokeswoman for the IMO said that the organization does not have any way to track whether or not countries are adopting the guidelines, but if a government asks for its help assessing its domestic ferry safety, the IMO can assist.

Interferry, which represents the global ferry industry, has been working to improve ferry safety in some countries, said the groups CEO, Mike Corrigan.

The group has participated in regional safety meetings across Asia to encourage governments to commit to better regulation enforcement, make sure ships are safe, and submit accident investigations to the IMO.

Our long-term aim is to educate not only operators, but also customers, on crucial safety precautions, Corrigan said in an email.

The Worldwide Ferry Safety Assn., for its part, has focused on safety training for ferry crew members, starting with a pilot project in Bangladesh in 2006 that taught local crews safety skills such as managing boat stability and improving how to help people get off a vessel. The program is being used as a model for a training program by a large ferry operator in the Philippines, according to the association.

The association also sponsors a yearly design competition for students around the world to come up with safe and inexpensive ferry models. Students have designed ferries tailored to local conditions in places such as Thailand, the Singapore Strait and Bangladesh, and the association is considering focusing on Lake Victoria for one of its competitions.

In the latest tragedy in Tanzania, the ferry Nyerere capsized Thursday, a short distance from shore near the small island of Ukara in Lake Victoria, killing dozens of people.

The ferry, which was operated by a government agency, had an official capacity of 101 passengers, but more than double that number of people were aboard when it overturned.

Survivors said that in addition to carrying too many people, the vessel was loaded with cars and trucks, sacks of maize and baggage that toppled onto passengers as the ferry made a sharp turn shortly before capsizing.

Tanzanian President John Magufuli, who declared four days of national mourning, said it appeared the vessel was overloaded and referred to negligence in the ships handling. He ordered the arrests of several members of the ferrys management and Monday suspended the head of the agency in charge, local media reported.

Baird and Weisbrod said there have been improvements in some parts of the world where consumers have increasingly demanded safer ferries, but that fundamental and lasting changes have been elusive.

Theres a lot that has to be done, Weisbrod said. Sometimes we think its looking good, and then something like this happens.

Mahr is a special correspondent.
Zimbabwes latest experiment in democracy will face another hurdle this week when the opposition goes to court to challenge its loss in last months presidential election  a contest the opposition says was tainted by fraud.

The court hearing Wednesday will unfold in rare televised proceedings that will be watched closely  and face unprecedented scrutiny  from around the world.

For nearly two weeks, Zimbabweans have been in limbo after opposition leader Nelson Chamisa launched a legal challenge to the electoral commissions official results that awarded him 44.3% of the vote to President Emmerson Mnangagwas 50.8% in July 30 polls. The rest of the votes were divvied up among another 21 candidates.

Chamisa says he won the popular vote and has accused the government of doctoring the results in favor of Mnangagwa, a long-time ally of former president Robert Mugabe who stepped into the presidency after Mugabe was forced to resign in November.

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The historic elections, widely seen as a chance for the beleaguered nation to restore its democratic credentials after 37 years of Mugabes increasingly autocratic rule, prompted a record number of voters to cast their ballots on a largely peaceful voting day.

But that optimism was stamped out less than 48 hours later, when the army launched a violent crackdown on opposition protesters, opening fire on demonstrators and bystanders and killing six people. In the days that followed, dozens of opposition supporters and activists were arrested, harassed and beaten up by security forces, opposition leaders and human rights groups say.

Now millions of Zimbabweans wait to see whether any resolution is in sight as the opposition Movement for Democratic Change alliance and the ruling ZANU-PF go to court, after months of campaign promises by both parties to fix the broken economy and create desperately needed jobs.

The Constitutional Court can declare a winner, nullify the results and call for a new election, or issue another directive, such as calling for a runoff if it decides neither candidate secured a clear majority. It has until near the end of the month to make a ruling.

Though some members of the opposition have said the bid may fail, both parties leadership have said in recent days that they are confident of their cases, raising the specter of further unrest once the court announces its decision.

Many Zimbabweans believe the countrys judges are sympathetic to the ruling party, though the courts have historically demonstrated some independence, said Piers Pigou, a senior consultant with the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based organization dedicated to preventing conflicts.

This is a real test for the courts to demonstrate their prowess and independence, he said. Its a very fragile situation.

Unusually, the court proceedings will be televised by the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corp., the state broadcaster that was roundly criticized by international election monitors for biased coverage in the run-up to the vote.

MISA Zimbabwe, a group advocating freedom of expression, also asked to have the hearing livestreamed on social media to reach more viewers, but the court dismissed the request Tuesday.

Nevertheless, regional media watchdogs say the fact that the proceedings will be televised at all is a good thing.

It means the judges themselves are going to be under massive scrutiny, said William Bird, director of Media Monitoring Africa, a South Africa-based group.

Once you go down the route of broadcasting [proceedings], youve got to do it. If you try to censor it, people arent stupid. Theyre going to sense it in a heartbeat.

Mahr is a special correspondent.
Burning tires blocked the streets as outraged Zimbabweans marched in the nations main cities Monday to protest the governments sudden and jarring move over the weekend to more than double fuel prices.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced in a televised address late Saturday night that his administration was increasing gasoline prices the next day to $12.51 per gallon to combat fuel shortages driven by rampant illegal trading.

According to the website Globalpetrolprices.com, that makes Zimbabwes gasoline the most expensive in the world, with Hong Kong coming in a distant second. Diesel prices were also raised to $11.77 per gallon.

The unexpected move sparked quick and widespread frustration among weary Zimbabweans who have endured months of fuel and food shortages.

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As Mnangagwa touched down in Russia for an official visit, police clashed with protesters in Harare and the southern city of Bulawayo, and soldiers were deployed in parts of the capital, according to the Associated Press. The countrys largest labor union federation called for workers to stay home in a three-day national shutdown.

More than a year after authoritarian leader Robert Mugabe was forced out of office, many Zimbabweans are fed up with their new governments failure to deliver any meaningful change.

A student looks at a burning barricade during a demonstration Monday in Bulawayo after the president announced he was doubling gas prices. (ZINYANGE AUNTONY / AFP/Getty Images)

Mnangagwa, a longtime member of Mugabes ruling ZANU-PF party, pledged to overhaul the hollowed-out economy when he was elected in July, but his critics regularly say they are worse off now than they were under his predecessor.

Many are still out of work. Doctors just ended a weeks-long strike over pay, and teachers and civil servants have warned they may do the same. For months, Zimbabweans have waited for hours in lines for gas and faced empty shelves at markets as cash shortages have left many basic goods in scarce supply.

The demonstrations that kicked off Monday raised the specter of the sort of violent crackdown that marred Mnangagwas victory in July, when the army opened fire on demonstrators in downtown Harare, killing six.

Civil society leaders and the countrys main opposition called for demonstrations to remain peaceful Monday, but police and state media condemned protesters for resorting to violence, accusing them of looting and illegally blocking roads.

Police spokesperson Charity Charamba said in state media that police had gathered video footage of the demonstrations and warned they would arrest anyone found on the wrong side of the law.

Mahr is a special correspondent.
Its springtime in Mexico City, and love is in the air.

Couples canoodle seemingly everywhere  at taquerias and sidewalk cafes, near bus stops and on packed subway trains. Lovers recline  and entwine  on apartment stoops and park benches, in the citys historic plazas and along its verdant boulevards.

If there is a world capital of public displays of affection, it could be Mexico City in the spring, as the days start to lengthen and the jacarandas bloom.

Why is it that so many intimate moments play out in the open across the avenues and esplanades of this leafy mountain capital?

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In a teeming metropolis of 21 million people, where rents are high and family is central, its common for children to live well into adulthood with their parents and other relatives. So for a romantic moment away from nosy and sometimes culturally conservative kin, many couples leave the house  and find a little privacy in public.

For Jorge, 35, and Eduardo, 26, men who recently started dating, downtown Mexico City offers an escape from prying, more traditionalist family members.

Its a little more comfortable here, said Jorge, who provided only his first name because of the personal nature of the topic. Its more accepting.

On a recent warm afternoon, they sat, lips locked, near a fountain in the Alameda Central, one of the citys oldest and most beautiful parks. On practically every bench around them, other couples did the same.

Earlier in the day, clouds had threatened rain, but late-afternoon sunshine now bathed the city in golden light. Neon violet petals from blossoming jacarandas blanketed the cobblestone, and the soft sounds of bachata music played from a nearby cafe. It felt like the most romantic place on Earth.

In Mexico Citys magic garden, there is only one rule: No talking 

Eduardo, 30, and Lili, 28, embrace in Mexico Citys Alameda Central park where Eduardo brings Lili flowers on Fridays. (Meghan Dhaliwal / For The Times)

In front of the magnificent white marble Bellas Artes building on the edge of the park, another couple stood in a tight embrace.

Both English teachers, they met in college and were friends for years before he formally asked her to be his girlfriend not long ago.

They live on opposite ends of the city  30-year-old Eduardo in ritzy Polanco and 28-year-old Lili in the working-class suburb of Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl. It takes them nearly two hours on public transportation to cross town, so every Friday after work they meet here, in the middle.

Eduardo brings her a different type of flower each week. Daisies. Sunflowers. And on this day, which happened to be Lilis birthday, a red rose, wrapped in clear plastic.

His family supports his relationship with Lili. Still, that doesnt mean they want to see it flaunted in their faces.

Its a little uncomfortable to be intimate in front of our parents, Eduardo said. We have to be respectful.

A couple rests in an embrace in front of the Revolution monument in Mexico City. (Meghan Dhaliwal / For The Times)

Unabashed PDA is generally accepted here, with most bystanders doing their best to politely look the other way.

Perhaps because of that, some couples are emboldened to push the limits beyond mere kissing  sometimes far beyond.

This writer once accidentally stumbled upon a couple engaged in the most intimate of activities while on an early morning jog in Bosque Chapultepec, a sprawling forest in the middle of the city. The pair looked up with annoyed glances and then quickly resumed, barely missing a beat.

Couple canoodle in parks, at restaurants and on subway platforms. (Meghan Dhaliwal / For The Times)

When told of the incident, a friend shared an even more shocking story: Once, in the grand old neighborhood of San Rafael, he had noticed a couple engaged in the mating act on the steps of a Catholic church.

Such ubiquitous affection and over-affection can be funny, and sometimes sweet. Unless youve just suffered heartbreak, in which case the constant sight of couples madly in love might make you sick.

The love fest here is remarkably equal opportunity, featuring couples of every age and style. On weekends, graying couples gather in plazas to sway together to the Caribbean rhythms of danzon. At skate parks, teenagers with face piercings hold one another close.

In the Alameda Central on the recent sunny afternoon, two rail-thin young men dressed in skinny jeans embraced, before one picked the other up off the ground and into his arms. You dont weigh anything, he said, laughing.

Nearby, a crowd of spectators circled around several performing clowns and a few people shuffled past, noses to their cellphones, playing Pokemon Go. But the couples in love had eyes only for one another.

Once fenced in and exclusively for the nobility, the park was opened to the public after Mexicans won independence in 1821. On any given day, there might be 100 couples here in a state of bliss.

On a stone bench, two teenagers interlocked. She had pink hair and fishnet tights. He wore a green flannel shirt.

They answered politely when a reporter interrupted with a few questions.

Our parents think were in class, they explained.

Then they tuned the world out  and turned back to each other.
- 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.

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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.

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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
- Two APC senators and one senator-elect from Niger have endorsed Senator Ahmed Lawan for the ninth Senate president seat

- The lawmakers said Lawan has demonstrated stability, reliability and fidelity towards ensuring sound and people-oriented legislation at the Senate

- Lawan was also described as a man without any form of primordial sentiment whose interest is in the development of Nigeria and Nigerians as a whole

- The lawmakers say Lawans display of honesty, sincerity of purpose, among others, makes him the obvious choice for the legislatures top job

Serving and elected senators in Niger under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), on Saturday, April 6 endorsed Senator Ahmed Lawan for the ninth Senate president seat.

The endorsement was contained in a statement issued in Minna and signed by three senators - Mohammed Sani Musa (Niger East), Sabi Abdullahi (Niger North) and Senator-elect, Muhammad Bima-Enagi (Niger South) - in Minna, NAN reports.

READ ALSO: Nigeria lost about 550,000 babies between 2013 to 2017 - Save the Children

Legit.ng gathers that the senators asserted that Lawan has an impeccable character and undeniable wealth of experience as a lawmaker to drive the aspirations and vision of the 9th Senate towards achieving its mandate.

There is no doubt that 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.

Senator Lawan is one Nigerian who has remained detribalised, bi-partisan and accommodating to varying views as long as they are positive to the 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.

Senator Lawan will promote homogeneity of purpose at the 9th Senate and foster unity amongst distinguished senators as well as other arms of government, in a manner that will add value to good governance in Nigeria.

Lawan is a man without any form of primordial sentiment. Even though each of us represents our various constituencies, his interest is in the development of Nigeria and Nigerians as a whole.

So, we believe he embodies outstanding qualities that are germane to the success of the 9th senate and the government as a whole. Therefore, we join our colleagues in endorsing his Senate presidency ambition.

Lawan has the qualities and leadership skills to harmonise the 9th Assembly and promote effective legislative processes that will enhance the qualities of laws for optimal political growth of the country.

We believe therefore that our party, the ruling APCs decision to endorse 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.

His display of honesty, sincerity of purpose, respect for divergent views, loyalty to and believe (sic) 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.

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In a similar development, Legit.ng previously reported that three senators from Kano state announced their support for Senator Ahmed Lawan to become the president of the 9th Senate.

The three senators - Barau Jubrin, Kabiru Ibrahim Gaya and Senator-elect Malam Ibrahim Shekrau - claimed Lawan is the most experienced and most ripe for the job of the Senate presidency, going by intentional parliamentary best practices.

NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng: Same great journalism, upgraded for better service!

Street Gist: Should the Nigerian Senate be scrapped? - on Legit TV:

Source: Legit Nigeria
- A presidential candidate, Dr Obadiah Mailafia, has stated that the legislators-elect for the ninth Assembly should elect their presiding leaders on four criteria

- Mailafia said the lawmakers-elect should not pick anyone with questionable character, but should pick those with the highest integrity

- The presidential candidate also urged incoming lawmakers to pick people who have the requisite experience and who have a human touch

Ahead of the ninth National Assemblys leadership elections, Dr Obadiah Mailafia, presidential candidate, African Democratic Congress (ADC), has set the agenda for the lawmakers-elect as regards the current leadership tussle in the legislature.

Mailafia, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, said the legislators-elect should elect their presiding leaders on four criteria.

READ ALSO: Army denies reckless treatment of woman hit by its truck

Legit.ng notes that the ninth Assembly would be inaugurated on June 9 as soon as President Muhammadu Buhari issues a proclamation letter to that effect.

However, intense lobbying has commenced at the Senate and the House of Representatives over who becomes the Senate president, speaker of the lower house, among others.

Mailafia, who is also a former deputy governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), said the senators-elect and members-elect should refrain from electing any one with questionable character as presiding leader.

I would suggest four criteria. Number one: Dont pick any one who has skeletons in his cupboard. They should not have criminal records.

I mean it will be scandalous to bring people with criminal allegations to the highest echelons of our parliament.

Number two: They should get people of the highest integrity.

Number three: They should get people who have the requisite experience; possibly, they are into their second or third term in parliament. That will be very important.

Finally, they should get people that have human touch who can show that they are in tune with the people and can help our democracy to move forward, he said.

Mailafia, who is also a development economist, said even if the presiding leaders of the ninth Assembly would come from the majority party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), those four criteria should be used as measures.

The positions should be for people with the highest integrity. Anybody with criminal records in the past should go and resolve those criminal records.

It should be for people that have experience in parliamentary duties and people that have the human touch, he restated.

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that serving and elected senators in Niger under the platform of the APC on Saturday, April 6 endorsed Senator Ahmed Lawan for the ninth Senate president seat.

The endorsement was contained in a statement issued in Minna and signed by three senators - Mohammed Sani Musa (Niger East), Sabi Abdullahi (Niger North) and Senator-elect, Muhammad Bima-Enagi (Niger South) - in Minna.

The senators asserted that Lawan has an impeccable character and undeniable wealth of experience as a lawmaker to drive the aspirations and vision of the 9th Senate towards achieving its mandate.

NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng: Same great journalism, upgraded for better service!

No lawmaker is in the House of Assembly for the people - on Legit TV:

Source: Legit.ng
Bethlehem police report there was an attempted child luring Monday morning outside a city elementary school.

A girl was waiting for the bus at about 7:20 a.m. in front of Marvine Elementary, 1425 Livingston St., to travel to a non-Bethlehem Area School District school, police said.

An older model SUV pulled up and asked her if this was the girls bus stop.

The student answered it was, and the male told the girl to get into his vehicle, according to police.

The girl declined, but the male driver drove to the other side of the street and waited until the girl boarded her bus.

The SUV involved is believed to be red or maroon, and may have been recently washed.

Anyone with any information about this case is asked to call the Bethlehem Police at 610-865-7187 or the Bethlehem Police Criminal Investigation Division at 610-865-7162; callers may remain anonymous.

Parents are encouraged to talk with their children and make sure they understand that under no circumstances should children get into a vehicle with someone they do not know or that the parents have not previously arranged, police said in a news release.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
UPDATE: Easton police have identified and spoken to a man seen Monday morning outside a city school. A passerby had reported the man as being suspicious, police said. No charges are pending, police said.

INITIAL POST: Easton police on Monday morning responded to a report of a suspicious male walking near a city school, they said in a news release.

Officers were dispatched at 9:32 a.m. to the 1200 block of Northampton Street, near Paxinosa Elementary School, which is at 1225 Northampton St.

Easton police are not aware of the intentions of the male and are investigating the reason he was in the area the news release said. The male did not interact with the school, staff or children.

He is described in the release as a tall black male wearing a light gray sweatshirt and blue jeans. Anybody with any information is asked to contact city detectives at 610-250-6639.
A county tourism group is sticking by its decision to hold a meeting at a historic venue in Pennsylvania Dutch Country, despite an outcry of the locales policy banning same-sex weddings.

The Star Barn is a top wedding spot in Elizabethtown, surrounded by farmland, orchards and vineyards in scenic Lancaster County.

A teacher who recently attended a function there took to social media when he discovered the policy.

Owner David Abel tells PennLive.com same-sex weddings go against his Roman Catholic convictions.

Now, some business partners with Discover Lancaster say they won't attend the annual meeting at the Star Barn on Thursday.

LNP reports the tourism group sent an email to members saying they chose Star Barn for the meeting long before the controversy, and say they understand if some members feel like they cant attend.
A trucks trailer burned early Monday morning at a truck stop off Interstate 78 in Hunterdon County.

No one was hurt in the fire at the Pilot Travel Center in Bloomsbury, New Jersey State Police at Perryville said.

After pulling into the travel center about 2:40 a.m., noticing the brakes on fire and the trailer about to catch about 50 feet from the gas pumps, driver Joel McLeod, 49, of Irvington, New Jersey, detached the truck and moved it out of harms way, state police from West Trenton said. Several tractor-trailers were parked nearby but the blaze was contained to the single trailer.

Wording on the trailer indicated it was from KeHE Enterprises LLC , which is based in Illinois but has distribution operations in Upper Macungie Township in Lehigh County.

Luckily there were not any injuries, a KeHE spokesman said in an email. We are still conducting our inspection and dont have additional information to provide.

Rich Maxwell | lehighvalleylive.com contributor

Firefighters were dispatched and the trailer, which a state police spokesman said was hauling groceries and water, was engulfed when a trooper, who was first on the scene, arrived, according to a report from the scene.

Fire units cleared the scene by 4:35 a.m.

Bloomsbury Hose Co. No. 1 was the primary fire department and was assisted by firefighters from Stewartsville, Franklin Township (Warren County) and Pattenburg, according to the report.

The Bloomsbury fire company didnt immediately respond to a Facebook message seeking more information.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter@TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.

See more photos below.

Rich Maxwell | lehighvalleylive.com contributor

Rich Maxwell | lehighvalleylive.com contributor

Rich Maxwell | lehighvalleylive.com contributor

Rich Maxwell | lehighvalleylive.com contributor

Rich Maxwell | lehighvalleylive.com contributor

Rich Maxwell | lehighvalleylive.com contributor

Rich Maxwell | lehighvalleylive.com contributor
Bethlehem may soon join many communities around the U.S., along with a handful of states, to ban the use of single-use plastic shopping as an environmental protection.

Under a measure recommended by the citys Environmental Advisory Council, stores in Bethlehem would not be permitted to dispense single-use plastic bags, and they would have to charge a 10-cent fee for each paper bag.

Plastic bags arent just a source of litter. They accumulate in the ocean and, along with other wastes that dont break down naturally, pose a threat to aquatic life. Most recyclers do not recycle plastic bags because its inefficient, unlike other plastics.

New York recently became the third state, after California and Hawaii, to ban single-use plastic bags. Last year the New Jersey Legislature attempted a similar ban but was blocked by Gov. Phil Murphy. Many municipalities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania have taken steps to end the retail use of plastic bags. In 2017 Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed a bill that would have prevented municipalities from regulating the use of plastic shopping bags, saying it would violate the state Constitution.

What do you think? Should one-time-use plastic bags be banned? Have a say in our informal, unscientific poll, and feel free to elaborate in the comment section.
The recent fiasco involving North Korea is proof that Donald Trump doesnt deserve to be president or commander-in-chief. His decision to meet face to face with Kim Jong Un did nothing more than give this murderous, communist dictator an appearance of respectability.

After a useless first meeting, Trump declared North Korea was no longer a nuclear threat -- an absolute lie to himself, the American people and the world. After intelligence agencies reported North Korea was actually advancing its nuclear capabilities, Trump arranged another meeting in Vietnam, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo going along. It was a another total waste as the meeting never happened, because Kim was unwilling to even discuss lessening his nuclear arsenal.

While being played for a fool, Trump actually stated the wonderful letters he got from Kim (as if Kim wrote them and not a Chinese/Russian psychiatrist specializing in narcissistic personality disorders, who had Kim sign them) -- youre a great leader, youre so strong, youre accomplishing great things, ad nauseam.

By meeting face to face, Trump has now left himself with two miserable options: Accept North Korea as a recognized world nuclear power like India, Pakistan, et al, or take military action to eliminate the nuclear threat.

When Trump was recently asked for his reaction to North Korea advancing its nuclear capabilities, he meekly replied: Id be very disappointed if that was true. Not being irate, no return to little rocket man, not being disgusted, no threats of fire and brimstone, just Id be very disappointed. Disgusting.

Ron Pizarie

East Allen Township
Bollards have been proposed as a measure to calm 'manic' parking issues outside a large Portlaoise primary school.

Laois County Council and the Principal of Scoil Bhride National School, Portlaoise, Mrs Muriel Wall-Coughlan, recently met to discuss the schools parking issues.

Cllr Willie Aird tabled a notice of motion at the recent Portlaoise Municipal District meeting asking the council to erect bollards outside the school to stop cars pulling up on the path between the school and the link road. He said parents have contacted him about it.

Area Engineer, Wes Wilkinson, said a meeting was recently held with the principal to discuss parking issues on the public road adjacent to the school. It was proposed that bollards be installed on one side of the road from the pedestrian entrance of the school to the junction on the Ballyfin Link Road.

Cllr Caroline Dwane Stanley said there is a huge problem with parking which can be manic.

There is a problem down there with parking and it has a huge knock-on effect for residents living in the area.

If you go down there at prime times when they are going into the school or particularly when the kids are being collected it is crazy the way they are parking right up around by Clonrooske View and where these bollards are going to be. I dont know what the answer is I cant understand why they are not allowed to drive in and drop the kids and drive back out. Residents in the area tell me that the gates are closed.

There is huge congestion there you have Treo Nua all parked there, it is just manic, but anything at all you can do to make life easier for parents and kids going into the school and particularly residents who are living there the whole time, she said.

Area Engineer, Wes Wilkinson, said the set down area was designed to be outside the school so if you stand adjacent to the path there is a set down area there.

There is a drop off zone and the idea is that people keep moving on the outside but it doesn't always happen like that, he said.

Cllr Willie Aird said these bollards would make a start on the work that needs to be done.

"I was looking for more than that but Im not going to argue on that because the principal of the school is the person who is in charge of that and if the principal is happy enough to have that much of it done so far," he said.
Students from the Cross and Passion College in Kilcullen were among over 300 young people gathered in Dublin last Thursday, April 4, 2019 for the Society of St Vincent de Paul, Young SVP East Region Youth Day 2019.

United in Head and Heart was the theme of the day in which participants created displays of their work, gave presentations, networked with other young volunteers.

During the school year, students involved in the Young SVP programme carry out a range of actions to give back to their communities, including projects and actions on: food poverty, climate justice, homelessness, loneliness and isolation, kindness, equality and mental health.

SVP National Youth Development Coordinato, Becca Gallagher said the aim of the Young SVP programme is to provide opportunities for young people to engage in social action in their own communities encouraging personal and social development.

Speaking of their experience of taking part in the Young SVP programme the young people said that it was an experience they would never forget and that they had learned more about issues in their community, how to listen to others, contribute their ideas, how to be organised and how to help others.

The United in Head and Heart event was a celebration of the hard work and dedication of Young SVP volunteers in Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare.

SVP member Nessan Vaughan told the group the creativity and effort you have put in this year is overwhelming. You should all be very proud of yourselves for the work you have done to make your communities more just and fair places.

Caroline Fahey, SVP Head of Social Justice and Policy, spoke to them about the importance of standing in solidarity and encouraged the attendees to challenge the common myths about poverty.

Bobby McCormack from Development Perspectives who was the Dochas, Global Citizen of the Year in 2017 . addressed the students on how we can all work together to achieve the

Sustainable Development Goals and Dr Noel Keating, Coordinator of Meditation with Children, spoke about meditation as a universal practice for human flourishing.

Liam Casey SVP East Region President thanked the schools, teachers and young people for bringing their enthusiasm, creativity and innovation to the work of SVP. He reminded the students that they are the future of SVP, but also very much the present, already making a difference in the lives of others.

Also, in attendance were representatives from the Gaisce Award and the Society of African Missions.
A family friendly cafe in Monasterevin called Next to the Library has scooped the top spot in this years entrepreneurial competition organised by the Irish-Hungarian Business Association (IHBA).

The award is given for the best business idea by a small enterprise in Ireland with connections to Hungary that demonstrates significant commercial potential.

Next to The Library Cafe which is located beside Monasterevin Library  is described as a family friendly cafe catering for the local needs of Monasterevin. Apart from offering an Irish menu, the cafe is aiming toi ntroduce Hungarian cuisine to the Irish Community in Kildare.

The cafe, owned by Hungarian-born Andaluzia Rampelt, opened its doors for customers in September 2018 and currently employs three people.

Anadaluzia Rampelt, founder and proprietor of Next To The Library Cafe said  Im absolutely delighted with the award and I cant believe that I won first place. It was my childhood dream to own a cafe and getting such a prestigious award for it is beyond what I dreamed of. We love Monasterevin and already have great support from the people of the area who enjoy high quality coffee, our lovely pastries, sandwiches and of course our authentic Hungarian Goulash and other dishes.

SEE ALSO: Bright new cafe opens in Monasterevin
Jordan Town & Country Estate Agents have just been instructed on a fine family home 4,200 sq.ft. at Park Hill, Athgarvan, Newbridge.

This is a delightful residence standing on 12 acres of pasture land in the village of Athgarvan.

The property has extensive frontage on the River Liffey and significant development potential as it adjoins the village boundary.

The property includes 4,200 sq.ft. of living accommodation which was initially built in the 1970s with later extensions.

Athgarvan is a quaint village on the edge of the Curragh only 4km Newbridge, 3km Kilcullen and 4km M9 access at Junction 2.

The house stands on a magnificent site overlooking the River Liffey with exceptional views.

The spacious accommodation includes three reception rooms, office, large kitchen/dining room, utility, laundry and five bedrooms (three ensuite).

Outside there are mature grounds approached by a long tree lined tarmacadam drive with paddocks on both sides and garage.

There are excellent schools in the area with primary school in Athgarvan Village and Two Mile House and selection of secondary or vocational schools in Newbridge and Kilcullen.

Being on the edge of the village it has significant development potential and also extensive river frontage in a quiet peaceful setting.

For the commuter both the M7 and M9 are nearby giving access to Dublin City only 35 km.

The land is all in permanent pasture ideal for a family with young children with an interest in country pursuits. For sale by private treaty it has just come on the market, the owners are retiring to a property down the country. The guide price is 875,000. Contact Paddy Jordan on 045-433550 for

further information or appointment to view.

The interior at Park Hill
Forty new rail carriages are expected to be delivered to Irish Rail next summer, company officials told Kildare North TD, James Lawless.

Deputy Lawless raised a number of issues affecting local commuters, including overcrowding on carriages, the service to Kilcock and the waiting room at Hazelhatch station, at a recent meeting.

Irish Rail said hopes to expand the DART service to Maynooth, Hazelhatch and Drogheda with electrification of the line by 2027 with carriage capacity for 2000 passengers.

Kildare South TD, Fiona OLoughlin, who also met Irish Rail, said she had a productive meeting with officials in relation to pricing, train capacity and facilities in train stations across South Kildare.

She said pricing for south Kildare commuters, particularly those travelling from Newbridge has been a major concern for me following the inclusion of Sallins station in the short hop zone. People traveling from Newbridge pay almost double that of a person travelling from Sallins which is a huge disadvantage for commuters.

She said commuter services in the morning and evenings are at full capacity.  Last year I expressed my frustration following a response from Irish Rail that increased capacity would not be considered until 2023.

SEE ALSO: Text messaging system needed to protect Naas disabled parking spaces

Deputy OLoughlin said she also highlighted the lack of toilet facilities in Newbridge train station along with the car park facilities.

Deputy Lawless asked officials about plans to improve capacity on Kildare services and whether carriages could be redesigned so as to provide more comfort to standing passengers. He was told that over 40 new carriages are expected to be delivered next summer which will aid capacity greatly and he commented that while capacity issues needed to be addressed quickly, it is promising that the railway fleet is being invested in.

He said he told officials that Kilcock passengers have with the infrequency of the service and criticised the Government for failing to progress improvements on this section of the line. The people of Kilcock deserve a more frequent train service. Irish Rail actually own the necessary land to make this section of the line double tracked, which would naturally make a big difference to the potential service levels. Identifying and funding projects such as this in order to improve our transport system is something that the Minister sadly seems uninterested in doing.

Irish Rail also noted that passengers connecting to Sallins trains in the evening require the waiting room to be opened at Hazelhatch Station and they promised to look into this issue.

Deputy Lawless was told by officials that tIrish Rail hopes to expand the DART service to Maynooth, Hazelhatch and Drogheda with electrification of the line by 2027 with carriage capacity for 2000 passengers.

But he noted the current difficulties in progressing projects such as the Metrolink and Bus Connects would not give you confidence that the Minister for Transport is committed to making the necessary investment in our transport system.
A beauty business is to support a two year research project on bees at Maynooth University department of biology.

The research will be conducted by Rachel Ward under the supervision of Professor Kevin Kavanagh and Dr. Mary Coffey (University of Limerick).

It will examine the immune response of winter bees, which can live for up to six months, but may be susceptible to infection. The project will also analyse the effect of different treatments on the immune system of bees and identify the optimum time for treatment to ensure survival of hives through the winter.

SEE ALSO: Kildare TDs raise issues with Irish Rail officials

Eoghan OSullivan, general manager, Clarins Ireland said the group uses over 250 plants and flowers in the formulation of its products. Honey bees and their role in our natural environment, now more than ever, is vital. It is important that we understand how to improve Irish bee health and survival rates through the winter period. We believe this can be done through proactively researching on immune system best practice. The importance of this study will allow other countries and bee keeping communities to analyse, interpret and improve the survival rates of the overwintering bee.

Professor Kevin Kavanagh said honey bee populations are under serious threat from disease and toxins in the environment. This project which is supported by Clarins Ireland, will examine the immune system of over-wintering honey bees and help develop new strategies to enable them survive the effect of pathogens and toxins. It will make a significant contribution to reducing the losses of bee hives each year in Ireland.

The results of this project will greatly assist Irish beekeepers in maintaining bee populations and the findings will also have direct benefits for beekeepers in other European countries.
Maynooth University academic, Dr Mary Murphy, has been appointed by President Michael D Higgins to the Council of State.

Dr Murphy is among seven new appointees to the Council of State who will be advising the President on a range of matters, such as whether to refer a bill to the Supreme Court.

She will be joining former Taoisigh, former presidents, Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese, as well as the Chief Justice Mr Frank Clarke and the Attorney-General Seamus Woulfe SC.

A senior lecturer in Irish politics and society in the Maynooth University Department of Sociology, Dr Murphy co-ordinates the BA in Politics and Active Citizenship. Her research interests include public policy, labour markets and social security, power and civil society and gender.

Dr Murphy said she was very honoured to be entrusted with this role. She particularly welcomed the commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion which underpinned his selection of nominees.

SEE ALSO: Intel Pride of Place competition 2019 now open for Kildare entries

A key contributor to national debate on social policy, Dr Murphy was a member of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission 2013-2017 and a member of the National Expert Advisory group on Taxation and Social Welfare 2011-2014.

President of Maynooth University, Prof Philip Nolan, congratulated Dr Murphy on her appointment to the Council of State. Dr Murphy has been a leading voice for social justice and equality throughout her career. As a leading advocate, teacher and researcher, she will bring significant expertise to the Council of State in her new role.
As part of the run up to the forthcoming European and local elections in May, 50:50 North West hosted an evening in the Sligo Yeats Building recently.

The event was hosted by Martina Fitzgerald, author of Madame Politician and political journalist, in conversation with Sligo based journalist Sorcha Crowley.

The focus was on women and their experience of engagement and representation in politics in Ireland, drawing on extensive interviews conducted by Martina with Irish female ministers, and her experience as an RTE political correspondent.

Among the challenges still facing Irish female politicians in breaking into and claiming their place in Irish national and local government, the pressure of childcare, and womens own struggle with confidence emerged as common strong themes.

Local election candidates who were on the panel: Amanda Gallagher (IND) Sligo, Blaithin Gallagher (Green Party) Leitrim, Cllr Sinead Maguire (FG) Sligo, Chairperson Sorcha Crowley, Cllr Marie Casserly (IND) Sligo, Valerie McNulty (IND) Donegal and MEP candidates Saoirse McHugh (Green Party) and Maria Walsh (FG)

It was noted that progress, albeit slow and gradual, has been made over the years. At least there are toilets for women TDs in the Dail now, and the risk of having your bra strap pulled by Charles Haughey, or being told to go back to your knitting has receded.

As the number of women politicians increase, the culture does shift. Along with the increase in numbers of elected female TDs and ministers, the number of women in political journalism, working as researchers, political advisors and aides, continues to increase.

Joining the conversation were candidates for the European and local government elections in May, including Maria Walsh (FG) and Saoirse McHugh (Green) along with local candidates Marie Casserly (IND), Sinead Maguire (FG), Amanda Gallagher (IND) in Sligo and Blaithin Gallagher (Green) in Leitrim.
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A SENIOR manager at Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Ireland says the announcement of a 100 million expansion of its manufacturing operations in Limerick is a key milestone for the company.

Details of the investment were confirmed, this Monday, at its facility in Castletroy which is the largest contact lens manufacturing facility in the world.

Around 200 jobs will be created during the construction phase while Johnson & Johnson Vision Care will create around 100 new positions at the plant which is one of the most advanced globally.

John Lynch, plant leader, says he delighted the company has decided to expand its operations in Limerick  having first arrived in the city 26 years ago.

We believe that the new manufacturing roles being introduced in Limerick in 2019 will be foundational in helping us bring new, innovative contact lens products to our patients and customers around the world at an industry-leading pace, he said.

Martin Shanahan, CEO of IDA Ireland, welcomed what was the third significant jobs announcement in Castletroy in just over 72 hours.

Martin Shanahan, ceo of @IDAIRELAND, speaking at the @JNJNews announcement that it is to invest 100m in its operations in Limerick @Limerick_Leader pic.twitter.com/uSntZaRzY4  David Hurley (@DHurleyLL) April 8, 2019

He says it shows how Limerick is able to compete with other cities for Foreign Direct Investment.

Limerick has proven to be competitive, these investors do not make these investment decisions lightly and the fact that they continue to reinvest in Limerick shows that they see that the offering is there, he said adding that there needs to be continued investment in infrastructure, housing and education to keep the momentum going.

Read also: Medical technology giant to invest 160m for creation of 600 jobs at Limerick city plant

The Mayor of Limerick, Cllr James Collins, who attended this Mondays announcement says its confirmation of the potential that exists in Limerick.

Limerick is a great place to live, the most affordable city in Ireland to live and one that is a gateway to some of the most scenic areas of the country. Its a city that provides an excellent work-life balance with so many amenities, services, attraction and rich culture and heritage, he said.
A YOUNG man has been jailed for six years following a vicious and unprovoked attack outside a fast food restaurant in Newcastle West 18 months ago.

Imposing sentence this Wednesday, Judge Tom ODonnell said James Corbett, aged 23, of Sharwood Estate in the town had assaulted a defenceless man who had suffered very very serious consequences.

The victim  Sean Ambrose (35)  was placed in a medical coma and spent five weeks in hospital after he was punched by the exceptionally strong and exceptionally well-built rugby player shortly after 2am on August 24, 2015.

During a sentencing hearing at Limerick Circuit Court in February, CCTV footage of the assault which happened at the Square, Newcastle West was shown.

In the footage - described previously in court as 'shocking - Mr Corbett can be seen approaching Mr Ambrose and violently striking him while he was standing on the main road outside Superbites.

Detective Garda Eric OShea agreed with Michael Collins BL, prosecuting, that Mr Ambrose immediately fell helplessly to the ground and was then punched a further three times by the defendant as he stood over him as he lay prone in the ground.

Mr Ambrose, whose skull was fractured, was initially taken to University Hospital Limerick but was later transferred to University Hospital Cork where a number of surgical procedures were carried out.

Following his release from hospital he was then admitted to the National Rehabilitation Centre for five weeks.

The victim, who worked as a haulier before the incident, has lost his sense of smell and his sense of taste has deteriorated significantly. He continues to experience problems with his memory and has difficulty concentrating at times.

Judge ODonnell said the contents of his victim impact statement made for harrowing reading and that he had to impose a custodial sentence.

He imposed an eight and-a-half year prison sentence suspending the final two and-a-half years.
REOPENING railway stations in towns like Kilmallock could work wonders for rural Limerick, according to Social Democrat candidate for the area, Trevor McCarthy.

A rail link would connect Kilmallock to other towns and cities, allow students, workers and pensioners to commute to Limerick, and open Kilmallock to the hundreds of thousands of tourists who pass through Limerick each year. The station is a beautiful and historic building as well, so a small set-up with a museum and cafe could help to transform Kilmallock, he said.

Trevor ran a Facebook poll to see what the feeling was locally on the issue. There were 703 votes with 96% in favour of reopening it.

The underfunded public transport we have which I highlighted a few weeks back is an issue for all of east and south east Limerick, said Trevor, who criticised the lack of investment in rural public transport, which he claims has left rural Limerick isolated.

No town or village has a train station, despite the Dublin-Cork and Limerick-Rosslare lines running through the area. Even national bus routes dont run often enough, with towns like Doon, Kilmallock and Kilfinane served only twice a day. For most, there is no alternative to owning your own car. Its not good enough.

Speaking about the cost of reopening rural stations, Trevor was critical of government policy which treats public services like private businesses.

It would cost money, like any public work. We cant insist that public transport pays for itself. The whole point of public transport is to meet a need that cant be met by a private business. Unfortunately, when it comes to transport, this government ignores the needs of rural Ireland and the environmental and economic benefits that more public transport would bring.

Local politicians, especially those from the older parties, go on and on about working for rural communities. Its all waffle if theyre not fighting for better public transport.
METROPOLITAN mayor Daniel Butler has honoured three women who he described as inspiring leaders in our city for their work in the field of mental health.

At a special reception in City Hall, well-known local musician Emma Langford was honoured for her mental health advocacy, Sr Helen Culhane of the Children's Grief Centre was recognised for her own contribution to mental health and Limerick society as a whole.

Last but not least, Dr Jennifer McMahon, of the University of Limerick was also honoured.

At the special evening, Cllr Butler gave a good friend of each of the trio the chance to introduce them and pay a warm tribute.

Philip Mortell, the chairperson of the Childrens Grief Centre spoke of Sr Helens lengthy career in Limerick.

Outlining her relatively late arrival into sisterhood he spoke of her work with organisations such as the Limerick Social Services Centre, Milford Care Centre and much more. It was out of her work with Milford Care Centre that she identified the need for support for children who lost their parents through death or who struggled with parental separation.

Claire Flynn of the Limerick Mental Health Association paid tribute to Dr McMahon, who was their chairperson until recently.

Meanwhile, Valerie Dolan took to the stage to speak of her long relationship with Emma Langford.

Valerie, who herself has received a mayoral reception told the chamber of how Emma consistently shares the story that is Limerick across the country and Europe as she prepares for her tour in Germany.

These three ladies are leaders who will inspire future leaders from our young people. We should listen to what they have to say and more importantly how they say it. It all comes from a place that wants to make their city a better place looking for nothing in return. In a time our city is in transition these three women have their fingers on the pulse of that change and we must follow them and support them to continue to be the great voices they are for our city, Cllr Butler said.
A JUDGE and state solicitor both said they felt sympathy for a County Limerick farmer found guilty of having green diesel in his van.

Anthony Bradshaw, of Rahard, Pallasgreen pleaded not guilty to the offence in Kilmallock Court. He was fined 2,500.

The farmer, who represented himself, said he doesnt know where the marked diesel came from. He said he had filled up his tank with 42 litres of diesel in Kerry Agribusiness, Herbertstown on February 21. Mr Bradshaw said he always goes there as he has an account.

Customs and excise officers gave evidence of taking a sample from his vehicles fuel tank at a routine checkpoint in Oola on February 24, 2018. It was positive for agricultural diesel.

After speaking with Mr Bradshaw, they then tested Kerry Agribusiness tank in Herbertstown on February 26, 2018.

Linda Ryan, customs and excise officer, said the store had received a delivery of diesel on February 7. This was the same diesel that Mr Bradshaw filled his tank with.

After testing the diesel in Kerry Agribusiness, Herbertstown, state solicitor Aidan Judge asked Ms Ryan what conclusions did she form?

It was perfectly fine, proper, normal diesel, said Ms Ryan. Details of an interview by customs and excise officers with Mr Bradshaw were read out to the court.

The defendant was asked if anyone else has access to the van.

No, but I dont lock the vehicle, said Mr Bradshaw.

The farmer took the stand in Kilmallock Court and passed a large number of documents to Judge Marian OLeary. It detailed all his diesel transactions with Kerry Agribusiness in Herbertstown.

Answering questions from Mr Judge about how there came to be a positive test for green diesel in his van, Mr Bradshaw said he couldnt explain it.

I get my fuel in Herbertstown all the time. I have the documentation for it. I didnt put green diesel in my van, said Mr Bradshaw.

Are you disputing it? asked Mr Judge.

If the customs and excise say there was green diesel in my van then there was green diesel in my van but I get my diesel in Herbertstown, said Mr Bradshaw.

Judge OLeary said the State has proven its case.

I do find you guilty of having marked diesel in your van, said Judge OLeary.

Mr Judge said he had no problem with full mitigation from 5,000 to the minimum of 2,500.

He has no previous convictions, said Mr Judge.

Judge OLeary asked Mr Bradshaw if he had anything else to say.

I did not put green diesel in my van. Its not feasible. I dont break the law. If I had I would put my hands up and pay the fine. I dont know where it came from, said Mr Bradshaw.

Mr Judge said he has a certain sympathy for Mr Bradshaw.

Judge OLeary said she also feels sympathy for him.

It is possibly a very generous mistake. My hands are tied. The minimum I can fine you is 2,500, said Judge OLeary.

Recognisance was fixed in the event of an appeal.
MEDICAL technology giant Johnson & Johnson Vision Care has announced 100 new jobs as part of a 100m expansion of its Limerick city manufacturing operations.

An additional 200 workers are expected to be employed in the construction phase of Vision Cares facility at the National Technology Park in Castletroy.

Speaking at this Mondays announcement, Minister of State for Trade, Employment and Business, Deputy Pat Breen said it is a huge vote of confidence in the Mid-West region.

The expansion, supported by the Government through the IDA, reflects the commitment of the Government and its agencies to pursue balanced and sustainable regional development, Minister Breen said.

The announcement follows the launch of the Edwards Lifesciences medtech facility across the road from Johnson & Johnson last Friday, where 600 jobs are expected to be created following the completion of its plant in 2021.

Vision Cares plant leader John Lynch said their aspiration is to bring improved eyesight to people around the world and the most important way we accomplish that is through the research, development and manufacturing of new medical device technologies.

#WATCH: John Lynch, plant manager with Johnson & Johnson Vison Care in #Limerick, says today's announcement of a 100m investment in its manufacturing operations is 'key milestone' for the company. pic.twitter.com/TXUDqXErpn  David Hurley (@DHurleyLL) April 8, 2019

We believe that the new manufacturing roles being introduced in Limerick in 2019 will be foundational in helping us bring new, innovative contact lens products to our patients and customers around the world at an industry-leading pace, Mr Lynch said.

IDA Ireland CEO Martin Shanahan described this as a significant announcement and that the news is a substantial financial investment and considerable commitment to its Limerick operations.

The approximately 100 jobs being added, along with those being created in the construction phase, will greatly benefit the economy of the Mid-West region.

Having a company of this stature continue to expand its operations enhances Irelands global reputation as a Medical Technologies centre of excellence and demonstrates how global companies can successfully operate in regional locations. I wish John and his team continued success.

Follow the Limerick Leader for more...
AN INTERNATIONAL financial services company has announced that it will be creating 45 jobs at the launch of its new Limerick offices.

FundRock, which has a network of offices in Luxembourg, London and Dublin, officially launched its new office at the Castletroy Park Commercial Complex, Castletroy, on Friday.

Supported by IDA Ireland, FundRock currently employs 20 people and envisages to grow to more than 45 over the next year and a half.

The majority of the work undertaken in Limerick is aimed to support the core activities performed by FundRock, including risk, oversight and investment compliance.

Conor OBrien, who is managing director of the Irish branch, said he is absolutely delighted to announce FundRocks expansion.

We have had a longstanding connection to the city by offering internships to students studying at the University of Limerick and I truly believe we have made an excellent choice to build our new centre of excellence here.

MORE GOOD NEWS: Gaelic Grounds changes name after new sponsor revealed

Group CEO, Xavier Parain also welcomed the launch of the Limerick offices.

Commenting on the announcement Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Heather Humphreys said: I am delighted to see FundRock expanding their presence in Ireland with the opening of this Limerick office and 45 new jobs over the next 18 months. Ireland is a hub for International Financial Services companies and I warmly welcome this new investment, particularly as it is bringing high quality jobs to the Mid-West.

Martin Shanahan, CEO, IDA Ireland said Fundrocks choice of Limerick as its regional second site in Ireland is testament to the companys positive experience of the business environment here.

Mayor of Limerick City and County, Cllr James Collins said: I am absolutely delighted to welcome FundRock to Limerick. It is great news for the region and a sign of the Mid-Wests growing attractiveness to international companies.

FundRock has an excellent reputation and a longstanding connection to the University of Limerick. Their choice to locate here shows that Limerick is on the map with International Financial Services companies and I warmly welcome this new investment, particularly as it is bringing high quality jobs to the Mid-West.
A survivor of the Rwandan genocide has praised the support given to her in Limerick on the 25th anniversary of her tragic loss.

Chantal Mutesi came to live in Ireland following the horrific attacks which took the life of her husband, four brothers, a sister and her mother, among other members of her family and friends. Recalling her devastating experience of the genocide, she spoke of the pain which is still with her today, she said, Memories dont fade despite people saying time is a healer.

Mayor of LImerick City and County Cllr James Collins attended a commemmoration and planted a tree at OBrien Park in honour of the victims of the atrocity.

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, he said at the event, hosted by aid agency Bothar, whose work is ongoing in Rwanda.

Chantals compatriot Egwyge Roussard was also present at the time of the genocides, which saw one million people killed in an area the size of Munster in only 100 days.

I left Rwanda when I was five but it's my home country, said Egwyge, and I have family there and I also lost some members of my family. I'm really glad to see how she Irish and Limerick people are dedicated to remember what happened in Rwanda.

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.

Niamh Mulqueen, Bothars chief operating officer, said that despite the agencys 20-plus years of work in Rwanda, the stories of survivors still shock to the core.

When we hear the stories 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. I think the whole world could learn from them she said.
The Supreme Court judgement on the circular issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 12 February 2018 should be welcomed by all parties, including RBI. It enables all sides to reflect on the mistakes they made, and the steps that need to be taken to resolve the situation in a manner that facilitates not just the recovery of loans, but also economic growth, for the assets involved are mostly power generation assets.

In this newspaper, Mobis Philipose and Aparna Iyer wrote that the judgement was a healthy wake-up call for RBI. They call for better drafting of its circulars. One could add that the central bank should seek sound legal advice, too.

In May 2017, when the government of India issued an ordinance to amend the Banking Regulation Act to insert sections 35AA and 35AB, I had written in a blog post (Thou shall fix banks, 6 May 2017) that the existing Section 35A conferred enough powers on RBI to issue directions to the bank, which included directing banks to refer non-performing assets (NPAs) to the insolvency and bankruptcy courts.

Quite why RBI was advised to request the government to issue that ordinance to amend the Banking Regulation Act when it already had sweeping powers is a mystery.

It is a bit like this: You are empowered to eat all the food in this restaurant. Upon my authorization, you shall be empowered to eat one masala dosa, too." First, in the presence of the first sentence, the second sentence is redundant. Second, what RBI had done is to eat too many masala dosas without authorization, and the Supreme Court has held it to be unconstitutional.

The judgement also highlights the redundancy of one of the recommendations of the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission. This commission had recommended the formation of tribunals to hear appeals against decisions of the regulator.

Many argued that Indias Constitution already provided for judicial review of the actions of all regulators with or without a special tribunal. The Supreme Court judgement has vindicated that argument. Redundancy has not been the sole prerogative of the central bank, even its baiters have been given to it.

Does the Supreme Court judgement represent a big setback to the countrys bankruptcy process? The initial reaction of many was that it was a big setback. But that has given way to more sober assessments that this is not so. In any case, this judgement is no more extreme than the courts ruling that invalidated the constitution of the National Judicial Appointments Commission.

The Supreme Court has simply ruled that the circular issued by RBI on 12 February 2018 is unconstitutional. RBI still has regulatory powers over banks and can issue directions to them. For example, RBI can ask them to make full provisions for NPAs 180 days into a default.

That would necessarily force banks to initiate insolvency proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) to recover their dues. Whether such a specific directive would work or other ways exist to achieve the same outcome is not an area of expertise of yours truly, but the short point is that there are ways out.

In the last few months, especially after the previous RBI governor resigned for personal reasons", many had openly expressed a fear that the government was assaulting institutions of governance. It may be recalled that the conflict between the government and RBI had started precisely after the issue of the said circular in February 2018. Now, the Supreme Court striking down the circular vindicates the governments view that it was excessive use of force. So, here is an opportunity for critics of the government to reflect on their reflexive criticism of bad politicians" riding roughshod over good technocrats".

On its part, the government should acknowledge the intractable problem of power sector assets. The economic non-viability of state electricity boards and their inability to pay an economic price to power producers is a big part of the problem. There are also problems with availability of coal and delays in environmental clearances. Such delays can be attributed to the attitude of the judiciary, too. It will be increasingly difficult for India to sustain coal-based power plants given the global concerns over emissions and climate change. In such a milieu, if governments, acting as buyers, balk at paying reasonable prices for power, then the problem of non-performing power sector assets will keep arising time and again.

Finally, there is the all-important question of whether the government intended RBI to issue directions to banks in respect of each and every default separately, or intended to give the central bank a blanket or general authorization to issue directions to banks on the issue of defaults, because the 5 May 2017 notification of the ministry of finance conveys the latter impression.

In sum, there has been sloppiness all around on such an important matter. That should worry Indians.

These are the authors personal views.

V. Anantha Nageswaran is the dean of IFMR Graduate School of Business (KREA University).

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Our universe is incredibly vast, mostly mysterious, and generally confusing. We're surrounded by perplexing questions on scales both great and small. We have some answers, for sure, like the Standard Model of particle physics, that help us (physicists, at least) understand fundamental subatomic interactions, and the Big Bang theory of how the universe began, which weaves together a cosmic story over the past 13.8 billion years.

But despite the successes of these models, we still have plenty of work to do. For example, what in the world is dark energy, the name we give to the driving force behind the observed accelerated expansion of the universe? And on the opposite end of the scale, what exactly are neutrinos, those ghostly little particles that zip and zoom through the cosmos without hardly interacting with anything? [The 18 Biggest Unsolved Mysteries in Physics]

At first glance, these two questions seem so radically different in terms of scale and nature and, well, everything that we might assume that we need to answer them.

But it might be that a single experiment could reveal answers to both. A European Space Agency telescope is set to map the dark universe  looking as far back in time, some 10 billion years, when dark energy is thought to have been raging. Let's dig in.

Go big and go home

To dig in, we need to look up. Way up. On scales much, much bigger than galaxies (we're talking billions of light-years here, folks), where our universe resembles a vast, glowing spider web. Except, this spider web isn't made of silk, but of galaxies. Long, thin tendrils of galaxies linking dense, clumpy nodes. Those nodes are the clusters, bustling cities of galaxies and hot, rich gas  enormous, broad walls of thousands upon thousands of galaxies. And between these structures, taking up most of the volume in the universe, are the great cosmic voids, celestial deserts filled with nothing much at all.

It's called the cosmic web, and it's the biggest thing in the universe.

This cosmic web was slowly constructed over the course of billions of years by the weakest force in nature: gravity. Way back when the universe was the tiniest fraction of its current size, it was almost perfectly uniform. But the "almost" is important here: There were tiny variations in density from spot to spot, with some corners of the universe being a little bit more crowded than average and others a little less so. [The 12 Strangest Objects in the Universe]

Galaxy clusters in the cosmic web. (Image credit: K. Dolag, Universitats-Sternwarte Munchen, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen, Germany)

With time, gravity can do amazing things. In the case of our cosmic web, those slightly-higher-than-average dense regions had gravity that was a little bit stronger, attracting their surroundings to them, which made those clumps even more attractive, which attracted more neighbors, and so on and so on.

Fast forward this process a billion years, and you've grown your very own cosmic web.

A universal recipe

That's the general picture: To make a cosmic web, you need some "stuff," and you need some gravity. But where it gets really interesting is in the details, especially the details of the stuff.

Different kinds of matter will clump up and form structures differently. Some kinds of matter might tangle in on themselves, or need to remove excess heat before they can congeal, while others might readily join the nearest party. Certain types of matter move slowly enough that gravity can efficiently do its work, while other kinds of matter are so fleet and nimble that gravity can barely get its feeble hands on it.

In short, if you change the ingredients of the universe, you get different-looking cosmic webs. In one scenario, there might be more rich clusters and fewer empty voids compared with another scenario, in which the voids totally dominate early in the history of the cosmos, with no clusters forming at all. [Big Bang to Civilization: 10 Amazing Origin Events]

One particularly intriguing ingredient is the neutrino, the afore-mentioned ghostly particle. Since the neutrino is so light, it travels at nearly the speed of light. This has the effect of "smoothing out" structures in the universe: Gravity simply can't do its work and pull neutrinos into compact little balls. So, if you add too many neutrinos to the universe, things like entire galaxies end up not being able to form in the early universe.

Tiny problems, big solutions

This means that we can use the cosmic web itself as a giant laboratory of physics to study neutrinos. By examining the structure of the web and breaking it down into its various parts (clusters, voids and so on), we can get a surprisingly direct handle on neutrinos.

Artist's impression of the Euclid spacecraft. (Image credit: ESA/ATG-medialab)

There's just one niggling problem: Neutrinos aren't the only ingredient in the universe. One major confounding factor is the presence of dark energy, the mysterious force that's ripping our universe apart. And as you might have suspected, this affects the cosmic web in a major way. It's kind of hard to build big structures in a rapidly expanding universe, after all. And if you only look at one part of the cosmic web (say, for example, the galaxy clusters), then you might not have enough information to tell the difference between neutrino effects and dark energy effects  both of which impede the clumping of "stuff."

In a recent paper published online in the preprint journal arXiv, astronomers explained how upcoming galaxy surveys, like the European Space Agency's Euclid mission, will help uncover both neutrino and dark energy properties. The Euclid satellite will map the locations of millions of galaxies, painting a very broad portrait of the cosmic web. And within that structure lie hints to the history of our universe, a past that depends on its ingredients, like neutrinos and dark energy.

By looking at a combination of the densest, busiest places in the universe (the galaxy clusters) and the loneliest, emptiest places in the cosmos (the voids), we might get answers to both the nature of dark energy (which will herald an era of brand-new physics knowledge) and the nature of neutrinos (which will do the exact same thing). We might learn, for example, that dark energy is getting worse, or getting better, or maybe even just being the same. And we might learn how massive neutrinos are or how many of them are flitting around the universe. But no matter what, it's hard to tell what we'll get until we actually look.

Paul M. Sutter is an astrophysicist at The Ohio State University, host of Ask a Spaceman and Space Radio, and author of Your Place in the Universe.

Originally published on Live Science.
A woman's body that was recently donated to a medical school in Oregon provided an anatomy lesson that was much stranger than instructors expected.

When students at the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) in Portland dissected the cadaver of the 99-year-old woman, they found that her liver and abdominal organs were transposed  as if flipped across a vertical axis  though her heart was oriented normally, on the left side, OHSU representatives said in a statement.

This is known as "situs inversus with levocardia," and it affects about 1 in 22,000 births, according to OHSU. But unlike most who have this rare condition, the woman experienced no ill effects during her lifetime  in fact, she was completely unaware that some of her organs weren't where they were supposed to be, her family told OHSU. [27 Oddest Medical Cases]

The donated remains belonged to Rose Marie Bentley, who died in October 2017. Her unusual case was presented today (April 8) in a poster at the 2019 American Association of Anatomists Annual Meeting at Experimental Biology, in Orlando, Florida.

The instructors had never seen this type of organ inversion in an anatomy lab before, "and it's so rare, I'm not sure I'll ever see another one," co-author Cameron Walker, an assistant professor of anatomy in the OHSU Anatomical Services Center, told Live Science.

"Transposed from right to left"

Bentley's body arrived at OHSU in the spring of 2018, bound for an anatomy class, according to Walker.

When the students working on Bentley's body opened up her chest cavity, "they found blood vessels around the heart that were different in orientation," Walker said. He and his colleagues checked the heart, but it didn't seem to have any defects.

"The real enlightenment came when we got to the abdominal cavity," Walker said. "When that was opened, we could see that her organs had been transposed." The liver, instead of being on the body's right side, was situated along the midline, with a larger left lobe. The stomach and the spleen, typically on the left, were on the right.

The donor's liver was oriented centrally, with an enlarged left lobe; her stomach, spleen and pancreas were located on the right. (Image credit: Courtesy of OSHU)

Information provided by the donor and her family suggested that Bentley experienced "robust health" well into her 90s, according to the authors. Over the years, she had undergone several surgeries: doctors removed her appendix, her gallbladder and her uterus. Indeed, the surgeon who performed the appendectomy told her at the time that the organ was on her left side, instead of on the right.

But the other two surgeons did not mention any anomalies in Bentley's anatomy, and her family said that neither she nor any of her relatives suspected that anything was amiss, the researchers said in the presentation.

Aside from the organs' flipped positions, they "did not appear unusual in any way, and she enjoyed normal function," the scientists said.

Genetic factors that cause situs inversus with levocardia are complex, and it's unknown what precisely take place during fetal development that directs certain organs to grow in a reverse position, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

In many cases of situs inversus, all of the organs  including the heart  are transposed, and people typically experience no associated health problems, the NIH says. However, if most of the organs are reversed but the heart is not, this can cause a growing fetus to develop defects along the midline of the heart, "and those make the heart dramatically less efficient and can lead to very early onset of congestive heart failure early in life," Walker said.

When that happens, survival to adulthood is exceptionally rare  about 1 in 50 million, the researchers wrote in their presentation. Yet Bentley lived to be 99 years old and had no history of heart trouble, making her case even more incredible, the scientists concluded. [Photos: A 3D Printed Heart]

Atypical anatomy

Anomalies such as Bentley's are rare in medical school cadavers, but it's not unheard of for donated bodies to contain anatomical surprises, said Dale Ritter, the lead human anatomy instructor for Alpert Medical School (AMS) at Brown University in Rhode Island.

AMS receives about 55 donated cadavers each year, "and 1 out of 10 will have some significant departure from what is considered typical anatomy," Ritter told Live Science.

For example, certain small muscles in the forearm and the lower leg sometimes aren't there at all, Ritter said. Branching patterns in arteries can also show tremendous variation, which can be confusing and frustrating for students trying to reconcile what they've seen in textbook illustrations with what's on the table in front of them, according to Ritter.

"We encourage students during the dissections to walk around and look at other tables and other donors for exactly that reason  the anatomy can look completely different," he explained.

In the end, Bentley's highly unusual organ alignment proved to be an important reminder to OHSU students that every patient is unique, and that medical professionals need to see their patients as individuals, Walker said.

"There isn't a one-size-fits-all practice where you can always use the same steps and the same treatments to help everyone in exactly the same way," he added.

Originally published on Live Science.
Auroras are spectacular light shows, but a recent display in the skies over northern Norway was out of this world  sort of.

On Friday (April 5), clusters of purple, blue and yellow lights appeared in the country's night sky; as the ghostly shapes hovered, their eerie glow and unusual formation invited speculation about visiting alien spacecraft.

But extraterrestrials weren't behind the demonstration. It was NASA, launching a new rocket system from Norway to study the flow of winds in Earth's upper atmosphere, representatives of the agency's Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops, Virginia, tweeted that day. [Aurora Photos: Northern Lights Dazzle in Night-Sky Images]

Following the appearance of an aurora that night, NASA created another spectacular light show with chemical compounds, expelled by the Auroral Zone Upwelling Rocket Experiment (AZURE). This is the first of eight rocket missions to launch from Norwegian bases in Andya and Svalbard. The missions will analyze the interactions of Earth's magnetic field lines and particles from space that bombard our planet, according to a NASA statement.

AZURE targeted the ionosphere, the electrically charged atmosphere layer that lies 46 to 621 miles (75 to 1,000 kilometers) above Earth.

During the launch, the rockets deployed chemical tracers  trimethylaluminum (TMA) and a barium-strontium mixture  that ionize in sunlight, enabling researchers to track the flow of neutral and charged particles. These tracers will help NASA measure the churning vertical winds that mix electrically charged particles and energy through the atmosphere, recording the winds' density and temperature, NASA said.

The tracers were released at altitudes of about 71 to 155 miles (114 to 249 km) above Earth's surface, and they posed no hazard to residents in the region, NASA wrote in an earlier statement.

As the two AZURE rockets launched  leaving at nearly the same time from Norway's Andya Space Center  photographer Michael Theusner already had his camera trained on the sky, from a location about 112 miles (180 km) to the south of the launch. Theusner, writing in a description of the time-lapse on YouTube, said he "coincidentally" captured images of the rockets and of their subsequent light show.

When Theusner saw NASA's colorful lights, he didn't know what they were at first; he jokingly referred to them as "an alien attack," but an internet search soon revealed what had caused them, Theusner wrote on YouTube.

Using instruments on the rockets and on the ground, experts will track the movements of the colorful "alien" clouds in three dimensions. This analysis will provide important data on how particles travel through the ionosphere, so scientists can better understand the intricate ballet of energy that generates northern lights displays, NASA said.

Originally published on Live Science.
A short session of brain zapping can reverse some of the effects of aging in older adults, a new study suggests.

The technique isn't ready for non-experimental use yet, and it's not clear how long the benefits last. But the study authors said they hope that their findings will set the stage for improving cognition in both healthy adults and in people experiencing Alzheimer's and other types of dementia.

"These findings are important because they not only give us new insights into the brain basis for age-related working-memory decline, but they also show us that the negative age-related changes are not unchangeable," said study leader Robert Reinhart, a neuroscientist at Boston University. [Why You Forget: 5 Strange Facts About Memory]

The findings were published today (April 8) in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

Working memory

Reinhart and his co-author, doctoral student John Nguyen, focused their study on an aspect of cognition called working memory. This is the sketch pad of the brain, Reinhart said in a press briefing. It allows people to hold information in active use for a few seconds at a time, facilitating all sorts of important tasks, from performing mental math to reading to having a conversation. Research has shown that working memory is a key part of intelligence, Reinhart told reporters.

But working memory declines over adulthood. The decline is not dramatic, but it is significant enough that older adults perform worse, on average, on working-memory tasks than younger adults. Reinhart and Nguyen wanted to see if they could figure out why  and perhaps change that trajectory.

The researchers recruited 42 adults ages 20 to 29 and 42 older adults ages 60 to 76; the scientists asked the participants to complete a working-memory task while their brain activity was being monitored by electroencephalogram. The task was a simple "find the differences" game, in which the participants saw two very similar pictures on a screen in short succession and had to identify what was different about the second picture. All of the participants were healthy, without diagnoses of dementia or other cognitive problems. [9 Surprising Risk Factors for Dementia]

In some sessions, participants did the task while their brain was lightly stimulated with a noninvasive electrical method called transcranial alternating-current stimulation. Using electrodes on the scalp, the researchers pulsed rhythmic electrical stimulation into prefrontal and temporal brain areas. Communication between these regions, at the front and sides of the brain, is thought to be important for working memory.

Brain booster

The experiment was double-blind, so neither participants nor researchers knew when the participants were receiving brain stimulation. Other than an initial tingling sensation on the scalp, the stimulation doesn't feel like anything, Reinhart said. (To trick the participants during sham sessions, the researchers gave them 30 seconds of light electric current through the electrodes, mimicking this sensation.) Participants came in for different days for their sham and real sessions, and the stimulation lasted 25 minutes.

Prior to any stimulation, older adults performed less well on the working-memory task than the younger cohort. Accuracy in younger adults averaged around 90%, with scores ranging from the high 80s to nearly 100% correct. In older adults, the average was closer to 80%, with scores ranging from the low 70s to the mid 80s.

Stimulation closed that gap. Within about 12 minutes of the start of brain stimulation, older adults began to perform as well as the younger group. This improvement continued as long as the experiment lasted, 50 minutes after the stimulation stopped.

"We didn't see the effects coming down to base line or even trending down to base-line level," Reinhart said. The researchers haven't experimented to see how long the results last, but results from other brain stimulation research suggest the effects could persist for several hours, he said.

In follow-up experiments with another 49 older and younger adults, the researchers also tested the effects of brain stimulation on young adults who had the lowest working-memory scores. Those young people got a boost, too, the researchers found.

"I think it's possible to kind of turbocharge even normal, healthy cognitive functioning, including in young people," Reinhart said.

Syncing up

The study was impressively done, said Walter Paulus and Zsolt Turi, both clinical neurophysiologists at the University Medical Center Gottingen in Germany, who were not involved in the research. The researchers checked their own work on follow-up samples of participants, which boosts confidence in the findings, Turi told Live Science.

There is still work to do, though, Paulus warned. Already, he told Live Science, some companies sell devices meant to stimulate the brain through the skull. But as Reinhart and Nguyens study shows, brain stimulation needs to be personalized. The researchers did a lot of preliminary work to make sure they placed electrodes correctly and delivered the proper stimulation to improve brain function.

If you deviate from the protocol you may end up with either no results or also in counterproductive results, Paulus said.

With further research, though, the technique has promise for use in patients, he added.

The stimulation seemed to reverse the decline of aging for a few key reasons, Reinhart said. First, it narrowly targeted the prefrontal cortex and the temporal lobe. In young adults who are using their working memory, these two areas sync the rhythms of their activity. The tighter the synchronization  a low-frequency pattern around 8 hertz seems to be the sweet spot  the better working memory performs, Reinhart said. [Top 10 Mysteries of the Mind]

In older adults, this tight synchronization vanishes, which seems to be the root of working memory's decline.

That leads to the second key feature of the brain stimulation: its rhythmicity. The researchers pulsed alternating current tailored to the persons' natural brain rhythms into these areas. In essence, the pulse gets the two areas talking again.

"We're synchronizing these brain areas that are uncoupled or uncorrelated or less synchronized in the elderly," Reinhart said.

The young adults who were worse at the working-memory task also had relatively desynchronized brain chatter, Reinhart noted.

The new findings are a starting point, Reinhart said. Already, the research team has started pushing its studies into the areas of disease and disorder. The researchers have found, but not yet published, evidence that older adults with more dementia symptoms (but not full-blown dementia) show worse brain synchronization in both working-memory and long-term-memory regions. This could mean that the brain synchronization technique could be a noninvasive treatment for Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia, Reinhart said.

The researchers have also found that they can stimulate the brain with rhythms that desynchronize brain regions.

"It bodes well for next clinical steps, because we know that there are brain disorders characterized by hypoconnectivity [low connectivity], like autism, schizophrenia and Alzheimer's, but then there are also disorders characterized by too much brain connectivity, like Parkinson's and epilepsy," Reinhart said. "[We have] the beginnings of a tool that can both synchronize, and make your brain more connected, and desynchronize, and make your brain less connected."

Originally published on Live Science.
Elephants in Kruger National Park killed a rhino poacher, whose body was then eaten by lions, on April 2, 2019. Here, an image of an elephant walking behind a pride of lions in the national park in South Africa.

A suspected rhino poacher in South Africa's Kruger National Park was killed by an elephant last week, park officials have announced. Lions then scavenged the poacher's remains.

The story has emerged as something of a feel-good tale on social media, even as conservationists warn against viewing poaching in simplistic terms.

"This is always disappointing to see," tweeted Sabah Ibrahim, a naturalist and environmental educator. "The demand for rhino horn comes from extremely wealthy consumers who almost never face any form of justice, and the poachers themselves are more often than not desperate people existing in crushing post-colonial poverty." [In Photos: The Last 5 Northern White Rhinos]

Death and lions

The news originated with a press release from Kruger National Park. Officials there report that they were contacted by the family of a man who said that their relative's body had been left in the park. The man was allegedly with at least four others who were hunting rhinoceroses when he was killed by an elephant on Tuesday, April 2.

Park rangers searched for the body on foot and in an aircraft, but they weren't able to find it until Thursday morning, after they arrested the other alleged poachers and found out from them where they had left the body. By that time, park officials said, lions had scavenged the man's corpse, leaving behind only his skull and a pair of pants.

The news was shared on Twitter alongside comments like, "karma" and "finally some good news."

But many conservationists were troubled by the rhetoric. "Did the death of this poacher cause even the tiniest iota of reduction in the demand for rhino horn?" Ibrahim tweeted. "Did the person at the other end of the transaction suffer at all? No. So there's no 'karma.'"

Solving poaching

Poaching is a tragic problem in Kruger National Park and elsewhere. In 2017, a white rhinoceros was killed, even while it was in a zoo in France, highlighting the risks poachers are willing to take to get rhinoceros horn. Although the horn is just keratin, the same material that makes up nails and hair, it is valued in traditional Eastern medicine and often bought as a status symbol.

Even as rhinoceros numbers dwindle, poaching has skyrocketed over the past decade. A 2016 report by conservation group Save the Rhino found that the rarity of rhino horns was part of the appeal among Chinese consumers, particularly those who saw the horns as a luxury good. An international report released in 2017 found that 1,342 rhinoceroses in Africa were poached in 2015, compared with only 60 in 2002. And, since Kruger National Park is home to Africa's largest rhino population, it has suffered the most severe rhino poaching of any area, that report noted.

The largest importer of rhino horn, at least as measured by seizures by law enforcement, was Vietnam, that report found. China and Hong Kong followed. The international black market that supplies these horns relies on hunters willing to risk their lives in Africa for far less money than the horns will eventually secure, once sold. (This is not the first time that lions have eaten a poacher.)

"Entering Kruger National Park illegally and on foot is not wise; it holds many dangers and this incident is evidence of that," Kruger managing executive Glenn Phillips said in a statement. "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."

Originally published on Live Science.
It took four adults to hold this 17-foot-long (5.1 meters) burmese python, which is an invasive species in Florida.

Wildlife officials have captured a 17-foot-long (5.1 meters) Burmese python and a mother-to-be in Florida's Big Cypress National Preserve  the longest python ever found in the preserve, which neighbors the Everglades.

But even though her size and her weight of 140 lbs. (63 kilograms) likely puts her in the top 10% of the largest wild pythons in Florida, the number of eggs found inside her  73 in all  is absolutely flooring, said David Penning, an assistant professor of biology at Missouri Southern State University, who was not involved with the snake's capture.

"I would say that's far above average," Penning told Live Science. "A normal quantity to expect is probably a couple dozen, maybe 40 or 50. And that would be a good year if you were trying to breed these animals." [Image Gallery: Snakes of the World]

Burmese pythons (Python bivittatus) are an invasive species in Florida. They likely got into the wild not only because of pet owners who decided to release them, but also from hurricanes that aided in their escape from captivity. Given that they're invasive, why are pythons so successful in the Sunshine State?

Mothers such as this one are part of the answer, Penning said. Now that it's springtime, mother snakes are laying eggs. These 4- to 5-inch-long (10 to 13 centimeters) oval eggs take up so much space inside the mother, that she has to stop eating because she literally can't fit anything else inside her body, Penning said. Even her organs get scrunched and pushed out of the way.

"It's impressive," he said. "It's like shoving a bunch of pool balls into a sock, but there's just more than what seems like [the snake] can fit."

After developing in the mother for about two to three months, the eggs are laid in a conical pile. Then, the mother stays with her eggs, shivering next to them to keep them warm, Penning said.

"It's probably one of the reasons they're so effective at being an invasive species," Penning said. "If you're an egg, you're pretty defenseless. If you're an egg with a 17-foot mom hanging out next to you, you're probably a little bit more protected."

Once the eggs hatch, the babies go their separate ways. But, intriguingly, these snakes tend to find niches and prey that fit their body size; small snakes find habitats with small prey, and larger snakes find larger prey, including prey that lives in the water.

"They have cordially set aside who and where they'll live and eat," Penning said. "It's called an ontogenetic shift; as they get bigger, they start to eat bigger things and drop out the littler things, which means more babies have littler things."

On top of that, Burmese pythons are good at hiding and capturing prey, chowing down on everything from a field mouse to a deer. Since these snakes began invading Florida, sightings of rabbits, foxes, raccoons, white-tailed deer and opossums in the Everglades have dropped by more than 90 percent, a 2011 study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found.

"They have essentially inserted themselves as an apex predator and are consuming anything that can fit inside their mouth," Penning said.

However, Burmese pythons are listed as vulnerable in their native range of Southeast Asia, largely because humans have taken to making them into products, such as boots. "It's become such a problem that their population needs to be monitored, and we need to increase them, except in Florida, where we're having the opposite problem," Penning said.

This particular mom snake was found after researchers tagged a male python with a radio transmitter and followed him in his search for a new mate. This method helps researchers locate and remove invasive snakes, as well as collect data for research, according to the preserve's Facebook post.

Originally published on Live Science.
In the chorus of Metal Firecracker, Lucinda Williams pleads with an ex, Dont tell anyone the secrets I told you.

Its one of many indelible moments on her breakthrough 1998 album Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.

Williams didnt spill those secrets on Sunday night at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, but she did reveal many of the stories behind the songs on Car Wheels during a special 20th anniversary concert.

As she and her three-piece band played the songs in album order, a montage of photos, home movie clips and handwritten lyrics played on a screen behind them.

The stories could be funny and moving, such as Williams recollections of songwriter Blaze Foley, the Drunken Angel of one of Car Wheels most-loved songs, and her former boyfriend Clyde Woodward, the subject of Lake Charles. (A photo of a delirious twentysomething Williams clutching Woodward in front of a white van flashed onscreen during the song.)

Others were cool aha moments: the Birney Imes photo that gave 2 Kool 2 Be 4-gotten its title; the I Found It bumper stickers  probably part of an evangelical Christian campaign  that were ubiquitous in Houston in the 70s and prompted Williams to write I Lost It.

RELATED: Watch Snoop Dogg's live DJ set at inaugural San Antonio music festival for $20

Some, though, like Williams account of the bass-playing road romance who apparently inspired a chunk of Car Wheels B side when he ditched her after the tour was over, were like the bit of grit at the core of a pearl. The songs written to stop the aggravation were much more valuable than the tales behind them.

Whether good or indifferent, the stories all tended to interrupt the flow necessary to a great concert.

Williams band Buick 6  guitarist Stuart Matthis, bass player David Sutton and drummer Butch Norton  sounded great. They played loud enough that one fan near the back of the orchestra section clamped her hands to her ears, but they were clear and distinct, and Williams vocals were always front and center.

And the songs, obviously, were strong  Lake Charles was lovely, and a fult-tilt boogie blowout of Joy was fit for the Fillmore. But the concert came to a halt after every one.

It was a little like watching a movie with the commentary track on  interesting for hard-core fans, but not the optimum way to enjoy the show.

Why is it so quiet in here? Williams asked at one point.

Its as if the audience and the band were waiting for permission to let loose, which they got at last in a too-brief set of songs following the Car Wheels finale Jackson.

As Williams and Buick 6 tore through Changed the Locks, Honey Bee and Foolishness, the almost 1,100 people inside the Tobin Center finally rose to their feet and started moving around.

As another Southern music icon once said, a little less conversation, a little more action can be a good thing.

Jim Kiest is the arts and entertainment editor for the San Antonio Express-News. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | jkiest@express-news.net | Twitter: @jimik64
Retired Army Col. Martin Dinan, director of veteran enrollment, and his newest assistant, retired Army Sgt. 1st Class Nick Lanier as well as other co-workers have successfully led an effort to make sure The College of Saint Rose in Albany remains among the best colleges that are friendly to military personnel and veterans.

For the 10th consecutive year, Saint Rose has been designated a "Military Friendly School" by Victory Media, publisher of G.I. Jobs and other military publications.

Based on a national survey, Victory Media also ranked Saint Rose as being No. 1 in the nation  for the fourth year in a row  among "Gold Standard" private colleges not offering a doctorate.

The 2019-2020 Military Friendly Schools list will be published in the May issue of G.I. Jobs magazine. The list can also be found at http://www.militaryfriendly.com.

According to Victory Media's ranking, "The College of Saint Rose is an excellent choice for service members and veterans based on the overlapping support to that population. Since World War II, the college has welcomed veterans and their families.

"Currently, the college has two full-time veterans who assist veterans and their family members with their applications, Veterans Affairs benefits, and health care. Additionally, the college has a 1,220-square-foot Veterans Center and separate veterans living residence."

The "Military Friendly School" designation from Victory Media is based on surveys completed by colleges and universities as well as veterans. The surveys cover academic policies and compliance, admissions and orientation, culture and commitment, financial aid and loan repayment, graduation and career outcomes, and military student support and retention.

"Last October, we were proud to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony for our new Veteran Residence, which houses student veterans and service members," said Saint Rose President Carolyn J. Stefanco. "That project was made possible through the generosity of the Massry Family, who have been long-standing supporters of Saint Rose and our student veterans, a commitment also evidenced by their $100,000 gift to support scholarships for those whose education is not fully funded by their military benefits. Together, we are a community that believes in supporting those who served. We continue to seek ways to ensure that our student veterans experience a smooth transition from military life to civilian life while furthering themselves through higher education."

Last year, Saint Rose hired a second veteran, Lanier, at its Veterans Center to double admissions and recruiting efforts. He is assistant director of veteran recruitment and enrollment.

A former U.S. history and social studies teacher, he earned his bachelor's degree in political science, international relations, and history at Saint Leo University in Saint Leo, Fla., graduating magna cum laude in 2015.

Lanier served in the Army from 1999 through 2012, when he was medically retired. He had served with Headquarters Company, 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry of the 25th Infantry Division. He had served as a chaplain assistant and a chemical specialist. The combat veteran served two deployments in the Iraq war and one in South Korea.

In Fall 2019, Saint Rose will become even more "friendly." The college will bring an Army Reserve Officers Training Corps leadership class closer to home when the course will be held on its campus in Albany so that ROTC students at Saint Rose no longer have to commute to Siena College in Loudonville to attend.

Dinan knows what veterans go through as they make the transition from military to college life.

"I am a veteran as well as a graduate of Saint Rose, so I can appreciate what that transition period for members of the military means," said Dinan, who served three combat deployments. "It's an honor to be a resource today to veterans, service members, and military family members, whether it's helping them to navigate their military benefits or connecting them with a service at the VA hospital, located not far from campus."

To find out more about the educational services Saint Rose provides to veterans and their families, visit http://www.strose.edu/veterans.

New airmen

Air National Guard Airman Owen Cobart of Ballston Spa and Air Force Airman Sean M. Daley of Rensselaer have graduated from basic training at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, San Antonio.

News of your troops and units can be sent to Duty Calls, Terry Brown, Times Union, Box 15000, Albany, NY 12212 or brownt@timesunion.com.
Laredo police have arrested a second person for allegedly stealing over $70,000 from a car repair business.

Marcos de Luna, 30, was served with an arrest warrant March 30. He was charged with felony theft. LPD made its first arrest in connection with the case on May 7 when police charged Andres Alejandro Torres, 41, with felony theft.

A theft report was filed Sept. 6 at A-1 Collision Super Center, off East Saunders Street. The complainant alleged that de Luna and Torres made duplicate purchase orders for parts that were never ordered or received.

"The discrepancy was discovered when a review of invoices was made, and duplicate orders were noticed for jobs that had already been completed or parts that had already been installed for a total of $72,830 lost," states a police report.

Authorities said the investigation yielded de Luna and Torres as the suspects. Webb County Jail records show each suspect is out on bond.
Cleveland ISD superintendent Darrell Myers gave updates and news about the districts proposed $250 million school bond during the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce Luncheon on April 4.

It is one of many stops on Myers tour around the community to give the facts about the bond and answer any questions people might have.

Its no secret that the school districts student population is growing and it needs more facilities for area children, Myers said.

Remember were not planning for next year, Myers said to the crowd at the luncheon. Were planning for three years down the road. Were already going to be over crowded next year. If we dont do something now to address the needs that were going to have in three years were really going to be in bad shape. At some point were going to need an additional high school.

However, an additional high school is not in Phase I of the 2019 bond referendum that will be voted on by Cleveland ISD residents on May 4.

Phase I of the bond includes a new elementary school that would have a capacity of 900 students and will cost $35 million. A new middle school would be added for 900 students and will cost $66 million. Cleveland ISD would also spend $24 million to renovate Northside Elementary.

Several schools in the district have reached their capacity and portables have been brought in to handle the additional students.

About 1,000 new students have enrolled in Cleveland ISD this year for a 17.3 percent growth rate this school year, leading to more than $3 million in costs for portable buildings.

The district has 53 portables already and will buy an additional 22-25 this summer for next year.

The portables will cost about $75,000 to get set up, Myers said. Theyre not really good investments. I talked with a local person here that is in the portable business and they said that we will lucky to get 12 years out of them. Thats not really a good return on our money.

It will be up to residents within Cleveland ISDs boundaries to decide if the bond will be passed.

Early voting will be from April 22-30th at the Cleveland Civic Center. Election day will be from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday May 4 at the Civic Center and also at the First Baptist Church Plum Grove.

Remaining school bond meetings

Thursday 4/11, Middle School Campus Mtg., 3:30 PM, Cleveland Middle School

Tuesday 4/16, Community Corner Radio Show 9:00 AM, Texas Emergency Hospital Cafeteria

Tuesday 4/16, Town Hall Meeting, 7:00 PM, CISD Administration Office Board Room

Thursday 4/18, DLA & DAEP Campus Mtg., 3:15 PM, Douglass Learning Academy

Thursday 4/18, Northside Campus Meeting, 4:30 PM, Northside Elementary

marcus.gutierrez@chron.com
The Cinco Ranch High School Future Business Leaders of America chapter is hosting an April event for families and friends to have fun while benefiting The Arc of Katy.

The second annual Color For a Cause 5K will be at the high school, 23440 Cinco Ranch Blvd., on Saturday, April 13, starting at 8 a.m.

As of April 1, Cinco Ranch High School senior Mizuki Kurata, chapter executive vice president and event organizer, is halfway toward her goal of registering 120 participants for the event which includes a 5K around the high school as well as a shorter 1K. Both events will start at 8 a.m. at the same start line, with the 1K participants turning to take the shorter route, she said. Participants along both routes will be showered with colored cornstarch, she added.

Its for a good cause, she said, explaining that The Arc of Katy is a nonprofit that provides a place for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to socialize and learn.

The Arc of Katy relocated its day program to 5819 10th St. in Katy after Hurricane Harvey flooded its former location at the Monty Ballard YMCA's Camp. They day program is open to those 18 and older and includes a variety of activities from recreational outings to community-based trips.

Fred Shafer, president of The Arc of Katy, said, Last year we had a number of members of The Arc of Katy participate in the run as well as board members. Its just a fun time. He promises to be there again this year with a group of walkers. They throw colored powder on you and by the end of the run youre covered with all different colors, said Shafer. Its fun.

Kurata said the second annual Color for a Cause will raise funds to help the nonprofit. In its first year, the event raised $5,600. This years goal is $5,000, she said.

Shafer said, We use the money that comes through the Color For a Cause to support programs we provide through The Arc of Katy. Its not earmarked for a specific activity.

In addition to the day program, the Arc of Katy offers a Be Strong water aerobics and exercise program, he said, as well as a three-session summer program for individuals with intellectual and development disabilities 14 and older.

The summer program operates pretty much like a day program, Shafer said. We go to different places in the community and have them exposed to different things in the Katy community.

Monthly socials also are scheduled. That might be a popcorn or movie night or the Jingle Bell Jam at Christmas and the barn dance in November, he said.

March 31 was the deadline to register and receive a T-shirt for the Color For a Cause event. Registration will be accepted the day of the event, Kurata said, though organizers are encouraging people to register before then. Paper registration is $35. A processing fee is charged for online registration. Visit ColorForACause.weebly.com for information.

Packet pickup will be available from 3-8 p.m. April 12 in the main commons of Cinco Ranch High School.

It (Color for a Cause) is a neat opportunity to socialize with friends and family, said Kurata. The event will feature four to five food trucks/local restaurants. A small group of band students will perform music. Kurata said people might want to wear face masks if the colored cornstarch that will be thrown upon participants might bother them.

Kurata has volunteered with participants of The Katy Arc and said members of the FBLA chapter regularly volunteer at The Brookwood Community in Brookshire. The nonprofit Brookwood serves as a residential facility and offers a vocational program for adults with disabilities. The chapter has about 180 members, said Kurata, who plans to attend next year the University of Texas at Austin and major in government.

Visit www.thearcofkaty.org for more information about Color For a Cause and for The Arc of Katys May 3 major fundraising gala at the Omni Houston Hotel at Westside. The nonprofit will recognize two hometown heroes: Someone who goes above and beyond doing things for the community of Katy and someone who has dedicated time and effort to advocate for individuals with disabilities, Shafer said.

karen.zurawski@chron.com
The Texas Department of Transportation is proposing to widen FM 529 between the Grand Parkway and FM 362 and will take public comments on the project on April 30.

The meeting from 5:30-7:30 p.m. will be an open-house format with no formal presentation at Patricia E. Paetow High School ninth-grade center, 23111 Stockdick Road in Katy.

The deadline to comment on the project is May 15. Email hou-piowebmail@txdot.gov to submit a written comment or send comments to TxDOT Houston District Office, director of project development, P.O. Box 1386, Houston, Texas 77251. People also may visit http://tinyurl.com/yxgp6e3h for information.

FM 529 is a two-lane undivided roadway, one lane in each direction, with four-foot outside shoulders and open ditches. The proposed project would widen it to six lanes with a raised median between SH 99 and Katy Hockley Cut Off Road and to four lanes with raised median from Katy Hockley Cut Off to FM 362.

TxDOT started studying the road widening in July 2018, said Emily Black, a TxDOT spokeswoman. Initially, the road segment from SH 99 to FM 362 also was going to be four lanes, but that changed because of anticipated growth.

Residential and commercial growth along FM 529 within Harris County is expected to increase rapidly over the next 25 years, explained Black. The Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) has identified several planned developments along FM 529 that would generate approximately 6,400 housing units by 2045.

Other factors include Katys fast-growing population and scheduled expansion by the school district.

Black said, Katy Independent School District has identified a 157-acre site, adjacent to Katy Hockley Road north of FM 529, on which would be constructed new junior high school and high school campuses.

More Information Want to Go? What: Texas Department of Transportation will hold an open-house meeting on proposed widening of FM 529 When: 5:30-7:30 p.m. April 30 Where: Paetow High School ninth-grade center, 23111 Stockdick School Road in Katy See More Collapse

Widening from two to four lanes between SH 99 and Katy Hockley Cut Off Road would not be adequate to accommodate the projected traffic volumes for the year 2038 and 2045, she said. The projected Average Daily Traffic(ADT) for the year 2038 is 52,450 and projected ADT for the year 2045 is 59,800.

The estimated construction cost is $120 million, said Black. TxDOT will likely need about 88 acres of right of way.

The exact amount is not known at this time, said Black. The north/south/center options will be presented to the public during the public meeting on April 30. Once we get further into the project design the exact amount of ROW can be calculated, she said.

Construction timing is dependent on project funding, continued Black. The project is currently unfunded.

She listed the next steps for the project:

Review and consider public comments (spring 2019)

Develop proposed recommended alternative (spring - winter 2019)

Finalize the environmental analysis (fall 2020)

Publish draft environmental assessment (fall 2020)

Conduct public hearing (fall 2020)

Finalize environmental assessment (winter 2020)

karen.zurawski@chron.com
The Baltimore City Council called Monday for Mayor Catherine Pugh to step down over her children's book scandal, and state lawmakers from Baltimore quickly followed suit.

In a letter to the Mayor Monday, the city council said the "entire membership of the Baltimore City Council believes that it is not in the best interest of the City of Baltimore, for you to continue to serve as Mayor. We urge you to tender your resignation, effective immediately."

Pugh, who took an indefinite leave of absence for medical reasons last week, said hours later that she has been focused "on recovering from pneumonia and regaining her health."

"She fully intends to resume the duties of her office and continuing her work on behalf of the people and the City of Baltimore," Pugh said in a statement released by her office said. City Council President Bernard "Jack" Young, a Democrat, is serving as acting mayor.

Pugh was heavily criticized after the Baltimore Sun reported that she was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for her "Healthy Holly" book series, in most cases by businesses and organizations that work with the government and on whose board she was sitting.

The series follows an African American girl named Holly and is meant to encourage healthy living.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, has requested an investigation by the state prosecutor, and Comptroller Peter Franchot, a Democrat, has said Pugh should leave office.

House delegation said Monday evening that it was "not in the best interests of Baltimore" for Pugh to remain in office."The position of mayor is not a revolving door," Del. Cheryl Glenn, D-Baltimore, said. "We hope the mayor will do what is best for the city of Baltimore."

Senate President Mike Miller, D-Calvert County, said Monday that Baltimore is in urgent need of good leadership. "I'm not getting involved in the politics of Baltimore City, but if she's going to step back, she needs to do so quickly," Miller told reporters.

Pugh's biggest known book deal involved the University of Maryland Medical System, which paid her $500,000 for 100,000 books. Pugh was a longtime member of the hospital system's board, and as a state senator before she was mayor she pushed legislation that would have benefitd the hospital system.

She was one of nine board members with lucrative contracts with the hospital system. Those board members, including Pugh, have either resigned or taken leaves of absence since the Sun's report. Pugh also returned $100,000 for the last order in the series, which she said is not complete.

The Sun also reported that Pugh was paid more than $100,000 for her books from Kaiser Permanente and $80,000 from Associated Black Charities.

Around the same time she was making money from her book deals, city officials said, Kaiser received a $48 million contract.

Pugh issued an apology last month for her book deals.

"I sincerely want to say that I apologize that I have done something to upset the people of Baltimore," she said at an appearance on March 28. "I never intended to do anything that could not stand up to scrutiny."

- - -

The Washington Post's Ovetta Wiggins contributed to this report.
"Despite what some may try to tell you. . . Education Freedom Scholarships are privately funded and do not take any money from public schools." - Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, in a tweet , April 2, 2019

- - -

These scholarships are a big part of DeVos's plans to expand school choice because they would fund private or religious education for students who otherwise might be going to public schools.

It's "the most transformative education proposal" in the Trump administration's budget plan, the Education Department says. DeVos tweeted that Education Freedom Scholarships "do not take any money from public schools."

"Privately funded scholarships improve the educational experiences of students across the country, without taking a single dollar away from public schools and the students who attend them," the Education Department says in a fact sheet.

But the individuals and businesses privately funding these scholarships would get a dollar-for-dollar tax credit under DeVos' proposal. President Donald Trump's 2020 budget plan includes a $5 billion tax expenditure for these credits. "Because it is a tax credit, it will not divert a single dollar away from public schools or teachers," the Education Department says.

Is that really how it works?

Although there are some key differences, DeVos' proposal resembles the "voucher" programs in some states, which use taxpayer dollars to fund private or religious education. Eighteen states run their own tax-credit scholarship programs, according to EdChoice. DeVos' plan is to support such state programs with a new federal tax credit. (The libertarian Cato Institute says tax-credit scholarships are better-designed and more legally sound than vouchers.)

Here's how the DeVos plan would work:

- States would have the option of participating, but they would not be forced to do so. "Each participating state will determine how it will structure its program, including eligible students, education providers, and education expenses," the Education Department says.

- Participating states would have to identify "scholarship-granting organizations." These are typically nonprofits that offer scholarships to low-income or special-needs students.

- Individuals and businesses donating to these scholarship-granting organizations "are eligible to receive a non-refundable, dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit, but no contributor will be allowed a total tax benefit greater than the amount of their contribution," the Education Department says.

- Then, depending on how a state structured its program, the scholarships could be used for a range of expenses. "Families receive and control the use of scholarships for their child's elementary and secondary education, which may include career and technical education, apprenticeships, and dual and concurrent enrollment," the Education Department says, as well as "private and home education," "advanced, remedial, and elective courses," "industry certifications," "special education services and therapies," "transportation to education providers outside of a family's zoned school," "tutoring, especially for students in low-performing schools," and "summer and afterschool education programs."

Federal taxpayers may not be funding these scholarships directly, but they would be footing up to $5 billion of the cost in lost revenue from the new tax credits. That means forgoing revenue that could have been used on building roads or paying teacher salaries.

The Education Department said in its budget request:

"The most transformative education proposal in the President's Budget Request is not a part of the Department of Education's fiscal year 2020 budget, but rather is proposed in the request for the Department of Treasury. It is a federal tax credit for voluntary donations to State-designed scholarship programs for elementary and secondary students, capped at $5.0 billion per year. This tax credit is available to individuals and domestic businesses. The donations will empower States to offer scholarships that can be used on a wide range of public and private educational activities. States, not the federal government, will determine family eligibility requirements and allowable uses of scholarship funds. Because it is a tax credit, it will not divert a single dollar away from public schools or teachers."

This comes at the same time that the Education Department is proposing to reduce its own budget by 12 percent, or $8.8 billion. That includes cuts to programs to manage class sizes and fund teacher development, services for students and technology, critics note.

"For the third year in a row, the president's dead-on-arrival federal budget proposal prioritizes privatization, reverts to post-sequester spending levels, and underinvests in critical education supports and programs, threatening to revert trends in student attendance, graduation, and performance," said Noelle Ellerson Ng, associate executive director of the School Superintendents Association.

Here's how the Education Department addresses the cuts:

"The 2020 Request promotes fiscal discipline and supports priorities to improve the quality of education and prepare students for the workforce of the 21st century. The Request would implement fundamental reforms aimed at reducing the size and scope of the Federal role in education, while empowering States, communities, and parents to improve the performance of our schools and postsecondary institutions. As such, the Request eliminates funding for 29 programs that do not address national needs, duplicate other programs, are ineffective, or are more appropriately supported with State, local, or private funds."

For example, roughly $74 million would be cut in "impact aid," a reduction from $1.44 billion to $1.37 billion in Trump's budget. The Education Department sends impact aid to school districts on federally owned lands, which are exempt from paying local property taxes. Those school districts would be in a pickle without impact aid because property tax revenue commonly goes toward funding public schools.

The Education Department justifies this proposed cut by noting "the President's overall goal of increasing support for national security and public safety without adding to the Federal budget deficit."

So, the Education Department is proposing to cut its own budget by $8.8 billion. Simultaneously, the Treasury Department is contemplating a $5 billion tax expenditure for the Education Freedom Scholarship credits that DeVos has made a priority.

Taxpayer dollars would not be used directly on the scholarships, and there's no direct comparison to be made between the $8.8 billion in cuts at Education and the $5 billion tax expenditure at Treasury.

But these seem like distinctions without a difference. What's being proposed is a dollar-for-dollar tax credit, meaning taxpayers would end up footing the cost of the scholarships (albeit indirectly and capped at $5 billion) even if the private sector is fronting the money.

Meanwhile, the Education Department is justifying the proposed cuts to its budget in terms of "fiscal discipline" and "the President's overall goal of increasing support for national security and public safety without adding to the Federal budget deficit." DeVos and the Trump administration are choosing to fund the tax credits while choosing to cut the department's programs.

"While the tax credit would forgo revenue from federal coffers, it certainly would not draw on dollars headed to public schools," wrote Nat Malkus of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. "EFS would be no more in competition with public-school funding than would investments in highways or defense expenditures. And while it would support private school choice in some states - as states have the responsibility and flexibility to set the contours of the programs - it could just as easily be used to drive educational options that are much more popular on the left.

"For instance, California could use EFS to fund pre-K scholarships for low income students. That's hundreds of millions of dollars that California preschoolers would be hard-pressed to get from a constrained state budget."

The Education Department did not respond to a request for comment.

A clever bureaucratic design cannot paper over the reality of money going in and out. In this case, DeVos' plan does not involve a $5 billion line item in her department's budget. Rather, it's a tax expenditure in the Treasury Department. That's a bit of an artifice to us.

Getting down to brass tacks, the federal government would be forgoing up to $5 billion in revenue to cover the cost of DeVos's Education Freedom Scholarships. Private actors may be fronting this money with their donations, but they would get a dollar-for-dollar tax credit in return. That's money that could have been put to another use, such as public schools or the military.

We were on the fence between Two and Three Pinocchios. But as we looked through the Education Department's budget request, we found unequivocal statements that some programs were being cut as a matter of "fiscal discipline" or to meet "the President's overall goal of increasing support for national security and public safety without adding to the Federal budget deficit."

Once you open that door, what's the difference between cutting school programs to support national security and cutting them to support tax-credit scholarships? Both of them - national security and EFS scholarships - would fall outside the Education Department's budget request.

It pushed us to Three Pinocchios. DeVos' carefully worded tweet leaves out any mention of the tax credits. Her claim that public schools would not lose funding to the scholarship program may be accurate in a technical, budgeting sense. But it's clear where her priorities lie: $5 billion for the tax credits, but "fiscal discipline" and $8.8 billion less for her department's programs.
In the Trump era, one of the loudest voices trying to challenge what it means to be a Christian in the current political sphere is a married, gay, small-town mayor from the same state that gave Americans Vice President Mike Pence.

While most Democrats eyeing a 2020 run spend most of their time critiquing President Donald Trump, Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has set his sights on Pence, the former governor of Indiana - and specifically his history on LGBT issues.

In 2016, when some white evangelicals - a group that continues to give Trump some of his highest approval ratings - struggled to get behind the Trump campaign, it was the addition of Pence, a social conservative with deep ties to conservative evangelicalism, that helped convince them that a Trump presidency would take consistently socially conservative stances on LGBT issues, abortion and other issues the group values. Pence had long won praise from conservative Christians for openly discussing his opposition to LGBT rights.

But it was those same positions on LGBT issues that earned him high levels of disapproval with LGBT Americans. Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, one of the country's largest gay rights groups, previously said:

"Mike Pence has made a career out of attacking the rights and equal dignity of LGBTQ people, women and other marginalized communities. Now, as vice president, he poses one of the greatest threats to equality in the history of our movement. With the world distracted by Donald Trump's scandal-ridden White House, Mike Pence's nefarious agenda has been allowed to fly under the radar for too long."

Since heading to Washington, Pence has repeatedly attempted to persuade Americans - specifically conservative Christians - that the Trump presidency has been one of the most supportive of the values of conservative Christians in history. But the 2020 campaign has birthed a slew of candidates who are pushing back on the idea that the Trump agenda is consistent with Christian values by explaining how their liberal values have shaped their political worldview. And in recent weeks, Buttigieg is one of the individuals who has done it most.

At a Sunday event for the Victory Fund, a nonprofit that helps elect LGBT people win office, Buttigieg shared how his marriage to his husband, Chasten Buttigieg - a marriage that Pence and most conservative Christians would argue is inconsistent with marriage as defined by the Christian faith - actually made him closer to God. He told the audience:

"Being married to Chasten has made me a better human being because it has made me more compassionate, more understanding, more self-aware and more decent. My marriage to Chasten has made me a better man. And yes, Mr. Vice President, it has moved me closer to God."

The words were met with huge applause with dozens standing on their feet affirming Buttigieg's statement that being gay and a faithful Christian aren't mutually exclusive. But as the 37-year-old veteran continues to engage in the culture war on this issue, some conservative Christians have pushed back by attempting to dismiss the Episcopalian's faith altogether.

Conservative writer Erick Erickson wrote on Twitter: "If Buttigieg thinks evangelicals should be supporting him instead of Trump, he fundamentally does not understand the roots of Christianity. But then he is an Episcopalian, so he might not actually understand Christianity more than superficially."

And in a takedown of Buttigieg's values, Fox News host Laura Ingraham stated: "Now he says he's a traditional Episcopalian, whatever that means these days."

As interest in Buttigieg grows, so to will interest in his idea that while Trump may be the "evangelical dream president," he has been a nightmare for Christians whose faith is more liberal when it comes to LGBT issues, women's rights, racial reconciliation and other topics related to diversity. This approach is not likely to win the white evangelicals and white Catholics who find common ground with Trumpism, but these aren't really the Americans Buttigieg appears to be targeting. He seems to be interested in winning the majority of Americans who believe that a great America includes a more inclusive Christianity.
Washington

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 that U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan would be taking over as acting head of the department.

And while New York state may seem far removed from the turmoil on the Mexican border, local activists said Sunday evening that Nielsen's policies have had a strong local impact.

"Nielsen was in charge of policies like family separation and the crisis at the border that the administration created last summer that led to what happened at the Albany County jail," said Camille Mackler, director of immigration legal policy at the New York Immigration Coalition, referring to the more than 300 migrants from the southern border who were housed temporarily in the local jail.

"They hold really broad powers over immigration that could trickle down to local immigrant communities and how they're adjudicating immigration applications and enforcing laws," Mackler added.

Sarah Rogerson, an Albany Law School professor who represents locally detained immigrants, said the change is likely to usher in even harsher anti-immigrant policies.

"Many of our clients have already been negatively impacted by Trump's policies," Rogerson said. "We continue to fight for their rights under law."

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 the sprawling Homeland Security agency, founded to combat terrorism following the Sept. 11 attacks.

Mackler said the choice of McAleenan as the temporary head of the agency shows that the government is prioritizing immigration  and especially the borders.

New Yorkers may have already felt the effects of the policies of Customs and Border Protection, the agency McAleenan currently oversees, which is active in parts of upstate New York.

The New York Civil Liberties Union released an analysis last week of hundreds of pages of records obtained from more than 200 Border Patrol stops between November 2016 and March 2017; it showed that local police in upstate New York call Border Patrol on suspicion that Latinos lack valid immigration status and hold people for the agency to arrest.

New York's elected officials also responded to the news of Nielsen's resignation Sunday night.

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who is running for president, tweeted that she had voted against Nielsen's nomination and had called for her resignation "over the administration's inhumane treatment of immigrant families six months ago."

Sen. Charles Schumer, the Senate minority leader, tweeted: "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."

Though Trump aides were eyeing a staff shakeup 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 on Sunday not knowing whether she'd be fired or would resign, and she ended up resigning, they said.

Her resignation letter, obtained by The Associated Press, had not a whiff of controversy, unlike those from 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 other issues 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.

Times Union reporter Mallory Moench contributed to this story.
The head of a Maryland chapter of a prominent Pakistani political party has been accused of threatening to "slaughter" a man and his family in their Virginia home, according to Fairfax County, Virginia, police and a search warrant.

Qaiser Ali, 53, of Halethorpe, Maryland, was arrested Thursday and is facing a single felony count of promising to kill the unnamed victims via a message and video in Urdu posted to Twitter in November, police said. Police declined to say what they think prompted the threats.

Ali is the head of the Baltimore, Maryland, chapter of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, or MQM, party, which has been linked to violence in Pakistan in the past and has been the subject of a crackdown by Pakistani authorities in recent years that has been criticized by human rights groups. The party is secular and has a base of support in Pakistan's largest city, Karachi. The party's founder, Altaf Hussain, fled Pakistan in the early 1990s and lives in London.

"We the loyalist faithful workers of Brother Altaf Hussain are, willing God, we will storm through and kill (slaughter) you in/at the house," the tweet read in part, according to a translation by police contained in a search warrant filed in Fairfax County court.

The victim told police that he and his family feared for their lives because he knew people who had been executed at the direction of MQM leadership, according to the search warrant. Police said the victim told detectives that he had once been involved with MQM. Ali and the victim apparently were known to each other.

"There was no indication that the suspect made any plans to carry out the threat that was communicated," detective Chad Mahoney wrote in an email to The Washington Post.

Mahoney wrote that police had not uncovered any evidence that Ali possessed weapons or knew the victims' address.

Ali did not immediately respond to a message sent to him on Twitter. His phone number is not listed, and court records do not list an attorney for him. Messages to the Baltimore chapter of MQM and the national organization were not returned.

Fairfax County police launched their investigation in November after the victim contacted them about the Twitter message, according to the search warrant, which was filed to obtain information about an IP address. The victim and two other witnesses told police that they believed Ali was responsible for the post.

Detectives eventually tied the threats to Ali via electronic records, according to the search warrant. Ali's Twitter account features praise of Hussain and commentary on Pakistani politics.

In 2016, Ali was charged in Baltimore with second-degree assault and possessing a dangerous weapon with intent to harm, but the charges were eventually dropped.

Ali's arraignment in Fairfax County is scheduled for Thursday.
A group of nurses in Illinois bonded a father out of jail after rushing his choking daughter to the hospital landed him behind bars.

Darius Hinkle told Fox 2 his heart dropped when he noticed his 1-year-old was choking on a penny.

"The first thing in my mind was, 'get her to the hospital,'" Hinkle said. "That's my daughter. I'm not going to let anything happen to her."

Hinkle admits there were lights and sirens behind him for miles as he sped 100 mph to the hospital. Finally, he arrived at the hospital with his daughter and the girl's mother.

'SOMETHING SNAPPED': Grandma allegedly shot, killed twins before overdosing

"They told us to get out and put our hands up. And I got out, I put my hands up and I yelled and I told the police my baby is choking. And I told them multiple times that she was choking. They were just worried about the fact that we were speeding," Donecia Pittman said.

Hinkle was arrested and taken to jail. In addition to the speeding, he also does not have a valid driver's license.

Pittman said she arrived at the jail when a woman she didn't recognize said she was there to bond Hinkle out.

"Somebody was up there and said 'I am here to bond out Darius Hinkle.' And I was looking like, I didn't know who it was. And when I looked out the door to see who it was she spoke and she said, 'I'm the nurse from Touchette hospital,'" Pittman said.

The hospital confirmed a group of nurses chipped in to pay the father's bond.

The couple said they are so grateful.

"I just, I mean, I can't thank them enough," Hinkle said.
WASHINGTON - U.S. Secret Service Director Randolph "Tex" Alles will be stepping down from his post, the latest in a string of departures from President Donald Trump's administration.

Alles "has done a great job at the agency over the last two years, and the President is thankful for his over 40 years of service to the country," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement. "Mr. Alles will be leaving shortly and President Trump has selected James M. Murray, a career member of the USSS, to take over as director beginning in May."

The departure of the Secret Service chief comes amid a broader shake-up in the Department of Homeland Security. On Sunday, Trump announced that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen would be stepping down. Last week, Trump said he was rescinding his nomination of Ronald Vitiello to be director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, saying he wanted to go in a "tougher" direction. Both Alles and Vitiello reported to Nielsen.

Security protocols around Trump have come under scrutiny in recent days after an apparent security breach at the president's Florida resort.

Secret Service agents arrested a Chinese woman after she gained access to the reception area of the Mar-a-Lago Club last month, saying they found she was carrying two passports and a thumb drive containing malicious software, according to court documents. Prosecutors say the woman, Yujing Zhang, first approached a Mar-a-Lago security checkpoint March 30 and told security officials she was there to go to the swimming pool.

Management at Trump's Palm Beach property, where individuals pay a fee to obtain memberships that can provide proximity to the president, allowed the woman to bypass security, prosecutors said. Zhang was ultimately stopped after a receptionist questioned her.

Trump said that the incident was a "fluke," and that security at his Mar-a-Lago resort was sufficient.

"I could not be happier with Secret Service," Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday. "Secret Service has done a fantastic job from day one. Very happy with them."

The Secret Service issued a statement after the woman was caught, appearing to lay blame for the security breach on management at Trump's club.

"The Secret Service does not determine who is invited or welcome at Mar-a-Lago; this is the responsibility of the host entity," the agency said.

CNN first reported that Alles was being ousted from the administration.

Trump selected Alles, a retired Marine Corps general and former acting deputy commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, in 2017. He was the first Secret Service director in at least 100 years not from the agency's ranks.

After his departure was made public Monday, Alles sent a message to the Secret Service workforce, saying it was "not the case" that he had been fired by Trump.

"The President has directed an orderly transition in leadership for this agency and I intend to abide by that direction," Alles said. "It is my sincere regret that I was not able to address the workforce prior to this announcement."

In a conversation with Alles about two weeks ago, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said there would be "transitions in leadership" throughout the DHS, according to an agency official who was not authorized to speak publicly.

After the discussion with Mulvaney, which took place before the Mar-a-Lago security incident, there were no further talks on the subject until today, when reporters started calling the Secret Service to say they were hearing Alles was being forced out, the official said.

"Secret Service employees are shocked, bewildered, it's just very unexpected," said the DHS official. "There has been no contentiousness, everything has been fine, but the director and the president had no past connection, and they wanted changes throughout DHS."

Murray, who began at the service in 1995 and serves as assistant director for the Secret Service Office of Protective Operations, plans to take over as director next month.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., released a statement Monday, calling for Alles to testify before Congress about Mar-a-Lago and any security issues the president's club poses.

"The outgoing Secret Service director must testify before Congress as soon as possible about the potential security vulnerabilities at Mar-a-Lago involving a Chinese national arrested with malware, and other counterintelligence and national security threats," Schumer said in the statement.

Rich Staropoli, a former Secret Service agent and former senior Homeland Security Department official under Trump, said the president appears to be booting several key people who got their jobs at the urging of former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.

"He was pushed by John Kelly," Staropoli said. "The president likes generals. But now it looks like he's cleaning house. "Staropoli said the number of changes in directors at the service is dizzying.

"The Secret Service is a culture that doesn't handle change too well," he said. "To keep changing directors - this guy's only been there two years - isn't a good way for the Secret Service to operate."

"This feels like getting rid of all of the friends of Kelly," said Jonathan Wackrow, a former member of President Barack Obama's detail.

Wackrow said Alles was heralded as the first "outsider" who would have a better shot at addressing major security and misconduct problems that had plagued the service during the Obama administration and the early part of Trump's tenure. But he hasn't been able to fix some of the service's long-standing problems, Wackrow said, including difficulty in hiring and retaining officers who help patrol the White House.

"He got immediately tainted by the inside," Wackrow said. "He had to get his institutional knowledge from the people who caused the problems over the years."

- - -

The Washington Post's Devlin Barrett and David Fahrenthold contributed to this report.
Some folks have a strong business resume; others have a stellar life resume.

It seems Jacksonville native Henry Warrington Kent may have fit the latter description  in three chapters or more.

A World War II fighter pilot who earned nine Bronze Stars, a Distinguished Flying Cross, an Air Medal and eight Oak Leaf clusters, and more, he later sold cartoons to the Denver Post before earning his masters degree and becoming an educator teaching science and physics at the high school and university levels  yes, and more.

The war hero, scholar, scientist and family man who spent the last quarter-century of his life wintering in Bakersfield, California, and summering near St. Louis died March 20 at his Webster Groves, Missouri, home surrounded by family. He was 96.

My father never talked about the war, said his daughter, Karen Waller. We were never clear on his medal count until we found his discharge papers.

He was an Illinois flyboy, she said, which he hated to be called.

After enlisting following the attack on Pearl Harbor and training for months, Kent was deployed to Egypt on his 20th birthday in January 1943. Amazingly, he served first under British command, as the Brits were well-established in North Africa long before the United States  which joined the war effort late because of strong isolationist sentiment among many Americans.

He would fly more than 70 missions in the North African theater, Waller said.

His ultimate commander at the time was not an American general but a Brit, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, known by the troops, the public and the press as Monty.

Monty was all business, Waller remembers her father telling her. And the stress was extreme for pilots, whether they were escorting bombers on long missions or patrolling the coastlines of Sicily and Libya.

Only 20 percent of Kents squadron survived the war, Waller said. It was a gut-wrenching statistic, one of many that would leave Kent with a sense that there is no glory in war, that it was a mean though sometimes necessary business. But it wasnt to be treated or talked about like some jaunty adventure or ego exercise.

Kent would see action over Libya, Tunisia, Sicily, Naples and other areas. And he would survive crashes, a loose live bomb during one landing and other disasters and near disasters. He even witnessed a suicide by plane by one of his comrades, an incident that also hit him hard.

By the time he arrived home for Christmas 1943, he was a changed man. But the course of the war was changing, too, thanks to Kent and millions of other men and women who had donned uniforms to oppose the fascist Nazi dictator and his armies.

During his time back in the States, he met and married Mildred Millie Mason after knowing her for just a few weeks. Romance often was hurried during the war years, when young men didnt know if they would live to their mid-20s and young women couldnt know for sure if their lovers would ever come home.

Despite their whirlwind romance, Henry and Millie would remain married 75 years.

Despite his heroic performance in the North African campaign and the invasion of Sicily, Kent went back into the heat of battle in January 1945, when he was deployed to France.

But something in him had changed, he told his daughter years later.

He told me he lost his edge, she said. He was in love and he had someone waiting for him at home. Now he had something to lose.

By the time it was all over, the World War II fighter pilot had flown some 140 missions, extending his reach to Central Europe, the Rhineland and other regions. He turned down offers to stay in the Army Air Force and make a career of it.

Instead, he went home, started a family and exercised his creative side, his daughter said, selling cartoons to the Denver Post.

He soon went back to school, earned a masters degree in physics and became an educator, teaching science and physics at the high school and university levels.

Growing up I didnt realize how much of a bad ass my grandpa was, said Kents granddaughter Cassie Packard, who grew up in Bakersfield and moved away to go to college. She now lives in Michigan.

I saw my grandpa as an old man who told long stories, loved his candy and enjoyed hearing my grandma play the piano, she said. Looking back on it now that Im older, I realize he was such a smart, hardworking, brave and fearless man.

He never bragged about his accomplishments, she said. And yet he was incredibly accomplished.

He helped start the avionics program at Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology at St. Louis University, his family said. And he worked decades with McDonnell Douglas and Emerson Electric using that beautiful mind, his daughter said, working on perfecting the F-15 and F-18 jet fighters.

As a child, Packard said, she was artistic, and her grandpa always encouraged her to stay with it.

I loved sneaking into his bedroom where he had an art studio, she recalled. I would sneak in there and flip through his sketchpad and draw some things to surprise him with later. I loved hearing his feedback on my drawings. It would always make me strive to be better.

She went on to pursue art in college and fell in love with photography. She now has a thriving wedding and family photography business and believes she gets much of her talent from her grandfather.

I didnt realize all the amazing things about my grandpa when I was little, she said. He was just my grandpa. But now he is an example to me to never let fear stop you from achieving your potential.

Some 26 years ago, Bakersfield became his retirement home. He loved it.

Once you go to Bakersfield, its hard to leave, Waller said. Thats what he told me.

But in some ways, he never could escape the war.

It took a huge toll on him, his daughter said.

He was near the end of his life when he told Waller about strafing a group of what he believed to be German SS troops  the elite members of the German army  on a hillside in Sicily.

They were all dressed in black, he told her. The signature SS uniform.

But when he came around for a second pass in his fighter, he first saw the hooves of a dead horse. Then he saw the casket. And the world crashed in on him.

He realized in horror that it was a Sicilian funeral procession.

That incident and others left him believing, deep down, that he was guilty of a sin that could not be forgiven.

I tried to tell him that through his actions, he helped save millions, Waller said.

Indeed, if Hitler hadnt been stopped by the gargantuan efforts of the Allies in World War II  and men like Kent  millions more might have perished in the concentration camps and the Nazi gas chambers and on the battlefields of Europe and beyond.

What a life he led. What a sacrifice he made.

My dad, huh? his daughter said. What a guy.
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump is ratcheting up his attacks on immigration - making and then rescinding a threat to close the nation's southern border in response to a problem that has worsened on his watch. He's reviving his assault on the Affordable Care Act - frustrated by a Democratic law that has only grown more popular since his inauguration. And he is escalating his complaints about unfair trade practices - even while presiding over a ballooning trade deficit he promised to eliminate.

These key themes from Trump's 2016 victory are emerging again as the pillars of his 2020 campaign, centered on a foreboding, populist message about the perils of lax immigration policies, socialist health-care plans and foreign economic threats. He has returned to similar subjects repeatedly throughout his presidency, helping him hold on to a strong base of Republican support.

But Trump's dark warnings pose a central conundrum for his reelection effort: Can he win the White House a second time by railing against the very problems he promised to fix?

Trump allies are betting the strategy will work again by bolstering enthusiasm among his most avid supporters, particularly older white voters in the upper Midwest who clinched his victory the last time. But the approach also risks alienating moderate suburban voters, including those who took a chance on Trump's candidacy in hopes that his dealmaker persona would overcome Washington gridlock.

"The bet that they're making is still the same one - that this is going to be a base election, not an election on persuasion, and so he's hitting his key issues," said Doug Heye, a former spokesman for the Republican House leadership and the Republican National Committee. "The challenge they face is it was, and will be, a very fine needle to thread. There's not much margin for error."

Kayleigh McEnany, a Trump campaign spokeswoman, said the president has a wide range of accomplishments to press in his case for reelection, a pitch she expects both Trump and the campaign to make.

"President Trump has delivered and will continue to on the issues of health care, border security, and trade," she said. "To suggest otherwise is to deny the facts. We will be running on the president's successes on these issues and a myriad of others."

Several recent reversals on those issues illustrate the difficulty Trump could face over the next 19 months as he attempts to bridge the gap between his fiery rhetoric and more complicated reality.

Late last month, for example, Trump overruled several top advisers when he directed the Justice Department to sign on to a lawsuit aimed at throwing out the health-care law known as Obamacare, declaring that Republicans would write their own replacement.

"We'll have a plan that is far better than Obamacare," Trump vowed at the time, adding that Republicans would "soon be known as the party of health care."

Republican leaders reacted with alarm, fearing that health care would be a political loser for them, especially with a Democratic-run House able to block any GOP proposal. After a week, Trump relented, punting any real action on health care until 2021.

The president also backed off his threat to shut down the border with Mexico, the latest of his many proposed schemes to stem the flow of tens of thousands of Central American migrants entering the United States each month.

Six days after tweeting he would be closing the border "next week" if Mexico did not "immediately stop ALL illegal immigration coming into the United States," Trump announced Thursday that he was instead giving Mexico a "one-year warning" before taking action.

The climb-down came after Republican leaders and business executives warned him that shutting down the border would be catastrophic for the economy.

Tim Murtaugh, communications director for the campaign, criticized "the constant moving of the goal posts" by Democrats in areas where the president has made progress that exceeds what his predecessors accomplished.

"First the opponents, say, 'That's something you can't do,' and then the opponents say, 'You shouldn't have done that,' " Murtaugh said. "Then you achieve success and they say, 'Well, it's not good enough.' "

Trump's campaign is conducting a broad messaging survey to help guide its efforts, according to three people familiar with the plan, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal operations. In addition to trade, health care and immigration, officials said, the campaign is likely to focus on economic growth, a criminal justice overhaul and the president's support for Israel.

Campaign advisers say they have come to trust Trump's political instincts, though they also recognize that he sometimes goes too far. Still, they say, they can only control what they can - and that often does not include the president.

Trump allies also point to the president's unlikely victory over more polished politicians in the 2016 Republican primary and his electoral college win against Hillary Clinton as evidence of his political acumen.

"Voters love disruption just like consumers love disruption," said Bryan Lanza, an adviser to Trump's 2016 campaign and transition. "They actually see him as a disrupter in a broken system that hasn't produced results for the better part of 30 years."

Yet some advisers have pushed Trump to focus more on a message of economic success. The president, for example, visited a General Dynamics tank plant in Lima, Ohio, recently to talk about job growth in the state. But aides and outside advisers were frustrated when he spent a portion of his speech attacking the late senator John McCain, R-Ariz., an angry screed that dominated headlines out of the event.

Still, Heye said Trump's twin reversals on health care and immigration show his ability to drive enthusiasm in his political base while bowing to the reality of governing.

"What we also see quite often with Trump is talk that he's going to do something that he doesn't ultimately follow through on," Heye said. "But the base still gives him credit for starting that conversation."

On immigration, however, there are signs that some of Trump's most ardent supporters are becoming disenchanted with the president's failure to improve the worsening situation at the border after more than two years in office. The Department of Homeland Security said last month it was on track to apprehend 100,000 migrants at the border in March - the highest monthly total in a decade.

Fox Business host Lou Dobbs, a close Trump ally, said recently that the president has kept his 2016 campaign promises "except when it comes to illegal immigration" and border security.

"That is a horrible, worsening vulnerability for this president," Dobbs said. "A glaring electoral burden facing 2020."

The campaign rejected the notion that Trump is not serious about working to solve the nation's immigration woes. The president declared a national emergency at the nation's southern border and issued the first veto of his presidency when Congress passed legislation to overturn that declaration. He has instructed the State Department to cut off aid to three Central American countries that are the source of many migrants, though many experts believe that could make the situation worse. And, the campaign argues, Mexico has begun cracking down on caravans of migrants passing through in response to the threats from the president.

"I don't think anyone should ever doubt the president's sincerity when talking about fixing the immigration system," Murtaugh said.

The growing field of Democrats campaigning to make Trump a one-term president sees his hard-line immigration views as out of line with moderate voters. Several have highlighted Trump's family separation policy and accused him of racism.

"If we don't call out racism, certainly at the highest levels of power, in this position of trust that the president enjoys, then we are going to continue to get its consequences," Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke told reporters last week after an Iowa town hall meeting in which he compared Trump's rhetoric to Nazi Germany.

Seeking to highlight his record on immigration, Trump traveled to the border Friday for the third time this year and declared that "the country is full." The area he toured includes a barrier with a plaque labeling it as "President Trump's Border Wall," though in fact it is long-planned replacement fencing.

Trump's threat to close the border was made in the tradition of leaders who seek to stir up populist emotions in the electorate without thinking through the consequences of their proposals, said Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a New York University professor who studies authoritarian rulers.

"Trump will do whatever makes him more popular with his base, and he doesn't seem to care what the feasibility of it is as long as it resonates, for the moment, with his base," she said.

Trump's campaign has directed much of its energy to highlighting shifts to the left among Democrats and to touting the president's accomplishments. The president himself often boasts about the strong U.S. economy, tax cuts and deregulation under his watch.

"THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS THE PARTY OF THE AMERICAN DREAM!" Trump tweeted on Thursday.

Trump is also hoping to add trade success to his list of accomplishments, with plans to work out a potential trade agreement with China in coming weeks.

The president did succeed in negotiating an update to the North American Free Trade Agreement, though its ratification is in doubt after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the deal needs to be reworked. Trump has also threatened to blow up part of the agreement by imposing new car tariffs if Mexico does not prevent Central American migrants from coming to the United States.

"This is more important to me than the USMCA," Trump said Thursday, using an acronym for the updated trade deal.

Trump's use of tariffs has done little to improve the U.S. trade deficit in goods, which reached a record high $891.2 billion in 2018, according to the Commerce Department. After campaigning in 2016 on a promise to fix bad trade deals and bring down the trade deficit, Trump is gearing up for reelection with much the same message.

Some allies see wisdom in Trump opting to campaign on the same issues he promised to fix in 2016, pointing to the large, enthusiastic crowds that the president continues to draw with his "America First" message.

"It's the greatest show on earth," Lanza said. "Why would it be any different?"
WASHINGTON - An American political consultant who admitted steering $50,000 from a pro-Russian Ukrainian politician to Donald Trump's inaugural committee cooperated with federal prosecutors on several matters that remain under seal and should receive leniency at sentencing, the U.S. attorney's office for the District of Columbia argued Monday.

W. Samuel Patten, 47, faces sentencing Friday for failing to register as a foreign lobbyist while working on behalf of a Russia-aligned Ukrainian political party. He said that while he was helped in arranging the inaugural donation by a Russian national who is a longtime associate of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, he had no idea the associate has been linked to Russian intelligence by the FBI.

The charge in Patten's case carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

His attorneys, also citing his cooperation with investigators, asked for probation and community service as each side presented sentencing memos.

Patten admitted in court documents that he arranged for an American citizen to act as a "straw donor" to give the $50,000 in exchange for four Trump inauguration tickets for a Ukrainian businessman who as a foreigner was barred from contributing to the event.

Trump's inauguration was attended by an unusually large number of prominent foreign business leaders, particularly Russian moguls whose presence drew the attention of the FBI at the time.

Patten's August. 31 guilty plea marked the first public confirmation that illegal foreign money was used to help fund Trump's inaugural committee, which raised more than $100 million.

Federal prosecutors said no federal guidelines sentencing range is directly applicable to Patten's offense and did not cite a specific prison term in their recommendation, which has been their practice in cases that originated with special Counsel Robert S. Muller III's probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

However, the government filed a letter seeking leniency, "because of Patten's cooperation and the substantial assistance he has provided to the government."

Patten's case was referred to prosecutors with the U.S. attorney's office in Washington and the Justice Department's national security division by the special counsel.

In a plea agreement, Patten agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, including special counsel Robert Mueller's, examining whether foreign money flowed into the coffers of Trump's inaugural committee.

Since then, the Trump committee and top officials have received subpoenas or requests for documents related to donations and spending from federal prosecutors in Manhattan, the attorneys general for D.C. and New Jersey and the House intelligence and judiciary committees.

"Mr. Patten admitted his offenses and took full responsibility for his actions," wrote Patten attorney Stuart Sears.

As described in sealed proceedings Patten "earned the trust of the government and became a reliable and valuable resource" to special counsel Mueller's Russia investigation and prosecutors with the U.S. attorney's office "in relation to several ongoing investigations," Sears said.

Patten has been released on his own recognizance pending sentencing before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of Washington.

In plea papers, Patten also acknowledged he formed a company with a Russian national, identified only as "Foreigner A," to engage in lobbying and political consulting services.

The company had received about $1 million since 2015 for its Ukraine consulting work, which included advising a Ukrainian party known as the Opposition Bloc, as well as some of its members, one of whom is a prominent Ukraine businessman identified only as "Foreigner B."

Prosecutors said Patten helped the businessman get meetings to lobby members of Congress in 2015 and helped him author an op-ed in February 2017 that appears to match a U.S. News & World Report article arguing Ukraine would do fine under President Trump.

The description of "Foreigner A" matches Konstantin Kilimnik, a longtime Manafort associate who has been charged in Washington along with Manafort with obstruction of justice and witness tampering. Prosecutors have said they believe that Kilimnik has ties to Russian intelligence. Kilimnik has denied any such ties.

The description of "Foreigner B" matches Serhiy Lovochkin, a Ukrainian businessman and politician who served as a top aide to former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, a pro-Russian politician who was Manafort's chief client.

Patten told prosecutors that he worked with Kilimnik to help Lovochkin route the illegal donation to Trump's inauguration. As a result of the donation, four tickets to Trump's festivities were allocated to the three men and another Ukrainian; prosecutors said Lovochkin attended the event with Patten. Prosecutors do not say whether Kilimnik attended.

Patten also agreed that he misled the Senate Intelligence Committee when he testified before the panel in January.

Kilimnik did not respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post. Lovochkin's office said he attended the inauguration but didn't make the $50,000 payment.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr announced that Mueller concluded his probe March 27 without further indictments, but had been referring several matters to other prosecutors, including the U.S. attorney's office for the District of Columbia.

Patten has a varied resume. He worked in the oil sector in Kazakhstan in the mid-to-late 1990s and served as Maine campaign director for George W. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign. He also briefly worked at the State Department under Bush and worked as a political consultant in Iraq assisting officials there in the post-Saddam Hussein period.

In a 2017 interview with The Post, Patten said he met Kilimnik in Moscow more than 15 years ago, when Kilimnik was an employee of the International Republican Institute, a pro-democracy group affiliated with the U.S. Republican Party. Patten ran the office from 2001 to 2004. "I relied on him," Patten told The Post.

Kilimnik left IRI around 2005 to work for Manafort in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, starting as the American consultant's interpreter and eventually being named manager of Manafort's Ukrainian office. Patten praised Kilimnik at the time as a person who helped Manafort navigate the complicated Ukrainian political scene.

In 2015, Patten and Kilimnik jointly formed a company incorporated in Washington called Begemot Ventures International. Begemot, which means "hippo" in Russian, is the name of the mischievous cat who pals around with the devil in the celebrated Russian novel "The Master and Margarita."

Patten was born into a milieu of social climbing and Washington power politics. He is the grandson of the late Georgetown doyenne Susan Mary Alsop.

Patten's father moved to Maine, ran a small-town weekly newspaper and later became a prison minister. Patten was schooled in Maine and attended Georgetown University, graduating in 1993.
(CNN)  The world recently celebrated the 30th anniversary of the World Wide Web, which has changed the world for the better in many ways. It's now easier than ever to buy things with the click of a few buttons, share information quickly and safely, and give people who previously did not have a voice platforms to express their opinions.

But even the web's inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee has called for action to address a slate of problems borne out of the internet. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also recently came out in favor of stricter regulation.

These are calls that the UK government has been listening to. We've heard tragic stories of everything from bullying and harassment to the promotion of self harm, suicide, child sexual abuse and the glorification of terrorism and violent crime. It's clear to us that self-regulation among tech companies has not been sufficient and action in the form of regulation is now needed.

In a world first, the UK has published a blueprint for new legislation that will hold tech companies to account and protect those using their platforms.

The online world is changing rapidly, and it needs an independent regulator. It will enforce a new legal obligation for online platforms to exercise a duty of care to their users. This means that companies will have a responsibility to take reasonable and proportionate steps to protect their users from harm. It is similar to the principle that when you take your child to a playground, you trust that the builder made sure the equipment was safe and that no harm will come to them. Why should it be any different online?

This duty of care will be translated by the regulator into clear, concrete responsibilities for tackling harmful content and activity online. It will make tech companies more responsible for the content they host and place tougher requirements on platforms to take robust action against terrorism and child sexual exploitation and abuse.

The regulator will have the powers needed to hold companies to account when they fail to keep us safe, including the power to issue substantial fines. And we are considering making senior managers liable for breaches of their company's duty of care.

This is not about curtailing freedom of expression online. The internet has given people a voice, and we want to make sure that everyone has the freedom to express themselves. Our support for the free, open, global internet is undimmed.

At the same time, we must uphold our values and democracy must be protected.

It is about taking a balanced approach where government intervention helps tackle online harms, with the help of the tech firms themselves.

It is about not just using law, but also innovation. Technology companies need to be part of the solution and come up with innovative ways to protect their users. And we will make sure the new law minimizes the burden on start-ups, so we don't accidentally make it harder to innovate.

The UK government will open these ideas up for consultation, and I want to hear views from the United States too. I recently visited Silicon Valley, where I met with the executives of large tech companies including Facebook, Google, Twitter and Apple. Online safety is a global issue, and we need to work together on it -- this can't be done in isolation, and we want to work with you and learn from partners around the world. I believe that the plan we have set out is a major step in the right direction.

The tech sector has improved our lives immeasurably. Britain has always fostered and welcomed innovation, and we will continue to embrace it. Brits invented precursors of the modern computer, along with the World Wide Web, and we want to lead the debate on how we keep our citizens safe online.

That is an objective on which the British Government, Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Mark Zuckerberg would all agree.

This story was first published on CNN.com,"Why the UK is moving to regulate the internet."
Midland College's Cogdell Learning Center is getting a facelift from local artist Janet Pontious, who won a $5,000 contest to paint a mural on the building.

"I was trying to reproduce the mural according to the original design, but it definitely has my input on the colors and many of the other things," Pontious said. "There is a lot of history behind this mural, so I tried to keep everything right where it was before the sun faded it. The artwork has been very interesting to re-create."

Pontious has been able to mix regular indoor-outdoor house paint to create all the colors for the mural. She works with the largest brush she can find.

"The brush has to be stiff; it has to have some strength to it," Pontious said. "For details, I use smaller brushes, but with a piece this big I have some leeway. What I have learned from doing a lot of other murals is that people admire murals from a distance rather than up close. Viewers do not usually see the details."

More Information Cogdell Learning Center's 25th anniversary celebration is 11:45 a.m. Friday at 201 W. Florida St.

midland.edu/cogdell. See More Collapse

Pontious started drawing when she was very young, and her preferred canvas was the same as it is now: walls.

"I started drawing on walls when I was 3 years old," Pontious said. "My mother did not appreciate it, but that was where I got my start. I was very industrious; I would confiscate all the scratch paper in the house, and I would cut the side of brown paper grocery bags, take out the bottom and iron it flat to draw on it."

The multicultural Cogdell Learning Center mural showcases flowers, animals and five large faces: Caucasian American, Native American, Asian American, Hispanic American and one African American. Its intricate background includes warm and cool colors along with dwellings, trees and statues.

The project was completed just in time for Cogdell Learning Center's 25th anniversary celebration, which is Friday.

Carol Subia, a trustee of the Bill Pace Cogdell Scholarship, worked with Cogdell until his death in 1997. She said he would have loved the mural.

"The mural is a representation of the many different cultures that have been through the Codgell Learning Center," Subia said. "Mr. Cogdell loved this area, his desire was to one day provide a way for the community of the south side to have an avenue for higher education. He especially felt a close connection with the Hispanic community. The mural depicts a picture of MC bridging the gap for first-generation scholars."

Employees at the Cogdell Learning Center help residents apply for college, financial aid and register. Among the classes taught at the center are English as a second language, U.S. citizenship and GED preparation. Staff of the Midland College Business & Economic Development Center, also housed at Cogdell, help residents improve their credit score, prepare for home ownership and/or start a small business.

"During the first 25 years in operation, the Cogdell Learning Center has opened the doors of opportunity and has made many dreams come true," said Subia. "Mr. Cogdell would be very pleased with the (number) of scholars who have benefited from his scholarship and the diverse programs provided at the Cogdell Learning Center. I can just see him now smiling with great pride and satisfaction."

The Cogdell scholarship pays for in-state tuition, fees and books for MC students. After they obtain their associate degree, they may then continue to receive the scholarship if they work toward a bachelor's degree at MC or transfer to the University of Texas of the Permian Basin.

Subia, who graduated from Midland College in 1988 with a degree in business management, is the first college graduate in her family. The Cogdell Learning Center did not exist then, but Subia said she would have loved to have the help that the center provides.

"Being a first-generation college student, I remember it was a challenge," she said. "First, I was shy, and I did not know who to contact for advice or for help. Secondly, I felt alone and discouraged. Being a trustee for the Bill Pace Cogdell Scholarship has been an honor to be part of bridging the gap for local residents."
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
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.
Great excitement building in South Longford for the inaugural Eigse Peter Carberry, when a weekend of workshops, and performances will celebrate the life and times and one of Ireland's most famous pipers and Derrahaun man, Peter Carberry, who sadly passed away three years ago.

Fittingly 'Eigse' translates as 'learning' and the weekend event will build on a tradition that began in the Derrahaun family home with musicians and scholars from across the world visiting to play with and learn from the master.

On his death, friends began with an impromptu day of tuition and performing and such was the popularity, that it has now evolved into a full weekend programme of events to celebrate the life and times of one of the world's best known pipers.

Peter Carberry passed away on April 14, 2016 and in 2006 he was presented with the prestigious and coveted award of An Gradam Specialta by Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann (CCE). He travelled widely abroad on Comhaltas tours on one occasion accompanied President Mary Robinson on her state visit to Portugal.

The weekend programme which runs from Friday April 12 to Sunday , April 14, with a host of well-known tutors and performers will show that Irelands hidden heartlands truly abounds with musical heritage.

For full details on the weekend event check out the Eigse Peter Carberry Facebook page, email eigsepetercarberry@gmail.com or telephone 086 3440106
A club first formed in 2001 due to the long-held interest in fishing held by many members of the Newtowncashel locality, the Cashel Angling club has grown bigger and better every year and now boasts between 70-80 members.

It was founded by a group of locals that were fishing for a number of years and decided to form a club, James Flynn, PRO of the club told the Leader.

Their base is located at Barley Harbour on the banks of the beautiful Lough Ree in Newtowncashel and James says there is a real family feel about the club, having first joined himself alongside his father Seamus in 2003.

Barley Harbour is where we run all of our competitions from, James explained.

My Dad Seamus and Myself purchased a boat and engine in 2003 when we joined the club and won a few competitions together, which was great.

James explained it is not only men who join, with many competition partnerships made up of varying family combinations.

Fishing is for people of all types, anybody can compete. It is nice to see.

You see husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, all combinations of family members competing together. That is something you wouldnt be able to say for every sport.

The group not only host an annual open pike fishing competition every November, with2,500 in prize money up for grabs, but also a number of trout fishing competitions throughout the year, not to mention the occasional social activity.

Also read: Roving Leader: Fr Michael Campbell, the driving force behind Abbeylara

James: We try to run a competition every month. The trout season runs from the first of March to September 30th, so during those months we mainly hold trout competitions and then outside of the trout season it is pike competitions.



The group are now friends rather than fishing colleagues and like to depart on many social fishing excursions to different places in Ireland during the year. They recently took a sea-fishing trip out to Inis Mor on the Aran Islands.

It was fantastic, said James of the fishing trip.

Anybody interested in joining the bustling angling club can do so by contacting chairman, Martin Casserly, on 083-8259465 or by email at cashelangling@gmail.com.

For people from the area, it is right on our doorstep. Barley Harbour is only a few miles away from most places in Newtowncashel.

It is something that if you have an interest in it, it stays with you forever and you can do it for a lifetime. Mothers and fathers, if they have a child with an interest in fishing, should bring them, as it might be something that stays with them for a long time, James added.
The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) have joined the campaign against the proposed 24-turbine windfarm in Derryadd, Co Longford.

IWT have submitted an official objection to An Bord Pleanala, against the development. The organisation have noted that although they are not opposed to wind energy generation, which is necessary to meet greenhouse gas reduction targets, they have expressed their concern at the proposed location of the farm, which is predominantly peatland.

Also read: St Mels Cathedral to be venue for beautiful choral performance

They spoke of their disappointment for community members that the preferred Shannon Wilderness park, proposed by locals, will not be developed and said many ecologists chose this as the perfect site for the reintroduction of long-extinct Irish birds such as crane and bittern.

"Were very disappointed that the hard work and hopes of local communities for the Shannon Wilderness Park are being swept aside by Bord na Mona in their pursuit of this wind energy project," IWT Campaigns Officer, Padraic Fogarty said.

Theres a huge opportunity in creating a distinct and unique identity for this part of Longford, something people would travel from far and wide to experience.

It was also hoped that white-tailed sea eagles would colonise the shores of Lough Ree. IWT say Bord na Mona should be working in lieu with locals to deliver this much sought-after project.

Bord na Mona should be working with local people and ecologists in trying to deliver this, rather than working against them to impose an unwanted wind farm.

We hope An Bord Pleanala can refuse permission, Padraic Fogarty concluded.
Longford County Library, Heritage and Archives Services will celebrate the 120th anniversary of the establishment of Longford County Council this month with an exhibition and lecture.

The exhibition will be held in Longford Library, 1-18 April. It will consist of some local authority archives, information on the first councils elected in Longford and a travelling exhibition on local elections prepared by the members of the Local Government Archivists and Records Managers group.

On Wednesday, April 10, at 7.30pm local historian Kitty Hughes will give a lecture entitled The first local elections and councils in County Longford, 1899 in Longford Library. The lecture will be of great interest to many local people because, among other things, Kitty will refer to the candidates and the first councillors.

Also read: St Mels Cathedral to be venue for beautiful choral performance

Previously, Kitty has spoken on the lives of Longfords first women councillors, Francoise Edgeworth and Moya Bligh.

The elections held on April 6, 1899 followed the passing of the Local Government (Ireland) Act of 1898, which introduced democratic local government for the first time.

It set up county councils, rural district councils and urban district councils. In Longford, apart from the county council, there were three rural district councils created: Longford, Granard and Ballymahon.

They had responsibility for housing and sanitary services. They were abolished in 1925.

One of the most revolutionary aspects of the elections of 1899 was that women had the right to vote for the first time and to stand for rural district councils

The first woman to serve as a councillor in Longford was Francoise Edgeworth of Edgeworthstown House, who was returned to Granard Rural District Council in 1899. She was one of 31 women to be elected in Ireland at that time.
Most Reverend Bishop Richard B Higgins was the recipient of much praise at a civic reception held in his honour by Longford County Council on Friday, March 22 at Aras an Chontae.

Cathaoirleach of Longford County Council Luie McEntire was delighted to welcome the Longford town native back home along with some of his family, friends, fellow members of the clergy and local councillors who all attended the reception.

Born in Longford in 1944 to Richard and Mary Higgins, Bishop Higgins had a long association with the county council as chief assistant engineer.

He studied for the priesthood in the Irish College in Rome and was ordained in March 1968. He celebrated his golden jubilee last year. Bishop Higgins is now the Auxiliary Bishop in the Archdiocese and Vicar of Veteran Affairs for United States Military Services. Responsible for over 270 military chaplains throughout the USA, Puerto Rico and Guam, he also serves as the Bishop Protector for the 10,000 members of the Catholic War Veterans of America.

Following his ordination for the diocese of Sacremento, Bishop Higgins served parish assignments in Roseville and Grass Valley. He entered the US Air Force in September 1974 and served as a Catholic chaplain until his retirement in the grade of Colonel in October 2004.

Also read: Roving Leader: Fr Michael Campbell, the driving force behind Abbeylara

He had many air force assignments and many military decorations. His love of flying stemmed from his time spent in Longford. Bishop Higgins holds an airline transport pilot certificate and his interest in aviation began in Abbeyshrule a long number of years ago.

He is also a keen motorcyclist and the proud owner of a powerful BMW machine.

On behalf of the people of county Longford, we commend you for your distinguished career, said Cllr McEntire.

We are truly honoured that a Longford town native has achieved so much.

I hope you will continue to be a frequent visitor to Longford and, on my own behalf and all here this evening, we wish you every health and happiness in the years ahead.
Local News, Crime, Press Releases

By Long Island News & PR Published: April 08 2019

Defendant and Victim Were Out Looking at Christmas Decorations in Neighborhood Before Alleged Murder.

Riverhead, NY - Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy D. Sini today announced the indictment of a man for murdering his grandmother in December of 2017.

Kevin Sanchez, 23, of Brentwood, is charged with Murder in the Second Degree, an A felony.

This is a shocking and tragic case, but it is also unfortunately one of many instances of family violence that occur each year around the holiday season, District Attorney Sini said. This indictment was the result of the dedication and intensive investigative efforts of the Suffolk County Police Departments Homicide Squad and my office, and we will prosecute the defendant to the fullest extent of the law to hold him accountable for this unthinkable murder.

Shortly after 11:00 p.m. on Dec. 22, 2017, Sanchez and his grandmother, Paula Chavez Quintanilla, 65, who was visiting from El Salvador, left their familys home in Brentwood in a white Jeep SUV to look at Christmas lights and decorations on houses in the neighborhood.

Sanchez returned home shortly after midnight on Dec. 23, 2017, without Quintanilla and claimed to family members that she was still in the car. When it was discovered that Quintanilla was not in the car, the family contacted police and conducted a search for her throughout the night and into the next morning.

Quintanillas body was discovered at approximately 9 a.m. on Dec. 23, 2017, by a woman in the rear parking lot of the office building located at 150 Motor Parkway in Hauppauge. She appeared to be the victim of a stabbing.

According to the Suffolk County Office of the Medical Examiner, Quintanilla had sustained approximately 60 sharp force injuries.

An investigation into the alleged murder revealed evidence linking Sanchez to the crime scene, including DNA evidence from a gray sweatshirt recovered at the scene that Sanchez was wearing when he and Quintanilla were last seen together.

When interviewed by detectives, Sanchez allegedly gave conflicting accounts of his and his grandmothers whereabouts on the night of the murder that were inconsistent with other evidence, including video surveillance of locations in which he claimed to have been.

Sanchez was arraigned on the indictment today by Suffolk County Court Judge Philip Goglas and he was remanded without bail.

If convicted of the top count, Sanchez faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

Sanchez is due back in court on April 17.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Kathleen Kearon, of the Homicide Bureau.
Local News, Crime, Press Releases

By Long Island News & PR Published: April 08 2019

James Wilson of Brooklyn, 35, and Raphael Carter of Hempstead, 31, are charged in connection with the shooting death of Matthew Gilreath, DA Singas says.

Mineola, NY - Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas announced that two men were arraigned on grand jury indictment charges related to a fatal shooting in Hempstead in February.

James Wilson, 35, of Brooklyn, was arraigned yesterday before Judge Howard Sturim and charged with Murder in the Second Degree (an A-I felony) and two counts of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree (a C violent felony).

The defendant was remanded and is due back in court on April 29. If convicted of the top count he faces up to 25 years to life in prison.

Wilsons co-defendant, Raphael Carter, 31, of Hempstead, was arraigned on March 26 before Judge Sturim on charges of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Third Degree (a D violent felony), Hindering Prosecution in the First Degree (a D felony) and Tampering Physical Evidence (an E felony). Bail was continued at $150,000 bond or $175,000 cash. The defendant is due back in court on April 29. If convicted of the top count he faces 2-1/3 years to seven years in prison.

James Wilson was allegedly armed with a handgun and brutally shot Matthew Gilreath several times, killing him, DA Singas said. This case is yet another example of the brutality of gun violence that is far too common in our country.

DA Singas said on February 18, at approximately 3:00 am, the victim, 28-year-old Matthew Gilreath, was standing in the doorway of 100 Terrace Avenue in Hempstead when the defendant approached him and started a conversation. Within approximately one minute, the defendant allegedly fired his gun at least six times, striking the victim multiple times in the head, face and chest. At some point during the shooting, the victim shot back at the defendant striking him at least one time in the abdomen.

Following the shooting, Carter is accused of taking the gun from Wilson and bringing it to his apartment. The weapon was never recovered. Gilreath was taken to Nassau University Medical Center where he was later pronounced dead. The defendant was treated for his gunshot wound at NYU Winthrop Hospital.

Following an investigation, Wilson and Carter were arrested on February 19 by members of the Nassau County Police Department.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Ania Pulaski of DA Singas Major Offense Bureau is prosecuting this case. Chris Cassar, Esq. represents Wilson and Jeffrey Groder, Esq. represents Carter.
Local News, Crime, Press Releases

By Long Island News & PR Published: April 08 2019

The subject demanded the victims cell phone, then struck the victim in the head and face, cops say.

New Cassel, NY - The Third Squad reports the details of an Attempted Robbery that occurred in New Cassel.

According to detectives, a 35 year-old male victim was walking on Carleton St. and Old Country Rd. when he was approached by an unknown male subject. The subject demanded the victims cell phone. When the victim refused, the subject struck the victim in the head and face area with a hard object, causing pain, swelling and lacerations. The unknown male then fled on foot north bound of Carleton St.

The victim was transported to a local hospital for evaluation and treatment.

The subject is described as a male black, 60 tall and heavy set. He was wearing a gray shirt and black pants.
Gamal Abdel-Nasser against King Faisal of Saudi Arabia. Saddam Hussein against Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah. Muammar Gaddafi against the rest of the Arab leaders. And more recently, sheikh Tamim ben Hamad al-Thani against both Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammad ben Salman and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammad ben Zayed al-Nahyan. Rivalries between regional powers, battles driven solely by ego, and ideological divisions have marked the modern history of the Arab world. Since 1945, not once has the Arab world been able, beyond the political rhetoric of speeches and photo ops, to stand as a united front. The Arab League, which was supposed to embody the unity of its members, has instead been a constant reflection of their divisions. The hasty departure on Sunday, March 31, of the Emir of Qatar during the 30th League summit, which took place in Tunis, fits perfectly within this dynamic. While Doha is the target of a two-year embargo led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, along with Egypt and Bahrain, the Emir left the room at the moment the Secretary of the Arab League, Ahmad Aboul Gheit, denounced Iranian and Turkish interference in the Arab world, a subject that divides the Arab world. The confrontation within the Sunni world, between the Saudi axis and Qatar, supported by Turkey, is shaping yet another rivalry that is weakening the Arab League, and raising questions about the efficiency of the organization.

Since its creation in Egypt on March 22, 1945, the League has become a place where internal conflicts are exacerbated, not resolved, although its goal is to help the region stand as a united front, while preserving the sovereignty of each, a mission that it has never been able to fulfill in practice. The League has been the facade behind which the Arab states tried to hide their powerlessness, and they blame it for their shortcomings and their failures, wrote in 1968 Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the Egyptian diplomat who would become the General Secretary of the United-Nations in 1992, writing in the French Annual Book of International Law.





The clash of the regimes

Internal showdowns started appearing in 1945 during the formation of the organization, a process initiated by Great Britain. Seven countries initially formed the League: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, North Yemen, and Transjordan. Today, the organization brings together 22 Member States of the Maghreb, the Near East and the Middle East. With its headquarters in Cairo, the League was quickly perceived as a tool to reinforce Egypts supremacy under Nasser. Taking advantage of its influence, Cairo pulled the strings of a Middle East undermined by the Cold War context. Egypt prevented Jordans entry into the pro-Western camp of the Baghdad Pact in 1955, successfully nationalized the Suez Canal, before creating the short-lived United Arab Republic with Syria. Three years after its conception, the alliance almost collapsed in 1961, due largely to Nassers desire to dominate the Syrians. At the time of decolonization, the main division within the Arab League was between the states that continued to seek the patronage of the European imperial powers and the United States against the USSR, and those that formed the pan-Arab revolutionary bloc, led by Egypt, Reem Abu el-Fadl, a professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, explained to LOrient-Le Jour. The Saudis in particular were opposed to the Egyptian rule, and this tension contributed to the Arab Cold War in the 1950s and 1960s, she adds. These disagreements were only reinforced by the dispatch of Egyptian forces in 1962 to support the revolutionaries in Yemen, where civil war was raging. The proximity of Egyptian troops to Saudis territory exacerbated the stand-off between the military regimes and the regions traditional monarchies. The Six-Day War, however, put a violent break on the Egyptian hegemony and on pan-Arabism, which started its gradual decline shortly afterward. The final blow fell in 1979, when the Arab League moved its headquarters from Cairo to Tunis following the signing of the Camp David accords with Israel.





Bordering the ridiculous

From 1948, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict became the Arab leagues rallying cry, and one of its only points of consensus. Member States didnt hesitate to stand up for the Palestinian cause by imposing a boycott of the Jewish state. Following the violent setback inflicted on Arab states by the Six-Day war in 1967, the League met at the Summit of Khartoum from where it proclaimed the three nos: no to peace with Israel, no to the recognition of Israel, no to any negotiation with Israel. In 1973, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPAEP) countries introduced an oil embargo, demanding the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the territories occupied since 1967. A few years later, peace negotiations between Egypt and the Jewish state shook the region, with the Egyptians attitude perceived as treason by the rest of the Leagues Member States.

Relationships within the organization deteriorated further with 1976s formation of the Arab Deterrent Force, following the Special Summit of the Arab League in Riyadh. With the aim of intervening in a Lebanon immersed in a fully-fledged civil war, the force consisted mostly of Syrian troops, and was under the command of Damascus. Though the force was dissolved in 1983, the Syrian forces did not withdraw from Lebanon.

The war between Iraq and Iran, that followed the Islamic Revolution in 1979, created a new division in the region, with Syria the only Arab country that sided with Iran. It marked a new regional dynamic, with the rise of the Sunni Vs Shiite conflict. The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 was the first armed inter-Arab conflict since the Leagues creation. The subject of much ridicule, the negotiations during the Leagues Summit in Cairo in 1990 were notable for the Kuwaiti Minister of Foreign Affairs fainting during a conversation with his Iraqi counterpart while members of the Iraqi delegation were throwing plates of food at the Kuwaiti representatives.





A weak institution

One example from history perfectly sums up the Leagues frustrations and sheds light on the rivalries between the Arab leaders. In 1987, the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, wore a white glove during the Leagues summit in Algeria when he had to shake hands with his counterparts; he did so in order not to touch their bloodstained hands. Undermined by internal divisions, the Arab League proves to be a weak institution, incapable of managing the issues and problems raised in the Arab world in an effective manner, said Paul Salem, Director of the Middle East Institute to LOrient-Le Jour.

In 2003, the invasion of Iraq by the United States dealt a new blow to one of the most powerful regimes of the region, while the countries of the League agreed not to resort to any form of military intervention during the 2003 Summit in Sharm el-Sheikh. The United Arab Emirates delegate went as far as suggesting in front of journalists -without the leaders having discussed it directly- that Saddam Hussein should leave power. The lack of unity continued in the following years, while Saudi Arabia was becoming stronger and more powerful, the Kingdoms struggle against Iranians influence in the region was also becoming an obsession for the ruling family. The tornado that began with the Arab Spring in 2011 considerably reduced the Leagues power. Viewed at first as a credible partner by the Western camp, the Leagues inability to find common points of agreement or to avoid the escalation of tension in Syria or Libya, among others factors contributed to its diplomatic marginalization. 2011s provisional freezing of Syrias membership following the failure of the peace plan previously negotiated with Bashar al-Assad is likely to have very little impact. Eight years later, Syria is pushing hard to regain its place in the League and have its say in regional affairs.





(This article was originally published on the 5th of April)








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Jay Gonzalez, the self-professed little guy who lost the 2018 gubernatorial election to Gov. Charlie Baker, told supporters Monday morning that hes landed in a new job: as a partner in the Boston office of law firm Hinckley Allen.

Gonzalez, who worked as a lawyer, state budget chief and executive of a health insurance company before running for the corner office, said he will lead a public sector practice at the firm to help governments finance public projects like new schools and roads and to otherwise help them and their stakeholders make progress on the big challenges they face. He said he will also do some work with the firms health care practice.

Through my work at Hinckley Allen, I hope to help government better meet the needs of the people it serves, Gonzalez wrote in an email to supporters with the subject line Onward. And on my own time, I will continue to stay engaged politically to further our progressive agenda and common cause.

Gonzalez beat activist Bob Massie to score the Democratic Partys nomination last year but fell short in the general election, in which Baker took 67 percent of the vote to Gonzalezs 33 percent.

Over these last few months, Ive also taken time to reflect on our campaign. With time, the sting of the result has subsided and the sense of pride has grown stronger, Gonzalez wrote. Our campaign and our cause mattered. We advocated for an ambitious agenda to tackle the big challenges holding regular people back, and we fought for all the little guys out there. And while we didnt win the election, there is little doubt we had an impact.

Gonzalezs move to Hinckley Allen mirrors the moves made by another recent unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate. After losing to Baker in 2014, Martha Coakley did a brief stint at WCVB as a legal analyst before joining the law firm Foley Hoag.
One man faces multiple gun-related charges in connection with the Saturday afternoon shooting in Mattapan that killed a 74-year-old grandmother, police said.

Anthony Davis, of Mattapan, was arraigned Monday afternoon in his hospital room at Brigham and Womens Hospital, according to the Suffolk County District Attorneys Office. He was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of a firearm and being an armed career criminal.

This is Davis fourth firearm charge, authorities said. He was convicted of gun-related charges in 2004, 2009 and 2013, serving six years in state prison.

Police say Eleanor Maloney suffered a gunshot wound as she stood near 10 Mattapan St. shortly before 5 p.m. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Two men nearby suffered gunshot wounds that were described as not life-threatening.

Dorchester Municipal Court Judge Thomas Kaplanes imposed a $50,000 cash bail on the condition that Davis wears a GPS monitor if he posts bail. His next court date is May 6.

The shooting remains under investigation. Boston police asked anyone with information to contact homicide detectives at 617-343-4470. Anonymous tips can be called into thee departments CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 1-800-494-TIPS, or texting the word TIP to Crime (27463).
Friends and loved ones of Max Carbone, the missing college student who was found dead in Boston, are donating to a fund to create a memorial scholarship in his name.

A GoFundMe campaign was launched on Sunday after the 19-year-olds body was found. Funds will go towards a scholarship in his memory. The creator, listed as Emily Legere, described Carbone as funny, outgoing, intelligent and kindhearted.

He was a hard worker who loved and cared for others, the webpage states. He was a selfless person who would do anything to help someone. There was never a time that you would be greeted by him without seeing his big beautiful smile.

As of 11 a.m. Monday, the campaign had raised more than $8,700.

Carbone graduated from Swampscott High School in 2017 and was a sophomore at Wentworth Institute of Technology. He went missing after attending a party Friday night.

Carbones body was found around 8 a.m. Sunday in the area of Terrace Street in Roxbury. Boston police do not consider his death suspicious.

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.

A private vigil will be held Monday afternoon to honor Carbones memory.
Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins again hit back against the Baker administration saying the criticism of her broad proposed changes to the criminal justice system in the county are sexist at a Dorchester rally organized on her behalf Sunday.

Its so funny that when all of the male DAs before me had this discretion and were moving towards mass incarceration, the governor did not give a [expletive] about that, Rollins said to about 200 people gathered, according to The Boston Globe. But miraculously now that this DA wants to end mass incarceration, you want to question the discretion that we have? No, you are not.

The community came together to support Rollins after three tense days between her office and the Baker administration, said Monica Cannon-Grant, who organized Sundays event.

Rollins, who became the DA for Boston, Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop in January, released a bold policy memo in March detailing her decision to decline to prosecute 15 low-level offenses, a cornerstone of her campaign that she says delivered her to the job.

On Thursday, Executive Office of Public Safety and Security Secretary Thomas A. Turco warned that Rollinss policy would put at risk the Commonwealths ongoing efforts to combat the ongoing crisis of the opioid epidemic.

Rollins pledged on the campaign trail and now in office, not to prosecute offenses like trespassing, shoplifting, larceny, disorderly conduct, threats, possession of alcohol for minors, possession of non-marijuana drugs, possession with intent to distribute, destruction of property, breaking and entering to escape cold or sleep, driving with a suspended license, and several others, even when attached to another charge.

Cannon-Grant said Sundays rally was meant to send a clear message: People power supersedes political power.

The voters in Suffolk County chose Rollins because of her bold vision for criminal justice reform, Cannon-Grant, the founder of Violence in Boston, said, and continue to support her ideas. Cannon-Grant said Rollins is getting more criticism for practices that have been allowed for white suburban kids for decades because she is a woman of color.

Absolutely no other DA has been treated the way Rachael has thus far," Cannon-Grant. Rollins, who is the first woman to work as Suffolk Countys top prosecutor, said Friday it has been very apparent to me that the men that were in this position before me were treated with a quite a bit more respect.

I didnt get into this job to make friends. I got into this job to make change. I dont think the phone numbers changed since Dan Conley was your DA or even Ralph Martin or even Newman Flanagan. So if people would like to speak to me before they issue a letter, Im always willing and able to speak to them, she said Friday.

She said she is willing to continue to speak with Turco.

But I remind him, one person appointed you to your job, 185,000 people said this is the change that they want, and this is why Im the DA, she said Friday.

On Saturday, Rollins told the Globe Baker called her to apologize and the two had a very productive conversation. She said she had nothing further to say about the matter.

The governor called the conversation very constructive and very helpful, and said were going to try and hit the reset button and start again on Monday, according to the Globe.

The Governors office did not immediately respond to MassLives request for a comment on Monday.

At the rally, Rollins said she angry that Turco did not directly communicate with her office before his letter went public, according to the Globe.

Had the secretary or the governor picked up the phone and spoken to me, sat down, and said We disagree with everything youre saying and then written this letter, you wouldnt have heard a word from me, Rollins said, according to the Globe.

Cannon-Grant said she was moved by the showing of support from women in Boston politics on Sunday.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley, as well as Boston City Councilors Lydia Edwards, Michelle Wu and Andrea Campbell have lined up behind Rollins.

DA Rollins ran on a platform of reform and has been elected to enact that reform. The recent statements show nothing about personal safety but instead demonstrate lack of control and dereliction of duty from the Governor, Edwards said in a statement.

Pressley voiced her support on Twitter.

Disruptive ideas will always meet resistance from established institutions, she wrote.

Disruptive ideas will always meet resistance from established institutions. @DARollins was elected with a mandate to pursue bold, innovative ideas to fix our broken CJ system - I stand in solidarity w/ her in the effort to decriminalize poverty, mental illness, & substance use.  Ayanna Pressley (@AyannaPressley) April 5, 2019

I fully support @DARollins . The Criminal Justice System is unequak. It has create a pipeline for the poor, emotionally not well and black and brown people to be shuffled into a broken and racist system of Mass Incarceration. She is qualified, intelligent & truly progressive.  Rep. Liz Miranda (@lizforma) April 5, 2019

Goes w/o saying that I stand with @DARollins, but happy to see the outpouring of support for her from so many #MApoli colleagues! Since before she ran, I knew Rachael was the woman for this job b/c of her bold vision for #CJreform and reducing racial disparities in the system pic.twitter.com/9X4yPu1k4h  Andrea J. Campbell (@CampbellforD4) April 5, 2019

I stand with @DARollins in her push to rethink our criminal justice system with a data-driven, progressive approach. Read the full memo to understand the depth of analysis behind her policies: https://t.co/q4vIUZeqQx  Michelle Wu  (@wutrain) April 5, 2019

MassLive Reporter Steph Solis contributed to this story.
Theyve been compared favorably to groups like Lake Street Dive and Lucius, so if that type of multigenre vocal music is your thing, you might want to check out the band Upstate when they play Gateway City Arts on Saturday, April 13.

The band is touring behind their new studio album, Healing, which No Depression called a rich record following the genre-crossing traditions set by bands like the jazzy folk-rock of Lake Street Dive and the vocal-driven indie rock of Lucius.

Upstate initially formed while they were living in New Yorks Catskill Mountains. The band developed its knack for great songwriting and sublime harmonies from three female vocalists. The melodies are carried by an all-acoustic rhythm section. The band features Melanie Glenn, Mary Kenney, and Allison Olender on vocals and guitars, Harry DAgostino on bass, Ryan Chappell on mandolin, and Dean Mahoney on the cajon.

Upstate first emerged from New Yorks Hudson Valley in 2015 with their acclaimed debut, A Remedy. The bands latest album, Healing is the bands first release with since shortening their name from Upstate Rubdown.

As far as cross pollination between genres, you will find everything from bluegrass to pop to jazz to blues and more woven into the groups sound.

Gateway City Arts is located at 92 Race St. in Holyoke.

Scouting report

Sugar Ray Norcia will play Theodores in Springfield on Friday. Norcia and his band have been sharing their unique brand of blues for almost forty years. The group doesnt limit itself to one style, but spans a wide swath of the style from Chicago Blues in the style of Muddy Waters to Kansas City swing in the style of Big Joe Turner to Texas Blues like T Bone Walker and Freddie King. They even can get done a dirty in the swampy Louisiana. The band feature Norcia on vocals and harmonica, Troy Gonyea on guitar, Anthony Geraci on piano and Hammond organ, Michael Mudcat Ward on both acoustic and electric bass, and Neil Gouvin on drums. Theodores is at 201 Worthington St.

Donovans Irish Pub at the Eastfield Mall in Springfield welcomes the Healys with Charlie Bongiovi on Friday night. Look for Bostons Erin Og at the same stage on Saturday.

The Root Cellar in Greenfield will have an intriguing show on Friday, featuring Grace Ives, Jack Whitescarver, Plants of the Bible, and Lucy. Ives, a Brooklyn-born artist creates dreamy bedroom pop that lives in an ethereal space of ghostly synths and percolating percussion. It may be the perfect music for an early spring day when things are starting to bloom. The Root Cellar is at 10 Fiske Ave.

Do you have a cool event coming up at a local club? Send me a note about it at least two weeks in advance to geolenker@yahoo.com and Ill try to get it in this space.
Four Maine residents were charged with poaching baby eels as well as several drug-related offenses after authorities said they found crack cocaine and heroin in the suspects car.

Massachusetts Environmental Police said a lieutenant encountered a vehicle in an area of Wareham that is known for the illegal harvesting of glass eels on Saturday around 11:30 p.m.

Authorities said the vehicles four occupants, all of Maine, were found with undersized glass eels and small mesh nets used for harvesting. They were taken into custody for the marine fisheries violations when one of the arrested parities was found with crack cocaine and a crack pipe, police said.

Ammunition and a magazine for a handgun were also found in the vehicle, and authorities said none of the occupants were licensed to carry a firearm.

A police K-9 searched the car and found heroin, hypodermic needles containing a brown liquid and more ammunition, environmental police said.

All four were booked on a number of poaching, drug, gun and trespassing-related charges, according to authorities. The suspects names have not been released.
WILBRAHAM  Friendlys, citing expiring leases and a need to reduce its network in a competitive environment, closed more restaurant locations over the weekend, including one at the Stop & Shop plaza in Framingham, Holden and 20 more, including one in New Hampshire, and others in western and central New York state.

A Waltham location closed last week and was including in the most recent news release from the company bringing the total to 23.

Last week, Dennis Pfaff, chief operating officer of Friendlys, said he expected more restaurants to close as leases expire. The chain, he said, is shrinking its networked to fit market conditions and shedding stores that that are no longer in high-traffic shopping locations.

The closed locations include 14 restaurants in upstate New York, three in Massachusetts, three in Connecticut, two in New Hampshire and one in Maine. Following these actions, Friendlys will have 77 corporate-owned restaurants and 97 franchisee-owned restaurants.

Brothers S. Prestley and Curtis Blake founded Friendlys in 1935 with a single storefront in Springfields Pine Point neighborhood.

Friendlys headed into this most recent round of shutdowns with 200 locations, including 100 corporately owned and 100 franchised. Thats down from 224 just more than a year ago and 254 when the company emerged from bankruptcy in 2012.

In 1988, when Hershey Foods sold the chain, it had 850 full-service restaurants in 15 states.

While theres much work ahead, we are encouraged by the momentum were generating. The energy and enthusiasm for the plans we unveiled at our February meeting was both gratifying and inspiring, as we seek to re-energize our marketing efforts with the addition of a new agency roster, refresh our menu, focus on delivery and catering options, and improve the overall restaurant experience for our customers, CEO CEO George Michel wrote in a letter Monday to franchisees.

Friendlys owner Sun Capital sold the ice cream manufacturing operation in Wilbraham and supermarket sales business to Dean Foods Co. for $155 million in 2016. Dean Foods, the countrys largest processor and seller of fluid milk, makes Friendlys ice cream for the restaurants on a 10-year contract.

Friendly's is trying. It's got a revamped menu coming out next month and has started offering delivery with Uber Eats and DoorDash. Friendly's also does catering now, offering meals with ice cream to groups.

Pfaff said that when Friendlys closes a location, neighboring ones see increased business and profitability.

The 23 closed stores are:
While many adults enjoy at least a half-hour lunch during work, some students in Attleboro arent happy with the 20 minutes they get.

The Sun Chronicle reports that some eighth-grade students at Brennan Middle School are taking their fight to the school committee as part of a civics project in which they chose something they felt could be improved.

Students only have 20 minutes to get from class, wait in line and eat their food before needing to return to class. The students in the project aim to get five to 10 minutes added to the lunch block.

The group has been making calls, researching trends and preparing their presentation, which they will give to the school committee on Monday.

According to the Sun Chronicle, the group polled 200 students, and of those, only a handful thought they had enough time to eat lunch, with some saying they had to throw away their food.

We need time to finish our lunches and socialize, eighth-grade student Lauren Lombardy told the Sun Chronicle. We also need a mental break.
The City of Springfield acquired records in 2016 showing that a dozen members of the Springfield Police Department had texted or called each other at the time of an alleged off-duty beating that has led to indictments against 14 officers.

But the records were destroyed after a police union complaint because they were improperly obtained by a city attorney, MassLive has learned.

Attorney Rhett Towles formerly of Labor Relations was able to gather records which he stated placed 12 officers in a text or call chain in the timeframe of the Nathan Bills incident, retired Deputy Chief Robert Cheetham wrote to the citys law office and police department brass in a Nov. 23, 2016 email obtained by MassLive.

The records were apparently obtained incorrectly and Attorney Towles was trying to work on another means of properly obtaining the records, Cheetham wrote. "Attorney Maite Parsi of Labor Relations was aware of this tactic. This information was conveyed to the District Attorneys Office.

The existence of the phone records is another glimpse at evidence known to the Massachusetts Attorney Generals Office, whose statewide grand jury brought the indictments this month -- but unavailable to Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni when he decided not to bring charges in the case in 2017. MassLive reported last month that the FBI and AGs Office had reviewed angles of video footage from a bank outside Nathan Bills that were not obtained by local investigators.

The district attorneys office was aware of the effort to obtain the phone records but was never provided the documents, a spokesman told MassLive. The DAs Office, which relied on the police departments investigations and did not conduct its own factfinding inquiry when evaluating the case, did not attempt to obtain the records itself.

The city never ended up re-acquiring the records through another method. The phone records showed the existence and timing of contacts between the officers but did not include the content of text messages or phone calls, MassLive has learned.

Six off-duty Springfield police officers and a co-owner of Nathan Bills Bar and Restaurant have been charged with assaulting four men after an argument at the bar led to a fight in a nearby parking lot in April 2015. One of the alleged victims, Paul Cumby, suffered a broken leg and loosened teeth.

Other current and former officers, who responded to the scene, have been charged with perjury and lying to investigators in an alleged effort to cover up the attack.

Retired Springfield Police Sgt. William Andrew, who authored the departments internal investigation of the beating allegations, said he hoped the citys acquisition of the records could further his investigation of communication between the involved officers.

But they were shot down, Andrew said in an interview.

The problem, City Solicitor Ed Pikula said, was that while the Springfield City Council has the legal authority to issue summonses for documents, Springfields Community Police Hearing Board does not.

The CPHB, which hears civilian complaints against officers, was created by mayoral order -- making the citys acquisition of the records on its behalf improper, he said.

At the time these records were summonsed for the CPHB through the labor relations department, there was an open question as to the legal authority of whether the CPHB could authorize the summons as they were a body created by the mayor and not the city council," Pikula said in an interview. A dispute arose with the union over this issue, and the labor relations department agreed not to utilize the records and to destroy our copies.

Pikula said that other government agencies, like the district attorneys office and civil service authorities, were notified of what happened. But the city did not end up obtaining the records through other means. And the departments criminal investigation of the fight, which was completed by the time the city acquired the phone records, was not reopened

Other avenues were explored, but I dont have the personal knowledge," Pikula said.

The Patrolmans Union did not respond to a request for comment.

The case, which has evolved from a late-night brawl to a four-year saga of investigations, lawsuits and criminal charges, dates back to the night of April 7, 2015.

Paul Cumby, his cousins Jozelle and Jackie Ligon and their friend Michael Cintron were drinking at Nathan Bills when they got into a verbal dispute with a group of off-duty officers. Officer Daniel Billingsley, who was with officers Christian Cicero, Anthony Cicero and Melissa Rodriguez, accused Jozelle Ligon of whistling at his girlfriend and the two began to exchange words.

The initial argument ended nonviolently after the four civilians were asked to leave the bar. But later that night, Billingsley and a group of other off-duty officers allegedly followed the men to a nearby parking lot and attacked them.

All the officers charged have pleaded not guilty in the case. Billingsleys attorney has described him as the victim of an assault and accused Cumby and his group of being the aggressors in the fight.

Uniformed officers responded after the fight, finding Cumby unconscious with a broken leg and the other three men nursing their own injuries. According to the departments internal investigation, the civilians told at least one officer that they believed they had been jumped by off-duty police. But responding officers never searched the bar, and no criminal investigation was launched until Cumby filed a complaint.

Thirteen current and former officers are scheduled to be arraigned in Hampden Superior Court on Thursday in connection with the alleged beating and coverup.
A shooting at a Stoughton home left a man suffering serious injuries Sunday night, according to police.

Around 10:07 p.m., Stoughton police responded to a shooting report at 420 Pleasant St. Police located a male victim with very serious injuries inside the home, toward the back of the stairs. He was transported to a hospital in Boston, police said in a statement.

Authorities closed off a portion of Pleasant Street, by Route 139, as the shooting location remains a very active crime scene, according to police. Residents are asked to stay away from the area Monday morning.

The shooting is under investigation by the Stoughton Police Department and the Massachusetts State Police. Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to contact Stoughton police at 781-344-2424.
Note: Kelley appeared in Palmer District Court on Monday morning to submit to charges of larceny of more than $250, uttering a false check and forgery of a check. She was released on her own recognizance and instructed to return to court Tuesday morning to be arraigned on the charges. The warrant for her arrest has been cancelled by the court.

WARE - Police are seeking the publics help in locating a 23-year-old woman who is wanted in both Ware and Belchertown for stealing more than $15,000 from her former employer.

The woman, Kayla Kelley, is accused of writing several fraudulent checks and then cashing them. Ware and Belchertown police have each issued arrest warrants for her.

She is a white woman, 5 feet 4 inches tall, and her last known address was Stebbins Street in Belchertown. She is believed to be somewhere in Ware, police said.

Anyone with information about where she can be found is asked to call the Ware police at 413 967-3571. People can also submit information anonymously through waretipline@townofware.com.
WARE  Town Manager Stuart Beckley has reconsidered charging Fire Chief Thomas Coulombe $240 to access public records.

After talks with the states Supervisor of Public Records, Beckley has agreed to provide them to Coulombe at no cost.

Beckley ordered Coulombe placed on paid administrative leave in February, and hired a Connecticut law firm to investigate him. That probe remains ongoing, Beckley said on Thursday.

In response to that, Coulombe filed a complaint against the Ware Board of Selectmen, alleging they violated the Open Meeting Law. He also filed a public records request with Beckley and was initially told the documents he wanted could be accessed, but only after he paid $240.

Coulombes complaint alleges selectmen met behind closed doors on Feb. 19  without him present  to discuss him and take action. He maintains the board was required to invite to respond to any accusations.

He was placed on paid leave the next day, and has not returned to work since.

The towns labor attorney issued a decision on behalf of the selectmen last month, saying the boards actions were proper and that they did not violate the Open Meeting Law.

Coulombe appealed the selectmens denial to state Attorney General Maura Healeys office.

He is requesting the board be fined, claiming they purposely violated the Open Meeting Law. He would also like an apology and a copy of the Feb. 19 executive session meeting minutes.

The town has not formally denied The Republicans request for a copy of those minutes, but has shared a copy of the labor counsels denial of the Open Meeting Law violation, which says, in part, that the executive session meeting minutes are exempt from disclosure because the board was within their right to meet behind closed doors.
A judge released Dartmouth Police Officer Shawn Souza, who has been charged with child rape, on $10,000 cash bail Monday.

Judge Robert S. Ovoian deemed the 37-year-old police officer dangerous, but denied the Bristol District Attorneys request to hold him without bail for four months, according to South Coast Today.

The judge ordered Souza to not come within a mile of the two alleged victims school, homes or places of employment. Ovoian established a curfew from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. and ordered Souza to wear a GPS monitoring device at the dangerousness hearing in New Bedford District Court, according to the newspaper.

Souza is charged with rape of a child by force, rape of a child aggravated by age difference and two counts of indecent assault and battery on a person under 14 years old by a mandated reporter. He was arrested Thursday by a Massachusetts State Police Trooper.

The alleged the abuse happened in Dartmouth, according to Bristol District Attorney Thomas Quinn IIIs office. The alleged incidents did not occur while Souza was on duty, police said.

Souza was hired in October 2008.

Police said Souza is on paid administrative leave, as is required by the departments collective bargaining agreement. Souzas department-issued badge and firearm were seized.

The investigation began after Dartmouth police received a report from the state Department of Children and Families, Quinns office said. Dartmouth police reached out to Quinns Special Victims Unit, which conducted the investigation.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren ranks third in among Democratic candidates for 2020 in Massachusetts, according to an Emerson College poll.

The colleges first poll of the 2020 primary showed that 26 percent of voters support Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, 23 percent support former Vice President Joe Biden and 14 percent support Warren.

Mayor of South Bend Pete Buttigieg was supported by 11 percent of polled voters, followed by former Texas Congressman Beto ORourke at 8 percent and California Sen. Kamala Harris at 7 percent.

This is a concern for Warren who at this time does not have a firewall in her home state, and her rival Sanders has a strong base in the Bay State, Director of Emerson Polling Spencer Kimball said in a statement.

The college polled 761 registered voters statewide from April 4 to 7. The results were weighted based on a 2016 voter model of gender, education, ethnicity, party and region, according to a news release from the college.

Similar to 2016, President Donald Trump was not the top candidate among the polled Massachusetts voters.

Among all polled voters, Trump had a 62 percent disapproval rating. He fell behind Biden 69 percent to 31 percent, Sanders 64 percent to 36 percent and Warren 63 percent to 37 percent.

Trump is popular with Republicans in Massachusetts, according to the poll. He led former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld 82 percent to 18 percent.
The global contract research organization market is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 11.48% over the forecast period of 2017-2023, asserts Market Research Future (MRFR) in an in-depth study.

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The growth of the global contract manufacturing market can be attributed to the growing complexity of drug development and drug discovery which has given rise to the trend of outsourcing. Increasing cost of drug development, pricing pressures, and pipeline challenges has prompted pharmaceutical companies to resort to outsourcing to withstand the intense competitive nature of the pharmaceutical industry. In addition, pharmaceutical manufacturing requires sophisticated technologies and advanced technical knowledge which is a key factor in shaping the growth of the market. Contract research organizations help to reduce costs considerably and provide increased expertise and allow pharmaceutical companies to enjoy economies of scale. Besides, they also aid in staying compliant with regulatory norms. Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies eyeing for regulatory approvals in various countries have further increased the demand for CROs.

Pharmaceutical companies are progressively turning to CROs to capitalize on the expertise and capabilities they offer, so that they can lay higher emphasis on other core competencies, without changing or investing in available infrastructure. It helps the, reduce manufacturing costs while maintaining quality.

Other factors which are boosting the growth of the market include towering healthcare costs, patent expiration, and rigorous rules to maintain product quality. On the other hand, the growth of the market is at threat from structural changes in the industry, high cost of labor, volatility in exchange rates, freight charges, and elevated complexities of clinical trials. Moreover, given the high demand for CROs, the number of CROs have not been able to match pace with the demand which is a major impeding factor.

Competitive Landscape:

INC Research LLC (U.S.), Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings. (U.S.), QuintilesIMS (U.S.),

Pharmaceutical Product Development, LLC. (U.S.), PAREXEL International Corporation. (U.S.),

ICON plc. (Europe), and PRA Health Sciences, Inc. (U.S.) are the key players in the global contract research organization market.

Segmentation:

The Global Contract Research Organization Market has been segmented based on segment, clinical trial phase, and end users.

By segment, the global contract research organization market has been segmented into drug discovery, clinical development, post marketing services, and others.

By clinical trial phase, the global contract research organization market has been segmented into preclinical trials, phase I, phase II, phase III, phase IV, and others.

By end user, the global contract research organization market has been segmented into pharmaceutical/ biotechnology companies, medical devices companies, academic institutes and others.

Regional Analysis:

By region, the global contract research organization market has been segmented into the Americas, Asia Pacific (APAC), Europe, and the Middle East & Africa (MEA).

The Americas account for the lions share of the global contract research organization market on account of an established healthcare sector and the presence of a massive patient population. Strong economic conditions, established drug market and robust manufacturing capabilities are factors supporting the growth of the market.

Europe is the second largest market for contract research organization which is driven by increasing healthcare expenditure and availability of funds. Moreover, burgeoning government support for R&D along with increase in patient population is likely to provide ample opportunities for market expansion over the forecast period. The untapped Eastern Europe region stores huge opportunities for further market expansion.

APAC market is expected to expand at a relatively faster rate as compared to other markets. Increasing healthcare expenditure in the developing economies of the region such as China and India provide attractive prospects for market growth. Favorable government policies and increasing base of patient population is expected to support the growth if the market over the forecast period.

the MEA market is likely to hold the minimum share of the market over the forecast period due to poor economic conditions and less developed healthcare sector in the region, especially in Africa. The Middle East accounts for the majority share of the MEA market where the well-developed healthcare sector augurs well for the market growth. In addition, presence of developed economies such as Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Qatar are contributing to the growth of the market.

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EHR-EMR Market Information: By Component (Software, Hardware), Application (Specialty-Based and General Application), Mode Of Delivery (Cloud-Based), End User (Hospitals and Clinics and Ambulatory Care Centers), and Region  Forecast till 2027

Industry Updates:

20 DEC 2018 Mid-Valley Hospital in Washington is set to go live with a Cerner EHR implementation across its facilities to improve care quality.

21 NOV 2018 Apple Inc is in talks with the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide portable electronic health records to military veterans, a partnership that would not only simplify patients hospital visits but would also allow Apple Inc to tap millions of new customers.

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Ochsner Health System and Bon Secours Mercy Health are large health systems that are planning on customizing EHR-EMR to gain the most by managing opioid addiction of patients. Opioid addiction is raising quite a few eyebrows where this new method can help substantially.

EHR coordination is becoming a challenge as different hospitals are using different software. To counter that Redivus is developing one for Saint Luke to make it easier for all to comprehend the situation and come to the same page before taking decisions.

Electronic health records (EHRs) is a collection and storage of patient information electronically. Electronic medical record (EMR) is defined as a digital version of the traditional paper-based medical record for an individual. Market Research Future (MRFR) has published a research report on the global EHR-EMR market that anticipates progress for this market at 10.9% CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) between 2018 and 2023. In terms of value, this market is going to be worth US $ 120 bn.

Observing the market structure, this report presents insights about factors affecting the market growth. Calculating the market size and forecasting the revenue, this reports covers and observes the competitive developments of market players that include mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, new product developments, research and developments (R&D), and strategic alliances.

The essential factors that are assisting the growth of the global EHR-EMR market are easy healthcare delivery, the growing role of information technology (IT) in the healthcare sector, increasing number of patients getting admitted in hospitals, the increasing volume of medical records, maintaining the quality of health-records, and replacement of paper records by electronic records. Technological and scientific innovations are also helping the market growth.

Key Players for Global EHR-EMR Market

Age-old tactics such as mergers, acquisitions, collaborations, and others are proving effective. New product launch and innovative tactical moves are also having great impact on the regional market expansion. For instance, Netsmart, in 2018, bought Change Healthcares home health IT solutions and cloud-based software company HomeCare Accounting Solutions (HAS). Allscripts also acquired McKessons hospital and health system IT business, Enterprise Information Solutions, which can take the market forward.

The key players in the global EHR-EMR market include Allscripts (USA), Cerner Corporation (USA), eClinicalWorks (USA), Epic Systems Corporation (USA), General Electric Company (USA), Greenway Health, LLC (USA), McKesson Corporation (USA), and QSI Management LLC (USA).

Segments for Global EHR-EMR Market

The global EHR-EMR market has been segmented based on component type, application, mode of delivery, and end user.

By component type, the global EHR-EMR market has been segmented into hardware and software.

By application, the global EHR-EMR market has been segmented into specialty-based and general applications.

Type-wise segmentation of the global EHR-EMR market includes traditional, speech-enabled, interoperable, and others.

By mode of delivery, the global EHR-EMR market has been segmented into cloud-based, on-premise model, and hybrid.

By end user, the global EHR-EMR market has been segmented into hospitals & clinics, ambulatory care, hospital-owned, and diagnostic centers.

Regional Analysis for Global EHR-EMR Market

The regional segmentation of the global EHR-EMR markets segments the global market into regional markets known as The Americas (North America & South America), Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East & Africa (MEA). The Americas is the largest regional market. The factors supporting the market growth in this region are the presence of major market players in this region, increasing the importance of EHR-EMR, technological advancement, research and development (R&D) in the healthcare sector, and an increase in the number of services in specialty & super specialty hospitals. The biggest country-specific markets in this region are USA and Canada. Many key market players are based in this region, especially in the USA. In South America, the market is smaller than North America as this region has less advanced medical facilities. The two strongest economies that can become suitable markets are Argentina and Brazil.

Europe is the second largest market due to extensive use of healthcare IT for patient engagement and administration. The technological advancement in Europe is second only to North America. Due to the reasons same as the Americas, Western Europe is a bigger market than Eastern Europe. The primary country-specific markets in this region are France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK, followed by the remaining countries of Europe.

The fastest growing regional market is in the Asia Pacific region because here, the emphasis on medical records to be presented as evidence in the court of law is growing. In this region, the crucial country-specific markets are Australia, China, India, Japan, and South Korea, followed by the remaining countries of the Asia Pacific region.

In the MEA region, the market is growing slowly but positively due to an increasing demand for software solutions in hospitals. The market share of MEA region is small in the global market due to poor countries, lack of awareness, lack of education, low standard of medical facilities, lack of healthcare facilities, and majority governments not considering healthcare a priority. The key country-specific markets in this region are Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates (UAE), followed by the remaining countries of the MEA region.

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Market Research Future (MRFR) proposes that the global ePharmacy market is estimated to experience a sturdy CAGR in the coming years. The augmenting proliferation of internet is favoring the market growth to a large extent. ePharmacy is one of the online services which operates over the internet and allows the consumers to send orders for medicines via e-commerce platforms, mail, and shipping companies.

Market Overview

With the augmenting proliferation of internet and penetration of smartphone users, the healthcare sector is deploying technologically advanced healthcare solutions. ePharmacy is considered one such internet solutions that operate over the internet and enables the consumers to order medicine products right at their doorsteps. ePharmacy is predicted to steal the limelight at a rapid pace owing to the increasing demand for healthcare services coupled with the issues faced the offline retail providers meeting the burgeoning needs of the consumers. With the increased incidences of chronic diseases, the rising popularity of e-commerce platforms among the consumers, and accelerating geriatric population prone to such diseases, the ePharmacy market is considered to flourish across the globe. Moreover, ease of affordability and convenience are some of the other major factors fostering the market growth across the globe.

The markets course is chiefly directed by the increased investment by the private players coupled with the initiatives taken by the government. Major market players are highly investing in scale-up online pharmacy business which is likely to drive the market. For instance, a Switzerland-based online pharmacy company, Zur Rose AG, in 2017, had invested a significant amount in order to expand its business in Germany.

On the contrary, low penetration of advanced technology, especially in the underdeveloped regions, is considered to deter the ePharmacy market growth throughout the estimated period. Moreover, the high cost of doctor visit and treatment have further triggered the demand for online pharmacies as they provide overall cost efficiency and discounts.

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Industry Updates

On May 2018, Walgreens launched their online skincare advisor SkinID in order to offer consumers suffering from acne with personalized skincare regimens.

Competitive Dashboard

Some of the key players operating the global ePharmacy market are Medisave, drugstore.com Inc., Secure Medical Inc., Express Scripts Holding Company, Walmart Stores Inc., Optum Rx Inc., CVS Health, Walgreen Co., Lloyds Pharmacy Ltd., Sanicare AB, Rowlands Pharmacy, Canada Drugs, PlanetRx, eDrugstore.com, Giant Eagle Inc., DocMorris (Zur Rose Group AG), The Kroger Co., and others.

Segmental Analysis

The global ePharmacy market has been segmented on the basis of product type and drug type.

By mode of drug type, the global ePharmacy market has been segmented into over the counter (OTC) drugs and prescription drugs. For ordering prescription drugs, consumers have to upload prescriptions online. Among these, the over the counter (OTC) segment occupies a maximum share owing to the rising prevalence of chronic diseases resulting in the increased demand for healthcare products and drugs.

By mode of product type, the global ePharmacy market has been segmented into skin care, dental vitamins, weight loss, cold and flu, and others.

Regional Insights

Geographically, the ePharmacy market span across regions namely, Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa.

Among all the regions, the European and North American regions are considered significant regions with the presence of well-developed healthcare infrastructure coupled with strong network speed which highly support the growth of the market in these regions. Moreover, North America has a high concentration of prominent market players which is further contributing to the growth of the market. Meanwhile, Europe comprises highly supportive healthcare policies in order to improve the healthcare infrastructure, thereby influencing the market to a large extent. Both of the regions have a high concentration of geriatric population which is further leveraging the availability of affordable and convenient pharmaceuticals for healthcare needs.

On the other hand, Latin America and the Asia Pacific are predicted to emerge at a rapid pace. The Asia Pacific region is undergoing massive economic changes and is thus attracting international players owing to its high potential. Emerging nations such as China and India are further contributing to the growth of the market. Moreover, with the increased proliferation of smartphones in rural and urban areas and high-speed internet connectivity, the market for ePharmacy is predicted to flourish.

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Overview

Advancing technologies have substantially raised the hope for better treatment in the healthcare sector. One of the chief driving forces is biotechnology which is constantly updating itself and impacting the former sector. Of the many ensuing projects, oligonucleotide synthesis is an evolving technique that forms inexpensive, custom-made oligonucleotides with the desired sequence. Its importance lies in its contribution in DNA or RNA synthesizing and hybridization and in the synthesis of artificial genes.

The global oligonucleotide synthesis market is expecting an astonishing 10.3% CAGR during the forecast period (2014-2022), reveals Market Research Future (MRFR) in a broadly demonstrated report.

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However, the cost can prove to be a great market deterrent. The oligonucleotide synthesis requires expert hands, and its research and development process can incur high expenditure which can impede the growth in the near future. But it has the potential to counter chronic diseases by developing suitable drugs which can create a favorable ambiance for the market.

Segmentation:

The global oligonucleotide synthesis market can be segmented by product type, application, and end-users.

Based on product type, the market can be segmented into synthesized oligonucleotides, reagents and equipment.

the market can be segmented into synthesized oligonucleotides, reagents and equipment. Application -wise segmentation of the market includes diagnostic, genetic testing, research, therapeutics, gene synthesis, library preparation, drug target screening, and others.

-wise segmentation of the market includes diagnostic, genetic testing, research, therapeutics, gene synthesis, library preparation, drug target screening, and others. Based on end-users, the market comprises academic research institutes, diagnostic laboratories, and pharmaceutical & biotechnology companies.

Market Dashboard:

The competitive market is witnessing several strategies being implemented by market behemoths. For instance, Danahers taking over of Integrated DNA Technologies can be seen as an effort to enhance the market portfolio. LGC is following the same suit by acquiring BioAutomation Corporation, the latter a manufacturer of the renowned MerMade oligo synthesis instruments. On the other hand, STA Pharmaceuticals has signed a collaboration with Regulus to establish high-quality oligonucleotide research and development center.

Some of the key players in this market are Integrated DNA Technologies, Inc (U.S), GE Healthcare (U.S.), Agilent Technologies Inc. (U.S.), Sigma-Aldrich Corporation (U.S.), Bioautomation Corporation (U.S.), Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (U.S.), L.G.C Biosearch Technologies (U.S.), Eurofins Genomics (Germany), Eurogentec S.A (Belgium), and Nitto Denko Avecia Inc. (Japan) and others.

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Regional Analysis:

Region-specific segmentation of the market includes North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), and the Middle East & Africa (MEA).

North America has the largest market for oligonucleotide synthesis. The region invests in research and development substantially, and it has a superlative infrastructure in biotechnology sector which is triggering further market growth. In addition, the healthcare sector, with an eye searching constantly for new treatments for chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes, is taking the market forward. Governments and private investors are also funding researches as they are equally eager to get positive results.

Europe is also fetching in substantial revenue as the region has almost similar kind of ambiance like North America for advanced researches. And its position has further been solidified by the presence of big league market players. The APAC region is showing lots of promises as emerging economies such as India and China are investing heavily in biotechnological researches and developments which is directly expanding the scope for oligonucleotide synthesis market growth. Governments in this region are also supporting the market considerably by approving funds.

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The report further incorporates factors that are contributing much for the market growth which includes ventures and investments made by big pharmaceutical companies, contract manufacturing organizations involvement in the market and global prevalence of chronic diseases spurring the demand for better medicines.

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Surgical drills as the name itself suggests, are drill machines which are used during the various surgical procedures. Their main function is to drill, cut, and bore holes in the bone in order to attach surgical pins, plates, or screws. There are several types of surgical drills available which are powered by different source. These include pneumatic drills, electric drills, and battery powered drills among others. Surgical drills have simplified the tedious job of a surgeon and reduced the surgery time significantly. Surgical drills have become an important tool in the surgical procedures. Increasing number of orthopedic and dental surgeries, high awareness about the dental hygiene and high disposable income are some of the factors contribute to the growth of the surgical drills market.

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Global Surgical Drills Market is expected to grow significantly over the forecast period. The market held a market value of USD 463.64 million in 2017 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 4.93% over the forecast period.

Key players:

Adeor medical AG, AlloTech Co.Ltd. Arthrex Inc., B.Braun Melsungen AG, CONMED Corporation, De Soutter Medical, DePuy Synthes, Medtronic plc, Stryker Corporation and Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc. are some of the key players in the global surgical drills market.

Segmentation:

The Global Surgical Drills Market has been segmented into product, application and end-user.Based on products, the market has been segmented into, pneumatic drills, electric drills, battery powered drills, accessories, and others. The pneumatic drills segment is expected to account for the largest share in the global surgical drills market in 2017. This large share is majorly attributed to the wider acceptance of the devices, and better patient compliance as compared to other products. Based on application, the market has been segmented into orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery, ENT, dental surgery, and other. The orthopedic surgery segment is expected to account for the largest share in the global surgical drills market in 2017 followed by dental surgery segment.Based on end-users, the market has been segmented into hospitals & clinics, ambulatory surgical centers, academic and research institutes, and others. The hospitals & clinics segment is expected to account for the largest share in the global surgical drills market in 2017. At the same time, the increasing establishments of the ambulatory surgical centers in the developed and developing countries has led this segment to grow at the fastest rate during the forecast period.

Based on the regions, the market for surgical drills is segmented in to, the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa. The surgical drills market in the Americas region has further been segmented into North America and South America, where-in the North American market is further divided into the US and Canada.European surgical drills market has been segmented into Western Europe and Eastern Europe where-in Western Europe region is further divided into Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Spain, and the rest of Western Europe. The surgical drills market in Asia-Pacific has been segmented into Japan, China, India, South Korea, Australia, and the rest of Asia-Pacific. The surgical drills market in the Middle East & Africa has been segmented into regions such as the Middle East and Africa.

Regional Market Summary

Geographically, the Americas is anticipated to dominate the global surgical drills market owing to the rising number of the orthopaedic surgeries, increasing awareness about dental hygiene leading to increase in dental procedures and surgeries. The development of the better surgical approaches and advanced treatment procedures have affected the growth of the American market in a positive way. Moreover, high awareness among American population, state of the art medical infrastructure, high disposable income, are some of the many factors that drive the growth of the surgical drills market in this region.

Europe is expected to hold the second largest market share in the global surgical drills market. The market growth in this region is majorly attributed to the increasing government support for the device manufacturers. Geographical expansion of companies has led to the wider reach of the medical products and services which has brought a huge change in terms of the acceptance and implementation of the new products as well as procedures. Similarly, Asia-Pacific region has observed a rapid growth in the surgical drills market owing to the development in the medical sector in developing countries like India and China. Moreover, increase in government funding for healthcare, rising R&D expenditure, and growing number of medical device companies in the region has led to its fastest growth during the forecast period. The Middle East & Africa region is anticipated to show minor growth opportunities in the surgical drills market during the forecast period.

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Detailed Table Contents:

Table Of Contents:

Chapter 1. Report Prologue

Chapter 2. Market Introduction

2.1 Definition

2.2 Scope Of The Study

2.2.1 Research Objective

2.2.2 Assumptions

2.2.3 Limitations

Chapter 3. Research Methodology

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Primary Research

3.3 Secondary Research

3.4 Market Size Estimation

Chapter 4. Market Dynamics

4.1 Drivers

4.2 Restraints

4.3 Opportunities

4.4 Challenges

4.5 Macroeconomic Indicators

4.6 Technology Trends & Assessment

Chapter 5. Market Factor Analysis

5.1 Porters Five Forces Analysis

5.1.1 Bargaining Power Of Suppliers

5.1.2 Bargaining Power Of Buyers

5.1.3 Threat Of New Entrants

5.1.4 Threat Of Substitutes

5.1.5 Intensity Of Rivalry

TOC Continued!

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Vector flow imaging (VFI) is a technology that utilizes ultrasound to visualize the direction and speed of blood flow, independent of the orientation of the ultrasound probe. It works in any direction and at any angle, but its application in clinical practice has been slow because of limitations of the technology. Now researchers at the University of Arkansas, Arkansas Childrens Hospital, Stanford, and Cincinnati Childrens have for the first time used vector flow imaging to analyze the hemodynamics in children with congenital heart defects.

Doppler ultrasound can provide a good deal of information about the velocity of blood flow, but its beam has to be aligned with vessel being scanned and in some cases, such as during echocardiography scans, lack of alignment results in lack of useful information. Using vector flow imaging, though, the researchers were able to map out the blood flow within the hearts of small children, as well as piglets. The piglets, unlike the children, were dissected following the imaging to evaluate how the results from VFI matched the real cardiac anatomy.

The researchers used the bk5000 ultrasound from BK Medical, the company that been perfecting vector flow imaging for a number of years.

Vector flow imaging technology is not yet possible in adults, but we have demonstrated that it is feasible in pediatric patients, said Morten Jensen, associate professor of biomedical engineering at the U of Arkansas, and one of the researchers involved in the study. Our group demonstrated that this commercially available technology can be used as a bedside imaging method, providing advanced detail of blood flow patterns within cardiac chambers, across valves and in the great arteries.

Study in journal Progress in Pediatric Cardiology: Real-time transthoracic vector flow imaging of the heart in pediatric patients

Product info page: Vector Flow Imaging

Via: University of Arkansas
by Fern Siegel , April 8, 2019



TV brand extensions have gone religious  at least where the Emmy-winning The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is concerned.

Passover begins April 19  so Amazon and Maxwell House teamed to turn the Seder into a brand-marketing bonanza targeting American Jews.

"Mrs. Maisel" is set in the late Fifties; its star, Miriam (Midge) Maisel, the proverbial nice Jewish girl with a chic, sardonic twist, is played by the incomparable Rachel Brosnahan. She is the mother of two baby boomers, who would have grown up on the Maxwell House Haggadah.

While Midge, given her groundbreaking comedy career, would probably prefer the more feminist, inclusive Haggadah now routine in many Jewish homes, shed love the top billing of "Midge's Haggadah."

The booklet is a savvy marketing move.

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Marrying nostalgia to an acclaimed Amazon series, which just began filming its third season on the Upper West Side, offers built-in appeal. Illustrations of Midge and other characters spice up the new version, alongside her personal notations, brisket recipe and various wine stains.

The limited-run Haggadah is available to those who order Maxwell House coffee via Amazon.com.

In fact, Maxwell House, owned by Kraft Heinz, is promoting the offer on social media and across Amazon's platforms. Billed as a premium limited edition, Maxwell House plans to distribute between 40,000 and 50,000 copies of the special Haggadah to customers.

Midges Haggadah builds on an earlier tradition: Maxwell House Haggadahs have been a holiday giveaway since 1932; at one time, it was a mainstay at American Seders. (The company secured the first kosher-for-Passover certification for coffee in 1923.)

Maxwell House says the Haggadahs are the countrys longest-running corporate promotion, reports Forbes. They have been used at White House Seders and given to Jewish soldiers on the battlefield. Its latest incarnation debuted in 2011, when the English translation was updated for 21st-century audiences.

But to remain true to the shows ethos, Midges Haggadah traffics in retro appeal.

There is an organic link between the Maxwell House and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel brands, and we quickly aligned on the idea of creating Midges Haggadah  a combination of the 1958 classic version and Midges amazing personality, stated Naor Danieli, brand manager for Maxwell House.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel debuted on Amazon in 2017, starring Brosnahan, Tony Shaloub, Alex Borstein, Marin Hinkle and Michael Zegen. In 2018, it won Emmys for Brosnahan, Borstein, directing, writing and the coveted outstanding comedy series. This year, Brosnahan and Shaloub won Screen Actor Guild awards, as did the cast for outstanding performance by an ensemble in a comedy series.
by Ray Schultz , April 8, 2019

EU authorities are investigating to determine whether their own software deals with Microsoft comply with the GDPR.

The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) launched an investigation on Monday, and can dole out fines of up to EUR50,000 per infraction, Reuters reports.

The EDPS will try to determine whether contracts with Microsoft are compliant with GDPR.

"When relying on third parties to provide services, the EU institutions remain accountable for any data processing carried out on their behalf," says Assistant EDPS Wojciech Wiewiorowski, according to Reuters.

Dutch authorities raised concerns last year over data collected through Microsoft Pro-Plus, Reuters says. This includes Microsoft Outlook, the email service, and Microsoft Word.

The investigation covers Microsoft usage by the European Commission and other EU institutions

A Microsoft spokesperson says, "We are committed to helping our customers comply with GDPR, Regulation 2018/1725, and other applicable laws and are confident that our contractual arrangements allow customers to do so. We stand ready to help our customers answer any questions the European Data Protection Supervisor may have.
NEW YORK

April 08, 2019

Mindy D. Smith

Michael W. Bukach

University of Wyoming

University of Wyoming

July 2018

Northeast Ohio

Ohio Northern University

/PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The NCPDP Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization that is affiliated with NCPDP, has named, BSPharm, R.Ph., MHA, its new Chair, and, R.Ph., Vice Chair, to lead efforts to support programs, projects and people that drive quality healthcare and improve outcomes through the proper use of standards-based health information technology.Smith is President of PrescribeCare MSO, a subsidiary of PrescribeWellness  a Tabula Rasa HealthCare Company, where she works to drive the adoption of pharmacist patient care services. Smith also serves on the board of the Alliance for Integrated Medication Management."I'm honored to join the NCPDP Foundation's leadership and help build its transformational work and service to improve our industry through unyielding commitment to patient care," said Smith. "The NCPDP Foundation funds research and pilot projects to prove the value of NCPDP standards and promote their widespread use to make healthcare better and safer. NCPDP's ePrescribing standards enable prescribers and pharmacists to access and share timely, accurate information to inform clinical decision making and improve patient compliance with treatment regimens, which ultimately improves the quality of patient care and lowers the total cost of care."Bukach is Senior Vice President and General Manager of CoverMyMeds' Pharmacy Business Unit, where he interacts with professionals at every level of pharmacy to maximize use of prior authorization solutions. Bukach's career includes holding leadership positions in pharmacy operations, networks and business development for franchisee groups and other companies."I'm pleased to support the NCPDP Foundation and its projects including those demonstrating the ROI in terms of clinical, administrative and patient safety benefits of using NCPDP standards," said Bukach. "The donations that are used to fund the research can help support optimal use of NCPDP standards."Bukach explained the NCPDP Foundation is currently funding research by Johns Hopkins Medicine to prove the value of using CancelRx, an ePrescribing transaction that allows prescribers to immediately and quickly send an electronic message to a patient's pharmacy to discontinue a prescription."This type of standardized ePrescribing message is critically important and what the NCPDP Foundation champions when a physician has determined that a medication is no longer useful for a patient and potentially harmful to continue taking," he said. "This circumstance is potentially challenging for patients who take multiple medications and can be confused about what therapy to stop or continue."Smith added, "Among the Foundation's top research priorities is identifying barriers to industry-wide adoption of the full functionality available in NCPDP's SCRIPT Standard for ePrescribing."Smith's previous leadership positions include executive director of the American Pharmacists Association Foundation from 2011 to 2015, chief executive officer of the Arizona Pharmacy Alliance from 2006 to 2011, and executive director of the Wyoming Pharmacy Association from 2003 to 2006. Smith practiced in community pharmacy settings the first seven years of her career and spent six years practicing in health systems. She earned two bachelor's degrees in zoology-physiology from theand in pharmacy from theSchool of Pharmacy. She also earned her Master's in Healthcare Administration inBukach started his career with a regional pharmacy chain in. There, he developed the long-term care and durable medical equipment businesses and became the vice president of pharmacy operations. Following the company's growth to 50 locations, Bukach joined Cardinal Health/Medicine Shoppe as vice president of pharmacy operations. In 2005, he co-developed a Medicare Part D program for MemberHealth, which became the third largest nationwide. Upon the company's acquisition, Bukach managed the clinical and rebate teams for Universal American. That company was acquired by CVS Caremark and he became the senior vice president of pharmacy network until leaving to start his consulting company. In 2013, he joined CoverMyMeds. Bukach earned a bachelor's degree in pharmacy fromAbout NCPDP Foundation The NCPDP Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona and is affiliated with the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP). The NCPDP Foundation was established in December 2012 to support research, education and charitable involvement within the healthcare industry. For more information, visit http://ncpdpfoundation.org.###SOURCE National Council For Prescription Drug Programs, Inc.
The insane wait to watch the final season of 'Game Of Thrones' is about to end in a week's time when we finally witness some crazy action. Naturally the premiere has happened and the cast is pretty active on social media, contributing to the buzz around the digital premiere.

Over the weekend, the good folks at 'SNL' got Kit Harington to host the night and needless to say, it was just as we expected. The best part, however, was the cast members, especially Emilia Clarke budging in and asking for spoilers, which Kit extensively refused to reveal. Adding to humour was the Night King himself asking if they could be friends and Kit's real life wife who had some fun questions to ask as well.

Now isn't that a big tease because as the days go by, all we want is for 15th April to arrive soon so we can finally get some visual action. Until then, this was the best pre-watch for sure!
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Giorgos Katrougalos, will participate, on Monday, 8 April, in a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council which will be held in Luxembourg.



Talks among the Ministers of Foreign Affairs will revolve around current international developments, while emphasis will be placed on the situation in Afghanistan, in the context of the relevant peace talks. The EUs Eastern Partnership will also be discussed in light of the related annual ministerial meeting which will take place in Brussels on 13 May, on the 10-year anniversary of its establishment (2009).

An informal discussion will follow during a working luncheon, on the situation in Venezuela and, more specifically, on the latest meeting of the International Contact Group, the establishment of which Greece has led.
Minister of Foreign Affairs G. Katrougalos spoke live with Sarah Hewson on SKY NEWS network from Luxembourg, where he attended the EU General Affairs Council:

"JOURNALIST: A lot for you to be discussing at this meeting: Afghanistan, Venezuela, Libya. How much of a factor is Brexit?

G. KATROUGALOS: Well, Brexit was not on the agenda today, because it is not one of the issues discussed by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs. But, we had a general discussion about the fact that we would like to have a 'civilised divorce', an orderly Brexit and not a disorderly one. But, I am very much afraid that does not depend any more on the Europeans' but on the UKs side.

JOURNALIST: What was the mood like towards the Prime Ministers request for a short extension to Brexit?

G. KATROUGALOS: Well, an extension is dependent on when or whether we can expect something out of it, I mean a meaningful solution. Greece has been from the beginning against any kind of punishing Brexit negotiations. We know, because of the crisis we were immersed, what it is to be in an asymmetric negotiation; and we want the member states of the European Union to stay in the Union, because they want to be members, not because there is a huge penalty pending for those leaving the club. But, during the negotiations, it is true that we have not heard real, concrete proposals by the UK till recently. Till very recently, its proposals have been like 'eating your cake and having it too'.

JOURNALIST: Yes, as you said, Greece is used to negotiating with the EU and coming up against the European Union around the negotiating table. From your perspective how has Theresa May handled this process?

G. KATROUGALOS: Well, Theresa May is certainly a resilient politician, but I am afraid the proposals she has put on the table have been very volatile till the end. They have not been concrete enough so as to be the basis of an agreement. And when we reached the agreement, this agreement was not accepted by the majority in parliament. I repeat, I have the feeling that the European Union has tried to forge an agreement that would be mutually profitable to both sides. And it is exactly because of the problems of the British political scene that we have not reached till now a positive outcome.

JOURNALIST: Do you think that Britain deserves more time? Deserves an extension? Or, Britain already had more than enough time to sort this out?

G. KATROUGALOS: I look forward to the meetings of Prime Minister May and Mr. Corbyn. If something positive comes out of this, different than business as usual, I think that we could discuss an extension. I repeat, the extension is very much dependent on whether we can have tangible hope that something more concrete can come out of it.

JOURNALIST: Do you get a sense of frustration and impatience that all of this could have been done so much sooner?

G. KATROUGALOS: Yes, of course. Because, as I mentioned before that we have heard a lot of contradictory policy-options from the UK. First, we heard that no deal is better than a bad deal, then we heard options for cherry picking that could not be accepted by us, because one cannot leave a club and have all the privileges as when belonging to this club. So, till the end, we still expect to hear positive things from your side, because Greece believes that the UK is a strategic partner, both of Europe and of Greece, and we want to have the best possible relations with you.

JOURNALIST: Your party came to power promising to take on the EU. Do you have any political sympathies with the Brexiteers?

G. KATROUGALOS: Well, it depends. Brexiteers are very much representative of an urge to go back to a golden past, that does not exist, that never existed. We think that we must fight for a new Europe. We are not satisfied, as the Brexiteers, with the existing policies for different reasons, we are against austerity. But contrary to the Brexiteers, we think that the best policy is to remain within the European Union in order to change it. This is also our message before the European elections. "
[April 08, 2019] Fuze Announces Initial Speaker Line-up for Inaugural Flex Summit Fuze, the leading cloud-based communications and collaboration platform provider for the modern global enterprise, today announced its first confirmed speakers for the inaugural future of work event, Flex Summit. Taking place on June 5, 2019 at the Revere Hotel Boston Common in Boston, the Fuze-hosted event will bring together experts in technology, HR, operations, and management to discuss strategies that businesses can employ to prepare for the future of distributed work. Initial confirmed speakers include: Dr. Alaa Murabit, high-level commissioner, United Nations Alaa is the only UN high-level commissioner under 45 and founded the Voice of Libyan Women, a nonprofit aimed at empowering those caught in conflict in her home country. She received the Nelson Mandela International Changemaker Award and was named to the Forbes Healthcare 30 Under 30.

Pavel Murnikov, vice president of technology and media networks, Activision (News - Alert) Blizzard As VP of technology and media networks for Activision Blizzard, the creator of Call of Duty and Candy Crush Saga, Pavel's work pushes the boundaries of e-sports fan engagement with online competition, rich media delivery, and interactive watch experiences.

Elizabeth Kiehner, global leader and design principal, IBM (News - Alert) Elizabeth leads a global, cross sector team responsible for C-suite engagement and business development at IBM. For two decades, she has united creative, business, and technology teams to produce ground-breaking ideas for organizations including Google, Microsoft, American Express (News - Alert) , Apple, GE, and many more.

Rossitza "Rosie" Kotelova, lead of smart behaviors group, Piaggio Fast Forward At PFF, Rosie leads a multidisciplinary team of designers and engineers focusing on research, design, and development of human-robot interaction behaviors. She joined PFF in 2015 after graduating from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and is one of the founding team members that invented the inelligent mobile carrier, gita  .

Ryan Merkley, CEO, Creative Commons Ryan is focused on building a vibrant, usable commons powered by collaboration and gratitude. He is also the co-producer and host of Plays Well With Others, a podcast about the art, science, and mechanics of collaboration.

Sophie Wade, founder, Flexcel Networks Sophie Wade is author of Embracing Progress: Next Steps for the Future of Work, an Executive MBA Program and management leadership textbook, and the founder and workforce innovation specialist at Flexcel Network, a future of work-focused consultancy.

Michael Hopkins, co-founder, The Solo Project Michael, former editor-in-chief of MIT (News - Alert) Sloan Management Review and former executive editor at Inc. Magazine, is an award-winning writer who illuminates the rapidly emerging future of work. He is the co-founder of The Solo Project, a team exploring the end days of the "job" as we know it.

Tom Cheesewright, applied futurist and founder, Book of the Future As an applied futurist, Tom helps people and organizations around the world to see what's next and is a frequent presence on TV and radio, explaining today's world of high frequency change and the technology that drives it. His book, High Frequency Change, will be published in 2019.

"As the future of work continues to evolve, technology will remain at the core of our lives empowering us with more flexibility than ever before," said Elizabeth Kiehner, global leader and design principal, IBM. "I'm excited to be included amongst these industry experts to discuss the challenges and opportunities that exist today and the ways we can enable business leaders to implement new strategies that usher in a new understanding of how we work." The event will also include a presentation from Ava Robotics, a technology company that designs and builds autonomous robots that comfortably coexist with humans in the workforce. Engineers at Ava Robotics are working to develop "practical teleportation," which combines autonomous mobility with video conferencing to enable workers to easily and safely move around a remote location as if they're physically on-site. Learn more about Ava Robotics here. To buy your tickets today and access special pricing, visit flexsummit.com (click "Buy Tickets"). Additional savings for team registrations are available at flexsummit.com/LaunchSpecial-Teamof4. Launch special pricing is available until Friday, April 5 at 12 p.m. ET. Fuze is also looking for more pioneers to share their stories and expertise with our audience. To join us as a speaker or learn more about Flex Summit, please visit our website. About Fuze

Fuze is a global cloud communications and collaboration software platform for the enterprise. Through an innovative and consumer-inspired unified experience, Fuze enables seamless transition between voice, video, messaging, and content sharing. Fuze empowers the digital workforce anytime, anywhere, and across any device. Headquartered in Boston, MA, Fuze has additional locations including New York, San Francisco, San Jose, Irvine, Seattle, Denver, Chicago, Austin, Dallas, Atlanta, Ottawa, London, Reading (UK), Amsterdam, Aveiro (Portugal), Paris, Munich, Switzerland, and Sydney. For more information, visit www.fuze.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190408005016/en/

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HARTFORD  The Office of Fiscal Analysis says it will only cost Connecticut $1.5 million to open up the state employee health plan to small businesses in the first year, but analysts are concerned about what happens if claims outpace premiums.

The state plan is self-insured, which means the state is responsible for paying out the claims.

The fiscal note says as a self-insured pool, the state currently bears the risk for costs incurred in excess of plan premiums. The state does not currently have stop-loss insurance. To the extent claims are in excess of the premiums established, there will be a cost to the state.

Sen. Kevin Kelly, R-Stratford, the ranking Republican on the Insurance and Real Estate Committee, said thats exactly what hes worried about, too.

We dont know how many people are going to participate and what happens when costs exceed premium, Kelly said.

He said the cost of the state comptrollers office handling the actuarial analysis and adding staff for plan design is not the cost hes concerned about. He said hes concerned about whether the taxpayer will be on the hook to cover the costs if the state comptrollers office is unable to accurately predict the risk.

I hope it does make Appropriations stop and look, Kelly said Friday. This confirmed everything I was saying that this is a real risk and we need some security given that taxpayer dollars on are the line.

The Connecticut Partnership Plan  which is the pool that would be expanded to include small businesses  has claims that are running 5 percent higher than the amount of premium its collected from its members. Members include employees of municipalities and school boards.

State Comptroller Kevin Lembo said the reason claims are outpacing premiums is because a large number of Fairfield County towns joined the Connecticut Partnership Plan this year, so the cost of care went up  health care is more expensive in Fairfield County.

Premiums will increase next year to make up the difference, according to Lembos office. The amount of the increase wont be available until mid-April.

Lembo said that the public option legislation will help resolve this challenge because it would allow them to broaden the design of the health plans and increase premiums slightly in more expensive parts of the state.

According to the fiscal note, the small employers who are approved to join the ConnectHealth Plan, may be adjusted for geographic cost-of-living and network differences, including demographics of the employers employees.

The state has to decide once and for all whether it wants to lead by talking points or action, Lembo said. We need to stop second guessing ourselves when one year is out of line.

Lembo said the fact that the Connecticut Partnership Plan has claims outpacing premiums this year should not be a concern going forward. He also doesnt believe the small group market in Connecticut is that different from those who are currently participating in the plan.

Lembo said with the help of greater design capacity and the ability to increase premium slightly in more expensive parts of the state  my hope is that the legislature passes this legislation.

On the other hand, there could also be years where the state collects more in premiums than it pays out in claims. In that case, reserves will mitigate future premium increases necessary to cover plan losses, according to the fiscal note.

The Office of Fiscal Analysis note also worries about other revenue loss to the state if it chooses to approve this public option.

It says insurance carriers are required to pay a 1.5 percent premium tax to the state. Since the new ConnectHealth Plan is not technically insurance it wont be subject to that tax.

To the extent individuals and small employers shift into plans operated by OSC [Office of the State Comptroller] not subject to the tax, the state will experience a General Fund revenue loss. The state collected $209 million from the Insurance Premiums Tax in FY 18, according to the fiscal note.

Lembo said one of the biggest costs for small businesses with fewer than 50 employees is their health insurance.

If the state wants to grow small business and broaden economic development opportunities, then this is the way to do it, Lembo said.

There are two identical versions of this bill, one in the House and one in the Senate. The bills were both approved along party lines in committee.
GREENWICH  Greenwich resident Gordon Caplan is no longer a lawyer for, or the co-chairman of, Manhattan-based international law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher, after he announced Friday that he will plead guilty to the criminal charges brought against him in the Operation Varsity Blues college-admissions cheating scandal.

The law firm had placed him on leave after he was accused in federal court documents of paying $75,000 to have a hand-picked proctor oversee an ACT exam taken by his daughter and correct the answers after she had completed it.

Mr. Caplans departure is a result of his involvement in the college admissions matter and his recent statement regarding his intent to plead to a criminal charge, the firm said in a statement to The American Lawyer. At Willkie, nothing is more important to us than our integrity and we do not tolerate behavior that runs contrary to our core values. We remain focused on our responsibilities to our clients, partners and employees.

Caplan appeared in federal court in Boston last Wednesday with others charged in the notorious case, including actress Lori Loughlin, of Full House, her fashion designer husband Mossimo Gianulli, and actress Felicity Huffman, a star of Desperate Housewives. He and the other defendants waived their right to a pre-trial hearing.

I take full and sole responsibility for my conduct and I am deeply ashamed of my behavior and my actions, Caplan said in a statement released Friday. I apologize not only to my family, friends, colleagues and the legal bar, but also to students everywhere who have been accepted to college through their own hard work.

His daughter is still more than a year away from going to college, and had no idea that he made arrangements to have her ACT test fixed, he said.

I want to make clear that my daughter, whom I love more than anything in the world, is a high school junior and has not yet applied to college, much less been accepted by any school, he said. She had no knowledge whatsoever about my actions, has been devastated to learn what I did and has been hurt the most by it.

My immediate goal is to focus on making amends for my actions to try to win back the trust and respect of my daughter, my family and my community. The remorse and shame I feel is more than I can convey, Caplan said in the statement.

Caplan remains free on $500,000 bond. He faces a felony conviction, which would mean an automatic disbarment. The mail fraud charge also carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and a fine of up to $250,000.

jo.kroeker@hearstmediact.com
MIDDLETOWN  Two Middletown women received awards for their innovation and leadership in academia during the 15th annual Connecticut Technology Council Women of Innovation Awards March 27 at the Aqua Turf Club in Southington.

Stephany Santos, biomedical engineering PhD candidate at the University of Connecticut, and Laurel Grable, the Laura B. Dachs chair of science and society at Wesleyan University, were chosen from among 50 finalists.

The program recognizes women innovators, role models, and leaders in science and technology professions, as well as outstanding young women at the high school and collegiate level pursuing technology studies, according to a press release.

Of these finalists, 11 were recognized as winners in their respective categories.

The winners of these categories, Medtronic and Stephany Santos, truly embody the spirit of the award. Mentorship and encouraging girls, young women, and other underrepresented populations to enter STEM fields was a pervasive theme of the evening with virtually all of the finalists engaged in bringing up others behind them to lead in the future, said Taylor Van Antwerp, manager of talent and workforce programs at CTC, and organizer of WOI.

The awards dinner kicked off the 2019 Women of Innovation program for the Connecticut Technology Council, which will continue with networking, professional development and mentorship opportunities and events throughout the year.

Santos, biomedical engineering PhD candidate at the University of Connecticut, was noted for inspiring STEM equitability.

Santos works to create a legacy of inclusion at UConn and beyond, according to the release. In 2010, she co-founded Engineering Ambassadors, which now has over 100 members who inspire K-12 students to enter STEM fields, reaching over 40,000 students to date. In addition, she develops courses teaching communication and engineering empathy and mentors underrepresented students in her research lab.

She also co-founded the John Lof Leadership Institute, and researches confidence, identity, and microaggressions in underrepresented students. She serves on the American Society for Engineering Education Student Board, UConns Institutional Review Board and Senate Diversity Committee, the release said.

In addition to publishing a dozens of academic articles and a book on ethical stem cell research, Grabel creates and fosters STEM initiatives that focus on supporting women in science, such as teaching a course on biology of women at York Correctional Institution, and collaborating with professional choreographers to convey complex scientific concepts through movement and dance in and outside of the classroom.
File photo

ESSEX  With the Essex Steam Train season about to begin, motorists are asked to refresh their sense of caution at the many railroad crossings in the lower Connecticut River valley.

At crossings with stop signs, motorists are required by law to come to a complete stop before the white line, and yield to approaching rail traffic. At crossings with flashing lights and/or gates, motorists are required to come to a full stop before the white line and wait until rail traffic passes and lights/gates shut off, according to a press release.
'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...
-- Joseph V. Micallef is a best-selling military history and world affairs author, and keynote speaker. Follow him on Twitter @JosephVMicallef.

A beleaguered dictator barely hanging onto power against a rising tide of popular unrest. An economy in shambles, both from years of economic mismanagement and the crushing weight of U.S.-imposed sanctions. With a long-time client on the brink of collapse, the Kremlin injects troops and supplies in a desperate gambit to keep an ally in power. Confronted by what it sees as a Russian provocation, a U.S. administration struggles to define an appropriate and effective response while trying to decide whether it should define a red line that would prompt a military intervention. This could be Syria circa 2014, but it's not. It's Venezuela in 2019.

On March 24, Russian planes carrying approximately 100 military personnel and about 35 tons of their equipment arrived in Caracas, Venezuela. U.S. military observers quickly pointed out that the craft, an Ilyushin il-62 and an Antonov An-124, had previously been used to ferry Russian troops between Russia and Syria. The troops were led by Gen. Vasily Tonkoshkurov, head of the mobilization directorate of Russia's armed forces, and were described as a "rapid deployment force."

The Kremlin dismissed the move as a routine training mission, one of many that the Russian military had conducted with their Venezuelan counterparts. The action, nonetheless, brought a sharp reaction from the Trump administration.

White House National Security Adviser John Bolton called Russia's military presence destabilizing and warned, "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."

U.S. Special Envoy for Venezuela Elliott Abrams described the Russian presence, along with the role of their Cuban proxies, as "pernicious." Abrams did acknowledge, however, that the Russian military personnel were likely there to repair Venezuela's Russian-supplied S-300 air defense missile batteries. Rolling power blackouts, which have gripped the country over the last several months, had apparently damaged Venezuela's air defense system. They may also be there to assist in the startup of a Kalashnikov factory recently built by the Venezuelan government with Russian assistance.

Several days later, in a speech at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo unequivocally told the Kremlin that "Russia's got to leave Venezuela."

Earlier in the year, U.S. President Donald Trump had declared that "all options are on the table," a declaration he has since repeated, with respect to Venezuela. Presumably that would also include the prospect of a military intervention, although the White House has signaled that it does not want to see U.S. troops fighting in yet another foreign entanglement. Instead, the U.S. has been focusing on rallying international support for interim president Juan Guaido, while stepping up economic sanctions against the Maduro government, and coordinating its actions with Venezuela's neighbors, Colombia and Brazil.

Russia in Venezuela

There are unmistakable parallels between Syria and Venezuela. In both cases, a long-standing Russian client was on the ropes, facing a rising tide of popular opposition, in a conflict that many saw as a proxy between the U.S. and Russia. Russia's willingness to intervene and support its ally was portrayed as underscoring the resurgence of Russian military power in the world, while equally highlighting the ineffectiveness of American foreign policy.

Venezuela is an important, and long-standing, Russian ally. The Kremlin has cultivated relations with Caracas since the election of Hugo Chavez in 1998 to be Venezuela's president. Since then, Venezuela has become a major customer of Russian military equipment, spending billions of dollars over the last two decades to equip its military with predominantly Russian weapons. These international arms sales are critical to maintaining the financial health of the Russian armaments industry and its technological edge.

In addition, Russian companies have invested widely in Venezuela's mining sector, especially in its oil industry. Rosneft, Russia's second largest energy company, has made between seven and nine billion dollars of investments in Venezuela's oil industry. The company is one of the largest foreign investors in Venezuela and, in turn, Venezuela represents one of the largest foreign investments made by Rosneft. The Russian energy giant has a direct stake in seven different Venezuelan oil projects, five onshore oil fields and two offshore gas fields. In addition, Rosneft has prepaid Venezuela billions for future oil deliveries. As of the end of 2018, it's estimated that there are still about $2.5 billion owing against future oil shipments.

Venezuelan national oil company PDVSA's rapidly falling production levels are making it difficult for the company to meet its commitments for oil deliveries. At the end of 2018, Venezuela's required oil deliveries against its cash for oil deals, which it had made with China and Russia, amounted to around 90% of its current production.

Rosneft does have a security interest in a 49.9% stake in PDVSA's U.S. refining arm, Citgo Holding. Any attempt to foreclose on that collateral would be opposed by the U.S. government. Moreover, it's likely that a post-Maduro government would move to declare at least some of those loans illegal because they were made without obtaining the consent of the Venezuelan parliament. In addition to the billions of dollars owed to Rosneft, the Venezuelan government also owes billions to the Russian government for arms purchases and other loans. In short, Moscow has a lot to lose if the Maduro government is overturned. Keeping the Maduro government in power is the best way for the Kremlin to collect the billions that it and Russian companies are owed.

In addition to the Russian military personnel and technicians in Venezuela, there is also a contingent of Russian mercenaries linked to the Wagner Group. Wagner Group mercenaries have been deployed at the Kremlin's behest in Ukraine and Syria and have often appeared in Africa. In Venezuela, they appear to be providing protection to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and function as an elite security detail. It's believed their number could amount to as many as 400. An initial group was deployed prior to the recent Venezuelan elections, and a second contingent arrived sometime in December 2018 or January 2019.

According to the Organization of American States, there are also approximately 15,000 Cuban military personnel in Venezuela. Many are deployed with the Venezuelan security services, while the balance appears to have a variety of training functions with the Venezuelan military. A large Cuban role in Venezuela's intelligence agency goes back to 2002, and was initiated by Chavez in response to a failed coup against him. It's not clear what other roles the Cubans are playing. Other estimates have placed the Cuban presence in Venezuela as high as 30,000, although many of these are in civilian roles. Not all of these would be considered military personnel. Although the Cuban presence in Venezuela functions as a sort of Russian proxy, Havana has its own interest in propping up the Maduro government.

Both Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro have had a close relationship with Cuba. Havana has been receiving subsidized oil shipments from Venezuela since at least 2000. Over the last two decades, Venezuela has supplied Cuba with amounts varying from 50,000 barrels a day (BOPD) to as much as 90,000 BOPD. Up to 20,000 BOPD have, in the past, been supplied at no cost. Cuba needs about 120,000 BOPD for its energy needs, and produces about 80,000 BOPD. Some of the Venezuelan oil has been re-exported by Havana, and has been an important source of hard currency for the Cuban government.

In addition, the Venezuelan government has supplied Cuba with more than $18 billion in loans, grants and investments. Venezuela's largesse has been a critical factor in keeping the Cuban economy functioning, following the collapse of the USSR in 1989, and Havana's loss of its principal benefactor.

In addition to mercenaries and Russian troops, and the financial assistance that the Kremlin has provided Venezuela, the Kremlin has also publicly signaled its support for the Maduro government in a variety of ways intended to showcase the military cooperation between the two countries. This cooperation has taken the form of joint naval exercises in the Caribbean, as well as military drills.

In December, the Kremlin deployed two Tupolev Tu-160 heavy bombers to Venezuela. The Tu-160 is considered to be "nuclear capable," and their deployment generated considerable criticism of the Russian action in Washington. The bombers conducted a routine 10-hour patrol over the Caribbean and, after being showcased to Venezuelans as tangible proof of Russia's support for the Maduro government, were withdrawn back to Russia.

While the Russian deployment precipitated considerable press coverage in the U.S., this was not the first time that Russia had sent Tu-160s to Venezuela. Occasional deployments have been going on since 2008. Moreover, while the Tu-160 is considered nuclear capable, it's highly unlikely that they carried any such weapons. It was, however, a reminder that Russian air forces could project power over the Caribbean and the confines of the U.S. from Venezuela.

The action sparked speculation that the Kremlin might seek a fully functioning Russian air base in Venezuela, a claim that the Russian Foreign Ministry denied while at the same time Moscow reasserted that "Russia has the ability and the right to open military bases anywhere in the world," including Venezuela, should the two countries agree. The latter is unlikely, as it would surely trigger a red line for the Trump administration.

The Maduro government has also received considerable assistance from Iran. There is also a significant Hezbollah presence in Venezuela, and a smaller footprint for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds force (IRGC). The Maduro government has relied on the Iranians, and on Hezbollah, to organize militias to defend the government and to attack the popular opposition.

There are two main militia groups in Venezuela. The Bolivarian militia is estimated at 20,000 members by U.S. intelligence sources, although the Maduro government claims it has 100,000 members. The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) estimates the size of the militias and their close supporters at 220,000. There are also the "colectivos," pro-government, heavily armed groups that were organized with the help of Hezbollah operatives and which are patterned on the Popular Mobilization Forces (militias) organized by the IRGC Quds Force in Iraq.

The Maduro government has deployed the militias in conjunction with military forces to suppress opponents. During the most recent anti-government demonstrations in March, it's estimated that around 220,000 military personnel, militias and government supporters were mobilized against the anti-Maduro opposition.

It has also received financial assistance from Tehran. For Hezbollah, Venezuela is an important logistical base for the transshipment of arms and drugs between Africa and the Americas. While the Iranians and the Russians share a common interest in keeping the Maduro government in power, just as they did in supporting President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, they are, to a large degree, working independently of each other, pursuing their own agendas.

Next Steps

The future of the Maduro government is rapidly becoming a proxy contest between the U.S. and Russia in much the same way that the future of the Assad government in Syria did. When the Kremlin intervened in Syria, Assad's regime was largely seen as on the verge of collapse. The Russian intervention stabilized the government and was responsible for Assad's de facto victory in the Syrian civil war. The move cost the Kremlin little and allowed it to reap an enormous propaganda victory. A similar outcome in Venezuela, arguably America's backyard, would be an even more significant propaganda victory. From a practical standpoint, Moscow has little choice. Only by keeping the Maduro government in power does the Kremlin have any hope of getting back the billions of dollars that Venezuela owes the Russian government and Russian companies.

The Trump administration, past saber rattling notwithstanding, has little appetite for a military intervention in Venezuela. Brazil and Colombia have significant militaries and could argue they have humanitarian reasons for intervening, but a full-scale military invasion of Venezuela, by either country, would be highly unpopular. Moreover, neither country has the wherewithal to stage a military intervention in Venezuela without considerable logistical support from the U.S. and, in all likelihood, the backing of American air power.

For now, economic sanctions remain the best alternative for forcing a change in Venezuela. U.S. sanctions are set to ratchet up by the end of the month and to make it virtually impossible for Venezuela to sell most of its oil. Even without sanctions, the country's oil output continues to drop. Barring a dramatic spike in oil prices, Venezuela simply cannot produce enough oil to fund its government.

Moscow and Beijing are both sticking with Maduro for now, but neither has much appetite for extending new loans. According to Chinese sources, Beijing did extend a $5 billion loan in September but has not made any new loans since. It's not clear how much, if any, of that loan has been disbursed. Venezuela has borrowed a total of $54 billion from China against future oil shipments. Roughly $30 billion has been paid back and $24 billion is still outstanding.

On the other hand, despite sanctions and international support of the Venezuelan opposition to the Maduro government, the protest movement is losing momentum. Juan Guaido's absence from Venezuela, while he sought to mobilize international support against the Maduro government, has hampered the opposition movement. Guaido will certainly be arrested if he returns to Venezuela and would be at considerable personal risk. On April 4, Guaido called for a new round of demonstrations against the Maduro government to begin on April 6. With overt Russian and quiet Chinese support, the Maduro government believes that it can outlast the opposition.

In a drama that has played out in South America countless times, it will be the decision of the military to abandon Maduro that will finally spell his death knell. To date, the senior leadership of the Venezuelan military shows no sign they are ready to abandon the government. Only about 1,000 military personnel out of a force of approximately 123,000 have defected. Most of them have elected to seek asylum overseas rather than stay and join the opposition movement.

The Maduro government has been very successful in maintaining the loyalty of the senior military leadership through a combination of money, food and power from a lucrative patronage network based on government largesse and black market and illegal activities that include narcotics trafficking and gun running. If the military ever abandons the government, there will be little that the Kremlin can do to avoid a collapse. Until then, Moscow will continue to double down on Nicolas Maduro.

-- The opinions expressed in this op-ed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Military.com. If you would like to submit your own commentary, please send your article to opinions@military.com for consideration
The Air Force is narrowing down the best location to house the Defense Department's newest unified combatant command, and many of the bases in top contention are in Colorado, according to a new CNN report.

Air Force officials are still reviewing installations to house U.S. Space Command, which officials have called a stepping stone to creating a U.S. Space Force.

"No candidate basing lists have been sent to the secretary of the Air Force for consideration," service spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said in a statement Monday.

Citing an Air Force Space Command memorandum it obtained, CNN reported last week that the Air Force may choose from four Colorado locations, including Buckley Air Force Base, Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, Peterson Air Force Base, and Schriever Air Force Base. Other options are the Army's Redstone Arsenal in Alabama and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Responding to the report, a Defense Department official said some bases have been identified, but no decision has been made.

RELATED: Space Force | Military.com

It is unclear whether Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson will make the decision or whether it will fall to her successor.

Last month, Wilson announced she will step down as the 24th Air Force secretary to become the next president of the University of Texas at El Paso; the UT System Board of Regents confirmed Wilson for the position with a unanimous vote last week.

She will resign as secretary effective May 31. A successor has not been named.

In December, President Donald Trump signed a memorandum creating USSPACECOM.

Following the announcement, Republican Reps. Michael Waltz and Bill Posey, members of the House Armed Services Committee, and 11 other Florida lawmakers sent a letter to Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, saying their state is "the epicenter of America's space program," lobbying for USSPACECOM to be located in Florida.

Earlier this month, Space Florida, the state's aerospace economic development agency, met to devise a plan to lobby the administration on headquartering the combatant command in the state, according to a report from the Orlando Sentinel.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, "is not shy in utilizing his relationship with the president and the administration to make sure Florida is named the home to Space Command," Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez, the board's chair, said during a meeting April 1, as reported by the Orlando Sentinel.

DeSantis in February sent a letter to the president asking him to locate USSPACECOM at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.

The Space Command memo reported by CNN did not list any Florida installations as possible locations.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon last month announced the Trump administration's pick to lead the new command.

Trump has nominated Gen. John "Jay" Raymond, head of Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado, to lead U.S. Space Command. If confirmed, Raymond would hold both positions, at least for the time being.

Space policy and budget experts have said it would be wise to streamline operations at Peterson because it already hosts a robust space mission for AFSPC.

Peterson "is where USSPACECOM was originally headquartered," said Brian Weeden, director or program planning and technical adviser for national and international space security for the Secure World Foundation. Weeden was referring to the first combatant command for space, founded in 1985. It disbanded in 2002.

"I don't think there's any single base that is 100% a good fit" to house USSPACECOM in its entirety, Weeden told Military.com on Monday. "But there are a couple that make more sense than the others."

Other than Peterson, Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado "is where most of the command and control for military satellites is done from," he said.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.
Editor's Note: This story has been updated. Military officials initially reported that a U.S. contractor was also killed in the blast; he was later discovered to have survived.

Three U.S. service members and three other U.S. troops were wounded Monday by an improvised explosive device near Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, according to a news release from Operation Resolute Support.

The wounded troops were evacuated and are receiving medical care, officials said in the release. The names of the casualties are being withheld for at least 24 hours pending next-of-kin notification.

Defense Department officials told The Wall Street Journal that the explosion was the result of a Taliban attack on a convoy carrying the American service members outside the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on Twitter, saying it was the result of a suicide bombing on a U.S. armored vehicle.

Last month, Army Sgt. 1st Class Will Lindsay, a Green Beret, and Spc. Joseph P. Collette were killed during an operation, marking the third and fourth deaths for the U.S. military in Afghanistan this year. Collette and Lindsay were killed in Kunduz province "as a result of wounds sustained while engaged in combat operations," officials said in a statement March 23.

For months, the U.S. and the Taliban have been negotiating a potential agreement to end the 18-year war after President Donald Trump signaled that he was open to additional diplomatic conversations.

Following then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis' departure in December, the president said additional peace negotiations were ongoing.

"In Afghanistan, my administration is holding constructive talks with a number of Afghan groups, including the Taliban," Trump said during his State of the Union address in February. "As we make progress in these negotiations, we will be able to reduce our troop presence and focus on counter-terrorism. We do not know whether we will achieve an agreement, but we do know that, after two decades of war, the hour has come to at least try for peace."

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told lawmakers in March that reducing violent extremism by the Taliban and the Islamic State would spur "real negotiations about what a political resolution would look like in Afghanistan, but always being mindful of the risk."

He told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on March 27 that U.S. officials are trying to convince all parties, including Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani and his government, to reach a reconciliation.

"When we do that, we'll be able to reduce not only American forces there, but importantly the NATO forces that are located inside and working together alongside us inside of Afghanistan," he said.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.
About 200 soldiers are heading to Palau next week as part of Pacific Pathways, the first time in 37 years the Army has sent personnel to the nation of about 340 tiny islands in Micronesia.

An infantry company and a battalion tactical advanced command post from I Corps will conduct a security demonstration and small arms qualifications April 14-19 in Palau, U.S. Army Pacific said in a statement.

The Palau exercise is part of Pacific Pathways, during which soldiers are deployed in the Pacific for a series of back-to-back exercises. The Army is expanding the length of those deployments, increasing to four months this year, with six-month stints planned for 2020.

The current Pacific Pathways 19-1 consists of five exercises: Hanuman Guardian and Cobra Gold in Thailand, Salaknib and Balikatan in the Philippines and the upcoming one in Palau, where U.S. soldiers have not had a presence since 1982, the Army said.

The main site for the Palau exercise will be Ngeremlengui, located near Koror, the country's primary commercial area.

At the same time, members from the 18th Medical Command will conduct humanitarian outreach on the Palau islands of Peleliu and Anguar, the Army said.

About 50 personnel from Palau will participate in the exercise.

The focus of these events is to increase U.S. Army presence, gain positional advantage and reassure U.S. security commitments while increasing the USARPAC presence in the region, the Army said.

As in other parts of the Pacific, China and the United States vie for influence in Micronesia, but America has long and deep ties with Palau.

The Palau archipelago was the scene of fierce battles during World War II. About 1,800 Marines and soldiers were killed in the three-month-long Battle of Peleliu in the fall of 1944. Another 8,000 were wounded.

Palau remained under U.S. administration for a half century after the war. In 1986, Palau and the U.S. entered a Compact of Free Association, which ushered in the nation's full independence in 1994. Under the compact, the U.S. is responsible for Palau's military defense for 50 years.

Through a Compact Trust Fund, the U.S. Congress appropriated financial aid packages for Palau. The trust fund undergoes a review and amendment process each 15 years, with the next review due in 2024.

Meanwhile, China had been making inroads with Palau through direct investment and through a steady flow of tourists to the country.

But in 2017, China banned tour groups from traveling to Palau because the island nation refused to drop official diplomatic relations with Taiwan, which China maintains is a renegade province and must, at some point, return to control under Beijing. Palau is one of fewer than 20 countries in the world that formally recognize Taiwan.

Reuters reported last year that former Palau government officials said Beijing was trying to buttress its influence in the region ahead of 2024 funding expiration by the U.S., which has not signaled if funding will continue.
Studying Soldiers' Cold Weather Gear in the Arctic

A researcher from the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine joined Vermont Army National Guard soldiers in the Canadian Arctic recently to study improvements to military cold-weather gear. Dr. Karl Friedl, senior research scientist for physiology from USARIEM, said learning about the cold first-hand would help develop predictive models for cold-weather clothing systems, according to a recent release. The practices of Canadian Inuit rangers, who guided the exercise, may be adaptable for the Army, he said. One research effort underway involves a forearm heating device that could be incorporated into future clothing systems. Read more at Army.mil.
ANN ARBOR, MI -- Ann Arbor police are investigating a stabbing that occurred downtown about 2 p.m. Monday, April 8, police Lt. Earle Fox says.

The victim suffered multiple stab wounds and the suspect remains at large, Fox said.

The victim was transported to the University of Michigan hospital emergency room in critical condition shortly after 2 p.m., Huron Valley Ambulance spokesman Matt Rose said.

The incident occurred in the 300 block of Fifth Avenue, near the Ann Arbor District Downtown Library and a municipal parking lot that residents voted to convert to a public park in November.

Fox said the investigation is ongoing and declined to release a suspect description or details about the victim.
While gas prices in Michigan have remained mostly stagnant in the past two weeks, all things considered, the same can not be said about the national average as gas prices spiked another 5 cents this week.

Prices at the pump have continued to rise across the country, but in the past couple of weeks California, other states along the West Coast, the Rockies, Great Lakes and Central regions have been hit the hardest, according to AAA.

In fact, with a 50-cent increase from January, this represents the largest year-to-date spike since 2012. Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, pointed this fact out while offering a look at the past seven years of year-to-date price changes.

As it stands Monday morning, the average cost for a gallon of self-serve unleaded fuel is about $2.74 across the U.S. and about $2.82 in Michigan. This represents a 5 cent increase in the last week in the U.S., and actually about a 4 cent decrease in the Great Lakes State.

The national average gas price has now risen for 2 months straight, tacking on a total of 50 cents per gallon in the last 90 days, which will cost Americans nearly $200 million more at the pump today than back in early January, DeHaan said in a blog post on the fuel-tracking services website Monday.

California will soon be home to something not seen in nearly five years: a statewide average of over $4 per gallon, with some of the largest cities there swelling to averages as high as $4.15 per gallon before any relief arrives. It really is going to be ugly this week in the West Coast, and any further issues could lead to more spikes, but for the rest of the country expect the rise to continue for a ninth straight week with little good news on the horizon.

Prices are up by about 28 cents in both the entire U.S. and Michigan on average during the past month. In terms of what gas was going for this time last year, the national average was $2.66 while Michigans was at about $2.68 per gallon. GasBuddy reports that the cheapest gas in the state can be found at $2.29 at the Ravenna Speedway, $2.39 at the Woodhaven Circle K and for $2.45 per gallon at the Costco in Ann Arbor.

AAA's average gas price map of Michigan as of Monday, April 8

See below for a rundown of average gas prices across the state Monday, April 8, courtesy of AAA:
KALKASKA COUNTY, MI  A 31-year-old Michigan man is accused of sexually assaulting his friends 3-year-old daughter while the parents were sleeping.

According to the Michigan State Police Houghton Lake Post, the alleged assault took place overnight on April 5 in Kalkaska Countys Springfield Township when Mark Anthony Hill of Fife Lake was staying the night.

Troopers were advised by the homeowners that Hill, a family friend, had sexually assaulted their 3-year-old daughter while they were asleep, then fled the scene.

The girl was treated by medical personnel at the Kalkaska Memorial Health Center for injuries sustained during the assault.

The troopers collected evidence and concluded that Hill had committed the sexual assault. He was arrested a short time later, according to police.

Hill was arraigned in the 87th District Court of Kalkaska on one count of Criminal Sexual Conduct 1st Degree. He is being held on a $1 million bond in the Kalkaska County Jail.
Update: Health officials on Thursday, April 11 said the Washtenaw County case was in fact a false-positive. More here.

Health officials on Monday, April 8 believed they had confirmed Washtenaw Countys first case of measles amid a wider Michigan outbreak.

Washtenaw County Health Department spokesperson Susan Ringler Cerniglia said that while this case was a false positive, it is still important for people to be vaccinated to protect against measles.

Of 40 previously verified Michigan cases, 39 involved Oakland County residents and one was confirmed in a Wayne County resident. The ages of the infected range from 8 months to 63 years old, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services said.

A list of exposure sites in Oakland County is available here.

If exposed, approximately 90 percent of people who have not been vaccinated or previously had measles will develop the disease, the Washtenaw County Health Department says.

The Washtenaw County Health Department is hosting two upcoming walk-in vaccination events at 555 Towner St. in Ypsilanti.

Tuesday, April 9, 9 a..m. to 7 p.m.

Wednesday, April 10, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The vaccinations are free to those with Medicaid or Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance, as well as anyone who is uninsured or under-insured, the county says.

Anyone with private health insurance should contact their health provider for vaccination information.

It is important for all Washtenaw County residents to be protected against measles, which is highly contagious, but vaccine-preventable, the county said. Two doses of the(measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine is about 97 percent effective at preventing measles. One dose is 93 percent effective.

There have been no confirmed cases involving students, staff or teachers in Ann Arbor Public Schools, the district said.

Measles is an airborne disease that is spread from person-to-person contact. Symptoms usually appear with in one and three weeks of being contracted.

According to the Washtenaw County Health Department, symptoms include:

High fever

Cough

Runny nose

Red, watery eyes

Tiny white spots on the inner cheeks, gums and roof of the mouth 2-3 days after symptoms begin

A rash that is red, raised, blotchy; usually starts on face, spreads to trunk, arms, and legs 3-5 days after symptoms begin

For further information, call the Washtenaw County Health Department, 734-544-6700.
The mother of an 11-month-old girl who drowned in standing water after falling through a hole in her Detroit home was sentenced to at least a year in jail on Monday, April 8.

The Associated Press reports that Dasiah Jordan, 27, was sentenced Monday after previously pleading guilty to second-degree child abuse and involuntary manslaughter. Jordan was also placed on four years of probation.

Back in July of last year, Jordans daughter, CaMya Davis, was killed after she fell through a hole in her bedroom floor and landed in the basement where she drowned in standing water and sewage. Her death was ruled accidental.

Earlier on July 6, 2017, it is alleged that Defendant Jordan left her infant daughter in the care of Defendant Peterson in an unsafe home and went out to visit friends," a previous news release from the Wayne County Prosecutors Office reads.

"The infant roamed the house unattended, fell through the hole in a bedroom floor, and drowned in standing water and sewage in the basement. Defendant Peterson and Defendant Jordan were both aware of the hazardous and unsafe condition in the bedroom.

Related: Detroit baby falls through hole in floor, drowns in flooded basement

A.P. reports that prosecutors argued that Jordan left her 11-month-old child unattended while she and a friend visited other friends. The two women were said to both be aware of the hole in the childs bedroom.

Jordans friend, Tonya Peterson, was supposed to be babysitting the child when the two left to visit friends. The news organization reports that the home where CaMya was killed belongs to Peterson, and that the 29-year-old is due for sentencing on Tuesday for involuntary manslaughter.
A 70-year-old man died after a turkey flew into his chest, causing him to crash while he was driving his motorcycle Sunday afternoon, April 7 in Southeast Michigan.

The Oakland County Sheriffs Office reports in a Monday morning email that the Oxford Township man was driving his 2005 Triumph motorcycle on W. Stoney Creek near N. Rochester roads. According to the email, several turkeys crossed into the road in front of him at about 12:47 p.m. Saturday.

One of the turkeys took flight and struck the motorcyclist in the chest, causing him to lose control and strike the guard rail post, the sheriffs office reports in the email.

When the motorcyclist struck the guardrail his left leg was severed below the knee.

The Oakland County Sheriffs Office reports in a Monday morning email that the Oxford Township man was driving his 2005 Triumph motorcycle on W. Stoney Creek near N. Rochester roads. According to the email, several turkeys crossed into the road in front of him at about 12:47 p.m. Saturday.

Crews responding to the scene reportedly stabilized the victim and transported him to McLaren-Oakland Hospital where he died from his injuries. The sheriffs office says the crash remains under investigation.

The man was wearing a helmet and other protective clothing at the time of the crash, and authorities do not believe alcohol played a factor. He has not yet been identified, but the sheriffs office says the 70-year-olds next of kin has been notified of the crash in the Monday morning email.
ANN ARBOR, MI - Construction thats closing lanes on Huron Street, from Third Street to Glen Avenue, gets underway Tuesday in Ann Arbor.

The three concurrent projects that begin April 9 are expected to cause lane closures until July, according to a City of Ann Arbor news release.

Eastbound traffic is being closed to one lane from Third Street to Glen Avenue and westbound traffic will shrink to one lane from Fletcher to Main streets.

On Tuesday, Ann Arbors Downtown Development Authority is starting a streetscape improvement project on Huron Street from Third to South Division streets. This work includes new sidewalks, permeable pavers, street and pedestrian lighting, landscaping and trees.

The construction, part of the People Friendly Streets project, is designed to improve pedestrian and motorist safety, the DDA said.

On Monday, April 15, DTE Energy is replacing a gas main on the south side of Huron Street from Fourth Avenue to Thayer Street, causing two lanes to shut down from Main to Thayer streets, according to the city.

Additionally, one lane of traffic will close from Fletcher Street to Glen Avenue due to work associated with the University of Michigans Power Center for the Performing Arts.

All vehicles, including delivery vehicles, are prohibited from standing or stopping on Huron Street while lane closures are in effect, the city said. Violators will be towed and possibly ticketed.

Pedestrian traffic will be maintained on one side of the street, including access to businesses.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI  The fiancee of Quinn James, who was convicted of raping and killing East Kentwood High sophomore Mujey Dumbuya, pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for lying to investigators.

Tiara Burnett, 27, entered the plea Monday, April 8, before Kent County Circuit Judge George Quist.

Burnett spent about six months in jail awaiting disposition of the case but is free on bond.

The prosecution will recommend that Burnett serve no further jail time if she successfully completes five years of probation, Assistant Kent County Prosecutor Dan Helmer said.

In response to Helmers questions, Burnett admitted she obstructed justice by lying to police and trying to intimidate witnesses at James direction.

Early on, she told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press that James had nothing to do with any of the crimes.

Burnett, who has a young son, worked as night custodian at Kentwood Public Schools since 2014 before she resigned May 1. James once worked in maintenance and grounds for the school district.

James, 43, awaits a mandatory sentence later this month of life in prison without hope for parole after he was convicted of first-degree premeditated murder, felony murder and conspiracy.

He is serving 20 to 30 years in prison for raping Dumbuya. The prosecution says he had the mistaken belief that the sex-assault charges would be dropped if Dumbuya, 16, could not testify.

He raped her during the summer of 2017 while she dated his fiancees nephew, who was living with James and Burnett in Wyoming.

Dumbuya was last seen Jan. 24, 2018, going to the bus stop for school. Two Western Michigan University students found her body four days later in the woods near North Prairie Avenue.

An alleged accomplice, Gerald Bennett, 59, of Detroit, awaits trial. He is jailed on $100,000 bond.
SUMMIT TWP., MI  A Buddys Mini-Mart at a busy Summit Township intersection is closed temporarily after a car hit the building, breaking through a brick wall.

At about 1 p.m. Monday, April 8, an elderly woman was driving past the gas pumps toward a mailbox at the Buddys Mini-Mart at the intersection of S. Brown and Morrell streets when her foot missed the brake and crashed into the north side of the building, according to the Jackson County Sheriff Office.

The car, a Buick sedan, broke through the building, startling an employee working the cash register a few feet away from the impact, police said. No injuries were reported, they said.

The mini-mart, as well as the gas pumps, are closed temporarily until an inspector assesses the damage and repairs are made, store officials said.

Summit Township Fire Department Assisted at the scene.
LAKE TOWNSHIP, MI  Police have identified the woman who died Sunday when her vehicle was rear-ended on I-94 in Southwest Michigan.

Venice Spears, 36, of Chicago, was killed when her Chevrolet Sonic was rear-ended around 2:35 a.m. Sunday, April 7, according to the Berrien County Sheriffs Office. Police say Spears vehicle was parked in the right traffic lane of I-94 when it was hit by a Ford F-250 with a camper trailer.

The driver of the Ford F-250 has been identified as Walter Stone, 67, and the passenger in Stones vehicle has been identified as Margaret Toohey, 69, both of Manitowac, Wisconsin. Stone and Toohey were treated at the scene and released.

Police say Stone attempted to avoid hitting Spears car but couldnt swerve in time.

Investigators are trying to determine why Spears had stopped in the roadway.
MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI  The live-in caretaker of a 90-year-old man is accused of embezzling thousands of dollars of his pension benefits.

Michelle Bon, 55, of Muskegon has been charged with embezzlement of between $1,000 and $20,000 from a vulnerable adult. In a separate case, she recently pleaded guilty to falsely reporting the same victims car had been stolen.

Bon befriended the alleged victim eight years ago, said Muskegon County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Timothy Maat. She moved in as his caretaker and was given access to the mans bank accounts, Maat said.

Its alleged that she stole from his pension and Social Security between September 2018 and March 2019, Maat said.

Were alleging it was several thousand dollars, but it may be substantially more, he said.

At the time of the alleged embezzlement, Bon was on bond for a felony charge of false report of a felony. On Oct. 26, 2018, she had reported that the elderly victims car had been stolen, Maat said. She was charged and released on bond on Dec. 5, 2018. On Jan. 11, she pleaded guilty and is to be sentenced on April 15.

The adult protective services division of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services investigated the alleged embezzlement along with the Michigan State Police, Maat said.

The case also was reviewed by the Tri-County Protection Team, a group of law enforcement officers, prosecutors and representatives of public and private agencies in Muskegon, Ottawa and Oceana counties, Maat said. The team aims to prevent fraud against senior citizens and to hold offenders accountable, he said.

Bon was arraigned April 1 on the embezzlement charge, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Bond was set at $5,000 cash or surety. Her preliminary examination is scheduled for 11 a.m. April 18 in front of Muskegon County District Judge Geoffrey Nolan.
MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI  A Muskegon man has been sentenced to between four and 20 years in prison for manufacturing child pornography.

Gary Joe Allen, 45, pleaded guilty to manufacturing child pornography and using a computer to commit the crime.

It was alleged that Allen took at least one photo of a prepubescent child whom he knew, said Muskegon County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Timothy Maat.

The investigation into Allen arose from an unrelated case in Oscoda County being investigated by the Michigan State Police, Maat said. Investigators became aware of images they believed were taken by Allen and then transmitted to the individual under investigation in Oscoda County, Maat said.

Allen has no prior felony convictions, Maat said.

The maximum penalty for both charges is 20 years in prison. The sentencing guidelines, which take into consideration Allens criminal background, recommended a minimum sentence of 36 to 50 months in prison.

Muskegon County Circuit Judge Timothy Hicks on March 30 sentenced Allen to a minimum of 50 months and maximum of 20 years on both charges. Hicks gave him credit for 160 days in jail.
NORTON SHORES, MI  After 15 years of slow decay, the former Kmart plaza in Norton Shores could be redeveloped soon.

The Norton Shores Planning Commission will consider a plan on Tuesday, April 9, to demolish the vacant 106,000-square-foot department store to make room for an apartment complex and a healthcare building for Mercy Health, according to documents filed with the city.

Kmart closed during summer 2004 and its building has been vacant ever since. It was the anchor of the 16.4-acre retail property at 3530 Henry St. between Norton and Seminole roads.

The property is still home to Toast N Jams restaurant, TCBY frozen yogurt shop and the Harbor Cinema in a separate strip mall that is untouched by the plans, according to the documents.

City Manager Mark Meyers expects demolition of the Kmart building and construction of Mercys building to happen soon, but is unsure how quickly the apartment complex could come to fruition.

The property is owned by RD Management, of New York City, which attempted to sell it for $4.2 million in 2017. RD is working with architecture and engineering firm Paradigm Design, of Grand Rapids.

The plan calls for the property, which is zoned planned unit development (PUD), to be divided into three parcels. The apartment complex and strip mall parcels would be retained by RD while the medical office parcel would be sold to Mercy parent company Trinity Health.

The planning commission on Tuesday will consider a special use permit, land division and a site plan for the project, according to the meeting agenda.

The two-story, 40,900-square-foot medical office building would include urgent care, physical therapy, a lab, pharmacy with a drive-thru and doctor offices. It would be located in the area of the current parking lot near the intersection of Seminole Road and Henry. The plan includes 292 parking spaces, landscaping and sidewalks.

The apartment complex would be built at the current location of the former department store. There would be five residential buildings with 24 to 30 one- and two-bedroom apartments each for a total of 126. Complex plans include a community center, pool, dog park, green space and 238 parking spots.

The strip mall parcel is not slated for any improvements in the proposed plan.

Erin Patrick, regional manager of public relations for Mercy Health; and Tom Van Gessel, of Paradigm Design, did not immediately return calls for comment.

The city has been very active in the redevelopment of the site, Meyers said. A Seminole PlacePlan was completed and adopted in early 2017, and that initiated a serious look at redevelopment, Meyers said.

The PlacePlan encourages mixed-use buildings, increased walk-ability and creation of public spaces. The development plan includes all of those, although not as the city imagined, according to city documents.

The PlacePlan suggested individual buildings that house a mix of uses - retail, office and residential all in one structure - but that wont be the case if this plans moves forward.

Cities can only do so much with regard to planning and zoning, Meyers said. Ultimately its up to the property owners to determine how to use their property. It is a mixed-use in the sense that it will provide office, retail and residential.
GRAND HAVEN, MI  The iconic Grand Haven south pier catwalk will soon return to its rightful home along the Lake Michigan shoreline, according to city officials.

But what returns wont be the 100-year-old catwalk that was removed from the pier in 2016, as nearly 90 percent of the catwalks bents, or arches, have been refabricated by a Holland-based manufacturing company.

Only a handful of the original bents were able to be salvaged and restored.

Grand Haven City Manager Pat McGinnis said King Company, of Holland, will begin rebuilding the structure on the pier in May. Crews plan to complete the project in phases over 25 working days, with some leeway for inclement weather or high water -- both of which caused delays on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers pier resurfacing project.

The plan is to have the catwalk fully reassembled in time for the citys annual Coast Guard Festival, scheduled this year from July 26 to Aug. 4, said Erin Turrell, chairwoman of the Save the Catwalk Committee.

Crews plan to start installing the catwalk at the foghorn light and will work their way back toward the entrance of the pier, Turrell added. The catwalk lights will be affixed once the structure is rebuilt.

For Turrell, having the catwalk back on the pier is the culmination of a grassroots effort to maintain a vital piece of Grand Haven history.

Its been an evolution, and were at the point, finally, where shes going to be back after doing all the detail work and doing every single little (piece of) minutiae," Turrell said. (Our pitch) wasnt just, Hey, we need to do this because it needs to be there. It was, Hey, we need to do this because its part of our history.

It an iconic structure that defines what this community is, Turrell continued. When youre out on a boat and you see the pier and the catwalk, you know that youre home. You know youre passing by Grand Haven. Without it being there, its been pretty vacant.

The catwalk was removed in 2016 before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began a $2.1 million resurfacing project on the south pier a year later. When the project was proposed in 2015, the Army Corps of Engineers stated that it would have to demolish the catwalk unless it could be lifted or removed before pier work commenced  and all on the citys dime.

It was a tall order, but McGinnis and the Grand Haven City Council opted to save the catwalk, but how to best do that remained elusive.

McGinnis surmised then that it would cost $1.5 million to lift and support the catwalk. A large donation campaign to pay to remove and rebuild the catwalk began soon afterward with a $1 million goal.

The fundraiser in total netted donations of $1.3 million, much of which came from small community donations and also from a $50,000 grant from the Loutit Foundation, a component of the Grand Haven Area Community Foundation.

Most of the money was used to pay for catwalk reconstruction. The remaining portion will be placed in an endowment for future catwalk maintenance, Turrell said.

It was really all about the education that made a difference," Turrell said. I have in this journey have talked to more people from even outside our community that needed to do something or wanted to contribute. They wanted to have it back as well.

The catwalk was eventually removed and stored at Verplanks dock in Ferrysburg. Removing the catwalk cost the city nearly $80,000, according to the Grand Haven Tribune.

A study by Wade Trim commissioned by the city council found several structural deficiencies, so replacing the existing structure outright didnt make financial sense, Turrell said.

The Grand Haven City Council voted in November 2018 to have King Company build 59 new bents that will appear nearly identical to the previous catwalk. The new bents cost the city more than $600,000, according to city documents.

Once completed, it will be the first major overhaul of the worn structure since the mid-1950s. The catwalk historically served as a way for lighthouse keepers to move safely along the perilous pier.

Turrell said the new catwalk hopefully will stand the test of time, and likely wont need to be replaced for another 100 years.

We went over and above, and thats because of the larger communitys passion for what she represents, Turrell said.
Democratic presidential hopeful U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., will hold a 2020 campaign rally in Warren Saturday.

Sanders campaign announced the 2016 Michigan primary winner will visit Macomb Community College at 5 p.m. on Saturday, April 13 as part of a tour across Midwest battleground states this weekend. Sanders campaign will hold rallies in Madison, Wisc., Pittsburgh, and additional stops in unnamed cities in Indiana and Ohio.

The tour will emphasize that Democrats clearest and strongest path to victory in 2020 runs through the upper Midwest -- and that Bernie Sanders is by far the best-positioned candidate to win these states and defeat Donald Trump," the campaign said in a statement.

The event is free and open to the public. Tickets are not required, but an RSVP is encouraged, since entrance is provided on a first come, first served basis.

President Donald Trump flipped Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania in 2016, breaking through blue wall" strongholds held by Democrats.

Michigans support for Trump was the first time the state voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 1988. The 2018 midterm elections -- where the state veered back toward blue -- set Michigan up as a competitive state in the next presidential election.

Sanders won Michigans 2016 primary against eventual Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. He is expected to deliver a message focused on fighting against unfair trade deals that undermine workers wages and enrich CEOs, rebuilding and strengthening unions and guaranteeing health care as a right to all, according to the campaign.

Other presidential candidates also targeted Michigan for early campaign stops this year. U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. and former U.S. Rep. Beto ORourke, D-Texas, made stops in metro Detroit last month. U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Kamala Harris, D-Calif., will visit Detroit to speak at events for the Michigan Democratic Party and NAACP.

Trump held a high-energy rally in Grand Rapids on March 28.

Detroit will host the second Democratic presidential primary debate for the 2020 election, serving as a proving ground for candidates seeking their partys nomination.
DETROIT  A large segment of the Detroit Red Wings fan base is longing for Steve Yzerman to return home and take over as general manager.

Ken Holland is well aware of this and even joked about it Monday following the team photo and locker cleanout at Little Caesars Arena.

But Holland, the clubs GM since 1997, made it clear he wants to continue leading this team. For how long? He didnt specify. But it doesnt appear hes planning for retirement.

Let me just put it this way, Im going to manage the Detroit Red Wings until Im not managing the Detroit Red Wings, Holland said. At that point in time, I will then assess what Im going to do.

Holland, 63, has one year remaining on his contract.

Yzerman, 53, stepped down as GM of the Tampa Bay Lightning in September, citing his desire to spend more time with family in Detroit. His contract as a consultant for the Lightning expires this summer.

This has led to rampant speculation that Yzerman might return to Detroit in some capacity, if not GM, perhaps team president.

Yzerman hasnt spoken publicly about it. Holland said he talks with Yzerman, but not regularly.

We laugh about it, Holland said.

Id be living in a cave if I didnt know (about the Yzerman speculation). I dont quite live in social media, but Im aware of all the rumors and everything out there.

Holland said he has no idea what Yzerman will do, not that he would reveal it if he did.

Thats the beauty of Steve, Holland said, noting the long-time Red Wing captains tendency to be tight-lipped.

It is clear Holland has no desire to step aside or assume another role with the club. He said he loves being a Red Wing. He joined the organization in 1983 as a minor league goaltender and stepped into a front-office role two years later as a scout before becoming director of amateur scouting and then assistant GM.

Ive been a Red Wing for well over half my life, Holland said. I love the Red Wings, I love living in Michigan, I love the fans, I love the people, I love the owners. I love the history, and I will manage this team every day until Im not the manager and somebody else is in charge. But while I am the manager, I want this team to contend for a Stanley Cup.

He is committed to seeing this rebuild through.

Were going through tough times, Holland said. When you make the playoffs 25 years in a row  were living the rebuild. I know what a rebuild is like. I was part of the Red Wings in 85. Rebuilds arent fun. Im trying to make sure that this rebuild is done right and its done as short as possible, because they can go on a long time. We got to do it right in terms of developing the players, drafting. Its not an exact science. Youre going to be wrong sometimes, youre going to be right sometimes.

I want the Red Wings to win another Stanley Cup, to be a Cup contender. I know how hard it is to win a Cup. We won four Cups. Everythings got to fall right.

Whether Im here a long, long time or a short period of time, Im doing what I believe is in the best interest of this franchise, of this fan base, of all those players. Thats my goal because I love being a Red Wing.

Holland talked about rooming with Yzerman at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia, when they were part of Canadas management team. He spoke of his one-on-one contract talks with Yzerman during his final years as a player. He talked about hiring him as an assistant following his retirement as a player in 2006.

Were associates and were friends, Holland said. You build relationships that go for the rest of your life.

Im going to keep plodding along until one day someone tells me I dont have to do it anymore, somebody else is going to do it. Then Ill worry about whats next at that point in time.
Eight sneaky migrants from Iraq managed to get into a US air base in Belgium aboard a food delivery truck. They were discovered by the driver  the military did not even bother to check the vehicle.

The embarrassing incident occurred at Chievres Air Base  a NATO military installation in Belgium operated by the US Air Force. The migrants  five men, a woman, and two children, managed to get into the base on Friday. The incident was not confirmed by local law enforcement until Sunday, according to local media.

The Iraqis arrived at the military installation hiding in a truck carrying foodstuffs for US servicemen from Germany. It remains unclear at what point of the journey they managed to sneak into the vehicle  and if they actually intended to end up in a military base.

The migrants were discovered by the driver when the vehicle was about to be unloaded. While base personnel should have actually checked the truck before even letting it onto the premises, they apparently didnt bother.

Belgian media reached out to the base for comment, but the NATO installation has remained silent on the incident. The migrants, said to be in good health, have been detained and handed over to local authorities.

Also on rt.com US may demand allies pay 150% for privilege of hosting troops

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Afghan chief executive supports Kabul delegation for Taliban talks

Afghan chief executive supports Kabul delegation for Taliban talks

Afghanistans chief executive Abdullah Abdullah has welcomed Kabuls decision to send a delegation to meet with the Taliban, saying they could present a unified position for the Afghan people. Kabul had earlier announced it would send representatives to exchange views with Taliban officials at fresh talks, due to take place in Doha, Qatar later this month. We need to talk future peace and reconciliation, Abdullah told AFP on Sunday. Mohammad Omar Daudzai, President Ashraf Ghanis envoy for peace, said the delegation would serve only to swap views with the Taliban. Officials will meet Wednesday in Kabul to decide who might comprise an official negotiating team. 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.Source : RT - Daily news
The incumbent heads of the US and Israel both face an election challenge soon and apparently believe that some intensive mutual back-scratching would be good. RT looks at their bromance.

US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been tight for quite some time. Even before Trump moved into the Oval Office, Bibi was there for him  telling US lawmakers how Obamas Middle East policies were flawed and how scrapping the nuclear deal with Iran would be good for Israel. Trump, of course, scrapped the Iran deal, just as he promised on the campaign trail.

Netanyahu was showered with major gestures of US support for his right-wing policies. The Trump administration pulled out of the UN Human Rights Council over its alleged anti-Israeli bias, moved the American Embassy to Jerusalem, and recognized Israels annexation of Syrias Golan Heights, among other things. The anger of the Palestinians and protests from other nations had no noticeable effect on these decisions.

Less than a week before a crucial general election in Israel, which will take place this Tuesday, Trump seemed to be campaigning for Netanyahu. On Friday, he bizarrely told American Jews in Las Vegas that their prime minister was a friend and great guy. Its safe to assume that if Bibi stays in power despite all the corruption scandals surrounding him, Trump will keep a powerful and vocal ally in Israel.

This could come handy in 2020 when he seeks re-election as US president. The unprecedented level of Israeli support may be a strong argument to vote Trump for many Americans, including Jewish people and Christian Evangelicals.

RTs Caleb Maupin takes a closer look at the Trump-Netanyahu political bromance and how it affects the two nations.
US aircraft manufacturer Boeings shares tumbled more than four percent on Monday after Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofA) downgraded the stock. The bank said that troubles with Boeings 737 MAX 8 jets are worse than expected.

BofA cut its rating on the Dow component from buy to neutral and lowered its price objective to $420 from $480. It said that now the bank estimates delays with the plane will last six to nine months, longer than the three- to six-month delay originally forecast.

Also on rt.com Boeing says they own safety, vowing to review design process & produce 10 planes less per month

The two recent crashes of the 737 Max forced Boeing to cut production of its most popular passenger jet. The companys shares have fallen nearly nine percent in the past month but were still up 21.5 percent year to date.

In March, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 plunged shortly after takeoff, killing all 157 people on board. Indonesian Lion Air Flight 610 nosedived into the sea last October, killing all 189 passengers and crew. Investigators noted clear similarities between the two accidents.

Boeing lost billions of dollars in market value in the days after the Ethiopia crash as regulators grounded all MAX 8s across the globe.

Last week, Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg said its apparent that the 737 MAX 8s MCAS maneuvering system contributed to the two fatal air accidents.

The reputational loss from these events could erode long-term market share and pricing power of the 737 MAX, BofA analyst Ronald Epstein said in a note to clients seen by CNBC.

In addition to the initial 737 Max delays, BofA estimates it will take Boeing through 2021 to catch up to delivery orders for the aircraft.

A six month delay also means lower margins due to penalties owed to customers, weaker negotiating position with airlines as airlines consider cancellations, and operational inefficiencies from the production disruption, Epstein said.

Boeing is reducing its production of the 737 Max to 42 per month, 10 less than its original target.

For more stories on economy & finance visit RT's business section
A team of 200 pioneering scientists from across the globe is preparing to push the limits of scientific achievement and attempt to answer two key questions: is it possible to photograph a black hole and, if so, was Einstein right?

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is comprised of dozens of observatories that scan the area around the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, named Sagittarius A*, to piece together a silhouette of the black behemoth and provide humanity with its first-ever glimpse of a real black hole (as opposed to an artists rendering).

The groundbreaking result from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project, will be delivered in an announcement by the US National Science Foundation on Wednesday, April 10, at 9am EDT (13:00 GMT). Concurrent announcements will be made in Tokyo, Brussels, Taipei, Santiago, and Shanghai.

The black hole is 26,000 light years away, making it rather difficult to photograph, which is why the team combined radio telescopes from Chile, Spain, Mexico, Arizona in the US, two observatories in Hawaii, and one in Antarctica to capture the elusive snap. The 200-strong team distributed the surface area of the combined global telescope across the planet in order to increase its magnifying power.

More than 50 years ago, scientists saw there was something very bright at the center of our galaxy, Paul McNamara, an astrophysicist at the European Space Agency told the AFP.

McNamara added that the bright object has a gravitational pull strong enough to make stars orbit around it very quickly  as fast as 20 years. To put that into perspective, our solar system takes 230 million years to orbit the Milky Way.

The brightness around the object was an accumulation of gas and plasma swirling around a black hole that is absolutely black and measures 22 million kilometers in diameter (by comparison, our sun is a measly 700,000km in diameter).

The astronomers are attempting to capture the silhouette of the black hole against this bright background provided by the swirl of gas, plasma, and other materials are that are falling inexorably into the abyss. The coordinated observations were also made in X- and Gamma-rays.

Also on rt.com Groundbreaking black-hole study reveals universe growing faster than previously imagined

The team is hoping to produce a groundbreaking image and determine whether Einstein was right when he predicted the exact size and shape of the black holes shadow back in the early 20th century.

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With Islamic State defeated, European countries are facing a conundrum over citizens who left to join the terrorist organization and are now held in captivity in Iraq and Syria. RT spoke to some of them.

An estimated 5,000 foreign fighters from European nations went to join Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) between 2011 and 2016. France, Germany, the UK, and Belgium were the biggest contributors. Some of these people, as well as those who went to Iraq and Syria to become civilians in the would-be caliphate, are now stuck in legal limbo. Their home countries are reluctant to take them back, considering their record of fighting for a terrorist organization that committed numerous atrocities in the Middle East and staged deadly attacks in Europe. Also on rt.com But they are dangerous! Europe reluctant to take back ISIS fighters as Trump demands RTs Ruptly video agency spoke to some of the Europeans currently held by the Syrian Democratic Forces in a camp near Qamishli in Syrias Kurdish region of Jazira. One of them was Dutch citizen Yakhoci Riedijk, who is also the husband of London-born Shamima Begum. She became the embodiment of the problem after her plea in February to allow her to return to Britain. Riedijk said his decision to join IS brought him misery, suffering, an accusation of being a Dutch spy from the jihadist leaders, and now detention with a total lack of certainty about his future. I wish to return home, spend the due time in jail, then go back to normal life with my wife, with no troubles, no wars and no poverty, he said.

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German citizen Lukas Glass is in the same situation. A former IS sympathizer, he says he served as a policeman in Raqqa when the city served as the terrorist groups de facto capital in Syria. Glass said he has little hope for being allowed to return to Germany: Nobody wants us. After these crimes committed by IS, nobody wants us. I dont blame them, he said.

Martin Lemke, another German man and former IS fighter, said joining the terrorists was the biggest mistake of his life.

Watch the full report to learn more.

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I want to go home, serve in jail, go on with life  ex-fighter & husband of ISIS bride Begum to RT

I want to go home, serve in jail, go on with life  ex-fighter & husband of ISIS bride Begum to RT

Source : RT - Daily news
Ecuador will be violating its own constitution if it expels Julian Assange from its London embassy while fully aware of a possible assassination plot against him, WikiLeaks suggested, releasing the journalists court testimony.

Article 79 of the Ecuadorean constitution guarantees that in no case shall the extradition of an Ecuadorean be granted, Assange told the Ecuadorean court back on October 29, when he requested the restoration of his communication privileges.

Also on rt.com Assange may be expelled from Ecuadorean embassy within hours to days, govt source tells WikiLeaks

A transcript of Assanges statement was released by WikiLeaks after news of his imminent expulsion from the embassy made the headlines on Thursday. While a great deal of Assanges testimony defends his right to stay in the embassy after being granted asylum and, subsequently, citizenship, the 47-year-old also accused the government of Lenin Moreno of illegally limiting his communication rights and bowing to pressure from the US, which seeks his extradition for revealing some of Washingtons dirty secrets.

Also on rt.com WikiLeaks supporters mobilize to prevent Ecuador from expelling Assange from UK embassy

The fact that a government controls a particular piece of space does not mean it can violate its Constitution, can violate UN-mandated rights, that it can engage in punishment without process, Assange told the court, revealing that, besides threats of unjust prosecution, he also faces direct threats against his life.

There have been attempts by people to get into this embassy through the windows at night. I am an assassination risk. It is not a joke. It is a serious business.

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The Peoples Bank of China (PBOC) increased its gold holdings for the fourth straight month in March, bringing total reserves to 60.62 million ounces. The move is part of Chinas strategy to shift away from the US dollar.

Last months inflow totaled 11.2 tons of bullion, following the addition of 9.95 tons in February, 11.8 tons in January and 9.95 tons in December. PBOC said March reserves were equivalent to around $78.5 billion, down from $79.5 billion in the previous month.

Also on rt.com Are Russia, China & Turkey bringing back the gold standard? RTs Keiser Report finds out

Before December, the Chinese central bank had not reported an increase in gold reserves for more than two years, and the official figures remained unchanged from October 2016 to November 2018. Analysts say Beijing is trying to diversify its reserves away from the greenback.

READ MORE: Russia adds $2.4 billion to its foreign exchange reserves in one week

The increased purchasing by Asias top economy comes at a time when global central banks are accumulating the precious metal. Gold reserves of central banks around the world surged 651.5 tons, or 74 percent year on year, in 2018, according to data from the World Gold Council (WGC).

Also on rt.com World gold demand set to hit four-year high  experts

Experts say if China continues to accumulate bullion at the current rate over 2019, it may end the year as the top buyer after Russia, which added 274 tons in 2018.

As a safe haven hedge, gold will become more attractive in 2019, due to greater market uncertainties and the expansion of protectionist economic policies, WGC forecasts.

Gold was trading at just above $1,300 per ounce on Monday.

For more stories on economy & finance visit RT's business section
The Indian military offered more evidence to prove that they had shot down a Pakistani F-16 fighter jet during a clash over Kashmir in February. Islamabad denies flying US-made aircraft on that day.

The dogfight between Indian and Pakistani warplanes over the contested border region on February 27 marked the highest level of military confrontation between the two nuclear powers in decades. India lost one of its aircraft in the fight and insists it had shot down one of their opponents F-16s. Pakistan denied the loss and insists it didnt use the US-supplied plane during the sortie.

On Monday, the Indian Air Force (IAF) held a press briefing to provide additional evidence proving that their version of what had happened is true. Air Vice Marshal RGK Kapoor, the deputy commander of the IAF, showed images, which he said reflected the air situation in the area as picked up by Indian AWACS planes.

The abbreviation stands for airborne early warning and control and refers to an aircraft carrying a powerful radar station, communication equipment and other instruments to conduct long-range surveillance and provide targeting data for military aircraft. The IAF operates three domestically-produced aircraft of this type based on the Brazilian Embraer ERJ fuselage.

The images, the Indian official said, showed the development of the aerial fight. Radio signatures of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) aircraft identified them as both F-16s and JF-17s  a model that Pakistan produces in corroboration with China.

One of IAFs MiG-21 Bisons engaged a PAF F-16, shooting it down, before in turn being taken out by a Pakistani fighter jet, according to the Indian version.

Indian officials said they also have intercepts of radio communications gathered by Indian signal intelligence that confirmed that the downing of an F-16 happened, but would not immediately release them or their transcripts.

The IAF also cited conflicting statements, from Pakistani officials on the day of the engagement, on the number and status of pilots taken into custody by the Pakistani side, with the Indians claiming the confusion confirmed that more than one pilot landed on Pakistani territory.

According to Islamabad, only one pilot landed on their side, the Indian officer from the downed MiG-21. The IAF said two parachutes were spotted by Indian observers in the area.

Also on rt.com US looks into claims Pakistan misused F-16 fighter, as media war over Kashmir clash heats up

Pakistan and India have been making significantly conflicting statements about what had happened during their two-day stand-off in February, including the intentions and the outcomes of the missions they conducted. The debate on whether Pakistan lost an F-16 reportedly has higher stakes than simply defending national pride and justifying use of force.

According to some reports, the US sold its warplanes to Pakistan on a condition that they would not be used outside of national airspace without US consent. Their presence over Kashmir on February 27 may be considered a violation of those terms by Washington  and consequently could result in sanctions. Or at least this may be the line of thinking in the Indian leadership.

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The UK has proposed a set of measures to regulate the internet by obliging tech giants to protect users from harmful content, with a watchdog blocking inappropriate websites and slapping fines on those refusing to cooperate.

The proposals, outlined in a white paper by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, call for creating a new, independent watchdog (or granting sweeping powers to an existing one, like Ofcom) to monitor online traffic and, if necessary, to block access to websites.

Also on rt.com UK to set up new internet regulator to monitor hate speech and enforce code of conduct  report

Besides eying "substantial" fines for non-compliance, lawmakers also want to see annual transparency reports from tech companies, and a full itinerary on how they addressed the dissemination of any harmful content. The regulator will also be empowered to hold individual executives of technology firms responsible if they fail to comply.

The new regulations, proposed on Monday, are needed to battle rising concerns over the growth of violent content and disinformation, the government claims, insisting that young people must be shielded from the dangers of a virtual world that encourages suicide, cyberbullying, and inappropriate behaviors.

For too long these companies have not done enough to protect users, especially children and young people, from harmful content, Prime Minister Theresa May stated, endorsing the proposals.

Also on rt.com Why UK report on digital gangster Facebook is a thinly veiled call for censorship

While the British governments initiative was welcomed by campaigners for safer internet use, some had concerns about the prospects of greater censorship. Matthew Lesh, head of research at the Adam Smith Institute, a UK-based neoliberal think tank and lobbying group, earlier argued that such a move would be an attack on freedom of speech and the free press.

Lesh suggests it would be hypocritical of Britain to impose such restrictions, when the UK government criticizes alleged violations of freedom of expression in countries such as China, Russia, and Iran.

Britain will no longer be called a free society if her citizens and her press are directed by Government as to what they can view, think and say.

The suggestions on curbing harmful online content still need to go through a 12-week consultation process. Silicon Valley firms Twitter and Facebook have already said they are ready to work with the UK government to address its concerns.

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After Washington put Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on its terrorists list, the Iranian Foreign Ministry asked President Hassan Rouhani to designate the US Central Command (CENTCOM) as a terrorist organization.

Due to the clear support US forces in Western Asia lend to terrorist groups, and their own involvement in terrorist activities, the US military in the region should be put on a list of terrorist groups in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a letter sent to Rouhani and Irans Supreme National Security Council by the ministry.

Also on rt.com US designates Irans Revolutionary Guards as terrorist organization  Trump

DETAILS TO FOLLOW
People have misconceptions of what happened in Iraq, former Iraqi ruler Saddam Husseins granddaughter, Hareer Hussein Kamel, told RT. She hopes her new book will set the record straight on of her family.

I chose to write the book to tell the truth. The history of my country has been largely misrepresented, Kamel said, explaining how she felt the responsibly to clarify the way Iraq has been portrayed, as well as addressing the attacks on her own family.

I decided to tell the story of my family  which people have tried to discredit.

Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq for nearly 25 years until he was toppled during a US-led invasion in 2003, and later executed. He was accused of numerous human rights violations during his tenure.

Also on rt.com Iraq War 15 years on: How America brought chaos & bloodshed to a nation (VIDEO)

The US sent troops into the country, claiming that Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, as well as ties with Al-Qaeda. Both allegations were later proven false. The invasion of Iraq spiraled the nation into a prolonged insurgency and civil war, which eventually led to the rise of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIL).

The full interview will be released on RT later on Monday.
Mogherini calls for humanitarian truce in Libya, return to negotiations

Mogherini calls for humanitarian truce in Libya, return to negotiations

The EUs foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, has called for a truce in Libya and a return to political negotiations as fighting intensified between rival factions. Mogherini chaired a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg. 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, she said on Monday. EU ministers are united on echoing the G7s call for eastern Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar to halt his advance on Tripoli, according to her. Haftars Libyan National Army said on Friday its forces had moved into Tripolis southern outskirts and taken its former international airport, threatening the internationally recognized government based in the capital, Reuters reports.Source : RT - Daily news
New Zealands privacy commissioner said Facebook consists of morally bankrupt pathological liars that enable genocide and a facilitate the undermining of democracy, in reaction to its response to the Christchurch attack.

John Edwards lambasted the social media giant on Twitter after it allowed the Christchurch attacker to livestream his massacre of 50 Muslims at two mosques in New Zealand in March. The footage was copied and widely shared online.

Also on rt.com Should social media be scrubbing disturbing NZ shooting videos? Pundits clash in RT DEBATE

Facebook cannot be trusted, Edwards wrote, slamming the tech giant for allowing the live streaming of suicides, rapes, and murders, and for allowing of the mosque video to be published on its platform. He also called out the social network for allowing advertisers to target Jew haters and other hateful market segments, and said it refuses to accept any responsibility for any content or harm.

They #dontgiveazuck, he said.

Also on rt.com Australia threatens tech giants with jail, fines for spread of violent content after Christchurch

Edward wrote his criticism in response to an interview that Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg gave to ABC last week. The tech companys founder and CEO wouldnt commit to any change to its live streaming technology in the wake of the Christchurch scandal and said events like Christchurch showed the extent to which bad actors are going to try to get around our systems.

Edwards tweeted in response, YOU DIDNT HAVE ANY SYSTEMS!!!

Edwards later deleted his tweets, saying they had invited toxic and misinformed traffic.

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There was no collusion but, for the crowded field of candidates hoping to be nominated by Democrats as their runner for 2020, Russia is still a good target to blame or to threaten with. Will using such rhetoric actually help them?

Special Counsel Robert Muellers probe ended last month and its conclusions didnt make Russiagaters happy, but some seem to be not quite ready to give up on the Russians are coming! line.

Russians come to OUR social media  and divide America!

While launching his campaign in Ohio, Democrat representative Tim Ryan talked freely about the growing division in US society, which prevents the country from fixing a whole set of broken systems. But whos to blame? The dreaded enemies coming onto social media to set Americans against one another  those pesky Russians.

If there is an incident in America thats controversial  about kneeling for the National Anthem or theres a school shooting or theres an incident between a cop and a kid  you know who comes on to our social media? Ryan told his supporters.

The Russians. OK? I want you to hear this. The Russians. They come into our social media and they spin things to get us into these divided camps so that were fighting with each other.

Thats what they want. And, meanwhile, we cant get our economy going. Meanwhile, we can't get a healthcare system that works, he added, urging US citizens to come together.

Sure, if you fend off the elusive Russian trolls, all the issues will just go away, because there will be no one to sow division. What a solid concept to campaign on.

Capitalism might threaten democracy  like in Russia, of course

Another Democratic presidential hopeful, Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, has offered a take on the most important thing the US has  its democracy. This treasured possession is so important that it might actually be threatened by another cornerstone of the US, capitalism, Buttigieg said on NBCs Meet the Press.

When capitalism comes into tension with democracy, which is more important? he wondered.

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, thats not real capitalism.



And wheres that happening? Well, not in the US, with is military industrial complex and big pharma so close to Washington, but in Russia.

It might work with the die-hard Russiagaters, who, for the past two weeks, have been bemoaning the end of the Mueller probe, but polls are showing that people would like the candidates to talk instead about the real issues and problems.

to RT newsletter to get stories the mainstream media wont tell you.
An IDF tweet that appears to show a silhouette of a woman pregnant with terror with a slogan accusing Iran of breeding terrorism, has triggered uproar, with some accusing Israel of hitting rock-bottom with Nazi-style rhetoric.

Israel, infamous for its overly simplistic ways of describing the perceived Iranian threat, has done it again  tweeting an outline of a pregnant woman who is about to bear terror. Iran breeding in the Middle East the IDF said next to its schematic meme, unleashing a hailstorm of criticism from Twitter users, who did not appreciate the pun.

The online community found it tasteless and even reminiscent of Nazi rhetoric, emphasizing that women do not breed but bear children. Others bombarded the IDF and the Israeli government with the usual accusations of racism and of practicing apartheid against Palestinians, urging the countrys defense forces to delete their tweet and to reconsider their approach to public relations.

Israel has repeatedly accused Iran of spreading its tentacles throughout the Middle East, including Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, which Tel Aviv considers a threat to its national security. Israels policy towards Iran is supported by the US, which last year withdrew from the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal and reintroduced sanctions against Iran, to a chorus of cheers from Israeli lawmakers. Meanwhile, this Monday, Washington is rumored to be officially designating Irans elite military unit as a terrorist organization.

Also on rt.com Iran to place US Army on terror list if Washington does the same with Revolutionary Guards

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Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has welcomed the US decision to label Irans Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization for allegedly financing and promoting terrorism in the region.

The US move was announced in a statement from President Donald Trump on Monday, stating that it recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft.

Also on rt.com US designates Irans Revolutionary Guards as terrorist organization  Trump

DETAILS TO FOLLOW
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has urged the forces of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar to halt their advance on Tripoli immediately, somewhat ironically saying theres no military solution to the conflict NATO helped to start.

We have made clear that we oppose the military offensive by Khalifa Haftars forces and urge the immediate halt to these military operations against the Libyan capital. Forces should return to status quo ante positions, Pompeos statement read.

Libya remains a fractured land, with no centralized power, ever since the humanitarian NATO intervention and airstrike campaign in 2011 decimated the countrys military and helped armed rebels assassinate strongman Muammar Gaddafi.

Also on rt.com Airstrikes & clashes: Libyas Haftar forces claim control of Tripoli airport as rivals bomb them

But, in 2019, a political solution is the only way to unify the country and provide a plan for security, stability, and prosperity for all Libyans, the US State Department believes in all earnest, while urging all involved parties to urgently de-escalate the situation.

Pompeos plea comes as the Pentagon pulled its remaining small contingent out of Libya, saying it was too dangerous for American troops to stay on the ground.

Also on rt.com Pentagon orders troops to leave Libya which it helped destabilize, laments security conditions

There are two main competing forces in Libya at the moment: a rather defunct, UN-recognized government in the capital Tripoli and its allied militias, and a rival parliament in Tobruk, supported by Haftars forces, who control most of the country. Their military commander ordered his troops to move on the capital in an anti-terrorist operation last week, forcing Tripoli to mobilize their own forces. So far, at least 11 people have reportedly been killed in clashes in the outskirts, even though Haftars forces have reportedly yet to make any serious move on the capital itself.

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Global crude prices rose to the highest level since last November on Monday, driven upwards by OPECs supply cuts, US sanctions on Iran and Venezuela, and the escalation of fighting in oil-rich Libya.

On Monday morning, benchmarks Brent and WTI both hit their highest point for this year so far, at $70.76 and $63.48 a barrel, respectively. Brent futures were trading at $70.71 per barrel as of 9:50am GMT, up 0.5 percent from their last close. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was trading 0.5 percent higher, at $63.40 per barrel.

Also on rt.com Saudi shock therapy sends global crude prices to 5-month highs

OPECs ongoing supply cuts and US sanctions on Iran and Venezuela have been the major driver of prices throughout this year, chief market strategist at futures brokerage FXTM Hussein Sayed told Reuters.

However, the latest boost was received from an escalation of fighting in Libya which is threatening further supply disruption, he said.

Commodities analyst at Kiwoom Securities in Seoul, Ahn Yea Ha, also said that supply disruptions in Libya are lifting prices at a time when appetite for risk assets is rising as concerns over global growth ease.

Oil might be rising too quickly at the moment, but its hard to find any bearish signals, she told Bloomberg.

Libya was the 20th largest petroleum producer in 2018, with more than a million barrels per day, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

The country remains a fractured land, with no centralized power, ever since the humanitarian NATO intervention and airstrike campaign in 2011 decimated the countrys military and helped armed rebels assassinate strongman Muammar Gaddafi.

There are two main competing forces in Libya at the moment: a rather defunct, UN-recognized government in the capital Tripoli and its allied militias, and a rival parliament in Tobruk, supported by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftars forces, which control most of the country.

Last week, the Tripoli-based government declared an attack on all frontlines against the advancing troops of Haftar amid reports of heavy fighting around the city. So far, at least 11 people have reportedly been killed in clashes on the outskirts of Tripoli, even though Haftars forces have reportedly yet to make any serious move on the capital itself.

The latest fighting is south of Tripoli, away from most of the countrys main oil ports and fields. However, analysts warn of growing risks of disruption as the situation deteriorates.

For more stories on economy & finance visit RT's business section
Rapid reaction: Russias ships, missile systems on duty as NATO holds exercise in Black Sea

Rapid reaction: Russias ships, missile systems on duty as NATO holds exercise in Black Sea

The Russian Black Sea Fleets reconnaissance and attack ships and coastal missile systems have been put on duty in connection with NATOs exercise in the Black Sea, according to the National Defense Control Center under the Defense Ministry. The Black Sea Fleet is carrying out a package of measures to monitor NATOs ships for rapid reaction to likely emergencies, the center said. Reconnaissance ships and also naval attack groups, coastal missile systems Bastion and Bal and naval aircraft are on duty, it added. NATOs Sea Shield-2019 exercise began in the southwestern part of the Black Sea on Monday, with ships and aircraft from the US, Bulgaria, Greece, Canada, the Netherlands, Romania and Turkey taking part in cooperation with Georgian and Ukrainian armed forces, TASS reports.Source : RT - Daily news
The Russian Minister of National Resources and Environment Dmitry Kobylkin said cargo shipping in Russias northernmost territorial waters will exceed 80 million tons as soon as 2024.

We started with five million tons of cargo, and today we see shipments of up to 35 million tons. But the potential capacity is much bigger than this with positive dynamics guaranteed, the minister said in his recent interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily.

According to the official, the bulk of the cargo shipped through the Arctic route is currently implemented by the countrys mineral resources sector. Kobylkin urged the government to provide the Arctic with significant state investment.

Also on rt.com Russia seeks new Arctic oil frontier

Corporations working in the Arctic surely need state support, the minister said. The state authorities should shoulder the costs of creating the necessary infrastructure, including dredging operation, building and connecting ports, maintaining air service, Kobylkin said.

One ruble invested unto the Arctic projects would attract 15 rubles, he added, stressing that other sectors of economy can hardly boast of such returns on investment.

Also on rt.com Russia, US compete for Asian LNG market share

Last month, the environment ministry released a broad plan on mineral resources perspectives of Russias Arctic region. The plan, which includes 118 projects, is mostly focused on the processing of liquefied natural gas, oil, condensate, coal and minerals and shipping them along the Northern Sea Route. It also includes proposals on developing such areas as shipbuilding, ecology, tourism and various other industries. The projects will reportedly be implemented by 2030 at a total cost of 10.5 trillion rubles (US$163 billion).

Russias Arctic provides the shortest maritime route linking the European part of the country with its Far East regions. The route passes through several seas of the Arctic Ocean, including the Barents Sea, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, East Siberian Sea, Chukchi Sea, and partially the Bering Sea in the Pacific Ocean.

For more stories on economy & finance visit RT's business section
The sorry state of a California prison, with mice falling on dining tables and mold growths covering the walls, has prompted inmates to sue the management. Lawyers say it is part of a systemic infrastructure decay problem.

A filed in a California court describes the stomach-churning details of life in the Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in the city of Corcoran. The prisoners incarcerated at the facility have continually seen maggots and even mice falling from the crumbling ceiling right onto the tables in their dining hall.

Through the holes in the deteriorating roof rainwater and bird droppings seep through the crumbling ceiling and streak the walls. The constant humidity has allowed mold to spawn across the prison walls, according to Robert Escareno, an inmate who filed the California lawsuit.

Also on rt.com US Supreme Court declares inmates have no constitutional right to painless death

The prison authorities acknowledge the problems but pin the blame on prisoners. Inmates toss food onto the ventilation system through the openings in the ceiling, prison Lieutenant Michael Owens testified in court, adding that the rotting food attracts insects, maggots and mice. Prisoners were also accused of attracting pests by storing leftover fruit and bread in ventilation ducts, for brewing illegal beverages later.

The inmates, however, cant be blamed for the crumbling ceiling, since Owens admitted leaking rainwater destroyed interior tiles so often that the prison administration just stopped replacing them. The leaks also often short-out electrical systems, including lights, control panels and fire suppression systems.

Also on rt.com Nationwide US prison strike demands end to slave labor & racist sentencing

And it is not just the Corcoran facility that is falling apart. Roofs are failing all over the place, Don Specter, the director of the non-profit Prison Law Office, which represents Escareno, said. [The authorities] acknowledge the need of the roofs, [but] theyre not making arrangements so people dont get hurt in the meantime.

California authorities say they are doing everything they can, but the total cost of overdue maintenance amounts to more than $1 billion. The facility decay problem, however, goes far beyond a single state, as other reports have revealed setbacks such as malfunctioning heating systems in federal detention centers in the New York borough of Brooklyn and near Los Angeles, as well as poor medical care at federal immigration facilities.

Also on rt.com Nevada woman dies in jail after being denied medical help, DA finds no wrongdoing

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Italys Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini launched his campaign to build a populist voting block in the EU, kicking off the initiative Monday by hosting a meeting with four like-minded European political parties.

Fresh from discussions with Marine Le Pen of Frances National Rally, Salvini is striving to bring together the largest anti-immigration and euroskeptic parties in the EU, believing the alliance will be a great event for Europe for the next 30 years.

The move reflects the general rise in popularity among sovereignist parties, and has the potential to make serious waves in the EU in the wake of the parliamentary elections in late May.

Also on rt.com Gold belongs to the people, not bankers: Italian govt moves to seize reserves from central bank

Expressing a desire to bring about radical change, Salvini claims to be interested in more than a change in EU leadership and says he wants to build a new Europe.

We can propose a new Europe because we have never governed (in Brussels), Salvini said.

We are working for a new European dream. To many citizens and people today, the EU is a nightmare and not a dream.

Mondays meeting included representatives of Alternative for Germany (AfD), the Danish Peoples Party, and the Finns Party. Joerg Meuthen of the AfD told reporters that the new alliance would be called the European Alliance for People and Nations, and will initially include at least 10 parties.

Although the parties in attendance have had serious disagreements in the past, they plan to unite around a program of bringing labour, family and safety back to the center of their political vision, according to Salvini. The parties also share strong opposition to EU immigration policy, and hope to push for tougher border control.

While Le Pen herself was not present on Monday, Salvini said her party, the National Rally, would be taking part in the group.

Despite the absence of other potential crucial allies like Hungarys Fidesz (who were recently suspended from the European Peoples Party bloc in the EU parliament) and Polands Law and Justice party, both have flirted with the idea and expressed some level of solidarity with Salvinis plans.

Salvini will swap the swanky hotel where Mondays meeting was held for Romes ancient chariot-racing stadium Circus Maximus in May, where a far more ambitious meeting has been planned which organizers claim will include representatives from 15-20 countries.

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New Delhi has accused Pakistans foreign minister of stirring up war hysteria after he claimed, citing credible intelligence data, that India was drawing up plans to strike Pakistan once again sometime later this month.

India is preparing to stage another attack on Pakistani soil, similar to the Balakot strike back in February, sometime between April 16 and 20, Pakistans Foreign Minister Shah Mahmoud Quraishi loudly proclaimed on Sunday, citing credible intelligence information. The alleged threat appeared so great to Pakistan that the information has been shared with the UN Security Council.

Also on rt.com India may attack Pakistan in mid-April, Islamabad says citing reliable intelligence

New Delhi denounced Islamabads accusations as irresponsible and preposterous, and accused its neighbor of making false claims to divert attention from cross-border terrorism which the government of Narendra Modi believes is at the core of the dispute between the two states. Quraishis claims were voiced with the clear objective of whipping up war hysteria in the region, Indias foreign ministry says.

This public gimmick appears to be a call to Pakistan-based terrorists to undertake a terror attack in India.

Yet, while viewing the hysterical statement as nothing short of a provocation, Raveesh Kumar, the spokesperson of Indias Ministry of External Affairs, stressed that his country reserves the right to respond firmly and decisively to a cross-border terrorist attack.

Also on rt.com Nuclear-armed India & Pakistan vowed missile strikes during Kashmir standoff  report

On February 26 India carried out strikes inside Pakistani territory against a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist camp, in response to the Pulwama attack on February 14, in which a Kashmiri member of a Pakistan-based militant group killed 40 Indian paramilitary police in a suicide bombing. In a mid-air dogfight the following day, one of India's MiG-21s was shot down while confronting Pakistani jets that were conducting a retaliatory cross-border raid. Tensions between the regional nuclear powers along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir have been high ever since.

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By Scott Reeves, China Daily | Apr. 05, 2019

An Ethiopian official on Thursday confirmed news reports that the flight crew of a doomed Ethiopian Airlines flight followed Boeing's recommended procedures to disable the 737 MAX's automated anti-stall system but they were unable to regain control of the plane before it dived nose-first into the ground.

At a news conference in Addis Ababa, the nation's transportation minister confirmed earlier indications that the plane's anti-stall system repeatedly triggered during the six minutes between take-off and crash, but he did not draw definitive conclusions about the cause of the March 10 disaster.

"The pilots turned the MCAS on and off, but I can't say how many times because we will find that out when we have the final report," Dagmawit Moges, Ethiopia's minister of transportation, told The New York Times.

The preliminary finding by Ethiopian authorities likely will increase pressure on Boeing to develop and install new software for the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). It also is expected to result in a rigorous review of the software fix by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which has been criticized by aviation analysts and members of Congress for depending too heavily on aircraft industry officials to certify their new planes as safe.

The FAA said late Wednesday that it will launch a joint task force with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and international aviation regulators to review Boeing's new software for the MCAS system.

The task force will be headed by Chris Hart, former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The FAA has not released names of those who will participate in the Joint Authorities Technical Review team, their affiliations or their nationalities.

"This is an unprecedented move," Robert Mann, president of R.W. Mann & Co., an aviation consulting firm, told China Daily. "I think it will be a good thing for MAX aircraft, but I'm not sure it will be a good thing overall if it creates an international bureaucratic process for future certification that will take longer than any individual oversight agency would now require."

James Hall, managing partner of Hall & Associates, an aviation consulting firm in Washington and a former chairman of the NTSB, said it's unclear how the FAA's new panel will mesh with investigations of Boeing launched by the US inspector general, US Justice Department and Congress.

"Will the technical review team look at the certification process, or is it an attempt to get the plane back in the air?" Hall told China Daily. "We'll see."

Boeing said it would work closely with the new task force.

"We welcome the Joint Authorities Technical Review and look forward to working with the panel," Paul Bergman, a spokesman for Boeing in Seattle, said in a statement. "Safety is our top priority."

If the nose of the Boeing MAX 8 model rises, threatening a mid-air stall, the MCAS system automatically points the plane's nose down to gain speed needed to stay aloft. Boeing added larger, more fuel-efficient engines to upgrade the existing 737 airframe to compete with European rival Airbus. The new engines are positioned closer to the MAX's fuselage and therefore changed the aircraft's aerodynamics and pushed the plane's nose up in certain conditions.

Boeing created MCAS to make the new MAX planes handle more like previous versions of the 737, a popular model used by airlines around the world. Some in the aircraft industry, including pilots, have said Boeing did not provide adequate notice of the new plane's flight characteristics or how to shut off the new anti-stall device if necessary. A group of pilots independently compiled and circulated a 13-page manual about the new system. But others have said Boeing provided adequate notice of the changes and how to disable MCAS.

The version of MCAS installed on the Ethiopian Airlines plane reportedly relied on information from a single sensor. Flight systems are typically built with a backup system so there can be no single point of failure. Since the fatal crashes of MAX jets in Indonesia last October and Ethiopia last month, Boeing has modified design of the anti-stall device to include two sensors on all aircraft.

The family of Samya Rose Stumo,24, a niece of consumer advocate Ralph Nader, on Thursday filed a wrongful death lawsuit in US District Court in Chicago against Boeing, Ethiopian Airlines and Rosemont Aerospace. The lawsuit alleges the defendants were negligent in manufacturing a faulty flight control system and allowing it to be used in MAX aircraft.

The FAA allows airlines to make minor modifications in previously certified aircraft to meet their operational needs, a rule Boeing followed by building the 737 MAX for foreign carriers. Ethiopian Airlines and Indonesia's Lion Air -- involved in fatal crashes five months apart --reportedly declined to buy two add-on safety devices that might have helped the pilots keep the doomed planes in the sky.

Neither airline purchased the "angle of attack" system display for readings of two sensors rather than one and a "disagree light" to be activated if the sensors produce conflicting readings. The Ethiopian Airlines crash killed all 157 people on board. A Lion Air crash last October killed 189 passengers and crew.

Boeing's 737 MAX is the latest update of its popular, single-aisle, twin-engine aircraft. Boeing has about 4,600 planes on back order selling at about $120 million each. The fuel-efficient plane has a range of 3,215 to 3,825 miles (about 5,594 to 7,084 kilometers). The 737 MAX, introduced in 2018, is offered in four lengths and seats 138 to 230 passengers. Airlines around the world, including China and the US, have flown the aircraft without incident.

Boeing's stock closed Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange at $395.86 a share, up $11.12, or 2.89 percent, from Wednesday's close. The 52-week range is $292.47 to $446.01 a share. The company has lost about $26 billion in market value since MAX jets were grounded following the crash of the Ethiopian Airlines plane.
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Bharti Airtel has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for a rights approval worth Rs 24,000 crore.

"SEBI has given its nod for the rights issue" a senior government official said on April 8.

The promoter group of Bharti Airtel, including the Bharti Group and SingTel, will subscribe to Rs 11,785.7 crore in the Rs 25,000-crore rights issue while Singapore government's investment arm GIC Pvt. Ltd will be subscribing to shares worth Rs 5,000 crore.

Last week, Airtel's board had approved plans to raise Rs 32,000 crore through equity and bond sales. Of this, Rs 25,000 crore will be raised by way of a rights issue and another Rs 7,000 crore will be mobilised through foreign currency perpetual bonds.
Reuters | Apr. 06, 2019

Boeing Co plans to cut its monthly 737 production by nearly 20 percent as it works to manage the grounding of its MAX aircraft in the wake of two deadly crashes, Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg said on Friday.

Starting mid-April, production will be cut to 42 airplanes per month from 52, the company said in a statement.

The crash of a Lion Air plane in Indonesia last October that killed all 189 people on board and the crash in Ethiopia have left the world's largest planemaker in crisis as its top-selling jetliner is grounded worldwide.

Muilenburg 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.

Boeing's board will establish a committee to review how the company designs and develops airplanes, Muilenburg added. 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 one percent after the market closed on Friday.

Boeing faces logistical issues in finding places to park the growing number of grounded 737 MAX 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.

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 again in June to 57 a month.

Having to hold planes in storage without delivering them does, however, consume extra cash through increased inventory.

Separately, 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, who was named by the Federal Aviation Administration this week to head an international team to review the safety of the Boeing 737 MAX, told reporters Friday he thought the review, which will start 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 rather than mechanical issues in future. "This is territory we are going to see more of," Hart said.
Boeing (Representative image: Reuters)

Boeing has taken a hit after the global grounding of 737 Max planes. It happened after two recent deadly crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia that killed 346 people combined within five months of each other. To limit the financial impact of these groundings, the company is cutting the production of the Boeing 737 jetliner, Bloomberg reported.

The airline plans to preserve cash by cutting the output by 19 percent, which brings its production to 42 airplanes in a month. Boeing's Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg announced this plan on April 5 as the company was trying to assuage the distrust of the public towards Max 737.

"Boeing 737 rate-cut to 42 a month from 52 starting in mid-April tells us the company thinks it will take longer than expected for regulators to end the grounding of the Max 737," Muilenburg said. "Safety is our responsibility and we own it."

The airplane maker had plans to ramp up the production of 737 by about 10 percent by mid-year before the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crash. The change in plans hit the suppliers who had already hired workers and invested in capacity expansion. They had also started orchestrating a schedule to increase production.

Two main suppliers of Boeing, CFM International and Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc, indicated that they would continue their operations at record pace regardless of Boeing's plans.

A CFM spokesperson said that maintaining their usual operation would help ensure "the stability of the global CFM supply chain". Spirit AeroSystems plans to store the fuselages and other factors it made for 737 in its factories.

Boeing is staring at further slashing in the production of its models if the grounding is not lifted. If the regulators do not give their green light soon, the airplane maker will have to store hundreds of its fresh models in the US.

Last week, Ethiopian officials released a preliminary report on the latest accident involving Max in March, confirming that the cause for it was the same as the Lion Air crash in October 2018.

The directors of the company have been asked to review policies and processes for design and development of planes. They aim to study the safety of the 737 Max and recommend more improvements to the planes.
Sounak Mitra

Can social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, among others, clean up their acts to help the Election Commission of India (ECI) conduct a free and fair election?

Considering the fact that the first phase of polls is a few days away, the simple answer to the above question would be: No.

The reason: Fake news is too big a mess, and theres too little time.

True, social media companies and the ECI have been trying to curb fake news that spreads too fast. Facebook reportedly removed 687 pages and accounts linked to the Congress, and also a bunch of ruling pro-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) pages that had a combined reach of around 200 million.

This, in any case, wont help stop the spreading of fake news, or misinformation for political propaganda. It takes just a couple of minutes to create a new account on any social media platform, a few hours to get a new mobile connection, and thanks to companies that help build follower bases or buy likes, its just a matter of how much money political parties are willing to spend.

As Reuters reported, fake news still thrives on social media.

Now, why cant social media entities control the spread of fake news? The answer to above question is simple: no social media platform can kill generation of fake news.

What are the lawmakers doing?

On March 6, a parliamentary panel asked Facebook, along with WhatsApp and Instagram, to do more to curb fake news, followed by microblogging site Twitter. On March 10, ECI said that social media entities will have to follow the model code of conduct and its rules on political advertisements. Social media entities agreed to co-operate and form special task forces to act faster in order to comply fully. However, they have their limitations. They are primarily dependent on technology that determines users behaviour and if posts are in compliance or not.

Now, that does not solve the whole issue. In any case, social media has emerged as the best tool to reach the young generation because of the very way it functions. Considering that there will be around 84 million Indians who will vote for the first time in this election, it is very natural that political parties use social media as an important instrument before they cast their votes.

Young voters have access to cheap mobile Internet, and seek information on social media. In the 2014 general elections, too, social media played a big role despite the limited reach of social media platforms and when data was more expensive. Yet, social media was a crucial instrument to effectively reach those 150 million Indians who voted for the first time in 2014.

In the past five years, all social media companies have multiplied their reach. Thus, the wide use of social media is natural for political parties. Social media, however, comes with its vices including the scope of spreading fake news, or misinformation that could potentially mislead voters, lead to situations like riots and lynching, among others.

Political parties have been using this quite efficiently. Time reported in January on how the ruling BJP has been using its volunteers to spread fake news using WhatsApp. Besides, there are promoted trends, promoted posts and promoted accounts use of Bollywood celebrities for promotions for a fee, or consulting firms such as Cambridge Analytica, which allegedly masterminded political machines, backed by social media and other tools, in the previous general elections.

The very reason why Indias fake news problem wont go is because Indias lawmakers have a wrong approach to tackle fake news. The problem of Indias fake news isnt social media platforms, it is the political parties. This can only be addressed when these parties are under scrutiny and they follow self-compliance, which seems a distant dream.
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The bidding process for Jet Airways has been set back, and will now start on April 8, when banks open up expression of interests for suitors. The last day for submission of EoIs is April 10.

Earlier, the process was to open on April 6, with the last day of submission being April 8.

SBI Capital Markets has been mandated to oversee the process. The lenders are led by State Bank of India. Jet Airways has a debt of over Rs 8,000 crore.

A speedy completion of the process is crucial for the airline, which is down to operating 26 aircraft, from 119 earlier. It has now deferred salary for all its employees. Till date, the airline had deferred paying salaries to pilots, engineers and senior management.

Apart from Etihad Airways, which holds 24 percent stake in Jet Airways, Tata Sons, a group of private equity majors and the NIIF, India's sovereign wealth fund, are expected to be among the interested bidders.

Etihad's Senior Adviser Cramer Ball, who is also former CEO of Jet Airways, was in Mumbai last week to meet SBI officials. He is expected to fly down again on April 8 to continue negotiations.

The bidding signifies a change in the stance of lenders, who were earlier expected to transfer Rs 1,500 crore to the airline as an emergency funding. But instead, about Rs 150 crore has been given to the airline, sources told Moneycontrol.

EoI details

According to the EoI document that was published on Monday, the lenders will sell up to 75 percent stake in Jet Airways.

The whole process has been divided into two - the EoI stage, in which the expression of interests will be submitted and out these, the lenders will select the 'qualified bidders.'

The second stage is the bid stage, in which bids will be submitted and a successful one will be selected. The binding bids will have to be sent by April 30.

A strategic investor, who should have three years of experience in the industry, will need to have a net worth of at least Rs 1,000 crore, and would have at least another Rs 1,000 crore of funds. A financial investor, on the other hand, needs to have net worth of Rs 2,000 crore, and funds of Rs 1,000 crore.

If the bidder is a consortium, it should have not more than three members.

The guidelines don't require sovereign funds to submit an EoI, but they can directly go into the bid stage.
Carlos Ghosn

Nissan shareholders voted on April 8 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.

Ghosn's rearrest on April 4 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 on April 9 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.
Aditya Birla Health Insurance has tied up with foreign bank Citibank to sell its products to the bank's customer base.

The collaboration aims at combining synergies to enhance the reach of health-based protection solutions to Citibanks consumer client segments, the insurer said in a statement.

Mayank Bathwal, CEO - Aditya Birla Health Insurance said, This collaboration is a further step towards strengthening distribution reach of Aditya Birla Health to cater relevant health protection solutions to the Citibank clients.

This will be a corporate agency partnership. Aditya Birla Health is an arm of Aditya Birla Capital.

Through this tie-up, the health insurer will market its retail products along with the add-on services like health returns (that gives reward points for staying fit) and chronic management program to suit the needs of Citibank customers.

Sharad Mohan, Head Retail Bank-Citibank said, With this partnership we will be able to offer a larger product suite for our clients to choose from.

Aditya Birla Health Insurance is a joint venture between Aditya Birla Group and MMI Holdings of South Africa.

The insurer collected a gross premium income of Rs 315.5 crore in nine months of FY19. It has nation-wide distribution presence in over 650 cities through branches and partner offices, as well as nine bancassurance partners. Aditya Birla Health also has more than 17,100 direct selling agents.
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S&P BSE Sensex fell by 341 points from its intraday high of 39,041 as investors preferred to book profits ahead of earnings. Valuation premium and the recent surge in crude oil prices also put investors on the sidelines.

Crude oil prices are trading at a 5-month high driven upwards by OPECs ongoing supply cuts, US sanctions against Iran and Venezuela, fighting in Libya as well as strong US jobs data, said a Reuters report. Brent Crude has rallied over 30 percent in 2019.

There was a feeling among the participants that markets fell after ruling BJP released its manifesto for the general elections, but experts feel that wasnt the case.

BJP manifesto touched upon doubling farmers income by 2022. The government also announced pension for small and marginal farmers on reaching 60 years of age. It was largely on predicted lines.

The BJP manifesto was very clear in term of the development work which the government is likely to undertake in the next five years. I personally feel that the manifesto was predictable but the large part of the correction was largely on account of profit booking as Nifty valuations have surged to P/E of 29x. Hence, investors can use rallies to book profits, Ritesh Ashar - Chief Strategy Officer - KIFS Trade Capital told Moneycontrol.

Crude oil is something which is a worry but probably not now. I think we have provisions in place and we can digest it up to $75/bbl. However, it will be a cause of concern when crude starts trading at $80/bbl, he said.

In terms of sectors, the IT sector was the top gainer on account of a weak rupee. The rally was led by NIIT, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, and TCS.

On the other hand, profit booking was seen in realty, oil & gas, and metal stocks.

The S&P BSE Mid-cap index slipped 0.72 percent while the S&P BSE Smallcap index closed 0.39 percent lower.

Stocks in news:

OMC remained in focus as Brent crude traded at a 5-month high. This had caused stocks like IOC, BPCL, and HPCL to bleed. HPCL was down 3.9 percent, followed by IOC that fell 3.8 percent, and BPCL closed 1.9 percent lower.

NIIT and NIIT Tech:

NIIT Technologies lost over 3 percent and NIIT rose nearly 20 percent after Baring Private Equity Asia acquired 30 percent stake from promoters including NIIT and announced an open offer for another 26 percent stake.

Shares of Torrent Pharmaceuticals fell nearly 3 percent after the company received certain observations from USFDA.

Kernex Microsystems (India) added 5 percent even as the company received show cause notice from Directorate General of GST Intelligence Hyderabad Zonal Unit.

Global Update:

Asian markets ended mixed as Shanghai Composite fell to 3,244.8, while Hang Seng ended up 0.32 percent at 30,077.15.

Nikkei shed 0.21 perecnt at 21,761.65, while Kospi ended marginally higher at 2,210.60

European markets are trading marginally lower ahead US earnings season.
The Nifty50 is expected to open flat on Monday tracking muted trend seen in other Asian markets. The index closed 67 points higher at 11,665 on Friday.

Trends on SGX Nifty indicate a flat to positive opening for the broader index in India, a rise of 1.5 points or 0.01 percent. Nifty futures were trading around 11,774-level on the Singaporean Exchange.

US stocks rose on Friday, boosted by better-than-expected job growth in March, which eased concerns of an economic slowdown that have periodically roiled financial markets over the past year, said a Reuters report.

Asian shares edged higher on Monday as investors cheered a much-needed rebound in US payrolls, while looking forward to more policy stimulus in China, it said.

The rupee skidded 6 paise to finish at 69.23 per US dollar Friday, largely owing to increasing demand for the greenback from importers.

Stocks in news:

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said it has not yet approved a merger proposal of private-sector lender Lakshmi Vilas Bank Ltd and Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd. The companies had said in a filing on Friday that they will merge operations in a share-swap deal.

Funds affiliated with Baring Private Equity Asia (BPEA) will buy about 30 percent stake in mid-sized IT services firm NIIT Technologies from NIIT Ltd and other promoter entities for about Rs 2,627 crore, as per a regulatory filing.

Future Consumer said it plans to raise Rs 350 crore from existing investors - International Finance Corporation, Verlinvest and promoters to fund expansion plans.

Technical Recommendations:

We spoke to Angel Broking and heres what they have to recommend:

UltraTech Cement: Buy| LTP: Rs 4190| Target: Rs 4610| Stop Loss: Rs 3975| Upside 10%

TATA Steel: Buy| LTP: Rs 549| Target: Rs 590| Stop Loss: Rs 526| Upside 7%
Ananya Roy When King Tigranes II was informed of the march of conqueror Lucullus towards his kingdom, he cut off the messengers head. This was one of the earliest instances of shooting the messenger  blaming the conveyor of bad news when the news is in no way his fault. When its the other way around, that is when we shoot the message simply because of it being borne by a perceived adversary, it is reactive devaluation. The pitfalls of reactive devaluation When...
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Highlights:



- Lakshmi Vilas Bank to merge with Indiabulls Housing Finance in a share swap deal- It essentially means that Indiabulls Housing is making a bid for a bank licence- The share swap ratio implies significant premium to LVBs last traded price- However, merger deal is contingent on RBIs approval- Stocks of both entities will remain volatile till regulatory clarity emerges; utilise the rally to exit

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In a surprise move, the board of Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB), a Tamil Nadu-based old private sector bank, approved a merger with Indiabulls Housing Finance (IBHF), the fourth largest housing finance company (HFC) in the country on April 5.

The share swap ratio has been fixed at 1:014, which implies that shareholders of LVB will be entitled to 14 shares of IBHF for every 100 shares of LVB. The ratio indicates a premium of around 35 percent (or price of Rs 125 per share) to LVBs April 5 closing price of Rs 93 per share. However, the transaction will need approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and other regulatory authorities: National Housing Bank (NHB) and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

There have been instances of merger between a bank and non- banking financial company (NBFC) in the past. The latest one being the merger of GRUH Finance with Bandhan Bank. Earlier instances include a merger of IDFC Bank and Capital First and acquisition of Bharat Financial Inclusion by IndusInd Bank.

The deal between LVB and IBHF, however, is unique in a sense that it is not just a proposed merger announcement, but IBHF is essentially making a bid for a banking licence. This brings us to the moot question: will the merger and consequently a banking licence to IBHF get RBIs approval?

IBHF is largely in compliance with the RBIs August 2016 guidelines for on tap licensing of universal banks in the private sector. For instance, RBIs guidelines require that non-financial businesses of the group seeking a banking licence should not account for more than 40 percent of total assets or gross income.

Indiabulls more than satisfies this, as its real estate and other ventures dont account for more than 15-20 percent of the groups revenue. That said, there is an element of subjectivity in handing out banking licences by RBI, which adds a great deal of uncertainty to the deal. RBIs intent to entrust banking licence only to groups with very high probity will as much drive its decision as an urge to extend a helping hand to a struggling weak bank.

The banking regulator has quickly made it clear that the merger announcement does not have its approval at this stage. It also clarified that the presence of additional directors nominated by RBI to the board of LVB does not imply any approval by it to the merger proposal. The additional directors have clearly mentioned at the board meeting that they have no view on the proposal. RBI will examine the proposals as and when it receives the same from LVB and IBHF.

While it is difficult to pre-empt the regulators response, lets take a closer look at the contours of the deal, factors driving the move and implication for investors.

LVB had been reeling under the pressure of rising non-performing assets (gross NPAs) and dearth of adequate regulatory capital. It reported a loss of Rs 630 crore in the first nine months of FY19. Its capital adequacy ratio dropped to 7.57 percent and GNPA ratio surged to 13.95 percent at the end of December 2018. While the bank managed to raise Rs 460 crore through a qualified institutional placement (QIP) a few months back, it needed more capital to avoid a regulatory breach and falling under the Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework of RBI. The financial turmoil made it scout for a possible suitor and found one in IBHF.

As far as IBHF is concerned, it had tried earlier too, but failed to secure a banking licence from RBI in 2013.

The business models of NBFCs/HFCs have inherent limitation on growth in the absence of a stable liability franchise. This fact got further highlighted during the liquidity crisis that engulfed the NBFC sector since September last year. In the aftermath of the liquidity crisis, IBHF pared down its loan growth target and resorted to aggressive selling of its loan portfolio to manage liquidity.

By merging LVB with itself, IBHF is attempting a backdoor entry into the banking sector, which will provide it stable low-cost funding in the form of public deposits and an expanded distribution franchise.

The merger if approved would create one of largest private bank (within top 8) in the country, with 800 branches and loan book of around Rs 1,20,000 crore.

Promoters stake/holding in IBHF will reduce from the current 21.5 percent to 19.5 percent on completion of the merger. The promoter also expressed willingness to further pare down the stake to 15 percent before the implementation of merger to comply with RBIs new bank licencing requirement.

While the share swap ratio announced implies a premium of around 35 to LVBs April 5 closing price, the upside in the stock hinges on a merger approval.

Both stocks -- LVB and IBHF -- has seen a strong rally in the past couple of months. IBHF shares have jumped around 35 percent, while those of LVB have risen 60 percent.

Uncertainty relating to approval will cause volatility in the stock prices of both LVB as well as IBHF. The merger ratio values LVBs weak franchise at around Rs 125 per share which is trailing price-to-trailing book value (P/BV) of slightly over two times and significantly (more than 35 percent) above its April 5 market price of Rs 93. Investors in LVB should exercise caution and utilise the stock rally to exit the counter.

Even if we assume that the proposed merger sails through, the benefits of same will accrue only in the longer term. At its April 5 market price of Rs 900 per share, IBHF is trading around 2.2 times its estimated FY20 diluted book value.

Though the merger can improve the long-term growth prospects of IBHF, its return on equity (RoE) will fall to below 20 percent in the near term from above 25 percent. Hence, existing investors in IBHF should look to book gains and prospective investors should wait for more clarity from the regulator before investing in the stock.

Follow @nehadave01

For more research articles, visit our Moneycontrol Research page

Moneycontrol Research analysts do not hold positions in the companies discussed here
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Baring PE on April 5 announced the acquisition of a 30 percent stake in NIIT Technologies (NIIT). Experts believe this opens up the possibility of the PE firm considering a merger of NIIT with Hexaware, another Mumbai-based mid-cap IT company in which it owns a majority stake. A merger would prove beneficial for both the companies, experts said.

Baring is now looking to raise its stake in NIIT to 56 percent via an open offer for another 26 percent shares. The total offer on the table is Rs 4,890 crore at Rs 1,394 per share.

Though Rajendra S Pawar, Chairman, NIIT Technologies in a recent media interaction said Baring will not merge the entities for the next two years, the merger could benefit both the companies, say industry players.

In all probability, NIIT Tech will be merged with Hexaware, and the combined entity will have close to a billion dollars in revenue. There are customer synergies, and large deals require you to show a strong balance sheet, said Kris Lakshmikanth, CEO, Head Hunters India, an IT staffing firm, in a recent report.

NIIT reported a net profit of Rs 100 crore on a revenue of Rs 971.7 crore for the December 2018 quarter. Hexaware's net profit was 123.4 crore for the same quarter on revenue of Rs 1,252 crore.

For instance, NIIT has focused a lot on the travel vertical in recent times whereas Hexaware is strong in the BFSI vertical. While NIIT has a strong presence in Europe, the Middle East and Africa with revenue accounting close to 35 percent, Hexaware is strong is Americas at 76 percent.

Yugal Joshi, Vice President, Everest Group, a management consultancy firm said, both are small vendors and will benefit from this combination given the portfolio are complementary.

Both providers have aspired to build infrastructure services capabilities, but have struggled. My sense is that this is an area which Baring would need to focus on, he added.

In the last couple of years, NIIT changed its strategy to focus on digital and only on three verticals - banking and financial services, insurance and travel and transportation.

The company also made significant additions at the top and these officials will be based at client locations.

Arvind Thakur, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, NIIT, said in a recent interaction with Moneycontrol that digital has become a significant portion of the business and the company reorganised its structure to focus on digital experience, analytics, cloud and digital integration.

It is also now looking at new emerging technologies, particularly around artificial intelligence and blockchain.

Joshi said Baring would have to further these capabilities in NIIT to position it as a niche provider for these industry verticals.

As the rein of the company changes hands, there are new challenges as well. Joshi said, Promoter-owned companies where they play significant operational roles have their own culture, which may not sustain in the rapidly disrupting world today.

Baring would need to further enhance professional approach of NIITs go-to-market strategy solution development, and leveraging external advice to drive transformation, he added.
By Shi Yinglun, Xinhua | Apr. 05, 2019

Sri Lanka's national air carrier, Sri Lankan Airlines, on Friday said it had formulated a five-year strategic business plan to transform the island country into a strategic hub for air travel and air cargo in the Asia-Africa-Middle East region.

The plan will be implemented this year and will be carried out till 2024.

Vipula Gunatilleka, CEO of Sri Lankan Airlines said that it was important for the airline to have a sound strategy plan and a clear vision for it to become a financial viable entity.

A key aspect of the Strategic Business Plan includes developing a route network to match customer demand and market opportunities, including new destinations in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, the Far East and Australia.

The airline will also focus on selecting a fleet that is cost effective and best matches the requirements of the route network, adopting best practices to improve productivity and growing online sales to reach a wider market in a more cost effective manner.

Digital transformation and technology adoption to transform processes across the Airline have also been identified as top priorities.

Sri Lankan Airlines has in recent years been facing high debts and has been searching for an international investor to run the carrier on a private public partnership.

In 2017, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had said the airline had recorded a massive debt of 3.25 billion U.S. dollars and the government would take over part of its debts in order to seek for an international partner or investor.
Samsung Electronics would further consolidate its lead in the LED TV segment, helped by India-specific innovations and by providing affordable finance solutions to its consumers, said a company official.

Samsung is witnessing "strong momentum" in sales of smart TVs in metros, tier II, III and IV cities helped by factors such as low priced data, good internet speed and low priced OTT (over the top) content.

The company would continue to invest to add advanced features as IoT (internet of things) and AI (Artificial Intelligence) in the segment.

"Overall, we continue to be the largest brand with share of 30 per cent in the TV segment. Our intent it to consolidate our overall market leadership," Samsung India Consumer Electronics Senior Vice President Raju Pullan told PTI

Samsung is growing over 60 per cent in the 32-inch screen size LED TV segment, which is considered to be mainstay of the industry.

"The TV industry is growing only 22 per cent in 32-inch category," he said adding that in the UHD segment, the company's market share is 35 per cent and in QLED 63 per cent.

According to him, now the consumers are upgrading their existing TVs to smart TVs. In metros and tier II markets, people are going for a higher screen size.

While in tier III and IV markets, the growth rate of smart TV segment is higher because of low penetration of smart TVs compared with the developed metro markets.

"We are seeing a strong momentum because of two strategies -- to give the right consumer benefits and affordability with the help of financial institutions," he added.

When asked about the competition with other companies which are offering competitive prices at the entry level segment, Pullan said Samsung would compete with its full range.

"We would be price warrior and size warrior... We have seen many brands around us in last couple of years but holistically we are a brand which would be across price points," he said.

According to him, the penetration of TV in the Indian household is 60 per cent and most of them are not smart TVs.

The company Monday introduced its latest range of smart TVs which can be used as personal computer, music system and home cloud.

Samsung range of new smart TVs starts from Rs 24,900 for 32-inch and is available across screen sizes up to 82-inch.
Shares of oil marketing companies are trading lower by 1-4 percent intraday Monday after oil prices rose to their 5 months high.

Oil prices rose to their highest level since November 2018 driven upwards by OPEC's ongoing supply cuts, US sanctions against Iran and Venezuela, fighting in Libya as well as strong US jobs data, said Reuters.

Brent crude oil prices crossed USD 70 per barrel mark, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude price also trading higher at USD 63.45 per barrel.

Benchmark indices are trading at day's low with Nifty breached 11,600 level.

At 14:14 hrs IST, the Sensex is down 224.02 points at 38638.21, while Nifty is down 78.70 points at 11,587.30.

At 14:07 hrs Hindustan Petroleum Corporation was quoting at Rs 253.55, down 3.74 percent, Bharat Petroleum Corporation was quoting at Rs 352.45, down 1.59 percent and Indian Oil Corporation was quoting at Rs 153.70, down 2.81 percent on the BSE.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling alliance will be just a few seats short of a majority in parliament, bolstered by a rise in nationalist sentiment over hostilities with arch-foe Pakistan, a survey showed on Monday, days before voting begins.

About 900 million people are eligible to vote in the election starting on Thursday, in which Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party-led group is taking on the Congress and its allies and a clutch of regional parties.

The election had become tighter because of discontent in the countryside over a weak rural economy and lack of jobs for young people. But over the last month, support for Modi's Hindu nationalist party has grown following a spike in tension with Pakistan, the polls say.

The BJP and its allies are expected to win 267 of the 543 parliament seats at stake, the CVoter polling agency said, just five short of the halfway mark required to rule.

The latest estimate is down sharply from the alliance's current tally of 330 seats secured when Modi swept to power in 2014, promising to transform Asia's third-largest economy.

Modi ordered air strikes in February on the suspected camp of a militant group based in Pakistan that had claimed responsibility for a deadly car bombing in disputed Kashmir, dramatically ratcheting up tension with the neighbouring nation.

Pakistan sent war planes into Indian Kashmir the next day and the two nuclear-armed foes engaged in their first air duel in decades.

"In the immediate aftermath of the Balakot strikes the percentage of those strongly satisfied with the government rose to a recent all-time high of 52 percent," CVoter said, referring to the raid in Pakistan's Balakot area.

A second poll by India TV-CNX pre-poll said Modi's alliance would clear the halfway mark, winning 275 seats.

Modi has made his strong stance on national security a key part of the BJP's election campaign.

On Monday, the party said it would scrap decades-old special rights for the people of Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir so as to integrate the state more closely with the rest of the country, a move the party's base has long sought.

Political leaders in Muslim-majority Kashmir, where India is battling an armed insurgency against its rule, have warned that repealing the law could trigger unrest.

Kashmir's special constitutional status prevents outsiders from buying property in the state, among other restrictions.
In an apparent attempt to reach out to Muslims in the country, Home Minister Rajnath Singh Monday said the BJP does not discriminate against anyone on the basis of religion. Singh made the remark days ahead of the first phase of the Lok Sabha polls on April 11 when several Muslim dominated constituencies in the western Uttar Pradesh besides those in Jammu and Kashmir and West Bengal go to polls.

"We do not discriminate against anyone on the basis of (one being a) Hindu or Muslim. For us, all Indian citizens are equal," he said, addressing an election rally here.

The home minister also said the NDA government's policy has been for 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas (Collective Efforts and Inclusive Growth)' and it wants to take along people of all religion in the development process.

Singh also said Kashmiris living anywhere in the country will be given full protection by the government as well as the BJP.

He said advisories have been sent to all state governments to provide security to Kashmiri students and youths living in different parts of the country.

"Kashmiris are also the children of mother India," he said.

Singh also said BJP workers have been told to provide all kinds of help to any Kashmiri who needs help.
Here are the stocks that are in news today:

Results on April 8: Delta Corp, Hathway Bhawani Cabletel

Sun Pharma launches ready-to-infuse INFUGEM in the US

Future Consumer: Board approved issuing of up to $10 million worth Compulsorily Convertible Debentures to Verlinvest SA, and Rs 250 crore worth to International Finance Corporation on a preferential basis. The board also approved issuing of warrants to promoter/promoter group entities, for an amount of Rs 70 crore on a preferential basis.

NIIT Technologies: Hulst BV along with the Baring Asia Private Equity Fund VII announced an open offer for acquisition of up to 1.62 crore equity shares (representing 26 percent of paid-up equity) from public shareholders of the company, at a price of Rs 1,394 per share, an aggregating total of Rs 2,262.34 crore. It is after Hulst & Baring acquired 30.20 percent stake in the company from NIIT Limited and company's promoters on April 6.

Lakshmi Vilas Bank: Bank approved the merger with Indiabulls Housing Finance.

Century Textiles: Company launched real estate project viz. Birla Vanya near Kalyan, Maharashtra.

Vanta Bioscience: Company through its subsidiary, Vayam Research Solutions, signs CRO Service Agreement of Rs 29 crore with Emcure Pharmaceuticals.

GE Power India: Company appointed Prashant Jain as Additional Director and Managing Director.

CARE reaffirmed CARE AAA Stable rating to the Mahindra and Mahindra's long term bank facilities

The advances aggregated to approximately Rs 8,195 billion as of March 31, 2019 against Rs 6,583 billion as of March 31, 2018The Banks deposits aggregated to approximately Rs 9,230 billion against Rs 7,888 billion as of March 31, 2018 a

Its CASA ratio stood at around 42% as compared to 43.5%

HPL Electric: Company issued Commercial Papers of Rs 150 crore.

Infosys opens new Infosys in Baden, Switzerland

RBL Bank board meeting on April 18 to consider Q4 results, fund raising and to recommend dividend

Brickwork Ratings India has reaffirmed the rating on JSW Energy's commercial paper issue at BWR A1+

Muthoot Finance: Company declared an interim dividend for FY 2019 at the rate of Rs 12 per equity share.

Kernex Microsystems (India): Company received a Show Cause Notice from Directorate General of GST Intelligence Hyderabad Zonal Unit.

Eris Lifesciences: Company executed a share purchase agreement with one of the founders and promoters to take full ownership of the subsidiary.

India Nippon Electricals: Company declared the second interim dividend at Rs 4 per equity share for the year 2018-19.

Torrent Pharma: Company's Dahej plant receives certain observations from USFDA.

Khaitan India: Company appointed Swapan Kumar Das as the chief financial officer (CFO).

Lumax Industries: Company acquired assets for manufacturing of PCBs for Rs 22.45 crore from Lumax Auto Technologies.

Sagar Cements' consolidated March cement sales up 7.76 percent at 3,36,341MT

Reliance Infrastructure: Company appointed Punit Garg as executive director and chief executive officer (CEO).

United Nilgiri Tea Estates: Company's director N. Srinivasan resigned.

Cadila Healthcare: Zydus received tentative approval from the USFDA for Tofacitinib tablets.

Garware Polyester appoints Parag Doshi as the CFO with effect from April 5

Edelweiss Financial Services: ICRA re-affirmed A1+ rating to the commercial paper programme of Rs 6,350 crore and short-term NCDs of Rs 100 crore. It also re-affirmed the credit rating of AA to the NCDs of Rs 466 crore.

Texmaco Rail & Engineering: NCLT approved scheme amalgamation of Texmaco Hitech, Bright Power projects with the company

Bank of Baroda: Post amalgamation of Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank with BoB, the Government of India's stake increased to 65.37 percent

Vishal Fabrics' CFO Mahesh Chandra Kawat resigned

Setco Automotive board meet on April 10 to consider offer by Lingotes Especiales S.S. for sale of its entire stake in companys subsidiary Lava Cast

JSW Steel: Fitch Ratings assigned BB(EXP) ratings to companys proposed issue of the US dollar senior notes, while Moodys has assigned Ba2 rating

Analyst or Board Meet/Briefings

Hathway Cable & Datacom: Company will announce its March quarter earnings on April 15.

: Company will announce its March quarter earnings on April 15.
Moneycontrol Contributors

In the early decades of its inception, the state-run media platform Doordarshan dispensed, if not slanted then, sanitised news. However the news streaming scenario has experienced a dramatic upheaval in the recent years not just in India but the world over. As a piece on thoughtco pointed out in January 2019, and as writer Tom Murse said, the use of social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, in politics has dramatically changed the way campaigns are run and how citizens interact with their elected officials and politics. We saw the power of social media and the fake news therein, in the American presidential elections and the Brexit vote. Social media have been used by political parties as both a tool of empowerment and oppression, but the latter has tended to trump the former. From Bolsonaro's WhatsApp campaigns to influence voters in Brazil to the Philippines' President Rodrigo Duterte's use of Facebook and troll armies, we have seen the rise and expansion of social media and its many tools to derail democracy.

Indian elections - the biggest democratic spectacle in the world with about 900 million eligible voters - are a fertile ground for the explosion of social media. We saw it happen in 2014, and we are seeing it happen again - deeper and grander - in 2019. Facebooks announcement earlier in the week that it had taken down hundreds of pages linked to the Congress and the BJP has cast the spotlight yet again on the onslaught of disinformation permeating what has become the primary battleground in the world's largest general election. Major international news outlets have already dubbed this the WhatsApp election. The rise in 4G connectivity, the explosion in smartphone ownership, and the expansion of internet access the country have made communicating with the electorate at an intimate level easier, but with it have also come the perils of such communication - fake news and unchecked propaganda. One post that went viral on social media had BJP head Amit Shah saying, "We agree that for election, we need a war." That post, intended to showcase the BJP as a warmongering party, was seen by 2.5 million viewers and shared several thousand times before being taken down. It was proven to be a fake. Another post which went viral on WhatsApp intended to showcase the Congress as soft on militancy, and claimed that a party leader had promised money to free terrorists and stonepelters. That was proven to be false as well. And by the time the truth catches up limping and gasping, the lie would have circled the earth many time over.

How social media and messaging platforms affect the choice India makes this summer is the subject of this edition of Decoding 2019 with me Rakesh Sharma on Moneycontrol.

The immediacy factor

We saw a hint of things to come in 2014. Bypassing the unspoken media embargo that had been placed on him by conventional media houses thanks to his alleged involvement in the Gujarat riots of 2002, then prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, with the marketing genius of advertising heavyweights such as Madison World, McCaan Group, Ogilvy and Mather, and a corpus of a hundred million dollars, spoke directly to millions of voters through social media. "Brand Modi" was aired into homes and minds not through traditional media, but through social media - Facebook, YouTube, Twitter. Traditional media followed soon after, but the primacy of social media in that campaign should give us an indication of just how strong this medium has become.

After coming to power, the affiliation of the BJP with social media did not end. If anything, it grew. The IT Cell and its supporting sites labelled anyone who had anything uncomplimentary to say about the policies of the party "anti-national" or "sickular" or "Libtard" or "presstitute." Memetic warfare became the norm in Indian polity; hashtags became the weaponry. It was all political theatre played out on the soundstage of social media. If in the process blood was shed, you could be certain it was not fake, even if the "news" was. The INC is no stranger to these tactics either. Even though it was a Johnny-come-lately in the war waged on social media, the arrows in its quiver are shaped much the same. Memes, hashtags, and their own troll army used humour and abuse alike to berate the prime minister and his supporters, to say nothing of the attempts at peddling its own Janaardhan-tanik-der-se brand of "soft Hindutva."

Neither party comes out of this clean. In the unending cycle of punch-counterpunch and propaganda-counterpropaganda, both parties (and their alliances) are responsible for the negativity that permeates any discourse, and both parties are responsible for the normalisation of hate speech online. But the adoption of similar strategies by both the factions tells you one thing - the power of the platform they are deploying these strategies on.

On the one hand, the prevalence of social media in politics has made elected officials and candidates for public office more accountable and accessible to voters but on the other hand, the ability to publish content and broadcast it to millions of people instantaneously allows campaigns to carefully manage their candidates images - real or fake - based on rich sets of analytics in real time and at almost no cost.

The thoughtco piece says, "Social media tools including Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube allow politicians to speak directly to voters without spending a dime. Using those social media allows politicians to circumvent the traditional method of reaching voters through paid advertising or earned media. It has become fairly common for political campaigns to produce commercials and publish them for free on YouTube instead of, or in addition to, paying for time on television or the radio. Often times, journalists covering campaigns will write about those YouTube ads, essentially broadcasting their message to a wider audience at no cost to the politicians. Twitter and Facebook have become instrumental in organizing campaigns. They allow like-minded voters and activists to easily share news and information such as campaign events with each other. That's what the "Share" function on Facebook and "retweet" feature of Twitter are for."

Tools like hashtags are used by political parties for multiple purposes. To label rivals with disparaging monikers. To reiterate a point they want ingrained in the minds of citizens. Nobody has used Twitter more extensively than the US President Donald Trump who has often taken on other countries, leaders, journalists, late night comedy shows, actors and even global warming, to establish a rapport with his base and to show his followers that he is his own man and will peddle his own ignorance with complete arrogance because he can do it, just the way they expect him to. And social media have enabled him to. They have, after all, until recently claimed they are merely content aggregators and not curators.

As the piece says, Donald Trump used Twitter heavily in his 2016 presidential campaign and with signature "stable genius" style, he said using his "best words," "I like it because I can get also my point of view out there, and my point of view is very important to a lot of people that are looking at me."

The freedom to tailor content

Social media offers unlimited freedom to dispense messaging convenient to political parties and they don't do so randomly. As the piece says, "political campaigns can tap into a wealth of information or analytics about the people who are following them on social media, and customize their messages based on selected demographics. In other words, a campaign may find one message appropriate for voters under 30 years old will not be as effective with over 60 years old."

Yes, what you consume is methodically cooked and seasoned.

But social media can serve many purposes. It is not just an effective tool for candidates backed by an endless stream of money but those without financial backing, especially candidates who want to involve their voting base in the campaigning process through crowd funding as was the case with Kanhaiya Kumar recently whose site was incidentally hacked even though it had raised a considerable amount of money.

What social media intervention does most effectively and frighteningly is to take focus away from reality to perception and to create a glut of multiple, colliding viewpoints where it is hard to sift the truth from propaganda. On an earlier podcast, we spoke about lynchings in India triggered by Whatsapp forwards and how spurious messaging resulted in a pizzeria shooting in the US ("pizzagate"), and the smearing of gun violence victims as crisis actors, just to drive home the point that fake news and political intent are often inter-linked. The vitriol directed towards journalists like Rana Ayyub and the murder attempt made against student leader Umar Khalid, labelled as an anti -national shows disturbing trends that need to be studied closely. In the US, we saw one agitated citizen who had stockpiled weapons and ammunition hoping to gun down several prominent senators, journalists, and newscasters, based on what the relentless fake news machinery had fed him.

As the piece says, "Direct access to voters also has its downside. Handlers and public-relations professionals often manage a candidates image. Many campaigns hire staffers to monitor their social media channels for a negative response and scrub anything unflattering. But such a bunker-like mentality can make a campaign appear defensive and closed off from the public."

The Facebook family's hold on Indian eyeballs

In India, the usage of these platforms cannot be over-emphasised. The Facebook family of platforms - Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram - accounts for 95% of social or communication app usage in the country. Sangeeta Mahapatra, visiting fellow, Institute of Asian Studies, German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, who closely watches social media trends and politics, says, "If one reads Statista figures along with that of Hootsuite, one finds that around 97 percent of smartphone owners in India use mobile apps, out of which 96 percent use WhatsApp.

Facebook and Twitter have taken several steps to make sure their platforms are not abused. WhatsApp is apparently using artificial intelligence to detect and ban accounts that spread "problematic content," while Facebook is labeling political advertisements and partnering with Indian fact-checkers. We also mentioned earlier that hundreds of pages have been taken down by Facebook. Twitter has announced initiatives to crack down on "bad-faith actors," and is working closely with political parties and election authorities to ensure its platform isn't compromised during the polls. Colin Crowell, Twitter's global public policy head, said in a statement in February, "We deeply respect the integrity of the election process and are committed to providing a service that fosters and facilitates free and open democratic debate," adding that the Indian elections were a top priority for the company.

Social media etiquette and responsibility were also stressed upon by the Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora. Parties will also be required to get political ads on social media pre-approved by the Election Commission and declare how much they have spent on social media advertising. Candidates have also been required to share details of their social media accounts with election authorities. "Facebook, Twitter, Google and YouTube have committed in writing to ensure that any political advertisement published on their platforms will be certified," Arora said.

As for fake news on WhatsApp, especially following the lynchings, and now continuing into the elections, labels on forwarded messages and an awareness campaign on radio, TV, and print media have been instituted. The messaging platform also limited to five the number of chats a single message can be forwarded to. But each WhatsApp group can have up to 256 people, meaning a message can still reach 1,280 people at the touch of a button. As Time reported, "Prime Minister Narendra Modis ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has drawn up plans to have three WhatsApp groups for each of Indias 927,533 polling booths, according to reports. With each group containing a maximum of 256 members, that number of group chats could theoretically reach more than 700 million people out of Indias population of 1.3 billion." Amit Malviya, head of the BJP IT cell, has said, "The upcoming elections will be fought on the mobile phone. In a way, you could say they would be WhatsApp elections." A taste of that was seen in the Karnataka assembly elections when the BJP alone created as many as 23,000-25,000 WhatsApp groups. WhatsApp is a particularly useful tool unlike carpet campaigning because the message forwarded to you is usually by a person you know. This "ecosystem strategy" is one that helps improve legitimacy and build scale.

If each of the 29 states were to have 15,000 WhatsApp groups, the catchment population would be about 110 million citizens. As the ET noted, just over 170 million votes helped deliver the Lok Sabha to the BJP in 2014. Perhaps the BJP, better than any other party, knows this. Misinformation there is rampant, and Whatsapp being encrypted, checking for them that much harder. Take one forward: Wherever you look nowadays you will see only Muslim men and women, it read. 700 million Hindus, 650 million Muslims, As Time magazine noted, in actual fact, 80% of Indians (approximately 1.1 billion) are Hindu, compared to 14% (approximately 188 million) who are Muslim, according to the most recent census in 2011.

How politics in India is shaped by social media

India saw an unprecedented use of social media in the 2014 elections and in the years that followed and it prompted a well-known journalist to coin the word, Whatsapp University which has avidly promoted news of fake awards, fake images passing off as glittering Indian cities, foreign buildings awash in Indian colours but most disturbingly doctored videos and images to spread communal unrest. This has created a slew of fact checking websites but it is easy to see the harm such unverified but compelling content can unleash.

Studies have come up with mindboggling numbers while indicating who spends how much on social media political posturing and it is clear, the focus has shifted from manifestos and report cards of governments in power to perception and image building.

As the piece on thoughtco says, The value of social media is in its immediacy. Politicians and campaigns do absolutely nothing without first knowing how their policy statements or moves will play among the electorate, and Twitter and Facebook both allow them to instantaneously gauge how the public is responding to an issue or controversy. Politicians can then adjust their campaigns accordingly, in real time, without the use of high-priced consultants or expensive polling.

On one hand, social media tools allow citizens to easily join together to petition the government and their elected officials, leveraging their numbers against the influence of powerful lobbyists and monied special interests but on the other, lobbyists and special interest cliques still have the upper hand. His hope is that the day will come when the power of social media allows like-minded citizens to join together in ways that will be just as powerful as those trying to influence them.

A 2017 piece on Digitalvidya by Vikrant Patil posted the findings of a study on  Social Media and Politics and remarked how the success of BJPs online campaign in 2014 Lok Sabha election brought about the biggest change in Indian politics with even regional parties understanding the power of social media.These elections also shifted the focus of parties from rural issues to urban voters because of their familiarity with social media and their ease of connectivity via laptops, desktops or internet powered mobiles.

For sure, parties still spend large sums of money, says the piece, on posters, cut-outs, fliers, graffiti and rallies, but social media is now an indispensable campaigning tool.

If it is used judiciously is the question.

Are social media platforms finally becoming proactive?

The role of social media has come under scanner since Donald Trump's election especially as far as Facebook is concerned and in previous podcasts we have focussed on how Mark Zuckerberg has had to answer questions about the accountability of social media amid rumours of Russian bots manipulating the US elections, and incendiary content that has grown unmonitored under his watch. The live streaming of a mosque attack in Christchurch, New Zealand has shown that if unchecked, social media can be weaponised to do more harm than good. The American election was a perfect example of how polarity can be created through spreading rumours about rivals, creating confusion, and diluting the credibility of far more seasoned political rivals.

Facebook announced in March that it finally intends to ban content that glorifies white nationalism and separatism. "It's clear that these concepts are deeply linked to organized hate groups and have no place on our services," the company said in a statement. This news came after Facebooks extensive discussions with civil society groups and race relations experts over the last three months.

Recently, news broke that Facebook has deleted 712 accounts and 390 pages in India and Pakistan for inauthentic behaviour, many linked to Indias opposition Congress party days before a national election, and others related to Pakistans military.

This came in the wake of increasing vigilance on part of social media giants post criticism that they have allowed their platforms to be abused for political purposes or to spread misinformation.

This happened, as some news reports pointed out, in an environment where all parties, including the ruling party and the prime minister himself and many other leaders continue to use Facebook to send political messages to millions, not to mention the countless unverified pages that run their own toxic campaigns.

Facebook said it had taken down 549 accounts and 138 pages linked to Indias Congress for coordinated inauthentic behaviour.

In a Tweet though, Congress said that none of its official pages or those run by its verified volunteers had been taken down. The party awaits a response from Facebook to provide a list of all pages and accounts which were removed, it said.

While quoting a Facebook statement in this regard, Reuters however reported the bit that did not get much air time in virulent news channels. The fact that Facebook also removed 15 accounts linked to an Indian IT company which, among other things, issued posts on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and alleged misconduct of political opponents including Congress.

Reuters said that the Digital Forensic Research Lab at think tank Atlantic Council, which partnered with Facebook for the review, said the accounts linked to Congress pushed satirical posts, while pro-BJP pages carried vitriolic posts against opposition leaders. The fact that partisans on both sides resorted to such tactics is a troubling feature.

The Reuters report written by Aditya Kalra and Saad Sayeed mentioned the removal of pages connected to Indian IT firm Silver Touch thought to be associated with a mobile app promoted by Modis ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). We quote, After BJPs IT head, Amit Malviya, told Reuters both the party and the app had nothing to do with Silver Touch, Facebook in a new statement said it had seen no evidence to date of Silver Touch being associated with the NaMo App on our platform, referring to the Narendra Modi app.

More to the picture than meets the eye?

A Quartz India report written by Aria Thaker however says there is more to Facebooks purge of Indian political pages than meets the eye.

We quote from piece, The social media sites announcement that it had taken down Indian accounts engaged in coordinated inauthentic behaviour, and the ensuing media coverage, suggested that the development had a lopsided effect on the Indian National Congress. After all, of the over 700 political pages and accounts that Facebook said it had removed, 687 were linked to the main opposition party, while only 15 were associated with Prime Minister Narendra Modis Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Reports, though, say that the number of BJP-linked pages taken down could be over 200, even if not specified directly in Facebooks blog post. Nevertheless, a look beyond the mere number of pages that were affected shows that the removals have been far more damaging for the BJP.

For starters, the 15 pro-BJP pages removed were all linked to Silver Touch, an Ahmedabad-based IT firm that has reportedly developed Modis official app, besides working on several government projects. While Facebook named only one page in this groupThe India Eyeit alone had over 2.5 million followers and was well established, included in every users default news feed in the NaMo app.

The piece cites Ben Nimmo, senior fellow at the Atlantic Councils Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFR Lab), who said and we quote, The pro-BJP campaign was big and long-lasting. It picked up over 2 million followers, and managed to stay below the radar for years. The Congress campaign that was removed, was smaller, and its pages didnt have so much impact individually. It looks like they were trying to build up impact by running lots of micro-pages, rather than one big one.

The piece further says that Twitter chatter indicates that The India Eye isnt the only pro-BJP page to have been removed. Pratik Sinha, co-founder of fact-checking website AltNews, tweeted a list of screenshots of different individuals who manage pro-right wing Facebook pages claiming they had been unpublished.

We quote, Many RW accounts are furious that their FB pages or pages of people they know have been unpublished/deleted. Yet Facebook press release talks about exactly 1 RW page - The India Eye. Why so? Some of these pages are quite notable, including the one belonging to My Nation, a right-wing digital publication of a BJP parliamentarian.

Abhijit Iyer-Mitra, a right-wing defence analyst, claimed hundreds of right-wing accounts had been deleted by Facebook. Other major right-wing influencers initially tweeted along these lines, only to later delete their comments."

Nimmo added further, The big difference was that the INC operation could afford to lose some of its pages without putting a big dent in its overall operation, Nimmo said. The takedown of the pro-BJP pages will have much more impact on the overall operation, because their followings were so much bigger.

A game-changing tool

How game-changing social media content has been can be gauged from a piece published by The Verge which cites a September 2018 BuzzFeed News feature that showed, how in the Philippines, much of the extreme political rhetoric on Facebook props up Philippine President Dutertes authoritarian reign. And how from the very beginning of Dutertes presidential campaign, Facebook was an essential tool for Duterte fans to freely spread coordinated messages on Facebook  especially because, thanks to deals that the company struck with local carriers, Facebook is free to use in the Philippines for anyone who has a smartphone.

The Verge article also points out that Trump spent $3.6 million on Facebook ads from Dec. 30 to March 23, according to data compiled by researchers at the Online Advertising Transparency Project, an ongoing study launched last year at New York University that tracks political ad spending through Facebooks publicly available political ad archive.

The point being that in authoritarian regimes, censorship and control of social media is another way of strengthening political clout as in China where People.cn, the digital arm of the main propaganda outlet for Chinas ruling party makes a lot of money by scrubbing inconvenient content.

And finally...

What needs to be understood finally is how a media tool in the hands of political leaders can hamper dissent and curb democratic voices. Compare the clout of political pages flush with money to the cash strapped journalism of slain writer Gauri Lankesh, who as the The New York Times said in a piece recently, refused to allow advertisements in her newspaper Gauri Lankesh Patrike, which she felt, was necessary to ward off the corruption and outside pressure that often compromise the Indian press.

We quote, Lankesh Patrike ran on subscriptions and newsstand sales, supplemented by a book-publishing sideline. But the papers financial situation had become so dire that she had decided, for the first time, to run ads in a forthcoming special holiday issue.

That day of course did not come because of her untimely demise.

What the piece says though is that it was her political activism and her lively social media presence that had extended her reach far beyond the papers print run. The NYT said, At a time of intense vitriol against the press in India, she was a fearless, sometimes reckless critic of the right-wing, Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, which has held power in India since 2014. Her paper was a tabloid in every sense, gleefully sensational and indifferent to decorum. But the vehemence and humor of her polemics in defense of pluralism and minority rights had made her a beloved figure to an increasingly embattled opposition.

Rollo Romig, the writer of the NYT piece added, By the end of May, national elections will determine if Modi and the BJP are elected to another five years. It is likely to be the ugliest campaign season in Indias history. Hostility toward journalists and opposition figures is intensifying as voting day approaches. The police last year arrested 11 opposition activists and lawyers on what appear to have been flimsy charges of instigating violence at an event in Maharashtra, and in February arrested, on apparently even thinner evidence, the prominent caste scholar Anand Teltumbde. Tensions have further risen since Feb. 14, when a suicide bomber killed 40 Indian soldiers in Kashmir, setting off a series of skirmishes with Pakistan that are likely to politically benefit the BJP.

If you think The New York Times (and me) are taking shots only at the BJP, you could not be more wrong, as the piece does not absolve the Congress Party either and points out how, despite a generally secular politics and social democratic demeanour, it has undoubtedly been guilty at times of suppressing the press and of condoning the mass slaughter of religious minorities. We can add the crackdown on the press during Emergency to that list.

But perhaps it is the age of social media that has made it easy for hate rhetoric to spread faster than it ever has.

As the piece points, in this rhetoric, being Indian is equated with being Hindu, and religious minorities are spoken of as if they were foreigners. Critics are branded as anti-national. Advocates of a secular Indian state  which the Indian constitution calls for in its very first sentence  are called sickulars.

What Gauri Lankeshs demise has established though is that in the end, the accountability to sift fact from fiction, justice from injustice, truth from accountability does not just lie with the press, media platforms, politicians or social media entities.

It lies with the citizens who must in the end choose their version of India through their votes because their volition finally is the most powerful democratic tool. One that can set the tone for how democracy fares in the years to come. And much of how they decide, and much of what they are told they need, have come thanks to little apps on their smartphones. How smart a choice that leads people to make, is anyone's guess.
(From left) Sheikh Abdullah, Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah

After India won independence from the British, the main objective of the Jawaharlal Nehru-led government was to consolidate all princely states into the Union of India.

Of all the states, the toughest was Jammu and Kashmir, in not so much as the accession as the aftermath. The conflict over the accession of the state has been hanging like the Damocles sword over every government that has come to power at the Centre.

To mention Jammu and Kashmir and not talk about the Abdullahs is impossible. It was Sheikh Abdullah, pioneer of minority rights activism in the state, who played an imminent role in the accession of Kashmir into India.

The Abdullahs are spread in the administrative leadership of the state like the roots of the peepal tree, each passing the torch lit by their predecessor. Commissioned by Sheikh Abdullah, the NC has always taken a precariously balanced stand between J&K being an integral part of India and advocating for the states autonomy.

The leadership of the party has always remained within the family  founder Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah was the president of the party until 1981, after which the baton was passed to Farooq Abdullah.

Sheikh Abdullah  Sher-e-Kashmir (The Lion of Kashmir)

Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah founded the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference at Srinagar in October 1932. What started as an anti-colonial movement against a Dogra king, eventually matured into a secular party  which was rechristened as the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference on June 11, 1939  and consolidated all minorities under one umbrella.

In 1946, Shaikh Abdullah launched the Quit Kashmir Movement against the Dogra monarchy. When India got Independence in 1947, Mehar Chand Mahajan was the prime minister of J&K while Hari Singh, a Dogra, was the last ruling king.

In the summer of 1947, Hari Singh had toyed with the idea of keeping Kashmir independent. However, when Pakistani raiders reached the borders of Srinagar by October 24, 1947, he sent the deputy prime minister to Delhi with the proposal of accession to India.

Sheikh Abdullah (right), chosen to head the interim government in J&K, confers with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Aide (center) is unidentified." A photo from the San Francisco Examiner, 1949 (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Sheikh Abdullah (right), chosen to head the interim government in J&K, confers with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Aide (center) is unidentified." A photo from the San Francisco Examiner, 1949 (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

At that time, NC was batting for complete independence for J&K. However, the raid by Pakistani tribals compelled him to accept the succession of Kashmir. Once the proposal reached Delhi, an internal committee/ comprising Nehru and Vallabhbhai Patel, agreed and immediately sent the Indian Army to ward off the raiders. However, Nehru demanded that Sheikh Abdullah succeed Hari Singh.

Not only was he the most dominating political figure in modern J&K, he had a significant role in shaping the post-1947 sub-continental politics.

In March 1948, Sheikh was appointed as the prime minister of J&K by the Indian government. After coming to power, his magna carta for farmers made him a messiah among rural dwellers who started referring to him as bab (father).

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru driving in an open jeep from the airport on his arrival at Srinagar on September 24, 1949 to participate in the annual session of the All Jammu & Kashmir National Conference. Seated behind him is Sheikh Abdullah. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru driving in an open jeep from the airport on his arrival at Srinagar on September 24, 1949 to participate in the annual session of the All Jammu & Kashmir National Conference. Seated behind him is Sheikh Abdullah. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

With a slew of economic and social reforms that he brought with him, Shaikh Abdullah also suppressed all opposition against NC in the state. In the states first assembly elections in 1952, all 75 seats were won by the NC, most unopposed.

In August 1953, while Sheikh Abdullah was still in office, he was accused of conspiring against the state and arrested in the Kashmir Conspiracy case. He was jailed for 11 years. After being released from custody in 1964, he visited Pakistan in order to bring a resolution to the Kashmir issue. He was rearrested in 1965 and held until 1968 under the same allegations.

On November 13, 1974, he signed the Kashmir Accord with then prime minister Indira Gandhi, so as to stop the plebiscite movement under the NC. The accord re-iterated that the state of J&K will be an integral part of the Union of India and will be governed as per the postulates of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, which grants special status to J&K. Signing the accord brought Sheikh back to power, although, now at a relegated post of chief minister.

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Farooq Abdullah

Farooq took over the baton from his father at a time when the people were vocal about their contempt for Sheikh Abdullah for signing the Kashmir Accord. Farooq became the party president in 1982 and also followed his father as the chief minister of J&K.

Born in Srinagar in 1937, Farooq had completed his medical degree in SMS college in Jaipur, Rajasthan. He first became involved in active politics to help his father get re-elected to the state assembly. With no direct experience in governance, Farooq was elected as an MP to Lok Sabha in 1980. Two years later, he resigned from the post to contest J&K Assembly polls.

However, in the subsequent polls, the seat count of NC dropped gradually. He managed to remain the chief minister in 1983-84, and again from 1986-90 by the way of forming a coalition with the Congress. From 1990-96, J&K was under Presidents Rule and Farooq had taken a sabbatical in London. He contested polls in 1996 after coming back and won with a thumping majority. He was appointed as the chief minister for the third time.

Khalida Shah and Ghulam Mohammad Shah

Khalida, the daughter of Sheikh Abdullah, married Ghulam Mohammed Shah, who later broke away from the NC to form the Awami National Conference (ANC). Shah defeated Farroq Abdullah to become the chief minister of J&K between July 1, 1984 and March 1986.

Khalida even contested against younger brother Farooq in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, but was defeated by him.

Also Read: Dynasty Watch | The Badals: Electoral might, financial strength and marital ties make them Punjab's first family

Omar Abdullah

Omar, too, followed his father's footsteps and dived into active politics in 1998.

Born in England to a British mother in 1970, Omar completed his degree in business from present day Mumbai University. Omars privileged pedigree led to his rapid rise in Indian politics. In 1998, he was elected to the Lok Sabha at the age of 28 years. In 2001, he was appointed as the Union Minister of External Affairs, the youngest-ever to hold the portfolio. Around 17 months on, he resigned to concentrate on state elections in J&K.

In the 2008 J&K Assembly elections, Omar won from his constituency and was appointed as chief minister by the NC-Congress coalition government. At the age of 38, Omar was the youngest chief minister of the state. He relinquished the party presidency post for his father.

When in office, Omar was vocal about his stance on separatists, alleged excessives under the controversial AFSPA and rising militancy in the state.

Omar resigned from the chief minister's post after the Opposition PDP named him in the infamous sex scandal that had rocked Srinagar in 2006. While submitting his resignation to Governor NN Vohra, Omar had said, "I can't bear this kind of humiliation. I am innocent until proven guilty."
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 3 am 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.
eye-on-india No guarantee that Shiv Sena's alliance with NDA will last: Milind Deora Stating that the state of infrastructure in Mumbai is in "bad shape", Deora said that most Mumbaikars do not have an idea of who their Mayor is.
Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, NCP president Sharad Pawar on April 7 said while the former is otherwise "alright" but turns hysterical during elections.

Advising his party workers not to criticise anybody at the personal level, Pawar quipped that that responsibility has been taken up by the prime minister.

He was speaking to NCP workers at Daund in Pune district of Maharashtra.

"I would like to tell you that do not criticise anybody at the personal level. When the prime minister of the country has taken up that responsibility, why should you get into that," he said sarcastically.

Hitting back at Modi, who had said that Pawar was losing his grip over the party due to a rift in his family, the NCP chief said while his family is united, the country does not know whether the person (Modi) has anybody in his family or not.

"How did Modi come to know about any fights in (my) family? We all live together lovingly. We all work in different fields. When I meet him (Modi), I will tell him that my entire family is together and united," the former Union minister said.

Referring to Modi, he said the country did not know whether that person has anybody in his family or not.

"That person should not talk about other's families. It is not good to talk about someone's house. I will tell him (Modi) when I meet him that if he does not become PM again, he will be an MP and I will also be there (in Parliament )," Pawar said.

The veteran politician also said he and Modi enjoyed "good relations".

"Everybody knows what he spoke about me in Delhi, in Baramati and at Vasantdada Sugar Institute in Pune. You know one thing about this man. Usually he is okay, but when there are elections, he turns 'hysterical' (angat yete) and he starts speaking anything, so there is no need to pay heed to that," Pawar said in Marathi.

He also appealed to the NCP workers to toil hard to win elections.

"I found various reasons about what happened the last time (when the Congress and the NCP lost elections against the BJP). Some people said that people (voters) did a mistake (by choosing the BJP), but I would like to tell you that never say that people made any mistake. We fell short somewhere," he said.

Addressing a rally at Hadapsar in the city, Pawar said maximum attacks on India have taken place when the BJP is in power.

"The (Kandahar) plane hijack happened under the BJP government, so did the attack on Parliament in 2001. Similarly, the attacks on Akshardham temple (in Gujarat in 2002) and recently in Pathankot also happened when the BJP is at the helm," he said.

Attacking the BJP, Pawar said the "56-inch chest" has failed to bring back Kulbhushan Jadhav, a former Indian defence officer, who has been lodged in a Pakistani jail on charges of spying since the last 29 months, and is sentenced to death.

The case is being heard by the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Taking a dig at Modi, the NCP chief said the PM merely assures the citizens of setting everything alright, but still terror attacks are happeing.

"Looking at the current situation in the country, some experts are predicting that this would be the last election in this democratic country. I personally do not accept this. I know the people from Kashmir to Kanyakumari will not let this happen and they will not make mistake (of electing the BJP again)," he said.
China Aviation Daily | Apr. 04, 2019

As the 29th Airport Council International (ACI) Asia-Pacific/World Annual General Assembly, Conference and Exhibition drew to a successful conclusion today, Aeropuertos Argentina 2000 announced that it will be the host for the 2020 ACI Latin America-Caribbean/World Annual General Assembly, Conference & Exhibition.

"The success of ACI's annual conference illustrates that we in the aviation industry are committed to forging partnerships across the world and working together towards a sustainable future," ACI World Director General Angela Gittens said as she addressed delegates at the conference's closing reception. "We have gained many insights from the forums, sessions and networking events, and we are confident in moving forward as a united industry. For this, I thank our speakers, delegates, the ACI World and ACI Asia-Pacific teams, and our host, Hong Kong International Airport.

"We are also excited to start working with our next host, Aeropuertos Argentina 2000, looking ahead to our next annual General Assembly, Congress and Exhibition in Latin America and Caribbean."

At the handover ceremony, it was officially announced that Aeropuertos Argentina 2000 would be the host of next year's annual conference which is expected to attract more than 800 airport and industry leaders from around the world in November 2020 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The event will continue to include exhibitions and conferences for aviation professionals to network, exchange insights and receive updates on the latest industry trends.

President Aeropuertos Argentina 2000, CEO Corporacion America Airports, and ACI World Chair Martin Eurnekian said delegates at next year's event will make key decisions, discuss important issues and assess future prospects.

"On behalf of Aeropuertos Argentina 2000, I am excited to be the next host of the ACI World/Latin America and Caribbean Annual General Assembly, Conferences and Exhibition," he said.

"Aeropuertos Argentina 2000 operates 35 airports in Argentina and is part of Corporacion America Airports (CAAP) which operates 52 airports in seven countries across Latin America and Europe. With 81.3 million passengers using our airports in 2018, we have broad expertise on the region's diverse needs and challenges. We offer many insights into global issues, from regulation to air fares to environmental stewardship.

"Buenos Aires, Argentina is the perfect location for our gathering. Growth in the country's air traffic, in particular, has shown no signs of slowing down in recent years. Argentina's airports are the fastest-growing airports in South America for passenger traffic, having achieved 13.9% year-over-year growth in 2017."

Contributed by ACI
Shashi Tharoor, former Union minister and Congress Lok Sabha candidate from Thiruvananthapuram, is confident of winning for the third time from the constituency. In an exclusive interview with Opinion Editor Viju Cherian while on a paryadanam or campaign trail, Tharoor talks why the BJP did well in 2014, about the Lefts reaction to Rahul Gandhi contesting from Wayanad and about his rivals from the CPI and the BJP. Excerpts:

Q: It's early days into the campaign, how has the response been so far?

A: Its not early days; weve campaigned for three weeks now and there are three more left. Its looking very good. Were able to judge by the smiles, handshakes and waves of people that there is a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and I expect to win with a bigger majority than last time.

Q: Your vote percentage in 2014 vis-a-vis 2009 came down by about 10.20%; since then, the BJP has expanded its base in the constituency. How do you see that?

A: No, I dont see it that way. Last time, I lost young voters who bought into the dreams that Mr (Narendra) Modi was peddling. Theyve seen five years of the reality  hollow rhetoric, empty promises and unfulfilled schemes, and theyre not going to be fooled again.

Last time, a lot of young voters truthfully told me that they had enough of the Congress and that they were going for PM Modi. Today, most young voters I meet in colleges and streets are overwhelmingly with me. In fact, in a couple of informal polls, were getting over 70% support from the youth. Even though there are some sort of traditional Left families here and so on, theres very little support for BJP. So Im not worried about that calculation.

Q: Both the Left and the BJP see you as competition

A: I am the sitting MP and leading in all peoples estimates, and, on top of that, theyre both trying to bring me down. Im a bit surprised that the Left, which has made such a song and dance about Rahul Gandhi contesting against them in Wayand, has actually played the BJPs game here by trying to take away my core votes. I find that very strange. But in any case, Ill weather their storm.

Q: With Rahul Gandhi contesting from Wayanad, theres talk about a Left-BJP consolidation in a few seats. Do you think thatll happen here in Thiruvananthapuram against you?

A: Well, there is certainly every indication of, of not consolidation, playing into each others hands. The BJP is taking away some votes of mine but theyd already done that in 2014. The Left, however, is trying to make a very strong pitch against me in some areas, like the coastal areas that have traditionally backed me. And they (Left) should know that if they succeed  which they wont  the only ones they can help is the BJP. So, it does seem a rather perverse strategy. I cant imagine that their top leadership really would rather see a BJP MP here than me.

Q: How do you see you opponents in this election? The BJPs candidate from Thiruvananthapuram is a former governor and, perhaps, BJPs tallest state leader.

A: I respect both my opponents and I take them seriously. As you say, one is a former governor and the other is a former state minister. One has been an activist in the state and the other has been a long-time Communist politician for over 40 years. One must show them the respect of taking them seriously and I do.

But Im not intimidated or unduly worried, because, I think that the BJP, for example, showed their true desperation by their avid pursuit of actor Mohanlal. It was very clearly being said that he was the only one who could take me on. When he declined, poor Kummannam [Rajashekaran] was dragged from an eight-month governorship to come and contest. So I feel a bit sorry for him to give up the comforts of Raj Bhavan as a second choice. But thats not my problem, its the BJPs. Im not too worried about that.

As for [CPI's candidate] Divakaran, the fair question many people are asking is: Hes worked well in this district but what on earth is he going to do in Delhi? The job of an MP is in Delhi, in Parliament, with the central governmental, ministries, central bureaucracy  Im afraid Mr Divakaran does not inspire much confidence in that area.

So, although I do not want to say anything negative about either of them, I believe Im being seen by most thinking people here as the only truly viable choice to represent them in Delhi.

Unlike the others, I do have the satisfaction of not just being the first choice, but the only choice of my party for this seat.

Q: In quintessential Tharoor style, describe your campaign so far in one word.

One word wont sum it up. Its been exhausting and exhilarating at the same time.
A still from the popular TV serial 'Bhabi ji ghar par hai' (Image: YouTube)

A popular Hindi TV series has drawn flak on Twitter after it promoted some of the BJP government's flagship schemes as part of their episodes without any disclaimer for the viewers.

Bhabhi Ji Ghar Par Hai promoted welfare schemes implemented by the Modi government in the past five years without any information ahead of the telecast.

A Twitter account that goes by the name Victim (Heath Ledger) Goberoi first posted about the segments on the show.



Yesterday i realized Modi has found another venue to advertise himself. i watch "Bhabhi ji ghar par hain" (that's right, deal with it), this TV serial has started to use some not so subtle Product placement/advertisement recently, but yesterday something else happened

...1/n pic.twitter.com/hClL6PErvF

 Victim (Heath Ledger) Goberoi (@VictimGames) April 6, 2019

The account shared a series of clips wherein the characters of the show discussed many government schemes, including the Swach Bharat Abhiyan.

The tweet read: Yesterday I realized Modi has found another venue to advertise himself. I watch "Bhabhi ji ghar par hain" (that's right, deal with it); this TV serial has started to use some not so subtle product placement/advertisement recently, but yesterday something else happened.

Thursday's episode used Swacch Bharat Abhiyan while Friday's episode used Ujjwala Scheme to sing praises of Modi. Pay attention to keywords humare desh ki akhandta aur ekta ko khatra na pahuche, & karmath, sushil, gyani, atulniya, purush used to set the tone.

It added: This is a textbook case of paid promotion, blatant and shameless. And I don't believe for a second that the writers of this show wrote this damn propaganda piece, this was provided to them by some agency like Modi's personal NGO/propaganda company, A Billion Minds.



Tragedy. If any incumbent is blatantly using every medium as mkting tool and is solely relying on mkting as the only tool, indicates the desperation and lack of self confidence the incumbent has.

 NoHope (@hopesAmyth) April 6, 2019



And that is THE issue. Ad without disclaimer has a greater impact in brainwashing people.

 Neha Joshi (@RationalSky) April 6, 2019



Third class placement. Piss poor delivery. The canned laughter comes on as forced. Idk, people would be affected if they could sit thru all this cringe itfp. its illegality seems secondary to its worthlessness, imho.

 BrawlyPooch (@MeanderingWonk) April 6, 2019



Wow. This is preposterous! The level to which these guys will go to fix a match...

 Jawahar  (@jawaharsingh) April 6, 2019



So if some schemes which benefit the common man, generally help in the progress of nation are highlighted, whats wrong? Appreciate he has started these schemes and is spreading awareness. Its helping the common man, the nation. Would you prefer spreading Pappus lies instead?

 Dilbert (@SatSamundarPaar) April 6, 2019

The Twitter thread went viral and turned out that the user in question was not the only one offended by the promotion.Apart from the critics of such ads, like most political conversations on social media, there were some voices who also supported the advertisement.

Earlier, the release of a biopic on PM Modi was deferred after opposition parties jointly said that the film could give undue advantage to the BJP ahead of the elections.
Representative image

A debate on Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) has been triggered after the Congress in its manifesto declared that it would review the AFSPA Act in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).

The northern state has been the epicenter of national and global political agendas since independence and the 2019 General Elections is no different.

Here's what the act is all about:

What is AFSPA?

The act provides special powers to the Indian army to maintain law and order in listed regions, where they get complete immunity, can arrest people and search places without a warrant. They are also empowered with a clause that allows them to prohibit gatherings to maintain public order. Any person arrested under this act is handed over to the police officer in charge at the nearest station with a detailed account of the circumstances of detainment.

Enactment of AFSPA

The initial ordinance of the armed forces act was implemented by the British during the Quit India movement. The act further promulgated by the Central government post partition to curb insurgency and political unrest. Initially, the act was only formulated to bring accordance in the north eastern states of Assam, Nagaland, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh. The Parliament, had passed the bill on September 11, 1958. It was enacted in J&K in 1990 and has triggered a humongous socio political debate since then.

Who has the power to declare AFSPA in a particular region?

Article 355 of the Constitution, confers power to the Central Government to protect every state from internal disturbance. An official notification is issued by the Governor of the State or Union Territory on The Gazette of India under Section (3) of the AFSPA Act to declare a particular area or region as disturbed. It is followed by the dispersion of armed forces by the Central government. Under Section 3 of the act, the usage of military forces in the region for civic aid during extreme public unrest is considered inevitable in order to preserve law and order.

What is the current issue of contention?

Congress in the manifesto said that it would review the act, if voted to power. The BJP which had already been mounting an attack on the issue of national security said that this promise would end up providing a free hand to the terrorists and affect the morale of the armed forces.

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said that the party only seeks to review legal cover of the armed forces in terms of human rights violation pertaining to "enforced disappearance, sexual violence or torture".

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that BJP was not against withdrawing AFSPA if situations permitted but wouldnt stand for dilution of the act.
If you are one of the very few Windows Phone users whove been loyal to Microsoft for its smartphone OS, there is bad news for you.Facebook has announced that it would stop providing support for Windows devices soon.

Engadget reported that Facebook would stop providing support of all its apps for Windows OS starting April 30. For using apps like Facebook, Messenger and Instagram, Windows phone users would have to log in through their browsers. Windows Phone users on Reddit reported that they received notifications about the pull off on April 30. The three apps top the 'Free apps' section in the Microsoft store. It is unclear how many users would get affected since Microsoft had already stopped selling phones in 2016. It is not clear if WhatsApp would continue providing support for Windows devices. There were several reports online that claimed the messaging company would stop working on Windows phone but neither WhatsApp nor Microsoft has announced or confirmed about the service discontinuation.

Users have started looking for third-party apps that can possibly provide support for the dying apps on Windows. The company further has announced that Microsoft would stop providing security patches for Windows devices from December 2019. Many popular apps have already stopped providing support for Windows.
Sreedhanya (Image: Facebook)

With this years results for UPSC civil service examinations getting announced, 25-year-old Sreedhanya Suresh became the first tribal woman from Kerala to crack it. The tribal woman who hails from Pozhuthana panchayat in Wayanad holds a national rank of 410.

As per India Today reports, Sreedhanya belongs to the Kurichiya community, which is a matrilineal tribe. Ecstatic about her accomplishment, she said: Im extremely glad that Ive been able to crack the civil service exam. My family members are equally excited.

The young gun hopes her feat would inspire other members of the tribal community to aspire to become civil servants. I am from the most backward district in the state. There are no tribal IAS officers from here even though there is a considerably large tribal population. The number of candidates appearing for the civil service exam from Wayanad in general and tribal communities in the district in particular is very low. I hope this would urge more people to come forward, she said.

A student of Zoology, she graduated of St Josephs College Devagiri in Kozhikode, and completed her post-graduation from Calicut University and became a civil servant on her third attempt.

Scroll reports, Sreedhanya lived with her family of six before moving out to pursue her higher studies. Her parents are daily wage labourers and sell bows and arrows at the local market to provide for their family.

Commenting on her achievement, Wayanad sub-collector NSK Umesh said: Were immensely proud of her. As per previous years trends, she should be able to join IAS.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who will be fighting the upcoming elections from Wayanad, also congratulated Sreedhanya for her stellar feat and wished her success in her endeavours.

Notably, 25 candidates from Kerala cracked the UPSC examinations; two of them also featured in the list of top 100 rank-holders.
Picture for representation

A lady constable of the Uttar Pradesh Police was praised by all and sundry, including OP Singh, the Director General of Police (DGP), UP, after she went beyond her call of duty to feed an elderly woman and help her with bank chores.

The letter of appreciation put out by the DGP says she displayed highest human virtues of kindness along with her duty by comforting and helping the old woman.

The constable  Manvi  is posted in Dhanghata area of Sant Kabir Nagar district. She was visiting a bank for some paperwork when she noticed an old woman standing outside in the scorching heat. Not only did the kind cop help her out with the bank work, she also offered her food upon learning that the senior citizen had not eaten for days.



DGP OP Singh commended Const.Manvi,in an appreciation letter, for exemplifying highest human virtues of kindness along with her duty

She not only empathetically comforted an hassled old lady outside a bank,helped her with her work but also offered her food

Congratulations Manvi! pic.twitter.com/HCYC8Eufb6

 UP POLICE (@Uppolice) April 1, 2019



Good Work. Keep It Up. ... !

 Chowkidar Avinash Srivastava  (@go4avinash) April 1, 2019



wonderful !! Cheers to Manvi !!

 Subodh Kumar Srivastava (@SubodhSrivastva) April 1, 2019



Congratulations Manvi

App aise hi margdarshak baniye aur dusro ko prerit kariye  Pankaj Jaiswal (@pankajjaiswal28) April 4, 2019



Great job done by Constable Manvi. Keep doing good things

 VK (@VK05440146) April 3, 2019



Good one up police

 Vishnu Dev Nagar (@VishnuDevNagar5) April 1, 2019



Commendable work Manviji pic.twitter.com/jRxtk9Z5vp

 Virendra Kumar (@viren734) April 3, 2019



Well done Manvi & UP Police. Such paise by head of the force will inspire many in police to continue doing acts of kindness and create trust.

 Dharm Chaturvedi (@DharmChaturvedi) April 5, 2019



Well done MANVI...I wish u.p. police learn something from you....may God bless you n give all strength to continue this if future as well  Shivendra Chauhan (@shiveny2k) April 4, 2019

After the heart-warming incident, UP Polices Twitter handle shared pictures of Manvi with the lady, along with the letter addressed to her. The post read: DGP OP Singh commended Constable Manvi in an appreciation letter for exemplifying highest human virtues of kindness along with her duty. She not only empathetically comforted a hassled old lady outside a bank, helped her with her work but also offered her food. Congratulations Manvi!In no time, the Twitter post was flooded with comments lauding the lady constable.
Kanishak Katariya (Image: ANI)

Kanishak Katariya made news for more than one reason on Friday. Not only did the B Tech graduate from IIT Bombay top the 2019 Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exams, he also thanked his girlfriend for supporting him.

The Rajasthani lad, who is currently working as a data scientist, was addressing the media after the announcement of the results when he expressed gratitude towards his parents, sister, and his girlfriend. He said: It's a very surprising moment. I never expected to get the 1st rank.

ANI quoted him as saying: I thank my parents, sister & my girlfriend for the help & moral support. People will expect me to be a good administrator & that's exactly my intention.

The news agency shared the news on social media and went viral on Twitter in no time. Many youngsters came out in support of Katariya's unorthodox statement, which came as a breather. They thanked him for his frankness and refuting common belief that having a love interest hampers studies.



Very much happy for that girl as you have gave the credit to her too.. Close

 Deergh Sharma  (@SDeergh) April 5, 2019



Good to see him mention his girlfriend. Time is changing. I was beaten by my father 3 days before my 10th boards exams after he caught the letter she had sent me through her younger brother, hidden in a book. Beltey-belt.

 THE SKIN DOCTOR (@theskindoctor13) April 6, 2019



He said GF. Both of them are lucky to have each other .

 Whatever It Takes (@deadlypoisondp) April 5, 2019



Saw the first guy thanking his girlfriend great man

 Sir Bumraaaah!!! (@Ibleed_sarcasm) April 5, 2019



Good to see he mention his girlfriend.... Mera Desh Badal Raha he Aage Badh Raha he...  Truptiii (@Truptisarpate) April 6, 2019





Congrats

Credit goes to gf.....arey bro UP cadre mt select krega ....yha Yogiji ka Anti squad h...  Sunil Yadav (@SunilYa62628944) April 5, 2019





This man is awesome. First of all Congratulations Kanishak. One thing is for sure that a few people exist in the world who confess their love after getting a grand achievement and you are one of them. Otherwise people are there who act just like Chameleon after their victory!

 Remina Das (@das_remin) April 6, 2019



Good to see #UPSC topper acknowledging his significant other unlike the earlier toppers who used to dump their present and look for so called better options in the academy

 Nitin Chavan (@a20nitin) April 6, 2019



Congratulations man,

It's good to see he mentioned his girlfriend.. Some people still think that girlfriend is only creating negativity in life But if you have chosen the right partner definitely your life will change in positive way  Chowkidar Shalya (@reborn_shalya) April 6, 2019

This move, people are hoping, will now leave more room for the youth to be open about their lives in public.
With the first phase of Lok Sabha polls just days away, Facebook on Monday said it is removing or blocking about one million abusive accounts a day with the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) tools.

"We are absolutely committed to maintaining the integrity of the elections in India and will continue to work with local organisations, government groups and experts to make that happen," Ajit Mohan, Facebook's Managing Director and Vice President, India, wrote in a blog post.

Facebook said it was working for more than 18 months now to make sure that Indian elections were fair and free from interference, both foreign and domestic.

"This work is done across dozens of teams, both in India and around the globe, and began more than 18 months ago with a detailed planning and risk assessment across our platforms," Mohan added.

Facebook had earlier launched the political ad transparency tools, giving people a clearer picture of who is placing the ads they see.

The social networking giant recently launched two new products in India to help people learn about issues they care about and engage with candidates and elected officials in meaningful ways.

"Candidate Connect" is designed to give voters accurate information and help people learn more about different candidates.

And "Share You Voted" lets people share with friends that they've cast their ballot in the Lok Sabha elections.

"Building on lessons we've learned over the past two years, this week we will activate new regional operations centres, focused on election integrity, in Singapore and Dublin," Mohan said.

These teams include engineers, operations specialists and data scientists, and will work closely with staff in Facebook's Menlo Park, California headquarters, as well as with experts in Delhi.

Facebook said it was also using AI and ML to identify abusive or violating content, quickly locate it across the platform and remove it in bulk.

"We continue to expand on this initiative, adding 24 new languages -- including 16 for India -- to our automatic translation system," Mohan said.

Facebook last week removed nearly 700 Pages, Groups and accounts in India for violating its policies on what it calls "coordinated inauthentic behaviour" and spam.
gas shortage on the east coast of Australia is getting plenty of attention in the media recently, so I thought Id spend today having a look at a few companies that could benefit. I am not giving a buy recommendation on these companies right now, but instead letting you know they exist so you can do your own research and follow their progress in the coming weeks and months.

One area of the gas story that I am interested in is the potential for Northern Territory gas to be hooked up to the east coast gas market. The Northern Gas Pipeline connecting Tenant Creek to Mount Isa was opened at the start of the year. There is potential that Jemena, the company that constructed the pipeline, may increase the capacity of the pipeline substantially and even expand it to the Wallumbilla gas hub.

If that were to occur, there would be a race on to explore and bring into production huge tracts of land in the McArthur and Beetaloo Basins. There arent many small ASX-listed companies with exposure to that area since most of the Beetaloo Basin is now in the hands of the majors. But there are a few that I think could benefit if Jemena goes ahead with a planned expansion of the pipeline. Watch the video to find out who they are.

There are also quite a few little companies on the ASX with plenty of gas, but no pipeline close by to get their gas to market. Their value would of course skyrocket if that very large issue was addressed. And as the gas shortage intensifies, there will be added pressure to connect areas that are currently stranded. I give you one such stock with stranded gas that would benefit if the Northern Gas Pipeline was expanded to Wallumbilla, thus opening up the Galilee Basin.

I also show you a stock that is getting closer to production in late 2019. They are close to infrastructure without too many hurdles to jump over before becoming a producer.

There are a bunch of other stocks that are on my radar as a result of the coming east coast gas shortage, so I will continue to focus on that exciting opportunity in future updates.

Regards,

Murray Dawes,

Editor, Alpha Wave Trader
At time of writing, the share price of Lynas Corporation Ltd [ASX:LYC] is down 2.13%, trading at $2.07 per share.

It has been a tough year for the Lynas share price, aside from a recent spike attributable to an acquisition proposal by Wesfarmers Ltd [ASX:WES]:

Source: tradingview.com

In a busy news day for Lynas, it responded to comments by the Malaysian Prime Minister and it was revealed that it is considering the the possibility of moving its cracking and leaching operations closer to its resource in Western Australia.

Interested in radioactive resources used to generate clean energy? Learn more about the uranium comeback in this free report. Hint: its all about whats happening in Kazakhstan.

Lynas share price may be under pressure until Malaysian regulatory problems resolved

This is the key passage from the Malaysian Prime Ministers press conference on Friday, as he is quoted by Lynas:

With regard to Lynas, we have imposed an extra condition, that is they must take away the waste. But they want to take away the waste to where? They want to take it to Australia, but Australia doesnt want to accept it, so they cant do it anyway.

So what we have done is we have opened up the business to other people, and there are other companies willing to buy up or somehow or other acquire Lynas, they have given us a promise that in future before sending the raw material to Malaysia they will clean it up first, they will crack it and decontaminate it in some way with regard to radioactivity, so that when the raw material comes here, the volume is less and the waste from that raw material is not dangerous to anybody.

So, they, this company or even Lynas they can continue if they promise that the raw material from Australia would be brought here only after, what they call, cracking and cleaning it up.

There is a surprising revelation here.

It is the suggestion by the Malaysian PM that they have been in discussion with other companies about the processing plant.

Whether this is Wesfarmers or not, we will see.

Wesfarmers previously came in with a bid for Lynas and it would be somewhat cheeky of them to be in discussion with the Malaysian government about a processing plant they still do not own.

Governance called into question

Matthew Ryland, a portfolio manager with Greencape Capital (which is a substantial shareholder of Lynas) is quoted by The Sydney Morning Herald as saying:

We question the governance of companies that make undertakings to foreign governments about assets that they dont own. We see that as a bit of a governance issue presenting itself.

Will Wesfarmers up the offer? Who knows?

Meanwhile, it has been reported that Lynas is seeking a way around the impasse with the Malaysian government by examining the value of operating cracking and leaching operations near its Mt Weld mine.

Previously, we flagged a potential short-term pullback in the Lynas share price.

This may well continue, unless Wesfarmers ups the offer. So far there has been no specific mention of another suitor waiting in the wings.

I would caution against trying to bet on the news here. Unless you are an expert in the Malaysian regulatory environment. Even then, it seems as if there are simply too many variables.

Regards,

Lachlann Tierney,

For Money Morning

PS: Find out why this hated resource could rise from the dead in 2019 (free report).
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April 08, 2019 Why Is Trump Designating Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps As Foreign Terrorist Organization? After their failed coup plot in Venezuela, the Trump administration launched another crazy plan: The United States is expected to designate Irans elite Revolutionary Guards Corps a foreign terrorist organisation, three U.S. officials told Reuters, marking the first time Washington has formally labelled another countrys military a terrorist group. The White House just issued the designation (no link yet). The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is a part of the general Iranian military. It was founded after the 1979 revolution in Iran to protect the state from a coup by the regular Iranian army that served under the Shah. With some 125,000 men during peacetime the IRGC is only about a third the size of Iran's regular military. It has a similar structure with a groundforce, a navy and an aerospace branch. The IRCG has two additional small branches that are of foreign policy interest. One is the missile force which controls Iran's medium range missiles. The other is the Quds Force, a brigade size unit with some 4,000 men trained for special operations abroad. The IRGC size during wartime is about triple its peacetime size. Like Iran's regular army its personnal is made up of professionals, conscripts and reservists. Attached to the IRGC is the voluntary Basji force, local paramilitaries that can be called up for internal security issues. There are several endowments and charitable trusts (bonyads) with strong relations to the IRGC. They own commerical enterprises but their profits are distributed to IRGC veterans and to widows and orphans of deceased soldiers. In 2007 the U.S. Treasury already designated the Quds Force for its "support of terrorism". It also sanctioned several enterprises that are connected to the IRGC. It is totally unclear what the designation of the IRCG as a whole is supposed to achieve. It could be a symbolic move or, as some assume, a step towards a war on Iran: 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 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. Mohammad al Shabani lists additional reasons: Mohammad Ali Shabani @mashabani - 14:36 utc - 8 Apr 2019 THREAD. Usual suspects pushed Trump to designate #IRGC as FTO. Why?

- Constrain Trumps deal-making instincts

- Box in next US president on Iran (Dems say will rejoin JCPOA)

- Force Lebanon/Iraq into picking between Iran/US

- Force Europe to further cut whatever meager outreach

- provoke Iran to scrap JCPOA

- and, ideally, initiate military confrontation Colonel Pat Lang likewise presumes that the move is an attempt to provoke a war: 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 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) is a law passed after the 9/11 attack that allows the president: to use all "necessary and appropriate force" against those whom he determined "planned, authorized, committed or aided" the September 11th attacks, or who harbored said persons or groups. In an October 2017 speech President Trump accused Iran of having supported and harbored al-Qaeda: Iranian proxies provided training to operatives who were later involved in al Qaedas bombing of the American embassies in Kenya, Tanzania, and two years later, killing 224 people, and wounding more than 4,000 others. The regime harbored high-level terrorists in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, including Osama bin Ladens son. In Iraq and Afghanistan, groups supported by Iran have killed hundreds of American military personnel. Trump's accusations agaimst Iran are false. Iran had nothing to do with the bombing in Kenya. After the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan some family members of al-Qaeda leaders fled to Iran. They were put under house arrests and were held as hostages to prevent al-Qaeda operations against Iran. But the facts will not matter. The designation of the IRGC as "foreign terrorist" will likely make the AUMF relevant, at least under U.S. law. Pat Lang continues: 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. Iran and its military have long prepared for war with the United States. There will be no change in anything that its military will do. The first and probably only retaliatory step Iran will take is to designate the U.S. military as a terrorist entity: "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 (Islamic State)," Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, head of parliament's national security committee, said on Twitter. Iran has so far shown restraint whenever the U.S. tried to goad it into a fight. It has left U.S. forces in Syria and Iraq untouched even while the U.S. and Israel attacked Iranian elements. It will not react militarily to Trump's latest provocation. The designation of the IRGC and the counterdesignation of the U.S. military might have some tricky legal consequences. Will sailors of a U.S. Navy ship that unintentionally enters Iranian waters in the Persian Gulf and gets caught be held as terrorists? Will former conscripts of the IRGC who want to travel to the States receive a visa? Should the U.S. attack IRGC forces abroad, Iran will likely respond by asking its foreign proxy forces, like the Hashd al-Shahbi militias in Iraq, to attack U.S. forces abroad. Should the U.S. attack IRGC forces within Iran's borders then all bets are off. There are plenty of U.S. bases and installations in the Middle East that can be reached by Iranian missiles. Posted by b on April 8, 2019 at 14:25 UTC | Permalink Comments next page  next page 
Hollywood acting couple Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart have escaped to New Zealand for a mid-April getaway.

The 'Star Wars' actor and the 'Supergirl' actress wife were spotted Sunday night in Air New Zealand's Koru Lounge in Queenstown before boarding a flight to Auckland.

NZ Herald report that the couple and their son Liam Flockhart stayed at the Fiordland Lodge in Te Anau during their trip. The accommodation overlooks Lake Te Anau and is a known to be a celebrity haven, with Andy Serkis (co-director and actor of The Hobbit) saying it's a "perfect retreat on one's journey through Middle-Earth".

The flight was running about 30 minutes late but the Air NZ pilot promised to "keep pedalling the Millennium Falcon as fast as we can", making a reference to Han Solo's famous Star Wars spaceship.

After the flight landed in Auckland, Harrison Ford and his family were escorted out of the Jetstar exit and left for the international departures terminal.

Harrison Ford has been best known for his work on Star Wars as Han Solo, and as the titular character in the Indiana Jones film franchise. The 76-year-old has already been announced in a 2021 project for Indiana Jones, as well as voicing in The Secret Life of Pets 2 animation.
The Spice Girls have reportedly backed out of plans to take their reunion tour worldwide following Mel B's admission that she and Geri Horner had a lesbian fling in the '90s.

The iconic girl group are scheduled play eight dates across the UK this year, and were allegedly set to announce shows in the US and Australia before Scary Spice dropped a bombshell during an interview with Piers Morgan.

According to the Mail On Sunday, a source revealed that Mel B's claims the pair were intimate during the height of the Spice Girls' success created irreversible tension within the group.

"It has been a hugely dramatic week. At one point last Sunday, the tour wasn't happening," the unnamed source apparently said.

"They agreed that they had to do the British dates because they are under contract and they don't want to let their fans down, but there won't be any more.

"There had been plans to keep it going but no more."

When asked by Piers Morgan if she had ever "dabbled" with Geri, Mel B answered: "She's going to hate me for this because she's all posh in her country house... but it's a fact.

"It just happened and we just giggled at it and that was it."

Since then, Geri has released a statement denying the claims, calling them "hurtful".

"It has been very disappointing to read about all these rumours again, especially on Mother's Day of all days," the statement read.

"Geri loves the Spice Girls... she would like [the fans] to know that what has been reported recently is simply not true and has been very hurtful to her family."

However, the Evening Standard reports that a representative for the band called speculation of a cancelled world tour "incorrect and factually untrue".

Newshub.
A mum has been annihilated after revealing online that she told her daughter to give up on her dreams.

The mum explained that she was a doctor, and had graduated from one of the top medical schools in the country. She also said that her eldest daughter was well and truly following in her footsteps, excelling at school and looking very likely to be accepted into the same medical school.

The post turned sour when the mum said her youngest daughter was also hoping to be a doctor when she finishes school.

"My youngest daughter is not like us." she wrote.

"For my eldest daughter and I, math and science come more naturally. Its not something we need to work hard at. My youngest daughter, however, really struggles with these topics... she has to study for her classes for hours and hours just to get the average grade at a school thats not very difficult."

The mum tried to turn the harsh words about her youngest around by trying to give her credit for being a hardworker, but then return to the putdowns saying that "she can take her talents elsewhere".

After the mum told her youngest daughter that she did not believe she should follow her dreams of being a doctor and instead pour her hardwork into a different career path, the daughter was upset and refused to talk to her.

The woman's husband also scolded her for shooting down their daughters dreams.

I understand that her feelings may have been hurt and while thats valid, I think tough love will help her in the future.



Online, people ripped the mum apart - almost everyone disagreed with her 'tough love' way of parenting.

"You know what you call the person who finishes last in their med school class? Doctor." one wrote.

"I can't imagine what it must be like knowing your own mother thinks so much less of you because you weren't born perfect like your sister was, and that having to actually study and work for your grades (gasp the horror!) means you're doomed to failure." another said.

"Perhaps you should consider an alternate career. With an attitude like yours, I can only imagine what your bedside manner is like. I only hope I never end up in your hands." another woman wrote.

"So she struggles? oh. ok. lots of people do. but here you have a kid who is so damned hard-working and determined that she's doing it. why are you acting like you're ashamed of her? Why are you getting in her way instead of helping her achieve her goals?"

The mum has not replied to any of the comments made in reply to her post.
Largely on the basis of the strong competitive advantages of the healthcare group and to a lesser extent the crop science business, we believe Bayer (BAYRY) has created a wide economic moat. Also, the recent divestiture of no-moat material science group Covestro leaves the company in a stronger competitive position.

In the healthcare division, Bayers strong lineup of recently launched drugs and solid exposure to biologics should support steady long-term growth. Two of Bayers key drugs are biologics: Betaferon for multiple sclerosis and Kogenate for hemophilia. While competition is increasing in both areas, the manufacturing complexity of these drugs deters generics from entering the market. Further, strong demand for cardiovascular drug Xarelto and ophthalmology drug Eylea should continue to drive growth.
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(Bloomberg) -- Standing at the center of the prolific Permian Basin, Scott Hodges explains how the future of the worlds largest oil field may very well depend on what he calls jokingly calls the "really smart guys."

Hodges, a 57-year-old manager with Occidental Petroleum Corp., runs a cluster of installations at the Hobbs oil field, where dozens of wells dont pump a single barrel of oil but instead do the opposite: push stuff -- lots of it -- into the ground.

Occidental runs the operation in southeast New Mexico as part of its so-called enhanced-oil-recovery program, injecting carbon dioxide and water underground to force out crude that might otherwise languish in the reservoir. EOR already works in conventional oil fields -- now the company is trying to make it work commercially in shale rock.

Did you know? Vicki Hollub, president and CEO of Occidental Petroleum, is among those who Gov. Greg Abbott recently appointed to the Texas Economic Development Board. Also appointed was Bryan Sheffield, executive chairman of Parsley Energy. The appointments are subject to Senate confirmation. See More Collapse

If Occidental and its rivals experiments with similar techniques are successful -- a big if, in the view of many others -- it could further transform the Permian, which is already the worlds largest oil patch. To do that, knowing how the oil, gas, CO2 and water work together thousands of feet below the Earths surface is crucial.

RELATED: Energy deals drop to 10-year low in first quarter

"The guys who know whats happening underground is the RSG," Hodges says in reference to the companys Reservoir Study Group. "That stands for the really smart guys," he adds, laughing.

While the U.S. shale revolution has boosted American oil production to a record, its also leaving lots of crude in the ground. At best, fracked wells only recover about a 10th of what the industry calls the oil-in-place.

"We are trying to be very conservative, but certainly we believe that we can improve from 10-11 percent to 17-18 percent," Occidental Chief Executive Officer Vicki Hollub said in an interview in Houston. "Its a lot. When you consider the scale of the Permian basin, to do that will be amazing."

Hobbs is a conventional Permian field, developed decades before engineers figured out how to drill horizontally and then inject huge amounts of water, sand and chemicals to open up fractures in the rock, freeing hydrocarbons from shale reservoirs.

Across the U.S., there are over 80,000 shale oil and gas wells more than five years old, pumping a trickle of hydrocarbons. They provide a massive opportunity for anyone who can figure out how to extend their life and extract a few extra barrels. Achieving that would be especially welcome in the shale industry, which is currently compelled to invest more each year in new production just to offset the natural decline of its older wells.

"The wells are there, and the upside is free," said Raoul LeBlanc, an oil expert at consultant IHS Markit Ltd. and a former head of strategy at Anadarko Petroleum Corp. "If anyone can figure out how to achieve another 5 percent extra, thats the golden ticket."

OIL REPORT: University Lands offers help in emissions control efforts

The challenges are daunting, however. In conventional rock, EOR engineers inject CO2 and water via one well, flooding the reservoir and pushing the oil and gas out of another well. Its a lot more difficult for shale. For a start, the temperature and pressure need to be just right for the CO2 to mix with the oil. Furthermore, the CO2 and water struggle to move through the tightly packed rock. While Occidental is testing the conventional method of different wells for shale, its also piloting a different technique that uses one well for both injection and production.

Occidental isnt alone. Chevron Corp., which is expanding fast in the Permian, has lots of experience with EOR outside of shale, particularly in mature fields in California. EOG Resources Inc., the largest independent shale producer, is experimenting with the injection of natural gas.

Globally, the International Energy Agency estimates there are more than 166 EOR projects using CO2, producing about 450,000 barrels of oil a day. By 2040, it anticipates output from similar projects will almost quadruple to 1.64 million barrels. The method also has the advantage of potentially sequestering the gas and helping the fight against climate change.

"Theres a great appetite for EOR, because its good to the financial aspect but also the environmental aspect," Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, said in an interview.

If the technology works in shale, Occidental and its rivals will still need to figure out how to make it economic. In conventional Permian fields, CO2 injection could add another $6 per barrel to the cost of extracting the crude. With West Texas Intermediate trading at around $60 a barrel, thats a significant add-on, especially as drillers have come under more pressure to improve returns to investors. However, the U.S. government is providing some help with tax credits to oil producers who store CO2.

Occidental has told investors it hopes to declare EOR viable later this year and give its first commercial project the go-ahead in 2020. Hollub is confident it already works.

"The pilot wells deliver more than what our model indicated they would, so its a success," she said. "Now we have to determine how to build the infrastructure. You need scale to make it work."

To contact the reporter on this story: Javier Blas in Hobbs, New Mexico, at jblas3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at wkennedy3@bloomberg.net, Simon Casey, Joe Carroll

2019 Bloomberg L.P.
The grand opening on Wednesday of the Salvation Armys new shelter is the end of a journey that began in July 2016, when the nonprofit launched its capital campaign. The $8 million goal was quickly met, and the organization broke ground the following May.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony, which begins at 11:30 a.m., will be followed by tours of the Emergency Shelter and Social Services Center at 600 E. Wall St. The celebration continues 6:30 p.m. at Midland Country Club with the agencys annual banquet, A Restoration Celebration. Keynote speaker is Clint Harp of HGTVs Fixer Upper.
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.
Smart traffic is more than self-driving cars. One engineer is tackling these transportation systems with an early career award grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Changing lanes, upcoming merges, blind spots  wouldnt it be great to broadcast to other vehicles what your own car is doing and where? Well, the technology does exist, and the data-rich messages in vehicle-to-vehicle communication are less salty than the ones exchanged in human languages. But the technology needs more development before its ready for rush hour.

Kuilin Zhang explained the challenge is forecasting traffic, which is inherently uncertain. Zhang, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering and affiliated assistant professor of computer science at Michigan Technological University, is a recipient of an NSF CAREER Award to improve automated driving decisions using predictive, real-time feedback within and between vehicles. The project totals $500,000 over a five-year span and puts some of Michigan Techs prime mobility testing facilities to use.

Self-driving Cars

Single-vehicle controls and sensors  or the tech that makes a vehicle self-driving  has been the primary focus of autonomy research to date. However, Zhang knows as a civil engineer that to understand traffic uncertainty, researchers cant stop at examining a single car. As a computer scientist, he knows that the key is shared data.

A vehicle may be autonomous, defined at different levels by SAE International, but safe and efficient traffic requires it to be connected, meaning the vehicle communicates with the driver, other vehicles and infrastructure like traffic signals, signs or bridges.

I want to understand how the real-time data from other vehicles can be utilized for automatic driving and routing decisions in the moment, Zhang said. In my vision of the future, we have more predictable, more robust, safer transportation systems  and its based on being connected and the data we can gather.

Kuilin Zhang is a 2019 recipient of the National Science Foundation's CAREER Award.

The data fuels forecasts that swiftly analyze and predict changes in and around a vehicle. To make that happen, Zhangs CAREER Award reflects the interdisciplinary demands of creating autonomous and connected systems: uniting principles from computer science, traffic science, operations research, control theory and machine learning, among others. The layers of decision making get complicated fast, which is why Zhang is using multiple tools to study feedback systems.

Routing Games and Predictive Modeling

A self-driving car is made as much of algorithms as steel and aluminum. To make a driving decision, like turn the steering wheel or hit the brakes, a vehicle needs good equipment and good data. To make a routing decision, like take this exit or change lanes, a vehicle needs everything it used for driving decisions plus an additional level of awareness of its surroundings and other vehicles.

Thats where communication comes in: connected as vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) or vehicle-to-everything (V2X). Lab simulations using model predictive control (MPC) models and congestion games, called n-person dynamic routing games that crunch the numbers on the rippling effects of decisions made within a scenario, illuminate what a predictive, real-time V2V system is capable of.

Of course, road testing is crucial. To that end, Zhang will work with the APS LABS and their fleet of connected and automated vehicles, fully outfitted with a range of autonomous and connected vehicle equipment, and the five V2I traffic signals installed in Houghton, Michigan, by the Michigan Department of Transportation last fall. Additionally, Zhang will be collaborating with the company HERE Technologies, which specializes in high-definition (HD) maps and traffic data for automotive and traffic technology.

Through this collaboration we will provide Professor Zhang HERE HD Live Map samples for simulation and road testing of connected and automated vehicles, said Xin Chen, director of HERE Technologies. He explains that similar to HD maps, V2X improves road safety and efficiency; combining the two is what makes Zhangs project unique. I have known Professor Zhang for many years and his award is a testimony of his achievement, and his project will demonstrate the critical role of HD maps in connected and automated driving.

Education

NSF CAREER Awards emphasize both research and teaching. To Zhang, the two are as connected as the vehicles he studies.

Michigan is the leading state studying autonomous and connected vehicles, Zhang says. Here at Michigan Tech, were training future traffic engineers and, to prepare them for our roads, we need a new approach to studying traffic.

Two of Zhang's graduate students run software diagnostics on an autonomous and connected vehicle at the APS LABS.

Zhang works with students across many levels, from graduate students refining congestion games and undergraduates testing out the models on an app specially developed for Zhangs classes, to high school students taking a summer internship in the lab to learn the basics of self-driving cars.

The departments vision is to provide unique educational and research opportunities for students by faculty that promote fundamental understanding of our disciplines while providing a strong foundation to adapt to future change and improve the condition of humanity, said Audra Morse, chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Zhang's research in connected and automated transportation systems in smart cities does just that.

Much like the research itself, Zhangs teaching style spans disciplines and tools. To create a future where vehicles forecast the movements and changes in traffic, engineers  and future engineers  model the complexity of how autonomous and connected rubber hits the road.

Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, the University offers more than 125 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.
VIRGINIA  The Cass County Board is scheduled to meet in regular session at 7 p.m. today at 100 E. Springfield St.

Among the items on the agenda are:
Associated Press

The state attorney general has sued prescription opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma accusing the company of using aggressive, misleading marketing to boost sales.

Attorney General Kwame Raouls lawsuit accuses Purdue Pharma L.P. and Purdue Pharma Inc. of sending sales representatives to Illinois hundreds of thousands of times from 2008 to 2017, funding publications that appeared to be educational and promoted opioids while downplaying the risks of the medication, telling doctors and patients that the risks could be controlled, and targeting doctors with addicted patients and patients who were diverting the drug for unlawful use.
ALTON  Five local craft breweries have joined forces to create a special craft beer, Farmhouse 66, in honor of the Great Rivers & Routes Craft Beer Week May 10 to 17.

This first-ever collaboration will produce a Saison style beer brewed using 100 percent Illinois grown products. Working on the recipe are head brewers James Rogalsky of Old Bakery Beer Company, Alton; Tracy Hutton of Recess Brewing Company, Edwardsville; Jeffrey Muhlrad of Peel Brewing Company, Edwardsville; Tor OBrien of Old Herald Brewery & Distillery, Collinsville; and Jason Wood of Grafton Winery & Brewhaus, Grafton.

The beer is brewed using 100 percent Illinois grown ingredients including Violetta barley grown in central Illinois and malted by Gateway Custom Malt in Montgomery County, Missouri; Crystal Hops from Hallowed Hops, Lewistown; honey from Dow on the Farm, Dow; Raw Wheat from Cow Creek Farm, Paxton; and Belgian-style yeast from Omega Yeast, Chicago.

Farmhouse 66 will be available only at the participating breweries during Great Rivers & Routes Craft Beer Week. There will also be a Keep the Glass special available at each participating brewery during Great Rivers & Routes Craft Beer Week (available while supplies last). Each brewery will have a unique glass featuring the Farmhouse 66 logo available throughout the week.

The weeklong celebration of craft beer will kick off with the Rivers and Routes Collaboration Festival at Gordon Moore Park in Alton, on Saturday, May 11 from 1 to 7 p.m.

Eventgoers will enjoy live music, over 20 beer styles available for purchase from the participating breweries, and food from Goshen Meat Market. On stage during the event will be The Mindframes from 1 to 2 p.m.; Steel Creek from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.; and Big George Jr. and the NGK Band from 5 to 7 p.m.

The event is free for all ages, and open to the public.

Great Rivers & Routes Craft Beer Week will be held in conjunction with the annual Illinois Craft Beer Week in May.

For more information go to: https://www.riversandroutes.com/craftbeerweek or @RiversAndRoutes on Facebook.
Illinoisans already pay some of the highest taxes in the country at the pump.

But a political problem for Gov. J.B. Pritzker could mean theyll pay even more.

How? Pritzkers tax plan doesnt have enough support to pass the General Assembly. But some gifts, wrapped in a capital spending bill, could change that.

Despite Democratic supermajorities in the House and Senate, Pritzker has thus far failed to push through one of his key campaign promises: a graduated, or progressive, income tax hike.

Pritzker needs lawmakers to pass a constitutional amendment eliminating the states flat income tax protection, which would then head to voters on the 2020 ballot. But scheduling in the General Assembly indicates Pritzker will fail to get his amendment before a key deadline: Friday, when lawmakers leave Springfield for a two-week spring break. Hell have to make another big push before session ends on May 31.

Democratic state Rep. Jerry Costello II of Smithton is already on the record opposing the progressive income tax, and Republicans pledged opposition in unison. That means Pritzker can only afford to lose two more Democratic votes.

But new polling shows why more Democratic House members are balking at the governors plan.

In at least six House districts held by Democrats  ranging from the collar counties, to central Illinois, to the Metro East region  likely voters oppose Pritzkers plan for the state to change to a graduated income tax system, according to polling conducted by Fabrizio, Lee & Associates on behalf of Illinois Policy.

More TV ads featuring the governor are unlikely to change that. In fact, respondents who said they were aware of Pritzkers plan were more likely to oppose a constitutional amendment allowing for a graduated income tax. It doesnt help that the same polling showed Pritzker is already disliked in almost all of those districts.

The new governor needs to offer some extraordinary political favors if he wants lawmakers to take votes against their constituents.

Enter a capital bill: the king of pork projects.

In 2009, the $31 billion Illinois Jobs Now! capital plan was filled with all kinds of goodies. Pritzker could do the same with a capital spending plan of his own.

Gambling expansion, tax hikes on beer and liquor, and a vehicle registration fee hike, among other sources, funded the 2009 plan. But the chatter around Pritzkers capital bill has been all about a potential gas tax hike. Outgoing Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel late last year called on the state to at least double its gas tax. One bill in the Illinois Senate would do just that, making Illinois gas tax burden the second-highest in the nation.

Illinois needs infrastructure improvements. But a capital bill crafted to secure political loyalty means too many wasted dollars. And while bringing home the bacon can be valuable to vulnerable state lawmakers, Pritzker might be underestimating the pain of hiking the gas tax.

A poll released in March from the AAA motor club asked Illinoisans if they would pay more taxes or fees to improve the transportation system, and 74 percent said no. The same share of Illinoisans said existing transportation funding is not being spent appropriately.

Maybe Illinois should pay for services already rendered  the state has more than $8 billion in unpaid bills  before pouring more cement.

Luring lawmakers to vote for one tax hike with the spoils of another is Illinois politics at its worst.

Pritzker should pave a new path toward balancing the budget.

Austin Berg is a writer for the Illinois Policy Institute. He wrote this column for the Illinois News Network. He can be reached at aberg@illinoispolicy.org.
We are ready for December, everything ...
Editor's note: Saudi Arabia has reportedly threatened to sell its oil in currencies other than the US dollar if Washington passes a bill that exposes OPEC member states to US antitrust lawsuits. Columnist Niutanqin comments in his WeChat post:

Saudi Arabia's threat to delink its oil trading from the US dollar, if implemented, would be a severe test for the United State's economy and the world's financial and economic system.

For economic reasons, the US has long had close relations with Saudi Arabia, but it is also economic factors this time that have driven a wedge between the two allies. The No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act (NOPEC) the US administration is pushing for is designed to remove the state immunity shield and to allow OPEC and its national oil companies to be sued under US antitrust law for anti-competitive attempts to limit the world's oil supply. The bill, if passed, would have direct repercussions for Saudi Arabia, which is the leading member of the oil organization.
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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 8)  Petron Corporation bagged the Gold award for the Best Event-Led PR Campaign at the sixth annual Southeast Asian edition of the PR Awards held in Singapore.

The firm won for its Petron TriAction Performance Run Regional Roadblock, which highlighted the value of having integrated, real-time media and social media PR coverage to magnify Petron's performance run in the Philippines' southern provinces.

With the majority of campaigns focused in Metro Manila and Luzon, the regional roadblock became a game changer as local TV, radio and social influencers provided real-time updates as the performance run made its way from Mindanao, across the Visayas, and back to Luzon.

A first in this category, the campaign addressed the brand challenge of creating relevance, engagement, and gaining market share in target provinces.

The Petron TriAction Performance Run (Visayas-Mindanao Edition) was held in May 2018 with a caravan of eight vehicles which took off from Davao City and traversed key cities, including Malaybalay, Bukidnon; Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental; Iligan City, Lanao del Norte; Ozamiz City, Misamis Occidental; and Dapitan City, Zamboanga del Norte in Mindanao.

Crossing over to the Visayas Islands, the run proceeded to Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental; Cebu City, Cebu; Toledo City, Cebu; Cadiz City, Negros Occidental; Bacolod City, Negros Occidental; Iloilo City, Iloilo; Kalibo City, Aklan; and Malay, Aklan.

From there, the caravan traveled through Bulalacao, Oriental Mindoro and Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro to catch a ferry to the port in Batangas City for its homecoming to Manila. In all the major stops, local media and influencers joined the group, acting as guides and highlighting the attractions in their localities.

At the same time, they were able to interview the drivers about the performance of Petron Diesel Max in all types of road conditions.

The regional media roadblock was arranged by media agency HuddleRoom under the direction of Petron's brand marketing and advertising department. The actual run was organized by Great Minds Media, Inc., with official observers from the Department of Energy and the Automobile Association of the Philippines. The Department of Tourism also provided support in key cities.

The "Best Event-Led PR Campaign" category is one of the most coveted awards, with the highest number of entries. In the final judging, Petron was pitted against leading brands such as Heineken Malaysia, UnionPay South East Asia, Dyson, Singapore International Cyber Week 2018, Fujifilm, Singapore Discovery Center, and Vivo City & Walt Disney Company SEA.

The champions for 2019 were chosen by an independent judging panel comprised of high-caliber senior marketing, public relations and communications professionals from reputable brands.

Earlier this year, the Petron TriAction Run (Turbo Diesel Edition) also earned a Silver Anvil for "Pubic Relations Program Directed at Specific Stakeholders - Consumers" in the 54th Anvil Awards organized by the Public Relations Society of the Philippines.
Manila (CNN Philippines Life)  In the Daughters of Charity compound in Paranaque, a group of girls gather in the development center. Linking arms as they walk, the girls talk calmly  without the high-pitched giggles that teen girls usually fill rooms with. After all, they arent talking about schools and crushes; instead, the girls are exchanging stories on how to raise their babies.

Its a situation thats shared by many young women in the country. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, one in 10 Filipina teens aged 15-19 is already a mother. Likewise, almost 60 percent of the girls who drop out of school do so because of marriage or family matters. The Department of Health (DOH) also attributed early pregnancy to several factors, including peer pressure, having a broken family, lack of parental guidance, and curiosity.

Teenage moms are exposed to more health problems as compared to women who become mothers in their later years, teens tend to have shorter intervals between births, and the fact that their bodies are not as fully developed for childbearing presents more risks, including death. To exacerbate this issue, more than a quarter of teenage moms here do not give birth in health facilities.

There are several government programs aimed at supporting teenage mothers, including the Department of Healths Adolescent Health and Development Program, which provides several health services and trainings for teenagers. The Department of Social Welfare and Development also has a program for Solo Parents where they provide livelihood, education, and psychological support. Other institutions working on this issue include the National Youth Commission and the Commission on Population, among many others.

However, in a country where being a woman is already a challenge, being a teenage mother earning a meager income is an immense struggle  one that cannot be sustained without any continuous and significant support from both the community and the government.

CNN Philippines Life talked to three girls who shared their stories about their experiences.

Raiza Lasquites had her son Jhonrich when she was only 14. While her mother initially refused to talk to Raiza, she eventually advised her daughter to keep the child instead of having an abortion. Photo by ELOISA LOPEZ

Raiza Lasquites, 15

At first glance, youd think Raiza was simply carrying her one-year-old brother to the development center. However, baby Jhonrich is Raizas own son, who she had when she was 14.

Yung una ko pong naisip  paano na yung sarili ko kung ganito mangyayari sa akin, magkaka-anak ako? While her mother initially refused to talk to Raiza, she eventually advised her daughter to keep the child instead of having an abortion, for fear that her life would lead nowhere if she did. So Raiza stopped school by Grade 6, and decided to work at the development center, helping the nuns feeding program by peeling skins off of bean sprouts.

Raiza says her pregnancy was a result of her acting out against her mother, because the latter used to shower more attention on Raizas older brother and also mistreated her. Raiza then met Jhonrichs father, a construction worker. He wasnt a classmate in school. Nakatambayan ko lang po [siya], Raiza admits.

The guy stayed, who young Raiza now calls asawa. Their parents became supportive of the two, and her mother taught her how to bathe and change diapers, as well as how to prepare milk in the early morning, which Raiza sees as the hardest part of her day. Tuwang-tuwa nga po sila kasi nagka-apo po sila na lalaki, she says.

Combining their meager earnings, the couple barely have enough to support their little family, and much less to spend for any sudden illnesses. Jhonrich once caught typhus, and had to be hospitalized. Raiza and her husband had to borrow money from relatives, and he worked extra hours at the construction site to pay for the bills. They incurred so many debts that they eventually had to stop buying food.

Di bale na pong wala kaming pagkain basta may gatas lang yung anak namin, she asserts.

Despite all this, Raiza says that her baby has been a tremendous blessing to their family, and that his energy has brought joy to her life as a young mom. Kasi po pag nakikita ko po yung anak  kapag kunwari pagod na pagod ako sa gawaing bahay, kapag kinikiss-an ako ng anak ko, nawawala po agad yung pagod ko.

Masarap din sa pakiramdam na kahit naging batang ina ako, nakikita ko na kahit papaano, nakakaya ko na itaguyod silang dalawa, says Judy-Ann De Quiroz, who had her first baby during her first year in college. Photo by ELOISA LOPEZ

Judy-Ann De Quiroz, 20

The eldest among her siblings, Judy-Ann was expected to finish her college degree in BS IT and support her parents. But in her first year in college, she gave birth to her first baby. A little more than a year later, she gave birth to her second. Sobrang hirap mamuhay talaga ng anak, sa totoo lang po, she says. Kung yung isa iiyak, sasabay yung isa. Di mo alam sinong uunahin.

The father of her children is now out of the picture. Hiniwalayan ko na rin po kasi  magbibigay lang siya kapag naisipan lang niya. Parang wala ring kuwenta, she says.

Until recently, Judy-Ann worked as a sales clerk in a mall to support her children, despite the salary not being enough. She shares that every month, she struggles to budget 3,000, and that she has resorted to downsizing her purchases  like buying sachets of milk instead of boxes or cans. She hopes to earn 5,000 for her kids.

But with contractualization, she was even forced to leave her job. Sa ibang mall na naman maga-apply kaya nag-decide na lang din ako na mag-aral na lang [para] makakuha ako ng mas matinong trabaho, yung talagang permanent, she says. She is returning to first year college.

Judy-Ann says that she has been extremely lucky to have supportive parents. Whenever she has a hard time, Judy-Ann opens up to her mom, whom she says is the only person who can understand her problems. They help pay for milk and diapers, and still house her and her two kids.

Judy-Ann cant help but break down crying as she talks about finding her new purpose in life as a single mother. Masarap din sa pakiramdam na kahit naging batang ina ako, nakikita ko na kahit papaano, nakakaya ko na itaguyod silang dalawa. Masarap din po sa feeling [na] nakikita [ko] silang lumalaki ... sobrang saya ko kahit wala silang tatay, she shares.

Without sex education in their school and community, Judy-Ann shares that many of her friends ended up becoming teen moms as well. She hopes that moving forward, the government provides scholarships to other young girls like her so that they can go back to school and receive proper education.

Sa batch ko, di masyadong pinag-uusapan yung sex education  Kahit di ituro, alam mo kung ano dapat. Nasa amin yun eh kung susundin namin yung itinuturo, kung matutukso kami, says Joyce-Anne Borja, who became pregnant during her sophomore year in college. Photo by ELOISA LOPEZ

Joyce-Anne Borja, 23

Joyce-Anne was already a second year college student taking up Computer Science when she became pregnant with her son. She has since broken up with the father of her son, who wasnt ready for the responsibility. Pinili kong makipaghiwalay, kaysa di naman okay tapos wala naman siyang trabaho. Siyempre parehas pa kaming bata pa, she says.

Her biggest support came from her family, after they overcame their initial shock. Siyempre diba wala namang matutuwang nanay na pinag-aaral mo anak mo tapos ganyan yung nangyari, she recalls. Siyempre malungkot sila pero natanggap nila nung lumabas na yung baby. Thankfully, her parents did not force her to marry her boyfriend, as other parents tend to do. Instead, they told her to marry at the right age, and to first focus on raising her son.

Now, Joyce-Anne has stopped going to school to work as an accounting staff earning 10,000. She uses the money not only to support her son but also to contribute to the house as a way of giving back. Di naman puwede iaasa mo lahat sa pamilya mo. Kaya nagtrabaho ako, para mabigay ko yung pangangailangan ng anak ko, kahit mahirap, she says. Sobrang hirap.

For a 23-year-old, Joyce-Anne exudes an air of control over her life, and says that she didnt consider herself a naive young girl when she got pregnant. In the same way, she would like to challenge her peers to take more responsibility for their actions. Sa batch ko, di masyadong pinag-uusapan yung sex education  Kahit di ituro, alam mo kung ano dapat. Nasa amin yun eh kung susundin namin yung itinuturo, kung matutukso kami, she says.

As a word of warning, Joyce-Anne wants other young girls to know that she had to let go of her dreams inorder to become a teenage mom, and that they should think of the consequences before putting themselves in risky situations.

She hopes that the government provides other teenage moms like her a second shot at education. She also hopes to find more livelihood opportunities, since she knows her parents wont be able to support her and her son forever.

Nevertheless, Joyce-Anne remains hopeful. Marami pang panahon, bata pa naman ako... Marami pang mangyayari.
When Culinaria joined the celebration of San Antonios UNESCOs City of Gastronomy designation, it created three food trails marking the citys iconic tacos, barbecue and margaritas.

Just two problems: We didnt agree with all their choices, and they didnt tell you what to order when you got there. So we fixed that.
An ongoing disturbance in New Braunfels ended when one man shot and killed another with a rifle early Sunday morning, according to the New Braunfels Police Department.

Police responded to a reported gunshot victim at about 1:30 a.m. Sunday, and found George Gabriel Casillas, 37. He was suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, and was taken to the San Antonio Military Medical Center, where he died from his injuries, NBPD said.
A 17-year-old woman was hospitalized Sunday after she was shot in the arm on the North Side, police said.

Police responded to the shooting call at about 10:30 p.m. at the Summit Apartment Homes in the 1900 block of Larkspur. Shortly thereafter, the victim pulled into a nearby gas station asking for help.
San Antonio police arrested a man Sunday accused of shooting another man in the stomach at a North Side bar because the victim asked the suspect's estranged wife on a date.

Jose Ytuarte, 31, is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to Bexar County jail records.

On April 1, police were called to the Speedway Bar, in the 8800 block of Grissom Road, around 9:45 p.m. and found one man who was shot in the stomach. The shooter fled on a motorcycle, officials said.

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Witnesses told police the victim was talking to Ytuarte's wife outside the bar and asked her on a date, according to an arrest affidavit. Ytuarte overheard the conversation and started an argument, police said.

Ytuarte's wife told police she and her husband have been separated for months and live at different locations.

Surveillance video showed Ytuarte pulling a gun from his pocket and shooting the man in the stomach before fleeing, according to Ytuarte's affidavit.

RELATED: SAPD: Gunman at large after shooting woman on North Side

Ytuarte's criminal record includes a conviction for continuous violence against a family member in 2012. He was sentenced to two years of prison in that case.

Ytuarte posted his $40,000 bail and was released from jail Sunday, records showed.

Fares Sabawi covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County. Read him on our breaking news site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com | fsabawi@mysa.com|@FaresInSA
The national debate on race  which the president has made more angry and urgent with his racial demagoguery  is hindered by imprecise language.

Most whites do not feel personally guilty for Americas long history of imposed white supremacy. A white man who has lost his job at the coal mine or the daughter of a recent Ukrainian immigrant probably does not regard himself or herself as privileged. And they are not likely to have an emotional investment in the debates over race that have dominated American history.

For a certain kind of conservative, this is the end of the story. The oppressors of blacks in the past are dead. Their grandchildren and great-grandchildren, in this view, cant be held responsible for sins they did not commit.

Americas racial dialogue is distorted by the use of the word guilt. To most people, guilt involves a conscious, personal decision to engage in some wrong. But this situation is more complex. Whether they realize it or not, white people in America benefit from centuries of enforced white dominance. And their current indifference helps perpetuate the social and economic advantages that have resulted.

What is important is not the feeling of guilt  though many of us might benefit from taking an honest inventory of our personal prejudices. What is important is a recognition that our economic and social systems have been massively rigged in favor of whites, and that the unrigging is a continuing political responsibility.

Examining American history for evidence of oppression is a disturbingly easy task. Even a skim reveals a thick layer of scum.

The great rigging began about 400 years ago, when around 20 slaves were brought to Jamestown. The white settlers wrote laws that placed slaves and indentured servants in different categories  allowing poor whites to be slave overseers and permitting black slaves to be punished more harshly. Virginias colonial government determined that baptism would not confer freedom on slaves  effectively allowing some Christians to own other Christians.

Many Christians employed the Bible to defend slavery, but in the late 18th century some Enlightenment science also purported to prove black racial inequality. The American Constitution did not recognize the full personhood of African Americans. One of the early acts of the new republic was to restrict citizenship to white males. In 1854, the California Supreme Court invoked a California state law that said, no black or mulatto person, or Indian, shall be allowed to give evidence in favor of, or against a white man. In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that blacks have no rights which the white man was bound to respect.

Slavery itself involved physical and psychological violence on a massive scale, designed to prevent men and women from considering and organizing opposition. Marriage and education were restricted or forbidden, families were routinely separated, and slaves could usually be beaten, raped or killed with impunity.

While slavery eventually ended, economic and political oppression did not. White supremacy was written into Jim Crow laws and enforced by continued public and private violence. Voting rights were systematically denied. Sundown towns made it illegal for blacks to remain after dark. And nearly 4,000 lynchings revealed the evil at the heart of dehumanization. Sometimes thousands of white men, women and children would gather to watch the event. In some cases, fingers of the victim were cut off as souvenirs. Unborn children were ripped out of wombs. Corkscrews were used to tear out flesh. Men and women were beaten and burned to death.

The list continues. Redlining and restrictive covenants undermined black homeownership. Unions were permitted to lock nonwhites out of better jobs. Educational integration was resisted by segregation academies. Equal justice was resisted by white juries.

In all this, racism is not primarily a matter of human feelings. It is the systematic use of political, economic, social and religious structures to ensure white supremacy. And no response is serious that does not take the reform of structures seriously.

Conservatives and liberals will naturally disagree about how to close the wealth gap between African Americans and whites. (The average wealth of white households is about seven times greater than that of black households.) But such inequality is not a matter of bad feelings. It was consciously and purposely built into institutions over centuries. And it must be consciously and purposely undone.

michaelgerson@washpost.com
Front row from left: Director for Livestock Lonny Bong, Director for DARD, Antoine Ravo (center), Dr Sarah James, Policy and Planning Support Officer, DARD, and Senior Management Team
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa has come under criticism for seemingly mocking the countrys currency, real time gross settlement dollars (RTGS$) at an event where he said the Cyclone Idai-induced floods that wreaked havoc in the Eastern Highlands, killing 268 and displacing over 16 000 others, were a blessing in disguise for opening the countrys lines with hostile Western countries.

Addressing the victims in Chimanimani on Thursday where he took some of presidential candidates in last years elections on a tour to assess the damage caused by the floods, Mnangagwa waxed lyrical at the US$2,5 million relief fund from United States President Donald Trump.

But the most exciting one is about Trump. Do you know him, the President of America; the one who slapped us with sanctions? Mnangagwa said excitedly.

Yesterday (Wednesday), he sent his ambassador. He brought US$2,5 million. Two and a half million dollars; the real US dollars; their own money and not our RTGS$! Trump said if we still wanted some help, we can approach their South African office. Things change. To ask us what we want and this coming from Trump. This (the disaster) is a blessing in disguise.

Mnangagwa revealed that he had received three letters from Britains royal family after the disaster, something that otherwise may never have happened. He also revealed that the country could benefit a lot from the Unites Arab Emirates.

As you know, we crossed each other with the British over the land reform programme, but let me tell you what happened. This cyclone was a blessing in disguise, halellua! he said

The queen, Queen Elizabeth herself wrote a letter to us, saying she has heard of our disaster and asking what form of help she can give us. It didnt end there. Her son, who will take over from her, Prince Charles, the (former) husband to the late Princes Dianna. The one who, when we had our independence, came to take back the British flag while we hoisted ours, also wrote his letter.

Prince Charles son, William, also wrote. Three letters coming from Britain, this has never happened before. They (the Royal Family) said the relationship between Zimbabwe and Britain has come a long way and this should continue. We appreciate what the Royal Family has done.

Friday, people took to social media to attack Mnangagwa, describing him as insensitive for seemingly mocking the countrys currency, which he forced on Zimbabweans. Others claimed Mnangagwa did not know the implications of his statements and excitement of aid money.

MDC spokesperson Jacob Mafume said it was sad for a President to say the misfortune of his people brought him luck.

Its bizarre for the President to say he is now able to talk to Trump because many people died. He is disconnected from the people. If a President is mocking his own currency, it means he is not earning in that currency, Mafume said.

National Patriotic Front spokesperson Jealousy Mawarire accused Mnangagwa of celebrating the political opportunities opened for him by the calamity that befell his citizens. He also castigated him for forcing bond notes on people, yet he was levitating at the prospect of receiving US dollars.

He seemed very happy about the US$2,5 million because he has at his disposal real money to hire more private jets. At the same time, he has the RTGS to give to Cyclone Idai victims, instead of the donated real money, he said.

Mawarire said it was sad that Mnangagwa seemed excited about a funeral assistance fund coming from a country his lieutenant (Victor-the War Veterans deputy minister) Matemadanda had been castigating and accusing of fronting a regime change agenda.

Build Zimbabwe Alliance leader Noah Manyika said it was unfortunate that Mnangagwa was celebrating the catastrophe at a time victims were still looking for their missing relatives.

When hundreds of people have lost their lives and thousands made homeless due to a catastrophic event like Cyclone Idai, that is hardly the time for a government whose incompetent response resulted in more lives being lost to celebrate the aid brought by the disaster, Manyika said.

According to the President in recorded remarks yesterday, he was delighted that the Americans had donated real money, not RTGS$ which clearly to him is not real money. These are astonishing remarks at a time his Finance minister (Mthuli Ncube) is accusing businesses of profiteering by essentially setting their prices according to the value of real money and not the phantom currency the president himself has just confirmed RTGS$ to be.

Political analyst Alexander Rusero said people were reading too much into Mnangagwas statements and in the process giving them unnecessary attention.

We ought to be able to distinguish between Mnangagwas institutional role as President and also his status as a political actor. Mnangagwas utterances at a rally where he is posturing about his efforts and ability to fundraise cannot be rebuked neither should they get attention or noise that they are receiving. Put simply, Mnangagwa was addressing villagers and tried to the best of his capabilities to be a President with a simplistic view of economy and economics. That surely doesnt warrant criticism. Sadly, ED isnt the best orator whose speeches do not move crowds.

 NewsDay

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Mthuli, Mangudya must resign over RTGS dollars

At least six weeks after Mangudya presented a wishy wash, self contradictory and retrogressive Monetary Policy Statement, Zimbabweans are paying the price.

The exchange rate is collapsing every day, the price of the US dollar continues to firm against the fictitious RTGS dollar.

It is fictitious both by definition and by reality; sadly ED Mnangagwa is creating jokes around it.

He flanks himself with his chief economic aides  John Mangudya and Mthuli Ncube to make terrible economic decisions which worsen the suffering of the citizen.

The MDC finds this unacceptable.

We find it unacceptable for Mnangagwa to insult a currency which he imposed on the people and legislated through the back door by way of an unconstitutional statutory instrument.

He is not only responsible for its creation but the fundamentals around it both the objective circumstances (Trade position or the relationship between exports and imports) and the subjective (The social contract or its absence thereof).

There are unending spikes of prices of basic commodities.

The fuel crisis is worsening.

We made the point that the monetary policy should have removed the role of RBZ in allocating funds for fuel.

The fuel industry has the capacity to import on its own and shortages would not be an issue.

This is also true with any other quasi fiscal activity pronounced together with the introduction of the so-called RTGS dollar.

RBZ Governor John Mangudya and Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube must resign.

The country requires genuine structural reforms. Sadly and strangely, the man who pretends to be doing this work is celebrating turning the nation into beggars.

MDC Defining a New Course for Zimbabwe

Jacob Mafume

MDC National Spokesperson

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It is likely of little comfort to those of you in the Uk who are dreading the outcome of this weeks European Council meetings. As well discuss, the apparent best outcome the UK can hope for, in terms of the near-term impact on ordinary citizens, that of a one-year extension, is virtually certain to solve nothing. And you can fuggedaboud Mays proposal to Donald Tusk last week, of an extension to June 30.

As many have said, the way Brexit came about and has been prosecuted is a tragedy, not just for the UK but for Europe, and for the naive idea that economic integration would be a force for peace. Narrowly, it was: Europe has been free of war since the World War II conflagration. But as we are now seeing, tighter ties have led to the growth of international firms, and with their rise, inequality in advanced economies has also risen sharply. One can go through a long list of reasons, not all of which can be linked to more globalization, but many can. And perhaps more important, the rise of a global elite meant that not enough well placed people cared about curbing the rise in inequality; its obvious virtually all of them greatly enjoy it. Nevertheless, national economies can blunt inequality through taxing and spending policies (witness Japan, which still has the best social indicators in the world despite having an aging population and falling relative per capita income).

Since the EU will makes its big decision on April 10 and 11, its not clear how much benefit there is in tracking the details of Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn trying to come to an understanding. As Richard North describes long form, the ideas under discussion are so confused as to not map on to the benefits they hope to achieve, most importantly, frictionless trade. This tweet gives a brief take:

Nevertheless, May attempted to put lipstick on the pig of her Brexit mess:

Chris Grey highlighted one important issue: that May proposed her non-starter of an extension to June 30 as a way to slip Parliaments leash:

The Cooper Bill  proposed by Labour MP Yvette Cooper, who has emerged as one of the parliamentary stars of Brexit  requires the Prime Minister, within a day of it passing, to seek MPs approval to apply to the EU for an extension to the Article 50 period. The length of extension proposed would be of the Prime Ministers choosing, but could be amended by MPs. Although Theresa May had already said she would be applying for an extension, the difference is that under this legislation parliament would control the application and its period. The Bill was passed by the Commons on third reading by, again, just one vote. The following day it went to the House of Lords where it was subject to extensive and shameless filibustering from Brexiter peers. It is ironic to recall that the wrecking tactics of the unelected House of Lords were cited by Theresa May as one reason for calling her ill-fated snap election in 2017. It could only delay matters until Monday, but that delay mattered because in the meantime Theresa May has submitted her request for an extension  until 30 June. This seems to be an attempt to avoid being subject to the putative Cooper Act, perhaps simply for the symbolic reason of wanting it to seem to be the government rather parliament is driving events. That would be a fairly typical piece of May game-playing. I am not clear what, if anything, now happens when the Bill is passed (or, even, whether it will now be pulled). But on the substantive issue of extension and its length the decision rests with the EU in any case.

It is well over my pay grade to determine whether this maneuver was May being May, or whether it was done with the intent of putting her extension request outside Coopers bill, and thus at least avoiding the possibility that it could trigger an accidental crash out (by forcing May to come back to Parliament for approval of a change in the extension, which would have decent odds of not being able to be executed by the end of April 12).

But back to question of what the EU will propose, assuming that Leo Varadkar is correct when he says that the EU is unlikely to deny a delay to Brexit. Donald Tusk has been pushing for a one-year extension, and the press in the past reported that the EU was considering a nine-month extension. If so, the EU either badly misapprehends what is happening in the UK, or simply doesnt know what to do, save it does not want to be able to be painted as kicking the UK out of the EU, even though the EU has already done more than it was obligated to do by granting any relief whatsoever.

One out would be if May fails to authorize participation in European Parliament elections (Clive has given the matter a look and its not at all clear whether the Government can approve them on its own or whether Parliament must bless them). This is a red line for the EU for legal reasons: the legitimacy of the entire incoming Parliament could be called into question, meaning the validity of any acts, if the UK were still in the EU but not represented). This would seem to be the only clean hands way for the EU to deny an extension (assuming that there are more nations than France so inclined but still reluctant to play the heavy).

It is hard to see how anything changes in the UK with respect to Brexit in a year. Perhaps the EU is hoping, as happened with other referendums, that the first result will be reversed. But even a year isnt enough runway. While a referendum that ran like clockwork could be completed in 24 weeks, its inconceivable that one in the UK would go quickly, if nothing else due to scheming by Ultras.

But the bigger impediment is it is hard to think of how to organize a one-round referendum that would produce results that have legitimacy. The Ultras would howl at no-deal not being an option, and even now, roughly 25% of UK voters still favor no deal. If you have three options, no deal, Mays deal or an improved version of that, and Remain, the odds are decent that no option gets a majority. And thats before you get to the fact that a second referendum was nixed by Parliament last week and the Government remains opposed to one.

Similarly, there no obvious path to a general election. Under the Fixed Term Parliaments Act, it would take a vote of no confidence or a vote of 2/3 in the House. Right now, Labour is ahead in the polls, making it unlikely that the Tories and the DUP will be the turkeys that voted for Thanksgiving. From Politicos morning European newsletter:

EXCLUSIVE POLL: As the U.K.s Conservatives struggle to deliver Brexit and with a general election now looking within the realm of possibility, an exclusive poll for POLITICO suggests voters have lost trust in the party on core issues. In swing seats across the country, the Tories trail Labour on the central issues people most care about, a new POLITICO-Hanbury tracker poll found. Generally unhappy: There is deep discontent with the two main parties, which are both seen as out of touch and incompetent. Yet it is the Tories who now trail overall on the core issues ranked as the most important by the public  Brexit, crime, housing and health. Big but: Despite the negative view of the party and its handling of Brexit, Theresa May is still seen as the stronger leader compared to her opposition counterpart Jeremy Corbyn, who, the survey suggests, is the significant block to Labour pulling away in the polls.

And thats before considering that Labour has no workable idea about what to do about Brexit, and the Tory party could splinter, to the advantage of UKIP. Recall how much influence UKIP had despite winning effectively no seats in Parliament. What would a resurgent UKIP, running on the theme of betrayal do to sorting out Brexit and UK politics generally?

The shorter version, from the EUs vantage: the Brexit negotiations were an exercise in Groundhog Day, with the UK refusing to hear the word no and repeatedly coming back with at best mildly reformulated versions of the same demand. UK pols and the press are still as out to lunch about basic issues regarding possible future arrangements with the EU as they were three years ago. Correctly, as a condition of getting an extension, EU leaders had demanded the UK present a path by which it could arrive at a different answer than its current impasse. Giving the UK another year looks likely to produce another year of unproductive melodrama. And businesses on the whole seem to think that having crash out risk still very much in the picture is at least as costly as having it take place now by virtue of having to defer investments and other important decisions and spend resources more than once on contingency planning.

As Robert Peston says in a new column:

Pretty much everyone I meet says they want all the Brexit uncertainty to end, one way or another. But that is now impossible: even agreement  which seems remote  on some version of the PMs deal to take us out of the EU would only be a beginning of a sort, not an end, with so much left to decide on what kind of future relationship we need and deserve with the EU. And if there is no backing from MPs for the Withdrawal Agreement that is the divorce from the EU, then we are into a series of choices whose consequences would be to lead to various forms of national and international fission. Every option, from a no-deal Brexit to a referendum, or even revocation of the decision to leave, leads to some combination of UK nations (England versus Northern Ireland and Scotland) or social groups (to simplify, nationalist low-income Brexiters versus internationalist wealthier Remainers) shouting treachery and betrayal. There is no Brexit peace to be had. For many years. Or at least none I can see.

And remember how Richard North had pointed out that May had said that the only way to Brexit was via her Withdrawal Agreement? That apparently was not posturing. Again from Peston:

The greatest fear of all for the Macrons of the EU is that a new UK prime minister  which there will certainly be within the coming year  would use the delay to rip up the Withdrawal Agreement, or the divorce settlement, which is seen within the EU as the single achievement of Brexit talks to date. Tory leadership hopefuls Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab have more-or-less pledged to do just that. The EU27 and Tusk are agonising about how to pre-empt and prevent that. It wont be easy. So it would be dangerous and naive to assume the EU will roll over and offer the long extension which Tusk moots.

The Financial Times gives details in Macron heads calls to impose tough conditions on Brexit delay:

Mr Macron, increasingly frustrated by the deadlock in Britain, wants guarantees that the UK will not use its continuing presence as a departing member of the EU to disrupt the blocs business, including its multiyear budget. As part of any extension of the exit process, European capitals are debating a code of conduct which would flesh out Mrs Mays pledge to abide by the principle of sincere co-operation to avoid undermining the bloc while the UK remains a member state. We cant treat a member state thats leaving in the same way as one that is there forever, said a senior French official. Paris is seeking legally binding assurances from the UK that it would not tip the balance in any sensitive EU decisions over coming months. In practice this would mean Britain abstaining in any vote on selecting a new European Commission president, on deciding the long-term EU budget, or in legislative negotiations where the UK could block progress But one EU official said that setting genuinely binding constraints on the UK would be extremely difficult, since no such decision could curtail the UKs treaty rights as a member state.

Its hard to see how the EU could get adequate commitments from the UK in the short April 10 to April 12 time period, particularly when the UK demonstrated it was not agreement capable. May first reneging on the settled Withdrawal Agreement due to the backstop, and now the tug of war between an incompetent and divided Government and an incompetent and divided Parliament for control.

So even if the EU takes what would appear to be the easy path and gives the UK a long extension, the result will be more strife, in the UK and between the UK and the EU. Put it another way: protracting the process wont make it any nicer.
Local couple married 82 years shares secrets to lasting marriage WSOC TV

Coral reproduction on Great Barrier Reef falls 89pc after repeated bleaching Asian Correspondent

This is the biggest female python ever captured in the Everglades Big Cypress, researchers say Miami Herald

They would have laughed London Review of Books. Ferdinand Mount.

Heres the real reason why Terracotta Army weapons are so well-preserved Ars Technica

In a Poor Kenyan Community, Cheap Antibiotics Fuel Deadly Drug-Resistant Infections NYT

Shell Sued in the Netherlands for Insufficient Action On Climate Change Climate Liability News

Himalayan glaciers on the eve of destruction Asia Times (The Rev Kev). Pepe Escobar

Future of connected cars in Europe faces critical vote FT

Waste Watch

Libya

Big Brother IS Watching You Watch

Facebook are morally bankrupt, pathological liars  NZ Privacy Commissioner NZ Herald (MG)

UK to keep social networks in check with internet safety regulator CNET

Health Care

Venezuela

2020

737 Max

Class Warfare

MMT

China?

India

Trump Transition

Antidote du Jour (via)



See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here
Nature has manufactured the perfect machines. Only the fastest, toughest, and most cunning creatures have endured. We examine how animals have evolved and how we can benefit from their evolution.

Sundays from 8:30pm AEDT.
On 3 and 4 April 2019, NATOs Political Affairs and Security Policy Division hosted a group of journalists from the Arab Republic of Egypt. The visit was part of a long standing programme of public diplomacy activities within the framework of NATOs Mediterranean Dialogue.

The Egyptian journalists attended briefings by representatives of NATOs International Staff and engaged in substantive exchanges of views and discussions on topics related to NATOs political agenda, operations and missions, NATO-Russia relations, cyber defence, counter terrorism and NATO-Egypt cooperation in the framework of NATOs Science for Peace and Security Programme (SPS).
(Natural News) The official policy of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is that so-called biosolids, the somewhat-treated raw sewage collected from wastewater treatment plants, is safe and good for Americas crops and cropland. But as revealed in a powerful, behind-the-scenes interview, this cant be true because a little-known EPA report reveals that the EPA doesnt even know what chemicals and pollutants are making their way into biosolids.

In conjunction with the release of the new Brighteon Films documentary Biosludged, which is available for viewing at Biosludged.com, Texas resident Craig Monk conducted an exclusive interview with our team, revealing the truth about biosludge that youll never hear from the mainstream media.

After experiencing the horrors of biosludge first-hand near his Midlothian home, Monk has been on a mission ever since to learn everything there is to know about this toxic waste being peddled on the masses as natural fertilizer. And one of the things hes discovered is that biosludge isnt properly safety tested  meaning there could be almost anything in it.

The effluent thats dumped into rivers from sewage plants, the Office of Inspector General states that it contains chemicals that they dont even acknowledge, Monk warns about the unknown makeup of biosludge.

EPAs Office of Inspector General Report 14-P-0363, to make a long story short, states that the EPA is not watching the effluent coming from sewage plants, and that there are chemicals that they dont even acknowledge flowing into those rivers, and then into our drinking water.

Be sure to watch the official trailer for Biosludged below:

The EPA hasnt updated its priority pollutant list in nearly 30 years

The EPA report in question, which is available for viewing at the EPA website, states bluntly that the EPA does not have the proper mechanisms to address discharge of hazardous chemicals into water resources. And how could it, seeing as how the federal agency doesnt even keep up with the many thousands of chemicals that are dumped into wastewater every single day?

The EPA has not revised its priority pollutant list since 1983, and you can read that in 14-P-0363, says Monk.

The EPA makes it mandatory that industry dumps their hazardous and acute hazardous waste into the sewage system. There are some reports that the industry has to give on what theyre dumping. But I really dont think that theyre monitoring that, having read the 14-P document from 09, 2014.

Monk decided to dig even further, contacting the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for answers. But this, too, led to the revelation that not only the EPA, but TCEQ, and likely many other similar agencies around the country, have no clue which chemicals and other pollutants might be lingering in biosludge.

We queried David Galindo, the director of water quality at the TCEQ, about 14-P-0363, Monk explains. And his reply was that the EPA has not made any rule change, according to him, and that there was nothing that theyre doing about it.

In other words, nobody can say for sure whats actually contained in biosludge. But that isnt going to stop federal and local regulatory bodies from continuing to allow it to be spread all over American food crops  because, after all, theres a lot of money at stake should anything ever get in the way of the toxic biosludge agenda.

Theyre allowing it because of money, Monk says plainly, noting that many people would be out of a job were the truth to ever have an impact on actual policy.

Be sure to check out the entire Biosludged documentary for FREE at Biosludged.com.

You can also keep up with the latest biosludge news at Biosludge.news.

Sources for this article include:

Brighteon.com

BrighteonFilms.com

Biosludged.com

EPA.gov

NaturalNews.com
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 8)  Malacanang on Monday slammed the five senators from the United States who filed a measure seeking to drop the charges against detained Philippine Senator Leila De Lima and journalist Maria Ressa.

Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said U.S. Senators Edward Markey (Massachusetts), Marco Rubio (Florida), Richard Durbin (Illinois), Marsha Blackburn (Tennessee) and Chris Coons (Delaware) should focus on their country's own problems instead of meddling in the Philippines' affairs.

"The five US senators who called for the release of Senator Leila de Lima and the dropping of charges against Rappler and Ms. Maria Ressa should mind their own business - their country has enough problems and they should focus on them," he said in a statement.

The U.S. 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.

Panelo claimed the senators were blinded by false narratives, saying the cases of de Lima and Ressa have passed through administrative and judicial processes

The presidential spokesperson described the bipartisan resolution condemning alleged human rights abuses in the Philippines as an "unwelcome intrusion" into the country's legal process.

"The Republic of the Philippines is not under the dominion of the United States of America or any of its high-ranking officials. The US senators' resort to a reckless and unstudied political exercise only highlights their unfamiliarity with the domestic matters of our country as well as their disrespect to the clamor of the Filipino people for law and order," he said.

Senator Panfilo "Ping" Lacson also hit back at the U.S. senators, highlighting the Philippines has been out of the U.S. control for decades.

"More shame if we kowtow to those 5 overbearing US senators with all their arrogant display of colonialism towards an ally," he said in a series of tweets on Sunday.

He added a resolution from the Philippine Senate is appropriate to call out their U.S. counterparts.
Three men were arrested after firing paintballs in a Culvers parking lot and at a door of Dicks Sporting Goods in Madison on Friday

night.

Madison Police said a 57-year-old Madison man was hit directly in the chest with one paintball.

Witnesses at the Culvers on East Towne Boulevard reported 25 to 30 rounds of paintballs were fired by the three men.

Police said these same men shot 15 paintballs at the door of a nearby Dicks Sporting Goods.

Police said help from witnesses, evidence left at the scene, and surveillance images helped officers put out information on the getaway car. The car was pulled over by Monona Police near Stoughton Road on Highway 12.

Police recovered two paintball guns, 500 blue paintballs, and crack cocaine from the car.

21-year-old Rodney A. Jordan of Middleton was arrested for being party to the crimes of battery, disorderly conduct and criminal damage to property. 18-year-old Demetrius D. Staffney of Edgerton was arrested for being party to the crimes of battery, disorderly conduct and criminal damage to property. 28-year-old Carlton D. Jones of Chicago, Illinois was arrested for being party to the crimes of battery, disorderly conduct, criminal damage to property, and possession of cocaine.
The Alameda Police Department is looking for a person who was captured on camera yanking down a "thin blue line" American flag  designed to honor law enforcement  from a storefront last month.

Footage posted on the department's social media pages shows a person in a yellow jacket jump up, grab the flag and pull it off the building from where it was flying. The flag and the pole it was attached to hit the person as it fell to the ground. The person then tossed the flag on the sidewalk before walking away from the scene.

Can you ID pictured subject in connection to a vandalism that occurred in the 2400 block of Santa Clara Avenue on March 26, 2019?



The suspect removed an item from the victim's storefront & later returned to further vandalize the victim's property. 510-337-8340, case #19-01667 pic.twitter.com/mrxYc7MUOT  AlamedaPD (@AlamedaPD) April 8, 2019

According to police, the person later returned to the business  located along the 2400 block of Santa Clara Avenue  "to further vandalize the victim's property."

Anyone who can identify the person is asked to contact Alameda police at 510-337-8340.
A seven-month investigation across five countries with significant refugee populations has found widespread reports of the U.N.'s refugee agency UNHCR's staff members exploiting refugees, while victims and staff members who report wrongdoing say the agency fails to act against corruption, NBC News reports.

In interviews, more than 50 refugees registered with the UNHCR in Kenya, Uganda, Yemen, Ethiopia and Libya have described corruption and exploitation involving the agency's staff and personnel from other aid agencies, following similar claims by refugees in Sudan last year.

Refugees, current and former UNHCR employees, aid workers and two former U.N. investigators say bribery and corruption are found in a variety of services the UNHCR and companion organizations are charged with providing, but report that it is especially unavoidable in resettlement  a precious opportunity for the world's most vulnerable refugees to restart their lives in safe new countries, usually in the West.

UNHCR spokesperson Cecile Pouilly said the agency strongly denies the allegations of widespread corruption within the organization.
Four Americans and a local pilot are dead in Kenya after their helicopter crashed on an island in Lake Turkana in the north, police said Monday.

The Americans tourists killed were avid travelers and often documented their trips on their social media profiles, including sharing a number of videos and photos from their visit to Africa, NBC News reported.

The U.S. Embassy confirmed on Monday that Asher Burke, Brandon Stapper and Kyle Forti were among those who died when the helicopter they were in crashed on Lake Turkana Central Island Sunday night.

The crash occurred Sunday night in Central Island National Park as two helicopters took off after a visit to the Lobolo tented camp, according to an internal police report seen by The Associated Press.
Massachusetts members of Congress are proposing new federal pipeline safety requirements in response to September's natural gas explosions and fires in the Merrimack Valley.

A $1.5 million initiative to examine Massachusetts' natural gas distribution system following the disaster was unveiled alongside the family of 18-year-old Leonel Rondon, who was killed after being crushed by a chimney of a Lawrence house that had exploded. The bill is named in honor of Rondon.

U.S. Senator Ed Markey and U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan were among the officials announcing the proposed legislation Monday at a fire station in Lawrence.

"Our natural gas infrastructure is a ticking time bomb," Markey said. "And unless we reform it, repair it and rebuild it, we are assured to have a system-wide failure in communities across the nation."

"We must not allow preventable disasters of this sort to be repeated," Trahan said. "Particularly when there are literally thousands of miles of gas pipeline throughout our state."

The Democrats say their bill addresses deficiencies revealed by the Sept. 13 incident by "closing regulatory loopholes and increasing safety standards" for pipeline distribution systems.

Rondon's sister also spoke at Monday's event to call on Congress to act, along with Lawrence Mayor Daniel Rivera.

"Now is the time for Congress, the press and the courts to do whatever is necessary to ensure this kind of disaster never happens again to other families in Lawrence, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts or anywhere else in the U.S.," Lucianny Rondon said.

"The lack of pipeline safety caused the death of a kid in Lawrence," Rivera said. "His name was Leonel Rondon. No one should ever forget that."

Columbia Gas, along with its parent company, Nisource, put out a statement in reaction to the proposed bill.

"We have already approved the vast majority of the critical safety provisions, from automatic shut off devices to safety management systems to enhanced mapping to emergency preparedness and beyond," spokesman Dean Lieberman said. "We recognize the importance of rebuilding public confidence when it comes to pipeline safety.

The gas explosions were triggered by overpressurized gas lines and injured dozens of people, damaged hundreds of buildings and left thousands of customers without natural gas service for months.
Illinois residents have begun seeing advertisements for the new policies regarding Real ID cards, and there are a lot of questions that they likely have about the new program.

What is a Real ID, exactly? What do I need to get one? Why do I need to get one? We have answers to those questions and more in our 5 Things to Know About Real ID.

What is a Real ID, and how is it different from my drivers license now?

The Real ID Act is not a new law, having been passed by Congress in 2005, but after years of court battles and extensions, the new law will soon change the way that Illinois residents get into federally-controlled facilities or fly on aircraft.

The law was designed to make identification cards more secure and harder to duplicate or forge, and was part of the recommendations issued by the 9/11 Commission.

Real ID cards will allow bearers to fly on domestic flights and to visit federal facilities, and an Illinois drivers license without a gold star in the top right corner will not be accepted as identification for those purposes beginning next year.

Illinois drivers licenses are now compliant with the act as of January. If you have gotten a new drivers license in that time, and if it has a gold star on it, then it is compliant with the law.

Who will need a Real ID card?

If you fly on domestic flights or visit federal facilities, you will need a Real ID-compliant identification beginning next year. Residents are reminded that they can still use a United States passport for flying or for visiting federal facilities after that deadline passes, but would have to use that passport instead of a non-compliant drivers license.

What is the deadline to apply for a Real ID card?

Fortunately for travellers and residents, the cards will not be needed until Oct. 1, 2020, so there is still plenty of time to obtain one.

What will I need to apply for a Real ID card?

A Real ID card will cost the same as a drivers license ($30) or a state ID ($20).

In order to get a Real ID, residents will be required to visit a drivers services facility and provide documents that prove their identity, their Social Security number, a written signature, and two documents that show proof of residency.

-For proof of identity, a passport, a U.S. birth certificate, an employment authorization document, or a permanent resident card will be accepted.

-Residents will also need to provide proof of their Social Security number. A Social Security card, a W-2, or a pay stub with a Social Security number on it will be accepted.

-Residency documentation will also be required, so residents will need to provide at least two proofs of residency. Those can include a utility bill, a rental agreement, a deed/title, or a bank statement.

-Residents will need to provide proof of signature. A credit or debit card, a canceled check, or a current Illinois drivers license or ID can be used for proof of signature.

After providing those documents, residents will receive a temporary paper ID at the facility (although residents are reminded that the TSA will NOT accept that paper ID), and will receive their new ID in the mail within 15 business days.

When I receive a Real ID card, can I renew it by mail?

Residents will not be able to renew their Real ID cards by mail. You must visit a drivers services facility to renew your card.
Dairy farm worker Luis Jimenez gambles every time he drives without a license. Even a minor traffic stop could alert immigration agents that he is in the country illegally and lead to deportation.

But in the wide open spaces of upstate New York's farm country, supermarkets and job sites are often too far away for walking, there's not always somebody around to give you a ride, and catching a city bus or subway just isn't an option.

"Necessity forces us to take a risk," Jimenez said in Spanish as he drove home recently. "We have to work, we have to buy food. Sometimes we get sick and workers like me can't drive to a hospital, can't buy medicine. But I feel I need to take the risk so that my kids and my family can have a better life."

In New York and elsewhere, the idea of extending new privileges to those without legal immigration status has been resisted. But a renewed push across the country to allow them to get driver's licenses resonates strongly among those who make their living in the rural crop fields, dairy farms and fruit orchards where the need for everyday transportation can be the greatest.

Apple orchard worker Eladio Beltran, who is facing deportation after a traffic stop, says licenses also could alleviate the constant fear workers like him live under.

"We don't feel safe," Beltran said. "If you are in a vehicle and you see a cop, you know any time he can turn his lights on. And you end up arrested; you end up in Mexico."

Immigrants and their advocates have already gotten access to such licenses in a dozen states including California, Colorado and Illinois, some of them accepting state tax returns as identification. They are now targeting roughly a half-dozen states where they see a friendlier political landscape this year. That includes Wisconsin and New Jersey, where Democratic governors succeeded Republicans, and New York, where Democrats now are in total control of the Legislature.

"Now there's a new urgency to really try to get this done, and there is new political opportunity," said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera, an immigrant advocacy group based in Milwaukee.

The laws could give state-level protection to immigrants who fear more aggressive enforcement by federal immigration agents under the Trump administration. Bolstering those fears is the impending departure, announced over the weekend, of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen , who had been viewed as resistant to some of the harshest immigration measures supported by Trump and his aides.

Advocates say police would still be able to view drivers' past infractions, but they say immigrants producing a valid license will be less likely to face further questions and contact with federal agents.

In New York, farmworkers make up only about 10,000 of the estimated 265,000 immigrants without legal documents expected to get driver's licenses, according to the Fiscal Policy Institute. But they might get the most use out of licenses.

Ismael Castellanos is driven a mile daily from the home he shares with four other immigrant workers to the dairy farm where he cares for calves. Trips for a carton of milk or a dozen eggs can be more problematic, and pricey. The nearest grocery store is 8 miles away, and he pays people with cars between $30 and $40 per trip.

"You have to call the person and ask which afternoon he has off so he can drive you, so you do grocery shopping that day," Castellanos said in Spanish.

Castellanos, Beltran and Jimenez spoke to The Associated Press on the condition that names of the farms where they work are not disclosed. They are part of a group called Alianza Agricola, which is lobbying for the license law in New York.

It's unclear whether attitudes have changed much in New York since 2007, when then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer attempted to adopt such a license measure but was forced to back off amid withering political opposition. A poll from Siena College last month found New York residents still opposing the idea by almost 2 to 1.

State Sen. Daphne Jordan argues the law would lead to voter fraud, bank fraud and identity theft. The Albany-area Republican said an online petition she started found similarly strong opposition.

"If they want to stay here, then they should become citizens," Jordan said. "We have a system in our country. And it's there for a reason. And so just follow the system and be here legally, and that's the answer to all of it."

Advocates say the bill will help the state, as well as immigrants, thanks in part to additional revenue from car registrations and sales taxes. As immigrants register cars, they will buy insurance. They also point to a study that found states with license laws average lower traffic fatality rates, presumably because the immigrant drivers have passed state-administered driving exams.

"Not only does it protect the undocumented immigrant farmer who is harvesting our products, our agricultural products, but it protects society as a whole," said sponsoring state Sen. Luis Sepulveda, a Bronx Democrat.

Beltran said he faced possible deportation after being stopped for speeding in 2014 as he was driving to buy bronchitis medicine for one of his daughters. The local police notified Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which said it administratively halted his immigration proceedings in 2016 on humanitarian grounds.

Then in 2017, local police stopped him for driving the wrong way down a one-way street, according to federal officials. Beltran said he was driving to a gas station in an unfamiliar town. Police called Customs and Border Patrol officers, who arrested Beltran because of his reentry after a 2008 deportation. His immigration case was reopened, leading to a hearing in Buffalo next month.

The 32-year-old father of four continues to work, but the hearing is on his mind. On a recent cool spring morning, he trimmed a neat row of apple trees, knowing he might not see them bear fruit.

"I am working today but days go by fast. Will I go back to my family after entering immigration court?" he said. "If I get deported, when will I see them again?"

Associated Press writer Deepti Hajela contributed to this report.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 8)  The police crime laboratory in Central Visayas on Monday said there are no indications that Cebuana teenager Christine Lee Silawan was raped before she was brutally murdered.

Superintendent Benjamin Lara, medico-legal officer of the Philippine National Police Crime Laboratory in the region, told the media that no mixed DNA, abrasions or blood clots were found in the victim's genitalia.

Lara, however, did not dismiss the possibility that the victim was raped, saying the perpetrator could have just used a condom.

Silawan's body was found on March 11 in a vacant lot in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu. Her face was skinned with her skull exposed, prompting outrage among people on social media and a call for the reimposition of death penalty.

READ: Police search for three suspects in skinning, slay of Cebu student

READ: NBI finds Christine Silawan's blood on prime suspect's clothes

Silawan's former boyfriend was identified as the main suspect and arrested for the gruesome killing. The National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas has filed murder charges against the teenage suspect, who is currently in custody of a home-care facility of Lapu-Lapu City's social welfare and development office. The suspect has denied the allegation.

The Public Attorney's Office, however, insisted that Silawan was raped based on an autopsy conducted by the director of its forensic laboratory, Erwin Erfe, on March 22--a day before the victim was laid to rest.

Lara refuted Erfe's findings, arguing that the latter carried out the autopsy after the victim's body was embalmed twice. Lara conducted the autopsy on the day that Silawan's body was found.
One person was taken to the hospital in a private vehicle after shots were fired in Hartford Monday.

Police said shots were fired in the area of Enfield and Mather streets and the person who was injured went to Saint Francis Hospital. No information was immediately available on the persons condition.

The Hartford major crimes division is investigating.
Connecticut State Police are helping parents navigate the difficult world of teens and apps by touring the state and educating both adults and children on social media safety.

School Resource Officer Trooper Kate Cummings is the expert when it comes to kids socializing on social media. She goes to Connecticut schools and talks to students about the risks of certain apps and how to be smart online.

Police say Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube are the hands-down favorite apps for kids and young adults. However, Trooper Cummings showed NBC Connecticut that there are plenty of other apps parents should know about.

We have been doing these internet safety presentations. Over the course of the last four years, we have done about 350 -- communities, schools, with parents, caregivers, businesses, whoever will listen. And we like to ask kids their favorite apps. And we are seeing regionally within Connecticut that there is a big fascination with apps where things are anonymous, said Cummings.

School Resource Officer Trooper Kate Cummings is the expert when it comes to kids socializing on social media. She goes to Connecticut schools and talks to students about the risks of certain apps and how to be smart online.

Police said anonymous apps like Whisper, Sarahah, Burn Book and Hot or Not can lead to cyber bullying. They also recommend parents watch out for secret socializing on the apps Kik or House Party. They remind parents that most apps have some sort of message capabilities.

Police said the video making app TikTok or gaming apps like Fortnite, Minecraft and Roblox can be a breeding ground for predators to reach out to younger adolescents.

Parents get this false sense of security of, 'oh okay, it's a kid app,' but we know now that predators are aware of which apps are popular among elementary and middle school aged students. And so for them to go on and create a fake profile - it is much easier for them to start grooming children, said Cummings.

The next red flag for parents is if they see any dating apps such as Bumble, Grindr or Tinder. These apps are meant for adults only.

As a child, if you are downloading that it will automatically start pulling your location from our map feature on your phone and then it will show you where other users are. Unfortunately, we are seeing across the state, speaking with other school resource officers and youth officers, we have been seeing children under the age of 18 downloading these apps and using them as hookup apps, said Cummings.

One of the most troubling apps police said is called hidden calculator. The app both looks and acts like an actual calculator, however, if you type in a passcode it opens up a vault where you can store secret pictures and videos.

So this a great place for kids to hide pictures and videos that they don't want mom and dad to see, or internet sites that they are not supposed to go to. So when parents are checking phones periodically, if they see multiple calculators, that is a red flag that it is probably not a functioning calculator, said Cummings.

For parents, its a world tough to navigate. Police said kids are often sending nude photos, a crime if youre under the age of 16, and theyre not thinking about the consequences or risks.

I think a lot of parents feel they are behind the curve and kids are always going to be ahead of us because they spend so much time on it, said Cummings.

So what can parents do? Police suggest starting with three steps: communicate, control and research.

I think for parents, asking questions. Downloading the apps themselves, becoming familiar with it and then also having that control piece. So especially the younger kids you should have their user name and passwords for all of their accounts, said Cummings.

Police suggest parents ask kids what apps they like, why and who do they follow? Then download the apps and follow the same people. Parents should also remind kids that what goes online, stays online as part of their digital tattoo forever.

Police suggest parents go to this Common Sense Media website for help. They also recommend that parents download parental control apps on their young childrens devices and set boundaries early on.

If parents want help, Connecticut State Police often hold social media safety seminars across the state.

Here is a list of the upcoming dates:
The famous Simon and Garfunkel tune Bridge Over Troubled Water is getting a lot of play at Vinnys Deli in Wallingford.

Its almost like an American Idol of subs, says owner Vincent Iannuzzi.

Iannuzzi gives away free sub sandwiches to customers who belt out a few lines of the 1970 hit. Marjorie Tietjens husband saw the delis Facebook post and the couple decided to the restaurant for lunch for the first time.

I wasnt going to do it. But, here I am, she laughed.

Most customers are regulars, whove watched and waited for the 34.5-foot bridge over Wharton Brook to be back to normal.

Theres a brook. Its not the Connecticut River, its not the Q Bridge, its a tiny little brook, seven years, do the math, Iannuzzi said.

It just seems kind of ridiculous that this takes so long. The bureaucracy thats going on in this state is crazy, added customer Jim Iannini.

Other residents are concerned with the state of the site, which sits at the entrance to town.

Just look at the junkyard that the state has left us with, it has been this way for a year and a half, said Wallingford resident Jim Seichter.

Some customers took a playful approach to the song, adding their own lyrics.

Why is the bridge taking so long? I dont know. I pay my taxes, sang one customer whose rendition was posted on the delis Facebook page.

However, a spokesperson for the state Department of Transportation, which is in charge of the project, said this is no laughing matter. Kevin Nursick said the project was halted after the contractor discovered that as crews demolished one side of the bridge, the other, which was open to traffic, was being destabilized. Those unforeseeable conditions as he called them have forced the state to spend time reexamining how to move forward.

Iannuzzi said he first heard about plans to redo the bridge in 2004, and was told it would be finished in 2011, then 2019. Now, it may not be done until 2022.

The DOT is not going to speed up the project at the risk of public safety, said Nursick.

If its safety, then why is it 15 years later theres a half a bridge and were still not rushing to get the thing done, said Iannuzzi.

Its just very frustrating. It just seems to be totally ridiculous, added Wallingford resident Jim Seichter.

During construction, traffic was reduced to one lane, but both lanes have since reopened. However, the manager of the gas station across the street says customers tend to avoid the area now.

Its impacted us very badly because people dont want to go on the bridge because they say its hard to get into the store, said Yasar Choudhray, Global Food Mart manager.

Problems with the project have not only come at a cost to local businesses, but also to taxpayers, adding an extra $2 million to the price tag, which now sits at just under $6 million.

I hate to see money wasted and all this is wasted money, said Iannuzzi.

The state expects to start mobilizing construction crews on the project next month. Nursick said theyll have to secure one side before they can resume the original demolition and rebuilding project.
The Senate turned away from the Green New Deal on Tuesday as both parties shunned an opportunity to debate a comprehensive climate change plan offered by Democrats.

Republicans in the GOP-controlled Senate forced the vote as they seek to turn the Green New Deal into a wedge issue in the 2020 elections. Democrats called the GOP's move a "sham" and said it carries its own political risk by mocking an issue  climate change  that a growing number of Americans care deeply about.

Senators voted 57-0 against a procedural motion to take up the nonbinding resolution, which calls for the U.S. to shift away from fossil fuels such as oil and coal and replace them with renewable sources such as wind and solar power.

Three Democrats and independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, who caucuses with Democrats, joined all 53 Senate Republicans in opposing the climate plan. Forty-three Democrats voted "present" to protest the GOP's action. Democrats accused the GOP of quashing debate by blocking public hearings and expert testimony about the consequences of inaction on climate change.

In shifting the U.S. economy away from fossil fuels, the Green New Deal calls for virtual elimination by 2030 of greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global warming.

The plan has broad support among Democratic activists, and all six of the 2020 presidential contenders serving in the Senate have signed on as co-sponsors, putting it at the forefront of the party's sprawling primary race.

However, Democratic presidential candidate John Hickenlooper said Tuesday he opposes the Green New Deal. The former Colorado governor said the proposal sets "unachievable goals" and shuns the private sector.

Republicans say the plan would devastate the economy and lead to a huge tax increase. They call it more evidence of the creep of "socialism" in the Democratic Party, along with "Medicare for All" and a sweeping elections reform package that would allow public financing of congressional campaigns.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky scheduled Tuesday's vote, saying it would force Democrats to take a stand on a plan that "might sound like a neat idea in places like San Francisco or New York" but would result in communities across the country being "absolutely crushed."

By "basically outlawing the only sources of energy that working-class and middle-class families can actually afford," the Green New Deal would "kill off entire domestic industries" and eliminate millions of jobs, McConnell said. The plan could lead to a spike in household electric bills of more than $300 a month, he said.

President Donald Trump also weighed in against the plan, which the White House called "job crushing." At a luncheon with Senate Republicans, Trump urged lawmakers to keep the Green New Deal alive as an issue to use against Democrats.

"He said it's important to run against," said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D. Trump likes the way the Green New Deal makes Democrats "uncomfortable," said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, called the Green New Deal "ridiculous" and displayed pictures of dinosaurs, cartoon characters and babies as he derided the plan. He said he was treating it "with the seriousness it deserves."

One poster Lee displayed depicted President Ronald Reagan shooting a machine gun while riding a dinosaur that was holding a U.S. flag. The outlandish image was intended to illustrate the U.S. winning the Cold War, Lee said, but its fictional nature served a purpose: "Because this image has as much to do with overcoming communism in the 20th century as the Green New Deal has to do with overcoming climate change in the 21st," he said.

Lee's remarks enraged Democrats, who called climate change deadly serious, citing floods in the Midwest, wildfires in the West and hurricanes in the South.

"Climate change is not a joke," said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., the resolution's lead Senate author. "Mocking it is shameful."

Freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., the lead House author, trolled Lee's argument on Twitter. "If this guy can be Senator, you can do anything," she wrote to her 3.7 million followers.

New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, one of a half-dozen senators seeking the Democratic nomination for president, said Republicans treat climate change "as a game" and said Democrats "will not fall for this stunt."

Slowing climate change "should be our nation's moonshot" in the 21st century, Gillibrand said, calling it a generational challenge similar to the race to the moon in the 1960s.

"We don't know if we can get to net-zero carbon emissions in 10 years, but why not try?" she said at a rally before the Senate vote.

Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said Democrats were being hypocritical by refusing to vote for their own plan. "I've never seen a bill sponsored by a dozen people who don't want to vote on it," he said.

The Green New Deal goes far beyond energy to urge national health care coverage and job guarantees, high-quality education and affordable housing, as well as "upgrading all existing buildings in the United States" to be energy-efficient. Democrats have not specified a price tag, but Republicans say costs could run into the tens of trillions of dollars.

AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
The United States on Monday designated Iran's Revolutionary Guard a "foreign terrorist organization" in a move to increase pressure on the country that could also have significant military, diplomatic and economic implications throughout the Middle East and beyond.

It is the first time that the U.S. has designated a part of another government as a terrorist organization. The designation sparked retaliation from Iran, whose Supreme National Security Council designated the United States Central Command and all its forces as terrorist, and could potentially open hundreds of foreign companies and business executives to U.S. travel bans and possible prosecution.

"This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a state sponsor of terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft," President Donald Trump said.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the move is part of an effort to put "maximum pressure" on Iran to end its support for terrorist plots and militant activity that destabilizes the Middle East.

The designation blocks any assets that IRGC entities may have in U.S. jurisdictions and bars Americans from any transactions with it. When it takes effect next week, it will allow the U.S. to deny entry to people found to have provided the Guard with "material support" or prosecute them for sanctions violations. Those could include European and Asian companies and businesspeople who deal with the Guard's many affiliates.

"It makes crystal clear the risks of conducting business with, or providing support to, the IRGC," Trump said. "If you are doing business with the IRGC, you will be bankrolling terrorism."

Pompeo said the action should serve as a warning to corporate lawyers to ensure any business their companies do in Iran is not with any entity affiliated with the Guard.

The IRGC is a paramilitary organization formed in the wake of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution to defend the government. The force answers only to Iran's supreme leader, operates independently of the regular military and has vast economic interests across the country. The U.S. estimates it may control or have a significant influence over up to 50% of the Iranian economy, including non-military sectors like banking and shipping.

The State Department currently designates more than 60 organizations, including as al-Qaida and the Islamic State, Hezbollah and numerous militant Palestinian factions, as "foreign terrorist organizations." But none of them is a state-run military.

Iran had threatened to retaliate for the decision, and shortly after it was announced foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called on President Hassan Rouhani to include Mideast-based U.S. forces on Iran's own terrorist list, the official IRNA news agency reported. Zarif also sent a protest note over the U.S. designation to the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, which looks after the U.S. interests in Iran.

When the Supreme National Security Council's moved to designate the U.S. Central Command, also known as CENTCOM, as terrorist, it also labeled the U.S. as a "supporter of terrorism," according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

In addition to potential retaliation, the designation may also complicate U.S. diplomacy in the Middle East. No waivers or exceptions to the sanctions were announced, meaning 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 had raised concerns about the impact of the designation if the move did 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.

The U.S. special envoy for Iran, Brian Hook, and the State Department's counterterrorism coordinator, Nathan Sales, said the decision was reached after consultation with agencies throughout the government but would not say in a news conference if the military or intelligence concerns had been addressed.

"Doing this will not impede our diplomacy," Hook said.
Former President George H.W. Bush will be honored with a commemorative "forever stamp," the U.S. Postal Service announced Saturday.

The USPS will issue the stamp June 12 -- Bush's birthday -- at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, Texas, where he is buried.

The stamp will feature a portrait of Bush painted by artist Michael J. Deas, based on a 1997 photo taken by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, according to the USPS.

The stamp will be available for pre-order April 6, for delivery on or after its June 12 release.

Bush, the 41st president of the United States, died Nov. 30 at 94 years old.

The USPS said the stamp is being issued as a "forever" stamp, which means it will always be equal to the current value of first-class mail, 1-ounce price.
A North Texas Army veteran is mourning the loss of his K-9 combat partner.

The two were deployed together for several tours of duty in the Middle East.

Dino was more than a loving pet and a constant companion for Darrin Beheler of Arlington.

"I just knew he was special," Beheler said.

They were inseparable for 10 years, at home and on the frontline.

"Green Berets are still walking this Earth because of that dog," Beheler said.

The former U.S. Army Special Forces communications sergeant agreed to partner with Dino in 2009 after other handlers turned the dog down.

Dino had a slight aversion to floors, his paws would sometimes slide apart on some surfaces.

"I took him out to the obedience yard one day and started playing catch with him and just doing some basic obedience stuff before we went to school and that was it," he said. "I came in and said, 'He's mine. You guys are crazy.'"

The pair was deployed on three tours of duty to Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Belgian Malinois was airborne with the Green Berets, jumping from planes with Beheler into combat zones, clearing the way for troops and detecting possible roadside bombs and other dangers.

"How many people's lives did that save? Hundreds? Soldiers, civilians," Beheler said. "There's 25 to 30 like me that are still around because of what he did."

Dino retired in 2013 after he got hurt in Afghanistan.

He came home to Arlington with Beheler where he trained, but also played and relaxed in the living room.

It was two weeks ago Dino that began to vomit and couldn't keep food down.

Beheler took him to an animal clinic for help.

The 15-year-old had contracted the bacteria infection Leptospirosis, according to Beheler. A closer look also revealed small tumors had formed on his spleen.

Dino lost movement in a leg.

"The last night I knew, 'I can't let him go out like this,'" said Beheler, becoming emotional. "I let him go Friday morning."

But before the final goodbye, one more mission.

"I came home, showered, shaved, put on my military gear," he said.

There was a gesture of honor and gratitude from one soldier to another.

"I put a flag over him," he said. "I just wanted him to feel like he was going into combat one more time."

Beheler said Dino would be cremated, so that when Beheler passes both would receive full military honors together.

"The friendship that you build through combat is one thing, but then you add to it living with the animal until it passes, it's incredible," Beheler said.
Cho Yang-ho, the chairman and chief executive of Korean Air whose legal troubles  and colorful daughters  kept him and the airline in an unwanted spotlight, died Sunday, the airline said.

NBC News reported that Cho, who was under indictment in South Korea on suspicion of embezzlement and of having steered lucrative contracts to companies run by his family, died in a Los Angeles hospital from an illness that the airline didn't identify.

Cho was ousted from Korean Air's board last month as the scandal mushroomed. He kept his positions as chairman and chief executive of the airline and its parent company, Hanjin Group.
Mitch McConnell says the Senate will be in the "personnel business" this year. But the majority leader's focus on confirming President Donald Trump's nominees is coming at the expense of any big legislative priorities.

Nearly 100 days into the new Congress, the drive to confirm is adding more conservatives to the courts and putting more Trump appointees in government offices. But Trump's promises to replace the Affordable Care Act, invest in infrastructure or cut middle class taxes have been essentially shelved.

The result is that the GOP-controlled Senate is on a very different path heading into the 2020 election than is the House, where the Democratic majority is churning out a long list of bills on ethics, gun violence and other topics that, while unlikely to become law, show voters their priorities.

Sara Binder, an expert on Congress at George Washington University, said there doesn't seem to be much room in the Senate "to set out a policy agenda and make some progress toward it." She added: "It does leave on the table quite a number of issues that don't get any progress."

Underlying his strategy, McConnell, R-Ky., engineered a rules change last week to speed the confirmation process, pushing past Democrats' stalling of Trump's picks for administration jobs and district courts.

"Look, we know you don't like Donald Trump, but there was an election," McConnell argued on the Senate floor to the Democrats, saying the president "is at least entitled to set up the administration and make it function."

Democratic senators see a much more deliberative strategy. Rather than try to work with Democrats  and Trump  to pass bills that can be turned into law, they say McConnell is simply blocking bills from the House while spending his time packing the courts with conservatives judges as part of a broader legacy of reshaping the judiciary.

Already McConnell spent the first two years of the administration confirming a record 30 circuit court nominees. With seven more confirmed this year, he's now turning to the district courts; four nominees already are teed up for Senate action.

"What Leader McConnell, President Trump and Republicans in the Senate are trying to do is use the courts to adopt the far-right agenda that Republicans know they cannot enact through the legislative process," Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said during the floor debate.

In an earlier time, McConnell was an advocate of capitalizing on divided government to foster deal-making. Compromises between Democrats and Republicans ended a budget crisis during President Barack Obama's administration and produced bills on other education and topics.

But so far this year, the big-ticket items have been elusive. Trump wanted GOP senators to try again to replace Obama's health care law, but without a substantive plan, McConnell quashed that effort until after the 2020 election.

Republicans are quick to blame House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., saying there's almost nothing Senate Republicans and House Democrats can agree on. As if to prove the point, McConnell forced the Senate into a vote on the Green New Deal from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., highlighting Democratic tensions with the liberal flank of their party.

Yet it's clear that Republicans have had their own difficulty with Trump, whose shifting positions have left them without fully shared policy priorities. For example, many Republicans oppose Trump's tariffs as leverage in trade negotiations. One major bill that did pass the Senate rebuked Trump's plan to withdraw troops from Syria.

Trump opposed two substantive measures that cleared both chambers of Congress. He vetoed one that went against his national emergency to build the U.S.-Mexico border wall and has threatened to veto another that's opposing U.S. involvement in the war in Yemen.

"If you're talking about a big bold vision, yea, I'd like to do entitlement reform, I'd like to do tax reform 2.0  there are a whole bunch of things on the economic agenda that I think we can do, but those things aren't going to move in a Democrat House," said Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the second-ranking Republican.

"It's just hard right now," he said. "In terms of legislative expectations I think we're being realistic and not setting the bar too high, but there are some things that I think can get done."

One of the only jobs McConnell ever wanted was in the Senate, he says in his biography, "The Long Game." But after more 30 years in office, the majority leader often seen as an institutionalist is steadily changing the way the chamber operates.

In many ways, he's simply building on the moves made by a predecessor, Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who used the "nuclear option" to change the rules to more easily approve Obama's Cabinet officials and most judges with a majority, rather than the 60-vote threshold in the 100-member Senate.

McConnell took it further, going "nuclear" to usher through Trump's Supreme Court nominees, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, and again with last week's changes that slashed debate time on most nominees from 30 hours to two.

Some say it's only a matter of time before the legislative filibuster, which sets a 60-vote threshold to advance most legislation, becomes the next to fall.

Not everyone opposes such changes. On Friday, presidential contender Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaking at the National Action Network, said if Democrats take control they should end the filibuster. She cited the filibuster's role in stopping anti-lynching and civil rights legislation.

Even some Democrats see the hours of idle debate on lower-level picks as a waste of time.

"Our obligation as senators is not to try to revive the old Senate, but rather to figure out how we can build a new Senate that has its own customs and rules and institutional perogative that will work in a modern era," said Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii.

But for now, the Senate has a singular focus.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who faces re-election next year, isn't sure confirmations will be enough for voters. But in divided Washington, he sees few other options.

"The personnel business may be the whole game," he said.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is quieting critics who questioned whether he could recapture the energy of his upstart 2016 campaign, surpassing his rivals in early fundraising and establishing himself as an indisputable front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Less than two months into his second White House bid, no other declared candidate in the crowded Democratic field currently has amassed so many advantages: a $28 million war chest, a loyal and enthusiastic voter base and a set of clearly defined policy objectives.

That puts Sanders on markedly different footing than during his first White House run, creating new challenges for a candidate whose supporters relish his role as an underdog and an outsider. He now carries the weight of high expectations and will face heightened scrutiny over everything from the cost and feasibility of his government-funded policy proposals to his tax returns, which he has not yet released. He initially blamed "mechanical issues" for the delay, and his campaign now says he wants to wait until after the April 15 tax filing deadline to fulfill his promise to release a decade worth of returns.

Sanders has largely embraced his new front-runner status. More than any other candidate, he draws explicit comparisons with President Donald Trump in his campaign remarks, previewing his approach to a general election faceoff with the incumbent Republican. Behind the scenes, Sanders is also building out a larger, more diverse campaign operation, responding to criticism that his 2016 organization skewed too heavily white and male. Campaign officials say the 2020 campaign staff  roughly 100 people and growing  is majority female and 40 percent people of color.

Still, Sanders' message and style hasn't changed from 2016, when he stunned many Democrats by mounting a formidable challenge to Hillary Clinton and besting her in more than 20 primary contests.

After briefly acquiescing to his advisers' suggestions that he reveal more about his upbringing and personal history, Sanders has returned to his comfort zone: delivering lengthy campaign speeches chockablock with the same policy prescriptions he campaigned on during the 2016 campaign. In Davenport, Iowa, on Friday night, Sanders spent 63 minutes outlining his views on health care, criminal justice reform and economic inequality.

"With your help, we are going to complete what we started here," Sanders told the 1,200-person crowd, referring to his virtual tie with Clinton in the 2016 Iowa caucuses.

Sanders' approach underscores his belief that his success in 2016 was not a fluke or simply a function of being the next best alternative to Clinton. His advisers argue the populist economic message Sanders has espoused for years, often in obscurity, has now been embraced not only by a slew of his Democratic rivals, but also Trump.

"Donald Trump campaigned on economic terms as faux Bernie Sanders. It was taking his language and selling it to the American people," said Faiz Shakir, Sanders' campaign manager. "And now how do you defeat faux Bernie Sanders? You defeat him with real Bernie Sanders."

Sanders owes some of his fast start to the fact that he never really stopped running for president after the 2016 campaign. Our Revolution, the political group Sanders launched after the campaign, has collected information on voters and held events in early voting states since the last election. Sanders was also active in the 2018 midterms, throwing his support behind progressive Democratic candidates across the country, though many were defeated.

"He spent 2018 lifting up progressives all over the country," said Rebecca Katz, a progressive Democratic consultant. "Even though many of them did not win, it was appreciated, it was movement building and it was a different calculation than most politicians make."

Despite his strong launch, Sanders' current standing atop the Democratic field is not entirely enviable. Presidential primaries are long and turbulent, and past elections underscore how many early front-runners have been tossed aside before the first votes are cast. Former Vice President Joe Biden has signaled his expected presidential campaign would serve as a centrist check on Sanders' brand of progressive politics.

And though Sanders' $18 million first-quarter fundraising haul far outpaced the rest of the Democratic field, some rival campaigns breathed a sigh of relief, having anticipated the Vermont senator would clear $20 million or more.

"He did very well. He could have done better," said Mo Elleithee, who advised Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign and now runs the Georgetown University Institute of Politics and Public Service.

Sanders also still has to prove that he can overcome some of the same vulnerabilities that contributed to his defeat in 2016.

Chief among them will be bolstering his standing with black voters, one of the most important constituencies in Democratic politics. Black voters overwhelmingly sided with Clinton in 2016, halting Sanders' momentum when the contest moved into more diverse states. He lost the South Carolina primary by a staggering 48 points.

Some of Sanders' top advisers dismiss the notion that he'll face similar problems in 2020, noting that he has spent time building relationships with black leaders in South Carolina and other Southern states. He's also sharpened his campaign message on criminal justice issues and racial inequality.

"I understand that a lot of people took a lot of things out of the South Carolina results," Shakir said. "We are going to continue to court and address these issues directly, but we are operating with a great deal of confidence that this is going to be a particular demographic that supports Bernie Sanders at the end of the day."

Perhaps Sanders' biggest challenge is overcoming skepticism among voters who may be partial to his focus on economic inequality but fear that nominating a 77-year-old self-described democratic socialist would put Democrats in a weak position against Trump in the general election.

"That's a thing that scares me about him," said Gwen Hobson, a 70-year-old Democratic voter, who attended Sanders' rally on Friday in Davenport.

Yet some of Sanders' longtime supporters say their enthusiasm for him is unshakable. In Davenport on Friday, several voters donned faded t-shirts from Sanders' 2016 campaign. Melita Tunnicliff, 57, wore a button she bought during that campaign with Sanders' photo and the phrase "Not For Sale."

Asked if she was open to other Democratic candidates this time around, Tunnicliff shook her head no.

"I've been waiting for Bernie," she said.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 8)  Authorities have recovered more blocks of suspected cocaine in the country, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) said Monday.

It said 40 blocks of suspected cocaine were seen by fishermen floating in Burgos, Surigao del Norte on Sunday. They alerted police officers, who fished out the dozens of blocks.

PDEA said the bricks of suspected cocaine had the same markings as the ones earlier recovered in Brgy. Pacifico, San Isidro, Surigao del Norte wrapped in a fishnet.

In February, cocaine  in the form of blocks tightly sealed in brown packaging tape  started showing up in Philippine waters.

PDEA previously noted that the cocaine found in Surigao del Norte were labeled as "3B Bugatti," while the ones recovered in Camarines Norte and Quezon were marked "Lexus." The use of European luxury car brands to label the illegal drugs could indicate that the cocaine blocks recovered belonged to the same manufacturer, PDEA said. It added that the massive amount of cocaine recovered in Samar in 2009 had labels "BMW" and "Audi" - also car brands.

Cocaine's street value in the Philippines ranges from P4,500 to P5,300  over a thousand pesos cheaper than the prevalent methamphetamine or shabu.
Earth's glaciers are melting much faster than scientists thought. A new study shows they are losing 369 billion tons of snow and ice each year, more than half of that in North America.

The most comprehensive measurement of glaciers worldwide found that thousands of inland masses of snow compressed into ice are shrinking 18 percent faster than an international panel of scientists calculated in 2013.

The world's glaciers are shrinking five times faster now than they were in the 1960s. Their melt is accelerating due to global warming, and adding more water to already rising seas, the study found.

"Over 30 years suddenly almost all regions started losing mass at the same time," said lead author Michael Zemp, director of the World Glacier Monitoring Service at the University of Zurich. "That's clearly climate change if you look at the global picture."

The glaciers shrinking fastest are in central Europe, the Caucasus region, western Canada, the U.S. Lower 48 states, New Zealand and near the tropics. Glaciers in these places on average are losing more than 1 percent of their mass each year, according to the study in Monday's Nature journal.

"In these regions, at the current glacier loss rate, the glaciers will not survive the century," Zemp said.

Zemp's team used ground and satellite measurements to look at 19,000 glaciers, far more than previous studies. They determined that southwestern Asia is the only region of 19 where glaciers are not shrinking, which Zemp said is due to local climate conditions.

Since 1961, the world has lost 10.6 trillion tons of ice and snow (9.6 trillion metric tons), the study found. Melted, that's enough to cover the lower 48 U.S. states in about 4 feet of water.

Scientists have known for a long time that global warming caused by human activities like burning coal, gasoline and diesel for electricity and transportation is making Earth lose its ice. They have been especially concerned with the large ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica.

This study, "is telling us there's much more to the story," said Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, who wasn't part of the study. "The influence of glaciers on sea level is bigger than we thought."

A number of factors are making sea levels rise. The biggest cause is that oceans are getting warmer, which makes water expand. The new figures show glacier melt is a bigger contributor than thought, responsible for about 25% to 30% of the yearly rise in oceans, Zemp said.

Rising seas threaten coastal cities around the world and put more people at risk of flooding during storms.

Glaciers grow in winter and shrink in summer, but as the Earth has warmed, they are growing less and shrinking more. Zemp said warmer summer temperatures are the main reason glaciers are shrinking faster.

While people think of glaciers as polar issues, shrinking mountain glaciers closer to the equator can cause serious problems for people who depend on them, said Twila Moon, a snow and ice data center scientist who also wasn't part of the study. She said people in the Andes, for example, rely on the glaciers for drinking and irrigation water each summer.

A separate study Monday in Environmental Research Letters confirmed faster melting and other changes in the Arctic. It found that in winter, the Arctic is warming 2.8 times faster than the rest of the Northern Hemisphere. Overall, the region is getting more humid, cloudier and wetter.

"It's on steroids, it's hyperactive," said lead author Jason Box, a scientist for the Danish Meteorological Institute.
A veteran California Highway Patrol motorcycle sergeant was struck and killed by a car on Interstate 15 near Lake Elsinore, and the driver was arrested on suspicion of various crimes, possibly including murder, CHP officials said Sunday.

Sgt. Steve Licon had pulled over a Chrysler sedan for a traffic stop at 4:26 p.m. Saturday on the right shoulder of the southbound side of the freeway north of Nichols Road when a gray Toyota Corolla slammed into Licon, his motorcycle and the Chrysler from behind, according to the CHP.

Prior to the crash, the Toyota had been driving recklessly, according to a CHP incident log.

The sergeant, who had been with the agency for 27 years, suffered major injuries and was airlifted to Inland Valley Medical Center in Wildomar, where he died of his wounds, the CHP said.

The crash snarled traffic and prompted authorities to close all southbound lanes until 3 a.m.

The driver of the Toyota, 36-year-old Michael Callahan of Winchester, was arrested at the scene and booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center on suspicion of murder, according to jail records.

He remained behind bars without bail.

In a release Sunday morning, the CHP said Callahan was arrested on suspicion of "multiple charges," including "driving under the influence."

During a news conference Sunday afternoon, CHP officials said that although their investigation into the crash was in the early stages, evidence they've already collected supports recommending a murder charge for Callahan.

"We have uncovered evidence which shows gross negligence both during and before this tragic collision occurred," Cmdr. Mario Lucio said.

Callahan was the only person inside the Toyota and suffered minor injuries, the CHP said.

A family of four, including a man, woman and two girls in the Chrysler sedan were uninjured, according to the CHP.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said flags in the state's capitol will be flown at half-staff in honor of Licon.

"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," Newsom said.

Licon served with the agency in the Baldwin Park and Santa Ana offices before being assigned to the Riverside area in January 2013.

"Sgt. Licon was just an officer's sergeant. He was one of the guys but he was firm, he was strict and he held people accountable for [their] actions. I saw him as a mentor. I credit him for being where I'm at today, and that's the truth. The guy really spent time developing the people, the officers that he supervised," Lucio said.

Law enforcement personnel from various agencies gathered outside Inland Valley Medical Center on Saturday night to escort the hearse carrying Licon's body to the Riverside County coroner's office in Perris.

The procession was hundreds of vehicles long and included police and fire vehicle with their emergency lights flashing and sirens quiet.

A bell-toll tribute was scheduled to take place at the CHP Academy in West Sacramento on Monday morning and will be attended by CHP Commissioner Warren Stanley.

"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," Stanley said in a tweet.

Lucio said anyone wanting to send support or donations to Licon's family should contact the CHP's Inland Division's public information office.
Climate change can be a difficult topic to explain and understand, but one NASA scientist has found a funny way to talk about the issue.

Josh Willis is a climate scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

"I study global warming and rising oceans and how the oceans affect our weather and climate," Willis says with pride.

But science isn't his only passion.

"My night job is comedy," Willis says with a smile.

He jokes to the camera, "I try not to tell my coworkers, so if you could just not broadcast this when we're done, that would be really great."

After getting his doctorate in oceanography from Scripps Institute in San Diego, Willis decided to sign up for comedy school.

"I wanted to make global warming funny because I think people will have an easier time relating to it and understanding it if they can have a laugh every now and then," he says.

He's a graduate of the Second City Comedy School, a prestigious improv comedy program that was the launching pad for legends like Bill Murray, Steve Carell, and Tina Fey.

He realized that comedy and climate have a lot in common.

"Being a scientist, we're trying to discover something about the world, and I think being a comedian, you're trying to discover something about people that makes them laugh," Willis says.

One way to communicate climate change was to develop a character that people could relate to, so the scientist turned to the "King of Rock and Roll."

"Being a kind of a middle-age doughy, white guy with big hair and sideburns, Elvis seemed like the perfect guy," Willis explains the choice.

His strategy is working, and has more people interested, even if it means they realize that climate change is no laughing matter.

Willis adds, "When I tell somebody that I'm a climate scientist, one of the first things they ask is 'is it real?' 'How bad is it?' And I think it's helpful to have a friendly conversation first because we are having a profound impact on the planet."

Willis is currently leading a mission called Oceans Melting Greenland or OMG for short.

The comedian scientist explains, "I really wanted to name the mission something that was funny and memorable, but I also wanted to name it something that said what science we were doing, and Oceans Melting Greenland, those three words explain exactly what we are trying to find out."

Until Hollywood comes calling, Willis plans to keep his day job, but connecting people to climate change while making them laugh out loud is a nice side gig.

"It's a tough thing to communicate, and I think that we need to use all the tools that we can in order to really reach people and help them understand what's happening to the planet," he says.

The OMG team is heading back to Greenland next week to finish measuring how the glaciers have changed since last year. As for Willis, he says he hopes to someday make a movie about global warming with Will Ferrell.
About two times a week for the last two years, people have gathered outside Farmer John in Vernon with water, comforting words and sometimes a calming and gentle touch for the truckloads of pigs bound for slaughter at the processing plant south of downtown Los Angeles.

Warning: Viewers may find some of the scenes in the video below disturbing.

Warning: Video contains scenes that some might find disturbing. For the last two years, activists have gathered for a peaceful vigil outside a Vernon pork processing plant. As truckloads of pigs arrived, the animals are offered water and some final words of comfort. Credit: Chase Cain

The deeply emotional vigils, often in the cool darkness of night, draw mostly vegans and some vegetarians. Some of the Vernon police officers assigned to patrol outside the building said they've given up meat because of what they've seen.

"All these people are here to show them the first kindness they've ever experienced," said Shelby Hammond, who attended a recent vigil.

The activists usually have just a few minutes with the pigs before the trucks are ready to pull into Farmer John. In a solemn ritual that plays out several times each night, they line up alongside the trailers and hold water bottles up to holes  offering a final drink from a water bottle or sprayer and some soothing words, sometimes a soft pat.

Many are in tears as the gate opens and the truck rolls away onto the property.

The exterior wall of the Vernon building is painted with depictions of pigs on a farm, a mural that has been there since the late 1950s. Farmer John's roots date to 1931, when two brothers began curing and selling pork bellies and smoked hams to grocery stores. The company run by the Clougherty family was renamed Farmer John in 1953.

Smithfield foods acquired Farmer John in 2016. In a statement, the company said it respects that the group can express its views, and that the vigils do not impact operations.

"At Smithfield Foods, we respect the rights of groups and individuals to express their views," the company said in a statement. "This includes the peaceful protests that regularly occur outside our Vernon, California, Farmer John processing facility. The group involved has been conducting these protests long before Smithfield acquired Farmer John in 2016.

"During any demonstration, Smithfield works with local law enforcement and protest leaders to ensure the safety of the protestors, our employees, our animals, and the public. Because of these coordinated efforts, the public demonstrations do not impact Farmer Johns production process or our ability to serve our customers and consumers."

The vigils, which began in 2017, are organized by Amy Jean Davis, of LA Animal Save, and Ellen Dent, of Animal Alliance Network. They draw people from throughout Los Angeles, sometimes attracting celebrities like musician and animal rights activist Moby.

"It's a life-changing, profound experience," he said.

YouTuber Elton Castee was attending one for the first time, recording for an upcoming video.

"Its different when you see a video of it," Castee said. "Its through a lens, but when you actually see it in your eyes, it's not one truck. Its two, three, four. The first was heart-breaking."

Moby had some advice for anyone moved by what can be a powerful experience.

"Don't let the pursuit of the perfect be the enemy of the good," he said. "If someone is watching, do the best you can and let your conscience guide your actions."

NBC4's Jonathan Lloyd contributed to this report.
A police officer and a suspect were both shot and wounded in an officer-involved shooting in Hawthorne Sunday.

The officer suffered a gunshot wound -- reportedly to the leg -- and was rushed to an area hospital, where Hawthorne police said he was awake and alert.

The suspect was struck by gunfire and taken to a local hospital in unknown condition, said Deputy Juanita Navarro-Suarez of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department's Information Bureau.

That suspect was later arrested in connection with the officer-involved shooting, the Hawthorne Police Department said, adding that no other suspects were involved in the incident.

Officers were dispatched about 9:20 a.m. to the 14400 block of Aviation Boulevard, in response to a man chasing a woman in the lobby of a hotel, according to Hawthorne police.

Hawthorne Police Chief Michael Ishii said officers arrived to find the suspect running across the street and into a shopping center.

The Sheriff's Department was called about 9:30 a.m. to assist.

Officer down. We had an officer involved shooting at Rosecrans and Aviation. Still working to secure the area we have possible 1 suspect detained. Media will be set up at 135 Aviation.  Hawthorne Police (@HawthornePD) April 7, 2019

A witness at the scene told reporters he saw the suspect pull his gun out and heard "tons of gunfire."

Ishii said the gunman was armed with "some sort of assault rifle ... or high-capacity weapon."

Authorities asked the public to avoid the area of Rosecrans and Aviation as the investigation continued.

Anyone with information about the incident was asked to call (323) 890-5500.
A man armed with a shotgun killed the mother of the couple's child during a custody exchange Sunday in front of the Hawthorne Police Department, police said.

The 27-year-old mother was killed in front of her son and relatives who were present for the exchange, LA County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau Lt. Scott Hoglund said. The suspect was identified as Jacob Munn, of Hawthorne. Jail records indicate he's 30 years old.

The shooting occurred at about 6 p.m. at the entrance to the lobby of the police station, Lt. Gary Tomatani of the HPD said. The child was already inside the police station when the mother arrived to pick up the 17-month-old. As she approached, the father fired at least one shot at her, Hoglund said.

The child was not injured in the shooting, and the shotgun was recovered at the site of the shooting, Hoglund said.

"In general, the police departments are not aware of any custody exchanges," said Hawthorne Police Chief Michael Ishii. "Oftentimes, (the parents) make arrangements at local police stations or across the county. It's a public space. We are not supervising them, not aware of them.

"We're not sure if that was the case yesterday in this horrible and tragic incident."

Upon hearing the sound of gunshots, officers ran out, Tomatani said. One of the relatives who witnessed the shooting told the officers that the man was driving away, according to a relative at the scene.

The man was able to get away in his car, with police officers shooting at the vehicle, Hoglund said. A short time later, police said they located the abandoned vehicle near the intersection of 133rd Street and Hawthorne Boulevard.

For several hours, police put up a containment zone where they believed the man was trapped and warned the public to stay away. At approximately 9:15 p.m., police said they had arrested the man within that containment zone.

A person who identified himself as a relative of the victim said that the mother lived in Menifee and the man lived in Simi Valley. He said Hawthorne was a middle ground to exchange the 17-month-old child.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department took over the investigation.

Earlier on Sunday, another shooting in Hawthorne resulted in an officer being struck by gunfire and wounded.
U.S. Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell and Donna Shalala vowed to take legal action against the Trump adminstration after they were denied entry Monday to a detention facility housing migrant children in Homestead, Florida.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told the Democratic lawmakers last week they would not be allowed access to the federal detention center. Despite the rejection, the congresswomen from South Florida on Monday attempted to gain entry  citing the refusal is a violation of a law signed by Trump himself.

We are going to get access to this facility, upon our terms, not ORRs [Office of Refugee Resettlement] terms, Wasserman Schultz said.

Joined by Shalala and Mucarsel-Powell, Wasserman Schultz told reporters outside the facility that the new law affirms members of Congress must be given access to conduct oversight and rejected the ORR's claim that facilities require a two-week notice.

There is no time limit, there is no limitation at all, she added. And if they dont let us in, they are violating the law.

Mucarsel-Powell said she finds the resignation of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen "extremely troubling" as the Trump administration felt Nielsen, "the woman that was overseeing the cruel policy of family separation," was "too friendly to the immigrant population."

Homestead is now one of the facilities with the largest number of migrant children in the U.S. The children in custody are teenagers, ages 13 to 17, who arrived on their own, hoping to join relatives.

The attempt to take the tour comes after HHS announced that they will significantly expand the bed capacity at the shelter despite lingering concerns over inadequate staffing, space and other services, according to the congresswomen.

Denying entry to oversee the conditions and care provided to the unaccompanied children in the Homestead facility would not only be a breach of transparency and confidence in the care provided there, it would violate the law, said Wasserman Schultz, Shalala, and Mucarsel-Powell in a joint statement.

This is the second time the facility expands its bed count. The government had announced in December that the facility in Homestead was increasing the number of beds from 1,200 to 2,350. The expansion will now take the bed count to 3,200.

The expansion is set to take place later in April.

In June 2018, Wasserman Schultz was initially denied entry to the facility along with former U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and others. They were eventually allowed to tour the facility days later.

During our last visit to Homestead, we witnessed children living in cramped, prison-like conditions, the joint statement said. 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.

An e-mail from a DHS adviser 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 the custody of the agency.

New federal requirements mandating more stringent background checks on their families since last summer have slowed the children's release to family members. The average length of stay at Homestead has gone up from 25 days last June to 67 days as of December.

A legal team visited the shelter in February to verify whether it complies with a 1997 agreement known as the Flores settlement, governing how migrant children are housed in custody. J.J Mulligan Sepulveda, an attorney at the Immigration Law Clinic at University of California, Davis, said they interviewed children and described a few instances in which they broke into tears describing the "military-style" conditions at the facility where they can't hug one another.

Some feared that expressing emotion could get them referred to mental health services.

"A lot of them saw mental health services as a punishment, and thought it would affect their immigration case," Mulligan Sepulveda said. The attorney also said he met a boy who was separated from his brother when the center began its expansion. He said they are only allowed to see each other once a week.

The Florida Department of Children and Families said in an emailed statement in January that because it is a federal facility the state agency "does not have any jurisdiction or involvement with children placed there."

Comprehensive Health Services, which is part of Virginia-based Caliburn, isn't able to use Florida records to screen the staff for child abuse and neglect because Florida law bans any outside employer from reviewing information in its child welfare system. Child abuse and neglect checks were waived because of these limitations, officials say.
A Florida man with distinctive facial tattoos is facing a murder charge in the 2001 killing of another man, authorities said.

Randy Petersilge, 51, is facing a first-degree homicide charge in the November 2001 murder of 41-year-old Simon Clark, New Port Richey Police said Monday.

Clark died as a result of blunt force trauma, but there were no arrests made in the initial investigation, police said. Petersilge was later developed as a possible suspect, police said.

In 2017, detectives reopened the case, and in January 2018, a grand jury indicted Petersilge. He had been incarcerated in a federal prison at the time, but when he was released from the prison this past Friday, he was placed under arrest for Clark's murder, authorities said.

Petersilge was awaiting transport to the Pasco County Jail to face the murder charge. Attorney information wasn't available.
A South Florida judge has rescinded an order allowing a Mexican soap opera star to travel outside the U.S., saying he's likely to face a more serious charge from a fatal traffic confrontation than the third-degree battery charge filed recently.

The judge held a hearing in Miami-Dade Monday to discuss the bond and travel order for 32-year-old Pablo Lyle, a star of the TV soap opera "Mi Adorable Maldicion."

Lyle appeared in court with his wife, as defense attorneys were seeking permission for him to be allowed to visit family in Mexico. Prosecutors said they wanted a $1 million bond imposed.

The judge gave Lyle $50,000 bond plus house arrest with a GPS ankle monitor. He also had to surrender his passport and must stay in Miami.

"It is a road rage case but Pablo Lyle is the victim of the road rage," defense attorney Bruce Lehr told reporters outside the courtroom.

At one point, Lyle had to walk through a throng of reporters when the initial judge on the case had to recuse herself because she is friends with a defense attorney. He didn't answer reporters' questions.

After Lyle's arrest last Monday for punching Juan Ricardo Hernandez, 63, during a traffic confrontation in Miami, the actor posted bond, and he was granted permission to fly to Mexico, which he did. Then Hernandez died Thursday at Jackson Memorial Hospital after sustaining a brain injury from the altercation, and NBC 6 obtained video that raised questions about the account Lyle and his brother-in-law gave police.

According to Lyle's account detailed in the arrest affidavit, Lyle and his brother-in-law, whom police did not identify, said they feared for their safety after Hernandez got out of his car at a stoplight to protest Lyle's brother-in-law cutting him off in traffic.

Hernandez walked up to the driver's side window, pounded on it with an open hand and the brother-in-law got out and said, "Don't bang on my window," according to the brother-in-law's account in the affidavit.

Once the brother-in-law saw his car rolling toward the intersection, he ran back to it and stopped it. The brother-in-law told detectives he didn't see a physical confrontation between Lyle and Hernandez.

But surveillance video appears to show the brother-in-law getting out of his car and arguing before Hernandez banged on the window.

As the brother-in-law runs back to the rolling car, Hernandez heads back toward his car. Lyle jumps out of the passenger seat and runs toward Hernandez who is almost to the open door of his car, video shows.

Hernandez sees Lyle approaching and turns to face him while still backing up with hands raised, the video appears to show. Lyle is then seen punching Hernandez in the head and Hernandez collapses.

In the arrest affidavit, Lyle told police investigators that he feared for his family's safety and thought that Hernandez was going to hit him first.

Lyle was initially charged with felony battery. Court records released Friday said "enhanced charges are likely to be filed."

"He had to react to the emergency in this matter. This is one punch. How dare they say this is a second-degree murder investigation. They can never ever ever prove intent to kill," defense attorney Philip Reizenstein told reporters. "You know my mother used to say when you go looking for trouble youre going to find it and thats what happened to that man. It's sad, it's an accident. He had no intention to kill anyone. Its not a murder case and the prosecution should stop saying its a murder investigation, they know its not a murder investigation. They could never prove intent because he never intended to do anything except defend his family and Florida guarantees you that right."

Lyle starred in several telenovelas, including "La Sombra del Pasado" and "Corazon Que Miente." He also made People en Espanol's "50 Most Beautiful" list in 2015.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday urged Uganda to find the kidnappers of an American tourist who has been freed amid conflicting reports over whether a ransom was paid for her release.

Kim Endicott of Costa Mesa, California, was released by her abductors over the weekend and was to be turned over to the U.S. ambassador Monday, Ugandan police said.

Endicott and her Ugandan driver were both safe after the five-day ordeal. They were taken from Queen Elizabeth National Park across the border to Congo, according to Ugandan authorities.

Trump pressed Uganda's government to capture the culprits Monday.

"Uganda must find the kidnappers of the American Tourist and guide before people will feel safe in going there. Bring them to justice openly and quickly!" he tweeted.

Over the weekend, Trump tweeted that he was pleased the tourist and guide had been released.

Ugandan police spokesman Fred Enanga said he did not believe a ransom had been paid.

"I have indicated to you that we don't do ransom," he said Monday at a news conference in the Ugandan capital of Kampala.

A Uganda-based tour official said, however, that a ransom was paid to secure Endicott's freedom. The tourist was released, "not rescued," after money was paid "otherwise she wouldn't be back," said the tourism professional with knowledge of Endicott's trip.

He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

Many officials, including from the U.S. Embassy, were involved in efforts to secure the release of the kidnapping victims, he said. He couldn't say how much was paid or who paid.

Ugandan officials have said the kidnapping victims were rescued from armed kidnappers who are still at large.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said on Twitter that the security forces "shall deal with these isolated pockets of criminals."

The kidnappers had demanded a $500,000 ransom after grabbing Endicott and her driver from a group of tourists on an evening game drive on April 2, police said.

"It's completely shocking," Sandy Benton, a friend of Endicott's in Southern California, said Monday. "I never thought anything like this would happen to her."

Benton called Endicott an adventure seeker and world traveler, saying it wasn't surprising that she would travel to Uganda on her own.

"I just prayed for her and hoped for safe return," Benton said. "I'm glad to hear she'll be on her way home soon. I can't imagine how traumatic that was for her. She had to be terrified."

Megan Barth, a longtime client and friend of Endicott's who lives in Las Vegas, said Endicott is an animal lover who long dreamed of traveling to Africa to see gorillas in the wild.

"It was definitely on the bucket list for her," Barth said. "She's a wanderlust, and she's always been a wanderlust. She always was wanting to travel and experience different cultures."

Barth said she's been overcome with worry since Endicott was kidnapped.

"Over the past week, I've just been praying  praying in the shower, praying while I'm driving, praying while having my cup of coffee," she said. "My whole entire day was consumed by her because I knew she was in such an awful, traumatic place."

Benton and Barth said they hope Endicott isn't too scarred by the experience and is touched by those worldwide who have reached out to her family while she was held.

"Hopefully she just feels a lot of love," Benton said.

Barth said if anyone can make it through such an experience, it's Endicott.

"She's such a lovely, warm-hearted, beautiful spirit," she said. "She will somehow turn this traumatic experience into something that is not only a healing experience for her, but an experience she can use to help others."

Endicott, who has a small skin care shop in Costa Mesa, is in her 50s and has a daughter and granddaughter, according to Phoenix resident Rich Endicott, who told The Associated Press that he hadn't spoken with his cousin since a family reunion several years ago.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last week at an 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.

Queen Elizabeth National Park, which is near the porous border with Congo, is Uganda's most popular safari destination. Its attractions include groups of tree-climbing lions.
President Donald Trump and White House allies pressing for a harder line on immigration sped up their campaign Monday to clean house at the Department of Homeland Security with a mission far wider than just the departure of Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.

The dismantling of the government's immigration leadership is being orchestrated by Trump adviser Stephen Miller, the impetus behind some of the administration's most controversial policies, according to three people familiar with the matter. Beyond changing names and faces, Trump is considering separating migrant families at the border again, resuming the practice that drew so much outrage last year, the same people said.

The shake-up is a result of Trump's frustration with the increasing number of migrants at the border and his diminishing options for action. Court challenges, immigration laws and his own advisers have blocked several of his proposals as his re-election campaign looms. The White House has lashed out by demanding new leadership, although a new team is likely to face the same obstacles.

The head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, L. Francis Cissna, and Homeland Security General Counsel John M. Mitnick are expected to be pushed out of their positions, the officials said. Nielsen submitted her resignation Sunday after meeting with Trump at the White House, and three days earlier, the administration withdrew the nomination of Ron Vitiello to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Other longtime civil servants in agency posts are also on the chopping block, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Adding to the turmoil, the director of the Secret Service is being forced out of his job, but that departure is said to be unrelated to the immigration upheaval.

Leading senators from both parties were displeased.

"The purge of senior leadership at the Department of Homeland Security is unprecedented and a threat to our national security," declared Democrat Dianne Feinstein of California. "President Trump is trying to remake DHS into his own personal anti-immigration agency."

Republican Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, criticized Congress for a crisis at the border but also said, "I am concerned with a growing leadership void within the department tasked with addressing some of the most significant problems facing the nation."

Nielsen has dutifully carried out the administration's orders but often had to explain to Trump the legal limits of what he wanted to do. And he didn't like it.

She did months of diplomatic work with Central America and Mexico and brokered an arrangement in which asylum seekers were to wait in Mexico for their asylum cases to play out, an effort meant in part to discourage false claims. She moved to abandon long-standing regulations that dictate how long children are allowed to be held in immigration detention and was working to find space to detain all families who cross the border . She limited what public benefits migrants can receive and put regulations in place to circumvent immigration law and deny asylum to anyone caught crossing the border illegally.

And she took ownership over the most divisive of all the decisions, the separation of families at the border.

Nearly everything has been challenged or watered down by the courts. Just Monday, a judge blocked the administration from forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico, giving lawyers a few days before putting the block into effect.

"DHS is really between a rock and hard place," said Doris Meissner, the former commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and fellow at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute.

There are some options not yet exhausted by Trump, including giving judges more deference in asylum cases and allocating more resources to diminish backlogs, she said. But the White House has shown little interest in those ideas because they conflict with its assessment that those seeking refuge are trying to cheat the system.

Nielsen finally had enough and resigned Sunday, in part because she hadn't been informed about the sudden decision to withdraw Vitiello's nomination, according to people familiar with her decision.

She was also pushing back at an effort to house an "immigration" or "border czar" within Homeland Security, they said. She wanted the person to be based at the White House and help coordinate immigration policy between the Justice Department, Health and Human Services and DHS, all of which have a piece of the complex puzzle. But the people said Miller was pushing to house the czar at DHS, in part over frustration with the rising number of migrants. There were more than 100,000 expected in March, border officials said, the highest tally in 12 years.

Trump announced Sunday that Kevin McAleenan, commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, would take over for Nielsen at Homeland Security on an acting basis. McAleenan had impressed Trump's inner circle, specifically son-in-law Jared Kushner, with his extensive border knowledge.

Trump spokesman Hogan Gidley expressed hope that McAleenan's experience would lead to "massive changes" at the border.

But McAleenan is not an ideologue or politician. He refers to migrants as "vulnerable families" who need more humanitarian treatment, not as beefy dudes with tattoos trying to game the system, as Trump suggests. He's pushed for asylum changes to make screenings faster and cases decided more rapidly.

Democrats said McAleenan should have told them about the death of a child in U.S. custody in December, but he largely has escaped the ire over family separations even though it was his agency that separated the children.

Gil Kerlikowske, who led Customs and Border Protection from 2014 to 2017, said illegal crossings can go up and down on a number of factors that are difficult to predict. He noted that stepped-up Mexican enforcement helped end a surge of Central American families coming to the U.S. in 2014.

"I don't envy anybody in that position because these are policies that are White House policies, not DHS," said Kerlikowske, who promoted McAleenan to be his top deputy. "I couldn't have been more disappointed" to see Vitiello's nomination pulled, he said, describing Vitiello as "a 30-year Border Patrol, deputy chief and you're saying, 'Well, you're not really tough enough?' I find that kind of amazing."

Trump has seemed to be grasping at anything to stem the tide of migrants. That includes reinstating family separations, a policy that previously prompted international outrage and could mean he would have to violate his own executive order and possibly run afoul of a federal judge overseeing reunifications. The government just said in court filings it would take up to two years to reunify all the children already separated from their families.

"The administration has been well beyond the bounds of the law for some time with respect to asylum and family separation. There's no place for them to go that won't continue to break the law," said Lee Gelernt, the American Civil Liberties Union official whose lawsuit on behalf of a separated mother led to the reunifications.

Nielsen's departure threw into sharp focus just how few full-time leaders are at the sprawling department of more than 240,000 people. There's no confirmed secretary, no deputy secretary, no head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, no formal head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, no head of Customs and Border Protection once McAleenan moves over, and no head of the science and technology branch. In addition, the deputy undersecretary for management at the agency, Claire Grady, will have to be moved aside for Trump to install McAleenan as acting secretary.

Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro, Zeke Miller, Catherine Lucey and Elliot Spagat contributed to this report.
What to Know New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez announced the Fentanyl Sanctions Act, which would hold China accountable for their role in the opioid epidemic.

The legislation would impose sanctions on China and Chinese entities who supply and support the trafficking of fentanyl.

The Act would also allow new funding to law enforcement and intelligence agencies to fight foreign opioid trafficking.

A local lawmaker is demanding accountability from China and their role in Americas opioid epidemic.

On Monday, New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez announced the Fentanyl Sanctions Act. The federal legislation would impose sanctions on China and Chinese entities who supply and support the trafficking of fentanyl, a synthetic opiate 50 times more potent than heroin, in the United States.

"Over the past five years, fentanyl poured into our country from China and saturated our communities with deadly consequences," Sen. Menendez, a ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said during a press conference in Camden, New Jersey.

Last summer, DEA agents raided a Chinese cargo ship at the Port of Philadelphia, discovering 110 pounds of fentanyl worth about $1.7 million.

"If it had gotten in the street it would have killed an enormous amount of people," Menendez said.

Under the legislation, companies producing fentanyl would be blacklisted from U.S. markets. The Act would also invest in port security and expand access to life-saving treatment while holding the Chinese government accountable for enforcing their recently announced ban on all fentanyl.

"The bottom line is that we cannot simply take Chinas word for it when they say theyll crack down on fentanyl manufacturersespecially when American lives are at stake," Sen. Menendez said. "With the Fentanyl Sanctions Act, we can send a clear message to the Chinese government that says your actions will have consequences."

The Act would also allow new funding to law enforcement and intelligence agencies to fight foreign opioid trafficking and establish a commission that would monitor U.S. efforts and report on more effective ways to fight the flow of synthetic opioids from China, Mexico and other countries.

In 2018, 3,163 New Jersey residents died from an opioid overdose with 312 in Camden County. In 60% of those cases, fentanyl was to blame. The epidemic hit Camden city especially hard.

"So far this year weve lost 63 Camden residents to an overdose," Camden County Freeholder Lou Capelli said. "Weve had 147 Narcan deployments."

Camden also had 90 fatal overdoses in 2017, more than 2016 and 2015 combined, with fentanyl being the primary culprit, according to Camden County Metro Police Chief Scott Thomson.

"We will continue our collaboration with state and federal law enforcement partners in the relentless pursuit of those trafficking this extremely lethal product to get this poison off our streets," Chief Thomson said. "And I want to thank our representatives for putting more resources into the effort."
What to Know A couple from New York has been missing for nearly two weeks after they vanished while on a vacation in the Dominican Republic

Orlando Moore and his girlfriend, Portia Ravenelle, were supposed to return home March 27, but officials said they never made their flight

Police say the Mount Vernon couple checked out of their hotel in Samana, but there has been no sign of them or their rental car since

UPDATE: NY Couple Missing in Caribbean Likely Died on Way to Airport



A frantic search is underway for a New York couple who took a vacation to the Caribbean, and suddenly vanished, with no sign of them for nearly two weeks.

Orlando Moore and his girlfriend, Portia Ravenelle, flew out of Newark Liberty International Airport on March 23 for a getaway in the Dominican Republic. They were supposed to return home to Mount Vernon on March 27.



Thirteen days later, their family hasn't heard from them. Their phones are off. And their car is still parked at the airport.



Moore's sister, Lashay Turner, said her first move was to reach out to the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic. Then she filed a police report.

Cops say the pair checked out of their hotel in Samana, but what happened to them next remains a mystery at this point. Officials say they didn't make the flight back to Newark, and there's no record of them getting back to the U.S.



U.S. Customs and Border Protection declined comment, saying privacy concerns preclude them from discussing individual cases of international travelers.



The U.S. Department of State said it was aware of the case and working with local authorities searching for the pair, but could not comment further.



"When a U.S. citizen is missing, we work closely with local authorities as they carry out their search efforts and share information with families however we can," a U.S. Department of State official said in a statement. "The welfare and safety of U.S. citizens abroad is one of the highest priorities of the Department of State. We stand ready to provide appropriate assistance to U.S. citizens in need and to their families."



Turner said her brother and Ravenelle had a rental car in the Dominican Republic, but that vehicle is missing. A picture believed to be the latest of them posted to social media before they vanished shows them riding horses together on their trip.

Weve been calling DR and they said they didnt make their flight, Turner said. We also spoke to someone in U.S. Customs and they said my brother did not make his flight back here.

Turner says her brother has a daughter -- and he's not the type to "just run off on a hiatus ... he's gonna let someone know where he is."



"I'm scared. I don't know what's going on," she added. "I'm saddened, my family is saddened by this and we just want me brother to return safe and alive."



Authorities aren't speculating about what may have happened to the couple, but relatives are growing increasingly concerned.

"When these things happen, you always think of the worst, but we are hoping for the best," Edith Walters, Moore's grandmother, said.
Police said a suspected car thief is in custody after being caught by a sharply dressed detective trainee in Hartford on Friday afternoon.

Officer Jay Montrose was wearing a bowtie and tap shoes when he ran after 25-year-old Dante Flowers on foot, Lt. Paul Cicero said.

Flowers was spotted driving a stolen car from Manchester, Cicero said.

The brief foot chase took place near Asylum Hill, police said.

Flowers was arrested and charged with first-degree larceny, interfering with police, operating with a suspended license and possession of narcotics after officers discovered crack cocaine on his person, Cicero said.

Hartford Police took to social media to share tips about not stealing cars or running from police.

Police Tip#1: Dont steal/drive stolen cars. Tip#2: Dont be a parole fugitive. Tip#3: Dont get into 2 block footchase. Tip#4: Dont possess narcotics. Tip#5: Dont have several felony warrants. Oh, and the suspect was caught by an officer wearing a bow tie and tap shoes. pic.twitter.com/Ugdq26dW0m  Hartford Police CT (@HartfordPolice) April 5, 2019

Cicero spotted Flowers enter the stolen car at the intersection of Sigourney and Ashley streets, he said. He keeps a list of recently stolen vehicles in his vehicle and noticed the car while driving.

Circero and other officers followed Flowers and boxed him in a few blocks away, but he got out of the car and started to run away, Cicero said. Thats when Montrose followed Flowers and caught up to him about two blocks away.

Montrose is one of the departments two current detective trainees. Cicero said they are expected to dress the part with a shirt and tie.

Cicero said Montrose "did a good job" with the chase.
A Maryland man stole a U-Haul van with the intent of using it as a weapon in an ISIS-inspired plot against pedestrians at National Harbor, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Maryland said.

Rondell Henry, 28, of Germantown, harbored hatred of non-Muslim people for two years, according to prosecutors.

He walked off his job March 26 with the intent of driving in to pedestrians, prosecutors said. He drove around the D.C. area looking for a vehicle bigger than his to use and followed a leased U-Haul van into a mall garage in Alexandria, Virginia, where he stole it.

The person who rented the van reported seeing a car follow the van off Interstate 395, onto mall property and into the garage, parking a few spaces away, prosecutors said. Police learned that car was registered to Henry.

According to prosecutors, Henry drove the van to Dulles International Airport about 5 a.m. March 27 but didnt find a big enough crowd to satisfy his plot. Instead, he entered the terminal and tried to breach security by attempting to slip in behind a person who had been cleared and by studying a security checkpoint for weaknesses. He thought an attack there would get a lot of attention, prosecutors said.

After two hours he went back to the U-Haul and plotted again to drive into a crowd, prosecutors said.

He reached National Harbor about 10 a.m., parked the van and scouted the area for a place to attack, prosecutors said. He decided to wait until the crowd got bigger and broke into a boat to hide overnight.

Police found the van at National Harbor March 28 and waited for him, prosecutors said. Police arrested Henry after seeing him leap over the security fence at the boat dock.

Henry said he was inspired by ISIS and wanted to create the kind of panic and chaos that happened in France, prosecutors said. According to prosecutors, Henry said, I was just going to keep driving and driving. I wasnt going to stop.

Henry is charged with interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle and faces 10 years in prison if convicted.

Prosecutors filed a motion to keep Henry in custody as a flight risk. At a hearing Tuesday afternoon, a judge ordered Henry remain in custody without bond until the next hearing.

Henry's attorney says his client's rights were violated by the government for interrogating him for hours and then having him committed to a psychiatric ward without giving him a change to see a lawyer or contact family.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the July 2016 attack in Nice, France, in which a terrorist drove a truck into a large crowd, killing 86 people and injuring hundreds more.
Firefighters battled a massive warehouse fire in Philadelphia's Port Richmond section for hours Sunday night into Monday morning.

The four-alarm fire started at the warehouse that houses the Thrifty Irishman Thrift Shop and other businesses on Sepviva and East Butler streets around 7:30 p.m.

"It was starting off over there at the thrift shop," Isaiah Wyche, a witness, told NBC10. "It was small then it spread out over there."

Flames could be seen from miles away as firefighters battled the blaze. Police shut down surrounding streets and moved people from nearby restaurants.

The fire was placed under control shortly before 10 p.m. Firefighters continued dousing the fire with water at daybreak Monday. As the smoke cleared, officials discovered the structure was gutted though most of the walls were still standing.

Impact Services, a non-profit that helps with local businesses, offered to help the owner of the Thrifty Irishman recover from the loss. Joseph Douglas, a member of the group, told NBC10 the owner is quick to give back to the neighborhood.

"Rob [the owner] is a good dude," Douglas said. "We've done coat drives with him where he was letting people from the community come in and pick from all the clothes."

No injuries were reported. Officials are investigating the cause.
A prosecutor says "our worst fears ... have now been realized" with the discovery in a New Jersey park of the body of the second of two men who disappeared from a group home for people with mental disabilities.

Juan Garcia, 58, whose body was found Thursday during a search of Smithville Park, disappeared from the group home Nov. 1 along with 56-year-old Joseph Brockington, whose body was found in the 312-acre park in February. Both died of hypothermia and their deaths were ruled accidental, officials said.

Searches involving hundreds of law enforcement officers, emergency services and volunteers had been conducted multiple times for the victims, beginning the day they disappeared, the Burlington County prosecutor's office said.

"Sadly, our worst fears" after finding the first victim "have now been realized," prosecutor Scott Coffina said.

The men were residents of a state-funded Catholic Charities group home in Eastampton Township and were known to have enjoyed walking to a Wawa store, the prosecutor said.

Dana DiFilippo, a representative of Catholic Charities in Trenton, said in February that the home helps "adults with serious mental illness to live independently in the community."

Residents are free to leave at any time, but because both men required daily medication, Catholic Charities immediately alerted authorities when they did not return that night, she said.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the families at this difficult time," an agency representative said in an emailed statement.
What to Know "Smallville" actress Allison Mack pleaded guilty to racketeering and conspiracy charges Monday for her role in an alleged NY sex slave group

Court papers allege NXIVM formed a secret society of women who were branded with the founder's initials and forced to have sex with him

Two other women charged in the case, former NXIVM exec Nancy Salzman and her daughter, have already pleaded guilty

"Smallville" actress Allison Mack pleaded guilty to racketeering and related conspiracy charges in Brooklyn federal court Monday for her role in an alleged sex-cult and trafficking group called NXIVM based in upstate New York.

Mack, 36, wept as she admitted her crimes and apologized to the women who prosecutors say were exploited by NXIVM and its founder, Keith Raniere.

"I believed Keith Raniere's intentions were to help people. And I was wrong," Mack said. "I know I can and will be a better person."

She faces 20 years on each count when she is sentenced in September.



The plea marked a turnaround for Mack, who along with Raneire, Seagram heiress Clare Bronfman, daughter of the late billionaire philanthropist and liquor company founder, and a fourth co-defendant had previously pleaded not guilty.



Mack, whose plea means she avoids a high-profile trial, said nothing to reporters who shouted questions at her and her attorney when they left court later Monday. It wasn't clear if she was now cooperating with the government in the case targeting the so-called self-help group NXIVM.



Prosecutors have said NXIVM formed a secret society of women who were branded with Raniere's initials and forced to have sex with him. Mack, who starred in the CW series "Smallville" and has played minor roles since the series ended in 2011, allegedly was a major player in Raniere's cult-like group, helping to add unsuspecting women to a purported self-help group.

Investigators alleged Mack stood at the level directly below Raniere in a pyramid scheme called DOS, into which she recruited fresh slaves. The government alleges that Mack forced those slaves to have sex with Raniere in exchange for what were described as "financial and other benefits." She allegedly made her recruits have sex with Raniere, who paid Mack in return.

"Under the guise of female empowerment," Mack "starved women until they fit her co-defendant's sexual ideal," Assistant U.S. Attorney Moira Kim Penza said in court shortly after Mack's arrest about a year ago.

Defense attorneys have insisted any relationship between Raniere and the alleged victims, including an unidentified actress and other women expected to testify against him at trial, was consensual.



Jury selection in the federal trial in Brooklyn began Monday; more than 250 potential jurors were introduced to the three remaining co-defendants and the judge reviewed the charges, which include identity and wire theft, sex trafficking and exploitation and forced labor. Opening statements are expected later this month. Two other women charged in the case, former NXIVM executive Nancy Salzman and her daughter, Lauren, have already pleaded guilty.

Lauren Salzman entered her plea at a hearing that did not appear on any public calendar, and prosecutors had portions of a transcript blacked out. That's led to speculation she may cooperate against alleged cult members at trial.

Salzman admitted holding a women from Mexico hostage in an upstate home for more than two years under threat of having her deported "if she did not complete labor requested by myself and others," according to the redacted transcript.
On Sunday morning a group of animal-lovers will march a mile down one of Havana's main thoroughfares waving placards calling for an end to animal cruelty in Cuba.

Short, seemingly simple, the march will write a small but significant line in the history of modern Cuba. The socialist government is explicitly permitting 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.

"It's a historic event," said Beatriz Del Carmen Hidalgo-Gato Batista, a 21-year public communications student who received the permit for the march from the Plaza of the Revolution borough of Havana.

There is no indication Cuba is moving toward unfettered freedom of assembly: The state still clamps down on unapproved political speech with swift and massive police mobilizations, waves of arrests and temporary detentions. So a march by independent civil society groups seeking government action will be a remarkable sight in a country where, for nearly 60 years, virtually every aspect of life was part of a single chain of command ending in a supreme leader named Castro.

"It's 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, sponsored and managed by the state and Communist Party. Those groups are fixtures in the 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 using the growing availability of internet in Cuba to organize for various causes, and the state has been ceding them a small degree of freedom to operate.

Artists pushed back successfully against a new law regulating artistic expression. Evangelical churches prodded the government to rescind a proposal to legalize gay marriage. Thousands organized online to get private aid to victims of a tornado in Havana in January. Biologist Ariel Ruiz Urquiola was freed from prison after an online campaign by a wide range of Cubans against his one-year sentence for "disrespecting a forest ranger" during a broader campaign against illegal logging and other environmental violations in western Cuba.

"It's part of a trend toward recognizing civil society, in a tacit manner, sometimes a timid one, but one that's growing, little by little," said Yassel Padron Kunakbaeva, a blogger and intellectual who describes him as a Marxist revolutionary.

A 10-year-old private group known as Forest Guardians regularly organizes tree plantings and cleanups of rivers that cross the city of Havana, said organizer Isbel Diaz, a biologist. Last year, the group used $11,000 in small donations to buy a headquarters where it holds workshops and study groups with what it calls a leftist, anti-capitalist orientation.

Diaz said that the group's first cleanup of the Malecon promenade in 2010 had 14 members picking up trash as several dozen state security agents filmed, took photos and called out threats and insults.

"Activism in Cuba has taken place despite the state," Diaz said. "In my opinion, it's not because the state has felt the need to open up, but because it's had no other option than to accept reality and people with a lot of courage have defied the limits and pushed the boundaries back a little."

In contrast, when self-employed taxi drivers went on an informal strike to protest new regulations, they were met with a flood of inspections that forced many to stop working.

Animal-rights activism has been a fertile field for organizing in Cuba, where these are no laws against animal abuse and virtually every neighborhood has a resident or two who dedicate hours to feeding, treating and sterilizing street dogs and cats, sometimes with the help of foreigners donating supplies and funds.

The country has one officially recognized animal-rescue group, Aniplant, and perhaps a dozen other small, non-state organizations in Havana and other major cities. In recent years the groups have collected thousands of signatures asking for an animal-protection law, with no success to date.

"What I believe is that, if I live in this country I should try to fight for what I want in this country, and what I want is to help Cuban animals," said Grettel Montes de Oca Valdes, a professional dancer and founder of the group Cubans in Defense of Animals, whose members will march on Sunday. "I don't think that we should stop speaking out because if we stop speaking out nothing happens. That method is useless."

The march is planned to end at the grave of Jeannette Ryder, an American who fought for animal rights in Cuba at the start of 20th century. Aniplant has typically organized what it calls pilgrimages to the grave every April.

In a sign of remaining tensions between the official and unofficial in Cuba, many volunteers from the government-backed animal group are boycotting Sunday's march and holding their own event next week.

Associated Press writer Andrea Rodriguez contributed to this report.
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.
A North County postal carrier, honored Monday for pulling two people from a burning car after a collision, said an image of his mother popped into his mind and urged him to get involved.

Eric Reyes was presented with a letter from the Postmaster General of the United States Monday to reward his bravery in connection with a traffic collision on Oct. 16.

A USMC veteran turned postal carrier is hailed as a hero for his quick thinking when he jumped in to save the victims in a traffic collision in Escondido. NBC 7s Liberty Zabala reports.

Reyes was delivering mail when he heard the sound of a crash near Lincoln Avenue and Harding Street in Escondido. When asked about why he decided to rush over to help, he said his mother told him so.

"She had passed away about 9 years ago. I had an image of her that just popped in my head and started yelling at me to go help," he said. "Even though she's gone, when she says something I react."

. @USPS mail carrier Eric Reyes is being honored in #Escondido as a hero for saving victims from a burning car. Eric is a @USMC veteran who served in Afghanistan. He says helping people in need is no big deal. But the woman he saved calls him her guardian angel. #NBC7 pic.twitter.com/Aqc6euH2u1  Liberty Zabala (@LibertyNBC7SD) April 8, 2019

Chris Aaron was dazed and his girlfriend, Angelique Arenas, was unconscious after their Volkswagen was struck by a pickup truck. The impact had caved in the passenger side of the car and sparked a fire.

"It just came out of nowhere," Arenas told us about the man who cut them out of their seatbelts. "He was just going so fast we didn't even see him."

"I will never be able to repay him. He saved my life definitely," she said in a previous interview with NBC 7.

While Aaron suffered cracked ribs, Arenas broke ribs on her right side and fractured her neck and pelvis. She also suffered brain swelling and burns.

NBC 7's Dave Summers spoke to a couple rescued from a burning car by a mail carrier on the job.

Reyes, a U.S. Marine veteran who served for 12 years as a munitions technician including a tour in Afghanistan, said it shouldn't be so unusual for someone to offer to help another person in need.

"After having been in [Operation Enduring Freedom] in the past, having been to war in the past, its not a big deal, at least for me, to go ahead and help somebody who needs help, Reyes said.

He received the award at the Orange Glen Station Post Office on E. Valley Parkway and as part of the ceremony, he also got a hug from Arenas who considers him her guardian angel.
In a remote area, deep within the mountains of Otay Mesa, the U.S.-Mexico border fence ends. U.S. Border Patrol agents took NBC 7 on a tour of this hot spot for illegal immigration.

More specifically, Marron Valley -- just nine and a half miles east of the Otay Mesa Port of Entry -- is where Border Patrol said most of the migrants apprehended in San Diego are caught.

People try to cross through here illegally, said Border Patrol agent Fabian Carbajal.

There is a gap in border fencing between Marron Valley and Tecate where Mexico is only a few steps away.

On the Mexican side, we do have a nice, scenic road where Ive personally seen, you know, people get dropped off, Carbajal said. Because it is open border, its easier to get through, and then, you know, they use guides to walk through trails and try to make it to the Highway 94 to get picked up.

Border Patrol agents arrest roughly 170 migrants every day across the county.

Dozens of Border Patrol agents hike and explore the mountains on foot because access by car is limited. In the field, agents use sensors, active cameras, and radars connected to a tactical operation center back in Otay Mesa to track migrants.

And some of these sensors are in remote areas so theyre in high peaks or low canyons, and we have to go and hike to these sensors to see if someone is on there or if its a false activation, Carbajal told NBC 7.

Often times, the sensors capture animal movement or even small earthquakes, something Border Patrol agents said is lost time in the field.

As we all know, technology, it ages, so money would have to be spent to update that technology, said Border Patrol agent Justin Castrajol.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection requested $223 million from its 2019 fiscal budget to update its technological infrastructure, including getting a drone system.

Its just not active yet -- the drone. Theyre still trying to figure out all the details, Castrajol told NBC 7.

With updates in technology could come a smart wall of sorts  an electronic barrier that could detect illegal crossings and wouldnt require a physical fence. Border Patrol said this would not prevent intrusions but simply detect the migrants to then make an arrest.

Una frontera tecnologica, sin la construccion de un muro. Podria ser la solucion a la crisis en la frontera? Hoy a las 11pm @Telemundo20 pic.twitter.com/Cu53iDDuEQ  Melissa Sandoval (@meli_sandovalTV) April 5, 2019

Castrajol said the border should be a combination of everything.

If we had a primary wall -- theyll jump over, they hit a sensor, and agents can get there before they turn back to Mexico, Castrajol said. We do need that primary wall, that physical barrier, to separate the United States from Mexico.

Across San Diegos 60-mile border with Mexico, roughly 77 percent is covered in some type of fencing or barrier.

For the 2019 fiscal year, Border Patrol agents have arrested more than 31,000 people in the San Diego area. This marks a record high since 2006.

Telemundo 20 first reported on this tour with Melissa Sandoval.
U.S. forces in Afghanistan revised on Tuesday the death toll from a Taliban attack the previous day near the main American base in the country, saying three service members were killed but not a contractor who was initially reported among the fatalities.

The U.S. and NATO Resolute Support mission issued a statement "to clarify initial reporting" about Monday's roadside bombing of an American convoy near the main U.S. base. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

According to a U.S. official, all three service members killed were Marines, identified as Christopher Slutman, 43, of Newark, Delaware; Benjamin Hines, 31, of York, Pennsylvania; and Robert Hendriks, 25, of Locust Valley, New York.

The mission said a roadside bomb hit the convoy near the Bagram Airfield, killing three American service members, and that "the contractor who was reported as killed, is alive."

The statement said "the contractor, an Afghan citizen, was initially treated along with other injured civilians, later identified as a contractor and treated at Bagram Airfield."

Three other U.S. service members were also wounded in the attack. The base in Bagram district is located in northern Parwan province and serves as the main U.S. air facility in the country.

The wounded were evacuated and are receiving medical care, the statement said.

Slutman, a 15-year New York City fire department member, was among the three Marines killed. He leaves behind his wife, Shannon, and three daughters.

"Firefighter Slutman bravely wore two uniforms and committed his life to public service both as a New York City firefighter and as a member of the United States Marine Corps," Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said in a written statement.

In their claim of responsibility, the Taliban said they launched the attack and that one of their suicide bombers detonated his explosives-laden vehicle near the NATO base. The conflicting accounts could not be immediately reconciled.

On Tuesday, local Afghan officials said at least five Afghan civilians were wounded in the commotion after the attack on the American convoy.

Four were passers-by and the fifth was a driver of a car going down the road, said Abdul Raqib Kohistani, the Bagram district police chief. Abdul Shakor Qudosi, the district administrative chief in Bagram, said American soldiers opened fire immediately after their convoy was bombed.

Monday's U.S. fatalities bring to seven the number of U.S. soldiers killed so far this year in Afghanistan, underscoring the difficulties in bringing peace to the war-wrecked country even as Washington has stepped up efforts to find a way to end the 17-year war, America's longest.

There are about 14,000 U.S. forces in Afghanistan, supporting embattled Afghan forces as they struggle on two fronts  facing a resurgent Taliban who now hold sway over almost half the country and also the Islamic State affiliate, which has sought to expand its footprint in Afghanistan even as its self-proclaimed "caliphate" has crumbled in Syria and Iraq.

Last year, 13 U.S. service members were killed in Afghanistan.

The Taliban have continued to carry out daily attacks on Afghan security forces despite holding several rounds of peace talks with the United States in recent months. The Taliban have refused to meet with the Afghan government, which they view as a U.S. puppet.

Meanwhile, the Taliban have agreed to take part in an all-Afghan gathering later this month in Qatar, where the insurgents maintain a political office. But the Taliban say they will not recognize any government official attending the gathering as a representative of the Kabul government, only as an individual Afghan participant.

Associated Press writer Lolita Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.
Residents of a typically quiet apartment community in Ashburn, Virginia, were startled Saturday night by gunfire and say one bullet nearly struck a 6-year-old girl.

Loudoun County sheriff's deputies responded to The Grove at Flynn's Crossing on Blossom Hill Terrace about 9 p.m. They said several rounds struck an apartment building, damaging some of the walls.

One bullet flew straight into a second-floor apartment, through the clothes dryer and lodged in the dryer door  just feet away from where a girl was inside. A resident of the apartment said the child heard the bullet blast through.

No one was injured.

"Fortunately, nobody was injured, but it can me pretty dangerous and deadly. So, it really is a big concern to us," Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman said.

Deputies went door to door to get information from residents.

One woman said she was inside with her 6-year-old son when she heard the gunfire.

"I heard that, you know, big noise, like, boom!" she said.

One man thought he had heard a firecracker until police knocked at his door.

"Now that I know that you found the holes, it's kind of making me feel like I'm not safe. I didn't even get any notifications from my landlord so it's kind of weird," resident Laith Abdulazzeez said.

Chapman says investigators are trying to determine the exact target.

Security cameras did not capture video of the suspect or suspects.

Chapman says the shooter may have fled in a silver sedan.
Pete Buttigieg may not become president or win the Democratic primary, but he's already broken a barrier by delving publicly and intimately into his struggle with his own sexuality in a way no other serious presidential candidate has, NBC News reports.

In a speech before an audience of LGBT rights supporters on Sunday, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, did not describe being gay as something he always believed was acceptable. Instead, he described wrestling with his sexual orientation as a kind of war  one he said he was only able to win when he came home from serving in Afghanistan.

If you could have offered me a pill that could make me straight, I would have swallowed it before you could give me a swig of water, Buttigieg said at the LGBTQ Victory Funds annual brunch. Its a hard thing to think about now. If you had shown me exactly what it was that made me gay, I would have cut it out with a knife.

He added later: Thank God there was no pill. Thank God there was no knife.
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.

The Jewish Democratic Council of America on Saturday said American Jews leaving the Democratic Party are a Republican fantasy.

"Trump's 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 Trump's policies and rhetoric are antithetical to Jewish values, and because anti-Semitism has increased to unprecedented levels due to Trump's 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 that's ever happened in their life," Trump said. "They love Israel."

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 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, who's seeking to return power in Tuesday's 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 Netanyahu's 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."

When he addressed the RJC in 2015 he said he didn't expect to earn their support because he wouldn't take their money. "You want to control your politicians, that's 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 Trump's remarks  receiving a standing ovation when they entered the ballroom.

The Adelsons gave Trump's 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 he's a Republican because of the party's 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.

Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.
Tuesday is something of a holiday for ice cream loversFree Cone Day at Ben & Jerrys.

Forty years ago, the Vermont-based company gave out free ice cream cones to customers, as a thank you for their support during Ben & Jerrys first year in business in downtown Burlington.

Free Cone Day has grown in popularity ever since, expanding to scoop shops worldwide.

"Well have about a million peoplea million peoplecome in for free cones," Matthew McCarthy, the CEO of Ben & Jerrys said in an interview with necn. "And to me, thats super exciting, and also a little bit humbling: the fact that this is a business that started right here in Burlington and now touches the lives of a million people in just one day."

Most scoop shops will serve up the freebies from noon until 8 p.m. Tuesday, but the company noted it is a good idea to make sure your local shop is participating.

Ben & Jerrys has made that info available here.
A German shepherd previously reported as being shot to death was actually killed by another animal, authorities said after the completion of an investigation into the dog's death.

A necropsy determined that the 3-year-old dog in Methuen, Massachusetts, named Moose was killed in a mauling attack by one or more dogs. Family members initially told police they had found the animal shot.

When police responded to the scene last week, three other German shepherds owned by the family of Moose were present and alive. One of the dogs was lying on Moose upon the arrival of officers.

The family has been notified of the findings of the necropsy and the criminal investigation into the matter is considered closed.
A man was arrested for the stabbing of a 19-year-old man who was reported to have "fallen onto some glass" Sunday in Rehoboth, Massachusetts.

Shortly after 1 a.m., authorities responded to a call of a medical emergency at 120 Purchase St., according to Rehoboth police. The caller told police the victim "may have fallen onto glass."

When officials arrived at the scene, they found a 19-year-old man bleeding heavily with stab wounds to his chest and abdomen. The victim was taken to Rhode Island Hospital, where he is in critical condition.

State and local police worked with the Bristol County District Attorneys Office on the investigation. As the investigation developed, officials identified Jared Canto, 19, of Middleborough, Massachusetts as a suspect and issued an arrest warrant.

Canto was arrested and charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

He was held overnight on bail and is scheduled to be arraigned Monday at Taunton District Court. It is unclear if Canto has a lawyer.
A 29-year-old man suffered life-threatening injuries after he was shot in the head Sunday night in Stoughton, Massachusetts, according to police.

Shortly after 10 p.m., the Stoughton Police Department responded to a call of a shooting on 420 Pleasant St. There, they found a man near the back stairs suffering from a single gunshot wound to the head.

Officers immediately helped the victim as they waited for paramedics to arrive at the scene. The victim was then rushed to a Boston hospital, police said, where he is listed in critical condition.

Although officials did not release the victim's name, they did say he is a 29-year-old man.

Authorities said they believe the shooting was targeted.

State and local police are investigating the shooting and ask the public to avoid the immediate area.

The investigation is ongoing.
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker has reportedly signed a bill banning LGBTQ conversion therapy, a process critics decry as a harmful and medically discredited attempt to change a person's sexual identity.

The measure had passed the Democrat-controlled House and Senate by overwhelming margins and went to Baker's desk. The Republican governor signed the bill into law Monday. He had previously indicated that he supported the effort.

Massachusetts becomes the 16th U.S. state to pass a conversion therapy ban.

Massachusetts Family Institute President Andrew Beckwith pledged to challenge the ban in court, saying it denies mental health treatment to sexually confused youth. The group says the ban also violates First Amendment free speech rights.

Ban supporters say conversion therapy can be harmful to children. Arline Isaacson, co-chair of the Coalition to Ban Conversion Therapy for Minors, calls the treatments cruel and barbaric.

"Being LGBTQ is not a disease that requires a cure," Isaacson said in a statement last month. "These fraudulent treatments often lead patients to depression, substance abuse, self-harm and suicidality."
A 29-year-old Massachusetts man is facing numerous charges after police allegedly seized illegal marijuana, several firearms and fireworks from his home, which is close to an elementary school.

Andrew Origilio was arrested by Norwood police on Friday on numerous charges, including four counts of possession with intent to distribute, four counts of drug law violation in a school zone and five counts of possession of a firearm without a license.

Norwood police said they searched Origilio's home at 46 Geraldine Drive, which is behind an elementary school, following an investigation into illegal marijuana sales. Marijuana flower, hash oil, edibles and packages to distribute weed were allegedly found at the home.

About nine firearms, parts to build a machine gun and a large supply of fireworks were also discovered at the home, officials said. Authorities said they also found materials used to build fireworks at the Geraldine Drive house.

Evidence seized from Origilio's home included multiple bags of illegal marijuana, a scale, various firearms, magazines and ammunition, according to photos provided by Norwood police.

Origilio will be arraigned in Dedham District Court on Monday, according to court officials. It's unclear if he has an attorney.

Norwood police say the Norfolk County Police Anti-Crime Task Force helped with its investigation.
Could a tiny fish be the reason your lobster roll costs just a little bit more?

New quotas on herring are forcing Maine lobstermen to look at new types of bait to catch the crustaceans instead of traditional Atlantic herring.

Ian Mayo, operations manager for Maine Fisheries, a company that deals herring, says the cuts are "drastic" and will reduce his herring haul by "75 percent."

The quotas stem from new federal and regional regulations to protect a fish that has a population problem. The changes, crafted by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and New England Fishery Management Council, were implemented after a sharp decline in Atlantic herring was recorded.

Dr. James Sulikowski, a marine scientist the University of New England who advises the NEFMC, says a herring collapse could disrupt an entire New England ocean ecosystem because the fish feeds so many other predators.

"We have to protect the adults that are spawning," he said.

Suliklowski believes the herring will return, but first, scientists need to figure out why they're disappearing, since the cause is not overfishing.

"There's lots of different factors, from environmental change to predation," he explained.

While scientists figure that out, herring costs are going up, leaving lobstermen with a tough choice. They can buy the same fish as they have for years, but at a higher cost, or they can switch their bait.

There is, luckily, another small fish called the menhaden that has been appearing more frequently in Maine waters.

Herring fishermen say they could catch those instead, but they won't fetch as high a price as herring.

"This is our career, and now it's harder to make a livelihood out of it," Mayo said.

Instead, Mayo and others who deal in herring on Portland's waterfront will have to wait.

Sulikowski says experts will reassess the herring fishery in 2020 to see if the current plan still makes sense. He expects that with proper protection from regulators, fishermen will eventually be able to land higher amounts of herring again.

Mayo says that won't solve the problem this summer, and it could linger into the next season, since large amounts of bait are often caught and frozen for the next year.

That means the bait market might be a little tight, and some lobstermen may decide consumers will have to help them pay their bills by raising prices.
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker is clearly intent on turning down the heat on a public back-and-forth between his administration and Suffolk County's district attorney. But Rachael Rollins isn't making that easy.

Saturday morning, Baker told reporters he had just called Rollins to apologize for the dust-up Friday when his public safety secretary, Tom Turco, publicly criticized Rollins in a letter responding to her criminal justice reforms.

"I think we are going to try to hit the reset button and start again on Monday," Baker said Saturday.

At a rally Sunday, Rollins seemed to be on the same page, saying Baker "picked up the phone like a leader does, we had a conversation, which is nobody's business but ours, and now we are moving forward."

Rollins said Baker had earned her respect and she had no more to say. But when talking about her male predecessors "moving toward mass incarceration," her tone changed.

"The governor did not give a [expletive] about that," Rollins said. "But miraculously, now that this DA wants to end mass incarceration, you're going to question the discretion that we have? No, you are not."

Monday, asked if that bothered him, Baker said, "No, I'm looking forward to the meeting that will take place this week between Secretary Turco and his folks and her team."

Baker was also asked about Rollins' comment Friday invoking his son, who was accused last summer of groping a woman on a plane.

"I'm not much on personal attacks," he said. "I'd prefer to focus on the issues, and that's what I anticipate based on the conversation she and I had on Saturday."

Asked if Rollins had apologized to him, Baker said, "That was a really productive conversation that we had and it was between her and me."

Five advocacy groups, including the ACLU and the NAACP, signed a public letter to Baker supporting Rollins' reforms. But Baker also has strong support from those who say many of the low-level crimes on Rollins' "no prosecute" list are not victimless.
High schoolers in Vermonts capital city, Montpelier, were honored Monday for their work to prevent sexual assaults and other forms of sexual violence.

At a conference hosted by the Vermont Center for Crime Victim Services, professionals applauded a student group at Montpelier High School called The Conversation, which works to raise awareness of sexual assault and behaviors that feed it.

In order for communities to change, it starts with young people, said Chris Fenno, the executive director of the Vermont Center for Crime Victim Services.

Jordan Allen-Brandon, a high school senior who works as a student leader of The Conversation, described its aim to dismantle rape culture as more proactive than reactive work.

The group formed a few years ago, after English teacher Sarah Squier asked her class to write essays about impactful chapters in their lives. The resulting memoirs saw several students revealing childhood sexual abuse or unwanted contact at parties.

I believe the adults have to start talking about it, because the kids are already talking about it, Squier told necn. But theyre talking about it with shame and with fear. And if they knew that we knew it was happening, theyd feel safer.

Through regular meetings during student support time in school, The Conversation focuses on issues like consent and how alcohol can affect it, or, how to best speak up about offensive jokes or remarks made online and in person.

What can we do to make sure that we as individuals and as a school are better prepared to help [survivors], and better prepared to prevent [sexual violence] from happening in the future? Montpelier senior Lily Fournier asked rhetorically, describing the goals of The Conversation.

Were not trying to attack anyone, but just rather, to have people question themselves  question their everyday actions, added another senior, Ethan Rubin.

Montpelier High School educators, as well as the advocates behind the emerging leaders honor awarded at Mondays conference on supporting crime victims, believe The Conversation really has opened eyes and prevented crimes, so they hope the concept spreads to more communities.

And I think the award is going to inspire us to keep doing our work, and work even harder now  because it is an ongoing problem, Allen-Brandon said of rape culture.
BRIDGEPORT  A branch manager at a Connecticut-based insulation business pleaded guilty Monday in federal court to bid-rigging and fraud on insulation contracts.

In a prepared statement, Department of Justice officials said Gary DeVoe, of Bethlehem, conspired with other insulation installation contractors to rig bids and engage in fraud on insulation installation contracts in Connecticut, New York, and Massachusetts between October 2011 and March 2018.

U.S. Attorney John H. Durham said the scheme involved bogus bids totaling tens of millions of dollars.

This defendant participated in a long-running conspiracy among insulation contractors in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York, Durham said. They cooked up collusive bids, shared bid numbers with their competitors and communicated with co-conspirators via encrypted messaging apps, all in an effort to line their own pockets and their companies bottom lines. The real victims are the hospitals, universities and businesses that were duped into paying corruptly inflated bids on $45 million worth of insulation jobs throughout New England.

The statement did not identify DeVoes company, but as of Monday evening, Gary DeVoe was listed as a Senior Branch Manager for the New England Region on the website of BC Flynn, a contractor with offices in New York and Oxford, Conn.

A message seeking comment was left at the business late Monday.

The charges to which DeVoe pleaded guilty carry maximum penalties of up to 30 years behind bars, according to federal prosecutors, who said DeVoe has also agreed to pay restitution and forfeit seized bank accounts.

Todays conviction is the result of a coordinated effort between the Department of Justice and our law enforcement partners to root out collusion and fraud that undermined the competitive process and defrauded hospitals, schools and other victims out of millions of dollars, Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Department of Justices Antitrust Division said in the statement. Contractors who conspire to deceive and defraud their customers will be prosecuted.

I commend the FBI, DCIS and the Antitrust Division for uncovering this brazen scheme and their ongoing efforts to bring its perpetrators to justice, Durham said.

Free and open markets are the foundation of a vibrant economy. For years, the defendant illegally coordinated bids on construction projects in order to enhance his own profits, eliminate competition and ultimately steal from both public and private customers, Brian C. Turner, Special Agent in Charge of FBIs New Haven Field Office, said. The FBI is committed to preventing this conduct that restricts all construction firms from receiving an opportunity to bid and receive contracts. Consumers deserve the benefits of competitive prices, higher quality products, services and greater innovation.

Collusion and bid rigging seriously undermine the integrity of public contracting processes, Special Agent-in-Charge Leigh-Alistair Barzey, Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) Northeast Field Office said. DCIS will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to investigate and prosecute those who deprive the benefits of competitive contracts and divert tax payer funds.

The ongoing investigation is being conducted by the Antitrust Divisions New York Office, the United States Attorneys Office for the District of Connecticut, the FBIs New Haven Division, and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service.
The After School Arts Program in Washington has received a $2,500 grant from the Ion Bank Foundation.

Funds from the grant will be used to host concerts for our Music for the Schools program, where students from ASAP!s Inter-district Strings Project perform side-by-side with Waterbury Symphony Orchestra for thousands of school children.
One person was killed in an early morning house fire on April 8 in Euclid.

The citys fire department responded at 4:34 a.m. to 121 E. 194th St. Upon arrival, crews were told that there was a disabled man inside.

According to a news release from the Euclid Fire Department, Euclid police arrived first on scene and attempted to make entry but officers were driven back by intense heat.

Crews found an advanced fire burning on each level of the home, holes in the floors on the second and third floors and hoarding conditions throughout, according to the release.

Crews searched and attacked the fire on the first floor and another crew laddered to the second floor, ventilated and entered through a bedroom window. They searched the room where they found the victim. The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiners Office was called to the scene.

The fire department stated that there is no evidence of working smoke alarms in the home, and the house should be considered a total loss.

The cause is under investigation with the Ohio Fire Marshals office and the Hillcrest Fire Investigation Unit.

No firefighters were injured according to the department.
This year it will celebrate the most exciting advances in digitization, automation, and increased connectivity of the modern laboratory over three days at the Hannover Exhibition Center.

Technology, infrastructure, and analytics solutions will all take center stage at LABVOLUTION 2019. The event will include tech solutions for labs across the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, as well as areas such as environmental technology, food technology, biotechnology, medicine, life sciences, and R&D.

Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock

Taking place in Hannover, Germany, LABVOLUTION will feature exhibitors from Europe, North America, and East Asia. From agriculture, mining, energy, and education, to technical services, communication, human health, and social work, there is ample opportunity to meet peers and collaborate with professionals across industries.

Some highlights from exhibitors in LABVOLUTION 2019 include:

Zeiss Microscopy

The ZEISS Axiocam 305 mono camera produces high-resolution imaging at high speeds with state of the art CMOS global shutter technology. The five-megapixel camera allows users to expose and store 36 frames a second at the highest resolution, and offers a highly detailed image showing different contrasts, intensities, and structural details.



The ZEISS Axiocam 305 mono camera produces high-resolution imaging at high speeds with state of the art CMOS global shutter technology. The five-megapixel camera allows users to expose and store 36 frames a second at the highest resolution, and offers a highly detailed image showing different contrasts, intensities, and structural details. MiCareo

Taiwanese start-up MiCareo brings the MiSelect R System to LABVOLUTION 2019 for the first time. This brand new device can isolate and profile a single live cell from one tube of blood, allowing users to extract biological and genomic information. Additionally, up to 13 biomarkers can be characterized by the MiSelect R System, and single cells can be retrieved for downstream analysis. With MiSelect R System, MiCareo continues to strive towards decoding cell information as precision medicine becomes closer to being a reality.

smartLAB 2019

Making its first appearance in 2015, smartLAB is the highlight of LABVOLUTION year on year, with 2019 being no exception. Focusing on networking and interactivity, smartLAB is a collaborative project between institutions and companies from both research and industry and actively promotes digitization in the laboratory.

We will be integrating a host of innovative elements into smartLAB III. From interaction media and augmented reality functions to the new generation of virtual reality glasses and drones, we will leverage the full technical potential and at the same time achieve our aim of showcasing a fully functional laboratory of the future at LABVOLUTION. Dr. Sascha Beutel, Coordinator of the smartLAB project at the Institute of Technical Chemistry, Leibniz University of Hannover

A range of demonstrations and events will take place in smartLAB III, with lectures, presentations, and hands-on, interactive workshops filling the three-day program.

A selection of the conference agenda includes:

smartLAB  The Intelligent Lab of the Future

Speaker PD Dr. Sascha Beutel will lead the lecture, covering a collection of laboratory workflows in live demonstrations and showing how the smartLAB interacts with digital systems already in widespread use.

21 May 2019. Hall 19, Stand D16 (German)



Speaker PD Dr. Sascha Beutel will lead the lecture, covering a collection of laboratory workflows in live demonstrations and showing how the smartLAB interacts with digital systems already in widespread use. 21 May 2019. Hall 19, Stand D16 (German) The Digital Laboratory: Employee Perspectives on Digitization and Automation in the Workplace

Professor Dr. Christoph Klimmt heads a presentation exploring how the digitization of communication in laboratories can create as many opportunities for companies as it can risks. How the digitization of the employee workload will occur and the risks employees may face in dealing with information overload due to digital technologies are explored in this 20-minute talk.

21 May 2019. Hall 19, Stand D16 (German)



Professor Dr. Christoph Klimmt heads a presentation exploring how the digitization of communication in laboratories can create as many opportunities for companies as it can risks. How the digitization of the employee workload will occur and the risks employees may face in dealing with information overload due to digital technologies are explored in this 20-minute talk. 21 May 2019. Hall 19, Stand D16 (German) Empowering Scientists Through Voice Technology

Documenting results and discoveries regularly impede scientists in their work. With no convenient way to record findings, scientists are at risk of missing key details that may prevent research from being reproduced. This lecture held by Steffen Gloth will explain how voice-powered technology in laboratories enable scientists to make notes, record data, create order lists, and set timers and reminders, freeing them up to make advances in their work.

21 May 2019. Hall 19, Stand D16 (English and German)



Documenting results and discoveries regularly impede scientists in their work. With no convenient way to record findings, scientists are at risk of missing key details that may prevent research from being reproduced. This lecture held by Steffen Gloth will explain how voice-powered technology in laboratories enable scientists to make notes, record data, create order lists, and set timers and reminders, freeing them up to make advances in their work. 21 May 2019. Hall 19, Stand D16 (English and German) Laboratory Goes 4.0  Workspace Revolution or Jobokalypse

The laboratories of the future are considered in this lecture with speaker M.Sc Michael Peter Skoruppa. He explores ideas such as whether digitization is an overhyped buzzword or a signal that human employees are being replaced by digital counterparts.

22 May 2019. Hall 19, Stand D16 (German)

Summary

Visitors to LABVOLUTION 2019 will be able to learn about, work with, and experience the newest innovations in a wide range of sectors all celebrating the best full spectrum of laboratory equipment. Attendees will also benefit from the chance to find the best equipment for their laboratories at an event with digitization and connectivity at its heart. The event also offers a fantastic opportunity to network with peers and form new connections to advance projects, innovation, and research.
Among many breakthroughs that have made living longer possible, better health care--and more experts to make that care possible--loom large. Given that all of us are aging, we need more clinicians, researchers, and advocates to keep that momentum going. Ideally, for example, we'd already have more than 22,000 geriatricians in the U.S. (though at present less than 7,000 certified clinicians are practicing nationwide). With a limited number of geriatricians, how are we to train the next generation of clinicians to optimally care for older people? A new tool from the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) and Aquifer (the non-profit leader in developing clinical learning tools for health professions education) holds promise for bridging that gap. Aquifer Geriatrics (available at Aquifer.org/Courses/Aquifer-Geriatrics/), the AGS national online curriculum in geriatrics, is leveraging e-learning and geriatrics' thought-leadership to advance much-needed training to care for older adults.

"Almost every health professional in the U.S. will care for older patients at some point in their training or careers," explains Amit Shah, MD, Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine, "yet learning about what makes that care unique has varied in duration and even content in the past, often due to a limited number of geriatrics educators at our health professions schools. Developed initially with funding from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, the cases that make up Aquifer Geriatrics provide up-to-date, evidence-based content in geriatrics education. They teach healthcare professionals how to appropriately care for older adults, and they make it easy to do so even if a geriatrician is not immediately available to teach some of the basics."

The idea behind Aquifer Geriatrics is simple: Learners at subscribing institutions have instantaneous access to each of 26 evidence-based, peer-reviewed cases addressing the fundamentals of caring for older adults. The Aquifer Geriatrics curriculum was developed by experts from the AGS and Association of Directors of Geriatric Academic Programs (ADGAP) using the framework of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)/John A. Hartford Foundation Minimum Geriatrics Competencies for Graduating Medical Students. Cases meet the needs of today's learner as they can be completed at their own pace, without being bound to a traditional "classroom." Subscriptions ensure that the course will be sustainable, providing consistent funding for operations such as content updates from a dedicated board of top educators, maintenance, and support.

"Each of the 26 cases delivers knowledge and skills, but also models a geriatrics health professional's approach to care," Mandi Sehgal, MD, Associate Professor of Geriatric Medicine at Florida Atlantic University Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, explains. "Rather than focusing on the myth of 'one right answer,' each of the cases teaches clinical reasoning and reflects the nuances of what it takes to do what geriatrics does best: Deliver high quality, person-centered care with a focus on function and quality of life."

An article published today in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS; DOI: 10.1111/jgs.15813) introduces the Aquifer Geriatrics curriculum and walks through several of its early successes, as well as strategies to help clinicians and institutions adopt the platform. In a related editorial also published in JAGS (DOI: 10.1111/jgs.15901), independent educational experts noted that the program holds promise for "helping to fill the gap that is left by the shortage of geriatrics educators" in preparing the field to "play the long game," thanks to innovative solutions to education.

Aquifer Geriatrics cases can be completed on smartphones, tablets, or computers, and can be used independently or by schools with curricular time available to students. The cases also are appropriate for a host of health professionals, from internal and family medicine residents to physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and geriatrics fellows.
April 8, 2019

 Although their own space missions came decades after the first humans landed on the moon, Jim Buchli and Janet Kavandi have now joined the same ranks as Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.



Veterans of NASA's space shuttle program, Buchli and Kavandi became the 98th and 99th space travelers to be inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame on Saturday (April 6). A public ceremony held under the display of the retired space shuttle Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida brought together Gemini, Apollo, Skylab and space shuttle astronauts to welcome Buchli and Kavandi into the Hall.



"I can't think of two more deserving individuals," said Bob Cabana, the director of NASA's Kennedy Space Center and a four-time space shuttle astronaut.



"The astronauts that you see here today all appreciate you and your extraordinary contributions to the future of human spaceflight," said Mike Coats, a three-time space shuttle pilot and commander and the former director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "They warmly welcome you into the Astronaut Hall of Fame."



Both Buchli and Kavandi said they were humbled by the honor.



"This is something my family and I will remember for the years to come. I want to thank the members of the Astronaut Hall of Fame for inviting me to join their ranks," said Buchli, who launched on four missions between between 1985 and 1991, logging more than 20 days in orbit. "I am both humbled and honored for this acknowledgment."



"We are very humbled to be here and very humbled to be recognized by all of you, our heroes," said Kavandi, who flew on three missions between 1998 and 2001, spending 34 days off the planet.



Amazing endeavor







Astronaut Hall of Fame ceremony. Click to view and enlarge in a new, pop-up window. (NASA)
A team of scientists headed by Maik Behrens from the Leibniz-Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich has identified the receptor responsible for the bitter taste of various salts. These include medically used Epsom salt. The discovery helps to elucidate the physiological mechanisms by which Epsom salt affects the heart or gut.

The team has now published the findings in the journal Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications (DOI: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2019.03.139). It also includes scientists of the German Institute of Human Nutrition.

Salt with physiological effects

Magnesium sulfate, also known as hair salt or Epsom salt, is probably the best-known bitter-tasting salt. The naturally occurring mineral is named after the British city of Epsom, where it was already extracted from spring water in 1697. Even today, it has its place in medicine, for example, to treat constipation or certain cardiac arrhythmias.

Receptor for magnesium, manganese and iron ions

Maik Behrens and his team have now succeeded, with the help of a cellular test system, in identifying a receptor that reacts to Epsom salt or to salts containing magnesium or divalent manganese and iron ions. It is the bitter receptor TAS2R7, one of the 25 different bitter receptor types that people possess.

More than just taste sensors

As gatekeepers in the mouth, bitterness sensors warn against the ingestion of potentially toxic substances. In addition to phytochemicals such as caffeine these also include drugs such as chlorphenamine (antihistamine). Another group of substances represent certain salts, which can lead to significant side effects when consumed in too high doses.

Recent studies indicate that the receptors not only act as taste sensors, but also mediate physiological effects of bitter substances. Thus, bitter receptors are found in organs such as the heart or intestine. "Interestingly, both organs respond to the supply of magnesium salts," says study leader Behrens. An overdose of magnesium salts has been shown to lead to a drop in blood pressure, cardiac arrest, severe diarrhea and vomiting, the researcher said. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the respective physiological reactions are still not clear to date.

The researchers are convinced that the discovery of the Epsom salt receptor will help to better understand the physiological effects of minerals and to develop new therapeutics for, for example, heart disease.
Skin problems, ranging from generalized skin dryness to pressure ulcers, are common in older, care-dependent people. Care workers attempting to improve skin health face an array of good practice recommendations. A study led by Charite - Universitatsmedizin Berlin is now investigating whether the sundry treatment standards currently in use ought to be replaced by a structured skin care program capable of addressing the full range of skin conditions seen. The project has been awarded approximately 975,000 in funding by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

The skin care needs of elderly people in residential care are governed by a range of specific guidelines and standards. These range from the prevention of pressure ulcers to treating skin itching and inflammation. "However, the more recommendations are added, the more difficult it becomes for care workers to implement them," explains the project's lead researcher PD Dr. Jan Kottner of Charite's Department of Dermatology, Venereology and Allergology on Campus Charite Mitte. Many of the problems encountered are caused by age-related changes in the skin. As people age, they develop dryer, thinner skin which is more vulnerable to injury. The skin also loses its protective barrier and its ability to regenerate naturally.

Led by PD Dr. Kottner, the team of researchers started by analyzing the array of good practice recommendations currently in use. Commonalities and parallels were then used to develop a new skin care guidance, which offers a standardized, step-by-step approach to evaluating the patient's skin (Is the skin mostly dry or weeping? Is the patient overweight?). In addition to (and separate from) this standardized assessment, this guidance also includes recommendations on how to clean and care for skin. This enables care workers to treat a range of skin problems simultaneously.

The recently-launched 'SKINCARE study', which involves a total of 500 residents from 20 care homes in the Berlin area, will run for three years. It will investigate whether the implementation of the new care program leads to improvements in both skin structure and function and quality of life. "Study-specific training will be provided to ensure that care workers know how to use the skin care program correctly," explains PD Dr. Kottner. "In this way, the new guidance will also increase staff competency."

SKINCARE

The SKINCARE study is one of 15 projects receiving funding under the BMBF 'Gesund - ein Leben lang' (healthy - for life) initiative. The aim of this funding initiative is to fill existing gaps in knowledge and evidence pertaining to older and very old adults, and to help advance clinical research in this field. To support this aim, the BMBF plans to provide approximately 10 million in funding. The program started in 2017 and is expected to run until 2023. The SKINCARE study includes men and women aged 65 and over. All participants have considerable care needs ('Pflegegrad 2' or higher) and live in residential care homes in Berlin. The new skin care program will be introduced in 10 out of 20 participating care homes (intervention group), while the other 10 homes will continue to follow current skin care protocols (control group).

Source: https://www.charite.de/en/service/press_reports/artikel/detail/wie_laesst_sich_die_hautpflege_in_pflegeheimen_verbessern/
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, suggest the virus may be an unrecognized 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 trialed 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 centers.
Mehbooba Mufti on BJP in manifesto promises abrogation of Article 370 and annulling Article 35A: Already J&K ek barood ki dher par baitha hua hai. If this happens then not only Kashmir but the country and the region will burn. So I appeal to BJP that please stop playing with fire pic.twitter.com/E0z8rmjNO5

Can't Go Back to Days of Independence: Sougata Roy | TMC leader and MP from Dum Dum constituency in West Bengal spoke to CNN News18 and expressed his party's position on the debate on Kashmir's constitutional jurisdiction. The MP said that TMC is opposed to the scrapping of Article 370 or Article 35A. "This is a divisive issue which has been raised for a long time. But, they will be dropped post elections. The current demand is a deviation from the days of Independence when Kashmir was integrated into India. It would be bad for democracy to go back on that," he said.

PM Modi was Busy Touring for 5 Years: Mamata Banerjee | West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee at a public meeting in Nagrakata, West Bengal said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should be thrown out of power and politics and his mouth should be sealed with surgical adhesive tape. When elections are knocking at the door, Modi is threatening everybody and blabbering lies, Banerjee alleged, claiming that he would get the first prize if there was a competition of telling lies. For four and half years PM Modi did not have the time to look after the farmers and the middle-class because he was busy touring the world, she added.

Ruchira Naroola, who is a citizen of Thailand, was asked to appear before an assistant commissioner on Monday at 12 noon in connection with her alleged intentional obstruction of customs officers from checking her baggage at the Kolkata airport on her arrival from Bangkok on March 16.

We Need a Third Front, Third PM Candidate: Kamal Haasan | Makkal Neethi Maiam leader Kamal Haasan today during the release of his party's manifesto said the people have started thinking of a third front and expressed the need to project a third prime ministerial candidate.

PM Modi is a 'National Calamity': Sharad Pawar | NCP chief Sharad Pawar at a public meeting today in Amrawati, Maharashtra called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a "national calamity" who needs to be defeated in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls to safeguard the nation. Pawar also attacked the PM for the latter's personal diatribe against him at a rally in Wardha. "We can run the country well. Modi need not worry about our ability," he said. PM Modi had previously said that Pawar had lost grip on the Nationalist Congress Party which was wracked by a "family feud".

No Option But to Abolish Article 370, 35A: Rajnath Singh | Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh at a public meeting in Suchetgarh, Jammu and Kashmir today said there will be no option with the government other than abolishing articles 370 and 35A related to special status to Jammu and Kashmir in the Constitution if "someone" talks about having a separate Prime Minister for the terrorism-affected state, PTI reported. His reaction came a week after National Conference leader Omar Abdullah had said that his party will strive hard for restoring the autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir that could include having a 'Sadar-e-Riyasat' (President) and 'Wazir-e-Azam' (Prime Minister).

New Delhi: From farmer distress, national security and women empowerment to unemployment, economic growth and good governance, the BJP had a plethora of issues to choose from for its manifesto, released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah on Monday.

The Asli mindset of Modi and the BJP. Dont get carried away with the Botox pictures you see on hoardings, not the face but the mind matters! #WomenBewareofBJP pic.twitter.com/IF1AQcLxUz

For or Against Women?: Divya Spandana | Former Congress MP Divya Spandana takes a hit at the BJP for a 'strange' poll promise they made in their manifesto.

Why Can't Everyone Praise PM Modi For Attacking Terrorists: Rajnath Singh | Union Minister Rajnath Singh at a public meeting today in Jammu and Kashmir said "For defeating Pakistan, if everyone in the country praises Indira Gandhi, then why can't PM Modi be praised for hunting terrorists down in their own ground".

P Chidambaram said when the Congress was reduced to 44 seats after Lok Sabha elections in 2014, the party recognised that it had lost the battle at an organisational level.

We are Not Satisfied With EVM Review: Randeep Surjewala | Congress party's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala today urged the Supreme Court to review its decision on the matching of VVPAT slips with EVMs, saying it is not satisfied with the counting being held in only five booths in each assembly segment. "No, we are not satisfied with counting only five VVPATs. As a citizen, I feel if I am going to pay for Rs 18,000 crore for VVPATs, the democracy enjoins upon every constitutional authority, every government to ensure that election is free, fair, proper and without an iota of doubt regarding the exercise of franchise by every individual," he said.

UP CM Yogi Adityanath on BJP Manifesto: It is for the first time that a govt has promised a house by 2022, to every poor family. BJP has reiterated its commitment on the Ram temple issue, on Kashmir and Uniform Civil Code. Coming 5 years will be to address aspirations of people. pic.twitter.com/2nyW9fmS7B

UP CM Yogi Adityanath said the BJP via its manifesto will address the aspirations of the people in the next five years.

YSRCP, TRS Will Work Together for Both States: KCR | Telangana CM and TRS chief K Chandrashekhar Rao at a public meeting in Vikarabad said that TRS will support the demand for special status for Andhra Pradesh. "YSRCP is going to form the government in Andhra and we will work together for the development of both states," KCR said.

BJP's 'Sankalp' to ENCOURAGE Crime Against Women. . @BJP4India However hard you might try, your actual intentions will come to light. #BJPManifesto Link : https://t.co/4UXwREOnEA #BJPSankalpPatr2019 pic.twitter.com/JYd56iH1uJ

The CPI-ML candidate from Kodarma Lok Sabha seat in Jharkhand calls out the BJP's Manifesto which says that greater clearances for projects lead to an increase in forest cover.

2019, a Fight for the People: Mamata Banerjee | TMC chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee spoke to News18 and explained what the 2019 battle looks like for TMC. "I don't think any fight is tough. If you have faith in yourself, fighting spirit and support of the people I think no fight is tough. I don't create any wave. People of Bengal create waves. Let them ridicule my slogan 'Maa, Mati, Manush'. My theme is Maa Mati Manush. While offering prayers if they ask my caste I say Ma Mati Manush. This is a fight for the people. They will Judge. They will vote," she said.

The All Assam Students' Union that led to anti-bill protests across the state has vowed to renew its agitation if the BJP attempts to introduce the bill again.

BJP Manifesto, a List of Jumlas: CPI | CPI national secretary D Raja today said the BJP manifesto was a list of new 'jumlas' to conceal the betrayal and the broken promises made to the people in the last five years. "The BJP manifesto is a list of new jumlas (gimmicks) to conceal the betrayal and broken promises of last five years. The BJP has become the Bharatiya Jumla Party," he said. Raja added that the BJP's manifesto confirms the saffron party is nothing but a political tool of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh whose ideology is "divisive, sectarian, communal and fascist."

Rs 5 Lakh Interest Free Loans to Women SHGs: Naveen Patnaik's | BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at a public meeting in Nuapada district in Odisha said the BJD government if elected, would make provision of Rs 5 lakh loan to women self-help groups at zero per cent interest, a day after BJP announced Rs 3 lakh interest-free loan to WSHGs."Four and a half crore people of Odisha are my family and I will serve them till my last breath," Patnaik said. The Odisha chief minister also promised that the BJD government would provide works worth Rs 5,000 crore per year to Mission Shakti workers if his party returns to power in the state for fifth consecutive times.

The telecom agency's letter also said that Gandhi has filed the nominations for upcoming Lok Sabha polls from Pilibhit but didn't obtain the required no-dues certificate from Pilibhit BSNL.

No Government Without TMC: Mamata Banerjee | Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today asserted that her party would play a crucial role in forming the next government at the Centre, after the Lok Sabha polls, PTI reported. "There will be no government formed without the TMC. They (the BJP) have only one arrogant man in him (Prime Minister Narendra Modi). But we have so many leaders who have credibility... So, we will decide it (on the PM face of the opposition alliance) later. Let the elections be over," she said.

Tickets Sold to the Highest Bidder: SAD Leader | The Akali Dal's core committee member and former state minister Bikram Singh Majithia at a public meeting today in support of SAD candidate Darbara Singh Guru contesting from Fatehgarh Sahib Lok Sabha constituency accused the Congress of selling tickets to candidates aspiring to fight the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, saying denial of tickets have caused resentment among the party's "loyal leaders". "The Congress has sold tickets for Lok Sabha seats to the highest bidders, causing a lot of resentment among its loyal workers and senior leaders," alleged Majithia.

Farmer Support Scheme, River Water Utilisation Implemented by TRS: KCR | Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao at a public meeting in Vikarabad claimed that both the Congress and the BJP "copied" the schemes being implemented by his government in Telangana. Rao claimed the two parties copied 'Rythu Bandhu (investment support scheme for farmers) being implemented by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi government. Rao also said that optimum utilisation of river waters is another scheme the BJP said it would focus on.

With nine first time contestants in both assembly and Lok Sabha , this is the highest number of women candidates in the state till date.

EC Officials On Strike, Demand Security in West Bengal | Hundreds of Election Commission officials go on strike demanding security in Cooch Behar area of West Bengal. The officials are demanding the deployment of CRPF personnel for their security. The CEO West Bengal in a press release has informed that discussions have been held with employees associations and they have assured due cooperation.

However, the JD(S) patriarch did not say anything about TRS president and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, who had earlier sought his support for a federal coalition.

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti today said that once Article 370 is scrapped, the state leaders will not be able to fight polls. Her reaction came after a PIL was filed in the Delhi high court to ban Omar, Farooq Abdullah and Mufti from contesting elections.

BJP parliamentarian Varun Gandhis dues of Rs 38,616 against his Pilibhit office telephone number. The state-owned telecommunications Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has written a letter in this regard to district election officer, informing them that despite repeated reminders the bill is yet to be paid.

Election Tracker LIVE: Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidus rival K Chandrashekar Rao announced today that his party Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) will support special status to the neighbouring state. Naidu had last month declared that KCR, not Jaganmohan Reddy, was TDPs main rival in AP.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav today repeated BSP chief Mayawatis appeal to not let votes get split. The BSP chiefs speech at Deoband on Sunday was ostensibly aimed at ensuring Muslims stay firmly behind the alliance.

The open appeal to the minority community came at the first joint rally held by the two alliance partners in 25 years. I want to make an open appeal. Its not the Congress but the alliance which is fighting the BJP. Congress wants to ensure the alliance does not win. Congress is trying to help the BJP in this election, she said while sharing the stage with Akhilesh Yadav and RLD chief Ajit Singh.

Ram Mandir, Uniform Civil Code and a zero-tolerance policy towards terrorism are some of the big promises made by the BJP in its 2019 manifesto Sankalp Patra, Union minister Rajnath Singh has announced. Singh also addressed the contentious issue of Citizenship Amendment Bill, saying it would be implemented without compromising with the identity of states. On Kashmir, he said the party was committed to annulling Article 35A of the Constitution as the provision is discriminatory against non-permanent residents and women of Jammu and Kashmir. We believe that Article 35A is an obstacle in the development of the state, he said.

Singh said the party would explore all possibilities within the framework of the Constitution and all necessary efforts to facilitate the expeditious construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. He added that Article 44 of the Constitution of India lists Uniform Civil Code as one of the Directive Principles of State Policy. BJP believes that there cannot be gender equality till such time India adopts a Uniform Civil Code, which protects the rights of all women, and the BJP reiterates its stand to draft a Uniform Civil Code, drawing upon the best traditions and harmonizing them with the modern times.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing the gathering, said the BJPs approach is need-based and politics can continue but to move the nation ahead, our approach is multi-dimensional. BJPs Sankalp Patra aims to make India a developed nation by 2047, on completion of 100 years of Independence, he said, adding that they had made several policies and taken several decisions keeping in mind good, easy, transparent, responsible and accountable governance.

BJP chief Amit Shah kicked off the launch of the partys manifesto for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, saying it was going with 75 promises to people to celebrate 75 years of Independence. Shah said the party had a strong leader in the form of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP would do what it takes to make this country great. 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. The Congress, meanwhile, reminded voters of the good old days before 2014 when Indians had jobs & a PM that didnt lie to them.

Meanwhile, Modi will campaign in three states  Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. In Maharashtra, PM Modi will address a rally at Osmanabad, a constituency governed by BJP ally Shiv Sena. Then, he will land in Karnatakas Chitradurga, which is under the Congress. After Chitradurga, it will be Mysuru, which was won by the BJP in the last Lok Sabha election. Later in the evening, Modi will reach Tamil Nadu where he will take the BJP rally forward to Coimbatore.

Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) chief Kamal Haasan launched the partys manifesto for 2024. He also played down the I-T raids being conducted before the upcoming elections, saying, Those who hoard peoples money, they should be raided, they should be punished. The raids have not taken place just during elections but before also.

Meanwhile, Congress President Rahul Gandhi and party general secretary for eastern Uttar Pradesh Priyanka Gandhi are set to address three election rallies in politically crucial Saharanpur, Shamli and Bijnor districts of western Uttar Pradesh, where polling is scheduled to take place in the first phase.

On the other hand, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav will be campaigning in Ghaziabad and Baghpat constituencies, which fall under western UP as well. BSP supremo Mayawati will also address massive rallies across western UP. In Kairana and Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will address four rallies. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will also be in the politically crucial state.

Besides, the Supreme Court will hear the CBIs plea against former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar. The CBI had moved the apex court to arrest Kumar and had filed a fresh plea in the SC where it claims that the ex-police chief was evasive and concealed information and may also be responsible for destruction of evidence.

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(Newser)  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 US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan would be taking over as acting head of the department, the AP reports. 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.

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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 US-Mexico border on Friday with Trump to participate in a roundtable with border officers and local law enforcement. 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 apparently 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. Her resignation letter (see it at CNN) had not a whiff of controversy, unlike others who have left from the administration.

(Read more US-Mexico border stories.)
(Newser)  Firefighters found a 21-year-old man's charred, naked body when they entered a burning home littered with mounds of trash. A hole in the basement floor led them to a network of tunnels under the house. Fire investigators swiftly concluded that the Maryland home was a crime scene, a deadly end to a wealthy stock trader's campaign to build an underground bunker for protection from a nuclear attack. Daniel Beckwitt, a 27-year-old millionaire who grew up in the house, was charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in the Sept. 2017 death of Askia Khafra. When Beckwitt's trial starts this week, his attorneys likely will try to persuade jurors that Khafra's death was a tragic accident. Beckwitt risked his own safety in a failed attempt to rescue his friend from the blaze, his lawyers have said.

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Jury selection for Beckwitt's trial is scheduled to start Monday in a Montgomery County courtroom, the AP reports. And a judge recently ruled that jurors can hear testimony about evidence that investigators found in the fire-gutted house in Bethesda, a suburb of Washington, DC. Prosecutors said investigators properly obtained and executed the search warrant under difficult circumstances, including the extreme hoarding conditions inside the home. Montgomery County prosecutor Douglas Wink, who accuses Beckwitt of ignoring "obvious signs" of danger, said during a hearing last year that the tunnels had lights, an air circulation system, and a heater powered by a "haphazard daisy chain" of power strips that created a fire risk. Hours before the fire, Khafra, who agreed to help dig the tunnels in exchange for investment in a business venture, texted Beckwitt to warn him it smelled like smoke in the tunnels. (Khafra's parents say they told him to stay away from the tunnels.)
(Newser)  "If only." Those are the two words Britain's top forensic pathologist is now saying about the 1997 car crash that claimed Princess Diana's life. That's because Dr. Richard Shepherd, who the Daily Beast notes has performed more than 23,000 post-mortems, lent his expertise to the British police for an inquiry into the princess' death and is now coming forward with an interesting claim: that the injury Diana suffered in the accident was actually a minor one, and that the only reason it killed her was that it happened "in the wrong place." Shepherd's assessment in his book, Unnatural Causes, which has been excerpted by the Daily Mail, notes that Diana suffered a "few broken bones" in the Paris collision, but it was a "tiny tear" in one of her veins that proved fatala "specific injury ... so rare that in my entire career I don't believe I've seen another."

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That's because veins bleed out much more slowly than arteries, which could explain why Diana was reportedly still conscious immediately after the accident. The problem was that the torn vein was buried deep in her chest, Shepherd says, meaning it simply wasn't discovered in time to save her. "If only she had hit the seat in front at a slightly different angle," Shepherd writes. "If only she had been thrown forward 10mph more slowly." And then, the one factor Shepherd says Diana actually could've controlled: "If only she had been wearing a seat belt. Had she been restrained, she would probably have appeared in public two days later with a black eye, perhaps a bit breathless from the fractured ribs and with a broken arm in a sling." More here from Shepherd. (Read more Princess Diana stories.)
(Newser)  When Aaron Fraser was 3, his mother disappeared, and the little boy told police he had seen his father shoot and kill her, News4Jax reports. He was removed from his father's Florida home, and eventually adopted by another couple, after his father became the main suspect in his mother's 1993 disappearance. But Bonnie Haim's body was never found, and police couldn't charge Michael Haim with anythinguntil December 2014, when Aaron Fraser, who had won the deed to his childhood home in North Jacksonville after suing his biological father for wrongful death, started demolishing it. As the excavator rolled over the outdoor shower near the swimming pool, a gruesome discovery: Fraser and his brother-in-law eventually found, buried in the dirt underneath the concrete slab, what they originally thought was a coconut. It turned out to be Bonnie Haim's skull, the Florida Times-Union reports.

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Soon thereafter, Michael Haim, now 52, was charged with murdering his wife of five years. His trial, at which his now-29-year-old biological son will testify, starts Monday. According to charging documents, Bonnie Haim had been planning to leave her husband, and had put aside $1,250 for safekeeping with a friend by January 1993. She planned to move on Jan. 23 of that year, while Michael Haim was on a business trip, but on Jan. 6, she canceled plans with a relative to, she said, discuss her marriage with her husband. The following day, a hotel worker at a Red Roof Inn near the airport found a purse with Bonnie Haim's ID; police found her car in the airport's parking lot. Michael Haim told police his wife ran off after an argument, but friends said she never would have left her son. (They blamed alligators for a man's death. Eighteen years later, his wife was convicted.)
(Newser)  Vivian Bullwinkel was the sole survivor of a horrific World War II massacre, in which 21 of her fellow Australian army nurses were forced into the ocean and machine-gunned by Japanese troops on Indonesia's Bangka Island. Now, "history detective" Lynette Silver has added another terrible piece to the puzzle of that February 1942 slaughter: The nurses, including Bullwinkel, were raped before they were killed, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. Silver says there's a reason why this fact never came to light, other than in unconfirmed whispers: She contends Bullwinkel had been told by the Aussie government to never speak of these war crimes. "She was ordered when she was still in the army not to include these details in her depositions to the Tokyo war crimes tribunal," Silver notes.

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Silver unearthed a 10-page report at Canberra's national library penned by Jean Williams, the wife of an army major who had conducted war crimes investigations; Silver noticed that Williams' narrative about the nurses' murder abruptly got cut off. "It was evident that whatever else Mrs. Williams had written about the nurses had been removed by someone determined that no one else should see it," Silver writes in her new book, Angels of Mercy. Silver was able to finally confirm the rapes because Bullwinkel did tell at least one person what had happened before her death in 2000: broadcaster Tess Lawrence, who says Bullwinkel was tortured by the secret. "It more than irked her," Lawrence says. "She wanted to put this in her statement before the war crimes tribunal but was ordered not to by the Australian government." (Read more war crimes stories.)
(Newser)  In the first such move of its kind, President Trump has labeled Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. Never before has the US made that declaration about a foreign military, reports Reuters. In fact, never before has the US used the label against any part of a foreign government, notes the New York Times. In response, Iran is expected to label the American military a terrorist organization, too, reports NPR. "This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft," Trump said in a statement.

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"If you are doing business with the IRGC, you will be bankrolling terrorism," Trump said. The IRGC has about 150,000 members, including ground forces, navy, and air force personnel, reports the BBC. The move will allow the US to seek penalties against members of the group and bar their entrance to America. The same applies to individuals or entities providing assistance to the Guard. The Washington Post notes that the move comes one day before Benjamin Netanyahu, a staunch ally of Trump who has made Iran a focal point of his tenure, seeks re-election as prime minister of Israel. (Read more Iranian Revolutionary Guard stories.)
(Newser)  The US seems to be moving toward an unwanted milestone. The CDC said Monday it has confirmed 465 cases of measles so far in 2019a sharp jump from the 387 reported only last week, notes USA Today. This year already has seen the second-highest number of cases since 2000, and the pace is on track to surpass the 667 reported in 2014. The big double whammy: a rise in the number of travelers who contract the disease overseas and return to spread it in the US, where the anti-vax movement has a foothold. While 19 states have cases, the biggest outbreak continues to be one in New York Cityof the week's new cases, 60 were tied to that outbreak, reports the Wall Street Journal. (Read more measles stories.)
(Newser)  Orlando Moore and Portia Ravenelle set out for the Dominican Republic last month, but they didn't make their flight home on March 27and the New York couple hasn't been heard from since. The last picture they are believed to have posted to social media shows them riding horses during the vacation. They checked out of their Samana hotel, the all-inclusive Grand Bahia Principe Cayacoa resort, but police don't know what they did next; their phones are off. Their rental car is missing, and back home, their car is still parked at the Newark airport. Moore's sister contacted the US Embassy in the Dominican Republic, then filed a police report, and the US State Department says it is working with local authorities on the search, NBC New York reports.

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Moore has a daughter and would not "just run off on a hiatus," his sister says. "He's gonna let someone know where he is." She adds, "I'm scared. I don't know what's going on. I'm saddened, my family is saddened by this and we just want [my] brother to return safe and alive." Ravenelle's family has gone to the Dominican Republic to assist in the search, per the New York Post. Per Fox News, the State Department's most recent travel advisory for the Dominican Republic, which was issued in February, recommended that tourists exercise increased caution due to crime. (Read more missing persons stories.)
(Newser)  John Ralph asked his co-workers to take pictures of him at work because, according to police, "if anything happened to his mother he would need an alibi." Something had happened to his mother: Ralph, 51, allegedly murdered her that same day. A caretaker discovered the body of Edith Betty Ralph, 76, Saturday at the Tennessee home mother and son shared. The younger Ralph was arrested later that night at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, less than an hour before he was scheduled to depart for Amsterdam, the Johnson City Press reports. He has been charged with first-degree murder in his mother's death, ABC News reports.

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"Ralph lived with his mother and had ... made numerous statements to friends and family that his mother was driving him crazy," according to a statement from the Clayton County Sheriff's Office in Georgia. "The night of Mrs. Ralphs murder, John (asked) co-workers to take pictures of him at work saying that if anything happened to his mother he would need an alibi." The woman's body had several gunshot wounds and severe head trauma. "We quickly found evidence that led us to suspect John Ralph," says the Carter County sheriff in Tennessee. The sheriff's office then learned Ralph had purchased a plane ticket and promptly got in touch with US Customs and Border Protection and the US Marshals Service. He is jailed in Georgia, awaiting extradition to Tennessee. (Read more murder stories.)
(Newser)  A signal detector, nine USB drives, and five SIM cards for mobile phonesthat's what prosecutors say authorities found in the hotel room of the woman who was arrested on the grounds of President Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort last month. Yujing Zhang was in court in Florida for a bail hearing Monday, where prosecutors said she's a flight risk and asked the judge to keep her in custody, Bloomberg reports. A signal detector can help find hidden cameras or audio devices. That's on top of the four cellphones, external hard drive, and thumb drive carrying malware that agents say she was carrying when she was arrested, per CBS. Zhangs lawyer said she took many of the electronic devices to the Secret Service herself to be examined while she was at Mar-a-Lago. The hearing is scheduled to resume Monday. (The Secret Service chief is stepping down.)
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New Delhi:

The Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) released an official notification on Sunday stating that the board will not declare the TS Intermediate 1st-year and 2nd-year result on Monday i.e. April 8, 2019. The official date for TS Inter 1st, 2nd Year Result 2019 has not been announced by the board yet, however, the results will be declared after the Lok Sabha polls in the state which is scheduled to be held on April 11, 2019.

The Telangana Board also clarified that the circular being shared on social media and other platforms regarding the release of the Telangana Board Inter Results are fake. Soon after the official announcement of the results, students can visit the official websites of the Board i.e. bie.telangana.gov.in or results.cgg.gov.in to check and download their Telangana Board 1st and 2nd Year Intermediate Result 2019.

For the convenience of the students, we have mentioned the steps through which they can check their results.

Step 1: Visit the official websites of the Board i.e. bie.telangana.gov.in or results.cgg.gov.in.

Step 2: Enter your roll number and other details as required.



Step 3: Cross-verify all the details and click on the submit button.

Step 4: Your Telangana Board Inter Result 2019 will be displayed on the screen.

Step 5: Download the result or take a printout for future reference.

About Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education



The Telangana Board of Secondary Education and Telangana Board of Intermediate Education were established in the year 2014. The State Board of Telangana or Telangana Board is divided into two sections. While the Telangana Board of Secondary Education conducts the SSC exams, the Telangana Board of Intermediate Education conducts the Intermediate exams i.e. 11th and 12th. The Telangana Board of Intermediate Education regulates and supervises the system of intermediate education in Telangana state.

It executes and governs various activities that include prescribing syllabus, conducting examinations, granting affiliations to colleges and providing direction, support, and leadership for all educational institutions under its jurisdiction. Honourable Minister of the State for Secondary Education acts as chairman and secretary of Government, Secondary Education as vice-chairman of the Board. The secretary of IAS Rank acts as the chief executive of the Board.
New Delhi:

With the Lok Sabha elections just round the corner, a school in Lucknow has done its bit to encourage people to exercise their franchise. The Christ Church College in Lucknow will add extra 10 marks to the final results of those students whose parents will cast their votes on the day of polling. As per reports, "Ten marks will be added to those students' final results whose parents will vote in the elections," RK Chattree, principal of the school, said.

Apart from this, the school has put up a banner on the gate which says: "Voting is the expression of commitment to self and to the country. We appeal to all the parents to exercise their right to vote. The college promises to award 10 marks to the students' final result whose parents will vote."

Several schools and educational institutes across the country have adopted several measures to promote voting in Lok Sabha elections 2019. Such methods include different competitions, marches, slogan writing and providing extra marks to motivate students for asking their parents to vote per reports.

The first phase of polling in the Lok Sabha elections will take place on Thursday.
New Delhi:

BJP president Amit Shah on Monday met party veterans Murli Manohar Joshi and L K Advani, hours after launch of party poll manifesto. The meeting came amid reports that the two partys founding members have been upset on being benched and sidelined ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

According to reports, the meeting was aimed at placating the sulking party patriarchs amid the opposition attacking Prime Minister Narendra for insulting his gurus. Sources said Shah met them to explain the reason of fielding them for their traditional Lok Sabha seats.

Advani has been replaced by party president Amit Shah in the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat, a seat from where the former has been elected six times since 1991.

In a similar move, the party also dropped Murli Manohar Joshi, fielding local Brahmin face Satyadev Pachauri instead from Kanpur. He issued a public message to his constituency that he had been told by the party he would not contest from Kanpur or anywhere in the election.

On the other hand, Advani, after a long silence following the partys decision to drop him, wrote a blog in which he said that his party never regarded those who disagreed with it politically as "anti-nationals" or "enemies" but only as adversaries.

The remarks came at a time when top BJP leaders have used anti-national barbs against political rivals on the issue of national security.

Defending its move to drop senior leaders aged above 75 years, BJP leaders said the party has taken a "principled decision" that veterans should make the way for younger leaders.

The BJP has also not given tickets to likes of Shanta Kumar, B C Khanduri, Kariya Munda, Kalraj Mishra, Bijoya Chakravarty - all many term MPs and over 80 years of age - besides Advani (91) and Joshi (85).
New Delhi:

Just three days before the Lok Sabha elections 2019 starts, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday released its much-awaited manifesto. The BJP, whose election campaign is centered around nationalism and Hindutva, has made 75 promises to celebrate the 75th Independence Day. The BJP has once again repeated its 2014 promise to build a mega Ram Temple in a conducive environment. The BJP has titled its manifesto Sankalp Patra and it was released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party president Amit Shah along with other members of the partys Parliamentary board members.

Below are the highlights of BJP's manifesto launch event:

13:07 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In "India is a diverse country with different languages and culture, which is why we have tried to make our developmental processes multi-layered," says Modi.

13:05 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In "We want the people to hold us accountable and hence we have set out to achieve 75 goals (for the 75 years of independence) by 2022," says PM Modi.

13:05 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Nationalism is our inspiration, uplifting the marginalised is our vision, good governance is our mantra. To run a national policy we need to work on a multi-dimensional level and that has been included in a 'Sankalp Patra', says PM Modi.

12:56 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In We will form a separate jal shakti ministry, announces PM Modi.

12:51 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In We have set 75 well-defined resolutions in our manifesto that we can fulfil in a time bound manner, says PM Modi.

12:50 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In PM Modi talks about one mission, one direction, says its about timely delivery of the promises.

12:45 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In After senior party leaders and cabinet ministers, PM Modi addresses the event at BJP headquarters in Delhi.

12:36 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj takes the centre stage. She says that there is clear distinction between other parties and the BJP. While other parties declare schemes in their manifestos, we at BJP are here to take Sankalp, a vow to fulfil these dreams, says Swaraj.

12:32 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Our objective is to reduce poverty to single digit in next 5 years and then eventually eliminate it, says Jaitley.

12:28 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Our policy to hit terror at the very point of its origin has garnered global support, says Jaitley.

12:27 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In 2014 Lok Sabha Elections were conducted at a time when India was suffering from 'cynical environment', says Jaitley. Today, in 2019, the environment is totally different, says Jaitley.

12:25 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Now, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is addressing the media. He says the the Modi government has fulfilled all its promises in last five years.

12:22 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Every farmer will get the benefit of Kisan Salman Nidhi irrespective of land holding, said Rajnath Singh. Pension schemes got small and marginal farmers. Rashtriya Vyapari Ayog will be set up for trading community. It will be a very effective commission. Pension will also be given to small shopkeepers: Rajnath Singh

12:11 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In We will strengthen the strike capability of the armed forces by equipping them with modern equipment. Besides, we will take effective steps to prevent illegal immigration in the Northeastern states: Rajnath Singh

12:14 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In We had a zero tolerance policy towards terrorism, it will continue till terror is not eliminated completely. Citizenship amendment bill - we will pass in parliament and implement it: Rajnath Singh

12:09 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In BJP repeats Ram Temple promise. Rajnath Singh says "we will build a grand temple in a conducive environment if returns to power."

12:07 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In "We're presenting it as a vision document, not only do draw the satisfaction but also the pride and aspirations of crores of Indians," says Rajnath Singh.

12:05 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In BJP's manifesto committee chief Rajnath Singh is giving details about the saffron party's vision document for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. He says the vision is "to bring India in the list of world's top three biggest economy."

11:59 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh release BJP's manifesto for 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

11:58 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In "We are going with 75 promises to people, to celebrate 75 years of independence," Amit Shah unveils key details of the manifesto.

11:53 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In The Modi government has taken decisive steps. There was a time when the glory of India was reduced in the global arena. We have brought back the lost glory. We curbed black money, conducted a surgical strike against terrorism: Amit Shah

11:52 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In "I want to remind you of 2014. In 2014 BJP was projecting the then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi as the people's Prime Minister. We had a vision of how the nation will progress from 2014 to 2019 in our manifesto that year. People responded overwhelmingly and gave us a huge majority," says Amit Shah.

11:54 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In I want to remind you about the 2014 polls. That time we brought you a vision of how the country would be between 2014 to 2019. The people then delivered their verdict giving us a majority government. The journey from 2014 to 2019 will be written in golden words in the history of India's development: Amit Shah

11:23 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Prime minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah have reached party headquarters in Delhi.



Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives at BJP headquarters, the party will release their manifesto for #LokSabhaElections2019 shortly. pic.twitter.com/f71GqU58Ly

 ANI (@ANI) April 8, 2019



11:17 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Jaiveer Shergill, Congress: Instead of launching a 'Sankalp Patra' (manifesto), BJP should launch a 'Maafi Patr' for injecting a lethal injection of unemployment, farmers suicides, closing of businesses and putting youth towards Pakoda employment.

10:32 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In What is the status of BJP's some of the big promises made in 2014 manifesto?

Promise: 33 per cent reservation for women through a constitutional amendment.

Status: The promise still remains a distant dream even after the Congress president Rahul Gandhi announced unconditional support in Parliament.

Promise: Bring back black money in 100 days.

Status: The promise remains fulfilled. Although the BJP announced demonetisation to end the black money in 50 days, the move did very little to address the issue.

Promise: 1 crore jobs every year.

Status: One of the biggest failure of the Narendra Modi government. Unemployment rose to the highest since last 45 years, according to a National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) report withheld by the government.

Promise: Smart cities

Status: Visible to all. Not delivered.

Promise: Construction of a grand Ram Temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya.

Status: Not built, promise still remains unfulfilled.

10:13 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Senior journalist Manoj Gairola says: It would interesting to see how the BJP will counter the Congress party's NYAY scheme that promises Rs 72,000 minimum income guarantee for the poor families.

10:12 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In On Sunday, Union Minister Arun Jaitley had launched BJP's Logo and Tagline for 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign. The tagline read: "Phir ek baar Modi sarkar" or "Modi government once again".

10:09 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Meanwhile, according to some reports, BJP president Amit Shah has reached out to veteran leaders LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi before the release of the manifesto. The two leaders may also be present during the event.
New Delhi:

Hours after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its manifesto - titled 'Sankalpit Bharat, Sashakt Bharat' - for Lok Sabha Elections 2019, political opponents spotted an embarrassing error and started trolling the ruling party on micro-blogging site Twitter.

Among the first to trollA was the Congress party who tweeted the error from its official Twitter handle and said, aat least one point in BJPas Manifesto reflects their true intentions.aA

At least one point in BJP's manifesto reflects their true intentions. #BJPJumlaManifesto pic.twitter.com/b5CqRrOz0E a Congress (@INCIndia) April 8, 2019

In the chapter titled aWomen Empowerment,a a point states that aWe have constituted the Women's Security Division in the Home Ministry, and have made strict provisions for transferring the laws in order to commit crimes against women, in particular in a time-bound investigation and trail for rape."

Congress social media chief Divya Spandana also tweeted a screenshot of the manifesto calling it aasli (real) mindset of the BJPa. aThe Asli mindset of Modi and the BJP. Donat get carried away with the Botox pictures you see on hoardings, not the face but the mind matters! (sic)a she said.

Arvin Kejriwalas Aam Aadmi Party called the error "BJP's 'Sankalp' to ENCOURAGE Crime Against Women".

"BJP's 'Sankalp' to ENCOURAGE Crime Against Women. .@BJP4India However hard you might try, your actual intentions will come to light," AAP wrote on its official handle while sharing the screenshot of the error in the manifesto.A

Soon after that, people started trolling the BJP saying it is busy in finding mistakes in Congress president Rahul Gandhias speeches.

aToo busy looking for mistakes in Rahul Gandhias speeches, but forgot to proofread their own mistakes,a one Twitter user said.

Too busy looking for mistakes in @RahulGandhi as speeches forgot to proofread their own manifesto #BJPManifesto pic.twitter.com/pGQmLFPS9l a vinay jain (@vinayjain18490) April 8, 2019

Twitterati also pointed out some spelling errors, like the sentence where aVidyalayasa was spelled in two different ways in the same sentence.

Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the 45-page manifesto in the presence of BJP chief Amit Shah and other top leaders of the party, including Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, and Arun Jaitley.

Eyeing another stint in power, the BJP made a string of promises, including expeditious construction of a Ram temple, a firm hand in dealing with terrorism and doubling farmers income in the next three years.
New Delhi:

Congress president Rahul Gandhi and party general secretary for Uttar Pradesh east Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will address three election rallies Uttar Pradeshs Saharanpur, Shamli and Bijnor districts on Monday. The polling in these places is scheduled to take place in the first phase on April 11. Congress general secretary for western Uttar Pradesh Jyotiraditya Scindia will also accompany the Rahul-Priyanka duo to the rallies that are expected to be huge crowd pullers.

While the BJP has renominated sitting MP Raghav Lakhanpal to retain the seat, the Congress has also again fielded the 2014 runner-up Imran Masood. As for the mahagathbandhan of BSP-SP-RLD, the seat has been given to the BSP which has named Hazi Fazalur Rahman to take on the two national parties' candidates.

Earlier on April 4, both Rahul and Priyanka took out a massive roadshow in Kerala's Wayanad where Rahul had gone to file his nomination to contest the Lok Sabha polls apart from the traditional stronghold of Amethi.

On April 5, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the electorate in Saharanpur and Amroha Lok Sabha constituencies, becoming the first of the big leaders to stop by these constituencies. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched an attack against Congress candidate Imran Masood at the rally.

Providing ammunition for the attack was an alleged threat made by the politician in 2014 that he would chop PM Modi into pieces. "Yahan toh boti boti karne wale sahab bhi hain (This was where that man said he will chop me into pieces). He is a favourite of the Congress prince. Do keep in mind that they are the ones who threaten while we are the ones who respect and protect your daughters," PM Modi had said at the rally aimed at garnering support for sitting BJP parliamentarian Raghav Lakhanpal.

The BJP had arranged for nearly 200 buses to bring thousands of people to the rally. "I liked what he said about daughters the most. He said that we will provide safety to girls, and provide them with education to ensure that they advance in life," said Aanchal Singhal, a 20-year-old college student who came to the rally with her family.
New Delhi:

Lalu Prasad, the ailing RJD chief jailed in various corruption cases, has once again shown to his fighting sons that when it comes to the deciding partys political path  hes still the boss. The message is loud and clear, especially for his elder son Tej Pratap Yadav. According to an NDTV report, the name of RJD candidate for Sheohar seat is a stern message for Tej Pratap. Early reports had suggested that Lalus elder son was miffed over being sidelined in RJDs policymaking team, with younger brother Tejashwi being seen as political heir of Lalu Prasad.

Over the weekend, the RJD announced Syed Faisal Ali as the partys candidate for Lok Sabha polls from Sheohar. The name was announced despite Tej Prataps clear hints that he wanted party to give a few tickets to his close friends. However, Lalu Prasad decided not to consider any such recommendations, the NDTV report said.

Last week, after resigning as the 'sanrakshak' (mentor) of the RJD's students' wing, Tej Pratap had said that he will launch a new political front called Lalu-Rabri Morcha. He, however, said the Lalu-Rabri Morcha will be part of the RJD and he will form a new party.

"I am resigning from the post of Chhatra Rashtriya Janata Dal Sanrakshak. Those who think I am ignorant are ignorant themselves. I am well aware of who is worth what," he had earlier tweeted.

The sudden development were seen as major embarrassment to the party which has been beset by speculations of fierce rivalry between Tej Pratap and his younger brother Tejashwi Yadav.

Tej Pratap had quit as patron of the RJDs students wing to express displeasure at the party not considering his nominees for the two seats. He had also supported the candidature of his elder sister Misa Bharti from Pataliputra when partys Maner MLA Bhai Birendra had begun staking claim for the seat.

Tej Pratap is known to have thrown a fit on many occasions for being 'sidelined' in the party . Notably, his Twitter announcement of resigning from the party's students wing came less than 24 hours after he put out another tweet congratulating Patna University student leader Gagan Yadav for being appointed the state president of Chhatra Janata Dal.

Said to be enjoying the support of eldest sister Misa Bharti, the RJD leader caused a flutter a few months ago when he pushed for her candidature from Pataliputra seat and went on to launch a campaign in her support.

The news did not go down well with party MLA and an aspirant for the seat Bhai Virendra, who was said to have the backing of Tejashwi Yadav.

Recently, Tejashwi too had indicated that he was not averse to Misa, a Rajya Sabha member, contesting the Lok Sabha polls.

When asked why was his sister's name missing from the party's list of star campaigners, he replied that 'didi' (elder sister) was likely to contest the polls.
New Delhi:

What if the Lok Sabha polls were held today in Jammu and Kashmir? Who would be the top choice for Prime Minister's post in the state? What will be the major factors that will dominate the Lok Sabha Elections starting April 11? To get an idea of people's mood in the militancy-hit state, we travelled across all the 6 parliamentary constituencies and tried to find out who has the better chance to steal the show in the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections 2019.

Going by the News Nation Opinion Poll, the BJP is predicted to get 26 per cent votes while the Congress may bag 24 per cent of the total share followed by the Farooq Abdullah-led National Conference and Mehbooba Mufti's PDP which are likely to get 19 and 13 per cent votes respectively in the state.

As far as the seat share is concerned, the BJP, Congress and NC are likely to win 2 seats each. In what could be a big blow to former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, the PDP won't be able to manage win in a single seat in Jammu and Kashmir.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, both the BJP and PDP won 3 seats each. The National Conference was not able to open its account in the state and the Congress also drew a blank.

Talking about the 2014 Jammu and Kashmir Assembly polls, the PDP had won 28 seats and emerged as the single largest party. The BJP also performed well in the elections and won 25 seats. Later, both parties came together to form the government in the state.

Last year in November, the political temperature in Jammu and Kashmir suddenly went up after Governor Satya Pal Malik dissolved the state assembly amid dual claims on government formation from PDP-NC-Congress combine and BJP-backed Sajad Lone who heads Peoples Conference. The dissolution of the state assembly has necessitated fresh elections in the state.

Though several political parties pitched for simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the state, the Election Commission of India decided to conduct the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly polls later in the year keeping in mind the prevailing security conditions in the state followed by February 14 Pulwama terror attack which left 42 CRPF personnel dead and dozens of others injured.

General Elections to 6 Lok Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir will take place in five phases on April 11, 18, 23, 29 and May 6. The counting of votes for all phases will be taken up on May 23.
New Delhi:

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), despite facing a poll debacle in Madhya Pradesh Assembly Elections in 2018, will have the better chance of winning more parliamentary seats in the state in the forthcoming General Elections 2019. As per the News Nation poll survey, the BJP is expected to win 20 of the 29 seats in the state, witnessing a downfall in its performance in the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections. On the other hand, the Congress  ruling party in the state  is expected to win 9 Lok Sabha seats.

As far as the vote share is concerned, the BJP is likely to get 45 per cent of the total votes while the Congress-led UPA may get 37 per cent vote share.

In 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP completely swept the state and won 27 seats in Madhya Pradesh. The BJP received 1,60,15,695 votes with a whopping vote share of 54.8 per cent. The Congress managed to win only 2 seats in the state and received 1,03,40,274 votes with a vote share of 35.3 per cent. Only Kamal Nath from Chhindwara and Jyotiraditya Scindia from Guna were able to emerge victorious from the party in the state. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) got 3.8 per cent of the total votes polled in the state. Madhya Pradesh has 29 Lok Sabha seats and the 2014 election in the state was held in three phases on April 10, 17 and 24.

Madhya Pradesh will vote in four phases on April 29, May 6, 12 and 19. Polling will be held in 6 Lok Sabha seats namely Sidhi, Mandla, Balaghat, Jabalpur, Shahdol and Chhindwara in the third phase. Satna, Tikamgarh, Betul, Rewa, Hoshangabad, Khajuraho and Damoh will go for polls in the fourth phase on May 6. People in Bhind, Morena, Sagar, Vidisha, Bhopal, Gwalior, Rajgarh and Guna will vote on May 12 whereas the remaining 8 seats of Dhar, Ratlam, Ujjain, Mandsour, Dewas, Indore, Khargone and Khandwa will vote in the last phase on May 1.
New Delhi:

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar on Sunday said while Prime Minister Narendra Modi is otherwise alright but turns hysterical during elections. He also took a dig at PM Modi as he advised his party workers not to criticise anybody at the personal level, because that responsibility has been taken up by the prime minister. He was speaking to NCP workers at Daund in Pune district of Maharashtra. I would like to tell you that do not criticise anybody at the personal level. When the prime minister of the country has taken up that responsibility, why should you get into that, he said sarcastically.

PM Modi had earlier said that Pawar was losing his grip over the party because of a rift in his family. Replying to which the NCP chief said that while his family is united, the country does not know whether the person (Modi) has anybody in his family or not. How did Modi come to know about any fights in (my) family? We all live together lovingly. We all work in different fields. When I meet him (Modi), I will tell him that my entire family is together and united, the former Union minister said.

That person should not talk about others families. It is not good to talk about someones house. I will tell him (Modi) when I meet him that if he does not become PM again, he will be an MP and I will also be there (in Parliament), Pawar said.

However, the NCP chief also said that PM Modi and he enjoyed good relations.

Everybody knows what he spoke about me in Delhi, in Baramati and at Vasantdada Sugar Institute in Pune. You know one thing about this man. Usually he is okay, but when there are elections, he turns hysterical (angat yete) and he starts speaking anything, so there is no need to pay heed to that, Pawar said in Marathi.

Addressing a rally at Hadapsar in the city, Pawar said maximum attacks on India have taken place when the BJP is in power. The (Kandahar) plane hijack happened under the BJP government, so did the attack on Parliament in 2001. Similarly, the attacks on Akshardham temple (in Gujarat in 2002) and recently in Pathankot also happened when the BJP is at the helm, he said. So, he appealed to party workers to toil hard to win the elections and defeat the BJP this time around.

(With PTI inputs)
New Delhi:

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is likely to win 18 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan in the forthcoming 2019 Lok Sabha polls, according to News Nation Opinion Poll. The Congress, which defeated the BJP in the Assembly Elections held last year, will manage to win 7 parliamentary seats in the state. Earlier in 2014, the BJP had made a clean sweep in the state by winning all 25 seats. The Congress party drew a blank that time.

In terms of the vote share, the News Nation Opinion Poll predicted that the BJP will get around 43 per cent votes of the total votes in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The Congress would get 38 per cent votes and others would get 10 per cent.

In 2014, The BJP received 1,48,95,106 votes with a vote share of 55.61 per cent, while the Congress was able to garner 82,30,164 votes in the state with a vote share of 30.73 per cent. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) got 2.37 per cent of a vote share in the state.

However, the Vasundhara Raje-led BJP lost the Assembly elections at the hands of the Congress party in 2018. The Congress ousted the BJP and won 99 seats in the 200-member strong Assembly with a vote share of 39.30 per cent.

The party later increased its tally to 100 in the Assembly after its victory in Ramgarh and touched the halfway mark. The election to the Ramgarh Assembly seat was postponed due to the death of the BSP candidate ahead of December 7 Assembly elections.

The Congress received 1,39,35,201 votes in the state. The BJP was able to get 1,37,57,502 votes with a vote share of 38.80 per cent. The party won 73 Assembly seats. So, the vote share difference between both the main parties was a mere 0.50 per cent.
New Delhi:

In an attempt to woo its traditional vote bank including the minority community and people belonging to backward and most backward castes, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Monday promised reservation to the backward classes on the basis of their population as Tejashwi Yadav released the party manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections 2019. The manifesto also mentioned reservation in promotion and promises to fill all vacant government posts. The RJD leader also vowed reservations in private jobs.

While releasing the manifesto, Tejashwi Yadav said that the party will take major steps to stop migration. Yadav also said that he supported the Congress party's NYAY yojana which was mentioned in the Grand Old Party's election manifesto released last week.

In 2014, the party manifesto was released by RJD chief Lalu Prasad. The manifesto had promised to end the contractual system of employment in the state and regularise teachers, anganwadi sevikas, assistants, computer operators, drivers, engineers, doctors, home guards and others working on contract. Foremost among its poll promises, RJD had said it will provide reservation to the minority community in jobs and educational opportunities in government and semi-government institutions.

Lalu Prasad is now lodged in the Birsa Munda Central Jail in the Jharkhand capital of Ranchi. He has challenged the January 10 verdict of the Jharkhand High Court dismissing his bail plea.

The three cases in which Prasad has been convicted are related to the over-Rs 900-crore fodder scam, which pertains to fraudulent withdrawal of money from the treasuries in the Animal Husbandry department in the early 1990s, when Jharkhand was part of Bihar.

The RJD was in power in Bihar with Prasad as the chief minister when the scam had allegedly taken place.
New Delhi:

Congress chief Rahul Gandhis cousin brother and BJP lawmaker Varun Gandhi on Sunday praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi but not without a sharp remark on the political past of Nehru-Gandhi family. Vajpayee ji was from a normal family but had never seen abject poverty. Modi ji is from an economically weaker family. Honestly speaking, some people of my family have also been prime minister but the honour that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has brought to the country hasn't been seen in long past," Gandhi said while addressing a mega rally in Uttar Pradeshs Pilibhit.

This was the first big public meeting of the BJP lawmaker, who has swapped seats with his mother Union Minister Maneka Gandhi in the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections.

It is believed that Maneka Gandhi had asked the BJP leadership to field her son from Pilibhit, from where she has won a number of times and which is seen a relatively safe seat for her family. Varun Gandhi had won from Pilibhit once in 2009. March 26, shortly after BJP announced his name, Gandhi had thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah for declaring him the party's candidate from Pilibhit and said that he had a "familial bond" with the place.

Sometime after Rahul Gandhi took over as the Congress chief from mother Sonia Gandhi, there were speculations that Varun Gandhi might join the Grand Old Part of Indi. There were reports that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra may play the mediator and help crack a deal for her cousin.

Sources close to the Varun Gandhi had said that he was not getting his due share in the BJP. There were also been reports of rift between Varun Gandhi and the BJP leadership after his name was not considered for the chief minister's post in Uttar Pradesh.

He has been critical of the Narendra Modi government's several decisions and this is considered as one of the reasons the BJP has not given him any crucial role in the party. Also, Varun has praised Congress-led UPA government's schemes, including the MNREGA. It is to be noted that Modi has been a critic of the MNREGA scheme aimed at tackling the extreme poverty.

Pilibhit will vote on April 23, in the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections that start on Thursday. The results will be declared on May 23.
New Delhi:

Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress may win 32 of the 42 parliamentary seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, according to an opinion poll conducted by News Nation.

The survey shows that the Trinamool Congress will suffer a loss of two seats as compared to the 2014 Lok Sabha election results. Meanwhile, the BJP is expected to get a major gain from two seats in 2014 to nine seats this time.

The Congress, which had won four seats in 2014, will claim victory on just one seat this time while the CPI-M will struggle to open its account in the state, as per the survey.

Talking about the vote share, Trinamool's vote share will see a fall from 39 per cent in 2014 to 36 per cent this time. Meanwhile, BJP's vote share is likely to enjoy a considerable jump from 17 per cent in 2014 to 26 per cent in the upcoming general elections.

The Congress has called off seat-sharing talks with the CPI(M)-led Left Front for Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal  a new addition to the list of states where the Congress failed to clinch a seat-sharing deal to take on the BJP.

A section of the Congress leadership felt insulted over the Left Front unilaterally announcing its list when the talks were on between both the parties, party sources said.

Meanwhile, the top leadership of the BJP, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah, is no mood to leave any stone unturned to turn the tide in the state and this has been evident from the party's aggressive poll campaigning in the last one month.

The BJP is trying to make inroads into Trinamool's bastion state (West Bengal) which has 42 Lok Sabha seats. In 2014, the Trinamool Congress won 34 seats, the Congress four, while the BJP and CPI(M) bagged two seats each in the state.

Targeting 23 out of the 42 constituencies in the state, the saffron party is hoping to overcome its deficit in the number of seats from states of North India, where it has reached a saturation point.

Lok Sabha elections will be held in West Bengal in seven phases from April 11 to May 19.
New Delhi:

Is Shah Rukh Khan handing over the 'last' of his celebrated action-driven Don role over to Ranveer Singh? After fans were hit hard with the return of Don franchise as the last of the franchise titled Don: The Final Chapter, new reports now suggest that after the long eight years wait, Shah Rukh Khan may not return as the charmingly-dangerous Don Vijay.

Latest reports from Mumbai Mirror indicates another blow for SRK fans because their reports as per DNA suggest that the superstar has walked out of Don 3 citing personal reasons as the reason for his exit. The report also added that makers have now approached the ball of goofiness, Ranveer Singh to chime in into the SRKS action hit franchise. The report further adds that they are currently in discussing stage and nothing as of now has been confirmed yet, so dont let your hopes down just yet.

The report further indicates that Katrina Kaif is being considered to take over Priyanka Chopras role in Don 3.

Last month Ritesh Sidhwani, while speaking to Mumbai Mirror, cleared the air for the Don franchise telling a daily, "We are still working on it and dont know when it will happen. Its a keenly awaited franchise and we cant disappoint the fans." It has hence been blow after blow for SRK fans and his ever loyal Don loves.

However, no official confirmation has come through and other previous also suggest that SRK though has not announced his next project, is believed to have opted out of Saare Jahaan Se Accha to be a part of Don 3.

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New Delhi:

Hollywood icon 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.

A

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.

He took up dancing to the popular dance number, Radha from Student of the Year but with the star cast of the new franchisee i.e. Tiger Shroff, Ananya Pandey and Tara Sutaria. The 50-year-old star while shooting the sequence admitted that while he felt nervous, he managed to get aa really good sense of what makes Bollywood tick because itas what makes me tick.a

aPeople go to the movies because they want to have fun, they want to feel good,a he said. aBut then by opening themselves to this collective emotional experience, an opportunity is presented where we can actually learn something about life.a

Smith's dance sequence will feature in Johar's upcoming production "Student of the Year 2".

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 too.

Singh had informed Smith that when songs are shot in Bollywood films, it is more like a carnival and the audience sees a Bollywood hero represents the ideal with all the positive qualities. Post this, Ranveer took Will to see a video of his song Tattad Tattad from his film Goliyon Ki Rasleela- Ram Leela. On seeing the video of the song, Will felt the energy of Bollywood and does a few steps with Ranveer.

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. A

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New Delhi:

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to apprise it of the status of the ongoing trial in a case involving former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in connection with a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case and listed his bail plea for hearing on April 15. The CBI told a bench of Justices SA Bobde and SA Nazeer that Kumar, who was a sitting MP in 1984, was the "kingpin" of the massacre of Sikhs in the national capital in 1984.

"This is a gruesome offence of massacre of Sikhs. He (Kumar) was the leader and he was the kingpin of this," Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the CBI, told the bench. Mehta also told the bench it would be a "travesty of justice" if Kumar is enlarged on bail as he is facing trial in another 1984 anti-Sikh riots case at Patiala House district court here.

The case in which Kumar was convicted and sentenced relates to the killing of five Sikhs in Delhi Cantonment's Raj Nagar Part-I area of southwest Delhi on November 1-2, 1984 and the burning down of a gurudwara.

On December 17, the Delhi High Court had found Sajjan Kumar guilty in the killings of five Sikhs in Raj Nagar part-I area in South West Delhis Palam Colony on November 1-2, 1984 and burning down of a Gurudwara in Raj Nagar part II during the anti-Sikh riots. Besides Sajjan Kumar, Captain Bhagmal, Girdhari Lal and former Congress councilor Balwan Khokhar have been sentenced to life imprisonment, while Kishan Khokkar and former legislator Mahender Yadav have been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

More than 3,000 Sikhs were brutally killed in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, one of the scariest incidents of communal violence in the country. The riots had broken out following the assassination of former prime minister Indira Gandhi on October 31 by her Sikh bodyguards. Congress leaders Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar were accused of masterminding the riots against the Sikh community.

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New Delhi:

In what evidentially nullifies a US media report which denied that India shot down a Pakistani F-16, the Indian Air Force on Monday released radar images which show Pakistan's F-16 being shot down by the IAF's MIG 21 Bison during the aerial dogfight on February 27.A

TheA Foreign PolicyA magazine of the United States had on Friday reported that American personnel recently counted Islamabadas F-16s and none of them were missing, contradicting Indiaas claim that one of its war planes downed an F-16 during the aerial dogfight.

Releasing theA AWACS (Airborne Warning And Control System) radar images, the IAF said it has "irrefutable evidence" that Pakistan's F-16 was shot down and that too by IAF's MIG 21 Bison which was flown by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman.A

Indian Air Force (IAF) releases AWACS (Airborne Warning And Control System) radar images. pic.twitter.com/axy2uVObWZ a ANI (@ANI) April 8, 2019

"There is no doubt that two aircraft went down in the aerial engagement on 27 February 2019 one of which was the bison of IAF while the other was F-16 of Pakistan Air Force conclusively identified by its electronic signature and radio transcripts," said the statement.A

Addressing the media, Air Vice Marshal RGK Kapoor said: "Have more credible evidence that is clearly indicative of fact that Pakistan has lost one F-16 however due to security and confidentiality concerns we are restricting the information being shared in the public domain."

"PAF aircraft fired multiple AMRAAM missiles which were defeated by use of counter measures and tactical manoeuvres. In the aerial combat that followed one Mig 21 Bison of the IAF piloted by Wg Cdr Abhinandan shot down one F-16 of PAF. As show in in radar image of slide, the F-16 crashed and fell across the LOC in PO J&K. The IAF lost one Mig 21 in the aerial engagement and the pilot wg cdr Abhinandan ejected safely but his parachute drifted into PO J&K where he was taken into custody by Pakistan Army," the statement said.

"DG-ISPR also stated on camera in press conference that they had two pilots, one in custody and other admitted to hospital. Same was also corroborated by statement of Pak PM, all this proves total of two aircraft had gone down that day in same area separated by about 1.5 minutes."

Rejecting the media report, theA United States defence department has said it was anot awarea of any investigation that was conducted to ascertain if Pakistan had lost an F-16 during an aerial dogfight on February 27.

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.

The media report had quoted senior but unidentified US defence sources saying that no F-16 was missing.

Distancing itself from the media report, Pentagon made it clear that they did not publicly comment on details of government-to-government agreements, especially on articles related to defence.

"It is important to note that since January 2018, the United States government has suspended security assistance to Pakistan," read a staement from the US defence department.A

A









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New Delhi:

Hurriyat Conference (M) chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Monday arrived in New Delhi to appear before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with an alleged terror funding case. The NIA had summoned him for questioningA twice in the past but he had not complied with the orders citing security concerns. Mirwaiz, who is one of the religious heads of Muslims in the Kashmir Valley, had written to theA National Investigation Agency (NIA), saying he had no knowledge of the case mentioned by the agency in itas summon served on him.



Taking to Twitter, Mirwaiz wrote, "In Delhi today with my colleagues for the NIA summon ,efforts to malign leadership for its political stand wont work. Inspite of harassmentA #Hurriyat will continue to seek peaceful resolution of the #Kashmir issue,urge people back home to stay calm and peaceful (sic)."

Jammu & Kashmir: Hurriyat Chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq leaves from his residence in Srinagar for Delhi. He will appear before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with a terror funding case today. pic.twitter.com/IyVomRy2xS a ANI (@ANI) April 8, 2019



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.



The NIA had 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.

The NIA had also 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. Earlier, an NIA team, accompanied by police and CRPF personnel, searched residences of some of the separatist leaders, including the Mirwaiz, Naseem Geelani and Ashraf Sehrai, the chairman of the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat. Barring the Mirwaiz and Sehrai, all other leaders have been jailed.

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New Delhi:

Sometime in October last year, a report about a nondescript mosque located in Haryanas Palwal created flutter as the National Investigation Agency claimed that it was built by Rs 70 lakh sent by the terror outfit based in Pakistan. Now, almost six months later, the NIA got a major success in the case after it was able to identify Lashkars key terror funding head. According to a report by the Hindustan Times, a simple flight enquiry helped the probe agency in identifying Mohammad Kamran, the Dubai-based Lashkar commander, who reportedly oversees the funding operations in India.

The report says that Kamran had made an enquiry on the Emirates Airlines IVR system from Dubai for a flight booking. The NIA then reached out to the airlines to get the record of Kamrans voice sample that would prove his links with top Lashkar terrorists. After getting the record from Emirates automated system, the NIA matched Kamrans voice sample with the telephonic conversation that it had recovered in a CD from Arif Ghulambashir Dharampuria, Kamrans Gujarat-based associated. The NIA says that experts have confirmed that the voice in the CD and in the IVR record is indeed of Kamran.

The absconding Lashkar commander is part of the bigger funding web, in which Dharampuria and Abdul Aziz Behlim worked with him in Dubai. In India, Delhi-based Mohammad Salman and Rajasthan-based Mohammad Salim were being tasked to created sleeper cells. It was Mohammad Salman, who had got the Khulafa-e-Rashideen masjid built. Located in Palwals Uttawar village, Salman was the Imam of the mosque. Mohammed Salman and two of his associates were arrested by the NIA on October 3 last year.

Recently, the National Investigation Agency had stumbled upon a terror plot of Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed's Jamaat-ud-Dawa in India that was pumping money to build a cadre base in India under the garb of charity.

Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF), an arm of JuD, has been providing financial assistance to poor families for marriage of girls and building houses, said sources. "They are building cadre eventually to recruit vulnerable youth," said a senior officer in the agency.

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New Delhi:

Lt Gen (Retd) DS Hooda, the main architect of the 2016 surgical strikes on terror launch pads in PoK, has said the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and articles 370 and 35A should not be removed. He said this in a 42-page national security document submitted to Congress president Rahul Gandhi. He was tasked by the party to come out with a vision document. The former northern Army commander was made the head of a 'task force on national security', set up by Gandhi in February to prepare the vision paper for the country.



Contentious issues that could provide a trigger for more disturbances should currently be kept on the backburner, while attempts are made to arrive at a political consensus on these subjects, the report reads.

The Congress manifesto, which was released last week by party president Rahul Gandhi also read, We also acknowledge the unique history of the state and the unique circumstances under which the State acceded to India that led to the inclusion of Article 370 in the Constitution of India. Nothing will be done or allowed to change the Constitutional position.



Congress also promises to review the deployment of armed forces, move more troops to the border to stop infiltration completely, reduce the presence of the Army and CAPFs in the Kashmir Valley.



Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Sunday said that the Congress is helping spread the propaganda of Pakistan across the world.



Earlier, Pakistan had 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.

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New Delhi:

The Indian Navy had announced in March that Vice Admiral Karambir Singh will be its next chief. However, on Monday, Vice Admiral Bimal Verma moved the Armed Forces Tribunal against his supersession and appointment of Singh. In his petition, the Vice Admiral has challenged the government's move to ignore seniority and appoint his junior as the next chief of Navy. Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral Sunil Lanba will vacate the office on May 31, 2019. Singh will supersede Vice Admiral Bimal Verma, who is the seniormost in terms of length of service.

The Admiral is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla. Commissioned into the Indian Navy in July 1980, the Admiral earned his wings as a helicopter pilot in 1982 and has flown extensively on the Chetak and Kamov helicopters. He is a graduate of Defence Services Staff College, Wellington; College of Naval Warfare, Mumbai and has served as Directing Staff in both these institutions, the navy had said in a statement.

In his career spanning nearly 36 years, the Admiral has commanded an Indian Coast Guard Ship, a Naval Missile Corvette as well as Guided Missile Destroyers. He has also served as the Fleet Operations Officer of the Western Fleet. Ashore, the Admiral has served at Naval Headquarters as the Joint Director Naval Air Staff, and as Captain Air and Officer-in-Charge of the Naval Air Station at Mumbai, the statement added.

The Navy has also been involved in numerous humanitarian missions. The most recent one was three ships were sent to cyclone-hit Mozambique. The first training squadron of the Indian Navy -- Sujata, Sarathi and Shardul -- operating in the Southern Indian Ocean, were diverted to Port Beira, following a request received from the government of Mozambique.

Amid tension with Pakistan and China flexing muscles in the international waters, Indian Navys next chief will have a tough road ahead. Meanwhile, on March 19, the navy had conducted TROPEX 19, the exercise to test the operational readiness. Lessons learnt from the exercise would provide the Navy accurate assessments to fine tune combat deployment, force structuring requirements, operational logistics as also material and training imperatives, a release said.

As per reports, this wass the second time when the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government had not gone by seniority but merit among the senior most officers. Singh has been heading the Port Blair based Andaman and Nicobar Command for almost three years now. He is from 56th course of the National Defence Academy's Hunter Squadron. The first time the government had gone by seniority was during the appointment of General Bipin Rawat as Army Chief in 2016.

The Indian Navy had announced in March that Vice Admiral Karambir Singh will be its next chief. However, on Monday, Vice Admiral Bimal Verma moved court against his supersession and appointment of Singh. Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral Sunil Lanba will vacate the office on May 31, 2019.

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New Delhi:

In a major development, a UK High Court on Monday rejected the application of embattled liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya against the extradition order. Mallya, who is facing charges of money laundering, fraud, and violation of Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), has now the option to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Earlier, the Westminster Magistrates Court on December 9 had ordered Mallyas extradition to stand trial on charges brought by the CBI and ED. His extradition order was signed off by UK home secretary Sajid Javid in February.

Meanwhile, Mallya is willing to curtail his lavish lifestyle to satisfy numerous Indian banks trying to recoup some of the nearly 1.145 billion pounds owed to them, a UK court was told.

The 63-year-old had been sanctioned an ordinary living expenses allowance" of a maximum of 18,325.31 pounds a week, which he offered to cut down to around 29,500 pounds a month during a UK High Court hearing this week.

However, a consortium of 13 Indian banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI) did not agree to his offer as they seek access to nearly 260,000 pounds in an ICICI Bank current account in his name in London. DWF Law LLP, representing Mallya in his legal fight against the banks, said the former Kingfisher Airlines' boss intends to stay within any court-ordered spending limits. "Dr Mallya continues to do all he can to support a court process in India, which should see creditors paid off in full," Jonathan Isaacs, partner at DWF Law LLP, said in a statement to PTI.

"It is unfortunate that he has to fight UK enforcement at the same time but no one creditor should be allowed to break rank and grab assets at the expense of all other creditors. Dr Mallya meanwhile lives well within the court-ordered limits and looks forward to all matters concluding in the coming months," he said. At a hearing before Master David Cook at the Queen's Bench Division of the UK High Court on Wednesday, lawyers representing SBI and 12 other Indian banks had highlighted that Mallya continues to live a "lavish lifestyle" despite owing them millions in debt.

The hearing centred around an "interim third-party debt order" obtained by the banks in January relating to funds worth just short of 260,000 pounds in Mallya's current account with ICICI Bank in London, according to TLT LLP, the law firm representing the Indian banks.

It forms part of the banks' ongoing efforts to enforce the Indian Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) judgment against Mallya in the UK. The former Kingfisher Airlines and Force India chief is opposing the application and seeking a discharge of the interim order. A judgment in the case is expected in the coming weeks. If the judge makes the interim order final, the funds held in the ICICI London account will have to be released to the banks.

The case is part of wider efforts by SBI and 12 other Indian banks - Bank of Baroda, Corporation bank, Federal Bank Ltd, IDBI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Jammu & Kashmir Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of Mysore, UCO Bank, United Bank of India and JM Financial Asset Reconstruction Co. Pvt Ltd - to recover some of the funds owed to them as a result of unpaid loans by Mallya's now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

With PTI Inputs

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New Delhi:

Slithering at 17 feet long, scientists have captured a female python in what they believe is the biggest python ever in the US. The pregnant python captured in the US Big Cypress National Preserve, located in South Florida reportedly weighed 140 pounds and contained 73 developing eggs.

The reptile which was posted by the team of four researchers on their Big Cypress Facebook page Friday is calling the catch a record.

The behemoth, according to Tampa Bay Times was caught using male pythons equipped with radio transmitters, which, they say, allows the team to track the male to locate breeding females.

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 environmental group said.

The goal is to remove the invasive snakes and to also collect data for research that will help Big Cypress develop new removal tools and learn the pythons habits.

All of the python work at Big Cypress is focused on controlling this invasive species, which poses significant threats to native wildlife, the group said on its Facebook post as they stand clutching the giant python as they stood apart from one another, arms outstretched.

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New Delhi:

Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote also known as Africa's richest man told a forum in Ivory Coast on Saturday that he once withdrew $10 million in cash to reassure himself of his wealth. According to Herald Live, Dangote, when speaking at the Ivorian capital Abidjan for the 2019 Mo Ibrahim Foundations Governance Week celebrations told 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 said according to the Herald Live.

"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.

It was in the boot of my car, I went there by myself, I drove myself to the bank, I cashed the money, I put it in my room, I looked at the money and I took it back to the bank the next day.

When the host asked how much money had had in his wallet after withdrawing the 10 million withdrawal, Dangote replied. Youll be very very surprised, I dont  not even a dollar, I have nothing, nothing in my pocket.

Thats money for you guys, when you have money, you dont carry money the host told the audience as per Africa News.

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Washington:

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. Theyre 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 theyre 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 subjects brain, and used computers to simulate what would happen when a single region of a persons 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.

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New Delhi :

With the successful anti-satellite missile test, India is capable of hitting a target at a range of over 1,000 km in space and a lower orbit was chosen for the mission to avoid threat of debris to global space assets, DRDO Chairman G Satheesh Reddy said on Saturday. On being asked whether multiple satellite targets can be hit, he said, It is a question of how many launchers we have, and with multiple launchers, one can have multiple engagements. But, multiple (targets) is definitely feasible.

India shot down one of its satellites in space on March 27 with an anti-satellite (A-SAT) missile to demonstrate this complex capability, joining the elite club of countriesthe US, Russia and Chinawhich have such capabilities. The A-SAT test was successfully conducted with a new interceptor missile against a live orbiting satellite in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) in a hit-to-kill mode. The interceptor has the capability to hit target at a range of 1,000 km, which covers most of the LEO satellites, he told a press conference at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Bhawan here.

An orbit of around 300 km was chosen for the test for capability demonstration and the purpose was to avoid threat of debris to any global space assets, Reddy said. His remarks come days after NASA raised concerns about the spread of debris from the A-SAT test India conducted under Mission Shakti.

The debris created following the intercept will decay in a matter of weeks, he added. Addressing the mediapersons, Reddy also said, For a similar application we dont need another test. On Tuesday, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) had termed a terrible thing Indias shooting down of its satellite, saying the hit-to-kill mission created about 400 pieces of orbital debris.

Some debris going up could be a possibility, as per our simulation also. We dont have information on that.. From our simulation, we can very clearly say that the possibilities of (debris) hitting the ISS are not there, Reddy said. He said the first 10 days since the test were critical and that have passed, and in 45 days all debris will disintegrate. The Ministry of External Affairs too has said the test was done in the lower atmosphere to ensure that there is no space debris.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had hailed the A-SAT tests success as an unprecedented achievement that makes India a space power. Some 150 scientists, including at least 40 women scientists, worked round-the-clock, and especially in the last six months on this project. About 2,000 components were sourced from 50 private industries. The idea began around 2014 and development started in 2016 with a go-ahead from the government.

The press interaction came days ahead of the first phase of the Lok Sabha polls on April 11 due to which the model code of conduct is in place. He also said that earlier in the day there was a meeting with eminent scientists to inform them about the A-SAT test. He also responded to a question on Congress leader P Chidambarams criticism of the government on the test, who had said that only a foolish government would reveal a defence secret.

Mission of this nature after a test is conducted cant be kept secret. The satellite is tracked by many stations across the world. All necessary permissions were taken, Reddy said. Deputy National Security Advisor Pankaj Saran, who was present during the briefing, in response to a question said, We do keep in touch with some of our friendly nations and we were in touch with them about this mission.

But, it was not a one-off thing. It is what we do, as a spacefaring nation. Also, many space programmes have international ramifications.. So, it is part of our outreach. Today, also we are in touch with various countries, he said. On Saturdays meeting, the DRDO said in a statement, A special interaction session was organised by the DRDO here today to present first-hand account of the mission details, development milestones, including technological aspects of Mission Shakti.

DRDO Chairman Reddy, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and many eminent serving and retired strategic experts, technocrats, diplomats, top brass of armed forces, and members of the scientific fraternity from various departments participated in the deliberations, it said. The DRDO presented the objectives, mission challenges and achievements of the Anti-Satellite Test (A-SAT), the statement said.

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New Delhi:

The Supreme Court on Monday said that it will look into an appeal filed against Madras High Court order banning video-sharing application TikTok. Earlier, the Madras High Court had passed an order to prohibit the download and use of TikTok. The Madurai bench of the high court passed the order after expressing concern that the app hosts inappropriate content, including pornography, which is available for access to children. The bench had also expressed its concern that minors are also exposed to strangers online through TikTok.



"Majority of the teens are playing pranks, gaffing around with duet videos sharing with split screen to the strangers. The children who use the said application are vulnerable and may expose them to sexual predators . Without understanding the dangers involved in these kinds of Mobile Apps., it is unfortunate that our children are testing with these Apps."

Justices N Kirubakaran and SS Sundar have also directed the central government to respond before the February 16 if it would enact like US' "Children's Online Privacy Protection Act" to prevent children becoming online victims. The order also observed pranks made using the app could violate privacy.

The petition was filed by a Madurai-based senior lawyer-cum-social activist Muthu Kumar. Citing pornography, cultural degradation, child abuse, suicides, he had sought a direction to ban TikTok.



Tik Tok, which was launched in 2019, is a social video app owned by China's Beijing ByteDance Co. It reached the one billion download mark in February. It is a popular app worldwide and was the fourth most downloaded non-game app in 2018.
New Delhi:

The office of Pakistan Prime Minister was evacuated on Monday after a fire broke out on the sixth floor of the building, according to reports in a section of local media. Conflicting media reports even claimed that Prime Minister Imran Khan was present on the fifth floor of his office building when the incident took place.

Khan, who was holding a meeting of officials, continued the meeting despite the fire a floor above him, Geo TV reported, citing sources. When informed again about the fire, the report added, the prime minister ensured safe exit of all the staffers before leaving for his Banigala residence.

"The fire broke out in the cabinet block situated at the sixth floor due to short circuit," local media reports quoted sources as saying. No casualties were reported due to the fire which was later doused by the firefighting team of the Pakistani prime minister.

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New Delhi:

US President Donald Trump on Sunday said that India charges America over 100 per cent tariffs on a large number of products while the US imposes nothing on the similar or same items. Trump said that he is urging his administration to work on the stupid trade. This came after he criticised India, saying it is one of the worlds highest taxing nations.

The US President has repeatedly claimed that India is a tariff king and imposes tremendously high tariffs on American products.

Addressing the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas on Saturday, Trump said: We have a case where a certain country, India, is charging us... what great country, great friend, Prime Minister (Narendra) Modicharging us over 100 per cent for many things, Trump had said.

The United States, he said, is charging India nothing for similar or same products.

In his speech, Trump indicated that he is receiving resistance from Senators for imposing reciprocal tariff on India.

He cited India as a country other than China which imposes high tariffs on American products.

India, he alleged, continues to wage stupid trade and unfair trade practices, and called out Prime Minister Modi for the trade imbalance with the US.

I have Senators who say, you cant do that. Its not free trade. When did they come from? Where did they come from? Its not free trade, he said, ramping up his rhetoric against Indias trade and tariff policies.

He asked his senior administration officials to work on this.

Will you please work on them? Its the craziest thing. Its stupid trade. We have so much stupid trade, Trump said.

Early this year, at a White House event to announce his support for reciprocal tax, Trump had said he was satisfied with the Indian decision to reduce the import tariff on high-end Harley-Davidson motorcycles from 100 per cent to 50 per cent. "Even this is not enough, this is okay," he said at that time.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that India is a "tariff king" and imposes "tremendously high" tariffs on American products.

"I got a call from Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi of India. They're one of the highest taxing nations in the world. They taxed us 100 per cent," Trump said reiterating his often-heard remarks on the Indian tariff structure.

"They charge us 100 per cent tariffs on goods. So, they send a motorcycle--and they make a lot of them--Indian cycles. They send them to our country; we charge them nothing. We send a Harley Davidson to India and they charge us 100 per cent. Not fair, okay. Not reciprocal. It's not fair," Trump said.

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George Goens

BROOKFIELD  A local author will discuss the lack of civility in the media, politics and education at an event on Thursday.

The Brookfield Republican Town Committee is hosting the program with George Goens, a Litchfield author who recently published Civility Lost: The Media, Politics & Education. Goens has published 10 books and served as a superintendent in Wisconsin for 15 years.
DANBURY  Felony and misdemeanor charges against a former high school safety advocate will be dismissed if she successfully completes an accelerated rehabilitation program granted to her by the court.

Sueanna Lamontagne, 50, was granted permission to enter the diversionary, pretrial intervention program at Danbury Superior Court on Monday.

Lamontagne applied for the program after being charged with second-degree breach of peace, disorderly conduct, interfering with an officer and felony assault of public safety or emergency medical personnel following an incident on Feb. 22.

That day, officers responded to the intersection of Forty Acre Mountain Road and Old Forty Acre Mountain Road around 11 p.m. and found a yellow Chevy Malibu parked diagonally across the road, obstructing traffic.

Drivers had exited their vehicles and were pleading with Lamontagne to move the car, police said. Lamontagne was sitting in the front passenger seat of the car, which was not running, and was clearly intoxicated, according to the police report.

Witnesses told officers the man driving the Chevy walked away from the scene. Detective Lt. Mark Williams said the driver was never found.

Officers tried unsuccessfully to coax Lamontagne out of the car as they called for a tow truck to move it, but she refused and hurled a series of profanities at the officers, police said.

When one officer attempted to unbuckle Lamontagne from her seat, she repeatedly punched him in the face with a closed fist, according to police.

Lamontagnes attorney said his client has led an exemplary life and that her behavior that night was out of character.

It would seem that a long period of drinking fueled this, Lamontagnes attorney said, but she only had one drink at a restaurant.

He said Lamontagne does not know what led to her acting the way she did that night, and that she even knew one of the officers personally and apologized to him the next day.

The incident caused Lamontagne to lose her job as a Danbury High School safety advocate, her attorney said, and finding new employment would be further hampered if she had a record.

Lamontagne had been a Danbury High School safety advocate for 13 years until her employment ended on March 1, according to the school districts human resources department.

Lamontagnes attorney said she has started going to private counseling and is trying to put the incident behind her.

The judge agreed to the accelerated rehabilitation program under several conditions, including participation in a substance and/or alcohol abuse treatment program, 25 hours of community service, private counseling no less than once every two weeks for the next few months and no further arrests.

If Lamontagne successfully completes the program, the charges against her will be dismissed.

kendra.baker@hearst.com
NEW FAIRFIELD  Longtime delegate John Hodge is off the Candlewood Lake Authority.

The selectmen voted 2-1 at its last meeting to appoint Joan Archer, a member of the New Fairfield Inlands Wetlands Commission, to replace Hodge, who has been on the authority for about nine years.

Its time for a change, First Selectwoman Pat Del Monaco said at the boards meeting. I would like to see maybe a different set of experiences and new eyes on the authority.

Del Monaco had said during her campaign for office that she would ask Hodge, a former first selectman, to resign. She thanked Hodge at the meeting for his time on the authority.

At times, Hodge clashed with fellow delegates and lake officials over his criticism of the authoritys finances and his requests through the Freedom of Information Act for details on communications between lake and town leaders.

Selectman Kim Hanson opposed appointing Archer, saying he was disturbed Hodge would be replaced as a new, controversial shoreline management plan is considered.

He was instrumental in the (shoreline management plan), Hanson said. He probably knows it better than anyone on the CLA or in any of the town boards in any of the various five towns.

But Selectwoman Kris Hall said Archer, an attorney and member of the Board of Directors for Candlewood Isle, a lakeside community, could help with the plan, too.

Im very sure Joan is going to get up to speed very, very quickly on it, Hall said.
MALCOM, Iowa - Poweshiek County has fewer than 19,000 residents, but the glare of the national political spotlight was focused on this tiny spot between Des Moines and Iowa City as the campaign paths of Sen. Bernie Sanders and former congressman Beto O'Rourke came within a few windmill-covered miles of each other.

Both men spent the weekend campaigning heavily in Iowa and tweaking messages to address some criticisms they've received on the campaign trail as they fight for groups of energized and increasingly young voters, who they hope will help them win the Democratic presidential nomination.

For Sanders, I-Vt.,who has been criticized for having little interaction with voters, that meant answering dozens of questions from people in Malcom about whatever they wanted to discuss: student aid for undocumented immigrants, a universal basic income or criminal justice legislation.

At one point during his town hall, an aide warned Sanders that they were running short on time and "this will have to be the last question."

"No," Sanders replied. "We have time to take one or two more." Then he took a question about his plan to raise the minimum wage.

For O'Rourke, who has been accused of being heavy on rhetoric and skimpy on policy specifics, it meant talking to voters in more detail.

"Let me try again," he said at Grinnell College after being asked a second time for more specifics of his platforms to address climate change and police violence.

"When it comes to police violence against those who they are sworn to serve and protect, I talked about transparency, accountability, tying federal funds to full reporting on use of force and against whom forced is used," he said. "I talked about invoking the civil rights laws of the United States to transcend local and state jurisdictions to make sure the full weight and power and accountability of the federal government comes into play to make sure we protect the lives of those in our community."

This weekend in Iowa, he met many who gushed over him, saying he reminded them of John F. Kennedy. But he also encountered skeptics who told him they want the details behind his lofty rhetoric.

"I want to see very specific legislation. I want to see legislative ideas," said Maya Dru, a 21-year-old sociology major at Grinnell College who asked O'Rourke how voters can trust his words about addressing climate change, given that he voted to explore expanding oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. (O'Rourke told her he regretted the vote.)

"I think saying 'I regret my vote' is one thing, but they need to somehow make it clear to voters that you will hold the individuals and corporations that (contribute to) climate change responsible," she told The Washington Post.

Dru said she was miffed when O'Rourke said he didn't have a complete answer to her question and would follow up. "What is he going to do, text me?"

She was not the only voter with that reaction.

"He's talking about Tinder to us," said Henry Brannan, a 21-year-old sociology and American studies major at Grinnell who is leaning toward Sanders, referring to a common line in O'Rourke's speech about rural broadband. "His rhetoric in general is clearly aimed at us, but there's clearly no substance behind it. His website, which I've been looking at in recent days, has vision statements. There's nothing concrete about any of this."

O'Rourke announced last week that he had raised $9.4 million in 18 days, a clip of more than half a million dollars a day. Sanders leads the Democratic field in fundraising, having raised $18 million in 41 days.

A chunk of that money is going to win over young voters, who have fueled both men's campaigns in the past. Nearly a third of O'Rourke's stops during his 16-event blitz of the state in recent days were at colleges, including some that Sanders had stopped at previously. Sanders held an event at William Penn University, and his final one was a short drive from Grinnell College, drawing several Grinnell students.

Both candidates have appeared in Iowa before, so the stylistic differences this time were noticeable. Sanders' rallies have followed a format similar to his 2016 campaign: an hourlong speech that features Sanders delivering policy prescriptions and applause lines.

But Sanders' supporters have told him that in retail politicking, his style can be grating to voters in states such as Iowa or with black voters in South Carolina who want to be listened to instead of talked at. The lack of interaction was especially telling when compared with selfie-snapping candidates such as O'Rourke, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.

Warming up the crowd before Sanders spoke in Muscatine, former Ohio state senator Nina Turner, a co-chairwoman of Sanders' campaign, told the crowd: "This is a town hall to go deeper than we usually get to go."

A few minutes later, Sanders took questions from a dozen people, including Shannon Abel, who lives a block away and asked about soaring Medicare costs.

"I don't necessarily need politicians to be kissing babies and taking selfies, but I think it's important to want to have communication with people," Abel said after the town hall. "I just wanted him to hear my story. I wanted to be heard."

O'Rourke faced the opposite problem. In many of his Iowa stops, he spent more time answering voters' questions than delivering his stump speech - then concluded the events taking selfies with attendees.

But his opponents and their supporters have hinted that his rhetoric outweighs his accomplishments, and that he benefits from charm and personality while lacking clear policy ideas. His celebrity connections - he was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey this year and recently appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair - have not necessarily helped.

O'Rourke has time to impress with additional detail, but Sanders has few options when it comes to a question raised by several undecided Iowa voters this weekend: his age. Sanders is 77, and O'Rourke is 46. Several voters, both young and old, who attended O'Rourke events mentioned the age of Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden, who is 76, suggesting concerns about whether they were too old to lead the country.

O'Rourke's early days as a presidential contender, in which he barnstormed across Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada and elsewhere with dozens of events, seemed designed to show off his vigor. In his stump speech, the former Texas congressman often touts his ability to woo younger voters, pointing to his losing 2018 Senate race in which the youth vote in Texas was up dramatically.

At a town hall last week at Iowa State University, a young voter asked O'Rourke whether he thought his youth was "a handicap or . . . more of an advantage."

"Definitely an advantage," O'Rourke replied, though he didn't elaborate.

Sanders, who is the oldest candidate in the race, joked about his age onstage, reminding people that "I'm the junior senator from Vermont. The other guy's older."

Joanne Alvorez, 27, who is studying for a master's degree in social work at the University of Iowa, said she likes the college affordability plans Sanders promotes. But she's turned off by his age.

"I am over old white men leading this country," she said. "Recently I just think all the old white men that have been doing it haven't been doing a good job."
CALGARY, April 8, 2019 /CNW/ - AltaGas Ltd. ("AltaGas") (TSX: ALA) will release its 2019 first quarter financial results on Thursday May 2, 2019 before markets open. A conference call and webcast will be held the same day to discuss the financial results and other corporate developments.

Time: 8:00 a.m. MT (10:00 a.m. ET)



Dial-in: 1-647-427-7450 or toll free at 1-888-231-8191



Webcast: https://www.altagas.ca/invest/events-and-presentations

Shortly after the conclusion of the first quarter call, a replay will be available commencing at 12:00 p.m. MT (2:00 p.m. ET) on May 2, 2019 by dialing 403-451-9481 or toll free 1-855-859-2056. The passcode is 8744909. The replay will expire at 9:59 p.m. MT (11:59 p.m. ET) on May 9, 2019.

AltaGas will also hold its Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders on Thursday May 2, 2019.

A live audio webcast of the Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders will be available on the AltaGas website at the link below.

Time: 3:30 p.m. MT (5:30 p.m. ET)



Location: The Metropolitan Conference Centre, 333  4th Avenue S.W., Calgary, Alberta



Webcast: https://www.altagas.ca/invest/events-and-presentations

The webcasts will be archived for one year.

AltaGas is an energy infrastructure company with a focus on midstream, regulated utilities and power. AltaGas creates value by growing and optimizing its energy infrastructure, including a focus on clean energy sources. For more information visit: www.altagas.ca

This news release contains forward-looking statements. When used in this news release, the word "will" and similar expressions, as they relate to AltaGas or an affiliate of AltaGas, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. In particular, this news release contains forward-looking statements with respect to, among other things, timing of release of financial results, conference call and webcast, replay and archiving. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect AltaGas' current views with respect to future events based on certain material factors and assumptions and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, including without limitation, changes in market, competition, governmental or regulatory developments, general economic conditions and other factors set out in AltaGas' public disclosure documents. Many factors could cause AltaGas' actual results, performance or achievements to vary from those described in this news release, including without limitation those listed above. These factors should not be construed as exhaustive. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in this news release as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, sought, proposed, estimated or expected, and such forward-looking statements included in, or incorporated by reference in this news release, should not be unduly relied upon. Such statements speak only as of the date of this news release. AltaGas does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

SOURCE AltaGas Ltd.

For further information: Investment Community, 1-877-691-7199, [email protected]; Media: (403) 691-7197, [email protected]

Related Links

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TORONTO, April 8, 2019 /CNW/ - First National Financial Corporation (TSX: FN,TSX:FN.PR.A,TSX:FN.PR.B) today announced its first quarter 2019 financial reporting schedule.

First Quarter Release April 30, 2019 after market close First Quarter Earnings Call/Webcast May 1, 2019 10:00 am ET Hosts Stephen Smith, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robert Inglis, Chief Financial Officer Moray Tawse, Executive Vice President Conference Call (647) 490-5367 or (800) 667-5617 Webcast www.firstnational.ca

A taped rebroadcast of the conference call will be available until May 8, 2019 at 1:00 pm ET. To access the rebroadcast, please dial (647) 436-0148 or (888) 203-1112 and enter passcode 5257032 followed by the number sign. The webcast is also archived at www.firstnational.ca for three months.

About First National Financial Corporation

First National Financial Corporation (TSX: FN,TSX:FN.PR.A,TSX:FN.PR.B) is the parent company of First National Financial LP, a Canadian-based originator, underwriter and servicer of predominantly prime residential (single-family and multi-unit) and commercial mortgages. With over $106 billion in mortgages under administration, First National is Canada's largest non-bank originator and underwriter of mortgages and is among the top three in market share in the mortgage broker distribution channel. For more information, please visit www.firstnational.ca.

SOURCE First National Financial Corporation

For further information: Robert Inglis, Chief Financial Officer, First National Financial Corporation, Tel: 416 593 1100, Email: [email protected]; Ernie Stapleton, President, Fundamental, Tel: 905 648 9354, Email: [email protected]

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www.firstnational.ca


Google Earth satellite shots of Experimental Nuclear Reactor facility in Saudi Arabia

Google Earth Satellite images show that Saudi Arabia is within months of completing an experimental nuclear reactor. Saudi Arabia is working with Argentina on the experimental reactors. In March 2015, INVAP (Investigacion Aplicada) from Argentina and state-owned Saudi technology innovation company Taqnia set up a joint venture company, Invania, to develop nuclear technology for Saudi Arabias nuclear power program, apparently focusing on small reactors such as CAREM (100 MWt, 27 MWe) for desalination. Saudi Arabia has a goal of creating Small Modular Reactors with South Korea and/or Argentina that could generate 3.2 gigawatts of nuclear power for Saudi Arabia in 2030. The World Nuclear Association reports that Saudi Arabia plans to construct two large nuclear power reactors. This is scaled back from building 16 over the next 20-25 years at a cost of more than $80 billion.

Small and Large Nuclear Reactors In Planning and Study Phases

In March 2015 the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) signed an agreement with KA-CARE to assess the potential for building at least two South Korean SMART reactors in the country, and possibly more.

KEPCO is undertaking the pre-project planning and feasibility studies for KAERIs $130 million . SMART Power will be the prime EPC contractor, with construction start expected in 2018. SMART is designed for electricity generation (up to 100 MWe) as well as seawater desalination. It has a 60-year design life and refueling cycle. The first SMART unit in Saudi Arabia is estimated to cost $1 billion.

South Korea and Saudi Arabia want to commercialize and sell the SMART reactor to third countries. KAERI has designed an integrated desalination plant based on the SMART reactor to produce 40,000 m3/day of water and 90 MWe of power at less than the cost of turbine.

In January 2016 KA-CARE signed an agreement with China Nuclear Engineering Corporation (CNEC) to build a high-temperature reactor (HTR) based on the HTR-PM now under construction in China.

In January 2015, the Saudi government said its target for 17 GWe of nuclear capacity would be more like 2040. In 2017 KA-CARE announced that it was soliciting proposals for 2.9 GWe nuclear capacity, from South Korea, China, Russia and Japan. In November 2018 KA-CARE awarded a contract to Worley Parsons to provide consultancy services for the Saudi National Atomic Energy Project.

SOURCES  World Nuclear Association, Bloomberg, Google Earth

Written by Brian Wang, nextbigfuture.com
MILFORD-Police arrested a city man and charged him with assaulting a Milford Hospital staff member during an incident at the facility on April 6.

Michael Terrell, 48 of Broadway, was charged with assault on a public safety personnel. Bond was set at $1,500 pending an April 30 appearance in Milford Superior Court.
A Massachusetts driver, who allegedly cut off a pickup truck on northbound Route 8 Saturday afternoon, ended up get busted on numerous drug charges.

According to State Police, at 3:42 p.m., a red Volkswagen Jetta was stopped on Route 8 North for cutting across the gore area and cutting off a black pickup truck.
After Ethan Song accidentally shot and killed himself at a friends house in January 2018, his mother, Kristin Song, found that activism was the only way [she] could survive. Shes since pushed for legislation, dubbed Ethans Law, which requires unloaded firearms be properly secured in homes with minors.

But Song isnt done yet.

Another element of the bill states that the State Board of Education shall, rather than may, develop a firearm safety curriculum guide for students. With that in mind, Song is working with lifelong friend and K-8 educator Gretchen Toussaint to develop a curriculum that will keep children away from guns  one they hope will help prevent accidental shootings and teen suicides.

Though the state has been legally allowed to develop a firearm safety curriculum since at least the 1990s, the Department of Education could not confirm whether it ever did so, spokesman Peter Yazbak said in an email. Ethans Law would require that within available appropriations the curriculum be developed, and it would expand the target age range from K-8 to K-12, his email said.

(Yazbak noted that another section of state law allows parents to request their children be exempt from the firearm safety courses.)

The process is in its early stages. The bill has gone through the Judiciary Committee but not the Education Committee, and therefore the State Department of Education has not yet had extensive opportunity to review the language, Yazbak said.

The early nature of the legislative process isnt stopping Song and Toussaint from making plans, however. Toussaint said she imagines the curriculum would be integrated into existing wellness courses.

With more guns than people in the United States, Song said, the risk of a child getting access to firearms is widespread. The Washington Post has reported that there are 393 million civilian-owned firearms in the United States.

Its time to start speaking about this, Song said.

The idea for a safety curriculum has found support with entities that have otherwise voiced opposition to Ethans Law, including the Connecticut Citizens Defense League, which advocated that the language compelling such a curriculum appear in the bill.

CCDL President Scott Wilson said he was ecstatic that they actually changed the language.

This is not some hands-on gun class, Wilson emphasized, but should be a class to teach children that if they do open up their parents drawer and see a gun  to not get swept up in that curiosity because guns are very dangerous if theyre in the wrong hands.

Wilson himself was accidentally shot by his brother when he was a child, he said. He believes a firearm safety curriculum may have helped prevent the accident.

Though the CCDL does not support Ethans Law in its entirety, Wilson wrote of his willingness to work on a curriculum in an email.

Given that the bill will likely become law, we are willing to work with the Song family and the State Board of Education on developing a safety program geared towards children, his email said.

For their part, Toussaint and Song are willing to listen, even if the advice is coming from pro-gun organizations.

I think if we just work together we can probably come up with something pretty amazing, Toussaint said.

The NRA, for example, has some good language in its handbook about keeping kids away from guns, Song said. If it helps, theyll use it.

Were not going to exclude anyone because we dont care for their organization, she said. Our main goal is to keep children safe. Everyone needs to play their part.

In addition to hearing out Second Amendment organizations, for the educational portion of Ethans Law, Song plans to draw from a project that the Brady Campaign, a national organization that works to prevent gun violence, is undertaking. The organization is putting together a team to develop its own curriculum geared toward students, said Robert Disney, director of state and chapter relations.

The project falls under the umbrella of the Brady campaign End Family Fire, a type of gun violence project overseer Meagan Hutcheon defined as a shooting involving an improperly-stored or misused gun which results in death or injuries. Family fire includes both intentional and unintentional incidents, she said.

In an article from August 2018, the New York Times reported that based on CDC data, Brady concluded that an average of eight children are killed or injured in accidental shootings daily in the U.S. (The number includes 19-year-olds.) The statistic was based on data collected between 2012 and 2016 for fatal gun injuries, and 2011 and 2015 for nonfatal injuries, Hutcheon told a Register reporter via text message.

Disney said Brady is not anti-gun and recognizes that many people choose to own a gun based on a desire to protect their families; with that in mind, Brady focuses on preventing unintended and tragic consequences that occur when guns are improperly stored. If youre going to own a gun ... thats not a problem, but you need to be responsible.

The onus for avoiding gun violence should not be on children, Disney said. To that end, End Family Fire primarily has sought to achieve its goals by promoting responsible gun ownership and safe storage practices to adults, Hutcheon said.

But now, they are looking to expand. And even though they do not plan to count on student education, they are eager to creatively explore its potential, Disney said.

Our main focus is really talking specifically to adults  but we do understand the power of student voices, said Hutcheon.

Disney envisions two important results of the endeavor, currently in its infancy: first, that it will teach children how to respond when they find guns in the home; and second, that it will help young voices advocate for a safer community.

Song and Toussaint both plan to contribute to the project.

Worries for the road ahead

Sarah Raskin, a psychology neuroscience professor at Trinity College, represents another collaborator who has signed on to advise Bradys curriculum. Though shes excited to help with the project, she also warned that the team has a big challenge ahead.

According to Raskin, studies show that existing gun safety curriculum is largely ineffective. You can warn a teen not to touch a gun, or you can show them a frightening video, but in real-life situations, those lessons rarely last, she said.

With that in mind, Raskin said, we need to really think hard about what changes behavior. Any curriculum geared toward teens, she noted, needs to be careful and thoughtful.

Plain old learn these rules is not the way to do it, she said.

Moreover, Raskin stressed, student education is not a substitute for safe storage.

As to whatever curriculum is implemented in conjunction with Ethans Law, Wilson of the CCDL feels some apprehension along with his enthusiasm, as he worries that an anti-gun spin might mark the program.

We would really like to make sure that opinions toward guns themselves are not brought into the curriculum, Wilson said, adding that the material should be taught as cleanly as possible.

A multi-prong approach

Ultimately, Toussaint and Song want to work beyond Ethans Law to develop an educational program has a broader reach than student classrooms. While the two women hope to improve upon existing student curricula, Song said, the educational push for firearm safety  especially when it comes to safe storage  must target other groups, such as parents.

Its up to us adults to do this, said Toussaint. Its human nature to experiment with things your parents told you not to.

With that in mind, they hope to work on other vital aspects of firearm safety education, including adult-oriented programs, coordination with medical personnel and an emphasis on safe storage. Though Brady has taken on much of this work separately, Song said she plans to look at the issue further, perhaps making her own additional contribution.

In a general comment on gun violence prevention, Raskin described parent education as critical simply telling adults their kids may not have learned to stay away from guns could make a difference, she said. [Saying] to parents  look, its not about good parenting or bad parenting  its just how kids are, also may help, she added.

In someone elses home

Sending a widespread message is critical because even if you are a responsible parent, others may not be, said Song, adding that her goal as a mother was to maximize safety.

Toussaint said Song was such a safety nut that her friends teased her.

Like, she takes a carbon monoxide monitor on vacation with her, Toussaint said.

And yet, in someone elses home, Ethan was able to get his hands on a gun.

Toussaint recognized that reaching adults will be tricky  but she and Song are ready to brainstorm.

Song said that personally, she has found documentaries a great way to learn. If telling Ethans story through film would help teach adults about the importance of safe storage, its something she would consider.

Song said making parents aware of how common it is for kids to know where adults hide their guns could motivate safer storage.

Interactions with medical personnel mark another significant opportunity to ensure safe storage, Toussaint said. For example, crisis intervention on the part of ER staff after a suicide attempt can help prevent future tragedy. To that end, they will incorporate involve coordination with medical professionals to maximize those impacts into their work.

A lot of work lies ahead, but Song is determined. Initially, she imagines that a pilot program would take place in Connecticut  but, Toussaint said, giving the project national reach would be their end goal.

meghan.friedmann@hearstmediact.com
NEW HAVEN  Jackie James, longtime political insider in the citys Democratic Party, former alder and holder of multiple offices in Mayor Toni Harps administration, is back as a consultant.

James left city employment in 2016 after she faced termination for pitching the alders for more money for the Small Business Academy after the mayor said she had directed staff not to, among other charges.

She has been hired by the Registrar of Voters office as a $50,000 consultant for three months to improve the voting experience in New Haven.

The charges three years ago were brought by her then-boss, Economic Development Administrator Matthew Nemerson, who has since left his position. James eventually agreed to take eight months severance pay and a lump sum equal to a year of health insurance, some $24,000, and resigned.

James won the consultant contract after answering a request for proposals put out by the citys purchasing agent. The only other contender was Tony Rodriguez of Daniel Penn Associates LLC, who James said had a contract for similar work for the Register of Voters office last year.

She was hired by the Registrars office, but Harp said she promised to find the necessary funds because of the importance of fixing problems with that office.

Democratic Registrar of Voters Shannel Evans did not return a request for comment.

For several elections, hundreds of voters, the majority of them college students, have waited hours to register to vote in New Haven on Election Day, drawing criticism from the secretary of the states office, as well as from frustrated residents and members of the Board of Alders.

James, a former president of the Board of Aldermen, said she will work with a task force that has just been convened to advise the Registrars office on how it can perform more efficiently.

She said she wants to see more training for persons working on Election Day and generally many more people helping with that process.

James said the office needs to be brought into the 21st century with more direct connections with the secretary of the states office on Election Day to speed registration. She said the office is using outdated systems.

James said she will bring in staff to help her, if needed.

The new consultant wants to see clearer signs at the polling places and will visit each of them with the alders and the registrar workers to see what can be improved. She aims to make voting a more pleasant experience for the voter.

She said there needs to be a longer period of training for workers and the process of attracting them needs to start earlier. James said they also need to be properly compensated and capable of more than one job.

James hopes there will be more money in the Registrars office to accomplish improvements there.

We had record numbers of voters last year and we expect it again, James said. She said the exercise in the 2019 election is an early run through and preparation for the 2020 presidential election.

In her career with the Harp administration, James was acting head of the Community Services Administration and later deputy at CSA. She was later head of the Small Business Academy.

mary.oleary@hearstmediact.com; 203-641-2577
NEW HAVEN  The Executive Committee of the American Studies Association has written a letter to Tamar Gendler, dean of the Yale University faculty of arts and sciences, expressing its members concern about the withdrawal of 13 faculty members from the Ethnicity, Race and Migration program.

The letter, dated April 6, urges Gendler to act swiftly to remedy the untenable conditions leading to the withdrawal of exceptionally distinguished scholars from the program. The association has 5,000 members devoted to research on American culture, history, and politics in a global context, according to the letter.

The 13 professors announced their withdrawal from the program March 29, citing Yales administrative disinterest in the program, and the pattern of unfulfilled promises by the University. They said their withdrawal leaves the program with no tenured faculty or professional leadership.

More News 13 Yale professors withdraw from ethnic studies program

The letter follows one by more than 650 alumni and fellow professors across the country who stated they stand in solidarity with the 13 professors at Yale.

The Yale administration must make ER&M a fully-resourced, autonomous academic unit. Only with these resources will ER&M have the capacity to meet student needs, contribute path-breaking scholarship, and shape Yale as a global and national leader in higher education, the April 2 letter stated.

It said the program has 87 students who are majoring within ER&M and that four faculty were hired on the promise that they would be appointed to Ethnicity, Race and Migration, but were then assigned to other programs. As the faculty among us know, this constitutes an unconscionable labor practice, the letter states.

Faculty at other universities, including Brown and Stanford, also have written in support of the program and the professors withdrawal.

Calling the ER&M faculty indispensable, the associations leadership wrote that the national perspective of the ASA allows us to observe quite definitively that the contributions of the 13 professors individually and collectively has been vital to the vibrancy of the field. Indeed, they have been among the most influential scholars in the study of such world-shaping subjects as the histories, processes, cultures, and ideologies of colonialism and nationalism, settler colonialism and capitalism, both within American studies and well beyond it.

The letter states that no similar action has been taken at any other university. These thirteen scholars are nationally and internationally respected for their critical generosity, integrity, erudition, and administrative acuity, the letter states. Their withdrawal en masse from the program is an ethical, labor, and intellectual issue. It is crucial that you address them and model a facilitation that would be a crucial transitional point for the field. There are national implications in your action.

It continues, Given the inarguable brilliance and the impact of their work, it is difficult to understand how and why Yale would allow the program to remain so administratively precarious. This is especially so given its announced commitment to diversification of student and faculty bodies and to curricular transformation.

The Ethnicity, Race and Migration program has focused on environmental destruction and wealth inequality and the forced migration of populations and violence that accompany those forces, the letter said.

The American Studies Association called on Yale to provide necessary resources and governance authority to the program but also to demonstrate its standing as a forward-looking, worldly institution.

Gendler issued a statement Monday evening in which she said, The Program in Ethnicity, Race, and Migration has asked for the right to appoint faculty solely  without joint appointments in other units. We have been actively considering this question for such time, and recognize the importance of reaching resolution on it in the near future.

She said the faculty members have been in constructive discussions with the administration and that we have been reviewing the structure of our academic organization in ER&M and related areas as part of our regular rethinking of how the FAS should best be organized. She said an outside review of the American Studies program, conducted in February, would help in making decisions about ER&M as well, and that she expects we will be in a position to move forward with our decision relatively quickly.

Gendler called race, ethnicity, migration and indigeneity among the most pressing questions of the twenty-first century, and a university of Yales ambitions and resources must be a leader in scholarship and teaching on these topics.

In announcing the withdrawals from the ER&M program, the professors said Yale has promised but failed over 20 years to support the program by giving it departmental status, with the ability to hire and promote faculty, as well as other resources.

Professor Daniel HoSang, an associate professor of American Studies and one of the 13 professors who withdrew from ER&M, said in an email that the support from colleagues and the American Studies Association shows the impact that ER&M students and faculty have had on multiple scholarly fields since its founding two decades ago. [Its] heartening to know that this work matters to so many people, including current students and alumni. We trust that our colleagues in administration are as excited about the impact of the program as we are. We look forward to meeting with them soon to address areas of mutual concern.

Yale students also have organized to protest Yales lack of support for the program, forming the Coalition for Ethnic Studies at Yale and pointing out that 41 professors have volunteered their time to the program but then left Yale.

On Saturday, carrying a banner that said, Ethnic Studies is Our Studies, more than 100 students and alumni interrupted a speech by Yale President Peter Salovey at the 50th anniversary gala of the Asian American Student Alliance, the Yale Daily News reported.

The protesters questioned Salovey about the status of the program and were told, Whats really important is the issue of faculty being assigned to the program, whether they are shared with another department or program or dedicated to that program and thats what this fundamentally is about, the Yale Daily News reported. I know well get that worked out.

Salovey, in his initial response to the faculty actions, said two senior faculty had been hired for the program and that two more would be, as part of a five-year, $50 million commitment to diversify its faculty. The professors said there has been a lack of transparency about how the $50 million was to be spent.

Professors who withdrew from the ER&M program were asked to comment about the American Studies Associations letter.

edward.stannard@hearstmediact.com; 203-680-9382
NEW HAVEN  Justin Elicker, candidate for the Democratic Partys nomination for mayor, Monday said he has raised more than $117,000 in the first quarter of this year, twice as much as he raised in the comparable quarter when he was a mayoral contender six years ago.

The campaign said 70 percent of the donors are from New Haven and when the Democracy Fund money is added, it estimated the total for the quarter will be $165,000.

The quarter spans Jan. 1 through March 31; Elicker entered the race on Jan. 16.

To qualify for public financing through the Democracy Fund, a candidate is required to raise money from at least 200 New Haven residents who donate between $10 and $370.

He said he received contributions from 737 unique donors this time, a 30 percent increase from 2013 when that number was 566; this year he received 848 total contributions a 30 percent bump from the 654 he got in 2013.

Elicker also participated in the Democracy Fund in 2013; incumbent Mayor Toni Harp, who is seeking a fourth term, has never opted to be a publicly financed candidate.

The top donation under public financing is $370; it is $1,000 under traditional fundraising. Her campaign has had at least one fundraiser aimed at large donors, but there also have been events that were free to attend.

As part of public financing, a candidate cannot take large contributions or Political Action Committee money. Elicker has said he does not want to be beholden to wealthy donors or PACs for reasons of transparency.

Under the Democracy Fund, participants get a two-to-one match for all contributions between $10 and $30, and $60 for each donation between $10 and $370, as well as a one-time $19,500 grant.

As this years mayoral contest gets going, incumbent Harps 2017 campaign is being investigated by the State Election Enforcement Commission for failing to list the names of a large number of contributors. The Elicker campaign filed a complaint last month charging that unnamed donors gave some $95,502 to that race and missed multiple filing dates.

The detailed first-quarter campaign reports from all municipal candidates are due in the City Clerks office Wednesday.

The New Haven Register in late February found that at least $66,476 in donations to the mayors 2017 campaign, in reports filed through June 26, 2018, did not identify who the contributors were. The reports had missed multiple reporting dates as laid out by the SEEC.

After the campaign filed four additional reports on Feb. 20, following questions from the Register, the total amount from the mystery donors increased to some $85,202, according to its summary sheets.

The campaign, however, had attached an addendum to one of its Feb. 20 reports that listed the names of donors it said totaled $8,300. The actual amount, however, was closer to $15,000 and covered May, June, October, November and December 2018, adding more confusion to the campaign reporting.

Jason Bartlett, Harps campaign chairman, attributed the missing names to human error, and the failure of a financial consultant to properly calculate the material. The campaign promised to fix the reports within a few weeks, but has not done so to date. He said Monday we are getting close.

As far as the mayors fundraising is concerned, Bartlett said: We are just getting started. He said they are likely to release their report on Tuesday.

Bartlett said they are not concerned about raising money at this point.

He said the real issue at this point is what is Elickers message and how does that compare to five years of accomplishments under the mayor. Bartlett said the campaign manager will be announced Saturday.

Im thrilled to see so many people are excited for change, and Im honored to have the support of so many New Haven residents, Elicker said in a statement. Im looking forward to continuing to engage people on the campaign trail and discuss with them how we can make New Haven a more equitable and financially sustainable city. We can and must chart a new course for our city, a course that prioritizes inclusive growth, where every person has the opportunity to succeed no matter what neighborhood they live in.

Elicker, who until this year was executive director of the New Haven Land Trust, said the campaign has outpaced his mayoral effort six years ago under several metrics.

The contrast between Elicker raising grassroots contributions from New Haven residents versus Harp raising large money contributions from people doing business with the city, who then hides the identity of those donors, is stark, Campaign Manager Gage Frank charged.

Elickers campaign treasurer, Laura Snow-Robinson, said in a statement, Our team of volunteer assistant treasurers and I are thrilled at this outpouring of support. Were eager to file our campaign finance report in a timely and accurate way because we know this report is a reflection of Justin and his value for transparency.

Elicker served two terms on the Board of Alders and was executive director of the Land Trust from 2014 until 2019. He is a former schoolteacher, Foreign Service Officer and a graduate of the Yale Forestry School and School of Management. Elicker grew up in Connecticut.

mary.oleary@hearstmediact.com; 203-641-2577
WEST HAVEN  Business has doubled at the popular Nicks Luncheonette since reopening on Saw Mill Road in late January, but as owners like to phrase it: Our family has grown.

Monday marked the official grand opening and ribbon-cutting of the new Nicks at the former Pizza Hut at 249 Saw Mill Road, although the bacon and eggs have been sizzling since late January.

The Milas family, who own the place, and staff were so busy with customers at noon Monday that they barely had time for their own ribbon-cutting by Mayor Nancy Rossi.

Rossi said her administration did their best to keep Nicks in West Haven and shes thrilled they stayed.

Its absolutely transformed into a different kind of establishment, she said of the new space. She raved about the food, service and home fries, calling the latter the best ever.

Owner Nick Milas, who came here from Greece in 1978 at age 19, said if the staff doesnt know a regular customers name, they know what they eat.

We want to take care of the customers right, because we want them to stay with us, he said. Everythings nice. We try to be like family.

Milas, whose parents owned a coffee shop in Greece, said hes definitely working harder in the bigger location.

The Milas son, Kosta, echoed the customers-are-like-family sentiment, saying old customers followed them and new ones arrived, so, our family has grown.

Weve been very fortunate, Kosta Milas said.

Nick and his wife, Irene, grew the business for 26 years at a different location, and agreed to sell their former spot at First Avenue and Elm Street several years ago to make way for The Haven high-end outlet mall. The Haven project still hasnt broken ground.

Nicks has always been known for its low prices, tasty food and friendly service. The biggest buzz around the city during the closure was, When is Nicks Luncheonette reopening? They are open from 5:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Regular customer Audrey Vecellio, who estimates shes been patronizing Nicks for 25 years, made it a point to be there for the ribbon-cutting.

Best home fries around  all the other restaurants have boiled potatoes they just throw seasoning on, she said.

Friends Harvey Cutler and Greg Acabbo have made Nicks their go-to place for weekly Monday breakfast.

The service is good, the food comes out quick, Acabbo said.

Cutler said aside from the food, I like Nick and his wife. Everybodys friendly.
The following are recent arrests released by the New Haven Police Department on April 8, 2019.

April 4

A 18-year-old Hallock Avenue man was charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit a crime, two counts of breach of peace, two counts of third-degree criminal mischief, and violation of a protective order.

A 20-year-old Hallock Avenue woman was charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit a crime, two counts of breach of peace, third-degree criminal mischief, use of drug paraphernalia, and illegal possession of narcotics.

A 27-year-old Dickerman Street man was charged with risk of injury to a child, second-degree threatening, and second-degree breach of peace.

A 30-year-old Sylvan Avenue man was charged with risk of injury to a child, disorderly conduct, first-degree criminal trespassing, second-degree failure to appear, illegally operating a motor vehicle under the influence, operating a motor vehicle without a license, and improper use of a marker.

A 43-year-old Brooklyn, N.Y. man was charged with fire-degree assault and second-degree breach of peace.

A 35-year-old Ferry Street man was charged with possession of narcotics, second-degree breach of peace, and second-degree threatening.

April 5

A 47-year-old Butler Street man was charged with fourth-degree sexual assault.

A 50-year-old West Haven man was charged with possession of narcotics.

A 40-year-old West Haven woman was charged with second-degree assault and second-degree breach of peace.

A 24-year-old George Street man was charged criminal attempt, second-degree assault, carrying a dangerous weapon, and second-degree breach of peace.

A 41-year-old Blatchley Avenue man was charged with four counts of violation of probation and two counts of third-degree burglary.

A 40-year-old Winthrop Avenue man was charged with possession of narcotics, possession with the intent to sell, use of drug paraphernalia, improper turn signal, and failure to display lights.

April 6

A 47-year-old West Haven man was charged with first-degree criminal trespassing, two counts of second-degree failure to appear, and interfering with an officer.

A 20-year-old Bronx, N.Y. man was charged with interfering with an officer, second-degree criminal trespassing, and second-degree breach of peace.

A 30-year-old Hudson Street man was charged with second-degree assault and second-degree breach of peace.

A 25-year-old Ramsdell Street man was charged with credit card theft by transfer, sixth-degree larceny, and breach of peace.

A 27-year-old Grand Avenue woman was charged with risk of injury to a child, first-degree failure to appear, interfering with an officer, and third-degree assault.

A 46-year-old Howard Avenue man was charged with risk of injury to a child and breach of peace.

A 26-year-old West Haven man was charged with possession of narcotics, possession with the intent to sell, and failure to display plates.

April 7

A 23-year-old Grace Street man was charged with first-degree sexual assault, second-degree strangulation, first-degree unlawful restraint, and second-degree breach of peace.

A 42-year-old Middletown Avenue man was charged with carrying a dangerous weapon, third-degree burglary, and second-degree criminal mischief.

A 40-year-old Hallock Street man was charged with two counts of second-degree failure to appear, two counts of second-degree breach of peace, two counts of third-degree assault, and second-degree threatening.

As of January 2019, Hearst Connecticut Media does not include names in online police blotters.
A New Era for Japan: Showa to Heisei to the Future

In a February 2019 speech, shortly before his fifty-ninth birthday, Crown Prince Naruhito looked back on his life to date and ahead to his forthcoming role as emperor of Japan.

The Changing Role of the Imperial Family

Crown Prince Naruhito was destined to become emperor of Japan from the day he was born. He was 28 in 1989, when his grandfather Emperor Showa (Hirohito) died and his father took the throne. Emperor Akihitos announcement in the summer of 2016 that he wished to abdicate brought Naruhitos ascension to the throne suddenly much closer.

Shortly before his fifty-ninth birthday on February 23, 2019, Naruhito gave a press conference in which he tackled many questions to do with his life to date and forthcoming role as emperor. I feel very solemn when I think about the future, he spoke frankly. He said what he had learned from his parents and their approach to their duties would be an important guide. At the same time, Just as new winds blow in every age, the role of the imperial family changes. I would like to firmly carry forward traditions that have been passed down since ancient times, while also pursuing the ideal role that the imperial family should take in the future.

He showed his concern regarding some issues. It is a fact that the proportion of male members of the imperial family is decreasing and all of the members are growing older. Given also that female imperial family members must leave the imperial family upon marriage, these issues relate to its future role. He did not comment, however, on what that role should be, or the doubts expressed in a statement by his younger brother Fumihito, Prince Akishinothe next crown princeover spending public money on the large-scale Daijosai festival later in the year. It was typically prudent of him to refrain from touching on political matters.

Appeal for Understanding

He also spoke of his wife. Crown Princess Masakos health problems have led to her absence at past ceremonies. While continuing to take care of her health over the past year, Masako has continued making efforts and finding ways to discharge her public and private duties to the best of her ability. This has allowed her to gradually broaden the scope of her activities, and both Masako and I are pleased about this expanded range. While she will have many public duties as empress, I do not expect her to take them all on overnight. In this appeal for public understanding, one senses Naruhitos feelings for his wife, whom he promised he would protect with all his strength at the time of their marriage.





Last December, Princess Masako released a statement to mark her fifty-fifth birthday, in which she talked of her gratitude for the support shown to her by the Japanese people. She also said that she hoped to perform her public duties as well as she can. I hope the new imperial couple will have many opportunities to meet and talk with the citizens of the country.

Below the Summit

One past press conference by Naruhito that drew particular attention was the one he gave on his twenty-eighth birthday in 1988, the year before he became crown prince. There was great public interest in his choice of bride, which was perceived to be imminent. Applying metaphors from his hobby of mountaineering, he said that he was still at the seventh or eighth stationJapanese climbers divide mountains into 10 stations, with the final one being the top. I can see the summit, but I feel it is so far away.

Responding to persistent press questions about whether he had met his ideal woman, he responded with a smile, I may have met her, and I may never meet her. I was present, and I remember recognizing his honesty. I knew that Naruhito had first met Masako about a year and a half earlier, before she joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at a reception at the Togu Palace for Queen Sofia of Spain. He must have had this in mind when he answered. The prince really cannot tell a lie, an Imperial Household Agency official said, wiping sweat from his forehead as reporters chased him up for further comment.

I felt Naruhitos sincerity more keenly still when in September 1989, he gave his first press conference after becoming crown prince. This time, when journalists quizzed him on what station he was at in his search for a bride, he greatly played down his earlier comment, Im not sure myself. I feel like that statement somehow got a little ahead of the true situation, though. Shortly before the press conference, Fumihitos marriage had been formally announced. At a time when his courtship of Masako was not going how he had hoped, Naruhito frankly stated that it would still be some time before his own wedding. And so it turned out, as it would be three and a half years before he and Masako became engaged.





A Memorable Trip

In 1987, Naruhito made an official visit to Bhutan. The country had recently emerged from a long period of international isolation and established diplomatic relations with Japan the year before. Naruhito was the first major Japanese representative to visit the little-known Himalaya kingdom. He would also travel to Nepal and India on a 16-day tour of the region, and I was a member of the accompanying press corps.

As our small plane, carrying fewer than 20 passengers, entered Bhutanese airspace, the mountains more than 2,000 meters high seemed to recall a mythical, ideal Japanese landscape. The similarity of Bhutanese in appearance to Japanese and the resemblance of the national dress to the kimono fostered a comfortable atmosphere for developing friendly relations.

Naruhito was welcomed for a four-day visit by Queen Mother Kesang Choden, a Japanophile, and other members of the royal family. The 27-year-old prince talked with particular warmth to King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, four years his senior. Having ascended to the throne at 16, the Bhutanese king drew international interest by stressing the importance of citizens happiness in developing the country. Naruhito must have felt he could learn a lot from the cultivated king.

Naruhito chose to walk around the city when there was a break in his schedule. His Japanese partys sudden appearance in the capital Thimphu, population around 30,000, drew thousands of people to crowd around them. Even so, Naruhito never stopped smiling. He entered a souvenir store, where he examined famous local products and bought a bamboo lunch box and Buddhist artwork. The next day he went to a farmhouse, where he heartily drank the hosts proffered local brew, spoke to the children, and got to know the Bhutanese people better.









On the last night, members of the press were allowed to attend the court banquet hosted by the queen mother. Naruhito wore the kimonolike gho as he danced, and journalists were invited to dance with the kings sisters. After leaving Bhutan, Naruhito talked of how he had been constantly moved during his visit. It was like a dream world that transcended time. I found it highly worthwhile spending time with the king and other members of the royal family of the same generation as me. This was a full-fledged beginning for Japan-Bhutan relations.

The Japan-Bhutan Connection

Back in Japan, Naruhito made a report to Emperor Showa, again wearing the gho. When the emperor passed away two years later, Bhutan set up an altar in the palace displaying his memorial photograph. The nation went into mourning and special memorial services were held at its 300 Buddhist temples. The Bhutanese king also attended the emperors funeral.



King Jigme Singye Wangchuck is greeted by Crown Prince Naruhito at Narita Airport in Tokyo on February 22, 1989, shortly before the funeral of Emperor Showa.

Naruhito first met Masako not long after his return from Bhutan. He had with him the photographs from his goodwill trip, which he must have used to break the ice. I cannot help but believe that there is a mysterious connection between Japan and Bhutan.

(Originally published in Japanese on March 14, 2019. Banner photo: Crown Prince Naruhito gives a press conference in Tokyo on February 21, 2019, shortly before his fifty-ninth birthday.  Jiji.)
Bruce Deifik, the developer who took on the shuttered Revel casino and reopened it as the Ocean Resort Casino last summer, has died in Colorado.

The office of the medical examiner in Denver confirmed it conducted an autopsy Deifik. The results are still pending, officials said Monday afternoon.

His lawyer Paul OGara told The Associated Press that Deifik was killed in a single-car crash Sunday while driving home from a Colorado Rockies baseball game in his hometown of Denver. OGara says the medical examiner is still investigating what might have caused the crash, including the possibility Deifik, 64, suffered a medical crisis behind the wheel.

Deifik bought the former Revel property in January 2018 for more than $200 million. He moved quickly to turn it around and open it alongside Hard Rock Hotel & Casino last June, in what many hoped would be a revitalization of Atlantic City tourism and casino industry.

We are saddened to learn that Bruce Deifik, former owner of Ocean Casino Resort, has passed away," a casino spokesperson said in an email statement. The Ocean family is grateful for Bruce having the vision to re-open this beautiful oceanfront property and employing over 3,000 members of our community. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.

Upon purchasing the former Revel, he called the project a dream come true, and said he intended to learn from and avoid the pitfalls that left the short-lived casino and resort strapped for cash.

That didnt happen. As summer drew to a close, the Ocean Resort was already hemorrhaging money, falling below minimum liquidity levels established by the state. Luxor Captial, a New York hedge fund, began assuming ownership of the casino from Deifik in January. Under new management, it had already begun to see a turnaround by late February.

Deifik was scheduled to appear at a hearing before casino regulators in Atlantic City Wednesday, as they sought to revoke his casino license following allegations of sexual harassment by female employees at the resort, according to Philly.com.

Deifik was the president and CEO of Integrated Properties Inc, a company that owned 100 commercial properties in five states, including the Hyatt Grand Champions Resort in Palm Springs, Calif., and several office and retail centers around Denver and Phoenix.

The companys website was down Monday, and company officials could not be reached for comment.

Deifik had reportedly recently listed his Laguna Beach house for $24 million.

Amanda Hoover can be reached at ahoover@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @amandahoovernj. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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Police were expecting to find drugs when they executed a search warrant at a Berlin Borough home Saturday, but what they actually found had them evacuating the area and calling for the bomb squad.

The officers recovered a pipe bomb and materials to make more, in addition to nine guns and the narcotics they were originally after, according to a statement Monday from the Camden County Prosecutors Office.

Police charged Don Lee Wheeler, 40, of Day Avenue, with 11 counts, including maintaining a fortified premises, weapons and drug distribution charges. Another person who lived at the home, Jemma Love, 30, was charged with drug possession, according to the prosecutors office.

Police were searching the home for narcotics Saturday as part of an investigation involving suspected drug sales. When detectives entered a bedroom in the home, they found the live pipe bomb and materials that could be used to make more, the prosecutors office said.

Residents in the area were evacuated as the Camden County Sheriffs Departments Bomb Squad was called and responded to remove the device and the explosive materials, the office said. They have been safely destroyed, a spokeswoman said.

Detectives also found five rifles, four handguns, crystal methamphetamine, heroin and an undisclosed amount of cash, according to the prosecutors office.

POLICE ACTIVITY, DAY AVENUE. Please avoid Day Avenue off of the White Horse Pike. Will update with further information as it is received. Posted by Berlin Police Department on Friday, April 5, 2019

The raid was carried out by the prosecutors Suburban Narcotics Task Force, Berlin Borough police, and the Lower Camden County Regional Special Response Team.

Wheeler was charged with possession of an improvised explosive device, maintaining a fortified premises, receiving stolen property, drug possession, two counts of drug possession with intent to distribute, three counts of handgun possession, and three counts of weapon possession during a drug offense, according to the prosecutors office.

He was arrested and is being held in the Camden County jail. The prosecutors office plans to ask a judge to keep him jailed until his trial.

Love was released after being charged with the drug offense via summons.

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Multiple agencies are looking for a man who robbed a bank at gunpoint in Haddonfield Saturday.

Haddonfield Police said a man walked into the Republic Bank on Kings Highway East at 5:52 p.m. Saturday. While showing a handgun, the man went to a teller and demanded money. The teller obliged and the man left the bank with an undetermined amount of money.

Police describe the suspect as a black male wearing a black burqa-like garment, black pants, and boots. He also was allegedly carrying a brown bag.

Haddonfield Police, along with the Camden County Prosecutors Office and the FBI are conducting the investigation.

Police are still searching for the suspect. Anyone who has any information on the Haddonfield robbery is asked to contact Camden County Prosecutors Office Detective Dennis Convery at (856) 225-8400 or Haddonfield Borough Police Department Detective Sergeant Danielle Mueller at (856) 429-4700 ext. 252

Chris Franklin can be reached at cfranklin@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @cfranklinnews or on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us.nj.com/tips
UPDATE: All lanes are open.

A tanker truck fire on the Atlantic City Expressway is causing delays and detours on Monday morning.

It took place around 1:30 a.m. in Winslow Township, according to 6abc.com and 511nj.org, the state department of transportations traffic website. All lanes of the Expressway remain closed in both directions from east of exit 31 (Route 73) to west of exit 33 as of 6:25 a.m.

That crash is also causing traffic jams on Route 54 north in Hammonton in the area of the Atlantic City Expressway.

State Police say it started when the truck blew a tire and as the driver pulled over, friction caused sparks which ignited the tanker. The driver was not seriously hurt.

Firefighters are applying foam to the tanker.

Quick attack 3, Dry Chem 3 And 301 responded and operated as part of the Camden County Foam Task Force early this... Posted by Bellmawr Fire Department on Monday, April 8, 2019

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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A New Jersey woman admitted Friday that she called in two bomb threats that forced evacuations at the federal courthouse in Camden and the Hughes Justice Complex in Trenton in January 2018 because she was frustrated with the progress civil lawsuit she had pending in federal court, authorities said.

Amdije Toska, 40, of Paterson, faces up to five years and a fine of up to $250,000 for the hoax bomb threats.

Toska was involved in civil litigation with the New Jersey State Police since May 2014, and the case was closed November 2018.

The case was still pending on Jan. 12, 2018 when Toska called the federal courthouse in Camden claiming there was a bomb in the building, officials said. By then, the court clerk was familiar with her voice as Toska had called so frequently that a judge issued an order directing Toska to cease communication with the office, authorities said.

She called the federal courthouse again that day and said, Theres a bomb in the building, run. Bomb sniffing dogs from the Camden County Police, U.S. Park Service and Camden County Sheriffs Office responded to the call, authorities said.

Toska made another bomb threat in later that afternoon, officials said. The employee who answered asked why she kept calling in the threats and Toska replied, The judge is torturing me, so I am torturing you, an eye for an eye, authorities said.

She also called the Hughes Justice Complex in Trenton that morning claiming there was a bomb and forcing an evacuation of the complex, which houses the state Supreme Court and other legal offices, officials said.

Toska took to Facebook and Twitter to admit that she was so fed up with the court system, she made several bomb threats that day, authorities said.

I just called Doj in DC, Camden courts and Njtpd lawyer and told them theres a bomb in the building then I hung upThere is no bomb but I will continue to scare them until I am heardI want JUSTICE DAMMIT, a Twitter profile believed to belong to Toska posted, authorities said.

Im not gonna stop calling the courts/doj/or njt lawyer and telling them theres a bomb in the building. I will make them suffer by getting them scared, another reply to her alleged tweet stated.

Sentencing has been scheduled for July 18.

Sophie Nieto-Munoz may be reached at snietomunoz@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her at @snietomunoz. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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Jefferson Washington Township Hospital -- home to the only Ronald McDonald Family Room located within an emergency department waiting area -- celebrated the 15th anniversary of the respite space for families with children needing medical treatment on Wednesday, April 3.

Ronald McDonald House of Southern New Jersey volunteers who staff the area aim to uplift and comfort families with child-friendly video games and television, as well as free snacks, beverages and childrens books. There are currently 250 Ronald McDonald Family Rooms in the world and 138 in the U.S.; 11 are in South Jersey, which are managed by RMHSNJ, based in Camden.

Catherine Durante of Turnersville has been a volunteer at the Washington Township family room since its April 1, 2004, opening at then-Kennedy University Hospital; she was honored at the event before her family  who has been a strong RMHSNJ supporter and was instrumental in the family rooms founding.

Nearly 9,500 pediatric patients were seen in the Jefferson Washington Township Emergency Department in 2018.
A combat veteran facing jail time after two run-ins with the law does not qualify for diversionary programs that would spare him from prosecution, a Superior Court judge has determined.

Cumberland County resident Mark E. Elwell, who served with the U.S. Marines in Afghanistan, applied for the pre-trial intervention (PTI) program following his 2017 arrest for punching a state trooper.

While prosecutors supported his bid for a diversionary program after that incident, his arrest last year on a gun charge scuttled that plan.

Prosecutors rejected his application for PTI and a special diversionary program for veterans, saying the programs werent equipped to handle someone with Elwells needs and were intended for defendants with lower-level offenses.

The veteran challenged that decision and appeared before Superior Court Judge Michael J. Silvanio on Friday.

Elwell, who had received outpatient services from the Veterans Administration since 2012 but was denied in-patient care, was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after he was sent to court-ordered in-patient treatment following his second arrest.

He was also diagnosed with anxiety disorder and alcohol use disorder and was given a 100 percent disability rating for PTSD and physical injuries resulting from his military service.

Defense attorney Joe Corbi said the VA dropped the ball on not treating Elwell for PTSD sooner and argued that his two encounters with the law were the result of mental health issues related to his combat experiences.

Elwell completed in-patient treatment last year, continues receiving out-patient care and has been rebuilding his life, Corbi said. Hes going to school, rents an apartment and shares joint custody of his two children, which includes unsupervised overnight visitation.

He served with the U.S. Marines in Afghanistan from 2009 to 2012 and saw combat as a machine gunner during Operation Enduring Freedom. He returned home after receiving an honorable discharge.

In his first encounter with police, Elwell had been drinking and watching a move about the Afghanistan war when his experiences came flooding back in 2017, Corbi said. He found his shotgun and the shells his wife had hidden and fired the weapon outdoors. He surrendered the gun when police arrived, but punched a trooper as he was being placed in an ambulance because he feared being hospitalized for mental health issues could cost him his job as a federal corrections officer, Corbi said.

In the second incident, in March of last year, Elwell had been drinking again and argued with his wife before driving to his parents house, where he retrieved a handgun. When he returned home, his wife noticed he had the gun strapped to his thigh. Family members convinced him to give up the weapon and his wife obtained a temporary restraining order.

Elwell has shown suicidal tendencies, but didnt threaten anyone else in either incident, Corbi said, adding that he never pointed a weapon at anyone.

He was indicted in both criminal cases  aggravated assault for the first incident and unlawful possession of a firearm for the second  and prosecutors are offering a plea deal of five years in prison with the requirement that he serve a minimum of one year behind bars, according to his attorney.

Elwell doesnt belong in prison, Corbi said, arguing that a conviction and prison sentence will hamper the progress he has made. He also noted that Elwell had no prior criminal record.

Hes a threat to himself, not his family. Hes crying out for help, judge, in these instances, Corbi said in court Friday. All hes asking for is the help that the VA didnt give him but is finally giving him now. If he pursues therapy in the VA, hell be rehabilitated and will not be a further burden to the criminal justice system.

Corbi asked the judge to find that Cumberland County Prosecutor Jennifer Webb-McRae abused her discretion by not granting PTI. He argued that the office didnt speak with anyone at the VA about Elwells diagnosis or ongoing progress and didnt consult with the victims in either incident  the trooper and his wife  about the prospect of prison time.

They werent asked about whether they wanted to see him in jail, Corbi said. They both indicated, from what I understand, that he needs help.

In the second denial of PTI for Elwell, Assistant Prosecutor Shari-Ann Sasu described it as a low-level supervisory intervention program thats not equipped to monitor Elwells needs.

The office also noted that state statute bars admission to the program if the crime is a first- or second-degree offense and if it involved violence or the threat of violence. Elwells gun charge is a second-degree offense.

In addition, Sasu told the judge Friday that nothing in the record supports the notion that PTSD was the cause of Elwells actions in both incidents.

Nothing in his submissions has actually developed that argument, she said. Theres nothing from a doctor or a counselor saying this instance with the trooper, this instance with the domestic at the house, were actually completely the result of post traumatic stress disorder. We know that hes been diagnosed with this, but we have no indication one way or the other that these two separate events actually were the result of the disorder or that he was drinking or some other reason.

In rendering his decision, Silvanio noted the progress he has seen since Elwells first court appearance.

I obviously give Mr. Elwell a lot of credit for doing what he needed to do to get himself back to where he is today, Silvanio said. Im sure its not an easy journey. Its a testament to his character and the person he is that hes been able to come this far and get to where he is today.

The decision I make has to be predicated on the law, not how I feel personally about Mr. Elwell.

Silvanio found the prosecutor acted within her authority.

PTI is a prosecutorial function, Silvanio said. Its a function that the court can only disturb if the court is clearly convinced that the prosecutor has grossly and patently abused her discretion.

While he didnt find any abuse of discretion and confirmed the PTI denial, he left open the possibility that Elwell could avoid prison.

Thats not to say that I believe Mr. Elwell should be placed in jail or prison for this offense, the judge said. I believe there are potential resolutions that can be had that fall short of that.

Elwell is scheduled to return to court May 6 for a pre-trial conference.

Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattGraySJT. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us: nj.com/tips.

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Former Real Housewives of New Jersey star Jacqueline Laurita and her husband, Christopher, have once again put their Bergen County mansion on the market, according to its Zillow listing.

The 5,674-square-foot Franklin Lakes home, which has been on and off the market since 2014 and is the subject of ongoing foreclosure litigation, is now listed for $1.95 million, nearly $1 million less than its original list price when it first hit the market in 2014, according to Zillow.

Christopher Laurita purchased the home in 2001 for slightly more than $1.7 million, according to property records.

Located on nearly 2 acres, the custom-built home opens up to a two-story foyer and a library. The first floor has a great room that features custom molding, a fireplace, and a wet bar, as well as a gourmet kitchen that has high-end appliances, a wine fridge and a large walk-in pantry.

The home has six bedrooms and six bathrooms. The large master suite has two walk-in closets and a Jacuzzi tub.

Jacqueline Laurita's Franklin Lakes home is back on the market.Google Maps

Other highlights of the home include: a finished basement that has a playroom, a wine cellar/card room, an office and a full bathroom, and outside, there are limestone walkways and a large deck.

The home was last assessed for nearly $2.2 million, and property taxes were $35,737 in 2018, according to Zillow.

According to previous reporting by NJ Advance Media, the couple talked on the show about how they had financial problems due to their sons therapy for autism when they first listed the home for sale in 2014.

In 2015, their lenders initiated foreclosure proceedings, but in June 2016, the foreclosure was dismissed.

But their financial issues didnt end there. In July 2017, M&T Bank and Hudson City Savings Bank filed notice of foreclosure with the Superior Court in Bergen County, according to online court documents. The case is still active.

Jacqueline Laurita first appeared on the show in 2009 before briefly leaving in 2014. She then came back to the cast full-time for season seven of the show.

In March 2017, Bravo announced Laurita would not be coming back to the show as a full-time housewife.

Joe Atmonavage may be reached at jatmonavage@njadvancemedia.com. Follow on Twitter @monavage. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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A plate of aluminum or other plates with internal piping. It is one of the most common liquid cooling solutions. This direct contact allows the heat to be efficiently conducted. Cold Plate offers many advantages over forced air cooled heat sinks such as performance, noise level and reliability.

For Sample Copy of this Report at https://www.orianresearch.com/request-sample/898034

Scope of the Report:

This report focuses on the Cold Plate in global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.

China is the world\'s largest exporting country. Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia and the United States need to import cold plate from China. In addition, many companies set up production bases in China. At the same time, China can also produce OEM cold plate. It should be noted that some of Aavid\'s products come from China or India (OEM form).

Cold Plate Industry 2019 Market Research Report is spread across 137 pages and provides exclusive vital statistics, data, information, trends and competitive landscape details in this niche sector.

Inquire more or share questions if any before the purchase on report https://www.orianresearch.com/enquiry-before-buying/898034

Report Covers Market Segment by Manufacturers:

Aavid

Lytron

Asia Vital Components

Wakefield-Vette

AMS Technologies

Wolverine Tube

Market Segment by Type, covers:

Formed tube Cold Plate

Deep drilled Cold Plate

Machined channel Cold Plates

Pocketed folded-fin Cold Plates

Market Segment by Applications, can be divided into:

High Power Electronic Equipment

Laser Device

Power Conversion Equipment

Medical Equipment

Defence and Aerospace

Order Copy Cold Plate Market of this Report @ https://www.orianresearch.com/checkout/898034

There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Cold Plate market.

Chapter 1: Describe Cold Plate Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, and market driving force.

Chapter 2: Analyze the top manufacturers of Cold Plate Tablet, with sales, revenue, and price of Cold Plate Tablet, in 2015 and 2022.

Chapter 3: Display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2015 and 2022.

Chapter 4: Show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Cold Plate Tablet, for each region, from 2011 to 2022.

Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9: Analyze and talked about the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions.

Chapter 10 and 11: Show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2011 to 2022.

Chapter 12: In Chapter Eleven Cold Plate market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2012 to 2022.

Chapter 13, 14 and 15: Describe Cold Plate sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, appendix and data source.

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Research and analysis is one of the most comprehensive collections of market intelligence reports on the World Wide Web. We are constantly updating our repository so as to provide our clients with the most complete and current database of expert insights on global industries, companies, and products. We specialize in custom research in situations where our syndicate research offerings do not meet the specific requirements of our clients.

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The first day of spring (March 20) brought free Italian ice at Ritas and free cones at Dairy Queen. But the freebies dont stop there.

There is even more ice cream on the horizon, and you wont have to pay a penny.

Ben & Jerrys is hosting its annual Free Cone Day on Tuesday, April 9, 2019.

Its a tradition that stretches back to 1979, when Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the chains founders, celebrated the one-year anniversary of their first shop, which they opened in 1978 in a renovated gas station in Burlington, Vermont.

In 2000, Greenfield and Cohen sold the company to Unilever, but the Free Cone Day tradition has continued.

How to get your free cone

From noon to 8 p.m., customers can get a free small cone (or cup) of an ice cream flavor of their choice (while those flavors last). Ben & Jerrys invites customers to RSVP to Free Cone Day on its Facebook event page (though this is obviously not required to get your ice cream).

You may have to wait in line once you get there, so you may also want to think of a few different flavors as your second, third and fourth choices.

#FREECONEDAY is coming April 9th! So close you can almost taste the FREE ice cream. Learn more and RSVP here: https://t.co/YsrXhlwCOD  Ben & Jerry's (@benandjerrys) March 13, 2019

What flavors are available?

What are the flavors at Ben & Jerrys? You can search all of them here.

The top 10 flavors at the Ben & Jerrys in 2018 were:

1. Half Baked

2. Cherry Garcia

3. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

4. Chocolate Fudge Brownie

5. The Tonight Dough (starring Jimmy Fallon)

6. Phish Food

7. Stephen Colberts Americone Dream

8. Strawberry Cheesecake

9. Chunky Monkey

10. Peanut Butter Cup

In 2017, Ben & Jerrys introduced non-dairy, vegan flavors made with almond milk, like Coconut Seven Layer Bar, Caramel Almond Brittle and Cherry Garcia, later adding Chocolate Caramel Cluster, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Chocolate Fudge Brownie, Peanut Butter Half Baked, Chunky Monkey, P.B. & Cookies, Coffee Caramel Fudge and Cinnamon Buns.

Pecan Resist, a flavor introduced in 2018 (chocolate ice cream with white and dark fudge chunks, walnuts, pecans and fudge-covered almonds), carries a message of resistance to the Trump administration.

We've come a long way since the very first #FreeConeDay in 1979. Check out the history of the Ben & Jerry's-est day of the year: https://t.co/qQfIcW5rM3 pic.twitter.com/hxfAWDHn1r  Ben & Jerry's (@benandjerrys) March 11, 2019

Where is Ben & Jerrys?

Not sure where your nearest Ben & Jerrys is? Just enter your address or ZIP code in this store finder, or consult the list of eight New Jersey Ben & Jerrys locations below.

Borgata, One Borgata Way in Atlantic City; 609-317-8206

Beach Haven, 600 N. Bay Avenue; 609-492-6300

Cape May, 414 Washington St.; 609-884-3040

Englewood, 46 E. Palisade Ave; 201-569-3322

Hoboken, 405 Washington St.; 201-792-1966

Newark Airport, 3 Brewster Road, Terminal A; 973-623-0402

Ridgewood, 104-106 Franklin Ave.; 201-689-1122

Riverwalk, 22 Riverwalk Place, West New York; 201-867-1111

Have a tip? Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook.

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Investigators in Gloucester County are looking for a killer and a family is seeking closure more than a year after their loved one was shot to death.

Steve M. Bucher was found in his Monroe Township home on Jan. 10, 2018. Two acquaintances had stopped by to check on him and made the grim discovery.

The case was never solved and investigators are again reaching out to the public in a renewed effort, aided by a reward and some prominently placed billboards.

The 56-year-old victim kept to himself, neighbors said. He lived on a cul-de-sac in the Timber Lakes community in Williamstown, where he converted his home into rental units and lived in a separate house on the property.

Investigators canvassed the area after the killing, interviewing Buchers renters, neighbors and even scouring the woods around the neighborhood.

They also offered a $5,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the killer.

Nothing came of those efforts.

Now, a traditional billboard featuring a photo of Bucher and information about the reward has gone up in the area of Route 322 and Main Street in Williamstown. Two electronic billboards will also spread the message to the wider South Jersey community.

The billboards, provided by Clear Channel and Aducat Outdoor Advertising at a reduced cost, feature a phone number where you can call with any tips: 856-307-7180.

As always, were looking for any type of information, any types of leads no matter how small it may be, said Detective Greg Malesich, of the Gloucester County Prosecutors Office.

Investigators dont want to reveal much about the crime itself, such as where and how many times Bucher was shot, what kind of gun may have been used, or if they believe he was killed in a robbery.

While Bucher has been described as someone who generally kept to himself, he left family behind.

He does have family out there looking for closure, Malesich said. Were doing everything we can to help them. Its a difficult case.

Investigators hope these billboards will prompt someone to step forward with information about the 2018 killing of Steve Bucher in Monroe Township, Gloucester County. (Gloucester County Prosecutors Office)

Malesich stressed that someone may know something they believe to be insignificant that could actually help crack the case.

He recalled the 2016 murder of Sylvester Buttons Combs Jr. in Swedesboro. The homeless man was beaten to death in a trailer at an abandoned business. Malesich led that investigation and said they had little to go on until someone offered what they thought was a throw-away piece of information.

That tip quickly led to an arrest and the killer was ultimately sentenced to 28 years in prison.

Anyone with information about Buchers killing can contact Malesich at 856-384-5626 or Monroe Police Detective Kristyn Armstrong at 856-728-9800, ext. 577.

Anonymous tips may be submitted via email to tips@co.gloucester.nj.us, or via this website.

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UPDATE: Authorities reported Tuesday morning that Haafs main parachute was recovered from a wooded area about a mile from the spot where he landed.

A skydiver killed in a jump accident on Sunday tried to use his reserve parachute after his main one failed, investigators reported Monday.

Paul Haaf Jr., 54, was a beloved member of the South Jersey skydiving community and mentor to others in the sport, a friend recalled a day after his death.

Haaf jumped from a plane that departed Skydive Cross Keys in Monroe Township, Gloucester County, around 5 p.m. on Sunday. He landed about a mile from the airport in a residential neighborhood and was declared dead at the scene.

Trouble began when he tried to deploy his main parachute, explained Gloucester County Prosecutors Office Chief of Detectives Tom Gilbert.

Something went wrong with the main parachute and he disconnected himself from it, Gilbert said.

It was evident early on that he had run into trouble, Gilbert said. We know that he made an effort to deploy his reserve chute.

Gilbert confirmed Haafs parachutes did not get tangled up with the other jumpers, who all landed safely.

Authorities are still looking for the main parachute so they can examine it for clues about what went wrong. The reserve chute was found with Haafs body.

Were trying to do the best we can with our partners to figure out what happened, Gilbert said.

The prosecutors office, Monroe Township Police Department and Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the accident.

The 54-year-old was a skydiving veteran, with more than 1,200 jumps under his belt, authorities said.

Paul was well-loved and a well-known, very active member in our skydiving community, confirmed friend Rick Roessner.

Roessner, who recently moved to California, met Haaf through skydiving about eight years ago, he said.

Haaf taught him how to skydive using a wingsuit, Roessner recalled.

He taught a few people to wingsuit and that was his main passion and hobby, he said, though Haaf wasnt using one on Sunday.

Roessner also recalled Haafs love of The Dude, the iconic character played by Jeff Bridges in the classic film The Big Lebowski.

Paul was one of the dudeist dudes ever, he said.

Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattGraySJT. 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.
Service interruptions no consideration

To: PATH Management

As a regular rider on the PATH system for the past 18 years I am continuously amazed at the ineptitude and the total lack of consideration toward PATH riders by those who run the system.

Case in point, yesterday (Sunday, 3/24/2019) I wanted to take my usual trip into Manhattan and was greeted by a message at the Journal Square PATH station stating there was no direct service to 33rd Street between the hours of 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. In addition, there was no direct service all weekend to the World Trade Center -- a double whammy. We were forced to take an Exchange Place bound train and change at Grove Street for a 33rd Street train which included the still ridiculous and timewasting stop in Hoboken. When we arrived at the Grove Street station it was a chaotic mess! The Grove Street station is just no good as a transfer point.

I opted for the train to Exchange Place to try PATHs replacement ferry service to Brookfield Place in downtown Manhattan. Passengers are forced to walk to an open-air dock and wait in line over a block away from the ferry itself. This must be a real joy when its pouring rain or bitterly cold. Then if the ferry is full before a passenger boards, they must wait another 15 minutes for the next one.

When departing the ferry, passengers must walk over a quarter of a mile to the World Trade Center and subways. I pity the poor riders with mobility issues or who are physically handicapped.

I left Journal Square at 3:58 p.m. and arrived at World Trade Center at 5:02 p.m. This trip normally takes 15-20 minutes.

And, before I forget, Hoboken riders received extra service during this time to and from 33rd Street. Why the extra service for a stop with much less traffic than Journal Square?

Finally, why must both World Trade Center tunnels be closed? Why not work on one tube at a time as youve done so many times in the past? And why must PATH riders go along with last-minute service disruptions with no public hearings, no public input, and no government oversight? There seems to be no accountability at PATH and Jersey City riders are taking the brunt of all these disruptions. Its not right. We all pay the same fare.

Kevin Speitel, Jersey City

Jersey City still a tale of 2 cities

Recently, there was a murder in Lincoln Park (Ward B) and it was immediately followed up with a community meeting by city, county, and state elected officials.

When three African American teens were murdered last year back to back each month in Greenville and Bergen Lafayette, residents didnt receive the same response.

We constantly talk about the tale of two cities and how its better, but the reality is the south side is continuing to be left behind.

While I welcome change in Jersey City especially with economic development, we are forgetting about the heart and soul of our city.

Demetrius Terry, Jersey City

Submit letters to the editor and guest columns at jjletters@jjournal.com
JERSEY CITY  Uber and Lyft are pushing back on new regulations for ride-hailing services proposed by Jersey City.

The city has asked the City Council this week to introduce a measure that would require all ride-hailing cars display illuminated company logos. The ordinance was inspired by the case of Samantha Josephson, a New Jersey native kidnapped and killed in South Carolina in March after she entered a car she thought was her Uber ride.

Josephsons murder has Uber and Lyft on the defensive, arguing that existing safety measures like providing a drivers car make and model and license plate number to customers are intended to prevent someone from getting in the wrong car. Jersey Citys proposal, the companies argue, could make matters worse.

In a statement, an Uber spokesman said the proposed Jersey City requirements "may actually heighten the risk of imposter drivers. If riders start looking for logos on the cars instead of checking the app, he said, there is more opportunity for someone unauthorized to pose as a driver. A Lyft spokeswoman, meanwhile, said a less effective and confusing patchwork system could result from municipalities drafting their own ride-hailing regulations rather than the state writing them.

Jersey Citys proposal envisions stiffer requirements of ride-hail drivers than those in a law enacted by the state in 2017. The statewide law requires that every ride-hail driver put an identifying marker on the car during their shift. Jersey Citys measure would require a consistent and distinctive Trade Dress Beacon on every cars dashboard or windshield, one that is visible from 50 feet away, no larger than 8 inches tall by 8 inches wide and illuminated at all times.

Jersey Citys measure would also require ride-hailing services to provide the names and other information about all their local drivers to the citys commerce division.

City spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione said ride-hail companies are either not following New Jerseys law or doing the bare minimum.

I would suspect that they view the small stickers they provide drivers as sufficient. We view it differently, she said. Clearly something needs to be done on an administrative level to hold these companies accountable."

A Lyft spokeswoman noted that the company has an optional feature called Lyft Amp that allows a driver to use a lit-up display that changes color matching with one on the passengers app, helping them identify the ride.

The New Jersey law represents a potential roadblock for Jersey Citys plan. The law puts the regulation of ride-hail services in the hands of the state, not its municipalities. A spokesman for the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission declined to comment on Jersey Citys measure.

Until now, ride-share regulations have come from the state," Mayor Steve Fulop said in a statement. Were taking charge of this issue locally, instead of waiting for others to act.

Fulop in early 2018 proposed a local Uber/Lyft tax to pay for traffic calming and local arts and tourism, but backed off after learning the New Jersey bill bans municipalities from enacting their own taxes aimed at ride-hail services.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
A large water main break has forced the officials in Sayreville to close the districts middle school and high school on Monday.

The water main burst early Monday on Washington Road in front of Sayreville Middle School.

Sayrevilles five elementary schools are open, though officials warn that buses will likely be later as Washington Road is closed between Ernston and Deerfield Roads.

The water main break took place around 12:30 a.m. according to Sayreville police.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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The New Jersey teen mom accused of suffocating her newborn son moments after giving birth faces a court appearance next week along with her boyfriend, who is charged with helping to dispose the body in a dumpster, to determine if they will remained jailed pending trial.

Jada M. McClain, 18, of Neptune, and Quaimere Mohammed, 19, of Asbury Park are being held at the Monmouth County jail. McClaine is charged with first-degree murder and second-degree disturbing or desecrating the remains of her son. Mohommed is also charged with disturbing remains, but was not implicated in the killing of the newborn.

McClain, a student at Neptune High School, told detectives she had been dating Mohammed when she discovered she was pregnant sometime in July 2018, authorities said. At that time, she decided to hide her pregnancy from her parents, court documents show.

McClain told police that she and Mohammed talked about what they would do after the child was born and they decided that she would kill the baby after giving birth, according to affidavit of probably cause filed by authorities.

Mohammed said they have to do whats best for them, authorities said.

McClain told investigators that she gave birth around 4 a.m. on March 29 while inside the bathroom of her mothers home in Neptune Township, authorities said. She delivered the child while seated on the toilet, but prevented the baby from falling into the water, authorities said.

After cleaning herself and the baby, McClain said she took him to her bedroom, placed him on her bed and pressed on the childs chest to stop him from breathing, authorities, said. She told police that prior to doing this, she knew the baby was breathing and that her intention was to stop her baby from breathing," authorities said.

McClain called Mohammed two hours later to tell him she had given birth, authorities said. She wrapped the baby in a blanket, placed him a bag, and put him into the backseat of her car, authorities said.

McClain then picked up Mohammed from his home and drove to the ocean, where they sat for an hour, authorities said. They then went back to Mohammeds home and sat in the car for another hour, the authorities said. The couple then pulled into the parking lot of the Washington Village apartment complex in Asbury Park, where Mohammed got out the car and put the babys remains into a trash dumpster, authorities said.

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At least 13,000 children in New Jersey are missing vaccines that could protect them from childhood illnesses, according to data from the New Jersey Department of Health.

Child vaccination has come under increasing scrutiny in recent weeks as outbreaks of the measles, a disease long-absent from society, have become more frequent. The most recent outbreak in New Jersey has climbed to 13 cases, according to health officials.

But far more schools are at risk of becoming the next place where children get sick from vaccine-preventable diseases.

At least 490 New Jersey schools have immunization rates below the required level to protect unvaccinated children attending them. Within those, a few dozen schools are pockets of very low compliance rates, making them potential hubs of infection if the measles outbreaks continue.

The reason, advocates say, is the small but increasing frequency of anti-vaccine beliefs within some local communities. Like measles itself, the movement just takes on a life of its own, said Michael Weinstein, director of the New Jersey Immunization Network, which educates the public about vaccine safety.

Researchers worry when the vaccination rate drops below whats called the herd immunity level, the point where vaccinated kids are so common, and unvaccinated children so few, that its hard for a disease to spread among the unvaccinated children.

If most people are pro-vaccine and one person is anti-vaccine, that childs exposure is quite low, said Rupali Limaye, associate director of the Institute of Vaccine Safety at Johns Hopkins University.

Statewide, 95 percent of children meet the full requirements for immunization for their grade, above the limit most diseases require for herd immunity. On a county level, Warren county is the lowest, with 92.7 percent meeting vaccine requirements.

Parents can seek different exemptions to avoid meeting those requirements. The number of parents seeking medical exemptions  for conditions that make the childs immune system too poor to handle vaccines  was about the same in 2017-2018 as in previous years. The number of religious exemptions, on the other hand, has spiked from 1.7 percent to 2.4 percent statewide, and reaches even higher in certain schools.

Those instances where families are using the philosophical approach but get the religious exemption are hard to nail down, Weinstein said.

Dr. Puthenmadam Radhakrishnan, a pediatrician who works in Ewing and Trenton, said access to vaccines is another problem for low-income families. The state provides Medicaid for children, but not all providers accept it, he said.

Hes seen the results of poor vaccination firsthand when flu season hits. It starts off slowly, then suddenly 20 to 30 percent of the school is out, said Radhakrishnan, who also works with NJIN through its partner, the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Last year, the state legislature considered eliminating the religious exemption but faced backlash from religious and anti-vaccine groups. Parents contended that it removed their freedom to choose for their children.

But Limaye pointed out many anti-vaccine parents are basing their decisions on misinformation about the dangers of vaccines. They overestimate the number of chemicals in the ingredients, overestimate how often adverse reactions happen, and underestimate how early their child needs to start getting vaccines to be protected by the time they get to school.

We need to focus on the people who have concerns and not be dismissive of them, she said. We need to use accessible ways to talk about the science.

Dr. Radhakrishnan urged parents who were struggling to get their children vaccinated to look into low-cost or free programs, like Vaccines for Children. He said outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases are the worst thing that we see. This is what pediatricians are trying to provide.

The state provided school-level vaccination data in response to a records request. However, there are a few things parents should know before they take a look. The schools reported immunization rates for Pre-K, Kindergarten, 1st grade, and 6th grades, the years that students have to hit certain requirements, so we cant say what the numbers are for other grades.

These numbers are self-reported by schools and not verified by the state. We eliminated schools where the numbers didnt add up, but we cant guarantee these schools are accurate, either.

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Erin Petenko may be reached at epetenko@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @EPetenko. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Chris Christie did not eat the buffalo tongue.

He did not nibble the rabbit legs, sample the Canada goose or stomach any of the myriad venison dishes served from buffet platters.

This was an enormous feast of wild game  tables upon tables of exotic cuisine hosted by the New Jersey Outdoor Alliance  and the former New Jersey governor would try none of it.

Yet no spirits were dampened. Christie was the organizations guest of honor, after all  he visited the Black Forest Inn in Stanhope Sunday night largely to shake hands, snap selfies and sign books before accepting the sportsmens advocacy groups annual Conservation Leadership Award.

It was the groups way of thanking Christie for pushing policies that expanded fishing and hunting access throughout New Jersey and off the Jersey Shore.

The ovation Christie received was uproarious enough to make one forget about how the polarizing pol left office in 2018: as a historically unpopular governor. For about 30 minutes, the Republican spoke with swagger, declaring his Democratic successor Phil Murphy a toastmaster of a governor while chiding him for not being a real New Jerseyan.

We cant elect someone thats not one of us. Weve done it twice now, Christie said, comparing Murphy, who was born and raised in Massachusetts, to former Gov. Jon Corzine, who was born in Illinois. You think we wouldve learned the first time (with Corzine). And now weve got (Murphy), who sleeps here. Now were seeing what its like when he actually has to live here. (He) cant escape to Manhattan everyday, cant escape to go be the ambassador to Germany. Hes got to actually live here now, and spend 24 hours a day here.

Christie spent some time stumping for the GOP as well, laying out the road map for Republicans to take back Drumthwacket, and then he fled before the main courses of the night were served.

He was off to enjoy a spaghetti dinner with his kids, he said.

I stuck around for the tongue and deer meat.

Guests at the New Jersey Outdoor Alliance's 2019 wild game dinner sample hors d'oeurves before former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is honored at the Black Forest Inn in Stanhope, New Jersey on April 7, 2019 (Photo by JD Bryden | Courtesy of NJOA)(Photo by JD Bryden/Courtesy of NJOA)

I shoveled into my mouth handfuls of velvety venison mousse hors doeurves, smoked trout and venison-wrapped honeydew as I rubbed elbows with those who had paid $100 to dine on woods food and watch Christie talk. Everyone I spoke to praised him as a champion of hunters and anglers during his time in office.

He turned out to be a great investment, Ed Markowski, the NJOAs president, said of his organizations long-time support of Christie. Ive got to say, I love the guy. Hes argumentative, he doesnt mince words, but hes an honest man.

It was a packed house inside the timber-framed restaurant that looked like it was built in Bavaria. Organizers expected close to 200 people to attend, with about $10,000 being raised for the NJOA. Raffle tickets for a crossbow  complete with arrows and a quiver  were sold as people mingled before the main event (I did not enter the raffle; Ill just ask for a crossbow for Christmas).

It felt like the whole restaurant knew Christie had arrived when he opened the door. Supporters rushed to line up and shake his hand as he slowly moved from the lobby, through the bar and into the dining room where Republican state lawmakers and Scott Bach  the only member of the National Rifle Associations board of directors from New Jersey  waited.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie accepts the New Jersey Outdoor Alliance's 2019 Conservation Leadership Award at the group's annual game dinner at the Black Forest Inn in Stanhope, New Jersey on April 7, 2019 (Photo by JD Bryden | Courtesy of NJOA)Photo by JD Bryden/Courtesy of NJOA

When the time came to hand out the award, NJOA legislative director Tom Connors laid out why Christie was being honored. It wasnt just for bringing back the bear hunt, Connors said.

The Christie administration struck a compromise between recreational and commercial fishermen that opened access to offshore reefs  that was a big win for sport anglers who were overjoyed to again be allowed to fish the heavily populated habitat that had been dominated by commercial traps for years.

Under Christie, the state also took steps to help grow hunting and fishing by creating apprentice licenses for young sportsmen and implementing the youth-focused Hooked On Fishing  Not On Drugs program.

Governor Christie has shouldered a responsibility of conservation stewardship as well as his unwavering commitment to New Jerseys sportsmen and women, Connors said.

But Christie barely talked about any of that before focusing his speech on his successor, though he did tell me afterward that he was particularly proud of bringing back the bear hunt.

Im not a hunter, Christie said. I had no real position on the bear hunt coming in. When I became a candidate, I got educated about the science. The science is that in a state like this, in a densely-populated state, its the most effective way to [manage bears]. And its worked.

I asked about parts of his environmental legacy that extended beyond hunting and fishing. During his time in office, Christie continuously cut the budget of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, a department with vast responsibilities that include the state regulation of fishing and hunting.

What I cut was bureaucratic permitting waste that, to me, wasnt making our state any better environmentally. We had more environmental settlements than any administration before us. We were tough on environmental issues, Christie said.

After Christie took off, I ate the buffalo tongue -- it was actually pretty pleasant taste-wise, but the texture of buffalo tastebuds on my own tastebuds was too much to handle. Then I had the perfectly cooked pheasant in mushroom sauce, and the rabbit leg that tasted sort of like chicken thigh.

And then the venison kielbasa on a bed of sauerkraut ... and then the tightly packed venison rouladen. A helpful hunter rolled me toward my car.

Chef Heiner Aichem, who was overjoyed to have the former governor in his restaurant, said he was a hunter himself and regularly held wild game dinners at Black Forest Inn, but few quite as extravagant as this.

Obviously, for Chris Christie, we upped it a little bit, Aichem said.

Too bad Christie didnt stick around to try any of it.

Michael Sol Warren may be reached at mwarren@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MSolDub. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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Youre in a hurry, counting the seconds until the Uber or Lyft car you called shows up. Finally, a car pulls up, you jump in and the driver pulls away.

But what if its the wrong vehicle? A 21-year-old Robbinsville woman was killed last week after mistakenly getting into a strangers car she thought was an Uber she was expecting in Columbia, South Carolina.

Its not hard to do, especially if youve called for a pick-up at a busy location. Ive done it, accidentally getting into a town car that stopped at a restaurant Id asked to be picked up at. It belonged to a ride share company Id never heard of. The only tip-off was the driver went in a completely different direction. Fortunately, the driver took us back to our starting location to collect the person who did call.

Heres how to keep it from happening to you and to be safe.

Start with a sign.

Its not the law, but most Uber and Lyft cars have small light up signs with a company logo, usually placed in the front or rear window or on the dashboard. A South Carolina lawmaker proposed a bill mandating signs be displayed after Samantha Josephsons death.

Check the app.

If your ride doesnt have a sign and the driver says its from one of those companies, check the information on the app first. Both the Uber and Lyft apps give you the name and photo of the driver, and the type and license of the vehicle that accepted the ride. Lyft goes a step further and provides a picture of the car. Check that information before getting in.

Because so many New York ride share vehicles work in New Jersey, reading the plate may be difficult in the dark. Thats because for-hire-vehicles from the city have taxi and limo commission (TLC) license plates that start with the letter T followed by a lot of numbers. One advantage of a TLC vehicle from New York is the driver has an ID card posted in the vehicle you can look for.

Whats your name?

Usually a ride share driver will greet you by name when you open the door. A good tip is to let them greet you by name first before identifying yourself or getting in the vehicle. Sit in the back seat, so there is space between you and the driver.

Tell your friends.

Uber has added a share status feature to their app so you can tell a friend or family member youre in a vehicle and on your way. A work around is to text a friend or family member that youre in transit.

Worst case scenario, if youre in the wrong car or are having a problem with the driver, be ready to dial 911. In fact, if a passenger feels theyre in a dangerous situation, Lyfts website recommends doing that.

Safety apps.

Theres a third party app for almost everything, including ride share safety. One is called SafeTrek, also known as Noonlight, which turns your smartphone in to a panic button. If you feel unsafe, push the button on the screen and hold it down. If youre in danger, release the button. If you dont enter a four digit ID number, the app will use GPS to notify police. To disable it, let go of the button and type in the ID number. The basic version is free, paid versions of the app range from $4.99 to $9.99, company officials said.

Another app called Kitestring uses text messages so a smartphone isnt needed. When activated, Kitestring sends you a text message. If you dont respond, the app contacts a designated emergency contact.

Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @commutinglarry. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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A Warren County priest admitted that he engaged is sexual acts with a teenage girl in the early 90s, just three months after the victim reported the abuse via the states clergy abuse hotline.

The Rev. Thomas P. Ganley, 63, of Phillipsburg, pleaded guilty to sexual assault before a superior court judge, the state Attorney Generals office announced Monday.

Ganley admitted that he abused the girl when she was 16 or 17 years old, during a time when he had supervisory authority over her" while he was a priest at Saint Cecelia Church in Woodbridge, according to a release from the state.

Ganley had been the head of the youth ministry for the parish at the time, the attorney generals office said.

He was assigned to Saint Philip & Saint James Church in Phillipsburg when he was arrested on Jan. 16, just two days after his victim called the states 24-hour Clergy Abuse Task Force Hotline to report the sexual abuse, authorities said.

Ganley was also a chaplain at Warren General Hospital at the time of his arrest, officials have said.

Under the plea agreement, the state has recommended that Ganley should be sentenced to four years in prison. He was scheduled to be sentenced on July 2.

Ganley will be required to register as a sex offender under Megans Law and will be prohibited from having any contact with the victim and will not be allowed to have any unsupervised contact with children under the age of 18, the attorney generals office said.

Our message today is that we will move swiftly and decisively to secure justice for survivors, said Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said. Two days after this victim called our hotline, Ganley was arrested  three months later, he pleaded guilty and faces prison."

This was the first sexual assault case brought by New Jerseys clergy abuse task force, which was started in September a Pennsylvania grand jury last year detailed decades of abuse by priests.

The hotline, 855-363-6548, was set up by the task force and has received 480 calls as of Monday, the state said.

We hope that this first guilty plea secured by the Task Force will encourage other victims who have suffered in silence for years or decades to come forward, former Acting Essex County Prosecutor Robert Laurino, who leads the Clergy Abuse Task Force, said in a release. Every caller who contacts our hotline can be assured that their case will be taken seriously, and that we will make every effort to hold their abuser accountable.

Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrisrsheldon Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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A Jersey Shore man was arrested Sunday on drug and child endangerment charges for allegedly selling heroin and other narcotics out of a Brick residence, Ocean County Prosecutors said Monday.

Prosecutors allege that Joseph Cafasso, 49, of Brick was distributing heroin, cocaine and Suboxone out of a residence while minor children were present. Authorities searched the home Sunday with a warrant and detectives seized about three and a half bricks of heroin.

Authorities located Cafasso driving near his home and pulled him over, and allegedly found him with $1,200 in cash. His passenger, Stacey Pio, 46, of Nutley, was allegedly found with $940 in cash and a large quantity of morphine pills.

The office did not elaborate on the house where they allege Cafasso was dealing drugs.

The Ocean County Prosecutors Office is committed to working with all local police departments to investigate and prosecute individuals engaged in the illegal distribution of illegal, and in many cases deadly, narcotics throughout the county, Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said in a statement Monday.

Cafasso was charged with multiple drug-related charges, and three counts of endangering the welfare of a child. He is being held in Ocean County Jail, pending a detention hearing.

His passenger, Pio, was charged with possession and intent to distribute morphine. She was released on a summons, pending a future court date.

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By Joshua Spivak

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 Madisons 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.

It's safe to say the electoral college is here to stay. But in accepting that, we shouldn't pretend as though the electoral college is part of some grand bargain that the founders enacted to balance the country. It's not. Instead, it's a relic of the 18th century that failed in some of its most important intended purposes.

Joshua Spivak is a senior fellow at the Hugh L. Carey Institute for Government Reform at Wagner College. He writes at the Recall Elections Blog.

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WASHINGTON  U.S. Sen. Cory Bookers presidential campaign released its first fundraising figures, saying its $5 million in donations exceeded its goal. But Booker trailed several rivals for the Democratic nomination.

Booker, D-N.J., announced the figures in an email to supporters in advance of the April 15 deadline for reporting fundraising figures to the Federal Election Commission.

This movement is strong, and getting stronger with new folks involved every day, Booker wrote. What were doing with these resources matters -- weve invested heavily in building our organizing team, especially in early states. In a crowded field like this, a strong ground game matters so much."

He said the campaign would report having more than $6.1 million in the bank entering April. He can transfer the $4 million sitting in his Senate campaign account to his presidential committee.

Bookers fundraising totals trailed the amounts reported by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont ($18 million), U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California ($12 million), former Rep. Beto ORourke of Texas ($9.1 million) and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg ($7 million).

The Booker campaign said that 82 percent of its contributors were first-time givers to him and the average online donation was $34. How much money Booker raised overall in large-dollar and small-dollar contributions wont be released until he files his first spending report at the Federal Election Commission by April 15.

Still, to encourage candidates to seek small-dollar contributions, the Democratic National Committee will open its presidential debates to those who raise money from 65,000 individual donors. including a minimum of 200 in at least 20 states.

Candidates also can qualify depending on their standing in opinion polls. Booker already has met that criteria.

Booker, like most other Democratic presidential candidates, has pledged not to accept money from corporate political action committees. But as NJ Advance Media reported, corporate PACs rarely donate to those running for president.

He also has said he would not accept donations from registered lobbyists nor from pharmaceutical company executives. Booker has received $430,086 for his Senate campaigns from employees of the drug industry, which has a major presence in New Jersey.

Booker raised $17 million for his 2013 special election and 2014 re-election campaign, including $20,800 from Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trumps daughter and son-in-law, who were living in New Jersey at the time.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.

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WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump will not release his income tax returns to Democrats, ever. No way, no how. That was the word from the White House on Sunday.

But a New Jersey congressman begs to differ.

U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, who has been fighting for two years to get Trumps tax returns released, said the president eventually will have to surrender them under federal law.

The point of the matter is we are working within the law as it exists, said Pascrell, D-9th Dist., a member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee. Were living up to our responsibilities. Were not going to stop until were successful.

The chairman of the committee, Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., asked the Internal Revenue Service last week for six years of Trumps personal and business tax returns, which he is entitled to under a 1924 federal law enacted in response to the Teapot Dome scandal.

But acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said the president will never surrender them to the Democrats.

They knew they are not going to get these taxes, Mulvaney said on "Fox News Sunday. 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. They know the terms under law by which the IRS can give them documents but a political hit job is not one of those reasons.

Neal said he was seeking the returns to see how the IRS ensured that the president and his businesses complied with the tax laws, and whether Trump was being truthful when he said his returns were being audited.

Pascrell, who has led the effort to get the returns, has said they would answer whether the president was financially beholden to Russia, and how he personally would benefit from the Republican tax bill he signed into law.

Trump turned over control of his businesses to his sons but kept ownership, an arrangement that the then-head of the Office of Government Ethics, Walter M. Shaub Jr., said did "not comport with the tradition of our Presidents over the past 40 years.

He needed to divest himself, Pascrell said of Trump. He never did it. He wanted to continue to make money. He wanted to continue to do the things that no other president has done. He has made money on his position, were going to find out if it was legal or not.

Mulvaney said the issue was decided in 2016 when voters elected him despite the fact that he ignored four decades of precedent and kept his returns secret.

Thats an issue that was already litigated during the election., Mulvaney said on Fox. Voters knew the president could have given his tax returns, they knew that he didnt and they elected him anyway, which is, of course, what drives the Democrats crazy.

Pascrell, though, said voters delivered a different verdict last November when they gave Democrats control of the House.

And in a Quinnipiac University Poll released last month, 64 percent of U.S. voters said Trump should release his returns, while just 29 said he shouldnt. By 57 percent to 38 percent, they said Congress should investigate if Trump did not publicly disclose his tax returns voluntarily.

A lot of people voted for Democrats in the last election because of the tax issue, Pascrell said people in the polls indicated very interestingly about what they thought about the president not giving up his taxes.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.

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Opening 70 years virtually to the day after its Broadway premiere in 1949, the Jefferson Performing Art Societys revival of Rodgers and Hammersteins South Pacific proves indeed to be younger than springtime.

The classic love story set in the Pacific Theater during World War II still touches the heart, and its social commentary decrying racial and ethnic prejudice remains timelessly important. Add a glorious score that is overflowing with what have become American musical standards, and the audience is assured of enjoying a truly enchanted evening.

While in recent years there has been a trend toward reimagining or deconstructing so many of these classic old shows, director Kenneth Beck trusts the evergreen nature of the musical to allow it to be what it is. That so many aspects of its story were ahead of its time in 1949 are precisely what makes it resonate so strongly generations later.

The well-known story is adapted from James Micheners Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Tales of the South Pacific. It centers on the love story between an American nurse, Nellie Forbush, and a French expatriate, Emile de Becque, now living as a plantation owner on an island. The colorful cast of islanders, Seabees and sailors, and nurses add to the depiction of life in wartime.

Cuban-American drama Azul at Southern Rep is magnificent

Nellie Forbush might rightly be considered a role that Mandi Mueller was born to play. She simply lights up the stage with an adorable appeal and beautiful voice just made for these wonderful Rodgers and Hammerstein songs, such as A Cockeyed Optimist and A Wonderful Guy. With South Pacific, Mueller is especially in her element, having performed previously for several years as one of the Victory Belles, the signature ensemble at the National World War II Museum, which has given her an inherent feel for the period and its music.

Mueller also captures well the bright-eyed wonder that Nellie would have, being a small-town girl dropped into the middle of an exotic new world, discovering new ways and new love. Watching her character fall in love is particularly delightful, so exuberant that she turns cartwheels! Even when the bigoted side of her character is revealed, the audience sticks with her as she grapples with her own fears and internalized prejudices.

Bass-baritone George Cordes gives Emile de Becque a richly sonorous voice that fills the theater. His robust renditions of Some Enchanted Evening and This Nearly Was Mine are showstoppers. His portrayal of the passionate Frenchman, however, felt too reserved and stoic through much of the first act. It wasnt until he was faced with losing Nellie that the genuine sense of heartache came through, resulting in a touching performance by the end.

The secondary conflicted love story between Lt. Cable and Liat was effective. Kevin Thomas Harvey made Cable the staid, by-the-book Marine, until his emotions are unleashed in the visit to the mysterious Bali HaI, where he falls in love with Liat. Harvey gave a full-throated rendition of Younger Than Springtime, as well as a fiercely argued cry with Youve Got to Be Carefully Taught. Alexis Saizan was a graceful Liat.

Other supporting roles in the large cast stood out well. Marie Becnel gave Bloody Mary a boldly vivacious voice, as well as a conniving charm. Enrico Cannella was a riotously funny Luther Billis, particularly in leading the sailors through There is Nothing Like a Dame, and opposite Mueller in Honey Bun. He also found a sweetness at the heart of the role.

Lawrence Beron brought a solid sense of authority to the stage as Capt. Brackett, with Clayton Mazoue giving strong support as his second-in-command. Joey Dowdall depicted the author Michener himself, delivering the stirring opening monologue. Ben Schaubhut and Kyle Roth made a comic pair as the sailors Stewpot and Professor.

Beck directed and choreographed the show sharply, keeping the pacing taut despite the three-hour running time. This especially enhanced the drama and nervous anticipation of the second act. While South Pacific is not specifically known as a dance show, Becks lively routines displayed the acrobatic and balletic abilities of these sailors. When this bunch returned home after the war, their baby boomer children surely grew up to become the dancing gang members on New Yorks Upper West Side.

The companys artistic director, Dennis G. Assaf, conducted the JPAS Symphony Orchestra through the lush score with elegance, bringing out a big sound and all the rich color.

At several performances, the troupe is honoring WWII veterans in the audience, a fitting gesture as the show overall serves as a touching tribute to those who serve our nation in the armed forces and the sacrifices they make.

National WWII Museum gears up for 75th anniversary of D-Day with expansive new book

SOUTH PACIFIC

What: The Jefferson Performing Arts Society continues its season with a 70th anniversary production of the classic musical, adapted from James Micheners Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Music by Richard Rodgers; lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II; book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. Kenneth Beck directs and choreographs. Dennis G. Assaf conducts the JPAS Symphony Orchestra.

Where: Jefferson Performing Arts Center, 6400 Airline Drive, Metairie.

When: Performances at 7:30 Fridays and Saturdays, and at 2 Sundays, through April 14.

Admission: $20-$60. For information, call 504.885.2000 or visit the companys website at www.jpas.org
New Orleans police arrested a 40-year-old man in connection to the April 1 fatal shooting in Algiers.

Eugene Weathers was booked into Orleans Parish Justice Center Sunday (April 7)and faces one count of second-degree murder, jail records show. Police believe he killed 35-year-old Jonathan Simmons.

On April 1, police found Simmons around 8:40 a.m. suffering from multiple gunshot wounds in the 1000 block of Wagner Street. Six days later, police found Weathers in the 3200 block of South Carrollton Avenue after he stole a car near the intersection of South Carrollton Avenue and Earhart Boulevard, police said.

According to an initial report, police said Weathers asked a man for a ride to the 7th Ward twice, when the man reluctantly agreed to bring Weathers to the bus stop. On the way to the stop, Weathers allegedly punched the man in the face, ordered him out of his car and sped off in the black 2016 Chrysler 200. Weathers was later caught on foot and booked with carjacking.

Jail records show Weathers second-degree murder charge is not his first run-in with the law.

In 2018, he pleaded guilty to simple robbery and theft between $500 and $1,499.

Anyone with any additional information regarding this incident should contact Homicide Detective Daniel Hiatt at 504-658-5300.
A man fleeing Louisiana State Police by bicycle and on foot was chased through the French Quarter on Monday afternoon (April 8) and then apprehended, the agency said.

The man was expected to booked on a charge of attempted armed robbery, though State Police were unable, as of about 4:15 p.m., to locate either of the two people they say were robbed, according to State Police spokesman First Class Trooper Monroe Dillon. Troopers recovered a gun, he said, though it was not immediately clear if they found it on the man or somewhere nearby.

A woman working near Latrobe Park at Ursulines and Decatur Streets said she saw officers tell a man to stop and not to move, but the man took off on foot. The woman, who identified herself only as Rock, said she recognized the man and his distinctive black bicycle as someone who is occasionally seen in the area.

As troopers chased him, the man ran up toward the French Market, knocking over some hammocks for sale that were set up outside, and then weaved through The Market Cafe before appearing to run down St. Philip Street, said Rock, 32. She said she did not notice if the troopers had their guns drawn.

About seven State Police cars and SUVs were parked near the intersection about 4 p.m., with troopers standing near the park, some talking to passersby and others to each other. A few of the troopers attention appeared focused on the lowrider black bike, which had bandanas hanging from each handle bar and a fleur-de-lis design above the front tire reading 504.

Following the foot chase, Rock said she saw troopers searching the area near the bike, including among then plants at Latrobe Park.

No further information was immediately available.
Update, April 9, 2019: NOPD says Isaiah has been found and is in good health.

New Orleans police is asking for the publics help in locating a 14-year-old boy who was last seen at his home in Algiers on Saturday afternoon (April 6).

Isaiah Derouselle was last seen at his home in the 1300 block of Behrman Avenue around 12:23 p.m. Saturday, police said. He was last seen wearing a black T-shirt and grey shorts with a blue stripe down the side. He is about 5 feet 3 inches tall, and weighs 95 pounds.

Anyone with any information regarding the whereabouts of Isaiah Derouselle should contact Fourth District detectives at 504-658-6040.
Two teens were arrested over the weekend, accused of the gunpoint robbery of a 17-year-old who thought the suspects were giving him a ride home, the St. Tammany Parish Sheriffs Office said Monday (April 8).

Deputies arrested Blayne Bedford, 17, of Covington, and Caleb Wood, 18, of Bush. Each was booked with armed robbery and armed robbery with a firearm.

The victim, from the Lacombe area, told deputies he contacted Bedford on Saturday night about getting a ride home, the Sheriffs Office said in a news release. When Bedford picked up him up from a home in the Mandeville area, Wood was driving the vehicle, the release said.

The pair drove him to the area of 11th Street in the Tammany Hills subdivision south of Covington, where the victim believed the three were going to a party. Bedford pulled out a handgun and robbed the teen of his cellphone, wallet, watch, bag, shirt and shoes, the Sheriffs Office said. Wood then hit the victim in the face with a closed fist, causing a laceration and a swollen left eye, and told him to get out of the vehicle, according to the news release.

Later that night, Bedford posted photos on social media of Wood and himself with some of the stolen items, the Sheriffs Office said.

Investigators obtained arrest warrants for the two suspects on Sunday. Deputies found the pair at Bedfords home on Louisiana 40 in the Covington area and took them into custody.
The woman who was stabbed outside a Mid-City church Thursday morning (April 4) called for greater mental health resources in a statement issued to media outlets Monday.

Elisa Munoz-Miller, 39, and a 35-year-old man were stabbed outside the Canal Street Churchs daycare center in the 4300 block of Canal Street. The man received medical treatment at the scene. Munoz-Miller, who had just dropped her child off at the daycare, was taken to the hospital with critical stab wounds to the back and neck, police said. Uhuru Howard, 46, was arrested near the scene and now faces two counts of attempted first-degree murder and one count of resisting an officer.

In a statement issued Monday, Munoz-Miller expressed concerns about Howards past violent history and release. Three months prior, Howard was arrested when police said she stabbed a 65-year-old man in the French Quarter after she threw a cup of water at his wife and he intervened. Then, on March 30, she was arrested again on a misdemeanor simple assault charge. She was issued a court release in the case, which was handled in municipal court, three days before the attack outside the church.

It is clear to me that the lack of resources for mental illness was a major factor in my attack, wrote Munoz-Miller.

Howard was released from jail Feb. 8 after her $2,500 bond for the French Quarter attack was paid, jail records show. A hearing for her January charges is scheduled for May 2. Howard is being held on a $420,000 bond in regards to Munoz-Millers case, and has been scheduled for a competency hearing.

I am appreciative to the staff at both the daycare and the church. The community has rallied around me, proving yet again that New Orleans is a kind and generous city, concluded Munoz-Miller.

Woman stabs man, woman outside Mid-City church: NOPD
Gov. John Bel Edwards opened the 2019 Louisiana Legislatures lawmaking session with a speech highlighting his accomplishments as governor over the past three years.

Several portions of his remarks, references to Medicaid expansion and backing a teacher pay raise, received an enthusiastic response from Democratic legislators, but a cold reaction from Republicans who were in the House chamber for the address.

Much of the session is expected to be influenced by the 2019 state elections in October, which include the governors and legislative races. Some Republicans who control the Legislature have made ousting Edwards, a Democrat, a top priority.

Both of Edwards Republican opponents in the governors race, U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham and Baton Rouge businessman Eddie Rispone, attended the opening day of session. Abraham sat on the dais with Republican House Speaker Taylor Barras, of New Iberia, while watching the governors remarks. The congressman disagreed with the governors assessment of the state, that Louisiana is on a better path than it was in 2016.

The state is not prosperous right now," Abraham said in an interview after Edwards spoke. We know where it can be. We just need to get it back to where it needs to be.

As Edwards championed bipartisanship to legislators on the Louisiana House floor, the governors campaign sent out a written statement characterizing Abrahams decision to attend the Legislatures opening day as a desperate, pathetic stunt from a failing campaign.

Hes been forced to pull this awkward, embarrassing stunt to try to get a shred of attention he doesnt deserve, said Eric Holl, spokesman for Edwards campaign.

Edwards speech highlighted what he sees as his accomplishments since taking office in 2016, similar to remarks he has been giving on the campaign trail.

Louisiana Legislature 2019: Lawmakers will consider these issues in an election year

Economic development, Medicaid expansion

Most of the top of Edwards speech focused on what he characterized as improvements to Louisianas economy and job opportunities. The governor has faced criticism from Abraham and Republican Baton Rouge businessman Eddie Rispone, who is also running for governor, over Louisianas business climate.

Edwards also defended his decision to accept Medicaid expansion in Louisiana, in conjunction with the federal Affordable Care Act. The governor said close to a half million state residents now have health care because of his actions. He framed his decision as a win for the economy, saying rural hospitals stayed open and community health centers were launched as a result.

The governors remarks come as several House Republicans have criticized the Medicaid program for being wasteful. The Edwards administration recently removed 30,000 people from state Medicaid rolls who made too much money to qualify for the program.

Abortion

We should all be able to agree that reducing the number of abortions in this state is a good thing, said the governor, who is opposed to abortion, in his speech.

Lawmakers are likely to approve a law that will make it illegal to perform an abortion in Louisiana after a fetal heartbeat has been detected in the womb. Sen. John Milkovich, D-Shreveport, has authored the bill, after successfully pushing legislation to ban abortions in the state after 15 weeks of pregnancy last year.

Mississippi and Kentucky have already approved fetal heartbeat measures into law in recent weeks, and Georgias governor is expected to sign one thats reached his desk. Florida, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas are expected to follow.

Teacher and support staff pay raise

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Edwards pressed lawmakers to approve a $1,000 pay raise for teachers and $500 pay increase for school support staff, an effort that looks unlikely to run into opposition. Republican House leaders have included both raises in their version of the budget.

Still, the governor has always been closely aligned to teachers unions. His wife was a public school teacher for several years and his daughter works in a Baton Rouge public school.

Make no mistake  the pay goes to adults, but the investment is in our children, Edwards said.

Louisiana House Republicans include teacher pay raises in their budget plan

K-12 school funding increase

The governor is also pushing for K-12 public school funding to be increase $40 million, about 1.375 percent overall. That per-pupil increase has received some pushback from Republican House leaders, who would like more money for early childhood education.

Republicans could face some problems trying to separate the pay raises from each other. The state school board passed a funding resolution that links teacher pay raise to K-12 school funding. If House leaders want them separated, they will either have to ask the state school board for a new funding resolution or find another workaround in budget documents.

Obamacare backup plan

Edwards is asking lawmakers to pass a new state law that would protect people with preexisting conditions in case a lawsuit Attorney General Jeff Landry is pursuing gets the Affordable Care Act thrown out.

Landry and other state attorneys general are challenging the constitutionality of Obamacare in federal court. If they are successful, many of the more popular provisions of the law  including the pre-existing condition coverage mandate  will be nullified.

I do not want the nearly one million Louisianans living with pre-existing conditions to get caught in the middle of Washington-style politics, Edwards said, without mentioning Landry directly.

Landry is backing another bill that would allow pre-existing conditions to be covered if his lawsuit is successful.

Aggressively investigate fires at black churches

Edwards highlighted the troubling fires that have occurred at four African American churches in Louisiana, three in St. Landry Parish and one in Caddo Parish. The governor said he told the fire marshal to aggressively investigate the incidents.

[N]o one should be concerned that their house of worship would be destroyed, Edwards said.

Louisianas Republican Party also approved a resolution Saturday condemning the acts of arson against African American churches in the state.

Read the governors complete speech:
By the end of the century, the manifold consequences of unchecked climate change will cost the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars per year, according to a new study by scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency.

Those costs will come in the form of water shortages, crippled infrastructure and polluted air that shortens lives, among others, according to the study in Mondays edition of Nature Climate Change. No part of the country will be untouched, the EPA researchers warned.

However, they also found that cutting emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, and proactively adapting to a warming world, would prevent a lot of the damage, reducing the annual economic toll in some sectors by more than half.

Climate report: Louisiana, Southeast at exceptional risk through end of century

Experts called the report the most comprehensive analysis yet of the staggering diversity of societal impacts that climate change will have on the American economy.

It is an extraordinarily ambitious project, said Solomon Hsiang, an economist at UC Berkeley who was not involved in the study.

The analysis is not the first to calculate the costs of global warming and the benefits of curtailing emissions. There have been numerous prior attempts, including a 2006 report commissioned by the British government that found unmitigated warming could reduce global gross domestic product by as much as 20 percent.

Many more have followed, but all reach the same general conclusion, said Brenda Ekwurzel, director of climate science at the Union of Concerned Scientists: The cost of inaction is really high, and (the cost of) reducing emissions pales in comparison.

What sets the new study apart, she said, is its astonishing level of detail. It explores how 22 different impacts of climate change  from rising sea levels to longer pollen seasons to the economic prospects of ski resorts  will play out across the nation.

There are no regions that escape some mix of adverse impacts, wrote authors Jeremy Martinich and Allison Crimmins.

The findings clash with the views of President Trump and many of his appointees, who have repeatedly downplayed the risks of climate change. The EPA did not make the study authors available for interviews.

The report summarizes years of work by scores of scientists as part of the EPAs Climate Change Impact and Risk Analysis.

For each type of impact, researchers modeled the effects of climate change under a scenario in which the world took no serious actions to reduce emissions. They also considered a more moderate scenario  one not ambitious enough to meet international goals of keeping warming to about 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial levels but aggressive enough to limit global temperature rise to about 2 degrees C.

Some of the results came out in the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released last year.

Among them were the sobering projections that damage to coastal property, primarily on the Gulf and East coasts, will reach $120 billion per year by 2090; lost labor productivity due to hotter temperatures, particularly in the South and Midwest, will cost $155 billion per year; and deaths from extreme heat waves and cold snaps will equal $140 billion per year.

When asked about those conclusions in November 2018, Trump told reporters, I dont believe it.

The new study offers an even richer picture of the EPAs analysis, said Ekwurzel, who contributed to the climate assessment. It shows how many of the effects of climate change break down by state  and often by individual county or watershed.

Its kind of like, all politics is local. Climate change is the same, she said: Every place will face a unique combination of climate impacts.

The results align with those of a 2017 study led by Hsiang, which suggested that the southern U.S. will be particularly hard hit thanks to the converging effects on coastal property, labor productivity and extreme temperature mortality. But the new analysis shows that no region will be exempt from losses.

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For instance, most of the northern half of the country will experience greater air pollution because of climate change. The Midwest will see more harmful algal blooms, like those that have choked Lake Erie in recent years. And the Northwest will experience a spike in electricity demand, mainly for cooling, and endure more severe flooding.

A handful of places could enjoy small economic gains in certain sectors. The results suggest that some parts of the inter-mountain West may get a boost in water supply, for example.

But California wont be so lucky. Residents have already become familiar with some of the climate impacts that will become more common in the state, such as wildfires and flooding.

The study suggests that climate change will also bring more mosquitoes that carry West Nile virus. It will increase the temperatures of streams and lakes, reducing oxygen levels and harming water quality. Heavy river flows will put many bridges at risk, and intense heat will buckle rail lines.

The report also makes one of the first attempts to study the connections between various climate impacts. For instance, the authors note that energy costs will rise more dramatically in places where increased energy demand coincides with reduced water supply, because many power plants require water for cooling.

However, the researchers point out that the high cost of climate impacts can be recast as the benefits the country stands to reap by cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Keeping warming closer to 2 degrees would prevent tens of billions of dollars in lost labor productivity, extreme temperature mortality and energy costs alone.

Across all sectors, that works out to between $250 and $600 of savings per person per year by the end of the century, the researchers calculated.

You can really save the U.S. economy lots of money, Ekwurzel said.

In some cases, reducing emissions will not be enough to avoid impacts. For instance, coastal areas will see more sea-level rise in coming decades, even if the world acts swiftly.

So the researchers considered how efforts to adapt to a warmer world might reduce economic damages.

They found that measures such as elevating buildings and constructing seawalls could significantly decrease damage to coastal properties. Maintaining roads and railroads  preferably before they fall into disrepair  could also offset many of the costs of climate impacts.

Overall, however, experts said the study still probably underestimates the true cost of climate change.

There are big uncertainties, but in general, the uncertainties always err on the side of making it more damaging, said Frances Moore, a climate change economist at UC Davis who was not involved in the study.

Thats because no study can include every sector of the economy, and some impacts  like the potential for global warming to fuel violent conflicts and spur migration  are almost impossible to quantify but will most likely add to the burden, she said.

Even so, Hsiang said the new research lays the groundwork for a meaningful conversation about the risks of letting climate change continue unabated.

The climate may be one of the largest economic assets this nation holds, he said. We should manage it with the seriousness and clarity of thought that we would apply to managing any asset that generates trillions of dollars in value.



Story by Julia Rosen, The Los Angeles Times

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
A new joint venture company made up of national construction firms with a history of building levees and bridges in Louisiana has been selected by the state coastal authority to oversee construction of the proposed $800 million Mid-Breton Sediment Diversion in Plaquemines Parish.

Louisiana Diversion Company LLC, whose partner firms include Brown & Root Industrial Services LLC of Baton Rouge; Massman Construction Co. of Overland Park, Kansas; Parsons Construction Group Inc., of Westminster, Colorado; and Traylor Brothers Inc. of Evansville, Indiana; was one of three joint venture groups considered for the contract by the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority.

This competitive process produced three quality proposals from experienced local and national firms that all have a strong presence in Louisiana, said CPRA Executive Director Bren Haase, in a news release announcing the contract. The state is confident LDC brings the necessary experience and team members needed to construct this transformational restoration project.

The Mid-Breton diversion will be built on the east bank of the Mississippi River at Wills Point, about 68 miles above Head of Passes. It will be designed to capture sediment rich water from the Mississippi and move it eastward into the Breton Sound Basin to restore wetlands.

In January, state officials announced that they were going to design the diversion to carry a maximum of 75,000 cubic feet per second of water and sediment during high-river periods, an increase from the projects original plan to carry a maximum of 35,000 cubic feet per second.

State considers nearly doubling size of east bank sediment diversion

In documents provided by the state in October to LDC and other companies bidding on the project, CPRA officials estimated that construction would begin in October 2023 and be completed by June 2028.

LDC will begin with a $12.4 million contract with the state to design temporary works, review the constructability of the diversion structure and estimate project costs for designs being prepared by another team of contractors led by Stantec Inc.

Stantec, based in Edmonton, Alberta, was selected by the state in February 2018 to lead the design team.

Canadian firm chosen to design Mid-Breton sediment diversion

Once the structures design is complete, LDC will negotiate the price of construction with the CPRA, and if those negotiations are successful, will be awarded a final construction contract.

The firm is being hired under the states Construction Management At-Risk rules for major infrastructure projects, which brings the construction contractor into the projects development process early in its design phase, with a focus on both speeding construction and reducing costs.

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Using the CMAR method of project delivery brings the construction contractor to the table during the design phase of the project, said CPRA diversion program Brad Barth in the news release. This early collaboration between the contractor and designer provides a unique opportunity to reduce project time, costs and risks. While the CMAR delivery method hasnt been used often in Louisiana, it gives us the best opportunity to construct this large and complex project in the safest and most cost-effective manner, said Chip Kline, chairman of the CPRA board of directors and coastal adviser to Gov. John Be. Edwards, in the news release. Were in a race against time, and CPRA is committed to finding innovative and ambitious solutions to address Louisianas coastal crisis.

The losing bidders were Mid-Breton Constructors, made up of AECOM Energy & Construction Inc. and James Construction Group, LLC; and Kiewit.

All three of the teams included numerous subcontractors in their bids to the state for the contract.

LDCs subcontractors include Bittner-Shen Consulting Engineers, Huval, Bertucci, Crosby Dredging LLC, Phylway Construction LLC, Weeks Marine, Bryant Hammett & Associates LLC, Diamond D. Industries, and Elos Environmental.

Members of the LDC have worked on a number of major local projects, including the Lake Borgne Surge Barrier in New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish; the West Closure Complex in Plaquemines and Jefferson parishes; the three Permanent Canal Closures and Pumps stations in New Orleans; the Chalmette Levee Loop levee and floodwall project in St. Bernard; and the widening of the Huey P. Long Bridge in Jefferson Parish.

Both the Mid-Breton and Mid-Barataria sediment diversions are receiving their initial financing from grants provided by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The grant money comes from payments made by BP and Transocean to settle criminal charges stemming from the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon disaster and oil spill.

Construction of the $1.4 billion Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, proposed for a location just south of Myrtle Grove on the west bank of the river in Plaquemines Parish, is expected to be completed sometime in 2021.

The two diversions are designed to mimic the historic role of the Mississippi in building wetlands when it overflowed its much lower natural banks during high water periods. Construction of levees along the river from New Orleans West Bank through Plaquemines Parish has cut off that historic supply of sediment, as has the controlling of the rivers mouth with jetties since the 1880s. The jetties are designed to keep the mouth free of shoaling that blocks shipping, and directs sediment into deepwater areas of the Gulf of Mexico.

Both diversions must still undergo a complex environmental review process that is in part aimed at concerns raised by oyster farmers, shrimpers and other fishers about the effects of fresh water on their catches in the future, once the projects begin operating.

State creating groups to help fishing industry adapt to levee, restoration projects

State officials also are looking into ways to mitigate those and other potential effects of the projects, such as possible increases in floodwaters during storms that occur when the diversions are operating.

Mark Schleifstein covers the environment and is a leader of the Louisiana Coastal Reporting Team for NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. Email: mschleifstein@nola.com. Facebook: Mark Schleifstein and Louisiana Coastal Watch. Twitter: MSchleifstein.
A south Louisiana legislator has filed a bill that would prohibit rescue shelters from providing live animals to facilities that use them for research.

House Bill 454 by state Rep. Jerome Zee Zeringue, R-Houma, would also prohibit shelters from euthanizing animals for the sole purpose of transferring their carcasses for research.

The bill comes about two months after a national animals rights group filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, claiming that the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine may have violated the federal Animal Welfare Act by purchasing dogs from an unlicensed Baton Rouge shelter for use in lethal anatomy courses and possibly other experimental purposes.

The school, in a statement, rejected the allegations made by People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and said it follows federal regulations. The shelter in question, Companion Animal Alliance, later said it had stopped providing animals to LSU and other institutions for use in research.

While Zeringues bill does not prohibit dead animals from being turned over for research, it says no animal shelter or other person shall euthanize an animal for the sole purpose of transferring the carcass to a research facility, biological supply facility or animal dealer.

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It also says that no shelter or person that accepts animals from the public or takes in strays shall provide living animals to facilities or dealers for the purpose of research, experimentation or testing.

The bill also requires any shelter that turns over dead animals for research to post a sign that advises people of the practice.

The Louisiana Legislature opened its 2019 lawmaking session at noon Monday (April 8).

John Bel Edwards speech to Legislature has campaign feel to it
Minutes before a judge sentenced Jason Magee of Pearl River to life in prison Monday (April 8) for two murders, the father of one of the victims glared at Magee, telling him, From this point on, its hate. No forgiveness.

I care more about a piece of feces than you, John Wallace told Magee.

Tears were flowing as several family members addressed the court or had letters read aloud before state Judge August Hand prior to Hand sentencing Magee to two consecutive life sentences for the 2017 first-degree murders of his ex-wife, Jennifer Magee, 32, of Pearl River, and her boyfriend Donald Gros, 34, of Marrero. The two were shot to death June 19 in Jennifer Magees home on Louisiana 41 near Pearl River.

Wallace, Jennifer Magees father, stood at the prosecution table and faced Jason Magee as he gave a victim impact statement to the court. At one time, I loved this man, Wallace said, noting that he and Jason Magee used to fish together.

He then addressed the convicted killer directly. Look at me. You need to look at me, like a man.

Magee - wearing dark and light gray striped prison attire and shackled at the wrists and ankles - looked at Wallace, a grim expression on his face.

Magee, 39, was convicted Feb. 1, but the district attorneys office did not seek the death penalty. That left Magee to face an automatic life sentence on each first-degree murder conviction.

Man found guilty of first-degree murder in North Shore double slaying

Testimony during trial showed that Magee became upset on the night of the slayings when his then-6-year-old son was on the phone with his mother, Jennifer Magee, and asked to speak to Mr. Donald, referring to Gros. Jason Magee dropped the couples two children off at their grandmothers house and then went to Jennifers home, where authorities later found her and Gros dead from multiple gunshot wounds.

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Jason Magee was arrested the next day after spending the night in the swamp.

About a dozen family members of Jennifer Magee, a home health nurse, and Donald Gros attended Mondays sentencing, as did Jason Magees mother, Bonnie Cooper, and stepfather, Tommy Cooper.

Gros mother, Donna Thiebaud, said the death of her son, an EKG technician and the father of two boys, has affected her entire family.

Donald will never see his boys go to prom, graduate high school, get married, or see his boys become fathers, she told the court. My grandsons will never have their dad there on their birthdays. My grandsons will not have their dad at the special times in their life.

Thiebaud described Gros as my gentle giant and said the nightmare would not end with Magees sentencing. We have to deal with this loss every day for the rest of our lives.

Gros younger brother, Stephen Bedwell, said he and his brother were close. I am lost without Donald, he said. I would give anything to have five more minutes with my big brother just so I could let him know how much he meant to me, how much of an influence he had had on my life, and how it was him that made me the best father I can be.

Members of Jennifer Magees family described her as the glue that held the family together, and someone who was a light in the lives of everyone who knew her.

She found the good in everyone and everything, said Terri Hernandez, the fiancee of Jennifer Magees brother, Jason Wallace. Thats what made her special.

She even found the good in Jason Magee. How ironic.
Today

Partly cloudy. Areas of patchy fog. Low around 65F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph.

Tonight

Partly cloudy. Areas of patchy fog. Low around 65F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph.

Tomorrow

Sunshine and clouds mixed. High around 75F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph.
Huawei's sub-brand, Honor, is set to release yet another premium device in the coming months. In fact, if rumors are to be believed, the company could actually release a pair of flagshipsthe Honor 20 and Honor 20 Prothat promise to deliver excellent camera performance at sub-premium price points.

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Huaweis high-value youth brand, Honor, released its first premium phone for the year, the Honor View 20, a few months ago, with the device getting an impressive reception for its innovative design. The company is set to release its second premium phone for the year in the coming months, and details of the devices have surfaced.

The Honor 20 is expected to feature a 6.1-inch OLED display with an in-display fingerprint reader. Thats likely to be the same display panel seen on the new Huawei P30, which means it could be made by Samsung. Honor devicesbar the Honor Magic phoneshave mostly stuck with LCD panels so far, so this would be a welcome development.

The Honor 20 will be powered by a Kirin 980 and is said to feature a triple rear camera setup (48 MP + 20 MP + 8 MP), a 32 MP selfie camera, and a 3650 mAh battery.

Apart from the Honor 20, theres apparently also a Pro version. The two previous iterations in the series, the Honor 9 and Honor 10, had no Pro versions but the company could be set to return to its old format. The Honor 20 Pro is said to feature a 40 MP Sony IMX600 sensor, as opposed to the 48 MP Sony IMX586 we expect to see on the regular Honor 20.

While the IMX586 sounds more impressive due to its higher resolution, the IMX600 is a bigger sensor and offers better performance; it is, in fact, the same sensor that was on last years P20 Pro and the new P30.
I know this is going to sound strange, but it seems your birth mother disappeared off a cruise ship in the Caribbean, never to be seen or heard from again, she said. The last person in a long line of people who had tried to find her, including the F.B.I., I had shown up several years late for the search party.

I now had a different mystery to solve: I needed to know what happened on that ship. Had she jumped overboard, after drowning for years in the depths of the manic depression she had mentioned in the agencys files? Had another passenger murdered her? What about her boyfriend, who had been questioned by the F.B.I.? Or maybe she had sneaked away to start a new life  after all, she had changed her name once before, which was why it took so long for the social worker to locate her.

As I contemplated each fragment of this personalized F.B.I. missing-persons case  the kind Id seen on television but never imagined Id experience firsthand  I had to accept that no one else, not even my own government, was going to find her. But if I didnt find her, I felt, I wouldnt find myself. I knew how to decode the secrets of ancient Egypt, but was at a loss when it came to deciphering my cryptic past. Without a Rosetta Stone of my own, all I could do was lament the lacuna.

But I couldnt let it go. One day, while translating hieroglyphs in the Egyptology Department, I abruptly put down a New Kingdom papyrus to pick up the phone: Listen, shes gone, so theres no harm in telling me my name.

But if I told you, then you could find your name in the paper, and contact the rest of your family without her permission, the social worker replied.

The paper? I asked.

Over the years, my social worker explained, my birth relatives had published my birth name several times in family obituaries: survived by a granddaughter, So-and-So. Without knowing it, I had been living two very different lives in print. It was like identity theft in reverse. An intelligence officer I met at the time said, Wow, youre under what we would call deep, deep cover  you dont even know who you are!

I might never have learned my name or met my birth family if I hadnt ended up in the hospital in Rhode Island in 2007, after traveling to a trifecta of malaria hotspots: Mali, Egypt and Colombia. Though I was originally admitted for malaria, a negative test forced the infectious disease and rheumatology teams to compete for weeks to solve my medical mystery: a fever of 105 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius), enigmatic red spots, bone pain so severe that I could no longer walk.
Still, the Russian had to go in order for Bobby, his American counterpart, to truly thrive, and its Chuck who does the deed  despite Andolovs attempt to exploit Chucks sexual adventurousness by promising him overseas exploits so extreme he dare not even mention them aloud.

But someone has to lose to make all this winning possible, and thats undoubtedly Wendy, whom Chuck humiliates on the grandest stage of them all. Its not that she feels either of them should be ashamed of their sexual fetishes  Billions has always been resolute in maintaining that kink is not an indicator of personal or marital dysfunction, and for that it deserves enormous credit. On the contrary, Wendy knows that the consent Chuck gives her to hurt him is what makes their relationship work.

But she emphatically did not consent to having their sex lives dragged into the spotlight, risking her professional relationships and embarrassing their children. The next thing she knows, shes watching him out her as a dominatrix on the 5 oclock news.

As shes done many times in the past, Maggie Siff underplays Wendys frustration and anger, which has the effect of making what comes through seem that much more intimidating and sincere. What Chuck has done to her is a grotesque violation, and his failure to act as if it were anything more than a spat that can be patched over is indicative of his deep moral shortcomings.

Yet even in this episode, there are moments of human connection to savor. Taylor Masons dad, Douglas, visits with a business proposal that his brainiac offspring is visibly thrilled to realize is worth backing. Im gonna be in business with my  child, Douglas says, respecting Taylors nonbinary status to their mutual joy. On a less wholesome but still sincere(ish) note, Bobby and his billionaire girlfriend, Rebecca, stage a takeover of a struggling convenience-store chain the way the rest of us might approach going to the laundromat; his purchase of his-and-hers Mercedes for $132,000 a pop is a grimly funny reminder of just how far removed from the rest of us these people are.

Even Chuck has good within him. Take his final battle against the New York power broker Jack Foley, whos the reason he has to out himself as a masochist. Foley knows the secret. He has passed it on to United States Attorney General Jock Jeffcoat, who hates Chuck even more than he does. And he tells Chuck he will not hesitate to expose him if thats what it takes to keep that office clean.
LONDON  Britain proposed sweeping new government powers to regulate the internet to combat the spread of violent and extremist content, false information and harmful material aimed at children. The proposal, announced on Monday, would be one of the worlds most aggressive actions to rein in the most corrosive online content.

The recommendations, backed by Prime Minister Theresa May, take direct aim at Facebook, Google and other large internet platforms that policymakers believe have made growth and profits a priority over curbing harmful material. The government called for naming an internet regulator with the power to issue fines, block access to websites if necessary and make individual executives legally liable for harmful content spread 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 content, Ms. May said in a statement. That is not good enough, and it is time to do things differently.

By introducing the proposal even as a deadline nears for Britain to exit the European Union, Ms. May signaled that enacting the new internet regulations was a high priority of her government.
Not that immigration was the only issue on which Ms. Nielsen floundered. On the critical question of Russias meddling in the 2016 elections, she was even less lucid. At times, she seemed to support the intelligence communitys findings that the Kremlin had been up to no good. Other times, she supported the view that Russia had not favored Mr. Trump in the election. Her every utterance seemed intended to obfuscate rather than to clarify.

Ms. Nielsens departure is part of a broader purging in her department. Two days before meeting with the secretary, the president withdrew his nomination for the next head of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, saying that he wanted to go in a tougher direction. On Monday, the White House confirmed that Randolph Alles, the head of the Secret Service, was on his way out as well. The general counsel for Homeland Security, John Mitnick , and the head of Citizenship and Immigration Services, L. Francis Cissna , are expected to soon follow.

For now, Ms. Nielsens acting replacement will be Kevin McAleenan, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection. This leaves Homeland Security without a top official at either of its critical immigration agencies. It comes as the swell of migrant families across the border pushes the system toward collapse. Possible successors being discussed include Rick Perry, the secretary of energy, and Ken Cuccinelli, the former attorney general of Virginia.

Whoever takes Ms. Nielsens place, it seems likely that greater influence will be exerted by Mr. Miller, who inspires and reinforces Mr. Trumps harshest impulses on immigrants and immigration. As the president becomes increasingly agitated about the border situation, Mr. Miller is said to be aggressively pushing to stock the administration with like-minded hard-liners. In addition to being a longtime critic of Ms. Nielsen, Mr. Miller is thought to have played a role in the withdrawal of the nomination of Ron Vitiello to lead ICE and the impending departure of Mr. Cissna.

The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, said of Ms. Nielsens departure, It is deeply alarming that the Trump administration official who put children in cages is reportedly resigning because she is not extreme enough for the White Houses liking.

The plan is for Ms. Nielsen to continue through Wednesday to help with an orderly transition.

I share the presidents goal of securing the border, she said Monday morning. I will continue to support all efforts to address the humanitarian and security crisis on the border.

If Ms. Nielsen is inclined to perform one last act of public service, she should come clean about the costs of the policies she enforced over the past year and a half, not only to the desperate migrants seeking a better life in the United States, but also to the thousands of employees of her department charged with carrying out an inhumane and ineffective agenda.
How is it that the coolest new show on Broadway in 2019 is a 1943 musical usually regarded as a very square slice of American pie? The answer arrives before the first song is over in Daniel Fishs wide-awake, jolting and altogether wonderful production of Rodgers and Hammersteins Oklahoma!, which opened on Sunday night at the Circle in the Square Theater.

Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin is the title and the opening line of this familiar number, a paean to a land of promisingly blue skies and open spaces. But Curly, the cowboy who sings it, isnt cushioned by the expected lush orchestrations. Nor is the actor playing him your usual solid slab of beefcake with a strapping tenor.

As embodied by the excellent Damon Daunno, this lad of the prairies is wiry and wired, so full of unchanneled sexual energy you expect him to implode. Theres the hint of a wobble in his cocky strut and voice.

Doing his best to project a confidence he doesnt entirely feel, to the accompaniment of a down-home guitar, he seems so palpably young. As is often true of big boys with unsettled hormones, he also reads as just a little dangerous.
Kevin K. McAleenan, the commissioner of United States Customs and Border Protection, will become the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, President Trump said in a tweet on Sunday.

The announcement came shortly after Mr. Trump said Kirstjen Nielsen was leaving the position, ending a tumultuous tenure in charge of the agency, which oversees border security, among other duties. She had taken the job in late 2017.

Mr. McAleenan, 47, will oversee an agency that has at times been a target of the presidents dissatisfaction over an increase of migrants illegally entering the United States at the southwestern border.

I have confidence that Kevin will do a great job! Mr. Trump said in his tweet.

In her resignation letter, Ms. Nielsen said she hoped the incoming secretary would have the support of Congress and the courts in fixing the laws which have impeded our ability to fully secure Americas borders and which have contributed to discord in our nations discourse.
In October 2004, two days after the master pianist Maurizio Pollini gave a recital at Carnegie Hall, Juho Pohjonen, a 23-year-old from Finland, made his American debut upstairs at Carnegies Weill Recital Hall. At the time, the two were far apart in their careers: one an eminence, playing Chopin and Debussy with his characteristic cool brilliance and probing musicianship, the other a boyish newcomer.

Yet back then Mr. Pohjonen already had formidable technique and an exploratory streak. After winning accounts of works by Mozart, Schumann, Scriabin and Bartok, he ended that recital with fearless performances of two stunningly difficult pieces by Esa-Pekka Salonen: Yta II and Dichotomie, a wildly exuberant 17-minute piece that begins like some fractured avant-garde version of Stravinskys Petrushka.

Fifteen years later, the two pianists happened to return to New York two days apart. On Friday, Mr. Pohjonen gave an hourlong recital for an audience of about 100 in the intimate Buttenwieser Hall at the 92nd Street Y, again ending with Mr. Salonens Dichotomie. And on Sunday, Mr. Pollini returned to a packed Carnegie Hall for a splendid recital of works by Brahms, Schumann and Chopin. These seemingly different pianists had more in common than you might assume: An eager musician of around 40 can also be a master of his craft; a towering artist, at 77, can still be an adventurer.
Its a striking image, watching a walrus climb a rock cliff. During one episode of the new Netflix nature docu-series Our Planet, we witness something that shouldnt be happening  and is only happening now, the producers say, because of climate change. Desperate marine animals driven away from their natural habitats are trying to adapt to shelter elsewhere, and falling to their deaths as a result.

This is not the typical scenario featured in feel-good nature documentaries, but Our Planet has a different aim. Its creators partnered with the World Wildlife Fund (and a team of scientists) to depict how various ecosystems around the world  from the frozen Arctic to rain forest jungles to coastal seas  are imperiled by human activity, and what can be done to protect or restore them. We were trying to get to the heart of the issue with each of the great global habitats, said Keith Scholey, an executive producer of the series, and to be very clear about the elements of destruction and the solutions.

[A look at recent Netflix originals worth your time.]

In phone interviews with Scholey and Adam Chapman, who produced and directed two episodes of the series, and, separately, with Sophie Lanfear, who produced and directed one episode, they shared their experiences making Our Planet. These are edited excerpts from that conversation.

How did your advocacy interest shape the filming and the production?

SOPHIE LANFEAR The only reason I was interested in working on Our Planet is that it had conservation very much at the heart of the series. Often its a last-minute thing  two lines of commentary at the end of the show. To me, its about designing the whole structure of the film with a conservation message, and having the visual kinds of sequences that show you, not tell you, what is going on with the world.
These consequences are on full display in Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration, by Emily Bazelon, a lecturer at Yale Law School and staff writer at The New York Times Magazine. In Charged, a persuasive indictment of prosecutorial excess, Bazelon argues that the lawyers who work in the more than 2,000 prosecutors offices around the country  conducting investigations, filing criminal charges and trying cases (or, much more commonly, striking plea bargains)  bear much of the responsibility for over-incarceration, conviction of the innocent and other serious problems of the criminal justice system.

Image Emily Bazelon Credit... Nina Subin

We often think of prosecutors and defense lawyers as points of a triangle on the same plane, with the judge poised above them: equal contest, level playing field, neutral arbiter, Bazelon writes. But this is a misconception. As the Brooklyn district attorney, Eric Gonzalez, puts it to her: Its all about discretion. Do you authorize the arrest, request bail, argue to keep them in jail or let them out, go all out on the charges or take a plea bargain? Prosecutors decide, especially, who gets a second chance.

To show how prosecutorial power operates in the real world, Bazelon follows two young defendants through the system: Kevin (a pseudonym), a 20-year-old from the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn who is charged with illegal gun possession, and Noura Jackson, a teenager from Memphis who is accused of murdering her mother.

Their cases are very different  one involving a victimless crime, the other the most heinous crime of all  and so are the district attorneys. Kevins prosecutor is Gonzalez, an aspiring reformer and the first Latino to serve as Brooklyns district attorney, while Nouras is Amy Weirich, a hard-charging attorney in the traditional law-and-order mold. Bazelon uses these contrasting cases to demonstrate that having the right (or wrong) prosecutor can make a huge difference  between justice tempered with mercy and grave injustice.

Bazelon tells the tales of Noura and Kevin in rich, novelistic prose, which at its best puts one in mind of Adrian Nicole LeBlancs book Random Family (2003), about a troubled family from the Bronx in the grip of the criminal justice system. Consider the opening to Nouras story, the most gripping section of Charged: The blood was everywhere. Spattered on the floor of the hallway, on the doorframe of the bedroom and on the bedposts. Soaked into the sheets and pillows, and covering the body splayed on the floor at the foot of the bed. Jennifer Jackson was naked. Her face was covered by a wastepaper basket. Her chest and torso and hands were slashed, the pale skin torn by the blade of a knife. Shed been stabbed a total of 50 times.
The charges carry a maximum penalty of seven years in prison.

Three of the activists were founders of Occupy Central With Love and Peace, one of the main groups that urged a sit-in and demanded changes to Hong Kongs electoral system.

Background: Hong Kong was a former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a one country, two systems arrangement that allowed it more robust civil liberties than the mainland. The semiautonomous city had hoped to eventually be able to elect its leader directly, and restrictions set out by Beijing sparked the protests.

Impact: The government has prosecuted 266 people in connection with the protests so far, with 118 convictions.

Britain seeks a path, days before new Brexit deadline

Prime Minister Theresa Mays government met with officials from the opposition Labour Party to resuscitate stalled talks over a compromise plan for Britains withdrawal from the E.U., which is currently scheduled to take place on Friday.
It was sold as a next generation aircraft. But it has now been involved in two fatal crashes in just five months. The Boeing 737 Max 8 entered the market in 2017, a part of the 737 Max class, and became an instant hit. Within the first six months, more than 4,000 Boeing 737 Max 8 planes had been ordered. It quickly became the companys best-selling plane ever. The new model was advertised as a rare win-win for both airlines and passengers. Its going to give them max efficiency, which leads to profitability; max reliability, and to the flying public: max passenger appeal. The demand for something new. Boeing debuted the new planes in response to market pressures. In late 2010, Boeings archrival, Airbus, had just announced a new fuel-efficient version of its best selling A320. Boeing countered with the introduction of the 737 Max  The Max uses 14 percent less fuel than current 737s  its own version of fuel- and cost- efficient aircrafts. Their message to customers was: These are new planes that arent that new. Boeing 737  Newest arrival in the Boeing family of airliners, the 737 attracts a crowd. Boeings first 737 model took off in 1967. A new queen of the sky. For the Max class, Boeing upgraded the engine and design. They added more cabin space, bigger windows and multicolored ceiling lights to help modernize the planes. But the company kept the 737 name because it evoked a legacy of reliability and built trust. Ill tell you what, its just a beautiful, beautiful airplane. Not only were they able to modernize the airplane with new engines, and new winglets, but they were able to keep that classic iconic 737 look. But that isnt the whole story. The new model was also designed to help carriers save money. Which means CEOs like the Max. Really like the Max. Major changes to the plane would have required pilots to be retrained. But Boeings position was that the new models handled enough like the old ones. Though the 737 Max 8 planes did actually have a number of changes, including the size and location of the engines. The higher and more forward position of the larger engines can cause the planes nose to pitch up, a potential danger. To compensate for this, Boeing added a computerized system called MCAS to prevent the planes nose from getting too high and causing a stall. But the F.A.A. initially said pilots did not need to be informed of this system update. Experts say that the lack of training for the new system may have helped cause a deadly crash with a Max 8 off the coast of Indonesia in October, killing 189 people. All of the Boeing 737 Max 8s in the world are believed to have been grounded, while a second crash in Ethiopia is investigated. Boeing said it supported the decision to ground the planes and is cooperating with investigators.
Shareholders voted to replace Mr. Ghosn with Renaults new chairman, Jean-Dominique Senard. He will assume the role of vice chairman on Nissans board.

They also removed Mr. Kelly, who is free on bail in Tokyo, from his seat on the board.

Mr. Ghosns sudden fall plunged the auto-making alliance of Nissan and Renault into chaos. Mr. Ghosn led both companies and the alliance itself, and his arrest added tension to a relationship that already had begun to fray as Nissan struggled to assert independence from Renault.

But in recent weeks, the group, which includes the Japanese automaker Mitsubishi, has pledged to redouble its efforts to work together.

Renault is eager to move on and focus on the future business of the alliance. Tensions had blown up between it and Nissan after Mr. Ghosns arrest, as Nissan leaked allegations of his wrongdoing into the media. Renault and the French government, its biggest shareholder, responded bitterly and maintained a presumption of innocence toward Mr. Ghosn.

But in recent months, Renaults own internal investigations began to turn up questionable use of company funds by Mr. Ghosn. These included a lavish Marie Antoinette-themed wedding party at Versailles, and payments to a Renault-Nissan business partner in Oman that are suspected of being used to help finance Mr. Ghosns yacht. Renault referred both findings to French prosecutors.

In March, the companies announced the formation of a new operating board for the alliance, after discussions at Nissans headquarters in Yokohama aimed at creating a new path forward for the three automakers, with a greater voice for the junior Japanese partners. The board includes two representatives from Renault and one each from Nissan and Mitsubishi.

Still, questions surrounding the imbalance in the alliances ownership structure remain. While Renault has argued that closer ties would help the companies work better together and share costs, some Nissan executives remain concerned that Renault, which holds a 43 percent stake in the Japanese automaker, would still wield greater power. Nissan owns a 15 percent nonvoting stake in the French automaker.
One statute they may consider is the federal false statements law. The broad statute is used when a company provides information to a federal agency like the Federal Aviation Administration to certify the safety of a plane and makes it a crime to provide an agency with any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation about a matter that comes within its jurisdiction.

Investigators will examine whether Boeing made any false statements regarding a new software system added to avoid stalls in Boeings 737 Max series. Investigators suspect that faulty data from sensors on both planes may have caused the system, known as MCAS, to malfunction. Boeings chief executive has said that the automated flight system played a role in the two crashes.

Boeing also charged extra for two safety features on its 737 Max jets that might have helped the pilots detect erroneous sensor readings to avoid problems with the software.

Investigators likely will examine whether Boeing made any misstatements about the upgrades or if the company failed to disclose possible safety problems to the F.A.A. without those upgrades. The false statement law covers not only outright lies, but also submissions in which a person falsifies, conceals, or covers up information submitted to a federal agency. There have been a number of prosecutions involving false statements to the F.A.A. under the statute. Most of those cases, though, involve pilots who fail to disclose information that might result in the agency revoking or refusing to renew a license.

The challenge to bringing a false statement charge is that the government must show they were made knowingly and willfully. That means negligence by Boeing would not be enough to prove a violation.
The COM has agreed for the government to settle the tuition fees for children affected by the volcano eruption on Ambae and earthquake in southeast Ambrym
For 24 years, the editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel has been the public face of The Nation, the oldest continuously published weekly in the United States. On June 15, she will give up her job as day-to-day editor, and be succeeded in the role by D. D. Guttenplan, an author long associated with the magazine.

Its possible to stay in a job too long, Ms. vanden Heuvel said in an interview. Its a time of tectonic shifts, and a new editor is part of the change that I think is important to continue The Nations work as a place of progressive ideals and ideas.

The second woman to edit The Nation, Ms. vanden Heuvel, a part owner of the publication, will stay on as publisher and continue to provide advice to the editorial staff as editorial director, the magazine said on Monday.

Since its founding by Republican abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has published work by, among others, James Baldwin, Noam Chomsky, Eric Foner, Henry James, Toni Morrison and I. F. Stone. Its circulation peaked at 186,000 in 2006 and has since settled at about 132,000, although its online traffic has been growing steadily. It endorsed Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential election.
It was a fairy-tale wedding with an unconventional cast: Marc Jacobs, the New York designer, and his betrothed, Charly Char Defrancesco, a modern-day chandler with the build of a modern-day goliath, danced the night away in the shadow of a cake taller than either. Seven hundred friends and family attended, including a few crashers (not us!) and enough famous fairy godmothers to stock a Disney studio for the next hundred years: Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, Bette Midler, Anna Wintour and Lil Kim.

On Saturday night, behind the swaying metal curtains of the Grill and the Pool (nee the Four Seasons), Philip Johnsons modernist masterpiece on East 52nd Street, the guests descended. They had come from all over (people in the industry joked about fashion buses arriving for the weekend), super-fit per usual, but bloated with anticipation.

Bryanboy, a.k.a. Bryan Grey Yambao, the blogger-turned-fashion influencer whose early adoration of the Marc Jacobs label led Mr. Jacobs to name a bag in his honor, flew from Sweden to attend.
Allan Gallup, a retired lawyer and businessman, grew increasingly forgetful in his last few years. Eventually, he could no longer remember how to use a computer or the television. Although he needed a catheter, he kept forgetting and pulling it out.

It was Alzheimers disease, the doctors said. So after Mr. Gallup died in 2017 at age 87, his brain was sent to Washington University in St. Louis to be examined as part of a national study of the disease.

But it wasnt just Alzheimers disease, the researchers found. Although Mr. Gallups brain had all the hallmarks  plaques made of one abnormal protein and tangled strings of another  the tissue also contained clumps of proteins called Lewy bodies, as well as signs of silent strokes. Each of these, too, is a cause of dementia.

Mr. Gallups brain was typical for an elderly patient with dementia. Although almost all of these patients are given a diagnosis of Alzheimers disease, nearly every one of them has a mixture of brain abnormalities.
As our reporting continued, we discovered it was common for hospitals, doctors and public health agencies to clam up when it came to talking about their troubles with resistant bugs, though they widely acknowledged the existence of the problem and even encouraged our efforts. This disconnect was at its most extreme when the issue turned to the subject of the first article in our series, which was published online on Saturday  Candida auris.

C. auris is a drug-resistant fungus that has emerged mysteriously around the world, and it is understood to be a clear and present danger. But Connecticut state officials wouldnt tell us the name of the hospital where they had had a C. auris patient, let alone connect us with her family. Neither would officials in Texas, where the woman was transferred and died. A spokeswoman for the City of Chicago, where C. auris has become rampant in long-term health care facilities, promised to find a family and then stopped returning my calls without explanation.

There were rays of light. The State of New York, where many have died, told us they tried to connect us with families of people who had fallen ill, as did a Brooklyn branch of Mount Sinai Hospital. But one after another withdrew. Theyve backed out, a hospital official told my colleague Andrew Jacobs when we were hours from an interview with relatives of a C. auris patient who had died.

My emails to a researcher about C. auris in India, which has dealt with many cases, went unanswered, and that soon became common  emails and calls just not returned. We put a call-out on the New York Times website asking to speak to families affected by C. auris, recognizing this came with the risk of tipping off others to our work, and got nary a bite.

We came to realize that the secrecy surrounding C. auris was a big part of the story. A doctor in Spain wrote me that the hospital didnt want bad press by seeming to be a hotbed of the fungus. I got the same message from a doctor in England. One doctor in New York told me that patients, and their families, dont like being associated with the illness, as if they had a scarlet letter  A for auris.

The stakes are growing. The issue goes well beyond that one fungus. Ms. Baileys bacterial infection continues to plague her. This week, she will have her gallbladder removed, thanks to complications from multiple courses of antibiotics and steroids used to treat her vexing infection, her family said.

As we prepare to move ahead with more articles on drug resistance, we understand that we are tackling an issue that is so scary, it feels easy for some people to ignore, less frightening to bury.

If our series gets more people talking, that would be a victory.
We put an economic value on the cost of more toilets and compared it to the cost of the assaults. Aside from the human rights implications, we showed how more toilets would be a money saver.

How did that work out?

Unfortunately, Cape Town did not do the right thing. But we gave them the facts.

Where else have you tried this approach?

With H.I.V.-AIDS. Research shows that between 14 to 15 percent of the H.I.V.-positive people in the U.S. dont know they are infected. Finding them is a needle-in-the-haystack problem.

Now, there exist some very effective quantitative tools for locating needles in haystacks. Oil companies doing oil exploration and rescuers searching for downed airplanes use them. Though the problems arent analogous, you can repurpose their algorithms to locate clusters of undiagnosed H.I.V. cases.

Thats important, because H.I.V. remains a problem among gay men in the U.S. and among opioid users who share needles.

Why did you become an epidemiologist?

Frankly, because of H.I.V.-AIDS. I was a gay college dropout in the 1980s. Thats when H.I.V. was first struck in the United States. The government didnt seem to care. It was labeled the gay disease, and that made it easier for the mainstream to ignore.

A man I was in love with was H.I.V.-positive. I needed information about what we were up against. There wasnt much. So I began going to meetings of the activist organization Act Up and later I helped co-found the Treatment Action Group, which pushed for research and new drugs.

At both, the members  most of us nonprofessionals  read papers in virology and immunology. At the same time, we tutored ourselves on the workings of the N.I.H. and the F.D.A. On the activist side, we went to Washington and demanded action.
When I picture JEB  Joan E. Biren  shes in motion, journeying across America with her infamous Dyke Show in tow. Shes making images of lesbians at home, with lovers and raising babies. Shes in on the action of marching and mourning, sleeping and singing, protesting and partying.

Officially called Lesbian Images in Photography: 1850-the present, the Dyke Show, as it was popularly known, offered an alternative history of photography. It included JEB and others like her. At once pedagogical, political and practical  JEB typically paired her slide show with workshops  the show offered new ways of looking and of being seen.

Accessibility was always crucial to JEB, a self-taught photographer with a DIY drive. She never made photographs with gallery walls in mind. Too reminiscent of the closet, she said. And you cant build a movement from inside a closet.
The filmmakers said they want the same treatment as that given to films favored by the abortion-rights movement, such as RBG, the documentary about Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Konzelman also referenced an announced film that will star Sandra Bullock as the former Texas state senator Wendy Davis, who has campaigned against restrictions on abortion rights.

Would any of the places that turned us down for advertising turn down Sony, or Paramount, or Universal with a Sandra Bullock movie from the other side? he asked. I dare say not.

Unplanned is based on the memoir of the same name by Abby Johnson, a former director of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan, Tex., who became a celebrity of the anti-abortion movement after what she said was a crisis of conscience. The film dramatizes her conversion narrative and includes three unflinching portrayals of abortions, the first and most explicit of which occurs in the first 10 minutes. (Reports in Texas Monthly and Salon have raised questions about the details of Johnsons story, and Planned Parenthood said in a statement that the movie adaptation promotes many falsehoods.)

The abortion scenes earned the movie its R rating, for some disturbing/bloody images, which meant that its trailers couldnt run in front of non-R-rated films, or even on some Christian radio stations, such as K-Love and Air1. But the filmmakers said they werent willing to compromise on the graphic portrayals, which are central to the films appeal to viewers as a self-proclaimed expose that promises hard truths.

In that first scene, teased in the trailer and on posters as the moment that changed everything, Abby, played by Bratcher, witnesses an ultrasound-guided termination of a pregnancy at 13 weeks. The ultrasound, as depicted onscreen, shows a fetus with a discernible head, torso and limbs frantically squirming away from a doctors probe  an action that Abby later describes as twisting and fighting for its life  before being liquefied by suction.

Given a description of this scene, Jennifer Villavicencio, a fellow with the nonpartisan American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists who performs ultrasound-guided abortions but has not seen the film, said that while an ultrasound of a 13-week-old fetus may show a visible head and body, the notion that it would be fighting for its life is misleading.
You need to get surrogates and win those local activists over so they dont go with the other candidates. And you need to meet the money that isnt available in New York City.

If people are going to write you a big check, generally they want to meet with you in person.

Does running for president enable Mr. de Blasio to do something that he couldnt do otherwise?

In the 2016 race, he tried to have an influence on the presidential conversation without being a candidate. It didnt quite work.

He may think that the way to do that this time is to actually be in the race. You saw that last time around with Bernie Sanders. He had far more influence as a candidate than you imagine he would have had if he tried to just have a political action committee and support some candidates in 2016.

Maybe thats what Mr. de Blasio is doing.

Running for president also helps stave off the effects of being a lame duck. He has to leave City Hall at the end of 2021. Already youve had people talking about the next mayors race, and it makes the mayor seem a little less powerful.

What exactly is the influence the mayor wants to have? What does his fingerprint on 2020 look like?

Thats a good question. Hes focused on affordable housing, universal prekindergarten and early education. Hes also talked about universal health care.

The trouble for him is that a lot of his ideas have been taken up, and people go further now.

What would be the de Blasio signature issue to move the Democratic Party in a way that its not already moving? I think he has to answer that question.
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ALBANY  In an attempt to work around the White House, Democratic lawmakers in Albany are trying to do what their federal counterparts have so far failed to accomplish: to obtain President Trumps tax returns.

Albany lawmakers are seeking state tax returns, not the federal ones at the heart of the current standoff in Washington. But a tax return from New York  the presidents home state, and the headquarters of his business empire  could likely contain much of the same financial information as a federal return.

Under a bill that is scheduled to be introduced this week, the commissioner of the New York Department of Taxation and Finance would be permitted to release any state tax return requested by leaders of three congressional committees for any specific and legitimate legislative purpose.

The bill is the most recent proposal from New York lawmakers trying to cast light on the presidents personal finances and business dealings, but it could also open the Democratic majorities in the Legislature to charges of politicizing state law to embarrass the president ahead of his expected re-election campaign.
Open Line developed a following: Skip Dillard, WBLSs operations manager, said that about 60,000 people tune in each week. Mr. Pickett described Mr. Slade as the programs chief operator and a historian.

Bob was a great storyteller and activist in getting our audience involved in certain big issues, Mr. Pickett said in a telephone interview.

Among many other topics, Open Line addressed politics, the O. J. Simpson trial and police shootings of black people. It was one of the first programs to question the conventional news media narrative about five black and Latino teenagers accused of beating and raping a white woman who was jogging in Central Park in 1989.

The so-called Central Park jogger case became one of the biggest crime stories of the late 1980s, and many news outlets were quick to trust police accounts and a prosecution based largely on confessions that the youths claimed were coerced. On Open Line, Mr. Slade pointed to DNA evidence that appeared to exonerate the suspects and criticized other outlets for playing it down.

Were telling the story the way it should have been told  the way everybody else should be telling it, Mr. Slade told The New York Times in 1990.

All five of the youths were convicted of various crimes, and served years in prison. In 2002 a convicted murderer and serial rapist confessed to the rape, and the convictions of the five men were vacated.

Mr. Slade told The Daily News in 2012 that he considered the exoneration of the Central Park Five, as the men came to be known, a vindication of his journalistic approach.
Cho Yang-ho, whose 27 years as president of Korean Air brought substantial growth to the carrier but also a dizzying series of scandals, including two corruption investigations involving him and a notorious tantrum on a flight by one of his daughters, died on Sunday in Los Angeles. He was 70.

The company announced his death on Twitter. Reuters said he had been undergoing treatment for an unspecified lung disease.

Shareholders had ousted Mr. Cho from the companys board less than two weeks ago, a highly unusual move in South Korea, where family-controlled conglomerates, called chaebols, like that run by the Chos, have tended to operate with a certain arrogance.

Mr. Cho had been president of Korean Air since 1992, chairman since 1999 and chairman of the overarching entity, Hanjin Group, since 2003.
AUSTIN, Tex.  After decades of lawsuits and mass protests failed to radically reform the troubled Police Department, we tried a new tactic a few years ago: Targeting one of the most problematic police union contracts in the country. As a result, Austin went from having a retrograde contract to one that offers transparency and accountability. Others cities can follow this route as well.

For years, the Austin Police Departments contract limited civilian oversight, allowed police misconduct records to basically vanish and kept certain important internal affairs files under seal. This lack of oversight, accountability and transparency was linked to the over-policing of Austins black community.

In Austin, black people represent only 8 percent of the population yet are subjected to 14 percent of stops, 26 percent of searches, 24 percent of arrests and 31 percent of officer-involved shootings.

For us, the tipping point came in 2016, after a police officer killed David Joseph, an unarmed, naked black teenager. Around then, a video circulated showing Breaion King, a slim, young black schoolteacher, being violently and needlessly arrested at a traffic stop. When she tried to file a complaint about a year later, a statute of limitations on misconduct negotiated in the police contract prevented the police officers from being disciplined.
America stands ready to engage an Iranian government with mutual respect, in pursuit of mutual interests. But in order to make this opening possible  in order to normalize ties and enjoy all the benefits that would follow  the regime must first decide that it wants to be a normal country and not a revolutionary cause.

A peaceful Iran would augur well for a more peaceful Middle East. But after 40 years many nations have become desensitized to Irans violence and have lost the ability to imagine a peaceful Iran. Such low expectations do a great disservice to the cause of peace, and especially to the Iranian people, who want a better life.

It is time for nations to restore basic demands on Iran to behave like a normal, peaceful nation: end the pursuit of nuclear weapons, stop testing ballistic missiles, stop sponsoring terrorist proxies and halt the arbitrary detention of dual citizens. The regime should invest in its own people instead of bankrolling dictators, terrorists, missiles and militias. Thanks to regime subsidies, the average Hezbollah combatant makes two to three times what an Iranian firefighter is paid.

I have heard diplomats tell me these fundamental changes are unrealistic. Is it somehow more realistic to accept the status quo of Iran exporting sectarian violence at will and creating a Shiite corridor of control? Is it more realistic to watch the regime forcibly try to bend all of Iranian society to conform with tenets of the Islamic Revolution?

If nations choose not to hold this regime to the same standard as all other nations, we must expect more of the same violence abroad and oppression at home. The Iranian people, including women who are denied even their most basic dignity, are pressuring the regime from inside. They want nations to support them with pressure from outside. That is the best and most probable path to promote peace and to secure the rights and freedoms the Iranian people deserve and were promised in 1979.

While it is ultimately up to the Iranian people to determine the direction of their country, the United States, in the spirit of our own freedoms, will support the long-ignored voice of the Iranian people. Other nations should join this effort. The next 40 years of Irans history would be marked then not by repression and fear, but by freedom and fulfillment for the Iranian people.

Brian H. Hook is a former director of the State Departments Office of Policy Planning.

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.

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To the Editor:

Re Kirstjen Nielsen Enforced Cruelty at the Border. Her Replacement Could Be Worse (editorial, nytimes.com, April 7):

Nancy Pelosi said of Kirstjen Nielsens departure as homeland security secretary, It is deeply alarming that the Trump administration official who put children in cages is reportedly resigning because she is not extreme enough for the White Houses liking .

Madam Speaker paints this entire nightmare in a few brief descriptive strokes. This pretty much sums up the entire Trump immigration policy. What more really needs to be said?

Marge Keller

Chicago

To the Editor:

Re Stoking Anti-Semitism Fears, Trump Courts Jews (news article, April 7):

In your report on President Trumps speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition, you quote him saying of asylum seekers: You cant come in. Our country is full. What can we do? We cant handle any more. Apparently the speech was received with raucous applause and cheers . Really?

Is memory so short that people have forgotten the St. Louis, a ship carrying more than 900 Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany that was turned away?
The Colombian president deserves better treatment. Mr. Duque has been the Trump administrations most steadfast regional partner in pressuring the regime in neighboring Venezuela. His government is struggling to cope with over 1.3 million Venezuelans who have fled to Colombia. As the United States presidential campaign picks up steam, United States-Colombia ties are in danger of becoming  re-narcotized , which would undermine efforts in recent years to broaden the bilateral agenda.

The Trump administrations approach toward Venezuela and Cuba should be distinguished from issues of nationwide concern such as immigration, drugs, and trade. Still, there is little question that domestic politics, largely focused on South Florida, is a key element helping to shape policy. More ideological factors, advanced less by Mr. Trump himself and more by his national security adviser, John Bolton, and Marco Rubio, the Florida senator, are also relevant.

The Trump administrations sustained pressure on the Venezuelan dictatorship, carried out in concert with hemispheric and European allies, has rightly provided badly needed support for a democratic transition to a beleaguered Venezuela. But the United States agenda in Venezuela is tightly linked to the administrations pursuit of regime change in Cuba, as Mr. Bolton has repeatedly made clear. Though in Latin America there is no love lost for the Cuban regime, the region is more cautious about Cuba than Venezuela. Most Latin Americans consider the past six decades of United States policy toward Cuba (aside from the two-year opening under Obama) to be a failure and strongly oppose any new threats and punishments.

To be sure, infelicitous phrases by Mr. Trump and other senior administration officials like, All options are on the table, and, I wish Nicolas Maduro and his top advisers a long, quiet retirement, living on a nice beach somewhere, may draw cheers, help deliver votes, and generate money in a critical swing state in 2020. But they also evoke possible military action and, as a result, risk weakening or dividing the broad coalition that has been forged on Venezuela.

To preserve this coalition  a major asset for the United States Venezuela policy  the Trump administration needs to keep its posturing for electoral purposes in check. Invoking the socialism boogeyman in Venezuela as a way to attack the Democratic Party for its health care and New Green Deal proposals shows how the hemispheres worst crisis could be used in the presidential campaign.

It would be naive to call for a moratorium on theatrics as November 2020 looms. Playing on domestic politics with Latin American issues may work for President Trump as he pursues a second term. Still, it is crucial not to completely lose sight of the national interest, which means investing wisely in Central America and cooperating closely with Mexico. Mr. Trump needs to stick with the broad coalition on Venezuela, eschew any suggestion of military action there and any reference to regime change in Cuba.

These issues should command bipartisan support. If not handled well, they could have consequences for the United States policy in the region for decades to come.
[Listen to The Argument podcast every Thursday morning, with Ross Douthat, Michelle Goldberg and David Leonhardt.]

Opinion Debate Will the Democrats face a midterm wipeout? Mark Penn and Andrew Stein write that "only a broader course correction to the center will give Democrats a fighting chance in 2022" and beyond.

write that "only a broader course correction to the center will give Democrats a fighting chance in 2022" and beyond. Tory Gavito and Adam Jentleson write that the Virgina loss should "shock Democrats into confronting the powerful role that racially coded attacks play in American politics."

write that the Virgina loss should "shock Democrats into confronting the powerful role that racially coded attacks play in American politics." Ezra Klein speaks to David Shor, who discusses his fear that Democrats face electoral catastrophe unless they shift their messaging.

speaks to David Shor, who discusses his fear that Democrats face electoral catastrophe unless they shift their messaging. Ross Douthat writes that the outcome of the Virginia gubernatorial race shows Democrats need a new way to talk about progressive ideology and education.

Trump has repeatedly said that he would be happy to release his returns publicly, but thats clearly been a lie. One of his excuses has been the false claim that he cant release them because he is being audited by the I.R.S. And over the weekend, his administration stopped pretending Trump was telling the truth. Democrats will never see them, said Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, on Fox News yesterday. Nor should they. Trumps lawyers have said they will fight the request.

Why is Trump so afraid of letting people see his tax returns?

The most innocent possibility is that he isnt nearly as wealthy as he has long boasted, and hes embarrassed by the truth. A less innocent possibility is that he has financial ties that could create political problems for him if those ties became public  for example, ties to Russia or other countries to which his foreign policy has been suspiciously friendly.

The release of the returns would let Americans decide whether the president is making decisions that benefit his businesses at the expense of American taxpayers, Aaron Scherb of Common Cause, the government watchdog group, has written in USA Today. If Trump has significant debt to banks and/or individuals in certain countries, some of which might be adversaries of the United States, we must know because his foreign policy decisions might be compromised.

Seeing the presidents tax returns isnt a matter of prurient gossip or mere partisan politics. Its a matter of national interest. So long as Trump is fighting the release, Democrats should keep talking about it.
Since March 31, the defeat in Turkey of President Recep Tayyip Erdogans Islamic conservative Justice and Development Party, the A.K.P., and its ultranationalist electoral partner Nationalist Movement Party, the M.H.P., in municipal elections in Ankara, Istanbul and several others cities has led to premature commentary that Turkey is on the verge of change.

By wresting control of mayoral positions in Ankara and Istanbul, which were held by Mr. Erdogans party for 25 years, the opposition coalition has shown that Mr. Erdogan is not invincible.

But it is no victory for liberal values. The opposition coalition of the Republican Peoples Party, the C.H.P., and its electoral partner, the Good Party  an offshoot of Mr. Erdogans ultranationalist partner  is simply another version of the right-wing nationalism of the ruling coalition of the A.K.P. and the M.H.P.

The C.H.P., which is officially a social democratic party, has endorsed the imprisonments of elected Kurdish politicians and nominated ultranationalists, among them Mansur Yavas, the mayor-elect in Ankara, the national capital. Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the C.H.P. leader, has said that he loves the ultraright nationalists. He has also said that the left-right divide has become irrelevant and that it was a mistake by the left in the past to focus on income redistribution.
Ridley Scott, eat your heart out.

Like terrified moviegoers seated on the edges of their seats and at the mercy of their imaginations, astronomers expect this week to finally see the monster: a supermassive black hole.

At 9 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday April 10, a group of astronomers who run a globe-girdling network of radio telescopes called the Event Horizon Telescope are expected to unveil their long awaited pictures of a pair of putative black holes. One of the objects sits at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, buried in the depths of interstellar dust and gas, and equivalent in mass to 4.1 million suns that otherwise have disappeared from the visible universe.

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The other target is in the heart of Messier 87, a giant galaxy in the constellation Virgo, where a black hole 7 billion times the mass of the sun is spewing a jet of energy thousands of light-years across space.

According to calculations, and if all has gone well, either or both of the black holes should appear as a tiny shadow backlit by the glow of radio energy at the galactic center.
PRINCETON, N.J.  On the evening of March 19, the mathematician Karen Uhlenbeck gathered with revelers at the Institute for Advanced Study for a champagne reception. Some hours earlier shed been awarded the Abel Prize  the first time a woman had won it  for her discovery of a phenomenon called bubbling, among other effervescent results.

Dr. Uhlenbeck is a professor emerita at the University of Texas at Austin, where she spent the better part of her career (having declined a professorship at Harvard). She retired in 2014 and moved to Princeton. At the institute, she keeps a desk piled with boxes of books. She describes herself as a messy reader, and a messy thinker, and she is stylishly disheveled, with a preference for comfy, colorful clothing with pockets and Birkenstocks with socks.

As a procession of speeches and toasts lauded her lifes work, Dr. Uhlenbeck stood to the side of the lectern and listened, eyes mostly closed. When it finally came time to make her own remarks (unprepared), she began by simply agreeing: From the perspective of my late seventies, I find myself as a young mathematician sort of impressive, too.

She went on to note that, for lack of mathematical candidates, her role model had been the chef Julia Child. She knew how to pick the turkey up off the floor and serve it, Dr. Uhlenbeck said.
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia  A renowned Russian director was released on Monday by a court in Moscow after nearly 20 months of house arrest, in a financial fraud case that is widely seen by Russias intelligentsia as a test for artistic freedom.

Kirill Serebrennikov, one of Russias leading stage and film directors, had been imprisoned in his apartment since August, 2017, after Russian investigators accused him of conspiring with three of his colleagues to embezzle 133 million rubles, or around $2 million, of government funds allocated to a theater festival.

Mr. Serebrennikov and his three co-defendants have pleaded not guilty. Speaking on Monday to reporters outside the court, which released him on bail, Mr. Serebrennikov thanked his supporters and added, This is not over yet. If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison.

We need to continue and prove our complete innocence in court, he said, adding that he would return as soon as possible to work at the Gogol Center, a state-run theater where he is the artistic director.
Sharp-eyed readers will have noticed that the title of the new Target Margin Theater play, Marjana and the Forty Thieves, is familiar, but also a bit off. Wait, someone other than Ali Baba had to battle 40 thieves? Or is this an alternate take of that famous tale, the one featuring the famous phrase open, Sesame?

Actually, that story prominently figures in this show  its just that the focus has been switched from Ali Baba to Marjana, a slave girl in his household who got him out of a pretty bad jam (outswindling swindlers may not be a great idea).

But lets back up a bit, because despite the title, Marjana does not actually get all that much spotlight here. David Herskovitss production spends considerably more time on One Thousand and One Nights, the omnibus of stories that includes Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves. Marjana continues the exploration of that world started in last years Pay No Attention to the Girl, but it is very much its own show. (I used the shows spellings for the characters  Marjana herself, for instance, is called Morgiana in English versions of the tale.)

Looking at how tales are created and passed along is a great subject for our times. After all, we live in a culture obsessed with storytelling  even elections are decided in no small part by the narratives candidates spin about themselves and the country, rather than by hard facts and policy planning  and issues of authorship. Both of these are an integral part of One Thousand and One Nights (also known as Arabian Nights), a living organism that developed through accretion as stories were added through the centuries. On a smaller scale, Marjana was devised by its company over three years.
A Land of Curiosities

The following day we boarded a truck, with a guide named Abdallah Ali Moussa, and barreled into the western desert. We drove for eight hours, through wastelands of rubble and Martian hills, until we arrived at a desiccated plain. Here, close to the geothermal hot spot of the Afar Triple Junction, where three tectonic plates converge, a forest of pinnacles appeared on the horizon. We had reached Lake Abbe.

At least, we had reached what used to be Lake Abbe. All that could be seen of the lake itself was a navy blur far to the north. Abdallah told us that a recent Ethiopian irrigation project on the Awash River had disrupted the lakes inflow. The water level, always subject to seasonal fluctuations, had now retreated drastically, marooning the otherworldly landscape of limestone towers for which Abbe is famed. The scene wed imagined, with colonies of flamingoes strutting around a topaz shore, was instead a dust bowl, friable and desolate.

Though I had to swallow some disappointment to see it, Abbes fumaroles, built up over millennia by the accretion of calcareous mineral deposits, still presented an astonishing panorama. In the densest areas, they formed canyons of melted wax which made me think of van Eycks Last Judgment, a ghastly ars Gothica of wailing faces. Baked from above by the sun and from beneath by geothermal activity, the ground crumbled pastry-like under our shoes.
Screening is useful when a condition is prevalent, when we can screen in a cost-effective manner, when early diagnosis makes a difference, and when we know that acting on that screen will make a difference.

Dr. Susan Curry, the immediate past chairwoman of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, told me: There have simply not been enough studies that assess the effects of screening and behavioral counseling in adolescents to address this issue. In addition, many of the existing studies have been conducted in school settings, and it is unclear if the results would translate to primary care.

The effects of behavioral counseling on adults are proven enough to show a moderate benefit. The same holds true for pregnant women, although the evidence is a bit less strong. But when it comes to adolescents, the evidence is almost nonexistent.

In a large systematic review, there were two studies (out of 68 total) that addressed how counseling interventions might affect adolescent alcohol use. One was a randomized controlled trial of 119 urban adolescents screened in a medical clinic, published in 2015, that used peer networks and motivational interviewing. Over all, it failed to achieve statistical significance with respect to reducing alcohol use.

The other was a 2017 randomized controlled trial in Switzerland schools (not clinics) of a web-and-text-based peer-network messaging system to reduce single-occasion binge drinking. It decreased the chance of that happening by 5.9 percent in the intervention group. But it had no effect on how much youths drank over all or the estimated peak blood alcohol concentration during binge drinking.

Thats all weve got. And before 2015, there was nothing.

We are calling for additional research in all areas related to screening adolescents for alcohol use and providing counseling interventions to those who need them, Dr. Curry said. It is also important to explore whether such interventions could reduce other risky behaviors. In the meantime, we encourage primary care clinicians to use their clinical judgment when deciding whether to screen their adolescent patients for alcohol use.

Theres disagreement on the definition of unhealthy alcohol use for adults.

For men, risky drinking is more than four drinks on any day or more than 14 drinks in any week, according to the national institute. And for women, its more than three drinks on any day or more than seven drinks in any week. (The institute defines a drink as 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine or 1.5 ounces of spirits.)
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.  The Chinese woman who was arrested after gaining entry to President Trumps private club while carrying four cellphones and other electronic equipment had stored even more electronics in her hotel room, including a device used to detect hidden cameras, a federal prosecutor said Monday.

The woman, Yujing Zhang, 32, was arrested March 30 after telling Secret Service agents that she had come to use the pool at Mar-a-Lago and showing two Chinese passports. After the authorities determined that the event she said she had come to attend did not exist, she was arrested and charged with lying to a federal officer and accessing a restricted area.

Ms. Zhang had entered the property with four cellphones, a hard drive and a thumb drive infected with malware, according to federal court records. Upon searching her hotel room, investigators found another cellphone and a radio frequency device that detects hidden cameras, Assistant United States Attorney Rolando Garcia said.

She also had nine U.S.B. drives and five SIM cards in her room at the Colony Hotel, along with several debit cards and about $8,000 in cash, including about $700 in Chinese currency, Mr. Garcia said during a bond hearing at the U.S. District Court in West Palm Beach.
Federal prosecutors said Monday they had filed a criminal charge against a 28-year-old man who they say planned to run down pedestrians on the National Harbor waterfront, a popular tourist site along the Potomac River near Washington.

The man, Rondell Henry of Germantown, Md., was inspired by the terrorist group ISIS when he stole a U-Haul van from a parking garage in Alexandria, Va., on March 26, according to the United States attorneys office in Maryland. He has been charged with interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle.

Prosecutors say Mr. Henry, a computer engineer, drove the van early on March 27 to Dulles International Airport, where he got out and tried, unsuccessfully, for more than two hours to find a way through security. Mr. Henry then got back in the U-Haul and drove to the National Harbor in Maryland, arriving around 10 a.m., they said.

According to prosecutors, Mr. Henry walked around looking for an ideal spot to mimic a 2016 Bastille Day attack in Nice, France, in which a truck barreled through a crowd of spectators, killing more than 80 people.
How routine this kind of dismissal has become got me thinking about all the conventions President Trump has broken in Washington  the breach hes opened up in the unspoken manners, decorum and traditions that long governed the capital.

Or, as we nerds in D.C. like to call them, norms.

Now, theres a case to be made that actual voters do not care all that much about our nerdy norms (see: Mr. Trumps victory, 2016). Theres also evidence they do (see: Mr. Trumps fallen approval rating among independent voters). The reality is, until hes back on the ballot, we dont really know whether Mr. Trumps consistent flouting of The Way Things Are Done matters to most Americans.

The only thing we truly know about norms? Over his nearly 27 months in Washington, Mr. Trump has broken a whole lot of them.

Heres an incomplete list, largely from the past few weeks, in no particular order:

Working in the White House: The White House used to be a place Washingtons climbers clambered over each other to reach. Now its the kind of job few want to keep. Nearly 50 officials have left the administration since Mr. Trump took office, according to a New York Times analysis, giving the president the record for both White House staff turnover and cabinet turnover. Last year, the White House even held a job fair to try and boost recruitment.

Getting fired from the White House: Getting fired by the president seems, under normal circumstances, like a bad thing. In the Trump administration, though, some have seen it as the only way out while saving your reputation. Take Ms. Nielsen, for example. Though her legacy is likely linked with the presidents policies on separating migrant families at the border, her dismissal allows her to argue that she objected internally  and lost the fight  over some of the presidents most extreme positions on immigration.
WASHINGTON  Temporary status is a seemingly permanent condition of the Trump administration.

The resignation of Kirstjen Nielsen as homeland security secretary on Sunday means that another cabinet officer who reports directly to President Trump will have the word acting next to the official title at a major department of government.

Interim secretaries are also in place at the Departments of Defense and of the Interior, and at the Office of Management and Budget, the Small Business Administration and ambassadors office at the United Nations. Mick Mulvaney, Mr. Trumps chief of staff, is also serving in an acting capacity.

I like acting. It gives me more flexibility. Do you understand that? Mr. Trump told reporters in January before departing to Camp David. I like acting. So we have a few that are acting. We have a great, great cabinet.

But there are concerns about having men and women in such high-level jobs without having been subjected to Senate confirmation for those posts. Leaving cabinet secretaries unconfirmed in their roles could give the president even more leverage over them, or could leave them without full authority in the job.
On one hand, we need more people because the economy is booming, he said. Then on the other hand, to say, The country is full, go back  its impossible to reconcile those.

The H-2B visa program, which started in the mid-20th century, has been a feature of a persistent debate over using foreign workers for seasonal labor.

Unions and immigration opponents argue that hiring H-2B workers suppresses wages and deprives Americans of jobs. Advocacy groups say foreign workers are often exploited, and employers say the cap encourages businesses to hire undocumented workers.

Andrea Palermo, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, did not directly answer questions about what was behind the plan for additional H-2B visas. She also did not address questions about the apparent contradiction in the administrations positions.

Congress  not D.H.S.  should be responsible for determining whether the annual numerical limitations for H-2B workers set by Congress need to be modified, and by how much, and for setting parameters to ensure that enough workers are available to meet employers temporary needs throughout the year, she said.

The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Sunday.

Mr. Nowrasteh said he favored the H-2B program. I think the economic benefits from the H-2B visa are very large, the benefits to the workers are huge, he said.

Because businesses are required to show that no American workers want the jobs, the cap makes no sense, he said.
The researchers found the snake by using male pythons with radio transmitters to locate breeding females.

The team tracked one of the sentinel males with the transmitter and found this massive female nearby, the preserve said on Facebook.

I wish we could eradicate this species, but I think they are established, said Cheryl Millett, the manager of the Nature Conservancys Tiger Creek Preserve in central Florida, who led a Python Patrol program to try to control the snakes population. One of the problems with the Burmese python is that its an invasive species getting in the way of the areas natural functioning system. That is why we are trying to eradicate it.

Burmese pythons can grow to about 23 feet and are native to South Asia. They found their way to Florida decades ago through people who imported them as pets. Many owners underestimate how large the python will grow, and sometimes they let the snakes loose when they can no longer take care of them. Female pythons have the ability to lay 100 eggs, and the snakes multiply quickly.

That has led the python to threaten the biodiversity of the Everglades. The mammal and bird populations in the Everglades began to decline around the time that pythons started to proliferate in the area, according to a 2012 article in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The mother of Raniya Wright, the fifth grader who died after a fight at her South Carolina school, said on Monday that another student taunted her daughter into a physical altercation on the day of the fight and that she had previously told the school her daughter was being bullied.

The mother, Ashley Wright, told Good Morning America that Forest Hills Elementary School in Walterboro, S.C., about an hour west of Charleston, did not do enough to protect her daughter.

I notified the school, and I also spoke with her teacher at the time about this same person, Ms. Wright said about the student, a girl, who she said had been picking on her daughter. Im thinking, They got it handled, she said. And they failed me.

Ms. Wright said in the interview that she talked to students about what happened on March 25, the day Raniya, 10, was taken to the hospital unconscious but breathing. Ms. Wright said she was told the girl approached Raniya from behind and hit her on the head.
Wikipedians also began to discuss the content gender gap, which includes an imbalance in the gender distribution of biographies on the site. The latest analysis, released this month, said about 18 percent of 1.6 million biographies on the English-language Wikipedia were of women. That is up from about 15 percent in 2014, partially because of activists trying to move the needle.

The perils for L.G.B.T. editors

Claudia Lo, a foundation researcher on a team that is building anti-harassment tools, said there was a pattern of harassment on Wikipedia stemming from debates over L.G.B.T. issues. When a celebrity comes out as transgender  notably, Chelsea Manning in 2013 and Caitlyn Jenner in 2015  Wikipedians have extensively debated whether the individuals self-declared pronouns should be used.

Articles about transgender or nonbinary individuals are often subject to vandals who revert their pronouns back to their gender assigned at birth. But Wikipedias guidelines make clear that editors should use the gender that the subject of the article most recently stated in a dependable source.

In countries where it is more dangerous for L.G.B.T. individuals to be open about their identities, harassment on Wikipedia can be particularly virulent. Once, an administrator on a Wikipedia page blocked an editor simply because that persons username suggested that the editor could be gay, said Rachel Wexelbaum, a Wikipedian who works to improve L.G.B.T. content on the website. Eventually, she said, Wikimedias Trust and Safety Team got involved, and the administrator was blocked for those actions.

In some spaces, the environment for L.G.B.T. users has improved. Amir Sarabadani, a 25-year-old Iranian software developer with Wikimedia Foundations chapter in Germany, said that in his 12 years of editing Persian-language Wikipedia, users were often hostile while editing articles related to homosexuality.

About six years ago, Mr. Sarabadani started talking openly about being gay in conversations with other Wikipedians. He said other editors often accused him of having a homosexual agenda, and anonymous users posted lewd images of male genitals on his userpage.

But Mr. Sarabadani, who left Tehran for Berlin two years ago, said he thought his work as an administrator on Persian-language Wikipedia had made the community of editors there less tolerant of abuse.
In the opulent halls of the Emirates Palace hotel, a seat of power in Abu Dhabi where 114 domes decorate the vast rooftop, a delegation of about a dozen Chinese diplomats lobbied foreign ministers of the Muslim world last month.

China has been fighting criticism that it has detained as many as one million members of Muslim ethnic minorities in indoctrination camps in its western Xinjiang region. But at the two-day conclave in early March, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation  a group of 57 nations that has been a vocal defender of the Rohingyas and Palestinians  handed Beijing a significant victory.

In a resolution on protecting the rights of Muslim minorities around the world, the group praised China for providing care to its Muslim citizens.

Its vast system of detention without trial has drawn condemnation from the State Department and Congress, but no sanctions, and only scattered criticism in Europe and at the United Nations. That is still more of a response than in the Muslim world, where nations  including Pakistan, Indonesia and other recipients of big Chinese loans  have overlooked Chinas abuses against ethnic Uighurs, Kazakhs and others.
Last week, at least hundreds of Taliban fighters stormed a district in Afghanistans western Badghis Province, resulting in dozens of casualties. Fighting in Afghanistan usually escalates in the spring as the weather gets warmer, but the violence has been intensified by the peace talks as all sides try to increase their leverage.

Last month, two members of an American Special Forces unit and four Afghan Special Forces soldiers were killed during a joint operation in Gul Tepa District, on the outskirts of Kunduz city. American and Afghan officials said that the insurgents were massing on the outskirts of the city, which they have twice overrun, in 2015 and in 2016.

Mondays attack near Bagram brings to seven the number of American troops killed in Afghanistan this year. The Pentagon did not say whether the service members killed were Special Operations troops that make up about half of the 14,000 American soldiers in Afghanistan. The remainder are trainers, advisers and support forces.

President Trump has expressed his desire to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan. A Pentagon plan being offered in the peace negotiations would withdraw all American troops over the next three to five years. The rest of the international force in Afghanistan would leave at the same time, after having mixed success in stabilizing the country since 2001.

The Defense Department statement said that the names of the Americans killed were being withheld pending notification of the families.
HONG KONG  Nine democracy activists on Tuesday were convicted by a Hong Kong court on public nuisance charges for their roles in the protest movement that led to the monthslong occupation of major intersections in the city five years ago.

The activists face prison terms of up to seven years.

The protests, which became known as the Umbrella Movement, galvanized the city and sought to force Hong Kongs top official to step down and the government to accept more democratic means to elect future leaders.

While the protests had no formal leaders, three of the people on trial  Chu Yiu-ming, a retired pastor, and two professors, Benny Tai and Chan Kin-man  were founders of Occupy Central With Love and Peace, one of the main groups advocating civil disobedience to demand changes to Hong Kongs electoral system.

The three were convicted of conspiracy to commit public nuisance. Mr. Tai and Mr. Chan were also convicted of incitement to commit public nuisance.
TOKYO  Catholic bishops in Japan plan to conduct a nationwide survey on sexual abuse of children by members of the clergy, church officials said Monday.

Archbishop Mitsuaki Takami of Nagasaki, the leader of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Japan, shared the plan on Sunday during a gathering in Tokyo where a man spoke of being abused as a young boy at the hands of a German priest.

Japans Catholic Church is small, and we are not sure what we can do about child sexual abuse, Archbishop Takami said by telephone on Monday. But we think we have to pay attention to this issue.

According to The Mainichi Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper, bishops from around the country agreed last week to carry out the survey in all 16 dioceses. The survey method has not yet been decided.
HONG KONG  A political party led by the president of the Maldives appeared to have won decisively in parliamentary elections over the weekend, a result that may help him restore political freedoms in a strategically important country with an authoritarian past.

The president, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, had won a resounding victory in presidential elections last September. But parts of his partys agenda have been stymied because some of its allies in a governing coalition are aligned with a former strongman leader, Abdulla Yameen, who has been widely accused of corruption and repression.

The Maldives, a chain of islands southwest of India, has traditionally fallen within New Delhis sphere of influence. Yet it also stretches across maritime routes that are crucial to China, and Beijing has recently spent hundreds of millions of dollars on infrastructure projects in the Maldives.

Critics have warned of the Maldives falling prey to debt-trap diplomacy, meaning that it could be pressured to offer security concessions to China as repayment for large loans. Some politicians, as well as Western and Indian diplomats, have warned that a growing dependence on China could be a threat to the countrys sovereignty.
HONG KONG  Singapore has discovered more than 14 tons of pangolin scales in what conservation specialists called the largest such seizure of a single shipment worldwide, highlighting the stubbornness of the illegal trade of the scaly anteater.

Roughly 36,000 pangolins were believed to have been killed for the shipment, according to Paul Thomson, an official with the Pangolin Specialist Group, an organization belonging to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The group called it the biggest seizure of pangolin scales on record.

The news of this record-shattering seizure is deeply alarming and underscores the fact that pangolins are facing a crisis, Mr. Thomson said of the seizure, which took place last Wednesday. If we dont stop the illegal wildlife trade, pangolins face the risk of going extinct.

Pangolins are believed to be the most frequently illegally trafficked mammal in the world, with an estimated 300 of them poached every day on average. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has declared all eight species as threatened with extinction since 2014, while two species are critically endangered.
OTTAWA  Canada is expecting foreign interference in its national election in October, and is considering stronger regulation of social media companies to ensure they block meddling in the voting, the minister responsible for election integrity said on Monday.

The minister spoke after the release of an updated report by Canadas electronic eavesdropping and security agency on online interference by other countries in the Canadian election.

We judge it very likely that Canadian voters will encounter some form of foreign cyber interference related to the 2019 federal election, the report said. However, at this time, it is improbable that this foreign cyber interference will be of the scale of Russian activity against the 2016 United States presidential election.

Canada is a target of choice for those who seek to undermine our democracy, said the minister, Karina Gould, at a news conference in Ottawa.
LONDON  Two weeks before Britain was originally scheduled to leave the European Union, Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the opposition Labour Party, was asked on television whether Britain should stay or go. He refused to answer.

The question came again, and again, and again, and then one last time. He still refused to answer.

I want us to have a serious relationship with the E.U., he said, gliding past the in-or-out question that has consumed Britons for the better part of three years.

But now, with the Conservative government and Labour in talks to devise a deal they can both support, and with yet another deadline looming, Mr. Corbyns tightrope walk may be near an end.

Until now, his studied ambiguity has largely held his party together while the Conservatives have crumbled. But having accepted Prime Minister Theresa Mays offer to negotiate, he will likely face uncomfortable choices if Mrs. May softens her stance and tries to tempt him with a credible compromise.
But the endless hours of meeting with local officials, often with Mr. Macron doing most of talking, may have more successfully bludgeoned the Yellow Vests into submission than any number of riot police.

Only 22,300 people marched in the Yellow Vest protest across France Saturday, the lowest turnout yet, and less than a tenth of those who took part in the first marches on Nov. 17 last year. And only about 35 percent of the French still support them, less than half the figure at the movements peak.

Mr. Macron, by going week after week deep into the country and standing for hours on end lecturing and taking questions, has clawed back some of the popularity he lost at the height of the Yellow Vest movement.

He is now supported by some 29 percent of the French, according to an IFOP poll last week, around his level of support at the beginning of the protests. After weeks of trailing Marine Le Pens far-right Rassemblement National party, formerly the National Front, in polls for Mays elections to the European Parliament, Mr. Macron has finally crept out in front.

Renewing dialogue and deflating the anger  in one sense, hes succeeded, said Chloe Morin, a public opinion expert at the Ipsos consultancy in Paris. But, it was just one part of the French who participated in the Great National Debate, said Ms. Morin.

It was a certain category of the population, and not necessarily a representative one: city-dwellers, those who are reasonably off. So, its been a relative success, she said. Hes managed to regain his base of popularity  with his electorate, and with the right.

But the large segment of the population that once identified with the Yellow Vests is another matter.
Jorg Meuthen, a leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, said at the news conference that there were absent partners who will join us soon. Immediately after the elections in May, he said, the allied parties will form a new group in the European Parliament called the European Alliance of Peoples and Nations, the result of numerous meetings over recent months.

Olli Kotro, a member of the Finns Party who attended the event, was more cautious, saying, It remains to be seen who will join us.

While they share common ground when it comes to strong borders against migration and an emphasis on traditional, national identities, Europes far-right populists also disagree on many points of policy. Mr. Salvinis German and Scandinavian partners lean toward free-market economics, while their French allies are more protectionist.

Mr. Salvini has argued repeatedly that other European Union members must take their fair share of migrants, but some countries, like Hungary, have slammed the door shut. And Poland does not share the warmth that Mr. Salvini and other populists have toward Russia.

On Monday, Mr. Salvini rejected the suggestion that he and his allies were extremists and said they all had a clear memory of what happened in the past, but the tired debate of left and right, fascists, communists, thats not what we are passionate about or what 500 million European citizens are passionate about. The debate on the past we will leave to the historians.

For Mr. Salvini, the European elections could affect his standing at home, as well as across the continent. A strong showing in May would help him consolidate power in Italys governing coalition, where he is technically a junior partner to the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, which has hemorrhaged support since the election in March 2018.

But his Italian allies are less than pleased with his international project.

On Monday, Mr. Salvinis struggling coalition partner, Luigi Di Maio, the Five Star leader, wrote an open letter to Corriere della Sera, Italys leading newspaper, arguing that ahead of the European elections in May he found it paradoxical that Mr. Salvini was seeking a formal alliance with those countries who refuse to accept the redistribution of migrants who arrive in Italy.
WASHINGTON  President Trump said on Monday that he was designating a powerful arm of the Iranian military as a foreign terrorist organization, the first time that the United States has named part of another nations government as that type of official threat.

The designation imposes wide-ranging economic and travel sanctions on the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as well as organizations, companies and individuals with ties to it. Irans Revolutionary Guards carry out operations across the Middle East, train Arab Shiite militias and oversee businesses in Iran.

Mondays designation will significantly expand the scope and scale of our maximum pressure on the Iranian regime, Mr. Trump said in a statement.

The designation was opposed by some top Trump administration national security officials who said it could incite retaliation by Tehran against American troops and intelligence officers. It takes effect April 15, but was announced Monday in what American officials described as a chaotic and rushed process.
The Blue and White leaders are drawing on their military backgrounds to counter Mr. Netanyahus contention that only he can protect Israel. Mr. Gantz and his colleagues have also focused on the corruption accusations against Mr. Netanyahu, his biggest vulnerability, to press their case that new leadership is needed.

They have attracted backing from smaller centrist parties. And what remains of the left-leaning opposition has thrown its support behind Mr. Gantz for prime minister. The Labor Party would be likely to recommend Mr. Gantz for the premiership after the election.

What makes this election different?

Mr. Netanyahu could be indicted. Israels attorney general announced last month that he planned to bring charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.

A final decision on charges is likely by years end. Under the current law, Mr. Netanyahu, if re-elected, would not have to resign until a final conviction, although new legislation or public pressure could force him to step down. Mr. Netanyahu has described the charges as a baseless partisan witch hunt. But with a first sitting prime minister to be charged, Israel would be entering uncharted legal and political terrain.

The uncertainty has worked against Mr. Netanyahu in the prelude to the vote.

The attorney generals report has done something that has never happened in Israels 70-year history, and that is that a prime minister is under a legal cloud, said David Makovsky, an expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

The election also is the first time that three former heads of the army, the Israel Defense Forces, have united to run for office. The Blue and White alliance is led by Mr. Gantz and two other veteran generals, Gabi Ashkenazi and Moshe Yaalon.

They have teamed up with a well-known centrist party, Yesh Atid, led by Yair Lapid, a former journalist, television host and finance minister. Mr. Gantz has agreed to hand off the prime minister position to Mr. Lapid after two and a half years if their parties win.
If Israel were to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised in his re-election campaign, it would be a potentially fatal blow to the already tattered prospects for a peace agreement with side-by-side states, and could unleash a new round of violence, Palestinians warned on Monday.

But among Palestinians and in the wider Arab world, the reaction to Mr. Netanyahus campaign promise was largely muted, colored by a deeply skeptical view of Israeli vows and intentions.

The prime ministers remarks changed little, many Palestinians said, because in their view the two-state peace process was dead already and Israel was headed in the direction of annexation all along. Some Palestinians said they suspect Mr. Netanyahu is playing short-term politics more than making a serious long-term political statement.

[Read our guide to the Israeli elections.]

The truth is that annexation has been happening for the last 50 years; it just hasnt been directly called annexation, Fadi Quran, 31, an activist in the West Bank city of Ramallah, said on Monday.
In a medical case that doctors have called a worlds first, a Taiwanese woman was found to have four live sweat bees living in her eye, feeding on her tears.

The patient, referred to only as Ms. He, was reportedly tidying up a relatives grave at the cemetery by pulling out weeds when a gust of wind blew what she though was sand and dirt into her eye. She cleaned her eyes with water, but a few hours later she started feeling a sharp pain in her left eye and started constantly tearing up. The 20-something woman was taken to Fooyin University Hospital in Taiwans southern county of Pingtung , where ophthalmologists were shocked to find four live sweat bees feeding on her eye like it was a salt lick.

We were visiting and tidying a relatives grave, and I was squatted down pulling out weeds, Ms. He recalled. I felt wind blowing into my face, then I felt something in my eye which I thought was sand or dirt. I cleaned my eye using water but it started hurting a lot at night, a sharp pain, and I was tearing up.

The young woman had swollen eyelids and was suffering from cellulitis and keratitis  a skin infection and an inflammation of the cornea  as a result of the small insects feeding on her eye for several hours.

I saw something that appeared to be insect legs, so I pulled them out under a microscope one at a time without damaging their bodies, Dr Hung Chi-ting, the hospitals head of ophthalmology, said. They were four sweat bees.



Sweat bees nest near graves and in fallen trees, and apparently treat us human as salt licks, although a case of them actually living in someones eye and feeding on their salty tears is apparently unprecedented.

After having the bees removed and being treated for her symptoms, Ms. He was discharged and is expected to make a full recovery.

via Asia One


Jim Spanfeller

Stanton reps Great Hill Partners as the Boston-based private equity firm acquires Gizmodo Group and The Onion from Univision Communications.

Jim Spanfeller, former CEO of Forbes.com and Ziff Davis' digital consumer group will helm the new company, G/O Media Inc.

Hell oversee brands that reach about 100M visitors monthly, including Deadspin (sports), Jezebel (womens interests), The Root (African-American news/culture) Gizmodo (technology), Jalopnik (cars), Kotaku (gaming) and Lifehacker (life tips).

Most recently, Spanfeller, past chairman of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, built and sold a digital content company featuring Active Times and The Daily Meal to tronc inc.

GHPs Chris Gaffney noted that the acquired digital media assets combine for a larger audience than Vice, Vox or Buzzfeed.

He sees a great opportunity to further scale a high-quality content producer led by an experienced digital media executive like Jim.

Alex Stanton handles GHPs transaction.
Edenderry woman Jackie Hickey was delighted to complete the fourth annual in aid of World Down Syndrome Day and Down Syndrome Ireland on March 24.

Jackie made the trip to the Phoenix Park with her family and was greeted and helped over the line by her great-niece Katie Mooney.

The run encouraged everyone to run with us, not for us as the event is a celebration of people with Down syndrome in Ireland.

The event was open to all age groups and abilities and participants could choose to run, walk or push a buggy over the 5km or 1km distance, allowing all the family to take part.

The day was filled with fun, friendship and a bit of exercise for all the family  plus lots and lots of purple!

"Wed like to give our thanks and appreciation to all of our charity partners, event supporters, volunteers and of course to everyone who took part in the run  we had over 2,200 people take part in this years event which is over a 1,000 more than last years run," Down Syndrome Ireland said.
A petition calling for the restoration of the Midoc out-of-hours doctors service in Birr has now reached almost 1,500 signatures.

The petition was initially created online and has gathered 1,110 signatures on the website Uplift. Paper copies have now been placed in shops and other businesses in Banagher and Birr, and organisers collecting signatures on the street in Birr on Friday, April 5, collected 348 signatures in support of the call in just two hours.

Local Election candidate for the Social Democrats, Clare Claffey, has been calling on the HSE to restore the Midoc out-of-hours GP Service to Birr since she started the online petition on the Uplift campaigning website in February.

As a parent of young children with complex medical needs, I know first-hand the worry of having a sick child, and the prospect of having to drive for almost an hour in the night to see a doctor is simply frightening. And thats for the lucky ones who have access to private transport. While canvassing recently across west and south Offaly this is the number one issue of concern that has been raised with me by residents," Claffey explained.

The Midoc service, provided by a private company made up of local GPs and funded by the HSE, closed without warning in April of last year, following a reduction in opening hours in the months prior to closure. Among the reasons cited for its closure was the lack of availability of doctors to cover the roster.

Clare Claffey says this is "a symptom of a much wider problem with primary healthcare in the area."

Instead of using the lack of GPs as a reason to reduce services further, surely we need to address the reasons why there are problems with recruitment and retention of GPs."

"The Irish Medical Organisation has stated that the retention and recruitment of doctors in General Practice is directly related to the cuts in the GP contract during the recession. They cite a 38% cut which has undermined the financial model supporting General Practice. Practicing GPs are retiring, and younger GPs do not see a viable future in Ireland."

The reality is that our inability to recruit and retain doctors is having negative implications for the provision of timely patient care. Waiting lists, which are already intolerably long will get longer and many more patients will struggle to find and enlist with a GP as practices continue to close to new patients," Clare continued.

Some of the people who signed the petition online left emotional comments stating why they felt so strongly about Midoc. One user, Catherine R said: My stepfather would have died without this service being in Birr. Phoning someone to drive someone to the A&E 45 minutes away is just not acceptable when every minute counts."

Another, Kathleen G said: It is grossly unfair to expect ill or wounded people to make their own way to Tullamore hospital. Birr Midoc is not a luxury service - it is a necessity.

Claffey said: I am calling on the Government to restore this vital service to Birr. The most vulnerable people of West and South Offaly are already greatly disadvantaged by a lack of transport and other infrastructure, and they need this medical service returned to them.

Its clear from the huge support that has been given to this petition that this issue is not going to go away, and I will not rest until it Is addressed.

The petition is available for signatures in business premises across Birr and Banagher, and it is also online here.
A man who has spent 31 years in prison for a murder he committed when he was a child does not pose a risk to society and should not be extradited to the UK, his barrister has told the High Court.

Roy Norman Kenyon absconded to Ireland in 2003 while serving his sentence for the murder of Margaret Potts, an elderly shopkeeper, whom he beat to death with a poker in 1971. Having lived in Ireland under an alias in Tullamore for the past 15 years, the 64-year-old is now facing the prospect of returning to the UK to continue serving the life sentence.

Ronan Kennedy BL, for the Minister for Justice, told the court last month that Kenyon was in the process of having his life sentence reviewed "when he made the conscious decision to become a fugitive."

Outlining the facts of the case, Mr Kennedy said Kenyon had been "consuming alcohol at a public house" on the night of his crime, when he left to purchase more alcohol from Mrs Potts. However, he soon got into an argument with her, before hitting her two times in the head with a poker, while she sat in an armchair.'

The court heard that Kenyon had lived in Tullamore under the alias of Alan McPherson, before being arrested in the village of Eyeries, Co Cork on May 2, 2018.

Opposing an application for his surrender to the UK on Monday, Sean Guerin SC said that his client is not considered a risk to society. The focus of the probation officers report was on behavioural issues, coping skills and compliance with prison conditions and no concern was expressed for Kenyon's behaviour, argued Mr Guerin.

The barrister said his client is now an adult but was sentenced as a child and was considered to be a greater risk to society than the average prisoner because he had spent a longer time in custody. The lawyer said this logic was "fallacious" and unsupported by the evidence placed before the court.

Counsel said Kenyon has been at liberty for a long period of time and did not appear to have exhibited a risk to the public.

Mr Guerin said his client was eligible for release in the 1980s when he completed the punitive portion of his sentence. However, he will now serve an "indeterminate" sentence if he is surrendered to the UK, he said. There is no evidence in terms of his behaviour to suggest that he poses an "unacceptable risk" to the public, he added.

Mr Guerin also submitted that there is no commitment from the UK authorities that Kenyon's case will be reviewed at anytime before 2021. He said that his client is likely to find himself "back in the twilight zone" of having his life sentence reviewed every two years and further conditions being imposed.

Counsel pointed out that the only purpose for Kenyon's surrender to the UK is to serve a sentence for the protection of the public and no material has been put before the court which demonstrates "any such risk".

"We say that the court should not lend itself to that process and the very obvious injustice which will result," concluded Mr Guerin.

Ms Justice Aileen Donnelly said she had a lot to think about and would reserve her judgment until May 21. Kenyon was remanded in custody until then.
Airc Midlands is a voluntary run group set up to support children with disabilities and those within their support circle and the group will be holding a major fundraiser on Saturday, April 27.

This is the group's biggest ever fundraiser to raise funds for their very own centre. The centre would be a fantastic space where Airc can provide even more supports to directly impact the lives of these amazing kids.

The event will be in the Athlone Springs Hotel. It includes a sumptuous four-course meal and there is a band followed by a DJ so you can dance the night away.

It is a night of glitz, glamour and a delicious feast. There will be oodles of entertaining treats including the brilliantly talented Oisin Foley Mindreader and The Big Kahuna Party Band.

There's a drinks reception where you can sneak a pic of your fabulousness on the selfie mirror courtesy of Gem Events or with the wonderful photographer from Athlone City Photography will be on hand for your group shots.

There will also be fantastic goodie bags on the night with an incredible amount of treats for guests. Black tie is optional

Tickets are available from Athlone Springs Hotel or you can call 0876477384 or email contact@aircmidlands.com to avail of paypal.

Airc Midlands is one of very few umbrella groups that covers all forms of additional need or long-term illness and provides its support in response to individual requirements. We named ourselves the Airc as it's the Irish for Ark and on an ark, everyone is represented and taken care of, we leave no child behind. This means that support can be given emotionally, educationally, socially, or in the form of advocacy or representation.

It takes a village to raise a child and even more so when it comes to living with a disability. It can be a lonely and isolating place living with disability but it doesnt have to be, AIRC provide a community of support by parents who get the struggles and whom also provide tangible services where there are none available for these beautiful children and their families.

Past activities include the provision of emergency respite, family fun days, workshops for parents, equipment and therapy subsidies, inclusive and accessible children's parties, information fairs, first aid for carers and much more.



The group also works with others involved in the fields of disability and community to raise awareness and improve the quality of lives of children with disabilities and their families at both a local and national level.



As a self-funded organisation, the group is constantly creating fun and innovative fundraising methods and events, but they cannot stress enough the importance that our community plays in supporting them.



The committee is made up of the family and friends of children and young adults with additional needs, so all their funding is directed exactly where it needs to go. As its 100% voluntary, all funds are spent in a way that will directly impact the lives of families with additional needs in the midlands.

Every donation is of huge importance to the group and will be spent in the local area on services that will directly improve the quality of lives of the families we support.
Suspicious Fires Destroy Three Historically Black Churches In Louisiana Elijah C. Watson Elijah Watson serves as Okayplayer's News & Culture Editor. When

All three church fires occurred in 10 days.

A Louisiana parish has lost three historically black churches to fires, with both FBI and Louisiana authorities investigating to see if theyre connected.

In St. Landry Parish, the St. Mary Baptist Church in the community of Port Barre, and Greater Union Baptist Church and Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Opelousas, were all destroyed by fire according to Reuters. All three churches were well over a hundred years old.

The fires occurred between March 26 and Thursday. Its unknown if the fires were intentionally set but State Fire Marshall Butch Browning said that the string of blazes is suspicious.

Browning also said that certain patterns had been discovered in the fires but it was too early to conclude if one person started them or not.

There certainly is commonality and whether that leads to a person or persons or groups, we dont know, Browning said.

In a separate report with NBC News, Browning noted the history of burning black churches as an intimidation tactic, and his want to quickly get answers.

We know the past and we know the history and it certainly drives our investigation. I think it brings more passion to our investigation to quickly get answers, Browning said. Were hunting them down right now and were going to find them. Were gonna bring them to justice.

At the moment, the the fires are not being treated as potential hate crimes, although Browning said, If the hate crime definition was violated, we will certainly vet those things out, as the investigation continued.

Source: Reuters
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The news of another terrorist attack targeting a religious community has broken our hearts. Fifty people killed and many more wounded is a tragedy, not just for Muslims, but for all of us, for the whole of humanity. Breaking the sanctity of people in worship with an act of violence doubles the pain, whether it is a mosque in New Zealand, a Black Christian congregation in South Carolina, or a Jewish synagogue in Pennsylvania.

We send our deepest condolences to the families of the victims, with prayers from the many different faith traditions. We send our appreciation to the New Zealand people and government who have, through this first experience of mass violence, stepped quickly to take measures to reform gun laws and to cultivate an environment of compassion and support for the Muslim communities in your country.

This latest atrocity is the result of hate unleashed. No one part of humanity has a monopoly on hating. In truth, any of us are capable of hate and violence, but hate is not inherent in our nature as humans. We have to be taught to hate, and we have to be inflamed to move to violence. We are in a time of conflict escalation, and leadership of groups, organizations, clans, or nations who inflame hate prey upon the isolated, the lonely, the confused, and the angry who become the shooters.

We can learn to love and learn to speak with love. We can learn to appreciate human differences. We can learn to speak up and speak out for each other. Let us trust our basic instinct of love and compassion, and not be swayed by examples of hate and violence.

Each of us has a role to play. Our leaders create an environment and set the tone of inclusion. We must hold them to this task. Each of us must speak of love to those who speak of hate. We must reach across the divides of religion, color, ethnicity, and ancestry to get to know and care for one another. This is a time to build compassion. Do not expect the targeted ones (Muslims, in this most recent shooting) to be the only speakers. All of us must speak with courage, with mercy, and with humility in order to find our place of strength and to find the place of action for peace.

We pledge our love, our support, and our willingness to stand together across differences to foster a community where love is free to flourish.
Maharashtra: 41 of the 42 ministers are crorepatis, 27 have criminal cases pending

Haryana: 12 of 12 candidates with criminal background won polls against those with clean background

26 per cent chance that candidate with criminal background will win Delhi elections

55 with criminal background, 49 crorepatis contesting Odisha polls

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Apr 08: There are 55 candidates with pending criminal cases fighting the elections in Odisha.

A report by the Association for Democratic Reforms states that out of 189 candidates were analyzed, 55 (29%) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves 35(19%) have declared serious criminal cases against themselves .

Among the major parties, 11(39%) out of 28 candidates analysed from BJP, 16(59%) out of 27 candidates analysed from INC, 9 (32%) out of 28 candidates analysed from BJD, and 2 (9%) out of 22 candidates analysed from BSP have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Among the major parties, 8(29%) out of 28 candidates analysed from BJP, 10(37%) out of 27 candidates analysed from INC, 6(21%) out of 28 candidates analysed from BJD, and 1(5%) out of 22 candidates analysed from BSP have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

There are 9 constituencies in the Odisha assembly elections, Phase I , having 3 or more candidates with declared criminal cases.

Amit Shah launches BJP's election manifesto for 'New Odisha' in Bhubaneswar

Red Alert Constituencies are those which have 3 or more candidates with criminal cases contesting elections.

Financial:

Out of the 189 candidates, 49(26%) are crorepatis. Among the major parties 11(39%) out of 28 candidates analysed from BJP, 14(52%) out of 27 candidates analysed from INC, 17(61%) out of 28 candidates analysed from BJD, and, 2(9%) out of 22 candidates from BSP have declared assets worth more than Rs. 1 crore.

The average of assets per candidate contesting in the Odisha Assembly Elections Phase I is Rs 1.16 Crores.

Among major parties, the average assets per candidate for 28 BJD candidates analysed is Rs. 2.58 crores, 27 INC candidates analysed is Rs 1.95 crores, 28 BJP candidates have average assets of Rs 2.06 crores and ,22 BSP candidates have average assets worth Rs. 44.81 lakhs.

59(31%) candidates have declared their age to be between 25 to 40 years while 110 (58%) candidates have declared their age to be between 41 to 60 years. There are 19(10%) candidates who have declared their age to be between 61 to 70 years. 1 candidate has not declared his age .

16(9%) female candidates are contesting in the Odisha assembly election Phase I.
Abhishek Banerjee's wife need not appear before Customs till July 31: HC

India

pti-PTI

Kolkata, Apr 8: The Calcutta High Court on Monday directed that Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee's wife Rujira Naroola will not have to appear before the Customs authorities on its summons till July 31.

A division bench of the high court directed the joint commissioner of Customs to extend the date of summons to a date after July 31 to enable the single bench to decide Naroola's petition challenging the summons. Naroola, who is a citizen of Thailand, was asked to appear before an assistant commissioner on Monday at 12 noon in connection with her alleged intentional obstruction of Customs officers from checking her baggage at the Kolkata airport on her arrival from Bangkok on March 16 in a Thai Airways flight.

[IAF releases Radar image to prove Pak F-16 fighter jet was shot down in dogfight]

The single bench of Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj had directed Naroola to appear before the Customs assistant commissioner in compliance with its summons issued on March 26, while asking the central government authority to not take any coercive action against her. Naroola challenged the order, through her counsel Ahin Chowdhury, before the division bench comprising Justices I P Mukerji and Md Nizamuddin claiming that the summons was illegal and prayed for a stay on it.

The division bench observed in its order that there was no allegation made of any illegal importation of gold in the complaint filed by Customs seven days after the incident took place at the airport. Appearing for the Customs authority, Additional Solicitor General Aman Lekhi submitted that Naroola had refused to get her baggage examined on arrival from Bangkok.

Submitting that the baggage was allowed to be examined after persuasion, Lekhi said x-ray of the bags at the airport showed presence of gold. At that time, local police was called in by Naroola, who entered a restricted area and escorted her away from the airport. Lekhi submitted that investigation under the Customs Act can be done even if a police investigation is on, claiming that the two probes are distinct.

Submitting that there is no politics behind the summons issued to Naroola and that the Customs wants to do a proper inquiry only, Lekhi wondered why is she apprehensive about it. Naroola, on her arrival at the airport, was apparently selected randomly for checking by the Customs officials at the immigration counter. She filed a complaint with the NSCBI Airport police station on the same day alleging that she had been deliberately harassed and misbehaved with by the officials.

The Customs authorities also filed a complaint before the NSCBI Airport police station on March 22 stating that they were prevented from examination of the baggage of Naroola and her companion Menka Gambhir, who Naroola said was her sister. The Customs authorities alleged that they were voluntarily and intentionally obstructed by the two passengers, local police personnel and other unknown persons from exercising their power as conferred under the Customs Act.

Naroola's counsel had submitted before Justice Bharadwaj that the additional chief judicial magistrate of Barrackpore court had ordered the conversion of the complaint into an FIR and begin investigation into her claims. He submitted that the Customs authorities have no right to issue summons to the complainant on the same ground.

Counsel for the Customs submitted before the single bench that the central government authority is not considering Naroola as an accused. Claiming that there are some discrepancies in information declared by her, standing counsel for the centre Ravi Prakash said these need to be verified and she has been asked to appear before the joint director of Customs for this purpose.

Abhishek Banerjee, nephew of party supremo Mamata Banerjee, had on March 23 denied reports in a section of media that 2 kg gold was found in his wife's baggage when she landed in the city from Bangkok. Terming the allegations as baseless and politically motivated, Banerjee said in a press conference that his wife was "not carrying even two grams of gold" or any other dutiable or objectionable item in her baggage.

PTI
Akhilesh will ditch Mayawati after May 23, says Deputy CM

India

oi-PTI

Lucknow, Apr 08: Seeking to drive a wedge into their anti-BJP alliance, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on Monday said Baujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati would be "ditched" by Samajqwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav after May 23, the day of the Lok Sabha poll results, "and then, only the BJP will support her".

"The Samajwadi Party has never given due honour to Dalits. In 1995, when Mayawati was attacked at the State Guest House here by SP leaders on the directions of Mulayam Singh Yadav, the BJP had saved her. Now, his (Mulayam's) son Akhilesh will dump her after May 23 and the BJP will support her," Maurya told PTI in an interview at his residence here.

"Whenever Mayawati is in crisis, the BJP supports her and will continue to do so in the future too," he said.

BJP promises to explore all options for construction of Ram temple

Asserting that the BJP is pro-Dalits, Maurya said, "At Kumbh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi washed the feet of sanitary workers to give them due honour. Our party leaders are always there for Dalits."

On the Congress's prospects in the upcoming general election, he said irrespective of the tall claims of the opposition party, its strength would be reduced further after the polls, adding, "The BJP is going to form the government under the leadership of Modi again, with Uttar Pradesh giving it 74 plus seats."

The state accounts for the highest number of 80 Lok Sabha seats in the country.

Maurya's statement came a day after he had targeted Mayawati on her remark at a Deoband rally, where she had asked the Muslim voters not to split their votes.

"Her statement clearly indicates that she has only used Dalits as a vote bank and has not respected them. She has started hating them after their tilt towards the BJP after the saffron party empowered them. She has now appealed to the Muslims to vote for her but the community knows the reality of the SP-BSP-RLD alliance," Maurya had said.

The deputy chief minister, however, did not say anything about it on Monday.

Asked about the SP's poll promises, Maurya said, "(SP chief) Akhilesh (Yadav) is not loyal to his father Mulayam and uncle Shivpal. How can he be loyal to Mayawatiji, whom he calls 'bua'? He should not be trusted by her (Mayawati). He was taught a lesson in 2017 (UP Assembly polls) by the people of the state and once again, he will get a reply from the people."

Also Read | Vadodara was Modi's second seat in 2014, will BJP maintain its winning streak

On the achievements of the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh in the last over two years, the deputy chief minister claimed that law and order had improved, due to which the state was attracting investments and people could go anywhere "fearlessly".

"The 'jungle raj' of the previous SP government ended immediately after the BJP came to power. Criminals, who were ruling the roost, are now behind bars or have left the state for good," he said, exuding confidence that the state would once again give the maximum number of seats to the saffron party in the upcoming polls.

Terming the SP-BSP-RLD pre-poll alliance as "opportunistic", he said it would end automatically due to conflict of interests in the near future.

PTI
Be present in Lok Sabha, RS says BJP in 3 line whip to its MPs

Election expenditure: How much did BJP, Congress, DMK, CPI, TMC, AIADMK receive funds and spent during polls?

'No mention of jobs, employment': Congress trashes BJP manifesto

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Apr 08: Congress took a dig at BJP's manifesto saying the latter failed to mention about employment and jobs in its Sankalp Patra.

"This is not a 'Sankalp Patra', this is a jhansa patra (a deluded manifesto), " Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said while addressing a press conference.

"We have found 11 lies from the manifesto that the BJP has announced today. Neither of the Union ministers who spoke today mentioned these words: Unemployment, demonetisation, GST, black money or corruption," he added.

During a press conference, the Congress said: "The country remembers what the BJP promised -- Rs 15 lakh to every citizen, employment to over 2 crore people, doubling of the farmers' income and women security.

The BJP government has failed on all these promises. The people of the country won't forgive you (BJP government)".Citing out the difference between the manifesto released by the Congress and BJP, Congress demanded the release of 'maafinama' by the party.

"The difference between BJP manifesto and Congress manifesto can be seen firstly from the cover page. Our's has a crowd of people, and BJP manifesto has the face of just one man. Instead of a manifesto, BJP should have come out with a 'maafinama'," Ahmed Patel said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on April 8. The Prime minister Narendra Modi and BJP president are present at the event.

The primary opposition party Congress has already released its manifesto earlier this week. The first phase of 2019 Lok Sabha elections is scheduled on April 11.
TN elections 2021: Independent candidate promises mini-helicopter, Rs one crore to all and trip to moon

BJP promises to explore all options for construction of Ram temple

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Apr 08: In its manifesto for the 2019 polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) "reiterated its stand" on the construction of a Ram temple at Ayodhya.

"We reiterate our stand on Ram Mandir. We will explore all possibilities within the framework of the Constitution and all necessary efforts to facilitate the expeditious construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya," it said.

"We will undertake every efforts to ensure that the subject of faith, tradition and worship rituals related to Sabarimala are presented in a comprehensive manner before the Supreme Court. We will endeavour to secure constitutional protection on issues related to faith and belief."

Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Here's BJP's full manifesto

It is interesting to note that in 2014, the party had promised something quite similar.

BJP reiterates its stand to explore all possibilities within the framework of the constitution to facilitate the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

The RSS and the VHP have demanded that the BJP deliver on its promise of temple construction.

In December 2018, RSS general secretary Bhaiyyaji Joshi took a dig at the BJP saying, "Those in power who had promised to build the temple should listen to the people and fulfil the demand."
Be present in Lok Sabha, RS says BJP in 3 line whip to its MPs

BJP in talks with Amarinder, Dhindsa for alliance in Punjab: Amit Shah

Election expenditure: How much did BJP, Congress, DMK, CPI, TMC, AIADMK receive funds and spent during polls?

BJP releasing manifesto while section of media waits outside

India

oi-Hardeep Singh Bedi

New Delhi, April 08: A section of media waited outside the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) headquarters here on Monday as the party was in the process of releasing its manifesto for 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The journalists were denied entry as they got delayed because of heavy traffic restrictions imposed due to the movement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

They had to park their vehicles and walk down to the BJP headquarters to cover the event.

Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Here's BJP's full manifesto

When they reached BJP office then they were told by Delhi Police that BJP media in-charge Anil Baluni has given them instructions not to allow journalists who are late.

It's notable that the manifesto was scheduled to be released at 11 A.M and entry for media was closed from 11:15 AM.

Journalists from BBC, Republic TV, Millennium Post, BTVi, and other prominent media organisations were made to wait outside as the BJP leaders were addressing the manifesto release function.

It is notable among the media persons, many journalists have been covering the BJP since decades.

A senior female journalist told OneIndia that while prominent reporters waited outside, a journalist from Aaj Tak was allowed inside when the so-called restrictions for media were in place.

She quipped: it seems that the party thinks it's only electronic media that informs the masses.

Another female journalist having Press Information Bureau (PIB) accreditation card was seen arguing with the Delhi Police that what is the use of issuing a PIB card after so many security checks. Delhi Police official told her: Ma'am it's not Delhi Police that is barring entry of journalists, it's the BJP.

It's notable that the BJP media cell had not given any instructions to journalists to reach the venue at a particular time.
Chhattisgarh's horrific accident: Nobody will be spared, justice will be done: CM Baghel

Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel files poll code violation complaint against Modi

India

oi-PTI

Raipur, Apr 09: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Monday lodged a complaint of alleged poll code violation against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for making statements about the Army and surgical strikes during his public meeting held in Balod district of the state on April 6.

Baghel, who also holds the post of state Congress president, reached the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Subrat Sahoo along with senior party leaders and handed over the written complaint.

The CM also submitted an audio CD of the PM's speech to Sahoo. The complaint claimed that the prime minister had violated the model code of conduct five times during his speech.

"While Modi ji didn't mention about any of the development work done during his five year tenure but he continued patting his own back by highlighting the valour and courage of the Indian army. He tried to gain political benefit and win votes during the election meeting by displaying the

courage of the Army," the complaint stated.

It further said the lines of Modi's speech were focused "only on the Army, the surgical strike, the air strike, and repealing 'Raksha Kawach' of Army etc."

"Modi also claimed that the BJP has been contesting the elections to strengthen the Indian military while the Congress is fighting the elections to weaken it, which is irrelevant and an attempt to take mileage in the name of the Army," Baghel stated.

He stated that the Prime Minister tried to "mislead" the audience.

"There is a guideline of the Election Commission against politicising the achievements of the armed forces by political parties. No political party can highlight the achievements of the armed forces as its personal work but PM Modi used it many times during his speech which is a violation

of MCC (Model Code of Conduct)," it said.

In his rally which was held at Hathuad in Balod district, the Prime Minister had made a pitch for a "strong government" at the Centre.

He had said the Congress and its allies were contesting elections for giving a free hand to terrorists and separatists, while the BJP is contesting to punish terrorists and separatists for their sins.

"Congress and its allies are contesting the election to weaken the armed forces, while the BJP is fighting to make the armed forces self-reliant," he had said.

The PM had also called the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act a "Suraksha Kavach" (armour) of the security forces, and slammed the Congress for "promising to repeal it in its dhakosla patra (sham manifesto)".

Meanwhile, the BJP has termed the complaint against Modi as a "political stunt".

"What is wrong if the PM praised the Indian army for its courage and valour. It is a matter of pride for the people of the country that the Indian army has conducted air strikes on terror camps (in Pakistan). Congress' complaint is nothing but just a political stunt and a show off," said state BJP spokesperson Sachchidanand Upasane.
Be present in Lok Sabha, RS says BJP in 3 line whip to its MPs

Election expenditure: How much did BJP, Congress, DMK, CPI, TMC, AIADMK receive funds and spent during polls?

Congress, AAP mock BJP manifesto error on women

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Apr 08: Hours after the BJP released its manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections 2019, Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party were quick to spot an error in its promises for women.

"At least one point in BJP's manifesto reflects their true intentions," Congress wrote this evening on its official Twitter handle.

The party shared a screenshot of one of points in the party manifesto, which reads: "Women's security will be given more priority. We have constituted the Women's Security Division in the Home Ministry, and have made strict provisions for transferring the laws in order to commit crimes against women, in particular in a time-bound investigation and trail for rape."

Even the Aam Admi Party took a hit at the BJP for a poll promise in their manifesto.

The Aam Aadmi Party called the error "BJP's 'Sankalp' to ENCOURAGE Crime Against Women". "BJP's 'Sankalp' to ENCOURAGE Crime Against Women. .@BJP4India However hard you might try, your actual intentions will come to light," the party wrote on its official handle.

Earlier in the day, the BJP 's 43-page manifesto has introduced a number of perks for women in its Lok Sabha election manifesto which was released today by PM Narendra Modi, along with the BJP's top leadership including Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley.

While there are many ambitious plans for women, the BJP in its manifesto seems to have made an embarrassing error while talking about introducing stricter laws for women's safety.

"We have constituted the Women's Security Division in the Home Ministry, and have made strict provisions for transferring the laws in order to commit crimes against women, in particular in a time-bound investigation and trail for rape," the manifesto reads.

The BJP has not yet reacted to the error in the manifesto, released just two days before the national elections begin.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Monday, April 8, 2019, 20:50 [IST]
Dont play with fire: Mehbooba, Farooq warn BJP over Articles 370, 35A poll pledge

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Apr 09: With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) releasing its election manifesto 'Sankalpit Bharat Sashakt Bharat' on Monday and promising to repeal the Article 370, mainstream political parties in Kashmir on Monday termed its manifesto as dangerous will have far reaching consequences and will end relations of state with India.

Taking to Twitter, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said, "Already J&K ek barood ki dher par baitha hua hai (J&K is sitting on a pile of bullets). If this happens then not only Kashmir but the country and the region will burn. So, I appeal to BJP that please stop playing with fire."

Farooq Abdullah said that the move will pave the way for 'Azadi' for Kashmir.

[What is Article 370 and why BJP wants annulment of Article 35A]

Abdullah told an election gathering in Srinagar, "Do they think they will abrogate Article 370 and we will be quiet? They are wrong... We will fight it. I think it is Allah's will that they are trying to abrogate it. Let them do it and it will pave way for our Azadi."

The BJP in its election manifesto released in Delhi had said that party's position on Article 370 has been the same since the time of the Jan Sangh. "We are committed to annulling Article 35A of the Constitution of India as the provision is discriminatory against non-permanent residents and women of Jammu and Kashmir. We believe that Article 35A is an obstacle in the development of the state," the document said.

The Supreme Court is hearing a clutch of petitions to scrap Article 35 A.
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IAF releases Radar image to prove Pak F-16 fighter jet was shot down in dogfight

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Apr 08: The Indian Air Force on Monday released radar images to counter Pakistan's claim that it hadn't lost a US-manufactured F-16 fighter jet in the February 27 dogfight.

Air Vice Marshal R G K Kapoor, at a media briefing, showed radar images to assert that an F-16 of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) was shot down by the Indian Air Force.

The fresh evidence was released to counter Islamabad's recent assertion that the F-16 was not struck by the Indian forces during the brief aerial showdown.

The IAF has more credible information and evidence that is clearly indicative of the fact that PAF has lost one F-16 in the air action on February 27, he said.

"Certain official statements made by the director general of Inter-Service Public Relations also corroborate IAF," Kapoor said. He said that Pakistan's ISPR had confirmed on the same day that two pilots were captured.

"All this shows that two aircraft had gone down in the area. One of them was MiG-21, the other was F-16 of the Pakistan Air Force. IAF has more credible evidence that Pakistan has lost an F-16," Kapoor said.

However, he added, the Air Force is keeping this evidence confidential due to security reasons.

Last week, American news publication Foreign Policy contradicted India quoting unnamed US defence officials as saying that personnel had recently counted Islamabad's F-16s and found none missing."
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J&K: Grenade diffused in outskirts of Srinagar

India

oi-Vikas SV

Srinagar, Apr 8: A grenade was diffused in the outskirts of Jammu and Kashmir's capital Srinagar on Monday. It was diffused near Gulshan Nagar by-pass by a bomb disposal squad, said reports.

It is yet to be ascertained as to how the grenade was brought there and what exactly was the motive behind it.

On March 9, J&K police and the Indian Army diffused an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) bomb at isolated area of the Nandwal Chowk on Jammu's Khour- Pallanwala road.

2 policemen injured in grenade attack in Sopore

Last month, the J&K police had also nabbed the culprit of the grenade explosion that took place on March 7 in the state. Terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen was behind the attack.

In Raigad, Maharashtra, Police has managed to defuse a bomb in a state government-run bus in Apta village in February.

In March this year, a live grenade was found in the fields in Khour area of Akhnoor. As per the reports, locals on seeing a live grenade lying in fields informed the police which rushed to the spot along with bomb disposal squad and diffused it.
State vs national issues: Key lessons for the BJP to learn in Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Haryana

Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Decoding Congress, BJP manifestos

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Apr 08: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday released its manifesto for 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Titled 'Sankalp Bharat Sashakt Bharat' the BJP manifesto is what the the party promises to implement if voted back to power. While the Congress manifesto, titled 'Hum Nibhayenge', begins with a plan to increase employment.

The manifesto, which gives a brief picture of a particular party's five-year vision, is one of the important factors that play a major role in the elections.

Here's a comparison of what both the parties have promised for the people in the coming five years.

'No mention of jobs, employment': Congress trashes BJP manifesto

Congress MP Ahmed Patel said, "The difference between BJP manifesto and Congress manifesto can be seen firstly from the cover page itself. Our manifesto the people of the nation, and BJP manifesto has the face of just one man. Instead of a manifesto BJP should have come out with a 'maafinama'."

"The cover of our manifesto says that the people of the country are important for us but for them their own face is more important. Our manifesto includes millions of people of the country, but the BJP manifesto only speaks about one man's 'Mann ki Baat'. Now country will declare its decision," tweeted Congress.

National security vs NYAY

The BJP has focused mostly on national security, relying on its recent achievements of anti-satellite missile systems and Balakot air strike. The Congress, on the other hand, has centered its poll campaign around its proposed NYAY scheme promising a minimum Rs 72,000 yearly income to India's 20 per cent poorest citizens.

Farmers

The Congress, in its manifesto, promised to introduce a separate Kisan budget, while the BJP vowed to double farmers income by 2020 and to provide pensions for small, marginal farmers.

On Kashmir, Article 370 and 35A

The Congress has promised that it won't allow any change in constitutional position on Article 370, will review AFSPA and reduce presence of armed forces in the Kashmir Valley if it wins the Lok Sabha polls.

Also Read | Empowering poor a must to defeat poverty: Modi on BJP's manifesto

An old promise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) makes a comeback in its latest election manifesto- to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution.

"We reiterate our position since the time of the Jan Sangh to the abrogation of Article 370," read the BJP's 'Sankalp Patra' for Lok Sabha elections 2019.

Terrorism

The Congress, in its manifesto, promised to set up the National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC) within three months of forming the government in the Centre, and making NATGRID operational by December 2019.

The saffron party has announced zero tolerance on terrorism and extremism, 'free hand' to security forces in combating terrorism and multilaterateral cooperation on terrorism.

GST

Regarding GST, the Congress Party, in its manifesto, said that it will review and replace the current GST laws with the GST 2.0 regime that will "truly reflect the intent and purpose of a non-cascading, value-added, indirect tax."

The BJP has promised simplification of GST and expansion of Credit Guarantee Scheme, wherein loans to MSME are guaranteed. "Under this alone, the credit of around Rs 19,000 crore was achieved in 2017-18. We would aim to take this figure to Rs1,00,000 crore by 2024," the manifesto says.
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

Lok Sabha Elections 2019 updates: Anti-BJP front gains momentum, Naidu meets Sonia Gandhi

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Anuj Cariappa

New Delhi, May 19: Andhra Pradesh Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday met BSP chief Mayawati and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow, continuing his efforts to put together a coalition to form the next government at the Centre. He reached Lucknow after meetings in New Delhi with Congress president Rahul Gandhi, CPI leaders G Sudhakar Reddy and D Raja, NCP chief Sharad Pawar and LJD leader Sharad Yadav. The Telugu Desam Party chief has already held several rounds of discussions with various opposition leaders, including TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal and CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his two-day visit to Uttarakhand today with a visit to Kedarnath shrine. The prime minister is also expected to offer prayers at Badrinath tomorrow before returning to Delhi in the afternoon. The prime minister's visit to the holy shrine came a day before the last phase of the marathon Lok Sabha elections.

Fifty nine parliamentary constituencies, including Varanasi, will go to polls in the seventh and final phase of the Lok Sabha elections and the results will be announced four days later, on May 23.

Stay tuned for the Lok Sabha elections 2019 UPDATES:
Karunanidhi's 98th birth anniversary: BSY says he played important role in creating harmony between two states

M Karunanidhi was kept under house arrest for 2 years, TN govt to probe

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Apr 08: AIADMK leader and Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami said that the Tamil Nadu government will probe M Karunanidhi's death.

Levelling the charge at an election rally here, the Chief Minister said the 94-year-old Karunanidhi, who passed away on August 7 last year, could have been taken abroad for treatment and indicated the AIADMK government could launch a probe into it.

Stalin, who succeeded Karunanidhi as DMK chief, has been harping on the 'circumstances' leading to the death of late chief minister Jayalalithaa in December 2016, saying if DMK comes to power, it would order a comprehensive probe into it.

In his Lok Sabha election campaigns, Stalin has been saying such a probe would 'unravel' the facts behind her death to Jayalalithaa's true followers.

Palaniswami said''I've info from senior DMK leaders that he was unable to speak for 2 years. If he would have been given a good treatment, MK Stalin couldn't have become DMK president. So Stalin made his father a house prisoner.''

Karunanidhi fell ill in October 2016 due to a drug induced allergy and was admitted to a private hospital in December 2016. He had undergone tracheostomy, a procedure to optimise his breathing.

The chief minister further added he was making these remarks based on "available information."

He also asked why Stalin was not made party chief when Karunanidhi was alive, and pointed out that the DMK chief came to the present post only after his father's demise.

Stalin was elected party President unopposed on August 28, 2018, weeks after his father passed away.

Karunanidhi passed away on August 7.

(with PTI inputs)

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Monday, April 8, 2019, 22:44 [IST]
Agree with Indian govt on need to safeguard citizens' privacy: WhatsApp

State vs national issues: Key lessons for the BJP to learn in Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Haryana

Minority community in Goa will vote for BJP, says CM Sawant

India

oi-PTI

Panaji, Apr 08: Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Monday expressed confidence that members from the minority community in the coastal state will vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Sawant said the minority community voters were aware of how Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the nation ahead in the last five years through his "inclusive policies".

"The minority community voters are educated, they read national newspapers, watch television and are aware about development undertaken by the Modi government. They are with the BJP," the chief minister told reporters here.

Uniform Civil Code to Ram Temple: Key highlights of BJP Manifesto

The BJP has fielded its sitting MPs Shripad Naik and Narendra Sawaikar from North Goa and South Goa Lok Sabha seats, respectively, where polling will be held on April 23.

"The Lok Sabha polls are for the country. Don't limit these elections to certain caste or religion," Sawant said.

Of the total voters in Goa, nearly 27 per cent are Christians.

Sawant said the issues related to Goa, like resumption of mining operations, tourism development, improvement of infrastructure and inclusion of Dhangar (shepherd) community under the Scheduled Tribes category, were suggested for incorporation in the BJP's national manifesto.

Responding to a question on support of allies, the Chief Minister said his government's coalition partners, including the Goa Forward Party (GFP)and Independents, were campaigning for the BJP candidates in their respective Assembly segments.

PTI
Imran Khan's offer of dialogue should be seriously considered by new Modi govt: Mirwaiz

Track II: With funds flowing from Pakistan, can Hurriyat be trusted with talks

Better late than never says Mehbooba on Hurriyats willingness to talk

Mirwaiz set to appear before NIA today

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Apr 08: Separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq will appear before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on 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 in Delhi.

He was served a third summon recently in which he was given an assurance that the 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.

Willing to be questioned, but in Srinagar says Mirwaiz accused in terror funding case

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 Hafiz 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.

Stay up to date with our election coverage here
No PM brought honour to India like Modi, including those from my family: Varun Gandhi

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Apr 08: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) parliamentarian Varun Gandhi on Sunday praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi stating that no other Prime Minister brought glory to India like Modi, including those belonging to his family.

Varun, who is also the grandson of late prime minister Indira Gandhi, made the statement while addressing a rally in Pilibhit, where he is contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha polls on BJP ticket.

Varun said, "Vajpayee ji was from a normal family but had never seen abject poverty. Modi ji is from an economically weaker family. Honestly speaking, some people of my family have also been Prime Minister but the honor that Prime Minister Modi has brought to the country hasn't been seen in long past."

He also said Prime Minister Modi is living for the country and would die for it as well as he has no other agenda.

"In five years, Prime Minister Modi has not a single accusation of corruption. There are no corruption charges on him. For whom would he do corruption when he has no one else in his family? This person is only living for the country and would die for the country. He is only worried about the country," he was quoted saying by ANI.

Varun, who is an incumbent MP from Sultanpur constituency, is contesting the impending LokSabha polls from Pilibhit constituency, a seat which was long held by his mother Maneka.

Pilibhit will be going to polls in the third phase of Lok Sabha elections on April 23. Counting of votes will take place on May 23.
Election expenditure: How much did BJP, Congress, DMK, CPI, TMC, AIADMK receive funds and spent during polls?

Opposition front not possible without Congress: Shiv Sena leader Raut after meeting with Rahul Gandhi

Mamata Banerjee's TMC gives yet another jolt to Congress in Meghalaya; 11 members switch sides

Parts of Congress' campaign song changed after EC's objection

India

oi-Vikas SV

New Delhi, Apr 8: The Election Commission (EC) has reportedly objected to certain wordings in the campaign theme song of the Congress party.

The Congress had to remove one stanza from their campaign song ''Main hi toh Hindustan hoon'' after the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) team of the EC informed the grand old party to do so.

These lines reportedly accuse the Modi-led NDA government at the Centre of spreading hatred and pitching communities against each other. The song ''Main hi toh Hindustan hoon'' has been penned by Javed Akhtar.

'Ab hoga NYAY': Congress party launches Lok Sabha 2019 campaign

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, a PTI report said. The song was passed by the committee after the lyrics were changed. However, Congress has challenged the order.

The EC on Saturday (April 06) said that BJP's theme song composed by Asansol MP Babul Supriyo cannot be played anywhere after the TMC raised objections against it.

Here are the lines of the Congress campaign song which the EC found objectionable:

"Tum jhooti chaalein chal ke, sheheron ke naam badal ke, noton ko kachra kar ke, aur har nirdhan ko chhal ke, nafrat ka dhuaan phailaake, bhai se bhai ladaake, kehte ho hum ko chun lo, ab tum bhi humaari sun lo".

'Phir Ek Baar Modi Sarkar': BJP's official tagline for election campaign

[After making false moves, changing the names of cities, consigning currency notes to scrap, deceiving every poor person, spreading the smoke of hate, pitting brother against brother, you say 'elect me', but you must listen to us].
Report Card of 'Smog Politics' of MPs

India

oi-Ajay Mohan Verma

Bengaluru, Apr 09: Every year, in the months of November and December when the national capital gets covered with the smog, politicians start playing 'Smog Politics' by blaming each other rather than addressing the real issue at hand. The time when world's largest democratic election exercise is underway, 'smog politics' should also be the part of the debates. Before you think and compare your constituency with the national capital's air quality, let's take a look on 16th Lok Sabha and see which parliamentarian took action on the issues related to air pollution, which has emerged as a major menace in cities in recent years.

Climate Trends has released a report/analysis on the various actions taken by Indian Parliamentarians on an issue of air pollution during the last held 16thLok Sabha, focusing particularly on the WHO's 14 most polluted cities in the country.

Here are the highlights of the report which presents a review of 14 most polluted cities of India ranked by WHO in 2018:

Rank 1- Kanpur

While the city administration and state government has recently started to acknowledge the issue of air pollution and accordingly take some steps, MP Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi has been very much silent and inactive in the constituency and Parliament. The local residents and stakeholders have been voicing their concerns on the health impacts of air pollution which have gone 3-4 times over the national prescribed safe limits.

Rank 2- Faridabad

The warning bells had been ringing since long in this industrial NCR town and all types of pollution sources exist here that lead to high levels of pollution in both summer and winter months, contrary to the state government view. While the state government has been blaming Delhi and in denial of the issue so much as to open up Aravalis for mining and infrastructure against people's wish, there have been actions taken by the state and MP Krishan Pal mostly to help address the issue of degraded air quality.

Rank 3 - Varanasi

Air quality in Varanasi has been deteriorating faster than many other towns in the state largely due to a lot of construction in the city. Doctors and residents are confirming the rise in allergies and respiratory diseases. MP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's focus has been on beautification and infrastructure. Not on poor air quality in the city.

Rank 4- Gaya

Everybody think that sand from the river Falgu is the main source of air pollution but the real culprit is polluted air. While the SPCB aims to do its own study on sources of pollution, it's going to delay action on causes of pre-mature deaths so research and civil society organisations have presented their own findings to the state government. The statement from Gaya MP Hari Manjhi in response to the WHO report indicated the level of priority given to the issue.

Rank 5- Patna

Patna is the most polluted and least livable city in Bihar. Vehicular pollution and brick kilns emissions have been on the rise and recognising that the state government has begun issuing directives to address the issue. The MP from Patna Sahib constituency Shatrughn Sinha has been seen more active in Delhi 'smog politics' than his own.

Rank 6 - Delhi

A city with 7 MPs and an elected government with several MLAs, the government institutional machinery can at best be described as reactive than pro-active based on the evidence available. Instead of instant relief, the city has got a tag of the world's most polluted capital city.

Rank 7- Lucknow

A global study has found Uttar Pradesh 2nd highest in the country to suffer from pre-mature deaths due to air pollution. While the MP Rajnath Singh has stayed silent and country's central government has refuted global study findings on pre-mature deaths and diseases linked to air pollution, the city doctors have on their own started to engage the public through creative actions and information sharing.

Rank 8- Agra

Agra remains in the top most polluted cities in India despite letting go of its polluting industries in the interest of Taj Mahal about 23 years ago, as more sources of particulate matter and gases have come about. The crackdown from city and state administration has been on polluting industries and garbage burning, while the MP Prof. Ram Shankar mostly restricted to raising questions in parliament on the issue.

Rank 9 - Muzaffarpur

Besides toxins in agro-products, the polluted air is becoming a risk to the health of children, women and elderly due to construction, fuel emissions and partly from the pollution of other states brought by the winds. The MP Ajay Mishad has not been seen active in local pollution discourse or solutions except questions raised in Parliament on the impact of polluted air on heritage monuments.

Rank 10- Srinagar

The people in the city have been noticing the ill-effects of unplanned and unmanaged urbanisation, including waste and pollution. Still, the WHO rank came as a surprise to many, especially since the data was not provided by the state pollution control board. The government and elected MP Dr. Farooq Abdullah have so far mentioned the need to conserve natural spaces and resources due to their carrying capacity, though have not yet engaged local experts on the major cause of air pollution in the city which is domestic use of coal and firewood.

Rank 11- Gurugram

Despite poor air quality it does not yet feature in National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) of the government of India and monitoring of air pollution in the past few years has not been carried out by CPCB. Though high levels of toxic metals are being found in children in the city, the sole focus in government policy and MP Rao Inderjeet Singh's actions had been on road infrastructure and Metro Rail. Finally, the city got top ranking among most polluted cities in the world.

Rank 12- Jaipur

On the back of high vehicle density, construction and garbage burning, Jaipur have pollution levels at 3 times the safe standards. This has resulted in doctors seeing many cases of respiratory and other diseases in children. Although both the state government and MP Ram Chandra Bohra placed focus mostly on solar power, the key issue of urgently addressing the causes of pollution such as vehicles saw initiatives from the citizens and entrepreneurs of the city.

Rank 13 - Patiala

The SPCB recognises the sources of pollution though were surprised to find the city ranked in the WHO report. The consistent monitoring reported by CPCB indicates high pollution level from vehicles, crop burning and industries. While the MP Dharam Vira Gandhi gave the issue a miss most of his tenure, the state government engaged with central government and Delhi government on access to machines for solving crop burning issue.

Rank 14 -Jodhpur

The MP Gajendra Singh Shekhawat showed interest in the issue through questions raised in parliament to learn about government plans to take action, though no actions seem to be taken by any elected leader or government agency on addressing the rising pollution levels in Jodhpur.
We can challenge BJP says grand alliance

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Anuj Cariappa

New Delhi, Apr 08: The Opposition grand-alliance in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday organised its first joint rally, where its leaders not only slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (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, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) 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.

In UP's Deoband, locals say Muslims should not be used as political tool during polls

"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.

How crucial are Muslim votes for Saharanpur?

"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.

Stay up to date with our election coverage here
Why does BJP release its manifesto very late?

India

oi-Hardeep Singh Bedi

New Delhi, Apr 08: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is slated to release its election manifesto, which it calls Sankalp Patra (pledge document), on Monday at 11 A.M at the party headquarters here in the presence of its Parliamentary Board members.

It is notable that Congress president Rahul Gandhi released party manifesto titled 'Hum Nibhayenge' (We will deliver) here on Tuesday.

Interestingly, this is not the first time that the BJP will be releasing its manifesto in the month of April and after the Congress.

'Phir Ek Baar Modi Sarkar': BJP's official tagline for election campaign

In 2004 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress released its manifesto on March 02. The BJP released its manifesto on April 08 when the first phase of elections was slated to be held on April 20. Then late Atal Bihari Vajpayee was seeking the fourth term as Prime Minister. However, he couldn't get another term despite BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government's 'Shining India' campaign. The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government came into power and Dr Manmohan Singh became the prime minister.

In 2009, the Congress released its manifesto on March 24 seeking the second term for Manmohan Singh led UPA government. The BJP released manifesto on April 3 and sought a mandate for its prime ministerial candidate Lal Krishna Advani in the polls starting on April 16. However, the voters still supported the Congress-led UPA government and Manmohan Singh was made prime minister for the second term.

In 2014 general elections then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi was declared BJP's prime ministerial candidate. The BJP released its manifesto on April 7, the day when the first phase of the elections was being conducted. The Congress had released its manifesto on March 26 seeking the third term for Manmohan Singh. However, the BJP broke the era of coalition governments and became the first non-Congress party after 1984 to get a clear cut majority.

A party insider tells OneIndia that it was the strategy of Modi-Shah duo to release manifesto on the first phase polling date in 2014 as the Election Commission of India (ECI) regulations say that all political parties must stop election-related canvassing 48 hours before the polling date, but there was no limit on the timing of manifesto release in 2014. Congress had cried foul and complained that it was done to influence the voters. Now, the ECI has categorically said that all political parties must release their manifestoes 48 hours before the polling starts. The first phase of Lok Sabha elections is starting on April 11 and therefore the BJP is releasing its manifesto on Monday.

"The benefit of releasing the manifesto very late is that when you come up with your poll promises then the media starts analysing them and you grab the headlines and not your competitors. For, by that time their manifestoes become old news, and nobody likes stale news. Anything new is news," says a BJP insider.

"Like the Congress, the BJP too has friendly-media houses that do an indirect campaign for the party while analysing manifesto. It surely gives an extra edge over the party's competitors. For example, the chances of a party getting votes of those voters who are not die-hard fans of any political party and make-up their minds at the last moment become high if it is in the news just before the polling" the insider adds.

'Will ensure removal of Chowkidars from all the Chowkis, says Akhilesh Yadav

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah, Union Cabinet Ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari, Thawar Chand Gehlot, and Jagat Prakash Nadda; former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, and National General Secretary Ramlal will be present at the manifesto release function.

The Lok Sabha election is scheduled to be held in seven phases from April 11 to May 19, 2019. The counting of votes will be conducted on May 23, and the results will be declared on the same day.

Stay up to date with our election coverage here
Brexit trade deal reached between UK and European Union with just days to spare

Brexit axe looms for 900 British office-holders in France

International

oi-PTI

Rennes (France), Apr 08: 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.

Brexit: PM May not giving up as yet; might make 4th attempt to get MPs' backing on deal

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."

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.

PTI

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Monday, April 8, 2019, 11:10 [IST]
We cannot wait longer now: SC to hear Vijay Mallyas contempt case in January for final disposal

Mallyas appeal against extradition rejected

International

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Apr 08: In a major setback for liquor baron, Vijay Mallya, a court in the UK has rejected his appeal against extradition. Mallya had appealed against the decision the UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid to extradite him.

Mallya is facing charges of fraud, money laundering and violation of Foreign Exchange Management Act or FEMA.

A London court had in December ruled that Mallya had a case to answer in the Indian courts. The court had also dismissed any bars to extradition on the ground of the prison conditions under which he would held.

The court accepted India's assurance that the he would receive all necessary medical care at Barrack 12 in Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail.

Mallya it may be recalled had filed his application in the UK high court seeking permission to appeal against an extradition order signed by the Home Secretary. He will not face an oral hearing on his appeal against the decision.

In February, the UK's home office had said the British government has signed an order to extradite Mallya. He is currently on bail on an extradition warrant executed by Scotland Yard in April 2017 after the Indian authorities brought fraud and money laundering charges against him.

Mallya had indicated that that he intends to file an application to appeal against the order of the London Court. He had later told reporters that he would consider the verdict in detail and decide on the next course of action. His legal team later confirmed that he will seek leave to appeal against the court's order.
Omicron 1st case in Maharashtra: What we know about it so, far? 12 facts

Shiv Sena welcomes BJP manifesto, NCP calls it gimmick

Mumbai

oi-PTI

Mumbai, Apr 08: The Shiv Sena Monday welcomed the BJP poll manifesto, while the Sharad Pawar-led NCP labelled it a "gimmick". NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik also asked the BJP to first give an account of the implementation of poll promises made by it in 2014.

Shiv Sena spokesperson Manisha Kayande said her party had been pitching for the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya and implementation of the Uniform Civil Code.

"We welcome the manifesto. Efforts should be made now to construct the temple in the next tenure," said Kayande, whose party is an ally of the BJP at the Centre and in Maharashtra.

Empowering poor a must to defeat poverty: Modi on BJP's manifesto

The BJP has reiterated its commitment towards these issues in the manifesto.

Malik said the BJP has been promising "for years" to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution, which gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir, scrap Article 35-A, which says no outsider can own property in that state, and construct the Ram temple but did not fulfil these promises.

"Their (BJP) manifestos have been 'jumlas' (gimmicks). BJP chief Amit Shah may again say after the polls that it is a jumla," Malik said.

Eyeing to retain power, the BJP made a plethora of poll promises on Monday, including expeditious construction of Ram temple, firmly dealing with terrorism, doubling farmers' income in the next three years, making India the third-largest economy globally by 2030, and scrapping Article 370 of the Constitution that gave a special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

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Story first published: Monday, April 8, 2019, 17:25 [IST]
JKSSB SI Recruitment 2021: Last date to apply for 800 Sub Inspector posts, direct link here

CTET December 2021 admit cards to be out shortly: How to download

ONGC jobs: 785 vacancies for engineers announced; How to apply online for ONGC recruitment 2019

New Delhi

oi-Vikas SV

New Delhi, Apr 8: ONGC recruitment 2019 is underway and the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited has announced 785 vacancies of Executives at E1 level through GATE - 2019 on ONGC's official website. The last date to apply for ONGC jobs 2019 for engineers in which there are 785 openings is April 25, 2019.

ONGC has issued an official notification for the recruitment of engineers. The ONGC would consider GATE 2019 scores to fill up these posts. ONGC official notification on ONGC official website states that the requirement is for BE/B.Tech candidates from various disciplines such as Mechanical Engineers, Electrical Engineers, Civil Engineers, Chemical Engineers etc.

ONGC recruitment 2019 official notification for recruitment of engineers through GATE 2019: Click Here

ONGC recruitment apply online link for engineers and geo sciences posts is now available in official website.

For complete information on ONGC engineer job openings, ONGC recruitment process and elibility criteria: Click Here

How to apply for ONGC recruitment 2019 jobs for engineers/ fresher engineers:

Visit www.ongcindia.com

On the top right side of the home page, click on career.

Of the three options that you get on clicking on "Career", click on "Recruitment Notice".

In the list which appears, click on "O nline application process for recruitment of Executives at E1 level through GATE - 2019"

To directly go to the online application page for Recruitment of GTs in Engineering and Geo-sciences Disciplines - Click Here

Now, click on Apply Online and in the page that appears, read all the information before clicking on "I hereby confirm...". After clicking on confirmation click on continue.

From this point onwards, you will be able to proceed only if you have a valid GATE- 2019 Registration Id.

Enter Gate id, click on verification and proceed.

Register first by filling in basic information and generate username (your e-mail id) and a new password.

Now return to page mentioned in Step 5 and login using username and new password.

Follow the instructions and fill up the form.

Make online payment

Submit

Take printout of final acknowledgement for future reference.

ONGC Recruitment 2019 job openings for engineers: Documents required for registration

GATE-2019 Admit Card/GATE Score card

Active Email id and mobile no registered for GATE-2019 application process.

Scanned copy of your photograph containing signature whereas the signature is made just below the photograph (not more than 70 kb, jpg or jpeg format only)

Please note that an OTP number will be generated while entering the data for online application and the OTP number will be sent to the Email ID and Mobile No. entered by you in GATE-2019 application. After entering the OTP number only the registration process can be initiated and completed.

Caste certificate for entering community details (if belongs to OBC/SC/ST).

Challan form downloaded and duly filled with the applicable fee deposited and acknowledged by the concerned bank (if belongs to GENERAL/EWS/OBC).
Microgaming Games Going Live With 888 Casino

Published April 8, 2019 by Ivan P

Thanks to the latest partnership agreement, 888 Casino will add Microgaming titles to their extensive portfolio, including games from the largest online network of progressive jackpots.

In the latest supply agreement, Microgaming has joined forces with 888, one of the most established online gambling operators around. The new deal will see Microgaming titles go live on 888 Casino, expanding the operator's already rich gaming library.

Wealth of New Games for Players

Thanks to the supply agreement between two companies, players at 888 Casino will now have access to a variety of Microgaming slots, such as their branded titles like Game of Thrones and Jurassic World, and several hundred Casino in Bingo side games.

On top of this, 888 casino customers will also get access to the largest online network of progressive jackpots, containing games such as Mega Moolah and Mega Moolah Isis, which has paid in excess of 1 billion to date and continues to pay large jackpots to lucky players on a regular basis.

Strengthening the Microgaming Brand

According to Microgaming's CEO John Coleman, this strategic partnership with one of the industry's major players will help the already strong Microgaming brand get an even better foothold in Europe. With a large player base, 888 Casino is licensed to operate in several jurisdiction, including the United Kingdom, Spain, Denmark, and Italy.

Speaking on behalf of 888 Holdings, the company behind 888 gaming brands, Guy Cohen emphasized that it is the company's mission to always find new and exciting titles to offer to the players and Microgaming, with their proven track record of delivering high quality, engaging, and entertaining games fits with this vision. Cohen believes the addition of Microgaming titles to the extensive gaming portfolio of 888 Casino will help the operator get to the next level.

According to the PR accompanying this deal, new games will first roll out in the United Kingdom, followed by other regulated markets, including Sweden and Denmark.
Real Ear Analyzers Market 2019-2026 growing vigorously with top key players like Phonak, Starkey, Cochlear, Oticon, Sivantos, Rayovac

Real Ear Analyzers Market

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Up Market Research added a new Real Ear Analyzers Market research report for the period of 2019  2026. Report focuses on the major drivers and restraints providing analysis of the market share, segmentation, revenue forecasts and geographic regions of the market.Get Sample Copy Of This Report @The report contains 104 pages which highly exhibit on current market analysis scenario, upcoming as well as future opportunities, revenue growth, pricing and profitability.Real Ear Analyzers Market research report delivers a close watch on leading competitors with strategic analysis, micro and macro market trend and scenarios, pricing analysis and a holistic overview of the market situations in the forecast period. It is a professional and a detailed report focusing on primary and secondary drivers, market share, leading segments and geographical analysis. Further, key players, major collaborations, merger & acquisitions along with trending innovation and business policies are reviewed in the report. The report contains basic, secondary and advanced information pertaining to the Real Ear Analyzers Market global status and trend, market size, share, growth, trends analysis, segment and forecasts from 20192026.The scope of the report extends from market scenarios to comparative pricing between major players, cost and profit of the specified market regions. The statistics are represented in graphical format for a clear understanding on facts and figures.For More Information On This Report, Please VisitThe generated report is firmly based on primary research, interviews with top executives, news sources and information insiders. Secondary research techniques are implemented for better understanding and clarity for data analysis.The report for Real Ear Analyzers Market analysis & forecast 2019-2026 is segmented into Product Segment, Application Segment & Major players.Global Real Ear Analyzers Market Segmentation Includes:Region-wise Analysis covers:North AmericaEuropeChinaJapanIndiaSoutheast AsiaOther regions (Central & South America, Middle East & Africa)The Major players include:PhonakStarkeyCochlearOticonSivantosRayovacGN ReSoundMED-ELWidexVARTAUnitronAdvanced BionicsDuracellProduct Type Analysis:PortableStationaryApplication Analysis:ChildrenAdultSeiorGet Sample Copy Of This Report @Real Ear Analyzers Market Analysis and Forecast 2019-2026 report helps the clients to take business decisions and to understand strategies of major players in the industry. The report also calls for market- driven results deriving feasibility studies for client needs. UpMarketResearch ensures qualified and verifiable aspects of market data operating in the real- time scenario. The analytical studies are conducted ensuring client needs with a thorough understanding of market capacities in the real- time scenario.Key Reasons to Purchase:- To gain insightful analysis of the market and have a comprehensive understanding of the Global Real Ear Analyzers Market and its commercial landscape.- Learn about the market strategies that are being adopted by your competitors and leading organizations.- To understand the future outlook and prospects for Real Ear Analyzers Market analysis and forecast 2019-2026.Avail Discount On This Report @Customization of the Report:UpMarketResearch provides free customization of reports as per your need. This report can be personalized to meet your requirements. Get in touch with our sales team, who will guarantee you to get a report that suits your necessities.About UpMarketResearch:The UpMarketResearch () is a leading distributor of market research report with more than 800+ global clients. As a market research company, we take pride in equipping our clients with insights and data that holds the power to truly make a difference to their business. Our mission is singular and well- defined  we want to help our clients envisage their business environment so that they are able to make informed, strategic and therefore successful decisions for themselves.Contact Info:Name: Alex MathewsEmail: Alex@upmarketresearch.comOrganization: UpMarketResearchAddress: 500 East E Street, Ontario, CA 91764, United States.
Specialty Glass Market Forecast Report till 2024 | Leading Players: Guardian Industries, Corning, Abrisa Technologies, Thermo Scientific

Specialty Glass Market

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Specialty Glass Market is positively influencing by increasing population is boosting construction of residential and commercial building. It provides elegance and attractiveness to conference rooms, homes and offices. They are used in cubicles, flooring, walls and partitions for safety, sunlight, sound protection. It is an important choice of an architect in buildings and other structures to give them a unique and attractive appearance in interiors and exteriors.Singapore and Hong Kong is anticipating to witness noticeable growth in near future. These countries have one of the best infrastructure globally. Investment in construction in these countries is rising rapidly, countries commercial and residential buildings design are recognized worldwide. Positive outlook in infrastructure will make Asia Pacific a considerable contributor in specialty glass market.Request for table of content of this report @Robust infrastructure development, economic growth, fueling disposable income and improved living standard of people are major factors that drives the infrastructure business. The industry will witness steady growth momentum at over 7% in next five years. Panes are extensively used in commercial, residential buildings, railways stations and airports to provide a special and attractive appearance. It has become an essential part in the booming infrastructure development and has influenced specialty glass market.Chemical Industry is expecting growth at over 3% in forecast time frame. The product is widely used for chemical strengthening, it is an optimal material for protecting displays and touch screens in mobile phones and automobile display. It provides scratch resistance, shiny texture and protection from friction that cannot be attained through resin cover glass. Specialty glass market growth is anticipated to be driven by rising chemical industry.Automobile industry is contributing majorly in Europe economy. Germany is the major country for luxury car accounting for over 20% of total European car sector. It hosts automobile giants that includes Renault and Bugatti. Panes are used in automobile in its entire instrument touch panel system that controls display and operation of car audio, air conditioner and navigation. Increase in luxury car segment is anticipated to grow specialty glass market rapidly.Segmentation of specialty glass market is on the basis of its product that include slumped, impression, illusion, plain, bubble and cast fusion. They are used in diversified industries including chemical, automobile, and construction. Its various applications are in doors, windows, airports, mobile devices and automobile display.Make an Inquiry for Purchasing this Report @UAE penetration in smart phone sector is over 75%, natives of the place extensively use the device. Products special quality of providing strength in display of electronics goods is rising its demand in the region. It gives superior scratch resistance, shiny texture and long-life span to the devices that rises smartphones demand in the region and positively influence specialty glass market.Key contributors in specialty glass market are: AGC Schott Guardian Industries China Group Hoya Corporation Corning Thermo Scientific Rayotek Scientific NSG Abrisa TechnologiesSchott acquired Elecpac in 2009, the move was to expand their footprint worldwide. Acquisition is providing complete portfolio, research, development, technical support, production, sales and marketing to companies. Both the companies will even emphasize on defense and security industries in the U.S. Corning announces expansion in 2017, focus of spreading out the new facility in Newton is to create its global footprint and to serve all the customers worldwide.Browse Report Summery @About Global Market Insights:Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone:1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:
Remington College Dallas Campus to participate in walk to support National Multiple Sclerosis Society

https://www.nationalmssociety.org/remingtoncollege

DALLAS (March 26, 2019)  The National Multiple Sclerosis Society knows creating a world free of MS will take everyone working together. Remington College will do its part by joining others on the journey at Walk MS: Dallas 2019.Remington College Dallas Campus will participate in the walk on April 13 at Addison Circle Park in Addison, Texas. The walk begins at 8:30 a.m.The effort is part of Remington Colleges nationwide partnership with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, which kicked off on World MS Day in May 2018. Students and employees at both campuses will be invited to participate in, raise funds for or volunteer for the walk.Remington College itself is a nonprofit, and each of our campuses is dedicated to giving back to the communities we serve, said Heather McIver, Senior Vice President Institutional Innovation. Walk MS is the perfect chance to send our students and employees into that community to stand together, show support for those living with MS and take steps toward ending this disease forever.Walk MS is one of the National MS Societys annual events, which includes Bike MS. The goal of the walk is to bring people together to end MS. With the money raised, the Society can fund research and provide support to help those living with MS lead their best lives.Multiple sclerosis is a disease in which the bodys immune system is directed against the central nervous system, damaging the myelin that surrounds nerve fibers. Symptoms include blurred vision, loss of balance, slurred speech, numbness, and more. There is no cure.The National MS Societys mission is to stop MS in its tracks, restore what has been lost and end MS forever so those affected can live their best lives.For more information about Walk MS: Dallas 2019, click here. To visit Remington Colleges National Team Page, visitAbout Remington College: Non-profit Remington College, headquartered in Lake Mary, FL, operates 14 college campuses throughout the United States offering career focused diploma, bachelor and associate degree programs in a variety of career fields. For more information, please visit remingtoncollege.edu. For the latest news about Remington College, visit facebook.com/remingtoncollege. Remington College does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs and other school administered programs.Media contact:Eileen EazsolWellons Communications407-339-0879eileen@wellonscommunications.comWellons Communications is a full-service public relations and social media firm.195 Wekiva Springs Road #214 Longwood, FL 32779
Monoclonal Antibody Therapeutics Market Is Booming Worldwide| Pfizer, Inc., Novartis International AG, Amgen, Inc., Sanofi S.A., Merck & Co., Inc., GlaxoSmithKline Plc

Monoclonal Antibody Therapeutics

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Monoclonal antibody therapeutics market is driven by active research and development of novel drugs and significant number of new drug launches and approval. There are number of monoclonal antibodies in the pipeline, which are expected to receive approval over the forecast period. For instance, manufacturers such as Amgen, Inc., Novartis International AG, Merck & Co., Inc., Eily, Lilly, and Company, and others have several monoclonal antibodies in the pipeline. Moreover, efforts of manufacturers to increase number of indications (oncology) for monoclonal antibodies is further expected to boost the market growth over the forecast period. For instance, in June 2018, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA), expanded the indication of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) to include recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer with disease progression on or after chemotherapy.Get a Request Sample of Research Report @Robust pipeline, success of monoclonal antibodies such as Humira (AbbVie, Inc.) and therapeutic advantages offered by these drugs over existing medications are expected to boost growth of the global monoclonal antibody therapeutics market. Moreover, key players in the market are focused on research and development of new monoclonal antibodies in order to enhance their market share. For instance, in 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to avelumab (BAVENCIO, EMD Serono, Inc.) for the treatment of a rare disease, Metastatic Merkel Cell Carcinoma (MCC).Similarly, in 2017, the U.S FDA granted accelerated approval to immunotherapy product- TECENTRIQ (atezolizumab) for the treatment of people with locally-advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma (mUC). In 2015, Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. entered into a strategic collaboration to develop and commercialize new antibody cancer treatment (SAR439684) in the oncology market. Sanofi and Regeneron are developing an antibody-based cancer therapy- REGN2810 (SAR439684) for the treatment of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, which is currently in phase 2 clinical trials.Download PDF Brochure of Research Report @Increasing product launches and regulatory support for the treatment of rare diseases is expected to support growth of the monoclonal antibody therapeutics market. Several companies have received the U.S FDA approvals for drugs used in treatment of diseases ranging from cancers to rare diseases. For instance, in August 2018, Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Ltd received the U.S. FDA approval for Poteligeo (mogamulizumab-kpkc) for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory mycosis fungoides (MF) or Sezary syndrome (SS) after at least one prior systemic therapy.Moreover, in August 2018, Shire plc. received the U.S. FDA approval for TAKHZYRO (lanadelumab-flyo) injection for a rare disease hereditary angioedema (HAE) in patients 12 years of age and older.High costs of these products is a major concern (in regions with underdeveloped reimbursement facilities) in the healthcare system and to address this problem, manufacturers have resorted to biosimilar products. Biosimilars cost much lower than the original products as the cost of development is relatively low. Majority of the available monoclonal antibody therapeutics (cancer treatments) are expected to lose patent protection by 2020 and some by 2025. For instance, drugs such as Herceptin and Avastin are expected to lose patent protection in 2019.Request for Customization of Research Report @Some of the major players operating in the global monoclonal antibody therapeutics market include, Pfizer, Inc., Novartis International AG, Amgen, Inc., Sanofi S.A., Merck & Co., Inc., GlaxoSmithKline Plc., F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., AbbVie, Inc., Eily, Lilly, and Company, and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.1001 4th Ave,, #3200, Seattle, WA 98154
What are the growth attributes Brewing Enzymes Market? Company profiled Megazyme, Dyadic International, Inc., AB Enzymes, Novozymes, Genencor, A Danisco Division

Brewing Enzymes Market

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Brewing Enzymes Market is estimated to exceed USD 393 million by 2024. Surging demand for beer, wine, whisky & other beverages among the young population owing to the rising disposable income and changing consumer lifestyle will propel the brewing enzymes market. Shifting consumer buying behavior, creation & rejuvenation of urban centers, and proliferation of the lifestyle centers will be a key impetus for the industry landscape. Economic regimes such as lowered tax rates & incentives, coupled with various government subsidies will promote new companies to invest significantly in brewing R&D and innovations.Request for a Copy of report @Brewing enzymes market has lately been on an explosive growth path with the rising popularity of beer consumption. While the drinking of beer has held a strong place in the culture of various European and North American nations, the rising levels of disposable incomes in emerging nations and the growth of trade between more established economies has also made a significant contribution to the expansion of the beer industry that has in turn aided brewing enzymes market expansion.Companies Profiled based on Business Overview, Financial Data, Product Landscape, Strategic Outlook & SWOT Analysis: Aumgene Biosciences Pvt Ltd Specialty Enzymes & Probiotics Jiangsu Boli Bioproducts Co., Ltd. Megazyme Dyadic International, Inc. DENYKEM LIMITED AB Enzymes Novozymes Amano Genencor, A Danisco Division LyvenRising demand for consumer products improved investment in R&D and extensive scope of enzyme applications primarily driving global brewing enzymes market. Growing cereal prices constantly has made it essential for manufacturers to identify ways and means to optimize the overall process. This has increased demand for microbes as they ensure optimized use of raw materials in maturation cycle. It accelerates a chemical reaction without undergoing a physical change resulted in maturation enhances the production process by using brewing enzymes.Rapid maturation coupled with cold haze and chill proofing properties in beer is projected to propel brewing enzymes market growth. Enzymes improve adjunct liquefaction for production of low-carbohydrate beer, for shortening of beer maturation time is anticipated to remain a major factor fueling the product demand. The industry is primarily driven by alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage industry growth. Producers have started incorporating enzymes to enhance their capacity, reduce production & aging duration, and maintain the consistency of their products.Key properties including effective catalytic properties and high stability during chemical reactions will provide notable gains for the brewing enzymes market in the forecast period. Upsurge in the demand for high performance enzymes owing to their easy availability and low cost will create new avenues for the manufacturers resulting in the enhancement of industry landscape.The brewing enzymes market has also significantly gained momentum with the changing patterns of beer trade. While previously the beer landscape was dominated by a few leaders like Corona, Guinness and Heineken, the easing of trade facilities in the 21st century has led to massive and fundamental changes in the international beer markets. As countries started to taste beer from other nations that they had to access to before, the taste palette for beer widened to bring a newfound interest in craft beer.Asia Pacific brewing enzymes market was valued at over USD 80 million in 2017. Increasing demand for innovative & improved beer variants among developing economies such as China, Japan, and India will fuel the high-quality product demand among several brewers in the forecast period. Also, shifting consumer preferences towards low-cost beer variants coupled with rising popularity of malt & wheat beer variants will further support the product penetration across the region.Make an inquiry before buying report@Europe market is likely to experience over 6.2% CAGR from 2018 to 2024. Increasing number of craft breweries, growing popularity of these products among consumers and rising disposable income particularly in West-European countries have propelled the market growth in the region. In Europe, increasing beer consumption per capita is the key factor driving the regional demand. Rising product awareness to boost the beer production will trigger the market growth. Reduced beer costs along with availability in metal cans, glass, and plastic bottles will support the business growth.Global brewing enzymes market share has competitive nature owing to the limited players capturing major industry share. Key manufacturers include Aumgene Biosciences Pvt Ltd, Specialty Enzymes & Probiotics, Jiangsu Boli Bioproducts Co., Ltd., Megazyme, Dyadic International, Inc., DENYKEM LIMITED AB Enzymes, Novozymes.About Global Market Insights:Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone: 1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:Blog:
Glass-Fiber Fabric Market is Likely to Witness huge Growth - Major Key Players are Owens Corning (US), Gurit (Switzerland), Jushi Group Co., Ltd. (China), Chomarat Textile Industries (France), Etc.

Glass-Fiber Fabric Market

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Up Market Research published a new business report on Glass-Fiber Fabric Market. Report provides a comprehensive analysis by key players and regions. This report also displays the forecast till 2026 production, consumption, revenue, gross margin, cost, market share, types, applications, and market influencing factors.Get Sample Copy Of This Report @The report contains 105 pages which highly exhibit on current market analysis scenario, upcoming as well as future opportunities, revenue growth, pricing and profitability.Glass-Fiber Fabric Market research report delivers a close watch on leading competitors with strategic analysis, micro and macro market trend and scenarios, pricing analysis and a holistic overview of the market situations in the forecast period. It is a professional and a detailed report focusing on primary and secondary drivers, market share, leading segments and geographical analysis. Further, key players, major collaborations, merger & acquisitions along with trending innovation and business policies are reviewed in the report. The report contains basic, secondary and advanced information pertaining to the Glass-Fiber Fabric Market global status and trend, market size, share, growth, trends analysis, segment and forecasts from 20192026.The scope of the report extends from market scenarios to comparative pricing between major players, cost and profit of the specified market regions. The statistics are represented in graphical format for a clear understanding on facts and figures.For More Information On This Report, Please VisitThe generated report is firmly based on primary research, interviews with top executives, news sources and information insiders. Secondary research techniques are implemented for better understanding and clarity for data analysis.The report for Glass-Fiber Fabric Market analysis & forecast 2019-2026 is segmented into Product Segment, Application Segment & Major players.Global Glass-Fiber Fabric Market Segmentation Includes:Region-wise Analysis covers:North AmericaEuropeChinaJapanIndiaSoutheast AsiaOther regions (Central & South America, Middle East & Africa)The Major players include:Owens Corning (US)Gurit (Switzerland)Jushi Group Co., Ltd. (China)Chomarat Textile Industries (France)Saertex GmbH and Co.KG. (Germany)Tah Tong Textile Co., Ltd (China)Auburn Manufacturing, Inc. (US)BGF Industries, Inc. (US)Nitto Boseki Co., Ltd. (Japan)Taiwan Electric Insulator Co., Ltd. (China)Saint-Gobain (France)Asahi Kasei (Japan)Hexcel Corporation (US)Central Glass Co., Ltd. (Japan)Product Type Analysis:Alkali-free Glass FiberMedium-alkali Glass FiberHigh-alkali Glass FiberApplication Analysis:Electrical and ElectronicsMarineConstructionTransportationOthersGet Sample Copy Of This Report @Glass-Fiber Fabric Market Analysis and Forecast 2019-2026 report helps the clients to take business decisions and to understand strategies of major players in the industry. The report also calls for market- driven results deriving feasibility studies for client needs. UpMarketResearch ensures qualified and verifiable aspects of market data operating in the real- time scenario. The analytical studies are conducted ensuring client needs with a thorough understanding of market capacities in the real- time scenario.Key Reasons to Purchase:- To gain insightful analysis of the market and have a comprehensive understanding of the Global Glass-Fiber Fabric Market and its commercial landscape.- Learn about the market strategies that are being adopted by your competitors and leading organizations.- To understand the future outlook and prospects for Glass-Fiber Fabric Market analysis and forecast 2019-2026.Avail Discount On This Report @Customization of the Report:UpMarketResearch provides free customization of reports as per your need. This report can be personalized to meet your requirements. Get in touch with our sales team, who will guarantee you to get a report that suits your necessities.About UpMarketResearch:The UpMarketResearch () is a leading distributor of market research report with more than 800+ global clients. As a market research company, we take pride in equipping our clients with insights and data that holds the power to truly make a difference to their business. Our mission is singular and well- defined  we want to help our clients envisage their business environment so that they are able to make informed, strategic and therefore successful decisions for themselves.Contact Info:Name: Alex MathewsEmail: Alex@upmarketresearch.comOrganization: UpMarketResearchAddress: 500 East E Street, Ontario, CA 91764, United States.
Asteroid Mining Market to Reach $3,868.9 Mn, Globally, by 2025 at 24.4% CAGR

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Ongoing and impending space missions by government as well as private players, increasing inflow of investment in space mining technologies, and growing use of print materials obtained from asteroids in 3D printing technology are expected to propel the growth of the global asteroid mining market.Innumerable space missions planned by government and private players, surge in R&D investments by market players to deploy space mining processes, and use of asteroid-derived print materials in 3D printing technology drive the growth of the global asteroid mining market. In addition, increase in space situational awareness programs launched by government organizations is expected to supplement the market growth. However, high cost associated with space mining methods is expected to hamper the market growth. Conversely, adoption of in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) in space exploration and numerous ongoing projects for exploring and colonizing Mars and moon would create new opportunities for the growth of the industry.Buy Now @Flat 20% Discount:* Offer Valid Till 20 April 2019*The report offers extensive analyses of the key winning strategies, industry trends, market dynamics, market size & estimations, top investment pockets, and competitive landscape. As per the report, the global asteroid mining market garnered $712 million in 2017, and is estimated to reach $3,868.9 million by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 24.4% from 2018 to 2025.Space craft design segment to dominate, operation segment to register fastest growth by 2025The space craft design segment contributed the largest share in 2017, accounting for four-fifths of the total revenue. It is expected to continue its dominance through 2025 due to increased investments and funding from governments and private companies worldwide for designing and manufacturing space crafts. However, the operation segment is projected to register the fastest CAGR of 29.1% from 2018 to 2025 due to the increasing inflow of investment by public and private stakeholders in space mining technologies for resource exploitation. Moreover, the launch segment would grow at a steady pace through 2025.Type C segment to dominate through 2025Among asteroid types, the type C segment, which are chondrite asteroids, accounted for 43.2% of the total market revenue in 2017 and would maintain its revenue lead through the study period. This is because type C asteroids are carbonaceous chondrite meteorites, which are known to contain large deposits of water and metals. However, the type M segment is projected to grow at the fastest CAGR of 29.5% during the forecast period because M Type asteroids contain highly valuable resources such as platinum, gold, silver, and others. The report also analyzes asteroid types such as type S and others.Download Sample Report:3D printing to lead in terms of revenue, construction segment to witness fastest growth by 20253D printing segment captured nearly half of the total market revenue in 2017 and is projected to maintain its lead through 2025. This is on account of the advancements in 3D printing technology such as high-resolution prototypes and Zero-G technology that helps in printing objects in space. However, the construction segment would grow at the highest CAGR of 29.1% through 2025, owing to heavy inflow of investments for the development and construction of space infrastructure for space missions. The report also analyzes applications such as resource harvesting and others.North America to garner highest revenue, LAMEA to grow the fastest through 2025The asteroids mining market in North America contributed nearly one-third of the global market revenue in 2017. It is projected to retain its lion's share through 2025, owing to technological advancements related to asteroid mining and high investment in space technology industry. The U.S. is expected to be an emerging player in the asteroids mining industry due to the presence of strong government agencies in the region such as NASA, Satellite Industry Association, and Commercial Spaceflight Federation, among others. However, Latin America, Middle East, and Africa (LAMEA) would register the highest CAGR of 26.4% from 2018 to 2025 due to the growing inclination toward advanced technological products, increase in investments in space technologies, and growth in R&D facilities in the region. The other regions analyzed in the report include Europe and Asia-Pacific.Key players of the industryThe key market players analyzed in the report include Asteroid Mining Company, Bradford, iSpace, Kleos Space S.A., Planetary Resources, SpaceFab.US, Sierra Nevada Corporation, Offworld, and Virgin Galactic.About UsAllied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.David Correa5933 NE Win Sivers Drive#205, Portland, OR 97220United StatesUSA/Canada (Toll Free):+1-800-792-5285, +1-503-894-6022, +1-503-446-1141UK: +44-845-528-1300Hong Kong: +852-301-84916India (Pune): +91-20-66346060Fax: +1(855)550-5975help@alliedmarketresearch.comWeb:
Rail-mounted Oxygen Pressure Regulator Market Detailed Global Analysis Report by Key Players - Heyer Medical, O-Two Medical, Ohio Medical, Etc.

Rail-mounted Oxygen Pressure Regulator Market

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Up Market Research published a detailed report on Rail-mounted Oxygen Pressure Regulator Market. The report provides an in-depth overview of industry and competitive landscape, covering multiple market segments and elaborates market outlook and status to 2026.Get Sample Copy Of This Report @The report contains 97 pages which highly exhibit on current market analysis scenario, upcoming as well as future opportunities, revenue growth, pricing and profitability.Rail-mounted Oxygen Pressure Regulator Market research report delivers a close watch on leading competitors with strategic analysis, micro and macro market trend and scenarios, pricing analysis and a holistic overview of the market situations in the forecast period. It is a professional and a detailed report focusing on primary and secondary drivers, market share, leading segments and geographical analysis. Further, key players, major collaborations, merger & acquisitions along with trending innovation and business policies are reviewed in the report. The report contains basic, secondary and advanced information pertaining to the Rail-mounted Oxygen Pressure Regulator Market global status and trend, market size, share, growth, trends analysis, segment and forecasts from 20192026.The scope of the report extends from market scenarios to comparative pricing between major players, cost and profit of the specified market regions. The statistics are represented in graphical format for a clear understanding on facts and figures.For More Information On This Report, Please VisitThe generated report is firmly based on primary research, interviews with top executives, news sources and information insiders. Secondary research techniques are implemented for better understanding and clarity for data analysis.The report for Rail-mounted Oxygen Pressure Regulator Market analysis & forecast 2019-2026 is segmented into Product Segment, Application Segment & Major players.Global Rail-mounted Oxygen Pressure Regulator Market Segmentation Includes:Region-wise Analysis covers:North AmericaEuropeChinaJapanIndiaSoutheast AsiaOther regions (Central & South America, Middle East & Africa)The Major players include:Heyer MedicalO-Two MedicalOhio MedicalPenlonPrecision MedicalSmiths MedicalProduct Type Analysis:Stainles SteelCopperOthersApplication Analysis:HospitalClinicOthersGet Sample Copy Of This Report @Rail-mounted Oxygen Pressure Regulator Market Analysis and Forecast 2019-2026 report helps the clients to take business decisions and to understand strategies of major players in the industry. The report also calls for market- driven results deriving feasibility studies for client needs. UpMarketResearch ensures qualified and verifiable aspects of market data operating in the real- time scenario. The analytical studies are conducted ensuring client needs with a thorough understanding of market capacities in the real- time scenario.Key Reasons to Purchase:- To gain insightful analysis of the market and have a comprehensive understanding of the Global Rail-mounted Oxygen Pressure Regulator Market and its commercial landscape.- Learn about the market strategies that are being adopted by your competitors and leading organizations.- To understand the future outlook and prospects for Rail-mounted Oxygen Pressure Regulator Market analysis and forecast 2019-2026.Avail Discount On This Report @Customization of the Report:UpMarketResearch provides free customization of reports as per your need. This report can be personalized to meet your requirements. Get in touch with our sales team, who will guarantee you to get a report that suits your necessities.About UpMarketResearch:The UpMarketResearch () is a leading distributor of market research report with more than 800+ global clients. As a market research company, we take pride in equipping our clients with insights and data that holds the power to truly make a difference to their business. Our mission is singular and well- defined  we want to help our clients envisage their business environment so that they are able to make informed, strategic and therefore successful decisions for themselves.Contact Info:Name: Alex MathewsEmail: Alex@upmarketresearch.comOrganization: UpMarketResearchAddress: 500 East E Street, Ontario, CA 91764, United States.
Sillicon Carbide Market Will Hit Big Revenues In Future With Top Key Players: CREE Incorporated, Fairchild Semiconductor International Inc, Etc.

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Up Market Research published a detailed report on Sillicon Carbide Market. The report provides an in-depth overview of industry and competitive landscape, covering multiple market segments and elaborates market outlook and status to 2026.Get Sample Copy Of This Report @The report contains 99 pages which highly exhibit on current market analysis scenario, upcoming as well as future opportunities, revenue growth, pricing and profitability.Sillicon Carbide Market research report delivers a close watch on leading competitors with strategic analysis, micro and macro market trend and scenarios, pricing analysis and a holistic overview of the market situations in the forecast period. It is a professional and a detailed report focusing on primary and secondary drivers, market share, leading segments and geographical analysis. Further, key players, major collaborations, merger & acquisitions along with trending innovation and business policies are reviewed in the report. The report contains basic, secondary and advanced information pertaining to the Sillicon Carbide Market global status and trend, market size, share, growth, trends analysis, segment and forecasts from 20192026.The scope of the report extends from market scenarios to comparative pricing between major players, cost and profit of the specified market regions. The statistics are represented in graphical format for a clear understanding on facts and figures.For More Information On This Report, Please VisitThe generated report is firmly based on primary research, interviews with top executives, news sources and information insiders. Secondary research techniques are implemented for better understanding and clarity for data analysis.The report for Sillicon Carbide Market analysis & forecast 2019-2026 is segmented into Product Segment, Application Segment & Major players.Global Sillicon Carbide Market Segmentation Includes:Region-wise Analysis covers:North AmericaEuropeChinaJapanIndiaSoutheast AsiaOther regions (Central & South America, Middle East & Africa)The Major players include:CREE Incorporated (U.S.)Fairchild Semiconductor International Inc. (U.S.)Genesic Semiconductor Inc. (U.S.)Infineon Technologies AG (Germany)Microsemi Corporation (U.S.)Norstel AB (Sweden)Renesas Electronics Corporation (Japan)ROHM Co. Ltd. (Japan)STMicroelectronics N.V (Switzerland)Toshiba Corporation (Japan)Product Type Analysis:SiC polymers types (3C, 4H, and 6H)IV  IV SiC semiconductorIII  V SiC semiconductorApplication Analysis:AutomotiveIndustrialDefense and AerospacePowerSolar and WindMedical and HealthcareOthersGet Sample Copy Of This Report @Sillicon Carbide Market Analysis and Forecast 2019-2026 report helps the clients to take business decisions and to understand strategies of major players in the industry. The report also calls for market- driven results deriving feasibility studies for client needs. UpMarketResearch ensures qualified and verifiable aspects of market data operating in the real- time scenario. The analytical studies are conducted ensuring client needs with a thorough understanding of market capacities in the real- time scenario.Key Reasons to Purchase:- To gain insightful analysis of the market and have a comprehensive understanding of the Global Sillicon Carbide Market and its commercial landscape.- Learn about the market strategies that are being adopted by your competitors and leading organizations.- To understand the future outlook and prospects for Sillicon Carbide Market analysis and forecast 2019-2026.Avail Discount On This Report @Customization of the Report:UpMarketResearch provides free customization of reports as per your need. This report can be personalized to meet your requirements. Get in touch with our sales team, who will guarantee you to get a report that suits your necessities.About UpMarketResearch:The UpMarketResearch () is a leading distributor of market research report with more than 800+ global clients. As a market research company, we take pride in equipping our clients with insights and data that holds the power to truly make a difference to their business. Our mission is singular and well- defined  we want to help our clients envisage their business environment so that they are able to make informed, strategic and therefore successful decisions for themselves.Contact Info:Name: Alex MathewsEmail: Alex@upmarketresearch.comOrganization: UpMarketResearchAddress: 500 East E Street, Ontario, CA 91764, United States.
Ninkasi Brewing Co. of Eugene, whose flagship beer Total Domination led it to become the nations 35th largest craft brewery and Oregons third-highest seller, has sold a majority ownership stake to Legacy Breweries, a new business venture that plans to use acquisitions to create craft hubs in the United States.

Legacy is led by Don Bryant, the former head of Washington state-based hop supplier Yakima Chief. Bryant told industry publication Brewbound the venture plans to purchase two more Ninkasi-sized breweries in the Midwest and eastern United States to establish brewing hubs. Legacy would then look to buy 10 to 15 smaller breweries in those areas, creating better production and packaging capabilities and raw-material access.

Details of the deal, including financial terms, were not disclosed. Legacy is backed by two sources of capital, according to Brewbound: a family office called Blue Ocean, and EPR Properties, a publicly held specialty real estate investment trust that has $6.8 billion worth of investments.

Nikos Ridge, who with partner Jamie Floyd co-founded Ninkasi in 2006, told Brewbound he will continue as CEO of Ninkasi, which shipped more than 90,000 barrels last year. He said the new ventures long-term goal is to identify owners interested in selling all or part of their independent craft breweries.

I think the ideal partner for us would be someone who is stronger in areas where we are not as developed, he told Brewbound.

Ridge has fervently kept Ninkasi independent and has criticized other craft breweries for selling to corporations such as Anheuser-Busch InBev or Miller Coors.

In a statement last week about the deal, Ridge said: Ninkasi has discussed numerous partnership opportunities over the years that didnt quite fit our vision, but with the support of Legacy and EPR, we felt that this was the right opportunity and will help us develop into the next powerful independent craft brewery platform.

Ridge defended the move as significantly different from selling to a global conglomerate.

I think selling out to someone that has a vested interest in destroying craft beer and spends 10s of millions of dollars on a national discussion about how (bad) or not (bad) corn is, is a lot different from a partner who comes in and wants to work with us to build a coalition of craft brewers to leverage the strengths that weve built at Ninkasi over the years, Ridge told Portland beer-industry blog The New School.

Two years ago, Ridge told The Oregonian/OregonLive he couldnt see selling to a megacorporation but recognized why some would. He acknowledged the industry was evolving and becoming more cutthroat.

I 100 percent believe in everyones right to make their own decisions and do whats right for them, Ridge said.

In Oregon, breweries owned all or in part by large corporations include Widmer Brothers Brewing, which is minority owned by AB InBev; 10 Barrel Brewing of Bend, which sold to AB InBev in 2014; and Hop Valley Brewing of Springfield, which in 2016 sold a majority stake to MillerCoors.

-- Andre Meunier

More beer coverage:
Neighboring police agencies are rethinking helping Portland police except in major emergencies in the wake of a million-dollar judgment against Washington County and Hillsboro awarded after their officers wounded a man while helping Portland police with a search warrant.

Washington County Sheriff Pat Garrett has ordered his deputies not to take any enforcement action in Portland unless theres a direct tie to their casework in Washington County.

Clackamas County is thinking of following suit. Vancouver police plan to review the departments mutual aid agreements this year.

Washington Countys move came on the advice of its senior assistant counsel, Elmer M. Dickens, who doubles as the attorney for the Oregon State Sheriffs Association.

Dickens made the recommendation to avoid potential risks from costly judgements in civil lawsuits over use of force, findings by Multnomah County grand juries reviewing police shootings or scrutiny by Portland-hired consultants who also review officer-involved shootings in the city.

In a Feb. 14 memo to the sheriff, Dickens described Portland police as a fantastic partner for many years, but these issues are much larger than PPB and beyond their control.

For 23 years, under a mutual aid agreement Portland had with Washington County and continues to have with other police agencies, each city or county agrees to be responsible for the acts of its employees when theyre assisting another agency.

But a federal jurys $7 million judgment for battery and negligence against two Washington County tactical officers last year spurred the countys reassessment. Members of Washington Countys Tactical Negotiations Team wounded a North Portland man, Adalberto Flores-Haro, in 2012 while helping Portland police serve a search warrant at a nearby home. A judge this year reduced the award to $1 million, and the amount now is under appeal.

Dickens also cited particular concern about how Portland represents its officers. He said in some cases the city has reserved its right not to pay for an attorney or a court judgment against an officer.

That characterization has left Portland city attorneys scratching their heads.

State law says the city requesting help should represent and defend an employee who responds from an outside agency, but that a mutual aid agreement can shift that representation to the city or county of the responding officer.

Thats what happened in 1996 when Portland signed a mutual aid agreement with Washington, Clackamas, Columbia and Clark county sheriffs offices, Oregon State Police, the Washington State Patrol, FBI and neighboring cities, according to Portland city attorneys.

Portland sought the agreement because it doesnt have control over how officers from an outside agency are trained or hired, according to the City Attorneys Office.

We do not think anything has changed legally, City Attorney Tracy Reeve said Friday.

And Dickens reference to Portland reserving the right not to cover an officers lawyer or a judgment against an officer is restricted to cases when a Portland officer isnt acting in the course of their job, such as driving drunk while off-duty, a Portland risk management spokeswoman said.

Regardless, Garrett ordered Washington County deputies assigned to the countys tactical squad, TriMet and crowd control mobile field forces not to be sent to Portland except in cases of an extreme risk to life and safety and Portland police are overwhelmed.

Washington County deputies assigned to the multi-agency Transit Division, which provides law enforcement for TriMet, will work out of Hillsboro or Clackamas County instead, said Washington County Sheriffs Sgt. David Thompson.

Seven days after Washington County pulled out, Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts asked his countys counsel to weigh in with a written opinion.

In a Feb. 21 email to his staff, Roberts said he was seeking the opinion because of the litigation many of us find our agencies in after rendering aid to PPB, often regarding crowd control matters.

I want all of you to know if a fellow law enforcement officer is in need of assistance in a life-threatening situation we will respond, Roberts wrote. That being said, I will not place our staff at unnecessary personal risk when acting under law and authority as a police officer.

As of Friday, the Clackamas County Sheriffs Office hadnt made any changes and was operating under the status quo, said spokesman Sgt. Nate Thompson. The Clackamas County counsel opinion informed the sheriff its the countys obligation to defend its employees, no matter where the deputy is taking law enforcement action, as long as the deputy is acting within his or her role as a sheriffs office employee.

Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts told staff he asked the county counsel for a written opinion in the wake of the decision by Washington County sheriff to pull out of its mutual aid pact with Portland.

Vancouver Police Department this year plans to examine its mutual aid agreements with nearby police agencies "to ensure that we have written agreements that accurately reflect the roles and responsibilities currently anticipated'' by the department and its neighboring partners, said Kim Kapp, Vancouver police spokeswoman.

Washington Countys move, first reported by KPTV, concerns Portland Police Chief Danielle Outlaw and Mayor Ted Wheeler, who serves as the citys police commissioner. It also has pushed the City Attorneys Office and Portland police to reexamine its long-standing mutual aid agreements.

The city is in talks with Clackamas County Sheriffs Office, working to address their concerns and preserve Portlands partnership with them, according to Wheelers spokeswoman, Eileen Park.

The city, for instance, is examining if there are officers from another police agency it would agree to indemnify. Although the city has historically not accepted liability for officers it doesnt train or supervise, it might in some cases  perhaps when the need for outside resources to protect public safety outweighed the liability concerns, said Reeve, the city attorney.

The city approaches these issues carefully and tries to strike the right balance between protecting public safety and reducing the risk to public funds resulting from the conduct of other agencies, Reeve said.

Portland police spokeswoman Lt. Tina Jones said the bureau values cross-agency collaboration.

We will continue to be good regional partners with all agencies regardless of legal decisions that may impact long standing mutual aid agreements, she said.

Officer Daryl Turner, president of the Portland Police Association, said the citys elected officials need to figure out how to correct this problem because he fears the loss of help from Washington County will have significant repercussions.

He noted that multiple agencies, including Portland police, raced to the shooting at Clackamas Town Center in 2012 and the Reynolds High School shooting in Troutdale in 2014.

Can you imagine someone delaying their response to those shootings because of mutual aid disputes, Turner said.

The people it hurts the most is the community and the officers who have a long history of working together, Turner said.

Yet, the Washington County sheriff was clear that his deputies would still roll out in extreme emergencies.

Very important, we will still send help during a significant life-threatening emergency such as a Code 0 or active shooter. Our friends and colleagues at the Portland Police Bureau are terrific partners, great professionals and we care about them and their safety as we do our other partners, Garrett wrote to his staff.

Unfortunately, the current political climate forces us to make this difficult decision, but one I truly believe is in the best interest of those on our WCSO team who would respond into the City.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian

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Rebecca Schaeffer was a former Lincoln High School student from Portland who was just at the beginning of what promised to be a successful acting career in Los Angeles. But the 21-year-olds life shockingly ended when an obsessed fan showed up at Schaeffers door and shot the young actress. Schaeffer died July 18, 1989.

The tragic death of Schaeffer made national news, led to changes in the law, and heightened awareness of the need for celebrities and others to be protected from stalkers. It will be once more explored on a new 20/20 two-hour documentary special this Friday.

Schaeffer had already costarred with Pam Dawber in the TV sitcom My Sister Sam and was, according to the ABC News press release, about to audition for a role in The Godfather Part III when she was killed.

Her stalker traveled from his home in Tucson, Arizona, to Los Angeles in search of the actress. The stalker had hired a private investigator, who obtained Schaeffers home address from the California Department of Motor Vehicles. After Schaeffers murder, California led the way in restricting access to personal information held by state DMVs, policies that went into effect across the country after Congress passed the Drivers Privacy Protection Act in 1994.

20/20 'Your Biggest Fan' - 2-hour event special - Friday, April 12th at 9|8c on ABC Obsession & haunting tragedy in the shadows of Hollywood. Now, almost 30 years after actress and rising star Rebecca Schaeffer was killed by a stalker - new details, new interviews, and the phone call you just have to hear. WATCH Your Biggest Fan  the 20/20 2-hour event special, Friday at 9|8c on ABC. Posted by ABC 20/20 on Friday, April 5, 2019

The 20/20 documentary includes new interviews with Dawber, Schaeffers costar in My Sister Sam; director Brad Silberling, who was dating Schaeffer at the time; actress Dyan Cannon, who directed Rebecca in a movie called The End of Innocence; Erika Slezak, who was a star on the daytime soap opera, One Life to Live, the first TV series Schaeffer appeared in; Marcia Clark, the former Los Angeles prosecutor who prosecuted Schaeffers killer, and later went on to unsuccessfully prosecute O.J. Simpson during his murder trial; and Benson Schaeffer, Rebeccas father.

Danna Schaeffer, Rebeccas mother, shared her own reactions to the loss of her daughter in You in Midair, a solo show that she performed in Portland in 2017. In speaking to The Oregonian/OregonLive about her experiences, Schaeffer said she hoped audiences would come away with a sense of Rebecca beyond the horror of her murder. I just hate to have her life defined by her death.

The 20/20 special about Rebecca Schaeffer is part of a series of two-hour documentary programs that will conclude with the documentary about the actress. An earlier program in the series focused on the case of Diane Downs, who shot her three children, killing one.

The 20/20 documentary about Schaeffers life and death, Your Biggest Fan, airs at 9 p.m. Friday, April 12, on ABC.

-- Kristi Turnquist

kturnquist@oregonian.com 503-221-8227 @Kristiturnquist

Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox.
Oregon was home to at least 137 wolves in 2018, a 10 percent increase from the previous year, according to the states annual wolf report released Monday by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Those 137 wolves were organized into at least 16 packs, up from a dozen in 2017, the agency said.

The states wolf population continues to grow and expand its range, now into the central Oregon Cascade Mountains too, state wolf coordinator Roblyn Brown said in a statement.

Wolves began populating new areas, too, the agency said, with the White River Pack being declared a breeding pair after successfully reproducing in Western Oregon. In the Umpqua National Forest, a group of at least three wolves received the formal name of the Indigo Group.

Two wolves were illegally killed in the state in 2018, down from four the year before. Livestock losses went up, with 28 incidents confirmed to be the work of wolves, up from 17 in 2017.

While known wolf numbers have increased considerably over the last nine years, depredations and livestock losses have not increased at the same rate, the agency said.

In 2017, wildlife managers reported that there were, at minimum, 124 wolves in 12 known packs, an 11 percent increase from 2016.

As the wolf population has expanded into new areas in Oregon, livestock producers have adjusted the way they do business to remove bone piles and incorporate non-lethal measures that can reduce the vulnerability of their livestock to depredation by wolves and other predators, Brown added.

As the yearly tally comes in, wildlife managers are still working on the states long-delayed wolf management plan, the document that governs when and where wolves can be killed in the state after being deemed chronic threats to livestock.

East of Highways 395/78/95, wolves are managed under Phase III of the current wolf management plan, which allows for killing wolves that repeated attack livestock, under certain situations. Wolves, for now at least, are under federal endangered species protections in the western half of the state.

Courtesy/ODFW

Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt announced in March a proposal to strip endangered species protections from wolves nationwide. Jerome Rosa, executive director of the Oregon Cattlemens Association, saw the population increase as evidence that the states wolf plan has been successful and that the canids no longer need protection in Oregon west of the Cascades.

Its important to keep in mind that this is the minimum number of wolves, he said. We believe that there are many more wolves on the landscape."

Advocates for the wolf saw the new numbers differently with representatives from Defenders of Wildlife, Cascadia Wildlands and the Center for Biological Diversity all praising the increased number of wolves, while urging caution in removing protections for the animals.

The ongoing recovery of Oregons wolf population is something to celebrate, and perhaps 2019 will be the year that wolves return home to the Oregon Coast Range and Siskiyou Mountains, Nick Cady, Legal Director with Cascadia Wildlands, said in a statement.

Sean Stevens, executive director of Oregon Wild, said the wolfs recovery in Oregon was a tenuous one.

The slow and steady progress of wolf recovery could still easily be upended if ODFW and the Trump administration succeed in their attempts to weaken protections," he said.

In Oregon, both sides of the wolf debate  livestock producers and environmental advocates  have gone back and forth for more than five years, sometimes showing signs of progress, others times looking to be at impassable loggerheads over management of wolves. The conflict came to a head in January when the groups representing environmental advocates pulled out of the negotiations altogether, saying the previous years of negotiations had been for naught.

Despite their absence, the state planned to hold a vote on the draft plan in March, but the vote was pushed back to allow everyone more time to review the Plan and Commissioners more time to talk with constituents, according to the agency.

A draft of the revised plan has yet to be released and no date has been set for a potential vote.

Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly indicated a vote on the revised Wolf Management Plan would take place on April 19. The post has been updated to correct the error.

-- Kale Williams

kwilliams@oregonian.com

503-294-4048

@sfkale

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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 defense. Hart, 61, is OK.

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.

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.

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.

-- The Associated Press
SALEM  Gov. Kate Brown and the Oregon Legislature have taken notice of Oregons high suicide rate.

This spring, a number of proposals are before the Legislature to bolster state and local officials ability to respond to and prevent suicides  including one that would bring Oregon in line with most states by requiring every public school district to adopt a suicide prevention plan.

Suicide prevention is a wide-ranging topic in the Capitol. Some proposals would take on the issue head-on, requiring more reports, training and planning around instances of suicide. But other legislation regarding public schools and gun control also is connected to suicide, key Democrats say.

For me, it needs to be under the broader umbrella of behavioral health issues that were seeing in our schools, Brown said.

Brown originally proposed more than $13 million in new money for suicide prevention efforts over the next biennium. Investments in mental and behavioral health through a $2 billion public education bill that lawmakers are working on now could absolutely address that need, she said Thursday, April 4.

Honestly, I think in terms of my budget, we didn't invest significantly enough around behavioral health supports for our teachers and our schools around the state, Brown said.

Although the evolving education package faces significant hurdles, some specific legislation dealing directly with suicide appears to be on a fast track through the Capitol.

Bills already have passed the Senate  on unanimous votes  to beef up reporting requirements for many suicides.

Legislation put forward by Sens. Sara Gelser, D-Corvallis, and Rob Wagner, D-Lake Oswego, would require school districts, colleges and universities to notify the Oregon Health Authority when a student dies by suicide. The state agency would then provide assistance to schools as needed.

Gelser and Wagner also want to require county and tribal governments to notify schools and other local programs and agencies about the suicide of a person under the age of 25 who has had contact with them.

Another bill that advocates are hopeful about is Senate Bill 52  often referred to as Adi's Act, after Adi Staub, a transgender Portland teen who died by suicide in 2017 after being bullied in school. The legislation, introduced at the request of Basic Rights Oregon, would require every public school district in the state to develop a comprehensive suicide prevention plan for students in every grade level, from kindergarten through 12th grade.

Suicide prevention plans would have to account for what SB 52 calls high-risk groups  including LGBTQ students, students experiencing homelessness, students with disabilities and mentally ill students  as well as addressing suicide within the general student population.

David Westbrook, chief operating officer of Lines for Life, a nonprofit group that provides resources for people experiencing suicidal thoughts, said Oregon is one of just three states that doesn't require school districts to have a plan for preventing youth suicides.

Clearly, we are behind the times on that, said Westbrook, who also is a member of the Oregon Alliance to Prevent Suicide, which has recommended many of the policy changes that legislators are now considering.

Like Gelser and Wagner's reporting bills, SB 52 unanimously passed the Senate last month. Westbrook said he expects it to have an easy path through the House as well.

Gelser also has proposed Senate Bill 707, forming a state advisory committee to look at how to reduce the suicide rate among Oregon youth. The committee, which Gelser sees as a continuation of the Alliance to Prevent Suicide, would work with the Oregon Health Authority and make recommendations.

As a state representative in 2014, Gelser successfully pushed to create a position for a youth suicide intervention and prevention coordinator within the Oregon Health Authority. The former coordinator, Ann Kirkwood, worked on creating a five-year plan to address youth suicide in Oregon. Gelser said she believes Kirkwood's work has saved lives.

The Alliance to Prevent Suicide, meanwhile, provides input from health care professionals, suicide survivors and others.

The suicide alliance, without a big budget, has made an enormous difference, Gelser said.

SB 707 passed out of committee April 2 and could receive a floor vote in the Senate soon.

Other proposals face a murkier future.

A proposal by state Rep. Alissa Keny-Guyer, D-Portland, to add an adult suicide intervention and prevention coordinator has not advanced this session, to Westbrook's disappointment. It received a public hearing in February, but it was not scheduled for a work session before a March 29 committee deadline.

Senate Bill 141 would set up a $4 million grant program for hospitals throughout Oregon to provide caring contacts for patients who are discharged from the hospital after a suicide attempt. The idea is to keep people struggling with suicidal thoughts in contact with a health care professional.

The late American psychiatrist Dr. Jerome Motto pioneered the practice of staying in regular contact with patients for months or years after a suicidal episode, sending them brief but encouraging letters at regular intervals. Studies have shown these caring contacts are effective in lowering the suicide rate among recipients.

Senate Bill 808, introduced by Sen. Lew Frederick, D-Portland, adds a recurring educational requirement for health care professionals, teachers, school administrators, social workers, therapists and others. They would have to complete at least three hours of continuing education on suicide risk  how to recognize warning signs and respond when a person is having suicidal thoughts, for instance  every six years to be licensed in Oregon.

Because SB 141 and SB 808 would create new state programs, the Legislature will need to figure out how to pay for them if they become law. To move forward, the bills have to pass through the Legislature's budget-writing committee. There, they will vie with dozens of other requests for state money.

Westbrook is glad to see that the Legislature is talking seriously about suicide.

I think two things are happening, Westbrook said. One is that the stigma around talking about it is lifting somewhat. And two is that it really is a major public health crisis that I feel like, in some ways, folks are just now waking up to.

The suicide rate in Oregon is higher than it is in neighboring Washington and California, and only 14 states have higher suicide rates, federal statistics show. In 2017, 825 Oregonians died by suicide, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. On average, that's one person nearly every 11 hours.

Among 15- to 34-year-olds, suicide is the second-leading cause of death in Oregon, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention says.

Sen Gelser sees mental illness, addiction, domestic and gun violence, homelessness and other social problems feeding into Oregon's suicide problem.

All of those things are part of it, Gelser said.

She added, I believe we need a significant investment in behavioral health services and mental health services. We need to invest in families. We need to invest in drug and alcohol. I mean, all of these things loop together over time.

Reporter Mark Miller works for the Oregon Capital Bureau, a collaboration of EO Media, the Salem Reporter and Pamplin Media Group.

You can learn more about Adi Staub and the Adi Staub Transgender Leadership fund here http://www.basicrights.org/uncategorized/please-support-adi-staub-transgender-leadership-fund

Crisis and help lines

Trans Lifeline: 877-565-8860; Support from trans/gender nonconforming call takers; Open 24/7; operators guaranteed during the following hours: Pacific: 7 a.m.-1 a.m.; https://www.translifeline.org/

The Trevor Project; specific to LGBTQ youth. Its phone is 24/7, and other times are listed below. Lifeline: 1-866-488-7386; Text: TREVOR to 202-304-1200 from noon-7 p.m.

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This month, newsrooms across Oregon are highlighting the public health crisis of death by suicide. The goal of the collaborative project, Breaking the Silence, is to not only put a journalistic spotlight on a problem that claimed the lives of more than 800 Oregonians last year, but also examine research into how prevention can and does work. We hope to offer our readers, listeners and viewers resources to help if theyor those they knoware in crisis. Most of our work will be published and broadcast April 7-14. The participating media outlets are using a common set of data and have loosely coordinated their coverage in an effort to avoid duplication and better amplify all of our work. The work will be added to breakingthesilenceor.com as it is published.
By Chris Apgar

Apgar is president and chief executive of Apgar Associates, adjunct professor at Pacific University and a certified information system security professional.

Recently California passed a data privacy law to protect consumers. Washington state will likely have a new privacy law in a few weeks. But here in Oregon, our Legislature is heading in a different direction as it considers a bill that should be titled the Breach Waiting to Happen Act. As a data protection expert and cybersecurity professional, I hope that our legislators are wise and kill this idea quickly.

A lay person might read House Bill 3152 as authorizing standard information-sharing arrangements between auto manufacturers, dealers and the companies that build specialized computer systems for the industry. Nothing could be further from the truth. Instead, this bill would require very secure and highly-regulated computer networks to become less secure  so much less secure that millions of Oregonians Social Security and credit card numbers would be at a greater risk of being stolen.

Apparently auto dealers and manufacturers disagree about who owns the personal information that consumers share with dealers when we test drive and buy cars. Dealers want more ability to control consumers data, so they have asked the Legislature to grant them unprecedented rights to authorize anyone they choose to access the industry computer systems and do anything they choose with this data. Im not sure how this solves the dealers concern about how manufacturers access their data, but I know this solution is far from sound privacy and security practice.

Currently, these sophisticated computer systems are like fortresses  accessible only to people who need data for a clearly defined purpose like if your car is recalled or you need to retrieve your repair records or get a new title. This bill would end that protection  as computer system owners would not even be permitted to deny access to dealers designated people who lack technical training. Nor does the bill limit what people can do with this data, so we should all prepare for our most sensitive personal and financial data to be sold, shared, and traded and more available to spammers and identity thieves  thanks to HB 3152.

Every day I advise health care clients how to keep data private and secure. Companies spend billions of dollars improving security and globally we are seeing new laws and proposals to protect consumers. But here in Oregon the Legislature will reverse that trend, contrary to everything consumer protection advocates, data privacy and cybersecurity experts, and law enforcement is urging us to do. Are auto dealers really that powerful with our politicians, or will our officials read this bill before they vote, and then choose the path of more security and protecting voters?
More than two dozen power poles toppled in a domino effect near the Museum of Flight on Friday, trapping two people inside a car after one of the poles smashed through their windshield.

The accident, which also cut power to about 17,000 residents, occurred along East Marginal Way South and South 94th Place, according to a tweet by Tukwila police.

Debra Smith, chief executive of Seattle City Light, told The Seattle Times that the 26 poles underwent a full inspection three years ago. She added that some of the poles were replaced in 2016 and others were due to be replaced within five years, but none were outside of their identified life span.

The road was closed in both directions Friday as crews worked to deactivate the power lines and get the driver and passenger out of the car. Police said the two people were removed from the car by about 5:30 p.m. and that one had a superficial injury and the other was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Engineers are examining the wooden poles for clues as to why they failed. They also will try to determine how to rebuild lines west of the huge roadway.
A bill to lower the legal blood alcohol limit in Oregon to .05 percent will not move forward in Salem this year.

Sen. President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, confirmed Monday that his Senate Bill 7, which calls for Oregon to lower its drunken driving limit from .08 to .05 percent blood alcohol content, is dead.

Were not going to do it this session, Courtney said of his attempt to impose tougher blood alcohol content rules. Im not surprised. I do know that we have made progress.

Tuesday is the deadline for hundreds of bills to be moved out of Senate and House policy committees, and Courtney said Monday his bill will not be one of them. Kevin Moore, legislative aide for Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee assigned the drunken driving legislation, confirmed Senate Bill 7 wont be advancing this session.

In email, Moore said the concept likely will be considered by an interim work group dealing with related issues.

Gov. Kate Brown in January threw her support behind Courtneys bill, calling it the right way to go.

Utah is the only state to lower its legal drinking limit from .08 to .05. Michigan lawmakers also introduced a similar bill last month proposing to lower the legal drinking limit there.

In each of the states, the bill was met with opposition from the alcohol lobby. Drivers can still be cited and arrested for driving while impaired if they have a blood alcohol content lower than .08 under current law.

About one-third of highway fatalities nationwide are alcohol-related. Alcohol industry lobbyists have argued the vast majority  70 percent  of fatalities tied to alcohol use involve drivers with a blood alcohol content of .15 or higher, nearly twice the legal drinking limit.

Courtney said he wasnt expecting to pass the bill this session, but he wanted to move the conversation forward.

Earlier this year, The Oregonian/OregonLive conducted a drinking test with four reporters to explore whether our staffers knew the difference between their abilities at .05 versus .08.

The reporters  two men and two women -- all indicated they felt impaired at or below a .05 blood alcohol content level after drinking about two beers in an hour.

Sgt. Tim Plummer, the top trainer for the Oregon State Police, said the state average for those arrested on suspicion of a DUII is .16, twice the current legal limit.

The bigger impact of lowering the BAC would be cultural, Plummer predicted. What it will help do is raise awareness to folks that you can be impaired at an .05, he said.

Between 2013 and 2017, drunken drivers killed 543 people in crashes where drivers had a BAC at or above the currently legal limit. Eleven people died in crashes where a driver blew between a .05 and .08, according to state records.

Courtney said he hopes to hold an informational hearing in Salem so lawmakers can better understand the rationale behind the legislation. Youve got to get the idea out, he said, nothing does it like introducing a bill.

He plans to push the issue in the interim session and hope to bring it back with full committee support in coming years.

He said he is concerned about any level of impairment for drivers coupled with distractions like cell phone and technology inside cars coupled factors outside vehicles, such as pedestrians and cyclists. You need to really have all your faculties in order to drive today in an urban area, he said.

-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheen

Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox.
By Philip Bump

The Washington Post

President Donald Trump has a new argument meant to dissuade people from trying to migrate to the United States.

"As I say, and this is our new statement: The system is full," Trump said during an immigration round table in California on Friday. "We can't take you anymore. Whether it's asylum, whether it's anything you want. It's illegal immigration? We can't take you any more. We can't take you."

His argument, in generously broad strokes, was that the system was overwhelmed, a function of a surge in migrants seeking entry to the country and that many of them seek asylum upon arrival. But Trump, never one to leave a bole un-hypered, raised the stakes.

"Our country is full, our area is full, the sector is full," Trump added. "We can't take any more. Sorry. Can't have it. So turn around. That's the way it is."

Our country is full! That's a remarkable phrase that will no doubt alarm pregnant women the country over. Sorry, ladies! You need to either head to Canada or the ocean because that baby simply can't fit anywhere within our great nation's boundaries.

This is a joke (for now). Look out of any nearby window and, assuming that you're not currently living in a house set in the middle of a Jay-Z concert, you'll probably notice a bit of space in which someone could stand. Maybe even stretch out for a nap.

Clearly we're not full full. But Trump's phrasing nonetheless raises an interesting question. If we wanted to, how many more people could we squeeze into the U.S.?

Filling empty houses

We will start by noting that, on any given day, there are a lot of existing homes that are sitting vacant.

The Census Bureau tracks this, in fact. Last year, there were about 3.4 million rental properties that were vacant, along with about 9.8 million year-round homes that sat empty and another 4.2 million empty seasonal properties -- lake houses and ski chalets and such.

Let's assume that we fill all of those up, meeting the national average of 2.6 people per household. (Don't spend a lot of time thinking about how these millions of homes will each contain an object that constitutes slightly more than half a person.)

With that baseline, we have the ability to immediately house 8.8 million people in those rental properties, 25.5 million in the year-round houses and 10.9 million vacation-home people who will suffer through very cold winters or very hot summers. In total, in other words, we still have space for a bit over 45 million more people before America's really full.

Pack them in

At least if we only consider existing housing stock. We could obviously fit a lot more people if we also built a lot more housing. After all, the United States is one of the less-densely populated countries in the world, with slightly fewer people per square mile than Venezuela.

What if the U.S. were instead as densely packed as, say, the Gulf nation of Bahrain? Bahrain is the most densely packed country that isnt also a city, with 5,582 people per square mile. Thats not as horrible as it sounds; New York City is about five times as densely packed.

So how many people could we fit if we built out the U.S. to that same density? There are about 3.5 million square miles in the U.S., meaning that we could have a total population of 19.7 billion people without becoming the mostly densely populated country in the world. In other words, everyone in the world could move here and then spontaneously clone themselves and the U.S. would still be more spacious than Bahrain.

Of course we already have 327 million people living here, so we really only have enough space for another 19.4 billion people.

Really cramming them in

Again, though, that's setting a standard for habitation that isn't exactly pushing the envelope. What if, instead of housing everyone, we wiped the entire surface of the U.S. clean and simply packed in as many people as we possibly could?

Believe it or not, weve actually considered this question before, at least for a limited area. In 2016, we speculated about how many people could actually fit in Times Square in New Years Eve, given the regular claims that 14 bajillion people watched the ball drop. To answer the question (about 120,000), we spoke with Dr. Keith Still, professor of Crowd Science at Manchester Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom. Still provided us with the results of his research which, at one point, included tying together a group of men to see how closely people could be and still walk as a group.

Still's baseline for manageability is five people per square meter, a density that looks like this.

Why five?

"When you exceed five, both the psychological and physical limits are reached," Still told us. "It begins to feel cramped and the risk of trips slips, falls and crowd surges increases exponentially above six or seven per square meter."

So, in the interest of public safety, let's set our upper limit on how densely packed the New United States will be is at five people for each of the country's ... 9.2 trillion square meters.

Meaning that we could eventually see a total of 45.8 trillion people standing on the bare earth of this refurbished nation. How many people is that? Well, about 417 times the total population of humanity over the entire course of history. So just take everyone whos ever lived, clone them 417 times, and welcome them across the border. (Please do not clone Hitler or Pol Pot, among others.)

Granted, this would not be a terribly enjoyable existence, everyone standing around bumping into each other until everyone just died. Have a good weekend.
By Cait Bladt

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pushed through new rule changes that will limit the time allowed for senators to debate presidential nominees. Previously lawmakers were allowed to question and debate nominees for 30 hours. McConnells new rules allow for only two hours. The Kentucky Republican claims the rule change is to prevent the minority party from stonewalling presidential nominees. Democrats say two hours is not enough time for effective vetting and will allow the majority party unfettered power in nominations. What do you think?

McConnell has pushed hard for the rule change, writing an op-ed in Politico claiming the minority party was blocking presidential nominees out of spite and partisanship.

Its been 354 days and counting in Senate purgatory for the presidents nominee to head the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Two-hundred eighty-seven days and counting for the under secretary of state for management. Noncontroversial lower court nominees have languished for weeks and weeks  for no discernible reason  before they, too, were confirmed unanimously. These are just a few examples of the historic obstruction Senate Democrats have visited upon President Trumps nominees for two years and counting.



... We arent talking about limited opposition to a few high-profile nominees or unusual circumstances. Its mindless, undiscriminating obstruction for the sake of obstruction. Even uncontroversial lower-level nominees whom literally no senators oppose are not spared.

The New York Times writes President Donald Trump has been pushing McConnell to adopt the rule change for some time as he grew progressively more frustrated at the fact his nominees were not being accepted.

Mr. Trump expressed his frustration over the logjam during his hourlong appearance at the Republicans weekly lunch in the Capitol last week.



This is crazy, he said, according to two people in the room. We have all these people, ambassadors, who have put their whole lives on hold waiting to be confirmed.



A day later, Mr. McConnell, speaking at a second strategy lunch with his conference, blasted Mr. Schumer and claimed he was avoiding a compromise out of fear that he would be publicly attacked by liberals in his party.

McConnell claims by preventing nominees from being passed through the Senate, the minority party is preventing the American people from being represented as they see fit.

Is this how American government is supposed to work from here on out? asked McConnell. Whichever party loses the White House basically prohibits the new president from standing up an administration?



...The American people deserve the government they elected. They deserve for important positions to be promptly filled with capable individuals  not held open indefinitely out of political spite, McConnell said.

It's worth noting McConnell lead the complete stonewalling of Barack Obama's Supreme Court Nominee Merrick Garland.

AP: Senate GOP to change rules to speed debate on nominations

The New York Times editorial board expressed extreme frustration at the new rule changes, claiming the Senate was in a "spiral."

The Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, charged that the move risks turning this body into a colosseum of zero-sum infighting, a place where the brute power of the majority rules, with little or no regard to the concerns of the minority party, and where longstanding rules have little or no meaning.



...Someone needs to stop the spiral. There is much about Senate processes that should be reformed. But razing the bodys deliberative culture for partisan gain serves no one well, whichever side does it. Each line crossed makes the next one that much less daunting. This latest power grab has prompted concern about when the Senate will end the legislative filibuster. Such defanging of the minority would likely be a tough sell among lawmakers. But, as with confirmations, the 60-vote requirement on legislation would most likely end in stages, starting with baby steps like requiring only a simple majority to open debate.

Many Democrats worried that despite McConnells claims that he was trying to prevent partisanship, he was, in fact, strengthening it. Per Talking Points Memo:

Shortening the debate time, they maintain, would allow Republicans to run roughshod over them. The hurdles and hoops required to win confirmation should be difficult, they say, as a means to ensure nominees are ethical and qualified and responsive to requests by senators for information.



The purpose of these rules is to reject partisanship so that we can get nominees who will put the good of the country before politics, said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. If we eliminate this crucial check on our democracy, allowing the majority to ram through these appointments, we will undermine our democracy and our government.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein put out a statement saying there was no way the Senate could effectively vet nominees in such a short amount of time.

Changing the rules is not only unnecessary, but also is dangerous, especially when we are talking about lifetime appointments. Further, given this administrations failure to properly vet its own nominees, the Senate should not restrict critical vetting and due diligence.



There is simply no need to limit debate on President Trumps judicial nominees. In fact, President Trumps judicial nominees have been confirmed at a record pace.



...It is also important to stress why it is so dangerous to allow the Trump administration to stack the courts in this way, without adequate debate time.



We have seen this administration fill lifetime positions with young, inexperienced nominees who are often outside the legal mainstream. And we have seen them try to do this without properly vetting those same nominees, as in the case of Brett Talley, who failed to disclose to the Judiciary Committee nearly 15,000 online comments, including one in which he defended the founder of the KKK.



...Two hours is simply not enough time to scrutinize these nominees records, especially when so many of this administrations judicial nominees fail to disclose materials to the Judiciary Committee.

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.
The Great Lakes Bay Region Mental Health Partnership, an initiative of the Great Lakes Bay Regional Alliance, recently hosted the second half of a two-part workshop, "Addressing the Mental Health Crisis in the Great Lakes Bay Region." More than 150 members from the Bay, Isabella, Midland and Saginaw communities participated in the event.

The workshop -- held in November and February -- was co-sponsored by The Dow Chemical Co. Foundation and Central Michigan University College of Medicine, in addition to the Great Lakes Bay Region Mental Health Partnership. Workshop participants followed a process called CollaborateUp, which brings people together to tackle tough issues and create innovative solutions. This approach has been employed by organizations around the world.
MidMichigan Health is one of 15 centers across the country to be selected to host a Survivorship Series for young women affected by breast cancer. The series is a partnership with Living Beyond Breast Cancer, a national breast cancer nonprofit organization that provides trusted information and a community of support.

Jessica Fodrocy, breast health nurse navigator, MidMichigan Medical Center - Midland, was one of the 15 to complete the training so she could bring the program to women in mid-Michigan.

"I'm excited to share this program with young women affect by breast cancer," Fodrocy said. "This is a great program to openly discuss unique needs and questions they may have after a breast cancer diagnosis."

The Breast Cancer's Survivorship Series for Young Women Affected by Breast Cancer is a four-part education series that provides tailored education to women diagnosed before the age of 50. The series provides answers and resources on some of the most common concerns for young women such as sex and intimacy, early menopause, the long-term effects of treatment and self-care after breast cancer.

Living Beyond Breast Cancer's national needs assessment of young women diagnosed with breast cancer showed that young women's survivorship needs were not being adequately addressed and that young women wanted more information and support on specific survivorship issues. Living Beyond Breast Cancer developed the Survivorship Series to address the identified need for more survivorship patient education, while enhancing the skills of the oncology nurses to address the needs of their young patients.

The first program is Tuesday, April 30, at MidMichigan Medical Center - Midland and will address coping with early menopause. Additional sessions will follow every two weeks. The program is also available at MidMichigan Medical Center - Mount Pleasant, via video conferencing and is hosted by Melissa Hoag, breast nurse navigator, MidMichigan Medical Center - Gratiot.

The series is free to women, but registration is requested at www.midmichigan.org/breastcancerseries. Those interested in more information may call Fodrocy at 989-839-9045 in Midland or Hoag at 989-466-3351 in Mount Pleasant.
President Donald Trump's acting chief of staff said Sunday that Democrats will "never" see the president's tax returns, abandoning Trump's long-held position that he would someday release the documents for public inspection and setting up what could be a protracted fight with Congress.

Mick Mulvaney and other Trump allies spent the weekend casting Democrats as politically motivated for formally asking the IRS to turn over six years of Trump's personal and business tax returns. House Democrats last week asked the IRS to release the documents, setting a deadline of Wednesday, part of an ongoing battle with the White House as they seek information about Trump for numerous investigations into his businesses, campaign and conduct.

The Trump administration has been trying to shield the president from such inquiries, and Mulvaney was adamant that Democrats won't ever gain access to Trump's tax returns. When asked about it on "Fox News Sunday," Mulvaney said: "Never. Nor should they."

Trump broke precedent as a presidential candidate when he refused to release his tax returns, citing an ongoing IRS audit. His continued resistance has emboldened the new Democratic majority in the House to use its oversight authority to obtain them, arguing that it is Congress' responsibility to ensure that there are no conflicts of interest hiding in the president's personal finances.

Rep. Richard 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."

A Ways and Means spokesman declined to respond to Mulvaney's comments Sunday.

Federal law gives certain congressional committees the ability to ask the IRS for access to individual tax returns. If the treasury secretary refuses, Democrats can seek to force the release via the courts. Rep. Daniel Kildee, D-Mich., a member of the Ways and Means Committee, said on ABC's "This Week," that Trump doesn't get to decide what "this coequal branch of government" does with its authority.

Kildee said the committee wants to know whether the IRS is actually conducting the audit that Trump has referenced, and he said the public deserves to know whether the president has any conflicts of interest that could affect his decision-making.

Mulvaney seemed to contradict the president at one point during his interview, saying that even under audit, "you could always allow people to see" the tax returns. He also argued that while the law allows the IRS to release tax returns to Congress, the American public has already said it doesn't care about Trump's returns.

"Keep in mind that that's 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 didn't, and they elected him anyway, which is, of course, what drives the Democrats crazy."

In January, 60 percent of Americans said they wanted the new House Democratic majority to obtain and release Trump's tax returns, according to a Washington Post/ABC poll.

Peter Shane, a law professor at Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law, said that because the current statute allows congressional committees to make the request for an individual's tax returns, "the fact that the president doesn't want to turn them over is, by itself, legally irrelevant."

Democrats would need to provide a legitimate reason for needing to see the returns, and Shane said Democrats could choose to provide a list of legitimate inquiries they're undertaking to support the request. Trump's allies assert there is no legitimate reason and allege that politics is driving the move.

Shane said it also would be difficult for Trump to argue that he's being singled out when every other president and major party candidate in the past four decades has allowed his or her tax documents to be made public.

"So viewing this as a burden or an undue incursion of the rights of political candidates is just not in accord with actual practice," Shane said.

Even Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who during the 2016 presidential campaign said there is "only one logical explanation for Mr. Trump's refusal to release his returns: there is a bombshell in them . . . a bombshell of unusual size," criticized Democrats' strategy for obtaining them.

Romney said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that while he'd like to see the president keep his word and release the tax documents, the Democrats cannot compel Trump to give them up.

"So, he's going to win this victory," Romney said. "He wins them time after time."

Trump's personal attorney Jay Sekulow argued during an appearance on ABC's "This Week" that the Democrats were using the IRS "as a political weapon." He then suggested that Trump could turn around and ask for Nancy Pelosi's tax returns but hasn't.

The No. 4 House Democrat, Rep. Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico, defended his party members during an interview on "Fox New Sunday," putting the onus on Trump for breaking norms.

"No other president in modern times has had to have their tax returns requested," Lujan said, "because they've all voluntarily shared them."
Once again, Gladwin County is asking the governor to remove its drain commissioner claiming years of ripping the county off and not doing his job.

Previous Gladwin County commissioners made the same request to Gov. Rick Snyder who forwarded the request to then attorney general Bill Schuette. Nothing was done. Snyder told the Midland Daily News in December he was still waiting for input from Schuette.

Gladwin County Commission Chair Sharron Smith said the county refiled the request and feels hopeful because it will meet new eyes. The request is again being reviewed -- now by the new governor, Gretchen Whitmer.

Historically, state governors have not removed elected officials. However, Smith noted there is new leadership, including new Attorney General Dana Nessel.

Smith said she and commissioners are hopeful Whitmer will address their dilemma.

"We can't remove (Gladwin County Drain Commissioner Robert Evans)," Smith said. "We don't have that power alone. What we can do is reach out to the governor, who can remove him."

Many county officials said they like Evans, who has served as drain commissioner since 2010. But they need a drain commissioner to be present and able to do the job.

Evans is also set to appear in Ingham County Circuit Court before Judge Wanda M. Stokes at 8:30 a.m. Oct. 14, 2019, for a bench hearing regarding 81 civil offenses.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality along with Schuette, cited Evans with the alleged infractions on April 18, 2018. The case has been adjourned for a multitude of reasons, including judge restructuring and attempted mediation.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and Schuette filed a civil action in April to obtain injunctive relief requiring Evans to protect surface water and prevent soil erosion and sedimentation. The DEQ continues to ask the court to determine the appropriate penalty for the alleged violations. The DEQ and Schuette claimed Evans repeatedly violated environmental regulations while also failing to protect surface water and prevent soil erosion and sedimentation.

Wixom Lake area residents say the absence of a drain commissioner, who doesn't keep office hours and is involved in litigation, is more damaging. Along with an eight-foot drawdown on Wixom Lake, it is a tumultuous situation.

"I think it is unfortunate that we do not have a drain commissioner actively involved in the Four Lakes Task Force," said Billings Township resident Jan Colton. "It is after all a duty of both the Gladwin and Midland County drain commissioners to manage the lake, as well as the drains and creeks, and the lack of his participation has significantly contributed to the situation we now have with Wixom being a devastating mud pit."

The Four Lakes Task Force was delegated by both counties to research ways to return the Wixom Lake level to normal. There is a May 3 hearing in Midland County Circuit Court to address a legal lake level for Wixom, Sanford, Smallwood and Secord lakes. The judge could rule the same day but has up to 60 days to issue a judgment.
Paducah, KY (42003)

Today

Considerable clouds this evening. Some decrease in clouds late. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low around 55F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Considerable clouds this evening. Some decrease in clouds late. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low around 55F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
A new report released by the Economic Innovation Group has revealed an increasingly grim present and future for the United States, especially those corners of the oft-romanticized heartland, in terms of population growth. Our population has dipped to 80-year lows, with 80% of U.S. counties losing prime working-age adults (25-54) between the years 2007 to 2017. Its projected that this trend will continue for 65% of counties over the next decade. Furthermore, 41% of U.S. counties (home to 38 million Americans) are struggling under rates of demographic decline resembling that of Japans.

An increasingly aging population, fueled by population decline, poses an extreme logistical problem on multiple fronts. First, Americans must reckon with increased demand for competent geriatric care, a notoriously poorly regulated field to begin with. The priorities for an elderly population may also not be as oriented towards the radical change needed to combat catastrophic climate change. Theres also the potential for stunted economic growth, and as Moody Analytics senior economist Adam Ozimek notes in the EIG report, [D]emographic challenges  disproportionately [affect] economically struggling places. Economists and policymakers need to understand that these demographic problems are not merely an outcome of socioeconomic problems: They are also a cause.

A New York Times analysis by Neil Irwin noted how so-called flyover states are hardest hit by population decline, writing, Many younger workers move to bustling urban centers on the coasts, leaving smaller cities and rural areas behind. Immigrants bolster the labor force but also disproportionately go to those same big coastal cities.

The solution? Immigration (cue a cheesy Hamilton reference)! Right as Donald Trump is declaring America FULL and threatening to close the U.S.-Mexican border, the EIG reports authors are suggesting a visa directing immigrants to those parts of the country experiencing drastic population decline. The Heartland Visa would allow eligible communities to opt into the program, in which skilled immigrants could obtain visas to live and work in that particular area without being beholden to a specific employer.
Lawmakers in Frances National Assembly, Frances lower house of Parliament, will on Monday begin debating a draft national GAFA tax law. They've dubbed it the GAFA tax, which is an acronym of the US companies it targets: Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon. The bill proposes a 3 percent tax on digital advertising and other revenues of tech firms with worldwide revenues of more than 750 million euros ($842 million).

Reading the Euronews report it would appear that France seems to want to take credit for the "GAFA" tax as French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has unveiled plans for France's new tax on digital giants, calling it a "tax of the 21st Century."

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has unveiled plans for France's new tax on digital giants, calling it a "tax of the 21st Century."

The French Economy Ministry said it believed the tax would raise 500 million per year.

Le Maire told reporters on Wednesday that by "building the tax of the 21st Century," he hoped it would "restore fiscal justice."

While the tax will only apply to France, he said he would continue to campaign to develop it internationally.

In a statement sent to Euronews, a Google spokesperson said: "We always pay all of the taxes due and comply with the tax laws in every country we operate in around the world. Google pays the vast majority of its corporate income tax in the United States, and we have paid a global effective tax rate of 23% over the last ten years."

The Guardian reports that "The tax will be introduced whatever happens on 1 January and it will be for the whole of 2019 for an amount that we estimate at 500m," Le Maire told a press conference in Paris. To clarify, it's retroactive to January 1st 2019.

Spain and Italy are also working on national versions of a digital tax, as are Singapore and India.

An official response from Apple has yet to emerge.

While France's Finance Minister made their announcement independently, wishing to take leadership on this front, the EU held their own meeting to make a similar announcement. It's being reported by several sources today that "There is still disagreement among EU members over how to implement a so-called "GAFA tax" which is an acronym of the US companies it targets: - named after Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon - to ensure the global internet giants pay a fair share of taxes on their massive business operations in Europe.

France has been driving hard for such a tax and made it official over the weekend. Yet a at a meeting of EU finance ministers over the weekend, Sweden, Finland, Ireland and Denmark blocked a draft EU-wide GAFA tax proposal, officials said.

We are becoming an increasingly digital world and it will be a huge problem if we do not find a way to raise (digital) taxes, Vestager told France Inter radio.

The best thing is a global solution. But if we want to obtain results in a reasonable period of time, Europe must take the lead, the commissioner added.

Sources: Reuters, Euronews, The Guardian

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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.

"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 UK Daily Mail writes in-part: "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 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.

'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.'"

Although the U.K.'s law is being dubbed the world's first law against social media, last week U.S.News posted a report titled "Australia to Punish Companies That Dont Remove Violent Content." The new law passed last Thursday comes after a gunman livestreamed a mass shooting in New Zealand last month.

Sources: Reuters, CNBC, UK Daily Mail

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Patna: Reacting strongly to accusations made in Lalu Prasad Yadavs autobiography written allegedly from his jail cell, Janata Dal  U spokesperson Sanjay Singh said that the title of the book, instead of From Gopalganj to Raisina, should have been From Gopalganj to Raisina Via Hotwar to be more relevant and factual.

Incidentally, Hotwar is the name of the jail in Ranchi in Jharkhand where the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief is doing time for his conviction in a host of cases related to fodder scam.

Speaking at a press conference in Patna on Sunday, Singh said that the writer of the book should have explained why Lalu Prasad Yadav was lodged in the jail. He should have also described how the fodder for animals that he stole and ate tasted in his mouth, he said.

As reported, Yadav, in his book states that less than six months after Nitish Kumar walked out of the Grand Alliance in Bihar, he approached him and pleaded to take him back into the Grand Alliance fold but he rejected his appeal without even giving it a second thought.

Who believes anything this man has to say when he is a convicted criminal serving time in jail? Lalus fame is not known only in Bihar but in the whole of India, the JD-U leader said.
Harrisburg University announced plans today to partner with the hotel chain HHM to build an upscale, 197-room boutique hotel in the 19-story tower planned for Third and Chestnut streets in the city.

HHM, short for Hersha Hospitality Management, has a regional office on Second Street in Harrisburg.

We couldnt be more excited, University President Eric Darr said in a statement. Obviously, theyre committed to the region and to the city of Harrisburg. Theyve been long-time supporters of the university.

According to the press release, the hotel will front Chestnut Street and be separated from the university campus by an atrium in the first ten stories of the building.

Harrisburg University plans to begin building the tower in late July and open it by summer 2021. The university and the hotelier would share space on 10 of the floors. The remaining seven floors would be used entirely by Harrisburg University.

The educational space in the tower is slated to accommodate at least 1,000 new students and a health science education center that will offer programs in nursing, pharmaceutical sciences and other allied health programs.

HHM owns about 125 hotels under a variety of brands, including Westin, Hilton and Hyatt. They operate five hotels in the Philadelphia area: The Hampton Inn Philadelphia Center City, The Independent, The Westin Philadelphia, The Rittenhouse Hotel and Homewood Suites University City.
State police in Lancaster County said Jeffrey Earl Watson, 54, of the Denver, Pa., area has been charged with rape of a young girl.

He was arrested and charged with offenses including two counts of rape, unlawful contact with a minor, aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault and corruption of minors, according to arrest records.
The final opening day for trout fishing in Pennsylvania launches at 8 a.m. Saturday, April 13.

Its billed as a statewide first day, but 18 counties in southcentral and southeastern Pennsylvania already had the regional opening day on March 30.

Those counties are Adams, Berks, Bucks, Chester, Cumberland, Dauphin, Delaware, Franklin, Juniata, Lancaster, Lebanon, Lehigh, Montgomery, Northampton, Perry, Philadelphia, Schuylkill and York.

Since 2007, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission has held two opening days, moving it earlier in the southcentral and southeastern counties to accommodate differing climate conditions in different parts of the state.

Youth already got first crack at the trout on March 24 in the early counties and April 6 in the rest of the state through the commissions Mentored Youth Trout Day Program.

Minimum size for trout to be harvested in all seasons is 7 inches.

On the youth days, a young angler may harvest 2 trout. In other seasons, the daily limit on most waters is 5 during the regular season, which runs from opening day through Labor Day, and 3 during the extended season, which runs from the day after Labor Day through February 28.

In addition to a fishing license, trout anglers 16 and older must have a trout/salmon permit to fish for trout. The fee for a resident fishing license is $22.90; for a trout-salmon stamp, $9.90.

The commissions Great White Fleet of stocking trucks has released trout into lakes and streams open to public fishing throughout the 18 southcentral and southeastern counties. The stocking list is available online through the commissions website and on smartphones through the FishBoatPA app.

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commissions Great White Fleet of stocking trucks is in the process of delivering about 3.2 million trout to 707 streams and 127 lakes across the state. That will include about 2.1 million rainbow trout, 640,000 brown trout and 440,000 brook trout. They will average 11 inches in length.

The commission also will stock 9,600 trophy golden rainbow trout that weigh an average of 1.5 pounds and measure at least 14 inches long.

And, thousands of trophy-size brood trout, which are used to provide eggs for the production of other trout in the commissions hatcheries.

In the 21 stream sections designated as Keystone Select Stocked Trout Waters, about 6,500 trout 14-20 inches in length will be stocked at a rate of 175-225 fish per mile of stream, which is close to the numbers of similarly sized fish in Pennsylvanias best wild trout waters.

In addition to all those factors, which are close to the same conditions as in 2018, the commission will make the following changes for 2019:

Furnace Creek, Berks County - Due to an increase in accessibility, the stocking limits have been extended 1 mile upstream and 0.2 miles downstream. The revised stocking limits will extend for 3.1 miles from Robesonia Reservoir Dam downstream to the mouth. Brown and rainbow Trout will be stocked during the preseason period, and rainbow trout will be stocked during the in-season stocking period.

Little Juniata River, Blair County - Based on the presence of a Class A wild Brown Trout population, stocking will be terminated on the 0.7-mile section of stream extending from the first bridge on Route 220 Business just northeast from Bellwood downstream to the first unnamed tributary entering from the west just south of Fostoria. The water had been stocked in both the preseason and in-season stocking periods. Fish previously stocked in this stream will now be stocked in Canoe Creek Lake, Blair County.

Unami Creek, Bucks County - Due to an increase in accessibility, the stocking limits have been extended 0.2 miles downstream. The revised stocking limits will extend for 3.5 miles from 0.1 miles downstream of Township Road 477 in Milford Township Park downstream to the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Rainbow trout will be stocked during the preseason period, and brown and rainbow trout will be stocked during the in-season stocking period.

Little Killbuck Run, Cambria County - Based on the presence of a Class A wild brook trout population, stocking will be terminated on the entre 2.3-mile stream. The water had been stocked on a preseason only basis. Fish previously stocked in the stream will be distributed to stocked trout waters in surrounding counties. A replacement stream in the immediate vicinity was not available as none meet the criteria for addition to the stocked trout program.

Upper Jerry Run, Cameron County - Based on the presence of a Class A mixed wild brook and brown trout population, stocking will be terminated on the 3.8-mile section of stream extending from Jerry Lick Draft downstream to the mouth. The water had been stocked on a preseason only basis. Fish previously stocked in the stream will now be stocked in the following Cameron County waters: Wykoff Run and Mix Run.

East Branch Hicks Run, Cameron and Elk counties - Based on the presence of a Class A mixed wild brook and brown trout population, trout stocking will be terminated on the 6.8-mile section of stream extending from Hicks Run Road downstream to the mouth. The water had been stocked in both the preseason and in-season stocking periods. Fish previously stocked in the stream will be stocked in the following waters located in Cameron and Elk counties: West Branch Hicks Run, Bennet Branch Sinnemahoning Creek and Dents Run.

West Branch Hicks Run, Cameron and Elk counties - Based on the presence of a Class A wild brown trout population, stocking will be terminated on the 3.1-mile section of stream extending from the Middle Branch Hicks Run downstream to Shaffer Draft Road. The water had been stocked on a preseason only basis. Fish previously stocked in the stream will now be stocked in the downstream reaches of West Branch Hicks Run (Shaffer Draft Road to the mouth), Elk County.

Moose Creek, Clearfield County - Located near the city of Clearfield, a 2.2-mile section of stream extending from the first unnamed tributary 0.4 miles downstream of Moose Creek Reservoir downstream to the mouth will be added to the trout stocking program. Rainbow trout will be stocked during the preseason stocking period.

Shaggers Inn Pond, Clearfield County - Located in Moshannon State Forest, on the headwaters of Little Medix Run, trout stocking will be initiated on this 27.9-acre impoundment. Rainbow trout will be stocked during the preseason, in-season and fall stocking periods.

Dents Run, Elk County - Located near the town of Grant, a 2.6-mile section of stream extending from Hodag Trail Crossing downstream to the mouth will be added to the trout stocking program. Rainbow trout will be stocked during the preseason period, and Brown and rainbow trout will be stocked during the in-season stocking period.

West Branch Hicks Run, Elk County - Located near the villages of Dents Run and Hicks Run, a 2.9-mile section of stream extending from Shafer Draft Road downstream to the mouth will be added to the trout stocking program. Brown and rainbow trout will be stocked during the preseason and in-season stocking periods.

Lackawanna River, Lackawanna, Susquehanna and Wayne counties  Following the completion of construction along the rails to trails access road, stocking will be reinstated in a 6.4-mile section of stream extending from Old Stillwater Dam downstream to the first unnamed tributary upstream of Simpson. Rainbow trout will be stocked during the preseason period, and brown and rainbow trout will be stocked during the in-season stocking period.

Wright Creek, Luzerne County - An increase in landowner posting has led to the removal of trout stocking from a 1.5-mile section of stream extending from Penn Lake downstream to the Ice Pond and Bear Creek junction. The water had been stocked on a preseason only basis. Fish previously stocked in this stream will be distributed to stocked trout waters in surrounding counties. A replacement stream in the immediate vicinity was not available as none meet the criteria for addition to the stocked trout program. Nearby streams could be stocked as part of the commissions Cooperative Nursery Program.

Sartwell Creek, McKean and Potter counties - An increase in landowner posting has led to the removal of trout stocking from a 3.8-mile section of stream extending from Bear Creek downstream to the mouth. The water had been stocked on a preseason only basis. Fish previously stocked in the stream will now be stocked in Potato Creek, McKean County.

Lake Creek, Monroe County - An increase in landowner posting has led to the removal of trout stocking from a 3.7-mile section of stream extending from Route 3017 downstream to the mouth. The water had been stocked in both the preseason and in-season stocking periods. Fish previously stocked in the stream will be distributed to stocked trout waters in surrounding counties. A replacement stream in the immediate vicinity was not available as none meet the criteria for additions to the stocked trout program. Nearby streams could potentially be stocked as part of the commissions Cooperative Nursery Program.

Fishing Creek, Perry County - Due to an increase in accessibility, the stocking limits have been extended 0.3 miles downstream. The revised stocking limits will extend for 6 miles from Trout Run downstream to State Route 11/15. Brown and rainbow trout will be stocked during the preseason and in-season stocking periods.

Crooked Creek, Tioga County - Located near the town of Crooked Creek, a 2.5-mile section of stream extending from Hills Creek Road downstream to Ives Run Lane will be added to the trout stocking program. Brown and rainbow trout will be stocked during the preseason and in-season stocking periods.

Penns Creek, Union County - Due to stream re-sectioning, the stocking limits have been extended 0.8 miles upstream. The revised stocking limits will extend for 7.2 miles from the downstream extent of the island near end of Jolly Grove Lane downstream to the Route 235 bridge in Glen Iron. Brown and rainbow trout will be stocked during the preseason and in-season stocking periods. Also, near Millmont, a 4.3-mile section of stream extending from the Route 235 bridge in Glen Iron downstream to Creek Road Bridge near Libby Road will be added to the trout stocking program. Brown and rainbow trout will be stocked during the preseason and in-season stocking periods. Also, based on the presence of a Class A wild brown trout population, stocking will be terminated on the 3.8-mile section of stream extending from 0.3 miles downstream of Cherry Run downstream to the downstream extent of island near the end of Jolly Grove Lane. The water had been stocked in both the preseason and in-season stocking periods. Fish previously stocked in the stream will now be stocked in Penns Creek downstream extent of the island near the end of Jolly Grove Lane downstream to Creek Road Bridge near Libby Road. That will result in more fish stocked in Penns Creek in 2019 than in previous years.

Rapid Run, Union County - Due to unsafe stocking conditions, trout stocking will be terminated on the 3.1-mile section of stream extending from the outflow of Halfway Lake downstream to the Buffalo Path trail. The water had been stocked on a preseason only basis. Fish previously stocked in the stream will now be stocked in Buffalo Creek, Union County.

Chapman Dam Reservoir, Warren County - Adult trout stocking will be reinstated on the 68-acre impoundment following the completion of maintenance and repairs to the dam and spillway. Brown and rainbow trout will be stocked during the preseason, in-season and winter stocking periods.

Hollister Creek, Wayne County - An increase in landowner posting has led to the removal of trout stocking from a 1.8-mile section of stream extending from the Stone House Road bridge downstream to the Boyce Road bridge. Formerly, the water had been stocked on an in-season only basis. Fish previously stocked in the stream will be distributed to stocked trout waters in surrounding counties. A replacement stream in the immediate vicinity was not available as none meet the criteria for addition to the stocked trout program. Nearby streams could potentially be stocked as part of the commissions Cooperative Nursery Program.

Leibs Creek, York County - Based on the presence of a Class A wild brown trout population, stocking will be terminated on the 2.1-mile section of stream extending from Kilgore Road downstream to the mouth. The water had been stocked on a preseason only basis. Fish previously stocked in the stream will be distributed to stocked trout waters in surrounding counties. A replacement stream in the immediate vicinity was not available as none meet the criteria for addition to the stocked trout program.

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The math is disturbing.

In the last 15 months, at least 26 people have been sentenced for causing deaths in Cumberland, Dauphin and Perry counties. Most of them are currently in prison.

Some of those deaths were homicides. Others involved mothers blamed for the deaths of their children. There were homicide by vehicle cases, too. Drug overdose deaths are on the roster as well.

Following is a list of those sentenced for lethal crimes.

Mitchell Nazario

Mitchell Nazario, 23, of Harrisburg, was sentenced to life in prison in January 2018, immediately after a Dauphin County jury convicted him of first-degree murder. Nazario was accused of gunning down 49-year-old Freddie Williams on a Harrisburg street in February 2016. The jury didnt buy Nazarias claim that he killed Williams in self-defense.

Deven Kohr

Deven Kohr, 26, of New Cumberland, received a 22- to 45-year prison term for the murder of his 6-month-old daughter. A Cumberland County jury convicted him of third-degree murder. Police said Kohr physically abused his daughter Desirae, causing injuries killed her in May 2016. Kohr insisted he didnt abuse the child.

Kathryn Jacoby

Kathryn Jacoby, 27, of Harrisburg, is serving a 2- to 6-year prison term for the drowning death of her year-old son William. She received that penalty in February 2018. Police said Jacoby left her son unattended in a bathtub when she took a phone call in August 2016. They said she also had been drinking and smoking marijuana. Jacoby pleaded guilty to charges of involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment.

John Sullivan

John M. Sullivan, 50, of Newville, received a 4- to 8-year prison term in May 2018 for a fatal hit-and-run crash. Investigators said Sullivan drove away after striking 25-year-old Charles Deimler on a western Cumberland County road in December 2016. Sullivan was also accused of trying to destroy evidence of the crash. A county jury convicted him of causing an accident involving death.

Khanyae Kendall

Khanyae Kendall, a 20-year-old Harrisburg woman, received a 5- to 12-year prison sentence in June 2018 for causing a fatal crash that sent waves of grief coursing throughout central Pennsylvania. The victim of that March 2017 collision was 45-year-old Denny DeVoe, a lieutenant with the Harrisburg fire department. Investigators said Kendall was high on drugs when she ran a stop sign in the city in a stolen car and slammed into DeVoes car as he was driving to a fire call. She pleaded guilty to homicide by vehicle.

Gary Logan

Despite his claims of self-defense, Gary Logan, 34, of Harrisburg, is serving a 3- to 6-year jail term imposed in June 2018 after he pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter for a fatal shooting of 28-year-old Christian Chase in Harrisburg. Police said Chase was shot during a dispute on a city street in September 2017.

Arissa Ward

A Dauphin County judge called Arissa Wards case a crime of judgment. The Middletown woman, 25, was sentenced to 2 days in prison in June 2018 for accidentally suffocating her infant son. Ward pleaded guilty to charges of involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment for the December 2016 death. Investigators said she had been using marijuana and alcohol before she fell asleep on a couch and rolled onto the 2-month-old.

Jeremia Battle

Anger was in the atmosphere in June 2018 when Jeremiah Battle, 23, of Harrisburg, received consecutive life sentences for the brutal November 2017 slayings of sisters Kaliah Dearing and Natasha Harner at their city home. Battle pleaded guilty to homicide charges for both slayings.

Douglas Samuels

Douglas Samuels, 68, is serving a life sentence imposed in July 2018 because he used a shotgun to kill a man in his parked car on a Harrisburg street. Samuels claimed Freddie Stewart Jr. had been bullying him, but a Dauphin County jury convicted Samuels of first-degree murder for the August 2017 killing.

Cumberland County Prison

A fatal three-vehicle crash in Cumberland County sent Trenton Heiner, a 21-year-old York County man, to prison for 5 months to 1 year in July 2018. Police said Heiner ran a stop sign at a Dickinson Township intersection in November 2016, prompting a collision that killed another driver, 78-year-old Ronald Kell of Mechanicsburg. Heiner pleaded guilty to a homicide by vehicle charge.

Rigoberto Nunez

Rigoberto Nunez, 39, of Harrisburg, is serving 7 to 14 years behind bars for selling a lethal dose of heroin. He was sentenced by a Cumberland County judge in July 2018 after pleading guilty to a drug delivery resulting in death charge. The death occurred in Upper Allen Township.

Jahnaey Chase

Jahnaey Chase portrayed herself as a battered woman when a Dauphin County judge sentenced her to 3 1/2- to 10 years in prison inn August 2018 for the shooting death of her boyfriend, Earl Watlington Jr. the lawyer for Chase, 30, said her client shot Watlington outside her Swatara Township home in May 2017 after Watlington beat her. Watlingtons family told the judge that he had been abused by Chase. The prison term was set in a deal struck when Chase pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter.

Heroin

A guilty plea to a drug delivery resulting in death charge sent John Root Hopkins III, 58, to prison for 8 1/2 to 17 years in August 2018. The person who died in the case was Hopkins 83-year-old mother, Odette, who fatally overdosed in her Derry Township home in January 2017. Hopkins told a Dauphin County judge that he gave his mother heroin after her prescription for pain medication ran out.

Mark Jante

The man Mark Jante killed was his best friend. Jante, 60, of Middlesex Township, was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison by a Cumberland County judge in September 2018 after pleading no contest to involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault. Police said Jante fatally stabbed Kelly Strong during a drunken birthday celebration in March 2017.

Malachi Scripko, left, and Jacob White

Drugs also sent two York County men, Malachi Scripko, 21, and Jacob White, 24, to prison. The two were accused of dumping another man, 25-year-old Caleb Harley, along a Cumberland County road and leaving him to die as he suffered from a drug overdose. Scripko and White pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit involuntary manslaughter. White was sentenced to time served to 2 years in prison by a Cumberland County judge in September 2018. Scripko received a time served to 23-month jail sentence the following month.

Razawn Moore

Razawn RaRa Moore, 28, of Harrisburg, is serving a 9- to 22-year jail sentence imposed in October 2018 on his third-degree murder conviction for the November 2015 killing of 24-year-old Twame Evans. Moore claimed he shot Evans in self-defense when Evans attacked him.

Thomas Boyer

It took a Dauphin County jury less than 5 minutes to convict Thomas Boyer of first-degree murder for killing his neighbor in September 2015. Police said Boyer, 30, stabbed 52-year-old Theodore McCarty 75 times in McCartys Harrisburg apartment. Boyer was sentenced to life in prison in October 2018.

Donald Meyer Jr.

Donald Meyer Jr. was defiant and profane when a Perry County judge sentenced him to 25 to 57 years in prison in October 2018 for causing the death of his 12-year-old daughter, Ciara. Prosecutors said Meyer, 61, prompted an armed confrontation with a state constable at his familys Penn Township home in January 2016. When Meyer threatened him with a rifle, the constable fired a shot which passed through Meyers arm and struck Ciara. Meyer was convicted of third-degree murder.

From left, Sidney Michaels, Sadia Bretznepe and Dylan Beard

Sidney Michaels, Dylan Beard and Sadia Bretznepe are all in prison for the same April 2017 Harrisburg homicide. Michaels was convicted of and Beard and Bretznepe pleaded guilty to charges in the ambush slaying of 22-year-old Kodi Flanagan. Police said Bretznepe, 23, of Manchester, set up Flanagan by arranging a bogus drug deal. They said Michaels and Beard killed him during a robbery. Michaels, 24, of Middletown, was sentenced to life in prison in December 2018 on his first-degree murder conviction by a Dauphin County jury. Beard, 27, of Highspire, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in return for an 18- to 40-year jail term. Bretznepe pleaded guilty to the same charge in return for a 5- to 12-year prison sentence imposed in January 2019.

Autumn Cramer

Autumn Cramer, 28, of Harrisburg, avoided prison in February 2019 when she was sentenced for causing a drug-related death. Instead, she was sentenced to 12 months of probation after pleading guilty to a drug delivery resulting in death charge tied to the May 2017 overdose of a female friend.

Ricardo McClure

Ricardo McClure was 16 when he participated in a robbery murder in Swatara Township in August 2017, but hell be well into middle age when he becomes eligible for parole on the 35-year-to-life prison term a Dauphin County judge handed him in February 2019. McClure pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for the slaying of 20-year-old Dion Walker. The charges against one of his co-defendants, 14-year-old Chiara Harvey-Snyder, were handled in juvenile court. The other co-defendant, Demetrius Aquino, who was 18 at the time of the slaying, is awaiting trial.

Robert Lee "Rocky" Anderson Jr.

Rocky Anderson Jr., 42, of Carlisle, was sentenced to life in prison in March 2019 after a Cumberland County jury convicted him of first-degree murder for the June 2016 slaying of Daniel DJ Harris inside the Haines-Stackfield American Legion. Harris was shot eight times as he sat in a booth in the private club. Anderson denied involvement in the killing. The prosecutor said the slaying stemmed from a long-running feud between the families of the men.

Eric King

He hasnt been sentenced yet, but Eric King, 36, of Harrisburg, knows hell be ordered to spend the rest of his days behind bars for his March 2019 conviction for fatally shooting 44-year-old Derick Garner in and outside a city bar. The gunfire was captured on surveillance cameras. King claimed he shot Garner three times in self-defense. A Dauphin County jury convicted him of first-degree murder.
Nine Pennsylvanians, on average, die from gun-related suicide every day  and on Feb. 2, 2003, thats how Rep. Jennifer OMara lost her father.

The Delaware County Democratic lawmaker shared at a Capitol Rotunda rally in support of a temporary gun confiscation bill on Monday that her father, a career firefighter, began showing signs that winter that something was wrong. She recalled one day how he uncharacteristically cried on her shoulder.

She said she also knew he had a firearm  and she and her mother found he used it for the last time to take his own life. If Pennsylvania had had an extreme risk protection order (ERPO) law that allows the court to order the temporary removal of firearms from individuals who pose a risk of harming themselves or others, OMara said her family could have used that tool to save her father.

Were tired of people dying to gun violence in this state and we know that ERPO is common sense and will help save lives, OMara said.

The Pennsylvania chapter of Moms Demand Action, a grassroots public safety advocacy organization, has made passing an extreme risk protection order law in Pennsylvania its top priority for the 2019-20 legislative session.

Fourteen states, plus the District of Columbia, have this law on their books giving family members or law enforcement the ability to intervene in this way  and it has proven to reduce the number of gun suicides and avert mass shootings, said Marybeth Stanton Christiansen, co-lead of the states chapter of Moms Demand Action, which organized Mondays rally in support of the bill.

We desperately need ERPO to come to Pennsylvania, she said with a sea of red-shirted women standing in support behind her. We know that ERPO works.

Sen. Tom Killion, R-Delaware County, along with Rep. Todd Stephens, R-Montgomery County, are sponsoring bipartisan-backed legislation to make that happen.

Under the measures, family members or law enforcement officials could ask the court for an interim extreme risk protection order that would last no longer than 10 days if there is evidence of imminent risk of harm.

A final risk protection order, which would last between three months to a year, could only be issued after a hearing at which all parties have an opportunity to offer evidence. The judge can only issue an extreme risk protection order if clear and convincing evidence is presented. At the expiration of the order, the gun is automatically returned.

Shira Goodman, executive director of CeaseFire Pa, which is teaming up with Moms Demand Action to support the bill, said that is better than the alternative available now in Pennsylvania that involves committing a loved one to inpatient care for several days without a hearing and costing them their right to own a gun for the rest of their life.

ERPO is a legal civil process with due process protections built in and an opportunity to contest the evidence, an opportunity to come back and say, I have gotten help. I am ready for this order to be expired, and an opportunity to get your gun rights back at the end, Goodman said. It makes sense.

Gov. Tom Wolf was among those in attendance to offer his support for the proposal. He said Pennsylvania took a step forward to reduce gun violence last year with a law that is set to take effect on Wednesday that removes firearms sooner from domestic abusers.

But even though weve had this recent success, its not time to let up just yet, he said.

Florida is among the states that has passed an extreme risk protection order law. It happened in the aftermath of the Parkland high school mass shooting last year.

Robert Schentrap lost his younger sister Carmen in that tragedy. He was on the hand for the rally to urge Pennsylvania to pass its own extreme risk protection order. He said the shooter who took the life of his sister and 16 others lives in that attack, had been visited by law enforcement over 40 times for domestic violence and animal abuse and showed other clear signs he was a dangerous disturbed individual.

But he said law enforcement didnt have any tool at their disposal to restrict his access to firearms at the time.

Unfortunately, it led to the deadly situation that happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Schentrap said. Afterward, law enforcement came to me and my family and 16 others with this ERPO legislation and told us this is a tool that we need to make sure this does not happen in Florida ever again.

The law was passed and has been used already several times, he said.

Extreme risk protection orders are "not only useful for mass shootings like what happened to myself but also for helping reduce the suicide epidemic were seeing in this country, he said.

He said he cannot wait until Pennsylvania joins the other states in putting this life-saving tool on the books. Neither can Killion.

We have to get this across the finish line, Killion said. We will get this across the finish line and I cant wait to watch Governor Wolf sign that bill into law.
Fire crews in western Pennsylvania rushed to what authorities there are calling a suspicious brush fire.

A passerby who reported the blaze found a body, WJAC-TV is reporting.

Somerset Borough Police Chief Randy Cox told the station the body was found in an undeveloped area on Mussleman Avenue, where smoke was seen rising from a large stack of old utility poles.

An early theory of the event is that the person used an accelerant to set the stack of poles on fire and somehow became engulfed in the flames, possibly while still holding the vessel that contained the accelerant. The person then seemed to retreat a short distance from the fire before collapsing, Cox said, according to WJAC.

Authorities were unable to identify the body, and an autopsy is pending.
Firefighters are battling a four-alarm warehouse fire in Philadelphias Port Richmond neighborhood, CBS3 is reporting.

The blaze is happening at the intersection of East Butler and Sepviva Street. It began around 7:22 p.m.

No injuries have been reported.

This fire near Aramingo Ave. & Wheatsheaf Lane has reached four alarms - meaning about 57 apparatus and 140 PFD members... Posted by Philadelphia Fire Department on Sunday, April 7, 2019

This is a developing story.
A few years ago, James Lamont Johnson probably looked forward to tax filing time.

After all, the Pennsylvania man received more than $100,000 in federal income tax refunds he didnt deserve.

Johnson is serving a 5-year federal prison term for his tax fraud. A federal appeals court has refused to give him any sort of rebate on that punishment.

The panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit made that call after Johnsons own lawyer described an appeal filed in the case as frivolous.

Judge Thomas L. Ambro noted in the circuit court opinion that Johnson ran his tax fraud by filing bogus returns for more than 50 unsuspecting victims. He got their names from a cook at a homeless shelter.

Many of the victims had mental or physical disabilities and were unlikely to realize Johnson had stolen their private information, Ambro wrote. One of the victims did notice, however, when her rent rebate was reduced because of a false tax return filed by Johnson.

IRS investigators went to the federal prison where Johnson already was jailed in a firearms possession case. Johnson confessed to the tax scam immediately after being read his rights, Ambro wrote. He was indicted by a federal grand jury and later pleaded guilty.

Ambro used the short form  his ruling took just four pages  to sink Johnsons appeal. He rejected Johnsons claim that a clerical error should set him free.

According to Johnson, his court records state he was arrested on March 17, 2015 and arraigned on March 27, when in fact both legal acts occurred on March 16. Ambro concluded Johnson had failed to explain how the clerical inconsistencies affected the grand jurys decision to indict him.

Nor did Johnson convince the court he was the victim of vindictive prosecution because his indictment in the tax case came after he filed a lawsuit against police officers involved in his conviction in the firearms case.

To the contrary, (Johnson) was prosecuted after confessing to stealing the identities of his victims his co-conspirator encountered at a homeless shelter, Ambro wrote.

Johnson, an Erie resident, was sentenced for the tax scam in February 2018. He was ordered to serve the jail term in that case consecutively to a 10-year prison sentence he received for his firearms conviction.
ABC/Rick RowellFresh off of her Oscar win for Best Costume Design on Black Panther, Ruth E. Carter is now going to create the styles of yet another fictional African country.

In an Instagram post on Monday, Carter revealed she's officially signed on to dress the cast of the long-awaited sequel to Eddie Murphy's classic Coming to America.

"GOOD MORNING MY NEIGHBORS! Its official!" she wrote, captioning a series of photos-- one of her posing with Murphy as she holds her Oscar and another with Arsenio Hall seemingly about to kiss her Oscar as she stands by his side.

"Preliminary fitting for Coming to America 2 with Prince Akeem, Semmi and Oscar," she adds.

The original movie starred Murphy as Akeem Joffer, prince of the fictional African nation of Zamunda. In an effort to find a wife, Akeem, along with his trusty assistant Semi, played by Hall, decide to travel to Queens, NY.

As previously noted, Murphy and Hall are expected to reprise their roles, with black-ish creator Kenya Barris rewriting a script from original Coming to America writers Barry Blaustein and David Sheffield.

Hustle & Flow director Craig Brewer has signed on to helm the project, which Murphy's also producing. The two recently worked together on the Netflix comedy Dolemite Is My Name, which follows the story of real-life comedian Rudy Ray Moore.

Although official details of the film are still forthcoming, Sheffield told ABC's Good Morning America back in June 2018 that the film will follow Akeem after he learns that he has a son, and returns to America to meet him.

Coming to America 2 is set to hit theaters August 7, 2020.

Copyright  2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
If you run a prison system, why not hire a former prison warden?

And perhaps youd hire a doctor to manage the health department.

But should you put an ex-con in charge of the states pardons system, which seeks to balance the interests of crime victims with the futures of hundreds of Pennsylvanians who have committed crimes and are now trying to return to productive lives?

Lt. Gov. John Fetterman thinks so.

Fetterman on Monday introduced Steelton resident and former drug convict Brandon Flood as the new secretary of the five-member State Board of Pardons, which Fetterman chairs. As secretary, Flood will manage the day-to-day operations of the office.

Flood brings a unique perspective to the $89,000-a-year job.

Between 2000 and 2010, Flood spent eight years in state prisons after separate arrests for drug dealing, and later, carrying an unlicensed handgun at age 22.

Flood, a Harrisburg native, said he and some friends started selling marijuana in middle school, as a way to make a quick buck or two.

I was actually raised by a single father, college-educated father, but still fell victim to the influence of the streets, Flood said in an interview after Mondays announcement.

And within a couple of years, peddling dope had turned into pushing highly addictive crack cocaine.

"I just progressively became a more hardened criminal, just to be frank, Flood said.

It almost killed him, too. At one point during his criminal career, Flood survived being shot three times during a robbery while selling drugs at Green and Muench streets in the city.

A corrections success story, Flood has held a string of staff jobs in the state legislature and elsewhere in state government since his 2010 release. He has made an impact in civic affairs with the state conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and as a zoning hearing board member in his adopted hometown of Steelton.

Flood applied for, and received, a state pardon for his own drug and gun convictions earlier this year.

Criminal justice reform advocates hailed Floods appointment to the pardons boards top administrative job Monday as a sign of the power of opening doors to people who are sincere in trying to reshape their lives.

It is a symbol that we, as a Commonwealth, are believing in redemption ourselves, said state Rep. Jordan Harris, D-Philadelphia, and a co-chair of a bipartisan group of lawmakers working on criminal justice reform issues.

I believe he is an example for all Pennsylvanians to see that if you put aside the bad things from your past and work hard, you can not only reform yourself, but become a reformer in the criminal justice system.

New Pennsylvania Board of Pardons secretary Brandon Flood. Mark Pynes | mpynes@pennlive.com HARHAR

The point wasnt lost on Flood, who promised to be empathetic to those entering the pardons process.

In me, not only do you have an advocate who understands the clemency process firsthand, you have someone who understands what its like to bear that scarlet letter of a conviction on your sleeve, Flood said.

He also made a point of reaching out to crime victims.

I cant emphasize this point any more, Flood said. The integrity of the clemency process will not be compromised or diminished in any way, shape or form... It is about restoring not only the person who was incarcerated, but also the folks who were impacted by the crime.

Flood, 36, had pretty much kept quiet about his personal background until now, in part because it wasnt until now that he has had the right platform to use his story to show just what the 47,000 men and women in Pennsylvanias prisons can do with their lives.

If given the chance.

In his new job, Flood is determined to make sure that - once on the outside - more of those ex-cons get access to that chance.

He speaks of internal reforms at Pardons including creating online applications, and triaging incoming applications to permit different levels of review for different levels of criminal convictions. At present, all pardons cases, whether for retail theft or robbery, are reviewed against the same standard.

Legislatively, Flood said he wants to work with the Wolf administration and the newly-formed criminal justice reform caucus to create automatic expungements - or clearing of the criminal histories - of any crimes for which a convict has been pardoned.

Floods personal road back actually started with the kind of personal decision that all convicts have to make, one that he attributes to a careful study of The Autobiography of Malcolm X. The slain civil rights leaders story was, he said, the first example of reinvention for the better to hit him after he was ready to change.

From there, Flood said, his village included many supportive inmates, prison staffers and teachers that he came in contact with at the State Correctional Institution at Chester.

When he came out, one of the first welcoming hands he met belonged to Rodney Oliver, a legislative staffer who encouraged Flood to try for an internship in the state House of Representatives. Flood took him up on it, got the internship, and parlayed it into a job on the House staff.

Most recently, Flood had been working in the state Department of General Services Bureau of Diversity, Inclusion and Small Business Opportunities.

Flood hopes the trajectory of his post-release life gives everyone hope, especially the people who, like him, once thought the only label they were ever going to be able to wear was that of criminal.

To see someone who wasnt diverted (into a drug treatment court), screwed up once, screwed up twice, and still be able to come back.... I hope folks are inspired, Flood said.

Fetterman, who took office in January, said Flood initially reached out to him with an e-mailed offer to help with pardons reform measures, not as a job application per se. He said Floods story popped off the page for him as he was looking for a new secretary for the board.

It didnt require any courage on my part. it was just common sense, Fetterman said. "This is such a fundamentally important process for Pennsylvanians. Its the only remedy that currently exists for somebody to get back and fully participate (in society).

And what better example of a second chance than somebody who has taken that very same path and received that same second chance.
Two measures that would broadly reform child sex crime laws in Pennsylvania and revive expired statute of limitations for adults sexually molested as children on Monday moved one step closer to becoming law.

The House Judiciary Committee advanced to the House HB 962 and 963 for debate. The chamber could take up for second consideration as early as Tuesday. A full vote could come as early as Wednesday.

What we have done before has not worked. We can get it out of the House but we are not getting it through the Senate, said Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, moments after the committee advanced the bills to the full House. We want to put the Senate on record voting to support victims and I think this is a way to get that done.

Rozzis bill - HB 962 - would eliminate the criminal statute of limitations for child sexual abuse crimes going forward. Under its provisions, future victims of abuse would have until age 55 to file lawsuits. Currently, victims have until age 30 to pursue civil lawsuits and until age 50 file criminal suits.

Rep. Paul Schemel, R-Franklin, was the lone no vote on Rozzis bill.

Speaking to the committee, he laid out his concerns that the bill compromised fundamental justice for the accused, noting that criminal statutes are removed only in the case of murder, which entails physical evidence.

I applaud the work on the bill but I still believe its an overreach, Schemel said.

The other bill, House bill 963, sponsored by Rep. Jim Gregory, R-Blair, calls for a referendum seeking to amend the Pennsylvania Constitution to revive expired statute of limitations. Such an amendment would pave the way for a two-year retroactive window for victims who have timed out of the legal system because of expired statutes. That proposition has effectively been the death knell for previous efforts to reform the statute of limitations.

Gregory said his bill represents the opportunity to take this past that last hurdle - the shadow of constitutionality question that hangs over this. If we can take care of that and give it to the people of Pennsylvania to say this is what we think is right for victims of sexual abuse in Pennsylvania. Thats what we are working to do together. To be together on this this is a powerful message.

Efforts to reform the statute of limitations have failed in the General Assembly for years in the wake of a series of investigations into clergy sex abuse across the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania, beginning with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in 2005 and 2006. Since then, two grand jury reports have documented the chronic and systemic sexual abuse of hundreds of minors by priests from across all of the states eight Catholic dioceses.

The 40th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury last year once again recommended the elimination of criminal statutes for child sex abuse and the creation of a two-year retroactive window to file civil suits.

The scathing report found that more than 1,000 children were sexually abused in Catholic dioceses across the state over a period of seven decades.

While striking an optimistic note, Rozzi, who has been in this position several times already in his House career, noted that Mondays stamp of approval on the bills was part of a long process.

It still has to pass the full House, he said. But theres going to be an opportunity if people dont believe in this the way we are proposing it to amend and change it. This is only first step and we will see where we go from here.

Rozzis bill would also remove sovereign immunity in civil claims, meaning that if an institution has known about child sex crimes, it would be held responsible. Last year, some lawmakers fought for provisions that would shield institutions - including the Catholic church - from liability in decades-old child sex abuse cases.

Rozzi said the idea that a statutory change to the law without a constitutional amendment could be overruled in the courts would be devastating to victims. He noted the state Supreme Courts decision to keep names of priests redacted in the grand jury report.

I think I would rather trust our people to make this decision than our Supreme Court quite honestly, Rozzi said.

Mondays votes, while evoking optimism among some advocates and victims, also engendered skepticism and criticism among others.

University of Pennsylvania law professor Marci Hamilton, long an advocate for reforms in the law, excoriated the proposed bills.

This latest divide and conquer strategy is completely unacceptable, she said.

Hamilton explained that while HB962 would help future victims, scores of victims that have been denied justice as a result of expired statutes would be asked to wait for justice up to three years under the amendment bill.

Hamilton said the referendum process is likely to be unsuccessful and is not necessary.

Amending the constitution entails a lengthy and arduous process requiring identical bills to pass the House and Senate in two consecutive sessions before going to voters for ratification. So even if there is support for amending the constitution to allow for a retroactive window for victims, it will take at least three years.

As the Attorney General and I have separately argued, a civil window is constitutional under Pennsylvania law, Hamilton said. This is a clever strategy by the bishops to inject further delay against the victims they created. 

Pennsylvania, which sparked widespread states investigations into clergy sex abuse following last years grand jury report, is increasingly distinguishing itself as the only state regionally yet to reform statutes of limitations.

New York, home of the countrys largest archdiocese, as well as New Jersey, recently expanded their civil statute of limitations on sexual abuse. Dozens of other states, including California and Virginia, are considering similar measures.

The real tragedy is that lawmakers are even considering doing this to the victims in Pennsylvania while surrounding states lawmakers in N.Y. and N.J. have chosen children and the victims over the predators and their enabling institutions, Hamilton said.

When the proposals land on the House floor for a full vote, it will mark yet another round at attempts to reform child sex crimes in recent years.

In September, just weeks after Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced the findings of the investigation, the House voted overwhelmingly for a retroactive two-year window for victims of child sexual abuse to sue. The measure was blocked by Senate Republicans.

The Senates top-ranking member, President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, was among those who argued retroactivity was unconstitutional.

Gregory said his proposals is engendering support from among members of the General Assembly.

This is the best way to get this done for all involved, he said. If you had a question about constitutionality, we are taking that barrier down. If you have a question about anything else, you need to bring them up. This is last barrier. Lets take it to the people of Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania is now one step closer to giving voters the opportunity to decide whether a victims bill of rights has a place in their state constitution.

The state House of Representatives on Monday voted 190-8 on legislation proposing a constitutional amendment, dubbed Marsys Law, that would enumerate rights for victims to receive notification of all hearings and be allowed to attend them as well as a voice in plea hearings, sentencings and parole proceedings.

The measure now goes to the Senate for consideration. If it passes that chamber before the end of June, it will be positioned to be placed on the November ballot of voter ratification.

Because it is a proposed amendment to the constitution, identical bills must pass the House and Senate in two consecutive legislative sessions before it goes to the voters who get the final say. Mondays House passage was the start of the second leg of that journey for the proposal.

Rep. Sheryl Delozier, R-Cumberland County, who championed the proposal in the House, said at a Monday Capitol news conference recognizing this week as National Crime Victims Rights Week the measure puts victims rights on par with the accused.

Marsys Law does not take one thing away from those that are accused, she said. It just gives the victims a voice. That is fair. That is what our constitution is about. And that is what were going to change on this November ballot.

Pennsylvania has had a robust victims rights statute on the books since 2007, which the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and some others think sufficiently provides for victims rights.

Rep. Greg Vitali, D-Delaware County, shared the ACLUs concern, saying that providing these rights in the constitution makes it more difficult to make changes should unintended consequences arise. Further, he raised a concern of criminal defense lawyers over a provision that allows an alleged victim the right to refuse to be interviewed by the accused or whomever is representing the accused.

Thats a real concern when someone is on trial for his life, his reputation, not being able to get all the evidence possible to get the complete picture, Vitali said.

Rep. Paul Schemel, R-Franklin County, agreed that the proposed constitution swings the pendulum of justice too far away from the ancient rights of the accused.

The proposed Marsys Law constitutional amendment arises out of a national movement that began in California to get a victims bill of rights in every state constitution as well as the U.S. constitution. It is named after a University of California Santa Barbara student Marsalee Nicholas who was killed by her ex-boyfriend, but her family was not informed of his release from prison and encountered him in a grocery store.

While some problems have arisen in other states that adopted Marsys Law constitutional amendments such as longer jail stays for the accused while waiting for victim notification and heavier caseloads for victims advocates, supporters say it ensures victims rights are better enforced and provides redress if they are violated.

There is a misunderstanding that the victim will now have a veto over the process and they will actually not. They will just be included in the process, said Rep. Movita Johnson-Harrell, D-Philadelphia, speaking in support of the legislation. Arent we here to make sure we are protecting our most vulnerable citizens? That also includes victims.
Act 43 of 2017 ushered in a new and complicated tax withholding obligation with significant administrative costs for Pennsylvania businesses.

It requires businesses to withhold Pennsylvania income tax from non-employee compensation, business income payments, and lease or rental payments of $5,000 or more to nonresidents. The Pennsylvania Institute of CPAs (PICPA) supports House Bill 926, sponsored by Rep. Keith Greiner, CPA (R-Lancaster), which will help alleviate the hardship borne by small businesses related to these new state 1099-MISC reporting requirements.

Greiners proposed legislation will provide more clarity to existing law. House Bill 926, which is pending in the House Finance Committee, will mitigate a businesss liability for good faith compliance with the withholding provisions as well as consolidate withholding, remittance, and reporting provisions.

Act 43 of 2017 expanded costly reporting requirements with respect to when a business has to file a federal Form 1099-MISC to report Pennsylvania source income with the Department of Revenue, even if no Pennsylvania personal income tax withholding was required.

The PICPA Committee on State Taxation, which helped write House Bill 926, applauds Greiners efforts to help make Pennsylvania a prosperous environment for small-business owners.

Stephen W. Christian, certified public accountant, PICPA president, Philadelphia
Given how much readers have liked the posts recently looking at Armoury trousers, and then the Brycelands range, I thought a post going through the Armourys tailoring would be interesting.

If anything this is more needed than the trousers piece. First because there are even more options to choose from - once you take in the different models under each brand, and without even going into bespoke.

And second because the range is just really good. I cant think of another shop that has this variety of ready-made and made-to-order tailoring, all made at a high quality and in styles I would wear.

If I wasnt so deep into bespoke I would have tried a piece by now - and Id certainly try the made-to-measure from Ring Jacket if I happened to be there at the same time as a trunk show.

There are four brands, which Ill cover in descending order of the size of the range.

The biggest is the Ring Jacket tailoring, all made exclusively for The Armoury in their cuts and cloths. (And so different from Ring Jacket you might find elsewhere.)

These go by model numbers: 3, 6, 1, 7 and 11. The letters A or B after each one refer to the trouser style, when its a suit rather than a jacket.

The first jacket a customer will likely be put in is the model 3 (above). This is in some ways the Armoury default style, and also the one that appeals to the greatest range of customers.

It is a very softly structured jacket, with only a lightweight chest canvas that extends into the shoulder, instead of padding. But it also has a slightly extended shoulder, a little drape in the chest, and a little wadding in the sleevehead.

Those last three things stop it looking too casual and Neapolitan, and suitable for a business suit as much as a casual jacket. There are some Liverano influences in there, as youd expect, particularly the straight lapel and shoulder line.

Personally, I think its a great, subtle style. Its soft yet smart, and flattering in the lapel and shoulder. I wouldnt wear it with chinos or jeans, but its a versatile choice for any other kind of tailoring.

The jacket Im wearing is a size 40, in a covert cloth from this past Autumn/Winter collection. It even fits pretty well, aside from some correction for my sloping shoulders and arm length.

The guy thats less likely to want the model 3 is someone that wants a sharper, more structured jacket. Or someone bigger in the body, where perhaps the softness of the 3 wont be so flattering.

This leads onto model 1 (above), which has padding rather than canvas in the shoulder and is slightly cleaner in the sleevehead too.

The difference is small - indeed the model 1 has become increasingly like the 3 over time. But this is still more likely to appeal to the guy wanting a straighter business suit or blazer.

These Armoury jackets are available RTW, by the way, and made to order. With the latter you can pick cloth and change things like the body length, sleeve length, and waist.

But made-to-measure requires a Ring Jacket trunk show, which take place in both New York and Hong Kong stores.

Model 6 (above) is the double-breasted version of model 3, so everything is the same except for the lapels, buttons etc.

The lapels I really like. Theyre wide, with a very slight belly. The peak isnt too high or too low.

The only thing I dont particularly like is the pick stitching along the edge of the lapel, which is rather too prominent for me. It seems to cheapens it slightly.

Model 7 (above) is a travel-jacket or shirt-jacket version of model 3.

So again, same style details but here with no canvas in the body, and an unlined sleeve. Very lightweight and comfortable.

Finally, model 11 (you guessed it, above) is the latest creation, a more casual jacket modelled with some Ivy League styling.

So while the body shape is similar to the other jackets, the lapel is smaller and shorter and it rolls higher on the body.

The hip pockets have buttoned flaps and a bellows style, while the breast pocket has a tiny, very subtle point at the bottom. Which might be my favourite style detail of the whole range.

The Ivy influence is clearest in the machined seam around the lapels, where Italian-styled models have that hand stitching (or imitation of hand stitching).

The model 11 is probably least my personal style, but I was interested how much I like it, given its the kind of proportions (particularly the lapel) I would never pick for bespoke.

The Ring Jacket suits start at $1600 by the way, and the jackets $1200. Pretty good value for the quality of the work: all the handwork youd expect in a high-end ready-made suit, like a hand-attached collar, lining etc.

The next level up in terms of handwork and price is Orazio Luciano (above). Ready-made there starts at $2800 for a suit, with made-to-measure at $3200.

This is a Neapolitan cut and style. Not too tight or short, but with the curved barchetta breast pocket, curved and open fronts, and hand-swelled edges.

The extra handwork is largely decorative: hand-sewn buttonholes, hand-attached buttons, hand-attached lining. It is a nice make though - I like the fact the inbreast pocket uses the facing material rather than the lining even if is a separate piece.

The shoulder is very natural, not too narrow, and I have to say this tan corduroy is great, even though its rather pale. (Theres one left on the website, size 52.)

Liverano is next, which is a style most readers will be familiar with.

If anything though, Id say the style of the RTW (above) is more extreme than the bespoke Ive had. The gorge is lower, the lapel is short and convex, and the buttoning point is low.

That effect that a Liverano cut can have, of a strong upper torso without the use of padding, is even more in evidence here.

Given the price ($3800 for a suit) Id be more likely to go for the model 3 if I was picking ready-to-wear.

You can see a good range of the current season's Armoury tailoring in their new lookbook, here.

Photography: Elliot Hammer
KODIAK, Alaska (AP) Chinese tariffs are forcing Alaskas seafood industry to look for markets beyond the Asian giant, according to an industry marketing organization.

The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute is exploring how to expand the states seafood brand in response to a 25 percent tariff on Pacific Northwest seafood imposed by China in summer 2018, the Kodiak Daily Mirror reported Wednesday.

Alaskas seafood sales are off by more than 20 percent so far this year and could take a big hit in China, said Jeremy Woodrow, the institutes interim executive director.

Bec...
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.
David Maialetti won first place in Sports Photography for his image of Jay Ajayi reacting after the Philadelphia Eagles won Super Bowl LII. Read more

Staff coverage of the Eagles Super Bowl win, a photograph of a protester outside Bill Cosbys sexual assault retrial, an investigation into toxic conditions at Philadelphia schools, and other journalism published last year earned The Inquirer the 2019 Sweepstakes Award from the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association.

The award is given to the Pennsylvania news organization with the most first- and second- place and honorable mention awards in each division of the annual Keystone Press Awards, announced Friday. The Inquirer received 38 Keystones, 16 of which were for first-place work in the Division I category for multi-day publications with more than 75,000 print circulation. It is the third consecutive year The Inquirer has won the Sweepstakes Award for Division I.

We have a very talented group of journalists, and winning the Sweepstakes Award for a third straight year announces that loudly and clearly, said Gabriel Escobar, Inquirer editor and vice president of Philadelphia Media Network. The range of individual honors is equally notable. Every part of our newsroom was singled out for praise.

Three Inquirer journalists also received specialty awards: distinguished visual journalist (Charles Fox), the Lenfest Institute Emerging Journalist Award (Heather Khalifa), and the Lenfest Institute Diverse Journalist Award (Aneri Pattani).

One of our primary goals in the year ahead is to better define what it means to be truly indispensable to the communities we serve," said Stan Wischnowski, Inquirer executive editor and PMN senior vice president. "These Keystone Awards point to the kind of high-impact journalism that will be required to propel us well into the future.

Winners will be honored at a banquet in Harrisburg on May 18.

Inquirer first-place winners of the 2019 Keystone Press Awards:

Investigative Reporting: Barbara Laker, Wendy Ruderman, Dylan Purcell, and Jessica Griffin for Toxic City: Sick schools.

Editorial: Cynthia Burton.

Column Writing: Elizabeth Wellington.

Special Project: Erin McCarthy for Violent deaths, shattered lives: The Bucks County murders.

Sports Event Coverage: Staff for Super Bowl LII.

Sports/Outdoor Column Writing: Mike Sielski.

Feature Story: Susan Snyder for An Iraqi mans bond with a Penn State professor started with an email. Then U.S. forces bombed his house.

News Feature Story: Laker, Ruderman, Chris Palmer, and Jacob Adelman for Anatomy of a deadly clash.

Personality Profile: Angela Couloumbis for The man behind the Pa. grand jury report on Catholic clergy abuse.

Business or Consumer Story: Sarah Gantz for When medication prices are unaffordable, patients travel abroad for a better deal.

News Beat Reporting: Julie Shaw.

Sports Beat Reporting: Sam Donnellon for Flyers coverage.

News Photo: David Maialetti, of a protester at Bill Cosbys retrial.

Feature Photo: Jose F. Moreno for A handmaids tale.

Sports Photo: Maialetti for Game over!

Diversity: Stephanie Farr for We the People.
Founded in 1962, the independent Penn Book Center will close in May, according to a statement by the owners. Read more

After 57 years in business, the Penn Book Center in University City will close in May.

In a statement on Monday, owners Ashley Montague and Michael Row attributed the closing to losses due to the explosion of online sales of books at cut-rate prices.

Penn Book Center was founded in 1962 by Achilles, Olga, and Peter Nickles as an independent bookstore on the University of Pennsylvania campus. It was one of the citys oldest independent bookstores and was celebrated for its selection, especially in hard-to-find titles that appealed to college buyers. In 2005, Achilles and Olga Nickles sold the store to Montague and Row.

In recent years, the store had moved away from textbooks, increased in-store events, changed its layout, sponsored book clubs, and extended hours. It hosted more than 125 events in 2018. In the statement, Montague said that the changes have not generated the sales we need to stay open."

The Penn Book Center is not to be confused with the University of Pennsylvania Bookstore, operated by Barnes & Noble. The owners of Penn Book Center said markdowns will begin this month and events will be hosted through May.
Exelon Generation says it will close the Three Mile Island Unit 1 nuclear plant unless state policymakers come up with a rescue plan to compensate nuclear energy for its clean-energy contribution. Read more

The Pennsylvania House Consumer Affairs Committee on Monday held the first of four planned hearings in Harrisburg about a proposed $500 million rescue for the states nuclear industry.

The committee heard from four advocates for contentious House Bill 11, and four opponents of the rescue, introduced last month by Rep. Tom Mehaffie (R., Dauphin). A similar measure was introduced by Sen. Ryan P. Aument (R., Lancaster) in the upper chamber last week, Senate Bill 510.

The committee has scheduled additional Harrisburg hearings at 9 a.m. April 15 in the Main Capitol, at noon on April 29 in the Ryan Building, and May 6 in the Main Capitol.

Both the Senate and the House proposals would amend the states 2004 Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act (AEPS) to add a category of zero-emission power reserved largely for nuclear producers that would supply 50 percent of the states electricity demand. Electricity customers would pay for subsidies to the nuclear generators, as they do now to alternative-energy producers that supply almost 18 percent of the market.

The General Assembly will need to act in the next few months if it wants to avert a threatened closure of Three Mile Island Unit 1, which owner Exelon Generation says is losing money. Critics say the states other nuclear power plants are still profitable, and the rescue would unnecessarily increase earnings of nuclear power producers and diminish competition.

The committee on Monday heard from bill supporters, including former Gov. Tom Ridge; Mike Pries, a Dauphin County commissioner; Steve Brame, a spokesman of the Pennsylvania Rural Electric Association; and David Griffing, vice president of FirstEnergy Solutions, which says it will shut down its Beaver Valley nuclear power plant in 2021 without support.

The opponents included Kevin Sunday, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business & Industry; Glen Thomas, a former chair of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission; Todd Snitchler, a marketing vice president of the American Petroleum Institute; and Desiree Hung, the AARPs Pennsylvania advocacy director.
Brad Spence (left) cooks on "Bong Appetit" against Joe Gannascoli and Josephine Polito. Read more

Highly decorated chef Brad Spence says he hopes to open a few eyes while doubtless raising a few eyebrows with his TV-cooking appearance Tuesday, April 9.

Spence is a competitor on Bong Appetit, Vicelands series in which, in the networks words, B Real, Vanessa Lavorato, and Miguel Trinidad oversee a competition where high-end cuisine meets high-end cannabis.

Spence goes up against The Sopranos Joe Gannascoli and New York grandmother Josephine Polito as they cook for the judges and guest Jarobi White.

Spence has a medical marijuana prescription and says the weed helps with his anxiety and depression.

Cooking with it is no different from any other ingredient, says Spence, a two-time James Beard nominee for best chef/Mid-Atlantic who trained at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., and was chef de cuisine at Vetri Cucina before opening the first of the three Amis Trattorias in 2010.

During the taping, Viceland provided a cannabis expert schooled in the flavor profiles of some 50 varieties that were made available to the competitors. Presented with the challenge of creating a dish from ricotta, garlic, and canned sardines, he asked for a strain that tasted like wild fennel. It was amazing, he said.

(Heres the recipe, which uses actual fennel and omits the cannabis.)

He also made eggplant Parm and, for dessert, zuppa Inglese.

At home in New Jersey, he hews to the culinary tradition of staying local -- buying his marijuana in Bellmawr. He uses it to make edibles, including gummies. One of his favorites is mixing the local cannabis with local honey to add to tea.

Spence said he urges caution and wants to destigmatize pot, which is a hot-button issue in his state. He said he would not use it before work or driving. Like anything else, its a medicine -- no different from prescription pain-killers, he said.

As for any potential backlash, he said: Some people dont understand it. I dont care."
Joseph Roby holds up old photos and history of his family inside the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, where a genealogy class takes place. Read more

When Steve Ryan inherited a copy of a World War I-era photo showing his great-great-uncle Spence McAulay in the uniform of the Royal Scots  the oldest regiment in the British Army  he was intrigued. Ryan knew that the Scotsman had been killed in action during the war, but he didnt know much more.

With just his ancestors name and regiment, the Newtown Square-based communications director sat down one afternoon to piece together McAulays story.

Like any sentient 21st-century being, I started with a Google search, Ryan said.

The search took him down the genealogy rabbit hole. Ryan hopscotched from forces-war-records.co.uk to ancestry.co.uk to the site for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, acquiring clues along the way. The first stop gave him McAulays regimental number, among other data; that unlocked McAulays service records, which helped him triangulate where McAulay was killed and buried in France. A few searches more and he was reading British trench maps.

The first time I sat down to research this, I worked on it for three to four hours without even noticing because I was so engrossed, Ryan said. My wife was like, What are you doing? 

Researching your genealogy has grown increasingly popular in recent years, but the process can be overwhelming. There may be old photo albums youve never gone through. Maybe youve heard conflicting versions of a story from different family members. Or perhaps the thought of navigating the citys archives is too much to handle.

Fear not. If you know where to start, tracing your family roots is easier than it seems.

DNA: A good starting point

When home DNA test kits hit the market about a decade ago, they sparked a renewed interest in genealogy. All of a sudden, it was possible to track down long-lost family members using biological information and the internet.

But DNA is the tip of the iceberg, according to Berwyn genealogist Sydney Cruice Dixon, who teaches genealogy classes at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The tests breakdown of your ethnicity is actually the least useful part of your results, Dixon said. What is helpful is being able to see your matches, if you have any, and figuring out through old-fashioned genealogy how youre related to that person.

Once you find a match, opening a line of communication may help fill in gaps on your family tree, Dixon said. But its important to supplement that with the basics of genealogy, like filling in a pedigree chart and obtaining records.

Digging up records

Tracing your familys paper trail is the most challenging part of genealogy, but its also the most important.

Take it from Dixon, who had been researching her familys history for years when she visited the National Archives in Washington in 2011 to examine her great-great-great-grandfathers military records. When she read Joseph W. Cliftons records for the first time, she was shocked.

Dixon discovered that Clifton, a Union soldier, had deserted his regiment twice during the Civil War and had been found guilty of desertion before a court-martial. He was sentenced to be shot to death with musketry, but his family and friends in Burlington, N.J., sent a petition to President Abraham Lincoln pleading for his life.

It worked  Clifton was sentenced to be imprisoned at Fort Jefferson for the rest of the war. While there, he contracted scurvy, which led to his family to seek executive clemency from Lincoln. The president signed the pardon one day before he was assassinated in Fords Theater on April 14, 1865.

His children knew, but this was not a story my family told, Dixon said. She never would have known if she hadnt rifled through the National Archives.

Birth, death, and marriage certificates, military and property records, and wills are valuable to budding genealogists. When going to an archive or library to root around for records, its best to have the first and last names of your relatives on hand, as well as rough timelines of their lives, including date of death or burial.

Philadelphia has a wealth of genealogical resources, including the Free Library and the City Archives. The library has census data, tax records, burial information, immigration lists, naturalization records, and old newspapers (and a guide to help you navigate those). The archives have birth, death, and marriage records through 1915, city directories from 1785 to 1935, business directories from 1869 to 1916, and more (if youre overwhelmed, you can pay city archive staff to search for you).

And if you exhaust your local supply of records, you can make requests by mail to most historical repositories and archives  or visit in person.

Deciphering documents

Wherever you do your research, Dixon recommends starting with the most recent records, then moving backward. You have a smaller chance of making a mistake and pursuing an incorrect family, she said.

Pay close attention to details; even facts like the hospital your relative gave birth in can yield clues. While older documents may be difficult to read, the information they contain can be invaluable. Look up terms youre not familiar with, Dixon said. Make sure youre really thorough.

Its also important to remember that records you find may have errors. People made mistakes or gave incorrect information on forms back then, like people do today, she said.

Talking to (older) people

Interviewing family, friends, and neighbors can add color and crucial facts to your family history. Start with those whose memories are most fragile, genealogists advise, and ask open-ended questions. If possible, interview people together so they can jog each others memories.

You can ask about where they went to school, what they remember the most from their childhood, where they were when significant events in history took place, and also what they recall about the other members of the family. Your family members may not recall exact dates, but they can paint a picture. Let them go on tangents, Dixon said. Let them talk about the details like what a car looked like or where shops were.

Keep in mind that interviews can get emotional  you might be reopening painful memories. Try not to react emotionally, even when shocking stuff is shared, Dixon said. That kind of reaction will cause them to clam up.

If someone does shut down, having a friend do the interview may be helpful. A friend can also take notes, though recording interviews is easiest (but be sure to ask first).

Risks and rewards

Genealogy research can be an emotionally fraught process. Tragic stories can and do emerge in many family histories, so one must be prepared. Adrienne Whaley, president of the African American Genealogy Group of Philadelphia, recommends making sure that you have emotional support in place  family, friends, or professional help  before you begin your search.

African Americans routinely grapple with this scenario. The emotional challenge of confronting this countrys racial injustice and intolerance  shows up in lots of different ways, said Whaley, who has been researching her familys roots seriously for the last decade.

It could include discovering stories of racial violence in your family. Or having to look for your family members in property records prior to 1870, when families transitioned from slavery to freedom, Whaley said. Courthouses recorded white marriages in one book and colored marriages in another.

But she added that the results are often rewarding, despite the emotional toll. Whaley found evidence on ancestry.com that one of her great-great-grandmothers owned land in the 1920s in Georgia; she had written a will passing it on to her children.

Its such a statement for a black woman to protect the legacy of her family in the 1920s, among the lynchings and violence, Whaley said. She was born as the Civil War was starting. Its her land, not her husbands.

A 2010 study by Emory University psychologists concluded that researching your roots can boost emotional well-being, and that sharing it with your children can help them feel more rooted in their identities. Dixon agrees, adding that studying ancestors failures and successes can instill a sense of resilience.

People think of genealogy as names, dates, and places, and their ethnicity, Dixon said. Theres so much more that you get out of it. You get a better understanding of the values and traditions that your family has and why they have them. You form a real connection with history. And you understand yourself better.

Online resources and paid research services

Genealogy records abound online, but rarely in the same place. To dig into your family history, youll need to navigate multiple websites. Mainstream genealogy websites like ancestry.com and archives.com are good places to start, but there are many more specific sites  locally and nationally  to delve into.

For anyone:

Ancestry.com (paid): Ancestry.com is the largest for-profit genealogy company in the world. They claim to offer access to more than 10 billion records, making it a great starting point.

Archives.com (paid): Not only does this website offer you access to U.S. censuses and old newspapers, it also has video tutorials on how to construct a family tree.

NewspaperArchive.com (paid): This website contains more than 120 million newspaper pages dating back to 1607. You can browse them by city or state, as well as keywords.

Fold3.com (paid): If youre looking for military documents, this website is a good resource since it contains digitized military records from the Revolutionary War onward.

AfriGeneas.com (free): This site contains resources for those researching African American roots, including an interactive guide for beginners.

JewishGen.com (free): This website has thousands of resources for those researching their Jewish roots, including databases from Eastern Europe and Syria.

Familysearch.org (free): A website operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints full of digitized records, microfilms, and books. (You can also head to a Family History Center at a Latter-day Saints church, which generally contain genealogy books, 19th-century newspapers, and other reference materials and databases.)

For Pennsylvanians:

Freelibrary.org (free): The Philadelphia Free Library dedicates a section of its website to researching your family history, including a genealogy 101 page that gives readers instructions on how to navigate the librarys records.

HSP.org (free): The Historical Society of Pennsylvania suggests users begin with their online catalog, accessible via familysearch.org, to browse their print materials, manuscript collections, microfilm, and maps. Search for a person, or by location and industry. They also offer a series of genealogy courses.

Genpa.org (free): The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvanias library includes church, cemetery, and funeral home records, family records for early GSP members, and reference books for Pennsylvania research. Most of their collection is from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Deanhenry.wixsite.com/aagg (free): The African American Genealogy Group seeks to connect those interested in genealogy with expert researchers. They hold monthly meetings that are free and open to the public on the second Tuesday of each month from September to June at Pinn Memorial Baptist Church.

Jgsgp.org (free): The Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Philadelphia works closely with the Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center and holds monthly meetings with speakers from all areas of Jewish genealogy.

And for those who are curious about their genealogy but dont wish to spend the time researching themselves, there are plenty of paid research services, including those provided by the Free Library, the Philadelphia City Archives, and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Rates depend on time needed to find the information youre looking for, and its best to give the researcher as much background as you can in advance.
Sen. Bernie Sanders will swing through Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan this weekend, his campaign said, as the Vermont senator seeks to make the case that he is the Democratic candidate best positioned to win back key states that helped deliver to Donald Trump the presidency.

The announcement Monday is the latest sign that in addition to trying to win the battle of ideas in the Democratic race, the candidates believe they must show that they can beat Trump in 2020. Primary voters place a higher priority on beating Trump than on ideological purity, according to a February Monmouth University poll.

Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, is to hold a rally in Pittsburgh on Sunday, following trips to Madison, Wis., and Warren, Mich. The Pittsburgh event is scheduled for 5 p.m. at Schenley Plaza, near the University of Pittsburgh campus.

Winning those three states plus each one carried by Hillary Clinton in 2016 would hand the Democratic nominee more than the 270 Electoral College votes needed. Trump won Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin by a total of fewer than 80,000 votes.

Sanders will deliver a message focused on fighting against unfair trade deals that undermine workers wages and enrich CEOs, rebuilding and strengthening unions, and guaranteeing health care as a right to all with Medicare for All, the campaign said.

With a devoted following he gathered running against Clinton, Sanders says he has raised $18.2 million in the first six weeks of his presidential campaign, far outpacing his rivals. The campaign said last week the average donation was $20.

In a strategy memo Monday, Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir argued that winning back the three states Sanders will visit this weekend presents Democrats with the clearest path to the White House  and that Sanders is the best candidate to do it.

Voters in these states, across many demographic groups, are looking for a message that understands the deep, unaddressed concerns of working families, and shows a commitment to fighting against the decades of policy in Washington that have led to job loss, closed factories, and hollowed-out local economies, Shakir wrote.

He pointed to polling showing early support for Sanders in these states, which Shakir said was driven by a unique, authentic message about trade, unions, working families, and health care.

Sanders trip comes a few weeks after Beto ORourke, the former Texas congressman who lost a close race to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz last year, made a campaign stop in State College.
Philadelphia firefighters battling a 4-alarm warehouse fire on East Butler St at Sepviva St in the Port Richmond section of the city on April 7, 2019. Read more

A four-alarm fire broke out Sunday night on the first floor of a vacant warehouse in Port Richmond, officials said.

The blaze started around 7:22 p.m. at Sepviva and East Butler Streets and was placed under control just before 10 p.m., according to Kathy Matheson, spokesperson for the Philadelphia Fire Department.

It was unclear whether anyone was in the building at the time, said Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel, but no injuries had been reported as of late Sunday evening.

The cause of the fire is not yet known. The building, which partially collapsed during the blaze, had housed several businesses, including a thrift store.

Thiel said he expected fire crews to continue their work at the scene through early Monday.

Well be here all night, he said. This is going to be a long-duration operation.
For the 50th anniversary of his Freedom Seder, Rabbi Arthur Waskow took the renowned interfaith rite into a once-inconceivable place: a mosque. The rabbi and some of the evening's speakers talked before the event at the Masjidullah Community Center Mosque in West Oak Lane on Sunday, April 7, 2019. Read more

It was the social tumult of the 60s  its battles for civil rights, impassioned protests against the Vietnam War, and political upheavals  that compelled Rabbi Arthur Ocean Waskow to organize his first groundbreaking reimagining of the traditional feast marking the beginning of Passover, an event he dubbed The Freedom Seder.

A half-century later, Waskow said, the political moment calls for another revision.

Were in at least as deep a crisis now  probably deeper  than we were 50 years ago, he said. There needed to be another incarnation of the Freedom Seder.

And so, on Sunday, Waskow -- founder of Mount Airys Shalom Center and one of the leading voices of liberal Judaism -- celebrated the 50th anniversary of that first Freedom Seder with a new iteration, updated to address the economic, political, and religious divisions plaguing our nation today.

Joined by an interfaith, interracial program of speakers, Waskow led a crowd of more than 400 through his most recent adaptation of the Haggadah, the text recited during the observance.

This time, even the venue  Masjidullah, a West Oak Lane mosque -- was purposefully chosen as a call for people of all faiths to stand together against injustice and prejudice of any form.

Passover, the eight-day holiday that this year will begin at sundown on April 19, celebrates the story of the Jewish peoples liberation from slavery in Egypt.

And though the long, dark beard Waskow wore during the first Freedom Seder in 1969 may have long ago faded into a snowy white, the 85-year-old rabbis observance Sunday was no less barbed or of the moment in its message.

Speakers ranging from a Presbyterian minister to the founder of the first Arabic language public school in New York City decried the resurgence of white supremacist movements around the world and President Donald Trumps family separation policy at the border.

They mourned for the victims of recent mass shootings at a Christian church in Charleston, S.C., at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, and at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand. They called for economic support to impoverished communities and recited traditional blessings in English, Hebrew, Arabic, and Spanish.

What is the pathway to freedom when far too many leaders  political and religious  cower and capitulate in the face of power for partisan and extremist advantage rooted in racism, classism, Islamophobia, homophobia, fear, and downright demonic meanness? asked the Rev. William J. Barber II, an internationally known civil rights activist, as he delivered the rites concluding prophetic charge.

Abdul-Halim Hassan, imam at Masjidullah, said he didnt hesitate when approached to host Waskows anniversary seder. He has long considered the rabbi an inspiration though they come from different faiths.

Theres this term we use at the masjid  the shoulders who upon we stand, he said. Ive been standing on [Waskows] shoulders for years.

Still, holding a celebration of a Jewish holiday in a house of Muslim worship posed certain logistical issues.

For instance: How to handle a staple of any seder table  the kosher wine  in the home of a faith that prohibits alcohol? The answer -- said Rabbi Phyllis Ocean Berman, Waskows wife and co-organizer of the celebration -- was a specially designed grape juice that was both kosher and halal.

Meanwhile, the ritual naming of seven plagues visited upon Egypt  here replaced by scourges afflicting modern society including racism, militarism, materialism, and sexism  was interrupted briefly to accommodate the Muslim call to sunset prayers.

But interfaith roots have been a part of the Freedom Seder since its first iteration, held at an African American church in Washington on the first anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.s assassination.

Kings murder provoked riots in cities across the country, including the nations capital, where President Lyndon Johnson called out the National Guard and imposed a curfew that put hundreds of people in jail.

Waskow, who was then working as a secular community activist, said the sight of military convoys rolling through his largely black neighborhood on the first night of Passover triggered something inside of him.

My insides began saying, This is Pharaohs army, he said. I was going home to celebrate liberation and theres Pharaohs armies on the streets. The seder became this volcano of energy I had to write. It was just an absolute necessity.

The Haggadah he delivered the following year  published in 1969 in Ramparts magazine  became a phenomenon in liberal Judaism, launching a host of imitations penned around themes such as feminism, peace, and the environment.

But not everyone loved Waskows reimagination of the Passover observance. Some viewed it as an unwelcome distortion of tradition or an injection of divisive political debates into the celebration of a religious holiday.

Still, the need to challenge injustice is no less great today, said Waskow and his assorted speakers Sunday.

Its a different cast of characters but all of those -isms still exist  all of those things that plague our society continue, said Debbie Almontaser, board president of the Muslim Community Network. Its really a moral imperative for us all to band together.

Hoping to enlist their audience in their fight, the seders organizers passed out postcards to each attendee, urging them to write down specific steps they intend to take to combat the modern worlds plagues.

The postcards will be mailed back to their authors in about a week  a reminder that commitment to their cause should extend beyond the holy days of their various faiths.

Hopefully, people wont just leave here thinking, Well, that was great, Waskow said. Theyll be reminded to make a real commitment.

Nodding, his fellow rabbi, Shawn Zevit, of Mishkan Shalom Synagogue in Roxborough, quipped: Its a Groupon for interfaith work.
Pennsylvania is closing the Glen Mills Schools, the oldest existing U.S. reform school, amid an investigation into child abuse and cover-ups at the Delaware County campus.

The state Department of Human Services (DHS) announced Monday that it was revoking Glen Mills license, having found evidence that its employees beat juveniles sent to the all-boys school and attempted to coerce them into silence.

In a letter to Glen Mills assistant executive director Christopher Spriggs, DHS Deputy Secretary Cathy Utz cited gross incompetence, negligence, and misconduct in operating the facilities, and mistreatment and abuse of children in care."

Institutions charged with caring for children have a responsibility to keep them safe. The Glen Mills Schools failed in this duty, DHS Secretary Teresa Miller said in a statement. We now know that children living at Glen Mills were subjected to abuse and intimidation. My department is taking this action so no more children will be subjected to the culture of abuse, coercion, and silence that ran deep at the school, and so staff responsible may be held accountable.

The state could have taken a smaller step, such as offering Glen Mills a provisional license or requesting a corrective action plan, as it has in the past. But Utz told The Inquirer that revocation was necessary because of the systemic nature of the abuse, and because of Glen Mills failure to fix problems DHS had cited in the past.

Children who are entrusted in Pennsylvanias juvenile justice system have a right to be safe in their placements, Utz said.

In a statement, Glen Mills leaders said they planned to appeal DHSs decision, which they said was based on no credible evidence.

We are stunned that PA DHS is taking this action based on media reports as opposed to looking at the results of their own inspections, they said in the statement.

The Inquirer published an investigation in February documenting decades of abuse at Glen Mills, which was founded in 1826 as the Philadelphia House of Refuge.

The newspaper revealed that counselors violently attacked boys for minor misconduct such as talking back, not listening, or making crude jokes. Staff told the youths that if they reported the abuse, they would be sent to worse placements where they would serve longer sentences. Staff monitored their phone calls and encouraged them to lie about their injuries.

DHS conducted its own investigation, interviewing former students and staff members. Their probe corroborated The Inquirers reporting and prompted DHS to order the emergency removal of all boys remaining on Glen Mills campus.

By Friday, no boys were left at Glen Mills, which is appealing the removal order as it lays off staff.

Glen Mills buildings are separately licensed, so the school technically holds 14 licenses from Pennsylvania. All are being revoked.

The schools leaders vigorously denied that counselors abused students on campus. No credible evidence supports the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services actions and their recent inspections confirm this," they said in the statement. The issues PA DHS inspectors discovered were trivial, and they found no signs of long-standing physical abuse, per their own documentation.

A cursory search of the states inspection reports suggests otherwise. In the last five years, Glen Mills counselors were cited for shoving a childs head into a cabinet, striking others in the face in front of their peers, breaking open a childs head, sending a students elbow through a glass window, choking a student, pushing a boy through a chair, and punching a child in the ribs, among other incidents.

Another teenager was removed from Glen Mills and sent to a state-run facility in June 2017, after counselors stepped on the boys face and broke his jaw so severely that it had to be wired shut.

And last summer, two counselors were caught abusing a Philadelphia teenager on surveillance video. One slammed him to the floor and choked him, then the other punched the 17-year-old in the face. Both were later arrested.

After The Inquirer investigation was published, Philadelphia and other jurisdictions around the country pulled their boys from Glen Mills. Utz said DHS interviewed these former students and found that they were more willing to discuss the violence at Glen Mills  now that they were in a safe place  than when inspectors interviewed them on campus.

Leola Hardy, chief of the juvenile division for the Philadelphia Defenders Association, said it was completely untrue that public defenders had never noticed abuse at Glen Mills, as the school claimed in its appeal to the removal order.

Defender attorneys have vigilantly documented concerning incidents that occurred at Glen Mills and reported them to Glen Mills itself and other appropriate stakeholders, Hardy said.

Glen Mills has 10 days to file its appeal. DHS officials said they were not aware of a facility that had successfully appealed a license revocation, a rare and serious action.

If Glen Mills loses its appeal, it can reapply for a license. It would be too soon to speculate on where Glen Mills goes from here, but we all agree that if they were to request an an application, there would be a definite need for changes," Utz said.

Aimee Tysarczyk, a spokesperson for Glen Mills, said the golf course and some community-based programs and events were not affected by the license revocations and would remain operating.

Local and state leaders applauded DHSs decision.

Revoking the license at Glen Mills Schools was the only acceptable action in response to the horrific and inexcusable mistreatment of children at the school, Gov. Tom Wolf said.

The Pennsylvania auditor general launched an investigation into Glen Mills that will continue even with the loss of license, his office said. The Office of the State Inspector General is also probing violence at Glen Mills, which is facing a class-action lawsuit from former students who say they were abused at the school.

State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D., Phila.) and Philadelphia Councilwoman Helen Gym, who called for state-level investigations into abuse at Glen Mills, said they were pleased with DHSs action Monday.

No closure, no legal recourse, can ever undo the trauma or pain suffered by too many generations of youth at Glen Mills, Gym said. But today, we have taken one step toward dismantling an archaic and abusive system of mass institutionalization of young people.

A 19-year-old from Los Angeles who says he was held down and beaten by several counselors before he left Glen Mills in 2018 said he was happy Monday that other boys would be spared what he went through.

The teenager  whom The Inquirer agreed to not name because he is a child abuse victim  said he was grateful to get his GED at Glen Mills, where he played soccer and bonded with some staff members.

But his overwhelming memory is seeing kids get their a beat just because ... and you cant do anything about it because if you do, theyll call for more staff and youll get your a beat.

It wasnt all bad, he said, but some of it ruined all of it.
Lauren Vidas, who is challenging Kenyatta Johnson to represent Point Breeze and parts of Center City. Read more

At first glance, Lauren Vidas could be labeled a stereotypical gentrifier.

Shes a white lawyer and lobbyist who moved into the once predominantly black Graduate Hospital neighborhood a decade ago, and lives there with her partner and two dogs. But shes running for City Council, she says, to prevent longtime district residents from being displaced and to ensure that neighborhoods like nearby Point Breeze develop fairly and transparently.

Her opponent in the Democratic primary, Councilman Kenyatta Johnson, who has represented the 2nd District for eight years, was born and raised in Point Breeze, and has made those roots a central part of his reelection campaign. His motto: From Here. For Here.

Hes expanded tax-relief programs for longtime residents and helped airport workers get a living wage. But he also has faced scrutiny over city land transactions that benefited friends. A jury two years ago found that Johnson had violated the rights of Ori Feibush, a developer and Johnsons 2015 primary challenger, by using councilmanic prerogative to prevent Feibush from buying lots in the district. Feibush was awarded $34,000.

The 2nd District contest is among the races that have positioned the May 21 primary as a potentially groundbreaking election for the city, with more candidates vying for Council than in any year since 1979. (Michael Bradley, an Army veteran and head of the Grays Ferry Civic Association, is running uncontested for the 2nd District Republican nomination.)

The race highlights a citywide conversation about Councils power over land deals and pits a party-backed incumbent with significant financial support against a first-time candidate touting government reform.

People have seen scandal after scandal coming out of City Hall, Vidas said. What they dont see is progress in their community, and by progress I mean clean streets, I mean making sure folks arent displaced by developers and gentrification.

Johnson calls Vidas, who has lobbied for the soda industry, a hired corporate gun, and questions her support beyond Graduate Hospital, where she led the neighborhood association SOSNA.

She was at the helm of an organization, SOSNA, that totally gentrified the entire neighborhood, Johnson said. "Now all the sudden, you have a progressive cloak on, as though youre advocating for affordable housing? There isnt a track record that shows thats been her agenda.

The district includes 15 neighborhoods, including Point Breeze, Graduate Hospital, portions of South Philadelphia, the Navy Yard, Eastwick, and Grays Ferry. Since 2010, the districts population has grown by 7,500.

In the most gentrified parts of Point Breeze, the median housing price soared from about $30,000 in 2000 to $234,000 in 2016, and the neighborhood changed from close to 80 percent black to 46 percent black. In the Graduate Hospital area, the median home prices are now among the citys highest  $500,000, up from $300,000 just eight years ago.

Johnson defended his ability to represent such diverse neighborhoods and residents. He sponsored the law to expand the longtime owner-occupied property tax relief program (LOOP) from 10 years to the life of the owner. He also authored a law that expanded the senior tax-freeze program to reach more low or moderate-income residents in the district.

Johnson defends councilmanic prerogative  the effective veto power Council members have over land use in their districts  as a way to give the community a voice, like when he helped block an apartment complex from going up on city-owned land in Eastwick due to neighbor complaints in 2012. Councilmanic prerogative also played a role in securing votes to improve wages for at the airport despite intense lobbying by American Airlines.

Low-wage black and immigrant workers working at the airport, ... their lives are totally transformed because of his leadership and willingness to take on some of the citys largest employers," said Dermot Delude-Dix, a spokesman for Unite Here, the union representing food-service industry workers at the airport.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shake hands during their meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Monday, April 8, 2019. The talks are expected to focus on the situation in Syria, where the two countries have closely coordinated their steps. (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) Read more

MOSCOW (AP)  Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted his Turkish counterpart in Moscow on Monday, discussing how to coordinate their next moves in Syria and how to deepen business ties, including the sale of advanced Russian missiles to Turkey that has riled the United States.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Russia, his third this year, underlined the increasingly close cooperation between the two countries and Turkey's readiness to defy the U.S.

Last week, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence warned Turkey that it was risking its NATO membership and its participation in the F-35 fighter program by failing to heed Washington's demand to cancel the contract with Russia for the S-400 air defense missile systems.

After Monday's talks, Erdogan said that Turkey considers the Russian deal done and won't submit to pressure.

"On the issue of the S-400s, we have determined our road map, we have taken steps," Erdogan said. "Those who tell us to give up our plans, those who make recommendations do not know us. If we have made a contract, if we have reached a deal, then this business is finished. This is our sovereign right, this is our decision."

Putin described the S-400 contract as a top priority in cooperation between the two countries, adding that other weapons deals are in the making.

"We may reach agreements on the joint development and production of high-tech weapons," he said.

Turkey's purchase of the Russian missiles marked the first such contract for a NATO member. Turkey has ignored U.S. demands to abandon the agreement, and Erdogan said Friday that deliveries of the S-400s will begin in July.

The Turkish leader noted that Washington had offered Ankara the U.S.-made Patriot air defense system, but said the U.S. offer isn't as favorable as Russia's.

The U.S. and other NATO allies say the S-400s aren't compatible with the alliance's weapons systems. Washington has voiced concerns that their use by Turkey could compromise security of the state-of-the art U.S. F-35 fighter jets that Turkey stands to receive.

Putin and Erdogan also talked about the completion of a pipeline that will carry Russian gas to Turkey, the planned construction of Turkey's first nuclear power plant, which is to start operations in 2023, and other economic projects.

Erdogan said the number of Russian tourists who visited Turkey last year reached a record 6 million.

Putin and Erdogan have developed a close personal rapport and held regular meetings. They called each other "my dear friend" throughout the talks, saying that the two countries plan to expand their annual trade, currently at about $25 billion, to $100 billion.

Putin said the construction of the underwater segment of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline crossing the Black Sea has just been completed, adding that it's set to come online later this year.

On Syria, Russia and Iran have thrown their support behind Syrian President Bashar Assad, while Turkey has backed his foes during the eight-year war. Despite that, the three countries have teamed up to broker a peace deal for Syria, united by their shared desire to undercut U.S. clout in the region.

Russia and Turkey also have closely coordinated moves on Syria, where they struck a deal in September to create a security zone in the northern province of Idlib. That agreement averted a Syrian army offensive that had sparked fears of a humanitarian catastrophe.

Putin said Russia and Turkey so far have failed to fully implement September's agreement, but emphasized that significant progress has been made.

"We have moved forward, albeit not as quickly as we hoped," he said.

Erdogan also voiced support for the deal in Syria.

"We have taken the steps we need to take and we will continue to do so," Erdogan said. "There is no turning back."

The Turkish leader emphasized Ankara's intention to create a safe zone to keep the Syrian Kurdish militia  the People's Protection Units, or YPG  away from its border. Turkey views YPG as a "terrorist group" for its ties to outlawed Kurdish rebels inside Turkey.

"We have said that we will not agree to a structure in Syria's north that would threaten our security as well as Syria's territorial integrity," Erdogan said.

Putin and Erdogan vowed to continue efforts to encourage political settlement in Syria by pushing for the creation of a committee to draft the country's new constitution.

___

Fraser reported from Ankara.

__

A previous version of this story has corrected the spelling of the Syrian province to Idlib, not Ildib.
A protester holds up a police shield at a rally in front of the military headquarters in the capital Khartoum, Sudan, Monday, April 8, 2019. Organizers behind anti-government demonstrations in Sudan said security forces attempted to break up a sit-in outside the military headquarters. A spokeswoman for the Sudanese Professionals Association told The Associated Press that clashes erupted early Monday between security forces and protesters, who have been camped out in front of the complex in Khartoum since Saturday. (AP Photo) Read more

CAIRO (AP)  Sudanese security forces attempted to break up an anti-government sit-in outside the military headquarters in the country's capital on Monday, setting off clashes in which a soldier was killed while trying to protect protesters, activists said.

Thousands had rallied in front of the compound in Khartoum since the weekend, in one of the biggest demonstrations since protests erupted in December calling for President Omar al-Bashir to step down.

The protesters set up tents on Saturday, in what appeared to be an effort to replicate the mass sit-ins of the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011.

On Monday, security forces used tear gas, rubber bullets and live fire to try to disperse the protesters, according to the Sudanese Professionals Association, which is spearheading the demonstrations.

The Sudan Doctors Committee, an affiliate of the SPA, said a soldier was fatally wounded while trying to protect the protesters. It said another man died elsewhere in Khartoum after being beaten and tortured by security forces.

It said at least 90 people were wounded in the attempt to disperse the sit-it.

Footage posted online by activists showed soldiers moving peacefully among the protesters, raising the possibility that some troops were trying to halt the violence without force. Another clip showed a truck carrying a group of soldiers, including one who was wounded.

The union leading the protests called on the military to back the "people's choice" to end al-Bashir's rule and said they are seeking "direct communications" with its leadership to "facilitate a peaceful transfer of power to a transitional government."

During the 2011 uprising in neighboring Egypt, the army stepped in to prevent clashes between protesters and police, and ultimately forced President Hosni Mubarak from power.

It was unclear whether such a scenario was underway in Sudan, where media access to the demonstrations has been heavily restricted. There was no immediate comment from the military.

The county's interior minister, Bishara Gomaa, told the parliament on Monday that at least seven people were killed in the protests since Saturday  six in Khartoum and the seventh in the Darfur region. He said 2,496 people were arrested in Khartoum.

Protesters said security forces in pickups, mostly from the feared National Intelligence and Security Service, attacked the sit-in early Monday, firing tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition.

Activist Amal el-Zein said soldiers guarding the compound stood by at first, but then moved in to chase the security forces away, firing into the air.

Another activist said security forces later repeated their attempt to break up the sit-in, forcing protesters to seek shelter in a nearby navy facility. He said the military has deployed troops around its headquarters and blocked several roads leading to the complex. The activist spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing retaliation.

The protests were initially sparked by price hikes and shortages, but quickly escalated into calls for the resignation of al-Bashir, who seized power in 1989 in an Islamist-backed military coup.

Al-Bashir has refused to step down and has also declared a state of emergency. Dozens of people have been killed in the crackdown so far.

The protests gained momentum last week after Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in power for 20 years, resigned in response to weeks of similar protests.

Also Monday, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric urged authorities to release all detained protesters. He said the United Nations is following the demonstrations closely and is ready to support any efforts agreed on by the Sudanese to peacefully resolve the crisis.
FILE - This 2018 booking file photo provided by the Collin County District Attorney's Office in Texas shows Matin Azizi-Yarand, a teenager from Plano, Texas, who has been charged with criminal solicitation of capital murder and making a terroristic threat. The Collin County District Attorney's Office says Azizi-Yarand had planned to release a "Message to America" explaining the attack. Authorities say he spent more than $1,400 buying weapons and tactical gear, and had been trying to recruit others to help him in a planned shooting. (Collin County District Attorney's Office via AP, File) Read more

DALLAS (AP)  A suburban Dallas teenager has pleaded guilty to plotting an ISIS-inspired mass shooting at a North Texas mall.

A state judge sentenced Matin Azizi-Yarand to 20 years in prison Monday for solicitation of capital murder and making a terroristic threat, state and federal prosecutors announced. The 18-year-old is eligible for parole after serving 10 years.

Azizi-Yarand was arrested last May for plotting to shoot civilians and police at a Frisco mall in a rampage authorities said he was timing to coincide with Ramadan. ISIS has called on its supporters to carry out attacks during the Muslim holy month.

The then-high school student had been recruiting others to participate in the shooting and planned to explain it with the release of a "Message to America," according to prosecutors. He spent more than $1,400 buying weapons and tactical gear, and had been conducting surveillance of the mall.

Azizi-Yarand believes his plea agreement is a fair deal and is ready to begin his prison term, his lawyer, Mitch Nolte, told the Associated Press.

Azizi-Yarand was indicted in July , but his age presented a challenge for prosecutors.

Terrorism cases are typically brought in federal court. But because Azizi-Yarand was 17 at the time of the crime and a minor under federal law, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Texas was limited in the charges they could bring against him.

Its extremely rare for someone to be prosecuted for terrorism charges in state court, U.S. Attorney Joseph Brown said Monday at a news conference.
After 18 years of parking cars in the city, 54-year-old William Harper says, he makes $11.40 an hour. His biggest hourly raise in all those years was 24 cents. He has no health benefits.

I live paycheck to paycheck, he told City Councils Committee on Labor and Civil Service on Monday at a hearing on wages and working conditions in the parking industry. We are simply asking for a living wage and to be treated with dignity on the job.

The hearing follows a report by the Keystone Research Center and a local union saying that the median hourly wage for parking workers  90 percent of whom are black  is $9.50 and that they work in poor conditions.

The industry is booming on the backs of black and brown low-wage workers, said Councilwoman Cherelle L. Parker, the committee chair.

Daniel Turner, one of the dozens of parking employees who attended the hearing, says he works two jobs to support his three children.

I need to work every single available hour, Turner said. I work 14-hour days every day, and barely even sleep. He said that twice his daughters 3-year-old birthday party had to be postponed because he had to work.

About 1,000 people work low-wage jobs in Philadelphias parking industry, which took in more than $450 million in revenue last year, according to the Keystone report.

Robert Zuritsky, the CEO of major parking garage company Parkway, disputes the $9.50 figure. I believe Parkways starting wage is $12 an hour, he said in response to the report.

While Council members voiced support for increasing the workers pay, it was unclear what action Council might or even could take. Richard Lazer, the deputy mayor for labor, noted that Philadelphia has been unable to enact municipal minimum-wage legislation due to state wage laws.

Parker cited Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals as an example of a private-sector employer that opted to raise wages. Jefferson raised its minimum wage to $15 an hour this year.

Philadelphia NAACP president Minister Rodney Muhammad said that a higher minimum wage would reduce the need for social services among low-wage workers.

What does it mean for our city if someone like me is doing everything they can possibly do and still isnt making it? Turner said. I park cars in some of the most expensive buildings in the city for people who pay more per hour to park than I make.
LaTreice Branson plays the congas during her Drum Like a Lady performances at the Great Stair Hall at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Read more

LaTreice Branson always brings an extra drum or two to her performances  just in case someone wants to join in.

We always bring more than we need, she said one recent Friday evening, tapping her silver cane on the stone floor of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, only a few hours before she and four women with her were to fill the Great Stair Hall with cathartic clangor.

They call themselves Drum Like a Lady. Their goal is to provide a safe space for players of all ages and backgrounds to experience the joyful, healing power of percussion.

Bransons own memories of drumming are shaped by this power. Growing up, she and her sisters practiced rhythms on phone books until they could drum on bongos  then they practiced on bongos until they could play their mothers silver drum kit.

But while home was supportive, the world she found outside was inaccessible and unwelcoming. Male percussionists questioned her teachers, her aptitude, and her experience.

In 2013, Branson founded her collective, which she describes as led by women, rooted in improvisation, and grounded in percussion. Today, Drum Like a Lady is composed of over 50 rotating performers. Its collaborated with local groups like Kyo Daiko and Batala, hosted jam sessions at the West Philly bar Dahlak Paradise, and carried the beat at the Philadelphia Womens March for the last three years.

Jan Jeffries, 65, calls herself a woman of rhythm." The lead player of the Music Over Matter percussion group, she says Drum Like a Lady gives its players what Branson originally sought: the opportunity to explore self-expression in a supportive space.

Individually, we each do something different, Jeffries adds. Collectively, were a monster.

From panic to pounding

It hasnt always been straightforward for Branson. Prior to founding the group, she was a graphic design professor at Cheyney University. After a panic attack at work one day, they took my keys and said I was unfit for duty, she says simply. The only thing I had was my drums.

Since then, shes battled both physical and mental health problems. She struggles with bipolarity and anxiety, among other disorders. She wears a back brace and fights chronic pain in her legs and feet due to osteoarthritis and spinal disc degeneration. Some days, its hard to sit, stand, and move. But when she plays, she says, the pain disappears.

This drumming is my hope, she says, leaning forward and emphasizing every sentence. This drumming is my greatest love. And I just want that to always be shared.

In past years, Drum Like a Lady has hosted workshops for girls at Camp Sojourner, taught the elderly with the New Jersey Commission for the Blind, and served youths at Project Elijah Empowering Autism. Bransons goal is to help communities around Philadelphia experience communal wellness through the act of drumming.

At 75, Marcy Francis can attest to the power of percussion. She calls her shekere, a West African percussion gourd strung with colorful beads, her healing instrument.

Francis once led a girls band named Better Days, which toured as part of USO performances in the 1990s. But 25 years ago, a major car accident left her with head injuries that challenged her ability to hear and create new rhythms. Playing with Jeffries and Branson, she says, has allowed her to regain that ability.

Drumming is healing for everyone, she adds. It makes you move when you dont want to move. It makes you happy.

Conducting community

In the Grand Stair Hall, the women were warming up.

Branson sat and played an experimental cadence. For a minute or two, only the sound of her congas echoed through the hall. Then a young woman in a bright jacket started a complementary polyrhythm on the drum kit; Francis picked up her shekere and rattled in time. Two girls coming down the staircase laughed and began to dance.

All their performances are improvisational, based on intentional listening. I dont tell anyone what to play," Branson says. "Were all in this together.

Barbara Duncan, 28, says the group has taught her more about herself both as a woman and an artist. As a young drummer in Philly, she lacked mentors who looked like her; playing with Branson has given her a community. These women are incredible, she says, shaking her head with a smile. And they were here the whole time.

Three instruments

You have three percussion instruments on you, Branson told the crowd gathered on the steps of the museum: your feet, your hands, and your heart.

Under the spotlight, she appeared even taller than her six feet. She sang, and the room grew silent; she clapped, and every audience member clapped with her; she called people to dance, and teens, children, and married couples made their way up front. She was unfaltering, at least for this night.

Eventually, Branson says, shell lose the physical ability to perform. Shes not sure what thatll be like, or when itll happen. But I keep welcoming other people into drumming, she adds. I want it to always be bigger, mean more, reach more.

Every drum in her collection has been gifted into her life. Before she stops drumming, shes determined to give the way shes received.

Thats why the women of Drum Like a Lady always bring more than they need.
City Council members applaud as Mayor Jim Kenney signs the soda-tax bill at City Hall in a 2016 ceremony. Read more

Two visions of Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenneys first term are competing for attention on television. One shows a city succeeding with new programs and policies. The other shows a city imposing unfair taxes despite being flush with cash.

This air war is not coming from Kenney or the two Democratic primary challengers trying to deny his bid for a second term. In a repeat from four years ago, the big spending is by special interests rather than candidates. And the citys controversial sweetened beverage tax is at the center of it all.

The American Beverage Association, which spent $16.2 million from 2016 to 2018 to combat the tax, on Saturday started spending $408,000 to air two weeks of commercials critical of Kenneys signature program.

That follows a $130,732 purchase of television air time by a new political action committee, Philly 2019, bankrolled by the citys building trades unions, which are backing Kenney. That ad touts new pre-K classes funded by the tax.

Kenney faces two beverage-tax opponents in the May 21 primary, State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams and former City Controller Alan Butkovitz. The ABA has already started campaigning against City Council members who voted for the tax.

The new TV ad cites the citys $368 million fiscal year 2018 budget surplus, saying that could have been used to fund critical needs like pre-K without the unfair beverage tax that hits working families the hardest.

It urges viewers to tell City Council to stand up to the mayor and end the tax.

Anna Adams-Sarthou, a spokesperson for an ABA-financed group pushing to eliminate the tax, said, City Council has the chance to do the right thing and repeal the tax now.

Council approved the tax by a 13-4 vote in June 2016. Since January 2017, the tax has added 1.5 cents per ounce to the cost of sweetened beverages. Along with paying for pre-K, it was created to fund programs and repairs for community schools, parks, recreation centers and libraries.

Harrison Morgan, a spokesperson for Kenneys campaign, said the ABAs ad came as little surprise.

We fully expected the multibillion-dollar beverage industry to pour big money into this election, Morgan said in an email. Theyre more concerned with their profit margins than the children of Philadelphia.

Mike Dunn, a spokesperson for the Mayors Office, echoed that, saying the ad is another example of the industrys misleading onslaught against the tax, in which residents are continually subjected to false information.

Dunn said Kenneys proposed budget for the next fiscal year dedicates more funding for violence prevention, road paving, and the Philadelphia School District. Funding for programs paid for by the tax cant be drawn from other programs without major consequences to our city and economy," Dunn said.
A young boy participates in a Quran Memorization competition at Al Aqsa Islamic Society in Philadelphia on April 7, 2019. Read more

At a competition to recite sections of the Quran from memory, one of the very first contestants, a boy of about 12 years, struggled a bit.

A few minutes later, after a young boy of about 7 was able to recite with enthusiasm, the audience of mostly men shouted, Allahu akbar, or God is great, and one boy said in English: Good job.

About 100 Muslim students, ages 7 to 25, from all over the Philadelphia region took part in the Quranic Memorization Competition at Al Aqsa Islamic Society in North Philadelphia on Sunday. The annual event is sponsored by the Islamic Heritage Foundation.

Sundays event drew the largest number of students willing to test their knowledge of the Quran, Islams Holy Book, since the competition began 26 years ago, said Nabeehah Parker, administrative official of the Islamic Heritage Foundation.

We are doing this to preserve the Quran because if we ever lose the written book, we will be able to pass it on to the next generation and all generations because we have it in our hearts and in our minds, Parker said.

At the registration desk, one woman said shed received a call from a family in Paterson, N.J., who wanted to make sure her child was registered before making a nearly two-hour drive to Philadelphia.

Officials said the students included those with families who originally came from Bosnia, Bangladesh, Egypt, other parts of the Middle East, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Spain, and Nigeria, in addition to those from the United States.

The recitations began at about 9 a.m. And while the boys and young men completed their competition by 2:30 p.m., the girls and young women were still reciting at 3 p.m.

In the mens side of the mosque, one of the judges started with the first line of one of the verses, or ayats, of a chapter, or sura, of the Quran. Then the student was expected to recite that section.

On the womens side of the mosque, Mahasin Green, 14, competed in a room with three female judges and an audience of all girls and women, many sitting on the carpeted floor.

When she finished, Mahasin fell into her mothers arms as her mother, Shay Green, gave her daughter a smile and a hug.

I was scared. I was nervous, Mahasin said later. Green said her daughter began memorizing the Quran when she was 6 years old.

Parker and her husband, Khalil bin Brown, executive director of the Islamic Heritage Foundation, began the foundation 27 years ago in 1992. The competition started a year later.

Parker said the female and male judges earned advanced degrees at Islamic universities in Saudi Arabia.

The judges are listening not just to whether they know the Quran," Brown said, "but to every word and every letter is pronounced correctly. They are listening to see if they pronounce a 't' or a 'th. "

Abdur-Rahman Lewis, a 14-year-old boy from Upper Darby, earned praise from the crowd after he recited. Later, he was named one of the winners for reciting three sections of the Quran. Im happy," he said.

Zackariya Wyatt, 14, lined up with other winners to collect his prize. He won first place for those who competed in reciting five sections. First-place prizes ranged from $100 to $500, depending on how many sections of the Quran students recited.

Zackariyas father, Tahir Wyatt, executive director of Islamic Education at the United Muslim Masjid in South Philadelphia, said the Quran is 604 pages long and is divided into 30 parts, or sections, called a juz.

The students competed in categories of reciting either one-half juz, one juz, three juz, or five juz.

In the back of the mens side of the mosque, a Bangladeshi woman and her two daughters waited hours for their son and brother, Sheik Hassan, 24, of New Jersey, to compete in the over-20 age category.

Hassan won first place in the competition for reciting three sections of the Quran. His mother, who didnt want to give her name, beamed with pride and said he had won last year, also.

The [Arabic] root of the word Quran, is qaraa, which means to read or to recite, Tahir Wyatt said.

It was revealed to be recited, he said. Then he pointed to Rashid Ahmadi, one of the judges in the boys category and said: He has a list that includes the teacher that he [Ahmadi] learned the Quran from and that teachers teacher and his teacher and his teacher all the way back to the Prophet Muhammad," Wyatt said.

This is the tradition.
Lyndon Johnson biographer and historian Robert Caro will appear at the Parkway Central Library in Philadelphia on Tuesday on his book tour for his new 'Working: Researching, Interviewing, Writing,' which is published by Knopf this month. Read more

NEW YORK  Robert Caro has a new book.

No, its not that book.

Its not the fifth and final volume of The Years of Lyndon Johnson, the monumental Pulitzer Prize-winning series Caro embarked on more than 40 years ago.

The fourth Johnson book, The Passage of Power, covering LBJs transition to the presidency after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2012.

It set the table for the closing volume, chronicling Johnsons achievements in creating the social welfare programs of the Great Society while he was also sending hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops to Vietnam to fight in a land war that split America apart.

During an interview at his spartan office-apartment near Central Park, the 83-year-old author promises the closing volume will present Johnson finally fully revealed in all his complexity.

Waiting with bated breath are fans like former President Barack Obama, who presented Caro with the National Humanities Medal in 2010 and told him that The Power Broker, the 1975 epic about New York master builder Robert Moses, shaped his thinking about political power.

Another fanboy is Conan OBrien, the TBS talk show host who told the New York Times last year that Caro was the most sought-after guest to elude him in 25 years of interviews. OBrien will finally talk to his favorite author in Los Angeles this month.

OBrien and other acolytes eagerly anticipating the conclusion of Caros sweeping narrative about acquiring and using political power will have to wait at least a little longer, however.

Thats because Caros new book is a diversion, a break in the action. Its a slim volume by Caros standards  a mere 207 pages  called Working: Researching, Interviewing, Writing (Knopf, $25).

Working takes the reader inside Caros dogged, determined approach to research and reporting, a devotion to turn every page, as an editor advised him when Caro was a go-getting investigative reporter at Newsday in the 1960s. He has lived by that mantra ever since.

On a bright Manhattan morning, Caro is dressed in a tie and sweater, having walked to his solitary workplace from the nearby apartment where he lives with his chief researcher, his wife Ina, whom he married the day after he graduated from Princeton University in 1957.

A Smith Corona Electra 210 typewriter is on his desk. He bought 17 of them when the model was discontinued in the 1980s and still has 11 left, thanks to readers who send him old ones. He uses a computer for research, but first drafts are written on white legal pads, and then he types up pages on elongated paper, triple-spaced to allow for editing and literal cutting and pasting.

Legendary Knopf editor Robert Gottlieb, who is four years Caros senior and who has also worked with Toni Morrison, John Cheever, and Bob Dylan, is still his editor. So far, hes put down 392 pages of the fifth LBJ book. Ive written a lot, he says, but theres still a lot to do.

When I was a reporter, I hated having to write a story when I still had questions to ask, he says. Working on a narrative that is really about the history of the country Johnson came to lead has required lots of time.

And Caro has taken it. One Working chapter is called Why Cant You Do a Biography of Napoleon?, a question Caros wife, who has written two travel books about French history, asked when told that for research purposes they were moving to the Texas hill country where Johnson grew up. (They stayed for three years.)

Working talks about Caros research for The Power Broker, when he set about telling the stories of the residents  more than a half million - displaced by Moses construction of a highway across the Bronx. Caro writes, I had never, in my sheltered middle-class life, descended so deeply into the realms of despair.

To really show political power, he writes, you had to show the effect of power on the powerless, and show it fully enough so the reader can feel it. To that end, Caro and his wife are soon headed to southeast Asia to understand more fully the impact of Johnsons policies, not just on Americans but also on the Vietnamese people.

Asked about the root of the empathy in his work, Caro is at first at a loss. It didnt come from how I was brought up, he says. My mother got very sick when I was 5 and died when I was 11.

Then a thought occurs.

The great figure of my youth was Jackie Robinson, he says. I was born in 1935, and he was called up to the Dodgers in 1947. Caro, who grew up on the Upper West Side, would take the subway with his classmates to Ebbets Field in Brooklyn and move down near the third base line to watch their hero up close.

Caro excuses himself to fetch a copy of Master of the Senate, the third Johnson book, published in 2002. Theres a passage he wants to read aloud to better bring the popular hero who inspired him as a boy to life.

Even if you were white, when you saw the bat held high and then whipping through the ball, he reads, when you saw the speed on the base paths, and when you saw the dignity with which Jack Roosevelt Robinson held himself in the face of the curses and the scorn and the runners coming into second base with their spikes high, you had to think at least a little about Americas shattered promises.

I dont know where it comes from, Caro says about the compulsion to write about the powerless as well as the powerful. But this was important to me.

Caro is in excellent health since surviving a bout of pancreatitis in 2003. He says he never planned for the Johnson series to take so long. In 2001, he told The Inquirer that he hoped to be finished with it in three or four years.

Now, he admits he is still several years from finishing. He has hopes to write a full-length memoir after its finished. But as a realist and an octogenarian, hes willing to acknowledge he may never get to that full-length autobiography. "I can do the math, he says with a laugh.

There have been many junctures in his writing life when Caro has realized that thoroughly reporting an aspect of his story would add months, or even years, to the project. He says each time, hes said to himself, Im not going to do this, the books taking too long. But then I keep thinking, You should be doing this. This is what you should have in the book. I dont seem to have a choice. I cant go on without doing it.
Belinda Davis as Harriet Forten Purvis in the film "Sisters in Freedom." Read more

What stories do people know most about Philadelphia? Benjamin Franklin as a founding father? Thomas Jefferson writing the Declaration of Independence? Rocky atop the steps of the art museum?

Usually, the historical stories  and even the famous fictional ones  feature men as the central focus.

The documentary Sisters in Freedom however, tells lesser-known stories of Philadelphia female abolitionists  black and white  who worked to end slavery in the face of fierce opposition, even to the idea of women speaking in public.

They were so consequential in moving the national debate toward the abolition of slavery, said Andrew Ferrett, a co-director of the film, which has its next screening Thursday. We wanted to make a dedicated film about womens history in Philadelphia.

These Philadelphia women, among the first in the nation to form an interracial, womens anti-slavery society, included Sarah Mapps Douglass, Charlotte Forten and her daughter Harriet Forten Purvis  free, middle-class African American activists and feminists  and Lucretia Mott, Angelina Grimke Weld, and her sister Sarah Moore Grimke, who were white Quaker feminists. All encountered racist violence and threats as they organized for the cause.

At a screening last month at the Lucien Blackwell library branch in West Philadelphia, social worker Valerie Anderson showed selected clips to a dozen children after school.

One 14-year-old student said he had never heard the word abolitionist before. Caden Penn, 10, a fifth-grader at Hardy Williams Mastery Charter School, said learning about female activists was interesting.

They went door to door, getting people to sign petitions to stop slavery, Caden said.

Women formed the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society on Dec. 9, 1833, three days after the male-dominated American Anti-Slavery Society made clear at its first meeting that women would not have leadership roles.

The women wrote letters and published articles denouncing slavery. They shocked proper society by speaking in public and asking strangers to sign their petitions. They angered Congress by flooding it with so many petitions that legislators instituted a gag rule to table any petitions against slavery without discussion.

At the library, many younger children didnt understand the timeline of the fight for freedom from slavery, Anderson said.

They dont have a sense of this period, she said. Their knowledge of black history fast-forwards to Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr.

At another screening, a teenage student told Anderson she knew about abolitionists  but not that blacks and whites worked together to fight against slavery.

She said shed learned black history, but not this history," Anderson said. "She seemed in awe and said, I dont know anything about this. Why dont they teach us about this in school?' "

Amy Cohen, educational director of History Making Productions, which produced the film, noted that its not only children who havent learned these stories. Many people, for instance, have never heard of the burning of Pennsylvania Hall, she said.

By 1838, many of the abolitionist groups joined together to form the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, and they needed a place to hold meetings and lectures. The building near Sixth and Race was funded with money the group raised.

Three days after it opened on May 14, 1838, after Angelina Grimke Weld had spoken about the beatings and brutality she had witnessed in the South that day, the building was was burned down at night by a mob of white Philadelphians upset about an integrated group of men and women meeting together. The film notes that people in the North, as well as banking and textile industries, profited from slavery.

People dont learn that there was slavery here, Cohen said. They learn the Underground Railroad was here, not that there was slavery."

The film starts with the story of Ona Judge, an enslaved young woman who ran away in 1796 from George Washingtons Presidents House at Sixth and Market, more than 30 years before the womens anti-slavery society began.

The film describes how Judge, portrayed by actor Niya Colbert, could shop in markets where she saw free black people selling pepper pot soup and oysters or watch the construction of Mother Bethel AME Church.

Ona Judge can taste her freedom," the narrator says, but the president stands in the way.

Eventually, Judge fled Philadelphia on a ship bound for Portsmouth, N.H. She later told a newspaper that as George and Martha Washington were packing to leave as his presidential term was nearing its end, Judge packed her belongings, too.

I may have been born a slave, but I am determined not to die a slave, Judge said.

Sisters in Freedom will be screened at 11:30 a.m. Thursday at Community College of Philadelphia, Center for Business and Industry, Room C2-28, 1751 Callowhill St.

At 7 p.m. Thursday, the Woodmere Art Museum, 9201 Germantown Ave., will show the film in conjunction with the exhibit Freedoms Journal: The Art of Jerry Pinkney. The art includes watercolors Pinckney painted to illustrate a National Geographic article by Charles L. Blockson about the Underground Railroad.
Commuters head nowhere quickly on Route 202 just south of Route 29. The Philadelphia region is plagued by transportation networks designed when the city was the residential and jobs hub. Read more

Good morning, Philly. I hope you enjoyed the nice weather this weekend and I hope youre ready for some more. Its going to be a warm April day. If youre behind the wheel this morning, be sure to put down your phone and save this for later. After all, were talking about distracted driving (and how New Jersey and Pennsylvania are handling the scourge differently) today. In other news, the tragic killing of a woman in a Radnor Wawa on March 28 is prompting lawmakers to push for stricter gun laws that could have prevented her death. Weve got the details below.

Reading this online? Sign up here to get this newsletter delivered to your inbox every morning.

 Aubrey Nagle (@aubsn, morningnewsletter@philly.com)

This month, police officers and advocates nationwide are trying to spread awareness about distracted driving. New Jersey is in the middle of an annual three-week police crackdown while Pennsylvania is reporting a 5 percent drop in tickets for distracted driving in 2018.

The two states have responded to the dangerous habit differently. New Jerseys anti-texting blitz caught 28,000 cell-phone-using drivers in April 2017 and 2018.

Thats triple the number of total distracted-driving citations written in Pennsylvania in those entire two years.

On March 28, Brian Kennedy walked into a Radnor Wawa and gunned down Stephanie Miller, his ex-wife and the mother of his child, with a semiautomatic military-style rifle, police said.

It was the end of a years-long custody battle between Kennedy and Miller. Police knew of the volatile relationship between the two; he had threatened to kill her three years earlier at the same Wawa.

Now local legislators are pushing for a red flag protection law that could have prevented Kennedy from purchasing the gun he used to take Millers life.

Malnutrition may be on the rise among the elderly in our region and around the country as hunger increases, according to health professionals.

And it can lead to weight loss, reduced immunity to disease, and more health problems.

Hunger among seniors is a big problem for Philadelphia in particular. Its senior poverty rate is the highest among the biggest cities in the U.S.

What you need to know today

Through Your Eyes | #OurPhilly

What a view, @stardronesusa!

Tag your Instagram posts or tweets with #OurPhilly and well pick our favorite each day to feature in this newsletter and give you a shout out!

Thats Interesting

Opinions

Using national security as an excuse for economic foolishness, in the service of cupidity, is nothing new. What is novel nowadays is a legislator standing athwart foolishness, yelling Stop!  Columnist George Will on why Americas waterways policy is crony capitalism disguised as patriotism.

The only thing weve learned from the still-secret report by special counsel Robert Mueller is that our democracy is broken, writes columnist Will Bunch.

The killing of rapper Nipsey Hussle is a reminder of the everyday horrors of gun violence, writes Michael Cogbill, former policy organizer for CeasefirePA and founder of North Philadelphia Policy Institute.

What were reading

A Daily Dose of | Memory

About 100 Muslim students, ages 7 to 25, from all over the Philadelphia region recited parts of the Quran from memory in an annual competition Sunday.
Jeannette F. Maitin, 91, of Meadowbrook, a forceful advocate for the developmentally disabled, died Sunday, March 31, of pneumonia at Holy Redeemer Lafayette.

Mrs. Maitin was a firm believer in the ability of special-education students to succeed at jobs despite challenges.

In 1979, working from the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit in Norristown, where she was a vocational-services supervisor, she designed and coordinated programs to place special-needs students in settings where they could learn from the example of other workers and succeed despite distractions such as noise and movement.

People said it wouldnt work, Mrs. Maitin told The Inquirer in 1993. They said these students needed rote jobs.

She sent the students to Thriftway and Genuardis markets, where they learned to stack produce and bag groceries, and to the Philadelphia Marriott West in West Conshohocken, where they were trained to strip bed linen, set up banquets, and do office and laundry chores.

We have learned that students learn best in a real situation, she said. When you see other people working, you know what to do.

She took the program a step further, creating a countywide job bank of employers and jobs that was shared with member school districts and county offices. Later, she developed a program to assess the strengths and weaknesses of special-needs students and the jobs for which they were best suited.

In March 1993, Mrs. Maitin was honored for her achievements by the Pennsylvania Association of Vocational Education Special Needs Personnel. The organization named her the Vocational Special Needs Support Person of the Year.

Born in Philadelphia, Mrs. Maitin graduated from Olney High School and earned a psychology degree in 1949 from Radcliffe College. She married Irving J. Maitin and put higher education on hold to raise their three daughters while working full time as a special-education administrator. She earned a masters degree in special education in 1966 from Temple University.

She had a very strong work ethic, said daughter Karin Maitin Schnoll. As kids, we were always proud of what she did for her kids at work. Even though that meant she wasnt always home to meet us after school, like many of our friends, she was always there to inspire us to work hard, be honest, and give back to the community.

Mrs. Maitin retired in April 1993, but soon tired of feeling idle. When a part-time job opened as assistant supervisor of special education in the Upper Dublin School District, she grabbed it. In 1995, she told The Inquirer, I like to be busy, I always have. I like to be involved with whatever is happening.

Mrs. Maitin was active in local politics. She served two terms as a Democrat on the Abington school board from 2003 to 2013 and supported Josh Shapiro, now Pennsylvanias attorney general, as he sought election to the office of state representative in Pennsylvanias 153rd District. He took the seat in 2005.

I first met Jeannette in 2003 during my first run for public office, Shapiro said in an email. My first local house party was in Jeannettes living room. Jeannette was an adviser, a volunteer, and a revered member of our community. She taught me much about public education. I was strengthened by Jeannettes guidance and confidence and think of her often. She will be missed.

Mrs. Maitin was president of the Mental Health/Mental Retardation Board of Montgomery County in 2004 and served on the boards of the Association for Adults with Developmental Disabilities (AADD), the Settlement Music School, and the Visiting Nurse Association.

She received the 1994 Betty Linker Award, given to those whose actions have enhanced the lives of Montgomery County citizens with developmental disabilities.

In addition to her daughter, she is survived by daughter Ellen C. Maitin and four grandchildren. Mrs. Maitins husband died in 1999. A daughter, Gail, died in 2014.

A memorial service will be held later.

Contributions may be made to AADD, 261 Old York Rd., Suite 530, Jenkintown, Pa. 19046.
Last Thursday night, Americans took to the streets to protest our nations latest innovation in the world of scandal: The cover-up of a cover-up, which after more than two weeks is pretty much the only way to characterize how the most anticipated report into White House corruption in a generation has been bottled up with a less-than-four-page trust me summary from an attorney general just appointed by the president being investigated.

And let me be clear: When I say that Americans took to the streets to protest this outrageous state of affairs, I mean several thousand citizens, in a nation of 320 million. As I watched the pictures from the demonstrations  which called on Attorney General William Barr to release the entire nearly 400-page report from special counsel Robert Mueller on issues surrounding Russian interference in President Donald Trumps 2016 election win  pop up in my Twitter feed, something struck me about the hearty souls out on an unseasonably chilly April night, from the White House fence to the courthouse in suburban West Chester.

The majority of these people so worked up about the Barr cover-up of an alleged Trump cover-up to make signs and voice their anger looked to be primarily from my generation  baby boomers, probably with an average age probably close to the landmark (60) that I just hit a couple of months back.

Of course, they were. The people who grew up with Vietnam-era protest songs blaring in mono from an AM car radio, who stayed up past their summer camp bedtimes to watch Richard Nixon resign on a hot August night in 1974, are the generation raised at the fulcrum of two worlds: the can-do, fighting-fascism brio of post-World War II American dreams, and the decades of lost faith and cynical manipulation that inaugurated in the 1970s.

It was an era of both stupendous wrongs (government lying about the conflict in Southeast Asia, the dirty tricks of Nixons buggings and break-ins) and heroic figures: the whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg who leaked the Pentagon Papers, the honest Watergate judge, John Sirica, the simple country lawyer of North Carolinas Sam Ervin seeking the truth about Nixon.

To come of age in those years (as tens of millions of U.S. citizens did ... they dont call it a baby boom for nothing!) was to grow into a uniquely American narrative that fused cynicism and hope. Yes, the United States still struggled with corruption, injustice, and ill-advised flights of imperialism, but there was also a system that could deal with the worst excesses. And so it was that when America produced its worst crisis in 40 years, when a man described by his own lawyer as a racist ... conman ... cheat was elected our 45th president, folks with that story line hard-wired into their nervous system waited for someone to activate the switch and turn the system on.

Some 29 months later, were still waiting.

Go to Amazon.com and you will see not one but two popular listings where you can preorder your copy of the Mueller Report. One of them is listed by the Washington Post, which also assigned two top journalists to analyze the report and which bills its version of this historic document as the most complete and authoritative available. (Technically speaking thats not wrong ... think about it.) The editors of the Washington Post are people who grew up with the Senate Watergate Report, the Starr Report, the 9/11 Commission report  so why wouldnt the Mueller Report be released? I guess the question is: Whos living a more delusional dreamworld: the Post or the people preordering a nonexistent book whove made its current sales rank No. 674?

The thing is, many of the pundits that you see on TV, not to mention the anchors interviewing them, the producers who book them, and the newspaper editors and headline writers who travel down those same highways, powered by ink, all come from the same dreamland. I watched them on the Friday night that Mueller delivered his tome to Barr as they prattled on for hours with no information, convinced that something momentous had just happened. Two days later when Barr released his slap-dash book report, the must-say-something crowd grew so eager to take Trumps total exoneration bait hook, line, and sinker. Besides, the Beltway 500 reasoned, the actual full Mueller Report was coming any day now ...

... any day now.

Heres the state of play right now, two weeks after Barr published the Mueller Report: the Cliffs Notes Edition. Barr insists that a much more informative version of the Mueller Report is coming, after a series of redactions  a task that could have been done with Muellers help in hours yet which for some reason is taking the attorney general and his massive Justice Department days, which are now turning into weeks.

The slow-walking of the Mueller redactions is a tell, as is the AGs failure to go before a judge and ask for permission to disclose grand jury material  as was done in Watergate. Thats because every judgment call from Barr has been on the side of slowness, obfuscation, and whatever is good for Trump, and never on the side of transparency, the inherent right to know, and whatever is good for the American people.

You dont need a Harvard law degree to see whats really happening here. Barr and Team Trump surely knew that todays media and political tornado abhor a vacuum, and so they were able to fill it  with the presidents bogus claim of total exoneration, backed up by an online lynch mob going after any journalist who insists otherwise with their torches and pitchforks.

Yes, Team Mueller, in its weird button-down way, is finally making it known that the Barr letter isnt exactly whats in the report, and, yes, its possible that pressure from Democrats may eventually force the release of decent-sized chunks of the full document. But if that happens, alarming disclosures about the president or his team will be greeted with cries of We already knew that! and So what? Its not a crime! and When are the dead-end Democrats and the fake news going to stop with the conspiracy theories?" And then get ready for a giant pitchfork in the tuckus for anyone who disagrees.

What the hell just happened?

If you thought that Congress  after two years of total Republican obstruction that allowed bombshell revelations about Team Trump misconduct to slowly rot into old news  could dust itself off and conduct an in-depth investigation in the mode of Ervin, Peter Rodino and their Watergate-era ancestors without the GOP labeling it a partisan witch hunt that TVs talking heads will browbeat as Democrats blowing the 2020 election, youve been living in a dreamland.

If you thought that the media would be able to process that the Barr letter was an obvious sham  not to mention the even-more-obvious fact that were less than 1 percent closer to knowing whats in the real Mueller Report than we were when when they were breathlessly waiting for it in February  and not instead instantly run with banner headlines that the president has been cleared, youve been living in a dreamland.

If you think that Americas drift toward authoritarianism under Trump  not just the stuff that Mueller investigated but the rank corruption and the increasingly brown-shirted cruelty toward refugees  will eventually cause the masses to rise up, when the young people who are typically the vanguard of any revolution have been raised in the cocoon of the soma of cyberspace and resume-driven parenting to worry about different things than you do, then youve been living in a dreamland.

And if you think that an independent judiciary is going to ultimately save the day the way Sirica and a unanimous Supreme Court preserved the rule of law during Watergate, after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his minions shredded the Constitution to gain control of the Supreme Court and are now ramming through an army of right-wing judges for the next 30-40 years, then ... maybe its time to wake up.

Donald Trump is not going to be impeached, and it boggles my mind that anyone even suggests that a cabinet handpicked for its Trumpian loyalty would consider the 25th Amendment, no matter how much the president unravels in public. In fact, Trump wont even be denied a second term unless something changes the status quo  40 percent whose hatred of the media and fear of a diverse America trumps anything that happens in this White House, the 6 percent wholl be peeled off by the Democrats endless civil wars and Facebook manipulation, and an Electoral College created to preserve slavery that, in a perverse way, still is.

The irony is that the Barr cover-up somehow managed to reveal the one thing every American needs to know. That the dreamland of a working democratic system  in a landscape populated by an empowered, truth-seeking Congress, honest judges, and investigative reporting that can change public opinion  died a long, long time ago. Knowing that is both terrifying and empowering. Because the real, radical work of waking up can finally begin.
As dozens of new candidates for City Council secure their places on the ballot for Phillys May 21st election, one question facing them all is how they will ensure the safety of millions of children who spend their days in toxic school buildings. As teachers of these children, we would like to propose one very clear answer: End the ten-year tax abatement.

Last week, the Caucus of Working Educators delivered to Board of Education members over three thousand signatures on a petition demanding an end to the tax abatement in order to fund repairs to school buildings. We will be delivering that petition to City Council members on April 15. This petition represents over 3,000 face-to-face conversations with educators, parents, and community members, over 3,000 people ready to take action to end the tax abatement and fight for the safe schools that our students deserve. On March 29, after we handed in our petition, we were pleased to see leadership from state and local politicians pledging to find the $170 million to fund our facilities.

The ten-year tax abatement has been in effect for over twenty years. It was originally set up to spur development, by allowing property owners to avoid paying School District and city taxes on new construction or renovations to buildings for 10 years. This policy has now cost the School District hundreds of millions of dollars. As the Caucus has said for years, by ending the tax abatement, we can invest vital resources into our school buildings.

Our students, mostly black and brown, are expected to learn in classrooms that pose serious risks to their health. Lead paint and the resultant dust can cause permanent cognitive damage. Stifling heat, mold, and rodent droppings exacerbate asthma, a cause of suffering and absenteeism among school children in Philadelphia. These conditions would never be allowed to continue in suburban or majority-white school districts. As teachers, we refuse to remain silent while our students are trapped in toxic buildings.

Last spring, after we packed City Hall to decry the toxic conditions in our schools and demand safe schools for our students, Governor Wolf and Mayor Kenney announced $15 million in additional funding for lead remediation in 40 district schools. But 40 schools in a district of 217 schools is not enough.

At Janenes school in South Philly, toxic lead paint is a still dangerous problem. Until recently, she was unaware that this was a pervasive district issue. In her classroom, she unknowingly exposed children to toxic lead dust by storing hands-on materials on the windowsills. She was both pregnant and pumped breast milk in her classroom without knowing the risks to her unborn child, who is now almost two and has tested positive for some lead exposure. Janene now treats working in her classroom as a hazard: She changes her clothes before going home and nursing her toddler, covers all of her classroom materials stored on the windowsill, has purchased a costly air purifier, and uses a mask while cleaning. The lead dust is only one hazard; leaks, flooding, and unbearably hot and cold temperatures also plague her school.

According to Inquirer reporting, Philly schools lost $62 million in revenue in 2017 to tax abatements. When a developer decides to build a luxury home or condo, the city grants them ten years of tax-free status for that property. This means real estate developers are able to raise the prices of new homes and line their own pockets with the profits. Meanwhile, our schools are starved of tax revenue they desperately need. Allowing it to continue has real impacts on children in our city. Although they may never have heard of the ten-year tax abatement, our children see what we value by the money we spend.

When Kathleens students walk to school in West Philadelphia, they see that the old West Philadelphia High School is being transformed into luxury apartments. They see the fresh paint, the young trees, the new windows, the clean sidewalks. And when they arrive to school just down the street, they see the stark difference. Leaky ceilings, broken plumbing, and flaking paint. This juxtaposition of massive investment in one building and severe neglect in another sends the message that we only invest in school buildings once the children have been cleared out.

As citizens of Philadelphia, we have the power to change the message we are sending to our kids. Instead of giving our tax dollars away to wealthy real estate developers, we can end the ten-year tax abatement and invest in the safe schools Phillys children deserve.

Janene Hasan is a STEM Specialist at the Southwark School, a K-8 school in South Philadelphia. Kathleen Melville is an English teacher at the Workshop School, a high school in West Philadelphia. Both are members of the Caucus of the Working Educators within the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers.
As I sat at the White House last Monday night and listened to the president celebrating the passage of the First Step Act, several things occurred to me. After volunteering in the prison system for 27 years, I am heartened by a seemingly bipartisan effort to right a clear social injustice  today, many fellow citizens are not getting a legitimate shot at a new life after having paid their debts to society. Moreover, and maybe more importantly, with the publication of the book The New Jim Crow and the release of the movie 13th, which powerfully illustrate how entrenched racial inequality is in the countrys criminal justice system, a national consciousness seems to be growing that people who have made mistakes deserve a second chance in life.

The national recidivism rate has remained stubbornly high in the U.S. over the past 30 years; two-thirds of people released from prison go back within three years. Without meaningful employment for people (and to be a little more real, for a second), Im actually surprised that number is not higher.

President Trump signed the First Step Act last December, in a rare bipartisan move that reformed federal sentencing practices and promoted new recidivism-reduction programs. The act is a move in the right direction. The Second Step initiative, which was announced Monday, will go further and aim to reduce unemployment for people with criminal records by funding inmate reentry programs. However, several key things seem to be missing from both, and I worry that no real change will be achieved unless they are addressed. These are two deal killers that will prevent meaningful reform:

The prevalence of search engines and social media are truly hurting people who have been judicially involved. Even if you commit a crime, such as small drug possession as a late teen or in your early 20s, your mug shot record remains in a Google search in perpetuity. And, whether they admit it or not, most human resources departments still use Google as a first screen in their application processes. I was working with a young woman a few years ago who was in her early 20s. She shoplifted when she was around 18. We put her name into Google, and the first thing that popped up was a none too flattering mug shot  probably not a great first impression. Companies such as Google can make meaningful changes that could make second chances truly possible.

We need changes to state laws and jurisdictions, not just federal law, to tackle this problem. The vast majority of people who are incarcerated reside in state prisons. There are 1.3 million people in state prisons, six times the number in federal prisons and jails. The First Step Act makes significant changes, such as sentencing reform, at the federal level. Even if the federal system gets better, it is a small dent.

Governors need to move harder and faster on the issue. Most times, it is not what these governors must do; it is what they must stop doing. They simply have to take away punitive measures that states enforce after incarceration. If you go to prison and fail to appear for court while in prison, you can actually incur civil and criminal penalties for failure to appear. Neat trick to appear in court while you are in prison. This is a waiting surprise for people who are released and want to begin again.

As they say, God  or else the devil  is in the details. I am glad people now recognize the issues, but this is a case where we have to go deep to make any meaningful and lasting impact.

Brian Hamilton is the founder of Inmates to Entrepreneurs, an organization that helps people with criminal records start their own businesses. @brianhamiltonNC
Victims of clergy sexual abuse and family members react as Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro last year announced a grand jury finding of more than 1,000 child victims in six Roman Catholic dioceses. Read more

The Pennsylvania legislature, once again, is poised to turn its back on who knows how many survivors of child sex abuse.

Promises of action? Pledges to victims? Repeated assurances that those who were violated (and long-voiceless) might find some measure of justice?

You tell me.

The state is among the nations worst in terms of legal recourse for victims. Ironic, given state findings of abuse that last year lit up the issue.

Our legislature, of course, swung into action, embraced survivors and proceeded to pose and preach. Then failed to do anything.

Now, the issue is back with new legislation expected to be taken up this week. But its really only for future victims. For past victims? The waiting room.

Its a two-bill package with bipartisan sponsorship from Reps. Mark Rozzi (D., Berks) and Jim Gregory (R., Blair).

One bill eliminates the criminal statute of limitations for abuse, which, if enacted, catches us up to 40 other states. Hey, better late than never.

It also gives future victims the option up to age 55 to sue their abusers. Current law allows such lawsuits up to age 30.

But gone is the will to open a window of time during which past victims  for whom statutes expired  can sue.

Instead, while other states move in that direction (New York now has a window; New Jersey just passed one that Gov. Phil Murphy is expected to sign), were keeping that window shut.

Oh, the second bill addresses a window. But it calls for amending the state constitution to allow it, a clear and drastic shift in approach that cant sit well with survivors.

A constitutional amendment needs to pass two successive legislative sessions before going to voters as a statewide ballot question, a long, often dead-end process.

At a minimum, were talking three years. And the legislature can get tricky with constitutional amendments, passing them in one session, forgetting them in the next.

So, the best were offering past victims is take a number, have a seat. Well be with you in a few years.

And why?

I just want to move legislation. We have to do something.

Thats what Rozzi tells me. Hes a survivor of child sex abuse, the legislatures leading, most relentless advocate for reform, whos pushed hard for a window.

But he says the Republican-run Senate  which last year killed House-passed legislation with a window on grounds it was unconstitutional  wont budge.

Rozzi says he still wants a window. Yet hes moving on.

When I suggest hes bailing on victims who cant be happy with his shift, he says, Oh, yeah, Im no doubt taking grief.

When I suggest the constitutional route is far from a smooth ride, he says, Thats definitely a concern. Theres no guarantee well get it passed.

So, its taking a shot at getting something less than ideal that may or may not pass for the sake of pragmatic compromise. And that makes sense if negotiating infrastructure projects. Not so much when it comes to peoples rights.

Plus, even if the constitutional approach clears the House, theres no deal with the Senate.

Were not taking a position, says Senate senior counsel Drew Crompton. Too many moving parts.

Meanwhile, the state that eight months ago became the issues epicenter  after a two-year grand jury probe found widespread abuse and cover-up within the Catholic Church  remains in limbo regarding past victims.

And thats all victims, from all churches, all institutions, public or private.

And who gains from this? The individuals and institutions that committed and hid the abuse.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro, whose office ran the grand jury, continues to favor a window in the civil statute of limitations so victims can finally have their voices heard in court, according to spokesperson Joe Grace.

Gov. Tom Wolfs press secretary J.J. Abbott says Wolf also still supports a window.

And while compromise, the art of attaining the possible, lies at the heart of successful politics, this issue is, or should be, apolitical.

This is about people whove suffered. People who were handed hope in the wake of last Augusts grand jury report. People who should not now be abandoned.

All lawmakers should fight for them, not negotiate their options away. All leaders, including Wolf and Shapiro, should fight for them, as well.
Texting and driving was made illegal in Pennsylvania in 2012, but most drivers continue getting away with it. Read more

You're on a Pennsylvania road, and you're texting and driving. Are you going to get away with it?

Let's put it this way: In 2017, on average a grand total of two citations per municipality were issued by police statewide  and that represented an increase.

From 2013 to 2017, just 8,700 citations were issued under Pennsylvania's 2012 law against texting and driving, according to data released last month by the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts. Last year, that meant about eight per day in a state with nine million licensed drivers.

The numbers amount to a lack of enforcement of a law meant to keep people safe. But police officers say the texting law is really too weak to make a big difference.

Distracted driving is a leading factor in accidents, and local police say phone use remains "rampant." Almost four out of five Americans reported using their phone for some purpose while driving in a 2016 national survey  about 0.1 percent of Pennsylvanians have ever been ticketed for it.

Unlike its neighbors  New Jersey, Delaware,, Maryland, and New York  Pennsylvania doesn't have a hands-free law requiring drivers to keep their paws off their phones while driving. Instead, the no-texting law bans only sending and receiving text-based communications, leaving motorists free to dial phone numbers, use Google Maps, or even scroll through Instagram.

It also gives them plenty of excuses to use if they get pulled over, police say.

"The way the law is written, it kind of ties our hands," said Buckingham Township Police Lt. J.R. Landis. "Anybody that has read the law comes to court and simply says, 'Oh, I was using it as a GPS.'"

Police cannot seize or search a driver's cellphone without a search warrant, which is generally reserved for a serious crash investigation. And when a driver is texting, the person often puts down the phone upon spotting a police car, making it difficult to catch people "in the act," said Pennsylvania State Police Cpl. Adam Reed.

"By the time we have them pulled over, they don't have the phone in their hand anymore," said Abington Police Officer Alan Freed, the department's traffic safety manager. And, he added, "I as a police officer have no right to ask you to look at what's on your phone."

Deadly practice

Distracted driving, including phone use and the wearing of headphones, is a leading factor in crashes in Pennsylvania. From 2013 to 2017, 227 fatal crashes involving a distracted driver occurred in the state, data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows  just more than 50 per year. And people who reported higher rates of cellphone use while driving also were more likely to report having been involved in at least one crash during their driving history, according to State Farm.

Along with texting, the wearing of headphones or earbuds is illegal while driving in Pennsylvania, although the number of tickets distributed is small. Talking on a handheld phone is against the law for commercial drivers.

The number of citations logged in Pennsylvania increased in most counties last year, to 5,054, compared with 3,336 the year before, the state data show.

"Definitely, you see it every day," said Abington's Freed. The highest number of citations in the state were issued in Montgomery County, according to state data analyzed by the Inquirer and Daily News, and more were given out in Abington than in many other towns in the county.

Freed said the department's officers often give out warnings instead of citations as well. "Our big thing here is education; we just want to make the motorist aware that 'Hey, we've seen you driving and being distracted at the same time,' and we kind of just let them know they need to be more careful."

In 2009, a 17-year-old who was nine months pregnant was killed in Downingtown by a 19-year-old who police said was texting before the crash. A 2016 crash killed a pedestrian in Allentown; a 2017 accident took the life of a 12-year-old in Northampton County. In both cases, the drivers were charged with texting.

Landis recalled a tragic 2011 crash in his Bucks County township, after which he said police obtained a search warrant for the driver's phone and found he was texting for an extended period. "He was just like you or me or anybody else, and he was just texting and driving, and he caused a horrific accident because of it," Landis said.

The penalty if you're caught isn't particularly steep: a $50 fine.

Montgomery was the only county statewide where more than 1,000 citations were issued over the course of four years. Philadelphia accounted for 6 percent of all citations, though the city is home to 12 percent of the state's population.

And in 19 counties, police have given out 10 or fewer tickets per year since 2013. Sparsely populated Sullivan County, west of Scranton, logged the lowest: four total.

But it's not that drivers aren't using their phones.

Half of all motorists reported talking on their handheld phone while driving in 2016, according to data collected by State Farm. Those figures actually have declined in the last decade  perhaps indicating that public-service campaigns are having some effects.

But texting and other activities have been gaining in popularity  including the use of social media and taking photos:

More than a third of drivers reported texting while driving, up to 35 percent from 31 percent in 2009, according to the State Farm numbers. Among drivers age 18 to 25, 61 percent say they text.

Just 9 percent said they read or updated social media while driving back in 2009, but in 2016, with the world having shifted to Instagram, 22 percent of drivers read and 19 percent updated social media while behind the wheel.

And 29 percent used the internet, compared with just 13 percent seven years earlier.

Police say citation numbers are wanting because the law also is wanting.

"Cops, we don't issue a lot of citations for it and the guys that do are typically the guys in unmarked cars, because they're able to, by virtue of their non-visibility  to get up beside people and actually watch them," said Landis, of Buckingham Township. He said he has even counted the number of keystrokes to determine whether a person is pressing more buttons than required to dial a phone number.

In Ivyland Borough, Bucks County, Sgt. Richard Carey cited the same issues.

"We don't really do a lot here in this small borough," he said. "It's kind of hard; we have no four-lane highways here, [and] it's easier if you  can pull up next to them."

Pennsylvania state police, however, said they are on increased lookout for texting behind the wheel.

"As law enforcement gets more comfortable with the law and recognizing violations of the law, there are more citations being issued," said Reed of the state police, which has handed out a significant proportion of the citations. "Department-wide, we are really doing our best to crack down on it."

When Pennsylvania passed its law, it was during a wave of no-texting laws being passed nationwide, and constituents had asked for it, said Ryan Skoczylas, policy director for Sen. Robert Tomlinson (R., Bucks), who sponsored the bill at the time.

"It has had an impact," Skoczylas said of the law. "If one of those citations or the fact that this law is out there discourages any driver from distracted driving and in that process saves a life, it's worth it."

Spreading awareness

In the United States, 16 states have hands-free laws and 10 more ban holding the phone for some drivers, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Police officers interviewed said Pennsylvania needs such a law, arguing that enforcement would be much easier if holding a phone at all while driving was illegal.

"The way the legislature drew up the texting and driving law  it's a feel-good thing," Landis said. "If you look at the states that are really serious about it  they all have hands-free."

Such a bill, which allows drivers to make calls using only hands-free accessories, prohibiting them from picking up the phone, has had difficulty gaining momentum in the Pennsylvania legislature. It was proposed this session by Rep. Rosemary Brown (R., Monroe), who said in the bill's memo that it would make road rules more consistent for motorists driving through different states in the region. Drivers can still become preoccupied using hands-free devices, she said, but the distraction is greatly minimized.

A public hearing on the legislation was held in Harrisburg last month.

Officers also said more aggressive public awareness campaigns were needed to help change behavior.

PennDot currently promotes monthly "safety initiatives" that include messages on electronic highway signs, but distracted driving was not included this year, and PennDot did not display any messages for April's Distracted Driving Awareness Month, a spokeswoman said. There are no official permanent signs in Pennsylvania reminding drivers to stay off their phones.

"When you go into these other states and you see the signs that you're not allowed to use these phones at all for anything," said Carey, the Ivyland police officer, "what do you see when you come into Pennsylvania?"

Staff writer Michele Tranquilli contributed to this article.

Clarification: A previous version of this story repeated a quote from State Police Cpl. Adam Reed and mistakenly attributed it to another officer.
Four levels of reading rooms, event spaces, offices and book storage now occupy the part of the Free Library where its book stacks once stood. Read more

Like so many of our legacy institutions, the Parkway Central Library has been struggling to keep up with changes in culture. Fewer students rush there after school to research a paper, and those who do rarely check out books. Why would they when they can download e-versions from the librarys website? Even professional researchers increasingly access the librarys digital archives remotely. The stately building truly comes alive only when there is a scheduled event  an author talk, a poetry slam, a childrens program.

The idea that such events and workshops would become central to the librarys mission was still a radical concept in 2003, when officials drew up a master plan to reinvigorate the Parkway building and tackle Philadelphias serious digital divide. They proposed a conventional addition that would have doubled the size of the already-enormous building. The plan called for an expansive (and expensive) new childrens library, a community space, a modern auditorium, and acres of desktop computers. At one point, library officials penciled in space for 300 workstations.

When that long-awaited expansion opens to the public on Friday, April 12, exactly eight desktop computers will occupy a single table in the new wing. It is a sign of how much the world has changed since the library began planning the project 15 years ago. Like our devices, the Free Librarys expansion has been miniaturized.

Part of that has to do with the librarys inability to raise the $100 million needed to build the sprawling showplace designed by architect Moshe Safdie back in 2003. But the incredible shrinking library project is not necessarily a bad thing.

Over the last two decades, as smartphones have taken over our lives and put the sum of the worlds knowledge at our fingertips, libraries have experienced enormous disruptions, similar to those that have transformed newspapers and the music business. The projects long gestation has given the library time to rethink its priorities.

The library put plans for a fancy addition on hold and instead decided to colonize a large space within its existing building. Following the lead of other libraries, the Free Library dismantled the enormous steel book stacks that occupied the back half of the Parkway building. The million-volume collection was sent to an off-site storage location. In its place, Safdie Architects has installed a tightly edited group of multipurpose rooms, underground storage for roughly 300,000 volumes, and administrative offices. The total cost was $35.8 million, roughly a third of the 2003 estimate.

Outfitted with modular furniture that can be easily rearranged, the new spaces are intended to do quadruple duty as reading rooms, classrooms, meeting rooms, and event spaces. Even the librarians desk is sized so it can be converted to a bar for after-hours events.

By reconfiguring its offerings, the library hopes to attract a new generation with different needs. The library is now a place to seek job counseling, record a mixtape, practice a business pitch, and watch a cooking demonstration, says library director Siobhan Reardon. The idea is to really activate this building for civic engagement.

Most of those activities will occur on the main floor, which has been dubbed the Common. At first glance, the sun-drenched space looks like a typical library reading room, with lots of brightly colored easy chairs. But its numerous alcoves can be deployed for classes, community meetings, and other noisy activities. For those who want quiet, there is a row of glass-enclosed cubicles along the east wall.

The Common, which faces Wood Street, overlooks a lower level that houses the librarys new business resource center. That room is really the heart of the expansion. Modeled on a coworking space, it offers a range of services intended to help aspiring entrepreneurs and small businesses. Youll be able to sign up for a free headshot by a professional photographer or a critique of your business pitch by an expert.

Tucked away at the far end of the lower level is the librarys new teen center. To give it the feeling of a hideaway, the entrance is outside on 20th Street, down a narrow flight of steps. Along with a collection of manga comics, the teen center offers a maker space that will have equipment for printing zines and recording music.

While the new programming is exactly what the library needs to reinvent itself for the internet age, the architecture of the new wing often undermines its efforts to rebrand itself.

The all-white interiors are especially severe. Safdie has tried to energize the rooms with a distinctive ceiling grid and patterned terrazzo floors. But only the use of brightly colored furniture and few historic elements, like the wagon-wheel chandeliers, keep the rooms from feeling like a doctors office. Its a shame that the artwork, by Colette Fu, is also white (and virtually unintelligible).

You might not know you were in a library at all if Safdie hadnt segmented the spaces with floor-to-ceiling bookcases. In the renderings, they are packed with books, warming up the spare, modern rooms.

The shelves were still bare when I visited, but I wondered how this strategy would work in real life. At 22 feet, bookcases are too tall to be really functional. And while the books will look great when you see them from the spine side, what will the effect be when youre looking at the yellowed pages? The feature effectively reduces the books to decoration, a signifier of what the library once was.

Its hard to imagine how this generic quality will further the librarys mission in the teen center, which is supposed to help attract a new generation of library users. Rarely has a space aimed at teens been less free-spirited. Unlike libraries across the country, the Parkway building will have no cafe to encourage sociability. Instead, a pair of vending machines will be tucked away in a corner of the teen center.

One place where the clinical look is welcome is in the new restrooms. For decades, the librarys foul facilities have been the shame of the city. Because the Free Library  like many urban libraries  is a refuge for homeless people and drug users, maintaining the restrooms at a decent level of cleanliness has required Herculean efforts. To understand what the library is up against, look above the restroom doors: The blue lights are motion detectors, meant to alert librarians in case someone inside passes out from an overdose.

Many other features in the new wing will no doubt dismay traditionalists  the few that remain, anyway. But the world is changing too fast not to acknowledge how important this new wing is to the librarys survival. Across the system, the number of people using the library has been falling, from 5.1 million visitors in 2017 to 4.9 million last year. Visits to the Parkway building are essentially flat, at roughly 685,000 annually.

If these bright new spaces succeed in bringing more people in through the librarys ornate, brass-trimmed door, that alone will be a victory. Maybe a few will even check out a book.
MIAMI  Now that the 76ers are locked into the No. 3 seed in the NBAs Eastern Conference playoffs, they wont risk their health to finish strong and maybe post 52 wins for the second consecutive season.

The Sixers, in short, are in chill mode. Theyre basically waiting to see if theyll face the Brooklyn Nets or Orlando Magic, teams battling for the sixth seed, in the opening round.

Joel Embiid (left knee tendinitis) and JJ Redick (back tightness) will not play in Tuesdays game against the Miami Heat at AmericanAirlines Arena. Reserve post player Jonah Bolden is questionable with a sore left knee.

But the Sixers (50-30) have been shutting down players for a few days.

They had an optional shooting session Sunday before boarding a plane to South Florida. Mondays scheduled practice was canceled and replaced by a meeting at the team hotel. And instead of a formal shootaround, the Sixers will have optional shooting Tuesday morning.

All this comes after Embiid, Jimmy Butler, Ben Simmons, Tobias Harris, Redick, and Mike Scott did not participate in Saturday mornings shootaround for that nights game at the United Center against the Chicago Bulls. Butler missed his second straight game and three out of four with lower-back tightness. Embiid played alongside Simmons, Harris, Redick, and Scott, but was a game-time decision because of the tendinitis.

Health trumps all, Brown said Saturday.

So the biggest question entering the final two games is: how many minutes will the available players play?

After facing the Heat (38-42), the Sixers will conclude the regular season Wednesday night against the Bulls at the Wells Fargo Center.

Having played only 10 games together, the starting lineup of Butler, Harris, Embiid, Redick, and Simmons could use some additional on-court bonding. But at what cost?

Butler, Embiid, Redick are dealing with injuries. And the other two starters, who have been logging a lot of minutes, need rest.

The thing thats most on my mind is the health of the players, Brown said. Always has been, and its my job to deliver them to a playoff setting that theyre ready to throw punches. And sometimes that comes at an expense of always being able to put your best players on the floor.

The first round of the playoffs begins on Saturday. The top four seeds have home-court advantage.

The Sixers will find out the start date and their first-round opponent after Wednesday nights regular-season finales. The Nets (41-40) would get the sixth seed with a victory over the visiting Heat (38-42) or an Orlando loss at the Charlotte Hornets. The Nets, having won the season series, 2-1, over the Magic, own the tiebreaker.

The Magic (41-40) would nab the No. 6 seed under two scenarios. The first scenario involves both an Orlando victory over the Hornets (38-42) and Nets loss. The second scenario would involve the Magic and Nets both losing their season-finale while the Detroit Pistons win both of their remaining two games - home against the Memphis Grizzlies (Tuesday) and at the New York Knicks (Wednesday).

Under the second scenario, the Magic, Nets and Pistons (39-41) would all have the same record. But Orlando would win the three-team tiebreaker due to being the Southeast Division winner.

The Sixers split their season series against both the Nets and the Magic.
"Drink-fueled air rage is becoming more commonplace," says Robert Quigley, a senior vice president for International SOS and MedAire, which provide travel-security services. Read more

Incidents involving unruly airline passengers have been rising in recent years. In 2017, airlines reported one altercation for every 1,053 flights, up 35 percent from the previous year, according to the International Air Transport Association.

Drugs and alcohol play a leading role in many of these incidents. The association says 27 percent of the cases involved alcohol consumption or some other kind of intoxication. An additional 24 percent were related to noncompliance with smoking regulations.

"Drink-fueled air rage is becoming more commonplace," says Robert Quigley, a senior vice president for International SOS and MedAire, which provide travel-security services. "Multiple agencies that oversee in-flight regulations are now collaborating with the commercial airlines to review present practices of the selling and the consumption of alcohol in both airport bars as well as in-flight."

It looks like a simple problem: Too many airline passengers are getting drunk. But the solution is not so simple. Some passengers say the obvious answer is for airlines to limit sales of alcoholic beverages. But airlines are leaning toward a regulatory fix.

If youre on a plane this summer with someone whos had one too many, you can still protect yourself. But youll have to be proactive. (More on that later.)

Airline crews are trained to handle intoxicated passengers. And there are strict policies to prevent inebriated passengers from boarding  but they dont always work.

Randall Flick, a recently retired airline pilot, recalls one traveler who breezed past a gate agent and boarded Flicks plane while "heavily" intoxicated." I told him that he wasnt getting on his flight. I dont think he really understood," he says.

The inebriated traveler and the gate agent were both at fault, Flick says: He should have had less to drink before boarding. The agent should have screened him properly and kept him off the plane.

"The gate agents didnt always notice when a passenger was intoxicated," Flick says. "Most of the time, the intoxicated passenger just went to sleep as the cabin altitude rose during the flight. But an intoxicated passenger could endanger the safety of others during an emergency."

Federal law prohibits flight crews from allowing "obviously intoxicated passengers" to board aircraft, and it doesnt allow flight attendants to serve alcohol to anyone who appears intoxicated. Another regulation prohibits passengers from "assaulting

or intimidating" crew members and interfering with their duties. Doing so carries a fine of up to $35,000 and a prison sentence of up to 20 years.

For some air travelers, the solution to this problem seems clear: If the government can end smoking on flights, then why not ban drinking? (Hint: Liquor, beer, and wine account for more than half of in-flight sales for the airline industry.) Barring that, why dont airlines better enforce the rules that prohibit intoxicated passengers from boarding an aircraft and continuing to drink on board?

But alcohol isnt always the problem. Consider what happened this year on a Delta Air Lines flight from Seattle to Los Angeles.

A passenger allegedly refused to stay seated and walked toward the cockpit several times. The flight diverted to Portland, Ore., and police arrested the passenger, who told authorities that he had been high on methamphetamines before boarding the plane.

The airline industry believes that more regulations would help. The transport association, which represents the worldwide airline industry, has lobbied for stronger international treaties to deter unruly behavior. It says gaps in the international conventions governing such offenses allow many unruly passengers to escape punishment.

It wants, at a minimum, for authorities to clarify what constitutes unruly behavior and to reinforce the right of airlines to seek recovery of the significant costs of dealing with unruly passengers.

"We need more countries, including the U.S., to ratify a new treaty that closes loopholes that enable unruly passengers to elude any legal consequences on international flights," says Tim Colehan, an assistant director for the transport association.

Experts believe that a few practical steps would also reduce the number of unruly passengers in the air. MedAires Quigley says airlines need to develop an industrywide policy that limits the number of drinks per passenger and to enforce this policy consistently. Gate-screening processes should also be tightened, he says, and should involve airport-security personnel, not just airline employees.

"Flight attendants are not trained or expected to act as law enforcement agents," Quigley says.

For your safety and that of your fellow passengers, avoid alcoholic beverages or recreational drugs before and during a flight. If youre seated next to someone who is obviously drunk or high, dont wait for the cabin doors to close; immediately, but discreetly, alert a flight attendant. If that doesnt resolve the situation, ask to move to another seat or even to take another flight, time permitting.

Christopher Elliott is a consumer advocate, journalist, and co-founder of the advocacy group Travelers United. Contact him at chris@elliott.org.
888poker XL Blizzard: Chris Moorman Wins $100,000 Tune Up

April 08, 2019 Eric Mertens

On the fourth day of the 888poker XL Blizzard Series, five new tournaments were on the schedule. Most of the attention went out to the $100,000 Tune Up, where some great prizes were paid out to the players. Let's take a look who was crowned as a winner in this event and the results of the other events that played out on Sunday.

888poker XL Blizzard #9 - $100,000 Mega Deep

Buy-in Date Players Prize pool $215 April 07 391 $106,800

The XL Blizzard #9 - $100,000 Mega Deep started with each player receiving a massive 50,000 starting stack. After the late registration closed, there were 391 players who reentered 143 times. That made for a prize pool of $106,800, with a first-place prize of $20,495.

After several hours, the tournament reached the final table. "PokerJoe332", "GherilaZ" and "jt7bl2f" busted in ninth, eighth and seventh place, receiving $1,773, $2,403, and $3,471 respectively.

"FiestaFiesta" from Argentina finished in sixth place for $4,539 and "strangejelly" got $5,981 for his or her fifth place. Sweden's "Perrymejsen" received $8,544 after busting in fourth place and "easylimp888" ended up in third place for $11,214 for a five-figure score.

The final heads-up between Canada's 69Gronk87 and Latvia's "eight0808" was won by the former who secured $20,495. The runner-up had to settle for $15,219.

888poker XL Blizzard #9 - $100,000 Mega Deep Final Table Results

Position Player Country Prize 1 69Gronk87 Canada $20,495 2 eight0808 Latvia $15,219 3 easylimp888 United Kingdom $11,214 4 Perrymejsen Sweden $8,544 5 strangejelly $5,981 6 FiestaFiesta Argentina $4,539 7 jt7bl2f Canada $3,471 8 GherilaZ Romania $2,403 9 PokerJoe332 Croatia $1,773

888poker XL Blizzard #10 - $100,000 Tune Up

Buy-in Date Players Prize pool $160 April 07 744 $111,600

After almost eleven hours of play, XL Blizzard #10 - $100,000 Tune Up finally crowned a winner. And it wasn't just someone as 888poker Ambassador Chris "888Moorman" Moorman claimed the victory and the first prize of $21,092 after beating "Kroat." in the deciding heads-up.

The event, with a buy-in of $160, saw 539 players register and those players made 205 rebuys to get a total amount of 744 entries. They created a total prize pool of $111,600 with 72 places paid. It took a while to get to the money but in the end, "Mooseman306" was the last player finishing empty-handed.

After making the money, it took a long time before the tournament got down to the last nine. After nine hours, the remaining nine players made the final table and went on to play for a $21,092 first prize.

At the final table of the $100k xlblizzard with big chips lets get it. @AnaMarquez86 here too #888poker  Chris Moorman (@Moorman1)

For "Mootter" (ninth - $1,707), "CKLouis" (eight - $2,511) and "Ana AnaMarquez Marquez" (seventh - $3,627) it wasn't a big success on the final table, because they left quite early.

Not much later, "LprMessiah" finished in sixth place for $4,743. He or she was followed to the rail by "Assad91" (fifth - $6,026) and "Michael wywrotx Wywrot" (fourth - $8,593).

Having received the PocketFives Legacy Award during the Global Poker Awards, Chris "888Moorman" Moorman probably already had a great weekend. He went on to dominate the Tune Up. He took a commanding chip lead against two opponents and won almost every pot played. "Kondogbia" was busted by the chip leader and had to settle for third place ($11,383.) It didn't take much time to get a final decision, and "Kroat." had to settle for second place ($15,457).

Moorman secured himself of the first prize of $21,092 while adding another impressive win to his endless resume.

888poker XL Blizzard #10 - $100,000 Tune Up Final Table Results

Position Player Country Prize 1 Chris "888Moorman" Moorman United Kingdom $21,092 2 Kroat. United Kingdom $15,457 3 Kondogbia United Kingdom $11,383 4 Michael "wywrotx" Wywrot Canada $8,593 5 Assad91 Norway $6,026 6 LprMessiah Sweden $4,743 7 Ana "AnaMarquez" Marquez Austria $3,627 8 CKLouis Latvia $2,511 9 Mootter Finland $1,707

Ana Marquez finished seventh for $3,627

888poker XL Blizzard #11 - $50,000 Mini Tune Up

Buy-in Date Players Prize pool $16.50 April 07 3,066 $58,995

For the players who couldn't afford the bigger buy-in ($160), there was a Mini edition of the Tune Up on the schedule. This tournament had a buy-in of just $16.50, and there were 3,066 players competing for a prize pool of $50,000. The final table saw all nine finalists in this tournament securing themselves of $531 while the top prize was $8,793.

That prize went to "eduardokhaan" after beating "carnival007" from Russia in the deciding heads-up. The Russian runner-up received $6,430.

888poker XL Blizzard #11 - $50,000 Mini Tune Up Final Table Results

Position Player Country Prize 1 eduardokhaan Romania $8,793 2 carnival007 Russia $6,430 3 Sniper2020 Moldavia $4,661 4 MelvinDow United Kingdom $3,481 5 denyagnet Ukraine $2,442 6 MrNorway74 Norway $1,770 7 Mirale23 Romania $1,180 8 EnjoyLife666 Austria $708 9 s.gorniak Germany $531

888poker XL Blizzard #12 - $10,000 Micro Tune Up

Buy-in Date Players Prize pool $5.50 April 07 2,151 $14,870

888poker XL Blizzard #12 - $10,000 Micro Tune Up Final Table Results

Position Player Country Prize 1 Tommykorberg Sweden $2,312 2 softipml Russia $1,801 3 lesnik55 Russia $1,277 4 AXau777 Russia $959 5 buttloverr Belarus $705 6 sye_wbc Ukraine $562 7 Skjellbreit Germany $419 8 samanas13 United Kingdom $281 9 Freshmaker65 Germany $174

888poker XL Blizzard #13 - $20,000 Late Tune Up

Buy-in Date Players Prize pool $55 April 07 420 $27,050

888poker XL Blizzard #13 - $20,000 Late Tune Up Final Table Results

Position Player Country Prize 1 todacage Malta $5,191 2 _SNS_ Ukraine $3,855 3 Nordynordbrg Canada $2,840 4 Wei2good4Yu $2,164 5 zaSPARTAK Russia $1,515 6 uzversiu Lithuania $1,150 7 _FALCON_ Ukraine $879 8 quiestce Switzerland $609 9 Blahaj Romania $449

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 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
Sunday Briefing: Elio Fox Becomes a POWERFEST Champion

April 08, 2019 Matthew Pitt

Apr. 7 threw up some big online poker tournaments thanks to the usual array of high buy-in events taking place at PokerStars and Natural8 plus the partypoker POWERFEST and 888poker XL Blizzard festivals continuing.

Elio Fox walked away with a six-figure score in the partypoker POWERFEST, lets check out what he won and how

Powerfest #37-HR: $500K Gtd PKO 8-Max at partypoker

Date April 7th Buy-in $2,100 Guarantee $500,000 Entrants 230 Prize pool $500,000 ITM 32

The Powerfest #37-HR: $500K Gtd PKO 8-Max event at partypoker attracted a field of 230 players who all exchanged $2,100 for the chance to become a champion, plus lets not forget there were some substantial prizes on offer.

Everyone at the eight-handed final table locked up $6,472 from the main prize pool, but this high roller event was a PKO format so each elimination awarded some large bounty payments.

One of the players who chopped the $20 million guaranteed MILLIONS Online last year, Manuel Sheparentao Ruivo was the final tables first casualty and he headed to the rail with a combined prize worth $13,559. Ruivo was then joined on the rail by Austrias onehundredeyes and Denmarks x_zola25 who won their own POWERFEST event on Friday evening. This duo collected prizes of $15,941 and $19,980 respectively.

Fifth-placed Belarusian PokerBrothersTM actually won more money than fourth-placed GewoonBoef courtesy of the PKO element. PokerBrothersTM won $15,478 plus $16,964 for a combined score of $32,442 while the fourth-placed Dutch players total haul weighed in at $30,218.

Next to bust was BITMEXREKT who hails from Taiwan. Their prize was $40,254 when bounties were taken into consideration. This exit left Elio donzledubru Fox and MinusEve of Austria to lock horns heads-up, but it was the wily Fox who emerged victorious, banking $101,098 thanks to the $41,675 top prize being boosted by $59,423 worth of bounty payments.

Place Player Country Prize Bounty Prize Total Prize 1 Elio donzledubru Fox Canada $41,675 $59,423 $101,098 2 MinusEve Austria $41,624 $5,643 $47,267 3 BITMEXREKT Taiwan $29,689 $10,565 $40,254 4 GewoonBoef Netherlands $21,950 $8,268 $30,218 5 PokerBrothersTM Belarus $15,478 $16,964 $32,442 6 x_zola25 Denmark $11,819 $8,071 $19,890 7 onehundredeyes Austria $8,723 $7,218 $15,941 8 Manuel Sheparentao Ruivo Netherlands $6,472 $7,087 $13,559

Powerfest #36-SHR: $500K Gtd 8-Max at partypoker

Date April 7th Buy-in $5,200 Guarantee $500,000 Entrants 134 Prize pool $670,000 ITM 20

Another major event taking place at partypoker was the $5,200 buy-in Powerfest #36-SHR: $500K Gtd 8-Max tournament. Last week it was Sam Greenwood who took down this tournament, this weeks champion was the United Kingdoms SpiritDNA who scooped $154,033.

Canadas FrioPequeno didnt last too long at the final table and crashed out in eighth-place for a $20,100 score. The Canadian was joined as a spectator by CanadianSanta who collected $25,326 for their seventh-place exit.

The Moldovan nipa3p3 always heads to partypoker during their POWERFEST series and almost always gets their hands on a big prize. This series has been no different with nipa3p3 taking the $31,825 sixth-place prize.

Now it was the time for a pair of Finnish players to fall by the wayside. PokerG1rl69 busted in fifth-place for $40,200 before rdcrsnn followed suit with a fourth-place finish worth $56,950.

This exit left three players in the hunt for the title. Those three became two with the elimination of ucantrybut of Ukraine who banked an impressive $80,400. His or her exit meant the final two players would each win a six-figure score.

limitless of Germany and SpiritDNA of the UK collided in a one-on-one battle and it was the UK-based grinder who emerged victoriously. Second-place was worth a cool $110,550 but the champion took home $154,033 for their victory.

Place Player Country Prize 1 SpiritDNA United kingdom $154,033 2 limitless Germany $110,550 3 ucantrybut Ukraine $80,400 4 rdcrsnn Finland $56,950 5 PokerG1rl69 Finland $40,200 6 nipa3p3 Moldova $31,825 7 CanadianSanta Canada $25,326 8 FrioPequeno Canada $20,100

$109 Sunday Million at PokerStars

Date April 7th Buy-in $109 Guarantee $1,000,000 Entrants 10,316 Prize pool $1,031,600 ITM 1,826

The attendance of the PokerStars $109 Sunday Million may have fallen yet again, as it has done every week since reducing the buy-in from $215, but more than 10,000 players still turned out for it and the $1 million guarantee was surpassed by $31,600.

All but one of the nine players at the final table secured a five-figure prize with only LuckyNrOneAA of Romania missing out; they banked $7,694 for their ninth-place finish. Another Romanian, stan_09319 fell in eighth-place for $10,701 before Argentinas Polcito666 and another Romanian in KidPokerSV crashed out for scores of $14,884 and $20,701.

Brazils rpl1973 became the fifth-place finisher to turn their $109 investment into a much more substantial $28,791 and they were first joined on the rail by Kazeev S.S of Russia who banked $40,043 then by another Russian in the shape of "SG_Sergant who collected $55,692 for their third-place bust-out.

Despite there being more than $30,000 difference between first and second place, there was no deal struck by the last standing duo. This meant when Boss BL busted in second-place, they padded their bankroll with $77,457 but Matze 90451 took the $107,737 top prize back to Austria.

Place Player Country Prize 1 Matze 90451 Austria $107,737 2 Boss BL Canada $77,457 3 SG_Sergant Russia $55,692 4 Kazeev S.S Russia $40,043 5 rpl1973 Brazil $28,791 6 KidPokerSV Romania $20,701 7 Polcito666 Argentina $14,884 8 stan_09319 Romania $10,701 9 LuckyNrOneAA Romania $7,694

$2,100 Sunday High Roller at PokerStars

Date April 7th Buy-in $2,100 Guarantee $200,000 Entrants 129 Prize pool $258,000 ITM 15

Once again the $2,100 Sunday High Roller final table was a sight to behold with any of the nine finalists being capable of walking away with the lions share of the prize pool.

Earlier at the final table, Chinas huang33 crashed out in ninth-place for $6,962 before Sami Lrslzk Kelopuro dusted off his stack to fall in eighth-place for $9,046. Kelopuros elimination saw everyone guarantee themself at least $11,573 for their efforts, the sum banked by Hungarys Wildace_hun.

Team PokerStars Pro Igor IgorKurganov Kurganov was the next player heading for the exits, his sixth-place finishing netting him $15,271. Kurganov was joined on the rail by Adrian Amadi_017 Mateos, who finished sixth in this event last week; the UK-based Spaniard won $19,842 this time around.

Fourth-place and a $25,781 prize went to Brazils Cassio cassiopak de Almeida Kiles before UK-based Polish star bartek901 turned their $2,100 into $33,497 when they busted in third-place.

This left Ferreira and Romanovsky to fight one-on-one for the top prize and it was Romanovsky who once again came out on top. For someone who claims to be retiring from poker soon, Romanovsky seems to be still going strong.

Place Player Country Prize 1 Romeo RomeOpro Romanovsky Ukraine $56,549 2 Rui RuiNF Ferreira Netherlands $43,523 3 bartek901 United Kingdom $33,497 4 Cassio cassiopak de Almeida Kiles Brazil $25,781 5 Adrian Amadi_017 Mateos United Kingdom $19,842 6 Igor IgorKurganov Kurganov United Kingdom $15,271 7 Wildace_hun Hungary $11,753 8 Sami Lrslzk Kelopuro Finland $9,046 9 huang33 China $6,962

$Rake or Break Whale - $65,000 Target at 888poker

Date April 7th Buy-in $530 Guarantee $ Entrants 130 Prize pool $65,000 ITM 12

888poker ran some of its traditional Sunday majors alongside the XL Blizzard festival  the PokerNews recap of the XL Blizzard can be found here  with one event being the Rake of Break Whale that had a $65,000 target this week. A field of 130 ensured the $65,000 target was hit, meaning nobody received their rake back as a bonus.

Not that it bothered Kroat. of the United Kingdom or Jae NEONTIGER Kim from South Korea who chopped this tournament for prizes of $15,750 and $14,149 respectively.

Each of the nine finalists more than doubled their $530 buy-in, with ninth-place finisher alwayswin223 scooping $1,950 before varonislv from Latvia walked away with $2,275.

Uruguayan sensation Fabrizio DrMiKee Gonzalez padded his bankroll with $2,762 after falling in seventh-place and he was joined on the rail first by Pradgen of Switzerland and then kiskutya23 who added $3,412 and $4,550 to their lifetime winnings.

Swedens Juliangard then lost their chips to exit in fourth-place, a finish worth $6,175 and was joined on the sidelines a short time later by the first of two British players SpitOnGraves; third-place was worth $9,100.

Heads-up saw a deal struck with Kroat. of the UK banking $15,750 and the title, with Kim making do with a $14,149 haul and a bridesmaid finish.

Place Player Country Prize 1 Kroat. United Kingdom $15,750* 2 Jae NEONTIGER Kim South Korea $14,149* 3 SpitOnGraves United Kingdom $9,100 4 Juliangard Sweden $6,175 5 kiskutya23 $4,550 6 Pradgen Switzerland $3,412 7 Fabrizio DrMiKee Gonzalez Uruguay $2,762 8 varonislv Latvial $2,275 9 alwayswin223 Austria $1,950

*reflects a heads-up deal

$20,000 Sunday Challenge at 888poker

Date April 7th Buy-in $109 Guarantee $20,000 Entrants 215 Prize pool $21,500 ITM 27

A field of 215-entrants competed for the $20,000 Sunday Challenge title at 888poker and were all outlasted by GarbinaD of Malta who turned their $109 into $4,622.

The final six players received a four-figure prize with pavkom of Russia being the first player to lock up this amount, namely $1,075. The Russian player was followed by Netherlands based Alessandro Wadolchimonj Sarro who collected $1,290 for his fifth-place finish.

Next to bust was Placebo 36 of the UAE, a finish worth $1,881 and then poepKind. crashed out in third-place for $2,526. The runner-up, JOHAN2407 scooped $3,332 leaving GarbinaD to collect $4,622 for their first-place finish.

Place Player Country Prize 1 GarbinaD Malta $4,622 2 JOHAN2407 $3,332 3 poepKind. $2,526 4 Placebo 36 UAE $1,881 5 Alessandro WadoIchimonj Sarro Netherlands $1,290 6 pavkom Russia $1,075 7 TimTamToum Canada $860 8 ckb4714 United Kingdom $645 9 root4deuces Costa Rica $430

Sunday Blade $5K

Date April 7th Buy-in $5,000 Guarantee $200,000 Entrants 47 Prize pool $223,250 ITM 6

Forty-seven players competed for a slice of the $223,250 prize pool in the Sunday Blade $5K. Only the top six finishers received prize money and it was Canadas PyramidOfSkulls who was the first player in the money, falling in sixth-place for $10,677.

They were joined on the payout screen by ExclusiveA from the Netherlands whose fifth-place finish was worth $15,896. The prize money exploded with fourth-place and $23,666 going to high stakes regular NOMAMES of Mexico before Canadas Picasso16 lost their chips to fall in third-place for a $35,235 prize.

This weekends Sunday Blade $5K ended in a heads-up chop that saw RuiNF* of the Netherlands lock up $69,367 and Canadas AceKing41 claim the title and $68,406 in prize money.

Place Player Country Prize 1 AceKing41 Canada $68,406* 2 RuiNF* Netherlands $69,367* 3 Picasso16 Canada $35,235 4 NOMAMES Mexico $23,666 5 ExclusiveA Netherlands $15,896 6 PyramidOfSkulls Canada $10,677

*reflects a heads-up deal

Sunday Blade $2.5K

Date April 7th Buy-in $2,500 Guarantee $75,000 Entrants 60 Prize pool $142,500 ITM 8

Another big tournament was the Sunday Blade $2.5K, which, as the name suggests, cost $2,500 to enter. Some 60-entries were processed and a $142,500 prize pool created, almost double the advertised guarantee.

Colombias HogFish333 was the first recipient of prize money, namely $5,225 for their eighth-place exit and then PyramidOfSkulls, fresh from a sixth-place finish in the Sunday Blade $5K, busted in seventh-place here for $6,906.

FailBassLuck of Hungary secured a $9,128 payout when they busted in sixth-place meaning Joe_cizzy from Austria was the first player to net five-figures after collecting $12,066 for their fifth-place bust-out.

Fourth-place went to TexasPete for $15,949 and this left a trio of Canadians fighting for the title and the not-so-small matter of a $44,278 top prize.

Tim TEET1ME Cramer crashed out in third-place for a $21,081 score, leaving FkTheseGuysBro and SasukeUchiha to battle it out one-on-one for the tournaments largest prize. It was the latter who emerged from this fight relatively unscathed and with $44,278 now in their account; FkTheseGuysBro walked away with the $27,865 consolation prize,

Place Player Country Prize 1 SasukeUchiha Canada $44,278 2 FkTheseGuysBro Canada $27,865 3 Tim TEET1ME Cramer Canada $21,081 4 TexasPete Costa Rica $15,949 5 Joe_cizzy Austria $12,066 6 FailBassLuck Hungary $9,128 7 PyramidOfSkulls Canada $6,906 8 HogFish333 Colombia $5,225

The Stars Group is a majority shareholder in iBus Media
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House Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler )D-NY) told the truth about Attorney General William Barr and the mainstream outlets who fell for Trumps cover-up cant handle it.

Here was the exchange on CBSs Face The Nation:

MARGARET BRENNAN: So so do you actually then reject the entire summary? Do you believe there is possible criminal collusion?

REPRESENTATIVE JERRY NADLER: Well, the attorney general said there was no there was no obstruction of justice. He decided that. Mueller did not say that. And, by the way

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right, and your character and youre dismissing what he has said.

REPRESENTATIVE JERRY NADLER: I dismiss what he said. Hes a hes a biased defender of the administration and hes entitled to be a defender of the administration but he is not entitled to withhold the evidence from Congress. And, by the way, let me repeat one other thing. When you say theres no no when he says theres no collusion, there may very well not have been evidence beyond a reasonable doubt

Video:

MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-Hm.

REPRESENTATIVE JERRY NADLER: which is a very high judicial standard of criminal conspiracy with the Russians. But there was in plain sight open collusion with the Russians when the Presidents son and campaign manager and son-in-law go to a meeting with the Russians to receive, quote, dirt on Hillary as part of the Russian governments attempt to help the Trump campaign. And that was in the e-mail inviting them to the meeting.

Jerry Nadler was right.

The mainstream outlets who bought William Barrs summary/not a summary are asking Democrats why they have doubts about the letters that William Barr has put out. Many of these questioners are the same people who ran with Trumps total exoneration claim without checking to see what the basis for the claim was. (It turns out that there was none.)

Rep. Nadler is speaking a powerful truth to the country. The presidents hand-picked attorney general who auditioned for the job with a letter trashing the Mueller investigation. Barr is a biased political operative for the administration.

House Democrats would not be doing their jobs if they just took Barrs word for it on the Mueller report.

Nadler is correct. Barr isnt an honest broker, which is why every American should never take his word for it when it comes to the Mueller report.

The media got played. The same thing isnt happening to the American people.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

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Trump fired his DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen because he is mad that he cant close the southern border

NBC News reported:

Senior US official says Nielsen was asked to the WH after a week of Trumps frustrations, including over not being able to seal the border. It was up to her to convince him to keep her.  Julia E. Ainsley (@JuliaEAinsley) April 7, 2019

Trump had been trying to close the southern border for nearly a year. He wanted the border during his bogus caravan crisis. Neilsen had not closed the border, and after a week where he was forced to pull back from his plan to cause a billion dollar in damage to the US economy a day, somebody had to pay, and that person was Neilsen.

The president still doesnt get that Democrats control the House and have a ton of power. Trump isnt running around unchecked anymore. He is frustrated and mad, so instead of dealing with his new reality, Trump is tantruming and forcing people around him to take the fall for his terrible ideas.

Neilsen was fired because she wasnt doing a bad enough job for the country.

Trump is going to try to close the border, and what comes next will be an epic court case that will likely end in another in a line of Trump defeats.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

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A Trump-supporting Georgia congressman, Rep. Doug Collins, has demanded that House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) invite special counsel Robert Mueller to come testify before his committee without delay.

House Judiciary Ranking Member @RepDougCollins has asked Chairman @RepJerryNadler to invite Special Counsel Robert Mueller to testify before the committee without delay.

INBOX: House Judiciary Ranking Member @RepDougCollins

has asked Chairman @RepJerryNadler

to invite Special Counsel Robert Mueller to testify before the committee "without delay." pic.twitter.com/o7jZhKQE6f  Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) April 8, 2019

Just nine days ago Collins, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said that Attorney General William Barr would break the law if he released Special Counsel Robert Muellers Russia report without redactions, as Nadler and other Democrats have demanded.

In a letter sent to Nadler on Monday, Collins maintained that requesting Mueller come testify before the House was the only way to seek both transparency and for the American public to learn the full contours of the special counsels investigation.

Collins also said that in his opinion having Mueller come testify would be preferable to issuing a subpoena for Muellers full, unredacted report from the Department of Justice (DOJ).

In his letter, Collins wrote:

Attorney General Barr was never part of this investigation, and instead simply reviewed the special counsels final report and has provided Congress, so far, with the special counsels principal conclusions.

While he can testify surrounding his decision to provide the committee with principal conclusions, it is special counsel Mueller who is best-positioned to testify regarding the underlying facts and material in which you are so interested.

Former Watergate Counsel Also Says Mueller Should Testify

The lawyer who argued United States v. Nixon in the Supreme Court, Philip Lacovara, said on CNN on Monday that he also believes the House should call in Mueller to testify to his findings. He also said that the attorney general, Bill Barr, would tell Mueller what hes allowed to say.

Bob Mueller is going to be guided in what he will say by whatever instructions he gets from attorney general Barr, said Lacovara. He then added:

This is another issue on which I have some strong feelings, that Barr himself has a good deal of discretion about how he interprets the concept of grand jury secrecy.

I think Bob Mueller will apply whatever standards attorney general Bill Barr instructs him to apply in talking about what he found during his investigation.

See the CNN video below:

"I would not be optimistic that we will see anything close to 90%, much less 100% of the Mueller report," says former Watergate lawyer Philip Lacovara as he discusses the similarities and differences with the Watergate case. https://t.co/fUIyzUi0g6 pic.twitter.com/MSIcWtiVYS  New Day (@NewDay) April 8, 2019
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By Lesley Wroughton and Parisa Hafezi

WASHINGTON/DUBAI (Reuters)  U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday branded Irans elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization, an unprecedented step that raises the specter of retaliation from Tehran in an increasingly tense Middle East.

It is the first time the United States has formally labeled another countrys military a terrorist group.

The IRGC is the Iranian governments primary means of directing and implementing its global terrorist campaign, Trump said in a statement.

Iran immediately condemned the decision as an illegal act prompted by Tehrans regional influence and success in fighting against Islamic State, according to state television.

Tensions between the two countries have grown since Trump pulled the United States out of a 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran last May and reimposed sanctions that had crippled Irans economy. Trump said the accord did not address Irans ballistic missile activity or what he saw as its malign influence in the region.

Set up after the 1979 Islamic Revolution with the mission of protecting the Shiite clerical ruling system, the IRGC is Irans most powerful security organization and has a huge influence in its political system, controlling large swathes of the economy and the armed forces.

The IRGCs involvement in Irans banking and shipping industries could complicate matters with U.S. allies, including the European Union, which is setting up a new mechanism to facilitate payments for Iranian exports. It was not immediately clear how Mondays move would impact Europes trade ties with Iran.

Those who do business with the Guards could now receive up to 20 years in prison and be barred from entering or doing business in the United States.

The action on Monday makes crystal clear the risks of conducting business with, or providing support to, the IRGC, Trump said. If you are doing business with the IRGC, you will be bankrolling terrorism.

After reports of the planned U.S. designation emerged on Friday, Iranian lawmakers warned Tehran will take reciprocal action.

Critics have warned the U.S. action could open U.S. military and intelligence officials to similar moves by unfriendly governments.

The United States has already blacklisted dozens of entities and people for affiliations with the IRGC, but not the organization as a whole.

OUTLAW REGIME

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a strident critic of Iran, has pushed for the change in U.S. policy as part of the Trump administrations tough posture toward Tehran.

The U.S. action against the entire IRGC had been debated in the Trump administration for months as Washington sought additional ways to pressure Iran and curtail its growing influence in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

This designation is a direct response to an outlaw regime and should surprise no one, Pompeo said. The designation comes into effect next Monday.

In 2017, IRGC commander Mohammad Ali Jafari warned that if Trump went ahead with labeling the group as terrorist 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.

The State Department said on Monday that the Guards have been engaged in terrorist activity since the groups inception, including the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 Americans, and a foiled plan to attack the Saudi ambassador to the United States on U.S. soil. It cited what it said were IRGC terrorist plans that had been uncovered in Europe and Africa.

Some critics of the Trump administrations move believe it was timed ahead of the Israeli election on Tuesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked Trump for taking the action in a Twitter post. Iran and Israel are increasingly at odds with each other, particularly in Syria where the Revolutionary Guards Quds Force has helped President Bashar al-Assad gain the upper hand in a civil war.

After reports of the designation emerged late on Friday, Iranian lawmakers warned Tehran will take reciprocal action.

IRGCS WIDE NET

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.

The IRGCs economic footprint grew under Iranian former president and ex-Guard Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from 2005. Soon after the United States, EU and the United Nations imposed sanctions on Irans oil and finance sectors in 2012, the IRGC took up the businesses of the European oil firms that were been forced to leave.

Irans clerical rulers rewarded the group for sanctions-busting as well as suppressing dissent at home and helping Tehrans allies abroad  notably Syrias Assad.

However, in recent years much of the IRGCs business has been conducted through front companies, many of them not even formally owned by the Corps, but by people and firms linked to it.

Previous administrations have considered expanding the designation to the entire group, but decided that the risk to U.S. forces overseas was too great, according to former U.S. officials.

The Pentagon declined to discuss what the U.S. military was doing to protect its troops from any retaliation by the IRGC or Iran-aligned militia in places like Iraq. U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, assured that the U.S. military was taking all necessary steps and had alerted U.S. military commanders prior to the announcement.

The announcement comes ahead of a May 2 deadline by the United States on whether or not to extend oil waivers to eight importers of Iranian oil.

Reducing the number of waivers will limit oil exports from Iran, the fourth-largest producer in OPEC, but the United States is unlikely to meet an earlier target of driving Iranian oil exports to zero.

(Reporting by Lesley Wroughton, additional reporting by Jeff Mason, Arshad Mohammed, Jonathan Landay, Phil Stewart in Washington: Parisa Hafezi in Dubai, Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Writing by Doina Chiacu, Editing by Alistair Bell)
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DUBAI (Reuters)  Iran warned on Monday that Washingtons designation of its elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization could endanger peace and stability in the Middle East and beyond, state TV reported.

Tehran also took retaliatory action by naming the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) as a terrorist organization and the U.S. government as a sponsor of terror.

This unwise and illegal measure is a major threat to regional and international stability and peace  Iran labels the American regime as a supporter of terrorism, Irans Supreme National Security Council said in a statement.

U.S. President Donald Trump designated Irans Guards a foreign terrorist organization on Monday  an unprecedented step that will raise tensions in the Middle East.

Iranian authorities have said the U.S. decision is a great mistake that will endanger U.S. interests in the region, where Iran is involved in proxy wars from Syria to Lebanon.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter that the move was aimed at securing the re-election of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday.

Another misguided election-eve gift to Netanyahu, and another dangerous US misadventure in the region, Zarif tweeted.

Iranian Revolutionary Guards commanders have repeatedly said that U.S. bases in the Middle East and U.S. aircraft carriers in the Gulf are within range of Iranian missiles.

Iran has threatened to disrupt oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf if the United States tries to strangle Tehrans economy by halting its oil exports.

(Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Catherine Evans)
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Last week House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass) sent a letter to the IRS Commissioner demanding six years of Donald Trumps tax returns. This started a huge legal and political fight in Washington, with both sides prematurely claiming victory.

Neal and other House Democrats have said the federal law is clear, and the tax returns must be turned over. Trumps lawyer and Chief of Staff have been equally clear  the tax returns will NOT be given to Congress.

In fact Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said on Fox News Sunday that Democrats would never see Trumps tax returns.

Although the battle between Trump and House Democrats may end up in court, there is another group of Democrats who are pursuing what they believe is a fail-safe strategy to obtain copies of the presidents tax filings.

According to The New York Times, Democrats in the New York State Assembly are trying to get his state tax returns by following a different route.

To Get Trumps Tax Returns, N.Y. Democrats Try a New Strategy  The New York Times

To Get Trumps Tax Returns, N.Y. Democrats Try a New Strategy  The New York Times https://t.co/wlL2Upqrg0  Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 8, 2019

These strongly anti-Trump New York Democrats plan to introduce a bill this week that the believe will get them what they want.

New York Law Would Force Disclosure of Trumps Taxes

Under this bill, the Commissioner of the New York Department of Taxation and Finance would be permitted to release any state tax return requested by leaders of three congressional committees for any specific and legitimate legislative purpose.

New York State Senator Brad Hoylman confirmed that this bill was designed with Trump in mind. He termed the proposed legislation a safety valve for any attempt by the White House to block the Congress from doing this at the federal level  were creating a parallel track.

As everyone knows, the Trump Organization is headquartered at Trump Tower in New York City. Also, many of the Trump Organizations real estate holdings are in New York. This means these business entities have had to file New York state tax returns.

Tax experts say that the presidents New York tax returns will contain most of the same information as his federal tax returns.

While campaigning for president, Trump promised many times to release his returns, but he has never done so. He uses an excuse that he is under audit, but that is not a legitimate reason for not disclosing his tax filings to the public.

Since Neal sent his letter to the IRS, Trump and his people have said they would not comply with the request. They have indicated they will fight it all the way to the Supreme Court if they have to.

Trump even got Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to fast-track the confirmation of the IRS counsel before the attorney general, to ensure he had an ally against efforts to disclose his taxes.

Trumps Desperate Moves Wont Work for Long

But this latest action in New York shows that Donald Trump will not be able to avoid the inevitable for much longer. He is desperately trying to prevent the American people from seeing his tax filings. The more he acts desperate, the more people want to see those tax returns, asking What is he hiding?

Every American should be thankful to Democrats in the New York State Assembly who are doing their part to hold Donald Trump accountable. Because of their efforts we may soon find out if Trump is a tax cheat  and if he has been a traitor to his country.
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Defense officials warn that US troops could face consequences in the Middle East after Trump overruled the Pentagon and declared Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a foreign terrorist group.

Politico reported:

Trump chose to overrule the Pentagon after National Security Adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo advised that the top brass warnings about risks to U.S. troops are overblown, several officials with direct knowledge of the deliberations told POLITICO.

The presidents move came despite Pentagon officials warnings that it could lead to retaliatory attacks against U.S. troops by Iranian-backed forces in the Middle East and threats from Iranian leaders that U.S. troops could face consequences.

Like most things Iran-related, DoD opposed, said a senior defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe ongoing tensions between the White House National Security Council, which has mounted a maximum pressure campaign against Iran, and a Pentagon brass that has cautioned against unnecessary provocations.

Trump is placing US troops in danger

Trump felt emboldened after Iran didnt retaliate after the last Pentagon warning, so he is openly defying the advice of military leaders, who are in charge of keeping troops and the country protected. Trump has shown time and again that he is definitely not smarter than the generals. Iran has already retaliated, but it only seems like a matter of time before the big brain of Donald Trump gets soldiers killed.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

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The Office of the Special Counsel (OSC) has opened an investigation into the Trump administrations decision to pursue a nuclear agreement with the government of Saudi Arabia, The Daily Beast reported on Monday.

Specifically, OSC is looking at whether officials were retaliated against for raising concerns about the administrations work related to a Saudi nuclear deal.

The agency is reportedly reviewing potentially improper dealings by senior members of the Trump administration in their attempt to map out a nuclear deal with Riyadh.

According to The Beast:

The line of inquiry is part of a broader investigation in the Office of the Special Counselan independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agencyinto alleged politically motivated personnel decisions at government offices.

The details of the OSC probe, previously unreported, are the first indication that a government body other than Congress is investigating matters related to a potential nuclear deal between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.

OSC is an independent prosecutorial agency with the legal authority to file motions for disciplinary and corrective action, and report any violations of the law to the attorney general.

The nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia involves sharing secret information on reactor technology, was first reported last month. There is now a lot of concern in Congress about U.S.-Saudi relations.

These concerns have increased greatly after the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. A report issued by House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Elijah Cummings in February outlined allegations about efforts inside the White House to rush the transfer of the highly sensitive U.S. nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia which Democrats say was a violation of the Atomic Energy Act. They have maintained that such transfers must be reviewed by Congress before taking place.

Since then, the Energy Department under Secretary Rick Perry has approved seven U.S. companies to conduct nuclear-related work in Saudi Arabia.

The Trump Administration May Be Giving Saudi Arabia Nuclear Secrets

The cozy relationship between the current administration and the dictators in Saudi Arabia is not good for the United States, and not good for peace in the Middle East.

As Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman of California said:

One thing that is in our interest is to prevent Saudi Arabia from getting a nuclear weapon.

What Ive seen in this administration recently is an effort to evade Congress and to some extent evade your department and provide substantial nuclear technology and aid to Saudi Arabia while [the country] refuses to abide by any of the controls we would like to see regarding reprocessing, enrichment.
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Trump wants to resume putting migrant kids in cages, which is one of the reasons why Kirstjen Nielsen was pushed out.

Trump wants to put kids in cages

Julia Ainsley of NBC News reported, Nielsen resisted for not moral but legal and logistical reasons. She reminded the president that he would be reversing his own order that ended family separation last summer and go against a court order that demanded reunification of those separated families. I even have some new reporting to share now about Kevin McAleenan the acting Secretary of Homeland Security taking Nielsens place Wednesday. He floated an option, thinks an option should be on the table called binary choice allowing parents two rough options. To either go into detention with their children for a prolonged period of time, over 20 days, which theyre not allowed to do under court orders now or to separate from their children. They think somehow giving them that option would go around the reunification court order and one thing that McAleenan has not ruled out, while Secretary Neilsen did resist that.

Video:

Trump pushed Nielsen out because he wants to BREAK THE LAW and resume putting kids in cages. https://t.co/6iU3Q5KlVY pic.twitter.com/ScE5aP3Nsx  Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) April 8, 2019

The White House isnt denying that Trump wants to start separating kids from their parents and putting them in cages again. It is important to remember that Neilsen is no hero. She was not opposed to putting kids in cages and ripping them away from their parents on moral grounds. She got fired because she refused to break the law to help Trump.

Trump thinks traumatizing innocent children makes him look tough

Trump likes the images of crying kids in cages. He thinks that it makes him look strong on immigration and tough on the border. Trump is going to make immigrants and immigration a key part of his reelection campaign. The president is destroying families and harming children because he thinks that it helps him politically. The president doesnt care about the damage that he is doing to other human beings.

The Trump immigration policy was bad before, but it is about to become a horrific stain on America that will be viewed with scorn by the rest of the world.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

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Trump told border agents during his visit to California to defy a judges order and break the law by denying migrants entry into the US.

Trump instructed border agents to break the law

CNN reported:



Behind the scenes, two sources told CNN, the President told border agents to not let migrants in. Tell them we dont have the capacity, he said. If judges give you trouble, say, Sorry, judge, I cant do it. We dont have the room.

After the President left the room, agents sought further advice from their leaders, who told them they were not giving them that direction and if they did what the President said they would take on personal liability. You have to follow the law, they were told.

Luckily, those border agents were smart enough to ask a superior before Donald Trump got them sent to prison, but the president is suffering from the delusion that his words are policies and laws. They are neither. Donald Trump is not a king. He cant go to border patrol agents and declare that they shall allow no more migrants into the country.

The notion that America is all filled up and cant hold any more people is absurd.

Trump showed his criminal intent

Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary Neilsen because she would not break the law. The United States currently has a president who has no respect or regard for the law. Trump is obsessed with putting kids in cages and harming families. He is trying to draft people into his scheme to break the law. Trumps criminal intent has never been more clear, and anyone who follows his orders is likely to commit a crime.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

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On April 3, as North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) foreign ministers gathered in Washington, DC to mark the alliances 70th anniversary, the Russian state media shared a report claiming NATO support for the Ukrainian navy was laughable and the ships provided to Ukraine by NATO states are nothing but junk.

These claims, attributed to Andrei Koshkin, head of the political science and sociology department at the prestigious Plekhanov Academy, were broadcast on Sputnik radio and then republished by several other government media outlets, including RIA Novosti.

According to RIA Novosti, Koshkin was asked to comment on that days announcement by Alexander Vinnikov, head of NATO representative office in Ukraine, who said the Ukrainian navy will be training with the NATO ships deployed to the Black Sea ports controlled by Kyiv.

Koshkin said it was laughable to try and train the Ukrainian navy on the NATO ships while they are located in Ukrainian ports, and that no training can substitute for a real service on military ships  experience that Ukraine does not have.

He also claimed the military vessels NATO states are offering to Kyiv are in essence, junk.

Koshkins claims are false.

Extremely difficult situation

The claim that the situation with Ukraines navy is extremely difficult, is no longer true, the co-founder of the Military in UA web portal, Olexandr Argat, told Polygraph.info.

Ukraine has built nine vessels for the navy during the last five years: seven of them are Gurza-M class boats and the other two are Centaur-class. These are small ships but they are our own and new, Argat said.

Gurza-M class boats are small armored artillery boats used to patrol harbors, rivers, lakes, territorial waters and isolated areas. Other missions include protection of Ukraines borders and river ports, assistance to aircraft or vessels in distress, and combating illegal migration, piracy and smuggling on the Danube River and in the waters of the Black Sea-Azov basin.

Centaur-class fast assault craft are used to provide fire support and ensure the rapid deployment of marines and Special Forces. They can also perform a wide range of missions, including maritime patrol, surveillance, search-and-rescue (SAR), safeguarding littoral and inland waters, and troop transport.

Laughable NATO training

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said last December that NATO is helping with different trust funds on cyber, on command and control and we also help to modernize the Ukrainian navy," including by providing intense training to the Ukrainian navy.

NATO support for Ukraine is regulated under the Wales Summit Declaration of September 2014, which was followed by four declarations ensuring and enhancing NATO support for Ukraine.

NATO members, including the United States, United Kingdom and others, have regularly held enhanced training exercises with Ukrainian troops, including from the Ukrainian navy.

According to the Military Times, from July to September 2018], the U.S. Marine Corps kicked off three training evolutions with partner forces in Ukraine, Romania, and Georgia.

Interactive Liveuamap portal shows the activities of the NATO and Ukrainian navy, including the joint NATO-Ukraine drill: Matka-class missile boat "Pryluky" (U153) and Halifax-class frigate HMCS Toronto (FFH 333) held in July 2018.

In September 2018, Ukraines navy reportedly conducted joint training with the USS James E. Williams destroyer.

NATO deliveries in essence, junk

NATO does not provide ships to Ukraine, the alliances press office told Polygraph.info, noting that NATO member states are independently providing vessels to the Ukrainian navy.

In 2017, Ukrainian Vice Admiral Ihor Voronchenko said that Ukraines navy is looking into the purchase of decommissioned NATO ships for its fleet in order to fulfill Ukraines role in occupying a significant portion of the Black Sea coastline.

Denmark, Lithuania, Poland, Tanzania and the United States have sold or rebuilt -- or are in the process of negotiating the delivery of military vessels -- to Kyiv.

Listed among Ukrainian Navy active vessels are:

One Danish Flyvefisken Class multirole vessel. Built in Denmark between 1987 and 1996, decommissioned in 1989. The Flyvefisken Class multirole vessel is based on a modular concept, using a standard hull with containerized weapon systems and equipment, which allows the vessel to change roles quickly for surveillance, surface combat, anti-submarine warfare, mine countermeasures/minehunter, minelayer or pollution control.

The Pereyaslav, a Muna Class small reconnaissance ship built in Lithuania. Originally named GS-13 in the Soviet Navy. Launched in 1986 and transferred to Ukraine in 1995.

Seven Polish ships, including the U-602 Alchevsk, a Moma Class intelligence ship; the U401 Yuri Olefirenko, a Polnochny-C Class a mid-size landing ship; three PO-2 Class training ships; the U-811 Balta, a Bereza Class degaussing ship; and the U-500 Donbas, an Amur Class command/SAR ship.

Two U.S. Island Class patrol cutters. As described by the Military Navigator portal, [t]he 110-foot Island-class Patrol Boats are a Coast Guard modification of a highly successful British-designed patrol boat. With excellent range and seakeeping capabilities, the Island Class, all named after U.S. islands, replaced the older 95-foot Cape-class patrol boats. These cutters are equipped with advanced electronics and navigation equipment.

Two U.S. Oliver Hazard Perry Class guided missile frigates have been offered to Ukraine, and Ukrainian Navy sailors have been training on them in the United States.

'Propaganda' and 'False'

John Herbst, director of the Atlantic Councils Eurasia Center and former U.S. Ambassador to Uzbekistan (2000-2003) and to Ukraine (2003-2006), told Polygraph.info, Koshkins statement is propaganda.

The ships that we have been able to provide to Ukraine are coast guard cutters; they are real ships, not junk, they will be of serious use to Ukraines navy. So, these statements are simply false, Herbst said.

Herbst said that Moscows claim of ownership over parts of the Black Sea, including the Kerch Strait, are in complete violation of international law. Russia is only one of the Black Sea powers, which also include several NATO nations, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey, all of which have navies.

It is true that NATO has taken a more forward presence in the Black Sea in response to Russian aggression against Ukraine, but I am not expecting NATO nations to challenge the Kremlin in the Kerch Strait, but I do expect a greater NATO presence in the east of the Black Sea.

Koshkin, like many in Russia, called NATOs aid to Ukraine a provocation and threatened a strong response by Moscow.

Mr. Putin is a bully; he becomes more aggressive when he sees weakness, said Herbst.

He added that the Kremlin voiced the same threats when the U.S. announced it would provide Ukraine with the Javelin anti-tank missile system.

Trump decided to do that, the Javelins arrived over a year ago and there is still no Russian reaction, Herbst said.
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Letters to the Editor: The need for civics education
A conservative group called the Freedom Action Network posted on Facebook blaming Rep. Peter McCoy, R-Charleston, of holding up a bill to allow people to carry handguns without a permit in South Carolina. It resulted in one commenter asking whether they should shoot McCoy.
Its been two weeks since two fifth-graders got into a fight in a Walterboro classroom and almost two weeks since one of them died. Its still unclear if she died from wounds suffered in that fight because in those two weeks her family and her community have been left in the dark as to what exactly caused 10-year-old Raniya Wrights March 27 death.

In that two weeks of silence, people have filled the void with rumors and conjecture, sharing what they believe they know. In the past week, two women  a lawmaker and the girls mother  have offered very public and conflicting versions of what might have happened. This has caused confusion but hasnt caused officials to come forward with a more complete version of events.

Ashley Wright, Raniyas mother, told Good Morning America that her daughter was bullied at school but that nothing was done  even after she brought this to the attention of the Colleton County School District. But nobody can know for sure because school officials have so far declined to clarify.

In the GMA interview early Monday, Ashley Wright told the nation the school district failed her.

Im very upset with the school system, starting out, only because of the fact that Ive been complaining about the person that she fought numerous times to them, Wright said in the interview. Thats what really breaks me down and makes me question to myself why nothing was never done up until now with this happening.

Wright said her daughter hit her head on a bookshelf at some point during the fight, though she did not say how this happened or how she learned about it. She could not be reached by The Post and Courier later Monday.

The mothers words on the morning television show contradict the words of a South Carolina lawmaker, who said last week on the Senate floor that Raniya took no physical blows.

Not even the banging of (her) head, Sen. Margie Bright Matthews, D-Walterboro, said on April 1. The head was not even an issue.

Reached by phone Monday, Matthews declined to give any additional comment. She posted a statement on Facebook saying that it was never her intention to relate specifics about the altercation.

"I was simply sharing that by all accounts, this was not a gang fight. It was an incident between 2 fifth grade girls.

"The words, scuffle and going back and forth were not used or intended to minimize or trivialize the altercation between the girls.

"I have known all of the parties and/or members of their families for many years and do not represent any of them," she said.

Meanwhile, state Rep. Justin Bamberg, a Democrat whose district includes Walterboro, called it unacceptable for the families of both children involved in the altercation to have been kept in the dark for this long.

"I believe that the parents on each side have an absolute right to know," Bamberg said. "I dont care about an investigation or the other politics of the situation. Why cant someone just tell this young girls parents what happened?"

The Colleton County Sheriffs Office and school district have been mum on the details surrounding the tragedy, one that has gripped this rural, crime-challenged town of about 5,000 people, about 50 miles west of Charleston.

Patricia Simmons, the vice chairwoman of the Colleton County School Board, said Monday she is waiting for the investigation to wrap before offering comment.

Once that comes out, hopefully, that will spread light and explain a lot of the situation that is going on, Simmons said. I mean, we are jumping to conclusions. Were not 100 percent. Right now, what we need to do is pray for one another and just focus on the safety of the children.

Asked if she could debunk any rumors circulating about Raniyas death, Simmons said, Im not at liberty to say anything about the situation until we have gotten some clarity from the medical examiner.

The autopsy was conducted on March 29, and officials at the time said results would be issued several weeks later.

The Colleton County School Board has not held a public meeting since March 28, when Walterboro residents waited for hours outside the district office for an explanation of what happened. Some locals responded in outrage after the school board chair and superintendent read prepared statements and walked out without taking questions.

The district was scheduled to hold a Community Conversation on Student Achievement on Monday but the event has been indefinitely postponed.

The district has released scant information in the form of updates on its website. Its last statement, dated April 3, provided no additional details about the incident or what steps the school board might take in response to it.

Reached by phone Monday, district spokesman Sean Gruber said the school board is considering allowing additional public comment at its next regularly scheduled meeting April 16  approaching a month since Raniyas death. He gave no further details.

The Colleton County Sheriffs Office, theyre taking the lead on the investigation. We dont want to release any statements or information that could jeopardize what theyre doing," Gruber said. "So until they authorize us to be able to release details, we just cant.

The silence from officials, a crisis communications specialist said, often tends to create more white noise than it does prevent the spread of misinformation.

If you arent shaping your message, someone else will, especially in a crisis. And when there is a void in information, there is fertile ground for rumors, misinformation and rising emotions, said Heather Hoopes-Matthews, director of Columbia-based NP Strategy. "At certain times in a crisis, there can be no new information to share, or legal needs have slowed the flow of information. That doesnt mean you cant keep the public informed with status updates that repeat the latest information.

Striking a balance between informing stakeholders and protecting an investigation, she said, is not a unique challenge.

Ignoring the challenge is rarely a long-term viable option, Hoopes-Matthews said.

District Superintendent Franklin Foster released a statement Monday saying he adamantly disagrees with any claim alleging the school did not do enough to protect Raniya.

We work hard every day to protect all of our students. In time, the facts regarding this tragic incident will be revealed, he said. Until then, while I wish I could provide you complete information about this tragic incident, I cannot do so because there is a pending law enforcement investigation and because of student privacy laws.

Caitlin Byrd and Thomas Novelly contributed to this report.
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.
"Can I have a photo?" might be the most frequent  and increasingly more vital  question for candidates in the early primary state race where handlers need to book extra time at events for one-on-one interaction with voters and their camera phones.
When Mary Lindgren lost both of her parents to Alzheimers within a couple of years, she thought her "Alzheimers story" was the worst.

Lindgren, now 60, spent two years caregiving for both of her parents as they rapidly declined. She felt isolated, and had no support network to draw on.

"Once you lose both your parents, your foundation, you feel helpless," she said. "Some people live for 10, 15 years with the disease. My parents got the diagnosis and were gone in two."

When she joined the Alzheimers Association, though, she learned that her "horrible situation wasnt unique."

"Its devastating, and I thought I was by myself," Lindgren said. "(But) theres a lot of us out there and everyones story is as devastating as mine."

Now the Austin resident wants to help ensure that no one else fighting the disease is as alone as she was.

Lindgren became an ambassador, and spent much of last week lobbying for increased funding in Minnesota and nationwide, to create a public health infrastructure for Alzheimers patients and their caretakers.

"This was something I could do to make up for the loss," she said.

Purple at the Capitol

Lindgren and other ambassadors for the Alzheimers Association visited Congressman Tom Emmer and Rep. Jim Hagedorn last Tuesday at Capitol Hill.

The advocates, draped in purple sashes, visited legislators from all 50 states between March 31 and April 2.

Ten years ago, Lindgren said, there were barely 24 ambassadors. Certainly not one from each state. But last week, nearly 1,250 people spoke to their congresspeople and representatives.

The Alzheimers Association asked for more federal funding for research on the deadly disease this year, as well as legislative support for the Building Our Largest Dementia (BOLD) Infrastructure for Alzheimers Act, which was passed last year.

Alzheimers research is hugely important, and could lessen the public health costs of the disease, Lindgren said. The association asked for $350 million this year  the number recommended by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Lindgren said.

Cost considerations

Alzheimers, the sixth leading cause of death in America, is the most expensive disease in the country.

According the Alzheimers Association, 2019 spending is about $3.67 billion in Minnesota, with total costs that will surpass a quarter of a trillion dollars ($290 billion) nationwide.

But while lowering taxpayer costs is important, the BOLD initiative is crucial, Lindgren says.

"It would give a road map for us," she said. "For the general public, physicians included."

The BOLD Act attempts to fund Alzheimers Centers of Excellence and support the needs of caregivers and their loved ones with dementia.

Hopefully, Lindgren said, some of that funding would go toward support groups for caregivers.

"Right now, its kind of the wild, wild west of medical care," she said. "People can be told they have Alzheimers, or someone has dementia, then be left to fend for themselves. Like I did. We need to have a plan for how families are going to get through it."

The Alzheimers Association hopes the legislature will appropriate the $20 million needed to fund BOLD over the next five years. Those goals will have to wait, though, until Congress appropriated FY20 funding.
NEW YORK  Fifty years and five books since he left the newspaper business, Robert Caro gets a familiar feeling every time he hunts down a document, makes an extra phone call or asks just one last question.

"I still think of myself as a reporter," says Caro, the former investigative journalist for Newsday known to millions for his Robert Moses biography, "The Power Broker," and his four Lyndon Johnson books. "I see my life as a continuum. When I went from being a reporter to working on the The Power Broker, it was a seamless thing."

Caros most recent Johnson biography, "The Passage of Power," came out in 2012, and the next remains ever in progress. Fans eager to hear from him  to hear anything from him  now have "Working."

Completed within months  a nights homework assignment by Caros standards  the 207-page book combines speeches, interviews and essays with new material about his life on the job. If "Master of the Senate," his 2003 book on Johnsons years in the Senate, became a guide for Washington legislators, "Working" reads like a primer for authors and journalists.

Caro relates how to never give up on getting a source to talk to you, and how to keep quiet when an interview is going well (he writes SU  "Shut Up" in his notebook). He remembers best the advice given in the 1960s by Newsday managing editor Alan Hathway, who reminded the young reporter that when looking through papers, "Turn every page. Never assume anything. Turn every goddamned page."

Journalists from Ron Chernow to David Maraniss have become acclaimed biographers, but no one has applied the craft on the scale of the 83-year-old Caro, whose books usually take up to a decade to finish. At Newsday, he was lucky to get a month to work on a story. For the Johnson books, he might spend weeks to prove a single fact or track down an interview subject.

To better understand Johnsons childhood, he and his wife, Ina, relocated for a time to Texas. In Washington, he would retrace LBJs early morning walks to the Capitol in his days as a young congressman.

"His research methods are always at the top of my mind as I go about my work," says Maraniss, the Pulitzer Prize winning Washington Post reporter whose books include biographies of Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Vince Lombardi.

"One of my mantras is Go There, wherever there is, to infuse myself in the culture and geography of a place. I learned this mostly from his moving to the Texas Hill Country to start his majestic Johnson biography. When I decided to do Lombardi, I knew that I had to move to Green Bay, and for the winter. When Im at an archive, I can hear Caro saying to me Turn every page. And the patience that requires has so often made the difference," Maraniss says.

Anne Marie Lipinski is curator of the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University, where Caro was a fellow in the 1960s.

"So many professions want to claim him  historians and nonfiction writers and the rest, but I think of him as quintessentially a journalist," she says. "He has this method I would call extreme reporting, that is uncompromising, exhaustive journalism."

Caro spoke recently to The Associated Press at his Manhattan office suite, itself a testament to tradition, and the endurance of ink and paper. Documents and transcripts fill file cabinets, a typed and annotated outline for that final Johnson book covers a wall, and Caro still uses index cards to write himself the occasional reminder. For much of his career as an author, he has had the same publisher (Alfred A. Knopf), editor (Robert Gottlieb), literary agent (Lynn Nesbit) and typewriter (Smith Corona).

Caros method is not just to document history but to "make it personal." For "The Power Broker," he wrote about the New York City neighborhoods destroyed by Moses highways, and the people who had the misfortune to be in his way. To capture the hold of Southern segregationists while Johnson was in politics, he used the life of the longtime Senate leader and LBJ mentor, Georgias Richard Russell, visiting Russells old hometown to get a sense of his stature.

"You tell the story through Richard Russell and make it a narrative that ties in with the main narrative and will have the additional power of being rooted in reported facts," Caro says.

Caros previous books included in-depth sections  dozens of pages of more  on an isolated subject or time frame, whether rural electrification in Texas or Johnsons first days as president, after John F. Kennedys assassination.

For his next book, which covers Johnsons presidency and continues through his death, in 1973, Caro has two such take-outs in mind: what life was like for the elderly before the 1965 passage of Medicare, and the impact of American bombing on a Vietnamese village. He hopes to visit Vietnam and meet with people on the other end of the attacks Johnson personally directed. "This will be a very long book," acknowledges Caro, whose shortest Johnson biography, "Means of Ascent," was over 500 pages.

Even reconstructing a meeting can be an investigative project. Caro mentions a White House discussion about the Vietnam War, with Johnson at the head of the table and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and Secretary of State Dean Rusk among others in the room. Research meant tracking down every related memo and speaking with the attendees. He would interview McNamara for his perspective, then Rusk for his. Many historians, Caro believes, would stop there.

"But then I would I go back to McNamara: You said so and so, and Rusk said so and so. How do you square that? And then you go back to Rusk and you say the same thing about McNamara," he explains. "You keep going back and that way you keep getting closer to the truth."

Caro pauses, smiling in amazement. Its all an outgrowth of his time as a journalist, he realizes, the old rule of asking questions until you have none left to ask. He reaches for an index card and picks up a pen, repeating to himself, "I never thought of that. I never thought of that."
The 10th Regional Conference on Island Sustainability hosted by the University of Guam kicked off Monday at the Hyatt Regency Guam in Tumon.

The event is held to "continue to encourage action to achieve sustainability, inspire change, and provide a venue for sharing, networking, and collaboration of sustainability issues related to economic, social/cultural, educational, environmental or energy solutions," according to the UOG website.

On Monday, UOG President Thomas Krise; Island Sustainability Community Advisory Board Chairwoman Jackie Marati; Center for Island Sustainability executive director Austin Shelton; and Larry Raigetal, an instructor of traditional navigation and climate change adaptation courses at UOG addressed the media to discuss the topics of the conference and take questions.

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This year's theme is: "Sustainable Then. Sustainable Again?"

"People of these islands knew how to live sustainably and we need to recover and relearn that wisdom," Krise said.

Marati said the relevance of the conference has only increased during the past decade.

"I think more than ever, as a number of issues have grown probably exponentially in the 10 years, it's even more important for our community to be very aware of the threats that are everywhere around us, but also some of the possibilities and scientific approaches for mitigating some of those risks," Marati said.

"We have been sustainable for hundreds of years," she said. "That situation has changed markedly over the last number of decades."

This afternoon, Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero will give opening remarks for the Opening Plenary Report from the Presidential Summit on Island Sustainability featuring panelists including representatives from the Northern Mariana Islands, the Marshall Islands, the University of Hawaii, Western Philippines University, Guam Community College, Jeju National University and the University of the West Indies.

Raigetal, who created and leads Waa'gey, a nonprofit organization in Yap that promotes cultural heritage of the people of the Caroline Islands, will also serve as one of the keynote speakers during the conference. He will present tomorrow at 9:15 a.m.

On Thursday, keynote speaker Amanda Ellis, executive director of Hawaii & Asia-Pacific at the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University, will address conference attendees at 9 a.m.

Multiple breakout sessions, workshops and panels will be held during the weeklong event. A full agenda may be downloaded at the UOG website.

Krise said on Monday that he hopes the average person attending the conference can come away with the belief that their actions can make a difference in addressing issues of environmental sustainability.

"It's very important for us to lead the way. Not to just be responsive. Not to just sort of be victims of this global challenge, but really to show how we all can live sustainably," Krise said.
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
BOYERTOWN  Berks County Detectives have filed murder chargers against a 46-year-old Easton man in connection with injuries he allegedly inflicted on a Boyertown woman that subsequently caused her death.

Scott Kenneth Wiley is charged with murder in the third degree, involuntary manslaughter aggravated assault and simple assault in connection with the March 29 death of Farrah Wertz, 42, of 211 E. Third St. in Boyertown.

Authorities became involved on March 11 at 6:15 p.m. when borough police responded to a report of a domestic dispute and found Wertz holding an ice pack to her swollen right leg, complaining she could not put weight on it, police said.

Wertz told police and two paramedics who arrived shortly afterward that after a verbal dispute, Wiley, her boyfriend, had come up from behind her and swept her legs out from under her causing her to fall to the ground, and then kicked her leg.

Wertz also said Wiley grabbed her 12-year-old autistic son and threw him to the floor. As a result, her son sustained a scratch to his chest, police said.

Her son did not require medical treatment, but Wertz was taken by Boyertown Lions Community Ambulance to Pottstown Hospital where she was diagnosed with a fractured fibula which would require surgery.

Wiley was arrested and taken into custody at the residence. He was charged with simple assault and harassment. He was later arraigned before District Judge Thomas M. Gauby Sr. Bail was set at $2,500. Wiley was released on March 12 after posting bail, according to a press release from Berks County Detectives.

On Friday, March 15, Wertz, underwent surgery to repair the fracture to her right fibula. During this surgery, the surgeon placed two screws and a plate in her right leg.

Fourteen days later, on Friday, March 29, a Boyertown police officer responded to Wertzs Third Street home just before 7 a.m. to assist EMS with a female in respiratory distress.

Upon entering the residence, the officer found Wertz lying in bed, gasping for air.

The officer moved her to the floor and immediately started performing cardio pulmonary resuscitation. EMS personnel from Boyertown Lions Community Ambulance Services arrived at the scene and took over the medical care and continued performing CPR.

Wertz was removed from the residence and immediately transported to the emergency room at the Lehigh Valley Hospital near Allentown, where she died at 9:02 a.m.

Later that day, Boyertown Police notified the Berks County Detectives Office of Wertzs death and requested assistance. The Berks County Detectives Office prioritized the investigation and became the lead investigative agency.

On Saturday, March 30, forensic pathologist Samuel Land performed an autopsy on Wertz and concluded the cause of death was pulmonary embolism due to deep vein thrombosis complications from blunt force trauma to the right lower extremity, according to the release.

The manner of death was ruled homicide.

On Thursday, April 4, the Berks County Detectives filed more criminal charges at the office of District Judge Michael Hartman who issued a murder warrant for Wiley.

On Saturday, Berks County Detectives apprehended and arrested Wiley in the 400 block of Cherry Lane Road in East Stroudsburg.

He was transported to the Berks County Sheriffs Department Central Processing Unit.
Congressional Democrats keep demanding that the entire Mueller report be made available. They arent doing this in the interest of transparency and the publics right to know. Democrats are still complaining that the investigation of Hillary Clintons email scandal yielded more than a statement of no prosecution. If Dems had gotten their way, we would know nothing more about what the Justice Department discovered or believed.

The Democrats want full disclosure of the Mueller report not for any public-spirited reason. They want it so they can save a little bit of face by cherry picking statements from the report that paint President Trump in a bad light, or at least can be sold that way with the help of the mainstream media.

But this doesnt mean the Mueller report shouldnt be disclosed. Whatever the Democrats motive, they are right that the public should see the Mueller report.

There are some limits, though, on how much we can see. Clearly, we cant see classified information contained in the report.

Theres also the question of whether we can see grand jury information. The answer that emerges from a recent D.C. Circuit decision is that we cannot.

The decision is McKeever v. Barr. Andy McCarthy discusses it here.

McCarthy writes:

At issue was this question: Does a federal court have the authority to order disclosure of grand-jury materials if the judge decides that the interests of justice warrant doing so; or is the judge limited to the exceptions to grand-jury secrecy that are spelled out in Rule 6(e) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure? The D.C. Circuits McKeever ruling holds that the text of Rule 6(e) controls. Consequently, judges have no authority to authorize disclosure outside the rule.

Rule 6(e) does not contain an exception that would permit disclosure of grand jury testimony contained in the Mueller report. As McCarthy points out, the exceptions enumerated in the rule permit judges to authorize disclosure, to federal and certain non-federal officials, in order to aid in the enforcement of criminal laws. Disclosure here would not be to officials in the aid of law enforcement.

Its possible that the panels decision in McKeever will be reversed, either on consideration by the full court or by the Supreme Court. As things stand now, however, McKeever is controlling law in the District of Columbia where the Mueller investigation took place.

Thus, McCarthy concludes:
Rep. Devin Nunes appeared on Maria Bartromos Sunday Morning Futures show yesterday. No one in Congress has taken more abuse than he has for his work exposing the Russia collusion hoax foisted on us by the 2016 Clinton presidential campaign. To borrow a formulation from Walt Whitman: He is the man. He suffered. He was there.

We were not supposed to know. Thanks in large part to Rep. Nunes and his Republican colleagues on the House Intelligence Committee, now we know.

Rep. Nunes wants to do more than look back in anger. He wants the government officials responsible for abusing the intelligence and law enforcement apparatus of the federal government prosecuted and punished. In yesterdays interview Nunes discussed the pending criminal referrals he is making to the Department of Justice. Well, we can dream.
American liberals aspire to be Sweden, so conditions in that country are perennially of interest here and elsewhere in the West. Sweden is actually less liberal than most people thinkits tax system, for example, is better and more conservative than oursbut it is true that it has gone all in on refugees. Importing an extraordinary number of Middle Easterners has caused many problems, but reporting on them is controversial. The Swedes discourage it, and the American press is generally happy to oblige.

Malmo is the Swedish city with the largest immigrant population, and the Rosengard neighborhood of Malmo is overwhelmingly immigrant. It has occasionally been reported that there are no go zones in Swedenspecifically, in Malmo neighborhoods like Rosengardbut Swedish authorities have denied it. Snopes was quick to debunk the no go claim, citing Swedish authorities for the proposition that Swedish police will go anywhere.

I am happy to believe that, but the reality is that some refugee-heavy areas of Sweden are too dangerous for most people to venture into. Aftonbladet, one of Swedens principal newspapers, reports, in English via Google Translator:

The international distribution company UPS no longer runs packages in the Malmo district part of Rosengard. Stock Photography. The transport company UPS no longer runs packages in Rosengard in Malmo, for security reasons. Postnord does not deliver packages to another area in Malmo, Seved.

Postnord is the Swedish postal service.

 We must think of our staff in the first place, says Mathias Krummel at Postnord. A person in Malmo who ordered the delivery home to the door received notice from the distribution company UPS that the company no longer supplies to private addresses in the district of Rosengard because of the risk of being exposed to robbery or other crimes, reports Sydsvenskan. An employee at the companys customer service tells the newspaper that the home run in Rosengard was stopped two months ago, when drivers were attacked. Even in some areas in Stockholm, UPS has stopped the delivery of parcels. The stop will not be forever, but we wait until it feels safe for our drivers, the employee told the newspaper. Temporary stops Postnord delivers packages to Rosengard, but the delivery in the district has been temporarily stopped on some occasions, for the safety of the personnel. Some areas in Stockholm have also had temporary delivery stops in recent years, says Mathias Krummel, head of production in Postnord.  I also know that there has been an opportunity where guards have followed our cars, but then it is more often shorter incidents that have solved themselves, he says. No packages in Seved Today there is only one area in the country where Postnord does not run home packages, and it is Seved in Malmo. There, companies and residents can collect packages at delivery points.  The postmen can go there without being threatened, but if we drive there with the package car they will be threatened. Well, it has to do with the value, what is in the packages, guesses Mathias Krummel. He notes that security issues in some areas affect all companies that drive out goods.  Its really regrettable. We want to drive out and deliver everywhere, but of course we have to think about our staff in the first place.

So the immigrant-heavy areas of Malmo and even Stockholm may not be no go zones for the police, but civilian organizations, like UPS and the Swedish post office, dont dare expose their employees to the risk of violence. That is life in the sort-of-socialist paradise of Sweden.
Last month, Democrats introduced the Equality Act of 2019. It would modify existing civil rights legislation to ban discrimination against LGBTQ people in employment, housing, public accommodations, jury service, education, federal programs, and credit.

It sounds good. No one should favor discriminating in employment, housing, etc. based on sexual orientation, etc.

But there are serious problems with the Equality Act of 2019, such that Republicans should prevent its passage in Congress. That way, President Trump wont be faced with the dilemma of signing bad legislation or alienating a large group of voters by vetoing it.

The central problem with the Equality Act is that it overrides the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). That statute, which protects religious liberty, could no longer be used in the civil rights context.

The gates to anti-discrimination lawsuits against religious believers and institutions would therefore be wide open. As Kristen Wagner, senior vice president of Alliance Defending Freedoms U.S. legal division, put it, the Equality Act would undermine the fundamental freedoms of speech, religion, and conscience that the First Amendment guarantees for every citizen.

This is not an exaggeration. It is confirmed by experience in states that have such legislation. These state laws have been used to shut down Catholic adoption agencies that only place children with a mother (biologically female) and a father (biologically male). They have also been used, famously, to compel people working in the wedding industry, like florists, photographers and bakers, to provide their services for same-sex ceremonies, in violation of their religious conscience and without regard to the availability of such services from vendors who would be happy to provide them.

But thats just the beginning of the mischief. Monica Burke of the Heritage Foundation describes more of it.

The Equality Act would be used to compel speech. Burke explains:

Virginia high school teacher Peter Vlaming lost his job for something he did not say. A county school board voted unanimously to fire the veteran teacher over the objections of his students after he refused to comply with administrators orders to use masculine pronouns in referring to a female student who identifies as transgender. Vlaming did his best to accommodate the student without violating his religious belief that God created human beings male and female, using the students new name and simply refraining from using pronouns altogether. Unfortunately, the school still considered this a violation of its anti-discrimination policy. Incidents like these would increase under federal policy proposed in the Equality Act. Both federal and private employers could face costly lawsuits if they fail to implement strict preferred pronoun policies. Employees could be disciplined if they fail to comply, regardless of their scientific or moral objections.

It might well force medical professionals to act against their best medical judgment:

Under state sexual orientation and gender identity laws, individuals who identify as transgender have sued Catholic hospitals in California and New Jersey for declining to perform hysterectomies on otherwise healthy women who wanted to pursue gender transition. If these lawsuits succeed, medical professionals would be pressured to treat patients according to ideology rather than their best medical judgment. The Obama administration tried to coerce medical professionals into offering transition-affirming therapies through a regulation in. . .Obamacare. That move was stopped in the 11th hour by a federal judge. However, that could all be set back in motion if a national law imposes a nationwide health care mandate regarding gender identity.

It would jeopardize parental rights:

The current issue of the American Journal of Bioethics includes an article arguing that the state should overrule the parents of transgender children who do not consent to give them puberty-blocking drugs. This has already happened. In Ohio, a judge removed a biological girl from her parents custody after they declined to help her transition to male with testosterone supplements. After the Cincinnati Childrens Hospitals Transgender Health Clinic recommended these treatments for the girls gender dysphoria, the parents wanted to pursue counseling instead. Then the countys family services agency charged the parents with abuse and neglect, and the judge terminated their custody. Similar cases are proceeding through the courts with children as young as 6 years old. . .A federal sexual orientation and gender law would make these cases more common. Meanwhile, studies show that 80 to 95 percent of children no longer experience gender dysphoria after puberty. Politicizing medicine could have serious consequences for children who are exposed to the unnecessary medical risks of drastic therapies.

It would likely increase sexual assault:

A complaint under investigation by federal education officials alleges that a boy who identifies as gender fluid at Oakhurst Elementary School in Decatur, Georgia, sexually assaulted Pascha Thomas 5-year-old daughter in a girls restroom. The boy had access to the girls restroom because of Decatur City Schools transgender restroom policy. School authorities refused to change the policy even after Thomas reported the assault. Eventually, she decided to remove her daughter from school for the girls emotional well-being and physical safety. A federal sexual orientation and gender identity law would give male sexual predators who self-identify as females access to private facilities, increasing the likelihood of these tragic incidents. It could also make victims less likely to report sexual misconduct and police less likely to get involved, for fear of being accused of discrimination. The proposed Equality Act could impose a nationwide bathroom policy that would leave women and children in particular vulnerable to predators.

The Equality Act will breeze through the House. However, its likely to fail in the Senate. Sen. Susan Collins has said shes in favor of the Act, and I suspect that several other GOP Senators favor it, as well. Fortunately, Majority Leader McConnell will probably prevent a vote.

If he does, the issue presumably will be used against him when he seeks reelection next year. Most Americans oppose denying people jobs and benefits due to their sexual orientation.

But McConnell should be able to explain that the Equality Act goes much further, imposing requirements that most Americans dont support. He should also be able to explain that if the Democrats really wanted to end true discrimination  the kind most Americans find objectionable  rather than imposing a radical LGBTQ ideology on America, they would not have included an override of RFRA in their bill.
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VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / April 8, 2019 / Viridium Pacific Group Ltd. ("Viridium" or the "Company") (TSXV: VIR) (OTC PINK: VIRFF) is pleased to announce its wholly owned subsidiary, EFX Laboratories Inc. ("EFX"), a contract manufacturer of cannabis oil capsules, has commenced medical two-piece capsule sales through its partnership with Broken Coast Cannabis Ltd. ("BCC") a wholly owned subsidiary of Aphria Inc. ("Aphria") (TSX: APHA and NYSE: APHA) available to BCC medical clientele via their online sales portal.Under the terms of the agreement between EFX and Aphria, the agreement enables EFX to provide commercial manufacturing services with a revenue sharing structure on the medical two-piece capsule containing various THC and CBD concentrations.The first available product under the partnership structure is a 5mg tetrahydrocannabinol ("THC") capsule using a custom blend of BCC high-quality THC strains. This product offering gives medical clients a dose-controlled, predictive, tasteless, odorless, and discreet option of consuming cannabis oil. Additionally, the whole-flower, full spectrum capsule is one of the only available in the Canadian cannabis market resulting in a unique selling position. Commercial production is now underway and the product is available on Broken Coast and Aphria's website for their registered patients to purchase."The realization of a commercial medical pill is a significant milestone for EFX and a step toward our vision to provide the market value added products," stated Jay Garnett, Viridium's CEO.EFX is a Canadian biotech company located in Calgary focused on medical cannabis applications and treatments and has developed several proprietary formulations for pain control, as well as a suite of value-added wellness products. Key products of EFX include a proprietary two-piece pill for postoperative pain control actively being prepared for a phase III clinical trial and over 50 market tested wellness formulas and products ranging from creams, tinctures, sprays and oils.About ViridiumViridium Pacific Group Ltd. is the parent company of Experion Biotechologies Inc., a Health Canada licensed cultivation and processor of cannabis, based in Mission, BC and EFX labs, a medical products production and clinical research company based out of Calgary, AB.Viridium is invested in a portfolio of products including a full spectrum of consumer needs, including products for Adult use, wellness and therapeutic daily use.More information about Viridium can be found under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com For further information:Viridium Pacific Group Ltd.Jarrett MalnarichTel: (604) 837-8688info@ viridiumpacific.com DisclosureThis press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws. Although the Company believes that such information is reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct.Forward looking information is typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, forecast, postulate and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking information provided by the Company are not guarantees of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward looking information as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to: the state of the financial markets for the Company's equity securities; recent market volatility; the Company's ability to raise the necessary capital or to be fully able to implement its business strategies; the risks identified in the Filing Statement, and other risks and factors that the Company is unaware of at this time. The reader is referred to the Filing Statement dated September 25, 2017 and/or the most recent annual and interim Management's Discussion and Analysis for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects, copies of which may be accessed through the Company page on SEDAR at www.sedar.com SOURCE: Viridium Pacific Group Ltd.
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PHOENIX, AZ, / ACCESSWIRE / April 8, 2019 / For The Earth Corporation (the "Company" or "FTEG") (OTC PINK: FTEG), an emerging vertically integrated CBD producer and retailer, is proud to announce the addition of two new CBD products: CBD Sunscreen and CBD Lip Balm.Management believes the CBD skin care space has a faster path to mainstream adoption than most areas of the CBD market. According to hempindustrydaily.com , the demographic of sales for CBD-based skin care products has been expanding beyond the areas that one might expect, including major growth in Midwest states like Iowa, Michigan, and Oklahoma. In addition, the Company believes fewer competing products exist in the sunscreen and lip balm area of the CBD skin care market, suggesting a clear opportunity."It's easy to lose perspective on the stunning boom going on in the CBD space," notes FTEG CEO Nelson Grist. "The numbers are so dramatic that I think a lot of people lose touch with the idea that this is still a very small market gradually evolving from a niche cultist following into a major mainstream goods market. That's going to happen because your next door neighbor starts using CBD products. And we think the gateway products will be the CBD versions of other stuff most mainstream consumers are already familiar with, like skin creams, sunscreens, and lip balm. That's the leading edge of the revolution, and we want to be aggressively positioned for that process as it plays out over coming quarters." Management notes that, following the signing of the 2018 Farm Bill into law in December, estimates for growth in the CBD products market have been ratcheted sharply higher among analysts, pushing anticipated return on investment in CBD well above most all other consumer product niches in terms of growth, according to Brightfield analysts, who see total CBD sales expanding to $22B over the next 3 years.The Company recently acquired leading sunscreen brand, Block and Tackle ( blockandtacklesunscreen.com) , in a deal that included all related assets and formulas. The intellectual property included in that deal now forms the foundation for a series of new CBD-based products for FTEG, including its new sunscreen and lip balm lines. Management believes this co-product development process directly expands the value of the Block and Tackle acquisition by extending that IP into additional product categories.Mr. Grist continued, "In a world where most of our competition is sticking logos on white label material, we are building a brand based on our vertical model, with a reliable guarantee of purity and potency because we will drive the process from end to end. We believe that is a message that can truly differentiate For The Earth for consumers in the health and wellness space." About For The Earth CorporationFor The Earth Corporation is an emerging integrated CBD producer and retailer in the United States. The Company is in the process of establishing a vertical framework that will extend from cultivation to extraction and production to a strategic retail footprint that includes multiple locations in Las Vegas and New York featuring mall kiosks, vending machines, e-commerce, and full store locations serving both the human and pet CBD markets. Two mall leases have been signed recently in Las Vegas, with another vending machine location secured in New York City. The Company plans to expand its New York vending machine penetration by the end of 2019. In addition, the Company has begun early-stage work to establish a state-of-the-art CBD extraction and production facility in Eugene, OR.Forward-Looking StatementsExcept for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this press release are forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements and are subject to risks and uncertainties. See For The Earth's filings with OTC Markets, which may identify specific factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements.Safe Harbor StatementThis release includes forward-looking statements, which are based on certain assumptions and reflect management's current expectations. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations. Some of these factors include: general global economic conditions; general industry and market conditions, sector changes and growth rates; uncertainty as to whether our strategies and business plans will yield the expected benefits; increasing competition; availability and cost of capital; the ability to identify and develop and achieve commercial success; the level of expenditures necessary to maintain and improve the quality of services; changes in the economy; changes in laws and regulations, including codes and standards, intellectual property rights, and tax matters; or other matters not anticipated; our ability to secure and maintain strategic relationships and distribution agreements. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.Press & Media Inquiries:EHC Branding AgencyInfo@ EHCBrandingAgency.com (626) MJ-BRANDCorporate Contact:For The Earth Corporation20 East Thomas Rd.Phoenix, AZ 85012 USAContact: Nelson GristTelephone: 602 612-8300Email: info@ ftegco.com SOURCE: For The Earth Corporation
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This report titled as Electronic Warfare Market gives a brief about the comprehensive research and an outline of its growth in the market globally. It states about the significant market drivers, trends, limitations and opportunities to give a wide-ranging and precise data and also scrutinizes its growth in the overall markets development which is needed and expected. Additionally, it analyzes the facets that distresses the market globally, to further make an appropriate choice on its dissection.Electronic warfare is any action involving the use of the electromagnetic spectrum or directed energy to control the spectrum, attack an enemy, or impede enemy assaults. The purpose of electronic warfare is to deny the opponent the advantage of, and ensure friendly unimpeded access to, the EM spectrum. Global Electronic Warfare Market is expected to grow with a CAGR of +4% during forecast period 2019-2025.Get Sample Copy of this Report @Top Key Players:BAE Systems plc,L-3 Communications Holdings Inc., Raytheon Co., Saab AB, Teledyne Defence Ltd., Airbus Group, Chemring Group plc, Cobham plc, DRS Technologies Inc.The report starts by giving away an industry synopsis of the Electronic Warfare Market in the global regions such as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. This segment states the past and presents position of the market and is also mentioned in the above areas. The significant applications or end users of the market have also been mentioned in this sector of the study. Growing fondness of consumer towards refining their artistic presence is a leading factor fuelling the expansion of this market is clearly defined.Enquiry before Buying:The competitive landscape of the Electronic Warfare Market has been examined on the basis of market share analysis of key players. Detailed market data about these factors is expected to help vendors take strategic decisions that can strengthen their positions in the market and lead to more effective and larger stake in the global market. Pricing and cost teardown analysis for products and service offerings of key players has also been undertaken for the study.Key questions answered in the report include: What will be the market size and the growth rate by the end of the forecast period? What are the key Electronic Warfare Market trends impacting the growth of the market? What are the potential growth opportunities and threats faced by the leading competitors in the market? What are the key outcomes of Porters five forces analysis and the SWOT analysis of the key players functioning in the global Electronic Warfare Market? This report gives all the information regarding industry Overview, analysis and revenue of this marketGet Upto 40% discount@
Volume sales of MTBE across the globe are estimated to exceed 35,000 thousand tons by 2026-end

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Methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) seeks widespread adoption as a fuel additive in gasoline engines on the coattails of its property of high oxygen content raising. MTBE is used in industrial engines as it enables complete combustion of fuel, while reducing knocking in the engine, thereby improving lifespan of machinery. MTBE also seek extensive employment in the automotive industry, as it helps in curtailing emissions from vehicles. Medical applications of MTBE have witnessed a tremendous surge, for example  MTBE is increasingly utilized for dissolving gallstones.Request a sample of this premium report @ https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=521 Processing of methyl tertiary-butyl ether for extracting isobutylene is a major trend observed in the market. Isobutylene is widely utilized for manufacturing butyl rubber, methyl methacrylate, and poly-isobutylene, which seek tremendous applications in various end-use industries such as electronics, manufacturing, industrial and automotive. Refining companies have been considering employment of methyl tertiary-butyl ether as a fuel additive in light of its excellent blending characteristics and economic viability. However, stringent regulations implemented with regard to groundwater contamination through gasoline leakages that contain MTBE will prevail as a major restraining factor for adoption of MTBE in the near future.According to a recent analytical research report developed by Fact.MR , the global methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) market will exhibit a value CAGR of 4.7% between the forecast period, 2017 and 2026. Volume sales of MTBE across the globe are estimated to exceed 35,000 thousand tons by 2026-end.APEJ to Lead Global MTBE MarketIn terms of value, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) will continue to lead the global methyl tertiary-butyl market. China and India are major MTBE consumers in the region owing to presence of a large number of vehicles these countries. Additionally, environmental protection policies in APEJ are relatively less stringent, which in turn abodes well for penetration of MTBE in the region. Europe and North America will also prevail as major markets for methyl tertiary-butyl ether, in terms of value. There has been a steady expansion of the refinery sector in these regions since the recent past. Anti-knocking properties of MTBE suits well to reduce wear & tear of the heavy-duty machinery in this sector.Reformulation of gasoline by using MTBE as a fuel additive, owing to its great oxygen content raising property, has been a trending practice witnessed worldwide. Reformulated gasoline seeks extensive adoption in the marine and oil & gas sector. According to the report, MTBE will witness the largest application in reformulated gasoline during the forecast period.Access Detailed Report Summary: https://www.factmr.com/report/521/methyl-tertiary-butyl-ether-market Oil & gas industry will continue to be the largest revenue contributing end-use industry to the global MTBE market, mainly driven by surging demand for gasoline & its additives in the industry. Based on product type, oxygenating agent will account for the lions share of the market throughout the forecast period.Competition TrackingOccupancy of numerous key suppliers is a major factor responsible for the fragmented nature of the global methyl tertiary-butyl ether market. Leading players in the market have prominent geographical presence coupled with enormous production facilities situated in countries including The U.S. and China. Growing demand for MTBE across various end-use industries has intensified the competition among players, compelling them to develop and offer high-quality products at competitive prices.
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BRIDGEWATER, NS / ACCESSWIRE / April 8, 2019 / Silver Spruce Resources Inc. ("Silver Spruce" or the "Company") (TSX-V: SSE) (Frankfort: S6Q1) is pleased to announce that Croesus Gold Corp. announced that it entered a Letter of Intent for a proposed Qualifying Transaction to become listed on the TSXV via reverse takeover. The completion of the transaction ensures that Silver Spruce will receive $100,000 cash payment and receive $250,000 worth of shares of the new company once it is listed. These cash and share payments were terms of the sale of the Kay Mine project to Croesus (please see the Company's news release of January 30, 2019)."The Croesus announcement is a positive step toward bolstering our balance sheet and increasing our diversity of assets. We believe the historic resource at the Kay Mine to be robust in grade and open to expansion, with significant exploration activities. We extend best wishes to Croesus as they advance on the project," stated Karl Boltz, CEO of Silver Spruce.The full text of the Croesus announcement on MarketWatch can be found at this link:About Silver Spruce Resources Inc.Silver Spruce Resources Inc. is a Canadian junior exploration company pursuing development of the Pino De Plata project, located in the prolific Sierra Madre Occidental region of western Chihuahua State in Mexico. The Company also holds an indirect interest in the Kay Mine project according to terms of the sale agreement with Croesus Gold Corp., which was announced in the Company's news release on January 30, 2019. Silver Spruce Resources Inc. continues to investigate opportunities that Management has identified or that have been presented to the Company for consideration.Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. The company seeks Safe Harbour.Contact:Silver Spruce Resources Inc.Karl Boltz, President/CEO/Director(866) 641-3397info@ silverspruceresources.com SOURCE: Silver Spruce Resources Inc.
Robust Investments in Mining & Construction to Place North America at the Forefront of Spray Polyurea Elastomers Market

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Demand for spray polyurea elastomers market is expected to remain considerable in the forthcoming years, owing to rapid industrialization and surging investments by leading players in developing nations on account of cheap labor. Industrialization growth has propelled emission of gases that have significant hazards to the environment, which in turn leads to wear & tear of surface coatings in residential as well as commercial building structures. Considering this concern, specialty coatings manufacturers have placed a greater emphasis on development of spray polyurea elastomers with improved performance attributes and elimination of VOCs.Request a sample of this premium report @ https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=717 Fact.MR has recently published a new report on the global polyurea elastomer market, which offers accurate forecasts on the market for the period between 2017 and 2026. This report is a definite source of information that imparts intelligence on recent market dynamics, industry trends, potential markets, technology developments & advancements, and product innovation coupled with extensive regional market coverage.A comprehensive data analysis on the global polyurea elastomer market is delivered in the report, in order to help the clients in gaining a competitive edge and attracting potential customers. The report further aid in better understanding of the industry structure, and offers evaluations on the competition intensity attractiveness. Business strategists can leverage the intelligence offered in the report regarding latest opportunities and trends impacting the market expansion to make fact-based decisions for their businesses.Robust Investments in Mining & Construction to Place North America at the Forefront of Spray Polyurea Elastomers MarketCorrosion protection and abrasion resistance attributes of spray polyurea elastomers have been driving their demand in mining-related equipment and facilities. Erosion protection, waterproofing, and concrete surface protection are other key characteristics of polyurea that have fuelled their adoption in the construction sector. With robust balance sheets across the mining sector, miners in North America are adhering to an investment-led approach, which in turn has given birth to a renewed focus on constructing portfolios that lead to sustainable shareholder returns.President Trumps recent orders for reducing the dependency on imported imperative minerals is highly likely to spark activity by the U.S. miners for considering exploration assets both inside and outside of the region, along with upstream & downstream collaborative ventures. In addition, major mining companies are eyeing investment in Canadas gold mining sector that provides immense government support and a favorable macroeconomic environment.Access Detailed Report Summary: https://www.factmr.com/report/717/spray-polyurea-elastomers-market Future seems promising for construction firms in the U.S., driven primarily by trends such as building information modelling (BIM), internet of things (IoT), and proliferation of ecommerce with regard to construction & building materials. The Canadian economy witnessed significant deceleration on the coattails of decreased commodities and oil prices. Despite external challenges, the government in Canada made infrastructure spending of nearly US$ 11.9 Bn for social infrastructure, public transit infrastructure, and housing, and these projects are expected to witness completion by 2019-end.Such robust investments in the mining and construction sector in North America point at the regions dominance with regard to adoption of spray polyurea elastomers in the upcoming years. According to a new Fact.MR research study, the global spray polyurea elastomers market is set to record a splendid 10.2% value CAGR between the period of forecast 2017 and 2026. Over 291,000 tons of spray polyurea elastomers are expected to be sold worldwide by 2026-end.Polyurea elastomer Market: Competitive Landscape AssessmentIn its concluding chapter, the report quantifies revenues share of prominent companies in the global polyurea elastomer market, and offers an in-depth overview of the markets competitive scenario. A detailed description has been delivered on all the market players profiled in the report, which includes intelligence in terms of their company overview, key financials, product overview, past as well as latest developments.A SWOT analysis has been offered on each market player incorporated in the report, along with information on their new product developments, and market expansion strategies such as collaborations and partnerships. The scope of the report is offer its readers with authentic information and insights on the global polyurea elastomer market, to enable them in making better future decisions for growth of the businesses.Polyurea elastomer Market: Taxonomy and Segmentation AnalysisThis report also offers a scrutinized study on the global market for polyurea elastomer in terms of a segmentation analysis. The market has been divided into 4 key segments, namely, by raw material, application, product type, and region. These segments have been analyzed in detail, engulfing market forecasts and estimates at a country and regional level. The market has been regionally segmented into Middle East & Africa (MEA), Japan, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), and North America.
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SAN FRANCISCO / ACCESSWIRE / April 8, 2019 / StratifiCare Inc, a spinoff from the National University of Singapore (NUS), is revolutionizing how patients are managed and treated in the world. Their flagship product, StratifiDen, is the world's first Dengue prognostic test. Government, insurers, and hospitals are lauding the early results of the StratifiDen test, given its ability to predict the risk of Severe Dengue (SD) more accurately than existing methods.StratifiCare is now raising its US Seed fund of US$2 Mn to scale its Clinical Trials and operations, with its sights set on the global Dengue diagnostic market and FDA as the gold standard regulatory approval for the sector. StratifiCare was awarded the highly competitive Startup Singapore Tech Award by Enterprise Singapore, the government agency championing enterprise development and commercialization of proprietary technology solutions.Anthony Chua, CEO, StratifiCare, Inc.Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral infection described as a "fast-emerging pandemic-prone" disease by the World Health Organization (WHO), with 96 million suffering from symptomatic Dengue infections annually. An important challenge in the management of Dengue is how to accurately predict early in the disease, which patients will go on to experience Severe Dengue: Severe plasma leakage, hemorrhage, and organ impairment.WHO reports that while 96 million people have symptomatic Dengue infections every year, only 500,000 progressed to develop SD and required hospitalization. 2.5% of these die from the disease. Globally, this has a US$ 8.9 Bn socioeconomic costs to society.Due to the lack of a prediction test, Dengue outbreaks overload hospitals with too many non-severe Dengue patients and limits resources available for patients who are progressing into (other) severe conditions, putting lives at risk.The global incidence of dengue has grown dramatically in recent decades. WHO estimates that half of the world's population is now at risk. A number that tallies more than 3.9 billion people, in 128 countries.To control the spread of Dengue, reduce the number of deaths and its re-occurrence in the future, governments across the world have adopted various comprehensive Dengue control policies that focus on prevention and cure. The multi-pronged efforts for Dengue control include the provision of diagnosis and treatment facilities for Dengue fever at all health centers and the adoption of preventive measures. In countries such as Brazil, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines, they have set up their own national programs such as the National Dengue Prevention and Control Program. The World Mosquito Program, formerly known as Eliminate Dengue, is also helping to protect the global population from mosquito-borne diseases. Such interventions are boosting the global Dengue testing market all over the world.Statistically to date, the average hospital stay for a Dengue patient is 10 days, with an average patient liability of one month's salary. Through the use of StratifiDen, this burden can be reduced down to a maximum of one day for non-severe Dengue patients, allowing them to rest and recuperate at home.AXA Partners sees a strong future in the StratifiDen Dengue prognostic test and has entered into a Letter of Intent for Partnership with the company, pending the regulatory approval of the product.Thibault Demoures, Asia Head of Health Solutions Development of AXA Partners Asia comments, "AXA Partners is a 3rd party insurance administrator and we help to manage the policies of over 100 insurers in Asia. Our mandate is to maximize health outcomes for patients while containing medical costs for payers. The Dengue prognostic test offered by StratifiCare, aligns with our focus. With over 2 million customers in Malaysia, high medical costs due to Dengue represent a significant business challenge. With the implementation of StratifiDen, we foresee substantial overall savings in claims for the Dengue disease in general. This test could effectively shorten the hospitalization period of the majority of Dengue patients." StratifiDen uses a combination of proprietary biomarkers on a common laboratory test platform. Preliminary data demonstrated its value by offering the highest sensitivity (90%) and specificity (91%) reported. The Dengue prognostic technology has been currently undergoing further evaluation in a Singapore government-funded clinical trial since October 2018.StratifiCare has obtained worldwide exclusive rights to commercialize the Dengue prognostic technology. The patent has been granted in Australia and filed under national phase in four of the hardest hit Dengue countries.Dr. Anthony Chua, CEO of StratifiCare, comments, "Today, StratifiDen is delivered as a clinical laboratory test. We also plan to release this as a point-of-care test (POCT) kit, putting it into the hands of consumers in remote locations, without the need for a testing lab. This can be attractive for markets like Africa, Northern Australia, Brazil, Island Nations, and India, where patients are based far from hospitals and diagnostic facilities. A POCT complemented by telemedicine can further help to reduce the financial burden on families and payers, where distance is a challenge." Government tendering and partnerships between diagnostic kit manufacturers are expected to provide long-term opportunities to StratifiCare in the Dengue testing market. Governments in Latin America and Asia-Pacific are laying emphasis to eradicate diseases that have a higher infection rate by providing free diagnosis tests and medication to the underprivileged with the help of various government-funded programs. However, in order to achieve these objectives, the local authorities need a constant supply of related diagnostic kits.Scientists at the University of Florida have predicted that up to 1 billion additional people - including many in North America, East Asia, and Europe - could be exposed to mosquito-carried viruses including Dengue and Zika by 2080 if the climate continues to warm at current rates.Low awareness in emerging nations and high under-diagnosis rates restrain the market at present. Rising awareness about symptoms for Dengue fever and increasing government initiatives to provide better health care facilities are expected to provide ample opportunities for the market. The global Dengue testing market was valued at US$451.6 Mn in 2017 and is forecast to reach US$739.4 Mn in 2025, with a CAGR of 6.4 %.ABOUT STRATIFICARE:StratifiCare Inc was founded as a spin-off from the National University of Singapore
Weekly trading on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) resumed on Monday on bearish note with the market capitalisation dropping below N11 trillion mark amid price loses by some blue chips.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the market capitalisation dipped by N171 billion or 1.54 per cent to close at N10.955 trillion from the N11.124 trillion achieved on Friday.

Also, the All-Share Index, which opened at 29,616.38, shed 454.14 or 1.53 per cent to close at 29,162.24.

Ambrose Omordion, the Chief Operating Officer, InvestData Ltd., attributed the recent bearish tend to low liquidity and poor investor confidence.

Mr Omordion said that ongoing volatility would continue as investors and fund managers rebalanced their portfolios with eyes on the political space and ongoing full year company earnings and post-election market dynamics.

With the price of major blue chips continuing to drop in recent weeks, we expect speculative trading to shape the markets direction in this trading week despite the seeming negative outlook.

The volatility witnessed last week was driven by traders and investors repositioning ahead of dividend declarations by major listed companies, he said.

Mr Omordion said that investors should review their positions in line with their investment goals, strength of companys numbers and act as events unfold in the global and domestic environment.

Mobil led the price gainers table during the day, increasing by N1 to close at N171 per share.

Eterna followed with a gain of 25k to close at N4.25, while Learn Africa appreciated by 11k to close at N1.34 per share.

Caverton gained 8k to close at N2.60, while Neimeth added 5k to close at 56k per share.

Conversely, Dangote Cement recorded the highest price loss of N3.50 to close at N185.50 per share.

Stanbic IBTC trailed with a loss of N3.05 to close at N43.20, while Guinness was down by N2.45 to close at N60 per share.

GTB lost N1 to close at N34, while Union Bank shed 50k to close at N8.50 per share.

In spite of drop in two market indicators, the volume of shares transacted improved by 13.63 per cent, while value of shares increased by 50.71 per cent.

Consequently, investors exchanged 455.88 million shares valued at N5.26 billion shares in 3,993 deals.

This was in contrast to the 401.19 million shares worth N3.49 billion exchanged in 3,575 deals on Friday.

Sterling Bank was the most active stock, trading 93.42 million shares valued at N242.19 million.

GTB followed with 78.33 million shares worth N2.66 billion, while Triple Gee traded 60 million shares valued at N42 million.

Zenith Bank exchanged 26.64 million shares worth N540.69 million, while Access Bank sold 24.89 million shares valued at N140.08 million.

(NAN)
The Federal Government on Saturday signed a $523,823 (N186 million) technical assistant agreement grant with the Islamic Development Bank (ISDB) Group, in Marrakesh, Morocco.

A Finance Ministry statement on Sunday said Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed, signed on Nigerias behalf, while the president of the ISDB Group, Bandar Hajjar, signed on behalf of the Group.

The deal was sealed at the 44th ISDB Group Annual Meeting in Marrakesh, Morrocco on the theme, Transformation In A Fast Changing World: The Road To SDGs.

At the signing ceremony, the Minister said the TA agreement grants would be used to address capacity building/equipment and logistics upgrade in the Hajj Commission.

Besides, she said the grant will also be used for the improvement of cotton, textile and garment value chain in the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.

The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), she said, will get $243,823 while the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment will get $280,000.

The Technical Assistant Agreement Grant of $243,823.0 to the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria for capacity building/equipment and logistics upgrade.

TA grant of $280,000 to the Federal Ministry of Industry Trade and Investment for the improvement of cotton, textile and garment value chain.

Meanwhile, the Minister told participants at the conference that state governments in Nigeria are doing their best to boost agriculture and food production.

State governments in Nigeria are adopting cluster farming which has eased access to funds by farmers, increased growth and allows access to facilities without collateral, she said.
Ace Nigerian rapper, Eedris Abdulkareem, has reacted to the upsurge in killings and kidnappings in Zamfara State by bandits.

Writing on Instagram on Sunday, the Jaga Jaga crooner urged the federal government to go after illegal mining operators in the state, their couriers, and middlemen whom he claimed are based in Dubai.

The government recently banned all mining activities in the state, saying their activities were causing part of the insecurity.

The 45-year-old rapper said a powerful cartel was behind the illegal mining activities.

He wrote, People in Zanfara are being killed for gold while a blind eye is being turned. Go to Dubai; many shops are owned by Nigerians. They are the major businesses supplying this gold.

While going after the bandits, go after those in charge of the sites, their couriers and middlemen in Dubai. The trail is long and the links strong. Hope the political will is there, he said.

Describing the incident as another Blood Diamond movie, Eedris noted that there was a ready market for the illegally mined gold in Dubai.

What is happening in Zamfara is illegal mining, the gold is smelted locally and ferried to Dubai through the local gold merchants in our markets. They are recorded as scrapped gold extracted from jewellery bought from our women and recycled.

It is a big cartel making millions of dollars off the blood of the innocent. This is another Blood Diamond reality movie in the making.

Meanwhile, 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, leaving deaths and mayhem in their wake.
British Prime Minister, Theresa May, will travel to Berlin and Paris on Tuesday to discuss Britains request for a delay to the date for its departure from the regional bloc, her spokesman said on Monday.

Mrs May will travel to Berlin and Paris on Tuesday, a day before a critical EU summit to discuss Britains request for a delay.

The prime minister will hold talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron in push to delay Brexit date, which has been pushed back from March 29 to April 12.

The prime minister is due to visit Germany first and then travel to France, the spokesman said.

She wants to push back the Brexit date from April 12 to June 30.

Mrs May is also expected to speak by phone to many other European leaders ahead of Wednesdays EU summit, when she is expected to seek a second extension to Britains exit date from the EU, the spokesman added.

Britains impasse over Brexit casts a cloud of uncertainty over EU leaders meeting for emergency talks in Brussels on Wednesday.

The leaders from 27 EU member states are frustrated with all the Brexit wrangling.

They have agreed that April 12 will be the UK exit date, if by then Mrs May still has not got the withdrawal agreement passed by parliament.

Mrs Mays Brexit deal has been rejected by parliament three times since January.

Michel Barnier, the EUs chief Brexit negotiator, is in Dublin for talks with the Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar.

They are expected to discuss developments in London, as well as ongoing planning for a possible no-deal scenario.

Last week, the French president said Britain would have chosen a no-deal exit on its own, if its prime minister would not propose a credible alternative plan backed by the majority by April 10.

Under pressure to find majority support for her deal to leave the European bloc, Mrs May had to set out future plans to the EU this week, under the terms given by the bloc for the first Brexit extension which is set to end on April 12.

As no withdrawal agreement has been approved yet by British lawmakers, Mrs May asked for a second delay to June 30.

EU leaders will meet on April 10 to decide on whether to give Britain an extension and how long it could be.

(Xinhua/NAN)
Zimbabwe is to start paying compensation to thousands of white farmers who lost land under former president, Robert Mugabes land reform nearly two decades ago by the April ending.

The government seeks to bring closure to a highly divisive issue, by this act.

Two decades ago, Mr Mugabes government carried out, at times, violent evictions of 4,500 white farmers and redistributed the land to around 300,000 black families, arguing it was redressing imbalances from the colonial era.

But land reform still divides public opinion as opponents see it as a partisan process that left the country struggling to feed itself.

The president, Emmerson Mnangagwas government sees the paying of compensation to white farmers as key to mend ties with the West. It has set aside 17.5 million dollars in this years budget to that end.

The initial payments will target those in financial distress, while full compensation will be paid later.

The registration process and list of farmers should be completed by the end of April 2019, after which the interim advance payments will be paid directly to former farm owners, Zimbabwes ministries of finance and agriculture said in a joint statement on Monday.

They said the process to identify and register farmers for compensation was being undertaken the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) and a committee representing the farmers.

A committee comprising government officials and former farm owners is currently valuing improvements made on the farms. That process should end next month and will determine the full amount due to the farmers.

The government, which maintains it will only pay compensation for infrastructure and improvements on farms and not for the land, is talking to international financial institutions on options to raise the full amount to pay farmers.

Colonialists seized some of the best agricultural land and much of it remained in the hands of white farmers after independence in 1980, while many blacks were landless.

(Reuters/NAN)
Former Romanian President Ion Iliescu was officially charged with crimes against humanity by the countrys top prosecutor on Monday as it finalised an inquiry into the chaotic and bloody anti-communist revolution of 1989.

Mr Iliescu, 89, has repeatedly said he is innocent.

He enjoyed widespread popularity after the revolt against dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, who was deposed and executed in December 1989.

Nevertheless, hundreds of people died in the ouster and Mr Iliescus opponents accused him of stealing the revolution from the people.

The completion of this case by our military prosecutors is one of the most important goals in the management project I assumed publicly three years ago: to solve Romanias historical files, General Prosecutor Augustin Lazar told reporters.

No date was set for trial.

The official indictment on April 2 came after prosecutors accused Mr Iliescu in 2018 of masterminding the formation of a group in December 1989, with the aim of gaining power and political legitimacy.

Prosecutors said using statements and television the group engaged in broad and complex misleading activities of diversion and misinformation after Ceausescu fled the capital on December 22, 1989.

Under the scheme, a general terrorism psychosis was fueled, triggering fratricidal fire, chaotic shootings and contradictory military orders, that led to the death of 862 people and the wounding of another 2,150 after Ceausescu left.

About 13 million bullets were used by troops.

The conviction and hastily assembled execution of Mr Ceausescu and his wife Elena was also part of the scheme pursued in a simulated criminal trial, on December 25, 1989, prosecutors said.

Mr Iliescu was confirmed as interim president by a temporary parliament in February 1990.

As candidate of the National Salvation Front, he won 85 per cent of a ballot in May 1990, an overwhelming vote of confidence in a man who had stepped into the spotlight only five months earlier in the confusion of revolution.

His critics at home and abroad accuse Mr Iliescu, who stepped down in 2004, and other leading politicians of trying to block reform and protect the political heritage and ruling elite of the Communist system.

Mr Iliescu, the Moscow-educated son of a railwayman, is also on trial together with former Prime Minister, Petre Roman, on charges of crimes against humanity over the crushing of peaceful anti-government protests in Bucharest in June 1990 in which four people were killed.

He had undergone heart surgery and doctors said he was in stable condition.

Before Mr Ceausescus overthrow, Mr Iliescu had at one point been youth minister and an official in the Communist Party but fell foul of Mr Ceausescu after the dictator became impressed with the Chinese example during a 1968 visit to Beijing.

He re-aquired ministerial rank as head of Prices Commission but his star declined in 1984 after an argument with one of Mr Ceausescus relatives.

(Reuters/NAN)
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has called on Nigeria and other countries to improve access of their citizens to essential health service.

The Director-General of WHO, Tedros Ghebreyesus, said this in a statement issued by the organisation to mark the 2019 World Health Day. The day is celebrated every April 7.

Mr Ghebreyesus said it is unacceptable that half of the worlds population cannot access essential health services.

The director-general said WHO was born on 7 April 1948 with a clear and ambitious vision: a world in which all people enjoy the highest attainable standard of health.

He said although enormous progress has been made in recent years against some of the worlds leading causes of death and disease, much work still has to be done to realise WHOs vision.

Today, millions of women give birth without help from a skilled attendant; millions of children miss out on vaccinations against killer diseases, and millions suffer and die because they cant get treatment for HIV, TB, and malaria.

In 2019, this is simply unacceptable, he said.

Mr Ghebreyesus called for a strong and sustainable primary health care, saying it is the bedrock of universal health coverage.

He said the primary health care system is the best defence against outbreaks and other health emergencies.

The good news is that there is a growing movement to address these inequalities.

Although there will always be outbreaks and other disasters with health consequences, investing in stronger health systems can help to prevent or mitigate them, he said.

In Sustainable Development Goals, the world has committed to achieving universal health coverage (UHC) by 2030.

Speaking in a similar vein, WHO Officer in Charge in Nigeria, Rex Mpazange, said the global health body is committed to working with the Nigerian government to achieve universal health coverage.

The international health agency acknowledged the actions taken by Nigeria towards UHC in terms of population coverage, financial risk protection, and physical access to essential healthcare especially to those in need.

Mr Mpazange said the National Health Act, 2014, and the National Health Policy, 2016, provide the legal and policy frameworks for the realisation of UHC as a key agenda of the government.

He said it also serves as the impetus for the community and civil society action to demand health as a fundamental human right.

It is noteworthy that Nigeria has prioritized Primary Health Care Revitalisation as the main strategy towards achieving UHC. This is encapsulated in the Basic Health Care Provision Fund which is the health financing approach that should ensure progress towards UHC in Nigeria.

In this regard. the efforts of the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory in establishing Health Insurance and contributory schemes to reduce the existing very high Out of Pocket Expenditure and catastrophic spending in Nigeria is commendable, he said.

He further explained that the WHO as a member state organisation has deployed her expertise and mandate in supporting Nigeria towards UHC.

Key to this support is the deployment of the Regional UHC Flagship approach in the development of the Nigeria UHC Framework in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health and other partners, he said.

The Nigeria UHC Framework is derived from the second National Strategic Health Development Plan which provides responses and interventions to mitigate challenges that have been identified on Nigerias way towards UHC.

My belief is that the implementation of this Framework by Government with support from WHO and other partners will go a long way in improving the health services and outcomes, he added.
The death toll of Nigerians killed in South Africa has continued to rise with another two becoming the latest victims of xenophobic attacks in that country.

The latest victims were stabbed to death in Johannesburg and Cape Town on Friday and Saturday respectively.

The Assistant Public Relations Officer, Nigeria Union in South Africa, Odefa Ikele, confirmed the killings in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) from Johannesburg on Monday.

The Nigerian community lost two citizens to gruesome murders over the weekend.

Mr Bonny Iwuoha, 48, from Ihitte/Uboma in Imo state, was stabbed to death at about 11:45 p.m. on April 6, 2019 in Johannesburg South.

We gathered that his assailants followed him from 152 Hay Street Turffontein, and thereafter, stabbed and killed him in front of his gate at Turf Road, Turffontein.

The killing was witnessed by Mr Izochukwu Nwokocha, also known as, Nwa Father, he said.

Mr Ikele said the killing had been reported and a case of murder opened at Booysens Police Station in Johannesburg South.

He said that another Nigerian, Goziem Akpenyi, also lost his life in similar circumstance on Friday.

Akpenyi was allegedly stabbed to death by three unknown coloured South African men after an argument with the deceased.

The incident took place at Bellville Stadium parking lot in Cape Town at about 1 p.m. on Friday, April 5, 2019.

These latest killings add to four other Nigerians who were shot dead in March. Three of the victims were murdered in Sunnyside, Pretoria and one in Balfour Park, Johannesburg, he said.

Mr Ikele said that NUSA was concerned over the incessant killings of Nigerians and worried that the perpetrators had not been brought to book.

According to him, the arrest and prosecution of the culprits by the South African Police would put to a stop the daily killings of Nigerians.

We call on the Nigerian government to impress on their South African counterpart that the killings have to be investigated and the culprits prosecuted, he appealed. (NAN)
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have accused the minister for transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, of plotting to cause constitutional crisis in the just concluded governorship election in Rivers state.

The PDP also alleged that the minister for justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami is linked in the conspiracy to subvert the will of the people.

The partys national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, made the allegations in a statement on Sunday, in Abuja.

Mr Ologbondiyan also said the party is aware of how desperate the APC leaders are by their mounting pressure on the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Tanko Mohammed, to reverse the February 12, 2019 final judgment of the Supreme Court.

Nigerians can recall that in nullifying the APC primaries and barring it from fielding any candidates in Rivers State for the 2019 general elections, the High Court held, and rightly too, that APCs primaries in the state were invalid and cannot be considered.

Acting upon the final judgment of the Supreme Court, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on February 23, 2019 held the Presidential/National Assembly elections and on March 9, 2019 conducted the governorship and State House of Assembly elections in Rivers state, in which the APC, having been lawfully excluded, did not participate.

Nigerians can also recall how the APC, having been frustrated by its lawful exclusion, used compromised security agents to violently disrupt the smooth conduct of elections in Rivers State.

The Supreme Court on Thursday, adjourned hearing in the four appeals on Rivers State All Progressive Congress (APC) primary election, for nomination of candidates for 2019 general election, until April 8 and 11.

The opposition spokesperson also alleged that prior to the outcome of the governorship election, Mr Amaechi had been going around boasting he has the listening ears of the Acting CJN, Muhammed Tanko, and that the apex court in the land, will reverse itself and declare for fresh conduct of all the elections in Rivers State.

The PDP has information of how Rotimi Amaechi has been going around in Rivers State, giving assurances that he has the ears of the Supreme Court under the leadership of Acting CJN, Justice Tanko Mohammed, and that the Supreme Court will reverse its final judgment on APC Primaries and create the way for fresh elections in Rivers State, in which the APC will be allowed to participate.

Rotimi Amaechi goes about boasting that the apex court in the land, the Supreme Court, will reverse itself and declare for fresh conduct of all the elections in Rivers State.

Mr Ologbondiyan appealed to the acting CJN, Mohammed, not to allow himself be used by desperate politicians in the ruling party to cause anarchy in Rivers State.

The Supreme Court is the highest temple of justice in our country and, as such, must protect itself from all forms of manipulative tendencies of the APC, he said.

Yekini Nabena, the All Progressives Congress (APC) deputy national publicity secretary, in a telephone interview with PREMIUM TIMES, however, debunked the claims, accusing the PDP of always crying foul.

There is nothing like that and the PDP are always crying foul. It is all propaganda. It is the normal PDP propaganda, he added.

Efforts to reach the minister for transportations spokesperson, David Iyofor, was unsuccessful as his known phone number was not reachable as at when this report was filed.
The Supreme Court on Monday struck out a motion seeking to determine the authentic candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the 2019 governorship election in Rivers State.

A seven-member panel of the Court struck out the request after ruling that the manner in which the applicants brought their prayer was incompatible with the laid down procedure for such applications. The judgment was delivered by the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mohammad Tanko.

The applicants are members of the APC in the Magnus Abe faction of the party. The court also said they were wrong in including people who were not part of the matter before the case arrived the Supreme Court.

The court added that the time allowed for such applications was 14 days after the date the case was determined at the lower court.

Mr Tanko added that the decision of the parties to amend their request after 14 days, rendered their application defective.

Consequently, the apex court ruled that the application was lacking in merit and struck it out.

Mr Abe had approached the court to determine whether the candidate produced by his faction or that produced by the Tonye Cole-led faction was the authentic candidate in the election.

His application followed an initial decision of the Supreme Court which affirmed the nullification of the primaries conducted by a faction of the APC.

Background

The Rivers APC has two factions, one loyal to the serving senator, Mr Abe, and another to Transportation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi. While Mr Amaechis faction produced Mr Cole as governorship candidate, Mr Abes faction produced him as the candidate.

On May 11, 2018, a high court in Rivers presided by Chinwendu Nwogu gave an injunction barring the APC from conducting its congress scheduled for the next day.

The party, from the faction loyal to Mr Cole, ignored the injunction and proceeded with the congress on May 12. The party also conducted other congresses where party representatives loyal to Mr Ameachi emerged as candidates for the state elections.

In addition, the factional members challenged the decision in a motion brought before the Appeal Court on May 15.

Following that request, on June 21, 2018, the Court of Appeal affirmed the congresses conducted by the APC and nullified the injunction issued by the High Court.

Dissatisfied, Mr Abes faction challenged the June 21 decision at the Supreme Court.

Consequently, on October 22, the Supreme Court nullified the judgment of the Court of Appeal and questioned the lower court for allowing a request by applicants in breach of an existing court order.

But the APC members led by Mr Cole approached the court with yet another request. Subsequently, on February 4, the Court of Appeal affirmed the candidate of the faction led by Mr Cole as the authentic candidate of APC for the state governorship election.

However, following a further appeal on February 8, Mr Abes faction secured another victory which saw the apex court nullifying the decision of the Court of Appeal on February 4.

The apex court viewed that the appeal court was wrong in its actions and evoked section 22 of the Supreme Court rules which allowed it to revoke decisions termed wrongful by the lower court.

Subsequently, Mr Abe again returned to the Supreme Court with a request for the court to make a final pronouncement on who is the rightful candidate of the party is, in the general elections.

The Court has, however, struck out the request for lacking in merit.

Speaking during an interview with journalists after the ruling, Mr Abes lawyer, Henry Bello, said the Supreme Court decision has taken away their opportunity to determine the authentic candidate of the party in the recent election. He, however, said the applicants are bound by the final decision.
President Muhammadu Buhari has called on world leaders to come up with proposals to create a digital world that is accessible, inclusive and safe to all.

Mr Buhari decried the use of the cyberspace to manipulate elections.

He said Nigeria has taken the lead in cyber policing in West Africa, working with regional and global partners.

In his keynote speech at the 2019 Annual Investment Meeting in Dubai on Monday, Mr Buhari said a certain level of regulation was needed to preserve the integrity of the digital economy.

The theme of the summit is: Mapping the Future of Foreign Direct Investment: Enriching World Economies through Digital Globalization.

Acknowledging that digital globalisation is transforming the world almost every day with innovations and transformative ideas, the Nigerian leader cautioned that the cyber world would remain a constant threat if left unregulated.

The president, according to a statement by his spokesperson , Femi Adesina, decried the use of the cyberspace to manipulate elections, subvert the democratic rights of citizens as well as propagate violence.

He also lamented the steady rise in fake news and cybercrimes, particularly when platforms are hijacked and manipulated by criminals.

Mr Buhari, therefore, called for collective efforts led by both public and private sector leaders to address the emerging threats of digital globalisation.

Today, we have a cyber-world that is intangible but real. This borderless world is powerful, and it impacts the lives of billions of people, no matter how remote their physical locations are.

People work in it. People socialise in it. And people invest in it. This presents enormous opportunities. But it also remains a constant threat if left unregulated.

On the one hand, it has made the human race more productive and more efficient. Today, we have digital banking, virtual currencies and many social platforms that connect people and cultures.

On the other hand, we have seen platforms hijacked and manipulated as evidenced by the steady rise in fake news and cybercrimes.

More recently, we are also witnessing the use of the cyberspace to manipulate elections, subvert the democratic rights of citizens as well as propagate violence.

In effect, the digital world has become the new frontier for both good and evil. Therefore, the challenge for world leaders must be to ensure that this space is inclusive, accessible and safe, the President told the ninth edition of AIM, attended by world leaders in both the public and private sectors.

The President used the occasion to reflect on the digital revolution in Nigeria, buoyed by impressive statistics on mobile phone penetration, technology hubs and the advent of young entrepreneurs attracting investments of over 100 million dollars to the country.

His words: In Nigeria, our mobile phone penetration exceeds eighty per cent. This means the majority of Nigerias one hundred and ninety million citizens are fully connected to this new digital world; especially our youth.

Sixty-five per cent or one hundred and seventeen million Nigerians are under the age of 25 years. These bright minds are the drivers of this emerging digital sector.

Today, Nigeria has close to ninety technology hubs and every day, new ones are coming up and they are all developing solutions for Nigerian, and indeed global problems.

Already, these young entrepreneurs have attracted investments of over one hundred million dollars. A sizeable amount from overseas including Silicon Valley.

As many of you from this region are aware, Nigerian start-ups always have a very impressive outing at the Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX). Many have won prizes.

Mr Buhari told the investment summit that as leaders in the public and private sector it was their responsibility to create the enabling environment for young people to flourish and reach their full potential.

He shared the Nigerian experience:

When we came in 2015, we immediately agreed that any future economic growth must be inclusive. As the Nigerian youth population is fully digitalised, it is clear that the idea of having an inclusive economy cannot be achieved without digital inclusion.

The President announced that Nigeria was working on creating the largest digital database in Africa, with over 30 million Nigerians and legal residents already captured in the countrys digital identity system.

Also, the president highlighted that Nigerias public sector reform programmes, from procurement to payroll to revenue collections, focus on digitising key operations.

He said the recourse to technology and digitisation reinforces the administrations objectives of improving efficiency, accountability and transparency in governance.
The United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) says it is targeting over 501,749 out-of-school children in four northern Nigerian states in its Educate A Child (EAC) programme.

The organisation disclosed this at a two-day media dialogue on Cash Transfers for Improvement of Girls Enrolment in Schools on Monday in Kebbi State.

The EAC was introduced as a funding window to reduce the number of out-of-school children in Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara states by 2020.

Its components, according to UNICEF, include the cash transfer programme (CTP) in addition to other grant opportunities.

Speaking at the media dialogue, the CTP coordinator in Kebbi State, Isah Usman, said over 31,000 pupils in the state are currently being paid N8,000 every academic term to encourage learning.

According to him, CTP was introduced as a social security net to assist the poorest of the poor in accessing education.

The pupils are being given the sum of N24,000 every year through the women caregivers like their mothers to enroll, stay in school and complete their education, he said.

The cash transfer intervention under the EAC aims to reach 41,391 child beneficiaries and their female caregivers in four years: 31,044 in Kebbi State and 10,347 in Zamfara State.

Kebbi and Zamfara states are considered as educationally disadvantaged states in Nigeria. Despite the fact that primary education is officially free and compulsory, there is a high number of out of school children, something this project aims to address, he said.

He said the poverty level of rural community members largely restricts their participation in the education of their children.

Majority of them cannot afford purchases of basic learning materials, not to even support school infrastructural development,  he said.

Similarly, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, said the high number of out-of-school children in the north poses a serious danger to the children and the nation at large.

Mr Mohammed, who was represented by Uche Chuta, an assistant director at the ministry, identified the major causes of the high number of out of school children as poverty, early marriage, illiteracy and teenage pregnancy.

Project Challenges

The CTP coordinator in Kebbi, Mr Usman, also identified the non-release of the fund by Standard Chartered Bank where it was domicile for onward disbursement to states as a major challenge to the project.

Standard Chartered Bank has been a great challenge, the beneficiaries dont get their money paid as a result of delay from the bank. This is affecting our mode of operation because we have to wait for bank agents who sometimes may not show up for payment.

The Kebbi CTP coordinator also said in 2018, the state made the first disbursement of N8,000 per beneficial while the payment of the second and the third tranche which according to him is being delayed by the bank.

The Cash Transfer Programme in Kebbi State is carried out in nine out of the states 21 local government areas.

The nine local government were chosen due to the fact that they have the largest numbers of out of school children, he said.

The nine local governments areas are: Argungu, Bagudu, Dandi, Gwandi, K/Besse, Shanga, D/Wasagu, Maiyawa and Zuru.
The vice chancellor of Lagos State University (LASU), Olanrewaju Fagbohun, is attempting to gag the staff of the institution from discussing the age falsification scandal of the Peter Okebukola, a former executive secretary of the National University Commission.

He described the scandal as a mix-up and said the university was looking into the matter.

A PREMIUM TIMES investigation published last Saturday, revealed that Mr Okebukola, a professor of Science Education at LASU, has three different birth dates  February 17, 1949; February 17, 1948; or February 17, 1951- in the record of the university, which he has used to stay in service beyond his mandatory retirement date.

Documents obtained by this newspaper also implicated Mr Fagbohun, who was a protege of Mr Okebukola, in the age falsification scandal.

Our investigations revealed that the vice chancellor prevented the universitys Academic Staff Establishment division, from taking steps that would have ensured that the former NUC boss was retired in 2016 by withholding the personal file of Mr Okebukola.

Gagging

PREMIUM TIMES has obtained a statement posted by the universitys spokesperson, Ademola Adekola in staff WhatsApp group named: LASU INFO GROUP C, asking staff members not to discuss the revelation in order not to put the university in poor light in public.

The group was created by Mr Adekoya, who heads the universitys Information. Mr Adekoya and Jerry Ogbe are two of the four admininstrators of the group.

The message which was posted at 6:36 am on Monday reads:

Respected Colleagues, good morning. The attention of the Vice Chancellor has been called to a release published in the online edition of the Premium Times concerning mixup in dates on certain documents relating to Distinguished Professor Peter Okebukola. The university authorities have begun a look into the matter and will certainly give a full response. May I therefore implore all staff to kindly desist from remarks that may put our university in poor light in public. I thank you and wish you all a great week ahead  Prof Olanrewaju Fagbohun, SAN,

Vice Chancellor.

A source, who asked not to be named for fear of being victimised by the university vice chancellor, said PREMIUM TIMES original report has gone viral among the university staff and the revelations had rattled the university management, which is now doing everything to keep it under wraps.
The Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, has reiterated the federal governments commitment to ensuring that every Nigerian, irrespective of their location get access to Primary health care services.

Mr Adewole, at a press conference in Abuja on Monday to mark the World Health Day, said the federal government plans to put an end to medical tourism by Nigerians outside the country.

The minister said the government is working tirelessly to reduce medical tourism and ensure that Nigerians get the best health services in the country.

He said the three diseases which usually makes Nigerians seek foreign medical interventions are cancer, kidney and heart issues.

The government is trying to reduce the number of people who leave the shore of the country through the provision of up to date world class equipment, he said.

Mr Adewole said the federal government was supporting medical facilities in Sokoto, Enugu, and Edo states with state of the art equipment.

He said the government was also strategising to ensure that primary health care centres are working at the local government level.

This will enable every Nigerian irrespective of the location to have access to Universal Health Coverage.

For the first time, we are working towards ensuring that money will go from the Central Bank of Nigeria to the federal government, to the state government, and local government for proper implementation and utilisation.

At that same time, we will ensure that all Nigerians have access to the National Health Insurance Scheme, (NHIS). There are so many benefits attached to being part of the NHIS scheme, but most citizens do not know the importance of the health scheme, he said.
The Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo, on Monday met behind closed doors with the Borno South senator, Ali Ndume, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the senator arrived at the villa at about 3:20 pm and went straight to the vice-presidents office for the meeting.

The agenda of the meeting was unknown to State House correspondents.

NAN, however, learnt that it was not unconnected with the forthcoming election of a new leadership for the ninth National Assembly (NASS).

The national leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had earlier enjoined all APC members-elect in the National Assembly to support the partys choice candidates for the leadership positions.

The party has endorsed the candidature of Senator Ahmed Lawan for the seat of Senate President and Femi Gbajabiamila for the position of Speaker of the House Representatives.

But Mr Ndume has continued to insist to contest for the seat of senate president.

(NAN)
An Italian contractor, Marco Zoccoli, has threatened to drag his country into a dispute with a Nigerian businessman, Sani Dangote.

Mr Zoccoli is accusing Mr Dangote of betrayal of trust, rights infringement, and breach of contract.

The development is coming four years after both men entered into a business partnership.

Mr Dangote, a relative of Africas richest man and billionaire Aliko Dangote, is the owner of Dansa Agro-allied Limited, MPS Nigeria Limited, and vice president of the Dangote group.

In several letters to Nigerian authorities and court documents seen by PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Zoccoli accused Mr Dangotes MPS Limited of owing him N30 million.

The Italian also accused Mr Dangote and his company of abusing his fundamental rights by withholding his passport for over two years and threatening to throw him out of Nigeria without full payment for a three-year contract between both parties signed in September 2014.

The Grouse

Mr Zoccoli, who was first introduced to PREMIUM TIMES by his wife, Ijeoma, spoke to this newspaper in an exclusive interview. His wife acted as translator.

According to his accounts, Mr Zoccoli joined Mr Dangotes company after the Nigerian businessman expressed interest in working with him.

I was working in a company, Woodmill, when I met Alhaji Sani Dangote. He invited me over to his office in Lagos and we discussed the proposed contract. After we agreed on the terms of the contracts, I was made to move to Calabar. The contract was for three years, September 2014 to October 2017.

His company, MPS Limited, was involved in the production of timber and they were having issues because, in Calabar, you can only sell finished wooden products. So he approached me to help with the production of wooden doors for the Nigerian market.

I was supposed to be paid 4000 euros as salary per month, with an additional N200,000 for my local upkeep, Mr Zoccoli said.

He said Mr Dangote promised to match the salary in his previous employment with the one he was to be paid in the contract. According to Mr Zoccoli, the Nigerian businessman also promised to increase his salary over time.

However, a few months into his employment Mr Zoccoli said he noticed a disturbing development that attracted several changes in the terms of his contract and personal life.

According to the terms of my contract, I was employed by a company known as MPS Nigeria Limited. However, I was given a work permit which appeared as though I was employed by Dansa Agro Allied Limited, Mr Zoccoli told PREMIUM TIMES.

MPS deals with the production of timber and Dansa Agro Allied deals on plantation. I worked as Managing Director of a branch of the MPS for Mr Dangotes organisation. I also did the concrete work foundation for the installations during the time before the machines for my work was brought, Mr Zoccoli added.

According to Mr Zoccoli, Mr Dangotes company went back on its plan to install some important machines after purchasing the same through the Italian, for over a year.

I brought the machines to Nigeria in January 2015. But rather than move them from the port in Lagos to Calabar, the company left them at the port till 2016.

Not only did they abandon the machines, but they also left them under the heat of the sun and the rain, Mr Zoccoli said.

When the company eventually decided to install the machine, following threats by Mr Zoccoli to resign from the contracts, the Italian said, a majority of the workers had embarked on industrial action because the company had a reputation for owing its workers.

Consequently, Mr Zoccoli said, he was forced to join in offloading the machines with three other staff and ended up with a complication in his spine.

Something happened. I was trying to move away from a coming object when I was hit by another. I went home and massaged the place with balm and hot water, thinking it was mild. But the following day, I could not move. I was taken to the hospital and told that five of my vertebral disc had dislocated, Mr Zoccoli said.

Despite the health challenge, Mr Zoccoli said he continued the work after his treatment at a Lagos teaching hospital which was partly funded by Mr Dangotes company.

During this time, my salary had stockpiled. They would pay me for one month and fail to pay for the next two months. They had also been paying me 50 per cent of the agreed salary, but I told them I would no longer take 50 per cent, he said.

Mr Zoccoli said he agreed to be paid half because the company had suggested that it would start making the full payment when the installation was completed.

Also, Mr Zoccoli explained that the company collected his passport to help him renew it when it was due in 2015. However, the Italian contractor added that Mr Dangotes company refused to return the passport under the guise of maintaining a company policy, Mr Zoccoli said.

He also alleged that the promise for full payment of his salary was not fulfilled by Mr Dangotes MPS Limited. Mr Zoccoli added that weeks after completing the three-year contract, Mr Dangotes company asked him to either renew the contract or be prepared to return to Egypt.

They also made very stringent conditions in the document for renewal of contracts. They slashed my salary and said I would no longer be entitled to an official car, among other things, he said.

The Court Intervenes

Mr Zoccoli said he reacted to the seeming threats by reporting the matter to the Italian embassy and the Nigerian Police Force. That action resulted in a lawsuit instituted by the police against the company. The lawsuit was, however, frustrated by poor prosecution and consequently discharged in August 2018.

According to the court, the evidence brought forward by the prosecution was inconsistent. Citing the timing of the alleged seizure of Mr Zoccolis passport as stated by the witnesses, the court said the evidence alluded by the prosecution was hazy and doubtful.

The prosecution evidence is inconsistent as to the timing of the alleged seizure. Furthermore, there are inconsistencies on the timing of Macros employment with the second accused person, said the Port Harcourt Division of the magistrate court, where the case was heard.

Although Mr Zoccolis international passport was later returned to him in October 2018 following intervention by the Nigerian immigration authorities and the court, Mr Zoccoli said he has not been paid 19 months salary, despite repeated requests for the payment.

The Italian contractor said he was disappointed by the actions of Mr Dangote and his company and may involve his country if efforts to amicably resolve the issue fail in Nigeria.

If things continue like this, I may have to involve my country, Mr Zoccoli said.

Firm Reacts

When PREMIUM contacted a human resource official at the company simply identified as Liyatu, she denied knowledge of the matter.

Another staff of MPS Limited later called PREMIUM TIMES and accused Mr Zoccoli of distorting the facts.

I just want you to know that those people are telling lies. That case was taken to court and struck out, the caller who refused to identify himself said in a telephone interview with PREMIUM TIMES.

Efforts by this newspaper to contact the head of communication, Dangote Group, Anthony Chiejina, failed.

Mr Chiejina did not respond to calls or text messages sent to his phone line, regarding the matter.

Also, this newspaper contacted Dansa Agro Allieds office in Lagos but did not get a further response to the allegations by Mr Zoccoli.
The Akwa Ibom House of Assembly has passed a bill for the creation of N3 billion fund for youth development in the state.

The bill, which was passed on March 19, was sponsored by the member representing Ini State Constituency, Emmanuel Ekpenyong, after it was proposed by Youth Alive Foundation, and other civil society organisations in the state.

The money would fund programmes that could create job opportunities for young people in the state when the bill is eventually signed into law by the state governor, Udom Emmanuel.

Apart from a deposit from the state government, other expected sources of money for the fund include grants, loans, and subventions from donor agencies and international organisations.

The bill stated that only indigenes of the state who are between the ages of 18 and 45 could benefit from the fund or participate in any project or programme initiated by or co-sponsored by the fund.

The state assembly presided over by the Speaker, Onofiok Luke, believes that the bill when signed into law would aide employment-creation in the state.

Akwa Ibom is among the states with the highest unemployment rates in the country, despite being one of Nigerias richest states because of the oil drilled in the state.

Mr Emmanuel, who has just won re-election for a second term as governor, has been on pushed efforts to industrialise the state with the hope of providing business and job opportunities for the growing population.

Hanson Johnson, an IT specialist and country mentor to Google developers in Nigeria, applauded the Akwa Ibom assembly for passing the bill which he said was a vital tool that could help Mr Emmanuel finish well in his second term as governor of the state.

Mr Johnson told PREMIUM TIMES that the bill, when signed into law, would certainly help to tackle crises associated with youth in the state.

I am working directly with young people and I know a couple of them who have developed prototypes of their ideas but cannot launch out because of the challenges the AKYDF law is coming to solve.

I see Akwa Ibom birthing many successful entrepreneurs in the coming years, I see sustainable growth and better well-being of our people if this is professionally handled, Mr Johnson said.
The Police Command in Rivers State on Monday said some suspected cultists had been arrested in connection with the death of three persons in Mgbodohia, Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of the state.

The commands spokesman, Nnamdi Omoni, a Deputy Superintendent Police (DSP), confirmed the arrest to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Port Harcourt.

Mr Omoni, however, could not give a specific figure of the arrested suspects.

He said the three persons were killed on Saturday during a fight for supremacy between two rival cult groups  Iceland and Deybam in the community.

The police spokesman said that preliminary investigation into the clash had shown that the fight resulted from disagreement over who should collect a certain illegal levy in the community.

NAN reports that the illegal fee collected from those buying land in the community is known as bush entering or marching ground in the state.

It will be recalled that Governor Rotimi Ameachis administration abolished the levy, making it illegal and punishable on conviction.

According to Mr Omoni, the investigation showed that the two cult groups had the history of clashing over who should collect the illegal levy.

He however said normalcy had returned to the community due to the deployment of police personnel to the area.

The commands spokesman urged the residents who had fled the community due to the crisis to return home.

I appeal to the residents of the state to furnished police with meaningful information on the activities of the hoodlums in their areas, he said.

(NAN)
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is bent on deceiving the public and intimidating the Supreme Court.

The APC in a statement by Lanre Issa-onilu, its national publicity secretary, said this while reacting to a statement by the opposition on a Supreme Court ruling on Rivers State.

Prior to the 2019 election, the primaries of the APC was cancelled leaving them with no candidate to present.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), therefore excluded the APC from participating in the governorship election.

The Supreme Court on Thursday adjourned the hearing in the four appeals on Rivers State APC primary election, for a nomination of candidates for 2019 general election, until April 8 and 11.

The PDP reacting to this accused the minister of transportation, and leader of the party in Rivers, Rotimi Amaechi, of plotting to cause constitutional crisis in the just concluded governorship election.

The party also said the APC leaders are mounting pressure on the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Tanko Mohammed, to reverse the February 12, 2019 judgment of the Supreme Court.

The PDP in a statement by its national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, made these allegations.

The PDP has information of how Rotimi Amaechi has been going around in Rivers State, giving assurances that he has the ears of the Supreme Court under the leadership of Acting CJN, Justice Tanko Mohammed, and that the Supreme Court will reverse its final judgment on APC Primaries and create the way for fresh elections in Rivers State, in which the APC will be allowed to participate, the PDP said.

Mr Ologbondiyan appealed to Mr Mohammed, not to allow himself be used by desperate politicians in the ruling party to cause anarchy in Rivers State.

APC reacts

The APC noted the Supreme Court has not made any pronouncement on the exclusion of APC candidates from the concluded governorship election.

The party described PDPs reaction as a cheap attempt to ambush the Supreme Court with their cock and bull conspiracies.

We are however well aware of the PDPs intent to hoodwink and deceive the public; and most importantly, intimidate and blackmail our eminent Supreme Court Justices into doing their bidding in respect of the matter of the purported exclusion of Rivers State APC candidates from the last elections, before the apex court.

The APC urged Nigerians to ignore the evil machinations of the PDP in its statement on the matter as the PDP has refused to come to terms with the fact that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC administration adheres to the rule of law.

The party said it will allow the law to take its course, advising the PDP to do the same, rather than overheat the polity.
Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo says he is leaving behind a viable and secured state.

Mr Okorocha said this when he received the New Commander, 34 Field Artillery Brigade of Nigerian Army, Obinze, Yusuf Tukura, a brigadier general, who paid him a courtesy visit at the Government House Owerri, the state capital on Monday.

He said his administration in the state from 2011 to 2019 saw to the disappearance of vices such as kidnapping, armed robbery, ritual killings, baby factories and militancy.

He added he would not be happy to hear that these crimes are back in the state after leaving office.

The governor also explained that he would be going to the senate to pursue the policy of free education so that children of the poorest in the society would have hope of survival in Nigeria.

He also promised to rebuild what he described as the political bridge that would link the South-East with the rest of Nigeria.

We have enjoyed a very good working relationship with all the past army commanders and we are hopeful it will continue.

I will use the opportunity in the senate to rebuild the political bridge that has linked the South East with the rest of Nigeria.

The political bridge is somehow faulty and it is dutifully incumbent on me to rebuild it so that Igbo people will play a recognised role in the politics of Nigeria. I will also promote the course of ordinary Nigerians, he said.

Mr Tukura said the visit was to inform the governor that he had assumed the command of the brigade, and to familiarise himself with him.

He added that he was in the state in 2011 and he was back in 2019, while commending the governor for the transformation that had taken place in the state between 2011 and 2019.

(NAN)
The Obafemi Awolowo University management has made clarifications over the safety of the water supplied to the community after an allegation of dam poisoning emerged a few day ago.

The university authorities in a petition to the Osun State Commissioner of Police, obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, accused some indigenes of Ile-Ife of poisoning the Opa dam, a major water source for over 30,000 members of the community.

In the petition signed by the Vice-Chancellor, Eyitope Ogunbodede, the police area commander for Ife-Moore area, Funsho Adegboye, was also copied.

After a PREMIUM TIMES report on Sunday, news making the rounds amongst students and members of the university community was the unsafe state of the water.

Text messages and social media posts advised people to avoid the water.

On Sunday, the Ooni of Ile-Ife, through his spokesperson, Moses Olafare, described the allegations by the authorities as unfounded and illogical.

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, the monarch said.

Petition

Meanwhile, a top official of the school who pleaded anonymity said the petition was a proactive measure which is tantamount to raising a false alarm.

The boys actually poisoned the river around but not the school dam. The school thought if they had had access to the dam, they would have done worse.

The university was afraid when reports came that the river around was poisoned and that fishes died sometime ago. The authority wants the government to tame the perpetrators.

Meanwhile, in a telephone interview with PREMIUM TIMES, the spokesperson of the university, Abiodun Olanrewaju, declined comments when asked about the accuracy of the information filed in the petition.

He, however, said the water is now safe for consumption and that there is no need for students to panic.

The university will not jeopardise the welfare of the students particularly when it comes to the issue of water. The management is on top of the situation and as I am speaking to you, the water is now safe, Mr. Olanrewaju said on Sunday afternoon.

Police react

Although the state police spokesperson, Folashade Odoro, refused to speak on the issue, the area commander of Moore police station, Funsho Adegboye said the command has commenced investigations.

It would be recalled that in the petition, the management said 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.

According to the report, it was 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.

Reacting Sunday evening, Mr Adegboye said the commissioner of police is in-charge of the situation and police is investigating.
The Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, on Sunday said he saved the federal government about N600 million in the 2018 budget.

He also said he did not abandon any federal government project contrary to claims recently by the Senate committee in communications.

Mr Shittu said one of the reasons for the delay in executing the said projects was due to the delay in the approval of the budget by the National Assembly, for seven months.

He said he had saved the federal government N600 million with the efforts he made to look critically at the petitions which were written against the procurement department in the ministry among other efforts in the contacts included in the 2018 budget of the ministry.

Backstory

The Senate committee on communication on Thursday in Abuja bemoaned what it described as the ministrys poor budget performance.

The committee said it was difficult for the sum of N18.1 billion to be approved for the Ministry of Communications in 2019, saying the ministrys performance as regards the 2018 budget was poor.

The committee presided over by Isah Hamman Misau, who stood in for its Chairman, Gilbert Nnaji, observed that the communication ministrys 2019 budget was reduced by N1.6 billion less than that of 2018.

It lamented that only 17 projects out of the 121 budgeted for (in 2018) were receiving attention two months to the end of 2018 budget year.

Minister kicks

But, an irate Mr Shittu while reacting said: President Muhammadu Buhari could not have made any mistake by appointing any of the current ministers (including me) which took him six months to do.

The minister, who was the gubernatorial candidate on the platform of the defunct Congress for Progressives Change (CPC) in Oyo state in 2011, said he saved the Federal government N600 million with the decision he took to ensure transparency in the award of the ministrys contacts in the 2018 budget.

To start with, it is inconceivable, that any minister abandon any federal government projects and I want to believe that President Muhammadu Buhari could not have made any mistake by appointing any of the current ministers.

It took him six months, and he has done (did) thorough job, and I am happy that none of us has disappointed him nor disappointed Nigerians. So it is inconceivable that a minister will abandon federal government projects.

The meaning of abandoning, you start something, and you then dissociate, discontinued. But in this case, the contracts or the projects which are subject matters of discussion are not yet commenced at all. They have not yet even been awarded, he said.

So the proper thing (to say) would be, there is a delay in awarding the contracts. So, it will be a misnomer to say that any project has been abandoned.

Now they are accusing me of delay, something must have caused the delay.

To start with, it took the National Assembly seven months to approve the budget, out of the 12 months of the budge life. The next thing is that, to award a contract, funds must be available, and also must be allocated for the specific project. And you will recall that the current system is what we called the envelope system because each project is in its envelope.

So, to award any contract, then there must be not only approval, but it must also be released. After the release, the procurement department of the ministry commenced work, the Ministerial tender board meeting was held six weeks ago. If there is no ministerial tender board meeting, then there is nothing for the minister to be approved.

Six weeks ago, the ministerial tenders board met and sent their final report to me for my approval. As the board was coming in, we had several petitions protesting against the fact that there were suspicious deals by the procurement department.

As an apostle of President Buharis anti-corruption crusade, I cannot turn the other eye. I must look at the petitions, and what I did was that: I set up a committee within the ministry which was inaugurated by the new permanent secretary two weeks ago. The report of that committee was turned in to the permanent secretary only last Monday.

And as at the time we went to the committee, the report has not yet even gotten to me. And when we met the Senate committee and House of Representatives, I made this known to them and told them that there had been a delay given these issues, but I assured them that by this Tuesday, all the contracts would have been concluded. So, in such a situation, how do you talk of abandonment?

He also explained that his efforts at prudence saved the federal government funds that would otherwise have been wasted.

The exercise I embarked on would be saving the federal government N600 million. That means, if I had not taken that step, N600 million would have gone. I saved the federal government N600 million with the efforts I have made.
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.




LONDON, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Chubb today announced the appointment of Jonathan Kennett as Head of Financial Institutions for the UK and Ireland and Chubb Global Markets (CGM), the insurer's London Market wholesale and specialty arm.

In this role, Jonathan will have responsibility for the leadership, strategy and performance of Chubb's Financial Institutions business in the UK and Ireland and CGM after a restructure merged the two underwriting teams.

The appointment is with immediate effect and Jonathan will report to Matthew Shaw, Division President, Chubb Global Markets and Hilda Toh, Financial Lines Manager, UK and Ireland.

Jonathan, who was previously Financial Institutions Manager for the UK and Ireland, joined Chubb in 2017. Before that he held a number of senior leadership roles at several insurers and reinsurers including AIG, Munich Re and Zurich.

Matthew Shaw, Division President, Chubb Global Markets said:

"I am delighted to welcome Jonathan to this new and important role. The restructure of our underwriting teams has been untaken to enable the seamless delivery of our Financial Institutions offering, focused around broker and customer needs. Jonathan has a broad knowledge and depth of experience across the financial institutions business and is well placed to further develop our products, coverage and service in this area."

About Chubb

Chubb is the world's largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company. With operations in 54 countries and territories, Chubb provides commercial and personal property and casualty insurance, personal accident and supplemental health insurance, reinsurance and life insurance to a diverse group of clients. As an underwriting company, we assess, assume and manage risk with insight and discipline. We service and pay our claims fairly and promptly. The company is also defined by its extensive product and service offerings, broad distribution capabilities, exceptional financial strength and local operations globally. Parent company Chubb Limited is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CB) and is a component of the S&P 500 index. Chubb maintains executive offices in Zurich, New York, London, Paris and other locations, and employs approximately 30,000 people worldwide. Additional information can be found at: chubb.com/uk

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SOURCE Chubb
The AMable call (open to SMEs from the European Union) will allocate around 300,000 Euros, facilitating the establishment of new connections between different clusters to leverage the competitiveness of the SME manufacturing fabric. This aid aims to carry out "application experiments" to develop an innovative idea of functional products that need Additive Manufacturing. In particular, the types of experiments that will be financed are "Feasibility studies" and "Good Practices", ranging the aid from 5,000 to 60,000 euros. The call will be open until June 1, 2019, at 5:00 PM Brussels time.

Besides this financial support, the EU innovation action, AMable, will put in place a series of side benefits to improve skills of employees in the areas of AM design, technology development, education, and support business development.

This action is also supported by the EC initiative, I4MS, as part of the mission to encourage the implementation of ICT technologies in Europe to enhance the competitiveness of the EU industry in the global scenario.

AMable aims to reinforce the Additive Manufacturing technological cluster by creating a digital framework to provide unbiased access to the best European knowledge in 3D printing for the industry 4.0 and EU institutions endorse it. The European Commission and the European Parliament already underlined that 3D printing could ease the strain on their logistical chains, reduce storage and transport operations, lessen environmental impact and cut spending on goods insurance and make it possible to create employment at SME level.

3D Printing is in Europe to stay for the good of EU citizens.

About I4MS

I4MS is coordinated by Mobile World Capital Barcelona Foundation, FundingBox, Foreningen MADE, FIWARE Foundation EV, Danish Technological Institute and Axencia Galega de Innovacion.

Funded by the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the European Union, Grant Agreement n 768631

More information on:

https://www.amable.eu/calls/call-for-proposals

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/842422/Ulrich_Thombansen.jpg)

Or by contacting:

Juan Antonio Pavon Losada

Communication Executive of Mobile World Capital Barcelona

Japavon@mobileworldcapital.com

+34-673007282

Related Links

https://mobileworldcapital.com/



SOURCE Mobile World Capital Barcelona Foundation - EU Projects Department
MUMBAI, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --

The aim of the Australia-India Knowledge Exchange Workshops hosted by UNSW Built Environment was to build partnerships and share best practices

A policy brief to help Indian cities manage energy footprints and influence future carbon emissions is one of the outcomes of a series of knowledge exchange workshops hosted by UNSW Built Environment and its Indian partners.

Australia-India Knowledge Exchange event at UNSW saw the release of the Making Indian Cities Energy Smart policy brief by Indian research body The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and UNSW for the Indian government and practitioners.

"With the evolution and transformation of the existing cities into smart cities, smart energy management is an integral component of their urban transformation and is thereby important for both Australia and India," says Riya Rahiman, TERI Area Convenor.

India is the second most populated country in the world and contributes to 6% of the world's primary energy consumption.

Managing the energy footprint of Indian cities is one of the most challenging goals, and with the evolution and transformation of existing cities into smart cities, smart energy management - which aims for sustainable and low-carbon urban development - becomes an integral component of this urban transformation.

UNSW chair of the Knowledge Exchange series, Dr. Komali Yenneti, says that the document would help policy makers and practitioners with information on relevant strategies, actions and initiatives on smart energy management.

She says smart energy management helps policy makers manage energy footprints of cities, and users to take control of their energy costs.

"[Smart energy management] uses a combination of information and communication technologies that enable integration of multiple domains [buildings, transport, water, waste and public services] and enforces collaboration of multiple stakeholders," Dr. Yenneti says.

The aim of the Knowledge Exchange Workshops was to build new partnerships between India and Australia and foster a culture of sharing best practices, in a move towards a holistic vision of Goal 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

At the fourth workshop - on smart energy management - senior director of the Sustainable Habitat Program at TERI, Sanjay Seth, discussed the rapid urbanisation that is underway in India, and the need to revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development.

UNSW Scientia Professor Deo Prasad says that there were mutual benefits in UNSW's Cooperative Research Centre for Low Carbon Living (CRCLCL) developing a knowledge exchange partnership with Indian agencies and GRIHA (Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment).

"At the CRCLCL we have established 15 living laboratories around Australia which are a focus for exemplar developments while being a centre for action research providing evidence for better design, planning and policies," says Professor Prasad, who is also the CEO of the CRCLCL. "We are keen to work with Indian counterparts in also establishing living labs there, so an evidence-based approach can be followed. Living laboratories are real-time developments with people and infrastructure, so one can study liveability, well-being, behaviour as well as metrics such as energy, carbon, water, waste and transport."

The first of the four workshops, hosted in conjunction with Indian partners DuPont and Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), discussed urban heat management policies and was held at UNSW Sydney last November.

The second workshop was hosted by ASCI with DuPont in Hyderabad, India, in December, while TERI hosted the third event in Delhi a week later, shortly after the 10th GRIHA Summit, which was co-hosted by UNSW.

Mr Seth, who is also the CEO of the GRIHA Council, says a result of the summit was that TERI was supporting UNSW in their grant application to the Australia-India Council to establish an urban living laboratory in an Indian city.

"This project will also draw on collaboration with experts from Kings College, London and Arizona State University (ASU) and will build on the PLuS Alliance accelerator initiative on building smart, healthy and accessible cities," says Mr Seth.

Dr. Yenneti says that the four workshops had resulted in long-term collaboration with some of India's most important research institutes, government organisations and industries, as well as engagement with Indian urban planners and academics.

She says, as a result of the workshops, UNSW would now implement a large-scale cool roof project in India and Australia, and develop a cooling Indian cities policy.

About University of New South Wales, Sydney

UNSW, Australia's global university ranked among the top 50 Universities in the world offers programs in engineering, business, law, architecture, art and design, medicine and science.

Located in Sydney, a safe and student friendly city, UNSW is home to more than 52,000 students from nearly 130 countries. UNSW has been attracting a growing number of bright Indian students for undergraduate and post graduate studies.

As one of the world's leading research and teaching universities UNSW's cutting edge research and innovation facilitated by 3000 faculty is known for acceptance and successful commercialisation.

For more details, please visit: www.UNSW.edu.au



Media Contact:

Parmpreet Kaur

[email protected]

+91-9870390819

Communicate India



SOURCE University of New South Wales
"AIDirections combines the latest technologies, such as AI, deep learning, and facial recognition, with its proprietary algorithmic sentiment analysis solution to develop a new method for pain detection, monitoring, and verification," said Sowmya Rajagopalan, Global Program Director at Frost & Sullivan. "The system, operable both at home and in hospitals, presents a clinically valid parameter known as the Prkachin and Solomon Pain Intensity metric to measure pain levels in individuals. By leveraging AI, the solution mitigates the subjectivity in the assessment, improves the accuracy of measurement, and supports superior treatment decision making and clinical outcomes."

The solution has a wide scope of application among highly vulnerable patient populations, such as infants, children with developmental issues, people suffering from a stroke, and people who are unconscious and unable to express their pain. While several existing technological tools, such as mHealth, clinical wearables, and telemedicine, ensure optimal pain management in a home-based setting, patients still need to visit care facilities frequently to have their pain levels assessed. AIDirections' tool emerges as an ideal solution in this environment because it integrates with the healthcare system's existing telemedicine to create a better care experience for the patient.

AIDirections is working with several telemedicine companies to launch its offering officially as a holistic home-based solution in the growing Middle Eastern market and other developing regions. The company presents both server and cloud-based solutions that easily integrate with a hospital's enterprise resource planning or customer relationship management software for easy deployment. The hospital pays a minimal onboarding fee, which includes installation and software setup. By reducing upfront costs, AIDirections helps clients achieve a faster return on investment.

"The solution uses AIDirections' development framework based on industry standards while its plug-and-play methodology enables an extensive range of operational scenarios," noted Rajagopalan. "For addressing an unmet market need with its highly innovative and cost-efficient technology, AIDirections richly deserves the 2019 Middle East Enabling Technology Leadership Award."

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to a company that develops a pioneering technology that enhances current products and enables the development of new products and applications. The award recognises the high market acceptance potential of the recipient's technology.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognise companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analyses, and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.

About AIDirections

AIDirections is a Dubai based company, which was established in response to the exciting developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI). The target market for AIDirections is the GCC, concentrating on UAE and Saudi Arabia.

AIDirections' value proposition is based on the development of use cases across a number of industries, particularly healthcare. We are providing consultancy for the best use of AI, and we are also developing a set of products through the use of computer vision.

The core staff of AIDirections brings together significant experience in research and development, technical standardization, management of research and development, development and implementation of national level strategies, futures study and work, international collaboration and consultancy.

AIDirections' business areas are:

Training and awareness with regards to AI;

Assessment of AI Readiness and development of an AI Strategy;

Consultancy to identify opportunities and risks related to the use of AI;

Provision of solutions for dedicated problems and customers, such as pain detection and sentiment analysis; and

Provision of IoT solutions, e.g. for oil and gas or smart cities.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, collaborates with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants. For more than 50 years, Frost & Sullivan has been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector, and the investment community. Contact us: Start the discussion .

Contact:

Tarini Singh

P: +91-20 6718 9725

E: [email protected]

SOURCE Frost & Sullivan

Related Links

http://www.frost.com


NEW YORK, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- American Jewish Committee (AJC) praised the Trump administration today for designating Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization.

"Recognition of the IRGC as a key arm of Iran's global terrorism strategy is vitally important to the U.S., which first designated Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism in 1984," said AJC CEO David Harris. "We applaud President Trump for taking this highly significant step."

AJC has been calling for many years on successive U.S. administrations to take this necessary, punitive action against the IRGC.

The IRGC, founded soon after the 1979 Islamist revolution in Iran, operates separately from the country's regular conventional armed forces, and exerts significant influence in Iran's economy, politics, and foreign policy.

It maintains its own air, land, and naval units, and has been intimately engaged in Syria, supporting the Assad regime's brutal violence in that country since the internal war began in 2011. It is also heavily involved with supporting Hezbollah, the Iranian-sponsored terrorist organization, based in Lebanon and responsible for fatal terror attacks against Americans, Israelis, and Jewish communities around the world, notably the 1994 attack on the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people and wounded 300.

President Trump, in his statement. declared that the designation "recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft."

SOURCE American Jewish Committee

Related Links

http://www.ajc.org


SEOUL, South Korea, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The BeFull Community has successfully completed the World's First Initial Exchange Offering (IEO) on an EOS-based decentralized exchange platform in South Korea, Seoul with EOSDAQ. All the issued tokens, FPC were bought up within minutes on all occasions.

The founding team at BeFull is very confident of this move as they all felt that the market is ready and their supporters are also eager to participate. Three phases of IEO were done at EOSDAQ, ending with a total number of more than 6,000 people participated and a total subscription of 3,000,000 FPCs.

Vincent also pointed out that this IEO is a way to test if the supporters are ready for our bigger vision and future listing. He is not worried about transactions made on a decentralized exchange becoming an open book and he has no intentions to "tweak" the numbers of transactions on the exchange. He just wants real active users to buy them and their supporters to get a preferred price during this process.

"Thank you South Korea and the blockchain communities for supporting our project. I would like to thank my core team and also my community members who supported us in every step we take. I hear that there are many disappointed members who did not manage to grab any of our token during the Korea IEO. I have made a decision to do another IEO so that more members can benefit! Let's do this together!" Vincent said.

BeFull will be heading to the Southeast Asia market, Singapore to launch another IEO with Biki Exchange (www.biki.com) on 15 April 2019 to cater to the strong demand from the communities. BIKI was founded in 2018 and registered in Singapore. BIKI is a global trading platform in digital cash and is committed to providing the safest, most stable and most efficient trading services in digital cash to users around the world. The exchange has already received millions of US dollars in investment from several investment funds such as SEE Fund and CHAIN UP Capital. Its core team is from well-known Internet companies and first-line investment institutions. More information of the upcoming IEO, visit www.befullc.com.

About BeFull Community (http://www.befullc.com/)

BeFull Community, the first self governed large scale community in China. The community shares resources, educate members, create trust between members and projects and promote real usage of the tokens. International media like Reuters, Bloomberg, ABC, CBS and FOX News have covered their story.

Media Contact:

Blockcast.cc

[email protected]

+65 98832707

Photo(s):

https://www.prlog.org/12763624

Press release distributed by PRLog

SOURCE BeFull Community

Related Links

http://www.befullc.com


- Calsonic Kansei to Be Real "Partner" for All Customers -

SAITAMA, Japan, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Calsonic Kansei Corporation, a leading Japanese automotive parts supplier, will participate in "Auto Shanghai 2019" -- the 18th Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition -- to be held in Shanghai, China, from April 18 to 25, 2019. Details of the company's exhibits for the automobile fair are introduced here.

Prior to the exhibition, Calsonic Kansei pledges to continue to be a real "partner" for all customers in order to further enrich people's "mobility life" as an independent Tier 1 supplier with a worldwide network.

At Auto Shanghai 2019, Calsonic Kansei will showcase solutions centering on two spheres -- cabin innovation and energy management -- and propose them as a real "partner."

In the cabin innovation area, Calsonic Kansei will present solutions as a comprehensive cabin system integrator, including "Human-Max Cabin," a concept model designed to maximize the empirical value of each travel by car.

In the energy management area, the company will show images to explain the concept of energy management that Calsonic Kansei conceives of, as well as specific solutions.

Furthermore, a McLaren Racing Formula One car for which Calsonic Kansei is an official supplier will be exhibited at the Shanghai automobile fair. Calsonic Kansei will present its dedicated passion for motorsport activities while showing images.

Image1: Human-Max Cabin's image for illustration purposes

https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M104902/201904014918/_prw_PI6lg_7b3S31sy.jpg

Image2: Energy management's image for illustration purposes

https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M104902/201904014918/_prw_PI2lg_M33M7r9h.jpg

Image3: Formula One car's image for illustration purposes

https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M104902/201904014918/_prw_PI3lg_6CFG6OD6.jpg

The Calsonic Kansei booth is a must-visit during the Shanghai exhibition. Up-to-date technologies and products of global standards will be displayed in the booth.

Content of exhibits at Auto Shanghai 2019 (The 18th Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition):

Cabin Innovation

"Human-Max Cabin," the cabin of the future which Calsonic Kansei is aiming for, considers persons to a maximum extent and offers empirical value exceeding expectations. "Cabin of my own," the most comfortable space provided for the driver, will be realized by improving personalization functions. This is achieved by integrating Calsonic Kansei's interior, electronic and air-conditioning units.

Energy Management

Calsonic Kansei is aiming for comprehensive energy management by using a wide range of heat-related technologies and products such as air-conditioning systems, heat exchangers and exhaust systems centering on the heat-exchange technology developed by the company over the years, as well as power electronics technology based on the company's status as the world's largest inverter producer. At the exhibition, Calsonic Kansei will use images to introduce the concept of energy management envisioned by the company and four specific solutions in an easy-to-understand manner.

Motorsports

In the development of motorsport products, Calsonic Kansei has been pursuing the highest performance under grueling race conditions, paving the way for creating product value of mass-produced items. At the forthcoming exhibition, a McLaren Racing Formula One car for which Calsonic Kansei has been supplying heat exchangers since 1992, will be displayed. Calsonic Kansei will use images to show visitors the technologies it has developed as well as loftier challenges it is to take on.

The details of the exhibits are scheduled to be released on "Calsonic Kansei Shanghai Motor Show" special websites below from April 16:

English: https://www.calsonickansei.co.jp/en/exhibition/201904/

Chinese: https://www.calsonickansei.co.jp/cn/exhibition/201904/

Image4: Exhibit booth's image for illustration purposes (*subject to change without notice)

https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M104902/201904014918/_prw_PI4lg_Q1zZHn79.jpg

Auto Shanghai 2019 (Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition 2019):

Exhibition period: Press days from April 16 to 17 / Open to the public from April 18 to 25

/ Open to the public from Venue: National Exhibition and Convention Center ( Shanghai )

About Calsonic Kansei Corporation

Calsonic Kansei operates a global network across the world by having its global headquarters in Japan and its management operation in the Americas, Europe, China and Asia. In addition, there are development operations in Japan, United States, Mexico, UK, France, China, Thailand and India, and about 80 sites throughout the world, from which products can be supplied to all customers in an optimal manner. More than 20,000 employees of the company are striving to provide appealing products to customers with great teamwork across national boundaries.

Headquarters: 2-1917 Nisshin-cho, Kita-ku, Saitama-shi, Saitama, Japan

Founded: August 25, 1938

President and CEO: Beda Bolzenius

Number of employees: 22,678 (consolidated) (as of May 31, 2018)

Main products: Cockpit modules, front-end modules, exhaust systems, air conditioning units, compressors, meters, radiators

Corporate URL: https://www.calsonickansei.co.jp/en/

SOURCE Calsonic Kansei Corporation

Related Links

https://www.calsonickansei.co.jp/en/


COLUMBUS, Ohio, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Demotech is pleased to announce its exclusive interview on Worldwide Business with kathy ireland. Airing on Fox Business Network as sponsored content, Joe Petrelli, President and Sharon Romano Petrelli, Vice President discuss how their company is evaluating and identifying hundreds of stable insurance company options that may have otherwise been overlooked.

According to Sharon Romano Petrelli, CPCU, AIAF, ARC, CCP, "Demotech was the very first to review and rate independent regional and specialty insurance companies. This is important because they represent over 55% of the insurance industry and were being ignored."

When Kathy Ireland asked what motivated Demotech to do this, Joe Petrelli, ACAS, ASA, MAAA, MBA, responded, "The legacy insurer rating organizations were unable or unwilling to do it, so we said, let's do it. We had the insurance professionals and credentialed people on staff that understood the insurance business and the workings of an insurance company. There was a need in the marketplace and the legacy rating agencies were ignoring them."

The company was recently named Best Evaluator of regional specialty companies, and has been awarded the Niche Financial Analysis Provider - Insurance for the past five years.

"Knowing we have a resource that can provide in-depth ratings of an insurance provider opens the doors to options," says J.L. Haber, Vice President of Programming for Worldwide Business. "This helps put the knowledge back into the consumers' hands, giving them autonomy to make their own decisions."

For more information about Demotech, visit www.demotech.com and tune in to Fox Business Network as sponsored content on Sunday, April 14, 2019 at 5:30pm EST and Bloomberg International on Saturday, April 13, 2019 at 7:30pm GMT and Sunday, April 14, 2019 at 10:30am D.F. and 3:00pm HKT. Visit www.tvwwb.com for airing schedules or check local listings. This show airs as sponsored content.

About Demotech, Inc.

Demotech, Inc. is a financial analysis firm specializing in evaluating the financial stability of regional and specialty insurers. Since 1985, Demotech has served the insurance industry by assigning accurate, reliable and proven Financial Stability Ratings (FSRs) for Property & Casualty insurers and Title underwriters. FSRs are a leading indicator of financial stability, providing an objective baseline of the future solvency of an insurer. Demotech's philosophy is to review and evaluate insurers based on their area of focus and execution of their business model rather than solely on financial size. Visit www.demotech.com for more information.

About Worldwide Business with kathy ireland

Worldwide Business with kathy ireland is a weekly half-hour show featuring global executives sharing their business insights and framing the opportunities shaping their industries. The show is hosted by Kathy Ireland. It broadcasts on Fox Business Network as part of their sponsored content line up and globally on Bloomberg International. Worldwide Business with kathy ireland extends beyond the weekly on-air program with digital content delivered on various video platforms and across social media.

SOURCE Demotech, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.demotech.com


DUBLIN, April 5, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Denmark Animation, VFX & Games Industry: Strategies, Trends & Opportunities" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The first Danish animated full-length feature film Fyrtjet (The Magic Tinderbox) was produced in 1942. In 2002, the animated feature Drengen der ville gore det Umulige (The Boy Who Wanted To Be A Bear) opened in 100 French cinemas. It received a special mention of the jury at Berlin Film Festival, praising it as a masterpiece of animation, powerful, unique and of simple beauty.

Animation Workshop has been a vital part in the process of developing the Danish animation Industry. Over the past several years the 2-4 semester Course in Classical Animation has been the training ground for hundreds of animation professionals. The animation Workshop exerts a continuous effort to supply the Northern European animation businesses with vocational training possibilities, by arranging seminars and events focused on highly specialised skills.

Denmark places a very high importance on the development of children and the youth and nurtures a child's right to experience art. Danish film policy has been formed with the objective of developing a film culture for children.

Since the year 1982, the Danish Film Act has earmarked 25% of all government film subsidies to films for children and youth. This policy has boosted the quantum content creation for children and youth and has resulted in high quality content. This has also resulted in the creation of content which is of the form of storytelling for children using original stories from everyday life.

The Danish games market is growing at a fast pace and revenues touched US$ 275 million in 2018 and is projected to reach US$ 332 million by 2020. Mobile & hand held games is the fastest growing segment, followed by PC and Console games.

Key Topics Covered:



European Animation Industry

DEMAND FOR TV CONTENT

Feature Film Industry in Europe

MARKETING AND MERCHANDISING

Trends in Europe

COLLABORATION AMONG EUROPEAN STUDIOS

DRIVERS FOR SUCCESS

ANIMATION COST STRUCTURES IN EUROPE

Animation Movie Budgets in Europe

Strategies and Models for Animation financing in Europe

ANIMATION FUNDING AGENCIES

CENTRALISED ANIMATION FUNDING AGENCIES IN EUROPE

Television Series Development in Europe

PITCHING TELEVISION SERIES TO BROADCASTERS

Copyright Chain in Europe

Co-Production Strategies in Europe

CONTRACTUAL ISSUES

KEY RIGHTS IN CO-PRODUCTION AGREEMENTS

CO-PRODUCTIONS AND OUTSOURCING

Distribution Strategies in Europe

PRODUCER-DISTRIBUTOR CO-FINANCING PATTERNS

3D Market in Europe

ADVANTAGES OF 3D

DISADVANTAGES OF 3D

Industry Constraints and Challenges

Market size of European Animation, VFX & Games industry

Animation Content demand by TV Channels in Europe

European Animation & VFX industry Market Size

European Games industry Market Size

Animation, VFX & Games industry in Denmark

Recent Movie Trends in Denmark

Challenges

Strategies for Animation Studios in Denmark

Value of Animation Industry in Denmark

Size of Animation Industry in Denmark

Animation Co-Production in Denmark

Animation Funding in Denmark

Animation Studios in Denmark

Video Games Industry in Denmark

KEY TRENDS IN THE DANISH VIDEO GAMES INDUSTRY

DANISH VIDEO GAMES INDUSTRY STRUCTURE

VIDEO GAME BUSINESS MODELS IN DENMARK

ONLINE VIDEO GAMING BUSINESS MODELS IN DENMARK

DANISH VIDEO GAMES INDUSTRY VALUE CHAIN

MOBILE GAMES INDUSTRY VALUE CHAIN IN DENMARK

Key Opportunities & Strategies for Danish Video Games Industry

Video Games Market Segments in Denmark

MOBILE VIDEO GAMES SEGMENTS & GENRES IN DENMARK

Danish Video Games Market Size & Opportunity



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/ksrtq3/denmark?w=5

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

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U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

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SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com


Dionisio Gutierrez started the meeting arguing about how drug trafficking has affected democratic institutions: "We are talking about an important source of corruption. It contaminates political processes, especially electoral processes because many positions in the Congress, City Halls, and even presidential positions serve to drug trafficking."

Calderon agreed and talked about his experience in the presidency of Mexico: "When I inaugurated the presidency, organized crime, starting from the most important drug cartels, was taking control of state institutions, especially police, judges and governors. It was a situation where organized crime's power was increasing rapidly and at the same time the state's power was deteriorating. The challenge was to reverse the process."

Gutierrez explained: "In states with high dysfunctional levels as Guatemala, corruption has become common and impunity is the framework in which it is developed. To fight this, we need political parties that alternate the power, take the roll as liaisons between society and the state, and continue with public policies managed by a permanent professional technocracy."

Furthermore, Calderon described how he fought against drug trafficking during his presidency: "We had a strategy with three core areas: fight crime instead of disregard it; reinforce security and justice agencies; heal society. What concerns people the most is not drug trafficking, but the way people are threatened, extorted and kidnapped. The State must redeem its obligation to protect people; I believe it is a goal that Guatemala and Mexico have in common. "

Gutierrez concluded: "Our weak democracy must be transformed into an opportunity to guarantee the refusal to unprepared and opportunistic political parties. In this electoral process we must demand from all candidates a project to govern, a proposal, a team and a vision for Guatemala."

Watch the forum were Felipe Calderon participated in the IV Encuentro Ciudadano [IV Citizen Forum].

SOURCE Fundacion Libertad y Desarrollo
Emerging Leader Award Jessica Wetzel, program and communications manager for the Urban Economic Development Association of Wisconsin (UEDA), identified UEDA to receive the $10,000 award on her behalf. Associated Bank nominated Ms. Wetzel for the award, recognizing her as a natural leader in Milwaukee's economic and community development sector. UEDA focuses on and advocates for community investment, sustainable homeownership and housing, regional transportation, small business growth, financial empowerment, and the local food economy. Ms. Wetzel helped build UEDA's Food Enterprise Development Network, connecting entrepreneurs to resource providers and business assistance, and launched the organization's Emerging Topics Series.

"UEDA excels at building cross-sector collaboration in Milwaukee's economic development space. Jessica has emerged as a major force behind their Take Root Milwaukee program which promotes sustainable homeownership in Milwaukee," said Bill Kopka, Community Accountability Officer, Associated Bank. "Through Take Root, Jessica has created engagement opportunities where non-profit, government, and business partners share observations, create new ideas, educate on resources, and execute best practices. More broadly, through UEDA, Jessica helps the membership find and focus in on our common interests, and this supports growth in opportunities for the greater Milwaukee community."

Partnership Award

Martin Luther King Economic Development Corporation (MLKEDC) has received a $10,000 partnership award. The Wisconsin Housing & Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) nominated MLKEDC in recognition of the Five Phases of King Drive Commons. MLKEDC works to develop affordable housing and support related business creation initiatives in the Harambee neighborhood of Milwaukee. The Five Phases of King Drive Commons began as a neighborhood planning effort in 2001 and, over the course of the past 17 years, resulted in the new construction, acquisition, and rehabilitation of 166 housing units and 47,000 square feet of commercial space. Throughout this effort, WHEDA provided tax credits, debt, and/or equity to support the development.

"WHEDA is extremely honored to receive this prestigious award," said WHEDA Board Chair Ivan Gamboa. "We are grateful to have partnered with Welford Sanders, founder of The Five Phases of King Drive Commons, on every component of his visionary crusade to literally transform a community. Many thanks to FHLBank Chicago for recognizing Sanders' work that is truly deserved."

"Ms. Wetzel exemplifies what it means to be a leader in her community by modeling the values of collaboration, relationship building, and effective communication," said Suzi Thackston, FHLBank Chicago Community Investment Officer. "The ongoing work MLKEDC is doing with partners like WHEDA makes a positive and long-lasting impact in the community. We were proud to play a role in this remarkable effort to truly transform a neighborhood with the support of competitive Affordable Housing Program funds and we are delighted to honor these organizations with a Community First Award."

The FHLBank Chicago also announced Community First Award recipients at its member meetings in O'Fallon, Illinois, on March 20, and in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on April 4.

About the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago

To learn more about FHLBank Chicago and its full range of Community Investment programs, please visit fhlbc.com or @FHLBC. "Community First" is a registered trademark of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago.

SOURCE Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago

Related Links

http://www.fhlbc.com


Cupboard , the first in a new creative campaign by Wieden+Kennedy Portland, takes fans into the relentlessly cheerful candy-filled land of Trolli. As a neon light in the darkness, Trolli transforms everything it touches momentarily into something bright, happy, and sweet...for about the amount of time it takes to eat a delicious, chewy gummy worm.

For Wieden+Kennedy creative directors Darcie Burrell and Azsa West, "The inspiration behind Cupboard was partially to give a nod to Trolli's heritage, with a tie-in to the brand's namesakethe trollwhich fits perfectly within this darker direction." The campaign takes on the idea of treating happiness as taboo. The troll is drawn toward the Trolli worms and the happiness they bring, but he's also a little frightened by it.

"This new marketing campaign delivers on an ownable insight for our brand: Trolli's dash of 'delicious darkness'  through our brand history, black packaging and product origins  is what truly sets the brand apart in what has now become a sea of weird," said Annie Meyer, Marketing Director at Ferrara Candy Company. "The campaign marks Trolli's largest media investment to date and we are thrilled to partner with Wieden+Kennedy and Blinkink as brilliant thought partners who have brought Trolli to life in the form of a psychedelic, playful, and uniquely identifiable world."

For Darcie and Azsa, working with Trolli on this campaign just made sense: "We have a team of people with very dark senses of humor, so when the Trolli opportunity came up, we were like, a black candy bag filled with worms? Named after trolls? Sign us up. We feel like we've found our candy soulmates."

To help bring the campaign to life, Wieden+Kennedy collaborated with Becky Sloan and Joseph Pelling, as well as Blinkink, the award-winning and innovative animation specialists. Becky and Joe are world renowned for creating miniature worlds, such as their popular web series Don't Hug Me I'm Scared. Their blend of darkness and sweetness made them the perfect partner for the campaign.

The campaign will appear across TV, online video, and Trolli social channels. In addition to Cupboard, a spot called Trolli Bag and additional spots will be coming out over the next month.

About Ferrara Candy Company

Ferrara Candy Company, a related company of The Ferrero Group, is an industry leader in U.S. confections and one of the fastest growing confections companies in the country. A passionate team of more than 4,000 employees work together to share delight in every bite through leading brands that have shaped the confections market for more than 100 years. Our diverse portfolio of nearly 35 brands includes SweeTARTS, Trolli, Brach's, Black Forest, Butterfinger, CRUNCH, Laffy Taffy and NERDS, along with iconic favorites like Lemonhead, Red Hots and Now and Later. Headquartered in Chicago, the company has an operational network of manufacturing, distribution and R&D facilities across North America. Learn more at www.ferrarausa.com .

About Wieden+Kennedy

Wieden+Kennedy, founded in Portland, Oregon, in 1982, is an independent, privately held global creative company with offices in Amsterdam, Delhi, London, New York City, Portland, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, and Tokyo. Wieden+Kennedy works with some of the world's most innovative brands, including AB InBev, Airbnb, Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines, KFC, Instagram, Nike, Procter & Gamble, Samsung, and Spotify.

Wieden+Kennedy was recently honored as Adweek's US Agency of the Year and one of Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies in Advertising. Learn more at www.wk.com.

Media Contacts

Ashley Papanikolas

Ferrara Candy Company

[email protected]

630.581.3073

Melissa Barto

Canvas Blue

[email protected]

213.335.5663

SOURCE Ferrara Candy Company

Related Links

https://www.ferrarausa.com/


HARRISBURG, Pa., April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Third-grader Mateo Cruz of Solomon Plains Elementary School in Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County will receive a $500 prize for winning first place in the Pennsylvania Dental Association's (PDA) 2019 National Children's Dental Health Month (NCDHM) statewide poster contest.

Mateo's prize-winning entry creatively shows a tooth taking a shower with the headline, "Up, Down, In Between  Scrub your Teeth to Keep them Clean!" Mateo will be presented with his framed winning poster and $500 prize at a school assembly. Both Solomon Plains Elementary School and Mateo's teacher, Ms. Tracey Dlugosh, will also receive prizes of $250 each for being part of first place in PDA's contest.

Our second place winner is Sophie Hunt from St. Margaret Mary Elementary School in Dauphin County. Sophie created a space-themed piece "Welcome to the Molar System," and shows that when you take the proper steps, "Your Teeth are out of this World." Sophie received a $250 prize and a certificate of recognition.

"Keep Brushing!" says Jailene Martinez, a third grader from Heights Elementary in Wilkes-Barre, who received third place recognition. In Jailene's artwork, she drew a dental office, with three teeth as the patients. One is sadly covered in cavities. Jailene received a $100 prize and a certificate of recognition.

The following students were among the statewide Top 10 entries and will receive an Honorable Mention certificate:

Elijah Vega  Age 8, Dan Flood Elementary, Wilkes-Barre

 Age 8, Dan Flood Elementary, Juleah Byler  Age 9, Martinsburg Elementary, Martinsburg

 Age 9, Martinsburg Elementary, William Brown  Age 9, Dillsburg Elementary, Dillsburg

 Age 9, Dillsburg Elementary, Ishan Powell  Age 9, Dan Flood Elementary, Wilkes-Barre

 Age 9, Dan Flood Elementary, Amelia Foor  Age 9, Tussey Mountain Elementary, Saxton

 Age 9, Tussey Mountain Elementary, Ella Bowers  Age 9, Swiftwater Elementary, Swiftwater

 Age 9, Swiftwater Elementary, Milton Gonzalez  Age 9, Dan Flood Elementary, Wilkes-Barre

The winning posters were selected from more than 125 clever, well-designed entries submitted to the PDA Central Office for judging. The contest was open to third-grade students in any Pennsylvania public, private or charter school. More than 1,800 schools were contacted for participation.

Visit PDA's website at www.padental.org to learn more about NCDHM and other dental health topics.

About the Pennsylvania Dental Association

Founded in 1868, the Pennsylvania Dental Association (PDA) is comprised of approximately 5,500 member dentists. It is a constituency of the American Dental Association (ADA), the largest and oldest national dental society in the world. PDA's mission is to improve the public health, promote the art and science of dentistry and represent the interests of its member dentists and their patients. PDA is the voice of dentistry in Pennsylvania. For more information on PDA, visit our website at www.padental.org.

SOURCE Pennsylvania Dental Association

Related Links

http://www.padental.org


PORTLAND, Oregon, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Pharmacogenomics Market by Technology (Sequencing, Polymerase Chain Reaction, Gel Electrophoresis, Mass Spectrometry, Microarray, and Others), Application (Cardiovascular Diseases, Infectious Diseases, Oncology, Neurological Diseases, Psychiatry, Pain Management, and Others), and End User (Hospitals & Clinics, Research Institutions and Academic Institutes and Others): Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2017  2025." The report provides a comprehensive analysis of top investment pockets, drivers & opportunities, major segments, value chain, and competitive scenario. According to the report, the global pharmacogenomics market garnered $5.3 billion in 2017, and is expected to reach $10.2 billion by 2025, registering a CAGR of 8.6% from 2018 to 2025.

Increasing demand for personalized therapy, growing prevalence of life-threatening diseases worldwide, and technological advancements in the molecular techniques used for pharmacogenomics-based diagnostics have fueled the growth of global pharmacogenomics market. On the other hand, lack of well-trained as well as technically skilled professionals and complexities in finding the right gene affecting the drug response have happened to curb the growth to some extent. However, technological advancements in molecular techniques used for pharmacogenomics diagnostic tests have created lucrative opportunities in the segment.

Request Sample Report at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/5220

Polymerase chain reaction to maintain its dominance during the forecast period-

By technology, polymerase chain reaction accounted for two-fifth of the total market in 2017 and have come out as the lion shareholder. The fact that polymerase chain reaction is the one of the most commonly used technologies used during the pharmacogenomics diagnostic tests has spurred the growth. Also, its edge over other molecular diagnostic tools in amplifying the sample DNA has coaled the growth.

Oncology Segment to maintain its top status till 2025-

By application, the oncology segment contributed to more than one-third of the total market in 2017 and is anticipated to dominate by 2025. This is due to the prevalence of cancer with lack of proper drugs at disposal and chances of relapse. Pharmacogenomics is used in the development of personalized therapy which will be able to provide personalized therapy to the patients suffering from this deadly disease.

Hospitals and clinics segment to be dominant through 2018-2025-

Based on end-user, hospitals and clinics held the major share, accounting for more than two-third of the total market in 2017. This is due to the presence of technologically advanced diagnostic equipment and highly skilled health care professionals.

For Purchase Enquiry at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/5220

North America to have the major share-

Based on geography, North America contributed to two-fifth of the total market share in 2017. Higher disposable income group, better infrastructure, high-end healthcare facilities, and several government based initiatives for the welfare of the citizens have propelled the growth of pharmacogenomics market in the region.

Key players in the industry-

Leading market players analyzed in the research include Dynamic DNA Laboratories, Empire Genomics, LLC, Illumina, Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., Abbott Laboratories, OneOme LLC, Myriad Genetics Inc., OPKO Health, Inc. (GeneDx), and F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. They have adopted a plethora of strategies to maintain their top status in the industry. The other players mentioned in the report include Bayer AG, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., and Assurex Health Inc.

Access KNOWLEDGE TREE (Premium on-demand, subscription-based pricing model) at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/knowledgetree

Knowledge tree is a cloud-based intelligence platform that offers more than 2,000 selective, off-the-shelf reports on niche markets to enable our clients gain deep insights on the latest trends, dynamic technologies, and emerging application areas.

Similar Reports:

Mass Spectrometry Market- Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2017-2023

Metagenomics Market- Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2017-2024

About Us

Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.

We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.

Contact:

David Correa

5933 NE Win Sivers Drive

#205, Portland, OR 97220

United States

USA/Canada (Toll Free):

+1-800-792-5285, +1-503-894-6022, +1-503-446-1141

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Web: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com

SOURCE Allied Market Research
SUNNYVALE, Calif., April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Achmea has joined the Plug and Play global innovation platform as the largest insurance provider in the Netherlands. Achmea employs about 14,000 staff in the Netherlands and conducts business in five other countries around the world where they operate under brands such as Interpolis and Centraal Beheer. Already positioned as an innovative player in the industry, Achmea plans to tap into Plug and Play's ecosystem to expand their product offerings and customer satisfaction.

"We believe that cooperation with Plug and Play Insurtech will create a lot of benefits for us. We think it will enable intensive cooperation on new innovations and will accelerate our business and business development," says Karin Bos, Director, Retail Products at Achmea P&C.

With connections made through Plug and Play's Insurtech platform, Achmea will have the opportunity to meet with startups who are making waves in the insurance industry. This engagement will allow Achmea to grow their innovation opportunities and become an active partner in the changing insurance industry.

"We are excited to explore new solutions in our partnership with Achmea," says Ali Safavi, Global Head of Insurtech. "With prominent industry growth on the rise in Europe, we think there's a great opportunity to leverage startup technology throughout the world."

Plug and Play Insurtech runs a 12-week program twice per year from its headquarters in Silicon Valley. Since 2016, Plug and Play Insurtech has expanded its operation to Beijing, Munich, New York, Singapore, and Tokyo, with more locations expected to launch later this year.

About Achmea

From its leading position in the Dutch market, insurance group Achmea positions itself internationally as an innovative player in selected markets. Established in 1811, today Achmea is the largest insurance provider in the Netherlands. Non-life, Health and Income Protection insurance products are core competencies. Achmea employs about 14,000 staff in the Netherlands and some 3,000 abroad. Besides its home country, Achmea is active in five countries elsewhere in the world. http://www.achmea.com

About Plug and Play

Plug and Play is a global innovation platform. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, we have built accelerator programs, corporate innovation services and an in-house VC to make technological advancement progress faster than ever before. Since inception in 2006, our programs have expanded worldwide to include a presence in over 20 locations globally giving startups the necessary resources to succeed in Silicon Valley and beyond. With over 10,000 startups and 280 official corporate partners, we have created the ultimate startup ecosystem in many industries. We provide active investments with 200 leading Silicon Valley VCs, and host more than 700 networking events per year. Companies in our community have raised over $7 billion in funding, with successful portfolio exits including Danger, Dropbox, Lending Club and PayPal. For more information, visit www.plugandplaytechcenter.com .

Media Contact

Allison Romero

916-402-1333

[email protected]

SOURCE Plug and Play

Related Links

https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com


MARSHFIELD, Wis., April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- PreventionGenetics today announced a partnership with the Little Zebra Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing access to clinical genetic testing for patients in the San Francisco Bay Area. The organization was founded by two physicians who specialize in making rare diagnoses and recognize the value of genetic testing in ending the diagnostic odyssey. The Little Zebra Fund offers financial assistance to qualified patients for genetic testing; funds must be requested by a healthcare provider.

The mission of PreventionGenetics is to deliver clinical genetic testing of the highest quality at fair prices with exemplary service to people around the world. "The mission of the Little Zebra Fund aligns with that of PreventionGenetics," stated James Weber, PhD, Founder and President of PreventionGenetics. "We are proud to partner with an organization that helps families work toward ending the diagnostic odyssey through financial assistance for genetic testing."

A longtime goal and focus of PreventionGenetics has been laboratory stewardship and reducing the cost of genetic testing. While these efforts have improved the ability for patients to gain access to clinical genetic tests, there are still many situations where patients cannot afford the genetic testing they need, particularly in cases when insurance denies a claim.

About PreventionGenetics

Founded in 2004 and located in Marshfield, Wisconsin, PreventionGenetics is a CLIA and ISO 15189:2012 accredited laboratory, providing high quality clinical genetic testing to people around the world.

PreventionGenetics provides tests for nearly all clinically relevant genes. These tests include our powerful and comprehensive whole exome sequencing test, PGxome. We rapidly expand and update our test menu, introduce new technologies and increase the efficiencies of our processes. In the changing landscape of genetic testing, our commitment to test quality and to clinicians and patients remains paramount.

PreventionGenetics also offers DNA Banking (PGDNABank), a long-term storage of a person's DNA. DNA Banking is available direct-to-consumer. We invite you to visit our DNA Banking website.

Contact:

Rachel Reed

[email protected]

715-387-0484 ext. 169

SOURCE PreventionGenetics

Related Links

http://preventiongenetics.com


British Frigate Catches North Korean Sanction-Busters



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ANNVILLE, Pa., April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Veronica Daigle, principal deputy assistant secretary for Readiness for the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) recently toured Fort Indiantown Gap (FTIG) to see how the Pennsylvania National Guard (PNG) training operations and how the PNG helps to efficiently build readiness across numerous military components. The training at FTIG extends beyond PNG soldiers and airmen, and includes Reserve, active duty and civilian forces.

"We were grateful for the opportunity to show Secretary Daigle why Fort Indiantown Gap is the busiest National Guard training center in the nation and how efficient we are with the resources allocated to our facility," said Maj. Gen. Tony Carrelli, Pennsylvania's adjutant general and head of the PA Department of Military and Veterans Affairs (DMVA). "Fort Indiantown Gap played host to more than 150,000 active duty, Reserve and National Guard service members in 2018, the most to ever train here since its inception in 1998. That capability is opening the eyes of our military supporters at the federal level."

Daigle toured multiple schools and ranges where soldiers and airmen from National Guard, Reserves and active duty all train year-round. Those areas included the Eastern Army National Guard Aviation Training Site, the training institute run by the 166th Regiment, and the Regional Equipment Operator Training Site.

Founded in 1747, the PNG is now the second largest National Guard in the nation and is comprised of over 19,000 soldiers and airmen, who reside in every county across the commonwealth. The PNG is part of the DMVA's dual mission, which also includes supporting Pennsylvania's nearly 800,000 veterans.

For more information about the DMVA, visit us online at www.dmva.pa.gov or follow us at www.facebook.com/padmva or www.twitter.com/padmva.

MEDIA CONTACT: Joan Nissley, 717-861-8720

SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs

Related Links

http://www.dmva.state.pa.us


TEL AVIV, Israel, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Seedo Corp. , "Seedo" (OTCQB: SEDO), a high-tech company providing the world's first fully automated and controlled indoor growing machines for the pesticide-free cannabis and agricultural markets, announced today it will establish Second fully automated, commercial-scale, pesticide-free containerized cannabis farm in Israel.

Brosh Containers farm will be built enabling automated, closed system cultivation will be installed. The farm's production capacity is anticipated to reach 12 tons of dry cannabis inflorescence per year, as of the third year, in Moshav Brosh.

SEEDO will become a partner sharing in the project's revenue, and in addition to supplying the equipment, will also provide the entrepreneurs with professional guidance throughout the growth process.

"I am excited of this second cannabis farm agreement of which the company plans to construct," said Seedo CEO Zohar Levy. "We certainly intend to build similar projects in other parts of the world."

SEEDO has already signed an agreement with Kibbutz Dan for the establishment of an automated growth farm, within 36 months of operation, the project is estimated to produce a minimum of 14 tons of dry cannabis bud, generating an estimated revenue of $24 million dollars.

About Seedo

Seedo is a market leading high-tech company providing the cannabis and agriculture industries with the world's first fully automated and controlled indoor growing machine. Seedo provides growers with the freedom to cut costs while generating high yields of lab-grade, pesticide-free herbs and vegetables. Seedo's AI-powered, turnkey systems enable anyone from average consumers to large-scale producers the ability to grow without prior experience or ample space. Seedo is a publicly traded company backed by a group of international investors including Cannabics Pharmaceuticals and is headquartered in Israel. For more information, visit http://www.seedolab.com

Disclaimer:

Certain statements contained in this release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements include, but are not limited to statements identified by words such as "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "estimates," "intends," "plans," "targets," "projects" and similar expressions. The statements in this release are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of our company's management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. Numerous factors could cause or contribute to such differences, including, but not limited to, results of clinical trials and/or other studies, the challenges inherent in new product development initiatives, the effect of any competitive products, our ability to license and protect our intellectual property, our ability to raise additional capital in the future that is necessary to maintain our business, changes in government policy and/or regulation, potential litigation by or against us, any governmental review of our products or practices, as well as other risks discussed from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, our latest Form 10-K Report filed on January 15th, 2019. We undertake no duty to update any forward-looking statement or any information contained in this press release or in other public disclosures at any time.

Contacts:

Seedo Corp.

+972-546-642-228

General Information: [email protected]

http://www.seedolab.com

SOURCE Seedo Corp.

Related Links

http://www.seedolab.com/


ShareGate Apricot prevents team and group sprawl through collaborative governance

MONTREAL, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - Today, ShareGate, a software company specializing in cloud computing solutions, announced the public release of ShareGate Apricot, a governance tool designed to help IT professionals efficiently deploy Office 365. The Montreal-based brand's newest offering lets IT collaborate with trusted users to prevent the sprawl of Office 365 Groups and Teams.

ShareGate Apricot is the latest addition to the company's product line, joining the ranks of flagship migration tool ShareGate Desktop and Azure resource optimization solution ShareGate Overcast.

With ShareGate Apricot, Office 365 admins can easily:

Monitor and detect unused Office 365 groups and teams based on activity

Collaborate with group owners to archive obsolete content

Automate team and group lifecycle management

Validate permissions and memberships with group owners (coming soon)

"We've been listening to the evolving needs of our clients and the industry in general," said Benjamin Niaulin, head of product and Microsoft MVP at ShareGate, "and we're extremely proud to offer this new solution designed with ShareGate's signature simplicity and effectiveness in mind. We believe ShareGate Apricot will be truly valuable in helping organizations advance even further in their cloud journey, and we're excited to continue working on bringing our idea of collaborative governance in Office 365 to the next level."

About ShareGate

Founded in Montreal in 2009, ShareGate empowers IT professionals worldwide to fully benefit from the cloud. The brand strives to uncomplicate the cloud through its three products, ShareGate Desktop (SharePoint migration and management), ShareGate Overcast (Azure resource monitoring) and ShareGate Apricot (Office 365 governance).

www.sharegate.com

SOURCE Groupe ShareGate Inc.
The 33 rd Association for Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) Conference was rounded off in Hawaii. Founded in 1979, AAAI is one of the major academic organizations in the AI field. With more than 4,000 members all over the world, AAAI provides academic support for 14 AI journals. The annual conference hosed by AAAI is a world-famous important meeting in the AI field.

As the first top conference on AI in 2019, the AAAI Conference was attended by more than 3,000 experts and scholars from all over the world. They shared with one another their latest scientific research achievements in AI technology and the new trend of application to all professions, and discussed next-generation lead-edge technologies and development strategies. Distinguished guests invited to the conference included famous scholar Li Feifei, a professor at Stanford University, Ian Goodfellow, a senior research scientist and the luminary on Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) at Google, and Yang Qiang, Head of Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

"AI will subvert traditional education with it giving way to individualized teaching."

There are three difficult problems to be urgently solved in the educational industry. The first is serious absence of quality teacher resources; the second is impossibility of carrying out one-to-one individualized teaching in the class-based teaching system; the third is disequilibrium of educational resources caused by geographic restrictions.

Richard pointed out at the conference that AI could solve these difficult problems faced by the traditional educational industry and make it possible to carry out individualized teaching. He said, "First, the AI engine is replacing 80% of the role of one-to-one teachers/tutors; second, AI tutors must be able to help students raise their learning efficiency, improve their performance and enhance their engagement; third, student-centered AI learning is a revolutionary paradigm shift and best able to fully promote the whole program, curriculum design, enrollment, teaching/learning, analysis/test and process improvement cycle."

According to him, Squirrel AI Learning has currently achieved four global innovations in the world: Firstly, super-Nanoscale knowledge point splitting, ten times as fine as actual competitors' method. This makes it possible to accurately learn about every student's grasp of a knowledge point so that they could begin to study at a proper starting point. Secondly, splitting of learning abilities and methods. Squirrel AI Learning has figured out conceptual comprehension ability, physical law application ability, conjecture and observation ability, data-handling capacity, physical quantity estimation capacity and formula deformation application ability, which can be split to develop students' ability to infer other things from one fact. Thirdly, the association probability of unassociated knowledge points. After setting up an association probability, Squirrel AI Learning can raise its test efficiency and learning efficiency to 3-10 times as high as the ALEKS model. Fourthly, adversarial model. This model supports right-and-left mutual fight as AlphaGo Zero does, and through such training, Squirrel AI Learning can optimize the algorithm rapidly, efficiently and significantly to reduce the demand for data in an actual scene.

The fact that "AI can solve educational problems" has been proved in practice. Squirrel AI Learning started verifying the feasibility of defeating human teaching with machine teaching in October 2017. It held four man-machine competitions and achieved the unusually same result: machine teaching defeated human teaching. In the largest one -- unfolded in one hundred cities, in terms of average scoring in the core part of the competition, the students in the AI teaching group had their scores increased by 5.4 on average, while the students in the human teaching group just had their scores increased by 0.7 on average; each student in the AI teaching group learned 42 knowledge points on average, while each student in the human teaching group learned 28 knowledge points on average. This means that the Squirrel AI Learning system can make and implement an individualized teaching plan in accordance with students' grasp of knowledge. Currently, a teaching effect better than human teaching has been achieved.

Soon afterwards, Richard Tong, chief architect of Squirrel AI Learning, gave a technical presentation of the architecture and strategy of the Squirrel AI Learning platform and gave a detailed description of the four dimensions and three development stages of the platform architecture.

From Richard's speech, the guests learned about the most cutting-edge development and applications of AI in the education field. With its technological superiority and excellent performance in technology-driven practical applications, the Squirrel AI Learning system has aroused great attention from experts and scholars in the international AI circle.

According to Richard, Squirrel AI Learning is revolutionizing education, and every student should have a one-to-one AI adaptive tutor so that learning would be more effective, efficient and attractive. After the speech, many participants showed their keen interest in Squirrel AI Learning's technological innovation, product implementation and future development, and expressed their expectation of cooperating with Squirrel AI Learning.

After the conference, the Squirrel AI Learning Team attended the AAAI Dinner, where they conducted a further exchange and discussion with many famous experts and scholars from home and abroad, including Ian Goodfellow, a senior research scientist and the luminary on GANs at Google, Zhou Zhihua, Head of School of AI, Nanjing University, and Co-chair of AAAI, Cynthia Breazeal, an associate professor at MIT Media Lab, Pascal van Hentenryck, Academic Chairman of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Co-chair of AAAI, Todd Neller, a professor at the Gettysburg College and Chairman of the EAAI Program Committee, and Andy Li, a professor at Department of Computer Science, University of Florida.

As a number of experts said to the Squirrel AI Learning Team at the dinner, humans have ushered in an era of ABC represented by AI, big data and cloud computing in 2019, and technology will bring about a revolutionary change in education. Therefore, the technological superiority of Squirrel AI Learning system is becoming increasingly obvious.

The AI learning platform consists of the following four dimensions: service architecture, application architecture, data architecture and technical architecture. The service architecture, also known as service model, is mainly used to describe the service process and product features; the application architecture is a part of the system, used to describe the service process; the data architecture means that data flows through the system to guide the underlying AI; the technical architecture refers to software stack and cloud, scalability and safety. Squirrel AI Learning Engine has undergone the following three development stages: at the first stage, featuring a knowledge chart-driven adaptive strategy, the main technologies involved include IRT and naive gap filling, BKT to DKT, spaced repetition, ladder-type development, multidimensional skill combination and universal algorithm; at the second stage, featuring multi-model input vector, the technologies involved include basic machine learning, deep learning and affective computing; at the third stage, featuring conversational adaptive tutor, the technologies involved include NLP, semantic analysis, contextual knowledge representation and reasoning.

With strong technical strength and a leading edge, Squirrel AI Learning is already able to effectively solve the problems including the disequilibrium of teacher resources and impossibility of carrying out one-to-one individualized teaching. Moreover, online and offline commercial distribution can successfully break geographical limitations so that more children could enjoy quality educational resources to increase their learning efficiency.

Many forms of education, including increasingly developed after-school tutoring and online education, will be presented in the form of educational data. As Squirrel AI Learning constantly strengthens its predictive power and ability to learn and feed back content effects, the traditional educational mode will be further subverted.

As the first high-tech company in the Asia-Pacific region to use the AI learning technology in the K12 education field, Squirrel AI Learning stays true to its original aspiration and has established a joint laboratory of AI with the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), Chinese Academy of Sciences and CMU respectively in a bid to further explore more possibilities of the application of AI in the adaptive education field. Its scientific research has been included in international top academic conferences, such as CSEDU, AIED and AERA, and its staff has been invited as a keynote speaker to many top summits such as IEEE, ACM, IJCAI, AAAI and KDD. Moreover, it has won many international awards, including the EdTechXEurope Growth Award and the 2018 Greatest Social Contribution Award for AI.

Since 2016, Squirrel AI Learning has set up more than 1,800 offline learning centers in over 300 cities in over 20 provinces in China, and offered help to more than 1 million students. By July 2018, the Squirrel AI Learning by Yixue Group had raised funds of over USD 1 billion with the corporate valuation approaching USD 1.1 billion, becoming a unicorn.

We believe that with the efforts of Squirrel AI Learning by Yixue Group and its peers, ideal education that features "teaching students in accordance with their aptitude" will be turned from an idle dream into a reality so that all children of different nationalities and nations, poor and rich, could have an AI super teacher of their own to enjoy the same quality education.

Beyond all doubt, the Squirrel AI Learning's outstanding achievements are due to the efforts of the professional AI team. The major members of the R&D team are from Knewton, RealizeIT and ALEKS, the world's top three AI learning education providers. Of the members, chief scientist Dr. Cui Wei has a postdoctoral degree in AI obtained from the National University of Ireland. He used to be a core scientist of RealizeIT; chief architect Richard Tong is the technical leader at Knewton, the first AI education provider founded in the US, in the Asia-Pacific region; chief data scientist Dr. Dan Bindman is a co-founder of U.S. AI education magnate ALEKS, and the chief architect responsible for core product algorithm. At the global AI+ adaptive education summit AIAED held in Beijing in November 2018, Prof. Tom Mitchell, the global luminary on machine learning, Dean of School of Computer Science (CMU), Carnegie Mellon University, a fellow at the National Academy of Engineering and American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a fellow at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and American Association for Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), announced his acceptance of the invitation from Squirrel AI Learning to serve as the Chief AI Officer.

SOURCE Squirrel AI Learning
When world leaders gathered at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit in 2015 to launch the UN SDGs, there were concerns that the 17 goals were too ambitious, too general, not focused, and unrealistic. After all, the SDGs expanded on the 8 Millennial Development Goals (adopted in 2000), and recurring goals like poverty, hunger, universal education, gender equality, and environment sustainability remained.

There are valid reasons to be skeptical. Take poverty as an example. According to World Bank statistics, in 2015, 736 million people lived on less than USD1.90 a day, down from 1.85 billion in 1990. While that was a great achievement, the progress made had been somewhat uneven.

East Asia and Pacific (with 47 million extreme poor) and Europe and Central Asia (seven million) have reduced extreme poverty to below three per cent, projecting to achieve the 2030 target. Alarmingly, for Sub-Saharan Africa, the number of poor actually increased, to 413 million in 2015.

In India, around 170 million people lived in poverty in 2015, at 12.4% of the population, a reduction from 29.8% in 2009. According to World Bank, more than 500 million people were lifted out of extreme poverty as China's poverty rate fell dramatically from 88% in 1981 to 6.5% in 2012. It was further projected to fall to about 2% in 2018 with hopes of totally eradicating poverty by 2020. In ASEAN, the percentage of population in extreme poverty fell from 47% in 1990 to 14% in 2015.

Based on these statistics and current state, the uneven progress would mean that trying to achieve the UN SDGs globally by 2030 would be a tremendous challenge. We would like to offer two approaches to address this challenge  by localising the UN SDGs and developing Inclusive Smart Cities.

1) The Experiences by Cauayan City (Isabela, Philippines)

We believe that city leaders around the world should embrace the UN SDGs as an integral part of their strategy for sustainable development. To do so, the UN SDGs must be localised and mapped to existing development projects, and monitored to achieve specific goals.

See the diagram above where every project in Cauayan City would be mapped to at least one SDG. The Mayor hopes to achieve SDG#11  "Sustainable Cities and Communities" in the Philippines by demonstrating that if a small city like Cauayan City can do that, other cities should be able to do likewise.

The participation of Cauayan City in the "Digital Twinned Smart Cities" Initiative by Smart Cities Network is to achieve SDG#17  Partnerships for the Goals, by collaborating with others and learning from the network.

2) The Need for More Inclusive Smart Cities

Countries and cities around the world have embarked on projects to make their countries and cities "Smart" or "Smarter". It is now a trillion dollar market, offering solution and service providers tremendous business opportunities which could be turned into opportunities to help achieve the UN SDGs. Below would be the pre-requisites:

a) An Integrated Smart City and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Business Model  In August 2014, the Indian government passed a legislation that requires large companies (with average net profit of at least 50 million rupees over a period of 3 years) to spend at least two per cent of their profits every year on CSR.

With the country embarking on Smart Cities in virtually every state in India, companies should work with the state government to integrate smart cities development with CSR projects. Such a business model would be a win-win partnership between the public and private sectors which should be replicated globally.

b) Identify "Bankable Projects for Smart Cities"  the World Bank and other regional Financial Institutions had spent trillions to assist developing countries achieve their SDGs. It is perhaps time to invest in projects that would attract the private sector to propose projects which are bankable in the development of smart cities. Projects like Smart Street Lighting (with integrated video cameras and sensors) with guaranteed 40% energy savings would help lay the smart infrastructure for cities with cost savings.

3) How to start localising the SDGs?

c) The first step to embark on localising the SDGs would be a difficult one. Below is the advice from the Mayor of Cauayan City from the Philippines, Bernard Faustino Madrid Dy:

"There are a lot of programs that are being implemented by the National Government but they would not being connected to the SDGs. So Local Government Units (LGUs) like Cauayan City should showcase how these projects are related to the SDGs. Another important factor is to inform the academic institutions and students on SDGs. We have also engaged partner agencies to relate their programs to the SDGs."

d) Cauayan City is a member city of the Digitally Twinned Smart Cities initiative. Partner cities would have the opportunity to learn from their city officials. If other cities are interested to know more, please register for ConnecTechAsia2019 and attend our Smart Cities Project Activation Workshop on 19 June 2019 at the Smart Cities Arena.

Mayor Bernard Faustino Madrid Dy was awarded for two consecutive years as the Most Outstanding Mayor in the Philippines, largely for his work in making Cauayan City as the first Smarter City in the country. He has signed an MOU with Kok-Chin and other ecosystem partners for Smarter and Sustainable Cities in January 2019, with Cauayan City as an innovation hub and model for the development of Smarter Cities. Cauayan City is also the first city from the Philippines involved in the Digitally Twinned Smart Cities Initiative, a pioneering concept to develop smart cities globally.

Kok-Chin will be moderating the Future Cities Panel  Building the Foundations of Smart Cities and Beyond, on Day 1 of ConnecTechAsia Summit, 18 June 2019. In this session, leaders and subject experts will discuss pertinent challenges facing the amalgamation of smart cities, as well as infrastructure and regulatory issues in driving digitalisation, citizen inclusiveness and sustainability of future cities. Register here to attend!

Additionally, Smart Cities Network will host a half-day workshop at ConnecTechAsia on Day 2, 19 June 2019, at the Smart Cities Arena. Representatives of Smart Cities in ASEAN (including the Philippines) will be invited to share on potential projects with interested business investors and partners. More details to follow soon.

ConnecTechAsia is organised by UBM.

SOURCE UBM Singapore
NEW YORK, LONDON, DUBAI and MEXICO CITY, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Volante Technologies Inc., a global provider of software for accelerated end-to-end payments processing and financial message integration, today announced that Banco BASE selected Volante as a strategic partner to provide this Mexican financial group with end-to-end payment processing solutions for domestic and international payments.

Banco BASE specializes in payments and transaction banking services for corporations and medium-sized businesses in Mexico, and their foreign trade partners. As the result of a rapidly changing market, the advent of open banking and the desire to offer digital P2P and merchant services among others, Banco BASE needed the fastest path to innovation and a modern payments platform to strengthen its position as a regional leader.

To achieve these goals, Banco BASE implemented Volante's VolPay for end-to-end domestic and international payment processing. Live since 2016, VolPay processes the bank's domestic real-time payments in Mexico via SPEI, in Mexican Pesos and SPID in U.S. dollars; and cross-border payments, incoming and outgoing, via the SWIFT network.

Reaping the benefits from VolPay's efficient, scalable and innovative payments architecture, low operating cost, and its ability to provide the bank's customers with a superior experience, Banco Base expects to expand the VolPay implementation to cover domestic bulk MXN payments, and digital retail payments.

Prudencio Frigolet, IT and Operations Director, Banco BASE, said, "With a rapidly changing payments landscape, we were looking for a payments infrastructure solution that could deliver on our current domestic and international payments needs and support our future growth strategy. Since developing an in-house solution was not an option, we particularly appreciated Volante's ability to work with us as strategic partners, collaborating on roadmap priorities and allowing us to make the most efficient use of our own resources. With Volante and VolPay, we are confident of the competitiveness of our corporate payments' offerings today, as well as our ability to stay ahead of tomorrow's emerging trends."

Luis Melgarejo, VP, Latin America Operations, Volante Technologies, commented, "Our number one priority is to serve as a trusted partner enabling digital transformation and innovation in payments so our customers can create a superior experience. Our relationship with Banco Base demonstrates our ongoing commitment to providing financial institutions in Latin America with the same powerful, flexible payments technology that powers the world's largest bankstailored to local market needs. We are proud that we were able to help Banco Base maintain its leadership position, and that VolPay is delivering the efficiency and functionality they need to grow and stay ahead in their payments business."

About Banco BASE

Banco BASE is part of the Mexican Financial Group Grupo Financiero BASE. The 32 years of experience at Banco BASE have taught us that nobody can grow their business or money like you can. So our passion is the financial goals that define you and inspire us to help you in everything you do.

We have bank products and services designed for you to achieve, with the personalized attention and service you need; the purpose is always to make your life easier and believe in a better future for all. Banco BASE: Passion for your goals.

Our banking products for corporate and private banking include: loans, investments, digital accounts; and for specialized banking: FX  Foreign currencies and hedging instruments.

For further information please visit: www.bancobase.com

About Volante Technologies

Volante Technologies is a global provider of software to accelerate digital transformation and modernization in financial services. Our clients include the world's largest banks, market infrastructures, exchanges, clearing houses, corporate treasuries, and card networks.

Volante's ecosystem of business services simplifies complex systems and processes in payments, capital markets, and financial messaging automation. As a result, our clients are able to stay ahead of emerging market trends, become more competitive, deliver superior customer experiences, and grow their businesses through innovation.

Founded in Silicon Valley in 2001, Volante today serves as a trusted, strategic business partner to over 90 financial institutions in 35 countries.

For further information please visit: www.volantetech.com

SOURCE Volante Technologies

Related Links

http://www.volantetech.com


WASHINGTON, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Alice Lin, the daughter of a U.S. pastor held hostage by the Chinese government for more than a decade, will give her first media interview on today's edition of Washington Watch with Tony Perkins.

Last December, China launched a crackdown on Christian church members that appears to have impacted those held in prison -- including Pastor David Lin. The worsening situation has prompted the Lin family to call on the U.S. and Chinese governments to intervene to help bring the pastor back to the United States.

Who: Alice Lin, daughter of U.S. Pastor David Lin

What: Radio interview on Washington Watch with Tony Perkins

When: 5:32 PM Eastern time

Where: Listen online at tonyperkins.com

Go to www.freepastorlin.com for more information.

SOURCE Family Research Council

Related Links

http://www.frc.org


LAVAL, QC, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. ("Couche-Tard") (TSX: ATD.A) (TSX: ATD.B) announced today that the Toronto Stock Exchange ("TSX") has approved its share repurchase program (the "Program"), authorizing Couche-Tard to repurchase up to 16,977,576 Class B Subordinate Voting Shares, representing 4% of the 424,439,404 Class B Subordinate Voting Shares comprising Couche-Tard's "public float" (as such term is defined in the TSX Company Manual) as at April 5, 2019 (or approximately 3.88% of the 437,425,103 issued and outstanding Class B Subordinate Voting Shares as at April 5, 2019).

The net average daily trading volume for the six-month period preceding April 1, 2019 represents 981,497 Class B Subordinate Voting Shares. In accordance with TSX requirements, Couche-Tard is entitled to purchase, on any trading day, up to a total of 245,374 Class B Subordinate Voting Shares representing 25% of this average daily trading volume.

Couche-Tard believes that the purchase of up to 16,977,576 Class B Subordinate Voting Shares under the Program is an appropriate use of its funds and a desirable investment for Couche-Tard and, therefore, would be in the best interests of Couche-Tard. By making such repurchases, the number of Class B Subordinate Voting Shares in circulation will be reduced and the proportionate interest of all remaining shareholders in the share capital of Couche-Tard will be increased on a pro rata basis.

Couche-Tard may repurchase Class B Subordinate Voting Shares on the open market through the facilities of the TSX as well as through other alternative Canadian trading systems, from time to time, over the course of twelve months commencing April 10, 2019 and ending at the latest on April 9, 2020.

The actual number of Class B Subordinate Voting Shares purchased under the Program, the timing of purchases and the price at which the Class B Subordinate Voting Shares are bought will depend upon management discretion based on factors such as market conditions. All shares repurchased under the Program will be cancelled upon their repurchase.

In connection with the Program, Couche-Tard has established an automatic securities purchase plan with a designated broker whereby shares may be repurchased at times when such purchases would otherwise be prohibited pursuant to regulatory restrictions or self-imposed blackout periods. Under the automatic securities purchase plan, before entering a self-imposed blackout period, Couche-Tard may, but is not required to, ask the designated broker to make purchases under the Program. Such purchases will be made at the discretion of the designated broker, within parameters established by Couche-Tard prior to the blackout periods. Outside the blackout periods, purchases are made at the discretion of Couche-Tard's management. The automatic securities purchase plan constitutes an "automatic plan" for purposes of applicable Canadian securities legislation and has been pre-cleared by the TSX.

Couche-Tard has not repurchased any Class B Subordinate Voting Shares in the last 12 months.

About Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc.

Couche-Tard is the leader in the Canadian convenience store industry. In the United States, it is the largest independent convenience store operator in terms of the number of company-operated stores. In Europe, Couche-Tard is a leader in convenience store and road transportation fuel retail in the Scandinavian countries (Norway, Sweden and Denmark), in the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), as well as in Ireland, and has an important presence in Poland.

As of February 3, 2019, Couche-Tard's network comprised 9,933 convenience stores throughout North America, including 8,662 stores with road transportation fuel dispensing. Its North American network consists of 19 business units, including 15 in the United States covering 48 states and 4 in Canada covering all 10 provinces. Approximately 105,000 people are employed throughout its network and at its service offices in North America. In addition, through CrossAmerica Partners LP, Couche-Tard supplies road transportation fuel under various brands to approximately 1,300 locations in the United States.

In Europe, Couche-Tard operates a broad retail network across Scandinavia, Ireland, Poland, the Baltics and Russia through ten business units. As of February 3, 2019, Couche-Tard's network comprised 2,709 stores, the majority of which offer road transportation fuel and convenience products while the others are unmanned automated fuel stations which only offer road transportation fuel. Couche-Tard also offers other products, including stationary energy and aviation fuel. Including employees at branded franchise stores, approximately 25,000 people work in its retail network, terminals and service offices across Europe.

In addition, under licensing agreements, more than 2,100 stores are operated under the Circle K banner in 14 other countries and territories (Cambodia, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, Guam, Honduras, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Macau, Mexico, Mongolia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam), which brings the worldwide total network to more than 16,000 stores.

For more information on Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. or to consult its quarterly Consolidated Financial Statements and Management Discussion and Analysis, please visit: https://corpo.couche-tard.com.

Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements

The statements set forth in this press release, which describes Couche-Tard's objectives, projections, estimates, expectations or forecasts, may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of securities legislation. Positive or negative verbs such as "believe", "can", "shall", "intend", "expect", "estimate", "assume" and other related expressions are used to identify such statements. Couche-Tard would like to point out that, by their very nature, forwardlooking statements involve risks and uncertainties such that its results, or the measures it adopts, could differ materially from those indicated in or underlying these statements, or could have an impact on the degree of realization of a particular projection. Major factors that may lead to a material difference between Couche-Tard's actual results and the projections or expectations set forth in the forward-looking statements include the effects of the integration of acquired businesses and the ability to achieve projected synergies, fluctuations in margins on motor fuel sales, competition in the convenience store and retail motor fuel industries, exchange rate variations, and such other risks as described in detail from time to time in the reports filed by Couche-Tard with securities authorities in Canada. Unless otherwise required by applicable securities laws, Couche-Tard disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The forward-looking information in this release is based on information available as of the date of the release.

SOURCE Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc.

Related Links

http://corpo.couche-tard.com


MANALAPAN, N.J., April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Armas Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is pleased to announce the release of its second and third generic products, Capecitabine and Imatinib, for the U.S. market. These products will be the first oral solid oncology products for Armas. Capecitabine will be available in strengths of 150 mg and 500 mg and Imatinib will be available in strengths of 100 mg and 400 mg.

"Following the launch of our first oncology injectable, Azacitidine for injection, in late 2018, Armas Pharmaceuticals is excited to announce the launch of our first two oral oncology products to the market. Imatinib and Capecitabine expands on Armas's goal to bring high quality, affordable pharmaceuticals to the US market," says John Niemi, President & CEO of Armas.

Capecitabine, an AB-rated generic equivalent to the brand Xeloda (a trademark of Hoffman-La Roche, Inc), generated annual sales of approximately $108 million with the year ending December 31, 2018, according to sales data. Imatinib Mesylate, an AB-rated generic equivalent to the brand Gleevec (a trademark of Novartis AG Corporation), generated annual sales of approximately $655 million with the year ending December 31, 2018, according to industry sales data.

About Armas Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Armas Pharmaceuticals is a generic pharmaceutical company delivering an ever-growing portfolio of high-quality products that provide convenience, affordability and consistency. Through the development of strong partnerships and industry relationships, Armas maintains this pipeline of products with customer and patient satisfaction in mind. Headquartered in Manalapan, New Jersey, Armas Pharmaceuticals is always open to new partnership opportunities and ways to offer our customers the best products at affordable prices. For more information, please visit ArmasPharmaceuticals.com.

Contact:

John Niemi, President & CEO

Armas Pharmaceuticals

[email protected]

(888) 831-2292

SOURCE Armas Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.armaspharmaceuticals.com


CHARLOTTE, N.C., April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Asana Partners ("Asana") today announced the final close of its second value-add fund, Asana Partners Fund II, LP (the "Fund"), with $800 million in equity commitments. The Fund received commitments from a diverse set of institutional investors, including public pension funds, corporate pension funds, insurance companies, endowments, foundations, sovereign wealth funds, and family offices.

The Fund was oversubscribed and achieved its hard cap of $800 million within 12 months of commencing the marketing process. The Fund is fully-discretionary and is targeting a range of retail real estate investment opportunities in high-growth urban and infill neighborhood locations across the United States.

"We are grateful for the broad-based support of our existing investors and are excited about new partnerships with numerous domestic and foreign investors," said Jason Tompkins, Managing Partner of Asana. "The quality of this investor base underscores the strength of our investment strategy and depth of our organization."

Over the past 36 months, Asana has closed $2 billion of institutional equity commitments across its various investment vehicles and strategies.

Sam Judd, Managing Partner of Asana, added, "We continue to source compelling investment opportunities in target markets where we see high potential to leverage our unique capabilities and deep relationships, creating value for our investors."

King & Spalding LLP acted as legal advisor to the Fund.

Hodes Weill Securities, LLC, acted as the exclusive placement agent to Asana in connection with the private placement of interests to certain investors in the Fund.

About Asana Partners

Asana Partners is a retail real estate company investing in high-growth markets across the United States. Leveraging its differentiated capabilities in retail real estate value creation, the Company capitalizes on opportunities to create authentic retail experiences in compelling locations around the country. For more information, visit www.asanapartners.com.

Media Contact:

Julie C. Ducworth

(803) 465-1198

[email protected]

The information contained herein regarding Asana Partners is for informational purposes only and does not contain certain material information about alternative investments, including important disclosures and risk factors associated with an investment in these types of vehicles, and is subject to change without notice. This document is not intended to be, nor should it be construed or used as, an offer to sell, or a solicitation of any offer to buy, shares or limited partnership interests in any funds managed by Asana Partners. If any such offer is made, it shall be pursuant to a definitive "Confidential Private Placement Memorandum" prepared by or on behalf of a specific fund that contains detailed information concerning the investment terms and the risks, fees, and expenses associated with an investment in that fund.

SOURCE Asana Partners

Related Links

https://www.asanapartners.com


At bauma 2019, Zoomlion is introducing groundbreaking technologies and sustainable products, including concrete machinery, hoisting equipment, tower cranes, dry mortar equipment, aerial work platforms and forklifts, to more than 600,000 professionals from 195 countries and regions. .

Shortly after the opening of the exhibition, Zoomlion hosted a signing ceremony. Zoomlion's high-tech company ZValley Industrial Internet Company (ZValley) signed a contract with Malaysian dealer Trans Elite Group on future cooperation in areas of equipment condition analysis, equipment safety operation, big data analysis of the market and equipment rental management.

Locally developed, intelligent and connected

Among the 43 products Zoomlion is displaying at bauma 2019, 70 percent were locally designed and manufactured in Europe to meet European clients' needs and preferences on functionality, technological innovation and appearance.

Zoomlion's subsidiary companies in Europe similarly debuted new products at bauma 2019  the Energya series green hybrid mixer truck from Zoomlion CIFA, duo-mix connect technology developed for 3D concrete printing and new flat head tower crane,WT260. In addition, Zoomlion also unveiled intelligent 4.0 generation cranes and new aerial work platforms at bauma 2019, demonstrating the company's leading edge in intelligent manufacturing and remote equipment monitor and control.

Worldwide, Zoomlion has mapped out sales and service operations in more than 120 countries and acquired top brands such as Powermole, CIFA, Ladurner, M-TEC, Raxtar and Wilbert to promote localized product development overseas.

Localization is the key to opening up the global market. Zoomlion has established overseas manufacturing bases across Europe, Asia and North America to integrate all resources for R&D, marketing and aftersales services. Through upgraded, localized operation, Zoomlion is able to take root in the international market and expand steadily.

About Zoomlion

Founded in 1992, Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science & Technology Co., Ltd. (Zoomlion)is a high-end equipment manufacturing enterprise that integrates engineering machinery, agricultural machinery and financial services. The company now sells nearly 460 cutting-edge products from 55 product lines covering ten major categories.

For more information, please visit http://en.zoomlion.com/.

SOURCE Zoomlion

Related Links

http://en.zoomlion.com/


LONDON, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Attest, the London-based technology startup launched to enable every business to be consumer-focussed, today announced a $16 million Series-A investment round to expand their Consumer Growth Platform.

Attest's Consumer Growth Platform enables companies to engage directly with over 100 million consumers across 80 countries, in as little as 90 seconds. The platform is used by consumer businesses, to learn, measure and grow ever-faster, across ideas, departments and teams.

The financing was led by leading global venture capital firm NEA headquartered in Menlo Park, California, with participation from existing investors Oxford Capital and Episode 1 Ventures. Crystal Huang, Principal at NEA, will join the Attest board of directors.

The Attest platform is designed for any business looking to unlock its full growth potential, by engaging real consumers to uncover the right decisions.

Jeremy King, Founder and CEO of Attest, said: "Businesses are constantly seeking new ways to understand trends, grow in new markets, and explore innovations - however 99% of the questions businesses would love to explore go unanswered. Attest is designed to solve that, replacing the guesswork with facts, for all consumer businesses everywhere.

"Our team is so excited to work with NEA and their global scale. NEA share our vision for helping consumer businesses discover predictable, repeatable growth by enabling anyone to get much closer to consumers and real inputs than has ever been possible before.

"Attest is built to deliver the most powerful, unique insights that can help every business unlock their greatest growth opportunities. Attest can deliver over 467% return on investment; it's a huge new capability, now open to all."

This financing comes hot on the heels of a year of dramatic growth for Attest, with recurring revenues climbing 1,800% across 2018, and the Attest team more than doubling in size from 20 to over 50. The company's expanding client roster has added notable brands such as Heineken, Walgreens Boots, Samsung, Fever-Tree, Discovery and Transferwise.

The new capital also accelerates Attest's growth in North America with the opening of a new office in New York, while expanding engineering, product and design teams to deliver ever-more intuitive and predictive insights; supporting Attest's mission to enrich consumer understanding for all.

"We've been exploring innovations within the consumer growth and insights space for a while," said Crystal Huang, Principal at NEA. "The traditional research market is worth $76 Billion, and yet it only serves a fraction of those who would benefit from fast and reliable consumer insights. Attest has a tremendous vision, thoughtful culture, ambitious team and impressive traction, which puts them in a position to accelerate the delivery and adoption of a category-defining and market-expanding platform. Our investment in Attest also reflects our enthusiasm for the UK tech ecosystem and eagerness to continue investing in this region going forward."

Attest combines power and simplicity into an all-in-one SaaS platform. "It's always been easy to guess or project, but now it's possible for anyone to simply ask detailed consumer groups for their input directly. Not just any consumers, the real people that matter most for each decision. We're democratising, demystifying and accelerating consumer intelligence."

Jamie Cooke, Chief of Staff EMEA at Discovery, added "Attest gives us agility and empowerment, bringing the consumer and people in the organisation doing the work together in a faster, more direct and intuitive way than our traditional ways of doing things. Attest is a catalyst for changing the culture of our company."

Jeremy King concluded "We believe that unique consumer insights and understanding hold the key to long-term business success, and we're on a mission to place real consumers into daily decision-making for every business. Most importantly, we do this in ways that suit consumers; constantly respectful of time and privacy, all via beautiful interfaces. We aspire to be leading global business, and that take a great leap forward today."

About Attest

We believe great companies put consumers and data at the heart of every decision. These companies create better, more useful products and services, which leads to happier consumers and ever-greater success.

That's why at Attest we're on a mission to bring every business closer to consumers and empower them with the insights that drive predictable and repeatable growth.

How? We call it a Consumer Growth Platform, where everyone can gain answers to their burning questions from audiences of over 100 million consumers across 80 markets.

Our clients use Attest to learn more about their target consumers, enter new markets, build new categories, validate decisions, develop better products and services, measure their brand, track competition, all in with the goal of building new, predictable, and repeatable growth.

Clients include Heineken, Walgreens Boots, Samsung, Fever-Tree, Discovery and Transferwise, Nutmeg, among many others. For additional information, visit www.askattest.com .

About NEA

New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) is a global venture capital firm focused on helping entrepreneurs build transformational businesses across multiple stages, sectors and geographies.

With more than $20 billion in cumulative committed capital since the firm's founding in 1977, NEA invests in technology and healthcare companies at all stages in a company's lifecycle, from seed stage through IPO. The firm's long track record of successful investing includes more than 225 portfolio company IPOs and more than 375 acquisitions. For additional information, visit www.nea.com .

For enquiries, please contact:

[email protected]

+44-(0)330-8084746

SOURCE Attest

Related Links

https://www.askattest.com/


PARSIPPANY, N.J., April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Bari Z. Weinberger, family law expert and founder of Weinberger Divorce & Family Law Group, was recently named one of New Jersey's Best Lawyers for Families, as voted on by the readers of New Jersey Family magazine. This is the third consecutive year that Bari's dedication to safeguarding children and families has earned her a spot on this exclusive list.

'Best Lawyers For Families' and Family Law Expert, Bari Z. Weinberger, Esq.

"Safeguarding our clients' children and protecting clients' parental rights and the parent-child relationshipour entire firm is dedicated to this core mission. Being named a Best Lawyer for Families in New Jersey is such an incredible and humbling recognition because assisting families through what are often very tough legal matters is at the very heart of what we do," Ms. Weinberger says.

To compile its annual list of Best Lawyers for Families, New Jersey Family magazine asked parents throughout the state to nominate their favorite family law attorney and describe the reason why the attorney should be named a Best Lawyer for Families. Nominations submitted on Ms. Weinberger's behalf spoke to her finesse and skill with child and family matters:

Bari is highly skilled in child custody and child support issues in divorce. There's nothing that can be thrown at her that she doesn't know how to solve. Judges have the greatest respect for her because she truly has the child's best interests at heart. This shines through!  A.D., Denville

Bari single-handedly saved my relationship with my kids, and I'll be forever in her gratitude for how skillful she was in diffusing my ex's parental alienation. I was depressed and almost resigned that my ex's head games would make me lose my kids, until the day I met Bari and she gave me hope based in the facts of the law. Bari is the best.  K.C., Whippany

[From a sample of nominations published by New Jersey Family magazine.]

As Ms. Weinberger notes, "Supporting children and parents and protecting and nurturing their relationships is the most important work I dobecause I know, at a very deep level, how much this matters. I am deeply grateful for these responses."

In addition to her work with clients, Ms. Weinberger is also the author of a family law book series, including A Guide to Child Custody in New Jersey and is a frequent media contributor on child and family issues. Her firm offers free attorney consultations at all six of its office locations: Parsippany, Hackensack, Cranford, Bedminster, Freehold, and Mount Laurel.

"We focus on helping parents navigate their divorce with dignity and with a keen eye towards positive co-parenting after divorce. I am so delighted by this Best Lawyers for Families award because it shows exactly how our unique perspective on divorce and family matters makes a difference," Ms. Weinberger confirms.

About Bari Z. Weinberger, Esq.

Family law expert and certified matrimonial law attorney, Bari Z. Weinberger, is the founder and managing partner of Weinberger Divorce & Family Law Group, a family law firm serving divorce and family law clients throughout New Jersey with offices in key locations throughout the state. Ms. Weinberger is a certified matrimonial attorney and experienced family law mediator. She is also a published author and frequent media contributor on divorce and family law for both local and national audiences.

Media contact:

Bari Z. Weinberger

(888) 888-0919

SOURCE Weinberger Divorce & Family Law Group
FOSHAN, China, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Bright Scholar Education Holdings Limited ("Bright Scholar," the "Company," "we" or "our" ) (NYSE: BEDU), the largest operator of international and bilingual K-12 schools in China*, today announced that it will release its unaudited financial results for the second fiscal quarter ended February 28, 2019, on April 22, 2019, after the US market closes.

The earnings press release will be available on the investor relations page at http://ir.brightscholar.com.

Conference Call

BEDU's management will host a conference call at 8:00 am US Eastern Time (8:00 pm Beijing/Hong Kong Time) on April 23, 2019, to discuss its quarterly and recent business activities.

To participate in the conference call, please dial the following number five to ten minutes prior to the scheduled conference call time:

China: 4001-201-203 Hong Kong: 852-301-84992 United States: 1-888-346-8982 Canada Toll Free: 1-855-669-9657 International: 1-412-902-4272

* No passcode is needed for the call. Please request to join Bright Scholar Education Holdings Ltd.'s call as you dial in.

The Company will also broadcast a live audio webcast of the conference call. The webcast will be available at http://ir.brightscholar.com/.

Following the earnings conference call, an archive of the call will be available by dialing:

United States: 1-877-344-7529 International: 1-412-317-0088 Canada Toll Free: 855-669-9658 Replay Passcode: 10130206 Replay End Date: April 30, 2019

About Bright Scholar Education Holdings Limited

Bright Scholar is the largest operator of international and bilingual K-12 schools in China*. The Company is dedicated to providing quality international education to Chinese students and equipping them with the critical academic foundation and skillsets necessary to succeed in the pursuit of higher education overseas. Bright Scholar also complements its international offerings with Chinese government-mandated curriculum for students who wish to maintain the option of pursuing higher education in China. As of December 31, 2018, Bright Scholar operated 68 schools covering the breadth of K-12 academic needs of its students across nine provinces in China. In the first three months of the 2019 school year ended November 30, 2018, Bright Scholar had an average of 41,423 students enrolled at its schools.

____________

* In terms of student enrollment as of August 31, 2018, according to an industry report commissioned by Bright Scholar and prepared by Frost & Sullivan in 2018.

Safe Harbor Statement

This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, the Company's business plans and development, can be identified by terminology such as "may," "will," "expect," "anticipate," "aim," "estimate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "potential," "continue," "is/are likely to" or other similar expressions. Such statements are based upon management's current expectations and current market and operating conditions and relate to events that involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the Company's control, which may cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Further information regarding these and other risks, uncertainties or factors is included in the Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under law.

IR Contact:

GCM Strategic Communications

Email: [email protected]

Media Contact:

Email: [email protected]

Phone: +86-757-6683-2507

SOURCE Bright Scholar Education Holdings Ltd.

Related Links

http://ir.brightscholar.com


New support services build on existing relationship for global connectivity

LONDON, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- BT today announced that it is expanding the range of services it provides to NATO to support the military alliance's global operations. It follows the signing of a new, three-year agreement with NATO's Communications and Information Agency (NCI) for support services valued at 5.9 million.

Secure and reliable connectivity complemented by new support services lie at the heart of NATO's digital transformation. BT connects more than 70 NATO locations internationally, including sites spread across the Alliance's 29 member countries and beyond. Adding BT's network support services to the agency enables NATO to roll out new solutions within the dynamic environment it operates in.

Bas Burger, CEO of Global Services, BT, said: "Digital transformation is a strategic driver for multinational organisations. Like many of our global customers, NATO faces a dynamic operational landscape and looks to harness the latest digital tools and technologies to enhance its performance. With our global secure network and expertise as a trusted supplier to governments, international agencies and multinationals, BT is well placed to support NATO in an increasingly digital world."

For further information

Enquiries about this news release should be made to the BT Group Newsroom on its 24-hour number: 020 7356 5369. From outside the UK dial + 44 20 7356 5369. All news releases can be accessed at our web site: http://www.btplc.com/News

About NATO Communications and Information (NCI) Agency

The NATO Communications and Information (NCI) Agency are NATO's technology and cyber security leaders. The NCI Agency delivers the critical technology that enables 29 Nations to communicate with each other and work together. The Agency is working to deliver a secure, modern digital infrastructure to NATO  wherever the Alliance is working. This effort to modernize NATO's infrastructure is known in the Agency as the digital endeavour. Our technological solutions help Allied leaders and troops collaborate effectively and make the right decisions at the right time on land, in the air and at sea. We cooperate with industry, academia and not-for-profit organizations to provide resilient C4ISR technology that saves lives and safeguards peace.

For more information visit www.ncia.nato.int

Follow NATO on



Twitter: @NCIAgency



LinkedIn: NCI Agency

About BT

BT's purpose is to use the power of communications to make a better world. It is one of the world's leading providers of communications services and solutions, serving customers in 180 countries. Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to its customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband, TV and internet products and services; and converged fixed-mobile products and services. BT consists of four customer-facing units: Consumer, Enterprise, Global Services and Openreach.

For the year ended 31 March 2018, BT Group's reported revenue was 23,723m with reported profit before taxation of 2,616m.

British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.

For more information, visit www.btplc.com.

Follow BT on

Twitter: @BT_global

LinkedIn: BT for Global business

SOURCE BT
HONG KONG, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Far East Consortium International Limited ("FEC" or the "Group"; SEHK: 35) is delighted to announce that Care Park was appointed by Macquarie Principal Finance Group ("Macquarie") to manage and operate SKYCITY's car park in Auckland, New Zealand, after Macquarie has won a 30-year concession for the car park at SKYCITY's casino and Convention Centre, which is the largest car parking operations in New Zealand comprising 3,300 bays to meet the demand for the New Zealand International Convention Centre currently under construction.

Care Park currently operates 48 car parks in New Zealand, three of which are self-owned. The partnership with Macquarie will increase Care Park's car parking bays under management in New Zealand by 35% to approximately 13,000 bays, which will set a solid basis to further enhancement and assist the growth of Care Park's operations in New Zealand. Care Park and Macquarie would actively strive to enhance customer experience through a range of new marketing and promotional initiatives. This partnership would represent a successful cooperation model between Care Park and international infrastructure funds like Macquarie.

Along with changes in times and flourishing technology, Care Park will implement a series of technology initiatives to enhance customer experience and drive revenue, including "My Care Park pre-booking platform" and "My Care Park App", which provides patrons search and GPS directions guidance. Furthermore, Care Park will introduce initiatives to ensure a seamless parking experience via the use of license plate recognition to reduce entry and exit times and upgrade the existing parking control system. By using digital marketing platforms, it can provide yield management, enhanced external identification, and internal directional guidance signage, which can enhance customer services to a higher level.

Mr. Chris HOONG, Managing Director of FEC said, "I believe the cooperation with Macquarie will significantly benefit Care Park's New Zealand operations. We are honored that we have an opportunity to work with successful international infrastructure funds like Macquarie. The Group is full of faith that both parties could benefit from this partnership."

Mr. Robert BELTEKY, Managing Director of Care Park said, "Care Park is proud to be selected by Macquarie as a partner in the operation of New Zealand's most iconic car park. We also appreciate the support of SKYCITY in endorsing Care Park's vision to deliver technology and marketing initiatives to ensure SKYCITY's patrons enjoy increased levels of services and experience in seamless parking. Care Park has been a major parking services provider in New Zealand for over 15 years. This is one of our largest management agreements to reinforce our goodwill as a partnership-focused manager with a philosophy of working in cooperation with property owners to deliver the outcomes they seek to achieve."

About Far East Consortium International Limited

Far East Consortium International Limited has been listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange since 1972 (HKEx stock code: 35.HK). The Group is mainly engaged in property development and investment, hotel operations and management, car park operations and facilities management, securities and financial product investment and gaming operations. The Group adopts the diversified regional strategy and the "Asian Wallet" strategy with business covering Hong Kong, mainland China, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, the United Kingdom and other European countries.

About Care Park

FEC operates its car park business through its subsidiary Care Park. As one of the largest car parking operators in Australia and New Zealand, Care Park has expanded to the United Kingdom, Hungary and Malaysia. As at 30 September 2018, it has a portfolio of 461 car parks and approximately 92,740 car parking bays, including 35 self-owned car parks and 426 managed car parks.

FEC official website:

www.fecil.com.hk

SOURCE Far East Consortium International Limited

Related Links

http://www.fecil.com.hk


WASHINGTON, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- CenturyLink, Inc. (NYSE: CTL) announced that it won the first task order awarded under the General Services Administration's Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) program to provide fast, secure connectivity to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

CenturyLink will provide core backbone network services with speeds of up to 100 Gbps to NASA over a period of nine and a half years.

CenturyLink wins first EIS task order to provide fast, secure connectivity to NASA.

"It's an honor to be the first vendor awarded an EIS task order," said David Young, CenturyLink senior vice president, strategic government. "Our fast, secure network connectivity will help NASA achieve its vision to reach for new heights and reveal the unknown for the benefit of humankind."

CenturyLink was the first supplier to receive authority to operate under GSA's 15-year, $50 billion EIS program last month, meaning the company became eligible to receive EIS task order awards.

EIS is a multiple-award contract vehicle for federal government agencies to purchase information technology and telecommunications infrastructure services. It gives federal agencies the flexibility and agility to migrate to modern communications and IT services that meet strict government security standards.

Key Facts

By supplying cybersecurity, cloud, managed hosting and IT services over its carrier-class network, CenturyLink provides government agencies with the security and reliability they need to carry out their important missions.

CenturyLink is ranked No. 29 on Washington Technology's 2018 Top 100 list of federal government IT contractors.

Additional Resources

Learn more about CenturyLink being the first vendor to receive authority to operate under GSA's EIS contract: http://news.centurylink.com/2019-03-14-CenturyLink-Is-The-First-Vendor-To-Receive-Authority-To-Operate-Under-GSAs-EIS-Contract

Learn more about CenturyLink winning a spot on GSA's EIS contract: http://news.centurylink.com/CenturyLink-wins-spot-on-50-billion-GSA-EIS-program

About CenturyLink

CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) is the second largest U.S. communications provider to global enterprise customers. With customers in more than 60 countries and an intense focus on the customer experience, CenturyLink strives to be the world's best networking company by solving customers' increased demand for reliable and secure connections. The company also serves as its customers' trusted partner, helping them manage increased network and IT complexity and providing managed network and cyber security solutions that help protect their business.

SOURCE CenturyLink, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.centurylink.com


SAN MATEO, Calif., April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- IXL Learning, the K-12 personalized learning platform used by 7 million students, today announced that Cicero District 99 in Cicero, Illinois, has purchased IXL Math for all 4,500 sixth through eighth grade students. Over the next three years, District 99 will use IXL to help learners fill gaps in knowledge so that they can succeed at or above grade level.

District 99 is a public elementary school district in a suburb of Chicago that receives Title I funding for several of its initiatives. The district piloted IXL and two other products during the spring of 2018 and selected IXL after seeing its positive impacts, which included increased mastery of mathematical concepts and higher confidence among students.

"District 99 chose IXL because it allows our teachers to provide grade-level practice, while also delivering individualized support for each student at their own level," said Mary Mycyck, Director of Mathematics at District 99. "IXL helps our teachers provide targeted support, which increases student engagement and ultimately impacts improved academic achievement."

IXL is already helping hundreds of thousands of students in Illinois succeed. A study of all 3,764 public schools in Illinois found that the proficiency rate on the PARCC in schools using IXL for one year was 5 percentile points higher in math and 4 percentile points higher in ELA compared to schools not using IXL. Schools using IXL for two years saw even bigger gains (9 percentile points higher in math and 8 percentile points higher in English language arts).

IXL Math facilitates positive learning outcomes for all learners. Built on more than 3,900 skills that deconstruct every concept into scaffolded building blocks, IXL's math curriculum allows teachers to target specific areas of need. Each skill offers built-in adaptivity that ensures students are working at the right difficulty level and getting the appropriate support.

IXL also offers tools that enable teachers to make more effective instructional decisions. IXL's Continuous Diagnostic pinpoints students' grade-level proficiency in math and English and generates precise, personalized skill recommendations that help learners grow from where they are. And IXL Analytics makes data-driven instruction simple with reports such as Trouble Spots, which District 99's teachers use to uncover the skills that groups of students are struggling with. With these actionable insights, teachers can easily personalize their instruction, organize small groups, plan for intervention and more.

In addition to math, IXL covers K-12 English language arts, science, social studies and Spanish, and is aligned to the Common Core and all state standards. IXL is available online and as an app for iPad, iPhone and Android tablets. For more information, please visit www.ixl.com.

Media, please note: Screenshots of IXL may be downloaded at www.ixl.com/press/media-resources. For demos and access to IXL, or more information about IXL's research, contact [email protected].

About IXL Learning

IXL Learning is dedicated to creating the best educational technology possible. Currently used by 7 million students and by schools in 95 of the 100 top districts, IXL is an integrated learning platform that effectively supports personalized learning in math, English language arts, science, social studies and Spanish. Built on comprehensive K-12 curriculum and guidance, actionable real-time analytics and the IXL Continuous Diagnostic, IXL gives teachers the tools they need to differentiate instruction and help students achieve mastery. To learn more about IXL, visit www.ixl.com, facebook.com/IXL and twitter.com/IXLLearning.

Press Contact

Marisa Serrano

[email protected]

650-436-5524

SOURCE IXL Learning

Related Links

http://www.ixl.com


TOKYO, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Daiki Axis Co., Ltd. (TOKYO: 4245), an eco-creation and development company that creates social infrastructure centered on water-related businesses, recently has been reviewed by KCR Inc., an independent research and investor relations support company providing reports on various publicly traded Japanese companies. In this report, KCR provides analysis of the company's business model and earnings.

Report Highlights

Daiki Axis Co., Ltd. (4245, First Section, Tokyo Stock Exchange) promotes its corporate slogan, "Protect and change" (Protect the global environment and change humanity's future) as its business mission. The Company is developing its businesses, including its key water businesses, aiming to become an eco-creation and development company that constructs social infrastructure that provides natural and comfortable living environments for people.

The Company has two primary segments. The first is the Company's environmental equipment segment, in which the main driving force is wastewater treatment systems. System kitchens with garbage disposals and other features are representative of the Company's second primary segment, the household equipment-related business segment. These two segments accounted for approximately 95% of the Company's business in the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018. Starting in the year ending December 31, 2018, the Company has converted its renewable energy business, represented by its compact wind generation and solar power generation businesses, into a segment. As growth strategies, the Company is promoting the construction of infrastructure related to water overseas, expanding its underground drinking water business, converting products to high value-added products, focusing on its renewable energy segment and conducting M&A.

The Company is actively expanding its water-related infrastructure business with projects led by its president. With the goal of maintaining infrastructure in regions extending across the Indian and Pacific oceans, the Japanese government announced that it will invest or lend about US$50 billion (about 5.5 trillion) to the public and private sectors over the next three years. This announcement coincides with the Company's plan to establish a consolidated sub-subsidiary, Daiki Axis India, in accordance with the Indian government's Clean India policy with a total investment of 500 million in July 2018. With this sub-subsidiary, the Company aims to begin sales and production during the fiscal year ending December 31, 2019. In light of China's toilet revolution policy, the Company has entered the septic tank business for general households in China, establishing a joint venture with local companies. The Ministry of the Environment included septic tanks as a target field in its Basic Strategies to Promote Japanese Environmental Infrastructure Overseas, so the Company is actively conducting sales promotion strategies in countries across Asia and Africa.

During the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018, the Company generated net sales of JPY36,224 million (up 7.9% YoY), operating income of JPY923 million (down 19.3% YoY) and ordinary income of JPY1,100 million (down 18.0% YoY). Profit attributable to owners of parent was JPY861 million (up 15.7% YoY).The year ended December 31, 2018 marked the seventh consecutive year that net sales have risen since the company began announcing its forecasts (the first announcement being for for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2011). Also, profit attributable to owners of parent reached a record high. Targets for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2019 are for net sales of JPY36,880 million, ordinary income of JPY1,300 million and profit attributable to owners of parent of JPY800 million.

The Company formulated a new medium-term management plan, "Make FOUNDATION Plan." This plan sets new targets for the period from 2019 to 2021. For the fiscal year ending December 31, 2021, the Company forecasts net sales of \40,000 million, ordinary income of \1,800 million and profit attributable to owners of parent of \1,100 million. While focusing on raising profitability, the Company is also targeting ROE of 13.2% or more and ROIC of 5.5% or higher. The current Company policy is to cover investment, which will take priority for the time being, with owned capital and bank loans.

Daiki Axis is promoting ESG management by pushing forward with initiatives aimed at increasing its use of renewable energy to 100% (Environment) , advancing diversity by encouraging work-style reforms and the active participation of women in the workforce (Society) and reforming its managerial structure while strengthening risk management (Governance).

KCR Inc. assigned an overall rating of +2 (BUY) to Daiki Axis Co., Ltd. (TOKYO: 42445) and has announced a buy recommendation (which is given to shares with prices that are expected to grow by 10% within a year). KCR Inc. has set a target price of 1,533 yen.

Read the full research report (KCR Inc.), please see:

http://www.daiki-axis.com/ir/info/index09.html

For details about Daiki Axis Co., Ltd. (TOKYO:4245), please see:

http://www.daiki-axis.com/english/

Attentions

This report is intended to provide reference information for investment decisions, and is not intended to solicit investment. Although figures and opinions in the report are based on data obtained from sources deemed reliable, KCR Inc. does not guarantee their accuracy. KCR will assume no responsibility for any loss or damage caused by using part or all of these materials. Investors are advised to make investment decisions based on their own judgment and responsibility. Opinions and forecasts described in the report were made as of its preparation date, and we do not make any guarantees about their accuracy and completeness. In addition, these opinions and forecasts may change in the future without prior notice. KCR reserves all rights with respect to the contents. Copying or reproducing the contents without prior approval is prohibited.

Report Content Inquiries

KCR Inc.

TEL: +81-6-6965-6100

Yojiro Kindaichi

[email protected] (English and Japanese correspondence)

News release Inquiries

Borderless IR Co., Ltd.

Sixth Floor, Toyo Building 1210 Nihonbashi, Chuoku, Tokyo 1030027 JAPAN

TEL: +81345886706

[email protected] (English and Japanese correspondence)

Borderless IR specializes in the overseas distribution of IR content, including the dissemination of newsletters and annual reports providing the latest information and main strengths of Japanese companies directly to overseas investors through leading global media, corporate information database services and mailing lists.

Borderless is also engaged in supporting other global IR efforts.

 Borderless IR Co., Ltd. All rights Reserved

Unauthorized reproduction of this release or any of its content is strictly prohibited.

NOTE TO EDITORS: This release contains investment opinion issued by KCR Inc.

SOURCE Daiki Axis Co., Ltd.

Related Links

http://www.daiki-axis.com/english


NEW YORK, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe (WCAS), a leading private equity firm focused exclusively on the healthcare and technology industries, announced today that Dan Mendelson, a highly-regarded executive in the healthcare industry, has joined the firm's Healthcare team as an Operating Partner.

Mr. Mendelson is the Founder and former CEO of Avalere Health LLC, a leading provider of data-driven advisory services and business intelligence solutions to the healthcare industry, which he founded in 2000 and sold to Inovalon Holdings, Inc. in 2015. He will continue to serve as an Advisor to Avalere, which serves more than 250 clients including health plans, delivery systems, and life sciences companies. Prior to founding Avalere, from 1998-2000, Mr. Mendelson served in the White House Office of Management and Budget as Associate Director of Health during the Clinton Administration. There, he was responsible for the nation's full healthcare portfolio including Medicare, Medicaid, NIH, CDC and the FDA. From 1990-1998, he was with The Lewin Group, where he rose to Senior Vice President focusing on strategic and operational planning.

D. Scott Mackesy, Managing Partner of WCAS and head of the Firm's healthcare practice, said: "We have known and respected Dan for quite some time and we are extremely pleased that he has decided to join forces with us as an Operating Partner. Dan is a highly-accomplished executive who possesses deep knowledge, experience and understanding of the healthcare industry. We look forward to working closely with him, as we do with all our Operating Partners, in everything from sourcing and due diligence to portfolio company governance as we identify and invest in outstanding healthcare companies that we believe have great growth potential and will generate outstanding value for our investors."

Mr. Mendelson added, "WCAS is one of the most respected investors in the healthcare industry today and I am very excited to be joining them at an important time of change in the industry."

Mr. Mendelson presently serves on the Board of Champions Oncology and Centrexion Corporation, a privately-held company. In addition, he is an Adjunct Professor at the Georgetown University McDonough School of Business. He is also a well-known speaker on the future of healthcare. Mr. Mendelson previously served on the boards of Coventry Healthcare (sold to Aetna in 2013), PharMerica Corporation, and HMS Holdings.

He earned an MPP from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University (1990) and a BA in economics from Oberlin College (1986). He serves on numerous non-profit and philanthropic boards and is a member of the Strategic Advisory Committee at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.

About Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe

WCAS is a leading U.S. private equity firm focused on two target industries: technology and healthcare. Since its founding in 1979, the Firm's strategy has been to partner with outstanding management teams and build value for its investors through a combination of operational improvements, internal growth initiatives and strategic acquisitions. WCAS has raised and managed funds totaling over $26 billion of committed capital. For more information, please visit www.wcas.com.

SOURCE Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe
BIRMINGHAM, Mich., April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- DevMar Equities, Inc. announced today that it has hired Boustead Securities, LLC, a broker/dealer registered with the SEC and FINRA member, to provide securities advisory services and investment banking services.

About DevMar Equities, Inc.

DevMar Equities acquires, develops and operates high-rise, multi-family/mixed use and hospitality properties with a focus on Florida. DevMar is the exclusive developer for DevMar Equities, and is the beneficial owner of other high-rise multi-family and mixed-use developments in Florida and Michigan unrelated to DevMar Equities. The current assets and operations of DevMar are independent of the Company and are not mutual beyond the officers of DevMar.

About Boustead Securities, LLC

Boustead Securities, LLC ("Boustead") is an investment banking firm that executes and advises on IPOs, mergers and acquisitions, capital raises and restructuring assignments in a wide array of industries, geographies and transactions, for a broad client base. Boustead's core value proposition is the ability to create opportunity through innovative solutions and tenacious execution. With experienced professionals in the United States and around the world, Boustead's team moves quickly and provides a broad spectrum of sophisticated financial advice and services. For more information about Boustead, please visit www.boustead1828.com.

Forward Looking Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements that relate to expectations, beliefs, projections, future plans and strategies, anticipated events and similar expressions. Statements such as those concerning potential acquisition activity, investment objectives, strategies, opportunities, other plans and objectives for future operations or economic performance are based on the Company's current expectations, plans, estimates, assumptions and beliefs that involve numerous risks and uncertainties. Any of these statements could prove to be inaccurate and actual events or investments and results of operations could differ materially from those expressed or implied. To the extent that the Company's assumptions differ from actual results, the Company's ability to meet such forward-looking statements may be significantly and negatively impacted. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements and the Company disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement to reflect changes in underlying assumptions or factors, new information, future events or other changes.

SOURCE DevMar Equities, Inc.

Related Links

https://www.devmarequities.com/


ERIE, Pa., April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- April is National Car Care Month. As winter comes to an end, this is the perfect time to get your car ready for spring and summer road trips. You rely on your car to get you where you need to go every day, but how well can your car rely on you? To protect your car all year long, Erie Insurance has eight things you should never do:

April is National Car Care Month. Make sure to give your car the TLC it needs.

Put off the recommended maintenance. There's a reason the car manufacturer gives you that little book when you buy a car. It contains important maintenance guidelines for the age and mileage of your car. By following what it says, you can keep your car running smoothly and safelyand save on having to pay for big repairs later. Ignore any warning lights. Most cars come with a check engine light and other warning lights. If any warning light goes off, it's time to take your car to a qualified mechanic ASAP. Never change the air filter. A fresh air filter keeps your engine running smoothly and improves your car's fuel efficiency. Most manufacturers suggest you replace your filter every 12,000 to 15,000 miles. (Err on the lower side if you drive in dusty conditions or in stop-and-go circumstances.) Never check your tires' air levels. Not having the right tire pressure makes for unsafe driving and reduced fuel efficiency. Most vehicles list tire pressure requirements on the driver side door post so you know how much air to give your tires. Have an unqualified person work on your car. Take the time to find a qualified car mechanic. Keep in mind that you could qualify as "unqualified" if a repair is beyond your skill level. Check out our article on how to handle an auto repair for helpful tips on finding a qualified mechanic. Leave keys in the ignition of an unattended car. This is one of the easiest ways to tempt car thievesespecially during the colder months of the year. Run your gas tank down to empty. Doing so cuts the life of the fuel pumpand puts you at risk of running out before you get to a station. Rarely wash your car. A thorough wash helps preserve the exterior of your car. That can ultimately help your car retain its resale value. A good wash is especially important during winter, when road salt does a number on cars.

Another way to take good care of your car is by making sure it has the right auto insurance. The right auto insurance can protect your car if it's in a crash, is stolen, gets hit by hail and more. Learn how to get great auto insurance coverage at a great price by talking to an Erie Insurance agent in your community.

Erie Insurance Group

According to A.M. Best Company, Erie Insurance Group, based in Erie, Pennsylvania, is the 9th largest homeowners insurer and 11th largest automobile insurer in the United States based on direct premiums written and the 16th largest property/casualty insurer in the United States based on total lines net premium written. The Group, rated A+ (Superior) by A.M. Best Company, has more than 5 million policies in force and operates in 12 states and the District of Columbia. Erie Insurance Group is a FORTUNE 500 company.

News releases and more information about Erie Insurance Group are available at www.erieinsurance.com.

SOURCE Erie Insurance

Related Links

http://www.erieinsurance.com


The U.S. expansion welcomes four industry veterans to the team, including Olszewski, supported by Jonathan Smith as Chief Risk Officer

TORONTO, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - Canadian based point-of-sale financing provider, Financeit, announces industry veteran, Steve Olszewski, in the role of General Manager leading its U.S. division. Jonathan Smith will support as Chief Risk Officer, working to develop a highly-integrated risk management framework for operations in both Canada and the U.S.

"Joining the team to lead the organization's U.S. expansion could not be a more thrilling opportunity for me," says Steve Olszewski. "Financeit has a truly novel approach to solving big problems for companies in the home services industry, centralized around a market-leading point-of-sale lending platform, but extending far beyond that."

Olszewski, a long time professional in the point-of-sale lending business, previously held the role of CEO at Spruce Finance and senior leadership roles at both Discover Financial Services and GMAC Insurance. Smith brings nearly two decades of broad experience in the merchant based, point-of-sale and consumer finance industry, where he recently oversaw the consumer healthcare finance business as Chief Credit Officer of CareCredit and contributed to the successful initial public offering of Synchrony Financial on the New York Stock Exchange.

"This is an exciting time for Financeit as we prepare to launch into the U.S. market. Steve and Jonathan will be invaluable in leading a successful launch and accelerating our growth in the market," says Michael Garrity, Founder and CEO, Financeit. "Their vast lending experience and deep understanding of the point-of-sale industry will allow us to hit the ground running this year."

In addition, Financeit welcomes two new Directors, Jeff Balagna and Andy Bodea, to its Board of Directors. Balagna, CEO of Team Car Care, (dba Jiffy Lube), brings his extensive experience in leading large-scale international teams and managing profit and loss for multi-billion-dollar businesses. Bodea is currently the Chief Global Operations Officer of Equifax and has previously held senior positions at market leaders including, Home Depot, GE Company, GE Capital Corp, Gateway Inc., McKinsey & Co and Monitor Co.

"This is a great time to be in the home services lending space. Innovation, fresh thinking, and bold product offerings are needed and Financeit is very focused on filling this space with their innovative solutions," says Balagna. "I'm excited to bring my prior experience in this industry to assist such a fast-growing and energized team."

Financeit has been rapidly expanding its reach and product offerings since the closing of an investment round by Goldman Sachs in 2017. The acquisition of Centah Inc., a market leading technology platform and call center infrastructure, has increased Financeit's overall offering in the marketplace and continues to allow the company to provide merchants with an end-to-end solution to increase sales.

Since launching in 2011, Financeit has attracted over 7,000 merchant partners and has processed over $3.6 billion in loan applications. They were also recently awarded the Deloitte Technology Fast 500, recognizing the world's top fintech businesses.

With insights and direction from home service industry veterans, Financeit continues to focus on alleviating home renovation debt and accelerating the home improvement business. Partnership announcement to follow.

About Financeit

Financeit is a market leading point-of-sale financing provider servicing the home improvement, vehicle and retail industries. Financeit's innovative cloud-based technology makes it easy for merchants to increase close rates and transaction sizes with affordable monthly or bi-weekly payment plans. Financeit's platform features a fast, transparent application process and has serviced over 7,000 merchant partners across Canada, processing over $3.6 billion in loan applications.

SOURCE Financeit Canada Inc.

Related Links

https://www.financeit.io/


HARRISBURG, Pa., April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- FineWineAndGoodSpirits.com will offer 10 percent off Chairman's Selection, Chairman's Advantage, and Chairman's Spirits product purchases of 12 bottles or more placed online between midnight on Monday, April 8, and 11:59 PM on Sunday, April 14.

FWGS.com offers customers an extensive product selection, as well as the convenience of delivery directly to homes, businesses, and Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores. The Chairman's programs feature hand-selected, highly rated wines and spirits, many of which are available at significant discounts from nationally quoted prices.

This online-only promotion requires a minimum purchase of 12 bottles from any of the Chairman's product categories. The 10 percent discount is applied before tax and shipping charges and excludes clearance and special order items, wine club subscriptions, and licensee purchases. Offer applies to items currently in e-commerce inventory only, while supplies last. All other terms and conditions for purchases made on FWGS.com apply.

The PLCB regulates the distribution of beverage alcohol in Pennsylvania, operates more than 600 wine and spirits stores statewide and licenses more than 20,000 beverage alcohol producers and retailers. The PLCB also works to reduce and prevent dangerous and underage drinking through partnerships with schools, community groups and licensees. Taxes and store profits  totaling $16.5 billion since the agency's inception  are returned to Pennsylvania's General Fund, which finances Pennsylvania's schools, health and human services programs, law enforcement, and public safety initiatives, among other important public services. The PLCB also provides financial support for the Pennsylvania State Police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement, the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, other state agencies and local municipalities across the state. For more information about the PLCB, visit lcb.pa.gov.

MEDIA CONTACT: Shawn M. Kelly, 717.783.8864

SOURCE Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board

Related Links

http://www.lcb.state.pa.us


CLEARWATER, Fla., April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Beat the stress of tax season with a free massage. HydroMassage and Planet Fitness are partnering for the 11th annual Free Massage During Tax Week offer, available between Thursday April 11th and Saturday April 20th.

HydroMassage Beds and Lounges are enjoyed by fitness club members to help relax and recover after workouts. Now for a limited time, anyone in need of stress relief can visit any of the 1,700+ Planet Fitness locations in the US for a free HydroMassage.

HydroMassage Beds and Lounges are enjoyed by fitness club members to help relax and recover after workouts. Free massages nationwide from HydroMassage and Planet Fitness during Tax Week

"Especially during stressful times, we all know how important it is to get a few moments of relaxation," commented Paul Lunter, HydroMassage President. "Over the last 10 years, we've heard from so many that have been helped by HydroMassage, and Planet Fitness has been gracious to open their doors again this year nationwide. We encourage as many people as possible to take advantage of the free massage offer."

"Tax filing season is a stressful time of year for many and Planet Fitness is here to help people relax and rejuvenate," said Roger Chacko, Chief Commercial Officer at Planet Fitness. "We welcome anyone, throughout the United States, to come in and take a few minutes to de-stress in our Judgement Free Zone with a free HydroMassage during tax week."

To find a location, visit www.HydroMassage.com/taxday. Download and print the Free HydroMassage Experience coupon to redeem the free massage.

About HydroMassage : For more than 30 years, HydroMassage Beds and Lounges have been utilized in health clubs, chiropractic offices, and spas / salons worldwide to provide the benefits of massage without the time or expense required for traditional hands-on massage therapy. Available in both the traditional lie-down Bed models and the newer Lounge models, HydroMassage is as a great way to relax, recover, and rejuvenate. Fitness club members looking to close their eyes and totally disconnect for 10-minutes often prefer the HydroMassage Bed models, while those in need of a quick massage while checking e-mails on their phone enjoy the convenience of the HydroMassage Lounge.

About Planet Fitness :

Founded in 1992 in Dover, NH, Planet Fitness is one of the largest and fastest-growing franchisors and operators of fitness centers in the United States by number of members and locations. As of December 31, 2018, Planet Fitness had more than 12.5 million members and 1,742 stores in 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Canada, the Dominican Republic, Panama and Mexico. The Company's mission is to enhance people's lives by providing a high-quality fitness experience in a welcoming, non-intimidating environment, which we call the Judgement Free Zone. More than 95% of Planet Fitness stores are owned and operated by independent business men and women.

Contact :

Kevin Conaway, HydroMassage

Clearwater, Florida

727-536-5566

[email protected]

Becky Zirlen

Senior Public Relations Manager, Planet Fitness

603-294-0567

[email protected]

SOURCE HydroMassage

Related Links

http://www.hydromassage.com


Acclaimed news anchor Juju Chang will host the multi-platform event with on-camera experts, including biologist Thor Hanson and entomologist Phil Torres, showing springtime phenomena in ecosystems ranging from the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the Everglades, from inner-city parks to remote wilderness preserves. The series will include a mix of live and pre-taped footage highlighting some of the most pivotal events in nature's calendar.

"Nature throws a party every year, and it's called spring. It is the most active time in the natural world for plants and animals, from birth and rebirth to migrations to pollination," said Nature executive producer Fred Kaufman. "In addition to witnessing incredible wonders, the goal of Nature: American Spring LIVE is to inspire people to go outside and get involved with science. Everyone can play a part in our natural world."

A diverse group of researchers and citizen scientists will investigate how a wide range of organisms respond to the change of seasons. They will share their insights into the natural world, reveal new technologies that make their discoveries possible and encourage audiences to join the adventure of science.

Each episode is built around a central theme chosen to reveal how the new season triggers extraordinary biological change. Live locations include California's Sequoia National Park and Point Reyes National Seashore; Gainesville, Florida, and the Everglades; the Eastern shore of Virginia; a sheep farm in Maine; a black bear den in rural Western Maryland; Mt. Lemmon, Arizona; and Texas' Bracken Cave and Gulf Coast.

Episode 1: "Birth and Rebirth" premieres Monday, April 29 at 8:00 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings) and facebook.com/PBSNature

Tracing the green wave that sweeps across the continent in spring, see how the rising temperatures and longer days spur plants to awaken and flower, and animals to seek out newly abundant resources for their new families. See bears emerge from hibernation in Maryland and witness the connection that nesting birds have with alligators in the Everglades. Go nest hunting in Arizona and learn how the California wildlands are being reborn after a year of devastating wildfires. Discover how animals have incorporated seasonal change into their life cycles and successful reproductive strategies  all demonstrated by the birth of a lamb in Maine.

Episode 2: "Migration" premieres Tuesday, April 30 at 8:00 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings) and facebook.com/PBSNature

Breeding and the greening of the landscape are tied to another major spectacle of spring: the mass movements of animals as they take advantage of spring's bounty. Meet the scientists who track the journeys of animals such as butterflies, birds, bison and bats over vast distances, from winter refuge to spring nesting grounds. As they attempt to uncover the precise triggers and timing of migration and its impact on other animal species, the scientists grapple with how these patterns and behaviors may shift due to climate change.

Episode 3: "Connections" premieres Wednesday, May 1 at 8:00 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings) and facebook.com/PBSNature

Nature's perfect partnerships, precisely synchronized, have evolved over thousands of years. Learn how plants and animals depend on each other to survive. See first-hand how climate change can break those connections, altering the timing of weather and plant growth, and disrupting the delicate relationships between plants and pollinators such as moths, bees and butterflies. Watch a family of wolf cubs explore their den in Minnesota's Voyageurs National Park and learn about their vital connection with the park's ecosystem. Plus, see how bobcats at Point Reyes National Seashore hunt for mice and other small prey.

To encourage audience participation during the live event and beyond, Nature: American Spring LIVE is highlighting projects that rely on everyday citizens to provide data and observations. These citizen science partnerships include the Bird Cams Lab and Celebrate Urban Birds projects (Cornell Lab of Ornithology), The Great Sunflower Project (San Francisco State University), The Monarch Larva Monitoring Project (University of Minnesota Monarch Lab), Track-a-Lilac with Nature's Notebook (USA National Phenology Network), SciStarter (Arizona State University), Next Avenue (Twin Cities PBS), and the National Park Service.

WNET Community Engagement will work with PBS stations in communities across the country in partnership with local science and community-based organizations to encourage diverse audiences to participate in citizen science through a series of training workshops, family events and more.

A robust collection of classroom resources produced by WNET Kids' Media and Education will be hosted on PBS LearningMedia with activities to help teachers get students involved in hands-on science research. Additionally, WNET's Emmy Award-winning series Cyberchase will focus on citizen science in a new primetime special, Space Waste Odyssey, premiering Friday, April 19 at 7 p.m. on the PBS KIDS 24/7 channel and live stream.

Nature: American Spring LIVE is the finale of Nature's 37th season on PBS. The series has won more than 700 honors from the television industry, the international wildlife film communities and environmental organizations, including 18 Emmys and three Peabody Awards.

Nature is a production of THIRTEEN PRODUCTIONS LLC for WNET and PBS. For Nature, Fred Kaufman is Executive Producer, Bill Murphy is Series Producer and Janet Hess is Series Editor. American Spring LIVE is a production of Berman Productions, Inc. and THIRTEEN PRODUCTIONS LLC for WNET. Al Berman is Executive Producer and Ann Johnson Prum is Senior Producer.

Major support for Nature: American Spring LIVE was provided by the National Science Foundation and Anne Ray Foundation.

Additional financial support was provided by the Arnhold Family in memory of Henry and Clarisse Arnhold, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, the Kate W. Cassidy Foundation, the Lillian Goldman Charitable Trust, Kathy Chiao and Ken Hao, the Anderson Family Fund, the Filomen M. D'Agostino Foundation, Rosalind P. Walter, the Halmi Family in memory of Robert Halmi, Sr., Sandra Atlas Bass, Doris R. and Robert J. Thomas, Charles Rosenblum, by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and by the nation's public television stations.

Websites: pbs.org/americanspringlive, facebook.com/PBSNature, @PBSNature, instagram.com/pbsnature, youtube.com/naturepbs, #AmericanSpringLivePBS

About WNET

WNET is America's flagship PBS station: parent company of New York's THIRTEEN and WLIW21 and operator of NJTV, the statewide public media network in New Jersey. Through its new ALL ARTS multi-platform initiative, its broadcast channels, three cable services (THIRTEEN PBSKids, Create and World) and online streaming sites, WNET brings quality arts, education and public affairs programming to more than five million viewers each month. WNET produces and presents a wide range of acclaimed PBS series, including Nature, Great Performances, American Masters, PBS NewsHour Weekend, and the nightly interview program Amanpour and Company. In addition, WNET produces numerous documentaries, children's programs, and local news and cultural offerings, as well as multi-platform initiatives addressing poverty and climate. Through THIRTEEN Passport and WLIW Passport, station members can stream new and archival THIRTEEN, WLIW and PBS programming anytime, anywhere.

SOURCE WNET

Related Links

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/american-spring-live


DUBLIN, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Cardiac Assist Devices Market Forecast up to 2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The research report predicts that the global cardiac assist devices market will grow at a CAGR of 11.6% during the forecast period

The market has witnessed steady growth in the past few years and the advancement in technology coupled with the introduction of novel products have augmented the acceptance of heart assist devices in the market. The market is fueled by upsurge in the incidence of heart failure, growing elderly population, and shortage of heart donors for transplantation.

The market continues to grow and the devices are most widely used for the functioning of heart in case of failure and weakened heart patients. The field is getting revolutionized with the availability of improved technology. The key market players are focusing towards approvals, new product launches, and targeting towards end-users perspective. The market generates the revenue from the key players operating in this field and some of them includes Abbott Laboratories, Berlin Heart GmbH, Maquet GmbH (Getinge AB), SynCardia Systems, LLC, and ReliantHeart, Inc.

North America accounted for the largest share of the global cardiac assist devices market in 2018 and is expected to remain the leading region in terms of value during the forecast period.

According to American Heart Association, an estimated 92.1 million population in US have at least one type of CVD and by 2030 it is projected that close to 44% of the US adult population to have some form of CVD. Increasing incidence of cardiovascular diseases, promising reimbursement policies, presence of dominant vendors, and accessibility of advanced technologies will increase the demand and adoption of the cardiac assist devices in the region.

Europe is the second largest region in terms of cardiac assist devices market. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) causes 3.9 million deaths and over 1.8 million deaths in EU countries. In UK alone, around 60,000 new cases of advanced chronic heart failure are diagnosed every year out of which 40% die within a year.

Asia Pacific is expected to grow at mid-double digit CAGR during the forecast period, owing to factors such as growing healthcare expenditure, high prevalence of lifestyle related disorders, and increasing acceptance of advanced technologies in the market.

By Product:

Intra-Aortic Balloon Pump (IABP)

Ventricular Assist Devices (VAD)

Left Ventricular Assist Devices (LVAD)

Right Ventricular Assist Devices (RVAD)

Biventricular Assist Devices (BIVAD)

Total Artificial Heart (TAH)

In 2018, the ventricular assist devices segment occupied the largest share and is expected to grow at mid-double digit CAGR during the forecast period. The ventricular assist devices market is further segmented into left ventricular assist devices, right ventricular assist devices, and biventricular assist devices. Among these, left ventricular assist devices occupied a major share and is expected to grow at high CAGR during the forecast period. Increasing number of patients suffering from last-stage heart failure, advancements in technology leading to better effectiveness & high survival rate, and decreased risk of the devices makes the segment the most common among other VAD devices.

The market is dominated by North America, followed by Europe and Asia Pacific. The US occupied the major share of the North American market due to the presence of key vendors and obtainability of advanced technologies.

Cardiac Assist Devices Market Research Competitive Analysis - The global cardiac assist devices market has massive growth opportunities in both developed and developing regions. The upgradation and advancements of devices will increase the competition among the market players. Many companies are concentrating on new approvals, funding, and development of new products related to cardiac assist device because of the increase in implantable procedures. For instance, Teleflex announced FDA approval for intra-aortic balloon pump in 2017. The AC3 Optimus device delivers intra-aortic balloon pump therapy to assist in pumping blood.

In October 2018, FDA approved HeartMate 3 left ventricular assist device developed by Abbott, as a destination therapy for patients with advanced heart failure. In January 2018, Canada regulatory body issued a Class IV License with conditions to HeartMate 3 Left Ventricular Assist System (LVAS) developed by Thoratec Corporation. BiVACOR Pty Ltd is developing a rotary Total Artificial Heart (TAH) device and its initiative is funded by OneVentures, a venture capital firm and the Federal Government of Australia. In addition, other leading vendors are focusing in investing huge on research and development activities to develop new products to obtain high share in the market.

Key competitive facts

The market is highly competitive with all the players competing to gain market share. Intense competition, rapid advancements in technology, frequent changes in government policies, and the prices of devices are some of the key factors that confront the market.

The requirement of high initial investment, implementation, and maintenance cost in the market are also limiting the entry of new players.

Benefits

The report provides complete details about the current and forecast market size of every type of cardiac assist devices and market values by region. Through this report, the key stakeholders in the cardiac assist devices ecosystem can also know about the major trends, drivers, investments, vertical player's initiatives, and government initiatives towards the medical devices segment in the upcoming years along with details of the pureplay companies entering the market.



Moreover, the report provides details about the major challenges that are going to impact the market growth. Additionally, the report gives complete details about the key business opportunities to key stakeholders in order to expand their business and capture the revenue in specific verticals and to analyze before investing or expanding the business in this market.



Key Takeaways:

Understanding the potential market opportunity with precise market size and forecast data

Detailed market analysis focusing on the growth of cardiac assist devices industry

Factors influencing the growth of cardiac assist devices market

In-depth competitive analysis of dominant and pureplay vendors

Prediction analysis of cardiac assist devices industry in both developed and developing regions

Key insights related to major segments of the cardiac assist devices market

Latest market trend analysis impacting the buying behavior of the consumers

Key Topics Covered:



1 Industry Outlook

1.1 Industry Overview

1.1.1 Geography

1.1.2 Medical Technologies

1.1.3 Industry Trends

1.2 Total Addressable Market



2 Report Outline

2.1 Report Scope

2.2 Report Summary

2.3 Research Methodology

2.4 Report Assumptions



3 Market Snapshot

3.1 Market Definition

3.2 Device Benefits

3.3 Segmented Addressable Market (SAM)

3.4 Trends of the Cardiac Assist Devices Market

3.5 Related Markets

3.5.1 Interventional Cardiology

3.5.2 Angioplasty

3.5.3 Stents



4 Market Outlook

4.1 Reimbursement Codes

4.2 Regulatory Status

4.3 Clinical Trials

4.4 Market Segmentation

4.5 PEST Analysis

4.6 Porter 5 (Five) Forces



5 Market Characteristics

5.1 DRO - Global Cardiac Assist Devices Market Dynamics

5.1.1 Drivers

5.1.1.1 Increasing incidence of cardiovascular device across the globe

5.1.1.2 Lack of heart donors globally

5.1.1.3 Increasing aged population

5.1.2 Opportunities

5.1.2.1 Increase in healthcare spending and demand for improved treatment in developing economies

5.1.2.2 Robust pipeline of products

5.1.3 Restraints

5.1.3.1 High cost of the cardiac assist device

5.1.3.2 Stringent regulatory policies

5.2 DRO - Impact Analysis

5.3 Key Stakeholders



6 Products: Market Size and Analysis

6.1 Overview

6.2 Intra-Aortic Balloon Pumps

6.3 Ventricular Assist Devices

6.3.1 Left Ventricular Assist Devices

6.3.2 Right Ventricular Assist Devices

6.3.3 Biventricular Assist Device (BIVAD)

6.4 Total Artificial Heart



7 Regions: Market Size and Analysis

7.1 Overview

7.2 North America

7.3 Europe

7.4 Asia Pacific

7.5 Rest of the World



8 Competitive Landscape

8.1 Overview



9 Vendor Profiles

9.1 Abbott Laboratories

9.2 Berlin Heart GmbH

9.3 Maquet GmbH (Getinge AB)

9.4 ReliantHeart, Inc.

9.5 SynCardia Systems, LLC



10 Companies to Watch For

10.1 ABIOMED, Inc.

10.2 Medtronic plc

10.3 BiVACOR, Inc.

10.4 XENIOS AG (Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA)

10.5 Teleflex Incorporated

10.6 Calon Cardio-Technology Ltd.

10.7 Carmat SA

10.8 LivaNova, PLC



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/dlppw3/global_cardiac?w=5





Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

Media Contact:

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com


DUBLIN, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Drug Eluting Stents Market 2018-2024" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global Drug-Eluting Stents Market is Expected to Witness a CAGR of 5.4% During the Forecast Period to Reach Revenue of $5,614.6 Million by 2024.

Drug-eluting stents refer to the metal stents that have a coating of drugs such as paclitaxel, everolimus, and also antiproliferative drugs to widen the narrowed blood vessel. The first-generation DES has raised safety issues due to a higher incidence of stent thrombosis, which has further given rise to biodegradable DES to provide better treatment. The ability to release an antiproliferative drug that avoids neointimal proliferation, which reduces the incidence of stent restenosis and prevent the need of restenting.



These benefits contributed to the domination of DES in 2016. However, thrombosis, along with vasomotion, is the major issue that needs to be addressed in the DES market. Drug-eluting stents find importance in cardiovascular complications as it is a minimally invasive surgical procedure, broadens the constricted blood vessels, and is useful in prolonging the life of the patient.



Increasing prevalence of cardiovascular diseases, rising aging population, growing acceptance for minimally invasive endovascular surgeries, and good reimbursement facilities are few of the factors driving the growth of the DES market. Increasing healthcare spending, rise in the number of outpatient procedures, and market expansion opportunities in emerging nations are providing an opportunity for the growth of the market. However, alternatives for drug-eluting stents, lack of skilled healthcare professionals, and stringent regulatory approval process are hampering the growth of the market.



Regional Analysis



The regions covered in the report are North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World (RoW). Europe accounts for the largest share of the drug-eluting stents market, followed by Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World. More than 60% of the market is occupied by Europe, with Germany being the major contributor to the market growth.



Coating Type Analysis



Based on the type of coating, the market is segmented into polymer-based coating and polymer-free coating drug-eluting stents. Non-biodegradable and biodegradable polymer are the two types of polymer-based coatings. Microporous surface, microstructured surface, slotted tubular surface, and nanoporous surface are the types of polymer-free coating.



Application Analysis



Based on applications, the market is segmented into coronary artery disease and peripheral artery disease. Approximately 90% of all percutaneous interventional surgeries use a coronary stent of all stenting procedures is done with drug-eluting stents (DES). Therefore, the majority of the market is occupied by coronary arterial intervention.



End-users Analysis



The major end-users in the drug eluting stents market are cardiology centers, ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), and hospitals. The advantages such as availability of surgery specialists, reduced hospital stay duration, and less charge of surgery have made ambulatory surgical centers the most preferred mode for the treatment. This has made them the largest segment among end-users.



Key Players



Abbott Laboratories, Boston Scientific Corporation, Medtronic PLC, Biotronik SE & Co. KG, MicroPort Scientific Corporation, Terumo Corporation, Biosensors International Group, Meril Life Science, Stentys SA, Cook Medical Inc., and Lepu Medical Technology. Currently, many manufacturers are outsourcing research to clinical research organizations, which is indirectly boosting the growth of the drug-eluting stents market.



Competitive Analysis



New product development, geographical expansion, collaboration, mergers & acquisitions, and pricing strategies are vital undertakings of players in this space. For instance, in May 2018, MicroPort, a Chinese company, acquired the cardiac rhythm management segment of LivaNova, which has made MicroPort a prominent player in the market. In January 2017, St. Jude Medical, one of the major players in the market, was acquired by Abbott Laboratories for a total of $25 billion. In August 2018, Boston Scientific Corp. signed an agreement to acquire Veniti Inc.



Recently, the prices of coronary stents in India have been slashed by around 70%, making it affordable to lower-income people. As a result, Abbott and Boston are withdrawing their most advanced products Absorb and Synergy & Promous Premier, respectively. This has helped MicroPort to establish its market easily in India with the targeted drug-eluting stents. The technology of MicroPort is proved to be no less than Abbott and other products by market leaders. This is expected to strengthen its market in India.



Benefits



The report provides complete details about the usage and adoption rate of drug-eluting stents in various regions. With that, key stakeholders can know about the major trends, drivers, investments, and vertical player's initiatives. Moreover, the report provides details about the major challenges that are going to impact on the market growth.



Additionally, the report gives the complete details about the key business opportunities to key stakeholders to expand their business and capture the revenue in the specific verticals to analyze before investing or expanding the business in this market.

Key Topics Covered:



1 Industry Outlook

1.1 Industry Overview

1.2 Total Addressable Market

1.3 Industry Trends



2 Report Outline

2.1 Report Scope

2.2 Report Summary

2.3 Research Methodology

2.4 Report Assumptions



3 Market Snapshot

3.1 Market Definition

3.2 Segmented Addressable Market

3.3 Industry Trends

3.4 Related Markets

3.4.1 Cardiovascular Drugs

3.4.1.1 Trends of cardiovascular drugs market

3.4.2 Aortic Aneurysm

3.4.2.1 Trends of Aortic Aneurysm Market

3.4.3 Coronary Stents Market

3.4.4 Cardiovascular Diagnostics



4 Market Outlook

4.1 Reimbursement Scenario

4.2 Market Segmentation

4.3 Porter 5(Five) Forces

4.4 PEST Analysis



5 Market Characteristics

5.1 Market Dynamics

5.1.1 Drivers

5.1.1.1 Increasing prevalence of cardiovascular diseases

5.1.1.2 Increasing Aging Population

5.1.1.3 Growing acceptance for minimally invasive endovascular surgeries

5.1.2 Opportunities

5.1.2.1 Increase in healthcare spending

5.1.2.2 Increase in the number of outpatient procedures

5.1.2.3 Market expansion opportunities in emerging nations

5.1.3 Restraints

5.1.3.1 Stringent regulations for approval process

5.1.3.2 Alternative treatment for the drug eluting stents

5.1.3.3 Lack of skilled healthcare professionals

5.1.3.4 Stringent Regulatory Approval Process

5.2 DRO - Impact Analysis

5.3 Key Stakeholders



6 Types: Market Size and Analysis

6.1 Overview

6.2 Polymer Based Coating

6.3 Polymer free Coating



7 Technology: Market Size and Analysis

7.1 Overview

7.2 Coronary Artery Diseases

7.3 Peripheral Artery Disease



8 End-users: Market Size and Analysis

8.1 Overview

8.2 Hospitals and clinics

8.3 Ambulatory Surgical Center

8.4 Cardiac Centers



9 Regions: Market Size and Analysis



10 Competitive Landscape



11 Vendors Profiles



Abbott Laboratories

Biosensors International Group

Biotronik, Inc

Boston Scientific Corp

Cook Medical Inc

Johnson & Johnson

Lepu Medical Technology Co., Ltd

Medtronic Plc

Meril Life Science

MicroPort Scientific Corporation

STENTYS S.A.

Terumo Corp.

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/fb7hm9/global_drug?w=5



Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com


DUBLIN, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Green Cement Market - Forecasts from 2019 to 2024" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global green cement market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 9.65% to reach US$35.680 billion by 2024, from US$20.535 billion in 2018.

Green Cement or Concrete is a term given to a concrete that has had extra steps taken in the mix design and placement to insure a sustainable structure and a long life cycle with a low maintenance surface. E.g. energy saving, CO2 emission, wastewater and etc. Burgeoning need to reduce carbon footprint from the environment is driving the global green cement market growth.

It is estimated, on an average, a single ton of traditional Portland cement releases approximately 5-7% of the total man-made carbon emissions. Thus, growing penetration of green cement in construction activities across the globe will augment the green cement market growth.

This research study examines the current market trends related to the demand, supply, and sales, in addition to the recent developments. Major drivers, restraints, and opportunities have been covered to provide an exhaustive picture of the market. The analysis presents in-depth information regarding the development, trends, and industry policies and regulations implemented in each of the geographical regions.

Further, the overall regulatory framework of the market has been exhaustively covered to offer stakeholders a better understanding of the key factors affecting the overall market environment.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Introduction

1.1. Market Overview

1.2. Market Definition

1.3. Scope of the Study

1.4. Currency

1.5. Assumptions

1.6. Base and Forecast Years Timeline

2. Research Methodology

2.1. Research Design

2.2. Secondary Sources

3. Executive Summary

4. Market Dynamics

4.1. Market Segmentation

4.2. Market Drivers

4.3. Market Restraints

4.4. Market Opportunities

4.5. Porter's Five Force Analysis

4.5.1. Bargaining Power of Suppliers

4.5.2. Bargaining Power of Buyers

4.5.3. Threat of New Entrants

4.5.4. Threat of Substitutes

4.5.5. Competitive Rivalry In the Industry

4.6. Life Cycle Analysis - Regional Snapshot

4.7. Market Attractiveness

5. Global Green Cement Market by Product

5.1. Granulated Blast Furnace Slag

5.2. Flyash Based

5.3. Recycled Aggregates

5.4. Others

6. Global Green Cement Market by Application

6.1. Commercial

6.2. Residential

6.3. Industrial

7. Global Green Cement Market by Geography

7.1. North America

7.1.1. USA

7.1.2. Canada

7.1.3. Mexico

7.1.4. Others

7.2. South America

7.2.1. Brazil

7.2.2. Argentina

7.2.3. Others

7.3. Europe

7.3.1. Germany

7.3.2. France

7.3.3. United Kingdom

7.3.4. Others

7.4. Middle East and Africa

7.4.1. Saudi Arabia

7.4.2. Israel

7.4.3. Others

7.5. Asia Pacific

7.5.1. China

7.5.2. Japan

7.5.3. India

7.5.4. Others

8. Competitive Intelligence

8.1. Competition and Offerings Analysis of Key Vendors

8.2. Recent Investment and Deals

8.3. Strategies of Key Players

9. Company Profiles

9.1. Lafargeholcim

9.2. Anhui Conch Cement Company Limited

9.3. Heidelbergcement Ag

9.4. Cemex S.A.B. De C.V.

9.5. Taiheiyo Cement Corporation

9.6. Ecochem

9.7. Solidia Technologies

9.8. Ultratech Cement Ltd

9.9. Kiran Global Chem Limited

For more information about this report visit

https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/gjdsrk

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com


NEW YORK, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Great American Turkey Co. is giving customers a chance to help families in need with a one-for-one campaign with FreshDirect. The "Gobble for Good" program is a provides one package of ready to cook, humanely raised, no antibiotics ever, marinated turkey to a local family for every Great American Turkey Co. product purchased from FreshDirect. The promotion has already provided thousands of donated packages of product to families throughout the New York City area. Both companies pledge to do even more throughout 2019 to help feed families in need.

"We are proud to follow in the tradition of brands like TOMS, Warby Parker and Bombas in giving back to local residents while still providing our customers with the high-quality, chef-driven, delicious products they desire," says George Faison, Co-Founder and President of The Great American Turkey Co. "The Gobble for Good program allows us the privilege to be a meaningful partner to the community by providing families in need with healthy food options."

According to Faison, the current nutritional landscape is lacking innovative, healthy, delicious turkey products; they hope to change that. He explains "there are very few turkey options in the grocery store other than cooking a giant bird, processed deli slices or eating a bunch of turkey bacon. Who really wants to do that on a weeknight? Instead, we offer the solution with ease of cooking and maximum flavor."

And flavor is the reason why The Great American Turkey Co. has seen so much success. When founding the company, Faison enlisted his co-founder, James Beard award winner, Chef Michel Nischan as his senior culinary advisor. Together, they created the extraordinary flavor combinations customers have come to enjoy, which is just one of the many reasons that the FreshDirect team is excited about the partnership.

"FreshDirect is committed to working with partners who not only care about producing the highest quality foods but are also passionate about supporting the communities we serve," says Kristina Wollenberg, Meat Merchant at FreshDirect. "The Great American Turkey Co. certainly cares deeply about both, and we're proud to partner with them on this campaign which provides their delicious and healthy premium-quality products to families in need."

Great American Turkey Co. products available from FreshDirect include a variety of turkey cutlet, strip and sausage items with flavors such as smoky & sweet chili, olive oil & herbs, tomato & basil, classic sage, hot/sweet Italian, mozzarella & broccoli rabe and spicy masala.

The Gobble for Good partnership between the Great American Turkey Co. and FreshDirect.com continues from now through the end of 2019.

About The Great American Turkey Co.

An innovative line of craft, artisanal turkey-based products created to provide a new source of epically delicious, awesomely easy and honestly good protein.

The brand's suite of products includes turkey steaks, cutlets, strips, sausages, and bratwurst  all developed by our James Beard Award-winning chefs and "Hall of Famers" for the highest quality flavor.

We only utilize turkeys that are humanely raised on family-owned American farms, without antibiotics, preservatives or added hormones ever. Produced with a commitment to whole carcass utilization to reduce food waste and to help our farmers.

Our products are currently located in over 350 locations across the U.S. and featured on FreshDirect.

Learn more at www.GATC.CO Follow us on Instagram @greatamericanturkeyco

About FreshDirect

FreshDirect is the Northeast's leading online fresh food grocer, delivering directly to customers throughout seven states, including the New York City and Philadelphia metropolitan areas, and the District of Columbia.

FreshDirect is committed to sourcing the freshest and best-tasting meat, fish, produce, and specialty items through direct relationships with suppliers, growers, and farmers.

In 2016, FreshDirect expanded its portfolio with the launch of FoodKick, an on-demand business that caters to the needs of urban dwellers with a curated selection of food, alcohol, and essentialsall delivered in as little as an hour.

Launched in 2002, FreshDirect is a privately held company headquartered in Bronx, NY.

Wines & Spirits are sold by FreshDirect Wines & Spirits, an independently owned store with NY State License #1277181.

CONTACT:

David Caron

[email protected]

SOURCE The Great American Turkey Co.

Related Links

http://www.greatamericanturkeyco.com


VANCOUVER, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - Goldcorp Inc. (NYSE: GG, TSX: G) ("Goldcorp" or the "Company") and Newmont Mining Corporation (NYSE: NEM) ("Newmont") are pleased to announce that Goldcorp has obtained a final order from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Commercial List) approving the previously announced plan of arrangement (the "Arrangement"), whereby Newmont will acquire all outstanding common shares of Goldcorp in exchange for 0.3280 of a share of Newmont common stock and $0.02 in cash for each Goldcorp common share.

Receipt of the final order follows Goldcorp's special meeting of shareholders held on April 4, 2019, where the Arrangement was overwhelmingly approved by 97% of the votes cast by shareholders. Newmont's special shareholder meeting will take place on April 11, 2019, where its stockholders will be asked to vote on the issuance of Newmont common shares in connection with the proposed transaction with Goldcorp.

Newmont and Goldcorp expect the transaction to close in the second quarter of 2019, subject to approval by Newmont shareholders and the satisfaction of customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

Immediately upon the closing of this transaction, the combined entity will be called Newmont Goldcorp, and is expected to:

Target 6-7 million ounces of steady-state gold production over a decades-long time horizon; i





Begin delivering a combined $365 million in expected annual pre-tax synergies, supply chain efficiencies and Full Potential improvements representing the opportunity to create $4.4 billion in Net Present Value (pre-tax); ii





in expected annual pre-tax synergies, supply chain efficiencies and Full Potential improvements representing the opportunity to create in Net Present Value (pre-tax); Have the largest gold Reserves and Resources in the gold sector, including on a per share basis;





Be located in favorable mining jurisdictions and prolific gold districts on four continents;





Deliver the highest dividend among senior gold producers; iii





Offer financial flexibility and an investment-grade balance sheet to advance the most promising projects generating a targeted Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of at least 15 percent; iv





Feature a deep bench of accomplished business leaders and high-performing technical teams and other talent with extensive mining industry experience; and





Maintain industry leadership in environmental, social and governance performance.

About Goldcorp

Goldcorp is a senior gold producer focused on responsible mining practices with safe, low-cost production from a high-quality portfolio of mines.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, Section 21E of the United States Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, or in releases made by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, all as may be amended from time to time, and "forward-looking information" under the provisions of applicable Canadian securities legislation, concerning the business, operations and financial performance and condition of Goldcorp. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements relating to the expected timing and closing of the proposed transaction, including receipt of required approvals and satisfaction of other customary closing conditions; estimates of future production; expectations regarding accretion; estimates of future cost reductions, efficiencies and synergies; expectations regarding advancement of Newmont's and Goldcorp's operations, including, without limitation, expected average IRR, expectations of future dividends and returns to stockholders; and expectations of future plans and benefits. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" , "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" , "believes", or variations or comparable language of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "should", "might" or "will", "occur" or "be achieved" or the negative connotation thereof.

Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of factors and assumptions that, if untrue, could cause the actual results, performances or achievements of Goldcorp to be materially different from future results, performances or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which Goldcorp will operate in the future, including the price of gold, anticipated costs and ability to achieve goals. Certain important factors that could cause actual results, performances or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, among others, delays or failure to obtain the required approvals; competitive responses to the announcement of the transaction; litigation or challenges to the proposed transaction; changes to the current scientific and technical information; permitting, development, operations and expansion of Newmont's and Goldcorp's operations and projects being consistent with current expectations and mine plans, including without limitation receipt of export approvals; planning and integration assumptions; gold price volatility, discrepancies between actual and estimated production, mineral reserves and mineral resources and metallurgical recoveries, mining operational and development risks, litigation risks, regulatory restrictions (including environmental regulatory restrictions and liability), changes in national and local government legislation, taxation, controls or regulations and/or change in the administration of laws, policies and practices, expropriation or nationalization of property and political or economic developments in Canada, the United States and other jurisdictions in which the Company does or may carry on business in the future, delays, suspension and technical challenges associated with capital projects, higher prices for fuel, steel, power, labour and other consumables, currency fluctuations, the speculative nature of gold exploration, the global economic climate, dilution, share price volatility, competition, loss of key employees, additional funding requirements and defective title to mineral claims or property. Although Goldcorp believes its expectations are based upon reasonable assumptions and has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended.

Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Goldcorp to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to: the inherent uncertainty associated with financial or other projections; the prompt and effective integration of Newmont's and Goldcorp's businesses; the ability to achieve the anticipated synergies and value-creation contemplated by the proposed transaction; the risk associated with Newmont's ability to obtain the approval of the proposed transaction by its shareholders required to consummate the proposed transaction and the timing of the closing of the proposed transaction, including the risk that the conditions to the transaction are not satisfied on a timely basis or at all and the failure of the transaction to close for any other reason; the risk that a consent or authorization that may be required for the proposed transaction is not obtained or is obtained subject to conditions that are not anticipated; the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against the parties and others related to the arrangement agreement; unanticipated difficulties or expenditures relating to the transaction, the response of business partners and retention as a result of the announcement and pendency of the transaction; risks relating to the value of the Newmont's common stock to be issued in connection with the transaction; the anticipated size of the markets and continued demand for Newmont's and Goldcorp's resources and the impact of competitive responses to the announcement of the transaction; and the diversion of management time on transaction-related issues as well as those factors discussed in the section entitled "Description of the Business  Risk Factors" in Goldcorp's most recent annual information form available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov. Although Goldcorp has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and, accordingly, are subject to change after such date. Except as otherwise indicated by Goldcorp, these statements do not reflect the potential impact of any non-recurring or other special items or of any disposition, monetization, merger, acquisition, other business combination or other transaction that may be announced or that may occur after the date hereof. Forward-looking statements are provided for the purpose of providing information about management's current expectations and plans and allowing investors and others to get a better understanding of Goldcorp's operating environment. Goldcorp does not intend or undertake to publicly update any forward-looking statements that are included in this document, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

i Caution Regarding Projections: Projections used in this release are considered "forward-looking statements." See cautionary statement above regarding forward-looking statements. Forward-looking information representing post-closing expectations is inherently uncertain. Estimates such as expected accretion, NAV, Net Present Value creation, synergies, expected future production, IRR, financial flexibility and balance sheet strength are preliminary in nature. There can be no assurance that the proposed transaction will close or that the forward-looking information will prove to be accurate.

ii Net Present Value (NPV) creation as used in this release is a management estimate provided for illustrative purposes, and should not be considered a GAAP or non-GAAP financial measure. NPV creation represents management's combined estimate of pre-tax synergies, supply chain efficiencies and Full Potential improvements, as a result of the proposed transaction that have been monetized and projected over a twenty year period for purposes of the estimation, applying a discount rate of 5 percent. Such estimates are necessarily imprecise and are based on numerous judgments and assumptions. Expected NPV creation is a "forward-looking statement" subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause actual value creation to differ from expected value creation.

iii 2019 dividends beyond Q1 2019 have not yet been approved or declared by the Board of Directors. Management's expectations with respect to future dividends or annualized dividends are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which are intended to be covered by the safe harbor created by such sections and other applicable laws. Investors are cautioned that such statements with respect to future dividends are non-binding. The declaration and payment of future dividends remain at the discretion of the Board of Directors and will be determined based on Newmont's financial results, balance sheet strength, cash and liquidity requirements, future prospects, gold and commodity prices, and other factors deemed relevant by the Board. The Board of Directors reserves all powers related to the declaration and payment of dividends. Consequently, in determining the dividend to be declared and paid on the common stock of the Company, the Board of Directors may revise or terminate the payment level at any time without prior notice. As a result, investors should not place undue reliance on such statements.

iv IRR targets on projects are calculated using an assumed $1,200 gold price.

For further information please contact:

INVESTOR CONTACT



MEDIA CONTACT Shawn Campbell Director, Investor Relations Telephone: (800) 567-6223 E-mail: [email protected]



Christine Marks Director, Corporate Communications Telephone: (604) 696-3050 E-mail: [email protected]

SOURCE Goldcorp Inc.

Related Links

http://www.goldcorp.com


BETHLEHEM, Pa., April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (Guardian) and Children's Health Fund today announced the launch of a statewide oral health education and public awareness initiative in Pennsylvania as part of their "Guardians of the Smile" national partnership. Supported by a $1 million grant to Children's Health Fund by Guardian, the partnership provides dental services and education to children, teaches students about the importance of proper oral hygiene and aims to instill good habits from an early age.

Oral Health Tips for Parents and Guardians Dennis Walto, CEO of Children's Health Fund, explains how parents and guardians are their childs oral health heroes.

Oral health professionals from Guardian and Children's Health Fund worked with Scholastic to create educational kits, which they will distribute to 5,000 classrooms throughout Pennsylvania. Each kit serves an entire classroom and contains grade-appropriate lessons and activities that teachers can use to help students learn good oral health habits. The materials will reach students in grades K-3 in communities across the state including Central Pennsylvania, Lehigh Valley, Wilkes-Barre, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

"As a leading dental insurance provider in the U.S., Guardian believes that all children should have the benefit of learning how to take care of their teeth," said Chris Swanker, CEO of Avesis, a Guardian Company with a significant presence in Pennsylvania. "We're excited to bring our partnership to Pennsylvanians and help students have big, bright and healthy smiles."

The launch of "Guardians of the Smile" in Pennsylvania aligns with the state's 2017-2020 Oral Health Plan issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The plan is a blueprint to coordinate efforts to combat oral disease in the Commonwealth. One of the goals of Pennsylvania's Oral Health Plan is increasing public education to help prevent oral health disease.

Reaching Children Most in Need

According to a paper published in 2017 by The Journal of Dental Hygiene, low-income populations of all ages experience the lowest access to oral health care. The report also found that children with untreated dental caries experience adverse outcomes impacting their overall health and quality of life extending into adulthood. To help overcome this challenge, the "Guardians of the Smile" initiative in Pennsylvania will have a strong focus on reaching children in underserved areas through distribution to Title I schools.

"Good oral health is not just about avoiding toothaches and cavities," said Dennis Walto, CEO of Children's Health Fund. "Studies show that untreated tooth decay can also cause school absences, lower academic performance and poor self-esteem issues. Together with Guardian, we are teaching children and their parents positive oral hygiene habits which will help keep kids smiling and healthy as they grow. Ultimately, we're striving to advance Pennsylvania's vision to improve oral health and disease prevention statewide."

"What Makes You Smile?" Contest in Pennsylvania

The "Guardians of the Smile" program also features a website where teachers and parents can find educational resources and materials. Additionally, the site includes information on the "What Makes You Smile?" art and writing contest, which invites students in classrooms across Pennsylvania to share what brings them happiness and makes them smile. Students, teachers and schools are eligible to win prizes. The prize for the winning school will be an oral health event featuring the Tooth Guardian mascot and educational activities with oversized toothbrushes, teeth and floss.

Educators and parents can visit the website and learn more about the "What Makes You Smile" contest at scholastic.com/guardiansofthesmile.

About The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (Guardian)

Every day, Guardian provides Americans the security they deserve through our insurance and wealth management products and services. Since our founding in 1860, our long-term view has helped our customers prepare for whatever life brings whether starting a family, planning for the future or taking care of employees. Today, we're a Fortune 250 mutual company and a leading provider of life, disability, dental, and other benefits for individuals, at the workplace and through government sponsored programs. The Guardian community of 9,500 employees and our network of over 2,700 financial representatives is committed to serving with expertise when, where and how our clients need us. Our commitments rest on a strong financial foundation, which at year-end 2018 included $8.5 billion in capital and $1.6 billion in operating income. For more information, please visit guardianlife.com or follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn , Twitter and YouTube .

The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, New York, NY. Guardian is a registered trademark of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America. 2019-77424 (4/21) Scholastic is a global children's publishing, education and media company.

About Children's Health Fund

Children's Health Fund (CHF) envisions a future where all children in the United States get the care and support they need to thrive. Because healthcare is a critical component of that vision and inequities in access exist, CHF's mission is to ensure access to high-quality healthcare for America's most disadvantaged children. CHF also works to reduce health barriers to learning, brings the voice of children to local and national policy debates, and in times of disaster, activates care for those in need.

Since 1987, CHF has been delivering high-quality, comprehensive healthcare to children in some of the most impoverished and underserved communities in the country. From South LA to the Mississippi Delta, from the South Bronx to southern Arizona, every year our national network of 26 programs and fleet of 50 mobile medical clinics provide care to thousands of children living in poverty at more than 400 service sites, including fixed-site clinics, schools, Head Start centers, homeless and domestic violence shelters, and community agencies. Lean more at childrenshealthfund.org.

Contact: Jason Kirsch, APR, PRworks, 717.857.5645, [email protected]

SOURCE The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America

Related Links

www.guardianlife.com


SAN FRANCISCO, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- H2O.ai , open source leader in AI and machine learning, today at LendIt Fintech USA , the world's leading event in financial services innovation, is delighted to announce that renowned financial services executive, Ash Gupta , has joined the company's advisory board.

H2O.ai is empowering companies across all sectors to deliver AI solutions that are radically transforming each industry. These market leading organizations are using H2O.ai platforms to decrease credit, fraud, regulatory and money laundering risks; improve product design, marketing and business innovation; and increase customer satisfaction and loyalty across thousands of use cases.

"Ash is a living legend that led the transformation of risk and financial services with data. Our customers and partners are excited for the opportunity to draw upon the depth of his experiences to transform every vertical with AI. I'm thrilled to have his brilliance and wealth of relationships by my side," said Sri Ambati, CEO and founder at H2O.ai.

"I am keen in learning from the brilliant people and customers of H2O.ai. I am excited about contributing to the success of H2O.ai as it serves diverse industries," said Mr. Gupta. "We are fortunate to be at this unique moment in history and H2O.ai remains one of the most prolific partners impacting the most fundamental functions of its customers and partners."

Ash retired from American Express in 2018 after 40 years of continuous service and was most recently the President, Global Credit Risk and Information management - to promote company-wide innovation in risk management, marketing and service. Prior to that, for many years Ash was the company's Chief Risk Officer reporting to the CEO and the Board and was instrumental in navigating American Express successfully through the great recession.

He is currently a board member and Compensation Committee Chair for Encore Capital Group, board member and chair for Corridor Platforms Inc., and a board member for Nova Credit. In addition, he is a board advisor to MAPR technologies, Biz2Credit, Nexus Venture Partners, Advent International (deal advisor) and Global Consulting firm Oliver Wyman.

Ash has an MBA from Columbia University and a B. Tech in engineering from IIT Delhi (distinguished alumni, 2006). Ash serves as a board member and a Treasurer for Big Brothers and Big Sisters of New York and (as an advisory) board member for South Asian Youth Action.

Gupta keynoted the sold-out 2018 H2O World NYC with his talk "Leveraging AI and ML to Drive Fundamental Transformation" found here .

Connect with H2O.ai

Visit us at LendIt Fintech in San Francisco: A gathering of more than 5,000 industry professionals, showcasing the leaders in innovation across financial services including the digital banking, fintech, blockchain and lending industries. Booth #1319

in San Francisco: A gathering of more than 5,000 industry professionals, showcasing the leaders in innovation across financial services including the digital banking, fintech, blockchain and lending industries. Booth #1319 Download Driverless AI for a free 21-day trial: www.h2o.ai/try-driverless-ai/

Visit us to learn more: www.h2o.ai

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/H2Oai

Connect with us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/0xdata/

About H2O.ai

H2O.ai is an open source leader in AI with a mission to democratize AI for everyone. H2O.ai is transforming the use of AI with software with its category-creating visionary open source machine learning platform, H2O. More than 18,000 companies use open-source H2O in mission-critical use cases for Finance, Insurance, Healthcare, Retail, Telco, Sales and Marketing. H2O Driverless AI uses AI to do AI in order to provide an easier, faster and effective means of implementing data science. H2O.ai partners with leading technology companies such as NVIDIA, IBM, Intel, AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform and is proud of its growing customer base which includes Capital One, Progressive Insurance, Comcast, Walgreens and MarketAxess. For more information and to learn more about how H2O.ai is driving an AI Transformation, visit www.h2o.ai .

About LendIt Fintech

LendIt Fintech is the world's largest event series dedicated to connecting the entire fintech community, including the lending, digital banking and blockchain segments. Our conferences bring together leading fintech innovators, banks, investors, enterprise technology platforms, and service providers to share the latest trends and facilitate networking. LendIt Fintech hosts three conferences annually: LendIt Fintech USA, LendIt Fintech Europe, and LendIt Fintech China, and dozens of complementary online and in-person events. LendIt also owns and operates one of the world's leading industry educational channels, Lend Academy.

For more information, please visit www.lendit.com .

Media Contact:

Russ Castronovo

[email protected]

408-391-9632

SOURCE H2O.ai

Related Links

http://www.h2o.ai


SAN FRANCISCO, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Happeo and Randstad Sourceright will share the stage at Google Cloud Next '19 in San Francisco. On Tuesday, April 9, the CEOs of both companies will share the secrets that help them unite a highly dispersed global workforce  through the adoption of G Suite, with Happeo as the underlying social intranet.

Happeo and Randstad Sourceright: how they bring a global workforce together Randstad Sourceright is a global talent solutions leader, driving the talent acquisition and human capital management strategies for the world's most successful employers. We empower these companies by leveraging a Human Forward strategy that balances the use of innovative technologies with expert insights, supporting both organizations and people in realizing their true potential.

With an adoption rate of more than 80%, Randstad Sourceright uses Happeo and G Suite to streamline their internal communications, leading to a more productive and engaged workforce. The total integration of enterprise applications brings together knowledge and unites an entire workforce across time zones, borders and desks  whether in a company office or working from home.

Randstad Sourceright supports clients in more than 70 countries across the globe, with a workforce that is always on the go. Through the combination of G Suite and Happeo, the company has created a 'virtual-working culture' that helps employees to connect and collaborate together  all in one unified digital workplace.

"Being a leader in global talent solutions, we know just how critical talent and HR technologies are to achieving business success today," says Rebecca Henderson, CEO of Randstad Sourceright and Randstad Executive Board Member. "Connecting our people across teams, locations and time zones through a central, unified platform helps us to drive consistency, share ideas and foster a sense of community."

"As an organization that knows the value of insights-based decision-making, we also have meaningful intelligence that drives better understanding of employee engagement. As a result, we have seen significant increases in employee engagement, strengthening of peer-to-peer relationships, and a growing understanding of how everyone of our employees contributes to our strategy and company success," Henderson said.

" How Randstad Sourceright Went Global with Happeo and G Suite " will take place on Tuesday, April 9 at 12.45 - 13.40 at Google Cloud Next 2019, San Francisco. During the interactive session, Perttu Ojansuu, CEO of Happeo will share Happeo's vision, and Rebecca Henderson will provide implementation best practices for Happeo and G Suite. Session attendees will see the platform in action and have the opportunity to have their questions answered during a Q&A with Ojansuu and Henderson.

Join the session

Additional details about the Google Cloud Next '19 conference, including the Next OnAir livestream can be accessed at: https://cloud.withgoogle.com/next/sf/ .

About Happeo

Happeo combines a digital workplace and collaboration platform with a social intranet. By unifying a company's digital toolset into one integrated ecosystem, it minimizes distraction and breaks down information silos. Large enterprises and growing organizations like BMW, Givaudan and Randstad Sourceright use Happeo to revolutionize their Internal Communications, leading to a more engaged and productive workforce.

In 2017, Happeo was recognized as one of Europe's most promising startups by the European Union. In 2019, The Next Web and Adyen named Happeo one of Europe's hottest scale-ups. Happeo continues to grow 280% year on year. To learn more visit https://www.happeo.com .

About Randstad Sourceright

Randstad Sourceright is a global talent solutions leader, driving the talent acquisition and human capital management strategies for the world's most successful employers. We empower these companies by leveraging a Human Forward strategy that balances the use of innovative technologies with expert insights, supporting both organizations and people in realizing their true potential.

As an operating company of Randstad N.V.  the world's leading global provider of HR services  Randstad Sourceright continuously builds and evolves talent solutions through recruitment process outsourcing (RPO), managed services programs (MSP) and total talent strategies. Read more at randstadsourceright.com

Media contact: Jonathan Davies, [email protected], +31614197466, Media kit

SOURCE Happeo
LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J., April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Honor Yoga, a leader in the more than $16 billion yoga industry, is doubling its footprint and stretching its presence across the United States. Known for being a sustainable community of healing, offering an approachable, loving environment to honor your mind, body and self through the practice of yoga, Honor Yoga has announced national expansion plans via franchising.

The number of American yoga practitioners has grown by more than 50 percent in the past four years, with 34 percent of Americans reporting that they are likely to participate in yoga within the next year. Created by fitness industry veteran and 500-hour certified yoga instructor, Maria Turco, Honor Yoga seeks to disrupt the popular model of yoga studios by providing yoga to all. Tired of box-like studios, Turco sought to fill the gap for an accessible yoga studio and further designed her locations with eco-friendliness in mind.

"Yoga is the most popular alternative health approach in the United States," said Turco, founder and chief yogini of Honor Yoga. "With approximately 37 million adults practicing, that number is projected to continue growing to more than 55 million by 2020. With yoga's increasing popularity, Honor Yoga emerges as a differentiator from other studios in that it provides a welcoming space for every yogi. We are not centered as a fitness brand, rather we focus on the holistic wellness approach through the practice of yoga and meditation. From our class offerings to our non-profit arm, Honor Yoga Foundation, we make yoga accessible to all, which in the current industry space is revolutionary."

To augment its growth, Honor Yoga launched its franchise opportunity in partnership with multi-unit emerging brand investor Anthony Polazzi of AP Franchised Concepts, LLC. The brand is looking for passionate yogis and business professionals looking to cultivate healthier and happier communities. Including a franchisee fee of $49,108, due upon signing, the total investment to own a studio is $146,608-$270,608. Each studio is approximately 2,400-3,400 square feet and employs 10 to 15 full- and part-time employees. For more information on the franchise opportunity, visit http://www.franchise.honoryoga.com/.

Honor Yoga launched in 2013 and offers a yoga class for everyone, including gentle, roots, calm & strong, slow flow, flow, power flow, meditation and aerial, among others. Members can attend classes in any of the 10 locations currently open in New Jersey, and can access classes by streaming online. In 2019, more communities will be able to experience Honor Yoga as the brand gears up to open 25 additional studios, at least 15 of which will open in the coming months. The brand plans to open 100 studios by 2023.

In addition to its core classes, Honor Yoga hosts retreats, teacher trainings and a variety of workshops throughout the year, many in partnership with the Honor Yoga Foundation. The Honor Yoga Foundation arm fosters peace and healing in communities by providing yoga-related wellness programs to under-served and at-risk populations, funding research of yoga's benefits and supporting like-minded charitable organizations. The foundation is a core component of the Honor Yoga community, one to which Turco donates a third of her salary.

"Honor Yoga strives to exemplify what a life full of yoga means. Yoga connects your mind, body and soul internally, but also connects you to the greater universe," Turco noted. "Living honorably means using yoga for good and giving back to those communities who need it the most."

About Honor Yoga

Founded in 2013 by health and wellness veteran Maria Turco, and franchising since 2016, Honor Yoga is an eco-and beginner-friendly yoga studio and community that welcomes and nourishes every yogi through their practice. Revolutionizing the yoga industry, Honor Yoga offers a variety of classes, retreats, workshops and hosts a non-profit arm, Honor Yoga Foundation. With 10 locations open and operating in New Jersey, the brand has 25 additional locations in various stages of development in North Carolina, California, California, Florida, Ohio, Indiana and New Jersey. For more information, visit http://www.honoryoga.com/.

SOURCE Honor Yoga

Related Links

http://www.honoryoga.com


"Every April, the Month of the Military Child gives HMC the opportunity to celebrate the youngest members of our communities. The smallest warriors, the children, often make some of the biggest sacrifices moving from state-to-state, having parents deployed for long periods of time, along with many other challenges military families face," said John Ehle, Hunt Military Communities' President. "We are proud to acknowledge and support the tremendous strength and resiliency children of our military families display and I'm proud to support HMC's programming throughout the month."

Over the course of the month, HMC will host child-focused events at all of its communities including programs such as art contests, ice cream socials, parades and more. HMC employees will also proudly wear purple buttons to demonstrate support throughout April as a way to show the Company's appreciation for the children of military families. In addition to wearing and distributing buttons, HMC employees will distribute cards explaining the significance of dandelions as the symbol of military children. Much like military children, the dandelion is a plant that puts down roots easily and flourishes anywhere  resilient no matter where it lands.

HMC employees will also wear purple on designated days as another show of support. The color purple indicates that all branches of the military are supported; Air Force blue, Army green, Navy blue, Marine red, and Coast Guard blue all combine together as a single color, purple.

For more information about HMC events and how to participate visit www.huntmilitarycommunities.com or our social media accounts, which will feature special Month of the Military Child themes to call attention to the nation-wide initiative.

About Hunt Military Communities

Hunt's Military Communities division is a 50-year partnership created between the Department of Defense and Hunt through the Military Housing Privatization Act. As part of the partnership, Hunt owns approximately 52,000 units spread across more than 40 military installations on Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Army installations and is the largest privatized military housing developer in the nation. To access additional information on Hunt Military Communities, please visit www.huntmilitarycommunities.com.

About Hunt Companies

Hunt is comprised of a family of companies in the real estate and infrastructure markets. As a private, family-owned company, Hunt develops, invests, manages and finances assets at all stages to derive and deliver value. Founded in 1947, Hunt builds its reputation on integrity and performance. With a focus on excellence in corporate governance, Hunt is committed to a culture of transparency for employees, clients, investors and the communities it serves. Hunt employs over 1,500 direct employees and its broader platform (including affiliates) employs over 6,000 additional employees across the United States and Europe. Learn more at www.huntcompanies.com.

SOURCE Hunt Military Communities

Related Links

http://www.huntmilitarycommunities.com


MILAN, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Once a simple means of transport to get from one place to another, the concept of a vehicle is rapidly changing by intertwining the boundaries between our lives and automobiles. At Milan Design Week, under the banner 'STYLE SET FREE,' Hyundai will highlight its innovative vision for how vehicles will become individual living spaces.

At Milan Design Week, Hyundai presents a personal, interactive multi-sensory exhibition of light, color, form, sound and material. Hyundai offers a future-oriented customer experience vision that enables people to create their own life space inside their vehicles, thanks to upgradeable products and services. After all, we personalize our living spaces with various gadgets and technologies. Soon, we will personalize our vehicles too.

With STYLE SET FREE, Hyundai demonstrates the need to create the "perfect space." The question of what form it will take is left to people to decide using their preference.

The centrepiece of the exhibition is the "Sculpture," an artful interpretation of STYLE SET FREE. The constantly-changing, creative and gripping mapping installation illustrates three key interior elements of Hyundai's new brand experience: Color & Light, Material and Shape & Sound.

Each of these elements is brought to life by high-quality, digitally animated graphics in a twelve-minute visual display, as well as a series of interactive installations.

For the first time in Milan, the company also introduces a guided audio service at http://hyundai.guide, which is an online docent program for the exhibition. http://hyundai.guide will be featured at future Hyundai events.

"'STYLE SET FREE' by Hyundai aims to provide a unique in-car experience that no other automakers have offered so far, but one that customers have been looking for," said Wonhong Cho, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Hyundai Motor Company. "The exhibition will introduce upcoming changes in mobility to a wider audience."

In addition, Hyundai hosts a panel discussion with influential experts in the field of design.

On April 9, Hyundai organizes a panel discussion on creating quality connections through design at Milan Design Week, collaborating with global media brand Monocle. The panellists include Monocle's editor-in-chief Tyler Brule, landscape architect and urbanist Winy Maas, world-renowned lifestyle and trend specialist Li Edelkoort and car designer SangYup Lee.

Hyundai Motor Company participates in this year's Milan Design Week from April 9-14 at Opificio 31.

About Milan Design Week

Now in its 58th edition, Milan Design Week is a showcase that mixes business with culture, as well as shaping the future of design and furnishing. On average, more than 370,000 attendees attend each year from 188 different nations.

About Hyundai Motor

Established in 1967, Hyundai Motor Company is committed to becoming a lifetime partner in automobiles and beyond, offering a range of world-class vehicles and mobility services in over 200 countries. Employing more than 120,000 staff worldwide, Hyundai has sold about 4.6 million vehicles globally. Hyundai Motor continues to enhance its product line-up with vehicles built on solutions for a more sustainable future, such as NEXO -- the world's first dedicated hydrogen-powered SUV.

More information about Hyundai Motor and its products can be found at:

http://worldwide.hyundai.com or http://globalpr.hyundai.com

Disclaimer: Hyundai Motor Company believes the information contained herein to be accurate at the time of release. However, the company may upload new or updated information if required and assumes that it is not liable for the accuracy of any information interpreted and used by the reader.

SOURCE Hyundai Motor Company

Related Links

http://www.hyundai.com


The AMable call (open to SMEs from the European Union) will allocate around 300,000 Euros, facilitating the establishment of new connections between different clusters to leverage the competitiveness of the SME manufacturing fabric. This aid aims to carry out "application experiments" to develop an innovative idea of functional products that need Additive Manufacturing. In particular, the types of experiments that will be financed are "Feasibility studies" and "Good Practices", ranging the aid from 5,000 to 60,000 euros. The call will be open until June 1, 2019, at 5:00 PM Brussels time.

Besides this financial support, the EU innovation action, AMable, will put in place a series of side benefits to improve skills of employees in the areas of AM design, technology development, education, and support business development.

This action is also supported by the EC initiative, I4MS, as part of the mission to encourage the implementation of ICT technologies in Europe to enhance the competitiveness of the EU industry in the global scenario.

AMable aims to reinforce the Additive Manufacturing technological cluster by creating a digital framework to provide unbiased access to the best European knowledge in 3D printing for the industry 4.0 and EU institutions endorse it. The European Commission and the European Parliament already underlined that 3D printing could ease the strain on their logistical chains, reduce storage and transport operations, lessen environmental impact and cut spending on goods insurance and make it possible to create employment at SME level.

3D Printing is in Europe to stay for the good of EU citizens.

About I4MS

I4MS is coordinated by Mobile World Capital Barcelona Foundation, FundingBox, Foreningen MADE, FIWARE Foundation EV, Danish Technological Institute and Axencia Galega de Innovacion.

Funded by the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the European Union, Grant Agreement n 768631

More information on:

https://www.amable.eu/calls/call-for-proposals

Or by contacting:

Juan Antonio Pavon Losada

Communication Executive of Mobile World Capital Barcelona

[email protected]

+34-673007282

SOURCE Mobile World Capital Barcelona Foundation - EU Projects Department

Related Links

https://mobileworldcapital.com/


Joint Statement by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair Countries

LIVE

International Court of Justice will deliver its decision on the request for provisional measures in the case of ARMENIA v AZERBAIJAN

Statement of the Foreign Ministry of Armenia

OPEC Fund Partners Ameriabank to Address Problems and Help to Improve the Life of People in Armenia. T. Alnassar.

Generation A: Edition 14. Exclusive Chance to Begin Your Professional Career with Ameriabank

Katna Armenian cheeses enter the market: the new project of Galaxy Group of Companies

US$30m OPEC Fund loan to Ameriabank to promote sustainable energy and support small businesses in Armenia

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116 million AMD assistance to minors with disabilities in Shirak Province from Mikayel Vardanyan

Discussion on the topic IT infrastructure as the basis of the digital economy with the participation of the heads of telecommunication companies in Armenia

Statement nn the ongoing Aggression by Azerbaijan against the Republic of Armenia

"We condemn any attempts at borderisation, as observed since the incursion of Azerbaijani troops into Armenian territory on 12 May" Joint statement

The United States is deeply concerned about reports of intensive fighting today between Armenia and Azerbaijan.ANTONY J. BLINKEN

Statement of the MFA of Armenia

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UCOM keeps on supporting the 42 YEREVAN programming school

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Recognizing the One-Year Anniversary of the Ceasefire Declaration Between Armenia and Azerbaijan

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UCOM has officially launched the sale of IPHONE 13

Six servicemen were wounded by the attack of the Azerbaijani armed forces in Artsakh, two of them in critical condition

S&P Improved the Outlook on Ameriabank to Positive
RIDLEY TOWNSHIP  A new report released Friday enforced the notion that property values are contingent on student achievement in local schools, and the states current education funding schemes play a role in that.

A panel of lawmakers, realtors and policy analysts met at Ridley High School to discuss the findings of Real Estate Markets Thrive When PA Schools Work, the report compiled by the organization Ready Nation that contends that adequate funding for public schools has an effect on the achievement of public school children, and, in turn, how that correlates to a communitys home values.

Inadequate state funding for K-12 education has only exacerbated this problem in struggling communities  placing even more pressure on local property taxes to fund education, reads a portion of the report. This relationship is most pronounced when improving student performance in communities with historically underperforming schools. Greater state investment in equitable public school funding can foster these positive outcomes for Pennsylvanias students and communities.

Education funding from the state is among the lowest in the country, causing inequities among the 500 school districts. Schools that are properly funded have more resources to help all students learn and achieve, but others have to scrape by on their tax bases which may already be very high, especially in poorer communities, and achievement may not be as high as their more affluent neighbors.

Public Citizens for Children and Youth Executive Director Donna Cooper said there are perceptions that are immutable regarding where to live and the schools that are there. In communicating with the real estate community, there is an intertwined interest for brokers and education advocates.

Were in this together when we increase the resources at the state level for the schools, we bring up the bottom kids and we return the benefits to homeowners who can get better values for their homes, said Cooper. We return better benefits to the realtors who get better income.

The virtuous cycle of boosting student performance moderates the impact on property taxes, levels the playing field, and is better, obviously, for homeowners and their pocket, when theyre paying with their equity and thats better for the real estate sector, Cooper added.

The inequities in funding are seen too clearly in the Philadelphia suburbs.

Upper Darby School District is reportedly underfunded by the state by $16 million and its neighbor William Penn School District has some of the highest real estate taxes in the county. The latter is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit against the state over fair funding of public schools.

But just a few miles away is Lower Merion School District which spends just about the most per pupil of all school districts and is commonly known as one of the best school districts in the state.

If there isnt some funding coming in from the state to offset the need to increase real estate taxes on the municipal level, those increased taxes combined with underperforming schools are going to continue to act as a deterrent, said realtor Jeffrey Beer. (The deterrent) is not only to buyers wanting to move into those communities, but brokers agents trying to successfully do business there.

Ready Nations report stemmed from a 2017 study by the Reinvestment Fund that evaluated school performance in the state as it related to home value.

Across the state, the results of this study suggest that on average, a one percentage point improvement in the proportion of students scoring proficient or advanced on state tests was associated with a gain of $513 to $620 in the average home sales price across a school district, reads the 2017 study. At the other end of the performance spectrum, shrinking the share of students scoring below basic by 1 percentage point was associated with a gain of $756 to $775 in home sales price across a school district.

According to Jacob Rosch, the senior policy analyst for Reinvestment Fund, school quality/student performance is a statistically significant influence on home prices against other factors that were studied.

As we think about the role that schools play in communities and families, its clear that schools are an incredible resource for children and families, but also a key tool as we think about how we make investments that will revitalize places, said Rosch.

The aforementioned school funding suit with William Penn is a judicial approach to change how schools are funded.

In the state Legislature, a fair funding formula was adopted into law in 2016, but only new money added to the basic education fund since 2014-15 is apportioned through that formula ($700 million of over $6 billion). Lawmakers are still working out how to handle funding of schools. House Bill 76 is a piece of proposed legislation that would remove the collection of property taxes by school district and raise or incorporate new taxes on goods and services.

State Rep. Tina Davis, D-141 of Bristol Township, said she was initially in support of the bill, but that she has had a total change of support on that bill.

I always knew that the performance of a school affected our real estate values, said Davis, a realtor. But Im totally 100 percent for school funding with lowering property taxes in certain situations, but the funding that has to go to the schools has to be designated for things that help the student only.

Its one of those no-brainers that people dont want to talk about because people are uncomfortable, added first-term state Sen. Tim Kearney, D-26 of Swarthmore, about funding public education. Were committed to having that uncomfortable conversation as we move forward and try to find some level of fairness and justice for our students.

Ready Nation Pennsylvania State Director Steve Doster said funding truly is a no-brainer.

Putting more funding through the fair funding formula to address these inadequacies and population shifts, all of the things that school districts have to contend with truly is a no-brainer, he said. Its a no-brainer for student achievement, for property values and, potentially, community revitalization. Thats the bottom line of the report that were releasing here today.
InComm has supported 7-Eleven's prepaid program for more than 15 years. In 2018, the companies launched auto-replenishment, a process to help stores maintain their inventory by automatically shipping cards based on sales volume.

"InComm continues to recognize the specific financial needs of 7-Eleven customers, developing and improving products to meet those needs," said Sean Thompson, 7-Eleven senior vice president of merchandising. "Most recently, we developed a process that dramatically improved the replenishment of their products, helping us improve our in-stock position and satisfy more customers. As one of our most responsive and innovative vendors, InComm continues to raise the bar. We are proud to recognize them a second time as a best-in-class vendor."

In addition, the company implemented the host-to-host (H2H) payment solutions, an update and integration of the stores' POS system, enabling it to support InComm's barcode scan activation, as well as PIN-on-receipt products and real-time replenishment for wireless products. This continuing collaboration has helped 7-Eleven achieve significant cost savings and sales growth in 2018.

"Our ongoing commitment is to be customer-obsessed, challenge the status quo and be an accountable vendor," said Jerry Cutler, InComm senior vice president of sales. "We would like to thank 7-Eleven for their support, and we look forward to continuing our collaboration to bring their customers the best payment experience possible."

For more information about InComm, visit www.InComm.com.

About InComm

By building more value into every transaction through innovative payment technologies, InComm creates seamless and valuable commerce experiences. InComm's unique products and services  which range from gift card malls to enhanced payment platforms  connect companies across a wide range of industries including retail, healthcare, tolling & transit, incentives and financial services to an ever-expanding consumer base. With more than 25 years of experience, over 500,000 points of distribution, 369 global patents and a presence in more than 30 countries, InComm leads the payments industry from its headquarters in Atlanta, Ga. Learn more at www.InComm.com.

About 7-Eleven, Inc.

7-Eleven, Inc. is the premier name and largest chain in the convenience-retailing industry. Based in Irving, Texas, 7-Eleven operates, franchises and/or licenses more than 67,000 stores in 17 countries, including 11,800 in North America. Known for its iconic brands such as Slurpee, Big Bite and Big Gulp, 7-Eleven has expanded into high-quality salads, side dishes, cut fruit and protein boxes, as well as pizza, chicken wings, cheeseburgers and hot chicken sandwiches. 7-Eleven offers customers industry-leading private brand products under the 7-Select brand including healthy options, decadent treats and everyday favorites, at an outstanding value. Customers also count on 7-Eleven for bill payments, self-service lockers and other convenient services. Find out more online at www.7-Eleven.com, via the 7Rewards customer loyalty platform on the 7-Eleven mobile app, or on social media at Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Media Contacts:

Anthony Popiel

Dalton Agency

404-876-1309

[email protected]

Nilce Piccinini

Corporate Marketing Communications Manager

InComm

404-935-0377

[email protected]

SOURCE InComm

Related Links

http://www.incomm.com


CHICAGO, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Michael J. Shaver, a leader in child welfare and human services experienced in redesigning public systems and community-based, non-profit agencies, will return to Children's Home & Aid, stepping into the role of President & CEO when the current leader, Nancy Ronquillo, retires June 30.

"Children's Home & Aid is a first-in-class organization," Shaver said. "The agency has a well-deserved reputation for always looking for strategies to improve on the work and reach better outcomes for children and families."

"What is so unique about a community-based organization is we have the ability to partner with the public sector to reach families not only when they are in crisis," Shaver said. "We can tackle the problems earlier, making sure they don't become life-changing, big problems."

Shaver served for seven years as Children's Home & Aid's Chief Operating Officer before leaving in 2014 to become the President & CEO of Children's Home Society of Florida. "Some of the most important lessons I learned about being an effective CEO, I learned from Nancy," Shaver said. "I learned the importance of building a strong team, listening to the field, and humility."

Ronquillo praised Shaver's strategic thinking and his dedication to children and families.

"Mike's considerable gifts give him a very unique range in terms of how he engages in the mission," she said. "Mike thinks across systems. He has high-level conceptual capabilities and, in his bones, he is on fire about helping every child and every family thrive in their community."

"Illinois is at a crossroads moment," Ronquillo added. "In my 46 years in this work, I've seen very few times when the stars have aligned in this way. The new Pritzker Administration in Illinois, the leadership at the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, the federal incentive to target funding to prevent child abuse and neglect  all coalesce into opportunities to transform the lives of fragile children and families."

Children's Home & Aid Board Chair Charlie Gofen noted that "throughout his career, Mike has shown relentless tenacity as he has tackled complex problems. He strives for meaningful change, and he delivers results."

Shaver demonstrated his ability at Children's Home Society of Florida to spark change through technology and disruptive thinking. Using a seed grant from Microsoft, software developers and social workers came together in hack-a-thons to reimagine child welfare casework. The result was CaseAIM, a software platform that cut staff turnover in half and reduced  by an average of three months  the time children spent in foster care with Children's Home Society of Florida.

As President & CEO of Children's Home Society of Florida, Shaver also led the expansion of the effective Community Partnership School model. The number of Community Partnership Schools in Florida grew from one to 17, with state funding supporting the model increasing from $400,000 in 2014 to a proposed $10.2 million currently before the Florida legislature. The Children's Home Society of Florida's Community Partnership School, Evans High School in Orlando, won the prestigious Mutual of America Governor Hugh L. Carey Award in 2017 as well as Bank of America's Neighborhood Builder Award in 2018.

Shaver worked for the Illinois Department of Children & Family Services (DCFS) from 1998 to 2003, serving in a variety of roles including the Deputy Director of Budget, Research and Planning. His work included performance-based contracting for community-based, non-profit agencies, federal waiver demonstrations, and the redesign of intensive treatment and placement stabilization services across the state for children with serious emotional disturbances. These and other reforms were instrumental in reducing, by half, the number of Illinois children in foster care.

Shaver earned a MA in Public Policy from the University of Chicago, Irving B. Harris School of Public Policy and a BA in Political Science from Colorado College.

He is looking forward to returning to Chicago with his husband, Chris. Their move will bring Mike closer to his two adult sons, whom he adopted from foster care, and will allow him to spend more time with his five-year-old grandson.

The CEO search was conducted for Children's Home & Aid by the global executive search firm DHR International.

About Children's Home & Aid

Children's Home & Aid is a leading child and family service agency in Illinois, serving nearly 40,000 children and families each year in over 60 counties. We partner with children, youth and families whose potential is at risk to create hope, opportunity, and bright futures. Since 1883, Children's Home & Aid has been a leader in responding to the changing needs of disadvantaged children and families in Illinois and shaping public policies in child welfare, early childhood and youth services. For more information about Children's Home & Aid, visit childrenshomeandaid.org.

CONTACT: Isabella Rodriguez

Communication Specialist

(312) 424-6834

[email protected]

SOURCE Childrens Home & Aid

Related Links

http://www.childrenshomeandaid.org


PITTSBURGH, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- "While searching for items within a refrigerator, an open beverage can was knocked over resulting in the liquid spilling out and creating a mess," said an inventor from Auburn Hills, Michigan. "This inspired me to develop a spill-proof lid for beverage cans."

He developed the SNAP-TITE to keep the contents of a can fresh and carbonated while preventing beverage spills. This convenient, lightweight and easy to position product would have an economical design. Additionally, it would provide a barrier to prevent dust, debris and insects from entering the can.

The original design was submitted to the Bowling Green sales office of InventHelp. It is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, write Dept. 18-BGF-2331, InventHelp, 217 Ninth Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, or call (412) 288-1300 ext. 1368. Learn more about InventHelp's Invention Submission Services at http://www.InventHelp.com.

SOURCE InventHelp

Related Links

http://www.inventhelp.com


BETHESDA, Md., April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Following the highly anticipated announcement of Gather by JW  the brand's immersive epicurean and mindful experience this September  JW Marriott today unveiled 'Gather by JW' Marriott Bonvoy Moments exclusive for members. These bookable packages, available to bid on now through May 1, will allow Marriott Bonvoy members the opportunity to indulge their inner foodie through thoughtfully curated and unforgettable experiences, including Masterclasses, with top names in the culinary world.

Gather by JW, JW Marriotts second annual festival in Venice, will take place at the enchanting JW Marriott Venice Resort & Spa, located on the private island of Isola delle Rose.

Gather by JW, JW Marriott's second annual festival in Venice, will take place from September 26  29, 2019 at the enchanting JW Marriott Venice Resort & Spa, located on the private island of Isola delle Rose. The weekend will bring together an incredible roster of culinary, beverage, and mindfulness experts to curate an immersive experience that celebrates gathering, being present, Marriott Bonvoy Moments Masterclasses led by award-winning culinary legends and wine aficionados, and of course, food and wine. Talent includes Fabio Trabocchi, Giada De Laurentiis, Ciccio Sultano, Angela Hartnett, Jonathan Waxman, Ray Isle, Anthony Giglio, and more.

Through Marriott Bonvoy, the company's recently unveiled travel program which replaced Marriott Rewards, Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG), and The Ritz-Carlton Rewards, members can bid on exclusive 'Gather by JW' Marriott Bonvoy Moments. Starting at 75,000 points, these packages feature luxurious three-night accommodations for two guests in a Junior Suite at JW Marriott Venice Resort & Spa. Each Marriott Bonvoy Moment provides festivalgoers with access to Masterclass cooking schools with award-winning chefs and additional Gather by JW experiences including two seats at the coveted IL FINALE dinner, an all-star feast held in the resort's stunning church that will bring together the festival's top chefs and wine experts.

Package 1: 'Essentially Giada' with Giada De Laurentiis: Moments members can don an apron as they sharpen their culinary skills through an immersive Masterclass hosted by chef, author, and Emmy Award-winning television personality, Giada De Laurentiis. Participants will cook alongside Giada and learn from her as they prepare classic and flavorful Italian dishes with a contemporary California twist. For more information, or to bid on the 'Essentially Giada' Marriott Bonvoy Moment, visit Marriott Bonvoy Moments.

Package 2: 'Decadent Nonna' with Angela Hartnett: Members can enjoy a passionate Masterclass presented by award-winning chef, Angela Hartnett. 'Decadent Nonna' will incorporate the flavors of Hartnett's Michelin-starred London restaurant Murano into classic and nostalgic dishes inspired by her childhood. For more information, or to bid on the 'Decadent Nonna' Marriott Bonvoy Moment, visit Marriott Bonvoy Moments.

Package 3: 'The Sicilian Kitchen' with Ciccio Sultano: Chef and owner of the two Michelin-starred Ristorante Duomo in Sicily, Ciccio Sultano will provide participants with a hands-on Masterclass demonstration. Sultano will divulge his secrets on how to create the most mesmerizing dishes inspired by his award-winning Sicilian restaurant, Il Duomo. For more information, or to bid on the 'The Sicilian Kitchen' Marriott Bonvoy Moment, visit Marriott Bonvoy Moments.

These exclusive Moments are only available at Marriott Bovoy Moments. Each Moment includes resort activity fee, complimentary Wi-Fi, and daily breakfast at Cucina Restaurant. Airfare is not included. Members must be 18 years or older to bid on 'Gather by JW' Marriot Bonvoy Moments. For additional information on 'Gather by JW', please visit www.gatherbyjw.com.

About JW Marriott

JW Marriott is part of Marriott International's luxury portfolio of brands and consists of beautiful properties and distinctive resort locations around the world. The impressive array of award-winning hotels cater to sophisticated, mindful travelers seeking The JW Treatment  the brand's philosophy that true luxury is created by people who are passionate about what they do. These experiences help guests to be fully present, foster connections and feed the soul. Inspired by the principles of mindfulness, JW Marriott is a haven designed to allow guests to focus on feeling whole  present in mind, nourished in body, and revitalized in spirit  through programs and offerings that encourage them to come together, act with intention and experience every moment to the fullest. Today there are over 80 JW Marriott hotels in more than 25 countries and territories. Visit JW Marriott online, and on Instagram and Facebook. JW Marriott is proud to participate in Marriott Bonvoy, the new name of Marriott's travel program replacing Marriott Rewards, The Ritz-Carlton Rewards, and Starwood Preferred Guest(SPG). The program offers members an extraordinary portfolio of global brands, experiences on Marriott Bonvoy Moments and unparalleled benefits including earning points toward free hotel stays and nights toward Elite status recognition. To enroll for free or for more information about the program, visit MarriottBonvoy.marriott.com.

About JW Marriott Venice Resort & Spa

Settled on its own private island in Venice, Isola delle Rose, just a quick ride to St. Mark's Square by complimentary shuttle service, JW Marriott Venice Resort & Spa is the ultimate luxury experience for the most discerning traveler. The combination of wide and lush green areas, a refined restoration by award-winning architect Matteo Thun, together with an attentive service and the finest wellness and dining experiences makes Isola delle Rose a serene retreat from where you can easily explore the beauties of Venice and at the same time indulge in the luxury of a resort. Opened in 2015, the Resort features 266 rooms and refined suites, 4 restaurants  including the fine dining restaurant Fiola at Dopolavoro Venezia, by Michelin-starred Chef Fabio Trabocchi  and 4 bars offering international and local cuisine, the largest Spa in Venice, a Church, kids club and family activities, water sports, a rooftop lounge area with pool and view over Venice, lush green areas, and Sapori Cooking Academy for gastronomes looking to experience the authentic Venetian lifestyle and atmosphere. Visit JW Marriott Venice online, and on Instagram and Facebook.

SOURCE Marriott International, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.marriott.com


FARMINGTON, Conn., April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Kenneth M. Schwartz is recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Pinnacle Top Surgeon at the Mid State Medical Center.

Well respected and revered in the community, MidState Medical Center is part of Hartford HealthCare.



Specializing in a wide variety of surgical diseases of the gastrointestinal tract as well as hernias of the abdominal wall, groin, and diaphragm, Dr. Schwartz is a Minimally Invasive General Surgeon at Hartford HealthCare Medical at MidState Medical Center. With this formal training in minimally invasive techniques, Dr. Schwartz is an acid reflux specialist with expertise in the surgical management.



Throughout his education and training, Mr. Schwartz received his Doctorate in Medicine from St. Georges Medical School (2003-2007), attended his Residency at the Hospital of Saint Raphael in New Haven (2007-2012), finished his Fellowship of Minimally Invasive Surgery at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, FL (2012-2013), and was certified by the American Board of Surgery.



To further his professional development, Dr. Schwartz is a member of the American College Surgeons, the Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons, and Founding member of the American Foregut Society.



For more information, please visit www.midstatemedical.org.

Contact: Katherine Green, 516-825-5634, [email protected]

SOURCE Continental Who's Who

Related Links

http://www.continentalwhoswho.com


"Throughout her 14-year career at Liberty, Janelle has excelled at many key positions, from managing one of our largest global accounts, to heading Claims Analytics & Reporting," notes Langwell. "Her experience developing, running and continuously improving sophisticated programs, and her strong business knowledge across the organization, will help make her the ideal Chief of Staff."

Most recently, Edem served as General Manager, UPS Distribution and Service, for GRS' National Insurance operation. She joined Liberty Mutual after graduating from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, with a Master of Business Administration.

Edem has also been active in Liberty Mutual's Employee Resource Groups (ERG), which bring employees together while fostering an inclusive culture, enhancing personal development and supporting broader business objectives. She served as the first Co-Executive Sponsor of the Liberty Employees of African Descent and Allies ERG, and currently co-chairs the Careers subcommittee of the [email protected] + Allies ERG, which helps empower women and allies through programing and mentorship programs.

Edem  recognized in 2015 by Wharton School's Boston chapter with the Joseph Wharton Alumni Leader Award  also participated in the Next Generation Leadership program from The Partnership Inc., a leading organization that supports multicultural professionals at all levels in an increasingly diverse and global workforce.

About Liberty Mutual Insurance

Liberty Mutual's purpose is to help people embrace today and confidently pursue tomorrow. The promise we make to our customers throughout the world is to provide protection for the unexpected, delivered with care.

In business since 1912, and headquartered in Boston, Mass., today we are the fifth largest global property and casualty insurer based on 2017 gross written premium. We also rank 68th on the Fortune 100 list of largest corporations in the U.S. based on 2017 revenue. As of December 31, 2018, we had $41.6 billion in annual consolidated revenue.

We employ nearly 50,000 people in 30 countries and economies around the world. We offer a wide range of insurance products and services, including personal automobile, homeowners, specialty lines, reinsurance, commercial multiple-peril, workers compensation, commercial automobile, general liability, surety, and commercial property.

You can learn more about us by visiting www.libertymutualinsurance.com

CONTACT:

Richard Angevine

(617) 574-6638 (Office)

(617) 833-0926 (Cell)

[email protected]

SOURCE Liberty Mutual Insurance

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BALTIMORE, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Light Point Security, the award-winning pioneer of Browser Isolation, announced today that it has been named by the Cybersecurity Association of Maryland, Inc. (CAMI) a finalist for the Cybersecurity Innovator of the Year Award. The finalists were selected by an independent panel of judges represented by leaders in a variety of fields.

The Cybersecurity Innovator of the Year Award is presented to a Maryland company that has demonstrated exceptional innovation in the cybersecurity field with a technology designed to protect businesses and/or government entities from cyber threats, attack and/or damages. "Our Cybersecurity Innovators are the champions of the cyber world and represent the creme de la creme of Maryland cybersecurity technology providers," said CAMI's Board of Directors.

"Light Point Security is honored that CAMI has recognized our innovative approach to protecting enterprises from the biggest threat vector they face every day. Our Remote Browser Isolation technology stops all web-based malware without the need for detection," said Zuly Gonzalez, Co-founder and CEO of Light Point Security. "Maryland has a large concentration and vibrant community of cybersecurity companies lead by the best in the industry. It is a privilege to be recognized among such strong competition, and a testament to Light Point Security's innovative approach. Best of luck to the other finalists."

In addition to being named a finalist for the Cybersecurity Innovator of the Year Award, Light Point Security is also in the running for two other CAMI awards. The Best of Baltimore County Award will be awarded to the top cybersecurity company headquartered in Baltimore County, MD. The People's Choice Award will be awarded to the company who receives the most votes online by the public. Voting for the People's Choice Award is open until 4pm on April 11th. To support Light Point Security for the People's Choice Award, vote here: https://www.mdcyber.com/peoples-choice-2019

One winner from each category will be announced at the Maryland Cybersecurity Awards Celebration on April 11, 2019 at the Live! Casino & Hotel in Hanover, MD.

About Light Point Security

Light Point Security protects organizations from browser-based attacks. Founded by National Security Agency cybersecurity veterans, they pioneered the concept of remote browser isolation to eliminate web-based threats without impacting user experience. The company's flagship product ensures no malicious web content ever reaches enterprise endpoints by isolating all browsing activity into a remote virtual environment. Its power, seamlessness, and high performance allow it to be used for all personal and work-related web browsing. For more information visit https://lightpointsecurity.com or email [email protected].

About Cybersecurity Association of Maryland, Inc. (CAMI)

The Cybersecurity Association of Maryland, Inc. (CAMI) is a statewide, 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization established in 2015 to generate sales and jobs through Maryland's cybersecurity industry. CAMI is Maryland's only organization dedicated 100% to the growth of Maryland's cybersecurity industry.

Media Contact:

Maria Rodriguez

[email protected]

+1-443-459-1590

SOURCE Light Point Security

Related Links

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Applicants for the scholarship must be accepted into a 2 or 4 year private or public college or university or a technical program, demonstrate a commitment to community service, leadership and extracurricular activities and have clear goals and aspirations for life after high school and college. A 500 word essay detailing a past or future positive impact to community or others is also a requirement.

"We are thrilled to support Lighthouse Academies scholars in their pursuit of a college education. We firmly believe in the work Lighthouse is doing to prepare their scholars for college, career and life" said Steve Hall, Market President and Senior Consultant at Alltrust.

In addition to the Alltrust Impact Scholarship, several Lighthouse seniors will be awarded scholarships from College Ready Now. Established in 2009 by Mike Ronan, founder of Lighthouse Academies, the College Ready Now scholarships will range from $500 to $2500 dollar scholarships for scholars at Lighthouse Academies.

All scholarship recipients will be selected by April 26, 2019. Scholarship Winners will be announced at college commitment days at Lighthouse Academies schools in May and June.

Last year Lighthouse Academies graduating seniors were awarded over $17 million dollars in scholarships.

About Lighthouse Academies

Lighthouse Academies is a national network of public charter schools in locations with the greatest need, representing the greatest challenge and greatest opportunity for transformation. With an arts-rich approach, Lighthouse teachers engage scholars in a more impactful way and encourage creativity of thought in academic pursuits. Through both academic development and broader personal development Lighthouse prepares scholars to adapt and thrive in college, career and life.

For more information visit our website at www.lha.net

Contact the National Office, 29140 Chapel Park Drive Building 5-A, Wesley Chapel, FL 33543

Tel: 800-901-6943; 813-345-0856, Fax: 508-626-0905, Email : [email protected]

About Alltrust

Alltrust is headquartered in Palm Harbor, FL with physical offices in Sarasota and Orlando. Alltrust is an employee benefits and HR consulting firm that aims to create healthier organizations. Our whole world is dedicated to it in fact. We believe so strongly in helping you create a healthier business that we have nurtured our own culture to be one that is passionately focused on people  specifically the people who make up an organization's culture. Alltrust serves over 400 Florida based employer groups; from NYSE companies with a national presence, to two employee CPA firms. To find out more, visit www.alltrustinsurance.com.

SOURCE Lighthouse Academies

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Disruptive industry leader becomes Principal, will help grow firm's urban property-redevelopment service line across North Carolina

RALEIGH, NC, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - John Linderman, Avison Young Principal and Managing Director of the company's North Carolina region, announced today that highly regarded urban property specialist Marcus Jackson has joined the firm in Raleigh-Durham.

Effective immediately, Jackson becomes a Principal of Avison Young. As a member of the U.S. capital markets group, he will grow the company's property-redevelopment service line across North Carolina. Jackson brings more than 25 years of commercial real estate industry experience to Avison Young, most recently as managing director of Trademark Properties in Raleigh-Durham.

"We are excited to have such a disruptive industry leader and real estate visionary as Marcus join our team in Raleigh-Durham," comments Linderman. "Marcus will work with Avison Young Principal and land practice leader Tara Kreider to identify and secure strategic development and redevelopment opportunities across all asset classes, including land, in and around the urban markets of North Carolina."

Linderman continues: "Marcus has established himself as an urban-redevelopment opportunity specialist. He will continue to serve an existing list of clients and work with new clients as identified here at Avison Young. He will deploy his rising brand to seize opportunity from property owners' and users' continued flight to walkable communities, especially downtowns. He will combine his intense locational knowledge with our product specialists to help drive business growth for our clients and our company."

During his career, Jackson has helped negotiate more than $400 million worth of investment real estate sales transactions while being held accountable for the successful development of more than 2 million square feet of space. For much of his career, he has been immersed in mixed-use and urban assets, primarily in Atlanta, South Florida, Richmond, VA; Washington DC and the Triangle and Triad regions of North Carolina. Jackson focuses exclusively on urban investment services including brokerage, capital markets solutions, asset repositioning and development advisory.

Past and current clients include: Progress Energy (Duke Power), Woodfield Partners, William Peace University, Queens University, Greymont Development, Atlantic Pacific Companies, AXA Equitable, LNR Properties (now Starwood) and numerous small-to-medium-sized operating businesses and families who in the past acquired urban industrial sites and urban office buildings and subsequently sold or repositioned their real estate assets for significant gains.

Prior to joining Trademark, Jackson held managing director and senior vice-president positions with Colliers International, Jackson Stoddard Associates, Carter, Highwood Properties and Lend Lease in Raleigh-Durham and Atlanta while also serving clients in other urban markets.

"I'm ecstatic about joining Avison Young and having the opportunity to work with the capital markets team," says Jackson. "Avison Young's key personnel in the Triangle were the initial drivers for me. Tara Kreider and I had partnered together extensively in the past. We enjoyed working together and closing deals for our firm and clients. I have known John Linderman for 20 years and regard him as a highly ethical and proven leader in North Carolina. After also being also attracted to Avison Young's global depth and its disruptive challenger role in the industry, I knew the decision to join the company would be a simple one for me."

Jackson is active in the industry as a member of the Urban Land Institute's Triangle District Council. In the community, he is Chair Emeritus of Artspace Raleigh as well as a member of the group's building committee. He is also a member of Downtown Durham Inc., the Downtown Raleigh Alliance and Downtown Greensboro Inc., which promote economic development; the Brewers Association and the North Carolina Brewers Guild. He holds a Master of Business Administration degree in marketing and information technology from the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business and a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing from Virginia Tech.

"Marcus will be a valuable addition to our company's U.S. capital markets group as we expand the capabilities of our team in North Carolina and across the United States," adds John Kevill, Avison Young Principal and Managing Director, U.S. Capital Markets. "His expertise in development greatly adds to our ability to provide solutions to local and national clients. His sales acumen and demonstrated commitment to collaboration and partnership make him an ideal fit for Avison Young."

Avison Young is the world's fastest-growing commercial real estate services firm. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Avison Young is a collaborative, global firm owned and operated by its Principals. Founded in 1978, with legacies dating back more than 200 years, the company comprises approximately 5,000 real estate professionals in 120 offices in 20 countries. The firm's experts provide value-added, client-centric investment sales, leasing, advisory, management and financing services to clients across the office, retail, industrial, multi-family and hospitality sectors.

For further information/comment/photos:



 Sherry Quan, Principal, Global Director of Communications & Media Relations, Avison Young: 604.647.5098; cell: 604.726.0959

 John Linderman, Principal and Managing Director, North Carolina, Avison Young: 919.420.1559

 Marcus Jackson, Principal, Avison Young: 919.866.4275

 Mark Rose, Chair and CEO, Avison Young: 416.673.4028

 Earl Webb, President, U.S. Operations, Avison Young: 312.957.7610

www.avisonyoung.com

Avison Young is a 2019 winner of the Canada's Best Managed Companies Platinum Club designation, having retained its Best Managed designation for eight consecutive years.

Follow Avison Young on Twitter:

For industry news, press releases and market reports: www.twitter.com/avisonyoung

For Avison Young listings and deals: www.twitter.com/AYListingsDeals

Follow Avison Young Bloggers: http://blog.avisonyoung.com

Follow Avison Young on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/avison-young-commercial-real-estate

Follow Avison Young on YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/AvisonYoungRE

Follow Avison Young on Instagram: www.instagram.com/avison_young_global

Editors/Reporters

 Please click on link to view and download photo of Marcus Jackson:

https://www.avisonyoung.com/documents/20342/2631393/Marcus_Jackson.jpg

SOURCE Avison Young

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ROCKLAND, Mass., April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- EMD Serono, Inc. today announced that Express Scripts is covering on its formulary the oral multiple sclerosis (MS) therapy, MAVENCLAD (cladribine) tablets, which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on March 29, 2019. Express Scripts has over 80 million members nationally, including thousands of people living with MS.

"The Express Scripts Multiple Sclerosis Care Value ProgramSM provides comprehensive care for people with multiple sclerosis, and we are proud to add MAVENCLAD to the treatment options members can access," said Steve Miller, M.D., Executive Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer, Cigna. "Combining the expertise of our specialist pharmacists, our clinical care model at our Accredo specialty pharmacy and alignment with clients, we make sure patients and payers get the most value from innovative new therapies."

In addition to being listed immediately on the Express Scripts formulary, additional patient access opportunities exist for members within their custom health plan or employer benefit offerings.

"Ensuring rapid access to MAVENCLAD for patients is a high priority for us," said Rehan Verjee, President of EMD Serono and Global Head of the Innovative Medicine Franchises. "With its maximum of 20 days of oral treatment over two years, MAVENCLAD offers a new way to treat MS, and we are pleased that an industry leader like Express Scripts has recognized the importance of covering MAVENCLAD for its members."

The FDA approved MAVENCLAD for the treatment of adults with relapsing-remitting disease (RRMS) and active secondary progressive disease (SPMS). MAVENCLAD is the first and only FDA-approved treatment for RRMS and active SPMS that provides two years of proven efficacy with a maximum of 20 days of oral treatment, during a two-year period.

Because of its safety profile, use of MAVENCLAD is generally recommended for patients who have had an inadequate response to, or are unable to tolerate, an alternate drug indicated for the treatment of MS, and MAVENCLAD is not recommended for use in patients with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS). The MAVENCLAD label includes a boxed warning that states it may increase the risk of malignancy, and risk of teratogenicity.

MS is a progressive, autoimmune disease affecting one million people in the U.S., and more than 2.3 million people worldwide. It is the most common non-traumatic, disabling neurological disease in young adults. Eighty-five percent of people living with MS are initially diagnosed with RRMS, characterized by attacks of new or increasing neurological symptoms. Most people with RRMS will eventually transition to a secondary progressive course in which there is a progressive worsening of neurologic function over time. SPMS can be further characterized at different points as either active (with relapses and/or evidence of new magnetic resonance imaging [MRI] activity) or not active.

EMD Serono is committed to helping support patients prescribed MAVENCLAD. The company's comprehensive patient support program, MS LifeLines, provides one-on-one assistance to U.S. patients prescribed an EMD Serono MS therapy. This includes personalized patient support like assistance with navigating insurance questions and additional resources that may be able to assist patients who are uninsured or underinsured.

For more information on MAVENCLAD, and prescribing information including the boxed WARNINGS, visit www.MAVENCLAD.com.

All Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, press releases are distributed by e-mail at the same time they become available on the EMD Group Website. In case you are a resident of the USA or Canada please go to www.emdgroup.com/subscribe to register again for your online subscription of this service as our newly introduced geo-targeting requires new links in the email. You may later change your selection or discontinue this service.

About Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, inflammatory condition of the central nervous system and is the most common, non-traumatic, disabling neurological disease in young adults. It is estimated that more than 2.3 million people have MS worldwide. While symptoms can vary, the most common symptoms of MS include blurred vision, numbness or tingling in the limbs and problems with strength and coordination. The relapsing forms of MS are the most common. Eighty-five percent of people living with MS are initially diagnosed with relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS), characterized by attacks of new or increasing neurological symptoms. Most people with RRMS will eventually transition to a secondary progressive course (SPMS) in which there is a progressive worsening of neurologic function over time. SPMS can be further characterized at different points as either active (with relapses and/or evidence of new magnetic resonance imaging [MRI] activity) or not active.

About MAVENCLAD (cladribine) Tablets (10 mg)

MAVENCLAD, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on March 29, 2019, is the first and only short-course oral therapy for the treatment of adults with relapsing-remitting disease (RRMS) and active secondary progressive disease (SPMS). Because of its safety profile, use of MAVENCLAD is generally recommended for patients who have had an inadequate response to, or are unable to tolerate, an alternate drug indicated for the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS), and MAVENCLAD is not recommended for use in patients with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS). Patients should follow healthcare provider instructions including cancer screening, contraception and blood tests. The approved dose of MAVENCLAD is 3.5 mg per kg body weight over two years, administered as one treatment course of 1.75 mg per kg per year, each consisting of two treatment weeks. The mechanism by which cladribine exerts its therapeutic effects in patients with multiple sclerosis has not been fully elucidated but is thought to involve cytotoxic effects on B and T lymphocytes through impairment of DNA synthesis, resulting in depletion of lymphocytes. MAVENCLAD causes a dose-dependent reduction in lymphocyte counts followed by recovery.

Because cladribine is cytotoxic, special handling and disposal instructions should be followed.

MAVENCLAD has been approved in over 50 countries, including the European Union (EU), Canada, Australia and Switzerland, for various relapsing MS indications. Visit www.MAVENCLAD.com for more information.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION

BOXED WARNING: MALIGNANCIES and RISK OF TERATOGENICITY

Treatment with MAVENCLAD may increase the risk of malignancy. MAVENCLAD is contraindicated in patients with current malignancy; evaluate the benefits and risks of the use of MAVENCLAD on an individual patient basis for patients with prior or increased risk of malignancy.

MAVENCLAD is contraindicated for use in pregnant women and in women and men of reproductive potential who do not plan to use effective contraception because of the potential for fetal harm.

CONTRAINDICATIONS

current malignancy.

pregnancy, and women and men of reproductive potential who do not plan to use effective contraception during MAVENCLAD dosing and for 6 m after the last dose in each treatment course.

after the last dose in each treatment course. human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

active chronic infections (e.g., hepatitis or tuberculosis).

history of hypersensitivity to cladribine.

breastfeeding while taking MAVENCLAD and for 10 days after the last dose.

DOSING CONSIDERATIONS: After the completion of 2 treatment courses, do not administer additional MAVENCLAD during the next 2 years. The risk of malignancy with reinitiating MAVENCLAD more than 2 years after completion of 2 treatment courses has not been studied.

ADDITIONAL WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONS

Lymphopenia: In clinical studies, 87% of MAVENCLAD-treated patients experienced lymphopenia. Concomitant use of MAVENCLAD with hematotoxic drugs may increase the risk of adverse reactions because of the additive hematological effects. Monitor lymphocyte counts before and during treatment, periodically thereafter, and when clinically indicated.

In clinical studies, 87% of MAVENCLAD-treated patients experienced lymphopenia. Concomitant use of MAVENCLAD with hematotoxic drugs may increase the risk of adverse reactions because of the additive hematological effects. Monitor lymphocyte counts before and during treatment, periodically thereafter, and when clinically indicated. Infections: Infections occurred in 49% of MAVENCLAD-treated patients compared to 44% of patients treated with placebo in clinical studies. The most frequent serious infections included herpes zoster and pyelonephritis. Single fatal cases of tuberculosis and fulminant hepatitis B were reported in the clinical program. Administer live-attenuated or live vaccines at least 4 to 6 weeks prior to starting MAVENCLAD. Screen patients for latent infections; consider delaying treatment until infection is fully controlled. Vaccinate patients antibody-negative to varicella zoster virus prior to treatment. Monitor for infections.

Infections occurred in 49% of MAVENCLAD-treated patients compared to 44% of patients treated with placebo in clinical studies. The most frequent serious infections included herpes zoster and pyelonephritis. Single fatal cases of tuberculosis and fulminant hepatitis B were reported in the clinical program. Administer live-attenuated or live vaccines at least 4 to 6 weeks prior to starting MAVENCLAD. Screen patients for latent infections; consider delaying treatment until infection is fully controlled. Vaccinate patients antibody-negative to varicella zoster virus prior to treatment. Monitor for infections. Hematologic Toxicity : Mild to moderate decreases in neutrophil counts, hemoglobin levels, and platelet counts were observed. Severe decreases in neutrophil counts were observed in 3.6% of MAVENCLAD-treated patients, compared to 2.8% of placebo patients. Obtain complete blood count (CBC) with differential including lymphocyte count before and during treatment, periodically thereafter, and when clinically indicated.

: Mild to moderate decreases in neutrophil counts, hemoglobin levels, and platelet counts were observed. Severe decreases in neutrophil counts were observed in 3.6% of MAVENCLAD-treated patients, compared to 2.8% of placebo patients. Obtain complete blood count (CBC) with differential including lymphocyte count before and during treatment, periodically thereafter, and when clinically indicated. Risk of Graft-versus-Host Disease With Blood Transfusions : Irradiation of cellular blood components is recommended.

: Irradiation of cellular blood components is recommended. Liver Injury : Obtain liver function tests prior to treatment. Discontinue MAVENCLAD if significant injury is suspected.

: Obtain liver function tests prior to treatment. Discontinue MAVENCLAD if significant injury is suspected. Hypersensitivity: In clinical studies, 11% of MAVENCLAD-treated patients had hypersensitivity reactions, compared to 7% of placebo patients. Serious hypersensitivity reactions occurred in 0.5% of MAVENCLAD-treated patients, compared to 0.1% of placebo patients. If a hypersensitivity reaction is suspected, discontinue treatment. Do not use MAVENCLAD in patients with a history of hypersensitivity to cladribine.

Adverse Reactions: The most common adverse reactions with an incidence of >20% for MAVENCLAD are upper respiratory tract infection, headache, and lymphopenia.

Drug Interactions/Concomitant Medication: Concomitant use of MAVENCLAD with immunosuppressive or myelosuppressive drugs and some immunomodulatory drugs (e.g., interferon beta) is not recommended and may increase the risk of adverse reactions. Avoid concomitant use of certain antiviral and antiretroviral drugs. Avoid concomitant use of BCRP or ENT/CNT inhibitors as they may alter bioavailability of MAVENCLAD.

Please see the full Prescribing Information, including boxed WARNING for additional information.

EMD Serono, Inc. and Multiple Sclerosis

For more than 20 years, EMD Serono has been relentlessly focused on understanding the journey people living with MS face in order to create a meaningful, positive experience for them and the broader MS community. However, there is still much that is unknown about this complex and unpredictable disease. EMD Serono is digging deeper to advance the science.

About EMD Serono, Inc.

EMD Serono - the biopharmaceutical business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, in the U.S. and Canada - is engaged in the discovery, research and development of medicines for patients with difficult to treat diseases. The business is committed to transforming lives by developing and delivering meaningful solutions that help address the therapeutic and support needs of individual patients. Building on a proven legacy and deep expertise in neurology, fertility and endocrinology, EMD Serono is developing potential new oncology and immuno-oncology medicines while continuing to explore potential therapeutic options for diseases such as psoriasis, lupus and MS. Today, the business has approximately 1,300 employees around the country with commercial, clinical and research operations based in the company's home state of Massachusetts. www.emdserono.com

Your Contact

Alice McGrail 1-781-681-2886

SOURCE EMD Serono

Related Links

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WASHINGTON, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Associations representing most of the Mexican tomato industry formally presented to the Commerce Department today proposed changes to the 2013 Tomato Suspension Agreement that include unprecedented enforcement and anti-circumvention provisions and strategic price increases. While the record of the 2013 Agreement reflects full compliance with the agreement, the Mexican growers offered these proposals in the spirit of goodwill and to ensure airtight enforcement. The proposal includes the following:

Price increases ranging between 6 and 34 percent, including eliminating any differences between the summer and winter prices under the agreement, and establishing a higher price for specialty tomatoes grown organically.

Requirements that loads of Mexican tomatoes with more than 35 percent condition defects will have to be driven back to Mexico at the grower's expense.

at the grower's expense. Provisions making exports of Mexican tomatoes under a different signatory number other than one's own a violation of the agreement.

No adjustments can be made under the reference price.

Provisions to block unintended exports of fresh tomatoes from Mexico and better manage inventory levels in the United States .

and better manage inventory levels in . Provisions to strengthen the ability of the Department of Agriculture to enforce the Tomato Suspension Agreement under the PACA by giving the Commerce Department all necessary grower documents to prove PACA violations.

New penalties for intentional violations of the agreement by Mexican growers or their selling agents.

Commitments by Mexican growers to help facilitate efforts by an interagency task force to enforce the agreement, including through on-site and video verifications, and a willingness to use independent auditors to help in that effort.

"Our goal from the beginning of the renegotiation process has been to focus on enforcement even though there is no evidence of circumvention of the agreement," said Oscar Woltman, president of AMPHAC, the largest Mexican growers association.

"We have developed proposals on both sides of the border focusing on enforcing the arrival condition of the first sale, which is what is covered by the antidumping law. We can't, of course, agree to anything that goes beyond the reach of U.S. law," added Rosario Beltran of Confederacion de Asociaciones Agricolas del Estado de Sinaloa, A.C.

Added Salvatore Garcia, President of Consejo Agricola de Baja California, A.C.: "We have said all along we prefer an agreement over litigation, but only if it is fair."

SOURCE Mexican Tomato Growers
NEW YORK, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Ahead of ALS Awareness Month in May, the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) announced today the awarding of eight new MDA grants totaling more than $2 million toward research focused on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This pledge reinforces MDA's unwavering commitment to the progress of scientific and clinical ALS research and builds on the more than $165 million MDA has already invested in ALS. Later this month, the impact of critical research efforts, such as those funded by MDA, will come to life at the annual MDA Clinical and Scientific Conference, themed "Progress in Motion" (April 14-17, Orlando, FL), where MDA will convene over 1,100 neuromuscular disease (NMD) scientists, clinicians, regulators, and advocates to reveal and discuss the latest in ALS and other NMD research.

Amanda Haidet-Phillips, PhD, Scientific Portfolio Director, Muscular Dystrophy Association.

"These new grants show MDA's commitment to fund groundbreaking research that will one day lead to treatments and cures for ALS," says Amanda Haidet-Phillips, PhD, a scientific portfolio director at MDA. "Every grant will have an impact on therapy development, from improving understanding of disease mechanisms to discovering new therapeutic targets and moving these into clinical trials."

Answering crucial questions to speed therapy development

The newly funded projects will promote therapy development on multiple fronts. The awarded grants include studies to help provide a better understanding of what causes ALS and pinpoint new drug targets, to develop improved therapeutic strategies, and to ensure that the right tools such as biomarkers are in place to pave the way for successful clinical trials. MDA is also committed to maintaining a robust pipeline of promising early-stage scientists who will make the important discoveries of tomorrow.

Grant awardees for this grant cycle include:

Thomas Gaj, PhD

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Research grant, $300,000

Dr. Gaj will evaluate whether gene editing can be a potential treatment for ALS caused by mutations in the superoxide dismutase 1 gene (SOD1), estimated to cause about 2% of all ALS cases. Scientists believe that mutations in the SOD1 gene cause the superoxide dismutase 1 protein (SOD1) to adopt abnormal toxic functions, leading to the loss of motor neurons that causes ALS. Dr. Gaj will employ a new kind of gene-editing technique that can alter a gene sequence without breaking the DNA, unlike traditional gene-editing tools.

Tania Gendron, PhD

Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Fla.

Research grant, $285,000

As many as half of all ALS patients will develop impairments in cognition during their disease course. Dr. Gendron will identify protein biomarkers in blood and spinal fluid that may be useful to predict which ALS patients may develop cognitive impairments. These biomarkers could be helpful to improve patient care as well as inform how clinical trials should be designed.

Jonathan Glass, MD

Emory University, Atlanta, Ga.

Research infrastructure grant, $151,592

The NEALS Consortium is an international organization of 125 research sites that collaborate to support and conduct clinical research in ALS and other motor neuron diseases. This grant will help support the NEALS Consortium's biorepository, which contains tissues and fluids that are widely used by the community  including MDA-funded researchers  to advance ALS research. The grant will also support the annual NEALS Consortium meeting, where NEALS clinicians share advances and receive training.

Junjie Guo, PhD

Yale University

Research grant, $297,678

A mutation in the C9ORF72 gene in which one segment of the gene is repeated too many times  also known as a repeat expansion  is the most common cause of the familial form of ALS (referred to as C9-ALS). Dr. Guo will study how RNA foci (clumps, or aggregates), which can become toxic to cells, are formed, what factors regulate their formation, and how these foci affect RNA metabolism in a C9-ALS motor neuron model. This work could improve understanding of the role that RNA foci play in ALS and other repeat expansion-associated neuromuscular diseases.

Csaba Konrad, PhD

Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, N.Y.

Development grant, $210,000

Developing drugs to treat ALS has proven difficult because there are many causes of the disease, resulting in a highly diverse patient population and a dearth of biomarkers. Biomarkers can be used for predicting disease progression and response to therapy, early detection, and patient stratification in clinical trials  making biomarker discovery for ALS a high priority. Dr. Konrad will use his large bank of skin cells derived from non-familial ALS patients to determine if the cells can be clustered into groups based on changes in size and shape. He hopes to use these models to discover improved biomarkers for ALS.

John Landers, PhD

University of Massachusetts Medical School

Research grant, $300,000

Scientists have identified more than 40 genes that cause familial ALS; some of them have also been found in non-familial ALS patients. Still, there is no definitive genetic root for 90 percent of ALS cases. Dr. Landers will apply his funding to identifying novel therapeutic targets for both familial and non-familial ALS. He will use RNAi (RNA interference) screens, in which RNA molecules bind to and inactivate genes, to discover novel drug targets for ALS.

Ze'ev Melamed, PhD

Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, University of California, San Diego

Development grant, $210,000

Dr. Melamed's grant will help to determine how suppression of stathmin-2 protein, recently shown to be decreased in the motor neurons of non-familial ALS patients, drives motor neuron degeneration and whether reversal of stathmin-2 defects could have therapeutic potential for ALS. He will also work with Ionis Pharmaceuticals to develop an antisense oligonucleotide (a type of therapy that uses genetic material to target a specific gene or genetic sequence) designed to have a therapeutic effect in motor neurons of patients with ALS.

Marka Van Blitterswijk, MD, PhD

Mark Ebbert, PhD

Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Fla.

Research grant, $300,000

Discovery of the C9ORF72 gene repeat expansion has provided some knowledge of ALS disease mechanism, but it's still unknown how or whether interruptions in the repeated genetic material affect disease variability, development, and progression. Dr. Van Blitterswijk will use a novel technology to analyze the C9ORF72 gene mutation in clinical samples from ALS patients to determine whether the size of the mutation can be used to predict factors such as survival time and cognitive changes. It could eventually pave the way for future therapies and diagnostics based on the variability found in the repeat expansion. This work is a collaboration with the lab of Mark Ebbert, PhD.

About ALS

MDA ALS Impact Sheet

MDA ALS Fact Sheet

ALS is a disease of the parts of the central nervous system that control voluntary muscle movement. In ALS patients, motor neurons (nerve cells that control muscle cells) gradually lose function, causing muscles to become weak and eventually nonfunctional. The majority of cases of ALS are sporadic, meaning there is no known family history of the disease. However, up to 10 percent of cases are familial, meaning the disease is inherited or passed down within a family. Life expectancy is typically three to five years after diagnosis, and there is no cure.

ALS is a devastating disease that doesn't discriminate. Anytime anyone is diagnosed with ALS, MDA is here, supporting patients, families, and caregivers. Whether providing world-class care or investing in innovative research and technology, MDA has led the way, with decades or progress against ALS.

About MDA

MDA is committed to transforming the lives of people affected by muscular dystrophy, ALS and related neuromuscular diseases. We do this through innovations in science and innovations in care. As the largest source of funding for neuromuscular disease research outside of the federal government, MDA has committed more than $1 billion since our inception to accelerate the discovery of therapies and cures. Research we have supported is directly linked to life-changing therapies across multiple neuromuscular diseases. MDA's MOVR is a transformative platform, combining MDA's Care Center Network with a state-of-the-art information management system to improve health outcomes for neuromuscular disease patients and accelerate drug development. MDA supports the largest network of multidisciplinary clinics providing best-in-class care at more than 150 of the nation's top medical institutions. Our Resource Center serves the community with one-on-one specialized support, and we offer educational conferences, events and materials for families and health care providers. Each year, thousands of children and young adults learn vital life skills and gain independence at MDA Summer Camp and through recreational programs, at no cost to families. For more information, visit mda.org.

SOURCE Muscular Dystrophy Association

Related Links

https://www.mda.org


HAMILTON, Bermuda, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Nabors Industries Ltd. (NYSE: NBR) invites you to join Anthony G. Petrello, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and William Restrepo, Chief Financial Officer, Wednesday, May 1st at 10:00 a.m. Central Time for a discussion of operating results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2019. Nabors will release earnings after the market closes on April 30, 2019.



Date:

May 1, 2019

Time:

10:00 a.m. CT (11:00 a.m. ET)

Dial-in-number(s):



Domestic: (888) 317-6003



International: (412) 317-6061



Canada: (866) 284-3684



Participant Elite Entry Number: 4127050

Please call ten to fifteen minutes ahead of time to ensure proper connection. The conference call will be recorded and available for replay for one week, by 1:00 p.m. Central Time on May 1, 2019. To hear the recording, please call (877) 344-7529 domestically or (412) 317-0088 internationally and enter Participant Elite Entry Number: 10130547.

Nabors will have a live audio webcast of the conference call available on its website at www.nabors.com. Navigate to the Investor Relations page and then select Events Calendar to join the webcast. An electronic version of the earnings release and supplemental presentation will also be available to download from the website.

About Nabors Industries

Nabors owns and operates one of the world's largest land-based drilling rig fleets and is a provider of offshore platform rigs in the United States and numerous international markets. Nabors also provides directional drilling services, performance tools, and innovative technologies for its own rig fleet and those of third parties. Leveraging our advanced drilling automation capabilities, Nabors' highly skilled workforce continues to set new standards for operational excellence and transform our industry.

Media & Investor Contacts:

Dennis A. Smith, Vice President, Corporate Development & Investor Relations, at +1 281-775-8038.

William Conroy, Senior Director, Corporate Development & Investor Relations, at +1 281-775-2423.

To request investor materials, contact Nabors' corporate headquarters in Hamilton, Bermuda at +1 441-292-1510 or via email at [email protected].

SOURCE Nabors Industries Ltd.

Related Links

http://www.nabors.com


WASHINGTON, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA will host a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT Thursday, April 11, to share the results of a study  embargoed by the journal Science until that time  evaluating identical twin astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly. A Reddit iAMA will follow the media teleconference at 4 p.m.

The briefing participants are:

Scott Kelly , retired NASA astronaut, study participant

, retired NASA astronaut, study participant Mark Kelly , retired NASA astronaut, study participant

, retired NASA astronaut, study participant Steven Platts , Ph.D., NASA Human Research Program deputy chief scientist

, Ph.D., NASA Human Research Program deputy chief scientist Susan M. Bailey , Ph.D., Colorado State University , principal investigator, Telomeres

, Ph.D., , principal investigator, Telomeres Andrew Feinberg , MD, Johns Hopkins University , principal investigator, Epigenomics

, MD, , principal investigator, Epigenomics Stuart M. C. Lee , Ph.D. KBRwyle, principal investigator , Metabolomics

, Ph.D. KBRwyle, principal investigator Metabolomics Christopher E. Mason , Ph.D., Weill Cornell Medicine, principal investigator , Gene Expression

, Ph.D., Weill Cornell Medicine, principal investigator Gene Expression Michael Snyder , Ph.D., Stanford University , principal investigator, Integrative Omics

Teleconference audio will stream live at:

https://www.nasa.gov/live

Reporters interested in obtaining a copy of the embargoed Science study should reach out to the Science press package team at [email protected]. For reporters registered with EurekAlert!, the embargoed study also is available at:

https://www.eurekalert.org/jrnls/sci/

The Twins Study is helping scientists better understand the impacts of spaceflight on the human body through the study of identical twins. The Twins Study research encompassed 10 separate investigators who coordinated and shared all data and analysis as one large, integrated research team. Retired astronaut Scott Kelly spent 340 days in low-Earth orbit aboard the International Space Station while retired astronaut Mark Kelly, his identical twin, remained on Earth. The twins' genetic similarity provided scientists with a reduced number of variables and an ideal control group, both important to scientific investigation.

For dial-in information, media must contact NASA's Johnson Space Center newsroom in Houston, at 281-483-5111 no later than 1 p.m. April 11. Questions may be submitted on Twitter during the teleconference using the hashtag #askNASA. Questions can be submitted to the Reddit iAMA event when it begins at 4 p.m.

For more information about NASA's Twin Study, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/twins-study

https://www.nasa.gov/hrp

SOURCE NASA

Related Links

http://www.nasa.gov


DALLAS, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- NexPoint Residential Trust, Inc., ("NXRT" or the "Company"), (NYSE: NXRT) announced today that the Company is scheduled to host a conference call on Tuesday, April 30, 2019 at 11:00 a.m. ET (10:00 am CT), to discuss first quarter 2019 financial results.

The conference call can be accessed live over the phone by dialing 877-260-1479 or, for international callers, (334) 323-0522, and using passcode Conference ID: 1362865. A live audio webcast of the call will be available online at the Company's website, http://www.nexpointliving.com (under "Investor Relations"). An online replay will be available shortly after the call on the Company's website and continue to be available for 60 days.

A replay of the conference call will also be available through Sunday, May 5, 2019, by dialing (888) 203-1112 or, for international callers, (719) 457-0820 and entering passcode 1362865.

The Company plans to issue a press release with first quarter 2019 financial results before market open on Tuesday, April 30.

About NXRT

NexPoint Residential Trust is a publicly traded REIT, with its shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "NXRT," primarily focused on acquiring, owning and operating well-located middle-income multifamily properties with "value-add" potential in large cities and suburban submarkets of large cities, primarily in the Southeastern and Southwestern United States. NXRT is externally advised by NexPoint Real Estate Advisors, L.P., an affiliate of Highland Capital Management, L.P., a leading global alternative asset manager and an SEC-registered investment adviser.

Contact:

Jackie Graham

Investor Relations

972-628-4024

SOURCE NexPoint Residential Trust, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.nexpointliving.com


BOSTON, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Nominations are now being accepted for the 2019 Women in Agribusiness (WIA) Demeter Award of Excellence , presented by Women in Agribusiness. Recognizing the shining stars in the ag sector, the award highlights women who have achieved excellence in their field or demonstrated an outstanding contribution to the agribusiness industry.

Up to three recipients will be chosen for this year's Women in Agribusiness Demeter Award of Excellence, which is so named after Demeter, the goddess of the harvest from ancient Greek mythology. Each will be invited to accept their award on stage at the 2019 Women in Agribusiness Summit in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on September 25-27. Recipients will be notified prior to being recognized at the event.

Past recipients were notable for their work with the United Nations in establishing voluntary guidelines on responsible agricultural investment, or developing Indiana state's first agricultural law program, or transforming the largest farmer co-operative in the UK from operating at a huge loss to ending with an $8 million profit, and a $30 million increase in revenue.

"We've shone a light on the achievements of many talented women who've made a difference in the ag sector due to their out-of-the-box thinking, persistence and drive, and leadership abilities," said Joy O'Shaughnessy, chief operating officer of Women in Agribusiness and director of the annual Women in Agribusiness Summit. "We are very honored to continue this tradition for what is now our sixth year presenting the WIA Demeter Award of Excellence."

Criteria for nomination includes:

Woman with a minimum of 10 years of experience in the ag and/or food industry Woman who is a positive example to other women in the industry Woman who breaks down barriers and serves as a resource for others Woman who consistently exemplifies professionalism

Nomination forms and guidelines for submissions are available on the Women in Agribusiness website. There is no limit to the number of entries, and self-nominations will be accepted as well. Nominations will be accepted through Friday, July 12, 2019.

Follow us @ Womeninagri , like us on Facebook, join our Linkedin Group.

About Women in Agribusiness

Women in Agribusiness is a business unit of HighQuest Group, a global agribusiness consulting, events and media firm. The Women in Agribusiness initiative took root in 2012, with the first conference held in Minneapolis. WIA initiatives have grown to include the WIA Membership, WIA Demeter Award of Excellence, Student Scholarships, and the WIA Quarterly Journal . Learn more at womeninag.com.

CONTACT: Michelle Pelletier Marshall

+1.978.887.8800, x117

[email protected]

SOURCE Women in Agribusiness
DUBAI, UAE, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Novo Nordisk UAE was awarded the best place to work in UAE for 2019 according to the annual Workplace program. Best Places to Work program is an international program providing employers in different countries the opportunity to learn more about the engagement and satisfaction of their employees and honor those who deliver an outstanding work experience. Additionally, The Best Places To Work certification is awarded to companies with the highest standards of excellence in regards to working conditions.

Novo Nordisk UAE is an affiliate of Novo Nordisk A/S a multinational pharmaceutical company with 97 years of innovation and leadership in diabetes. Novo Nordisk employs globally more than 42,100 people in 79 countries and markets its products in more than 170 countries. Employees in UAE rank the company high on employee conditions, workplace culture and policies recognizing the company as one of the most inspiring and rewarding places to work where people can unlock their potential and deliver value to clients.

Additionally, the company received outstanding scores across several aspects of their workplace such as leadership, satisfaction and opportunities, personal growth of the employees resulting in its recognition among the employers of choice in UAE for 2019.

"We have a high purpose as we touch many lives, treat everyone with respect, develop our people and recognize them fairly in a warm friendly atmosphere leading to a high winning and business ethics culture" mentioned Ayman Hassan, Vice President and General Manager Novo Nordisk UAE

"At Novo Nordisk we believe on doing the "right thing" in both people as well as in the way we do business! It is our Novo Nordisk Way:" said Bruno Berenguer, HR head for Novo Nordisk UAE

"The results prove once again that the employees of Novo Nordisk UAE are proud to work for the company with a workplace culture built on respect, recognition and equal opportunities" said Hamza Idrissi, Best Places to Work Program Manager for UAE

ABOUT BEST PLACES TO WORK PROGRAM

The Best Places To Work Program certifies and recognizes leading workplaces in many countries including leading programs in Africa, Europe, Middle East and Asia. The program focuses on 8 Workplace factors including workplace culture, opportunities for growth and overall employee satisfaction with the company's people practices. An HR audit is also conducted to examine HR Practices within the organization.

For more information, please visit the program website at www.bestplacestoworkfor.org

Contacts

Press: Hamza Idrissi

Email: [email protected]

Tel : +971-58-1848-857

SOURCE Best Places To Work Limited

Related Links

http://www.bestplacestoworkfor.org


"We are thrilled to introduce the first-of-its kind Professional-C Microdermabrasion Polish + Mask as an extension to our top-selling Professional-C line. This transformational product supports our commitment to innovation and advanced skin science," said Jaime Castle, President of Obagi. "At Obagi, we focus on developing effective products for everyone, regardless of their skin type, skin tone, and overall skin care concerns. Now, we can deliver more solutions to help achieve brighter, smoother skin through the power of L-absorbic acid and our unique, dual-action technology. Obagi's 30-year legacy of scientifically-driven skin care innovations will continue to develop and evolve in a way that will serve patients looking for solution-oriented products to address their skin care needs, and the new Pro-C Polish + Mask is yet another step in that direction."

This new multi-tasking polish + mask features unique, dual-action technology and is designed to exfoliate and prep your skin for the absorption of vitamin C, helping to smooth skin texture, increase radiance, and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. It is also rich in botanical skin conditioning oils to help minimize dryness and provide an instant, radiant glow. Results of a recent consumer study conducted by Obagi showed a total of 88% of participants saw immediate results when applying the new polish + mask and 98% saw lasting benefits with continued use.

"The Pro-C Polish + Mask harnesses the power of L-ascorbic acid, an ingredient that has been studied for more than 30 years, which means we can fully understand its benefits to the skin," said Laurence Dryer, Vice President, Research and Development at Obagi. "People today are looking for results they can see quickly and that provide lasting solutions to their skin care issues. This multi-tasking new formula both prepares and treats the skin all in one unique form."

The Professional-C Microdermabrasion Polish + Mask is available starting March 25, 2019 and can be purchased through professional skin care providers. To learn more, please visit www.obagi.com.

About Obagi Medical

Obagi Medical is an industry-leading, advanced skin care line formulated with scientifically proven ingredients and refined with a legacy of 30 years' experience. First known as leaders in the treatment of hyperpigmentation with the Obagi Nu-Derm System, Obagi products are designed to restore your skin's natural radiance by correcting hyperpigmentation, smoothing skin texture, diminishing the appearance of premature aging, and treating acne. For more information on Obagi, connect with the brand on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

For more information, please contact:

Julia Ballou, VegaRun

[email protected]

310.463.3029

Brittany Rayburn, VegaRun

[email protected]

617.692.0520

SOURCE Obagi Medical
NEW YORK, April 8, 2019 PRNewswire/ -- A new survey of more than 1,200 small business owners by OnDeck (NYSE: ONDK), the leader in online lending to small business, finds 37 percent of those surveyed expect the tax changes in the Federal Tax Cuts and Job Act to have a positive impact on their businesses. Forty-one percent of small businesses expect no change and 21 percent said they expected the tax cuts to have a negative impact on their business.

"The new survey from OnDeck indicates that it may be too early to truly assess the benefits of the tax changes to small businesses," said Andrea Gellert, Chief Revenue Officer, OnDeck. "The reality is that there are many types of small businesses in hundreds of different industries. The impact of the tax changes will undoubtedly be different in some of those industries."

The overall $1.5 trillion tax cut package went into effect in January 2018 and represents the biggest overhaul of the U.S. tax code in more than 30 years.

The OnDeck survey indicates that 88 percent of small business owners are continuing to invest in their businesses, with 43 percent of respondents saying they would be investing more as a result of the tax cuts, while 45 percent said they would continue to invest the same.

Snapshot: Where Are Small Business Owners Investing In 2019?

New Equipment Purchases/Leases  63 percent

Hire More People  46 percent

Pay Down Existing Debt  46 percent

Marketing and Advertising  41 percent

Opening New Locations/Refurbishing Existing Locations  18 percent

As the April 15 deadline for submitting annual tax returns for 2018 approaches, there is strong consensus among small business owners on which one of the 2018 tax changes they see as best for their businesses. Forty-seven percent of respondents said the new 20 percent qualified business income deduction would have the most positive impact. The revised depreciation method followed at 19.9 percent with expanded options for expensing business property and the business credit for small business employers who provided paid family and medical leave tied for third place at 10 percent.

The OnDeck survey also indicates that a majority of small business owners remain optimistic that the federal tax changes will help them grow their business in 2019. Fifty-two percent of respondents report being either very optimistic or somewhat optimistic the changes will help them grow this year.

Snapshot: Will Tax Changes Help You Grow Your Business in 2019?

Very Optimistic  21 percent

Somewhat Optimistic  31 percent

Neither Optimistic or Pessimistic  27 percent

Somewhat Pessimistic  12 percent

Very Pessimistic  9 percent

"With insight from the OnDeck Survey, we see continued optimism from a majority of small business owners," said Ms. Gellert. "The degree to which the federal tax changes help small businesses however remains to be seen. We need to listen closely to small businesses to understand how policy decisions in Washington and at the state level may or may not be impacting them. "

Survey Methodology

OnDeck's survey of small business owners and their opinions on the tax changes that resulted from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was conducted via email between March 21 and March 28, 2019. The survey was sent to approximately 21,000 small business owners.

About OnDeck

OnDeck (NYSE: ONDK) is the proven leader in transparent and responsible online lending to small business. Founded in 2006, the company pioneered the use of data analytics and digital technology to make real-time lending decisions and deliver capital rapidly to small businesses online. Today, OnDeck offers a wide range of term loans and lines of credit customized for the needs of small business owners. The company also offers bank clients a comprehensive technology and services platform that facilitates online lending to small business customers through ODX, a wholly-owned subsidiary. OnDeck has provided over $10 billion in loans to customers in 700 different industries across the United States, Canada and Australia. The company has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau and is rated 5 stars by Trustpilot. For more information, visit www.ondeck.com .

Media Contact:

Jim Larkin

OnDeck

[email protected]

P: 203-526-7457

Investor Contact:

Stephen Klimas

OnDeck

[email protected]

P: (646) 668-3582

SOURCE On Deck Capital, Inc.
"Cara's versatile accounting background and experience in managing finances for large corporations will be a vital asset to ORBA," said Mark Thomson, Managing Director. "We are excited to welcome her to the firm."

Prior to joining ORBA, Cara served as the Controller for Bentley's Pet Stuff located in Long Grove, IL. She also previously served as the Chief Financial Officer for Chicago Review Press, Inc., an independent publishing company. Cara earned her B.B.A. in Accounting from the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Ostrow Reisin Berk & Abrams, Ltd. (ORBA) is a full-service accounting, tax and business consulting firm located in downtown Chicago serving privately-held companies, individuals and not-for-profit organizations. ORBA's Certified Public Accountants have experience with accounting and assurance, business advisory services, financial and estate planning, fraud investigation, tax, litigation, and mergers and acquisitions. With some of the highest levels of direct client involvement in the industry, ORBA is where clients go to build long-standing, meaningful and successful relationships with resourceful, proactive business and tax advisors. For more information, visit www.orba.com .

Contact: Scott Bell

312.670.7444

[email protected]

SOURCE Ostrow Reisin Berk & Abrams, Ltd. (ORBA)

Related Links

http://www.orba.com


KOBE, Japan, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Pantene Japan, a hair-care brand of Procter & Gamble (P&G) Japan, launched the "#HairWeGo What's Wrong With My Hair" campaign. The campaign, launched on the social media, radio, video (YouTube) and newspaper advertising, calls for social dialogue around hairstyle rules in Japanese schools, which include requiring students to keep hair in low ponytails and dye their naturally brown hair black, limiting allowed styles of haircuts, requiring proof of natural hair color and more.

Representing a miniature vision of the campaign's goal, Pantene Japan created a rare opportunity for dialogue between students and teachers who have experience with Natural Hair Certificates by gathering them in a video revealed on April 8, 2019 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILNVgpCltuw). The filming provided a place to open up and share honest opinions about hair-related school rules: the questions that students never had a chance to ask, the thoughts that teachers never shared.

In connection with the campaign, part of the "HairWeGo My Hair Moves Me Forward" series, Pantene Japan surveyed 1,000 current and former students and current teachers at middle and high schools and found that a majority on both sides have doubts about hairstyle rules. As many as one in 13 current and former middle and high school students said they "have been urged to dye their naturally brown hair black," and 70 percent of teachers "have doubts" about hairstyle rules at their school. Yet, over 90 percent of students had never heard the reasons for these rules.

"News of high school students being forced to dye their hair black provided the inspiration for this campaign," explains Yoshiaki Okura, Regional Associate Brand Director, Hair Care Focused Market, at Procter & Gamble. "Hair represents one's individuality, both chosen and innate. Overly strict school rules are restricting both types and no one seems to understand why," comments Okura. "School should be a place to find one's individuality, which leads to self-confidence that carries students through their life. This is why this issue really struck a chord. Individuality and confidence are also key elements of Pantene Japan's brand philosophy, 'My hair moves me forward.' We hope that the '#HairWeGo What's Wrong With My Hair' campaign will bring attention to this issue, and provide a catalyst for dialogue that will help create a society where students are respected as individuals."

Survey results1:

https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M105175/201904035022/_prw_PI1fl_6HZkt7NI.png

Survey results2: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M105175/201904035022/_prw_PI2fl_zk9L222B.png

- Survey Methodology:

Area: Japan

Respondents: Current middle and high school students 12 to 18 years old (including proxy answers), former middle and high school students 20 to 69 years old (graduated from high school), current middle and high school teachers 23 to 69 years old, both male and female.

Method: Online survey

Period: Feb. 15 to 25, 2019

Sample size: 400 current students, 200 former students, 400 current teachers

Campaign print advertisement summary and partial translation:

https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M105175/201904035022/_prw_PI3fl_4WUb0Ow0.png

Period: March 18, 2019

Outlet: Asahi Shimbun newspaper morning edition (full-page) Download materials here: https://bit.ly/2HSeobT

Campaign video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILNVgpCltuw

#HairWeGo My Hair Moves Me Forward: "My hair moves me forward"

After its creation in 1945, haircare brand Pantene has been embraced by women the world round. Pantene aims to be a brand that constantly encourages growth under its brand philosophy "My hair moves me forward."

SOURCE Procter & Gamble Japan K.K.
BOCA RATON, Fla., April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Paul David Pope said his father, Generoso Paul "Gene" Pope Jr., would be "turning in his grave" if he saw the one-sided direction David Pecker has taken the National Enquirer.

Pope was interviewed in a special "Headliners" report on tabloid journalism that aired nationally last night on MSNBC.

Citing the one-sided pro-Trump direction American Media Inc. has taken under Pecker's command, Pope said "My father would be turning over in his grave to see what his baby has become."

Pope said Pecker has "weaponized" the National Enquirer to go after Trump detractors and advance the President's political agenda, whereas once the newspaper had a blind eye and just went after compelling stories regardless whom they involved or who won or lost.

AMI's flagship publication, the National Enquirer "made its name by breaking the rules and being unconventional," said Pope.

"My father told reporters to do whatever you have to do to get the story" like once taking a picture of Elvis Presley in his coffin or publishing a photo of Senator Gary Hart with his alleged girlfriend Donna Rice that ended his Presidential campaign.

Pope said his father redefined the landscape of American journalism just as his grandfather Generoso Pope Jr's Il Progresso newspaper changed how Italian American Immigrants were viewed in New York and helped to bring them into the mainstream of American culture.

According to Pope, his father invented a different kind of hard-hitting journalism resorting to methods to get the story frowned upon by mainstream media.

Under his leadership, it would never become the promotional arm of any one political candidate or leader as Pecker has taken the once super dominant National Enquirer.

Pope is planning a podcast on this and other subjects on behalf of a cause he is espousing called "Saving America," about which there will be more information forthcoming.

Pope recently retained the international public relations firm TransMedia Group to publicize the impact he and his family have had on journalism by creating the most influential publication in the history of the United States.

Pope cites the wealthiest man in America, Jeff Bezos, having to announce publicly "I am having an affair and I am being extorted" as evidence of how low the National Enquirer has sunk.

Media contact: Adrienne Mazzone 561-750-9800 x2270; [email protected].

SOURCE Paul David Pope
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Middle East real estate classifieds website Property Finder has signed an agreement to acquire its competitor JRD Group, a UAE-based real estate technology provider, owner of property portal Justproperty.com and Propspace, a prominent broker CRM solution used by real estate professionals.

Michael Lahyani, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Property Finder, said: "Property Finder and JRD Group share the same consumer-centric philosophy and vision of further professionalising the real estate market. The integration of our products and additional investment in JustProperty.com will provide consumers with better insights to support them in taking property buying or renting decisions."

The acquisition will also provide real estate professionals with new exciting opportunities and enable them to reach a larger audience and a broader offering of CRM, property management solutions and listing portals.

This acquisition happens only a few months after the investment by General Atlantic in Property Finder in November 2018 and is in line with the Group's strategy to expand the brand in the UAE and invest in building the best products and data information available.

Alex Nicholas and Siddharth Singh, JRD Group Founders, will stay on board and become shareholders of Property Finder.

"This is a great outcome for us after 10 years of hard work. We believe sharing synergies will offer coherence and integration in our combined tech offerings to real estate brokers and developers. We are super excited about this opportunity to enable JRD Group to develop its enterprise software products and property portals further and reach a much larger audience through the Property Finder Group network," said Nicholas, co-founder and CEO of JRD Group.

As part of the acquisition, iMENA Group will fully exit its investment in JRD Group. Khaldoon Tabaza, Founder & Managing Director of iMENA Group, said: "We are happy with the outcome of our investment in JRD Group, which further validates our thesis on the potential and ability of our region to create scalable online marketplace businesses to lead the digitalization of the key sectors of the regional economy."

This transaction comes one week after Property Finder announced increasing its stake in Zingat (the 2nd largest property portal in Turkey) to close to 40% and is expected to close after customary conditions have been met.

About Property Finder  www.propertyfinder.ae

Property Finder is the leading digital real estate platform in the Middle East and North Africa region that facilitates the house hunting journey for both buyers and renters. Founded in 2007, the website has evolved over the years as the go-to platform for developers, real estate brokerages and house hunters to make informed decisions on all things real estate.

A UAE-born startup, Property Finder has branched out of the country's shores and operates in a total of seven markets, including Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Egypt and Morocco, and has a significant stake in the second largest property portal in Turkey. Property Finder generates over six million monthly visits as a Group.

US private equity firm General Atlantic led Property Finder's latest round of investment of a total of $120 million in 2018. This is being used to hire further exceptional talent and investing in its technology and product capabilities.

The property portal employs over 450 employees globally, of which 204 people work out of its Dubai office.

About JRD Group  www.jrdgroup.com

JRD Group was founded in 2008 by Alex Nicholas and Siddharth Singh as a software enterprise dedicated passionately to innovating real estate technology. Based in Dubai, JRD Group owns and operates real estate portals across the MENA region under the JustProperty.com umbrella and a proprietary enterprise real estate software platform - PropSpace.com - for brokers, property managers and developers.

About iMENA Group  www.imena.com

iMENA Group is an investment company focused on Internet businesses in the Middle East and North Africa region. iMENA was founded in 2013 by Khaldoon Tabaza and Adey Salamin, and owns stakes in leading regional online classifieds and marketplace businesses including OpenSooq.com, SellAnyCar.com, ReserveOut, Telr, and Jeeny.

SOURCE Property Finder

Related Links

.propertyfinder.ae/


SAN MATEO, Calif, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on its exclusive license related to photoimmunotherapy, Rakuten Medical Inc., which is developing a cancer therapy to target cancer cells, announced that ASP-1929 received Sakigake designation under the Sakigake Designation System*, which is a Fast Track designation from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare as a treatment for head and neck cancer patients.

ASP-1929 qualified on all four criteria of the Sakigake Designation System: innovativeness of the product, the severity of the target condition, prominent effectiveness of the treatment, and with a plan to file the initial application first or simultaneously with others in Japan. This designation was referred for Sakigake Designation System based upon the results of analysis of a Phase I trial in Japan and a Phase I/IIa trial in the United States. The results of these studies in comparison to past data of the currently available standard treatments in a group of head and neck cancer patients suggest the potential for improved survival time.

Based on receipt of this designation, Mickey Mikitani, chairman and CEO of Rakuten Medical said, "Every day, we receive messages from many patients waiting for this treatment. To those people, I am delighted to be able to make an announcement today that brings them hope. This is a major step forward toward delivering a new treatment for head and neck cancer patients. We are aiming to get this therapy to as many patients as possible, and as soon as possible, by rigorously following the process established by the Sakigake Designation System."

ASP-1929 received Fast Track designation from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC) in the first quarter of 2018. Under the mission of Rakuten Medical, we will accelerate the development of photoimmunotherapy applying ASP-1929 to cancers of the head and neck.

*The Sakigake Designation System is the Japanese Fast Track designation which started as a national strategy and was announced by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare on June 17, 2014. The measures included the creation of this designation system for groundbreaking drugs developed in Japan and identified in the early clinical trial phase as being likely to be remarkably effective. This would offer priority examination that would reduce the length of the approval examination period before commercialization.

About Rakuten Medical

Rakuten Medical is a private biotechnology firm that is developing cancer therapies with the ability to target cancer cells, based on an exclusive license photoimmunotherapy platform in the late development phase. In line with our mission of conquering cancer, we aim to take therapies from the R&D phase to the point of delivery to patients worldwide.

About photoimmunotherapy (PIT)

Since 2013, Rakuten Medical has been developing new cancer therapies based on its PIT platform. Photoimmunotherapy combines key advantages of antibody-mediated targeting of the cancer cells to achieve high tumor specificity, together with laser-activation of a biophysical mechanism that induces rapid cancer cell death with precision. Treatments with the Photoimmunotherapy platform lead to targeted and rapid tumor cell death by necrosis, with minimal effects on normal tissue.

Rakuten Medical aims to commercialize this therapy once it has conducted clinical trials of the therapy on its own and in combination with other medications.

About ASP-1929 photoimmunotherapy

ASP-1929, a conjugate of cetuximab and IRDye 700DX, targets epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), a cancer antigen expressed in multiple types of solid tumors, including head and neck squamous cell carcinomas, esophagus, lung, colon, pancreas and other cancers. This first-in-class therapy targets cancer cells, after which the compound is locally activated with red light using a proprietary investigational laser and fiber optics. The local activation of the tumor-selective conjugate targets the tumor but not surrounding normal tissues and structures. ASP-1929 received Fast Track designation by the U. S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC).

Currently, clinical trials are underway in Japan and overseas with HNSCCs and esophageal cancer patients.

Forward-looking statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the (United States) Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that could cause Rakuten Medical's actual results and experience to differ materially from anticipated results and expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include information concerning the commercialization of services related to Rakuten Medical products such as ASP-1929 and other initiatives toward regulatory approval to be sold and marketed. These products may not successfully be granted regulatory approval to be sold and marketed, or may not be commercially successful. Forward-looking statements suggest potential profitability, efficacy and safety, and the status of the application for approval. Rakuten Medical has in some cases identified forward-looking statements by using words such as "anticipates," "believes," "hopes," "estimates," "looks," "expects," "intends," "potential," "may," "suggest," "plans," "strategizes," "likely", "will", and similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements are based upon Rakuten Medical's current beliefs. Moreover, this press release states an opinion related to clinical research data, hence the use of expressions such as "important," "notable" and "abnormal." Ongoing clinical studies involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in such statements, including uncertainty of success in regulatory approval or commercialization of ASP-1929 which may be impacted by, among other things, problems with the manufacturing process for ASP-1929, the occurrence of adverse safety events, failure to demonstrate therapeutic benefit, and the other risks and uncertainties, both reasonable and unreasonable. Rakuten Medical undertakes no obligation to release publicly the results of any revisions to any such forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect new information obtained, events or circumstances after the date of this press release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by applicable law or regulation. In the event of one or more revisions to Rakuten Medical's forward-looking statement, it should not be inferred that such revisions or other forward-looking statements will be further revised.

Please refer Rakuten Medical communications-related inquiries to [email protected].

SOURCE Rakuten Medical, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.rakuten-med.com


WASHINGTON, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) is a key source of important information about human activity on earth. Policymakers, warfighters, intelligence analysts, and first responders each use this information to make smarter decisions, keep populations safe, and protect our national security. Many Government and non-Government organizations support the collection of this information. DC-based not-for-profit Riverside Research is among the organizations proud to orchestrate GEOINT collections from satellites.

Multi-phenomenology satellite constellations allow us to understand and respond to rapidly changing environments and situations. Effectively planning space-based collections helps to make the most of every collection opportunity. That way, each satellite pass can deliver the most value to warfighters, policymakers, and first responders. "It's vital that we make the most of every collection to support missions ranging from national security to natural disaster support," says Riverside Research President and CEO, Dr. Steve Omick. "By orchestrating collections, we're looking across everyone's needs and applying value-based principles that select the most effective and efficient data source."

Riverside Research's Collection Planning Suite (CPS) is designed to do just that. As a key component of a ground architecture, CPS addresses the unique challenges of constellation orchestration across every phenomenology and classification. Using a model-based approach, the tool integrates and manages both Government and non-Government GEOINT data providers.

Recently, the organization completed a research and development effort to add Space Situation Awareness (SSA) capabilities to the CPS.

"Space is increasingly congested and contested. The ability to adapt, maneuver, and protect critical assets is essential," Omick continues. "CPS has done a fantastic job of automating and orchestrating GEOINT activities; expanding it to also serve the SSA community was a natural progression that fills a major gap in industry."

The CPS is a license-free, cloud-based product supported by multiple agencies across the community. To learn more about how this web-based tool is improving intelligence outcomes, visit riversideresearch.org.

About Riverside Research

Riverside Research is a not-for-profit organization chartered to advance scientific research for the benefit of the US government and in the public interest. Through the company's open innovation concept, they invest in multi-disciplinary research and development and encourage collaboration to accelerate innovation and advance science. Riverside Research conducts independent research in machine learning, trusted and resilient systems, optics and photonics, electromagnetics, plasma physics, and biomedical engineering. Learn more at www.riversideresearch.org.

SOURCE Riverside Research

Related Links

http://www.riversideresearch.org


STOCKHOLM, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- SCA has acquired Latvian Forest Company's forest and land assets in Latvia, in total 10 000 hectares. The price is SEK 260 million ( 26,2 million).

Latvian Forest Company owns and runs a number of forest holdings in Latvia. The assets comprise 7 600 hectares of productive forest land, 2 000 hectares of farmland and 800 hectares of other land. The standing timber volume amounts to one million cubic metres.

Some of the other land assets are also suitable for conversion to forestry.

"We have been in the Baltic states for a long time as a buyer of timber", says Jonas Martensson, President Forest."The Baltic states are a natural part of the base for our raw material supply and our operations there are strengthened by a forest asset of our own. We may well consider more acquisitions of forest land in the Baltics."

SCA acquired the subsidiaries of Latvian Forest Company that own the actual forest and land resources. The acquisition was closed on April 8 2019.

For further information, please contact:

Bjorn Lyngfelt, Vice President Group Communication, +46-60-19-34-98

Jonas Martensson, President Forest, +46-60-19-32-58

The core of SCA's business is the forest, Europe's largest private forest holding. Around this unique resource, we have built a well-developed value chain based on renewable raw material from our own and others' forests.

We offer paper for packaging and print, pulp, wood products, renewable energy, services for forest owners and efficient transport solutions.

2018 the forest products company SCA had approximately 4,000 employees and sales amounted to approximately SEK 18.8 bn (EUR 1.8 bn). SCA was founded in 1929 and has its headquarters in Sundsvall, Sweden. More information at www.sca.com.

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/sca/r/sca-acquires-10-000-hectares-of-forest-land-in-latvia,c2783878

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Main/600/2783878/1022150.pdf Press release (PDF)

SOURCE SCA
CHICAGO, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Diana Rodriguez-Zaba, founder of ServiceMaster Restoration by Zaba in Chicago, IL, has been accepted into Forbes Chicago Business Council, an invitation-only community that fosters growth and networking organization for small business owners and leaders in Greater Chicago.

Diana Rodriguez-Zaba was vetted and selected by a review committee based on the depth and diversity of her experience. Criteria for acceptance include a track record of successfully impacting business growth metrics, as well as personal and professional achievements and honors.

"We are honored to welcome Diana into the community," said Scott Gerber, founder of Forbes Councils, the collective that includes Forbes Agency Council. "Our mission with Forbes Councils is to bring together proven leaders from every industry, creating a curated, social capital-driven network that helps every member grow professionally and make an even greater impact on the business world."

As an accepted member of the council, Diana is especially focused on mentoring women who are starting up their own businesses. That commitment is reflected in her position as one of the founding members of the Women Entrepreneurs Institute at DePaul University in Chicago.

Diana's most recent achievements include recognition by Enterprising Women Magazine as their Woman of the Year Champion and ServiceMaster Restore's annual Achiever Award.

"I look forward to my participation on the Forbes Chicago Business Council. It's an exciting opportunity to share my knowledge and to learn so much from the experiences of other local business owners."

Diana sums up her expectations: "All of us on the council are uniquely positioned to make a positive difference across the entire business and social spectrum. It truly is an honor to serve."

About Diana Rodriguez-Zaba

As co-founder of ServiceMaster Restoration by Zaba, Diana is proud of her company's designation as both a Minority-Owned Business and Woman-Owned Business. For more than 10 years, she and her team have provided Chicago and the suburbs with certified water and fire damage restoration services. Diana remains strongly committed to giving back to the surrounding community both professionally and personally.

Diana can be reached by email at [email protected] or by calling ServiceMaster's headquarters at 773-647-1985.

SOURCE ServiceMaster Restoration by Zaba

Related Links

https://www.servicemasterbyzaba.com


GOLDEN, Colo., April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Silver Bullet Water Treatment, LLC ("Company") announced that its Board of Directors has chosen Bradley "Brad" Walsh as the organization's chief executive officer and board member. Brad, who previously served as Silver Bullet's chief operating officer and chief financial officer has been an enthusiastic and well trusted leader within Silver Bullet since he joined the Company.

Bradley Walsh, Silver Bullet CEO and President

Brad is a senior executive with verifiable success achieving revenue, profit, and business growth objectives in start-up, turnaround, and rapid-change environments. Brad has extensive experience with highly engineered systems, which require deep understanding of critical business drivers in multiple markets and industries. His success building relationships with upper-level decision makers, seizing control of critical problem areas, and delivering on customer commitments also was a key driver behind his appointment as CEO.

"After thorough succession planning the board is pleased to have found the best individual to assume leadership of this world-class water treatment solution organization," said Robert Fenwick-Smith, chairman of the Silver Bullet Board of Directors and founder of Aravaipa, a micro-fund with a sharp focus on Colorado-based Impact Technology companies. "Brad has a track record of strong leadership in both growing and maturing technology and manufacturing companies. This, combined with his deep knowledge of the water treatment industry, and his institutional tenure, makes Brad uniquely qualified to lead Silver Bullet into the future."

Brad characterizes his leadership philosophy as customer focused and performance-driven. Strong strategic leadership, resource alignment, and extensive knowledge in both domestic and international economic markets are Brad's keys to long-term success.

"I'm honored, and I'm grateful to the Board for the opportunity to lead this exceptional organization of dedicated and talented professionals, engineers, scientists and service providers," said Walsh. "We provide our customers innovative, custom designed and professionally engineered water treatment solutions every day. Our sustainable technologies impact not only our customers' businesses, but also the industries in which they thrive and the world beyond. This is a terrific opportunity that any leader would welcome."

Since taking the reins of Silver Bullet, Brad has reinvigorated the Company through multiple initiatives. Among others, he has expedited completion of various design changes such as intelligent pH control, remote monitoring, automated dosing and oxidant testing systems. Using his financial expertise Brad has reduced expenses, revised the Company's pricing structure to make its systems more affordable and competitive, and introduced a direct sales option to complement existing lease model to better serve customers and dealers.

Brad holds a BS in Accounting from La Salle University. Brad joined Silver Bullet Water Treatment in January 2016. He started his distinguished corporate career in 1993 and has worked for multiple Fortune 500 companies. He serves on several organizational Boards of Directors, including: Clear Comfort Water; a Denver-based charter school; and the Silver Bullet Board as the Management Representative. Brad grew up outside Philadelphia, PA and has 2 children.

About Silver Bullet Water Treatment

Established in 2011, Silver Bullet TREATS WATER BETTER through our commitment to solving our customers water quality problem through the engineering and installation of sustainable water treatment solutions and services. Our cornerstone solution is a non-hazardous, SMART advanced oxidation process (AOP) water treatment technology that simply uses the surrounding ambient air to generate a safe, mixed oxidant gas that eliminates contaminants in the water. Silver Bullet's SMART AOP system also controls an intelligent dosing/monitoring system, supplemental media filtration, UV-disinfection systems to address more challenged water situations.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Jeremy Scherr

Marketing Manager, Silver Bullet Water Treatment

[email protected]

303-500-1618

www.silverbulletcorp.com

SOURCE Silver Bullet Water Treatment
GAITHERSBURG, Md., April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Sirnaomics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of RNAi therapeutics against cancer and fibrotic diseases, today announced that the Company's management will present its platform technology and discuss the potential clinical utility of RNAi therapeutics at the World Orphan Drug Congress USA 2019 on April 10-12 in Oxon Hill, Maryland.

Presentation Title: Development of RNAi Therapeutics for Treatment of Cholangiocarcinoma (an orphan indication)

Speaker: Patrick Lu, PhD., President and Chief Executive Officer of Sirnaomics

Date & Time: April 11, 4:20 pm ET

Dr. Lu will introduce the company's leading siRNA drug candidate STP705 for treatment of cholangiocarcinoma and primary sclerosing cholangitis, both of those treatments have been designated as orphan drug indications. Sirnaomics' unique polypeptide nanoparticle (PNP) system allows efficient liver delivery beyond just hepatocyte and has a tumor microenvironment (TME) targeting property. These technical strengths enable STP705 reach to liver cell types involving in liver fibrosis progression and TME for I/O combination therapy.

For more information, please visit https://www.terrapinn.com/conference/world-orphan-drug-congress-usa/agenda.stm.

About Sirnaomics, Inc.

Sirnaomics, Inc., a leading privately held biopharmaceutical company for discovery and development of RNAi therapeutics, is a Delaware corporation headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA, with subsidiaries in Suzhou and Guangzhou, China. The Company's mission is to develop novel therapeutics to alleviate human suffering and advance patient care in areas of high unmet medical need. The guiding principles of the company are: Innovation, Global Vision with a Patient Centered focus. Members of the senior management team have a great deal of combined experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, financial, clinical and business management in both the USA and China. The company is supported by funding from institutional investors, corporate partnerships and government grants. Sirnaomics has developed a strong portfolio of intellectual property with an enriched product pipeline. The therapeutic areas of focus include oncology and anti-fibrotic therapeutics. Learn more at www.sirnaomics.com.

#Cancer #RNAi #WODCUSA #Orphandrugs #Oncology

CONTACT:

Sirnaomics, Inc.

Michael Molyneaux MD MBA

Chief Medical Officer

[email protected]

ICR Healthcare

Investors:

Stephanie Carrington

Tel: +1 646 277 1282

Email: [email protected]

Media: James Heins

Tel: +1 203 682 8251

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Sirnaomics, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.sirnaomics.com


"The challenge that brings us here today is an acute need for the development of pediatric medical devices," said Lloyd Minor, MD, dean of Stanford University School of Medicine, in his opening remarks at the event. "The consortium's mission to ensure that the latest technologies are available to allin this case our youngest patientsmirrors that of Stanford Medicine's Precision Health vision."

Each year, the FDA approves far fewer devices for children than for adults, and the timeline for ultimate approval of pediatric devices lags five to 10 years behind those for adults. In 2018, as part of a congressionally-mandated effort to stimulate the development of pediatric devices, the FDA awarded a $6.7M grant to James Wall, MD, of Stanford University School of Medicine and Michael Harrison, MD, of University of California, San Francisco to establish the UCSF-Stanford PDC.

"Our FDA-funded PDC has been active for nearly a decade, and we are thrilled to continue this work in partnership with Stanford," said Michael Harrison, MD, Professor Emeritus of Surgery at UCSF and Principal Investigator of the UCSF-Stanford PDC. "As evidenced by the pitches and overall interest in our program, there are many innovators eager to address pediatric clinical needs, and we are here to support them every step of the way."

Each finalist had the chance to win up to $50,000 in seed funding, prototyping support, and customized advising. The judges recognized the startups that showcased breakthroughs that could help accelerate the next generation of pediatric medical devices. The companies receiving funding include the following:

PLATINUM AWARD$50,000 direct device funding from UCSF-Stanford Pediatric Device Consortium

Bionic TotButton Huggie: Gastrostomy button securement device

Gravitas MedicalOptimizing enteral feeding, placement, and nutrition

PalmmBioelectronic device to stop excessive sweating

UCSF BENIOFF CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL AWARD$50,000

David Conrad , MD, University of California , San FranciscoBeacon: A wireless tracheostomy alarm and respiratory monitoring system

STANFORD MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH RESEARCH INSTITUTE AWARD$50,000

David Camarillo , PhD, Stanford UniversityMiG2.0: Instrumented mouthguard for assessment of mild traumatic brain injury in youth contact sports

The UCSF-Stanford PDC aims to improve the health, safety, and quality of life of pediatric patients by accelerating high-value, high-impact pediatric device solutions at all stages of the total product lifecycle toward commercialization. "For Stanford Children's Health, innovation is central to delivering extraordinary care, serving our academic mission, and fueling breakthrough discoveries," said Paul King, president and CEO of Stanford Children's Health and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford. "Collaborating with UCSF and across industries puts us at the forefront of some of the more daunting challenges in pediatric health care." The PDC also leverages the experience and network of the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign in the overall development of health technologies to bring pediatric devices to market.

Additional awards went to Amnion Life, Smileyscope, Eclipse Enterogenesis, CereVu Medical, KIT Bio, and Eko. For more information on the competition, visit the consortium's site here.

About Stanford Children's Health Pediatric Innovation Showcase

Taking place on the Stanford University campus, the annual Innovation Showcase brings together innovators, researchers, clinicians, and industry experts to explore and showcase the innovative pediatric technologies being developed at Stanford Children's Health and beyond. For more information on the event, contact [email protected]

About Stanford Children's Health and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford

Stanford Children's Health, with Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford at its center, is the Bay Area's largest health care system exclusively dedicated to children and expectant mothers. As a top-ranked children's hospital by U.S. News & World Report, we are a leader in providing world-class, nurturing care and achieving extraordinary outcomes in every pediatric and obstetric specialty. Stanford Children's Health provides everything from specialty care to general pediatrics and can be accessed through more than 60 locations across Northern California and 100 locations in the U.S. western region. As the pediatric and obstetric teaching hospital for the world-renowned Stanford University School of Medicine, we're cultivating the next generation of medical professionals and are at the forefront of scientific research to improve children's health outcomes around the world. We are a nonprofit organization committed to supporting the community through meaningful outreach programs and services and providing necessary medical care to families, regardless of their ability to pay. Discover more at http://stanfordchildrens.org.

About Stanford Medicine

Stanford Medicine integrates research, medical education, and health care at its three institutionsStanford University School of Medicine, Stanford Health Care (formerly Stanford Hospital & Clinics), and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford. For more information, please visit the Office of Communication & Public Affairs site at http://mednews.stanford.edu.

Media contact:

Samantha Beal

[email protected]

(650) 498-7056

SOURCE Stanford Childrens Health
"We must be ready to dare all for our country. For history does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid. We must acquire proficiency in defense and display stamina in purpose." - President Eisenhower, First Inaugural Address
DALLAS, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- It is with great sadness that the Sudanese American Physicians Association mourns the death of at least six confirmed people shot by al-Bashir's security forces during the last wave of protests against the current dictatorial regime in Sudan.

The total number of casualties is heavily disputed, as the government will not release an official report, but it is estimated to have already exceeded thousands with at least sixty people killed, six of them in the last two days according to the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors.

For the past four months the al-Bashir regime has continued to stifle and suffocate the peaceful demonstrations with unrestrained violence, including -but not limited to- the use of live ammunition against defenseless and peaceful protesters.

This revolution is becoming a bloody one.

There have been wide reports of government militias breaking into homes, in the middle of the night and under the cover of darkness, with no identification, charges or warrants, assaulting unarmed families and making mass arrests. Video footage confirms that tear gas has been thrown into hospitals where patients were receiving urgent medical care. Political activists are being kidnapped left, right and center. A state of emergency has been declared. No one has been spared from the madness; women, children, students, patients, even, doctors on the job have been targeted by the regime. This is domestic terrorism, plain and simple.

As this letter is being written, hundreds of thousands of people, continue to gather before the National Army Headquarters in Khartoum, virtually transforming it into a second reenactment of Egypt's anti-Mubarak's Tahrir Square. Young and old, rich and poor, educated and unlettered, Sudanese people have rallied, in response to a Call to Arms by the architects of the revolution: the Sudanese Professionals Association. They have assembled peacefully to protest this cancer of a regime, this dictatorial tyranny that has ruled for 30 years with a savage brutality and unembarrassed corruption that has brought the nation to its knees. The people categorically demand that President Omar Al-Bashir and his administration step down immediately and make way for a transitional government that honors the wishes and the dignity of the Sudanese people.

This is a human issue worthy of our attention and our support.

We, the Sudanese American Physicians Association, call upon our honorable elected officials and fellow citizens of the United States of America to lend their voices to ours.

With urgency, we call upon the Trump Administration and the Congress of the United States of America to:

- Categorically condemn the killing of peaceful protesters by the Al-Bashir regime and demand an international judicial investigation on all the lives lost to the senseless violence.

- Demand that Khartoum immediately and unequivocally release all political prisoners and allow Sudanese citizens to exercise their right to peacefully protest.

- Support liberty, justice, democracy and the peaceful transition of power to a transitional government that will comply with the wishes of the Sudanese people.

We understand that the fate of this regime, will only be decided by the sheer and insurmountable will of the Sudanese people themselves.

The global community has remained blissfully silent, for four long months, as the suffering and strife of our people in the face of grave injustice, has gone unnoticed and underreported in the global media. Dr. Martin Luther King once powerfully said, "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." This silence speaks volumes and legitimizes this dictator in power.

It is high time for the international community, led by the United States, to stop legitimizing a failed regime, that has long been since delegitimized by the very people it holds captive: its own citizens. The Sudanese people have the right to self-determination.

Our silence is our complicity.

The time to act is now.

More innocent lives can and will be lost.

There is a very real risk that the country may descend into further chaos and carnage if the United Stated does not intervene.

As conscious American citizens, we have done our part by bringing this to your attention. As statesmen, lawmakers and media, we depend on you to do yours.

Contact:

Yasir Elamin

+1 346 874 8221

[email protected]

SOURCE Sudanese American Physicians Association
"I lost my close friend of 22 years to depression on June 1st, 2015. Johnnie was only 38. Suicide is the 4th leading cause of death in RI for ages 35-54. Johnnie was the true definition of a friend- someone who is by your side and never leaves your side and definition of a brother-one related to another by common ties or interest. I cannot bring my friend Johnnie back but what I can do is make it my life mission to make mental health a priority and to make a difference in his memory," said Missy Ames AFSP Rhode Island Chapter Board Co-Chair.

The AFSP Rhode Island State Capitol Day is a special day for all who have a connection with or a personal story around the topic of suicide. Volunteers will meet with their state legislators and share their stories about why they participate in this advocacy effort, giving a human face to this important public health problem. Advocates hope that by sharing their stories, they will help legislators understand that state investments in mental health and suicide prevention can save lives.

AFSP Rhode Island advocates are part of a larger national movement of AFSP volunteer advocates who will be visiting over 40 state capitols across the United States in 2019 to bring best practices in suicide prevention to state legislators and their staff. To learn more about AFSP's advocacy efforts, visit here: https://afsp.org/our-work/advocacy/.

On average, 129 Americans died by suicide each day in 2017, and upwards of 90% of those individuals had a diagnosable mental health condition at the time of their death. AFSP volunteers will urge state lawmakers to be the voice for the thousands of Rhode Island residents affected by suicide each year.

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is dedicated to saving lives and bringing hope to those affected by suicide. AFSP creates a culture that's smart about mental health through education and community programs, develops suicide prevention through research and advocacy, and provides support for those affected by suicide. Led by CEO Robert Gebbia and headquartered in New York, with a Public Policy Office in Washington, D.C. AFSP has local chapters in all 50 states with programs and events nationwide. Learn more about AFSP in its latest Annual Report, and join the conversation on suicide prevention by following AFSP on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

SOURCE American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

Related Links

http://www.afsp.org


"More people across the country are beginning to understand and address suicide as a major public health issue. I have been inspired to do everything in my power to amplify the voices of the thousands of Michigan residents affected by suicide each year. Advocating for suicide prevention and mental health through AFSP gives me a unique opportunity to let our elected officials know that more needs to be done and suicide is preventable," said Jim Adams, AFSP Michigan Chapter Co-Chair.

Advocates will be meeting with legislators to ask for support of: SB 41 requiring the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services to develop a Mental Health First Aid training course for Michigan educators; SB 228 establishing a suicide prevention commission within the legislative council; and HB 4051 creating the Michigan CARES (Community, Access, Resources, Education & Safety) hotline to provide 24/7 phone, text, and chat service for individuals in crisis or in need of mental health, suicide prevention, and substance use services.

The Michigan State Capitol Day is a special day for all who have a connection with or a personal story around the topic of suicide. Volunteers will meet with their state legislators and share their stories about why they participate in this advocacy effort, giving a human face to this important public health problem. Advocates hope that by sharing their stories, they will help legislators understand that state investments in mental health and suicide prevention can save lives.

AFSP Michigan advocates are part of a larger national movement of AFSP volunteer advocates who will be visiting over 40 state capitols across the United States in 2019 to bring best practices in suicide prevention to state legislators and their staff. To learn more about AFSP's advocacy efforts, visit here: https://afsp.org/our-work/advocacy/.

On average, 129 Americans died by suicide each day in 2017, and upwards of 90% of those individuals had a diagnosable mental health condition at the time of their death. AFSP volunteers will urge state lawmakers to be the voice for the thousands of Michigan residents affected by suicide each year.

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is dedicated to saving lives and bringing hope to those affected by suicide. AFSP creates a culture that's smart about mental health through education and community programs, develops suicide prevention through research and advocacy, and provides support for those affected by suicide. Led by CEO Robert Gebbia and headquartered in New York, with a Public Policy Office in Washington, D.C. AFSP has local chapters in all 50 states with programs and events nationwide. Learn more about AFSP in its latest Annual Report, and join the conversation on suicide prevention by following AFSP on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

SOURCE American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

Related Links

http://www.afsp.org


PHILADELPHIA, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital commerce consulting firm SUMO Heavy Industries today announced the opening of its new headquarters in the Old City district of Philadelphia. Founded in 2010 by local entrepreneurs Bart Mroz and Bob Brodie, the new office marks SUMO Heavy's return to its roots in the "City of Brotherly Love," having previously moved its headquarters to New York City for the past six years.

"I love the hustle and bustle of NYC but Philly has always been home to not only myself but also the SUMO brand," said Bart Mroz, co-founder and CEO of SUMO Heavy. "As we ramp up for growth over the next 12 months, we had an opportunity to consolidate our co-working offices and build our first dedicated office. This is a huge milestone for us and we're really excited to be back in the city that gave us our start."

The new office is located in the Creative Arts building, just off 2nd Street in the heart of Old City, which is widely regarded as one of the most important places in American history. Known for its vibrant arts scene with many restaurants, art galleries, and monthly First Friday events, the area's unique blend of culture and history make it an ideal location for local businesses to draw inspiration. The building is adjacent to the Arden Theatre Company and the historic Christ Church, which was founded in 1695.

The office's open floor plan will allow SUMO Heavy to add desks to accommodate the company's growing team, as well as provide ample space for project collaboration. The industrial style loft space features high ceilings, exposed brick, and large windows with views of Old City. Clients and guests can enjoy the office's spacious lounge area, while team members have daily access to a fully-fitted kitchen, a full bathroom complete with a shower, a separate private conference room, as well as a washer and dryer.

The office also features a professional podcast studio where Mroz and John Suder, SUMO's creative director, record their popular retail and tech-focused podcast series The eCommerce Minute .

Mroz adds, "We've been working out of co-working spaces since the beginning, which is great for early-stage businesses because they offer flexibility and tons of amenities, but we're now entering a new stage of the company. Besides, nothing beats having your own place with your name on the door."

In addition to a new office, SUMO Heavy has also launched an updated website, which will allow the firm to better showcase its services, as well as share company news and industry insights on a regular basis.

Since launching in 2010, SUMO Heavy's diverse team of strategists, consultants, designers and developers has helped e-commerce retailers build successful brands and create online retail solutions with proven results. In the coming year, the company will continue to serve its existing clientele, as well as take on a variety of new projects and strike new partnerships with businesses local to the Philadelphia area.

About SUMO Heavy

SUMO Heavy Industries is a Philadelphia-based digital commerce consulting firm founded in 2010 by Bart Mroz and Bob Brodie. The SUMO team is comprised of experienced strategists, consultants, designers, and developers who work together to help build successful brands and create online retail solutions with proven results.

For more information, please visit: www.sumoheavy.com

SOURCE SUMO Heavy

Related Links

http://www.sumoheavy.com


SAN DIEGO, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Susan G. Komen San Diego will present the More Than Pink Individual Award to Mary Jean Anderson, owner/president of Anderson Plumbing, Heating & Air at the More Than Pink Dinner on Thursday, April 11, 2019 at the Hyatt Regency La Jolla.

According to Shaina Gross, President and CEO of Susan G. Komen San Diego, "The More Than Pink Award is presented to an individual who has made a significant contribution to the fight against breast cancer. Mary Jean Anderson has supported our local efforts for nearly 10 years as a major sponsor of the Race for the Cure and underwriter of our marketing efforts. We are very excited to thank her publicly for her support over the years."

"I'm named after my grandmother Mary and my aunt Jean, both of whom had breast cancer. So, Susan G. Komen's efforts here in San Diego are very near and dear to me and my family. I am humbled by this recognition and so very grateful to Komen," said Anderson.

The More Than Pink Dinner will bring together over 350 attendees demonstrating what it means to be More Than Pink. The program will showcase Marti Emerald, former City Councilwoman and breast cancer survivor, interviewing Lilian Vanvieldt-Gray, Komen San Diego's honorary breast cancer survivor and her physician, Dr. Siavash Jabbari, Radiation Oncology Director, Laurel Amtower Cancer Institute and Neuro-Oncology Center at Sharp Memorial Hospital. Guests will have the opportunity to walk through a survivor's journey, while getting the unique dual perspective of both patient and physician.

Boxer Capital will also be honored with the More Than Pink Corporate Award and attendees will include business leaders in San Diego's biotech and life science industries, executive level hospital administrators, healthcare and wellness professionals, medical professionals, local philanthropists, elected officials and people whose lives have been impacted by or are passionate about the fight against breast cancer.

Anderson Plumbing, Heating & Air has served more than 500,000 San Diego residential and commercial customers since 1978. Services include plumbing, heating and air conditioning, sewer and drains, pipe lining, water filtration, indoor air quality and more including 24-hour emergency service. Visit andersonpha.com for more info.

Contact:

Mary Jean Anderson

[email protected]

619.726.6304

SOURCE Anderson Plumbing, Heating & Air

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LAKEWOOD, Colo., April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- William Howard Taft University emphasizes high quality education that is affordable and approachable for working professionals through regular tuition grants and flexible independent study.

Every year, Taft University receives numerous applications from passionate educators and educational administrators for our Duthoy Scholarships. This year, we are excited to announce the 19th Annual Dr Roger J Duthoy Scholarship Program, including four different scholarships towards our Doctor of Education (EdD) degree programs.

One winner will receive a full ride scholarship for any of our EdD programs, one winner will receive 75% off tuition, and two winners will receive 50% off tuition.

Taft University offers three Doctor of Education concentrations: Leadership & Management, Technology & Leadership, and Charter School Administration. All of Taft's programs are offered 100% online in a flexible independent study format that allows students to complete work at their own pace from anywhere in the world. Our faculty members offer one-on-one attention and have extensive experience in the field of education.

Additional information about Taft University, our degree programs, or application procedures and requirements can be found on our website at www.Taft.edu or by contacting Ni and Megan in Admissions at 877-894-TAFT (8238) or [email protected].

Applications are now being accepted for the scholarship program and must be received by May 15, 2019 in order to be considered. For a full list of requirements and necessary documents for the scholarship's application process, please visit the post on our website.

About William Howard Taft University:

For over four decades William Howard Taft University (www.taft.edu) has offered distance learning graduate degree programs in business, education, and taxation to students throughout the world. Taft University is nationally accredited by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC). The DEAC is recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) and is listed by the U.S. Department of Education as a recognized accrediting agency.

Contact:

Ni & Megan

303-867-1155

[email protected]

SOURCE William Howard Taft University

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WASHINGTON, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- A redevelopment plan for a Cincinnati site presented by a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University has taken top honors in the 2019 Urban Land Institute (ULI) Hines Student Competition, an ideas competition that provides graduate students the opportunity to devise a comprehensive design and development scheme for a large-scale site in an urban area. Members of the winning team won a prize of $50,000 at the conclusion of the competition in Cincinnati on April 4. The finalist teams, one from the University of Cincinnati and two from the University of Texas at Austin, each will receive $10,000.

This year's competition involved the redevelopment of a site in Cincinnati comprising portions of a highway, the central business district, and the downtown riverfront along the Ohio River. The teams were tasked with evaluating the potential to deck the highway and combine it with adjacent parcels, with the ultimate goal being to connect the parcels and create a vibrant, pedestrian-oriented, sustainable, mixed-use neighborhood. The assignment, designed to simulate an actual design, planning and development scenario, was based on Cincinnati's vision for improving the linkage between the downtown and its riverfront and transforming the entire area into a lively place for both residents and visitors.

The four teams that advanced to the final round of the competition were chosen from 90 teams representing more than 40 universities in the United States and Canada. Team proposals were required to illustrate innovative approaches to five general elements: 1) planning context and analysis, 2) a master land use plan, 3) urban design, 4) site-specific illustrations of new development, and 5) development schedule and finances.

The winning scheme from the MIT-Harvard team, "The Cincy.Stitch," repositions a pivotal stretch of waterfront not as the city's edge, but as the center of a connected region. Through four threads -- culture + history, public realm, transportation, and new economies -- the proposal strategically expands the site and creates connections to break down barriers across geography and time. Together, these four threads weave an urban tapestry rich in history but geared to the future; a 24-hour neighborhood bustling with city dwellers, and a center for new commerce that connects citizens across the region socially and physically.

"The jury was impressed with all of the teams in terms of the completeness of their presentations, the creativity, and all of the thought that went into their proposals," said ULI Hines Student Competition Jury Chairman and longtime ULI Foundation Governor Alex J. Rose. "The MIT-Harvard team stood out because it demonstrated the greatest cohesiveness by an interdisciplinary team to solve an urban challenge requiring multiple disciplines," said Rose, senior vice president of Continental Development Corporation in El Segundo, California. "The team had a very clear strategy, an achievable plan, a clear and creative financial model, and a presentation that strongly supported and illustrated their plan."

The MIT-Harvard team was comprised of Joshua Brooks, master of city planning, MIT (team leader); Shiqi Peng, master of finance, MIT; Alan Sage, master of city planning, MIT; Zhicheng Xu, master of architecture, MIT; and Matthew Macchietto, master of landscape architecture, Harvard. "All of us, in our approach to urban design, planning, finance, architecture and landscape architecture, really think of cities as human habitat," Brooks said. "City building is something we consider as a calling, not just a profession. As we embarked on this assignment, we wanted to take a position on what we think cities should be, and our proposal does that."

The ULI Hines Student Competition was created with a generous endowment from longtime ULI leader Gerald D. Hines, founder of the Hines real estate organization. "We look forward to this competition every year and seeing these bright young people come forth with outstanding ideas and projects to improve our cities," Hines said. "The interdisciplinary approach and the tight deadlines give aspiring students a glimpse into what the real estate business is actually like. They are the future of the built environment."

The finalist teams and development schemes:

"The ANCHOR" from the University of Cincinnati  The ANCHOR not only bridges the riverfront to downtown but binds the region. Promoting current and proposed transportation infrastructure, the ANCHOR becomes a place of convergence. The ANCHOR serves as a critical base for industries that endorse start-up innovation, creativeness, and wellness on a regional scale. It expands the riverfront by constructing significant resilience strategies in the development of pedestrian thoroughfares and an extension of the river trail. The scheme envisions a destination with a user-centric focus that was created through collaboration that is regional in scope.

The ANCHOR not only bridges the riverfront to downtown but binds the region. Promoting current and proposed transportation infrastructure, the ANCHOR becomes a place of convergence. The ANCHOR serves as a critical base for industries that endorse start-up innovation, creativeness, and wellness on a regional scale. It expands the riverfront by constructing significant resilience strategies in the development of pedestrian thoroughfares and an extension of the river trail. The scheme envisions a destination with a user-centric focus that was created through collaboration that is regional in scope. "Cincinnati United" from the University of Texas at Austin  Cincinnati United provides a 21 st century gateway into the city by reimagining a historically divisive edge as a welcoming threshold. While honoring the past, it also defines a future focused on diversity and collaboration. A new cultural hub, Freedom Hall, integrates closely with the existing Freedom Center and a dynamic new boardwalk, as well as a repositioned riverfront. Simultaneously, a mixed-use development strategy bridges to downtown and descends into a lively riverfront village.

 Cincinnati United provides a 21 century gateway into the city by reimagining a historically divisive edge as a welcoming threshold. While honoring the past, it also defines a future focused on diversity and collaboration. A new cultural hub, Freedom Hall, integrates closely with the existing Freedom Center and a dynamic new boardwalk, as well as a repositioned riverfront. Simultaneously, a mixed-use development strategy bridges to downtown and descends into a lively riverfront village. "The Landing" from the University of Texas at Austin  The Landing reconnects the central business district with the Ohio River waterfront along a spine of active civic spaces. The development offers dense urban living and outdoor amenities that support an ecologically sensitive landscape with a restored riparian waterfront. With longevity in mind, The Landing takes on a progressive approach to investing in a district-wide eco infrastructure early on, which increases savings and augments the goal for a carbon-neutral Cincinnati .

The competition jury consisted of renowned experts representing a strategic mix of land use professionals, including developers, architects, urban designers, urban planners, investment bankers and financial analysts. In addition to Jury Chairman Rose, members of the jury are: Clete J. Benken, partner, MKSK, Covington, Kentucky; Andre Brumfield, Urban Strategies & Design Leader, principal, Gensler, Chicago; Merrie S. Frankel, president, Minerva Realty Consultants, LLC, New York City; Suzette Goldstein, director of planning, HOK, Washington, D.C.; Richard M. Gollis, co-founder and principal, The Concord Group, LLC, Newport Beach, California; Steven T. Kenat, principal and director of community development, GBBN, Cincinnati; Robert C. Lieber, executive managing director, C-III Capital Partners, New York City; Stephen P. Navarro, president & chief executive officer, The Furman Co., Inc., Greenville, South Carolina; Kevin Riley, chief operating officer and partner, North American Properties, Cincinnati; Lori Singleton, vice president and corporate design director, Smith Group, Ann Arbor, Michigan; and Charles L. Thomas, vice president and director, real estate equity investments, Eagle Realty Group, Cincinnati.

The diversity of the entries reflected "interesting, creative and critical thinking," noted Navarro. "The students bring an unabashed, 'forget-about-the-barriers' perspective, and it is interesting to parse through the proposals to see what can work. The Hines program gives us the opportunity to see what the education system is doing in terms of sowing the seeds for the future of our industry."

"The ULI Hines Student Competition is interesting because the students are tasked with creating a plan to redevelop an actual site," Frankel said. "It encompasses design, development, finance, sustainability  all facets students need to consider to produce a viable project, and it is fascinating to see how they integrate all of these into their proposals in addition to the live-work-play concept." Frankel noted that the multidisciplinary composition of the jury is tremendously helpful in ensuring that all aspects of each proposal are given due consideration. "We were all drawing upon our different strengths to pull out the salient points in each submission," she said.

The program is part of an ongoing ULI effort to raise interest among young people in creating better communities and improving urban development patterns, as well as increase awareness among students of the need for interdisciplinary solutions to development and design challenges. The competition is strategically structured to encourage cooperation and teamworknecessary talents in the planning, design, and development of sustainable communitiesamong future land use professionals and allied professions, such as architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, historic preservation, engineering, real estate development, finance, psychology, and law. It is open to graduate students who are pursuing real estaterelated studies, including programs in real estate development, urban planning, urban design, architecture, and landscape architecture. Since its creation in 2002, the ULI Hines Student Competition has been offered in North America; however, ULI is seeking to expand it to universities abroad.

About the Urban Land Institute

The Urban Land Institute is a nonprofit education and research institute supported by its members. Its mission is to provide leadership in the responsible use of land and in creating and sustaining thriving communities worldwide. Established in 1936, the institute has more than 43,000 members worldwide representing all aspects of land use and development disciplines. For more information, please visit uli.org or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

SOURCE Urban Land Institute

Related Links

http://www.uli.org


AUSTIN, Texas, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Texas Economic Development Corporation today welcomes a new Board of Directors, appointed by Governor Greg Abbott. The organization, which markets Texas globally as a premier business destination, would like to thank the members of its outgoing board for their service: Chair Sanjiv Yajnik, president of financial services, Capital One Financial Corporation; Vice Chair Mark Griffin, president and general counsel, Rip Griffin Truck Service Center; Secretary Nancy Windham, president and CEO, Texas Forest Country Partnership; Treasurer Steve Head, chancellor, Lone Star College; Mike Rollins, president and CEO, Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce; and Alex Meade, city manager, City of Pharr, who departed the board in 2017.

"Our work over the last several years would not have been possible without the leadership of our outgoing board members," said Robert Allen, president and CEO of Texas Economic Development Corporation (TxEDC). "We thank them sincerely for their efforts to elevate the Texas economy, both in their current roles as business leaders and economic developers, and in their work with TxEDC."

To serve as the new Texas Economic Development Corporation Board of Directors, Governor Greg Abbott has appointed J. Pat Hickman, Vicki Hollub, Woody Hunt, Jim Lentz, Drayton McLane, Jr., Abid Neemuchwala, Scott Prochazka, and Bryan Sheffield, for terms to expire at the pleasure of the Governor. Additionally, the Governor named McLane chair and Hollub vice chair of the board.

"It is my great honor to welcome a new Governor-appointed Board of Directors to Texas Economic Development Corporation," Allen said. "We believe this powerful group of dynamic individuals will help to make us even more competitive, as an organization, and as a state."

J. Pat Hickman of Canyon is chairman and CEO of Happy Bancshare, Inc. He previously served as chairman and vice chairman of the Independent Bankers Association of Texas (IBAT), director of the IBAT Education Foundation, and as chairman of IBAT Services. He is a former member of the Texas Department of Banking Commissioners Council, the Independent Community Bankers of America Government Affairs and Education Committee, and the Independent Community Bankers of America Federal Legislative Committee. Additionally, he is a member of the Amarillo Community Prayer Breakfast Committee, Texas Tech Foundation Board of Directors, and the West Texas A&M University Executive Advisory Committee and chairman of the Faith City Mission Chairman of Capital Campaign. He is former chairman and vice chairman of the United Way of Amarillo and Canyon and a former member of the Canyon Main Street Economic Development Committee. Hickman studied marketing at Texas Tech University.

Vicki Hollub is president and CEO of Occidental Petroleum, an international oil and gas exploration and production company, and one of the largest U.S. oil and gas companies based on equity market capitalization. She joined Occidental's Board of Directors in 2015. During her 35-year career with Occidental, she has held management and technical positions in the United States, Russia, Venezuela and Ecuador. She has extensive operations and leadership experience and, most recently, was president and COO, overseeing oil and gas, chemical and midstream operations. She serves on the boards of Lockheed Martin, the American Petroleum Institute and Khalifa University for Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi. She is the U.S. chair for the U.S.-Colombia Business Council and a member of the World Economic Forum and the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative. Hollub received a Bachelor of Science in mineral engineering the University of Alabama. She was inducted into the University of Alabama College of Engineering 2016 class of Distinguished Engineering Fellows.

Woody Hunt of El Paso is senior chairman of Hunt Companies, Inc. He is a member of the Complete College America Board of Directors and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Board of Visitors, a trustee of the Texas Higher Education Foundation, and founding chairman and board member of the Borderplex Alliance in El Paso. He is a member and former chairman of the Texas Business Leadership Council, vice chairman for Texas Aspires and the Council for Regional Economic Expansion and Educational Development, and an advisory director for WestStar Bank. Additionally, he is former chairman of the Texas Higher Education Strategic Planning Committee and The University of Texas Investment Management Company Board of Directors, former vice chairman of The University of Texas System Board of Regents, and was founding chairman and a board member of the Medical Centers of the Americas Foundation in El Paso. Hunt received a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance and a Master of Business Administration from The University of Texas at Austin and a Master of Arts in management from the Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University.

Jim Lentz of Westlake is the CEO of Toyota Motor North America. In this role, Lentz oversees all business for Toyota's North America region, including Manufacturing, Research and Development, Sales, Marketing, Product Support and Corporate Resources. He is a member and former chairman of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, secretary of The Association of Global Automakers, and a member of the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation Advisory Board. Additionally, he is a member of the University of Denver Executive Advisory Board and the Dallas Stars Advisory Board. Lentz received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Denver.

Drayton McLane, Jr. of Temple is chairman of the McLane Group. He is board chairman of Texas Central Partners, board member emeritus of the Baylor University Board of Regents, and a board member for the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library Foundation, Baylor Scott & White Healthcare Board of Trustees, Cooper Institute, and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Board of Visitors. Additionally, he is a member of the Baylor College of Medicine Board of Trustees, board director of Happy State Bank, and a board member of the Heart of Texas Defense Alliance. McLane received a Bachelor of Business Administration from Baylor University and a Master of Business Administration from Michigan State University.

Abid Neemuchwala of Coppell is CEO and board director of Wipro Limited. He is a board member of the DFW World Affairs Council. Neemuchwala received a bachelor's degree in electronics and communication from NIT, Raipur, India, and a master's degree in industrial management from IIT Mumbai, India.

Scott Prochazka of Houston is president and CEO of CenterPoint Energy. He is the incoming chairman of the American Gas Association and a board member of Edison Electric Institute and the Electric Power Research Institute. He is a former board member of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and former chairman of Texas Gas Association, Gridwise Alliance, and the Southeastern Electric Exchange. He is chairman of Central Houston Inc. and a board member of the Greater Houston Partnership, Junior Achievement-Houston, United Way of Houston, and the Kinder Institute. Prochazka received a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from The University of Texas at Austin.

Bryan Sheffield of Austin is the executive chairman of Parsley Energy, Inc. Sheffield founded Parsley in 2008 and quickly set the stage for the successful growth of the publicly-traded independent oil and gas company. He is a member of the Texas Business Leadership Council and serves on the board of the Greater Austin Crime Commission. Sheffield received a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance from Southern Methodist University.

These appointments are subject to Senate confirmation.

About Texas Economic Development Corporation (TxEDC)

Texas Economic Development Corporation is an independently funded and operated 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to economic development, business recruitment and job creation in the State of Texas. The public-private partnership markets Texas as a premier business destination to let corporate decision makers and site selection consultants know that they can Go Big in Texas. For more information about TxEDC, visit www.GoBigInTexas.com.

SOURCE Texas Economic Development Corporation
WASHINGTON, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Longtime national partners The CarMax Foundation and KaBOOM! are providing six life-size creative play sets to community organizations that serve military families during the "Week of Play" from April 8-12, 2019. The partners will host six community events across the country during "Week of Play" to make play more accessible to kids of veterans and active duty service members. The "Week of Play" takes place each year during April, which is designated as the Month of the Military Child and was established to bring awareness to the important role kids play in the armed forces community. The partners kicked off this month's activities on April 3 by working with the City of San Antonio Parks and Recreation to build a new community playground at Kennedy Park, located in a community with a large military family population. Through this partnership, The CarMax Foundation, KaBOOM! and community organizations will make it easier for area kids of military families to explore, create and connect through play.

Many kids experience significant emotional impact when a parent deploys or returns home from military service, or when they move locations frequently. According to Blue Star Families' annual Military Family Lifestyle Survey, impacts of deployment on kids continues to be a top issue for both service members and military spouses. When kids face uncertainty or stress, play creates a safe buffer against the change or adversity around them. A vast majority, 96% of military family respondents, feel that "working with neighbors to improve communities is important" but nearly half, "48% of military family respondents, feel they don't belong in their local civilian community; and yet 43% feel they don't belong in their military community."

At the playground project, The CarMax Foundation, KaBOOM!, and the City of San Antonio brought hundreds of volunteers together to build a new playground in just six hours. The playground was designed based on local kids' drawings of their dream playgrounds at a special event hosted at Winston Elementary School. This new playground will help to serve all families living in the Thompson neighborhood. Many families in this community have expressed that while their experience moving to San Antonio has been positive, they are still seeking additional community support to make the transition easier on their kids.

"CarMax associates are deeply committed to supporting military communities and we're proud to partner with KaBOOM! to make playspaces more accessible to children of military families across the country," said Matt Aman, president of The CarMax Foundation. "As a veteran, I personally know the stress military families are under and how important play can be. When you are deployed and away from your family, knowing that they are happy, healthy, and supported in the community allows you to focus on the mission."

The CarMax Foundation has provided the majority of the funding for the playgrounds and creative play sets through its national partnership with KaBOOM!, supporting The Foundation's commitment to furthering the cause of kids' healthy living. Through a multiyear national partnership with KaBOOM!, The CarMax Foundation will help create more play opportunities for 170,000 more kids by 2021  a $4.4 million investment that will serve thousands of kids. The CarMax Foundation supports KaBOOM! in ensuring that all kids get the play they need to thrive.

"Opportunities to play are an essential part of childhood and help kids develop resiliency and grit, as they fall and pick themselves up," said James Siegal, CEO of KaBOOM!. "We're thrilled to continue our long-standing partnership with The CarMax Foundation and this focused commitment to supporting our military community. Through our work, we have seen that when kids experience stress or transition in their lives, play often provides a creative outlet to help them cope, and can restore normalcy and stability. We know this is particularly true for kids who move often or have deployed parents, and are looking forward to working with community partners to create more opportunities for kids to experience the healing power of play."

During the "Week of Play", the six grants for creative play sets, Imagination Playground and Rigamajig, will be provided to the following child-serving non-profits that span across the country:

Belleaire Elementary School in Bellevue, NE -

Rigamajig Kids Rank in Highland Park, IL -

Rigamajig Bridge Creek Elementary School in Elgin, SC -

Imagination Playground New Hanover Township School in Wrightstown, NJ

Rigamajig Child Crisis Center of El Paso -

Rigamajig Tinker Elementary School in Oklahoma City, OK

Rigamajig

Each grantee is celebrating the receipt of the play sets through community events. Imagination Playground empowers kids to build and rebuild the playspace of their dreams using a collection of blue foam blocks with no limits to their creativity. Rigamajig, a collection of wooden planks, wheels, pulleys, nuts, bolts and rope, allows kids to follow their curiosity through play while learning 21st century skills. The Foundation and KaBOOM! are committed to providing experiences in individual and group collaboration so military kids grow up able to connect, collaborate, problem solve and think creatively through active play opportunities that will prepare them for tomorrow.

The CarMax Foundation

The CarMax Foundation enriches the communities where our associates live and work. Together with CarMax, Inc., the Foundation has donated more than $50 million since 2003. Funding programs are made available through a portion of CarMax, Inc.'s pre-tax profits. CarMax, a member of the FORTUNE 500 and the S&P 500 and on the FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For list for 15 consecutive years, is the nation's largest retailer of used cars. For 25 years, CarMax has made car buying more ethical, fair and stress-free by offering a no-haggle, no-hassle experience and an incredible selection of vehicles. CarMax makes selling your car easy too, by offering no-obligation appraisals good for seven days. At CarMax, we'll buy your car even if you don't buy ours. For more information, access the CarMax website at www.carmax.com.

KaBOOM!

KaBOOM! is the national non-profit dedicated to giving all kids  especially those living in poverty  the childhood they deserve through great, safe places to play. KaBOOM! inspires communities to make play the easy choice and works to drive the national discussion about the importance of PLAYces. KaBOOM! has collaborated with partners to build or improve more than 17,000 playspaces, engage over 1.5 million volunteers and serve nearly 10 million kids. To learn why play matters for all kids, visit kaboom.org and join the conversation at twitter.com/kaboom, facebook.com/kaboom and instagram.com/kaboom. #playmatters #PLAYceforKids

SOURCE KaBOOM!

Related Links

http://www.kaboom.org


LONDON, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Radiofrequency Ablation Devices Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product (Disposable, Capital, Reusable Equipment), By Application, By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2019 - 2026



Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5763841/?utm_source=PRN



The global radiofrequency ablation devices market size is anticipated to reach USD 6.7 billion by 2026 It is expected to register a CAGR of 11.6% during the forecast period. Increasing preference for minimally invasive surgeries, growing geriatric population, and rise in healthcare spending for better disease treatment are expected to propel the growth.



According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, by the end of 2015, 15.9 million minimally invasive cosmetic surgeries were performed in U.S. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than six million laparoscopic procedures are performed across the U.S. and EU countries every year.



Radiofrequency ablation is now used early in the management of patients suffering from atrial tachycardia or atrial fibrillation or other kinds of coronary disease.This factor is anticipated to boost the market growth.



According to the American College of Cardiology Foundation, coronary heart disease is the leading cause of deaths (43.8%) in U.S., followed by stroke (16.8%), heart failure (9.0%), high BP (9.4%), and other CVDs (17.9%). By 2035, the total cost of CVD is expected to reach USD 1.1 trillion and is projected to affect 45.1% (130 million) adults in U.S.



Radiofrequency ablation can also be used to reduce neck pain, low-back pain, arthritis, and pelvic and peripheral nerve pain. According to WebMD LLC., RFA has been proven to be effective in more than 70% of the patients experiencing pain. Pain relief from RFA can last from six to 12 months or even a year.



Further key findings from the report suggest:

 Disposable equipment held the largest market share in 2018 due to reduced morbidity and mortality and the ability of the equipment to provide treatment in an outpatient setting. For example, Radiopaque RF cannula (Halyard Worldwide, Inc) provides improved visualization under fluoroscopy for accurate positioning, resulting in a targeted treatment

 Cardiology and cardiac rhythm management is anticipated to be the fastest-growing segment during the forecast period due to disease prevalence, growing awareness, and adoption of minimally invasive operations. In 2012 RFA-Academia launched an initiative to increase awareness in Europe and to teach endoscopists safe and justified application of RFA to reduce the disease burden

 North America is anticipated to continue leading the radiofrequency ablation devices market during the forecast period due to high healthcare expenditure, incidence of cardiac disease and cancer, and the number of patients suffering from pain

 Asia Pacific is expected to witness significant growth over the next decade due to increasing demand for minimally invasive procedures to treat cancer and growing awareness regarding the benefits of ablation method over the conventional surgical procedures

 Some of the key players are Boston Scientific Corporation; Medtronic; Stryker; Cosman Medical, Inc.; St. Jude Medical; Smith & Nephew; Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Services, LLC; and AngioDynamics.



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About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers



For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +1 (718) 213 4904

Website: www.reportbuyer.com

SOURCE ReportBuyer

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SAN FRANCISCO, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- In the last 6 months Microsoft, IBM and MasterCard have announced investments in a new technology, that was known to only a small group of technology insiders. And it's not just these companies, in the past 12 months, the U.S. Government has invested over $2M in small businesses for proof of concepts.

Self Sovereign Identity (SSI) is a new technology paradigm that uses Blockchain to enable decentralized digital identity. The Comprehensive Guide to Self Sovereign Identity is the guidebook to this new technology - a technology that promises a more secure and private internet which empowers people, companies, and governments to own and control their personal data.

"SSI is hitting the identity community like a tsunami, completely changing the foundations of how digital identity will work in the future. This book will teach you everything you need to know about the people, companies, and technologies of the emerging SSI industry," says Markus Sabadello, founder of Danube Tech, a technology consultancy building new decentralized identity solutions.

A Comprehensive Guide to Self-Sovereign Identity, co-authored by industry insiders Kaliya Young and Heather Vescent, demystifies this promising new technology--explaining what it is and why it's so important to business leaders.

The book takes readers through the origins of digital identity technology, the key principles that guided its development and introduces new technologies that solve previously unsolvable problems.

From Distributed Ledger Technology (Blockchains) to Verifiable Credentials to Decentralized Identifiers, the book walks readers through the building blocks of this new interoperable technology paradigm where companies collaborate on standards while competing in the marketplace to build best in class products and services.

"The Comprehensive Guide to Self Sovereign Identity is the authoritative guide to the emerging Self Sovereign Identity standards and technologies. Leaders in the Self Sovereign Identity space for over 20 years, Kaliya Young and Heather Vescent provide a broad, deep, and critical study of this space," says Kim Hamilton Duffy, CTO of Learning Machine and the Co-Chair of the Credentials Community Group of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Hamilton-Duffy continues, "Because Self Sovereign technologies are so new, it's extremely difficult for a newcomer to understand the landscape. This book fills that gap, and serves as an invaluable reference even for experts in the space."

Self-Sovereign Identity technologies are gaining momentum as they solve previously unsolvable challenges. This book is a must read for entrepreneurs and businesses building the next generation digital products and services.

Heather Vescent owns and operates The Purple Tornado, a foresight and strategic intelligence consultancy that delivers research insights to governments and corporations. Her research has been covered in the New York Times, CNN, American Banker, CNBC, Fox, and the Atlantic. She is an author of the Cyber Attack Survival Manual , published by Weldon-Owen. Her work has won multiple awards from the Association of Professional Futurists.

Kaliya Young, also known as "Identity Woman" is one of the world's leading experts on decentralized or self-sovereign identity technology. She consults with governments, companies and startups developing SSI technologies. She holds a master of science in identity management and security from the University of Texas at Austin. She co-founded the Internet Identity Workshop in 2005 the world's leading innovation forum in this industry.

Visit http://www.ssiscoop.com for contact details, review copies, photos, and an author bios.

Media Contact:

Kaliya Young, [email protected], +1 (510) 472 9069

Heather Vescent, [email protected], +1 (323) 363 6393

SOURCE Kaliya Young and Heather Vescent
BOSTON, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Trademark.com , an all-in-one trademark protection tool, launches to make safeguarding brands easy and affordable for small business owners. With Trademark.com, entrepreneurs can monitor up to five marks for copycat activity, determine the availability of their desired mark before applying, and secure help filing their trademark applications with The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

"Trademark.com really helps small businesses protect the ownership of their brand, while addressing risks that are oftentimes unseen," said Mara Trumbour, Executive Product Owner, Trademark.com. "If a trademark owner isn't actively monitoring their trademark, another business can easily capitalize on their hard work to build a positive reputation. That's where Trademark.com shines, so small business owners can catch potential copycats before it's too late."

In the U.S., registered trademark owners only have 30 days to oppose someone registering a trademark that is identical or confusingly similar. Trademark.com provides confidence and peace-of-mind so entrepreneurs can claim their trademark before someone else does, while also mitigating the risk of imitators and knockoffs harming their business.

Trademark.com is powered by CompuMark, the world's leading provider of trademark protection services. Utilizing their best-in-class technology and repackaging it for a new audience in a way that makes sense, Trademark.com shares in CompuMark's mission by tailoring world-class trademark protection to the needs of U.S. small businesses.

"Having personally experienced the heartbreak of infringement, I've become extremely passionate about helping today's entrepreneurs claim their brand before someone else does," said Jeff Roy, President of CompuMark . "This convenient, low-cost service tool was designed to help the small business owner who has put blood, sweat, and tears into building their brand save the additional time and effort that comes with owning and monitoring their trademarks."

For additional information about Trademark.com or to create an account, visit https://trademark.com/ .

Contact details

Rich Gallagher

Resound Marketing for Trademark.com

[email protected]

+1 609-279-0050 x 118

+1 347-229-2482 (m)

About Trademark.com

Trademark.com is a user-friendly, all-in-one trademark protection tool that makes safeguarding your brand easy and affordable for small business owners. Entrepreneurs can monitor marks they care about for possible copycat activity, check brands they may want to claim for similarity against existing and pending marks, and find help filing their trademark applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Small business owners also get access to a library of educational resources that make the ins-and-outs of trademark best practices more accessible to non-IP professionals. Trademark.com is powered by CompuMark, a Clarivate Analytics company.

About CompuMark

CompuMark is an industry leader in trademark research and protection solutions. We enable trademark and brand professionals worldwide to launch, expand and protect strong brands through the highest quality global content; expert analysis; superior trademark screening, search, and watch tools; and best-in-class service. Key products include: SAEGIS Trademark Screening Tools; TM go365 DIY Clearance Solution; Trademark Full Search; Trademark Watching; and Copyright Searches. For more information, please visit www.compumark.com .

About Clarivate Analytics

Clarivate Analytics is a global leader in providing trusted insights and analytics to accelerate the pace of innovation. Building on a heritage going back more than a century and a half, we have built some of the most trusted brands across the innovation lifecycle, including CompuMark, Web of Science, Cortellis, Derwent, MarkMonitor and Techstreet. Today, Clarivate Analytics is a new and independent company on a bold entrepreneurial mission to help our clients radically reduce the time from new ideas to life-changing innovations. For more information, please visit www.clarivate.com .

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release and oral statements made with respect to information contained in this release may contain forward-looking statements regarding Clarivate Analytics. Forward-looking statements provide Clarivate Analytics' current expectations or forecasts of future events and may include statements regarding anticipated synergies and other future expectations. These statements involve risks and uncertainties including factors outside of Clarivate Analytics' control that may cause actual results to differ materially. Clarivate Analytics undertakes no obligation to update or revise the statements made herein, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE Trademark.com

Related Links

https://trademark.com


CHAPEL HILL, N.C., April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Value Colleges ( www.valuecolleges.com ), an independent online guide to the best values in undergraduate and graduate education, is pleased to share two valuable new rankings:

Top 25 Most Affordable Online Cybersecurity Degrees for 2019

https://www.valuecolleges.com/cheapest-online-bachelors-of-cybersecurity/

Top 25 Most Affordable Online Master's in Cybersecurity 2019

https://www.valuecolleges.com/cheapest-online-masters-of-cybersecurity-programs/

Value Colleges' ranking of the Top 25 Most Affordable Online Cybersecurity Degrees and the Top 25 Most Affordable Online Master's in Cybersecurity focuses on fully online programs that provide the best overall return on investment. For both rankings, Value Colleges focused specifically on regionally accredited colleges and universities with an established reputation for quality. Schools are ranked based on their in-state tuition rates.

To make a long story short, the top 3 online cybersecurity bachelor's programs are: 1) Bellevue University, 2) Western Governors University, and 3) Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology. The top 3 online cybersecurity master's programs are: 1) Southern Arkansas University, 2) Sam Houston State University, and 3) Dakota State University. Value Colleges congratulates the top 3 in each category, as well as all of the most affordable cybersecurity schools!

The full lists, in alphabetical order, can be found below.

"Once upon a time, computer bugs were annoying, an inconvenience at the worst," according to VC editors, "but today, cyber attacks can take down Hollywood studios and government agencies." Online cybersecurity degree programs offer opportunity: "while professionals can get into a cybersecurity job with just a certification or experience, their path forward will be limited without a degree." Value Colleges' rankings of the most affordable bachelor's and master's programs in cybersecurity are for the working adults who want to shift their career into cybersecurity, or advance in their current cybersecurity career. Quality degree programs "prepare students not only to use the tools available now, but to learn the analytical and professional skills they will need to continue to develop new techniques and technologies." As always, Value Colleges is most concerned with guiding students to programs that will provide a real return on their investment.

Value Colleges has a mission to help future students - whether they are working professionals, new graduates, minority and first-generation students, or others - to find residential and online degree programs that will help them make their goals a reality. Value Colleges is independent and unbiased, ranking degree programs, providing guides for the complex financial and professional questions of college students, and offering honest facts about the potential and pitfalls of a college education.

Most Affordable Online Cyber Security Degree Programs (alphabetical order)

Arizona State University

Baker College

Bellevue University

Colorado Tech

Dakota State University

Davenport University

Franklin University

Grand Canyon University

Kennesaw State University

Liberty University

Limestone College

Maryville University

Mercy College

Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology

Old Dominion University

Penn State World Campus

Purdue University Global

Robert Morris University

Saint Leo University

UMaryland University College

University of Arizona

University of Illinois-Springfield

Utica College

Western Governors University

Wilmington University

Most Affordable Online Master's in Cybersecurity Programs (alphabetical order)

Bellevue University

Dakota State University

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Excelsior College

George Mason University

Iowa State University

Jacksonville State University

Lewis University

Mercy College

Purdue Online

Regis University

Roger Williams University

Saint Leo University

Sam Houston State University

Southern Arkansas University

St Bonaventure University

Texas A&M University

University of Arizona

University of Maryland University College

University of Rhode Island

University of South Florida

University of the Cumberlands

Valparaiso University

Western Governors University

Wilmington University

Media Contact:

Rhonda Corey

Media Manager, Value Colleges

[email protected]

(919) 864-2220

SOURCE Value Colleges

Related Links

http://www.valuecolleges.com


NEW YORK, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Vectra Capital LLC announced today that Scott H. Kereiakes has joined the company as the Head of Crude Oil.

Mr. Kereiakes has 12 years of experience trading many asset classes on both the micro and macro levels at a major US bank, most recently in the crude oil business. At Vectra he will be focused on trading oil derivatives including WTI, Brent and North American grades.

Robert Esposito, Vectra Capital Partner said, "We are excited to have someone with Scott's vast knowledge and substantial experience join Vectra to head our newly formed Crude Oil team. We believe crude oil is a natural fit with our existing energy businesses and look forward to Scott enhancing the team as we continue to expand our North American energy presence."

Mr. Kereiakes said, "I'm thrilled to join, learn from, and contribute to a great and experienced company that is prudently expanding across the commodities sphere. At this time of ever-changing domestic and international energy pictures, Vectra is well positioned to capitalize on opportunities, and I look forward to being a part of this group."

Vectra Capital LLC is a New York based proprietary trading company founded in 2013. Vectra actively trades a broad range of commodities including ethanol, NGLs, power and natural gas. Vectra also employs multiple algorithmic trading strategies in equities and commodities.

For Further information contact:

Vectra Capital LLC

[email protected]

646 568-1750

SOURCE Vectra Capital LLC
NEW YORK, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Vinson & Elkins has significantly expanded its Real Estate Practice as well as its New York presence with the addition of a nationally recognized Real Estate team that includes three partners, three counsel, nine associates and three paralegals.

Partners Wallace Schwartz, Adam Endick and Julia Sanabria bring to Vinson & Elkins a broad-based and sophisticated real estate and real estate finance practice that includes acquisitions, capital markets and leasing transactions. Each was previously a partner with Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP.

"Wally, Adam and Julia are among the leading real estate practitioners in the country and will be a strong extension of our existing practice," V&E chairman Mark Kelly said. "Moreover, the addition of this team is a natural complement to our broader transactional group and will be beneficial to the firm and our clients as we continue to grow in a variety of practice areas in New York."

V&E's Real Estate practice represents all facets of the real estate industry, on every side of the tableincluding banks, private equity firms and other financial institutions, public and private real estate investment trusts, developers, contractors, landlords, tenants, operating and services firms, design professionals and governmental entitieswhich makes the team uniquely suited to guide clients and devise strategic, creative solutions.

"We were attracted to V&E because of the broad support network of lawyers in other practice areas that are typically involved in real estate transactions," Schwartz said. "V&E's strength in areas such as REITs and private equity was really appealing to our team and will allow us to expand our work for our historical clients while helping the firm grow its New York footprint."

After adding five REIT industry veterans to the firm's practice in early 2016, V&E now boasts one of the largest teams of dedicated REIT practitioners in the industry. The firm's private equity group is among the nation's best, and has ranked among the top 10 in Private Equity Buyouts in The American Lawyer's Corporate Scorecard in each of the past two years.

Below is a brief overview of each new partner's practice.

Wallace Schwartz is widely recognized as one of the nation's leading real estate transaction lawyers with current inclusion in leading legal publications such as Chambers USA and The Legal 500. As head of Kasowitz's Real Estate Transactions Group, Schwartz's practice included all aspects of the firm's real estate practice, including real estate development, acquisitions, leasing, partnerships and joint ventures, capital markets and financings, gaming and lodging, workouts and restructurings and real estate funds. His clients include major real estate players in New York and nationwide, including The Related Companies, Boston Properties, JDS Development, Oxford Properties, Westbrook Partners, Fetner Properties and Rockpoint Group.

Adam Endick has significant experience in a wide range of real estate matters with a particular focus on commercial leasing and acquisitions and dispositions of real estate. He represents various institutional and non-institutional clients in the leasing and subleasing of office space throughout the United States, including WeWork Companies, Oxford Property Group, Extell Development Company, JEMB Realty, Boston Properties, Equity Office Properties, Joy Construction and Deerfield Management Company. He is currently recognized in The Legal 500 and Chambers USA, where he is described as "always willing to help and make himself available," and a lawyer who "immerses himself in his client's business and advocates to the utmost."

Julia Sanabria represents clients in a wide range of real estate matters with a particular emphasis on commercial leasing. She represents various institutional and non-institutional clients in the leasing and subleasing of office and retail space throughout the United States, including major real estate players Boston Properties, Oxford Properties, The Related Companies, Extell Development Company, Forest City Ratner and Joy Construction. Sanabria has been named a "Rising Star" by Law360 for 2018, which selected her as one of the top six real estate practitioners in the United States under the age of 40.

Prior to joining Kasowitz, all three previously practiced together at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in New York.

"Expanding V&E's breadth of practice in New York is an important part of our overall growth plan, and we are committed to strategically expanding here and across the firm," said Cliff Thau, co-head of V&E's New York office. "The addition of this highly talented real estate teamWally, Adam, Julia and the excellent team of lawyers joining with themis a great example of our focus on growth. We're thrilled to welcome them to V&E and are confident they will enjoy continued success with us."

Vinson & Elkins LLP is an international law firm with approximately 700 lawyers across 13 offices worldwide. For more information, please contact Melissa Anderson at +1.713.758.2030.

SOURCE Vinson & Elkins LLP

Related Links

http://www.velaw.com


"We were thrilled to be selected for the first-ever pilot program to offer virtual pediatric care to El Paso ISD," said Urgent Care for Kids CEO Brian White. "As the largest school-based telemedicine program in the state of Texas, we've gone to great lengths to prepare and build a best-in-class patient experience and we're proud to partner with such an innovative school district to do so."

This virtual care pilot program is designed to meet the needs of all students enrolled, including those with Medicaid and Tricare plans, at little to no cost. Following the initial pilot program, Virtual Care for Kids will be made available starting the fall semester giving medical care access to approximately 70,000 students across 82 El Paso ISD schools.

"This will give us the instant ability expand the level of services we provide to students who may otherwise go untreated," said Alana Bejarano RN MSN NCSN, El Paso ISD Director of Health Services. "We're proud to pioneer such an innovative program and we believe that will increase attendance and better serve our students and their families."

Virtual Care for Kids gives patients the same high-quality pediatric care all through a 'facetime' conversation minimizing the typical in-clinic wait times and eliminating the drive time altogether. Patients are immediately ushered into a virtual visit room where the pediatric provider within a local Urgent Care for Kids clinic will connect with them via live video from the comfort of their own home.

"Our vision is to ensure that every child in America has the highest quality healthcare right at their fingertips and we're thrilled to make this a reality with El Paso ISD," president Kevin Pearce said. "We've built our model to deliver the best patient experience in telemedicine no matter what device or connection you're using."

About Urgent Care for Kids

Urgent Care for Kids is one of the largest pediatric urgent care chains in Texas providing after hours urgent care services for children ages 0 to 21. Virtual Care for Kids is the on-demand telemedicine and pediatric video consultation service of Urgent Care for Kids. Urgent Care for Kids operates 10 locations across the Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin and Houston markets providing services for pediatric patients including x-rays, minor laceration repair, and sick visits. To learn more, visit www.VirtualCareKids.com.

Contact: Melissa Bauman

[email protected]

(936) 662-0642

SOURCE Urgent Care for Kids

Related Links

http://www.virtualcarekids.com


MIAMI, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- A settlement has been reached in a class action lawsuit claiming that certain Rossi brand revolvers are defective in that they could unintentionally fire when dropped. The Defendants Forjas Taurus, S.A., and BrazTech International LC (doing business under the brand "Rossi") issued a Warning about these safety concerns in September 2018. Rossi, however, denies all allegations of wrongdoing and liability alleged in the lawsuit, and the Court has not decided who is right. The parties have agreed to settle.

Who is included? The Settlement Class includes: all individuals in the United States, including its territories and possessions, who owned one or more Class Revolver(s) on March 15, 2019. "Class Revolvers" means Rossi brand .38 Special and .357 Revolver models R35102, R35202, R85104, R97206, R97104, R46202 and R46102  made between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2017. The Class Revolvers have a serial number stamped on the frame beginning with the letters Y, Z, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, or K. Anyone who receives this notice (including distributors and dealers), if you have sold or otherwise transferred a Class Revolver to someone else, please forward this notice to the current owner.

What are the Settlement Benefits? The Settlement establishes an "Enhanced Warranty" allowing current or future owners to send in their Class Revolvers for inspection, repair if necessary, certification, and cleaning, all free of charge (including shipping, labor, and parts). Additionally, each Class Member who takes advantage of the Enhanced Warranty and files a valid claim will receive a $50 cash "Inconvenience Payment." The settlement does not include claims for personal injury.

Prior to the settlement, Rossi launched an "Early Warning Program" designed and intended to make current and future owners of Class Revolvers aware of the potential dangers and to inform them that the Class Revolvers should not be used or carried until they have been inspected and/or repaired. Those who sent in their Class Revolvers for inspection and repair in response to the Early Warning Program are entitled to make a claim for an Inconvenience Payment.

How can you file a Claim? If you are a Settlement Class Member, you must submit a valid claim to receive an Inconvenience Payment. The claim period will run for one year after the settlement becomes final and effective, and the deadline will be posted on the website when the claims period begins. There is no deadline to participate in the Enhanced Warranty. In order to be eligible to receive an Inconvenience Payment, you must also have sent in your Class Revolver for inspection and repair under the Enhanced Warranty. You can file your Claim Form online at www.RossiRevolverSettlement.com, or you can print out a Claim Form from the website or get one by calling the toll-free number below and mail your claim to the Claims Administrator.

What are my other options? If you do not want to be legally bound by the Settlement, you must exclude yourself by July 15, 2019. If you do not exclude yourself, you will give up any claims against Rossi covered by the Settlement, and will not be able to sue Rossi for these types of claims in the future. You may object to any aspect of the Settlement, but you must do so by July 15, 2019. The Long Form Notice of Settlement found on the settlement website provides greater detail on how to exclude yourself or object. The Court will hold a Hearing on August 27, 2019 to consider whether to approve the Settlement and requests for attorneys' fees and costs of up to $5,553,000 and Incentive Awards of $7,500 to each of the three Class Representatives. If you file and serve an objection, you and/or your attorney (if you choose to hire one at your own cost) may appear at this hearing (but are not required to).

This is only a summary. For detailed information including the full notice, the Settlement agreement, and claim forms information, visit www.RossiRevolverSettlement.com or call 888-724-0242.

SOURCE United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida

Related Links

http://www.RossiRevolverSettlement.com


PALO ALTO, Calif., April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, the premier provider of legal services to technology, life sciences, and growth enterprises worldwide, announced today that Hershel Wein has joined the firm's energy and infrastructure practice as a partner in the New York office. He will also be a member of the firm's structured finance practices.

Wein's past experience includes advising clients on the tax aspects of transactions involving partnerships, real estate investment trusts (REITs), and other pass-through entities. He has also advised clients on numerous tax credit and alternative energy transactions; project finance transactions; real estate transactions; corporate joint ventures; partnership and corporate restructurings and workouts; and cross-border financings and investments. Wein also advises financial institutions in structuring and implementing structured finance and derivatives transactions, pension funds, and other tax-exempt entities in their investment activities, as well as sponsors of, and investors in, all types of private investment vehicles.

Before joining WSGR and since 2012, Wein was a principal in the Washington National Tax practice of KPMG LLP, in its New York office. Prior to joining KPMG, he worked at a large New York-based law firm for more than 26 years, starting as an associate in its predecessor firm. He became a tax partner in 1995.

"During the last five years, we have built an energy and infrastructure team that helps clients pursue complex, sophisticated transactionsdeals associated with innovative and game-changing projects," said Doug Clark, the firm's managing partner. "Like the well-rounded team Hershel is joining, his expertise ranges from corporate and debt finance to restructuring and tax. It's also a plus that he's joining our New York office, because of the many banks and sources of capital involved in energy and infrastructure projects."

Wein earned his J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1985, and received his B.S. in accounting from City University of New York at Brooklyn College in 1982. He is admitted to practice in New York.

Wein is the author of "The Private REIT: Selected Tax Issues," "Tax Credit Investments and the Ossification of the Economic Substance Doctrine," and "Corporate Allocations and Their Constraints: Allocating the Income of Corporate Pass-Through Entities," articles that appear each year in the Partnership Tax Practice Series and the Corporate Tax Practice Series of the Practicing Law Institute. He has also authored articles on the tax treatment of investments in alternative energy and other transactions. He is a member of the Tax Section of the New York State Bar Association.

WSGR is often involved in first-of-their-kind projects, financings, and transactionsdeals that are fundamentally changing the ways people power their homes and factories, fuel their vehicles, and manufacture the next generation of products. The firm's energy and infrastructure team represents more than 300 industry clients, including innovative, emerging renewable energy companies, mature enterprises developing and financing large-scale infrastructure projects, and public companies involved in significant energy initiatives. The firm also represents leading venture capital firms, private equity firms, energy project investors, and other lenders actively involved in commercializing energy innovations and project finance.

About Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

For more than 50 years, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has offered a broad range of services and legal disciplines focused on serving the principal challenges faced by the management and boards of directors of business enterprises. The firm is nationally recognized as a leader in the fields of corporate governance and finance, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, securities litigation, employment law, intellectual property, and antitrust, among many other areas of law. With deep roots in Silicon Valley, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has offices in Austin; Beijing; Boston; Brussels; Hong Kong; London; Los Angeles; New York; Palo Alto; San Diego; San Francisco; Seattle; Shanghai; Washington, D.C.; and Wilmington, DE. For more information, please visit www.wsgr.com.

SOURCE Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Related Links

http://www.wsgr.com


"As a company, we're looking to the future from generating carbon-free energy, to developing new energy infrastructure to reimagining the customer journey  we aim to be a leader in energy innovation," said Brett Carter, executive vice president and chief customer and innovation officer of Xcel Energy. "We have big ambitions, and Carmichael Lynch brought us the type of thinking that matched where we want to take our company  today and moving forward."

Xcel Energy has set and achieved industry-leading carbon reduction goals for many years. The company recently announced its bold vision to deliver carbon-free electricity by 2050, and 80 percent less carbon by 2030.

"Xcel Energy has long been a leader in carbon-free and renewable energy in the nation, being named the national leader in wind energy 12 of the last 13 years," said Marcus Fischer, CEO of Carmichael Lynch. "Xcel Energy's desire to create purposeful change in the energy space is inspiring, and we are proud to partner with them to tell their story and get people and businesses participating in the quest for clean and renewable energy."

Work between the agency and Xcel will begin in March 2019.

About Xcel Energy

Xcel Energy provides the energy that powers millions of homes and businesses across eight Western and Midwestern states. Headquartered in Minneapolis, the company is an industry leader in responsibly reducing carbon emissions and producing and delivering clean energy solutions from a variety of renewable sources at competitive prices. For more information, visit xcelenergy.com or follow us on Twitter and Facebook .

About Carmichael Lynch

Carmichael Lynch is renowned for creating Unfair Ideas that give clients an unfair advantage against their competition. As a fully integrated creative agency, Carmichael Lynch offers a collaborative, holistic approach to marketing, leveraging paid, earned and owned media, and creative strategies. The agency's work has been heralded by international award shows, and its company culture and diversity and inclusion initiatives have won a multitude of honors. The agency's client list includes famous brands such as Subaru, U.S. Bank, Phillips 66, Arla Foods, Helzberg Diamonds, Conoco, 76, the Minnesota Twins, and Truvia. Carmichael Lynch Inc. is owned by the Interpublic Group of Companies Inc. (NYSE: IPG), New York. For more information, visit www.carmichaellynch.com .

For more information:

Rebecca Lunna

612-375-8537

[email protected]

SOURCE Carmichael Lynch

Related Links

http://www.carmichaellynch.com


Patna: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leaders Ramchandra Purve, Tejashwi Yadav and Manoj Jhaalong release party's manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, in Patna, on April 8, 2019. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News

Patna:RJD leaders Ramchandra Purve, Tejashwi Yadav and Manoj Jha release the party's election manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls at a press conference, in Patna on April 8, 2019. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News

Patna:RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav releases the party's election manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls at a press conference, in Patna on April 8, 2019. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News

Patna, April 8 : Bihar's opposition Rashtiya Janata Dal (RJD) on Monday released its election manifesto for the coming Lok Sabha polls, where it has promised reservation for the Dalits, OBCs, EBCs and tribals in the private sectors RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, who released the manifesto at the party headquarters here, said the main aim was to provide "bread to each plate and pens to all hands".

"We are committed to social justice and will implement remaining recommendations of the Mandal Commission," he said.

Tejashwi Yadav, former Deputy Chief Minister and the younger son of jailed RJD chief Lalu Prasad, said if his party was voted to power, a helpline for migrant workers from Bihar would be set up to provide them with timely help.

He also said that his party will implement a 200-point roster and will amend the Constitution for reservation for government jobs.

According to the manifesto, the RJD has ensured to conduct a caste-based census in 2021.

Tejashwi Yadav said the party has decided to spend 6 per cent of the GDP on education and 4 per cent on healthcare.

RJD has promised a tax free toddy to woo a particular Dalit community and to give a relief to millions of daily consumers of it.

Toddy is locally known as the 'poor man's beer', is consumed particularly in rural Bihar.

As per the seat sharing formula of the Grand Alliance announced on March 22, the RJD will contest 19 of the 40 seats and the Congress nine, while smaller parties will be in contention in the remaining constituencies.0D

The seven-phase election in Bihar is scheduled from April 11 to May 19.
Tokyo, April 8 : Nissan Motor Co. shareholders on Monday here approved the removal of detained former chairman Carlos Ghosn from its board, ending his nearly two decades stint with the Japanese carmaker.

The move means Ghosn, who is currently fighting multiple charges of financial misconduct, no longer holds a position at the company, reports Efe news.

He was dismissed as chairman on November 22, 2018, three days after his initial arrest in Tokyo, but remained on the board until Monday.

Former Nissan executive and Ghosn aide Greg Kelly, who was also arrested, was dismissed too.

Renault Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard was appointed as Director in Ghosn's place.

The meeting began at around 10 a.m., at a hotel in Tokyo, where the company's president and CEO Hiroto Saikawa, who took over the leadership of Nissan following Ghosn's arrest, said he would stay on in his post as he had a duty to stabilise the Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi Motors alliance and minimise the effect on the operations and its employees.

Ghosn, 65, faces two charges in the courts of Japan for allegedly under-reporting his pay by tens of millions of dollars, and one for aggravated breach of trust of Nissan for allegedly using the company's books to cover personal losses.

On April 4, while Ghosn was out on bail, he was re-arrested for aggravated breach of trust of Nissan over alleged irregularities in payments made to a dealership in Oman.

A Tokyo court the next day, approved the request to detain Ghosn until April 14. This period could be extended for another 10 days if the court allows.

Ghosn has maintained his innocence of all the charges.
New Delhi: BJP leaders - Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minister Rajnath Singh and party chief Amit Shah release BJP's manifesto for 2019 Lok Sabha polls, in New Delhi, on April 8, 2019. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS

New Delhi: Union Minister and BJP leader Rajnath Singh addresses at the release of the party's manifesto for 2019 Lok Sabha polls, in New Delhi, on April 8, 2019. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS

New Delhi, April 8 : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday released its election manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls with a promise to provide pension for small and marginal farmers to ensure social security after 60 years of age.

Released at the party office here in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah, the "Sankalpit Bhatar Sashakt Bharat" also pledged zero tolerance towards terrorism.

"Our security doctrine will be guided by our national security interest. This is exemplified by the Surgical Strikes and the Air Strikes carried out recently. We will firmly continue our policy of 'Zero Tolerance' against terrorism and extremism and continue to (give) a free hand to our security forces in combating terrorism," the manifesto read.

It also promised 33 per cent reservation in Parliament and state Assemblies through a Constitutional amendment.

"We will ensure pucca houses for families either living in kuchha houses or without access to housing by 2022," it said.

Speaking at the occasion, Shah said the whenever a history of India's development was written, the period between 2014 and 2019 will be written in "golden letters".
Kolkata, April 8 : Congress MP Mausam Noor, who has recently switched over to West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress and is seeking re-election from the Malda Uttar (North) Lok Sabha constituency, has shown a whopping 193 per cent increase in her movable assets to over Rs 52.91 lakh, as compared to about Rs 18.03 lakh she declared in 2014.

In her affidavit, she has declared bank deposits worth Rs 12.21 lakh, cash in hand of Rs 90,450, insurance policies with total sum assured of about Rs 22 lakhs, and investments worth Rs 9.93 lakh in bonds, shares, debentures or other instruments.

Noor is the niece of late Congress leader A.B.A. Ghani Khan Choudhury, who served as Railways Minister under Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.

She possesses 80 grams of gold approximately valued at about Rs 2.48 lakh and three cars.

Noor, who has been the MP from Malda Uttar since 2009, has declared immovable assets, including shares in a commercial establishment and residential building in Malda, with aggregate value of about Rs 74 lakh.

The declared value of her immovable assets in 2019 is same as that shown in 2014.

Overall, her assets, both movable and immovable, currently stand at Rs 1.26 crore, up by 37 per cent from Rs 92.03 lakh declared in 2014.

An advocate by profession, Noor has declared that although there are a few criminal cases against her, she has, however, not been convicted for any criminal offence.
New Delhi, April 8 : The Supreme Court on Monday declined to pass an order on a plea seeking a stay on the biopic on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The matter will come up for hearing on Tuesday.

The apex court also declined to issue any direction to the film director to provide a copy of the movie to the petitioner.

The court did not pass the order on Monday and said it will hear the plea on Tuesday and in the meanwhile, the petitioner could bring on record what was objectionable in the film.

The bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi made an observation on the plea by a Congress activist and said: "Why should we direct that an individual be given a copy of the film."

The bench told the lawyer of the petitioner: "We fail to see how such a direction can be issued... We fail to understand why such a direction be given."

The lawyer said that the producer had made a statement that the biopic will be released on April 11.

The bench said that it was not unusual to make a statement on the release date of the film, as the producer may have assumed that it will get certification from the Censor Board.

The bench said that at that moment there was not sufficient evidence to challenge the release, especially the content of the film.
New Delhi, April 8 : The BJP promised in its election manifesto released on Monday to double farm income by 2022, extend PM-KISAN scheme to all farmers, and give pension for small and marginal farmers.

The 'Sankalpit Bharat Sashakt Bharat', released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah, also pledged an investment of Rs 25 lakh crore to improve productivity in the farm sector.

The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana (PM KISAN), announced in this year's Budget, aims to provide Rs 6,000 to 12.5 crore small and marginal farmers in the country.

The ruling party has promised to expand the coverage of the scheme to all the farmers in the country if it returns to power after the Lok Sabha election.

It said that a pension scheme will be launched for all small and marginal farmers of 60 years to ensure their social security.

Also, the BJP has promised to provide short-term loans up to Rs 1 lakh at zero per cent interest for 1-5 years on the condition of prompt repayment of the principal amount.

The BJP said it will work towards reducing all agricultural imports and institute a predictable export and import policy with a built-in mechanism for encouraging exports and discouraging imports.

Timely availability of improved seeds of promising varieties at affordable rates with doorstep testing facilities features among the promises.

The party said it will build an efficient storage and transport mechanism for agriculture produce and a National Warehousing Grid will be established along National Highways to ensure necessary logistical linkages for warehousing of agricultural produce.

Also, a new Village Storage Scheme will be rolled out to enable the farmer to store the agri-produce near his village and sell at a remunerative price at an appropriate time.

Also, loans at cheaper rates will be offered to farmers on the basis of storage receipt of the agri-produce.

The BJP said it will promote chemical-free organic farming in an additional 20 lakh hectare of hilly, tribal and rain-fed areas and launch a dedicated e-commerce portal to boost sales.

Also, gaushalas in the country will be linked to the promotion of organic farming and organic eco-tourism will be promoted.

The ruling party said it will launch a mission to double the honey production by developing infrastructural facilities and providing marketing support.

Bringing one crore hectares agricultural land under micro-irrigation, creation of 10,000 new Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) by 2022 and a mechanism of direct marketing of vegetables, fruits, dairy and fishery products are in the BJP manifesto.

It said a mobile app based system will be launched for promoting the availability of agri-implements on rental and custom hiring basis.

Enabling development of young agri-scientists to take advantage of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Big Data analytics for more predictive and profitable precision agriculture will be on the party's agenda.

It said complete digitization of land records will be done on a mission mode on the lines of Aadhaar project.

For animal husbandry, the party said it will expand the coverage of immunization and eliminate the shortage of fodder, and roll out a model programme for periodic health check-up of all cattle and other domestic animals.

It will launch 'Matsya Sampada Yojana' with an allocation of Rs 10,000 crore, facilitate farming of sea-weed, pearl as well as ornamental fish, the BJP said.
Srinagar, April 8 : Peoples Conference President Sajad Lone said on Monday that he stood by the English newspaper 'Greater Kashmir' whose staff has allegedly been threatened.

Reacting to the threats received by the Jammu bureau chief of the widely circulated daily, Sajad Lone tweeted: "Highly regrettable that Greater Kashmir staff in Jammu has been threatened. We fully support press freedom and condemn the thugs who made the threats. Our full support to GK."

The newspaper reported on Monday that its Jammu bureau chief had received several threat calls in which an unknown caller threatened to shoot the staff of the newspaper in its Jammu and Srinagar office.

Both 'Greater Kashmir' and its sister publication, the vernacular Urdu daily 'Kashmir Uzma', have been barred by the Jammu and Kashmir government from receiving government advertisements.
New Delhi, April 8 : Separatist leader Mirwaiz Umer Farooq on Monday appeared before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) here for questioning in connection with its ongoing probe into the terror funding case, officials said.
Mumbai, April 8 : DocuBay, a new, global, subscription-based streaming service and video-on-demand platform featuring international documentaries, will launch this summer and will include India in its first phase.

DocuBay will be available in India with a distinctive global catalogue for Indian audiences, and several titles exclusive to the country.

IN10 Media showcased a first look of DocuBay at the MIPDoc event in Cannes to a select international community of documentary creators and distributors, said a statement.

At the event, DocuBay also presented The Pitch, a documentary pitching session. The judges for the pitches included Chris Hoelzl from Smithsonian Channel, Axel Arno from SVT, Bernadette McDaid from National Geographic and Akul Tripathi, COO, DocuBay.

"Humankind, as a race, has always had the uncontrollable desire to tell their tale. To save it for posterity. Etched in stone, sketched on rock, sung through the ages, engraved, embossed, stitched, typed, recorded, photographed and now filmed - documentaries are just the latest in a long series of the preferred repository of human experience. These cumulative/many experiences unite us as One tribe, which is at the core of DocuBay philosophy," said Tripathi.

The platform will make discovery easy through affinity-based categories like Nature, Action, Travel, Culture, and Science. It intends to further refine its 'bays' by analysing watch habits and consumer surveys of the early adopters.

Aditya Pittie, Managing Director, IN10 Media, said: "With consumers worldwide having more content choices than ever, DocuBay's constantly expanding library of international documentary films will create its own niche through its focus on discovery and distribution."
New Delhi/Mumbai, April 8 : Lenders of the debt-ridden Jet Airways on Monday invited "Expression of Interest" for stake sale in the airline to recover their dues.

The document issued by the State Bank of India (SBI), lead lender in the consortium, offered a stake from 31.2 per cent to 75 per cent of the company on a fully diluted basis.

"...the Lenders, pursuant to the guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank of India, are in the process of formulation of a resolution plan for resolving stress in the company, inter alia, involving change in control and management of the company," the EOI document said.

The purpose of the EoI is to provide information about the company to enable interested parties to make assessment about the proposal prior to the submission of their bids.

The time period for submission of EoI has been fixed for April 10.
Patna, April 8 : The political battle in the Nawada parliamentary constituency in Bihar is a direct fight again between two powerful castes.

This rural and semi-urban seat, still lagging behind on the development front, will see an electoral battle for local supremacy between a forward caste and a backward caste As in the previous Lok Sabha poll, the powerful landed upper caste Bhumihar are again in a face-off against the locally dominant backward caste of Yadav.

The ruling NDA has fielded a Bhumihar candidate, while the opposition Grand Alliance (Mahagathbandhan) has nominated a candidate belonging to the Yadav community.

After the Nawada seat went to the Ram Vilas Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party LJP under the NDA's seat-sharing formula, the sitting BJP MP and Union Minister Giriraj Singh has been shifted to the Begusarai seat.

There are 13 candidates in the fray in Nawada which will go to the polls on April 11 in the first phase of the seven-phase polls, along with the three other Maoist affected constituencies of Jamui, Gaya (reserved) and Aurangabad.

LJP has fielded Chandan Kumar, the younger brother of former MP Surajbhan Singh, a criminal turned politician.

In his mid-thirties, Chandan is a big builder and is contesting the polls for the first time.

"I will change the face of Nawada, support me", he says.

Caste equations in Nawada have forced the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) to field Vibha Devi, wife of expelled party MLA Rajballabh Yadav who has been sentenced to life imprisonment for raping a minor girl. Yadav lost his membership of the Bihar Legislative Assembly following his conviction.

Yadav is locally known as "dabang" for his muscle power and running illegal sand mining in Nawada. In the last Lok Sabha polls in 2014, he was defeated by BJP leader Giriraj Singh.

RJD's Vibha Devi is banking on overwhelming support of nearly 3 lakh Yadav voters, considered loyal supporters of the party. Besides, the constituency has over 1 lakh Muslim voters, along with the Other Backward Class (OBC) communities of Koeri and Dalit, who together number more than 1 lakh.

"The Yadav caste is second largest voter by a single caste in Nawada and it appears they will support RJD along with majority of Muslims and Dalits and Koeri voters. Going by this arithmetic, Vibha Devi may put up a strong challenge to the BJP-led NDA in the absence of Modi wave," said political analyst Satnarayan Madan.

NDA's Chandan Kumar is mainly banking on support of over 3 lakh voters belonging to his Bhumihar caste.

"For the Bhumihar candidate, Nawada is one of the safest seats in Bihar. Besides, other OBC castes and Dalits traditionally add support to NDA. It has a clear cut edge", he said.

An uncertain factor in the situation is the voting preference of the extremely backward castes and Dalits, who constitute a sizeable chunk of voters but are not vocal about supporting or opposing either the NDA or the Grand Alliance.

Some issues that concern most of the voters in the constituency include scarcity of drinking water during summers, lack of irrigation, deteriorating law and order, unemployment and development.

The total number of voters in Nawada constituency are 18.92 lakh, consisting of 9.83 lakh male and 9.09 lakh women. The constituency has 6 assembly segments. Of these segments, the RJD and Congress won two seats each, while the remaining two were won by the BJP in the 2015 Bihar Assembly polls.
New Delhi, April 8 : The Supreme Court on Monday directed former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar to file his response on a CBI plea seeking his arrest in the multi-crore Saradha chit fund case.

The CBI in an application sought the apex curt to abandon its earlier order directing that no coercive action be taken against the former Kolkata Police Commissioner.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi issued a notice to Kumar on CBI's plea and sought his response within four weeks. The court on February 5 stayed the arrest of Kumar in the Saradha and Rose Valley Ponzi scam cases.

The agency said the custodial interrogation of Kumar was required to make progress on gathering evidence on the nexus between politicians and the top management of Saradha Group.

The agency also said that Kumar on apex court direction had appeared before the agency in Shillong, but during the questioning he remained elusive.

The CBI also sought the apex Court's direction to the West Bengal authorities to cooperate in the investigations and not to interfere in the scope of investigation.

Counsels for Vodafone and Airtel were present in the court during the hearing.

Mukul Rohtagi, appearing for Vodafone, said the company had already cooperated with the agency in the investigation and handed over all call data and records.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta asked Airtel to hand over all the call data and other records concerning the case.

The court rejected a plea by A.M. Singhvi, appearing on behalf of the West Bengal government, that the CBI's affidavit must be vetted by its Director.

Singhvi claimed that the action had been ordered was due to the West Bengal Police probe into alleged dealings of then CBI chief Nageshwar Rao's wife.
New Delhi, April 8 : Johnson & Johnson on Monday informed the Delhi High Court that it was ready to pay Rs 25 lakh compensation to patients affected by its faulty articular surface replacement (ASR) hip implants.

However, Johnson & Johnson said the Centre had no jurisdiction under the Drug and Cosmetics Act to enforce the compensation as determined by the expert committee, set up to examine faulty hip implants.

Justice Vibhu Bakhru was hearing Johnson & Johnson's plea challenging the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's decision asking the company to pay compensation to patients.

The company has also challenged the government decision asking it to pay Rs 65 lakh and Rs 74 lakh compensations to two patients.

The court has asked the government to file its response and listed the hearing for May 2.
New Delhi, April 8 : The Supreme Court on Monday sought to know why the government in a secular state should be involved in running and managing religious places, after noting that pilgrims going to Puri's Jagannath temple complained they were harassed.

"It is a matter of perspective. I don't know why government officials should run and manage religious places," asked Justice S.A. Bobde sitting with Justice S. Abdul Nazeer.

He noted that "most people who go there (Jagannath temple) come back harassed, mistreated and (they) have no voice".

As Justice Bobde flagged the issue, senior counsel Gopal Shankarnarayanan urged the court to address the question on "how far the government in a secular state can run and manage the temple. How, in a secular State, can the government can manage religious places".

The court said that the lawyers could touch this aspect in the next hearing on May 13.

Attorney General K.K. Venugopal told the court that the Sabarimala temple in Kerala was being run by the Devaswom Board and in Tamil Nadu, since 1930, the Madras Hindu religious Endowment Board was running and managing many temples.

In 1955, the Shri Jagannath Temple Act was enacted to run and manage the Lord Jagannath temple.

The court said this in the course of the hearing of a petition that has sought curbing of malpractices in the management of Jagannath temple.

Amicus curiae Ranjit Kumar told the court that he had already submitted his report.

The top court had earlier issued a slew of directions to address alleged exploitation of devotees at Jagannath temple and the management of its finances, including donations and offerings by pilgrims.
London, April 8 : In another setback for fugitive Indian businessman Vijay Mallya, the United Kingdom High Court has rejected his appeal against his extradition.

Mallya, who is facing charges of defaulting on bank loans to the tune of Rs 9,000 crore, fraud and money-laundering, had moved the High Court after the Westminster Magistrates Court, on December 10, 2018, gave the go-ahead for his extradition.

Westminster Magistrates' Court Chief Magistrate Judge Emma Arbuthnot had then sent Mallya's case to Home Secretary Sajid Javed, who had also cleared the extradition.

Mallya, 63, left India on March 2, 2016 after defaulting on loans amounting to Rs 9,000 crore he had taken for his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines but he has repeatedly denied fleeing the country, saying he is ready to pay back the money he owed to the Indian banks.

India had in late 2017 filed extradition proceedings against Mallya which he contested. He is currently out on bail in London.

A consortium of 13 banks, led by the State Bank of India (SBI), has been preparing to initiate loan recovery proceedings against him.

The proceedings are on before a special court in Mumbai under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act.

The Enforcement Directorate had also moved the Special Prevention of Money-Laundering Act Court last year to declare Mallya a "fugitive economic offender" and confiscate all his properties, estimated at more than Rs 12,000 crore, making it the first such case of its kind under the new law.
New Delhi, April 8 : The presence of the new deadly fungus Candida auris (or C.auris) has not been detected in clinical practice in India yet, a doctor said here.

First discovered in 2009, C.auris is an emerging fungus that presents a serious global health threat, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

It is often multidrug-resistant, difficult to identify with standard laboratory methods, and it can be misidentified in labs without specific technology. It has also caused outbreaks in healthcare settings.

A NYT report on Monday showed that over the last five years, C.auris has hit a neonatal unit in Venezuela, swept through a hospital in Spain, forced a prestigious British medical centre to shut down its intensive care unit, and taken root in India, Pakistan and South Africa.

It has also spread to the US.

However, Tarun Sahni, Senior Consultant, Internal Medicine, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, told IANS: "We have not seen the fungus yet in clinical practice in India."

Patients who have low immunity are at higher risk of contracting this infection because the fungus can penetrate into their body and go into the blood.

"People have various types of fungus in their body and also in surroundings. C.auris is also a type of fungus. It can cause candidiasis (a fungal infection) in humans," Sahni added.

"When this infection becomes invasive, which means that when it enters the bloodstream, it can affect the internal organs of the body."

C.auris was found to cause bloodstream infections and even death, particularly in hospital and nursing home patients with serious medical problems, in more than a dozen countries. More than one in three patients with invasive C.auris infection (for example, an infection that affects the blood, heart, or brain) die, the US CDC said.

"Hospitals invariably have patients with low immunity, so the prevalence of this infection will be more in hospitals. Also, hospital-acquired infection is a well established entity everywhere in the world and not just limited to India," Sahni said.

People who get invasive Candida infections are often already sick from other medical conditions, so it can be difficult to know if you have a C.auris infection.

The most common symptoms of invasive Candida infection are fever and chills that do not improve after antibiotic treatment for a suspected bacterial infection.

"When a new kind of infection emerges, existing drugs may not be strong enough to deal with it so from that point of view our precautions for prevention have to be multiplied," Sahni said while adding it is imperative that standard anti-infection measures should be adhered to and enforced cross all hospitals.

"Keeping the wound clean, washing hands before seeing patients, prescribing rational antibiotic therapy and regular antiseptic practises should be enforced in ICUs and wards, especially where low-immunity patients like transplant recipients, are present," he added.
Kolkata, April 8 : Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Mukul Roy on Monday said that the party will play the song composed by Babul Supriyo till it gets a clarification from the Election Commission (EC) on removal of words like "pishi" (aunt) and "didi" (sister).

"In the letter we were asked to remove the word 'pishi'. I have sought a clarification regarding the same. Till we get a reply, the song will be played," Roy told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting with the Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal, here.

BJP MP Babul Supriyo was slapped a show cause notice as the song was circulated on the web without the EC's Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) certificate. Also, the Trinamool Congress had filed a complaint regarding the song's content.

Roy also said the Election Commission (EC) didn't object to the Hindi version of the song.

Asked about the complaint against the party for not seeking permission, Roy said the MCMC was a mere Memorandum of Understanding among the political parties. "If they think there is any violation, they need to satisfy us with an explanation," he said.

"Will the words 'pishi' and 'didi' be removed from the Bengali vocabulary? Will we not have aunts and sisters," Roy asked.

Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is affectionately referred to as "didi". Banrjee is also the aunt of Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee.

Roy further mentioned that he met the Chief Electoral Officer to discuss the proper deployment of central forces during the Lok Sabha elections.
New Delhi, April 8 : Separatist leader Mirwaiz Umer Farooq on Monday appeared before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) here in connection with its probe into the terror funding case but is not cooperating with the investigators, official sources said.

An NIA source privy to the investigation told IANS that the Mirwaiz, who leads the moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference, was asked about his connections with hawala operators and his contacts in foreign countries.

"As of now, he has been unable to give any proper reply," the source said.

The source also said that the NIA officials also asked him about details of his bank accounts, his movable and immovable properties and his relatives residing in India and abroad and their businesses.

The source also said that the NIA team also sought answers to the documents and other incriminating materials seized from his residence during the raids on February 26 this year.

The source said that the Hurriyat leader may be questioned till 8 p.m.

Earlier in the day, the Mirwaiz arrived at the NIA headquarters amid security provided by the agency, right from his arrival at the Indira Gandhi International airport here.

He was accompanied by Hurriyat Conference leaders Abdul Ghani Bhat and Maulana Abbas Ansari.

The Mirwaiz, charged with involvement in the case, had earlier ignored two summons of the NIA, citing security reasons and seeking that he be questioned in Srinagar itself. However, the NIA, in its third summons on Friday, assured that it would ensure security to him in Delhi.

The NIA had registered the case of terror funding behind the violence in the Kashmir Valley in May 2017 and in July 2017, arrested Aftab Hilali Shah alias Shahid-ul-Islam, Ayaz Akbar Khandey, Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate, Nayeem Khan, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal and Bashir Ahmad Bhat alias Peer Saifullah.

Altaf Ahmad Shah is the son-in-law of hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who advocates Jammu and Kashmir's merger with Pakistan. Shahid-ul-Islam is an aide of the Mirwaiz, and Khandey is the spokesperson for the Geelani-led Hurriyat.

Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali was also arrested in the case on August 17, 2017.

The anti-terror agency had on January 18 last year filed a charge sheet against 12 persons including Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, seven Kashmiri separatist leaders and others in the case.
Patna, April 8 : After former MP Putul Kumari, Bharatiya Janata Party's Bihar legislator Sachidanand Rai on Monday revolted against the party, announcing that he will contest Lok Sabha polls from Maharajganj parliamentary seat.

"I will contest from Maharajganj as an independent candidate," Rai said.

Putul Kumari, who had filed nomination papers from Banka seat as an Independent candidate, was expelled from the BJP for six years last week. The wife of former Union Minister Digvijay Singh, she had contested the bypoll for Banka as an Independent after his death in 2010 and won. However, she had lost the 2014 polls from the seat when she was contesting as a BJP candidate.
New Delhi, April 8 : The BJP has been promising to build a grand Ram temple at the site of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya since 1991 -- even before the mosque was razed.

And like the Ram temple, 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and state assemblies too has remained an election pledge since it was first mentioned by the Bharatiya Janata Party in its 1996 manifesto.

Both issues figure prominently in the 2019 Lok Sabha election manifesto issued on Monday.

The first reference to a Ram temple in Ayodhya came in the 1989 Lok Sabha battle but at that time, the BJP did not speak about constructing one at the site where the 16th century Babri Masjid stood.

The 1989 reference said: "By not allowing the rebuilding of the Ram Janma Mandir in Ayodhya, on the lines of Somnath Mandir built by the Government of India in 1948, it (government) has allowed tensions to rise, and gravely strained social harmony."

In the next elections in 1991, the saffron party said it firmly believed that construction of Ram Mandir at 'Jamnasthan' (birthplace) of Lord Ram was a symbol of the vindication of "our cultural heritage and national self-respect".

In December 1992, Hindu mobs brought down the Babri Masjid and quickly built a makeshift temple dedicated to Lord Ram.

In 1996, the year when the BJP first took power albeit only for 13 days, the BJP promised to facilitate the construction of "a magnificent Shri Ram Mandir in Ayodhya which will be a tribute to Bharat Mata".

In 1998, when the BJP finally formed its broad coalition government, it repeated its promise to build "a magnificent Shri Ram Mandir" where a makeshift temple already exists.

It also said that the BJP will explore all consensual, legal and constitutional means towards this end.

In 1999, when the BJP returned to power after losing a parliamentary vote of confidence, the party kept away from the temple issue, more to please many of its allies in the coalition.

However, in 2004, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) manifesto said: "The NDA believes that an early and amicable resolution of the Ayodhya issue will strengthen national integration. We continue to hold that the judiciary's verdict in this matter should be accepted by all. At the same time, efforts should be intensified for dialogue and a negotiated settlement in an atmosphere of mutual trust and goodwill."

In 2009, the BJP said there was an overwhelming desire of the people to have a grand temple at the birthplace of Ram in Ayodhya and it again promised to explore all possibilities to facilitate such a construction.

The 2019 manifesto released on Monday said: "We will explore all possibilities within the framework of the Constitution and all necessary efforts to facilitate the expeditious construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya."

The same is the story of the bill meant to reserve a third of all seats in Parliament and state Assemblies for women.

The BJP made its first commitment in an election manifesto in 1996 "to make women real participants in a resurgent India of the 21st century".

In 1998, the party promised it will "immediately seek the passage of the Bill reserving 33 per cent seats for women in all elected bodies, including the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies".

The issue came up again came up in 1999, 2004, 2009 and also in 2014.

The latest manifesto says: "Women's welfare and development will be accorded a high priority at all levels within the government, and the BJP is committed to 33 per cent reservation in parliament and state assemblies through a constitutional amendment."

(Nivedita Singh can be contacted at nivedita.singh@ians.in)
Dehradun, April 8 : After big rallies of top national leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, the campaigning for the five Lok Sabha seats in Uttarakhand in the first phase of the 2019 general elections comes to an end on Tuesday evening.

The campaigning on the penultimate day on Monday was affected when rains lashed many parts of the state. However, Met Director Vikaram Singh expressed hope that the weather will be clear from Tuesday onward till April 11, when the election will be held.

Just like in previous elections, the BJP is again virtually locked in a straight fight with Congress in all the five seats - Tehri, Pauri, Haridwar, Almora and Nainital - where candidates are crisscrossing the length and breadth of the hill state to garner support in their favour on the last few days of the campaign.

Though the BJP had won all the five seats in 2014, Congress candidates such as state party President Pritam singh and party general secretary Harish Rawat are giving anxious moments to the rival BJP candidates at a couple of seats, independent observers said. The BJP may have an edge in the two seats of Garhwal-Pauri and Haridwar - mainly due to the entry of newcomers from Congress side.

From Tehri, the BJP is again betting on Rajyalaxmi Shah, the daughter-in-law of late Maharaja Manvendra Shah. This time, Shah is pitted against PCC chief Pritam Singh, who is contesting the parliamentary election for the first time. Singh is four time MLA from Chakrata which is part of the Tehri seat. But Shah, who belongs to Nepalese royal family and gets support from over one lakh strong Gorkha population. She also commands great respect in the region for being a consort of the "Boland Badri" (speaking Lord Vishnu).

On the other hand, Singh too has a strong Jausari vote bank and the contest against Shah looks interesting.

In Pauri. the Congress party's Manish Khanduri, a new comer in the election, is facing an uphill task against the much experienced BJP national secretary Tirath Singh Rawat. Khanduri junior is mainly banking on the name and the fame of his father, who is considered to be a big leader in Pauri. Khanduri senior had won the seat five times but has kept himself away from the campaign this time. On the other hand, Rawat is also a protege of Khanduri senior.

In Haridwar, top BJP leader and former Mhief minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank', the sitting MP, also has an edge against Congress candidate Ambrish Kumar, a first timer. Some people in Haridwar are even saying that BSP may push Congress to third place at Haridwar.

Unlike Garhwal, the fight for both Nainital and Almora seats in Kumaon is going to be very close. The main reason is that the Congress candidates in these two seats - former Chief Minister Harish Rawat (Nainital) and Rajya sabha member Pradip Tamta (Almora) are very experienced.

Rawat is pitted against state BJP President Ajay Bhatt at Nainital. Leader of the opposition Indira Hridayesh has claimed that she has organized eight rallies in support of Rawat at Haldwani area of Nainital seat.

In Almora, Harish Rawat's protege Tamta is locked in an intense tussle against Union Minister of State for Textiles Ajay Tamta. In the battle of two Tamtas, it can be anybody's game, observers said.

The BJP is also banking on the support of its 57 MLAs in the state to drum up support for the party's candidates. Congress has omly 11 MLAs in the state.
Nagaon: Police take away All Assam Students Union (AASU) activists staging a demonstration during an 11-hour shutdown called by North East Students Organisation (NESO) in the entire northeast to protest against the BJP-led NDA government's move to pa Image Source: PK

Shillong, April 8 : The North East Students' Organisation (NESO) on Monday condemned the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Lok Sabha poll manifesto that has promised to enact the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill if it comes back to power after the elections.

"NESO would like to send a clear message that it will not allow anyone to put our future generation at risk and the movement is on and will continue for uplift, safeguard, protection from both internal and external aggression," NESO Chairman Samuel Jyrwa said.

Jyrwa reminded that the whole of the Northeast was up in arms in recent months against the move by the Indian government to pass the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in the Rajya Sabha.

"NESO strongly condemns this move by the BJP as it clearly shows that it has no regard for the welfare of the microscopic indigenous communities of the Northeast, but rather this move is to reduce us to a minority in our own land," he said.

The indigenous students' apex body reiterated that it does not distinguish between people on the basis of their religion.

"A foreigner is a foreigner irrespective whether a Muslim or a Hindu", it said.
London/New Delhi, April 8 : In a fresh win for India, the United Kingdom High Court has rejected fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya's written submission for permission to appeal against his extradition order passed by a Westminster magistrate's court.

The submission was rejected by Justice William Davis on April 5. Mallya has five days for an oral submission, said sources in New Delhi.

Mallya, wanted by India in the Rs 9,000 crore Kingfisher Airlines loan default case and charges of fraud, money laundering and violation of Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) brought by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate, had moved the High Court after the Westminster Magistrates Court, on December 10, 2018, gave the go-ahead for his extradition.

Westminster Magistrates' Court Chief Magistrate, Judge Emma Arbuthnot had then sent Mallya's case to Home Secretary Sajid Javed, who had also cleared the extradition in February.

Mallya, 63, left India on March 2, 2016 after defaulting on loans amounting to Rs 9,000 crore he had taken for his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines but he has repeatedly denied fleeing the country, saying he is ready to pay back the money he owed to the Indian banks.

India had in late 2017 filed extradition proceedings against Mallya which he contested. He is currently out on bail in London.

A consortium of 13 banks, led by the State Bank of India (SBI), has been preparing to initiate loan recovery proceedings against him.

The proceedings are on before a special court in Mumbai under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act.

The Enforcement Directorate had also moved the Special Prevention of Money-Laundering Act Court last year to declare Mallya a "fugitive economic offender" and confiscate all his properties, estimated at more than Rs 12,000 crore, making it the first such case of its kind under the new law.
New Delhi, April 8 : The BJP on Monday promised smart fencing on all borders with maximum use of technology to make the country's security system stronger and effective.

In its election manifesto, the "Sankalp Patra" for the Lok Sabha polls, unveiled here by the top party leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP also pledged to focus on creation of developmental and other necessary infrastructure in the border areas.

"We will continue to undertake effective steps to prevent illegal immigration in the northeastern states. For this, we will further strengthen our border security. A pilot project on the use of technology to strengthen border security (smart fencing) was implemented in Dhubri (Assam). We will implement this on all borders," it said.

"We will focus on creation of developmental and other necessary infrastructure in border areas to ensure that border security is strengthened, and to enable increased participation of and benefits for border areas in the country's development and progress," it added.

The party also pledged to construct 14 more integrated check-posts by 2024 to facilitate easier trade and travel from the neighboring countries.

"After completion of all the proposed integrated check-posts, all trade movement with Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan will be conducted through the integrated check-posts," the manifesto read.

The party pledged that if it returns to power, it would continue to take steps for ensuring security of India's long coastline.
Hyderabad, April 8 : In a massive cash haul days before the Lok Sabha election, police here seized Rs 8 crore on Monday.

The cash was seized in Narayanguda in the heart of the city, making it the biggest seizure so far in Telangana.

Police initially seized Rs 2 crore cash from a car while checking vehicles and based on the information given by the two persons in the car, another Rs 6 crore was seized from five persons near a bank, informed sources said.

With this, the Hyderabad police have seized about Rs13 crore in unaccounted cash in the last three days.

The police across Telangana have seized Rs 26.73 crore, before Monday's seizure in Hyderabad.

Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar had said on Sunday that police seized Rs 4.92 crore during the last two days. He said the 'illegal' cash meant for distribution among voters was seized at several places in the city.

The police chief also said those apprehended belonged to a single political party but did not reveal its identity.

Elections to all 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state are scheduled on April 11.
New Delhi, April 8 : The Armed Forces Tribunal will hear a petition filed by Vice Admiral Bimal Verma challenging his supersession and appointment of Vice Admiral Karambir Singh as the next Navy Chief.

Admiral Verma is the senior-most officer in line to become the Navy chief, but the government decided to hand over the command to Karambir Singh.

Admiral Verma, who heads Andaman and Nicobar command, has sought court's intervention to know the reasons for his supersession.

Vice Admiral Karambir Singh, who heads the Eastern Naval Command, is slated to take charge on May 31 when current Navy Chief Sunil Lanba is slated to retire.

This is not the first time when the Modi government has ignored seniority to appoint service chief. Bipin Rawat was made the Army Chief over two seniors -- Lt. Generals Praveen Bakshi and P.M. Hafiz.

Verma, brother of former Navy Chief Nirmal Verma, was posted in the war room when it was hit by the information leak controversy in 2005.
Islamabad, April 8 : Pakistan on Monday accepted India's "proposal for a technical meeting" on the Kartarpur Corridor which will be held on April 16.

"Continuing with #Pakistan's spirit of constructive engagement, we have agreed to the Indian proposal for a technical meeting on April 16. We expect positivity from #India so that the corridor becomes reality for 550th celebrations. #PakistanKartarpurSpirit," Pakistan Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Dr Mohammad Faisal tweeted.

His comment came after India last week said Pakistan had not responded to the clarifications it has sought about facilities to pilgrims for the Kartarpur Corridor.

New Delhi had also said that Islamabad also had not addressed its concerns about appointment of "controversial elements" to the committee appointed by Pakistan to be associated with the corridor.

India had put on hold the second round of Kartarpur Corridor talks scheduled for April 2.

The Kartarpur Corridor connects Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan's Narowal district with Dera Baba Nanak in India's Gurdaspur.

The Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara is significant for the Sikh community as it is here that Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev spent 18 years of his life and is his final resting place.
Ahmedabad, April 8 : The Election Commission on Monday issued show-cause notices to BJP legislator Madhu Srivastava for threatening the electors with serious consequences if they did not vote for the ruling party.

An MLA from Waghodia Assembly constituency under the Vadodara Lok Sabha seat, Srivastava appealed to people to put their seal on the Lotus symbol, failing which they would have to incur his wrath.

The BJP legislator was seen in a video, which went viral on social media, threatening the electorate in Waghodia constituency to vote for BJP candidate from Vadodara Ranjan Bhatt in the parliamentary polls.

Addressing the people at the opening of an election office in Waghodia last week, Srivastava said he would "fix" whoever was staying illegally in the area and dares not to vote for the BJP.

"We have provided you with electricity, water and other basic amenities. You are not even paying panchayat taxesa."

Madhu Srivastava, who was recently appointed Chairman of the Gujarat Agro Industries Corp, has had a stranglehold over his constituency for long and came into public prominence for his alleged role in the 2002 communal riots in the state.

Vadodara District Election Officer and District Collector Shalini Agarwal told reporters that Srivastava has been given three days to reply on the show-cause notice, which was issued following a complaint by the Congress and due to media reports.

"We are examining the video of the event," she said.
San Francisco, April 8 : A group of ethnic Tibetan youth from a poverty-stricken village in China's Sichuan province will make their first overseas trip to the US to widen their horizons as part of a UN poverty-relief programme, an organiser said.

Hwa A. Lim, a board member of Asian Hustle and Salsa Association (AHSA) World, a California-based non-profit organization dedicated to skills development, literacy promotion and poverty alleviation, said on Sunday that six ethnic Tibetan youth from a village in Pingwu County, Sichuan province, will come to California in celebration of World Dance Day.

"They'll be visiting us for about 10 days. We'll take them to different schools, to different places and even to visit some companies," he was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

The ethnic Tibetan youth will perform a Chinese intangible heritage "Yak Dance", a traditional ritual dance popular among ethnic Tibetan groups in Sichuan, at the 2019 AHSA World Dance Day Charity Night on April 28 in the San Francisco Bay Area, Lim said.

This year's celebrations will focus on the theme of poverty-relief and quality education, said Lim, who is a bioinformatics expert at the UN Food and Agricultural Organization and a member of the International Dance Council (CID).

The CID is a non-governmental organization founded in 1973 within the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) headquarters in Paris.

"We encourage everybody to help out so that everybody can be on the same boat," Lim said. "This year we target those impoverished children of the ethnic Tibetans in remote areas of western China."

AHSA World is the sponsor of the project "When Creativity Meets Poverty Alleviation and Education" nominated for the 2018 Unesco Literacy Prizes, which was later incorporated into the SDG4-Education 2030 agenda.

Its aim is to help poverty-hit children become literate and develop skills for future careers.
New Delhi, April 8 : The performance of Jammu and Kashmir government was below average on most voter issues, including employment, healthcare, school education and terrorism, according to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

The election watchdog's 'Jammu and Kashmir Survey 2018', released on Monday, says the government also performed "poorly" in providing farm loans and better roads.

The survey was conducted between October 2018 and December 2018. The state is being governed by the central government since June 20, 2018 -- earlier through Governor's rule and now through President's rule.

Across the state, the major voter concerns were employment opportunities (69.23 per cent), school education (57.36 per cent) and primary healthcare centres (41.78 per cent), it said.

In rural parts, the top priorities were employment opportunities (71 per cent), school education (64 per cent) and farm loan availability (42 per cent). Jobs (63 per cent), traffic congestion (60 per cent) and healthcare facilities (60 per cent) continue to be huge concerns for the urban voters.
DAMASCUS, April 8, 2019 (Xinhua) -- Buses transporting Syrian refugees are seen upon returning from Lebanon at the Syrian border point of Jdeidet Yabous on April 8, 2019. Hundreds of Syrian refugees returned home on Monday from several areas in Leban Image Source: PK

DAMASCUS, April 8, 2019 (Xinhua) -- Syrian refugees are seen upon returning from Lebanon at the Syrian border point of Jdeidet Yabous on April 8, 2019. Hundreds of Syrian refugees returned home on Monday from several areas in Lebanon including Tripol Image Source: PK

DAMASCUS, April 8, 2019 (Xinhua) -- Syrian refugees are seen upon returning from Lebanon at the Syrian border point of Jdeidet Yabous on April 8, 2019. Hundreds of Syrian refugees returned home on Monday from several areas in Lebanon including Tripol Image Source: PK

New York, April 8 : At least 2,800 people have fled rising violence in Libya's capital Tripoli, the UN said on Monday after international powers began evacuating personnel from the country amid the worsening security situation.

The UN-backed government in Libya said 32 of its fighters were killed in the fighting, the BBC reported.

Tensions in the country have risen since rogue Libyan military commander, Gen. Khalifa Haftar, ordered his forces to attack the government in Tripoli last week.

Gen. Haftar's Libyan National Army is seeking to take over from the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA).

Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj has accused Gen. Haftar of attempting a coup and says rebels will be met with force.

The UN said several civilians were trapped by the clashes and cut off from vital emergency services. It had earlier appealed for a two-hour truce so casualties and civilians could be evacuated, but fighting continued.

In response, the EU and several countries including the US and Russia called for an end to hostilities.

"This unilateral military campaign against Tripoli is endangering civilians and undermining prospects for a better future for all Libyans," said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

America's top commander for Africa said the US had pulled a contingent of its troops from Libya.

"The security realities on the ground in Libya are growing increasingly complex and unpredictable," said Marine Corps Gen. 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 said the repositioning was in response to security concerns.

The Italian multinational oil and gas company Eni also decided to evacuate all its Italian personnel from the country, reports say.

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. It was also due to pull out non-essential staff.

The country has been torn by violence and political instability since long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi was deposed and killed in 2011.

UN-backed talks aimed at drawing up a road map for new elections have been scheduled for April 14-16 in the city of Ghadames. UN envoy Ghassan Salame insisted the talks would go ahead, unless serious obstacles prevented it, saying "we won't give up this political work quickly".
Bengaluru, April 8 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address seven public rallies over the next 10 days to campaign for BJP candidates in Karnataka where elections to 28 Lok Sabha constituencies will be held on April 18 and 23, it was announced on Monday.

"Modi launches his first rally on Tuesday at Chitradurga followed by another at Mysuru in the evening. He will address three rallies at Koppal, Mangaluru and Bengaluru on April 13 and the remaining two at Bagalkot and Chikkodi on April 18," BJP leader G. Madhusudhan told IANS here.

The last two rallies in the state's northern region coincide with the first phase of polling on April 18 in 14 seats in the state's central and southern regions.

Polling in the remaining 14 seats are in the state's coastal and northern regions on April 23. Vote count in all the 28 seats is on May 23.

The BJP is contesting in 27 parliamentary seats and supporting multi-lingual south India actor Sumalatha Ambareesh, an Independent, from Mandya, about 100 km from here, against Nikhil Gowda of the Janata Dal-Secular.

"The location and venue of the rallies have been decided to ensure Modi reaches out to the maximum electorate in the state's all the three regions and from where most of our candidates had won in the last two general elections in 2014 and 2009," said Madhusudhan.

As the party won 17 of the 28 seats in the 2014 general elections, it has re-nominated most of the outgoing members except in Bangalore South, Belgaum and Koppal.

The party is betting on Modi's popularity to win at least 20 seats from the state.

"As Modi has to campaign for the party across the country till May 17, we are unable to get him for more rallies in the state although he had addresses two rallies at Hubli on February 10 and Gulbarga on March 6 before the elections were announced," said Madhusudhan.

Besides Modi, the party has lined up a galaxy of its leaders including party President Amit Shah, central ministers Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Suresh Prabhu and Smriti Irani and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
Latur : , April 8 IANS) The bickerings of nearly four years behind them, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray will share the dais - for the first time in 28 months - at an election rally in Ausa here on Tuesday.

The last time they came together was for performing the 'jal pooja' for the proposed grand memorial of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, in the Arabian Sea, off Chowpatty in Mumbai.

Later that day, on December 24, 2016, they had addressed a joint public meeting in Bandra Kurla Complex where Thackeray faced a major embarrassment as Bharatiya Janata Party supporters kept chanting 'Modi, Modi' during his address.

As relations between the two saffron allies continued to worsen, at one of his rallies, Thackeray had repeated Congress President Rahul Gandhi's jibe of 'Chowkidar Chor Hai', much to the BJP's chagrin.

In the past four-plus years, the BJP ally in the centre and state left no opportunity to hit out at Modi, BJP President Amit Shah, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and other top leaders on various issues ranging from demonetization to the Ram temple.

Nevertheless, the past was hastily buried last month when the BJP-Sena re-entered their alliance and now are contesting the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the ratio of 25:23 and have announced plans to contest the assembly elections together.

Post-alliance, Thackeray has again warmed up to Fadnavis, Shah and Modi and held joint rallies with the Chief Minister.

The two allies had contested the 2014 Maharashtra Assembly elections, the 2017 BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections and the 2018 Palghar Lok Sabha by-election separately and against each other.
Hyderabad, April 8 : Cyient, a global IT solutions provider, on Monday signed a tripartite MoU with the government of Telangana and the Telangana State Aviation Academy (TSAA) to develop and conduct remote pilot (drone pilot) training and certification programmes.

Under the pact, Cyient will provide the training tools and the TSAA training services and infrastructure to conduct programmes. The courses will be developed as per DGCA curriculum guidelines.

The first of its kind initiative in Telangana is aimed at developing a pool of skilled drone pilots to meet industry needs, said Cyient.

They will work towards setting up at TASA a drone pilot training infrastructure, which will include a variety of rotatory and fixed-wing drones along with simulators to train pilots.

While they will work on customised courses suited to various industries, the current course will be a five-day training programme comprising combination of theory, realistic simulations and actual drone flying exercise.

The participants will be awarded a DGCA authorised remote pilot licence/certification upon passing a test at the end of the course.

Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce, IT, Electronics & Communications, said the partnership was a step towards providing emerging skills and shape the future of youth.

"This MoU gives us an opportunity to use our technology expertise to assist TSAA in designing and delivering drone pilot training courses as per DGCA curriculum guidelines and create a skilled talent pool for the industry," said Krishna Bodanapu, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Cyient.

G.B. Reddy, Officiating CEO of TSAA, said it will combine Cyient's knowledge of drone technology and application with TSAA's professional flying capabilities.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih at the Joint Press Statement at Hyderabad House in New Delhi, on Dec 17, 2018. (Photo: IANS/PIB) Image Source: IANS

New Delhi, April 8 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi called up Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on Monday and complimented him on the victory of his Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) in the recent parliamentary elections in the Indian Ocean archipelago nation.

A MEA release said that during their telephonic conversation, Modi noted that the significant victory of MDP signifies a "resounding endorsement of the policies and efforts of its leaders", who have worked with deep commitment for the people of Maldives.

He welcomed the successful completion of the elections, which marked consolidation of democracy and strengthening of democratic institutions in the Maldives.

Modi reiterated India's deep commitment, in keeping with its 'Neighbourhood First' policy, to work closely with the Maldives in further deepening their partnership and assist it as per its requirement in its socio-economic development.

He also spoke to former President Mohamed Nasheed and congratulated him on the momentous electoral victory.

The Prime Minister lauded the participation of all democracy-loving forces in deepening the roots of democracy in the Maldives, and offered India's continued assistance for the objective.
New Delhi, April 8 : The BJP's election manifesto released on Monday affirmed the party's stand on national security, including the resolve to fight terrorism.

It also mentioned the core ideological issues, announced new pension schemes to counter the Congress' "Nyay" thrust, and spoke about meeting the aspirations of the people in the next five years, reiterating that the Narendra Modi-led government had met the requirements in the last five years.

The manifesto set short-term targets to be achieved by 2022, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi also talked about laying the foundation for making India a developed country by 2047 when the country will celebrate the centenary of its Independence.

The manifesto mentioned almost all the issues associated with the party, including the construction of a grand Ram temple at Ayodhya, abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and the Uniform Civil Code.

With the tagline "Sankalpit Bharat, Sashakt Bharat" (committed India, strong India), the BJP's "Sankalp Patra" (manifesto) sought to reach out to all sections of people, including the farmers, small shopkeepers, youth, women, the middle class and the poor.

Reaching out to the poor, small farmers and small shopkeepers is crucial for the BJP in view of the Congress' promise of providing annual minimum income support of Rs 72,000 to 20 per cent of the poorest families in the country if it is voted to power.

The Congress on Sunday unveiled its campaign slogan -- "Ab Hoga Nyay" (Now, there will be justice). "Nyay" is incidentally the acronym of its minimum income guarantee scheme -- Nyuntam Aay Yojana.

In its manifesto, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said that it would seek to double farmers' income by 2022, invest Rs 1 lakh crore in higher education, ensure housing for all and 100 per cent electrification in the next three years. It also promised to set up a National Traders Commission.

The party promised pension to the small farmers and small shopkeepers and said that the PM-KISAN scheme, which provides Rs 6,000 annual assistance to the small famers, will be extended to all the farmers.

After losing power in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh last year, the BJP has been making extra efforts to reach out to the farmers.

The manifesto said that when India will celebrate the 75th year of its Independence in 2022, the country would have fulfilled 75 goals related to agriculture, infrastructure, economy, governance and education, among others.

The 75 goals include the creation of 10,000 new farmer producer organisations, pension for small and marginal farmers above 60 years, digitisation of land records, toilets in every household, access to safe and potable drinking water, electrification of all railway tracks, establishment of 1.5 lakh health centres and improving Gross Domestic Product (GDP) share from the manufacturing sector.

The manifesto also talked about the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, over which the party faces opposition from almost all its allies in the Northeast. It said the BJP would enact the bill if it returns to power after the Lok Sabha elections.

The party also reiterated its commitment to the Triple Talaq Bill.

Declaring its aim to make India the third largest economy in the world by 2030, the BJP said it would promote investment-driven growth to build a "New India" and make it a $10 trillion economy by 2032.

The BJP leaders also highlighted the 2016 cross-border surgical strikes and the recent air strike in Balakot by the Indian Air Force (IAF) as examples of the government's strong resolve against terrorism.

"Our new policy and new doctrine of striking terror in its origin has received global recognition," Finance Minister Arun Jailtey said at the manifesto release function.

In his speech, BJP President Amit Shah talked about the achievments of the Modi government in the last five years, including providing houses, toilets and gas connections to the people.

Taking a dig at the COngress, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said that unlike other parties, which came up with "Ghoshna Patra", the BJP has come out with a "Sankalp Patra".

She also said that India's prestige has gone up in the past five years in which Modi has been honoured with five prestigious awards, including the top civilian awards of the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Nirmal: Telangana Chief Minister and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) supremo K Chandrashekhar Rao addresses during a rally ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Telangana's Nirmal district on April 7, 2019. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News

Hyderabad, April 8 : Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Monday said his Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) would support the special category status for neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.

His announcement at an election rally came a day before the campaigning is to end for elections in both the Telugu states and it appears to bolster prospects of his ally YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) in Andhra Pradesh, where simultaneous elections are being held for the Assembly.

KCR, as Rao is popularly known, has, for the first time, publicly announced support for special status and it came amid the continuing attack by the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) on the YSRCP for joining hands with the TRS without the latter giving any assurance on the issue.

Addressing an election rally in Vikarabad near here, KCR targeted Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP President N. Chandrababu Naidu and predicted that he would badly lose the elections.

The TRS chief said his party MPs already supported the demand for special status to Andhra Pradesh in the Parliament. He also dismissed the allegation by Naidu that Telangana was trying to stall the Polavaram project.

"People of Andhra are good but some political leaders like Chandrababu Naidu are creating irritants. He is cursing Hyderabad, saying it will lose its shine. It is Chandrababu Naidu who will lose the deposit in these elections," he said.

KCR also predicted that the TRS will win 16 Lok Sabha seats, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) will secure one seat and with the YSRCP, they together would have 35-36 MPs.

Reacting to KCR's announcement, Naidu said the TRS chief's life was full of lies. He wanted to know why he opposed special status to Andhra Pradesh when UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi wanted to give it.

The TDP chief also asked KCR why he did not support the TDP's no-confidence motion against Narendra Modi government in the Parliament over the same issue.
Gandhinagar, April 9 : With the last day of withdrawal of nominations on Monday, as many as 371 candidates were left in the fray for the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat which would go the hustings in the third phase on April 26.

According to the Chief Electoral Officer's office, 81 candidates withdrew their forms on Monday leaving 371 candidates, including 26 each of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress, in the race.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) had received total 572 nominations from across Gujarat for the 26 Lok Sabha seats. The CEO office, after scrutinizing the forms, had rejected 120 of these with 452 candidates valid for contesting.

The maximum number of candidates, 31, will be fighting it out for the Surendranagar Lok Sabha constituency, and the minimum six contestants are in the fray for the Panchmahals seat.

The maximum 17 withdrawals were reported from the Gandhinagar parliamentary seat where BJP candidate Amit Shah is facing Congress' sitting MLA CJ Chavda.

Gujarat will go to polls for the Lok Sabha elections on April 23 in a single phase for all the 26 seats. The results will be out on May 23.
Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company (SALIC) has purchased Australias largest single parcel of broadacre agricultural land  the Nicoletti familys 200,000ha portfolio.

CBRE Agribusiness Danny Thomas, together with Damian Bryce of map19, managed the sale process for the Baladjie aggregation.

The transaction has received approval from Australias Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB).

It comprises 76,000ha freehold cropping land and 134,000ha leasehold land in Western Australias eastern Wheatbelt region.

The Baladjie aggregation is a large scale, fully operational sheep/wheat farming business accommodating a minimum sheep flock of 40,000 Merino Ewes, plus rams and progeny. It consists of John and Julie Nicolettis farming interest and other third-party options.

Mr Thomas said the sale represented an opportunity to acquire one of the largest farming operations in Australia and the nations largest single parcel of broadacre land.

The purchaser was drawn to the scale and quality of this property, with it providing an opportunity to expand their platform significantly with geographic spread and also execute on their investment strategies, Mr Thomas said.

SALIC also acquired a number of our neighbouring properties.

The aggregation, which is located between Merredin, Mukinbudin, Bullfinch and Southern Cross, also features structural improvements including more than 25 dwellings, 12 shearing sheds, machinery and storage.

Nova Legal provided legal representation for the vendor throughout the process.
Chinese investment in Australia dropped to AUD 8.2 billion in 2018  down by 36.3% from 2017, according to the latest research from professional services firm KMPG.

KMPG's Demystifying Chinese investment in Australia report, written with The University of Sydney, found that private companies dominated the investment landscape.

They accounted for 87% of deal value and over 92% of deal volume, with an overall trend towards smaller sized deals.

Healthcare was the most popular sector for Chinese investors, with commercial real estate falling to second position.

Chinese investors still see Australia as a relatively attractive country to invest in, the report notes, with an improving political climate, but they also confirmed that they are finding it harder to get capital out of China, and there are challenges raising capital in Australia.

Knight Frank contributed data and analysis on commercial real estate transactions.

Click here to enlarge:

Despite Chinese global outbound direct investment actually growing by 4.2% in 2018, Australia has felt the pinch of a significant reduction to our shores, reflecting the impact of policy changes in China," said Doug Ferguson, KPMG's head of Asia and international markets and report co-author.

"Our rate of decline has been accelerating and is now closer to the trend observed in the United States and Canada, where Chinese Overseas Direct Investment dropped by 83% and 47% respectively in 2018.

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While this annual result brings Chinese ODI in Australia back to the second lowest level since the mining and gas driven investment peak year of 2008, there is no reason why Australia cant return to higher levels of Chinese capital inflow seen historically.

2018 need not define a trend of lower Chinese investment in Australia into the future but it is a moment to reflect upon. There are a great many opportunities for Chinese companies to contribute towards the development and internationalisation of Australian industries in the coming years. Australian companies seeking further investment must continue to explore and present unique opportunities that appeal to the key value drivers of targeted Chinese investors, Mr Ferguson said.
The first CoreLogic Quarterly Rental Review for 2019, which tracks median rents and rental yields across Australia, shows that national weekly rents have risen by 1% during the first three months of the year.

This seasonally strong first quarter has delivered the highest increase in weekly rents since the corresponding first quarter a year ago, says Cameron Kusher, Research Analyst for CoreLogic.

Our regional housing markets are performing marginally better than the capital cities, many of which have been experiencing weaker rental market conditions in recent years due to excess housing supply and growing investor activity.

Quarterly rents have increased across all capital cities, bar Sydney and Darwin. Hobart is experiencing notable growth, with rents increasing by 3.6% over the past quarter. However, with a median rent of $582 per week, Sydney remains Australia's most expensive city for tenants by far.

The Quarterly Rental Review also highlights a national increase in yields over the past three and 12 months. Gross rental yields for the first quarter are 4.10% compared to 3.95% in the previous quarter and 3.77% a year ago.

Darwin has the highest rental yield across the country with an annual median of 6%.

Sydney remains Australias most expensive capital city market, with a median weekly rent of $582, despite a decline of -3.1% over the past 12 months. While rents in Sydney remained the same as the previous month, they increased by 0.5% over the past quarter. Sydney also has the lowest rental yields out of all capital cities, at 3.5% over the past quarter.

Key findings  rents and yields

Nationally, rents increased by +1% over the March quarter and by 0.4% over the past 12 months. Combined capital city rents were 0.9% higher than the December 2018 quarter but -0.1% lower than the previous March quarter. This is the lowest annual change since CoreLogic started tracking rents in 2005. Regional rents were slightly stronger, with a 1.1% increase over the quarter and a 1.8% increase over the past year.

In the first quarter, rents climbed in all capital cities except for Darwin (-0.3%). Hobart was by far the strongest performer, with a 3.6% increase in rent over the past quarter, followed by Perth (+1.8%) and Canberra (+1.5%). Hobart also experienced the highest increase in rent over the past 12 months (+5.4%) while at the other end of the scale the media rent in Darwin fell by -5.7%.

Nationally, the median rent is $436 per week. The median rent across the capital cities is $465 per week, and $378 per week across the regionals.

Gross rental yields have increased from 3.8% to 4.1% nationally. Across the combined capitals, the average rental yield is 3.8% (up from 3.5%). Regional yields are far higher at 5.1%, up from 4.9% 12 months ago.

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Source: CoreLogic

The report showed Canberra with a median rental cost of $550 per week, an increase of 1.5% over the past quarter and 3.6% over the past 12 months. Canberra is one of only two capital cities (alongside Darwin) to experience a drop in weekly rent over the past month (-0.1%).

In Melbourne, rents are $454 a week  an increase of 1% over the quarter and 2.1% over the past 12 months. Melbourne also reported the greatest increase in rental yields out of all capital cities, with current rental yields being 3.6%, compared to 3.1% a year ago. Despite the rise in yields, Melbourne has the second lowest weekly rental yield out of all capital cities (after Sydney).

Brisbane rents are starting to climb again, with Brisbane now having a median weekly rent of $436. This is an increase of 0.8% over the past quarter, and 1.4% over the past 12 months.

Perth is the most affordable capital city to rent in with a median weekly rent of $385. However, it is showing signs of growth, achieving the second highest quarterly rate (after Hobart) with an increase of 1.8% over the past 3 months. Over the past year, Perth rents have increased by 2.1%.

Adelaide closely follows Perth to become the second most affordable capital city to rent a property in, with a median weekly rent of $386. Like Brisbane, it experienced a 0.8% rise in rents over the March quarter. Over the past 12 months, rents in Adelaide have risen by 1.2%. Gross rental yields have remained static over the year at 4.4%.

Hobart reported the strongest growth in rents, up 3.6% over the past quarter to $453 per week. Over the past year, rents have increased by 5.4%. Hobart also reports the strongest growth over the past month, with a 1.6% increase in weekly rent. Hobart also reported the second highest rental yield (after Darwin) of 5.1%, which remained the same as 12 months ago.

Darwin has experienced the most significant decline in rent to achieve a median weekly rent of $458. This is down -0.3% over the quarter and -5.7% over the past year. In addition, Darwin also reports a drop of 0.2% over the past month. However, at 6%, Darwin has the highest gross rental yield out of all the capital cities (up 0.1% on the past 12 months).
Datalogics advanced research continues to deliver ground breaking technology for Logistics and Manufacturing, said Mark Cohen, Americas Vice President, Transportation and Logistics of Datalogic.

Datalogic, a global leader in the automatic data capture and industrial process automation will be unveiling top innovations at ProMat at Chicagos McCormick Place, April 8-11, 2019. ProMat is the premier expo for the latest manufacturing, distribution and supply chain equipment and systems in North America.

In booth S3931, Datalogic will present, following its innovative trajectory, several new products, including some exclusive products that will made available soon  this is a unique opportunity to discover some of the most advanced technologies for the Supply Chain:



New ways to accelerate high speed sorting, image inspection, track & trace and cost efficiencies for e-commerce

Innovative solutions to enhance warehouse efficiency including forklift solutions and extra-long range scanners

The power and reliability of wireless charging technologies for hand-held scanning devices

The most comprehensive portfolio of identification products  from fixed mount to hand held technologies

The latest technologies for robotics and automation in manufacturing

In booth S3931, Datalogic will present several new products including:

Memor 10 Industrial PDA is the first in a new family of rugged Android PDA devices with wireless charging and Google Mobile Services in a slim, compact form factor possessing the latest 2D bar code imaging technology for high performance scanning.

Matrix 220, a compact image-based barcode reader capable of providing top performance with the highest flexibility. The new multicore image processing platform, together with the new industrial grade electronic focus technology and the innovative lighting solutions, make the Matrix 220 the ideal imager for Electronics, Automotive, Packaging and Document Handling applications.

AREX 400, the top performance family of laser markers based on Fiber Laser Technology, dedicated to industrial Direct Part Marking (DPM) application.

Safety Laser Sentinel, a perfectly flexible solution for safe area protection for static and moving applications, in both horizontal and vertical applications. Two new models of the LASER SENTINEL safety laser scanners family, the SLS-M5 (Master) and SLS-R5 (Slave) models can be used in combination of up to 4 scanners to cover all sides of a machine or of a vehicle.

Taskbook, this is the perfect rugged tablet solution for warehouse operations: integrates either a Standard or Auto Range 2D imager, including a hot swappable battery and offers an optional handgrip.

Falcon X4 Auto Range, the new auto range scanning capability allows the Falcon X4 to scan up to 17 m/55 ft while providing superior performance and user experience of Datalogic scanning technology.

PowerScan 95X1 Auto Range (AR) Series, the top performing industrial hand held scanner with extra-long range scanning capabilities on 1D/2D barcodes. The PowerScan 9500 AR reader has a powerful autofocus system that allows the scanner to read from a short distance of 15 cm / 6 in to a distance of more than 20 m / 65 ft with a fast focus adjustment, allowing the operator to move easily from a closeup barcode to a barcode at the top of a warehouse rack.

Datalogics advanced research continues to deliver ground breaking technology for Logistics and Manufacturing, said Mark Cohen, Americas Vice President, Transportation and Logistics of Datalogic. At ProMat 2019 we will showcase four new products with advancements in imaging, improvements in laser marking and sensing, along with wireless charging for handhelds and mobile computers. Come visit us and experience hands-on demonstrations of the latest Datalogic innovations.

Datalogic Executives and SMEs will be on-site at booth S3931 to answer questions and demonstrate our latest products.

Datalogic Group

Datalogic is a global leader in the automatic data capture and process automation markets, specialized in the designing and production of bar code readers, mobile computers, sensors for detection, measurement and safety, RFID vision and laser marking systems. Datalogic solutions help to increase the efficiency and quality of processes in the Retail, Manufacturing, Transportation & Logistics and Healthcare industries, along the entire value chain.

The world's leading players in the four reference industries use Datalogic products, certain of the attention to the customer and of the quality of the products that the Group has been offering for 47 years.

Today Datalogic Group, headquartered in Bologna (Italy), employs approximately 3,200 staff worldwide, distributed in 30 countries, with manufacturing and repair facilities in the USA, Brazil, Italy, Slovakia, Hungary and Vietnam. In 2018 Datalogic had a turnover of 631 million Euro and invested almost 62 million Euros in Research & Development, with an asset of more than 1,200 patents in multiple jurisdictions.

Datalogic S.p.A. is listed in the STAR segment of the Italian Stock Exchange since 2001 as DAL.MI. More information about Datalogic at http://www.datalogic.com.

Datalogic and the Datalogic logo are registered trademarks of Datalogic S.p.A. in many countries, including the U.S.A. and the E.U. Memor, Matrix, AREX, Falcon, PowerScan are trademarks of Datalogic S.p.A. and/or its affiliates. - Android is a trademark of Google.
Activator Studios wins GOLD Activator Studios has helped build Hunter RMV into a world class brand. Theyre extremely knowledgeable in everything design, websites, and marketing and continue to impress us daily.

The Horizon Interactive Awards, a leading international interactive media awards competition, has announced the 2018 award winners to highlight this years best of the best in interactive media production.

Activator Studios was recognized for their excellence with a GOLD award for the Websites - Promotional Category for their website design with Hunter RMV, maker of expedition vehicles.

Activator Studios has helped build Hunter RMV into a world class brand. Theyre extremely knowledgeable in everything design, websites, and marketing and continue to impress us daily. Keith Storey, founder of Hunter RMV.

Focusing on aesthetically unique websites, Activator Studios has been at the forefront of website design for over two decades. A culmination of experience and a close working relationship with Hunter RMV were critical to envisioning a new brand in the auto space that would span across digital and physical mediums. Hunter RMV's website design has been the catalyst to a growing expedition vehicle company's footprint worldwide.

The 2018 competition saw entries from around the world including countries such as: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Greenland, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Turkey, Taiwan and the UK.

An international panel of judges, consisting of industry professionals with diverse backgrounds evaluated categories ranging from online advertising to mobile applications. The 2018 winning entries showcase the industrys best interactive media solutions including web sites, mobile applications, print media, interactive displays, public exhibits, online advertising, video, email and more.

The 2018 competition was an outstanding display of creativity and digital media excellence. This years participants, once again, have raised the bar for excellence in interactive media solutions, said Mike Sauce, Founder of the Horizon Interactive Awards. There were so many unique solutions that had an effective blend of different media types that combined for some truly stunning work. All of the winners should be proud of their achievement and I am proud that the Horizon Interactive Awards competition has been able to shine the spotlight on the countless talented individuals from all over the world who produce this work.

About the Horizon Interactive Awards

In its 17th year, the Horizon Interactive Awards was created to recognize excellence in interactive media production worldwide. Since 2001, the competition has received tens of thousands of entries from many countries around the world. Each year, those entries are narrowed down to the best of the best to be recognized and promoted on an international stage for their excellence. The judging process involves a blend of the Horizon Interactive Awards advisory panel and an international panel of volunteer judges consisting of industry professionals. Winning entries have been dubbed the best of the best in the interactive media industry.
Alliance Environmental Group, LLC announced today that it has acquired an interest in Mintie Corporation, a leading service and product solutions developer providing indoor air quality management, preventative maintenance, portable infection control, mass isolation and environmental containment solutions.

We are excited to add the Mintie Corporation to our portfolio, said Joseph McLean, Chief Executive Officer of Alliance Environmental. They are a third generation, family-owned business and have a solid reputation as innovators in product development and quality services for healthcare and other sensitive environments, a company culture similar to ours, and a commitment to customer service that is in line with our business practices.

Founded in 1940, Mintie began as a specialty maintenance service company and steadily built an international reputation for excellent service and innovative products.

We are thrilled to be part of the Alliance Environmental family, stated Kevin Mintie, President and Chief Executive Officer of Mintie. We have exciting new products and services in development and believe Alliance is the right company to help us grow our business at both the national and international levels.

Mintie Corporation will retain its brand identity and existing offices, expanding their market reach through existing Alliance Environmental offices and networks.

About Alliance Environmental Group, LLC:

With more than 75 years of experience, Alliance Environmental Group, LLC is one of the leading environmental contractors in California. Alliance Environmental provides innovative solutions in the areas of air and HVAC duct cleaning; asbestos, lead, and mold abatement; demolition and emergency response. The company has successfully completed more than 100,000 remediation projects ranging from bed bug elimination to residential mold removal in California and surrounding states. For more information, go to http://www.alliance-enviro.com.

About Mintie Corporation:

Los Angeles-based Mintie Corporation (http://www.mintie.com) has been a leader in indoor air quality solutions to the healthcare, industrial and commercial sectors since 1940. With offices in the western United States Mintie professionals provide the highest quality HVAC system rehabilitation, cleaning and other services as well as preventative maintenance programs and emergency response. Mintie Technologies, a Mintie Corp. affiliate, is the market leader for designing and developing specialized containment products for airborne particulates, infection control, and bio-security and available internationally
Our EdD program is designed for educators, who are ready to take their careers to the next level," School of Education Dean Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy said.

Noodle Partners, the nations fastest-growing online program manager (OPM), announced today that it will be launching its first-ever online doctorate program, The EdD in Education Policy and Leadership, with American University School of Education. Set to launch this Fall, the EdD will be the only practice-oriented doctoral program on campus, aligning with both the School of Educations mission and vision as well as the Universitys strategic goal of increasing lifelong learning.

Students in the EdD program will learn the policy, leadership, and research skills necessary to serve in senior positions in school district central offices, independent schools, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, advocacy organizations, and more. Completion of the program requires students to write a dissertation.

In order to make meaningful improvement in the quality of education, education leaders need to be prepared to be systemic change agents, ready to create impact, School of Education Dean Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy said. Our EdD program is designed for educators, who are ready to take their careers to the next level.

The partnership between American University and Noodle Partners began in February 2017 with two masters programs. Since 2017, the School of Education has more than doubled enrollment and will be graduating their first cohort this coming spring.

American has consistently been a wonderful partner, and we couldnt be more excited to help expand their online presence, Noodle Partners CEO John Katzman said. Offering an EdD degree focused on Education Policy and Leadership gives education leaders the opportunity to be not only dynamic, but also trained to focus on impact, systems, and policy-making.

For enrollment inquiries please visit: soeonline.american.edu or email soeonline(at)american(dot)edu.

###

About American Universitys School of Education

AUs School of Education is committed to producing graduates with the skills and knowledge to create equitable and excellent learning environments for all students. AU faculty, including researchers and distinguished scholars, produce cutting-edge research, lead innovative partnerships and outreach, develop relevant and evidence-based coursework, and effect positive change in the most vulnerable communities, nationally and globally. Our graduates are ready for todays real-world education careers, with 100 percent of masters students from the on-campus programs employed six months after graduation. Graduates secure employment with school districts, charter schools, and organizations such as Teach for America, U. S. Department of Education, and The Smithsonian Institution. American University is a leader in global education, enrolling a diverse student body from throughout the United States and nearly 130 countries. Located in Washington, D.C., the university provides opportunities for academic excellence, public service, and internships in the nations capital and around the world.

About Noodle Partners

Founded by a team of education and technology veterans, Noodle Partners creates innovative online and hybrid programs while improving traditional classroom models. Noodle Partners has the capability to work with universities on every aspect of building a certificate or degree program that they choosemarketing, student recruitment, enrollment, curriculum design, student engagement, support services, graduate placement, and alumni engagementand provides a high level of fit and finish. For more information, visit noodlepartners.com or follow us on Twitter @Noodle_Partners or LinkedIn.

Media Contact:

Noodle Partners

Alyssa Miller

alyssa(at)ammediaworks(dot)com

973-615-1292
Guidant Financial Aspiring Entrepreneurs Infograph

A survey conducted by small business financing company Guidant Financial and online credit marketplace LendingClub Corporation (NYSE: LC) studied more than 2,700 aspiring small business owners across the nation to better understand who they are, and whats holding them back from pursuing their small business dreams.

The overall survey findings revealed that the largest segment of aspiring entrepreneurs are in their baby boomer years, and predominantly male. In fact, since last year, there is a reported 18 percent increase of boomer aspiring small business owners.

Small business ownership is the backbone of the U.S. economy. Its exciting to see how the DNA of Americas entrepreneur is shifting, said David Nilssen, CEO of Guidant Financial. Conversely, its important to know what prevents them from fulfilling their dreams, and in so many cases its financing. Fortunately, there is more than one way to fund a business, and we here at Guidant, alongside our partners at LendingClub, are here to help thousands each year get the funding they need to open a business.

Who are Aspiring Entrepreneurs?

Seventy-five percent of aspiring entrepreneurs are men, while only a quarter are women, comparable to national averages. Generational breakdowns show a large gap between aspiring millennial male and female entrepreneurs, with 83 percent male and only 17 percent female. Meanwhile, 71 percent of Gen X aspiring small business owners are men, with 29 percent women. Seventy-four percent of aspiring boomer entrepreneurs are men and 26 percent are female.

Top Five States for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

1. Florida

2. Texas

3. California

4. New York

5. New Jersey

Shifting Confidence in Small Business Given the Political Climate

Aspiring entrepreneurs exhibited a modest decrease in confidence due to the political climate, demonstrated by a three-percentage point drop in respondents answering nine or 10 on a one to 10 scale (10 being the happiest). However, the average of confidence remains moderate to high, with male respondents averaging eight and female respondents averaging seven on the scale.

What Holds Back Aspiring Entrepreneurs?

An inability to find funding remains the most common roadblock stopping aspiring entrepreneurs from opening their businesses. However, there was a decrease to only 31 percent of small business owners citing a struggle to find funding for their business this year, compared to last years number of 36 percent.

What Funding Challenges Do Aspiring Entrepreneurs Face?

Sixty-four percent of aspiring entrepreneurs estimate they need less than $50k to $175k of capital to start their businesses. Twenty-nine percent estimate they need between $175k to $500k, while only seven percent need $500k to more than $1 million.

While funding challenges vary in difficulty across age and gender lines, a dearth of cash, lacking knowledge of financing options, and problems with credit scores rank highly for most would-be small business owners.

See the accompanying report and infographic at https://www.guidantfinancial.com/small-business-trends/aspiring-entrepreneur-trends/

Methodology

Between November 6, 2018 and November 16, 2018, Guidant Financial and LendingClub conducted an email survey of more than 2,700 male and female small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs from the continental U.S., Alaska, and Hawaii. Ages of respondents ranged from 18 to over 70.

About Guidant Financial

Headquartered in Bellevue, Wash. Guidant Financial helps business owners secure financing to start, buy or grow a business. An industry leader in business and franchise financing, Guidant works with new and existing entrepreneurs to identify, evaluate and deploy customized financing solutions. Their services include, but are not limited to, 401(k) business funding, SBA loans, unsecured credit, and portfolio loans. In total, Guidant has helped over 20,000 entrepreneurs in all 50 states to invest more than $4 billion in funds to start small businesses, resulting in more than 85,000 U.S. jobs created. Visit Guidant on the web at guidantfinancial.com.

About LendingClub

LendingClub was founded to transform the banking system to make credit more affordable and investing more rewarding. Today, LendingClub's online credit marketplace connects borrowers and investors to deliver more efficient and affordable access to credit. Through its technology platform, LendingClub is able to create cost efficiencies, and passes those savings on to borrowers in the form of lower rates and to investors in the form of potentially higher risk-adjusted returns. LendingClub is based in San Francisco, California. All loans are made by federally regulated issuing bank partners. More information is available at https://www.lendingclub.com
Since lab supplier companies have known about this pending disruption since the 2016 referendum, many of them have prepared their organizations internally to minimize supply disruptions, maintain regulatory compliance, and smooth out their sales in Europe

The events surrounding Brexit could be perilous for research lab funding, according to a market research firm specializing in lab instrumentation and technique markets, but Brexit may not prove entirely disruptive to the normal patterns of funding and instrument purchases in the region. Strategic Directions International (SDi) published its 2019 Global Assessment Report and in that report predicted that growth in Europe will be nearly 4.0% in 2019, even as Brexit looms.

It was two years ago when UK Prime Minister Theresa May delivered the notice for the country to withdraw from the EU, thus beginning the two-year countdown to its official departure date on March 29 this year. In order to smooth the process, a trade deal was forged between the UK and the EU during these past two years to set the terms of their divorce, dictating a plan for how trade, customs, and other regulatory matters would be handled after the departure date. Thus far the deal is in flux. But SDi sees the events of Brexit in the context of the normal patterns of the European market.

"Since lab supplier companies have known about this pending disruption since the 2016 referendum, many of them have prepared their organizations internally to minimize supply disruptions, maintain regulatory compliance, smooth out their sales, and uphold customer satisfaction in Europe," according to Andrew Appel, Manager of Marketing Analytics for Strategic Directions International.

The firm said in the recent blog piece, "Lab Spending in a Brexit World," that the issue now is the uncertainty of the situation continues to exacerbate Europes economic condition, particularly within the UK itself. Caught in the middle of the drama are the nations scientists and lab researchers. The firm said the biggest threat that laboratories in the UK will face over the next few years as a result of Brexit is the lack of ability for basic research to tap into European funding. Most important among these funding sources is Horizon Europe, a huge spending pot for scientific research and innovation that is planned for 2021 to 2027. More details about the possible effects of the instability of the funding pool are covered in the article.

Strategic Directions International (SDi), part of Science and Medicine Group, is the leading business intelligence firm in the highly specialized field of analytical and life science instruments. Its client list includes virtually every major analytical instrumentation company throughout the world. Founded in 1981, the Los Angeles-based company has published hundreds of market reports and provided proprietary market research and advisory services for a multitude of clients. Its yearly Global Assessment Report offers coverage of over 80 instrumentation areas. The report helps users determine the relative market share of leading vendors in 81 different instrument and instrument technique market categories, and it projects the growth of the market and each segment from 2018-2023. The report has been called the gold standard and is used by top firms in lab instrumentation to make business decisions.
Bright Now! Dental

To honor our veterans, Bright Now! Dental has partnered with the Smiles for Everyone Foundation to open its Kent, Washington office and provide free dental services for veterans and their dependents on May 5th.

Dental services provided include x-rays, exams, fillings, fluoride treatments, extractions, cleanings, and more. A limited number of appointments are available. For more information, please visit the Bright Now! Dental website.

About Bright Now! Dental

Bright Now!  Dental provides general dentistry, childrens dentistry and, in select locations, specialty care services such as orthodontics, oral surgery, periodontics and endodontics at over 150 offices across Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia and Washington. Bright Now! Dentals Kent office is operated by Nurani, P.C. (the Group). The Group is affiliated with Smile Brands Inc., one of the largest providers of business support services to dental groups in the United States. Smile Brands Inc. provides comprehensive business support services through exclusive long-term service agreements with affiliated dental groups, so dentists can spend more time caring for their patients and less time on the administrative, marketing and financial aspects of operating a dental practice. Smile Brands is a portfolio company of Gryphon Investors (Gryphon), a leading middle-market private equity firm based in San Francisco, CA. For more information, visit http://www.smilebrands.com.

About the Smiles For Everyone Foundation

The Smiles for Everyone Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with the mission of delivering smiles for everyone by providing free dental care for those in need, both at home in the U.S. and around the world. Since 2011, the Smiles for Everyone Foundation has delivered over 19,000 smiles and $14.5 million in donated dentistry. The foundation currently supports programs which provide free dental care to those in need in Cambodia, Ghana, Laos, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Thailand, and the United States. For more information or to make a donation, visit http://www.smilesforeveryone.org.

Contacts

Bright Now! Dental

Jody Martin

PR(at)smilebrands(dot)com

714.427.1299

Smiles for Everyone Foundation

Crystal Strait

crystal.strait(at)smilesforeveryone(dot)org

714.824.5037
This is an exciting time for C. Mondavi & Family and a unique opportunity to take the company to new heights of sales and distribution," adds David Brown, Senior Vice President, Sales of C. Mondavi & Family.

C. Mondavi & Family (http://www.cmondavifamily.com/), the parent company behind iconic wineries and brands such as Charles Krug, CK Mondavi, Flat Top Hills and Purple Heart Wines, is pleased to announce a series of sales team promotions alongside a new hire. Effective immediately, C. Mondavi & Family appoints Riana Mondavi as Director of Chains Off-Premise, West and Spencer Tirschek as Director of National Accounts On-Premise. C. Mondavi & Family further welcomes new hire Christopher Mouriski as Sales Vice President - West.

In her new role, Riana will continue to uphold the family legacy with her industry expertise. After joining the family business 2011, she worked her way up from Pacific Northwest Regional Sales Manager to her latest role. She continues to serve as a family brand ambassador and is further utilized as a key spokesperson for the Mondavis 4th Generation.

Riana is joined by Spencer Tirschek with his promotion to Director National Accounts On-Premise. Tirschek will continue driving on-premise sales with his leadership and wine acumen. With over 12 years of industry experience, Tirschek previously held sales and management roles at Vintage Wine Distributor, Inc. before joining C. Mondavi & Family. After propelling the companys brands as Midwest Regional Manager, Tirschek is well positioned to step into this role and add immediate value to the National Account team.

Additionally, Christopher Mouriski joins C. Mondavi & Family as the Sales Vice President - West. Mouriski comes with over a decade of sales and sales finance experience within management and leadership roles from notable companies such as Beam Wine Estates and Delicato Family Vineyards. Most recently, Mouriski acted as Director Sales Operations for Treasury Wine Estates. During his time in the role, he elevated their national sales organization through a set of initiatives to grow his teams sales capabilities.

This is an exciting time for C. Mondavi & Family and a unique opportunity to take the company to new heights of sales and distribution," adds David Brown, Senior Vice President, Sales of C. Mondavi & Family. These important roles combined with the industry relationships and sales knowledge these three leaders possess are critical pieces of delivering our strategic vision.

###

About C. Mondavi & Family:

In 1943, Italian immigrants Cesare and Rosa Mondavi purchased the historic Charles Krug property, which remains a family-owned winery producing estate-driven Napa Valley wines. The brands of C. Mondavi and FamilyCharles Krug, CK Mondavi, Flat Top Hills and Purple Heart Wineswere built on a foundation of family values, hard work and a European winemaking tradition. The wineries are under the direction of Peter Mondavi Jr. and Marc Mondavi, who steward the family business passed to them by their father, legendary Napa Valley wine icon Peter Mondavi Sr. The family is now proudly welcoming members of the fourth generation to the business, continuing a legacy started over 70 years ago and setting a foundation for generations to come. For additional information, please visit https://www.charleskrug.com/
Training and Readiness has been a core competency of CALIBRE for decades

CALIBRE Systems, Inc. (CALIBRE) has won a prime spot on the Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) Training Systems Support (MTSS) contracting vehicle. MTSS provides pre-deployment training to the United States Marine Corps (USMC) Operating Forces within a joint and combined environment to improve warfighting skills.

The multiple-award indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) contract holds an estimated ceiling value of $245 million and includes a ten-year period of performance. Under this contract, CALIBRE will compete to deliver a wide range of training, computer-based simulation, combined arms staff trainer, MAGTF tactical warfare simulation and Deployable Virtual Training Environment training services.

Training and Readiness has been a core competency of CALIBRE for decades. Leveraging our expertise in supporting Joint and Army training, this new award is a prime example of our market expansion plan. We will have the opportunity to support the USMC to achieve our shared mission of sustaining a trained and ready USMC Operating Force, said Richard Pineda, CALIBRE President.

About CALIBRE

CALIBRE is an employee-owned management consulting and information technology solutions company supporting government and industry. CALIBRE delivers enduring solutions that solve management, technology, and program challenges in the areas of financial performance and logistics; health and information management; human capital training and management; and infrastructure, engineering, and environment.

For more information about CALIBRE, please visit http://www.calibresys.com.

Contact: Craig College, Executive Vice President & CFO

Telephone: 703.797.8500

E-mail: Craig.College@calibresys.com
Joint Statement by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair Countries

LIVE

International Court of Justice will deliver its decision on the request for provisional measures in the case of ARMENIA v AZERBAIJAN

Statement of the Foreign Ministry of Armenia

OPEC Fund Partners Ameriabank to Address Problems and Help to Improve the Life of People in Armenia. T. Alnassar.

Google Ad

Generation A: Edition 14. Exclusive Chance to Begin Your Professional Career with Ameriabank

Katna Armenian cheeses enter the market: the new project of Galaxy Group of Companies

US$30m OPEC Fund loan to Ameriabank to promote sustainable energy and support small businesses in Armenia

Black Friday at ucom: up to 70% discount for smart home devices, gadgets and smartphones

116 million AMD assistance to minors with disabilities in Shirak Province from Mikayel Vardanyan

Discussion on the topic IT infrastructure as the basis of the digital economy with the participation of the heads of telecommunication companies in Armenia

Statement nn the ongoing Aggression by Azerbaijan against the Republic of Armenia

"We condemn any attempts at borderisation, as observed since the incursion of Azerbaijani troops into Armenian territory on 12 May" Joint statement

The United States is deeply concerned about reports of intensive fighting today between Armenia and Azerbaijan.ANTONY J. BLINKEN

Statement of the MFA of Armenia

Ookla has awarded Ucom with The fastest fixedline network in Armenia award

UCOM keeps on supporting the 42 YEREVAN programming school

Google Ad

Recognizing the One-Year Anniversary of the Ceasefire Declaration Between Armenia and Azerbaijan

They should not be positioned near civilian communities neither in Armenia nor in Artsakh

Humanitarian and human rights protection needed following the 2020 outbreak of hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh

Galaxy Group of Companies expands its activities in Belarus: a new TIME and Pandora store launched

I think its a good moment to invest in Armenia. Head of Markets at Symbiotics Vincent Lehner

Ameriabank has Raised USD 17.5M Tier 2 Capital

UNIGHT TO UNITE. UCOM CELEBRATED ITS REBIRTH

Ameriabank and HSBC Armenia to provide their customers access to each others ATMs without additional fees

Ameriabank. 62.5% Growth in Taxes YOY

Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans have provided 300 million AMD to overcome the infertility in Armenia

UCOM has officially launched the sale of IPHONE 13

Six servicemen were wounded by the attack of the Azerbaijani armed forces in Artsakh, two of them in critical condition

S&P Improved the Outlook on Ameriabank to Positive
With over 40 standard integrations, such as Salesforce, Outlook and Zoho, CT Cloud Unite keeps you connected while dramatically improving the quality and professionalism of call handling.

CallTower, a global leader in delivering cloud-based enterprise-class unified communications and collaboration solutions, announced today the launch of their app integration solution, CT Cloud Unite. CT Cloud Unite provides integration to an unprecedented range of business and contact-orientated applications while using CT Cloud Voice and Skype for Business solutions. This robust integration solution also offers a huge range of popular cross-vertical and vertical-specific applications.

CT Cloud Unite is the latest solution in CallTowers CT Cloud Solution Suite  solutions and applications designed specifically to empower dynamic cloud communications for business customers worldwide. CT Cloud Solutions enable cost-effective communications and increased productivity in todays dynamic, distributed, mobile workforce. With CT Cloud solutions, network operators can support customers of any size to meet challenges by quickly and reliably delivering feature-rich, high-quality, and secure business communications solutions.

CT Cloud Unite boosts both the productivity and collaboration of users and reduces the time and cost of large call volumes, says CallTowers Chief Revenue Officer, William Rubio. With over 40 standard integrations, such as Salesforce, Outlook and Zoho, CT Cloud Unite keeps you connected while dramatically improving the quality and professionalism of call handling. We know if users can better integrate with their applications, that means they can better utilize the full power of UCaaS hosted telephony and that, ultimately, is our goal.

About CallTower

CallTower exists to enable people to easily connect to transact business communications. Since its inception in 2002, CallTower has become a leading provider of cloud-based, enterprise-class Unified Communications solutions for growing organizations worldwide. CallTower provides, integrates and supports industry-leading, cloud-based, Unified Communications and Collaboration solutions, including Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Native Skype for Business, Microsoft Teams, CT Cloud, CT Cloud Boost, CT Cloud Meeting powered by Zoom, Office 365, Zoom Video Communications for business customers.

CallTower enhances our clients strategic and operational capabilities by integrating VoIP service, mobile applications, email hosting, unified messaging, instant messaging, audio, web and video conferencing, collaboration tools, contact center, cloud services and global networks solutions into one reliable platform.


CannaSafe, Californias #1 accredited cannabis testing laboratory, hosted their first ever Cannys Awards ceremony this weekend, an annual awards party celebrating the brands in the cannabis industry that came out on top among various testing categories based on their scientific data from their lab in 2018. At a luxury mansion in Los Angeles, representatives from the top cannabis brands gathered together for an evening of champagne, cannabis consumption, music, and celebration.

The awards celebrated excellence in eight categories in a twenty minute presentation by CannaSafes Executive Lab Director, Ini Afia. See below for a full list of categories and winners:



Highest Potency Flower 2018: Team Elite Genetics - Kosher Kush

Most Accurately Formulated Edible 2018: Sunderstorm - Kanha Peach Gummies

Highest Potency Concentrate 2018: Moxie - NYC Diesel

Highest Potency Vape 2018: Krystal Kure - Dosidos

Highest Terpenes Vape 2018: King Pen - Blue Dream

Highest CBD Vape 2018: Dosist - Calm

Highest Terpenes Flower 2018: Cali Kush Farms - Farm OG

Highest CBD Flower 2018: 3C Farms - AC/DC 2:1

About the first-ever Cannys, Aaron Riley (CEO of CannaSafe) comments: Our mission at CannaSafe is to provide consumers with the safest cannabis products available, and The Cannys is an important opportunity for us to honor and show our appreciation for those companies that exemplify our safety, accuracy, and potency standards. This event was a great kickoff to what we hope will be one of the largest annual cannabis awards events, and we look forward to our continued growth in the coming years.

About CannaSafe:

CannaSafe Analytics is committed to defining consumer safety and quality assurance standards for the cannabis industry. They are a full-service testing laboratory offering a one-stop solution where cannabis cultivators and distributors can ensure that they are in full compliance with all regulatory requirements and that their products are effective and safe for use. CannaSafe Analytics is proud to be the first accredited cannabis testing lab in the world. Over the years, they have been continuously setting the standard for cannabis testing through the utilization of state of the art technology, cutting-edge scientific methods, and expert staff. To learn more about CannaSafe, visit https://www.csalabs.com/.
"When I first tried the Carson App, I was surprised by its user-friendly interface and the impact it has on residents lives. With the Carson App we can offer a much more complete service and customer experience for modern living." said Michal Kratochvil, CEO of 2N

Carson, creator of the One-App Resident Experience for multifamily properties, and 2N, the largest producer of IP intercom access control devices in the world, announced a new partnership and integration today. The 2N line of IP intercoms are now fully integrated with Carson - streaming the video camera feed into the Carson app for residents and property staff, and connecting intercom calls to the Carson 24/7 call center. With this integration, residents can enjoy all Carson functionality as well as 2N intercom features within the Carson app for Apple and Android smartphones. The 2N intercom directory names are continuously updated through Carson, based on residents move-ins and move-outs being updated on the property managers core accounting system. Also, residents can set specific hours for the Carson call center to respond to 2N intercom calls on their behalf, a feature not available anywhere else in the market.

Integrating with 2Ns intercoms is an important step in Carsons mission to integrate best-in-class multifamily access, camera and intercom hardware, and enable residents to have all of their daily service needs in one app, said Guy Blachman, Carson Founder and CEO. 2N provides a well-priced, reliable intercom with cutting-edge cloud technology, which integrated with Carson is a wonderful example of our One-App Resident ExperienceTM.

When I first tried the Carson App, I was surprised by its user-friendly interface and the impact it has on residents lives, said Michal Kratochvil, CEO of 2N. Thanks to the partnership with Carson, 2N Intercoms can offer new types of services to residents. Our primary mission is still to keep their homes safe and connect them with visitors, but now with the Carson App we can offer a much more complete service and customer experience for modern living.

About Carson

Founded by successful property management software veterans and founders of BuildingLink and ActiveBuilding, Carson is the One-App Resident Experience with a 24/7 central station service that brings the experience of living at staffed residential properties to unstaffed buildings, at an affordable price. Through the use of an intuitive mobile application that integrates with best-in-class access control, electronic locks, cameras, intercoms, rent payment and back-end accounting systems, Carson enables property management staff and residents to communicate efficiently, make payments, submit and respond to service requests, open all integrated doors, manage guests & visitors access, and to receive deliveries on time 24/7 at the buildings. Residents moving in and out on the property managers accounting system instantly update in Carson, thereby seamlessly revoking or granting physical access to the properties.

About 2N

2N is a leading European company engaged in the development and manufacture of products in the field of IP intercoms and access control systems. According to an IHS report in 2016, 2N is the largest global manufacturer of IP intercoms, and a major innovator in the field of IP access systems, IP audio and IP lift communicators. The company was established in 1991 in the Czech Republic and its registered office is located in Prague. 2N currently has more than 270 employees and branches in the USA, Great Britain, Germany, France, UAE, Australia and Italy. It also has a wide distribution network all over the world. 2N became part of the global Axis Group in 2016.

Media Contacts for Carson:

Laurel Chausse

(646) 887-2794

laurel@carson.live

Media Contacts for 2N:

Vit Kovarik

kovarik@2n.cz

Tel: +420 225 271 522
Alpha MD is a global clinical research and technology consultancy that provides end-to-end solutions to healthcare partners.

With this partnership, patients in India will gain better access to clinical care as the Patient Network Explorer draws international clinical studies to the country, directly to the patients who will benefit most from participation in trials. Patients will also benefit from the efficiencies created in the clinical research process by Patient Network Explorer which contribute to getting drugs faster to market. Patient Network Explorers efficiencies include accelerating study protocol development, identifying suitable trial sites, and speeding up patient search and identification for trial enrollment.

"We all are aware that identifying eligible patients for a trial is a long and costly process, says Dr. Sanobar Parkar, Global Head Life Sciences, Alpha MD. Many approvals or new drug launches in the market are delayed due to slow recruitment, thus costing a lot of money to sponsors. In addition, even patients who can benefit from participation in a clinical trial, especially in the oncology field, miss the opportunity due to lack of awareness of available study protocols among treating physicians. As a life science lead and a physician, I feel both these requirements are successfully met by the HIPAA and GDPR compliant Clinerion platform. By being part of this network, hospitals and patients in India will have access to global trials. This is necessary in making all alternatives available to patients and this will also eventually help in bringing new medicines to the Indian market and sooner.

We are eager to support the clinical care of patients in India by leveraging the benefits of Clinerions Patient Network Explorer, says Ian Rentsch, Clinerion CEO. With their strong presence in India, Alpha MD is well-placed to help us develop our site network there.

To launch the partnership, Clinerions Senior Director, Site & Patient Networks, Randy Ramin-Wright will speak at the Digital Health Conclave event in Bangalore organized by the Swissnex program of the Swiss government, and undertake a tour of hospitals in the region. For further details, or to make an appointment, please address the contact persons below.

Digital Health Conclave 2019 website: http://www.swissnexindia.org/event/digital-health-conclave-2019

About Clinerion

Clinerion accelerates clinical research and medical access to treatments for patients. We use proprietary technologies for analysis of patient data from our global network of partner hospitals. Clinerion's Patient Network Explorer radically improves the efficiency and effectiveness of clinical trial recruitment by offering data-driven protocol optimization, site feasibility evaluation and real-time patient search and identification to match patients to treatments. Our technology solution provides real-world evidence analytics for medical access. Clinerion facilitates the participation of partner hospitals in leading-edge, industry-sponsored trials and time savings in patient recruitment. We create innovative and disruptive fit-for-purpose solutions which enable pharmaceutical companies to shorten patient recruitment and save costs by streamlining operations and leveraging strategic intelligence. Clinerions proprietary Big Data analytics technologies leverage real-time data from electronic health records which comply with international patient privacy and data security regulations. Clinerion is a global data technology service company headquartered in Switzerland.

Clinerion website: http://www.clinerion.com

Clinerions Patient Network Explorer: http://www.clinerion.com/index/OverviewOurSolutions/ClinerionPatientNetworkExplorer

For more information, please contact:

Le Vin Chin

Director, Head of Marketing & Communications

Clinerion Ltd

Elisabethenanlage 11, 4051 Basel, Switzerland

Tel.: +41 61 865 60 54

media(at)clinerion(dot)com

About Alpha MD

Alpha MD is a global clinical research and technology consulting company that aims at providing end to end solutions to their healthcare partners. Together with our team of Physicians, Public Health experts, Doctorates, Health System experts, Marketing & Finance consultants, Economists, Statisticians, and our experienced partners in their respective fields, we provide services in Clinical Research, Market Access and Regulatory, Strategic Consulting and Audits for drug or device, across any regions in world or any therapeutic areas.

Alpha MD website: http://www.alphamd.com

For more information, please contact:

Jignesh Barasara

CEO and Founder

Alpha MD

Tel.: +91(22)-4971 6399

jignesh.barasara(at)alphamd(dot)com
CareAcross, a UK digital health company focusing on cancer, announced today the results of a survey it recently carried out among cancer patients, offering enhanced insight on the perceptions of patients regarding complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).

Patients avoid discussing about Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) with clinicians

Patients rarely share their interest on using CAM with their doctors: 61% choose not to discuss CAM with their attending physicians, and only 16% of them ask their doctors about it. At the same time, 66% are interested in using Complementary and Alternative Medicine and 37% report actually doing so.

Results of the CareAcross survey

The survey responses were analysed by the CareAcross analytics team and yielded a variety of insights including the following highlights:



66% of patients are favorable towards CAM

37% use it

Various types of Complementary and Alternative Medicine are being used



24% use herbal medicine

21% meditate

12% opt for homeopathy and

10% choose aromatherapy

When asked why they use CAM,



39% expect it to improve their overall health

28% count on it to help manage treatment side-effects

24% see CAMas a means to preventing recurrence or metastasis and

21% use it to enhance their conventional treatment effectiveness

Regarding patients perceptions on CAM:



38% believe that it doesnt hurt to try

24% claim that it presents less side-effects than conventional medication

12% like that they can choose their own treatment

Patients seek CAM-related information



43% online

22% from family & friends

21% directly from CAM providers

16% from their doctor or nurse

10% from a support group

Discussing about their communication with their doctor regarding CAM



61% did not talk to their doctor

13% their doctor provided information

10% their doctor discouraged them.

Paris Kosmidis, MD, the CareAcross Chief Medical Officer, acknowledged that it is certainly understandable that patients search for ways to improve their wellbeing and even their outcomes. However, he stressed that some of these approaches may interact negatively or unpredictably with their medical treatments; others have not been researched enough. Im afraid that being there to listen is not always practically feasible, but in any case, we should engage to understand patients underlying needs and not patronise them.

About CareAcross

CareAcross is a digital health company focusing on cancer. It builds and operates personalised platforms for cancer patients, offering patient-friendly material and services based on thousands of peer-reviewed publications and matched with each individual patients profile and needs. Based on this long-term patient engagement, it provides data-driven services to the industry, related to real-world evidence, clinical trial recruitment, and patient support platforms. All patient offerings and business services are rendered with absolute respect to patients privacy and anonymity.

For more information: info@careacross.com.
Amit and John are both accomplished and trusted leaders with proven track records of driving business growth, and we are thrilled to welcome them to our team.

Confiant, the leader and innovator in advertising security, today announced the appointment of two senior executives to its leadership team: Amit Dodeja joins as Chief Operating Officer and John Murphy joins as Chief Quality Officer.

Dodeja is a highly experienced leader in the development and execution of go-to-market strategies. In his new role, he will be charged with providing vision & direction to drive the companys growth, marketing and business development. Dodeja previously led strategy at SimpleReach (acquired by Nativo), where he joined as the 1st business hire and helped build the company every step of the way, providing vision and direction across product, sales, operations, marketing, data science, and customer success. Earlier in his career, he lead digital audience development and analytics at TIME Magazine.

Murphy joins Confiant with nearly two decades of experience in digital advertising. At Confiant, Murphy will play an integral role in the companys product strategy, driving the industry forward on quality and developing new ways to empower publishers and platforms with control over the ads they serve. Murphy most recently oversaw all aspects of marketplace quality, including ad quality, traffic quality, and policy, at OpenX, a programmatic advertising exchange. Prior to that, he held a variety of quality and policy roles at Yahoo!. Murphy was also previously co-chair of the Trustworthy Accountability Groups (TAG) Anti-Malware Working Group, where he helped to develop and roll out the TAG Anti-Malware guidelines.

As Confiant continues to work toward our mission of making media safe for everyone, our newest members to the leadership team will help to guide our corporate and product strategies and execute against it, said Louis-David Mangin, CEO & Co-Founder, Confiant. Amit and John are both accomplished and trusted leaders with proven track records of driving business growth, and we are thrilled to welcome them to our team.

Advertising security is a growing threat, and Confiant is the only company that has a vision for how to deliver maximum protection to the industry, said Dodeja. At Confiant, I have a tremendous opportunity to address that threat with a thriving company, proven product suite and a world-class team.

Confiants emphasis on security and transparency is unparalleled in the space, said Murphy. I am excited to join Confiant at a time of rapid growth and leave an indelible mark on the industry.

About Confiant

Confiant is a cyber security company born from the recognition that the world's most sophisticated advertisers aren't Verizon or P&G, but criminals using the industry for their own selfish ends. These criminals are hijacking programmatic advertising and giving publishers a bad name.

Confiant protects publishers' and platforms' reputations, revenue, and resources with always-on anti-malware software that provides protection for desktop, mobile, and video ads. Our sole focus is on helping advertising platforms and publishers rid the world of malware. This focus enables us to evolve quickly and meet our clients' needs for defeating the bad actors trying to undermine the industry.

It is the first company to come to market with a technology that not only detects malicious activity, but actively blocks it. Confiant believes in the intelligent application of this new technology to fight back and make digital media safe for everyone. For more information visit: http://www.confiant.com.
Crimson Cup Canned Cold Brew This smooth, naturally sweet and chocolatey cold brew is the favorite drink of cuppers at the Crimson Cup Innovation Lab, who traveled 84,000 miles last year to seek out the worlds best java. Made with just coffee and filtered water, our Canned Cold Brew is smooth from start to finish.

Ohio caffeine addicts, rejoice: Award-winning coffee roaster Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea releases its newest drink innovation on April 9. The roasters new Canned Cold Brew features direct trade Guatemala Antigua coffee inspired by a legendary ghost dog.

We are proud to release the perfect canned coffee, said Founder and President Greg Ubert. This smooth, naturally sweet and chocolatey cold brew is the favorite drink of cuppers at the Crimson Cup Innovation Lab, who traveled 84,000 miles last year to seek out the worlds best java.

The initial release features Crimson Cups Finca El Cadejo craft coffee, named after a mythical Guatemalan dog believed to shepherd drinkers safely home after a night of indulgence.

Crimson Cup sources Finca El Cadejo through its Friend2Farmer direct trade program. Grown by Mario Rodas and his mother Lucrecia on their small farm in the Antigua region of Guatemala, the coffee tastes slightly sweet with notes of bittersweet chocolate, floral and citrus.

With our Friend2Farmer coffee, you can enjoy each sip knowing that the farmers who grew your coffee earned a fair return on their crop, said Coffee Buyer Dave Eldridge. We invest in farmers and their communities to help create sustainable, economic change for future generations.

Ubert said it took about a year to develop the Canned Cold Brew. We were looking for a sustainably sourced coffee with superior smoothness, he said. Made with just coffee and filtered water, our Canned Cold Brew is smooth from start to finish.

With no added sugar, this naturally sweet beverage is perfect for health-conscious coffee drinkers, though we are confident all coffee lovers will enjoy this amazing cold coffee on the go, he added.

To celebrate the launch, Crimson Cup Coffee Houses in Clintonville, Upper Arlington and Tallmadge, Ohio will sell Canned Cold Brew for $1 per can on April 9 only, while supplies last. An 11-oz. can normally costs $3.99. The coffee houses also will offer active samplings the first few weeks of the launch.

The drink debuts the following day at Weilands Market in Clintonville and The Hills Market Downtown and in Worthington. Look for the locally canned coffee in the refrigerated section.

Although initially available only in Ohio, Ubert expects rapid growth in distribution. We believe we have the best-tasting product in a booming category, Ubert said, noting that sales of cold-brewed coffee have quadrupled since 2015.

Crimson Cup coffee has been judged among the best in the nation. The roaster was named 2016 Macro Roaster of the Year by Roast magazine, the flagship publication of the specialty coffee industry. Its Ethiopian Kossa Kebena coffee won a 2017 Good Food Award and was a finalist for a 2019 Good Food Award. Crimson Cup coffees have also brought home trophies and medals from the Americas Best Espresso and Golden Bean North America roasting competitions.

About Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea

Columbus, Ohio coffee roaster Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea is Roast magazines 2016 Macro Roaster of the Year. Since 1991, Crimson Cup has roasted sustainably sourced specialty and craft coffee in small batches, which it sells directly to consumers and as wholesale coffee beans. The company also teaches entrepreneurs to run successful coffee houses through its coffee franchise alternative program, which includes a coffee shop business plan. Crimson Cup coffee is available through a community of more than 350 independent coffee houses, grocers, college and universities, restaurants and food service operations across 37 states, Guam and Bangladesh, as well as the companys own Crimson Cup Coffee Houses. To learn more, visit crimsoncup.com.
"As the most respected and unbiased report on airline performance, travelers can be confident that our airlines are improving," said Dr. Brent Bowen, AQR co-author and professor of aeronautical science at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's Prescott, Ariz. campus.

Delta Air Lines is No. 1, and JetBlue is No. 2, according to the 29th annual Airline Quality Rating (AQR), released today, Monday, April 8. The AQR is the most comprehensive study of performance and quality of the largest airlines in the United States. The rating is a multifactor examination of the airlines based on mishandled baggage, consumer complaints, on-time performance and involuntary denied boardings.

The AQR is a joint research project funded as part of faculty research activities at the W. Frank Barton School of Business at Wichita State University and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Universitys Prescott, Ariz., campus. The 2019 AQR reflects data collected during the 2018 calendar year.

Key findings show that three of the four AQR factors tracked -- involuntary denied boardings, mishandled bags and customer complaints -- improved for the airline industry in 2018. On-time performance, the most heavily weighted element in the AQR, slipped in 2018.

This years report also reveals the lowest rate of bumped passengers, the lowest rate of mishandled baggage and the lowest rate of customer complaints for the industry since the AQR started in 1991.

Delta was the only airline to improve in all four categories. Six of the airlines rated performed better in 2018 versus their 2017 AQR scores. Those carriers were Delta, Hawaiian, JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit and United. Airlines whose scores declined in 2018 were Alaska, American and Frontier.

These results are very needed by the traveling public, given all the recent reports of airlines losing the confidence of key consumers, said Dr. Brent Bowen, AQR co-author and professor of aeronautical science at Embry-Riddles Prescott, Ariz. campus. As the most respected and unbiased report on airline performance, travelers can be confident that our airlines are improving.

Overall, another good year of industry performance, said Dr. Dean Headley, AQR co-author and emeritus professor of marketing at the W. Frank Barton School of Business at Wichita State University. The best-ever industry AQR score for 2018 is largely due to improvements in the rate of involuntary denied boardings and the rate of customer complaints. Consumers have demanded better and the industry listened and improved.

Inside this years rating

Below is the 2019 ranking of the nations largest nine airlines, according to the Airline Quality Rating, with the 2018 ranking in parentheses:

1. Delta (2)

2. JetBlue (3)

3. Southwest (5)

4. Alaska (1)

5. Hawaiian (4)

6. United (8)

7. Spirit (12)

8. American (9)

9. Frontier (11)

The merger of Alaska and Virgin America was completed in April of 2018. The results for Alaska reflect the performance of the merged airlines for the entire year.

An electronic version of the full report, with details on each airline, is available at http://airlinequalityrating.com.

On-time performance

Hawaiian Airlines had the best on-time performance (89.3 percent) for 2018, and Frontier had the worst (69.4 percent).

Four airlines improved their on-time arrival performance in 2018. Four of the nine airlines rated had an on-time arrival percentage of more than 80 percent. On-time performance for the industry in 2018 was 79.6 percent, compared to 80.2 percent in 2017.

Involuntary denied boardings

Delta was the industry leader in avoiding involuntary denied boarding incidents in 2018 with a rate of 0.00 per 10,000 passengers. Hawaiian, JetBlue and United followed closely each with rates of 0.01 involuntary denied boardings per 10,000 passengers. Frontier had the highest involuntary denied boarding rate with 0.63 per 10,000 passengers.

Eight airlines improved their denied boardings rate in 2018. JetBlue recorded the largest improvement and Frontier had the largest increase in the rate of denied boardings. Delta (0.00), Hawaiian (0.01), JetBlue and United are clearly the industry leaders in avoiding denied boarding incidents. Industry performance was better in 2018 (0.14 per 10,000 passengers) than it was in 2017 (0.34).

The industry performance is the lowest rate of involuntary denied boardings since the AQR started in 1991.

Baggage handling

Spirit had the best baggage handling rate (1.76 mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers) of all airlines, and American had the worst baggage handling rate (3.83) mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers.

Three airlines had improved mishandled baggage rates in 2018. The industry rate decreased from 2.46 per 1,000 passengers in 2017 to 2.43 in 2018.

The industry performance is the lowest rate of mishandled baggage since the AQR started in 1991.

Consumer complaints

Southwest had the lowest consumer complaint rate (0.36 per 100,000 passengers) of all airlines. Frontier had the highest consumer complaint rate (4.02 per 100,000 passengers).

Customer complaints per 100,000 passengers decreased from 1.35 in 2017 to 1.04 in 2018. The majority of complaints (72 percent) to the Department of Transportation were for flight problems (36.9 percent), baggage (13.0 percent), customer service (12.1 percent), and reservations, ticketing and boarding (10.1 percent).

The volume of complaints received by the DOT was down by 23% in 2018 compared to 2017 volumes.

More about the Airline Quality Rating

As the nations longest running study of airline performance quality, the Airline Quality Rating (http://airlinequalityrating.com) sets the industry standard, providing consumers and industry watchers a means to compare performance quality among airlines using objective performance-based data.

No other study in the country is based on performance measures like the AQR. Criteria included in the report are screened to meet two basic elements: They must be readily obtainable from published data sources for each airline, and they must be important to consumers regarding airline quality. The resulting criteria include areas such as baggage handling, customer complaints, involuntary denied boardings and on-time arrivals.

The co-authors invite the flying public to participate in the Annual Passenger Survey at https://erau.libsurveys.com/airline-passenger-survey-2019

MEDIA CONTACTS AND NOTES:

Bowen and Headley will be available to media to discuss AQR or any airline industry-related topic by contacting:



For Bowen: Jason Kadah, Communications Director, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; O: (928) 777-6731; C: (602) 826-4790; jason.kadah@erau.edu

For Headley: Joe Kleinsasser, Co-Director of News and Media Relations, Wichita State University; O: (316) 978-3013; C: (316) 204-8266; joe.kleinsasser@wichita.edu

About Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is the worlds largest, oldest and most comprehensive institution specializing in aviation, aerospace, engineering and related degree programs. A fully accredited university, Embry-Riddle is also a major research center, seeking solutions to real-world problems in partnership with the aerospace industry, other universities and government agencies. A nonprofit, independent institution, Embry-Riddle offers more than 100 associates, baccalaureate, masters and Ph.D. degree programs in its colleges of Arts & Sciences, Aviation, Business, Engineering and Security & Intelligence. The university educates students at residential campuses in Daytona Beach, Fla., and Prescott, Ariz., through its Worldwide Campus with more than 135 locations in the United States, Europe and Asia, and through online programs. For more information, visit http://www.embryriddle.edu, follow us on Twitter (@EmbryRiddle) and facebook.com/EmbryRiddleUniversity, and find expert videos at YouTube.com/EmbryRiddleUniv.

About Wichita State University

The mission of Wichita State University (http://www.wichita.edu) is to be an essential educational, cultural and economic driver for Kansas and the greater public good. Wichita State is a doctoral research university enrolling about 15,000 students and offering 59 undergraduate degree programs in more than 150 areas of study in seven undergraduate colleges. The Graduate School offers 45 master's and 12 doctoral degrees that offer study in more than 100 areas. Wichita State's Innovation Campus (http://www.wsuinnovationcampus.org) is an interconnected community of partnership buildings, laboratories and mixed-use areas where students, faculty, staff, entrepreneurs and businesses have access to the university's vast resources and technology. For more information, follow us on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/wichitastate) and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/wichita.state).
Mission support engineers for Apollo 8. During the Apollo missions, engineers were on call to solve any problem that might arise. (L-R) Norman Sears, Margaret Hamilton, Phyllis Rye and Ain Laats. Most people know the stories of the astronauts who landed on the moon, but few people know the stories of the engineers who got them there. - Dr. Kaigham J. Gabriel, President & CEO, Draper

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing and to inspire the next generation of engineers, Draper shares a treasure trove of newly released photos, videos and stories about the unsung heroes behind the moon landing.

Draper President & CEO, Dr. Kaigham J. Gabriel explained, Most people know the stories of the astronauts who landed on the moon, but few people know the stories of the engineers who got them there.

The site details the remarkable story of the engineers behind some of the revolutionary technologies developed for the Apollo missions. In the face of epic challenges, and with a fraction of todays technology, these are the people who navigated us to the moon and back.

Hack the Moon celebrates the engineers behind the Apollo Program who demonstrated remarkable ingenuity in solving real-world problems. When it seemed impossible, they made it a reality. Today, that revolutionary technology lives on in every plane we fly and computer we use.

Hack the Moon is free and open to the public. Visitors to the sitewehackthemoon.comwill find more than 2,000 images, 200 pieces of original content and 150 videos that tell the story of the Apollo missions. The site features a handy search engine, a mobile-friendly design and special sections on the people, the technology and the missions.

A section called Hack Extras takes visitors to podcasts, resources, upcoming events, trivia quizzes and more. In Their Own Words presents the personal stories of many of the engineers of Apollo as they encounter and overcome challenges and make some surprising discoveries.

Visitors can read personal accounts from Apollo astronauts such as Jim Lovells recollection of seeing the moon for the first time, and Harrison Schmitts story about his scientific discovery on the moon. Among the many video stories, Draper engineer Don Eyles recounts his experience averting disaster during Apollo 14, and Margaret Hamilton remembers the happy accident in the lab that led her to develop Apollos error detection recovery code.

Hack the Moon will be launched publicly April 8, 2019, at the 35th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Attendees are invited to visit Draper at booth 1139 and take a tour of wehackthemoon.com.

Wehackthemoon.com was curated and developed by Sugar Films Ltd.
More than ever, women are forging new paths in innovation and sustainability as they lead their companies. A recent study highlights the growing positive influence of women in executive positions, who help their companies increase profitability better than companies with mostly male boards and executives.

At this weeks EurekaFEST in Irvine, California, one womanKelly-Vlahakis-Hankswas recognized for her leadership in corporate sustainability to drive innovation and growth. As the president and CEO of Earth Friendly Products, the maker of ECOS environmentally friendly cleaning products, Vlahakis-Hanks received the 2019 Eureka Award at the tech festival held April 26 in Irvine, California.

EurekaFEST is one of Southern California's largest technology festivals and showcases the region's booming startup tech industry. Over a thousand entrepreneurs, investors and festival goers attend the five-day event to discuss the year's hottest startup trends such as artificial intelligence, content creation, and venture capital.

The Eureka Award is given to an entrepreneur or investor who not only built on their own Eureka Moment but is also helping others in Southern California build on theirs.

Vlahakis-Hanks has led Earth Friendly Products to become the world's first carbon-neutral, water-neutral, Platinum Zero Waste manufacturer. Founded in 1967 and based in Cypress, California, the company pioneered safer ingredients in cleaning products. Vlahakis-Hanks transformed the family-owned and -operated company into a leader in sustainable manufacturing practices and ingredient transparency, and she speaks to business leaders across the county about creating a new model for corporate sustainability in California and beyond.

During a fireside chat with EurekaFEST founder Peter Polydor, Vlahakis-Hanks spoke to the audience of tech entrepreneurs and investors about the importance of integrating sustainability early in a companys life cycle to create long-term cost savings and competitive advantage.

As entrepreneurs and business leaders, its important that we focus on the wellness of our organizations, says Vlahakis-Hanks. Sustainability fosters wellness in personal health, in environmental health, and in corporate health. Consumers care deeply about these issues, and theyre embracing companies that are leading the way in sustainability, giving companies who embrace it a significant advantage in the market.

Kelly is an incredible CEO who continues to build and grow ECOS in a way that is not only successful but positively impacts our southern California community, her employees and our planet. We are thrilled to be honoring her this year with our 2019 Eureka Award., says Peter Polydor, EurekaFEST founder.

ABOUT EARTH FRIENDLY PRODUCTS

Family owned and operated since 1967, Earth Friendly Products is the maker of ECOS Laundry Detergent and over 200 other environmentally friendly products that are safer for people, pets and the planet. Made with plant-powered ingredients, ECOS cleaners are thoughtfully sourced, pH balanced, readily biodegradable, easily recyclable, and never tested on animals. Over 100 ECOS products have received the coveted U.S. EPA Safer Choice certification, which means that every ingredient is the safest in its class and that formulations are effective and demonstrate sustainability without sacrificing quality or performance. ECOS, Baby ECOS, ECOS for Pets! and ECOS Pro cleaners are available at major club and grocery retailers and natural foods stores throughout the U.S., in over 60 countries and online at ecos.com and babyecos.com.
Eileen Shea, an environmental science and policy specialist who retired after a thirty-six-year career with a federal agency and now lives with her rescue dog, Shep, in Black Mountain, North Carolina, has completed her book Shep and the Momma Mongoose: an educational and entertaining story for young children.

Shep and the Momma Mongoose is the first in a planned series of children's books focused on the shared adventures of Shep, a Chihuahua-Terrier mix, and his human mother Eileen. These adventures began in Hawaii where Shep and Eileen found each other at the Hawaii Humane Society. This first book focuses on an incident that occurred early in their life together when Shep fist discovered what a mongoose was and learned that a mother's love is the same no matter what kind of creature you are. Shep likes hearing this story periodically because it reminds him of the two years he and Eileen lived in Hawaii and because it was the first time that Shep and Eileen experienced something exciting and new together! Both Shep and Eileen hope that you too will enjoy their first adventure and they look forward to sharing more stories of their life together which has taken them from Hawaii, through National Parks and cities across the country to North Carolina.

Published by New York City-based Page Publishing, Eileen Sheas book is a lighthearted story about how Shep saves the day for a momma mongoose and her baby.

Readers who wish to experience this engaging work can purchase Shep and the Momma Mongoose at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708.

About Page Publishing:

Page Publishing is a traditional New York-based, full-service publishing house that handles all the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing knows that authors need to be free to create - not overwhelmed with logistics like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes, and the like. Its roster of accomplished authors and publishing professionals allows writers to leave behind these complex and time-consuming issues to focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com.
The annual National Funding Conference brings together the best and the brightest lenders and lessees to exchange the latest information on funding sources and equipment innovation.

Equipment Leasing Group of America, LLC (ELGA) will be exhibiting at the 31st Annual National Funding Conference, April 9-11, at Swissotel Chicago.

This year, the CEO of Illinois-based ELGA, Brian Trebels, will welcome conference attendees at Booth 306 in the Zurich Ballroom of the Swissotel.

ELGA creates custom equipment-finance solutions for manufacturers, healthcare providers, construction contractors, government agencies and more in the U.S.

Said Trebels: The U.S. equipment finance sector is now valued at $1 trillion and it provides the critical liquidity that American businesses need to operate and thrive. This conference, sponsored annually by the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association for now more than three decades, is the principal marketplace for that vital industry.

During his 15+ year career in the finance industry, Brian has completed more than $250-million in transactions, with specialized experience in structuring, compliance, documentation and funding. Brian studied in the College of Business and Public Administration at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa and is an active member of ELFA, NEFA, AACFB and Vistage.

In October of last year, Brian announced the purchase of a portfolio which included 79 top-brand truck tractor and construction crane leases. Among the truck brands included among the leases are Kenworth, Peterbilt, International, and Volvo. The leases also include top-brand construction cranes manufactured by Terex, Manitex, National, and Altec.

The annual ELFA-sponsored summit and workshop in Chicago is a principal forum and marketplace for finding equipment financing. The meeting provides an opportunity for institutional borrowers to meet funding sources face-to-face in an efficient, professional setting.

Added Trebels: Some of the nations fastest-growing, well-known businesses actually dont own their branded fleets or most expensive operating equipment. These companies lease what they need to prosper, which allows them to flexibly and efficiently manage capital, technology and cash flow as they expand. The annual National Funding Conference brings together the best and the brightest lenders and lessees to exchange the latest information on funding sources and equipment innovation.

In addition to ELGA CEO Trebels, two additional representatives from ELGA will be in attendance.

WHAT

The ELFA National Funding Conference

WHEN

April 9-11, 2019

WHERE

Booth 306

Zurich Ballroom

Swissotel Chicago

323 E. Upper Wacker Drive

Chicago, IL 60601

ABOUT ELGA

Equipment Leasing Group of America, LLC (ELGA), was formed by veterans of the leasing industry with over 40 years combined experience in creating custom equipment solutions. Where other lenders fail to meet needs, ELGA provides equipment finance solutions for A, B and structured credit profiles. As an independent financing partner, ELGA is uniquely suited to serve the needs of middle-market businesses. Leases from ELGA have included enterprise software and assembly-line equipment for manufacturers, high-end diagnostic and surgical-suite equipment for healthcare providers, and conventional construction equipment such as excavators and bulldozers. Apply for an ELGA lease agreement today.

CONTACT

Garnet Sherman

847-784-0011

info(at)ELGALLC.com

http://www.ELGALLC.com
Global Corporate Finance Society (GCFS), a professional association and member-based network for finance professionals around the world, is pleased to announce 12 new members have been appointed to the Board of Directors following GCFS's election meeting. This extremely experienced group of industry veterans will work together to break down the barriers that prevent so many from entering the world of finance.

GCFS Board Responsibilities

The GCFS Board of Directors is responsible for providing the entire society with strategic guidance and creating a global community for holders of the Financial Modeling & Valuation Analyst (FMVA) designation. In addition, the board will provide mentorship on the FMVA curriculum and ensure the program provides the most up-to-date and practical training possible.

The full slate of Directors that will serve from 2019 to 2021 are:



Jibran Khan, Toronto, Canada

Joseph Frantz, New York City, USA

Lester A. Leong, Santa Monica, USA

Ryan Small, San Francisco, USA

Rajib Bose, Delhi, India

Amin Vali, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Scott Needham, Johannesburg, South Africa

Mario Bartz, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Liza Vogt, Brisbane, Australia

Arno Wakfer, Brisbane, Australia

Vitor Morato, Brasilia, Brazil

Stefano Sanna, Paris, France

Lisa Dorian, New York, USA

Scott Powell, Vancouver, Canada

Tim Vipond, Vancouver, Canada

"I'm honored to be elected to the board of the Global Corporate Finance Society," said Arno Wakfer. "Over the next two years, my focus will be creating value for members, increasing the public profile of FMVA certification holders, and finding ways to partner with employers to enhance the career paths for financial analysts globally."

With over 10,000 new students enrolling in our courses each month, we are extremely excited about our ability to have a positive impact on so many financial analysts careers, said Tim Vipond, CEO of CFI. Weve seen extraordinary demand among finance professionals for practical, skills-based certification programs that can be completed 100% online. The mission of the GCFS is to enhance our online certifications by providing a global community that will support both FMVA charter holders and employers alike.

About Global Corporate Finance Society (GCFS)

GCFS is a member-owned nonprofit organization that is dedicated to supporting the professional development of Financial Modeling and Valuation Analyst (FMVA) members. GCFS provides its members with continuing educational materials, sponsored events, job postings, access to case competitions, and networking opportunities. For more information, please visit https://corporatefinance.org

About the FMVA Certification

The Financial Modeling & Valuation Analyst (FMVA) certification is the Corporate Finance Institutes globally recognized financial modeling certification. The FMVA program has been designed to teach practical applications of accounting, finance, Excel, financial modeling, valuation, budgeting, forecasting, and strategy. In order to successfully graduate from the program, students must achieve a passing grade of 80% on all required courses. For more information, please visit https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com

Read the biographies of each board member to learn about their extensive experience in corporate finance here: https://corporatefinance.org/about/board-directors/.

Corporate Finance Institute and Financial Modeling and Valuation Analyst (FMVA) are registered trademarks owned by CFI Education Inc.
Because of its effectiveness and affordability, the Philips Satinelle Advanced Wet/Dry Epilator earns our highest ranking among Hair Removal products in 2019

TopConsumerReviews.com recently gave their top rating to Philips Satinelle Advanced Wet/Dry Epilator, a highly effective multi-functional tool in Hair Removal for men and women.

Both men and women struggle to deal with unwanted hair: on the face, back, legs, arms, almost everywhere. Fortunately there are effective Hair Removal products beyond traditional razors, which often leave scars from cuts, or tedious plucking and tweezing. Whether using an epilator that removes hair from the root, or a chemical depilatory that dissolves hair from the follicle, many satisfied customers are taking advantage of Hair Removal products that lead to less time dealing with unwelcome hair. Better yet, these products are easily available for purchase online, delivered quickly and discreetly right to shoppers homes.

While there are numerous Hair Removal products on the market that do a decent job, theres no other tool that delivers the impressive results you get when using the Philips Satinelle Advanced Wet/Dry Epilator, according to Brian Dolezal of TopConsumerReviews.com, LLC. This device does it all, from its wet/dry capabilities to its dual function as a combination shaver/epilator. And, because its cordless and rechargeable, its easy to take to the gym, use it in the shower or by the sink, or anywhere else you might need. Customers say that the Philips Satinelle Advanced Wet/Dry Epilator is much more comfortable than waxing and rave about how this device gets even the shortest of hairs with very little effort. Because of its effectiveness and affordability, the Philips Satinelle Advanced Wet/Dry Epilator earns our highest ranking among Hair Removal products in 2019.

To find out more about Philips Satinelle Advanced Wet/Dry Epilator and other Hair Removal products available for purchase online, including reviews and comparison rankings, please visit the Hair Removal category of TopConsumerReviews.com at https://www.topconsumerreviews.com/hair-removal/.

About Philips

Philips is a leading health technology company focused on improving people's health and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in consumer health and home care.

About TopConsumerReviews.com

TopConsumerReviews.com, LLC is a leading provider of reviews and rankings for thousands of consumer products and services. From Hair Removal to Anti Aging Creams and Stress Relief, TopConsumerReviews.com delivers in-depth product evaluations in order to make purchasing decisions easier.
In 2018, millions of consumers had their personal data compromised by breaches across a diverse set of industriesfrom tech to retail to hospitality and moreputting many at risk of payment card fraud. Most consumers are aware of their datas exposure, but 91% believe their credit card issuer will cover them in the event of fraud. But this confidence causes some consumers to put themselves in harms way, according to Auriemma Researchs most recent issue of The Payments Report.

Fraud events have become mainstream, leading many consumers to feel numb to its consequences. According to Auriemma Roundtables Q4-2018 Card Fraud Benchmark Report, seven-in-ten financial institutions saw an increase in gross credit card fraud compared to the prior quarter; a similar number of issuers are forecasting gross fraud will stay the same or increase in 2019. Meanwhile, nine-in-ten consumers believe fraud has stayed the same or increased over the past year, according to Auriemma Research data.

Many consumers have accepted fraud as a fact of life, says Jaclyn Holmes, Director of Auriemma Research. They know fraud happens, many are concerned it will happen to them, but theyre also confident that their issuers will take care of them.

When asking consumers about how credit card issuers respond to fraud, Auriemma Research found over eight-in-ten say issuers react quickly and are good at monitoring. Even the one-fifth who say theyve experienced card fraud in the past year share these positive sentiments. While a noteworthy 22% of these consumers say the experience has caused them to spend less on the impacted card, 15% spend more, and 63% dont change their spending at all. In general, fraud events dont appear to leave a lasting stain on payment behavior with the compromised card.

In the court of public opinion, banks dont appear to be to blame for fraud, says Holmes. But as fraud remains high industry-wide, issuers are now tasked with finding ways to further engage their customers in the fight, namely by reducing risky payment behavior and signing up for proactive protections.

Consumers, however, are not demonstrably concerned with proactive, preventative measures. Over one-quarter of cardholders are comfortable making online purchases from unfamiliar websites, likely a direct result of the confidence consumers have in banks protective measures. In addition, over four-in-ten cardholders say they havent changed the password for their debit or credit card account in over a year. Other precautions, like fraud alerts, identity theft protection, and two-factor authentication are not overwhelming used by consumers.

While issuers try to arm their customers with tools to defend against the impact of fraud, many arent taking advantage, says Holmes. Consumer complacency could be a challenge in 2019 and beyond, and if issuers arent able to enlist their cardholders support against fraudsters, we may see losses grow.

Survey Methodology

This Auriemma Research study was conducted online within the US by an independent field service provider on behalf of Auriemma Consulting Group among 800 US adult debit cardholders in March 2018. The number of interviews completed for both is sufficient to allow for statistical significance testing among sub-groups at the 95% confidence level 5%, unless otherwise noted. The purpose of the research was not disclosed, nor did respondents know the criteria for qualifying. The average interview length was 25 minutes. For more information, call Jaclyn Holmes at (212) 323-7000.

About Auriemma Fraud Control Roundtables

Auriemma runs a series of information sharing and benchmarking groups for executives in fraud strategy and operations. Spanning credit card, debit card, and consumer banking, Auriemmas fraud control roundtables combine executive meetings, industry-leading operational benchmarking, and peer group surveys to help participants identify vulnerabilities and optimize fraud management strategies. For information on membership, contact Ira Goldman at 212-323-7000.

About Auriemma Group

For more than 30 years, Auriemmas mission has been to empower clients with authoritative data and actionable insights. Our team comprises recognized experts in four primary areas: operational effectiveness, consumer research, co-brand partnerships, and corporate finance. Our business intelligence and advisory services give clients access to the data, expertise and tools they need to navigate an increasingly complex environment and maximize their performance. Auriemma serves the consumer financial services ecosystem from our offices in New York City and London. For more information, visit us at http://www.auriemma.group.
Jensens team is pleased to continue our long-standing work for Moran, designing tugs that meet high standards for maneuverability while delivering compact power in highly capable vessels,

Jensen Maritime Consultants, the Seattle-based naval architecture and marine engineering subsidiary of Crowley Maritime Corp., has been awarded the contract to design ship assist and escort tugboats for Moran Towing Corp., a New Canaan, Conn., tug-and-barge operator on the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts. The new boats will be the latest in a series of seven Jensen-designed tugboats for Moran over the past decade.

New features on the tugboats include upgrades to meet the latest ABS regulations and U.S. Coast Guard subchapter M regulations, as well as meeting U.S. EPA Tier IV requirements. The upgrades will ensure the vessels meet current and future demands for performance and maneuverability, and that piping and electrical systems are consistent with Morans larger fleet of tugs and barges.

Jensens team is pleased to continue our long-standing work for Moran, designing tugs that meet high standards for maneuverability while delivering compact power in highly capable vessels, said Jensens Bryan Nichols, director, business development. We look forward to contributing to the success of the Moran ship assist and escort fleet.

At 86 feet long and 36 feet wide, Jensen designed this series of tugboats to provide the performance needed for ship assist and escort work on the East and Gulf Coasts. Equipped with two Caterpillar 3512E, EPA Tier IV engines with 2,550 horsepower each, and Rolls Royce Z-drive propulsion units, the tugs each deliver more than 5,000 horsepower. The boats offer bollard pull of 68 short tons.

A deep skeg forward is included in the design for escort work, but the skeg will remain open at the aft end to allow for better maneuverability. The skeg also provides for a more stable platform when underway, minimizing rolling due to the seaway. Each boat has a depth of 15 feet, 10 inches.

A Markey escort hawser winch will be installed forward, and a Markey H-bitt and hydraulic capstan will be installed for aft towing and line handling.

Additionally, large-machinery removal hatches are provided on the main deck and deck house to allow for easy removal of equipment from the engine room. Berths for six crewmembers will be installed in four comfortable staterooms.

The tugs will be constructed at the Washburn & Doughty Shipyard of East Boothbay, Maine.

Moran is a leading provider of marine towing and transportation services, a more than 150-year-old corporation that was founded as a small towing company in New York Harbor and grew to preeminence in the industry. The cornerstone of their success has been a long-standing reputation for safe, efficient service, achieved through a combination of first-rate people and outstanding vessels and equipment.

Washburn & Doughty Associates, Inc. specializes in the construction of steel commercial vessels. Founded by Bruce Doughty, Bruce Washburn and Carl Pianka, the yard began building fishing boats in 1977. Since then, the yard has continued to prosper by diversifying its capabilities, developing innovative designs and building techniques, and reaching out to new markets. Washburn & Doughty has delivered of a diverse mix of tugboats, commercial passenger vessels, fishing boats, barges, ferries and research vessels.

Seattle-based Jensen Maritime Consultants, Inc., is a naval architecture and marine engineering firm owned by Crowley Maritime Corporation. The company offers a diverse range of consulting, design and engineering services developed from more than 50 years of experience working around the world. Jensen is a recognized leader in the design of all types of vessels - particularly workboats, fishing boats and fireboats  and has built a favorable reputation on a long history of successful designs and conversions with close attention to engineering basics. The company's services include detail and conceptual design and engineering, lofting, regulatory and shipyard liaison as well as on-site consulting services and on-location assistance anywhere in the world. Additional information about Jensen can be found at jensenmaritime.com.
...The new transaction positions the company for continued milestone growth as small businesses accessed more than $2 billion through Kabbage last year and more than $600 million already in the first quarter of 2019.

Kabbage, Inc., a global financial services, cash flow technology and data platform for small businesses, closed the largest asset-backed securitization (ABS) by a small business online lending platform to date for $700 million.

The most senior class of the five-tranche transaction earned a AA(sf) rating from Kroll Bond Rating Agency, representing the highest ABS rating earned by a small business online lending platform for a three-year facility. The transaction also reduces the companys cost of funds compared to its existing ABS by more than 100 basis points.

The oversubscribed transaction saw strong demand from both new and existing institutional investors, further demonstrating the markets continued confidence in the strength of Kabbages platform. To date, the company has helped more than 170,000 small businesses access over $6.5 billion in funding via its automated underwriting models which analyzes the live business data of customers to provide a funding decision in minutes.

The new ABS and AA(sf) rating is a testament to Kabbages proven and real-time approach to responsibly provide credit access to small businesses, said Kabbage CFO Scott Rosenberg. The new transaction positions the company for continued milestone growth as small businesses accessed more than $2 billion through Kabbage last year and more than $600 million already in the first quarter of 2019.

The securitization brings Kabbages current debt funding to $940 million, including other existing bilateral credit facilities. The new transaction is issued by Kabbage Asset Securitization LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kabbage, Inc., and a majority of its proceeds were used to pay down an existing asset-backed securitization transaction.

About Kabbage

Kabbage, Inc., headquartered in Atlanta, has pioneered a financial services data and technology platform to provide access to automated funding to small businesses in minutes. Kabbage leverages data generated through business activity such as accounting data, online sales, shipping and dozens of other sources to understand performance and deliver fast, flexible funding in real time. Kabbage is funded and backed by leading investors, including the SoftBank Vision Fund, BlueRun Ventures, Mohr Davidow Ventures and others. All Kabbage U.S.-based loans are issued by Celtic Bank, a Utah-Chartered Industrial Bank, Member FDIC. For more information, please visit http://www.kabbage.com.
Marcos Silva's new CD, "Brasil From Head to Toe." This CD is a chance to learn where I'm coming from. This is who I am. All of my DNA is in there.

Keyboardist and composer Marcos Silva returns to the recording spotlight after 30 years with "Brasil From Head to Toe," set for a May 3 release on his Goose Egg Productions imprint. The third album from the Brazilian-born, Bay Area-based musician and educator features an extensive cast of musicians, anchored by a core quartet with saxophonist Gary Meek, bassist Scott Thompson, and drummer Mauricio Zottarelli. It also includes 10 original compositions of invigorating Brazilian jazz fusion by the master himself.

Silva spent the three decades since recording his first two albums, 1987s "Here We Go" and 1989s "White & Black," touring and recording with the likes of Flora Purim and Airto (for whom he also served a 24-year stint as music director), Paquito DRivera, and Jon Lucien, as well as keeping busy on the Bay Areas ascendant Brazilian jazz scene and teaching for more than two decades in the Brazilian Music department at Berkeleys California Jazz Conservatory (formerly The Jazzschool). With Brasil From Head to Toe, he summarizes everything hes done and learned in that long and accomplished career.

Its a chance to learn where Im coming from, Silva says. This is who I am. All of my DNA is in there.

Not just Silvas DNA, but also his incomparable experiences as a musician living in Brazil and the United States and traveling the world. Tracks like In 7 & 2, Hathor, and Dry Land (among others) recall the electrified Brazilian fusion Silva played with Purim and Airto. Dos Pes A Cabeca gives traditional samba music a charge of slippery but bruising funk; Escape inclines toward progressive jazz (with the support of vibraphonist Dillon Vado); Prediction and Spring are slow samba-infused ballad offeringsthe last featuring a lush arrangement for 12-piece string ensemble.

I dont think I wrote anything in here, Silva says of these pieces. Im the vehicle that translates the musical messages sent from above. Im on the outside listening.

Silvas sumptuous but exacting compositionswhich have been recorded by such artists as Purim, Romero Lubambo, Bud Shank, and Herbie Manncall for interpretation by the highest caliber of musicians, and Silvas bandmates are more than up to the task. Zottarelli, a New York (by way of Sao Paulo)-based drummer and percussionist, is highly sought after in the jazz, Latin, and Brazilian music communities. Meek, who lives in Monterey, is a fellow longtime veteran of Flora Purim and Airtos working band (of whom Silva says, after Michael Brecker, Gary is the saxophonist). East Bay bassist Thompson is a protege and colleague of Silvas at CJCs Brazilian Music department, and the son of woodwinds player Mary Fettig, with whom Silva worked on his first two albums.

Marcos Silva was born September 8, 1954 in Rio de Janeiro. He studied classical guitar, bass, and drums at the citys Museum of Image and Sound, becoming a mainstay on the music scene but ambitious to make his way into jazz. To that end, he arrived in New York City in March 1980, soon meeting famed vocalist Flora Purim and her percussionist husband Airto Moreira.

The connection redirected Silvas career, including his place of residence. He soon followed his new employers to their home base of Santa Barbara, California, relocating again three years later to the San Francisco Bay Area. He continued working with Purim and Airto, as well as joining guitarist Ricardo Peixotos Voz do Samba and later collaborating with Claudio Amarals Viva Brasil, and working with Brazils elite composers such as guitarist Toninho Horta and Dori Caymmi. In 1987 he made his debut album, "Here We Go," following it two years later with "White & Black."

In the ensuing years, Silva became an active partner in the Bay Area jazz scene, helping to fuel a surge in its Brazilian jazz contingent and giving a boost to vocalists like Claudio Gomez, Claudia Villela, and Sandy Cressman. In the late 1990s he joined the faculty at The Jazzschool (now the California Jazz Conservatory) in Berkeley, helping to establish the new institutions Brazilian Music department. He has remained there ever since as department head while also continuing to compose and perform actively.
Lucas Systems, Inc., the leading provider of solutions for intelligent mobile work execution for warehouses and distribution centers, is kicking off ProMat 2019 in Chicago this week with in-booth demonstrations and a show-floor seminar on machine learning. The Lucas seminar will describe the emerging field of machine learning, and explain how companies can use the technology to improve warehouse management and planning. Visitors to booth S4263 will also learn about the math-based intelligence behind Lucas Dynamic Work Optimization.

Machine Learning For Warehouse Management

On Wednesday, April 10, Lucas CTO and Data Scientist will be providing an introduction to machine learning for warehouse management in the Emerging Technologies and Sustainability Theater. The presentation  Getting Started With AI and Machine Learning For Improved Warehouse Management  will provide an overview of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technology, explain emerging uses for ML in the warehouse, and suggest ways companies can get started with the technology. The presentation will touch on ongoing research with current Lucas customers, who have shared terabytes of operational data.

Machine learning uses current and historical data from work execution software, mobile applications, and other operational data sources  including WMS, ERP and order management systems. Multiple algorithms analyze the data to discern patterns and to create operational models that can be used to predict requirements and to pro-actively manage inventory, labor and other DC resources. Attendees will learn why machine learning can be more accurate and adaptable than warehouse planning systems based on static models.

Gamification and Lucas Dynamic Work Optimization

Lucas is unveiling several enhancements to Dynamic Work Optimization (DWO), a tool that uses advanced mathematical modeling to reduce travel in picking and other DC processes. DWO is a component of the Lucas Engage work execution software, which allows warehouses to optimize mobile work processes and labor productivity without changing WMS, ERP, or host systems. Demos of DWO and Engage will be available in the Lucas booth.

Visitors to booth S4263 can also play the DC Travel Challenge, a game developed by Lucas to illustrate how DWO reduces travel up to 50% compared to typical WMS-directed picking processes. To play the tablet-based game, players plot the shortest pick path through a typical DC. The player with the best score each day will win a Fitbit Charge (so they can track their steps after the show).

Voice Picking On Android Wearables

Throughout the show, April 8-11, Lucas will be demonstrating Lucas Move mobile applications, featuring Jennifer voice, running on smartwatches and other Android devices. Introduced in 2014, Lucas Move is the first voice-directed application for the DC that supports both Android and Windows Mobile operating systems. Lucas Move gives customers a seamless migration path as the industry retires legacy Windows hardware devices due to the impending sunset of the Windows Mobile operating system. Thousands of warehouse workers already use Lucas Move on Android devices from Zebra and other device manufacturers,

About Lucas Systems, Inc.

Since 1998, Lucas Systems has pioneered warehouse productivity solutions for mobile workers and distribution center managers. Customers like The Container Store, C&S Wholesale Grocers, HD Supply, Johnson & Johnson, and Rust-Oleum trust Lucas to deliver solutions that greatly improve worker productivity and accuracy because Lucas truly understands warehouse operations. Lucas Mobile Work Execution solutions optimize hands-on processes and seamlessly combine voice, barcode scanning, and other mobile technologies to improve worker productivity, eliminate errors, and boost end-to-end DC efficiency. The solutions also provide managers and supervisors with real-time reporting and management tools that help them better manage their operations.
A new era in diagnosis of orthopedic infections has begun, says Javad Parvizi, MD At last we have an alternative to the primitive, inaccurate, and costly technique of culture. NGS elevates the science of microbiology into the 21st century and is changing the lives of patients.

MicroGenDX, the world leader in Next Generation DNA Sequencing (NGS) in microbial identification took the podium an unprecedented three times at the largest and most reputable orthopedic conference in the world held by the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS).

Only five percent of 1,600 clinical trials are invited to present and MicroGenDX had three studies selected for the honor. The research put forth by some of the top centers in the United States, to include Mayo Clinic, Cleveland, Rush, and Thomas Jefferson, revealed MicroGenDX NGS to be a superior diagnostic tool to conventional culture technique.

A new era in diagnosis of orthopedic infections has begun, says Javad Parvizi, MD Vice Chairman of Research and Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at the Rothman Institute at Thomas Jefferson University. At last we have an alternative to the primitive, inaccurate, and costly technique of culture. NGS elevates the science of microbiology into the 21st century and is changing the lives of patients. Rooms filled with orthopedic surgeons and scientists eagerly listened on how NGS has been changing the lives of patients. The AAOS was a spectacular scene when the results of many studies that MicroGenDX has supported were presented.

In addition to the podium honors at AAOS, MicroGenDX presented data at the International Consensus Meeting (ICM) as part of the Musculoskeletal Infection Society (MSIS) and received 90% voting approval to be added to the Consensus Guidelines Book as a diagnostic tool.

MicroGenDXs CEO, Rick Martin, is excited that NGS is receiving global attention from industry-leading surgeons. NGS is a powerful diagnostic tool that pulls back the curtain on multiple microbial species in orthopedic infections. Leading the infection diagnosis conversation at AAOS is a major step toward our ultimate goal to revolutionize diagnostic testing, and have patients experience better outcomes.

AAOS is the preeminent provider of musculoskeletal education to orthopedic surgeons and others in the world. Its Annual Meeting the largest and most reputable orthopedic conference in the world with surgeons from across the globe presenting leading research in the field.

About MicroGenDX (Formerly PathoGenius)

MicroGenDX is the global leader in molecular testing services through PCR and Next Generation DNA Sequencing to identify microbes in human samples. We are a state-of-the-art CAP accredited, CLIA licensed Molecular Diagnostic facility backed by a team of molecular biologists, biochemists, bioinformaticians, computer scientists, and physicians. Our advanced instrumentation provides the industrys most informative microbial diagnostic tests for ENT, Orthopedic, Urology, Wound Care, Podiatry and other areas of medicine.
Researchers at Mount Sinai have developed a novel approach to cancer immunotherapy, injecting immune stimulants directly into a tumor to teach the immune system to destroy it and other tumor cells throughout the body.

The in situ vaccination worked so well in patients with advanced-stage lymphoma that it is also undergoing trials in breast and head and neck cancer patients, according to a study published in Nature Medicine in April.

The treatment consists of administering a series of immune stimulants directly into one tumor site. The first stimulant recruits important immune cells called dendritic cells that act like generals of the immune army. The second stimulant activates the dendritic cells, which then instruct T cells, the immune systems soldiers, to kill cancer cells and spare non-cancer cells. This immune army learns to recognize features of the tumor cells so it can seek them out and destroy them throughout the body, essentially turning the tumor into a cancer vaccine factory.

The in situ vaccine approach has broad implications for multiple types of cancer, said lead author Joshua Brody, MD, Director of the Lymphoma Immunotherapy Program at The Tisch Cancer Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. This method could also increase the success of other immunotherapies such as checkpoint blockade.

After testing the lymphoma vaccine in the lab, it was tested in 11 patients in a clinical trial. Some patients had full remission from months to years. In lab tests in mice, the vaccine drastically increased the success of checkpoint blockade immunotherapy, the type of immunotherapy responsible for the complete remission of former President Jimmy Carters cancer and the focus of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Medicine.

A clinical trial for lymphoma, breast, and head and neck cancer patients opened in March to test the vaccine with checkpoint blockade drugs. Because the combined immune therapy was at least three times more powerful than either checkpoint blockade or the vaccine by themselves, researchers are extremely optimistic about how effective this may be in patients in this new trial. The in situ vaccine is also being tested in the lab in liver and ovarian cancer.

This research was funded by The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, the Cancer Research Institute, and Merck. Celldex and Oncovir provided reagents for the clinical trial and the lab work.

About the Mount Sinai Health System

The Mount Sinai Health System is New York City's largest integrated delivery system, encompassing eight hospitals, a leading medical school, and a vast network of ambulatory practices throughout the greater New York region. Mount Sinai's vision is to produce the safest care, the highest quality, the highest satisfaction, the best access and the best value of any health system in the nation. The Health System includes approximately 7,480 primary and specialty care physicians; 11 joint-venture ambulatory surgery centers; more than 410 ambulatory practices throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida; and 31 affiliated community health centers. The Icahn School of Medicine is one of three medical schools that have earned distinction by multiple indicators: ranked in the top 20 by U.S. News & World Report's "Best Medical Schools", aligned with a U.S. News & World Report's "Honor Roll" Hospital, No. 12 in the nation for National Institutes of Health funding, and among the top 10 most innovative research institutions as ranked by the journal Nature in its Nature Innovation Index. This reflects a special level of excellence in education, clinical practice, and research. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked No. 18 on U.S. News & World Report's "Honor Roll" of top U.S. hospitals; it is one of the nation's top 20 hospitals in Cardiology/Heart Surgery, Gastroenterology/GI Surgery, Geriatrics, Nephrology, and Neurology/Neurosurgery, and in the top 50 in six other specialties in the 2018-2019 "Best Hospitals" issue. Mount Sinai's Kravis Children's Hospital also is ranked nationally in five out of ten pediatric specialties by U.S. News & World Report. The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked 11th nationally for Ophthalmology and 44th for Ear, Nose, and Throat. Mount Sinai Beth Israel, Mount Sinai St. Luke's, Mount Sinai West, and South Nassau Communities Hospital are ranked regionally.

For more information, visit http://www.mountsinai.org/, or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
At the Modular Building Institutes annual conference, World of Modular, Panel Built, Inc. received a first-place award in recognition of one of their modular construction projects. With Lee Baenninger and Isaiah McPherson in attendance to accept the Award of Distinction, Panel Built took home first prize in the Relocatable Modular Workforce Housing Under 10,000 Sq. Feet" category.

Panel Built would like to thank the Modular Building Institute for this honor. MBIs Awards of Distinction ceremony is the modular construction industrys premier award show case. With over 100 different project entries, it is a fantastic recognition from some of the best minds in the industry. Each modular construction project in contention is carefully judged by a panel of professionals in the fields of architecture, construction, engineering, communications, and/or academia.

The honor was awarded to a Panel Built project at the Burlington-Alamance Regional Airport in Burlington, North Carolina. Along with Tri-Lift NC, Inc., Panel Built provided a 3,800 Sq. Ft. two-story modular building, including two prefabricated, steel stair systems that offer access to the second floor. The building was constructed for the National Agents Alliance, an insurance and marketing firm that is located in the area. It is located inside the companys own jet hangar and is used to provide lodgings to the companys pilots after completing cross-country sales trips, and it offers a wide range of amenities and features.

Using a decorator for the interior furnishings, the building contains is own sleeping quarters, restrooms, kitchen space, pool tables, flat-screen TVs, and bar. The top floor features custom, full glass wall panels, providing a clear view of the hangar floor below, so, along with their new facilities, the NAA received a luxurious space for their pilots and employees to relax after flights and host corporate events, while still having plenty of space to house their two corporate jets.

On uniqueness of this project, Panel Built General Manager, Dave Arnold, noted:

Panel Built wants to get the word out to its MBI partners about our versatility. Everyone needs to know that if they don't have a conventional solution for their customers that they can call Panel Built, and we most likely will have a solution.

The project was another gleaming example of the value Panel Builts dealers provide to our projects. We would like to thank the wonderful people at Tri-Lift NC, Inc. for their work, ensuring this project was an award-winning success.
Pello Agency, a leading experiential marketing and live event agency, has been accepted into Forbes Agency Council, an invitation-only community for owners of and executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative, and advertising agencies.

Richard Vargas, President for Pello, was vetted and selected by a review committee based on the depth and diversity of his experience. Criteria for acceptance include a track record of successfully impacting business growth metrics, as well as personal and professional achievements and honors.

We are honored to welcome Richard into the community, said Scott Gerber, Founder of Forbes Councils, the collective that includes Forbes Agency Council. Our mission with Forbes Councils is to bring together proven leaders from every industry, creating a curated, social capital-driven network that helps every member grow professionally and make an even greater impact on the business world.

As an accepted member of the Council, Richard has access to a variety of exclusive opportunities designed to help him reach peak professional influence. He will connect and collaborate with other respected local leaders in a private forum. Richard will also be invited to work with a professional editorial team to share his expert insights in original business articles on Forbes.com, and to contribute to published Q&A panels alongside other experts.

Finally, Pello will benefit from exclusive access to vetted business service partners, membership-branded marketing collateral, and the high-touch support of the Forbes Councils member concierge team.

Pello is excited to join forces with Forbes on the Agency Council, said Richard Vargas, founding partner and President of Pello Agency. We value the Forbes community and recognize that this partnership will help to further cement our leadership role in Experiential Marketing.
Danfoss is excited to continue building on our open strategy for the PLUS+1 platform by introducing this integration with PRECO Electronics. This type of open collaboration will help our OEM and distribution partners develop systems even faster.- Kevin Faulds, Danfoss

PRECO Electronics will be exhibiting at bauma 2019, the worlds leading construction machinery trade fair held in Munich, Germany, April 8  14, in Hall C4  Stand 639. Bringing fleet safety solutions to the worldwide platform of the construction industry, PRECO's latest innovations represent what is to come in the future of proximity detection, machine awareness technology, and automation.

Working with many of the world's top Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM), PRECOs proximity detection systems have been installed on heavy-duty equipment worldwide for more than a decade. Leading engineering and electronics companies are also integrating PRECOs future-ready radar sensors with other technologies to further advance safety.

Today, PRECO announces its integration partnership with Danfoss Power Solutions, the world-class provider of mobile hydraulics for the construction, agriculture and other off-highway vehicle markets. The partnership with Danfoss introduces the software integration of PRECOs perception radar sensors and Danfosss PLUS+1 Platform to OEMs and integrators.

We are excited to be working with Danfoss to bring our customers the ability to combine PRECOs PreView Radar sensors with intelligent awareness and controller applications on the Danfoss platform, Tom Loutzenheiser, PRECOs Vice President of Business Development said. This partnership is an opportunity to broaden the utilization of PRECOs intelligent solutions as an improvement to safety automation systems. Together we are making it easier and faster for heavy-duty customers to build control and automation applications taking advantage of sensor fusion, using Danfosss intelligent controllers.

As proximity detection adoption within heavy-duty industries spreads across the globe, warning systems have advanced with the integration of intelligent technologies, propelling the industry in the direction of safety automation. PRECOs proximity detection systems, long available as solutions for blind spot object detection, are also the industrys choice for automated 360-degree solutions using sensor fusion.

Danfoss is excited to continue building on our open strategy for the PLUS+1 platform by introducing this integration with PRECO Electronics, Kevin Faulds, Danfosss Director of Software Marketing said. This type of open collaboration will help our OEM and distribution partners develop systems even faster.

With partners and dealers around the world, PRECO works to mitigate the broad and complex safety issues facing heavy-duty industries. In recognition of the need for safety systems, PRECOprovides PreView Sentry and Side Defender, the premiere solutions to rear and side collision mitigation. As the global leader in heavy-duty safety, PRECO Electronics partners with other industry leaders working for the future of automation.

To provide the construction industry with the opportunity to learn how to improve safety in and around heavy mobile equipment, PRECO will be exhibiting its latest collision avoidance solutions at bauma 2019, April 8  14, (Hall C4, Stand 639), in Munich, Germany. Whether the heavy equipment is used off-road or on road, PRECOs PreView Sentry and Side DefenderII have operations covered.

For more information on PreView Radar technology and the Danfoss partnership, please visit PRECOs website. To learn more about PRECOs involvement at bauma 2019, please contact Reyna Clow at rclow@preco.com.

About PRECO Electronics

As the global leader in collision mitigation technologies, PRECO Electronics strives to mitigate risk, while eliminating accident-related injuries and fatalities by designing, engineering, and manufacturing rugged and reliable collision mitigation technology for heavy-duty industries. Keeping pace with the evolving needs of the industry, PRECOs engineering team proudly continues its innovative advances in new safety technologies.

For more information on PRECOs heavy-duty vehicle collision mitigation technology, please visit http://www.preco.com.


San Francisco teeth in a day Everyone is in a hurry in San Francisco and in the Bay Area, and that includes persons who want to improve their smiles.

San Francisco Dental Implant Center, the Bay Area leader in innovative dental implants, is proud to announce a new blog post on the popular 'teeth in a day' technique. Not all dental implant patients will qualify, so the post admonishes interested persons in the Bay Area to reach out for a one-on-one consultation with Dr. Rabinovich, the Center's director.

"Everyone is in a hurry in San Francisco and in the Bay Area, and that includes persons who want to improve their smiles," explained Dr. Alex Rabinovich, chief oral surgeon of San Francisco Dental Implants. "Many dental implant patients want to get 'teeth in a day,' which is a way to describe the fastest possible technique. However, not everyone qualifies, and only a one-on-one consultation with a trained dental implant professional can make the determination."

Interested persons can review the new post from San Francisco Dental Implants at https://www.sfdentalimplants.com/blog/new-san-francisco-smile-in-a-day-yes-its-possible/. There, they can learn the basics online in the ease and comfort of their mobile phone or digital device. Secondarily, they can visit the information page at https://www.sfdentalimplants.com/replacing-all/ or the companion website on oral surgery needs at https://www.oralsurgery-sf.com/dental-implants/. These three, newly updated pages represent a first step on the journey towards 'teeth in a day.' The final step is to request a surgeon consultation in the Center's convenient San Francisco office. It draws clients from not only San Francisco but also Oakland and Marin County.

BUSY BAY AREA RESIDENTS WANT TEETH IN A DAY

Here is background on this release. Busy San Francisco residents often want dental implants to improve their smiles, but shy away at the duration of the procedure. Especially if they need whole mouth implants, the procedure can be time-consuming. Still, the desire for an improved smile drives Bay Area clients to seek out alternatives. Some, but not all, may have heard of 'teeth in a day,' which is shorthand for the quickest methodology for full mouth dental implants. Not all patients qualify, so the first step is to read online about the procedure and the second, most important step, is to reach out to a qualified dental implant professional to get an assessment.

For these reasons, the Center is announcing an important blog post on 'teeth in a day' in San Francisco and urging clients to read it and then schedule a consultation to see if it is right for them.

ABOUT SAN FRANCISCO DENTAL IMPLANT CENTER

San Francisco Dental Implant Center, under the direction of Dr. Alex Rabinovich, focuses on the placement and restoration of dental implants, making it among the top-rated dental implant clinics in the San Francisco Bay Area. Dr. Rabinovich is a Board Certified Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon specializing in the field of dental implants. This additional training, along with his years of experience, sets Alex Rabinovich MD DDS apart from the growing number of general dentists offering dental implant treatments. The cost of dental implants in the Bay Area can be easy to manage with payment plans available. San Francisco Dental Implant Center serves the San Francisco Bay Area including Marin County areas such as Tiburon, Sausalito, and Mill Valley.

Contact:

San Francisco Dental Implant Center, Media Relations

Web. http://www.sfdentalimplants.com/

Email. visage.sanfran(at)gmail(dot)com

Tel. 415-817-9991
SEAL Awards Logo "Consumers need a way to find sustainable restaurants, commented Matt Harney, Founder of the SEAL Awards Given their leading position in restaurant discovery, Yelp has a unique opportunity and responsibility to positively impact our environment by making this straight-forward listings enhancement"

Today the SEAL Awards announced its request that Yelp enhances its listings to highlight restaurants with straws upon request programs.

Individuals can support this initiative by signing a petition on Change.org: https://www.change.org/p/yelp-tell-yelp-it-s-time-to-suckless

FACTS ABOUT STRAW POLLUTION



Americans use more than 170 million plastic straws every day. That adds up to 63 billion straws a year.

Algae thrive on plastic, causing it to emit an odor that animals associate with food. As a result, each year, 1 million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals die from ingesting plastic.

Plastic trash spreads pathogens into the ocean, which in turn can infect sea life. Straws, which have been in a humans mouth, are that much more likely to spread human pathogens to ocean animals.

Following the lead of cities such as Berkeley, Davis and San Luis Obispo, the state of California recently passed a law banning full-service restaurants from automatically handing out straws to guests, although restaurants can choose to make them available to customers upon request. The bill, which was signed into law in October 2018, came into effect on January 1st, 2019. Advocates of this legislation (such as the Surfrider Foundation and UCLAs Environmental Law Clinic) hope it will be as effective as other California laws that have banned single-use plastics, such as San Franciscos 2007 law banning retail stores from giving away plastic bags, which reduced plastic bag pollution in the city by 70%.

NOT ALL COMPANIES ARE WAITING FOR LOCAL LAWS TO TAKE ACTION

New York Citys Union Square Hospitality Group announced that they would be banning all plastic straws from their restaurants, sharing that, We decided to phase out plastic straws after learning that 8 million tons of plastic enter the ocean every year.

Bon Appetit Management Company announced they will ban plastic straws company wide  a tremendous departure from the 16.8 million straws the company purchased in 2017 for the restaurants and cafes they operate in 33 US states.

IKEA (a 2018 SEAL Business Sustainability Award winner) has promised to ban all single-use plastics from their restaurants worldwide by the year 2020.

Alaska Airlines announced they will be replacing all plastic straws with marine-friendly alternatives, which they will make available only upon request. The airline used 22 million plastic stir straws on domestic and international flights in 2017.

Yelp has the opportunity to build on this groundswell by highlighting the restaurants taking voluntary actions for the environment, and helping the public to reward companies for their initiative.

A COMPELLING BUSINESS CASE FOR YELP

We commend Yelp for their recent responsibility initiatives - like adding Open To All to their business listings, commented Matt Harney. We ask that Yelp shows similar leadership in highlighting environmentally responsible restaurants. Not only is it the right thing to do, but the business case is also very compelling.

Easy public relations win for Yelp.

Restaurants are an important segment for Yelp, representing 14% of advertising revenue. In the same way Claim Your Business acts as a high converting ad sales channel, the straws upon request listing update presents an opportunity to engage with restaurant owners and highlight Yelps environmental leadership.

Very low cost and low-risk implementation.

Consistent with Yelps leadership on Open To All and Restaurant Hygiene social issues

Yelp has a further opportunity to highlight restaurants with comprehensive sustainability programs (like those in Surfrider Foundations Ocean Friendly Restaurants list)

ABOUT SEAL AWARDS

The SEAL (Sustainability, Environmental Achievement & Leadership) Awards is an awards-driven environmental advocacy organization.

Our core beliefs maintain that our environmental progress requires true leadership, leadership deserves recognition, and recognition is a form of accountability.

The SEAL Awards organizational pillars are our:
Walters Homes offers homebuyers complimentary architectural and design services, allowing them to work with in-house architects to design their new home. Homebuyers will receive architectural design services for free  regardless of the size or cost of the home, said Matthew Gaudet-Walters, Director of Business Development for Walters Homes.

Walters Homes, the Jersey Shores premier homebuilder, is the first in the state to offer homebuyers completely complimentary architectural and design services.

Homebuyers will receive architectural design services for free  regardless of the size or cost of the home, said Matthew Gaudet-Walters, Director of Business Development for Walters Homes. Our in-house architects will design your new home, then finalize your floorplans with a 3D color rendering and price breakdown with no obligations or commitments  you have nothing to lose.

From traditional shore colonials to contemporary marvels, Walters Architecture offers a customized approach to homebuilding.

Our experienced architectural team will take your older home, storm-damaged home, empty lot or nothing at all, and transform it into your dream home using modern innovations and technology that fit your budget and style, said Gaudet-Walters.

Walters Homes encompasses three separate divisions that include Architecture, Realty and Custom Homes. Together, the award-winning homebuilder represents a truly one-stop shopping experience for homebuyers.

We want to provide our clients with a full range of services from architecture and realty to custom homes, said Gaudet-Walters. We are one team that takes care of everything.

Walters Homes is located at 880 Mill Creek Road, Manhawkin, NJ 08050. To learn more, call 609-597-6999 or visit waltershomes.com.

Walters Architectural Services include complimentary preliminary plans (i.e., floor plan layout, elevations and rendering). Plans to be built by Walters only. See a Sales Associate for details.

About Walters

Walters has been building quality homes at the Jersey Shore since 1984. The company offers three divisions, Architecture, Custom Homes and Realty, to offer all-inclusive services that seamlessly bring a homebuyers dream vision to reality. Walters Architecture is a completely complimentary service that allows homebuyers to work with in-house architects to design the perfect home with modern innovations and technology. Walters Realty offers full-service brokerage experts that help homebuyers find the right homesite depending on their desired location. Walters Custom Homes offers newly designed custom home plans that help homebuyers through the homebuilding process. Every custom home built by Walters meets or exceeds the energy efficiency requirements for ENERGY STAR certification. Walters is located at 880 Mill Creek Road, Manahawkin, NJ 08050. To learn more, call 609.597.6999 or visit waltershomes.com.
Sommet Education and InterContinental Hotels Group sign partnership agreement This collaboration will ensure the relevance of our curricula and further increase students' employability and career progression.

Building on a common commitment to prepare the next generation of industry leaders, Sommet Education institutions Glion Institute of Higher Education and Les Roches Global Hospitality Education launched a partnership with InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG).

Through this partnership, IHG will participate in the curriculum development across Sommet Educations portfolio of bachelors and masters degree programmes by providing case studies for business projects and key note speakers during the courses and for graduation ceremonies.

In addition, IHG will increase its recruitment efforts at both Glion and Les Roches, giving students and graduates access to internships and job opportunities across its portfolio of brands with more than 5,600 hotels in more than 100 countries.

We are excited and proud to partner with global hospitality education leader Sommet Education and its prestigious Glion and Les Roches institutions. The constantly growing hospitality industry is facing a shortage of skills: Through this tailored collaboration, we aim to further develop the best industry talent of tomorrow and nurture a new generation of IHG leaders, said Ranjay Radhakrishnan, Chief Human Resources Officer, IHG.

The mission of IHG to deliver true hospitality for everyone correspond with our own outlook of developing the future leaders of the hospitality industry at large, said Benoit-Etienne Domenget, CEO of Sommet Education. This collaboration will ensure that we provide students with the most relevant curriculum to further increase their employability and career progression.

The partnership is a testament of Sommet Education to further strengthen its relationship with leading hospitality organisations. Both Glion and Les Roches rank among the worlds top three for employer reputation in hospitality and leisure management, according to the QS World University Rankings 2019.

About Sommet Education

Sommet Education is a hospitality education group committed to delivering an exceptional student experience and developing the leaders of tomorrow. Its institutions Glion and Les Roches serve undergraduate and graduate students from more than 100 countries, providing an education built on academic rigour, skills-based learning and dynamic multicultural exposure.

Sommet Education is the only education network with two hospitality institutions ranked among the worlds top four for hospitality education and among the worlds top three for employer reputation (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2019). For more information, visit http://www.sommet-education.com
Were ecstatic to be honored with TravelAge Wests prestigious Editors Pick award. For more than 25 years, Travel Insured has built its name on trust, innovation, and treating each and every customer like they are part of the family. Its wonderful to be recognized as such an organization.

Travel Insured International has been honored with a TravelAge West 2019 Editors Pick Award in the category of Best Travel Insurance Company as part of the TravelAge West WAVE (Western Agents Votes of Excellence) Awards.

Now in its fourteenth year, the goal of TravelAge Wests WAVE Awards is to give travel advisors in the West the opportunity to recognize the outstanding qualities and services of their travel-supplier partners.

The Editors Picks were chosen by Editor-in-Chief Kenneth Shapiro and the entire editorial team of TravelAge West. Review methods included product analysis, on-site visits, a survey of a select group of travel advisors, and online research.

Shapiro explained: We know that Western advisors need to work with the best in the industry in order to stay competitive and, as the number-one travel trade magazine in the West, we remain committed to honoring the companies that continue to lead the way.

In addition to this distinction, Editors Pick honorees are also in the running for a WAVE Award, to be determined by a TravelAge West readers choice poll conducted during the month of April. The voting is open to readers of the print and online publication and will be available at http://www.TravelAgeWest.com/WAVE-Awards.

Isaac Cymrot, Vice President of Industry Relations at Travel Insured states, Were ecstatic to be honored with TravelAge Wests prestigious Editors Pick award. For more than 25 years, Travel Insured has built its name on trust, innovation, and treating each and every customer like they are part of the family. Its wonderful to be recognized as such an organization.

As a leading travel insurance provider, Travel Insured strives to help our customers travel confidently, being there to help when things go wrong. Whatever their concerns, we can help protect what matters most.

Visit Travel Insureds website for more information at http://www.travelinsured.com.

Insurance benefits are subject to limitations and exclusions, including an exclusion for pre-existing conditions.

This press release contains highlights of the plans. The plans contain insurance benefits underwritten by the United States Fire Insurance Company. C&F and Crum & Forster are registered trademarks of United States Fire Insurance Company. The Crum & Forster group of companies is rated A (Excellent) by AM Best Company 2018. The plans also contain non-insurance Travel Assistance Services that are provided by an independent organization, and not by United States Fire Insurance Company or Travel Insured International. Coverages may vary and not all coverage is available in all jurisdictions. Individuals looking to obtain additional information regarding the features and pricing of each travel plan component, please contact Travel Insured.
Keeping up with the rapid pace of change in business and technology requires thinking differently about serving the lifelong learning needs of our students and alumni, said Doug Shackelford, dean at UNC Kenan-Flagler. 

The University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School has announced plans to develop a broad portfolio of courses and boot camps to enhance students and working professionals technology-based skills needed by employers in todays digital economy. The new offerings will be developed in partnership with 2U Inc., the education technology company which provides the platform that delivers classes for the UNC Kenan-Flagler online MBA and Master of Accounting programs.

UNC Kenan-Flagler will become 2Us first institutional partner to offer a class based on Trilogy Education coding boot camps following the completion of 2Us recently announced acquisition of Trilogy Education. Trilogy partners with leading universities, including UNC, to offer skills-based training programs that bridge the digital skills gaps to meet employers needs.

UNC Kenan-Flagler will integrate materials from the Python coding boot camps into a new elective in its MBA Programs, beginning with its online MBA program, MBA@UNC, in late 2019.

It also will develop courses and boot camps to develop tech-based skills for its Undergraduate Business, Master of Accounting, MBA and Executive Development programs. These courses will augment its offerings in data analytics and digital leadership skills and expand to new areas such as coding, user experience and interface, and cyber security.

Students and alumni will have access to existing Trilogy programs offered by UNC.

Keeping up with the rapid pace of change in business and technology requires thinking differently about serving the lifelong learning needs of our students and alumni. Expanding our partnership with 2U will ensure we are preparing them to excel  regardless of their career stage, said Doug Shackelford, dean and Meade H. Willis Distinguished Professor of Taxation at UNC Kenan-Flagler. This is an important step in building greater technical competency into our degree programs to meet the growing demand for technology-based skills.

UNC Kenan-Flagler is a leader and innovator in higher education and todays announcement is another example of how it is staying on the cutting edge to ensure it is meeting the needs of learners in this rapidly changing digital economy, said Christopher Chip Paucek (MBA 17), 2U co-founder and CEO. Whether its offering certificate-based short courses on disruptive technology to adult learners, boot camps for students and alumni, or integrating Trilogy Educations Python course materials into a new elective for online MBA@UNC students, UNC Kenan-Flagler is leading the way.

#

About the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School

Consistently ranked one of the world's best business schools, UNC Kenan-Flagler offers a broad range of programs  Undergraduate, MBA and Master of Accounting, PhD and Executive Development  and extraordinary, real-life learning experiences. Faculty demonstrate unparalleled dedication to students learning and a commitment to world-class research that addresses critical business challenges. Contributing to the Schools thought leadership is the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, which promotes innovative, market-based solutions to vital economic issues. UNC Kenan-Flaglers collaborative culture is rooted in core values that date back to its founding in 1919, and graduates are renowned as effective, principled leaders with the technical knowledge and leadership skills to deliver results in the global business environment.
USAePay, a leading payment gateway service provider, is proud to announce the availability of Ingenicos Telium 2 smart terminals to USAePays merchants. Ingenico streamlines the payments and transactions process by offering a comprehensive range of fixed, wireless, and mobile point of sale solutions. Access to Ingenicos latest devices will give USAePay merchants ability to meet consumers demands with quick and secure transactions on the fly, regardless of how and where they want to interact with their customers.

We are excited to be working with Ingenico, says Martin Drake, President of USAePay. We feel it is important to offer our Resellers and Technology Partners with multiple hardware options so they can find the best fit for their merchants. This addition will also expand the reach of USAePay into new markets to allow solution providers to utilize our robust Integrated and semi-Integrated solutions.

The latest Ingenico smart terminals certified to USAePay include four designed with merchants needs in mind. These solutions are designed to meet the needs of a variety industries include the: iPP 320, iPP 350, iSC Touch 250, and iSC Touch 480. The iPP 320 is designed for the retail and banking markets by delivering a speedy payment system integration with seamless plug-and-play installation. The iPP 350 brings everything the iPP 320 delivers with an added colorful display. The iSC Touch 250 is compact with loads of features, making a tremendous impact at the point of sale. The iSC Touch 480 leverages a large color screen display designed to enhance interactivity and customer engagement.

All devices come equipped with the capability of processing all payment options. Not only do all smart terminals accept EMV chip and PIN, magstripe, and NFC/contactless payments, these devices support the latest in NFC technologies such as loyalty and wallets. Furthermore, each device is PCI-certified, delivering the highest security by ensuring secure data and application management, enabling highly secured electronic transactions with point-to-point encryption (P2PE).

We are thrilled to partner with USAePay as they look to deliver enhanced commerce experiences for their merchants customers," said Erica Eby, head of channel engagement for Ingenico US. We look forward to building on this relationship and to bringing innovative payment acceptance solutions to their customers.

USAePay is committed to improving merchants experience by delivering innovative solutions and a user-friendly EMV transaction experience. Ingenicos payment solutions provide a streamlined experience for users, making transactions quicker and more secure, furthering this commitment.

About USAePay

USAePay is a family-owned business based in Los Angeles, CA. For over 20 years, the company has been assisting Merchants with payment solutions to fit their needs. USAePays payment gateway supports most of the major platforms in the credit card industry and works with some of the leading check platforms. USAePay is pleased to work with most of the larger Merchant service banks in the US and Canada. For more information, please visit http://www.usaepay.com or call 866.USA.EPAY (872 3729).
UniWellness allows counselors and students to meet face-to-face no matter the place! "We care about student mental health. One team members son died by suicide in college, another team member struggled to access counseling services on her campus, and I worry about my sons when I learned of the student mental health crisis in the United States. We felt compelled to act.

WebRTC Ventures  a provider of custom, real-time applications with video, voice, and data exchange  today announces that they will present their new product, UniWellness, a telemental health application, at the American Telemedicine Conference April 14-16, 2019 in New Orleans.

Arin Sime, Founder & CEO of WebRTC.ventures and UniWellness said, We care about student mental health. One team members son died by suicide in college, another team member struggled to access counseling services on her campus, and I worry about my sons when I learned of the student mental health crisis in the United States. We felt compelled to act.

UniWellness, a HIPAA compliant mental health platform expands and enhances the reach of university counseling centers.

The UniWellness Care app allows more students to meet with their counselors whenever and wherever they need to, using secure video technology and mobile applications.

Branded uniquely for a school or organization, the online platform fills gaps in student mental health care by allowing schools, colleges, and universities to:



Meet the growing demand for student mental health services

Offer extended hours

Provide social and emotional support to students, faculty, and staff

Bring in outside specialists as needed

UniWellness reduce barriers by connecting students to mental health care whenever and wherever because every person matters and every illness hurts.

UniWellness will be demoed in booth IZ5.

For more information or to request a free demo, go to UniWellness

ABOUT WEBRTC VENTURES

WebRTC.ventures is a custom design and development agency that specializes in building video communication applications using the WebRTC video standard. Our team of experts in the design and development of WebRTC web and mobile applications spans North and South America, and works with clients around the globe in telehealth, online education, and broadcasting solutions.
The 7th annual Compass Intelligence awards honors the top companies, products, and technology solutions in mobile, IoT, and emerging technology industries. After nominations come in from companies, PR and corporate communications firms, and others colleagues, the awards are then voted on by 40+ industry-leading press, editors, journalists, thought leaders, and analysts. The program includes three primary award categories: Mobile & Wireless, IoT (Internet of Things), and Emerging Tech, along with CompassIntel.com selected of the Year awards. The 39 nominated awards and 5 Compass-selected awards identify the best in mobile devices and software, wireless technology, mobile applications, platforms, Internet of Things, wearables, robotics, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, connected products, and emerging solutions.

In the past 12 months, I have witnessed an explosion of cool startups, new business models, disruptive technologies and innovative approaches to enterprise activities, states Stephanie Atkinson, CEO & founder of Compass Intelligence. This years award winners represent world-class solutions that advance the industry and provide innovation in a rapidly growing tech market.

The award recipients of the 7th Annual Compass Intelligence Tech Awards are as follows:

IoT Awards

Connected Building: Smart Lighting - Current by GE

Connected Building: Smart Development and Design - Site 1001

Connected Building: Commercial Product Innovation - Siemens/Siemens Smart Infrastructure

Connected Solution Leadership: Fleet Management Tracking - Momentum IoT

Connected Solution Leadership: Asset Tracking - Roambee

Top IoT Standards Body of the Year  oneM2M

IoT Data: Edge Computing Company of the Year - FogHorn

IoT Data: Data Analytics and Software Company of the Year - AWS (Greengrass, Lambda)

IoT Vehicle Telematics Company of the Year - Spireon

IoT App Dev / Platform of the Year for the Enterprise Market - Rapidsoft Technologies

IoT Emerging Company of the Year for the Consumer Market - Generac Power Systems

IoT Emerging Company of the Year for the Enterprise Market - Fathym

IoT Enablement Company of the Year for the Enterprise Market - Sprint

IoT Security Platform of the Year - Subex

IoT Semiconductor Company of the Year - Qualcomm

IoT Sensor Company of the Year - NXP

Industrial IoT Company of the Year - PTC

Mobile & Wireless Awards

Top B2B Smartphone Device - Apple/iPhone XS

Top B2B Wearable Device - Wearsafe

Top B2B Workplace Device - Vuzix Blade Commercial Edge

B2B Application: Internal Operations - OpenText Enterprise Information Management

B2B Application: Client Facing - Square for Retail

B2B Application: Enterprise Chat/Messaging - Slack

B2B Application: Team Collaboration and Team Building - Zoom

B2B Application: Augmented Reality - Augmentir

B2B Mobile Application: Workplace Productivity - Workday Prism Analytics

Mobile Device Management (MDM, EMM) - MobileIron

Top B2B Cable Operator - Comcast

Top B2B VoIP Service Provider - 8x8

Top B2B Wireless Provider - Verizon Wireless

Top B2B Wireline Provider - CenturyLink

Emerging Tech Awards

Machine Vision Technology - LMI Technologies

Artificial Intelligence: Chipset - MediaTek

Artificial Intelligence: Enterprise Solution - Clari

Robotics Process Automation - NICE

Retail Customer Experience - RADAR

Autonomous Vehicles - Embark

Autonomous Technology - Nuro

Enterprise Software Innovation - Itential

Compass Intelligence Nominated Awards

Data Center Innovation - Kaloom

Connected Driver Innovation - CloudCar

Location Data Platform Product Innovation - Mapbox Atlas

Vehicle Telematics Innovation - The Floow

IoT Solution Deployment Leadership  RUMBLE

About Compass Intelligence

Founded in 2005, CompassIntel.com is a market analytics and consulting firm specializing in metrics-driven market intelligence and insights for the mobile, IoT, and high-tech industries. Compass Intelligence provides executive insights, market sizing/forecasting and modeling, competitive analysis, strategic consulting, advisory services, trending analysis, and survey research services. Compass Intelligence helps guide strategic business decisions, and support in the success of our clients through delivering content engagement, go to market planning, competitive positioning, and strategic advisory.

Note: Brand or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Contact:

Stephanie Atkinson

CEO & Founder

satkinson(at)compassintelligence.com
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In August 2017, when neo-Nazis rallied in Charlottesville, Va., Rabbi Tirzah Firestone received calls from her worried congregants in Boulder, Co. who, perhaps for the first time in their lives, felt personally victimized by Nazis. They couldn't sleep at night. It seemed to them it was happening all over again.

People would come in and say, I don't even have anyone in my family who suffered this, but I know about this in my psyche, and this is terrible, Firestone tells PW. I feel like I've been through it myself.

Firestone, a leader in the Jewish Renewal movement and a psychoanalyst, knew that what they were feeling was something more personal than the horror an average person feels when they see Nazis marching. And this horror comes not from having been taught about the Holocaust, but from a subconscious, genetic level, she says. This idea is the subject of her book, Wounds into Wisdom: Healing Intergenerational Jewish Trauma (Adam Kadmon Books, Apr.).

In it, Firestone looks at what she calls intergenerational trauma, or the residue of our ancestors' overwhelming stresses and life events that they couldn't metabolize in their lifetimes, such as the Holocaust or fleeing persecution. It happens on the individual and, Firestone believes, also on the collective level. And collective Jewish memories are in overdrive these days with the rise of anti-Semitism.

The extreme stress is transmitted to children in unseen ways, even through DNA, according to Firestone, and there has been some research that backs up this claim. DNA can carry memories of traumatic stress down through generations, according to new findings. And, specifically, descendants of Holocaust survivors have a harder time dealing with stress.

So, that's the problem as Firestone defines it. The next issue is the solution. Intergenerational trauma can be dealt with in healthy or unhealthy ways, she says. For instance, its unhealthy to operate on a hair trigger, or hang on to the trauma of our grandparents as if it were brand new from generation to generation, and never move beyond it. Instead, Firestone outlines a process of body awareness, or stepping outside oneself to observe what is being felt, and to take steps to change it using tools such as meditation or yoga.

On a communal level, the anxiety can be channeled into what is commonly called Tikkun Olam, or repairing the world, among socially conscious Jews. We can see there are so many people that are suffering, and even suffering the kinds of things that we suffered as an ethnicity, Firestone says. Then we can begin to extend our capacity and start to help others. That's a natural altruistic impetus that many survivors have.

This may also be why a disproportionate number of Jews become social workers, doctors, or other kinds of healers, Firestone says. I think we can still do even better. The more aware we are, the more we can extend our awareness to the world.

That is the main reason Firestone wrote Wounds Into Wisdom: to help encourage a next step, a way for everybody to move forward from trauma. Paul Cohen, publisher at Monkfish Book Publishing, the parent company of Adam Kadmon Books, said that while the books target audience is first and foremost Jews, whose history has been so largely shaped by trauma, inherited trauma is something that affects everyone.

Our hope is that anyone would benefit from reading the book, Cohen says. He notes that Firestone's book tour will include a conversation with feminist icon Gloria Steinem about inherited Jewish trauma as well as womens trauma during an event in New York City on April 24. Down the road, I think we'll see Tirzah making more of this kind of outreach beyond the Jewish community.

The main point is that that we can't change past events, but we can change the outcome of those events, Firestone tells PW. And we can't change tragic history, but we can choose the legacy that we want to pass on.
During a brief but entertaining presentation kicking off the Independent Book Publishers Association annual conference in Chicago April 5-6, IBPA CEO Angela Bole set the tone for this years IBPA University, a collegial mix of panels, presentations, networking events, and one-on-one consultations with experts. Riffing on the 36-year-old organizations motto of helping each other achieve and succeed, Bole urged the 325 attendees, about evenly divided between author-publishers and indie publishers as well as first-timers and veteran attendees, to be excellent to each other. IBPA, Bole explained, is a community that gives as much as it takes.

Let us remember the big picture, why we do what we do, she said, asking the introverts in attendance to talk to each other, and that extroverts do some listening and see what happens.

While a number of authors and publishers took to the podium to tell their war stories, it was Sourcebooks publisher Dominique Raccah, the conferences opening keynote speaker and perhaps the IBPA memberships greatest success story, who created the biggest buzz. A number of attendees told PW throughout the weekend how inspiring her talk was to them, particularly because she started out exactly as so many of them are doingfrom their home offices and utilizing IBPA's resources.

I started with a Mac [computer] in a bedroom in my house in Napervilleno shit, Raccah said of the company that she launched in 1987 from her home in Illinois. Today, Sourcebooks is the 10th largest indie publisher in the country, and the largest woman-owned publisher. Twelve weeks into the first quarter of this year, Bookscan reveals that the industry is down 5%, while Raccah says that Sourcebooks is up 15%. And for the past 23 consecutive weeks, there have been between two and five Sourcebooks releases on the New York Times bestsellers lists.

I had the extreme pleasure and divine grace to be helped by the organization and its founder, the late Jan Nathan, Raccah recalled of the early days of Sourcebooks. I had no money, no business plan, no staff, and no knowledge base. But I did have a great deal of passion and a willingness to learn. Disclosing some of the mistakes she initially madesuch as putting an ugly cover on her debut publicationRaccah credited Nathan with giving her frank advice (including a critique of that flawed cover) about the marketplace.

The moment that someone is willing to pay for [your] book, you become a publisher. That moment is magic, Raccah said, explaining that the secret to Sourcebooks success is that it is a mission-driven organization, with all employees believing in the companys motto: Books change lives.

If you dont have a mission statement that inspires you, this is a lot of work, she pointed out.

Raccah emphasized that, to succeed, indie publishers have to employ a publishing model that works for them, explaining that the model used by traditional publishers does not work for indies. Sourcebooks, she said, publishes authors, not books. The responsibility of a publisher she said is to make an author successful. I work to serve the authors I represent, she said, Im always asking, what more can we be doing for this author?

Describing herself and her 130+ employees as data junkies, Raccah explained that publishers must answer more than 100 questions in order to create a book that will succeed in the marketplace. We need data to make every one of these decisions, she said. The more data the better off we are.

It is essential, Raccah noted, to make the right decisions regarding key components of the book: positioning it to answer the question of who the book is for; titling it to ensure that the title communicates in a way that resonates with its targeted market; ensuring the cover art immediately communicates content and makes its target audience obvious; and keeping back cover copy snappy and succinct, pulling readers in and leaving them with wanting more.

Raccah also ascribed Sourcebooks success to certain business practices, especially fostering a work culture that encourages collaboration and communication, such as a quarterly retreat offsite for the management team, where company executives discuss Sourcebooks past, present, and future. People dont spend enough time thinking about what they are actually doing, she said, Stop: look at whats working, whats not working. Sourcebooks also holds a company-wide organizational meeting in which employees share with each other the good, the bad, and the ugly. Its a report card on how [were] doing.

Winding up her talk, Raccah drew the audience to its feet in a standing ovation after wishing them success, reiterating that she felt blessed to have obtained the help she received 30+ years ago from this community and from others.

W. Nikola-Lisa of Gyroscope Books, an author-publisher in Chicago, praised Raccahs talk afterwards, describing her as a visionary from day one who understood that she needed a niche and understood from the beginning that she had to stand out. Citing her energy and passion for what she does, Nikola-Lisa noted, Its passion that inspires people. I may not remember all of her points, but I will always remember her passion. Thats fuel for me. After all, the function of this conference is to rekindle the fire.

IBPA University 2020 will take place in Redondo Beach, Calif., near IBPAs Manhattan Beach headquarters, April 3-4, 2020.
MORE DETAILS SURROUNDING BRET HART ATTACK AT WWE HALL OF FAME

KLKN-TV in Nebraska featured a piece today on Zachary Madsen, the 26-year old arrested after tackling WWE Hall of Famer Bret Hart during his acceptance speech for the Hart Foundation this past Saturday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY.

The piece noted that Hart was treated at a local hospital in Brooklyn for pain and stiffness in his hip. A security guard who was kicked by Madsen in the ribs was also treated and released. There was also concern at the time that Natalya, who was knocked down when Madsen tackled Hart, was also hurt. She worked Wrestlemania as planned.

Madsen has been charged with two counts of third-degree assault, one count of third-degree criminal trespassing and interfering with a sporting event.

According to KLKN, Madsen allegedly told authorities "it was the right time" for him to attack Hart.

The article also noted that Madsen is slated to appear in court next week related to his latest arrest this past January for stalking MMA fighter Haris Talundzic. That would be Madsen's third arrest in relation to that situation. Talundzic has taken out an order of protection against Madsen, who responded on his social media that the order "meant nothing to him." The stalking began after Talundzic left the gym he had been working out at alongside Madsen. Madsen violated the order of protection several times, according to the article. Talundzic compared Madsen to a "mass shooter" as well, according to the article.

WWE has removed all footage of the attack on Hart from the replays of the WWE Network.

If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!
CFL Multimodal, RTSB and Chengdu International Railway Service Co have launched a service between Bettembourg-Dudelange in Luxembourg and Chengdu Qingbaijiang International Railway Port in China. The inaugural service left the Grand Duchy on April 4, with the containers scheduled to arrive in Chengdu on April 19. A weekly service is ...
TURKEY: Infrastructure manager TCDD announced on April 2 that it had awarded contracts for construction of an 185 km branch to a soda plant at Yenikent. The contract award to a consortium of HCA Insaat, Imaj Altyapi Ust Yap and Efecemler Ins Nak Madenclk is valued at TL3535m; TCDD received ...
ASIA: The 13 km cross-border rail link between Arayaprathet in Thailand and Poipot in Cambodia which was completed last year is to be opened on April 22, Thailands Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith told the ASEAN PPP Summit in Bangkok on April 4.
Tomorrow, Israelis will elect the 21st Knesset, or parliament, in Israels 70-year history. Politics are always tricky, and more so now. Whats real and whats fake news? What does each candidate say and what do they actually intend to do?

In Israels representative parliamentary system, things can be even harder to understand. There are many parties. They rise and fall each year alongside the legacy parties, and there is a 3.25 percent threshold for admittance to the Knesset. The left-right paradigm breaks down differently in Israel than it does in the United States or Europe, and within the Israeli context, that paradigm is undergoing a fundamental realignment.

This years elections are vitally important. The outcome could have a major impact on Israels future, its role in the region, and its relationship with the United States and American Jews.

Whos who?

Israels Knesset consists of 120 seats. Votes are for a pre-determined party list, meaning Israelis vote for a party and its candidate for prime minister with the same ballot. Two main parties are battling for the premiership and the right to form the governing coalition. The first is the ruling Likud party, headed by Benjamin Bibi Netanyahu, who seeks his fourth term as prime minister. Former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff and political rookie Benny Gantz is Netanyahus main competitor. Gantz leads the Blue and White Party alongside former Finance Minister Yair Lapid and another pair of former IDF chiefs, Moshe Yaalon and Gabi Ashkenazi. Netanyahu stands to the right of center, while Gantz and Lapid bill themselves as the new center, a term that changes meaning from election to election. Each side expects to win some 30 seats.

To the left, we have the heir to Israels founding party, the left-of-center Avodah, or Labor. Further left sits Israels progressive party, Meretz. Together they are expected to land around 15 seats. Israels Arab minority (20 percent of the country) is represented in the main by two parties: Hadash/Taal is more moderate and seeks to integrate into Israeli society, and Raam/ Balad is the more Palestinian-nationalist and Islamist party. This latter might not pass the 3.25 percent entry threshold, a ratio that translates to 4 seats out of 120.

Floating alongside the Likud in the right-of-center space are two small parties: Kulanu, headed by current Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, and Gesher, headed by Orli Levi-Abekasis. Both lean right on security matters but have preferred to focus on economic and social matters. Both teeter on the verge of the electoral threshold.

To Likuds right are a handful of small parties, some new and some more familiar. Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked broke away from the religious-Zionist Jewish Home party a few months back in order to form New Right, an alternative party that is younger, further to the right, and not beholden to religious interests. They are expected to barely pass the electoral threshold. What remained of Jewish Home merged with two religious-Zionist parties, each more right-wing on security and religious matters, to ensure they all pass the electoral threshold. This is called the Union of the Right Wing Parties and includes the Jewish Power party, whose head was banned from office by the election committee for blatant racism. Together, they are expected to pass the threshold. Former Defense Minister Avigdor Liebermans Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel is Our Home) party offers a right-wing approach on security matters with a strong secular appeal, and it draws mainly on older Russian immigrant voters. Russians have integrated more and more into Israeli society, and Lieberman will struggle to pass the threshold.

There are two main ultra-Orthodox parties: United Torah Judaism represents the Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox, and Shas represents the Sephardic ultra-Orthodox. Both parties have committed voter bases, all but ensuring them tickets into the Knesset.

The last party is the surprise of these elections: Moshe Feiglins Zehut (Identity) party has shot up the polls based on an original but not fully understood platform that combines Jewish fundamentalism, far-right nationalism, and economic and social libertarianism. A sideshow just two months ago, Feiglin, who is accompanied by a maverick ultra-Orthodox rabbi and an anti-vaxxer, could be the kingmaker in these elections.

Did I forget anyone? I hope not.

Likely outcomes

The publishing of polling data is forbidden in the days ahead of the elections, but the last polls gave a fair sense of where most parties stand. Barring an election day surprise, the two frontrunners will each take around 30 seats. The right-wing parties, however, are expected to win more than their left-wing counterparts. Right-wing parties, most of whom would sit in a Knesset with Netanyahu as prime minister, are expected to win around 65 seats. The parties that would refuse to sit with Netanyahu are expected to win no more than 55 seats. Considering this includes the Arab parties, who are not expected to actively partake in any governing coalition, this puts Blue and White considerably behind Netanyahu.

The president chooses the party he believes has the best chance of forming at least a 61-seat coalition as the ruling party -- and its head as the putative prime minister. This is usually the largest party, but not always. Gantzs Blue and White could win more votes than Likud but lack the backing needed to assemble a coalition. If this is the case, Netanyahu will head the next government.

However, if Gantz wins by a large enough margin -- say 5 seats -- the president would be less likely to offer Netanyahu the first crack at putting together a coalition. Moreover, if a number of the smaller parties fall short of the threshold, a likely scenario, the redistribution of their votes among the parties that did pass could change the entire equation.

Therefore, Israelis could conceivably wake up Wednesday morning to some unexpected outcomes. Best to wait and see.

One possibility to keep in mind is that if Netanyahu is forced to step down due to anticipated indictments, we could see a reshuffling of the expected right-wing coalition into a unity government headed by Likud and Blue and White in some sort of rotational, power-sharing government.

Left, right, center? Depends what Issue we are discussing

Notions like left and right usually connote a partys position on security, social, and economic matters. In Israel, we could say the left has traditionally promoted a combination of more government regulation, socialist-leaning economic policies, secular or liberal attitudes on social-religious matters, and actively seeking to end the conflict with the Palestinians and the control over them. Traditionally, the right has stood for the exact opposite set of policies, with some exceptions among the ultra-Orthodox who never fit these labels.

The past two decades have seen a scrambling of these definitions and groupings. Although you still have a left and a right by self-definition, you have a significant group of Israelis -- one-third, if not more -- who eschew such definitions and place themselves in the less-definable center. Although taking heat from the ideological left and right as being indecisive or simply confused about themselves, the new center simply doesnt fit into existing paradigms.

For example, we can talk about a right and left as concerns security and the matter of a potential Palestinian state. The left seeks to end the occupation of the West Bank, or Judea and Samaria (depending on your political views). It believes Israel can reach a diplomatic agreement with the Palestinian Authority and wants to dismantle outlying settlements (outside of the major blocs, which have near-consensus support in Israel). The center would support all of that in theory but doesnt believe there is a negotiating partner capable of upholding such a deal on the other side. Centrists talk about stopping or even dismantling outlying settlements, but retaining military control, to preserve the possibility of a future, demilitarized Palestinian state. Its important to recall that the centrist Blue and White party just happens to be led by three former IDF Chiefs, in part to neutralize the rights claim that it is the only side that can ensure Israels security in a country that can literally go to war at any given time.

The right has a range of opinions on this issue. The range starts from essentially what the center believes, but with more skepticism; to allowing a sub-state entity with local autonomy; to encouraging migration (with economic incentives); to full annexation and offering either limited-rights residency or even full citizenship to those who swear loyalty to Israel (as a Jewish state of course). These positions shouldnt be able to exist in the same coalition, but they do share one major characteristic: They believe there is absolutely nobody to trust on the other side. They also share the notion that the Palestinians missed their opportunity and will have to settle with less than what was previously offered them. As to Gaza, suffice it to say that no mainstream party really knows what to do with the intransigent Hamas and the growing humanitarian disaster in the coastal strip. So far, aside from well handle it better, nobody is really offering an alternative.

Beyond security, right and left dont translate to economic matters or questions of religion and state. This is partly why the center has come into play as a new construct. Meretz and Avodah certainly represent the classic left. But while Blue and White is centrist on security matters, it espouses free-market capitalism on economic issues alongside greater separation of religion and state. Yisrael Beiteinu is right on security matters but left on religion and state. Bennetts New Right is right on security, right on free-market capitalism, but center on religion and state matters. Kulanu and Gesher are center or right on security matters but support a wider economic and social safety net, along traditionally leftist lines. Zehut totally shuffles the cards by offering hard-right security policies alongside a total separation of religion and state.

What are these elections really about?

Beyond labels, there seem to be two main issues at play in these elections -- issues that have been dividing Israeli society for at least four years. The first issue is Netanyahu himself. The prime minister faces indictment in three different corruption and breach of public trust cases in the coming year. These investigations have been ongoing throughout his entire previous term. The public is essentially split on Netanyahu. Clearly a talented and experienced politician, Netanyahu has led a campaign to sow public mistrust of the press (all biased leftists), the judicial system (activists leftists), and even the police (out to get him). That the attorney general and former police chief were his own appointments is of little consequence. By bypassing the mainstream press and making deft use of social media, Netanyahu has managed to galvanize half of the public behind him against these institutions. Public trust in the press, judiciary, and police has never been lower. Recall that elections were originally scheduled for November. Netanyahu pushed for early elections, seeking to upend the timing of potential indictments and bring public counter-pressure to the impending hearings.

Moreover, it is no longer clear where Netanyahu stops and the party and government begin. Most of the Likud campaign ads are personally focused on Netanyahu and it is no accident that he is also defense minister as well as foreign affairs and health minister. Is Netanyahu channeling his inner Louis XIV (L'Etat, c'est moi)? Does he believe that he is the state? It's not clear, to voters or to the Likud party itself, that he can tell the difference anymore. In many ways, this election is therefore a referendum on Netanyahu. Indeed, there are few practical policy differences between Likud and Blue and White. Netanyahu is the difference.

This is no small matter. Many Blue and White voters who might otherwise vote Likud feel that Netanyahu, in an attempt to shield himself from his legal woes, might trade important political favors to the more extreme religious or nationalist right that could cause deep and long-term changes to the nation's character. Netanyahu supporters, on the other hand, draw on his real foreign-policy achievements and his personal relations with many world leaders. With Israel surrounded by threats, they argue that now is not the time to put political novices at the helm. The allegations of corruption are either overstated or conspiratorial, they add, and entirely forgivable given the experience and stability Netanyahu brings to the office.

But there is a larger issue at stake, one that perhaps is drawing the new division between Israels left and right: What does it means to be a representative democracy? Does being a democracy mean that the government should reflect the will of the majority of voters or does being a democracy mean safeguarding freedom of press, an independent judiciary, rule of law, and respect for individual and minority rights? The current forces of the new right, including the aptly named New Right party and rising stars within the Likud, are pushing for major reforms to rein in the judicial activism of the Supreme Court and a greater democratic say in appointing its justices as well as lower-court judges. They also want to give the Knesset the ability to overturn the Courts decisions with a special majority. Taken together with the unprecedented attacks on the press and the integrity of the police, we can see a clear and new fault-line. The more liberal old guard of the Likud, most of which has been slowly pushed out of the party by the more populist new guard, is uncomfortable with this development. Indeed, one of its most prominent members endorsed the Blue and White party last week.

Regional and international implications

If the outcome is as predicted by most political observers, the next government will look a lot like the current one, only with more confidence and a stronger hard-right contingent on security and matters of religion and state.

As for the region, many are anxiously awaiting the Trump administrations peace plan, expected to be presented following the elections. Parties to the right of Likud have already proclaimed their rejection of any such agreement. Netanyahu, seeking to take away last-second votes from his right-wing adversaries, stated in a series of rare radio and television interviews that he would seek annexation of (parts of?) the West Bank, something he has hesitated to say before. Is this an election-week jump to the right? Or has he abandoned any pretense to supporting a two-state solution? Is he preparing skeptical right-wing voters for political compromise with the Palestinians? Or is he emboldened by recent diplomatic victories, such as on the Golan Heights, and going for broke? It's hard to know at this point. Keep in mind that it was right-winger Menachem Begin who made peace with Egypt and returned the Sinai Peninsula despite strong opposition on the right, and Ariel Sharon who withdrew from Gaza, against similar opposition.

Whatever happens on the Palestinian issue will surely affect Israels regional standing. Israel has taken its once-secret relations with the Sunni Arab world to new levels in recent years. It has been able to do so thanks to Arab fears of a resurgent Iran, a regional sense of abandonment by the United States, and growing apathy toward the Palestinian cause. But part of that relies at least on the illusion that Israel seeks peace with the Palestinians. Should Israel discard even this illusion, the Arabs would be hard-pressed to continue this positive regional trend without risking their own internal political stability.

The same holds true for Israels relationship with the United States and American Jews. Israel has become more and more of a partisan issue in American politics. There are a number of reasons for this, from domestic political and social trends in the United States, to the lack of progress on the Palestinian issue and Netanyahu's openly challenging President Obama, to Israel's domestic shift to the right in recent decades. With roughly 70 percent of American Jews being loyal Democrats, Israel risks cementing its perceived abandonment of half of America and most of American Jews in order to curry favor with the other half -- a risky strategy in the long run.

Given the likelihood that a right-wing government will continue to take hardline stances on matters of religion and state, Israel risks further alienating most American Jews, who have been able to overlook, to some extent, the diplomatic stalemate with the Palestinians. Furthermore, Israel could find itself continuing along the path of deepening relations with the Trumps, Putins, Bolsonaros, Modis, and Orbans of the world, at the expense of more moderate leaders. If the Democrats retake the White House, Israels standing in Washington will surely be affected, and American Jews will be more hesitant to come to its rescue as they have done in the past.

Right, left, center, whatever -- the outcome of these elections will have more significance than most realize. How this plays out, we will find out in the coming weeks. One thing is for certain: If you live in Israel, make sure to vote.

Dan Feferman is a major (res.) in the Israel Defense Forces, where he served as a foreign policy planner, assistant to the deputy chief of staff, and as an intelligence analyst. He researches, writes and speaks on Israel and the Middle East. The views expressed are the author's own.
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UGA Miracle celebrated raising over $1.1 million for Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta at their annual Dance Marathon, starting Saturday, Feb. 23 at 10 a.m. and ending Sunday, Feb. 24 at 10 a.m, with over 2,100 students in attendance.

Across the country, universities with Miracle programs host Dance Marathons as a celebration and fundraiser for local childrens hospitals affiliated with Childrens Miracle Network Hospitals, a nonprofit organization. Sponsored children and their families often attend.
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: Nicole Watkins, American Red Cross

Measles is again rearing its ugly head in the United States, despite being eliminated in the Americas for almost two decades. Globally, the disease takes the lives of hundreds of children every single day.

The American Red Cross is fighting back against the disease as part of the Measles & Rubella Initiativea cooperative effort with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), United Nations Foundation, UNICEF, and the World Health Organization. Since 2001, the team has vaccinated over 2 billion children and prevented approximately 20.3 million measles-related deaths, but the battle is far from over.

A Global Initiative

Measles is a threat to the global population. Despite the United States eliminating the disease domestically in 2000, outbreaks continue to occur each year due to importation of the virus by global travelers. International eradication is the only solution.

What is the Red Cross doing?

Gail McGovern, president and CEO of the American Red Cross and Kathy Calvin, president and CEO of the United Nations Foundation wrote in a 2019 op-ed, As the disease surges to its highest levels in more than a decade, it's imperative that we all come together to stop the world from backsliding any further and that means ensuring everyone gets vaccinated. Unless we actand fastmore people will get the virus and die. And many of the victims will be children.

Ukraine has some of the lowest vaccination rates at only 54 percent and is experiencing the largest European outbreak since 2015, affecting over 75,000 people. Ukrainian Red Cross volunteers were deployed to contain the 21,000 registered cases in 2019 and to increase vaccinations.

It is hard to believe that children are dying of measles in Europe in 2019, remarked Simon Missiri of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). This disease is almost completely preventable. Red Cross workers have an important role in helping communities understand the importance of vaccines, and in answering concerns that are increasingly prevalent in many countries.

A Philippine Red Cross teams actions reflect the severity of the crisis when they vaccinated an indigenous community (considered to be among the least vaccinated) in the dark of night, with only a car headlight to see. In the first two months of this year, more than 16,000 measles cases were reported to the Philippines Ministry of Health, alongside 261 deaths.

In Kenya, more than 1,000 Red Cross volunteers went door-to-door to identify children missing routine vaccinations and connect them with local health centers. They visited over 48,000 households and identified more than 4,000 children missing their vaccines.

On March 2, approximately 1,000 Red Cross volunteers went door-to-door in partnership with the Benin Red Cross as part of the measles vaccination campaign that intends to visit over 445,000 households in 10 commune areas.

About Measles

The American Red Cross continues to urge people to vaccinate their kids against the deadly yet preventable disease. According to the CDC:

Measles is a highly contagious virus that lives in the mucus of an infected person. It can spread to others through coughing and sneezing.

It is so contagious that if one person has it, 90% of the people close to that person who are not immune will also become infected.

Infected people can spread measles to others from four days before through four days after the rash appears.

Early symptoms include high fever, a cough, runny nose and red, watery eyes. Two or three days later small while spots may appear inside the mouth. Within three to five days the red measles rash breaks out on the face and spreads down the body to the feet. The patients fever may go to 104 degrees or higher. In a few days, the fever goes down and the rash fades.

There is no specific treatment for the virus, although severe complications can be avoided.

Even if a child survives, measles can cause permanent disabilities, such as blindness, deafness or brain damage.

How Can I Help?

It only costs $2 to vaccinate a child. To join the global flight, text PREVENT to 90999 to give $10 to the Red Cross and help us vaccinate children against measles. With just $10 you can save the lives of 5 children.
For some of the business majors, the fund outgo for the 2019 elections has risen as much as 15 to 20 times, compared to the amount given to political parties five years ago, reports Nivedita Mookeerji.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com.

India Inc is learnt to have stepped up its funding aggressively for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, but growth in the number of electoral trusts has been lacklustre.

For some of the business majors, the fund outgo for the 2019 elections has risen as much as 15 to 20 times, compared to the amount given to political parties five years ago, sources in the know said.

Quite a few big groups are spending upwards of Rs 500 crore each this election through various modes of donation, company executives confirmed. However, electoral trusts, introduced in 2013 for transparent funding, seem to have lost their charm.

In 2019, not even a single electoral trust has been registered so far with elections less than two weeks away, according to an official at the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. In contrast, 2014 had seen a rush of new electoral trusts -- 15 of them were registered that year to fund the general elections. There are 30 electoral trusts in the country currently, of which six were set up in 2013, 15 in 2014, two in 2015, one in 2016, four in 2017, and two in 2018, the data from the Registrar of Companies shows.

The future of electoral trusts is in doubt as electoral bonds are around to fund polls now, according to Anil Verma of the Association for Democratic Reforms, a New Delhi-based non-profit election watchdog. The growth in trusts is relatively limited because corporates would, by and large, prefer to give anonymously, pointed out Milan Vaishnav, director and Senior Fellow, South Asia Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Businesses could be using electoral bonds or they could be funding elections the traditional way, which is under the table, Vaishnav said, adding its nearly impossible to gauge how much corporates are spending in 2019.

But the conventional wisdom is that overall election spending this year will probably hit $7-8 billion (Rs 49,000-56,000 crore), up from an estimated $5 billion (Rs 35,000 crore) in 2014.

Estimates suggest that electoral bonds worth Rs 1,407 crore have been bought till January 2019. According to FACTLY, a public information portal, Kolkata and Mumbai lead in the total value of the bonds bought so far at Rs 424 crore and Rs 407 crore, respectively. Delhi is third at Rs 173 crore.

It also shows that more than 70 per cent of these bonds have been encashed in Delhi. An amount of Rs 1,034 crore has been encashed in New Delhi so far, followed by Rs 125 crore in Hyderabad.

The government had last year notified the use of 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. But, recently, the Election Commission told the Supreme Court that electoral bonds, contrary to government claims, wreck transparency in political funding.

Even as many of the big businesses have set up electoral trusts, they may use a combination of payment mechanisms this time. None of the electoral trusts replied to Business Standard queries on funding of elections.

According to an ADR report of 2017, the Bharatiya Janata Party got the maximum declared corporate funding of Rs 705.81 crore between 2012-13 and 2015-16.

The BJP topped the list among five national parties, having received donations from as many as 2,987 corporate donors. The Congress was second with Rs 198.16 crore of funding from 167 corporate donors in three years.

Almost 60 per cent of this declared contribution came in 2014-15, coinciding with the previous Lok Sabha polls.
Modi: Journey Of A Common Man is blatant propaganda, feels Utkarsh Mishra.

While Omung Kumar's biopic of Prime Minister Narendra Damordas Modi is still mired in controversy, with a case filed against it in the Supreme Court, an elusive go-ahead by the Election Commission and a delayed certification by the censors, a web series on the same subject has been released.

Five of the 10-episode series Modi: Journey Of A Common Man, directed by Umesh Shukla, have been released on Eros Now, the content of which is as hagiographic as it can get.

The part streaming now is majorly about Modi's role in defying the Emergency, and periodically cuts back to his childhood days in his hometown, Vadnagar.

So young Narendra (played by Faisal Khan) is obviously the most charismatic boy in his town.

He wakes up before everyone, helps his mother prepare medicines and herbs for other women, tends cows, does his prayers and exercises, helps his father at the tea stall before going to school, manages to study everything before it is taught in class, spends considerable time at the library, is fascinated by the sadhus and mystics coming to town and loves to help them and learn about life from them, gives free tea to soldiers and sages, inspires his friends to organise and learn, always outsmarts his teachers and yet keeps them in awe of him...

Basically, all the matter you get in Bal Narendra comics, minus the crocodile story.

This series makes it clear that it is strictly based on the book Common Man's PM Narendra Modi by Kishor Makwana. It adds that 'fictionalisation' and 'dramatisation' are used wherever necessary.

As I haven't read the book, I cannot say which parts are 'fictionalised'.

But the stories of Narendra's life that are shown in the series are described as apocryphal even by a friendly author like Andy Marino in his 'political biography' of Modi, which is also borderline hagiographic.

Even discounting that, the series contains several factual errors. The biggest one is showing L K Advani attending a meeting arranged by Modi (Ashish Sharma, the older Modi is played by Mahesh Thakur) -- the other participants being George Fernandes, Subramanian Swamy and Laxmanrao Inamdar -- in Gujarat in the middle of the Emergency.

We all know Advani was in prison for almost the entire period of Emergency.

Moreover, while it shows Narendra 'leading' the anti-Emergency movement in Gujarat, Advani, who has written more than one chapter on the Emergency in his autobiography My Country My Life, hasn't mentioned Modi even once in any of them.

The acting performances are little better than a school drama.

The screenplay is confusing; everyone's only purpose seems to be to show the larger-than-life character of the protagonist.

And here's why I call it a political propaganda.

One, young Narendra often likes to make it clear that he won't take the blame when he is not at fault. This, I'm sure, will be used in the second part to show why he never accepted his mistake in the handling of the Gujarat riots in 2002.

Two, while everyone -- except those Congressmen who were under the wings of Indira Gandhi or her son Sanjay -- opposed the Emergency, the series tries to establish that only the Jan Sangh and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh were on the 'right path', like Mahatma Gandhi during the freedom struggle.

More than once, socialist George Fernandes is shown to make a case for violence, at one place making tangential reference to what later came to be known as the Baroda dynamite case. And on every occasion, Narendra lectures him why violence is bad, and that the RSS doesn't stand for violence!

It is therefore also an attempt to glorify, rather deify the RSS, using their anthem 'Namaste Sada Vatsale Matrubhoomi' in the background and showing shakhas and men wearing khaki shorts always struggling and helping people.

Three, despite fighting the Emergency so bravely, Narendra is not happy with the victory of the Janata Party. Why? Because for how long will this khichdi coalition last, whose point of convergence is merely opposing the Congress?

You cannot miss that this is targeted sharply at the attempts towards opposition unity against the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

That's why it is just an exercise to turn you into a BJP voter, if you aren't one already.

When a dark horse suddenly gets the top job and manages to rule for a long period, it gives rise to a whole new realm of anecdotes and conjectures about the person's hitherto obscure past.

Most of Modi's childhood and adulthood stories, before him becoming a full-time pracharak, fall in this category. A lot of them are like folklore now; you don't know which is true and to what extent they are true. But you also don't have any means to disprove them.

So they stay, especially when unsuspecting viewers can be tricked into accepting them as the gospel truth by such media that they may consider more authentic than word-of-mouth.

This could still be okay in the distant future. But coming at a time when the leader is seeking a re-election, it should be called what out for what it is: blatant propaganda.

Rediff Rating:
'When he has been retired against his will, Advani appears to have found the merits of tolerance.'

'It took his one-time pupil to teach the old man his own lesson,' says Aakar Patel.

IMAGE: Rahul Gandhi escorts former deputy prime minister Lal Kishenchand Advani as Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi looks on, Parliament House, December 13, 2017.

There is some confusion about the meaning of the message sent by L K Advani to Narendra Damodardas 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 Anilchandra Shah.

Advani said two things mainly. The headlines were taken up by the first point. 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 personal as well as political level.'

This was said at a time when the prime minister has been accusing the Congress president of running away from Hindu majority seats, and the finance minister has said the Congress manifesto represented the 'tukde-tukde' gang, and was aimed at breaking up India.

Amit Shah said that Congress leaders should drown themselves for proposing the weakening of the AFSPA law.

So it was clear that Advani was referring to this sort of thing when he clarified that under him and Atal Bihari Vajpayee there was more tolerance of opposition than under Modi.

Did the message go through to Modi? Apparently not.

The same day as Advani wrote his blog, Modi tweeted saying that 'Advani Ji 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 LK Advani Ji have strengthened it.'

He was referring to the headline of the blog, and its second important point, about which 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 Modi was able to turn the tables on 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 India First, Self Last mean? The idea is that there can arise a conflict between the individual's interest and the nation's interest or the party's interest and the nation's interest.

And when such a conflict arises, Advani will put India first.

The question is: When does such a conflict arise?

For the average middle class citizen, the national interest would be in fully paying income tax, or not bribing to get things done, or following the law and its rules and so on.

What is the reality here?

The truth is that most of us put ourselves and our interests before our nation's. 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 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 Advani's motto. He means something else, but what? The truth is that the grand statement 'Nation First' is actually empty and foolish. It doesn't 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 nation any 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 Advani's statement comprise bombast: High sounding language that has no real meaning.

There is only one way in which Advani's statement can be read. And he is, in fact, saying exactly the same thing that Jaitley, Shah and 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 Advani is communicating when he says 'India First, Self Last' and what Modi, Jaitley and Shah have said about their opponents.

This is why Modi punctured Advani's rebellious blog and tweeted within minutes to say that he totally agreed with Advani's 'mantra'. It is that contradiction within Advani's blog that Modi picked out and held up for the rest of us.

It is all very well for 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 Advani's entire life's work has been invested in doing just this: Treating other Indians, particularly those of 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, Advani appears to have found the merits of tolerance.

It took his one-time pupil (30 years ago, Modi had personally made all the arrangements for the first leg of Advani's famous Rath Yatra from Somnath in September 1990) to teach the old man his own lesson.

Aakar Patel -- winner of the 2018 Prem Bhatia Award for Political Reporting -- is Executive Director, Amnesty International India. The views expressed here are his own.
The interesting bit about the Azamgarh poll finding on India TV was the whopping percentage of Muslims backing the SP-BSP alliance, which sort of negates Mayawatis appeal to the community to not split their vote with the Congress, says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.

IMAGE: Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati and Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav, who are jointly fighting the elections in Uttar Pradesh this time. Photograph: Nand Kumar/PTI Photo

Food for thought

For the press corps out on the campaign trail during elections, it can be akin to a wartime manoeuvre, with the same kind of adrenalin rush, the hectic planning, the coordination between production and scheduling teams and the actual execution of work.

And just as an army marches on its stomach, so do the travelling scribes. After all, how often does one get to taste exotic, authentic fare in a diverse country like India, that too at company expense?

But while journalists keep the focus strictly on their work -- watch Prannoy Roys travelogues from around the country on NDTV to know how it can be done with panache -- there are some who get all too carried away by the culinary expanse facing them, more than they are about the political permutations and combinations.

I am specifically talking about the rollicking time that Rajdeep Sardesai has been having on the campaign trail in Tamil Nadu these last few days.

Granted, it is not possible to helicopter into a landscape one has had little exposure to and turn into this political maven in a jiffy. Add to it the complexities of the region beyond the Vindhyas, and the challenge becomes magnified manifold.

Conclusion, Rajdeep has realised the difficulties facing him in Tamil Nadu and decided to make it a road trip on camera with elections thrown in.

So one day we saw him in Thoothukudi, translator in tow, meeting the families of the victims of the police firing near Sterlite and talking to activists, and the next moment marching off in chase of Curry Dosa (mental note: must try this dish the next time I am in Thoothukudi).

Another day he was in the temple town of Madurai, oohing and aahing at the sights and sounds around the Meenakshi temple, the jasmine flowers on parade and making a meal of it at the Murugan Idli Shop where he was given a rockstars welcome by the manager.

The next day he was in Sivaganga, exchanging notes with the BJPs H Raja and assorted AIADMK leaders, and wound up by asking one of them which was the best place in town to taste mutton curry, Chettinad style. Palanisamys he was told, and off he traipsed in that direction.

Oh, in between he also quizzed the citizenry about their political preferences between EPS-OPS and M K Stalin, whether Sterlite was the biggest issue facing Thoothukudi, etc.

No lehar in UP?

On India TV, we had a seat-by-seat count of which way the political wind is blowing and the results were not too surprising.

In Azamgarh, where Samajwadi Partys Akhilesh Singh Yadav has replaced his father Mulayam as the candidate, the opinion poll showed that 95 per cent of the Muslim vote went to the SP, as did 81 pc of the Yadav vote and 60 pc of the Scheduled Castes vote. Of the non-Yadav OBC vote, however, only 30 pc went to it, with 51 pc going to the NDA. Winner: Akhilesh Yadav.

But across the state, the results may not be so conclusive. Unlike 2014 there is no wave in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi now, nor is there one in favour of the Mahagaghbandhan, and the Congress is not in the picture.

The interesting bit about the Azamgarh poll finding on India TV was the whopping percentage of Muslims backing the SP-BSP alliance, which sort of negates Mayawatis appeal to the community to not split their vote with the Congress but to fully vote the Mahagathbandhan.

But the shockwaves of such an appeal refused to subside.

On CNN-News18, the BJPs Sudhanshu Mittal was aghast that such an overture could even be made (never mind that subtle and not-so-subtle appeals to the Hindu community are made all the time). Appeals on the basis of religion are against the Constitution, will you take action against it, he asked the anchor angrily, only to be told that the action needed to be taken by the Election Commission, not TV anchors.

When Rashid Kidwai, his co-panellist, said no doubt he shared the anguish of Mittal over such an appeal and condemned it, but also wished that the latter felt the same way when his own party colleagues like Sakshi Maharaj and Yogi Adityanath spoke the same language, it took the discussion to another decibel level.

Praise-worthy ad

Election season is also advertisement season, and while surfing channels I managed to catch an incisive ad for the BJP.

It showed a young girl bustling in and urging her mother to join her in casting their vote. The mother tells her to carry on, she still has household chores to finish up, like cleaning, and will cast her vote later.

The daughter says there Modiji is cleaning up corruption and here what are we doing about it. To which the mom says true, he is indeed doing a great job, he needs to be re-elected.

The daughter retorts, dont stop with giving him your praise, also give him your vote then. And the two are off happily to the polling booth. The BJP, as you can see, is leaving no base uncovered in its re-election bid.

TNs missing X factor

Thanthi TV telecast an opinion poll across the 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state (39 in Tamil Nadu and 1 in Puducherry), after surveying 29,500 respondents till March 31.

The results were still tentative, with the conclusion being that the people were waiting for that one factor to make up their mind.

But what could that factor be?

As the opinion poll results gave the various constituencies to either the ruling AIADMK or the Opposition DMK, the pollster was very clear that the one certainty was that the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam of AIADMK rebel TTV Dinarakan was very much there to stay, and is a player in the state.

PC does it easy

Puthiya Thalaimurai TV interviewed former finance minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, and all I can say is, whats it they got that we aint got?

Because Chidambaram, whose calendar must be full given his political and legal assignments, has kept Rediff.com hanging for an interview for well over two months, ever since he came out with the second collection of his newspaper columns. I guess a television interview has its own charm that the rest of us cannot match.

As far as the interview went, it was good to see the former MP from Sivaganga speak in Tamil in the same polished manner he does in English.

So did Rahul Gandhi run away from Amethi to Wayanad, the interviewer wanted to know. When Modi went to Varanasi in 2014, did you say that he ran away to UP? So if you go from West to East it is okay, but when you come from North to South it is not? You cannot deny that South India generally feels let down, for various reasons, so Rahul Gandhi was right in contesting from Kerala.

But that has upset the Communists, who say you are diluting the fight against Modi and the BJP and are instead fighting them in Kerala?

Prakash Karat is my friend, but it is a fact, that for the UDF, the LDF is enemy in Kerala. Rahul has said nevertheless that he wont criticise the CPM; however, if they want to criticise us in their election campaign they are free to do so, when did we ask them not to do so?

In Tamil Nadu the fight is between two fronts, yours and AIADMK-BJPs. How do you see the outcome?

The DMK and Congress are a tried and tested secular front, while the other front members have fought elections separately. On what basis they have allotted five seats to the BJP in Tamil Nadu I dont know, but I think it is too much.

There are also new players like Kamal Haasan in the fray this time, what do you think about it?

Kamal is a close friend, and I am more worried than happy for him that he is in the fray.

And TTV Dinakaran?

There is a saying in Tamil, a lone tree does not an orchard make. He is all alone, and his fight is against the AIADMK not us. His win or loss will not affect the Government of India, because he wants to take over the AIADMK... that is his fight.
In a state where Hindu social identity continues to remain in the overarching Dravida umbrella, the Hindutva political identity does not have the same, or even near-similar electoral purchase, says N Sathiya Moorthy.

IMAGE: DMK president M K Stalin being greeted with an arti-kumkum during his election campaign. Photograph: Courtesy, MK Stalin's Twitter page

Despite repeated proclamations about the inevitable and immediate emergence of a strong and widespread Hindutva vote-bank in what is euphemistically called Dravidian Tamil Nadu, if there is one, it is yet to see the light of the day.

The reasons are many, at times inter-linked, and are not always far to seek -- though all of it boils down to the state not backing not only a Hindutva polity worth the name in electoral terms but also a nationalist electoral entity, be it of the 21st century Hindutva variety or the 20th century non/anti-Hindutva Congress variety.

To begin with, even at the height of the Periyar-led anti-Brahmin, anti-god movement, which Hindutva acolytes want to see as the core of the Dravidian political ideology, the Justice Party in its time and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in its time were electoral successes, long before the intervening years/decades of the rival Indian National Congress.

If anything, barring a relatively brief period (1937-67, with nine-year break from 1939-46), the Dravidian polity in whatever form and content has ruled the present-day Tamil Nadu areas with a rigour and continuity unmatched in the history of Gandhian and post-Gandhian India, since the twenties of the previous century.

This became possible because -- and only because -- believers across all religions and communities voted the Dravidian parties despite their perceived socio-political agendas, especially against gods and Brahmins, that too especially of Periyars Dravidar Kazhagam, first, and its politico-electoral offshoot in the DMK later on.

This was also the reason why god-fearing leaders like Rajaji with his Swatantra Party, Qaid-e-Milleth Mohammed Ismail, leader of the Indian Union Muslim League, which openly identified with a religious faith, could happily do electoral business with the anti-god, anti-Brahmin DMK, which was also perceived anti-national until then, in elections 67.

It is now Dravidian folklore, how the DMK came to power in that elections, uprooting the ruling Congress and how the partys national president K Kamaraj, chief minister M Bhaktavatsalam and most of his ministers lost their assembly seats -- and how the Dravidian twins in the DMK parent and the breakaway AIADMK have continued to be in power alternatively.

It is not as if the non-Dravidian, or anti-Dravidian polity to be more precise, section of the states polity did not have the occasion to avenge the defeat of nationalist forces, again of the Hindutva or non-Hindutva variety in their time. But political priorities took precedence over social realities, if the latter were any, and electoral entities other than those carrying the Dravidian name-tag, have refused to make a mark.

In the 70s, soon after the split in the monolith ruling DMK and the formation of the breakaway AIADMK under popular film-star M G Ramachandran was expected to help their common Congress rival to return to power -- riding on its stronger poll-figures from the immediate past. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who had led a vertical split in the Indian National Congress in 1969, was ready to make up with Kamaraj in Tamil Nadu, if not with all party rivals.

However, the intervening Emergency and the death of Kamaraj, meant that traditional Congress voters who might have despised the DMK still for its anti-god, anti-religion past political stance, would move away to the AIADMK, instead. Cutting across religions, castes and communities, they had stayed with the Congress even in what was otherwise an anti-Congress mandate in 1967.

The wholesale migration of the god-fearing erstwhile Congress voters to MGRs side, putting DMKs corruption and lawlessness ahead of the latters still suspected religious beliefs, meant that the AIADMK won the 1977 assembly polls and became chief minister.

In turn, this imposed a condition on MGR to constantly come out n the open, wearing his hidden religious beliefs from the Dravidian past, as if to disprove his critics and suspects alike. After a time, MGR would do so, to retain his non-Dravidian voters alongside his sworn fans and Dravidian electoral converts with the result his political heir Jayalalithaa could do so even more openly, at times forcefully, too.

Yet, at some point or the other, either MGR or Jayalalithaa in their time or their self-appointed post-death guardian angels would find Dravidian ways to inter their physical self and erect a memorial on the burial site, though as born Hindus they should have been cremated. In comparison, the DMK government of Karunanidhi permitted the families of Rajaji and Kamaraj to cremate their bodies and still erect official memorials on the same site.

If the Tamil voters were not confused about distinguishing personal beliefs of the god and priestly Brahmin kind from political administration and electoral democracy, it is the so-called Hindutva and/or nationalist polity that was overly confused about their own priorities as far as Dravidian Tamil Nadu was/is concerned. First, after MGRs death in 1987, the Congress under Rajiv Gandhi first let the late G K Moopanar-centric state Congress to contest the 1989 assembly poll on its own -- but changed tack, and aligned with the re-unified AIADMK, now under Jayalalithaa for the Lok Sabha polls of 1991.

The BJP, first under Vajpayee-Advani duo, and more so recently after the successive deaths of Jayalalithaa and DMKs Karunanidhi, was talking about going it alone and big, and capture Tamil Nadu as if it were waiting to be taken. When push came to shove, the Modi magic wilted in Tamil Nadu, and has since scrambled for more allies than in most other states.

Its all a clear indication that national compulsions weigh more for the leaderships of national parties than state-wise priorities and claims to the revival of a non-existent identity vote-bank -- Hindutva and/or Hindu nationalist vote-bank, in this case. It also flowed from a belated yet meaningful realisation that it was there only on paper earlier -- and on the social media, now.

What is now seen and heard more vociferously as a Hindutva vote-bank in Dravidian Tamil Nadu in the last couple of decades is only that section of the anti-Dravidian ideology votes that the Congress had obtained/retained in the elections since 1957, when alone the unified DMK entered the poll fray directly -- full eight years after formation, in 1949.

If anything, in a new generation where the compulsions that had haunted MGR to display his religious beliefs occasionally at the very least is upon DMKs Stalin, too, the first-time voters and their immediate previous ones have no real use for the social media memes and messages that taunt the party for association with DKs K Veeramani or the past pronouncements of Stalin and Kanimozhi, or those of VCKs Thol Thirumavalavan, all of them with anti-god, anti-Hindu overtones.

Among these pro-Hindu/pro-Hindutva memes and other social media messages, those with an anti-Brahmin overtone/overdose does not sell to non-Brahmin audiences, who are numerically stronger -- with their own caste-based interests, be it in admissions to institutions of higher education or government jobs, where history has taught them what is good for their community, one way or the other.

What more, the Google-niks among them also know that even under the Justice Party regimes, and until after the advent of the nations Constitution and the Supreme Court of Indias verdict in the Champakam Dorairajan case (1951), the Brahmin community too continued to enjoy 16 per cent reservations -- which according to them, was anyway disproportionately high, compared to the communitys share in the states population, then and now.

There is no denying the advent of what is perceived as a Hindutva vote-bank in southern Kanyakumari district after the Mandaikadu riots (1982), in neighbouring Tirunvelveli district post-Meenakshipuram conversions (1981) and in western Coimbatore in the aftermath of the Coimbatore serial blasts of 1998. Looking deeper, it is still discernible that these were nationalist votes of the Congress kind that looked at possible alternatives to the Dravidian polity in a limited way -- and settled for the BJP in its place. This also meant that the BJP would win the Kanyakumari Lok Sabha seat (only) in multi-cornered contests even while the two Dravidian majors fared poorly, with the Congress still above them -- in multi-cornered contests.

In a generation where Periyars black attire for his cadres -- which was a mark of protest -- has acquired respect when worn a thousand times more by bhakts of Lord Ayyappa in the hill-abode of Sabarimala in neighbouring Kerala, and DMKs Stalin is more open about his wife Durgas religious beliefs than possibly MGR about his own, Hindu social identity continue to remain, but Hindutva political identity does not have the same, or even near-similar electoral purchase!

It was thus when the Vajpayee promise and Modi magic did bring in an additional 5-6 per cent extra votes to the BJP alliance in the 1998/99 and the 2014 LS polls, respectively, the party share reverted to the customary 2-3 per cent without a Dravidian ally -- clearly indicating that the extra votes came from the pool of undecided/swing voters, who were willing to try out a different recipe but not when its chances of victory in the state were unclear and unsure all the same.

N Sathiya Moorthy, veteran journalist and political analyst, is director, Observer Research Foundation, Chennai chapter.
Dr Ramakanta Panda, arguably India's top heart surgeon, offers vital, everyday, advice on caring for your heart and planning a healthy life.

When heart surgeon Dr Ramakanta Panda was training in medical school in Cuttack, Odisha, to become a doctor, heart illness was rare.

It was considered a Western disease that Indians did not have to worry about.

Now in his practice at the Asian Heart Institute, where he is vice chairman and managing director, he sees umpteen serious heart cases a day.

Four or five of them, every week, are youths in the age bracket of 20 to 25.

He attributes the steep rise in the incidence of heart disease in India to an India that has lost the ability to eat healthily.

And to an unfit India that hardly exercises.

"A heart healthy lifestyle has a very significant role to play in preventing and controlling heart disease. Very important," Dr Panda tells Rediff.com's Vaihayasi Pande Daniel in the second of a three-part interview.

There is this controversy about ghee and coconut oil. I have interviewed people on both sides of the spectrum...

As long as it is in small quantities, they are not harmful, because each of the oils has some positive, some beneficial effect.

So one should not ban ghee or coconut oil?

No. no.

So ghee like 2 teaspoonfuls, 10 ml is good.

Ghee, especially if it is made at home, because most of the commercial ghee, they hydrogenate it, for longer shelf life. They are bad.

So if you are making ghee at home, ghee has certain fatty acids which are good for the body. So again any small quantity is okay.

Overall, quantity of oil should not be more than 30 ml per day. I think that is the equivalent of 6 teaspoonfuls. Out of that, 2 teaspoonfuls can be ghee. 4 teaspoonfuls can be any form of oil.

As long as you take small quantities, it is not a problem. Large quantities are bad.

Second thing, try to mix two oils, so you get the best of both, as long as it is small quantities. Like two teaspoonfuls of coconut oil.

Mustard oil is one of the best oils.

So no type of oil is bad?

No, no, it is just extreme. People just go to this extreme. That extreme. There is nothing.

Eggs also the same thing?

Eggs same thing. Egg has almost 180 to 200 mg cholesterol. Again, a person who has multiple risk factors should avoid having the yolk. A person who has no risk factor can have one egg yolk a day.

Recently, they found in a study, taking one extra egg a day will increase the incidence of heart disease by 1.1 per cent. So only egg white you can have, absolutely no problem.

Egg yolk, probably one should restrict it to two eggs a week or something, because it has certain nutritional value.

So if you ask my advice an egg white every day or as much as you want.

Egg yolks should not be more than two eggs a week especially if you have some form of risk factor.

What about all this new information about how high cholesterol is not so bad?

These are all gimmicks. These are all your commercial interests behind all these advertisements.

A lot of articles coming out on the same thing. A lot of articles coming out with negative things about statins. These are all driven by certain vested interests.

IMAGE: Dr Ramakanta Panda: 'That so-called BMI (body-mass index) of 25, set by Westerners, does not apply to Indians. At 25 (BMI), half of all Indians are fat. Our BMI should be somewhere around 18 or 20.' Photograph: Regis Duvignau/Reuters

In your view, what is missing in the patient's understanding of the disease in India?

The most important thing is understanding how the heart disease happens and what steps people should take to prevent it.

We cannot afford treating heart diseases alone. If you look at US cardiology, they spend 200 billion dollars a year on heart care alone. You require about 300 billion dollars just for hospital care.

If you convert that to the Indian population, we will need 3 to 4 trillion dollars only in heart care treatment. It is not possible.

The only way possible is healthy heart management. You try to lead a healthy lifestyle so you don't get into this problem.

You already touched on the topic of genetic liabilities. Is it sort of like a death sentence if you come into life with a 50 per cent risk because you have lost a parent to heart disease at an early age. Or is it a little more complicated than that?

It is much more complicated than that.

Even if I have a strong family history of multiple risk factors, if you lead a very healthy heart life, chances of getting heart disease are still less.

And even if you get heart disease, you will get it at a later age. You will not get it at the age of 30 or 40. You can get it at 70 or 75.

So it is not as bad?

No, not as bad.

I have got patients who have strong family history and had heart disease at the age 35 or 36 and they have completely changed their lifestyle and for 20, 25 years they have not needed angioplasty or surgery and the blockage is exactly same for 20, 25 years.

I very, very strongly -- that's why I use the word very twice -- believe that a heart healthy lifestyle has a very significant role to play in preventing and controlling heart disease. Very important.

I think that is the most important message you can give.

And to prevent, the best and the most important treatment for heart disease is a very active physical lifestyle -- exercise.

And what can you say more strongly about tobacco?

I say it very, very, very, very strongly.

Even one cigarette a week is bad?

Bad! Bad! Any! Any!

Yes, even looking at cigarettes I tell you (laughs) is bad.

Tobacco in any form is dangerous to the health. Not just heart disease. Stroke. Cancer.

So less cigarettes doesn't make the risk any different?

No. No. Zero. Nil.

Not only that, everybody knows about passive smoking. Your colleagues smoking next door is equally bad for you.

IMAGE: Dr Ramakanta aims to be as good at wielding a camera with a telescopic lens as a scalpel. Photograph: Kind courtesy Dr Ramakanta Panda.

What about external factors? From smoke in the air etc?

That is because of carbon monoxide and other things. That makes the arteries a little thick.
'Don't forget the BJP in the last election almost doubled its vote.'

'Even if they were not traditional BJP supporters, they were convinced about Mr Modi.'

'If the voter perceives that Mr Modi has performed well and he reinforces it, they will vote for him.'

'Otherwise, they won't.'

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi at an election rally in Gurdaspur, Punjab, April 4, 2019. Photograph: PTI Photo

In The Verdict -- Decoding India's Elections, Dr Prannoy Roy and Dorab R Sopariwala, pioneers and arguably the best names in psephology in India, analyse databases of elections past and point out trends that will impact the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

And they should know.

Roy, as co-founder of the NDTV group and Sopariwala, its editorial advisor and a market research veteran, have spent close to 40 years studying Indian elections and the electorate.

Published by Penguin Random House India, The Verdict is the go-to book for the largest exercise in democracy in the world.

"We are no longer in the anti-incumbency era. That era finished in 2002. We are in a 50:50 era, we are in a perform or perish era. If you perform you will be voted back; if you don't, you are out," says Dr Roy.

Dr Roy and Sopariwala spoke to Rediff.com's Swarupa Dutt. The concluding segment of a telephone interview.

You say that the key to winning an election is to win the rural votes. How much will farm/agrarian distress affect results. Will it also affect turnout?

Prannoy Roy: From our field trips so far, right across Uttar Pradesh and a few other states, we have found that agrarian distress is a very, very important issue.

Farmers are really suffering, they are really worried about their future.

But for an important issue to become an election issue, it has to fulfil two conditions -- one, the issue has to be important to me as a voter -- and second, one party must be seen to be better than the other parties at solving the problem which is why sometimes issues like corruption don't become an election issue because all parties are believed to be equally corrupt.

So today even with all their distress, farmers have to still decide if one party is better than the other at solving their distress -- only then will it become an election issue.

So will the turnout in rural, agrarian, India be larger than the earlier Lok Sabha election?

Prannoy: There's been a rising trend anyway (rural turnout being higher than urban).

Dorab R Sopariwala: Voter registrations are going up, so turnout in absolute terms will go up too.

The PM's minimum income guarantee for small farmers, Rahul's Rs 6,000 per month per family income guarantee, will they be game-changers?

Prannoy: These kind of issues can only be assessed by large opinion polls. How much each policy has an impact on voting patterns and the percentage of vote -- we will be doing using polls to answer these questions.

The story of elections is what we as journalists ought to do. It's important for journalists and reporters to understand it's not our profession to forecast.

Our profession is to tell the story of elections, the issues of elections, what matters to people. But forecasting is better done by pollsters.

Perform or perish/the anti-incumbency trend that you have written about, how true is it for 2019.

Dorab: The voter has to believe that you've done something for him. Not necessarily for the country as a whole, but for her or him, for her family, her children's education.

Do welfare schemes reach her? The voter weighs the pros and the cons. The minimum food support price benefits, do they reach her family?

Is Pulwama going to make a difference? This is for polls to find out and journalists to report.

This is not a one issue election, it's a multi-issue election.

Prannoy: But we are no longer in the anti-incumbency era. That era finished in 2002. We are in a 50:50 era, we are in a perform or perish era.

If you perform you will be voted back; if you don't, you are out.

In the anti-incumbency era (1977 to 2002) even if you performed you were thrown out, the voters were so angry.

We are no longer in the angry voter, anti-incumbency era. We are in the 50:50 era of the wiser and more discerning voter.

The 'play safe' factor in forecasting -- what kind of percentile difference does it actually translate to? And is the play safe factor particularly pronounced among minority community voters?

Prannoy: There are two things -- there's play-safe among voters and play-safe among pollsters.

In the case of play-safe among pollsters, most samples have an error of +- 3 per cent.

In India, with the complexity of converting votes into seats, a 3 per cent swing in votes, causes a 100 seats to change hands.

Since a swing in seats is very sensitive to a swing in votes, pollsters say, 'OK it's so sensitive and it makes such a difference, I better be cautious, I'll take one standard deviation down and say this is the minimum that the party is going to get'.

On the other hand, voters who play safe, well, first they have to know that you are not from a political party and that you are just doing a poll and then they trust you they do open up and tell the truth.

So, more often than not, voters are telling you the truth.

Prannoy: Oh yes, overwhelmingly so.

Dorab: 90 per cent of exit polls have been right over the years because most of the time the voters are telling the truth.

Like political parties, do voters too believe that EVMs are not secure? Or is this simply the refrain of parties that lose?

Prannoy: India is a country of conspiracy theories. And for losers it's a really good excuse to blame the EVMs.

What we've said is - based on the evidence so far and despite all efforts to try and discredit EVMs, there is no evidence to suggest that EVMs can be tampered with.

So it's just a very good excuse for losers. And by and large we have found that voters do believe that EVMs cannot be tampered with.

Dorab: Every single political party in the country has complained that EVMs can be tampered with only when they lose.

You don't have to be a great mathematician to put two and two together. If you lose, EVMs aren't working, if you win, they are fine.

In fact, if people could only be bothered to go to the EC Web site where there is an incredibly detailed explanation of how an EVM lands up at a particular constituency.

Apart from the fact that there is no Wi-Fi, (Internet and Bluetooth connectivity) and so much care is taken (by the Election Commission to prevent hacking and tampering).

Really, there is no reason to believe that EVMs can be tampered with.

So, should one expect a good turnout in the polls?

Prannoy: Yes, we expect a record turnout in this election. There is a rising trend of higher and higher voter participation with each election.

Conventional wisdom says a good turnout doesn't favour the incumbent regime.

Prannoy: You're right it is only conventional wisdom -- there is no data-based evidence of that either way, actually. So far it has not been clear whether and who benefits from higher or lower turnout ... a lot of people have tried to work on it, but have not discovered any firm relationship.

We've done some work on this relationship between turnout and which party gains or loses and we arrive at some conclusions that low turnout benefits the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party). However more research is needed.

Dorab: Low turnout helps cadre based parties, high turnout helps non-cadre based parties. But much more work needs to be done on this.

The Mahagathbandhan is an army without a general, or more generals than foot soldiers. Will the lack of a prime ministerial face and the constant infighting between the Congress and Janata Dal-Secular sound a warning to voters and therefore affect the MGB's chances of a win?

And there's Mayawati's statement on Congress's minimum income programme for instance and Rahul's statement against the TMC.

Prannoy: That's a political question, you know. Ours is mainly on elections and not so much on politics. We'll let you know you on the 23rd. (Laughs.)

Look, we're just starting on our field trips and we are going to every state and we will be doing exit polls and talking to people.

Elections are not won by flamboyance, oratory works as long as it is combined with development, you say in your book. Is this in effect your verdict for the 2019 polls -- that the PM, who even his worst detractors will admit, is a good orator, will lose in the face of lacklustre development?

Prannoy: (Laughs) That's trying to put words in our mouth. Actually, the voter will decide whether this government has delivered on the ground or not and that will be the deciding factor in this election.

Dorab: Oratory does work, but even what work (development) has been done is as much a functional reality as what the perception is. So if they perceive that the government has done work and the prime minister reinforces that perception, then obviously they will vote for him.

But what about the voter in the middle, the swing vote? Each party or each group has a certain number of committed voters. It is the uncommitted voter which will swing one way or the other.

Don't forget the BJP in the last election almost doubled its vote. Even if they were not traditional BJP supporters, they were convinced about Mr Modi.

The government runs on its record, the Opposition runs on its promises.

If the voter perceives that Mr Modi has performed well and he reinforces it, they will vote for him. Otherwise, they won't.

Also the (Congress promise of a minimum income guarantee of) Rs 72,000 per annum, have they got to know about it? Don't forget just because it's been announced it doesn't mean that all of the country gets to know about it.

How did the BJP win in Uttar Pradesh in 2017 despite demonetisation and without a development plank?

Prannoy: The main reason for the BJP winning in UP was a divided Opposition. One of the problems with the media is the way we look at whether there a wave or not -- is the BJP back to 2014 levels etc?

However, elections in India are won and lost on the basis of Divide and Rule A divided vs united opposition is crucial.

As important as the popular vote in an election is alliances.

2014 wasn't really a Modi wave, it was a divided Opposition that helped Modi win UP in both 2014 and 2017 -- if the Opposition had been united in those elections the BJP in UP would not have won half the seats.

You have said that most opinion polls, 97 per cent, get it right. How did every opinion poll get the 2004 elections wrong?

Prannoy: I don't think enough work has been done on it to find out why it happened. The idea behind is the book is to highlight certain trends from the data present then provoke further research.

Dorab: Also you mustn't forget that the difference between the Congress and the BJP was just about 10 seats.

So had there been a vote swing by 1 or 2 per cent in 2004, the BJP might have become the single largest party and we could then have said we got that point right too.

I don't think there have been any elections that were as tight as the 2004 elections.

Prannoy: And polls all over the world get it wrong from time to time. UK polls got Brexit wrong, US polls got Trump wrong. The BBC has got the exit polls wrong two or three times in the past. It's not an exact science.

Dorab: And it's not a census. It's based on sample size.

It was a very closely fought election. The India Shining (the Atal Behari Vajpayee-led 2004 campaign) was probably urban India. Rural India wasn't shining.

People got taken in by the media in urban India. Obviously, the voter showed that rural India wasn't shining as much urban India was.

It's in these instances that we realise that the rural voter decides what happens to the fate of this country, not the urban voter, not the urban media.
The Supreme Court on Monday said it cannot pass an order at this stage on a plea seeking stay on the release of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's biopic as the censor board is yet to certify the film.

The apex court said it will hear the matter on Tuesday and could possibly pass an order if the petitioner brings on record what the film depicts is "highly objectionable".

"Any kind of order from the court will be possible if the petitioner states and pleads what the film is seeking to depict and his objections on this count," said the order by a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi.

The bench also refused the plea of the petitioner, Congress activist Aman Panwar, that the copy of the film should be given to him.

"Why should we direct that individual be given a copy of the film," said the bench, also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna.

"On behalf of the petitioner, a prayer has been made that directions should be issued for furnishing a copy of the film to enable the petitioner to act in terms of the order. We fail to see how such a direction can be issued by the court," it said.

At the outset, the CJI said the film is not yet certified and referred to April 4 statement by Central Board of Film Certification chairperson Prasoon Joshi.

Joshi had said that the film was undergoing due process of examination and certification.

"Since there are a lot of queries around the certification of the film, (I) would like to give a clear picture: the film is going through the due process of examination and certification according to the requisite guidelines and is yet to be certified as the process is not complete at this point," Joshi had said.

Senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for the Congress activist, said producer Sandip Singh had come out with a statement that the biopic would be released on April 11.

Taking note of his submission, the bench said the producer may have come out with such a statement on release of the biopic on April 11 anticipating that the film would get the certification from the censor board.

The bench said as of now there is no cause of action for challenging the film's release.

When Singhvi repeated for further stay on the biopic, the bench said, "How can we stop the release of the film? It is not yet certified. There is only a statement from the producer for its release."

Singhvi submitted that there was no level playing field and allowing the release of the film would be a direct assault on the structure of the Constitution.

However, the bench said it cannot decide on the grievances raised by the petitioner as it did not know what was there in the film.

Singhvi also submitted that the judges themselves can see the film in advance to decide the matter.

He said the lead actor, Vivek Oberoi, has been named as the star campaigner for the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections. His father, who was also an actor, is a card holder of the BJP.

"You have the power to call for the screening of the movie," the senior advocate told the bench.

"The film has considerable ramifications as it would be screened for the coming 40 days across the country," he said.

The plea has sought deferment of the biopic's release till the completion of the coming Lok Sabha polls, alleging that it was designed to "manipulate, influence and impress viewers and voters".

Titled 'PM Narendra Modi', the biopic which was slated to be released on April 5, has been postponed till further notice, Singh said Thursday.

The plea has sought a direction from the court declaring that advertisement and promotion of the film during the operation of the model code of conduct violates electoral laws.

It has sought directions to the Centre, CBFC and the Election Commission to delay its release till the completion of the general elections next month.

The Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh high court had earlier rejected a plea seeking ban on the release. The Bombay High Court had also disposed of a plea seeking deferment of the biopic's release, saying the EC will deal with the issue.

"The film was driven by no artistic inspiration and was instead designed to manipulate, influence and impress viewers and voters in the upcoming elections," the plea has said.

It said there were several facts which demonstrated that the film was not an innocuous work of art, despite the repeated statements of the producers, the director and the lead actor to the contrary.

It said Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis released the first poster of the biopic and BJP president Amit Shah was also scheduled to release other similar promotional materials of the film.
In its manifesto, the BJP also underscored its commitment to enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Bill, on which it was forced to go slow following widespread opposition from North East states.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi releases BJP's manifesto for Lok Sabha elections in New Delhi. Photograph: Atul Yadav/PTI Photo

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday reiterated its commitment to repeal Article 370, which gives Jammu and Kashmir a special status, and Article 35A, which allows the state's legislature to define permanent residents, and pledged in its manifesto to work towards ensuring return of Kashmiri Pandits to the valley.

Stating that the party is committed to overcome all obstacles that come in the way of the state's development and to provide adequate financial resources to all its regions, the BJP said in its manifesto that its position since the erstwhile Jan Sangh days has been for abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution of India.

The saffron party also said it is committed to annulling Article 35A, which it said was "discriminatory" against non-permanent residents and women of Jammu and Kashmir.

"We believe that Article 35A is an obstacle in the development of the state," the BJP said in its manifesto titled 'Sankalp Patra', released in New Delhi by top party leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the party president Amit Shah.

The party has always advocated abrogation of Article 370 and has also been speaking against Article 35A, but its renewed pitch during elections assumes significance.

Both Houses of Parliament would need to support such moves and Shah had recently said his party may get a majority in the Rajya Sabha next year.

Kashmir-based parties are vehemently opposed to any attempt to scrap Article 370 and Article 35A.

The Congress in its manifesto has promised to maintain the constitutional status quo on the matter.

-- RATE: Thumbs up or down for BJP's manifesto

The National Conference, its arch rival Peoples Democratic Party and new entrant People's Conference led by Sajad Gani Lone have been talking about protection of Articles 35A and 370 in their rallies in the run-up to the polling which is scheduled to begin on April 11, latching on to Shah's remarks that Article 35A will be repealed by 2020.

Their leaders have been saying that the Article 35A is a matter of faith and dignity for the people of the state through which the Constitution of India guarantees to safeguard the special identity and unique status of Jammu and Kashmir.

Some leaders have also said that all northeastern states and even Himachal Pradesh have laws prohibiting non-locals from purchasing land, but it was only J&K's special status that was always talked about.

In its manifesto, the BJP also said it will take all steps to ensure a safe and peaceful environment for all residents of the state and make all efforts to ensure the safe return of Kashmiri Pandits, who were forced to leave the valley in 1990s due to eruption of terrorism.

The BJP also said its government will provide financial assistance for the resettlement of refugees from West Pakistan, Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK) and Chhamb.

In its manifesto, the BJP also underscored its commitment to enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Bill, on which it was forced to go slow following widespread opposition from North East states.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the bill is necessary for protection of individuals of religious minority communities from neighbouring countries escaping persecution.

Referring to protests in north eastern estates against the bill, he said his party, if voted back to power, will make all efforts to clarify the issues to those who have expressed apprehensions regarding the legislation.

"We reiterate our commitment to protect the linguistic, cultural and social identity of the people of North-East. Hindus, Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs escaping persecution from India's neighbouring countries will be given citizenship in India," he said.

Many in the North East region believe that such a law will threaten their cultural identity as a large number of immigrants living there will be accorded citizenship.
In its manifesto, titled 'Sankalpit Bharat, Sashakt Bharat', the party made a string of promises, including expeditious construction of a Ram temple, doubling farmers income and the scrapping of Article 370 that gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

-- RATE: Thumbs up or down for BJP's manifesto

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi displays copies of Bharatiya Janata Party election manifesto for the general election in New Delhi. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters

Eyeing to retain power, the Bharatiya Janata Party made a plethora of poll promises on Monday, including expeditious construction of Ram temple, firmly dealing with terrorism, doubling farmers' income in the next three years, making India the third-largest economy globally by 2030, and scrapping Article 370 of the Constitution that gave a special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the 45-page manifesto titled "Sankalpit Bharat, Sashakt Bharat" in the presence of BJP chief Amit Shah and other top leaders of the party, including Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, three days ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

In the manifesto, the ruling BJP also resolved to annul Article 35A of the Constitution, which says no outsider can own property in Jammu and Kashmir.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah, greet each other before releasing their party's election manifesto. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters

On the economic front, the party said it aspired to make India the third-largest economy of the world by 2030, adding, "This implies that we commit to make India a $5 trillion economy by 2025 and $10 trillion economy by 2032."

The party promised that it would continue with the simplification of the Goods and Services Tax process by engaging in dialogue with all the stakeholders.

It said the purchase of defence equipment would be fast-tracked to strengthen the armed forces, adding that if voted to power, the government led by the party would continue with its approach of zero tolerance towards terrorism.

The security forces would continue to get a free hand in dealing with terrorism, the saffron party said.

Asserting that nationalism was his party's inspiration and inclusion and good governance its mantra, Modi said the BJP's manifesto aimed to make India a developed nation by 2047, 100 years after Independence.

The "Sankalp Patra" (document of resolve) of the BJP had 75 definitive, time-bound targets for the country, he said, adding, "We want people to hold us accountable. Hence, we have set out 75 goals to be achieved by 2022."

IMAGE: Reading up their manifesto? Amit Shah and Modi take a look at their manifesto. Photograph: Atul Yadav/PTI Photo

The prime minister said the BJP's manifesto was a "multi-layered and multi-dimensional" document that addressed the expectations and aspirations of all sections of the society.

The saffron party also promised to implement the National Register of Citizens in a phased manner in various parts of the country.

About Jammu and Kashmir, it said, "We reiterate our position since the time of the Jan Sangh to the abrogation of Article 370. We are committed to annulling Article 35A of the Constitution of India as the provision is discriminatory against the non-permanent residents and women of Jammu and Kashmir."

"Let us work towards building a strong and inclusive India, whose citizens are assured of dignity, prosperity, security and opportunity," Modi wrote in the preface of the manifesto.

In his write-up in the manifesto, Shah said: "In its tenure of five years, the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been able to take many decisions which are historic and has ushered in a comprehensive and fundamental transformation."

He also referred to various schemes and decisions of the government, including the Swachh Bharat Mission, the Ujjwala Yojana, the Saubhagya Yojana, demonetisation, GST, surgical strikes and airstrikes.

IMAGE: BJP chief Amit Shah and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley during the release of Bharatiya Janata Partys manifesto (Sankalp Patra) for Lok Sabha elections 2019. Photograph: Atul Yadav/PTI Photo

In his remarks at the event, the BJP chief said Modi had done justice to every section of the society, with cooking gas connections given in the rural areas, housing and affordable healthcare for all and welfare schemes for farmers.

He said the party promised to the people of India a transparent, strong and decisive government and urged the voters to bring it back to power.

"Our 'Sankalp Patra' promises to fulfil all expectations of the people," Shah said.

He added that Modi had provided a decisive government in the last five years and had dared to order surgical strikes and air strikes on the foundation of terror.

With its strikes on terror, the Modi-led government had sent out a strong message that India could not be taken lightly, the BJP chief said.

IMAGE: Home Minister Rajnath Singh and PM Modi share a lighter moment during the manifesto's release. Photograph: Atul Yadav/PTI Photo

Calling the BJP's manifesto a "vision document", head of the party's manifesto committee Rajnath Singh said the Modi government was fully committed on nationalism and zero tolerance towards terrorism.

Jaitley said the manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls starting April 11 was not prepared with a "tukde tukde" mindset, but with a strong nationalistic vision.

The document was rooted in reality, the finance minister added.

"Our new policy, new doctrine of striking terror at its origin has received global recognition," he told the gathering.

Speaking on the occasion, Swaraj said the BJP was the only party to come up with a "Sankalp Patra" while others came up with "Ghoshna Patra".

"It is not just announcements that the document has made, but pledges that the party has made to itself to deliver to the people," the external affairs minister said.

"The country will believe us because we did a lot more than we had promised in 2014," she added.
National Geographics Travel Photo Contest is open for entries and has already attracted incredible snaps from across the globe.

Week 2 of the contest include images of a newborn lion being carried to safety in the jaws of its mother, a daredevil slackliner in the USA, and a penguin being chased by a fur seal.

The international competition runs from 18 March to 3 May, with budding photographers able to enter their work in one of three categories: nature, cities and people.

The overall winner will receive $7,500 (Rs 5 lakh), plus their photo will be featured on the @natgeotravel Instagram account.

(Please click on the images to view them in full-screen)

-- Jaw-dropping pictures from National Geographic's travel photo contest: Week 1

The 500 enormous vessels used to transport bricks, sand and other goods, are either being built or are docked for maintenance work in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Shipbuilders in Bangladesh began exporting their ships to other countries in 2009, and it has since become a growing trade in the area.

Photograph: Azim Khan Ronnie/2019 National Geographic Travel Photo Contest

Petra is a 2,000-year-old city, carved in the rocks of Jordanonce a gateway on the Silk Road and now one of the seven wonders of the world. The best experience is to walk the canyon that leads to the pink city in the nightjust like ancient traders and merchants. From the dark, the Treasury is seen lit by hundreds of candles. This is as close as you can get to time travel and a truly an unforgettable lifetime experience.

Photograph: Enrico Pescantini/2019 National Geographic Travel Photo Contest

This image was captured on a recent visit to Antarctica. I had this shot in mind, though no idea how I would get it. I had seen a similar photo in a Nat Geo publication. Lucky for me, a young southern fur seal decided to chase a group of Gentoos -- right towards our Zodiac. It even has its mouth wide open to add to the drama. Right place, right time for this shot. :)

Photograph: Clive Beavis/2019 National Geographic Travel Photo Contest

It was a quiet morning at Nagarahole Tiger Reserve -- the sun was opening up and the mist from the night was clearing. As we made a drive through the woods, we saw this beautiful leopardess perching on her favorite tree. Ever since I started wildlife photography, I wanted to photograph a leopard on the tree. It took over three years to find the photo. I love everything about this picture -- a prowling leopardess, a beautiful tree with the white flowers, soft sunlight -- it was just a perfect setting, like a dream.

Photograph: Naveen Srikantachari/2019 National Geographic Travel Photo Contest

On my recent trip to Lake Kerkini, Greece, I got up close and personal with the globally threatened Dalmatian Pelicans. Being the largest of the Pelicans in the world, these birds are amazing to photograph, especially during winter when their breeding reddish/orange colors brighten up the shot.

Photograph: Damilice Mansur/2019 National Geographic Travel Photo Contest

We were lucky to find new born lion cubs in the plains of Masai Mara, Kenya. The mother is extremely protective of the cub and was often seen hiding them behind the bush and away from predators. In this instance, as the cub unknowingly walked very close to the side of a cliff, the mother lioness quickly tried to grab it from its head to protect it from falling over. It looks dangerous, but it is an endearing way for the lioness to pick up the cub and place it back to safety.

Photograph: Sonalini Khetrapal/2019 National Geographic Travel Photo Contest

The winter storm thins out and allows the snow wrapped landscape appear in white-splendor. Pictures show us again and again how beautiful our earth is and what needs to be protected.

Photograph: Jonas Schafer/2019 National Geographic Travel Photo Contest

The white Camargue horses are living in the wild, but are being guarded and managed by the "guardians, French Cowboys.

Photograph: Francesco Riccardo Iacomino/2019 National Geographic Travel Photo Contest

This was my first ever hike to taft point in YosemiteNational Park. I had seen so many beautiful pictures of this location before. After reaching the point, I saw these slackliners. It was amazing to watch these guys over the high cliffs. The setting sun made it even more awesome with its rays beaming through the valley. What a sight! Felt really lucky to be at the right place at the right time.

Photograph: Abhishek Sabbarwal/2019 National Geographic Travel Photo Contest

The mud flies as the cows race through the rice paddies during the traditional pacujawi on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia.

Photograph: Dale Johnson/2019 National Geographic Travel Photo Contest
The young RJD leader is yet to earn the trust of the crowd and many senior party members believe he is no patch on his father. Satyavrat Mishra/Business Standard reports

IMAGE: Political analysts say this election will be a test for Lalu's son Tejashwi Yadav. Photograph: Tejashwi Yadav/Facebook

It was 1998 and Lalu Prasad in Bihar was at the height of his power. Despite being involved in the fodder scam, Prasad looked confident before the Lok Sabha election. When a reporter asked him about the prospects of his Rashtriya Janata Dal, which broke away from the Janata Dal in the previous year, Prasad, who had by then vacated the chief ministers office in favour of his wife, said: Jab tak rahega samose mein aloo, Bihar mein rahega Lalu.



His party won 17 seats (of the 54 in undivided Bihar) with a 27 per cent vote share in the state.

However, in 2019, for the first time in almost three decades, the Yadav patriarch will not be present for campaigning. As he lies in a hospital bed in a Ranchi hospital owing to several ailments after being convicted in a number of fodder scam-related cases, campaigning in Bihar is threatening to be a dreary affair in his absence.

-- INDIA VOTES



Prasad has dominated campaigning in Bihar since 1990. Every election campaign since he became chief minister that year revolved around him. While opponents blamed Prasad for making Bihar a laggard state, he ridiculed them with witty nick-names and won crowds in his rallies with his pithy one-liners.



He mocked Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan by calling him Mausam vaigyanik (political weathervane) and dubbed Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Paltu Ram after he broke the Grand Alliance and teamed up with the Bharatiya Janata Party. His mimicry of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the campaigning for the Bihar assembly election in 2015 caused hilarious laughter in the crowd. Rustic humour is the way Prasad used to drive his political message to his voters.

Political analysts, however, say the impact of his absence will be much deeper than just the election becoming tedious. Many political observers, including some RJD leaders, believe this election would decide the way forward for his party and family. The election would also be a test for his younger son and political heir, Tejashwi Yadav.



While Prasads opponents say his incarceration would loosen his grip on Yadav voters, his loyalists think it would solidify his Muslim-Yadav combine.



When Prasad campaigned, from 1991 to 2005, the erstwhile Janata Dal and then the RJD topped vote percentage charts. In 1991, riding on the wave of the Mandal Commission, the alliance of the Janata Dal, Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India-Marxist and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha won 48 of the 54 Lok Sabha seats. The vote share of the Janata Dal alone was more than 34 per cent and it won 31 seats.



Many political functionaries are saying as Prasad is behind bars, the RJDs vote-transferring capacity might be affected. In the last couple of polls, there has been attrition among Yadav voters. This is particularly higher in the areas where the RJD didnt field Yadav candidates. With Prasad not being there to sway voters, this number is bound to go up, said a political analyst.

IMAGE: There is a concern within the RJD owing to the rift between Tejashwi and his brother Tej Pratap Yadav. Photograph: Tejashwi Yadav/Facebook

The Grand Alliance also fears with Prasad not playing a central role, it would have to go the extra mile to ensure the support of the backwards and the downtrodden. In 2015, Prasad used the Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwats remark suggesting a review of the reservation policy against the saffron alliance. He used to wave the book of RSS ideologue Madav Sadashiv Golwalkar to paint the BJP as anti-backward. While BJP leaders tried their best to clarify things, Prasad single-handedly kept it alive and at the end it cost them dear, said an RJD MLA.



This time we dont have Laluji. Therefore, we have to work harder.



In the absence of Prasad, the political mantle of Tejashwi will also be tested. Although he has strengthened his position in the RJD, the young leader is yet to earn the trust of the crowd. Even senior RJD leaders accept that he is no patch on his father.

The growing distance between him and his elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav is another matter of concern. After Tej Pratap filed for divorce last year, he moved out of Rabri Devis (his mother) official bungalow in Patna. The elder brother even held close aides of Tejashwi responsible for creating rifts within the family. The situation worsened since Thursday. Tej Pratap resigned as mentor of the RJD students wing after Tejashwi refused tickets for his candidates of choice for Jehanabad and Sheohar.



This time the National Democratic Alliance leaders are weaving their election campaign for Bihar around development, good governance, and clean government. Nitish Kumar has done so much for Bihar, said the JD-Us spokesperson Neeraj Kumar.

RJD Vice-President Shivanand Tiwary said: Voters understand the ways of the world. The Araria Lok Sabha and Jehanabad and Jokihat assembly by-polls have proved this point.
Three days before the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday, April 8, released its manifesto with a focus on development and national security.

Top party leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party president Amit Shah and Home Minister Rajnath Singh, were present at the launch of the manifesto -- described by the BJP as its "sankalp patra" -- in New Delhi.

Here are the highlights from the manifesto.

-- READ BJP's FULL MANIFESTO HERE

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah release the party's manifesto, Sankalp Patra -- in New Delhi on April 8. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters

>> Zero tolerance against terrorism and extremism

>> All alternative options will be explored for construction of Ram temple in a most conducive manner

>> BJP will ensure passage of Citizenship Amendment Bill in Parliament with utmost respect to every state's cultural value

>> Ever farmer will get benefit of Kisan Samaan Nidhi irrespective of land holding. Pension schemes for small and marginal farmers. Rashtriya Vyapari Ayog will be set up for trading community. Pension also for small shopkeepers

>> BJP promises to spend Rs 25 lakh crore on rural development in next five years

>> Rs 6,000 yearly income support to farmers and pension to small and marginal farmers above 60 years of age

>> BJP is committed on implementation of Uniform Civil Code

>> Strike capabilities of armed forces will be strengthened by giving them modern equipment

>> Committed to annulling Article 35A of the Constitution, as provision is discriminatory against non-permanent residents of J-K

>> 75 new medical colleges and post-graduate colleges to be established

>> Focusing on water resources, a separate Jal Shakti ministry will be formed

>> The party also plans to open another 200 Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidayalas schools by 2024

So, dear readers, what do you think of the document? Read the 48-page manifesto and rate the same.
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 of Nar Bahadur Bhandari and Sikkim Democratic Front 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.

Above is a sentiment meter for the 2019 electoral battle.

A mathematical model is used to calculate how seat distribution will be altered as sentiment/percentage of votes towards a contesting political party changes.

Based on the change, each constituency is marked with the winning party.

A swing represents that the victory margin is close to the runner-up party.

Move the pointer on the sentiment meter (depending on who you think will get more votes) towards the political parties to see how the outcome is likely to change.
How AOC became even more embarrassing with her Green New Deal By Rachel Alexander

When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez burst onto the scene last year, no one expected that she would crash and burn as badly as she has in such a short amount of time. Between her constant gaffes and Valley Girl voice, she has become a real trainwreck for the Democrats. She is the epitome of a young woman who was raised in a privileged environment as daddys little princess who can do no wrong. Shes been praised for years for doing nothing, while no one dared stand up to her and tell her she actually is lacking in many areas. Now she thinks shes a hotshot because shes one of the youngest members of Congress at age 29. So not surprisingly, the Green New Deal she proposed in February was so unrealistic not a single Democrat in the Senate voted for it. As President Obamas legacy became his failed Obamacare, so is Ocasio-Cortezs legacy becoming her sorry Green New Deal proposal. Embarrassingly, she said the world will end in 12 years if her policy is not adopted. It is based on dubious science, which contends that man-made carbon emissions are destroying the planet. Since many of these proponents have been proven wrong, it seems absurd to spend trillions of dollars to correct a problem that may not exist. But Ocasio-Cortez hasnt proven to be the sharpest tool in the shed. Having grown up in a privileged environment, she appears unable to grasp the concept of an unaffordable plan. On her website, Ocasio-Cortez says she considers climate change to be the "single biggest national security threat for the United States and the single biggest threat to worldwide industrialized civilization." This is frightening considering it is dubious science. Her Green New Deal is named after Franklin Delano Roosevelts New Deal, which introduced new government programs during the Great Depression to stimulate the economy. It ties climate change policy with social justice and inequality. It will cost trillions of dollars in the name of combating climate change. It would increase investments in clean-energy jobs and infrastructure, creating jobs. By 2035, the U.S. energy system would be carbon-free and 100 percent renewable energy. Cars would no longer emit greenhouse gases. Planes would be phased out. All the major areas of the economy would be carbon-free: electricity, manufacturing, buildings, transportation and agriculture. There will be no more farting cows, a goal which has been widely ridiculed. The Green New Deal would crush the U.S. economy since we are heavily dependent on coal, oil, and gas. It assumes much of the renewable energy would come from nuclear power  but there will be significant public opposition to this. It also includes "universal health care" and "food security." It goes beyond regular welfare, providing economic security for all who are unable or unwilling to work. There are 15 requirements for social and economic justice and security. In order to pay for her plan, she wants to tax the richest Americans at a rate of 60-70 percent. But that wont be enough to cover the costs. It would only bring in billions per year, whereas the Green New Deal will cost trillions per year. An analysis from the American Action Forum found that it would cost $93 trillion in the first year. It would more than double the size of the federal government. Even smaller infrastructure projects have proven unaffordable. California had to drop plans for its plan to build high-speed rail from Los Angeles to San Francisco due to the enormous expense. It was going to cost $77 billion, a drop in the bucket compared to the Green New Deal. California Democratic governor Gavin Newsom admitted that the project, as currently planned, would cost too much and take too long. Ocasio-Cortez has only been in office for three months but shes already made a fool of herself. And that doesnt even include the gaffes she made in 2018 before she entered office. For example in November, she referred to the three branches of government incorrectly as the three chambers, and then proceeded to get them wrong: The presidency, the Senate, and the House. She is a gaffe-generating gift to Republicans. Despite the Democrats efforts to turn her into a star, she is failing miserably. Republicans shouldnt be afraid of her. Rachel Alexander and her brother Andrew are co-Editors of Intellectual Conservative. She has been published in the American Spectator, Townhall.com, Fox News, NewsMax, Accuracy in Media, The Americano, ParcBench, Enter Stage Right and other publications.mericano, ParcBench, Enter Stage Right and other publications. Home
Happy Spring! Its finally here along with some exciting opportunities to spread your wings! Its not just traveling  Greece this month and the Scandinavian capitals in September. Its yet another new initiative that will benefit you.

Volunteers needed for Financial Reality Fair

We are still in need of more volunteers on April 24 for the 10th annual Financial Reality Fair. The Chamber is once again partnering with the Connecticut Credit Union League and Northwest Hills Credit Union to provide a hands-on budgeting experience to high school students. Participating students gain practical knowledge about personal financial management in a one day real world environment.

The Financial Reality Fair is a 4-hour (approximate time), hands on experience where students, after identifying their career choice and starting salaries, are provided a budget sheet requiring them to live within their monthly salary while paying for basics such as housing, utilities, transportation, clothing and food. Of course, there are many temptations for additional spending and students must learn to balance their wants and needs to live on their own.

After they have visited all the booths, students will balance their budget, and then sit down with a financial counselor to review their standing. The fair is a unique opportunity for each student to experience some of the financial challenges they will face when they start life on their own.

Volunteers make this event possible. No experience is necessary. If youd like to be involved, please email Lauren@nwctchamberofcommerce.org or call 860-482-6586.

The Small Business Council

The Small Business Council has been established for the small business owner/manager - the decision makers - to discuss challenges, share solutions and work as a back-office consortium. Many small business owners have issues that they stumble upon throughout their workday that they may not have experience with - but another small business owner does.

The Chamber's small Business Council is a resource for the owners and managers so they can keep their businesses running smoothly.

The idea of the Small Business Council came from Northwest Connecticut Chamber member Erick Royer, owner of Stepcraft, Inc. Stepcraft is a manufacturer and on-line retailer of desktop multi-function CNC systems. Ericks role in the company covers leadership, designing, marketing, sales, human resources, office administration, customer service and more.

Each day, he encounters a question in an area that he does not consider his expertise. He asked the Chamber to consider putting a group of small business owners/managers in a room together to share knowledge and experience and brainstorm ideas and solutions to problems.

The Chamber was happy to assist in the creation of such a group. The goal is to bring together leaders of companies with 10 employees or less to discuss challenges, share solutions and work together. We are grateful to Erick for bringing us this excellent idea and know it will be a welcome resource for business owners and managers to help their business thrive.

The kickoff meeting of the NW CT Chamber Small Business Council will be held on Tuesday, April 9 at 8 a.m. at the Chamber and is open to members with 10 or less employees. Call us to save your seat-860-482-6586!

Check out our website at www.nwctchamberofcommerce.org for more Chamber happenings. *This institution is an equal opportunity provider.*
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.
MILFORD-A remodeling and painting contract who has filed for bankruptcy has been charged by police with failing to fulfill a $50,000 contract on a job.

Police charged William Allen, 51, of New Haven Avenue, with first-degree larceny, failure to issue a refund and contractor fraud. He was released on a promise to appear April 30 in Milford Superior Court.
TORRINGTON  Flatbread Company of Canton, is hosting a fundraiser to benefit Community Health and Wellness Center (CHWC), Torrington, Tuesday, 5-8 p.m.

Flatbread Company will donate $3.50 for each large pizza sold and $1.50 for each small pizza sold, to CHWC. There will also be a raffle table of prizes with tickets available for purchase to benefit the center.

We appreciate the support of Flatbread Company in hosting our fundraiser, said Joanne Borduas, CEO of CHWC, in a statement. The restaurant is very community minded, and we are happy to partner with them in what is sure to be a fun and successful evening.

Funds will be allocated to CHWCs patient fund  which is used to help patients who need assistance with copays, transportation to and from doctors appointments, prescription medications, and other health-related needs  and the employee fund, which periodically rewards employees with team-building special events.

For more information, contact Kristine Sirotnak at 860-489-0931, extension 119.

Rebuilding Together invites volunteers for April 27 projects

NEW MILFORD Rebuilding Together Litchfield County is preparing for their annual Rebuild Day on Saturday, April 27. Teams of volunteers will spread out across Litchfield County - from Winsted and into Sherman in Fairfield County - to make repairs on houses for elderly homeowners.

Rebuilding Together Litchfield County is a nonprofit, nonsectarian, volunteer organization dedicated to helping low-income persons over 60, who reside in their own homes, to make repairs that will make their homes warm and safe.

In the past 15 years Rebuilding Together has helped over 241 applicants and 387 persons in 35 different Litchfield County towns, 3 different Fairfield County towns, and 2 nonprofit organizations. Skilled contractors, assisted by volunteers, have made 1,636 different repairs with a value totaling $634,386 in hours volunteered.

Projects have included roofs, windows, septic systems, doors, handicapped access to basements and bathrooms, walkways and much more. One of the important programs featured by Rebuilding Together is the 25 assessment. The 25 priority list assesses and makes corrections so that the home is dry, clean, pest-free, ventilated and maintained. The checklist ensures that the home has smoke and carbon dioxide detectors, grab bars and hand rails where needed as well as working appliances, furnace and water heater.

Volunteers have made a huge impact on the amount of work that Rebuilding can do, and more volunteers are always needed. If interested, email info@rebuildingtogetherlitchfield.org or call 960-350-2290.

Use Lynda.com at the Torrington Library

TORRINGTON  The Torrington Library has added a free online service, Lynda.com , a LinkedIn Company and online educational site that includes more than 5,700 courses (and more than 180,000 videos) in web design, web development, IT, education/instruction, media production, and business. Experts create and deliver all courses as well as provide supplemental materials like exercise files and relevant work samples. Lynda.com is free to all Torrington Library card holders. All thats needed is a library barcode and PIN, which is the last four digits of the library card. One logged in to Lynda.com, users must create accounts in order to track course progress, create playlists of potential coursework, and keep course notes.

Lynda.com is sponsored in part by Torrington Savings Bank. To access Lynda.com, visit the librarys website at www.torringtonlibrary.org. For questions, call the library at 860-489-6684.

Whigville Pride Day includes awards cleanup

BURLINGTON The Whigville Preservation Group (WPG) is proud to announce the 3rd Annual Whigville Pride Day to be held on Sunday April 28. Volunteers from the WPG, its parent organization the Burlington Land Trust, and other community groups will be taking part.

The residents of Whigville take pride in their community, said Patti Smaldone, leader of the Whigville Preservation Group. The fields and barns that define Whigville are impeccably maintained and this is our way of showing our thanks and doing our part.

The event will start with a brief ceremony at the Whigville Grange (153 South Main Street) at 10:30am to honor two families with Whigville Preservation Awards for their efforts in helping to preserve the character of our community.

Immediately following the ceremony there will be a community trash pick-up, as well as maintenance along the Black Dot Trail through Whigville. The primary Whigville thoroughfares of South Main Street, Main Street, and Reservoir Road will be the focus of the trash pick-up.

For more information, contact the Whigville Preservation Group at 860-255-7524 or whigvillect@gmail.com.

Torrington offers summer programs

TORRINGTON The Parks and Recreation Department is offering their Summer Action and Adventure Program, open to children 4 years old to children entering 8th Hrade in the fall.

The Action Program is for children in grades K-3, and will be based at Pleasant View Park on Durand Street.

The Adventure Program is for children entering grades 4-8 in the fall and will be based at Major Besse Park on Riverside Avenue.

Programs run for 8 weeks, June 24-Aug. 16, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday through Friday, and come with the option of before care and/or after care for an additional fee. There are several affordable packages available to meet the varying needs of our participants and families. Parents can sign up for two-week sessions of camp or select a package that covers the whole summer and saves you money. Each two-week session includes all activities, visits to the municipal pool, and field trips to various destinations. Daily onsite activities will include arts and crafts, sports, group games, onsite visits from local organizations, visits to the municipal pool, and so much more.

The Summer Action and Adventure Registration Forms, list of fees, and calendar of activities is available on the Parks and Recreation Website at https://torringtonct.myrec.com.

For more information call 860-489-2274.
Anthony Bourdain #3 By Michael Moriarty

The Progressively Liberal but ultimately suicidal Anthony Bourdains portrait of Mexico, in his television series on Parts Unknown, is Donald Trumps best defense for his Presidencys unnecessarily controversial Wall between the United States and Mexico. President Trump knows Mexico in the same way his political opposition, such as Anthony Bourdain, admit to knowing Mexico! Therefore, there is something increasingly similar between not only Anthony Bourdains suicide, but also his Leftist philosophys desire to, in essence, destroy the United States of America by erasing boundaries between nations for the sake of an increasingly delusional fantasy: A Progressive New World Order Under The United Nations. In this episode, he admits to knowing how drugs, largely delivered through the Mexican border, are eating away at his own homelands health and strength, yet, as a former cocaine addict himself, fully aware, in his programs episode on Mexicos corruption, totally informed of what amounts to American suicide via the porous border between Mexico and the United States?! He and his CNN, Liberal Left following want the border open!! As he himself committed suicide, Mr. Bourdain feels, or rather felt, utterly justified in espousing Leftist Liberal policies that mean the very end of his own nation, the United States of America. In short, he wants to inflict on his own, infinitely important homeland, the United States of America, the same despairing suicide that he himself inevitably suffered from. Why inevitably. In my opinion? A well-known and boldly self-confessed atheist, Anthony Boirdain recognized no god but himself. How, on the other hand, could he, as an obviously brilliant and gifted journalist in his own right, paint the picture of Mexico that he does, yet still prescribe suicide for himself and his fellow countrymen?! Hed rather despair of himself and life in general than change either his philosophy nor the frightening depths of his self-delusion. This, however, is only half of the Mexico programs length, The second half starts with Mexicos sister/brother drink to Tequila: Mescal! Hmmm. Meanwhile, the program leads from theme of corruption to Mescal to eventually: REVOLUTION! There is a rather revolutionary religion in Mexico now: The Church of Santa Muerte. In the end, it appears that Santa Muerte is the only saint that Anthony Bourdain worshipped in his life. A saint of Death and her disciple. Sad. Very, very sad. Their only god: Death! In the case of Anthony Bourdain, tragic. Michael Moriarty is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actor who starred in the landmark television series Law and Order from 1990 to 1994. His recent film and TV credits include The Yellow Wallpaper, 12 Hours to Live, Santa Baby and Deadly Skies. Contact Michael at rainbowfamily2008@yahoo.com. He can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/@MGMoriarty. Home
Anna Hakobyan attends gala celebration in LA

Anna Hakobyan, spouse of Prime Minister of Armenia, chair of the Board of Trustees of the City of Smile Charitable Foundation, attended the 34th anniversary gala celebration of the Armenian American Medical Society on April 6, her Office reports. Mrs. Hakobyan was accompanied by Armenias Ambassador to US Varuzhan Nersesyan, CEO of the City of Smile Foundation Ester Demirchyan, Armenian Consul General in Los Argeles Armen Bayburdian. The whole proceeds during the gala celebration have been transferred to the City of Smile Charitable Foundation. Over 800 people participated in the event, including Congressman Adam Schiff, world-renowned rock musician Serj Tankian, Mayor of Glendale Ara Najarian, former mayor of Glendale, City Council member Zareh Sinanian and others. Anna Hakobyan was invited to the event as a keynote speaker. In her speech she thanked the organizers of the event, the Armenian American Medical Society, doctor Shant Shakherdemyan who made a lot of efforts during these months for the event to take place. This event has a very important mission  to help children suffering cancer in Armenia. Today we are uniting for one goal  to ensure healthy, peaceful and happy childhood for Armenian kids. 100 children in Armenia are diagnosed with cancer annually. We are here to assist these children. Together we can fight for the life of each child suffering cancer, and this is our duty not to allow their lives to stop due to absence of finance. You are more aware than me that today cancer is not the one as it was in the past. It is no longer that terrible and incurable disease as it was years ago. The humanity and you  the doctors, have found the ways of overcoming cancer. Today we mainly can win in the fight against cancer, but there are still cases when we fail, and medicine and science have not yet found the magical key against cancer for everyone, Anna Hakobyan said, adding that the main reason is that a lot of money is needed for the battle. According to her, today mostly in rich and developed countries, for example in US, cancer is just a disease, but in less developed countries cancer and death are synonyms. After the Velvet revolution that took place in Armenia last year I am confident that our country will soon be included in the list of the worlds developed countries. But today, our children who suffer cancer now cannot wait for this development, our kids wait for treatment and they need our support. The City of Smile Foundation has been created to change lives, to take these lives to positive direction and return smile to children and their parents. We are starting to keep one smile at the same time bringing smile to a family because as I have once said  by saving ones life we save the world. Most of you have helped our homeland many times, I know this, and you have done it without any expectation, your only one concern was for your support to reach the right place, she said.

In this regard the Armenian PMs spouse assured that each money donated to the City of Smile Foundation will serve its goal  to treat a child suffering cancer, save the lives of these angels and return happiness to their families. The worst thing in the world is when you imagine the parents who are sitting next to their kids who are sick in bed and are unable to help them. Today several hundreds of people gathered here and this means how many people stand together with these children and their parents. Once again thank you for being here, I want to thank the team that made this event a reality, thank you for the cooperation and standing with Armenia, Anna Hakobyan said. The Armenian American Medical Society awarded certificates to Anna Hakobyan for the works conducted in the City of Smile Foundation and inspiring Armenian women all over the world.
Comparing the Canadian and the American Right  updated to 2019 (Part Three) By Mark Wegierski

The intellectual, cultural, and academic life of Canada is clearly dominated to a greater extent by political correctness than is the case in the United States. Unlike in the U.S., homeschooling is comparatively rare in Canada, there are fewer private schools at the primary and secondary level, and there are very few private, post-secondary institutions. The hundreds of private, more traditional, usually religious-affiliated colleges in the U.S. may allow for the existence of a community of more traditionally-oriented scholars that can have some effect on U.S. politics. Intelligent persons of conservative or traditionalist outlooks are almost completely isolated in Canada, and have almost no hope of achieving the dream of (for example) a tenured academic appointment  or even of finishing a Ph.D. Policies similar to employment equity operate, de jure or de facto, at virtually every Canadian university. These determine admissions (to undergraduate, as well as graduate programs -- and especially to professional programs like law and medicine); the disbursement of scholarships and other aid to students; and the hiring of all academic faculty, librarians, library assistants, and other academic and non-academic support staff. The Canadian media, including the publishing world, is also more hostile to persons of conservative or traditionalist outlooks than is the case in the United States. The so-called alternative media and alternative publishers in Canada usually embrace very left-wing outlooks and are even more hostile to conservatives than the so-called mainstream publishers. So, again, we see the Right being stymied in Canada. Even the sharpest and most reflective persons of conservative or traditionalist outlooks in Canada are highly unlikely to achieve the dream of becoming opinion-columnists in Canadian newspapers, or acclaimed authors with books appearing with credible publishers. Virtually the entire government-subsidized world of CanLit is inimical to conservatism. The atrophy of the broader Right in Canada means that Canadians are cut off from many stimulating intellectual and creative ideas and political options. It also means that any remaining socially conservative instincts of the general populace are untutored, and therefore easily pejoritized as bigotry by the left-liberal elites. Many people go through their entire lives in Canada without ever hearing even one seriously-presented, conservative or traditionalist argument. It could be argued that it is diversity of thought that is the most important, and most Canadians of any cultural or social group will never get beyond the prevalent, politically-correct, dogmas and taboos. Because of the atrophy of traditional religion in Canada, the gay rights and radical feminist agendas have certainly advanced further than is the case in the United States. The birthrate in Canada has also fallen far below replacement level, in marked contrast to the United States, where even the birthrate of non-Hispanic white (to use the official term of the U.S. Census) women is comparatively high. At the same time, Canada has a very high rate of abortion. There is a general climate of social decadence, ill-discipline, and a never-ending war against the so-called authoritarian personality. Many Canadians are to some extent accepting of all these various Canadian syndromes because they are linked to a very generous welfare-state. Apart from the obvious true believers in the left-liberal cadres (most of whom also clearly enjoy very comfortable lives), most ordinary people also tend to fall into line, unwilling to jeopardize their public sector job, or the government subsidy to their business, for the sake of what seem like distant and questionable notions. It should also be pointed out that Canada prides itself on its very generous medical system. The issue of healthcare is growing increasingly salient in Canada, especially with a rapidly-aging population. It seems that many people would be willing to accept virtually anything as far the social and cultural outlooks they are required to profess, if they could be guaranteed high-quality medical care. At the same time, Canada today fails to meet many of the traditional criteria of a state. It fails to properly control its borders, and its armed forces have (until the most recent years) been critically underfunded, to a point of near-atrophy. The federal government under the Chretien Liberals (1993-2003) had been able to achieve a budget surplus owing mainly to the high income tax rates; the 7% Goods and Services Tax (which is levied on virtually all economic activity) (Harper had lowered it to 5%); the reform of Unemployment Insurance (now called Employment Insurance), which significantly cut benefits; the so-called clawback of Old Age Pensions, over a certain, relatively modest income threshold; and the reduction of federal transfer payments for healthcare to the provinces. Considering these facts, the achievement of a federal budget surplus under Prime Minister Chretien and his Finance Minister, Paul Martin Jr. (who was Prime Minister in 2003-2006) is less of a miracle than it might appear. To be continued. Mark Wegierski is a Canadian writer and historical researcher. Home
An activist from northern Cambodias Preah Vihear province on Monday urged authorities to release his son and other villagers who were detained amid an ongoing land dispute with an agro-industrial company.



On Jan. 20, soldiers from Battalion 261 of Army Command Intervention Division 2 of the Cambodian armed forces arrested Sum Moeun, 54, and his son, Moeun Mean, 26, in Chaom Ksan districts Yeang commune for illegally clearing state forest land and detained them in the nearby Kulen Promtep Wildlife Sanctuary Headquarters.



The two men were reportedly subjected to harassment and physical attacks during their detention.



Sum Moeun, a representative of more than 300 Yeang commune families involved in a local land dispute, fled during the night and was in hiding until March 30, when his family discovered him working at a construction site in southwest Cambodias coastal city of Sihanoukville.



Moeun Mean and 13 other people who were arrested between Jan. 16 and Jan. 27 in a crackdown on villagers in Yeang commune accused of clearing state land remain in pre-trial detention, and face five to 10 years in prison.



Speaking to RFAs Khmer Service on Monday, Sum Moeun urged authorities to drop the charges against him and the 14 villagers, saying they only want to be free to work their farmland.



I request the authorities to release all our residents, including my son, so that they all may enjoy freedom, he said.



I have nothing left but to beg the government. I dont possess anything except a small plot of land. I just ask for the safety of myself and my family, and I request the authorities release those who are being detained in jail so that they may enjoy freedom.



Yee Sok San, senior investigator for local rights group ADHOC, called the arrest and prolonged detention of the remaining 14 villagers unjust, and demanded that they be set free on bail.



If there is no evidence, the court should release them so that they can fully enjoy their freedom, he said.



They should be able to meet with their family members and conduct their daily business without interference. Also, the state shouldnt waste its budget feeding them at the detention center.



Attempts by RFA to reach Preah Vihear Provincial Court spokeswoman Chum Kanniya for comment on the cases went unanswered Monday.



Land dispute



The land dispute in Yeang commune stems from a concession granted in June 2012 by the Environment Ministry to agro-industrial company Metrey Pheap Kakse Usahakam Co. Ltd.



The 8,520 hectares (21,000 acres) in the Kulen Promtep Wildlife Sanctuary prompted a dispute between Metrey Pheap and more than 300 families who say they own farmland in the area.



Authorities have told Metrey Pheap to settle the land dispute with the villagers, but also say parts of the land claimed by villagers were within state forest land.



In early February, Preah Vihear provincial governor Un Chanda announced a five-point plan to resolve the land dispute.



He said a working group would be created to conduct a survey, called on Metrey Pheap to register its land, told the company to properly demarcate it, urged villagers to maintain calm and end encroachment on the land in question, and ordered the provincial court to stop issuing summonses and arrest warrants against residents.



But civil society groups say that provincial authorities have failed to implement the measures and are calling for action so that residents can return to their normal lives.



Am Sam Ath, senior investigator of local rights group Licadho, told RFA that in order to solve the dispute, the authorities must first allow the remaining 14 villagers to be released on bail, and ensure the measures aimed at ending the conflict are put in place.



The recommendations of the Preah Vihear provincial governor should be implementedperhaps it can resolve the conflict, he said.



New York-based Human Rights Watch said last month that land seizures for development are carried out in Cambodia without due process or fair compensation for affected individuals and communities, spurring local protests.



The police and military are regularly used to clamp down on the protests or arbitrarily detain peaceful protesters, the group said.



Reported by RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Sovannarith Keo. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Cambodia will face severe economic hardship if the European Union proceeds with threatened plans to suspend beneficial trade preferences, Cambodian Interior Minister Sar Kheng said Monday, calling the expected move a matter of regret.



Speaking at a ceremony for retired civil service workers, police officers, and veterans with disabilities in the provincial town of Battambang, Sar Kheng rejected European demands for greater political freedom in the Southeast Asian country.



Such demands infringe on Cambodias sovereignty and independence, he said.



We can ultimately rely on only one thing, and that is making our own efforts, Sar Kheng said. As long as we depend on others, we will not be working at our full strength.



Whether the EU suspends these [trade preferences] or not is up to them. But we would welcome it if they dont. We would be happy and grateful to them, he said.



The EU decided in February to launch a six-month monitoring period to determine whether Cambodian exports should continue to enjoy tax-free entry into the European market under the Everything But Arms (EBA) scheme.



The EU trade measure, and a similar one proposed by the U.S. Congress, was motivated by the September 2017 arrest of opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) president Kem Sokha, as well as a wider crackdown on media and civil society.



Kem Sokhas arrest, and a decision by the Supreme Court to dissolve the CNRP two months later, paved the way for Prime Minister Hun Sens ruling Cambodia Peoples Party (CPP) to win all 125 seats in parliament in a July 2018 general election that was widely seen as unfree and unfair.



Sar Kheng was one of a group of three top Cambodian officials, including Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn and Trade Minister Pan Sorasak, who met on March 19-20 to open a dialogue with an EU delegation led by European Action Service (EEAS) deputy managing director of Asia & The Pacific Paola Pampaloni.



'Done taking orders'



Speaking on March 29 at a three-hour forum in the capital Phnom Penh, Hun Sen told civil servants, members of the private sector, and diplomats including the EU Ambassador to Cambodia, George Edgar, that Cambodia is fed up with demands from foreigners about how to run the country.



Cambodia is done taking ordersforeigners tell us to do things and if we decline, they threaten to impose taxes, he said.



The Cambodian government and the EU should now hold further talks to find common ground and avoid losses to the countrys garment industry, an independent trade union leader said on Monday.



Factory workers in Cambodia will be the first to suffer if trade preferences are suspended, Ath Thunpresident of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union (CCAWDU)told RFAs Khmer Service.



We are really concerned because the EBA [trade provisions] are crucial, he said.



They create jobs and opportunities, generate income for workers, and reduce poverty for our residents. If these are suspended, this will surely affect investment mechanisms to some extent.



Call for ouster



Writing in a Facebook post on April 3, exiled acting opposition chief Sam Rainsy called on the countrys people to oust Hun Sen, who has now ruled Cambodia for more than three decades.



The Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), which is banned in Cambodia but has regrouped and is active outside the country, would support Sar Kheng, who also serves as Cambodias deputy prime minister, if he were to stage a coup, Sam Rainsy said.



Different visions for the countrys future now divide the prime minister and his deputy, Sam Rainsy said.



We say that if [Sar Khengs followers] dare to topple Hun Sen, we will support them. They will not be isolated, he said.



Reported by RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Sovannarith Keo. Written in English by Richard Finney.
Thousands of people took to the streets of Taiwan at the weekend in protest at China's proposal to govern the democratic island under the "one country, two systems" framework applied to Hong Kong.



"Resist Chinese annexation!" the protesters chanted on the streets of Kaohsiung. "Today Hong Kong, tomorrow Taiwan!" they said, chanting: Reject one country, two systems!'"



The demonstration, organized by Citizen Front Taiwan, also came out in protest at recent trips by Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu to meet with Chinese officials in Hong Kong and Macau, both former colonial territories subsumed under Beijing's rule in 1997 and 1999.



Between 2,000 and 3,000 protesters gathered outside Kaohsiung City Hall for a rally on Sunday.



Shouting "Shut up, Xi Jinping!" they tore up a giant poster of a Jan. 2 speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping's speech titled "Letter to our Taiwan compatriots," in which he insisted that Taiwan must be "unified" with China, and refused to rule out the use of military force to annex the island.



Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen replied at the time that Taiwan's 23 million people have no wish to give up their sovereignty, and that China should first move towards a democratic system.



Demonstrators also waved brooms, shouting "Sweep away national traitor Han Kuo-yu!", local media reported.



Citizen Front Taiwan founder Lai Chung-chiang hit out at Han for his meetings at China's liaison offices in Hong Kong and Macau, saying that he had "kowtowed" to the Communist Chinese regime's officials and endorsed the "one country, two systems" framework.



Lin Fei-fan, who led the Sunflower movement that occupied Taiwan's parliament, the Legislative Yuan, to oppose closer ties with China under then president Ma Ying-jeou, accused Han of "locking Taiwan into a one China framework" in pursuit of economic opportunity.



Lin hit out at Ma, who "placed all of Taiwans resources into China" during his presidency. "Are we going to go back to the old ways?" he said.



Eeling Chiu, march organizer and head of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, said Han had attended the meetings without authorization.



"He didn't have authorization to go and meet with representatives in the liaison offices, and we believe that this was an extralegal activity," Chiu said.



"People came to this march today to protest against any politician who plays leapfrog in this way."



Among the marchers was a Chinese exchange student who has sought political asylum in Taiwan after live-streaming criticism of Chinese President Xi Jinping's removal of presidential term-limits last year.



Li Jiabao, 21, made the move after criticizing constitutional changes made by Xi in March 2018 that effectively allow him to rule indefinitely.



"This is Taiwan, not China, where there is no freedom of expression," said Li, adding that the march was his first public protest.



"It feels absolutely great," he said. "I have never enjoyed freedom like this in China."



Information warfare



Citizen Front organizer Shen Pai-yang said Beijing and Taipei are now engaged in full-on information warfare.



"Just you wait until there are surveillance cameras at the local store, at your gym, even in your home, and that all you can watch on TV are cables channels monopolized and backed by China," Shen warned.



"All you will see on TV will be speeches by Xi Jinping, and you'll have to worry about who is listening and reporting what you say back to China when you chat to someone at the market," he said.



"How will people make the right choices then?" he said.



A recent opinion poll found that more than 80 percent of Taiwanese would reject Xi's offer to rule the island via the "one country, two systems" model used for the former colonies of Hong Kong and Macau.



Taiwan was ruled as a Japanese colony in the 50 years prior to the end of World War II, but was handed back to the 1911 Republic of China under the Kuomintang (KMT) government as part of Tokyo's post-war reparation deal.



The island began a transition to democracy following the death of Chiang Kai-shek's son, President Chiang Ching-kuo, in January 1988, starting with direct elections to the legislature in the early 1990s and culminating in the first direct election of a president, Lee Teng-hui, in 1996.



But many fear that Taiwan could see the loss of its existing freedoms, should it fail to curb Beijing's growing influence on the island.



Erosion of freedoms



Hong Kong political commentator Ching Cheong said people in Hong Kong have experienced the erosion of freedoms, judicial independence and opportunities for political action since the city was handed back to China in 1997 under "one country, two systems."



"In the 20 years since the handover, the Hong Kong government has done a very poor job of protecting the boundary between the two systems," Ching said. "We could see from the [cross-border kidnapping] of [Hong Kong bookseller] Lee Po that a Hong Kong citizen can be captured and taken back to mainland China."



"When Lee Po returned to Hong Kong, he claimed that he had gone to mainland China under his own steam, but the Hong Kong government totally failed to pursue the matter ... it was never going to," he said.



Britain has expressed formal concerns via diplomatic concerns over proposed changes to Hong Kong's extradition law that would allow renditions of people claimed by China as criminal suspects to the mainland without recourse to a court.



Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said on Monday that other countries "have no right to interfere" in the internal affairs of China and Hong Kong.



Reported by Hsia Hsiao-hwa for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Lau Siu-fung for the Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Authorities in China are stepping up monitoring of staff and students at the country's higher education institutions through the use of personal data, surveillance cameras in classrooms, and student informants who are the ruling Chinese Communist Party's eyes and ears on the ground.



Student informants are continually being recruited at China's universities and typically report back to the authorities around once every two weeks, according to online documents.



At the Wuhan University of Science and Technology, such informants are usually recruited from among the highest-performing students, taking both academic grades and ideology into account, according to a document seen by RFA.



Their duties include: "Collecting and collating a wide variety of information on teaching and teaching management activities, promptly reflecting students' opinions and suggestions on teachers' attitudes, as well as class content, teaching methods, marking ... and extracurricular tutoring."



"The student information officer fills in a teaching information feedback form every two weeks," the document said. "[University staff] should also take responsibility for the confidentiality of students who provide such information."



Song Yongyi, a historian at UCLA, said the use of student spies in China isn't new.



"This is the same culture of spying that has always been part of the Chinese Communist Party," Song told RFA.



"The party often recruits and develops spies directly from among the student body," he said.



But he said the practice is on the increase under President Xi Jinping, who is engaged in a nationwide ideological clampdown involving all aspects of life in China.



"Now, they are using student informants on a very large scale," Song said. "In the past, party organizations in universities and high schools were very loyal and would immediately report remarks made by people there."



"Party organizations in colleges and universities are not so obedient, so the party is training agents to act as informants," he said.



Climate of fear



Veteran U.S.-based rights activist Liu Qing said the use of informants is calculated to create a climate of fear in academic circles, which have seen the demotion or firing of several professors in recent months.



"According to information leaked online, these informants are connected to spy agencies," Liu said. "[Their activities] are outside the control of their schools."



Tan Song, an associate professor at Chongqing Normal University business school, who was dismissed for publishing a book on land reform, said the system of ideological control in higher education has intensified under Xi.



"Since Xi Jinping took power, we have seen the installation of surveillance cameras in higher education in 2013, while they started to recruit informants in 2014," Tan told RFA. "The informants were hidden from view before, but now they are employed openly."



"They have their visible and invisible aspects, so the university will issue a document saying it is setting up an informant system, which is public," he said. "But covertly, the operative is kept in the dark; they don't even know who their handler is."



"I have a friend who is a party branch secretary, and he told me himself that [student informants] are run by state security and regular police," Tan said.



Requests for data



Meanwhile, students are reporting growing requests from college authorities for their personal data, including social media accounts.



A graduate of the Beijing Broadcasting Institute told RFA: "When I was a sophomore and a junior, a counselor posted a form in the class group chat, telling everyone to fill in their WeChat, QQ number, email address and other information."



Online comments expressed anger at being forced to submit social media information.



Weibo @qiangqingci wrote in a comment: "The last time they wanted our WeChat, which was already a red line. I'm determined not to give them my Weibo account this time around."



Another user, @yiliutuitangguyanzoujia, wrote: "I can't understand why a college would repeatedly ask students for their WeChat accounts. Aren't students entitled to privacy?"



U.S.-based legal scholar Teng Biao said students shouldn't have their privacy invaded by universities and schools.



Personal social media accounts and identities are private," Teng said. "Schools don't have the right to ask for this information."



"This is a way for the authorities to strengthen controls on speech and thought, especially in educational institutions," he said.



At the Anhui Mechanical and Electrical Vocational and Technical College, party propaganda officials recently issued a notice calling students to register details of their public and private accounts on WeChat and QQ.



The college was also ordered to designate an employee who would be responsible for supplying the data.



Independent Chinese journalist Deng Nizi said the "responsibility system" is a way to put pressure on institutions to self-censor.



"Setting up the responsibility system places the onus [elsewhere] so that the 'responsible person' has a sense of fear and responsibility, and will act more forcefully to control the speech and attitudes of others," Deng said.



"Responsibility is a new way to maintain stability."



Reported by Xi Wang and Han Jie for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Wong Siu-san and Lau Siu-fung for the Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Myanmar journalists of the privately owned Eleven Media Group work in the company's newsroom in Yangon, Oct. 12, 2018.

Prominent news organizations in Myanmar have received threatening messages from unknown senders warning them not to refer to the ethnic military the Arakan Army (AA) that is currently engaged in hostilities with government troops in western Myanmars troubled Rakhine state as an insurgent group.

The AA is battling Myanmar forces for greater autonomy in the state and is supported by the majority ethnic Rakhine Buddhist population. Fighting between the two sides reignited in late 2018 and exploded in early January after Arakan soldiers conducted deadly attacks on police outposts in northern Rakhine.

The Myanmar government has labeled the AA a terrorist group and instructed its forces to crush the fighters.

Since April 1, journalists at Myanmars Eleven Media Group, 7Day Daily, Mizzima, The Voice, Democracy Today, and Khit Thit Media have received the threats via social media messengers and email, warning them that they will face mine attacks if they continue to refer to the AA as an insurgent group.

The messages say that the AA is not an insurgent group, but an Arakanese army carrying out a revolution for the Father Nation.

The news media needs to stop portraying the Arakan Army incorrectly to misinform the Rakhine public and other ethnic groups, the messages say. Otherwise, the news media organization will see damage and we will blow up your newsroom by mine attacks.

Khin Saw Wai, a lower house lawmaker from the Arakan National Party (ANP) who represents Rakhines Rathedaung constituency, told RFAs Myanmar Service in an earlier report that the AA had sent envelopes with bullets to village authorities in Rakhine state.

Kyaw Zaw Lin, chief editor of Eleven Media Group, said he reported the threats to the police and other authorities.

We have never experienced such kinds of threats coming from an armed group, he said. We have reported them to the relevant authorities. We alerted international organizations working on press freedom. We also filed a case with the police force.

Myint Kyaw, joint secretary of the Myanmar Press Council, cautioned journalists to refrain from taking action that could give more attention to the senders, who remain unknown.

I agree that we should report this to law enforcement officers such as the police force, he said. We should take that kind of action. But these are threats coming from an unidentified source. As a media council, if we take action further than that, it will amplify the sources message. We might be realizing the sources real goal if all media and authorities take the threats seriously.

As for our media council, as an intermediary between the press and law enforcement authorities, we have a plan to issue alerts on the issue to all parties concerned, he added.

Just like in 2012

Kyaw Min Swe, a consultant for the Myanmar journal The Voice who recently received a threat, recalled the allegations of fake news that inflamed Buddhist-Muslim communal conflict in religiously and ethnically divided Rakhine state in 2012, and said that he is suspicious about the real intention of those who are sending the current threats to the media.

Religiously-motivated riots that started in Kyauk Ni Maw village quickly led to murder and arson amid widespread public fear that was intensified by the spread of fake news on social media, he said. The violence left more than 200 people dead and displaced 140,000 others, most of whom were minority Rohingya Muslims.

This fake news was intentionally spread to instigate fear among the public, he said. Because we have had such experiences in the past, we must question what is happening now. It was not a single incident. It happened multiple times between 2012 and 2014.

Given the examples and incidents that occurred in this country in the past, I suspect that it is true with the [current] cases too, he said. I suspect this is an attempt to instigate a public sensation.

Tharlon Zaung Htet, editor-in-chief of Khit Thit Media who has received three messages, said the senders are issuing the threats for specific purposes and that news professionals must be cautious about what may happen after they receive such mail.

[Those] behind these threats must [belong to] an organization with specific purposes, he said. They seem to be very knowledgeable and well organized. I see this as only a first step.

We dont know what the second and third steps will be, he said. There could be many possibilities, given the fact that the rule of law is very weak in this country.

Tharlon Zaung Htet also said that actual attacks could occur, putting the safety of journalists at risk given current hostile attitudes towards the media by a pro-government public.

They could be murdered, physically attacked, arrested, or get into trouble anytime, he said. I view this threat as the first step of what could be coming. Not long after this, the second or third steps will come. Journalists must be extra cautious about what they are reporting.

AA spokesman Khine Thukha denied that his outfit had sent the threats to the media and said the ethnic army would conduct a probe into the matter.

We strongly denounce the intimidation of the media by sending them threats, he told RFA. This is a very cowardly act [by someone] who is using our identity because they are too scared to reveal their own.

As an organization, we will conduct an investigation and take necessary actions to track down the [senders], he added.

The AA doesnt have any reason to send such threats to the news media, Khine Thukha said. We want you to know these are not ours.

Support only the military

Supporters of the Myanmar military have also sent threats via email to four news organizations, including Radio Free Asia, demanding that they stand with the military. The messages also included death threats for journalists who are seen as siding with the AA.

The same message carried in the emails was posted by a Myanmar military supporter group under the name Patriot Soldiers Group.

A message received by RFA tried to influence RFAs editorial policy, demanding that the media show support for the only military in the country in reporting on the Rakhine conflict and not report with bias favoring the AA.

It also warned that those who failed to comply with the demand would face the same fate as Ko Ni, a prominent Muslim human rights attorney and advisor to the countrys leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was assassinated in January 2017.

Some have speculated that Ko Ni was targeted for being an outspoken critic of anti-Muslim attitudes held by Myanmars Buddhist nationalists and the countrys powerful military.

Major General Tun Tun Nyi from the Myanmar militarys committee denied that army officials were behind the threats.

Sending anonymous emails that contain threats is a criminal offense, and whoever is doing it shouldnt have done it, he told RFA. I think the sender is trying to implicate the military and further complicate issues that are already complicated.

Reported by Thant Zin Oo for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Afghan security forces are battling the Taliban for a fifth day after the militants launched a major attack in the northwestern province of Badghis.

The Defense Ministry said in April 8 statement that at least 12 security personnel had been killed in the past 48 hours in clashes in the Bala Murghab district, bringing the overall death toll to more than 40.

The ministry said another 10 soldiers and 24 policemen were wounded, while "99 Taliban terrorists" were killed.

Fighting has raged since hundreds of Taliban militants stormed Bala Murghab late on April 3, overrunning several security checkpoints.

Over the weekend, Afghan and NATO forces conducted air strikes in support of ground forces.

Mohammad Nasir Nazari, a provincial council member, said army commandos and special-police units were battling to clear the militants from the district.

Bala Murghab has been the scene of weeks of fierce clashes.

Last month, 50 government soldiers were killed during a weeklong battle in the district.

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.

Based on reporting by AP and AFP
Afghanistan will send a government delegation for talks with the Taliban in Qatar, in a potential breakthrough in efforts to end the nearly 18-year war, even as the militants said participants will attend the meeting only in a "personal capacity."

Meanwhile, EU foreign ministers on April 8 said the bloc is ready to act as a guarantor for the Afghan peace process.



Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. envoy seeking a peace deal with the Taliban, said in a statement late April 7 that "representatives of the Afghan government and wider society will participate" in an intra-Afghan dialogue in Doha next week.

U.S. and Taliban negotiators have held several rounds of talks in the Qatari capital, Doha, but the militant group has refused to talk directly with the Kabul government which it sees as a U.S. "puppet."

Omar Daudzai, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's peace envoy, said on April 7 that a government delegation would go to Doha to "exchange views with the Taliban."

Daudzai said the government would finalize the componence of the delegation by April 10, with the talks scheduled for April 14-15.

The Taliban said in a April 7 statement that those attending the Doha talks will not be representing the government and will only "participate in a personal capacity."

The statement also said that the participants would not engage in peace negotiations, but "will only be clarifying their views and policies and sharing their stance with others."

EU ministers said in a statement after talks in Luxembourg that the EU encourages the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban to intensify their efforts towards a peaceful and negotiated settlement of the conflict. The EU supports all efforts to catalyze such a process, which has created a political opportunity that should be seized.



We could play that role both of guaranteeing the implementation of the agreement, the European Union has sufficient resources and presence on the ground to do that and I would say even more importantly, the European Union enjoys sufficient trust from different sites and parties of the Afghan society and of the region and international community to play that role,"

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said.



"Obviously we can also play a role of guaranteeing the process itself, she added.

Khalilzad has spent most of the past week in Afghanistan as part of an ongoing push for a peace deal.

He had previously said there were indications that the Taliban could sit down with government representatives in a "multiparty format."

Although the Taliban has not held direct talks with the government, it did meet powerful opposition politicians in Moscow in February.

Some of the prominent Afghan figures that took part in the Moscow talks are expected to be part of the government delegation in Qatar.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan, Rikard Jozwiak in Brussels, and AFP
A British-Iranian woman is facing two years in jail in the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) for allegedly insulting her ex-husband's new wife on Facebook, a campaign group says.

The Detained In Dubai campaign group said Laleh Shahravesh, 55, was arrested at Dubai airport in March after flying there to attend her ex-husband's funeral.

The group said she faced up to two years in jail and a fine of 50,000 ($65,000) for two Facebook posts she wrote in Persian while living in Britain in 2016.

In one post, Shahravesh said: "I hope you go under the ground, you idiot. Damn you. You left me for this horse."

Detained In Dubai said her ex-husband's new wife, who lives in Dubai, reported the comments.

Under the U.A.E.'s cybercrime laws, a person can be jailed and fined for making defamatory statements on social media.

The British Foreign Office said it was supporting the mother of one, who lives in London.

Based on reporting by BBC and The Guardian
Iranian authorities have ordered the evacuation of more towns and villages threatened by floods in the country's southwest.

With heavy rains drenching much of the country since March 19, floods have swept through hundreds of towns and villages in 26 of Iran's 31 provinces. At least 70 people have been killed.

The oil-producing Khuzestan Province, in southwest Iran, has been especially hard hit by the floods.

Gholamreza Shariati, the provincial governor, told the official IRNA news agency on April 6 that six towns "must be evacuated as soon as possible" as the government releases water from major dams that are near overflowing.

Shariati said rescue teams were taking residents to nearby shelters, including three army barracks.

Iranian media reports said over 2,000 residents of the town of Hamidieh, near the provincial capital, Ahvaz, had been moved to army barracks.

Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli warned that up to 400,000 people in Khuzestan, where a state of emergency has been declared, could be exposed to the floods, IRNA reported.

The floods, the worst in a decade, have prompted angry demonstrations over the government's inadequate relief response to the crisis.

With reporting by AP and IRNA
Former Romanian President Ion Iliescu is to stand trial for crimes against humanity for his role in the aftermath of Romania's bloody 1989 revolt that toppled communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's regime.



"It is a particularly important moment for Romania's justice system that is fulfilling a debt of honor to history," chief prosecutor Augustin Lazar said in Bucharest on April 8.



Lazar's announcement caps a decades-long investigation which was often met with official reluctance to revisit the aftermath of Ceausescu fleeing Bucharest on December 22, 1989.



Iliescu had been a government minister before being sidelined by Ceausescu in the early 1970s.



He reemerged as leader of the National Salvation Front, a group which took control of the country after Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, fled in the face of a growing popular revolt which began in the western city of Timisoara and spread to the rest of the country.



After Iliescu took control on December 22, 862 people were killed.

Iliescu, now 89, was elected president in 1990, reelected in 1992, and served another term from 2000 to 2004.



Iliescu, who was indicted in December, and former Deputy Prime Minister Gelu Voican Voiculescu are accused of "directly spreading misinformation through televised appearances and press releases, contributing to the institution of a generalized psychosis."



Their statements increased the risk of "instances of friendly fire, chaotic shooting, and contradictory military orders."



Iliescu, who underwent heart surgery last month, will also have to answer accusations of "crimes against humanity" over the repression of a protest in Bucharest in 1990 that left at least four people dead.



Both Iliescu and Voiculescu have denied any wrongdoing with Voiculescu describing the accusation as an "act of political revenge." No date for trial has been announced.



"Crimes committed during the [1989] revolution cannot remain unpunished, President Klaus Iohannis said in a statement on April 8.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Romanian Service, digi24hd.ro, g4media.ro, and AFP
A Moscow court has ordered the release of theater director Kirill Serebrennikov and two associates from house arrest.

The three are on trial in an embezzlement case they claim is politically motivated.

In an April 8 ruling, the Moscow City Court also ordered Serebrennikov, producer Yury Itin, and former Culture Ministry employee Sofia Apfelbaum not to leave Moscow until the end of their trial.

A fourth defendant in the high-profile case, producer Aleksei Malobrodsky, has already been barred from leaving Moscow.

In a short statement for Current Time, Serebrennikov said he did not know what prompted the court to order his release. Current Time is a Russian-language network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA.

Serebrennikov's August 2017 arrest drew international attention and prompted accusations that Russian authorities were targeting cultural figures who are at odds with President Vladimir Putin's government.

The acclaimed 49-year-old director was initially charged with organizing the embezzlement of 68 million rubles (more than $1 million) in state funds granted from 2011 to 2014 to Seventh Studio, a nonprofit organization that Serebrennikov established.

In January 2018, prosecutors raised the amount Serebrennikov and his three co-defendants are accused of embezzling to 133 million rubles ($2 million).

All four defendants have pleaded not guilty and Serebrennikov has described the trial, which began in October 2018, as "absurd."

A fifth person charged in the case, accountant Nina Maslyayeva, pleaded guilty and has provided testimony used as evidence against the defendants. She is to be tried separately.

Serebrennikov's supporters say the case was part of a crackdown on the arts community ahead of the March 2018 presidential election in which Putin, a longtime Soviet KGB officer who was first elected president in 2000, won a fourth term.

Serebrennikov had previously taken part in antigovernment protests and voiced concerns about the increasing influence in Russia of the Russian Orthodox Church, whose ties with the state have increased under Putin.

Despite being under house arrest, the director has staged an opera that premiered in March in Hamburg, Germany.

With reporting by TASS, Interfax, and RIA Novosti
Many might see yoga as a calming escape from the pressures of modern life. But some believe its a dangerous, homosexuality-inducing practice that could cause hunger strikes and prison riots.



A spirited debate erupted after the introduction of yoga classes at two Moscow prisons prompted a lawmaker to make Russian officials aware of a theologian's conclusions on the matter.



Yoga "provokes uncontrollable sexual arousal that can lead to homosexuality," read the findings included in a letter sent to the Prosecutor-General's Office by Yelena Mizulina, a member of the Federal Council, Russia's upper house of parliament.



According to the daily Moskovsky Komsomolets, which described the letter as an appeal to Prosecutor-General Yury Chaika to investigate the legality of the initiative, it warned of unrest across the prison system if the practice of offering yoga classes spread.

'Slop From The Hands Of Gays'

The reasoning, according to the newspaper, which had obtained a copy of the letter, was that because yoga classes were offered mainly to inmates working in catering, fellow prisoners unwilling to "take slop from the hands of gays" could unleash hunger strikes and riots.



Classes had been suspended, the paper reported in its April 5 article.



A wave of comments followed from readers shocked by claims made about yoga, and their apparent endorsement from a lawmaker.



"This is some monstrosity, a caricature," one social media user wrote.



"I'd rather they focused on real problems in the country," wrote another.



Twitter user Calibr posted a picture of Mizulina and quoted the claim that yoga provokes uncontrollable sexual arousal. "Arousal should be controlled by the state," he wrote sarcastically.

But on April 8, Mizulina fought back. She had forwarded conclusions made by Aleksandr Dvorkin, a well-known theologian specializing in the study of religious sects, to the Prosecutor-General's Office.



But she denied that she had called for a ban on yoga classes, and called on Russia's media watchdog to declare the Moskovsky Komsomolets report "fake news."



"This is a typical example of the spreading of fake news. My letter to the prosecutor-general contained no demands for 'a ban on yoga classes in prisons,'" TASS quoted her as saying. "Why did the accompanying letter provoke such hysteria? There's no term for this but deliberate manipulation."

Since 2013, the Russian government has waged a campaign to limit society's exposure to homosexuality, and officials have criticized what they often refer to as "nontraditional relationships."



In 2013, the country introduced legislation banning gay "propaganda," with the goal of shielding children "from information promoting the denial of traditional family values." Rights groups have criticized the law as homophobic and discriminatory.



Yoga classes were introduced in Moscow prisons in 2018 as a pilot scheme following the advice of rights activists, and the deputy head of Russia's penitentiary service, Valery Maksimenko, said the results have been very promising.



In an interview with the radio station Govorit Moskva on April 7, following news of Mizulina's letter, he said an assessment conducted by the prison service found that inmates who participated in yoga classes were far less likely to turn to the doctor for help. "This is a very positive effect," he said, promising that the classes would be reinstated in the near future.



Calling Dvorkin a pseudo-healer and a "strange person," Maksimenko ridiculed the conclusion that yoga causes homosexuality. "This comrade has an archaic view of the world. We live in a democratic country, and people can do what they want within the law," Maksimenko said.



Due to the success of the pilot scheme, the prisons offering yoga now plan to introduce additional classes in qigong, a practice that involves slow movements and coordinated breathing aimed at controlling energy flow. "The whole world is doing this, and it's caused no one any harm. And it's not going to make anyone gay," Maksimenko said.



Dvorkin and Mizulina are yet to make their views on that clear.
KYIV -- By just about any measure, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been heavy on charisma and light on specifics.



Meanwhile, a glance at the only measure that really counts -- his first-place tally in last month's first round of the Ukrainian presidential election -- makes it hard to argue that the voters don't like what they are seeing.



So even veteran political analysts acknowledge the 41-year-old Zelenskiy's savvy path of essentially providing a divided country with a blank political canvas, allowing voters to paint their own picture of what he is and what he could be as head of state. For those who see the past five years as a series of blunders and missed opportunities, that represents a reverse image of incumbent Petro Poroshenko, Zelenskiy's opponent in the runoff in less than two weeks' time.



To such prospective voters, "Poroshenko represents everything, I think, that Ukrainians dislike in business, society, and politics -- oligarchs, said Timothy Ash, a London-based economist focused on emerging economies.



It is a strategy that Zelenskiy has largely maintained since the first round, despite his own links to Ukrainian oligarch and outspoken Poroshenko nemesis Ihor Kolomoyskiy.



The 56-year-old Kolomoyskiy, who reportedly lives in Israel, owns the TV channel on which Zelenskiys comedy programs are aired and has provided security, lawyers, and vehicles for the candidate. A U.S. report this week suggested that Kolomoyskiy -- whose international activities span the metal, fossil-fuel, and finance businesses, among others -- was the subject of an FBI investigation over possible financial wrongdoing, a charge that his lawyer rejected.

A spokeswoman for the agency, Tina Jagerson, told RFE/RL by e-mail that under Justice Department policy, the FBI "neither confirms nor denies the existence of any investigation."

So far, that connection with Kolomoyskiy hasnt torpedoed Zelenskiy's candidacy.



If opinion polls are right -- and they largely were in the first round -- then Zelenskiy stands a solid chance of defeating Poroshenko in their two-man race.



I think Zelenskiy wins, as his first-round lead is just too big for Poroshenko to pull back and the sheer dislike and distrust of Poroshenko [is] so large, Ash predicted.



A Kyiv International Institute of Sociology poll published in late March showed Poroshenko with a negative rating of over 61 percent -- higher than any other candidate. Zelenskiys was just 23 percent.



If the comic whose only political experience is portraying a schoolteacher whose anti-corruption rant lands him in the presidency can hold on, Ukraine could wake up on April 22 with more questions about its future than answers.



No Policies, No Problem



Personable, witty, and a master at social media, Zelenskiy has tapped into the psyche of Ukrainians desperate for a new face in a system long dominated by establishment politicians.



He has done so with a simple message that has resonated across the country: I am whatever you say I am.



This vagueness is probably deliberate, because it increases the appeal of Zelenskiy to a wider centrist electorate, said Alex Kokcharov, a principal research analyst on Ukraine at the London-based risk-assessment-firm IHS Markit. However, if elected, this would probably translate into inconsistent and erratic policy-making.



Critics would argue that erratic policymaking is hardly what a country that faces huge diplomatic and economic challenges, not least of which is a simmering armed conflict with Russia-backed fighters in its eastern Donbas region, needs.



Poroshenko, a confectionery mogul who also served terms as the minister of foreign affairs and of industry before emerging as a compromise candidate in 2014, has sought to play up his political experience as key to a steady and reliable alternative.



In an attempt to persuade voters still considering their options and wary of putting a political novice at the helm, Zelenskiy's campaign released a preelection program last week.



The platform arguably reads more like a list of personal values than specific policies.



Advisers told RFE/RL recently that they had encouraged Zelenskiy to simply lay out his values matter-of-factly and leave them to draw up more specific policies for him based on those principles.



Former Finance Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk, former Economy Minister Aivaras Abromavicius, and a former member of the National Agency for Prevention of Corruption (NAPC), Ruslan Ryaboshapka, were among the Zelenskiy camp's team members providing insight into the candidates thinking and plans. All are also helping him to develop his platform.



"I hope that the first thing he will do [as president] is creatively ruin the system that for so many years was holding Ukraine back," Danylyuk told RFE/RL on election night. After that, we will see a new Ukraine, a new government, a new type of people that will run the country.



While there is still much uncertainty about the front-runner, here is what we know so far about where Zelenskiy stands on key issues.



Not Fighting But Defeating Corruption



Speaking to RFE/RL, Ryaboshapka said fighting corruption would be Zelenskiy's top priority if he became president.



His plan for the first 100 days will focus on anti-corruption measures, Ryaboshapka said on election night, promising to publish the plan before the second round.

Ryaboshapka offered few details as to how that would happen. But Zelenskiy has promised that "well institute the same rules for everyone. Theres one law for everyone. Just like I learned in law school," he told Ukrayinska Pravda in January, adding, Well ask Great Britain, set up a High Court of Justice.



Zelenskiys team also told RFE/RL that as president he would ban those convicted of corruption offenses from holding government posts and forbid those charged with corruption to be released on bail.



Government officials, they said, would need to be hired through open screening and granted higher salaries than those offered under the current administration to discourage bribe taking.



Moreover, Ryaboshapka said, Zelenskiy would relaunch the special anti-corruption prosecutors office and other anti-corruption agencies and guarantee their independence.



Talk To Putin To End The War



Zelenskiy has complained that the war against Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, which has dragged on for five years and killed roughly 13,000 lives, needs to stop.



To make that happen, he has vowed to negotiate directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin. But he also said in an interview with the Ukraine TV channel this week that he would never agree to sacrifice any territory or citizens.

Moscow and Kyiv will have to talk...coming together somewhere in the middle, he said in an interview late last year.



The comment brought criticism from Ukrainian war veterans and nationalists who were similarly disturbed by a 2014 comment the comic made that recently resurfaced about how to avoid war with Russia.



I can beg you on my knees, but do not put our people on our knees, Zelenskiy said in public comments directed at Putin at the time.



For his part, Poroshenko has sought to portray Zelenskiy as unfit to defend Ukraine from Russia. Putin, the president said on the night of the first round of elections, dreams of a soft, pliant, tender, giggling, inexperienced, weak, ideologically amorphous and politically undecided president of Ukraine. Are we really going to give him that opportunity?



More recently, Zelenskiy has said he supports the Minsk peace accords -- two agreements between Moscow and Kyiv signed in September 2014 and February 2015 that provide a road map to peace, albeit one that has allowed each side to interpret the direction of that road differently.



While the Minsk deals have helped decrease the fighting and dying, they havent led to a lasting cease-fire.



Zelenskiy has also said in the few interviews hes done that he would like the United States and the United Kingdom to join peace negotiations. Currently, those talks are held in the Normandy format -- a four-way dialogue between Ukraine, Russia, Germany, and France.



He has also shown interest in allowing an international peacekeeping force to secure the war-torn east.



I like [U.S. special representative for Ukraine] Kurt Volkers plan: have a separation line, a peacekeeping mission, start with [liberating] small villages, then move on to Luhansk and Donetsk, Zelenskiy said recently.



The peacekeeper plan has been floated for the past two years, but Moscow has objected over who should control the eastern Ukraine-Russia border. With that border under the control of Kyiv, Moscow would in effect lose its direct support route to separatist forces, potentially losing much leverage.



Ukraine should also start a major informational war and win it, Zelenskiy said in the Ukraine interview.



Zelenskiys seemingly unfocused thinking when it comes to the conflict has worried some. "Frankly, I am worried about the vague statements of Zelenskiy about the Donbas and Crimea," Ukrainian reformist lawmaker Mustafa Nayyem wrote in an April 6 op-ed. "Caution during elections is acceptable in all but war."



Crimea Is Ukraine, But How To Return It?



A particularly tricky issue for Zelenskiy is likely to be Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in March 2014.

He has backed the official Ukrainian position -- that the Black Sea peninsula is indisputably Ukrainian. But he hasn't provided any answers as to how to return control to Ukraine.



Zelenskiy has said that Crimea will be returned after the ruling regime changes in Russia and that he wants Russia to compensate Ukraine for annexing it and fomenting war in the east.



Referendum On EU, NATO Membership



Unlike Poroshenko, who has been crystal-clear about his desire to see Ukraine join the European Union and NATO, Zelenskiy has taken a more cautious approach to the issue.



While seeming to support EU and NATO membership and saying he does not plan to change Ukraines westward course, he says he would like to give Ukrainians the opportunity to decide for themselves whether to stay on the course set upon by Poroshenko with referendums on the matters.



"Ukraine chose a course toward European integration, a course toward Europe long, long ago, and nobody is going to change this course," Zelenskiy said on Ukraina. "But in order to join NATO, after all, we should explain to people...that this is not some alligator that wants to swallow us, Ukraine, and that this is really about the country's security.



"We need to reach out to every person living in the east of Ukraine...to every Ukrainian, he continued. And NATO [membership] must be acquired through a referendum.



Speak Whatever Language You Want



A native Russian speaker from south-central Kryviy Rih, Zelenskiy has spoken out against the Poroshenko governments restriction on Russian language in government, media, and art. He has also taken a stand against bans on artists from Russia visiting Ukraine.



We should not marginalize those who speak other languages, he told Russian newspaper Argumenty i Fakty. Everyone knows Ukrainian; if they dont know it in the east, theyll learn it.



Theres the Ukrainian language, its the federal language, he added. But you should be able to speak whatever you want.



Judicial System 'Flipped On Its Head



Speaking with the Novoye vremya news magazine, Danylyuk said Zelenskiys team would present its plan this week to reform the judicial system. While Poroshenko has claimed to have carried out a complete reboot of the courts, many believe that hasnt actually happened.



Under a Zelenskiy presidency, the system will be flipped it on its head, Danylyuk said.



While not providing specifics as to how that might be achieved, Danylyuk said Zelenskiys administration would start with the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals.



Economy



Zelenskiy used the Ukraine interview to also explain -- again in broad terms -- his plan to create a favorable climate for foreign and domestic investments in Ukraine.



The country should set up a special institution dealing with economic crimes, Zelenskiy said.



"The law enforcement agencies, such as the Security Service, the Prosecutor-General's Office, and the Interior Ministry, must be deprived of all functions that allow them to put pressure on the business sector and influence the economy," he said.



To stimulate the economy Zelenskiys team has proposed allowing shadow businesses to become legal upon paying a 5-percent fee, according to the Kyiv Post. The newspaper reported also that as president he vowed to continue cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which he had previously spoken out against.



On Health Care, Elections, Social Benefits



Broadly, Zelenskiy has stated his support for health-care reform and acting Health Minister Ulana Suprun.



He has also laid out possible changes to election legislation, which include introducing an open-list, proportional-representation system for parties.



In parliament, where critics say lawmakers have for years neglected their duties, he say he will introduce a law allowing for their expulsion.



And Zelenskiy has also proposed renewing state pensions for Ukrainians living in the territories of eastern Ukraine currently controlled by Russia-backed separatists -- something that many there perceived as a punitive measure introduced by Poroshenko.



Wait And See



But all of these are merely promises, and vague ones at that, experts say. The true test of any candidate's governing abilities and desires come only after they are elected. And then, much could still change.



As Zelenskiy is not viewed within Ukraine as someone driven by a specific ideological agenda or an established team, he will likely be targeted by various influence groups, from political parties and leaders to business interests, who would aim to modulate his policies to their own benefit, said Kokcharov.
Three U.S. service members and an American contractor have been killed in a roadside bombing near the main NATO air base in Afghanistan, U.S. forces in Afghanistan said on April 8.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.



The NATO-led Resolute Support mission said in a statement on April 8 that four Americans were killed on April 8 near Bagram Air Base, around 50 kilometers north of Kabul.



Three American soldiers were wounded in the blast and were receiving medical treatment, the statement also said.



Colonel David Butler, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said a car bomb had detonated near a NATO security convoy, which lead to deaths and injuries.



The names of the service members killed in action were being withheld until 24 hours after notification of next of kin, in accordance with U.S. Department of Defense policy.



The Taliban said a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden car near the NATO base in the Bagram district of Parwan Province.

Local officials said at least five Afghan civilians were wounded in the blast.



The incident brings the number of U.S. service member deaths in Afghanistan to seven in 2019, and a total of 68 U.S. military deaths since January 2015, according to the U.S. government.



Afghan security forces have borne the brunt of the fighting since NATOs combat mission ended in 2014.



President Ashraf Ghani said that about 45,000 Afghan soldiers and policemen have been killed since he took office in September 2014 -- an average of 849 per month.

Based on reporting by AP and Stripes.com
Turkey is not withdrawing from an agreement to buy an advanced Russian missile system, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on April 8, despite increasing pressure from Washington.



"No one can demand that we give it up," Erdogan told a joint news conference in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin. "This is our sovereign right, this is our decision."



Erdogan's trip to Moscow, his third this year, came as the United States and other NATO countries continued a dispute with fellow member Turkey over its decision to purchase Russian S-400 air-defense missiles that are not compatible with NATO systems and are seen as a threat to U.S.-made F-35 fighter jets.



Turkey's relations with Russia have historically been tense.



But Moscow and Ankara have established strong economic ties since the end of the Cold War and have moved closer in recent years as Turkey's relations with Washington and the European Union have suffered.

The meeting comes as the United States and other NATO countries are at loggerheads with Turkey over its decision to purchase a Russian S-400 air-defense system that is not compatible with NATO systems and is seen as a threat to U.S.-made F-35 fighter jets.



The two sides must "strengthen cooperation in the military-technical sphere," Putin told Erdogan as they met in the Kremlin.



"These regard first of all the completion of the contract to supply S-400 antiaircraft missile systems to Turkey," Putin said.



"There are other promising projects on the agenda related to the supply of modern Russian military products to Turkey," Putin said, adding, "We may reach agreements on the joint development and production of high-tech weapons."



Washington has demanded that Ankara call off its missile deal with Russia and has suspended Turkey's participation in the F-35 program..



U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said on April 3 that "Turkey must choose whether it wants to "remain a critical partner" in NATO or "risk the security of that partnership by making such reckless decisions that undermine our alliance."



The U.S. State Department said last week that Ankara could face U.S. sanctions if it goes ahead with the purchase.

On April 8, Putin said the construction of the underwater segment of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline that will carry Russian gas to Turkey crossing the Black Sea has just been completed, adding that it's set to come online later this year.



Putin and Erdogan also talked about the planned construction of Turkey's first nuclear power plant, which is set to start operations in 2023.



In Syria, Russia and Turkey have backed opposing sides in the conflict, and experienced a tense period in 2015-16 after Turkish forces shot down a Russian warplane on the Syrian border.



Now they say they are cooperating to secure a buffer zone in Idlib, near the Turkish border, which they agreed on in September in order to prevent a massive Syrian regime offensive.



However, Putin said Moscow and Ankara were unable to reach an agreement to set up a monitoring center in Idlib, agreed at a previous summit in Sochi in February.



"We have so far not been able to create the monitoring center," Putin said. "But I am sure that we will do this."



Turkey has long been angered by U.S. support for Kurdish forces in neighboring Syria, which Ankara says are linked to a Kurdish insurgency fighting for autonomy within Turkey.



The U.S. State Department said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week warned Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu of "potentially devastating consequences" if Turkey were to launch an offensive against U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in Syria.



The U.S. military has been backing Syrian Kurdish fighters in the north of the country in their battle against Islamic State (IS) extremists.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, dpa, and AFP
Written by ACM

By Patrick Bracker

European Parliament session March II 2019:



Second to last session, atmosphere of end of European mandate

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(NDLR: Opinions express Writers' Views, but Not necessarily those of "Eurofora". Translations provided in English, German, Italian and French)

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During this penultimate session, parliamentary dynamics triggered many discussions and votes, particularly with regard to the 2017 discharges, a long list of more than 50 reports covering all the Union's activities....

Extensive, disputed, interesting and serious debates on some topical or recurrent themes, such as financial crime, tax evasion and avoidance or the fight against corruption, copyright in the digital single market, European regional development funds and cohesion funds, the internal electricity market or the international situation, with the conclusions of the last European summit of the 21-22 March mandate, provided the space for well-fuelled parliamentary discussions in plenary. The sessions were attended by a large audience.

The joint discussion on the mobility measurement train, bringing together several reports detailing the control and rules for the secondment of drivers, maximum driving times, daily breaks and weekly rest periods or location by means of tachographs, as well as adaptations to developments in road transport, proved to be intense and highly disputed between the way of seeing small or large European countries and the interests of one or the other, or even geographical positioning. In view of the astronomical number of amendments tabled: 1224, the reports saw the reference to the Transport Committee by President Antonio Tajani, who used Rule 175, allowing reference to the committee, in an attempt to reduce the text with a view to holding any votes at the closing session next April. With this subtle approach, the President of the European Parliament is proposing a solution to enable the plenary to vote under better conditions. However, it would not be surprising given the weight of this issue, if it were to be postponed for the next parliamentary term.

The report on reducing the environmental impact of certain plastic products presented an overview of the current situation, with proposals to try to correct these deviations, even if the Member States of the European Union are not the main polluters on the planet... Nevertheless, it is regrettable that there is almost no observation and criticism of human responsibility or of the research on the education of the population: Indeed, plastic waste does not arrive by chance on land and sea... This aspect seems not to have been identified and discussed by MEPs.

Another topical topic was the discussion on fertilizers marked in the EU, which saw a passionate talk taking into account many parameters related to this sensitive topic. Between the high economic stakes and public health issues, MPs are trying to find a careful balance to address the issues and guide our model of society towards sustainable progress.

With regard to the implementation of the 2021-2027 program "Creative Europe", a broad consensus emerged among most political groups to defend this major project covering culture, heritage and music.

In the meantime, MEPs also met with broad convergence on their demand to support the Erasmus program by tripling the budget rather than doubling it as proposed by the Commission. MEPs' arguments have proved to be relevant, not only to defend the interests of students, but also with a view to extending this flagship program of the Union to other categories, such as learners, adults and people with disabilities. Some additional proposals for support through the use of social cohesion funds for the least favoured, the objective being to help ensure accessibility for all to education and instruction law. We see here a meeting point between the first pillar covering the right to education and the third social pillar of the European architecture.

To conclude the debates, on Thursday morning, the discussion on the establishment of a framework to promote sustainable investment saw the emergence of key issues such as the definition of sustainable investment objectives; what is sustainable, what is not, caution also in the face of greenwashing, the call for private investment and the establishment of standards by the Union that would serve as an example at international level. Vast hope and program!

In the run-up to the European elections, many delegations and young people visited the European Parliament at the invitation of Members of Parliament who are preparing their election campaigns, bringing additional dynamism to the internal organization of the sessions.

Some musical atmospheres proposed by the Slovaks in picturesque and traditional costumes, as well as brass or string instruments used with virtuosity by the peaceful demonstrators outside brought an original and pleasant musical artistic touch to this session.

As is often the case, exhibitions have enriched parliamentary work. "Our Blue Universe" highlights the beautiful paintings created by young Slovak artists diagnosed with autism. Through their works, these artists open up their perception of the world to us through their particular perspective. Real creative and qualitative, original pieces containing a certain symbolism. This magnificent exhibition is hosted in the flower carpet area, sponsored by MP Jana Zitnanska of the ECR group. Through this presentation, we understand that art therapy is an extraordinary way for people to express themselves and a way of interactive communication through the visualization of artistic creation, shapes and colours. Congratulations!









This is in line with the concerns of Europeans regarding public health objectives, care, support and healing, through the awareness of these complex realities.

MEP Jozsef Nagi, EPP group, organized the exhibition which shows some achievements in member states of multiple language transcriptions. An interesting illustration of point No. 74 of European Parliament resolution 2018/2036, in the Colombo area, where we find examples of the implementation in the states of the visual representation of regional or minority languages that reflect the multilinguistic dimension of the Union and the minimum standards for minorities in the European Union.

Here again, this exhibition touches on essential aspects of the European Treaties, with regard to the multi-ethnic and linguistic composition of our citizens, the existence and expression with material support.

Probably to whet our appetite, as World Cheese Day approached, our Italian friends presented an exhibition of paintings entitled "The cheese capital" a little further away in the main hall area, hosted by ENF MP Angelo Ciocca, This presentation shows Bergamo cheeses.

A historical reminder organised by MP Nikos Androulakis of the S&D group during the first part-session from 11 to 14 March, with the presentation entitled "Lamprakis file". This exhibition showed a series of documents on the life of Greek MP Grigoris Lambrakis. The assassination of the MP in Thessaloniki in May 1963 indirectly led to the 1967 coup d'etat that established the colonels' dictatorship. Written following the murder of the Greek MP, Vassilis Vassilikos' novel "Z" inspired the 1969 film "Z", directed by Costa Gavras. The documents presented were classified as "top secret" until 2016.

Beautiful floral arrangements could be admired here and there, particularly at the Strasbourg stand, but especially in the immediate perimeter of the European Parliament buildings: well sheltered from the wind, from the inside, through the transparency of the large bay windows, one could admire the trees swept by the wind, covered with their spring ornament offering sumptuous atmospheres of pastel lights, irradiated by a powerful sun along the Ill river. The energy of life and spring colors!

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Artikel: Sitzung des Europaischen Parlaments II. Marz 2019

Patrick Bracker

Vorletzte Sitzung, Atmosphare des Endes des europaischen Mandats

Wahrend dieser vorletzten Sitzung loste die parlamentarische Dynamik viele Diskussionen und Abstimmungen aus, insbesondere im Hinblick auf die Entlastung 2017, eine lange Liste von mehr als 50 Berichten uber alle Tatigkeiten der Union.......

Umfangreiche, umstrittene, interessante und ernsthafte Debatten uber einige aktuelle oder wiederkehrende Themen wie Finanzkriminalitat, Steuerhinterziehung und -vermeidung oder Korruptionsbekampfung, Urheberrecht im digitalen Binnenmarkt, Europaische Fonds fur regionale Entwicklung und Kohasionsfonds, Elektrizitatsbinnenmarkt oder internationale Situation mit den Schlussfolgerungen des letzten europaischen Gipfels des Mandats vom 21. bis 22. Marz boten den Rahmen fur gut gefuhrte parlamentarische Diskussionen im Plenum. Die Sitzungen wurden von einem groen Publikum besucht.

Die gemeinsame Diskussion uber den Mobilitatsmesszug, in dem mehrere Berichte uber die Kontrolle und die Regeln fur die Entsendung von Fahrern, die Hochstlenkzeiten, die taglichen Pausen und die wochentlichen Ruhezeiten oder den Standort mittels Fahrtenschreiber sowie die Anpassungen an die Entwicklungen im Straenverkehr zusammengefasst sind, erwies sich als intensiv und umstritten zwischen der Sichtweise auf kleine oder groe europaische Lander und den Interessen des einen oder anderen oder gar der geografischen Positionierung. Angesichts der astronomischen Zahl der eingereichten Anderungsantrage: 1224 wurde in den Berichten auf den Verkehrsausschuss Bezug genommen, und zwar von Prasident Antonio Tajani, der auf Artikel 175 GO zuruckgreift und auf den Ausschuss verweist, um den Text zu kurzen und auf der Abschlusssitzung im April nachsten Jahres abzustimmen. Mit diesem subtilen Ansatz schlagt der Prasident des Europaischen Parlaments eine Losung vor, die es dem Plenum ermoglicht, unter besseren Bedingungen abzustimmen. Angesichts des Gewichts dieses Themas ware es jedoch nicht verwunderlich, wenn es auf die nachste Legislaturperiode verschoben wurde

Der Bericht uber die Verringerung der Umweltauswirkungen bestimmter Kunststofferzeugnisse gab einen Uberblick uber die derzeitige Situation mit Vorschlagen zur Korrektur dieser Abweichungen, auch wenn die Mitgliedstaaten der Europaischen Union nicht die Hauptverursacher auf der Welt sind.... Dennoch ist es bedauerlich, dass es fast keine Beobachtung und Kritik an der menschlichen Verantwortung oder der Forschung zur Bildung der Bevolkerung gibt: Tatsachlich kommen Kunststoffabfalle nicht zufallig zu Lande und zu Wasser an.... Dieser Aspekt scheint von den Abgeordneten nicht identifiziert und diskutiert worden zu sein.

Ein weiteres aktuelles Thema war die Diskussion uber markierte Dungemittel in der EU, in der ein leidenschaftlicher Vortrag unter Berucksichtigung vieler Parameter zu diesem sensiblen Thema stattfand. Zwischen dem hohen wirtschaftlichen Risiko und Fragen der offentlichen Gesundheit versuchen die Abgeordneten, ein ausgewogenes Verhaltnis zu finden, um die Probleme anzugehen und unser Gesellschaftsmodell auf einen nachhaltigen Fortschritt auszurichten.

Im Hinblick auf die Umsetzung des Programms "Kreatives Europa" fur den Zeitraum 2021-2027 bestand bei den meisten politischen Gruppen ein breiter Konsens zur Verteidigung dieses Groprojekts aus den Bereichen Kultur, Kulturerbe und Musik.

In der Zwischenzeit sind die Abgeordneten auch mit ihrer Forderung nach Unterstutzung des Erasmus-Programms weitgehend einverstanden, indem sie den Haushalt verdreifachen und nicht wie von der Kommission vorgeschlagen verdoppeln. Die Argumente der Abgeordneten haben sich als relevant erwiesen, nicht nur zur Verteidigung der Interessen der Studenten, sondern auch im Hinblick auf die Ausweitung dieses Leitprogramms der Union auf andere Kategorien wie Lernende, Erwachsene und Menschen mit Behinderungen. Einige zusatzliche Vorschlage zur Unterstutzung durch die Verwendung von Mitteln des sozialen Zusammenhalts fur die am starksten benachteiligten Bevolkerungsgruppen, mit dem Ziel, dazu beizutragen, dass alle Zugang zum Bildungs- und Ausbildungsrecht haben. Wir sehen hier einen Treffpunkt zwischen der ersten Saule, die das Recht auf Bildung abdeckt, und der dritten sozialen Saule der europaischen Architektur.

Zum Abschluss der Debatten wurden am Donnerstagmorgen bei der Diskussion uber die Schaffung eines Rahmens zur Forderung nachhaltiger Investitionen Schlusselfragen aufgeworfen, wie die Festlegung von Zielen fur nachhaltige Investitionen; was nachhaltig ist, was nicht, Vorsicht auch angesichts des Greenwashings, der Forderung nach privaten Investitionen und der Festlegung von Standards durch die Union, die auf internationaler Ebene als Beispiel dienen sollen. Groe Hoffnung und Programm!

Im Vorfeld der Europawahlen besuchten zahlreiche Delegationen und junge Menschen das Europaische Parlament auf Einladung von Abgeordneten, die ihre Wahlkampfe vorbereiten, was der internen Organisation der Sitzungen zusatzliche Dynamik verleiht.

Einige musikalische Atmospharen, die von den Slowaken in malerischen und traditionellen Kostumen vorgeschlagen wurden, sowie Blech- oder Streichinstrumente, die von den friedlichen Demonstranten im Freien virtuos eingesetzt wurden, brachten eine originelle und angenehme musikalische kunstlerische Note in diese Sitzung.

Wie so oft haben Ausstellungen die parlamentarische Arbeit bereichert. "Our Blue Universe" hebt die schonen Gemalde junger slowakischer Kunstler hervor, bei denen Autismus diagnostiziert wurde. Durch ihre Arbeiten offnen uns diese Kunstler ihre Wahrnehmung der Welt durch ihre besondere Perspektive. Echte kreative und qualitative, originelle Stucke mit einer gewissen Symbolik. Diese groartige Ausstellung findet im Bereich des Blumenteppichs statt, gesponsert von der Abgeordneten Jana Zitnanska von der ECR-Gruppe. Durch diese Prasentation verstehen wir, dass die Kunsttherapie eine auergewohnliche Moglichkeit fur Menschen ist, sich auszudrucken und eine Moglichkeit der interaktiven Kommunikation durch die Visualisierung von kunstlerischem Schaffen, Formen und Farben. Herzlichen Gluckwunsch!

Dies steht im Einklang mit den Anliegen der Europaer in Bezug auf die Ziele der offentlichen Gesundheit, die Pflege, Unterstutzung und Heilung durch das Bewusstsein fur diese komplexen Gegebenheiten.

Der Europaabgeordnete Jozsef Nagi, EVP-Fraktion, organisierte die Ausstellung, die einige Erfolge in den Mitgliedstaaten bei der Transkription mehrerer Sprachen zeigt. Eine interessante Veranschaulichung von Punkt 74 der Resolution 2018/2036 des Europaischen Parlaments im Raum Colombo, wo wir Beispiele fur die Umsetzung der visuellen Darstellung von Regional- oder Minderheitensprachen in den Staaten finden, die die multilinguistische Dimension der Union und die Mindeststandards fur Minderheiten in der Europaischen Union widerspiegeln.

Auch hier geht es um wesentliche Aspekte der europaischen Vertrage, um die multiethnische und sprachliche Zusammensetzung unserer Burger, um die Existenz und den Ausdruck mit materieller Unterstutzung.

Moglicherweise, um unseren Appetit anzuregen, als der Weltkasetag naher ruckte, prasentierten unsere italienischen Freunde eine Ausstellung von Gemalden mit dem Titel "The cheese capital" etwas weiter weg im Hauptraum, die vom ENF-Abgeordneten Angelo Ciocca veranstaltet wurde und Bergamo-Kase zeigte.

Eine historische Erinnerung, die von dem Abgeordneten Nikos Androulakis der S&D-Fraktion wahrend der ersten Tagung vom 11. bis 14. Marz mit der Prasentation "Lamprakis-Datei" organisiert wurde. Diese Ausstellung zeigte eine Reihe von Dokumenten uber das Leben des griechischen Abgeordneten Grigoris Lambrakis. Die Ermordung des Abgeordneten in Thessaloniki im Mai 1963 fuhrte indirekt zum Staatsstreich von 1967, der die Diktatur der Colonels begrundete. Der Roman "Z" von Vassilis Vassilikos, der nach der Ermordung des griechischen Abgeordneten geschrieben wurde, inspirierte den 1969 entstandenen Film "Z" unter der Regie von Costa Gavras. Die vorgelegten Dokumente wurden bis 2016 als "streng geheim" eingestuft

Schone Blumenarrangements waren hier und da zu bewundern, vor allem am Straburger Stand, aber vor allem am unmittelbaren Rand der Gebaude des Europaischen Parlaments: Gut geschutzt vor dem Wind, von innen heraus, durch die Transparenz der groen Erker, konnte man die vom Wind geschwungenen Baume bewundern, die mit ihrem Fruhlingsornament bedeckt sind, das uppige Atmospharen von Pastelllichtern bietet, die von einer starken Sonne entlang des Flusses Ill bestrahlt werden. Die Lebensenergie und die Fruhlingsfarben!

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Articolo: sessione del Parlamento europeo, marzo II 2019.

Patrick Bracker

Seconda all'ultima sessione, atmosfera di fine mandato europeo

Durante questa penultima sessione, le dinamiche parlamentari hanno innescato molte discussioni e votazioni, in particolare per quanto riguarda i discarichi del 2017, un lungo elenco di oltre 50 relazioni che coprono tutte le attivita dell'Unione........

Ampie, controverse, interessanti e serie discussioni su alcuni temi di attualita o ricorrenti, come la criminalita finanziaria, l'evasione e l'elusione fiscale o la lotta alla corruzione, il diritto d'autore nel mercato unico digitale, i fondi europei di sviluppo regionale e di coesione, il mercato interno dell'elettricita o la situazione internazionale, con le conclusioni dell'ultimo vertice europeo del mandato del 21-22 marzo, hanno fornito lo spazio per discussioni parlamentari ben alimentate in plenaria. Alle sessioni ha partecipato un folto pubblico.

La discussione congiunta sulla misurazione della mobilita dei treni, che ha riunito diverse relazioni che illustrano in dettaglio il controllo e le regole per il distacco dei macchinisti, i tempi massimi di guida, le interruzioni giornaliere e i periodi di riposo settimanale o la localizzazione tramite tachigrafo, nonche gli adeguamenti all'evoluzione del trasporto stradale, si e rivelata intensa e molto controversa tra il modo di vedere i piccoli o grandi paesi europei e gli interessi dell'uno o dell'altro, o addirittura la posizione geografica. Visto il numero astronomico di emendamenti presentati: 1224, le relazioni vedono il riferimento alla commissione per i trasporti del Presidente Antonio Tajani, che si e avvalso dell'articolo 175 del regolamento, che consente il riferimento alla commissione, nel tentativo di ridurre il testo in vista delle votazioni nella sessione di chiusura del prossimo aprile. Con questo approccio sottile, il Presidente del Parlamento europeo propone una soluzione per consentire alla plenaria di votare in condizioni migliori.

uttavia, non sarebbe sorprendente, dato il peso della questione, se fosse rinviata per la prossima legislatura.

La relazione sulla riduzione dell'impatto ambientale di alcuni prodotti in plastica ha presentato una panoramica della situazione attuale, con proposte per cercare di correggere queste deviazioni, anche se gli Stati membri dell'Unione europea non sono i principali inquinatori del pianeta..... Tuttavia, e deplorevole che non vi sia quasi nessuna osservazione e critica della responsabilita umana o della ricerca sull'educazione della popolazione: Infatti, i rifiuti di plastica non arrivano per caso sulla terraferma e in mare..... Questo aspetto non sembra essere stato identificato e discusso dai deputati europei.

Un altro argomento di attualita e stata la discussione sui fertilizzanti etichettati nell'UE, che ha visto una discussione appassionata che ha tenuto conto di molti parametri relativi a questa delicata questione. Tra gli elevati interessi economici e le questioni di salute pubblica, i parlamentari stanno cercando di trovare un attento equilibrio per affrontare i problemi e guidare il nostro modello di societa verso un progresso sostenibile.

Per quanto riguarda l'attuazione del programma 2021-2027 "Europa creativa", e emerso un ampio consenso tra la maggior parte dei gruppi politici per difendere questo grande progetto che riguarda la cultura, il patrimonio e la musica.

Nel frattempo, i deputati al Parlamento europeo hanno anche incontrato un'ampia convergenza sulla loro richiesta di sostenere il programma Erasmus triplicando il bilancio anziche raddoppiarlo, come proposto dalla Commissione. Le argomentazioni dei deputati si sono dimostrate pertinenti, non solo per difendere gli interessi degli studenti, ma anche per estendere questo programma faro dell'Unione ad altre categorie, come gli studenti, gli adulti e le persone con disabilita. Alcune proposte aggiuntive di sostegno attraverso l'utilizzo dei fondi di coesione sociale per i meno favoriti, con l'obiettivo di contribuire a garantire l'accessibilita per tutti al diritto dell'istruzione e dell'istruzione. Vediamo qui un punto d'incontro tra il primo pilastro che copre il diritto all'istruzione e il terzo pilastro sociale dell'architettura europea.

A conclusione delle discussioni, giovedi mattina, la discussione sull'istituzione di un quadro per la promozione degli investimenti sostenibili ha visto emergere questioni chiave come la definizione di obiettivi di investimento sostenibile; cio che e sostenibile, cio che non lo e, la cautela anche di fronte al greenwashing , la richiesta di investimenti privati e la definizione di standard da parte dell'Unione che fungerebbe da esempio a livello internazionale. Vasta speranza e programma!

In vista delle elezioni europee, molte delegazioni e giovani hanno visitato il Parlamento europeo su invito dei deputati che stanno preparando le loro campagne elettorali, apportando un ulteriore dinamismo all'organizzazione interna delle sessioni.

Alcune atmosfere musicali proposte dagli slovacchi in costumi pittoreschi e tradizionali, cosi come gli ottoni o gli strumenti ad arco utilizzati con virtuosismo dai pacifici dimostranti all'esterno hanno portato un originale e piacevole tocco artistico musicale a questa sessione.

Come spesso accade, le mostre hanno arricchito il lavoro parlamentare. "Il nostro universo blu" mette in evidenza i bellissimi dipinti creati da giovani artisti slovacchi con diagnosi di autismo. Attraverso le loro opere, questi artisti ci aprono la loro percezione del mondo attraverso la loro particolare prospettiva. Veri e propriamente creativi e qualitativi, pezzi originali contenenti un certo simbolismo. Questa magnifica mostra e ospitata nell'area dei tappeti floreali, sponsorizzata dall'onorevole Jana Zitnanska del gruppo ECR. Attraverso questa presentazione, comprendiamo che l'arte terapia e un modo straordinario per le persone di esprimersi e un modo di comunicazione interattiva attraverso la visualizzazione della creazione artistica, delle forme e dei colori. Congratulazioni!

Cio e in linea con le preoccupazioni degli europei per quanto riguarda gli obiettivi di salute pubblica, l'assistenza, il sostegno e la guarigione, attraverso la consapevolezza di queste complesse realta.

L'eurodeputato Jozsef Nagi, gruppo PPE, ha organizzato la mostra che mostra alcuni risultati ottenuti negli Stati membri di trascrizioni multilingue. Un'interessante illustrazione del punto 74 della risoluzione 2018/2036 del Parlamento europeo, nella zona di Colombo, dove troviamo esempi dell'attuazione negli Stati della rappresentazione visiva delle lingue regionali o minoritarie che riflettono la dimensione multilinguistica dell'Unione e gli standard minimi per le minoranze nell'Unione europea.

Anche in questo caso, la mostra tocca aspetti essenziali dei Trattati europei, per quanto riguarda la composizione multietnica e linguistica dei nostri cittadini, l'esistenza e l'espressione con sostegno materiale.

Probabilmente per stuzzicare il nostro appetito, all'approssimarsi della Giornata Mondiale del Formaggio, i nostri amici italiani hanno presentato una mostra di quadri dal titolo "The cheese capital", poco piu in la nel salone principale, ospitato dall'onorevole parlamentare Angelo Ciocca, che mostra i formaggi bergamaschi.

Un promemoria storico organizzato dal deputato Nikos Androulakis del gruppo S&D durante la prima tornata dall'11 al 14 marzo, con la presentazione dal titolo "File Lamprakis" Questa mostra ha mostrato una serie di documenti sulla vita del deputato greco Grigoris Lambrakis. L'assassinio del deputato a Salonicco nel maggio 1963 porto indirettamente al colpo di stato del 1967 che stabili la dittatura dei colonnelli. Scritto dopo l'assassinio del deputato greco, il romanzo "Z" di Vassilis Vassilikos ispiro il film "Z" del 1969, diretto da Costa Gavras. I documenti presentati sono stati classificati come "top secret" fino al 2016.

Belle composizioni floreali potevano essere ammirate qua e la, in particolare allo stand di Strasburgo, ma soprattutto nell'immediato perimetro degli edifici del Parlamento europeo: ben protetti dal vento, dall'interno, attraverso la trasparenza delle grandi vetrate, si potevano ammirare gli alberi spazzati dal vento, coperti dal loro ornamento primaverile che offrivano sontuose atmosfere di luci pastello, irradiati da un potente sole lungo il fiume Ill. L'energia della vita e i colori della primavera!

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Article : session parlement europeen mars II 2019

Patrick Bracker

Avant-derniere session, ambiances de fin de mandat europeen

Durant cette avant derniere session, la dynamique parlementaire a enclenche de nombreuses discussions et votes, notamment sagissant des decharges 2017, une longue liste de plus de 50 rapports couvrant lensemble des activites de lUnion.

Les debats approfondis, disputes, interessants et serieux sur quelque themes dactualite ou recurrents, comme la criminalite financiere, la fraude fiscale et levasion fiscale ou la lutte contre la corruption, le droit dauteur au sein du marche unique numerique, les fonds europeen de developpement regional et les fonds de cohesion, le marche interieur electrique ou la situation internationale, avec les conclusion du dernier sommet europeen de la mandature des 21-22 mars, nourrissaient lespace de discussions parlementaire bien animees en pleniere. Un nombreux public assistait aux seances.

La discussion commune sur le train de mesure sur la mobilite, rassemblant plusieurs rapports approfondissant le controle et les regles pour le detachement des conducteurs, les durees maximales de conduite, les pauses journalieres et repos hebdomadaires ou la localisation au moyen de tachygraphes, ainsi que les adaptations aux evolutions du transport routier, sest revelee intense et tres disputee entre la facon de voir des petits ou des grands pays europeens et les interets des uns ou des autres, voire le positionnement geographique. Au vu du nombre astronomique damendements deposes : 1224, les rapports ont vu le renvoi en Commission de Transport par le president Antonio Tajani qui a utilise lart 175, permettant le renvoi en commission, afin dessayer de reduire le texte en vue de proceder aux votes eventuels lors de la session de cloture davril prochain. Par cette demarche subtile, le President du Parlement europeen propose une solution pour permettre le vote dans de meilleures conditions pour la pleniere. Ceci etant il ne serait pas surprenant vu le poids de ce dossier quil soit reporte pour la prochaine mandature du Parlement.

Le rapport concernant la reduction de lincidence sur lenvironnement de certain produits en plastique a presente un panorama sur letat des lieux de la situation, avec des propositions pour tenter de corriger ces deviances, cela meme si les etats membres de lUnion europeenne nest pas les principaux pollueurs de la planeteLon peut neanmoins regretter le quasi-manque de constatation et de critique de la responsabilite humaine ou de la recherche deducation des populations: en effet, les dechets plastiques narrivent pas par hasard sur les terres et les mers Cet aspect semble n'avoir pas ete releve et discute par les deputes.

Un autre sujet dactualite concernait la discussion sur les fertilisants marques en UE, qui a vu une causerie passionnee prenant en compte de nombreux parametres lies a ce theme sensible. Entre les enjeux economiques considerables et les questions de sante publique, les deputes tentent de trouver un equilibre prudent pour remedier aux problemes et guider notre modele de societe vers un progres durable.

Au sujet de la mise en place du programme 2021-2027  Europe creative , un large consensus sest degage parmi la plupart des groupes politiques pour defendre ce grand projet couvrant la culture, le patrimoine, la musique. Dans la foulee les deputes ont egalement rencontre une large convergence au sujet de leur reclamation de soutenir le programme Erasmus en triplant le budget plutot que de le doubler comme le propose la Commission. Les arguments des deputes se sont averes pertinents, non seulement pour defendre linteret des etudiants, mais aussi dans lobjectif delargir ce programme phare de lUnion a dautres categories, comme les apprenants, les adultes, les handicapes. Quelques propositions de soutien complementaires par lutilisation des fonds de cohesion sociale pour les moins favorises, lobjectif etant daider une accessibilite pour tous au droit de leducation et de linstruction. Lon voit ici un point de rencontre entre le premier pilier recouvrant le droit a leducation, et le troisieme pilier social de larchitecture europeenne.

Pour conclure les debats, jeudi matin, la discussion sur la mise en place dun cadre pour favoriser les investissements durables a vu emerger les questions essentielles comme la definition des objectifs dinvestissement durable ; quest ce qui est durable, ques ce qui ne lest pas, la prudence aussi face au green-washing, lappel a linvestissement prive et la mise en place de norme par lUnion qui servirait dexemplarite au niveau international. Vaste espoir et programme !

A lapproche des elections europeennes, de nombreuses delegations et des jeunes ont visite le Parlement Europeen, sur linvitation des deputes qui preparent leurs campagnes electorales, apportant un dynamisme supplementaire a lanimation interne des sessions.

Des ambiances musicales proposees par les slovaques aux costumes pittoresques et traditionnels, ainsi que les instruments a cuivres ou cordes utilises avec virtuosite par les manifestants tranquilles a lexterieur ont apporte une touche artistique musicale, originale et agreable a cette session.

Comme souvent, des expositions ont enrichis les travaux parlementaires.  Our Blue Universe  met en valeur les jolis tableaux realises par des jeunes artistes slovaques diagnostiques autistes. Par leurs uvres, ces artistes nous ouvrent leur perception du monde a travers leur regard particulier. De reelles pieces creatives et qualitatives, originales contenant un symbolisme certain. Cette magnifique exposition est accueillie a lespace du tapis fleuri, parrainee par la deputee Jana Zitnanska du groupe ECR. Lon comprend a travers cette presentation que la therapie par lart est un extraordinaire chemin pour lexpression des personnes et un mode de communication interactif grace a la visualisation de la creation artistique, les formes et les couleurs. Bravo !

Lon rejoint la, les preoccupations des europeens relatifs aux objectifs de sante publique, du soin, de laccompagnement et de la guerison, par la prise de conscience de ces realites complexes.

MEP Jozsef Nagi groupe PPE, a organise lexposition qui montre quelques realisations dans les etats membres des transcriptions linguistiques multiples. Une illustration interessante du point n : 74 de la resolution 2018/2036 du Parlement Europeen, a lespace Colombo, ou lon decouvre des exemples de la mise en uvre dans les etats de la representation visuelle des langues regionales ou minoritaires qui temoignent de la dimension plurilinguistique de lUnion et des standards minimum pour les minorites dans lUnion europeenne.

La encore, cette exposition rejoint des aspects essentiels des Traites europeens, sagissant de la composition multiethnique et linguistique de nos citoyens, lexistence et lexpression avec le support materiel.

Sans doute pour nous mettre en appetit , a lapproche de la journee mondiale du fromage, nos amis italiens ont presente une exposition de tableaux intitulee  The cheese capital  un peu plus loin dans lespace du Hall principal, accueilli par le depute Angelo Ciocca de lENF, Cette presentation montre des fromages de Bergame.

Un rappel historique organise par le depute Nikos Androulakis du groupe S&D durant la premiere partie de session du 11 au 14 mars, par la presentation intitulee  Lamprakis file  Cette expostion montrait une serie de documents sur la vie du depute grec Grigoris Lambrakis. L'assassinat a Thessalonique en mai 1963 du depute avait entraine indirectement le coup d'etat de 1967 qui instaura la dictature des colonels. Ecrit a la suite de cet assassinat du depute grec, le roman  Z  de Vassilis Vassilikos, a inspire le film  Z  sorti en 1969, realise par Costa Gavras. Les documents presentes etaient classifies  top secret  jusquen 2016.
Written by ACM





*Paris+Strasbourg+Brussels/Angelo Marcopolo/- Stronger than expected Announcements on emblematic Space High-Tech Cooperation with China, anchored on a larger Will for a Multilateral Global Governance, with Europe and China firmly involved, Marked the Spring 2019 Visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to French President Emmanuel Macron, flanked by German Chancellor Angie Merkel, and EU Commission's President Jean-Claude Juncker, these days in Paris,

while, almost at the Same Time, EU Parliament in Strasbourg was Voting on an Inter-Institutional Agreement about EU's Future Space Policy and even the Creation of a specific EU Agency,

shortly before the forthcoming EU - China Summit on April 9, in Brussels.

Both Moves come shortly after a premonitory "Eurofora"'s Question/Reply Topical exchange with EU Commission's vice-President Jurki Katainen, Earlier this Month in Strasbourg, about current Prospects for EU - China Cooperation on Space, on the occasion of the adoption, then, of a wider Draft EU "Strategy" on China in general, (See: http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/eucommissionvpresidentonchinaandspace.html).

But, how "Deep" will really be EU - China Cooperation, at least, on the most "Burning" Global Issues, when, in addition to "Peace", and "World" Trade or other matters, are Added also key References to "Humanity", particularly at a moment when even basic BioEthical values are at stake ? (See Infra)...



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- "Our two Countries have Decided to Develop their Cooperation on Space, in the areas (not only) of Satellites" (as until recently), (but also) and "of Outer Space Exploration", announced Chinese President Xi Jinping, at a Press-point after a key bilateral France-China Summit, Yesterday in Paris' Elysee Palace, (on the Anniversary of 55 Years since De Gaulle recognized officially China, starting Diplomatic Relations).

- Since "our (Beijing's) Satellites have landed at the Hidden Side of the Moon" recently, "and we are preparing a Space Station" asap, therefore, "we are Ready to cooperate with France in these areas", Xi added in concreto.

+ He was reacting positively to a Deal and a Proposal announced Earlier by French President Macron in this direction :

- "On Space, after having Launched, on October 2018, our 1st Joint Observation Satellite (for Oceans+), We (China and France) have Concluded, Today, a Strategic Partnership on Astro-Physics, Environment Monitoring, Climate, and Space Exploration", had ambitiously revealed Macron.

- In this regard, the French President "Congratulated" China for its "Succesfull Landing at the Hidden Side of the Moon", recently, and stressed France's Will to Develop Partnership not only on Earth, but also around all other Celestial Bodies" too, as he characteristically highlighted.

This Macron's formula obviously opens towards Wider Perspectives, i.e. not only at the Moon (Comp. Supra), and/or at Planet Mars (where the EU has already a Project with Russia soon), as well as accross various other Space Objects flying inside and/or Beyond our Solar System, (as, f.ex., that Key big Asteroid that USA's NASA has recently crossed and observed in detail, for the 1st Time in History, before Flying Further across our Galaxy, making the Big Headline News Globally at New Year's Eve)...

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+ The Next Day, speaking at an Exceptional Joint, wider, Multilateral Event, including the Conclusions of a Conference on "Global Governance", Together with French and German Leaders, President Macron and Chancellor Merkel, as well as EU Commission's President Juncker, the Chinese President, significantly, expressed anew his Will to Advance EU - China Cooperation in the Key area of Space too :

- "In the New Context" of "Major Challenges", with "Deficit(s) in (Global) Governance", "Trust", and "Peace" (including "protracted Coflicts", Islamist "Terrorism", "even against Women and Children", etc), as he denounced, Xi pleaded for "a concept of Common Security, cooperative and sustainable", where "Globalisation and (High-Tech) Innovations should Benefit All Peoples of the World", hy "adopting a Higher View and working to Strengthen our (EU - China) Cooperation", particularly by "Deepening" it in "areas such as ...Air-Space" etc., (as well as "accelerating" in "Digital, Artificial Intelligence", etc).

- Space's traditionally Emblematic prominent Worldwide Image, High-Tech innovative content, and notorious offspring Utilities Both for Security-Defense and Civil Economy boost, Fitted particularly Well in the Wider Strategic Context of China's declared Wish to Stand by an even Stronger Europe, in the middle of a "Multi-Polar World", as he stressed earlier, vowing that "China will resolutely Support the European Integration".

- German Chancellor Angie Merkel, inter alia, after pointing to the "EU Presidency by Germany on 2021", during which she announced a new "EU - China Summit", she pleaded also for a "ReinForced Multilateralism", particularly at forthcoming "Reforms of UNO, WTO, etc", and including the "Triangle EU - China - USA", (since the success or failure of the current "USA-China" Trade "Talks" may Affect also Europe, as she warned).

+ In this context, Merkel added that, in her view, peaceful International "Competition" per se, may have also "Positive" aspects, since it Stimulates all players to "prove their Capacities", mainly through High-Tech "Innovations", (where Space would naturally be ideal for such a purpose).

(By the way, the current Political Will for an even Stronger Franco-German Integration, from EU up to UN matters, seems undeniable, as, inter alia, it results also by the Fact that French Foreign Minister Minister Drian, after this Elysee's Conference on "Global Governance", is due to go straight to Berlin, in order to participate in Tomorrow's Meeting of the German Government, before Flying to New York, where France and Germany are due to Start, for the 1st Time, a Joint 2 Months-long Presidency at UNO's Security Council, according to the recent Treaty of Aachen).



++ Experienced EU Commission's President, Jean-Claude Juncker, timely went on to add, at this juncture, his feeling that "China and Europe should Do something Big Together", nowadays, as he Stressed from the Outset, (even if most of the rest of his intervention focused mainly on Economy and Business' cooperation aspects).

+++ Meanwhile, by another again Timely "Coincidence", USA's new President, Don Trump, as if he seized the ball set flying by Merkel on the Positive aspects of Competition via High-Tech Innovations, in the Wider Context of the MultiPolar World ambiance Nowadays in Paris, (Comp. Supra), reportedly Extended recently even Further his declared Wish for NASA to Boost "Space Exploration", with an Exceptionally Big Budget, and Urged, inter alia, for a Prompt realisation of his Aim to put "Men on the Moon" Sooner than some had earlier scheduled (2024)...

------

++++ Almost in Parallel, at EU Parliament in Strasbourg, by one more Coincidence, its Committee on Industry, Energy and Research (ITRE), chaired by the Polish Scientist, former EUP's President, Jerzy Buzek, Voted on Monday Evening to Adopt a "partial Agreement, resulting from Inter-Institutional Negotiations", between MEPs, EU Heads of State/Government, and EU Commissioners, for the Establishment of EU's "Space Program", as well as the Creation, for the 1st Time, of an "EU Agency for Space programs", (due to go well Beyond the pre-existing ESA, which always was, in principle, Independent from the EU).

This was done on the base of a relevant Report, drafted by mainstream Italian MEP Massimiliano Salini, from the same Political Group of ChristianDemocrats/EPP as also his compatriot, the current President of EU Parliament, Antonio Tajani, (himself a former EU Commissioner also ...on Space : Comp. f.ex., relevant Tajani's reply to "Eurofora"'s Question, f.ex., at: http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/tajaniindustrygalileo.html, etc). Italy was (by a series of converging "Coincidences"...), this time, the 1st EU Country that Xi Visited in his 2019 European Trip, before Concluding in Paris' Multilateral meetings.

=> Boost EU's capacities for an "Autonomous Access to Space", and "Strengthen EU's Space Diplomacy, encourage International Cooperation to raise awareness of Space, promote EU Technology and Industry", as well as "foster ...reciprocity and fair competition at International level", were among the Amendments Voted and Adopted by MEPs in the ITRE Committee of EU Parliament in Strasbourg Yesterday (Monday) evening, (Comp. Supra).

+++++ The Next Step : EU - China Summit in Brussels, may Attract a Wider Interest, up to Top Level, on April 9, since, almost at the Same Time, EU Council has decided to hold also an Exceptional Heads of State/Government's Summit just 1 Day Earlier there, on "BREXIT", (on Monday, April 8).

------------------------------

+ "Humanity"...

---------------------------------------------

>>> Moreover, Significantly, China's President Xi Jinping, during the above-mentioned Paris' events (Comp. Supra), also added, in his Concluding Statements, a stern Warning about the Fact that, Nowadays, "Humanity faces Major Challenges".

=> Therefore, plearing for "a New Form of International Relations", Xi, characteristically, Advanced even Further than his favorite (de Gaulle's) "Multi-polar World" issues, and vowed that the "Final Aim" should be an "Harmonious Cooperation of All Humanity".

+ This appeared to Join also French President Emmanuel Macron's initiative, to Invite the Chinese President, earlier this week, "at a Monument inspired by Ancient Greece", as he noted, "for a European ReNaissance" (Heading of his Recent public Call for the forthcoming EU Elections of May 2019 : See, f.ex. ...), because "I believe in the force of Symbols !", as he indicated :

>>> Macron pointed by that at an Emblematic Historic Monument in South-Eastern France's Mediterranean Coast, known as "Villa Kerylos", built at the Begining of the 19th Century by Franco-Germano-Swiss Archeologist, Lawyer and Politician Theodor Reinach, who Designed it according to "what represented" for him "the very Essence of a Civilisation with an essentially Human face, like that of the (Ancient) Greeks" :

- "A Model ... and a set of ...Values that ancient Greece has passed on to us (Modern Europe). The Greek Spirit was for him both Dream and Reality", stressed, later-on, his GrandSon, Fabrice Reinach.

Indeed, "Villa Kerylos", (nowadays a Museum managed by "Institut de France"), a Superbe 3 Floors' big Home with Garden at the Mediterranean Seaside, was thoroughly Designed and Furnished according to Plans reportedly found at "Delos", an Historic Island in the Middle of the Aegean Sea, which had notoriously served, during the Best Century of the Ancient Greek Civilisation, as the HeadQuarters of ...the 1st International Organisation (a kind of ONU's precursor !) for Peace, Trade, etc., throughout Many Nation-Cities, among the Eastern and Western Coasts of the Aegean, as well as its Islands, starting from shortly after the Ancient Greeks, United all Together, had just Succeeded to Defend Europe's External Borders at the East, towards Asia, (where Turkey is located nowadays).

=> But Xi's above-mentioned, crucial References to "Humanity", (and Not Only to nowadays "World"), added to Macron's Initiative with a "Symbol" for the "Renaissance" of a "Civilisation with a Human face", (Comp. Supra), added to Merkel's "ChristianDemocrat/CDU" background, and, perhaps, even to Juncker's (another "ChristianSocial/EPP" politician), wish to do "Something Big Together", (Ibid), given Today's Context, may also Point at a probable Joint Concern, (which was Not Yet explicitated in these Top Talks, ahead of the forthcoming EU-China summit in Brussels, on April 8), about a much Needed common Action to SafeGuard the Humankind also from some UnPrecedented and Serious Threats currently Threatening, for the 1st Time in History, even its own Biological and BioEthical Existence as a Species :

- I.e., particularly after the Recent Birth of 2 Genetically Manipulated Babies in China, whose DNA had Scandalously undergone a Heritable "Gene Editing" affecting even their Next Generations by Artificial Interventions, from a Technocrat of Chinese Origin, but Educated, Guided and Publicized by some USA''s Networks mainly from the Former President Barack Hussein Obama's "Socialist/Liberal"("Democrat") Lobbies, (See, Facts mainly, at : http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/heritablegenemaniptrumpxihumanity.html , + ..., etc).

>>> Given the Serious Risks against Health, and even More to provoke, by Altering the GermLine, an irreversible and dangerous Division among Humans, across Different and/or Diverging Races, possibly Fabricated Artificially by some Technocrats in the foreseable Future, which could lead even to an Extinction of the Human Race as such, progressively Downgraded to a level Similar, more or less, to a kind of Animals, as many World-Famous Writers or Film Directors have already Warned since long,

=> the Chinese Government reportedly Condemned such a Dangerous practice, which is also OutLawed by the PanEuropean Convention on BioEthics (Biology, Medicine and Human Rights), known as "Oviedo Treaty" of the CoE, while New USA's President, Don Trump, (a Conservative), recently felt a need to Stress that Human Embryos ("the UnBorn Children") are "Created at the Image of God", for Christians, (See, f.ex.: http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/usachinaontradeandbioethics.html, etc), as EU Parliament was holding, earlier this year in Strasbourg, a Plenary's Public Debate, with the participation of EU Commission, where MEPs asked for a "Global Ban" of such abhorrent practices, (See: ..., etc), in Parallel with a relevant Motion for a Resolution reportedly pushed mainly by the Biggest Political Group in EU Parliament, that of ChristianDemocrats/EPP, as its vice-President Pons told "Eurofora", (See, f.ex.: http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/eppvpresidentandmepsongermlinemanipban.html, etc).

- Will all this Alert also EU Council's Leadership, timely and adequately before the forthcoming EU - China Summit of April 8 in Brussels, so that such Crucial Nowadays' Issues affecting all "Humanity", (according to President Xi's Words : Comp. Supra), can be seriously Discussed and Efficiently settled, (before it becomes too late) ?

At least, on the occasion of both China's recent Landing at the Dark Side of the Moon, and EU's New Space Program, coinciding with Xi's nowadays Visit to Italy and France, including the Symbolic Ancient Greek Civilisation Monument of "Villa Kerylos", eve of a Franco-German + EU Commission meeting in Paris on Global Governance, where "Humanity" was a Key Word more that Twice, (Comp. Supra),

- People can only Hope that such a North Mediterranean Wind might Help also incite the forthcoming EU - China Summit of April 8 in Brussels, to Inspire itself from the Introductory Words of World Famous American Rock Group "Pink Floyd"'s most Popular Long Play Disk, precisely titled :

..."At the Dark Side of the Moon", and Starting by the Call : - "... DoN't be Afraid to Care !"...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLOth-BuCNY

-----------------



I.e., as EU Council's President Donald Tusk from Poland, certainly Remembers : Similar to a Key Phrase by former Long-Time Pope John-Paul II, also from Poland, who Fought up to his Last Days in Life to Safeguard some elementary Human Values in BioEthics, including against Genetic Manipulations of Human Embryos, at an International Level, mainly via UNO+...

+ An Interesting point also for the Forthcoming Debate and Vote, in CoE's PanEuropean Parliamentary Assembly in Strasbourg, of a new Report on CoE - UNO Cooperation betweeen UNO and the 47 Member Countries-strong (including Russia+) PanEuropean Organisation for Human Rights, Democracy and Rule of Law, during its Plenary Session of this Spring, Later on Mid-April 2019.



(../..)
Two large grow ops shut down in Cancun

Cancun, Q.R.  Two grow ops were found and seized over the weekend in Cancun by police who were supported by the navy, military and state elements.

The homes, which were discovered in two separate regions of the city, were searched by police who reported that aside from marijuana plants, they also seized 200 rounds of ammunition.

Photo: La Fiscalia General del Estado

Photo: La Fiscalia General del Estado

The Attorney Generals Office reports that the grow operations were found in Region 235 and 107 of Cancun in residential neighborhoods. The homes were used exclusively for pot growing.

From each, police removed seeds, fertilizers, lamps and more than 200 firearm cartridges of various calibers.

Both homes were also seized. Ministerial Police were supported by the Navy of Mexico, the Military Police and the State Police.
The 2021 New York Watch Auction realizes $35.9 Million Phillips in Association announced that The 2021 New York Watch Auction realized $35.9 million, selling 100% by lot, marking the most successful Watch auction in US history.

ZCDC on track to record production this year  minister The state-owned Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC) is on track to record production this year, according to a senior government official. Mines minister Winston Chitando was quoted as saying by the Sunday Mail newspaper as saying that...

Petra reduces stake in Tanzanias Williamson Diamonds Petra Diamonds has reached an agreement with the government of Tanzania with the view to establishing a sustainable future for the Williamson Diamonds (WDL) joint venture. The Aim-listed diamond company said the agreement provides for a capital...

Indias gold demand dips while Asian gold hubs pick up activity According to a Mumbai-based bullion dealer, the volatility has prompted jewellers to delay purchases for the upcoming wedding season, as per a report in The Hindu BusinessLine. Customers in top consumer China were charged premiums of $7-$10 an ounce...
In our experience, cooperation with the due diligence process, and developing a deep understanding of the compliance expectations held by multinational companies, are competitive advantages. They help local business partners stand out from the crowd, move through the due diligence process far more quickly, and grow a larger clientele among compliance-focused companies.

Though were not aware of any statistical studies on the subject to date  and they are much needed  the anecdotal evidence weve gathered over the years convinces us that this is the case.

Compare the experience of two local business partners that Steinman & Rodgers recently encountered for one of its clients. The client in question, like many multinationals, has a written policy that prohibits working with a business partner until they have been vetted under the companys due diligence process, and the parties have a written agreement in place.

One potential partner, located in France, was extremely slow in completing the clients standard due diligence materials, and complained that the process suggested that the clients didnt trust them. After clearing this hurdle, it turned out that France Co. had an extremely complex ownership structure, with several layers of holding companies, including an offshore trust in the BVI with separate legal and beneficial owners. France Co. was loath to identify its ultimate beneficial owners, citing security and privacy concerns.

It took months to unravel France Co.s Byzantine ownership structure, and to convince it to identify the ultimate beneficial owners. During the lengthy due diligence process, the client secured a substantial direct sale in France that it had initially intended to structure as a resale transaction through France Co. To pursue the sale on its own, the client had to send its personnel in-country for extended periods of time, taking them away from other projects, and incurring significant travel costs.

For its part, France Co. lost out on the profits it would have earned on the deal. At several points during the due diligence exercise, the client seriously considered walking away from the proposed relationship with France Co.

On the other hand, the same clients experience with a second potential partner was significantly more efficient  and from a compliance perspective, more comforting. The second company, based in Pakistan, was familiar with the due diligence requirements, applicable anti-corruption laws, and the need to cooperate in the process.

Pakistan Co. promptly completed the clients standard diligence materials, which showed that Pakistan Co. was organized under local law, had no offshore ownership, and maintained its bank accounts in Pakistan. When the client raised some follow-up questions during the diligence process, Pakistan Co. responded quickly and with transparency. Rather than dragging on for months, the client was able to complete its diligence review of Pakistan Co. in Pakistan within a matter of weeks, and the parties soon executed a reseller contract.

Both of these relationships were proposed at roughly the same time, and yet Pakistan Co. was actively pursuing sales for the client for at least nine months before France Co. finally agreed to embrace the diligence process and provided responses to the clients questions. France Co.s lack of appreciation for transparency caused the client to incur out-of-pocket expenses, and ultimately cost France Co. a sale.

Indeed, despite higher jurisdictional risks, transparency helped make a business partner from Pakistan more competitive than the one from France. In other words, cooperating with the due diligence process, appreciating anti-corruption compliance, and avoiding red flags are valuable competitive advantages.

CIPE helps local companies become more attractive business partners for multinationals through a number of programs around the world. For example, in Thailand, CIPE and the Thai Institute of Directors  a leading corporate governance organization in the region  launched an initiative to provide anti-corruption training and establish a collective action program aimed at reducing supply-side bribery. By fostering familiarity and compliance with prevailing anti-corruption norms, and promoting the adoption of anti-corruption controls, programs such as this seek to help local companies grow their businesses ethically and honestly. They help local companies stand apart from competitors that have not undertaken such efforts.

We have observed situations similar to France Co. and Pakistan Co. on many occasions, and we expect that readers have as well. If so, we would love to hear your experiences.

The take-away is simple. Multinationals operate under strict anti-corruption standards, and must conduct due diligence on their business partners. Understanding and embracing these requirements saves time, effort and money, and helps parties establish their business relationships more efficiently.

_____

Anna Kompanek, pictured above right, is the Director for Global Programs at the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE). Her expertise, including training and capacity building for private sector organizations and businesses, is in the areas of anti-corruption compliance, governance, and management. Kompanek holds a designation of Certified Compliance and Ethics Professional-International (CCEP-I). Connet with Anna on Twitter at @AnnaKompanek

Bill Steinman, left, is a Contributing Editor of the FCPA Blog. Hes the senior partner at Steinman & Rodgers LLP, a boutique law firm in Washington, D.C. specializing in international anti-corruption compliance and investigations.
A lawyer for Nissan former Chairman Carlos Ghosn, who was taken back into custody last week, has outlined the conditions for his initial release on bail in an effort to clarify what he called incorrect speculation in the Japanese media.

Ghosn, accused of financial misconduct, was arrested in November, but released in March. He was detained again on fresh allegations Thursday.

It is unusual in Japan for a suspect who cleared bail to be arrested again.

Takashi Takano listed the conditions in a blog post late Saturday, which include restricting Ghosn to using only one computer, which is in his lawyers office, and one cellphone. Its the first time such conditions, set by the Tokyo District Court, were disclosed in detail.

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Ghosn, 65, who led Nissan for two decades, has said he is innocent.

The conditions also said Ghosn 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, Takano said.

Ghosn is forbidden from fleeing or tampering with evidence, and from meeting some people, including Greg Kelly, a Nissan Motor Co. board member suspected of collaborating with Ghosn, Nissan Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa and others who may be witnesses in the case, he said.

The Tokyo District Court has approved his detention through April 14. His legal team is seeking to overturn that, arguing he already cleared the conditions for his release. The detention can be extended if the court approves the prosecutors request.

Prosecutors say the latest allegations are separate from the earlier charges, and Ghosn may tamper with evidence. Ghosns legal team argues that prosecutors have already raided Ghosns homes and taken everything.

While prosecutors can interrogate Ghosn daily at Tokyo Detention Center, Ghosns time to work on his defense with his lawyers will become limited.

Japan has been criticized for long detentions without convictions, dubbed hostage justice. Critics say it tends to lead to false confessions.

Ghosn has been charged with falsifying securities documents and with having Nissan shoulder personal investment losses. The latest allegations center around Ghosn diverting a portion of money paid by a Nissan subsidiary to an Oman dealership business.

Ghosn says the compensation, which was for his retirement, was never decided or paid, the investment losses were never suffered and the payments were for legitimate services.

The date for his trial has not been set and is likely to be months away.

Nissan, allied with Renault SA of France, is holding a shareholders meeting Monday to get approval to oust Ghosn from its board.

Ghosn holds French, Brazilian and Lebanese citizenship.

___

Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama

On Instagram https://www.instagram.com/yurikageyama/?hl=en

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
South Sudans president and opposition leader are expected to travel to the Vatican next week for what the Holy See says is a spiritual retreat and opposition officials say is an effort to help implement the countrys peace deal.

Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti confirmed the visit Wednesday. He said a spiritual retreat was scheduled next week at the Vatican for the leaders of South Sudan. He didnt identify them or cite any political initiative.

The meeting comes a month after President Salva Kiir met with Pope Francis to discuss the peace process.

A deputy spokesman to opposition leader Riek Machar said Machar and two leaders from the South Sudan Opposition Alliance would attend the meeting with Kiir, and said an audience with the pope is also planned.

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The spokesman, Manawa Peter, said the April 10 meeting would focus on confidence-building and helping bring the two leaders together.

South Sudan is emerging from a five-year conflict that killed almost 400,000 people and displaced millions. A peace deal calls for the formerly warring sides to create a single functional government by May.

Thats when Machar is expected to return to South Sudan to once again become the presidents deputy  an arrangement that has collapsed in fighting in the past.

Machars participation in the Vatican meeting had been in doubt because he has been under house arrest for two years, most of it in South Africa. But Peter, the deputy spokesman, said he would be allowed to travel to Rome, and is expected to be released from house arrest altogether by the end of the month.

Peter said the Vatican initiative aimed to address the lack of trust that had foiled past peace efforts.

If we want to bring the people of South Sudan together and mend the peace agreement, they need to have a good relationship and they need to build trust before we form the government, he told The Associated Press. Were happy hell be able to go and meet with other political leaders from South Sudan. It will be good for all of them.

Francis had hoped to visit South Sudan in 2017 along with the archbishop of Canterbury, but security conditions forced it to be called off. During his March 16 meeting with Kiir, Francis renewed his hope to visit, the Vatican said at the time.

___

Sam Mednick contributed from Juba, South Sudan.

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Libyan army commander Khalifa Hifter on Thursday ordered his forces to march on Tripoli, the capital of the U.N.-backed government, sparking fears of a major showdown with rival militias.

The order to his Libya National Army posted in an audio recording online came as U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited the North African country and issued a very strong appeal ... for all military movements to stop.

Hifter also put at risk upcoming peace talks between Libyan rivals brokered by the U.N. aimed at drawing a roadmap for new elections.

The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency closed-door meeting Friday afternoon at Britains request to discuss the unfolding developments.

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The 2011 NATO-supported uprising that toppled and later killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi led to chaos in Libya. The country has been split between rival governments in the east and west and an array of militias fighting over power and oil fields.

Hifter is allied with the east-based administration at odds with the U.N.-backed government based in Tripoli. Alongside the two rival administrations, mostly Islamic militias wield considerable influence and control large swathes of territory in the vast North African nation.

Hifter described his forces move as a victorious march to shake the lands under the feet of the unjust bunch.

We are coming Tripoli, we are coming, he said.

Hifter urged his forces to enter the city peacefully and only raise their weapons in the face of those who seek injustice and prefer confrontation and fighting.

He also urged his forces not to open fire on any civilians or those who are unarmed.

Those who lay down their weapons are safe, and those who raise the white banner are safe, he said.

Secretary-General Guterres not only urged a halt to military movements but appealed for containment, calm and military and political and verbal de-escalation  and the recognition that ... there is no military solution for the problems in Libya.

He told a news conference in Tripoli shortly after Hifter announced the Tripoli offensive that a resumption of dialogue is essential, stressing that the solution must be political.

Hifters message, which was posted on the Facebook page of the armys media office, comes a day after his forces edged closer to Tripoli and took over the town of Gharyan, 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Tripoli without much fighting.

I am sipping coffee now in Gharyan, Hifters top aide Abdel-Salam al-Hassi told The Associated Press over the phone. God willing, we will enter the rest of the cities without clashes.

Skirmishes were reported overnight in the mountain district of al-Assabaah, near Gharyan, in which two people  a resident and a militiaman  were killed, according to the media office of Hifters forces.

The announcement of Hifters intention to march on Tripoli comes days before the April 14-16 U.N.-brokered conference aimed at bridging the gap among Libyas factions and draw a road map for new elections and end the countrys split.

Guterres is scheduled to meet Hifter in Benghazi on Friday and said his message will include that everyone in Libya must recognize the need for a political solution.

And it is clear for me that we absolutely need to avoid the drama of what would be a major confrontation  namely a major confrontation in Tripoli, he said.

When the secretary-general was asked about postponing the national conference he said the U.N. wants to make sure the military movements end and calm is re-established, which will be important for the meetings to be successful.

It is difficult to have a National Conference in an environment of global confrontation, so it is very important to de-escalate and to have a situation of restraint and calm.

Guterres is the second U.N. chief to visit Libya since the 2011 uprising that toppled Gadhafi. Ban Ki-moon visited in October 2014. Libya, the oil-rich North African country, fell in series of civil wars in different towns and cities, where heavily armed militias fought over power and oil.

Hifters spokesman, Ahmed al-Mesmari, said LNA forces will give the militiamen in control of the capital the option of surrendering or staying home.

You choose between staying home, handing over your weapons, or raising the white banner, he said, addressing the militias in control of Tripoli.

He said there will be no dialogue with the militias, whom he described as terrorists, adding that the game is over and the rifle, the artillery, and the jet are the ones speaking now.

He also vowed to protect the upcoming peace conference saying the military movement is a separate track from politics.

The army has nothing to do with politics or with political movement by the United Nations, he said.

The European Unions mission to Libya on Thursday also expressed concern over the military buildup underway in Libya and the escalatory rhetoric which seriously risks leading to an uncontrollable confrontation.

Hifters army has spread its footprint from eastern Libya where it first battled mostly Islamic militias and Islamist groups, starting in 2014. The campaign then extended southward as Hifters forces took control of key towns and border crossings earlier this year and now is pushing west, toward Tripoli.

Hifter, who is backed by Egypt and Gulf Arab nations such as the United Arab Emirates, has labeled his rivals as terrorists and said in more than one occasion that liberating Tripoli is his ultimate goal.

Since Gadhafis ouster and killing, Libya has descended into chaos, with two rival administrations and an array of militias fighting over power and oil fields.

___

Associated Press writers Maggie Michael in Cairo and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

Press writer Maggie Michael in Cairo contributed to this report.

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Archbishop Wilton Gregory promised Catholics he would rebuild your trust after Pope Francis on Thursday named him the new archbishop of Washington, D.C., the archdiocese that has become the epicenter of the clergy sex abuse crisis in the U.S.

Gregory, 71, the archbishop of Atlanta, is a moderate and the first African American to lead the Washington archdiocese. He replaces Cardinal Donald Wuerl, who resigned last year after a Pennsylvania grand jury accused him of covering up the abuse.

Gregory headed the U.S. bishops conference when it adopted a zero-tolerance abuse policy in 2002 to respond to the first wave of the scandal. He has run the Atlanta archdiocese since 2005 and is seen as a pastor very much in line with Francis progressive vision of the church.

This is obviously a moment fraught with challenges throughout our entire Catholic Church, certainly, but nowhere more so than in this local faith community, Gregory said at a news conference in Washington, where he was introduced by Wuerl. And as in any family, challenges can only be overcome by a firmly articulated resolve and commitment to do better, to know Christ better, to love Christ better, to serve Christ better. I would be naive not to acknowledge the unique task that awaits us.

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Gregorys appointment was first reported by Catholic News Agency.

It is the third major move by Francis to reshape the U.S. hierarchy, which over the previous two papacies took on a conservative tilt. Francis began elevating more moderate pastors in 2014, when he named Cardinal Blase Cupich as Chicago archbishop and followed up two years later by moving Joseph Tobin to Newark, New Jersey, and making him a cardinal.

While relatively small, the Washington archdiocese has always punched above its weight given its location in the nations capital. Its archbishops traditionally are made cardinals, meaning Gregory could become the first African American cardinal.

The archdiocese, though, has become embroiled in the abuse crisis since its previous two leaders  Wuerl and Theodore McCarrick  were implicated in the scandal.

Francis in February defrocked McCarrick after a Vatican-backed investigation concluded he sexually abused minors and adults over his long career. It was the first time a cardinal had been dismissed from the priesthood for abuse.

Francis reluctantly accepted Wuerls resignation in October after he lost the trust of his priests and parishioners in the months following the release of the Pennsylvania grand jury report. The report accused Wuerl of helping to protect some child-molesting priests while he was bishop of Pittsburgh from 1988 to 2006. Simultaneously, Wuerl faced widespread skepticism over his insistence that he knew nothing about McCarricks misconduct, which was an open secret in U.S. and Vatican circles.

Gregory has responded by expressing his own anger, shame and disillusionment at the failures of the hierarchy. In an August statement after McCarrick resigned as a cardinal, he acknowledged his own respect for McCarrick had been clearly misplaced.

Weve certainly given our faithful a lot of reasons to leave the church. I want to provide a few reasons to stay. I want to assure the people that I will be honest with them, that I will govern with sensitivity, that I will be approachable, available. Im an ordinary human being, Gregory said Thursday. I have to tell you the truth, and I will.

Gregory is credited for his leadership of the U.S. church during a moment of crisis, when as president of the U.S. bishops conference he persuaded church leaders to adopt toughened penalties for abusers in 2002.

That said, the reform Gregory shepherded through explicitly excluded bishops from the zero-tolerance policy  a loophole that became evident with the McCarrick scandal. U.S. bishops are expected to address the gap at their upcoming meeting, where all eyes will likely be on Gregory.

Gregorys appointment was greeted with praise by the Rev. James Martin, who was invited last year by Gregory to give a talk in Atlanta on how the church should better minister to the LGBT community. The initiative drew criticism from some conservatives who accused Gregory of not upholding church teaching on homosexuality.

In a statement, Martin said Gregory was a superb choice for Washington given his leadership on the abuse crisis and because he is someone who knows how to reach out to marginalized populations.

Wuerl, too, praised the choice. I join everyone who appreciates his pastoral abilities, his intellectual gifts and his leadership qualities, Wuerl said in introducing him Thursday.

Gregory will be installed May 20 as the seventh archbishop of Washington, serving a community of around 659,000 Roman Catholics.

In Atlanta, Gregory was embroiled briefly in a scandal of his own in 2014 after the archdiocese used $2.2 million in donations to buy and renovate a swank new home for the archbishop. The mansion was later sold, and Gregory apologized following an outcry from parishioners.

A native of Chicago, Gregory is a protege of the late Chicago Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, who consecrated him as a bishop in 1983. Gregory was bishop of Belleville, Illinois, from 1994 until his installation in Atlanta in 2005.

___

Winfield reported from Vatican City.

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
In an effort to tighten political and economic pressure on Tehran, the Trump administration moved Monday to brand Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization, an unprecedented move against another nations military that the Pentagon had resisted.

President Trump issued the announcement from the White House after months of harsh rhetoric against Iran and an onslaught of sanctions aimed at crippling its economy.

In a statement, Trump said the guard actively participates in, finances and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft and is the Iranian governments primary means of directing and implementing its global terrorist campaign.

This action sends a clear message to Tehran that its support for terrorism has serious consequences, Trump said.

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Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo said the terrorist designation will take effect in one week.

Netanyahu says Trump named Irans Revolutionary Guard a terrorist group at his request 

Although the Revolutionary Guard plays a major role in the Iranian economy, the U.S. penalties may have limited impact because the group already is under U.S. sanctions. The designation, however, could complicate U.S. military and diplomatic missions, notably in Iraq, where many Shiite Muslim militias and Iraqi political parties have close ties to the guard.

U.S. military and intelligence officials have raised concerns that the designation may bar them from meeting foreign officials in contact with Revolutionary Guard personnel. Those concerns are one reason previous administrations did not make the move, which was considered for more than a decade.

But administration officials said Monday that exceptions would be made for U.S. personnel as needed. U.S. diplomats talk with the Taliban in Afghanistan, another group listed as a foreign terrorist organization, noted Nathan Sales, the State Departments coordinator for counter-terrorism.

Some military experts warned the decision could endanger U.S. troops, one reason for long-standing concerns at the Pentagon.

Iranian officials quickly warned of consequences for U.S. troops in the Middle East. The countrys foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, called for U.S. Central Command, which oversees American forces in the region, to be designated a terrorist group under Iranian law.

Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of the guard, warned that the American army in West Asia will see the end of tranquility, according to the semiofficial Fars news agency.

In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, facing a hotly contested bid for a fourth term, tweeted on the eve of the election that Trump had acted at his request.

Thank you, my dear friend, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, for having decided to designate Irans Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization, he wrote in Hebrew on Twitter. Thank you for responding to another of my important requests, which serves the interests of our countries and countries of the region.

He later posted a thank-you note in English that did not take credit, but said of Trump: Once again you are keeping the world safe from Iran aggression and terrorism.

Trumps move was viewed in Israel as a gift to the prime minister. Shimrit Meir, a Middle East analyst, tweeted that the timing, of course, is last-minute help from afar for pal Netanyahu.

The Trump administration has targeted what it calls Irans malign behavior since it took office, and withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear accord partly over those concerns. The administration cites Irans support for militant groups in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen, as well as a perceived threat against Israel.

This is the first U.S. designation of an entire foreign government entity, although portions of the Revolutionary Guard, notably its elite Quds Force, have been targeted in the past.

The Revolutionary Guard will take its rightful place on the same list as the terror groups it supports, Pompeo said.

The designation allows the Revolutionary Guards assets to be frozen abroad and will complicate efforts by European and Asian companies and governments to do business with Iran. The elite military group is involved in numerous aspects of the Iranian economy.

It also makes it a U.S. crime to do business with the group or provide material support for its activities.

Brian Hook, the administrations special representative for Iran, said the designation will deprive Iran and the Revolutionary Guard of funds needed to carry out policies that he said include assassinations and threats to U.S. military personnel.

Hook said the designation will make radioactive any aspect of the Iranian economy that deals with the guard.

The Middle East cannot be more stable and peaceful without weakening the Revolutionary Guard, Hook said, calling it the blunt instrument of Iranian-sponsored terrorism.

Behnam Ben Taleblu, an Iran hawk at the conservative Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, said the designation reflected the Revolutionary Guards growing influence in Irans foreign and security policy, as well as the terror apparatus.

The designation was announced a day before elections in Israel, where an embattled Netanyahu has long sought the listing and has long enjoyed Trumps support.

In a tweet, Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, called it a misguided election-eve gift to Netanyahu. A(nother) dangerous U.S. misadventure in the region.

Analysts in Tehran said the designation is unlikely to change Irans strategies or policies.

Ahmad Bakhshayesh, an analyst and former member of parliament, said Irans hard-liners will probably be emboldened. Officials may cite the designation as evidence that any effort to resume nuclear negotiations with the U.S. would be counterproductive.

The Revolutionary Guard is the pillar of the Islamic Revolution inside and outside the country, Bakhshayesh said.

Iran will try to barter with Turkey, Iraq and Russia, to avoid dependency on the American dollar and other hard currencies to compensate [for] the repercussions of todays designation.

Bakhshayesh predicted further devaluation of Irans rial, already buffeted by U.S. economic sanctions.

The State Department designates 60 groups as foreign terrorist organizations, including Al Qaeda, Islamic State and their affiliates, Hezbollah and numerous militant Palestinian factions. The Revolutionary Guard is the first state-run military force on the list.

Wilkinson reported from Washington and Etehad from Los Angeles. Special correspondent Noga Tarnopolsky in Jerusalem contributed to this report.


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Boomplay, a Lagos, Nigeria-based music streaming service, raised $20m in Series A funding.

The round was led by Maison Capital, with particiaption from Seas Capital and other strategic investors.

The company intends to use the funds to accelerate continued expansion, with a focus on content acquisition, product optimization, recruitment, and a further consolidation of its position as the leader in the African market.

Led by CEO Joe He, Boomplay offers a freemium service where users can stream for free with advertisements and certain limitations, while additional features, such as offline play and ad-free listening, are offered via a paid subscription.

As of February, 2019, the company has acquired over 42 million users and hosts the largest online African music catalogue in the world with 5 million tracks.

Boomplay currently has four operational teams in Africa, covering the four largest markets in West and East Africa (Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania).

Now a wholly-owned subsidiary of the joint venture established between Transsion Holdings and Chinese Internet tech leader NetEase, the Boomplay app is currently available for Android, iOS and web.

FinSMES

08/04/2019
Upstart, a San Carlos, CA and Columbus, OH-based artificial intelligence (AI) lending platform, raised $50M in equity funding.

Backers included:

 Progressive Investment Company,

 Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, and

 First National Bank of Omaha.

The company intends to use the funds to expand its AI platform to other types of credit.

Led by Dave Girouard, co-founder and CEO, and Paul Gu, co-founder, Upstart is an AI lending platform designed to expand access to affordable credit.

Almost two-thirds of Upstart loans are approved instantly and are fully automated.

After more than $3.3B in loans originated in the last five years, the company has demonstrated loss rates less than half those of peer platforms for borrowers with similar FICO scores.

Following the launch of its partnership with Customers Bank and its BankMobile division, the company announced it has signed Powered by Upstart partnership agreements with First National Bank of Omaha, First Federal Bank of Kansas City and Accion Chicago. With Powered by Upstart, banks and other lenders can leverage the companys AI platform in the form of a white-labeled lending application to power their own lending programs.

Upstart also will be the newest offering in the Progressive portfolio of Advantage Products, which are offered to give Progressive customers options to protect whats important to them. Upstart loans will be available on www.progressive.com later this month.

FinSMEs

08/04/2019
People under age 40 who are diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes are more likely to have or die from cardiovascular disease than those of similar age without diabetes and the excess risks were more pronounced in younger women, according to new research in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation.

Researchers also found the excess risk for death, regardless of cause, for people diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes at age 80 or older significantly decreased and was the same as those of similar age without diabetes.

"Our study shows the differences in excess diabetes risk are tied to the how old the person is when they are diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes," said Naveed Sattar, M.D., Ph.D., lead author of the study and professor of Metabolic Medicine at the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom.

Obesity rates have steadily increased in high-income countries and in young people over the last 30-40 years. As a result, more adolescents and young adults are being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes more than ever before, according to the study.

This is the first study to compare the excess risks of dying from or developing cardiovascular disease in people diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and to adjust the risk for such outcomes given how long a person has had diabetes -- an independent risk factor associated with cardiovascular disease risk.

Using data from the Swedish National Diabetes Registry, researchers followed 318,083 Type 2 diabetes patients and 1,575,108 age, sex and county-matched people as a control group from 1998 to 2013 for heart disease-related conditions. Death resulting from heart disease or any other cause was followed from 1998 to 2014.

Patients with Type 2 diabetes and similar aged controls had their risk for developing heart disease, heart attack, stroke, hospitalization from heart failure and atrial fibrillation assessed. Researchers also evaluated death from cardiovascular disease and any other conditions.

During a median follow-up of nearly two and half years, researchers compared results to control participants of similar age without Type 2 diabetes and found:

Participants diagnosed before age 40 with Type 2 diabetes had the greatest excess risk for death, stroke, heart attack, heart failure or atrial fibrillation.

Women generally carried higher excess cardiovascular disease and mortality risks than men in most categories.

Excess risks for cardiovascular disease and life years lost declined steadily with the age of diagnosis.

"This suggests we need to be more aggressive in controlling risk factors in younger Type 2 diabetes populations and especially in women," Sattar said. "And, far less effort and resources could be spent screening people 80 and older for Type 2 diabetes unless symptoms are present. Furthermore, our work could also be used to encourage middle-aged people at elevated diabetes risk to adopt lifestyle changes to delay their diabetes by several years."

The study followed a majority white European population, so additional studies examining the role of cardiovascular disease in non-white populations who have Type 2 diabetes are needed.

Co-authors are Araz Rawshani, M.D.; Stefan Franzen, Ph.D.; Aidin Rawshani, M.D.; Ann-Marie Svensson, Ph.D.; Annika Rosengren, M.D.; Darren McGuire, M.D.; Bjorn Eliasson, M.D.; and Soffia Gudbjo?rnsdottir, M.D. Author disclosures are on the manuscript.

The Swedish Association of Local Authorities Regions, Swedish Heart and Lung Foundation, and Swedish Research Council funded the study.
Most children inherit both their postal code and their genetic code from their parents. But if genetic factors influence where families are able to live and children's health and educational success, improving neighborhoods may not be enough. Latest research at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and University of California at Irvine, provides new insights into the highly debated question of whether the neighborhoods that children live in influence their health and life chances.

This is the first study to bring together genetic and geographic data to test links between children's neighborhood and genetic risk. The findings are published online in Nature Human Behavior.

The research team led by Dan Belsky, PhD assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School, and Candice Odgers at the University of California, Irvine Department of Psychological Science, linked the genomic, geographic, health, and educational data of thousands of children living in Britain and Wales. They found that children growing up in worse-off neighborhoods also carried higher genetic risk for poor educational outcomes and earlier childbearing. The authors replicated their findings in the U.S.-based Add Health Study, where they found that gene-neighborhood correlations may accumulate across generations as young people with higher genetic risk for poor educational attainment and younger age at first birth were both born into, and subsequently moved into, worse-off neighborhoods.

"But genetic risk alone was not enough to explain why children from poorer versus more affluent neighborhoods received less education and were more likely to be Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEET) by late adolescence," said Belsky, who is also with the Columbia Aging Center. "The data on education could explain only a fraction (10-15 percent) of the link between neighborhood risk and poor educational qualifications and NEET status, suggesting that there is ample opportunity for neighborhoods to influence these outcomes."

"Surprisingly, for obesity, one of the most prevalent and costly health problems facing this generation, we found no link between neighborhood and genetic risk," observed Odgers. "Children who grew up in worse-off neighborhoods were more likely to become obese by age 18, but they did not carry a higher genetic risk for obesity than their peers living in more advantaged neighborhoods."

Similarly, for mental health problems, children in worse-off neighborhoods experienced more symptoms of mental disorder, but there was little evidence that the reason for this link was due to genetic risk. For physical and mental health problems, postal code and genetic code both predicted children's futures.

Analyses were based on data from The Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study, which has followed 2232 twins born in England and Wales in 1994-1995 into young adulthood, and The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, which followed 15,000 American secondary school students into adulthood. For "polygenic scoring" the investigators combined information across the genome based on recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of obesity, of schizophrenia, of age-at-first-birth, and of educational attainment. Neighborhood risk assessment and Neighborhood Mobility Analysis tools are described in the paper's Supporting Details.

Using Google Street View and high-resolution geo-spatial data enabled the researchers to capture key features of the neighborhoods where the children lived. Odgers developed the virtual assessments used in the study. "Advances in both genomics and geospatial analyses are rapidly positioning us to make new discoveries. Here, they allowed us to identify outcomes, like obesity and mental health, where neighborhoods are most likely to have unique impacts." But, she added "this is only a first step in tackling the critical question of whether changing neighborhood conditions can improve children's lives across these domains."

"In our study, polygenic risk scores showed a link between genetics and neighborhoods for teen pregnancy and poor educational outcomes. This finding suggests that we should consider neighborhoods when interpreting the results of studies searching for genes related to these outcomes and also that we should consider genes when examining the effects of neighborhoods," said Belsky. But, he cautions that "polygenic risk scores are an evolving and still imperfect tool. They can help us test whether genes and neighborhoods are related. But they cannot tell us how."

Genetic risk accounted for only a fraction of the differences between children living in different types of neighborhoods. According to Belsky and Odgers this provides some reason to hope that "targeting neighborhoods -- especially for physical and mental health -- will be enough to improve children's life outcomes."

Co-authors' institutions are: Duke University, Stanford University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Kings College, UK; and University of Exeter, UK.

The study was supported by the Medical Research Council (UKMRC G1002190); NICHD (HD077482), Google, and the Jacobs Foundation. The Add Health Study is supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P01HD31921, R01HD073342, and R01HD060726), with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations.
De La Salle University-Dasmarinas researchers have discovered a concoction for a cure against dengue.

Team leader Dr. Rita Grace Alvero, a pharmacologist-epidemiologist from DLSU-Dasmarinas' Medical and Health Sciences Institute has begun the first Phase of clinical trials on the cocktail of three endemic plants. She presented that the team is determined to "pursue the full drug development process to make the breakthrough drug to help cure and stop deaths from dengue."

"It will be ready by end of 2020. That's next year," Alvero said.

The active ingredient for the drug was isolated from three herbal plants in the Philippines.

"They are endemic in the Philippines, not at all endangered," Alvero told The STAR. "It's an anti-viral."

The teacher-scientist team from DLSU-Dasmarinas led the research and development of herbal medicine. These teachers have founded a health start-up firm named Pharmalytics Corp.

Dengue patients have greatly improved based on the initial efficacy tests. Patients with very low platelet count have recovered, according to Alvero.

"We've done the pre-formulation tests, we've done animal studies, we've tested for efficacy. We've done the capsule, we've documented the efficacy results," Alvero said.

"We've demonstrated in humans already, in pilot cases, that it attenuates the clinical signs of the disease," Alvero said.

"There was dramatic recovery. It was given to patients with very, very low platelet counts who are bleeding already. It reversed (the progression of the disease), and improved the well-being (of the patient)," Alvero said.

The DOST-Philippine Council for Health Research and Development strongly supports Alvero's efforts on developing the drug against dengue.

DOST-PCHRD had provided seed money to DLSU-Pharmalytics in developing the potential cure for dengue.

Dengue has claimed the lives of many Filipinos and needs an urgent cure to fight it.
Teams of BART police officers, fare inspectors and agency managers converged on four downtown San Francisco stations Monday morning in the transit agencys latest bid to crack down on fare evaders who cost the system millions.

The blitz  expected to continue for at least a few weeks  launched during the morning commute at the Embarcadero, Montgomery, Powell and Civic Center stations. Commuters, many delayed after a train struck and killed a person on the tracks at El Cerrito del Norte Station, were greeted by a handful of BART managers in neon-green vests standing inside the fare gates and a couple of fare inspectors and police officers outside. Teams were stationed at each collection of fare gates, stymieing would-be scofflaws.

The crackdown had a noticeable effect. Some people turned around at the fare gates and backpedaled to the add-fare machines; others paused to pull a ticket or Clipper card out of their pockets; and still others headed toward an alternate exit  apparently hoping to sneak out in peace without paying.

BART has for the past few years been stepping up efforts to combat fare cheats, and Mondays action underscored how pernicious and persistent the problem has become, spreading throughout the system and among riders of all ages and economic means. Many BART riders, rattled by an increase in violent crimes, see fare evasion as a sign that the trains and stations have become places where lawlessness is tolerated.

Amy Osborne / Special to The Chronicle

In a statement released after The Chronicle spotted the enforcement operation and sought comment, BART officials said the effort was as much a show of force to reassure riders of the systems safety  and of the polices presence  as it was a targeting of fare evaders, who are estimated to cost the system about $25 million a year in lost revenue.

BART has employed a variety of strategies, with mixed success, to combat fare evasion, including locking some swing gates, building taller walls around the paid areas of stations, and creating a team of a dozen civilian fare enforcement officers who roam stations and trains asking people to prove theyve paid. Chronicle reporters, though, have found that only a small percentage of those issued fare-evasion citations have paid the fines.

As violent crime has jumped on BART and become more visible, passengers have called for more evident police presence on trains and at stations. Alicia Trost, a BART spokeswoman, said Monday that the enforcement surge is about expanding presence in our stations. Riders say want to feel safe and secure in our stations, and thats what were giving them.

During the blitz, all police officers and fare inspectors will have one day off each week canceled  and will work extra hours to bolster their visibility, especially in the busiest parts of the system. A BART security plan released in August said mandatory overtime and enforcement would be used intermittently as part of the systems security strategy.

We are taking concrete action in direct response to the concerns of our riders, BART General Manager Grace Crunican said in a prepared statement issued after The Chronicle asked for comment. Our riders want to see more employees on the trains and platforms and at the fare gates. This plan lets us immediately increase employee presence while we work to hire more police officers.

In addition to the strategic saturation, as BART calls it, the agency plans to hire 40 more police officers  19 of them in new positions  as well as raising walls around paid areas of more stations and installing alarms and cameras. Engineers are also working on selecting taller and tougher fare gates that would be more difficult to breach.

Toward the end of the morning commute Monday, Crunican was among the cluster of green-vested managers stationed near the fare gates.

Good morning, she called out as she stood inside the gates at Powell Station in an area popular among fare cheats. When she spotted a man trying to push his way through the gates without paying, she called out, Gate! That prompted a police officer outside to approach the man.

She directed a woman who pulled a ticket out of her pocket, while feigning confusion, to talk to a station agent. A line six deep quickly formed outside the agents booth. Inside the booth, as the commute slowed, an agent who did not want to give her name said it had been a busy morning.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

We had a lot of people show up at the booth saying I forgot this or I lost that or turning their purse upside down to show that they didnt have any money. Uh-huh. Everybody had an excuse.

Commuters, though annoyed by the morning slowdown, mostly seemed appreciative of the crackdown. I like it, called out one woman as she tapped her Clipper card and passed through the fare gates. Everybody has to pay.

Jordyn Christo, 19, of San Francisco, was nabbed by the police after he pushed through the gates without paying. After a long conversation with two officers, he was given a warning.

Its what they have to do, honestly, he said with a shrug. I wish there were a way for more low-income people to access public transportation and get around the city. But the enforcement is understandable. Everyone needs to be accountable for their actions.

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan
Good morning, Bay Area. Its April 8, and a fight is brewing over a San Francisco schools controversial mural depicting slaves. Across the bay, Warriors players and fans are saying their goodbyes to Oracle Arena. Heres what you need to know to start your day.

Offensive or subversive?

For 84 years, students at George Washington High School in San Francisco have walked to class past the scenes of enslaved black people picking cotton and white settlers, urged on by George Washington, stepping over a dead American Indian.

Calls to remove the mural from the school have been around since the 1970s but have gained the support of school officials in recent months. Students say theres a difference between a piece of art on display in a museum wall and one in a public school foyer. Junior Briana King, 16, told reporters Jill Tucker and Gwendolyn Wu that the images on the mural are hurtful and shoved in students faces.

The fight over the mural comes amid a reckoning of historical injustices in the United States and their portrayal in public life, especially in the form of Confederate monuments. But the tension at George Washington High is different, according to mural supporters. This isnt an honorific monument, they say, but rather an important Depression-era piece laden with subversive commentary, reminding viewers of past injustices.

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And theyre promising to sue if the school moves forward with plans to paint over the mural.

PG&E leadership overhaul

Bill Johnson, the next chief executive of Pacific Gas and Electric Co., most recently worked as CEO of the Tennessee Valley Authority. His supporters have credited him with slashing debt, reducing operating expenses and achieving strong safety records. But detractors say Johnson lacked a sufficient commitment to renewable energy, allowed lavish spending on aircraft, and poorly handled the fallout from a major coal ash spill that happened before he arrived.

At the Tennessee utility, Johnson was reportedly the nations highest-paid federal government employee, with a total compensation of $8.1 million for the 2018 fiscal year. Read here about the mixed reaction to Johnsons hiring.

More: Five current PG&E board members held their seats at the time of the 2010 San Bruno gas pipeline explosion, which killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes. All of them will soon be gone once 10 new directors officially assume their roles.

Giving birth to better births

Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle

Frustrated by her experience with her physician during pregnancy  and lack of support after she gave birth  Marna Armstead trained as a doula and started working in San Franciscos Bayview, where she witnessed the dire lack of assistance for pregnant women of color.

Armstead is now part of a partnership getting off the ground this month between SisterWeb, a nonprofit doula network she helped create, and Expecting Justice, an initiative within the citys Public Health Department.

Its part of a wider effort to lessen health disparities in the city  including jarring infant and maternal death rates for black families. Black babies made up 4% of births in the city from 2007 to 2016, but they accounted for 15% of infant deaths. Black mothers in San Francisco accounted for five of the 10 maternal deaths in the city in the same time period.

Last dance at Divas

Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle

This is my life, Rose Olgena says. Ive met a lot of girls here who became my sisters. This became my home. It changed my life.

Divas, San Franciscos only bar for transgender women and their admirers, is closing after 21 years  just after the city created Comptons Transgender Cultural District to preserve trans spaces.

The loss of Divas is a deep and complicated one for the trans community and the neighborhood. Reporter Ryan Kost spent the last official night at Divas talking to the women who called it home.

Goodbye, Roaracle

Scott Strazzante / The Chronicle

Sunday marked the final regular season home game for the Warriors at Oracle Arena, where the team has played 1,936 games since 1967. Read our ode to Oracle here.

Columnist Ann Killion reminisces on the first time she set foot in the area. It was an elementary school birthday party with four other girls. I still think back on that first time I was in the building. How big the parking lot was. How steep the seats were. How much fun it was, Killion writes on that early glimpse of what became a second home for her.

More: A security guard whos worked at the arena for a quarter century doesnt know whether hell have a job at Chase Center. The guard, Curtis Jones, doubles as the Assist Man. He feeds Stephen Curry passes for his famous pregame Tunnel Shot.

Around the bay

 In grief: Oakland City Councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney, long an outspoken leader against gun violence, speaks about the recent shooting death of her son.

 Waiting game: A Transbay district tower that would fund more than 300 affordable housing units at no cost to the city could be held up for years because of San Franciscos cap on the approval of new office space and the flood of big South of Market projects lining up for permits.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

 Safety advocates seeing red: San Franciscos aging traffic cameras were turned off for four months ahead of the installation of a new system, meaning motorists who ran red lights at one of the 20 camera-monitored intersections got a pass.

 Park preservation: A battle between a regional park district and BNSF Railway could soon determine whether the Miller-Knox Regional Shoreline in Richmond becomes home to a busy diesel rail line, which many residents oppose.

 Windfall from Wall Street: Californias 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.

 Why Juul is thriving: Despite a crackdown on youth vaping from local and federal officials, San Francisco e-cigarette company Juul is expanding overseas, with a private valuation greater than Airbnb and Lyft.

 Youth fly fishing: In a first event designed for youngsters and their parents, 15-year-old world-champion flycaster Maxine McCormick will stage a demonstration Sunday in San Franciscos Golden Gate Park.

Chronicle Food + Wine

The Chronicle

Giovanni Costabile, better known as Gio, the proprietor of his eponymous Financial District restaurant, died a few weeks ago.

If you knew Gio, then you know why he deserves a memorial, a proper send-off, in his citys paper of record.

If you didnt know Gio, then let Food Editor Paolo Lucchesi explain:

Gio himself was a treasure, and he influenced a generation of industry folks. Its not a conspicuous lineage, like the Chez Panisse or Michael Mina family trees. Its one that quietly lives today in the veins of the citys watering holes: servers, bartenders and owners.

Read more.

Bay Briefing is written by Taylor Kate Brown and sent to readers email in-boxes on weekday mornings. Sign up for the newsletter here, and contact Brown at taylor.brown@sfchronicle.com
When Marna Armstead experienced bleeding early in her pregnancy 18 years ago, she feared she might miscarry and brought up her concerns at a prenatal appointment. Her longtime obstetrician-gynecologist gave her some unexpected advice: Get an abortion.

She didnt know if I was in a relationship or whether I had support, said Armstead, who is black.

Armstead was clear. She was keeping her baby. Her doctor would be the one to go.

But the stress of looking for a new physician, managing a broken relationship and surviving a high-risk pregnancy  Armstead was diagnosed with gestational diabetes and preeclampsia  wore on her. Despite the joy she felt after giving birth to her daughter, Aleja, she spiraled into postpartum depression.

Thats when I realized people need support going through this type of thing, Armstead said.

In 2006, Armstead began work as a doula  a professional who provides support and guidance before and after childbirth  in San Franciscos Bayview neighborhood. Since then, she has witnessed the dire lack of support for pregnant women of color. This need spurred a partnership getting off the ground this month between SisterWeb, a nonprofit doula network Armstead helped create, and Expecting Justice, an initiative within the citys public health department.

The goal is to provide doulas to women who need help but cant afford it, as well as training culturally competent doulas.

Contributions from the San Francisco Foundations Community Health Innovation Fund and the San Francisco Health Plan  $465,000 and $500,000, respectively  will allow SisterWeb to take referrals from doctors at San Francisco General Hospital and UCSF Medical Center for women who are 10 to 28 weeks pregnant and identify as black or Pacific Islander.

A special emphasis is being placed on these women because they have the citys most dire birth outcomes. A new report by the San Francisco Health Improvement Partnership, a public-private coalition that seeks to eliminate health disparities in the city, underscored jarring infant and maternal death rates for black families.

Black babies made up 4% of births in the city between 2007 and 2016, but they accounted for 15% of infant deaths. The deaths were concentrated in the Bayview, Mission, Visitacion Valley and Excelsior neighborhoods. Perhaps even more startling, black mothers in San Francisco accounted for five of the 10 maternal deaths in the city over that decade.

To help confront this issue, Armstead, 42, has regularly reduced her rates or even volunteered her doula services, which include providing educational, emotional and physical support to families throughout pregnancy, labor and the postpartum period.

SisterWeb Community Doula Network SisterWeb is looking for Spanish-speaking, black and Pacific Islander women to join the network. Prospective doulas can have previous training or gain certification. Women who are interested in a referral from their doctor to SisterWeb must live in San Francisco and be 10 to 28 weeks pregnant. For more information, visit www.sisterweb.org. See More Collapse

Doula services often cost $1,600 to $2,500, and theyre rarely covered by private insurance; Medi-Cal provides no coverage. As a result, doulas are out of reach for many low-income women. But working for free undermined Armsteads effort to have doula work recognized as a skilled profession.

If youre volunteering, then everybody expects that service to be free, and it shouldnt be a free service. Were a valuable member of the birth team and should be treated as such, she said. I started thinking, what can I do to get paid?

Around this same time last spring, former San Francisco Supervisor Malia Cohen, who represented the Bayview, was researching health disparities in birth outcomes for black women after conversations she had with her younger sister and one of her legislative aides, both of whom were pregnant at the time.

Cohens research led her to SisterWeb, which aims to train black, Pacific Islander and Spanish-speaking doulas before matching them with women in their respective communities in San Francisco. Last fall, Cohen announced the partnership with Expecting Justice.

Here we are in this very wealthy city, county, state  the city budget was $11 billion when I made the introduction of the program  and yet you still have women, whether theyre insured or uninsured, with (poor) health outcomes for themselves and their baby, Cohen said. Its an important vehicle for us to fill the gap on increasing positive health outcomes for the mother and the baby.

Studies show that women of color disproportionately live in communities with less access to healthy food, fewer job opportunities, poorer schools and more environmental pollution. All of these factors can heighten stress during pregnancy and lead to preterm births, said Dr. Zea Malawa, the director of Expecting Justice.

One study published in the Journal of Nutrition in 2006 found that black women are more likely than other groups to experience food insecurity during pregnancy, which can result in less weight gain for the woman and fetus. Low birth weight is a significant contributor to infant mortality. Nonwhite women are also more likely to delay prenatal care early in their pregnancies, in many cases because because they dont have private insurance.

Black women report higher stress during pregnancy than other groups, research has shown, which Malawa attributed to institutional and interpersonal racism women of color face. People of color also experience bias in treatment, according to several studies.

Armstead can still recall a moment in her pregnancy when a nurse assumed she used Medicaid, the government assistance program for low-income people. The nurse immediately became more empathetic upon learning she had private insurance, Armstead said.

Doulas provide a consistent and caring voice to help mothers feel empowered, Malawa said. Research has found that their involvement in the birth process correlates with fewer medical interventions, which leads to better birth outcomes.

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A study published by the Journal of Perinatal Education in 2013 found that mothers assisted by doulas were four times less likely to have a baby with a low birth weight and two times less likely to have birth complications.

When Stephanie Dixon, a 28-year-old San Franciscan, got pregnant in 2016, she planned to labor at home and deliver her baby at a birth center instead of a hospital. Her mom, Deundra Hundon, served as her doula.

But after she went into labor in January 2017, Dixons blood pressure spiked and she had to go to the hospital. Even after her vital signs evened out and staff determined she didnt have preeclampsia, the staff pressured Dixon to stay at the hospital and have labor induced.

I was very clear: Thats not what I wanted to do, she said. I felt comfortable with my midwives and my mom as my doula. I was feeling informed and really confident that I was making the right decision.

Doulas start working with women around their 28th week of pregnancy, and can stay involved until the sixth or eighth week after birth. They help mothers find comfortable laboring positions, figure out breast pumps, advise on co-sleeping and generally act as an advocate for the mother.

After the birth, doulas assist families in adjusting to life with a newborn. They also help the recovering mom take care of her body, and theyre available to help cook a meal or hold the baby while a parent takes a shower.

In 2016, around 9% of women in California opted for a doula, while 39% of women expressed interest in having a doula during a future pregnancy, according to a survey of women by the National Partnership for Women & Families.

Dixon and Hundon, 54, now work together as a mother-daughter doula duo based in the Bayview, and theyre part of SisterWeb. Like Armstead, theyve had difficulty finding clients in their community; many women cant afford to pay or dont know that doulas work in their neighborhood.

The neighborhoods that have mom and dad groups are not in the Bayview, Hundon said. Those little spaces and places where other people say, Oh, yeah, I hired a doula  you have to get one!  we dont have that.

Armstead wants mothers, and couples, to feel informed and at ease as they navigate all aspects of a pregnancy.

I actually loved being in labor, Armstead said. I loved being a part of the process of having my daughter. And thats when I realized I wanted other people to realize they can enjoy it. Even with all the craziness happening, you can enjoy having your own experience, and you can have support.
Quietly, in a room at a Berkeley funeral home, Lynette Gibson McElhaney washed her sons face while searching for the bullet hole in his head.

When she found the place in his temple where he was shot, she thought it was small, almost insignificant. She paused, examining it with her eyes and hands, then continued to bathe her son, soaking in one of the final times she would be able to touch his skin.

Victor McElhaney had been shot during a robbery attempt in Los Angeles, where he was a college student. It wasnt the first time the Oakland city councilwoman had lost a dearly loved one to gun violence.

When she learned the news of Victors death on March 10, McElhaney had been focused on another, similar tragedy  the 2015 shooting death of 17-year-old Torian Hughes, whom she had helped raise and considered a grandson. That case was in trial, and McElhaney was planning to attend closing arguments, when a call from Victors best friend awakened her early on a Sunday morning.

Victors been involved in a tragic accident, he told her. Mama, hes been shot. Hes shot.

McElhaney, long an outspoken community leader against gun violence, has seen her life irreparably shaped by its impact over the past four years. After Torians death, she redoubled her efforts in the battle against tragic killings; now, in the wake of Victors death, her resolve is even stronger.

Ive never cried like I cried for Victor, McElhaney told The Chronicle. It is a wailing that I cant even replicate. ... It felt less like a murder than it did a theft. You didnt just steal Victor, you stole my grandchildren.

Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle

If we could stop our babies from dying, if we could find a way to make America safe for black boys to just be boys, to grow up to be old men, to be fathers and grandfathers, she said. If that were the reward for (Victors) sacrifice, I think wed say, OK God, we see the long game.

In the months before her sons death, she sat in the court gallery every day to watch the trial of 23-year-old Shiheim Johnson, the man convicted of pulling the trigger on Torian.

On the day jurors returned a guilty verdict, her seat at the Oakland courthouse was empty. McElhaney planned to be there, but instead she was in Los Angeles asking the driver of a hearse whether her son would be OK during the drive back to Oakland. She found herself again in a cycle of pain familiar to few.

Yes maam, we have him comfortable, the driver said. Yes maam, the car is cold enough.

And with McElhaney following in a separate car, the driver took her son back to Oakland.

I was right in the midst of the trial of Shiheim Johnson and still reliving the pain and the disappointment that we didnt do everything to keep Torian safe, McElhaney said. How fallacious and erroneous are these thoughts? Victor was at one of the most prestigious private colleges in the country. He still got shot in the head.

Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle

An average of 36,383 people die each year from gunfire nationwide, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit organization dedicated to gun violence research. One-third of those deaths are attributed to homicides, and the majority of victims are black. Black people are 10 times more likely than whites to be the victim of a gun-related homicide.

Elected on a platform of enhancing public safety, McElhaney was one of the authors of a 2017 ordinance that established the citys Department of Violence Prevention. The department takes a public health approach as it attempts to reduce the number of homicides by 80 percent by 2020 through working directly with victims of violent crime and individuals who are likely to become victims or perpetrators of violent crime.

In 2018, Oakland had 690 shootings, 277 incidents of assault with a firearm and 68 homicides, according to the citys Police Department. As of March 31, Oakland has had 226 shootings, 63 incidents of assault with a firearm and 20 homicides this year.

This work is all the more urgent in light of the tragedy that has befallen my family, McElhaney said. We are not going to police our way to safety and gun regulation is a part of it, but its not all of it. The vision we have is about lifting up Oaklands Love Life culture and to love up our babies.

This boy who shot my son has a story to tell us. Tell us so we can understand what happened to you. So we can fix it, she said.

Courtesy McElhaney family

Victor was killed on the first day of spring break outside a market near the University of Southern California, where he had been studying jazz percussion at Thornton School of Music since fall 2017.

McElhaney had been calling her son in the days before the shooting. She felt like he was slipping away, as mothers often do, but she couldnt explain why. The antsy feeling was eerily similar to the feeling she had before learning Torian had been killed.

Call me, she said in a voice mail to her son. I need to get my hands on you.

Victor was with two friends buying snacks around 12:30 a.m. before attending an art party held by one of their classmates. Authorities said Victor was confronted by three or four men. No suspects have been identified, and no arrests have been made.

Torian was killed on Dec. 20, 2015, while trying to buy a gun from two other teens, authorities said. One of those teens was Johnson. His alleged accomplice, a 15-year-old boy who hasnt been identified because he was a minor, was arrested on Jan. 4, 2016, and also charged with murder.

Oakland Councilman Larry Reid, who co-wrote the ordinance to establish the Department of Violence Prevention, said McElhaneys resilience is what makes her a remarkable woman.

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To not only lose her grandson and watch her go through that and then watch her go to the courthouse every day for the trial ... only to then turn around to lose her baby, I just dont know where she finds her strength, Reid said. Shes just a very loving and compassionate woman.

McElhaneys commitment to protecting youths from gun violence started long before she was a councilwoman. Raised by a single, working mother in southeast San Diego, McElhaney was only 9 when she started looking after her newborn nephew, DeAngelo Anderson, while his mother was in school.

He would call me Auntie Mommy, McElhaney said with a small smile.

When McElhaney moved to Oakland to attend UC Berkeley, DeAngelo moved in with her when he was just 11 years old.

Its what was necessary to keep him from being shot, she said. To keep him from being caught up in gang violence.

As she enrolled DeAngelo in school and took over the sole responsibility of paying the bills, she was also teaching youth ministry at West Oaklands Mingleton Temple Church of God in Christ.

It was through her role in the church  starting a Saturday school program, creating a safe space for children  that many parents started asking her to be a godparent to their kids. She quickly transitioned from godmother to mother when other peoples kids, or OPKs as she lovingly calls them, often moved in with her.

In 1996, McElhaney and her new husband, Clarence McElhaney, moved into the home they still reside in near downtown Oakland. Their policy of taking in youths struggling with absentee parents, homelessness or abusive partners never changed.

McElhaney took in Torian while his mother struggled with postpartum depression after the birth of her second son. He grew up alongside Victor, McElhaneys only biological child, for nearly six years. The kids were raised in an Afrocentric household and enrolled in private schools.

Victor and Torian loved swords and light sabers. They chased each other throughout the house. Together with their cousins, the boys would play in the backyard, pretending to navigate the depths of a forest as they ran through the overgrown weeds. They played with toy xylophones, tambourines and other instruments, which ultimately led to Victor, a gifted drummer, realizing his passion for music.

As McElhaney struggles to come to terms with her most recent tragedy, there is no question she will eventually return to work as a City Council member, with an even greater focus on ending gun violence.

I keep looking at the picture of Victor and Torian, she said, gesturing to a photo of the two boys smiling at a young age printed in Victors funeral program. How did my baby get caught up in that cycle? I didnt have him running the streets of West Oakland. But I think thats the whole point. This is a threat that finds kindergartners and elementary school (kids). College kids on their campuses. I dont want my son to have to make the point, but here we are.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
For 84 years, San Francisco high school students have walked to class past the scenes of black slaves picking cotton and white settlers urged on by George Washington stepping over a dead American Indian.

To some, the historic mural on a wall at George Washington High is offensive and especially inappropriate for children  so much so that it should be destroyed. But others see an important piece laden with subversive commentary, reminding viewers of the first presidents role in slavery and the death of American Indians during westward expansion.

Over the years, calls to remove the controversial work, Life of Washington by Victor Arnautoff, have failed. Yet a renewed effort has momentum, winning the backing of many students, the Board of Education president and a community task force that has called on the district to cover the Depression-era art with white paint.

They will face a vocal art community aligned with the schools alumni organization, whose members have pledged to defend the 1,600-square-foot fresco, saying efforts to destroy or remove it amount to censorship and a whitewashing of history in a city that ought to be much more sophisticated. They promise to sue if necessary.

I think the images are really harmful, said school board President Stevon Cook. But I do understand the sensitivity about it being art. Its a difficult position to be in.

Difficult or not, the mural needs to go, he said  either moved, if financially and logistically possible, or painted over. Hes urging the superintendent to report back on costs and options by the end of the school year in May so the board can take a final vote.

Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle

While art often stirs strong feelings, some opponents of the mural, including students, say theres a difference between a display on a museum wall and one in a public school foyer. Junior Briana King, 16, said last week that the images on the mural are hurtful, are shoved in students faces and cant be avoided.

Its rude and disrespectful to peoples cultures, King said.

Senior Emily Leung, 17, agreed, saying the murals depict Washington harming American Indians and African Americans, something she doesnt want to see every day. Briana and Emily both said the art should be replaced by something more inclusive and uplifting.

I have no idea what, but I want something with no racism, Leung said.

Other students, though, said the images served a teaching purpose at the school. I think its there to remind us what happened in the past, said sophomore Amy Zheng, 15.

The controversy comes amid a broad reckoning of U.S. historys injustices with modern social mores. Monuments to Confederate leaders, slave owners and white supremacists have been removed. Street and building names have been changed. In Marin County, some residents are fighting  unsuccessfully, so far  to change the name of the Dixie School District, saying the name is a symbol of the pro-slavery South and an affront to African Americans.

But the tension at George Washington High is different, mural supporters say. This isnt an honorific monument, but rather a historic mural by a renowned artist and, like all art, subject to interpretation and context. Art, even if offensive, represents a place, a time and an artists commentary on the world.

To simply erase it would be the opposite of what art should be about, said Jon Golinger, who has helped preserve similar murals by Arnautoff in Coit Tower. History is not something we can whitewash, especially if an artist is trying to remind us that things are not always perfect. The notion that the way to handle uncomfortable information in a school is to burn a book or whitewash a mural is to teach our kids the wrong message.

Greg Peterson / The Chronicle 1968

It was 1936 when the Works Progress Administration commissioned Arnautoff, a Russian artist, to paint the the Washington mural in the newly built school in the citys Richmond neighborhood. It was one of many pieces of public art created in San Francisco as part of President Franklin Roosevelts New Deal employment projects.

Arnautoff painted the Washington scenes directly on wet plaster and in the social realist style of his mentor, Mexican artist Diego Rivera. At the time, Life of Washington was considered something of a subversive work, illustrating enslavement and slaughter, Golinger said.

Arnautoff would later teach art at Stanford, where he survived calls to fire him in 1955 for a satirical caricature of Vice President Richard Nixon called Dix McSmear, which associated Nixon with McCarthyism and prompted Arnautoffs interrogation by the House Un-American Activities Committee. A longtime member of the Communist Party, he returned to the Soviet Union in the mid-1960s and died in Leningrad in 1979.

Where to find Arnautoffs work Russian Victor Arnautoff was among the artists commissioned by the Works Progress Administration to create public art under President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. Five murals are on display in and around the Bay Area. "City Life": Arnautoff painted city life scenes on the interior walls of San Francisco's Coit Tower, depicting passersby, newsstands and crime on city streets. Visitors can view the mural on the ground floor at 1 Telegraph Hill. "Life of Washington":The fresco on the life of the first president adorns the walls of George Washington High School in San Francisco's Richmond District. The works are positioned just inside the school entrance at 600 32nd Ave. Those wishing to see it can email newsline@sfusd.edu for public viewing times. "Peacetime Activities of the Army": The Interfaith Center at the Presidio in San Francisco is home to another Arnautoff mural, which shows historical and religious figures and peacetime activities of the Army, according to the center's website. To see the fresco, visitors can attend a two-hour Sunday open house tour at 130 Fisher Loop. "Lovers' Point":Those dropping off mail at the post office in Pacific Grove (Monterey County) can observe Arnautoff's beach mural of Lover's Point State Park. The mural is in the lobby at 680 Lighthouse Ave. "South San Francisco, Past and Present": Arnautoff's work is also on display at a post office in South San Francisco, where he painted the city's history on the wall at 322 Linden Ave. See More Collapse

Several of his public murals raised eyebrows or hackles when unveiled, including one painted in 1932 in Palo Alto celebrating medical advancements that included a doctor examining a bare-breasted female patient. A Coit Tower mural shows a newspaper rack containing a Marxist journal and a Communist Party publication, but not what was considered at the time the conservative San Francisco Chronicle.

As I see it, the artist is a critic of society, Arnautoff told The Chronicle in 1935.

The George Washington mural was described upon its completion as one of the major masterpieces of fresco on this coast, according to a Chronicle review. Three decades later, just months after the 1967 Summer of Love, a group of students at the high school called on administrators to destroy or alter the images of slavery. Black power clashes with art, one headline read.

The blacks did more than just pick cotton, Roosevelt Thomas, the president of the Black Student Union, said at the time. During the Revolution, more than 5,000 blacks fought for this nations independence.

In response to the controversy, artist Dewey Crumpler, who is black, was hired to paint additional works at the school, compromise murals depicting Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans and African Americans overcoming oppression. Yet resentment and outrage has remained, said Lateefah Simon, who graduated from the school in 1995.

I always have deep thoughts about that damn mural, said Simon, now a member of the BART Board of Directors. Every single day I walked up those steps as a black girl, it was pretty clear I was looking at racist iconography.

Dave Randolph / The Chronicle 1974

Her daughter also attended the school, confronted by those same images until she graduated in 2012, Simon said. We shouldnt be seeing those images outside of textbooks and museums, she said. They are not for glory, and they are not for show.

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The recent fight over the mural started intensifying roughly a year ago, with some students, parents and community members pressing the school board to take action. District officials then created a community panel of students, artists and alumni, among others, to publicly discuss the mural and come up with a recommendation to address concerns.

Eight of the groups 11 members recommended the mural be digitally archived and then painted over, because the mural does not represent SFUSD values, said district spokeswoman Gentle Blythe. One member voted against the removal, and two abstained.

The majority of the group expressed that the main reason to keep the mural up at the school is focused on the legacy of the artist, rather than experience of the students, Blythe said.

Lope Yap Jr., vice president of the schools alumni association, was the lone dissenting vote. He said that though he appreciates the passion and the feelings of those offended by the images in the mural, the answer is not to destroy them.

I cant imagine trashing art, just like justifying the book-burning in Germany in the 30s, Yap said.

He likened the move to blowing up Mount Rushmore because it depicts Washington and Thomas Jefferson, both former slave owners. Yap suggested alternatives, including creating new art with positive images at the school or adding plaques beside Life of Washington explaining Arnautoffs perspective and the purpose of the federally funded installations.

I honor what Arnautoff tried to do and did do, Yap said. He was trying to say this was a dark past of our country.

District Superintendent Vince Matthews and his staff are reviewing the recommendation and will present options to the school board at a public meeting, Blythe said.

Others possibilities suggested by critics include covering the mural with a tarp or projecting digital images onto it to hide the offensive parts from daily viewing. If the fresco were to be moved, that would probably require removing the walls to preserve the panels. Its unclear how much that would cost  or who would pay for it.

With enough resources, technically it could be done, Golinger said. It would be quite a feat.

Yap said any school board vote to destroy the artwork would be met with a lawsuit, perhaps based on California art preservation laws or an argument that the destruction would constitute a waste of taxpayer dollars.

We would pursue every legal course to prevent this from happening, Yap said.

City Supervisor Matt Haney, who helped start the current effort to remove the mural from student view, said he opposes painting over it. Still, he believes students should not have to see slavery and a dead American Indian as they go about their school day. Haney has also gone further  proposing to rename the school, given Washingtons past as a slave owner.

There may have been a certain intention with the art, he said, but over the years weve heard again and again from people who feel offended by it, hurt by it, and feel less safe and supported in our schools as a result of it.

Jill Tucker and Gwendolyn Wu are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com, gwendolyn.wu@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jilltucker, @gwendolynawu
First, she heard them: the rattle of tiny footsteps in the walls and the radiator of a double room at Stern Hall dormitory.

Soon enough, Annabelle Longs worst fears were realized. Her roommate texted to say she had just reached down to grab her phone charger on the floor and nearly brushed up against a belly-up mouse.

At one point, there were more dead mice in my room than there were people, said Long, a freshman at UC Berkeley.

Students living in Stern Hall, the schools only all-female residence hall, say that they are sick of cohabitating with mice, ants and other vermin, and that the university has ignored the problem for years now. The annual cost of living in a double room at Stern Hall is $17,420, and some residents argue its unfair they should pay the same rate as peers in new or renovated dorms.

The university said it is working to address the pest-control problem and has offered alternative housing to the affected students.

The health and safety of our students is our greatest concern, Adam Ratliff, a university spokesman, said in an email. A handful of students have recently encountered mice in Stern and (nearby) Foothill Halls. We understand how distressing that can be.

Ratliff said the staff has been setting traps, sealing points of entry and cleaning impacted areas.

These residential halls are located adjacent to wooded areas and there is always the risk of attracting wildlife such as rodents, he said. Rodents are a matter that can take time to improve and that we will have to remain constantly vigilant against.

Until now, residents had mostly commiserated in hallway conversations and group messaging apps. Their pleas went public when the Confessions from UC Berkeley Facebook page shared an anonymous post about life at Stern Hall, according to the student-run newspaper, the Daily Californian, which first reported on the Facebook post last week.

Isnt Stern being this terrible some sort of Title IX violation? We literally have to throw away dead mice and take consistently cold showers while paying the same as other dorms, the post read.

One student who commented on the post said shes been sleeping on her rooms thinly carpeted concrete floor since February, when the university took her mattress because of a bedbug infestation.

Each year, the university parks several hundred incoming freshmen at Stern Hall, which was constructed in 1941.

You dont choose Stern Hall. Stern Hall chooses you, said Abigail Broughton, a junior at UC Berkeley. She was placed in Stern Hall two years ago and remembers living conditions being terrible then, too.

She would wake all night long to brush ants from her arms and legs. Broughton, who is majoring in public health and neurobiology, and her roommate would keep the door open until the smell of Raid insect spray dissipated. Eventually, maintenance staff provided the women with ant traps, but Broughton said they had dealt with the infestation by then.

If a double in Stern is the same price as a double in any of the other residence halls, then it is extremely unfair for us to have paid the same amount yet experience much worse living conditions, said Broughton, who moved off campus for the next academic year.

Long, a current resident, agreed with her.

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If Stern was a lot cheaper than the other dorms then the lack of upkeep would maybe feel more justified, said Long, who is studying history and public policy with the intent of going to law school. But since were paying as much as the other dorms cost, it seems like our standard of living should be equal as well.

Some residents are more forgiving.

After mice tore up her snack supply, leaving feces and crumbs behind, freshman Amber Chen filed a request through the schools online maintenance portal. The school was slow to respond, Chen said, so she and her roommate laid glue traps for the mice and caught several.

Eventually, a maintenance worker came to patch holes in the room, but the mice kept coming. Chen keeps food in plastic bins now and said she hasnt been visited by as many rodents since winter.

Since the selection of dorms is by chance, I think pricing the dorm at around the same price is reasonable, Chen said. There are pros and cons to every dorm and unfortunately for us, we had to deal with the rodent issue.

Still, she wants the university to take students concerns more seriously.

The rodent issue in Stern and Foothill has been a known problem for years, and I feel like university housing should take a more active role in addressing the issue, Chen said. The mouse problem is a health concern and should not be something residents have to deal with themselves.

Melia Russell is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: melia.russell@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meliarobin
On a recent morning, small waves lapped at the rocky shore, picnickers gathered at tables around a lagoon, and families perambulated along the eastern edge of San Francisco Bay to enjoy a sunny day in Richmond. The scenic escape at Miller-Knox Regional Shoreline was carved out of an industrial waterfront more than four decades ago to provide a refuge from the press of nearby freeways, refineries, chemical plants and factories.

But a battle between the regional park district and BNSF Railway could soon determine whether the 307-acre space remains a peaceful sanctuary or becomes home to a busy diesel rail line  something many residents adamantly oppose.

This land should be a park, said Joe Groom, 71, of Richmond, as he strolled along the unused rails with his dog, Keo. Theres not very much open space like this in Richmond. The railroad would destroy the ambiance of this place. Theyre noisy and theyre dirty, and they dont really belong in a park.

The feud over the shorelines fate began about six months ago, as the East Bay Regional Park District was wrapping up nearly six years of work on a plan to improve the space  including removing unused railroad tracks. BNSF officials bristled over the decision and sent a pair of letters to the district arguing that the railroad owns the rights to run trains on the right of way, and plans to do so. The fight is now being waged in Contra Costa County court, and park users and public officials have formed a coalition to combat BNSFs plan to run trains through Miller-Knox Park.

Support for the park district is coming from not only residents and parkgoers but a multigenerational cast of elected leaders.

Retired Rep. George Miller III, whose late father is a half-namesake for the park, said he hopes BNSF will reconsider its intrusive rail activity. Along with John T. Knox, son of the other park namesake, hes joined a campaign to protect the park.

Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

While the city is not an official party in the legal dispute, Richmond Mayor Tom Butt recently announced plans to introduce a resolution at an upcoming City Council meeting that would oppose the railroads plans. Councilman Demnlus Johnson III said he plans to support the resolution, because the park serves a community need for those in search of fresh air and open space.

The park is used by a very diverse set of individuals, Johnson said Its something people  black, brown and white  all use. Its not just a park for rich people, its just not. Its one of the citys top amenities, especially for black and brown people who live in polluted communities.

The railroad and Richmond have long coexisted, but not always peacefully.

BNSF Railways predecessor, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, brought Richmond to life in 1900 when it located its western terminus there. The railroad built a large rail yard near what became Point Richmond and a tunnel and tracks to Ferry Point on the shoreline, where passenger trains rolled onto barges to San Francisco and freight trains were taken to other bay ports.

Now the rail company wants to restore the unused tracks that run through the shoreline park to help build and send long trains out of its rail yard. The park district, which acquired the railroad right-of-way through eminent domain in 1991, prefers to rip up the rusty old rails and pave a smooth, wide bayside trail.

Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

A year after Santa Fe established its western terminus, Standard Oil (now Chevron) built a refinery, Point Richmond boomed and the swampy area along the Richmond waterfront, and beyond, grew into an industrial mecca, including a World War II shipyard where real-life Rosie the Riveters built U.S. warships and Ford manufactured cars, tanks and jeeps.

Starting in the 1960s and continuing into the 1980s, Point Richmond residents and the East Bay Regional Park District bought up land along the shoreline, south of the town, to provide public access to the bay. Miller-Knox Regional Shoreline was created in 1975.

Miller-Knox Regional Shoreline was created, park officials and supporters say, to provide relief to some of the Bay Areas poorest residents living in crowded neighborhoods in the shadow of polluting industry.

People in that area are surrounded by heavy industry, and this park is a place residents can go and get fresh, clean air and enjoy views of the bay, said Kristina Kelchner, the park districts acting assistant general manager. Its why the park was located there. There was a big fight in the 70s and 80s to convert this area to a local park.

The railroad maintains, and occasionally uses, a small stretch of track, south of the Point Richmond tunnel, that extends maybe 100 yards. Its blocked with a set of rail bumpers and a large concrete barrier covered in graffiti. Beyond the barrier, the tracks are rusted and, in some locations, partially or fully buried beneath dirt.

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BNSF says its business is up, and it needs more track to help assemble long freight trains from its Richmond yard. For now, the railroad has offered no details on how it intends to use the tracks through the park. But it has proposed moving its tracks a bit farther from the bay to give the park district room to build a bayside trail.

Lena Kent, a BNSF spokeswoman, said the park and the railroad have had a long and successful co-existence, and the company wants to continue that relationship by making way for a safe trail.

Kelchner argued that the plan would leave a wall of railcars blocking access to the bay and obstructing the view.

When the park district bought the right of way in 1991 via eminent domain, the railroad was granted an easement to run trains to two industrial sites, both of which are now defunct. The rails havent been used in many years, though how many is in dispute.

Kelchner says the park district has done battle with railroads before and believes it can protect Miller-Knox Regional Shoreline from being bisected by a rail line.

We feel like we have a very strong case, she said. Unlike other places where the railroad holds all the cards, in this case the railroad sold us this property. They sold it to us, and we are confident.

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan
Oaklands Department of Transportation wants to drive a larger portion of the citys infrastructure bond money to the low-income neighborhoods in the flatlands of East Oakland.

But, as my colleague Rachel Swan reported last week, some residents in the North Oakland hills want to put the brakes on the proposal, which is part of a citywide attempt to address historic racial and economic disparities.

Oakland is driving in the right direction.

The three-year, $100 million plan sets aside $25 million to maintain Oaklands main roads while dividing the remaining $75 million for local streets in nine zones. The department hopes to have the proposal in front of the Oakland City Council by the end of the month. If passed, more than a third of the $75 million will be spent in neighborhoods that have the highest percentage of poor roads and the highest percentage of underserved residents.

To me, this is what equity looks like.

Equity and justice means looking at traditionally disadvantaged, disinvested communities that havent had the resources, who have been traditionally shut out of opportunities, and trying to equalize that, said Ellen Wu, the executive director of Urban Habitat, a nonprofit that works to create equitable policies for low-income districts and communities of color.

The plan may not seem fair to some residents, but we cant ignore that whole neighborhoods in Oakland have been treated unfairly for decades.

Theres a reason why the neighborhoods look different, Wu said.

The multitude of problems in the city wont get fixed without addressing the system that created and perpetuated the problems. Structural racism is baked into the political and economic systems and institutions that have historically disadvantaged people of color and erected roadblocks to achieving stability.

In Oakland, there are wide gaps between blacks and other racial groups in income, education, housing, public safety, and neighborhood and civic life, according to a study conducted by City University of New Yorks Institute for State and Local Governance. CUNY produced a racial equity report card, and the city scored a dismal 33.5 out of a possible 100 points  with 1 representing the highest possible inequity and 100 representing the highest possible equity.

Using equity to design the citys path forward wont be as bumpy as currently driving in the city, where 60% of local streets are in poor condition, according to the Pavement Condition Index.

Ive long been frustrated by the road conditions. When I returned home to my neighborhood  Rockridge, if youre curious  on Thursday afternoon, there was an orange cone sticking out of a pothole on Hudson Street. It looked like a kids birthday hat. In November, I heard a pop while I was driving on Forest Street, but I didnt realize I had a flat tire until I was on the highway.

I bought four new tires.

Brittany Hosea-Small / Special to The Chronicle

I realize not everyone can afford to do the same.

The average motorist loses $1,049 a year in repair costs from driving on the Bay Areas dilapidated roads, according to an October report by Trip, a transportation research group in Washington, D.C. The cost has a higher impact on low-income communities where a repair might mean other bills like rent take a back seat for a month.

For the plan, the department defined underserved as people of color, low-income households, people with disabilities, people with limited English proficiency, youth, seniors and households with severe rent burdens.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Combined, the Central East Oakland and Eastlake/Fruitvale regions have 35% of the citys streets that are in poor condition, and a whopping 57% of the citys underserved population.

In comparison, the North Oakland hills region has 16% of the citys poor roads, and only 2% of Oaklands underserved residents.

We really recognize for a DOT to appropriately serve Oakland, we needed to recognize the disparities that exist and the role transportation policy and urban policy sort of played in creating those disparities  and the power it could have to be part of reversing these disparities, Ryan Russo, the citys transportation chief, told me.

If the City Council approves the plan, the Central East Oakland region will get $15.1 million, followed by Eastlake/Fruitvale with $14.5 million. The North and East Oakland hills would receive $5.7 million and $5 million, respectively.

Daniel Swafford, the executive director of the Montclair Village Association, a business district in the North Oakland hills, said the city should prioritize revenue-generating commercial districts.

Where can the money be invested today that has the most value and the ability to have the greatest effect for the city as a whole? he said. When you look at a commercial district, thats where you really get that return on investment. Thats where you get the ability to generate future resources that can help with more pothole filling and more service to repaving.

Swafford thinks repaving roads would drive more people to shop in commercial districts like Montclair Village. Wu hopes the repaved roads in East Oakland dont drive residents out of the city.

We want these communities, absolutely, to have investments, but we definitely want to make sure that it does not cause displacement, Wu said.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Otis R. Taylor Jr. appears Mondays and Thursdays. Email: otaylor@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @otisrtaylorjr
SAN FRANCISCO  Pinterest set a price range for its initial public offering Monday that will value the company below its last private-market peg of $12 billion.

In an updated prospectus, the digital pin board company said that it planned to price its offering at $15 to $17 a share. At the high end of that range, the business would be valued at about $11.3 billion, accounting for stock options and restricted stock.

Pinterest, which was valued at $12 billion in 2017 by venture capitalists and other private investors, is part of a horde of high-profile but unprofitable tech startups that are now moving toward the public market.

A stock market valuation of less than $12 billion for Pinterest raises questions about investor demand for these companies. Lyft, the ride-hailing company that is deeply unprofitable, went public last month amid a great deal of hype  until its shares promptly fell below its offering price on its second day of trading. The stock has since recovered.

How Lyft and Pinterest perform in their public debuts will be critical in the lead-up to the public offering of Uber, the largest of this generation of tech startups. Uber is expected to go public in the next few months at a valuation of around $120 billion, in what would be the biggest offering by a U.S. company.

Several other smaller companies are planning public offerings, including Zoom, a video conferencing company; PagerDuty, a software company; and Slack, an office communications company.

Pinterests filing on Monday will coincide with the beginning of the companys road show, during which it plans to pitch institutional investors before its final pricing and first day of trading. High demand from investors over the next several days could lead the company to raise the price of its shares.

Private investors have poured $1.5 billion into Pinterest. A market debut below $12 billion would spell a loss for some of them.

Pinterest, which makes digital pin boards that allow people to save images and links from around the web, has traditionally been conservative in its spending and approach to growth. Its chief executive, Ben Silbermann, built Pinterest slowly and steadily. Pinners, as users are known, use Pinterest today to create collagelike mood boards on topics such as food, events and hobbies.

Silbermanns approach has contrasted with those of other entrepreneurs who lead companies known as unicorns, which are valued at more than $1 billion by private investors. Such companies have typically prioritized fast growth over profits and take many years to go public. Unicorns that sell or go public below their last private valuation are known as undercorns.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

Like its peers, Pinterest loses money. But the company, which generates revenue from advertising, is burning less cash than Lyft or Uber. In March, Pinterest revealed it lost $63 million on revenue of $756 million in 2018. Pinterest is also growing quickly, reporting a 60 percent jump in revenue between 2017 and 2018.

The company plans to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol PINS.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times
Eleven Democratic U.S. senators on Monday opened an investigation into San Francisco vaping company Juul  adding to a growing chorus of regulators and legislators trying to clamp down on youth vaping and Juul in particular.

Led by Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., lawmakers sent a letter to Juul CEO Kevin Burns seeking detailed information about the companys youth marketing tactics and the intentions behind its new partnership with Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris, which in December announced it would pay $12.8 billion for a 35 percent stake in Juul.

Juul is one of the most popular e-cigarette brands among teens, selling nicotine pods that evoke the smell and flavor of mango, mint and creme. Analysts estimate the company has 70 percent of the U.S. e-cigarette market. In November, under pressure from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Juul voluntarily suspended the sale of most of its flavored pods in brick-and-mortar stores as part of an effort to combat underage vaping, but continued selling them online. The company also shut down its social media accounts.

The letter was signed by Durbin and Democratic Sens. Patty Murray, Ron Wyden, Sherrod Brown, Richard Blumenthal, Jack Reed, Elizabeth Warren, Tom Udall, Ed Markey, Jeff Merkley and Chris Van Hollen.

California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris are not among the signatories of the letter. But Feinstein is working with Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, on legislation to stop the online sale of e-cigarettes to minors.

A spokeswoman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose district includes Juul, directed questions to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, whose chairman, Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., is taking the lead in the House against youth vaping. Pallone has said he plans to release legislation to restrict the sale of flavored e-cigarettes.

While Juul has promised to address youth vaping through its modest voluntary efforts, by accepting $12.8 billion from Altria  a tobacco giant with such a disturbing record of deceptive marketing to hook children onto cigarettes  Juul has lost what little remaining credibility the company had when it claimed to care about the public health, the Senate letter says. While you and your investors may be perfectly content with hooking an entire new generation of children on your tobacco products in order to increase your profit margins, we will not rest until your dangerous products are out of the hands of our nations children.

Juul has long said that its products are meant to help adult cigarette smokers wean off cigarettes, and the Altria investment will get more Juul products into the hands of smokers trying to quit cigarettes. As part of the Altria partnership, Juul inserts will be included in Altria-branded cigarette packs.

We welcome the opportunity to share information regarding Juul Labs commitment to curbing underage use of our products while fulfilling our mission to eliminate combustible cigarettes, the number one cause of preventable death in our country, Juul spokesman Ted Kwong said in a statement. We agree that companies such as ours must step up with meaningful measures to limit access and appeal of vapor products to young people. Thats exactly what weve done, and we will do more to combat teen use to save the harm-reduction opportunity for the 34 million adult smokers in the United States.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

In the letter, the senators ask Juul to list all of its advertising buys including radio, television, print and social media, and to detail steps it has taken to ensure the ads are not seen by people under 21. They also ask Juul whether it has paid social media influencers to promote its products, and if so, to provide a list of those figures.

The lawmakers are also asking Juul for sales figures for all of its flavored products, broken down into physical retail channels and online.

Juul has until April 25 to respond to the questions and document requests.

Catherine Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Cat_Ho
The image on the front of the BAMPFA program for the Tuesday, April 2, celebration of Peter Selzs 100th birthday was of Selz, proponent/curator/expert of modern art, gleefully stretching his arms high to reach Silver Clouds, a Mylar balloon-like sculpture by Andy Warhol.

It was said at this event, however, that Selz, who was celebrated for what speaker Debra Burchett-Lere described as his emotional passion and his honesty when looking at art, was not naturally a fan of Warhol. He was born in Germany; Hans Hoffman and Max Beckmann were artists he admired, and Alfred Stieglitz was his mentor. Selz, who studied and taught at the University of Chicago before holding various academic posts, was curator of modern painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York before he came to California, where in 1965, he become founding director of the Berkeley Art Museum. He was project director of Christos Running Fence in 1976, when that work crossed the hillsides of Marin and Sonoma Counties.

Selz was respected for his discerning eye and also known for his bohemian misbehavior, said his biographer and friend, Paul Karlstrom. One art historian had described Selz as a pagan, said Karlstrom, looking out into the audience at the birthday boy, sitting in his wheelchair and ready to take the stage. Peter is not smiling, Karlstrom said.

When it was his turn to speak, Selzs chair was wheeled to the front of the room, and museum director Larry Rinder asked him a few questions. The first of those, of course, had to be general ... and Selz wasnt buying. Asked what he thought about the current art world, he said, Well, Im not thinking about anything right now. I dont know where art is going. I cant answer that.

Later on in the conversation, the birthday boy warmed to the task. I can say theres a lot of very, very good art being produced now, a lot of surprises. ... I have felt optimistic about art all my life. Im trying to keep track. ... There are so many exciting things being produced by people I never heard of.

Artists have to be intelligent, he said, and art thats created without emotion cant be very good. The birthday boys gift to the crowd  artists, art curators, art historians and art educators  was the opportunity to say Amen along with congratulations.

P.S.: Kellys Cove Press publisher Bart Schneider wrote me about a March celebration of the birthday at the Belmont residential community, where, after a while, the guest of honor decided hed had enough and said, Im going home. Among the guests there was Heyday Books founder Malcolm Margolin, who mentioned at the BAMPFA party that he intends to take Selz to visit Lawrence Ferlinghetti, his contemporary.

 Last Gasp Press publisher Ron Turner, who published 27 issues of Weirdo comic magazine over 15 years, was mighty pleased that The Book of Weirdo: A Retrospective of R. Crumbs Legendary Humor Comics Anthology, to be published on May 1, was, at one point last week, numero uno on Amazon in its graphic books category, says Turner. But Frankly, I would rather be numero uno at all the independent bookstores.

The book is described by Colin Turner, who works alongside his dad at Last Gasp, as the story of a publication that was deranged, despised, depraved, dirty, honest, ornery, perverted, gross, neurotic, insulting, fun-losing, tragic, ugly, grim, infantile, reactionary, unique, stupid and brilliant.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

 Todays it-boys may be Shazam and Aquaman, but back in the day, Herbert Marcuse, the philosopher and political theorist, was the hero whose name was much flung about on college campuses. Marcuse is the subject of Nick Thorkelsons new work, the first graphic book ever published by City Lights. Herbert Marcuse, Philosopher of Utopia: A Graphic Biography has an introduction by Angela Davis, who used to be a student of Marcuses.

 Gary and O.J. Shansby, stalwarts of the San Francisco cultural scene, are selling their Oakville compound  three acres, including a 5,000-square-foot main home, guest cottage, and three-car garage  for $22.5 million, says the Wall Street Journal. The Shansbys have places in Pacific Heights and Indian Wells. Intrigued by the desert beauty, O.J. Shansby told The Chronicle. S.F. and the desert seems right now.

PUBLIC EAVESDROPPING

Woman: Did I hear him say he was going to get a CAT scan? Man: No, he said he was going to get a gas can.

Conversation between elderly woman and man, overheard in Berkeley by Andrea Behr

Leah Garchik is open for business in San Francisco, 415-777-8426. Email: lgarchik@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @leahgarchik
President Trumps efforts to close U.S. doors to asylum seekers suffered another setback Monday when a federal judge in San Francisco said he would halt the administrations practice of sending migrants back to Mexico while their cases were considered.

Then-Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen announced the Back to Mexico policy in December and implemented it in January. The policy applied to thousands of undocumented immigrants, mostly from Central America, who persuaded asylum judges that they had a credible fear of persecution if returned to their homelands.

Previous policies allowed asylum seekers to enter the United States while awaiting a final ruling from immigration courts, but Nielsen instead kept them in Mexico, where advocates said they faced dangerous conditions.

Nielsen announced her resignation Sunday, reportedly under pressure from Trump. A day later, U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg said federal law allows immigration officials to hold undocumented immigrants in detention during their asylum cases, or to release them, but not to send them back to Mexico.

Under the plain language of the statute, they simply are not subject to the ... return provision that applies to other categories of immigrants, Seeborg said. He said the Department of Homeland Security also failed to take steps to protect the asylum-seekers from harm they might suffer in Mexico. An international treaty bars the U.S. from sending asylum seekers to a country in which their life or freedom would be threatened.

The legal question is not whether the (policy) is a wise, intelligent or humane policy, but whether it complies with the law, Seeborg said. He said he would issue a nationwide injunction against the policy, but delayed its effective date until Thursday to allow the administration to appeal and seek a stay from a higher court.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.

The ruling is the latest in a series of asylum cases to go against Trump, who said last week that he would like to get rid of the whole asylum system.

A federal appeals court in December rejected the administrations attempt to allow only immigrants who entered the U.S. at currently jammed ports of entry to apply for asylum. Also in December, a federal judge struck down former Attorney General Jeff Sessions attempt to bar victims of domestic violence or gang violence in their home countries from seeking asylum in the U.S. And in January, another federal judge ruled that asylum-seekers have a right to judicial review of deportation orders.

Theyve talked about closing the border, not going to let asylum-seekers in, that we want to make it clear that asylum-seekers arent welcome here, said Judy Rabinovitz, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney representing the plaintiffs in Mondays case.

You can decide what policies you want, but youve got to comply with the law, she said.

The ACLUs clients are 11 people who fled their homes in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, where they said they faced extreme violence, including rape and death threats. They said they have continued to suffer physical and verbal assaults since being returned to Mexico under the administrations policy.

That policy leaves individuals and families stranded on the other side of the border, when what they need and deserve under our laws is protection in America, said Archi Pyati of the Tahirih Justice Center, a service and advocacy organization for immigrant women and girls and also a plaintiff in the case.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko
Companies making the most money and paying their top management the biggest salaries would pay a lot more in taxes to help fund public schools if two Bay Area legislators have their way.

State Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, and Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, plan to introduce a bill Monday, The Chronicle has learned, raising the corporate tax rate for companies with net income above $10 million  the top 0.2% of companies that do business in the state  to 10.84%, up from 8.84%.

The income generated from companies like Facebook, Google, McDonalds, Apple, Walmart and Chevron would raise an estimated $2 billion, according to Skinner.

But the legislation doesnt stop there. It would raise taxes even more on those companies depending on how much they pay their chief executive compared with their workers. Those paying top management more than 300 times that of their average employee would pay a state tax rate of 14.84%.

The progressive tax rate based on pay disparity would raise up to $3 billion, Skinner said.

The measure would direct the money to early childhood education programs, public schools and community colleges.

Teachers shouldnt have to go on strike for decent wages, Skinner said in a statement. Increasing taxes on big corporations is one of the fairest and most progressive ways to achieve our goals.

The measure, SB37, would help offset some of the tax savings companies got from President Trumps 2017 corporate tax cut, which has resulted in savings of up to $17 million for companies doing business in California, according to the legislators.

I really wanted to give California a better fair share, and capture some of the Trump tax-cut windfall, plus reward the corporations that are willing to shrink that gap between what they pay top executives and what they pay their employees, Skinner said.

In 2018, corporate taxes made up 9% of Californias annual revenue, down from 15% in 1970, according to Skinners office.

Our hugely profitable corporations did not need Trumps massive tax-cut windfall, Robert Reich, a UC Berkeley professor and former U.S. labor secretary under President Bill Clinton, said in a statement. SB37 will allow California to capture part of that giveaway and redirect funds to state programs that need it most  like public education and social services.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

While critics of corporate tax increases contend that high rates drive away companies, this increase would apply to the most profitable companies doing business in California, not just those based in the state.

The new tax structure also would incentivize large companies to address the growing wage gap between workers and executives.

Progressive tax SB37 proposes a progressive tax rate on the most profitable businesses in California, with a higher rate for those paying workers significantly less than their top executives. Here is a look at the proposed corporate tax rates tied to wage gaps between CEOs and median employees: CEO pay 0 to 50 times more: 10.84% 50 to 100 times higher: 11.84% 100 to 200 times: 12.84% 200 to 300 times: 13.84% More than 300 times: 14.84% Current corporate tax rate: 8.84% See More Collapse

On average, CEOs of top U.S. companies make nearly $14 million per year  or 361 times more than the typical worker, according to the 2018 AFL-CIO Executive Paywatch .

The California Teachers Association, the states largest teachers union, has signed on in support of the bill.

Its shameful that California ranks 41st in per pupil spending nationwide when we used to rank in the top 10, Wicks said in a statement. SB37 will provide California with billions in new revenues  revenues that will fund higher teacher salaries, more education programs, and early childhood needs.

Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jilltucker
San Francisco has a real opportunity to effectively address major problems in the care of the seriously mentally ill, often homeless, individuals visible everywhere on the streets. This month the supervisors will be discussing the fate of the citys juvenile hall.

This 150-bed facility is ideally suited for conversion to acute- and subacute-care hospital beds needed to provide the kind of long-term stabilization in the lives of the seriously mentally ill, post crisis, to succeed in supportive housing or assisted outpatient settings and not end up back on the streets or in jail after release.

We know of at least two excellent examples of mental health programs, in comparable settings, that use assisted outpatient treatment.

In Los Angeles County, county workers demonstrated a dramatic reduction in homelessness and suicide attempts for those who went through its conservatorship program.

The other program, Cordilleras Hospital, is in Redwood City with 117 beds. It, too, offers a conservatorship program, which is monitored by the San Mateo County conservators office, with continuity of care by conservators after release. Care is provided by licensed clinical social workers with small, manageable caseloads. Treatment lasts three months to one year, using a step-down approach leading to community placement.

There is no comparable program in San Francisco, and a converted juvenile hall would be the obvious place to put one.

The process of moving toward conversion will take time while alternative solutions are necessary immediately. We can fill glaring gaps in mental health care if political will is mobilized now.

First, 40 psychiatric beds could become available by converting San Francisco General Hospitals former mental health rehabilitation facility back to its original use. Although constructed to be a subacute-care ward, much of the facility is now used for other purposes, including office space. With nowhere to go, some of the patients in the citys last remaining 19 inpatient acute-psychiatric-care beds have been stuck in the locked psychiatric ward for more than a year.

Second, by creating a privately funded (and funds are available) room-and-board facility, which requires that prospective residents adhere to treatment regimens, including medication, as condition of residency, more of the citys mentally ill residents  desperate and forgotten by the city today  will have a greater chance of maintaining stability post-release on their path to supportive housing.

Fred J. Martin Jr. of San Francisco is a member of the Northern California Commission on Psychiatric Resources, an all-volunteer association of mental health advocates, psychiatrists, public health policy experts, social workers, attorneys, and family members of the severely mentally ill.
NEW YORK  East Bay Rep. Eric Swalwell announced his candidacy for president Monday, betting that pitching himself as an agent of generational change who understands the challenges working families face will set him apart in a crowded Democratic field.

Swalwell, 38, made the announcement in New York at a taping of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS, after months of laying the groundwork for a run with trips to Iowa and other states that vote early in the selection process.

I see a country in quicksand, unable to solve problems and threats from abroad, unable to make life better for people, Swalwell said.

None of that is going to change until we get a leader who is willing to go big on the issues we take on, be bold on the solutions we offer, and do good in the way we govern. Im ready to solve these problems.

One message that Swalwell is banking will resonate with voters is gun safety. He will follow up the TV appearance with a town-hall meeting Tuesday on gun violence in Sunrise, Fla., near the high school in Parkland where a gunman killed 17 people, 14 of them students, in February 2018. Many of the young survivors have become influential national activists. Swalwell drew applause on the show when he said, Too many kids are dying, and no one in Washington is doing enough about it.

Swalwell also said he thinks he can win over working-class voters who supported Donald Trump in 2016, drawing on his biography to argue that he understands their struggles.

Swalwell, the son of a police officer, was the first in his family to go to college and says he is still paying off his student loans. His parents are Republicans and Fox News viewers, something Colbert noted on the show. The host called Swalwells mother on speakerphone live during the taping to ask if she would vote for her son.

As long as none of his other brothers are running against him, she said.

Swalwells two children are ages 2 and 5 months, and he said in February that he wouldnt run if he couldnt find child care that also enabled his wife, a hotel sales director in Half Moon Bay, to keep her dreams and aspirations alive.

He now says his wife will join him on the campaign trail with their children.

Well just make it work, he said.

Swalwell argued in an interview in Washington last week that his youth is an asset, saying he comes from a generation that in the private sector is doing very big things to solve problems but has a pessimistic view of government as a partner.

I want to bring the optimism and collaboration from my generation here as a leader to change that tide, he said.

The Dublin Democrat isnt the only Millennial in the race, however  Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., is a year younger and gaining national attention. And Swalwell is starting the fundraising race late  Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders says he raised $18.2 million for his campaign in the first three months of the year, and Swalwells fellow Californian, Sen. Kamala Harris, reported raising $12 million.

Swalwell raised more than $3 million in winning election to a fourth term in the House in November, $2 million of it from individuals. He has joined several other Democrats in pledging to reject donations from corporate political action committees in his presidential campaign.

Swalwell points to his experience on the House Intelligence Committee as giving him the background in foreign policy and national security to be president. He said that if elected, he would take a global affirmation tour to reassure allies of the United States reliability and host an international climate change meeting.

Although he says the nations democracy is in a deep, dark hole, Swalwell faults President Trump less for his positions than for his ineffectiveness as a leader.

I think theres a case to be made that he was right on a lot of the issues he saw  people being disconnected from opportunity, Swalwell said. He was bold in some of the solutions he offered, but utterly failed to deliver.

In a campaign video, Swalwell said Trump was bold, but a lot of what he was bold about was just bulls.

Swalwell hasnt scored any major legislative wins in his seven years in Congress, most of which were spent in the minority, but he has risen through the ranks under House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco. Swalwell is co-chair of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, which makes committee assignments and helps shape the partys agenda.

In a Democratic field that is approaching 20 candidates, Swalwell has no clear lane to himself. Buttigieg isnt the only other candidate on the young side  other likely and declared candidates include Swalwells close friends Reps. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, 40, and Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, 37  and their House colleague Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio is also running. Swalwell calls the company comforting, in a way.

A lot of us in the field are close with one another, and I dont think that makes it more awkward, Swalwell said. I think it makes it more comforting  that no matter who emerges, a lot of these people I trust to lead the country.

Colbert poked fun by giving Swalwell some campaign signs with slogan options, including, Swalwell 2020  its easier to say than Buttigieg, and, One of your top 20 choices.

The field is also the most diverse ever, with multiple women running, multiple candidates of color and an openly gay candidate, Buttigieg. Already, former Texas Rep. Beto ORourke has faced questions about advantages he has had in life because hes a white man. Swalwell said hes prepared to do the same.

I dont think anyones identity disqualifies them, Swalwell told The Chronicle. Its really a question (of), do you see other peoples identities? And do you see, especially as a white male, the privilege that youve had compared to other persons identities, and are you willing to pass the mike when youre not the right person to speak about an issue and have people around you who can speak to their experiences?

Eric Swalwell Age: 38 Born: Sac City, Iowa Family:Married, two children ages 2 and 5 months. Education: Graduated from Dublin High School. Earned bachelor's and law degrees from University of Maryland. Career: Alameda County deputy district attorney, 2006-12. Member of Dublin Town Council, 2010-12. Elected to the House in 2012, re-elected three times. See More Collapse

Swalwell will not run for re-election to Congress while running for president, as he first told The Chronicles Its All Political podcast.

Im going to keep both feet firmly in one lane, and Im running for president, he said.

Tal Kopan is The San Francisco Chronicles Washington correspondent. Email: tal.kopan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @talkopan
People behaving badly on BART will have an increasingly difficult time getting away with their misdeeds starting this week, transit police hope.

BART police officers and fare inspectors will begin working extra hours  even adding an additional day to their work week  to "bolster their visible presence and enhance public safety," the transit agency said in a Monday press release prompted by queries from The Chronicle.

The increased presence of officers and inspectors comes in response to riders' safety concerns, BART said, with the objective being "to move illegal and rule violation activities off the trains and out of stations while deterring criminal activity."

ALSO: BART's airport connector to Oakland goes down Sunday

Guidelines for the temporary program come from the General Manager's Safety and Security Action Plan, which was implemented in August to outline "the periodic use of mandatory overtime" as well as "the deployment of BART employees ... wearing high-visibility vests to provide an additional layer of presence in the system."

The plan will be in place "for the time being," BART said. The agency did not provide a more specific timeline.

"We are taking concrete action in direct response to the concerns of our riders," said BART General Manager Grace Crunican in a statement. "Our riders want to see more employees on the trains and platforms and at the fare gates. This plan lets us immediately increase employee presence while we work to hire more police officers."

ALSO: Bay Area crowds and how to avoid them

Crunican plans to propose adding 19 new police officer positions starting the next fiscal year (July 1) to increase station-wide police presence and deter crime. Over the past two years, following an "aggressive recruitment effort," arrests by BART police have increased by 56 percent.

In recent years, the transit agency has also worked to crack down on fare evaders, enhance its homeless outreach services and to secure grant funds to expand its elevator attendant programs.

Read Michelle Robertson's latest stories and send her news tips at michelle.robertson@sfgate.com.

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Angela Alioto has joined the fray in the civic fight against the Paleolithic sculptures and landscaping improvements adorning Hillsborough's Flintstone House, a popular attraction for drivers along Interstate 280.

The former San Francisco supervisor and mayoral candidate will represent Florence Fang, the unusual home's owner, as she fights to keep the city's paws off her lawn. Hillsborough recently filed a lawsuit against Fang, alleging that she made changes to the home's exterior without proper permits and ignored multiple Stop Work Notices.

Fang, 86, will join Alioto in a Thursday press release held at the house in question, at 45 Berryessa Way. Fang, a philanthropist and the former publisher of the San Francisco Examiner, will reportedly explain "her reason for creating the Flintstone House and speak to the joy it brings her" while Alioto will "discuss the harassment by the Town of Hillsborough over the last 18 months."

"I am delighted to discuss our countersuit and claims, both State and Federal," Alioto said in the statement.

"This is a fight for the right to live one's dream in America without unbridled harassment and constant Constitutional violations from an elitists town hall committee in Hillsborough, California," she continued.

"Being sued for living a dream is novel, even in California!" the press release concludes, for good measure.

(Note: Fang did not create the Flintstone House. It was constructed by architect William Nicholson in 1976 as an experiment in new building materials and techniques. The residence remained under the same ownership for more than two decades.)

SEE ALSO: Peak inside the 'secret' crown jewel of the Transamerica Pyramid

Fang's troubles started months ago, not long after she purchased the ostentatious orange-and-purple home, a longstanding visual quirk along a stretch of I-280, in 2017 for $2.8 million. According to rubberneckers driving along the highway, the property gained some new residents shortly after its purchase  a herd of animal sculptures.

But that's not the only change Fang made to the property, according to "Hillsborough vs. Florence Fang," filed recently in the Superior Court of California. Starting around 2017, the complaint says Fang began installing "extensive improvements" in the yard, including the sculptures and a sign reading "Yabba Dabba Doo."

SEE ALSO: Colonial on famed trick-or-treating street in Berkeley for sale

She also reportedly built a retaining wall, steps, columns, gates, a parking strip and a deck to "accommodate her plan to use 45 Berryessa for parties and social gatherings." Hillsborough claims some of these modifications created "life-safety hazards" that required immediate correction.

Fang allegedly instituted the improvements without proper planning approvals or building permits, with the exception of the wall installed at the front of the property.

You can read more about the ongoing case here.

It seems some Bay Area residents are disgruntled by the bureaucratic kerfuffle  and the city's unfavorable aesthetic assessment of the property and its sculptures.

"Personally I would fight to keep these statues up and leave these owners alone," Helen Garcia, of San Jose, wrote in a petition she created to protect the house. "As a child I would drive to San Francisco with my family to see my grandmother. I would wait patiently until I was able to catch a glimpse at the Flintstone House. At that time it was just orange and round and it intrigued me."

The petition is directed at Governor Gavin Newsom and the Natural History Museum of London, which is seemingly related to the home solely on account of a large dinosaur fossil collection.

So far, more people have signed the petition  over 21,000 at time of writing  than reside in the town of Hillsborough.

Read Michelle Robertson's latest stories and send her news tips at michelle.robertson@sfgate.com.

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Pinterest set a price range for its initial public offering Monday that will value the company below its last private-market peg of $12 billion.

In an updated prospectus, the digital pin board company said that it planned to price its offering at $15 to $17 a share. At the high end of that range, the business would be valued at about $11.3 billion, accounting for stock options and restricted stock.

The San Francisco company, which was valued at $12 billion in 2017 by venture capitalists and other private investors, is part of a horde of high-profile but unprofitable tech startups that are now moving toward the public market.

A stock market valuation of less than $12 billion for Pinterest raises questions about investor demand for these companies. Lyft, the San Francisco ride-hailing company that is deeply unprofitable, went public last month amid a great deal of hype  until its shares promptly fell below its offering price on its second day of trading. The stock has since been fluctuating around the $72 IPO price.

How Lyft and Pinterest perform in their public debuts will be critical in the lead-up to the public offering of Uber, the largest of this generation of tech startups. Uber is expected to go public in the next few months at a valuation of around $120 billion, in what would be the biggest offering by a U.S. company.

Several other smaller Bay Area companies are planning public offerings, including Zoom, a video conferencing company; PagerDuty, a software company; and Slack, an office communications company.

Pinterests filing on Monday coincided with the beginning of the companys road show, during which it plans to pitch institutional investors before its final pricing and first day of trading. High demand from investors over the next several days could lead the company to raise the price of its shares.

Private investors have poured $1.5 billion into Pinterest. A market debut below $12 billion would spell a loss for some of them.

Pinterest, which makes digital pin boards that allow people to save images and links from around the web, has traditionally been conservative in its spending and approach to growth. CEO Ben Silbermann built Pinterest slowly and steadily. Pinners, as users are known, use Pinterest today to create collage-like mood boards on topics such as food, events and hobbies.

Silbermanns approach has contrasted with those of other entrepreneurs who lead companies known as unicorns, which are valued at more than $1 billion by private investors. Such companies have typically prioritized fast growth over profits and take many years to go public. Unicorns that sell or go public below their last private valuation are known as undercorns.

Erin Griffith is a New York Times writer.
WASHINGTON  Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigned Sunday amid the administrations growing frustration and bitterness over the number of Central American families crossing the southern border, two people familiar with the decision said.

President 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 Trumps priority for a sprawling department founded to combat terrorism following the Sept. 11 attacks.

Though Trump aides were eyeing a staff shakeup 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 Friday with Trump to participate in a roundtable with border officers and local law enforcement. There she echoed Trumps comments on the situation at the border.

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 on Sunday not knowing whether shed be fired or would resign, and she ended up resigning, they said.

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, Nielsens days appeared to be numbered. She had expected to be pushed out in November, but her exit never materialized. And during the government shutdown over Trumps insistence for funding for a border wall, Nielsens 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.

Nielsen dutifully pushed Trumps immigration policies, including funding for his border wall, and defended the administrations 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.

Colleen Long and Zeke Miller are Associated Press writers.
WASHINGTON  President Trump moved to replace the top ranks of the Department of Homeland Security on Monday, a day after forcing the resignation of its secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, as he accelerated a purge of the nations immigration and security leadership.

The White House announced the departure of Randolph Alles, director of the Secret Service, who had fallen out of favor with the president even before a security breach at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida that the agency effectively blamed on Trumps employees.

Government officials, who asked not to be identified discussing personnel changes, said at least two more top department figures were expected to leave soon as well: L. Francis Cissna, head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and John Mitnick, the departments general counsel and a senior member of Nielsens leadership team.

The latest shakeup came just a day after Trump pushed out Nielsen during a Sunday afternoon meeting at the White House for not doing enough in his view to secure the border. And it came three days after Ronald Vitiello, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Services and the presidents nominee to take the job permanently, was told to step aside so the administration could go in a tougher direction, as Trump put it.

The wave of departures of officials originally installed by Trump seemed to underscore his growing frustration with his own administrations handling of immigration and other security issues. In recent days, Trump has threatened to close the southwestern border altogether only to back off in the face of concern about the economic effects of such a move.

The latest moves also appeared to be a housecleaning of officials associated with John Kelly, the presidents former chief of staff and his first homeland security secretary, who was pushed out at the end of last year after months of tension with Trump.

Alles is a retired Marine major general and was the first person from outside the Secret Service to head the agency in more than a century.

The president is thankful for his over 40 years of service to the country, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said in the statement.

She said he will be replaced in May by James Murray, a career Secret Service official who has served as deputy assistant director overseeing protective operations.

Nielsen will be replaced on an acting basis by Kevin McAleenan, the Customs and Border Protection commissioner. Speaking with reporters Monday, she expressed no unhappiness about her departure and thanked Trump for the tremendous opportunity to serve her country.

Congressional leaders were left Monday trying to sort through the changes and what they could mean.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, complained about congressional dysfunction in addressing border security, but added, I am concerned with a growing leadership void within the department tasked with addressing some of the most significant problems facing the nation.

Peter Baker, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Maggie Haberman are New York Times writers.
Like many brands emerging as multi-state cannabis operators, my company routinely applies for retail and cultivation licenses across the country. The ONE Cannabis (ONE) team puts a significant amount of time into these applications, as there is no business without them. Recently, we applied for an adult-use license in a California municipality with three available slots to fill -- 180 entities applied for those slots.

You could cut the number of applicants in half and still be up against long odds, which is why its more important than ever to lead the pack.

Writing an application and winning the license are two very different things. Most large operators have a designated team that specialize in applying. After a few attempts, they craft a winning formula that gives them an advantage, though that doesnt necessarily mean they succeed though. Everything can be improved upon and each municipality has a different process.

Winning a license involves bringing all stakeholders, industry officials, financial professionals and community members together. Whether youre applying for multiple licenses or just one, there are fundamental aspects of applying that translate across state lines. Having a straightforward, firm foundation to build your own process upon can be the difference between succeeding in your venture and heading home empty-handed.

Related: Sluggish Bureaucracy Is Blamed for Disappointing Marijuana Tax Revenues in Massachusetts

Participate in the public conversation.

Before you start writing, find out what you dont know. Most jurisdictions discussions with communities before awarding any licenses. Those meetings are a fantastic way to figure out exactly what the city wants from their license holder that isnt exactly spelled out in the application. Some are looking for specific community outreach initiatives while others are more concerned with employment standards.

Giving the community a hand to shake and a face to go with the company name can pay off considerably. Theres usually a public hearing at some point in the process at which the public can comment specifically on your business plan. For obvious reasons, this needs to go well. The best way to get the community on your side is to engage with them prior to the public hearing. Listen to what the community has to say and prove to them that your business is going to be good for everyone. To really drive the point home, commit some time to petitioning the area for support.

Related: State Regulators Consider Better Ways to Determine Who Controls Cannabis Business

Regulators are your friend.

Remember, each city has their own process, so get a clear understanding of how they operate. Different states have different expectations for transportation, security and product handling. Details are the differentiator-- one municipality my team recently applied to required twice as many security cameras as Denver. Had we submitted the security plan weve used previously, we wouldve been out. Sift through all the info the local and state authorities make available -- don't start you application until you thoroughly understand their technical expectations.

Laws and regulations are usually provided by a designated city licensing department -- those departments are also a key resource. Your application will be stronger with any additional information you can gain from the people who award the license, so understand that regulators are your friend.

ONE Cannabis motto is "compliance first, profit second" for a reason: a company is only profitable if it can adhere to city standards. Work with them and establish a professional relationship if possible. A great way to solidify those ties is to attend training workshops they provide. Half the attendees are typically regulators, and your attendance shows them youre committed to compliance.

Related: Is Your Cannabis Business Properly Licensed?

Nobody wins a license alone.

Running a successful dispensary takes a stellar team, and so does winning the license for it. ONE President John Darwin recently weighed in similarly on the subject. He summarized it quite well -- the best advantage you can have is quality team. Hire a team of professionals from diverse backgrounds. Compliance officers, financial aces and technical writers are indispensable and can typically be contracted out if necessary. Diversity has more than one meaning as well -- a team thats representative of the larger community brings more creativity and understanding to your situation.

Applications are large documents and require expertise in many fields. Leverage as many resources as possible to build out a collective thats capable of meticulous work. The investment will pay off when the license does.

Related: The Myriad Benefits of Diversity in the Workplace

Okay, now you can start writing.

The observant reader has realized that nothing in this article, so far, has been about writing the application. Ask any writer, and theyll tell you that writing is only half of, well, writing. Good research drives the narrative.

Make sure you follow what the application is asking, not what youd like them to know. After a few conversations with compliance officers, I was surprised to hear how common it was for applicants to spend valuable time and money on applying, only to have their final product ignore vital criteria.

Your city is going to be swamped with applications. Anything you can do to help them process in a timely and efficient manner will help your cause. You will undoubtedly have an edge if your submission is the most cohesive and accessible. Write an outline that will make English teachers everywhere proud and keep the heaps of information flowing in the same direction.

Winning a license takes legwork and elbow grease. Youve got to be present in multiple arenas and surrounded by experienced professionals who can assist you. Only after you work all that out does the actual writing starts. The cannabis industrys potential, however, makes the payoff more likely every day. Nobody needs to be told the market is booming, with more opportunities coming online around each new turn. At the center of it all is the licensing process, so do it right.

Related:

How to Write a Successful Cannabis License Application

#6 Predictions for the Future of Mental Health Technology

#5 Ways RERA is Impacting Real Estate Market



Copyright 2019 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
OAKLAND (BCN)



At least two "sideshows," displays of cars spinning donuts and skidding around in front of rowdy crowds, were broken up in Oakland on Sunday, with no injuries or arrests reported, law enforcement officials said.



The California Highway Patrol broke up a sideshow that blocked traffic on westbound Interstate Highway 580 near the 106th Avenue overcrossing. CHP Officer Herman Baza said that blockage was reported about 7:50 p.m. Sunday, and that it continued for about 20 minutes before being broken up.



At about 5 p.m. Sunday, a sideshow blocked International Boulevard at 42nd Avenue in the Fruitvale district. A video of that gathering, with three vehicles spinning their tires, making smoke and sliding around, was posted on Twitter. Oakland police did not respond Sunday night to an email seeking further information.





Copyright  2019 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
OAKLAND (BCN)



A defense attorney on Monday asked jurors to find a man not guilty of murder for the shooting death of another man in a marijuana deal gone wrong in Emeryville in 2017, arguing that he acted in self-defense.



Attorney Christina Moore admitted that Cameron Smith, 23, of Oakland, fatally shot 19-year-old Eondre Bolton of Richmond in the parking lot of the Target store at 1555 40th St. in Emeryville shortly after 6 p.m. on Dec. 4, 2017.



However, Moore said he did so only after Bolton shot at him and robbed him of a garbage bag full of marijuana.



Moore said Smith arranged to meet Bolton at the parking lot because he thought it would be a safe place, but Smith "didn't know that he (Bolton) planned to rob him and take his life if necessary."



Alameda County prosecutor Butch Ford admitted that Bolton and his companion Maurice Hanks acted with provocation by trying to steal marijuana from Smith, but said Smith wasn't in any danger when he fatally shot Bolton.



Ford said he thinks the shooting was "an execution" because Bolton already had been shot multiple times and was fleeing for his life when Smith shot him in the back of his head and killed him.



Smith had a chance to leave the scene after Bolton and Hanks tried to rob him but chose to stay and kill Bolton because he was "on a mission" and "didn't want to be a mark," Ford said.



Ford said he believes the fatal shooting "was about his (Smith's) pride, his lifestyle."



But Moore said Smith was justified in firing the shots that killed Bolton because "the robbery was not over then" and Smith thought that Bolton was running to gain "a tactical advantage" instead of fleeing.



"One person's fleeing is another person's maneuver," Moore said.



Moore accused Ford of engaging in "improper" argument in the first part of his closing argument last Thursday, but Ford responded in his rebuttal on Monday that he believes his comments have been ethical and in accordance with legal rules.



"About one-third of Ms. Moore's argument was devoted to an attack on me," Ford said, alleging that she did so to distract jurors from his case against Smith.



"If the facts and the law are against you, you attack, attack, attack," Ford said.



In addition to murder, Smith is charged with attempted murder for shooting Hanks, who survived his injuries, two counts of assault with a semiautomatic gun and shooting at an occupied vehicle.



Jurors began deliberating Monday afternoon and will resume their deliberations on Tuesday morning.





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A 73-year-old man died in a house fire in West Oakland on Monday morning, a fire battalion chief said.



The fire was reported at 5:43 a.m. at a two-story Victorian home in the 1000 block of 16th Street.



Firefighters arrived to see flames coming out of a window on the second floor of the home. The victim was found dead in an upstairs room, while five other people in the home were able to get out safely, Oakland Fire Battalion Chief Sean Laffan said.



Crews extinguished the fire and the American Red Cross responded to assist the displaced residents, Laffan said.



No other details about the blaze were immediately available.





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As part of a two-hour-plus interfaith service Sunday evening for the Very Rev. James V. Matthews II, community leaders both sanctified and secular praised the rector of the Cathedral of Christ the Light as a man whose faith transcended his Catholic faith and the problems of the world.



"Father Jay changed the church, like he changed Oakland, from the inside out," said former Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris. "He was an ambassador from the Catholic church to Oakland, and an ambassador from Oakland to the Catholic church."



At the vigil and interfaith gathering Sunday night at the Cathedral of Christ the Light, at Grand Avenue and Harrison Street in downtown Oakland, it was an outpouring of love and respect for "Father Jay," as he was known throughout the diocese, who died on March 30 of an apparent heart attack. There were many more laughs than tears on this night, where Matthews was honored as a major faith leader and a man who loved to show up at people's parties and barbecues.



U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee of Oakland said she looked to Father Jay for help with matters spiritual and secular.



"In my good times and my bad times, Father Jay was there for me, just as he was there for you," Lee told Sunday's gathering.



"He never uttered a negative word about people," she also said. "And he made sure that I came to my own conclusions by forcing me to answer my own questions."



Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said she met Matthews in the 1990s at the Marcus Foster Education Institute, where Matthews would sometimes speak. She soon knew, she said, that she wanted him to officiate her wedding - and he did. Schaaf said she chose Father Jay before she chose her husband.



"He said, 'Of course I can marry you on the shores of Lake Merritt - my church is everywhere!' " Schaaf related.



Matthews, who was 70, was born in Berkeley and raised in Oakland, where his family moved in 1960. He was the first African-American ordained priest in Northern California, joining the priesthood in 1974. He served as pastor of St. Benedict Church in East Oakland for 26 years before taking over as rector of the Cathedral of Christ the Light, the centerpiece of the diocese, in 2015.



A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated beginning at 7 p.m. Monday the Cathedral of Christ the Light. Burial is scheduled 11 a.m. at St. Joseph Cemetery, 2540 Church Lane in San Pablo.



A livestream of the Mass will be available at https://youtu.be/9cx61jzInDM.







Police were searching Sunday night for a suspect in a shooting that left a man hospitalized with injuries not considered life-threatening, a San Jose police spokesman said.



Police responded about 2:05 p.m. Sunday to a report of a shooting near the intersection of Blossom Hill Road and Russo Drive. Officers couldn't find a victim when they got there, but a short time later a man arrived at a nearby hospital for treatment of at least one gunshot wound, said San Jose police Sgt. Enrique Garcia.



The subsequent investigation forced VTA's "Route 27" bus to alter its route until about 6 p.m. Sunday, the transit agency said in an email.



No shooting suspects had been identified or apprehended by 9:15 p.m. Sunday, Garcia said. Anyone with information about what happened is asked to call the San Jose Police Department at (408) 277-8900; callers wishing to remain anonymous may call Crime Stoppers at (408) 947-7867.







A man died and a woman was injured in a crash early Sunday in Gilroy, police said.



The wreck was reported about 2 a.m. in the 7800 block of Church Street.



Police have not released the names of a 44-year-old man who died at the scene or a 40-year-old woman who taken to a trauma center with injuries.



Gilroy police are investigating the crash. Anyone with information or video concerning wreck is asked to contact the Gilroy traffic unit at (408) 846-0525.







At least two "sideshows," displays of cars spinning donuts and skidding around in front of rowdy crowds, were broken up in Oakland on Sunday, with no injuries or arrests reported, law enforcement officials said.



The California Highway Patrol broke up a sideshow that blocked traffic on westbound Interstate Highway 580 near the 106th Avenue overcrossing. CHP Officer Herman Baza said that blockage was reported about 7:50 p.m. Sunday, and that it continued for about 20 minutes before being broken up.



At about 5 p.m. Sunday, a sideshow blocked International Boulevard at 42nd Avenue in the Fruitvale district. A video of that gathering, with three vehicles spinning their tires, making smoke and sliding around, was posted on Twitter. Oakland police did not respond Sunday night to an email seeking further information.







Monday will be cloudy with a slight chance of showers in the afternoon. Highs will be in the 60s. West winds will be 5 to 15 mph.



Monday night will be mostly cloudy, with a chance of showers in the evening. Lows will be in the mid 50s. West winds will be 10 to 20 mph.



Tuesday will be mostly cloudy in the morning, then becoming sunny and breezy. Highs will be in the upper 50s to mid 60s. Northwest winds will be 20 to 30 mph.





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OAKLAND (BCN)



As part of a two-hour-plus interfaith service Sunday evening for the Very Rev. James V. Matthews II, community leaders both sanctified and secular praised the rector of the Cathedral of Christ the Light as a man whose faith transcended his Catholic faith and the problems of the world.



"Father Jay changed the church, like he changed Oakland, from the inside out," said former Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris. "He was an ambassador from the Catholic church to Oakland, and an ambassador from Oakland to the Catholic church."



At the vigil and interfaith gathering Sunday night at the Cathedral of Christ the Light, at Grand Avenue and Harrison Street in downtown Oakland, it was an outpouring of love and respect for "Father Jay," as he was known throughout the diocese, who died on March 30 of an apparent heart attack. There were many more laughs than tears on this night, where Matthews was honored as a major faith leader and a man who loved to show up at people's parties and barbecues.



Harris said he met Father Jay at a 60s theme party.



"Little did I know the guy I was 'bumping' with had a collar on," Harris said.



The Rev. J. Alfred Smith Sr., pastor emeritus of Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland, said Father Jay graced his sanctuary's doors many times, despite their denominational differences.



"We will not weep as those who have no hope, because his hope was Jesus," Smith said.



U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee of Oakland said she looked to Father Jay for help with matters spiritual and secular.



"In my good times and my bad times, Father Jay was there for me, just as he was there for you," Lee told Sunday's gathering.



"He never uttered a negative word about people," she also said. "And he made sure that I came to my own conclusions by forcing me to answer my own questions."



Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said she met Matthews in the 1990s at the Marcus Foster Education Institute, where Matthews would sometimes speak. She soon knew, she said, that she wanted him to officiate her wedding - and he did. Schaaf said she chose Father Jay before she chose her husband.



"He said, 'Of course I can marry you on the shores of Lake Merritt - my church is everywhere!' " Schaaf related. (A later show of hands revealed many in attendance Sunday night were married by Father Jay).



Matthews, who was 70, was born in Berkeley and raised in Oakland, where his family moved in 1960. He was the first African-American ordained priest in Northern California, joining the priesthood in 1974. He served as pastor of St. Benedict Church in East Oakland for 26 years before taking over as rector of the Cathedral of Christ the Light, the centerpiece of the diocese, in 2015.



Matthews also served as a chaplain for the Oakland police and fire departments. In 2014, the Oakland City Council proclaimed May 6 as "Father Jay Matthews Day."



A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated beginning at 7 p.m. Monday the Cathedral of Christ the Light. Burial is scheduled 11 a.m. at St. Joseph Cemetery, 2540 Church Lane in San Pablo.



A livestream of the Mass will be available at https://youtu.be/9cx61jzInDM





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.
Delve deep into a cold-case reopened after a mysterious fire sets in motion a series of unsettling supernatural events in a remote village, out now on Steam, Epic and GOG
The American Civil Liberties Union is intervening once again on behalf of a returning U.S. traveler detained by Customs and Border Protection officers who wanted to look at the contents of his electronic devices  and who lost his Global Entry membership when he insisted on first consulting his employer or a lawyer.

Andreas Gal, an employee of Apple who was previously chief technology officer at Mozilla  the developer of the popular Firefox browser  was detained by CBP officers when he returned to San Francisco after a recent trip to Sweden.

After agents told him they wanted him to unlock his devices, he asked if he could talk to Apple or an attorney first, since his devices were issued to him by Apple and contained proprietary information. The agents denied his request and told him he had no right to an attorney, Gal said, even though he is a U.S. citizen.

Besides losing his Global Entry (and PreCheck) membership  which is supposed to identify low-risk travelers who have gone through a security check  Gal told ABC News he was tagged for secondary CBP inspections upon his return from subsequent international trips  something that had never happened to him previously.

Gal said in an interview that he couldn't understand why he was singled out by CBP, calling himself "a boring, middle-aged white male software executive." But he added: "In the past two years I've been very outspoken on the Trump administration's policies on social media, particularly with respect to Customs and Border Protection and immigration."

Gal repeated his suspicions in a post he wrote for Medium.com on April 2: "My past work on encryption and online privacy is well documented, and so is my disapproval of the Trump administration and my history of significant campaign contributions to Democratic candidates. I wonder whether these CBP programs led to me being targeted." He added that after his experience, "I travel in fear. I've reduced my international travel and my heart pounds every time I go through U.S. Customs."

The ACLU has now intervened on Gal's behalf, filing a complaint with Homeland Security and CBP. The organization already has other lawsuits in the pipeline that urge the courts to declare CBP must obtain a warrant before searching any electronic devices of U.S. citizens returning from a trip abroad.

The complaint noted that some of the officers who questioned Gal were armed members of CBP's Tactical Terrorism Response Team, and that they threatened him with prosecution for refusing to follow their orders.

Besides violating Gal's Fourth Amendment protections against unlawful search and seizure, the ACLU said, CBP might have also violated his First Amendment rights to free speech.

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"Dr. Gal is a politically-active technologist, and extensive information about his political commitments and technical work is available to the public. CBP's suspicionless detention, interrogation, and search of Dr. Gal appears motivated by hostility to his First Amendment-protected activities. In other words, it appears that CBP singled out Dr. Gal for questioning and search based on Dr. Gal's political viewpoints," the ACLU complaint said.

Responding to the issue of electronic device searches, but not to this specific case, the CBP said, "Searches of electronic devices at the border are often integral to a determination of an individual's intentions upon entry and provide additional information relevant to admissibility determinations under immigration laws."

Last year, a federal court in Massachusetts denied the government's motion to dismiss an ACLU lawsuit filed on behalf of U.S. citizens whose devices were subjected to warrantless searches at the border. In another lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, the ACLU is asking the court to require that the Transportation Security Administration reveal details on its policies regarding searches of domestic travelers' phones or other devices at security checkpoints. TSA denied that it conducts such searches of domestic travelers' devices.

What do you think? Should the government have the right to search our electronic devices at US borders? Please leave your thoughts in the comments.

Read all recent TravelSkills posts here

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Chris McGinnis is the founder of TravelSkills.com. The author is solely responsible for the content above, and it is used here by permission. You can reach Chris at chris@travelskills.com or on Twitter @cjmcginnis.
TravelSkills on SFGate is brought to you by Visa

Oakland International Airport is bringing back its popular free parking program this spring and summer. Travelers headed to Hawaii and/or Europe on nonstop flights can get four days free, saving $96.

The free parking program was a popular staple promotion up until 2017, and usually only applied during off-peak travel periods.

But this year, it is s available between May 1 and September 3- which includes the peak summer travel season. That $96 in savings should come in handy during what is widely expected to be one of the most expensive summer travel seasons in recent years.

See slideshow at the top of this post for a map of Oakland Airport parking lots

Getting the deal is a bit convoluted. To take advantage if it you must first sign up on the promotional website. There you'll have to upload your airline itinerary/proof of purchase for Hawaii or Europe flights. Once this is verified, the airport will email you a certificate with a QR code which you present when exiting the lot after your trip.

Don't miss a lick of important travel news! Sign up for our FREE bi-weekly email alerts- click here

This deal is only available for the airport's pricier daily parking lot-- if your trip lasts longer than four days, you'll pay $24 per day. Parking in Premier, Hourly and Economy Lots are not eligible for this offer. (See all OAK parking rates here.)

Read all recent TravelSkills posts here

Get twice-per-week updates from TravelSkills via email! Sign up here

Chris McGinnis is the founder of TravelSkills.com. The author is solely responsible for the content above, and it is used here by permission. You can reach Chris at chris@travelskills.com or on Twitter @cjmcginnis.
KABUL  U.S. forces in Afghanistan announced that three American service members and a contractor were killed in a roadside bombing Monday near the main U.S. air base in the country. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

The U.S. and NATO Resolute Support mission said the four Americans were killed near the Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul. The statement also said three American soldiers were wounded in the explosion and were receiving medical care.

The names of the service members killed in action were being withheld pending notification of their families.

The Taliban said a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden vehicle near the NATO base in Bagram district, in Parwan province.

The attack took place as the militants battled Afghan national forces for a fifth day in the western Badghis province.

Col. Qais Mangal, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry, said at least 12 security forces have been killed in the past two days, bringing the overall death toll to more than 40. Mangal said dozens of insurgents have been killed and wounded by air and ground forces.

Some 2,000 Taliban fighters attacked checkpoints and an army compound in the Bala Murghab district before dawn Thursday. Mohammad Nasir Nazari, a provincial council member, said some 600 Afghan soldiers who were trapped inside the base were able to escape and reach the provincial capital of Qala-e-Now over the past two days after reinforcements reached the base.

He said army commandos and special police units were battling the insurgents, with high casualties on both sides. He was unable to provide an exact breakdown of the numbers killed and wounded.

The Taliban effectively control nearly half the country and have continued to carry out daily attacks on Afghan security forces despite holding several rounds of peace talks with the United States in recent months. The Taliban have refused to meet with the Afghan government, which they view as a U.S. puppet.

The Taliban agreed to take part in an Afghan dialogue in Qatar, where the insurgents maintain a political office, later this month. But the Taliban say any member of the government who attends will do so only in a personal capacity.

After two months of consultations, the Afghan government announced Monday that it had created a council to appoint a delegation to the talks. The council consists of current and former officials, as well as other prominent figures from around the country. Afghan peace envoy Omer Daudzai said the delegates, who have yet to be chosen, will exchange views with the Taliban ahead of possible negotiations.
JERUSALEM  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his chief challenger Benny Gantz made their final appeals to voters Monday on the eve of parliamentary elections that will determine whether the longtime Israeli leader remains in power.

Buoyed by a tight alliance with President Trump but clouded by a series of looming corruption indictments, Netanyahu is seeking a fifth term in office that would make him Israels longest-serving leader, surpassing founding father David Ben-Gurion.

He faces his stiffest challenge in a decade from Gantz, a telegenic former military chief whose Blue and White party has inched ahead of Netanyahus ruling Likud party in the polls. Netanyahu, however, still appears to have the better chance of forming a coalition, with a smattering of small nationalist and ultra-Orthodox parties vowing to back him.

In the campaigns final days, Netanyahu has veered to the right, vowing to annex Jewish West Bank settlements if re-elected and embarking on a media blitz in which he portrays himself as the underdog and frantically warns that the right-wing government is in danger.

The hour is very late. Right now, we are behind by a few seats, he said during a surprise visit Monday to a market in Jerusalem. The only way to ensure to close the gap, to make sure the Likud will form the next government for sure, is that there will be big Likud.

With Israel generally safe and thriving, and the Palestinian issue largely sidelined, the focus of Tuesdays election has shifted to Netanyahu himself.

Israels attorney general has recommended indicting him on bribery and breach of trust charges in three separate cases. 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 manufacturers suppliers.

People realize that, realistically, the right wing isnt in danger. Its Netanyahu who is in danger, Gantz told Israels Army Radio. This isnt a danger in the security sense, only in the legal sense, because he has to provide explanations for what he did.

Netanyahu denies any wrongdoing and claims the accusations are part of a liberal medias orchestrated campaign against him.

Gantz, who has been vague on key policy fronts, has presented himself as a clean, scandal-free alternative to Netanyahu. He is banking on voters tiring of Netanyahus long, divisive rule.

Netanyahus campaign has focused heavily on smearing opponents as weak leftists who are conspiring with the countrys Arab parties against him. Opponents accuse him of incitement and demonizing Israels Arab minority, which makes up roughly 20% of the population.

As many as a half-dozen parties are teetering along the threshold for entering the Knesset, or parliament. A failure by any of these parties to get the required 3.25% of total votes cast could have a dramatic impact on who ultimately forms the next coalition.

Aron Heller is an Associated Press writer.
MILAN  Right-wing, euroskeptic populist parties in Europe announced a new, expanded alliance Monday that aims to become the strongest faction in the European Parliament and seeks to radically transform EU policies on migration, security, family and environment.

Italys hard-line interior minister, Matteo Salvini, leader of the anti-migrant League party, told a news conference in Milan that the goal of the new movement in the EU-wide elections next month was to win and change Europe.

He was joined by representatives of populist parties from Germany, Finland and Denmark.

At the top of their common agenda, the groups demand a halt to all clandestine migration, stronger European borders, restoring political sovereignty to EU nations and protecting what they called European culture.

Salvini rejected any characterizations that the movement is made up of political extremists flirting with Europes totalitarian history.

Today at this table there are no nostalgic extremists, Salvini said. The only nostalgics are in power in Brussels. Today, we look ahead with a clear memory of what happened in the past.

Political observers say the May 23-26 European Parliament vote could prove to be a tipping point in postwar European politics, if traditional powerhouses lose support and extremist, populist parties gain more clout.

The vote, which involves 705 seats this year, is run as national ballots in each of the blocs states. National political parties with common ideology then unite in EU-wide groups, like the center-right EPP, the center-left S&D Socialists or the liberal, pro-business ALDE.

The new euroskeptic alliance, launched under the banner Toward a Europe of common sense, expands on the parliaments four-year-old Europe of Nations and Freedom Group (ENF), which already includes Frances far-right National Rally, Austrias Freedom Party and the Netherlands Party for Freedom.

Salvini was joined Monday by the far-right Alternative for Germanys co-leader Joerg Meuthen, Olli Kotro of the euroskeptic populist party the Finns, and Anders Vistisen of the right-wing, populist Danish Peoples Party.

Salvini identified Islamic extremism  not political extremism  as the main threat to security in Europe.

As interior minister for 10 months, the No. 1 risk in Italy and Europe is Islamic extremism, Islamic fanaticism, Islamic terrorism, Salvini said. There are extreme-right and extreme-left minorities in Italy and in Europe, (but) they fortunately are controlled and of limited numbers.

Colleen Barry is an Associated Press writer.
CAIRO  Sudanese security forces attempted to break up an anti-government sit-in outside the military headquarters in the capital on Monday, setting off clashes in which a soldier was killed while trying to protect protesters, activists said.

Thousands of people rallied in front of the compound over the weekend in one of the biggest demonstrations since protests erupted in December calling for President Omar al-Bashir to step down. The protesters set up tents Saturday, in what appeared to be an effort to replicate the mass sit-ins of the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011.

Security forces have used tear gas, rubber bullets and live fire to try to disperse the protesters, according to the Sudanese Professionals Association, which is spearheading the demonstrations. The Sudan Doctors Committee, an affiliate of the SPA, said the soldier was wounded while trying to protect the protesters and later died of his wounds.

The medical group said another man died elsewhere in Khartoum after being beaten and tortured by security forces.

During the 2011 uprising in neighboring Egypt, the army stepped in to prevent clashes between protesters and police, and ultimately forced President Hosni Mubarak from power.

It was unclear whether such a scenario was under way in Sudan, where media access to the demonstrations has been heavily restricted. There was no immediate comment from the military, and a government spokesman did not respond to calls seeking comment.

Protesters said security forces in pickups, mostly from the feared National Intelligence and Security Service, attacked the sit-in early Monday, firing tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition.

Activist Amal el-Zein said soldiers guarding the compound stood by at first, but then moved in to chase the security forces away, firing in the air.

The protests were initially sparked by price hikes and shortages, but quickly escalated into calls for the resignation of al-Bashir, who seized power in 1989 in an Islamist-backed military coup.

Al-Bashir has refused calls to step down and has declared a state of emergency, presiding over a violent crackdown in which dozens of people have been killed.

Samy Magdy is an Associated Press writer.
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This is the heartwarming moment neighbours worked together to rescue a kitten that had survived after being stuck inside the engine of a moving car.



Supavadee Padungchob, 33, was driving home from work when she heard the cat crying from the inside of her car in Ang Thong, central Thailand.



The driver stopped at a grocery store and asked for help to look under the bonnet, where the frightened kitten was curled up inside the engine and moaning in pain.



Helpful bystander Somchai Iamsamorn, who is also a mechanic, offered help to help while the car owner was waiting for the rescuers.



Supavadee said that she had never seen the cat before and did not hear it from inside the engine while she was driving from her workplace to the shop.



The office worker believes it had climbed inside the car while it was parked up during the day time.



She said: My colleague who was in the passenger seat said that she heard a cat crying when we parked the car but I didnt believe her.



"I thought that the sound might have been coming from somewhere else.



Volunteers from the Poh Teck Tung Foundation and locals spent about 30 minutes carefully freeing the tiny cat from the right wheel arch.



The female kitten, estimated to be two or three months old, was found to be physically healthy. The driver decided to adopt her as she found her so adorable.



The woman said: I felt very sorry for the cat. I shouldve known sooner otherwise she wouldnt have to trap in a little space and torture with the engine heat. I believe that she was in my car for a reason, so it is best to keep her.''



The footage was captured on Apil 3.
A young backpacker was found dead after being brutally raped and murdered on a Thai island.



Miriam Beelte, 26, from Hildesheim, Germany, was discovered dumped behind rocks with severe head wounds on idyllic Koh Si Chang off the east coast of Thailand.



The tourist had been repeatedly smashed in the face with a rock and had her leg broken.



Police said her skirt had been torn and there was blood coming was from her groin indicating she had been raped.



A resident noticed the body partially covered by leaves at around 6 pm while they were walking through the area.



They called the police who stopped anyone from leaving the island.



Local man Ronnakorn Romruen, 24, was arrested shortly after and confessed to raping the holidaymaker while high on methamphetamine then murdering her to stop her from reporting the attack to police.



He admitted then trying to conceal the body by throwing it behind rocks and covering it with dried leaves.



Footage from the early hours of the morning today shows him being taken back to his house in handcuffs to point out the clothes he had been wearing when he murdered and raped the young woman.



He was then put on a speedboat and taken the mainland in Chonburi province where he will be charged with premeditated murder, rape and concealing a body.



Police Colonel Angkul Sarakul said: ''The suspect was brought to the station in the early hours of the morning. Based on his confessions, he will be charged with premeditated murder, rape and concealing a body. The body of the victim will be sent to the forensic hospital.''
After falling off his board, this Portuguese surfer narrowly escapes being crushed by a huge wave as a jet ski comes to the rescue.



Veteran surfer Salvador Villas Boas was riding one of the biggest waves of the day in February 2019 until a bump knocks him off into the water near some rocks in Nazare, Portugal.



As the second wave closes in on the stranded surfer professional jetski rescuer Ramon Laureano saves Villas Boas by dragging him out of harm's way.



Pedro Miranda, who captured this dramatic footage, told Newsflare: This rescue in particular was truly one of the most heroic moments I witnessed out there. With more than 20 years of big wave experience, Ramon performed one of the most difficult rescues one can attempt in Nazare.



"To pick up someone directly on the first peaks impact zone between waves is something you dont see every day here. Ramon was a real hero, no doubt!"



Praia do Norte beach, near the fishing village of Nazare, has become famous worldwide for huge waves.
This was the chilling moment Thai killer Ronnakorn Romruen showed police how he murdered a young backpacker - repeatedly smashing her face with a rock.



The 24-year-old, confessed to raping Miriam Beelte, 26, after she arrived on the idyllic island of Koh Si Chang, eastern Thailand.



The drug-crazed local pestered her for sex but when she refused, he said he followed her into the woodland and pinned her to the ground before raping her as she screamed for help.



Footage shows Romruen re-enacting the incident with a what looks like a brick, he demonstrates the attack each move at a time.



The hooded culprit is dragged by the authorities to down a corridor to a press conference while being mobbed by media.



The footage was captured today (April 8).
Thousands of protesters continued their protest outside the Sudanese military headquarters in the capital Khartoum yesterday (April 7).



The demonstrators, calling for President Omar al-Bashir step down after 30-year rule, began their protest outside the Army HQ on on Saturday after a water and electricity outage.



Video shows thousands of protesters waving their cell phones in the air, lighting up the night sky.



Protests against al-Bashir began last December after the price of bread tripled.



The filmer told Newsflare: "I couldn't be more proud of my people, organizing such a huge protest in 30 years [of a] dictator's regime is a great way to let the world see we deserve a better future.



"There is no clear response from the army till now but hopefully they will respond today."



Security forces have since fired tear gas and charged at protestors, according to multiple reports.



The filmer added: "The situation in Khartoum is very bad." He claimed that the National Intelligence and Security Service had arrested scores of people.
10th EU-Armenia Human Rights Dialogue takes place in Brussels

Joint Press Release

10th EU-Armenia Human Rights Dialogue takes place in Brussels

Brussels, 8 April 2019

On 8 April 2019, the European Union and Armenia held the 10th round of their regular Human Rights Dialogue in Brussels. The EU and Armenia referred to their readiness to continue implementation of the EU-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA). After the latest elections in Armenia, the expectations among Armenian citizens regarding the strengthening of democracy and the rule of law, fight against corruption and protection and enhancement of human rights are high. The CEPA commits the EU and Armenia to strengthening respect for fundamental freedoms. At the meeting the EU and Armenia discussed freedom of assembly and expression, electoral reforms, gender equality, antidiscrimination policy, judicial and penitentiary reforms, as well as labour rights. Further amendments to Armenias media related legislation would ensure greater transparency and plurality. Armenia confirmed its commitment to pursue justice reforms, notably to the principle of equality before the law, to an independent judiciary and to an effective mechanism of checks and balances. It is crucial that Armenia adopts a comprehensive anti-discrimination law in line with international standards and establishes a national equality body under the Human Rights Defender's office. The Human Rights Defender and his office have taken positive steps to set up round-the-clock helplines and rapid response teams. The EU and Armenia discussed the preparation of the draft National Strategy on Gender Equality 2019-2023. Both sides highlighted the importance of raising public awareness and promoting gender equality, especially through education, and reiterated its support to this end. Close co-operation between the Armenian authorities and the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman and Degrading Treatment (CPT) would be beneficial. The Armenian National Prevention Mechanism should continue capacity building to better monitor and evaluate psychiatric institutions and the police and penitentiary and juvenile institutions. In line with its policy, the EU met and consulted representatives of the Armenian and international civil society prior to the Human Rights Dialogue. The Dialogue meeting resulted in operational conclusions with concrete actions that will be monitored and followed up over the next year. The Armenian delegation was headed by Mr Avet Adonts, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, while the EU delegation was led by Mr Richard Tibbels, Head of Division for bilateral relations with Eastern Partnership countries at the European External Action Service. Mr Arman Tatoyan, Armenian Human Rights Defender, and Ms Mara Marinaki, Principal Advisor for gender issues from the European External Action Service also participated in the meeting.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A deliveryman was knocked unconscious to the ground and robbed while delivering food in Port Richmond on Sunday evening, according to police.

The 48-year-old deliveryman arrived at the rear of a building on the 1900 block of Richmond Terrace near Jewett Avenue around 5:35 p.m. Sunday.

In order to steal the food, the robber allegedly punched the left side of the victims face. The deliveryman fell, hit as his head on the concrete and lost consciousness, according to an NYPD spokesman.

The deliveryman, who suffered a laceration, bruising and swelling to his head, was taken to Richmond University Medical Center in West Brighton.

No arrests have been made and the suspect is described by police as a black man standing about 511 and weighing about 160 pounds.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Staten Islands booming deer population is carrying hundreds of the recently discovered Asian longhorned tick -- an invasive species researchers say could be a threat to the borough.

At least 855 Asian longhorned ticks -- including adult, nymph and larvae life stages -- were removed from just 16 white-tailed deer on Staten Island last summer.

The species is considered a threat to Staten Island because it can quickly grow in numbers. A single female tick can produce up to 2,000 eggs at a time without mating, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). As a result, hundreds to thousands of ticks can be found on a single animal, person or in the environment.

Researchers from Columbia University have been surveying Staten Island the last two summers to learn more about the boroughs rise in ticks and Lyme disease. The researchers told the Advance last September that many of the deer they examined carried the Asian longhorned tick.

The researchers released their findings in a study, which was published in the April issue of the Emerging Infectious Diseases journal, detailing concerns of the invasive ticks rapid emergence because it can reproduce asexually, feed on a wide range of domestic and wildlife hosts and can handle a wide range of environmental temperatures.

The graphic below shows the number of ticks removed from deer on Staten Island in August 2018.

The number of ticks removed from deer on Staten Island during August 2018. (Courtesy of Columbia University researchers)

From Aug. 5 to 21, ticks were removed from deer found in four forest and grassy locations on Staten Island: the College of Staten Island, Willowbrook; Clay Pit Ponds State Park Reserve, Charleston; Mount Loretto State Forest, Pleasant Plains; Freshkills Park, Travis.

The graphic below shows the total amount of Asian longhorned ticks found in each location.

Researchers anesthetized the male white-tailed deer and groomed them for ticks. They checked the deers antlers, ears/head, front legs, hind legs and body for ticks.

Each animal was screened for 15 minutes to minimize time spent under anesthesia. Ticks were removed with forceps and stored in 100 percent ethanol for future identification.

Researchers only found ticks on deer, not mice or bird species. The findings indicate that immature stages of these ticks may feed exclusively on white-tailed deer or unsampled medium-sized animals, according to the study.

The graphic below shows the amount of Asian longhorned ticks removed from deer by life stage in each location. A high proportion of larvae was found on deer because samplings were collected during peak larval activity, the study said.

RISE IN TICKS, LYME DISEASE

Columbia University researchers said they believe the population boom of white-tailed deer on Staten Island is a main contributor to the growing number of ticks and Lyme disease cases on the borough.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data shows that the Island saw a 250 percent rise in Lyme disease cases from 2012 (35 cases) to 2016 (123 cases). Thats the sharpest jump in Lyme disease cases in the five boroughs.

To battle rising Lyme disease numbers, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced last summer that the city would increase spending by $600,000 annually to fight ticks on Staten Island.

Efforts would include stepping up tick surveillance at city parks and doubling the number of surveillance sites on Staten Island from 14 to 28. The main focus would be disinfecting mice, despite experts saying the rise in Lyme disease and ticks is linked to the growing deer population.

To curb the deer population, the city spent $4.1 million on a three-year deer vasectomy program that came to an end in January. In February, the city said it was looking to spent another $2.5 million for five more years of vasectomies.

The Parks Department told the Advance at the time it was looking to award a contract to continue the program.

TICK FIRST SPOTTED ON STATEN ISLAND

The first of the Asian longhorned tick species spotted in New York City was found in the southernmost section of Staten Island, according to the city Department of Health. It is normally found in areas of east Asia, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

Researchers from TickEncounter Resource Center at the University of Rhode Island also found the invasive species in Tottenvilles Conference House Park last August.

The CDC reported that no harmful germs have been found yet in the ticks collected in the United States. But the agency is still urging caution about the ticks potential to spread disease. In other countries, bites from these ticks can make people and animals seriously ill.

Staten Islanders should continue to follow procedures to prevent tick bites and tick-borne diseases, and use effective tick-repellent products.

FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Following a setback in whats become a year-long push to legalize recreational marijuana in New Jersey, multiple minority-led activist groups in New York are campaigning for minority lawmakers to approve a bill before the end of the legislative season, according to a New York Post report.

It was prominent black lawmakers in New Jersey who led a successful effort in March to stymy a bill that Gov. Phil Murphy and top-Democrats hoped would be signed into law, amid concerns that social and economic justice in minority communities might fall short of expectations.

A newly-formed group headed by the Rev. Al Sharpton and disciple LaMon Bland called We Rise to Legalize is working alongside The Black Institute and lobbying firm Sunshine Sachs to drum up support from stakeholders in minority communities, including the politicians who represent the residents.

Bland told the Post his group is pushing for a bill that ensures revenues are targeted to communities devastated over the course of many decades by the war on drugs, which includes a disproportionate number of convictions targeting black and Latinos for marijuana.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A school district in Illinois is facing controversy after a high school removed the stall doors from student bathrooms, according to published reports.

Officials from the Beardstown School District removed the bathroom stall doors from Beardstown High School after a student wrote a note on the stall door threatening a school shooting, according to ABC News Channel 20.

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," school district Superintendent Ron Gilbert told ABC 20. It has helped limit some of the things that were taking place.

And students are getting creative when it comes to getting privacy while using the bathrooms.

Juan Juarez, a student at Beardstown High School, told ABC 20 that female students were bringing blankets from home.

Mostly girls have been bringing blankets from their house and hanging it up in the stalls so people cant see them, and like yesterday people started putting their shoes and boots in front of the stall so people would know theyre in the bathroom, Juarez told ABC 20.

After many female students expressed concerns, the school district said females can use the private bathroom in the nurses office, according to the news report.

The school district told ABC 20 it was taking additional precautions regarding the threat written in the bathroom stall, which includes allowing students to enter and exit the school through one door, conducting random searches and using handheld metal detectors at after-school events.

It is unclear if or when the school will reinstall or replace the bathroom stall doors.

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

What do you think about the school officials decision to remove bathroom stall doors? What do you think of this course of action in response to the threat written on the bathroom stall? How would you react if you heard a school removed its bathroom stall doors?

We encourage our readers to reach out to us by posting their responses in the comment section and/or emailing them to aknudson@siadvance.com.

FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Christine Ross -- the sister of Jeanine Cammarata, the Staten Island teacher who was tragically murdered -- said the past week felt like a horrible, horrible nightmare while speaking at the vigil on Sunday night.

More than 30 family and friends of Jeanine Cammarata gathered outside of her New Brighton home Sunday night.

I keep pinching myself...I still feel like this isnt real, said Ross.

Tearfully, Ross said: Im not going to say Jeanine was my sister; Jeanine is my sister. Shell always be my sister, for the rest of my life until I meet her again one day."

The memorial for Cammarata, set up outside her Cassidy Place home, grew substantially since it was created on Friday, and those who attended the vigil added dozens of candles, flowers and tokens to honor the 37-year-olds life.

In addition to the grief shared among those who attended, laughs were also exchanged as stories of Cammaratas whimsical habits were told by those who were close to her.

Atop the fence used for the memorial was an ice cream souvenir, which her brother-in-law, Luis Melendez, said was brought by her mother, who was also in attendance.

Her mother always remembers her as a child chasing after the ice cream truck, he said.

Melendez spoke of Cammaratas impactful persona, saying that everybody she new, she touched.

Jessica Pobega, a longtime friend of Cammaratas, said that the vigil was important, not only to remember her friends life, but also to raise awareness for the prevalent issue of domestic violence.

Its nice that the community came together, and hopefully this can raise awareness for the future, she said.

Pobega hopes that her friends story can help teach other people who have family and friends who may be going through something similar.

Following a prayer at the end of the vigil, Cammaratas family and friends lit candles in her honor and raised them.

I know she is looking down on us right now; watching us, protecting us, Ross said.

SCHOOL MEMORIAL

Outside of PS 29, where Cammarata has worked as a first grade teacher since October, solemn tributes line the fence, including roses and purple ribbons symbolizing domestic violence awareness.

A GoFundMe created for Cammarata has raised over $16,000 as of Sunday night, and the funds will be directed towards her funeral arrangements and the care of her children, the page says.

THE CASE

Cammaratas boyfriend called police and reported her missing on Tuesday.

Cammarata, a first-grade teacher at the Castleton Corners school, didnt show up to work and missed a court date the day before.

On Thursday, April 4, police found charred human remains in a storage facility in Arden Heights. The New York City Medical Examiner later identified her remains using dental records.

After a week of mystery and speculation, the estranged husband of the slain teacher and his pregnant girlfriend were arrested and arraigned Friday on charges accusing them of murdering the victim and trying to conceal her corpse.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Maybe his online service was slow.

A man who authorities said snatched a Verizon Internet router from inside a Dongan Hills building last year pleaded guilty Monday to burglary.

Hector Castro, 36, broke into an office on the 100 block of Old Town Road at about 5:30 a.m. on May 26, 2018, said a criminal complaint.

Surveillance videotape captured him stealing an Internet router, said police.

Castro was busted five days later, court records show.

Police listed his address as the Project Hospitality homeless drop-in center on Central Avenue in St. George.

The defendant pleaded guilty to third-degree burglary, the top count against him.

In exchange, hell be sentenced April 23 in state Supreme Court, St. George, as a second felony offender to two to four years in prison.

Defense lawyer John Poppe declined comment on the case.

Assistant District Attorney Travis Atkinson is prosecuting it.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- After the Asian longhorned tick was first discovered on Staten Island last year, researchers are continuing to study the potential dangers of the invasive species.

A recent study showed the number of ticks in Staten Island parks increased nearly 12 times from 2017 to 2018.

And the Columbia University researchers who conducted the study removed at least 855 Asian longhorned ticks -- including adult, nymph and larvae life stages -- from just 16 white-tailed deer on Staten Island last summer.

Watch the video above to learn what you need to know about the Asian longhorned tick.

The study, published in the April issue of the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions (CDC) Emerging Infectious Diseases journal, details concerns of the invasive ticks rapid emergence, as reproduces asexually, feeds on a wide range of domestic and wildlife hosts, and can handle a wide range of environmental temperatures.

The first of the species found in New York City was in the southernmost section of Staten Island.

Researchers from TickEncounter Resource Center at the University of Rhode Island found the invasive species in Tottenvilles Conference House Park in last August.

While there have been no reports of harmful germs in ticks collected in the United States, Staten Islanders should continue to follow procedures to prevent tick bites and tick-borne diseases, and use effective tick-repellent products.

FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER.
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Wesfarmers takeover target, Lynas, has revealed plans to set up processing operations closer to its mine in Western Australia to "mitigate risk" related to its billion-dollar rare earths operations in Malaysia.

Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. Credit:AP

The plans would help the company meet the latest conditions imposed on its license to operate in Malaysia which involve having to extract radioactive materials from its ore before exporting it for processing.

"For some months, Lynas has been developing plans to grow with the market and deliver long-term shareholder value," the company said in a statement to the ASX on Monday morning.

"These plans will also assist the company to mitigate risk from any regulatory changes in Malaysia."
A quarter of NSW children are starting school a year later than they are eligible, and the delay is helping them fare better in kindergarten than their younger peers, a landmark study has found.

Affluent parents are more likely than disadvantaged or migrant parents to keep their child home for an extra year, with rates of school delay varying from 25 per cent to 35 per cent in wealthy suburbs to less than 15 per cent in low-income areas of Sydney.

Education experts say the study provides further proof that the high cost of child care is forcing many parents to send children to school before they are ready, and have called for investment in free, universal early childhood education.

The University of NSW-led study of 100,000 children is the largest to look at kindergarten starting age in NSW, which has the highest rates of school delay in the country, and the first to compare it with developmental data.
The federal government has committed $30 million to fight endometriosis and ovarian cancer as part of a new National Womens Health Strategy geared towards prevention, early detection, treatments and, ultimately, cures.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said the two conditions - which affect hundreds of thousands of Australian women - were the focal point of the 10-year strategy to be released on Tuesday.

Sylvia Freedman, co-founder of EndoActive, the organisation that will receive $160,000 under the federal government's new National Women's Health Strategy. Credit:Jessica Hromas

Mr Hunt announced $9 million to fund research into accurate detection and treatment of endometriosis, as well as addressing the lack of understanding among clinicians that has resulted in delays in diagnosis and poor clinical care for patients.

The funding will be guided by the National Action Plan for Endometriosis launched by Mr Hunt last July, including the development of diagnostic testing - that could mean patients avoid invasive laparoscopic surgery - as well as understanding the causes of the disease.
Like many Australians, it took years for Gemma Latter to seek help.

Anxiety is the most common mental health condition in Australia, and we are better at talking about it than we have ever been. So, why does it still take the average person diagnosed with an anxiety disorder more than eight years to seek help?

A new survey by government-funded not-for-profit NPS MedicineWise shows most Australians underestimate how long it takes people with anxiety to visit a health professional.

According to the survey, which is part of an education campaign to raise awareness of anxiety and its available treatment, 69 per cent of Australians think it takes less than five years for a person to seek professional help for an anxiety disorder.

In reality, only 28 per cent of people who are subsequently diagnosed with an anxiety disorder seek treatment in the first year of experiencing symptoms. It takes, on average, 8.2 years of living with symptoms before people ask for help.
"Unexpected" failures have delayed the launch of a new IT system that would allow Northern Beaches Hospital to electronically share vital patient information with other hospitals in the local health district.

It's the latest in a litany of problems for the troubled 488-bed hospital, which opened at Frenchs Forest last November.

Northern Beaches Hospital at Frenchs Forest. Credit:Brook Mitchell

The Health Information Exchange will allow the private operator of the Northern Beaches Hospital to access previous medical records from across the health district, including from Manly and Mona Vale hospitals.

But the chief executive of the Northern Sydney Local Health District, Deb Willcox, told a board meeting in February that the system had been unable to be released after testing encountered "unacceptable errors and omissions" in the data.
The Greens have shifted their election focus away from their traditional heartland in Melbourne's inner-north to the moneyed inner east as the party hunts for a second lower house seat in Victoria at the coming federal election.

Three seats to the south and east of the Yarra  Kooyong, Higgins and Macnamara  have emerged as the key targets the party believes it can win in May.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale with the party's candidate for Macnamara (previously Melbourne Ports) Steph Hodgins-May. Credit:Simon Schluter

But Greens leader Richard Di Natale conceded on Monday, as he geared up for the election campaign, that his party also faces a "tough fight" to maintain their nine Senate seats.

The focus south of the Yarra is a strategic shift from the 2016 election when Greens targeted and almost captured the inner north electorates of Batman and Wills.
I dont know exactly how my grandparents were murdered but my imagination has filled in the gaps.

Thats apparently a standard response from the families of the war dead. We fear the worst, as if death is not worst. In our minds, we rehearse the many scenarios, each more gruelling than the last. We extend their suffering and our own.

Lynette Silver, war historian and advocate, tells me my response is typical. She first learned it from the families of those who died at Sandakan and now shes learning it again from the families of the Australian nurses who died in World War II, victims of Japanese Army regiment 229.

Vivian Bullwinkel, the only survivor of Radji, and her uniform showing the exit hole of the bullet which was meant to kill her.

As far as the families knew, 22 Australian nurses were machine-gunned on Radji beach on Bangka Island, Sumatra. Only Vivian Bullwinkel survived and she later told Australian journalist Tess Lawrence what happened to her that day, that she and many of her fellow nurses were raped before her colleagues were murdered. Yet when the time came for the nurse to tell the complete story before the Tokyo war crimes tribunal, she didnt. Silver has only now assembled all the evidence to prove for certain that the rapes took place for her new book Angels of Mercy published this week.
Time for another Labor man to board the gravy train  Luke Foley .

After months of political exile, Luke Foley is back providing strategic counsel to private clients. Illustration: John Shakespeare Credit:

Even Labor powerbroker Sam Dastyari has a new gig working with Howard-era Cabinet minister Michael Wooldridge s political advice outfit The Strategic Counsel.

One-time Australian Workers Union boss Paul Howes is making a motza at KPMG, Keating-era treasurer John Dawkins chairs lobby shop GRA Cosway and former sports minister Mark Arbib is James Packer s right-hand man at Crown.

The path from Labor to lucrative private enterprise is well worn.

The former NSW Labor leader resigned in November after harassment allegations were levelled against him (he denied them) by an ABC journalist.

Hes dropped his threat of lawsuit, but with three children and wife Edel (who stuck with him through the most difficult months of his political crisis), the household bills still need to be paid.

Eyebrows were raised last week when Foley was spotted in the halls of Parliament House in Canberra during Opposition Leader Bill Shortens Budget reply.

Now we know Foley is back in business, providing political advice and strategic counsel to a number of clients  unclear exactly who they may be  on retainer.

But dont expect him to turn up on the state or federal lobbyist register.
In the shadow of the federal election campaign, Adanis controversial groundwater plan has become a political football. But the public interest demands we shed light on the impacts of the Adani mega mine on Queenslands water resources, because the process to date has been anything but transparent.

Adani requires a groundwater dependent ecosystem management plan before it can start the mines construction.

Doongmabulla Springs, south-west of the proposed Carmichael Mine.

Federal Environment Minister Melissa Price has on her desk Adanis plan and she must decide whether to approve it or send it back to Adani for more work. She has reportedly come under pressure to sign off on it from Queensland Coalition MPs keen for an electoral payoff in that state.

This is a significant decision that should be made on the basis of science not an election outcome.
A Nigerian man thrown into Villawood detention centre for drug trafficking believed that trafficking more drugs would help him in his fight to stay in Australia.

Following several failed legal battles and a partner at home struggling to cope with a newborn baby, Dirichukwu Patrick Nweke, 44, turned to facilitating a globe-spanning drug syndicate from inside immigration detention "to improve" his family's situation, a report to the NSW District Court says.

Dirichukwu Patrick Nweke conspired to import cocaine into Australia while he was in Villawood detention centre.

"Mr Nweke became focused on controlling his levels of psychological distress, trying to provide for his struggling partner and new baby as well as funding his legal battle to remain in Australia," the pre-sentence report says. "He viewed illicit activities as means of solving all these problems at that time."

Last month Judge Anthony Townsden sentenced Nweke to 15 years and nine months behind bars for conspiring to import a commercial quantity of cocaine into Australia.
An elderly man has died in hospital more than a week after he was hit by a car while waiting for a bus in north west Sydney.

The 72-year-old was taken to Westmead Hospital in a critical condition after he was hit by the Ford Focus at a bus stop in The Ponds on March 29.

Police charged the 47-year-old female driver the next day with dangerous driving causing grievous bodily harm and negligent driving.

However, police are now investigating further charges after the man died in hospital on Saturday, April 6.

The driver was granted bail to appear at Blacktown Local Court on April 15 and further charges are expected.
People who suffer from hay fever could find out exactly when theyre due to be hit with a dose, thanks to new research into the types of pollen that cause problems for different people.

Currently people with hay fever receive a blanket warning about the pollen count on a given day, with most people affected suffering through about six months of the year with antihistamines at the ready.

But its also known that only certain types of pollen cause hay fever, and some people react to only certain types within that group.

Researchers are working on a pollen forecast which could accurately predict when people would get hayfever. Credit:.

Associate Professor Nicholas Osbourne from the University of Queenslands School of Public Health said the collaborative international study has been developing ways to track when the different types of pollen are released.
Three sheep saved from a Queensland slaughterhouse are at an animal sanctuary after activists demanded the animals be handed over during controversial protests on Monday morning.

The activists said they wanted "more transparency" and "responsible dialogue" with the agriculture industry and state government, but their protests were met with the threat of jail time.

The three sheep surrendered during the Carey Bros Abattoir protest are at the Farm Animal Rescue sanctuary.

Police were called to Carey Bros Abattoir in Yangan, 100 kilometres south-east of Toowoomba, about 3.30am after an estimated 120 activists had gathered at the business.

About 100 remained outside, but 18 went inside the abattoir and chained themselves to equipment.
There are many definitions of populism. The one I prefer is that populism offers unworkably simple solutions to complex problems. Palmer is not the only populist on the ballot paper at the federal election. One Nation is another standout. Single-issue parties are no better.

And this is the first lesson that Australia, like countries everywhere, should learn from Brexit. Populists offer emotional appeals that lead to dead ends, just as Farage led Britain to Brexit.

Palmer proposes that North Queensland break away and form a separate, new state. Ironic, perhaps, for his so-called United Australia Party. Palmer has learnt nothing from Brexit. He is either a buffoon or an irresponsible populist.

This point carries particular force for any Australian thinking of voting for Clive Palmer, who is running candidates across the country for the federal election in a shameless attempted comeback even as his creditors try to recover hundreds of millions from his collapsed Queensland Nickel.

Brexit has been described as a crisis of many types. A crisis of national identity, a crisis of leadership, a crisis of the Tory party, a crisis of British politics, a crisis of democracy, a constitutional crisis, and so on. And you can make a solid case for each of these claims. But, at its broadest, the Brexit dead end is a crisis of overpoliticisation. That is, every realistic and practical element of the national interest is lost to a self-interested free-for-all, like hyenas preying on the body politic.

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The triumph of Farage's populist "Leave" campaign dealt Britain a jolting blow to the head, disorienting the political system and signalling to the politicians that it was time to let their inner hyenas out. Overpoliticisation is not simply where a government can't get its way in an uncooperative parliament. That is standard in a democracy. It will often occur for perfectly legitimate reasons of difference over principle or policy. It often happens that the Australian Senate, which was designed to represent a different priority of interests to the House, will block legislation that has passed the lower house.

As the chaos of the British parliament demonstrates, overpoliticisation is where there is a breakdown of any goodwill or discipline within the parties themselves. It can't happen here? It already has. In Australia's case, it was not as all-encompassing as Brexit. But the pathetic tale of climate change and energy policy in Australia over the last decade is a clear case of overpoliticisation. The net result so far is a policy dead end, where a government of six years is about to go to an election without an energy policy.

Electricity prices have soared, companies are being put out of business, Australia's carbon emissions commitment is in doubt, and the entire power grid is approaching collapse. As the Australian Energy Market Commission reported last week, "the grid is holding up but only because the energy market operator is intervening on a daily basis to keep the lights on". And this in a country that is an energy superpower.
As the television series Who Do You Think You Are? is testament, you never quite know what might emerge when you start digging into the family tree.

Wander through Rookwood cemetery and there's a small grave tucked away near the Russian Memorial. The grave is that of Brigid Mary Partridge, also known as Sister Liguori. It is tidy but nobody appears to have left any flowers recently. That might be about to change. First came the book The Extraordinary Case of Sister Liguori and now a screenplay is in production and negotiations for a movie.

Sister Ligouri.

At the age of 18, Brigid decided to enter an enclosed convent near her home in Kildare, Ireland. Within weeks it was decided that being close to and seeing her family might 'harm her vocation'. She was put on a ship to Australia where she knew nobody and entered the Mount Erin convent in Wagga Wagga. It was from there that Sister Liguori caused quite a stir.

One foggy winter night in 1920, barefoot and wearing just her nightgown, she climbed out of the Catholic convent window.
Vast Resources plc / Ticker: VAST / Index: AIM / Sector: Mining

8 April 2019

Vast Resources plc

(Vast or the Company)

Letter to Shareholders

Notice of General Meeting

Disposal of an economic interest in 25.01% of Pickstone Peerless Gold Mine and associated assets

Change to accounting year end

Vast Resources plc, the AIM-listed mining company, announces that a letter from the Chairman of the Company (the Letter) including a Notice of General Meeting has been posted to Shareholders late on 5 April 2019. A copy of the Letter and the Notice of General Meeting will be available on the Companys website at www.vastresourcesplc.com and the full text of the Letter follows in the appendix to this announcement below (the Appendix).

The principal matter dealt with in the Letter is the proposed sale by the Company of its 50.01% interest in Ronquil Enterprises (pvt) Ltd through which the Company holds its Zimbabwe gold assets, being the remaining 25.01% economic interest in the Pickstone Peerless Gold Mine and associated assets (principally the Eureka Gold Mine) (the Proposed Sale). A sale contract has been concluded subject to the approval of Shareholders which approval is required as the Proposed Sale falls within Rule 15 of the AIM Rules relating to fundamental changes of business.

In the six months to 30 September 2018, the Pickstone Peerless Gold Mine and associated assets contributed a profit before taxation of US$3,128,000 on revenue of US$19,329,000 in the consolidated accounts of Vast. These figures relate to 100% of the results due to the Companys historic controlling interest. Further details of the financial effects of the Proposed Sale are set out in the Appendix.

The Letter also asks Shareholders to approve an extension to the Companys accounting period so that the next Accounts are made up to 30 April 2019, rather than 31 March 2019, and to extend the exercise period of the warrants granted through the 2016 open offer and related placings from 30 June 2019 to 31 December 2019.

The implementation of the proposals will enable the Company to focus its activities in Zimbabwe on the Heritage Diamond Concession. It will also result in a fundamentally less complex balance sheet with much reduced liabilities and which will assist with the future financing of the Company.

Andrew Prelea, Chief Executive Officer of Vast, commented, I am delighted with the results that this transaction will achieve for the Company as it will allow management to focus its efforts on the two core focus assets in the Company, namely the Heritage Concession in Zimbabwe and Baita Plai in Romania.

The Heritage Concession will require significant investment, not only financial but in human resource to enable near term positive cash flow for the business. The divesting of the gold assets in Zimbabwe allows us to focus all of our Zimbabwe finance and management on this key component of the Companys growth.

We have a responsibility not only to our Shareholders but to the Chiadzwa and Marange communities as well as the wider Manicaland community to ensure the success of this project as a representation that Zimbabwe is open for business and investor and community can work together in creating a profitable and beneficial project for all the stakeholders.

The result of the transaction will also open up significant funding opportunities to the Company for the Romanian projects that have been delayed due to historic financial structures and arrangements that in turn hampered the Companys ability to progress our near term goals.

Due to the hard work and dedication of the management teams in the UK, Romania and Zimbabwe I can now look forward to the Company being able to unlock the value of the assets in our portfolio, bringing these two primary focus assets in to production in real time and, most importantly, creating shareholder value.

**ENDS**

For further information, visit www.vastresourcesplc.com or please contact:

Vast Resources plc

Andrew Prelea (Chief Executive Officer)



www.vastresourcesplc.com

+44 (0) 20 7236 1177



Beaumont Cornish - Financial & Nominated Adviser

Roland Cornish

James Biddle



www.beaumontcornish.com

+44 (0) 020 7628 3396 SVS Securities Plc  Joint Broker

Tom Curran

Ben Tadd



www.svssecurities.com

+44 (0) 20 3700 0100 SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP  Joint Broker

Ewan Leggat

Caroline Rowe



www.spangel.co.uk

+44 (0) 20 3470 0470



St Brides Partners Ltd

Catherine Leftley

Juliet Earl



www.stbridespartners.co.uk

+44 (0) 20 7236 1177

Notes

Vast Resources plc, is an AIM listed mining company with mines in Romania and Zimbabwe focused on the rapid advancement of high quality brownfield projects by recommencing production at previously producing mines in Romania and finalising its Chiadzwa Community Development Trust joint venture on the Heritage Concession (Block T1A of the Marange Diamond Fields) in Zimbabwe.

The Companys portfolio includes an 80% interest in the Baita Plai Polymetallic Mine in Romania, where work is currently underway towards developing and recommissioning the mine on completion of funding.

Vast Resources owns the Manaila Polymetallic Mine in Romania, which was commissioned in 2015, currently on care and maintenance, and is focused on its expansion through the development of a second open pit operation and new metallurgical complex at the Carlibaba Extension Area.

Appendix

LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN OF THE COMPANY

Disposal of an economic interest in 25.01% of Pickstone Peerless Gold Mine

and associated assets

Change of accounting date

Extension of exercise period for Warrants issued under the 2016 Open Offer and related Placings

and

Notice of General Meeting 10.30am on 23 April 2019

Introduction

As mentioned in my letter to Shareholders of 22 February 2019 the main focus of the Company is its two growth opportunities: the Baita Plai Polymetallic Mine in Romania (Baita Plai) and the Heritage Diamond Concession in Zimbabwe (Heritage Concession). As also mentioned in that letter, following the non-receipt of US$5.5 million from Mercuria, the Company has been obliged to negotiate new terms with Sub-Sahara Goldia Investments (SSGI) in relation to the US$3.4 million owing to SSGI (the SSGI Loan) on which discussions were still ongoing.

In the light of this focus and these events, and also importantly for the reasons explained in Paragraph 5 below, the Board have decided that the Company should sell its 50.01% interest in Ronquil Enterprises (pvt) Ltd (Ronquil) through which it holds its remaining 25.01% economic interest in the Pickstone Peerless Gold Mine (Pickstone Peerless) and associated assets (principally the Eureka Gold Mine (Eureka)). The Company accordingly has concluded conditional contracts for the sale of its 50.01% interest in Ronquil (the Transaction) the key terms of which are described in Paragraph 2 below. As the turnover of Pickstone Peerless contributed on a consolidated (ie100%) basis inter alia 89.9% of the Companys total revenues in the year to 31 March 2018, pursuant to Rule 15 of the AIM Rules the Transaction is deemed to constitute a disposal resulting in a fundamental change of business, and is therefore conditional on the consent of Shareholders being obtained at a General Meeting. The Company will however remain a minerals company under the AIM Rules given the remaining material minerals interests after the proposed disposal.

The Transaction, if approved, together with a further disposal as explained in Paragraph 3 below, will have the additional benefit of producing a material simplification of the Companys Balance Sheet and the elimination of some $38 million of liabilities shown therein as demonstrated in Paragraph 4 below. For this reason, the Board are recommending that the accounting period of the Company be extended by one month so that the next financial statements of the Company will be made up to 30 April 2019 in order to show the less complex Balance Sheet reflecting the assets and liabilities of the Company post completion of the Transaction. As the decision to extend the accounting period is linked to the approval of the Transaction, the Board have decided that this change should also be approved by Shareholders.

There are currently 521,197,123 warrants (the Warrants) giving the right to subscribe for shares in the Company at 0.5p per share derived from the placings announced on 6 July 2016 and 11 August 2016 (the Placings) and the open offer approved on 30 July 2016 (the Open Offer). The Warrants expire on 30 June 2019, and since the Companys share price is at the date of this letter below 0.5p the Warrants will have no value failing a substantial increase in the share price of the Company by 30 June 2019. Subject to approval by Shareholders, the Board would like to create goodwill to long-term Shareholders by extending the exercise period of the Warrants to 31 December 2019 so as to give the Shareholders who took part in the Placings and the Open Offer an increased possibility to benefit from the exercise of the Warrants. Additionally, this will provide the possibility of up 2.6million of additional funding for the Companys working capital requirements.

To this end, the Board are proposing three resolutions at the General Meeting, all of which are proposed as Ordinary Resolutions. These can be summarised as follows:

Resolution 1 is to approve the Transaction

Resolution 2 is, subject to the passing of Resolution 1, to change the Accounting Reference Date of the Company to 30 April so that the next financial statements of the Company will be made up to 30 April 2019

Resolution 3 is to extend the exercise period of the Warrants from 30 June 2019 to 31 December 2019

The Directors unanimously recommend that you vote in favour of the Resolutions to be proposed at the General Meeting.

You will find set out at the end of this document a Notice of the General Meeting. A Form of Proxy is also enclosed with this document. Completion of the Form of Proxy will not preclude you from attending the General Meeting and voting in person.

The Transaction

The Company has concluded a contract with, as parties, Southern African Trade Finance Ltd (SATF), a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, as the purchaser, and SSGI: and a second contract with, as parties, SATF, SSGI and Canape Investments (pvt) Ltd (Canape) the Companys wholly owned Zimbabwean subsidiary, the combined effect of which is to assign the Groups 50.01% interest in Ronquil to SATF. SSGI is a party to the contract as a Confirming Party as it has a security interest pursuant to the SSGI Loan, and also is the parent company of the owner of the other 49.99% interest in Ronquil; but otherwise has no material interest in or benefit from the Transaction. The key terms of the combined contracts are as follows:

The consideration from SATF is US$2.5 million payable outside Zimbabwe plus *RTGS$2.5 million (being US$1 million) payable in Zimbabwe.



The US$2.5 million payable externally will be applied in part repayment of US$2.5 million of the SSGI Loan.



The RTGS$2.5 million payable in Zimbabwe will be retained by SSGI as security until the SSGI Loan is repaid in full but if remitted from Zimbabwe may be applied in further repayment of the SSGI Loan.



SSGI has assigned back to the Company a loan due from Canape of US$3,168,059 value dated at 31 December 2016. This loan was equitably assigned to SSGI as part of a larger transaction pursuant to the agreements with SSGI announced on 30 January 2017 in connection with the acquisition by SSGI and its subsidiary of a 49.99% interest in Ronquil.



As a condition precedent that the Transaction must be approved by the Companys Shareholders at a General Meeting no later than 23 April 2019.

* RTGS is the new currency introduced in Zimbabwe in February 2019. On the date that RTGS was introduced all internal US$ balances in Zimbabwe became RTGS$ balances on a 1:1 basis. However, at the same time a market rate of US$1 = RTGS$2.5 was established.

Disposal of Canape

After completion of the Transaction, Canape will have no material assets apart from RTGS$2.5 million which will remain charged to SSGI until the SSGI Loan is fully repaid. It will owe on loan account US$18,012,050 to the Company and US$11,669,995 due to SSGI, all value dated 31 December 2016 (together the Historic Loans). Neither principal nor interest is payable on the Historic Loans unless and until Canape has the ability to pay. If repaid they must be repaid pro rata save that the first RTGS$2.5 million may be repaid to the Company in priority.

In practical terms, there is no likelihood that the Historic Loans or interest thereon will ever become payable, however the liability to SSGI will remain on the Companys consolidated Balance Sheet whilst Canape remains a subsidiary of the Company. In order to resolve this matter on the Companys Balance Sheet, the Company is proposing that after the Transaction is completed the shares of Canape will be transferred to a trust under independent control for the benefit of Zimbabwe staff thus enabling Canape to be deconsolidated. As a result, the Historic Loan of $11,669,995 will no longer appear as a liability on the Companys Balance Sheet.

Financial impact of the Transaction

The table below summarises the financial statements of the Company as per the interim accounts at 30 September 2018 alongside pro forma restated financial statements at 30 September 2018 on the basis that the Transaction and the disposal of Canape had taken place immediately before 30 September 2018.

Income statement

Reported Restated 6 months to 30th September 2018 6 months to 30th September 2018 US$ 000 US$ 000 Revenue 21,942 2,613 Cost of sales (16,431) (3,233) Gross profit / (loss) 5,511 (620) Overhead expenses (6,817) (4,454) Profit / (Loss) from operations (1,306) (5,074) Finance income 26 - Finance expense (851) (185) Loss of disposal of interest in subsidiary loans - - Profit / (Loss) before taxation from continuing operations (2,131) (5,259) Taxation charge - - Total profit / (loss) after taxation from continuing operations (2,131) (5,259) Profit / (Loss)) after taxation from discontinued operations - *12,185 Total Profit / (Loss) after taxation for the period (2,131) 6,926 Other comprehensive income 955 955 Total comprehensive profit / (loss) for the period (1,176) 7,881 Total loss attributable to: The equity holders of the parent company (3,555) 5,502 Non-controlling interests 2,379 2,379 (1,176) 7,881

* the amounts included within the profit/(loss) after taxation from discontinued operations are as follows:

US$ 000 Gain on disposal of operation 9,057 Total profit/(loss) after taxation from discontinued operations 3,128 12,185

Statement of financial position

Reported Restated 30 September 2018 30 September 2018 Assets US$ 000 US$ 000 Non-current assets 52,476 10,973 Current assets 15,233 4,380 Total assets 67,709 15,353 Equity and Liabilities Capital and reserves attributable to equity holders of the Parent (4,277) 4,780 Non-controlling interests 23,731 80 Total equity 19,454 4,860 Non-current liabilities 29,568 6,086 Current liabilities Loans and borrowings 10,906 232 Trade and other payables 7,781 4,175 Total current liabilities 18,687 4,407 Total liabilities 48,255 10,493 Total equity and Liabilities 67,709 15,353

In interpreting the comparative figures it must be borne in mind that the assets, liabilities and results relating to Pickstone Peerless and to Eureka  all held through the Companys 50.01% interest in Ronquil  are, on account of the Companys historic controlling interest, consolidated under IFRS rules showing 100% of the results of the enterprise whereas the Companys net economic interest was only 25.01%.

Reasons for the Transaction

There are several independent reasons why the Board are of the opinion that the Transaction is in the interests of Shareholders.

The Transaction repays the majority of the SSGI Loan and gives the Company the ability to repay more through the RTGS$2.5 million further consideration. It should be noted that SSGI has a charge over the Companys 50.1% interest in Ronquil.



Reducing the SSGI Loan gives the Company the ability to raise finance from other parties. It should be noted that SSGIs charge also extends to certain of the Romanian assets.



The Transaction, together with the disposal of Canape, in addition to repaying US$2.5 million of the SSGI Loan, significantly reduces the other loan and liabilities on the Companys Balance Sheet so that in all there is a reduction of nearly US$38 million (US$10.493 million vs US$48.255 million). The liabilities eliminated - in addition to the US$2.5 million repaid to SSGI, the release of the US$3.168 million referred to in Paragraph 2 and the US$11.669 million referred to in Paragraph 3 - include liabilities in relation to the funding of both Pickstone Peerless and the not yet operational Eureka.

Significantly reducing these liabilities and simplifying the Balance Sheet gives the Company the ability to be in a position to raise finance from other parties.

The Transaction enables us to concentrate more fully on our main focus of Baita Plai and the Heritage Concession.



On account of the Zimbabwe currency shortage the diamond regime in Zimbabwe is more attractive to investors than the gold regime.

Gold can only be sold to a state-owned buyer and 45% of sales revenues must now be retained in country in RTGS. The 55% paid in US$ is normally less than is required to make overseas purchases for the purpose of the operation, and the conversion of the RTGS to make such further payments as may be necessary is uncertain both as to the amount that may be realised and subject to long delays. The investment in Pickstone Peerless, and in Eureka for which substantial new capital is required, held the prospect of being locked in for a long period with no ability to remit profits.

Under the diamond regime on the other hand, most sales will be made overseas and it is believed it will be possible to remit or retain profits overseas.

Ongoing strategy for the Company

As already explained, the main focus of the Company is the two growth opportunity pivotal assets, Baita Plai and the Heritage Concession which the Board believes, when adequately financed, will produce near term remittable cashflow for the Company.

In relation to the Heritage Concession we are led to understand that we should be successful in making application that the area of the concession be included in a Special Economic Zone. Such a designation will give the operation enhanced ability to receive and retain diamond revenues outside Zimbabwe and in addition will give exemption for customs duties on imports.

The detailed start up and operational plans for both assets are well advanced and subject in the case of the Heritage Concession to the final signature of the joint venture agreement the main bridge to cross in achieving profits and cashflow is obtaining the finance needed for both on terms which are as attractive to the Company as it is possible to obtain. On the basis of discussions with potential lenders the Board is of the opinion that the simplification of the Companys Balance Sheet, and in particular the major reduction in liabilities that flow from the Transaction, will be a major step in achieving the financing objective.

The extension of the Accounting Period

The reason for this proposal is very simply in order to accelerate publication of a simplified Balance Sheet of the Company relevant to the strategy going forward. In law the accounting reference date can be changed by a resolution of the Board, but in these circumstances the Directors wish to ensure that they have the support of Shareholders in making the change. Should the resolution be passed, the Company will be required to publish its audited accounts for the 13 month period ended 30 April 2019 by 30 September 2019.

The Warrant Exercise extension

This proposal is unconnected with the matter of the Transaction and the change of accounting date. It has been included as a proposal as a gesture of goodwill to our long-term Shareholders who took place in the 2016 Open Offer and the related Placings.

General Meeting and Action to be taken by Shareholders

Attached to this letter is a notice convening the general meeting to be held at the Companys Registered Office, 60 Gracechurch Street, London, EC3V OHR at 10.30am on 23 April 2019 to consider the Resolutions. The Resolutions if passed will approve the Transaction.

Shareholders have been sent a Form of Proxy for use at the General Meeting. Whether or not Shareholders intend to be present at the General Meeting they are requested to complete and return the form of Proxy in accordance with the instructions printed thereon. To be valid, completed Forms of Proxy must be received by the Registrar as soon as possible, and in any event not later than 10.30am on 17 April 2019. Completion of a form of proxy will not preclude Shareholders from attending the meeting and voting in person if they so choose.

Recommendation

The Directors believe that the Transaction will promote the success of the Company for the benefit of the Shareholders as a whole.

The Directors unanimously recommend the Shareholders to vote in favour of the Resolutions to be posed at the General Meeting as they intend to do in respect of their own beneficial holdings amounting in aggregate to 81,712,431 ordinary shares representing approximately 1.09% of the existing ordinary shares.

Brian Moritz

Chairman

5 April 2019
Vegan activists who invade farms and slaughterhouses to stage political protests must face tougher criminal penalties, the federal Attorney-General has told his state counterparts.

Attorney-General Christian Porter has urged states to increase penalties against vegan activists. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

Christian Porter called on the Privacy Commissioner to launch an investigation into Monday's protests as he urged the nation's attorneys-general to beef up their state laws and enforcement to deter more mass-scale demonstrations at individual meat processors and farms.

Activists brought rush-hour traffic to a halt in Melbourne's CBD on Monday morning, and invaded several abattoirs in Victoria, NSW and Queensland. Thirty-nine people, including two teenagers, were arrested in Melbourne. Charges are also expected to be laid against one person who blocked the Melbourne Aquarium and a further 20 people who targeted processors in Laverton and Pakenham in Victoria.
The Morrison government has ramped up its marketing and advertising spending to $136 million for the first half of this year as it looks to maximise the number of taxpayer-funded ads before calling the federal election.

Based on publicly-listed advertising contracts, Labor has estimated the cost at approximately $600,659 a day or $4.2 million a week. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten accused Prime Minister Scott Morrison of using taxpayer funds for political ends.

A federal election is expected to be called within the week. Credit:AAP

The government has hit back by pointing out that Labor put millions of taxpayer dollars into advertising in its last months in power in 2013, including on a border protection campaign supposed to deter overseas people smugglers that aired on Australian television.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said the daily cost of the campaign was likely to be revealed in a Senate estimates hearings on Tuesday and that the ads were being rolled out to inform voters about electricity bills, online safety and to encourage employers to hire apprentices.
The writing standards of Queensland students have slipped in the past decade, national NAPLAN exam results have shown.

In fact, the writing standard in Queenslands year 7 students slumped by 37.2 points, or 3.5 per cent, since NAPLAN began in 2008.

Writing standards are falling Australia-wide, according to the 2018 NAPLAN results. Credit:Justin McManus

Writing is the disappointment in Queenslands 2018 results, which otherwise show improvements in reading, numeracy, grammar and spelling over the past decade, according to the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority.

NAPLAN is a series of tests run by ACARA over two days in May to assess numeracy and literacy.
The N.S.W. Minister for Health, Mr. W.F. Sheahan (left), and the Minister for National Development, Senator W.H. Spooner (centre), listen to the Lord Mayor of Sydney, Ald. H.F. Jensen, placing the first telephone call to Melbourne on the coaxial cable system. April 9, 1962. Credit:Staff photographer

First published in the Sydney Morning Herald on April 10, 1962

The biggest single telecommunications project in Australia, a coaxial cable linking Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne, was opened by the Prime Minister, Mr Menzies, in Canberra yesterday.

The 599-mile cable, with "repeater" stations every six miles, will substantially increase communication channels between the three centres.

It took two years to install.
The demolition of around 300 commercial and residential buildings to make way for the promenade has left a gaping hole in Varanasi's urban core, a congested maze of zig-zagging brick lanes full of religious shrines. Funeral pyres on the banks of the Ganges. Credit:AP Outside the heavily guarded temple and mosque complex ringed with barbed wire, where photography is prohibited, Aijaz Mohammed Islahi, the mosque's 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. "They thought they would quietly garland the statue and people will accept the change after a couple of days," he said.

The Vishwanath project is part of a broader campaign to downplay the Muslim Mughal dynasty's 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. Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a campaign rally. Credit:AP At the same time, Hindu nationalists are demanding that a temple to the god Lord Ram be built at the site of a mosque that rioters destroyed in 1992, and that they say was built only after Muslims destroyed an ancient temple there. Thus, Modi's 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."

Deepak Agarwal, the city commissioner overseeing the Vishwanath project, said that residents had been paid at least twice the market rate for their properties and that no one had been forced to leave. Modi's directive was "to restore the glory back to this area," Agarwal said, including rehabilitating about 40 Hindu temples or shrines uncovered in the demolition, and investing in public amenities. 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 India's Hindu mores onto a multicultural society, historians and political scientists say. "It's 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.

Modi's BJP took power in 2014 elections on a pledge to rapidly expand India's 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 government's economic performance has come under scrutiny. Modi's administration was accused in January of suppressing unemployment data that showed joblessness had reached its highest level in 45 years. A demonetisation program aimed to curb black market money by taking some rupee notes out of circulation. But it ultimately hurt the poor, and India's central bank later said that most of the illicit funds had re-entered the banking system.

Public subsidies to support India's 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 Modi's constituency of Varanasi, the government's record is uneven, most visibly on the prime minister's signature Swachh Bharat, or Clean India, program. But with the Vishwanath temple and other symbolic projects, one of Modi's undisputed successes has been to insert religion into the center of the political debate in India. Even leaders of the opposition Congress party, which has stood for secularism since before India's independence, are trying to prove their Hindu credibility. Priyanka Gandhi, sister of Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi, spent three days in March traveling by boat on the Ganges, a trip billed as a "yatra," or religious journey, that culminated with a visit to the Vishwanath temple in Varanasi.

Yet criticizing Modi's development projects, she said that "the prime minister should stop thinking that people are fools," and "should understand that they see through this," arguing that the prime minister's showmanship lacks substance. 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 Modi's dream project. But Modi won't have won their votes.
Kuala Lumpur: Thirty-seven people believed to be Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar were found on a beach in northern Malaysia on Monday, police said, the latest arrivals in what authorities fear could be a new wave of people smuggling by sea.

Dozens of Rohingya in Myanmar and Bangladesh have boarded boats in recent months to try to reach Malaysia, which had seen a decline in arrivals after a 2015 crackdown on trafficking.

Malaysian navy officers detain a boat carrying Rohingya migrants off Langkawi, Malaysia, last week. Credit:AP

Last month, 35 migrants were found on Sungai Belati beach in the northern state of Perlis.

On Monday, 37 men were detained around the town of Simpang Empat after landing at the same beach in the early morning, state police chief Noor Mushar Mohamad told Reuters.
Jerusalem: The Israeli military jeep rolled slowly through the dark streets of Beit Ummar, a Palestinian town in the southern occupied West Bank.

It was the summer of 1988. For the previous six months, thousands of Palestinians had been confronting Israeli forces in an uprising that would later be known as the First Intifada.

In the front seat was Benny Gantz, a young officer. The night was suddenly lit up by Molotov cocktails exploding all around the jeep. The Israeli soldiers jumped out with assault rifles raised but their attackers had already fled.

People wait for a green light next to an election campaign billboard showing Blue and White party leaders, from left, Moshe Yaalon, Benny Gantz, Yair Lapid and Gabi Ashkenazi in Ramat Gan, Israel, on Sunday. Credit:AP

"Other commanders would just say shoot everywhere. But not Benny," said Dan Emergui, one of the soldiers. "He's calm and he's cool. If he doesn't have a reason to shoot, he won't."
Washington: The Trump administration is preparing to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard a "foreign terrorist organisation," 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 was expected on Monday, after a months-long 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.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard. Credit:AP

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 authorised to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
In a letter sent today, the organizations Ocan (formerly known as the Dutch Caribbean Consultative Body) Cooperation Platform Moroccan-Dutch (SMN) and the Consultative Council of Turks in the Netherlands (IOT) have called on various cabinet members to reconsider how the government communicates about crime and the country of origin. Since the 1990s, numerous government publications have been published in which suspect figures are presented, classified according to a selection of countries of origin. If one of your parents is born in a certain country, you are classified as a separate group in government communication about - for example - crime rates. In at least one publication, groups were also broken down based on the country of birth of grandparents.

John Leerdam, chairman of Ocan:

For more than twenty years, government organizations have been presenting crime rates broken down by country of origin, in all kinds of publications. But what is the added value of this? That still remains vague! Government research on crime is about uncovering underlying factors such as economic position, level of education or upbringing. Categorizations by origin are by no means necessary. It is almost impossible that this type of communication has not in some way had adverse effects for Dutch-Antilleans, for example for the position on the labor market. It is, therefore, time to talk about this in a society that advocates inclusion. Especially in view of equal opportunities for our youth, we believe that peoples country of origin should not

be mentioned every time we talk about crime.

The three organizations propose a number of concrete steps. Among other things, the organizations ask for a clear and complete written reconsideration, in case the responsible cabinet members and government organizations choose to continue with communications of this type.

Bouchaib Saadane, chairman of SMN:

A few years ago, the terms allochtonous and autochtonous were banned from government communication, supported by extensive government assessment. One of the arguments then was: negative effects on public perception and prejudices. Without much explanation, suspect figures are still being broken down by country of origin. Why would the governments considerations look differently for country-of-origin categorizations than for the terms allochtonous and autochtonous? And shouldn't you learn a little more about how these figures are perceived by citizens?"

In the past twenty years, governments have not reconsidered the continuation of the origin breakdowns in crime figures as a separate topic, nor has there been any research into the reinforcing role of government communication on negative perceptions. Such an assessment would also have to pay attention to the criticisms of ECRI, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, according to the three organizations. In both 2007 and 2013, ECRI emphasized that the Netherlands violates a norm with the Dutch methods of categorizing and presenting data on the basis of country of origin.

If in the future government bodies continue with the country-of-origin breakdowns in suspect figures, then groups with the same socio-economic characteristics should be compared in all of the publications, according to Ocan, IOT, and SMN. The vast majority of current publications that refer to suspect figures and countries of origin do not meet this condition.

Substantial progress should then be made in the publications that remain, according to the three organizations. They call on the government to collect more data with which different origin groups can be made more comparable. In addition, they call for more work to be done on research into, for example, ethnic profiling, the influence of (friends) networks and the influence of daily negative attitudes about peoples

ethnic origins.

Zeki Baran, IOT chairman:

Research into factors that correlate with crime does not have to start with the question why there are differences between different origin groups. If you omit that question, you can still acquire exactly the same knowledge about criminogenic factors. The starting point must be that criminogenic factors are characteristics that occur throughout the world, regardless of the origin group. A clear exception to this is selectivity in police arrests. We, therefore, welcome it if this type of selectivity deserves more attention in crime analyses and data gathering.

Stichting IOT, Stichting , Stichting SMN, 8 2019
Finastra named a Business Superbrand for 2019

Annual ranking recognizes the UK?s strongest B2B brands

London, UK, April 8, 2019 ? Finastra has been named in the UK Business Superbrands list for 2019, for the fourth year in a row (listed as Misys in 2016 and 2017). The ranking, which has been tracking the UK?s leading business-to-business (B2B) brands since 2001, recognizes the company for quality, reliability and distinction.

The Business Superbrands survey evaluated around 1,600 brands across 63 industry categories. Only the most highly-regarded brands from each category are awarded Superbrand status. The research process was managed by The Centre for Brand Analysis (TCBA), following a voting process involving 2,500 UK business professionals, supplemented by an expert council comprising 24 senior business-to-business marketing leaders.

Nicola Hamilton, Senior Director, Brand and Communications at Finastra said, ?The founding values of our brand are very much future-focused as evidenced by our strapline ?The future of finance is open?. We have built our brand around being innovative, collaborative and open ? attributes that are increasingly important with everything that is happening in the financial services market around digitalization and the rise of challenger banks. It is great to be recognized by Superbrands for our work, made possible by our 10,000+ employees and 8,500 customers.?

Stephen Cheliotis, CEO of The Centre for Brand Analysis (TCBA) and Chairman of Superbrands comments: ?In unsettled times, businesses that are well-regarded and possess a positive reputation benefit from competitive advantage over weaker branded rivals, providing greater immunity against short-term market volatility. Being perceived by buyers and influencers as a leading Business Superbrand is a positive business signal, while also recognition of the hard-work and dedication of the employees of each business attaining Superbrands status.?

You can view the Finastra Superbrands profile page here: http://www.superbrands.uk.com/2019-brands/finastra. A full list of the 2019 Superbrands can be found here: http://www.superbrands.uk.com/2019-results.
English Lithuanian

Correction: Social Responsibility Report 2018 in 115 page was - bought 267,785 thousands tons of milk, should be 267,785 tons





The Board approved financial statements for the year 2018 and convokes the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders

On 5 April 2019 the Board of Vilkyskiu pienine AB (hereinafter Vilkyskiu pienine AB or the Company) decided:

- To approve the Companys annual report for the year 2018, prepared by the Company and assessed by the auditors, and to propose to the Companys Annual General Meeting of Shareholders to approve Companys consolidated annual report.

- To approve the draft of the audited separated and consolidated financial statements of the Company for the year 2018 and to propose to the Companys Annual General Meeting of Shareholders to approve the draft of the Companys separate and consolidated financial statements for the year 2018.

In 2018, Vilkyskiu pienine AB Group sales revenue amounted to mEUR 103.2 down by 9.5 percent from mEUR 113.9 in 2017. In 2018, the net loss mEUR 1.2, decrease by mEUR 7.9 comparing to the last year (in 2017, the net profit was mEUR 6.7)

To approve the allocation project of the Companys audited net profit (loss) under IAS for the year 2018 and to propose it to the Companys Annual General Meeting of Shareholders to approve.

Resolution: To approve the audited net profit (loss) allocation under IAS for the year 2018 as follows:

thousand EUR 1) Non-appropriated profit (loss) at the end of the year 2017 21,727 2) Approved by shareholders dividends of the year 2017 (1,672) 3) Transfers from the reserve to purchase own shares 2,508 4) Non-appropriated profit (loss) at the beginning of the current financial year after dividends payout and transfer from reserves 22,563 5) Net profit (loss) of the reporting period (2,028) 6) Transfers from reserves 129 7) Net profit to be appropriated at the end of the current financial year 20,664 8) Total profit (loss) to be appropriated: portion of the profit allocated to the legal reserve - portion of the profit allocated for payment of the dividends - portion of the profit allocated to the other reserves - 9) Non-appropriated profit (loss) at the end of the current financial year carried forward to next financial year 20,664

- To convoke the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders at the office of Vilkyskiu pienine AB (P.Lukosaicio g. 14, Vilkyskiai, LT-99254 Pagegiu sav., Lithuania), at 15.00 on 26 April 2019, and to propose to the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders the following draft agenda:

1) Approval of the Company's annual report for the year 2018.

2) The Company's auditor's report of separated and consolidated financial statements of the Company for the year 2018.

3) Approval of Company's separate and consolidated financial statements for the year 2018.

4) Net Profit appropriation of the year 2018.

Vilija Milaseviciute

Economics and Finance Director

phone +370 441 55102

Attachments
TUV Rheinland publishes Cybersecurity Trends 2019

Posted by Publisher Telecommunication

TUV Rheinland, a leading international provider of testing, inspection, and certification services, today released its Cybersecurity Trends 2019, a report that contains eight important developments in cybersecurity as identified by TUV Rheinland experts. How well companies and large organizations can ensure the security of data and IT in the digital economy is increasingly a critical factor for their success or failure. \The modern world is rapidly transforming into a digital, knowledge-based \-\-industry 4.0\-\- economy. This change has an equal significance to the industrial revolution,\ explains Frank Luzsicza, Executive Vice President for Digital Transformation & Cybersecurity at TUV Rheinland. \That\-\-s why the existential question for many companies will be about mastering the cyber-physical challenges of the digital economy. It may simply amount to a binary: success or failure, without the option to compromise.?

Sixth Annual Cybersecurity Trends from TUV Rheinland

For the sixth year in a row, TUV Rheinland is publishing its annual forecast of cybersecurity trends, gathered from its world leading cybersecurity experts in Europe, Asia and North America. In the current report, TUV Rheinland writes that companies are increasingly recognizing cyberattacks as a central business risk and are beginning to align their organization accordingly. Cybersecurity trends also focus on how strongly cybercrime influences technologies such as Operational Technology (OT) in industry and the Internet of Things (IoT), why skills shortages could become a growing problem, and what role concepts such as red teaming or agile security are likely to play. Below are the highlights of the eight cybersecurity trends that TUV Rheinland has identified for 2019:

TREND 1: Cybersecurity has become a topic for the management level

Until recently, lack of cybersecurity was not seen as a business risk, but as an IT problem. Despite years of warnings, it was only the effects of the NotPetya cyberattack in 2017 that changed this view. Several large companies reported losses as a result of this attack, including logistics companies Maersk and FedEx, advertising company WPP, and household goods manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser. These companies have reportedly each lost up to hundreds of millions of euros. This makes NotPetya the most expensive cyberattack to date. At the same time, breaches of data protection remain a cause for concern. Risks associated with a lack of cybersecurity have evolved from a hypothetical problem to a recognized business risk. This realization is now leading to long-term changes in the management of cybersecurity risks and the question of who is responsible for this problem.

TREND 2: Industrial cybersecurity is years behind general IT security

In an Operational Technology (OT) system, computers recognize or modify physical processes by controlling and monitoring devices such as electric motors, valves or relays. They are used, for example, by energy and water suppliers as well as in industrial facilities. Although the lack of cybersecurity of OT systems can have serious consequences, industrial cybersecurity has long been neglected and has been characterized by both indifference and underinvestment. Today, the risks of neglecting the protection of OT systems have fundamentally changed due to new technologies and geopolitical tensions. This applies, in particular, to security monitoring systems. If something can become a target for attack  and we must assume that it can be done at any time  those responsible should do everything possible to prevent the success of such an attack.

TREND 3: Standards pose a challenge for IoT cybersecurity

Standards organizations and industries around the world are developing the security and privacy standards needed to secure the next stage of development in the Internet of Things (IoT) and Operational Technology (OT). Although well intentioned, it can be confusing and time consuming for manufacturers to find out which of these regional and industry standards they need to consider. Particularly affected are global companies that need to understand how to ensure compliance when developing their products. The existence of competing standards could therefore lead to a waste of time.

TREND 4: The pressure caused by the GDPR represents a turning point for consumer data protection.

The European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), enforced as of May 2018, held many unknowns. A few short months later, a hospital in Portugal was fined 400,000 euros by the Portuguese Data Protection Authority for alleged unrestricted access to patient files and information. Although overall enforcement is relatively slow to start and the first fines imposed were rather low, it is clear that the DSGVO will have a significant impact on data protection not only in the EU, but worldwide. For most industries, it will simply be cheaper to develop and design their products and services to meet the highest global standards, rather than limit themselves to geographically limited privacy.

TREND 5: The shortage of skilled workers in cybersecurity will distort the labour market

While the importance of cybersecurity has increased, the staff needed to meet the specific cybersecurity demands have not. It is estimated that by 2020, there could be a shortage of 1.5 million skilled workers worldwide. It is estimated that this figure could more than double by 2021. Such an extreme shortage of skilled workers often leads to market distortions: Larger, financially stable organizations and service providers are able to recruit competent staff, while smaller companies may have problems in some sectors. Inevitably, this not only makes cybersecurity more expensive, but also affects supply chains that connect large and small businesses, economically. In terms of the long-term interests of the industrial economy, cybersecurity is of importance to the general public and should therefore be accessible to all. If this problem is not solved, there will be greater challenges in this area in the future.

TREND 6: The detection of and response to threats depends on the establishment of Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR).

The security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) approach reduces the time required to detect incidents, accelerates threat response, and minimizes the impact of cyberattacks. The greatest added value is provided by automated threat containment workflows, which are critical in dealing with rapidly spreading malicious malware. Other benefits of SOAR include standardization of cyberattack investigation processes, faster prioritization and response, the ability to proactively search for threats, and improved quality and efficiency of detection and response processes. However, to implement a new wave of automation with SOAR, organizations must invest and plan at a time when established investments such as Security Information & Event Management (SIEM) solutions are just beginning to pay off.

TREND 7: \Red Team\ tests and agile security gain general acceptance

The terms \Red Team\ test and \holistic test\ have their origin in the field of penetration testing. \Red Teams\ simulate how an attacker can penetrate an organization and gain access to resources under real-world conditions by exploiting existing vulnerabilities. While vulnerabilities can be found in many resources (applications, devices or infrastructures), \Red Teams\ also simulate topics such as social engineering, hijacking social media, physical access to a building or  in extreme cases  their own employees with malicious intentions. Unlike traditional pen testing, Red Teaming tries to understand how these factors interact and does not look at them separately. At the same time, agile security testing is becoming more important. Their goal is to eliminate as many weak points as possible during the development of a software.

TREND 8: Cybersecurity decides on winners and losers of the digital economy

The modern world is rapidly developing into a digital, knowledge-based \industry 4.0\ economy. This change has a similar meaning as the industrial revolution in the 18th century. A fundamental challenge in this process is to recognize how to ensure one\-\-s own security, where the resources should come from and what global standards are needed to make development as smooth as possible. The ability to meet the security challenges of the digital economy will determine the success of economies, economic sectors and perhaps even the political systems on which they are built. It is possible that for many large organizations this will result in a simple scenario of either success or failure without a middle course.

TUV Rheinland\-\-s Whitepaper Cybersecurity Trends 2019 provides more information and assessments on the challenges of 2019 https://www.tuv.com/cybersecuritytrends2019.

TUV Rheinland ist ein weltweit fuhrender unabhangiger Prufdienstleister mit 145 Jahren Tradition. Im Konzern arbeiten uber 20.000 Menschen rund um den Globus. Sie erwirtschaften einen Jahresumsatz von knapp 2 Milliarden Euro. Die unabhangigen Fachleute stehen fur Qualitat und Sicherheit von Mensch, Technik und Umwelt in fast allen Wirtschafts- und Lebensbereichen. TUV Rheinland pruft technische Anlagen, Produkte und Dienstleistungen, begleitet Projekte, Prozesse und Informationssicherheit fur Unternehmen. Die Experten trainieren Menschen in zahlreichen Berufen und Branchen. Dazu verfugt TUV Rheinland uber ein globales Netz anerkannter Labore, Prufstellen und Ausbildungszentren. Seit 2006 ist TUV Rheinland Mitglied im Global Compact der Vereinten Nationen fur mehr Nachhaltigkeit und gegen Korruption. Website: www.tuv.com
Why cellular connectivity is the smart choice for CCTV deployments

Businesses large and small rely on their CCTV systems to deter intruders and provide recorded evidence of security incidents. Overtime, CCTV has evolved to offer real-time intrusion detection and monitoring, and businesses now expect easy, secure and anytime access to cameras, and data. For that, they need connected CCTV systems. These modern installations can benefit from cellular connectivity, helping businesses protect their sites, while also supporting enhanced capabilities for CCTV to deliver more. Widespread use of CCTV systems So widespread is the use of CCTV cameras now that London, United Kingdom has over 600,000 cameras, according to Surfshark, while IHS Markit expects over a billion to be operating around the world, by the end of 2021. CCTV often sits at the heart of a business on-site security arrangements CCTV often sits at the heart of a business on-site security arrangements. Yet, despite this, traditional set-ups fail, to take advantage of the full capability, such physical security can provide. Real-time feeds with anytime access Nominated personnel must physically go to premises to access CCTV video, when it is recorded and kept only on-site. This causes loss of valuable time, when a potential crime must be reported and investigated. Whats more, it can put those who arrive first at the site at risk, if intruders are still present. Nowadays, CCTV installations can take full advantage of connected capabilities. They can provide real-time feeds, which authorised users can access securely from anywhere. That expands the security credentials of CCTV systems, beyond just recording. Detected intrusions can trigger alerts and provide a real-time visual of whats happening, so that required action can be taken. Of course, to realise these CCTV capabilities, systems must be connected and use the right type of connectivity at that. Connectivity must be resilient, so that it provides a continuous feed, even if a primary connection is lost, secure for authorised users, scalable and cost-effective. Traditionally, connectivity has come from wired connections and WiFi, but now cellular connectivity provides an attractive alternative. The benefits of cellular connectivity There are a number of reasons for this. To start with, fixed line connectivity isnt always available in all locations. If the infrastructure isnt there, particularly at remote sites, cables have to be laid. Thats expensive and takes time. CCTV towers in the construction and building industry, for example, require CCTV that can be rapidly deployed in areas that most likely dont have fixed line connectivity. A cellular connection can be quickly arranged to get a CCTV system up and running in the shortest possible time. Relying on third-party infrastructure, such as fixed line networks, can also be an issue for CCTV solution providers, because any policy changes can make integration difficult. Issues that may require changes from the third-party network administrator can take longer to resolve and if the fixed line network goes down, there is usually no backup. Cellular connectivity offers end-to-end control Cellular connectivity, delivered by a solution provider, gives end-to-end control of the connectivity Cellular connectivity, delivered by a solution provider, gives end-to-end control of the connectivity. In the rare event that something goes wrong, the solution provider can manage a resolution quickly. Where a number of sites are involved, cellular connectivity can provide a single solution, simplifying overall management of the complete installed CCTV system and reducing total cost of ownership for connectivity. Single connectivity management platform Through a single connectivity management platform, businesses can oversee an entire security installation, viewing and managing data usage, and using the information to assist decision making, as security needs evolve. This brings us to the fourth benefit - The ability to easily scale up. This might be because additional cameras are needed at a site or additional sites need to be catered for. It could even be because the CCTV installation is being enhanced to support additional capabilities. Simple plug-and-play to get cameras online securely Whatever the reason, being able to roll out connections rapidly, to a range of locations will be critical to existing and new installations. Ideally, connectivity should be possible within a matter of days and end users should be able to simply plug-and-play to get their cameras online securely. Resilience is the next factor to consider. Pre-configured routers, or embedded SIM cards in cameras, can reconnect to the most readily available alternative cellular network in the event of a network outage. In this way, cellular connectivity can form part of business continuity options. In some cases, it can work together with fixed line connections, as part of robust installations, which have mitigation built-in, should primary connections fail. Expanding CCTV capabilities 4G and now 5G too, allows for easy access and remote monitoring for CCTV applications 4G and now 5G too, allows for easy access and remote monitoring for CCTV applications. It can be deployed rapidly, supports an always on approach and can stream high volumes of data and imagery. Live video feeds can be viewed by authorised users on any device and they can receive alerts, and notifications direct to their mobiles too. The high speed, high bandwidth and lower latency of 5G connectivity also provides the opportunity for enhanced CCTV system capabilities, such as live feed analytics. This is ideal because it helps businesses build on the primary function of security with, for example, occupancy monitoring. This has very much come to the fore, over the past 18 months+, as businesses have had to concern themselves more than ever with occupancy levels in their buildings. ANPR in crime detection and traffic enforcement Retailers, meanwhile, have built on the real-time nature of CCTV technology, to monitor customer numbers in their stores, in line with social distancing guidelines. Another CCTV application can be found with automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) in crime detection and traffic enforcement. Combined with software, the feed from CCTV cameras is used to help find and track vehicles for law enforcement or traffic monitoring. For most CCTV applications, the speed and functionality that comes from 4G is more than sufficient. However, it is likely 5G will drive new applications and ways to expand CCTV capabilities to the benefit of businesses. CCTV systems offer remote monitoring and high quality visuals Once a single application installation, CCTV use to provide only on-site recording capabilities. Now, CCTV systems can support remote monitoring and higher quality visuals. They can deliver alerts, and back them up with access to real-time video feeds, so that authorised users can assess a situation and take action rapidly. These additional capabilities support enhanced use cases for CCTV. The data that CCTV systems generate is valuable to businesses. Businesses that capture and analyse the data can fully capitalise on its potential. Cellular connectivity provides a resilient and scalable way of connecting single or multiple sites. Through a connectivity management platform, businesses can consolidate CCTV connectivity, managing connections across networks and deployments.
Lithuanian English

Lietuvos Energija, UAB, (hereinafter  the Company) identification code 301844044, registered office placed at Zveju str. 14, Vilnius, Republic of Lithuania. The total nominal value of issued bonds 600 000 000 EUR; ISIN codes XS1646530565; XS1853999313.

The Company informs that it plans to publish the Annual Audited Financial Statements and Annual Report of the Company for 2018 on 16 April 2019. Therefore the Company informs that it plans to release its financial results in 2019 according to the following updated calendar:

Reporting date Reporting information 31/01/2019 Preliminary unaudited financial results for 12 months of 2018 28/02/2019 Interim unaudited financial statements and interim report for 12 months of 2018 28/02/2019 Preliminary unaudited financial results for 1 month of 2019 29/03/2019 Preliminary unaudited financial results for 2 months of 2019 16/04/2019 Annual audited financial statements for 2018 and annual report for 2018 verified by auditors 07/05/2019 Interim unaudited financial statements and interim report for 3 months of 2019 31/05/2019 Preliminary unaudited financial results for 4 months of 2019 28/06/2019 Preliminary unaudited financial results for 5 months of 2019 31/07/2019 Preliminary unaudited financial results for 6 months of 2019 30/08/2019 Interim unaudited financial statements and interim report for 6 months of 2019 30/08/2019 Preliminary unaudited financial results for 7 months of 2019 30/09/2019 Preliminary unaudited financial results for 8 months of 2019 30/10/2019 Interim unaudited financial statements and interim report for 9 months of 2019 29/11/2019 Preliminary unaudited financial results for 10 months of 2019 31/12/2019 Preliminary unaudited financial results for 11 months of 2019

The Company plans to convene an ordinary general meeting of shareholders until 30 April 2019.

More information: Arturas Ketlerius, Acting Head of Public Relations of Lietuvos Energija +370 620 76076, arturas.ketlerius@le.lt
The city of Georgetown is moving closer to implementing paid parking on Front Street downtown.
Since 1960, humanity launched dozens of missions to Mars to learn more about our planetary neighbor. Mars appears to be a world once rich in water and perhaps, in life, presenting an interesting counterpart to Earth.

Since the first successful flyby in 1965, four space agencies have successfully made it to Mars: NASA, the former Soviet Union space program, the European Space Agency and the Indian Space Research Organization, while others, including the space agencies in Russia, Japan and China, have attempted Mars or Martian moon missions without success.

The latest batch of Mars-bound missions in February 2021 were NASA's Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter, the United Arab Emirates' Hope orbiter (a first for that country), and China's Tianwen-1 orbital and lander-rover mission (another attempt for China to reach Mars). As of this update, none of the 2021 missions have arrived at the Red Planet yet.

Later in the decade, different space agencies plan a sample-return mission from the moon Phobos, and a sample-return mission from Mars itself.

Related: How long does it take to get to Mars?

Book of Mars: $22.99 at Magazines Direct Book of Mars: $22.99 at Magazines Direct Within 148 pages, explore the mysteries of Mars. With the latest generation of rovers, landers and orbiters heading to the Red Planet, we're discovering even more of this world's secrets than ever before. Find out about its landscape and formation, discover the truth about water on Mars and the search for life, and explore the possibility that the fourth rock from the sun may one day be our next home.

1960s-early 1970s: Flybys & photographs

The first attempts to reach Mars happened near the dawn of space exploration. Considering that the first satellite, the Soviet Union's Sputnik, launched in 1957, it is extraordinary that only three years later, the Soviet Union space program looked to extend its reach to Mars.

More formally known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) at the time, the Soviet Union made multiple attempts in the 1960s to reach the Red Planet, and NASA soon followed with its Mariner 3 spacecraft. These first few missions failed to make it even close to Mars. The timeline went as follows:

Oct. 10, 1960: Marsnik 1/Mars 1M No.1 (USSR) launched for an intended Mars flyby. The spacecraft was destroyed during the launch and failed to reach Earth orbit.

Oct. 14, 1960: Marsnik 2/Mars 1M No. 2 (USSR) launched, also for an intended Mars flyby. But similarly to Mars 1M No. 1, the spacecraft exploded during the launch and did not reach Earth orbit.

Oct. 24, 1962: Sputnik 22 (USSR) launched for an intended Mars flyby. The rocket that launched the spacecraft had a fatal issue and the spacecraft was destroyed soon after it achieved Earth orbit.

Nov. 1, 1962: Mars 1 (USSR) launched for an intended Mars flyby. The spacecraft made it to Earth orbit and beyond. But almost five months later, on March 21, 1963, the spacecraft was 65.9 million miles (106 million kilometers) away from Earth when its radio failed and communication with the craft permanently ceased.

Nov. 4, 1962: Sputnik 24 (USSR) launched for an intended Mars flyby. The spacecraft achieved Earth orbit but had a fatal issue when it changed its trajectory toward Mars and it eventually fell back to Earth, in pieces.

Nov. 5, 1964: Mariner 3 (U.S.) launched for an intended Mars flyby. An hour after the launch, there was a problem with the solar panels. Ground crews were unable to fix the issue before the spacecraft's batteries died and the mission failed.

While those first several missions didn't reach their target, NASA's Mariner 4 finally did. The spacecraft launched on Nov. 28, 1964, and was the first to fly by Mars on July 14, 1965. It sent 21 photos of the Red Planet back to Earth.

Two days after Mariner 4 launched, the Soviet Union tried again with Zond 2. The spacecraft passed by Mars but the radio failed and it did not return any planetary data.

NASA also sent Mariners 6 and 7 in 1969, both of which reached Mars and sent back a few dozen photos. Coincidentally, all of these spacecraft flew over areas of Mars that were cratered. This gave astronomers the false first impression that Mars looked like the moon.

Several more attempts were made between 1969 and 1971, but most failed to reach their target:

March 27, 1969: Mars 1969A (USSR) launched but was destroyed before reaching Earth orbit.

April 2, 1969: Mars 1969B (USSR) failed during its attempted launch.

May 8, 1971: Mariner 8 (U.S.) also failed during its attempted launch.

May 10, 1971: Kosmos 419 (USSR) launched and achieved Earth orbit before suffering a fatal issue.

Also in 1971, the Soviet Union finally met with success after several attempts to reach the Red Planet. Its Mars 2 orbiter, which launched May 19, 1971, arrived on Nov. 2. However, the Mars 2 lander crashed on the surface and was no longer operable. Mars 3, a lander and orbiter mission, launched on May 28, 1971, and arrived on the Red Planet Dec. 3. The lander worked for only a few seconds on the surface before failing, but the orbiter worked successfully.

The image of Mars changed with the arrival of NASA's Mariner 9 in November 1971. The spacecraft, which launched on May 30, 1971, arrived at Mars when the entire planet was engulfed in a dust storm. What's more, something mysterious was poking above the plumes of dust. When the debris settled to the surface, scientists discovered those unusual features were the tops of dormant volcanoes. Mariner 9 also discovered a huge rift across the surface of Mars, later called Valles Marineris  after the spacecraft that discovered it. Mariner 9 spent nearly a year orbiting the Red Planet, and returned 7,329 photos.

Valles Marineris, seen at an angle of 45 degrees to the surface in near-true colour and with four times vertical exaggeration. The image covers an area of 630 000 sq km with a ground resolution of 100 m per pixel. The digital terrain model was created from 20 individual HRSC orbits, and the colour data were generated from 12 orbit swaths. The largest portion of the canyon, which spans right across the image, is known as Melas Chasma. Candor Chasma is the connecting trough immediately to the north, with the small trough Ophir Chasma beyond. Hebes Chasma can be seen in the far top left of the image. (Image credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum))

1970s-1980s: Landings on Mars, and attempts to reach Phobos

As the Soviet Union continued its Mars series of spacecraft, it garnered partial success; out of four spacecraft aimed for the Red Planet, only one orbiter and one lander briefly returned data in 1974:

July 21, 1973: Mars 4 (USSR) launched and then flew by Mars on Feb. 10, 1974, but that wasn't the plan; it was intended to orbit the planet, not keep going.

July 25, 1973: Mars 5 (USSR) launched and settled into orbit around Mars on Feb. 12, 1974, but lasted only a few days.

Aug. 5, 1973: Mars 6 (USSR) launched with a flyby module and lander that arrived at the Red Planet on March 3, 1974, but the lander was destroyed upon impact.

Aug. 9, 1973: Mars 7 (USSR) launched again with a flyby module and lander, and arrived at the Red Planet on March 3, 1974, but the lander missed the planet.

Meanwhile, NASA sent two pairs of orbiters and landers toward Mars in 1975. Viking 1 and Viking 2 both arrived at the Red Planet in 1976, and sent their lander to the surface while the orbiter remained working above. The Viking program represented the first extended exploration of Mars, as each spacecraft lasted years and transmitted reams of information back to Earth.

Hopes of finding life on the Red Planet, however, were dashed when the probes could not definitively prove the existence of microbes on the surface. (The results remain controversial, as more is understood about microbial activity.)

The Viking missions also revealed that the composition of Mars was almost identical to certain meteorites found on Earth. This suggested that some meteorites found on Earth were originally from Mars.

The Soviet Union also made two attempts to reach one of the moons of Mars, Phobos, in the 1980s, but both missions failed.

This color picture of the Martian horizon was taken by Viking 1 on July 24, 1976. (Image credit: NASA.)

1990s: Better, faster, cheaper

NASA's next attempt to reach the Red Planet came in the 1990s, when Mars Observer launched to the planet on Sept. 25, 1992. The spacecraft was lost just before it was supposed to achieve Mars orbit on Aug. 21, 1993. While the loss of communication was never fully explained, the most likely cause was a fuel tank rupture that caused the spacecraft to spin and lose contact with Earth.

The loss was especially painful because the spacecraft had cost so much; an estimated $813 million, which was nearly four times the original budget for the project, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory . The exorbitant cost and the spacecraft's failure sparked a new move within NASA to create better, faster and cheaper missions that would take advantage of advanced computer electronics and new team management techniques. NASA called it the Faster, Better, Cheaper, or FBC program.

In the meantime, NASA's Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) left Earth on Nov. 7, 1996, and arrived at Mars on Sept. 12, 1997. Its mission was extended several times until NASA lost contact with it in 2006. MGS mapped the Red Planet from pole to pole, revealing many ancient signs of water, such as gullies and hematite (a mineral that forms in water). Data from MGS helped NASA decide where to land its future Mars rovers. MGS also took pictures of public interest, including re-imaging the famous "face on Mars."

NASA's 25-pound Sojourner Mars rover covered about 330 feet (100 meters) over 83 days on the Red Planet in 1997. (Image credit: NASA)

In 1991, the USSR was dismantled. The Russian space agency continued the Soviet quest for Mars with their Mars 96 mission, which launched on Nov. 16, 1996. However, the orbiter, two landers and two penetrators were lost after the rocket failed.

On the other side of Earth, the FBC program's first mission was a great success. The NASA Pathfinder lander and Sojourner rover arrived at Mars in July 1997. The lander was the first to use a set of airbags to cushion the landing, and Sojourner was the first rover to trundle around on Mars. Pathfinder was expected to last a month and Sojourner a week, but both remained in operation until September 1997, when contact was lost with Pathfinder.

Japan was next to enter the mission-to-Mars arena with Nozomi, which launched on July 4, 1998. The spacecraft made it to Mars but failed to enter orbit in December 2003.

Two other FBC missions never made it to the Red Planet. The Mars Climate Orbiter launched on Dec. 11, 1998, and disappeared after arriving at Mars in September 1999, because of a measurement error.

NASA's Mars Polar Lander (MPL) and two space probes with it (called Deep Space 2) were launched on Jan. 3, 1999. All were lost before finishing their journey, probably because MPL malfunctioned and thought it had landed, so it shut off its engine prematurely.

2000s to present: Rovers and orbiters galore

The discovery of ancient water evidence on Mars sparked a renaissance in Mars exploration.

NASA's Mars Odyssey launched March 7, 2001 and arrived at the Red Planet on Oct. 24, 2001. The orbiter is still conducting its extended science mission. It broke the record for the longest-serving spacecraft at Mars on Dec. 15, 2010. The spacecraft has returned about 350,000 images, mapped global distributions of several elements, and relayed more than 95 percent of all data from the Spirit and Opportunity rovers.

The European Space Agency launched its lander-orbiter called Mars Express /Beagle 2 on June 2, 2003. The lander was lost on arrival on Dec. 25, 2003, but the orbiter completed its prime mission in November 2005 and is currently on an extended mission.

NASA's two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, were sent to the surface of Mars in 2004. Each discovered ample evidence that water once flowed on the Red Planet. Spirit died in a sand dune in March 2010, while Opportunity continued work for nearly another decade. Opportunity fell silent during a sandstorm in summer 2018 and NASA declared the mission over in early 2019.

This artist's concept shows NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission over the Red Planet. (Image credit: NASA/JPL)

Another NASA orbiter, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched on Aug. 12, 2005. It began orbiting the planet on March 12, 2006. The mission has returned more data than all previous Mars missions combined and continues to send high-resolution data of Red Planet features and weather. It also relays data from Martian surface missions back to Earth.

On Aug. 4, 2007, NASA launched a stationary lander called Mars Phoenix, which arrived at Mars on May 25, 2008, and found water ice beneath the surface. Phoenix's solar panels suffered severe damage from the harsh Martian winter, and communication with the $475 million lander was lost in November 2008. After repeated attempts to re-establish contact, NASA declared Phoenix dead in May 2010. The damage was confirmed in orbital photos taken at the Red Planet.

The Russian space agency, Roscosmos, made another attempt to reach Phobos with the Phobos-Grunt mission, which launched in 2011 and crashed Jan. 15, 2012, after failing to leave Earth orbit. Phobos-Grunt was also carrying China's first attempt at a Mars orbiter, along with an experiment run by the U.S.-based Planetary Society designed to study how a long journey through deep space affects microorganisms. Chinas orbiter also did not succeed in its mission.

NASA's powerful rover Curiosity, arrived at Gale Crater in 2012 to search for signs of ancient habitable environments. Its major findings include finding previously water-soaked areas, detecting methane on the surface and finding organic compounds. It is still going strong in 2021.

Curiosity's design inspired another rover, called Perseverance, which is expected to land on Mars on Feb. 18, 2021 on a quest to find samples with potential signs of life in them, among numerous other investigations. Perseverance will cache the most promising samples for a future sample-return mission, tentatively scheduled for later in the decade and involving both NASA and the European Space Agency. Perseverance also carries a test helicopter, Ingenuity, which will assess the feasibility of flying on Mars.

A view from the InSight Mars lander's Instrument Deployment Camera, on the lander's robotic arm, as Mars' moon Phobos passed in front of the sun March 5, 2019. The camera was able to capture a brief darkening of the ground around it over the 24.3 second eclipse. (The camera captures a frame of video every 50 seconds.) (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

The European Space Agency's ExoMars program, which is a collaboration with Russia, launched an orbiter called the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and a demonstration lander called Schiaparelli in 2016. Although Schiaparelli crashed on the Martian surface, TGO is still operational and providing insight about the composition of the Martian atmosphere. The next tranche of ExoMars is the Rosalind Franklin rover and its companion lander, which are scheduled to leave Earth in 2022 (following a two-year delay due to technical problems and the coronavirus pandemic.)

Besides the large rover and orbiter missions, other spacecraft from NASA are assessing elements of the evolution and current climate of Mars, to better inform our understanding of rocky planets and perhaps to prepare for future landing missions.

NASA's MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN), launched in November 2013, achieved orbit on Sept. 21, 2014, and continues to observe changes in the Martian atmosphere to better understand why it thinned over billions of years.

Related: NASA's MAVEN Mission to Mars in photos

NASA sent Mars InSight to the Red Planet in 2018 to probe the interior structure of Mars in detail for the first time. InSight was approved for an extended mission in 2021 based on its findings so far about Martian history, although efforts to dig a heat-seeking probe (or "mole") below the surface turned up short as the regolith was harder than expected. InSight also carried the first Martian cubesats.

Other countries are accumulating Martian experience, too, with hopes to finally get up close to at least one of its moons.

India's MOM (Mars Orbiter Mission) successfully achieved orbit in 2014 to image the entire planet, providing a unique perspective on its weather and surface features. The United Arab Emirates' Hope mission (en route in February 2021) will examine Martian weather and atmospheric layers.

China's Tianwen-1 mission includes a lander, rover and orbiter that plan a multi-mission investigation of Mars in February 2021, if all goes to plan; some of its planned work includes looking at the water content of the soil and to examine Martian climate and environment.

Japan also plans to return to the Martian system in 2024, when it will launch the Mars Moons Exploration (MMX) mission to do a sample-return mission from Phobos, one of the two moons of Mars.

Additional resources:
Clockwise from left: SpaceX's Falcon Heavy, ULA's Vulcan Centaur, Northrop Grumman's OmegA and Blue Origin's New Glenn rockets are all in the running to compete for a block of launch contracts the U.S. Air Force intends to divide between two providers during phase 2 of the Launch Service Agreements (LSA) program.

WASHINGTON  A push to delay a solicitation for industry bids for national security space launch services continues on, putting the Air Force in a tight spot as it prepares to issue a request for proposals for the Launch Service Procurement competition.

Air Force leaders planned to release the final request for proposals (RFP) for the Launch Service Procurement (LSP) last week. Following a meeting with Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord on March 26, Air Force officials were hoping for Pentagon approval to issue the RFP but apparently that has been put on temporary hold.

"No decision has been made," Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Mike Andrews told SpaceNews on Friday.

The LSP competition, which has been in the planning stages for years, suddenly is in the midst of a pitched political fight as industry players and lawmakers challenge the Air Force to level the playing field. The Air Force is poised to proceed with the final RFP in the coming weeks.

At the center of the dispute is the Air Force's decision to start evaluating proposals this year and select two suppliers in 2020 to receive Launch Service Procurement contracts. The two winners would split national security launch contracts 60/40 over a five-year period starting in 2022.

The field of competitors includes national security launch incumbents United Launch Alliance and SpaceX, and new entrants Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems.

Blue Origin has asked the Air Force to consider pushing the decision beyond 2020 to allow more time to evaluate newly developed rockets that won't be ready to fly until 2021. It also has argued that three, rather than two, companies should be selected for LSP Phase 2. The current plan, the company said, perpetuates the current duopoly in national security launch and puts new entrants at a disadvantage, contradicting the Air Force's own rhetoric about wanting to broaden the industrial base.

Blue Origin, which is based in Kent, Washington, gained a powerful ally in House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.).

Smith on Thursday sent a letter to Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson questioning "what seems to be a rush to move ahead in the procurement strategy." The Air Force, Smith wrote, is "rapidly pressing ahead with its Launch Service Procurement plan, including issuing a request for proposals in a way that risks undermining the Air Force's goal of maximizing and sustaining fair and open competition, and without sufficient information to properly evaluate next generation launch systems."

In the latter Smith suggests that he is prepared to escalate the fight and take legislative action in the fiscal year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act.

"The Air Force's approach to the overall National Security Space Launch program has been concerning to this point," Smith wrote. "For instance, the plan limits the procurement to only two providers over a five-year period and terminates the LSA for the remaining launch providers, even though other launch providers might be able to successfully compete within that time frame."

The Launch Service Agreements, or LSA, are cost-charing awards the Air Force made in October to Blue Origin's New Glenn ($500 million), Northrop Grumman's OmegA ($792 million) and ULA's Vulcan Centaur ($967 million) to help pay for the cost of the infrastructure and vehicle modifications that are required for commercial rockets to be certified to fly national security missions. Under the rules of the LSA program, the Air Force will cut off LSA funding to the companies that are not selected under the LSP competition to receive launch contracts. That could effectively kick the losing suppliers out of the national security launch market for good.

Smith in the letter to Wilson listed other quibbles, such as the rules of the LSP competition and the schedule. "Given these concerns about maximizing fair and open competition I urge you to delay the upcoming RFP until these concerns are resolved and until there is further clarity on a path forward." He said he wants to resolve these issues "as Congress writes the FY20 National Defense Authorization Act."

Industry sources who spoke with SpaceNews on Friday said both camps are digging in. They asked to not be quoted by name due to the sensitivity of the issue.

"I think this will be part of the NDAA fight," one source said. Whereas the Air Force is treating the LSP as a discrete procurement issue, launch companies and their congressional backers are casting it as an existential fight.

Air Force leaders have reminded Congress that a legislative mandate to stop flying national security satellites aboard rockets that use the Russian RD-180 engine is the reason why the service has to qualify new vehicles sooner rather than later.

During a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee's strategic forces subcommittee, the commander of the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center Lt. Gen. John Thompson said ULA only has 12 RD-180 engines in inventory that can be used for national security launches awarded between now and 2022. Congress five years ago set the 2022 deadline for the Air Force to stop using the RD-180 which is the main engine of ULA's Atlas 5 rocket.

"Five years ago Congress challenged us to get off the RD-180 and provide assured access to space," said Thompson. "The Air Force rose to that challenge."

Sources close to ULA said the company is fiercely opposed to any delay in the LSP competition and is miffed by efforts by other launch companies to use the legislative process to slow down the process.

ULA's rivals meanwhile are convinced that the Air Force is refusing to defer the LSP selection beyond 2020 because sticking with the schedule would favor ULA as an incumbent.

Sources said the RD-180 issue could become an Achilles' heel that ULA's competitors could exploit to their advantage if ULA runs out of RD-180s before its new vehicle, the Vulcan Centaur, is certified and able to replace the Atlas 5 for national security launches. The company has been promoting its recent advances in Vulcan development to ensure the vehicle is ready for its first launch in 2021. If the LSP decision were pushed out, the source said, new entrants like Blue Origin would have more time to mature their vehicles and strengthen their bids.

With the RD-180 deadline looming and a limited number of engines left, ULA is in a position where "your competitors know your weakness," the source said. A delay in the LSP competition would be bad news for ULA. It would face the prospect of running out of rockets to compete unless Congress extended the RD-180 cutoff date and allowed ULA to buy more engines for the Atlas 5, the source said. "Any competitor would use that to their advantage."
Astronauts Jim Buchli and Janet Kavandi were inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame during a ceremony on Saturday, April 6, 2019, under the display of the retired space shuttle Atlantis at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. They unveiled their plaques, which will be placed in the Hall of Fame at the visitor complex.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.  Although their own space missions came decades after the first humans landed on the moon, Jim Buchli and Janet Kavandi have now joined the same ranks as Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.

Veterans of NASA's space shuttle program, Buchli and Kavandi became the 98th and 99th space travelers to be inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame on Saturday (April 6). A public ceremony held under the display of the retired space shuttle Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida brought together Gemini, Apollo, Skylab and space shuttle astronauts to welcome Buchli and Kavandi into the Hall.

"I can't think of two more deserving individuals," said Bob Cabana, the director of NASA's Kennedy Space Center and a four-time space shuttle astronaut.

Related: Most Extreme Human Spaceflight Records of All Time

New inductees Jim Buchli and Janet Kavandi stand among fellow U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame members following their induction ceremony on Saturday, April 6, 2019, at NASAs Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. (Image credit: collectSPACE.com)

"The astronauts that you see here today all appreciate you and your extraordinary contributions to the future of human spaceflight," said Mike Coats, a three-time space shuttle pilot and commander and the former director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "They warmly welcome you into the Astronaut Hall of Fame ."

Both Buchli and Kavandi said they were humbled by the honor.

"This is something my family and I will remember for the years to come. I want to thank the members of the Astronaut Hall of Fame for inviting me to join their ranks," said Buchli, who launched on four missions between between 1985 and 1991, logging more than 20 days in orbit. "I am both humbled and honored for this acknowledgment."

"We are very humbled to be here and very humbled to be recognized by all of you, our heroes," said Kavandi, who flew on three missions between 1998 and 2001, spending 34 days off the planet.

Amazing endeavor

Buchli was selected with NASA's 1978 astronaut candidate class , the first group to be chosen for the space shuttle program. He orbited Earth 319 times as a mission specialist on STS-51C, STS-61A, STS-29 and STS-48, flying with a still-classified military payload, conducting science research and deploying NASA satellites.

"My four space shuttle missions came rather rapidly once the program began to gain experience," said Buchli, who at 73 is now retired. "I flew twice in 1985, again in 1989 and my final flight was in 1991. Each flight was unique in mission objectives and crew make up. On each, I endeavored to the best of my abilities to execute my role as professional as possible, lead where required and support others in their functions."

Kavandi was a member of NASA's 15th class of astronaut candidates, recruited in 1994. She served as a mission specialist on STS-91 in 1998, STS-99 in 2000 and STS-104 in 2001, visiting both the Russian space station Mir and the International Space Station, as well as helping to collect the radar data for a topographical map of Earth.

"I am so fortunate to have had the opportunity to see the world from above it and on it," said Kavandi, who today serves as the director of NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. "All of us here are so lucky to be part of this amazing endeavor."

"We, the lucky few here, got to be on the fun side of things. We got the shaking and the rolling and were rewarded with a magnificent view of the planet once we reached orbit," she said.

"Janet Kavandi and James Buchli represent the best of America's astronauts," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine in a statement. "Each has contributed greatly to the NASA mission, and their efforts have helped lay the groundwork for where we are today  including Janet's leadership directing Glenn's Moon to Mars work  as we chart a course for a return of American astronauts to the lunar surface in five years, and eventually on to Mars."

On their shoulders

Buchli and Kavandi each reflected on how their spaceflight careers followed the first push to the moon 50 years ago and how what was learned on their missions will inform the next missions to explore the lunar surface.

"I have always wanted to go to the moon. I am right in between, just in the wrong place, to do lunar work myself. But I am trying to help people get there," Kavandi said.

"As the crew of Apollo 11 was reaching the pinnacle of their flying career, I was starting mine," said Buchli, who watched the first moon landing as an officer in training at the Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida.

"The thing that I think is really remarkable is that every one of the people who has flown into space, when it is there turn, they step up to the challenge and do it right. You can say that about Apollo 11 , they stepped up to the challenge and did everything right, it was their turn to fly and they executed perfectly. And so when it is your turn, you do the mission that you're assigned to and you do it to the best of your abilities. I am just happy to be part of all of that," Buchli told collectSPACE.com.

"We have built on the work and sacrifices of those men and women who executed the programs before us," he said. "Those who come after we are gone will build on what we've done. I hope that our legacy will be that we have passed the torch of excellence on and that future programs learn from what we have done, both right and wrong."

"As we have stood on the shoulders of earlier space explorers and their programs, so will those who come in the future and gain from where we have been," he said.

Click through to collectSPACE for more photos and video from the 2019 U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
Artist's illustration of NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which is hunting for exoplanets around stars close to the sun.

NASA's newest planet-hunting mission just got a list of high-priority targets.

Astronomers have put together a "habitable planets catalog" for the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), in an attempt to help the spacecraft's hunt for potentially Earth-like worlds.

"Life could exist on all sorts of worlds, but the kind we know can support life is our own, so it makes sense to first look for Earth-like planets," TESS science team member Lisa Kaltenegger, a professor of astronomy at Cornell University in New York and director of the school's Carl Sagan Institute, said in a statement.

Related: NASA's TESS Exoplanet-Hunting Mission in Pictures

"This catalog is important for TESS, because anyone working with the data wants to know around which stars we can find the closest Earth analogs," added Kaltenegger , who led a new study announcing the catalog.

TESS launched to Earth orbit atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in April 2018. The spacecraft is searching for exoplanets around nearby stars by looking for tiny brightness dips caused when these worlds cross the faces of their host stars from TESS's perspective.

NASA's recently deceased Kepler space telescope used this same "transit method" to great effect: Kepler has found about 70 percent of the roughly 4,000 known exoplanets to date. (And more discoveries are in the offing; nearly 3,000 Kepler "candidates" await confirmation by follow-up observations or analysis.)

TESS, whose haul may ultimately exceed Kepler's , is expected to observe about 400,000 stars during its two-year prime mission. Not all of those stars were created equal from the mission's perspective, and that's where the new catalog comes in.

Kaltenegger and her colleagues identified 1,822 stars around which TESS could spot, in just a single transit, planets down to twice the size of Earth that receive about the same amount of stellar radiation as our planet does. (These worlds may, therefore, have Earth-like surface temperatures.)

The team further highlighted 408 stars where TESS could find such a presumably temperate planet that's about Earth's size  again, in one transit.

"I have 408 new favorite stars," Kaltenegger said. "It is amazing that I don't have to pick just one; I now get to search hundreds of stars."

The catalog includes 137 stars that NASA's $8.9 billion James Webb Space Telescope will be able to view continuously, the researchers said. James Webb, which is scheduled to launch in 2021, will be able to characterize the atmospheres of some nearby exoplanets  work that will include searching for possible "biosignature" gases such as oxygen and methane .

"We don't know how many planets TESS will find around the hundreds of stars in our catalog or whether they will be habitable, but the odds are in our favor," Kaltenegger said. "Some studies indicate that there are many rocky planets in the habitable zone of cool stars, like the ones in our catalog. We're excited to see what worlds we'll find."

The study was published late last month in The Astrophysical Journal Letters .
Artist's illustration of 'Oumuamua, the first interstellar object ever confirmed in our own solar system.

'Oumuamua might form the heart of an alien planet someday.

Widely wandering bodies such as the odd, needle-shaped 'Oumuamua  the first interstellar object ever confirmed in our own solar system  commonly seed nascent planetary systems, a new study suggests.

Such visitors likely serve as scaffolds, allowing alien worlds to take shape much faster than they otherwise would, researchers said.

Related: 'Oumuamua: Our 1st Interstellar Visitor Explained in Photos

"For decades, it has been investigated how planets grow from millimeter-sized grit to planets as huge as Jupiters. This growth process would be very slow, but observations tell us otherwise  some planets exist around very young stars," study lead author Susanne Pfalzner, of the Julich Supercomputing Center and the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Germany, said in a statement.

"The presence of 100-meter-sized [330 feet] objects within this grit could accelerate the planet-formation process considerably," Pfalzner said. "Attracting the grit and gas of the surrounding disk, some of the former interstellar objects could grow into full planets."

'Oumuamua was first spotted zooming through the inner solar system in October 2017. The object's weird trajectory revealed that it came from very far away, and subsequent observations heightened the intrigue. 'Oumuamua is a reflective, narrow object perhaps six times longer than it is wide, and it appears to be tumbling in an odd way.

The interstellar visitor's collective characteristics have spurred some speculation that it could be an alien spacecraft of some kind. Most scientists, however, believe it's an inert hunk of rock and ice. It's probably a comet that was ejected from its natal system long ago by a gravitational encounter with a migrating planet or a neighboring star, that idea goes.

The fact that astronomers spotted 'Oumuamua at all suggests that such untethered objects are incredibly abundant throughout our Milky Way galaxy. And that would mean they stumble into newly forming solar systems quite often, the new study said.

Rocky objects ejected into interstellar space may seed planet formation in other star systems, a new study suggests. (Image credit: Professor Susanne Pfalzner, Julich Supercomputing Centre, Germany)

Indeed, Pfalzner and co-author Michele Bannister, an astrophysicist at Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland, calculated that each protoplanetary disk surrounding a newborn star these days likely contains a minimum of 10 million interstellar objects at least as big as 'Oumuamua. ('Oumuamua's exact size is unknown. Scientists think it measures less than 2,600 feet, or 800 m, in its longest dimension.)

"At such initial sizes, the growth process of these seed planetesimals in the initial gas- and dust-rich protoplanetary disks is likely to be substantially accelerated," the duo wrote in the new paper, which was published online today (April 8) in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. (You can read it for free at the online preprint site arXiv.org .)

"The consequences of this discovery might be far-reaching," Bannister said in the same statement. "Across the galaxy, the debris of past planetary systems would help build the next generation of planetary systems. Every new generation of stars would increase the abundance of interstellar objects through space."
If you've got a case of the Mondays, NASA is here to help: the agency will be broadcasting live as two astronauts climb outside the International Space Station for a spacewalk today (April 8).

NASA astronaut Anne McClain and Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques are scheduled to switch their suits to battery power at 8:05 a.m. EDT (1205 GMT), kicking off a scheduled 6.5-hour spacewalk. The spacewalk will be broadcast live beginning at 6:30 a.m. EDT (1030 GMT); you can watch live on Space.com , courtesy of NASA TV, or directly through the space agency .

During the excursion, the duo will tackle an eclectic range of tasks, including troubleshooting some issues that arose during installations that took place during two spacewalks last month. Overall, the goal of the spacewalk is to equip Canadarm2 , a robotically operated arm, with a redundant power source, just in case anything goes wrong.

Related: Spacesuit Sizing Stymied a Historic NASA Moment, and It May Always Be Tricky

After spending a few days putting together my spacesuit and tools, today I tried them on. Like a dress rehearsal! // Apres avoir passe quelques jours a assembler ma combinaison et mes outils, je les essaie aujourdhui. Comme dans une repetition generale! pic.twitter.com/8kB5vitOgWApril 5, 2019 See more

The excursion will be the 54th spacewalk at the ISS conducted by astronauts working through NASA. It will also mark the first spacewalk by a Canadian astronaut in 12 years.

Today's spacewalk will be the last in a series of three excursions conducted in March and April. NASA saves time by doing spacewalks in batches , hence the string of three spacewalks in just a few weeks. But once today's excursion is over, the astronauts living and working on the orbiting laboratory will need to switch their focus to dealing with the series of cargo vehicles arriving at the station.

Those arrivals began on April 4 with a Russian Progress capsule . That shipment will be followed by two additional cargo runs, one Cygnus capsule launched by Northrop Grumman, scheduled for April 17, and one Dragon capsule launched by SpaceX, scheduled for April 25.
English Danish

This is to give notice of an Extraordinary General Meeting of Jyske Bank A/S, which will be held on Monday 6 May 2019, at 10.00 a.m. at Vestergade 8-16, 8600 Silkeborg, Denmark.

At the Annual General Meeting held on 26 March 2019, the motion to amend the Articles of Association was adopted. However, the members in general meeting with a right to vote represented less than 90% of the share capital, wherefore the final adoption of the amendment to the Articles of Association is subject to adoption at an Extraordinary General Meeting.

The AGENDA for consideration and final adoption:

Motion proposed by the Supervisory Board: a. Reduction of Jyske Bank's nominal share capital by DKK 33,505,000, or 3,350,500 shares of a nominal value of DKK 10, from DKK 849,450,440 to DKK 815,945,440. With reference to S.188(1) of the Danish Companies Act we point out that the capital reduction takes place through cancellation of previously acquired own shares acquired by Jyske Bank in accordance with authorisation from members in general meeting. Hence, the capital reduction is spent on payment of capital owners.







If the motion is adopted, the company's holding of own shares will be reduced by 3,350,500 shares of a nominal value of DKK 10. These shares have been bought back at a total amount of DKK 999,979,615 which implies that apart from the nominal capital reduction a total amount of DKK 966,474,615 has been paid to the capital owners in connection with the buy-backs. The capital reduction takes place at a share premium since it will be at 298.46 for each share of a nominal amount of DKK 10, corresponding to the average price at which the shares have been bought back.







In consequence of the above, the following amendments to the Articles of Association are proposed:

Art. 2 to be amended to the effect that Jyske Banks nominal share capital be DKK 815,945,440 distributed on 81,594,544 shares.



b. In connection with the proposed amendments to the Articles of Association, the Supervisory Board proposes that the members in general meeting authorise the Supervisory Board to make such amendments as may be required by the Danish Business Authority in connection with registration of the Articles of Association.











c. Any other business.

Reference to Jyske Bank's website for further information

Where in this notice of an extraordinary general meeting, reference is made to Jyske Bank's website for further information, this link can be used: https://investor.jyskebank.com/investorrelations/generalmeetings .

Size of the share capital, voting rights of the shareholders and registration date

Jyske Bank's share capital is DKK 849,450,440, comprising shares at a face value of DKK 10. Each share amount of DKK 10 shall give one vote, provided always that 4,000 votes are the highest number of votes any one shareholder may cast on his own behalf. Voting rights can only be exercised by shareholders or their proxies. For the voting right of a share to be exercised, the share shall be registered in the name of the holder in the Bank's register of shareholders not later than on the day of registration, which is 29 April 2019, or the title to such share shall be notified and documented to the Bank within that same time limit.

Proxy and postal vote

Shareholders may as from 10 April to 2 May 2019 give voting instructions, appoint Jyske Bank's Supervisory Board or a third party as proxy either electronically or by means of the Power of Attorney form.

Shareholders may attend the General Meeting by proxy and cast their votes by proxy.

In addition, shareholders may as from 10 April to 3 May 2019 at 10.00 a.m. cast postal votes either electronically or by means of a form.

Proxies may be appointed or postal votes may be cast electronically at the Investor Portal via Jyske Bank's website. A form for the appointment of proxies or for casting postal votes is available at one of Jyske Bank's branches or can be downloaded from Jyske Bank's website. Where the form is used, please forward the completed and signed form either by post to VP Investor Services A/S, Weidekampsgade 14, DK-2300 Copenhagen S or by email to vpinvestor@vp.dk . The form must reach VP Investor Services A/S by the above-mentioned deadlines, and proxies must have been appointed or postal votes must have been cast electronically by the same deadlines.

Custodian bank

Jyske Banks shareholders may choose Jyske Bank A/S as their custodian bank in order to exercise their financial rights through Jyske Bank A/S.

Questions from shareholders

Shareholders may ask questions in writing about the items of the agenda or Jyske Banks financial position. Please send questions to Jyske Bank A/S, Juridisk Afdeling, Vestergade 8-16, DK-8600 Silkeborg or by email to Juridisk@jyskebank.dk. Questions and answers will be presented at the general meeting. At the General Meeting, the management will also answer questions from the shareholders about matters of importance for the financial situation of Jyske Bank and questions for consideration at the General Meeting.

Additional information

The following documents and information can be downloaded from Jyske Bank's website or can be ordered from Jyske Bank's branches from 10 April 2019:

1. Notice of General Meeting.

2. The total number of shares and voting rights at the date of the notice.

3. Agenda and full wording of motions.

4. The forms to be used when voting by proxy or by postal vote.

Admission card

Shareholders who wish to attend the General Meeting and cast their votes must acquire an admission card. Admission cards for the General Meeting can be ordered at the Investor Portal via Jyske Bank's website or from any of Jyske Bank's branches from 10 April 2019 and must be ordered by Thursday 2 May 2019 at the latest.

Jyske Bank will like previous years send admission cards via email. Therefore, you must - if you have not already registered your email address at InvestorPortalen - register your email address when you order your admission card. After registration, you will receive an electronic admission card which you may simply show on your smart phone or tablet when you attend the general meeting. Unless you have appointed a proxy you will receive your voting card upon presentation of your admission card. If, when you order your admission card, you do not choose to receive this via email, you will instead receive it by post.

For the sake of good order, we point out that no refreshments can be expected to be served at the Extraordinary General Meeting.

Silkeborg, 8 April 2019

The Supervisory Board

Attachment
Two spacewalking astronauts completed their work on time today (April 8), despite a stubborn panel on the International Space Station that added several minutes of troubleshooting to their tasks.

NASA astronaut Anne McClain and Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques spent six hours and 29 minutes completing several repairs and upgrade tasks on the space station . Internet cable work at the U.S. laboratory caused some problems for the duo.

The astronauts had to remove a micrometeroid orbital debris shield to access some cabling to upgrade connectivity for experiments on the space station. One of the fasteners on the shield, however, refused to loosen. Eventually, astronaut Jeanette Epps  who was walking the astronauts through the spacewalk step by step from NASA's mission control in Houston  suggested Saint-Jacques grab a pry bar. He carefully inserted it under the panel, verifying first that he was in the right position before pushing.

Related: How NASA Spacesuits Work: EMUs Explained (Infographic)

"I feel some movement," said Saint-Jacques, who was the first Canadian Space Agency astronaut to venture outside the ISS in 12 years. The two astronauts carefully jimmied the pry bar back and forth underneath the shield, eventually pulling the panel loose. "Got it!" Saint-Jacques exclaimed. He and McClain exchanged a quick high-five before finishing the installation.

Epps reported that the first connectivity tests worked perfectly. "That's great news," said McClain , who was on her second spacewalk. The panel, unfortunately, then refused to go back in, forcing the astronauts to remove and reinstall a nearby handlebar to squeeze the panel into position. With that task finished, McClain secured the panel with long-duration tie-down tethers before the astronauts moved on to their next task.

Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques gathers equipment to install experiment-support plugs on the outside of the International Space Station on April 8, 2019. This was the Canadian Space Agency's first spacewalk since 2007 and the 216th spacewalk overall in support of ISS maintenance and operations. (Image credit: NASA TV)

Batteries, robot cables and experiment support

This spacewalk, the 216th performed by astronauts on the space station, began half an hour early, at 7:31 a.m. EDT (1131 GMT), when McClain and Saint-Jacques switched their suits to internal power. Their duties included a pickup task from a March 22 spacewalk that McClain and Expedition 59 crewmate, NASA's Nick Hague, did to install new lithium-ion batteries. One of the batteries and its charge-discharge plate was not charging properly, so McClain and Saint-Jacques moved a new adapter panel into place for future robotics work to finish the installation.

After dealing with the cable and stubborn debris shield, the astronauts worked in support of the Canadian robotic arm, Canadarm2 , which routinely lifts equipment and assists with repairs on the space station. The arm is working well, but the astronauts proactively installed jumper cables to add a backup power supply for the 18-year-old robotic helper.

Related: Spacesuit Sizing Stymied a Historic NASA Moment, and It May Always Be Tricky

The astronauts next split up to finish up the last set of tasks on the docket for this spacewalk. Saint-Jacques was assigned to install special support plugs (more technically known as trunnion slip-off protectors) at the European Columbus module, but did not recognize the configuration of the parts in front of him on the site. Mission control staff decided to hold off on the installation for today and instead asked Saint-Jacques to take some pictures for future investigations.

When these plugs are eventually installed, they will hold future experiments mounted on an upcoming external payload facility, Bartolomeo, which will arrive at the space station in 2020. Bartolomeo is named after the younger brother of Christopher Columbus, the famous European explorer for whom the Columbus module is named.

'It looks like you know where you're going'

McClain, meanwhile, continued the Canadarm2 cabling work. She moved around different worksites on the space station S0 Truss, trying to squeeze her bulky spacesuit in between the metal struts without disturbing any connectors.

"Anne, it looks like you know where you're going," Epps joked, before suggesting McClain try going into her next site head-first.

"I tried that a few times," McClain responded, saying a couple of brackets were in the way. Epps said mission control was ready with some alternate routes, if needed. "I'll try this again," McClain said, before carefully moving inside the truss to do more cabling work on Canadarm2.

McClain next did some quick work-ahead tasks on the Canadarm2 cabling, while Saint-Jacques (having finished cleanup at his last worksite) relaxed for a few minutes by the Quest airlock. After McClain joined him, the duo entered the airlock and the spacewalk officially finished at 2 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT).

The next spacewalk is scheduled for May 29, by Russian cosmonauts by Oleg Kononenko and Alexey Ovchinin.

American astronaut Anne McClain (red stripes) and Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques work together on April 8, 2019, to remove and reinstall balky meteoroid/orbital debris shielding on the International Space Station, in order to install new Internet cabling for experiments. (Image credit: NASA TV)

Advice from an older astronaut

Before Saint-Jacques' walk today, the previous Canadian Space Agency spacewalk was performed 12 years ago, in 2007, by Dave Williams. (The last Canadian citizen to do a spacewalk was NASA's Drew Feustel , who has nine lifetime spacewalks  including a trio performed in 2018.)

Williams spoke with Saint-Jacques on Saturday and provided him with some last-minute tips, such as how to move along the space station truss using his fingertips, Williams told Space.com in a phone interview from the CSA headquarters near Montreal.

"Talking to David, one of the big differences in the shuttle program was we would keep training up until the time we were going into quarantine," Williams said. On space station missions, the crews are generically crewed in spacewalk skills and given their specific tasks later.

American astronaut Anne McClain moves between worksite locations on the S0 Truss of the International Space Station as she installs cabling for a backup power supply for robotic arm Canadarm2. (Image credit: NASA TV)

Williams added that his first two spacewalks were task-specific, while the last one was more space-station style after former NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio got a hole in his spacesuit glove on a previous spacewalk; mission control modified the tasks on Williams' last spacewalk to adapt to the situation.

Williams pointed out that, coincidentally, when the airlock was depressurized and repressurized, the Canadian flag on Saint-Jacques' suit was visible in the window facing the interior of the space station. He said it gave "an amazing sense of pride," and made him think about the future of the Canadian space program . Canada recently was the first international partner to sign on to NASA's lunar Gateway program, a space station that is supposed to be operating in orbit around the moon in the 2020s. Canada plans to build a robotic arm called Canadarm3 to support that project, inspired by the nation's success at the International Space Station.

Today's spacewalk "makes you wonder about the future," he said, adding it makes him think about where the next generation of Canadian astronauts are right now and how far along they are in their schooling.
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Apr 8th, 2019

Last week the major FIBO Expo went down once again in Cologne, Germany and it was bigger than we had ever seen before. There was a mountain of brands that went huge in terms of booth quality, and even more that decided to reveal or release entirely new supplements and flavors at the event.

While there were a lot of new products, some of which took home our four Stack3d Supplement Expo Awards, there were also some that truly stood out. Three of those wed like to highlight as we really feel they deserve some extra attention and make us extremely excited to see what the future brings for them.

The first item on the list kind of went unnoticed by us for most of this years FIBO Expo with Got7 Nutritions I Am Tasty protein bar. The flavor of the protein snack isnt too bad and definitely delivers on its White Chocolate name, however, the macros are what make the product extremely impressive.

A lot of protein bars on the market have 20g of protein for around 220 calories, with that 220 being exactly how many calories Got7s I Am Tasty has. What makes the product so special is that it has significantly more protein with 31g, making it the leanest protein to calorie bar weve ever seen.

Next, we actually have a series of supplements with our Peoples Choice award winner for FIBO with Olimps Dragon Ball Z products. The authentic collaboration sees the major European brand combine a handful of its mainstream supplements with characters from the Dragon Ball Z universe.

The unveiling of the new Olimp products earned more attention here at Stack3d than anything wed seen in quite some time. While the brands series is limited edition, were hoping it expands on it in the near future, as based on the attention it got and how many other things from Dragon Ball Z it could use, there is huge potential.

Lastly, wed like to highlight the all-new protein bar from Optimum Nutrition simply named the Optimum Protein Bar. While the product doesnt quite pack sweet flavors compared to the likes of the Barebells Protein Bar or even Grenades Carb Killa, it has a consistency that is better than every other bar out there.

The main body of the Optimum Protein Bar is soft and fluffy, and goes down with each bite like its filled with marshmallow. The consistency of the product is truly game-changing and could make the Optimum Protein Bar the best bar on the market if its combined with a sweet mix of flavors.
STAMFORD  Two Stamford Superior Court officers have been suspended without pay pending an investigation into a Stamford middle school field trip last week where over 30 students were made to file through a court metal detector in search of a purportedly stolen gold necklace.

As a result of the April 2 incident at the Stamford courthouse, an internal investigation is underway and both the chief judicial marshal for the Stamford-Norwalk Judicial District and a sergeant have been placed on administrative leave without pay, said state Judicial Branch spokesperson Rhonda Stearley-Hebert. Because the investigation is pending, the Judicial Branch has no further comment at this time.

According to letters provided by Stearley-Hebert, Chief Victor Corley and Sgt. Willard Hargrove were placed on unpaid administrative leave Friday pending the outcome of an investigation into their handling of an incident involving a patrons lost property at the courthouse last Wednesday.

The letters prohibit the two peace officers from entering any Judicial Branch work locations and they are not to talk about the incident with any branch employee. The two were also ordered to turn over their badges, identification cards and any other branch property deemed necessary by the marshals Director ODonovan Murphy. The state Marshal Commissions office referred all questions to Stearley-Hebert.

Joe Gaetano, president of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers Local 731, which represents judicial marshals and sergeants around the state, said he could not comment on the case on behalf of Hargrove because it was an ongoing investigation.

Sources at the courthouse said a group of students from Scofield Magnet Middle School went to the courthouse as part of a field trip and were addressed by a judge before midmorning recess had ended and court began again. As the students were filing out of the courthouse, three young men in their late teens or early 20s made a complaint to a court marshal, saying a gold necklace had been taken by four girls from the school.

As the Scofield bus was about to leave, sources said, Hargrove went out to the bus to discuss the allegation with the teacher; the kids were told to disembark and go through the metal detector to be searched without their parents being notified. The necklace was not found and one source called the allegation that led to the search far fetched.

According to the letters provided by the Judicial Branch, Corley and Hargrove have investigatory meetings planned for Wednesday when they will have the right to union representation and an opportunity to present reasons why leave without pay is not justified.

Sharon Beadle, spokesperson for the school district, said she was not aware of the incident.

jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com
STAMFORD  A photograph taken by a Stamford High School junior has earned national recognition.

Maggie Meister recently earned a silver medal in the photography category for her piece, Seeing Double, in the National Scholastic Art and Writing Competition.

The National Scholastic Art Awards and The Alliance For Young Artists and Writers program honors the creative efforts of students in grades 7 to 12, who attend public, private and parochial schools.

According to the organization, this is the largest and most senior program of its type in the country and 29 categories are judged by artists, university faculty and professionals in the field. The program boasts an established a track record for identifying the early promise of accomplished and prolific creative leaders, such as Andy Warhol.

Meister, under the guidance of her art teacher, Module Downer, earned a Gold Key in the affiliate regional competition earlier this year, which qualified her to compete at the national level.
President Donald Trump's opposition to aid for Puerto Rico has sparked a partisan stand-off over a major disaster bill covering much of the United States, threatening to derail the legislation when it faces a critical Senate vote Monday.

The stalemate has caused days of acrimonious finger-pointing on all sides with no resolution in sight. Now it threatens to indefinitely delay the bill, which provides more than $13 billion in much-needed recovery funds for everything from volcanic eruptions in Hawaii and wildfires in California, to hurricanes in Florida and Georgia and flooding in the Midwest, among other calamities.

"Many states are currently bearing heavy burdens in the wake of powerful natural disasters," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said this week as he urged support for the GOP's emergency spending bill. "Many communities are still literally underwater."

But Democrats oppose the GOP legislation, contending that the $600 million it contains for Puerto Rico's food stamp program ignores broader needs on the island. They are accusing Trump and the GOP of indifference toward Puerto Rico as the territory continues a nearly two-year recovery from Hurricane Maria, arguing the Trump administration has been slow to make funding available.

"The president's refusal to help Americans in Puerto Rico not only delays an important disaster bill that many other states are relying on to speed their recovery efforts, it discriminates against over three million Americans who reside in Puerto Rico, and that's wrong," said Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Republicans, for their part, say Democrats are grandstanding over Puerto Rico and in the process blocking much-needed assistance to the rest of the United States, including the Midwest, where recent flooding ravaged farms and drinking water supplies in Iowa, Nebraska and elsewhere. The issue threatens to become entangled in the 2020 presidential campaign, as Republicans warn of political consequences for Senate Democrats campaigning for president in Iowa if they oppose flood aid the state desperately needs.

And Trump dismisses Democrats' complaints, arguing that his administration's support for Puerto Rico has been second to none.

"I've taken better care of Puerto Rico than any man ever," Trump, who has repeatedly argued against increasing aid to the island, said on the White House lawn Thursday as he prepared to depart for a rally in Michigan. "Puerto Rico has been taken care of better by Donald Trump than by any living human being. And I think the people of Puerto Rico understand it."

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello recently described Trump as a "bully" and threatened during an interview on CNN to punch him in the mouth.

The congressional impasse has already led to cuts of about 25 percent to the food stamp benefits received this month by the 1.3 million Puerto Rico residents - 43 percent of the island's population - who rely on the program. If Congress does not pass the funding soon, those people will again be forced to survive on the reduced food stamp allocation.

The island's government has also had to cut the size of a supplemental cash benefit to the food stamp program that many elderly Puerto Ricans say they use to buy basic necessities, such as detergent and tooth paste.

Rossello is pushing Congress to include in the disaster bill additional federal assistance for reconstruction projects, such as money for debris removal, and other measures that were included in legislation passed by House Democrats in January.

Senate Democrats have embraced the House-passed bill, which includes hundreds of millions of dollars more for Puerto Rico than the Senate GOP version. But Republicans say that given the president's opposition to additional spending for Puerto Rico, they cannot support additional funding after already persuading him to go along with the $600 million increase for food stamps as the price for passing the much-needed disaster bill, which has languished in one form or another since last year.

The dispute over Puerto Rico came to a head in the Capitol on Tuesday, when Trump joined Senate Republicans for a closed-door lunch, where he railed against additional hurricane funding for the island, contending that it has already received more disaster money than some states.

At the same time, at a private Senate Democratic lunch nearby, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was arguing for the need to defend Puerto Rico, saying that if Trump gets away with depriving Puerto Rico of needed money he could target New York or California next. At the same lunch, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., gave an impassioned speech reminding colleagues that Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens who need their support. The senators' comments were recounted by a person familiar with them who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private remarks.

Republicans exited their lunch convinced that the president would not agree to any additional money for Puerto Rico. And Democrats exited theirs determined to stand firm in their demands for more. In the days since no progress has been evident in talks between the two sides. Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said Thursday the negotiations had stalled.

The dispute has put Senate Democrats who are running for president in a delicate position, as they have to explain to Iowans why they are opposing money for recovery in that state. Asked about the issue as she campaigned in Iowa on Friday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said she hadn't seen the final text of the bill, but that "it's important to me that we are covering disasters for everyone including the disasters here in Iowa and Puerto Rico."

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., also campaigning Friday in Iowa, offered a defense of the Democratic position, while holding out hope that the issue would get resolved in a way that provides the relief needed for the Midwest as well as Puerto Rico.

"I think in the end, the end product will fund both. I think the fight is just over what the numbers are and I think the Republicans know that," Klobuchar said. "The idea we cut off Puerto Rico because the president doesn't like it is pretty outrageous."

But Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., the state's former governor, said that his contacts in Puerto Rico would prefer that Congress pass the bill as it exists so that they can get the food stamp help they want without further delay. Of Democrats, Scott said: "This is all politics, them trying to make political points."

- - -

The Washington Post's Damian Paletta, Seung Min Kim, David Weigel and Annie Linskey contributed to this report
Dublin, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Cognitive Electronic Warfare System Market: Focus on Capability (Electronic Attack, Electronic Protection, Electronic Support, and Electronic Intelligence) and Platform (Naval, Airborne, Land, and Space) - Analysis and Forecast, 2023-2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The global cognitive electronic warfare system market is expected to report revenue of $385.7 million in 2023 and is estimated to cross $928.4 million by 2028, at a CAGR of 19.20% during the forecast period, 2023-2028.



Europe, including some of the major companies such as the U.K, Brazil, Russia, Germany, and France is the most prominent region for the cognitive electronic warfare systems market. North America is the second most prominent regions, which is continuously progressing in the field of cognitive electronic warfare systems market.

The global cognitive electronic warfare system market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period 2023-2028, as cognitive electronic warfare systems have the capability to help overcome the problem of reprogramming the electronic warfare models with advanced capabilities. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning with computational hardware are likely to revolutionize the electronic warfare systems to cognitive electronic warfare systems. The increasing demand for cognitive electronic warfare systems is mainly due to the growing demand for artificial intelligence in the military and increasing situational awareness of the cognitive electronic warfare systems.

The growing demand for AI in military and increasing situational awareness of cognitive electronic warfare systems are expected to drive the global cognitive electronic warfare system market during the forecast period. The cognitive electronic warfare system market has been rapidly advancing due to the growth in airborne platform, as military forces, around the globe.



Government organizations such as the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Air Force are looking to upgrade their current electronic warfare systems onboard (aircrafts) to counter multiple and unknown threats at the same time. These upgradations and advancements is driving the growth of airborne platform. Cognitive electronic warfare systems are expected to be used in airborne platform such as fighter jets and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).



In the company profiles section, the study provides a detailed analysis of the 10 key players in the global cognitive electronic warfare system market, namely BAE Systems, Elbit Systems, General Dynamics, Harris Corporation, Leonardo S.p.A., Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Company, Saab AB, Textron Inc., and Thales Group, among others. This section covers business financials, company snapshots, key products and services, major developments, and the individual SWOT analysis.



Key Topics Covered:



Executive Summary

1 Market Dynamics

1.1 Market Drivers

1.1.1 Growing Demand for Artificial Intelligence in Military

1.1.2 Need for Improved Situational Awareness in Defense

1.2 Market Challenges

1.2.1 Issues in Interpretation of Machine Learning Models

1.2.2 Technical Challenges with Cognitive Electronic Warfare System

1.3 Market Opportunity

1.3.1 Growing Demand for Cognitive Electronic Warfare System across North America

1.3.2 Advancements of Gallium Nitride (GaN) based products in Electronic Warfare System



2 Competitive Insights

2.1 Key Strategies and Developments

2.1.1 Partnerships, Agreements, and Contracts

2.1.2 Mergers and Acquisitions

2.1.3 Product Launches

2.1.4 Other Developments

2.2 Competitive Benchmarking



3 Industrial Analysis

3.1 Overview

3.2 Evolution Toward Cognitive Electronic Warfare System

3.3 Leading Companies, Products, and Platform

3.4 Supply Chain Analysis

3.5 Adaptive and Cognitive Electronic Warfare System

3.6 Ongoing Programs for Cognitive Electronic Warfare System

3.6.1 DARPA Programs for Combatting Unknown and Multiple Threats

3.6.2 Programs for Advancements in Conventional Electronic Warfare System



4 Global Cognitive Electronic Warfare System Market, 2023 to 2028

4.1 Assumptions and Limitations

4.2 Market Overview



5 Global Cognitive Electronic Warfare System Market (by Capability)

5.1 Market Segmentation

5.2 Electronic Attack

5.3 Electronic Protection

5.4 Electronic Support

5.5 Electronic Intelligence



6 Global Cognitive Electronic Warfare System Market (by Platform)

6.1 Market Segmentation

6.2 Naval Platform

6.2.1 Ships

6.2.2 Submarines

6.2.3 Unmanned Marine Vehicles (UMVs)

6.3 Airborne Platform

6.3.1 Fighter Jets

6.3.2 Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)

6.4 Land Platform

6.4.1 Vehicle-Mounted

6.4.2 Soldiers

6.5 Space Platform



7 Global Cognitive Electronic Warfare System Market (by Region)

7.1 Market Overview

7.2 North America

7.3 Europe

7.4 Asia Pacific

7.5 Rest-of-the-World



8 Company Profiles

8.1 BAE Systems

8.2 Elbit Systems

8.3 General Dynamics

8.4 Harris Corporation

8.5 Leonardo S.p.A.

8.6 Lockheed Martin Corporation

8.7 Raytheon Company

8.8 Saab AB

8.9 Textron Inc.

8.10 Thales Group

8.11 Other Key Players

8.11.1 Collins Aerospace

8.11.2 Israel Aerospace Industries

8.11.3 Northrop Grumman Corporation

8.11.4 Teledyne Technologies

8.11.5 Ultra Electronic Group



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/mttz9t/global_cognitive?w=12





Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.
O ne of the reasons Labour won such a stonking victory in 1997 was due to the prawn cocktail offensive: a three-year lunching and dining campaign in the City which persuaded the countrys power brokers that a Labour government would not bring the country to its knees.

Launched by the then shadow leader, John Smith, and his City spokeswoman, Mo Mowlam, the prawn cocktail offensive was polished to perfection by New Labours Tony Blair. (For those too young to remember or not yet born, prawn cocktail was the starter of the day.)

The offensive worked brilliantly, so well that when the Tories brought out their New Labour, New Danger fear campaign, business didnt listen. Not only did City financiers and businessmen and women not listen to the scare tactics, some of them switched from funding the Conservatives, helping finance New Labours winning streak.

Theres a similar charm offensive going on right now in the City as political parties gear up for a general election, and possibly even European elections.

Except this time its more of a tapas-style campaign as there is such a mix of political parties fighting for City money.

At the latest count, there are four parties competing for funds in the Square Mile alongside the Tory, Labour and LibDem parties. And, surprise surprise, they are doing rather well.

Donors are said to be flocking to Heidi Allens Change UK but also Nigel Farages Brexit party.

As well as small public donations, Change is finding favour with many Remain-supporting industrialists switching from the Tories. Tony Blair and other pro-EU Remain campaigners are also donating. By contrast, Farages party is going down a treat with former big business Tory donors, many of whom are implacable Brexiteers, who are outraged by Theresa Mays handling of Brexit.

Another Brexiteer and ex-Tory donor, Jeremy Hosking, one of the Citys most successful hedge fund managers, has set up his own party, Brexit Express, along with fellow veteran City financiers. Hosking plans to self-finance his campaign to field as many candidates as he can at the next election.

Rising like Lazarus is the Social Democratic Party, Lord Owens former party now run by ex-Conservative, William Clouston. The SDP is helped by the recent signings of Rod Liddle and Giles Fraser.

Clouston says his pro-Brexit red Tory-cum-blue Labour party has seen a big rush in grassroots members and donors from the City. Until recently, most new members were Labour supporters, but now Tories are joining because of Brexit and, indeed, the threat of no Brexit.

He also says the SDP has enough in the coffers to put up candidates in all regions if there is an election.

No wonder the Tories decided against calling a snap election after party treasurer, Sir Mick Davis, warned there isnt enough money to fight an election: the two main parties spend up to 20 million each on their national campaigns. Although Labour has its union money, it is also finding it difficult raising funds.

Brexit has already split our political duopoly and now its ripping up our tribal party funding model, perhaps for good. Compared with most European countries, Britains political system comes cheap: the state pays just 10% of what the political parties spend. In Germany or Spain, the taxpayer pays over 70% of the costs.
T odays quiz: who said this? Client selection is one of the most important things we do. If one bank builds a book of business with clients of high character and another bank builds its business with clients of low character, its clear which bank will succeed over time. Therefore, turning down clients, which can sometimes be hard to do, is often the only way to be a responsible bank.

Of course, it was JPMorgans chief executive Jamie Dimon, just five days ago in his annual letter to shareholders.

That was published on the same day our Jamie was also speaking at a New York lunch to market oil behemoth Saudi Aramcos debut international bond issue.

The Saudis are raising $10 billion and have seen demand for treble that.

JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley are the lead bookrunners, and the fees will be mouth-watering.

You may recall Dimon and a host of other leading bankers boycotted Riyadhs so-called Davos in the Desert over the horrendous murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi embassy in Istanbul.

But by the time Davos proper came around in January, they were flocking to Aramcos glitzy bash and sitting on panels with Saudi ministers.

Billionaire Dimon has sparred with Donald Trump and flirted with a run for the White House; his shareholder letter certainly reads like a mini-manifesto. It calls on CEOs to set aside our narrow self-interest and aggressively work to improve society.

So how about a principled stand from one of the worlds biggest banks to refuse to have anything to do with a regime which has earned the opprobrium of the world in recent months?
I n her final spin of the wheel, Theresa May has put her last chips on red. Or Red Corbyn, to be precise.

In the home video that the Prime Minister posted last night, she finally conceded what she has refused to do in public  or in private to the Cabinet: the Conservative Party, and their partners in the Democratic Unionist Party, are not going to vote for her Brexit deal.

As things stand, she said, with a glass of what looked suspiciously like a gin and tonic at her side, I cant see them accepting it.

So, she says, she has no option but to speak to the Labour leader to see if he can help.

Of course, there are other options.

She could advise the nation that it should pause and reflect on the merits of Brexit, such is the obvious damage being done to our economic health, political stability, international standing and union of the UK.

She could propose a long delay, or even a second referendum, as other leaders might when confronted with this unfolding national disaster  and some prominent proponents of Brexit now argue for.

Instead, she is so lost in the twisted branches of the parliamentary trees that she cant see the wood.

Delivering Brexit has become her sole raison detre  at any price, with any deal, and in alliance with anyone. It is a cruel fate handed down by the political gods to a Prime Minister who never wanted Brexit, and who so desperately wanted her premiership to be defined by other achievements.

The question now is: will Jeremy Corbyn play ball?

Those who thought that neither side would engage seriously in talks were wrong. The negotiations are entering their second week. The civil service are fully involved. Detailed legal texts are being exchanged.

Those involved in the discussions say the two teams are close to an agreement: Britain will stay in a semi-permanent customs union and well agree to follow all EU employment and environmental laws, whatever they are.

The Brexiteer unicorns of independent trade deals and scrapping Brussels red tape have been unceremoniously slaughtered.

They are also working on enshrining all these compromises in law so that no future Conservative Party leader can unpick the agreement once weve left the EU. They call it a Boris-lock, although its hard to think of anything more likely to hand the keys of Downing Street to the former mayor of London.

Traumatic shock

We can see why Mrs May wants to sign up to all this  its her last and only chance to deliver Brexit.

Like many Tory leaders in their final days, she is beyond caring what the damage will be to her party.

What is unclear is whether Mr Corbyn will also sign. Those close to Downing Street say, yes, they think he might.

He seems serious about securing Brexit, with his conditions. He appears genuinely to want to avoid no-deal. Hes a lifelong opponent of the EU, and he sees the chance to shed the checks that Brussels would impose on a real socialist government.

And if he gets his Boris-lock, he thinks he can screw up his political opponents to boot.

The rest of Labour are now waking up to the imminent danger that their own party leader could be about to become the midwife to a Tory Brexit.

For a party whose activists are now overwhelmingly pro-European, this is a traumatic shock. It means they will not provide a political home to the millions of people who have marched for a second referendum, or signed up to the petition to revoke Article 50  other, new parties will emerge to represent them.

It will spell the death knell for Labour as the standard-bearer of pro-European social democracy.

But why should we be at all surprised?

Mr Corbyn and his cabal have wanted this all along. Their plan was to use the Labour Party as a radical force to dismantle bourgeois parliamentary democracy and destroy free-market capitalism.

Helping the Tories deliver Brexit is a big step in achieving it.

And, like all good Marxists, they believe the ends justify the means.

TODO: define component type apester
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have been fashion icons for decades.

Going from noughties icons as child actresses in Passport to Paris and Our Lips Are Sealed, to the founders of contemporary high end brand, The Row in 2006, followed by lifestyle brand Elizabeth and James in 2007, the twins successfully segued from actresses to well respected fashion designers.

Inspired by their own minimal chic aesthetic, The Row has received critical acclaim from the fashion industry, winning Womenswear Designer of the Year at the prestigious CFDA Awards in 2015 and Accessory Designer of the Year in 2018.

Translating their own signature, pared-back style into a successful sartorial venture, the fashion set were quick to fall for The Row's timeless and exquisitely tailored luxury items, which are available to buy in the UK through sites such as Matches Fashion, Farfetch, Net-A-Porter and My Theresa.

Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen at the 2018 CFDA Fashion Awards / AFP/Getty Images

Now the brand, whose moniker is in reference to London's renowned Savile Row, is about to take a big step into the British market, launching its first London store this summer.

The shop will be the labels third, having opened its first store in Los Angeles in 2004, followed by New York in 2016.
T he ultra-low emission zone (ULEZ) came into effect in central London in April of this year.

The initiative see drivers with older, more polluting cars pay more to drive in London in a bid to clean up our air.

Air pollution in London is linked to thousands of deaths every year  worsening breathing conditions such as asthma and COPD.

Studies have highlighted the staggering levels of pollution outside schools, nurseries, GP surgeries and hospitals.

But with the introduction of the ULEZ, City Hall hopes to reduce the dangerous nitrogen oxide (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) levels in the air.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said it is important we make progress to combat pollution in the capital.

Here's everything you need to know about the ULEZ charge:

Getty Images

What date does the ULEZ check come into effect?

The ULEZ will be rolled out in three phases: the first of these came into effect on April 8, 2019 in central London  where the congestion charge is currently applies too.

On Oct 26 2020, a London-wide low emission zone will be brought into effect for larger vehicles like lorries.

The final phase will extend the ULEZ for all vehicles to inner London boroughs on October 25, 2021.

What London zones does the ULEZ map cover?

In the first phase, ULEZ only covers central London, as seen on this map.

This will be extended to cover more of London in phases two and three. You check can if you're travelling within a ULEZ zone by entering a postcode here.

How much does the ULEZ cost?

The average daily charge for a car that does not meet new emissions standards is 12.50, in addition to the congestion charge. ULEZ charges are in effect 24/7, 365 days a year.

Most vehicles are subject to the 12.50 rate, including vans, minibuses and motorcycles.

If you fail to pay the ULEZ charge, you will face a penalty of 160 (reduced to 80 if you pay within 14 days).

However, lorries will face a much higher daily ULEZ charge at 100. If this charge is not paid, lorry drivers face a penalty of 1000 (reduced to 500 if paid within 14 days).

What are the car emissions standards in the ULEZ?

The ULEZ is based on Euro standards that set top limits for polluting nitrogen oxides and particulate matter from car engines. Newer vehicles on the market need to demonstrate that they meet these standards.

So far, six stages of Euro standards have been published since 1992  with the most recent Euro 6 framework released in 2014.

According to ULEZ standards, vehicles must meet the following Euro frameworks to be exempt from the charge:

Euro 3 for Motorbikes  engines must not produce more than 2.3g/km of carbon monoxide and 0.15g/km of nitrogen oxide

Euro 4 for petrol cars, minibuses, vans  engines must not produce more than 1g/km of carbon monoxide or 0.08g/km of nitrogen oxide.

Euro 6 for diesel cars, minibuses, vans  engines must not produce more than 0.5g/km of carbon monoxide, 0.08g/km of nitrogen oxide or 0.005g/km of particulate matter. *

What cities would look like if pollution was visible 1 /10 What cities would look like if pollution was visible Tokyo The Japanese capital has an air quality rating of 56 Kuala Lumpur has an air quality level of 64 Singapore has an air quality rating of 56 The South Korean capital has an air quality rating of 48 The busy cosmopolitan city of New York has an air quality rating of 30 London has an air quality index rating of 25 While Instanbul has a rating of 161 Dubai's air quality rating stays at 83 Dehli's air quality rating was 223 Bangkok's rating was 92

If you are unsure about whether your car will be exempt from the charges, you can enter your vehicle registration number on the Transport for London website to find out if you need to pay the ULEZ charge.

Remember: Newer cars are not necessarily exempt from the charge, so make sure you check your vehicle.

Are there any exemptions from the ULEZ charge?

There are a few different exemptions from the ULEZ charge that apply to various groups, including:

People who currently pay a residents Congestion Charge will be given time to change their cars to ensure they meet ULEZ standards. During this time they will not have to pay the charge.

Cars and vehicles that are registered with disabled or disabled passenger vehicles tax classes will also be exempt from the charge until October 26, 2025.

But Blue Badge holders will need to pay the ULEZ charge from April 8, 2019 unless their vehicle meets the new emission standards.

London taxis are exempt from ULEZ because they already have new emissions standards to meet (all taxis made after 2018 must be zero-emission)

The Transport for London website has a full list of exemptions from the ULEZ charge.

How to pay ULEZ

Drivers affected by the ULEZ charge can pay by midnight on the day of the journey or up to 90 days in advance.

There are several ways to pay the charge, but its easiest to set up Auto Pay so ULEZ charges will be paid automatically.

You can also pay by using the TfL Pay to drive in London app, setting up a London Road User Charging account or via phone.

Visit TfL to learn more about payment methods.
Review at a glance









I ts doubtful whether South Africa will be overjoyed with this clunky piece of work as an anniversary present to celebrate 25 years since the first democratic election.

Legendary South African actor John Kani stars in his own two-hander alongside South African-born Antony Sher, but the sad news about this co-production with Cape Towns Fugard Theatre is that its a bit of plod and something of a box-tick of elements of recent South African history.

Sher is Jack Morris, a famous and irascible actor with terminal liver cancer who is, nonetheless, preparing to play King Lear. The parallels between Lears and Jacks declines are not hard to miss. Kani is Lunga Kunene, Jacks new live-in nurse, whom Jack at first tries to house in the maids room. This is one of many instances of the script flagging up something potentially profound and combustible, only to dismiss it within a couple of lines.

The pair progresses along the predictable tracks of any odd couple, and Janice Honeymans production contains a dubious amount of declaiming to the gallery en route. Morris and Kunene are, of course, both products of their respective backgrounds: the former of decades of white supremacy (he is very fond of the phrase you people), the latter of the struggle under the repressive horrors of apartheid.

Yet theres nothing surprising in their sketchily drawn backstories, even though Sher manages to inject some doses of cynical humour. Such a landmark year in South Africa merits something more forensic than this.
S tories about the power of self-belief, childrens mental health and an infant criminal mastermind are on the shortlist for this years Oscars Book Prize.

There were a record 117 entries for this years award, which seeks to find the best book published in 2018 for children aged five or under.

Judges  including Childrens Laureate Lauren Child, who wrote the Charlie And Lola picturebooks, and campaigner for women and childrens health Sarah Brown  have now whittled the candidates down to a shortlist of five to compete for the 5,000 award.

The annual award was set up in 2014 in memory of Oscar Ashton, the son of the Evening Standards former City editor James Ashton, who died in 2012 at the age of three-and-a-half from an undetected heart condition.

Interview with Charlie and Lola creator Lauren Child

It pays tribute to Oscars love of stories and childrens imagination. Princess Beatrice, a judge for the prize in 2016, is patron.

Ashton singled out Babys First Bank Heist, adding: It is a smart and sassy story with some laugh out loud moments and vibrant illustrations.

James Ashton, Brigitte Ricou-Bellan, Sarah Brown and Viveka Alvestrand take part in Oscar's Book Prize judging at Evening Standard Offices / Daniel Hambury/@stellapicsltd

The Way Home for Wolf was one of Ms Alvestrands favourites. She said: The illustrations transport you right inside the book.

Mrs Brown, the wife of former prime minister Gordon Brown, praised Almost Anything, saying: It reflects the concerns that little people have.

Ms Ricou-Bellan highlighted Rubys Worry, saying it has beautiful illustrations and brings to life behaviours or ideas which are not easy to discuss.

The prize is supported by Amazon, the Evening Standard and the National Literacy Trust, with the winner being announced on May 9 at a party hosted by the May Fair Hotel.
A hitman who was jailed for life for murdering a young mother has demanded the right to IVF treatment so he can become a father from inside prison.

Aaron Newman, 28, is serving a 31-year prison sentence for shooting and killing 30-year-old Hayley Pointon.

He now wants to have a child with his girlfriend from inside prison, arguing it is human right to become a father.

Writing in prison magazine Inside Time he said: As a lifer in the dispersal system who has no children, I should have the right to conceive a child by natural or even artificial means.

If the prison system was to say there were going to trial private family visits for well-behaved prisoners, it would be twice a year and would be 30 minutes.

Newman is serving out a life sentence at Full Sutton Prison for the murder of Hayley Pointon. / PA Archive/PA Images

The levels of violence in custody rate would be more than halved.

I personally would only leave my cell for gym, work and food and would bang up early daily not to lose the (conjugal) visits.

We all need to get together and fight for the right to have conjugal visits.

Ms Pointons mother, Kerry, told The Mirror that Newman should be castrated.

Why should he have kids when Hayleys are being brought up without their mum? she said.

He lost his rights to fatherhood when he murdered my daughter. Its ridiculous. He needs to be castrated.

He wont be much of a dad because he wont be around. Whats he going to teach them? Morals?

I wanted Newman in prison knowing he cant have the things you get on the outside. Thats what keeps me going.

Were the ones with the life sentence, not them. Hayleys children have the life sentence. Hell be out one day.

Newman and his accomplice Aaron Power were jailed for life with a minimum of 31 years for Ms Pointons murder.

They had been hired to kill Ms Pointons boyfriend Nigel Barwell at his home in Hinkley, Leicester but their shots missed him when he ran inside, instead hitting Ms Pointon who died at the scene.

The Ministry of Justice said IVF requests are subject to strict assessment and that permission is given extremely rarely.
A mother-of-two has been found guilty of stabbing her husband to death with a 15cm kitchen knife as her son played computer games upstairs.

Natasha Welsh, 43, was said by her children to have the "strength of 10 men" and behaved like a "lunatic" when she was under the influence of alcohol.

She used a kitchen knife to stab Martin Welsh in the chest at the family home in Hendon, north-west London.

Welsh denied the murder of her husband of 25 years, saying she could not remember events leading to the 47-year-old's death.

The address in Hendon, north-west London, where Martin Welsh was stabbed to death in October last year / PA

An Old Bailey jury deliberated for six hours and 34 minutes to find her guilty of murder.

The court heard that the couple were heavy drinkers whose relationship had turned "toxic".

They would argue and make "snide" remarks to each other, sometimes getting physical, jurors were told.

Natasha Welsh drawn in the Old Bailey in October last year / PA Wire/PA Images

On October 26 last year, Welsh took a blade from her knife block and plunged it into her husband's chest while her son Kyle was playing Fortnite on his PlayStation.

In text messages to his sister Charlie and her boyfriend, 21-year-old Kyle wrote: "Things kicking off. How do I avoid it even with my music on?"

Later he said: "Those d*******s need to learn how to handle their alcohol. Smashing s*** up."

A few minutes after he typed: "Call 999 mum stabbed dad and he died. Please, please, please, please."

Mr Welsh was pronounced dead in the early hours of the following day.

Giving evidence, Welsh said that by 2018 she was spending most of the household kitty on alcohol and cannabis.

On the killing, she said: "I could not remember what I was doing. I don't remember. I must have taken the knife from the knife block."

She wept in the dock as she was convicted by a majority of 10 jurors to two. She will be sentenced on Thursday.
Dublin, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Russia Animation, VFX & Games Industry: Strategies, Trends & Opportunities" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The animation industry in Russia has been thriving ever since the days of USSR. The Russian animation industry has received numerous awards and prizes for their productions at different international festivals. For example, in 2000, Russian director Alexander Petrov won an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film for his production The Old Man and the Sea. Alexander Petrov also received the Oscar nomination for My Love. Konstantin Bronzit's Lavatory - Love Story was also nominated for an Oscar in the category of Animated Short Film.

The Russian animation industry produced several animated films in the year 2018. There is also the key problem of acute lack of technical personnel in the animated film industry. The past tradition of fostering, training personnel at studios has become defunct. There is a need to revive animation studios such as Soyuzmultfilm, which used to be Russia's top animation studio for long periods in the past and was also the largest studio in Europe. Soyuzmultfilm needs funding to rebuild its infrastructure and facilities.



The Russian animation industry market is dominated by animation productions from Disney. Eleven Disney cartoons are in the top 23 brands represented in retail chains. The top three brands are Disney Princesses, Smeshariki and Winnie the Pooh. Smeshariki is an animation series designed and produced in Russia and has 10 percent of the market. Licensed products which are based on animation brands and characters account for 60 percent of sales of children's products in the United States, 40 percent in Europe and about 15 percent in Russia.

The total value of Russian games industry was US$ 1.7 billion in 2018 and is projected to reach US$ 2.1 billion by 2020. Mobile & hand-held games are the fastest growing segment, followed by Console games. The PC games segment is the slowest growing segment.

Key Topics Covered:



European Animation Industry

DEMAND FOR TV CONTENT

Feature Film Industry in Europe

MARKETING AND MERCHANDISING

Trends in Europe

COLLABORATION AMONG EUROPEAN STUDIOS

DRIVERS FOR SUCCESS

ANIMATION COST STRUCTURES IN EUROPE

Animation Movie Budgets in Europe

Strategies and Models for Animation financing in Europe

ANIMATION FUNDING AGENCIES

CENTRALISED ANIMATION FUNDING AGENCIES IN EUROPE

Television Series Development in Europe

PITCHING TELEVISION SERIES TO BROADCASTERS

Copyright Chain in Europe

Co-Production Strategies in Europe

CONTRACTUAL ISSUES

KEY RIGHTS IN CO-PRODUCTION AGREEMENTS

CO-PRODUCTIONS AND OUTSOURCING

Distribution Strategies in Europe

PRODUCER-DISTRIBUTOR CO-FINANCING PATTERNS

3D Market in Europe

ADVANTAGES OF 3D

DISADVANTAGES OF 3D

Industry Constraints and Challenges

Market size of European Animation, VFX & Games industry

Animation Content demand by TV Channels in Europe

European Animation & VFX industry Market Size

European Games industry Market Size

Russia's Animation, VFX & Games Industry

Animation Film market in Russia

GLOBALLY SUCCESSFUL RUSSIAN ANIMATIONS

INDUSTRY DRIVERS

CHALLENGES

GOVERNMENT SUPPORT AND ANIMATION FUNDING IN RUSSIA

INDUSTRY OPPORTUNITIES

Strategies for Animation Studios in Russia

Recent Movie Trends in Russia

Animation Studios in Russia

Value of Animation Industry in Russia

Size of Animation Industry in Russia

Statistics on Animation Studios in Russia

Russian Games Industry

KEY TRENDS IN THE RUSSIAN VIDEO GAMES INDUSTRY

VIDEO GAME BUSINESS MODELS IN RUSSIA

ONLINE VIDEO GAMING BUSINESS MODELS IN RUSSIA

Key Opportunities & Strategies for Russian Video Games Industry

Video Games Market Segments

MOBILE VIDEO GAMES SEGMENTS & GENRES

Russian Video Games Market Size & Opportunity



Companies Mentioned



Soyuzmultfilm

Disney



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/j2dgq6/russia_animation?w=12

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.
S peedboat killer Jack Shepherd has said Charlotte Browns "actions to accelerate as she did while driving his boat led to the fatal accident as he apologised to her family ahead of his extradition.

Awaiting extradition from Georgia, Shepherd said he agreed that he bears "some of the moral responsibility" for the 24-year-old's death, but rejected the charge that he is to blame.

Speaking from prison in Tbilisi, Shepherd said while it was his decision to permit her to take the controls, he conceded that he could have given her more instruction.

"But it was ultimately Charlotte's action to accelerate in the manner that she did, even though I failed to prevent her," he told The Sun.

Jack Shepherd during his extradition hearing at a court in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Monday / AFP/Getty Images

Shepherd, who is reportedly due to be flown back to Britain under police guard on Wednesday, said there were "a number of factors" that led to the accident.

"I can understand why her family apportion the entire blame on me. But the reality is not quite so simple," he told The Sun.

"Absolutely, unreservedly, I apologise for the role I played, and undeniably I did play a part.

"(Ms Brown's family) have my sincere sympathies and condolences and I understand why they apportion the blame as they do."

The family of Charlotte Brown, father Graham Brown (left) sister Katie (2nd left) and mother Roz Wickens (right) / PA

The pair were on a champagne-fuelled first date when they went for a late-night speedboat ride down the Thames in December 2015.

The 14ft Fletcher Arrowflyte struck a submerged log near Wandsworth Bridge and overturned, throwing Ms Brown to her death in the icy water.

Shepherd told the paper that it was a joint decision for the pair to go out on the boat and it was Ms Brown's desire to drive it.

Shepherd also said there were "matters of luck or fate" involved and highlighted that they did not see the log.

The web designer, who is originally from Exeter, fled his manslaughter trial at the Old Bailey last year.

He was found guilty in his absence and sentenced to six years' imprisonment.

In December he was granted permission to appeal against the conviction and handed himself in to authorities in Tbilisi in January.

His surrender came after repeated public appeals by Ms Brown's family for him to return to Britain and face justice for her death.

After his extradition was granted by a court in March, her family said he had a weak case and "no choice" but to return.

"We are going to get justice for Charlotte," her father, Graham Brown, told ITV.

The speedboat owned by Web designer Jack Shepherd who was found guilty of killing his date, Charlotte Brown / PA

"We're hoping that he won't follow through with his appeal, which causes the family more anguish, but I guess that could be a forlorn hope."

The Sun said Mr Brown had no comment on his apology, while her mother, Roz Wickens, told the paper: "I don't want to sound disrespectful, but nothing he says will bring my daughter back."

Shepherd also faces a grievous bodily harm charge over an alleged assault in Devon on March 16 last year.

A warrant for his arrest was issued by magistrates in Newton Abbot after he failed to attend the court.

Following his extradition, Shepherd will be returned to the Old Bailey before he is committed to prison.
A teenage girl and 60-year-old woman have suffered facial injuries after a noxious substance was hurled on them in broad daylight on a south London street.

The pair were attacked at 11.45am on Monday morning, at the junction with Norbury Avenue in Thornton Heath, police said.

Both were rushed to hospital after the substance was thrown towards them from a van. Their injuries were assessed as non-life-threatening.

Witness Jon Ellacott, who lives near to where the shocking assault happened, said: All we know is that a noxious substance was thrown from a van at a woman with her children, walking down the road.

[The] first we knew about it was when the fire brigade, police and paramedics turned up.

Officers said no arrests have been made and enquiries continue.
E aster Sunday is now so close we can almost taste the mountains of chocolate eggs we're going to indulge in.

And not only do we have a long, four-day Easter weekend to look forward to but the weather is set to be scorching too.

Students across the UK will have already settled into their two week break off school, while many workers will be counting down the hours until the start of the long weekend.

So to help you plan for the end of the Easter holiday, heres everything you need to know about this years term and Easter dates:

When is Easter 2019?

Spring has sprung: This year, Easter weekend runs through 21-24 April. / Couleur/Pixabay

This year, Easter Sunday falls on 21 April.

That means we celebrate Good Friday on 19 April and bag ourselves a day off on Easter Monday, which falls on 22 April.

Is there post over the Easter weekend?

The Royal Mail doesn't usually deliver or collect on Bank Holidays which means there will be no post, either collections or deliveries, on Good Friday or Easter Monday.

Most post offices will be open on Easter Saturday, however. Be prepared for your post to take a little longer than usual to send or receive over the bank holiday weekend.

What are Easter Sunday opening hours for shops?

Most of the major supermarkets will be closed on Easter Sunday.

Some Tesco and Marks & Spencer stores will be open on reduced hours.

Make sure you check all the shops opening times with our handy guide.

What are the school term dates for this year?

Term dates will differ depending on the council, but all schools will generally follow similar term patterns.

For most London boroughs, the term dates for 2019 are:

Spring term:

Monday 7 January - Friday 15 February

Half term: Monday 18 February - Friday 22 February

Monday 25 February - Friday 5 April

Easter holidays:

Monday 8 April - Monday 22 April

Summer term:

Tuesday 23 April - Friday 24 May

Half term: Monday 27 May to Friday 31 May

Monday 3 June to Tuesday 23 July

Things to do in London this Easter 1 /14 Things to do in London this Easter Take a ride in Wonka's world The View of Pure Imagination, London Eye, SE1, March 25  April 9, londoneye.com

The London Eye is having a scrumdiddlyumptious makeover, as its pods are transformed into an immersive family experience based on the West End telling of Roald Dahls beloved Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. Take a ride with Willy Wonkas assistant, Professor Pop, as the popular show is hoisted 135m into the air, complete with storytellers, actors and workshops.

(Golden) Tickets 29.65 for adults, 26.05 for children A search in the skies Wheres Wally at the Shard, SE1, March 19  April 10, the-shard.com

Traveller extraordinaire Wally has returned to London once again and is hiding among the capitals most iconic buildings. In fact, the stripy fellow and his pals Wenda, Woof, Wizard Whitebeard and Odlaw are so well concealed, would-be detectives will have to go as high as they can to find them. Head to the floor 72 of the Shard, via its space-age lifts, to scan the skyline for them.

A Family ticket is 74.95 Beautiful ballet My First Ballet, Sleeping Beauty, Peacock Theatre, WC2, peacocktheatre.com

Ballet is a beautiful thing, not always high-tech but thoroughly highly skilled, and all the more absorbing for it. This retelling of a familiar tale has been shortened for young audiences, and theres a narrator on hand to ensure nobody gets lost. It may be for young ones, but Tchaikovsky's score is captivating no matter your age.

Tickets from 10 Savour a childrens classic Railway Children, Across London, March 28, railwaychildrenfilm.com

For one day only, the spectacular Olivier award-winning theatre production of E. Nesbits iconic childrens story The Railway Children will be screened in all major cinemas nationwide. The show even has its own lifesize locomotive puffing onto the stage. Steaming marvellous.

Ticket prices vary Dance the weekend away Sadlers Wells Family Dance Weekend, EC1R, March 25  26, sadlerswells.com

Sadlers Wells annual two-day festival of family-friendly happenings returns with acclaimed contemporary dance company Ballet-Lorent performing Snow White, a production theyve put together with poet laureate Dame Carol Ann Duffy, and featuring Olivier-award winning actress Lindsay Duncan as the narrator. Alternatively, MOKO Dance are hosting dance workshop Digitopia for 5  8 year olds (and their grown-ups), which is all bright colours and fun.

Tickets 18 Shakespeare on the roof Shakespeare Up at The O2, SE10, March 26, theo2.co.uk

Celebrate 400 years of the Bard and have an adventure doing it: climb the roof of the O2 arena  you can see for around 15 miles  where theatre group Grassroots Shakespeare will be performing snippets from Shakespeares most famous works, including Much Ado About Nothing and Romeo and Juliet. Culture never had a view so good.

Tickets from 35 RD Photography Dahls darkest creations return The Witches, Rose King Theatre, KT1, Mar 29 - Sun Apr 10, rosetheatrekingston.org

The darkest of Dahls imagination crawled onto the page when he wrote The Witches, and this stage adaption promises the same deliciously grizzly experience. It stays faithful to the story of how one boy and his grandmother work together to destroy children-hating Witches. It is frightening, heartwarming, joyous, playful and has a wonderful score which twists the tension up and up and up. No risk of anyone being bored.

Tickets from 8 Cats at the circus Zippos Circus 2016, Blackheath, SE3, March 25  April 5, zippos.co.uk

Zippos are celebrating 30 years on the road with all the usual high-flying antics  and an array of cats. Not just any cats, either: these are talented, agile moggies acrocats, as it were. Zippos offer old-fashioned fun, but it remains as impressive as ever, and the Wheel of Death has rarely been more terrifying. Just dont let anyone try the knife-throwing routine at home.

Tickets 9 for adults, 7.50 for children Feast with friends, take the family Hawker House, SE16, every Fri/Sat from 5pm, streetfeastlondon.com

Hawker House has long been an evening favourite for Londons foodies, but this year is proving more welcoming for families than ever. Its not that theyve changed the formula  its still a haven of top street food  but hungry grown-ups are bringing the family and everyones happy. Such variety of food means even the fussiest of eaters will find something to demolish, but really, its a perfect excuse for adults to finally have that long overdue catch-up with friends and take the little ones.

Prices vary Youve goat to see this The Oxford and Cambridge Goat Race, Spitalfields City Farm, E1, March 27, ticketsource.co.uk

If you find the boat race a little too straight-faced, head to this alternative, which sees two goats purporting to represent the famous universities trot it out across Spitalfields farm. It is, from start to finish, a laugh, for both spectators and organisers. Well, whatever floats your goat

Tickets 13 Go hunting Across London, standard.co.uk

It's a little known fact, but Easter doesn't actually celebrate the invention of chocolate eggs. Still, due to large-scale public ignorance, Easter egg hunts remain as popular as ever. Thank goodness: food tastes all the better if you've had to crawl about for it. For little ones and big kids alike, there's some serious detecting to be done across the capital  read our guide for more.

Prices vary

Autumn term:

Monday 2 September - Friday 18 October

Half term: Monday 21 October - Friday 25 October

Monday 28 October - Thursday 19 December

Christmas break: Friday 20 December 2019 - Friday 3 January 2020

You can find out more about your school's term dates here.

Why is Easter so late this year?

Instead of being marked on a specific date each year, Easter is celebrated on the Sunday after the first full moon that occurs on or the day after the spring equinox.

This year, the spring equinox falls on Weds 20 March, so Easter is on Sunday 21 April.
U ber has suspended one of its drivers for refusing to pick up two passengers because he "doesn't take Jews.

The driver, named Ahmad, was called to pick up Sam Adler and his friend in Wembley, north London.

But he cancelled the ride when he saw they were wearing kippahs - traditional skullcaps, according to Mr Adler.

The 30-year-old told the Jewish Chronicle: We were standing by the roundabout of Wembley Hill Road and Empire Way, and the guy drove past and said just dropping off a passenger, Im coming back'."

The driver then seemed to notice that his two new passengers were wearing kippahs, Mr Adler said, because he suddenly turned around, and said: I dont take Jews as he drove past.

The men were wearing kippah - a traditional Jewish religious skull cap / AFP/Getty Images

He then said Ahmad cancelled the trip and pegged it.

An Uber spokeswoman told the Standard: "What has been described is totally unacceptable. Uber does not tolerate any form of discrimination. We have been in contact with this rider to offer our support. As soon as we are made aware of these situations we remove a drivers access from the app, and in London report them to the Metropolitan Police."

Mr Adler told the JC that Uber had apologised, but declined his request for compensation, telling him: We would never want to minimise an experience like you describe by putting an arbitrary monetary value on the situation."

Chuka Umunna on Jeremy Corbyn's handling of accusations of antisemitism in the Labour party

News of the incident comes amid accusations of institutional anti-Semitism within the Labour Party.

Mark Gardner, Director of Communications at the Community Security Trust (CST), told the Standard: Its like a lid has been lifted off racism.

Were seeing a striking increase in instances of anti-Semitism, with verbal abuse being the most common. People feel increasingly empowered to say what they want, however damaging.

This Uber case fits the pattern pretty typically. This man doesnt feel the need to restrain himself - he blurts out his hatred.
B oris Johnson has said Tory MPs will not allow Theresa May to surrender to the Labour leader by asking Brussels for a customs union Brexit deal.

But writing in the Daily Telegraph, the former foreign secretary said such a deal cannot, must not and will not happen.

Mr Johnson said an agreement with Marxist Jeremy Corbyn would make a total and utter nonsense of the referendum result.

We would be out of the EU, but in many ways still run by the EU, he said.

Theresa May released a video on Sunday explaining her decision to negotiate with Labour. / PA

It would be the worst of both worlds, not just now, but forever  and that is why I find the news so appalling that I don't really believe it.

He continued: It would mean Slovakia or Lithuania - to say nothing of France or Germany - would have more say over UK trade policy than London.

His comments come as Leave-backing Andrea Leadsom indicated a softening of red lines among Brexiteer ministers, saying we cant be purist about a deal.

On Sunday, Mrs May tweeted a video message, explaining her decision to negotiate with Labour.

Theresa May gives video update on Brexit

She also reiterated her warning that Britain may not leave the EU at all if she cannot get a deal through Parliament.

"People didn't vote on party lines when it came to the Brexit referendum. And I think members of the public want to see their politicians working together more often," she said.

Mrs May is due at an emergency summit in Brussels on Wednesday where she is expected to deliver a new plan.

A new leave date has been set for April 12 at 11pm but Mrs May has already requested that be rescheduled until the end of June. It is thought the EU will only allow her to extend if she has a firm plan to put forward to them.

On Monday, the House of Lords will continue their consideration of a bill brought by senior Labour MP Yvette Cooper, which would force the PM to request a lenghier Brexit extension rather than leave the EU without a deal.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. / EPA

Shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald suggested Monday another referendum is the likely outcome of Brexit talks.

Speaking on the Today programme, he said: "There's divergence of opinion, let's be absolutely straightforward, people take different views on a public vote - be that a general election or a second referendum - but that is not where we are.

"My view is if our proposition was accepted in its totality I think the argument for a public vote in those circumstances reduces.

"The reality is that is not on the table, so I think we're looking at options that would warrant a PV (People's Vote) in those circumstances.

Rebecca Long-Bailey, a member of Labour's negotiating team, suggested Labour could be prepared to cancel Brexit by revoking Article 50 if the UK was heading towards a no-deal scenario on Friday.
A pplications for European election candidates were being accepted by the Conservative Party this evening amid ongoing talks between the Tories and Labour in an effort to break the impasse over Brexit.

The Tories sent an email to potential candidates today stating they would be contesting the elections on May 23, with April 24 the closing date for nominations.

It said: Due to the current situation we will be contesting the European Elections on 23 May 2019 and the closing date for nominations is 24 April.

No10 and the Labour Party announced that talks on Brexit will take place between officials from either side on Monday evening.

File photo: Mrs May is set to head to Brussels for an emergency summit on Wednesday / EPA

Senior Tories all declined to answer questions on the state of the talks with Labour as they left tonight's meeting.

The Government has laid an order in Parliament enabling the UK to participate in the European elections if the UK has not left the EU by the time they take place.

The Day of Poll Order sets the date for the elections to take place in Britain on May 23.

However the Cabinet Office said that it did not mean the elections were "inevitable" and that they would be cancelled if the UK has left by May 22.

Theresa May spoke to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Monday ahead of Wednesdays critical Brexit summit in Brussels.

The Prime Minister will also fly to Berlin and Paris this week to appeal in person to the German and French leaders.

Mrs May's de-facto deputy David Lidington is set to formally trigger the election process on Tuesday by laying down an official order in Parliament.

TODO: define component type apester

Mrs May had hoped to put a deal to the Commons tomorrow night.

But if nothing is agreed, Britain could either crash out without a deal on Friday or be forced to accept a longer extension and commit to holding the European elections, which Mrs May has repeatedly vowed to avoid.

A Cabinet Office spokesman said: "It remains the Government's intention to leave the EU with a deal and pass the necessary legislation before May 22, so that we do not need to participate in European parliamentary elections.

"As a responsible Government today we have taken the necessary steps required by law should we have to participate.

"The Day of Poll Order provides returning officers with a date to hold potential European Parliamentary elections, but it does not make these elections inevitable as leaving the EU before the date of election automatically removes our obligation to take part."

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn leaves his home on Monday morning / REUTERS

Of the cross-party talks, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has expressed frustration that the Prime Minister "has not yet moved off her red lines so we can reach a compromise.

He said: "Today I held a meeting of our shadow cabinet to discuss the Brexit talks with the Government.

"The exchanges with the Government have been serious, but our shadow cabinet expressed frustration that the Prime Minister has not yet moved off her red lines so we can reach a compromise.
T heresa May was today warned that she is running out of time for a cross-party Brexit deal  leaving her facing the prospect of having to accept a lengthy delay and European elections.

Both sides this morning admitted there was still no sign of a breakthrough in talks between teams of negotiators for the Prime Minister and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Mrs May will dash to Paris and Berlin for last-minute talks with French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Angela Merkel tomorrow ahead of an EU summit on Wednesday.

She had hoped to put a deal to the Commons tomorrow night ahead of the summit and ask for only a short extension of Article 50 until June 30.

But if nothing is agreed, Britain will either crash out without a deal on Friday, or be forced to accept a long extension and commit to holding European parliament elections in May, a scenario Mrs May has repeatedly vowed to prevent.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn leaves his home on Monday morning / REUTERS

Labours shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer, a key figure in the talks which started last Wednesday, said a way forward was eluding the teams so far. We havent found that yet, he said.

There arent any scheduled talks yet but I have no doubt things will develop today, he added, saying it was down to the Government to make the next move.

Labours shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer / EPA

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Mrs May was leaving no stone unturned to try to resolve Brexit.

TODO: define component type apester

Arriving in Luxembourg for a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council, he said: I cant tell you that Im very confident or not confident. We are going into these talks sincerely and we have to see what the outcome is.

A senior Labour source told the Evening Standard that Mrs May had not shifted from her red lines, indicating that more movement was needed for any deal to succeed.

We need to see the significant and real movement we expected after Mays statement last Tuesday so we can reach a compromise, said the source, who warned: Time is running out.

Sources close to the talks said there had been a good deal of contact between No 10 and Labour over the weekend and that there was common ground between them, such as the need to protect jobs by keeping trade flowing after Brexit.

However, there was no sign of Mrs May being ready to accept Labours call to join a customs union with the EU, a step that would cause uproar among Tory Right-wingers.

EU leaders are divided about what to do if the British politicians fail to strike a deal among themselves.

London People's Vote march: In Pictures 1 /50 London People's Vote march: In Pictures EPA An EU supporter with her face painted REUTERS PA AFP/Getty Images REUTERS EPA A demonstrator carries a dog on his shoulders AP An EU supporter carries a child on his shoulders, calling on the government to give Britons a vote on the final Brexit deal REUTERS PA REUTERS EU supporters dressed in costumes REUTERS EPA Sir Vince Cable in attendance PA A demonstrator holds a holds a poster AP EPA An EU supporter with the EU flag painted on her face, REUTERS Getty Images A demonstrator leads a dog wearing a suit in the EU colors during a Peoples Vote AP An EU supporter takes a selfie with a sticker on his nose REUTERS Demonstrators pull a cart with a doll AP Katie Walton Placards stand against a wall Getty Images Anti-Brexit campaigners before they take part in the People's Vote March PA Katie Walton Getty Images Getty Images A demonstrator and her dog wait for the start of a Peoples Vote anti-Brexit march in London AP REUTERS Demonstrators on their way from London Victoria Jacob Jarvis Independent Group MPs Chuka Umunna and Anna Soubry have a selfie taken with Tracey Ullman PA REUTERS The march took place in central London REUTERS An anti-Brexit banner is unfurled from Westminster PA A demonstrator holds a dog on a leash as people start gathering for a Peoples Vote anti-Brexit march in London AP Anti-Brexit campaigners in Park Lane PA Demonstrators carry posters during a Peoples Vote AP nti-Brexit badges are seen Getty Images Getty Images

European Council president Donald Tusk wants to offer a long extension with a break clause if a deal is done, the so-called flextension.

Some northern countries back Mrs Mays request for a short delay which they think would put pressure on the UK to resolve its differences.

But France has floated the idea of calling time on the British debate and asking the UK to leave without a deal at 11pm on Friday.

Michael Barnier, the EUs chief Brexit negotiator, signalled his backing for Ireland by visiting Dublin.

Irish deputy premier Simon Coveney tweeted: As ever, we will be working together to achieve a fair and orderly Brexit  protecting EU and Irish interests while respecting UK. Important week ahead!

In a sign of the pressures on Mrs May from fellow Tories, 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.
How EU leaders have reacted to the extension

EU leaders have also had their say on the Brexit extension.

French President Emmanuel Macron said he had pushed against a long extension "for the collective good".

"It is true that the majority was more in favour of a very long extension," he said. "But it was not logical in my view, and above all, it was neither good for us, nor for the British people."

(AFP)

He added: "I think we delivered the best possible compromise. First because it was the one to preserve the unity of the 27.

"Second because we addressed the request from the UK to get more time to deliver a deal on the basis of the withdrawal agreement negotiated a few months ago.

"And third because thanks to this agreement we preserve the well-functioning of the European Union."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who backed a longer extension, said she supported the effort to secure an orderly Brexit.

(REUTERS)

She said: "In the face of the many problems the world is facing today, it means a lot to us.

"And we talked about this tonight that we, as Europeans, send out a signal that even if such a difficult discussion comes up, we are nevertheless capable of ensuring that this withdrawal is an orderly one."

She added: "In my eyes it's important now that the European Union does not exert pressure here on Great Britain. We have very clear demands and expectations.

"We have to have ways and means to ensure that the withdrawal agreement is adhered to. It's not important whether it's that date or another one."

(AP)

Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the European Union "is not a prison (and) nobody has to stay, but it's also a home and we're not going to kick anybody out either".

Asked if he thought the extension was long enough, he said: "I really hope so. The European Union is imperfect, we took several hours here to make a decision, there were different views, we had to bounce things around for five or six hours this evening but we did make a decision.

"It's three years since the referendum now and we really think it's time for the United Kingdom to make a decision, so we're giving them a very long period of time now to make a decision."

Mr Varadkar said there was "genuine concern" about the UK remaining in the EU for an extended period of time while it intends to leave in case it disrupts EU business.

"Quite frankly that is already the case, with Ukip and (Nigel) Farage," he added.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez warned that a no-deal Brexit was not off the table.

He tweeted: "EUCO does not want a disorderly exit, but it is true that it is not ruled out.

"The ball is now in the court of the British Parliament."

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said the delay gave time to overcome the "crisis" in the Commons.

"We moved away the risk of no-deal Brexit for a several months," he tweeted.

"It gives a chance to overcome the ratification crisis in UK. It is now up to UK to take this opportunity."

Lars Lokke Rasmussen, prime minister of Denmark, said it was down to the UK to find solutions to the Brexit impasse.

He tweeted: "One more chance for the UK. Managed to avoid a NoDealBrexit tonight. New deadline 31.10. Up to the UK to find solutions."

Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila tweeted: "This mess has been going on for three years. Lets hope prime minister May and the opposition will find consensus."

Malta's prime minister Joseph Muscat said the 31 October deadline was "sensible".
A Tory Brexiteer is calling for a "indicative vote of confidence" in Theresa May's leadership for Conservative MPs.

Mark Francois, a member of the Eurosceptic European Research Group, has called on the PM to resign and for a vote if she does not.

He wants the vote to be held on Wednesday in an attempt to scupper Mrs May's plans to secure Article 50 extension in Brussels that evening.

Mr Francois wrote to the chair of the backbench Tory 1922 Committee Sir Graham Brady to request such a vote be held.

TODO: define component type apester

"We simply cannot go on like this, with a weak leader, a riven Cabinet and a party in despair," he wrote.

"I believe Theresa May has been a failure as leader of our party, which she now threatens to destroy. Hers is a classic example of hubris - and after hubris comes nemesis."

A formal vote of confidence in Mrs May cannot take place until December or beyond after she survived an earlier attempt to oust her by 200 votes to 117.

Theresa May will head for last-ditch talks with Merkel and Macron on Tuesday / REUTERS

This granted her a 12-month period of grace during which no challenge is permitted.

Sir Graham told last week's meeting of the 1922 executive a proposal for an indicative vote had been put to him.

Sir Graham Brady previously said such a vote was possible but not appropriate / PA

The executive decided that though possible for such a vote to be staged it was neither necessary nor appropriate to do so at this point.

In his letter, published by Brexit Central, Mr Francois vented his anger over Mrs May reaching out to work with Labour in a bid to breach the Brexit impasse.

He said that it was "literally incredible" that Mrs May was discussing a possible compromise Brexit deal with Jeremy Corbyn and was contemplating European Parliament elections in which Tory candidates would be "slaughtered".

"We are living in a world gone mad," he said. "A Conservative Prime Minister, who voted Remain, egged on by a coterie of neo-federalist civil servants and a powerful Remainiac cabal in the Cabinet, has tried - and failed three times - to pass a draft treaty through the House of Commons which would lock us into a customs union forever."

Meeting tomorrow: Theresa May and Angela Merkel / AFP/Getty Images

Mr Francois spoke of his hope that the EU27 could "kick us out of the EU" by refusing another Article 50 extension.

He added: "Enough is enough. If she goes by Wednesday we can Leave on Friday."

Mr Francois' criticism comes on the back of fellow Brexiteer Boris Johnson raging at the PM.

He said Tory MPs will not allow Theresa May to surrender to the Labour leader by asking Brussels for a customs union Brexit deal.

After she spoke of a compromise deal with Labour, the former foreign secretary wrote in the Telegraph that such a deal cannot, must not and will not happen".
E mmanuel Macron was today warned he risks blighting Anglo-French relations for years if he is seen to force Britain out of the EU against the wish of Parliament.

Senior MPs stressed the danger of seeking short-term victories and playing to a domestic audience  to unwise lengths with stances which threaten to be severely damaging to ties between London and Paris.

They spoke out after Mr Macron took a hard line against delaying Britains departure from the EU, sparking suggestions he wants a De Gaulle moment similar to the then French presidents decision in the Sixties to veto the UK joining the European Economic Community.

The current French leader is eager to get on with reshaping the EU, has faced unrest in France over controversial reforms, and also shares the exasperation of many European leaders at the gridlock in Westminster.

But MPs counselled against steps which would lead to the feared turmoil of a no deal.

Tom Tugendhat, Conservative chairman of the Commons foreign affairs committee, told the Standard: Its easy to look for short-term victories in complex relationships.

As President Macron decides how to act at the [European] Council on Wednesday, I hope he is thinking of the future and not just the present.

Lord Ricketts, former top mandarin at the Foreign Office who was ambassador to France from 2012 to 2016, tweeted: Pushing the Brits out of the EU this Friday would give him short-term headlines but would be bad for the EU, for France as a frontline state and of course for the UK. France would get a lot of the blame.

Former foreign secretary Dame Margaret Beckett added: He is somebody who claims to care very much about the future of Europe and the way he is behaving is endangering it.

Tory MP Bob Neill, joint chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on France, believes real frustrations with Britain is understandable but also warned of the impact on cross-Channel relations of Paris being part of hurtling the UK out of the EU.
WINNEMUCCA, Nev., April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Paramount Gold Nevada Corp. (NYSE American: PZG) ("Paramount) announced today that its Executive Chairman, John Seaberg will be presenting at the European Gold Forum on Thursday April 11, 2019 at 9:10 AM Local Time in Ballroom 2 of the Park Hyatt Hotel in Zurich, Switzerland.



The presentation will be made available on Paramounts website at www.paramountnevada.com . The European Gold Forum is an invitation only investment conference.

About Paramount Gold Nevada Corp.

Paramount Gold Nevada is a U.S. based precious metals exploration and development company. Paramounts strategy is to create shareholder value through exploring and developing its mineral properties and to realize this value for its shareholders in three ways: by selling its assets to established producers; entering into joint ventures with producers for construction and operation; or constructing and operating mines for its own account.

Paramount owns 100% of the Grassy Mountain Gold Project which consists of approximately 4,450 hectares located on private and BLM land in Malheur County, Oregon. The Grassy Mountain Gold Project contains a gold-silver deposit (100% located on private land) for which results of a positive PFS have been released and key permitting milestones accomplished (see press release dated May 24, 2018). Additionally, Paramount owns a 100% interest in the Sleeper Gold Project located in Northern Nevada. The Sleeper Gold Project, which includes the former producing Sleeper mine, totals 2,322 unpatented mining claims (approximately 60 square miles or 15,500 hectares).

Paramount Gold Nevada Corp.

Christos Theodossiou, Director of Corporate Communications

866-481-2233

Twitter: @ParamountNV
Y vette Cooper's backbench Bill that would force Theresa May to request a Brexit extension rather than leave the EU with no deal has cleared a major hurdle as it was passed in the House of Lords.

Peers gave the European Union (Withdrawal) (No 5) Bill an unopposed third reading after just 10 minutes of debate.

The bill - a bid to prevent a no-deal Brexit by extending the negotiation process beyond April 12 - passed the third reading stage by 280 - 46.

The bill will now be sent back to the House of Commons where MPs will need to agree to amendments to the bill made in the Lords.

If MPs in the Commons agree, the bill will be granted royal assent and becomes law.

However if MPs disagree or suggest alternative changes, the bill will then be sent back to the Lords for further debate.

Despite attempts to derail the Private Members Bill with filibustering, the Article 50-extending motion was passed on Monday.

After the announcement, Ms Cooper tweeted: Thank you to Lords for working so swiftly on this to help prevent our country stumbling into a damaging No Deal in just four days time.

The Lords amended the bill to give the Government more flexibility on the length of the extension.

File photo: Yvette Cooper at the Home Affairs Committee / parliamentlive.tv

Pro-Brexit peers delivered long speeches designed to eat up debating time and prevent the bill from completing the necessary stages in time on Friday.

Several Tories were accused by the opposition of trying to "thwart" the will of the elected Commons, which passed the bill on Wednesday, by forcing a series of unsuccessful votes aimed at delaying the bill for greater scrutiny.

Lords leader Baroness Evans of Bowes Park said the Government still opposed the "unnecessary" measure.

Tory former leader Lord Howard of Lympne said: "This appalling piece of legislation is totally misconceived."

Lord Howard said the "ludicrous" legislation aimed to constrain the Prime Minister's exercise of the royal prerogative to make decisions on the exit date.

Meeting tomorrow: Theresa May and Angela Merkel / AFP/Getty Images

For Labour, Lord Goldsmith warned time was running out and it was critically important an extension was agreed before Friday.

Peers backed amendments to the Bill aimed at promoting legal certainty and avoiding the UK "accidentally" dropping out with no deal if the council came back with a counter proposal.

Another change made clear that nothing in the Bill prevented the Prime Minister from "seeking or agreeing" an extension, provided it was not earlier than May 22.

In the closing stages, Labour former Cabinet minister Lord Robertson of Port Ellen said it was a historic moment.

The UK was on the verge of talks which would determine the future of the country for generations to come and the Bill would play a part in that.

But Tory Lord Framlingham said it was all about "kicking the can down the road" when Britain should be leaving the EU with a "clean break" on Friday.

"This Bill is telling our Prime Minister what to do, a classic case of the tail wagging the dog and of constitutional chaos," he said.
J ewish MP Dame Margaret Hodge today vowed to step up action on Jeremy Corbyn to root out Labour Party anti-Semitism as the crisis worsened.

Reports on leaked Labour documents claim the partys system for dealing with accusations of anti-Semitic behaviour has been beset by delays and interference from the leaders office.

In a Sunday Times report, Thomas Gardiner, who heads Labours governance and legal unit, is alleged to have held up efforts to fast-track an investigation into a member who posted offensive messages accusing Dame Margaret, right, and MP Ruth Smeeth of being in the pay of Israel.

Labour denies Mr Gardiner held up the complaint.

Dame Margaret told the Standard today: Im going to carry on calling it out and its in the leaders gift to eradicate anti-Semitism and demonstrate there is zero tolerance.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn leaves his home on Monday morning / REUTERS

In an interview with LBC radio this morning, she added: We want to step up in the action were taking.

Alongside the Jewish Labour Movement, which last night voted to remain affiliated to the Labour Party, she is calling for Mr Corbyn to set up an independent complaints system and make public evidence they send to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which is currently considering whether to launch a formal investigation.

She also called for the suspension of Mr Gardiner pending an investigation.

A Labour Party source said: The emails show Thomas Gardiner arguing for an anti-Semitism complaint to be recorded as anti-Semitism and to ensure the case is dealt with through the fast-tracked anti-Semitism procedures. This is the opposite of what the Sunday Times claim.
A Brexit backing fruit farmer reliant on eastern European labour has said he "might as well drop dead" if he cannot get the workers he needs.

David Figgis said he voted for what he thinks is better for my country but added: Personally, its a disaster.

Explaining the reasoning behind his vote in the 2016 referendum, he told Channel 4s Dispatches: I was fed up of being told what to do by non-elected bureaucracy based in Luxembourg.

However, he admitted he was not expecting the vote we got.

TODO: define component type apester

And since then it has been difficult for him to find staff.

The phone dried up from Romania and Bulgaria [after the result]. Why go to work in a country where youre not wanted? At least thats how they read it, he said.

Mr Figgis was also filmed meeting with a recruiter who voices their concerns over getting workers for May and June.

Asked what it would mean if he does not get the staff, Mr Figgis said: Bluntly, no business, I might as well just drop dead. Because if I havent got anybody to pick the fruit what are you going to do?

At one point an eastern European worker at the farm, in Kent, is asked why he thinks people from the UK do not want to take on the jobs, which are largely taking up by foreign labourers.

He said: Theyre looking for the easy job and maybe more money.

Mr Figgis said that he hopes in future workers will still come from elsewhere, adding: We do need another source of labour from outside the EU.

Russia, Ukraine, theyll have to come from somewhere and well be able to continue growing apples and strawberries, which we do, and selling them to the British public."

In the documentary his conflict is summed up as being "like Britain in one person".
B ritish Airways passengers were left terrified after the planes oxygen masks dropped down in mid air as if there was an emergency.

During the Singapore to Heathrow flight on Sunday night, all the TV screens and lighting went off before an automated message told passengers how to put on the masks and that it was not a drill.

Mitchell Webb, 24, was on board the plane, and said the incident was very scary.

But a spokesman for the airline told the Standard the masks were deployed accidentally and they are investigating the problem which cabin crew described as a "technical issue."

Mr Webb said the incident on Sunday night was "very scary" / Mitchell Webb

Mr Webb, a chartered accountant from Sutton Coldfield, told the Standard: During the flight and before the actual incident, I had noted one of the staff to mention the plane as being an old girl.

Just before 2am, the TV screens all turned off, along with lighting, followed by the dropping of the oxygen masks and an automated message guiding us on how to put on the masks and that it was not a drill.

About three minutes after, the cabin crew stated that it was a technical issue and we did not need to apply the masks.

They also stated that they were doing a step by step reboot of the electronics. In the announcement the cabin crew announcer had also mentioned that not all the masks had dropped which worried me on a separate note in case of actual emergency.

It was very scary  even after we were told it was all fine I still wondered what else could go wrong thereafter, given we were only a couple of hours into the flight when it happened.

Throughout the remainder of the flight, we had no further update on the actual root cause and most importantly no update from the captain to reassure us on what happened.

In fact we didnt hear from the captain at all until we were 45 minutes from landing, and he made no mention whatsoever to the incident which I found to be perhaps the most disturbing.

Mr Webb and other passengers received an email upon landing apologising for the inadvertent oxygen mask deployment and any distress or concern this may have caused.

But he added: I personally would say they didnt deal with it in a professional manner, I would have liked much more clarification and reassurance from the captain himself, rather than the cabin crew that I could see were being whispered to on what exactly to say.

In that situation, it almost seemed like at the time they had to make up an excuse to reassure passengers which didnt ease my anxiety a lot, although I do accept their reasons now.

A British Airways spokesman said: Our flight and cabin crew reassured customers after oxygen masks were deployed accidentally.
A British Airways pilot who died after allegedly inhaling a cocktail of toxic engine fumes at work is at the centre of a legal battle over cabin air quality that has huge potential consequences for the aviation industry.

BA is facing a class action claim from employees who say they suffered ill health after routine exposure to pollution from aeroplane engines, known as aerotoxicity.

They say the fumes sometimes created a visible mist inside planes, and the pollution smell gained the nickname Eau de Boeing.

The legal case is being led by the family of former BA pilot Richard Westgate, who died aged 43 from an overdose of sleeping pills in a Dutch hotel room in 2012.

He had suffered mysterious pains and numbness in his limbs and head which his family blame on aerotoxicity, leading him to self-medicate with sedatives which they say contributed to his untimely death.

Mr Westgates family are suing for 500,000 in damages, alongside 93 other compensation claims by airline crew relating to aerotoxicity which were put before Judge Barbara Fontaine in the High Court last week.

BA is facing a class action claim from employees who say they suffered ill health after routine exposure to pollution from aeroplane engines / PA Archive/PA Images

Michael Rawlinson QC, representing the pilots family, said the case is potentially huge for airlines and a defeat for BA could cost the carrier tens of millions of pounds.

Aerotoxicity is said to come from cabin air  routinely taken directly from aircraft engines  being contaminated with engine oils and hydraulic fluids, allegedly leading to nerve and brain damage for crew who are regularly exposed. The aviation industry has always argued there is no threat to passengers or crew from air from the engines being fed into the plane and breathed.

In 2017 a coroner heard evidence that Mr Westgate had suffered damage to his heart and nervous system, which his family said was caused by aerotoxicity. During an extended period prior to his death he complained of pains and numbness in his limbs and head which remained medically unexplained in life, said Mr Rawlinson. During life he, and thereafter his family, were convinced that his symptoms were caused by exposure to fumes  aerotoxicity.

Mr Rawlinson said some air crew were the victims of fume events, when leakage from a planes engines was said to have caused a mist within the cabin environment. Others talked of low-level chronic leakage during normal flight that caused a regular malodorous background smell noted by cabin crew and so ubiquitous as to have acquired its own nickname, Eau de Boeing.

David Platt QC, for British Airways, said the airline denies liability. This litigation must be viewed as weak and speculative, he said, telling the court that the claims challenge a technical, scientific and industry consensus that cabin air is safe.
L ibya's international airport in Tripoli has been hit by an air strike amid clashes between rival forces for control of the capital.

Fighting broke out today at the country's only functional airport, about 15 miles from the city centre, amid an escalating conflict.

Mitiga Airport said on Facebook that a fighter jet attacked the facility. No casualties were reported.

Video footage circulated online shows a fighter jet firing and allegedly targeting the airport.

Passengers seen after being evacuated from Mitiga airport in Tripoli / REUTERS

At least 49 people have been killed so far in the conflict, including civilians, while some 2,800 people have been displaced, according to the UN.

The self-styled Libyan National Army, led by commander Khalifa Haftar, began an offensive against Tripoli last week, clashing with rival militias supporting the UN-backed government there.

The violence has threatened to ignite civil war on the scale of the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Fighters from an armed group loyal to the UN-backed Libyan government prepare their ammunition / AFP/Getty Images

UN humanitarian co-ordinator in Libya Maria do Valle Ribeiro said clashes have prevented emergency services from reaching casualties and civilians, and have damaged electricity lines.

She warned that the increased violence is worsening the situation for migrants held in the capital's detention centres.
D onald Trump stepped up his anti-immigration rhetoric today claiming that America was full and again threatening to shut the border with Mexico  hours after Kirstjen Nielsen quit as homeland security secretary.

Ms Nielsen was reportedly asked to step down during a meeting last night with the President, who was said to be unhappy that she had not been tough enough on illegal immigration.

After yet another high-profile Trump administration departure, the President went straight on the offensive. He tweeted his thanks to Ms Nielsen for her service and named customs and border protection chief Kevin McAleenan as her temporary replacement.

Mr Trump wrote: 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.

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 Trump and Kirstjen Nielsen in California / REUTERS

The messages were part of a fresh attempt by Mr Trump to pressure Mexico just days after saying that he would allow the country one year to stop illegal migration before shutting the border.

The President is said to have become increasingly frustrated because he believed Ms Nielsen should have been more aggressive in her efforts to stem the flow of undocumented migrants. One report claimed that he would call her at home early in the morning to demand tougher action.

Frustrations were building on both sides, a source told the Axios website. She was undercut at every turn. Shes done everything she can do. The White House is eating their own.

During her tenure, the homeland security secretary controversially defended the administrations policy of separating children from their parents if they were caught trying to enter the US illegally.

On Friday, Ms Nielsen accompanied the President on a fact-finding trip to the border in California.

By yesterday, Mr Trump had decided he wanted her out. I have determined that it is the right time for me to step aside, Ms Nielsen said 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 Americas borders and which have contributed to discord in our nations discourse.
T he daughter of a British woman arrested in Dubai over a Facebook post which branded her ex-husbands new wife a horse has begged the country's ruler to let her come back home.

Laleh Shahravesh, from Richmond, faces two years in jail and a 50,000 fine over posts allegedly written three years ago after she discovered that her former partner, Pedro, had remarried.

Ms Shahravesh, 55, was arrested with her daughter Paris, 14, at Dubai Airport when the pair visited on March 10 for Pedro's funeral one week after his death from a heart attack.

They were held in police custody for 12 hours before Ms Shahraveshs passport was seized, according to Detained In Dubai campaign group.

The Facebook comments were made 18 months before Laleh travelled to Dubai / Laleh Sharavesh

Her teenage daughter has now returned to Britain and has written to the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

She said in the letter published by Detained in Dubai: "I have not seen my mother in 23 days, and with every passing day, I feel less hopeful of her return.

"I ask kindly: please, please return my mother's passport, and let her come home."

Paris said of her mothers arrest: "I cannot emphasise enough how scared I felt, especially after losing my father just a week before, as I was having to worry about losing my mother as well.

"Yet even though I felt terrified on the day that we arrived, the sick feeling in my stomach only became worse."

Ms Shahravesh had been married to Pedro for 18 years and they lived together in Dubai, where he worked for HSBC, for eight months before she returned to Britain with their daughter.

A few months later, in 2016, she unexpectedly received divorce papers and saw from photos on Facebook that Pedro, who is Portuguese, had remarried.

In one post, she wrote: "I hope you go under the ground you idiot. Damn you. You left me for this horse."

In another comment, which she wrote in Britain, she said: "You married a horse you idiot."

Samah al hammadi claimed she was insulted by her husbands ex

Ms Shahravesh's posts, written in Farsi, were reported by Pedro's new wife, Samah Al Hammadi, 42, from Tunisia, Detained In Dubai said.

She 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."

The group said her arrest, under strict cybercrime laws which also include a ban on sharing charity pages online, was "simply unreasonable".

Paris said her crying mother had been yelled at by police and had to sign a document in Arabic which she did not understand, and that the arrest had left her "without the closure that I had wished to gain from attending my father's funeral".

Jeremy Hunt, the Foreign Secretary, told reporters in Luxembourg the Government was "concerned" by the situation.

"Our diplomats in the UAE have enormous experience in dealing with consular cases as we saw from the Matthew Hedges case and so she is getting the best possible service from the FCO," he said.

Mr Hedges was pardoned by the UAE in 2018 after he had been given a life sentence for spying for MI6, which was denied by Britain.

Ms Shahravesh must remain in the country and faces further court proceedings on Thursday.

Ms Shahravesh added: "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."

She said she has lost her job at a homeless shelter, could lose the flat she shares with her daughter and has borrowed 5,000 from her family.

Radha Stirling, chief executive of Detained In Dubai who represents Ms Shahravesh, said the country's cybercrime laws render "almost every visitor to the country a criminal".

"I have spoken with Laleh, her mother, sisters and daughter Paris," she said.
D onald Trump is removing the US Secret Service director Randolph Tex Alles, the White House has confirmed.

His dismissal comes amid major leadership changes at the sprawling Department of Homeland Security.

The president instructed his acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to fire Alles, who will remain in his position for now.

But White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders on Monday said James Murray, a career Secret Service agent, will take over in May.

Donald Trump pictured alongside Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who stepped down at the weekend / REUTERS

Alles said that he was not fired, and described the shift as part of an "orderly transition in leadership" across the Department of Homeland Secretary.

"No doubt you have seen media reports regarding my 'firing.' I assure you that this is not the case, and in fact was told weeks ago by the administration that transitions in leadership should be expected across the Department of Homeland Security," Alles said in a message to Secret Service agents.

"The president has directed an orderly transition in leadership for this agency and I intend to abide by that direction," Alles said.

The move was first reported by CNN, which said that officials first discovered the decision by reading its report.

One official described the situation to CNN as a near-systematic purge" at the Department of Homeland Security.

Alles removal marked the latest in a long line of firings and resignations of senior officials in the Trump administration.

She was reportedly asked to step down during a meeting with the president, who was said to be unhappy that she had not been tough enough on illegal immigration.

Alles' was appointed to the post by the US leader in April 2017, previously held a senior job at the Customs and Border Protection agency and served 35 years in the Marine Corps before retiring as a major general in 2011.

The Secret Service is responsible for protecting senior US officials including the president and vice president, former presidents and visiting heads of state.

The agency is also charged with enforcing counterfeiting laws and safeguarding the payment and financial systems of the US.
W ildlife officials in the Florida Everglades have captured a 17ft Burmese python thought to be the largest ever snake to be caught in the nature reserve.

The female snake weighed 140lb (63.5kg) and was carrying 73 developing eggs.

Researchers at Big Cypress National Preserve use an innovative approach to help eradicate pythons, which are a major threat to the states native wildlife.

The researchers track down breeding females by fitting male pythons with radio transmitters.

The team tracked one of the sentinel males with the transmitter and found this massive female nearby, the park said on Facebook.

The team not only removes the invasive snakes, but collects data for research, develop new removal tools, and learn how the pythons are using the Preserve.

Burmese pythons caught in Florida are often 6-10 feet long, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The species is native to Asia, where they can commonly reach 18 feet and exceed 20 feet.

The snakes were first spotted in Floridas Everglades in the 1980s and they have since been considered an invasive species.

Its believed they have been released as overgrown pets and others escaped from a breeding facility destroyed by Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
They shared the view at their meeting on the sidelines of the 140th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU-140) in Doha, Qatar on April 7th (local time). The NA Chairwoman said political ties between the two countries have been growing over the past years, with the exchange of regular visits via the Party, State, local, business and social organisation channels.

National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan (L) and Chairman of the State Duma of Russia Vyacheslav Volodin (Source: VNA)

As the two nations are actively preparing for the Vietnam Year in Russia and the Russia Year in Vietnam this year and the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty on fundamental principles of Vietnam  Russia friendship and the 70th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral diplomatic ties by 2020, she asked for mutual support to launch activities in the list of priority tasks and hold celebrations during the year.

The leaders spoke highly of the establishment of the Inter-Parliamentary Commission on Cooperation between the State Duma and the Vietnamese legislature in December 2018.

The top Vietnamese legislator expressed her belief that the commission makes important contributions to ties between the two legislatures and nations.

She suggested that both sides should maintain the exchange of visits by officials of the two law-making bodies, their committees and friendship parliamentarians groups, enhance the supervision of signed agreements and cooperation projects, build and refine legal framework in support of the two countries governments, localities, businesses and people; facilitate exchange, consultation and mutual support at multilateral parliamentary forums.

Volodin, for his part, said ties between Russia and Vietnam have stood the test of time and will grow further in the future.

Taking note of the NA Chairwomans suggestions, he said the two countries ministries, departments and agencies will discuss them in detail to carry forward Russia  Vietnam ties in a wide range of areas./.
Lewes, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Schell Brothers scores big with new community Governors in Lewes, Delaware

Coastal community Governors sells 110 units in nine months



Governors, a new home community developed by Jack Lingo Asset Management with new homes by Schell Brothers, is ideally situated on a premier road in the coastal town of Lewes, DE. This 423-home community launched sales in June of 2018 and has proven to be one of the most successful selling communities in coastal Delaware in recent history. With over 110 sales in the books in only nine months, we wanted to find out why this community is proving to be so successful. We sat down with Schell Brothers Community Sales Manager Adam Pettengell to discuss what makes Governors so special.

What do you attribute the sales pace to at Governors?

Adam: Opportunities east of Route 1 in Lewes, DE are limited. We had people waiting for Governors after the completion of Senators (an earlier developed community) who wanted to be a part of Gills Neck Road living. Land is scarce on Gills Neck Road and people knew if they didnt move here, they may never have an opportunity to live in this prime location.

What makes this community different from some other Schell Brothers communities? From your competitors communities?

Adam: 50% of sales in this community are Delaware residents; 25% already reside in Lewes. This is not typical for our market. Normally, we have buyers that are retiring to Delaware from elsewhere or are purchasing a second vacation home. But the locals know that this location and price point are perfect for their next new home at the beach.

Do you foresee maintaining this pace?

Adam: I foresee the pace as record-breaking every year. Last year we pre-sold over 90 homes without anything in the community other than dirt! That was incredible. This year sales will be driven by the activity. We are a quarter of the way sold out in nine months AND now we have construction and product to show. Momentum will grow in the community as we actually have homeowners as our ambassadors for living on Gills Neck Road, and soon a model to show prospective homeowners.

What floorplans have been most successful and why?

Adam: The Coastal Series plans are brand new for Schell Brothers, but they are making a huge impression on our buyers and for the very reasons they were designed. The Orchid is a brilliant 1600 square foot ranch home, which for many is downsizing; but it is downsizing without sacrificing. These plans offer amazing spaces and the ability to personalize. In fact, the Orchid won the esteemed Gold Award for Best Home at the recent National Home Builder Awards Ceremony. The Lilac is one of our two-story home floor plans and it gives you everything right from the start: 2400 square feet with 4 beds, 2.5 baths, loft, flex room, and open living. Better than that though, all of these floorplans have amazing light throughout the living spaces.

How have you approached sales at Governors?

Adam: We have worked hard to promote the socially active surroundings, like direct access to the Junction & Breakwater Trail which connects Lewes and Rehoboth Beach. We even have a blog series about bike routes from Governors to Lewes, Rehoboth, and the beach, and have done pop-up happy hours at local restaurants and breweries. We also did advance realtor information on the community and had tours of the new floorplans in our other Schell Brothers communities.

What challenges, if any, have you overcome to create buzz at Governors?

Adam: Being in a trailer! We started selling in this community when it was just dirt. We didnt have any roads - just mud, dirt, and mud again. We were forced to let our prospective buyers leave to go see models in other communities. As a salesperson, you want to keep them on site as much as possible. Fortunately, the location brought them back to us and we really didnt lose buyers because of this. We are selling single-family and townhomes in this community and everything we are currently selling is a new product for Schell Brothers.

For more information about Governors and Schell Brothers, contact Alyssa Titus: Alyssa.Titus@SchellBrothers.com

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T he first ever photograph of a black hole is just days away from being unveiled.

Scientists are expected to release the first real picture of a black hole, in what will be a breakthrough in astrophysics, captured by the first run of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT).

The EHT project was formed in 2012 and uses dozens of observatories to scan the environment directly around the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way.

The results will be released on Wednesday in six press conferences across the world, heralding a breakthrough in humanity's understanding of the universe.

Dr Paul McNamara, an astrophysicist at the European Space Agency, told AFP: "More than 50 years ago, scientists saw there was something very bright at the centre of our galaxy."

European Southern Observatory shows an image taken by an exquisitely sensitive Gravity instrument which has added further evidence to the long-standing assumption that a supermassive black hole lurks in the centre of the Milky Way. / AFP/Getty Images

This mysteriously bright object was very dense and had a "gravitational pull strong enough to make stars orbit around it very quickly - as fast as 20 years", he added.

A black hole's 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.

The research will put to the test a scientific pillar - physicist Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, put forward in 1915, which was intended to explain the laws of gravity and their relation to other natural forces.

The researchers targeted two supermassive black holes.

An artist's impression showing how a very distant quasar powered by a supermassive black hole may look close up. / PA

The first - called Sagittarius A* - is situated at the centre of our own Milky Way galaxy, possessing 4 million times the mass of our sun and located 26,000 light years from Earth.

The second - called M87 - resides at the centre of the neighbouring Virgo A galaxy, with a mass 3.5 billion times that of the sun and located 54 million light-years away from Earth.

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.

University of Arizona astrophysicist Dimitrios Psaltis, project scientist for the EHT 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.

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.

Einstein's theory, if correct, should allow for an extremely accurate prediction of the size and shape of a black hole.
S ikhs around the world are planting a million new trees as a gift to the entire planet.

The Million Tree Project aims to reverse environmental decline and celebrates the 550th birthday of Sikhism's founder Guru Nanak in November.

The Washington DC-based environmental organisation EcoSikh is co-ordinating the project with volunteers and environmental specialists to plant 1,820 forests around the world.

Each one will contain several hundred shrubs and trees that are native to the area.

President of EcoSikh Rajwant Singh told The Guardian: Guru Nanak was a nature lover. [He] had talked about nature as a manifestation of God and many of his writings talk about how we need to learn lessons of life from nature.

As the majority of the worlds Sikh population lives in the state of Punjab, every village in the state has committed to planting 550 saplings.

Trees are also popping up in the UK, US, Australia and Kenya.

Palvinder Singh Chana, the chair of UK-based Sikh Union Coventry, told The Guardian: As Sikhs, our connection to the environment is an integral part of our faith and identity.

Future generations will benefit from the fruits of our labour, symbolising peace, friendships and continuity for generations to come.
T he woman who reported her late husbands ex-wife to police in Dubai after being called a horse on Facebook was unrepentant today, declaring that she deserves punishment for the insult.

Samah Al Hammadi, 42, claimed to have suffered a campaign of harassment by Laleh Shahravesh, who was arrested with her 14-year-old daughter Paris when they arrived in the United Arab Emirates for his funeral last month.

Ms Shahravesh, 55, faces two years in jail and a 50,000 fine over the social media posts from 2016 on a wedding photo. In one post, she wrote: Damn you. You left me for this horse.

The posts were written after she discovered that Pedro Manuel Coreia Dos Santos had remarried.

Ms Shahravesh, of Richmond, was arrested at Dubai airport under strict cyber crime laws on March 10, a week after her ex-husbands death from a heart attack, aged 51.

Ms Hammadi, from Tunisia, said today she decided to make the formal complaint after suffering in silence for over a year. She claimed Ms Shahravesh had sent numerous disparaging messages and emails about them since the divorce in 2016  even to Mr Santoss boss at HSBC.

Laleh and Paris (left) have been separated for almost a month / Laleh Sharavesh

She told the Standard: She has been abusing him, sending emails, even to his boss in the bank, saying I am a b****, that I took him from her, that she doesnt have money. He sent emails asking her to stop. It did not stop.

Ms Shahravesh had been married to Mr Santos for 18 years and they lived together in Dubai for eight months before she returned to Britain with their daughter.

A few months later, in 2016, she unexpectedly received divorce papers and saw from photos on Facebook that Mr Santos, who was Portuguese, had remarried. In one post, Ms Shahravesh wrote: I hope you go under the ground you idiot. Damn you. You left me for this horse. In another comment, which she wrote in Britain, she said: You married a horse you idiot.

Mr Santoss widow said she decided to take action after claiming a relative had received a message from Ms Shahravesh. Ms Hammadi said: If she is innocent she will go free, but if not she has to pay... She needs to stop.

The Facebook comments were made 18 months before Laleh travelled to Dubai / Laleh Sharavesh

She also defended Dubais cyber crime laws, which have been criticised by campaigners as being unreasonable. It is a crime in Dubai. It is right. I dont feel sorry. She made him [Mr Santos] suffer in the last year of his life. Let the law take part.

Ms Shahravesh and her daughter were held for 12 hours before being released. Paris has returned to the UK but her mothers passport has been seized and she must stay in Dubai.

Ms Shahravesh is living in a hotel and faces court proceedings on Thursday. I have no money left after paying to stay in a hotel here for over a month, she said. 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.
Social media companies to be forced to protect users from harmful content

Senior managers at social media companies will be personally liable if users are not protected from harmful content, according to a long-awaited Government white paper.

The joint proposal on online harms says a regulator will be appointed to ensure internet firms meet their responsibilities, which will be outlined in a mandatory duty of care.

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.

NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless welcome the scheme, saying it would make the UK a world pioneer in protecting children online.

May continues to hope to find breakthrough for Brexit deal

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.

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 because the only choices were a deal with the EU or not leaving at all.

Speedboat killer mixes apology to family with blame for victim

Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd has said he unreservedly apologises for the role he played in Charlotte Brown's death but insists he was not solely responsible.

Ms Brown died when she was thrown from a boat while on a date with Shepherd in 2015 and Shepherd is facing a six year sentence for her mansalughter.

Ahead of being extradited back to Britain this week from Georgia, Shepherd sent his condolences to Ms Browns family but repeated his claim that it was her actions that ultimately led to the accident.

"I can understand why her family apportion the entire blame on me. But the reality is not quite so simple," he told The Sun.

"Absolutely, unreservedly, I apologise for the role I played, and undeniably I did play a part.

"It was ultimately Charlotte's action to accelerate in the manner that she did, even though I failed to prevent her."

The Sun said Ms Browns father Graham had no comment on his apology, while her mother, Roz Wickens, told the paper: "I don't want to sound disrespectful, but nothing he says will bring my daughter back."

Shepherd is appealing his conviction.

Woman held in Dubai 'after husband's new love in Facebook post'

A British woman is facing two years in jail in Dubai for allegedly using disparaging language about her ex-husband's new wife on Facebook, campaigners have claimed.

Laleh Shahravesh was arrested in March after visiting the United Arab Emirates for her former husbands funeral, according to the Detained In Dubai campaign group.

Ms Shahravesh is alleged to have posted "I hope you go under the ground you idiot. Damn you. You left me for this horse" in 2016 after discovering he had remarried.

The campaign group said her daughter is now appealing to the UAEs rulers to let her mother return to her home in Richmond, south-west London.

Ultra-low emission zone in force in London

London has today introduced one of the world's toughest vehicle emissions standards.

Drivers of older, more polluting cars face paying a new 12.50 fee to enter the centre of the capital under the ultra-low emission zone.

Diesel cars must be less than roughly four years old to avoid the charge, while petrol cars must be less than about 13 years old.

London mayor Sadiq Khan said the scheme is being brought in because thousands of Londoners are dying early every year as a result of toxic air, with an increased risk of cancer, asthma, dementia and stroke.

Ant's triumphant return to TV

Ant and Dec's return to TV screens on Britain's Got Talent has become the biggest programme of 2019 so far, according to initial figures.

The ITV talent show averaged 8.1 million viewers, peaking with 9.7 million on Saturday night, beating the return of Line Of Duty the previous weekend.

Britain's Got Talent featured the return to TV screens of the much-loved TV presenting duo after Ant took a break following his drink-driving conviction last year.

On this day

1925: The Australian government and the British Colonial Office offered low-interest loans to enable Britons to emigrate to Australia.

1967: Bare-foot Sandie Shaw won the Eurovision Song Contest for the UK with Puppet On A String.

1973: Death of Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter and sculptor who pioneered Cubism, aged 91.

1986: Clint Eastwood was elected Mayor of Carmel in California.

2005: More than four million people attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II.
K atie Price has shut down speculation that she is set to tie the knot with on-off boyfriend Kris Boyson.

The former glamour model appeared to hint that Boyson had proposed during the pairs Thailand getaway after sharing a loved-up snap on Instagram.

The image showed the reality star gazing lovingly at the personal trainer with a large ring clearly on display as she poked Boyson playfully on the nose.

She captioned the post: Take me back to Thailand, with a diamond emoji to finish.

Fans were quick to congratulate Price over the suspected news with many adding that she deserves happiness.

However, she has since been forced to shut down speculation she is engaged to Boyson.

A representative for Price denied the reports to the Mirror Online and confirmed that the star is not engaged.

Look of love: Katie Price with Kris Boyson have enjoyed a tumultuous romance over the last year / Instagram/ Katie Price

Standard Online has contacted representatives of Price for further comment.

Price kick-started the initiative in 2018 and even gained support from MPs earlier this year but the star revealed that the project has been brought to a standstill as a result of the negotiations surrounding the UKs departure from Europe.

Katie Price and Amy Price on Loose Women

During an appearance on Loose Women, Amy was brought to tears as she admitted she wanted to make sure the campaign was in place before she dies, having been diagnosed with lung condition idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in 2017 and given two or three years to live.

Speaking on the show last week, she explained: [It's because of] blooming Brexit because theyre acting like kids as they are. It's delayed and delayed. Today we were meant to go to the Houses of Parliament because Harveys Law was going to be debated but its been put back to the 29th April.

We are hoping then itll [happen] so anyone whos had trolling or anything they should contact their MPs. Make sure you go to the debate so we can get it passed through.
HAMILTON, Bermuda, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A Bermuda delegation attending a high-profile conference for the global submarine cable industry this week will promote the island as a strategic Atlantic landing hub for fibreoptic corridors.



SubOptic, a triennial event being held April 811 in New Orleans, LA, is the longest running and most comprehensive conference series in the world for the submarine cable industry. The four-day summit attracts 800-plus attendees and features presentations by the global industrys leading experts, including tech giants like Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon.

The delegation will be promoting Bermuda as an Atlantic hub for the interconnection of fibreoptic cables that are currently being built by some of the worlds largest tech companies, said Premier David Burt. This government promised to diversify Bermudas economy, and this initiative, which the Cabinet has endorsed and is progressing through legislation, has the potential to create economic growth and jobs in Bermuda, as well as advance the islands technology needs for the future.

This event is like an Olympics for the submarine cable industry, said BDA Director Fiona Beck, a two-term past president of SubOptic who will deliver a presentation at the event on Bermudas advantages. It could be a win-win for both Bermuda and this industry.

Also attending SubOptic 2019 will be BDA Business Development Manager Kevin Richards and Jeane Nikolai, Director of Telecommunications and Energy for the Bermuda government, which is working in partnership with the BDA to progress a national subsea corridor initiative. Legislation to create a dedicated fibreoptic corridor will be tabled in Bermudas Legislature in the next few months with the aim of attracting new cable business and boosting connectivity.

The effort builds on research overseen by Beck and carried out at the BDA last summer by Notre Dame Universitys Thomas Tran and Berkeley Institute graduate Tyrese Coakley, whose report indicated an undersea corridor in Bermuda waters could help the island become a hub for trans-Atlantic fibreoptic links. Kansas native Tran will attend SubOptic 2019 to present his follow-up white paper on the Bermuda project after it was accepted for peer review.

More than 97 percent of the worlds information passes through cables, making them indispensable for connected societies and business centres. Bermudas location creates a logical stopover for cables connecting the Americas to Western Europe. While the island already hosts three cables, a dedicated corridor would attract more and demonstrate best practice. Branching units from planned cable systems could also create significant infrastructure to satisfy Europes new economic substance requirements, supporting IP assets, Beck said, and offer additional advantages to companies seeking network diversity and data privacy.

Importantly, infrastructure via submarine cables could encourage head-office incorporations, making Bermuda a domicile of choice, she added, along with spinoff opportunities such as cloud computing, data storage and nearshore personal resourcing. A few subsea telecoms companies, including Southern Cross Cable Network and Australia-Japan Cable, currently have head offices in Bermuda.

Its a timely opportunity that could help position Bermuda as a point of major strategic benefit to these submarine projects, noted Beck. It could also prove advantageous in the drive to diversify the islands economy and support international business and fintech.

To find out more about Bermuda and the benefits of the subsea cable corridor initiative, contact kevin@bda.bm or visit the Bermuda delegation at Booth 107 at SubOptic 2019.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Rosemary Jones

Head of Communications & Marketing

rosemary@bda.bm

441 278-6558

441 337-4696

CONNECTING BUSINESS

The BDA encourages direct investment and helps companies start up, re-locate or expand their operations in our premier jurisdiction. An independent, public-private partnership, we connect you to industry professionals, regulatory officials, and key contacts in the Bermuda government to assist domicile decisions. Our goal? To make doing business in Bermuda smooth and beneficial.
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ST. LOUIS, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Post Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:POST), a consumer packaged goods holding company, today announced that one of its subsidiaries has confidentially submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1 to the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) related to its proposed initial public offering of its active nutrition business (the Active Nutrition business). The number of shares of stock and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined. The proposed offering is subject to, among other things, completion of the SEC review process and market conditions.



On November 15, 2018, Post announced its plan to pursue an initial public offering of shares of common stock of a company which will be comprised of its Active Nutrition business, which markets and distributes ready-to-drink protein shakes and other beverages, protein powders, nutrition bars and other nutritional supplements under the Premier Protein, Dymatize, PowerBar, Supreme Protein and Joint Juice brands.

There can be no assurance that the confidential submission of a draft registration statement on Form S-1 will result in any transaction or other action by Post. Post does not intend to comment on or provide updates regarding these matters unless and until it determines that further disclosure is appropriate or required based on the then-current facts and circumstances. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any security and shall not constitute an offer, solicitation or sale in any jurisdiction in which such offering, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

Forward Looking Statements

Certain matters discussed in this press release are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on the current expectations and assumptions of Post and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. These forward-looking statements include, among others, statements regarding the initial public offering of Posts Active Nutrition business. There is no assurance that the initial public offering of Posts Active Nutrition business will occur and there are a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements made herein. For a discussion of additional risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see Posts filings with the SEC, including, but not limited to, the risk factors set forth in its most recent Form 10-K, and any updates to such risk factors contained in subsequent Forms 10-Q or Forms 8-K. These forward-looking statements represent Posts judgment as of the date of this press release. Post disclaims, however, any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

About Post Holdings, Inc.

Post Holdings, Inc., headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, is a consumer packaged goods holding company operating in the center-of-the-store, refrigerated, foodservice, food ingredient, and active nutrition food categories. Through its Post Consumer Brands business, Post is a leader in the North American ready-to-eat cereal category offering a broad portfolio including recognized brands such as Honey Bunches of Oats, Pebbles, Great Grains and Malt-O-Meal bag cereal. Post also is a leader in the United Kingdom ready-to-eat cereal category with the iconic Weetabix brand. As a leader in refrigerated foods, Post delivers innovative, value-added egg and refrigerated potato products to the foodservice channel and the retail refrigerated side dish category, offering side dishes and egg, sausage and cheese products through the Bob Evans, Simply Potatoes, All Whites, Bettern Eggs and Crystal Farms brands. Posts Active Nutrition platform brings good energy to a wide range of consumers looking to live healthy lives through brands such as Premier Protein, PowerBar and Dymatize. Post participates in the private brand food category through its investment with Thomas H. Lee Partners in 8th Avenue Food & Provisions, a leading, private brand centric, consumer products holding company. For more information, visit www.postholdings.com.

Contact:

Investor Relations

Jennifer Meyer

jennifer.meyer@postholdings.com

(314) 644-7665

Media Relations

Lisa Hanly

lisa.hanly@postholdings.com

(314) 665-3180
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Affordable, Highly Durable Tablets Strike Exemplary Balance between Screen Size and Weight;

Provide Cutting-Edge Precision Measuring with 3D Image Capture

CHICAGO, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PROMAT 2019  DT Research , the leading designer and manufacturer of purpose-built computing solutions for vertical markets, today announced the DT380CR and DT380Q rugged tablets, which weigh under two pounds and are light enough to carry all day, yet with a large enough screen to get a variety of indoor-outdoor work done. These new tablets have IP65 and MIL-STD-810G ratings for military-grade durability, seamless information capture-transmission capabilities and hot-swappable batteries that enable zero work interruptions boosting productivity, while simultaneously providing organizations with an affordable rugged solution.

The DT380CR and DT380Q rugged tablets will be on display in the DT Research booth #N6417 at the ProMat 2019 show in Chicago's McCormick Place from April 8-11, 2019.

The tablets 8-inch display hits the readability sweet spot for workers in a variety of environments through a high brightness, outdoor viewable screen with capacitive touch. Information capture and transfer is made simple, with a built-in 2D barcode scanner and 5 megapixel back camera or 3D built-in Intel RealSense Depth camera. Robust wireless communications capabilities transfer information seamlessly through 4G LTE mobile broadband, WiFi and built-in long range (1,000 foot) Bluetooth.

Users avoid work interruptions with the tablets unique hot-swappable battery design, along with a variety of battery chargers that ensure workers always have fully-charged batteries available. Organizations enjoy the benefits of a high performance, yet low power consumption device, as the tablets run on energy efficient Intel Atom Quad Core and Qualcomm processors.

We listened to customer input from an array of industries, organizations and users to carefully design a tablet that hits the mark in terms of size, weight, durability and functionality - at an affordable price point, said Daw Tsai, president of DT Research. With our purpose-built approach, organizations can also opt to order the tablets with built-in features for precision measuring and 3D image capture  providing a seamless workflow from a single tablet and simplifying device management for the organization.

Unique Options

The DT380Q tablets include the latest 3D real-time imaging technology through an optional built-in Intel RealSense Depth camera that can scan and capture highly accurate weight, volume and dimension measurements for a variety of construction, logistics and warehousing projects.

The DT380CR tablets offer concurrent reception of GPS and GLONASS with the optional high quality U-blox M8 GNSS module for accurate positioning, which is used to enhance the precision of position data derived from satellite-based positioning systems.

Standard Features

The DT380CR and DT380Q tablets come standard with a robust set of features that include:

Indoor-Outdoor Display  Brilliant 8-inch high-bright (800 nits) sunlight readable and anti-reflective display with capacitive touch.

Military-grade Durability and Reliability  IP65-rated for water and dust resistance, MIL-STD- 810G certified for shock and vibration protection.

High Performance, Energy Efficient  Intela quad-core (DT380CR) and Qualcomm (DT380Q) processors, operating with energy-efficient power consumption.

Continuous Operation - Hot-swappable batteries, battery pack, battery gang charger, and desktop charging cradle.

Choice of Operating Systems  Microsoft Windows 10 IoT Enterprise or Android 9 .0.

Availability

DT380CR and DT380Q tablets are available immediately from DT Researchs authorized resellers and partners.

About DT Research

DT Research, an early Mobile Tablet pioneer and leading designer and manufacturer of purpose-built computing systems for vertical markets, delivers the worlds most comprehensive line of Rugged and Industrial-grade Tablets, Mobile POS Tablets, Digital Signage Systems and Medical Computing Solutions. DT Research products are uniquely designed with customizable built-in options assembled in California, providing customers with rapid time-to-market solutions. The DT Research family of products is based on embedded computing platforms that power secure, reliable and cost-effective computing. DT Research systems offer computing mobility within industrial and harsh environments through durable solutions with wireless connectivity, high-quality touch displays, and Windows operating systems. More than 200 organizations across the globe rely on DT Research solutions in industries such as government, healthcare, hospitality, logistics, military, retail and warehousing. DT Research is headquartered in Silicon Valley, California with offices in China and Taiwan. For more information, visit www.dtresearch.com and follow @dtresearch, #MilitaryTablets and #RuggedTablets.

DT Research and WebDT are trademarks of DT Research, Inc. All other brands and product names may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Media Contacts:

Barbara Reichert

Reichert Communications, LLC

barbara@reichertcom.com

o) 650-548-1002 m) 415-225-2991

Gabrielle Marshall

DT Research

gmarshall@dtri.com

o) 408-934-6192

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7b32e715-6dd1-4b25-b822-632c231ec316
Former president of Romania Ion Iliescu was sent to court by the military prosecutors in the "December 1989 Revolution criminal file" for crimes against humanity.

Read also: Net nominal average salary drops to 2,933 lei in February (official data)

Moreover, Gelu Voican Voiculescu, former Deputy Prime minister, and General (r) Iosif Rus, former Military Aviation chief were also prosecuted in the same criminal file.

AGERPRES .
Minister-delegate for European Affairs George Ciamba on Tuesday will preside in Luxembourg the meetings of the General Affairs Council (GAC) and the General Affairs Council (Art. 50), focusing the rule of law in Poland and the manner in which Hungary observes the EU values, informs a press release of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) sent to AGERPRES.

The GAC meeting agenda includes the following items: the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027, the reflection paper "A sustainable Europe by 2030," the manner in which the values of the Union are observed in Hungary and the rule of law in Poland, as well as the preparations for the upcoming election to the European Parliament.

Regarding the Multiannual Financial Framework post-2020, the European Ministers will debate on the cohesion policy and the Common Agricultural Agenda, two main elements of the EU budget proposal. Moreover, the ministers will adopt the Conclusion of the reflection paper "A sustainable Europe by 2030 and they will review the current status of works on procedures based on the article 7 paragraph (1) regarding the rule of law in Poland and the observance by Hungary of the EU values.

The GAC meeting (Art. 50) will also occasion an exchange of opinions in the preparation of the European Council Art. 50 of April 10 2019 to take place in Brussels, in the presence of European Union's chief negotiator regarding Brexit, Michel Barnier.

At the end of the GAC meetings, the Minister-delegate for European Affairs will also participate and hold a speech within the 10th anniversary conference of the Eastern Partnership, organised by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of Luxembourg, the Romanian presidency of the EU Council and the European Commission.
PNL's (National Liberal Party) mission in the Cotroceni consultations is to fully support the national referendum, the leader of the Liberals, Ludovic Orban, stated on Monday.

"PNL will participate in the Cotroceni consultations. The mission given by the Executive Bureau of the party to the delegation that will represent the party at Cotroceni is to fully support the referendum initiated by the Romanian President. PNL will fully get involved alongside the President in this referendum that will allow the Romanian citizens to express their will and decide very clearly that those who have rubbed Romania in the past 30 years can no longer escape the rigors of the law, and that we cannot accept any Government to systematically threaten justice independence and the fundamental rights and liberties of the citizens, through the issuance of emergency ordinances at nighttime like thieves or at daytime while hiding, only to help some avoid their punishment for the corruption acts they committed," Orban said after the meeting of the PNL leadership, which took place at Parliament.

He showed that the Executive Bureau mandated him to establish the composition of the delegation that will go to Cotroceni.

"We won't propose any questions, for, as the topics are formulated, the questions are quite easy to anticipate. I am sure that the President will have some proposals of questions. In our opinion, the topics based on which the referendum will be organised are very well chosen and essential for the development of the Romanian society," said Orban.

The Liberal leader appreciated the consultations with the head of the state will start with the PNL, given the existing partnership between Iohannis and this political party.

He also stated that the referendum will help the Romanian society as a whole, when asked about the Social Democrats' statements according to which the national consultations will help USR (Save Romania Union).

Orban specified that, if the referendum is validated, the Constitution and the legislation in this field will need to be modified.

President Klaus Iohannis late last week sent a letter to the leaders of parties and political entities represented in parliament, by which he invited them to consultations at the Cotroceni Palace, on Thursday and Friday, on the topic of the referendum on justice, informed the Presidential Administration in a release.
The Save Romania Union (USR) hailed the conclusion of the investigation into the Revolution file by the military prosecutors and believes that, after almost 30 years since the death of more than one thousand Romanians and injury of more thousands, the justice system finally has the opportunity to do justice to victims and their families.

Read also: Ion Iliescu, Gelu Voican Voiculescu, sent to court in Revolution criminal file

According to USR, "Ion Iliescu and other communists who grabbed power in December 1989 through disinformation and diversions, through crimes against humanity, should pay for what they did, and the truth should finally come out."

"Even this late we must re-establish the historical truth. Romanians must find out who ordered and who opened fire against those who only wanted freedom and democracy. How come that the entire military force of Romania, starting with the Ministry of National Defence and ending with the patriotic guards from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, joined the National Salvation Front (FSN)? Only to help Ion Iliescu and his group to grab power and gain legitimacy in front of the people pushed to the limit of despair?," stated Dan Barna, the head of USR, according to a press release.

The reality of the past 30 years "has shown us how toxic the strategies adopted by the former communists and their political successors are and how great is the danger of falling victims to them once more."

"The successors of Ion Iliescu practice lies, diversions and manipulation as state policy, the same as they are used to tirelessly steal from the public money. And PSD [the Social Democratic Party], which is the successor of the PCR [Romanian Communist Party] continues to defy the successors of the December 1989 victims by maintaining Gelu Voican Voiculescu and Ion Iliescu as heads of the Romanian Revolution Institute, while they are prosecuted for having committed crimes against humanity. Romanians deserve a free and democratic country and the sacrifice of the heroes of the Revolution must not be for nothing!," concludes the USR release.

Prosecutor General Augustin Lazar on Monday announced that the military section of the Prosecutor's Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice sent the "Revolution" file to court.

AGERPRES .
SAN DIEGO, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TPT Global Tech, Inc. (TPTG or the Company) (OTCBB:TPTW) announced today it recently initiated the acquisition of the assets of SpeedConnect LLC (SpeedConnect) for $2 million and the assumption of certain liabilities. The Asset Purchase Agreement required a deposit of $500,000, paid as part of entering into the Asset Purchase Agreement. Additionally, $500,000 is to be paid at closing after normal due diligence, audit and other conditions are met, anticipated to be in April of 2019. In addition, at the time of closing, the Company will enter into a Promissory Note to pay SpeedConnect in two equal installments of $500,000 plus applicable interest at 10% per annum each within 30 and 60 days, respectively, of closing. The closing date cannot be beyond June 30, 2019. In addition, on or before 90 days from the closing, the Company is to contribute $1 million in cash to the assets as working capital.



SpeedConnect was founded in 2002 by its CEO John Arthur Ogren and is in its 17th year of operations as a national, predominantly rural, wireless telecommunications residential and commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP), SpeedConnect.com . SpeedConnects primary business model is subscription based, monthly reoccurring revenues, from wireless delivered, high-speed Internet connections utilizing its company built and owned national network. SpeedConnect also resells third-party satellite Internet, DSL Internet, IP telephony and DISH TV products. Mr. Ogren will stay on as the CEO of SpeedConnect for TPTG for the next two years.

SpeedConnect is a privately-held Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) provider. Today, SpeedConnect is one of the nations largest rural wireless broadband Internet providers which serves over 20,000 residential and commercial wireless broadband Internet customers in Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota and Texas.

The synergies with TPTG are impressive. The SpeedConnect asset acquisition provides a complete back office, with a billings and collections machine for all products the new combined enterprise may choose to sell, service, warehouse, or deliver. With a TPTG cash infusion, and SpeedConnects 5G deployments across 10 Midwestern States, the new combined enterprise is perfectly positioned to grow its national footprint to 250,000 customers, and hold first place as the nations best choice for bridging the digital divide to heartland rural America.

The potential acquisition of the assets of Speed Connect positions the Company to expand our telecommunication operations in Phoenix, Arizona and may better position the Company to launch 5G Technology to rural America to deliver TV, Internet, Media Content and Phone services across 10 Midwestern states utilizing our proprietary telecom infrastructure and mobile media delivery broadcast platform, said Stephen Thomas, CEO, TPTG.

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of various provisions of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, commonly identified by such terms as "believes," "looking ahead," "anticipates," "estimates" and other terms with similar meaning. Specifically, statements about the Company's plans for accelerated growth, improved profitability, future business partners, M&A activity, new service offerings and pursuit of new markets are forward looking statements. Although the company believes that the assumptions upon which its forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, it can give no assurance that these assumptions will prove to be correct. Such forward-looking statements should not be construed as fact. The information contained in such statements is beyond the ability of the Company to control, and in many cases the Company cannot predict what factors would cause results to differ materially from those indicated in such statements. All forward-looking statements in the press release are expressly qualified by these cautionary statements and by reference to the underlying assumptions.

About TPT Global Tech

TPT Global Tech Inc. (OTC:TPTW) based in San Diego, California, is a Technology/Telecommunications Media Content Hub for Domestic and International syndication and also provides Technology solutions to businesses domestically and worldwide. TPT Global offers Software as a Service (SaaS), Technology Platform as a Service (PAAS), Cloud-based Unified Communication as a Service (UCaaS) and carrier-grade performance and support for businesses over its private IP MPLS fiber and wireless network in the United States. TPT's cloud-based UCaaS services allow businesses of any size to enjoy all the latest voice, data, media and collaboration features in today's global technology markets. TPT's also operates as a Master Distributor for Nationwide Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) and Independent Sales Organization (ISO) as a Master Distributor for Pre-Paid Cellphone services, Mobile phones, Cellphone Accessories and Global Roaming Cellphones.

Richard Eberhardt

702-556-7096


PHOENIX, AZ, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE  For The Earth Corporation (the Company or FTEG) (OTCMKTS: FTEG), an emerging vertically integrated CBD producer and retailer, is proud to announce the addition of two new CBD products: CBD Sunscreen and CBD Lip Balm.

Management believes the CBD skin care space has a faster path to mainstream adoption than most areas of the CBD market. According to hempindustrydaily.com, the demographic of sales for CBD-based skin care products has been expanding beyond the areas that one might expect, including major growth in Midwest states like Iowa, Michigan, and Oklahoma. In addition, the Company believes fewer competing products exist in the sunscreen and lip balm area of the CBD skin care market, suggesting a clear opportunity.

Its easy to lose perspective on the stunning boom going on in the CBD space, notes FTEG CEO Nelson Grist. The numbers are so dramatic that I think a lot of people lose touch with the idea that this is still a very small market gradually evolving from a niche cultist following into a major mainstream goods market. Thats going to happen because your next door neighbor starts using CBD products. And we think the gateway products will be the CBD versions of other stuff most mainstream consumers are already familiar with, like skin creams, sunscreens, and lip balm. Thats the leading edge of the revolution, and we want to be aggressively positioned for that process as it plays out over coming quarters.

Management notes that, following the signing of the 2018 Farm Bill into law in December, estimates for growth in the CBD products market have been ratcheted sharply higher among analysts, pushing anticipated return on investment in CBD well above most all other consumer product niches in terms of growth, according to Brightfield analysts, who see total CBD sales expanding to $22B over the next 3 years.

The Company recently acquired leading sunscreen brand, Block and Tackle (blockandtacklesunscreen.com), in a deal that included all related assets and formulas. The intellectual property included in that deal now forms the foundation for a series of new CBD-based products for FTEG, including its new sunscreen and lip balm lines. Management believes this co-product development process directly expands the value of the Block and Tackle acquisition by extending that IP into additional product categories.

Mr. Grist continued, In a world where most of our competition is sticking logos on white label material, we are building a brand based on our vertical model, with a reliable guarantee of purity and potency because we will drive the process from end to end. We believe that is a message that can truly differentiate For The Earth for consumers in the health and wellness space.

About For The Earth Corporation

For The Earth Corporation is an emerging integrated CBD producer and retailer in the United States. The Company is in the process of establishing a vertical framework that will extend from cultivation to extraction and production to a strategic retail footprint that includes multiple locations in Las Vegas and New York featuring mall kiosks, vending machines, e-commerce, and full store locations serving both the human and pet CBD markets. Two mall leases have been signed recently in Las Vegas, with another vending machine location secured in New York City. The Company plans to expand its New York vending machine penetration by the end of 2019. In addition, the Company has begun early-stage work to establish a state-of-the-art CBD extraction and production facility in Eugene, OR.

Forward-Looking Statements

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this press release are forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements and are subject to risks and uncertainties. See For The Earths filings with OTC Markets, which may identify specific factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements.

Safe Harbor Statement

This release includes forward-looking statements, which are based on certain assumptions and reflect management's current expectations. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations. Some of these factors include: general global economic conditions; general industry and market conditions, sector changes and growth rates; uncertainty as to whether our strategies and business plans will yield the expected benefits; increasing competition; availability and cost of capital; the ability to identify and develop and achieve commercial success; the level of expenditures necessary to maintain and improve the quality of services; changes in the economy; changes in laws and regulations, including codes and standards, intellectual property rights, and tax matters; or other matters not anticipated; our ability to secure and maintain strategic relationships and distribution agreements. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
WILMINGTON, Del., April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP today announced the addition of Christopher M. Samis and L. Katherine Good as partners in the bankruptcy and restructuring practice. Aaron H. Stulman also joins the firm as an associate. Samis, Good and Stulman join Potter Anderson from Whiteford, Taylor & Preston.



Bolstering our bankruptcy practice is a long-term strategic priority, said Potter Anderson Chair Kathleen Furey McDonough. The team has an outstanding reputation, strong working relationships with co-counsel, and tremendous potential to expand their practices on our platform. I am thrilled to welcome them to the firm.

Named as leading Delaware bankruptcy lawyers by Chambers USA and recognized on Benchmark Litigations 40 & Under Hot List, Samis and Good have represented debtors, committees, lenders, purchasers, and significant creditors before the Delaware bankruptcy courts for over 12 years.

Im delighted to be joining Potter Anderson, said Samis. It will be a great opportunity to work with a firm looking to further diversify its broad practice portfolio with additional investments in bankruptcy. My clients are gaining access to a deep bench of go-to Delaware lawyers, and Im looking forward to building a market-leading bankruptcy practice at one of the most highly regarded Delaware firms.

Good, who is currently chair of the Delaware State Bar Associations Bankruptcy Law Section, said, Joining Potter Anderson is an ideal fit for my clients and career, due to its impressively strong Delawarefocused platform. Given the firms excellent reputation and position in the market, I know my practice will thrive.

David E. Moore, chair of Potter Andersons litigation group, added, Bringing these three lawyers on board is a tremendous boost to our bankruptcy practice and our overall litigation team. They will play a key part in our plan to expand practices with a Delaware advantage.

Chris and Katie have long been known as ones to watch in the Delaware bankruptcy bar, said Jeremy W. Ryan, Potter Anderson bankruptcy partner and immediate past chair of the Delaware State Bar Association's Bankruptcy Law Section. They have what clients want  top-notch substantive knowledge with a practical, service-oriented approach. Im looking forward to having them join our team.

Samis received his J.D. from Villanova University School of Law in 2005 and his B.A. from the University of Delaware in 2002. Good received her J.D. from Emory University School of Law in 2006 and her B.A., with honors, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2003. Stulman received his J.D., magna cum laude, from Widener University School of Law in 2012 and his B.A. from Franklin and Marshall College in 2009.

About Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP

Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP is one of the largest and most highly regarded Delaware law firms, providing legal services to regional, national and international clients. With more than 80 attorneys, the firms practice is centered on corporate law, corporate litigation, intellectual property, commercial litigation, bankruptcy, labor and employment, and real estate.

For more information, contact:

Heather Pearson

Matter

978.518.4828

potteranderson@matternow.com
Why NATOs Official Purpose Makes No Sense, but It Is Likely to Outlive Us All

With the Soviet Union dead and gone, NATO fulfilled its mission a little after turning 40. But rather than phasing out and riding off into the sunset it had a midlife crisis, and continued to not only exist but expand and bomb.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of NATO, but the question is, is this a happy birthday for a lively meaningful organization or time for us to pull the plug on a Cold War dreg that has lived well past its purpose?

After WWII it was inevitable that there would be a conflict between the Liberal Capitalist world and the growing Red Communist one. Perhaps if the Soviet Union would have resigned itself to being the only Communist nation rejecting any form of proselytization and rebranding itself as some kind of Democracy B as a mild alternative to the Wests Democracy A then the Cold War could have been avoided.

But this did not happen and was very unlikely to do so. The motto of the Soviet Union on its seal was Workers of the World Unite!. That was workers of the world not only Russia. So it is not surprising that the West took a preemptive move and formed NATO to gang up on the USSR.

However now the Soviet Union is dead and gone. NATO fulfilled its mission a little after turning 40. Sadly rather than phasing out and riding off into the sunset it had a midlife crisis, bought a Camaro and continued to not only exist but expand and bomb. But should it exist? Why is this organization still around at 70 years old posing as if we are still living in some sort of Cold War dynamic where if we dont bomb Libya back to the stone age somehow Belgium and Greece will fall to evil ideologically different invaders.

NATO relies heavily on the idea that the weakest members benefit from being treated as equals in the security organization. Many tiny nations would be militarily helpless otherwise. At first this logic makes sense. Little nations need a boost to help them maintain a stable defense.

For example, the smaller nations who allied with Nazi Germany in/before WWII avoided their Deutsch wrath via submission. By NATO logic they were made vastly stronger by being part of the Axis/Tripartite Pact. The Nazis did have arguably the best military in the world at that time which would bump up weaker allies for sure. But in turn could weak Bulgaria and Romania really make any demands from Germany? Could Germany get their allies to do what the Reich wanted?

Weak members of an alliance are never equal members with a voice, they are merely submissive states who fear the whip of their masters who are more benevolent than some other potential master, and this is what we see in many NATO members today who have absolutely neither an economy nor military of any worth to offer allies.

Interestingly, NATO seems to acknowledge that some people might be baffled as to why it continues to exist and by making a video about the very topic they somewhat subconsciously confirm the doubters beliefs.

So NATO in its own PR declares that its current missions, which are too big for any one nation to handle, are the following

Protect against an assertive Russia.

Deal with the deteriorated security situation in Africa and the Middle-East which cause migration and terror attacks.

Promoting international efforts (whatever that means) to project stability and strengthen security outside of NATO territory.

Dealing with WMDs, Cyber Attacks, and threats to Energy Supplies and deal with Environmental Challenges with security implications.

So lets evaluate these points to see if NATO should shoot for for an 80th birthday and beyond.

Protecting Against an Assertive Russia

During the 90s Russia would have been willing to join NATO. Russia is very powerful but still a distant third on the world stage. Furthermore, in a world of mutually assured destruction, Russia is only capable of maybe retaking lost friendly territory that those in power in America cannot find on a map or helping foreign nations help themselves win wars like they did in Syria.

Russia as it is today is not very assertive and always plays a reactive role to the West. An assertive Russia would have taken the majority of the Ukraine which it considers to be an inherent and ancient part of Russia itself. Only being able to take the Crimea reveals that Russia still has far to go before becoming a threat to Europe again. In terms of the grand chessboard of the former USSR, Russia is usually spending its turns escaping from being in check.

The Deteriorated Security Situation in Africa and the Middle-East

This has been caused by NATO itself committing regime changes in stable nations. If NATO had disbanded in 1991 the security situation in these regions would be exponentially better.

Promoting International Efforts to Project Stability and Strengthen Security Outside of NATO Territory.

Projecting Stability is just coded language for terrifying others into submission. This is a normal part of human history and NATO like all militaries should do this, however they should be more honest about it. If one is to act like the Romans or Mongols and put the fear of God into their enemies with the threat of war then they could at least do so boldly.

The key words here that raise eyebrows are outside of NATO territory. Meaning that an organization founded for the defense of its members must by its own officially stated objectives work outside of its own territory proving that their mission is not defense but a form of preemptive offense.

Dealing with WMDs, Cyber Attacks, Threats to Energy Supplies and Environmental Challenges with Security Implications.

Every powerful military has WMDs. If they mean getting them out of the hands of Non-State actors then NATO should try to not allow any of its members to sell weapons to non-member entities. Why does defense against cyber attacks require NATO? Threats to energy supplies is coded language for wars for oil. Dealing with the environment militarily is just stupid but it sounds trendy and caring, so why not?

As you can see none of the official arguments for the continued existence of NATO is particularly convincing. By their own logic NATO exists to deal with the problems it causes by itself, fight against an assertive enemy that backs down from fighting it, terrify foreigners outside its borders into submission as a form of collective defense and deal with vague issues and security threats to the environment vaguely.

These arguments are not convincing to anyone, and probably not even to the member states of NATO themselves. As we blow out the 70 candles on the NATO cake everyone knows that this organization is a farce living on via historical inertia alone. The only real purpose it has is to keep much of Europe under the Washington yoke which means that in all likelihood it will outlive us all. Happy Birthday!
India has signed a $3 billion 10 year lease with Russia to obtain the use of another Akula II class SSN (nuclear attack submarine) submarine. This new one will not arrive until 2025 and will replace another Akula (INS Chakra) that had earned the reputation of being something of a cursed boat. The latest example of the curse occurred in late 2017 when Russia delayed making repairs to Chakra because of suspicions that India had violated the lease agreement by allowing American naval personnel to get a close look at the Russian sub. This is prohibited by the lease agreement, which included a clause that called for a Russian naval officer to be aboard the leased sub at all times to prevent such snooping and to provide technical assistance. There was also a dispute over the extent of the damage, which occurred while Chakra was navigation a narrow channel while approaching its base. The sonar dome had a hole in it from a mid-2017 accident. India put Chakra into a dry dock and called on Russia to provide a technical team to make repairs. At first, the Russians believed the damage may have been worse than described. If that were the case the sub would have to return to Russia for repairs and be out of action for a lot longer. The Indian inspection team had already delivered its report but Russia insisted on sending its own inspection team to examine the damaged sonar dome. The damage was as the Indians described it and repairs were made, at a cost of $20 million.

India had received this first Akula II, originally the K-152 Nerpa, in 2010 on a ten year lease. The Nerpa was built for this Indian deal and finally completed its sea trials and was accepted into Russian service in late 2009. India was supposed to take it in 2008 but there were many delays. The Indian crew for the Nerpa had been ready since 2008.

Most of the delays stemmed from an incident in late 2008 when, while undergoing sea trials, there was an accidental activation of the fire extinguisher system on the K-152. This killed 20 sailors and civilians and injured more than 20. There were 208 people aboard the sub at the time, most of them navy and shipyard personnel there to closely monitor all aspects of the sub as it made its first dives and other maneuvers. The source of the fatal accident was poor design and construction of the safety systems on the sub. This accident led to sailors and shipyard technicians being fearful of going to sea on the boat. So the sea trials were delayed, even after repairs were made. The post-accident modifications on the K-152 cost $65 million. Traditionally, when a new ship loses lots of people during sea trials it is regarded as "cursed" and unlucky. Sailors can be a bit superstitious, especially when there are dead bodies involved. So far India has not had any problems with the former Nerpa, until the sonar dome incident.

When K-152 finally entered Indian service the name was changed to INS Chakra II. This was the same name used by the Charlie class Russian sub India leased from 1988-91. The lease arrangement had India paying $178,000 a day, for ten years, for use of the sub. The 7,000 ton Akula II requires a crew of 73 highly trained sailors.

It was Indian money that enabled Russia to complete construction on at least two Akulas. These boats were less than half finished at the end of the Cold War. This was another aftereffect of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Several major shipbuilding projects were basically put on hold (which still cost a lot of money), in the hopes that something would turn up. In this case, it was Indians with lots of cash and seeking to lease a sub. India not only paid rent but supplied cash to finish the subs and this entitled them to learn much about how the Russians built nuclear subs. In effect, Russia sold this tech to India as part of the lease agreement.

As a result of that first experience renting a Russian sub, India designed and built its own nuclear sub, the INS Arihant. This is basically a development craft, and mass production of Indian designed nuclear subs is still years away. In February 2017 the 5,000 ton SSBN (ballistic missile carrying sub) Arihant completed sea trials and entered service. This came after twelve years of planning and construction. Arihant was supposed to enter service before the end of 2015 but there were more unforeseen technical problems to fix. Nevertheless, Arihant was commissioned as a navy ship in August 2016 even though it had not carried out its sea trials. Trials commenced in late 2016 and were successful. In 2015 India decided to start construction of six SSNs based on what was learned building the SSBN Arihant. The unlucky Russian Charka sub enabled India to train more nuclear sub sailors in the meantime.

Negotiations to lease a second Akula II SSN proceeded slowly. This began in 2013 India, in part because of the recent Indian loss of a Russian made Kilo sub due to an accidental explosion. Another incentive to lease another Akula was the continuing delays in building new diesel-electric and nuclear subs in India. To encourage Russia to provide the second Akula India offered to supply the cash to complete another of the Akulas that Russia halted work on in the 1990s because of money shortages. India believed that work could be completed in about four years and then that sub would enter Indian service. India believed this would cost about a billion dollars but the reality was that the work would take six years and cost over $2 billion. This stalled negotiations. Russia is also beginning to suspect that a growing number of Indian naval officers had become so dissatisfied with Russian ships and poor Russian workmanship and repairs that they might pass details of the Akula II India already has to U.S. Navy officers they work with. Russia managed to overcome these misgivings and the Chakra III appears to be on schedule for delivery in 2025. Russia has a lot riding on making this deal go as smoothly as possible. India has had a lot of problems with its Russian weapons, which include several hundred Su-30 fighter bombers as well as over a thousand T-90 tanks (most being built in India under license). As a result of these problems, India has been buying more and more Western weapons, especially from Israel. While more expensive the Western stuff is more reliable and delivered on time.
Congo remains uneasy about the stolen election, for good reason. So far there is no organized nation-wide opposition to Felix Tshisekedi, the candidate CENI (Independent National Electoral Commission) declared the victor. However, political opposition leader and presidential candidate Martin Fayulu has not gone silent. He argues  supported by evidencethat he won the presidential election and that former president Joseph Kabila hijacked it. They call Tshisekedi Kabilas frontman. His critics cite his about face on his mid-March decision to refuse to seat senators he argued were fraudulently elected. The decision was at first seen as an attempt by Tshisekedi to demonstrate his independence from Kabila. But on March 29 he reversed himself. Frontman or frightened man? Hes probably both. However, foreign governments are slowly accepting Tshisekedi as a reality they must live with. The United States said it would support his anti-corruption "change agenda" which he articulated in late January. Tshisekedi says his government will provide better security and reduce the atrocities Congolese are so often victimized by. (Austin Bay)

April 7, 2019: In Uganda, the American tourist and her local driver were released, or rescued, after being kidnapped on the 2nd. The $500,000 ransom was paid and if the kidnappers are not quickly caught that ransom will be an incentive for more outlaws in the area to go after foreign tourists. There is already a problem with locals being kidnapped for ransoms, but locals yield much lower ransom payments. The U.S. warned Americans to stay away from parts of Uganda, especially National Parks, that border Congo. While Uganda has troops and special police watching the Congo border there are always some armed men, usually from outlawed militias, who cross the border to escape pursuit or to steal.

April 4, 2019: In eastern Congo (South Kivu province), Masudi Alimasi Kokodiko, leader of the Raia Mutomboki rebel militia, was arrested after being wounded in a gun battle. Kokodiko's militia is accused of conducting mass rapes and committing other atrocities. In 2012 the Raia Mutomboki and two allied militias murdered more than 260 civilians in ethnic fighting in South Kivu province.

April 2, 2019: In Uganda, four gunmen wearing uniforms ambushed and kidnapped an American tourist and her driver while they were on safari in Queen Elizabeth National Park. The kidnappers demanded $500,000 for their release. Police suspect the kidnappers may try to flee across the border into Congo.

April 1, 2019: In eastern Congo (North Kivu and Ituri provinces), the Ebola epidemic continues to spread. There are around 1,400 known cases there. It is suspected that several hundred more are unreported. The data so far is that by the end of March there were 676 people dead and another 406 infected. Officially 331 patients have recovered and over 87,000 people have been vaccinated.

March 30, 2019: Burundi has banned the BBC and permanently suspended the VOA (Voice of America). The government claims that the BBC has damaged the countrys reputation. VOA is accused of employing a reporter who opposes the government. As it is, both broadcasters are already off the air. They were temporarily suspended in May 2018 for allegedly breaching press laws.

March 29, 2019: About face? Congo President Felix Tshisekedi has reversed himself and lifted the suspension of newly elected senators he announced ten days ago. His decision reportedly angered former president Joseph Kabila, whose allies won an overwhelming majority of seats.

March 24, 2019: As eastern Congos Ebola epidemic recorded its 1,000th case, and this outbreak is now the second worst on record. The 2014 West African outbreak, with over 28,000 cases and 11,000 dead, remains number one. Medical researchers predict that the current epidemic could be over by September 2019. However, in the last week, the number of cases has increased.

March 23, 2019: The Central African Republic (CAR) has agreed to form a new coalition government in a deal sponsored by the African Union and the UN.

March 21, 2019: The United States imposed sanctions on the president and vice-president of CENI, Congos electoral commission. A senior adviser was also sanctioned. The U.S. accused these individuals of corruption and of corrupting the December 2018 election. The U.S. claimed the three officials stole money meant to buy voting machines and other materials. The money was embezzled and transferred to shell companies. Their actions delayed the elections. The president of CENI already faced American travel restrictions, which were imposed in February.

March 19, 2019: In Congo, president Felix Tshisekedi has blocked senators suspected of election fraud from taking their seats in parliament. Most of the senators are from Kabilas party, which won over 60 seats in the March 15 election. Tshisekedi and his allies won three. Tshisekedi alleged that provincial assembly members, who elect the senators, had taken large bribes in exchange for their votes. The presidents decision is regarded as his first act countering Kabilas interests. Congos constitution requires the president to select a prime minister from the party with the majority of seats in parliament.

March 15, 2019: The U.S. announced that it will send medical personnel to eastern Congo to monitor the Ebola virus epidemic. Earlier the U.S. had ordered American personnel to pull back to the Congolese capital due to violence in eastern Congo. The American medical personnel monitor the epidemic and help train Congolese health workers.

March 13, 2019: In Congo, president Felix Tshisekedi pardoned over 700 political prisoners, as he promised to do in January in his inaugural address.
Dublin, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Kenya - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



This report provides a comprehensive overview of trends and developments in Kenya's telecommunications market. The report analyses the fixed-line, mobile and broadband sectors.



Kenya's telecommunications market continues to undergo considerable changes in the wake of increased competition, improved international connectivity, and rapid developments in the mobile market. The landing of four fibre-optic international submarine cables in recent years dramatically reduced the cost of phone calls and internet access, allowing internet services to be affordable to a far greater proportion of the population. In parallel, the sector's regulator has reduced interconnection tariffs and implemented a range of regulations aimed at developing further competition.



The incumbent fixed-line telco has struggled to make headway in this market, prompting reorganisation in 2018 which included a sale and leaseback arrangement with its mobile tower portfolio. In early 2019 the company signed a merger agreement with Airtel Kenya in which Telkom will retain a 49% share in the merged business which will provide a greater challenge to the market dominance of Safaricom.



Numerous competitors are rolling out national and metropolitan fibre backbone networks and wireless access networks to deliver services to population centres across the country. Several fibre infrastructure sharing agreements have been forged, and as a result, the number of fibre broadband connections increased 94% in the year to September 2018.



Key Developments:

Telkom Kenya agrees to merger with Airtel Kenya

Kenya sees a 41% increase in international bandwidth in the year to September 2018

Universal Service Fund extends mobile coverage to underserved northern regions

Safaricom launches M-PESA Global payment service

Government proposes an increase in m-money transfer tax

Regulator introduces a new system to measure QoS parameters

M-money interoperability starts

Report update includes the regulator's market data to September 2018, operator data to Q3 2018, recent market developments.

Key Topics Covered:



1. Key statistics

Country overview

2. Telecommunications market

Overview of Kenya's telecom market

3. Regulatory environment

Kenya Communications Act 1998

Regulatory authority

Revised Telecommunications Market Structure 2004

Kenya Communications Amendment Act 2009

Licence fees

Universal Service Fund (USF)

Interconnection

Number portability

Spectrum auctions

Foreign ownership

Telecom sector liberalisation

Privatisation of Telkom

Regional telecom licences

Second national operator (SNO) licensing

International gateway licences

Unified licensing regime

4. Fixed network operators

Telkom Kenya

Wireless Local Loop (WLL)

Liquid Telecom Kenya (KDN)

Jamii Telecom

AccessKenya

5. Telecommunications infrastructure

Overview of the national telecom network

National Optic Fibre Backbone Infrastructure (NOFBI)

Liquid Telecom

Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC)

Kenya Pipeline Corporation (KPC)

Safaricom

MTN

Fibre infrastructure sharing

Data centres

International infrastructure

Satellite

Terrestrial fibre

Submarine fibre

6. Broadband market

Introduction and statistical overview

Market analysis

Internet backbone infrastructure

Broadband statistics

Forecasts - Fixed broadband subscribers - 2019; 2021; 2023

Public internet access locations

Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) networks

Internet Exchange Points (IXP)

Kenya Network Information Centre (KENIC)

National broadband strategy

ISP market

Fibre-to-the-Premises (FttP) networks

Other fixed broadband services

Wireless broadband

Broadband via satellite

Project Loon

7. Digital economy

E-learning

National research and education network (NREN)

E-commerce

E-government

8. Mobile communications

Overview of Kenya's mobile market

General statistics

Mobile data

Mobile broadband

Forecasts - mobile subscribers - 2019; 2021; 2023

Regulatory issues

Roaming

Mobile Termination Rates (MTRs)

International gateways

Spectrum

Mobile Number Portability (MNP)

Network sharing

Quality of Service (QoS)

SIM card registration

Taxes

Tariff regulation

Mobile infrastructure

Analogue networks

Digital networks4G (LTE)

Major mobile operators

Mobile market share by operator

Safaricom

Airtel Kenya (formerly Zain, Celtel, KenCell)

Essar Telecom Kenya (yuMobile, formerly Econet)

Telkom Kenya

Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs)

Mobile content and applications

Mobile money transfer, m-banking

M-medicine

Handsets



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ugnj25

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.
NEW YORK, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Greystone , a commercial real estate lending, investment, and advisory company, and Gods Love We Deliver , a New York City-based non-profit that prepares and delivers nutritious, high-quality and medically tailored meals to people living with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other serious illnesses, will team up during National Volunteer Week for a volunteer residency in celebration of Greystones annual Day of Service.



From April 8th though April 12th, over 160 New York-based Greystone employees will serve shifts in the Gods Love We Deliver kitchen helping to prepare meals for delivery. In a single day, Gods Love delivers 7,200 balanced meals, which are provided free of charge to local residents facing severe and chronic illness.

As long-time supporters of Gods Love We Deliver, we are thrilled to dedicate our New York offices Day of Service to an entire week-long residency in the kitchen helping a cause that we love, said Steve Rosenberg, founder and CEO, Greystone.

With their week-long volunteer commitment, Greystones employees are directly contributing to preparing over 35,000 meals for our clients, said David Ludwigson, Vice President & Chief Development Officer, Gods Love We Deliver. We truly value their support of our cause over the years, and its especially meaningful during National Volunteer Week.

Greystones employees in other offices around the U.S. volunteered on or around April 4 with charities including Rise Against Hunger (Raleigh, NC); Mid-South Food Bank (Memphis, Tenn); The Greater Boston Food Bank (Boston, MA); and the Fauquier Shelter (Warrenton, VA).

About Greystone

Greystone is a real estate lending, investment, and advisory company with an established reputation as a leader in multifamily and healthcare finance, having ranked as a top FHA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac lender in these sectors. Our range of services includes commercial lending across a variety of platforms such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, CMBS, FHA, USDA, bridge and proprietary loan products. Loans are offered through Greystone Servicing Company LLC, Greystone Funding Company LLC and/or other Greystone affiliates. For more information, visit www.greyco.com .

PRESS CONTACT:

Karen Marotta

Greystone

212-896-9149

Karen.Marotta@greyco.com
Weather Eye

with John Maunder

Temperatures have been recorded in the Tauranga area at several sites during the last 100 years including the current Tauranga Airport site from June 1990.

The graph shows details of the average daily maximum temperatures, called simply afternoon', for Tauranga for the months of March from 1913-2019.

March 1947 is not included because of incomplete data.

The average daily maximum temperature for March 2019 was 23.9 degrees Celsius, the eighth warmest on record.

The long-term average afternoon temperature in March for Tauranga is 22.5 degrees Celsius, ranging from the cool March months of 1960 with an average afternoon temperature of 20.4 degrees Celsius, and 1940 with an average afternoon temperature of 20.8 degrees Celsius, to the warm March months of 1916 (24.7 degrees Celsius), and 1938 and 1968 (24.6 degrees Celsius).

The graph of the average afternoon temperatures for March shows generally normal variations from March to March but with some warming over the last 20 years .

From 1913 to 2019, there have been twelve March months with an average afternoon temperature of 23.7 degrees Celsius or more, and 13 March months with an average afternoon temperature of 21.5 degrees Celsius or less.

The nine warmest March months  in terms of average afternoon temperatures on record in chronological order are: 1913, 1914,1916, 1938, 1968, 2005, 2010, 2013, and 2019..

In contrast the 13 coolest March months  in terms of afternoon temperatures on record in chronological order are: 1923, 1934,1936, 1940, 1944, 1945, 1949, 1960, 1974, 1976, 1992, 1993 and 1998.

The average afternoon temperature for March for the 48 years from 1914-1962 was 22.4 degrees Celsius, compared with an average of 22.6 degrees Celsius for the 48 years from 1963-2011.

For further information see the following textbooks books (all available at specialised libraries)

"The Value of the Weather" (1970), "The Uncertainty Business - Risks and Opportunities in Weather and Climate" (1986), "The Human Impact of Climate Uncertainty - Weather Information, Economic Planning, and Business Management " (1989), all by W.J.Maunder
More than 500 lightning strikes have been recorded in the central North Island after weather systems collided.

Heavy rain warnings are now in place for eastern parts of the lower North Island.

MetService meteorologist Peter Little says the central region around Taupo, Rotorua and Taumarunui was hit by localised thunderstorms about 6pm on Sunday. They brought some wild weather after a period of relative calm.

"There has been quite an active line of convergence where winds meet and bang into each other and there's been a line of thunderstorms formed right across the central North Island area."

He says one of these systems brought very intense weather to a localised area north of Taupo.

"Fortunately they haven't been over an urban area.

"If that thunderstorm has been over Taupo city it could have caused quite a lot of issues with stormwater and that type of thing."

All thunderstorm watches have since been lifted.

-Stuff.co.nz
The Great Tauranga Duck Race is in its third year, and sees rubber ducks big and small let loose in Tauranga Harbour.

The event aims to raise funds for three local surf lifesaving clubs in Papamoa, Omanu and Mount Maunganui.

Tauranga Te Papa Rotary Club event leader, Brett Bell-Booth, says: Our surf lifesaving clubs work tirelessly to keep our beaches safe, and the Tauranga Te Papa Rotary Club want to support their efforts.

There will be three duck races this year, including the General Duck Race, a Schools Duck Race and the Corporate Duck Race.

The general race will feature 5000 numbered rubber ducks, and you can buy a ticket for $5 which matches the number on a duck. The ducks are scooped out at the end of the race, and if the ticket has been sold for first, second and third, the winner will receive $1000. Theres a runners-up prize of $500, while third place will win $250.

In the General Duck Race, all 5000 ducks will be put in a container, explains Brett. A crane at the start line will drop that container of ducks into the water, which is quite spectacular.

Then the tide will take them across to the start line, which is about 100 metres away.

The surf club and an IRB will be on patrol to ensure no ducks get away.

The Schools Duck Race involves larger ducks, and each student will represent their school as they try and win $1000 worth of supplies, ranging from sports equipment to educational items such as books and stationary.

We also have a Corporate Duck race, where large ducks are sold for $200 plus GST and corporates can dress their duck with their own branding, says Brett. Basically its all about bragging rights.

Last year, someone had attached a motor to their duck and they blitzed the field by remote control. This year, to make it a bit fairer, we have two sections - an unassisted and an assisted race.

On the day there will also be spot prizes for best dressed ducks as well as trophies available for the winners.

Brett assures that no rubber ducks are harmed in the race. They will be pulled out, put back in the container and trucked back to Dunedin to be reused again.

With the large ducks, schools are welcome to take them home and reuse them for next years race.

Wed love to see all 5000 ducks sold on the day, says Brett. Last year we raised $20,000 for the lifeguard services, and this year we hope to raise $10,000 for each club, so come on down and join in on the fun.

The Great Tauranga Duck Race will be held on Sunday, May 5, from 10.30am-1.30pm on The Strand.

Purchase your duck today at: www.eventspronto.co.nz/duck19 or visit Papamoa, Omanu or Mount Maunganui Lifeguard clubs.
Primary school teachers and principals have voted to reject the latest offer from the Ministry of Education.

The New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) is locked in a year-long pay dispute with the Education Ministry.

It said today the latest offer to settle their collective agreements was "overwhelmingly rejected".

Union president Lynda Stuart says significant disruption could happen next term if the government did not focus on finding a solution quickly.

Paid union meetings will happen early next month and if there's no progress by then the proposal is to vote on strike action on May 29, the union say.

Between May 15 and the strike date teachers would also work to rule, meaning only working within 8.00am to 5.00pm Monday through Friday.

Teachers and principals voted last week on offers the NZEI said differ little from those they have previously rejected. The government has insisted it will not increase the value of its offers any further.

Teachers have walked out of classrooms twice since August in rolling strikes to pursue their demands for a pay rise, smaller class sizes and more resources.

In November they went on strike after turning down an improved pay offer from the Ministry of Education.

That had included an increase to most teachers' pay by nine percent over three years, a new top of the pay scale from 2020, an a $500 lump sum for union members only. It increased spending by $129 million, taking the offer to almost $700 million over four years.

Read more about the latest pay offer.

The Employment Relations Authority has slammed the teachers union's pay demands as "totally unrealistic" and has urged teachers to take the government's offer.

Last month secondary school teachers called off a nation-wide strike due to the Christchurch terror attacks and said it would decide its next steps after the April school holidays.

-RNZ
English Lithuanian

On 30 April 2019 the ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of Snaige AB, the address of head office Pramones str. 6, Alytus, the company code 249664610 (hereinafter, the Company) is convened the ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders (hereinafter, the Meeting).

The place of the meeting at AB Snaige office, at the address Kareiviu str. 6, Vilnius, Lithuania.

The Meeting commences  at 10 a.m. (registration starts at 9.45 a.m.).

The Meetings accounting day  23 April 2019 (the persons who are shareholders of the Company at the end of accounting day of the General Meeting of Shareholders or authorized persons by them, or the persons with whom shareholders concluded the agreements on the disposal of voting right, shall have the right to attend and vote at the General Meeting of Shareholders).

The Board of directors of the Company initiates and convenes the meeting.

Agenda of the Meeting:

1.Consolidated annual report of Snaige AB on the companys activity for 2018 with information about the Company strategy and its implementation.

2.Auditors conclusion on the companys financial statements for 2018.

3.Approval of the set of financial statements of the company for 2018.

4.Approval of distribution of profit (loss) of Snaige AB for 2018.

5. The election of the Board for the new term.

6. The election of the audit committee for new term and solution related issues.

7. The change of the articles of association.

The Company shall not provide the possibility to participate and vote in the Meeting through electronic communication channels.

Draft resolutions on agenda issues, documents be submitted to the General Meeting of Shareholders and other information related with the exercising of the shareholders rights are available on the website of the Company www.snaige.lt on menu item For investors. This information will be also available for the shareholders at the head office of the Company (Pramones street 6, Alytus) on business days from 9:00 am. till 16:00 pm. (on Fridays till 14:00), tel. +370 315 56206, +370 5 2361970.

Shareholders holding shares that grant at least 1/20 of all votes shall have the right of proposing to supplement the agenda of the Meeting by providing the Meeting draft resolution on each additionally proposed issue or in case no resolution is required - the explanation. The proposals to supplement the agenda shall be submitted in writing or by e-mail. The proposals shall be presented in writing to the Company on business days or by sending it by registered mail at the address Snaige AB, Pramones street 6, LT-62175 Alytus, Lithuania. The proposals submitted via the e-mail shall be sent on snaige@snaige.lt . The proposals to supplement the agenda with the additional issues shall be submitted till the16 April 2019, 4:00 p.m. In case the agenda of the Meeting is supplemented the Company will report on it no later than 10 days before the Meeting in the same ways as on convening of the Meeting.

Shareholders holding shares that grant at least 1/20 of all votes shall have the right of proposing new draft resolutions on the issues already included or to be included in the agenda of the Meeting, audit firms for auditing purposes of financial statements. The proposals shall be submitted in writing or by e-mail. The proposals shall be presented in writing to the Company on business days till 29 April 2019, 2 p.m. or by sending it by registered mail at the address Snaige AB, Pramones street 6, LT-62175 Alytus, Lithuania. During the Meeting the proposals shall be submitted to the Chairman of the Meeting after he announces the Meeting agenda and no later than the Meeting starts working on the issues of agenda. The proposals submitted via the electronic mail shall be sent on snaige@snaige.lt . The proposals submitted on this e-mail till 29 April 2019, 2:00 p.m. will be discussed during the Meeting.

The shareholders shall have the right to present questions related to the General Meeting of Shareholders' agenda issues to the Company in advance in writing. The shareholders shall present the questions not later than 3 business days before the Meeting via the electronic mail on snaige@snaige.lt . The Company undertakes to respond to the submitted questions via the electronic mail till the Meeting day, except the questions related to the Companys commercial secret and confidential information.

During the registration to attend the Meeting the shareholders or the persons authorized by them shall submit a document which is a proof of his identity. The shareholders' authorized persons shall submit the power of attorney confirmed by the established order. The power of attorney issued by the natural person shall be notarized. A power of attorney issued in a foreign state must be translated into Lithuanian and legalized in the manner prescribed by law. Representative can be authorized by more than one shareholder and shall have a right to vote differently under the orders of each shareholder. The shareholder holding shares of the Bank, where the shares have been acquired on his own behalf, but for the benefit of other persons, must disclose before voting at the General Meeting of Shareholders to the Company the identity of the final customer, the number of shares that are put to the vote and the content of the voting instructions submitted to him or any other explanation regarding the participation agreed upon with the customer and voting at the General Meeting of Shareholders.

Shareholder shall also have the right to authorize through electronic communication channels another person (natural or legal) to participate and vote in the Meeting on shareholder's behalf. Such authorization shall not be confirmed by the notary officer. The power of attorney issued through electronic communication channels must be confirmed by the shareholder with a safe electronic signature developed by safe signature equipment and approved by a qualified certificate effective in the Republic of Lithuania. The shareholder shall inform the Company on the power of attorney issued through electronic communication channels by e-mail snaige@snaige.lt no later than the last business day before the meeting at 2:00 p.m. The power of attorney and notification shall be issued in writing. The power of attorney and notification to the Company shall be signed with the Electronic Signature but not the letters sent via the e-mail. By submitting the notification to the Company the shareholder shall include the Internet address from which it would be possible to download free of charge software to verify an Electronic Signature of the shareholder.

Each shareholder or representative thereof shall have the right to cast his/her vote in advance in writing by filling in a general ballot paper. The general ballot paper form is on the Company's website www.snaige.lt on menu item For Investors. Upon the written shareholders request, the Company no later than 10 days before the Meeting shall send a general ballot paper by registered mail or hand it in person against signature. The general ballot paper filled shall be signed by the shareholder or his/her representative. In case the ballot paper is signed by the shareholder's authorized representative, such person along with the filled ballot paper shall submit the document to confirm the voting right. The ballot paper filled and the document confirming the voting right (if required) shall be submitted in a written form to the Company by registered mail at the address Snaige AB, Pramones street 6, LT-62175, Alytus, Lithuania, or by submitting it to the Company. Validated will be dully filled-in ballot papers, received until the meeting.

The following information and documents are available on the website of the Company www.snaige.lt on menu item For Investors:

- report on the convening of the Meeting;

- the total number of the Companys shares and the number of shares with voting rights on the convening day of the Meeting;

- draft resolutions on each agenda issue and other documents to be submitted to the Meeting;

- general ballot paper form.

Additional information on the stock event is provided by telephone: +370 5 2361970.

Draft resolutions of the General Meeting of Shareholders are attached.

Managing Director

Gediminas Ceika

+370 315 56206

Attachments
ITHACA, N.Y. -- An Ithaca woman has been accused of attacking two officers who were trying to make an arrest during a fight early Saturday morning, according to the Ithaca Police Department.

Rose Degroat, 22, was charged with two felony counts of second-degree attempted assault and resisting arrest, a misdemeanor, Ithaca police said.

Several Ithaca police officers were on patrol on foot in the Ithaca Commons at about 1:20 a.m. Saturday when they witnessed a man, later identified as Cadji Furgeson, run across the commons and strike a person in the face, knocking him to the ground, police said.

The officers ran towards the fight and attempted to take Ferguson, 26, into custody. While doing so, a bystander, later identified as Degroat, attacked an officer from behind repeatedly striking him in the head. Degroat then struck a second officer in the face before being taken into custody. The first officer experienced headaches and was treated by Bangs Ambulance. The second officer sustained cuts to his face and declined further treatment, police said.

Ferguson, of Ithaca, was taken into police custody.

The incident caused numerous bystanders, most of whom were not involved in the original incident, to try to interfere with the officers attempts to make arrests, police said.

One additional person, later identified as 21-year-old Riley Johnson, was arrested for disorderly conduct, police said.

Due to the chaotic scene, the Tompkins County Sheriffs Office responded to the area to provide additional personnel.

Degroat was arraigned in Ithaca City Court on two counts of second-degree attempted assault for attacking the uniformed police officers and one count of resisting arrest for interfering with the lawful arrest of Furgeson, police said.

Degroat was arraigned and released on her own recognizance. She is scheduled to appear in Ithaca City Court on April 17.

Furgeson and Johnson were each charged with disorderly conduct, a violation. Both were released on appearance tickets. They are due in Ithaca City Court on April 24.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Shortly after school let out at Frazer PreK-8 School on Syracuses West Side, several students started fighting, city police said.

A 14-year-old girl was taken to a Syracuse hospital for mental evaluation after several reports of multiple fights after school Monday, Syracuse police spokesman Sgt. Matthew Malinowski said.

Syracuse police say Frazer students were fighting with other kids," but police did not have many details because those involved in the fights were uncooperative, Malinowski said. There were no serious injuries reported, he said.

A half-dozen police vehicles -- with their lights and sirens activated -- rushed to Richmond Avenue, a short distance from Frazer School. The Syracuse Police Departments crime scene van also responded. Officers had received reports of multiple students fighting in the neighborhood surrounding the school at about 3:45 p.m.

In one 911 call, a bus driver told dispatchers he thought he saw a student with a knife, according to police scanner reports. Dispatchers also reported a student might have a bat. Callers reported 10-20, 25-30 and 30-40 students fighting.

Officers ran from their patrol vehicles on Richmond Avenue toward Wall Street as dozens of residents watched. Several parents were waiting for their children to arrive home on school buses; many were enjoying the spring like weather, and others looked out their front doors when they heard the commotion.

One woman, who said she saw at least 30 students fighting, voiced her concerns about the violence she had just witnessed. She thought the school should have been put on lock down before the students spilled out of Frazer fighting. But a Syracuse city school spokesman said there were no reports of fights Monday at Frazer School.

Police and school officials say the fights remain under investigation.
Phish has given out $100,000 to non-profit groups in Upstate New York after last years canceled Curveball festival at Watkins Glen.

Some 85,000 people were expected to attend the three-day festival last August, but the event was canceled at the last minute due to flooding and health concerns about drinking water. Fans were offered refunds, and the bands The WaterWheel Foundation vowed to donate $100,000 to help with the recovery effort.

The Elmira Star-Gazette reports the foundation has completed distribution of the money to seven non-profit groups in Schuyler County. The Arbor Housing and Development Foundation, the American Red Cross of the Finger Lakes, the Dundee Fire and Rescue Team, the Hector Food Pantry, the Humane Society of Schuyler County, the Watkins Glen Fire Department, and the Valois Logan Hector Fire Department will each receive $14,875.06.

A check presentation for the contributions, totaling $104,125.42, is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon at Watkins Glen International raceway.

We are so thankful to Phish and The WaterWheel Foundation for funding these grants benefiting a number of our area nonprofits, WGI President Michael Printup said in a press release

"These tremendous organizations were instrumental in helping Schuyler County residents through last Augusts flooding event, and we are proud to host the ceremony at which they will be rightfully honored."

Phish, led by Trey Anastasio, is named after drummer and Syracuse native Jon Fishman. Curveball wouldve been the bands third festival at Watkins Glen, following the sold-out Magnaball festival in 2015 and Super Ball IX in 2011.

We were all so disappointed by the cancellation of Curveball last summer and recognize, in particular, that Watkins Glen and the surrounding communities suffered terrible consequences from the flooding," Beth Montuori Rowles, executive director of The Waterwheel Foundation, said in a statement.

Being able to make this donation reaffirms all of our goals as a charitable foundation, harnessing the collective philanthropic efforts of Phish and their fans to be able to give meaningful donations to the communities that we visit on tour. Were just glad to have the opportunity to help.

Phish has not rescheduled Curveball or announced a new festival. The bands tour dates include two SPAC concerts in Saratoga Springs this summer; Anastasio is also touring with his new project, Ghosts of the Forest.

Woodstock 50, a three-day concert celebrating the 50th anniversary of the original Woodstock festival, is scheduled for Aug. 16-18, 2019, at Watkins Glen.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Downtown Syracuse will have not one, but at least six new lunch options this summer, thanks to a new weekly food truck rally.

The Clinton Square Food Truck Rally will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesdays starting May 1 and running until fall.

Common Councilor Michael Greene, along with the Syracuse Food Truck Association, announced the events creation Monday morning. Last year, Greene wrote legislation that reduced the cost for a food truck to operate in public places in Syracuse from $1,500 to $500.

That change, as well as the move from a lottery system offering food truck owners fixed locations to a system of allowable blocks were food trucks are allowed to park on a first-come-first-serve basis, became law in 2018.

The fact that [people] will be able to walk to Clinton Square and get food is something thats going to be really great for the city of Syracuse, Greene said.

At one point, only one food truck Lady Bug Lunch Boxoperated in downtown Syracuse, something Greene described as clearly a policy failure.

Greene stressed that food trucks not only improve quality of life, but serve as retail incubators and job creators, as many food trucks eventually become brick-and-mortar restaurants.

Were super-excited to be bringing food trucks downtown," said Syracuse Food Truck Association President Nick Sanford, owner of Toss 'n' Fire Wood-Fired Pizza, who launched his food truck in 2015 and opened a permanent restaurant in North Syracuse in 2016.

Six food trucks will set up each week. Spots will rotate among the 25 members of the Syracuse Food Truck Association. To see which food trucks will be at the rally each week, visit the Syracuse Food Truck Association on Facebook or Instagram.

Jacob Pucci finds the best in food, dining and culture across Upstate New York. Contact him at (315) 282-8611, or by email at jpucci@syracuse.com.
Pennie Brantleys first trip overseas, to Thailand, was memorable. The Bangladesh War broke out when she was there, and her return flight was detoured to Kuwait.

We were surrounded by militia carrying rifles, she recalled. The plane was searched and two bombs found aboard. In the guise of not scaring the passengers, one member of the bomb squad moved cautiously down the aisle gingerly carrying a metal food box in front of him with both hands. As he passed by our seats, we saw that the jumpsuit he was wearing said Als Catering  in English  on the back.

Despite that, Brantley was bitten by the travel bug, and it shows in her art: large oil paintings, frequently with architectural and historical elements, of locations in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and The Netherlands that are so detailed they look like photographs from a distance.

For the last 20-plus years, her travel companion has been her husband, Robert Morgan, another artist who is showing his large watercolor paintings alongside Brantleys in a joint exhibition, Double Vision, in the Schweinfurth Art Centers Davis Family Gallery. The show will be on display from March 22 to May 12, 2019.

"Belgian Seeder at Rock Field," by Robert Morgan.

Their love of travel is easily seen in their joint exhibition statement: For these artists, life is a continuous journey, traveling distant paths geographically and psychologically in search of deeper understanding and appreciation.  Brantley and Morgan see the wonders of the earth as embodying abstract ideas about the realities of living.

Morgan also wasnt deterred from traveling despite an incident in Morocco when he and a friend backpacked overseas on a sabbatical from college. Hopping a ferry from Gibraltar to Morocco, they landed in Tangier.

While exploring the Casbah, a couple of locals befriended us and suggested a cheap hotel for us to stay, he said. Grateful to have a place to stash our bags, we went back out for dinner. When we returned, it was a shock to find those friendly locals waiting in our room.

The locals demanded that Morgan and his friend buy their hashish, which they refused to do. They threatened that if we didnt give them money, someone might come in during the night and stab us. Terrified, we gave them money -- an unexpectedly paltry amount -- and left early in the morning, after getting NO sleep that night, he recalled.

Pennie Brantley and Robert Morgan pose in their studio in Petersburgh, NY. Their joint exhibition of paintings will be on exhibit at the Schweinfurth Art Center through May 12, 2019.

Travel is much calmer now, and the couple each have their own favorite places to visit.

For Brantley, its France, Barcelona, and Venice. We love the culture and worldliness of (Frances) citizens, the pace of taking time to appreciate life, she said. Barcelona tops her list because of buildings designed by architect Antonio Gaudi. Being fascinated with his work since high school, it is thrilling to visit his structures, she said. And Venice? Its Disneyland for adults, she explains simply.

Morgans favorite places are mostly similar: France, Spain, and Argentina. All offer interesting mixes of art, architecture, scenery, food, wine, he said.

Love of travel isnt the only thing Brantley and Morgan have in common. The artists found that they had arrived independently at similar motivations in their work, so their joint show is cohesive. Yet each style is unique, both in vision and in the materials they use in creating their paintings.

Brantleys oil paintings take a long time to make. One reason is that she creates her pieces with multiple layers. Through experience, I developed how to achieve both the visual and psychological effects that I want, Brantley said.

"An Abundance of Options (Arrival in Venice)," by Pennie Brantley

Culling images she is inspired to paint from hundreds of photos from travels, she begins with drawing on the canvas. For instance, Morning Fog, Orvieto took a year a half to finish, including the month it took just to draw, she said. By layering paint usually in three full rounds of underpainting and overpainting  plus more tweaking sometimes  one can achieve more intensity in both colors and perspective.

The determinant of Morgans work is his inability to purchase watercolor paper in the size he wants to paint. My work became larger as I sought to break the mold of what defines a watercolor, he said. I wanted the viewer to be immersed in the work and be part of the environment.

That has led Morgan to collage pieces together, adding metal and other items to the artwork. I am trying to create a friction that results from pairing contrasts  warm and cold, hard and soft, threatening and soothing, loud and quiet, he said. I want the work to resonate, to vibrate on a frequency that sets off a chain reaction of personal associations and comparisons  and I hope the viewer shares the tension inevitably lurking behind the beauty.

Brantley and Morgan say an important element in their marriage is their mutual love of art. Besides being in love with my wife, it is such a treat to be able to share a passion for art  so important to both of us, Morgan said.

Brantley agrees. We never run out to things to talk about, she said. We can discuss dilemmas with our work and get productive feedback. We share the same interests in our travels, particularly lots of art and art history, that not many people would have as great an interest in. Besides, we really enjoy being together!

About the exhibit

What: Double Vision

Who: Husband and wife painters Robert Morgan and Pennie Brantley

Where: Davis Family Gallery in the Schweinfurth Art Center, 205 Genesee St., Auburn

When: March 22 to May 12, 2019

Cost: $7 per person; members, participating artists, and children 12 and under free

Also showing: Made in NY, an exhibition of artists from around New York State, and Common Places, an exhibition of photographs by artist Willson Cummer

Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays. Closed Mondays.

More information: myartcenter.org
If youve seen ads online promoting a real estate workshop event from Flip or Flop TV stars Tarek El Moussa and Christina Anstead, be advised: Theyre probably not coming to your town.

Several Facebook ads have appeared this month to promote a free real estate workshop in Syracuse, Rochester, Utica, and Albany. All of the ads have a vague date -- April 17-20 -- and pictures of Tarek and Christina promising guidance about finding properties, financing, wholesale deals, renovating homes, and flipping them for a profit.

Looking for life-changing investment opportunities? Consider investing in real estate. Attend our upcoming workshop on house flipping to learn more, one of the ads states.

In a Facebook video ad, Christina (formerly El Moussa) even names the Upstate NY cities her team is coming to.

All of the ads link to Christina and Tareks joint venture, Real Estate Elevated (formerly Success Path). The former couple launched the real estate investment education program in 2013 when their HGTV reality show Flip or Flop launched. They separated in 2017 and finalized a divorce last year -- Christina has since remarried and is expecting a child with British TV host Ant Anstead -- but she and Tarek continue co-hosting their HGTV series, co-parenting their children, and promoting Real Estate Elevated.

However, when contacting Real Estate Elevated for information, a representative admitted that Tarek and Christina are probably not coming to Syracuse or any other Upstate NY cities.

They have events all over North America, so they delegate a member of their team to run the events, the rep said.

"Flip or Flop" TV stars Tarek El Moussa and Christina Anstead appear in Facebook ads promoting real estate education workshops in Syracuse, Rochester, Utica and Albany. At left, the former couple appears in a 2014 Getty Images photo.

The Real Estate Elevated website says the events are scheduled in Rochester on Wednesday, April 17; Syracuse on Thursday, April 18; Utica on Friday, April 19; and Albany on Saturday, April 20. For the Syracuse event, people can register for two events at noon ad 6 p.m. at the Crowne Plaza Syracuse.

The seminars are free to attend, but not without controversy.

A 2016 Associated Press investigation said that attendees are pushed to pay for three additional days of classes and $1,000 in real estate software. Complaints filed with the Federal Trade Commission and the Better Business Bureau said the paid classes were even a sales pitch for additional courses that cost thousands more, including some at $26,000.

They werent really teaching at all, Doug Stephens, a pastor and teacher from Florida, told the AP.

A dozen other people interviewed by the AP said they were promised to earn money back quickly and get refunds if they dont flip homes within a certain amount of time -- but both promises were difficult to fulfill. And the El Moussas never showed, except in videos explaining they were too busy with their show to appear.

The AP investigation found the seminars are run by a Utah-based education company called Zurixx, which develops, promotes, sells and fulfills financial education programs throughout the U.S. and Canada. The company made $130 million in 2015, thanks in part to partnerships with reality stars like Christina and Tarek, who received a percentage of classes sold.

I stand by our product, Christina told ABC in 2016. Its our tools, its our system. Its what Tarek and I do. Ive only heard very minimal complaints.

At the time, Real Estate Elevated was operating under the name Success Path Education, but appeared to have changed its name after the AP investigation made national news.

Flip or Flop is scheduled to begin airing season 8 this spring. Christina Ansteads spinoff show, Christina on the Coast," is expected to premiere in May.
SYRACUSE, N.Y.  Some Central New York disabled veterans say they are being unfairly kicked out of and shortchanged by a federal Veterans Affairs program that lets family members and friends care for them at home.

The veterans complained about the VA Caregiver program today at a news conference in Syracuse organized by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY.

The VA caregiver provides monthly stipends, ranging from $660 to $2,600, and other assistance to family members and friends who provide home care for veterans seriously injured since Sept. 11, 2001 so they dont have to be institutionalized.

Tricia Smith, an Army veteran from Mexico, N.Y., who injured her back in Iraq in 2006, has been in the caregiver program three years. She said the VA arbitrarily reduced her caregivers monthly stipend from $2,000 to $700 in late 2017. As a result Smith said she and her caregiver, Kathleen Dehring, are struggling to make their mortgage payments and may lose their home.

Schumer said the program, launched in 2011, has been riddled with problems since VA medical centers nationwide began dropping veterans from the program and cutting stipends two years ago without explanation.

In response to complaints from veterans, the VA imposed a moratorium in December on caregiver program discharges.

Schumer called on the VA to fix the program. The federal government has a sacred responsibility to the American veterans who sacrificed so much for our country, he said.

The annual cost of the program is more than $900 million. VA officials have said that is less than what the federal agency would spend if veterans were cared for in hospitals and nursing homes.

By Oct. 1 the VA is supposed to expand the program to include all veterans seriously injured since World War II. The expansion is expected to double the number of caregiver participants to more than 41,000.

VA Secretary Robert Wilkie recently told Senators the VA may miss the Oct. 1 deadline because of information technology problems. A recent Government Accountability Office report blamed those problems in part on frequent management turnover at the VA.
To the Editor:

Since the Reproductive Health Act (RHA) was signed into New York state law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Jan. 19, 2019, there has been a proliferation of misinformation. As obstetrician/gynecologists who care deeply about the health and welfare of our patients, we wish to clarify what the RHA means for the women of New York state.

New York was the second state, after Hawaii, to legalize abortion in 1970, three years prior to the Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision that recognized the constitutional right to abortion. When abortion was legalized in New York, criminal law was amended to carve out an exception to the crime of abortion to allow for justifiable abortion, defined as 24 weeks from the commencement of pregnancy and after that point when a womens life is at risk. By regulating abortion in the criminal code, it allowed for the possibility of criminal prosecution of women who have abortions and the practitioners who provide them. Notably lacking from New York state law were baseline constitutional protections that would allow abortion after 24 weeks to preserve a womens health or in the event of fetal nonviability.

The RHA provides for the following:

Removes abortion from the criminal code and places it in Public Health Law to reflect that abortion is health care, not a crime. Codifies into New York state law the protections of Roe v. Wade to ensure that a woman can have access to abortion services to preserve her health or save her life or in circumstances of fetal nonviability. The RHA maintains the line in the law that allows for abortion for any reason up to 24 weeks from the commencement of pregnancy. Clarifies that certain advance practice clinicians can perform early abortions in line with their training and scope of practice.

The claims that the RHA legalizes infanticide or increases the gestational age at which an elective abortion can be performed are just plain false.

The decision to continue or end a pregnancy is complex and highly personal. The discussion belongs in the privacy of the exam room where a woman, in consultation with her physician, can make a decision that is most appropriate for her.

Dr. MaryAnn Millar, president, Onondaga County Medical Society

Dr. Nicholas Baranco

Dr. Leah Kaufman

Dr. Renee Mestad

Dr. Robert Silverman

Syracuse
WASHINGTON (AP)  Momentum is gaining in Washington for a privacy law that could sharply rein in the ability of the largest technology companies to collect and distribute peoples personal data.

A national law, the first of its kind in the U.S., could allow people to see or prohibit the use of their data. Companies would need permission to release such information. If it takes effect, a law would also likely shrink Big Techs profits from its lucrative business of making personal data available to advertisers so they can pinpoint specific consumers to target.

Behind the drive for a law is rising concern over private data being compromised or distributed by Facebook, Google and other tech giants that have earned riches from collecting and distributing consumer information. The industry traditionally has been lightly regulated and has resisted closer oversight as a threat to its culture of free-wheeling innovation.

Support for a privacy law is part of a broader effort by regulators and lawmakers to lessen the domination of companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon. Some, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic presidential candidate, have called for the tech giants to be split up .

The Trump White House has said in the past that it could endorse a broad data privacy law.

The big tech companies have been nervously eyeing a tough privacy law taking effect next year in California. That measure will allow Californians to see the personal data being collected on them and where it's being distributed and to forbid the sale of it. With some exceptions, consumers could also request that their personal information be deleted entirely.

Whatever federal privacy law eventually emerges is expected to be less stringent than the California measure and to supersede it. As a result, the tech industry is trying to help shape any national restrictions.

"This is the first time ever that the industry wants legislation," said Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a privacy advocacy group. "The industry is terrified."

On Tuesday, a House committee will press Google and Facebook executives about another urgent concern involving Big Tech: Whether they're doing enough to curb the spread of hate crimes and white nationalism through online platforms. The Judiciary Committee hearing follows a series of violent incidents fueled in part by online communication.

Facebook, used by 2-billion-plus people including over 200 million in the U.S., has been a particular lightning rod for industry critics. Having had its reputation tarnished over data privacy lapses, a tide of hate speech and a spread of disinformation that allowed Russian agents to target propaganda campaigns, Facebook appears ready to embrace a national privacy law.

Facebooks founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, published a column last month in the Washington Post calling for tighter regulations to protect consumer data, control harmful content and ensure election integrity and data portability.

"The internet," Zuckerberg wrote, "needs new rules."

Amazon says it has built its business on protecting people's information, "and we have been working with policymakers on how best to do that."

There is real momentum to develop baseline rules of the road for data protection, Googles chief privacy officer, Keith Enright, has said in a policy paper. Google welcomes this and supports comprehensive, baseline privacy regulation.

A sweeping privacy shield law in the European Union, covering how tech companies handle personal data in the 28-country bloc, should be a model, Zuckerberg wrote. EU regulators recently fined Google $1.7 billion for freezing out rivals in the online ad business  their third penalty against the search giant in two years. The EU watchdogs have also ordered Apple and Amazon to pay back taxes and fined Facebook for providing misleading information in its acquisition of WhatsApp.

On Monday, Britain unveiled plans to vastly increase government oversight of social media companies, with a watchdog that could fine executives or even ban companies that fail to block such content as terrorist propaganda and images of child abuse.

The entire debate cuts to the heart of Big Techs hugely profitable commerce in online users personal data. The companies gather vast data on what users read and like and leverage it to help advertisers target their messages to the individuals they want to reach. Facebook drew 99% of its revenue from advertising last year. For Googles parent Alphabet, it was 85%, according to Scott Kessler of the research firm CFRA.

Amazon, too, doesn't just sell products online; it provides ad space, too. The company doesn't say how much but has said that the "other" revenue in its financial reports is mainly from ads. Its "other" revenue topped $10 billion last year, more than double what it was in 2017.

The tech giants' problematic relationship with advertisers was spotlighted by action regulators took last month. The Department of Housing and Urban Development filed civil charges against Facebook, accusing it of allowing landlords and real estate brokers to exclude certain racial or ethnic groups from seeing ads for houses and apartments. Facebook could face penalties.

The company has separately agreed to overhaul its ad targeting system and end some of the practices noted by HUD to prevent discrimination in housing listings as well as credit and employment ads. That move was part of a settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union and other activists.

Besides crafting a bipartisan data-privacy measure in Congress, lawmakers are considering restoring Obama-era rules that formerly barred internet providers  like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast  from discriminating against certain technologies and services.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., has proposed fines and jail time for executives of companies guilty of data breaches.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable, representing CEOs of major companies, have presented their own proposals to curb privacy abuses. At the same time, President Donald Trump has echoed complaints from some conservative lawmakers and commentators that the big tech platforms are politically tilted against them.

Facebook, Twitter and Google are so biased toward the Dems it is ridiculous! he has tweeted. And he told a rally crowd, Were not going to let them control what we can and cannot see, read and learn from.

Tech executives and many Democrats have rejected those assertions as themselves politically biased. Still, Trump has threatened to push regulators to investigate whether Google has abused its role as an internet gateway to stifle competition. And referring to Amazon, Facebook and Google, Trump told Bloomberg News, Many people think it is a very antitrust situation, the three of them.

Among the tech giants that are trying to shape any final restrictions is the chipmaker Intel, which has developed its own legislative proposal.

"I think it's likely we are going to pass a national privacy law by the end of 2020," David Hoffman, Intel's associate general counsel and global privacy officer, said in an interview.

By then, the privacy measure emerging in California will have taken effect.

"The California bill is responsible for 90% of the lobbying and political pressure to pass a national law," said Robert Atkinson of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, whose board includes tech executives.

Four senators  Republicans Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Jerry Moran of Kansas and Democrats Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Brian Schatz of Hawaii  are working on a national measure. They say it would protect consumers from the abuse of their data and provide legal certainty to ensure that tech companies continue to hire and innovate.

It would be nice, said Wicker, who leads the key Senate Commerce Committee, to have it on the presidents desk this year.
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP)  Authorities say a boy inside his home has been killed by a stray bullet shot from outside, and another man was wounded.

WIVB reports several shots were fired at a car in a parking lot on William Street in Buffalo, New York, around 8:30 p.m. Saturday.

Police say one of the bullets hit 12-year-old Bandar Elwaseem, who was in an upstairs apartment in a building near the parking lot.

He was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

A 22-year-old man was also wounded. He underwent surgery and is listed in stable condition.

No arrests have been made. Local police and the FBI have offered a combined $12,500 reward for any information leading to an arrest of the person responsible for the boys death.
According to a statement by Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook and his Singaporean counterpart Khaw Boon Wan reached on April 6th, 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.

Selatar airport (Source: Changi Airport Group)



Both transport ministers welcome these positive steps and look forward to further strengthening bilateral cooperation, the statement said.

The agreement will also see Malaysian budget airline Firefly resume its flights after suspending its operations last December.

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. Firefly at first agreed but later said it would not move because the Malaysian civil aviation regulator disapproved it.

Malaysia objected to the move because Singapore installed the ILS at Seletar airport which neighbors Malaysia's Pasir Gudang town, saying that 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./.
DENVER, CO, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- Phoenix Life Sciences International Limited (OTC: PLSI) (Phoenix Life or the Company), an adaptive healthcare solutions company, today announced the appointment of Tekon Timothy Tumukon as the Companys Head of Biosecurity Services.



Prior to joining Phoenix Life, Tumukon headed the Republic of Vanuatus (Vanuatu) Department of Biosecurity as the departments director and played a key role in developing the countrys biosafety framework. He accumulated strong bioscience knowledge during his almost 30-year career and held notable job roles that have well prepared him for his position with Phoenix Life. He served as Principal Plant Protection Officer in Vanuatus Department of Livestock & Quarantine Services, was Vanuatus Project Coordinator for Persistent Organic Pollution, served as Acting Principal Plant Protection Officer for the Vanuatu Quarantine & Inspection Services and was the Assistant Plant Protection Officer in Vanuatus Department of Agriculture and Horticulture.

As Phoenix Life begins to build out our plan for maximizing crop yield and biosecurity, and begin global distribution of plant based pharmaceuticals, we are excited about working with Timothy because of his highly-respected reputation as a biosecurity expert, said Phoenix Life CEO Martin Tindall. To ensure we comply with the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotics and other international drug treaties, as well as ensuring the biosecurity of our plants and our facilities, we need someone with great understanding of the need for these controls. We hope he can give our government partners assurances of our commitment to clear control around distribution of controlled substances. We welcome Timothy to lead that challenge.

In addition to his many career accomplishments, Tumukon represented the South Pacific region on the Standards Committee for the International Plant Protection Convention as the Pacific Representative from 2008 to 2011. He has also represented Vanuatu in the Codex Alimentarius Commission since 1999 and has headed the work of developing a regional Codex Standard for Kava since 2012; the regional standard will be adopted by the Codex body in 2021. Timothy was elected the Regional Coordinator and Chairperson for the Codex sub-region of North America and the South West Pacific from 2014 to January 2019 (the region includes Canada, the United States, New Zealand and Australia).

Throughout my long career in bioscience, I have dedicated myself to learning the most effective and scientifically-backed strategies to minimize crop risks, said Tekon Timothy Tumukon, Head of Biosecurity Services at Phoenix Life. I look forward to the next step in my career at Phoenix Life and we will work together to deliver the best botanical pharmaceutical products possible to patients across the globe.

To learn more about Phoenix Life Sciences International, please visit https://phoenixlife.co/ or for local information about Phoenix Life in Vanuatu visit https://phoenixlife.vu .

About Phoenix Life Sciences International Limited

Phoenix Life Sciences International Limited is an adaptive healthcare solutions company. Our business is to advance research and integrate programs and manufacturing of products that target and treat diabetes, pain, cancer, and address psychological, neurological, autoimmune and sleep disorders. We strive to create partnerships and integrate these programs for human health into communities worldwide as part of our Global Health Initiative.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Information contained in this press release regarding Phoenix Life Sciences International, Limited and its subsidiaries, (the Companies) may constitute forward-looking statements or statements which may be deemed or construed to be forward-looking statements. The words plan, forecast, anticipates, estimate, project, intend, expect, should, believe, and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve, and are subject to, known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause the Companys actual results, performance (financial or operating) or achievements to differ from the future results, performance (financial or operating) or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The risks, uncertainties and other factors are more fully discussed in the Companys filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements attributable to the Companies herein are expressly qualified in their entirety by the above-mentioned cautionary statement. The Companies disclaim any obligation to update forward-looking statements contained in this press release, except as may be required by law.

FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION (FDA) DISCLOSURE

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and therefore the products sold by Phoenix Life Sciences International are not available in the U.S.

LEGAL DISCLOSURE

Phoenix Life Sciences International does not sell or distribute any products in the United States that are in violation of the United States Controlled Substances Act (US.CSA). This company does not grow, sell, and distribute cannabis-based products in the United States and is solely involved with the legal distribution of medical cannabis-based products within certain international markets outside of the United States.

Investor Contact:

Phone: 1.888.717.5655 or international +1.720.699.7222

E-mail: investor.relations@phoenixlife.co





Media Contact:

Kathryn Reinhardt

CMW Media

Kathryn@cmwmedia.com

619-972-3089
By Tax-News.com Editorial

The tax challenges of the digital economy are seemingly being tackled at multiple levels. On the one hand, countries are working collectively under the umbrella of the OECD to reach a consensus on new international tax rules for a digitalized business world. But on the other, several countries are undermining this process by forging ahead with solutions at national level. And in the middle is the United States threatening legal action against those governments acting unilaterally. This article therefore attempts to make sense of the digital tax landscape, looking at the evolution of the debate, the working being done by the OECD, and developments at national level.

BEPS Action 1

Addressing the tax challenges of the digital economy is a key aspect of the OECD's base erosion and profit shifting work. This is attempting to: adapt corporate tax rules designed largely in the first half of the 20th century to a globalized and increasingly digitalized world in which national borders have become almost meaningless in the context of international commerce; and tackle the exploitation of gaps in this outdated tax system to prevent widespread (but largely legal) avoidance of taxation on cross-border transactions. This project was launched in 2013 with the publication by the OECD of a 15-point BEPS Action Plan, and culminated in the release two years later of its final recommendations. The BEPS project is now firmly in its implementation phase.

The problem, as the OECD observed in the final report for Action 1 of the BEPS project (Addressing the Tax Challenges of the Digital Economy), is that many of the key features of the digital economy, particularly those related to mobility, generate BEPS concerns in relation to both direct and indirect taxes.

The OECD has argued since the commencement of the BEPS project in 2013 that, as the digital economy is increasingly becoming the economy itself, this challenge should be tackled by changes to existing tax rules, rather than the introduction of special "digital taxes." This viewpoint was reemphasized by the Paris-based body when it issued its interim report on the topic in March 2018. Some governments, as explained later in this article, are thinking along entire different lines.

The OECD and the multilateral discussions

That the OECD is continuing to work on the digital tax problem long after the publication of its final BEPS recommendations in October 2015 is a testament to how challenging this issue has become. Nevertheless, it remains committed to announcing new proposals for the taxation of the digital economy in 2020, an objective that was restated at the January 23-24, 2019, meeting of the BEPS Inclusive Framework, which includes 125 countries and territories.

At the meeting, the Inclusive Framework agreed to focus discussions on two central pillars. First, how existing rules that divide up the right to tax the income of multinational enterprises among jurisdictions, including traditional transfer pricing rules and the arm's length principle, could be modified to take into account the changes that digitalization has brought to the world economy. This will require a re-examination of the so-called "nexus" rules  namely how to determine the connection a business has with a given jurisdiction  and the rules that govern how much profit should be allocated to the business conducted there.

According to the OECD, the Inclusive Framework will look at proposals based on the concepts of marketing intangibles, user contribution, and significant economic presence and how they can be used to modernize the international tax system to address the tax challenges of digitalization.

Second, the Inclusive Framework will seek to resolve remaining BEPS issues and will explore two sets of interlocking rules, designed to give jurisdictions a remedy in cases where income is subject to no or only very low taxation.

National developments

Problematically for the OECD however, while the majority of its members are, in the interests of certainty and stability in the international tax framework, in favour of a multilateral solution focusing on changes to existing corporate tax rules, some have grown impatient at the lack of progress towards an international agreement. Several jurisdictions have therefore proposed special "interim" tax measures that apply until internationally-agreed solutions are brought to bear.

European Union

Arguably the most significant attempt at a unilateral digital tax was the European Commission's two-part proposals for an EU-wide tax, published in March 2018.

Under this proposal, a digital platform would be deemed to have a taxable "digital presence" or a virtual permanent establishment in a member state if it fulfills one of the following criteria:

It exceeds a threshold of EUR7m (USD8m) in annual revenues in a member state;

It has more than 100,000 users in a member state in a taxable year; or

Over 3,000 business contracts for digital services are created between the company and business users in a taxable year.

The second, temporary, measure is intended to ensure there is at least a harmonized EU approach to digital taxation, in the absence of a global agreement. This entails the introduction of an interim tax, with a three percent rate, which would apply to revenues created from certain digital activities that escape the current tax framework entirely.

The tax is intended to apply to revenues created from activities where users play a major role in value creation and those that are the hardest to capture with current tax rules, such as those revenues:

Created from selling online advertising space;

Created from digital intermediary activities, which allow users to interact with other users and which can facilitate the sale of goods and services between them;

Created from the sale of data generated from user-provided information.

Under the proposal, tax revenues are to be collected by the member states where the users are located. Companies with total annual worldwide revenues of at least EUR750m (USD854m) and EU revenues of EUR50m would be required to pay the tax.

The EU was aiming for a consensus among member states on these proposals by the end of 2018. However, certain member states were strongly opposed to the idea, and talks broke down without an agreement at the March 12, 2019 meeting of EU finance ministers. A compromise proposal put forward by the then Austrian EU presidency in December 2018 that the tax target revenues from the supply of digital services where users contribute to the process of value creation was also rejected. Likewise, a recommendation by France and Germany that the tax base focus on just advertising services was also rebuffed.

According to a Council statement, "despite the broad support from a large number of member states on this text, some delegations maintain reservations either on some specific aspects of the proposal or more fundamental objections."

United Kingdom

As announced at Budget 2018 on October 30, 2018, from April 2020, the UK Government will introduce a new two percent tax on the revenues of certain digital businesses which derive value from their UK users. The tax will apply to revenues generated by search engines, social media platforms, and online marketplaces that are linked to the participation of UK users, subject to a GBP25m (USD33m)-per-year allowance. It is intended that the measure will be legislated for in the 2019/20 Finance Bill after a public consultation exercise.

Spain

In 2018, the Spanish Government included plans for a digital services tax in its Budget for 2019. Under the measure, a three percent tax would be imposed on certain digital services provided by companies with global sales exceeding EUR750m and sales of more than EUR3m within Spain. Revenue from the selling of online advertising, digital intermediary and brokerage services, and personal data would be included in the scope of the law.

However, the rejection of the Budget bill in parliament in February 2019, a move which triggered the calling of fresh elections, scheduled for April 2019, has cast considerable doubts about whether the digital tax will be legislated for.

Italy

A new tax on revenues derived from the provision of certain digital services was included in Italy's Finance Law 2019, which was approved by parliament in December 2018.

The digital tax will be levied at a rate of three percent and will apply to companies with at least EUR750m in total revenue and at least EUR5.5m in revenue from selling certain digital services in Italy, such as online advertising and personal data.

The tax, which is expected to be in place this year, will need to be implemented by decree. The Government is expected to release further details on its operation and scope.

France

With the EU digital tax talks on the brink of breaking down, on March 6, 2019, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire presented at a press conference new legislation for a tax on the revenue of certain companies providing digital services in France. Le Maire confirmed that a single three percent tax will be imposed on digital companies providing advertising services, selling user date for advertising purposes, or performing intermediation services. Companies with global revenues of EUR750m or more and French sales of at least EUR25m will be required to pay the tax.

The tax is intended to apply form turnover realized in France since January 1, 2019 and will remain in place until a multilateral agreement on new global digital tax rules has been reached.

Austria

Austria is one of the latest countries to announce plans to proceed with a national digital tax following the collapse of the talks on the EU measures. As such, the Government has convened an expert panel to discuss the design of a digital tax, and this was scheduled to hold its first meeting on March 19, 2019.

Commenting on the proposals, State Secretary of Finance Hubert Fuchs said: "In Austria, companies pay corporation tax depending on their profits. Now, however, it is the case that major digital corporations in Austria report only very minimal profits. These are reduced as a result of global profit shifting. Profit-based taxation of major digital corporations is therefore ineffective. To compensate for this, therefore, in future, digital corporations will have to pay a digital tax."

The Government also said that the tax rules are being examined in two other areas as part of the digital tax package recently adopted by the Cabinet. These include the taxation of companies operating in the sharing economy, and deliveries to private consumers from third countries by online mail order. "Substantive" conclusions on these discussions are expected to be reached in the coming weeks, the Government confirmed.

However, while Austria has decided to pursue a national digital tax, Loeger said in his comments that the Government continues to support a multilateral solution to the tax challenges posed by the digital economy and is engaged in "intensive discussions" with France and Germany on the matter.

New Zealand

On February 18, 2019, the New Zealand Government announced that it is considering the introduction of a digital services tax. According to the announcement, these proposals will be released in a discussion document  likely in May  to "ensure that multinationals pay their fair share of tax in the country."

Revenue Minister Stuart Nash said that the Government would prefer to find an internationally agreed solution to the challenges presented by the digital economy, under the auspices of the OECD. However, he stressed that the Government also believes that it needs to "move ahead with [its] own work." Therefore, New Zealand would "proceed with our own form of a digital services tax, as an interim measure, until the OECD reaches agreement," Nash explained.

Finance Minister Grant Robertson added: "Highly digitalized companies, such as those offering social media networks, trading platforms, and online advertising, currently earn a significant income from New Zealand consumers without being liable for income tax. That is not fair, and we are determined to do something about it."

Australia

Australia on the other hand, seems to have decided to buck what looks to be an emerging trend in favor of unilateralism, and on March 20, 2019, the Government announced that it will not pursue the introduction of a digital services tax.

The decision follows a consultation exercise last year on the merits and disadvantages of Australia pursuing an interim, unilateral approach to the tax challenges presented by the digitalization of the economy. This sought feedback on whether a tax should be applied to digital advertising and/or intermediation services.

According to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, the Government has opted not to proceed with such measures as a result of the feedback received during the consultation period. Frydenberg said that many submissions "raised significant concerns about the potential impact of an Australian interim measure across a wider range of Australian businesses and consumers, including discouraging innovation and competition, adversely affecting start-ups and low-margin businesses, and the potential for double taxation."

Frydenberg said that the Government would continue to focus its efforts on engaging in the multilateral process.

The United States

For its part, the United States is strongly opposed to unilateral digital tax measures on the grounds that they depart from the long-held principle that taxes should target profits not revenues and target primarily US-based companies. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has also said that global tax reforms should include a wider base of companies with significant levels of highly mobile intangible income, rather than firms operating mostly in the digital domain.

Reemphasizing the importance of the multilateral discussions, Mnuchin said in a statement issued in October 2018 that: "Treasury is working very closely with the OECD and our counterparts there to address issues of base erosion and fair taxation. We believe the issues are not unique to technology companies but also relate to other companies, particularly those with valuable intangibles."

He continued: "I highlight again our strong concern with countries' consideration of a unilateral and unfair gross sales tax that targets our technology and internet companies. A tax should be based on income, not sales, and should not single out a specific industry for taxation under a different standard. We urge our partners to finish the OECD process with us rather than taking unilateral action in this area."

Interestingly, in a meeting with French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire in late February 2019, Mnuchin expressed support for the idea of a global minimum corporate tax, an idea that is gaining traction in a number of countries, particularly France, Germany and other EU member states. However, he reiterated that the US is "not in favor of the kind of digital tax that is being proposed [in France].

Indeed, speaking to reporters ahead of international discussions on taxing the digital economy at the OECD in Paris on March 12-13, 2019, a senior Treasury official said that the US Government is now investigating possible legal remedies to national digital taxes. Describing such levies as "highly discriminatory, Chip Harter, Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Tax Affairs at the Treasury Department, said: "Various parts of our government are studying whether that discriminatory impact would give us rights under trade agreements, WTO, treaties."

Several influential members of the US Congress are also worried about the spread of proposed national digital taxes, including leaders of the United States Senate Committee on Finance. These concerns were relayed to Mnuchin in a letter signed by the leading Republican and Democrat on the committee on January 30, 2019, in which they noted "unilateral attempts at targeting US-based multinational companies with a digital services tax."

"Unfortunately, some countries are moving forward unilaterally with digital services taxes that follow similar frameworks as the previous European Commission proposal," the senators wrote. "It is important for these countries to understand the potential for long-term harm arising under these proposals and the need for each to refocus efforts on reaching multilateral consensus."

What does it all mean?

For businesses potentially caught by new digital taxation measures, all this adds up to a confusing and unpredictable future tax landscape, especially as not all digital taxes are born equal, and we cannot be certain how such levies will operate in practice. What's more, businesses themselves have warned that the proliferation of national revenue-based digital tax measures represents an alarming shift from long-established international tax norms that could distort trade and threaten investment.

On the other hand, governments, many of which are struggling to fund public services, argue that allowing large companies to continue dramatically reducing their exposure to income taxation by effectively separating value-creation from taxable profits can no longer be tolerated, hence the need for new taxes, despite the fact that an international agreement may be just a year away. However, there is by no means a consensus that unilateral measures are the way to go, as demonstrated by the US Government's harsh criticism of the French and other national-level taxes, the blocking of the EU interim digital services tax by several member states, and Australia's rejection of a national digital tax.

Another concern is that while national digital taxes are often intended to be temporary until the OECD's future recommendations are implemented, not all governments have explicitly stated as such. The UK is one example, where businesses are now urging the Government to ensure that an expiry clause is inserted into the digital legislation when it is put before parliament.

Furthermore, while it is assumed that an international agreement will be forthcoming in 2020, this is by no means a given. It might be the case that additional time will be needed for a consensus among countries to be arrived at, although just how much longer might be needed is anyone's guess at present. More worryingly, the EU's experience demonstrated that governments can be sharply divided on this matter. And, if an international agreement is reached, either on time or at a later date, there is no guarantee, either, that the recommended measures will be legislated for consistently from one jurisdiction to another, or indeed, legislated for at all. Indeed, the uneven implementation of the wider BEPS recommendations is one of the key challenges facing multinational companies today.
Years after a commuter is pushed to her death at the New York subway, the woman who pushed her is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. The crime is being described as the quintessential urban nightmare.

Subway Crime

On Nov. 7, 2016, 49-year-old Connie Watton was at the Times Square-42nd Street Station of the New York subway when 33-year-old Melanie Liverpool pushed her to an oncoming train, causing her death. The two did not know each other, and Liverpool was immediately arrested on the platform. Initially, Liverpool did not admit to the crime and pleaded not guilty, but changed it just last March 4, 2019, to guilty.

According to Liverpools lawyer, Liverpool was sexually abused as a child and was suffering from mental health issues. He further argues that Liverpool didn't know what she was doing when she committed the crime. In fact, witnesses reported hearing arguments before Watton was pushed. Police believe that Liverpool was talking to herself.

In 2018, Connie Wattons husband, Robert Watton, sued the citys Health and Hospitals Corp. for releasing Liverpool from the hospital even after she raved about killing transit riders. Evidently, she had previously claimed to be involved in a similar incident that was initially ruled as a suicide.

Urban Nightmare

Now, over two years after the crime, Liverpool has been sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for murder in the second degree, something that Connies family is not pleased with. The idea that Liverpool could get out within her lifetime angered the family, saying that Connie did not have a second chance but Liverpool will, as she will be eligible for parole at the same age that Connie was when she died.

After the hearing, the judge commented that he had given Liverpool the maximum sentence for her crime, and described it as a quintessential urban nightmare for a stranger in the subway to kill another.

Connie Watton

Connie Watton was from the Philippines but emigrated to the United States when she was just a teenager to be able to give her family a better life. For a long time, she worked as a housekeeper for Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzmans family, and sent money back home to help support her family.

Robert Watton describes Connie as generous, thoughtful, and unique.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Years of hard work have come to this. Its decision time for 76 local high school seniors on where they plan to go to college.

All have applied and, in many cases been accepted, to multiple schools. They are fellows with the Baton Rouge Youth Coalition, an 11-year-old nonprofit that finds students with promise whose families have limited incomes. BRYC then works to get them into and through college, emerging with as little debt as possible. About a quarter of BRYC fellows each year apply to the nations most selective colleges.

Josephine Adeola has been accepted to Southern University where she plans to join Army ROTC. Tarralyn Clark is deciding among three universities: Emory, LSU and the University of Southern California. JaColby Freeman has several schools hes considering, including Lawrence University and Boston College. Zion Guerin, who plays trombone and oboe, is pursuing band scholarships at schools such as Florida A&M, Dillard and Howard universities.

Allyssa Miller has settled on Northeastern University in Boston. The private school has awarded her a prestigious scholarship, which covers almost everything.

Their happy arrival at the doorstep of college hasnt come easily. All five teenagers have stories to tell about their struggle getting there.

Their stories stand in stark contrast to college scandal of the day, the FBI investigation into 33 affluent parents of high school students. These parents are accused of hiring a shady college admissions counselor to make bribes and engage in various kinds of fraud to get their children admitted to top colleges and universities.

Miller, who attends Port Allen High, has applied to 14 schools as well as several scholarship programs. She recalls an awful two weeks in December when she stopped returning phone calls so she could churn out essays. And that was on top of essays shed written the year before as part of a BRYC workshop on college essay writing.

Its not fair if someone else is paying to get into that school while Im working my tail off to apply there and get admitted, Miller said.

West Feliciana High student named QuestBridge Scholarship finalist Mika Cooper, of West Feliciana High School, is among five Baton Rouge Youth Coalition Senior Fellows to be named QuestBridge Scholarship finalists.

Clark, a soft-spoken senior at Baton Rouge Magnet High, estimated that shes written 25 college essays. Many were composed during a frenzied 10 days in October after she became a finalist with QuestBridge, a clearinghouse that identifies high-achieving, low-income students like Clark and helps them get into top colleges.

She said she was sad to see USC, one of her top schools, named in the college admissions scandal.

Its kinda disappointing because that couldve taken away a spot from somebody else who actually deserved it, Clark said.

All five students, with the exception of Clark, started with BRYC when they were in ninth grade and are among 188 students currently in the program. They needed a 3.3 GPA to get in, though BRCY makes case-by-case exceptions. And families have to have a gross family income of no more than $60,000 a year to qualify.

The application deadline for the next years fellows is April 14.

Lucas Spielfogel, executive director of BRYC, said the students he works with have to be perfect to successfully complete todays selective college admission process. For instance, a partial scholarship may not be enough.

They could be $10,000 away from paying for a school and thats not a possibility for many of our families. But for many others thats nothing, Spielfogel said. The margin of error for (our families) is nothing.

Despite such challenges, BRYC has had notable success. Out of 296 students whove completed the program, 80 percent not only attended but graduated from four-year colleges located in 19 states. Another 8 percent graduated from a two-year or a technical college. Nationally, only about 14 percent of low-income students earn a bachelors degree by the age of 25.

In a forthcoming essay touching on the college admissions scandal, Spielfogel recounted how he had a relatively easy time getting into prestigious Yale University.

His ticket was he was on the rowing team in high school, a sport mainly offered at prohibitively expensive prep schools. That sport, combined with good but not great grades and SAT scores, proved just strong enough for the tailwind of privilege to push me to Yale under the illusion I was especially deserving.

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This is the more insidious injustice youll find at selective colleges: the widespread belief among wealthy, white students, who have been buoyed by resources and favors at every turn, that theyve earned everything that others could have if they had just worked harder, Spielfogel wrote.

+9 Baton Rouge Youth Coalition helps high school students achieve higher goals Perfect grades and high test scores are no excuse for 17-year-old Javian Pierson to miss a tutoring session.

Freeman has long dreamed of going to Harvard University. But after joining BRYC he realized the forbidding road ahead.

I had to challenge myself, Freeman said. I had to see how hard I could push myself.

He transferred from Glen Oaks to McKinley High in his sophomore year. There, he loaded up his schedule with honors and college-level courses, all the while holding down restaurant jobs, playing in the school band, singing in the choir, doing community service projects, serving in a youth organization, appearing in a school play and performing slam poetry. And thats not counting twice-a-week sessions at BRYC where he was able to raise his ACT scores by four points.

I dont get a lot of sleep, he admitted. Probably per week, I get 20 hours.

Guerin, a senior at Baker High, gets a little more sleep, but high school has often been stressful nonetheless. In addition to band and lots of work for school and BRYC, Guerin holds a job at a car wash.

When the homework just kept piling up, I was like, Its just going to sit there and Im not going to do it. School is too much. I cant do this and school and scholarships and band and work, he recalled.

Adeola, a senior at Lee High, said BRYC and stubborness kept her going. After initially scoring a 17 on the ACT, Adeola raised her score to a 19, but couldnt improve on that. Meanwhile, her peers at BRYC shifted to applying for colleges and scholarships. It was discouraging, since she was certain she was as smart as them.

I kept getting like 19, 19. I was like, I dont want to take it no more, she said.

After shifting this year to a special online ACT prep program that BRYC provided for her, she said she was finally was able to bring her score up to a 22, high enough to expand her options.

For Miller, BRYC is an oasis. Its offices near downtown Baton Rouge have proved a safe place where she can be herself amid teenagers who also have difficult home lives.

We all get along. Its crazy, she said. I have never been in a place where they dont have a major beef between people.

Problems at home, however, can be hard to shake during the college hunt.

Both Freeman and Miller have absentee fathers. Yet, when it came time to complete financial aid, several colleges demanded the financial records from dad unless it was unsafe or impossible to do so.

After some effort, Miller set up an appointment for her father to come ti BRYC offices but he was a no-show.

He didnt call or say he wasnt going to make the meeting or whatever, he said.

Both Freeman and Miller were eventually able to get those requirements waived, but only after repeated phone calls to various colleges.

I took a lot of work for me to get him pushed out, Miller said.
If nothing else, John Bel Edwards is a man of the system.

How could he not be? He's the son and grandson of sheriffs, a West Pointer with eight formative years in the U.S. Army, born into a Democratic political network that ranged from the disreputable Edwin W. Edwards to the sainted Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, the last an Establishment mentor when John Bel Edwards himself ran for governor.

This is a man who was raised to think of the system as service and good intentions, along with regular paychecks.

The governor is married to a schoolteacher, which also inclines him to think in terms of the system: institutions and classrooms, programs and centers, initiatives and collaboratives, funding and services.

Its how he sees his job. But it is also something of a political vulnerability.

That emphasis on programs was the subtext of Edwards address to the opening of the 2019 Legislature, a Clintonian-length exercise of 10 printed pages, not in large print, about the State of the State.

That assessment of Louisiana is very positive, one is not surprised to find, as the governor in charge of the programs and centers and agencies seeks re-election in Octobers primary. The looming campaign made much of the governors recitation of accomplishments inevitable, though overly laden with statistics and citations of programmatic successes from Shreveport to New Orleans and back.

What it all emphasized is Edwards identification with government. The programs are there to serve people, and for all his conservative bona fides on social issues, Edwards believes deeply in that aspect of the system.

Todays system is in pretty good shape. After all, there is no major economic crisis, although the oil patch is still in recovery mode from the collapse in oil prices almost five years ago.

While it was not Edwards first revenue choice, via sales tax increases the budget is balanced, rebounding from the collapse of the state general fund during the eight years of former Gov. Bobby Jindal.

Programs are funded, waiting lists reduced, federal funding secured for this or that.

Edwards would say that this is a testament to his stewardship. Unquestionably it is a challenge for the governors opponents in good times to make a case that business is not improving and, as Edwards put it simply, balancing the budget and showing a surplus is a lot better than deficits.

Nevertheless, the public can be fickle, and for every voter who appreciates having his child get disability services, or is no longer worried about her rural hospital closing  even the thousands of teachers likely to get a small pay raise this year  there may be many others who want to hear about what the next governor ought to change.

Jindal was very much in the mold of a change agent, a McKinsey & Co. analyst. For all his lifelong gathering of awards and titles, he was not of The System in the way that Edwards is.

The former governor is in eclipse, so as a political matter its wise enough for Edwards to stress his commitment to the system, restoring the programs hobbled by budget cuts under Jindal, and so on.

And as with any incumbent, todays governor is responsible for the actions of government. When things go wrong in a program he will be the target of criticism, as with revelations of some unqualified recipients of Medicaid expansion.

But if Edwards is to be challenged at the ballot box, is it going to be on the basis of this program not working right or that agency having been the subject of scandal?

As legislators have learned about Edwards from his two terms in the House, and now having seen him as governor  all too often, given the number of special sessions inflicted over the last few years  hes a hard worker and has his finger on many details and reads many bills himself, perhaps to a fault.

As a man of the system, he may be challenged about operations of government, but his opponents  businessman Eddie Rispone or U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham, R-Alto  will find it is unlikely that he can be bested in an argument over programs and agencies with which he is so obviously familiar.

Rather, one of his challengers has to light on, for lack of a better word, a meta-narrative, a theme or set of them that suggest ways in which The System needs to change. Party label in a Republican state is, probably, just not enough.

Email Lanny Keller at lkeller@theadvocate.com.
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PARSIPPANY, N.J., April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Acrow Bridge , a leading international bridge engineering and supply company, is pleased to announce that it provided Panamas Ministry of Public Works with 61 modular steel bridges in 2018, along with training on assembly and installation of the structures to enable local engineers, technicians and contractors to implement this priority infrastructure project. Acrow is pleased to further report that approximately half of the bridges have already been installed.



While transportation infrastructure in the urban areas of the country is robustly developed, in the rural areas of Panama, road density is among the lowest in Central America, according to the World Economic Forum . In order to address this deficit and exploit the potential economic gains of expanded trade connectivity, Panamas current Government Strategic Plan includes investments to construct and expand highway and rural road infrastructure. The bridges supplied by Acrow will be used in rural regions of the country in the form of new crossings as well as to replace deficient or decommissioned structures.

The Acrow bridges are 30, 45 and 60 meter long single-lane structures with sidewalks on both sides and a width of 4.2 meters. Shipments of the bridges took place over a six month period in 2018. Due to Acrows expertise and extensive logistical coordination, the bridges were successfully delivered to 20 locations throughout the country. In addition, two full-scale load tests were performed on the structures. At present, approximately half of the bridges have been installed, and it is expected the remaining bridges will be in service by the end of 2019. As part of the project, Acrow performed three training programs for local engineer and technicians - two in Panama and one in the United States.

Bridging is an important infrastructure need in Panama, particularly for the integration of often remote rural communities into the broader domestic and regional economy, said Paul Sullivan, Acrows Senior Vice President - International. This important project demonstrates Acrow's expertise and commitment to providing high-quality bridge infrastructure solutions with a special focus on the training of local Panamanian engineers and technicians.

Prefabricated modular steel bridging such as that manufactured by Acrow is an ideal solution for large-scale transportation infrastructure development projects, whether the projects are located in dense urban cities or in isolated rural regions, added Bill Killeen, CEO of Acrow. It is an immense privilege and pleasure to have worked with Panamas Ministry of Public Works in support of the people of Panama through the design and supply of permanent robust Acrow bridges from our factory in the United States.

About Acrow Bridge

Acrow Bridge has been serving the transportation and construction industries for more than 60 years with a full line of modular steel bridging solutions for vehicle, rail, military and pedestrian use. Acrows extensive international presence includes its leadership in the development and implementation of bridge infrastructure projects in over 80 countries, covering Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe and the Middle East. For more information, please visit www.acrow.com .
President Donald Trump delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, as Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., watch, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019.
In all the reviews of the 2017 Legislature, the consensus is that the lawmakers failed to do the one thing they need to do: address the "fiscal cliff."

That is the expiration of temporary sales taxes and other revenue increases that enabled new Gov. John Bel Edwards to patch together a budget in his first year in office. Many of the new taxes, particularly an onerous new one-penny on the sales tax, expire on June 30, 2018.

Not enough of a cliff, apparently, as next to nothing was done on tax reform, and even less on credible spending reforms. Both should be part of a solution, but the GOP-led House thinks only of cutting medical services for the poor in the giant Medicaid program. Well, that and opposing taxes.

What should not be forgotten is that this is a largely self-made crisis.

In 2002, the people voted in the Stelly tax reform plan. It raised taxes on higher-income earners while adding significant exemptions from the sales tax. The sales tax breaks to every resident on food and residential utilities are in the Louisiana Constitution and will not likely be changed.

But over a couple of years, the Legislature repealed the income tax provisions. Then-Rep. Edwards was among those voting for repeal, blowing a hole in the states revenue structure from which it has not yet recovered.

That hole is not just about the reversal of the Stelly plan, and its subsequent benefits to the better-off, who are the people legislators most listen to. Changes to the sales tax have been studied, bringing it in line with Texas and other states on taxing services. Reducing tax breaks billed as "economic development" is also a good idea, as with the film tax credits and others for favored industries.

But the main thing is eliminating the one-cent "emergency" sales tax increase of 2016, and it will take some version of Stelly 2.0 to do so. There just isn't enough money in the other changes to deal with the $1 billion or more needed.

In fact, depending on how it is structured, most people would probably get a net reduction in their taxes, even in paying a bit more in income tax, because of the broad reach of the new one-penny sales tax. Somehow, that's a hard sell; Edwards favors it but says legislators aren't buying.

Louisiana is now tops in the nation in average sales taxes. It is not a good place to be.

It's also astonishing that lawmakers resist changes: Our recurring budget crises are not acts of God or the Federal Reserve or the Saudi oil cartel. They are a consequence of a decision by governors and Legislatures past to do the financially irresponsible and politically attractive maneuver of eliminating the Stelly provisions.

Don't let legislators, as they consult back home, get away with dodging personal responsibility for the crises they universally deplore.
When deciding how to make pan con tomate, Brian Burns parted with tradition. While traveling in Spain, the chef often came across the nations quintessential bar snack of crusty bread rubbed with garlic cloves and topped with grated tomatoes.

At Costera, the restaurant Burns and business partner Reno De Ranieri opened earlier this year in the space formerly occupied by La Thai Uptown, pan con tomate is very different  and delicious. Instead of the acerbic tang of raw garlic, theres a creamy aioli on thick slices of Bellegarde Bakery bread, and grated tomatoes are replaced by dried-tomato tapenade made with blended garlic, anchovies, shallots and olive oil. The alchemy renders the dish into something sweet, soft, rich and decadent.

Its a great start to a meal here and an appropriate precursor to a menu that draws heavy inspiration from Spain, while still coming off as unique, driven more by creativity than tradition.

Octopus sourced from Spain is poached in courtbouillon and charred on the smoking-hot steel plates of the grill. The smoky tentacle sits on a bed of heirloom beans dressed with vinaigrette that is punchy with lemon and red onion and brims with fresh herbs.

Papas bravas are crunchy fried potatoes drizzled with bright red piquillo pepper puree and aioli. Roasted beets offer a bright and delightful detour from the norm, with plump beet wedges tossed with thin fennel and radish shavings in citrus gastrique, topped with wisps of ricotta.

The kitchen deftly marries brighter flavors, as with cumin oil-roasted cauliflower served with coriander yogurt. The plate is dressed with mint, cilantro and tangy chili vinegar. The end result delivers a balance of warm spice, creamy elements and lively acid.

The kitchen employs capers and lemon zest with a similar goal in a dish of fried sweetbreads served with a hearty romesco sauce, and while flavorful, the brighter elements were overshadowed by the heft.

Costera isnt a tapas bar, but the extensive menu of shareable plates and the communal table near the entrance to the sprawling dining room suggest the owners affinity for the Spanish way of dining. Burns and De Ranieri saw a similarity in how New Orleanians eat  such as crowds gathered around a large table of boiled crawfish  and figured their concept wouldnt be unfamiliar.

Their instincts were correct. The restaurant opens at 11 a.m., the same menu is offered throughout the day, and the front communal table often is packed. A restaurant of this ambitious caliber could feel at odds in a neighborhood setting, but here, it seems right at home.

what:

Costera

where:

4938 Prytania St., (504) 302-2332; www.costerarestaurant.com

when:

lunch and dinner Wed.-Mon.

how much:

moderate

what works:

pan con tomate, octopus a la plancha

what doesnt:

fried sweetbreads

check, please:

creative twists on Spanish dishes in a lively neighborhood setting

Review: The Elysian Bar inside the Hotel Peter and Paul works miracles with vegetables The menu seems designed for sharing small plates, though some of the larger dishes serve as modestly sized entrees.
What to know in New Orleans this week (April 9)
Hey Blake,

While walking in the 600 block of Royal Street, I noticed sidewalk tiles in front of a shop spelling out the word Lucien Caye. Who is that and why is his name in the sidewalk?

Dear reader,

The tiles you saw on Royal Street look a lot like the blue and white ones identifying some of our citys historic streets, but these refer to a restaurateur. His name was Lucien Gaye, not Caye, but time and traffic have worn down the letter G.

The 1938 WPA Guide to New Orleans includes a listing for Lucien Gayes restaurant at 603 Royal St. Lucien Gayes is a French restaurant of the bourgeois type, where good, plain French food is obtainable, the guidebook explains. Other newspaper listings refer to The French Restaurant there, with Gaye as the proprietor. According to his 1941 obituary, Gaye was a native of France who came to New Orleans in 1916. The obituary said he and his wife Celina opened a Royal Street restaurant which has been operated by them according to the European tradition of the small family cafe.

According to the Historic New Orleans Collections Collins C. Diboll Vieux Carre Digital Survey, the three-story building where the restaurant was located dates to 1834. The Gaye family purchased it in 1924. Lucien Gayes obituary listed his residence as 605 Royal, which would have been in the adjacent building. Today it is a mix of several businesses.

By the way, youre not the only one to have mistaken Gayes name. Mystery writer ONeil De Noux, a former New Orleans Police Department detective, named one of his characters Lucien Caye. I spied the blue and white tiles embedded in the sidewalk on Royal Street.  I saw Lucien Caye, he explained in an interview for an online blog. The private detective character has since been featured in several of De Nouxs books.
Activists supporting the ratification of the decades-old federal Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) are eyeballing Louisiana to be the final state needed to jump on board, particularly as the states legislative session began Monday.

The ERA  a constitutional amendment that would grant women the same legal protections as men  needs one more states approval for it to become part of the U.S. Constitution. HCR2 by state Rep. Robby Carter, D-Amite, would make Louisiana the 38th state needed for the amendments ratification.

Women do not have constitutional equality, pro-ERA activist Angela Adkins said. The only guarantee that women have in our Constitution is the right to vote.

Congress originally passed the ERA in 1972, sending it to the states for passage. Five years later, 35 states had ratified the amendment, but a conservative opposition movement caused any further progress to come to a halt.

The renewed push nationwide comes nearly 40 years after the ratification deadline set by Congress, amid the #MeToo movement and Womens Marches across the country. Nevada ratified the act in 2017, and Illinois followed in 2018.

Louisiana is one of 13 states which have not ratified the amendment. Proponents say it would be a step forward in ending gender workplace discrimination, eliminating the gender pay gap and decreasing violence against women.

Including equality based on sex explicitly as a part of the U.S. Constitution will highlight, to everyone in Louisiana and our nation, that the fight for women's rights must continue until these rights are a reality for all of us, Adkins said.

Opponents of the amendment, such as Louisiana Right to Life (LARTL) say it would threaten the constitutionality of abortion restrictions.

For years, pro-abortion groups have used the ERA successfully as a tool to expand abortion-on-demand and strike down common-sense pro-life laws, the group said in a statement.

Some cite the expired Congressional deadline as another reason the ERA shouldnt be ratified, while proponents say Congress only needs to extend or repeal that deadline.

Other hurdles include five states that have since rescinded their ratification of the amendment. It is legally unclear whether a state can take back its ratification once passed.

The LA Ratify ERA Coalition, which Adkins founded last summer, will host a lobbying day at the Capitol Tuesday with the goal of educating lawmakers and the public about the ERA. The event will include a march to the Capitol beginning at 8 a.m., lunch and lobbying in the rotunda. Adkins said the coalition is expecting 150-200 people to attend.

The United States leads the world in policymaking, Adkins said. If we set an example that women are equal, we can change the way that women are treated around the globe, not just in the United States.
For nine months, the Jefferson Parish-owned landfill has occupied a central place in the rogues gallery of culprits suspected of being behind the varied miseries that have beset nearby residents along the Mississippi River.

In and around Harahan, River Ridge and Waggaman, sickening odors have invaded people's houses, a mysterious particulate floats down from the sky like snowflakes, and a deafening banging noise from the river causes families to bolt upright in their beds at night.

In each case, there are suspicions  often strong ones  but no one to definitively pin the blame on, much less hold accountable. Chemical plants hum behind guarded gates; barges load and unload their cargo behind levees after dark, essentially invisible to the public.

There also are five landfills clustered together near Waggaman and Avondale  three operating and two shut down  and each is a target of some degree of public skepticism.

Through it all, though, the parishs disclosure of the deplorable state of its own Waggaman landfill has put it firmly in the cross-hairs. At a July press conference, administration officials admitted that years of neglect of the landfill's water and gas collection systems meant that as much as 80 percent of the gases generated by rotting garbage could be escaping into the air.

But that could be about to change.

The parish is repairing the last six pumps in the leachate system, which collects the water that drains out of the garbage, and it could have all 78 working within about a week. Mike Lockwood, the parishs director of environmental affairs, said it will be the first time in more than five years that the entire system is operational.

I think thats quite a milestone for the parish, he said.

As for the gas pumps, a separate but closely related system that was almost 50 percent flooded-in last summer, the landfill now has just about all 240 pumps working, though Lockwood said that number tends to be a bit fluid.

Lockwood said more pumps could be added depending on the judgment of River Birch, which processes and sells the landfill gases to the nearby Cornerstone Chemical plant and will soon be put in charge of the leachate and gas collection systems that feed into River Birchs plant at the landfill site.

Lockwood said the parish has been getting fewer odor complaints lately, and inspections by state environmental regulators have gone from daily to about twice a week.

He said the systems need time to pull all the gases out of the closed-in waste. He would not provide a specific timeline but said, I think were rapidly approaching normal day-to-day operations at the landfill.

Meanwhile, residents in the communities that surround the landfill on both sides of the river have been logging fewer complaints to the Facebook page and spreadsheet created a year ago to track the strength and location of the odors.

It was late 2017 when the odors began filling homes with a foul stench that residents said would burn their eyes, noses and throats. In some cases, people reported nosebleeds and other troubling symptoms, and the spreadsheet has about 4,200 recorded entries.

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But Gerald Herbert, one of the Harahan residents who administers the Facebook page and the odor-tracking spreadsheet, said that complaints tend to die down in the winter, when the wind shifts and blows toward the south and southeast.

He noted that although the smell became a regular problem in the late summer of 2017, the Facebook page wasnt created until the end of the following April, largely because the smells had resumed with a vengeance after a winter lull.

He also noted that the controversy over Cornerstones bid to expand a cyanide plant most people didnt even know existed near their homes has been occupying residents' attention the past few months.

While a state permit for the expansion is still under consideration by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, the Parish Council voted last week to rescind the permission it gave the company in January 2018, before anyone was paying attention.

People are fatigued from complaining, and this Cornerstone thing has taken their energy, Herbert said, though he noted there was an odor complaint from a resident as recently as last week.

Some residents feel the parish-owned landfill is the sole culprit, while others think that a petrochemical component of the odor suggests it is coming from one of the nearby industrial plants, or from vessels loading and unloading along the river. The latter notion has been espoused by some council members, who have been frustrated by their inability to get usable, up-to-date information on what is going on along the river.

Herbert is among the residents who think there could be several sources of what are different odors. But he said completion of the work at the landfill wont necessarily mean the parish is vindicated if the odors persist.

While he said the parish has clearly been working on the landfills problems, any continued odors could simply mean the the fixes werent enough or that the facility was poorly engineered from the start.

Im hoping they made progress on it, and I have to assume some of that is taking hold, but we are also assuming that when the wind shifts ... that we are going to be smelling it again, he said.

Herbert said the mobilization against the Cornerstone cyanide plant, which itself was fueled by public exasperation with the landfill and the odors, shows that residents won't back down from holding anyone accountable if they feel they deserve it.

Meanwhile, the parishs position on the matter remains unchanged.

The fact is the parish has never, ever said we are the sole source of odors being experienced, Lockwood said. We have always been committed to getting our house in order and reaching regulatory compliance at the landfill. The leachate system is in regulatory compliance, and we continue to fine-tune the gas system.

Editor's note: This story was changed on April 8, 2019 to correct an erroneous statement that the vertical gas wells are turned on and off. They run continuously, drawing gasses under vacuum.
Two private transportation firms are vying to manage most of the New Orleans Regional Transit Authoritys operations beginning this fall. One is the company that now runs almost all facets of the agency's work.

An evaluation committee on Friday cleared the current operator, Transdev, as well as Dallas-based MV Transportation to advance to the next stage of the selection process. After a second vetting by the committee, the full board will consider their proposals in May.

The firm that is selected by the RTA at the end of the process will operate the authority's buses, ferries, streetcars and paratransit vehicles, which together serve 18 million passengers annually.

It will employ a general manager, performance and reporting manager, operations and safety manager, maintenance manager and customer service manager.

But instead of reporting only to the authority's board of commissioners and an executive director hired by the board, the new company will answer to a number of publicly employed managers under the type of contract the authority wants to sign by Sept. 1.

Advocates and the board's consultants say that type of arrangement, instead of the one in place now where Transdev manages essentially all parts of the authority's operations, will lead to better outcomes in New Orleans.

"Continuity, transparency and accountability ... can be best realized with a permanent cadre of staff, loyal to the RTA, which strongly identifies with the service area and aligns with the interests of the community," wrote Management Partners and TMG Consulting in an October report that recommended the change.

MV Transportation and Transdev each responded to a Jan. 4 request for proposals, though their public presentations to the committee and board won't be made for another two weeks.

Another firm, First Transit of Ohio, expressed interest in competing but ultimately passed on the chance.

MV Transportation says it serves more than 200 public transit agencies, universities, corporations and school districts across the country, and more than 110 million passengers across 30 states and Canada.

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Transdev North America also works with 200 cities and communities in the U.S., and its parent company operates in 20 countries on five continents, according to its website.

Under its current contract, it is paid tens of millions of dollars a year to handle administrative, operational and maintenance tasks on behalf of the RTA.

Members of the evaluation committee included Joshua Cox, Mayor LaToya Cantrell's senior adviser and director of strategic initiatives; City Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer; the authority's interim executive director, Jared Munster; Jeff Roesel, of the Regional Planning Commission; and Jennifer Terry, of RIDE New Orleans, a transit advocacy group.

The committee met in a closed session Friday to discuss the two applicants before declaring publicly that MV and Transdev were qualified to move along in the process.

The state Attorney General's Office has said such executive sessions are allowed as long as the discussion leading up to the final vote and the vote itself are done publicly.

The RTA board drew public scrutiny in February when it privately approved Transdev's hiring of a new general manager, Darryl Simpson, but didn't take a public vote until a month later.

The evaluation committee will further vet the firms' proposals and give them the chance to make presentations at a public meeting April 17 at 9 a.m.

The full board will select a winner in May, and the contract is expected to be finalized by Sept. 1.
Halfway through his closing argument in a New Orleans courtroom on Monday, defense attorney Gary Wainwright flashed a thick wad of $100 bills to the jury.

It was the kind of cash that once meant nothing to his client, the rapper Widner Flow Degruy, as he toured with his mentor Lil Wayne, Wainwright said. He claimed it would have made no sense for Degruy to gun down two brothers over such petty cash.

But after about 90 minutes of deliberation, jurors disagreed. They convicted Degruy, 27, on two counts of second-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit second-degree murder. Wainwright said the jury's decision was 11-1 on all the counts.

The once-rising rapper is now set to spend the rest of his life in prison after his mandatory sentence is imposed May 7 by Criminal District Court Judge Tracey Flemings-Davillier.

The speedy verdict followed an acrimonious trial where jurors had to balance Degruys testimony against state witnesses including his mother and a co-defendant from his New Orleans East neighborhood.

Prosecutors alleged that Degruy killed brothers Kendrick and Kendred Bishop, 22 and 18, in 2015 because he believed they stole $8,000 in cash and a gun from him.

Assistant District Attorney Alex Calenda said in his closing argument that despite all the other evidence, Degruys legal trouble ultimately stemmed from his arrogance and ego  and from the fact that he left his cellphone at the scene of the crime.

It was actually built, this whole case, on the words of Mr. Degruy. Mr. Degruy, after dropping that phone, set everything in motion by his inability to shut up, Calenda said.

At 5:43 a.m. May 25, 2015, police responded to a 911 call in the 4800 block of Bright Drive, a residential street in New Orleans East. Officers found the Bishop brothers dead inside a rented Kia sedan from a ghastly array of gunshot wounds. There were shell casings from a high-powered rifle and a 9mm pistol.

Within minutes, cops had their first suspect. Degruy showed up next to the crime scene tape. He initially gave a fake name as he expressed surprise that his cellphone was lying on the ground next to the Bishops car.

Back in a police interview room, Degruy admitted his real name and said he had attended a Lil Wayne show in Mobile, Alabama, earlier in the night with the Bishops. Degruy said he was a friend of the older brother, Kendrick.

After they returned from Mobile to New Orleans East, the brothers left him minutes before the shooting to buy cigars from a convenience store, Degruy said.

His story was demonstrably false. Video from the convenience store showed Degruy entering with a friend, Jonathan Lil Joe Evans, as the Bishop brothers sat in a car outside.

The video also made clear that Degruy had changed clothes that morning.

Degruy, who has been awaiting trial since 2015, pleaded guilty to counts of obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice in February of this year. He faced up to 40 years in prison on those counts alone.

Wainwright said that plea was an acknowledgment that his client had lied to the cops. But Degruy fibbed out of a misguided allegiance to the code of the streets, Wainwright said.

He is a kind and generous person who came up here and said, I made the most horrible mistake of my life,  Wainwright said.

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Yet that was the extent of Degruys involvement in the crime, Wainwright said.

Degruy testified that just before the shooting, he saw Evans meet up with Evans cousin, 15-year-old Damian Lil D Crockem. Degruy said he had split off from the pair to buy Xanax pills when he heard gunshots.

Evans had earlier described Kendred Bishop as one of his enemies, according to Degruy, but Evans testified that he did not know the brothers at all.

A surveillance video showed Degruy and Evans running away after the shooting scene. Wainwright explained that as a horrible coincidence of circumstances. Degruy said that as he ran toward his mothers house a few blocks from the shooting, Evans came up behind him.

Degruys mother, Chantell Edwards, testified that within hours of the shooting, she disposed of two guns that she found in her sons room. She testified under an agreement with prosecutors that will allow her to plead guilty to a misdemeanor.

Evans also testified for hours, as he did at a separate murder trial last year where the defendant was acquitted. He said Degruy had directed him to take part in the killings because he thought the Bishops had stolen cash from his car a week earlier.

Wainwright told jurors that Evans could not be trusted because he had won a lenient, 20-year sentence in exchange for his testimony. He also seized on inconsistencies, such as the fact that Evans once told cops he gave Degruy a .40-caliber weapon instead of a 9mm gun.

Wainwright fumed that Evans plea agreement with the District Attorneys Office gave him immunity for any crimes he might have committed save murder.

Welcome to the world of the cooperating witness, Wainwright said. Their whole evidence is a circumstantial case, and they know it. Because nobody could send anyone to prison to die of old age on the word of Jonathan Evans.

However, Calenda, who prosecuted the case with Assistant District Attorney Irena Zajickova, said that the discrepancies in Evans statements only made him more believable.

I'm not going to coach him. He's going to be Jonathan Evans. He's going to be Lil Joe from the streets, Calenda said. Jonathan is no angel ... but the problem is that there are a thousand Jonathans in this city.

Meanwhile, Calenda said, jurors could discount Degruys entire testimony because he lied about not sporting gang signs in a tattoo on his chest and on his jail-issued shoes.

Is he associated with the Piru Bloods? That's not relevant here, Calenda said. What's relevant is this: He wanted to lie to you straight-faced.

Before the jury was brought in on Monday, Wainwright moved for a mistrial over the mention on Friday of the alleged gang symbols. Flemings-Davillier denied the request.

Louisiana is the only state to allow split verdicts leading to life imprisonment, although crimes committed after Jan. 1 of this year will require a unanimous verdict because of a referendum voters passed in November.

Wainwright filed a motion before the start of the trial asking the judge to require unanimity, which she denied.

We believe that they were never able to contradict Widner's assertions to what happened, and we look forward to his appeal, Wainwright said.
Icelandic English

The total number of passengers on international flights was 268 thousand in March and increased by 3% compared to March last year. The capacity increase was 6% and the load factor was 81.2% compared to 81.9% in March last year. The market with passengers travelling to Iceland was Icelandairs largest market in March, accounting for 45% of the total number of passengers. The greatest proportional increase in passenger numbers was also in this market 13%. Arrival On-Time-Performance in the route network was 77,3% improving by 4.7 percentage points from last year.

The number of passengers on domestic and regional flights were 23 thousand, decreasing by 19% compared to March last year. Flights to Belfast, and Aberdeen stopped mid May 2018, explaining the reduction in the number of passengers. The load factor was 68.0% and increased by 8.1 percentage points comparted to last year. The number of sold block hours in charter flights decreased by 13% between years, due to fewer projects than at the same time last year. Freight increased by 14%. The number of sold room nights at the Companys Hotels was up by 14% from last year. The room utilisation was 77.8% compared to 78.0% in March 2018.

INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS MAR 19 CHG (%) YTD 19 CHG (%) To market (passengers) 120,911 13% 311,246 13% From market (passengers) 42,282 4% 114,715 10% Via market (passengers) 104,547 -7% 276,768 -2% Total Number of Passengers 267,740 3% 702,729 6% Load Factor 81.2% -0.7 ppt 76.4% -0.1 ppt Available Seat KM (ASK000,000) 1,060.5 6% 2,887.8 8% Revenue Passenger KM (RPK000,000) 861.1 5% 2,206.0 8% Stage length (KM) 3,172 2% 3,114 1% On-Time-Performance (Arrivals) 77.3% 4.7 ppt 78.9% 14.4 ppt DOMESTIC AND REGIONAL FLIGHTS MAR 19 CHG (%) YTD 19 CHG (%) Number of Passengers 23,000 -19% 62,129 -14% Load Factor 68.0% 8.1 ppt 63.7% 3.7 ppt Available Seat KM (ASK000,000) 11.2 -36% 30.8 -30% CHARTER FLIGHTS MAR 19 CHG (%) YTD 19 CHG (%) Fleet Utilisation 90.9% -9.1 ppt 91.2% -8.8 ppt Sold Block Hours 2,553 -13% 7,478 -14% CARGO MAR 19 CHG (%) YTD 19 CHG (%) Freight Tonne KM (FTK000) 12,000 14% 32,344 6% HOTELS MAR 19 CHG (%) YTD 19 CHG (%) Available Hotel Room Nights 32,925 14% 95,242 19% Sold Hotel Room Nights 25,612 14% 70,121 14% Occupancy of Hotel Rooms 77.8% -0.2 ppt 73.6% -3.8 ppt

For further information please contact: Iris Hulda Thorisdottir, Director Investor Relations, Icelandair Group email: iris@icelandairgroup.is
Wesfarmers has strongly denied any wrongdoing in relation to its dealings with the Malaysian government after onerous new conditions were put on the operating licence of its $1.5 billion takeover target, Lynas Corp, on Friday.

"Wesfarmers is disappointed at the mis-characterisation of its discussions with Malaysian government officials and rejects any inference that these were inappropriate or intended to interfere with government process," the company said in a statement to the ASX on Tuesday morning.

Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. The Malaysian government wants the raw material to be treated and rendered harmless from radioactivity before it reaches Malaysian shores. Credit:AP

"In all our discussions with Malaysian authorities, we have made it clear that we dont speak for Lynas, that our proposal to acquire Lynas remains subject to a number of conditions and there is no certainty it would result in a transaction."

Wesfarmers said Lynas operating licensing issues were matters for Lynas to resolve with the Malaysian government, but chief executive Rob Scott welcomed recent comments by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad as a positive step towards ending the regulatory uncertainty for Lynas' Malaysian operations.
Celebrities have used their firepower for many causes. Refugees. Vaccines. AIDS. But transparency in big perfume?

Michelle Pfeiffer has been working on her fragrance line for nine years. Credit:AP

Michelle Pfeiffer, known for roles in Dangerous Liaisons and Batman Returns, has announced a line of five fragrances under the label Henry Rose. Created in collaboration with 130-year old scent maker International Flavors and Fragrances, the company makes a bold claim: It is the first to disclose all its ingredients and attest to their safety.

"Fine fragrance is still the black box of transparency for ingredients," Pfeiffer, 60, said during an interview last month at New York's Public Hotel. The sleek bottles now before her, with names like Torn and Last Light, are the result of a nine-year effort that both she and outside industry experts say have wedged the box open.

"Fragrance formulations are like Mum's special recipe," said Mintel analyst Sarah Jindal, speaking before Henry Rose's launch. "No one wants to tell anybody what their ingredients are."
Australian thermal coal prices plummeted last week, dropping to a 10-month low after succumbing to a series of blows including concern over imports by China and a lower contract price with Japan.

But while one should always be wary of trying to catch a falling knife, there are some signs that the rapid decline in prices in recent months has moved the market into oversold territory.

The weekly price at the port of Newcastle fell to $US74.57 a tonne in the seven days to April 7. Credit:Max Mason Hubers

The weekly price at the port of Newcastle in NSW, the largest coal export harbour in the world, fell to $US74.57 a tonne in the seven days to April 7, according to Argus Media.

That was 15.5 per cent below the previous week's assessment, and the polluting fuel is now 38 per cent below its 7-year peak of $US119.74 reached last July.
Animal activists have brought peak-hour traffic to a standstill, invaded abattoirs and rescued three sheep in a wave of early-morning protests across three states.

The protests in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland are being held to mark one year since the release of the film Dominion, which documented factory farming in Australia.

In Queensland, activists were granted the release of three sheep from the Carey Bros abattoir at Yangan.

In Melbourne's CBD, more than 100 protesters brought peak-hour traffic to a standstill for two hours after using vans to block a major intersection at Flinders and Swanston streets.
Researchers have captured and killed the largest Burmese python to be removed from Big Cypress National Preserve in the Florida Everglades, wildlife officials say.

The 5.2-metre, 64-kilogram female snake - an invasive species devastating to native wildlife - was discovered using a new tracking approach that leans on technology and the laws of attraction.

Burmese pythons caught in Florida are often 1.8 to three metres long, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said. In their native lands, the snakes commonly reach 5.5 to more than six metres.

Wildlife officials say this snake is the largest Burmese python ever to be removed from Big Cypress National Preserve in the Florida Everglades. Credit:US National Park Service via The Washington Post

Male pythons are tagged with radio transmitters, allowing researchers to track the male as it moves towards breeding females. The female python that wildlife officials found last week contained 73 developing eggs. The breeding season for Burmese pythons is between January and April.
Unvaccinated travellers who risk spreading measles through the Australian community will be the target of a new federal government education campaign.

Health Minister Greg Hunt has commissioned the independent Australian Academy of Science and top measles experts to design the social media campaign urging Australians to make sure they are fully vaccinated against the highly-infectious disease.

Federal Health Minister and Flinders MP Greg Hunt. Credit:AAP

Australia is on track for its worst measles rate in five years, with 84 confirmed cases so far in 2019, compared to 103 for the whole of 2018 and 81 in 2017.

All cases can be traced back to individuals who contracted the infection from overseas and travelled back to Australia, spending time in public places while they were unknowingly infectious.
A NSW truckie has admitted kidnapping a woman from her Queensland home and raping and assaulting her over more than 12 hours.

Robert Andrew Bennett faced the Brisbane District Court on Monday where he pleaded guilty to a number of offences over the random attack on the woman.

The 22-year-old was taken from her Brisbane home in August 2017. Bennett is due to be sentenced on July 12.

AAP
Three-year-old Ayden Ali with his mum Ana Maswari and dad Ali Othman. Credit:Joe Armao

It's the Holy Grail of holidays: 10 days off for the price of three days' leave.

This year's late Easter means Good Friday, Easter Monday and Anzac Day all fall in the same week.

That means those working a Monday-to-Friday week can secure 10 work-free days if they take April 23, 24 and 26 as annual leave.

Parents are planning to take their children out of school and workers are being encouraged to take time off as word of the opportunity spreads.
TORONTO, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YAMANA GOLD INC. (TSX: YRI; NYSE: AUY) (Yamana or the Company) will release its first quarter 2019 operational and financial results after market close on May 1, 2019, followed by a conference call and webcast on May 2, 2019, at 8:30 a.m. ET. Additionally, the Company will host its annual meeting of shareholders on May 2, 2019, at 11:00 a.m. ET. Details for these events are as follows:



First Quarter 2019 Conference Call

Toll Free (North America): 1-800-273-9672 Toronto Local and International: 416-340-2216 Webcast: www.yamana.com Conference Call Replay Toll Free (North America): 1-800-408-3053 Toronto Local and International: 905-694-9451 Passcode: 6784586

The conference call replay will be available from 12:00 p.m. ET on May 2, 2019, until 11:59 p.m. ET on May 23, 2019.

Annual Meeting of Shareholders

The annual meeting of shareholders will take place on May 2, 2019, at 11:00 a.m. ET at the Design Exchange, Toronto-Dominion Centre, 234 Bay Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

For those unable to attend the meeting in person, a live webcast of the complete meeting, including slide presentation, will be accessible through Yamanas website.

About Yamana

Yamana is a Canadian-based gold, silver and copper producer with a significant portfolio comprised of operating mines, development stage projects, and exploration and mineral properties throughout the Americas, mainly in Canada, Brazil, Chile and Argentina. Yamana plans to continue to build on this base through expansion and optimization initiatives at existing operating mines, development of new mines, the advancement of its exploration properties and, at times, by targeting other consolidation opportunities with a primary focus in the Americas.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Investor Relations

416-815-0220

1-888-809-0925

Email: investor@yamana.com
Two healers have been slapped with temporary bans after allegedly treating Melbourne clients with frog poison from the Amazon suspected of being linked to a woman's death in NSW in March.

Carlie Angel and Brad Williams, trading as Two Wolves - One Body, have been temporarily banned from advertising, offering or providing any general health service in Victoria related to the treatment, which involves the topical application of a secretion taken from South America's giant green monkey tree frog.

The giant green monkey tree frog.

Health complaints commissioner Karen Cusack said the treatment, known as kambo, can cause pain, dizziness, shaking, swelling, fainting and severe vomiting.

Her interim orders also ban Ms Angel and Mr Williams, who are based in South Australia, from directing or operating any business in Victoria that involving kambo, while she investigates.
A man charged with the murder of a graphic designer whose body was found in a wheelie bin 17 years after his disappearance has had his charge reduced to manslaughter.

John Spencer White was arrested in Queensland in August last year and charged with murdering 40-year-old John Christianos.

Accused man John Spencer White, in the checked shirt, will be extradited to Victoria. Credit:Ten Eyewitness News

White, dressed in a dark suit and tie with spectacles, appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday for a committal hearing to determine if he should stand trial for murder.

However, the matter was adjourned and the court was told prosecutors agreed to drop the charge to manslaughter.
Detectives are appealing for public assistance to identify a male involved in an assault in Moorabbin on March 16. Credit:Victoria Police

Police want to interview a man who allegedly assaulted Will Connolly, the Melbourne teenager dubbed "Egg Boy" after he smashed an egg on the head of Senator Fraser Anning.

Victoria Police have released an image of a man they wish to speak to as they continue to investigate the confrontation between Senator Anning and Mr Connolly on March 16.

Mr Connolly received an outpouring of support from around the world after he cracked an egg on to the head of the controversial politician at a far-right rally in Moorabbin, in Melbourne's south east, in the days after the Christchurch attack.

The Queensland senator then struck out twice with an open hand at the teenager, who was tackled to the ground by a group of the senator's supporters, including convicted criminal Neil Erickson.
Parents at Yeshivah-Beth Rivkah Colleges say they have lost confidence in their school board following the controversial sacking of a popular rabbi.

Tension is growing at the Orthodox Jewish school, with almost 400 parents, students, alumni and community members signing a petition in protest over massive staff changes unveiled by principal Rabbi Yehoshua Smukler and the school board.

Parents at Yeshivah Beth Rivkah Colleges are campaigning against the controversial sacking of a rabbi Credit:John Woudstra

They are particularly upset about the recent sacking of Rabbi Pinchas Ash, a much-loved Yeshivah teacher who has worked for the organisation for 40 years.

Rabbi Ash has lodged an unfair dismissal claim in the Fair Work Commission.
A man who followed a woman off a tram and raped her outside a hospital has been given a longer prison sentence after prosecutors argued the original jail term was too lenient.

Jamie Macarthur, 51, on Monday had his sentence increased to nine years and nine months, with a non-parole period of six years and four months, by the Victorian Court of Appeal.

Three judges agreed with an appeal lodged by the Director of Public Prosecutions that the sentences Macarthur received for rape and attempted rape were manifestly inadequate.

He was originally sentenced to seven years and nine months in prison, with the chance of release on parole after five years, having pleaded guilty over the 2017 attack near St Vincent's hospital.

The New Zealand-born man had consumed large quantities of alcohol when he started talking to a woman in her 20s at a city tram stop in the early hours of March 16, 2017.
The Morrison government's derision of Labor's electric cars policy has been undermined after it emerged that the Coalition has spent millions of dollars encouraging Australians to use the vehicles and its MPs routinely spruik the technology.

The government has aggressively criticised Labor's election pledge that half of all new cars sold in 2030 would be electric, claiming it would "end the weekend" by forcing Australians to stop driving petrol-guzzling 4WDs.

Mitsubishi chief executive Mutsuhito Oshikiri, Minister for Urban Infrastructure Paul Fletcher, then-minister for Environment and Energy Josh Frydenberg and then-AGL chief executive Andy Vesy at an electric car event in 2017. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

A Liberal Party advertisement running on Twitter, shared by Energy Minister Angus Taylor on Friday, derides Labor leader Bill Shorten's statement that electric vehicles could be charged in eight to 10 minutes.

The ad claims that in fact, "electric cars will tend to charge between about eight and nine hours overnight".
Benghazi: Clashes between rival Libyan forces for control of Tripoli escalated on Monday as the death toll from days of fighting rose to at least 51, including both combatants and civilians, and the city's only functioning airport said it was hit by an airstrike.

The self-styled Libyan National Army, led by Khalifa Hifter who last week launched the push on Tripoli, acknowledged striking the Mitiga airport, barely 8 kilometres east of the city centre.

A US amphibious hovercraft prepares to depart with evacuees from Janzur, west of Tripoli, Libya. Credit:AP

Hifter's forces have clashed with rival militias which support the UN-backed government that controls Tripoli and the western part of the country. The escalation has threatened to plunge the fractured North African nation deeper into chaos and ignite civil war on the scale of the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

The UN said the latest fighting has displaced some 3400 people and blocked emergency services from reaching casualties and civilians.
Late last month, for example, Trump over-ruled several top advisers when he directed the Justice Department to sign on to a lawsuit aimed at throwing out the health-care law known as Obamacare, declaring that Republicans would write their own replacement. Loading "We'll have a plan that is far better than Obamacare," Trump vowed at the time, adding that Republicans would "soon be known as the party of health care." Republican leaders reacted with alarm, fearing that health care would be a political loser for them, especially with a Democratic-run House able to block any GOP proposal. After a week, Trump relented, punting any real action on health care until 2021. The President also backed off his threat to shut down the border with Mexico, the latest of his many proposed schemes to stem the flow of tens of thousands of Central American migrants entering the United States each month.

Six days after tweeting he would be closing the border "next week" if Mexico did not "immediately stop ALL illegal immigration coming into the United States", Trump announced Thursday that he was instead giving Mexico a "one-year warning" before taking action. The climb-down came after Republican leaders and business executives warned him that shutting down the border would be catastrophic for the economy. Tim Murtaugh, communications director for the campaign, criticised "the constant moving of the goal posts" by Democrats in areas where the President has made progress that exceeds what his predecessors accomplished. "First the opponents, say, 'That's something you can't do', and then the opponents say, 'You shouldn't have done that'," Murtaugh said. "Then you achieve success and they say, 'Well, it's not good enough'." Trump's campaign is conducting a broad messaging survey to help guide its efforts, according to three people familiar with the plan, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal operations. In addition to trade, health care and immigration, officials said, the campaign is likely to focus on economic growth, a criminal justice overhaul and the President's support for Israel.

Loading Campaign advisers say they have come to trust Trump's political instincts, though they also recognise that he sometimes goes too far. Still, they say, they can only control what they can - and that often does not include the President. Trump allies also point to the President's unlikely victory over more polished politicians in the 2016 Republican primary and his electoral college win against Hillary Clinton as evidence of his political acumen. "Voters love disruption just like consumers love disruption," said Bryan Lanza, an adviser to Trump's 2016 campaign and transition. "They actually see him as a disrupter in a broken system that hasn't produced results for the better part of 30 years." Yet some advisers have pushed Trump to focus more on a message of economic success. The President, for example, visited a General Dynamics tank plant in Lima, Ohio, recently to talk about job growth in the state. But aides and outside advisers were frustrated when he spent a portion of his speech attacking the late senator John McCain, an angry screed that dominated headlines out of the event.

Still, Heye said Trump's twin reversals on health care and immigration show his ability to drive enthusiasm in his political base while bowing to the reality of governing. "What we also see quite often with Trump is talk that he's going to do something that he doesn't ultimately follow through on," Heye said. "But the base still gives him credit for starting that conversation." Loading On immigration, however, there are signs that some of Trump's most ardent supporters are becoming disenchanted with the President's failure to improve the worsening situation at the border after more than two years in office. The Department of Homeland Security said last month it was on track to apprehend 100,000 migrants at the border in March - the highest monthly total in a decade. Fox Business host Lou Dobbs, a close Trump ally, said recently that the President has kept his 2016 campaign promises "except when it comes to illegal immigration" and border security.

"That is a horrible, worsening vulnerability for this President," Dobbs said. "A glaring electoral burden facing 2020." The campaign rejected the notion that Trump is not serious about working to solve the nation's immigration woes. The President declared a national emergency at the nation's southern border and issued the first veto of his presidency when Congress passed legislation to overturn that declaration. He has instructed the State Department to cut off aid to three Central American countries that are the source of many migrants, though many experts believe that could make the situation worse. And, the campaign argues, Mexico has begun cracking down on caravans of migrants passing through in response to the threats from the President. "I don't think anyone should ever doubt the President's sincerity when talking about fixing the immigration system," Murtaugh said. Presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke compared Trump's rhetoric to Nazi Germany. Credit:AP The growing field of Democrats campaigning to make Trump a one-term president sees his hard-line immigration views as out of line with moderate voters. Several have highlighted Trump's family separation policy and accused him of racism.

"If we don't call out racism, certainly at the highest levels of power, in this position of trust that the President enjoys, then we are going to continue to get its consequences," Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke told reporters last week after an Iowa town hall meeting in which he compared Trump's rhetoric to Nazi Germany. Seeking to highlight his record on immigration, Trump travelled to the border on Friday for the third time this year and declared that "the country is full". The area he toured includes a barrier with a plaque labelling it as "President Trump's Border Wall", though in fact it is long-planned replacement fencing. Loading Trump's threat to close the border was made in the tradition of leaders who seek to stir up populist emotions in the electorate without thinking through the consequences of their proposals, said Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a New York University professor who studies authoritarian rulers. "Trump will do whatever makes him more popular with his base, and he doesn't seem to care what the feasibility of it is as long as it resonates, for the moment, with his base," she said.

Trump's campaign has directed much of its energy to highlighting shifts to the left among Democrats and to touting the President's accomplishments. The President himself often boasts about the strong U.S. economy, tax cuts and deregulation under his watch. "THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS THE PARTY OF THE AMERICAN DREAM!" Trump tweeted on Thursday. Trump is also hoping to add trade success to his list of accomplishments, with plans to work out a potential trade agreement with China in coming weeks. The President did succeed in negotiating an update to the North American Free Trade Agreement, though its ratification is in doubt after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the deal needs to be reworked. Trump has also threatened to blow up part of the agreement by imposing new car tariffs if Mexico does not prevent Central American migrants from coming to the United States. "This is more important to me than the USMCA," Trump said on Thursday, using an acronym for the updated trade deal.
The hidden camera tumbled off its homemade platform onto the embassy bathroom floor, bringing down with it the career of the highest-ranking New Zealand military official in Washington, D.C.

Alfred Keating, a former navy commodore also known as Fred Keating, is charged with making an intimate visual recording inside the toilets of the embassy. He has pleaded not guilty.

His trial started on Monday in the Auckland District Court in front of Judge Robert Ronayne and a jury.

Alfred Harold Keating, a former commodore in the New Zealand Navy, is on trial in Auckland. Credit:Stuff.co.nz

Keating was an Assistant Chief of Navy at Defence Headquarters in Wellington before being posted as a defence attache to the New Zealand embassy in Washington, D.C.
GREENVILLE, S.C., April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Elliott Davis, a leading business solutions firm with nine offices across the Southeast, announces that Heather Meadors has been named director of community relations. Meadors comes to Elliott Davis after serving more than seven years as director of community relations for a global hotel group.



Elliott Davis CEO Rick Davis notes, Heathers proven commitment to community, along with her strong leadership acumen, will take our current community engagement efforts to an even higher level. Her experience and energy will lead our community relations team in broadening our presence in each of our markets.

Meadors will lead a team of community relations professionals based in each of the firms markets. In addition to enhancing the firms robust community engagement efforts firm wide, Meadors will take the helm over the newly-launched Elliott Davis Cares program, a vehicle providing every employee the time and opportunity to give back to the community in ways that align with their passion for serving. She will also facilitate the implementation of Elliott Davis Leads providing professional board training to all employees serving in that role on behalf of the firm.

An active member in the Greenville community, Meadors currently volunteers with The Salvation Army and Habitat for Humanity of Greenville County, and is a member of Greenville Women Giving. She also serves on various boards with the Greenville Chamber of Commerce, Euphoria Greenville, Greenville Technical College and the South Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association (SCRLA), as well as on the family council of Clemson University.

Meadors earned a bachelors degree in elementary education from Elon University and a masters degree in administration from Furman University. Prior to her role as director of community relations, she served as executive director of Christ Church Episcopal Preschool.

About Elliott Davis LLC

Elliott Davis LLC, is a leading business solutions firm offering a full spectrum of services in the areas of tax, comprehensive assurance, and consulting services to diverse businesses, organizations, and individuals. With a network of more than 700 forward-thinking professionals in major U.S. markets and alliance resources across the globe, the organization ranks among the Top 40 and fastest-growing accounting firms in the United States. Elliott Davis has been providing innovative solutions since its founding in 1920. Visit elliottdavis.com for more information.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/87c44963-f16b-4461-b1c1-eeed1c33f2a3






A nomination vote in Altona next week will determine which of four candidates will represent the Progressive Conservatives in the Borderland constituency.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 8/4/2019 (981 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A nomination vote in Altona next week will determine which of four candidates will represent the Progressive Conservatives in the Borderland constituency.

The riding formerly known as Emerson is considered a Tory stronghold. Nearly 73 percent of voters cast a ballot for the party in the 2016 provincial election.

Josh Guenter

Last fall, Emerson MLA Cliff Graydon confirmed he wouldnt seek re-election as an independent after allegations of sexual harassment led to his ouster from the PC caucus.

The newly renamed riding also has new boundaries, as a non-partisan commission moved Otterburne, St Pierre, and St Malo into the La Verendrye constituency.

In the run-up to Thursdays nomination meeting inside Altonas Millennium Exhibition Centre, The Carillon asked each of the four candidates about their priorities and experience.

Guenter puts families in foreground

Josh Guenter was inspired to enter politics after living in the nations capital, where he studied economics, history, and public administration at the University of Ottawa. In his spare time, he worked for Saskatchewan MP Kelly Block.

Back home, Guenter worked as a campaign manager and constituency assistant for Portage-Lisgar MP Candice Bergen, and as a legislative assistant for Morden-Winkler MLA Cameron Friesen.

The 25-year-old long-haul truck driver lives west of Altona, and believes his young family is typical of many families across the riding.

"We live in a young, dynamic, fast-growing part of the province," Guenter explained.

Verna Heinrichs

"Its important that weelect a conservative who stands for traditional family values and will go to bat for the families of this area."

Guenter said he shares the values of a typical Borderland voter.

"I believe in faith, family, hard work, and personal integrity."

The ever-rising cost of living and new federal carbon tax are making life less affordable for many local families, Guenter said, meaning Borderlands next representative in the Manitoba legislature needs to keep families pocketbooks in mind.

"Its families that power our businesses and its families that run our farms," he said. "Family is at the centre, I think, of our community life here in this riding."

Guenter said preserving affordability is also a way to retain young people in a rural region that offers plenty of economic opportunities.

"Young families, I think, across the riding feel the pressure, and affordability is a big issue. Understanding these pressures, understanding the issues firsthand, makes me a natural fit to speak for this area," he said.

If nominated, Guenter said hed emphasize the need for roadway improvements, and support "more parental involvement" in the education system.

Heinrichs touts breadth of experience

If she becomes the PC nominee for Borderland, Verna Heinrichs says shed practice the community advocacy for which shes already known.

A "love of learning" has led the University of Manitoba and Queens University graduate to leadership positions in numerous sectors, including health care, finance, agri-business, post-secondary education, and trade and exports.

Liz Hildebrand

Calling herself "a natural leader," Heinrichs, who declined to provide her age, currently trades corporate stocks and resides near Altona.

Heinrichs has helped 19 newcomers and their families settle in the Borderland area. She said shed like to see a further streamlining of the settlement process to ensure the regions farms and manufacturing businesses have an adequate supply of skilled labour.

Heinrichs was instrumental in establishing a Red River College satellite campus in Winkler, and served as its founding director. She is a current appointee of the Manitoba Womens Advisory Council.

A former health care instructor and palliative care auditor, Heinrichs supports the health care delivery reforms the PCs have carried out since forming government three years ago. The changes have increased accountability and efficiency, she said.

"That can only serve people much better."

However, access to rural mental health services can improve, she saidan insight she gleaned while serving as the founding president of the Canadian Mental Health Associations southern Manitoba chapter.

As shes knocked on doors, Heinrichs said shes heard the province must change the way it taxes farmland, and examine onerous trade and export regulations.

She said shed also like to see fibre optic internet rolled out to more rural municipalities.

Her Borderland run represents her first foray into political politics. Heinrichs declined to name a former Conservative federal cabinet minister who she said "strongly recommended" her to seek elected office.

Hildebrand offers listening ear

Morden resident Liz Hildebrand works with Junior Achievement Canada overseeing nine high schools that participate in the organizations youth business education programming.

Jordan Siemens

The 49-year-old, who was born in Vita and raised in Roseau River, has never before sought a political nomination, but has a history of involvement with the PC party.

Hildebrand was Morden-Winkler MLA Cameron Friesens campaign manager in the 2016 election, and served on that ridings PC association executive before and after.

A stint working in the Morden-Winkler constituency office left her with "a good ear for listening to what the constituent wants."

Hildebrand obtained a business administration diploma from Assiniboine Community College and was recently certified as a mediator. She has held church leadership positions and helmed local parent advisory committees, where she "tried to be the voice for the unheard."

Connecting with party members during the nomination race has changed her mind on some issues, and taught her the danger of clinging too tightly to what she termed "pet projects."

"I have done a lot of listening," she said.

Noting the provinces review of K-12 education is on many voters minds, Hildebrand said she agrees with the comprehensive re-evaluation, but wishes its mandate would focus more on education funding models and the burden school taxes place on farmland.

"We are the only province in Canada that funds education the way we fund it," she noted.

Hildebrand said shed also prioritize strategic infrastructure projects, especially those that would develop the economic potential of the ridings eastern portion.

"Economic development will never happen if we dont have the infrastructure."

For instance, Provincial Road 201 improvements would reduce the need for heavy trucks to complete lengthy detours, she said.

"That is a major veinto connect (Highway) 75 to the rest of the east."

Siemens focuses on agriculture

Rookie Town of Altona councillor Jordan Siemens believes a jump into provincial politics will allow him to ensure rural priorities are heard on Broadway.

Raised on a farm near Horndean, Siemens does sales and support work for customers of Altonas Greenvalley Equipment Inc.

When the 26-year-old was elected to Altona town council last fall, he "had no intention" of running provincially before his term expired.

That changed when, as a member of the Borderland PC association executive, he realized he possessed the professionalism and knowledge base needed to be a strong voice for Borderland.

"I knew the people who were signing up, and I wasnt really seeing a candidate who met the criteria, and I had a lot of people who were asking me to run," Siemens recalled.

He views his youth as an asset, not a liability.

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"You just ask different questions if youre a younger person. You have maybe a little bit of a longer outlook going forward and you arent as worried about doing things the way theyve always been done."

Siemens graduated from Providence University College with a bachelors degree in business administration and agriculture. While on student council, he helped organize a provincial election debate on campus.

If he prevails next Thursday, Siemens said hed defend issues of importance to the farming community, including lessening the education tax on farmland.

Siemens said hed also support regulatory reforms that would benefit farmers, such as shorter wait times for inspections.

Siemens also pledged to "advocate for local control of school boards and health regions as much as possible," to preserve accountability.

He also wants to remedy the regions labour shortage by leveraging a new federal immigration pilot project for rural communities.
F1 cars should be harder to drive and lighter, according to Nico Hulkenberg.

For 2019, Liberty Media and the FIA introduced tweaks to the aerodynamic regulations designed to make overtaking easier.

Kimi Raikkonen, the most experienced driver on the grid, gave the changes a tentative thumbs-up.

"We can drive a little closer than last year," the Finn is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport, "but it's still hard to get past."

Kevin Magnussen agrees: "It has gotten a bit better."

But Renault's Hulkenberg thinks it will be tough to further improve the situation so long as F1 cars are so easy to drive whilst being heavier than ever.

And rumours suggest the 2021 cars will be even heavier.

"The cars now are too easy to drive," said the German. "You hardly make mistakes anymore and you can't make the difference with courage or skills because everyone is already perfect.

"Where can you make a difference if braking distances are so short? How can you accelerate out of a corner better if everyone can get on the power so quickly?

"Also, the cars are as lazy as tanks when changing direction," Hulkenberg said. "We carry too much weight."

F1's Pat Symonds, though, thinks the sport is moving in the right direction.

"This year has shown us that we are on the right path," he said. "But it's only a small step compared to what is coming in 2021."

(GMM)
33 Shot Over Warm Weekend in Chicago, Including 2 Children at Baby Shower

Six people were shot at a baby shower in Chicago, including two children, in what police suspect to be a gang revenge attack.

A 10-year-old girl and 8-year-old boy were said by police to be in critical but stable condition following the shooting on the evening of Saturday, April 6, on Chicagos South Side.

They were the youngest of the 33 people shot over the weekend in a city where temperatures hit their highest so far this year.

The children were shot outside a family gathering in West Englewood, together with four adults who were also wounded.

We know that two men in dark clothing approached the family gathering, which we believe was a baby shower and opened fire, said Anthony Guglielmi, chief communications officer of the Chicago Police in a statement.

Based on the victim profiles, we suspect this could have been from an earlier incident that stemmed from an ongoing gang conflict in that neighborhood, Guglielmi said.

Eyewitnesses told the Chicago Tribune that there were about 20 children outside at the time. They rushed toward the house as the shots rang out, piling onto each other as they tried to get through the door, Richard Nix, whose oldest grandson was having the baby shower, told the paper.

We were trying to pick the kids up, get the kids out of the way.  They were going to get crushed, Nix said. It wasnt nothing but kids in front of the house, sitting on the porch. They were just playing, and the shooting went off.

The ones that were doing the shooting, none of them get shot, Nix said. Its just all the innocent people.

Prayers are with the victims from this despicable shooting. While info & cooperation are very limited, detectives have been working around the clock on this & we suspect a possible motive is retaliation from an earlier incident. Send anonymous info to https://t.co/g9Q1Srtgmc pic.twitter.com/Ce6uxqqZob  Anthony Guglielmi (@AJGuglielmi) April 7, 2019

The two children in Englewood were among 4 children who were shot in total over the weekend, according to WGN-TV.

According to Fox News, police reported the two gunmen fled on foot. However, WGNTV cites witnesses who said that the shots were fired from a passing SUV.

Police said that the individuals at the scene were not being cooperative.

Police continue to search for suspects after six people, including two children, were shot when gunfire erupted at a West Englewood baby shower Saturday. Posted by WGN TV on Sunday, April 7, 2019

Eyewitnesses told local stations that the boy had been shot in the chest and that the girl was hit in the leg.

Shes screaming, people across the street are screaming, kids are running around, witness Lamon Reccord told WGNTV. This little boy and his mom is putting pressure on his chest from the gunshot wound to his chest.

He was taken to hospital after police officers arrived and took over CPR.



While around 20 children played outside, adults inside at a baby shower were laughing and having a good time, playing a Posted by Chicago Tribune on Saturday, April 6, 2019

Two of the officers saved his life, Nix said. We were just trying to hold the pressure down, but the officers came up and started doing CPR, and I honestly believe they saved his life.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel said he knows the family of the 8-year-old boy, reported WGNTV.

Im sick as everyone else in this city, sick and tired, Emanuel said. You have nothing but a bunch of gang bangers thinking our streets are their firing range.

An uptick in violence often follows a rise in temperature over the summer months in Chicago, where the winter cold keeps people indoors. With a rise in temperature come more social gatherings, more alcohol, more disputes  and more violence.

Temperatures climbed to their highest yet this year over the weekend.

According to the Chicago Tribune, a 13-year-old boy was among 24 shot in various incidents over the weekend, which left three dead.

Including those shot since Friday afternoon, the total rises to 33, according to WGNTV, with four fatalities.
After Controversial Event, Gold Coast Library Has No Plans to Engage with Confucius Institute in Future

GOLD COAST, AustraliaA key part of Gold Coast City Council has indicated it will stop engaging with a controversial, Beijing-controlled educational organization.

The council-funded City of Gold Coast Libraries, which operates 13 branches and a mobile library service, has no plans to engage in future with the Tourism Confucius Institute (TCI) based at Griffith University.

I can confirm that we have no further sessions booked with the [Tourism Confucius] Institute and no intention to engage them in future, Acting Manager City Libraries Alison Kemp said in a written statement.

China Critics Denounced

The decision came just weeks after an earlier Epoch Times report revealed that a free reading community activity at Southport Library that was advertised as a seminar about Chinese culture, seemed to focus much more on how China is rising in the world and why those who criticize Beijing are wrong.

Emeritus professor Colin Mackerras, a Sinologist and honorary director of TCI, gave an 80-minute presentation on Nov. 30 of which only 15 minutes were devoted to Chinese language and culture. Mackerras spent much of the remaining time speaking about geopolitics.

He talked about the rise of China and political affairs surrounding China, which included his views on what he called U.S. Vice President Mike Pences extremely hostile speech last year about China as well as his criticism of then-Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbulls strong words on Chinas attempt to influence Australian politics. He also touched on which political party he thought was going to win Australias next federal election and how they have been more positive towards China.

Chinas rise is important to the world and should be welcome to Australia, he told the audience, as a security guard stood next to the meeting room door.

No Political Groups Allowed

Mackerras remarks appeared to be at odds with a council committee recommendation, which was formally resolved back in 2009 and 2010, stating political groups should be excluded from using meeting rooms at city public libraries.

Kemp confirmed library spaces are supposed to stay politically neutral, a condition of use TCI may have breached with Mackerras talk.

Libraries are very keen to remain politically neutral and so it is disappointing to hear that the presenter had gone off topic, she said.

Influencing Australians

Confucius Institutes (CIs) are advertised by the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) Office of Chinese Language Council International, also known as HanBan, as educational organizations to promote Chinese culture and language. However, western intelligence agencies have warned that the institutes are used as part of the Chinese regimes apparatus to gain influence abroad.

CIs are funded by the CCP through HanBan and documented to be involved in organizing protests against topics the CCP considers to be a threat to the stability of its rule, according to a staff report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (pdf). The report also gave examples of the soft power influence of CIs that repeat Beijings lines on sensitive issues. For example, CIs will host speakers who parrot the CCPs propaganda points about issues like Tibet and follow the CCPs distortion of history such as blaming the United States for drawing China into the Korean War by bombing villages.

Regular Contact With Council

TCI has delivered a number of activities in previous years on the Gold Coast according to Kemp.

For example, TCI and the Griffith Institute of Tourism (GIFT) hosted the First East-West Dialogue on Tourism and the Chinese Dream in November 2014, ahead of the G20 Leaders Summit in Brisbane.

The high-level, bilateral discussions attracted more than 100 representatives of Australian and Chinese government, education and research institutions, and the tourism industry, said minutes from a council Economic Development and Tourism Committee Meeting on March 20, 2014.

The Beijing-linked Australia Confucius Institute and China Confucius Foundation joined Jining Peoples Municipal Government and other groups to design and donate a Confucius statue to Gold Coast Chinatown.

This is a four meter (13 foot) high Confucius statue, with a special foundation stone, Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate said about the statues Jan. 23, 2015 unveiling in council meeting minutes dated January 30. I had the pleasure of welcoming several special dignitaries Dr. Zhao Yongchen, Consul General, Peoples Republic of China, and Mr. Xiaodong Xu, Representative of Jining Peoples Municipal Government.

The mayor openly admitted to taking up Chinese language lessons at TCI, hoping he could record a video of his mayors message in Chinese.

Im currently undertaking Chinese language lessons with Mr. Frank Fang from the Griffith University Confucius Institute, Tate said in council meeting minutes dated Nov. 13, 2018. We will be able to do a similar message in Chinese. It will then be able to put up on Youtube and WeChat, and be distributed to Destination Gold Coast and Study Gold Coast.

The Epoch Times contacted the mayors office to confirm whether Tate paid the tuition fee of A$350 (US$249.50) per class from his own money or through taxpayer funds but there was no response at the time of publication.

Foreign Interference Scheme Dismissed

Mackerras has also been highly critical of the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme, which Turnbull championed and passed in parliament last year. Mirroring similar laws in the United States, the scheme broadens the definition of espionage and requires people working for foreign countries to register as foreign agents or face criminal prosecution if found to be meddling in national affairs.

Turnbull said in December 2017 the new laws were necessary to fight the rapidly escalating threat of foreign interference and the disturbing reports that the CCP had interfered with the nations media coverage, universities, and the decisions of Australias elected representatives.

According to the Attorney-Generals Department which is responsible for enforcing the new laws, CIs in Australia have been directly contacted by the government notifying them of the new legislation.

The deadline to register as a foreign agent was originally Dec. 10 and a grace period was offered until March 10, 2019. However, a quick inspection of the publicly available register shows none of the 12 CIs at Australian universities have registered, including the TCI at Griffith.

The university hosting TCI defended the decision not to register, saying Griffith had already obtained legal advice on the institutes behalf.

Griffith University has sought legal advice to confirm that the TCI is not registrable under the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme. The university understands this is consistent with other universities in Australia, Griffith Vice President Global Professor Sarah Todd said in a written statement. Griffith University will comply with all elements of the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme Act 2018.

The university also claimed TCI had never received any correspondence from the Australian Attorney Generals Department about the scheme.

However, the Attorney-Generals Department said this is not the case.

In December 2018, the Attorney-Generals Department wrote to over 700 stakeholders to alert them to the commencement of the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme, a department spokesperson said. This included all Confucius Institutes within Australia, including the institute based at Griffith University.

No Exemptions

The department said TCI and other CIs are responsible for deciding whether they need to register for the scheme, namely foreign influence activities directed at Australias federal political or governmental systems and processes.

The department cannot comment on whether or not registration obligations may exist for Griffith Universitys Tourism Confucius Institute, the spokesperson said. An individual or entity will only be required to register under the scheme if they are undertaking registrable activities on behalf of a foreign principal for a relevant purpose, and no exemptions apply.

If an organization or individual is found to conduct an activity on behalf of a foreign entity to exert political influence without registration, they could face a maximum penalty of imprisonment for five years, the spokesperson added.

No Difference Between Culture, Politics in China

Emeritus Professor John Fitzgerald from the Swinburne University of Technologys Centre for Social Impact described the universities as disingenuous for not registering their CIs.

They are not fools, they know that culture and politics go hand in hand in China and that if they allow anything that offends Beijing to occur on their watch there could be consequences for their student recruitment or research pipelines, he said in an opinion article published by Fairfax Media. In declining to list CIs under the foreign influence transparency scheme, Australias university leaders are then telling us something elsethat political censorship of academic activities is something they do willingly on their own account.

Fitzgerald believes universities have already registered their respective American studies centers that receive funding from Washington since they engage in political discussion.

If CIs have not been registered, despite being substantially funded from Beijing, it may be because they are thought to confine their activities to culture and language, no politics, he said. There is no boundary between politics and what passes for culture in contemporary China. The Cultural Revolution  was not called a cultural revolution for nothing. The Cultural Revolution may be over but the politics of controlling what can be said in the media and taught in universities has returned with a vengeance.

CCP Lurks Behind the Scenes

Charles Sturt University Ethics Professor Clive Hamilton believes the CCPs direct involvement in CIs should be enough justification for universities to register their CIs.

The Chinese government, which means the CCP, funds CIs, appoints its directors, sets the curriculum, and closely monitors their adherence to official guidelines, he said in an email. They have no independence from the Chinese government. By any reasonable criteria they should be registered as foreign agents. In the United States, this is understood. In Australia, many university executives are still mesmerised by the money.

Human Rights Watch Australia Director Elaine Pearson said the CCP has been very open about describing the CIs as a propaganda outlet.

Chinese Communist Party speeches have openly described the institutes as an important part of Chinas overseas propaganda set-up, she said in an opinion story published by think tank the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Confucius Institutes actively take steps to censor certain topics and perspectives in course materials on political grounds and take political loyalty into consideration in hiring decisions.

Universities Urged to Follow US Example

Pearson said there was one case where Victoria University in Melbourne cancelled a screening of the award-winning documentary In the Name of Confucius after the universitys own CI complained. She believes Australian universities should consider shutting them down.

In the United States several universities have closed or announced the closure of CIs, in part, because of concerns about academic freedom, she said. The 13 Australian universities with CIs should seriously consider following suit.
Aid to Central America Rewards Bad Behavior

You get more of what you subsidize: failed states and waves of emigration

A Guatemalan congressman once shared with me that NGOs in Central America deny or are reluctant to report development achievements, fearing that, should they succeed, their funding will stop.

Herein lies the destructive impact of taxpayer-funded foreign aid. If there is money flowing, without private accountability, suddenly everyone has a problem and no incentive to fix anything. Being a Third World nation is as much a boon for people with the right connections as it is for First World workers who enjoy cushy roles and live in gated communities in exotic locations.

Perhaps sensing this recurring problem, the Trump administration recently cut $450 million in aid to the Northern Triangle: El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. The straw that broke the camels back was their unwillingness to curb the vast flows of illegal migrants and drugs to the United States, manifested in waves now known as migrant caravans.

Not only have these nations not curbed the flows, their immense corruption, lawlessness, extortion, and violence drive more people to join the queue north. On corruption alone, aid there should have been suspect. All three are comfortably in the bottom half of Transparency Internationals ranking of corruption perceptions, with El Salvador the least worst at 105th out of 180 ranked nations. The United States and Canada are 22nd and ninth, respectively.

The migrants know the risksdeath, rape, and disease along the waybut even a glimpse at life in the United States is enough of an allure. The Train of Death, a network that works throughout Mexico, didnt get its name for nothing, as highlighted by Pedro Ultreras in La Bestia, a 2011 documentary.

Economic Fundamentals

The rationale behind aid to Central America is that it would improve living conditions there, so residents dont need to seek a better life abroad. Mark Jones of the Baker Institute at Rice University, for example, wrote that the only effect [of Trumps cut] will be to worsen the already dismal security and economic conditions  These worsened conditions will in turn push even more Guatemalans, Hondurans, and Salvadorans to embark on the arduous and dangerous journey to the United States.

Although a well-informed scholar, Joness assumptions are incorrect.

Economic incentives dictate that you get more of what you subsidize. This is the fundamental law of supply: the higher the price of an item, the higher the quantity suppliers will offer, and vice versaholding other factors constant.

In Central America and elsewhere, aid upholds not good governance but cronyism and corruption. Defense coordination, if we think in the broader sense of aid, does have a role in national security and can be utilized towards the rule of law. However, in general, foreign aid encourages dependence and is best left to private charity for emergencies.

As explained by the late, great economist Gary Becker of the University of Chicago, no nation has gotten rich on account of foreign aid or NGOs: The foundation of economic development is the private sector.

Piecemeal changes, the best one could hope for from aid, simply wont suffice for stemming outward migration. Development economist Michael Clemens explained in a 2014 literature review, Migration pressure only typically falls when [nations] grow past upper-middle-income status. Initial development, beyond subsistence, can hasten departures, and he pointed to violence as more acute to migration waves.

Hijacked Funds

Giovanni Fratti, a prominent attorney in Guatemala, recently called for a complete halt to aid to Central America, not just the initial cut. He shared: This decision, Mr. President, is fundamental in order for Guatemala to free herself from her tormentors  far-left NGOs and NGOs that receive money from USAID.

Most U.S. taxpayer money to Central America, Fratti contended, has gone to socialists. They are devoted to divisive gender and racial politics and halting mining and infrastructure development. Many are rebranded Marxist guerrillas who fought on behalf of Fidel Castro in the 1970s and 1980s. The Guerrilla Army of the Poor created Guatemalas Committee of United Campesinos, for example, which occupies land and violates property rights.

Everyone in Central America knows the drill: If you want aid money, you have to play nice and comply with social-justice parameters. This is a predictable outcome of politicized, feel-good aid not subject to scrutiny from private investors and lenders. If you are an open critic of the U.S. embassy and its progressive inclinations, for example, you can forget about aid for your cause.

Proud innovators and entrepreneursthose with the capacity to bring the sort of development Central America needsare not wasting their time with bureaucracy and political correctness. They are creating as much as they can amid a sea of aid that distorts the economy and rewards beggars. Entrepreneurs dont need handouts or government loans but the rule of law, which doesnt exist in Central America, along with free trade and foreign investment.

The tendency for aid to go to socialists isnt new or unique to Latin America. Even on the home front, the National Endowment for Democracy awards grants to weak-kneed progressives such as the Global Americans NGO. Taxpayer dollars pay to promote a universal basic income for Central America to counter the supposed harm of automation. Such welfare pimps and Luddites are in no position to preach about economic development or the private sector.

As documented in the The Latin Americans by Carlos Rangel, Ernesto Che Guevara had the audacity in the early 1960s to criticize the United States for not delivering enough aid to Latin America. Even the hero of communists, who fought with the Castro brothers in the 1959 revolution, was ungrateful and wanted more generous handouts from the United States. It will never be enough. Meanwhile, we are waiting for his socialist paradise to arrive, as Cuba is running out of paper and Venezuela cant supply electricity.

A half-century of U.S. aid has failed to deliver any meaningful respite to the economic and political failures of Latin America, exhibited by an endless line of people escaping. The burden of proof is on those who want more spending, since the United States is in no position to continue wasting money abroad.

Fergus Hodgson is the founder and executive editor of Latin American intelligence publication Antigua Report. He is also the roving editor of Gold Newsletter and a research associate with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
American Airlines Extends Max-Caused Cancellations to June 5

WASHINGTONAmerican 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 on April 7 that 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 travelers.

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 canceling 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 canceling 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.

Americans 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 best-selling 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 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.

The announcement to cut production came after Boeing acknowledged that a second software issue has emerged that needs fixing on the Maxa discovery that explained why the aircraft maker had pushed back its ambitious schedule for getting the planes back in the air.

By Marcy Gordon
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks during a rally at the Fairfield Arts and Convention Center on April 6, 2019, in Fairfield, Iowa. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Bernie Sanders Says Felons Should Be Allowed to Vote From Behind Bars

Democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders told a town hall in Iowa on April 7 that convicted felons should be allowed to vote while in prison.

I think that is absolutely the direction we should go, the Vermont senator responded when asked if the imprisoned should be allowed to vote.

Only Vermont and Maine currently allow prisoners to vote from behind bars. Most states revoke voting rights from felons, including after they served their prison sentences. A number of states, including Iowa, are considering laws that would grant voting rights to felons who have served their time.

In my state, what we do is separate. Youre paying a price, you committed a crime, youre in jail. Thats bad, Sanders said. But youre still living in American society and you have a right to vote. I believe in that, yes, I do.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), another presidential candidate, was asked about allowing felons to vote during a forum in Storm Lake, Iowa. Warren said those whove served their sentence should be able to vote, but she didnt endorse a right to vote from behind bars.

While theyre incarcerated, I think thats something we can have more conversation about, Warren said, according to the Des Moines Register.

Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds promoted a state constitutional amendment this year, which would automatically grant the right to vote to felons when they complete their sentences. Currently, felons in Iowa must have permission from the governor if they want to cast a vote. The amendment failed this year after the states Senate killed the measure.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, felons in 14 states lose their rights only while incarcerated and have their rights restored automatically upon completing their sentence. Felons in 22 states lose their rights while behind bars and on probation or parole.

In 12 states, felons lose their voting rights indefinitely upon conviction. In some cases, the rights can be restored through a pardon from the governor or after a specific waiting period.

The general trend nationwide has been toward restoring voting rights to felons. Florida, New York, and Colorado passed measures granting some voting rights to felons who served their sentences.

Sanders is the leading candidate in a crowded field of Democrats who have officially announced their candidacy for the 2020 presidential election. Former Vice President Joe Biden is the only Democrat more popular among Americans, but he hasnt yet officially announced that he is running.

Sanders is a self-described socialist. His socialist policieslike Medicare for All and free public college tuitionreceived little support from fellow Democrats six years ago, but have now become mainstream. Of the top five Democrats trailing Sanders in the polls, each supports Medicare for All.

Of the 20 million felons who have served their sentences, approximately 13.4 million are eligible to vote, which is roughly 10 percent of the 130 million Americans expected to vote in a presidential election, according to a Reuters report that cites 2010 data. Only one in five felons who are eligible to vote actually do so. Most tend to vote for Democrats.

Sanders has supported the idea of giving all felons the right to vote for at least three years.
Body of Missing Texas Woman Found 2 Months After She Went Missing With Boyfriend

The body of a Texas woman who went missing two months ago was discovered at Mountain Creek Lake in Dallas, according to police on April 8.

A kayaker discovered her body before calling 911, and she was officially identified by the Dallas County Medical Examiners Office, reported CBS DFW.

Weltzin Garcia, 26, and her boyfriend, 28-year-old Alfonso Hernandez, both missing on Feb. 5, according to the CBS affiliate report, which described Hernandez as her estranged boyfriend.

The body recovered from Mountain Creek Lake last week was identified as Weltzin Garcia, 26. Posted by Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Monday, April 8, 2019

Hours before the pair went missing, police issued a warrant for Hernandezs arrest for domestic violence.

Hernandezs vehicle was located hours later at White Rock Lake. His body was found on Feb. 7 in White Rock Lake about two weeks later, according to NBC5 in Dallas.

Hernandezs cause of death is not clear, and officials with the Dallas County Medical Examiner said it could take months, the NBC affiliate reported.

#BREAKING  A body found floating in Mountain Creek Lake in Dallas has been identified as that of 26-year-old Weltzin Garcia, the Grand Prairie woman missing for more than two months, police said. Posted by NBC DFW on Monday, April 8, 2019

Their two children, who are aged 3 and 6, were placed in foster care after the parents disappeared. A judge later said they should be handed over to Garcias family, and have since been living with her sister.

Her family has suspected that Garcia was the victim of a murder-suicide, but her sister, Atziry, believed she was still alive in an interview last week.

People go missing every day and girls go missing every day and they dont know where they are, Atziry Garcia, her sister, told the CBS affiliate. Maybe my sister is one of those girls.

Before Garcia and Hernandez went missing, Hernandez sent a text message to his family that said, Goodbye, police said, reported People magazine.

A police spokesman told the magazine in February that Garcias phone was found in Hernandezs pants pocket when his body was recovered.

Im not gonna break down anymore, said Atziry at the time. I just need to be strong and brave for them, thats the only option I have right now.

In raising her sisters child, Atziry said the 3-year-old still believes she is his mother and not Garcia.

Tx. Mom Vanished After Estranged Boyfriend Sends Goodbye Text to His Family https://t.co/4SVNJ4ET9M  People (@people) February 20, 2019

Hes thinking Im his mom, but hes little you know, she was quoted as saying by People. Hes calling me mommy every time so its like very emotional for me, but Im not gonna break down because I need to be strong for them and they need to know that everything is going to be okay.

Hernandez, she added, had expressed suicidal thoughts, but she didnt expect him to harm anyone.

I still do not understand why hed do that to his family, to his kids, she said. We dont know why.

Missing Children

There were 464,324 missing children reported in the FBIs National Crime Information Center in 2017, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Under federal law, when a child is reported missing to law enforcement, they must be entered into the database. In 2016, there were 465,676 entries.

This number represents reports of missing children. That means if a child runs away multiple times in a year, each instance would be entered into NCIC separately and counted in the yearly total. Likewise, if an entry is withdrawn and amended or updated, that would also be reflected in the total, the center noted.

If you or another person you know is contemplating suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text home to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or you can go to suicidepreventionlifeline.org.
British Woman Faces Jail in Dubai for Calling Ex-Husbands Wife a Horse on Facebook

A British woman is facing two years in a Dubai jail for calling her ex-husbands wife a horse on Facebook.

Laleh Shahravesh, 55, has been in Dubai since March 10, when she was arrested at the airport along with her teenage daughter for violating the countrys cybercrime laws, according to a legal campaign group.

The complaint was made by her ex-husbands new wife over comments Shahravesh made on social media more than two years ago while in London.

Shahravesh was arrested when she flew out from London to attend the funeral of her Portuguese ex-husband, Pedro Dos Santos, according to the legal support organization Detained in Dubai.

They had been married for 18 years, spending the majority of that time in the UK.

In 2016, after living in Dubai for eight months where he worked for a bank, she returned to the UK, expecting her husband to follow.

Instead, he filed for divorce a few months later.

Shortly after, on Oct. 7, 2016, she was shocked to see pictures on Facebook of her ex-husbands wedding to a 42-year-old Tunisian woman.

She posted two comments in Farsi. One said, I hope you go under the ground you idiot. Damn you. You left me for this horse.

The other said, You married a horse you idiot.

Dubais cybercrime laws mean that an old social media post from before a person visits can result in a heavy fine or years in jail if they ever visit.

According to Detained in Dubai, she faces a jail sentence of two years and a fine of 50,000 pounds.

I am not allowed to leave Dubai, Shahravesh said in a statement released by Detained in 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.

Shahravesh was arrested at the airport with her daughter Paris, when they flew in to attend her ex-husbands funeral after he died of a heart attack.

We were married for 18 years after all. And Paris wanted to say goodbye to her father, she said. We flew to Dubai where we were intending to stay for just five days and were arrested immediately upon entry because Pedros new wife Samah had reported my old Facebook post to the police.

She said that the police wanted to take them straight to jail in Jebel Ali, but didnt want the negative publicity of jailing her 14-year-old daughter.

The police kept telling me to call someone to take my daughter while I went to Jebel Ali, she said. But I dont know anyone here well enough for that. Eventually they let us go, but kept my passport.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said in a statement to the Telegraph newspaper: 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.

Radha Stirling, CEO of Detained in Dubai, is officially representing Shahravesh. She said in a statement, 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.

Stirling told BBC News that both her organization and the Foreign Office had asked the complainant to withdraw the allegation, but she had refused.
Chicago Prosecutor Kim Foxx Defends Decision to Drop Jussie Smolletts Charges

Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx said it was her choice to dismiss Empire actor Jussie Smolletts charges and claimed he didnt get special treatment.

According to USA Today, she suggested race was a factor in the criticism against her.

I have been asking myself for the last two weeks what is this really about, Foxx said at the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.s Rainbow Push Coalition on April 6.

She added: As someone who has lived in this city [Chicago], 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.

Foxx said shell run for re-election after her term is over, Fox News reported.

There were specific aspects of the evidence and testimony presented to the office that would have made securing a conviction against Smollett uncertain. In determining whether or not to pursue charges, prosecutors are required to balance the severity of the crime against the likelihood of securing a conviction. For a variety of reasons, including public statements made about the evidence in this case, my office believed the likelihood of securing a conviction was not certain, Foxx also wrote late last month in defending the move.

Prosecutors dropped the charges against Smollett after he was indicted on 16 counts of disorderly conduct for filing a fake police report about being a victim of an alleged hate-crime attack. He said he was attacked by two men who poured a chemical on him, hung a noose around his neck, and yelled, This is MAGA country, in reference to President Donald Trumps campaign slogan.

An investigation led to Chicago police detectives arresting two Nigerian brothers who Smollett apparently knew. After several days in custody, the brothers, Ola and Abel Osundairo, confessed to detectives that the actor had paid them $3,500 to help him falsify a hate crime.

The move to drop charges drew scorn from Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson and Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Blasted by Comedians

In the past week, comedians Chris Rock and Tracy Morgan lampooned Smolletts case, with both strongly suggesting they dont believe him.

They said No Jussie Smollett jokes  What a waste of light skin. Do you know what I could do with that light skin? That curly hair? My career would be out of here! Id be running Hollywood, said Rock at the NAACP Image Awards in Hollywood, California, according to CBS News.

Rock said: What the hell was he thinking? Youre Jessie from now on. You dont get the u no more. That u was respect. You aint getting no respect from me!

Racist people dont be jumping nobody in the polar vortex, Morgan said on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on April 2. Smollett said he was attacked at 2 a.m. on a night in January when sub-zero temperatures hit Chicago.

He joked, Its too cold. Theyll be racist in the spring.

Later, he was asked about whether he believes the actor.

No, man! Come on  racists dont be watching Empire, man, Morgan said.
Villagers allege that Odzi River in Zimbabwe has been polluted by Chinese companies. (Andrew Mambondiyani for The Epoch Times)

Chinese Companies Tear Down Zimbabwes Environment

MUTARE, ZimbabweThe environmental impacts by some Chinese companies operating in Zimbabwe can only be described as catastrophic, according to leading environmentalist and human rights activist Farai Maguwu.

Maguwu told The Epoch Times that some Chinese companies dont even have proper licenses to operate in Zimbabwe.

And as such, these companies are leaving trails of immense environmental degradation across the country, particularly those in extractive sectors such as gold, diamond, and chrome mining.

Villagers in affected areas have claimed that some Chinese companies discharge toxic waste into their water sources resulting in human diseases, a drop in crop yields, death of livestock, and dwindling numbers of fish in the rivers. Some villagers said tailings from the mines were clogging dams and rivers and affecting the availability of water for irrigation.

In Marange diamond fields, these allegations were vindicated by a scientific research study done by the University of Zimbabwe and commissioned by the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association which proved that there were high levels of toxic waste in the rivers.

[Some Chinese companies] are guests of powerful politicians [in Zimbabwe] and this was well covered in the 2013 Chininga report [by the Zimbabwe Parliament Portfolio Committee on Mines Energy chaired by the late Edward Chindori Chininga], said Maguwu, a director for the research and advocacy NGO, Center for Natural Resource Governance. The NGO is fighting to promote good governance in natural resources.

As reported previously by The Epoch Times, Zimbabwean legislator Prosper Mutseyami also alleged that Chinese companies enjoyed protection from the government, as China is currently the biggest investor in Zimbabwe.

Mutseyami, a chief whip for the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change in Zimbabwes House of Assembly, said the government was afraid to anger China, which is among the few countries that currently support the Zimbabwean government.

In the past few years, China has availed loans and grants to the Zimbabwean government for various infrastructural projects including the expansion of Robert Mugabe International Airport and to upgrade the countrys electricity power plants in Kariba and Hwange.

The southeast African country is expecting to receive even more loans and grants under Chinas ambitious infrastructure plan, the One Belt, One Road initiative.

Protection From the Government

In 2013, professor Sheunesu Mpepereki, who was the chairman of the Environmental Management Agencyan arm of government mandated to protect the environmentwas shocked when he came face to face with the operations of some Chinese companies in the countrys Matabeleland South province.

During that time, many irrigation schemes in the semi-arid region had shut down due to siltation of major rivers and dams in the area by activities of some Chinese companies. This resulted in a precarious food situation. The siltation of water sources also affected water supplies to urban centers in the province while livestock farmers in the region who depend on the rivers for water were affected.

But Maguwu said even Zimbabwes Environmental Management Agency had no power to deal with Chinese companies due to the impunity they enjoy.

Communities cant stop the Chinese because they have the protection from the government, he said.

Repeated efforts to get a comment from the Environmental Management Agency were fruitless as the agencys spokesperson, Steady Kangata, didnt respond to email or Whatsapp messages from The Epoch Times.

But Maguwu said massive environmental degradation by Chinese companies were evident in various parts of the country.

Its the same in Marange, their [mining] concession has no limit; they were permanently expanding their concession, thereby encroaching onto other peoples land. In Hwange, they are accused of taking peoples land without due process, he said.

Marange said his organization was educating communities in nonviolent resistance to destructive mining activities by the Chinese companies.

We are planning a huge protest in Marange to force the government to withdraw Anjin Investments from the area, he said.

Anjin Investments, a diamond company partly owned by the Chinese, will return to mine diamonds in the Marange area but local people are against the move.

Before Anjin Investments was booted out of Marange diamond fields by former Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabes government in 2015, villagers and human rights activists accused the company of various human rights violations and evasion of paying taxes and royalties.

Francis Danha, a leader of the opposition political party, the 1980 Freedom Movement, said the best way to deal with Chinese companies flouting environmental laws in Zimbabwe is by exposing their activities through investigative journalism.

We need active journalism which clearly outlines their [Chinese companies] activities as well as exposing them, Danha said.

Danha alleges that it is hopeless to approach the corrupt African governance systems when violations are exposed because they are puppets of China and paid to protect Chinese interests.
Workers sort packages after the "Singles Day" online shopping festival at a delivery company in Nantong City, Jiangsu Province, China, on November 15, 2018. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

Chinese Mail Delivery Service Suddenly Shuts Down, Drawing Protests to Claim Compensation

An express mail delivery company based in Beijing, Rufengda Express Corporation, has suddenly shut down its business operations.

Hundreds of the companys employees, suppliers, and logistics partners from different regions in China rushed to Beijing in an attempt to recover unpaid wages and other financial compensation, which they claim total more than 70 million yuan ($10.4 million).

Rufengda operates in more than 3,000 cities in 31 provinces and provincial-level regions, according to the companys website.

But Rufengda had been losing money for the past few years as larger companies eclipsed the competition, a person familiar with the firms finances told Caixin, a Chinese business publication.

Tech giants JD.com and Alibaba both have their own courier services, often popular choices among Chinese online shoppers.

Protests

Protesters surrounded the companys headquarters building in Beijing for several days in a row. Riot police arrived on the evening of April 4 to disperse the crowd.

One of the protesters told the Chinese-language Epoch Times in an interview: The company stopped paying salaries since March 16. We went to the Beijing headquarters to defend our rights. At the beginning, there were about 400 people who stayed here for quite some time, but to no avail. The cost of food and accommodation in Beijing is very costly, so many people went back home.

Another protester said there were more than 400 riot police, against roughly 200 protesters. The police also forbade them from recording video footage. Whoever tried to shoot video would have his cell phone grabbed away by the police, so protesters didnt dare to shoot videos anymore, he said.

It was said that protesters found the companys new CEO Ying Hang inside the building and surrounded him. In the end, police chased away all the protesters.

A female Rufengda staff who said she worked at the headquarters said her employer owed her two months salary, or nearly 10,000 yuan ($1,489). It [company shutdown] happened all of a sudden. The company stopped all business operations on March 12, but did not give any explanation, she told the Chinese-language Epoch Times. Moreover, none of the company managers came out to do anything about it. The new shareholders have never made any public appearance. We have never seen them at all.

Some media have reported that the company owed employees a total of 30 million yuan ($4.5 million) in wages.

The Company

Public data shows that Rufeng Express Co. was founded in April 2008 with initial funding from e-commerce firms. In fact, the company was the in-house delivery service for VANCL, an online fashion store.

On Jan. 7, the companys shareholder was changed from the Suzhou Wanlong Huayu Logistics Co. to Shenzhen General Logistics E-Commerce Co., where the business is registered under Ying Hang.

However, Ying has a record of legal trouble, according to an online public database on Chinas business executives, called the Executive Information Open Network. From Nov. 10, 2015, to Aug. 27, 2018, Ying was listed on an untrustworthy list for repeatedly refusing to fulfill obligations required from legal documents while having the capability to fulfill those obligations. A recent labor dispute involving Ying led to a court decision on March 12 that compelled his company to provide roughly 27,000 yuan (about $4,000) in financial compensation to an unnamed litigant.

According to an April 3 report by Chinese media The Economic Observer, General Logistics E-Commerce decided to acquire Rufengda at 45 million yuan ($6.7 million), but suddenly requested to pause the acquisition on March 28. So far, General Logistics has only paid 15 percent of the 45 million yuan.

One of Rufengdas suppliers told The Economic Observer that the company owed 45 million yuan to its suppliers and logistics partners.

Mr. Gao, who owns a small logistics company in Beijing that partners with the courier company, said that Rufengda owed four months of payments to his company, which amounted to 5.65 million yuan ($840,000).

Ying Hang entered the company headquarters on April 4. Protesters immediately surrounded him. Eventually, police came and chased away the protesters.
Monza's hopes of staying on the F1 calendar have received a financial boost.

Earlier, the future of the Italian grand prix looked in doubt.

But Germany's SID news agency claims that the Italian right-wing political party Lega brought a bill to parliament in Rome last Friday.

The bill called for Monza's race to be protected as a "traditional grand prix", and funded by to the state to the tune of EUR 10 million every year.

The Senate, which is controlled by Lega, is now set to vote on the bill.

Last year, the Italian grand prix at Monza recorded a EUR 12 million loss.

"The cost of the grand prix at Monza is too high for us," said Angelo Sticchi Damiani, boss of the Italian automobile club Aci.

(GMM)
Police stand guard outside the No. 2 Intermediate People's Court where human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang was being sentenced in Beijing on December 22, 2015. (GREG BAKER/AFP/Getty Images)

Chinese Regime Tightens Control on Lawyers

Chinas Ministry of Justice recently announced an updated evaluating system for lawyers, mandating that all who practice law must support the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) socialist rule.

The Ministry of Justice notified all of its provincial branches on how to evaluate a lawyers professionalism, which would be the standard used to determine whether to grant a lawyer his or her practicing license.

According to the notice released on March 27, the first criterion is that a lawyer must support the leadership of the CCP, defend the rule of law under socialism, abide by the Constitution and laws, and adhere to the professional ethics and discipline of lawyers.

Secondly, all lawyers must not have been subject to disciplinary action, administrative punishment, industry penalty, nor credit penalty during the past five years of practice.

This represents an escalation of the Partys efforts to solidify its control of lawyers, having previously required them to support the Chinese constitution.

The latest rules may also put many human rights lawyers practice licenses at risk, because they are frequently detained because of their work.

On about July 9, 2015, Chinese authorities launched a nationwide crackdown on human rights lawyers and activists, known colloquially as the 709 Incident, in which hundreds were rounded up and detained, including prominent lawyers such as Wang Quanzhang, Wang Yu, and Li Heping.

New Standard Against Rule of Law

Teng Biao, a prominent Chinese human rights lawyer, believes the Chinese regimes rules violate the basic nature of being a lawyer.

A lawyer is an independent profession in a society with rule of law, Teng told the Chinese-language Epoch Times in an interview on April 6. [Lawyers] should be independent of political parties, should be separate from political ideology. Then, they can dedicate themselves to defending the constitution, laws, and justice.

Teng added that the Party was forcing lawyers to follow communist ideology because its fearful that lawyers, who often take on cases involving injustices perpetrated by Chinese authorities, would protest the Partys rule.

The Party is trying to clean up the lawyers whose minds and speech cannot be trusted by the Party, Teng said.

Cheng Hai, a famous human rights lawyer in Beijing, told the Chinese-language Epoch Times on April 6 that the Party tried to adopt a similar policy in the 1980s, but it was abolished later.

Cheng was routinely harassed by authorities after he took on cases representing adherents of Falun Gong, a spiritual meditation practice that has been severely persecuted by the Chinese regime since 1999.

In 2013, Cheng was beaten by police, and was forbidden from defending 13 Falun Gong practitioners in court.

In February 2018, Chengs law firm was shut down by Beijings judicial department. Cheng told the Chinese-language Epoch Times at the time that he believed the reason authorities were going after him was that he tried to defend fellow lawyer Wang Quanzhang in court. Wang was detained on charges of inciting subversion of state power in 2015, and sentenced to four and a half years in prison.

Cheng then lost his license to practice in August that year.

Teng worries that with the new rules, human rights lawyers will no longer be able to do their work.

If no human rights lawyers exist, or no human rights lawyer can work, everybody [in China] will be affected, he said. The middle class, officials, and even rich businessmen will suffer.
Rep. David N. Cicilline (D-R.I.) talks with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) during a news conference where House and Senate Democrats introduced the Equality Act of 2019 which would ban discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, in Washington on March 13, 2019. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Critics See Equality Act as Endless Lawsuit Machine

News Analysis

New civil rights legislation introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives that would extend protection to LGBTQ individuals would also undermine First Amendment free speech rights while opening the door to religious-based discrimination, according to conservative critics.

The proposed Equality Act, known as H.R. 5, was introduced March 13 by Rep. David N. Cicilline (D-R.I.).

The measure would add gender identity and sexual orientation to the classes protected against discrimination by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, outlawing discrimination against all protected classes in employment, housing, public accommodations, education, jury service, banking and credit, and retail stores.

In most states in this country, a gay couple can be married on Saturday, post their wedding photos to Instagram on Sunday, and lose their jobs or get kicked out of their apartments on Monday just because of who they are, said Cicilline, an openly gay man. This is wrong. We are reintroducing the Equality Act in order to fix this.

Cicillines comment on the plight of gay couples leaves out what critics say are the adverse effects and unintended consequences of his law.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) criticized H.R. 5 at a recent congressional hearing on the bill, by highlighting the chaos that could follow legal protection for a persons self-defined gender identity.

What if, for example, President Donald Trump decided to declare himself the countrys first female president? Gaetz wondered aloud, according to The Washington Post. Under the act, referring to Trump as a manor in politically correct parlance, misgendering himcould be unlawful.

What happens when sex is defined as gender identity, and gender identity is terribly vague? Gaetz said. Will all sex-based distinctions be erased?  Would grants for female-led businesses or programs for women in STEM fields suddenly be open to all persons, whether they believe or not that they identify as a woman?

And as Paul Mirengoff writes at the Powerline blog, state laws similar to the Equality Act have undermined constitutionally protected fundamental freedoms.

Such laws have been used to shutter Catholic adoption agencies that only place children with a mother (biologically female) and a father (biologically male).

Government officials have used them to force people in the wedding industry, such as bakers, photographers, and florists, to render services at same-sex marriage ceremonies, even when the service providers have a religious objection to such marriages.

Even before the 1979 failure of the ratification of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment, which would have enshrined social engineering on the basis of sex in the U.S. Constitution, left-wing activists have been trying to use civil rights laws to impose radical egalitarianism on society.

Tina Trent, a former candidate for District 26 of the Georgia General Assembly, told The Epoch Times that the Equality Act is an endless lawsuit machine.

Unlike traditional federal civil-rights legislation, which at least redresses historical injustice and is bounded by the narrow category of race, this legislation will be applied to anything and everything the [LGBTQ] lobby invents as their next cause, said Trent, a writer and former academic who holds a doctorate in contemporary political and social movements from Emory University.

Who would have predicted even three years ago that [LGBTQ] activists would succeed in demanding that we not only accept but submit to their fringe ideas about gender differences being nonexistent? What new rules will they invent that we must bow to?

The LGBTQ lobby has been taken over by literal fascists, she said. Handing them the power to sue anyone who does not submit to their ever-changing political demands is a recipe for utter disaster.

The American Civil Liberties Union has embraced the proposed Equality Act.

The Equality Act also clarifies that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) cannot be used in civil rights contexts, prohibiting religious libertywhich is a core American valuefrom being used as a license to discriminate, the group said in a statement.
Egypt Unveils 2,500-Year-Old Mummy at Forgotten Cemetery

Egypt has unveiled the 2,500-year-old mummy of a high priest at an ancient cemetery south of Cairo.

Egyptologist Zahi Hawass and an Egyptian team opened three sealed sarcophagi from the 26th Dynasty early on Monday, April 8.

One contained the well-preserved mummy of a powerful priest, wrapped in linen and decorated with a golden figure depicting Isis, an ancient Egyptian goddess.

The team also opened two other sarcophagi, one containing a female mummy decorated with blue beads and another with a father in a family tomb. The finds were revealed live on air on the Discovery Channel.

At the burial site in Minya province, the team also found a rare wax head.

Egyptian archaeologists discovered the site a year and a half ago and the excavation is continuing.

Hawass told Reuters before the sarcophagi were opened that he expects more tombs to be found there.

In 1927, a huge limestone sarcophagus was found in the area and placed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, but the site was then forgotten, Hawass said.

But two years ago an unauthorised digger was found at the site and stopped, he said. Thats what alerted archaeologists and excavation began.

By Seham Eloraby and Aiden Nulty
The boxes carrying two Giant Pandas named Xing Er and Mao Sun is unloaded from the plane on its arrival at Copenhagen Airport, on April 4, 2019. (Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

Expert Panel Warns About Chinese Regimes Infiltration as 2 Pandas Arrive in Denmark Zoo

COPENHAGENAn expert panel in Denmark has warned about the gamut of tactics employed by the Chinese regime to allegedly interfere with foreign politics and national security as two cuddly pandas arrive in Copenhagen Zoo from China.

Politicians, academics, journalists, and witnesses of the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) economic influence on Danish society came together during a seminar held at the Danish Parliament on April 4, to discuss the increasing relationship between the two nations and the threat such a relationship with the worlds largest communist regime could pose to the small European nation.

Denmark has previously warded off attempts by the CCP to create a presence in Denmark and Greenlanda self-governing territory of the Danish Kingdomfor fears over national security. In 2017, Denmark turned down an offer by a Chinese company to acquire an abandoned naval base on Greenland over security concerns. Similarly last year, the Chineses attempt to finance three major airports in Greenland was also thwarted after the Danish government stepped in, upon the urging of the United States, reported the Wall Street Journal.

The CCPs latest attempt to charm the European nation by gifting two pandas as part of its panda diplomacy has experts worried that the Danish government will have to tread lightly around issues relating to China for fears of angering the communist regime, even if the decisions may not align with Denmarks values. The panda diplomacy is a move the regime employs to forge guanxi or deep, long-lasting relationships in exchange for trade and foreign-investment deals.

Well still want to trade with China, we just dont want to be dictated by China, said Sren Espersen, the chairman of the Danish parliaments Foreign Policy Committee.

Espersen said the CCP has already on many occasions tried to influence Denmarks foreign policy in trying to implement its one-China policy by using trade and economic benefits as leverage.

China is trying to wiggle its way inunder the cover of business partnerships. The communist regime has in recent years run effective political harassment against Denmark, said Espersen.

The Chinese describe this as enforcing the one-China policy. And this is done with the most intolerable arrogance, he said.

Espersen said one example of alleged harassment was when Danish Prime Minister Lars Lkke Rasmussen received the Dalai Lama for a talk at the Prime Ministers residence in 2009. He said after the visit 40 export companies approached the government and complained that exports to China had stalled.

Containers were forgotten on the harbor quay, no new licenses were given, harassment, harassment, and even more harassment, Espersen said.

China makes sure of course, that it adheres to all the World Trade Organization rules on the surface because they never leave traces of evidence when they threaten and harass both Danish business and Denmark officials, he added.

He said that it was only after the Danish government sent a verbal note to assure the CCP that Denmark opposed independence for Tibet, did Danish exports return to just as it was before the Dalai Lamas unfortunate visit.

In another example, the exiled prime minister of the Tibetan government had requested a meeting with the Speaker of the Danish Parliament Pia Kjrsgaard.

At the time, Espersen was in Beijing for a Foreign Policy Committee trip where he met with Chinese regime officials. Espersen recalled that they received a very aggressive oral dressing down from a Chinese minister who demanded Denmark refuse the request.

We who were present amongst usthree ex-foreign ministers of Denmarkwere absolutely stunned. They had never ever in their diplomatic career been told off like that. We felt as if we were children, Espersen recalled.

Ultimately, Kjrsgaard did not have time to see the exiled prime minister and instead, Espersen accepted the request on her behalf, holding a meeting at his office. The chairman of the Foreign Policy Committee said on the next day, he received a phone call from the Chinese Embassy in Copenhagen with a very angry protest that the meeting had taken place.

Note thatas alwaysit was just a phone call. China never sends emails or letters and therefore never leaves a trace of their threats and harassment of business or officials of Denmark, Espersen said.

This is how they operate everywhere in the world. It is common practice. With elegance and with sophisticated cynicism, the communist regime manages to threaten and harasswithout evidence appearing anywhere, he added.

Moreover, Espersen said that along with political interference, the CCP has also allegedly tried to influence art and culture overseas by interfering in Shen Yun Performing Arts Performances in Denmark in 2017.

New York-based Shen Yun seeks to revive 5,000 years of Chinese culture through performing arts, according to the companys website. Its performances include pieces that portray contemporary China, including the ongoing persecution of Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong)a topic considered taboo by the Chinese regime.

Thomas Foght, an investigative journalist with Radio24syv, conducted a probe into the alleged interference and found evidence to show that the Chinese embassy had pressured the theater to not lease its venue to Shen Yun.

It showed for the first time that the Chinese embassy and delegation was actually pressuring the theater in not letting them book these facilities, Foght said.

During his investigation, Foght obtained emails that revealed one of the theaters employees told another staff member that they had met with the Chinese embassy.

According to the email, the Chinese embassy asked the theater to not allow Shen Yun to book their facilities at the end of the meeting.

Since 2007 until 2017, the only reason why the theater was rejecting Shen Yun was because of the artistic level, but I think this gave a new dimension to the story because now we could suddenly prove that there was a pressure from China towards the theater, he added.

He said the theater director and Denmarks minister of culture subsequently denied the allegations at the time, but the circumstances of the case were consistent with other examples of pressure by the Chinese regime in Denmark.

Grey Zone Strategy

Andre Ken Jakobsson, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen, said all these tactics employed by the CCP are part of Beijings Grey Zone strategy.

Jakobsson said nations engage in the grey zone strategy when the relationship between two countries is not at peace but also falls below the threshold of conventional war.

Here all the instruments and resources that a state can summon are used to further the national, political objective. This means that diplomatic, economic, cultural, informational, technological etc. instruments do not serve neutral purposes, the researcher said during the seminar.

They all combine in the service of the internal and external goals of the Chinese state, he added.

He said by employing the grey zone strategy, the regime tries to influence countries by taking control of public opinion, manipulating peoples emotions, and using national and international laws to protect Chinas interests and create limitations for opponent nations.

Examples include buying up media outlets and expanding Chinese state-run media on a global scale like inserting the CCP-paid advertorial, China Dailys China Watch, in major western newspapers, running CCP-sponsored Chinese language and cultural programs called Confucius Institutes at Danish universities, and engaging in panda diplomacy.

Its about high politics, Jakobsson said. Creating attraction to ones model of society and governance instead of having to coerce such allegiance.

The Epoch Times staff member Wendy Huang contributed to this report.
Protesters wearing yellow vests attend a demonstration during the Act XXI (the 21st consecutive national protest on Saturday) of the "yellow vests" movement at Place de la Republique in Paris in Paris, France, April 6, 2019. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

French Yellow Vest Protests Largely Peaceful as Macron Wraps up Debate

PARISThousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Paris and other French cities on April 6 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 debate initiative.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe is due on April 8 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 April 6, 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 Macrons 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 April 6 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 authorized, 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 capitals Champs Elysees, fearing a repetition of the vandalism seen three weeks earlier.

By Dominique Vidalon & Simon Carraud
Gambler Blackmails, Extorts Friend Through Forced Relations With His Ex-Wife

An indebted gambler and his ex-wife were arrested six months after extorting money out of a well-to-do acquaintance.

The gambler forced the acquaintance at knifepoint to have sex with his ex-wife, and used the act as evidence to take money from the acquaintance, according to an April 2 report by Big River News.

Police in Henan Province, China, said on April 2 that the gambler and ex-wife had been arrested on charges of robbery. The gambler, last name Sun, and the ex-wife, given the false name Faye, extorted approximately $60,000 from the victim on Nov. 17, 2018.

The victim, given the false name Sean, reported the incident to the police after he left Suns home where the extortion occurred.

Gambler and Debt

Sun was facing debt payments of over $110,000 from his online gambling. He had lost his relatives down payment on their house and as the debtors approached, Sun had to think of a way to get back the money.

Sun asked his ex-wife Faye for assistance. They have a 2-year-old child, and although divorced, Faye and Sun still lived together. Sun presented the idea to Faye that they could extort money from a wealthy acquaintance.

The plan was for Faye to seduce the wealthy friend and then Sun would blackmail the friend with photographic evidence. Faye resisted many times, but eventually gave in to the plan.

On Nov. 15, 2018, Sun invited Sean to visit his home. When Sean came over two days later, Sun forcefully encouraged Sean to drink. Sean refused, as he was not a drinker and only had a little sip out of politeness.

Sun then said he was stepping out to buy some more alcohol and hinted to Faye that she must attempt to seduce Sean. When Sun returned, Faye gestured to Sun that her seduction had been ineffective.

Sun then opted for plan B.

Seduction by Force

Suns temper exploded and he pulled out a switchblade on Sean. He claimed that he had been diagnosed with a terminal illness and would die in the coming days. He said that someone would have to take care of Faye and that Sean needed to make her his woman.

Sean offered to help find her work, but still refused a physical relationship with her.

Sun then forced the two to go to the bedroom and in the scuffle, cut Sean on the hand. Sun demanded that Sean and Faye have intercourse. Sean initially resisted, but he eventually gave in to Suns demands.

Immediately afterward, Sun set his extortion plan into motion. He demanded $75,000 from Sean. However, Sean talked him down to $60,000.

Sean called his wife, who used a phone service to wire Sun $15,000. The other $45,000 was borrowed from people Sean knew.

Sun then forced Sean to write a repentance letter. The letter was written explaining that Sean had taken advantage of Sun when he left his home to buy alcohol and raped his wife Faye, and that Sean had paid $60,000 to Sun and Faye as compensation.

Sun even forced Sean to put his fingerprint on the letter, using Fayes lipstick as an ink pad.

Then, before Sean was allowed to leave, Sun forced him to take a provocative photo on the bed with Faye.

The next day, both Sun and Faye went out to go shopping for Suns nephew. When they went to pay, both of their accounts had been frozen. The bank assistant didnt know why.

Sean had gone to the local police department and reported that hed been cheated out of his money.

Six months later, Sun and Faye were finally arrested by the authorities on charges of robbery.
Hospital Apologizes to Women Who Were Secretly Filmed

LA MESA, Calif.A Southern California hospital issued an apology to the women who claimed they were secretly filmed during gynecological surgeries.

More than 80 women sued Sharp Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa last week, alleging they were recorded by motion-activated cameras set up in three operating rooms as part of an effort to catch a possible drug thief, KNSD-TV reported.

As part of the class-action lawsuit first filed three years ago, one woman claimed she was recorded while giving birth by emergency caesarean section.

No one ever asked me to record one of my most tender, life-changing moments, Melissa Escalera told the station. I would have never agreed to be recorded in that vulnerable moment.

Sharp Grossmont Hospital is accused of secretly recording women giving birth and undergoing other surgical procedures between July 2012 and June 2013. https://t.co/uC3Wsrs8mm  #NBC7 San Diego (@nbcsandiego) April 6, 2019

The hospital near San Diego said in a letter Thursday, April 4, that the cameras set up in 2012 and 2013 were intended to record only individuals in front of the anesthesia carts. However, the letter said patients and medical personnel were at times visible to the cameras and recorded without sound.

Through the investigation, hospital officials identified the person they believed was stealing drugs and that person no longer works there.

The hospital said it has stopped using this surveillance method and that the videos are kept in a secured safe and only released in response to the legal processes or specific patient requests.

We sincerely apologize that our efforts may have caused any distress to the women who were recorded, their families, and others we serve, the letter said.

Lawsuit alleges Sharp Grossmont Hospital secretly recorded hundreds of women during childbirth and surgery. We talked exclusively to the doctor who first discovered the #hiddencameras. Dr. Patrick Sullivan said the hospital ignored his request to remove them. @KUSINews pic.twitter.com/cj9ULAEveu  Sasha Foo KUSI (@SashaFooKUSI) April 3, 2019

The Lawsuit

The lawsuit, which was filed by 81 patients on March 29, alleges Sharp Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa of installing hidden motion-detecting sensor cameras on drug carts in all three labor and delivery operating rooms at the womens center between July 2012 and June 2013. When triggered, the cameras would begin recording and would continue even after motion has stopped, the complaint said (pdf).

These cameras have recorded videos of deliveries, birth complications, and other medical procedures, the complaint states. Moreover, cameras also allegedly captured patients when engaging in discussions with their doctors and medical staff, while partially robed on the operating table, or when undressing for procedures. It also said the angle and placement of the cameras caused patients faces to be records, making them identifiable.

In total, the hospital allegedly filmed about 1,800 patients during that period.

Allison Goddard, the lawyer representing the women in the case, told The New York Times that the hospital is still in possession of thousands of videos.

The cameras recorded female patients at the hospitals Womens Health Center as they consulted with physicians, got Posted by The New York Times on Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Its universal shock from the patients and disgust, Goddard said. They dont know how their videos might be used or who may have seen them because Sharp didnt make sure that that would be taken care of.

The complaint also stated that in addition to breaching the womens privacy by filming them without consent, the hospital was grossly negligent with how they maintained the recordings.

The recordings were stored on desktop computers that could be accessed by multiple users, some without the need for a password. Sharp did not log or track who accessed the recordings, why, or when, the plaintiffs alleged.

The plaintiffs said the hospital has destroyed at least half of the recordings but cannot say when or how it deleted those files and cannot confirm that it took the appropriate steps to ensure the files were not recoverable.

Computers that stored the recordings were refreshed or replaced, and Sharp did not ensure proper deletion of recordings on those computers, the complaint stated.

Sharp said that they take extensive measures to protect the privacy of our patients.

The surveillance methods in the 2012-13 investigation were used for this particular case only and have not been used again, the hospital said in their statement.

A class-action lawsuit regarding the recordings and privacy of the patients was filed against the hospital in 2016 and still pending, the hospital said. According to Buzzfeed, the court refused to certify the classa process to combine multiple similar lawsuits together so that it proceeds as part of one larger case.

Moreover, the court also denied the hospitals motion for summary judgment. As a result, 81 women decided to refile the case last week. More women are expected to join the lawsuit, according to Goddard.

Epoch Times reporter Janita Kan and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Italian Man Held Hostage in Syria Since 2016 Freed: Prime Minister

ROMEAn Italian man held hostage in Syria since April 2016 has been freed and is returning home, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Friday.

Sergio Zanotti, a businessman from Brescia, was seized in southern Turkey near the Syrian border three years ago, his family said.

????????Italian PM Giuseppe Conte announced the release of #Italian hostage Sergio Zanotti kidnapped in #Syria in April 2016. Sergio Zanotti is in good general condition and in a few days will return to #Italy, to #Rome, he said. Zanotti is a 56 year-old businessman from #Brescia pic.twitter.com/WodLEf750x  SMM Syria (@smmsyria) April 6, 2019

Very little news was ever released about his abduction, with the government in Rome eager to maintain radio silence as they sought to gain his release.

At the end of a complex and delicate intelligence, investigative and diplomatic operation  we have today managed to obtain the release of Sergio Zanotti, Contes office said in a statement.

Italian PM says hostage in Syria has been freed https://t.co/mcy6XcXnN7 pic.twitter.com/Rj1HxbQIWO  The Local Italy (@TheLocalItaly) April 6, 2019

Our compatriot appears in a good general condition and in a few hours he will return to Italy, to Rome, it added, giving no details of who had held him or how he was freed.

His abductors posted at least two videos of Zanotti during his captivity.

In one he was shown kneeling between two masked gunmen and looking straight at the camera. Wearing a blue t-shirt and sporting a long, gray beard, he appealed to the government in Rome to intervene and prevent his execution.

3 Hostages Escape Muslim Terrorists in Philippines

Three hostages held by Muslim terrorists 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 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.

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.

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 was airlifted to Zamboanga city, where he was in critical condition in a hospital, military officials said.

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.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
FILE PHOTO: Workers examine Land Rover Freelander vehicles as they come off the production line at Jaguar Land Rover's Halewood assembly plant in Liverpool, northern England, March 2, 2011. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo

Jaguar Land Rover Begins Brexit-Linked UK Plant Shutdowns

LONDONJaguar Land Rover (JLR) shut its UK plants on April 8 for five days over Brexit, adding to other shutdowns to leave at least half the countrys car production off-line in what could be a pivotal week for Britains divorce from the EU.

The move was intended to prepare for any Brexit-related disruption at Britains biggest carmaker, which on April 8 also reported a fall in global sales.

The decision was taken a few months ago at a time when the departure datesince extended to April 12was March 29.

Automotive firms face several possible risks under a disorderly Brexit, including delays to the supply of parts and finished models, new customs bureaucracy, the need to recertify cars and an up to 10 percent tariff on finished vehicles.

Prime Minister Theresa Mays efforts to obtain a longer extension have also ruined contingency plans for some of them.

Shutdowns are generally organized far in advance so staff holidays can be scheduled and suppliers adjust volumes, making them hard to move.

With Britains political leaders still deadlocked over Brexit and some EU states questioning a further departure delay, culture minister Jeremy Wright said May would continue talks with the opposition Labour Party to try to find a compromise solution.

BMWs UK Mini and Rolls-Royce plants are also shuttered this week, as is Peugeots Vauxhall car factory, which brought forward summer shutdowns to April.

Together JLR, Mini, Rolls-Royce, and Peugeots Vauxhall, branded as Opel in the rest of Europe, built over 750,000 of Britains 1.52 million cars last year.

Honda has also scheduled six non-production days in April but has declined to say exactly when.

Britains car sector has posted sharp falls in sales, output, and investment since 2017.

JLR had to cut output last year, and in the year to March 2019, its global sales fell nearly 6 percent to 578,915 vehicles, hit by a sharp decline in China. UK sales rose 8.4 percent, however.

Overwhelmingly foreign-owned, the Britain-based car industry has become increasingly frustrated as a stable investment environment becomes mired in a political crisis that could lead to trade restrictions.

At least 25 percent of Britains automotive engine capacity is also closed as BMWs central English Hams Hall factory continues a four-week shutdown while JLRs Wolverhampton site stops production this week as part of Brexit preparations.

Honda engine production will also stop on six days this month.

By Costas Pitas
Clothing remains and weapons left behind after a suspected rhino poacher was eated by lions at Kruger National Park, South Africa, on April 6, 2019. (Courtesy of South African Police Service)

Lions Eat Suspected Poacher Who Died After Elephant Attack

A pride of lions have eaten a suspected poacher who died from an elephant attack in the South African wilderness.

The man is believed to have entered Kruger National Park, 380 kilometers (236 miles) east of Pretoria, on April 1 with four other men who had allegedly planned to poach rhinos.

Authorities confirmed that an elephant attacked and killed one of the men on April 2.

His accomplices claimed to have carried his body to the road so that passers by could find it in the morning, the South African Police Service said in a public statement. They then vanished from the park.

The survivors left the park and contacted a relative of the deceased with the bad news.

The family then called Skukuza Regional Ranger Don English who, after assuring the family that he would do everything possible to recover the remains and bring them closure, arranged a search party, South African National Parks (SANS) said in a public statement.

Kruger National Park Rangers and police from Komatipoort and Skukuza helped search for the mans remains on April 3. Rangers searched on foot while police conducted an aerial search, but could not find the body the same day due to failing light.

By the time a bigger search team found the body on April 4 in the parks south eastern Crocodile Bridge section, it had already been devoured.

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, SANS said.

#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

Police arrested three men aged between 26 and 35 within the KaMhlushwa and Komatipoort precincts as part of a joint intelligence operation to search for the dead poachers accomplices.

During the operation, two .375 hunting rifles and ammunition were seized, police said.

The surviving suspects appeared at Komatipoort Magistrates Court on April 5, charged with trespassing, conspiracy to poach, and possessing firearms and ammunition without a licence.

The court remanded them in custody and [they] will reappear at the same court on 12 April 2019, pending a formal bail application, police said. An inquest was [also] opened in connection with the dead suspect.

Park Managing Executive Glenn Phillips extended his condolences to the family of the deceased and thanked all who helped the search party.

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, he said. Entering Kruger National Park illegally and on foot is not wise, it holds many dangers and this incident is evidence of that.

Aphrodisiac Myth

The African rhino is sometimes targeted for its horn because people who practice modern Chinese medicine have been led to believe that the horn is a potent aphrodisiac. In some parts of the world today, it is worth more than cocaine, according to CNN.

But according to a 1931 translation of the Ming dynasty scientist and physician Li Shizhen and his Compendium of Materia Medica, written in 1597, rhino horn was prescribed for almost everything except to boost a failing libido, according to a multiple reports.

In fact, traditional Chinese medicine never has used rhinoceros horn as an aphrodisiac, Eric Dinerstein, who served as the chief scientist at the WWF for 25 years, wrote in his 2003 book The Return of the Unicorns: The Natural History and Conservation of the Greater One-Horned Rhinoceros. This is a myth of the Western media and in some parts of Asia is viewed as a kind of anti-Chinese hysteria.

Not all rhino horn is sold on the black market. Much of it is sold as a luxury item. https://t.co/GOydj9Ut0X  Scientific American (@sciam) March 20, 2018

Conservation researcher Alexandra Kennaugh wrote in a 2015 report that there are two distinct rhino horn markets in China: a luxury market and a traditional medicine market. The report found that of the 2,000 Chinese surveyed, those who valued rhino horn for its medicinal propertiesmostly for fever or pain reliefwere less willing to purchase horn as prices rose. It went on to explain that those who valued rhino horn as a rare luxury good and status symbol were the ones willing to pay top dollar.

Certain individuals in this group of wealthy business elites were also the ones rumored to believe that rhino horn can cure impotence and enhance sexual performance, Scientific American reported. This is thought to be a significant factor in driving modern demand. Rhino horn is also reportedly being used in social circles of the new rich in Vietnam and China, some of whom have become rich through corruption, for use as a status symbol and party drug.

"Devastating as it is to the welfare and survival of rhino species, the Vietnamese market for rhino horns is both faddish and reversible." http://ow.ly/OWYO309Dz9O Posted by World Animal Protection US on Monday, March 6, 2017

Critically Endangered

The black rhino is considered to be critically endangered since its population in the wild dropped from about 65,000 in the year 1970 to just 2,400 in 25 years later, according to the park. Conservation efforts have boosted their numbers, and the worlds remaining 5,000 or more black rhinos live mostly in South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, and Zimbabwe.

At the park in 2016 there were between 349 and 465 black rhinos and between 6,600 and 7,800 white rhinos, which also suffer from poaching according to South Africas Department of Environmental Affairs.

The park is classified as an intensive protection zone, and the South African government tries to deter poaching through its aircraft fleet, dogs, special rangers, and environmental crime investigation unit.

Of the 680 poaching and trafficking arrests made in 2016 by police, 417 were in and around the park, the department said.
Another F1 team boss has warned the sport to think carefully before changing the qualifying format.

Last week, Red Bull's Christian Horner warned that adding a 'Q4' to the current system might be problematic due to a shortage of Pirelli tyres.

"At first glance, we don't have enough tyres for a qualifying format like that," he said.

Gunther Steiner, the boss at Haas, agrees that Liberty Media's proposal needs to be thoroughly studied.

"The idea of shorter sessions where people can look stupid is not bad, but it needs to be studied further so that we do not make the gap between the top and the rest larger instead of smaller," he is quoted by Ekstra Bladet newspaper.

Steiner suggested that because the smaller teams need to use more soft tyres to progress through Q1 and Q2, expanding the format to four qualifying segments could actually favour the faster big teams.

"It could mean the three big teams get an advantage rather than it mixing everything up a bit more," he said.

Steiner said F1 must learn the lessons from 2016, when an abysmal new qualifying format was dropped after just two races.

"We just need to be sure that we are not doing it wrong, because the current qualification system is not bad. It works. If it's not broken, why try to fix it?" he said.

(GMM)
Victim Alana Zuccaro (L and R headshot), 43, and suspect Robert McPhearson, 33, leaving a casino in Louisiana on March 20, 2019. (St. Landry Parish Sheriff's Office)

Missing Woman Alana Zuccaro Found Dead in the Woods

The body of a Louisiana woman has been found after she was reported missing on March 20.

Pineville Police Department confirmed on April 3 they had located the remains of Alana Michelle Zuccaro, 43, who was last seen driving a 1999 Tan Toyota Tacoma on Masonic Drive in Alexandria, 203 miles northwest of New Orleans.

Search crews acting on information received have located a body near the Washington area, the St. Landry Parish Sheriffs Office said in a Facebook post. Zuccaro was located in a wooded area off Highway 103 in Washington, LA. Notification has been made to next of kin.

UPDATE ON BODYMarch 27, 2019, Robert McPhearson was arrested by the West Baton Rouge Sheriffs Office relative to an Posted by St. Landry Parish Sheriff's Office on Wednesday, April 3, 2019

The sheriffs office described the woman as a white female, 5 feet 2 inches tall, 120 pounds, and with medium length dirty blond hair.

West Baton Rouge Sheriffs Office had already arrested suspect Robert McPhearson, 33, for an unrelated offense on March 27.

During the preliminary investigation, Mr. McPhearson provided West Baton Rouge Sheriffs Office investigators with information relative to murdering Alana Michelle Zuccaro, St. Laundry Parish Sheriffs Office said.

Initially McPhearson refused to say where Zuccaro died but eventually revealed the location to police.

McPhearson provided information to the Pointe Coupee Sheriffs Office Investigators with the location of Ms. Zuccaros body and the circumstances surrounding the murder of Alana Michelle Zuccaro, the sheriffs office said. On April 3, 2019 at 6:45 p.m., the St. Landry Parish Sheriffs Office along with West Baton Rouge Sheriffs Office and the Pointe Coupee Sheriffs Office located the body of Alana Michelle Zuccaro.

Boyfriend of woman found dead in St. Landry Parish identified as murder suspect https://t.co/IawEEFRkia pic.twitter.com/IRIN9LCRBl  Acadiana Advocate (@theadvocateaca) April 4, 2019

Alana Michelle Zuccaro was missing since March 20. Her boyfriend provided investigators with the location of Ms. Zuccaros body and the circumstances surrounding the murder, according to the St. Landry Parish Sheriffs Office. https://t.co/XRkX4x3Bdu  Acadiana Advocate (@theadvocateaca) April 4, 2019

Sheriff Bobby J. Guidroz said the grisly find will help give closure to the Zuccaro family.

He commended the St. Landry Sheriffs Office, West Baton Rouge Sheriffs Office, Pointe Coupee Sheriffs Office, Louisiana State Police Gaming, and the 18th Judicial District Attorneys Office for locating the body.

Agencies have used helicopters, search teams, and K9s to locate Zucarros whereabouts and to help bring her home, St. Landry Sheriffs Office Deputy Chief Eddie Thibodeaux said in a Facebook post dated April 4.

MISSING BODY FOUND UPDATE HER BODY WAS FOUND LAST NIGHT. PRAYERS TO HER FAMILY(Press Release in the comments)Det. Adam Rivette of the St. Landry Parish Sheriffs Office returns to Crime Stoppers and needs your help in locating a missing person.March 20, 2019, Alana Zucarro, was reported missing from the Pineville area. Zucarro and her boyfriend, Robert McPhearson were seen leaving a casino at 1:38 am that morning and appeared to be arguing. The Louisiana State Police located her 1999 Toyota Tacoma later that day on the 6000 block of Highway 103 with no one around. On March 22nd Zucarros purse, jacket, and shoes were located next to a nearby bayou. March 27, 2019, Robert was arrested by the West Baton Rouge Sheriffs Office where he voluntarily admitted that he was the last one to see Zucarro. If anyone has recently came into contact with McPhearson or Zacarro we need your help with information. Agencies have used helicopters, search teams, and k-9s to locate Zucarros whereabouts and to help bring her home. Download our P3 app and tap the app on your mobile device to Say It Here and submit your anonymous tips. Be alert, be safe, and God bless you. On behalf of Crime Stoppers, and Det. Adam Rivette, I am Deputy Chief Eddie Thibodeaux. Posted by St Landry Crime Stoppers on Thursday, April 4, 2019

Concerned citizens, including one of the victims family members, thanked authorities on social media for their time and effort in recovering Zucarros body.

St. Landry Crime Stoppers, thank you so much for finding her, Diane Coker Wiggins said. Its a shame for a person so young to die like that. At least the family can have closure.

Thank you for sharing my mothers story we just want to know, Zucarros daughter Laken Masters said.

Praying for the family may she rest in peace may God welcome her home with open arms, Larry Bernard Senior said.

Others expressed sympathy for the victims family.

So sad. Prayers for the family and loved ones of this poor person, Janice Berard said.

OMG so sad, my prayers or with her family may she rest in peace, Tessie Mouton said.

The investigation is continuing and people with information are encouraged to download the P3 app or call the Pineville Police Department on (318)442 6603.

Tap the app on your mobile device to Say It Here and submit your anonymous tips, Thibodeaux said. Be alert, be safe, and God bless you.
Neurosurgeon Pleads Guilty to Second Degree Murder in Wifes Death

TORONTOA Toronto neurosurgeon was fighting with his wife who wanted a divorce when he choked her to death in their home while their three children were sleeping, a court heard Monday as the man pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

Mohammed Shamjis plea came days before he was to stand trial for first-degree murder in the death of Elana Fric-Shamjihis wife of 12 years.

The couples marriage had been volatile and dysfunctional for months, a Crown lawyer told the court while reading an agreed statement of facts, and Shamji had been resisting his wifes attempts at starting divorce proceedings.

Fric-Shamji, who was family physician at Scarborough and Rouge Hospital, began an affair with a fellow doctor, and her husband found out about it, court heard. Shamji then continued to try and change his wifes mind about getting a divorce, the Crown said.

UPDATED: Toronto neurosurgeon pleads guilty to second-degree murder in wifes death https://t.co/1hCvGlrdjD pic.twitter.com/CBwzlkSvC8  CP24 (@CP24) April 8, 2019

On the night of her death, the pair got into a heated argument in their bedroom that woke one of their children, who heard banging, screams and then silence, court heard.

Mohammed struck Elana multiple times, causing her significant blunt force injuries all over her body, including a broken neck and broken ribs. He then choked her to death, Crown lawyer Henry Poon told the court.

After the killing, Mohammed packed his wifes body in a suitcase and drove about 35 kilometres north of the city and dumped the suitcase in the Humber River.

Toronto neurosurgeon Mohammed Shamji pleads guilty to second-degree murder in wifes death https://t.co/Wd52PuUi8X pic.twitter.com/zRjZf81Qpd  National Post (@nationalpost) April 8, 2019

Shamji carried on with his daily routine after the slaying, including performing surgeries the next day, and lied about his missing wifes whereabouts, the Crown said. He also planted evidence aimed at pointing the finger at his wifes lover, court heard.

Fric-Shamji was reported missing by her mother. Her body was found in a suitcase by the side of a road north of Toronto a day after she was last seen on Nov. 30, 2016.

Shamji, who worked at Toronto Western Hospital and was a faculty member at the University of Toronto, was arrested on Dec. 2, 2016.

Neurosurgeon pleads guilty to second-degree murder in wifes death https://t.co/wbf2FUZSX4  CTV Ottawa (@ctvottawa) April 8, 2019

Police have said an investigation revealed Fric-Shamji died of strangulation and blunt force trauma.

Fric-Shamjis death sparked an outpouring of grief from those who knew her. She was described as a talented professional who helped improve the health-care system.

By Liam Casey
New York Couple Disappears During Romantic Vacation in the Caribbean: Report

A New York couple has been reported missing after they suddenly disappeared during a romantic getaway in the Caribbean and have not been heard from for nearly two weeks, according to reports.

Orlando Moore, 43, and his girlfriend, Portia Ravenelle, 32, were supposed to return to New York on March 27, after a 4-day vacation in the Dominican Republic, reported NBC4.

But their families have been unable to reach them for more than 13 days. Their phones are off, their car still parked at the airport, and officials say there are no records of them returning to the United States.

Authorities said the couple checked out of their hotel in Samana but vanished en route to the airport. Moores sister, Lashay Turner, told NBC4 that she has contacted the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic and also filed a police report.

Weve been calling DR and they said they didnt make their flight, Turner told the news station. We also spoke to someone in U.S. Customs and they said my brother did not make his flight back here.

Turner said that the pair had a rental car in the Dominican Republic and the vehicle is also missing.

A frantic search is underway for a New York couple who took a vacation to the Caribbean, and suddenly vanished, with no sign of them for more than a week. Posted by NBC New York on Monday, April 8, 2019

The U.S. State Department told the news station that they were working with local authorities to search for the couple.

When a U.S. citizen is missing, we work closely with local authorities as they carry out their search efforts and share information with families however we can, a department official told the news station in a statement.

The welfare and safety of U.S. citizens abroad is one of the highest priorities of the Department of State. We stand ready to provide appropriate assistance to U.S. citizens in need and to their families, they added.

Turner said her brother is not the type of person who would just run off on a hiatus, adding that he has a daughter. She said, hes gonna let someone know where he is.

Other family members and friends are using social media to raise awareness about their disappearance.

PLEASE SHARE AND REPOST UNTIL THEY COME HOME. THEY WERE LAST SEEN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. THERE IS FOUL PLAY Posted by Samuel L. Rivers on Friday, April 5, 2019

US Tourist Abducted in Uganda

This follows reports that another American tourist, Kim Sue Endicott from California, and her guide were abducted in Uganda on April 2. Endicott and her guide, Congolese national Jean-Paul Mirenge Remezo, were abducted at gunpoint inside Queen Elizabeth National Park and a ransom of $500,000 was demanded, according to reports.

The pair were subsequently found alive in Congo on April 7, reported ABC News. It is not clear how much of the ransom was paid to the kidnappers.

U.S. officials told Fox News that military drones were used to assist the Ugandan security forces in the recovery of Endicott and Ramezo.

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.

After Endicotts release, President Donald Trump urged Ugandan officials to find the people responsible for the kidnapping.

Uganda must find the kidnappers of the American Tourist and guide before people will feel safe in going there. Bring them to justice openly and quickly! Trump tweeted on April 8.

Uganda must find the kidnappers of the American Tourist and guide before people will feel safe in going there. Bring them to justice openly and quickly!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2019

Queen Elizabeth National Park is Ugandas popular safari destination and is located near the border with Congo.
ORourke Calls Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu a Racist

Beto ORourke, a 2020 presidential contender, called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a racist as he spoke about the U.S.Israel relationship at a campaign event April 7. The Democrats remarks came just days before Israels elections, in which Netanyahu hopes to be reelected.

While giving a talk to an audience in Iowa, ORourke was asked a question about whether or not his criticisms of Netanyahu could alienate his supporters who back Israel.

The U.S.Israel relationship is one of the most important relationships that we have on the planet, and that relationship, if it is successful, must transcend partisanship in the United States, and it must be able to transcend a prime minister who is racist, ORourke said, according to video footage posted on Twitter by The Hill.

As he warns against Arabs coming to the polls, who wants to defy any prospect for peace as he threatens to annex the West Bank, and who has sided with a far-right racist party in order to maintain his hold on power, ORourke said.

Beto ORourke: The US-Israel relationship is one of the most important relationships that we have on the planet. And that relationship, if it is to be successful, must transcend partisanship in the United States, and it must be able to transcend a Prime Minister who is racist. pic.twitter.com/cZoEerEU82  The Hill (@thehill) April 7, 2019

According to The Hill, ORourke was referring to Netanyahu seeking to form a coalition with the Otzma Yehudit party, who have taken a hard line against the enemies of Israel.

A member of the Otzma Yehudit party described such an enemy to The Jerusalem Post as someone who wants to wipe out the State of Israel, someone who doesnt want a Jewish state, someone who doesnt want Jews in Israel, who wants to expel us, and destroy us. Someone who does terror attacks here, someone who throws stones and petrol bombs and someone who murders Jews.

This is not the first time that ORourke has spoken out against Netanyahu. In March, he said that Netanyahu openly sided with racists, saying that in a previous election Netanyahu warned that the Arabs were coming to the polls.

In his remarks, ORourke also went on to support a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, adding that Netanyahu doesnt represent the best interests of the U.S.Israel relationship.

We must be able to transcend his current leadership to make sure that that alliance is strong, that we continue to push for and settle for nothing less than a two-state solution, because that is the best opportunity for peace for the people of Israel and the people of Palestine, ORourke said.

ORourke, who gained national attention after he lost a bid for a U.S. Senate seat in Texas, said he doesnt believe Netanyahu represents the true will of the Israeli people.

The former congressmans remarks come as the Democrats struggled to address anti-Semitic remarks within their own party. Trump told reporters on March 8 that Democrats have now become an anti-Israel party, theyve become an anti-Jewish party after Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)a Somalia-born Muslimsparked criticism for questioning why U.S. lawmakers support Israel.

Days ago, Trump and Vice President Mike Pence spoke at the Republican Jewish Coalitions annual leadership meeting, telling those in the audience that the Democrats have shown their true colors about Israel.

Trump also issued a proclamation on March 25 stating that the United States recognizes the Golan Heights as part of the State of Israel. The area is on the disputed territory between Israel and Syria. Netanyahu expressed gratitude to Trump for making the move while talking to press during the March 25 bilateral meeting between the two.

Ive met many friends of Israel in this office. But as I said in the other room, just now, in a day of history, we have never had a greater friend than President Trump, Netanyahu said.

In 2018, the United States embassy opened in Jerusalem, marking a historic moment in Americas relationship with Israel.
Police Find Missing Teen Maximillian Carbone But Its Too Late

Authorities have found the body of a missing teenager who was last seen on April 6.

Boston Police Department has confirmed that it has found missing Wentworth University Student Maximillian Carbone, 19, of Nahant.

District B-2 officers located what initially seemed to be a non-viable adult male victim in the woods near 123 Terrace Street in Roxbury on April 7 at about 8:08 a.m. local time.

The victim was pronounced deceased at the scene, police said in a public statement. The victim has since been identified as Maximillian Carbone.

#BREAKING: Boston Police Confirm Missing Wentworth Student Maximillian Carbone Found Dead https://t.co/K2f6ta6aqN pic.twitter.com/x6UlHHVufn  WBZ | CBS Boston News (@wbz) April 7, 2019

Maximillian Carbone was found this morning in the brush behind a Roxbury glassblowing school. A school manager said three of Carbones classmates Saturday had tracked his phone to the area of the school. https://t.co/VSAOkg2wN9  The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) April 7, 2019

His devastated family members released a statement shortly after police informed them of the heart breaking discovery. They described the young man as a sweet, happy, and loving son, brother, and friend.

He was a hardworking student who cared about helping people, he will be missed dearly, Carbones parents said in a statement published by WCVB 5. We want to thank the Boston and Nahant Police and the Wentworth community. We ask the media to respect our privacy during this difficult time, our hearts are broken.

Carbone was last seen at a party in the Allegheny Street neighborhood, and police described him as 5 foot 10 inches tall with a thin build, weighing 150 pounds with thick curly brown hair, and wearing a green Heineken t-shirt, Patagonia sweatshirt, and khaki pants.

At this stage of the investigation, detectives do not believe the victims death to have occurred under suspicious circumstances, police said. The department is actively reviewing the facts and circumstances surrounding this incident.

Maximillian Carbone, 19, was last seen at a party in the Allegheny Street area on Saturday. He was found dead on Sunday. Boston Police detectives do not suspect foul play. https://t.co/6n4qdKyVlM  NBC Connecticut (@NBCConnecticut) April 7, 2019

The university published a statement extending condolences to Carbones family and friends and said it would work with police to find answers on how the teen died and what the community can do to help prevent another tragedy.

We extend our heartfelt sympathies to the Carbone family. The family has been on campus and we have been doing all we can to support them during this tragedy, a spokesperson said. He was a talented young man who had chosen biomedical engineering as his field of study, he had many friends within and outside of Wentworth, and a warm and loving extended family who will all miss him.

The university said it would continue supporting the affected family, friends, and fellow students who knew him.

We deeply appreciate all of the students and family members who joined the Boston Police Department and the Wentworth Department of Public Safety in extensive search efforts to find Max early in his disappearance, the spokesperson said. We are comforted by the strength and support of our community during this crisis.

Wentworth officials and the Carbone family have released respective statements. Both can be found at https://t.co/9RRzf3PnBb pic.twitter.com/Lea4nZ5LQR  Wentworth News (@WITNews) April 7, 2019

Anyone with information on Carbone is invited to contact Boston Police District B-2 detectives by phoning (617) 343 4275.
Report: Remains of Rhino Poacher Eaten by Lions Are Apparently Found

The remains of an alleged rhinoceros poacher were discovered after he was reportedly killed by an elephant before he was eaten by lions in South Africa, according to officials.

The apparent skull of the poacher was located, according to a report from local news outlet The Daily Sun, which published a graphic photo of it, on April 8.

Leonard Hlathi, an official, said that the poachers accomplices said they brought his body to the road so others could find it in the morning.

Officials at a South African park said a human skull and a pair of pants were found after other poachers told the mans family what had happened https://t.co/P0aAebVFae  KRON4 News (@kron4news) April 8, 2019

In a statement, rangers with Kruger National Park said they could not locate the body of the poacher, adding that 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. According to The New York Times, an elephant killed the man before the lions ate him.

Another official, Glenn Phillips, praised those who partook in the search effort in allowing the poachers family to have closure.

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, Phillips said in a statement.

#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

Four other people who were involved in the incident were arrested and will appear in court.

Hlathi elaborated, saying that the accomplices reportedly informed a relative of the dead man about their ordeal and police were alerted regarding the incident, according to South Africas Daily Sun (Warning: graphic photo of the skull).

Subsequent to that, police launched a joint intelligence-driven operation in search of the dead poachers accomplices, resulting in the arrest of three men aged between 26 and 35, said Hlathi.

Guns and ammunition were seized during an operation, he added.

China Fueling Demand for Rhino Horns

Last year, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) reversed a decades-old ban on the trade of tiger bones and rhino horns, which was decried by conservationists.

The announcement made on Oct. 29, stated that tiger and rhino parts will be legalized for research, medical, and cultural uses. Bones and horns can only be obtained from captive or farmed tigers and rhinos.

It is deeply concerning that China has reversed its 25-year-old tiger bone and rhino horn ban, allowing a trade that will have devastating consequences globally, Margaret Kinnaird, WWF Wildlife Practice Leader, said in a statement responding to the Chinese regimes decision last year.

She said the reversal of the ban will likely fuel a demand for rhino horns, which will bolster poaching in Africa.

With wild tiger and rhino populations at such low levels and facing numerous threats, legalized trade in their parts is simply too great a gamble for China to take, Kinnaird continued.
A view shows a facility, where nearly 100 whales including orcas and beluga whales are held in cages. (Press Service of Administration of Primorsky Krai/Alexander Safronov/Handout via Reuters)

Russia Signs Agreement to Free Captive Whales After Outcry

MOSCOWRussia on Monday, April 8, signed an agreement with a group of international scientists to free nearly 100 whales that have been held for months in cramped pens in Russias Far East, a scandal that has triggered a wave of criticism.

Images of the 10 orcas and 87 beluga whales, kept in enclosures in a bay near the Sea of Japan port of Nakhodka, first appeared after they were caught last summer by firms which planned to sell them to marine parks or aquariums in China.

Their plight angered animal rights groups and spurred a petition to release the whales, shared by actor Leonardo DiCaprio on social media, which gathered almost 1.5 million signatures online. Actress Pamela Anderson also posted an open letter to Russian President Putin on her website.

Please sign this petition and join me in speaking out against the inhumane capture of orcas and belugas in Russia. https://t.co/OED9zJ9fnz  Leonardo DiCaprio (@LeoDiCaprio) February 26, 2019

The Kremlin intervened and ordered local authorities to act, prompting Russias FSB security service to bring charges against four companies for breaking fishing laws.

But although the Kremlin agreed that the whales were held in cruel conditions, it said it was difficult to release them into the wild without harming them.

On Monday, however, international scientists, including Jean-Michel Cousteau, son of French marine expert Jacques Cousteau, signed a joint agreement with Russian scientists, backed by the local authorities, to free the mammals.

Their release is likely to be phased.

A decision in principle has been taken to release all the animals into the wild, Oleg Kozhemyako, the governor of Primorsky Region, told reporters after the signing ceremony.

Scientists from Cousteaus team and Russian scientists will decide when and which animals to release.

A special rehabilitation facility for whales would be set up under the agreement, with conditions as close as possible to their natural environment. Any whales in the Sea of Japan that were hurt or got into trouble could be treated there, said Kozhemyako.

Cousteau told reporters it was a very emotional moment for him and the scientists would do all they could to save the animals.

I know its a lot of work, but I have no doubt that we are going to succeed, said Cousteau.

The scientists promised they would devise a plan to release the whales, some of which were captured as long ago as July, by next month.

The Kremlin has said Russia has no direct ban on catching whales, but they can only legally be caught in specific circumstances, for scientific and educational purposes.

Cousteau to help Russia with releasing captured whales  The release of some 100 whales held captive here in a bay near Vladivostok, in Russia's far East, "could take years", Cousteau says  Posted by FRANCE 24 English on Friday, April 5, 2019

By Andrew Osborn
Scheer Urges PM to Follow Through on Libel Threat Over SNC, Testify in Court

OTTAWAAndrew 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 SNCLavalin.

The Conservative leader revealed Sunday that he received a letter on March 31 from Trudeaus 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. Its the same kind of tactic Trudeau has employed to silence former attorney general Jody WilsonRaybould, said Scheer.

This is what Justin Trudeau does when you stand up to him. He threatens you.

Like WilsonRaybould, 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.

WilsonRaybould maintains she was inappropriately pressured last fall by the Prime Ministers Office to stop criminal proceedings against SNCLavalin on bribery charges related to contracts in Libya. She believes she was moved to Veterans Affairs in a midJanuary cabinet shuffle as punishment for refusing to do so. She resigned from cabinet a month later.

While she has called the pressure improper, WilsonRaybould has said she doesnt believe anything illegal occurred.

Last week, Trudeau expelled both WilsonRaybould 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 governments handling of the SNCLavalin case.

At issue in the threatened libel suit is a statement Scheer issued on March 29, in which he said documentation provided by WilsonRaybould 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 SNCLavalins criminal prosecution.

Porter called the statement highly defamatory.

The prime minister supports wideranging 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 its entirely false to say Trudeau interfered in the SNC prosecution, which has not been halted, or that he personally directed WilsonRaybould to break the law and fired her when she refused. Its also entirely false to suggest Trudeau was aware of WilsonRayboulds concern that he was politically interfering in the SNC case but lied to Canadians about it, Porter said.

Scheers 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, Scheers 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, whove been involved in the SNCLavalin 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. Scheers statements were appropriate and grounded in evidence before the Canadian people.
Chen Po-yu, president of a Taiwanese enterprise group, enjoyed Shen Yun Performing Arts World Companys performance at the Chih-The Hall of the Kaohsiung Cultural Center, along with his entire family, on April 6, 2019. (Li Fangru/The Epoch Times)

KAOHSIUNG, TaiwanChen Po-yu, president of a Taiwanese enterprise group, was fascinated by the splendid performance presented by Shen Yun Performing Arts World Company, when he saw the show along with his entire family at the Chih-The Hall of the Kaohsiung Cultural Center on April 6.

He pointed out that Shen Yun made people have a miraculous feeling, due to its unique form of performance.

The music, the costumes, the colors as well as the backdrops seemed to emit positive energy, Chen said. He added that Shen Yun has rejuvenating effects, which eased my stress before I knew it.

The vibrant colors of the costumes are so exquisite and incomparably beautiful, he added.

Marveling at Shen Yuns magnificent performance, Chen expressed with great gratitude that as long as Shen Yun visits Taiwan, he would definitely see the performance along with his family, regardless of how busy he might be. He said, It is truly precious for us to see the show in Taiwan.

He was grateful that Shen Yun benefits people in a way that is beyond words, I really cherish the opportunity to see Shen Yun. Every time after watching Shen Yun, I get a lot of inspiration and energy for both my career and for my artistic creation. It [Shen Yun] helps my business run smoothly.

Chen appreciated Shen Yun for its emphasizing on the harmony between man and Nature, and such harmony is good for society.

New York-based Shen Yun is the worlds top classical Chinese dance and music performance. Its mission is to revive the 5,000 years of divinely inspired Chinese culture, which was nearly lost under communist rule.

Seeing how Shen Yun is promoting Chinese culture around the world, he said, The power of an individual is limited but the power of Shen Yun is limitless. Shen Yun is promoting Chinese culture to the entire world infinitely.

It [Shen Yun] inspires people to treasure Chinese culture, and in reality, Chinese culture is not something exclusive to China, and instead, it is something that should be appreciated by people around the world, regardless of borders.

Truly touched by Shen Yuns performance, he said, Shen Yun has been working really very hard to promote this positive energy. Its beyond what ordinary people could comprehend. Shen Yun is something very profound that is hard to come by.

Shen Yun has continuously grown through severe training, so that it can reach out to the entire world. Its a remarkable achievement and is very precious, he added.

Ive watched Shen Yun many times, and each time I was truly moved, he noted, in tears. Its really remarkable for Shen Yun to awaken so many people to pay attention to Chinese culture. Shen Yun is truly amazing!

With reporting by Li Fangru, M. Han, and Billy Shyu.

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.
Peter Heide and Cindy Mitchell saw Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Marion Oliver McCaw Hall in Seattle, Washington, on April 7, 2019. (Mary Man/Epoch TImes)

SEATTLEShen Yun Performing Arts tours the world with a mission to bring back Chinas 5,000 years of civilization and history to the modern world. By way of inspiring dance pieces, harmonious music, and riveting stories, the company takes audience members on a journey through time.

Cindy Mitchell was among the audience who saw Shen Yun at the Marion Oliver McCaw Hall on April 7. She was touched by the different stories, in particular, ones that tried to raise awareness about real-life human rights abuses and oppression happening in communist China.

I was crying, I was crying a lot during the persecution [piece]  just really got to me, said Mitchell, who was a senior director of public affairs prior to retiring.

Many of Shen Yuns stories showcase historical events, myths and legends passed down generation after generation, and even modern day pieces portraying todays real-life human rights abuses in China like the persecution of Falun Gong.

Falun Gong, or Falun Dafa, teaches Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance and has helped over 100 million Chinese people today understand and return to the essence of traditional Chinese culture. But the Chinese regime banned the practice in 1999 and has since continued to systematically persecute Falun Gong adherents in China. People who are caught practicing the discipline in China face severe persecution, including torture, imprisonment, and even death.

These stories portray themes like spiritual devotion, the benevolence of gods, good and evil retribution, and the search for the meaning of life, according to the companys website. Such values are foundational to traditional Chinese culture and are not political in nature.

Mitchell said she found it sad that a performance with such an important message cannot be performed in China.

It is interesting that you cant put it on in China, she said. That was surprising [and] thats sad.

I think its an important message, she added.

Like Mitchell, many of Shen Yuns audience members are surprised when they hear from the emcees that Shen Yun cant perform in China today, despite the communist regimes appearance of modernization and opening up to the West.

What they dont know is the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sees traditional Chinese culture, which is deeply rooted in Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, as its greatest rival.

The aim of the Cultural Revolution, which occurred between 1966 and 1976, was an unprecedented move to systematically dismantle traditional culture and replace it with Mao Zedongs way of thinking and style of discoursea catastrophic move for the Chinese peoples identity.

With New York-based Shen Yun performing in over 100 cities around the world a year, the performance is like a window into a cultural treasure that is nearly lost.

Mitchells friend, Peter Heide, a retired senior director of forest policy, said he also enjoyed the performance and enjoyed the opportunity to learn something new.

I just enjoy that, and pleasure and watch the performance. I dont really fully understand all the historic aspect of it, but thats something to learn, he said.

With reporting by Mary Man.

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.
A veggie burger from Shake Shack. Photo: Christine Han/Shake Shack

As many self-satisfied carnivores have no doubt asked their bean-eating friends, Has anyone ever confused a veggie burger for a burger? The short answer is no  which is not to denigrate veggie burgers  and yet Europe has declared a war of nomenclature on vegetable-based products using the names of meaty things. This is an encouraging sign in these trying times for our world, when it is important that we, as a species, focus on what matters.

Last week, an amendment was proposed to the European Unions agricultural committee, which would make it so that veggie burgers could not be called, well, burgers. The rule was introduced by a French member of parliament, one Eric Andrieu, who told the Guardian that words like steak ought to be kept for real steak with meat. There are, unsurprisingly, suspicions that the European meat lobby might be behind this, which might explain why the new terms proposed include the remarkably unappetizing veggie disc and veggie tubes. Might Grub suggest veggie puck? Impossible Disc just doesnt have the same ring to it.

The proposal wont be taken up by the whole E.U. until after elections in May, but it immediately caused drama for its transparent silliness. A Green Party member from Britain, Molly Scott Cato, rightly pointed out to the Times that phrases like veggie burger are no big deal. Greenpeace has even stated the incredibly obvious, which is that people buy, like, rutabaga-tofu sausages because they do not contain meat  no one is being duped in some nefarious vegan scheme. However, some Americans seem to think that chocolate milk comes from brown cows. For that reason, Grub cannot stand behind Michele Simon of the San Franciscobased Plant Based Foods Association when she tells the Times that nobody thinks their almond milk comes from a cow.
Skydiver Falls to Death on Residential Street in New Jersey

A skydiver fell to his death, landing on a residential street in New Jersey.

The unnamed 54-year-old skydiver, who had over 1,000 jumps under his belt, landed on a street in Monroe Township, New Jersey, on April 7, according to local reports.

Horrified residents said that with people outside at the time, it was lucky no one else was hurt.

I heard a thud, we thought a car hit somebody then I saw this white thing lying there, Rosemary Ilgenfritz told WPVI.

Crosskeys Airport is only a few miles away and is a popular destination for skydivers.

The skydiver had jumped out of an airplane with local skydiving company, Skydive Cross Keys, reported NBC.

Officials said that he had deployed his parachute, according to NBC, but that there was an unspecified accident after the deployment that led to the mans death.

A skydiver fell to his death in a Monroe Township neighborhood on Sunday afternoon. https://t.co/dOVCoOV8Mg  ABC30 Fresno (@ABC30) April 8, 2019

I thought it was a jet or a rocket, some kind of rocket going over, Maria Mead, a witness, told CBS3. Then it passed over the tops of the roofs on Brookdale and over the trees. I saw a shredded red parachute flailing down and I heard an explosion. Then I heard a really loud bang.

Witnesses told WPVI that the body, on Brookdale Boulevard, appeared to have a white parachute over it, but that police believed that was the backup parachute.

#BREAKING: A person has died after a reported skydiving mishap in Monroe Township, New Jersey. Posted by 6abc Action News on Sunday, April 7, 2019

According to the Courier Post, five years ago a 49-year-old man died when he crash-landed in a Monroe Township backyard during a group skydiving outing.

According to the United States Parachute Association (USPA), skydiving deaths are very rare, considering the number of jumps carried out.

A person is much more likely to be killed getting struck by lightning or stung by a bee, notes the USPA website, citing statistics from the National Safety Council.

In 2018, USPA recorded 13 fatal skydiving accidents in the U.S. out of roughly 3.3 million jumpsthe lowest number in the sports history! Thats one fatality per 253,669 jumps! Tandem skydiving has an even better safety record, with one student fatality per 500,000 tandem jumps over the past decade.

However, it appears that 2018 was an exceptional year. Records for the last decade suggest an average of around 20 deaths per year.

Skydiving involves inherent risks, but most skydiving accidents result from human error, according to the USPA. With proper preparation and good judgment, skydivers can minimize those risks.

With regular parachuting becoming more of a norm, thrill-seekers have turned to more extreme incarnations of the sport, such as base-jumping or wing-suits to get their adrenaline fix.

Base-jumping, which involves jumping off cliffs, bridges, and even buildings parachute at the ready, is one of the most lethal of all extreme sports.

Nearly one Base jump in every 2,000 is fatal, according to Norwegian research in 2007, and one in every 250 results in an accident.

According to National Geographic, fatalities from Base jumping were steady for a couple of decadesuntil the advent of wingsuits.

In recent years there have been several high-profile deaths within the tiny off-shoot of the parachuting world that uses nylon suits to allow the jumper to glide through the air.

Dramatic videos, often with millions of views on social media, show people in wingsuits flying down canyons, valleys, and even through rock formations. However, these videos may be even more dangerous to make than first appears, because they are often not a one-off act of daring. They are frequently shot several times to get the perfect angles and to ensure they are flying close enough to the ground.
Actress Allison Mack arrives at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York for a status conference, June 12, 2018, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Smallville Actress Allison Mack Pleads Guilty in High-Profile NXIVM Case

A high-ranking member of NXIVM who was arrested in 2018 pleaded guilty on April 8 to blackmailing two women as part of her role in a secret society within the organization.

Former Smallville actress Allison Mack, 36, entered her plea to two counts of racketeering and conspiracy charges before U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in a federal court in Brooklyn, New York. The high-profile case that involved the purported self-help organization gained infamy in 2018 due to egregious sex-trafficking charges.

Mack allegedly recruited girls for a secret society founded by Keith Raniere within NXIVM, called DOS, or The Vow, around 2015. Prosecutors said the society is purported to be an acronym for the Latin phrase dominus obsequious sororium, which translates loosely as master over the slave women.

A spokesperson for the Eastern District Court told The Epoch Times that Mack now faces up to 40 years in prison when she is sentenced. Mack is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 11.

Fighting back tears in court, Mack said she had joined the organization, led by Raniere, a decade ago to find purpose in life.

Through it all, I believed that Keith Ranieres intentions were to help people, she said. I was wrong. I now realize that I and others engaged in criminal conduct.

There was no mention at the plea hearing of any agreement by Mack to cooperate with prosecutors against Raniere, who is expected to go on trial later this month. Macks lawyers declined to provide any further details about her plea deal.

Raniere, 58, was arrested on sex trafficking charges in March 2018 and is being held without bail. Mack was arrested the following month.

Inner Workings

According to court documents, the secret society allegedly operated as a pyramid scheme, with levels of slaves headed by masters; slaves were then expected to recruit their own slaves, thus becoming masters themselves.

Prosecutors say Raniere was the highest master of DOS and forced other members, all women, to have sex with him.

Many of the DOS members were branded with a cauterizing pen during a process that took 20 to 30 minutes. The branding ceremony involved slaves taking turns holding each other down while the branding was filmed. The symbol itself was a combination of both Ranieres initials (KR) and Macks (AM).

One of the plaintiffs said that, at some point, all the slaves directly under Mack learned that Raniere was Macks master and their grandmaster.

The society allegedly recruited members on the condition that they would give up personal, often embarrassing, information about themselves, including compromising images or videos, as collateral. Once inside, members were regularly required to provide additional collateral to ensure they kept the groups activities secret.

The plaintiff listed as Jane Doe 1 in the court documents said that Mack regularly required her slaves to pose for nude photographs, either as assignments or collateral. Some of these photographs included close-up pictures of their private parts.

The Top Members

In March, prosecutors unsealed new charges accusing Raniere of sexually exploiting a minor and coercing her to produce child pornography.

Raniere has pleaded not guilty. Marc Agnifilo, one of his lawyers, declined to comment on the case after the April 8 hearing.

Agnifilo has previously said that his clients sexual encounters with women in the organization were consensual, and denied the child pornography charges.

NXIVM on its website calls itself a community guided by humanitarian principles that seek to empower people and answer important questions about what it means to be human.

Two other people charged in the case, former NXIVM President Nancy Salzman and her daughter, Lauren Salzman, previously pleaded guilty.

Also charged alongside Raniere are Seagrams liquor heiress Clare Bronfman and NXIVM member Kathy Russell, who have pleaded not guilty.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Protesters raise a banner with the words "No to 'One Country, Two Systems' and Built a New Taiwan Country" in a parade that took place in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, on April 7, 2019. (NTD)

Taiwanese Protest Against Beijings Proposed Takeover of Taiwan Under One Country, Two Systems

TAIPEI, TaiwanAbout 3,000 people took to the streets of Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan on April 7 in protest of Beijings proposal to rule the island under the one country, two systems model.

The model is currently used in Hong Kong, since the citys sovereignty was handed over from Britain to China in 1997, which was intended to preserve its autonomy and freedoms while under mainland Chinese rule. However, the city has seen the encroaching influence of Beijing impact local politics, education, and freedom of the press in recent years.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has repeatedly suggested this model as a way to bring Taiwan under the reign of Beijing, including most recently in a January 2019 speech before Chinese Communist Party members.

Relations between Taiwan and China are fraught, as the Chinese regime considers Taiwan a renegade province under its sovereignty, despite the fact that the latter is a de facto independent country with its own elected officials, constitution, military, and currency.

Xis proposal angered many in Taiwan. In response to Xis comments, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen had called on international support against such Chinese aggression.

We are here to express our rejection of the one country, two systems, as well as any peace proposal [with China], said Lai Chung-chiang in an interview with the Asia-Pacific branch of New York-based broadcaster NTD. He participated in the protest and is also the founder of the Economic Democracy Union, a local nonprofit.

A peace deal with China has recently been bandied about by Taiwans opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), which favors more Beijing-friendly policies. KMT chairman Wu Den-yih said in February that the party could sign some sort of peace deal with China if one of its presidential candidates won the presidential election in Taiwan in 2020, according to Taiwanese media. According to the KMT, it would ensure the preservation of Taiwan sovereignty, but the party made no mention of Chinas military aggression. Beijing routinely threatens military invasion with rhetoric and incursions such as the two Chinese fighter jets that intentionally crossed into Taiwans median line on March 31.

Many Taiwanese have since voiced opposition to the KMTs suggestion of a peace deal, according to Taiwanese media, with some rights groups pointing to how the regions of Tibet and Xinjiang lost their freedoms and were subjected to Beijings oppression after its governments engaged in peace talks with the Chinese Communist Party.

The protest coincided with a rally where some took to the stage to voice their criticisms of China, including Shen Pao-yang, assistant professor at the Graduate School of Criminology at Taiwans National Taipei University.

Shen spoke about Beijings infiltration of Taiwanese society and its efforts to pressure Taiwans allies into switching diplomatic recognition to Beijing.

Since Tsai came to office in 2016, Taiwan has lost five diplomatic allies, El Salvador, Burkina Faso, the Dominican Republic, Panama, and Sao Tome and Principe. Taiwanese authorities have accused Beijing of deploying dollar diplomacy: providing investments and loans to Taiwanese allies so they would drop their recognition of Taiwan.

At the rally, Edith Cheung, who immigrated to Taiwan from Hong Kong in 2018, discussed how Hong Kong citizens have complained of more economic woes after the region returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, according to Taiwanese media.

Wealthy mainland Chinese have been buying up Hong Kongs real estate properties, driving up prices to the point that normal Hong Kong residents can no longer afford to buy them, according to Cheung. She added that the real estate problem has been compounded by the failure of the Hong Kong government to build enough public housing to support peoples needs.

Li Jiabao, a mainland Chinese exchange student in Taiwan, recently made headlines after he publicly criticized the Chinese regime and expressed his fear that his parents may be under house arrest in Chinaas he has not heard from them in a long time.

Protect freedom of speech. Reject authoritarian infiltration. Reject one country, two systems. Safeguard Taiwans sovereignty, Li shouted through a loudspeaker, according to a Radio Free Asia report.

The protestors also called out Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu, for the business deals he signed recently in China and Hong Kong, mostly with Chinese companies and pro-Beijing Hong Kong business associations.

Critics in Taiwan say they fear Han may have implicitly agreed to Beijings political demands in order to pull off the deals.

A previous version of the article misstated the year of Xi Jinpings speech on Taiwans sovereignty. The Epoch Times regrets the error.
Juan Valdez, a senior at Hidalgo Early College High School in Texas, said he was working on a school project for a forensic science class. Above, Hidalgo Early College High School. (Google Maps)

Teacher Allows Students to Bring Fake Weapons; Texas Teen Now Facing Terrorism Charges

A 17-year-old boy has been arrested on terrorism charges after he brought a fake gun on campus with the permission of his teacher.

Juan Valdez, a senior at Hidalgo Early College High School in Texas, said he was working on a school project for a forensic science class, CBS4 reported on April 4.

In the class, one assignment allowed him and his classmates to investigate a fake crime scene.

Teacher asks students to bring fake weapons: Student now facing terrorism charges>> Posted by CBS 4 News Rio Grande Valley on Thursday, April 4, 2019

According to the report, his teacher allowed possible evidence for students to bring, including a fake gun, bullets, bones, glass, or something else.

Valdez said he brought his paintball gun, CBS4 reported. My teacher said, yes, thats fine, he said of what his teacher told him.

But on March 28, Valdez walked into the school with his paintball gun and other pieces of evidence. He took a Snapchat video and posted a caption saying the gun is fake for a class project, the CBS affiliate reported.

One of Valdezs classes was interrupted, and school officials brought him into the principals office.

I think the missing links here were to let the #police officer on campus and the principle know ahead of time. This is Posted by Sound Training Services on Saturday, April 6, 2019

They had me write a statement explaining what the gun was for, but they wouldnt let me talk too much or call my mom, he told Yahoo News, adding that officials took my phone, too.

According to Valdez, a classmate saw his Snapchat video and alerted the authorities, according to the CBS report.

Valdez said the gun wasnt a problem, but the issue was the video and the threats. According to Yahoo, another classmate edited his Snapchat photo to say, We have a school shooter, everyone be safe!

An officer said to me, You shouldnt have made those threats, Valdez told CBS4. I didnt know what he was talking about.

On April 4, he was booked into the Hidalgo County jail and was charged with making a terrorist threat.

The father of the teen told the CBS affiliate that the student who allegedly edited the video issued an apology on Facebook. Yes, it was my fault. Sorry for what I did. I didnt expect it to get as big as it did, the boy allegedly said.

Appropriate administrative action was taken against the teacher, said Jennifer Villareal, a school district spokeswoman, was quoted by CBS4 as saying.

Valdez and the student who edited the video were suspended for two days each.

But before he can enter the school, Valdez said he has to undergo 15 days of specialized training.

Its strict thereyou have to ask permission to speak, he said of the class. I am super worried about my future because I want to be a state trooper one day, Valdez added to Yahoo News. Being in jail took a toll on me.

School Removes Bathroom Doors

In another unusual school-related incident, one district removed the doors to bathrooms after a note containing a terrorist threat was allegedly found.

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.

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.

School district officials said its for students safety.

You have to understand when kids have a place to spend time, whether its a minute or 5 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.

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.
Tourists Could Face Death Sentence for Taking Photos on Beach Close to Airport

Tourists at a beach in Phuket, Thailand, could face steep penalties for taking selfies in front of low-flying planes near the airport.

Authorities could impose a lengthy prison term, fines in excess of $1,000, or even the death penalty, The Sun reported.

An official with the Phuket International Airport, Wichit Kaeothaithiam, said the maximum penalty is the death sentence, reported the Bangkok Post.

According to the Post, in a March report, a safety zone around the airport runway is being developed and will take effect in the near future.

Sometimes getting the perfect selfie just isnt worth the cost. Posted by People on Friday, April 5, 2019

People and tourists will not be allowed to enter this area to take photos, Wichit, the airport chief of the Phuket airport, told the paper.

Over the years, tourists have gathered in on the beach to take selfies with low-flying planes before posting them on social media websites.

Officials think posing for the photos is a dangerous activity.

Wichit said that tourism and safety have to coexist. According to Fox News, officials are creating the safety zone out of fear that an influx of tourists on the beach could distract jet pilots.

Tourists could face the death penalty for taking photos on beach near airport https://t.co/EQ3FTzmQ4P #FoxNews  Bangkok Post (@BKK_POST) April 8, 2019

He said that an additional warning was issued to people living within about 5 miles of the airport, urging them against shining lights or flying drones in the area, People magazine reported.

The same aforementioned penalties used to punish selfie-takers will be applied to people who fly drones or shine lights, the magazine also reported. Those rules are established under the countrys Air Navigation Act.

Other details about the new regulations are unclear.

How do you say SAM 7 in Thai? Cuz, hell yes, this is a good idea. Posted by Mouth of the Mekong on Friday, March 8, 2019

Jet-Engine Blast Kills Woman

Meanwhile, in Saint Martin, a Caribbean island nation, tourists are also fond of taking selfies near low-flying planes.

In 2017, a woman was killed by a jet-engine blast while at the tourist attraction, reported The Washington Post.

The woman, a 57-year-old from New Zealand, was standing at a fence that separates the beach from the airport runway, according to police.

She was hanging onto the fence along with a few other people when the plane took off, and she was blown away by the jet blast and was seriously injured, police said.

The unnamed woman died at a hospital shortly afterward, said officials.

The Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care said that about 259 people have died since 2011 while taking selfies.

Most of the victims are under the age of 30 and about 72 percent were male, the organization said.

It noted that men were more likely to take riskier photos.

Selfie deaths have become an emerging problem and we performed this study to assess the epidemiology of selfie-related deaths across the globe, said an abstract published by the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Elaborating further, The highest number of incidents and selfie-deaths has been reported in India followed by Russia, United States, and Pakistan, according to the U.S. agency.

Drowning, transport, and fall form the topmost reasons for deaths caused by selfies. We also classified reasons for deaths due to selfie as risky behavior or non-risky behavior. Risky behavior caused more deaths and incidents due to selfies than non-risky behavior. The number of deaths in females is less due to risky behavior than non-risky behavior while it is approximately three times in males, it said.
President Donald Trump listens to former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-KS), speak, after he received the Congressional Gold Medal during a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol, on January 17, 2017 in Washington. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Trump Signs Bill Promoting Bob Doles Rank to Colonel

President Donald Trump on April 8 signed into law a bill that authorizes the honorary appointment of former Republican Sen. Bob Dole from captain to the grade of colonel, according to the White House.

The S. 252 bill passed the House of Representatives unanimously in March after it went through the Senate. The text of the legislation recognizes the time Dole spent in the Army.

Dole, who was born July 22, 1923, in Russell, Kansas, enrolled in the Army Enlisted Reserve Corps in 1942 when he was a student at the University of Kansas. He was later called to active duty the following year and served during World War II.

Dole, now 95 years old, finished his military service with two Purple Hearts and two awards of the Bronze Star Medal with the V device for valor, as well as a number of other awards.

It is certainly humbling to know that my friends in the Kansas delegation, Senators Roberts and Moran and Congressman Marshall, along with General Mark Milley, chose to give me an honorary promotion to the grade of colonel in the U.S. Army, Dole said in a statement in March, at the time when Congress passed the legislation.

I was proud to wear our nations uniform 77 years ago when I enlisted, and my pride in Americas brave servicemen and women continues today.

During a deployment to Italy when he was in the Army as an infantry lieutenant in the 10th Mountain Division, Dole was seriously wounded in combat and was twice cited for acts of heroism under fire. Dole later served in the House of Representatives from 1961 to 1969 and served in the Senate from 1969 until 1996.

Trump praised Dole in 2018 as a great American during a presentation of the Congressional Gold Medal, according to Fox News. The medal is the highest civilian honor bestowed by Congress.

The legislation has no effect on Doles pay or other military benefits. The bill was pushed by members of the Kansas House and Senate delegations.

Thank you for your service to America and Kansas @SenatorDole! the Kansas GOP Twitter account stated on the day the bill was signed.

Thank you for your service to America and Kansas @SenatorDole! #ksleg https://t.co/Nvra1v6gQc  Kansas GOP (@KansasGOP) April 8, 2019

During his time serving in Congress, Dole sponsored and co-sponsored bills in Congress that would improve veterans benefits, improve accountability of missing members of the Armed Forces, and to establish the Persian Gulf War Veterans Health Registry, among others.

On April 6, Dole and a number of current senators attended a veterans event in Washington.

This weekend, Senators Elizabeth and Bob Dole (@SenatorDole), @SenJackReed, and @SenatorHassan had the pleasure of greeting veterans, including a special all-female Honor Flight from Rhode Island, at the WWII Memorial, The Elizabeth Dole Foundation wrote on Twitter. A beautiful day in DC in more ways than one!

This weekend, Senators Elizabeth and Bob Dole (@SenatorDole), @SenJackReed, and @SenatorHassan had the pleasure of greeting veterans, including a special all-female Honor Flight from Rhode Island, at the WWII Memorial. A beautiful day in DC in more ways than one! pic.twitter.com/83a8Fz5MRc  Elizabeth Dole Foundation (@DoleFoundation) April 8, 2019
Members of the Iranian revolutionary guard march during a parade to commemorate the anniversary of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88), in Tehran . (Reuters/Stringer)

Trump to Designate Iran Revolutionary Guard as Terrorist Organization

President Donald Trump has announced that his administration plans to designate Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization. The move, first conveyed to media in an April 8 morning conference call, further escalates pressure on the Islamic regime in Tehran. Shortly after the call, Trump issued a statement with the announcement.

This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft, the statement read. The IRGC is the Iranian governments primary means of directing and implementing its global terrorist campaign.

Rumors of the move had garnered a response from Iran in advance. We will answer any action taken against this force with a reciprocal action, said an April 5 statement issued by 255 of the 290 Iranian lawmakers, according to IRNA, the regimes news agency. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif suggested in an April 7 tweet that the terror designation will have consequences for US forces in the region.

Unprecedented

The IRGC is a branch of the Iranian military controlled by the regimes Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. This the first time the United States has announced an intent to designate part of a foreign government as a terror group. The United States has already blacklisted dozens of entities and people for affiliations with the IRGC, but not the organization as a whole.

It underscores the fact that Irans actions are fundamentally different from those of other governments, Trump said. This action will significantly expand the scope and scale of our maximum pressure on the Iranian regime. It makes crystal clear the risks of conducting business with, or providing support to, the IRGC. If you are doing business with the IRGC, you will be bankrolling terrorism.

Indeed, the designation enables U.S. prosecutors to charge numerous individuals and companies that do a wide variety of business with the IRGC to be charged with providing material support to terrorists, an offense carrying a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison. Supporters of IRGC could also be denied entry to the United States.

This action sends a clear message to Tehran that its support for terrorism has serious consequences, Trump said. We will continue to increase financial pressure and raise the costs on the Iranian regime for its support of terrorist activity until it abandons its malign and outlaw behavior.

Pressure on Iran

Trump has been escalating pressure on Iran since taking office, especially in 2018, when he quit the Obama administrations Iran nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions on Tehran.

The Trump administration demands that Iran halts not only its nuclear ambitions, which the deal attempted to delay, but also its ballistic missile program, support for terrorists and militias in the region, and other destabilizing activities.

Iran says its missile program is defensive only, but has threatened to disrupt oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz if the United States tries to throttle Iranian oil exports. The strait is a major choke point between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman through which about a fifth of the worlds oil shipments pass. In November 2018, an IRGC commander threatened that U.S. bases in Afghanistan, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, and U.S. aircraft carriers in the Gulf were within range of Iranian missiles.

In July 2018, Saudi state oil company Aramco stated that two of its tankers had been attacked by Yemen-based Houthi militia, who are backed by Iran and suppressed by the Saudi military.

State Secretary Mike Pompeo said in July that the United States is willing to lift the sanctions, but listed 12 demands that the Iranian regime would have to meet first. Those include ending its ballistic missile program, releasing detained Americans, ending the support of terrorist groups and militias including Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis, as well as withdrawing its forces from Syria.

Though the Iranian economy has been choked by sanctions, the regime has refused to negotiate.

Still, Trump said last year he believes the regime will eventually come to the table.

I do believe that they will probably end up wanting to meet. And Im ready to meet any time they want to. And I dont do that from strength or from weakness. I think its an appropriate thing to do, he said. If we could work something out thats meaningful, not the waste of paper that the other deal was, I would certainly be willing to meet.

IRGC

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. Its also in charge of Irans ballistic missiles and nuclear programs.

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.

The Iranian regime began with a combination of Soviet subversion and the influences of Sayyid Qutba founding father of the Muslim Brotherhoodwho combined socialism with Islam to create an ideology at the core of totalitarian theocracies throughout the Muslim world, according to Zuhdi Jasser, president and founder of American Islamic Forum for Democracy.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Trump Urges Uganda to Find Kidnappers of Freed US Tourist

KAMPALA, UgandaPresident Donald Trump on Monday, April 8, urged Uganda to find the kidnappers of an American tourist who has been freed, amid conflicting reports over whether a ransom was paid for her release.

Kim Endicott was released by her abductors over the weekend and will be turned over to the U.S. ambassador Monday, Ugandan police said.

Endicott and her Ugandan driver were both safe, after the 5-day ordeal during which they were taken from Queen Elizabeth National Park across the border to Congo, according to Ugandan authorities.

Trump pressed Ugandas government to capture the culprits Monday, tweeting: Uganda must find the kidnappers of the American Tourist and guide before people will feel safe in going there. Bring them to justice openly and quickly! Over the weekend Trump tweeted that he was pleased the tourist and guide had been released.

Uganda must find the kidnappers of the American Tourist and guide before people will feel safe in going there. Bring them to justice openly and quickly!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2019

A Uganda-based tour official said, however, that a ransom was paid to secure Endicotts freedom. The official with Wild Frontiers Uganda Safaris, which organized the kidnapping victims safari itinerary, said Monday that Endicott was released, not rescued, after money was paid.

Otherwise she wouldnt be back, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

Many officials, including from the U.S. Embassy, were involved in efforts to secure the release of the kidnapping victims, he said. He couldnt say how much was paid or who paid.

Ugandan officials have said the kidnapping victims were rescued from armed kidnappers who are still at large.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said on Twitter that the security forces shall deal with these isolated pockets of criminals.

We shall deal with these isolated pockets of criminals. However, I want to reassure the country and our tourists that Uganda is safe and we shall continue to improve the security in our parks. Come and enjoy the Pearl of Africa.  Yoweri K Museveni (@KagutaMuseveni) April 8, 2019

The kidnappers had demanded a $500,000 ransom after grabbing Endicott and her driver from a group of tourists on an evening game drive on April 2, police said.

Endicott is from Costa Mesa, California, where she has a small skin care shop. She is in her 50s and has a daughter and granddaughter, according to Phoenix resident Rich Endicott, a 62-year-old banker who told The Associated Press he hadnt spoken with his cousin since a family reunion several years ago.

U.S. 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.

Queen Elizabeth National Park, which is located near the porous border with Congo, is Ugandas most popular safari destination. Its attractions include groups of tree-climbing lions.

By Rodney Muhumuza
Tribunal panel member Regina Paulose (L), chair to the tribunal Sir Geoffrey Nice QC (C), and panel member Nicholas Vetch on the first day of the April hearings in London on April 6, 2019. (endtransplantabuse.org)

Tribunal Hears Evidence on Forced Organ Harvesting in China

An independent peoples tribunal in London has heard evidence concerning the mass killing of prisoners of conscience for their organs in China.

From April 6 to 7, two dozen witnesses, including researchers, medical professionals, journalists, and survivors from around the world, gave testimonies before the tribunal on allegations of state-sanctioned organ harvesting targeting persecuted groups in China, including practitioners of the spiritual practice Falun Gong and the Uyghur ethnic minority.

The tribunal follows a three-day hearing that took place last December, when tribunal members passed a draft interim judgment concluding that forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience has taken place in China on a substantial scale.

Chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice, QC, who previously led the prosecution of former Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic at the International Criminal Tribunal, the panel consists of seven experts tasked with conducting the worlds first ever independent analysis of forced organ extraction in China.

According to legal counsel Hamid Sabi, the tribunal invited representatives from the Chinese regime, including top health officials and Chinese embassy officials in London, to participate in the hearings, but did not receive a response.

Widespread Blood Testing

Refugees who have escaped persecution in China gave evidence at the tribunal, recounting that they had received blood and medical testing during their detention.

Mihrigul Tursun, a Uyghur who last year testified before a U.S. congressional committee about being tortured and abused at an internment camp in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, told the tribunal via video on April 7 that camp detainees underwent detailed health checks, including blood tests and ultrasounds.

The U.S. Department of State and other international experts estimate that the communist regime is holding more than 1 million Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and other Muslim minorities in a vast network of internment camps in Xinjiang, as part of a purported campaign to combat extremist threats.

Tursun said she was tortured under interrogation for three days in April 2017, after which she was transportedwhile hooded, cuffed, and shackledto an exam room in a hospital.

I knew that they took blood from my arm twice, but I dont know how much blood was drawn, Tursun said through an interpreter.

She said she also received blood pressure tests and medical tests to check her heart condition.

Tursun said she was then led to a dark room in what she suspected was the basement of the hospital. In that room, the handlers removed her hood and restraints, and then all her clothes. They then attached equipment onto her chest area and used a machine to examine her body.

Her handlers then put liquid on Tursuns forehead, shoulders, just below her heart, and both legs, and placed her into a glass machine, where she was made to circle inside while shouting numbers from one to 10.

Tursun could not hear anything while inside the machine.

I became terrified after I was placed into that machine. I thought they may be taking my internal organs and that I might die that day, she said through the interpreter.

Another Uyghur woman, Gulbahar Jelilova, who was detained for more than one year at three facilities in Xinjiang in 2017, testified on April 6 about receiving regular blood and ultrasound tests during detention.

Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress, a Uyghur rights group, told the Tribunal on April 7 that the organization has received first-hand evidence from former Uyghur detainees suggesting widespread medical examinations inside the facilities, as well as reports of detainees being taken from their cells and never returning.

Isa added that around 11 million Uyghurs outside the facilities have been subject to blood testing through a large-scale physical exam project launched by Chinese authorities in Xinjiang in 2016.

Ethan Gutmann, China analyst and investigator, testified on April 7 about the Xinjiang crisis.

You have maybe a million and a half people who have all been blood tested and theyre in detention, and their families have lost sight of them, Gutmann said.

He said that recent evidence indicates the Chinese regime is targeting this group for organ extracting, including accounts of DNA testing being conducted at the homes of Uyghurs in Xinjiang and the known construction of regional crematoriums and a dedicated lane for transferring organs for transplant surgery at a local airport.

Organs Mainly Sourced From Falun Gong Practitioners

In 2016, Gutmann co-authored, with Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas and former Canadian Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific) David Kilgour, an in-depth report that found a huge discrepancy between Chinas official transplantation figures and the number of transplants performed in hospitals

By analyzing the public records of 712 Chinese hospitals that carry out liver and kidney transplants, the report showed that roughly 60,000 to 100,000 transplants are being conducted each year, far outstripping the officially reported number of 10,000 to 20,000 per year.

The shortfall, the report concluded, is made up by organs forcibly harvested from prisoners of conscience in China, primarily from practitioners of Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa), while Uyghurs, Tibetan Buddhists, and some house Christians also have been targeted.

The evidence is overwhelming that this terrible trafficking of organs is taking place, and is increasing, in China, said Kilgour, who testified at the tribunal on April 7.

There has been no been serious attempt [by the Chinese regime] to rebut or refute what we say, he added.

Several Falun Gong practitioners gave evidence during the December and April hearings, speaking of their experiences of being detained for their faith in China.

Aside from personal accounts of torture they experienced inside Chinas labor camps and prisons, all spoke of undergoing physical examinations during detention.

Feng Hollis, who was arrested in 2005, said in her December testimony that at the time, she wondered why she was given a medical test despite being frequently tortured in prison.

Suspicious Data

Two researchers who conducted an unprecedented study of Chinas official voluntary donor transplant data told the Tribunal on April 7 that according to their analysis, the official data curiously aligned with a basic mathematical equation, suggesting that it was manufactured.

We found many anomalies that are difficult, if not impossible, to explain without concluding that the data had been manipulated manually, said Matthew Robertson, study co-author and doctoral student at the Australian National University.

In their study, Robertson, along with statistician Raymond Hinde and professor of surgery at Tel Aviv University Jacob Lavee, examined data from the China Organ Transplant Response System (COTRS), as well as local Red Cross figures, and found that the numbers conformed to a quadratic equation that produced a particular type of curve.

It would be unexpected to happen, [that the numbers conformed to] such a smooth rate as that, said Hinde.

One example of anomalous data suggesting possible manipulation, Robertson said, was that the total number of registered organ volunteers published by Chinas Red Cross increased by exactly 25,000 from December 30 to 31, 2015.

We cant say a lot more than it looks a bit suspicious, he said.

The study is currently under peer review with a scientific journal, and has been released in preprint form.

The tribunal is due to release its final judgment on June 17, to determine whether international crimes have been, and continue to be committed with regard to forced organ harvesting in China.

NTD reporter Jane Werrell contributed to this report.

Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled the name of torture victim Mihrigul Tursun. The Epoch Times regrets the error.
FILE PHOTO: British Prime Minister Theresa May gives a news conference after a cabinet meeting following yesterday's alternative Brexit options vote, outside Downing Street, London, Britain April 2, 2019. Jack Taylor/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

UKs May Says Greater Risk of No Brexit the Longer It Takes to Find Compromise

LONDONBritish Prime Minister Theresa May said on April 6 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 Irelands 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 April 6 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 April 10 EU summit, The Sunday Times newspaper reported.

The prime minister has asked EU leaders to postpone Britains 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 worlds fifth-biggest economy, struggling to find a way to honor a 2016 referendum vote to take the country out of the globes largest trading bloc.

Pressures on Both Parties

May reiterated on April 6 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 Mays 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. Lets 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 Labours talks with the government, The Independent newspaper said.

By Costas Pitas
Atlantic RecordsIt's a bittersweet phenomenon that an artist's music generally experiences a sales boost following their passing, and it's proven true for Nipsey Hussle.

The rapper's Grammy-nominated debut studio album, Victory Lap, first released in March, 2018, has re-entered the Billboard 200 album chart in the #2 position with 66,000 equivalent album units sold. That's even higher than the #4 peak position Victory Lap enjoyed when it debuted.

While Victory Lap was Hussle's first studio release, he of course made his name on the back of a series of mixtapes, beginning with 2005's Slauson Boy Volume 1, which he released on his own label. His 2013 mixtape Crenshaw is the one that earned him the most notice, especially when Jay-Z famously purchased 100 copies of it for $100 each.

Hussle, born Ermias Joseph Asghedom, was shot multiple times and killed March 31. His alleged killer, Eric Holder, remains in custody on $5 million bail and is due back in court May 10.

Fans will have the opportunity to honor and remember Hussle at a memorial event planned for this Thursday, April 11 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Copyright  2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
A 3D rendering of the main campus of Westlake University is displayed at a launching ceremony of construction for the university's main campus in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, April 3, 2019. Westlake University, a new research-oriented private university, started construction Wednesday of its main campus in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou. With an investment of over 4.6 billion yuan (686 million U.S. dollars), the first phase of the construction covers almost one square km and is expected to be completed by the end of 2021, said Ji Qingke, vice president of Westlake University. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

HANGZHOU, April 3 (Xinhua) -- Westlake University, a new research-oriented private university, started construction Wednesday of its main campus in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou.

With an investment of over 4.6 billion yuan (686 million U.S. dollars), the first phase of the construction covers almost one square km and is expected to be completed by the end of 2021, said Ji Qingke, vice president of Westlake University.

A total of 36 buildings will be built on the campus, including two large research buildings that occupy half of the total construction area, Ji said.

"We are striving to promote the development of cutting-edge technologies and contribute to the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the civilization of humankind," said Shi Yigong, president of the university.

Currently, the university has recruited 85 world-class scientists and enrolled 139 doctoral students.

Founded in October last year, the university is China's first modern private research-oriented university with aspirations to become one of the world's top research institutes. It will focus on basic research in natural and medical sciences, and in technology.

The establishment of Westlake University was first proposed by Shi, a structural biologist and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and six other scientists in 2015.

5

1

[ Editor: Zhang Zhou ]
Photo-Illustration: Grub Street; Photos: Other Half Brewing

To understand why Other Half has, in just half a decade, become one of the biggest names in beer, it helps to understand one of their flagship beers, All Green Everything. It is, like many craft beers, aggressively hopped and incredibly strong, with as much alcohol as some wine. Oats and wheat in the recipe give it an opaque, almost milky appearance, while four separate varieties of hops  Amarillo, Citra, Mosaic, and Motueka, some of which are added later in the brewing process in a practice known as dry hopping provide a tropical, mellow flavor thats a far cry from the pine flavor that dominates many popular IPAs. On the influential beer review site RateBeer.com, it has scored 99 out of 100 points. It is, in other words, a superpotent craft beer that pretty much anyone can enjoy.

Having grown up on the West Coast, I wanted to make an IPA that stood out like theirs, says Other Halfs head brewer and co-owner, Sam Richardson. When we started, there were a lot of IPAs on the market, but they were kind of bland IPAs made for the masses without big, bold flavors. That was our main goal.

With All Green Everything, Other Half brought New York City its first great New England IPA. These are cloudy, juicy beers that are focused on capturing the perfume of hops without emphasizing their bitterness. Its a relatively new style  also known as hazy IPAs  that stands in stark contrast to so-called West Coast IPAs, in which clarity and bitterness are the main selling points. It is also  thanks to its high alcohol content and flavors that can remind people of tropical fruit  extremely popular.

I saw that people were really interested in this style and we were kind of halfway there as it was with the IPAs we were making, Richardson explains. Ive never claimed to [have] invent[ed] the style, by any stretch of the imagination, but we were early with it and went all-in on it. I think that we kind of carved out our own style within that.

For many New York beer lovers, All Green Everything was their first taste of the style, and it was unlike anything else theyd had before. Other Half jumped on New Englandstyle IPAs at the right time and did a really great version of it, says Cory Bonfiglio, a co-founder of Williamsburg bar Beer Street. Making great beer coupled with their aesthetic worked for them.

That aesthetic instantly set Other Half apart. Even when Other Half started, beer marketing was still dominated by scripted type and labels designed with a throwback look. Think, for example, of Anchor Steam or Sierra Nevada: sturdy beers that wont let you down. Theyre the dad rock of beer. Other Half burst out of that pattern by giving their beers names that could easily be confused for those of strains of weed  Space Dream, Magic Green Nuggets  and selling them in cans emblazoned with futuristic, Technicolor designs that were engineered for Instagram appeal.

Other Halfs first year in existence, 2014, also marked the passage of the Craft New York Act, which allowed breweries, for the first time, to sell cans and bottles of beers directly to customers (instead of being forced to work with distributors, or sell their own beers only in unwieldy growlers). It meant that Other Half could, for example, begin canning extremely limited runs of special beers (sometimes in collaboration with other cult brewers), marketing them on social media, and watching as people scrambled to get their hands on these hop-fueled unicorn beers.

From left, Other Half co-founders Matt Monahan, Andrew Burman, and Sam Richardson. Photo: Melissa Hom

Less than three years after Other Half opened, the Times ran a story about the 11 hours that some people waited to get a taste of its beer  the kind of advertising that most breweries can only dream of  and demand only increased from there. (A few months after the Times story, Punch called Other Half the official beer of Wall Street, and explored the lengths that well-heeled finance types would go to get their hands on cases of the beer.)

New York is now a tourist destination for beer, says Joshua M. Bernstein, the beer expert who wrote the Times story. For them theres no difference in waiting in line for Other Half beer and waiting in line to get a pastrami sandwich at Katzs.

Meanwhile, Richardson and his partners Matt Monahan and Andrew Burman were doing their best to keep up with demand. In 2017, they opened a new taproom to accommodate the thousands of people who stopped in each week. (The trio also purchased a large warehouse for distribution and storage at the end of the block.) In July 2018, Other Half paid $660,000 to purchase an 8,000-square-foot brewery in Rochester, New York, which theyll use for creating new beers as well as introducing Other Half to people upstate. This past February, the company also announced plans to build a new taproom in Williamsburg at the waterfront Domino site. The team hopes to have that site, which is still in very early planning stages, up and running by mid-summer 2020. Other Half has also hosted two separate, sold-out beer festivals: One dedicated to hops (of course), and another dedicated to niche beer styles that also featured some amateur wrestling on the side.

In 2015, a year after opening, Other Half produced roughly 5,000 barrels of beer. Today, the annual count is 14,000  still very much that of a relatively small, cult brewery  but demand hasnt died. Indeed, the brewery is so consistently mobbed on weekends that customers end up drinking in the concrete-floored production area.

Plenty of other breweries have jumped on the New England IPA bandwagon, but Richardson, Monahan, and Burman made at least one shrewd business move to ensure that their products would continue to stand out. Sam went above and beyond and made sure he got the hop contracts, Bernstein explains, pointing out that Richardson moved to secure a steady supply of the hops needed to make New England IPAs before the style exploded in popularity. A New England IPA without the right hops is just like hazy booze water. When other people were left scrambling for the hops that were out there, Other Half had an ample supply.

Now, the challenge that faces the Other Half team is brewing beers and creating experiences that will grow their audience from beer lovers and hopheads to a more general audience. Thats sort of our goal, Monahan says, to expose this brand to that tier of audience that isnt die-hard but is definitely going to be into what were doing. The new Williamsburg space will be crucial: A natural part of the evolution, the way that were growing, is to do what we do for the people that know about us, but also be in a place where we can capture the foot traffic of people that are definitely into this and dont even know it yet.

The partners also know that the hop-fueled gravy train wont last forever, so theyre using their new space in Rochester to explore the styles that might become the next New England IPAs. Theyve hired Eric Salazar, a Colorado brewer known for his work on wild ale and sours, and are doubling down on these complicated, imprecise styles. Like hazy IPAs before them, they already have a following in the beer world, and might only need the right kind of push to break out.

IPA still pays the bills, Monahan concedes, but it provides us the ability to constantly innovate.
People visit the south lawn during the annual White House Spring Garden tours in Washington on April 17, 2016. (Estelle Doro/AP Photo)

White House Confirms Departure of Secret Service Head Tex Alles

The White House on April 8 confirmed that the United States Secret Service chief is stepping down after reports emerged saying he would be leaving.

United States Secret Service director Randolph Tex Alles has done a great job at the agency over the last two years, and the President is thankful for his over 40 years of service to the country, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

She said he is slated to leave shortly, and President Donald Trump, meanwhile, selected James M. Murray, who is a career Secret Service member, to take over as director beginning in May.

Sanders didnt offer any more details about Alless departure.

Fox News reported that Alles would step down from his post and was notified about 10 days ago to prepare an exit plan.

The report, citing an unnamed source, said he should be prepared to leave his post. The source said that his departure comes after Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsens resignation on April 7.

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

Nielsen and Trump met over the weekend at the White House, and Trump later announced she should resign as head of the agency, which oversees the Secret Service. He said Customs and Border Protection chief Kevin McAleenan would take her place as acting DHS secretary.

Its[sic] 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 tweeted.

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. pic.twitter.com/lIQ5iqGDmF  Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen (@SecNielsen) April 7, 2019

It was accompanied by a photo of the resignation letter.

Her letter, in part, read: 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.

.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

Following an incident last week, where a Chinese woman entered Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort carrying Chinese passports and a flash drive with malware, Trump said he could not be happier with the job the Secret Service is doing.

Secret Service has done a fantastic job from Day 1. Very happy with them, Trump said at the time.

And regarding the incident at Mar-a-Lago, Trump said he is not concerned at all.

I havewe have very good control. We have extremely good. And its getting better. And cyber  frankly, what were doing with cyber is a story in itself, he said.
As a mom I couldnt stand hearing my daughter cry herself to sleep, but as a physician I knew that sleep training was safe and that a well-rested baby would be a happy baby, says Stephanie Liu. (Stephanie Liu, Author provided)

Why Sleep Training Will Not Hurt Your Child

It can be heart-wrenching, but sleep training your baby will be good for both of you

Throughout my medical training, I thought putting an infant to sleep was as simple as putting them down in a bassinet or a crib. When parents approached me complaining of how difficult it was to get their infant to sleep, I would think to myself, put them down and thats that!

After my daughter Madi was born, I realized how challenging it is to get your child to sleep in their own crib or bassinet, and to sleep for more than a few hours at a time.

The first few months of being on Madis sleep schedule were challenging, but I expected it. As a family doctor, I knew that infants are not expected to sleep through the night until they are around four months old. I would breastfeed Madi to sleep and gently transfer her to the bassinet, but the motion would cause her to wake and we would have to repeat the bedtime routine all over again. As she would wake up every three to four hours, we ended up doing this at least three times per night.

My husband and I were exhausted, but we assumed that if we could make it to four months, we would all be sleeping through the night.

In my medical practice, I have reassured many parents that sleep training is safe so long as periodic checks are made. As a mother, I could not follow my own advice. I read blogs written by other mothers saying that sleep training caused their child to develop attachment disorders, depression, anxiety, and even attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

I worried that sleep training would cause my child to feel alone or unsupported. The medical misinformation I read online made it difficult for me to practice what I preached and delayed my decision to sleep train my baby.

No Evidence of Negative Effects

It was only when Madi was 11 months old and I was beyond exhausted that I decided to review the medical evidence. There are two medical studies that specifically examined the effects of sleep training on childrens mental health and development, both found no adverse outcomes.

One of the studies, published in Pediatrics showed that graduated extinction and bedtime fading (two common methods of sleep training) had no adverse effects on the stress response of infants, and no effects on parent-child attachment.

A second study analyzed the effects of common sleep training methods on childhood outcomes including childhood mental health, sleep quality and disorders, psychosocial functioning and stress tolerance. It also analyzed the effects of sleep training on the child-parent relationship, maternal mental health and parenting styles.

This study found no evidence that sleep training had negative effects on any of these outcomes.

Sleep Also Improves a Mothers Mood

Although it was heart-wrenching to hear my daughter cry when I put her in her crib, I had to trust the evidence over my fears. In my heart I knew that a reasonably well-rested happy mother would be better for her. I reviewed a summary of sleep training published by the Ontario College of Family Physicians, which stated:

Sleep training improves infant sleep problems, with about one in four to one in 10 benefiting over no sleep training, with no adverse effects reported after five years. Maternal mood scales also significantly improve, with patients having worse baseline depression scores benefiting most.

And thus our sleep training journey began.

As a mom, I couldnt stand hearing my daughter cry herself to sleep, but as a physician, I knew that sleep training was safe and that a well-rested baby would be a happy baby. After not sleeping through the night for 11 months, I started the process of sleep training.

The process was incredibly stressful and upsetting. Ultimately, we had to try three different methods before we found one that worked for us. In the end, unmodified extinction worked.

In this method, you put your baby into their bed after their normal bedtime routine and let them cry it out until they fall asleep. Upon exiting the room, caregivers can watch the baby on a monitor to see how much time it takes for them to settle. Over time, the baby will gain skills to self-soothe and this time will be less and less each night.

After three days of applying this method, Madi was sleeping from 8 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. with no disturbances. She is a happier baby because she is rested and I feel like a new person with a full night of sleep.

Stephanie Liu offers evidence-based parenting and health advice at her blog Life of Dr. Mom. Stephanie Liu is a clinical lecturer in the department of family medicine at the University of Alberta in Canada. This article was first published on The Conversation.
Honor guards prepare to raise the Taiwan flag in the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall square ahead of the Taiwanese presidential election in Taipei, Taiwan, on Jan. 14, 2016. (Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images)

With Anti-United Front Bill, Taiwan May Take a Stand Against CCP Subversion

News Analysis

Through its United Front Department, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) runs a worldwide program to subvert other countries by manipulating the open nature of free societies.

In Taiwan, however, the CCP may soon find it more difficult to run these operations. Democratic Progressive Party legislator Lee Chun-yi pledged on April 6 to propose a new anti-united front act.

The act, based on U.S. legislation, aims to counteract severe undermining of Taiwanese democratic values by Chinese united front tactics, according to Taipei Times.

These tactics, it says, include actions such as purchasing Taiwanese produce, promoting travel to counties and cities governed by the Chinese Nationalist Party and hosting Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yus visit to China last month.

Lee said that other countries have enacted legislation to prevent foreign interference in finance and media, and that since Taiwan is the main target of Chinese infiltration and aggression, it needs to counter the CCPs influence.

United front operations often work in broad daylight. The CCP United Front department, formerly known as the United Front Work Department, deals in overt espionage and subversion. This includes propaganda, influence on foreign media, manipulation of nonprofits, control of Chinese student organizations, control of universities, and infiltration of political circles.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen emphasized the seriousness of CCP subversion in a March 2 Twitter thread, stating: Were facing an onslaught of #Disinformation & #FakeNews aimed at undermining democracy. Today, Taiwan is in the crosshairs. Tomorrow, it will be another country.

Im determined to work with like-minded partners such as #Japan in defending shared values. Were facing an onslaught of #Disinformation & #FakeNews aimed at undermining democracy. Today, Taiwan is in the crosshairs. Tomorrow, it will be another country. https://t.co/zBmUDKT9DO   Tsai Ing-wen (@iingwen) March 2, 2019

In Australia, the CCP front operations are being heavily exposed. Clive Hamilton, author of Silent Invasion: Chinas Influence in Australia, released a map detailing the CCP agencies involved in united front work and how they relate to subversive movements operated under Chinese consulates.

Organizational structure of United Front operations. (Prepared by Clive Hamilton, author of Silent Invasion: Chinas Influence in Australia.)

The United Front Department is under the CCPs Central Committee, and ties to the Propaganda Department, International Department, China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful National Unification (meant to absorb Taiwan), China Overseas Friendship Association, and the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office.

Various other CCP branches bring their interests to the table, as well, including CCP state-run media such as Xinhua, to spread the CCPs systems abroad.

When these operations reach the ground level, they are run under Chinese consulates and include overseas Chinese media, the Chinese Student and Scholar Association, Confucius Institutes, and various Chinese Tongs (fraternal organizations and Chinese hometown associations).

The CCPs specific united front operations vary from country to country, but typically maintain the same general structure.

In addition to its influence operations, United Front Department operatives of the CCP also keep tabs on Chinese people living overseas and use various means to suppress or attack people who speak out against issues such as Taiwanese independence, democracy in Hong Kong, or the CCPs persecutions against Falun Gong practitioners, Tibetans, and Uyghurs.

According to Taipei Times, Lee said the new legislation would focus on more recent united front tactics to influence media and commerce. He noted, however, that Taiwan is struggling to define what constitutes a united front tactic, while not overstepping laws to regulate free speech and movement.

Yet thats the nature of united front tactics. They play on a CCP slogan to strangle you with your own system, and are designed to let the CCP to run its operations while allowing agents to typically comply with foreign laws.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Woman Who Lived to 99 Had Her Organs in the Wrong Places, Say Researchers

An Oregon woman lived for 99 years with a rare condition where her organs were located in the wrong places, said researchers.

In 2018, Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) researchers learned that the woman, Rose Marie Bentley, had an unusual anatomy, according to a press release published on April. 8.

Neither her family nor Bentley knew about the potentially life-threatening condition.

I knew something was up, but it took us a while to figure out how she was put together, stated Cam Walker, Ph.D. in the news release.

Bentley, they said, had situs inversus with levocardia, which means her stomach, liver, and other abdominal organs are on the right side of her body while her heart remained on the left side.

The condition occurs once in every 22,000 births and it usually means the person will have life-threatening cardiac ailments and other abnormalities, said the release.

Whats more, Bentley may have been the oldest-known person with the condition, said researchers. Medical literature describes two other cases of older patients, both of whom lived into their 70s.

Woman lived to 99 with her vital organs back to front inside her https://t.co/APTw4OJhD2 World https://t.co/9cNg439GQV pic.twitter.com/hPcg51bCLu  David Jones (@_MrDavidJones) April 8, 2019

Walker estimates only one in 50 million people who are born with Bentleys specific condition live long enough to become adults, the news release added.

Her family reported that she lived without any chronic illnesses aside from arthritis.

She had three organs removed during her life, but only a surgeon who removed her appendix recorded its unusual location in their notes. None of Bentleys children were aware of their mothers transposed organs, and they believe she didnt know, either, said the release.

Mark Hankin, Ph.D., a professor of anatomy at OHSU, presented the womans case at the 2019 American Association of Anatomists Annual Meeting at Experimental Biology.

One in 50 million: Woman lived for 99 years with organs in all the wrong places  and she never knew it https://t.co/bTklYQ5TLI via @fox8news  fox8news (@fox8news) April 8, 2019

My mom would think this was so cool, Louise Allee, one of her five children, said.

She would be tickled pink that she could teach something like this. She would probably get a big smile on her face, knowing that she was different, but made it through.

The release said she and her husband, James Bentley, lived in rural Oregon for most of their lives.

The woman sang in the church choir and taught Sunday School. She and her husband visited all 50 U.S. states after retiring in 1980.

She died on Oct. 11, 2018 about 13 years after her husband passed away.

According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, her condition is also known as isolated levocardia and is almost always associated with severe forms of congenital heart defects with poor prognosis.

Regarding the case of a 13-year-old male with the same condition, officials said he had a litany of health issues.

The prognosis of situs inversus with levocardia is poor, and only 5%13% of patients survive for more than five years, mainly due to the severity of an associated cardiac abnormality, says the agency.

It is important for clinicians to be aware of the fact that discordant cardiac shadows and stomach bubbles are usually found in association with severe abnormalities of the heart and major blood vessels. These imaging findings should prompt a thorough investigation for potential abnormalities. CMR is usually used for complex and difficult cases.
STAMFORD  Illinois sued Purdue Pharma Monday for allegedly fueling the states opioid crisis with deceptive marketing of pain drugs such as OxyContin, the latest among some three dozen states that have filed such lawsuits against the company.

The state accuses Purdue of misrepresenting its drugs risks and targeting doctors with patients addicted to opioids, through hundreds of thousands of sales representative visits between 2008 and 2017. Purdue also allegedly funded third-party publications to help promote its pain medicines. Those tactics tripled prescriptions of Purdue opioids in Illinois during that span and contributed to more than 2,000 fatal opioid overdoses in the state in 2017, according to Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul.

Opioid addiction has destroyed lives and families throughout Illinois. Not only was Purdue aware of the dangers associated with its opioid products, but it downplayed those effects and used the opioid epidemic to increase its profits, Raoul said in a statement. In addition to filing this lawsuit, I will continue to collaborate with attorneys general from across the country to investigate and take action against all of those responsible for our nations unprecedented opioid crisis.

In a statement, Purdue denied the lawsuits misleading and damaging allegations.

The Illinois attorney generals complaint contains factual errors and gross distortions and misrepresentations based on highly selective excerpting of language from tens of millions of documents, the statement added. The complaint is merely designed to publicly vilify Purdue.

More than 1,000 municipal, county and state lawsuits have been filed against Purdue in the past few years. Most of the local governments complaints have been consolidated in a multidistrict litigation process in a federal court in Cleveland.

Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York comprise a few of the states that have sued the company. Those three have also named as defendants eight members of the Sackler family who own the company and who, until recently, served on the companys board.

The named defendants are responsible, and theyll be held to account, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said in a recent interview. This is as serious as it can be, and the scale of the damages and liability is enormous.

In its largest settlement of the past 10 years, Purdue agreed last month to a $270 million settlement of Oklahomas lawsuit. About $200 million  including $75 million donated by the Sacklers  would help establish the National Center for Addiction Studies and Treatment at Oklahoma State Universitys campus in Tulsa.

As the lawsuits mount against Purdue and the Sacklers, a growing number of museums are distancing themselves from the family, which is also known for its prolific philanthropy.

In the past month New Yorks Guggenheim museum and Britains Tate galleries and National Portrait Gallery have said that they would turn down new donations from the Sacklers.

Connecticut-based beneficiaries of the Sacklers include the University of Connecticut, Yale University, Greenwich Hospital and the Palace Theatre in Stamford. So far, those institutions have not cut ties with the family.

pschott@stamfordadvocate.com; 203-964-2236; twitter: @paulschott
In an attempt to reach a resolution this week of a protracted contract negotiation for unionized workers in New England, Stop & Shop is offering long-tenured workers buyouts that could amount to as much as $75,000  if a deal is struck by Wednesday.

On Monday, Stop & Shop released publicly for the first time specifics on its contract proposal to workers throughout Connecticut and southern New England, in advance of negotiations resuming on Tuesday in Providence, R.I. Weeks have passed since members of the United Food & Commercial Workers union authorized their leaders to call a strike in the event of an impasse.

In any such event, as many as 31,000 unionized workers could fold their aprons and walk away from checkout lanes, food counters and other store departments onto picket lines; with the possibility of additional disruptions should Teamsters members cease warehouse and delivery work in support of their counterparts. Stop & Shop plans to hire temporary workers and staff departments with managers should a strike occur.

On Monday, the company released its latest offers as of April 5 for five unions that have threatened a work stoppage, including for the Westport-based Local 371 affiliate of UFCW and Local 919 in Farmington. Members would be eligible for the buyout if they had at least 25 years with the Stop & Shop on a full-time basis.

Stop & Shop would cap the voluntary buyouts at 30 percent of the membership of any single union affiliate, without stating how many people could be eligible but stating if fewer than 180 applied it would not move forward with the plan. Eligible members would have two weeks to decide if they wanted to take the buyout.

We see this proposed buyout as nothing more than a bribe of our most loyal, senior members in an attempt to convince them to go against their own best interest and the interest of all 31,000 Stop & Shop members, stated UFCW spokesperson Amy Ritter. This deal is available to (1.3 percent) of the entire Stop & Shop workforce in New England. The company needs to do right by all of its workers and settle on a contract that recognizes their hard work and dedication.

Stop & Shop says it is virtually alone among New England supermarket chains in offering a defined pension plan, versus 401k retirement savings plans that are more the norm.

Challenges for the UFCW national pension fund, including recent asset performance and bankruptcies of a number of contributing employers, have increased the cost to provide pension benefits, Stop & Shop stated in the Monday disclosure. The overwhelming majority of our competition does not provide this kind of expensive pension benefit and they certainly do not face ... repeated cost increases.

On Saturday, the Local 371 affiliate of UFCW described as slight progress from the union vantage of the ongoing negotiations, while calling out a few specifics union leadership deems unreasonable, including Stop & Shops goal to eliminate time-and-a-half overtime pay for some workers on Sundays.

This has the potential to seriously impact Sunday shopping, Local 371 posted on its blog. It could reduce the consistency of service and quality that customers rely on during one of the busiest shopping days of the week. ... Benefits like time-and-a-half Sunday pay are common sense benefits.

Due to a reporting error, a previous version stated incorrectly Stop and Shop is in negotiations with 10 UFCW unions. The company is negotiating with five. Updated to reflect UFCW statement in response to buyout offer.

Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulman
April 8

A 28-year-old Stamford man was arrested without a warrant. He was held on $200,000 bond and given a court date of April 17.

April 7

A 30-year-old Bridgeport man was charged with first-degree criminal trespass, third-degree criminal trespass and operating a vehicle under suspension. He was held on $80,000 bond and given a court date of April 16.

A 31-year-old Stratford man was charged with second-degree failure to appear. He was held on $10,000 bond and given a court date of April 17.

A 31-year-old Taylor Avenue man was charged with disorderly conduct. He was given a court date of April 8.

Raymond Rushforth, 62, of New Ringgold, Pennsylvania, was charged with first-degree criminal trespass and second-degree breach of peace. He was held on $2,500 bond and given a court date of April 16.

A 40-year-old Lexington Avenue man was charged with risk of injury to a child and disorderly conduct. He was held on $1,000 bond and given a court date of April 8.

April 6

A 63-year-old man was charged with second-degree breach of peace and failure to comply with fingerprinting. He was held on $5,000 bond and given a court date of April 15.

A 27-year-old West Avenue woman was charged with two counts of third-degree criminal trespass, two counts of fourth-degree criminal mischief and interfering with an officer. She was held on $1,500 bond and given a court date of April 15.

A 23-year-old Westport Avenue woman was charged with possession of marijuana with intent to sell, possession of less than a half-ounce of marijuana and two counts of possession of drug paraphernalia. She was held on $1,000 bond and given a court date of April 16.

A 55-year-old Ledgewood Drive man was charged with disorderly conduct. He was held on $1,500 bond and given a court date of April 8.

April 5

A 30-year-old Broad Street man was charged with evading responsibility, following too closely and operating a vehicle under suspension. He was held on $5,000 bond and given a court date of April 11.

A 20-year-old Bridgeport woman was charged with two counts of sixth-degree larceny. She was given a court date of April 11.

A 39-year-old Bridgeport woman was charged with two counts of sixth-degree larceny. She was given a court date of April 12.

A 35-year-old Stamford woman was charged with criminal impersonation and second-degree harassment. She was held on $25,000 bond and given a court date of April 15.
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NORWALK  Twenty preschoolers in Nora Roberts class packed the carpet on Monday morning as they waited for a special visitor to arrive to read them The Great Dog Wash by Shellie Braeuner.

The 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds are a part of the citys Head Start program. Classrooms throughout the week are welcoming special guest readers as a way to encourage literacy from a young age as a part of the National Week of the Young Child.

The week, which is organized by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, is celebrated each April as a way to spotlight early learning, young children, their teachers, families, and communities.

Across the city, all early childhood programs that receive federal funding or child readiness grants, will have readers on hand to encourage literacy, according to Mary Oster, the early childhood coordinator for Norwalk.

It really helps highlight the work of our early childhood educators, Oster said.

Mayor Harry Rilling stopped by the Ben Franklin School, which holds one of two Greater Norwalk Head Start programs, to read to students. About 140 preschoolers and up to 16 infants and toddlers take part in the federal program, run by the nonprofit Connecticut Institute for Communities, based in Danbury.

Rilling said he participated because it was important to encourage reading early in a childs life.

We need to show the kids that the city of Norwalk cares for them, he said. Its important for them to learn that reading is important. It allows them to use their creativity.

Rilling also left behind a book, titled Lolas Day at the Library, for the students to read during their free time.

It allows them to exercise their mind which is critical, and prepare them for when they do enter school, and we know how it important it is for a child to be reading at third grade level, by the time theyre in third grade, so this helps prepare them for that, he said.

Besides hosting other guest readers throughout the week, Oster said there will be having an arts show on Friday, showing off the preschoolers self-portraits to highlight their creativity.

kelly.kultys@hearstmediact.com
When CEO Jennifer Hyman co-founded (with Jennifer Fleiss) Rent the Runway ten years ago, her focus wasnt on creating a workplace culture with best-in-class programs, policies and practices. Instead, she was determined to prove the business case for providing affordable luxury.

Related: Is Your Parental Leave Policy Driving Away Top Talent?

She succeeded: Today, the company, which rents out designer clothes and accessories, is that rare thing Silicon Valley calls a unicorn -- with a valuation over $1 billion. It has 1,600 full-time and hourly employees.

The fact that those employees' average age is 36 points to something else Hyman has done with her company: provided parental leave for all. The majority of employees at Rent the Runway are in their prime child-bearing years, the CEO told me. They are going through significant life events: pairing up, getting married, having children, caregiving to their own parents."

For Hyman, that fact has prompted her to build a culture that prioritizes attracting and retaining talent. At the top of that list: parental leave. "Providing [employees] with support during these life stages is not just a moral imperative, its a financial one, as well," Hyman said.

The business case for parental leave has long been debated, as employers have complained that its costs outweigh its benefits. Indeed, employers' concerns include short-term productivity, wage replacement and the burden of paying an employee who is not working.

What those concerns have added up to is the fact that most employers today deny their employees paid leave after childbirth (though five states and the District of Columbia have paid family-leave programs, offering varying benefits).

In fact, a 2018 study by Mercer revealed that 60 percent of employers polled did not offer paid parental leave. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this means that only 15 percent of Americans have access to paid leave through their employers.

The net effect for new mothers is that many are forced to leave the paid workforce to care for their children. Despite popular belief to the contrary, only 48 percent of mothers with children under the age of 18 work full-time, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The rest work part-time, or not at all.

Seventy percent of new moms pause their careers.

I conducted a study of nearly 1,500 college-educated women for my book, Work Pause Thrive: How to Pause for Parenthood Without Killing Your Career and was surprised to learn that more than 70 percent of those polled had paused their careers for a period of time because of a lack of support once they became mothers.

Related: 19 Companies and Industries With Radically Awesome Parental Leave Policies

College-educated women often have options when it comes to re-launching their careers, but for many without a college degree, and for hourly workers, the impacts can be devastating. PL+US, a non-profit advocate for paid family leave, reported that nearly one quarter of American women take less than two weeks off after the birth of a child because of lack of paid leave. Their subsequent work commitment lags, resulting in high turnover, reduced productivity and financial hardship.

Rent the Runway isnt the only business facing a parenting tsunami. Millennials, whose average age is 28, are soon to be the largest age cohort in the workforce. Like the employees of Hymans company, they are pairing up, getting married and having children.

In fact, in the next decade, 64 million U.S. millennials are expected to become parents. Shockingly, the United States is one of only two countries among 185 United Nations members that don't provide paid maternity leave to its citizens. As a result, businesses are going to have to be the ones to fill the void.

And there's an economic motivation for that: In a low-unemployment environment like the one we have today, large and small companies alike are competing for talent. A 2017 E&Y study revealed that 83 percent of millennials surveyed would be more likely to join a company if it offered paid parental leave. As a result, this particular benefit has become table-stakes for todays workers.

Given the lack of a much-needed national paid leave program, Annie Sartor, campaigns director at PL+US, told me, employers are finally stepping up to fill the void. "Many large companies already provide paid family leave to employees," Sartor said. "Twenty titans in the last year alone expanded their policies. Increasingly, small businesses and entrepreneurs alike are seeing the need to offer this benefit in order to stay competitive."

Hyman at Rent the Runway, echoed her. Welcome to 2019! Hyman said. If you believe that the profit of a company comes from its talent, then it is imperative you make the right choices when it comes to how you serve your employees.

What about cash-strapped startups?

Of course, "serving your employees" by providing paid parental leave may be fairly easy for a billion-dollar company, but what about a startup? In this context, Founders for Change, an organization of entrepreneur leaders, has partnered with PL+US to launch a new initiative, #LeadersforLeave. Their goal is to encourage company founders, chief executives and venture capitalists to provide paid leave to employees from the beginning.

Here are some things to help entrepreneurs get started doing just that:

1. Evaluate the financial impact. This easy-to-use financial model open-sourced by Optimizely can help you assess the costs of parental leave for your company. Gusto, meanwhile, offers a detailed overview of how to implement a parental leave program. Whatever your size, its critical to remember that the burden of losing an employee for a few months far outweighs the cost of recruiting, hiring and training, which, according to the Center for American Progress, can run from 21 percent to over 200 percent of the departee's salary.

2. Empower your employees to work collaboratively, to develop a solution that works for them and the company by inviting them to create a task force. They can survey their peers, research what other companies in the area are offering and craft a customized offering that meets the real needs of your team.

Consider what is already available to help underwrite parental leave. Four states (and soon, Washington, D.C.) offer some measure of state-funded paid leave. Find out what is offered in your state to assist you financially.

Adapt your parental leave to the needs of the individual employee by ensuring you also have a parental return strategy. Some employees may not want to take their leave all at once and would prefer to have time to transition back with a reduced work week or flexible hours.

Related: Why a Generous Paternity Leave Policy Can Be Bad for Equality

Rent the Runway cant go back to its early days, Hyman said. But were committed to getting it right now. She herself is expecting her second child within the month and is passionate about proving the business case for meaningful parental leave and other benefits that make for a great workplace culture.

Toward that goal, in 2018, Rent the Runway expanded its 12-week fully paid leave to both salaried and hourly workers. No one employees life event is more important than another employees life event, Hyman said. My pregnancy is no more important than [that of] someone who works in our warehouse. We are all equal in terms of our importance as people.

Values-based, yes, but a financial win? According to Hyman, her company's retention is moving in a positive direction, and importantly, she said, productivity has increased. Its up 30 percent year over year.

In todays new world of work, where talent has options, recognizing the business imperative of providing programs and policies that meet the true needs of employees is key to staying competitive. At the core is meaningful paid parental leave for women and men. As Hyman pointed out, Its not just the right thing to do, its smart business.

Related:

Paid Parental Leave: Doing Well by Doing Good

How Reddit's Alexis Ohanian Balances Work and Family

Stop Making New Parents Choose Between Their Job and Their Premature Baby



Copyright 2019 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
Many assume the recreational marijuana market will surpass medical cannabis but there are many reasons to suspect they will be proved wrong. Medical marijuana could become the bigger of the two within a few years thanks to three factors.

Heres what entrepreneurs should know about the difference between these two markets, and how the cannabis industrys astronomical growth could evolve differently than one might expect.

The current state of the cannabis market.

Global cannabis sales reached a new high of $12.2 billion in 2018, up from $9.5 billion in 2017, according to a report by BDS Analytics. More than half of that was recreational. Some examples:

Colorado: Out of total revenue of almost $1.55 billion, according to the Colorado Department of Revenue, only $332 million was medical cannabis.

California: Sales reached approximately $1.2 billion per state data, more than half of which was recreational.

Canada: Statistics Canada reported total sales for October through December reached $115 million USD. At the same time, the number of medical marijuana patients grew in Canada.

Sales in US states that have legalized weed appear to be moving away from medical cannabis and towards recreational, though this has not held true in Canada, though there are indications it will once the market matures and there is wider accessibility.

Related: Move Aside, CBD: New Data Finds THC Is the Real Medicine in Medical Marijuana

In the U.S., the legalization of recreational weed has meant a corresponding decline or stagnation in medical cannabis sales. This makes sense for a few reasons. Depending on the state, obtaining a medical marijuana card can be complicated with few doctors willing to prescribe and applications, and medical marijuana patients sometimes must pay a fee.

In California, the biggest cannabis market to date, lenient laws created an artificially large medical marijuana market. Today, many of those patients are switching to recreational.

The rise of recreational weed has lead to some panic about the future of medical marijuana. Will producers entirely shift their focus away from medical marijuana and to focus on the hottest cannabis products like concentrates vapes, and other high-THC options? Will patients have access to the product they need for target-specific conditions, rather than get you high?

There are a few reasons why this will not happen.

CBD will be bigger than recreational weed.

The recreational market isnt just booming because people want concentrated THC. In fact, the products with the biggest sales increase in 2018 were high in CBD. The growing interest in medicinal and medical cannabis is a strong indication CBD market will explode in the upcoming years.

CBD, also known as cannabidiol, is a compound in cannabis that does not produce a high. ThoughCBD is the second-most popular compound found in weed after THC, it can be found in hemp, too, which is non-psychoactive. This means that it cannot produce unwanted effects, by law.

CBD can address a variety of conditions ranging from the severe to the preventative according to a growing body of research and anecdotal evidence. These include both physical conditions including seizures, pain, Alzheimers and Parkinson's disease and mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. CBD provides a much-needed, non-addictive alternative without negative side effects for pain management and epilepsy These conditions afflict millions of Americans who don't yet use medical marijuana. The potential market is enormous for all-natural products that can address these ailments.

CBD edible sales grew astronomically in 2018. In one year alone CBD gummy sales went up 925 percent, sales of CBD chocolate market increased by 530 percent and CBD tincture, also known as cannabis oil, sales went up 111.5 percent.

Most predict that the CBD market will eclipse the recreational cannabis market -- something that couldnt have been predicted at the beginning of the legalization movement. The most optimistic projection comes from the Brightfield Group, which says the CBD market could reach $22 billion by 2022, more is more than the projected recreational cannabis market.

Related: New Poll Finds Highest Support Ever for Weed Legalization

But is CBD medicinal or medical cannabis? Most people take CBD medicinally, not recreationally, with some replacing pharmaceuticals with CBD. Others use it to address conditions for which they never took a prescription, and a growing number use it as preventative medicine.

In other words, the distinction between medicinal and medical cannabis is hazy. With more research demonstrating CBDs effectiveness, cannabidiol could soon be redefined. This is most likely to occur after national legalization -- and once Big Pharma becomes more involved.

Big Pharma could change the cannabis industry.

The American pharmaceutical industry is the biggest industry in the country and it continues to grow. It represents 45 percent of the global pharmaceutical industry, according to Statista. Big Pharma is investing in weed research, a second big reason why medical cannabis could surpass recreational sales. Because pharmaceutical companies are investigating cannabis medicine, CBD could become a more common form of medical marijuana, not just a supplement categorized as recreational.

Pharmaceutical companies are putting more resources than ever into CBD research to satisfy the demand for cannabis-wellness. There has already been a breakthrough. Epidiolex in 2018 became the first FDA-approved cannabis-derived medication. It is prescribed to treat two types of epilepsy. FDA reclassified Epidiolex as a substance with a lower likelihood of abuse than recreational cannabis. Though just one drug, Epidiolex has opened the floodgates for other pharmaceutical companies to start exploring medical cannabis.

Medical marijuana research is still in its infancy. But in 2018, pharmaceutical companies filed more cannabis patents than ever. Six of the top 10 cannabis patent holders are pharmaceutical companies, according to a recent report. Expect to see many more cannabis medicines available in coming years.

Related: The UN Is Moving Toward Ending Decades of International Cannabis Prohibition

Cannabis consumer demographics keep shifting.

The U.S. baby boomers are the largest generation in American history. There are 76 million baby boomers in the U.S., according to Pew Research, ranging in age from 54 to 73. That is a large segment of the population that is either eligible for Medicare or soon will be.

It isnt a coincidence that seniors are one of the fastest expanding cannabis users. Not only are seniors spending more on marijuana than ever before, but theyre accustomed to spending a lot on medication. A report found that brand name drug prices have almost doubled in nine years.

As a result, seniors are more likely to look for less expensive alternatives, like cannabis. Pharmaceutical companies are incentivized more than ever to create medical cannabis products to appeal to their older demographic.

An additional factor in coming years is that contemplated changes to global treaties could create an international medical cannabis market, with CBD specifically exempted from international prohibition. This creates the potential for eventually allowing cannabis producers, such as those in Canada projected to eventually glut domestic markets, to export to newly opened markets. The United Kingdom and Thailand recently legalized medical marijuana, and many European countries are in the process of relaxing their laws.

For more developed markets with bigger producers, this translates to massive potential for medical marijuana overseas in markets that are far away from recreational legalization.

Related: Why Will Health Insurers Reimburse You for Opioids but Not for Medical Marijuana?

Will medical cannabis surpass recreational?

Recreational cannabis will be huge but increasing interest in medicinal cannabis, global market growth and involvement from Big Pharma could make medical cannabis the larger of the two markets. For this to happen, however, there are a few things that have to change. Specifically, this would require better accessibility to medical cannabis -- more doctors, easier applications and more options when it comes to medication targeting specific illnesses -- and a better understanding of how we can use CBD medically. Lastly, for the market to really reach its potential, international expansion of the medical cannabis market needs to be legalized.

One thing is for certain: The market for cannabis medications will continue to grow as baby boomers come of age, stigma decreases and continuing research confirms the effectiveness of cannabis for many common ailments.

Related:

Will Medical Cannabis Sales Eventually Surpass Recreational Sales?

Famed Journalist and Cancer Survivor Tom Brokaw Reveals His Medical Marijuana Use

Managing Medical Marijuana in the Workplace



Copyright 2019 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

Over the past three decades, Ive sat in many courtrooms and watched witnesses stand before a judge and raise their right hand and say I do.

And over the decades, Ive become increasingly cynical about this ritual.

The fact of the matter is our legal system doesnt want the whole truth. It wants some of the facts some of the time.

A case in point is a trial I was covering last week in Waterloo, Iowa.

On Sept. 17, 1990, the body of 9-year-old Jennifer Ann Lewis was found burning on the edge of a school playground in Davenport, Iowa. She had been raped and strangled. Someone drenched her 70-pound body with gasoline and ignited it.

I was one of the first people to find the body that terrible night. Flames were still licking the corpse when I arrived on the scene, notebook in hand.

I was looking for facts. Ive stuck with the case and I am still seeking the facts.

But facts in themselves dont equate to truth.

Despite what lawyers and judges may tell juries, truth is something they cannot find by examining what is presented in a courtroom. Truth remains an elusive ideal in this temporal world. In our legal system  or any system created by man  it will remain elusive.

Truth really is a spiritual question, rather than a mere legal one.

For example, within days, police officers investigating the murder of the Rock Island girl focused their inquiry on Stanley Carter Liggins.

Why? Well, he was out on bond for sexually abusing a different 9-year-old girl and according to testimony he knew both of Jennifers parents because he was selling them cocaine.

Both of those facts might seem to contribute to a better understanding of a larger truth.

But the courts didnt see it that way. It is information jurors will never hear.

During his first trial, jurors were told Liggins was a drug dealer, but the Iowa Supreme Court threw that conviction out in part because it said the jury should never have been told.

A little bit of truth was whittled away by judicial fiat. How can we call it truth when it isnt based on all of the facts? We shouldnt.

Liggins was tried a second time and convicted.

The theory has always been that our adversarial process leads to the truth, but commonsense tells you it doesnt. At best, it provides selective facts in which to render a judgment.

In the Liggins case, decades passed and again an appeals court granted him a new trial on the grounds that relevant police reports were not turned over to the defense and prosecutors did not disclose a key witness was a paid police informant.

The defendant believed that jurors had been denied facts contributing to that ever elusive truth. Judges agreed. They ruled that jurors needed to hear more.

Prosecutors in his third trial sought to inform jurors of Liggins past as a pedophile. A judge ruled they couldnt. And Jurors were unable to reach a verdict.

If anything, these wranglings underscore the imperfections of our system and how it isnt so much about truth as it is about determining a verdict.

Last Monday, a fourth jury began deliberating on the case. The judge urged jurors to use their commonsense. Lawyers extolled jurors as the finders of truth.

But what exactly is truth?

Websters defines it as: a transcendent fundamental or spiritual reality.

As I write these words, I dont know what jurors will decide. They remain behind closed doors deliberating and seeking truth. All we can ask of them is to do their best reaching a fair verdict based on the evidence presented. They are finders of fact, not truth.

Im certain of one thing this Lenten season. Truth is not something found in any courtroom.

I find Truth in the One who said: And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Scott Reeder is a veteran statehouse journalist and a freelance reporter. He can be reached at ScottReeder1965@gmail.com.
THE ISSUE:

The state budget underfunds New York's effort to promote participation in the 2020 census.

THE STAKES:

The consequences of skimping on this effort would be dire and long-term.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo may have a laser-like focus when it comes to balancing budgets, but he seems to suffer from an unfortunate myopia when it comes to seeing the big financial picture of the 2020 census.

In his zeal to save money, the governor seems to have severely underfunded the state's effort to ensure that every person in New York is counted in the census. It's a mistake that could hurt New York for years.

New York is already projected to slip a notch when it comes to population, going from third place in 2010 to fourth place, after Florida, according to Census Bureau estimates. Those estimates put the state's population at 19.5 million people, an increase of less than 200,000 since the 2010 census.

That could cost New York two of its current 27 seats in the House of Representatives.

It also could mean less population-based federal aid for New York in the years to come. That's bad news for a state that already sends far more to Washington than it gets back  about $35.6 billion a year more, according to the Rockefeller Institute of Government.

If these estimates aren't concern enough, consider the Trump administration's push to tinker with the census by inserting a question on citizenship, which critics say is likely to discourage immigrants  legal or not  from responding. That could especially hurt New York, with its estimated 725,000 undocumented immigrants, according to the Pew Research Center.

New York is one of six states, along with California, Florida, Illinois, Texas and Georgia, that host most of the country's undocumented immigrants. Note the political dynamics: Three of those states voted blue in the last presidential election, and two were considered swing states. Diminishing their House representation also cuts their weight in the Electoral College, which President Donald Trump won while losing the popular vote. Three courts have the blocked the citizenship question; the U.S. Supreme Court may well decide the issue.

More Information To comment: tuletters@timesunion.com See More Collapse

All of which makes it vital that New York do all it can to ensure a fair and complete count in next year's census.

But Mr. Cuomo seems to be less than focused on that goal. He put just $20 million in the budget for the effort to promote participation in the census  half the most conservative estimate of what New York needs to spend. Meanwhile, the state's Complete Count Commission, which he substantially controls, downplays the need for more money even before it has reported on what the state's strategy should be  recommendations that were due months ago.

Now the Cuomo administration suggests philanthropic groups, local governments and libraries chip in. Fine, but any resources they might contribute must come on top of a full-fledged commitment by the state.

Mr. Cuomo may balance the budget today, but his shortsighted approach risks shortchanging New York for a decade to come. The state cannot afford not to do this right.
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Linkedin Safendrri Komara Ragamustari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, April 8, 2019 15:04 981 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731cc110 3 Opinion jamu,Indonesia,science-and-technology,herbal-medicine Free

Almost all Indonesians know what jamu (traditional herbal medicine) is and have consumed it at one point in their lives. In fact, it is reported that 75 percent of all Indonesians consume jamu on a regular basis, either to prevent or treat diseases. It has been consumed for over a millennium, at least according to the oldest historic proof, reliefs carved on Borobudur Temple (although jamu might even pre-exist long before that). So jamu has been an integral part of Indonesias socio-cultural identity.

However, despite its popularity and a 10 percent annual growth of the jamu industry, there is fear that the Indonesian jamu heritage will eventually wane due to the prevalence of modern medication. In addition to the traditional image of jamu (which is often regarded not as effective as modern medication), conventional health services in Indonesia do not yet facilitate a platform for the growth of jamu. Prescriptions for medications only use modern medicines, despite regulations to push the usage of jamu in healthcare. There are also increasing cases in which jamu is mixed with chemical compounds. The practice that is illegal due to synergistic effects of jamu and the chemical compounds that can potentially be dangerous. These issues can negatively affect the perception of people who consume or are interested in consuming jamu, which might also affect jamus long-term survival.

Being an integral part of Indonesias socio-cultural identity, the preservation of jamu is of great importance. Jamu is unique for each locality. The purposes of its use, the time of when its used and the herbs used are a depiction of the unique culture, geography and biological diversity of its place of origin, and Indonesia as a whole. Jamu can teach us a lot about ourselves and is an important cultural heritage.

There have been many efforts for the preservation of jamu. The Indonesian government has even proposed to UNESCO to make jamu a world heritage. However, after more or less a decade since the proposal, jamu has yet to be accepted as a UNESCO world heritage. To make people realize the significance of jamu, it is important to leverage knowledge on its importance, which could massively improve jamus image and will most likely help jamu strive and be preserved. Unfortunately, the efforts to leverage perception on jamu are currently only focused on the aspect of hygiene and safety in its consumption. More efforts in leveraging jamus image need to be done, especially related to its original use, which is for medication and healing.

The government has implemented a program called the scientification of jamu, which tries to use scientific methods to convince doubters that jamu has strong scientific grounding. It started in the era of President SBY in 2010. The Government even established a national committee for the scientification of jamu in 2013. Unfortunately, a quick google scholar search using the keywords scientification of jamu, jamu scientification and saintifikasi jamu only resulted in 12, 24 and 317 hits respectively. The low amount of publications after almost a decade of its introduction is an early indication of a lack of enthusiasm toward the jamu scientification, at least in academia.

The guidelines made by the national committee for jamu scientification are actually quite robust. However, looking at the number of publications in scientific journals, especially those that are of international pedigree, implementation still needs to be reviewed. Perhaps a national research agenda involving researchers with relevant competencies toward jamu scientification can be one option.

The aspects of scientification of jamu range from understanding the clinical practice, context of usage, safety of usage, effectiveness, elucidation of active compounds related to therapeutic effect, and therapeutic mechanism. Ironically, one of the most comprehensive studies done on these aspects is actually done outside of Indonesia. Japans Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST) has set up a jamu database that contains more than 5,000 jamu formulations along with some of the aspects that were mentioned. The database is a part of a larger herbal medicinal system database called KNApSack. Recent studies have attempted to use the KNApSack database to formulate new herbal medicinal systems. In the future, resources such as the KNApSack database will most likely be utilized to design next-generation personalized herbal medicinal systems.

NAISTs KNApSack database is far from perfect though. It only contains raw data on the herbs that are used and the active compounds in them. It still lacks in context. There is still a knowledge gap that can be filled, such as the historical context of the jamu formulation, dominant active compounds that determine therapeutic effect of the jamu, their mechanisms, etc. This can be a starting point for a long-term research on jamu and should be explored by the Indonesian Government.

The demise of PT Nyonya Meneer in 2017, one of the oldest jamu makers in Indonesia, after operating for almost a century, can serve as a metaphor for the future of Indonesias jamu heritage. If this amazing heritage is mismanaged, it is not impossible to lose it. A stronger narrative on the preservation of Indonesias jamu heritage can be built using science and technology. Consequently, Indonesians will be more proud of their jamu heritage and put in more effort to study about it. Perhaps we could even gain better understanding about ourselves as a nation through knowledge of our jamu heritage.

***

The writer is a faculty member at the School of Government and Public Policy Indonesia, Sentul, Bogor

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
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Linkedin Hafiz Al Asad (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  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.

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, April 8, 2019 07:05 982 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731b3b9b 1 Art & Culture temple,karawang,batujaya-temple Free

The Education and Culture Ministry has named Batujaya Temple complex in Karawang regency, West Java, an item of national cultural heritage. The government will now make an effort to better publicize the complex.

The declaration is stated in Education and Culture Ministerial Decree No.70/2019, signed by the minister, Muhadjir Effendy, on March. 11 in Jakarta.

We just received the letter, and we will inform the public shortly, Firman Sofyan, head of culture at the Karawang Tourism and Culture Agency said on Thursday as quoted by Tempo.co.

Prior to getting the recognition archaeologists carried out research at Batujaya Temple.

Firman said the temple was thought to have been built sometime in the fourth century.

He said the excavation of the temple site started in 1996. Since then, at least 62 temples have been discovered on the 50-hectare site.

We also found menhirs and three ancient burial sites from the Buni culture, therefore we think the temple complex is special and eligible for national and even international recognition, Firman said.

Read also: Pongkor mine, first underground museum in Indonesia

The Buni culture was a prehistoric clay pottery culture thought to have flourished in the coastal areas of northern and western Java. The culture is believed to date from 400 BC to 100 AD and probably survived until 500 AD. The Buni culture is presumed to be the roots of the Tarumanegara kingdom, one of the earliest Hindu kingdoms in the Indonesian archipelago.

After being recognized as a national treasure, the Karawang regency administration will propose the complex for recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Firman added that the administration was working to improve the infrastructure and tourist facilities around the site. (gis/mut)
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Linkedin Jayson Mansaray (Reuters) London, United Kingdom  Mon, April 8, 2019 17:03 981 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731d04d4 2 Art & Culture theater,Britain,united-states,olivier-awards,musical,The-Inheritance,Howards-End Free

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.

Read also: Love Is Never Simple: A musical celebrates Indonesias love poems

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 US 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.
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) London  Mon, April 8, 2019 22:08 981 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731db24e 2 People Prince-William,spy,MI6,intelligence-services Free

The name's Windsor. William Windsor.

As one of the most recognizable public figures in the world, Britain's Prince William would not make as effective a 007 as legendary fictional spy James Bond.

But that did not stop the heir to the British throne spending the last three weeks working with the security services, including in Bond's own foreign intelligence unit MI6.

The Duke of Cambridge ended the top-secret attachment -- which also included a week with domestic intelligence service MI5 and cybersecurity agency GCHQ -- on Saturday, according to Kensington Palace.

"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," William said in a statement.

"These agencies are full of people from everyday backgrounds doing the most extraordinary work to keep us safe."

The prince, who has a military background, began the secondment at the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) -- better known as MI6 -- whose spies work around the world gathering information and furthering British interests.

William, 36, "got to see first-hand how SIS helps the UK identify and exploit opportunities as well as navigate risks to its national security, military effectiveness and economy," Kensington Palace said.

The father-of-three then switched over to the Security Service -- MI5 -- to observe how counter-terrorism teams conduct investigations, including surveillance.

The duke finished his foray into spycraft at the communications monitoring agency GCHQ in Cheltenham, in western England.

Read also: Prince William turns interviewer in Davos appearance with Attenborough

There he spent time "with those using cutting-edge technology, technical ingenuity and wide-ranging partnerships to identify, analyse and disrupt threats," the palace added.

GCHQ's head of counter-terrorism operations, whose name was given only as David, said the prince had worked "exceptionally hard to embed himself in the team".

He added William had "comfortably held his own amongst some highly skilled analysts and operators".

The prince is no stranger to the world of security.

After graduating in 2005 from university in St Andrews in Scotland, he spent seven and a half years in the military, before completing active service as a search and rescue helicopter pilot.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, April 8, 2019 14:36 981 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731c7195 1 Art & Culture Tanda-Seru,Futuwonder,exhibition,feminism,women-empowerment Free

Tanda Seru! (Exclamation Mark!) is an exhibition featuring works from artists who aim to raise awareness about womens issues, especially emancipation and gender equality.

The exhibition is held from March 31 to April 13 at Uma Seminyak in Badung regency, Bali.

Presented by cross-disciplinary collective Futuwonder, Tanda Seru! features eight artists: Aria Gita Indira, Citra Sasmita, Cristine Manda Mandasari, Intan Kirana Sari, Irene Febry, Pangestu Widya Sari, Putu Sridiniari and Santi Permana. The event was opened by renowned artist Arahmaiani, who is known for being outspoken about women's issues.

"Male Reproductive System" by Irene Febry (left) and "Mannequin" by Intan Kirana Sari. (Futuwonder/File)

Two paintings from artist Citra Sasmita are on display at the exhibition: Portrait of The Other 1 and Portrait of The Other 2. One of the works depicts a naked woman with two heads; she is wrapped with a red, thorny rope. The reality is that society currently puts women in a secondary position, hence when they try to escape from values that restrict them, it is often perceived as a rebellious act and [likely to] generate social conflict, Citra said in an official statement.

Read also: Why feminism in Indonesia is important

"Res Publica: Security Mirror for Genitalia" by Putu Sridiniari. (Futuwonder/File)

Artist Manda is exhibiting three works: Happy to Bleed #1, #2 and #3. The art explores the patriarchal reconstruction of womens menstruation, particularly in terms of worship, work and marriage. Sanitary pads cover the art and one of the pieces reads, This is [not] the reason why women should take the day off.

Meanwhile, Putu Sridiniari, a member of Futuwonder, presents Res Publica: Security Mirror for Genitalia, which examines how much the law and the public limit womens freedom. Despite how often they are presented, art exhibitions tend to be commercial and lack innovation. Exhibitions like Tanda Seru! should be held more often to accommodate an alternative exchange of ideas and visuals that are comparable to the mainstream ones, said Putu. This exhibition is also necessary to build constructive behavior, especially for women artists, in communication. (wir/mut)
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse)  Mon, April 8, 2019 19:03 981 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731d7896 2 Entertainment Game-of-Thrones,box-office,series Free

The most expensive, most watched, most pirated and most award-festooned fictional television series in history... As "Game of Thrones" starts its eighth and final season on April 14, AFP looks back on its record-breaking run.

Massive ratings

First broadcast in 2011 on the US cable channel HBO, "Game of Thrones" -- or GoT to its fans -- was not an overnight phenomenon. But its audiences have never stopped growing and by 2014 it had overtaken HBOs flagship hit, "The Sopranos".

By its seventh season in 2017, viewing figures were stratospheric. Its final episode set an all-time US record for premium cable TV with 16.5 million people watching live or streaming on the day of transmission and 15 million more tuning in later.

Viewing records also tumbled in many of the 186 countries in which it was shown, with Britains Sky Atlantic and OCS in France showing episodes in the middle of the night in sync with their US premieres.

But the figures become truly mind-boggling when illegal downloading is taken into account, with more than one billion people watching pirated copies of the seventh season.

Colossal budgets

The eighth run-out for "Game of Thrones" is reportedly the most expensive season of TV ever shot, with a budget of $15 million (13 million euros) per episode, taking the overall season cost to $90 million.

Although much of this has gone on lavish locations and special effects, the final two episodes will be one hour 20 minutes long -- almost the length of Hollywood movies.

HBO knows there is little danger of them not getting their money back, with the franchise so far earning them more than $1 billion, according to the New York Times.

The massive investment has also brought the series a record-breaking trove of 47 Emmy Awards from 128 nominations.

Top secret

After the leak of four episodes of season five before it was broadcast, the producers massively overhauled their security.

To throw hackers and pirates off the scent, showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have shot several versions of the final episode, a tactic already used for "The Sopranos" and "Breaking Bad".

Read also: Winter is over: HBO brings down curtain on TV phenom 'Game of Thrones'

Actress Sophie Turner, who plays Sansa Stark, admitted that even she had been fooled into believing a red herring version of the denouement.

To make sure no one was snooping, the producers took measures to stop drones overflying their shoots.

Game of Tourists

The series has also been a boon for tourism, particularly in Northern Ireland, where much of the series was shot, with fans flooding in to visit locations in the region which had previously been best known for its violent sectarian past.

Iceland and the Spanish cities of Girona in the Catalan north and Osuna near Seville have seen their visitor numbers rocket from special "Game of Thrones" tours.

But the Croatian coastal city of Dubrovnik, the setting for Kings Landing, discovered you can have too much of a good thing. It has had to put limits on the number of visitors it can receive in its picturesque medieval centre.

Dothraki baby names

Dogs, goldfish and lots of babies have also been named after characters from the series, with Arya -- together with its alternative spelling Aria -- entering the top 20 most popular names for girls in Britain last year.

Khaleesi, the honorary title in the imaginary Dothraki language given to Daenerys Targaryen, has also become popular, with 466 little girls in the US and 77 in France named after the queen of dragons last year.

The series has been something of a mixed blessing for pets too. Peter Dinklage, who plays "the Imp" Tyrion Lannister, had to appeal to fans to stop buying Siberian husky dogs who look similar to the dire wolves in the show.

Animal rights campaigners had complained that the number of huskies abandoned in Britain has risen seven-fold since the show started.

Presidential fans

While he was still in the White House, Barack Obama admitted to being a big fan of the series. He even asked HBO to bend their strict rules to allow him a sneak preview of the sixth season.

His successor in the Oval Office Donald Trump has made wide use of the "Winter is coming" motto of the House of Stark.

Much to the irritation of the channel and several of its actors, the US president has adapted the line several times in his tweets, including about Iran -- "sanctions are coming" -- and his border wall with Mexico: "The wall is coming."

The president, however, does not appear to have learned the lesson of the "Game of Thrones" wall, which has proved utterly ineffective against illegal immigration of Wildlings and zombie White Walkers.
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Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta  Mon, April 8, 2019

The Trade Ministry has issued new regulation requiring safety checks and labeling for electronic devices and goods containing hazardous chemicals, including rice cookers, rubber sandals and mattresses.

The regulation, which will take effect on Aug. 14 2019, applies to local producers and importers.

"The ministry is requiring local producers and importers to register products that may affect safety, security and health as well as the environment before distributing them to the market," the ministry's consumer protection and trade order director general, Veri Anggrijono, said in a statement recently.

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Linkedin Marchio Irfan Gorbiano (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, April 8, 2019 08:12 982 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731b5237 1 Business tax,e-commerce,online-business,Bukalapak,Tokopedia,Facebook,Instagram,social-media Free

Representatives from online marketplaces and online retailers have welcomed the governments decision to revoke a regulation on e-commerce taxes that was originally to be enforced on April 1.

Critics of the regulation argued it would have halted the growth of the e-commerce industry, which is still in early stages of the development, and discourage businesses, especially small companies, from using e-commerce to reach out to more customers.

Finance Ministerial Regulation (PMK) No. 210/2018, which was signed on Dec. 31, mandates that online marketplaces collect information such as tax numbers and personal identity numbers. The regulation also provides clarification on income tax rates for online sellers.

The regulation also stated that online transactions were subject to taxes that also applied to offline transactions such as value-added tax and luxury goods tax.

Indonesian E-Commerce Association (idEA) chairman Ignatius Untung welcomed the revocation, saying the decision was the right one for ensuring further growth in the e-commerce sector.

We appreciate this decision [to revoke PMK No. 210/2018], which is a decision for the greater interests [of the e-commerce industry], said Ignatius.

He previously said that the regulation, if enforced, would introduce an uneven playing field between online sellers who utilized marketplace platforms and online sellers who utilized social media platforms, as it was harder for tax authorities to enforce taxation regulations on the latter.

Meanwhile, Indonesian Shopping Centers Tenants Association (Hippindo) chairman Budihardjo Iduansjah called on the government to ensure that digital businesses get the same tax treatment as offline retailers, despite the revocation of the e-commerce tax regulation.

Online marketplace operators should also be required to charge customers value added tax according to the prevailing tax law, said Budihardjo.

Indonesian Retailers Association (Aprindo) vice chairman Tutum Rahanta echoed Budihardjos view, saying that he hoped both online and offline retailers receive the same tax treatment to ensure an even playing field.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati recently said the revocation of PMK No. 210/2018 was due to widespread confusion in the public as the government was perceived to be collecting specially designed taxes for e-commerce through the regulation.

We observed that there was so much noise that was caused by the regulation, which was unproductive considering that there are no new taxes included in the PMK. So we decided to retract the regulation, said Sri Mulyani recently in Jakarta.

She said the governments intention was to regulate the collection of information on business players in the e-commerce industry.

Conventional and digital businesses, she emphasized, remain subject to prevailing taxation regulations and therefore should pay their taxes according to current taxation rules.

If we talk about the taxation obligations, whether they are conventional, digital or [involve] social media, the taxation laws are applicable to all of them, she said.

She said information needed to be disseminated on the issue as there was a misconception that online-based businesses could avoid paying their taxes.

The growth of Indonesias e-commerce industry is among the highest in the world. According to consulting firm McKinsey, the e-commerce market in Indonesia is estimated to grow sharply to a range of between US$55 billion and $65 billion by 2022, a nearly eight-fold increase from $8 billion in 2017.

Center for Indonesia Taxation Analysis executive director Yustinus Prastowo regretted the annulment of the regulation, arguing that the PMK could serve as a clear reference point for digital businesses going forward.

We regret the annulment of the PMK considering it was already signed and would be useful to serve as guidance for e-commerce players and the tax officials, said Yustinus, suggesting that the government instead delay the implementation of the regulation to ensure that the stakeholders would be well-informed.

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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Sydney, Australia  Mon, April 8, 2019 15:45 981 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731cd2c7 2 World #Australia,#beijing,inquiry,writers,secrets Free

Beijing agents pressured two Chinese-Australian authors to provide information about a secret Canberra inquiry into Chinese meddling in domestic politics, local media reported Monday.

Yang Jun, a novelist and democracy advocate, and Feng Chongyi, a Sydney-based university professor and former newspaper publisher, were reportedly interrogated over the classified probe.

The pair are both friends of John Garnaut, a former journalist who was heading up the inquiry.

Relations between the two nations have been fraught in recent times over fears of Chinese interference, and as Beijing flexes its muscle in the Pacific islands which Canberra views as its backyard.

A joint investigation published Monday by The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and national broadcaster ABC found China had waged an intelligence operation to gain details of the probe ordered in 2016 by then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Yang, an Australian citizen whose pen name is Yang Hengjun, has been detained in China since travelling there in January, accused of endangering state security.

Monday's report coincided with a plea from his wife for Australia to do more to secure his release.

Australian media have reported that Yang was a former Chinese diplomat, although that has been denied by Beijing.

The ABC report said Chinese agents had previously intercepted and questioned Yang in Sydney in 2018 when he was on his way to meet with Garnaut.

Garnaut told the ABC that a Chinese official asked Yang "about me... what I was doing, what I was working on".

Yang's wife, Xiaoliang Yuan, has been banned from leaving China but she spoke to the ABC from Shanghai to urge Australia to help free her husband.

"I think at least the Australian government officials should care for its citizens' wellbeing when they are overseas, should show their concern," she was quoted as saying.

Feng, a permanent Australian resident, told the ABC he was questioned about Garnaut when he was detained for several days during a trip to China in 2017.

"They knew a lot about him (Garnaut). During the interrogation, they did not hide that they were angry with him," Feng said.

Andrew Hastie -- who chairs Canberra's intelligence and security committee -- told the ABC the government has had "multiple briefings" from domestic intelligence agency ASIO and other agencies that "foreign interference is being conducted in Australia at an unprecedented level".

"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," he added.

"China is seeking to influence our elites, particularly our political and business elites, in order to achieve their strategic objectives."

The inquiry led Australia to pass sweeping reforms to espionage and foreign interference laws, with China singled out as a focus of concern.
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Linkedin Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post) Medan, North Sumatra  Mon, April 8, 2019 21:31 981 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731da294 1 National #NorthSumatra,#Medan,#building,#collapse,Medan,building,collapse,collapsed-building Free

A building that housed a popular cafe in the center of Medan, North Sumatra, collapsed on Monday night.

Medan Police chief Sr. Comr. Dadang Hartanto said there had been one injured victim rescued from the rubble. The victim lived next to the collapsed building.

The victim's back was injured because of the falling debris, he told the press at the site.

The building, which was located right across from the popular Ring Road City Walk shopping mall, was home to the Big White Coffee cafe as well as the Venezia family massage parlor.



Bayu, a foreman who was overseeing construction on the site, said that the building was undergoing renovation and had been closed to visitors for the past two days.



The cafe was a popular hangout site for young people, leading the proprietors to want to add two floors to the three-story building.



Bayu said that construction of the fourth floor had just finished and that all the construction workers had left the site at 5 p.m. He claimed the building collapsed at around 7 p.m, while other bystanders said they saw it collapse at 6:30 p.m. The building was completely leveled.



At the time of writing, several ambulances and police personnel had arrived at the site but recovery had started.



The cause for the collapse remains unclear. (yan)
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Linkedin Winny Tang (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, April 8, 2019 14:47 981 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731c94d7 1 Business cement,cement-industry,growth,acquisition,semen-indonesia,Indocement-Tunggal-Prakarsa,Solusi-Bangun-Indonesia,RDF,refuse-derived-fuel Free

Big cement producers will continue their cost-efficiency strategy and seize opportunities to acquire other players amid a cement oversupply that has consistently dragged down their financial performances.

Cement maker Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa, part of the Salim Group, said the company faced many challenges last year due to the increase in coal prices, the rupiah depreciation and cement oversupply.

Our production costs from coal increased by 40-55 percent last year, said Indocement president director Christian Kartawijaya in Jakarta recently.

The publicly listed company has posted a decline in net income for four consecutive years since 2015. The firms revenue was up 5.26 percent year-on-year (yoy) to Rp 15.19 trillion (US$1.06 billion) last year. However, its net income plunged 38.4 percent yoy to Rp 1.15 trillion.

To anticipate declining profits, Indocement has prepared a long-term strategy to substitute coal with alternative, refuse-derived fuel (RDF). In September, Indocement collaborated with the West Java administration to buy 500 tons of RDF derived from 1,500 tons of processed community waste.

In 2019, Indocement is targeting a conservative sales growth of 4 percent to Rp 15.8 trillion on the back of a slowdown in cement consumption. Christian predicts demand for cement to pick up in the second half of 2019, after the April 17 presidential election.

It believes cement consumption will be driven by government infrastructure and the construction of residential projects and buildings, either in Java or outside Java.

Indocement has set aside Rp 900 billion to Rp 1 trillion in capital expenditure (capex) that would be sourced from internal cash. The capex would be used for business expansions, including adding a quarry in West Java to support production and the completion of cement terminals.

The countrys cement industry is still sluggish. Domestic consumption grew by only 4.9 percent to 69.51 million tons last year, according to data from the Indonesia Cement Association.

Demand for cement is concentrated in Sumatra and Java, which contributed 74 percent of total national cement production. The remaining demand comes from Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Nusa Tenggara.

Foreign cement companies, especially from China, have also intensified the competition in the cement industry, prompting big cement players to find opportunities to consolidate.

Indocement, which has Rp 7.22 trillion cash on hand, said the company was always looking for possible opportunities to acquire other cement company or factories.

Every year, we look for acquisition opportunities. If the [plants] location is good and it could give value added to us, we will consider it, he said.

Semen Indonesia, a publicly listed company with the ticker symbol SMGR, recently acquired Holcim Indonesia through its subsidiary Semen Indonesia Industri Bangunan (SIIB) as part of a wider effort to expand its market share in the domestic market, diversify its products and boost efficiency.

After the acquisition, due to the change in controlling shareholders, Holcim Indonesia changed its name to Solusi Bangun Indonesia (SBI).

Semen Indonesia corporate secretary Agung Wiharto said recently that the acquisition aimed at expanding the companys network of cement factories across the country.
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Linkedin Riska Rahman (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, April 8, 2019 18:49 981 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731d776d 1 Business coal,coal-export,Indo-Tambangraya-Megah,power-plant,coal-business,China,Japan,India,Southeast-Asia Free

Mining company PT Indo Tambangraya Megah will focus on developing its coal business as its mainstay while also working on renewable energy and exploring other non-coal mines.

Even though many of its main export destination countries, like China and Japan, are reducing their use of coal to fire their power plants, the publicly listed company is still upbeat its coal export volume will continue to rise.

Indo Tambangraya director Jusnan Ruslan said those countries were beginning to increase the use of other energy sources to provide electricity and that still provided plenty of opportunities for the miner.

The rise of energy use would still potentially increase our sales to our main export destinations, he said, adding that coal consumption in India and China had yet to show signs of slowing down.

Moreover, he said, the increase in energy use in Southeast Asian countries that still relied on coal-fired power plants, such as Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, could also boost sales this year as the firm would still maintain its focus to fulfill demand from the region.

According to the annual World Energy Outlook report, published by the International Energy Agency last year, coal consumption rose in 2017 after two years of decline due to increasing demand from India and Southeast Asia. The report also indicated that the so-called dirtiest fossil fuel would remain a key fuel to provide electricity and heat through 2040, according to Bloomberg.

Narada Asset Management analyst Kiswoyo Adi Joe told The Jakarta Post that the declining use of coal in several of the Indo Tambangrayas main export destinations would not hurt the companys performance due to strong Southeast Asian sales.

Because of these reasons, Indo Tambangraya director Yulius Kurniawan Gozali said the miner aimed to increase its coal sales to 26.5 million tons this year compared to last years total sales of 23.5 million tons. In the meantime, he said, the firm expected its production to reach 23.6 million tons this year, up by 6.79 percent from last years production.

He said the increase in sales and production would hopefully jack up its revenue in 2019, as long as the coal price was stable at US$75 to $80 per ton. This would allow the company to gain up to $2.1 billion in revenue this year.

The figure is higher than the companys 2018 revenue of $2.01 billion, up by 18.83 percent year-on-year (yoy). However, the companys profit increased by 3.7 percent to $261.95 million last year due to an increase in the cost of revenue, which exceeded 20 percent, among other reason.

In order to achieve the companys revenue target and increase its financial performance this year, Yulius said the firm had allocated $121.9 million in capital expenditure (capex). Around $60.4 million of the funds would be used to buy new equipment and machinery, as well as expand mine-supporting infrastructure.

He added that Indo Tambangraya was also looking to acquire another coal mine this year after it acquired Nusa Persada Resources in Central Kalimantan but declined to go into detail.

Besides eyeing a new coal mine, Indo Tambangraya director Mulianto said the company was also exploring to acquire other non-coal mines to diversify its business.

We also plan to expand our business to renewable energy power plants, specifically solar and hydropower, he said.

Yulius added that the miner was conducting several feasibility studies for solar-powered and hydro-powered power plants, which would be sold to another party. Given that the study is ongoing, he declined to reveal the capacity or when the company would start building the power plant.

He said the firm currently owned a 3-megawatt solar-powered power plant run by subsidiary PT Indominco Mandiri complex in Bontang, East Kalimantan, to fulfill its own power needs.

Kiswoyo of Narada said he lauded the companys effort in diversifying its business, saying that it could reduce the companys dependence on coal for revenue in the future.

But for now, the company will still rely almost all of its revenue on coal, he said.
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Linkedin Stefanno Reinard Sulaiman (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, April 8, 2019

In a recent House of Representatives hearing, a legislator from the opposition Gerindra Party criticized the government over its snails-pace progress on a plan of development (PoD) for the gas-rich Masela block.

Kardaya Warnika denounced the governments lack of firmness in making a decision on whether it would approve the development plan proposed by Maselas operator , Japans Inpex Corp, which holds a 65 percent stake in the block.

The [oil and gas] law is clear. Any [contractor or operator] that fails to develop the block within five years after the approval of the first PoD will automatically face contract termination, Kardaya said of the block, the development plan of which has been under preparations for a decade.

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Linkedin Nurul Fitri Ramadhani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, April 8, 2019

Mass prayers, religious chanting and ubiquitous Islamic attire gave a religious tint to the campaign rally held by the Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno candidate pair at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium on Sunday. It was the largest rally they have held before election day on April 17.

Tens of thousands of people in white shouted Allahu Akbar (God is the greatest) repeatedly during the event that also presented a number of Muslim figures, including a video call from Islam Defenders Front (FPI) leader Rizieq Shihab from Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

The political event started very early at 3 a.m., followed by a mass dawn prayer, zikir (chanting), munajat (whispered prayer) and Quranic tilawah(recital).

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, April 8, 2019 15:56 981 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731cdccb 4 World Jokowi,Mahathir-Mohamad,EU,palm-oil,palm-oil-bio-fuel,European-Commission,European-Union Free

Indonesian President Joko Jokowi Widodo and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad have objected to the European Union's plan to reduce the use of palm oil in biofuel to zero by sending an official joint letter to the bloc.

Yesterday [Sunday], the President signed the letter containing our objections to the plan to ban palm oil products. The letter was written by both leaders, Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said on Monday as quoted by Antara.

He said Indonesia and Malaysia sent the letter because, as countries that were among the worlds biggest palm oil exporters, they would be affected by the EUs plan to phase out crude palm oil from the sources of biofuel by 2030.

Luhut, however, stopped short of revealing any details of the letter.

The EUs plan will affect the lives of around 20 million farmers, both directly and indirectly. Therefore, we took some action against it, the minister said.

Luhut and Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution expressed objection in late March to the European Commissions proposal on criteria for determining crops that are deemed harmful to the environment, which resulted in palm oil-based fuels being the only commodity dropped from the EU's list of renewable energy.

At that time, Darmin called the plan unfair and discriminatory because palm oil was singled out as the only biofuel feedstock that would be barred from a list of alternatives, including soybean and sugar.

The EU accounted for about 15 percent of Indonesias 2018 palm oil exports, valued at around US$19 billion, according to Indonesian Palm Oil Association data.

Environmental NGOs have criticized the practices of palm oil industry players, saying that they damage forests. On Monday, Luhut called on the NGOs to "revive their nationalism" because 20 million small farmers depended on the industry. (kuk/evi)
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Linkedin Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post) Medan, North Sumatra  Mon, April 8, 2019

The Agriculture Ministry is pinning its hopes on North Sumatra for a rebound in Indonesia's Arabica coffee bean exports after the province shipped Rp 72.9 billion worth of the commodity recently.

North Sumatra, known for its Mandailing, Lintong and Sidikalang coffee varieties, exported 819 tons of beans to the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Romania, Japan, Canada, Belgium, Mexico, Taiwan, China, Australia and Singapore last week.

The ministry's Agriculture Quarantine Agency head Ali Jamil said that so far, a total of 40 countries had imported the commodity from North Sumatra.

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Linkedin Riza Roidila Mufti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, April 8, 2019 13:45 981 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731c521d 1 Business Airlines,airline-ticket,airfare,airfare-surge,Garuda-Indonesia,Lion-Air,passenger,passenger-flight Free

The Transportation Ministry issued on March 29 new regulations on airfare, namely Transportation Ministerial Regulation No. 20/2019 and Transportation Ministerial Decree No.72/2019, to regulate airline ticket prices for economy class services of commercial airlines.

The ministry expects the new regulation to protect consumer purchasing power, allowing passengers to enjoy airlines services. The regulation is also expected to end the debate on airfare, with some saying that rates are too high.

The ministrys Civil Aviation Directorate General secretary, Nur Isnin Istiarto, said the new regulation regulated the procedure of calculating and formulating airfares in general, while the decree specifically regulated price ceilings for all routes.

The regulations also contain stipulations that must be fulfilled by airlines when setting rates.

With the new regulation, in determining the fares for each route, the airlines need to take into account the input from service users and consumer protection and pay attention to unfair competition. The airlines also need to properly disseminate [information on the fares]," said Isnin.

According to the new regulation, the price floor for tickets (TBB) is set at 35 percent of the price ceiling for tickets (TBA). Previously, the TBB was set at 30 percent of the TBA, meaning the TBB increased 5 percent.

The TBB for the Jakarta-Surabaya route by jet plane, for example, is now Rp 480,000 (US$33.76), while the TBA is Rp 1,372,000. Meanwhile, the TBB for the Denpasar-Jakarta route was set at Rp 578,000 and the TBA at Rp 1,651,000. Airlines can determine their own prices as long as they set them within the regulated limits.

Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said the ministry observed a tendency of increasing airfare rates recently. The government, meanwhile, conducted discussions with relevant parties, including airlines, to allow business players to have a say on rates.

For now, we hope the airline will carry on with the new regulations so we do not have to make more rigid rules such as regulations for subclasses. The [aviation] industry could be more independent but at the same time still adhere to the applicable regulations, he said in an official statement.

The two new regulations are revisions of Transportation Ministerial Regulation No. 14/2016. Previously, airfare limits were calculated based on the single regulation. Now, stipulations are split between a ministerial regulation and a decree.

Civil Aviation Directorate General director Polana B. Pramesti said that, with new decree, the directorate general could regularly assess the airfares every three months or any time there is a significant change in price that could affect business within the air transportation industry.

Responding to the new regulations, Garuda Indonesia corporate secretary Ikhsan Rosan said the national flag carrier was ready to adjust to them.

Actually, not much has changed from the [old] regulation. The airline as an operator will definitely support the new regulations as we believe that the government considered all stakeholders [in drafting them], he said on Friday.

Ikhsan said Garuda Indonesia began offering on March 31 a 50 percent discount for passengers to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the airline, which is a state-owned enterprise. He said the discounted air tickets were introduced independently of the new regulations and denied that the government pressured the company into bringing down its rates.

Meanwhile, Lion Air Group, which comprises Lion Air, Wings Air and Batik Air, announced on Saturday that it brought down its airline ticket prices for all routes.

"The amount in airfare reduction is determined by the route, Lion Air spokesperson Danang Mandala Prihantoro told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

"Lion Air Group will comply with the regulation and policy from the regulator for the benefit and in the interest of all parties.

Indonesia Consumers Foundation (YLKI) chairman Tulus Abadi said the new regulation would likely end the era of low airfare costs.

Hopefully, with the increase in the price floor for tickets, airlines could bring their price ceilings for tickets down. As a result, airline ticket prices could decrease to a reasonable price, said Tulus on Sunday.

Tulus said the YLKI would also urge the Transportation Ministry to supervise the implementation process for the regulations.

Airline ticket prices have been under the spotlight since earlier this year, when people filed complaints on price surges that lasted until early January, even though the high season ended after the Christmas and the New Year holiday season.

Even though the airfares then were reportedly within the price ceilings and floors, consumers were still surprised about the surge in ticket prices.

Indonesia National Air Carriers Association said it would reduce prices during a press conference on Jan. 13 following the complaints. However, many consumers and business players said they did not feel the effects of the change. The Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association, for example, said the high rates had affected tourism, resulting in lower occupancy rates for places of lodging.

High operational costs, including high fuel costs, is the reason why airlines have struggled to earn a profit. With the recent changes to ticket prices, however, airlines are expected to see a boost to business.

Graphic:

Airline ticket price floor (TBB) and price ceiling (TBA) for air routes according to Ministerial Decree No. 72/2019

Jakarta - Surabaya

TBB: Rp 480,000 (US$33.76)

TBA: Rp 1,372,000.

Denpasar - Jakarta

TBB: Rp 578,000

TBA: Rp 1,651,000.

Jakarta - Padang

TBB: Rp 597,000

TBA: Rp 1,706,000

Jakarta - Makassar

TBB: Rp 750,000

TBA: Rp 2,144,000

Surabaya - Yogyakarta

TBB: Rp 329,000

TBA: Rp 941,000
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Wellington, New Zealand  Mon, April 8, 2019 15:03 981 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731cb29a 2 World #NewZealand,#SocialMedia,NewZealand,accuse,Facebook,privacy-violation Free

New Zealand's privacy regulator on Monday accused Facebook of failing to cooperate on tackling livestreaming in the wake of the Christchurch mosques massacre, saying founder Mark Zuckerberg was "disingenuous" about its systems.

The gunman livestreamed his rampage at two mosques on March 15 on Facebook, with the footage proliferating widely online despite the platform saying it "quickly" removed the footage.

Privacy Commissioner John Edwards said Zuckerberg was "disingenuous" in saying bad actors were going out of their way to circumvent Facebook's systems.

"They actually didn't have any systems to detect the events in Christchurch," Edwards to Radio New Zealand, adding that a delay on livestreaming would be a good interim measure.

"It is a technology that is capable of causing great harm... He (Zuckerberg) can't actually tell us, or won't tell us, how many suicides are livestreamed, how many murders, how many sexual assaults.

"In fact I've asked Facebook exactly that last week and they simply don't have those figures or won't give them to us."

Zuckerberg said last week that a delay on live feeds was not on the cards despite pressure on the US firm to crack down on the sharing of violent video or images.

Edwards added that the social network needed to step up and be responsible for the content that the site hosts.

"This is a global problem. The events that were livestreamed in Christchurch could happen anywhere in the world," he added.

"They have been responsible for appalling content that set the preconditions for genocide in Myanmar. They have enabled their service to be manipulated by Russian trolls to influence the outcome of elections."

Australia last week passed controversial laws that could see social media executives from firms such as Facebook or YouTube face jail for failing to take down violent extremist content quickly.

Measures that Facebook says it is considering after the Christchurch attacks, which claimed the lives of 50 people, include barring people who have previously violated its community standards from livestreaming.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, April 8, 2019 17:14 981 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731d17fb 4 Business Budi-Karya-Sumadi,ticket-prices,subsidy,denial Free

Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said on Monday that the government would not provide subsidies on economy class airfares, saying that such subsidies would only be applied to pioneer flights to remote areas.

There is no subsidy [for economy class tickets], the minister said in response to a question about the matter at his office in Jakarta on Monday as quoted by kontan.co.id.

Budi also clarified a statement made by the Transportation Ministry's director general of air transportation, Polana B. Pramesti, who said that the ministry was considering a proposal to provide subsidies for economy class airfares.

Transportation Ministry secretary-general Djoko Sasono supported the minister's statement. For the pioneer flights, we have allocated subsidies every year, but we have no plan to provide subsidies for the economy class, Djoko added.

Djoko stressed that the government could not intervene in the prices of airplane tickets.

Previously, Budi had appeared open to the possibility of issuing a decree on airfares if airlines failed to significantly cut their ticket prices, which the government said it believed was responsible for the lack of growth of the tourism industry in many regions across the country.

He said the issuance of a ministerial decree on a subclass of airplane tickets would be the last option considered if the airlines did not accommodate the governments policy. (bbn)
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Linkedin Victor C. Mambor (The Jakarta Post) Jayapura  Mon, April 8, 2019 12:27 981 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731c0ce7 1 Business FreeportIndonesia,shares,Papua,governments,agreement Free

State-owned mining holding company PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum) is waiting for a deal to be made between the Papua provincial and Mimika regental administrations on the ownership of 10 percent of the 51.23 percent of shares owned by Inalum in PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI).

Inalum head of corporate communications Rendi Witular said the ownership of the PTFI shares for the two local administrations had not been formalized because neither government had agreed on a percentage split.

We are still waiting for the establishment of a regional administration-owned enterprise (BUMD) by the provincial and regental governments. The ball is in their hands as Inalum waits for them, Rendi said when asked to comment on the issue on Saturday.

Rendi explained that in February, the Mimika regental administration sent a letter to President Joko Jokowi Widodo to protest the distribution of shares stipulated in Papua Provincial Bylaw No. 7/2018 on BUMD PT Papua Divestasi Mandiri, which would manage PTFIs shares.

Under the bylaw, the distribution of the 10 percent of PTFI shares would go as follows: 51 percent for the Papua provincial administration; 29 percent for the Mimika regental administration and 20 percent for other regencies located close to the PTFI mining site.

Meanwhile, an agreement signed by Inalum, the Papua provincial administration and the Mimika regental administration on Jan. 12, 2018 stipulates that 7 percent of the 10 percent of shares is owned by Mimika, while 3 percent is owned by the provincial administration.

The Mimika regental administration does not agree with the content of Bylaw No. 7/2018, particularly Article 15 that rules on the ownership shares of PT Papua Divestasi Mandiri. It was not in line with the basic [previous] agreement, Rendi added.

In late March, Mimika Regent Omaleng threatened to establish a BUMD that is separate from the enterprise established by the provincial administration.

Rendi explained that before the regent sent the letter to the President, there was an effort to mediate the differences through a meeting on Jan. 11 at the Finance Ministry, but the Papuan provincial administration had not revised Article 14 of Bylaw No. 7/2018.

Papua Governor Lukas Enembe said he had not planned to revise the bylaw, including the composition of shares stated in it.

He said he would meet with PTFI executive vice president Tony Wenas and Freeport McMoran CEO Richard Adkerson in the United States in May. (bbn)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, April 8, 2019 08:09 982 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731b4578 4 Business Soekarno-Hatta-airport-railway,project,progress Free

Progress on Soekarno-Hatta International Airports third runway has reached 50 percent, state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II (AP II) vice president corporate Communication Yado Yarismano has said.

Our target is to start operating the runway by mid-2019, Yodo said on Sunday as quoted by kontan.co.id, adding that construction of the parallel taxiway for the third runway had already reached 90 percent.

The Rp 2 trillion (US$141.84 million) project is being handled by state-owned construction company PT PP.

Yado said the project was part of a wider effort to improve a number of facilities in the largest airport in the country. Others include an integrated public transportation service building, revitalizing Terminal C1 and Terminal 2F, as well as a new overpass to improve accessibility.

In the future, we will also develop a cargo village and Terminal 4, he added.

Transportation Ministry air transportation director general Polana Banguningsih Pramesti said the development of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport was based on the Airport Basic Development Planned proposed by AP II as an Airport Business institution (BUBU).

Under the plan, AP II aims to improve the airports services and anticipate future demand for expanded facilities.

The government is supervising the projects implementation, she added.

Meanwhile, State-Owned Enterprises Minister Rini Soemarno previously expressed her appreciation of the projects, which are expected to cost Rp 9 trillion. (bbn)
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Linkedin Marguerite Afra Sapiie and Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta/Medan  Mon, April 8, 2019 19:53 981 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731d8a07 1 National Tanjung-Balai,Meiliana,religious-blasphemy,Tanjung-Balai-riot,mosque,azan,North-Sumatra,religious-tolerance Free

The Supreme Court has upheld a blasphemy verdict against a Buddhist woman convicted for complaining about the volume of adzan (call to prayer).

In a ruling dated March 27 and posted on the courts website on Monday, the panel of justices rejected the appeal by Meiliana, a women of Chinese descent and resident of Tanjung Balai, North Sumatra, and upheld her 1.5-year prison sentence.

Supreme Court spokesperson Abdullah confirmed the courts ruling, although he said he did not yet know what the justices considerations were.

He added that the administrative handling of the case had yet to be completed.

Meilianas lawyer, Ranto Sibarani, said he was surprised by the courts decision. We dont know the reasoning because we havent received a copy, Ranto told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Ranto said he expected the Supreme Court to accept the appeal because he claimed there was not sufficient evidence that Meiliana committed blasphemy. The evidence was only a statement signed by residents. Its strange that a statement signed by other people could be used as evidence of religious blasphemy, he insisted.

Meilianas case dates back to 2016 when she reportedly said an adzan was too loud and hurt her ears. She is the first person to be sentenced to prison for complaining about the volume of a mosques speakers.

Her alleged remarks were believed to have triggered the worst anti-Chinese riot in the country since 1998, with Muslims who claimed to have been offended by her words setting fire to several Buddhist temples.

Executives of the countrys two largest Islamic organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, criticized the verdict last year, saying that such a complaint should not be considered as blasphemy. (evi)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, April 8, 2019 14:09 981 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731c66d1 4 Business Goro-wholesales,outlets,Cibubur Free

PT Berkarya Makmur Sejahtera president commissioner Hutomo Mandala Putra, who is also known as Tommy Soeharto, plans to establish at least one Goro wholesale grocery store in each province.

Hutomo is better known as Tommy, the youngest son of former president Soeharto.

It is a surprise that the progress has exceeded our expectations. The economic empowerment [program] has gotten positive responses, Tommy said during the grand opening of Goro's Cibubur outlet on Sunday in East Jakarta, as quoted by Antara.

Berkarya Makmur Sejahtera president director Milasari Kusumo Anggraini said that five Goro outlets had been established since the company was revived on Oct. 17, 2018.

The four other outlets were located in West Java (Bandung), Central Java (Wonosobo), East Java (Surabaya) and Papua.

Milasari said Goro offered opportunities to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), farmers and small livestock farmers to become supplier partners.

We also have 69 small shops that we call 'e-warung' in West Java, East Java and Central Java. We have partnered with eight cooperatives, 50 communities and more than 100 [SMEs], she said.

Milasari said the new Cibubur outlet had gained 5,000 registered customers since its soft opening five months ago, which included owners of small shops, restaurants, catering businesses and cafes, as well as offices and families.

By the end of 2019, Goro planned to open six more outlets and additional e-warung in villages to boost the peoples economy and to cover as many segments of society as possible, she said. (bbn)
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Kampala, Uganda  Mon, April 8, 2019 09:09 982 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731b70bb 2 World #USA,#tourism,US,Tourist,kidnapping,uganda,ransom Free

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.
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Linkedin Bambang Muryanto (The Jakarta Post) Yogyakarta  Mon, April 8 2019

Hatred: Wooden crosses that were pulled out of their graves are seen at Bethesda Hospitals cemetery in Yogyakarta. Some of the crosses were set on fire.(JP/Bambang Muryanto)

Yogyakarta resident Asmono could not fathom what exactly had happened to his wifes grave.

On Wednesday, he went to the grave, located in a cemetery next to Bethesda Hospital in Sleman regency, only to find that the cross that marked the final resting place of his wife, Sri Wiyanti, had mysteriously disappeared.

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Linkedin Josa Lukman (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 9 2019

World-class act: I La Galigo premiered in 2004 and has toured scores of prestigious venues across the globe, including Singapores Esplanade and New Yorks Lincoln Center Festival.

Fourteen years after first being staged in Jakarta, the celebrated musical theater work I La Galigo will make a return to the capital this July with the support of more local talents on its production team.

Directed by award-winning American theater director Robert Wilson, the two-hour play is inspired by the 6,000-page mythological epic poem Sureq Galigo, also known as La Galigo, of the indigenous Bugis people of South Sulawesi.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post)  Tue, April 9 2019

Vertical city: Wallich Residence towers amid skyscrapers in Tanjong Pagar, Singapore. The upscale condo offers luxury units and stunning views.

Last month, property developer GuocoLand invited Indonesian media representatives for a review of its brand new Wallich Residence in the historic Tanjong Pagar central business district, Singapore. Pandaya from The Jakarta Posts Supplement Team shares his impressions.

Wallich Residence, a new upscale property in the heart of the historic Tanjong Pagar precinct, has grabbed world attention since it was launched in December 2017. On top of all the global media hype about the 181-unit luxury condominium is of course the Super Penthouse that carries an auspicious-sounding price tag of S$108 million (US$79.65 million).

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Linkedin News Desk (The Daily Star/Asia News Network) Dhaka, Bangladesh  Mon, April 8, 2019 10:10 982 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731b90b2 2 SE Asia #Bangladesh,#Myanmar,Rohingya,repatriation,global-pressure Free

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today called upon the international community, including the United Kingdom (UK), to keep up mounting pressure on Myanmar to take back the forcibly displaced Rohingyas.

She made the appeal while visiting UK Minister of State for Asia and the Pacific at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Mark Field, MP, paid a courtesy call on her at the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) this morning.

PMs Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim briefed the media after the meeting.

Expressing apprehension about the scope of dispelling the frustration among the Rohingyas, particularly the young people, for having no job and uncertainty over their repatriation, she said, This is a huge problem in the area as the Rohingyas have outnumbered the locals.

A vested quarter may use the frustration among the Rohingyas for bad purpose, she mentioned.

The situation of the Rohingyas will worsen during the monsoon, she said, adding that the government is developing an Island for their temporary accommodation.

The visiting UK minister described the Rohingyas sheltered over one million in Bangladesh as a big burden for the country and wanted to know about their current situation.

Sheikh Hasina mentioned that she had struggled throughout her life for restoration of democracy while the UK minister congratulated the premier on her huge win in the 2018 national election.

The prime minister sought more British investment in Bangladesh for mutual benefits of the two countries.

The premier called upon the UK entrepreneurs to invest further in Bangladesh.

Mark Field reiterated Britains commitment to Bangladeshs development.

Appreciating the UKs assistance in Bangladeshs move to cope with the climate change issues, the premier said they have introduced trust fund to this end and some projects have been taken in the coastal belts keeping in mind the issues of climate change.

Sheikh Hasina mentioned that Bangladesh media has been enjoying the highest level of freedom.

Bangladesh has historically close relations with the United Kingdom, she said and mentioned its continued assistance for development of different sectors.

At the meeting, the UK minister gave assurances of continuing support for further development of Bangladesh.

The premier and the envoy expressed desire of further strengthening the relationships between the two countries in the areas of mutual interest.

PMs Principal Secretary Md. Nozibur Rahman and UK High Commissioner Robert Chatterton Dickson were present on the occasion.
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Linkedin News Desk (Reuters) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia  Mon, April 8, 2019 18:36 981 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731d6c7c 2 SE Asia #Malaysia,#Myanmar,Rohingya-Muslims,Malaysia,beach Free

Thirty-seven people believed to be Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar were found on a beach in northern Malaysia on Monday, police said, the latest arrivals in what authorities fear could be a new wave of people smuggling by sea.

Dozens of Rohingya in Myanmar and Bangladesh have boarded boats in recent months to try to reach Malaysia, which had seen a decline in arrivals after a 2015 crackdown on trafficking.

Last month, 35 migrants were found on Sungai Belati beach in the northern state of Perlis.

On Monday, 37 men were detained around the town of Simpang Empat after landing at the same beach in the early morning, state police chief Noor Mushar Mohamad told Reuters.

"We believe they were travelling on a much larger boat, before being transferred into smaller boats at sea and taken to different places," he said, adding the men were in good health and have been handed over to immigration officials.

More than 700,000 Rohingya crossed into Bangladesh in 2017 fleeing an army crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine state, according to UN agencies.

Myanmar regards Rohingya as illegal migrants from the Indian subcontinent and has confined tens of thousands to sprawling camps in Rakhine since violence swept the area in 2012.

Officials believe the migrants found on Monday are from Myanmar or Bangladesh.

"We are still investigating where the boats are coming from, but we suspect human trafficking syndicates are involved," Noor Mushar said.

An outbreak of sectarian violence in Rakhine in 2012 prompted tens of thousands of Rohingya to flee Myanmar by sea. The exodus peaked in 2015, when an estimated 25,000 people fled across the Andaman Sea for Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, many drowning in unsafe and overloaded boats.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, April 8, 2019 09:09 982 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731b71f9 1 News Airbnb,travel,Accommodation,san-francisco,traveling,united-states Free

A semi-rustic cabin near San Francisco, the United States, has been revealed as the most popular Airbnb in the world, as reported by news.com.au.

Owners Kitty and Michael first listed their mushroom-shaped house in 2009 and since then have received 1299 reviews from satisfied guests as well as many five-star ratings.

We have been listing with Airbnb since July 09 and have had the most reservations of any of their listings, says the cabins description on the Airbnb website.

Located in Monterey Bay, the cabin is just 10 minutes from the beach and the Aptos Village. Guests can go hiking or dirt biking in the redwoods of Forest Nisene Marks State Park or pet the animals on the property, including goats, chickens, cats and a parrot.

Read also: Airbnb lands in rural China

The house provides all facilities and tools guests might need for their stay. The bedroom has a queen-sized bed and a 32-inch flat screen TV, while a sofa can be used as a second sleeping area. Wi-Fi access, toiletries, a popcorn maker, a French press coffee machine and several ingredients to make breakfast are provided.

What makes the small wooden cabin special is its glass domed roof, deemed perfect for stargazing.

The most visited Airbnb home is currently booked until October. Friday and Saturday nights are US$160 each, but due to a minimum stay of two days and extra fees and taxes, the price for one weekend is about $428. Weekend bookings should be requested about 9 to 11 months in advance. (sop/wng)
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Linkedin Kathryn Curzon (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, April 8, 2019 13:19 981 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731c3357 3 Destinations Lombok,Gili-islands,Gili-Trawangan,outdoor-activities,tips,bats,diving,#travel,local-destination Free

If youre looking for a laid-back escape with an adventure or two, it would be hard to beat Lombok and the Gili Islands. You can choose to relax on endless white sand beaches, dive remote coral reefs or hike to see panoramic views.

Devastated by the series of earthquakes in 2018, these destinations are bouncing back and hungry for tourists. So pack your bags this coming dry season and go explore paradise.

Read also: Lombok is safe, ASITA assures tourists

1. Hike Mount Rinjani National Park

Lombok's Mount Rinjani National Park is unbeatable for spectacular views and challenging trails. While most of the hiking trails on Mt. Rinjani were damaged in the 2018 earthquakes, one trail has reopened.

Located in Aik Berik village, the trail is lesser known among the mountain's more popular trails, but offers a similar experience for adventurous travelers in search of epic views.

2. Hop around Gili Islands

For a relaxing break from daily life, consider going island-hopping around the stunning Gili Islands. These islands are known for scuba diving cruises and offers a chance to truly get away from it all.

If you can bear to tear yourself away from the white sand beaches and turquoise ocean vistas, youll find vibrant coral reefs teeming with life under the waters.

The Shark Point dive site offers a chance to dive with sharks and manta rays, while Deep Turbo offers overhangs and underwater caves for experienced divers to explore. You might even see a whale shark or two.

3. Experience Bangkang bat cave

A trip to Goa Bangkang will take your breath away with stalactites and bursts of sunlight through the cave's ceiling. Tucked underground on Lombok, it is a cave like no other.

Descending the stairs into Bangkang, your senses will be struck by the sound and smell of thousands of bats. If you stay in the area until sunset, you can watch the bats exit the cave, covering the sky as they begin their nightly hunt for food.

4. Swim with sea turtles

If youre a fan of sea turtles (who isnt?), be sure to check out the sea turtle conservation initiatives at the Gili Islands.

Green sea turtles, which are classified as endangered, are well cared for at Gili Meno, thanks to Bolong, the local man who set up the Gili Meno Turtle Sanctuary. The sanctuary saves turtle eggs from predators to help release the precious hatchlings into the sea.

The sanctuary is fascinating, and your visit will support turtle conservation, as it depends entirely on donations from visitors.

You can swim with sea turtles at various spots around the Gili Islands. Gili Air is especially known for green sea turtles at Han Rock.

5. Slow down, enjoy the silence

No motorized vehicles are allowed on Gili Trawangan, meaning you can escape the noise of the neighboring destinations and rejuvenate in peace and quiet.

The best way to explore the charms of Gili Trawangan is by foot or on a bicycle. Stop off at beach bars, do some yoga, or just walk the endless sands to reconnect with yourself, one day at a time.

6. Enjoy epic views from Gili Trawangan

Theres only one lookout point on the Gili Islands, at the top of Gili Trawangan. Head off on a hike at sunrise, and youll start your day off right.

At the peak is a shrine and Muslim burial site, plus the remains of a World War II Japanese bunker to investigate, though the view is the real highlight.

Resting at the top, you can look across the ocean to Mt. Rinjani and capture panoramic views of the other Gili Islands, plus Lombok and Bali.

7. Learn to dive at Sekotong

If youve always wanted to try scuba diving but were too nervous to take the plunge, Sekotong in Lombok is a great place to start. The beautiful reefs there offer easy, sheltered dives, perfect for beginners.

It will be well worth the effort, as youre likely to spot sea turtles. You can even try spotting the tiny pygmy seahorses.

8. Watch the sunset at Semeti Beach

Another Lombok highlight are the rock formations on Semeti Beach, which are not to be missed. These striking pyramid-shaped rocks jut impressively out of the ocean, providing the perfect backdrop to a sunset.

Semeti Beach is an ideal place to end a day of island-hopping, to see the best view of the sun setting that youre ever likely to see.

***

The author is a diver and writer for LiveAboard.com.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
4 hours ago

Fireball from overturned tanker kills dozens in Haiti

CAP-HAITIEN, Haiti (AP)  A gasoline tanker overturned and exploded in northern Haiti, unleashing a fireball that swept through homes and businesses on its way to killing at least 60 people Tuesday in the latest tragedy to befall the Caribbean nation. The blast occurred shortly after midnight in Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second largest city, along the northern coast.

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Good Shepherd calls for supplies for families at risk in Phuket

The Home for Hope mobile bus goes into migrant work camps within the Cherng Talay and Bang Tao areas once a month, providing Myanmar migrant workers and their families, as well as poor Thai families, with essentials to improve their health and well-being. A total of 200 families are being supported by the bus.

Community

By The Phuket News

Monday 8 April 2019, 11:00AM

All aboard. (Right) Khun Kad, Khun Srisuda, Khun Zar Zar and Debra.

The target audience for the mobile unit is woman and children at risk of human trafficking, being abused and exploited and who live in risky community areas in Phuket.

The goal is to educate the women in social and life skills, health, self-care and awareness of human trafficking.

The director of this new project is Good Shepherds Sister Dr Euphrasia Mesomklin and the manager is Khun Ratchaneekorn (Kad) who has worked for Home for Hope and the anti-human trafficking project in Patong.

The Good Shepherd Foundation desperately needs the following necessities for babies, children and young women:

canned goods;

dry goods;

eggs;

noodles;

rice;

cooking oil;

snacks;

water;

juices;

milk;

underwear;

clothing (second hand);

books;

blankets;

first aid kits;

feminine hygiene products;

nappies;

baby, toddler and young childrens toys;

playdough;

dolls;

sports equipment;

colouring pencils and paper resources;

mosquito nets;

towels, linen, pillows and mats; and

personal care items (shampoo, soap, brushes, toothpaste, toothbrushes, hairbrushes etc).

Donations can be dropped off at Home for Hope (located in Topland near the bypass road in Phuket Town) or at the Thrift & Crafts Shop at Wana Park, 177 Moo 4, Srisoonthorn Rd, Thalang (open 10am-2pm on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday).

Monetary donations can also be made using the following details:

Account name: Sister Daruna Mesomklin for the Good Shepherd Sisters

Account number: 486-2-13814-2

Swift code: KASITHBK

The bus also requires a trailer to carry all donated goods and supplies.

The Good Shepherd Foundation is also looking for one Thai and one Myanmar social worker  to assist with family and social issues and provide information about human rights, laws and villages rights  and one Thai and one Myanmar nurse  to advise and assist with basic health screenings, vaccinations, heath advice, specific care and follow up services.

Khun Kad, can be contacted at radchaneekon_kad@hotmail.com

A key volunteer, Debra Mierczak, can be contacted at dmierczak@hotmail.com
No action on illegal construction at Ao Sane luxury villa as deadline passes

PHUKET: The contractor of a luxury villa project at Ao Sane, on the coastal road north of Nai Harn Beach, has failed to make any corrections to the project after being given 30 days to remove the parts of the building that exceeded the building permit.

constructioncrime

By Waranya Prompinpiras

Monday 8 April 2019, 04:45PM

The deadline to remove the illegal parts of the building remain. Photo: Rawai Municipality

The deadline to remove the illegal parts of the building remain. Photo: Rawai Municipality

The swimming pool can remain if the contractor applies for permissio, which has still yet to be done. Photo: Rawai Municipality

The deadline to remove the illegal parts of the building remain. Photo: Rawai Municipality

The contractor was given 30 days to remove the illegal parts of the building on Mar 6 after officials from Rawai Municipality inspected the site and found several parts had been built without permission.

I have issued an order suspending all construction at the site and ordering the project owner to make the necessary corrections within 30 days, Rawai Mayor Aroon Soros told The Phuket News after the site inspection discovered the illegal construction last month.

Officials had confirmed three specific breaches of the building permit.

The first is the swimming pool overlooking the sea. The second is the balcony, and the third is a section that connects the buildings, which I had already order to be removed in 2017, Mayor Aroon said. (See story here.)

The deadline for removing the illegal construction passed on Friday (Apr 5).

The project owner came to meet at Rawai Municipality. I cannot remember on which date exactly, but it was before the 30 days expired, Mayor Aroon told The Phuket News on Friday.

I told he project owner to make the corrections. I explained that the balcony and the section connecting the buildings must be removed. However, I also explained that the owner could still submit an application with Rawai Municipality for construction of the swimming pool to be approved, he added.

"The project owner left, saying that the section connecting the buildings will be removed. However, as of today (Apr 5), they still have not removed any of it yet. They said that this is because they must be careful when removing the parts in order to not affect the structure of the buildings.

"About the balcony that I also ordered to be removed, the project owner said that they would remove it after they finish removing the section connecting the buildings, Mayor Aroon said.

The project owner must now formally inform Rawai Municipality when the balcony and the section connecting the buildings have been removed, so Rawai Municipality staff can go check the site to approve the work, he added.

While nothing has been done to abide by the order issued a month ago, Mayor Aroon on Friday also repeated that the swimming pool can stay  if a formal application is filed with Rawai Municipality.

Again, even that has still yet to be done.

The project owner must submit an application to Rawai Municipality for construction of the swimming pool. If they do not ask for permission, I will order the swimming pool to be removed, Mayor Aroon repeated.

However, this site is now under heightened scrutiny, Mayor Aroon assured.

I have now ordered Rawai Municipality staff that they must go to check the site once a week. To check the progress made in removing the unapproved construction and to make sure no further illegal construction not approved in the building permit is done, he said.
US, Thailand conduct anti-submarine exercises off Phuket

PHUKET: The Royal Thai Navy and the USS Navy have begun conducting peace-keeping drills in the Andaman Sea under the the eighth iteration of the Guardian Sea exercises, which include a nuclear-powered US Navy Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine.

militarymarine

By The Phuket News

Monday 8 April 2019, 12:32PM

Military Sealift Command Capt Kevin Sauls, ships master of USNS Guadalupe (left) shakes hands with Rear Adm. Kritsana Kultiya, Chief of Staff for the Third Naval Area during a senior delegation office call at the Third Naval Area Command Headquarters, as part of Guardian Sea 2019. Photo: US Navy

US and Royal Thai Navy leaders stand together after a senior delegation office call at the Third Naval Area Command Headquarters, as part of Guardian Sea 2019 yesterday (Apr 7). Photo: US Navy

Chief Sonar Technician (Surface) Ryan Troupe answers questions from Royal Thai Navy counterparts during an anti-submarine warfare subject matter expert exchange, as part of Guardian Sea 2019. Photo: US Navy

Capt Matt Jerbi, commodore of the US Navy Destroyer Squadron 7 (right) tours the bridge of Royal Thai Navy frigate HTMS Bhumibol Adulyadej after the opening ceremony for Guardian Sea 2019 yesterday (Apr 7). Photo: US Navy

The opening ceremony of the Guardian Sea 2019 exercises were held on the HTMS Bhumibol Adulyadej yesterday (Apr 7). Photo: US Navy

The opening ceremony of the Guardian Sea 2019 exercises were held on the HTMS Bhumibol Adulyadej yesterday (Apr 7). Photo: US Navy

The opening ceremony of the Guardian Sea 2019 exercises were held on the HTMS Bhumibol Adulyadej yesterday (Apr 7). Photo: US Navy

Royal Thai Navy (RTN) Rear Adm. Kamjorn Charoenkiat (left) shakes hands with Capt Matt Jerbi, commodore, Destroyer Squadron 7, during the opening ceremony for Guardian Sea 2019 on the flight deck of RTN frigate HTMS Bhumibol Adulyadej (FFG 471). Photo: US Navy

The Guardian Sea exercises yesterday (Apr 7) also saw the Royal Thai Navy contingent fire a C-802A anti-ship missile as part of the drills. Photo: Royal Thai Navy

The Guardian Sea exercises yesterday (Apr 7) also saw the Royal Thai Navy contingent fire a C-802A anti-ship missile as part of the drills. Photo: Royal Thai Navy

The opening ceremony of the exercises was held aboard the RTN frigate HTMS Bhumibol Adulyadej yesterday (Apr 7), led by Royal Thai Navy (RTN) Rear Admiral Kamjorn Charoenkiat joined by Capt Samarn Khunthapon.

The Los Angeles-class submarine, not identified in reports, and underway replenishment oiler USNS Guadaloupe along with two RTN frigates, a corvette and a Sea Hawk helicopter will participate in over a dozen drills, designed to incorporate shared techniques in real-world at-sea environments.

Guardian Sea 2019 marks the first time the RTN will deploy a towed array. The towed array sonar aboard HTMS Bhumibol Adulyadej, used for detecting undersea contacts including submarines, demonstrates the increasing complexity and sophistication of the exercise with more advanced training objectives, The US Navy noted in its release announcing the commencement of the exercises.

The US and Royal Thai Navy continues to work closely in anti-submarine warfare towards building upon our already-established combined capabilities, said Capt Matt Jerbi, commodore of US Navy Destroyer Squadron 7.

Guardian Sea 2019 is a premier exercise that demonstrates our commitment to each other in ensuring that we are ready to counter any threats together, both above and underwater, he said.

This is the kind of training our Sailors practice for at home and implement at sea, said Rear-Admiral Jimmy Pitts, commander of the US Navy Submarine Group Seven.

Were excited for the opportunity to showcase the skills our crews have honed and sharing our best practices with our Thai Navy counterparts, he added.

The exercise is organised in two phases with a shore phase consisting of subject matter expert exchanges across every aspect of anti-submarine warfare and a subsequent sea phase that culminates with tracking a submarine while protecting a surface ship in a free-play event.

The exercises yesterday also saw the Royal Thai Navy contingent fire a C-802A anti-ship missile as part of the drills.

Our ability to conduct anti-submarine exercises while implementing lessons learned, advanced tactics and procedures into each new iteration of Guardian Sea is a testament to the professionalism and interoperability of both U.S. Navy and Royal Thai Navy forces, said Lt Josh Northcutt, US Navy Guardian Sea lead planner.

Having been part of the team during Guardian Sea 2018, I look forward to building upon shared knowledge from last year and reconnecting with our friends from the Royal Thai Navy.

Guardian Sea builds upon other engagements and exercises with Thailand to include Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT), now in its 25th iteration; Pacific Partnership, the largest annual multilateral humanitarian assistance and disaster relief preparedness mission; Southeast Asia Cooperation and Training (SEACAT) involving more than a dozen partner nations; and Cobra Gold, Indo-Pacific's largest multinational exercise.

These engagements serve to enhance information sharing and coordination, build mutual warfighting capability and support long-term regional cooperation, noted the US Navy in its release.
Ouyang Hua, vice president of Shanghai University, delivers a speech during the ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of joint program the Confucius Institute at Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey, on April 3, 2019. Bogazici University in Istanbul and Shanghai University of China on Wednesday voiced readiness to cooperate more as they marked the 10th anniversary of joint program the Confucius Institute at Bogazici. (Xinhua/Xu Suhui)

ISTANBUL, April 3 (Xinhua) -- Bogazici University in Istanbul and Shanghai University of China on Wednesday voiced readiness to cooperate more as they marked the 10th anniversary of joint program the Confucius Institute at Bogazici.

"From now on we want to carry on this long and good friendship between our universities ... we want to take it to the next stage," Mehmed Ozkan, rector of Bogazici University, said at the ceremony.

"We want to make it more successful and more comprehensive, covering other topics other than culture and language," he added.

Ouyang Hua, vice president of Shanghai University, spoke of the role played by the joint program in teaching Chinese language, facilitating academic cooperation and exchanges between the faculty and students as well as bilateral cultural exchanges.

"These efforts have promoted mutual understanding between the Turkish and Chinese people, as well as the friendship between Bogazici University and Shanghai University, between the city of Shanghai and the city of Istanbul," he said.

He voiced hope for the next-decade cooperation "to be better in our own ways."

The Confucius Institute has been founded now at four universities in Turkey.

Cui Wei, the Chinese consul general in Istanbul, mentioned the strategic cooperation between Turkey and China and what has been achieved under the Belt and Road Initiative over the years.

"We expect to achieve more in the upcoming ten years between Turkey and China, between Shanghai and Istanbul, and between the two universities," he said.

An exhibition featuring Shanghai-style culture in modern China was held on the occasion, plus a recital of passages from works of Orhan Pamuk and Mo Yan, the Turkish and Chinese writers awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, and a singing of Turkish and Chinese songs by Turkish students.

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[ Editor: Zhang Zhou ]
Mick Jagger has successfully undergone a heart valve replacement procedure.

Described as a "minimally invasive" surgery, The Rolling Stones vocalist is reportedly resting for recovery in a local New York hospital. Billboard reports that Jagger was given a transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), where surgeons were able to repair the heart valve using a catheter that accesses a major artery without needing to cut open Jagger's chest.

Jagger had posted a message on Facebook thanking fans for their support, "Thank you everyone for all your messages of support," he writes. "Im feeling much better now and on the mend - and also a huge thank you to all the hospital staff for doing a superb job."
China has big plans for its rapeseed bounty in Sichuan. Levering off its famed cuisine, the top producing province wants to harvest more of the oilseed for a branded cooking oil, just as the outlook for imports clouds over due to a dispute with Canada, its biggest supplier.

The southwest province, whose spicy dishes rely on the areas dark rapeseed oil, will spend 500 to 600 million yuan ($89 million U.S.) over three years to grow, process and promote a local brew called Tianfu Rapoil, officials said last week. Sichuan, which is also known as Tianfu  or land of abundance  produces nearly 3 million tons of the oilseed a year out of a national total of about 13 million.

Not only will the government-sponsored plan help lift farmers out of poverty, it will also boost incomes generally as fields of the vivid yellow crop in bloom are a potential tourist draw, according to Wang Hailin, deputy head of the Sichuan Food and Strategic Reserves Bureau. As well as its food, the province attracts visitors for its panda sanctuaries.

Fifteen local plants, both private and state-owned, will form an alliance to make the Tianfu product, according to Jiang Minjie, general manager of Chengdu New Shine Oil and Grain Co. He said that Sichuans rapeseed oil already commands twice the price of oil elsewhere in China, which often uses Canadian canola, the crops name in North America.

Those shipments have been cast into doubt after China suspended exports from at least two Canadian suppliers blaming pest infestation, although others have concluded that the nation is being punished for its detention of a Huawei Technologies Co. executive in December. Exporters who havent been sanctioned are still being shunned by Chinese buyers, who fear lengthy port delays as cargoes are tested, said Zhang Liwei, a senior analyst with the China National Grain and Oils Information Center.

The slump in shipments has hurt prices in Canada and boosted the market in China, which also purchases the oilseed from Australia, Mongolia and Russia.

Buyers are scouring other markets for suppliers, said Fang Gang, a trading manager with Yihai Kerry Group, owned by Singapores Wilmar International Ltd. He said China may look at raising its imports from Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan, which together produce about 5 million tons of the crop a year, most of it for overseas sale and at less cost.

Price is likely to be the key test of Sichuans ambitions for Tianfu Rapoil. If trade with Canada returns to normal, its cheaper product will be a big challenge for the brand, according to Wang Xiaokang, general manager of Sichuan Province Grain and Oil Co. Wang said the provinces rapeseed production could rise by more than 100,000 tons as the Tianfu plan is put into effect.

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FORT MCKAY, ALTA.Just before 2 a.m. on June 20, 2016, a foul-smelling cloud of toxins from a Syncrude oilsands plant began slowly drifting north toward the hamlet of Fort McKay, 10 kilometres away.

Workers had been trying to restart the Mildred Lake plant after devastating wildfires that had ripped through the area six weeks earlier forced an emergency shutdown.

The restart didnt go as planned. An estimated 10,400 barrels of untreated petrochemicals were released into a waste pond, creating a plume of toxic air that could cause headaches and possibly long-term health risks.

The plume contained hydrogen sulphide, which can cause breathing issues at lower concentrations and death at higher ones. It also held high amount of hydrocarbons  a group of compounds, some dangerous, found in crude oil. Two of the most toxic are toluene, which affects nerves, and benzene, a carcinogen. Officials couldnt tell if they were in the cloud that day.

They also couldnt determine if the plume would create an emergency until it reached Fort McKay, 10 hours after it was released, a Star/National Observer investigation has found.

Insiders would later say that the incident highlights a key problem facing the oil-rich province, which has long-claimed to have the worlds strongest environmental regulations. They say that pressure and lobbying from industry and economic interests are trumping science and strong oversight, putting public health and safety at risk.

The incident also reveals gaps in air quality monitoring, despite recent federal and provincial efforts in recent years to improve government oversight of industry.

For years, residents of Fort McKay have complained about rank-smelling air pollution from the oilsands plants that surround it, though long-term health effects have never been proven. But this plume was exceptionally pungent, and the Alberta Energy Regular (AER) didnt have the data to know if it would put human health in danger.

I personally cannot stay outside the (office) and breath[sic] the air outside, it is pretty bad, wrote Ryan Abel, a Fort McKay First Nation employee, in an email obtained by freedom-of-information. Definitely going to cause headaches, etc. for those breathing it in.

As the chemicals inched toward the town, AER staff clashed over whether they should warn the community, say insiders interviewed by the investigation.

We really didnt know what the risks were going to be (for Fort McKay), said one person with direct knowledge of the AERs decision-making process that day, speaking confidentially for fear of professional reprisal.

Syncrudes Mildred Lake plant is one of 11 oilsands facilities within a 30-kilometre radius, with more planned and proposed.

Not a week goes by where you dont smell anything, said Jean LHommecourt of Fort McKay First Nation.

Sometimes its ammonia  one leak of it from Syncrude in 2006 sent four Fort McKay children and a teacher in to hospital. Other times, its sulphur or gasoline. The AER received 172 air quality complaints from Fort McKay between 2010 and 2014, a report by Alberta officials found.

Read More from The Price of Oil Investigation:

Oilsands waste is collected in sprawling toxic ponds. To clean them up, oil companies plan to pour water on them

This oilpatch town was overcome by a mystery gas. Now its residents are asking, what made us sick?

That rotten stench in the air? Its the smell of deadly gas and secrecy

During the June 2016 incident, Syncrude didnt communicate with Fort McKay until an hour after the plume had arrived, documents show. It was far too late under these circumstances, said Abel in an email.

Oilsands operators are exempt from AER rules that compel companies to warn communities if they release toxic substances, so Syncrude faced no consequences.

This could have potentially impacted the communitys ability to enact an emergency response plan and undertake appropriate safety measures, read the AER draft report on the incident, which was obtained by the investigation.

Syncrude spokesman Leithan Slade said the company is continuously improving its notification protocols. The AER, which warned Fort McKay five hours after the chemicals were released, said the community would have been notified immediately if there was a public health risk.

That afternoon, Health Canada warned Fort McKay residents to consider sheltering indoors.

The Fort McKay First Nation declined to comment for this story as did Abel. The McKay Metis didnt respond to interview requests.

The Cree, Dene and Metis people who live in Fort McKay used to survive by hunting and trapping  now, good relationships with oil and gas companies have allowed the community of 750 to prosper. The First Nations businesses brought in $506 million in gross revenue from 2012 to 2016, according to a Fraser Institute report.

A sign outside the First Nation office tells residents to report odours with a 1-800 number. The Athabasca River Valley can act like a funnel for emissions, channelling releases from various oilsands operations toward Fort McKay.

Visitors can see the First Nations wood and glass administrative building, a shiny daycare centre and tidy homes with pickup trucks in the driveways. A few times per year, every member of the nation gets a share of the profits  in June 2018, individuals got a cheque for $1,700 each.

The affluence comes with a cost: air quality in Fort McKay sometimes exceeds air quality thresholds for toxic hydrocarbons and for harmful substances like hydrogen sulphide, found a 2016 study by the AER and Alberta Health.

Residents often smelled ammonia-like odour of cat pee, sewage, sulphur and tar-like bitumen. They sometimes had headaches, burning eyes and sore throats. Sometimes they wondered if they should evacuate, the study said.

The AER/Alberta Health study included recommendations that are still in progress. It did not mention the Syncrude release that had happened a few months earlier. AER scientists were not allowed to include it, or to publish the draft report about the incident, said the AER insider.

The AER said finalizing the (draft report) was no longer necessary because it publicly released the AER/Alberta Health study.

In March 2017, the AER fired the toxicologist who pushed to warn Fort McKay about the plume and co-authored the unreleased report, Monique Dube. The job posting for her replacement had lowered qualifications.

The AER is conflicted. Its dual mandate to both grow the industry and protect the environment means having to choose one over the other, said Gail Gallupe, president of the McMurray Metis in a statement responding to Dubes firing.

With (Dube) as chief environment scientist, we knew that we had a serious voice for the environment within the AER. We worry now that her voice is gone.

The AER said it wouldnt comment on Dubes departure.

The first warning about Syncrudes chemical release came at 1:38 a.m., when a company representative called the AER to report a gasoline-like smell. Though no one was evacuated, the company had workers go to other facilities/buildings where they would be safe, the draft report said.

Officials would later determine that naphtha, a solvent, had been released into a waste, or tailings, pond. It was supposed to be separated in a recovery unit but there was an operational failure, AER briefing documents said.

Slade, the Syncrude spokesperson, said the incident stemmed from a planned but complex restart and wasnt a leak. There was an issue that led to the machinery not working as planned, but the recovery unit didnt fail, he said.

At about 4 a.m., the deteriorating air quality set off an alarm at the Wood Buffalo Environmental Association, which conducts air monitoring on the provinces behalf.

The monitor at Mildred Lakes boundary showed levels of hydrogen sulphide three times greater than the provincial standard  sufficient evidence the release would cause odours off-site, the AER draft report said.

It also picked up maximum hydrocarbon readings about 75 times greater than the background conditions.

These values are extremely high, said the WBEA staffer who reported the hydrocarbon readings to the AER at about 6 a.m., according to the draft report.

The monitor at the Mildred Lake fence line couldnt differentiate between harmless hydrocarbons and ones that could be poisonous, the AER draft report said. It measured total hydrocarbons, for which theres no air standard.

That day, a monitor within the plant picked up large amounts of benzene. And once the plume reached Fort McKay, toluene was measured at levels above the upper limit of the community monitor.

But there were no air monitors between Mildred Lake and Fort McKay that could tell scientists if the chemicals released were harmful. The only air monitor capable of that was at the centre of the community.

AER scientists decided to warn the community. But their bosses rejected the idea, saying it wasnt clear there was any risk, two AER insiders said.

Eventually, at 7 a.m., Dube  then-chief environmental scientist  circumvented her bosses and sent an email to the Fort McKay First Nation. It had been more than five hours since Syncrude reported the release to the AER.

Air quality exceedances  IMPORTANT, read the email, obtained by freedom-of-information. We expect odours in the community this morning and today.

Another possible air quality episode for Fort McKay  yikes! replied someone else in the email chain. Their name and organization were redacted.

Hydrocarbon levels were the highest Ive ever seen recorded in the region, they added.

Officials waited as the plume crept north. It reached the community at 10:45 a.m.

With the right data now in hand, public health officials raced to figure out the risk: though not acutely toxic, there was a strong odour with suspected health effects, the AER draft report said.

Its getting bad there, an Environment and Climate Change staffer wrote in an email at 1:30 p.m.

At 1:30 p.m.  12 hours after the incident occurred  Health Canada issued its advisory.

The federal government sent the warning two hours after air monitoring confirmed the odour in the community. It spent the time assessing risks and drafting the statement, said Indigenous Services Canada spokesperson William Olscamp in an email. (The agency has since taken over Health Canadas former responsibilities in First Nations communities.)

No injuries were reported. Though the plume caused air quality exceedances at the Mildred Lake fenceline, it didnt breach standards in Fort McKay for hydrogen sulphide or specific hydrocarbons.

In general, energy companies must notify the AER of chemical releases  though there are exceptions, such as emissions from restarts or emergencies. The agency posts incidents, investigations and actions taken against companies on a public database available online.

An AER communications strategy document instructed staff to say the agency was conducting an investigation, but no record of one appears in the database.

The AER didnt answer questions about the investigations outcome and said the incident didnt meet criteria to be posted.

In a statement, the AER said it is working to improve overall air quality in the Fort McKay through a series of recommendations.

The provincial government has clarified emergency response roles among agencies since the incident, and created a 24-hour notification system that informs Fort McKay if air quality readings reach trigger levels for certain substances. Residents can also access real-time air quality data from the monitor in the community.

But the government hasnt created trigger levels for hydrocarbons. It also hasnt closed the air monitoring gaps that led to the initial confusion on June 20, 2016, and still wouldnt be able to tell if Fort McKay is at risk until it would be too late.

The AER and the government that oversees it have come under fire in recent months after a National Observer/Star investigation revealed the cost of cleaning up the Albertas oilpatch could reach an estimated $260 billion. Its also faced criticism for allowing oilsands companies to pursue an unproven technology to deal with their toxic waste, and for leaving legal loopholes that allow companies to avoid cleaning up old wells.

The Fort McKay incident raises further doubts about NDP-led governments independence and ability to regulate oil and gas, said Alberta Liberal MLA David Swann.

The government has some explaining to do, he said.

The Jason Kenney-led United Conservative Party  which is leading in polls for the current provincial election, and has pledged to replace AERs board of directors with one focused on cutting red tape  didnt respond to interview requests. The centre-right Alberta Party declined to comment.

LHommecourt said the access to air quality data brings her some comfort. But still, she worries about the long-term effects of the constant industrial odours, and keeps gas masks at home.

New oilsands mines around Fort McKay continue to be approved. Suncor opened one in September, the same month that the AER held hearings for a mine proposed by Teck Resources Ltd.

How (can officials) say theyre going to make things better... when theyre approving more and more projects, LHommecourt said.

Your roots are here but at the same time theyre being ripped out from under our feet.

Correction  April 8, 2019: A previous version of this story included a photo caption that incorrectly stated there are 12 oilsands facilities within a 30-kilometre radius of Fort McKay. In fact, there are 11.

Emma McIntosh is an environment, justice and investigative reporter with Star Calgary. Follow her on Twitter at @EmmaMci

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OTTAWAReduced search-and-rescue coverage, ferry-service disruptions, cancelled resupply runs to Arctic and coastal communities and nearly $2 million in lost navigational buoys.

Those are among the real safety, social and commercial impacts that communities across the country are starting to feel as the Canadian Coast Guards fleet gets older, according to new documents obtained by The Canadian Press.

And the problems are expected to get worse: the documents warn that more than a third of the coast guards 26 large vessels have exceeded their expected lifespans and many wont survive until replacements arrive.

Vessels are at increasing risk of unrecoverable failure, reads one PowerPoint presentation prepared by coast guard officials last summer and marked secret. Many ships will not remain operational until their replacements arrive.

Obtained through the access-to-information law, the documents underline the stakes facing the federal government and various communities if Canada does not have a capable coast-guard fleet.

They come amid questions about how and when the government will replace the coast guards existing vessels. Only five new coast-guard ships are currently included in the governments multibillion-dollar national shipbuilding plan.

The PowerPoint presentation is particularly frank in its assessment of what it describes as the early impacts of an older fleet coupled with increasing demand that are already visible.

Over the past four years, lengthening repair periods and unplanned outages have temporarily reduced coverage in all four offshore search-and-rescue areas in Atlantic Canada, reads one section.

The coast guard has also lost nearly $2 million in navigational buoys in recent years because they could not be removed due to ship availability and ice conditions, the presentation adds.

Ferry services have been interrupted, specifically Marine Atlantics operations serving Newfoundland and commercial ships have been left waiting for days for icebreakers at significant costs to industry.

Canada has also failed to meet its obligations under the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization in recent years for fisheries conservation and protection due to repair and maintenance issues, the presentation says.

And the resupply of Arctic and coast communities have been delayed or cancelled  a problem that continued even after the presentation was prepared, as residents of three communities in the Northwest Territories can attest from last fall.

I dont know why they couldnt have arranged an icebreaker, John Holland, senior administrative officer for the hamlet of Paulatuk, told The Canadian Press in October after one scheduled sea lift was cancelled.

The coast guard has a long history of being overlooked and ignored in political Ottawa, which is one of the key factors in the age of the agencys fleet, said Rob Huebert, an expert on the Arctic at the University of Calgary.

The presentation underscores the impact of such neglect, he said, namely real safety concerns, in the case of search-and-rescue services and lost navigational buoys, and northern communities cut off from supplies.

We have talked in the past about an older coast-guard fleet and that there are problems (but) we cant get into details because the details are never presented, Huebert said. This is the actual reality. This is what is happening.

Asked about the documents this week, Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson insisted in a statement the fleet remains reliable and the federal government takes the renewal of the coast-guard fleet seriously.

Ottawa recently bought three second-hand icebreakers to pick up some of the slack, he noted, while the multibillion-dollar national shipbuilding plan includes money for one icebreaker and four science ships for the coast guard.

We will continue to look at solutions so that Canadians can continue to receive the services they need, Wilkinson added.

Yet exactly when Seaspan Shipyards in Vancouver will deliver the five ships included in the national shipbuilding plan remains uncertain, let alone when the government will decide how and when to replace the rest of the fleet.

Seaspan was supposed to deliver the first of three fisheries-science vessels in early 2017 before problems were found with the ships welding. It then crashed into a breakwater last month while returning from its first test run at sea.

Government officials say they still anticipate receiving that science ship this summer and that the other two will follow over the next year or so. Even if that happens, there is no firm schedule for the new heavy icebreaker and other science vessel to arrive.

Seaspan has also been tapped to build two new supply ships for the navy, the first of which wont be delivered until at least 2023.

Meanwhile, Seaspan and its Quebec-based rival Davie have been engaged in a fierce behind-the-scenes battle over the contracts for 10 other coast-guard ships that were promised to the Vancouver yard in 2013.

Seaspan has all but warned that its survival is contingent on building those ships, which were initially estimated to cost $3.3 billion.

Davie, however, has pointed out that Seaspan wont be able to start work on the ships for years and wants the government to shift the business to Davie.
Former OCAD photography instructor Keesic Douglas told a Toronto jury Monday that he sensually massaged a students back in December 2013 but denies sexually assaulting her in a darkroom at the downtown art school.

The 45-year-old said he made several moves on the young woman that day because she had been hitting on him in the previous weeks and months.

I thought that she was attracted to me, the celebrated Ojibway artist, videographer and photographer testified in Superior Court.

The Rama First Nation artist has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault. Douglas was 40, the student 21 at the time of the alleged incident.

His former student, who testified Friday, denied there was any miscommunication or that it was possible he misread the signs, and said he groped her breasts, thighs and crotch in the darkroom where she had gone to watch him work.

Her identity is covered by a publication ban because she is alleging a sexual assault occurred.

Douglas testified Monday that the only touching that occurred in the darkroom was when he massaged her lower back for about 15 seconds at her request, after she spurned his attempt to move in for a kiss and turned down his offer to photograph her naked.

He told court that he felt the woman had been flirting with him for months, looking at him with piercing direct eyes and commenting on his tight-fitting jeans, leaving him feeling objectified but also flattered.

When she joined him in the OCAD darkroom to watch him make prints for an upcoming exhibition, Douglas said she told him she always wanted to have sex in the OCAD darkrooms, but I havent been able to find anyone to have sex with me here.

What was your initial reaction to that? asked defence lawyer Luka Rados.

I thought it was a proposition, not to  actually have sex in the darkroom, but I believe that she wanted something to happen between us.

Douglas added that for months it seemed to have been building to this with the flirtations, sexual overtones. But Douglas said when he moved in to kiss her, she pulled back and said his first name three times with a very flat tone to it, which left him confused.

When he indicated his back needed stretching, Douglas said the woman told him he should have a massage. He suggested giving her one and she said, How bout?

He took that as my cue and began sensually massaging her lower back for about 15 seconds until she told him to stop, and the second she said that my hands came straight off her back, he said, holding up both his hands.

It was like a 180-degree shift in the tone and the mood in the room, it was just different. I was trying to figure out what just happened and I was embarrassed: Oh, this person just rejected me.

As they left the darkroom, Douglas said she yelled, Keesic, dont touch me or something like that  it was a shock to my ears.

In an email exchange that followed, Douglas said he wanted to clear the air and when she indicated Everything is cool, he wrote: And here I was starting to hunt for a new job.

During cross-examination, Crown attorney Dave Mitchell accused Douglas of fabricating the supposed back massage.

Youre trying to minimize what really happened, which was groping her breasts, thighs, crotch area, Mitchell stated.

Douglas denied that was the case.

The trial resumes in front of a jury Thursday.
ASBEST, RUSSIASniped at for decades by health advocates, Russias doggedly defiant producer of asbestos  a substance banned as a killer by more than 60 countries  thinks it has perhaps finally found the perfect figure for a campaign to rehabilitate the products deeply stained image: President Donald Trump.

Trump is on our side, said Vladimir V. Kochelayev, chairman of the board of Uralasbest, one of the worlds few remaining producers of asbestos, citing what he said were reports that the Trump administration was easing restrictions on asbestos use.

The United States stopped mining asbestos in 2002, but the material still pours onto the world market from a huge hole in the ground in Russias Ural Mountains.

The surrounding city, where nearly every family depends in one way or another on a substance that the World Health Organization says is a serial killer, is called simply Asbest, the Russian word for asbestos.

Canada has a town called Asbestos, too, but it stopped producing the stuff years ago and has toyed with changing its name to something less off-putting. Its Russian twin, where locals seldom if ever question the wisdom of mining asbestos with explosive charges that stir up thick clouds of dust saturated with asbestos fibres, sees no reason to do anything like that.

All the same, it has tried hard to shed asbestos associations with lung cancer and other diseases by rebranding its product as chrysotile, the bland, technical name of the specific type of mineral it mostly mines.

Chrysotile not only sounds less scary, it really is, said Kochelayev, skimming over the fact that it is a carcinogen.

He insisted it was much less dangerous than other forms of asbestos, the generic commercial name used to describe different fibrous minerals that until the 1970s were used around the world in insulation, roof tiles, fire-resistant clothing and many other products.

I cannot say it is totally safe, Kochelayev said of chrysotile, but it can be used in controlled situations without danger.

After years of watching a global campaign against all forms of asbestos gather steam amid mounting health liability issues, Kochelayevs company last year reacted with glee to reports that the Environmental Protection Agency under Trump was relaxing tight restrictions on asbestos use in the United States.

The agency denied doing any such thing, but Uralasbest celebrated nonetheless by posting a picture on its Facebook page showing pallets of its asbestos stamped with a seal that featured Trumps face and the words: Approved by Donald Trump, 45th president of the United States.

The photo was a public relations stunt, and none of the asbestos sold by Uralasbest was ever stamped with Trumps face. But the image generated widespread media attention for a company that had previously made headlines only when it was denounced by anti-asbestos campaigners.

This was a very successful media operation, said Pavel Kashpurov, a young Uralasbest public relations expert who dreamed it up.

He came up with the idea after the EPA, then under the leadership of Scott Pruitt, a Trump appointee, announced new use rules for asbestos that campaigners denounced as opening the way for more use of the material. The agency said its intentions had been misinterpreted.

With Brazil and Canada, which used to supply most of the asbestos used in the United States, now out of the business, Russia sees an opening for its own product  if only it can get Americans to stop worrying about dying and listen to its sales pitch that Russian asbestos, or chrysotile, is really not so bad. After years of declining output, Uralasbest last year increased its asbestos production to 315,000 tons, 80 per cent of it sold abroad, from 279,200 tons.

But it sold only 67 tons to the United States, a market that had all but disappeared because of health concerns but is now picking up slightly. The 750 tons of asbestos imported overall last year by the United States was still nowhere near the 803,000 tons consumed in the United States in 1973, before a tidal wave of lawsuits and health warnings made asbestos a byword for death and financial ruin.

Nobody in Asbest, 900 miles east of Moscow, is expecting asbestos to be fully rehabilitated any time soon, with or without a helping hand from Trump.

But the rebranding of asbestos as chrysotile has helped slow the collapse of the citys economic backbone and blunted calls for a global ban on all forms of asbestos.

The towns former mayor, Andrei Kholzakov, who chairs an international association of trade union groups lobbying for asbestos, said that hopes of a turnabout in U.S. policy had been disappointing so far. Still, he said that Trump, as a businessman familiar with construction, understands the reality of asbestos better than other people.

Trump, before becoming president, did indeed have a long record of defending asbestos as a fire-retardant, tweeting in 2012 that if it had not been replaced with junk that doesnt work, the World Trade Center would never have burned down in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. His 1997 book, The Art of the Comeback, said asbestos had got a bad rap, claiming that efforts to force its removal from schools and other buildings were led by the mob, rather than motivated by health concerns.

Such views mesh neatly with Russias own long-standing view that asbestos producers are the victim of an elaborate conspiracy driven by greedy, primarily American, lawyers who make money suing for asbestos-related damages and chemical companies that produce alternative fire retardant materials.

The city of Asbest, after more than 130 years of intensive mining, still has enough chrysotile asbestos buried in the ground to keep Uralasbest in business for at least another century, provided its customers, mostly in Asia and Africa, do not take flight.

It also has seemingly bottomless reserves of enthusiasm among residents for a product that, according to a 2014 report by the World Health Organization, kills more than 107,000 people worldwide each year.

Even local doctors are entirely with the program.

Igor Bragin, the head doctor at Asbest citys hospital complex, dismissed as not corresponding to reality a 2016 scientific study that showed elevated rates of lung cancer there. The study, a comparative review of death rates in Asbest and the surrounding region of Sverdlovsk, found that mortality rates for cancers of the lung, stomach and colon were statistically significantly higher in Asbest city. The incidence of mesothelioma, a lung disease widely blamed on asbestos in the West, was not studied because Russia does not register that disease separately.

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 per cent guarantees that something is not harmful do not exist.

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KAMPALA, Uganda - U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday urged Uganda to find the kidnappers of an American tourist who has been freed amid conflicting reports over whether a ransom was paid for her release.

Kim Endicott of Costa Mesa, California, was released by her abductors over the weekend and was to be turned over to the U.S. ambassador Monday, Ugandan police said.

Endicott and her Ugandan driver were both safe after the five-day ordeal. They were taken from Queen Elizabeth National Park across the border to Congo, according to Ugandan authorities.

Trump pressed Ugandas government to capture the culprits Monday.

Uganda must find the kidnappers of the American Tourist and guide before people will feel safe in going there. Bring them to justice openly and quickly! he tweeted.

Over the weekend, Trump tweeted that he was pleased the tourist and guide had been released.

Ugandan police spokesman Fred Enanga said he did not believe a ransom had been paid.

I have indicated to you that we dont do ransom, he said Monday at a news conference in the Ugandan capital of Kampala.

A Uganda-based tour official said, however, that a ransom was paid to secure Endicotts freedom. The tourist was released, not rescued, after money was paid otherwise she wouldnt be back, said the tourism professional with knowledge of Endicotts trip.

He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

Many officials, including from the U.S. Embassy, were involved in efforts to secure the release of the kidnapping victims, he said. He couldnt say how much was paid or who paid.

Ugandan officials have said the kidnapping victims were rescued from armed kidnappers who are still at large.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said on Twitter that the security forces shall deal with these isolated pockets of criminals.

The kidnappers had demanded a $500,000 ransom after grabbing Endicott and her driver from a group of tourists on an evening game drive on April 2, police said.

Its completely shocking, Sandy Benton, a friend of Endicotts in Southern California, said Monday. I never thought anything like this would happen to her.

Benton called Endicott an adventure seeker and world traveller, saying it wasnt surprising that she would travel to Uganda on her own.

I just prayed for her and hoped for safe return, Benton said. Im glad to hear shell be on her way home soon. I cant imagine how traumatic that was for her. She had to be terrified.

Megan Barth, a longtime client and friend of Endicotts who lives in Las Vegas, said Endicott is an animal lover who long dreamed of travelling to Africa to see gorillas in the wild.

It was definitely on the bucket list for her, Barth said. Shes a wanderlust, and shes always been a wanderlust. She always was wanting to travel and experience different cultures.

Barth said shes been overcome with worry since Endicott was kidnapped.

Over the past week, Ive just been praying  praying in the shower, praying while Im driving, praying while having my cup of coffee, she said. My whole entire day was consumed by her because I knew she was in such an awful, traumatic place.

Benton and Barth said they hope Endicott isnt too scarred by the experience and is touched by those worldwide who have reached out to her family while she was held.

Hopefully she just feels a lot of love, Benton said.

Barth said if anyone can make it through such an experience, its Endicott.

Shes such a lovely, warm-hearted, beautiful spirit, she said. She will somehow turn this traumatic experience into something that is not only a healing experience for her, but an experience she can use to help others.

Endicott, who has a small skin care shop in Costa Mesa, is in her 50s and has a daughter and granddaughter, according to Phoenix resident Rich Endicott, who told The Associated Press that he hadnt spoken with his cousin since a family reunion several years ago.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last week at an 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.

Queen Elizabeth National Park, which is near the porous border with Congo, is Ugandas most popular safari destination. Its attractions include groups of tree-climbing lions.

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Myers reported from Los Angeles.
KAMPALA, Uganda - 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.

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.
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador - California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Sunday his visit to El Salvador serves as a counter-narrative to what he called President Donald Trumps demoralizing and toxic rhetoric about Central American migrants.

Right now you have a president that talks down to people, talks past them, demoralizing folks living here and their relatives in the United States, Newsom told reporters to close out the first day of his trip. I think its important to let folks know thats not our country  thats an individual in our country who happens at this moment to be president.

Newsom, a Democrat who took office in January, chose El Salvador as his first international trip because California is home to both the United States largest Salvadoran population and its busiest border crossing.

His visit comes as Trump moves to cut millions of dollars in U.S. aid to El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala and demands those three nations and Mexico do more to stop migrants from entering the United States.

There has been a surge of immigrants seeking asylum from the Central American nations. About 3,000 unaccompanied children and 12,000 family members from El Salvador have arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border since October.

Newsom kicked off his trip with a visit to the tomb of Saint Oscar Romero, the Salvadoran priest assassinated in 1980 at the start of the nations civil war because of his advocacy for human rights and the poor.

The visit served as a symbol of Newsoms desire to learn about the social and economic hardships forcing Salvadorans to leave. After a private tour of the cathedral where Romero preached, Newsom lit a candle near Romeros tomb in the cathedral basement alongside his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and California state Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo.

Newsoms trip includes meetings with President Salvador Sanchez Ceren, U.S. Ambassador Jean Manes and President-elect Nayib Bukele. Hell also tour a reintegration centre that processes Salvadorans deported from the United States and Mexico, see a cultural demonstration in a rural town, meet with human rights groups and discuss economic development and gang intervention.

Newsom said hes figuring out in real time what more California can do to help tackle the root causes of migration, namely deep poverty and gang violence. El Salvador is one of the worlds most violent countries, with the gangs MS-13 and Barrio 18 exerting strong control. The minimum wage is just $300 per month.

Mayor Ernesto Muyshondt of San Salvador, the capital city, said he hopes Newsom can use his political influence to halt the cuts to U.S. aid, saying cuts will halt the countries progress and could cause more people to flee.

In Newsoms first three months in office, he has fought the Trump administration on perhaps no issue as much as immigration, suing over the presidents emergency declaration to build a southern border wall and pledging $25 million in state money to help asylum seekers.

The Trump administration has not commented on Newsoms trip, but Republicans in California have said the governor should be more focused on poverty back home.

The tragic circumstances that drive migrants from their homes should remind us that we have people living in crushing poverty in our own communities. Our attention and resources should be focused there, Republican state Assemblyman Devon Mathis said in a statement.

Newsom pushed back on critics, saying immigration is a driving political and policy issue that affects California more than any other state.

How do you understand California without understanding all the diverse cultures that make it the most diverse state? he said. Its fundamental it seems to me to governing a state. Thats why Im here in the first months.

While Newsom hopes to plant a counter-narrative to Trump, he is barely known in El Salvador, a country just over 6 million people.

Before Newsoms visit to the cathedral, people milled about on the Gerardo Barrios Plaza, a public square out front. Only one of a half dozen people who spoke with The Associated Press said they were aware the governor of California was coming to visit, and none knew his name.

Manuel Lara, 52, has family living in Los Angeles and said he learned of Newsoms trip from the news. Lara tried to come to the United States unsuccessfully in the 1980s and now works in construction in El Salvador. He makes $10 per day.

He said Newsoms trip was a good thing given Trumps threats to rescind aid.

Lidia Rosales said she is out of work because there are not enough jobs for teachers. Even if there were, the $125 monthly pay teachers make is not enough to live comfortably, she said. She said she doesnt like how Trump talks about Latinos. But she had not heard of Newsom or why he was visiting.

Newsom said starting the trip at Romeros tomb was an event that brought full circle some of his earliest political awakenings and Catholic upbringing.

I never thought Id be kneeling in front of Saint Romero as governor of California, he said.

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This story has been corrected to say that President Donald Trump is cutting millions in U.S. aid to El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala
QUITO, Ecuador - The government of Ecuador has removed an official from its embassy in London who is accused of having a close rapport with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Foreign Minister Jose Valencia told Democracia radio Monday the civil servant worked in a very close way with Assange. He did not provide the officials name or go into any detail, other than to say that embassy workers must respond first to the Ecuadorian state.

The removal comes as tensions between Ecuador and Assange continue to mount. Ecuador recently accused WikiLeaks of helping spread leaked personal documents belonging to President Lenin Moreno.

British police stationed officers outside Ecuadors embassy last week after tweets from WikiLeaks claiming Assange could be kicked out of the building where he has lived since 2012 within hours to days.
MEXICO CITY - Mexico has signed an agreement with the United Nations top human rights official for technical assistance in its latest attempt to determine what happened to 43 missing students, officials said Monday.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called the case of the students from the teachers college in Ayotzinapa paradigmatic.

The former Chilean president said that Mexicos government is obligated to find the truth and that the process would be an opportunity to make deep changes to its justice system.

Police seized the students in the Guerrero state city of Iguala in 2014 and allegedly handed them over to a drug gang. Prosecutors say the gang then killed the young people.

Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said the case is a priority for the government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who in January created a truth commission to re-investigate the case.

UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet delivers a speech during the World Assembly for Women (WAW) in Tokyo on March 23, 2019. Bachelet called the 2014 case of the 43 missing students from a teachers college in Ayotzinapa, Mexico emblematic and said Mexico's government is obligated to find the truth about what happened to them.
KABUL - Afghan security forces are battling the Taliban for a fifth day after the insurgents launched a wide-scale attack in the western Badghis province, officials said Monday.

Col. Qais Mangal, a spokesman for Defence Ministry, said that at least 12 security forces have been killed in the last 48 hours, bringing the overall death toll to more than 40. Mangal said dozens of insurgents have been killed and wounded by air and ground forces.

Some 2,000 Taliban fighters attacked checkpoints and an army compound in the Bala Murghab district before dawn Thursday. Mohammad Nasir Nazari, a provincial council member, said some 600 Afghan soldiers who were trapped inside the base were able to escape and reach the provincial capital of Qala-e-Now over the past two days after reinforcements reached the base.

He said army commandos and special police units are currently battling the insurgents, with high casualties on both sides. He was unable to provide an exact breakdown of the numbers killed and wounded.

The Taliban effectively control nearly half the country and have continued to carry out daily attacks on Afghan security forces despite holding several rounds of peace talks with the United States in recent months. The Taliban have refused to meet with the Afghan government, which they view as a U.S. puppet.

The Taliban agreed to take part in an Afghan dialogue in Qatar, where the insurgents maintain a political office, later this month. But the Taliban say any member of the government who attends will only do so in a personal capacity.

After two months of consultations, the Afghan government announced Monday that it had created a council to appoint a delegation to the talks. The council consists of current and former officials, as well as other prominent figures from around the country. Afghan peace envoy Omer Daudzai said the delegates, who have yet to be chosen, will exchange views with the Taliban ahead of possible negotiations.

U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who has led the talks with the Taliban in a bid to end Americas longest war, tweeted Sunday that he had met with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in Kabul to discuss the upcoming dialogue and efforts to reduce the violence.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, a roadside bomb killed two people in the eastern city of Jalalabad and wounded another five, said Farid Khan, a spokesman for the provincial police chief. No one immediately claimed the attack, but a local Islamic State affiliate claimed responsibility for attacks on Saturday and Sunday in Jalalabad.
WARSAW, Poland - A fugitive Polish businessman convicted in an eavesdropping case that led to the fall of a Polish government is fighting extradition from Spain back to Poland, Spanish authorities said Monday.

Marek Falenta was convicted of organizing the secret recordings of top Polish politicians in 2013 and 2014, creating a scandal that contributed to the defeat in 2015 of a pro-EU government in Poland and the election of a populist right-wing party.

Falenta, a 43-year-old multi-millionaire, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison but fled Poland before he was to start his sentence in February.

Spanish police said they and their Polish colleagues arrested Falenta on Friday in an upscale apartment in Cullera, a coastal town near Valencia. He threatened to jump from a balcony, police said.

A spokesman for Spains National Court said Monday that a judge over the weekend ordered Falenta jailed until his extradition can be decided. During his preliminary hearing Saturday, Falenta refused to agree to be extradited to Poland, said the spokesman, who was not authorized to be identified by name.

While the extradition could still happen eventually, Falentas refusal prolongs the procedure and gives him the opportunity to have his case examined again.

Falentas many business interests included importing coal from Russia. Polish media have reported that he owed millions of dollars to a company with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, leading some to suspect a Russian role in the affair that brought down the pro-EU Polish government.

The former Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, now a top EU leader, has also alluded in the past to the possible involvement of Russia, which has a long history of trying to influence politics in Poland and other countries in Central and Eastern Europe.

In all, hundreds of hours of illegal recordings were made, and two waiters have also been convicted for their roles in the affair.

Grzegorz Rzeczkowski, an investigative reporter for the weekly magazine Polityka, said he has found evidence of links between Falenta and Polands conservative ruling party, as well as links between Falenta and Russians that go beyond the coal imports. The restaurants where the recordings took place were established by people with links to Russia.

He sees similarities between the eavesdropping in Poland and the hacking of emails of the Democratic National Committee ahead of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The method is different but the modus operandi is the same  to discredit the democratic side of our political scene, Rzeczkowski told the AP.

The Polish party that was discredited, Civic Platform, was a staunch supporter of neighbouring Ukraines efforts to free itself of Russian influence and chart a pro-Western course. With the new government in Poland, the Polish-Ukrainian relationship is no longer as strong. Tensions have grown as old ethnic animosities between Poland and Ukraine have been stoked by nationalists on both sides.

Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz, a former interior minister caught in the recordings, welcomed the arrest of Falenta, but said now we are waiting to find out who stands behind them.

Sienkiewicz was heard on tape discussing a possible change of finance minister with the head of the central bank, Marek Belka. Belka wanted the finance minister removed and offered in return to help the government in case of an economic downturn  a violation of the banks independence.

The foreign minister, Radek Sikorski, was caught describing Polands alliance with the United States as worthless using vulgar language.

Law and Justice, the populist right-wing party that came to power after the scandal in Poland, has eroded the independence of the judiciary, the right to assembly and media freedom. It has also been accused of eroding democratic standards with anti-refugee rhetoric. Its current campaign platform portrays LGBT people as threats to children and families.

___

Parra reported from Madrid. Joseph Wilson in Barcelona contributed to this report.
BERLIN - The Latest on Brexit discussions (all times local):

7:25 p.m.

European Council President Donald Tusk is urging European Union leaders to grant the United Kingdom a flexible extension to its departure date from the bloc.

In his invitation to Wednesdays Brussels summit to discuss Prime Minister Theresa Mays request for a delay to the U.K.s scheduled Friday departure from the EU, Tusk says I believe we should also discuss an alternative, longer extension. One possibility would be a flexible extension, which would last only as long as necessary and no longer than one year.

Tusk says such an extension would have to be conditional to allay fears Britain could stymie EU decision making if it remains a member. He says conditions would include not reopening the withdrawal agreement and the U.K. continuing to sincerely co-operate with the bloc.

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6:30 p.m.

British Prime Minister Theresa May is meeting French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris to discuss the possibility of a further delay to Brexit.

Macron greeted May in the Elysee presidential palace with a hug. They both smiled for photographers.

The two leaders are not scheduled to make any press statement.

May earlier met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin.

The French presidency said all decisions on Brexit will be made on Wednesday at a summit of EU leaders in Brussels.

A delay requires the unanimous support of the EUs other 27 members. If they refuse, Britain faces a sudden departure on Friday.

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6:20 p.m.

Talks between the British government and its political opponents have failed to reach a Brexit compromise before the European Union decides whether to grant the U.K. a delay to its departure from the bloc.

But the Conservative government and the Labour Party say they will resume negotiations after Wednesdays EU summit.

Prime Minister Theresa May hopes to persuade the 27 other EU leaders that she has a plan to end Britains Brexit impasse so that they will agree to postpone Britains departure, currently scheduled for Friday.

After failing three times to get her Brexit deal through Parliament, May opened negotiations with Labour, which favours a softer version of Brexit.

Mays office said talks Tuesday had been productive and wide-ranging and both parties appreciated the urgency of finding a solution.

Labour business spokeswoman Rebecca Long-Bailey said there had not been any fundamental shift ... but were hopeful that progress will be made.

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6 p.m.

German news agency dpa reports that Chancellor Angela Merkel has told her partys lawmakers that delaying Britains exit from the European Union may be possible.

Merkel held an hour of talks with British Prime Minister Theresa May in Berlin on Tuesday, a day before EU leaders are due to decide on Londons request for another Brexit extension. The current departure date is April 12, but May has requested a delay to June 30.

The dpa agency quoted unnamed participants at a closed doors meeting of Merkels Union bloc in parliament saying the chancellor had informed them that a delay until the end of the year or early 2020 would be possible.

Merkel reportedly also told participants that Britain would have to take part in European Parliament elections unless it leaves the bloc by May 22.

Merkels office declined to comment on the meeting with May.

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5:55 p.m.

A top official at the French presidency says France is not ruling out the prospect of backing a further delay to Brexit.

Just ahead of a planned meeting between Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, the official said the key point for France is to get solid guarantees that the U.K.s prolonged presence would not disrupt the functioning of EU institutions.

The official, who spoke anonymously ahead of sensitive talks in accordance with the French presidencys customary practice, said Macron expects from May to provide a credible prospect to avoid a no-deal Brexit on April 12, including the possible outcome from ongoing talks between Britains government and opposition Labour Party.

EU leaders meet in Brussels on Wednesday. Any extension to the Brexit deadline requires the unanimous support of the 27 other member states.

 By Sylvie Corbet in Paris.

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3 p.m.

The British prime ministers office says Theresa May and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have agreed on the importance of ensuring Britains orderly withdrawal from the European Union.

The two leaders held talks in Berlin as May tries to win backing from EU leaders for a further delay to Brexit.

The prime minister wants the 27 other EU leaders to postpone Britains departure until June 30, and for the U.K. to be able to leave sooner if Parliament manages to ratify an EU divorce deal.

Downing Street didnt indicate Merkels view on the best length for any extension.

If EU leaders refuse to grant an extension when they meet in Brussels Wednesday, Britain faces a chaotic no-deal departure from the bloc on Friday.

May plans to meet French President Emmanuel Macron later in Paris.

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1:45 p.m.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has left the chancellery in Berlin after meeting for about an hour and a half with German Chancellor Angela Merkel as she seeks European leaders approval for another delay to Brexit.

May and Merkel made no comment to reporters as they left together and embraced. Merkel waved to May as her car set off.

May was heading to Paris later Tuesday to meet French President Emmanuel Macron, who has appeared to take a tougher line on giving Britain more time.

The prime minister is meeting all 27 leaders of the other European Union countries in Brussels on Wednesday. She needs their approval for a second extension to Britains membership of the EU; if they refuse, Britain faces a sudden and chaotic departure Friday.

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1:30 p.m.

Half a dozen of EU nations are seeking to meet ahead of Wednesdays summit to co-ordinate their approach to the request of Britain to further extend the Brexit deadline.

An official, who asked not to be identified because the informal meeting was not officially announced, said leaders of France, Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Sweden and Denmark would discuss options some hours ahead of Wednesdays dinner summit.

The nations involved all would be directly implicated by a cliff-edge no-deal Brexit.

It should be seen as co-ordinating the viewpoints, the official said.

By Raf Casert

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12:10 p.m.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has arrived at German Chancellor Angela Merkels office in Berlin on a quest to secure the agreement of Britains European Union partners to a further delay to Brexit.

May strode into the chancellery on a sunny Tuesday lunchtime for her meeting with Merkel, who came out to shake her hand for photographers. Merkel could be heard saying that we ordered the best possible weather.

The two leaders were not scheduled to make any remarks to reporters. May will travel to Paris later Tuesday to meet French President Emmanuel Macron.

May will meet leaders of the EUs other 27 members in Brussels on Wednesday for a summit at which they will decide whether to allow Britain to delay its withdrawal beyond the current deadline, set for Friday. If they refuse, Britain faces a sudden and chaotic exit at the end of the week.

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10 a.m.

A senior member of Theresa Mays government says cross-party talks aimed at breaking the impasse over Britains divorce from the European Union are moving forward in a genuine and sincere way.

Justice Secretary David Gauke told the BBC that its too early to say whether the talks between the government and opposition Labour Party will be successful but work is continuing to identify a compromise, two days before EU leaders decide whether to grant a further extension to the Brexit process.

If they refuse, Britain faces a sudden and chaotic departure on Friday, the current deadline set by the EU.

Gauke says people involved in the cross-party talks are telling me that the process is being undertaken in a genuine and sincere way from both sides.

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9:45 a.m.

France is vowing that the 27 EU nations facing the United Kingdom in Brexit divorce proceedings will remain united at Wednesdays summit, where they need to agree whether to give Prime Minister Theresa May another deadline extension.

French European Affairs Minister Amelie de Montchalin said early Tuesday that the 27 will need commitments from May that the British government will continue to play a constructive role in EU decision-making if a long extension is to be granted.

We have the question what role Britain wants to play if a long extension of the deadline is granted, possibly to the end of the year. In Britain, some have threatened that the government should seek to undermine EU policymaking as a way to get more leverage for the U.K.

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8:45 a.m.

A senior German official is demanding substantial steps forward in Britains Brexit standoff and insisting any delay must come with strict conditions, as Prime Minister Theresa May prepares to plead for more time in Berlin.

Michael Roth, Germanys deputy foreign minister, said as he arrived at a European Union meeting in Luxembourg Tuesday that so far absolutely nothing has changed and we are in a very, very frustrating situation here.

May has asked for a new delay until June 30. The blocs leaders are due to meet Wednesday to consider the request. May is visiting Berlin and Paris later Tuesday.

Roth said that within the European Union, there isnt an endless readiness to keep talking about delays so long as there is no substantial progress on the British side.
LONDON - Prime Minister Theresa May wooed domestic political opponents and European leaders Monday as she sought to break Britains Brexit impasse and secure a delay to the countrys departure from the European Union.

Mays Conservative government and the main opposition Labour Party were clinging to hope of finding a compromise Brexit deal, two days before EU leaders decide whether to grant an extension to the U.K.s departure from the bloc. If they refuse, Britain faces a sudden and chaotic departure on Friday, the Brexit deadline previously set by the EU.

May has asked for a new delay until June 30, to give Britains divided politicians time to agree, approve and implement a withdrawal agreement. The blocs leaders are due to meet Wednesday in Brussels to consider the request.

An extension requires unanimous approval from all 27 EU national leaders, some of whom are fed up with Brexit uncertainty and reluctant to prolong it further. French President Emmanuel Macron has been particularly resistant to the idea of further delaying Brexit, saying the EU cant be held hostage to Britains political crisis.

Mays office said the prime minister spoke to multiple European leaders by phone Monday and will dash Tuesday to Berlin and Paris for face-to-face talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Macron.

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt urged European leaders to be co-operative, saying May is totally and utterly determined to deliver Brexit.

They want Brexit to be resolved as quickly as possible, Hunt said of the other 27 EU leaders. So do we.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said he was open to extending the deadline.

There will be different views, but I am confident that we will reach agreement, he said after meeting chief EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier in Dublin.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, however, said May would have to convince EU leaders that Britain would continue sincere co-operation with the bloc if granted a delay. Some pro-Brexit British politicians have suggested the U.K. could try to disrupt EU policymaking if it remains a member much longer.

Almost three years after Britons voted by 52% to 48% to leave the EU, the country remains divided and the political process deadlocked.

May and the EU agreed late last year on divorce terms, but the agreement has been rejected by Parliament three times. In desperation, May last week sought talks with the left-of-centre Labour Party.

Labour favours a softer Brexit than the government has proposed and seeks a close economic relationship with the bloc through a customs union  a trading area that sets common tariffs on imports while allowing free trade in goods moving between member states.

So far, the cross-party talks have failed to yield a breakthrough, but Labour politicians and government ministers were due to continue negotiations Tuesday.

The government doesnt seem to be moving off its original red lines, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said. We are looking for movement.

The EU would welcome a move by Britain to keep close post-Brexit economic ties. Barnier said Monday that the bloc was willing to be much more ambitious in our future relationship and would agree to a customs union arrangement.

The alternative of a no-deal Brexit threatens huge disruptions to trade and travel, with tariffs and customs checks causing gridlock at British ports and possible shortages of goods in the U.K.

It would also be tough for Ireland, the only EU member state to share 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 Irelands peace process.

Barnier said the EU would remain fully behind Ireland.

If the U.K. were to leave the EU without a deal, we would not discuss anything with the U.K. until there is an agreement for Ireland and Northern Ireland, he said.

It was unclear whether the cross-party talks in London would succeed. Mays reach for compromise left her caught between angry Conservatives who accused her of throwing away Brexit, and Labour opponents mistrustful of her sudden change of heart.

Suggestions she might back a customs union infuriated pro-Brexit Conservatives, who say Britain must cut ties to the EU in order to forge an independent economic policy.

Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, a leading Brexiteer, said a customs union would enslave the U.K. He tweeted that it cannot, must not and will not happen.

But others say May has little choice but to change her long-held Brexit positions, after lawmakers rejected her deal and also repeatedly ruled out leaving the bloc without an agreement.

Late Monday, Parliament passed a fast-tracked law that compels the government to seek a delay to Brexit rather than leave without a deal. May has already committed to doing that, but many lawmakers dont trust the government and passed the bill as an insurance policy.

While the government still intends for Britain to leave the EU in the next few months, it is also making plans to participate in European Parliament elections taking place across the bloc May 22-26.

The government announced Monday it had taken the legal step required to start preparations and set a May 23 date for the poll. It said the measure does not make these elections inevitable as leaving the EU before the date of election automatically removes our obligation to take part.

Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright said both Conservatives and Labour should compromise to make Brexit happen.

Theres some urgency to it, but I do think its important for everyone to take their responsibilities seriously, whatever party they come from, and try and get to a point where we leave the EU, as people have said they wish to do, and to do it on the best possible terms, he told the BBC. I think thats achievable.

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Associated Press writer Jill Lawless reported this story in London and AP writer Raf Casert reported from Brussels. AP writer Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report.

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Follow APs full coverage of Brexit at: https://www.apnews.com/Brexit
ADEN, YEMENIn the summer of 2017, a plane chartered by the United Nations idled on the tarmac at an airport in the Horn of Africa as officials waited for final clearance to deliver half a million doses of cholera vaccine to Yemen. Amid the countrys ruinous war, the disease was spiraling out of control, with thousands of new cases reported each day.

The green light for the plane to head to northern Yemen never came. The U.N. wasnt able to distribute cholera vaccines to Yemen until May 2018 and the outbreak ultimately produced more than 1 million suspected cholera cases  the worst cholera epidemic recorded in modern times and a calamity that medical researchers say may have been avoided if vaccines had been deployed sooner.

U.N. officials blamed the cancelled flight on the difficulties in distributing vaccines during an armed conflict. But officials with knowledge of the episode told The Associated Press that the real reason was that the Houthi rebels who control northern Yemen refused to allow the vaccines to be delivered, after spending months demanding that the U.N. send ambulances and other medical equipment for their military forces as a condition for accepting the shipment.

The cancellation of the shipment was just one of the setbacks that aid agencies faced in battling the cholera epidemic, which has killed nearly 3,000 Yemenis.

Relief workers and government officials said they have seen repeated indications that insiders in both the Houthi government in the north and the U.S.-backed government in the south have skimmed off money and supplies for cholera vaccination and treatment and sold them on the black market. In some cases, treatment centres for people who had contracted cholera existed only on paper even though the U.N. had disbursed money to bankroll their operations, according to two aid officials familiar with the centres.

The APs examination of the efforts to fight the disease in Yemen drew on confidential documents and interviews with 29 people, including aid officials previously based in the country and officials from health ministries run by both the Houthi rebels and the internationally recognized government in the south. Almost all of these individuals  including six relief and health officials who say the Houthis were responsible for cancellation of the 2017 vaccine shipment  spoke on condition of anonymity because of fear of retaliation.

Both the Houthis and the government of Yemen were trying to politicize cholera, an aid official told the AP.

The Houthis are taking advantage of U.N. weakness, the official said. Corruption or aid diversion and all of this are because of the U.N.s weak position. Relief workers know that if the U.N. speaks out, the official said, their visas will be denied and they would not be allowed back in the country.

Cholera spread across Yemen in late 2016 and throughout much of 2017 and 2018. It ebbed late last year, but has again picked up in 2019. A new surge in the disease has produced roughly 150,000 reported cholera cases and nearly 300 deaths since the start of this year. The first cholera vaccine drives in Yemen didnt start until May 2018 in the south and August 2018 in the north, aid and health officials told the AP.

Ali al-Walidi, the deputy health minister in southern Yemen, and Youssef al-Hadri, the spokesman of the Houthi-run Health Ministry in the north, both deny there were delays in getting cholera vaccines into Yemen at the start of the outbreak.

Al-Hadri said claims that the Houthis blocked the shipment of vaccines into Yemen are false.

This is all baseless, and I challenge the agencies to say this officially, he said.

Geert Cappelaere, the Middle East director for UNICEF, the U.N. childrens relief agency, declined to blame any particular group for halting the 2017 shipment.

What is important is that the vaccines that needed to get in have ultimately gone in and have reached the people who needed to be vaccinated, he said. Has this been simple and easy? Absolutely not. Each shipment has been problematic to get in because of the long approval time and because of skepticism among the authorities on both sides about the value of cholera vaccines.

A RAVAGED LAND

More than half of Yemens hospitals and other health facilities have been damaged or destroyed since the war began in 2015, after Houthi forces overran much of the country and Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations, with backing from the United States, launched airstrikes and imposed blockades on rebel-held territory.

The conflict has killed more than 60,000 people and much of Yemen has been on the edge of famine. An AP investigation published in December revealed that factions on all sides of Yemens war have blocked food aid from going to groups suspected of disloyalty, diverted it to front-line combat units or sold it for profit on the black market.

More than 19 million of Yemens 29 million people dont have access to adequate health care, and more than 17 million dont have clean water, according to the U.N. Those are prime conditions for the spread of cholera, a disease caused by feces-tainted water and food. Cholera can kill swiftly if untreated, its victims drained by diarrhea, vomiting and fever.

The first significant cholera outbreak came in late 2016, leading to more than 25,000 suspected cases and killing at least 129. Soon after, in April 2017, the disease erupted again, this time spreading at an even more furious pace. Within two months, more than 185,000 suspected cases and 1,200 deaths were reported. One local aid worker in northern Yemen recalls house after house with dying children, their small bodies racked by severe diarrhea.

When U.N. officials tried to rush in oral vaccines to halt the spread, some Houthi officials claimed vaccines were ineffective. A few circulated messages on social media asserting that vaccines could be harmful to children. Four aid officials and a former Houthi health official said that some rebel leaders suggested that the vaccination plan was a plot by the U.S. and Israel to use Yemenis as guinea pigs.

A former senior official in the Houthi Health Ministry said the concerns over the vaccines safety were a pretext. Rebel leaders had a list of demands and tried to bargain with U.N. officials for money and equipment, he said.

During weeks of negotiations over the vaccine program, the rebels demanded that U.N. officials send X-ray machines and other items they could use to treat their wounded fighters on the front lines, according to the former health ministry official and three aid officials.

Al-Hadri, the spokesman for the Houthi-run Health Ministry, denied that Houthi authorities demanded medicine and medical equipment to be used in treating front-line soldiers. Cappelaere, UNICEFs Middle East chief, said he had no knowledge of aid officials bargaining with authorities in Yemen in the effort to import cholera vaccines.

THE SHIPMENT

Finally, in July 2017, U.N. officials believed they had the go-ahead to bring in cholera vaccines. Half a million doses were loaded onto a plane in the tiny African republic of Djibouti.

At the last minute, hard-liners in the Houthi-controlled Health Ministry told the U.N. they would not allow the plane to land.

Publicly, the U.N. blamed the change of plans on security and logistical challenges involved in delivering immunizations across Yemens conflict-torn landscape. A spokesman for the U.N.s World Health Organization said at the time that delivering vaccines has to make sense in terms of the conditions on the ground, adding that the vaccine doses intended for Yemen would likely be re-routed to places that might need them more urgently.

U.N. officials sent the shipment to South Sudan in central Africa, where the disease had recently erupted. The cholera outbreak in South Sudan left 436 dead but was declared over by early 2018, largely due to the introduction of vaccines during the outbreaks early stages.

The outbreak in Yemen went on unabated.

Hager Taher, a 27-year old mother of two, was one of hundreds who died from cholera in the months after the vaccine delivery into the country had been called off. Taher was in the last days of pregnancy, living in the village of al-Ghareb, an impoverished area in the Houthi-controlled northern province of Hajjah, when she began vomiting and showing cholera-like symptoms.

The only health centre in the village of nearly 1,200 people was a building with two rooms and few beds. As the number of suspected cholera cases grew, local authorities used a school to receive patients, who had to lie on the floor in the empty classrooms.

Taher was sent to a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders in the city of Abs. She soon developed complications and was moved to another hospital nearby. It was there, in September 2017, that she died. Her child was born alive but died four days later.

Its Gods will, her husband, Mohammed Hassan, told the AP. Theres nothing to do.

Taher was one of 16 people reported to have died from cholera in her district in Hajjah. Hundreds more were infected.

The district was gulped up by cholera, said Ibrahim al-Masrahi, a health worker in charge of gathering epidemic surveillance reports.

By the end of 2017, the number of reported cholera cases in Yemen had surged past 1 million, with more than 2,200 deaths. The spread of the disease waned for a time, but rebounded again in the spring and summer of 2018, adding another 370,000 reported cases and 500 more deaths.

U.N. officials continued struggling to find a way to get cholera vaccines into the country.

Houthi officials held a succession of meetings throughout much of 2017 and into 2018 to consider the science and policy questions relating to vaccines. In the spring of 2018, after science panels approved bringing cholera vaccines into rebel territory, Health Minister Mohammed Salem bin Hafez gave U.N. officials the go-ahead to bring in nearly 900,000 doses of cholera vaccine, according to documents obtained by the AP.

Then two of his deputies, both of them well-connected within the Houthi leadership, said the shipment couldnt proceed, asserting that there were still more bureaucratic hurdles before the vaccines safety and security could be assured, according to the documents.

As a non-Houthi, bin Hafez didnt have the power to overrule the decisions of the two deputies who supposedly were working under him. He wrote a letter to the prime minister of the Houthi-controlled government, Abdel-Aziz bin Habtour, detailing how the delivery of vaccines had been once again been put off.

I am washing my hands of the consequences of these irresponsible actions, bin Hafezs letter said. He told the prime minister that he was putting the matter between your hands in the hope the government would take the necessary measures to use aid in a proper way and create proper work conditions for international and local aid agencies.

A month later, bin Hafez left his post and fled Houthi territory.

Abdel-Aziz al-Daylami, one of the Health Ministry deputies that bin Hafez blamed for holding up the delivery of vaccines, denied that he had stopped the shipment.

No, there was no rejection, but we had reservations, he told the AP. We thought that the vaccines would be useless if they were deployed without more efforts to ensure clean water and reliable sanitation systems.

We worried that if the vaccine campaigns failed, people would turn against the use of vaccines and that would be disastrous, he said.

ONLY ON PAPER

As Houthi authorities debated the use of vaccines in the north, the U.N. was also working to get cholera vaccines into the country via the government in the south.

But this plan was also marred by delays  and by questions about possible corruption.

After the U.N. was able to get a shipment of vaccines into the southern city of Aden in May 2018, the Health Ministry for the U.S.- and Saudi-backed government there put together teams to raise awareness and administer the vaccines.

But some of the vaccination teams existed only on paper and many workers on the teams never received the full stipends budgeted for them under the program, two aid officials told the AP. The two officials said authorities in the south prevented aid workers from visiting the districts where immunization campaigns were taking place, making it impossible for them to monitor what was happening on the ground and verify how aid money was being used.

In the wake the vaccination campaign in the south, the Houthis broke the logjam in the north. They agreed to allow cholera vaccines into some areas under their control. Immunization drives were launched in three rebel-held districts in August and September 2018.

A senior official who worked with the Houthi-run Health Ministry at the time noted the U.N. had agreed to some of the rebels wish list of additional medical supplies and equipment, including the purchase of 45 ambulances for the ministry. The ambulances were then sent to the front lines for the militarys use, the ex-official said.

Beyond vaccine drives, concerns emerged in both the north and south about whether patients who had already contracted the disease were getting medical treatment targeted for them.

Some centres set up to treat cholera victims werent functional even though UNICEF and the WHO had provided funding to government authorities and nongovermental groups to cover costs of setting them up and running them, according to two aid officials familiar with the centres.

One of those two aid officials said he was told there were nine cholera treatment centres in Aden. He could find only two. The rest didnt exist, he said.

Another concern in north and south was whether relief organizations were getting accurate counts of the number of people sickened with cholera in various parts of the country. Two aid officials and a former official with the Houthi-controlled Health Ministry said authorities exaggerated the number of cholera cases to increase the amount of international aid money.

A December 2018 study of the Yemen outbreak by researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that some overreporting was likely due to health workers whose livelihoods depended on money paid by the U.N. Many of the workers hadnt received their government salaries in years and believed that the cholera centres where they worked would be closed and aid money stopped if they didnt report enough suspected cases.

Still, even with overreporting, the outbreak of cholera was massive, Paul B. Spiegel, the lead author of the study and director of the universitys Center for Humanitarian Health, told the AP.

Another study, published in December 2018 in the journal BMC Public Health, called the epidemic the largest cholera outbreak in epidemiologically recorded history.

The report said the scale of Yemens outbreak most likely could have been avoided or managed if enough cholera vaccines had been deployed earlier in the conflict. It added that even if a large shipment had come into the country early enough, getting the vaccine to those who needed it might not have been possible, given the deeply chaotic situation across war-torn Yemen.

More than 2.5 million doses of the cholera vaccine have been transported into Yemen by the U.N. since mid-2018. Its unclear how many of them have been administered to people in target populations. Two Houthi officials confirmed to the AP that nearly 1.2 million doses remain stored in warehouses in Sanaa, the rebels capital. The Health Ministry there plans to distribute those doses soon in two northern districts, one of the officials said.

A senior aid official said the continuing cholera crisis remains a way for the Houthis rebels to cultivate global sympathy for their struggle against the U.S.-backed and Saudi-led coalition, whose bombing campaign has been blamed for helping to create the conditions that caused the outbreak.

If you resolve cholera, what are the headlines? he said. They managed to control the narrative because its easy to blame the coalition and not them and they always show up as victims.

Al-Hadri, the spokesman for the Houthi-controlled Health Ministry in Sanaa, called that nonsense. It is international aid officials, he said, who are raking in donations and benefiting from disease and suffering inside the Middle Easts poorest country.

They are profiting from the Yemen crisis and begging in the name of Yemen, he said. They need the Yemeni crisis more than we need them.

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JERUSALEMAs Israelis get ready to go to the polls Tuesday, a stark, fateful and long-deferred choice has suddenly reappeared to confront them after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus unexpected promise to begin extending sovereignty over the West Bank if he is re-elected.

Do voters want to make permanent their countrys control over the West Bank and its 2.6 million Palestinian inhabitants? Or do they want to keep alive the possibility that a Palestinian state could be carved out there one day?

That question has been made newly urgent by Netanyahu, who is facing a career-threatening challenge from a unified centrist party headed by a team of former army chiefs. His shocking announcement about Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank appeared to be a last-ditch effort to rally his right-wing base and stay in power.

For supporters of annexation, it is not only this weeks vote that is on their minds but the U.S. election in 2020: They call U.S. President Donald Trumps staunch support for Israel a historic opportunity to proceed with annexation of some, much or even all of the West Bank  but one that comes with a ticking countdown to a possible new administration in Washington.

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, 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 Greater Israel fulfil 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.

No fewer than 60 bills pushing some form of annexation have been offered for a debate in parliament since 2015, according to the human rights group Yesh Din.

Support for declaring Israeli sovereignty over parts or all of Judea and Samaria has become the litmus test for all leaders of the right, said Michael B. Oren, a deputy minister under Netanyahu who is not running for re-election, using the biblical names for the West Bank.

Adherents of the sovereignty movement contend that the closer Israel has gotten to a two-state solution, whether in pulling out of Gaza or in redeploying its forces out of much of the West Bank, the more death and bloodshed it has brought us in uprisings, suicide bombings and rocket attacks, as Ribonut says on its website.

Every other member of Netanyahus Likud party seeking re-election had already embraced annexation. Their leader was the lone holdout.

Saturday night, under intense pressure in a neck-and-neck contest with a centrist former army chief, Benny Gantz, Netanyahu gave in. Lunging further to his political right, he declared on national television that he would indeed begin to apply sovereignty in the West Bank.

The question youre asking is an interesting one: Will we move on now to the next stage? he told an interviewer. And the answer is, yes. We will move on to the next stage.

Asked if he would extend Israeli law over the settlement blocs  large Jewish communities built on the West Bank that even many two-state supporters assume the Palestinians would give up in trade for other Israeli territory in an eventual deal for their own state  Netanyahu said he would not stop there.

Im going to apply sovereignty, but I dont distinguish between settlement blocs and the isolated settlement points, because from my perspective every such point of settlement is Israeli, he said.

The morning after, few Israelis were taking Netanyahu at his word. There is a term for his eleventh-hour pre-election surprises: the gevalt campaign, as in the Yiddish Oy, gevalt, used to express incredulity or weariness.

In 2015, Netanyahu rallied his base by sowing fears of a big turnout by Arab-Israelis that would hand the government to the left. This time, many see him as trying to induce the right wing to come to his aid with a promise to fulfil a settler dream.

This is Bibi being Bibi, said Daniel C. Kurtzer, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel under Democratic and Republican presidents, using Netanyahus nickname.

Gantz, along with three other leaders of his Blue and White Party, two of them also former army chiefs, all forswore any such unilateral moves on the West Bank. They said that Netanyahu was merely trying to save his political skin, and that no Israelis were foolish enough to believe him.

Indeed, analysts quickly speculated about the loopholes through which Netanyahu could slip free of his new commitment: dragging his feet on the promise to avoid interfering with a potential Trump peace proposal; arguing that changing circumstances made it no longer workable; or acceding only to the subtlest incremental applications of Israeli law to the territories, but nothing that equated with formal annexation.

Michael Koplow, an analyst for the left-leaning Israel Policy Forum, likened Netanyahus remarks to a famous 2009 speech he gave at Bar-Ilan University in which, under pressure from President Barack Obama, he declared his support for a two-state solution.

It was a high-water mark for his openness toward a Palestinian state, and he has effectively been retreating from it ever since. But the Israeli left cited it for years afterward to pressure Netanyahu to keep a two-state option alive.

Now, Koplow said, the right will be able to squeeze Netanyahu over his televised promise to proceed with annexation moves, and I dont think hell be able to wiggle out of it.

Netanyahu is also much weaker than he was 10 years ago. He faces a likely indictment on corruption charges, including bribery, which could force him from office. He has been widely expected, if the election result gives him the chance, to try to form a governing coalition that would enact retroactive legislation preventing a sitting prime minister from being prosecuted.

That could set up a tradeoff with his coalition partners: a get-out-of-jail-free card in exchange for concrete steps on annexation, said Daniel B. Shapiro, the U.S. ambassador to Israel under Obama.

The parties he will need to form this coalition can now insist that he follow through on sovereignty, in return for protection from the indictments, Shapiro said. Hell try to provide the minimum; theyll try to extort the maximum.

Shapiro added: And theres no evident check coming from the Trump administration, as there always had been under every previous administration, saying, Dont do that.

In response to the rise of the sovereignty movement, two-state supporters have warned loudly of a domino effect that any annexation would set in motion, whether limited to a few big settlements, the Israeli-administered portion of the West Bank known as Area C, or the West Bank as a whole.

It will be taken by the Palestinians, by the other Arabs and by the international community as an Israeli national decision to slam the door on a two-state solution, on a negotiated agreement, said Nimrod Novik, a former senior adviser to Prime Minister Shimon Peres who sits on the executive committee of Commanders for Israels Security, a group of retired senior military and national security officials who support a two-state solution.

The toppling dominoes, the group predicts, would begin with a wave of West Bank violence, the refusal of Palestinian security officers to continue co-operating with Israel, the collapse of the Palestinian Authority and the necessary reoccupation of the entire West Bank by the Israeli military  an operation that would take weeks and require the entire standing army, more or less.

Even more serious, if Palestinians in annexed territory are not granted citizenship, it could pave the way for the kind of apartheid state that two-state supporters have long warned against.

Sovereignty proponents insist that annexation of settlement blocs like Maale Adumim or Gush Etzion would actually meet little international or Arab resistance because of the expectation that those areas would remain in Israel under a two-state outcome.

But Koplow said this was deceptive.

Once you start down this annexation road, its not going to stop at the blocs, he insisted. And thats where the real danger comes in.

If the Israeli government annexes Maale Adumim, the sky isnt going to fall. And when that happens, the next step is going to be the overreach. Therell be a big push to annex Area C. And once you do that, thats the whole ball game.

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CAIRO - Residents of the Yemeni capital recounted on Monday the horror of a large explosion a day earlier that killed 13 civilians, including seven children, and wounded more than 100  the cause of which is still unclear.

The U.N. humanitarian co-ordinator in Yemen, Lise Grande, on Monday decried the terrible, senseless deaths and injuries.

Witnesses said Sundays blast at a warehouse in the heart of Sanaa damaged nearby schools, destroyed homes and left houses without walls or doors as far as 400 metres (440 yards) away.

The Houthi rebels, who gained control of the capital in 2014, said on Sunday that the Saudi-led coalition had targeted the warehouse with an airstrike. The coalition denied carrying out any strikes in the area.

The state-run news agency in Aden, aligned with the internationally-recognized government, said the rebels had stored weapons at the warehouse.

Some families and residents of the district of Sawan said the explosion occurred after a fire erupted inside the warehouse. They said a fire sent columns of white smoke rising into the air, followed by the explosion. Their accounts were confirmed by several videos filmed by bystanders.

First there was smoke rising and then I heard men running from inside the warehouse shouting Run run, one witness said. Then a huge explosion knocked me down. I didnt know what was happening. I woke up to the sight of a woman turned to pieces. The shattered glass cut her into pieces.

Another resident said his daughter was knocked out of his arms and into the air by the blast. He eventually found her alive under plastic bags and rubble.

A spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition, Col. Turki al-Malki, said Houthi claims of an airstrike were baseless in an interview Sunday from Riyadh with Sky News Arabia.

The Houthi-run Health Ministry reported Sunday that Saudi coalition jets have targeted schools inside Sanaa.

The coalition has been at war with the Houthis since 2015 in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people and pushed the Arab worlds poorest country to the brink of famine.
MINNEAPOLIS - A jury of 12 men and four women was seated Monday to hear the trial of a former Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot an unarmed woman who called 911 to report a possible rape near her home.

Mohamed Noor, 33, is charged with murder and manslaughter in the 2017 death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond, a dual citizen of Australia and the U.S. who was shot when she approached his squad car.

After a week of questioning and paring down an original pool of 75 people, the jury finalized Monday includes a firefighter and paramedic, an ob-gyn, a civil engineer, a grocery store manager, a restaurant host, a carpenter and a Homeland Security immigration officer. The jurors names were not revealed in court.

Six of the jurors are people of colour, including two Filipino men, an Ethiopian man and a Pakistani woman. Noor is Somali American; Damond was white.

Twelve of those selected will end up deciding the case while four will be alternates. The 12 jurors who will deliberate will be picked at the trials conclusion.

One woman who was picked as a juror had an emotional reaction to the case last week and was asked to think over the weekend about whether she could serve on the jury. She said Monday she had some anxiety about the responsibility.

Theres a huge life-altering decision that everyones confronted with and thats overwhelming a little bit, she said. Still, she said she could put her emotions aside and serve.

Opening statements are scheduled for Tuesday.

The shooting of Damond, who was dressed in her pyjamas, drew international attention. Prosecutors say there is no evidence Noor faced a threat that justified deadly force, while Noors attorneys plan to argue that he acted in self-defence.

Damond, a 40-year-old life coach who was set to be married the month after her death, called 911 twice before Noor and his partner that night, Officer Matthew Harrity, arrived.

Harrity told investigators he was driving a police SUV when he heard a voice and a thump and caught a glimpse of someone outside his window. Harrity said he was startled and thought his life was in danger. He said he then heard a noise and turned to see that Noor, in the passenger seat, had fired his gun past Harrity and hit Damond through the drivers side window.

The officers did not turn on their body cameras until after the shooting, and there was no squad car video.

Noor has refused to talk to investigators and his attorneys havent said whether he will testify.

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Follow Amy Forliti on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/amyforliti
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - A Chinese woman recently arrested at President Donald Trumps Mar-a-Lago club lied repeatedly to Secret Service agents while carrying computer malware unlike anything a government analyst had ever seen and had more than $8,000 in cash at her hotel room, along with an electronic device that detects hidden cameras, federal authorities told a judge Monday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Rolando Garcia told Magistrate Judge William Matthewman during a bond hearing that there are a lot of questions that remain about 32-year-old Yujing Zhang

He said the FBI is still investigating whether Zhang is a spy.

Zhang was arrested March 30 after Secret Service agents said she lied to gain admission to the presidents Palm Beach resort and was found to be carrying two Chinese passports, four cellphones, a laptop computer, an external hard drive and a thumb drive containing the malware.

Matthewman adjourned the hearing until next Monday as Zhangs public defender said hes still gathering evidence that could justify her release on bail on charges of lying to federal agents and illegal entry to a restricted area. Garcia said he expects Zhang will be indicted by a federal grand jury this week on those charges.

He said Zhang would be a serious risk of flight if she were released while awaiting trial, as she has no ties to the United States. The State Department revoked her visa last week, he said, so even if released on bond, she would be detained by immigration officials. She arrived in the U.S. on a flight from Shanghai to Newark, New Jersey, two days before her arrest.

Zhang sat quietly at the defence table during the two-hour hearing, scribbling notes in Chinese characters as she listened to a translator through headphones. She wore a blue jail jumpsuit and her wrists were shackled.

She lies to everyone she encounters, Garcia told the judge. He said that not only did Zhang falsely tell a Secret Service agent at a Mar-a-Lago checkpoint that she was a member there to use the pool, even though she had no swimsuit, she told agents she was carrying her computer gear because she was afraid the items would be stolen if she left them in her hotel room.

But when agents searched it, they found $7,620 in U.S. currency, another $663 worth of Chinese currency, numerous U.S. credit and debit cards, the device used to find hidden electronics and other computer gear, he said.

Secret Service agent Samuel Ivanovich told the judge that when an agency analyst uploaded the malware found on Zhangs thumb drive, it immediately began installing on the analysts computer and corrupting its files.

That was something that had never happened before, Ivanovich told the judge. He said the analyst immediately shut down the computer to protect it. He said the malwares ultimate purpose remains unknown.

When agents analyze suspicious devices that might contain malicious software, it is done in a controlled environment and not performed on a computer connected to any government networks, according to Secret Service officials.

While questioning Ivanovich, public defender Robert Adler presented Zhang as not fluent in English and suggested she may not have been lying, but misunderstanding agents questions. He pointed out that Zhang made no attempt to hide her electronic gear while entering Mar-a-Lago and agreed to be interviewed for almost nine hours.

Adler asked that the hearing be adjourned as he believes he can present evidence next week that would justify her release on bail while assuring she wouldnt flee.

Zhangs arrest has raised questions about Mar-a-Lagos security during the presidents visits. Theres no evidence Zhang ever approached the president and it is believed he was at his nearby golf course when she arrived.

Agents say she wasnt on the membership list, but a club manager thought Zhang was a members daughter. Agents say that when they asked Zhang if the member was her father, she did not answer definitively but they thought it might be a language barrier and admitted her. Zhang is a common Chinese name -- about 7% of the countrys population carries it.

Ivanovich told the judge Zhang later told him she was there for a Chinese American event that didnt exist, contradicting her checkpoint statement. She showed him an invitation in Chinese he could not read.

After being questioned for about 90 minutes at a property neighbouring Mar-a-Lago, Zhang was taken to the local Secret Service office for questioning that lasted about seven hours. It was not recorded.

There, Ivanovich said, it became clear Zhang speaks and reads English well. He said Zhang said an acquaintance named Charles had invited her to the nonexistent event.

Adler said wire records show Zhang paid $20,000 in February to Charles Lee, a Chinese national, for admission to the event. Lee ran the United Nations Chinese Friendship Association and was photographed at least twice with Cindy Yang, a Republican donor and former Florida massage parlour owner. She recently made news after it was learned she was promising Chinese business leaders that her consulting firm could get them access to Mar-a-Lago and mingle with the president.

Yang previously owned a spa where New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft was charged with soliciting prostitution.

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Associated Press reporter Colleen Long in Washington contributed to this story.
VIEQUES, PUERTO RICOA newborns cries rarely echo anymore though the hallways of what passes as a hospital on the ravaged island of Vieques, off the coast of Puerto Rico.

We miss it, said Dennisse Bermudez Colon, a nurse.

Hurricane Maria closed the islands only labour and delivery room, forcing expectant mothers to travel, usually by sea, to the big island 8 miles away to have their babies. Just a few emergency births have taken place in an old storm shelter converted into a provisional clinic.

Nearly 18 months after the storm, the temporary arrangement feels increasingly permanent. The original hospital remains a shuttered wreck of rust and mould, home to the occasional rooster and a band of wild horses whose droppings litter the empty parking lot and ambulance bay.

If they keep doing nothing, the hospital will get more deteriorated, Isabel Encarnacion Nazario, 65, lamented on a recent morning as she picked up a lab-work kit for her ailing 90-year-old mother from the makeshift clinic.

The languishing Vieques hospital is one of many places where rebuilding has stagnated nearly a year and a half after the ruinous September 2017 hurricane. Repairs have yet to begin, slowed by disagreements over the projects scope and cost, though reopening the hospital is supposed to be a top priority.

Puerto Rico was in financial distress and suffered from crumbling infrastructure even before Hurricane Maria, and many residents complain of government malfeasance that exacerbated the storms impact, echoing criticism from Washington. But Puerto Rican leaders say the delay to the Vieques hospital and thousands of other stalled projects is a reflection of unequal treatment from the White House and Congress, which last week failed to pass disaster relief legislation because of a dispute over how much money to send the island.

The dispute has interfered with aid reaching other parts of the country, including Midwestern states seeking flood relief and coastal states looking to increase hurricane protection. President Donald Trump again accused Puerto Rican politicians of corruption and incompetence last week, signalling his unwillingness to approve more funds for the bankrupt commonwealth.

So many wonderful people, but with such bad Island leadership and with so much money wasted, Trump wrote on Twitter.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers have endorsed providing Puerto Rico with $600 million to address a more basic need than reconstruction: hunger. After the nearly Category 5 hurricane, Congress authorized $1.27 billion for Puerto Ricos food stamp program, which for a year increased recipients monthly benefits to match those on the mainland. The bump expired in March.

I havent eaten in two days, Maria Concepcion, 52, said last week in the parking lot of a local food stamp office in the municipality of Bayamon, outside San Juan, the capital. A few minutes later, she burst into tears.

Concepcion, who said she is epileptic and suffering from cancer, had walked about two hours from her home only to learn that her appointment had been cancelled. She hoped to request more money, after her benefit was cut more than half, to $108 a month.

Its not enough, she said.

About 85 per cent of food on the island is imported, elevating prices for consumers. Some 1.3 million of 3.2 million Puerto Ricans  about 43 per cent of the population  qualify for food stamps. The island has been in an economic recession for 12 years.

Its not much, but its something, William Miranda, 59, a janitor who lost his job after the hurricane, said at the food stamp office.

We buy as much as possible on special at the supermarket, added his wife, Carmen Lugo, 62.

House Democrats have pushed for funding beyond the food stamp program, including $849 million for the Environmental Protection Agency to fix damaged water systems, about $150 million in housing grants for Puerto Ricans to repair their homes, and a provision requiring the Federal Emergency Management Agency to pay the full cost of permanent work on public buildings and other infrastructure, as it did after hurricanes Katrina and Sandy.

Without the FEMA provision, Puerto Rico could have to pick up 10 per cent 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 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 such as the Vieques hospital, but it would help ensure that the Puerto Rican governments budget troubles dont hold the project up.

This affects everything, Rossello, a Democrat, said 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 centre 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 neighbourhood 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.

This could have turned into a source of infection, Herbon said. Of course were worried it could happen again.

Temporary pumps are now backing up the old ones while the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources awaits FEMA funds for permanent upgrades, a department spokeswoman said.

So far, FEMA and other agencies have disbursed $11.2 billion in aid to Puerto Rico, according to the federal Office of Management and Budget. Some $41 billion has been allocated but not yet distributed; the budget office estimates the island could receive $91 billion over the next 20 years.

It is the biggest amount appropriated to the island, thats true, but it is the biggest disaster to hit our island, said Rep. Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon, a Republican and Puerto Ricos nonvoting member of Congress. People get frustrated that all the money has been there  you can smell it, you can touch it  but you cant grab it.

The Trump administration has questioned Puerto Ricos ability to spend the money wisely ever since the commonwealth awarded a $300 million contract to Whitefish Energy, a Montana company with only two employees. Puerto Rico later created a recovery agency and agreed to additional oversight, though some residents remain skeptical that the money will be well-spent.

Donald Trump is partly right  scoundrel that he is  because in Puerto Rico we live off the government, said Encarnacion, the Vieques resident.

Most of the aid Puerto Rico has received has gone toward emergency work, including debris removal and power restoration, a huge undertaking that took nearly a year. The New York Times found last year that much of FEMAs money for emergency home repairs went to contractors charging steep markups.

For Rossello, the funding fight is a question of fairness. For every long-term rebuilding project underway in Puerto Rico at this point after Hurricane Maria, there were 28 projects underway in Texas for damage from Hurricane Harvey, and 32 projects in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, the governor said. Puerto Rico is getting much fewer and much lower resources than any comparable jurisdiction in the United States.

A University of Michigan analysis published in the journal BMJ Global Health in January found it took twice as long  four months  for Hurricane Maria survivors in Puerto Rico to receive a comparable amount of individual aid (about $1 billion) as Hurricane Harvey survivors in Texas and Hurricane Irma survivors in Florida, though Maria was stronger and more devastating. Maria killed an estimated 2,975 people in Puerto Rico.

In addition to the slow disbursement of aid, a report last month from the Government Accountability Office found that the Department of Housing and Urban Development lacked a robust plan to monitor disaster relief grants, including $20 billion approved for Puerto Rico.

In Vieques, with the hospital out of commission, dialysis patients had to travel to the big island three times a week to get treatment for more than a year after the storm. Several patients died. Finally, in November, a mobile dialysis unit in a shiny trailer arrived at the temporary clinic, allowing local treatments to resume.

It wasnt easy, said Edwin Alvarado Cordero, a 58-year-old diabetic. Standing across the street from the pharmacy in Isabel Segunda, the bigger of the islands two towns, Alvarado recounted his thrice-weekly trips from Vieques to Humacao, which began at 4 a.m. and ended at 5:30 p.m.

Last year, on the ferry to the big island, Alvarado suffered a heart attack. He had open-heart surgery and survived. Though he can now receive dialysis in Vieques, he still travels to San Juan periodically to see his cardiologist. Specialists visit Vieques infrequently.

Its far, but its better there, Alvarado said. Whats left of the hospital here is grass and horses. They abandoned it.

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WOODBINE, Ga. - A judge agreed Monday to ease the curfew imposed on a former Georgia police officer awaiting trial on manslaughter charges in the fatal shooting of a fleeing suspect.

Zechariah Presley was on-duty as a Kingsland police officer June 20 when 33-year-old Tony Green was shot in coastal Camden County. Presley was fired and arrested after the Georgia Bureau of Investigation determined Green was fleeing when the officer shot him multiple times.

Presley was released from jail on a $100,000 bond in July. His attorney, Adrienne Browning, told the judge at a pretrial hearing Monday that the 12-hour daily curfew imposed on Presley as a condition of his bond was making it difficult for him at his new job driving a delivery truck in nearby Jacksonville, Florida.

The 7-to-7 curfew really restricts the hours hes able to work, Browning told the judge. She said some evenings Presley has had to check into a hotel to avoid curfew violations because at 7 p.m. hes got to be inside and he cant make the trip home.

Superior Court Judge Stephen Scarlett shorted Presleys curfew to seven hours during weekdays after prosecutors said they have no reports of Presley violating any terms of his bond, which also prohibits him from working in law enforcement or security and from having firearms. Hes also required to stay away from Greens family.

Prosecutor Robert German told the judge that Greens family opposed any change to Presleys curfew. The family had previously sought unsuccessfully to keep Presley jailed until his trial.

Attorneys on both sides asked the judge Monday to consider scheduling Sept. 30 for Presleys trial to begin. Scarlett didnt immediately set a trial date, saying he needed to check his calendar first.

Investigators have released few details about the shooting. The GBI has said Presley was following a vehicle Green was driving when Green got out and began to run. The two men got into a brief altercation, the bureau said, before Green began to flee again and Presley fired multiple gunshots, killing him.

The case was presented in November to a grand jury, which declined to charge Presley with murder. Instead he was indicted on charges of voluntary manslaughter and violating his oath as a police officer. In Georgia, voluntary manslaughter is punishable by one to 20 years in prison.
BOSTON - Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman and a dozen other prominent parents have agreed to plead guilty in the college admissions bribery scam that ensnared wealthy families and athletic coaches at some of the nations most selective universities, federal authorities said Monday.

The actress and the other parents were charged last month in the scheme, which authorities say involved rigging standardized test scores and bribing coaches at such prestigious schools as Yale and Georgetown.

Huffman, 56, was accused of paying a consultant $15,000 disguised as a charitable donation to boost her daughters SAT score. Authorities say the actress also discussed going through with the same plan for her younger daughter but ultimately decided not to.

She will plead guilty to a single charge of conspiracy and fraud, according to court documents. Those charges are punishable by up to 20 years in prison, but the plea agreement indicates prosecutors will seek a sentence of four to 10 months.

Experts have said they expect some parents will avoid prison time if they quickly accept responsibility. All of the defendants will have to return to Boston to enter formal guilty pleas, but no new court dates were set.

Other parents charged in the scheme include prominent figures in law, finance, fashion, the food and beverage industry and other fields.

Stanford University quietly announced that it has expelled a student who lied about her sailing credentials in her application.





Its the biggest college admissions case ever prosecuted by the Justice Department. The scandal embroiled elite universities across the country and laid bare the lengths to which status-seeking parents will go to secure their children a coveted spot.

The consultant, Rick Singer, met with Huffman and her husband, 69-year-old actor William H. Macy, at their Los Angeles home and explained to them that he controlled a testing centre and could have somebody secretly change their daughters answers, authorities said. Singer told investigators Huffman and her husband agreed to the plan.

Macy was not charged. Authorities have not said why.

In a statement offering her first public comments since her arrest, Huffman apologized, took responsibility for her actions and said she would accept the consequences.

My daughter knew absolutely nothing about my actions, and in my misguided and profoundly wrong way, I have betrayed her. This transgression toward her and the public I will carry for the rest of my life. My desire to help my daughter is no excuse to break the law or engage in dishonesty, she said.

The streaming service Netflix said Monday that the April 26 release date of a film starring Huffman, called Otherhood, will be moved with a new release date to be determined.

Michael Center, the former mens tennis coach at the University of Texas at Austin, has also agreed to plead guilty, prosecutors said Monday. Center was accused of accepting nearly $100,000 to help a non-tennis playing applicant get admitted as a recruit.

California real estate developer Bruce Isackson and his wife, Davina Isackson, who are pleading guilty to participating in both the athletic recruitment and exam rigging schemes, are co-operating with prosecutors for a chance at a lighter sentence.

We have worked co-operatively with the prosecutors and will continue to do so as we take full responsibility for our bad judgment, they said in a statement.

Actress Lori Loughlin, who played Aunt Becky on the sitcom Full House, and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, are charged with paying $500,000 in bribes to get their two daughters admitted to the University of Southern California as rowing recruits, even though neither participated in the sport. They were not among those who agreed to plead guilty, and they have not publicly addressed the allegations.

Loughlin and Giannulli may be hoping they can get a better deal once the media attention dies down, said former prosecutor Adam Citron. They are also accused of paying much more than Huffman and some other parents, which would call for stiffer penalties under the sentencing guidelines.

Prosecutors are likely trying to hold her out as an example, so I would assume the plea deal was not the same plea deal as the other defendants, said Citron, an attorney at New Yorks Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP.

Singer, the consultant, pleaded guilty to charges including racketeering conspiracy on March 12, the same day the allegations against the parents and coaches were made public in the so-called Operations Varsity Blues investigation. Singer secretly recorded his conversations with the parents, helping to build the case against them, after agreeing to work with investigators in the hopes of getting a lesser sentence.

Several coaches have also been charged, including longtime tennis coach Gordon Ernst whos accused of getting $2.7 million in bribes to designate at least 12 applicants as recruits to Georgetown. Ernst, who was also the personal tennis coach for former first lady Michelle Obama and her daughters, and other coaches have pleaded not guilty.

Former Yale University womens soccer coach Rudy Meredith has pleaded guilty to accepting bribes to help students get admitted and has been co-operating with authorities. Stanfords former sailing coach John Vandemoer also pleaded guilty to accepting $270,000 in contributions to the program for agreeing to recommend two prospective students for admission.

Stanford University expelled a student who lied about her sailing credentials in her application, which was linked to the scandal. The university quietly announced it had rescinded the students admission in a short statement posted on its website April 2 after determining some of the material in the students application is false.

University officials previously said the student was admitted without the recommendation of Vandemoer.

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Associated Press Writer Olga R. Rodriguez in San Francisco contributed to this report.

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Follow Alanna Durkin Richer at http://www.twitter.com/aedurkinricher .
WASHINGTON - The Latest on the Trump administrations stance on Iran (all times local):

12:25 p.m.

Irans Supreme National Security Council says it has designated the United States Central Command, also known as CENTCOM, and all its forces as terrorist and labeled the U.S. as a supporter of terrorism.

The semi-official Fars news agency reported the statement by Irans National Security Council on Monday. It followed the U.S. announcement that it has designated Irans Revolutionary Guard as a foreign terrorist organization.

The statement from the council came after Irans foreign minister said he wants to include the Middle East-based U.S. military forces on his countrys terrorist groups list.

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11:45 a.m.

Israels prime minister is thanking President Donald Trump for recognizing Irans Revolutionary Guard as a foreign terrorist organization. Benjamin Netanyahu says the designation serves the interests of our countries and of countries in the region.

Netanyahu, who seeks reelection on Tuesday in Israels parliamentary elections, wrote on Twitter in Hebrew on Monday following the announcement that Trump was answering another of my important requests.

Israel has long considered the Islamic Republic of Iran to be its greatest foe, citing its leaders hostile rhetoric, suspect nuclear program, development of long-range missiles and support for anti-Israeli militant groups such as Hezbollah.

Netanyahu says: We will continue to work together in every way against the Iranian regime that threatens the state of Israel, the United States, and world peace.

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11:13 a.m.

Irans foreign minister wants to include Middle East-based U.S. military forces the countrys terrorist groups list.

In a reciprocal move after the U.S. announced it has designated Irans Revolutionary Guard a foreign terrorist organization, Irans foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made the demand in a letter to President Hassan Rouhani, according to the official IRNA news agency.

Zarif also sent a protest note over the U.S. decision to the Swiss embassy in Tehran, which looks after the U.S. interests in Iran.

The U.S. made the designation Monday to increase international pressure on Iran.

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10:15 a.m.

President Donald Trump says the U.S. has designated Irans Revolutionary Guard a foreign terrorist organization as part of an effort to increase international pressure on the country.

Its an unprecedented move because the U.S. has never before used the designation for an entire foreign government entity.

Trump said in a statement Monday that the move recognizes the reality that Iran is a state-sponsored supporter of terrorism and that the Guard is an active participant.

Administration officials have said the step will further isolate Iran and make clear that the U.S. wont tolerate Irans continued support for rebel groups and others that destabilize the Middle East.

But the designation may also have widespread implications for American personnel and policy in the region and elsewhere as Iran has threatened to retaliate.

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1:20 a.m.

The Trump administration is planning to designate Irans Revolutionary Guard a foreign terrorist organization in an unprecedented step to ramp up pressure on Tehran.

U.S. officials say an announcement could come as early as Monday and the move could have widespread implications for U.S. personnel and policy in the Middle East and elsewhere.

The Trump administration has escalated rhetoric against Iran for months, but this will mark the first such designation by any American administration of an entire foreign government entity.

Two U.S. officials and a congressional aide confirmed the planned move and spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The designation comes with sanctions, including freezes on some assets and a ban on Americans doing business with the group.
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump and White House allies pressing for a harder line on immigration sped up their campaign Monday to clean house at the Department of Homeland Security with a mission far wider than just the departure of Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.

The dismantling of the governments immigration leadership is being orchestrated by Trump adviser Stephen Miller, the impetus behind some of the administrations most controversial policies, according to three people familiar with the matter. Beyond changing names and faces, Trump is considering separating migrant families at the border again, resuming the practice that drew so much outrage last year, the same people said.

The shake-up is a result of Trumps frustration with the increasing number of migrants at the border and his diminishing options for action. Court challenges, immigration laws and his own advisers have blocked several of his proposals as his re-election campaign looms. The White House has lashed out by demanding new leadership, although a new team is likely to face the same obstacles.

The head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, L. Francis Cissna, and Homeland Security General Counsel John M. Mitnick are expected to be pushed out of their positions, the officials said. Nielsen submitted her resignation Sunday after meeting with Trump at the White House, and three days earlier, the administration withdrew the nomination of Ron Vitiello to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Other longtime civil servants in agency posts are also on the chopping block, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Adding to the turmoil, the director of the Secret Service is being forced out of his job, but that departure is said to be unrelated to the immigration upheaval.

Leading senators from both parties were displeased.

In this Monday, March 18, 2019, file photo, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen speaks at George Washington University's Jack Morton Auditorium in Washington. In a tweet on Sunday, April 7, 2019, President Donald Trump said he's accepted Nielsen's resignation.





















The purge of senior leadership at the Department of Homeland Security is unprecedented and a threat to our national security, declared Democrat Dianne Feinstein of California. President Trump is trying to remake DHS into his own personal anti-immigration agency.

Republican Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, criticized Congress for a crisis at the border but also said, I am concerned with a growing leadership void within the department tasked with addressing some of the most significant problems facing the nation.

Nielsen has dutifully carried out the administrations orders but often had to explain to Trump the legal limits of what he wanted to do. And he didnt like it.

She did months of diplomatic work with Central America and Mexico and brokered an arrangement in which asylum seekers were to wait in Mexico for their asylum cases to play out, an effort meant in part to discourage false claims. She moved to abandon long-standing regulations that dictate how long children are allowed to be held in immigration detention and was working to find space to detain all families who cross the border . She limited what public benefits migrants can receive and put regulations in place to circumvent immigration law and deny asylum to anyone caught crossing the border illegally.

And she took ownership over the most divisive of all the decisions, the separation of families at the border.

Nearly everything has been challenged or watered down by the courts. Just Monday, a judge blocked the administration from forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico, giving lawyers a few days before putting the block into effect.

DHS is really between a rock and hard place, said Doris Meissner, the former commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and fellow at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute.

There are some options not yet exhausted by Trump, including giving judges more deference in asylum cases and allocating more resources to diminish backlogs, she said. But the White House has shown little interest in those ideas because they conflict with its assessment that those seeking refuge are trying to cheat the system.

Nielsen finally had enough and resigned Sunday, in part because she hadnt been informed about the sudden decision to withdraw Vitiellos nomination, according to people familiar with her decision.

She was also pushing back at an effort to house an immigration or border czar within Homeland Security, they said. She wanted the person to be based at the White House and help co-ordinate immigration policy between the Justice Department, Health and Human Services and DHS, all of which have a piece of the complex puzzle. But the people said Miller was pushing to house the czar at DHS, in part over frustration with the rising number of migrants. There were more than 100,000 expected in March, border officials said, the highest tally in 12 years.

Trump announced Sunday that Kevin McAleenan, commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, would take over for Nielsen at Homeland Security on an acting basis. McAleenan had impressed Trumps inner circle, specifically son-in-law Jared Kushner, with his extensive border knowledge.

Trump spokesman Hogan Gidley expressed hope that McAleenans experience would lead to massive changes at the border.

But McAleenan is not an ideologue or politician. He refers to migrants as vulnerable families who need more humanitarian treatment, not as beefy dudes with tattoos trying to game the system, as Trump suggests. Hes pushed for asylum changes to make screenings faster and cases decided more rapidly.

Democrats said McAleenan should have told them about the death of a child in U.S. custody in December, but he largely has escaped the ire over family separations even though it was his agency that separated the children.

Gil Kerlikowske, who led Customs and Border Protection from 2014 to 2017, said illegal crossings can go up and down on a number of factors that are difficult to predict. He noted that stepped-up Mexican enforcement helped end a surge of Central American families coming to the U.S. in 2014.

I dont envy anybody in that position because these are policies that are White House policies, not DHS, said Kerlikowske, who promoted McAleenan to be his top deputy. I couldnt have been more disappointed to see Vitiellos nomination pulled, he said, describing Vitiello as a 30-year Border Patrol, deputy chief and youre saying, Well, youre not really tough enough? I find that kind of amazing.

Trump has seemed to be grasping at anything to stem the tide of migrants. That includes reinstating family separations, a policy that previously prompted international outrage and could mean he would have to violate his own executive order and possibly run afoul of a federal judge overseeing reunifications. The government just said in court filings it would take up to two years to reunify all the children already separated from their families.

The administration has been well beyond the bounds of the law for some time with respect to asylum and family separation. Theres no place for them to go that wont continue to break the law, said Lee Gelernt, the American Civil Liberties Union official whose lawsuit on behalf of a separated mother led to the reunifications.

Nielsens departure threw into sharp focus just how few full-time leaders are at the sprawling department of more than 240,000 people. Theres no confirmed secretary, no deputy secretary, no head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, no formal head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, no head of Customs and Border Protection once McAleenan moves over, and no head of the science and technology branch. In addition, the deputy undersecretary for management at the agency, Claire Grady, will have to be moved aside for Trump to install McAleenan as acting secretary.

___

Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro, Zeke Miller, Catherine Lucey in Washington and Elliot Spagat in El Paso, Texas, contributed to this report.
OTTAWACanadian political parties have already been targeted by at least one foreign state-backed hacking campaign, the Star and BuzzFeed news have learned.

The Communications Security Establishment said Monday that political parties, candidates and staff were the target of one tenth of state-sponsored hacking campaigns against the democratic process globally in 2018.

The spy agency was cautious in its wording of a long-awaited report into the threats to this Octobers general election.

But the report makes clear that Canadian political parties and operatives have already been the target of sophisticated state-sponsored hacking in advance of this years general election  a fact which was not challenged by a senior intelligence source Sunday night.

This is a particular problem in Canada, where federal parties are not subject to any rules around what information they can collect, store and analyze about Canadian citizens, and have no minimum standards for data security.

(Foreign hackers) may steal information and then release it to the public for the purpose of embarrassing or discrediting the political party or candidate. In order to enhance this effect, a threat actor may modify information before releasing it to the public, the report, which was shared with media organizations Sunday night, reads.

Read more:

Canadian officials worry that foreign actors are trying to meddle in 2019 election

Canadians are concerned about foreign influence in the 2019 federal election, poll finds

Never mind the Russians. Democracys real social-media threat could be homegrown

Foreign adversaries may steal voter or party databases because they fetch a price on illicit areas of the internet, where large quantities of personal identity information are constantly bought and sold. They can steal sensitive campaign documents and communications and sell or release them. And they can disrupt or destroy a partys information, networks and devises using malware, such as ransomware.

The Star and BuzzFeed News reported last month that Canadian law enforcement and security officials are concerned that foreign actors are already attempting to influence the federal election.

In the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Australia  all key allies to Canada  political parties have been targeted by cyber attacks during electoral events.

We judge it very likely that foreign cyber interference against Canada would resemble activity undertaken against other advanced democracies in recent years, the report reads.

Foreign adversaries have attempted to sway the ideas and decisions of voters by focusing on polarizing social and political issues, promoting the popularity of one party over another, or trying to shape the public statements and policy choices of a candidate using cyber tools or social media platforms.

The federal government has done little to insulate Canada from the threat.

Political parties are now required to publish privacy policies, but there is no independent oversight or auditing capabilities. There are no minimum standards on security practices. Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould has, for the time being, ruled out rules for how political parties handle Canadians personal information.

According to CSEs report, 88 per cent of attacks on the democratic processes globally since 2010 has been strategic in nature  meaning the compromises were not simply incidental to the ever-growing problem of cyber crime.

There is almost no precedent for this kind of report from a Canadian spy agency. While the CSE released a general report about threats to Canadas elections in 2017, in the height of public interest in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the Kremlins meddling, there has been little specific intelligence released about threats to the Canadian electoral process.

We assess that an increasing number of foreign adversaries have the cyber tools, the organizational capacity and a sufficiently advanced understanding of Canadas political landscape to direct cyber interference during the 2019 federal election, should they have the strategic intent, the report reads.

(We) consider foreign cyber interference of the scale of Russian activity against the 2016 United States presidential election improbable at this time in Canada in 2019. However, we judge it is very likely that Canadian voters will encounter some form of foreign cyber interference ahead of, and during, the 2019 federal election.

Marco Chown Oved is a Toronto-based investigative reporter. Follow him on Twitter: @marcooved

Craig Silverman is the media editor of Buzzfeed News. Jane Lytvynenko is a reporter for BuzzFeed News.
Justin Trudeaus Liberal caucus may be done with Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott, but that does not mean either of the former ministers is done with politics.

Each has accumulated enough political capital over the course of the SNC-Lavalin affair to have alternative options to explore.

But with a federal election looming, time is of the essence. And while they have been joined at the hip over the recent crisis, they may well end up on separate paths going forward.

What is certain is that in little more than a few weeks or months, each will have to decide whether she wants to run again and, if so, under which  if any  party banner.

Green Leader Elizabeth May has been the most welcoming. She says she would love either of the former ministers to join her ranks.

But while May hopes her party is on the cusp of a big electoral breakthrough, simply winning the 12 seats needed for official party status would count as a big victory for the Greens next fall.

To run for May is to sign up for a seat in opposition for the foreseeable future.

And while Wilson-Raybould could likely get re-elected to her Vancouver seat regardless of her partisan affiliation, the same is not true of Philpott.

Her GTA riding tends to alternate between the Liberals and the Conservatives. In 2015, Philpott beat Conservative party incumbent Paul Calandra 48 per cent to 42 per cent. Between them the Greens and the New Democrats won less than 10 per cent of the vote cast in Markham-Stouffville.

By comparison to May, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh was noticeably more reserved.

That reserve is not just based on the fear of rejection or the NDP rule that anyone seeking to join its caucus must first have been elected under its banner. At this late stage in the life of the current Parliament, the latter is little more than a formality.

But for all the good words expended on the two former ministers by the New Democrats over the past two months, the party has for the past three years been highly critical of some of their signature achievements.

That starts with the medically assisted death law Wilson-Raybould and Philpott co-authored early on in the Liberal term. The NDP feels it puts limitations that border on cruelty on the capacity of terminally ill Canadians to seek medical help to shorten their suffering.

The New Democrats also contend that the law falls well short of the Supreme Courts landmark ruling on the issue.

In her first incarnation as a health minister, Philpott presided over the negotiation  on terms set unilaterally by Ottawa  of accords that limited the increase in the health transfers to the provinces to the rate imposed by Stephen Harpers government.

The NDP called that a major breach of the Liberal election commitment to health care. It is the handling of that file that put Philpott on the ministerial fast track.

The New Democrats and Wilson-Raybould collided over the formers contention that marijuana-related records for simple possession should be expunged as soon as weed became a legal substance.

They were also underwhelmed by the former justice ministers influence on the Indigenous reconciliation agenda. As recently as December, Timmins-James Bay MP Charlie Angus was calling for Wilson-Raybould to be fired from the cabinet.

So much hope and expectation and she didnt really deliver is how the NDP MP described her tenure as the first Indigenous justice minister on the day she was shifted to the veterans affairs portfolio in January.

But life in Canadian politics is not limited to Parliament Hill.

Should Wilson-Raybould have leadership ambitions, the fact that she does not speak French would severely limit her federal prospects. Her lack of proficiency in one of Canadas official languages would not be an impediment on the B.C. scene.

But perhaps the most intriguing post-SNC-Lavalin scenario involves Philpott and the notion that she could parlay the virtually unanimous positive reviews of her ministerial tenure into a bid for the leadership of the Ontario Liberals.

If this were the Quebec Liberal party, it would be a no-brainer. In that province, the two wings of the party are so independent of each other that no one blinked two decades ago when Jean Charest  a federal Tory leader  was crowned Quebec Liberal leader.

But there are a lot fewer degrees of separation between Trudeaus federal Liberals and their Ontario counterparts.

It would be at the very least awkward and potentially embarrassing for the prime minister  should he remain in that post after this falls election  to have a former MP he evicted from his caucus as an Ontario Liberal counterpart.

And yet one would think Trudeau and Philpotts unqualified opposition to Premier Doug Fords agenda would go a long way to putting them back on the same page.

In Canadian politics, stranger things have been known to happen.

Chantal Hebert is a columnist based in Ottawa covering politics. Follow her on Twitter: @ChantalHbert

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Following the lead of U.S. President Donald Trump, Doug Ford is attacking the media.

In an email fundraising blast sent Monday by the Progressive Conservatives, Ford charges that unnamed journalists and news organizations are unfairly targeting him for opposing the federal carbon-pricing measures.

I dont know if you get to follow the headlines, but this is bogus. The journalists are out there mocking us, the premier writes in a missive entitled Theyre laughing at us, and signed, Doug.

Regular folks who tried to save a few bucks on gas by filling up before the carbon tax kicked in. Maybe these guys dont care about what gas costs them, but I know how much it matters, he continues.

Its journalists and politicians like these who make it tough for the little guy. They dont understand theres a whole world out here, filled with folks just trying to get by.

His appeal for donations for the Tories does not mention any specific reporter or news outlet.

Ford, a millionaire who inherited a successful label printing company from his late father, former Tory MPP Doug Ford Sr., vows to continue to combat Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus carbon-pricing scheme that took effect April 1.

Im going to keep fighting the carbon tax. Were taking it all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to. Ontario cant afford to get hit with this.

The province is spending $30 million on a legal challenge and taxpayer-funded advertising blitz to battle the carbon-pricing plan.

Fords email appears to have been triggered by some of the online mockery suffered by Tory MPPs  scores of whom took selfies while filling up their tanks on March 31 before the federal measure increased gasoline price by almost 5 cents a litre.

Under Trudeaus program, which is designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change, an average Ontario household would pay $244 more a year for gasoline, natural gas and home heating oil.

But families will receive $300 in rebates for a net gain of at least $56 annually. Those rebates will be bankrolled by big industrial polluters.

In recent days, Ford has stepped up his criticism of the media with tweets aimed at journalists who have filed unflattering stories or those he claims are inaccurate.

A spokesman for the premiers office defended Mondays email.

There are countless examples of journalists jumping on Twitter to mock regular Ontario families who were just trying to save a few bucks before the federal government imposed their punishing carbon tax, said a Ford aide.

I would also add, it wasnt just journalists. The Liberals, the NDP, and their elite friends also joined in on the pile on, he said.

Premier Doug Ford and the Government for the People understand that for struggling everyday families every penny counts. This is why the government will use every tool at its disposal to fight the federal carbon tax.

Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser said Ford is merely looking for a fight.

The media is there to call all of us out. Theyre not our friends and theyre not our enemies, either, said Fraser. They have a role to play.

Stateside, Trump frequently rails on Twitter against much of the mainstream media, such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN and NBC, calling them the enemy of the people.

Read more:

Heres how Trudeaus carbon price will actually affect the economy (according to economists)

Ford says that Ottawas carbon pricing plan could cause a recession

Doug Ford stands by taxpayer-funded ad blitz railing against federal carbon-pricing

Robert Benzie is the Stars Queens Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie

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VICTORIATwo new cases of measles have been confirmed on Vancouver Island, bringing to 25 the number of recent infections in British Columbia.

Officials with Vancouver Island Health say people who may have been exposed to the highly contagious disease at two LifeLabs clinics in Victoria on Tuesday and Wednesday are being alerted, and two health units have been opened to provide vaccinations on Sunday.

However, officials say exposure to measles may also have occurred at 10 other places between March 27 and March 31, and in those cases immunization will no longer prevent infection.

Those locations include Camosun College, as well as several buses, a drug store, a mall and a fast-food restaurant in Victoria.

Anyone who may have been around someone with measles is being asked to monitor for symptoms such as fever, runny nose, diarrhea, red eyes and rash a few days later that starts on the face and spreads to the chest.

Along with five cases of measles on the island, 17 cases of the disease have been confirmed in the Vancouver area since February, as well as one between Burnaby and Hope, and two in 100 Mile House, in the southern Cariboo region of B.C.

Read more:

Toronto Public Health issues warning after adult with measles visits mall

Ontarios vaccination coverage is not what you think. Here are the rates from Toronto to Ottawa that have experts worried

Toronto Public Health wants to combat vaccine misinformation

Two doses of measles vaccine are needed to provide 99 per cent immunity against the disease.

Vancouver Island Health says 3,500 immunizations have been administered in the area in the past five weeks, which is more than double from last year.

It says the source of the latest cases is under investigation, but at this point it does not appear linked to two previous cases confirmed last week.

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(BEG BOLD)The Tradition(END BOLD)

In his searing "The Tradition" (Copper Canyon), Jericho Brown illustrates how racism and violence have shaped both the past and the present, our national identity and the individual experiences of those who have been harmed by entrenched, insidious wrongs. As Brown confronts history and family dynamics, the fears and beliefs handed down through generations, he raises important questions about trauma and how people endure when injustice touches nearly every aspect of life. He also challenges stereotypes about blackness, desire and queerness - and finds moments of joy. The collection, his third, is compelling and forceful because it wonderfully balances the dark demands of memory and an indomitable strength. As the poem "Duplex" notes: "None of the beaten end up how we began./ A poem is a gesture toward home."

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(BEG BOLD)Brute(END BOLD)

Emily Skaja also faces down the past in her debut "Brute" (Graywolf), winner of the 2018 Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets. Here, the anguish comes from an emotionally abusive lover and the abrupt end of a relationship. As the speaker excavates her grief and disbelief, she slowly moves from self-condemnation to a fiery insistence that she can overcome her boyfriend's damaging assessments of her worth and reclaim the power she once had. In the poem "Brute Strength," for example, she initially describes herself as a "soldier for a lost cause, brute, mute woman/ written out of my own story." Several lines later, though, she draws strength from a recollection of her younger self, a "witch girl/ unafraid of anything." The speaker's brutal honesty and emotional transformation offer an engrossing guide for anyone dealing with a devastating loss.

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(BEG BOLD)The Year of the Blue Water(END BOLD)

"The Year of Blue Water" (Yale) by Yanyi examines the dichotomy between the self he knows and the one his family and society expected of him. Early in this quietly contemplative debut, winner of the 2018 Yale Series of Younger Poets, Yanyi considers the possibilities of a new year and explains that "Definitions are not static. They are where we begin. For what?/ By whom? Beginning is not an origin. It is the arbitrary place/ from which we start one life, when (BEG ITAL)that(END ITAL) becomes (BEG ITAL)this(END ITAL)." As the work -- almost entirely comprising prose poems -- unfolds, the speaker explores various aspects of his identity, including gender and queerness, mental illness and his experience as a Chinese immigrant. Supportive friends, vivid dreams and the work of other writers enrich his thinking and help him choose what's right for him, despite what others may want or believe.

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(BEG BOLD)The Tiny Journalist(END BOLD)

Naomi Shihab Nye presents some of her best work in years in "The Tiny Journalist" (BOA). The collection opens with a powerful poem about Janna Jihad Ayyad, a Palestinian girl who began using her mother's cellphone at the age of 7 to record anti-occupation protests on the West Bank after two members of her family were killed. Nye writes in Janna's voice in many poems, drawing on material from Janna's Facebook posts. The poet also recalls her own experience of living between Jerusalem and Ramallah as a teenager. The result is a moving testament to the impact one person can have and the devastating effects of occupation. Even the moon is grieved by the situation, as these lines from "Moon Over Gaza" depict: "I who have been staring down so long/ see no reason for the sorrows humans make./ I dislike the scuffle of bombs blasting/ very much. It blocks my view./ A landscape of grieving/ feels different afterwards./ Different sheen from a simple desert,/ rubble of walls, silent children who once said/ my name like a prayer."

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Elizabeth Lund writes about poetry each month for The Washington Post.
Rory Veevers-Carter unlocks the front door to his new home on Olive Street, a door so battered that the idea of locking it in the first place seems beside the point. Inside, the house is a carcass of rotting wood and crumbling plaster; an enormous blue tarp covers a doozy of a hole in the back wall. There are no floors, just gangplanks. The general aesthetic is dirt and rubble.

There's no staircase, either, so Veevers-Carter shimmies down a ladder to the basement and leads me to a small patch of wall that still retains a bit of leaf-green paint. Like Indiana Jones discovering the lost ark, he thinks he's unearthed the last vestige of the old kitchen. Which wasn't just any old kitchen. It was the kitchen of Julia Child, who owned this house with her husband, Paul, in the 1940s and '50s.

"It's painted the same shade as her Cambridge kitchen," Veevers-Carter tells me. He knows because, like countless tourists paying homage to the beloved chef and cookbook author, he has visited that reconstructed room at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

The Julia connection, however, wasn't the only reason the 59-year-old software entrepreneur ended up with Child's "little jewel," as she called it. "I was looking for a rundown piece of property in Georgetown," Veevers-Carter says simply, and the yellow wood-frame house on Olive Street NW filled the bill. It was a dilapidated wreck when he bought it for $935,000 in 2015, after seeing a story about its availability in The Washington Post. For a while, he lived in it, but with the house currently floorless, bathroom-less and pretty much everything else-less, he's splitting his time between his place on Cape Cod, Massachusetts; visits to his wife in Papua New Guinea, where she works as a country manager for the World Bank; and, when in Washington, crashing at a friend's.

It's not entirely clear when he'll be able to move back into the house, which began its life just after the Civil War, when an African American carpenter named Edgar Murphy built it and leased out rooms as a way to earn extra money. Paul and Julia Child bought the house in May 1948 after returning to Washington from their Office of Strategic Services jobs overseas. Back then, the listing on "Olive Avenue" described an "attractive 3-bedroom, 2-bath house facing park ... priced in the upper 40s." There was no mention of the kitchen, but then, Julia wasn't "Julia" yet.

That didn't happen until the Childs went off to France - Paul to work for the U.S. Information Agency and Julia to discover her passion for French cooking. They returned to the house in 1956, and Julia went about renovating the kitchen, adding the luxury of a garbage disposal and buying her famous Garland stove. Most significant, it's where she revised the manuscript for "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," released in 1961.

At the time of the book's publication, the Childs were in Oslo, Norway, and the house on Olive had passed into the hands of a succession of owners. The last, Consuelo Echeverria, lived there in the 1960s, which was when architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen remodeled it. His updates included a spiral staircase and a two-story atrium. After Echeverria moved away, the home saw a stream of renters for 25 years. Mark Magazu lived there from 2005 until 2011, paying $3,600 a month. "I'm 38, so looking back, [the house] was a total disaster," says Magazu, who knew about its history while he was living there. "But at 25, it was a palace." A palace that, thanks in part to his epic parties ("blowdowns," he clarifies), fell into serious disrepair.

But why, I wondered, was that allowed to happen? After all, the house is practically the birthplace of an American food icon, where she taught the women of Georgetown how to prepare such meals as oeufs poches duxelles and poulet saute portugaise. I mean, Meryl Streep played her in a movie, for goodness' sake.

Apparently that's not enough reason to preserve one of her old abodes. "It is not a significant part of Julia's story," says Todd Schulkin, executive director of the Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts. The foundation, he explains, awards grants to further her mission of educating and encouraging others to discover the joys of cooking. "It is not our mission to make a museum out of Julia by trying to preserve every place she cooked or slept."

Still, there's no denying the little house's celebrity allure, which Veevers-Carter has nodded to by creating a Facebook page(facebook.com/jewelonolive) and an Instagram account (@jewelonolive) where you can watch the restoration as it happens.

Well, when it happens. "To remodel a historic Georgetown house in anything less than two years," says architect Dale Overmyer, who's doing the restoration, "that's fantasy." Indeed, Veevers-Carter spent three years just waiting for the District's various municipal regulatory bodies to grant him the necessary permits.

One big challenge for Overmyer was to create a modern open space for cooking and entertaining as requested by Veevers-Carter, a fine - though not particularly Julia-like - cook himself. The architect's plans call for 22 feet of uninterrupted counter space on the first floor along the back wall, enough room for 12 people to dine in, and a 5-by-7-foot kitchen island. "He wanted me to know that the island had to be strong enough for a 200-pound pig to be rendered, prepared and served on," Overmyer says. "This is for extreme cooking."

The second-floor atrium space will be closed in, and a staircase more suited to the house's Federal style will be restored. One thing Julia could never have foreseen: On the lower level, where she once cooked and taught, Veevers-Carter envisions a hammam, or Turkish bath. "A whole room," he says, sinking a work boot into what's still a muddy pit.

It definitely won't be the house Julia knew. But one remnant of her will remain. When guests come calling, they'll announce their arrival using her original door knocker: a metal kitchen trivet. Actually, maybe it will be her door knocker. In anticipation of souvenir hunters trying to abscond with it, Veevers-Carter's brother, an artist with his own foundry, is preparing duplicates.
Incidents involving unruly airline passengers have been rising in recent years. In 2017, airlines reported one altercation for every 1,053 flights, up 35 percent from the previous year, according to the International Air Transport Association.

Drugs and alcohol play a leading role in many of these incidents. The association says 27 percent of the cases involved alcohol consumption or some other kind of intoxication. An additional 24 percent were related to noncompliance with smoking regulations.

"Drink-fueled air rage is becoming more commonplace," says Robert Quigley, a senior vice president for International SOS and MedAire, which provide travel-security services. "Multiple agencies that oversee in-flight regulations are now collaborating with the commercial airlines to review present practices of the selling and the consumption of alcohol in both airport bars as well as in-flight."

It looks like a simple problem: Too many airline passengers are getting drunk. But the solution is not so simple. Some passengers say the obvious answer is for airlines to limit sales of alcoholic beverages. But airlines are leaning toward a regulatory fix, perhaps because they're reluctant to lose the revenue from selling alcohol to passengers.

If you're on a plane this summer with someone who's had one too many, you can still protect yourself. But you'll have to be proactive. (More on that later.)

Airline crews are trained to handle intoxicated passengers. They also have strict policies to prevent inebriated passengers from boarding - but they don't always work.

Randall Flick, a recently retired airline pilot, recalls one traveler who breezed past a gate agent and boarded Flick's plane while "heavily" intoxicated. "I told him that he wasn't getting on his flight. I don't think he really understood," says Flick, of Sellersburg, Indiana.

The inebriated traveler and the gate agent were both at fault, Flick says: He should have had less to drink before boarding. She should have screened him properly and kept him off the plane.

"The gate agents didn't always notice when a passenger was intoxicated," Flick says. "Most of the time, the intoxicated passenger just went to sleep as the cabin altitude rose during the flight. But an intoxicated passenger could endanger the safety of others during an emergency."

Federal law prohibits flight crews from allowing "obviously intoxicated passengers" to board aircraft, and it doesn't allow flight attendants to serve alcohol to anyone who appears intoxicated. Another regulation prohibits passengers from "assaulting or intimidating" crew members and interfering with their duties. Doing so carries a fine of up to $35,000 and a prison sentence of up to 20 years.

For some air travelers, the solution to this problem seems clear: If the government can end smoking on flights, then why not ban drinking? Barring that, why don't airlines better enforce the rules that prohibit intoxicated passengers from boarding an aircraft and continuing to drink on board?

"Don't allow people to board a plane if they're obviously drunk and limit the drinks any passenger can have in flight," says Barbara Howell, a frequent air traveler and registered nurse from Carpinteria, California.

But alcohol isn't always the problem. Consider what happened this year on a Delta Air Lines flight from Seattle to Los Angeles. A passenger allegedly refused to stay seated and walked toward the cockpit several times. The flight diverted to Portland, Oregon, and police arrested the passenger, who told authorities that he had been high on methamphetamines before boarding the plane.

The airline industry believes that more regulations would help. The transport association, which represents the worldwide airline industry, has lobbied for stronger international treaties to deter unruly behavior. It says gaps in the international conventions governing such offenses allow many unruly passengers to escape punishment. It wants, at a minimum, for authorities to clarify what constitutes unruly behavior and to reinforce the right of airlines to seek recovery of the significant costs of dealing with unruly passengers.

"We need more countries, including the U.S., to ratify a new treaty that closes loopholes that enable unruly passengers to elude any legal consequences on international flights," says Tim Colehan, an assistant director for the association.

Experts believe that a few practical steps would also reduce the number of unruly passengers in the air. MedAire's Quigley says airlines need to develop an industry-widepolicy that limits the number of drinks per passenger and to enforce this policy consistently. Gate-screening processes should also be tightened, he says, and should involve airport-security personnel, not just airline employees.

"Flight attendants are not trained or expected to act as law enforcement agents," Quigley says.

One obvious solution is to stop serving alcohol on board, an idea regularly floated by passengers who have grown tired of the seemingly endless parade of such incidents. But liquor, beer and wine account for more than half of all in-flight sales, so it's unlikely that the airline industry will go there.

As usual, the fix is up to passengers. For your safety and that of your fellow passengers, avoid alcoholic beverages or recreational drugs before and during a flight. If you're seated next to someone who is drunk or high, don't wait for the cabin doors to close. Report the passenger immediately, but discreetly, to a flight attendant. Someone who smells like a distillery shouldn't be allowed to board. If the flight crew doesn't do anything, and there's no empty seat to move to, ask to take the next flight, time permitting.

Just remember that until we find a workable solution, you don't have to become another anecdote in an air-rage article.

- - - Elliott is a consumer advocate, journalist and co-founder of the advocacy group Travelers United.
ALTON  Whether its bowling with friends or running every little bit counts when it comes to fighting the battle against cancer, for that exact reason the team at BSNF Logistics put together Rollin for a Cure Saturday night at Bowl Haven Lanes in Alton to help raise funds for the Relay for Life of Riverbend and the American Cancer Society.

Cancer touches a lot of people, Teresa Taylor with BNSF Logistics said. Ive had members of my family diagnosed with cancer, so its a bit of a passion for me personally. This is the first year weve had a significant event like this to raise donations for our runners at the Relay for Life in June.
ARRABA, Israel - Ayman Odeh's car hurtled between campaign events, screeching around hillside turns at stomach-churning speeds as aides told him how they thought his last speech went and updated him on the latest on social media.

In the days before Israel's Tuesday election, Odeh and other Arab Israeli candidates for parliament hit the campaign trail hard, working against concerns that participation among Israel's minority Arab population will slip.

If Arab Israelis come out in force, they have the potential to block a right-wing coalition led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and prevent smaller right-wing parties from getting into the Israeli parliament, the Knesset.

Arabs make up 20 percent of Israel's electorate but historically have turned out at significantly lower rates than the majority Jewish population.

Turnout in the 2015 election, energized in part by majority Arab parties joining a single parliamentary list, hit a record 63.5 percent. But on Tuesday, it's expected to crash - some polls show that just over half of Arab Israelis plan to cast ballots.

Frustration is high: The joint list has split, crime and poverty riddle Arab Israeli communities, and some say they've seen few results from their elected representatives.

Meanwhile, a law that many Arabs complain codifies their status as second-class citizens has bolstered calls for a boycott.

Odeh, head of the Arab-dominated Hadash party, hopes the right-wing campaign waged by Netanyahu backfires by galvanizing Arab Israelis to vote.

"Our vote is crucial," he said. "It's the way we can stop Netanyahu."

His first stop in a rush of campaigning Friday night was the small northern town of Arraba, population 27,000. A hundred people gathered on plastic chairs laid out in the street for his visit. Organizers asked those sitting near the back to move forward to fill empty seats.

Arab Israelis are angered by last year's nation-state law, which made most of Israel's declaration of independence the law - except for a clause that stipulated the equality of all citizens. It also elevated the status of Hebrew over Arabic and said only Jews have a right to self-determination in the Jewish state of Israel.

In February, Netanyahu cut a deal with the extreme-right-wing Jewish Power party, which has called for the expulsion of Arab citizens. He argued that the move was necessary to hold on to right-wing votes.

Responding last month to criticism that his government was sending a message of inequality, he said Israel is not a "state for all its citizens."

"Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people - and only them," Netanyahu wrote on social media. He added that Arab citizens have "equal rights" and that the Likud government had invested more in Arab communities than any before it.

On Saturday, he said he planned to annex Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

As Odeh stood on the podium in Arraba, signs behind him read "Our roots are stronger than fascism."

He reminded his audience that a U.S. peace plan is expected soon and that Netanyahu holds influence in the Trump White House.

"We are witnessing a very dangerous era," he warned.

The message resonates. Amira Khatif, 63, bouncing her granddaughter on her knee, said her main reason to vote is "to get rid of the stink."

She used the Arabic word "nitin" for "stink." Some here call the prime minister "Nitin-yahu."

But the fracture in the joint list has hurt. Two recent polls predict that just 51 percent of Arab Israelis plan to vote, though an outlier by the University of Maryland indicated a rise. The Konrad Adenauer Program at Tel Aviv University said 12.4 percent of respondents who didn't intend to vote cited the split in the joint list. It predicted 70 percent turnout among Jewish Israelis.

"It seems this time we will have the lowest level of turnout ever, and that's 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 didn't work to repair it are responsible."

If the Arab-led parties get their act together, Ghanem said, they should be able to win 16 or 17 seats.

In the Israeli system, who becomes prime minister is a matter of math. No party is expected to win an outright majority, so party leaders will try to assemble a coalition.

The joint list of Arab-led parties holds 13 of the 120 seats in the Knesset. If the parties win more seats on Tuesday, they could reduce the chance of smaller right-wing parties reaching the four-seat threshold to get into the Knesset.

Netanyahu's campaign has warned repeatedly that his main rival, former Israeli military chief Benny Gantz, would team up with Arab parties to form a coalition.

In 2015, Netanyahu was widely criticized for his Election Day warning that Arab Israelis were flocking to the polls in "droves," an appeal to the fears of his right-wing base.

"We are worried about what bunny he's going to pull out of the hat" this time, Odeh said.

During the high-speed car ride to Odeh's second event, an aide told him Netanyahu had posted a new Facebook video he should watch. The candidate pulled out his phone.

"The right-wing government is in danger," Netanyahu tells his supporters in the video. A left-wing government is not "fantasy," he warns.

Odeh booed.

"He's crazy," he said. "He incites us every hour."

After the election, Israel's president will meet with the head of each bloc for recommendations on who will form a government, and then decide who is best placed to proceed. The leader with the most votes does not automatically win.

Odeh said he would recommend Gantz only if he meets certain demands - including a promise to change the nation-state law.

Odeh and other Arab politicians call it the apartheid law. It has given fuel to Arab Israelis who are calling for a boycott of the vote Tuesday.

To vote or not to vote is a difficult choice for some Arab Israelis. Many wrestle with the complexities of being Israeli citizens but still Palestinian at heart.

Arab Israeli rapper Tamer Nafar released a music video last week pushing back against a boycott.

"Hey, you said my vote isn't worthy," he raps. "The majority is racist, we've lost, this war isn't mine/ Voting might not mean we will liberate Palestine/ But if our vote will erase Liberman, imprison Bibi, then we are ready."

The right-wing party of Avigdor Liberman, Israel's defense minister before he quit last year, is one that risks falling short of the threshold if Arab Israelis vote in force on Tuesday.

But the breakup of the joint list also means that smaller Arab parties face the same risk.

Odeh called the breakup regrettable. He blamed "seats and personalities."

But the people of Arraba have other complaints, and they say their representatives aren't doing enough about them.

Their communities are rife with crime, and spending in Arab municipalities lags behind spending in Jewish ones. People say they are not being granted enough building permits to expand as the population grows.

In Kafr Yasif, Odeh's second stop of the night, he addressed potential voters in a schoolyard.

Mohammed Kahlili and two friends stayed in the cafe next door. They didn't plan to vote.

"I voted before," said Khalili, 23. "It's not achieved anything. What has anyone done for us?"

- - -

Sufian Taha contributed to this report.
BLUFFS  Bluffs Village Board members focused mainly on water issues during the boards April meeting.

The board received a letter from North Scott Park District, noting a water flow problem at Freeman Hills Park and asking the village to find a solution. The park districts board suggested placing rocks along the guard rail to control the water flow, but a village said the rocks would simply roll downhill and create mowing problems. Instead, the employee planned to dig a ditch and replace the old culvert with a new 8-inch PVC pipe culvert.

The village also plans to run an 80-foot culvert in front of a residence that is having water problems. The homeowners do not want a ditch dug because of mowing issues.

Board members also discussed the need to obtain a grant for repairs to the village water tower. Mayor Linda Sapp said a grant could cover up to two-thirds of the cost of work done to the water tower.

A resolution for a five-year water contract between Exeter-Merritt and Bluffs was approved with a 1% annual increase. The contract has advantages for both Exeter-Merritt and Bluffs, Sapp said.

In other business, the village has sent out letters asking some residents to clean up their properties. Springs arrival makes it a good time for property clean-up, Sapp said.

Sapp also encouraged residents to fill out the 2020 U.S. Census when given the chance, noting that the information collected is important and can benefit the village.
GRAFTON  Grafton would normally be rumbling this weekend with two-wheeled visitors coming for the semi-annual Motorcycle Swap Meet. Instead, the primary engines that were running were for pressure washers, forklifts and pumps as Grafton businesses cleaned up from the slowly receding Mississippi River floodwaters.

First we had to get all of the flood mud off the floor, we hosed it off and then cleaned it up with bleach water. We also made sure no critters got in here while we were closed, said Uncle Andys Country Market owner Margaret Dublo. Weve got it down to a science. It only took us a couple of days to get the displays out and about an hour to get all of the floors cleaned off.

It was hard, dirty work, but Dublo didnt mind, because she enjoys being a part of Grafton.

When were not flooded its really pleasant, all of our neighbors are really nice, and we like being here, Dublo said.

Dan Bechtold was busy on Sunday moving forklifts full of wood back into his Knotty by Nature hardwood store.

More Information Updates from IDOT The Illinois Department of Transportation said Sunday that plans were to conduct debris removal and inspections of culverts and roadways, which could be positioned to be reopened and allow safe passage to all, between Sunday and Monday. That would be pending the results of the efforts. Those stretches include the following: Illinois Route 100 through Alton, the intersection of Routes 3/100 in Grafton. Route 155 near Prairie du Rocher, Route 3 at Mary's River in Chester, Route 3 near Cora and Route 96 in Mozier. See More Collapse

Its not my first rodeo. Ive been in town for 21 years and this is my fifth flood at least, Bechtold said. We mostly just hose everything out. We had taken all of the wood out and put it in a semi-trailer or stacked wood up along the street. Ive also got wood at other businesses.

Weve now got everything up about 35 inches in the store and when the next one hits I dont think it will get any higher than that inside, but well just wait and see, Bechtold said.

Bechtold and other business owners were grateful for the volunteer help they have received from the Grafton community during the flood.

I had a lot of help emptying the store out, more than 20 people came, it was fantastic, Bechtold said. I love this little town and its just a part of being in Grafton. I always say when business is good here its really good, and when its bad, its really bad.

Grafton Police Officer Jim Scroggins said hes seen the community come together before during floods and this time is no exception.

Everybody does great, the community pulls together to pack up the businesses and get them out of the flood water, Scroggins said. Theres a great volunteer base to come back in and load the businesses back up.

Scroggoins said there havent been major traffic problems during the flood because people seem to be paying attention to the road closed and detour signs.

For the most part the traffic has slowed down when the flood route is in place. A lot of outside people arent driving around just looking at the flood, they are letting the waters recede before they start coming back to town, Scroggins said. Its starting to pick back up now, the water is going down, the flood route is fully back open so you can get from one end of town to the other.

Mary Rapien of Highland said she visits Grafton four or five times each year and decided to come on Sunday to see the flooding for herself.

Its kind of awesome having the town to ourselves, but its also scary, Rapien said. We had heard that it was flooded so we were hoping we could make it down to see how bad it was. Its kind of a shame to see the lighthouse under water.

It was Sunday fun day adventure day for motorcyclist Mike Mrkacek of Belleville. The scheduled Motorcycle Swap Meet was moved to Collinsville due to the flooding in Grafton, but Mrkacek was interested in another local attraction.

They said the 3rd Chute Bar & Grill was open and we like going there, so we are going up there to see all the sights, Mrkacek said. Its a mess due to the water, but people are still hanging out, and I love this town anyway. It was definitely worth the trip.
It was a single-story, three-bedroom ranch house on a quiet residential street in a northern stretch of Jacksonville, Florida. Aaron Fraser had not lived inside since he was 4 years old, and the four walls held plenty of ugly memories and unresolved questions. But in December 2014, after the 24-year-old took possession of the house, he and his brother-in-law rolled up their sleeves for a renovation.

According to the Florida Times-Union, the two men began by smashing apart a swimming pool in the back with a rented excavator. At one point, the machine cracked a large concrete slab near an outdoor shower. Aaron began hacking at the pieces with a sledgehammer. Below in the dirt, he found a plastic bag, and from inside he pulled something out. It was a coconut, he thought.

"Why would someone bury a coconut in a bag?" Aaron asked his brother-in-law, according to News4Jax.

Then, the men noticed the teeth and eye sockets. It was a skull.

The discovery alone was a shock. But for Aaron, the human remains sunk below a layer of concrete in his boyhood home snapped the jumbled pieces of a family mystery into place. In January 1993, his mother, Bonnie Haim, had vanished. Police suspected her husband, Aaron's father, Michael Haim, of murdering his wife. Those suspicions started with what Aaron, who was then 3, had told authorities.

"Daddy hurt her," Aaron had said, the Times-Union reported. But Aaron's own family doubted the little boy's foggy account, and no physical evidence tied Michael to the crime.

But that day in December 2014, standing amid smashed concrete, Aaron was holding the evidence that would eventually lead to his father's arrest.

On Monday, the murder trial will start in Florida against Michael for his wife's 1993 murder. He maintains he was not involved in his wife's death. According to the Times-Union, Aaron is expected to testify, relaying his memories from when he possibly witnessed his mother's death, as well as the gruesome discovery that jump-started the cold case in 2014.

"Next month is going to hurt," Bonnie Haim's family members wrote last month about the upcoming trial on a Facebook page dedicated to her memory. "It is going to rip off bandages and expose us to things we had long ago pushed to the back of our memories. But sometimes we have to rip off bandages to really begin to heal."

Michael and Bonnie Haim worked together at a construction supply company owned by Michael's aunt, Eveann Haim. He was a manager. Bonnie kept the business accounts.

According to "Unsolved Mysteries," by the holiday season of 1992, the relationship was at a breaking point. The couple fought frequently, and their blowups turned violent.

"One day they got into an argument . . . in the parking lot," Eveann told "Unsolved Mysteries." "And she came in crying and he had slammed her hand in the door and her nails were broke and she was very upset at that point."

Bonnie reportedly had decided to leave the marriage, taking her son with her. She secretly opened a bank account to save money for her escape, the Times-Union reported. When Michael discovered the account and forced her to close it, Bonnie began secreting cash to friends for safekeeping - $1,250 by early January 1993.

She reportedly picked a date late in January to leave, when Michael was away on business. In early January, she placed deposits on two apartments where she and her son could start over.

But on Jan. 7, 1993, Bonnie, 23, failed to show up to work. Her husband would later say the two had fought the night before, and that she left the house alone around 11 p.m. He asked his mother, Carol, to come over to watch his son while he went looking for Bonnie.

"According to Carol and Mike, he was gone approximately 45 minutes," Jacksonville Sheriff's Department Detective Robert Hinson told "Unsolved Mysteries." "Then after he allegedly did that, he returned to the house where he waited until the next morning and never called the police, and called in and told his employer that he was going to be sick that day."

The day she went missing, a hotel worker discovered Bonnie's purse chucked into a dumpster behind a Red Roof Inn, not far from Jacksonville International Airport, the Times-Union reported. Police later discovered her Toyota Camry in an airport parking lot. The car, however, further raised investigators' suspicions.

"What was unusual was the positioning of the driver's seat, which appeared to be farther back than would have been comfortable for Bonnie," Hinson told "Unsolved Mysteries." "It was more in relation to someone about Michael Haim's size."

What finally tightened suspicion around Michael, however, was an interview with his 3-year-old son. Aaron told a child protective services worker that his father had hurt his mother.

"From what Aaron told us that day, my only conclusion was that there had been a domestic fight and that Michael Haim had killed his wife and had removed her, and that their three-and-a-half-year-old son Aaron Haim had witnessed this," Hinson said.

But as Aaron would later recount to police as an adult, his family members did not believe his account, feeling he had been "brainwashed" into implicating his father. Even his missing mother's parents doubted the boy's account.

"The credibility of a child is something that you have to judge in perspective," Bonnie's father, Robert Pasciuto, told "Unsolved Mysteries." "He's said a couple of things that we know were not true. 'Mom's car is in the lake.' We know her car wasn't there."

Aaron was eventually adopted by another family, taking their last name. In the early 2000s, he filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against his biological father, even though Bonnie's remains had not been found. In April 2005, he won a $26.3 million settlement against Michael, which included the ownership of the family home, News4Jax reported. It was being used as a rental.

Then, in 2014, Aaron began renovating the property, and made the discovery in the backyard. Within weeks, investigators confirmed the skull and other remains belonged to Bonnie.

In August 2015, Michael was officially charged with his wife's murder. According to the Times-Union, a .22 caliber shell casing was discovered with the remains. Michael allegedly owned a rifle of the same caliber.

Michael's defense attorneys had earlier unsuccessfully petitioned the court to block Aaron's statements from 1993, arguing the boy had been contradictory. Aaron, however, is expected to testify at this week's trial. His credibility is likely to be the key factor in the case.
About noon most days, the Lieber Institute for Brain Developmentin East Baltimore gets a case - that is, a brain. It arrives in an inconspicuous red cooler. Almost immediately, resident neuropathologist Rahul Bharadwaj gets to work, carefully inspecting it for any abnormalities, such as tumors or lesions.

Often, the brains come from the Maryland Medical Examiner's Office, just a 15-minute drive across town. On other days, they are flown in - packed on dry ice - from around the country.

Since opening in 2011, the institute has amassed more than 3,000 of these post-mortem brains that they are studying to better understand the biological mechanisms behind such neuropsychiatric disorders as schizophrenia, major depression, substance abuse, bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. About 100 brain banks exist across the country for all sorts of brain diseases. But Lieber, founded with the support and funding of a wealthy couple whose daughter suffered a psychotic break in her 20s, is the biggest collection dedicated specifically to mental conditions.

Current therapies for neuropsychiatric disorders - antipsychotics and antidepressants - treat symptoms rather than the underlying cause of illness, which remains largely unknown. And while they can be lifesaving for certain people, they can cause unpleasant and sometimes serious side effects. In some cases, they won't work at all.

Most of these drugs were also discovered by accident. Lieber's goal is to unravel what happens biologically in the brain to make these conditions occur and then to develop therapies to treat these conditions at their root cause, or even prevent them from happening in the first place.

"Most of us have some of the variations in the human genome that are associated with psychiatric problems," says Daniel Weinberger, director and chief executive of the institute.

More than 100 genetic variants have been identified as possibly related to schizophrenia, and about 30 variants have been linked to bipolar disorder. What's not known is how having one of these genetic variants or a group of them alters the structure and function of the brain - and why some people who harbor these variants don't develop mental illness while others do.

Researchers think a combination of genetic, lifestyle and environmental risk factors changes the brain's chemistry in people with various neuropsychiatric disorders, causing imbalances in neurotransmitters, important chemicals that send messages to nerve cells in the brain.

"Once we understand some of these genetic risk mechanisms, then we can start thinking about what molecular pathways seem to be perturbed," says Thomas Hyde, Lieber's chief medical officer. "The key is to find new therapeutics and then figure out which is the best target population for those therapeutics to work in."

Lieber researchers first do a physical examination of the brains, then carefully slice them into sections that can be more easily studied. DNA, RNA and proteins are extracted and analyzed to identify genetic mutations and observe how genes are expressed in different cells. Using a technique called laser capture microdissection, they can isolate specific brain cells from a mixed population.

Other experiments in the lab involve taking a sample of cells from the dura, the outer membrane that coats the brain, and reprogram them into stem cells, which can then be differentiated into neurons. Scientists want to observe whether neurons from brains with neuropsychiatric disorders act differently than ones from healthy brains.

Through this research, the institute has identified what it believes is a handful of promising drug candidates, including one for traumatic brain injury and another for a rare form of autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder. Researchers hope these experimental drugs will move into human clinical trials within the next two years

Most of the Lieber Institute's brains come from people who have died unexpectedly, often by suicide or drug overdose. After a physical examination of the brains, investigators interview family members and pore over medical records to make a post-mortem diagnosis, a process that can take three to six months after they get a brain.

The morning hours leading up to a case are a flurry of activity.

The institute gets a call from one of four partner medical examiner's offices - in Maryland, Michigan, North Dakota or Santa Clara County, California - after an autopsy has been performed at those sites. Medical examiners are tasked with investigating deaths that are suspicious or of public interest. They determine the cause of death and whether the case might be a good fit for the Lieber Institute. At that point, it's Hyde's job to contact next of kin and ask permission to use their loved one's brain for research.

Hyde has a small window of time in which to get that consent - just one to three hours. But often, he's successful. More than 60 percent of family members asked agree to brain donation. "We try to be very sensitive and not too intrusive," Hyde says. "To me, it's remarkable that, given the sudden loss of a loved one, people are so generous with the tissue donations."

The Lieber team needs that tissue to be as intact as possible to study it. And since tissue starts to degrade immediately after death, researchers try to obtain brains within 24 to 36 hours. Once a family consents, the brain is flash frozen on site and sent to the Lieber Institute, along with a few vials of the person's blood and a small piece of the dura.

Once a brain arrives, it is ushered into a small, well-lit room and placed on a white marble slab for the dissection. Bharadwaj and research assistant Sam Allen don protective blue suits, blue shoe covers and plastic gloves to prevent any contamination.

After examining a brain, Bharadwaj delicately cuts it into slices, to expose certain parts - such as the amygdala, the almond-shaped mass of neurons located deep in each hemisphere that serves as the brain's emotion-processing centers. Abnormal functioning of the amygdala has been found in some patients with depression, PTSD and phobias. Sometimes, brain abnormalities can be seen with the naked eye, but often, scientists need to look at smaller brain sections under a microscope to observe how brain cells and tissue might look different compared with healthy brains

The slices are photographed and numbered so that researchers can reference them later. After that, Allen places the brains slices over dry ice, which freezes them quickly. They're then packaged in plastic zip-locked bags and sent to the basement of the building. There, the precious tissues are stored in industrial-sized freezers set at minus-80 degrees.

Lieber not only boasts the biggest collection of brains with a confirmed diagnosis of PTSD, but it also has a collection of about 600 brains from African Americans with and without neuropsychiatric disorders - the largest such repository.

Barbara Lipska, director of the Human Brain Collection Core at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Md., says it's important to study brains from people of diverse backgrounds because most of the genetic information collected so far has been from people of European heritage. "We know that there are differences in the frequencies of certain genetic mutations in people of different races." Research suggests that neuropsychiatric diseases occur 20 percent more in African Americans than in people of European descent, and some of that may be due to specific genetic risk factors. Lieber is launching an initiative to study these genetic differences in African Americans.

The blood that's collected, along with brain tissue, is used for DNA sequencing - a process in which researchers determine the full readout of a person's genetic code. It was once thought that a person has the same DNA throughout all of the cells in their body. But that hypothesis doesn't seem to hold up in the brain. Researchers are finding that certain genetic changes - deletions and duplications of DNA - may appear only in neurons in the brain, not in the rest of the cells in the body.

Michael McConnell, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the University of Virginia, is investigating what role these deletions and duplications of DNA, called copy number variants, play in neuropsychiatric disease. He has been studying brains in the Lieber collection to explore this mystery, pulling out single cells from brain tissue and profiling their DNA.

McConnell says he thinks these copy number variants might have an effect on neurotransmitters, raising the risk of neuropsychiatric disease. And because brain cells stick around in the body for much longer than other cells, these variants could be with people for most of their lives.

This is where brains prove invaluable. Most genetic studies of neuropsychiatric disorders have looked at only blood, not brain cells. These blood-based studies have turned up two kinds of genetic variants: ones that are common in a lot of people but seem to have a small effect on neuropsychiatric disease, and rare ones that are found in only a small number of people with these disorders.

"Maybe if we look at the brain we'll find that they're not as rare as we think they are," McConnell says. If a certain variant is in a big enough chunk of the population, "it's worth making a drug to try."
Major brewing companies are pouring resources into increasing sales of unique tasting "craft beers."

While domestic beer shipments have fallen for 14 straight years, craft beers are growing in popularity, particularly among the young, raising hopes of further growth.

In March, Kirin Brewery Co. started selling to bars and restaurants a beer made by Ishikawa Brewery Co., a Tokyo-based firm founded in the Edo period (1603-1867). The brew is characterized by a citrus aroma and bitter aftertaste.

Kirin also offers the Tap Marche, a craft beer server that allows multiple beers to be poured from a single unit. The company now handles 24 brands.

Establishments have been steadily adopting the server and the company plans to sell 13,000 units, nearly double the current level, by the end of the year.

Craft beers used to be made mainly by small breweries aiming for a "handmade" feel, but recently major breweries have marketed brews made with special ingredients or methods under the "craft" banner.

They are priced higher than regular beers, and the use of citrus and other ingredients allows brewers to create an abundance of flavors and aromas.

"It's a product that is well suited to an age of diversifying consumer tastes," an employee of one major brewery said.

Sapporo Breweries Ltd. has since October been soliciting ideas for "beers you want to drink" online to help develop new craft beers. Beers made with grapefruit and other ingredients have been released under the project.

Asahi Group Holdings Ltd. periodically sells a craft beer made with barley grown in Higashimatsushima, Miyagi Prefecture, which was damaged in the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011.

According to market research firm Fuji Keizai Co., craft beer sales by the major breweries in 2017 were roughly triple the amount in 2014, when the firm began tracking the sector.

While craft beer only makes up about 1 percent of total beer sales, the niche is expanding as the overall market shrinks.

Alcohol taxes on beer are slated to decrease gradually until 2026 under recent tax reforms, which will shrink the disparity between beer prices and those of cheaper beverages such as happoshu low-malt quasi beer and other beer-like drinks.

At lower price points, craft beer could provide a spark to stem the increasing reluctance of consumers to purchase beer.

"With their selling power, the involvement of major breweries is going to raise awareness among consumers," said Yusuke Yamamoto, director of the Japan Craft Beer Association, which works to popularize craft beer.
ALBANY  As the Board of Regents was meeting inside, a group of teachers union leaders gathered outside the State Education Department building Monday to renew their call for changes to New Yorks implementation of English and math tests for students in grades 3-8.

Its time that the State Education Department finally took real ownership of this testing debacle, said Jolene DiBrango, vice president of New York State United Teachers, the states major teachers union and a leading critic of the current test system, which is federally mandated but put in place at the state level.

DiBrango's remarks came as the Board of Regents were approving the current version of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, which includes the testing requirement. It also came a week after the Education Department had to postpone a test day after computer crashes marred the start of the two-day English tests. The math tests are slated to begin later in the month.

Last year's tests were bedeviled by similar crashes. State officials have blames the latest snag on Questar Assessment, a vendor that appears to have lacked sufficient computer server memory to handle the influx of online test submissions.

Some 25 percent of the states schools offered the online tests, but the problems threw the whole system into turmoil. A number of Capital Region schools offered the online exams, including Guilderland, South Colonie, Saratoga, Niskayuna, Schenectady, Mohonasen, Schodack and Averill Park, according to state records.

Two others, Hoosic Valley and Schuylerville, started online but switched back to paper-and-pencil after encountering computer problems.

NYSUT had been criticizing the tests prior to the computer snafus. The union believes the scoring cutoffs arent realistic, and feel it is consequently too easy for students and entire schools to be tagged as deficient.

More for you Computer crashes send NY students back to paper state exams

They also criticized the lack of time constraints on the tests, which allow students to take as long as they need to finish. Past criticism insisted the tests didnt offer enough time, but with no limits students who finish quickly are forced to sit and stare at their desks for hours as they wait for slower classmates to complete the exams.

Noting that the college admission SATs run more than three hours, Schoharie teachers union president Natalie McKay said she believes its unreasonable to have grade-school kids take that much time or more on an exam. She said some of her students were crying while others fell asleep during the exams, she said.

These state tests go against everything we know to be best practices, added Laura Franz, head of the Albany teachers union, which like Schoharie are under the NYSUT umbrella.

Later in the day, state Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia defended the testing concept, but stressed she was disgusted by the problems with Questar's performance.

She said the department was continuing to examine its contract with the company, which is a subsidiary of ETS, which administers the SAT and AP exams.

As to criticism of the tests themselves, Elia noted that they were developed with input from New York teachers, and are required by federal law.

What were doing in New York is to try to make those assessments the best they can be, Elia said.

In addition to union leaders, three Democratic Assembly members attended the rally.

The legislature is going to push for change here, said Angelo Santabarbara, whose district includes a chunk of Schenectady. Lawmakers this session approved a bill that decoupled state test results and teacher evaluations.

It wasnt immediately clear what the Legislature would or could do regarding the federally required tests.

In other business, the Regents discussed plans to add a language acquisition course as a requirement for certain teaching degrees. It would accommodate the growing number of students for whom English is a second language.

rkarlin@timesunion.com 518 454 5758 @RickKarlinTU
President Donald Trump is preparing a novel campaign strategy for a president who's pulling the U.S. from the international Paris accord on climate change, cheer-leading for coal, one of the dirtiest source of power, and suggesting that wind turbines cause cancer.

He's going to tout his environmental credentials.

Administration officials are developing talking points on climate change and cultivating a list of environmental "success stories," from cleaner air to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, said a person familiar with the plans who asked not to be named describing internal deliberations.

"President Trump believes you can grow the economy and protect the environment," said Judd Deere, a deputy White House press secretary.

In attempting to demonstrate that the U.S. is getting greener while still rolling back what Trump sees as job-killing constraints on industry, a key cheerleader may be Andrew Wheeler, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

"Today we have the cleanest air on record, and we are ranked No. 1 in the world for access to clean drinking water," Wheeler said at the Washington Auto Show on April 4. "As we continue to reduce pollution, we're also reducing burdensome regulations."

And Mandy Gunasekara, a former Trump EPA policy adviser, said that "if you look at the facts on the ground, President Trump has been one of the most successful presidents in advancing a pro-growth and pro-environment agenda."

Still, plans to cherry-pick examples of Trump's "green" accomplishments to take to voters already has environmental activists crying foul.

"They're whitewashing their sooty record," said David Doniger, a senior adviser to the NRDC Action Fund, an affiliate of the Natural Resources Defense Council. "They're taking credit for the law and the actions of their predecessors that they're actively trying to roll back."

The strategy ignores Trump's zeal to ease environmental regulations he says are hampering U.S. growth. But it's also is a tacit recognition of the political reality confronting the president as he seeks re-election: many of the swing voters Trump needs to win a second term in the White House also prize environmental progress.

"For the president to win these battleground states, he's going to have to have some record of environmental achievement to showcase," said David Banks, who previously advised Trump on the issues. "The environment and environmental issues can make or break you."

Environmental activists say the administration cynically plans to take credit for achievements driven by policies put in place by his predecessors -- including regulations his agencies are now attempting to undermine or overturn.

Within months of taking office, Trump tasked the EPA with redoing the Obama-era Clean Power Plan that aimed to slash greenhouse gas emissions from the nation's power plants, and directed the Interior Department to resume selling coal on federal land, ending a moratorium imposed by former President Barack Obama. The agency is also easing Obama-era limits on methane from oil wells and standards throttling greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles.

But supporters say Trump has environmental achievements to celebrate too.

"Deregulation does not always mean rolling back rules," said Wheeler. By modernizing, simplifying or streamlining regulations, the administration is creating "greater certainty" and empowering the public "to innovate and create cleaner and safer technologies,"

Wheeler noted that from 1970 to 2017, conventional air pollution in the U.S. fell 73 percent, even as the economy grew more than 260 percent, Americans traveled more miles, and the U.S. used more energy.

The Trump administration can also point to expanding use of natural gas, both domestically and exported overseas, where it can displace more carbon-intense energy sources. "That is a pretty substantial story that they can tell, not only about our decarbonizing in the U.S. power sector, but also globally, sharing those technologies around the world," said Rich Powell, executive director of ClearPath Action, a group seeking to accelerate clean energy innovation.

Polling shows voters increasingly care about the environment, making the sales job even more important. Highlighting some wins could be enough to offset the harshest criticism of its policies.

If Republicans want to win back the House in 2020 or 2022, "we're going to have to find ways to appeal to all those suburban voters who turned the other way" in 2018, Powell said. Polling indicates the environment is a way to appeal to them, he said.

A survey conducted by Pew earlier this year found that 63 percent of U.S. adults say stricter environmental regulations are "worth the cost," up from 59 percent two years ago. Among Republicans, the number who took a positive view of stricter environmental laws jumped to 45 percent in the latest poll from 36 percent in 2017.

Trump's pending "green" strategy is different from the way administration officials describe their environmental agenda to Republicans and outside business groups. Wheeler has boasted about rollbacks of environmental regulations when testifying on Capitol Hill; in hearings last week he described to lawmakers 38 deregulatory actions set to save $3 billion. By contrast, the campaign talking points now being assembled ignore that track record and focus instead on environmental achievements.

Among the policies Trump could highlight:

- A decline in greenhouse gas emissions during Trump's first year in office. Emissions are lower than in 2005, a baseline year widely used to measure progress. However, they rose some 3.4 percent in 2018 as the U.S. economy grew, posting the biggest jump in eight years, according to estimates from Rhodium Group analysts in January expected to be confirmed by government data. Administration officials may say greenhouse gas emissions are dropping, Doniger said, "but they're not dropping any more -- and this administration is doing everything it can to push them up.''

- A planned replacement for the Obama-era Clean Power Plan that the EPA says will reduce carbon dioxide emissions from electricity by between 13 and 30 million short tons in 2025. But because it's designed around efficiency improvements at individual power plants, the Trump administration's proposal is weaker than the regulation it's designed to replace.

- Finishing a review of air quality limits for ozone and tiny pollutants by a December 2020 deadline. That would be unusual, as the EPA has rarely satisfied congressional deadlines to review the limits every five years. But in its zeal to meet the deadline, Trump's EPA halted a formal review by subcommittees of scientific advisers with deep air quality expertise -- a process former members say is essential to drive sound requirements. It's a "manic insistence" on meeting the schedule at the expense of strong standards for smog and soot, said John Walke, a senior adviser to the NRDC Action Fund.

Environmentalists say Trump's expected pitch to voters is undermined by what's really happening on the ground.

"The Trump administration's discussion of air pollution and climate pollution both suffer from two realities," Walke said. "First, the administration has nothing to do with decreasing emissions, and second, their rollback agenda is increasing dangerous air pollution and climate pollution. Once that's established, all the rhetoric just collapses."

That misses the big picture, said Gunasekara, who left her EPA post in February to tout the administration's energy and environmental wins as the 2020 election approaches. Even as the administration revises regulations it regards as overreach by Obama, Trump supports the overall goal of maintaining clean air and water, she said.

"Deregulation does not mean setting aside fulfillment of important agency missions," said Gunasekara.

Trump already talks about the environment in rallies and on Twitter, frequently boasting that the U.S. has the "cleanest" air and water on the planet. "There's nobody cleaner than us, and it's getting better and better," he said during a rally in West Virginia in August. In October, Trump tweeted that the U.S. has the "Cleanest Air in the World - BY FAR!"

At a rally in Michigan in March, Trump touted his support for the Great Lakes, the largest body of fresh water on Earth. He vowed to make sure a federal restoration program would get full funding, even though he asked Congress just weeks earlier to slash the EPA's Great Lakes Program by 90 percent.

"I support the Great Lakes. Always have," Trump said. "They're beautiful. They're big. Very deep. Record deepness, right?"
Thousands of people turned out on Sunday across Brazil and other countries in competing demonstrations favoring and opposing the release from prison of former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva , who for the past year has been serving a lengthy jail term for corruption and money laundering.

The marches and demonstrations supporting Lulas release were scheduled in more than 40 cities around the country, including Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre and the capital of Brasilia, as well as in Curitiba, the city where he is incarcerated.

International support was also provided for Lula in Paris, Vienna, Lisbon, London, Berlin and Buenos Aires, where dozens of people participated in protests after calls went out on the social networks to hit the streets.

The activities, which began on Friday and will continue until next Wednesday in support of the leftist former leader, are also scheduled in New York, Copenhagen, Madrid, Barcelona, Montevideo, Mexico City, Munich, Frankfurt, Rome and Amsterdam.

The 73-year-old Lula, who governed Brazil from 2003-2010, was imprisoned on April 7, 2018, by Judge Sergio Moro, Brazils current justice minister under ultrarightist President Jair Bolsonaro and who at the time was heading the Lava Jato (Car Wash) trials relating to the largest corruption case in Brazils history.

Lula was charged with receiving as a bribe from the OAS construction company an apartment in exchange for beneficial contracts with the state-run oil company, Petrobras.

After a year in prison, Lula - who is Brazils most popular ex-president - claims that he is innocent and he reiterated that stance on Sunday in an article published by the Folha de Sao Paulo daily, one of the countrys main newspapers.

I can sleep with my conscience, calm in my innocence, Lula wrote, going on to accuse Bolsonaro of being the prime beneficiary of the political persecution he claims has been waged against him by rightist movements.

In Brazil, the day of protest led by the Workers Party (PT), founded by Lula, drew the most participants in Curitiba in front of the Federal Police headquarters where the former leader is serving his sentence in a specially-outfitted cell.

Around the site, protesters set up and displayed huge posters and banners with phrases such as A year of injustice and Free Lula.

However, in the countrys assorted major cities, including Brasilia and Belo Horizonte, huge numbers of people who prefer to see Lula remain behind bars turned out since they feel that his incarceration provides an example for other corrupt or potentially corrupt politicians.

At those anti-Lula demonstrations the colors of green and yellow - Brazils national colors - predominated and were headed by the Get out on the streets movement, which says that corrupt officials must go to jail.

Its not the left against the right. Were not the rich against the poor, its the nation against corruption. and I support Lava Jato and prison read some of the signs displayed by the demonstrators.

Lula, who has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for corruption and money laundering in two separate trials, has six additional cases open against him, all of them related to alleged corrupt acts.
It's become a ritual of the Trump years: Each time President Donald Trump parts ways with one of his top advisers or associates, that person then embarks on an effort to expunge the deep moral stain left behind by his or her service to Trump's depraved, corrupt, incompetent, and even sometimes criminal designs.

In the case of Kirstjen Nielsen, who has just been pushed out by Trump amid his rage over the spike in asylum seeking families at the border, this process is proving more revealing - and unsettling - than usual.

This act of expungement typically requires one of several types of self-cleansing. The now-banished party reveals that the acts he or she did carry out were done with great, anguished reluctance, or that he or she stuck around to prevent worse from happening, or that Trump demanded numerous acts that he or she just could not bring herself to commit.

Nielsen's version of this ritual runs through some of these steps. Yet in so doing, it hints at ways in which Trump could very well try to engage in conduct that is substantially more heinous and lawless.

Stephen Miller consolidates power, but Trump is "out of ideas"

Trump fired Nielsen because he wants a "tougher" approach to the migrant crisis than Nielsen has implemented.

Along those lines, Politico reports that Nielsen's firing reflects Trump immigration adviser Stephen Miller's consolidation of power inside the administration. Miller is trying to bring in more immigration "hard-liners," because he is "frustrated by the lack of headway" that the administration has made on immigration.

That "lack of headway" is that migrants keep coming to the border -- the number could reach 1 million this year. Most of them are asylum-seeking families, and Trump is in a rage about them, leading him to lurch erratically from one posture to another.

Trump declared a national emergency to build his wall and has threatened to close the southern border (neither of which would actually solve the problem), a threat he has withdrawn and then reiterated in the space of days. He is cutting off aid to Northern Triangle countries (which would make the problem worse), and is demanding that Democrats give him changes to the law he wants (which they won't do).

Now, as Politico reports, Miller is privately telling allies that the administration is at wits end:

"Last week, as Trump threatened once again to shut down the border ... Miller held a conference call with immigration activists to explain the administration's position and answer questions.

"He has told allies that the administration is out of ideas about how to stem the migrant tide at the border, according to a source familiar with the conversations."

OK, so what now? New details emerging about the firing of Nielsen provide a clue as to what Miller's increasing control might mean in practice.

Trump wanted Nielsen to break the law

Among the most indelible moral stains that Nielsen will take into private life, of course, is her role in implementing Trump's horrific 2018 policy of family separations. We are now learning, via leaks to The New York Times, that Nielsen "hesitated for weeks" before signing the memo authorizing the policy. But Trump castigated her mercilessly in private, leading her to capitulate.

Such leaks will not have the desired cleansing effect, however, because as the Times also reports, Nielsen became a "defender" of such policies. That said, there do appear to be things Trump demanded that she would not do:

"The president called Ms. Nielsen at home early in the mornings to demand that she take action to stop migrants from entering the country, including doing things that were clearly illegal, such as blocking all migrants from seeking asylum. She repeatedly noted the limitations imposed on her department by federal laws, court settlements and international obligations.

"Those responses only infuriated Mr. Trump further."

Trump repeatedly demanded that Nielsen break the law, by closing the border to asylum-seeking entirely.

Trump has a real agenda, and it's extreme and crazy

It's important to appreciate that this demand of Nielsen flows from what appears to be an actual aspiration on Trump's part. In recent days, Trump has repeatedly said our country is "full," which is another way of saying the same thing: If he had his way, we would not take in a single additional asylum seeker.

Indeed, Trump has linked this assertion directly to his threat to close the border, which seems to indicate that, when he threatens to do this, he thinks he's threatening to end asylum seeking entirely. This is utter lunacy -- because of geographic realities, closing official ports of entry would not prevent people from setting foot on U.S. soil, after which they can exercise their legal right to apply for it.

But Trump actually does appear to want to end this as a right. It's what he reportedly demanded that Nielsen do, and she refused.

Many other things he and Miller have done are all about progressing towards that goal in some way. In multiple ways, they've tried to restrict the ways people can apply or qualify for asylum. They've lowered the cap on refugees and used bureaucratic tactics to slash those numbers further.

Now they are pushing for changes to the law that would make it possible to detain asylum seeking families - including children - for far longer, and to more easily deport Central American migrant children.

These would not address the terrible civil conditions in home countries that are largely causing the migrations in the first place. Trump has ended aid to those countries, while doing everything possible to either slam the door on asylum seekers entirely, or to deter them from fleeing those horrific conditions by threatening unspeakable cruelties here.

None of those things has worked. But Nielsen has been fired, because Trump wants something still "tougher" than all those things. Like what? Miller says the administration is out of ideas.

But one thing we can be reasonably certain of is that if Trump could get away with it, he'd do far worse things. As The Post reports, Nielsen actually held on to her job for this perverse reason:

"Trump told aides last fall that he wanted to fire Nielsen, and he grew increasingly agitated as a large caravan of Central American migrants reached the U.S.-Mexico border near San Diego. She appeared to regain her footing after U.S. Border Patrol agents used tear gas to repel a large crowd attempting to break through a border fence - the kind of "tough" action Trump said he wanted in a DHS secretary."

Add to this the fact that Trump repeatedly instructed Nielsen to break the law, and you get an idea of what Trump might be capable of doing. What those things will look like we don't know, but we may soon find out.

It's fitting that this is happening right when an old quote from Trump - in which he called some migrants "animals" - is once again being debated. Reporters rushed forth to proclaim that Trump was only talking about MS-13 members, which isn't even clear to begin with, and doesn't seriously reckon with how determined Trump is to dehumanize asylum-seekers, and the rhetorical tricks he employs to do so.

But the circumstances around Nielsen's firing should make it impossible for anyone to feign innocence about the depths of Trump's depravity and inhumanity any longer.
Applicantsclaiming a U.S. Veterans preference must submit written documentationconfirming eligibility (e.g., Member Copy 4 of Form DD-214, Letter from theVeterans Administration, or certification documenting eligibility under theVOW Act with an expected discharge no later than 120 days after thecertification is submitted) by the closing date of the vacancy announcement. Ifthe written documentation confirming eligibility is not received in the HRoffice by the closing date of the vacancy announcement, the U.S. Veteranspreference will not be considered in the application process. Specific criteriafor receiving a U.S. Veterans preference may be found in HR/OEs Family MemberEmployment Policy (FMEP).
The ideal candidate for the United Nations UNHCR Admin/FinanceOfficer job placement should hold an Undergraduate degree (equivalent of aBA/BS) in Accounting, Finance, Public or Business Administration,Economics or related field, OR undergraduate degree (equivalent of aBA/BS) in another field combined with a professional qualification inaccounting or finance (CPA/CIA or equivalent) plus minimum 6 years ofprevious work experience relevant to the function of which at least 2years in an intergovernmental organization (United Nations or similar).Graduate degree (equivalent of a Masters) plus 5 years or Doctoratedegree (equivalent of a PhD) plus 4 years of previous relevant workexperience may also be accepted.
Cory Nicholas, food service director for the North Adams Public Schools, explains what his program could offer Clarksburg School.

Clarksburg Mulling Food Service Contract With North Adams



The School Committee meets Thursday night. CLARKSBURG, Mass.  The School Committee is holding off on a decision to contract with North Adams to feed its elementary schoolchildren.

The committee has mulling whether to contract out the cafeteria. There are some staffing changes occurring and there are some equipment needs, leading officials to consider which direction to take.

Cory Nicholas, food service director for the North Adams Public Schools, gave a presentation on Thursday night explained to the committee how he would provide breakfast and lunch to the school.

"You're considering bringing North Adams on board as a sponsor for Clarksburg Elementary School," he said. "North Adams' school food service operates cash-flow positive, self-sustaining and standalone. So there's a completely separate revolving account from City Hall in North Adams and from the North Adams Public Schools, so that's important."

Nicholas said the food service budget is about $1.2 million to $1.3 million this year and Clarksburg would represent $70,000 to $80,000 in revenue or about 6 percent of the budget. There would be no additional service, food or labor costs to Clarksburg with the exception of outstanding student lunch debt.

The food service department already contracts out to two other schools, including Berkshire Arts & Technology Public Charter School in Adams.

Nicholas said his department would take over all free and reduced lunch applications, all reporting requirements and monitoring, the yearly performance-based funding applications and the state administrative reviews.

It will also take over all labor, supplies, policies, nutritional standards, maintenance and daily operations. Other benefits would be providing a point of sale system that includes an online system for parents to add funds and see what they're children are eating and software tracking of any nutritional and allergy issues for children.

All of the food will be prepared at Drury High School and, because of the volume the school district goes through, Clarksburg students will have greater variety of higher quality food, Nicholas said.

"One of the greatest benefits is just the sheer volume of what North Adams purchases and offers through our various vendors and just the sheer options that are out there, with the goal of increasing participation," he said, later adding, "We serve over a 1,000 meals a day just for lunch there. We go through $5,000 worth of produce a week."

The school could decide annually whether to continue the contract. However, the school would have to use an alternative, such as prepackaged foods, should Drury High School close on a school day and its current cafeteria workers would have to apply to work for North Adams.

Nicholas said a January snapshot of Clarksburg showed a 12 percent breakfast participation and 60 percent for lunch, compared to 80 percent for both at the city's elementary schools.

"The school is at 40 percent free and reduced meal application," Nicholas said. "Forty percent of the kids are at or below the poverty level but only 20 kids are participating of that 40 percent. So you're missing about 58 kids that need to be eating breakfast every day, who should be eating breakfast every day."

Superintendent John Franzoni referred to the successful breakfast program that was implemented at the city's Brayton Elementary School during his time as principal there. Clarksburg might not institute that particular program but it could go with an option more suitable for that school.

"What I've heard is here is the kids don't want to participate because they feel they're being identified as needing help," he said. "It could be helpful to get our students to eat. ... There's a lot of points to this to see what is the best way."

He also said Nicholas has focused on healthier eating, ensuring quality fresh fruits and vegetables since taking over the food service department.

"It's about improving the quality for students ... and I now from firsthand experience the quality Cory brings with more variety and quality," Franzoni said. "The cafeteria managers are doing the best they can but their background is not the same as his is in creating meals and bringing quality products in."

A few parents and teachers attended the meeting and expressed concern over the loss of the cafeteria at the small school. Kindergarten teacher Kathy Howe said her pupils often pick the "lunch ladies" as the recipients of their message exercise. Another teacher told how the cafeteria workers knew exactly what she needed when she called down for a special sandwich to soothe a child her in class.

There was also the feeling that breakfast numbers were unlikely to improve because they believed that Clarksburg parents were more likely feeding their children before sending them to school.

Principal Tara Barnes said she'd had informal talks with the staff about changing the cafeteria.

"I think the overwhelming feeling of the staff here is that we have this small school we're really proud of and we love having a kitchen where kids can go in and there's food there," she said. "There's this piece that's intangible that  I hope I'm speaking correctly for the staff here  that they really love having a kitchen and they love having the kids smell the food when they come, and know there's a person there that helped make their food for them today."

The School Committee decided to delay action for the moment. Chairwoman Patricia Prenguber said she wanted to look into the situation in the school cafeteria and visit North Adams Public Schools program.

In other business, the committee approved six school-choice slots for kindergarten next year. Franzoni also reported that the teachers union had agreed to a one-year contract extension with a 1.5 percent salary raise. The extension was to allow the possible merger with Stamford School in Vermont to play out before beginning negotiations. The next Interstate School Merger Committee meeting will take place April 27 in Stamford.
Westerly, RI (02891)

Today

Partly cloudy skies during the morning hours will become overcast in the afternoon. High 48F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Rain showers early with overcast skies late. Low 46F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
High-flying Tory MP Johnny Mercer has hit back at claims he is linked to a scandal at collapsed savings firm London Capital & Finance.

Mercer  who is paid 85,000 a year as a non-executive director by Crucial Group, a firm with ties to the LCF disaster  insisted he is being smeared.

LCF sold toxic bonds to savers promising returns of 8 per cent, but has since gone bust owing 237m to 11,500 people.

Fighting talk: Tory MP Johnny Mercer, a former soldier, insists he is being smeared

The Serious Fraud Office is investigating LCF and has made four arrests.

Bonds were marketed on LCF's behalf by Surge Financial, which was paid fees of 58m  representing as much as 25 per cent of each saver's cash.

The company's partner firm Surge Group and its founder Paul Careless own a controlling stake in the firm where Mercer works. Accounts show money flowing between them.

Mercer  tipped as a future Prime Minister  was made a director of Crucial in September last year.

The 37-year-old is a former soldier, and Crucial runs an academy which trains veterans in cyber security.

He said Surge is not part of the SFO investigation into LCF and has done nothing wrong, adding: 'They are however suffering trial by media.

'This effort to smear me by some loose connection to a company that I have never met, done business with or even heard of before its collapse is besmirching the good name of an exciting project at Crucial Academy run by good people doing good things.'

Accounts show that Surge Group was given an interest-free loan of 8.8m by Surge Financial in the 15 months to September 30, 2018.

Separately, Surge Group made a 325,095 interest-free loan to The Crucial Group.

It is the first evidence of money moving between the three companies.

Mercer said he has 'sought and received rigorous assurances that no money whatsoever had gone from LCF into Crucial Academy'.

The MP added that there is no connection between Crucial and LCF.

Crucial is based in the same Brighton office as Surge.

The Surge Group accounts state it is at risk of collapse because it relies on support from another firm under the same control, and this may be about to dry up.

A spokesman for Surge said it complied with FCA rules, did not handle client money and was not involved in deciding where the funds should be invested.

There is no suggestion Mercer has done anything wrong.
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Lamprell plc, together with its subsidiaries, provides fabrication, engineering, installation, and contracting services to the offshore and onshore oil and gas, and renewable energy industries in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. It operates through three segments: Rigs; Engineering Procurement, Construction & Installation (EPCI); and Contracting Services. The Rigs segment offers new build jack up rigs, land rigs, and rig refurbishment services. The EPCI segment provides foundations, process modules, offshore platforms, pressure vessels, and engineering and construction services. The Contracting Services segment offers site works, operations and maintenance, manpower supply, and safety services. The company also fabricates various platforms, such as topsides, jackets, wellhead decks, living quarters, HVDC platforms, and other offshore fixed facilities, as well as offers fabricating packaged, pre-assembled, and modularized units. In addition, the company constructs accommodation and complex process modules for onshore downstream projects, and complex living quarters. The company was founded in 1974 and is based in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.

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He Put Dracula on the Big Screen, and Saved Jews from a Real Monster

The Fellowship | April 8, 2019

A new documentary on Carl Laemmle, founder of Universal Studios, shares details on his work to rescue 300 Jewish families from Nazi Germany reports the Times of Israel.

According to Carl Laemmle, Universal pulled out of Germany after Hitler came to power in 1933, while other American studios continued making films there

Whats interesting to me is that he loses the studio, which would normally be a devastating situation, Freedman said. It ends up allowing him to devote all of his time, and a lot of his fortune, to save Jews. He had the motto It can be done.

Laemmle tried to get every Jewish relative, friend, stranger, anyone he could, out of Laupheim, Freedman said, adding that the former studio head approached people he knew in the US, both Jewish and non-Jewish, and asked them to do the same, resulting in more people being saved.

According to Freedman, the affidavits Laemmle submitted on behalf of refugees allowed them to come to the US even after his death.
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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.

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[ Editor: Zhang Zhou ]
Monday Devotional: A Story of Redemption

The Fellowship | April 8, 2019 Close up of hand pointing to text in the Torah.

The LORD said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land . . . .Exodus 3:78

This month marks one of the most ancient and holiest of Jewish celebrations, Pesach, or Passover. It is a celebration of Gods redemption of His people, Israel, from bondage, and freedom is a theme underlying the celebration. Please enjoy this collection of timeless devotions from my father, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, on this sacred observance.  Yael Eckstein, President

Find out how you can help thousands of needy Jewish elderly and families in during Passover.

Passover, or Pesach in Hebrew, commemorates the most influential event in Jewish history  the exodus of the people of Israel from bondage in Egypt. It was at that particular juncture some three thousand years ago that the national Jewish identity was shaped, and it was from this event that some of the most profound affirmations of the Jewish faith were drawn.

Primary among them is the notion that God is not some distant power, uninterested in His creation. No, the story of Passover affirms for Jewish people that God is present in human life, that He hears the cries of His people, and that He intervenes in human history to deliver His people from affliction and redeem them from oppression.

Through retelling the story of the Exodus and symbolically reliving the events we are to feel as if we ourselves were just delivered from Egyptian bondage. Judaism maintains that Gods act of liberation is not a one-time-only event, but an ongoing and repeated one. In the words of the Haggadah, the text we use during the seder meal to retell the Exodus story, For God did not redeem our ancestors alone, but us, as well.

Today, more and more Christians are celebrating the Passover holiday in their own way, motivated by a desire to reclaim the Jewish roots of their Christian faith and the Jewishness of Jesus. Certainly, the links between suffering and joy, death and resurrection, are familiar to both faith traditions. And Christians, like Jews, affirm that darkness will be followed by light, oppression by redemption, and death by resurrection.

So as Jews around the world celebrate Passover this month, I pray that we will take time to reflect upon the story of Exodus, of a people brought from slavery into freedom because of a God who cared so deeply about humankind that He intervened in human history to deliver them, and how that redemption story is played out in our own lives.

During this holy season, thousands of needy Jewish elderly and families in Israel and the former Soviet Union cant afford the basics to celebrate Passover. Find out how you can help these precious Jewish souls today.
ALBANY  Global Liberty Insurance Co. of New York, the Long Island company that issued the insurance policy for the stretch limousine involved in the Schoharie crash that killed 20 people last fall, is facing an uncertain financial future after its parent company announced last week that it was exploring a possible sale.

Global Liberty, which specializes in selling policies to taxi and limo companies, is owned by Atlas Financial Holdings, an insurance holding company based in Schaumburg, Ill. Atlas owns several other insurance carriers that mostly specialize in the commercial automobile market.

Atlas said earlier this week that it was "exploring strategic alternatives," including "a potential sale of the company or certain assets."

The announcement came a month after Atlas Financial revealed it had underestimated the amount of money it needed to set aside to cover payouts on injury claims  though the period of those claims predates the Schoharie crash, which occurred on Oct. 6, 2018.

"These claims are showing higher severity and have been open for longer periods than we had estimated," Atlas CEO Scott Wollney said.

SEE THE TIMES UNION'S COMPLETE COVERAGE OF THE TRAGEDY IN SCHOHARIE

The news has sent shares of Atlas Financial plummeting more than 75 percent since the beginning of March, from $9 per share on March 1 to less than $2 a share as of Monday.

This drop in value was enough to force at least one analyst to question whether or not Atlas had enough capital to remain in business. A.M. Best, a ratings agency, downgraded Global Liberty's credit rating, calling its balance sheet "weak" in the process.

Prestige Limousine, the Wilton company that owned the 2001 Ford Excursion involved in the crash, had insured the vehicle through Global Liberty, although the policy was repeatedly canceled and then reinstated in the months leading up to the incident. The policy was last reinstated on Oct. 5, the day before the limo careened into the parking lot of the Apple Barrel Country Store & Cafe, killing two pedestrians, before plunging into a ditch, killing all 17 passengers and the driver.

The health of Global Liberty is of particular interest to the families of crash victims, who have started filing lawsuits against Prestige, its owner Shahed Hussain and his son, Nauman, who operated the company on behalf of his father, who is living in Pakistan.

Nauman Hussain was indicted Friday on 20 counts of second-degree manslaughter and 20 counts of criminally negligent homicide in Schoharie County Court. Prosecutors have placed the blame of the accident squarely on his shoulders.

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Sal Ferlazzo, an Albany attorney who is representing the family of Amanda Rivenburg, said regulators would step in long before any New York insurance carrier had problems paying out claims.

"It is never a good thing to have the carrier downgraded, but the state (Department of Financial Services) will come in if they go bust  so it should not impact our case at all," Ferlazzo said. "If it gets worse we can get some court relief, but that is unlikely."

According to the Global Liberty's latest filing with the state Department of Financial Services, which serves as the state's insurance regulator, Global Liberty had $58 million in assets and $49 million in liabilities, giving it a $9 million surplus.

However, over the past two years, Global Liberty has lost $8 million as its losses and "cost-containment" expenses  such as hiring attorneys to defend policyholders in lawsuits  have outstripped the payments for premiums.

For now, Global Liberty remains in compliance with the state in terms of the reserves it needs to keep and its capital.

An attorney with Wilson Elser, the Albany firm hired by Global Liberty to defend the Hussains in the civil cases resulting from the crash, declined to comment on the insurer's financial woes.
A group of chefs and others who worked over the years at the former Saratoga County restaurant Chez Sophie are getting together for a one-night reunion that will bring back some of the classic dishes from the beloved restaurant.

It is scheduled for Monday, April 29, at Dunning Street Station in Malta, which now occupies that silver diner building that was Chez Sophie's home in the 1990s and early years of this century.
Q: Is it now time for the State of New York Transportation Department to take another look at the intersection of Swatling Road and Route 2 in Latham?

It has become a more dangerous place now that there are so many new homes built off Swatling Road that need access to Route 2.

The intersection has a double set of lights which increases the difficulty of safe passage. And (recently) a woman lost her life there.

Janet Nittoli was struck and killed at this intersection on Dec. 11, trying to cross Route 2.

Would the state need any more evidence than her senseless death to take another look and do what it takes to make this a safer place for drivers and pedestrians?

Perhaps something good could come from this woman's awful highway death.

 Tom Hanley, Latham

A: The New York State Department of Transportation has begun an updated study to determine if traffic patterns have changed in this area, Tom.

According to spokesman Bryan Viggiani, the DOT investigated the intersections of Route 2 at Swatling Road (where a pedestrian signal and crosswalk are located) and Youngs Place in 2016.

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Viggiani said that the three-year accident rate in this area was well below statewide numbers for similar roadways, but added that the department takes tragedies like the death of Janet Nittoli seriously.

That's why the DOT will study the intersections again.

"New York has made pedestrian safety a priority, and as part of the governor's Pedestrian Safety Action Plan, more than 850 pedestrian crossing locations have already been upgraded to enhance safety," Viggiani said. "These investments, as well as efforts to crack down on lawbreakers and educate the public, make our streets safer and promote more walkable communities across New York State."

Do you have a question about transportation? Email gettingthere@timesunion.com. Please include your name, town and telephone number.
ALBANY  State lawmakers are pursuing multiple avenues to compel the release of President Donald J. Trump's tax returns, noting that he is the only modern president to refuse to release the documents.

Sen. Brad Hoylman, D-Manhattan, introduced legislation on Monday authorizing the state Department of Taxation and Finance to share tax return information with a congressional committee.

Federal law gives three congressional committees the power to obtain, inspect and disclose the otherwise confidential federal tax information of any taxpayer from the U.S. Department of Treasury.

Under state law, the release of state tax returns is largely prohibited.

Hoylman's bill, which has the endorsement of U.S. House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler, would create a new exception to the rule and authorize the sharing of state tax returns with a congressional committee when the request is made in the furtherance of a legitimate legislative purpose.

"This new bill will permit New York state to comply with requests from congressional investigative committees and help ensure Congress can't be blocked in their attempts to hold even the highest elected officials in the land accountable to the American people," Hoylman said.

Previous versions of the legislation drew criticism for being to broad and infringing on the privacy of New York taxpayers. The latest version narrows the criteria for permitting the release of tax returns.

Last week, the House Ways and Means Committee requested copies of Trump's tax returns under its authority pursuant to federal law. Attorneys for the administration have indicated that they will fight the request.

Another bill introduced in January by Hoylman and Assemblyman David Buchwald, D-Westchester, would require the disclosure of tax returns by the president and vice president.

More than 25 states have introduced similar bills that would require presidential candidates to release their returns to appear on the 2020 ballot, but the measures have run into constitutional issues.

A third bill, also sponsored by Hoylman and Buchwald, would require the state Department of Taxation and Finance to release five years of income tax returns for eight office holders, including the president, vice president, U.S. senators, and four statewide officials, such as the governor.

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Trump has claimed that an ongoing audit by the Internal Revenue Service has prompted him, on the advice of counsel, not to release his tax returns.

State Republican Party Chairman Ed Cox slammed the measure on Monday, accusing state Democrats of having "Trump Derangement Syndrome."

"No matter how they dress it up for legal purposes, this unconstitutional bill of attainder is aimed at one individual for the political purpose of re-litigating the 2016 election," Cox said. "The bill would set a dangerous precedent for infringing on the privacy rights of all citizens."
TROY  The former president of the city's largest police union admitted in court Monday that he stole $6,200 from the bargaining unit he once led.

Aaron Collington, a detective who retired in February, pleaded guilty in Rensselaer County Court to fourth-degree grand larceny, a felony, as part of a plea deal that spares him from prison time.

In the plea deal accepted by Judge Jennfer Sober, Collington will remain on probation for a year and must complete 250 hours of community service. If he stays out of trouble during probation, the case will be discharged and the felony against him will be dismissed and replaced with a misdemeanor charge of petit larceny. His record will be scrubbed of the felony conviction.

The 50-year-old declined to comment after emerging from the courtroom.

Collington's guilty plea follows months of negotiations between his lawyer, Joseph Ahearn, and special prosecutor Linda Griggs.

He rejected another plea offer in February and was headed to trial on April 29.

"I'm glad he took responsibility for his actions," Griggs said.

Ahearn said until this incident, Collington had an outstanding record and was active in the community.

"I hope the public takes into consideration the years of good service he provided to the people of Troy," Ahearn said.

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Collington was indicted last summer for stealing from the Troy Police Benevolent Association while he was its president. The bargaining unit represents 118 patrol officers, detectives and sergeants.

He used the money to pay rent, according to the police complaint. Collington made $79,926 in 2017, according to seethroughny.net, a website that lists government payrolls in New York. Collington has been free without bail since his October 2017 arrest.

Colington has repaid the stolen money.

After Rensselaer County's district attorney recused himself, Griggs was assigned to the case by Albany County District Attorney David Soares after he was named as a special prosecutor.
TROY  The popular Troy Waterfront Farmers Market may find a permanent year-round indoor home in the Troy Atrium ending a years-long search to expand beyond its Saturday market as it moves into its 20th season.

The farmers market has been discussing with David Bryce, the downtown developer who owns the Atrium, the possibility of expanding beyond its wintertime residence, said Zack Metzger, president of the Troy Waterfront Farmers Market, in a statement issued Monday.

"Right now, we are learning more about David Bryce's vision for the Atrium and we are thinking about how a market place in the building would work," said Metzger, who operates Laughing Earth farm in Cropseyville.

"The programming opportunities we have discussed so far would be a major improvement to our market, allowing vendors to have a physical presence in downtown Troy during the week. This would be a great addition to our Saturday market in the winter and would complement, but not replace, our successful outdoor market during the summer and fall, Metzger said.

"The addition of a market place in the Atrium is going to drive even more excitement and investment in downtown Troy in the next decade. I'm thrilled to be working with them on this project," Bryce said in the farmers market statement.

Bryce could not be reached Monday to speak about his plans for a redesigned Atrium.

The farmers market at one time was looking at space in a redeveloped 1 Monument Square site. In 2014, Kirchhoff Cos. of Pleasant Valley, Dutchess County, had plans to create a $25 million mixed-use development at 1 Monument Square that included 17,500 square feet for a home for the farmers market. That proposal fell through. In June 2018, the farmers market made it known that it wanted space in any proposal the city drafted for new plans to develop 1 Monument Square. The city has not issued any requests for proposals for the former City Hall site since holding hearings to solicit public comment last summer.

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The farmers market said its preliminary discussions envision between 20 and 25 booths with flexible spaces with an entrance on the Atriums Broadway side adjacent to the existing loading bay.

The outdoor market would continue to operate. It is one of downtown Troys biggest attractions, drawing thousands to the city every Saturday.

The farmers market moves back outside Saturday May 4 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., on River Street and around Monument Square. It remains outdoors through October before moving back inside from November through April.
[April 08, 2019]

2019 ICT Canada--Presented by BICSI Begins with Outstanding Pre-Conference Seminars

TORONTO, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- BICSI, the association advancing the information and communications technology (ICT) community, launched its inaugural ICT CanadaPresented by BICSI conference in the welcoming city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ICT professionals from all over the world began gathering at the Toronto Congress Centre for telecommunications industry focused Pre-Conference Seminars.

Session topics included smart building infrastructure, best practices for project estimation and management, the modern workspace and advanced AV system trends. A special pre-conference seminar and EduTour of the world-renowned and innovative intelligent building, Cisco Canada Headquarters, was also held.

The conference continues Tuesday with Opening Keynote Speaker Wes Johnston, CEO of Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA). He wil share his insight on the future of ICT and impart his keen sense of how business, government and associations should work together to drive industry innovation. Technical education sessions will follow, presenting content on enterprise fiber networks, intelligent buildings, IoT, PoE and green building codes, among others, on the General Session Stage and on the new Tech Innovation Stage, which is located inside the Exhibit Hall.







The Exhibit Hall will also open on Tuesday with a Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony at 10:30 a.m. and will feature nearly 45 exhibitors from innovative ICT companies in the business, demonstrating groundbreaking technologies and time-saving products and services.

A complete 2019 ICT CanadaPresented by BICSI schedule of events and conference presentations is available at bicsi.org/ictcanada.

About BICSI

BICSI is a professional association supporting advancing the information and communications technology (ICT) community. ICT covers the spectrum of voice, data, electronic safety & security, project management and audio & video technologies.

Headquartered in Tampa, Florida, USA, BICSI membership spans nearly 100 countries.

View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/2019-ict-canadapresented-by-bicsi-begins-with-outstanding-pre-conference-seminars-300826333.html

SOURCE BICSI
[April 08, 2019] Aspen Dental Management, Inc. Announces Abhinav Shukla as Chief Operating Officer

Aspen Dental Management, Inc. (ADMI), one of the largest and fastest-growing dental support organizations (DSO) in the U.S., announced today that Abhinav Shukla is joining the company as chief operating officer (COO). Shukla joins ADMI from True Value Company, an iconic brand in hardware retail, where he most recently served as COO and was responsible for merchandising, pricing, and integrated global supply chain management. He also oversaw True Value's paint manufacturing division and its proprietary brands and True Value's omni-channel offerings. During his tenure at True Value, he led large, multi-location teams of almost 2,000 associates who served more than 4,400 retailer locations in 60 countries. "Healthcare delivery continues to evolve as consumers demand more flexibility and choice, and we're thrilled to welcome to our leadership team someone who has a proven track record of creating value for branded consumer and large-scale service businesses," said Bob Fontana, chairman and CEO of ADMI. "I've been impressed by the expertise and perspective that Abhinav brings to the table, and can't wait to see the impact he'll have on the Aspen Dental brand." Added Shukla, "I'm excited to bring my experience in building and leading teams in retail and consumer focused businesses to the dentists who own and operate Aspen Dental branded practices. The teams I have led in the past created competitive advantages through exceptional customer service and growth through scale up of capabilities. I look forward to elping to cement Aspen Dental's leadership position and support its continued growth and expansion."



Prior to True Value, Shukla was a consultant for global consulting firm AlixPartners, where he led strategic and operational transformation initiatives at several Fortune 500 companies focused on growth, profitability and higher shareholder returns. He was the co-founder / CEO of AlphaHarvest Capital, a New York-based investment management firm, and served as a Principal at Druker Capital. Shukla began his career with international roles at Global 500 companies followed by consulting stints at McKinsey & Co. and The Boston Consulting Group. Shukla is a CFA Charterholder, and has a master's degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology. Over the past ten years he has served on the Board of Directors of several national nonprofits and industry associations and spoken at leading industry events and conferences as a speaker, moderator and keynote panelist.

About Aspen Dental Offices Aspen Dental-branded practices are committed to breaking down the barriers so that patients can get the care they need today. With more than 750 offices in 39 states, Aspen Dental practices provide a wide range of general dentistry and denture-related services and offer patient-friendly programs and services, including convenient locations, onsite labs and extended hours. Together, Aspen Dental practices cared for nearly 1.8 million patients in 2018. For additional information about Aspen Dental or to find an Aspen Dental office, please visit www.aspendental.com. About Aspen Dental Management, Inc. With an innovative model that takes care of non-clinical business and administrative services so that providers are free to focus on patient care, the team at ADMI is driven by one overarching purpose: To care for the people who care for the patients. ADMI makes it easier for clinicians to have the careers they've always dreamed of, delivering care to their patients with the support of a team of experienced business professionals who are committed to making their practices a success. Support provided by ADMI includes services and recommendations related to finding the right locations, leasing, acquiring equipment, accounting and marketing. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190408005733/en/

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[April 08, 2019] BlueVine Adds Term Loan to Suite of Online Working Capital Solutions to Fuel Small Business Growth

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LENDIT FINTECH USA -- BlueVine, which provides small- and medium-sized businesses with access to fast and simple online financing, announced that it is making term loan financing available for business owners through its suite of online financing solutions. The BlueVine Term Loan provides small- and medium-sized business owners with fast and simple access to financing to grow their businesses through BlueVines advanced online platform. More than 59 percent of businesses are looking for funds to grow their business, according to the 2017 Federal Reserve Small Business Credit Survey Report on Employer Firms. With a BlueVine Term Loan, business owners can quickly pursue larger projects and investments to bring their businesses to new heights. With a BlueVine Term Loan, small businesses can get quick and easy access to the financing they need to grow their business and take advantage of investment opportunities, said Eyal Lifshitz, CEO and co-founder of BlueVine. Its a perfect addition to our growing suite of accessible financing products that are meticulously designed to meet all of the diverse financing needs of small businesses  whether its flexible funds for everyday expenses or a lump sum amount for expansion. The release of BlueVines third financing product is an important milestone as we continue on our mission to revolutionize small business financial services. Fast and Simple Term Loan Financing With No Origination Fees

BlueVine provides business owners with access to term loans from $5,000 to $250,000, without charging origination fees. It offers one simple, fixed weekly rate over a six- or 12-month term. All lines of credit and term loan financing products are issued by Celtic Bank, a Utah-chartered Industrial Bank, Member FDIC. Business owners are often busy individuals and want access to quick and easy financing. While many business owners turn to banks to access financing, an approval can be difficult to qualify for, and the application process for a traditional bank term loan can take up to weeks and even months and require mounds f documents.



With BlueVines easy-to-use online dashboard, business owners can apply for a Term Loan online in minutes with just some basic information about the business owner and the business, and they can get approved in as fast as 10 minutes. Once the business owner accepts the offer, the funds are deposited directly into their bank account in as fast as a few hours. Nearly $2 Billion & Counting: A Successful Financing Platform Uniquely Designed for Diverse Small Business Needs

The BlueVine Term Loan joins two highly successful working capital financing options on the BlueVine platform: BlueVine Invoice Factoring, which allows business owners to get advances on unpaid invoices; and BlueVine Flex Credit, a line of credit which gives small businesses flexible access to capital, on demand. Founded in 2013, BlueVine has provided thousands of businesses across the United States with access to nearly $2 billion in financing and counting.

With the addition of Term Loan, small businesses have access to a full suite of financing products from BlueVine to meet virtually all customer needs at any time during their business lifecycle -- from funding everyday operational expenses to critical long-term investments for growth. Last year, our senior care business experienced tremendous growth, and we needed funds to hire more employees to keep up, said BlueVine client Uche Ohale, agency manager of UC Cares, a health care services provider in Bolingbrook, Illinois. We were able to get a loan through BlueVine, which allowed us to employ over 25 nurses and take our business to the next level. To learn more about securing a BlueVine Term Loan, visit www.bluevine.com/term-loan/ . Attending the LendIt Fintech Conference? Stop by the Building a National Brand for Small Business Lending panel on Monday, April 8 from 11:15 - 11:55 AM PT to hear our CEO Eyal Lifshitz speak about building the BlueVine brand. About BlueVine

BlueVine provides small- and medium-sized businesses with fast and simple access to online financing. BlueVines advanced online platform is intuitive and offers a fast and convenient solution for a business working capital needs. BlueVine offers a suite of products designed to meet the diverse financial needs of todays business owners. With revolving Line of Credit, business owners can access flexible funds on demand; with Term Loan, business owners can get a lump sum amount to grow their business. With Invoice Factoring, business owners can unlock funds online, from their unpaid invoices. Based in Redwood City, California, BlueVine has provided small- and medium-sized businesses with access to nearly $2 billion in financing and is backed by leading private and institutional investors, including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, 83North, Citi Ventures, SVB Capital, Rakuten, Nationwide Insurance, and M12 (Microsofts Venture Arm). All lines of credit and term loan products are issued by Celtic Bank, a Utah-chartered Industrial Bank, Member FDIC. For more information, please visit www.bluevine.com . Media Contacts:

Ben Pimentel

BlueVine PR

510-731-8429

Ben.pimentel (at) bluevine.com Ali Mapplethorpe

Highwire PR

415-675-1457

bluevine (at) highwirepr.com

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[April 08, 2019] CIFAR announces new research programs and AI Chairs

New portfolio takes risks, convenes extraordinary minds to address science and humanity's most important questions. TORONTO, April 8, 2019 /CNW/ - Top scientists and scholars from around the world have new opportunities for collaboration today with the announcement of CIFAR's new research portfolio and the expansion of the Canada CIFAR AI Chairs program. The 13 CIFAR research programs address critical questions across four interdisciplinary theme areas: Life & Health, Individuals & Society, Information & Matter and Earth & Space. Life & Health What might we uncover in an unknown biosphere? - Fungal Kingdom: Threats & Opportunities

- Fungal Kingdom: Threats & Opportunities How do microbes that live in and on us affect our health, development and even behaviour? - Humans & the Microbiome

- Humans & the Microbiome How does life originate and what are the processes that make life possible? - Molecular Architecture of Life Individuals & Society What are the origins and mechanisms of consciousness? - Azrieli Program in Brain, Mind & Consciousness

- Azrieli Program in Brain, Mind & Consciousness How do childhood experiences affect lifelong health? - Child & Brain Development

- Child & Brain Development Is it possible to have a world without "us" and "them"? - Boundaries, Membership & Belonging

- Boundaries, Membership & Belonging How can innovation be beneficial to all? - Innovation, Equity & the Future of Prosperity Earth & Space How do we understand the life, groundwater and environment deep below the surface of a planet? - Earth 4D: Subsurface Science & Exploration

- Earth 4D: Subsurface Science & Exploration What is the nature of extreme gravity, and how can it help us understand the origin and evolution of the universe? - Gravity & the Extreme Universe Information & Matter How can we learn from nature to harvest energy from the sun? - Bio-inspired Solar Energy

- Bio-inspired Solar Energy How do we understand intelligence and build intelligent machines? - Learning in Machines & Brains

- Learning in Machines & Brains How do we harness the power of quantum mechanics to improve information processing? - Quantum Information Science

- Quantum Information Science How could quantum materials transform our society? - Quantum Materials "For almost 40 years, CIFAR has supported fundamental research and innovation across borders and disciplines," says Dr. Alan Bernstein, President and CEO of CIFAR. "The portfolio we are announcing today will change conversations across disciplines and result in the scientific, technological, and scholarly advancements of tomorrow." Each program addresses complex questions and engages international and interdisciplinary networks of researchers and scholars. CIFAR provides a sustained, long-term commitment to their progress by convening meetings and providing catalyst funds for new directions of inquiry. The environment of intellectual freedom fosters deep collaboration and trst between CIFAR fellows. At meetings, they share and critique preliminary findings and data, often prior to publication, and provide insights from peers across disciplines.



"I think CIFAR is going to be particularly catalytic for us," says Barbara Sherwood-Lollar, professor of earth sciences at the University of Toronto and the co-director of the new Earth 4D: Subsurface Science and Exploration program. "The program will enable us to bring together people from extremely different perspectives, and then give them the intellectual freedom to challenge each other, challenge themselves and change thinking." While CIFAR's impact on the research process is immediate, wider social benefits can take longer to be realized. The organization bridges this gap by connecting its research programs to global thought leaders outside of academia through knowledge mobilization. These exchanges enrich research and stimulate new social, economic and technical innovations. For example, CIFAR fellows in the Humans & the Microbiome program are working with public health leaders to create the first educational curriculum on the Microbiome and Healthy Living.

More information on the new portfolio and the Global Call for Ideas is available here . Expansion of Canada CIFAR AI Chairs program As part of the Pan-Canadian AI Strategy, CIFAR also announced an expansion of the Canada CIFAR AI Chairs program, bringing the total number of chairs to 46, from 29 announced in December 2018. The prestigious Canada CIFAR AI Chairs program, funded by the Federal government with $86.5 million over five years, provides researchers with long-term, dedicated research funding to support their research programs and help them to train the next generation of AI leaders. The 46 Chairs are named in partnership with Canada's three national AI Institutes: Amii (Edmonton), Mila (Quebec) and the Vector Institute (Toronto), as well as twelve universities and hospitals across the country. "The Canada CIFAR AI Chairs Program is core to Canada's ongoing leadership in machine learning research and training," says Dr. Elissa Strome, Executive Director of the CIFAR Pan-Canadian AI Strategy. "As the first country to develop a national AI strategy and the birthplace of deep learning, Canada is uniquely positioned to advance machine learning research and responsible AI."

The Canada CIFAR AI Chairs program aims to increase the number of outstanding artificial intelligence researchers and skilled graduates in Canada, and to enhance Canada's international profile in AI research and training. More information on the Canada CIFAR AI Chairs Program and the full list of chairs is available here . CIFAR takes the long view CIFAR has a record of picking winners. The deep learning revolution in artificial intelligence was kickstarted by CIFAR support in 2004. In that year Geoffrey Hinton (Google, University of Toronto, Vector Institute) launched a new program called Neural Computation and Adaptive Perception, the predecessor to today's Learning in Machines & Brains (LMB) program at CIFAR. Today, Yoshua Bengio (Mila, Universite de Montreal) and Yann LeCun (Facebook, NYU) lead LMB, asking fundamental questions about how humans learn and how to apply that understanding to machines. Together, the three AI luminaries were recently awarded the ACM A.M. Turing Award-- the "Nobel Prize of Computing". Their work has enabled technologies like voice and image recognition and real-time translation, among many others. "CIFAR has an impressive track record of supporting innovation and is leading the world's first national AI strategy," says the Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science and Sport. "These new Chairs will maintain Canada's status as an AI trailblazer as well as help create jobs and growth across Canada." While not every CIFAR program will radically transform our daily lives the way AI has, many transform science itself by introducing new techniques, approaches and bodies of knowledge that are core to innovation. The organization is meticulous and rigorous in its selection of research questions and the fellows chosen to pursue them. CIFAR is recognized around the world for its long-term vision and an unparalleled approach to the world's most complex questions. It is a leader in convening extraordinary minds, fostering international collaboration and creating new knowledge. About CIFAR CIFAR is a Canadian-based, global charitable organization that convenes extraordinary minds to address science and humanity's most important questions. By supporting long-term interdisciplinary collaboration, CIFAR provides researchers with an unparalleled environment of trust, transparency and knowledge sharing. Our time-tested model inspires new directions of inquiry, accelerates discovery and yields breakthroughs across borders and academic disciplines. Through knowledge mobilization, we are catalysts for change in industry, government and society. CIFAR's community of fellows includes 19 Nobel laureates and more than 400 researchers from 22 countries. In 2017, the Government of Canada appointed CIFAR to develop and lead the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy. CIFAR is generously supported by the governments of Canada, British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, Canadian and international partners, as well as individuals, foundations and corporations. SOURCE CIFAR

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[April 08, 2019] Clarity Benefit Solutions Discusses the Recent Legislation Signed to Provide Tax Benefit for New Jersey Commuters

NEW YORK, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Clarity Benefit Solutions discusses the recent legislation signed by Governor Phil Murphy that provides a tax benefit for New Jersey commuters. On March 1, 2019, Governor Murphy signed into effect S1567, a bill that requires employers with at least 20 employees (with the exception of those currently in a collective bargaining agreement) to offer a pre-tax commuter benefit program. Commuter benefit programs let employees set aside a certain amount of pre-tax dollars to be used towards commuting expenses like transit passes, parking rates, and park and ride services. Since employees are not taxed on these funds, they can accumulate significant savings over time. Employers also benefit from these types of programs. The more employees that enroll in the program, the more employers can save on payroll tax expenses. An example of an existing commuter benefits program is Clarity Smart Ride. This program can help employees save up to 30% on their commuting expenses and help employers save up to 7.65% on payroll taxes for every dollar contributed to the plan.



Although some forward-thinking companies have already began offering a commuter benefits program, the mandatory adoption will help spread the positive impact of these programs further across the state. "By signing this bill, my Administration is taking another step toward creating the fairer and more customer-friendly transportation system that our commuters deserve," said Governor Murphy.

Since transportation costs are a significant burden on New Jersey commuters, signing this law into effect will put money back in the pockets of those who earned it. The New Jersey department of labor will start adopting rules and regulations to enforce this law. About Clarity Benefit Solutions: Clarity Benefit Solutions provides technology that makes the health insurance plan selection process fast, easy, and straightforward. For over two decades, we have provided clients with industry-leading technology, compliance, and exceptional customer service. Our offering is designed to save time and lower the costs of managing benefits while also promoting employee self-service and automated ACA compliance. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/clarity-benefit-solutions-discusses-the-recent-legislation-signed-to-provide-tax-benefit-for-new-jersey-commuters-300825437.html SOURCE Clarity Benefit Solutions

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[April 08, 2019] Cotiviti's 2019 Client Conference to Deliver Payer-Focused Insights for Navigating Healthcare Industry and Regulatory Transformation

Cotiviti, a leader in data-driven healthcare solutions, will host the 2019 Cotiviti Client Conference (CCC19) April 10-12, 2019 in Naples, Florida, bringing together some of the largest payer organizations in the United States and other healthcare stakeholders to discuss news ways to improve clinical and financial performance. The three-day conference will focus on transforming the economics of healthcare and helping healthcare payers perform more efficiently, with less waste and better quality outcomes for their members. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190408005221/en/ "Cotiviti is proud to work with over 180 payer organizations to help achieve the important goals of improving their financial performance while doing right by their members," said Joe Morrissey, Cotiviti executive vice president of client engagement. "Our 2019 conference will provide a unique forum for industry leaders to explore innovative ways to leverage the powerful perspectives that healthcare data provides for strategic advantage. We are honored to host the brightest minds in both the private and public sectors to build the future of data-driven healthcare together." Cotiviti president, chief executive officer, and board chairman Emad Rizk, M.D., will open CCC19 with a keynote introducing the new Cotiviti and sharing how the company combines data fluency, dimensional insights, and performance excellence to help healthcare organizations meet their goals. Dr. Rizk will also explore how healthcare innovation has been influenced by the latest trends in reglatory and structural design. Other event keynotes include Len M. Nichols, Ph.D., Director, Center for Health Policy Research and Ethics (CHPRE), who will share his perspectives on demystifying healthcare in today's political landscape and Joseph F. Coughlin, Ph.D., Founder and Director, MIT (News - Alert) AgeLab, who will discuss the concept of envisioning a new future for old age in the longevity economy, providing the framing and insight business leaders need to serve the growing older market. The event will close with a keynote by Vinh Giang, magician, entrepreneur, and motivational speaker, who will focus on the importance of perspective and collaboration in strategic decision-making.



CCC19 will introduce clients to the new Cotiviti, a company forged from two industry leaders-Cotiviti Holdings and Verscend Technologies-in August 2018. The event will offer deep-dive product workshops and demonstrations, best practices and case studies from industry thought leaders, and valuable networking events. Industry visionaries will gather to discuss top-of-mind issues for payer organizations, self-funded employers, benefit brokers, and providers. About Cotiviti

Cotiviti is a leading solutions and analytics company that is reshaping the economics of healthcare, helping its clients uncover new opportunities to unlock value. Cotiviti's solutions are a critical foundation for healthcare payers in their mission to lower healthcare costs and improve quality through higher performing payment accuracy, quality improvement, risk adjustment, and network performance management programs. The company also supports the retail and life/legal industries with data management and recovery audit services that improve business outcomes. For more information, visit www.cotiviti.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190408005221/en/

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[April 08, 2019] Deep Lens Closes $14 Million Series A Financing to Further Advance Digital AI Pathology Platform for Clinical Trial Recruitment

Deep Lens, Inc., an AI-driven digital pathology company focused on clinical trial recruitment at the time of diagnosis, announced today the company has closed a $14 million Series A financing, led by Northpond Ventures. Existing investors Rev1 Ventures, Sierra Ventures, and Tamarind-Hill Partners also participated in this round, which comes just three months after Deep Lens closed its VC-led seed equity round. Funding to date now totals $17.5 million. Deep Lens will use the funding proceeds to further expand its artificial intelligence (AI) and platform product development activities and scale its service, sales, and marketing organizations to support current and anticipated demand and growth for its disruptive approach to clinical trial recruitment. "Since our inception, we've benefitted from a tremendous group of investors, which now includes the world class team at Northpond Ventures," said Deep Lens co-founder and CEO Dave Billiter. "This Series A financing is further validation of the value of our industry-changing approach to digital pathology in delivering the right cancer diagnoses faster and accelerating oncology trial recruitment and timelines." The company's flagship technology, called VIPER (Virtual Imaging for Pathology Education and Research), was originally developed for research purposes in Columbus, Ohio where it was the de-facto platform for global oncology studies including The Cancer Genome Atlas Project (TCGA) and others, before being commercialized by Deep Lens. VIPER combines artificial intelligence (AI) with advanced pathology workflows while also facilitating peer-to-peer collaboration and patint identification for clinical trials. The ultimate aim is to provide users with fast and accurate information, along with expert consultation, for better patient care and advanced clinical research.



"In the past year we have successfully launched our industry leading platform, VIPER, to the pathology industry at-large, we have integrated deep learning (AI) and we have made VIPER available free-of-charge to pathology groups worldwide as we work to identify patients at the time of diagnosis for available clinical trials," said TJ Bowen, Ph.D., co-founder and chief scientist. Simon Arkell, president and co-founder added, "With this additional capital, we will move to quickly leverage our successes in the pathology industry and apply a highly disruptive approach to patient identification in clinical trials, one of the most expensive and time intensive issues faced by the pharmaceutical industry."

Patient recruitment for clinical trials remains a time-intensive, costly barrier to the execution of drug development programs. More than 14,000 oncology clinical trials are actively recruiting patients1, yet estimates put the rate of participation as low as three percent of potential trial candidates.2 Deep Lens' VIPER platform enables the pathologist in clinical trial recruitment. By identifying eligible patients at the time of their diagnosis, much sooner than current methods, VIPER can help fast-track trial enrollment and potentially shorten the duration of the trial. "Northpond is excited to support Deep Lens. The VIPER platform and its unique distribution is a novel approach to the problem of patient recruitment in clinical trials," said Michael P. Rubin, M.D., Ph.D., founder and CEO at Northpond. "We are proud to begin working with the current investors to help Deep Lens accomplish their clinical and commercial goals." About Deep Lens Deep Lens has extended one of the world's first digital pathology cloud platforms, VIPER, to include artificial intelligence, enhanced pathology workflow support and collaboration capabilities. In addition to providing essential workflow support to pathology teams, Deep Lens offers the most precise and timely source for identifying sites and patients for sponsored clinical trials. For more information, visit https://www.deeplens.ai/. ___________________________ i https://clinicaltrials.gov, Last accessed February 28, 2019

ii https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK50895/ View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190408005008/en/

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[April 08, 2019] GigabitNow to Bring Gigabit Fiber Internet to Fullerton California

SEATTLE, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- GigabitNow, a division of IsoFusion, a leading provider of Internet access and IT services on the west coast of the United States, announced today its involvement in bringing Gigabit Internet speeds to the residents and businesses of the city of Fullerton, California. GigabitNow will be delivering Gigabit Internet services via international fiber-optic network developer, SiFi Networks' (SiFi), construction of one of the largest privately funded open access network in the United States. SiFi Networks will construct and operate the network, while GigabitNow will provide Gigabit Internet services, making fast reliable Gigabit speeds available to the community of Fullerton as part of efforts to revolutionize the North American telecoms market. The new fiber optic network will provide incredibly fast, consistent Internet speed and reliability to the residents and businesses of Fullerton meeting today's demands for Internet connectivity with scalability in the future. The Fullerton fiber network, while delivering on the promise of fast and reliable Internet to the community, also empowers the city to move forward with important Smart City initiatives in key government services such as traffic control, street lighting and emergency services. "We are excited to deliver our first FiberCity in the USA, an investment that sets the standard for fiber optic infrastructure as a core utility," stated Ben Bawtree-Jobson, CEO of SiFi Networks. "We are pleased to have GigabitNow providing internet services to businesses and residents across the SiFi network. Having a true fiber optic network passing every part of the city is an amazing opportunity for smart city applications and bringing competition to the city's communication needs." SiFi Networks funds, builds, and operates the network while partnering with internet service providers who bring their marketing and customer service expertise to deliver retail services (internet, TV and voice) to residents and businesses throughout the entire city without demographic segmentation. "GigabitNow is excited to deliver fast, reliable Gigabit Internet that surpasses anything being offered in the city today," said Stephen Milton, CEO of GigabitNow. "Working with SiFi over the last several years has proven to be a great relationshi with the common goal of making competitive, reliable, internet available to communities of all sizes. Our entire team is eager to start providing awesome internet at an affordable price to the people of Fullerton!"



Construction of the city-wide network is set to begin in May of 2019 with internet services expected to be rolled out at the end of the year. GigabitNow is offering two-speed plans to residents with 250Mbps symmetrical internet available for just $60 a month and 1Gbps symmetrical internet service for just $79. Business internet service starts at $99 for a 1Gbps symmetrical service. GigabitNow is taking pre-subscriptions for service starting today with early subscribers guaranteeing their spot in line to be one of the first in their neighborhood to get service. More information is available at www.FullertonFiberInternet.com. If you require any further information, please contact:

Dan Sivils - GigabitNow

[email protected] or (206) 905-8060

www.FullertonFiberInternet.com

About GigabitNow

GigabitNow (www.gigabitnow.com) offers turnkey solutions for the Financing, Planning, Design, Construction, Operation, and Support of Gigabit Fiber Networks. GigabitNow, one of the most experienced Fiber to the Home Internet Providers in the United States, is a division of IsoFusion Incorporated. IsoFusion (www.isofusion.com) is one of the largest privately held ISP and Colocation providers in Western Washington. Founded in 1991 as ISOMEDIA, IsoFusion is a full solution provider of Internet-related services and complex solutions to companies with a national presence. A competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) in the state of Washington, IsoFusion offers a full range of services providing everything from Managed Data Center and Colocation services, commercial Fiber and Ethernet connections, custom Fiber-to-the-Home community solutions, hosting and dedicated server options, and technology consulting for businesses. IsoFusion is headquartered in Seattle, Washington and provides exceptional quality, value, and service to residential and business customers across the West Coast. About SiFi Networks

SiFi Networks (www.sifinetworks.com) is an international network developer. We pride ourselves on innovative construction methods, financial modeling and collaboration. SiFi Networks funds, builds, and operates community-wide state of the art fiber optic networks enabling internet service providers to deliver next-generation applications including superfast internet, video and phone. In addition to SiFi Networks' highly experienced in-house team, we have partnered with established and award-winning firms who have unparalleled experience within the sector. Company information contact:

Sara Pickstock

SiFi Networks Communications

[email protected]

www.SifiNetworks.com Related Images gigabitnow.jpg

GigabitNow Related Links Fullerton Fiber Internet View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gigabitnow-to-bring-gigabit-fiber-internet-to-fullerton-california-300825782.html SOURCE GigabitNow

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[April 08, 2019] Item 9 Labs Corp. Breaks Ground on Cannabis Cultivation and Processing Facility Strive Wellness of Nevada

LAS VEGAS, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Item 9 Labs Corp. (OTC: INLB) (Item 9 Labs or the Company), a leading developer and manufacturer of innovative cannabis products and proprietary delivery platforms, today announced it has launched construction of Strive Wellness of Nevada, a medical cannabis cultivation and processing facility with distribution rights, in Pahrump, Nevada. Item 9 Labs became an operating partner of Strive Wellness of Nevada in June 2018. The new cultivation and production space covers 20,000 square-feet, doubling the overall square-footage of Item 9 Labs existing aggregate facilities. We are excited to kick off our Nevada expansion and bring our quality medicine to another patient base. Nevada is a large medical market that will more than double Item 9 Labs' overall revenue. Last year, the State of Nevadas combined adult-use and medical cannabis sales reached $580 million and resulted in more than 7,500 industry jobs, stated Sara Gullickson, CEO of Item 9 Labs. Strive Wellness of Nevada secured its Special Use Permit in December 2018 and required building permits in 2019. The facility will be producing legal medical cannabis products by Q4. Part of a two-phased construction project, Strive Wellness of Nevada will undergo additional expansion plans in 2020. Item 9 Labs expects to be operating as licensed medical cannabis dispensaries, cultivation, and manufacturing facilities in ten U.S. markets by the end of 2019. For information visit Item9LabsCorp.com. About Item 9 Labs Corp.: Item 9 Labs Corp. (OTC: INLB) creates comfortable cannabis health solutions for the modern consumer. The Company is bringing best of industry practices to markets from coast to coast through cultivation and production, distinctive retail environments, licensing services, and diverse product suites catering to different medical cannabis demographics. Item 9 Labs Corp. is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, with medical cannabis perations in multiple U.S. markets.



Item 9 Labs Corp.s asset portfolio includes Dispensary Permits, Dispensary Templates, and Strive Life. These assets provide services specific to different stakeholder groups. Dispensary Permits is the Companys consulting firm specializing in strategic license application and compliance. Dispensary Templates, a subdivision of the firm, is a technology platform with an extensive digital library of licensing and business planning resources. Strive Life is a turnkey dispensary model for the retail sector, elevating the patient experience with consistent and superior service, high-end design, and precision-tested products. It is currently being implemented in Arizona and North Dakota. In addition, Item 9 Labs Corp. is advancing the industry with its dynamic product suites. The Company has created complementary brands Item 9 Labs and Strive Wellness to channel consumer diversity. Propriety delivery platforms include the Apollo Vape and Pod system, as well as a pioneering intra-nasal device. The Company has received multiple accolades for its medical-grade flower and concentrates.

Item 9 Labs Corp. will be managing cultivation, processing, distribution, and dispensary operations in up to ten U.S. markets by the end of 2019. Current facilities include distribution and processing operations Strive Wellness of Ohio and Strive Wellness of Nevada, as well as dispensary Strive Life North Dakota. For more information, visit Item 9 Labs Corp. at www.Item9labscorp.com . Forward-Looking Statement: This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, risks and effects of legal and administrative proceedings and governmental regulation, especially in a foreign country, future financial and operational results, competition, general economic conditions, proposed transactions that are not legally binding obligations of the company and the ability to manage and continue growth. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual outcomes may vary materially from those indicated. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements we make in this news release include the introduction of new technology, market conditions and those set forth in reports or documents we file from time to time with the SEC. We undertake no obligation to revise or update such statements to reflect current events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. Media Contact:

Neko Catanzaro

Proven Media

[email protected]

(401) 484-4980 Investor Contact:

Jeffrey Rassas

Item 9 Labs Corp.

[email protected]

(602) 463-4246

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KBRA Releases Research - Brexit: Spain and Portugal; Impact Contained but Sector Exposure Remains

Kroll Bond Rating Agency Europe Limited's (KBRA) latest macro-market comment discusses possible Brexit-related impacts on two European Union (EU) member states rated by KBRA, namely Spain and Portugal. The UK is not the primary trading partner for either Spain or Portugal, but it does maintain significant trade and commercial relations with these countries. KBRA's view is that Brexit-related challenges will be contained for Spain and Portugal, although specific sectors in each country stand out as more exposed in the aftermath of the UK's departure the EU.

To access the full report, click here.

Related Publications: (available at www.kbra.com)







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About KBRA and KBRA Europe

KBRA is a full-service credit rating agency registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as an NRSRO. In addition, KBRA is designated as a designated rating organization by the Ontario Securities Commission for issuers of asset-backed securities to file a short form prospectus or shelf prospectus. KBRA is also recognized by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners as a Credit Rating Provider, and is a certified Credit Rating Agency (CRA) by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). Kroll Bond Rating Agency Europe Limited is registered with ESMA as a CRA.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190408005513/en/
[April 08, 2019] Latin America Cell Analysis Markets, 2019-2025: Market is Anticipated to Reach $1,566.7 Million by 2025, Witnessing a CAGR of 10.29%

DUBLIN, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Latin America Cell Analysis Market: Focus on Products Type, End Users, 5 Countries Data, Industry Insights, and Competitive Landscape - Analysis and Forecast, 2019-2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Latin America cell analysis market is anticipated to reach $1,566.7 million by 2025, witnessing a CAGR of 10.29% in the forecast period 2019-2025. Technological innovations in the healthcare industry have opened up new avenues for better treatment, and prevention approaches, for infectious and non-infectious diseases globally. The changes and innovations in the healthcare industry have changed the experiences of patients, outcomes of chronic diseases, and improved practices of healthcare professionals. A significant degree of research on molecular technologies and cellular biomarkers presence in body fluids have opened various pathways for the development of cellular heterogeneity analysis and molecular level analysis of pathways and processes. Some of the factors such as growing inclination towards single-cell technology, increasing prevalence of chronic diseases, technological advancements of cell analysis instruments, increasing support from governments of countries in Latin America for cell-based research activities, and increasing number of contract research organizations providing outsourcing services are bolstering the growth of the Latin America cell analysis market.



In terms of product type, the Latin America cell analysis market is dominated by consumables. The impressive growth in the demand for consumables, which includes assays, reagents and labeling kits, among others, is attributed to the elevated requirement for specialty chemicals and assays intended for research activities and therapeutic purposes.

Further, the installation of new cell analysis units and replacement of old ones is bolstering the growth of the Latin America cell analysis market. Cell-based flow cytometry is a major domain that is gaining popularity owing to its ease of use, high accuracy, and sensitivity. Increasing awareness pertaining to the use of cell-based assays is further supporting the use of cell-based flow cytometer.



In terms of end user, the Latin America cell analysis market is dominated by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. The growth can b accounted to the increased awareness and adoption of cell analysis tests for an early detection and treatment of infectious diseases.





The shift from chemical-based small molecules to the biology-based larger molecules such as protein and antibodies is supporting the growth of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies' segment. Latin America majorly focuses on research for the development of relevant drugs and providing vital real-time information on tumor profiles and chronic diseases, further facilitating the prognosis and treatment approach for healthcare professionals.





In terms of country, Brazil is the leading contributor to the Latin America cell analysis market. The growing geriatric population and rising prevalence of different types of cancer have significantly elevated the requirement of novel cell analysis technologies which enable real-time monitoring, diagnosis, and prognosis in the country.

Key Topics Covered:

Executive Summary 1 Market Overview

1.1 Role of Biomarkers in Cell Analysis

1.2 Recent Advancements in Cell Analysis

1.3 Trends for Latin America Cell Analysis Market

1.4 Cell Analysis Market: Future Potential

1.5 Latin America Cell Analysis Market Scenario



2 Market Dynamics

2.1 Impact Analysis

2.2 Market Drivers

2.2.1 Growing inclination towards single cell technology

2.2.2 Increasing focus on cell-based research across countries of Latin America

2.2.3 Increasing number of contract research organizations (CROs)

2.2.4 Rising awareness about regenerative medicine among individuals

2.2.5 Advancement in cell imaging and analysis technologies eased drug discovery process

2.3 Market Restraints

2.3.1 Stringent regulatory framework on cell analysis systems and assays

2.3.2 High costs associated with the cell analysis instruments

2.4 Market Opportunities

2.4.1 Offering of high-content screening services by contract research organizations (CROs)

2.4.2 Automation of cancer cell analysis techniques



3 Competitive Insights

3.1 Market Share Analysis

3.2 Industry Attractiveness

3.2.1 Bargaining Power of Suppliers

3.2.2 Bargaining Power of Buyer

3.2.3 Threat of New Entrants

3.2.4 Threat of Substitute Products

3.2.5 Intensity of Competitive Rivalry



4 Latin America Cell Analysis Market (by Product Type)

4.1 Instruments

4.1.1 Cell Imaging Systems and Microscopes

4.1.2 Flow Cytometer

4.1.3 Quantitative PCR (qPCR) Instruments

4.1.4 Cell Counters

4.1.5 Cell Screening and High-Content Screening Systems (HCS)

4.1.6 Other Instruments

4.2 Consumables

4.2.1 Assay Kits

4.2.2 Reagents

4.2.3 Other Consumables



5 Latin America Cell Analysis Market (by End User)

5.1 Hospitals

5.2 Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Companies

5.3 Contract Research Organizations (CROs) and Contract Manufacturing Organizations (CMOs)

5.4 Academic and Research Institutes

5.5 Other End User



6 Latin America Cell Analysis Market (by Country)

6.1 Brazil

6.2 Mexico

6.3 Argentina

6.4 Chile

6.5 Colombia

6.6 Rest-of-Latin America (RoLA)



7 Company Profiles

Becton, Dickinson and Company

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc.

Danaher Corporation

F.Hoffmann-La Roche AG

GE Corporation

Merck & Co., Inc.

Olympus Corporation

Perkin Elmer, Inc.

QIAGEN N.V.

Sony Biotechnology Inc.

Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/8k8lxh/latin_america?w=5 About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends. Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. Media Contact: Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

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Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/latin-america-cell-analysis-markets-2019-2025-market-is-anticipated-to-reach-1-566-7-million-by-2025--witnessing-a-cagr-of-10-29-300825998.html SOURCE Research and Markets

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[April 08, 2019] Mayor Lori Ackerman Named the 2019 Canadian Energy Person of the Year

Fort St. John Mayor, Lori Ackerman, to be honoured by the Energy Council of Canada. Date to be confirmed -- Calgary. OTTAWA, April 8, 2019 /CNW/ - The Energy Council of Canada has chosen Mayor Lori Ackerman of Fort St. John, British Columbia as Canadian Energy Person of the Year. As a 30-year resident of Fort St. John, B.C. and the community's first female mayor, Lori Ackerman is one of Canada's top energy advocates. She is admired for her leadership of a resource-driven municipality, striking a balance between energy development, community representation, and First Nations partnerships. Mindful of the challenges and opportunities that energy resource municipalities manage, Mayor Ackerman consistently advocates for economic and community development, technological innovation, and Canadian competitiveness. Her willingness to share lessons learned and to engage in dialogue regarding the relationship between local communities and Canada's energy sector marks her as a leader not only in her own community but across Canada. Mayor Ackerman thinks globally and acts locally. Together with Fort St. John City Council, she successfully aligned the City's Strategic Plan with UN Global Sustainable Development goals, toured local resource projects with mayors from across B.C. and received one of only two Leaership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum and Certified Passive House designations in Canada for Fort St. John's demonstration house. Fort St. John, under Mayor Ackerman's leadership, was presented Clean Energy B.C.'s Community of the Year Award and installed an in-line turbine on the City's gravity-fed effluent outfall line generating 780 MWh of energy each year. Mayor Ackerman is also a contributing member of the Sustainable and Inclusive Communities in Latin America (CISAL) initiative, working with resource-based communities in Colombia and Peru to build capacity in local government, was recognized as one of the Top 35 Most Influential Women in BC and was awarded the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.



When asked about the decision to present Mayor Ackerman with the Canadian Energy Person of the Year Award, Energy Council of Canada President, Jacob Irving had this to say: "Canadian communities that grow alongside energy development, manage unique development opportunities. Balancing economic highs and lows, while moving toward a sustainable future for both the community and the energy industry requires vision, tenacity and strong leadership. Canada is fortunate to have a leader like Lori Ackerman who sees the big picture and the local reality and is able to fit the two together for mutual benefit. There is a lot we can learn from Mayor Ackerman, which is why we're so pleased she is the 2019 Canadian Energy Person of the Year."

The Canadian Energy Person of the Year Award was established by the Energy Council of Canada in 2001 to recognize and pay tribute to a Canadian energy leader who has made a significant impact at the national and international levels within the energy sector and nominations are based upon the nominee's outstanding accomplishments in the business or public sectors and the community at large. A foremost characteristic of the nominee is their strong sense of social responsibility and their commitment to give back to the community. Their focus upon environmental and social issues, and economic development should be evident. Their forward thinking and innovative spirit enable these leaders to promote the Canadian energy sector and Canada's role in the world energy market. For more information about the Energy Council of Canada, visit our website at www.energy.ca, like us on Facebook or follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter @EnergyCouncilCA. For more information about Fort St. John, visit www.fortstjohn.ca, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter @fortstjohn. SOURCE Energy Council of Canada

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[April 08, 2019] Ryan Promotes Vik Singh-Bains to Goods and Services Tax Principal and Practice Leader

Ryan, the world's largest firm focused primarily on business tax services, has announced the promotion of Vik Singh-Bains to Principal and Practice Leader, Goods and Services Tax (GST (News - Alert)) in Australia. In his new role, Singh-Bains will direct the practice's sustained growth momentum, expand Ryan's operations, and increase the Firm's global awareness for providing indirect tax offerings across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. "Under Vik's direction, Ryan's Sydney headquarters, and APAC presence overall, is growing at a rapid rate, largely by becoming the only provider in Asia-Pacific that offers post-recovery and tax compliance reporting," said Ryan President of European and Asia-Pacific Operations Jon C. Sweet. "Leveraging his deep understanding of the specific services needed by indirect tax functions to generate real financial value will be a tangible asset for our clients across the region."



In his 18 months at Ryan, Singh-Bains has expanded the Firm's integrated GST offerings and solidified its validation and identification process in Australia and New Zealand. With close to 15 years in the tax industry, Singh-Bains is a recognized regional authority on indirect and transaction tax compliance and recovery. Prior to joining Ryan in 2017, Singh-Bains was Head of Transaction Tax Reporting for the largest investment bank in Australia and New Zealand.

About Ryan Ryan, an award-winning global tax services and software provider, is the largest Firm in the world dedicated exclusively to business taxes. With global headquarters in Dallas, Texas, the Firm provides an integrated suite of federal, state, local, and international tax services on a multijurisdictional basis, including tax recovery, consulting, advocacy, compliance, and technology services. Ryan is a seven-time recipient of the International Service Excellence Award from the Customer Service Institute of America (CSIA) for its commitment to world-class client service. Empowered by the dynamic myRyan work environment, which is widely recognized as the most innovative in the tax services industry, Ryan's multidisciplinary team of more than 2,500 professionals and associates serves over 14,000 clients in more than 50 countries, including many of the world's most prominent Global 5000 companies. More information about Ryan can be found at ryan.com. "Ryan" and "Firm" refer to the global organizational network and may refer to one or more of the member firms of Ryan International, each of which is a separate legal entity. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190408005236/en/

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[April 08, 2019] Space Robotics Market to Surpass $3.5bn by 2025: Global Market Insights, Inc.

SELBYVILLE, Del., April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The space robotics market is predicted to hike from USD 2 billion in 2018 to around USD 3.5 billion by 2025, according to a 2019 Global Market Insights, Inc. report. The market is experiencing rapid technical development owing to the integration of AI technologies into systems developed for space exploration. Several companies are developing AI-based robots that provide enhanced mobility and manipulation benefits. These machines can perform highly-complex tasks for a longer duration and offer minimal human dependence. The integration of AI offers 3D perception and proximity GNC to robots, which will support resistance against environmental conditions and offer high flexibility, accuracy and control. In November 2018, an AI-based robot, CIMON, started its first conversation with a spacefaring crew. The robot is designed by DLR Germany in collaboration with IAM and Airbus. Moreover, the increasing number of experiments and projects related to space exploration by government agencies globally is attributing to the demand of the space robotics market.. Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/3219 Robotic arms in the space robotics market are witnessing a high demand for the deployment in advanced space systems. Robotic arms aid astronauts in lifting and handling heavy and large objects in space. Moreover, rovers are spacecraft that use exploration vehicles and perform the transportation of crew members from one spaceflight to another. The companies working in the market are developing partially or fully autonomous rovers for exploration and transportation applications. In the space robotics market, near space exploration and transportation segments are gaining popularity due to several missions working on asteroid survey missions, which are near to the Earth's surface. The need for continuous maintenance and servicing of the existing satellites is creating a huge demand for this segment, adding to the growth of the market. The near space transportation segment utilizes advanced transportation systems that support transporting of heavy cargos to the existing objects for repairing and other purposes. Various companies are gaining huge investments to carry out their near space transportation projects. Commercial applications in the space robotics market are growing due to technical advancements and various exploration missions adopted by governments along with companies. In March 2019, SpaceX announced the launch of Crew Dragon's demonstration mission, which was intended for demonstrating the company's capabilities including safety of astronauts to fly to and from the International Space Station. The spacecraft is America's first one to autonomously dock along with the orbiting laboratory. The segment includes companies that include satellite operators and private owners, launching service providers, and exploration companies, which aid in the proper functioning of spaceflights, adding up to the market growth. Browse key industry insights spread across 150 pages with 161 market data tables and 18 figures and charts from the report, "Space Robotics Market Size By Solution (Product [Rovers / Landers, Probes, Arms / Manipulator Systems], Software, Services), By Application (Deep Space [Space Exploration, Space Transportation], Near Space [Space Exploration, Space Transportation]), By End-Use (Commercial, Government), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Russia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Israel, South Africa), Growth Potential, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2019 - 2025" in detail along with the table of contents:



https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/space-robotics-market North America is a leading participant in the market, owing to the presence of national organizations, including NASA and CSA, that are actively working toward the industry's development. The U.S. and Canada are investing huge amounts in R&D and technology enhancement to achieve space exploration initiatives. The Asia Pacific space robotics market is also growing at a rapid pace in countries including India, Japan and China due to several ongoing and upcoming space projects.

The key companies operating in the space robotics market include Oceaneering International, Maxar Technologies, Northrop Grumman, Astrobotic Technologies, Motiv Space Systems, Altius Space Machines, etc. These players are investing heavily in R&D activities to develop new solutions related to exploration and transportation in both deep and near space. Strategies, such as partnerships and contracts, with other companies and government organizations, such as NASA, ISRO, etc., are strengthening their position in the market. Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @ https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/3219 Browse Related Reports: Automotive Robotics Market Size By Product (Articulated, Cartesian, SCARA, Parallel, Cylindrical), By Component (Hardware [Controllers, Arms, End Effector, Drive, And Sensor], Software & Services), By Application (Welding, Assembly, Processing, Handling Operations, Paint & Dispense), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, Mexico, UK, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, UAE, South Africa), Application Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2017  2024 https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/automotive-robotics-market Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market Size By Orbit (GEO, MEO, LEO, SSO), By Number Of Payloads (Primary Only, 2 to 5, 6 to 10), By Launch Activity (Commercial, Non-Commercial), By Application (Navigation, Scientific, Earth Observation, R&D, Communication, Meteorology, Remote Sensing) Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., France, Russia, China, India), Growth Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2018  2024 https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/satellite-launch-vehicle-slv-market About Global Market Insights Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology. Contact Us: Arun Hegde

Corporate Sales, USA

Global Market Insights, Inc.

Phone: 1-302-846-7766

Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688

Email: [email protected]

Web: https://www.gminsights.com

Blog: http://solutionrocket.com/category/technology Related Images global-space-robotics-market-size.png

Global Space Robotics Market Size to hit $3.5bn by 2025

Commercial applications in the space robotics market are growing due to technical advancements and various exploration missions adopted by governments along with companies. Related Links Space Robotics Market Size Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Market Size View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/space-robotics-market-to-surpass-3-5bn-by-2025-global-market-insights-inc-300825780.html SOURCE Global Market Insights Inc.

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[April 08, 2019] SpaceChain opens operation in the United Kingdom to explore opportunities in Europe's commercial space ecosystem

SINGAPORE, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Singapore-based SpaceChain has expanded its operations to the United Kingdom to leverage Europe's advanced space technologies and to drive economic development through SpaceChain's satellite infrastructure and blockchain technology. SpaceChain UK Limited will be based in Harwell, Oxfordshire at the Satellite Applications Catapult (SAC), an independent innovation and technology company created by Innovate UK. To kick off its new business venture, SpaceChain collaborated with SAC to host a workshop that explored the benefits of blockchain technologies and its applications for the commercial space industry. Attended by more than 60 professionals from all over the UK, the workshop introduced the potential of a community-based space platform. "Last year, I travelled to the UK about six to seven times. During tose visits, I met a lot of potential partners from various UK-based space companies and learned more about the ecosystem there. From tracking satellites to building new rockets, the UK has played a vital role in the development of the space industry and we see more opportunities on the horizon," said Zee Zheng, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of SpaceChain.



SpaceChain has already partnered with several UK-based companies, including: Open Cosmos , a microsatellite platform designed to manage the process of bringing satellite services to businesses; NanoAvionics , a nanosatellite mission integrator that delivers new generation satellite buses and propulsion systems; and Alba Orbital , a pioneer in the development of PocketQube satellites. Heading the new UK office as Director is SpaceChain's Chief Commercial Officer Nick Trudgen. A native of the UK, Trudgen speaks fluent Mandarin and specializes in UK-China trade and investment, with a focus on space, satellite, and telecommunications.

"We are very excited to explore the UK space ecosystem and bring the next generation of institutional grade blockchain services to existing and future satellite infrastructure. We have also received positive feedback from the entities we have met and we're looking forward to working more closely with our partners in the UK," said Trudgen. # # # About SpaceChain: Founded in 2017, SpaceChain is a community-based space platform that combines space and blockchain technologies to build the world's first open-source blockchain-based satellite network, allowing users to develop and run decentralized applications in space.The SpaceChain operating system will be available to anyone, anywhere in the world, all while remaining secure and immutable through proven blockchain cryptography. In doing so, SpaceChain's vision is to remove barriers and allow a global community to access and collaborate in space. For more information, visit www.spacechain.com .

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[April 08, 2019] State Bar of Montana Signs Agreement for April 2019 launch of Identillect's Delivery Trust

IRVINE, Calif., April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Identillect Technologies Corp. (the "Company" or "Identillect") (TSX-V: ID), a trusted leading provider of compliant email security, announces the State Bar of Montana has selected Delivery Trust as the preferred solution for bar members to meet and exceed the regulatory requirements to protect their member sensitive communications. Identillect has recently partnered with numerous state bars and legal associations providing the legal community the simplest and most secure way to communicate with clients and associates.

The State Bar of Montana with offices in Helena, has over 5,000 members. In addition to its regulatory mission in furtherance of the Montana Supreme Courts constitutional oversight of the legal profession in Montana, the Bar also works to foster high standards of learning and competence among its members by providing practical and educational assistance to Montana lawyers and the public. As part of its mission, the Bar takes pride in providing security education and digital communication tools which bar members have direct access to utilize. This has created the desire for a partnership with the legal cyber-security leader Identillect Technologies. Eric Nord, President of the State Bar of Montana, commented, The State Bar of Montana is committed to improving cyber-security protection for bar members and is enthusiastic about the Identillect partnership. This partnership provides a robust security platform for our members along with advanced education to better understand and protect against cyber-threats and regulatory compliance for our members. We believe Delivery Trust will be a great asset. Identillect CEO Todd Sexton states, Identillect continues to see growth throughout the legal profession and is committed to the security and integrity of their communication. Identillect proudly accepts the responsibility to assist in the cyber-protection and education for the State Bar of Montana. Identillect has taken a collective approach to serve the state bars across the country and looks forward to continually contributing to the cyber-protection of the legal profession and their clients. In a recent American Bar Association article, David Ries, a well-known lawyer and author on cyber- security stated, Confidential data in computers and information systems, including those used by attorneys and law firms, faces greater security threats today than ever beforeand they continue to grow! Security breaches are becoming so prevalent that there is a new mantra in cybersecurity today: 'Its when not if,' a law firm or other entity will suffer a breach. In an ABA Tech Report 2017 article they highlighted that lawyers are being specifically targeted.



Cyber-security threats are increasing, 43% of cyber-attacks are aimed at small businesses due to the lack of security infrastructure. The damages cybercrimes create for a business has no end in sight, it is estimated businesses will incur more than $6 Trillion annually by 2021 . The best way a business can combat being another statistic is through employee education and security protocols. About Identillect

Identillect Technologies is the leading provider of email encryption service Delivery Trust, empowering enterprises of all sizes to protect their business and their clients critical information against cyber security attacks. Delivery Trust is an award -winning, multi-platform plug-in, which gives users complete control of their emails, for one low price. One simple integration complies with all regulations and most importantly provides peace of mind. For more information, or your free trial, please visit www.identillect.com On Behalf of the Board of Directors of: IDENTILLECT TECHNOLOGIES CORP. Todd Sexton

Chief Executive Officer

Tel: (949) 468-7878

Email: [email protected] About State Bar of Montana The State Bar of Montana with offices in Helena, has over 5,000 members. The Bars mission includes its work to foster and maintain on the part of those engaged in the practice of law high standards of integrity, learning and competence; to provide for the continuing legal education of its members; and its efforts to help the public, including by insuring that the responsibilities of the legal profession to the public are more effectively discharged. 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. This news release may include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. All statements within, other than statements of historical fact, are to be considered forward looking. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. There can be no assurances that such statements will prove accurate and, therefore, readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such uncertainties. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required under the applicable laws.

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TIER REIT INVESTOR ALERT by the Former Attorney General of Louisiana: Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC Investigates Merger of TIER REIT, Inc. - TIER

Former Attorney General of Louisiana Charles C. Foti, Jr., Esq. and the law firm of Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF") are investigating the proposed merger of TIER REIT, Inc. (NYSE: TIER) with Cousins Properties (NYSE: CUZ) in a stock-for-stock transaction. KSF is seeking to determine whether the merger and the process that led to it are adequate, or whether the merger undervalues the Company.

If you believe that this transaction undervalues the Company and/or if you would like to discuss your legal rights regarding the proposed sale, you may, without obligation or cost to you, e-mail or call KSF Managing Partner Lewis S. Kahn ([email protected]) toll free at any time at 855-768-1857, or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-tier/ to learn more.







To learn more about KSF, whose partners include the Former Louisiana Attorney General, visit www.ksfcounsel.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190408005840/en/
[April 08, 2019] The University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine Improves Student Exam Scores with Gale Interactive: Human Anatomy

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. and IOWA CITY, Iowa, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine has seen improvements in student engagement and exam performance from using 3D interactive learning tools. The university is using Gale Interactive: Human Anatomy from Gale, a Cengage company, to conduct virtual 3D exploration. Now students and instructors can interactively explore anatomy from every angle, streamlining lectures and lab work that fosters an active learning environment improving student outcomes. Read the blog post from one of the university's assistant professors about how he's using Gale Interactive: Human Anatomy for teaching. Ranked among the best medical schools in the country for research and innovation, the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine is located in Iowa City, with nearly 600 medical students enrolled. With a strong commitment to supporting student success, the university needed an interactive resource that gives students a clear and complete understanding of the human body, where students can visualize essential concepts with hands-on interaction. They chose Gale Interactive: Human Anatomy, a 3D interactive learning tool. Darren Hoffmann, assistant professor in the university's department of anatomy and cell biology, has a passion for discovering new ways to improve the quality of learning and the student experience in anatomy coursework with 3D interactive learning. Before using Gale Interactive: Human Anatomy, Hoffmann purchased an app to create videos for each of his lectures. This was very time consuming and had limitations for adequately preparing students for labs. "When you put a ton of objects in front of someone, they don't know what to look at. That's really the magic piece of Gale Interactive," said Hoffmann. "It's preconstructed i the sense that it's oriented around a specific region or concept, but it's completely free play for the students when they start going into it."



Gale Interactive: Human Anatomy is an innovative learning aid that allows students to examine virtual 3D structures of the human body with guided instruction that's aligned with course curriculum. Created with both students and faculty in mind, it can be used for in-classroom demonstrations or help with homework and research assignments. The interactive aspect allows students to dive deeper into complex concepts with tools that allow them to zoom, rotate and explore the human body in real-life scenarios. "Guidance: That's the most important, unique feature of Gale Interactive: Human Anatomy. That's what keeps me coming back," said Hoffmann. "I can trust my students to go there on their own and they can figure it out. The structure of the interface and the website is very clear and obvious what you're going to see when you go to click on a session."

For Hoffmann, the best scenario for students in an anatomy course is to blend live dissection with a really good 3D model, which is what Gale Interactive: Human Anatomy makes possible. Using 3D Anatomy tools to prepare his students for cadaver dissections resulted in dissections being completed quicker and subsequently led to improved exam performance. "On comprehensive exams, scores went up for those who used these 3D anatomy tools as pre-lab prep," said Hoffmann. "Most importantly, feedback from students has been overwhelmingly positive. They want more! They want the same type of resource for other subjects. I know that Gale Interactive is making a difference. It's giving people a way to actually see what's real in a way that's stylized and almost hyper-real." Read the entire story about the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine success with Gale Interactive: Human Anatomy. Gale will showcase Gale Interactive: Human Anatomy at the Experimental Biology Conference, April 7-9 in Orlando, FL at Gale booth #1041 and at the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) Conference, April 10-13 in Cleveland at the Gale booth #311. To request a free trial, visit the Gale Interactive: Human Anatomy webpage. About Cengage and Gale

Cengage is the education and technology company built for learners. The company serves the higher education, K-12, professional, library and workforce training markets worldwide. Gale, a Cengage company, provides libraries with original and curated content, as well as the modern research tools and technology that are crucial in connecting libraries to learning, and learners to libraries. For more than 60 years, Gale has partnered with libraries around the world to empower the discovery of knowledge and insights  where, when and how people need it. Gale has 500 employees globally with its main operations in Farmington Hills, Michigan. For more information, please visit www.gale.com. Follow Gale on: Twitter

Gale Blog

Facebook Media Contact:

Kayla Siefker, Gale, a Cengage company

248-699-8456

[email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-university-of-iowa-carver-college-of-medicine-improves-student-exam-scores-with-gale-interactive-human-anatomy-300825628.html SOURCE Gale, a Cengage company

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[April 08, 2019] NPR's 'How I Built This' Summit With Guy Raz Returns To San Francisco Fall 2019

Following the success of last year's Summit, NPR (News - Alert) is pleased to announce the How I Built This Summit with Guy Raz, supported by American Express (News - Alert), will return to San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on October 22 and 23. The Summit will feature on-stage interviews by podcast creator and host Guy Raz with founders of major U.S. companies, representing a wide range of industries including technology, consumer products, wellness and music. Confirmed speakers include the founders of Atom Factory, Away, Bliss, Edible Arrangements, Instagram, JetBlue, Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, Slack, Stacy's Pita Chips and Urban One. Additional guests will be announced in the months leading up to the Summit. This year's Summit has expanded to two days of programming, starting on the afternoon of Tuesday, October 22nd, followed by a full day on Wednesday, October 23rd. The Summit is a unique opportunity for current and aspiring entrepreneurs to build connections, exchange ideas and draw inspiration from a variety of powerful stories from leading business owners. The Summit will bring some of the most popular guests from the How I Built This podcast to the main stage, where Guy Raz will further explore specific themes and ideas from their episodes. Programming will also include facilitated track sessions where attendees will examine topics related to business fundamentals, personal and organizational leadership and entrepreneurial innovation. American Express, a multi-year sponsor of NPR and the How I Built This franchise, will continue its support as the Presenting Sponsor of the How I Built This Summit with Guy Raz. "I have been to many conferences in my life. At last year's inaugural HIBT Summit, I was blown away at the energy, the generosity and incredible kindness I saw in the entrepreneurs and builders who attended," says podcast creator and host Guy Raz. "I can't wait to spend two days with this remarkable community at this year's Summit. These aren't just entrepreneurs at different stages in the development of their businesses, but also idealists who are coming with new ways to innovate, problem-solve and create. And this year's Summit will provide even more opportunities for those gathered to forge lasting connections and friendships and to build real-world skills that will help in the development of their personal and professional growth." The Summit's track sessions are intended to foster learning and the exchange of entrepreneurial ideas. The Fundamentals Track will deepen participants' understanding of key business topics, and will include a facilitated 'Pitch to your Peers' activity to encourage networking and help participants practice getting the word out about their business ideas. The Leadership Track will focus on the development and refinement of personal and organizational leadership skills, challenging participants to reflect on and share their own paths to leadership. The Innovation Track will explore today's technological and business trends with industry experts and provide participants with concrete strategies and tactics to employ in their own business planning.



"We want to continue to foster and grow the community of entrepreneurs that were drawn to the first How I Built This Summit," adds Jessica Goldstein, NPR Senior Director of Events and Strategic Initiatives. "Surveys from the Summit revealed that our attendees are at various points in their entrepreneurial journeys, ranging from just starting to hatch a business idea to fully relying on a business as a primary source of income. This year we hope to once again create an atmosphere where you can learn, collaborate and share encouragement and support." The sold-out 2018 Summit combined a clear intention of entrepreneurship and values, and diversity of vision was a key component: attendance was 42% men and 58% women -- 50% of whom were women of color -- and the speaker lineup for the event earned How I Built This Summit the Gender Avenger Gold Stamp of Approval.

How I Built This is now one of the 15 most-downloaded podcasts in the United States according to Podtrac and is consistently a top-ranked business podcast on the Apple (News - Alert) charts. Last year, Guy Raz was been profiled in The New York Times and appeared as a guest on The Tonight Show, where host Jimmy Fallon called HIBT his favorite podcast. HIBT was featured in Barron's The 7 Best Podcasts in Business and Finance in March of 2019, Business News Daily's 10 Best Business Podcasts in December of 2018, and Digital Trends The Best Podcasts of 2018. Listen to How I Built This on NPR One and wherever podcasts are available. About NPR NPR's rigorous reporting and unsurpassed storytelling connect with millions of Americans everyday-on the air, online, and in person. NPR strives to create a more informed public-one challenged and invigorated by a deeper understanding and appreciation of events, ideas, and cultures. With a nationwide network of award-winning journalists and 17 international bureaus, NPR and its Member Stations are never far from where a story is unfolding. Listeners consider public radio an enriching and enlightening companion; they trust NPR as a daily source of unbiased independent news, and inspiring insights on life and the arts. Learn more at NPR.org/about or by following NPR Extra on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190407005020/en/

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[April 08, 2019] VirtualArmour Expands Managed Cybersecurity Services with Global Gemological Organization

CENTENNIAL, Colo., April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- VirtualArmour International Inc. (CSE:VAI) (OTCQB:VTLR), a premier cybersecurity managed services provider, has expanded its security services engagement with a leading global gemological organization with more than 18 research and laboratory centers around the world. The contract value for the additional professional and managed security services totals more than $400,000 over the next 12 months.

A managed Palo Alto Networks firewall solution will be augmented by VirtualArmours dedicated managed security service provider (MSSP) solution. The comprehensive deployment will be designed to support the ingestion and correlation of large security-related data sets, while providing security monitoring and real-time visibility into the threat landscape. This will also include Managed Splunk for continuous visibility into the entire organization and SOCaaS for a complete enterprise Incident Response lifecycle solution. This will shorten investigation cycles while better prioritizing, confirming and taking actions on higher priority threats. Like with an increasing number of global enterprises, this valuable client recognized the need for a more encompassing and responsive information security posture, said VirtualArmour CEO, Russ Armbrust. By leveraging more of our managed security services and highly-trained engineers, they can now better support growth and expansion while maintaining best-in-class cybersecurity. Our solutions cater to the needs and demands of such international clients, which provides tremendous value and premium protection with our globally-based security operation centers. VirtualArmours MSSP solution employs a wide range of technologies to manage, monitor and maintain the customer security systems and prevent security breaches. As VirtualArmours team of expert analysts actively hunt for security threats before they become a problem, the companys security platform can alert the customer to a possible security threat within 15 minutes of detection and provide thorough breach analysis. As part of the services package, the customer will also have access to CloudCastr, VirualArmours proprietary platform that provides 24/7 security visibility. CloudCastr is a single web-based dashboard that integrates all of a clients network devices and security software that are deployed across multiple locations. The intelligently designed interface provides visual, real-time dynamic monitoring and visualisation of threat levels and overall network security. It allows VirtualArmour customers to understand and mitigate threats in real time. CloudCastr also provides VirtualArmour security professionals visibility into a customers network, and supports rapid 24/7 response time from VirtualArmours global security operation centers.



About VirtualArmour VirtualArmour International is a global cybersecurity and managed services provider that delivers customized solutions to help businesses build, monitor, maintain and secure their networks.

The company maintains 24/7 client monitoring and service management with specialist teams located in its U.S. and UK-based security operation centers. Through partnerships with best-in-class technology providers, VirtualArmour delivers leading hardware and software solutions for customers that are both sophisticated and scalable, and backed by industry-leading customer service and experience. The companys proprietary CloudCastr client portal provides unparalleled access to real-time reporting on threat levels, breach prevention and overall network security. VirtualArmour services a wide range of clients, which include Fortune 500 companies and several industry sectors in over 30 countries across five continents. For further information, visit www.virtualarmour.com. Important Cautions Regarding Forward Looking Statements This press release may include forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation and U.S. securities laws. This press release includes certain forward-looking statements concerning a service contract VirtualArmour has entered into with a current client, VirtualArmours continued relationship with various suppliers, the future performance of our business, its operations and its financial performance and condition, as well as managements objectives, strategies, beliefs and intentions. The forward-looking information is based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by the management of VirtualArmour. Although VirtualArmour believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking information is based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking information as VirtualArmour cannot provide any assurance that it will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are frequently identified by such words as may, will, plan, expect, anticipate, estimate, intend and similar words referring to future events and results. Forward-looking statements are based on the current opinions and expectations of management. All forward-looking information is inherently uncertain and subject to a variety of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, including the success of the Company in performing the IT implementation and migration, performance under the contract by all parties, the ability of VirtualArmour to meet timelines, the continued availability of necessary hardware, the absence of any trade war or tariffs affecting VirtualArmours ability to perform, competitive risks and the availability of financing. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release and VirtualArmour disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, other than as required by applicable securities laws. Company Contact

Russ Armbrust

CEO

VirtualArmour International Inc.

Tel (720) 644-0913

Email Contact Investor Relations:

Ronald Both or Grant Stude

CMA

Tel (949) 432-7566

Email Contact

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[April 08, 2019] Use of Social Media Nearly Universal among Financial Advisors, According to New Putnam Investments Study

It is no longer a question of whether a financial advisor uses social media, but rather how they make use of it, according to the sixth edition of the Putnam Investments Social Advisor Study released today. Nearly all U.S. financial advisors (98%) are using social media for business and/or personal use at this point, with 83% using it for business purposes. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190408005108/en/ The sixth edition of the Putnam Investments Social Advisor Study was released today. (Graphic: Business Wire) Additionally, the advisor community self-reports a high level of proficiency when it comes to their social media capabilities, with 61% now describing their skill level as "expert," up from 46% last year. "The use of social media for business purposes by financial advisors has matured during the six years we have conducted this study, evolving from the periphery of the advisor experience into a critical tool for business development and client service," said Mark McKenna, Head of Global Marketing, Putnam Investments. "We are fully committed to helping advisors use social media as an indispensable piece of their practice management, both to build their businesses and to deepen their relationships with clients." Among advisors not currently using social media for business, 28% said they were "absolutely certain" that they would start using it for business in the next three years, up from just 9% last year. "Clearly, we have not yet reached a saturation point," noted McKenna. Advisors report using their social media expertise to make initial contact with referrals from existing clients (57% compared with 52% last year*), acquire new clients (92% versus 86% last year**) and increase assets under management (the average AUM increase from socialmedia initiatives is $4.9 million, including $1.4 million in the past 12 months*).



Putnam's survey of 1,021 financial advisors across the United States also found that almost half of advisors (48%*) strongly agree that social media has changed the nature of their relationship with their clients, up from 39% last year. Of those who agree social media has changed the nature of their client relationships: More than two-thirds (67%) say they have more frequent communication with clients as a result of social media; yet 44% note that they connect with their clients less often by phone or in person than before;

Seven in 10 (70%) say it is easier to share information with their clients; and,

Fifty-seven percent say decision-making is faster and easier. Social Media Networks: LinkedIn (News - Alert) Still Dominant, but Other Platforms In Play

According to the study, in terms of use for business purposes, LinkedIn continues to be the platform of choice for advisors where they follow companies, comment on or share others' updates, request recommendations and post to groups or pages. Advisors also are increasing their use of LinkedIn for business development: connecting with other financial professionals, enhancing current client relationships, cultivating prospective clients and expanding their professional knowledge. "Each of the major social media networks is preferred for different reasons, with LinkedIn favored for improving referral networks, Facebook (News - Alert) for enhancing current client relationships and Twitter for business development initiatives such as thought leadership," said McKenna. "Additionally, advisors are increasing their use of YouTube (News - Alert), Instagram and Snapchat, often using them at rates approaching those of the more established social networks." Overall, business use of key social platforms by advisors stacks up as follows: LinkedIn (72%), Facebook (62%), Twitter (News - Alert) (52%), YouTube (41%), Instagram (38%), and Snapchat (22%). Putnam's research also provided a profile of advisors gaining the most assets from social media use, relative to their total AUM. Of the 14% of advisors whose assets gained through social media represent 10% or more of their total AUM: Close to half (46%) are between the ages of 30 and 39 (versus 35% of all advisors in the study);

Their average AUM gained through social media is three times the average for all advisors in the study ($15.3 million versus $4.9 million overall);

Nearly six in 10 (58%) say social media plays a very significant role in their practice (compared with 47% of all advisors in the study);

They are more likely to pay for enhanced services from LinkedIn (80% versus 62% overall);

They are more likely to have been trained on social media by a colleague from their firms or offices (50% versus 39% overall) or by a wholesaler or representative from an investment partner firm (42% versus 37% overall); and,

Their next step to growing social media is to integrate the data into their CRM system (57% versus 45% overall). * Base: Use social media for business and helped gain clients ** Base: Use social media for business Methodology The research, conducted online in late 2018 in conjunction with NMG Consulting, included participation by 1,021 financial advisors across the United States who have advised retail clients for more than two years. The sample includes a mix of newer and more established advisors, who work across a range of intermediary channels, including independent and regional broker-dealers, nationwide planning firms, wirehouses, insurance firms and RIAs. Advisors were queried about AUM and assets gained via social marketing in ranges; median and average samples are based on range midpoints. The results of the survey can be found at www.advisorsaresocial.com. About Putnam Investments Founded in 1937, Putnam Investments is a leading global money management firm with over 80 years of investment experience. At the end of February 2019, Putnam had approximately $169 billion in assets under management. For more information, visit www.putnam.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190408005108/en/

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[April 08, 2019] Rex Tillerson To Deliver Keynote Address At KPMG's 17th Annual Global Energy Conference

HOUSTON, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- KPMG LLP, the audit, tax and advisory firm, will host its premier energy industry event  the 17th Annual Global Energy Conference (GEC) on June 5-6 in Houston, Texas. Rex W. Tillerson, the Nation's 69th Secretary of State and former President, Chairman and CEO of Exxon will provide the keynote address on June 5. In addition, the GEC will have a host of prominent energy industry speakers and KPMG professionals participating in various breakout sessions. This year, the GEC will focus on how to thrive in what has become a volatile and unpredictable energy environment. Speakers will discuss key topics such as: geopolitical factors shaping the global economy, the impact of trade policy and uncertainty on energy companies, blockchain's potential to solve critical issues in energy, and the future of the workforce in the digital era. "It's not a revelation to say that energy is evolving on virtually every level  from production, distribution, price, and storage  to technology and regulation and beyond," said Regina Mayor, Global Sector Head and U.S. National Sector Leader for Energy and Natural Resources at KPMG. "As an industry, we must recognize these changes and collectively respond. The GEC will spur new thinking, provide perspective on changes and challenges, and offer invaluable networking with prominent leaders in the industry." At the conclusion of the GEC on June 6, KPMG and the Center for Houston's Future will bring together senior energy executives, climate change experts, and other thought leaders for the Houston Low-Carbon Energy Summit. The summit is intended for industry experts to discuss how Houston's enegy industry can apply its deep knowhow, technical capabilities, and unique industry footprint to create and demonstrate new business opportunities related to a lower carbon energy future. Areas to be explored will include energy storage and renewable energy, carbon sequestration and usage, methane capture, cleaner fuels, and expanded markets for natural gas. This conversation will focus on Houston's role in developing solutions to the world's future climate and energy challenges, and will send a clear message that the Houston region's energy companies are working to ensure that Houston remains the "Energy Capital of the World," as the world transitions to a low-carbon economy.



To view the agenda and to register for KPMG's 17th Annual Global Energy Conference and Houston Low-Carbon Energy Summit, click here. Join the GEC conversation on social media by following #KPMGGEC.

For additional information on KPMG, check out News & Perspectives  a new content hub offering a fresh approach to sharing our stories with reporters, editors, bloggers, and other influencers. About Rex Tillerson

Rex W. Tillerson served as the Nation's 69th Secretary of State from February 2017 to March 2018. Prior to being sworn in as Secretary of State, he concluded a career of more than 41 years in the petroleum industry, retiring as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ExxonMobil Corporation at the end of 2016. Tillerson spent the entirety of his career with the corporation going to work for Exxon after graduating from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering. He rose through the ranks and following a number of domestic and foreign assignments, including, President of Exxon Yemen, Inc. and, ExxonNeftegas, Ltd. in Russia, became President of the corporation in 2004 and Chairman and CEO in 2006. About KPMG International

KPMG is a global network of professional services firms providing Audit, Tax and Advisory services. We operate in 153 countries and territories and have 207,000 people working in member firms around the world. The independent member firms of the KPMG network are affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative ("KPMG International"), a Swiss entity. Each KPMG firm is a legally distinct and separate entity and describes itself as such. Contact:

Taylor Ovalle KPMG LLP

201-956-8737

[email protected]

@tayovalle View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rex-tillerson-to-deliver-keynote-address-at-kpmgs-17th-annual-global-energy-conference-300826036.html SOURCE KPMG LLP

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[April 08, 2019] Locix Launches Next-Generation SmartDock Solution to Digitize Warehouse Dock Operations and Maximize Productivity

Locix, next-generation innovator in the scalable collection and analysis of unique and actionable data for autonomous buildings, today launched its SmartDock solution that digitizes the warehouse dock through visual and sensor data and advanced analytics. Locix SmartDock enables comprehensive visibility into the warehouse dock to increase efficiency, reduce truck dwell time, increase worker productivity and asset utilization, to dramatically improve warehouse and logistics operations. In the United States alone, the US government estimates lost productivity from loading dock inefficiencies costs the logistics and distribution industry billions of dollars annually. As the sole point where goods enter or exit a modern distribution center, the loading dock is a critical bottleneck as warehouse operators attempt to align resources with truck arrivals in today's time-sensitive supply chain network. Increasing insight and visibility into the loading dock will be a key driver in IoT solution spending, which Forrester (News - Alert) estimates to reach over $110 billion per year by 2023 in the supply chain and logistics market alone. Dwell time is a major operational problem that most managers intuitively recognize, but they often lack visibility into the total impact it has on overall warehouse operations. Aimed primarily at high turnover, resource-limited warehouses and distribution centers, SmartDock provides real-time insight into the current state of a loading dock, measures efficiency, and creates visual records of key activity. With SmartDock, facilities can quantify the impact of dwell time on their business, get insight into the origin for corrective action and enable smarter decision making. The SmartDock solution levrages Locix's patented HD Vision Sensor platform to cost-effectively collect visual and sensor data from the loading dock's interior and exterior without the extensive installation and high infrastructure costs of competing solutions. Combining this unique data with cloud-based, state of the art machine learning and data analytics, SmartDock provides unprecedented, real-time visibility into dock status and generates alerts and reporting around the specific causes of increased dwell time and dock level inefficiency.



"Our customers are looking for increased efficiency at the dock in distribution centers," according to Mike Yamada, President, Prologis Japan. "Locix allows us to offer them an easy to deploy and cost-effective solution to digitize the entire dock - both externally and internally - significantly increasing dock visibility, reducing dwell time, and maximizing productivity and efficiency." Locix's SmartDock solution supports tactical minute-by-minute operational decision making, while also tracking longer term trends and statistics across docks all over the warehouse. Warehouse operators, management and truck drivers will benefit from the SmartDock solution, including:

Full visibility, alerting, and reporting on dock activity - inside and outside

Current, total, and average dwell time monitoring per dock and per distribution center

Reduced turnaround and detention times

Increased dock scheduling accuracy

Smarter logistics contracts with tighter windows and turnaround times

Optimized and better-informed workforce scheduling and asset utilization "With acceleration of economic globalization and new customer needs, there is increasing demand for new value beyond quality and cost competitiveness," said Katsuya Okihiro, President and CEO, Sumisho Global Logistics. "Locix's innovative SmartDock solution enables us to create new value of logistics for our customers." "Warehouse operations start and end at the loading dock; distributors that fail to optimize their docks will suffer from productivity and efficiency challenges caused by logistics bottlenecks," said Vik Pavate, CEO, Locix. "Digitizing the entirety of a warehouse through accurate and real-time contextual, visual, and spatial data allows our customers to overcome operational challenges and automate decision making, while leveraging reliable technology that isn't cost prohibitive." SmartDock will be generally available to end-users through the Locix Partner Network at the end of April. For more information on SmartDock and local partners, contact [email protected]. To learn more about Locix's SmartDock, visit Locix's booth #N6859 in the Emerging Technologies Solution Center at Promat 2019, or in Murata's booth #18-34 at IoT/M2M Expo in West Hall 3, or visit the Locix website here. About Locix Locix develops revolutionary solutions to uniquely capture spatial, visual and sensor data - providing contextual awareness to buildings, homes and connected devices, digitizing the physical world. Combined with advanced data analytics, Locix solutions enable actionable insights for automated decision-making. Based in Silicon Valley, Locix is backed by leading venture and strategic investors including ID Ventures, University of Tokyo Edge Capital, Murata Manufacturing, NTT Docomo Ventures, Sumitomo Corporation of Americas, iRobot Corp., YE Digital, Yaskawa Electric Corporation and Acer (News - Alert) Inc. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190408005196/en/

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[April 08, 2019] TCS Healthcare Technologies Releases ACUITYnxt 1.4

AUBURN, Calif., April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- TCS Healthcare Technologies is excited to release ACUITYnxt 1.4, the latest version of the most intuitive case management software in the industry. ACUITYnxt, a cloud-based case management software application, now offers several features to further enhance the ability for ACUITYnxt to support the case management process. "Every nurse case manager knows that assessments are central to the case management process, which is why we are excited to add assessments which auto-trigger care plans in ACUITYnxt," said Deborah Keller, RN, BSN, Chief Executive Officer for TCS. "Our assessments in ACUITYnxt are unique in that case managers can create and customize their own assessments in an intuitive panel, including the triggering of specific care plans based on assessment responses." Keller adds, "A new Member Plan module displays every care plan a member is enrolled in, offering the user a 360-degree view of the full plan of care. Organizations can elect to use the classic Problems-Goals-Interventions-Outcomes format or any combination of those elements." In addition to assessments and auto-triggered care plans, the latest reease of ACUITYnxt also includes drag and drop screen design and custom fields. As features have expanded, the ACUITYnxt database has been tuned for optimal performance resulting in a 600% improvement in processing speed. Also, all CPT and HCPCS medical codes have been updated to reflect the latest 2019 releases from the AMA and CMS.



"Feedback from our ACUITYnxt early adopters has been overwhelmingly positive. All have remarked that ACUITYnxt is intuitive and easy to use, allowing them to be efficient and effective as they manage their case load," notes Keller. "This confirms our roadmap for ACUITYnxt. Our next release in July 2019 will include a new data integration engine and updated reporting for billing and time tracking." To request an ACUITYnxt demo, email us at [email protected].

About TCS Healthcare Technologies ( www.tcshealthcare.com ) TCS Healthcare Technologies (TCS) is a leading provider of software and clinical solutions that support and improve medical management operations for health plans, TPAs, ACOs and other case management organizations. TCS' team of US-based clinicians and developers are recognized for their best-in-class managed care expertise and customer support throughout the industry. To learn more about ACUITYnxt and TCS Healthcare Technologies, visit www.tcshealthcare.com. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tcs-healthcare-technologies-releases-acuitynxt-1-4--300825235.html SOURCE TCS Healthcare Technologies

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[April 08, 2019] teleNetwork Has Rebranded as OneSupport

teleNetwork, a leading, Texas-based outsourced technical support provider for telecom and internet companies, is rebranding as OneSupport. OneSupport, which started as a teleNetwork sub-company, is a provider of premium consumer and business IT support solutions. The company has vastly expanded its enterprise, direct-to-consumer, and B2B customer base since 2014, and has significantly expanded its offerings to meet the demands of a rapidly changing marketplace. teleNetwork was founded in 1993 by CEO Anthony Herrera to serve as a level one technical support call center for Dell (News - Alert) computer. With an emphasis on building excellent customer relationships, the company quickly became one of the country's leading tech support providers for multiple Fortune 500 companies. "We've been involved in the telecom business for a long time, but the nature of the company has changed. We're a support company, but there's a lo of confusion about what we do," Herrera said. "We wanted to develop a brand that indicated more of what we do, what business we're in."



Herrera said that the changes wouldn't affect existing customers, rather it will allow new customers to find the company more easily. He also stated that the move will expand the company's market. "teleNetwork has typically served Fortune 500 companies behind the scenes, but not small businesses or consumers," Herrera said. "We're still working with those companies, but we've expanded our product line so that customers of all sizes are able to take advantage of our world-class support offerings."

OneSupport Business IT Services launched in late 2016 with an emphasis on small and mid-sized businesses. OneSupport Business offers fully managed IT, cloud solutions, computer and server maintenance, and repair, and licenses a variety of business suites. OneSupport Business' mission is to deliver an enterprise-level experience out of the gate to growing businesses and help them scale as their customer's needs grow. On the consumer side, OneSupport offers 24/7 remote support to its customers, via phone and chat. They have three subscription plans plus one-time fixes and their OneSite service for issues that cannot be fixed remotely. OneSupport currently employs more than 1500 around the United States with both in-house and work-at-home positions. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190408005595/en/

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[April 08, 2019] IP Infusion to Demonstrate How Network Operators Can Build Open, Smarter, Simpler Networks at MPLS + SDN + NFV World Paris 2019

IP Infusion, a leading provider of intelligent network software for telecom and data communications services, will be featuring disaggregated networking solutions using OcNOS, the industry's first full-featured commercial network operating system for network operators, carriers and enterprises, at MPLS + SDN + NFV World Paris 2019 to be held on April 9 to 12 at the Marriott Conference Center Paris. Prior to this event, IP Infusion (News - Alert) participated in EANTC multi-vendor interoperability testing with other industry leaders on various routing and switching control plane functions including EVPN, IRB and MPLS-based Provider Edge. The result will be published by EANTC at the conference. "Our participation at EANTC interoperability testing demonstrates IP Infusion's commitment to accelerate industry's transition to open networks for data center and access for Network Edge. Whether it's for 5G networks, cloud gateway/provider edge, data centers, DCI/Metro Optical Networks, Internet Exchange Points, Passive Optical Networks or Cell Site Router, IP Infusion's OcNOS offers unparalleled disaggregated networks solutions," said Atsushi Ogata, President and CEO of IP Infusion. "OcNOS brings the power of open networks to help operators and service providers to build open, smart and simpler networks."



OcNOS solutions include; -DC Clos Architecture

-DCI (Data Center Interconnectivity)

-Optical Packet Transponder

-IXP Peering

-Cloud Gateway

-Provider Edge

-Passive Optical Networks (PON)

-Metro Networks

-Mobile Backhaul Gateway/CSR (News - Alert)

OcNOS is the industry's first full-featured network OS for White Box and features hybrid, centralized or distribute network support; scalable, modular high-performance network, and a robust data plane built on merchant silicon. About IP Infusion IP Infusion, the leader in disaggregated networking solutions, delivers enterprise and carrier-grade software solutions allowing network operators to reduce network costs, increase flexibility, and to deploy new features and services quickly. IP Infusion's OcNOS, the industry's first enterprise and carrier-grade network operating system for Open Compute hardware, allows for easier implementation of large-scale IT networks, and offers customers white box solutions to deploy more quickly. VirNOS, an NFV-based software platform, provides carriers and enterprises with a cost-effective network OS approach to implement and manage their networking services. With the OcNOS and VirNOS network operating systems, both powered by ZebOS, IP Infusion offers network operators, carriers, and enterprises with the physical and virtual software solutions they need to achieve the disaggregated networking model. Over 300 customers worldwide, including major networking equipment manufacturers, use IP Infusion's respected ZebOS platform to build networks to address the evolving needs of cloud, carrier and mobile networking. IP Infusion is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., and is a wholly owned and independently operated subsidiary of ACCESS CO., LTD. Additional information can be found at http://www.ipinfusion.com. IP Infusion, ZebOS, VirNOS and OcNOS are trademarks or registered trademarks of IP Infusion. ACCESS is registered trademarks or trademarks of ACCESS CO., LTD. in the United States, Japan and/or other countries. All other trademarks, service marks, registered trademarks, or registered service marks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190408005210/en/

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[April 08, 2019] Ellucian Announces 2019 Impact Award Winners

Ellucian, the world's leading provider of software and services built to power higher education, announced the winners of the 2019 Ellucian Impact Award. Winners were recognized today during Ellucian Live, the world's largest user event in higher education technology. The Ellucian Impact Award honors exceptional Ellucian customer institutions using technology to produce a better student experience, become more efficient, and creatively resolve challenges. The three winners of the 2019 Ellucian Impact Award will each receive a $25,000 grant, and a $5,000 grant will be presented to three finalists. The recipients of the 2019 Ellucian Impact Awards are: Mercer County Community College - West Windsor, New Jersey

In April 2017, Mercer County Community College (MCCC) became the first higher education institution to deploy Ellucian Colleague SaaS (News - Alert), migrating from on-site hosting to a cloud environment in only four months. The SaaS-based ERP has enabled MCCC to meet the expectation of the digital generation of students through new mobile and cloud-based services resulting in two milestones in fall 2018: a four point increase in graduation rate, and being the only community college in NJ to report increased enrollment. Saint Peter's University - Jersey City, New Jersey





Wake Technical Community College - Raleigh, North Carolina

Wake Tech's Project COMPASS was designed to improve retention and student success rates for online courses by employing high-tech and high-touch tactics designed to increase teaching, social, and cognitive presence in the online environment. The institution engaged Ellucian Colleague to aggregate and analyze historical data, track progress towards goals, and make informed decisions to improve the project based on real-time student retention and success insights. Ellucian also recognized three Impact Award finalists Edinboro University, Bakersfield College and Georgia State University. "This year's Ellucian Impact Award recipients are transforming both the student experience and institution-wide operations by leveraging modern cloud solutions," said Laura Ipsen (News - Alert), Ellucian President and CEO. "Congratulations to the winners, finalists and all of the applicants for this year's award. We are honored and humbled to partner with such powerful innovators who are using technology to transform the higher education experience around the world."

About Ellucian Inspired by the transformative impact of education, Ellucian develops solutions that power the essential work of colleges and universities. As the world's leading provider of software and services designed for higher education, Ellucian works with more than 2,500 institutions in 50+ countries-enhancing operations and enriching the experience for nearly 20 million students. Ellucian provides student information systems (SIS), finance and HR, recruiting, retention, analytics and advancement software solutions. With a full suite of cloud ready solutions, Ellucian provides institutions with the choice and flexibility in how, what and when they deploy solutions in the cloud. Ellucian also supports the higher education community with a range of professional services such as application software implementation, training, education, and management consulting. Ellucian brings power, passion, and performance to bear for higher education, and its ability to better our world. Visit Ellucian at www.ellucian.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190408005128/en/

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[April 08, 2019] UCaaS Leader Momentum Telecom To Reveal New Solutions at Channel Partners

ATLANTA, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Momentum Telecom , an industry-leading cloud based communications provider, will be highlighting their new feature-rich SD-WAN solution and network services offerings at the upcoming Channel Partners Conference & Expo. Held from April 9-12, 2019 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, the expo provides the perfect backdrop for partners and industry leaders to see Momentums robust solutions firsthand.

Momentums SD-WAN solutions are tailored to fit the unique requirements of the customers environment or application. Unlike other providers, Momentum accomplishes this by leveraging a locations best-available connections, including LTE wireless. Momentum will also be highlighting their new line-up of network services brought over from recently acquired Metro Optical. A great deal of thought and development went into launching Momentums SD-WAN solution, said Momentums EVP of Technology, Mark Marquez. It was extremely important that this solution was in line with the quality and value that our ndustry-leading UCaaS portfolio provides to partners and customers.



Since the last Channel Partners Expo, Momentum has been continuing to execute on its growth strategy by expanding its solutions portfolio, developing relationships with new master agents and partners as well as expanding its reach with the addition of UCaaS provider, CloudNet Group and network services provider, Metro Optical. Momentum has had a transformative year and we look forward to sharing that with the partner community, said Momentum EVP of Sales & Marketing, Chuck Piazza. As Momentum grows, innovates and leads, we continue to affirm our commitment to a white-glove experience and a mission of enabling others to thrive.

You can find Momentum at booth #867 during the Channel Partners Conference and Expo. For more information about Momentum Telecom or to discuss partnership opportunities email [email protected] or call 877-251-5554. Momentum Telecom empowers human connections through developing, streamlining and integrating cloud voice and cloud-based applications in order to enable others to thrive. An industry leader in customer experience, Momentum Telecom uses superior technology, a geo-redundant network and a nationwide network of more than 500 white label and channel partners to empower businesses to communicate better, faster and more efficiently. To learn more visit momentumtelecom.com or connect with us on Facebook , Twitter , LinkedIn or visit our blog .

Media Contact Beth Hildreth

[email protected]

315-579-7112

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[April 08, 2019] Study of SPR Therapeutics' Peripheral Nerve Stimulation System Demonstrates Significant and Sustained Relief of Post-Amputation Pain

CLEVELAND, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SPR Therapeutics, Inc., a leader in neurostimulation technology for pain management, today announced the results of a study of its SPRINT Peripheral Nerve Stimulation (PNS) System in the treatment of post-amputation pain.

The SPR Therapeutics SPRINT Peripheral Nerve Stimulation (PNS) System MicroLead is constructed using a tiny 100-micron wire, about the size of a human hair. The leads are placed by a physician during an outpatient procedure without surgery, incisions, tissue destruction or anesthesia, and are connected to a wearable stimulator that delivers stimulation for up to 60 days of therapy, after which the leads are withdrawn. SPRINT has demonstrated significant and sustained pain relief across multiple studies. For additional information regarding safety and efficacy visit www.sprtherapeutics.com.



The study demonstrated that short-term PNS therapy may provide enduring clinically significant pain relief, reduce opioid use and improve quality of life in patients with post-amputation pain, a type of neuropathic pain. This is the first study of an FDA-cleared PNS system to demonstrate statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements in pain relief for both residual limb pain and phantom limb pain. The study, Percutaneous Peripheral Nerve Stimulation for the Treatment of Chronic Neuropathic Post-Amputation Pain: A Multi-Center Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial has been published in Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine, the official peer-reviewed publication of the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA). Study participants had experienced post-amputation pain for periods ranging from four months to more than 30 years. All participants underwent the minimally-invasive ultrasound-guided placement of SPRs MicroLeads which are constructed using a tiny 100-micron wire, about the size of a human hair. Participants were randomized to receive SPRINT PNS therapy or placebo for four weeks. The placebo group then crossed over and all study participants received PNS for four subsequent weeks. A study participant was considered a success if they reported significant pain relief of at least 50 percent during the first four weeks.



The study demonstrated that a significantly greater proportion of the participants who received SPRINT PNS experienced significant pain relief (58 percent) compared to 14 percent of those who received placebo. The delivery of therapy for four additional weeks in the SPRINT PNS group resulted in 67 percent of the participants reporting signiicant pain relief. While prospective follow up is ongoing, of those participants who completed follow-up at 12 months, 80 percent reported continued relief with an average pain reduction of 76 percent. Furthermore, opioid use among moderate to high users (which represented about a quarter of the participants) decreased by more than 70 percent in the SPRINT PNS group compared to less than one percent in the placebo group. The most common side effect was skin irritation or redness at the lead exit site or related to the use of adhesive patches or bandages. There were no serious side-effects.





Dr. Christopher Gilmore of the Center for Clinical Research in Winston-Salem, NC and principal author, stated: Post-amputation pain has traditionally been one of the most challenging neuropathic conditions we treat as interventional pain management specialists. The data clearly demonstrate that the SPRINT PNS System is a safe and effective treatment option for post-amputation pain, with the potential to produce pain relief that endures well beyond the 60-day therapy period, after which the leads are withdrawn. Given the durability of pain relief were observing with SPRINT, many patients will appreciate that a permanently implanted system may be avoided. The non-opioid and minimally-invasive nature of SPRINT also bodes well for its use early in the care continuum for other painful neuropathic conditions.



Neuropathic pain often occurs following an injury to peripheral nerves and is a common and challenging condition following amputation. There are approximately two million amputees in the United States, with nearly 200,000 amputations performed annually. The prevalence of persistent pain in this population has been reported to be as high as 74 percent for residual limb pain and 85 percent for phantom limb pain, with many patients experiencing pain of both types. This pain often impedes function, lowers quality of life, and leads to an increased risk of depression.

According to Paul Bernacchio, President of the National Amputation Foundation, The study results reported by the SPR Therapeutics team are great news to the amputee and Veteran communities we represent. We are in desperate need of more effective, less invasive early interventions to address the significant issue of post-amputation pain. The enduring effects of this short-term therapy and its minimally-invasive nature make it a very compelling therapy for those suffering post-amputation pain. SPR Therapeutics is very appreciative of the support of our physician investigators and sincerely grateful to our study volunteers, said Maria Bennett, CEO of SPR Therapeutics, Inc. This latest study validates the durable results being achieved with our SPRINT PNS system. We continue to work with pain specialists on future studies as we further advance the growing body of evidence for SPRINT. About SPRINT PNS System

The SPRINT Peripheral Nerve Stimulation (PNS) System is the only percutaneous PNS device that is FDA-cleared for both chronic and acute pain, including post-operative and post-traumatic pain. The SPRINT PNS System leads are placed by a physician during an outpatient procedure without surgery, incisions, tissue destruction or anesthesia, and are connected to a wearable stimulator that delivers stimulation for up to 60 days of therapy, after which the leads are withdrawn. In multiple studies, the SPRINT system has demonstrated significant and sustained pain relief following the 60-day treatment. Physicians have used the SPRINT system to treat post-amputation pain, inoperable joint pain, lower back pain, complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), and post-operative pain following joint replacement and surgical reconstruction (partial listing). For additional information regarding safety and efficacy visit www.sprtherapeutics.com . About SPR Therapeutics, Inc.

SPR Therapeutics, Inc. is a privately-held medical device company headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, focused on developing, manufacturing and commercializing non-opioid, minimally invasive, treatment options that improve quality of life. The companys SPRINT technology is the only percutaneous Peripheral Nerve Stimulation (PNS) System FDA-cleared to treat both chronic and acute pain. More information can be found at: www.sprtherapeutics.com . About this study

This multi-center, randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, partial-crossover study enrolled 28 lower extremity amputees with post-amputation pain at six U.S. clinical sites. The study was funded by a grant from the United States Department of Defense, Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs, Peer Reviewed Orthopaedic Research Program, under award: W81XWH-12-2-0132. SPR Contact:

Mark Stultz

Senior Vice President

[email protected]

612-770-0390 Media Contact:

Helen Shik

Shik Communications LLC

[email protected]

617-510-4373 A photo accompanying this announcement is available at //www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ae346ddf-7bda-48f1-8c90-0cbabd2146a3

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INVESTOR ALERT: Law Offices of Howard G. Smith Announces Investigation on Behalf of Nokia Corporation Investors

Law Offices of Howard G. Smith announces an investigation on behalf of Nokia (News - Alert) Corporation investors ("Nokia" or the "Company") (NYSE: NOK) concerning the Company and its officers' possible violations of federal securities laws.

On March 21, 2019, the Company disclosed that it had been "made aware of certain practices relating to compliance issues at the former Alcatel Lucent business [acquired by Nokia November 2016] that have raised concerns." Nokia then advised investors that it had initiated an internal investigation and tha it was cooperating with regulatory authorities to resolve the matter.







On this news, shares of Nokia fell $0.38 per share, or over 6%, to close at $5.88 on March 22, 2019, thereby injuring investors.

If you purchased Nokia securities, have information or would like to learn more about these claims, or have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Howard G. Smith, Esquire, of Law Offices of Howard G. Smith, 3070 Bristol Pike, Suite 112, Bensalem, Pennsylvania 19020 by telephone at (215) 638-4847, toll-free at (888) 638-4847, or by email to [email protected], or visit our website at www.howardsmithlaw.com.

This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190408005744/en/
[April 08, 2019] Heartbeat EVP, Marketing Janelle Starr Honored With Induction to MM&M Hall of Femme

Janelle Starr, the EVP of Marketing for leading healthcare marketing agency Heartbeat, has been inducted into the 2019 MM&M Magazine Hall of Femme, an annual award program honoring standout women leaders in healthcare marketing. Janelle is the second consecutive member of Heartbeat's executive management leadership to receive the distinction. Heartbeat Co-President & Executive Planning Director, Nadine Leonard, was selected as a 2018 Hall of Femme inductee. Ms. Starr is one of 16 women to be honored and profiled in this year's Hall of Femme program. Nominees for inclusion spanned the entire U.S. life sciences marketing sector, including healthcare executives from biopharma companies, medical device or diagnostics firms, and healthcare marketing or media firms. Recipients are female business leaders who are VP level or higher and have successfully bridged the gender gap to be universally recognized as pioneers in the areas of OTC, DTC, and HCP promotion. They have made a significant impact on their organization's success, contributed to the creation of some of the industry's most iconic medical advertising, and helped put multicultural marketing on the healthcare map. Ms. Starr receives this honor following 20 decorated years in the marketing industry, including a remarkable 15 years at Heartbeat. An intellect and an iconoclast, Janelle began her marketing journey at Sigma 6, a digital marketing firm based in Detroit, where she quickly rose to a leadership role on the company's General Motors (News - Alert) account. Upon joining Heartbeat, she blazed her own trail from Project Manager to EVP of Marketing while hlping guide the company's evolution from a small digital advertising shop to the AOR marketing leader it is today. In her time at Heartbeat, She has demonstrated her versatility and insight through the leadership of three unique departments and disciplines within the agency: first the Production/Project Management group, then the award-winning Technology department, and finally the Marketing & Business Development practice. Additionally, she has operated as the SVP, General Manager for Heartbeat's sister agency, Heartbeat West, during the inception and early growth of the Los Angeles office offshoot. After shepherding the Heartbeat West office for several years, she now focuses her efforts on driving Heartbeat's Marketing & New Business efforts and continuing to push the agency to new heights.



"I'm proud to be part of an illustrious group of women who are impacting all aspects of healthcare marketing," said Ms. Starr on her Hall of Femme selection. "Heartbeat has been a female-majority organization since before I joined 15 years ago. I've always felt championed and challenged here, and I look to 'pay it forward' with the smart, strong women who have joined our agency year after year." In addition to Ms. Starr's recognition, Heartbeat's Group Director of Production, Ana Capellan, has also been selected for MM&M's Hall of Femme Women to Watch 2019 list - a program that highlights 20 aspiring healthcare commercial and marketing execs under the age of 40. The Women to Watch are chosen based on their unique skill sets, standout performance, and overall impact on the industry. An enigmatic and enthusiastic leader of Heartbeat's Production discipline, Ana is a 6-year company veteran with over 13 years of healthcare marketing experience.

Janelle, Ana, and the rest of the Hall of Femme & Women to Watch inductees will be profiled in the MM&M Magazine May issue, and can be seen online at https://www.mmm-online.com/home/channel/features/hall-of-femme/mmm-hall-of-femme-women-to-watch-2019/. They will be honored at a luncheon and award ceremony on June 6th at the Hotel Eventi in New York City. About Heartbeat Heartbeat is a full-service agency for healthcare Challenger Brands. Challengers are playing a high-stakes game-they must battle behemoth market leaders, upend ingrained treatment habits, or transform a "me-too" product into "yes-please." The agency is known for serving up distinctive strategies and differentiating approaches, ensuring a client's market position is uniquely owned. They house strategy, creative, media, and technology under a single roof for the tightest, most integrated campaigns possible. And Heartbeat looks to understand and extract maximum value from every dollar spent, constantly-all the necessary elements for Challengers to triumph. That's the philosophy, here's the creds: 200 employees between NYC & LA; 6 agency leaders with a decade+ of tenure; a pile of awards from the likes of the Mannys, MM&M, OMMA, and Clio, not to mention an Agency of the Year nom to boot; and led by a Managing Director who dared to be quoted as follows: "We celebrate people who stand up and say, 'You know what? This is dumb.'" Damn straight. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190408005783/en/

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[April 08, 2019] Kaufman Hall Partnership with Ellucian Makes Enterprise Performance Management Easier for Higher Education Institutions

CHICAGO, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Kaufman Hall, a leading provider of enterprise performance management software, data and management consulting services, announced today a growing roster of common clients with Ellucian, a leading provider of software and services built to power higher education. Montana State University, University of Alabama, West Virginia University and others will benefit from the combined data and powerful functionality of Kaufman Hall's Axiom Higher Education Suite and Ellucian's software. Kaufman Hall's Axiom Higher Education Suite helps institutions improve their budgeting, forecasting, and long-range financial planning processes, ultimately helping colleges and universities find bold ways to overcome challenges and realize their mission. Integrating Axiom's powerful capabilities with Ellucian's solutions for general ledger, human resources, and student information system data provides institutions the ability to advance data-driven decisions that improve short-term and long-term financial performance. "Many higher education institutions are facing enormous amounts of change and disruption. To tackle these challenges head on, our clients leverge the power of Axiom to create a single view of highly- valued information that enables them to act faster and more effectively," said Kermit Randa, CEO, Kaufman Hall Software. "Ellucian develops solutions that power the essential work of colleges and universities. We look forward to deepening our partnership and integration with them. We share a common goal to empower colleges and universities as they navigate the evolving environment."



Colleges and universities across the nation are quickly learning that high-value technology solutions, like Axiom, are creating efficiencies that allow their teams to stay focused on what matters most - achieving their mission. West Virginia University

"Enrollment data is a vital part of our university financial planning process. Integrating Ellucian Banner into Axiom will provide our users the most accurate enrollment information to better forecast and analyze financial impacts of enrollment changes," said Matt Tidd, CPA, MPA, chief university budget officer of West Virginia University. "With the Banner information we are incorporating into Axiom, we are also able to plan tuition and fees by major and better understand retention and progression rates."

Montana State University

"With Axiom Software, I was able to write an ad-hoc report in 1.5 hours, which saved a colleague weeks of work," said Megan Lasso, budget and fiscal manager, Montana State University. "Our old system required that we download a lot of information from different sources and then manually input several adjustments. Axiom Software does all of this  and more  for us." University of Alabama

"As the University of Alabama begins implementation of Kaufman Hall's Axiom software, we are very excited about the benefits the partnership with Ellucian will bring," said Julie Shelton, associate vice president of the University of Alabama. "We believe this partnership will add value to the reporting and overall planning we expect to gain from the Axiom Software." Kaufman Hall will demonstrate the value of its Axiom software in Booth 919 at Ellucian Live 2019, taking place from April 7-10 in New Orleans. About Kaufman Hall

Kaufman Hall provides a unique combination of software, management consulting and data solutions to help society's foundational institutions realize sustained success amid changing market conditions. Since 1985, Kaufman Hall has been a trusted advisor to boards and executive management teams, helping them incorporate proven methods, rigorous analytics and industry-leading solutions into their strategic planning and financial management processes, with a focus on achieving their most challenging goals. Kaufman Hall services use a rigorous, disciplined, and structured approach that is based on the principles of corporate finance. The breadth and integration of Kaufman Hall advisory services are unparalleled, encompassing strategy; financial and capital planning; performance improvement; treasury and capital markets management; and mergers, acquisitions, partnerships, and joint ventures. Kaufman Hall software includes the Axiom Software Suite, providing sophisticated, flexible performance management solutions that empower finance professionals to analyze results, model the future, and optimize organizational decision making. Solutions for long-range planning, budgeting and forecasting, performance reporting, capital planning, and cost accounting deliver decision support, reporting, and analytics within an integrated software platform. Kaufman Hall's clinical analytics solutions empower healthcare organizations with clinical benchmarks, data, and analytics to provide a higher quality of care for optimized performance and improved patient outcomes. Press Contact:

Philip Anast

Amendola Communications (for Kaufman Hall)

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 312-576-6990 View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/kaufman-hall-partnership-with-ellucian-makes-enterprise-performance-management-easier-for-higher-education-institutions-300826379.html SOURCE Kaufman Hall

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[April 08, 2019] DATA Communications Management Corp. Appoints Michael J. Cote as President

DATA Communications Management Corp. (TSX: DCM (News - Alert)) ("DCM" or the "Company") announces that Michael J. Cote has been appointed President of DCM effective April 8, 2019. In his new role, Mr. Cote will assume additional responsibilities for the day to day operations of DCM, working closely with Gregory J. Cochrane who continues as Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Cote joined DCM as Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Strategy in September 2017 and has served as Senior Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer since November 2017. Prior to joining DCM, he had an extensive career with Canada's leading supply chain management company where he held progressively senior leadership roles, the most recent being Senior Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer. "Mike has led the transformation of how our Company goes to market, and re-defined DCM's value proposition with our blue-chip client base," said Gregory J. Cochrane, CEO of DCM. "Mike adds important bench strength as we pivot our business towards a marketing services platform." Earlier in his career, Mr. Cote practiced corporate and commercial real estate law with one of Canada's premier legal firms. Mr. Cote earned an economics degree from Colgate University, an LL.B from the University o Windsor, an M.B.A. from the Smith School of Business at Queen's University and, most recently, an ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors.



About DATA Communications Management Corp. DCM is a communication solutions partner that adds value for major companies across North America by creating more meaningful connections with their customers. We pair customer insights and thought leadership with cutting-edge products, modular enabling technology and services to power our clients' go-to market strategies. We help our clients manage how their brands come to life, determine which channels are right for them, manage multimedia campaigns, deploy location-specific and 1:1 marketing, execute custom loyalty programs, and fulfill their commercial printing needs all in one place.

Our extensive experience has positioned us as experts at providing communication solutions across many verticals, including the financial, retail, healthcare, consumer health, energy, and not-for-profit sectors. Thanks to our locations throughout Canada and in the United States (Chicago, Illinois and New York, New York), we are able to meet our clients' varying needs with scale, speed, and efficiency - no matter how large or complex the ask. And we can do it all with advanced DCM security, regulatory compliance, and bilingual communications, in print or digital. Additional information relating to DATA Communications Management Corp. is available on www.datacm.com, and in the disclosure documents filed by DATA Communications Management Corp. on the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) at www.sedar.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190408005488/en/

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[April 08, 2019] TCF to Announce First Quarter 2019 Earnings and Host Conference Call on Monday, April 22, 2019

TCF Financial Corporation (TCF) (NYSE: TCF) today announced it will release its first quarter 2019 earnings results before the market opens on Monday, April 22, 2019. Craig R. Dahl, chairman and chief executive officer, will host a conference call to discuss the results at 9:00 a.m. Central Daylight Time and will be joined by other TCF executives. If you would like to listen to TCF's live conference call, please dial (844) 580-8285. A slide presentation for the conference call will be available on the Investor Relations section of TCF's website, http://ir.tcfbank.com, prior to the call. TCF's conference call will also be webcast live on the Investor Relations section o the website and archived for replay. To listen to the replay via phone, please dial (877) 344-7529 and enter access code 10130357. The replay begins approximately one hour after the call is completed on Monday, April 22, 2019 and will be available through Monday, April 29, 2019.



About TCF TCF is a Wayzata, Minnesota-based national bank holding company. As of December 31, 2018, TCF had $23.7 billion in total assets and 314 bank branches in Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan, Colorado, Wisconsin, Arizona and South Dakota providing retail and commercial banking services. TCF, through its subsidiaries, also conducts commercial leasing and equipment finance business in all 50 states and commercial inventory finance business in all 50 states and Canada. For more information about TCF, please visit http://ir.tcfbank.com.

Click here to subscribe to news release email alerts for TCF Financial Corporation. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190408005803/en/

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[April 08, 2019] Thermo Scientific Krios G3i Cryo Transmission Electron Microscope Named Finalist for Fast Company's 2019 World Changing Ideas Awards

HILLSBORO, Ore., April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Thermo Scientific Krios G3i Cryo Transmission Electron Microscope (Cryo-TEM) was named a finalist for Fast Company's 2019 World Changing Ideas Awards in the Health and Wellness category. The Krios G3i Cryo-TEM has become an essential tool for biologists, allowing them to uncover the minutest details of viruses and proteins, and provide insight into how diseases develop. "We are pleased to see the continued adoption of the Krios G3i Cryo-TEM with both academic institutions and the pharmaceutical industry. Recognition as a Fast Company 2019 World Changing Ideas finalist further highlights the amazing research being conducted in the field," said Mike Shafer, president, materials and structural analysis, Thermo Fisher Scientific. "With installations in leading research facilities and universities around the world, the Krios G3i Cryo-TEM is used to accelerate research that will help our customers better understand disease mechanisms, and ultimately speed the path to prevention and treatment." Cryo-EM, a technique where a sample is cooled to cryogenic temperatures (below -180C), allows scientists to create 3D images of proteins and viruses that couldn't be obtained using other techniques. Understanding the structure of viruses and proteins helps determine how they function, potentially leading to prevention or treatment of diseases. Using cryo-EM, scientists can better understand how proteins in the body operate and malfunction, which can lead to more effective tratments of today's most serious diseases, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and cancers. Scientists studying viruses like Zika, Ebola and the flu use cryo-EM techniques to flash-freeze the viruses, allowing them to study the complex structures frozen in time. The technique can speed the development time for effective vaccines.



Thermo Fisher has collaborated with some of the world's leading scientists to advance cryo-EM, and improvements to both the Krios G3i Cryo-TEM and its software allow users to reconstruct images into elaborate 3D structures at near-atomic resolution so they can find innovative ways to intervene in disease processes and, ultimately, bring new breakthroughs to patients. For more information on the Thermo Scientific Krios G3i Cryo-TEM, please visit our product page.

About Thermo Fisher Scientific

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is the world leader in serving science, with revenues of more than $24 billion and approximately 70,000 employees globally. Our mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. We help our customers accelerate life sciences research, solve complex analytical challenges, improve patient diagnostics, deliver medicines to market and increase laboratory productivity. Through our premier brands  Thermo Scientific, Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific and Unity Lab Services  we offer an unmatched combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and comprehensive services. For more information, please visit www.thermofisher.com. Media Contact Information:

Kathy Gill

Thermo Fisher Scientific

(971) 294-9262

[email protected] View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/thermo-scientific-krios-g3i-cryo-transmission-electron-microscope-named-finalist-for-fast-companys-2019-world-changing-ideas-awards-300826455.html SOURCE Thermo Fisher Scientific

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[April 08, 2019] Sherritt Provides Notice of First Quarter 2019 Results, Conference Call and Webcast

Sherritt International Corporation ("Sherritt" or the "Corporation") (TSX:S) will release its first quarter 2019 financial results after market close on April 25, 2019. Senior management will host a conference call and webcast on April 26 at 9:00 am ET to review the first quarter's financial and operational results. Dial-in and Webcast Details:







North America dial-in number: 1 (866) 521-4909 International dial-in number: (647) 427-2311 Webcast and slide presentation: www.sherritt.com

The conference call will include a presentation that will be available on Sherritt's website. Please dial in 15 minutes before the start of the conference to secure a line. A copy of the webcast and replay of the conference call will be available on the website following the presentation. About Sherritt Sherritt is a world leader in the mining and refining of nickel from lateritic ores with projects and operations in Canada, Cuba and Madagascar. The Corporation is the largest independent energy producer in Cuba, with extensive oil and power operations across the island. Sherritt licenses its proprietary technologies and provides metallurgical services to mining and refining operations worldwide. The Corporation's common shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "S". View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190408005468/en/

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[April 08, 2019]

Alice Lin, Daughter of U.S. Pastor Held by Chinese Govt, to Speak out Publicly for First Time on Washington Watch with Tony Perkins

WASHINGTON, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Alice Lin, the daughter of a U.S. pastor held hostage by the Chinese government for more than a decade, will give her first media interview on today's edition of Washington Watch with Tony Perkins.

Last December, China launched a crackdown on Christian church members that appears to have impacted those held in prison -- including Pastor David Lin. The worsening situation has prompted the Lin family to call on the U.S. and Chinese gvernments to intervene to help bring the pastor back to the United States.







Who: Alice Lin, daughter of U.S. Pastor David Lin

What: Radio interview on Washington Watch with Tony Perkins

When: 5:32 PM Eastern time

Where: Listen online at tonyperkins.com

Go to www.freepastorlin.com for more information.

View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/alice-lin-daughter-of-us-pastor-held-by-chinese-govt-to-speak-out-publicly-for-first-time-on-washington-watch-with-tony-perkins-300826497.html

SOURCE Family Research Council
[April 08, 2019] Fortress Secures Additional Federal Government Support for Planned Bioproducts Demonstration Project

TSX: FGE

OTCQX: FTPLF VANCOUVER, April 8, 2019 /CNW/ - Fortress Global Enterprises Inc. ("Fortress" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that, further to its news release of July 11, 2018, its wholly-owned subsidiary, Fortress Xylitol Inc., has now entered into a definitive contribution agreement with Sustainable Development Technology Canada ("SDTC") whereby SDTC has committed $10.4 million in contribution funding to support the planned construction and operation of a xylitol and complementary bioproducts demonstration plant at Fortress' dissolving pulp mill in Thurso, Quebec (the "Demonstration Plant Project"). This funding from SDTC is in addition to the $10 million grant from Natural Resources Canada previously announced and the anticipated provincial investment and loan of up to $7 million previously announced by Fortress on July 11, 2018 that remains subject to completion of definitive documentation. The Demonstration Plant Project is intended to demonstrate technology for the co-production of value-added and sustainable bioproducts that will help transform the mill into a biorefinery. The process is expected to validate performance and produce pre-commercial quantities of food-grade xylitol and complementary bioproducts for testing and use by customers. "We are very grateful for the strong federal government support for the Demonstration Plant Project, which we believe has the potential to transform our forest industry by creating new and valuable bioproucts from existing wood resources," stated Giovanni Iadeluca, President and CEO of Fortress." The technology that will be demonstrated is a key component of our vision to create a biorefinery that will produce sustainable and cost-effective xylitol along with other bioproducts."



About Fortress Global Enterprises Inc. Fortress operates its dissolving pulp business at the Fortress Specialty Cellulose Inc. mill located in Thurso, Quebec, Canada, which also operates in the renewable energy generation sector through its cogeneration facility. Fortress operates its bioproducts business through Fortress Advanced Bioproducts Inc., which has laboratory and pilot plant facilities in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Forward-Looking Information This news release contains certain forward-looking information that reflects the current views and/or expectations of the Company with respect to its expectations, beliefs, assumptions, estimates and forecasts about its business and the industry and markets in which it operates. The reader is cautioned that forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors which are difficult to predict and that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information, which is qualified entirely by this cautionary statement. Examples of such forward-looking information contained in this news release include statements relating to: the growth and future prospects of the Company's business; expectations relating to expenditures; the impact of the Demonstration Plant Project; and expectations relating to financing the Demonstration Plant Project. Assumptions underlying the Company's expectations regarding forward-looking information contained in this news release include, among others: that the Company will be able to effectively market its products; the ability of the Company to realize significant cost-savings from production improvements, projects, and cost reduction initiatives; that equipment will operate at expected levels; that labour relations will remain positive; that the Company's assumptions relating to dissolving pulp, xylitol, other bioproducts, and other markets will be materially accurate; and that the Company will be able to secure the necessary financing required to implement the Demonstration Plant Project on satisfactory terms if at all. Persons reading this news release are cautioned that forward-looking information represents predictions only, and that the Company's actual future results or performance are subject to certain risks and uncertainties including, without limitation: that market conditions for dissolving pulp will not improve or will worsen; the Company will not realize anticipated cost savings from its cost reduction initiatives; equipment will not operate as intended and additional issues relating to equipment repairs will arise; there may be delays, cost overruns and financing or other impediments in implementing the Demonstration Plant Project; and other risk factors detailed in the Company's most recent Annual Information Form and other filings with Canadian securities regulatory authorities. These risks, as well as others, could cause actual results and events to vary significantly. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking information, except as required by applicable securities law. SOURCE Fortress Global Enterprises Inc.

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AirTag vs. Tile: How Apples key finder compares

The Apple AirTag wants to take on the Tile Pro and Tile Mate to become the best key finder. Now that Apple's key finder is here, we have a better idea of who will win an AirTag vs. Tile face-off.
Bang & Olufsen is making a splash in the TV world at an unexpected venue: Milan Design Week. The Beovision Harmony OLED TV pairs a first-rate 77-inch OLED display with Bang & Olufsen's top-notch audio, combined into a stunning folding design that's as much an artistic showpiece as it is a premium TV.

The Beovision Harmony OLED TV features two rotating "wings" which make up the TV's 3-channel sound system. Housed in tastefully designed oak and aluminum enclosures, with a more subdued fabric-covered version available, the speakers provide an audio-visual feast.

MORE: Best Smart TVs - The Best 4K and HD Televisions for the Money

The speakers fold up in front of the display when the set is powered off and swing down into position below the display when powered on. The TV also raises up into position for viewing and down into a closed position when off. Available with either a floor stand or wall bracket, the TV can go anywhere in your home mansion.

The entire package offers a unique answer to the question of how to make TVs more attractive when not in use. The presence of a big screen is rarely a welcoming addition to living spaces," says John Mollanger, Bang & Olufsens executive VP of Brand and Markets. "With Beovision Harmony, we wanted to create a meaningful object for interiors that reduces the visual presence of the TV and transforms it into something that people will develop an emotional attachment to.

The entire Beovision Harmony OLED is built around an optimized 77-inch LG OLED display  equivalent to the new LG C9 OLED  but the addition of Bang & Olufsen's three-channel, fully active DSP-based sound system means that it will sound as good as it looks.

The set is also feature-rich, with AirPlay 2, Chromecast and Bluetooth capability built in, and uses LG's WebOS 4.5 smart TV platform to provide app support, including access to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and YouTube. The sound system can also expand to the entire room or multiple rooms, with support for up to eight B&O Beolab speakers and a built-in decoder for 7.1 surround sound.

The Beovision Harmony OLED will be available to purchase in October 2019 at a jaw-dropping 18,500, which as of this writing makes the US price somewhere around $20,850. For comparison, the 77-inch LG C9 OLED sells for a much more affordable $6999, though it lacks the Bang & Olufsen audio and kinetic design.

Credit: Bang & Olufsen
Photo (Image credit: Ingebor)

Last month, we reported that AMD's market share in the Benelux region (Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg) was due to surpass that of Intel's in the CPU DIY (Do It Yourself) segment, reflecting what seems to be a wider market shift in favor of AMD.

Recently, hardware enthusiast Ingebor updated the market share data coming from German retailer Mindfactory, which he had not updated since November when Intel's 9th-gen processors launched. Unfortunately for Intel, the 9th-gen chips did not deliver the boost it needed in Germany.

Though CPUs like the Core i9-9900K, i7-9700K, and i5-9600K helped boost Intel up to 36% in February from a low of 31% in November, AMD struck back in March and forced Intel back down to 31% yet again. The popularity of AMD's mid-range Ryzen 5 2600 and low-end 2200G and 2400G APUs rose significantly while interest in Intel's premium -9900K and the more affordable -9600K waned. The -9700K did sell more than it had previously, though. The new Core i5-9400F also captured significant market share, though seemingly at the expense of Intel's own i5-8400 which the -9400F succeeded.

AMD also leads Intel in total revenue, though only by a few percent. This is somewhat remarkable for both sides. Though AMD's CPUs are heavily discounted, AMD is winning through sheer volume, and while Intel is selling far fewer processors at the German retailer, the company can hang on thanks to higher prices. Margins may be worsening for Intel, however, as the -9900K's heyday seems to be ending and lower-margin CPUs like the -9700K and the -9400F seem to be taking over.

The situation will likely not improve for Intel with the arrival of Ryzen 3000 CPUs this summer. Ryzen 3000 is expected to allow for up to 12 or even 16 cores, significantly increased clock speeds (thought to be no more than 25%), and a similar pricing structure to what currently exists or what existed during the first generation of Ryzen. Though the DIY PC market is a small segment, Intel faces challenges because enthusiasts that shop at Mindfactory are opting for AMD's more value-oriented processors over Intel's higher-end and premium offerings.
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Microsoft is ready for more people to test its shiny new browser. Today, the company invited members of the Windows Insider Program to install the upcoming version of Edge built with Chromium, the open source project at the heart of Google Chrome, so it can get feedback ahead of its official launch.

This reimagination of Edge has been approaching release for the last few months. Microsoft announced that it was working on this project in December 2018. Then, it allowed people to sign up for the Microsoft Edge Insider program before introducing add-ons for the preview version of the browser on March 15. Now, its asking the broader Windows Insider Program community to weigh in on its work.

You might have heard that some changes are coming for Microsoft Edge, the company said today in an email, and today were excited to announce that the first preview builds of the next version of Microsoft Edge based on Chromium are now ready for download on Windows 10 PCs. This build wont replace the version of Edge currently installed, and Microsoft said it will continue to ship the non-Chromium version of Edge in upcoming Windows 10 preview builds for the time being.

Edge currently relies on its own rendering engine. But the browser hasnt really caught on, and Microsoft seems to think thats because many sites are made with Chrome (and therefore Chromium) in mind. Switching to Chromium allows Edge to offer the same basic experience as its rival, which could, in turn, help the browser find a new audience. Or at least thats what Microsoft seems to hope.

But adopting Chromium wont be all it takes to convince people to ditch their current browser in favor of Edge. Some will use extensions they cant find on Microsofts platform, some will prefer another browsers design and some probably just cant be bothered changing until they absolutely have to. Chromium could improve Edge for people content to use whatever browser comes with their operating system, but everyone else... eh.

Yet, the switch could have wider ramifications for the web than some expect. Chromium is open source, sure, but its very much Googles project. Giving the company even more control over how people use the webeven indirectlycould further undermine the principle of openness on which the web currently relies. Case in point: the companys plan to kill ad-blockers in Chromium, which totally, definitely, 100 percent had nothing to do with Google making money off ads, right?

Well find out what Edges switch to Chromium means when the new version of the browser officially debuts. Until then, Windows Insider Program members can see what that version of Edge will look like by heading to the Microsoft Edge Insider website. You can download the browser there.
LaCie, Seagate Technologys premium brand, has announced two new external storage products for desktop use and a rugged portable in the LaCie 2big RAID and LaCie Rugged RAID Shuttle. Both products offer an internal RAID 0/1 setup for increased speed or redundancy and USB-C USB 3.1 (Thunderbolt 3 and USB 3.0 compatible) interface for faster transfer speeds. The 2big RAID is intended to be a more static fixture while the Rugged RAID Shuttle, as the name implies, is designed for the rigors of travel and its inherent abuse.

The Lacie Rugged RAID Shuttle offers the same features as the Rugged RAID Pro such as speeds up to 250 MB/s using Hardware-based RAID (0/1 supported as well as JBOD), IP54 dust and water resistance, as well as being 1.2 meter drop and shock resistant. The main differences between the Pro and Shuttle is the latter uses Seagate Secure Hardware Encryption on the drive, double the capacity (up to 8 TB, two 2.5-inch drives) and is slightly larger in size. The Shuttle does not have the include an SD card reader.

(Image credit: LaCie)

The Seagate Secure Hardware Encryption uses AES 256-bit encryption methods and is said to be transparent to the user  in other words, no performance overhead. It can be password enabled or used as normal. The chassis is a secure design Seagate says is hard to crack and open. The unit has an orange rubber surround on it to assist with that drop and shock resistance as well as being able to withstand a crushing force of a two-ton car rolling over it.

The unit is connected to the system through a USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C interface and is also compatible with USB 3.0 Type-A with an included adapter cable. The device is powered through the USB port and in most cases, even when using two 4 TB drives, power is fine. However, if the device is used with an older generation PC or small compact devices, you will need to use the optional external brick (included).

(Image credit: LaCie)

The Rugged RAID Shuttle offers a three-year warranty and Rescue Services as well as a 1-Month Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps.

The Lacie 2big RAID, on the other hand, is designed to be an external desktop solution without the rugged capabilities of the Rugged RAID Shuttle. This device supports speeds of up to 440 MB/s (RAID 0), supports RAID 0 and 1 as well as JBOD - all of which is configured through LaCie Toolkit software. For increased reliability, IronWolf Pro Enterprise-class HDDs are used.

(Image credit: LaCie)

The 2big RAID is suggested to be used for video editing, back up, and archiving and will support capacities up to 16 TB using full-size 3.5-inch drives. Compared to the 2big Thunderbolt 2, it adds USB 3.1 Gen 2 connectivity, compatibility with Thunderbolt 3 hosts without using an adapter, and preformatted exFAT drives.

The chassis is an aluminum unibody enclosure capable of fitting two 3.5-inch HDDs and is powered by an external power supply. The 5-year warranty also includes five years of Rescue Data Recovery Services.

(Image credit: LaCie)

The 8TB LaCie Rugged RAID Shuttle will be available in May 2019 with an MSRP of $529.99. The LaCie 2big RAID is available starting April 2019 with an MSRP of $419, $529, and $739 for the 4 TB, 8 TB, and 16 TB models respectively.
(Image credit: Sony/USPTO)

VR is becoming increasingly popular. But among its many obstacles to going truly mainstream is the fact that a lot of people wear glasses. Those people can wear both at the same time (some VR headsets accommodate this better than others), take off their glasses whenever they want to go into VR or leave alternate realities to their better-sighted peers. Luckily, a new patent suggests that Sony wants to save the bespectacled masses from this uncomfortable truth.

The patent was filed in December 2017, published on April 4 and discovered by UploadVR today. It describes a pair of glasses that can take prescription lenses and fit inside a VR headset without crushing the wearers nose. The glasses would also use eye-tracking sensors to gather gaze information of the user in order to improve quality of content provided for rendering on the head mounted display, according to the patent.

We assume that Sony is describing foveated rendering, which effectively diverts resources from the periphery of the users vision to whatever is in the center of their field of view. That way, people can get quality graphics with a less (but still) powerful PC. Or, in the case of PlayStation VR (PSVR), with the limited power of consoles. If only PSVR supported foveated rendering... maybe the glasses are a clue that Sony plans to support the feature in the future.

If that is the case, we suspect the glasses might block whatever eye-tracking tech is built into the headset proper, or at least that they reduce its effectiveness. UploadVR speculated that Sony could enable foveated rendering on the PSVR, but that platform is 2.5 years old at this point. It would make more sense for Sony to release a followup than to upgrade this headset with a pair of prescription glasses.

Theres also the possibility that Sony doesnt actually do anything with this patent. Many companies file patents for technologies before they even know if they want to use them in a product, just to make sure they arent burned if someone else has the same idea in the interim. Patent licensingand trollingis also a perfectly viable business, which doesnt have the same costs as offering a physical product.

No matter what Sony has planned, at least its clear that someone is looking out for the glasses-wearing folks like us, who quite literally cant look out for ourselves. Who says we shouldnt be able to experience VR in comfort just because we cant see this reality particularly well without some help?
Unsure of his NFL future, Jamaal Charles makes his case for the Hall of Fame After two injury-plagued seasons with the team, former Kansas City Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles was released after the 2016 season. He spent the next season with the Denver Broncos. Last October, Charles was signed to the Jacksonville Jaguars, but was released from the team just two weeks later.

Credit where it's due . . . There's nothing more American than trying to sell a bit of sizzle when looking for the next job. Take a look:
Think about our many public and private universities and colleges that are not, at least now, directly supported by or attached to a particular religious tradition. Is there a place for religious voices in such academic centers? Nicholas Wolterstorff, an...
Kansas City Ride For Peace

Pee Wee's Run to honor KC victims of violence KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) -- "I want people to understand that it's not ok to lose a child due to the hands of someone else," Rosilyn Temple, who lost her son to gun violence, said. Temple knows the pain first hand as her son Antonio Thompson, who she lovingly called "Pee Wee," was gunned down on Thanksgiving eve in 2011.

Raytown Fired Up

One man seriously injured in Raytown shooting RAYTOWN, Mo. - A man was shot Sunday in Raytown, Missouri, during a disturbance in the 7200 block of Woodson Road. According to the Raytown Police Department, officers were called to the scene of an armed disturbance at 10:37 a.m. The call was upgraded to shots fired while Raytown PD was en route.

Golden Ghetto Vacants Take A Hit

Gunfire damages unoccupied luxury condominiums near Meadowbrook Park in Prairie Village | The Kansas City Star Police are investigating property damage after multiple gunshots hit the unoccupied Capella luxury condominiums near the Meadowbrook Park redevelopment on Sunday in Prairie Village . Several rounds of gunfire hit the building but no one was hurt, police s

Quick roundup of the gunfire around the metro that made the news and today's effort to stop the violence . . .If you have info on these shootings or any other crimes,Developing . . .
2019 marks 10 years since the launch of the Airport Carbon Accreditation programme - 264 airports now actively engaged in addressing their impact on Climate change - Over 100 airports are encouraging other companies on the airport site to lower their CO2 - Airport operators of 49 airports worldwide are carbon neutral

As this years ACI Asia-Pacific & World Annual General Assembly (WAGA) takes place in Hong Kong, Airports Council International provided an update on the latest developments among the community of 264 airports currently in the global carbon management standard, Airport Carbon Accreditation.

Initially launched in Europe in 2009, the independent annual certification programme has since gone on to become the global standard for airport operators seeking to address their carbon footprint.

Niclas Svenningsen, who heads the Climate Neutral Now initiative at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat in Bonn, Germany commented In terms of pure scale, Climate change is a daunting challenge  peoples reactions range from intense anxiety to jaded cynicism. The best response is to try to do something about it  starting by taking responsibility for what you control, for what you deal with. For this reason, I congratulate ACI on a decade of Airport Carbon Accreditation. It is an inspiring example of an industry that proactively sought to make a positive change  and now with 264 airports on board  it is succeeding in doing that. I invite people to find out more about their local airports involvement and ambitions  mobility is a fundamental part of life, so lets try to make it as efficient & ecological as possible.

Angela Gittens, Director General of ACI World said The global airport industry is committed to reducing its carbon emissions and, in 2009, the Airport Carbon Accreditation programme was launched in Europe to empower airport operators with a detailed, multi-step path to carbon neutrality. We are delighted that the programme quickly gathered global momentum which is a reflection of how airport operators think local and global. Running an airport is a complex business and airport operators are one piece of this puzzle with many stakeholders on the airport site. Working relationships need to be fostered and maintained and airport operators are addressing their direct carbon emissions, but also engaging partners to address theirs.

On the occasion of the ACI Asia-Pacific and World Annual General Assembly, 18 of the 54 accredited airports in the region were presented with their certificates**, including 8 airports at Level 1 Mapping, 5 airports at Level 2 Reduction and 5 airports at Level 3 Optimisation, the highest level possible without using carbon offsets. Airport Carbon Accreditation has been live in Asia-Pacific since November 2010 and the 54 accredited airports in the region welcome 37.3% of annual passenger traffic.

With 4 different levels of accreditation covering all stages of carbon management (Mapping, Reduction, Optimisation and Neutrality), Airport Carbon Accreditation is independently administered, institutionally-endorsed and has the support of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), US Federal Aviation Administration and the European Commission (EC).

To reduce their carbon emissions, airport operators need to consider the full extent of the emissions sources under their direct control. Investment in more energy efficient lighting, heating, switching to hybrid or electric ground vehicles, onsite renewables, energy management tools and employee behavioural change all have a part to play. The possibilities become even more diverse when airport operators engage other stakeholders on the airport site as well (Levels 3 and 3+ of the programme), with initiatives such as Airport-Collaborative Decision-Making (A-CDM), support to Continuous Descent Operations and Time-Based Separation lowering airline-associated carbon emissions and better intermodal access through electric or hybrid taxis offering passengers cleaner transport solutions to/from the airport.

Carbon neutral airports at Level 3+ of the programme have to provide evidence of undertaking all the actions required by the programme (mapping their emissions, reducing them and engaging others on the airport site), before investing in responsible carbon offsets. The 44 carbon neutral airports during Year 9 of the programme (May 2017 to May 2018) offset 672,000 tonnes of CO2 in residual emissions. As part of the evolving nature of the programme, a dedicated guidance document on offsetting has recently been released, to help airport operators select high quality offsets.

For all the latest key figures, including details of the accredited airports in each world region, their actions and the difference the programme is making, check out the interactive maps, case studies & programme results on www.AirportCO2.org. The global carbon reduction achieved during Year 10 (June 2018 to May 2019) will be announced in the autumn.

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Delhi, the capital city of India, is a heart of ample tourists spots and attracts millions of tourists throughout the year. Jingo Holidays Pvt Ltd



(TRAVPR.COM) INDIA - April 5th, 2019 - Delhi, the capital city of India, is a heart of ample tourists spots and attracts millions of tourists throughout the year. Jingo Holidays Pvt Ltd, a prominent travel agency had recently announced to include multiple travel packages of Delhi trip. For the tourists in India, the company boasts, its time to get chill with our exclusive Delhi local sightseeing, Delhi holiday trip packages and Delhi honeymoon packages at affordable prices.

Moreover, lots of really enchanting offers are also disclosed by Mr. Rakesh Kumar, CEO Jingo Holidays Pvt Ltd while sharing his speech on the occasion of the press conference in Delhi. Attractive discount offers are running in these summers for providing the tourists with the best value of money and pleasant vacations to enchant all the tourists. Exclusive and royal honeymoon packages are also available for all newlywed couples.

Mr. Kumar also added, Beautiful nightlife with amazing stays in the best-accommodated hotels, delicious meal, and breakfast in the prominent resorts and restaurants are the part of our exclusive Delhi tour packages in India. If you wish to make these summers or weekend really unforgettable and dazzling way with your kids, friends, and family, you are recommended to go through Jingo Holidays Pvt Ltd web portal

Delhi is the place of diverse range of tourists places such as Akshardham Temple, Azad Hind Gram, Lotus Temple, Birla Mandir, Delhi Haat, Pitampura, Janakpuri, Humayuns Tomb, India Gate Iskon temple, Jama Masjid, Jantar Mantar, Lodi Tomb, Kalam Memorial, Purana Quila, Parliament House, Qutub Minar, Rashtrapati Bhavan, Safdarganj Tomb, Guru Teg Bahadur Memorial, Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, ..etc and many more. Mr. Kumar in the press conference also explained the quick and convenient features of the web portal. Tour lovers can conveniently search for the place h/she wish to look for or already traveling there.

We are also about to launch a travel news app for all users with the help of our teams of tech experts, well said by Mr. Rakesh Kumar (Managing Director & CEO Jingo Holidays Pvt Ltd)

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Bonfire Urban Italian Kitchen lights up world-famous Seven Mile Beach with fresh food in a flash



(TRAVPR.COM) UNITED STATES - April 8th, 2019

For Immediate Release

Contact:

MODERN ITALIAN-INSPIRED EATERY OPENS IN THE CAYMAN ISLANDS

Bonfire Urban Italian Kitchen lights up world-famous Seven Mile Beach with fresh food in a flash

CAYMAN ISLANDS (April 3, 2019) - The Grand Cayman culinary scene just got a little hotter with the introduction of Bonfire Urban Italian Kitchen on West Bay Road just a stone's throw from world-famous Seven Mile Beach.

s brand-new boutique hotel - Bonfire represents a new wave of affordable gourmet casual Italian-inspired cuisine served up by friendly staff in a social, fun and communal atmosphere. Bonfire, which debuted last month, is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week with indoor and outdoor dining options along with a quality list of local and international beers, wine and cocktails. Located within Locale Grand Cayman - the island'

Bonfire's selection of Italian specialties includes house-made pastas, flash-baked pizzas and healthy salads with fresh ingredients from the local farmers market. Breakfast includes nutritious choices such as a chia orange pudding and avocado toast, with specialty Italian coffee.

Marco Mauthner, Director of Food and Beverage (right), with Restaurant Supervisor, Kamyar Behzad, at Bonfire Urban Italian Kitchen.

"After working on this project for two years, we are delighted to open Bonfire to very positive reviews from both locals and island visitors," said Marco Mauthner, Director of Food and Beverage, who described Bonfire's food as "simple, affordable and excellent."

Mauthner, who has opened more than 20 restaurants across the globe in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the Caribbean, explained that Bonfire uses only fresh, homemade ingredients. "Nothing is frozen," noted the Austrian national. "We are making everything from scratch in the kitchen using only the finest ingredients and locally grown produce."

Michael Wilkings, co-founder of HHG Advisory Services, developer and operator of both the Locale hotel and Bonfire restaurant, explained that the twin businesses are designed for the community and for visitors.

"Our common areas, with fast free Wi-Fi and an open-plan design, tie our community together," he said, adding that the warm and welcoming vibe and communal work space allow guests, diners and locals to interact, collaborate or just chill and hang out in a congenial space.

"Grand Cayman has some of the best restaurants in the Caribbean, but they're generally expensive," he commented. "Bonfire is designed to offer delicious, high quality, fresh food at affordable prices ... and the same goes for our full service bar."

About Bonfire Urban Italian Kitchen

The new wave of gourmet casual Italian dining has landed on the shores of Grand Cayman. Bonfire Urban Italian Kitchen is where the food is hot and the conversation never stops. The menu features the freshest, locally-sourced bites. The newest concept to hit the Seven Mile Beach strip thrives on great vibes with even better company, offering a selection of Italian specialties that include freshly made pastas, flash-baked pizzas and fresh, crisp salads. Bonfire is open daily from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.

For more information, visit www.bonfireurbankitchen.com or call 1 345 233-FIRE (3473).

ENDS
All that was left of the man was a skull and a pair of pants, say authorities at South Africa's Kruger National Park.

It may very well be that elephants have our number. They are social and smart, and they often seem to act more humanely than humans. And they know we are up to no good; they have even learned to avoid poachers by learning how to secretly migrate at night and "discuss" safety. They have deep family bonds and show signs of empathy. After a death, elephant family members display grief and have been known to revisit the bones of the dead for years, touching them with their trunks.

But are they now even becoming active vigilantes? In the case of poaching, one can hope. And while we can't know the intention behind what went down last week in South Africa's Kruger National Park (KNP), if I were a poacher, I'd be concerned.

Here's what happened, according to the Sunday Times. Five rhino poachers went into the park, said Police Brigadier Leonard Hlathi, "when suddenly an elephant attacked and killed one of them."

OK, so that's all we know so far. But really, elephants are smart and of course, they never forget. They see poachers killing their family members, who is to say they wouldn't become defensive upon the site of armed men up to no good?

The gory twist here is what happened after the dead man's co-poachers hightailed it out of there.

"His accomplices claimed to have carried his body to the road so that passers-by could find it in the morning. They then vanished from the park," Hlathi continued. "Once outside, they reportedly informed a relative of the dead man about their ordeal."

Relatives contacted the park, and a search was begun. After three days, the man's scant remains were found.

"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 Isaac Phaahla, GM of communications and marketing at the KNP.

While rhino poaching numbers have been slowly waning since 2015, the statistics are still harrowing. According to Save The Rhino, more than 8,000 rhinos have been killed in the last 10 years. "South Africa holds nearly 80% of the worlds rhinos and has been the country hit hardest by poaching criminals, with more than 1,000 rhinos killed each year between 2013 and 2017," notes the organization. Half of all rhino poachings happen in KNP.

Since this latest incident, three of the suspects have been arrested and are facing charges of possession of firearms and ammunition without a license, conspiracy to poach as well as trespassing. A formal inquest will be looking at the poacher's death.

It's all just an awful situation. I don't celebrate the loss of a human life, but I do hope that it helps to serve as a cautionary tale to other poachers. I also hope that events like this help nudge law officials, policymakers, and conservation non-profits to focus on community empowerment when creating anti-poaching strategies. For local people trying to survive in areas with few opportunities, I assume that the lure of poaching is more about structural inequality than a the love of killing iconic animals.

Regardless, poaching is obviously dangerous for the animals ... and increasingly, for the poachers as well. As KNP managing executive Glenn Phillips said, Entering Kruger National Park illegally and on foot is not wise, it holds many dangers and this incident is evidence of that."

And I'm secretly guessing that the elephants are well aware of that message...
High-tech hydroponic containers allow for soil-less cultivation and a carefully controlled yield.

IKEA is hoping to improve its environmental track record by serving salad grown at its stores. The company announced the project at the end of last year, but only just demonstrated how the plan will work at a store event in Kaarst, western Germany, on April 3rd.

Lettuce and herbs are grown hydroponically, that is, without soil or pesticides, using LED lights powered by renewable energy. This method uses 90 percent less water and half the surface area of conventional farming, and produces a harvest in five weeks.

 IKEA (used with permission)

The system used for growing the plants is a 30 square meter 'farming technology container' made by Bonbio, a Swedish circular farming company. It has four shelves and can hold up to 3,600 plants in total. These are fed with nutrients extracted from organic waste, including leftover food from IKEA's restaurants. From Bonbio's website,

"Most of IKEA Swedens waste food is already sent to various biogas plants, including the biogas plant in Helsingborg run by our sister company OX2 Bio. At this biogas plant, Bonbio turns waste food into plant nutrients that are then used to grow lettuce."



Because the lettuce is grown on site, it has no transportation costs or emissions. Similarly, production can be scaled to a particular store's level of demand, which reduces food waste. Over the course of a year, a single container can produce 5 tons of lettuce.

 IKEA (used with permission)

Jonas Carlehed, sustainability manager of Ikea Sweden, said last December, "More than 25 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions come from food. As part of Ikea's quest to find new, innovative and sustainable solutions for food production, we are testing this circular culture model for lettuce."

The salad project will roll out officially at two stores in Helsingborg and Malmo, Sweden. The long-term goal is for the entire IKEA franchise to be self-sufficient when it comes to production of salad, herbs, and other greens.
>>> Vietnam treasures ties with Qatar: NA Chairwoman

The NA leader disclosed the information during her meeting on April 7 with staff members of the Vietnamese Embassy in Doha and representatives from the Vietnamese community in Qatar.

Head of the liaison office of the Vietnamese community Nguyen Trung Hieu informed the NA Chairwoman that there are about 1,400 Vietnamese in Qatar, most of who are workers in the construction industry.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Qatar Nguyen Dinh Thao reported to the NA leader the embassys operation since its opening in Doha 10 years ago. The two countries marked the 10th anniversary of their diplomatic relations last year, and the good political and diplomatic ties between the two nations provides a firm foundation for promoting economic, investment and tourism cooperation, Thao said.

NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan is in Doha to attend the 140th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU-140) at the invitation of IPU President Gabriela Cuevas Barron and Chairman of the Consultative Assembly of Qatar Ahmad Bin Abdullah Al Mahmoud.
Johannesburg, Apr 8 (IBNS): A suspected poacher was trampled to death by an elephant and then eaten by a pride of lions in South Africa's Kruger National Park, media reports said on Monday.

As per a releases issued by the police: "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. The police received information that some men had gone poaching in the KNP on 01 April 2019, when suddenly an elephant attacked and killed one of them. His accomplices claimed to have carried his body to the road so that passers-by could find it in the morning. They the vanished from the Park."

#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

" Once outside, they reportedly informed a relative of the dead man about their ordeal and police were alerted regarding the incident. A search operation was launched by police and Rangers in the mentioned area, whereupon the human skull and pieces of clothing were found," read the statement.

Police said it launched a joint intelligence driven operation in search of the dead poacher's accomplices, resulting in the arrest of three men aged between 26 and 35, within KaMhlushwa and Komatipoort precincts.

"During the operation, two .375 hunting rifles and ammunition were seized," it said.

"The suspects appeared yesterday, 05 April 2019, at the Komatipoort Magistrate's Court facing charges of possession of firearms and ammunition without a licence, conspiracy to poach as well as trespassing. Upon their appearance, the court remanded them in custody and will reappear at the same court on 12 April 2019, pending a formal bail application.An inquest was opened in connection with the dead suspect," read the statement.
rchopra@tribunemail.com

Aparna Banerji

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, April 8

Balbir Kumar, a 50-year-old priest working at the Baba Balaknath temple was murdered in the wee hours of Monday at Kartarpur near here.

Tension prevailed in the area after the attack as police visited the spot.

Armed assailants attacked the priest who was found profusely bleeding at 3.30 am as a sevadar went to the temple.

People gathered after hearing the sevadars cries for help and called the 108 ambulance to take him to the civil hospital.

However, owing to delay in getting medical help, he died at the hospital.

The temple is located at Khatika Mohalla at Sadarpur in Kartarpur. No one reportedly saw the assailants.

While the identity of the assailants hasnt been ascertained, police sources said a Jammu-based devotee, a regular at the temple, is suspected to be behind the attack.

An FIR has been registered under Section 302 of the IPC against unidentified people.

Kartarpur DSP Ranjit Singh said, The priest was found injured in the wee hours of Monday. Since the assailants have fled, their identities or whereabouts werent known. But the police are looking for them.
amansharma@tribunemail.com

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh/Faridkot, April 8

The Election Commission of India has asked Chief Secretary, Punjab, to relieve IGP Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh from his present posting as member of Special Investigation Team (SIT) which is probing the police firing incident at Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura.

Kunwar Vijay Pratap has been transferred as IG, Counter Intelligence, Amritsar.

It has taken the action against the IGP after receiving a complaint from Rajya Sabha MP Naresh Gujral. The MP had made a complaint against IGP Kunwar Vijay Partap on March 22 after the latter had allegedly given a politically- motivated interview on a TV channel on March 18 and March 19.

The interview was about the ongoing investigation by the SIT in the police firing incidents and allegedly many political comments were also made, reads the Election Commission letter to the Chief Secretary.

The EC has asked the Chief Secretary to make compliance of the directions of relieving Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh by 5 pm this evening.

It has asked the Chief Secretary not to give any post related to election work to the IGP.

The poll panel also asked the Chief Secretary to direct the SIT members not to air any such contents in future during the period of Model Code of Conduct which will affect the fairness of conduction of electoral process.
editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, April 7

To apprise Assam-based Sikh children of Sikh heritage and culture, the SGPC has decided to open dedicated institutions over there.

The Sikh Representative Board Eastern Zone in Assam has been entrusted with the task of identifying the land whereas the construction of the school building and its administration will be looked after by the SGPC. This was stated by SGPC President Gobind Singh Longowal during the gurmat programme organised by the Sikh Representative Board and local residents of Guwahati to commemorate the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak.

Longowal said Sikh children need to be encouraged towards learning mother tongue Gurmukhi and Sikh values from the school level. It is our duty to apprise the present generation about Sikh tenets, Gurus philosophy and teachings. Special initiatives have been chalked out by the SGPC in this direction. Establishing dedicated schools in Assam is one such endeavour, he said.

Welcoming the SGPCs announcement, Akal Takht acting Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh viewed that in the prevailing materialistic world, only Gurus philosophy could present a succor.

Assam Governor Prof Jagdish Mukhi, SGPC chief secretary Dr Roop Singh, Dharam Parchar Committee member Sukhwarsh Singh Pannu and secretary Balwinder Singh Jorasingha were also present on the occasion.
editorial@tribune.com

Sanjeev Singh Bariana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 7

Opponents of the Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Vijay Sampla within the Punjab BJP are reportedly wooing former Congress minister Mohinder Singh Kaypee. Denied the party ticket, he has threatened to contest as an Independent.

The three-time Congress MLA won the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat in 2009, but in 2014 was shifted to the Hoshiarpur (reserved) constituency where he lost to BJPs Sampla. After Kaypee sent out signals that he was ready to join a party that allotted him ticket, a section of Punjab BJP leaders reportedly held backdoor talks with him on Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitleys bidding. Sources claim Kaypee has been invited to New Delhi by Jaitley  the meeting reportedly arranged by senior party leader Tikshan Sood.

With Kaypee also being approached by the SAD and the Punjab Democratic Alliance, a ruffled Congress reportedly sent Cabinet Minister Sukhjinder Randhawa to mollify him but the meeting was inconclusive. On Sunday, Raj Kumar Verka, the Congress Amritsar (West) MLA, met him too. Kaypee could not be contacted despite several attempts. State BJP chief Shwait Malik denied any move to take Kaypee into the BJP. I am not aware of any such development, he said.

Samplas nomination was opposed by the state leadership at a meeting in Delhi.

Not surprising, Sampla, one of the tallest Dalit leaders in Punjab, chose to stay away from the Daliton ki lalkar, phir se Modi sarkar function at Amritsar on Sunday. During at least two functions recently, Samplas pictures were missing from the party posters, much to the annoyance of his supporters. If Kaypee joins the BJP, Phagwara MLA Som Parkash and Rajesh Bagga, former head of the State Scheduled Castes Commission, could be out of the ticket race too.
amansharma@tribunemail.com

Islamabad, April 8

Pakistan said on Monday that it will hold a technical meeting with India on April 16 to discuss the modalities for the corridor linking Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district in Punjab.

Continuing with Pakistans spirit of constructive engagement, we have agreed to the Indian proposal for a technical meeting on 16 April, Foreign Office spokesman Dr Mohammad Faisal tweeted.

We expect positivity from India so that the corridor becomes reality for 550th celebrations, he further said.

India and Pakistan last month held a meeting of technical experts on the Kartarpur corridor during which its alignment, coordinates, and other engineering aspects of the proposed crossing points were discussed.

The technical meeting at the level of experts, including engineers and surveyors, was held at proposed zero points in the follow up to the decision reached on the March 14 meeting.

Later, the Pakistani Cabinet constituted a 10-member Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC) to facilitate Sikh pilgrims after opening of the Kartarpur corridor.

India voiced concerns over the presence of several Khalistani separatists in the committee on the Kartarpur corridor and said it will wait for a response from Islamabad on the issue and will not go ahead with a previously agreed meeting on the corridor on April 2 in Wagah on the Pakistani side.

On Thursday, India said Pakistan is yet to respond to its concerns over reports that controversial elements have been appointed to the committee.

Last November, India and Pakistan agreed to set up the border crossing linking Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, the final resting place of Sikh faiths founder Guru Nanak Dev, to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Indias Gurdaspur district.

Kartarpur Sahib is located in Pakistans Narowal district across the river Ravi, 4 km from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine.

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had on November 26 last year laid the foundation stone of the Kartarpur corridor in Gurdaspur district.

Two days later, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan laid the foundation stone of the corridor in Narowal, 125 km from Lahore.

The Indo-Pak tensions escalated in recent months after a terror attack in Pulwama by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group that killed 40 CRPF soldiers on February 14 and a subsequent aerial strike by India on a JeM training camp in Balakot on February 26.

On February 27, the Pakistan Air Force retaliated by unsuccessfully targeting several military installations in Jammu and Kashmir.

In the dogfight, Pakistan downed a MiG-21 Bison jet and captured an IAF pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1. India had shot down a Pakistani F-16 but Islamabad has been denying that it lost any jet in the aerial combat.  PTI
pardeepdhull@gmail.com

Washington, April 8

A sarcophagus containing an Egyptian high priest was opened on live TV on Sunday during a special two-hour broadcast by the American channel Discovery.

Expedition Unknown: Egypt Live aired from the site outside Minya, which is along the Nile River south of Cairo and its Giza pyramids.

Archeologists recently discovered a network of vertical shafts at the site which led to tunnels and tombs containing 40 mummies believed to be part of the noble elite. After exploring other tombsfinding artifacts like statues, amulets, canopic jars used to store organs, and other mummies including one that had decomposed to a skeletonthey crawled to the chamber containing the intricately carved sarcophagus.

It took the strength of several people to open.

And the teams efforts had not gone to waste: inside was a pristinely linen-wrapped mummy surrounded by treasure including gold.

I cant believe this, this is incredible, exclaimed Zahi Hawass, an Egyptian archaeologist and former antiquities minister, who had taken charge of the expedition with American explorer Josh Gates as the host of the broadcast.

A Discovery spokesman previously told AFP that the project was set up in collaboration with Egypts antiquities ministry.

Gates said the mummy was that of a high priest of Thoth, the ancient Egyptian god of wisdom and magic, and dated to Ancient Egypts 26th dynastythe last native dynasty to rule until 525 BC.

Toward the end of Ancient Egypt, the power really was with the high priests and you can see this... almost feels like a royal burial, Gates said.

Cairo has sought to promote archeological discoveries across the country in a bid to revive tourism hit by turmoil after the 2011 uprising against Hosni Mubarak.

Asked by AFP about a possible financial deal between the channel and the Egyptian state for permission to film and open the grave, the spokesman for Discovery refused to comment.

Its a media spectacle in the endbut it could make people love antiquities and is a good promotional opportunity for tourism, if done right, an Egyptian archeologist who asked to remain anonymous told AFP.

However, she asked: If money is being paid by a major channel to the ministry to show antiquities, where is it going to end up? Will it go in the states purse-strings or end up elsewhere? We need more transparency on where the money is going.

Egyptian resident Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has overseen a crackdown on dissent, banning protests and jailing Islamists as well as liberal and secular activists.

He regularly evokes political stability to draw foreign investment.

The tourism sector has begun to return, with arrivals reaching 8.3 million in 2017, according to government figures.

That still falls far short of the 14.7 million in 2010.

Discoverys broadcast also comes with global interest in Egyptian archeology generated by a once in a generation exhibition about the pharaoh Tutankhamun, which opened in Paris last month and will tour the world.  AFP
laxmi@tribune.com

IF the National Protest Day under the advice of Mahatma Gandhi was celebrated throughout the country, we doubt if it was observed with more completeness or greater earnestness anywhere else than it was in the Punjab. A report of the unique and unprecedented demonstration of grief and protest in Lahore itself will be found elsewhere. Similar demonstrations were held in Amritsar, Multan, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Rawalpindi, Jullundhur and other places. Only a few of the reports received can appear to-day; the rest have to be held over owing to the pressure on our space. What we are able to give to-day should, however, suffice to give an idea of the universal and emphatic protest against the Rowlatt Act.
rchopra@tribunemail.com

Abu Dhabi, April 8

A UK woman is facing two years in jail in Dubai for calling her former husbands new wife a horse on Facebook, campaigners said.

Laleh Shahravesh, 55, was arrested at a Dubai airport after flying there to attend her former husbands funeral. The woman faces prosecution over two comments she posted on Facebook on pictures of her husband remarrying in 2016.

The Foreign Office said it was supporting the mother-of-one, the BBC reported on Sunday.

According to the report, Shahravesh was married to her former husband for 18 years, during which she lived in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for eight months, said campaign group Detained in Dubai.

While she returned to the UK with her daughter, her husband stayed in the UAE and the couple got divorced.

The woman found her former husband was remarrying when she saw photos of the new couple on Facebook.

She posted two comments in Farsi on the photos, including one that said: I hope you go under the ground you idiot. Damn you. You left me for this horse.

Under the UAEs cyber-crime laws, a person can be jailed and fined for making defamatory statements on social media. IANS
vermaajay1968@gmail.com

Male, April 7

The former Maldives President on Sunday vowed sweeping reforms and an end to government corruption after leading his party to a landslide win 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) headed for a two-thirds majority in the 87-member House. 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 Male on Sunday.

The comprehensive victory was another rebuke for Nasheed's arch-rival and autocratic former President Abdulla 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  ended with a poor showing and is projected to only secure four seats.

Nasheed was barred from running in the 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. Parliament you have elected today possesses integrity, said Nasheed, who won a seat in the People's Majlis, or parliament. Nasheed also vowed to transform the Maldives into a parliamentary democracy.

An executive presidential system was adopted under political reforms in 2008, when the dictator Maumoon Abdul Gayoom stood down after 30 years in power.

Preliminary results from Saturday's election showed the MDP winning nearly 60 out of the 87 seats. Some local media projected Nasheed's party was on track to win up to 68 seats.

Another anti-Yameen party that won seven seats, and several Independent candidates, are also expected to throw their support behind the MDP government, political sources said. 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.

Election officials estimated the final turnout to be just under 80 per cent, down from 89 per cent recorded at the September presidential election. The official results could take days. 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.

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 the UK. 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.  AFP

Will succeed in fulfilling wishes

"Parliament you have elected today possesses integrity Our foremost duty is to bring peace to the government. You desired to reform the general wellbeing of the nation... Hopefully, we will succeed in fulfilling your wishes." Mohamed Nasheed, former Maldives President
gspannu7@gmail.com

Paris, April 8

Frances prime minister has called for quick tax cuts to respond to the anger expressed through the yellow vests protests across the country.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on Monday unveiled the results of a three-month grand debate launched by President Emmanuel Macron in response to the protests so ordinary people could express their views on Frances economy and democracy.

Philippe says the debate clearly indicates the direction: we must cut taxes and cut them more quickly. At the same time, however, he said the government must cut public spending.

Macron is expected to unveil a series of economic measures next week.

The yellow vest movement, prompted by a fuel tax hike in November, has expanded into a broader revolt against Macrons policies, which protesters see as favouring the rich and big businesses.  AP
vermaajay1968@gmail.com

Jerusalem, April 7

Israelis vote on Tuesday in a high-stakes election on whether to extend Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus 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 Israels security and economic growth, Netanyahu has spent more than 13 years as premier and opinion polls show that he could well win again. In a last-minute appeal to right-wing voters, Netanyahu on Saturday said that he was planning on annexing Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank if he wins.

The 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 years 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 Netanyahus party could win fewer seats than Gantzs Blue and White, but still be best placed to form a governing coalition based on support from other right-wing parties allied to him.

Polls have shown Likud and Blue and White with around 30 seats each in the 120-seat Parliament  far short of a majority and necessitating a coalition, as is usual in Israel.  AFP

KEY CONTENDERS

Benjamin Bibi Netanyahu, 69

Israels incumbent PM Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the right-wing Likud party, is seeking a fifth term in office. If re-elected, Netanyahu could become Israels longest-serving PM and the first sitting PM to be indicted on corruption charges. But Netanyahu dismissed the allegations, calling it a witch-hunt concocted by his opponents.

Benjamin Benny Gantz, 59

As security always takes centre stage in Israeli politics, Benjamin 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

How the elections work

The 120 Knesset seats are allocated by proportional representation to party lists. In order to win seats, a party must pass a threshold of at least 3.25 per cent of the vote, equivalent to 4 seats. No single party has ever won an outright majority in the Knesset, making coalition governments the norm. Once the results are in, all parties that pass the threshold then submit their choice of Prime Minister candidate to the President.
pardeepdhull@gmail.com

United Nations, April 8

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 Haftars 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 Haftars 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 Libyas 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 Haftars supporters in the east of the country.  AFP
pardeepdhull@gmail.com

Kabul, April 8

Taliban fighters have killed 12 security forces in the last 48 hours in clashes in Afghanistans western province of Badghis, the defence ministry said Monday.

In the latest assault on Afghan forceswho have faced devastating losses in recent yearsTaliban fighters last week smashed through government lines near the city of Bala Murghab, seizing several checkpoints.

It is with great sadness we announce that during these operations, eight Afghan National Army and four police who fought with bravery and courage accepted martyrdom, the defence ministry said in a statement.

Another 10 soldiers and 24 police were injured in the operation that killed 99 Taliban terrorists, it added.

Clearance operations continue in the district, officials said, and security forces helped Red Cross workers evacuate the bodies of Taliban fighters that had been left on battlefields, officials said.

The defence ministry last week said Afghan forces had made a tactical retreat from a number of checkpoints in the district to avoid civilian casualties.

Abdul Aziz Beg, the head of the Badghis provincial council, had described the situation as critical and called for reinforcements.

Over the weekend Afghan and US-led coalition aircraft conducted multiple air strikes in support of ground forces.

The Taliban said they had conducted a coordinated attack on a series of government checkpoints, killing 12 security forces.

The militants launched their assault ahead of a widely expected spring offensive.

They typically declare a new fighting season as winter snows melt, and have in the past sought to gain control of district centres and target government facilities.

The clash started as Zalmay Khalilzad, the US envoy tasked with forging a peace deal with the Taliban, was in Afghanistan, where he spoke with national leaders and stakeholders.

Khalilzad is expected in the coming days to go to Qatar, where Taliban and Afghan officials are due to meet.

In January, President Ashraf Ghani said 45,000 security forces had been killed since he took office in September 2014.  AFP
gspannu7@gmail.com

Kampala, April 8

An American tourist who was freed after being kidnapped in a national park will be turned over to the US ambassador on Monday, Ugandan police said, amid conflicting reports over whether a ransom was paid for her release.

Kim Endicott and her Ugandan driver were both safe, after the five-day ordeal during which they were taken from Queen Elizabeth National Park across the border to Congo, according to Ugandan authorities.

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 dont do ransom, he said on Monday.

A Uganda-based tour official said, however, that a ransom was paid to secure Endicotts freedom.

The official with Wild Frontiers Uganda Safaris, which organised the kidnapping victims safari itinerary, said Monday that Endicott was released, not rescued, after money was paid.

Otherwise she wouldnt be back, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press.

Many officials, including from the US Embassy, were involved in efforts to secure the release of the kidnapping victims, he said. He couldnt say how much was paid or who paid.

Ugandan officials have said the kidnapping victims were rescued from armed kidnappers who are still at large.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said on Twitter that the security forces shall deal with these isolated pockets of criminals.

The kidnappers had demanded a $500,000 ransom after grabbing Endicott and her driver from a group of tourists on an evening game drive on April 2, police said.

Endicott is from Costa Mesa, California, where she has a small skin care shop. She is in her 50s and has a daughter and granddaughter, according to Phoenix resident Rich Endicott, a 62-year-old banker who told The Associated Press he hadnt spoken with his cousin since a family reunion several years ago.

US 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.

Queen Elizabeth National Park, which is located near the porous border with Congo, is Ugandas most popular safari destination. Its attractions include groups of tree-climbing lions.  AP
pardeepdhull@gmail.com

Washington, April 8

The United States is deeply concerned by fighting near Libyas capital Tripoli and is seeking an immediate halt to an offensive by strongman Khalifa Haftar, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday.

We have made clear that we oppose the military offensive by Khalifa Haftars forces and urge the immediate halt to these military operations against the Libyan capital, he said in a statement.

Libya descended into chaos during the 2011 overthrow of Moamer Kadhafi that has seen a bitter rivalry emerge between the Tripoli-based authorities and Haftars supporters in the east of the country.

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.

But Pompeo stressed that there is no military solution to the Libya conflict, and urged all parties to urgently de-escalate the situation. This unilateral military campaign against Tripoli is endangering civilians and undermining prospects for a better future for all Libyans, he said.

The United States continues to press Libyan leaders, together with our international partners, to return to political negotiations mediated by UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General Ghassan Salame, he added.

A political solution is the only way to unify the country and provide a plan for security, stability, and prosperity for all Libyans.  AFP
Protesters display a variety of signs during a rally against the Westboro Baptist Church, Friday, July 24, 2009, on the corner of Lincoln Way and University. The Westboro Baptist Church came to Iowa to protest against the legalization of gay marriage, and was met with a large counter-protest. Photo: Logan Gaedke/Iowa State Daily
Watson Dukes offer of a resignation to the Public Services Association does not purge him or Tobago House of Assembly Chief Secretary Farley Augustine and their camp of the difficulties they are in, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi said yesterday.

He was commenting on reports that Duke, in a letter dated December 13, offered his resignation for acceptance by the Conference of Delegates to be effective from December 31, 2021.
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.
Opinion Policies

Editorials are longer opinion pieces that are written by a group of community members recruited across campus who address relevant issues on a local, national and international level. Editorials are research-based. The purpose of the Editorial Board is to promote discussion concerning relevant issues in the community while advising on possible solutions. Topics are chosen via relevancy and interests of the members, which are then discussed by the Editorial Board in order to reach a general consensus concerning the topic or issue.

Feedback policy

If you have a grievance concerning the content or argument of the Editorial Board, please contact either Opinion Editor Peyton Hamel (peyton.hamel@iowastatedaily.com) or the Editorial Board as a whole (editorialboard@iowastatedaily.com). Those wanting to respond to editorials can also submit a letter to the editor through the Iowa State Daily website or by emailing the letter to Opinion Editor Peyton Hamel (peyton.hamel@iowastatedaily.com) or Editor-in-Chief Sage Smith (sage.smith@iowastatedaily.com).

Column Policy

Columns are hyper-specific to opinion and are written by only columnists employed by the Iowa State Daily. Columnists are unique because they have a specific writing day and only publish on those writing days. Each column undergoes a thorough editing process ensuring the integrity of the writer, and their claim is maintained while remaining research-based and respectful. Columns may be submitted from community members. These are labelled as Guest Columns. These contain similar research-based content and need to be at least 400 words in length. The following requirements should be met: first and last name, email and relation or position to Iowa State. Emails must be tied to the submitted guest column or it will not be accepted or published. Pseudonyms are prohibited and the writer will be banned from submissions.

Read our full Opinion Policies here. Updated on 10/7/2020
- Boinnet was appointed by President Uhuru Kenyatta to serve as CAS in the Ministry of Tourism and Agriculture after his term as IG expired

- He was sworn in on Monday, April 8, at Statehouse in a ceremony witnessed by Uhuru and his deputy, William Ruto

- The ex police boss said he would use his vast experience in public administration to serve in the ministry

- His position at the helm of Police Service has been filled by Hillary Mutyambai

Immediate former Inspector General of police Joseph Boinnet has been sworn in as Chief Administrative Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife following his appointment by President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Boinnet, who was at the helm of National Police Service for four years was appointed in the Tourism ministry after his term expired in March 2019.

READ ALSO: Joshua Kutuny gives DCI 14 days to arrest, prosecute corrupt government officials

Joseph Boinnet sworn in as Tourism and Wildlife CAS.Photo/Nation

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Raila Odinga meets Kalenjin leaders at his Capital Hill office

The former IG took oath of office on Monday, April 8, in a ceremony witnessed by President Uhuru and his deputy William Ruto at Statehouse.

Boinnet signed the leadership and integrity code and the accountability pledge in a function that was presided over by Head of Public Service, Joseph Kinyua.

He thanked the president for the new job saying he was satisfied with the work he did at the NPS and promised to use his vast experience in leadership to serve in the new capacity.

READ ALSO: Police in Mombasa hunting for persons inciting locals not to register for Huduma Namba

The Head of State expressed confidence in Boinnet urging him to dedicate his energy and knowledge to serve the country.

Uhuru also asked the new Inspector General of Police, Hillary Mutyambai, who was sworn in at the Supreme Court to be gallant and firmly deal with insecurity issues affecting the country.

He assured the two leaders of his support in their new roles.

I am looking forward to working together with you in our mission to deliver services to the people of Kenya, said Uhuru

The ceremony was also attended by Interior CS Fred Matiang'i, his Tourism counterpart Najib Balala and Mutyambai.

Follow TUKO to keep pace with Kenya news today!

Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news.

President Uhuru Kenyatta insists the handshake is there to stay I Tuko TV

Source: Tuko Breaking News Latest
Beauty, as they say lies in the eyes of the beholder.

However, the aforementioned can be flipped and apply to anyone and not only the beholder especially when the beauty is truly beautiful.

READ ALSO: Tanzanian songstress Jessie dies during delivery

READ ALSO: Sensational Kalenjin rapper Msupa S unveils new lover days after dumping producer boyfriend

It is even greater when the beauty comes with brains too, and Smiles Beckwith happens to be one of the beauties with some good grey matter.

TUKO.co.ke recently learnt that Kenya is proud to have the only lady who flies hot air balloons, in other words, a hot air balloon pilot.

Well, Kenya has two hot air balloon pilots, Elly Kirkman, an Australian living in the country and Smiles Beckwith, a typical Kenyan lady who is flying the country's flag up high.

READ ALSO: Akothee claims she is now saved, promises she will not change raunchy wardrobe

READ ALSO: Kiambu boy kicked out of birthday party for being dirty releases song

Beckwith, just like most women is hot and boasts of an African body which is to die for.

Judging with tens of her photos on Instagram, she is an outgoing and fun loving person who socialises with her passengers regardless of their race, age and statuses.

The lass who works at the Maasai Mara game park has an impeccable fashion sense you can mistake her for a model.

Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram:Tuko news

The Dyslexic Boy Chased From Parties For Being Too Dirty

Source: Tuko Kenya
Netflix has now stopped AirPlay support on Apple TV citing technical limitations. So now, when you try to AirPlay a video from iPhone or iPad to your Apple TV, it just wont play. But not all is lost. If youre trying to AirPlay content from your phone, your biggest reason might be the need to control playback from the iPhone itself. There are a couple of ways to can keep this experience going. Heres how you can mirror Netflix from your iPhone to TV.

Mirror Netflix from iPhone to Your TV

Using Chromecast

The most reliable way of getting an AirPlay-like experience for Netflix is by buying a Chromecast. A Chromecast is Googles streaming device. At around $30, its quite cheap. It doesnt have a remote and is very simple to use. Once its set up and active, youll see a Cast icon in the Netflix app at the top.

Tap on it, and select your Chromecast. Now, anything you play on the Netflix app will be played on your TV via Chromecast. And youll be able to control the playback using your iPhone or iPad (similar to AirPlay).

Theres only a technical difference here. When youre using AirPlay, the video is actually going through your device. On Chromecast, its directly going through the Chromecast device, connected to the web. This leads to a faster, more reliable connection.

Buy: Chromecast ($35)

Use Your Smart TVs Netflix App

If you own a smart TV, no matter how old, chances are that youll have a Netflix app in there. If its not installed already, you can download it from the library. After that, log in with your account and start streaming.

But you might not like the experience of using your TVs remote to navigate the Netflix app. If so, use the Netflix 2nd Screen experience outlined below.

Using Netflixs 2nd Screen Experience

A myriad of devices supports Netflixs 2nd Screen experience. What this means is, you can turn the first device (your iPhone or iPad) into a remote for a second device which is the one playing the Netflix media.

For this to work, both devices need to be on the same Wi-Fi network and logged into the same account. A majority of Smart TVs, Play Station and more support this feature.

To find out of your device does or not, open the Netflix app on your TV (or device connected to your TV) and then open the Netflix app on your iPhone. Tap on the Cast button that appears on the top toolbar. If you see your device listed here, it means the 2nd Screen feature is supported.

Tap on it and now both your devices will be connected. Continue to browse around on your iPhone and when you finally find something that you like, tap on it. The playback will start instantly on your TV!

Other Methods to Watch Netflix on Your TV

Use an HDMI Cable and Your Laptop

If all fails, this is something that will still work, reliably. Just connect an HDMI cable from your Mac or Windows laptop to your TV. Then open the Netflix window in your browser. Make it full screen and as long as youre in mirroring mode, you should see the content, along with the sound, coming through from the TV.

Miracast From Android Or Windows

You can think of Miracast as the new, wireless format of HDMI. If the technology is built into your Android phone, Windows PC and your TV, you can get Chromecast like casting feature without the need for any additional hardware. Just check online if Mircast is supported on your devices. And then like always, use the Cast button to connect to the available devices on your Wi-Fi network.

Mirror Using Google Chromecast on Mac

You might not know this but Netflix officially supports Google Chromecast is the Chrome browser as well. Make sure youre running the latest version of Google Chrome which comes with Google Cast feature built-in. Then open Netflix in your browser, start playing something and then click on the Cast button to send it to your TV. You can continue to control the playback using Google Chrome on your computer.

How Do You Use Netflix On Your TV?

As you can see, even though Netflix has ended AirPlay support, it doesnt mean all is lost. There are still many ways you watch Netflix on your TV where you can control it from your iPhone.

How do you watch Netflix? Share with us in the comments below.
Well thus far we brought you four nominees for the TV6 Sport Personality Award. Tonight, the
Last week, Netflix removed AirPlay support from its iOS app citing technical limitations. The move comes just a few months before Apple gets around to releasing Apple TV+ and takes on Netflix with its own series of original shows. Given the popularity of Netflix and the amount of stress it puts on user experience, this was an odd move from the company.

The streaming giant has now gone ahead and explained as to what the technical limitations are due to which it is unable to offer AirPlay support on its iOS app. In a statement to The Verge, Netflix says with Apple rolling out AirPlay support to more TVs and devices, it has pulled the ability for Netflix to differentiate between the playback device  an Apple TV or a third-party 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 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.

By not knowing if the playback device is certified by Netflix or not, the company will not be able to deliver a user experience that it strives for. Netflix usually works with TV OEMs to certify their products and ensure they offer the best Netflix experience possible.

With Netflix now not being able to know if you are playing back content from it on your Apple TV or a third-party TV, it has decided its better to entirely pull support for AirPlay rather than live without the data. It is definitely an odd move from Netflix especially since it puts a great deal of focus on user experience. Most smart TVs do come with a Netflix app pre-installed and the Netflix app is available across all major streaming sticks. However, thats no excuse for Netflix to drop AirPlay support from its iOS app.

We Want To Hear From You

Do you think Netflix is right in dropping AirPlay support from its iOS app? How do you prefer to watch Netflix on your TV?

[Via The Verge




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Hamisa Mobetto might be facing serious charges if the accusations placed against her by her ex boyfriends wife are true.Yesterday evening Tasha Dolly who is said to be the husband of the new man Hamisa Mobetto was seeing; came out to say that she had been beaten by some goons hired by the Tanzanian socialite.According to Tasha, she has already got a p3 and if anything happens to her unborn baby Hamisa Mobetto would be responsible.She went on to add that if her husband is the reason she is getting attacked; then she is ready to give him up.Hamisa husband snatcherWell, for a while now Hamisa Mobetto has been accused of taking peoples husbands. First she got involved with Diamond Platnumz while he was dating Zari and now her current ex boyfriend is said to be somebodys husband.His wife, Tasha has one child and another one on the way!




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There has been endless debate whether Paul Radido aka Willy Paul is still a gospel artist.When Willy Paul ventured into music, he released his first song Sitolia which he featured Gloria Muliro. The song touched the hearts of many Kenyans due to the well composed and inspirational lyrics.Sitolia was more inspirational than some of the sermons we hear from the so called daddy and mummy pastors. Listening to Sitolia in a Sunday morning put you in the right mood of worshipping God. Willy Paul sung his heart out in the massive hit that brought him to the industry.When he was releasing Sitolia, he was struggling with life in the slums of Mathare. Perhaps the hard life in Mathare is what inspired him to come up with the song which basically means that I will not cry since God is on my side.After Sitolia, Willy Pozze, as he is commonly known, released other gospel songs that topped charts like Mamangu, You Never Know just to name a few and he became a darling of many Kenyans. He won the coveted Groove Awards and headlined all major gospel shows.As Willy Paul continued pursuing his thriving music career and getting more money, scandals started following him. He became a major headline in the tabloids.The first major scandal was when he was allegedly caught up having sex with socialite Pendo at KICC basement parking during Kisima Awards.After his sex scandal with Pendo, more scandals followed. From sleeping with different ladies, fighting over a married woman to neglecting his own mother after getting fame and money, Pozze became the new king of scandals in town.He also changed his style of music from content based gospel songs that uplifted the souls of millions of Kenyans to bubble-gum club bangers.These days, he has specialized in love songs and rarely sings anything that preaches righteousness. Theres nothing wrong with singing love songs but theres something we have observed on his Instagram page that might send clear signals that Pozze has become a full blown secular artist.He is posting videos of ladies twerking to his new song with Nandy dubbed Hallelujah.We are not against Willy Paul singing love songs because God is love. But posting videos of ladies twerking their derrieres to his songs is a clear indication that he is no longer the God fearing Pozze we knew of when he ventured into music.Perhaps he should just come out and declare himself a secular artist instead of taking Kenyans round in circles and hiding under the gospel tag.Infact, Pozze is one of the best Kenyan secular artists we have around. Let him just declare that he is no longer a gospel artist and no one will ever question him even if he parades his half-naked body.Here are the videos of ladies twerking to his new song with Nandy that he posted on his official Instagram page. What do you think? Is this a sign that Pozze has crossed over to secular.Is he sending out a coded message to those who keep on asking whether he still is a gospel artist that they should just see the stuff he is posting on his IG page and come up with an answer?If Pozze is parading ladies twerking their derrieres to his new song with Nandy and still considers himself a gospel artist, the gospel industry in Kenya then needs serious prayers and if prayers wont work, lets fast.
Hi, my name is Scott C. Waring and I wrote a few books and am currently a ESL School Owner in Taiwan. I have had my own UFO sighting up close and personal, but that's how it works right? A non believer becomes a believer when they experience their first sighting. You witnessed it, your perceptual field changes, so now you need to share it.





I created this site to help the UFO community get a little bit organized. I noticed that there was a lot of chaos when searching for UFO sighting reports, so I hope this site helps. I wanted to support those eyewitnesses who have tried to tell others about what they have seen, yet were laughed at by even closest of friends.





More and more each day the governments of the world leak bits and pieces of UFO information to the public. They have a trickle down theory in hopes of slowly getting citizens use to the idea that we are not alone in universe and never have been. The truth is being leaked drop by drop until one day we look around and find ourselves neck high in it.





The discovery of alien species in existence is the most monumental scientific event in human history, suppression of that information is a crime against humanity.





About me:

I live in Taiwan. I OWN MY OWN ENGLISH SCHOOL, AND ONCE HAD 5 SCHOOLS.

Am Former USAF at SAC base (flight line).

Age: 42

Educ: BA in Elem ed. Masters in Counseling ed.





I had two UFO sightings, (30+bus size orbs) in military and in 2012 personally saw the UFO over Taipei 101 building on New Years Day (and recored it).
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said he thinks that incumbent Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko will win the second round of the presidential election in Ukraine on April 21.

He said this in an interview with Turkey's Anadolu Agency, according to the Belarusian Telegraph Agency (BelTA).

"[Volodymyr] Zelensky leads after the first round, Poroshenko is behind him. Nobody dares to predict how the second round ends. Still, I tend to think that Poroshenko will win this presidential election," the Belarusian leader said.

Lukashenko noted that he would not be engaged in analytics and would not compare the two candidates.

According to him, if some Ukrainians believe that none of the candidates is suitable for the post of new president of Ukraine, then new elections should be held.

The first round of presidential elections took place in Ukraine on March 31. According to their results, showman Volodymyr Zelensky and incumbent head of state Petro Poroshenko advanced to the second round.

The Central Election Commission on April 7 scheduled the second round of presidential elections in Ukraine for April 21.

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Russia's aggression against Ukraine has become the biggest failure of Vladimir Putin's policy.

Christopher Robinson, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, said this in an interview with Austrian newspaper Wiener Zeitung.

"Without the implementation of the Minsk Agreements there will be no improvement in relations. Ukraine was Putin's biggest failure. If it was his intention to prevent Ukraine from coming to the pro-western orbit, then with his aggression against Kyiv he achieved exactly the opposite result  Kyiv set a clear pro-western course. Ukraine made a decision in favor of Europe and against Russia," the U.S. diplomat said, when asked about Ukraine's role in relations between the United States and Russia.

He added that the best way to thwart Russia's goals in Ukraine is to jointly help Ukraine achieve economic and political success.

Robinson added that, on the whole, the list of Putin's failures is "very long." It includes, in particular, the failed attempt of a coup in Montenegro, an ineffective attempt to undermine negotiations between North Macedonia and Greece, he said.

According to Robinson, the Russian president is "against our system, against our values, against the European architecture of collective systems of cooperation."

Separately, the U.S. diplomat also commented on the construction by Russia of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which, he said, will increase Europe's dependence on Russian energy resources and slow down Europe's transition to alternative energy.

"Increasing Europe's dependence on Russia's energy supply is not a good idea. Russia is not a reliable partner. Moreover, Nord Stream 2 will slow down Europe's movement towards alternative energy. In short, Nord Stream is not in the European interest. This project should not be viewed through the economic prism, but from the geopolitical perspective," Robinson said.

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Rada could adopt law on public-private partnership in 1H 2019  Kubiv

In April, the parliamentary committee will hold hearings on the bill in question.

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In general, the draft reserve in Ukraine's capital city exceeds 30,000 people.

Military commissar of the Kyiv city military registration and enlistment office Serhiy Kliavlin says 780 Kyiv residents will be called up for military service within the spring-summer conscription campaign.

Read alsoAnother scheduled stage of Army draft launched in Ukraine

According to the commissar, the campaign in Kyiv, as well as across Ukraine, was launched on April 1, and would last three months, until June inclusive. Some 780 Kyiv residents are expected to be called up for military service, including 423 people in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, 190 in the National Guard, 147 in the State Border Guard Service, and 20 in the State Special Transport Service, the official told a briefing on April 8.

In general, the draft reserve in Ukraine's capital city exceeds 30,000 people.

According to Kliavlin, they are residents of Kyiv aged 20 to 27. However, this figure does not take into account those who are eligible for deferment, as well as those who cannot serve for medical reasons.

He also expressed the hope that the problems with the draft, which was observed last November, when Kyiv managed to fulfill the plan of conscription only by extending the deadline for sending young men to military units, would not occur during this year's conscription campaign.

"So far, everything is going according to plan, and we see no problems," Kliavlin said.

As UNIAN reported earlier, a spring stage of military conscription started in Ukraine on April 1, in accordance with presidential decree No. 22/2019 of January 30, 2019.

According to the document, male citizens of Ukraine over 20 years (under 27) of age who have passed medical examination shall be drafted, except those who eligible for deferment.
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.
He reiterated Poroshenko had deprived him of citizenship when Saakashvili himself was not in Ukraine.

Leader of the Movement of New Forces Party in Ukraine, ex-Governor of Ukraine's Odesa region and ex-President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili has called on President Petro Poroshenko to return him Ukrainian citizenship taken away "in violation of Ukrainian legislation and international norms."

Read alsoUkraine's interior minister rules out Saakashvili's return to Ukraine

He reiterated Poroshenko had deprived him of citizenship when Saakashvili himself was not in Ukraine since he went to the United States to lobby in the Congress for the interests of Ukraine.

"You deprived me of citizenship in violation of Ukrainian legislation and in violation of international norms, because you cannot deprive a person of citizenship who does not have citizenship of another country," the politician said in a video posted on Facebook.

He said the case of returning his citizenship was being delayed in the courts due to the pressure of the Presidential Administration.

Saakashvili said he puts Poroshenko a "simple question: "Is it hard for you to restore legality, return my Ukrainian passport and let me enter Ukraine?"

He also hinted at Zelensky's appeal who had given Poroshenko 24 hours to think about the presidential debate at Kyiv's Olympiyskiy Stadium. Saakashvili said he would not give 24 hours because the president "has enough time until the second round of presidential elections to act according to the legislation and under international law."

"See you in Kyiv," Saakashvili added.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Saakashvili confirmed his plans to return to Ukraine on April 1, 2019.

At the end of July 2017, Poroshenko signed a decree on terminating Saakashvili's Ukrainian citizenship he had been granted earlier before he took up the top post at Odesa State Regional Administration.

According to Anton Gerashchenko, a member of the Council of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Saakashvili was deprived of citizenship after it was proved he had provided inaccurate information while applying for it, in particular, in terms of his criminal record back in Georgia.

On September 10, 2017, Saakashvili, earlier deprived of Ukrainian citizenship, managed to cross into Ukraine at the Shehyni checkpoint. A crowd of the politician's supporters broke through the cordons of the Ukrainian law enforcers, took Saakashvili and a number of MPs and public figures accompanying Saakashvili in a tight ring, and literally forced the group's entry to the territory of Ukraine evading standard border control routine.

According to Anton Gerashchenko, Saakashvili was accompanied by Members of Parliament Yulia Tymoshenko, Serhiy Vlasenko, Yury Derevianko, Pavlo Kostenko, Dmytro Dobrodomov, and former SBU chief Valentyn Nalyvaichenko.

Poroshenko said that the border guards during penetration of the state border by Saakashvili along with his entourage had full right to use weapons, but did not allow to "spark fire sought by populist politicians."

On December 5, law enforcers detained Saakashvili in Kyiv but later the same day his supporters managed to get him released from a convoy vehicle.

On December 11, a district court in Kyiv refused to satisfy the prosecution's petition to order a two-month house arrest. The Kyiv Court of Appeal four times postponed the consideration of the appeal against the said court decision.

The Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine put Saakashvili on the wanted list on charges of assisting members of criminal organizations and concealing their criminal activities (Part 2 of Article 256).

According to Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko, Saakashvili organized protests to seize state power in Ukraine and assist members of the criminal gang of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych and businessman Serhiy Kurchenko in halting their criminal prosecution.

On February 12, 2018, Saakashvili was transferred to Poland under the readmission procedure.
German diplomats are unprecedentedly active in negotiating with representatives of other states about the return of Russians to PACE without sanctions.

German diplomats and deputies are openly taking active steps to lift the sanctions pressure from Russia in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and plan to do this at the current PACE session.

The representatives of Germany have never concealed the fact they prefer a "dialogue" with the Russian Federation even if this requires moving away from putting pressure on it, the Ukrainian media outlet European Pravda reported on April 8, referring to several Western diplomats, as well as representatives of the expert community.

Read alsoCouncil of Europe chief proposes changes to rules to ensure return of Russian delegation

But the data available to the media outlet suggest that now this refers to a coordinated campaign that has grown considerably in the run-up to the PACE spring session.

"It is noteworthy that this activity is non-partisan: it covers representatives of both key forces of the government coalition  [the Christian Democrats] CDU/[the Christian Social Union in Bavaria] CSU and the Social Democrats. Recently, the deputies from the CDU and [the Social Democratic Party of Germany] SPD sent a letter to the PACE president to revise the sanctions rules, removing the Assembly's right to impose sanctions on delegations from violating states when approving their powers," the publication wrote.

At the same time, German deputies are conducting explanatory work in PACE, persuading other parliamentarians that the struggle between Ukraine and Russia is an "election technology" and Europe should not support it, the European Pravda said.

Parliamentarians also claim Angela Merkel personally supports the idea of forgiveness of Russia.

However, the chancellor has not yet made public her position on this issue. But German diplomats are also unprecedentedly active in negotiating with representatives of other states about the return of Russians to PACE without sanctions, according to the publication.

Official Berlin insists this will allow "saving Russia's membership in the Council of Europe," although their opponents question this logic.

According to sources, the acceleration of the plan is among the options with the de facto liquidation of sanctions mechanism at the PACE session in April.

UK Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe Christopher Yvon reported on unprecedented activity in this regard, although without indicating the state involved in this.

"I was told today by a close follower of the work of the Council of Europe that this week it was doing self chemical castration. Surely we don't want that," he wrote on Twitter on Sunday, April 7.

In his previous tweets, the British diplomat said he insisted on punishing Russia for violating the principles of the Council of Europe.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland proposed that the rules of the Council of Europe be changed to return the Russian delegation to PACE.

At the PACE session in January, Jagland officially initiated work on amendments to the Statute of the Council of Europe to solve the crisis with Russia's participation in the work of the Council of Europe and with the Russian non-payments.
Stepanov said the document "went beyond the powers of the president" enshrined in the Constitution.

Head of Odesa Regional State Administration Maksym Stepanov who was dismissed by presidential decree has refused to leave his post.

"A decree on my dismissal was published on the president's website a few hours ago. A very strange document, which, in my opinion, according to all lawyers, has nothing to do with the legislation of Ukraine," he told a briefing on Monday, according to an UNIAN correspondent.

Read alsoPoroshenko replaces governor in Odesa region

Stepanov said the document "went beyond the powers of the president" enshrined in the Constitution. He added the president has the right to appoint and dismiss the heads of the regional state administrations on the proposal of the Cabinet of Ministers.

At the same time, Stepanov said he was offered to write a letter of resignation. "I refused because I have no desire to do this. I continue to perform my duties," he said.

Answering the journalists' questions about possible pressure on him, Stepanov said he was ready for this. "I am a very strong person and can withstand any pressure... So that not to have any talks later  I have good health, I don't take different things...," he said.

Commenting on the results of the first round of presidential elections in Odesa region, where presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky had gained the majority of votes, Stepanov stressed he was proud the elections in the region were fair, without any pressure, without using administrative resources or bribes.

"This is a free choice of people who voted for a person for whom they wanted to vote... Whether someone likes it or not, these are exactly the fundamental things of any European state. These are the fundamental things for our country," Stepanov said, expressing confidence the second round of elections would be free and democratic in Odesa region.

He also said he had never put pressure on his subordinates to whom he told they should vote at their own discretion.
Klimkin expressed disapproval of the intentions of CoE Secretary General Thorbjrn Jagland to ensure Russia's full return to the organization.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin compared the likely return of the Russian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe with the release of criminals.

"Mr. Jagland believes that Russia needs to be fully returned to the Council of Europe, because this creates dividing lines in Europe. Guided by this logic, criminals should be released from prisons, because this is the dividing line in society," Klimkin wrote on Twitter.

As UNIAN reported earlier, in January, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjrn Jagland, expressed his hope that the CoE statutory bodies would find a mechanism for preserving Russia's membership in the organization.

Read alsoGermany seeks to lift Russian sanctions in Council of Europe  media

At the April 2014 session of PACE, the Russian delegation was deprived of the voting right and had its representatives expelled from all governing bodies over the Crimea annexation.

Since then, the Russian Federation has boycotted meetings of the Assembly, demanding that their rights be fully renewed.

In June 2017, Russia refused to pay membership fees to the Council of Europe for 2017 until the powers of its delegation to PACE are resumed in full.

Since January 2018, the campaign has been ongoing promoting the return of the Russian delegation to the PACE.
The incumbent president will also come to Olimpiskiy Stadium  if he has enough time.

Presidential candidate and incumbent head of state Petro Poroshenko will come to the official debate to the Public Broadcaster's studio on April 19, and, if he has enough time, will also visit the Olimpiyskiy Stadium, where his opponent Volodymyr Zelensky offered to hold a debate, according to Poroshenko Campaign spokesman Oleh Medvedev.

The president will take part in the debate on April 19 because the law requires that he do so. The law doesn't say he must come to a stadium. The norm of the law provides for participation in debates on "Public TV". And the requirement of the law is a priority. It is possible that Poroshenko on April 19 will be able to make it to the Olimpiyskiy Stadium, but only at the time when he is free from the duties that the law on presidential elections imposes on him as the presidential candidate, the spokesman told a Kyiv briefing on Monday, according to an UNIAN correspondent.

Read alsoPoroshenko waiting for Zelensky to debate on April 14 and 19  president's envoy

According to Medvedev, Poroshenko is quite flexible about the format of the debate, but it's not for the sake of his rival.

At the same time, he added that Poroshenkos proposal to hold the first debate with Zelensky at the Olympiyskiy Stadium in Kyiv April 14 remains in force.

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, in turn, said he was waiting for Zelensky at the Olimpiyskiy Stadium April 14.

Zelensky noted that the debate would be held at the stadium April 19.

After that, Poroshenko's parliament faction leader Artur Herasimov said the incumbent president was ready for any date, including April 19, as Zelensky had offered.
The presidential election hopeful's campaign say they prefer to have the debate set up at the Olympiysjiy Stadium.

On April 8, representatives of the campaign headquarters of presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky met with the team of the National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine to discuss the possibility of holding a debate with incumbent President Petro Poroshenko at the broadcaster's studio on April 19.

However, no agreement was reached as a result of the talks, chief of Public Relations and Media at UA:PBC Viktoria Sydorenko told Detector Media, according to TSN.

Representatives of Team Zelensky visited the studio at the TV Center, where the debate was to take place in accordance with the resolution of the Central Election Commission, and stated that they want the debates to be held at the Olympiyskiy Stadium.

Read alsoPoroshenko waiting for Zelensky to debate on April 14 and 19  president's envoy

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, in turn, said he was waiting for Zelensky at the Olimpiyskiy Stadium April 14. Zelensky noted that the debate would be held at the stadium April 19.

After that, Poroshenko's parliament faction leader Artur Herasimov said the incumbent president was ready for any date, including April 19, as Zelensky had offered.

Poroshenko Campaign spokesman Oleh Medvedev on April 8 said Poroshenko would come to the official debate to the Public Broadcaster's studio on April 19, and, if he has enough time, he will also visit the Olimpiyskiy Stadium, where his opponent Volodymyr Zelensky offered to hold the debate.
Four invaders were killed and another 14 were wounded on Sunday, intelligence reports say.

Russia's hybrid military forces in the past 24 hours mounted 10 attacks on Ukrainian army positions in Donbas, with one Ukrainian soldier reported as wounded in action.

"One Ukrainian soldier was wounded in the past day. According to intelligence reports, four invaders were killed and another 14 were 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 8, 2019.

Read alsoJFO: One Ukrainian soldier wounded in action in Donbas April 7

What is more, Ukrainian troops destroyed an enemy armored personnel carrier.

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. Under attack were Ukrainian positions in the town of Popasna, as well as in the villages of Vodiane, Hnutove, Shyrokyne, Novotroyitske, Katerynivka, and Novozvanivka.

"Since Monday midnight, Russian-led forces have attacked Ukrainian positions near Avdiyivka and the village of Kamianka, using grenade launchers of various types. There have been no casualties among the Ukrainian military," reads the report.
Militants also shelled Ukraine troops from anti-tank missiles and anti-tank grenade launchers near the settlement of Opytne.

Russian occupation forces in Donbas eight times violated the ceasefire on Monday, April 8.

As a result of the shelling, one Ukrainian soldier died and another two were injured, according to the press center of the Joint Forces Operation.

In the zone of responsibility of the Skhid [East] Operational-Tactical Grouping, militants six times fired at Ukrainian strongholds.

Enemy fired 82mm mortars, automatic grenade launchers, large-caliber machine guns and, small arms. Positions of Ukraine troops near Pisky came under fire of 82mm mortars and anti-tank grenade launchers.

Militants fired anti-tank missile systems and heavy anti-tank grenade launchers on the Joint Forces' units near Opytne, and grenade launchers of various systems  on strong points in the Avdiyivka area.

Read alsoAnother Ukraine army's strike on terrorists' positions near Yasynuvata captured on video

In addition, the militants shelled Ukrainian positions near Verkhniotoretske from large caliber machine guns and near Kamenka  anti-tank grenade launchers.

In the area of responsibility of the "Pivnich" [North] Operational-Tactical Grouping, militants twice fired at the positions of the Joint Forces from 82mm mortars and heavy anti-tank grenade launchers near Zolote-4 and from 82mm mortars near  Luhanske.

It is noted that the Ukrainian military returned fire in response to the shelling.

The JF Staff assured that Ukraine troops retained control of the overall situation along the line of demarcation.
Business Insider has provided some highlights of the many powerful weapons NATO could bring to bear against Russia.

For seven decades, the NATO alliance has practiced collective defense and deterrence against evolving international threats, and over the years, its capabilities have changed accordingly.

NATO's most "powerful weapon," according to Jim Townsend with the Center for a New American Security, is the "unity of the alliance," but the individual allies also possess hard-hitting capabilities that could be called upon were it to face high-level aggression, Business Insider reports.

Heather Conley with the Center for Strategic and International Studies believes that Russia is likely to continue to press the alliance through low-end influence and cyberwarfare operations. Still, she explained to Business Insider, NATO needs to be seriously contemplating a high-end fight as Russia modernizes, pursuing hypersonic cruise missiles and other new systems.

Business Insider has provided some highlights of the many powerful weapons NATO could bring to bear against Russia.

F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter

"The air side of the NATO equation is led by the United States with the F-35 and other various aircraft," Townsend told BI.

The fifth-generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is an aircraft that rival powers have been unable to match its stealth and advanced suite of powerful sensors. While some NATO countries are looking at the F-35 as a leap in combat capability, others continue to rely on the F-16, an older supersonic fighter that can dogfight and also bomb ground targets. And then some countries, like Germany, are considering European alternatives.

Eurofighter Typhoons

The Eurofighter Typhoon is a capable mutli-role aircraft designed by a handful of NATO countries, namely the UK, Germany, Italy, and Spain, determined to field an elite air-superiority fighter. France, which walked away from the Eurofighter project, independently built a similar fighter known as the Dassault Rafale. Observers argue that the Typhoon is comparable to late-generation Russian Flanker variants, such as the Su-35.

Bombers

The U.S. provides conventional and nuclear deterrence capabilities through the regular rotation of bomber aircraft into the European area of operations.

American bombers have been routinely rotating into the area since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, according to Military.com. That year, the Pentagon sent two B-2 Spirit bombers and three B-52s to Europe for training. The B-1B Lancers are also among the US bombers that regularly operate alongside NATO allies.

U.S. P-8A Poseidon aircraft

"There's also the maritime posture, particularly as Russia continues to rely on a submarine nuclear deterrent. We need a stronger presence. That's why we're seeing Norway, the U.S., UK do more with the P-8As," Conley, the CSIS expert, told BI.

Facing emerging threats in the undersea domain, where the margins to victory are said to be razor thin, NATO allies are increasingly boosting their ability to hunt and track enemy submarines from above and below the water. While there are a number of options available for this task, the US Navy P-8A Poseidon patrol plane, which was brought into replace the US military's older P-3 Orions, are among the best submarine hunters out there.

Frigates

"The NATO allies, in particular Italy, France, Spain, all have frigates that have very capable anti-submarine warfare systems," Bryan Clark with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments told BI.

"They have active low-frequency sonars that are variable-depth sonars. They can find submarines easily, and they are very good against diesel submarines." These forces could be used to target Russian submarines in the Eastern Mediterranean and into the Black Sea.

"Norway and Denmark also have really good frigates," he explained. "They could go out and do anti-submarine warfare" in the North Sea/Baltic Sea area, "and they are very good at that."

AH-64 Apache gunship

The attack helicopters can carry up to sixteen Hellfire missiles at a time, with each missile possessing the ability to cripple an enemy armor unit. The Hellfire is expected to eventually be replaced with the more capable Joint Air-to-Ground Missile.

German Leopard 2 tanks

The Leopard 2 main battle tank, which gained a reputation for being "indestructible," is a formidable weapon first built to blunt the spearhead of a Soviet armor thrust and one that would probably be on the front lines were the NATO alliance and Russia to come to blows. While this tank, a key component of NATO's armored forces, took an unexpected beating in the fight against the Islamic State in Syria, it is still considered one of the alliance's top tanks, on par with the U.S. M1 Abrams and the British Challenger 2.

Observers suspect that the Leopard 2, like its U.S. and British counterparts, would be easily able to destroy most Russian tanks, as these tanks are likely to get the jump on a Russian tank in a shootout.

U.S. Nimitz-class aircraft carriers

A last-minute addition to last year's Trident Juncture exercise  massive NATO war games designed to simulate a large-scale conflict with Russia  was the USS Harry S. Truman, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, and its accompanying strike group. The carrier brought 6,000 service members and a large carrier air wing of F/A-18 Super Hornets to Norway for the largest drill in years.

The U.S. sails carriers into the North Atlantic to demonstrate to Russia that the U.S. can send carriers into this area, from which it could carry out "operations into the Baltics without too much trouble."

PATRIOT surface-to-air missile system and U.S. Virginia-class submarines are also on the list. The latter could be "useful to do cruise missile attacks against some of the Russian air defense systems in the western military district that reach over the Baltic countries."
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The Vietnamese top legislator expressed her pleasure to meet the Chinese parliamentary leader on the sidelines of the 140th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU-140) in Doha.

She congratulated China on the successful organisation of the second session of the 13rd NPC in March, and wished the country success in realising the targets set by the session.

Ngan also voiced her hope that the two countries will work together more closely to realise the common perceptions reached by their leaders and promote the sound bilateral relations in all fields from politics and external affairs to economy, trade and investment.

NPC Vice Chairwoman Shen Yueyue shared the view that Vietnam and China should further promote the bilateral comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership in the current global context.

According to Shen Yueyue, Party General Secretary and President Xi Jinping selected Vietnam as the first country to visit after the 9th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and the visit has contributed to opening up a new chapter in the two countries relations.

She noted the resolve of leaders of both countries to continue implementing the agreements reached by their leaders and legislative bodies, creating a foundation for stronger bilateral cooperation in the future.

The NPC Vice Chairwoman suggested the NPC and the Vietnamese NA diversify their cooperative ties, while continuing to promote the role of parliamentary cooperation in all areas.
Medical & Technical Jobs 2019 in Saudi Arabia

Latest Edge Manpower Services Medical Posts Saudi Arabia 2021 Medical, health, mbbs, doctors and technical persons for the posts of Medical Specialist, Internal Medicine Specialist, Obs Gyne Specialist, Anesthesia Specialist, ICU Specialist, Pediatric Specialist, Radiology Specialist, Ophthalmologist Specialist, ENT Specialist, Orthopedic Specialist, Urology Specialist, Consultant, General Nurse, Technician, Anesthesia Technician, Radiology Technician, CSSD Technician required for Hospital in Saudi Arabia.

How to Apply on Edge Manpower Services 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.
Pakistan Navy Jobs 2019 For Doctors in Islamabad

Latest Pakistan Navy Medical Posts Islamabad 2021 Medical, health, mbbs and experienced personnel for the positions of Medical Officers & Doctors required urgently for Pakistan Navy Director General Medical Services Naval Headquarters Islamabad. Indeed hard work is key to success.

How to Apply on Pakistan Navy Job Advertisement

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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.
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Damascus is working to create favorable conditions in the country to accelerate the repatriation of refugees who fled from the civil war in Syria to other states, so that they could join the economically active population and contribute to the country's postwar reconstruction, Syrian Ambassador to Moscow Riyad Haddad said on Monday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th April, 2019) Damascus is working to create favorable conditions in the country to accelerate the repatriation of refugees who fled from the civil war in Syria to other states, so that they could join the economically active population and contribute to the country's postwar reconstruction, Syrian Ambassador to Moscow Riyad Haddad said on Monday.

"Syria is currently working on returning hundreds of thousands of our refugees and migrants ... by establishing the necessary social, medical and humanitarian conditions [for their repatriation]. These people must return to the country as active members of society and participate in the reconstruction of Syria and work to return the economic and trade stability [to the country]," Haddad said at the 12th session of the Russian-Arab business Council.

The ambassador added that Damascus was grateful to Russia for fighting terrorism in the Arab country.

"Thanks to the strength of our people, military and leadership, as well as sincere help of our friends, with Russia at the helm, we were able to defeat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations almost completely," Haddad said.

Since last July, almost 182,000 Syrians have returned to their home country from neighboring Jordan and Lebanon, which host a significant share of all Syrian refugees, according to the Russian Defense Ministry's Center for Reconciliation of Opposing Sides and Refugee Migration Monitoring in Syria.

At the same time, over 6.6 million officially registered Syrian refugees remain in 45 states across the world.
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Mongolia's central bank Monday launched a campaign to encourage gold miners and individuals to sell gold to banks

ULAN BATOR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Apr, 2019 ) :Mongolia's central bank Monday launched a campaign to encourage gold miners and individuals to sell gold to banks.

"The Bank of Mongolia's gold purchase has declined sharply since the beginning of this year due to instability in the domestic tax environment.

1So, we decided to again launch a campaign called 'National Gold to the Fund of Treasures' to increase the central bank's gold purchase," Atarbaatar Enkhjin, head of the Reserve Management and Financial Markets Department at the Bank of Mongolia, said at the campaign's launch ceremony.

During the six-month campaign, the Bank of Mongolia is planning to organize activities directed at encouraging gold miners and individuals to sell gold to banks, said Enkhjin.

The Mongolian central bank purchased only 12.7 tons of gold in 2014. Thanks to the low royalty taxes on gold with the 2014 amendments, the central bank's annual gold purchase almost doubled to 22 tons in 2018.

The 2.5-percent of discounted royalty on gold mining ended on Jan. 1. Since then, 5 to 10 percent royalty taxes on gold mining have been imposed on miners.

As a result, the central bank purchased only 772.1 kg of gold from legal entities and individuals in the first three months of this year, down 71.6 percent year on year.

During its extraordinary session on March 18-29, the Mongolian parliament decided to set the gold royalty at a 5 percent rate to revive the central bank's gold purchase.

The new rate came into force on Monday, according to the central bank.

In May last year, the Mongolian central bank launched the campaign called "National Gold to the Fund of Treasures" for the first time, which lasted for five months.
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The Russian military police have discovered an arms cache belonging to militants from the Islamic State terrorist group (IS, banned in Russia) in the Yarmouk refugee camp near Syria's Damascus, an official from the military police said

YARMOUK CAMP (Syria) (UrduPoint news / Sputnik - 08th April, 2019) The Russian military police have discovered an arms cache belonging to militants from the Islamic State terrorist group (IS, banned in Russia) in the Yarmouk refugee camp near Syria's Damascus, an official from the military police said.

"A local resident contacted [the Russian military police] during our patrol in the ruins of the Yarmouk camp, saying that [he found] weapons and ammunition left by Islamic State militants in the tunnel under a house. We together with law enforcers of the Syrian Arab Republic have examined the tunnel and the ammunition was seized," the official told reporters.

Homemade shells, mines, fougasses (improvised mortars), as well as a homemade rocket launcher, which militants made from metal sheets and pipes, were found in the cache.

Syrian sappers blew up the cache right in the tunnel, having previously checked the surrounding area for the presence of civilians and residential houses.

The tunnels dug by terrorists stretch for miles under Damascus. After the city's liberation, Syrian authorities decided to destroy them. In residential neighborhoods, the tunnels are filled in, while the ones in non-residential areas are blown up via controlled explosions.

The Yarmouk camp, which once hosted over 100,000 Palestinian refugees, was captured by various fraction throughout the Syrian conflict and, ultimately, the IS in 2015. Yarmouk was severely damaged in 2018 during the liberation of Damascus. Now the camp hosts about 100-200 people.
State Bank of Pakistan SBP Karachi Jobs for Engineers

Latest State Bank of Pakistan SBP Engineering Posts Karachi 2021 State Bank of Pakistan SBP Karachi, Government of Pakistan seeks individuals for the posts of Software Engineer, Information System Engineer, Computer System Engineer, Computer Engineer, Telecom Engineer, Electrical Engineer, Electronics Engineer.

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The Youth Commission of the Pakistan Catholic Bishops held a meeting in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Karachi, on April 4 to decide upon the theme of the Year of Youth, 2020.

By Robin Gomes

Responding to the challenges of the world Synod of Bishops on young people in the Vatican in October, the Catholic Church of Pakistan has declared 2020 as the Year of Youth.

"The Year of Youth in Pakistan will be a time to nourish our future, to take care of young people, to listen to them and to accompany them on their journey of faith and to grow in holiness," said Bishop Samson Shukardin of Hyderabad.

He was speaking to the Vaticans Fides news agency after a meeting of the Youth Commission of the Pakistan Catholic Bishops' Conference (PCBC) on Thursday in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Karachi.

The meeting was held a week after the PCBC declared 2020 as the "Year of Youth".

"Our mission is to help young people grow in their faith and live a happy life in society. We are inspired by Jesus who walked, shared and accompanied the disciples of Emmaus," said Bishop Shukardin, who represented the Pakistani Church at the Synod.

The Vatican on April 2 released the much-awaited Post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis entitled Christus vivit , the Latin for Christ is alive. It contains the Holy Fathers exhortations in the light of the findings of the October Synod that had as its theme, Young People, Faith and Vocational Discernment.

Pakistans bishops have formed an ad hoc committee to plan and oversee the various initiatives of the Year of Youth which will begin with the feast of Christ the King in 2019 and will close on the same feast day in 2020.

Accompanied missionaries

The theme chosen for the yearlong event is the biblical verse, "Here I am, send me!" (Isaiah 6: 8), chosen precisely in the light of the 2018 Synod. Bishop Shukardin explained that the theme wants to help young people recognize, discern and live their missionary vocation, to serve the Church as priests, religious and laity". He said that they need a spiritual father and also pastors and lay leaders who while working with them will accompany and help them overcome the challenges they face in their daily lives.

"We must empower and involve young people in the Church by giving them responsibility, trusting them and forming them to spread the Word of God and Christian values also through the media, music, arts, games and sports".

The Committee will organize events in all the dioceses of Pakistan, including holding seminars on the Popes post-synodal document, "Christus Vivit".

Authentic peace builders

While announcing the Year of Youth end of last month, PCBC president Archbishop Joseph Arshad of Islamabad Diocese explained that the Church in Pakistan, responding to the challenges launched by the Synod, believes that the new generations "can promote the Gospel of peace through friendship and communion among young people belonging to various religions, ethnic groups and cultures".

Young people, he said, are "active citizens called to work for the promotion of unity and harmony: they are responsible for change in society and can play a vital role in the nation". Starting from these considerations, the Pakistani Bishops believe that "the key factor for the life of young people is education", to which all must have access, especially those that come from minority religious communities. Education is essential "to bring peace to society and fight against injustice and corruption".

The Year of Youth aims to "give and spread the evangelical values of love, hope, unity, peace and mutual respect, so that young people can easily cultivate unity, peace and harmony in our society, offering an example of coexistence among people of different faiths".

In this framework, Caritas Pakistan, together with other associations such as "Jesus Youth Pakistan", launched the "Youth for Peace" project, sending young people to be authentic peace builders .

The message, starting from young Christians, aims to reach young Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs, in order to reach politics and society: "We are the future of the country, we want to build a future made of peace, justice, tolerance, respect for the inalienable dignity of every human being, without distinction of race, religion, social class", say the young Pakistanis.

The PCBCs "Justice and Peace" Commission explained that they work to create in everyone the awareness that harmony and peace are a common good and a priority for the entire nation. It stressed the need to start this work of awareness-raising in schools and in the educational path of young people. The future of Pakistan is played by letting values like peace and justice penetrate the formation of the new generations," the Commission said. (Source: Fides)
Just one month ahead of Pope Francis Apostolic Journey to North Macedonia, taking place on 7 May, Vatican News adds a page dedicated to the Macedonian language, making it the 34th language available on our portal.

By Devin Watkins

Catholics living in the Republic of North Macedonia can now find news about Pope Francis, the Vatican, and the Church in the world in their native tongue, as can ethnic Macedonians living in the diaspora.

North Macedonia lies in the Balkan Peninsula  bordered by Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Kosovo, and Albania  and hosts a 20,000-strong Catholic population, three-quarters of whom belong to the Byzantine Rite.

First-fruit of Popes visit

The new Macedonian language page will carry the Popes message, thanks to an agreement between the Vatican Dicastery for Communication (Vatican News parent organization) and the local Church.

Bishop Kiro Stojanov of Skopje says this presence on Vatican News is a first-fruit of Pope Francis Apostolic Visit on 7 May.

Vatican Radio's legacy

The Macedonian language was already present on the website of Vatican Radio before the migration to the Vatican News portal.

Andrea Tornielli, the Dicasterys Editorial Director, says the goal is to offer a renewed and more interactive presence.

Thanks to the willingness of Bishop Stojanov, along with a small support team, we were able to create this new page, which carries great significance for a community that has an outsized importance for the nation, in terms of numbers, said Mr. Tornielli.

To the peripheries

Catholics represent less than one percent of the total population in North Macedonia.

As Pope Francis said in a general congregation shortly before his election to the Chair of Peter, the Church is called to go out of herself and direct herself towards the peripheries, both geographic and existential.

With the addition of Macedonian, Vatican News is seeking to continue the mission of Vatican Radio, which has carried the Popes voice to all corners of the globe for 90 years.
Mary Pickford, nicknamed Americas Sweetheart, was one of the most successful women in the film industry in the early part of the 20th century. She was a successful businesswoman who demanded higher salaries and greater control in her films.Mary Pickford (born Gladys Louise Smith) was born April 8, 1892 in Toronto. Some sources list her year of birth as 1893; as a child actress Mary Pickford shaved a year off her age so she would appear to be more of an acting prodigy and continue to be cast in younger roles, which were more plentiful in the theatre. She started her acting career very early in life to support her family after her fathers accidental death. She became the main breadwinner in the family by the age of ten and even though she found it hard to be separated from her family for long periods of time, she knew that it would pay off in the end. She would not accept failure.Mary Pickford (known for her long locks of golden curls) got her start in show business at the age of five, when boarders who were living in her house asked if she and her younger sister Lottie wanted to be extras in a schoolroom scene at one of the theatres in Toronto. Her first lead role was in the play(1898) with the Valentine Stock Company in Toronto. In 1900 Marys mother, Charlotte Smith (who was Marys manager until her death in 1928), moved the family to New York to launch her familys theatrical career. For the next few years, Mary and her family acted in theatre productions all across the eastern United States and southern Ontario, billed as Baby Gladys Smith.In 1906, after she had long outgrown the stage name Baby Gladys, Pickford decided she was going to make it on Broadway. She also was determined to provide for her family. She began working for David Belasco, the top writer/producer on Broadway at the time. In 1909, Charlotte Smith convinced her daughter to apply to Biograph, an early motion picture company. Pickford had objections to working in the movies for artistic reasons, but they were overridden by her mothers requirement for the whole family to work. After meeting with director D.W. Griffith of Biograph, Mary (now using the name Mary Pickford) started demanding a more generous rate of pay. This would start a long career of good business judgment and spirited salary negotiations. Later on in her career, Pickford demanded a handsome salary and exercised veto power over films that she was involved in, which was unheard of for a woman actor at that time.After a few years at Biograph, Charlotte Smith struck a deal with the Independent Motion Picture Company (IMP) which provided a higher salary for Pickford and constant work for the rest of the family, including Marys new husband, fellow Biograph actor Owen Moore (they were divorced a few years after). Soon after Mary and the family signed on with IMP, the company moved its headquarters to Cuba. Mary Pickford was extremely unhappy in Havana and cancelled her year-long contract three months short. She returned to Biograph, where she started selling her story outlines, as well as acting.Pickford was known as a shrewd businesswoman. For the next decade, she moved from company to company, demanding a higher and higher salary and more artistic control. At the highest point of her movie-making career she earned the same amount as her acting contemporary, Charlie Chaplin; her salary peaked at $350,000 per picture. Pickford always demanded that she be paid the same as her male counterparts, and she always received it. She also showed good business sense in the way she distributed her films. During her time at Famous Players, she demanded that her pictures be sold separately and not packaged with other Famous Player products. She demanded half the profits, signing bonuses, her name on the marquee, a studio named for her and transportation for her and her mother (who was also on salary).After finalizing her divorce from estranged husband Owen Moore, Pickford married Douglas Fairbanks in 1920, at the height of her career. They lived together in Beverly Hills in their custom-built mansion, Pickfair, until they officially divorced in 1935. At this point in their careers, Mary and Douglas were considered to be the unrivaled Hollywood royalty by many of their adoring fans. Shortly after their wedding, Mary and Douglas, along with director D.W. Griffith and actor Charlie Chaplin, founded a company named United Artists. The company was formed to ensure that Mary and Douglas could have total control over all the films they made. They could produce, finance, and distribute not only their own films but others from independents who were producing movies up to the high standard they set for themselves.After hundreds of films, with many different companies, Pickfords final silent film wasin 1927. This film held a first for Mary; she kissed the leading man, Buddy Rogers. In 1929, after, in an attempt to keep up with the changing times and fickle audience, Pickford started acting in sound films. She won the Best Actress Oscar for(1929), her first talkie film and the first Academy Award ever given to a sound film. Also in 1929, Pickford starred in the first sound feature film adaptation of Shakespeares. In 1933, after filmingwith a remarkably talented supporting cast, Mary announced her retirement from the silver screen.Shortly after this announcement Mary married orchestra leader and actor Charles Buddy Rodgers. She was far from retired, though. She became very active in social causes, especially the war effort, published three books, produced movies and continued as vice-president of United Artists. She also started the Mary Pickford Cosmetic Company. Mary sold her shares in United Artists in 1956 and withdrew from the public eye. In 1975 Mary donated 50 of her original Biograph films to the American Film Association. Mary Pickford was presented with an award to commemorate her achievements in the industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1976.In 1979, Mary passed away at the age of 86 at her beloved Pickfair mansion. She will forever be remembered for her contribution both in front of the camera as an actor and behind the scenes as a producer and founder of United Artists. She will also always be remembered for the feisty independent female characters that she brought alive on the silver screen.
International pharmaceutical firms are working on plans to expand to and in Vietnam to benefit from the EVFTA. What are GSKs preparations?

In anticipation of the EVFTA ratification, the industry continues to see very positive developments in Vietnamese regulations that are in line with many commitments in the EVFTA.

We hope that through the implementation of guiding legislations under the Law on Pharmacy 2016, this will enable faster access for Vietnamese patients to innovative medicine and a sustainable legal framework for foreign pharmaceutical companies to operate and further invest in Vietnam.

We and Pharma Group applaud the continued efforts of the government to develop an attractive investment environment and a top-tier healthcare system for Vietnamese patients, and we remain committed to supporting the effective and smooth implementation of new regulations.

The Ministry of Health (MoH) is going to issue a circular for the development of public-private partnership (PPP) projects in the sector. Is GSK interested in PPP projects?

We can all see that the world around us is changing rapidly with big shifts in technology, data, demographics, and patient expectations. In the context of healthcare, the future will require a lot of synergism and partnership.

We believe that PPP is one way in which the Vietnamese society can benefit from leveraging the combination of experience, expertise, technical capabilities, and operation models between the public and private sector to address priority healthcare challenges as well as improve the quality of medical and healthcare services, meeting the publics needs and expectations.

Along with many pharmaceutical companies, we believe the industry is looking forward to exploring more opportunities to collaborate with medical associations, healthcare institutions, universities, and NGOs in the future to work on ensuring the faster uptake of healthcare innovations, leading to improvements in patient outcomes.

What are GSK's future plans to go sustainable in Vietnam and to contribute more to society? What will you focus on in the country to deal with stiffening competition?

In future, we are looking to ensure business sustainability through continuously contributing to the development of healthcare in Vietnam in both prevention and treatment. We will do this through evolving and improving our healthcare professional education and training activities, contributing to efforts to tackle serious healthcare issues such as antibiotic resistance and non-communicable diseases like asthma and COPD, improving immunisation coverage at the grassroots level, and ensuring that our wide-ranging innovative portfolio is accessible and available for patients and healthcare professionals whenever they need them.

Our consistent focus is to deliver sustainable business performance by applying cutting-edge science and brilliant execution to improve health. Our priorities will be to strengthen our pipeline by launching innovative medicines and vaccines, delivering the competitive and sustainable performance, and finally building trust about who we are and how we work.

Ultimately, sustainability will come through achieving our ambition of becoming one of the most innovative, best performing, and trusted healthcare companies, helping people to do more, feel better, and live longer.

GSK and Save the Children help improve maternal and newborn healthcare services in Yen Bai GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in partnership with Save the Children announced the joint healthcare project of $356,000 over three years in the northern mountainous province of Yen ...

Drugmaker GSK buys sports specialist Maxinutrition British pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline said Monday that it has agreed to buy protein-drinks firm Maxinutrition from the private equity group Darwin for about 162 million ...
Joe Cunningham - Senior vice pesident, Risk for Visa in Asia Pacific Joe Cunningham is senior vice president, Risk for Visa in Asia Pacific, with responsibility for championing security in the industry and maintaining the integrity of the payments ecosystem. This complex and fast evolving ecosystem includes issuing and acquiring clients, merchants, cardholders, and service providers such as processors, device manufacturers, and payment gateways. Reporting to Visas chief enterprise risk officer, Joe is also responsible for strategic risk management for the business, credit settlement risk, brand protection, fraud management and data security across Asia Pacific. Joe joined Visa in 2008 with responsibility for all future-focused aspects of Visas technology agenda. His accountabilities included defining Visas long term technology strategy, chip and mobile payment standards, and Visas long-term technology innovation agenda. From 2009 to 2015 Joe represented Visa on the executive committee of EMVCo, the global payments industry organisation responsible for ensuring interoperability and security of chip-based products; including contact, contactless and mobile-NFC payments. Joe holds an MBA from Melbourne Business School, and is an honours graduate in Applied Mathematics and Computing.

Can you tell us about the Future of Security Roadmap that Visa plans to implement in Vietnam? Why is this strategy important to Visa?

We recently launched our three-year Visa security roadmap for Vietnam. Overall, the plan includes different changes and investment that Visa and our clients will make to continue to protect payment security and every merchant, every Visa cardholder in Vietnam.

This new plan showcases our commitment to supporting the growth of digital economy here in Vietnam. Businesses are growing and the Vietnamese government sees the value of the digital economy to propel the economy forward and increase the global competitiveness of Vietnamese businesses. At the heart of this growth is the payment system, and we believe Visa has an important role to play, thanks to our world-class technologies and leading position in innovation and security.

We have a number of concrete goals for the roadmap. Firstly, Vietnamese consumers should feel very confident about using their cards to make purchases either in the physical world or on the web. This is possible because they trust Visa with their personal information and transaction details. Consumers should also feel confident that their bank is protecting, monitoring, and managing fraud and security on their behalf. Lastly, if emergencies happen or if fraud takes place, consumers are reassured that their money is well-protected by the bank and by Visa.

With these goals in mind, the roadmap lays out different activities that Visa and our clients will do in Vietnam to protect the trust that the Vietnamese consumers have in us. We must work hard to deserve that confidence and trust.

Our approach with this roadmap is four-pronged: devaluing data, harnessing data, protecting data, and empowering customers. In 2019, we will focus on the adoption of global security and acceptance standards, encouraging issuers to install real-time fraud systems and third parties to register, extending our safety net.

However, from 2020 onwards we will strengthen our security requirements by introducing stringent security and technology standards. For instance, by April 18 all issuers will have implemented 3-D Secure 2.0, while from July 1, all acquirers will need to use payment gateways that support EMVCo tokens.

Through this roadmap, by 2021 we will see cardholders sufficiently empowered to have adequate oversight of their card usage and to feel secure in a largely transformed digital payment environment.

Around two-thirds of Southeast Asian consumers are concerned about the use of personal information when carrying out mobile phone payments. With this in mind, Visa is implementing a security roadmap to ensure that Vietnamese consumers can feel confident when making transactions both via online banking and using chip cards with the latest technology.

With the digital landscape constantly changing, how can we know if the roadmap includes the right technology investments? What if one country feels the need to adjust the roadmap based on their own needs?

The first answer is the roadmap will be continually updated and adjusted to reflect the market at the time. Secondly, most of the things in the security roadmap are based on global standards, from EMV cards, GPNV, point of sale and EMV tokenisation to the three secure solutions. It is cheaper and more secure to invest based on standards so that you will not be surprised by a new technology.

Visa is a very important participant in these global standards, but individual market might adopt different standards because they want more flexibility and uniqueness, or because they think a tailored approach is better. Overtime, this has been proved incorrect because global standards are cheaper and more secure. This is why we always recommend the global standards and our roadmap is built on these criteria.

Prior to this roadmap, we have also conducted the Visa Consumer Payment Attitudes study, which reveals that security remains a key consideration for consumers across Southeast Asia, with 67 per cent concerned about the safety of their personal information when using their mobile phone to make payments. When asked specifically about what their top three concerns were when using their mobile phones to make payments, consumers in Vietnam said losing their phone or getting their phone hacked. These insights are also important for us to develop the roadmap.

Vietnam is planning to switch 70 million magnetic swipe cards to chip ones. Do you think that this is a feasible goal, and how can Visa help with it?

It is only a matter of time until all bank cards in Vietnam become chip cards. Obviously, we are encouraging every market in the world, every one of our clients to issue chip cards and almost every market now has moved to EMV. If you look at the regional figures, in places like Singapore, Thailand or Malaysia, the percentage of Visa transactions using Visa chip cards at a chip terminal is almost 100 per cent. As more and more magnetic-stripe only cards get converted into chip cards, this figure will continue to increase.

Visa is definitely committed to supporting this switch. First, we provide the technology standards and incentives so that our clients feel encouraged to use chip cards. This is crucial, because if banks issue a chip card and the merchant only has a magnetic stripe point of sale, then if there is fraud, the merchant is liable for it. The same problem goes for magnetic strip cards used at chip-only points of sale. When fraud happens, either the issuer or the merchant, whoever is still using magnetic stripe, will be held responsible. This is also why we try to help them make the right investments in chip cards and protecting their payment system.

Clearly, educating merchants and consumers about the benefits of chip compared to magnetic stripe is vital. During the transition period from swipe to chip, we allow customers to have the option of either swipe or use the chip. If that does not work, you can also enter the card number to make the payment.

Of course, we want every case in the world to use chip cards, ideally contactless. In most markets now, merchants are commonly coming to accept contactless payments, EMV payments, and mobile payments. And that is a very important technology that Visa has developed currently.

Now the cost for card issuing is incredibly inexpensive. The life cycle of cards is not a concern either, since a card can last up to 10 years. And lastly, the benefits of cards far outweigh the cost of issuing one or operating terminals for EMV or contactless payments.

I have a lot of confidence that our clients in Vietnam will continue to replace the magnetic cards in time to meet the deadlines that the government has issued. There are many capable and sophisticated banks that are doing an extremely good job in security against fraud. I am very confident that they will meet the final move to EMV.
The Eastern Cluster of the North-South Expressway will be 654 kilometres long, offering plenty of opportunities for numerous investors

During the event on April 19, the MoT will provide an update on related regulations and the progress of this particular eastern section of the North-South Expressway.

Public-Private Partnership (PPP) investment and business opportunities for enterprises, as well as financial and credit institutions and the regulations and procedures related to investor pre-qualification will also be explained.

Also on the occasion, the MoT will review the infrastructure investment landscape in Vietnam and flag upcoming opportunities for enterprises.

The Eastern Cluster of the North-South Expressway project comprises of 11 section projects, including three to be financed by the state and eight to be implemented through the PPP model.

Many foreign investors, including those from the EU, Japan, the US, and South Korea, have expressed interest in the project, which is estimated to cost over VND118.7 trillion ($5.16 billion), with a total of over VND63 trillion ($2.74 billion) to be mobilised by investors, for 654 kilometres to be built. It is considered an economically and politically important project.

"The list of sub-projects is very attractive for foreign investors, particularly European investors. EU firms have a good record of PPP projects in highways and airports, including projects implemented in developing countries looking to improve their transport infrastructure. The airport of Santiago and other projects in South America may be cited as good examples," Antoine Logeay, chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce's Legal Sector Committee, told VIR.

Interested enterprises, financial and credit institutions should register for participation before April 12, 2019 with the Department of Public-Private Partnership at vutruongtan@gmail.com or huyhoangcmb@gmail.com.

Ministry to accelerate North-South Expressway project The Ministry of Transport plans to speed up the implementation of the North-South expressway project in 2019, said Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The.

Deputy PM urges acceleration of North-South Expressway project Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung has asked ministries, especially the Ministry of Transport (MoT), to speed up preparations to ensure all sections in phase ...
Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte will pay an official visit to Vietnam from April 9  11 at the invitation of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc. The countrys ambassador to Vietnam, Elsbeth Akkerman, speaks to Vietnam News about the visit and the bilateral relationship between the countries.

Ambassador to Vietnam Elsbeth Akkerman. VNS Photo Khanh Chi

What is the significance of the visit to Vietnam by the Dutch Prime Minister?

In addition to PM Rutte, his delegation will include the Minister of Infrastructure and Water, Vice Minister of Agriculture, State Secretary of Finance, and more than 100 business representatives representing 70 companies in a number of areas in which the Netherlands and Vietnam have close ties. And the purpose of the PMs visit is to strengthen and broaden these ties.

The purpose of the visit also allows us to underline the economic relationship that goes way beyond 45 years. These economic ties have so far been in the field of agriculture, food security, water and climate change. These are topics that are very close to the hearts and minds of both Dutch and Vietnamese people because we are both open economies and delta countries, so for the large part the Netherlands and Vietnam are below sea level and that very much heightens the impacts of climate change.

The visit will be an opportunity for him to underline the importance of the partnership with Vietnam in a broader context. We are both committed to achieving the sustainable development goals and our ambitions in climate change. I found that Vietnam is very focused on this, very dedicated and committed to this. I assume that our Prime Ministers will also talk a lot about these very important ambitions, not only for the Netherlands and Vietnam but also for the rest of the world as these are global issues that matter to everybody.

Will the Netherlands share with Vietnam new ways to better adapt to climate change?

Wholeheartedly, yes. The Netherlands is and will continue to be partner of Vietnam in climate change, both in mitigation as well as adaptation. And in relation to the latter, Prime Minister Phuc and Prime Minister Rutte will have a dialogue on agricultural transformation and the lessons that Vietnam might take from our experiences. In that context, we will very closely work on circular approaches of agriculture and the adaptation of smart technologies so we are a partner for Vietnam in that. It is so necessary that we exchange these experiences because this is part of global development and global challenges that we both have to face.

The Netherlands PM has initiated a movement to start an alliance of countries that are very much dedicated to climate change adaptation and the Prime Ministers and the ministers of both sides will have dialogue on Vietnam being one of the partners in this coalition for climate change adaptation.

Could you please highlight focal points in bilateral ties?

Water and agriculture are the most visible. We have worked with the Vietnamese government, research institutes, provinces and localities on the drafting of the Mekong Delta Plan. And PM Phuc ordered Resolution 120 for the implementation of that plan, and thats a great joint achievement. We are looking forward to taking on board the implementation of both the plan and the resolution. Other topics we are currently working on include maritime issues. You can see both in Hai Phong and in HCM City, there are large facilities on shipbuilding, port management, inland water transport. If you use inland waterways instead of road transport, the impacts on the environment will be less. So in that sense we are working on smart ways of transport, and also achieving mutual ambitions to lessen negative pressure on the environment.

The population of Vietnam is big and growing and there is an enormous flow of people from the countryside to urban areas. The Netherlands is a small country and we dont have as many people as Vietnam but we also know about dense population and urbanisation so here we seek cooperation with Vietnam as a whole and with large cities like HCM City and Hanoi. So we talk about lighting, urban mobility, and access to services. These are also the future fields of co-operation where we can find help from smart technologies.

What are your priorities during your term to further promote the bilateral relationship?

Its very important of course to foster the bilateral relationship, but in such a way that companies and private actors contribute to public goals. The explicit policy of the Dutch Government is that companies do their business in a sustainable way. There is nothing wrong with making profit, but not at the cost of people and the planet. So do it in a balanced way and make sure that when you earn your money you take care of the environment, both the natural and societal environment.

This will be the cause of my involvement. It is very necessary to engage businesses, research institutes, Government officials, representatives of civil society organisations so that we come up with smart and sustainable solutions.

For me as an ambassador, I have an eye for talent and skills development of young people to ensure that young people can use their talent and creativity to contribute to the further development of Vietnam; and an eye on inclusiveness and diversity. Also, I will have special eyes for the participation, equal treatment, and empowerment of women, and the LGBT community
More businesses are anticipating a future cashless society, Photo: Le Toan

As technology transforms the national economy, one trend is gaining more attention. Many tech startups have received billions of US dollars of investments in various fields, in order to become super-apps in Vietnam.

After taking the country by storm with their ride-hailing apps, the likes of Grab and Go-Viet have unveiled ambitions of transforming into providers of multi-purpose super-apps. As these apps offer a broader range of services such as ride-hailing and food delivery, several SMEs have a chance to join up with the platforms to access millions of customers.

After making a local debut in Vietnam last year, GrabFood has already grown 23-fold in delivery orders, making Vietnam the second-fastest growing market for food delivery in the region. The number of merchant partners has increased four times to serve surging demand. Thanks to the platform, these brick-and-mortar outlets can set up an online presence to increase their sales.

Rajiv Chandna, head of Business Development and Strategy at Grab Financial, said, Vietnam remains one of the key markets for Grab, and has greatly contributed to the fast-paced development of the firm over the past few years.

With large swathes of the countrys population without a bank account and with limited access to credit cards, Grab indentified a niche to grow a fintech platform. In doing so, it teamed up with Moca to facilitate a plan.

Chandna added that a cashless society will become a reality sooner or later, and these expected changes have prompted Grab Financial to increase its investment in the sector. Since then, the number of cashless transactions on its platform has grown 370 per cent year-on-year.

To become a super-app, Grab received investment and formed partnerships with global industry leaders such as Toyota, Hyundai, Microsoft, and Mastercard. Last month, Grab secured over $4.5 billion in funding in its latest financing round from Softbank Vision Fund. The group intends to use the funds to advance its super-app vision in Southeast Asia.

Though its open platform strategy, Grab works with partners to provide safe, accessible and affordable transport, food, package, grocery delivery, mobile payments and financial services to millions of people in Southeast Asia. Grab aims to create 100 million micro  entrepreneurs though its ecosystem. In Vietnam, Grabs super-app serves one in every five Vietnamese each month. So far, over 175,000 driver partners have joined its ride-hailing platform to earn more income.

Competitor Go-Viet, the Vietnamese subsidiary of Indonesias Go-Jek, has also jumped on the bandwagon. The company currently offers motorbike hailing (Go-Bike), food delivery (Go-Food) and consumer-to-consumer delivery (Go-Send) in Vietnam. During its beta launch in Vietnam last year, Go-Jek undercut Grabs fares and promotions. The firm quickly gained market share, however, it is now facing a growth challenge with many complaints from drivers. Some drivers even quit when the company introduced a commission rate of 20 per cent (it was initially zero).

The CEO and another top-level executive of Go-Viet have already resigned over this issue, according to sources familiar with the company. The change of top-level personnel also raises questions about the sustainable development of the company.

Despite its super-app vision, Go-Jek only picked up $100 million in fresh capital as part of its ongoing Series F funding round in March, where the company aims to raise at least $2 billion. The latest influx of cash has come from existing investor Astra International, an Indonesian conglomerate.

In the long term, super-apps are likely to infiltrate everyday life, as well as media headlines. Analysts also believed that they can transform the way business is conducted in Vietnam, particularly in the era of Industry 4.0.
Hyundai Santa Fe vehicles going on sales in Vietnam may be using the GDI engine that caused the fire hazard

Our vehicles in Vietnam do not pose fire hazard at all, said the representatives.

Truong Hais representative clarified that the Theta II petrol engine has two types, one with Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) and the other with Multipoint Injection (MPI). The recall in the US affects vehicles using GDI, while vehicles in Vietnam all use MPI, which means they are safe.

Hyundai Thanh Congs representative said that Theta II engines in Vietnam are not listed among devices posing fire-risk. However, Hyundai Santa Fe vehicles using the GDI engine have just gone on sales in Vietnam. The representative did not comment on this issue, according to vnexpress.net.

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in early April opened an investigation into about three million cars, including Kia Optima and Sorento vehicles manufactured in 2011-2014, Kia Soul vehicles manufactured in 2010-2015, and Hyundai Sonata and Santa Fe vehicles manufactured in 2011-2014.

The investigation was opened due to the recommendation of the Centre for Auto Safety (CAS). Accordingly, the CAS has conducted a research on fire hazard at cars manufactured since 2007 and received reports of about 3,000 fires and 100 injuries related to the cars.

In addition to CAS recommendations, the NHTSA also collected information from other car makers, customer claims, and other sources. Since 2015, more than 2.3 million Hyundai and Kia vehicles have been recalled for potential fire hazard. This includes 570,000 Sonata and Santa Fe vehicles, and nearly 620,000 Optima, Sorento, and Sportage units. All vehicle models are running with the Theta II 2.4 petrol engine.
Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (L) and his Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte meet each other on the sidelines of the 12th ASEM Summit in Brussels, Belgium, in October 2018 (Photo: VNA)

The information was revealed by Vietnamese Ambassador to the Netherlands Ngo Thi Hoa during an interview with the Vietnam News Agency ahead of the trip, which will be PM Ruttes second visit to the Southeast Asian nation after his first in 2014.

She said the visit will be an important event marking a new stride in bilateral relations. It will be an occasion for the two countries leaders to discuss measures for enhancing ties in politics-diplomacy and trade-investment and strengthening existing cooperation mechanisms, especially strategic partnerships on climate change adaptation  water management and on sustainable agriculture  food security.

The tour also aims to expand ties in high technology, circular economy, transport, aviation, energy and smart city building.

As part of this trip, many important events will be held in Hanoi and other localities such as the seventh meeting of the Vietnam-Netherlands Inter-Governmental Committee on Climate Change Adaptation and Water Management; discussions on the water, aviation, agriculture and energy sectors; a business-to-business meeting; and the signing of business deals.

Ambassador Hoa said the Vietnam-Netherlands friendship has been developing well. They have maintained regular high-ranking delegation exchanges and meetings. The latest visits to the European nation by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in July 2017 and National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan in March 2018 created new momentum for ties.

Within multilateral frameworks, the two countries have cooperated and supported each others initiatives, especially at the United Nations, the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), and meetings between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the European Union (EU).

The Netherlands has also supported Vietnam to enhance relations with the EU and shared the latters viewpoint on the settlement of disputes in the East Sea by international law.

The diplomat noted the Netherlands has been an important economic partner of Vietnam for years. Bilateral trade doubled from 3.77 billion USD in 2014 to reach some 8 billion USD in 2018, making the Netherlands the biggest market of Vietnamese goods and the second biggest trade partner of Vietnam in the EU. Meanwhile, it ranks first among EU nations and 10th among the countries and territories investing in Vietnam, with more than 300 projects worth 9.328 billion USD.

She said both countries face major challenges in terms of climate change, water management and food security, which has prompted them to become key partners in many areas. Many projects under the strategic partnership on climate change adaptation and water management, set up in 2010, have been carried out effectively, especially the Mekong Delta Plan that has suggested recommendations for water management and climate change adaptation issues.

Additionally, under the strategic partnership on sustainable agriculture and food security that was established in 2014, the Netherlands has become a big investor in Vietnams agriculture, helping the latter promote sustainable agriculture and the value of agricultural exports, Hoa noted.

Regarding cooperation in education-training, the countries have also reaped numerous successes, she said, elaborating that they have implemented many cooperation programmes between their universities and in post high school education, granted scholarships and shared specialised knowledge. There are more than 1,000 Vietnamese undergraduates and postgraduates in the Netherlands at present. Besides this, ministries and sectors of the countries have also opened joint training programmes.

In terms of locality-to-locality ties, the two sides have established partnerships between Hanoi and Amsterdam, Ho Chi Minh City and Rotterdam, Binh Duong province and Emmen and Eindhoven cities, Vinh Long and Gelderlands provinces, and An Giang province and Oss city.

Relations between Vietnamese and Dutch localities are being fostered on the basis of their strengths, particularly urban planning, environment, water management, industrial and urban waste treatment, hi-tech agriculture development, smart city building, culture, education and tourism, Ambassador Hoa added.
Vietnam Post Corporation receiving the Vietnamese Excellent Brand Award

Vietnam Post Corporation has just announced this afternoon that it received the Vietnamese Excellent Brand Award at the Golden Dragon Awards and the Vietnamese Excellent Brands Festival 2018-2019.

This annual festival has been held by Vietnam Economic Times since 2001 to recognise Vietnamese businesses and their excellent achievements in business and brand development, contributing to improving national competitiveness.

Vietnam Post has passed difficult criteria on brand protection, service quality, business results, leadership, human resources administration, innovation, sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and environmental protection.

Earlier, according to Vietnam Report, at the end of 2018, Vietnam Post was one Vietnams 500 largest businesses, and a top ten reputable transport and logistics company in 2018, and one of the leading firms in post and delivery.

In 2018, Vietnam Post posted outstanding growth by achieving the goal set forth for 2016-2020 two years early, as well as producing good progress in its development strategy by 2020.

The total revenue of the corporation in 2018 was $1 billion, up 24.8 per cent on-year, while total profit was nearly VND422 billion ($18.35 million), up 40 per cent on-year.

The corporation estimated to have contributed VND770 billion ($33.5 million) to the state budget, an increase of 36 per cent on-year. Return on equity exceeded the goal set by the Ministry of Information and Communications.

The corporation has maintained good income for employees and improved welfare payments against 2017.
The first two VinFast models will also be sold in Russia

Russian newswire Auto.Vesti has revealed images of VinFast models in the database of the Federal Service for Intellectual Property (Rospatent). The newswire said that the Vietnamese automobiles equipped with German technology setting foot in Russia may have been a long time in the making.

The two VinFast models registered in Russia are the ones that were introduced at the end of 2018, the SUV Lux SA2.0 and Sedan Lux A2.0. The managers of VinFast also mentioned Russia in some of their speeches and interviews with local media last year, lauding the markets potential.

"These two models are expected to be sold in Russia from early 2020," Auto.Vesti said.

These models are equipped with twin-scroll turbocharged 2.0L gasoline engines with ZF 8-speed automatic transmission, developed on the basis of BMWs N20 engines, which are largely popular in Russia.

Based on this, the Lux A2.0 and SA2.0 seem very much like the BMW 5-Series and X5-Series under the hood,Vu Tan Cong from Opec Plastic JSC, a company in the automobile supporting industry told VIR when the VinFast cars were first showcased at the Paris Motor Show last year.

The two VinFast models are the outcomes of the co-operation with leading automobile manufacturer BMW and numerous well-known companies like Siemens, Magna, and Bosch. The cars were designed by Italian Pinifarina.

"In addition to the ASEAN market, where VinFast expects tough competition from European, Japanese, and South Korean brands, in my opinion, Africa could be a potential market for VinFast in the long term," Cong said.

Last month, the first VinFast Lux SA2.0 rolled off the factory lines, marking the success of the "Made in Vietnam" commercial automobile test production cycle, and is being tested overseas for five months before commercial manufacturing.

Also in March 2019, Vingroup's VinSmart officially announced the distribution of Vsmart phones in Spain through the number one European consumer electronics retailer Media Markt.

Recently, Vingroup has been spreading its wings across the globe. In last July, VinFast also inaugurated its representative office in Germany's Frankfurt, and VinTech was also launched in Daegu, South Korea last month to study the application of the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and develop smart solutions.
Eight buyers associations have expressed concern over the possible expulsion of Cambodia from international preferential trading schemes over the countrys rights record.

A coalition of buyers groups representing the garments, footwear and travel industries have said remaining in the EUs Everything But Arms (EBA) and United States Generalized System of Preference (GSP) systems was essential to the health of the sectors.

In a letter to the government on April 4, the groups, which included the American Apparel & Footwear Association, Fair Wear Foundation, European Branded Clothing Alliance, Federation of the European Sporting Goods Industry, and Social Accountability International, claimed that the loss of the EBA and GSP would be a severe threat to the Cambodian economy.

They said: we are writing to express increasing concern regarding the labor and human rights situation in Cambodia which threatens trade preferences for Cambodia. The European Unions (EU) February 11 decision to review Cambodias Everything But Arms (EBA) benefits, and recently introduced legislation in the U.S. Congress to review Cambodias Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) benefits, are worrying developments for companies that value sourcing from Cambodia.

They added that the removal of Cambodia from the schemes would undermine the decades of effort your government has put into developing a successful industry, which has brought about enormous benefits both to the Cambodian economy and the Cambodian people.

In February, the European Commission launched an official process that could see Cambodia being temporarily withdrawn from EBA, due to a dramatic decline in human rights and democratic standards. Prime Minister Hun Sens government oversaw the dissolution of the countrys main opposition party ahead of last years general elections and the jailing on numerous dissidents, as well as a widespread crackdown on independent media outlets.

Em Sovannara, an independent political analyst, said the withdrawal of the EBA and GSP could have wider, long-lasting diplomatic implications. If we lose EBA, diplomatic policy will be gone, meaning that support from the West, EU, and the US, will be gone, he said.

But Seang Thay, a commerce spokesman, said the loss of the EBA and GSP, though unfortunate, would not spell disaster. He said a number of measures, such as the removal of border checks and digitization of trade documentation, would help keep Cambodia competitive.

We have done all of this work because we thought that if there is no [EBA], we still have more energy. Without EBA, we still have energy to compete because losing EBA doesnt mean that we are blocked from exporting goods, but we are just required to pay tax. So, we have to find ways that could keep traders make profit. They can still export, he said.
The European Union has officially recognized Cambodias Kampong Speu palm sugar as a protected product, the second such product from Cambodia to be granted the status.

In a letter from the European Commission on April 2, the body announced Kampong Speu sugar would join Kampot pepper in holding protected geographical indications (GI) status.

The letter showed Swiss and Belgian companies raised opposition to the motion, which was initiated by Cambodia in 2017. Switzerland's Sucre Suisse SA argued that the description of palm sugar did not meet the EU definition, while Belgian opposition was withdrawn without explanation.

Kampong Speu palm sugar of Cambodia is officially registered as protected geographical indications and acknowledged by the European Union on April 2, 2019. This is the second geographical product of Cambodia after Kampot pepper, which was registered as protected geographical indications by the European Union in February 2016, read a statement from sugar producer Confirel.

Hym Piseth, deputy director of Confirel, said the registration would help bolster sugar production and sales in Europe and elsewhere.

Som Saroeun, president of the Kampong Speu Palm Sugar Promotion Association, agreed, saying the recognition would fetch higher prices for GI sugar on international markets.

Seang Thay, a commerce spokesman, said the official designation of GI status would also increase the perception of quality among international buyers of Cambodian sugar.

Products that are not authentic, when they forge the product with the [GI] logo, sooner or later, the buyers will look for the real one, he said.
Chreav commune, Siem Reap City  When Om Samath arrived at the provincial referral hospital last year to undergo eye surgery, she knew the operation would be performed free of charge. Two years earlier, her family was identified as one of the poorest in the commune and issued an Equity Card, a perk of the governments IDPoor program that grants holders access to free treatment at state-run medical facilities. What the 53-year-old widow didnt expect was that once the operation was performed, her inability to pay would relegate her to the status of second-class patient for the duration of her two-week recovery. She received a daily food stipend of 5,000 riel, or about $1.25, but no follow-up care. They didnt change the bandage on my eye as it should have been. I noticed that they changed others, Samath told VOA in an interview at the small tin-sided house she shares with her daughter, son-in-law and five young grandchildren. If I had had money, I would have given it to them so that they would have taken proper care of me, she added, swinging her 1-year-old granddaughter to sleep in a hammock.

Frustrated and confused The IDPoor program was launched by Ministry of Planning in 2006 with the support of the German and Australian governments, which sought to simplify the process for identifying vulnerable households and targeting free health care and other services. With an initial focus on rural Cambodia, the program expanded to urban areas in 2016. Before the project began its work, there was no standardized, universally recognized and nationally applied procedure for recognizing poor households in Cambodia, according to Germanys aid agency, GIZ. This meant that poor households were unable to assert their rights to basic social services, such as free medical treatment. The Cambodian government claims the IDPoor program has been a success, with more than 600,000 Equity Cards  also known as poverty cards and cards for the poor  having been distributed to households across the country, benefiting an estimated 2 million people. But more than a decade after the program was launched, recipients and non-recipients alike remain frustrated and confused about the criteria used to allocate the cards and the benefits bestowed on their holders. I thought that I would be given donations of rice and other food, said Pork Kep, who, like Samath and many other grandmothers in rural Cambodia, takes care of her grandchildren while her adult children seek employment in urban areas  or abroad. Kep, 46, suffers from headaches, high blood pressure and gastrointestinal issues. But instead of seeking treatment at the commune health center or provincial referral hospital, she self-medicates using pills purchased from a local pharmacy. The pills cost about $3 per week  a significant expense.

Her confusion about the Equity Card is exacerbated by the fact that scores of NGOs have, over the years, used the IDPoor database to deliver non-medical services such as food, clean water, agricultural assistance and educational opportunities. San Chanbunsorn, 37, received an Equity Card in 2013 and, through a program at his daughters school, received a 25-kilogram sack of rice and a bottle of cooking oil every three months while his daughter was a student in grades 1 through 6. Now, I dont get any more because my daughter is studying in Grade 7, he said. They wear gold Resentment is ripest among those without Equity Cards. I should be given one because I am so poor. Look at my house, said Pha Chorvoin, 34, gesturing to her a home, a crude shack constructed of wooden planks and palm fronds. Chorvoin earns $100 per month as a cook at a local restaurant; her husband makes about $6.50 a day as a construction worker. She has two children  a 4-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter  and is pregnant with a third. My children often get sick, she said, suffering from frequent fevers, coughs and headaches as a consequence of poor sanitation. Yet despite not having an Equity Card, they receive free medical treatment at the commune health center because the staff there know that her family is poor. When she is ready to deliver her baby, Chorvoin said, they will give me free delivery, explaining that the service would normally cost about $15.

While Chorvoin does not understand why she has not received an Equity Card, she is equally uncertain about why some other have  though she has some theories. Some people have the card, but they wear gold, she said. They are not really poor. I think the distribution [of cards] is not fair yet. People who are close to the authorities get the cards, she added. They only give the card to people they know, agreed Chorvoins sister-in-law, Touch Saray, 35, adding that her family, too, has not received a card despite their dire circumstances. Allegations of bias Meas Nee, an independent social and political analyst, says such grievances are commonplace, and reinforced by widespread reports of unjust Equity-Card allocation and a two-tiered health care system. I think there is still not equal treatment at health centers, he said. People who have money get treatment first and the poor get it later. A common complaint, Nee added, is that families most in need of free health care  impoverished, indebted and undernourished  are passed over in favor of those with allegiances to the ruling Cambodia Peoples Party (CPP) and ties to local officials. Some people are not very poor but they still get the card, he said. The government must make sure that there is no political bias in this process. This suspicion is rooted in decades of CPP rule; at the national and local level, government services are almost always controlled by party affiliates. In the lead-up to the 2018 election, the CPP undertook a nationwide campaign to register entire households as CPP families. Kong Beub, the deputy chief of Chreav commune, denied allegations of bias in the IDPoor program. We give them out without considering different political preferences, he said. We announce the names publicly and people can complain. According to Beub, a little over 200 families in the commune hold Equity Cards, down from about 300 in 2017. Keo Ouly, director of the Planning Ministrys IDPoor department, agreed that the procedure for distributing Equity Cards was fair and transparent. We have our process, he said.
Rwanda has begun commemorations marking the 25th anniversary of the genocide that killed an estimated 800,000 people. Rwandan President Paul Kagame opened a solemn ceremony on Sunday at a mass grave in the capital Kigali. Dignitaries from around the world attended the event. VOA's Zlatica Hoke reports France's role in Rwanda during the massacre is still a matter of dispute between the two countries.
The United Nations refugee agency estimates that globally, only one in four adolescents living in refugee camps get to attend secondary school. A Finnish charity is trying to fill the gap at a refugee camp in western Uganda. Halima Athumani reports from the town of Kamwenge.
Margaret Besheer contributed to this report from the United Nations.

Libyan authorities have closed the only functioning airport in Tripoli after an airstrike Monday, as a battle for the capital continues between rival forces in the country.



Security officers at Mitiga airport east of the Libyan capital said that no side had yet claimed responsibility for the attack, which hit the runway but caused no casualties. Forces loyal to military commander Gen. Khalifa Haftar have been continuing a push aimed at taking the capital.



Libya's U.N.-backed prime minister, Fayez Sarraj, has called the action by Haftar an attempted coup. Haftar and his forces appear to have gained ground along the outskirts of the capital, but Sarraj said government troops are prepared to confront them.

The United Nations issued an "urgent appeal" for a two-hour truce in the suburbs of Tripoli to evacuate civilians.



U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the truce would allow for "the provision of emergency services and the voluntary passage of civilians, including those wounded, from the areas of conflict." He said the clashes are affecting residential areas, and "an unknown number of civilians are unable to flee these locations."



Dujarric said that 3,400 people have been displaced by the latest violence, which began on Thursday.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in a statement released late Monday, said "there is no military solution to the Libya conflict" and called on all parties to "engage in immediate dialogue to reach a political solution." He also offered U.N. help to get the dialogue started.



The International Rescue Committee estimates 21 people, including two health workers, have been killed in the fighting, warning that the number of those in need of humanitarian assistance will rise as the conflict continues.



The fighting marks the first surge of unrest in Libya since the fall of dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.



The U.N. envoy to Libya, Ghassan Salame, condemned the attack on Tripoli's airport. In a statement Monday, he called the incident "a serious violation of humanitarian law."

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for an immediate halt to the advance by Haftar's forces and said all of the parties involved "have a responsibility to urgently de-escalate the situation."



In anticipation of violence, the United States has pulled a contingent of troops out of Tripoli.



"The security realities on the ground in Libya are growing increasingly complex and unpredictable,'' said Marine Corps Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, head of U.S. Africa Command.



The U.S. has maintained a small number of troops in Libya to provide support for diplomatic missions, counterterrorism activities and improving regional security.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard, designated a "foreign terrorist organization" by the Trump administration on Monday, evolved from a paramilitary, domestic security force with origins in the 1979 Islamic Revolution to a transnational force that has come to the aid of Tehran's allies in the Mideast, from Syria and Lebanon to Iraq.

The force answers only to Iran's supreme leader, operates independently of the regular military and has vast economic interests across the country.

Here are key things to know about the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC:

Origins

The Revolutionary Guard was created in parallel to the country's existing armed forces to consolidate power under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The following year, it was called upon to defend Iran and its clerical leadership in a ruinous war with Iraq that would last eight years and strengthen the guard's ideological, economic and security footprint at home.

The group is estimated to have between 125,000 and 150,000 members today, but it's unclear how many of those include the Quds Force, an elite wing of the IRGC that oversees foreign operations. The group, enshrined in the constitution, answers only to Iran's supreme leader.

Domestic grip

The IRGC oversees the country's ballistic missile program and has conducted several tests since the landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers. While the accord does not specifically ban those tests, U.S. officials have said they violate the spirit of the deal. President Donald Trump last year pulled America out of the deal and reimposed tough economic sanctions on Iran.

Additionally, the guard runs a massive construction company called Khatam al-Anbia, with 135,000 employees handling civil development, the oil industry and defense issues. Firms operated by the IRGC also build roads, man ports, run telecommunication networks and even offer laser eye surgery. The IRGC has deployed in rescue efforts during Iran's recent devastating floods, which killed at least 70 people across the country.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last year ordered the guard to loosen its hold on the economy and privatize some of its vast economic holdings. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani has tried unsuccessfully to further restrict the group's expansive powers at home.

Foreign reach

The Revolutionary Guard recruits and trains thousands of fighters abroad through its Quds Force, headed by General Qassem Soleimani, a shadowy but prominent figure whose fighters have fought alongside Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces and against Islamic State militants who view Shi'ites as heretics.

U.S. officials say the IRGC under Soleimani taught Iraqi militants how to manufacture and use deadly roadside bombs against American troops after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a charge Iran denies.

The group also oversees the Basij, a volunteer force of several million that draws its members from among the poor, uneducated young men from rural areas and city outskirts. The Basij model has been exported abroad, with tens of thousands of Shi'ites recruited from countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon and Iraq to fight in Tehran's proxy wars in Syria and elsewhere.

One of those young Shi'ite men, who joined a wave of Afghans recruited and trained to fight in support of Assad's government in Syria, recently spoke with The Associated Press about the experience, saying he was driven by poverty and not by ideology or loyalty to Iran.

Mideast militias

The IRGC backs a number of Shi'ite militias across the Middle East, as well as the Fatimiyoun Brigade in Afghanistan. Chief among them is Hezbollah, the IRGC's oldest and most experienced force in the region, established following Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982. The militia, led by Hassan Nasrallah, publicly joined Syria's civil war in mid-2013, securing a string of hard-won victories in defense of Syria's Iranian-backed government.

IRGC-backed Iraqi militias also fought in Syria in support of Assad's forces and against the Islamic State group in northern and central Iraq. Some of the armed groups in Iraq backed by Iran include the powerful Kataeb Hezbollah, Haraket Hezbollah al-Nujaba and Asaib Ahl al-Haq.

In Pakistan, the Zeinabiyoun Brigade is mostly comprised of Shi'ite fighters who have also fought in Syria. Many of the group's fighters are trained and funded by IRGC.

Yemen's Houthi rebels are also allied with Iran. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and other countries have accused the guard of supplying the Houthis with long-range missiles, a charge it denies. A Saudi-led coalition, backed by the U.S. and Britain, has been at war with the Houthis since March 2015.
Walking up and down stairs at a Gaza medical center, Palestinian amputees are learning to use their new artificial limbs after being wounded by Israeli fire at border protests.

The Health Ministry in the Hamas Islamist-run territory said 136 wounded Palestinians have undergone amputations since the demonstrations began in March 2018.

"It was only one bullet, one bullet turned my life upside down," said Abdallah Qassem, 17, struggling to stand steady while trying on his new artificial legs.

Qassem said the bullet struck one leg and then penetrated the other as he sat on the ground with friends at a rally on May 14, the day the United States moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, fueling Palestinian anger.

"I had dreamt of becoming a photojournalist, but I aim to study computer science," he told Reuters.

The Gaza Artificial Limb and Polio Center is run by the Gaza municipality. On its first floor, technicians were producing limbs with material from the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Protesters at the demonstrations are demanding the end to a security blockade imposed on Gaza by Israel and Egypt, and want Palestinians to have the right to return to land from which their families fled or were forced to leave during Israel's founding in 1948.

Around 200 Gazans have been killed by Israeli troops so far in the protests, according to Palestinian Health Ministry figures. An Israeli soldier was also killed by a Palestinian sniper in July.

U.N. investigators say Israel has used excessive force.

Israel says it has no choice but to use deadly force to protect the border from militants and infiltrators.

In the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, Suhaib Qudeih and his sister Nazeeha each lost a leg to Israeli gunfire.

"Before the injury, I used to work and make 4,000 shekels ($1,100 a month). I used to bring the sweetest food to my children. Now I can't get them most of what they ask for," the 33-year-old man told Reuters.

He needs more surgery to make sure an artificial right leg can fit well. His sister has already had her artificial limb fitted.

The World Health Organization said 6,872 Gazans suffered gunshot wounds, mostly to the limbs, in the past year of protests.

With funding from the European Union, the WHO is helping Palestinians set up a limb reconstruction unit in Nasser hospital in southern Gaza. It is expected to open as early as next month.

"This center is focused around restoring people's lives, preventing amputations, and making sure that they are able to move again," said Sara Halimah, WHO trauma manager.

Halimah said each of the patients will need up to two years of treatment.

"If this center is not established and if we don't have the correct treatment centers for controlling the infection rates, then we will see this amputation rate go through the roof, it will skyrocket," Halimah told Reuters at Nasser hospital.
Seems like just about no one can pronounce his name. But more and more people want to know about him.

Four months ago, Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, was a flat line on the political landscape outside of, well, Indiana. But after announcing a presidential exploratory committee in mid-January, hes everywhere: CNN. Vox. Stephen Colbert. Bill Maher. New York Times. Washington Post. Fox. And CNN again.

While lacking in stature among a Democratic political field strewn with U.S. senators, House members, a former governor, and likely, a former vice president, Buttigieg boasts an impressive resume.

The son of an immigrant from Malta, Buttigieg attended Harvard College around the same time as Facebook founder and fellow millennial Mark Zuckerberg. He received a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, spent seven months in Afghanistan in the U.S. Navy Reserves as an intelligence analyst and driver and worked as a consultant for McKinsey & Company. Reportedly he speaks seven languages, some of them fluently, including Spanish and Norwegian.



And in 2011, he was elected mayor of his hometown, South Bend, population 100,000.

People are looking for something completely different, Buttigieg told HBO talk-show host Maher when discussing his wildfire popularity a few weeks ago. You could argue that it doesnt get much different from [President Donald Trump] than a laid back, intellectual, young gay mayor from the Midwest.

First openly-gay candidate for president

And while he would be the first openly gay candidate for president, recent polling shows that 70 percent of American voters said that wasnt really an issue for them in deciding who to lead the country.

That has led Buttigieg to the No. 3 slot in two recent polls -- behind former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders -- that ask people whom they would vote for if the election were held today. A relatively inexperienced newcomer to national politics, hes bubbled up among a very large field of very experienced candidates very quickly.

And before formally announcing his candidacy -- although Buttigieg has tweeted followers to mark their calendars for April 14 -- Buttigieg has raised $7 million so far and assured himself a spot in the Democratic presidential debates that begin in June. By comparison, Sanders raised $18.2 million over the first six weeks of his campaigning while Sen. Kamala Harris of California raised $12 million.

"Pete Buttigieg and his husband [Chasten Glezman Buttigieg] actually have both been able to leverage Twitter and all sorts of social media to help them separate themselves from the rest of this slate of candidates, which is a lot of older folks, a lot of senators, and elected officials who have been around for a little while, said Leah Askarinam, reporter and political analyst for Inside Elections.

In the checkboxes of qualifications for presidential candidate, Buttigieg seems to light up the words millennial, war in Afghanistan, Harvard and gay. Younger voters seem to delight in Mayor Petes candidacy as looking more like me than elder competitors. He talks about climate change and abolishing the electoral college. A devout Catholic, Buttigieg makes going to church sound philosophical and cool rather than predatory.

Trends well with all ages

He trends well with older voters, as well, His youthful exuberance and firm grasp of the issues is appealing not only to younger voters, but older Americans, too, who view him as a fresh breath of air or a brilliant grandson.

But his lack of experience running anything more than a small Midwestern city is a persistent issue during interviews. Wildly popular Stephen Colbert of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which garners 3.1 million viewers per episode seemed a bit skeptical about a young newcomer becoming leader of the free world.

Not as big a leap as reality show to president, Colbert added, referring President Donald Trumps ascension from the star of his reality television show The Apprentice to the White House. But you have to admit, a big leap 

Jousting with Bill Maher

Talk-show host Bill Maher pushed Buttigieg about how well he could straddle issues that independents and undecided voters could get behind, saying Buttigiegs keyword issues to young voters -- like transgender bathrooms -- are off-putting or irrelevant to older voters. While the nation last year shifted from Baby Boomers being the largest voting block to Millennials taking that weight, the transition for dominance has not been complete: Despite increased voter turnout among Millennials in the 2018 midterm elections, more Boomers go to the polls than Millennials.

Buttigiegs signature response is that unity will bring more voters back to the center, rather than the political polarization the country seems trapped in now. The coastal and metropolitan Democratic party can seem condescending to Midwesterners on the fence over national direction, he said, and that needs to change.

Look, if a wealthy, coastal, liberal professional goes up to a guy pumping gas in South Bend, maybe wearing one of those [Make America Great Again] red hats and says, You know, youre voting against your economic interests. You know what that guy is gonna say? Hes gonna say, So are you. he told Maher.

As his popularity and appeal surge from a post-industrialized city in the Midwest, as he typically describes South Bend, the question is often asked if Buttigieg has the wherewithal to upset Biden or Sanders in the Democratic primaries or unseat a Republican president in the general election.

Its fair to say that he has earned the respect of people across the political spectrum. Hes a can-do kind of guy, said dean of political science Dave Campbell at Notre Dame University in South Bend, who has met Buttigieg but is not part of his campaign or cause. Hes definitely the kind of candidate who can speak across a lot of divides.

Rocky start in politics

But he hasnt had to face much Republican opposition, he said. South Bend is a blue dot in a very red sea.

Buttigieg (whose name is pronounced boot-edge-edge) lost his bid for Indiana state treasurer in 2010. I got clobbered. I got my head handed to me, he chuckled to David Axelrod on Axelrods University of Chicago Institute of Politics podcast. Using failure as the best lesson, he said, he ran and won the mayors office in South Bend.

And now, improbably, Buttigieg has his eyes set on the biggest political prize of all.

After Donald Trump won, we all pledged never to write off anybody again, and Im sticking to that, said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist. Buttigieg has intense support, especially on Twitter. I think he's impressed people favorably.

But that's very different than actually winning the nomination, because there are real risks to nominating him for president. And I think that's obvious to Democrats, Sabato added.

You know, there's an old saying: Democrats fall in love. Republicans fall in line. I've learned that if Democrats fall in love with a candidate -- and they might well do that with Pete Buttigieg -- they can ignore all of the warnings and put him forward anyway. Well, it's perfectly possible," he said. But one would think given their desire to beat Donald Trump, that they'd be less inclined to gamble on someone who, after all, has only had one public position. And that's mayor of the 299th sized city in the United States.

Reporter William Gallo contributed to this story.
Cameroon says at least 40,000 Nigerians who fled across the border for fear of election-related violence have returned home and another 20,000 are soon to follow.

Cameroon troops whistle to indicate it is time for departure as about 3,000 Nigerians prepare to return to the village of Kukawa in Borno state.



Midjiyawa Bakari, the governor of Cameroon's Far North region, says about 60,000 Nigerians fled into Cameroon ahead of Nigeria's February elections, fearing that violence could break out. He says some 40,000 of them have already returned home and the rest will soon follow.

Bakari says within a week, they counted more than 40,000 Nigerians. They deployed the military to protect them, he says, and provided them with water and food while they stayed in Cameroon. The elections ended well so the Nigerians are going back to their country, says Bakari. But he notes they will be escorted by Cameroon's military to protect them from any surprise attacks by Boko Haram militants.



Government spokeswoman Appolonia Ndukong says after escorting the returnees to the border, Cameroon's military will hand them over to Nigerian authorities.

"We are working with the Nigerian authorities actually because they have a squad that protects, so they want us to report on any event that are taking place so that they make sure they provide the necessary protection and security services that are necessary," said Ndukong.

UNHCR has previously criticized Cameroon for refusing to accept Nigerian refugees, in breach of its international obligations.



But Cameroon says all Nigerians returning home are doing so of their free will. Bakari says Cameroon neither considered nor treated the recent arrivals as refugees because officials often see mass movements across the border before elections.



Nigerians in Makary who fled for fear of political violence say they thank god the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari on February 23 was largely peaceful.



Thirty-five-year old Maiduguri businessman Nelson Chidi says he hopes this time around Buhari will ensure peace in Nigeria.



"... Since Buhari entered there it has become worse. You can see Boko Haram. People are dying, innocent people are dying for a crime they never committed," said Chidi. "People are not living well. You see Nigerians are not having light while our neighboring countries have light. We produce fuel, but in our country Nigeria, fuel is too scarce. Our people are suffering because of bad government."

No doubt Cameroon hopes for peace as well, in hopes the flow of refugees will slow down. According to the latest U.N. figures, he country currently hosts more than 400,000 refugees, mostly from Nigeria and the Central African Republic.
Korean Airs chairman, whose leadership included scandals such as his daughters 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 less than two weeks after a shareholder vote to remove the 70-year-old from the companys board over a series of scandals surrounding the ruling family.

The company said Cho died in the United States but did not specify his illness or provide other details in its statement on his death. Cho had remained chairman, which is a non-board role, even after shareholders ousted him from the board. He had expressed his intent to continue participating in management.

Chos eldest daughter, Cho Hyun-ah, who was formerly the head of the airlines cabin service, received worldwide notoriety in 2014 after she ordered a Korean Air passenger plane to return to a terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York because she was angry that the crew served her macadamia nuts in a bag instead of on a plate. The incident, dubbed nut rage, generated international headlines and severely tarnished the Cho familys image.

Cho Hyun-ah was sentenced to one year in prison for violating aviation law but was released early when a higher-level court suspended the sentence.

The Cho family scandals have increased public criticism about the countrys chaebol, a privileged group of family-owned conglomerates that have been tied to corruption and exploitive behavior. The countrys previous conservative president is now serving a length prison term for taking tens of millions of dollars from the countrys largest companies.

Current South Korean President Moon Jae-in has vowed to curb the excesses of the chaebol. However, bad economic news appears to have softened the governments approach to these companies, which dominate the countrys economy and are crucial to Moons plans for job creation.

The Cho family also faced intense criticism after company employees alleged they were subjected to mistreatment and tantrums.

Chos wife was summoned last May by South Korean police to question her about allegations she abused and assaulted employees.

Lee Myung-hee was accused of physically or verbally abusing more than 10 former and current employees of Chos Hanjin conglomerate, the parent of Korean Air.

Cho Hyun-ahs younger sister, Cho Hyun-min, also faced investigation for allegedly hurling a cup of water during a business meeting.
India's ruling party promised cheap sanitary pads, workplace creches and quotas to get more women into parliament on Monday, seeking to woo female voters ahead of a general election.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) devoted an entire chapter to what it called women's empowerment in its election manifesto, published days before voting starts on Thursday.

About 432 million of India's voters are female and they are a major focus for parties competing for power in the world's largest democracy.

Women's safety is a particular focus, with the main opposition Congress party promising to set up a separate agency to investigate crimes against women, amid concerns that they have been neglected in the past.

But women's rights advocates accused both parties of tokenism, saying they had taken little concrete action while in power.

"The need of the hour is to focus on women as many more women are (now) talking about these issues," Geeta Menon told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"But this is tokenism. What does it mean in the real sense," said Menon, secretary of Stree Jagruti Samiti, a charity that promotes domestic workers' rights.

The BJP said it would set up fast-track courts, promising "strict provisions" to ensure speedy prosecutions for rape and other offences against women.

Six years after the rape and murder of a student on a bus in Delhi sparked national outrage, safety remains a key concern among Indian women.

Government data shows reported cases of crime against women rose by 83 percent between 2007 and 2016, when there were four cases of rape reported every hour.

QUOTAS

Both major parties vowed to improve women's participation in the workforce, with the BJP promising to treble the number of workplace creches to free women up from childcare.

Congress promised a series of measures including night shelters for female migrant workers, hostels and safer transport services.

Both parties pledged to make it easier for women to access sanitary products - a key issue in a country where many cannot afford them.

The BJP saying it would expand an existing scheme offering pads for just one Indian rupee (1.5 U.S. cents), while Congress said it would install sanitary pad vending machines at public places, schools and colleges.

The two main parties committed to reserving a third of seats in the national parliament and state assemblies for women.

Women currently hold just 12 percent of seats in the lower and upper houses of parliament combined, compared to a global average of 23 percent, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, a global body.

A bill to introduce a quota was passed by the upper house in 2010, but has since stalled despite pledges by successive governments to enact the legislation, and only 668 of the 8,251 candidates in the last election were women.

"Both parties have had the chance to pass this bill. The BJP had (an) absolute majority (in the) past five years, so why do they have to promise it now," said Kalpana Sharma, a journalist who writes on gender issues.

The BJP is widely expected to retain power after the election, though with a much smaller mandate, hit by concerns over a shortage of jobs and weak farm prices.
Authorities in Afghanistan say the latest military-led offensives, backed by coalition airpower, have killed nearly 100 Taliban insurgents and injured dozens more in a bid to reclaim full control of a volatile district in western Badghis province.

Hundreds of heavily armed insurgents assaulted Bala Murghab last Thursday for the second time in a month and overran key parts of the district, including the police headquarters and main prison, before killing at least 30 Afghan troops and capturing as many others.

A government counteroffensive has since regularly carried out air raids against Taliban positions in the district and U.S.-led coalition planes have assisted, the Defense Ministry in Kabul said Monday.

The fighting during the past two days has killed 12 Afghan troops and wounded at least 34 others, according to the Ministry.

The clearing operation continues in Bala Murghab district, it added.

Fighting also has intensified in other parts of Afghanistan with the advent of spring, despite U.S.-led efforts to reach a peace deal with the Taliban.

Sunday, chief American peace negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad, concluded a nearly weeklong visit to Kabul where he held extensive consultations with leaders inside and outside the Afghan government as well as civil society representatives.

The Afghan-born U.S. special reconciliation representative is expected to enter into another round of peace negotiations with the Taliban later this month in Qatar in his bid to start an intra-Afghan dialogue to bring an end to the 18-year-old war that continues to inflict record levels of casualties on combatants and civilians.

Separately, Islamic State took responsibility for Mondays bombing of a police convoy in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province. Afghan officials said the blast killed a police officer and a civilian while eight other people were injured.

This was the third bomb attack in the city in three days, all of them claimed by Islamic States local affiliate, Khorasan Province (ISKP). The violence has killed at least five people and injured dozens more.

But an IS statement claimed it detonated four improvised explosive devices (IED) in Jalalabad in five days, killing 21 people. The groups claims are often inflated.

ISKPs loyalists are mostly active in parts of Nangarhar and in the adjoining Kunar province, both of them sharing a border with Pakistan. The terrorist outfit is under attack from U.S.-backed Afghan forces, while Taliban insurgents are also waging attacks against the militant group in Taliban-controlled areas.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has thrown his full political weight into efforts to reverse the defeat of his AK Party in mayoral elections for Turkey's largest city, Istanbul.



Speaking to reporters Monday before flying to Moscow, Erdogan questioned the validity of the vote.



"We, as the political party, have detected an organized crime and some organized activities,"he said.



Until now, Erdogan appeared to step back from the deepening political controversy over the opposition Republican People's Party's (CHP) success in Istanbul. The AKP in Istanbul is challenging the March 31 vote, seeking to overturn Ekram Imamoglu's 24,000 vote lead over Binali Yildirim.

AKP's efforts reduced Imamoglu's majority to around 15,000 votes. But the current reexamination of 300,000 invalidated ballots is almost complete. The AKP is now demanding a full recount of the nearly 10 million votes.



Erdogan also introduced the idea of a repeat of the Istanbul poll.



"No one has a right to say, 'I won' with a 13,000 to 14,000 vote difference," Erdogan said. "We made a promise. We said that we would protect the votes at ballot boxes, and we did so. After protecting the votes at the ballot box, we have continued to do the same in the ensuing process."



The prospect of a rerun of the vote drew scorn from opposition leaders.



"Renewing elections until the AK Party wins is what happens in African dictatorships. There are examples of it," said Good Party leader Meral Aksener.

With political tensions rising over the contested vote, CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu put the onus on Turkey's Higher Electoral Board (YSK) to end the dispute.



The YSK administrates elections in Turkey and has the final say in determining results and decisions on recounts and reruns.



"Whatever they (AKP) have tried so far didn't change the results," Kilicdaroglu said. "The YSK judges have to behave independently and decide in accordance with the law. This is about the fate of our democracy."



The majority of the ruling YSK board is made up of Erdogan and government appointees. YSK decisions on sanctioning recounts in the aftermath of the local elections is already raising questions over its impartiality.



"Election monitoring body YSK, which ought to be independent and which will decide on this appeal (Istanbul vote), has thus far granted 86 percent of AKP's requests for recounts versus 12 percent of opposition CHP and 0 percent of opposition HDP (pro-Kurdish party)," tweeted Sonar Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program, in Washington.

Critics highlight the YSK's rejection of opposition parties' calls for recounts in the latest local elections, where the winning margin was in the hundreds or low thousands.



However, the YSK did reject AKP's calls for a full recount in the mayoral election in Ankara, which saw the CHP win control of the city after 25 years. In Istanbul, the board also rejected an appeal for a district mayoral election to be repeated.



Analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners said the entrance of Erdogan into the controversy over the Istanbul vote changes the political landscape.



"While the YSK, has shown some backbone during this ordeal (Istanbul vote), let's not fool ourselves. No mortal or legal entity in Turkey has the guts to withstand Erdogan's wrath," he said.

Critics warn overturning the Istanbul vote or repeating the election could end many Turks' belief in the Turkish democratic system. Political scientist Cengiz Aktar said for Erdogan, that would be politically costly.



"Elections, on a general or local level or even referenda are extremely important to the regime as it constitutes the sole source of legitimacy for this regime. Therefore elections are crucial for the regime."



Erdogan's favorite rebuttal of criticism domestically and internationally is his repeated electoral success. Yesilada suggests the president's AKP defeats in Istanbul and Ankara could have been an opportunity.



"The victories in Istanbul and Ankara by opposition parties should have aroused respect for Turkey's resilient democracy and earned him (Erdogan) credit from the West for gracefully conceding defeat," Yesilada said. The alternative means Turkey is exiting the democratic fraternity and possibly another market quake to devastate the economy.



The Turkish lira fell sharply Monday following Erdogan's comments. Economists warn the currency remains vulnerable to political risk, with the economy recession and concerns over the scale of private sector debt.



Observers suggest the political and the economic risks will be considerable in any protracted struggle for Istanbul, Erdogan's base for 25 years, where he could be calculating that such risks more than outweighed the cost of losing control of his hometown city.



"He (Erdogan) was elected mayor in 1994. He knows how economically meaningful Istanbul is for his party, the AKP. It has extensively benefited from Istanbul," said Aktar. "In that sense, it's (Istanbul) extremely important and symbolic, and that is why the opposition will never be allowed to win in Istanbul."
Companies working with artificial intelligence need to install accountability mechanisms to prevent its being misused, the European Commission said on Monday, under new ethical guidelines for a technology open to abuse.

AI projects should be transparent, have human oversight and secure and reliable algorithms, and they must be subject to privacy and data protection rules, the commission said, among other recommendations.

The European Union initiative taps in to a global debate about when or whether companies should put ethical concerns before business interests, and how tough a line regulators can afford to take on new projects without risking killing off innovation.

"The ethical dimension of AI is not a luxury feature or an add-on. It is only with trust that our society can fully benefit from technologies," the Commission digital chief, Andrus Ansip, said in a statement.

AI can help detect fraud and cybersecurity threats, improve healthcare and financial risk management and cope with climate change. But it can also be used to support unscrupulous business practices and authoritarian governments.

The EU executive last year enlisted the help of 52 experts from academia, industry bodies and companies including Google , SAP, Santander and Bayer to help it draft the principles.

Companies and organizations can sign up to a pilot phase in June, after which the experts will review the results and the Commission decide on the next steps.

IBM Europe Chairman Martin Jetter, who was part of the group of experts, said guidelines "set a global standard for efforts to advance AI that is ethical and responsible."

The guidelines should not hold Europe back, said Achim Berg, president of BITKOM, Germany's Federal Association of Information Technology, Telecommunications, and New Media.

"We must ensure in Germany and Europe that we do not only discuss AI but also make AI," he said.
A U.S. congressman from Louisiana has urged anyone responsible for burning down three predominantly black churches in the state to come forward, as state and federal authorities investigate what appears to have been coordinated arson.

Authorities said last week they had found suspicious "patterns" among fires that burned down three churches between March 26 and April 4 in St. Landry Parish, about 100 miles (160 km) northwest of New Orleans.

U.S. Congressman Clay Higgins, a Republican who represents a district that includes St. Landry Parish, posted a video on Facebook on Sunday in which he stood in front of the rubble of St. Mary's Baptist Church and addressed the arsonist he presumed was behind the fires.

"I advise you to hear my heart and turn yourself in," Higgins said. "You're going to jail one way or another."

Authorities declined to say whether arson was to blame for the church fires at a news conference on Saturday, but local media reported that Butch Browning, the state fire marshal, had told parishioners on Sunday his office was treating the fires as criminal activity and would find whoever was responsible.

The FBI and U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) have joined local authorities in the investigation, bringing the number of people involved up to 200, The Daily Advertiser reported on Monday.

The, FBI, ATF and the Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.

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 seat of the parish, the Louisiana equivalent to a county. All the churches have mostly black congregants, raising authorities' suspicion that the fires could have been racially motivated hate crimes.

The number of hate crimes in the United States increased 17 percent in 2017, the third consecutive year that the attacks rose, according to FBI data released last fall.
Ecuador reserves the right to conduct an investigation of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange for allegedly leaking information about President Lenin Moreno's personal life, the foreign minister said on Monday.

Assange, an Ecuadorian citizen, has lived in the country's London embassy for nearly seven years. Moreno has said Assange has violated the terms of his asylum, but that the country has no imminent plan to expel him from the embassy.

The Ecuadorian government told the United Nations' special rapporteur on the right to privacy last week that Wikileaks could be involved in the posting on social media of communications and photographs of Moreno and his family.

"Ecuador reserves the right to conduct investigations," foreign minister Jose Valencia told reporters. "The state has the ability to assign and revise this diplomatic asylum; therefore, we can conduct some investigations."

"We have reports that he possibly has access (to the internet). This specifically determines the investigations that we will take forward," Valencia said.

The investigation will be independent from the one conducted by the U.N.'s rapporteur, who is set to visit Assange in London on April 25, according to Valencia.

Assange says Ecuador is seeking to end his asylum, which began in 2012, by implicating him and Wikileaks in accusations of corruption leveled against Moreno and his family that have been shared on social media.

Assange's lawyer in Ecuador, Carlos Poveda, has asked Ecuador to clarify if it is planning to terminate Assange's asylum.

"That decision will be made between two options: continue asylum or revise the situation depending on the merits that may or may not exist," Valencia 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, requiring he 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.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has resigned after 16 months on the job and immense pressure from the White House and public over the situation along the U.S. southern border.



"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 wrote in her resignation letter to President Donald Trump.



While she did not say exactly why she is quitting, Nielsen wrote she hopes 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. Our country and the men and women of DHS deserve to have all the tools and resources they need to execute the mission entrusted to them."

Analysts have said Nielsen was frustrated by what she saw as a lack of cooperation from Congress and the courts in tackling illegal immigration.

Trump has also expressed frustration with the situation along the U.S. border with Mexico, where hundreds of thousands of migrants trying to escape poverty and crime in central America hope to enter the U.S.



White House sources have said Trump often yelled at Nielsen for apparently not being strong enough in curbing the flow of migrants trying to enter the U.S. They say she had to listen to what those sources called Trump's impossible demands.



Along with the pressure from the White House to try to stop the influx of migrants, Nielsen faced a public outcry over the administration's highly unpopular policy of separating migrant families when they crossed into the U.S.



Thousands of young children were taken from their parents and held in separation facilities, often in less than ideal conditions. Nielsen was responsible for executing that policy while at times denying there was such a policy.



Despite the acrimony, Nielsen wrote, "I can say with confidence our homeland is safer today than when I joined the administration. We have taken unprecedented action to protect Americans."



President Trump tweeted Sunday that "Nielsen is leaving her position and I would like to thank her for her service."



He announced that current U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan will become acting DHS secretary.



"I have confidence that Kevin will do a great job," he tweeted.
Hungarys prime minister Viktor Orban made his name as a young anti-Communist dissident delivering a fiery anti-Russian speech at the 1989 reburial of Imre Nagy, leader of the Hungarian revolt of 1956 against the Soviet Union.

Among the KGB officers dispatched by the Kremlin to help quash the Imre Nagy-led Hungarian uprising was Nikolai Kosov, a young intelligence officer, whose wife had given birth just a few weeks earlier to their first child, a son.

Fast forward more than half-a-century, and the son, also named Nikolai, was one of the first visitors earlier this year to Viktor Orbans new prime ministerial office in a former Carmelite Monastery overlooking the countrys parliament. There the two  the onetime dissident and son of a legendary Communist spy  discussed the relocation to Budapest of a Russian bank, itself steeped in Cold War history.

Kosov was handpicked in 2012 to head the bank by Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Now known as the International Investment Bank, formerly as Comecon, or the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, the Russian-controlled financial institution is obscure and has a small-scale balance sheet of a mere $350 million. But its planned move to Budapest has become the latest flashpoint in an increasingly strained relationship between the Hungarian government and Washington.

In mid-February, during a visit to Budapest, a delegation of four U.S. lawmakers raised the proposed relocation with Hungarian officials. And it featured in talks a few weeks earlier between U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with Hungarian ministers, too, say U.S. officials.

U.S. and Western European officials have become frustrated with Orbans pivot east and his burgeoning friendship with Putin, seen as an alliance between two emblematic nationalistic strongmen. Both have reshaped their countries political systems and echo each other in their condemnations of Western liberalism. Orban has criticized Western sanctions on Russia and he welcomed Putin to Budapest after the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea, bucking the Wests diplomatic isolation of the Russian leader.

The IDPs relocation is seen by U.S. and Western European officials as another chapter in the unfolding special relationship between Orban and Putin, a relationship thats turned Hungary into Russias best friend in Europe, say analysts.

The partnership between the Hungarian leader and Putin has deepened since 2010, when Orban won re-election for the second time. Orban has cited Putin as a role model. And, according to opposition lawmaker Agnes Vadai, vice president of the Democratic Coalition, he has mirrored what Putin has been doing as far as rule of law and democracy is concerned. She adds: He has basically copied Putin when it comes to curtailing civil society, suppressing and threatening NGOs he doesnt control.

In 2014 Orban signed a controversial $12 billion loan deal with the Kremlin to upgrade a Soviet-era nuclear power plant in Paks, a hundred kilometers south of Budapest. The contract was awarded without any counter-bids and the details were classified until a court ordered the government to divulge them.

The historical irony of the antecedents of the soon-to-be-relocated banks president, Nikolai Kosov, isnt lost on Western security officials.

Kosovs family ties with Russian intelligence  his mother was a handler of American nuclear spies  are jarring and theyre adding to the alarm that the bank could easily be used for illicit purposes and cover for espionage operations  not necessarily in Hungary, but elsewhere in Europe.

The Hungarian government is granting the IDP full diplomatic immunity, something neighboring Slovakia refused when Russia broached the possibility previously of moving the banks headquarters to Bratislava. Under the agreement with the Hungarian government, the immunity will extend not just to top IDP officials but all employees and consultants, as well as any guests the bank invites from Russia or third countries.

Andris Dezso, an investigative reporter at the independent news outlet Index, says that means after having arrived in Hungary IDP staff and their guests will have free movement within Europes Schengen area. And this at a time that Russian intelligence agencies are thought to be suffering an agent shortage across the continent thanks to the mass expulsion last year of suspected Russian spies, a punishment for the alleged Kremlin-ordered poisoning in England of double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter.

Hungarys counter-intelligence agency wont have the manpower, Dezso says, to monitor the comings and goings. That will likely prompt other European counter-intelligence agents to start focusing on Hungary. Counterintelligence units from abroad will come to Hungary and it will become like Vienna was during the Cold War, he says, in reference to Viennas legendary status as a European hub for espionage skulduggery.

The banks financial transactions wont be monitored either. So it can do any kind of business, complains Agnes Vadai, She added: When the law about the headquarters agreement was in the parliament, in front of the parliament, we voted against it. We are very worried about this investment bank.

VOA requests for interviews to discuss the bank with Orbans press spokesman as well as Hungarys foreign minister were declined.

In a press statement, the IDP has denied Nikolai Kosov has any links to Russian intelligence and rejects being described as Russian, insisting it is a multilateral finance organization established by several sovereign states.

The relocation of the Banks headquarters to the European Union will enable growth in the Banks capital, will provide for a further increase in the Banks lending and investment activities, will lead to a decrease in the Banks cost for funding, will raise brand awareness of the Bank and create opportunities for attracting new shareholders to the Bank, it said.

Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia (all EU and NATO members), in addition to Mongolia, Vietnam and Cuba are also members of the bank. But the bank worried Orban enough in 2000 during his first administration to end Hungarys membership of the IDP, only to rejoin more than a decade later. Orban at that time complained about the banks lack of transparency.

Julius Horvath, a professor at the Central European University, says the security background of the IDPs president isnt unusual for Putins Russia, where people coming from security services, or as they call them siloviki, are appointed to government posts and in business.

But he says the banks welcome in Budapest  the timetable for the relocation hasnt been announced  is yet another sign of the warming ties between Orban and Putin. He doesnt think, though, that the political friendship is based on any real ideological affinity, but more on the Hungarian leaders reassessment of the balance of power in Europe and a perception of Russias growing clout in the region.

Gergo Nyilas, a journalist at Index who writes on Hungarian-Russian relations agrees. If you ask me whether the Hungarian government wants to transform Hungary into an instrument of Russian influence then I would say, no. That is not Hungary's intention. But if you ask me whether the government is playing a risky game that can lead to such a consequence, I would say, yes.

Peter Kreko, an analyst at Political Capital, is also critical of Hungary's balancing act of being a member of NATO and the EU on the one hand and an ally of Russia on the other. He says Hungary could become a captured state.
Hard-line Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini and members of nationalist parties from around Europe met Monday in Milan to discuss forming a broad international alliance within the European Parliament. Their talks come as the European Union prepares for May 26 elections aimed at choosing members of the parliament.

At the gathering in a Milan luxury hotel, the nationalist and anti-immigrant forces said they want to create a major new grouping to shake up the European Union following elections next month.

Matteo Salvini, who also serves as Italy's interior minister, organized the meeting held under the slogan, "Toward a Common Sense Europe." Joining him were Joerg Meuthen, chairman of the Alternative for Germany party, Olli Kotro of the Finns Party and Anders Vistisen of the right-wing Danish People's Party.

Germany's Methuen said the planned bloc would comprise at least 10 nationalist parties from different EU member states.

Far-right populists in power in a number of European nations, including Italy, Austria, Poland and Hungary, are expected to do well in the May 26 elections. Salvini has pledged to bring about a "new European spring." He said they are working for "a new European dream."

Salvini was clear about his plans as he addressed the news media.

"The ambitious objective of those present is to create the leading group of the next European Parliament, the largest, most important, most decisive, and most addressed to the future, said Salvini.

He added they will have the newest ideas and hope to be present in nearly all of the European countries that will be voting.

Salvini said he does not do something with an eye to losing or simply to participate, but that the objective would be to win and change the rules of Europe. He said many others will be joining the group and that plans are under way to hold a large gathering for the new Europe in Milan's Piazza Duomo May 18.

Salvini said that what they have in mind is "a new Europe that looks toward the future and to the coming generations."

Although there were notable absentees like Marine Le Pen of France's Nationalist Rally and Austrian far-right politician Heinz-Christian Strache, Salvini appeared confident that his planned large international bloc of nationalists would be created.

Most share common views over immigration and the desire for certain powers to be returned to the member states' capitals, but not all of them agree on economic and social policies. Observers have voiced fear that far-right groups are no longer on the fringes politically and are becoming more mainstream.

Salvini also addressed the issue of Turkey, which is seeking to join the EU. Salvini said talks with Turkey, which have been suspended, should be canceled. Salvini has said he believes Turkey would be an Islamic influence that is not needed in Europe and that the country is too different culturally.
As the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) heads into its eighth decade amidst doubts in some quarters of its contemporary relevance, the Czech Republics Foreign Minister tells VOA that theres huge consensus among political parties in his country in support of NATO membership and of Americas leadership within the alliance.

Our membership is very important, and Americas leading role is key to the success of NATO, says Czech Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of NATO membership for the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.

Petricek recognizes NATO as an organization of shared values, as well as an instrument to defend those values.

WATCH: Interview with Czech Foreign Minister



Petricek says his country shares the prevailing opinion among NATO member states about what constitutes threats to NATO: were facing a more assertive Russia, we need to fight international terrorism, and that we also need to discuss future relations with China.

China, he says, is an important global player with which NATO member states have yet to engage on a level-playing field; we want our companies that do business in China to have the same rights as Chinese companies that do business in our country, a sentiment U.S. businesses and government officials have also expressed.

Asked what is most critical to his countrys peace and prosperity, Petricek replies: membership in both NATO and the European Union.

The Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland joined the EU in 2004, five years after the three nation states became members of NATO.

Speaking at a commemorative event in Washington, Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz expressed his countrys faith  and hope  in the United States and the transatlantic defense organization. Poland, he says, hopes to see an increased American presence in his country and wants American troop deployment upgraded from rotational to permanently stationed forces, in order to strengthen deterrence.

He said Poland also would like to see is for Washington to consider transferring some of the troops currently stationed in Germany, numbered close to 40,000, to Poland, situated closer to Russia and arguably at higher risk of aggression.
A beleaguered group of Mao Zedong-inspired rebels in the Philippines is tapping funds from overseas and recruits from among ideological sympathizers at home to help battle the government for the next 50 years as former benefactor communist China backs away.

The Communist Party of the Philippines-New Peoples Army (CPC-NPA) is recruiting ideologically aligned members at Philippine universities and in poor parts of the archipelago, analysts believe.

The European Union has been accused of sending money through nonprofits to the New Peoples Army. Some Catholic priests are helping, too, scholars say. This support gives the group more resources to resist the government, which stepped up its fight in 2017.

China once helped arm the rebels but had stopped by 2011.

This is not just the weapons from China, theres not really much relevance at this stage, said Enrico Cau, Southeast Asia-specialized associate researcher at the Taiwan Strategy Research Association.

Whats relevant is that they find it much easier to recruit people because they have a platform that allows them to support a lot of causes, LGBT and all these things, he said. It is spread all over the country. Whenever there is poverty, there is a rural environment, they go there and recruit.

Survival sources

Philippine President Rodrigo Dutertes government has stepped up its fight against the New Peoples Army  the armed side of the rebel organization  since he declared an end to negotiations in 2017. His spokesman said the rebels used violence during earlier talks, while the rebel groups founder criticized Dutertes use of martial law in the restive Philippine southland.

Fighting such as ambushes on soldiers has killed a total of some 30,000 people.

Before the negotiations began, the New Peoples Army, founded in 1968, had dwindled to about 4,000 combatants, down from a peak of some 17,000, according to domestic media reports. The affiliated communist party claims about 70,000 members.

Now the group is getting somewhere in its newest push for money and people.

The insurgency traditionally draws support in rural areas where their ideology appeals to poor people facing a perceived social inequality such as a lack of land reform, said Carl Baker, director of programs with the think tank Pacific Forum CSIS in Honolulu. About one-fifth of Filipinos live in poverty.

Today the group continues to get support, such as safe operations bases, from poor populations. Its also recruiting ideologues at Philippine universities, Cau said. In 2005 the group widened left-liberal appeal by recognizing same-sex relationships.

Drawing on the countrys Catholic majority, the rebels have also won field support as well as help in armed struggle over the decades from priests and nuns, author Jeffrey Riedinger says in his 1995 book Agrarian Reform in the Philippines.

Some group funding, officials believe, comes from overseas. Last month a government delegation asked the EU and Belgium to stop financing groups that it said were funding New Peoples Army violence. The EU said March 30 following an audit that it had found no linkage.

The Philippine government and the rebels both say theyre ready to fight 50 more years. But the government is also trying to calm the communist front through peace talks at local levels, said Herman Kraft, political science professor at the University of the Philippines.

China grows cold

The rebels say former Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong inspired their movement. In the 1970s, China had met rebel requests for arms including about 1,200 M-14 rifles, bazookas, mortars and communication equipment, Philippine news website ABS-CBN reports.

But the Chinese government cut aid to the rebel group in 1970s under a deal with the government of Philippine ex-president Ferdinand Marcos. Chinas Communist Party severed its own ties in 2011.

I dont think theyre actually receiving any assistance from China right now, Kraft said. China is still betting on the idea of maintaining good relations with the Philippines. Unless relations really take a nosedive, then I dont think that China would actually risk (those ties) if they were to actually provide assistance to the CPC-NPA.

In late 2016, Duterte reached out to China after four years of tension over maritime sovereignty.

China reached back with aid including 3,000 Chinese-made assault and sniper rifles that could be used in battles against rebel groups.By selling those small arms to the Philippine military, its not directed at the NPA but of course the Philippine military could use those Chinese arms in fighting the NPA among other rebel groups, said Eduardo Araral, associate professor at the National University of Singapores public policy school.
Former Romanian President Ion Iliescu was officially charged with crimes against humanity by the country's top prosecutor on Monday as it finalized an inquiry into the chaotic and bloody anti-Communist revolution of 1989.

Iliescu, 89, has repeatedly said he was innocent. He enjoyed widespread popularity after the revolt against dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who was deposed and executed in December 1989. But hundreds of people died in the ouster and Iliescu's opponents accused him of stealing the revolution from the people.

"The completion of this case by our military prosecutors, is one of the most important goals in the management project I assumed publicly three years ago: to solve Romania's historical files,"General Prosecutor Augustin Lazar told reporters. No date was set for trial.

Tuesday's official indictment came after prosecutors accused Iliescu last December of masterminding the formation of a group in December 1989, with the aim of gaining power and political legitimacy.

Prosecutors said using statements and television the group engaged in "broad and complex misleading activities of diversion and misinformation" after Ceausescu fled the capital on Dec. 22, 1989.

Under the scheme, a general "terrorism psychosis" was fueled, triggering "fratricidal fire, chaotic shootings and contradictory military orders," that led to the death of 862 people and the wounding of another 2,150 after Ceausescu left.

About 13 million bullets were used by troops. The conviction and hastily assembled execution of Ceausescu and his wife Elena was also part of the scheme pursued "in a simulated criminal trial," on Dec. 25, 1989, prosecutors said.

Iliescu was confirmed as interim president by a temporary parliament in February 1990. As candidate of the National Salvation Front, he won 85 per cent of a ballot in May 1990, an overwhelming vote of confidence in a man who had stepped into the spotlight only five months earlier in the confusion of revolution.

His critics at home and abroad accuse Iliescu, who stepped down in 2004, and other leading politicians of trying to block reform and protect the political heritage and ruling elite of the Communist system.

Iliescu, the Moscow-educated son of a railwayman, is also on trial together former prime minister Petre Roman on charges of crimes against humanity over the crushing of peaceful anti-government protests in Bucharest in June 1990 in which four people were killed.

Last week, he underwent heart surgery. Doctors said he was in stable condition.

Before Ceausescu's overthrow, Iliescu had at one point been youth minister and an official in the Communist Party but fell foul of Ceausescu after the dictator became impressed with the Chinese example during a 1968 visit to Beijing. He reacquired ministerial rank as head of Prices Commission but his star declined in 1984 after an argument with one of Ceausescu's relatives.
Twenty-five years have passed since the Rwandan genocide that claimed the lives of an estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. As part of the long journey to reconciliation, an aid group called Prison Fellowship Rwanda established several model villages where genocide victims and perpetrators live side-by-side as neighbors and even friends.

Louise Uwamungu was 22 years old in 1994, when ethnic Hutus began slaughtering ethnic Tutsis, including eight of her relatives.

Sitting inside her tin-roofed concrete and brick home in Bugesera, she shows a reporter photos of family members who were murdered during the 100-day killing spree.

When authorities jailed the man who killed her cousin, she asked her brother  a prison guard  to take revenge.

Uwamungu says she gave her brother a list of prisoners she wanted him to kill. She told him to set up a scenario where he was taking them out for routine labor. After going out, shoot them, she recalls saying. You would say that they were escaping.

But Uwamungus brother refused to murder the prisoners.

And in 2007, Cyprien Matabaro  the man who killed her cousin  was not only released but became her neighbor.

He says they found her cousin in the forest, trying to run. He fell down because he was very hungry, said Matabaro. "I cut him twice with a machete, then he died."

Matabaro, who admits to killing at least three other Tutsis, was one of tens of thousands pardoned as part of reconciliation efforts after the genocide.

But moving into a village with his victims family, he says, raised fears of further violence.

"After arriving in the village, I had the same worries," he says, but another attitude told him the presidential pardon will help in reconciliation. He asked his children, when they came to visit him in the prison, is there any Tutsi who can talk with Hutu? But his children comforted him, Matabaro says, saying Hutus and Tutsis share drinks and even marry.

Indeed, the genocide perpetrator and victim eventually became friends, farming and socializing together.

Uwamungu says after Matabaro begged for forgiveness, he told her where he put her cousins body. She realized they had buried all the bodies that were where he said they would be. "I felt relaxed because they never accept that a relative has died until they have given them a decent burial," she said.

Built by faith-based group Prison Fellowship Rwanda, the Village of Unity and Reconciliation in Bugesera became home to 110 genocide-affected families.

"It was not easy to join two people who have experienced different sides of history," said Jean-Paul Ntwali, the chief of operations at Prison Fellowship Rwanda. "The first challenge was trauma for survivors and self-restraint for perpetrators. Perpetrators did not believe they were actually pardoned, while survivors feared that perpetrators could repeat history," he said. "But as we keep on encouraging them to do projects together those fears have gone."

While the 1994 genocide tore Rwanda apart, the Village of Unity and Reconciliation is helping put the country and its people back together.
Ugandan police deny a ransom was paid in the rescue of American tourist Kimberly Sue Endecott and her driver Jean Paul. The two were rescued in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday, five days after their abduction in a Ugandan national park.

American tourist Kimberly Sue Endecott and her Ugandan driver Jean Paul were abducted last Tuesday afternoon in Queen Elizabeth National Park, which borders Congo.



On Monday, President Donald Trump tweeted about the abduction. He said, "Uganda must find the kidnappers of the American tourist and guide before people will feel safe in going there. Bring them to justice openly and quickly."

Ugandan police spokesman Fred Enanga says Endecott and Paul were recovered Sunday, but gave little detail about how the rescue was accomplished.



"This was a high-risk operation and we had identified the hideout," Enanga said. "The pressure was there of a last resort move in, that there was an implicit threat of the use of force by our elite teams that we had on ground. But as the police and the government of Uganda, we don't do ransom."

He says neither captive was harmed. Endecott was handed over to the U.S. ambassador to Uganda on Monday afternoon.



Enanga says the operation to arrest the kidnappers is still ongoing with support from the Congolese security. He used this opportunity to warn future kidnappers.



"The successful recovery of the captives serves as a reminder to those enemies who want to harm our own people including visitors," Enanga said. "That we will do everything possible within our means to defend them."

This was the first kidnapping of any foreign tourists in Uganda in 20 years. In 1999, armed Hutu fighters from Congo entered Bwindi Park and killed eight tourists and four Ugandans.



After a brief meeting with security officials Monday morning. Uganda President Yoweri Museveni tweeted saying, they will deal with these isolated pockets of criminals.



He reassured the country and tourists that Uganda is safe, urging them to come an enjoy the "Pearl of Africa." He also promised that security will be improved in the parks.
VOA's Halima Athumani in Kampala contributed to this report.

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni offered reassurances Monday that his country is a safe place to visit after security teams rescued an American woman and her driver who had been kidnapped by gunmen in a national park.

"We shall deal with these isolated pocket of criminals," Museveni wrote on Twitter. "However, I want to reassure the country and our tourists that Uganda is safe and we shall continue to improve the security in our parks. Come and enjoy the Pearl of Africa."

Four unidentified gunmen kidnapped Kimberly Sue Endicott, 56, and her driver, Jean-Paul Mirenge, near a wilderness camp inside Queen Elizabeth National Park last week. An elderly couple who were robbed but not taken alerted a park official to the abduction.

The abduction happened in the Ishasha section of the park, which sits near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Ugandan police said Sunday that Endicott and Mirenge were safe and in good health following their rescue.

Police spokesperson Polly Namaye said the kidnappers, using a phone of one of the victims, demanded $500,000.

It was unclear Sunday if the ransom had been paid for Endicott, who is from Costa Mesa, California, where she has a small skin-care shop.

Uganda earns about $1.3 billion per year from tourism.

Bashir Hangi, the spokesperson for the Uganda Wildlife Authority, acknowledged the kidnapping could hurt the tourism industry but said tourists need to be cautious when traveling in national parks.

"Maybe we need to appreciate the fact that these people did not have a ranger guide, the time they went for a game drive," he said. "And why do we have guns in the park? It's to protect our visitors, not only against wildlife but also against such illegal armed entrants in the parks."

Meanwhile, in an advisory, the U.S. embassy in Kampala has asked Americans to exercise caution when traveling in Queen Elizabeth National Park due to ongoing security activity.
VOA's Carla Babb contributed to this report from the Pentagon; James Butty of VOA's English to Africa Service contributed from Washington.

Ugandan police deny a ransom was paid to free an American tourist and her driver, who were kidnapped in a national park last week.

Ugandan forces say they rescued Kimberly Sue Endicott and her Ugandan driver, Jean Paul Mirenge, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Gunmen seized the two last Tuesday in Queen Elizabeth National Park, which borders the DRC.

Ugandan police spokesman Fred Enanga gave few details about how Endicott and Mirenge were freed.

"This was a high-risk operation and we had identified the hideout," Enanga said. "The pressure was there of a last resort move in, that there was an implicit threat of the use of force by our elite teams that we had on ground. But as the police and the government of Uganda, we don't do ransom."

Endicott and Mirenge were not hurt and Endicott was handed over to the U.S. ambassador in Uganda on Monday.

U.S. defense officials said the Pentagon was not asked for assistance but, nonetheless, provided drones for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support.

It is unclear if the United States or anyone else paid any kind of ransom despite Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying the U.S. government does not.

The suspected kidnappers remain at large and U.S. President Donald Trump says he wants them captured.

"Uganda must find the kidnappers of the American tourist and guide before people will feel safe in going there. Bring them to justice openly and quickly," he tweeted.

Ugandan police spokesman Enanga is warning other would-be kidnappers to think twice before trying to nab anyone.

"The successful recovery of the captives serves as a reminder to those enemies who want to harm our own people, including visitors, that we will do everything possible within our means to defend them," Enanga said.

Tourism minister: 'An isolated case'

Ugandan tourism minister Ephraim Kamuntu tells VOA that Americans shouldn't be dissuaded from visiting the East African country.

"What happened was an isolated case," he said. The incident shouldn't "be taken as a trend. Uganda is secure, Uganda is peaceful, Uganda is stable, and it has been so for the last three decades."

He emphasized safety for tourists, saying, "We have a whole Uganda Wildlife Authority with almost 5,000 rangers guarding national parks."

After a brief meeting with security officials Monday morning, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni tweeted that the country would deal with these "isolated pockets" of criminals.

He also promised that security would be improved in the parks.

This was the first kidnapping of any foreign tourists in Uganda in 20 years. In 1999, armed Hutu fighters from Congo entered Bwindi Park and killed eight tourists and four Ugandans.
VOA's Ira Mellman contributed to this report.

The U.N. human rights office says it fears dozens of Rohingya Muslims were killed in a military helicopter attack last week, far higher than the initial death toll of seven.



Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani, of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, said Monday, "We are now receiving reports that the number may be much higher than that.We have unconfirmed reports that the number may be as high as 30."



Villagers in Buthidaung township said a military helicopter attacked a group of Rohingya who were gathering bamboo on Thursday.

Shamdasani said Myanmar's military has blamed the attack on "terrorists who were supporting the Arakan army." However, she said the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights rejects that accusation.

Myanmar's military blamed the attack on terrorists who support the army.

Shamdasani told VOA "the fact that civilians are suffering, the fact that civilians are dying, should not simply go unnoticed. We need to raise international attention and international concern on this."

She said the international community is watching the situation in Myanmar and is willing to hold accountable the perpetrators of violence against civilians.

Myanmar's western Rakhine state has drawn international attention in recent years following attack by Myanmar's army against ethnic Rohingya which forced more than 700,000 refugees across the border into Bangladesh.The government says the actions were in response to attacks by Rohingya insurgents on police posts.



The United Nations has accused Myanmar's army of acting with "genocidal intent."



Myanmar regards Rohingya as illegal migrants from the Indian subcontinent.
U.S. officials are "not satisfied yet" about all the issues standing in the way of a deal to end the U.S.-China trade war but made progress in talks with China last week, a top White House official said on Monday.

The United States and China have been embroiled in a tit-for-tat tariff battle since July 2018, roiling global financial markets and supply chains and costing both of the world's two largest economies billions of dollars.

U.S. officials are pressing China to make changes to address longstanding concerns over industrial subsidies, technology transfer and intellectual property rights.

The two sides wrapped up the latest round of talks in Washington late last week and will be resuming discussions this week remotely.

"We're making progress on a range of things, and there's some stuff where we're not satisfied yet," Clete Willems, a top White House trade official, told Reuters on the sidelines of a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event on Monday.

He declined to get into specifics on which issues remained unsettled. Last week, President Donald Trump said a deal could be reached in about four weeks.

Willems also declined to specify a timeline for the pact, noting: "It should be a good sign for people that we're not rushing into this we want to get it right and we need to nail down specifics."

Willems said that the two sides were still trying to settle on how to handle existing tariffs. The United States has slapped tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods, and the Trump administration sees those as leverage to ensure Beijing keeps any promises made in the deal. Chinese officials want the levies removed.

The United States and China have agreed on an enforcement structure that would give Washington the right to retaliate if Beijing was not honoring the terms of the agreement, Willems said.

European Union leaders did not take issues with Chinese trade policy as seriously as they should have in the past, but the United States and the EU are now "working hand in hand" at the World Trade Organization on China's non-market economic policies, Willems said earlier in remarks at the Chamber of Commerce.

The United States and the EU want to work together on joint projects that provide market-based alternatives to state-led initiatives "that can come with strings attached," he said.

This month China is hosting its second summit for its Belt and Road initiative, which envisions connecting China with Asia, Europe and beyond with massive infrastructure spending, but the United States will not be sending high-level officials to the event.

Washington views Beijing as a major strategic rival. The United States has said it views the initiative as a way of spreading Chinese influence overseas and saddling low-income countries with unsustainable debt using opaque projects.

Willems, who has been a key figure in negotiations with China, said last month he will be leaving the White House in the coming weeks to spend more time with his family after the birth of a new baby.
On the sidelines of two days of events marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the United States signed a bilateral defense cooperation agreement with Hungary, an act that went almost unnoticed by American media.



Hungarian media, however, widely published the news Saturday, quoting Hungary's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Peter Szijjarto, as saying this is a "modernized version" of an agreement reached 20 years ago.



In a statement, David B. Cornstein, U.S. ambassador to Hungary since June 2018, said "This agreement will modernize our previous status of forces agreement to reflect new realities in defense."



Daniel S. Hamilton, a transatlantic expert at Johns Hopkins University, told VOA that the agreement serves as a means to channel U.S. funding to signatory countries under the European Deterrence Initiative (EDI), "largely for infrastructure improvements but also related to missile defense coop(eration)." The United States, he said, has similar agreements with a number of allies and is negotiating with more.

The European Deterrence Initiative, known earlier as the European Reassurance Initiative, was first put in place in 2014 in response to Russia's actions in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, and has "grown steadily," researchers say, "amidst a firestorm of presidential tweets and fractious international gatherings, reaching just over $6.5 billion for fiscal year 2019."

Hours after the U.S. - Hungary defense agreement was signed, Hungary's foreign minister declared at an event in Washington that his government "applauds" how the current U.S. Administration treats his country and Central Europe as a whole, which he described as a drastic departure from the previous Administration.



The Obama Administration was "more critical of Hungary's slide to illiberal democracy than the Trump Administration," says Johns Hopkins University's Hamilton. The latter's criticism, he says, "has been directed more to Hungary's links to China and Russia rather than domestic issues."



The Hungarian government, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, has often stated the need to "protect European Christian culture" as well as the need to "halt migration." In spite of his electoral victories, Mr. Orban also has a significant number of critics, both domestic and foreign, including the pastor who presided over Mr. Orban's wedding and christened his two eldest children.



In its announcement of the agreement's signing, the U.S. State Department credited both Hungary's commitment to strengthen ties with the United States as well as the U.S.'s commitment to bolster bilateral ties in Central Europe. Details of the Agreement are not yet available.
Israeli voters head to the polls for parliamentary elections Tuesday, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decade-long hold on power at stake in a tough contest with former military chief Benny Gantz.

Polls show Netanyahu's Likud party and Gantz's Blue and White winning a similar number of seats in the 120-member Knesset. If that occurs, the 69-year-old Netanyahu might be poised to win a fifth term in a coalition with smaller right-wing parties allied to him.

As the months-long campaign neared an end, Netanyahu again reminded voters of his close relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump. He thanked the U.S. leader  "my dear friend"  for responding Monday to a "request of mine" to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization.

In his two-year presidency, Trump already had acceded to other Netanyahu requests, including declaring the Jewish state's sovereignty over Syria's Golan Heights, territory that was captured in the 1967 Six-Day War; recognizing Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv; and pulling the U.S. out of the 2015 deal to restrain Iran's nuclear weapons development.

Netanyahu, facing corruption charges, has moved in recent days to shore up his base of conservative voters, vowing to annex settlements in the occupied West Bank, a move that if done on a large scale could end any remaining hope of creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

"Who else can do this? Who can do this? Come on. Honestly," Netanyahu said, portraying himself as the face of Israel.

"Who can stand in front of the world?" he asked. "Who can stand in front of the American Congress? Who can move public opinion in that direction?"

The 59-year-old Gantz called Netanyahu's pledge "irresponsible." Gantz said he favors a "globally backed peace agreement" that envisions Israel maintaining its hold on the large settlement blocs in the West Bank and security control over the territory.

Gantz has portrayed himself as a unifying force in Israel and says that it is time to oust Netanyahu from power.

"There's a need for change and an opportunity for change," Gantz told Israel's army radio on Monday. "Israel needs to choose a direction of unification, connection and hope  or of extremity."

"Enough already, Bibi," Gantz's campaign videos say, using Netanyahu's widely known nickname.

Should he win, Netanyahu would be on track later this year to become Israel's longest-serving leader, surpassing founding father David Ben-Gurion.

But Netanyahu also faces an ongoing criminal investigation. Pending an upcoming hearing, the Israeli attorney general says he plans to indict Netanyahu on bribery, fraud and breach of trust charges. Netanyahu has, much like Trump in the U.S. investigation of his 2016 election campaign, called the Israeli probes a "witch hunt."
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Rwandan President Paul Kagame began a week of solemn ceremonies on Sunday to commemorate the lives of 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutus murdered during the Rwandan genocide, a three-month-killing spree that began 25 years ago. Michelle Hennessy reports.
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Commemorating the 25th anniversary of the genocide that killed an estimated 800,000 people, Rwandan President Paul Kagame opened a solemn ceremony on Sunday at a mass grave in the capital Kigali. VOA's Zlatica Hoke reports on the ongoing debate on France's role in the genocide.
Allison Mack. Photo: Mary Altaffer/AP/REX/Shutterstocl

A teary Allison Mack pleaded guilty to two federal counts Monday in the NXIVM sex-cult case.

I have come to the conclusion that I must take full responsibility for my conduct and thats why I am pleading guilty today, said a choked up Mack, who admitted to one count of racketeering conspiracy and one count of racketeering.

Mack attended court in dark relaxed-fit pants and a creamy mock-neck sweater. She kept her hair in a bun and sported leopard sneakers, as she had at her last court proceeding.

Her casual dress stood in stark contrast to the gravity of the situation, as she faces up to 20 years in federal prison on each count.

At the beginning of her allocution, Mack explained in part what drew her to NXIVM. Many of the members were wonderful people and some of whom, I now realize, were not.

I joined NXIVM  to find purpose, she said of the group, which was headed by co-defendant Keith Raniere. I truly believed I found a group of individuals who believed as I did.

I believed Keith Ranieres intentions were to help people, she said. I was wrong.

Prosecutors allege that NXIVM, an Albany-area organization that offered costly self-help classes, contained a secretive sect called DOS that operated with levels of women slaves headed by masters.

After Macks arrest last year, prosecutors said that she served as a master under NXIVM founder Keith Raniere, recruited slaves, and directly or implicitly required her slaves  to engage in sexual activity with Raniere.

I was a member of a secret society, Mack also admitted in court, saying she tried to recruit other women to join DOS.

She said she obtained collateral embarrassing information about several women so they would go along with NXIVMs demands.

Im very sorry for the victims of this case, the Smallville actress said. Im very sorry for who Ive hurt through my misguided adherence to Keith Ranieres teachings.

I know that I am and will be a better person because of this, Mack said.

Raniere, who is charged with sex trafficking and possessing child pornography, allegedly gave Mack financial and other benefits in exchange for her recruitment efforts, prosecutors said.

Mack and her lawyer declined to comment outside the courthouse as she moved through the throng of photographers, eventually getting into a silver Toyota SUV.

The proceeding came in the wake of recent courthouse theatrics and ongoing expectations that Mack would take a plea before trial.

Last week, Mack and Seagrams liquor heiress Clare Bronfman, who is also charged in the case, had a gushing BFF-esque reunion, with long hugs and cheek kisses before a proceeding in the case.

Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis decided during this prior proceeding to keep jurors names secret, including after the trial, and to partially sequester them, which means they will be transported to and from the courthouse by U.S. Marshals on trial days.

Garaufiss decision was unusual, considering this level of anonymity is typically reserved for dangerous defendants, such as Mexican drug lord Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, not wayward stars and heiresses.

The week before, Bronfman nearly fainted in court after it was revealed that celebrity lawyercumaccused fraudster Michael Avenatti had negotiated with prosecutors for her.

This is a developing story.
High Life is not a sci-fi movie, and Claire Denis is not an artist. Photo: Manuel Romano/NurPhoto via Getty Images

This is bullshit to me, Claire Denis says when I call her an artist. She hates the word, and hates it being used to describe her. I never think what Im doing is something artistic, she grimaces. Cinema is something very carnal, very concrete. Its not difficult and it only requires very little technique.

This isnt false modesty. Denis is certainly one of the great (Im going to say it) artists of our time, but you can understand why she might be allergic to labels that reek of high-mindedness, or calculated self-importance. Deniss pictures are awash in artistry, but shes a ground-level director. She doesnt make grandiose statements, and she doesnt stage grandiose scenes. Everything feels lived-in, immediate, specific; her camera often remains unnaturally close to the faces and hands of her characters. When youre that close to people, so close you might think you could touch them, you dont necessarily think too hard about what their actions mean. At the same time, a more abstract and elliptical strain runs through Deniss work. Her films are filled with mood-setting, nonnarrative passages. The storytelling is both fragmented and languorous; shed rather show you someone dancing rather than clarify a plot point.

On the surface, High Life doesnt quite seem like any other Claire Denis film. You could mistake it for an attempt at something conventional, something with a higher profile than her previous work: Its in English, its set in space, and it stars Robert Pattinson. To some, that may seem like the natural next step in Deniss evolution from the art house to the mainstream. Shes been making uncompromising movies for more than three decades, but in recent years, her profile seems to have risen, partly thanks to the increased availability of her work online, and partly because she is the rare female filmmaker regularly included in the virtual boys club of international auteurs. And now shes made a science-fiction movie, but doesnt want to call it science-fiction either.

Aside from the fact that she had to shoot High Life on a set (a first for the director), Denis doesnt see the new film as much of a departure from her usual work. Shes not interested in a vision of humanitys future, or the technical details of how humans could survive in space, so much as shes interested in exploring isolation, entrapment, and the weird corners of human behavior. Pattinson plays Monte, a man who has raised his daughter, Willow (Jessie Ross), by himself in the loneliness of the cosmos, as their ship drifts in the vast emptiness of space. Through flashbacks, we see how theyve wound up in this situation: Monte was a member of a group of convicts  male and female  who were sent from Earth, under the guidance of Dr. Dibs (Juliette Binoche), ostensibly to conduct experiments on a black hole. But instead, they were the ones who were experimented upon, as Dibs attempted to incubate human life in outer space.

Monte (Robert Pattinson) with his daughter, Willow. Photo: A24

I wanted it to look like a prison film, Denis tells me. Its also, like many of her movies, about the powerful, twisted bonds of family. A man alone in space, with a certain type of morality, she reflects. If he has his baby girl with him, does it mean they will start a new humanity, breaking a taboo and eventually being man and wife? These ideas are hinted at in the film, but never shown  rather, theyre like thoughts left to linger in our minds. As High Life opens, we see Monte teaching his baby daughter the word taboo. Years later, when Willow is a teenager, he pushes her out of his bed after she tries to lie next to him. She doesnt quite understand his concerns; she has never seen Earth, has never really known anybody else, and has not had to deal with anything resembling morality, or guilt, or shame. She doesnt know who else to love, Denis observes.

To convey all this without veering into sensationalism requires a delicate balance, to say the least. And that requires actors who can express unspoken anxieties with merely a glance, or gesture. At one point, Monte and Willow encounter another spaceship, one much like their own, lost in space. There might be  other people onboard, Monte says, haltingly  he is both wary of the possibility and anticipating it. So? Willow asks him. He doesnt quite know how to answer her, and the emotions that travel across Pattinsons face as he struggles to respond could each be a movie on its own.

If he has his baby girl with him, does it mean they will start a new humanity, breaking a taboo and eventually being man and wife?  Claire Denis

Sometimes in Deniss work, these vaguely uncomfortable family relationships are downright scarring: 2013s intensely disturbing Bastards is filled with twisted sex acts and cruelty, including one truly shocking revelation of incest. Sometimes, its an undercurrent, a faint whisper of unease. In 35 Shots of Rum (2008), a middle-aged widower wrestles with the fact that his grown daughter, with whom he has an unusually strong bond, will soon be leaving home; the film is steeped in a gentle, wandering melancholy without ever quite tipping over into something troubling, suggesting that such blurred lines are merely part of the mystery of human relationships.

Then there are the estranged teenage siblings of Nenette et Boni (1996). Living by himself, Boni (Gregoire Colin) is so constantly aroused that he finds something sexual in everything around him  from the dough he kneads in his pizza truck to the coffee machine beside his bed that he caresses with the ferocity of a lover. But he finds himself in an awkward position when his pregnant, agitating younger sister comes to stay with him. Much of the film unfolds through tight close-ups of faces and hands. But when Boni later assumes responsibility for his sisters baby, those hands that not long ago were lustfully groping everything within reach are all of a sudden gently taking care of a fragile newborn. Watching it all, its hard not to feel like were seeing a truth about the world distilled to its essence  about how desire gives way to responsibility, and how indiscriminate lust can transform into boundless affection. It is both lovely and unsettling.

Mia Goth in High Life. Photo: A24

Denis loves characters who struggle with questions of morality, but she has no use for morality as a standard by which movies are judged. Shes bothered by the current trend toward making films that relay positive messages about the world and how to live in it. She doesnt do heroes, and she tackles issues like race and sex and incest and colonialism in unexpected, often controversial ways. (This is another thing that makes her recent rise somewhat surprising, though certainly welcome.) She seems to love the idea of beauty emerging in the most unlikely places. In that sense, maybe the terrifying vacuum of space of High Life is not so different than the cockfighting ring of her second feature, 1990s No Fear, No Die, in which two immigrant men  one from Benin, the other from the West Indies  make a living in Paris training and handling roosters for gruesome combat. (The men are played by Alex Descas and Isaach de Bankole, two Denis regulars.) In that film, we see lots of harrowing footage of cockfights, but we also see the grace and care that these men show toward these doomed birds. I went to see a guy who was raising roosters, Denis recalls, and I saw that if you own one, and it becomes a good fighter, it becomes your dearest possession ever. The people become crazy about the way they take care of it.

If a moment is stretched, or something is missing, you have to jump a little bit. It gives you a different kind of emotion.  Claire Denis

By guiding us physically into these worlds, Denis allows us to exist within them, which perhaps allows us to see these characters and their actions differently. What makes her films so captivating is precisely this ability to exist on two seemingly contradictory planes of being: We gain a cosmic perspective through the sensuous reality presented to us onscreen. This tension has persisted throughout her work, but it was particularly pronounced in her masterpiece, Beau Travail (1999), a reimagining of Herman Melvilles Billy Budd among young French Foreign Legion soldiers in Africa. Instead of telling a straightforward story, Denis focuses on the soldiers training exercises, and the movie feels at times like its composed entirely of bodies running, fighting, scrambling, and sometimes dancing. Meanwhile, the music of Benjamin Brittens opera Billy Budd plays on the soundtrack, lending everything a moody grandeur.

The style of Beau Travail was dictated partly by necessity while she was shooting in Djibouti. We had no money and we had four weeks to shoot, she recalls. Worried shed run out of time, and hampered by all sorts of production delays and logistical problems, Denis shot as much as she could of her actors military training sessions, and stopped worrying too much about covering the script. This taught her the value of a particularly oblique style of storytelling, one which she has since developed even further. The editor said, Oh my God, this scene is missing, that scene is missing! But I saw that it was not a problem. The strength of doing it is very important in film. If worse comes to worst, you cannot sit down and complain. I will accept a hole in the story. You can see such holes in Beau Travails unorthodox narrative, where key events unfold almost as afterthoughts, or flashes, while passages of labor or movement are extended to almost absurd degrees. Even better, Denis says, is to put those holes in deliberately. I discovered I liked to write ellipses. Instead of being obliged to do it in the editing, I could write the film with a piece missing. She says she prefers this to the idea of a story in which everything is methodically told, step by step. If a moment is stretched, or something is missing, you have to jump a little bit. It gives you a different kind of emotion.

Andre Benjamin in High Life. Photo: A24

It also allows you to reflect a little bit on what youre watching. This is true of High Life as well, which makes its metaphoric quality clear from the outset, as we see Pattinsons Monte jettisoning the corpses of the ships crew; the title card playfully appears over an image of the bodies all floating in space, as if in a dream. The story, told in fragmented fashion, glances across certain key plot points, while indulging all sorts of other bizarre elements. It is also surprisingly earthy, particularly in Binoches performance as the mad scientist determined to force her wards to procreate. The spaceship notoriously contains a room in which the crew can pleasure themselves  a Fuckbox, its called  and Denis gives us lengthy scenes of Binoches naked character gyrating and flailing madly atop a silver dildo. With her performance in this and the directors previous effort, the delightfully demented romantic comedy Let the Sunshine In, its a side of the actress we havent seen much. I was unhappy with the way she was filmed before, Denis says. She deserved more beauty and more wildness. We wanted her to be very fierce and beautiful.

Pushing against the demure, slightly repressed roles that Binoche often plays has clearly freed something in her, and the animalistic vitality of her performance lends High Life an electric unpredictability. The passion with which Dibs moves in the Fuckbox contrasts sharply with the trancelike deliberation she demonstrates as she later harvests Montes sperm and uses it to impregnate another crew member. The contrasts dont end there: That same crew member has recently been the victim of a brutal attempted rape. Dibss actions on her body, and on Montes, while not violent, are also a violation  and their consequences are even greater.

High Life may not quite be science fiction  it offers little in the way of speculation about the future, or about how technology may develop. (You could build a Fuckbox right now if you really wanted; you dont need to go to space to do it.) But it does fit into the metaphoric strain of science fiction  allowing Denis to use the hermetically sealed, fantastical nature of her setting to further distill her obsessions. Maybe thats what ultimately makes the quiet, determined tenderness with which Monte cares for his daughter, first as a baby and later as a teen, so profoundly moving, especially as we see his past and his life on Earth. This is a broken man who largely refuses connection, or pleasure. Living a monklike existence, he is the one crew member who refuses to use the Fuckbox. And yet here he is, all by himself, with a child that he did not want, and discovering within himself boundless reserves of both love and anguish. Its the kind of predicament familiar to Deniss protagonists. High Life is ultimately about a man who has walled himself off from all emotion and responsibility finally learning  at the far, desolate end of the universe and maybe even of human time itself  how to open himself to another being, and all the wonders and horrors that come with it.
The third AEPF meeting saw the participation of representatives from 25 political parties, and experts from 23 Asian and European countries. Initiated in 2017, the AEPF has become an inter-regional mechanism for cooperation and exchange for political parties.

Participants to the AEPF discussed a number of emerging socio-economic issues in Asia, especially population aging and social welfare and job-related challenges; and shared parties' experiences in handling challenges.

They emphasised measures to ensure social justice, improve the quality of social security systems, expand social insurance participation, enhance the participation of families and communities in elderly health care, and expand opportunities for the elderly to contribute to the community after retirement.

Participants adopted the Colombo declaration, which stressed that the aging of the population has become a global challenge, and affirmed the important role of political parties in promoting governments to effectively deal with relevant challenges.

On the occasion, the 32nd meeting of the Standing Committee of the International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) was held, focusing on orientations and key activities of conference.

Parties agreed to continue to promote regional political cooperation in the region as well as cooperation among political parties in Asia and those from other regions.

The Vietnamese delegation also attended and effectively contributed to the event.
Architect Paolo Arsena, the driving force behind the Metrovia project, explains how it could change Rome's public transport network.

What is Metrovia?

Its a solution to provide Rome with an integrated rail system of nine metro lines and one urban railway, making use of the existing infrastructure and absorbing single operations that have already been planned. The three existing metro lines would be joined by six more overground lines, plus a circular railway line using the urban stretches of the existing regional rail network. This will multiply the lines, the intersections and the stations. This would be an advantage for both Romans and for commuters, because Metrovia has been planned to integrate with the existing regional rail services.

How and when did the idea start?

Ive never been able to stand not being able to move freely around my home town, and I started looking for a solution. Id had the idea of using stretches of railway for a metro service for some time, but my last visit to Berlin four years ago was inspiring: a metropolis where the underground U-Bahn lines are perfectly integrated with the S-Bahn which, although technically trains, are still efficient overground metros. Rome is full of unused railway lines, missing connection nodes, stations that were never built. I became convinced that we could do better.

We are a group of five, very tight knit and complementing one another. Being an architect, I have a more visionary approach, but also tied to practical demands and urban transformation. But I needed the abilities of Corrado Cotignano, a transportation designer with a real passion for mobility in Rome, a city of which he knows every technical and evolutional aspect. It was together with him that the original idea grew, comprehensive but still not perfect, resolving one problem after another until it became the current project. Then we have the communication sector: Florestano Pastore manages our website, while Marina Stoppelli creates, writes and oversees the texts. If Metrovia has had good public visibility, its thanks to the ideas and communication strategies of this extraordinary pair. And then theres Piero Borgia, the creative expert who designed our logo and manages our graphic presence.

What is the innovative part of your project?

Thinking up the system. Metrovia has invented very little, its based on what was already planned and what was already there. This is the secret of its concrete feasibility. But its had the strength to conceive a single connected transport system. Its precisely this overall vision which is missing in Rome. If you dont have an overall plan, with plans to include interchanges and possible new services then the development is improvised, with a bit here and a bit there. The city looks after one aspect, the railway company another in their own style and then you find that there are two stations 300 metres apart which are not connected. They cant even manage to create a minimally effective graphical communication.

What are the costs and times for the work?

Weve estimated the total cost at around 5 billion. But that covers everything, including jobs already financed and those already planned; the additional cost of implementing the Metrovia plan without these elements is about half of that. You need to bear in mind that the metro C line alone has cost almost 3 billion so far. As for the timing, we estimate that in a normal city  which Rome ought to become  ten years should be enough to complete it all, with the advantage of working in phases.

Paolo Arsena discusses Metrovia with Rome mayor Virginia Raggi

Who do you think ought to finance the work, and who is to be the owner once its finished?

The state could find the funding for a project that affects the daily life, the image and the economy of its capital city. It could be mixed funds: state, region, private. It also all depends on the management of the service, which might or might not be separate from the ownership of the tracks. The important thing is to get all the stakeholders around a table to define strategies and opportunities, roles and competencies. It wont be easy, but if theres a strong and determined lead anything is possible.



What has been the reaction of institutions and of the public?

Im afraid youve touched a raw nerve there. The huge enthusiasm of the public wasnt mirrored in the institutions, particularly by the mayor Virginia Raggi and her city council. Thats a pity, because, as we see it, its precisely Rome's city council that needs to take the lead, because Rome would be the prime beneficiary of Metrovia.

This means the mayor needs to become the driving force behind the whole initiative, aside from any decision-making needed from other interested organisations. And yet weve felt a certain inexplicable coolness towards us. Lets take things in order. We inserted Metrovia into the sustainable mobility plan (PUMS), along with hundreds of other suggestions from the public, and it was voted the best by a long stretch. This result in particular should have caught the attention of city administration, which claims to be in tune with the views of its residents. But that didnt happen.

First they announced results in a press conference which didnt correspond to the results published on the PUMS website, without ever mentioning Metrovia. Then they had to issue a correction. But unlike the committees promoting the other proposals, we were never invited to meet either the municipal mobility committee or the mobility councillor Linda Meleo. And then in early November, when we officially presented our MacroAsilo project not one member of the city council we had invited felt the need to turn up. Our only contact with Roma Mobilita [the official urban transport company] came much later, at our insistence and after two or three postponements.

What have you done up to now to make your project known, and with what results?

To start with, we circulated an explanatory video, which had a reasonable success. Then, once our team settled in, we put a strong effort into our Facebook page, which now has almost 10,000 supporters. Then we created a specific website which crashed a few hours after the launch because of the exceptional level of visits. Over the past two years weve continued to work in parallel. On the communications front, with the Facebook page and the blog: in our daily contact with citizens, districts and territories weve received motions and suggestions which have often been integrated into the project. This has certainly helped widen the catchment area of interest in Metrovia. On the other hand, weve continued to work on technical solutions, always announcing them and never acting in such a way as to protect our plans. I think this approach has paid off. The first live public meeting last November at MacroAsilo helped create even closer ties with Romans.

Whats the main problem with Rome urban transport, in your view?

Romes a city designed for road traffic. The GRA ring-road, the Olympic bypass, the Muro Torto, the Cristoforo Colombo are wide connecting roads for cars, which attract even more cars. Then there are buses providing a very poor service, partly because they have a lower passenger capacity than the most common public transport systems, partly because they are swamped by other traffic. So you have chaos, pollution, poor service. All the major European (and other) capitals have solved things with metros and overground rail services. In Rome, on the other hand they were taboo for too long because of the underlying archaeology. Today we have less invasive techniques and methods, but creating an underground metro still has very high costs and times. That said, we shouldnt give up, but we need to work on many fronts.

So whats the solution?

We need a coherent 15-year plan with a railway-based system in three sections. On one hand, creating the Metrovia as the principal structure. Then we need to continue work on the underground lines, extending lines A and B and completing line C as far as Piazzale Clodio. And thirdly we need to think of a secondary network of high-speed trams in their own protected tracks: 12 lines of Metrotram (partly using existing lines, partly new) will be enough to create an efficient and widespread network capable of freeing the city centre from cars and providing an alternative to private transport just about everywhere. As long as we carry on with extemporary patches cut off from a master plan, Rome wont make any progress.

For full details see Metrovia website.

By Marco Venturini

This interview was published in the April 2019 edition of Wanted in Rome magazine.
The production, staged in Circle in the Squares intimate quarters, under a blaze of house lights that designer Scott Zielinski keeps on for much of the evening, is great intellectual fodder; look soon online for the seminars musical-theater enthusiasts will sign up for, to bat around the other classics that might be Fishified. The physical surroundings remind you of a rehearsal room. Set designer Laura Jellinek has nailed blond plywood panels to the theaters walls and the floor of the thrust stage, which is lined with chairs and long tables; one of them is piled high with corn. The seven-member orchestra sits in a shallow pit cut out of the floor, and the ceiling is bedecked in the kinds of streamers and Christmas lights you might find in a dollar store.
A longtime CBP official who received the nations highest civil service award from Obama in 2015, McAleenan has praised the effectiveness of U.S. aid to Central America  immediately putting him at odds with the president, who has ordered a cutoff of assistance to those countries. And McAleenan refers to the migrants arriving at the border not as scammers looking to cheat their way into the country but as vulnerable families who need more humanitarian treatment. He has urged a fast and responsible screening process that will let true asylum seekers start their new lives in the United States once a court rules on their claims.
Steve Coates, owner of Chimney Masters in Germantown (301-972-9158; chimneymasters.com), said the black stains could be dirt blown off a nearby tree, soot, or a combination of soot and dirt. He would use an acidic cleaner, which bubbles up as it works and requires keen attention to safety and washing everything from the bricks on down to the ground afterward. Dilute the hell out of things, he said, adding that if any of the rinse water looked like it were headed to a storm drain, he would direct a hose into the runoff to ensure good dilution. Asked whether a stain thats just dirt might come off with a gentler cleaner, he said that might work if the stains are not deeply embedded, but its a waste of time otherwise. Youd be up there all day getting nothing done.
The Julia connection, however, wasnt the only reason the 59-year-old software entrepreneur ended up with Childs little jewel, as she called it. I was looking for a rundown piece of property in Georgetown, Veevers-Carter says simply, and the yellow wood-frame house on Olive Street NW filled the bill. It was a dilapidated wreck when he bought it for $935,000 in 2015, after seeing a story about its availability in The Washington Post. For a while, he lived in it, but with the house currently floorless, bathroom-less and pretty much everything else-less, hes splitting his time between his place on Cape Cod, visits to his wife in Papua New Guinea, where she works as a country manager for the World Bank, and, when in Washington, crashing at a friends.
It is not clear what caused the outbreak, but the hospital put in place extra safeguards, according to Beers and a memo sent to the hospitals staff. Officials said the protocols are based on federal guidelines for containing the spread of norovirus.
W. Samuel Patten, 47, faces sentencing Friday for failing to register as a foreign lobbyist while working on behalf of a Russia-aligned Ukrainian political party. He said that while he was helped in arranging the inaugural donation by a Russian national who is a longtime associate of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, he had no idea the associate had been linked to Russian intelligence by the FBI.
Heaven Conner, 23, of Spotsylvania, had recently been released from Rappahannock Regional Jail when she broke into Kids on the Move Learning Center on Cambridge Street, the Stafford County Sheriffs Office said.
Baltimore officials raised concerns that the bill would lead the Stronach Group to pull the Preakness out of Pimlico, a Baltimore racetrack that has hosted the second leg of the Triple Crown for decades. But Miller, who supported the bill, said it would have required Pimlicos owners to deal with repairs there before the other tracks.
He is charged in the killing of Malik Muhammad, 37, of Bowie, Md. Police said Muhammad was shot several times about 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 26 in the 800 block of Taylor Street NE. Police said he died at an area hospital on Dec. 1.
Ali is the head of the Baltimore chapter of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) party, which has been linked to violence in Pakistan in the past and has been the subject of a crackdown by Pakistani authorities in recent years that has been criticized by human rights groups. The party is secular and has a base of support in Pakistans largest city, Karachi. Its founder, Altaf Hussain, fled Pakistan in the early 1990s and lives in London.
The sound of gunshots was reported in the same neighborhood about 11:15 p.m. on Friday in the 3400 block of 25th Street and about 2:15 p.m. Sunday in the 2400 block of S. Lowell Street, police said. In those cases, police said, they found no evidence of shots.
The effect has been felt even far from the companys downtown towers. In two years, Chris Adam, a 28-year-old welder, has seen rent for his 500-square-foot studio apartment in south Seattle jump to $750 a month from $500. He said he has been threatened with eviction five times for late rent but has always managed to scrape together enough to avoid being thrown out. He does not blame tech companies for their success but wishes they would contribute more to helping folks like him.
The history of our industry shows most accidents are caused by a chain of events, Muilenburg said. This again is the case here, and we know we can break one of those chain links in these two accidents. As pilots have told us, erroneous activation of the MCAS function can add to what is already a high workload environment. Its our responsibility to eliminate this risk. We own it and we know how to do it.
If it was just the gun, I would say, Okay, its the guns fault,  said Andrew Pollack, whose 18-year-old daughter, Meadow, was killed in the massacre. But I did an investigation into every facet of how my daughter was murdered. There are multiple failures  from the sheriff to the mental health system to the monitors at the school. How can you say its the guns fault?
The ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, won the right for a recount of votes previously deemed invalid. On Sunday, Ali Ihsan Yavuz, an AKP deputy chairman, said the party would appeal to the countrys top election authority for a total recount of votes in Istanbuls 38 districts, not just of ballots that were canceled.
If your condition is less obviously risky (say, you have dull abdominal pain), using a ride-sharing service or having someone drive you could be reasonable, says David Marcozzi, an associate professor in the department of emergency medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. But, he says, there are so many caveats, and in an urgent health emergency, an ambulance is always the fastest and safest route to an ER.
Two South Carolina men have been charged with murder after sheriffs deputies found two bodies buried at a house just outside Spartanburg, authorities said. The arrests came after one of the suspects shot himself in the head in front of deputies, survived, and subsequently told deputies that hed witnessed the other man kill his girlfriend. Arrested Saturday were Jonathan Galligan, 39, and Christian D. Hurlburt, 41, local news outlets reported. Deputies say that on Friday, they found buried the bodies of Christin R. Bunner, 27, of Spartanburg and Melissa F. Rhymer, 40, of Mountville. Galligan is charged with Bunners death, while Hurlburt is charged with killing Rhymer.
The vandalism was discovered April 3 outside the Cleveland County Democratic Party headquarters as well as the Firehouse Art Center and McKinley Elementary School in Norman, about 17 miles south of Oklahoma City. Swastikas and derogatory remarks about various groups were sprayed in black and red graffiti outside the buildings. Similar epithets were found March 28 outside state Democratic Party headquarters in Oklahoma City and the Oklahoma City office of the Chickasaw Nation.
For the past four years, the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) has actively opposed or attempted to gut proposed legislation in the Maryland General Assembly to provide consumer protection for hospital patients. The Maryland Hospital Patients Bill of Rights (House Bill 145/Senate Bill 301) would require hospitals to communicate to patients all of their existing lawful rights, including the right to receive treatment without discrimination and the right to receive information in a manner that the patient understands. The bill was supported by 41 legislators and dozens of advocacy groups, including the NAACP, AARP, Disability Rights Maryland, the Arc, American Association of University Women and the Mental Health Association of Maryland.
Though he enters Tuesdays vote as a slight favorite to form the next government, Mr. Netanyahu remains worried that his voters will stay home. So in a television interview on Saturday, he offered a new and sensational promise: In a new term, he said, he would move on to the next stage and apply sovereignty to all Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. That would rupture Israels long-standing commitment not to change the status of the territory except through negotiations with the Palestinians; torpedo the peace plan the Trump administration is hoping to unveil after the election; and place Israel sharply at odds with all those who still favor Palestinian statehood.
Denying or attempting to deny them access to the NIH campus to make presentations they were invited to give just because they are Iranian citizens smells much more like bigotry than security. These are the kinds of practices that will impede scientific progress in this country  a much larger danger to our security than allowing scientists who have already been vetted and are permanent U.S. residents to work with other U.S. scientists.
For his part, Barr also has delicate judgments to make. If he is so inclined, the attorney general could properly opt to exclude only the names and actual testimony of grand jury witnesses while nevertheless informing the Judiciary Committee  and the public  about the substance of the information developed during the proceedings. Unfortunately, Barr has given every indication that he intends to make needlessly sweeping redactions, especially having ruled that, in his judgment, the evidence of obstruction of justice did not rise to the level of a prosecutable crime. Trumps selection of his new attorney general may prove to be his best line of defense  unless Pelosi revisits her stance and directs the House Judiciary Committee to include impeachment within its investigatory ambit.
The U.S.-Israel relationship is one of the most important relationships that we have on the planet, and that relationship, if it is to be successful, must transcend partisanship in the United States, and it must be able to transcend a prime minister who is racist as he warns about Arabs coming to the polls, who wants to defy any prospect for peace as he threatens to annex the West Bank and who has sided with a far-right racist party in order to maintain his hold on power, ORourke said.
When it comes to police violence against those who they are sworn to serve and protect, I talked about transparency, accountability, tying federal funds to full reporting on use of force and against whom forced is used, he said. I talked about invoking the civil rights laws of the United States to transcend local and state jurisdictions to make sure the full weight and power and accountability of the federal government comes into play to make sure we protect the lives of those in our community.
It remains unclear how much of Klobuchars total is for the general election and how much is for the primary. A Klobuchar campaign spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for details.
In a series of tweets, Trump  who until recently had said he had no problem with the release of the full report by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into Russian interference in the 2016 election  cited the views of commentators questioning whether Democrats should have access to it and claiming that they were trying to weaken Trump politically.
Thank you, my dear friend, President Donald Trump, for having decided to announce Irans Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization, Netanyahu wrote on Twitter in Hebrew. Thank you for the answer to another important request that serves the interests of our country and the region. We will continue to act together in any way against the Iranian regime that threatens the state of Israel, the United States and the Peace of the world.
The campaign rejected the notion that Trump is not serious about working to solve the nations immigration woes. The president declared a national emergency at the nations southern border and issued the first veto of his presidency when Congress passed legislation to overturn that declaration. He has instructed the State Department to cut off aid to three Central American countries that are the source of many migrants, though many experts believe that could make the situation worse. And, the campaign argues, Mexico has begun cracking down on caravans of migrants passing through in response to the threats from the president.
Dole, 95, was last seen at the Capitol, where he served for decades, in December as he paid tribute to the late president George H.W. Bush by rising from his wheelchair to salute Bushs coffin in the rotunda.
For nearly two years, Special Counsel Mueller oversaw an investigation that issued more than 2,800 subpoenas, executed nearly 500 search warrants, and interviewed approximately 500 witnesses, he wrote. Attorney General Barr was never a part of this investigation, and instead simply reviewed the Special Counsels final report and has provided Congress, so far, with the Special Counsels principal conclusions. While he can testify surrounding his decision to provide the committee with principal conclusions, it is Special Counsel Mueller who is best-positioned to testify regarding the underlying facts and material in which you are so interested.
He was also a fixture in my life. Every time I went to the market, Hamid spotted me, rushed over and flashed a winning smile. Madam, chocolate, he would implore in English. Often I emerged with candy bars for him and Fareed, 7, but sometimes I did not. He would smile anyway, grab my sleeve and steer me through traffic until I reached my gate and the guards shooed him away.
Macron notes that European leaders told May last month that if she wanted a membership extension beyond April 12, she needed to present them with a concrete plan about how she will deliver Brexit. The E.U. has too many other problems to be continually strung along in a crisis of Britains making, Macrons thinking goes. And since there is no concrete plan, there is no reason for an extension, French diplomats in Brussels have been arguing. Belgium and Spain seconded the notion last week, according to diplomats familiar with the discussions.
Gen. Khalifa Hifters forces have continued to push toward Tripoli, even as the United States, the United Nations and Arab nations have urged him to halt his offensive. On Monday, the European Union joined the chorus of voices as its head of foreign policy, Federica Mogherini, called for a full implementation of the humanitarian truce and a return to the political track.
A series of U.S.-Taliban meetings has raised hopes that a political solution might finally be achieved nearly 20 years after U.S. military forces entered Afghanistan in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But the initiative has also generated friction between Washington and Ghanis government, which fears being sidelined in the talks.
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.
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."
We've all left a hairdresser, at least once, without being happy about the end result.

For Jessica Bray, it was more dramatic than that, when an appointment with a hair salon in South Melbourne resulted in a $30,000 damages claim after her bleached blonde hair fell out, leaving her with a "mullet".

Jessica Bray (left) before the treatment and (right) how her hair looks more than a year later.

Ms Bray, 30, visited the well-regarded Saint James Hair Studio in April last year to get a routine scalp bleach, a treatment she had undergone twice before at the salon with good results.

But when the roots of Ms Bray's hair were left yellow after the procedure, rather than platinum blonde, she returned so a stylist could correct the issue.
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.
Three of Parliament's top executives have taken redundancy or are on "personal leave," amid the fall-out from a $14 million rebuild of critical security infrastructure that has imploded amid allegations of cocaine, escorts and Russian loan sharks.

It can now be revealed the department in charge of the rebuild had 23 meetings about the delays and rumours leading up to the collapse but says it "had no knowledge of allegations" revealed in March.

David Gooley runs a company charged with making Parliament House safer from terrorist attacks. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The firm sub-contracted to run the build, Victorian-based blast-proof specialist Steelvision, was put into liquidation in March after it encountered cash flow challenges. The business partners of the companys owner, David Gooley, made allegations of a "thousand-dollar-a-day" drug habit, loans from Russian friends, and links to a purported Uber-style app for escorts, "boober".

Mr Gooley said he was "no saint" but denied his occasional recreational drug use impacted his work.
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.
A WA government minister and an Anglican priest have weighed in on a dispute with high-profile MP Andrew Hastie over allegations he heavied church groups into voting Liberal at the upcoming federal election.

But Mr Hastie has denied telling a January meeting of faith leaders to take to their pulpits in support of the Coalition and four Christian pastors have gone on record to back his version of events.

Canning MP Andrew Hastie in his hometown of Mandurah, the biggest population centre in his outer-metro seat south of Perth. Credit:Trevor Collens

Anglican parish priest Ian Mabey, who was himself a Liberal candidate in the 1990s, told his congregation after the meeting Mr Hastie had attempted to politically interfere with the clergy.

The meeting of about 30 church leaders met with Mr Hastie and Queensland senator Amanda Stoker, who explained the current status of religious freedom laws in Australia, according to one participant.
British regulators have unveiled a landmark proposal to penalise Facebook, Google and other tech giants that don't stop the spread of harmful content online, marking a major new regulatory threat for an industry that's long dodged responsibility for what its users say or share.

For Silicon Valley, the UK's rules could amount to the most severe regulatory repercussion the tech industry has faced globally for not cleaning up a host of troubling content online. The sector's continued struggles came into sharp relief last month, after videos of the deadly shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, proliferated online, despite heightened investments by Facebook, Google and Twitter on more human reviewers - and more-powerful tech tools - to stop such posts from going viral.

Australian Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove and his wife Lynne pay tribute outside the Al-Noor Mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand. Credit:Dean Purcell

The March shooting prompted Australia to adopt a content-takedown law of its own, and it has emboldened others throughout Europe to consider similar new rules targeting the tech industry.

The aggressive, new plan - drafted by the United Kingdom's leading consumer-protection authorities and blessed by Prime Minister Theresa May - targets a wide array of web content, including child exploitation, false news, terrorist activity and extreme violence. If approved by Parliament, UK watchdogs would gain unprecedented powers to issue fines and other punishments when social media sites don't swiftly remove the most egregious posts, photos or videos from public view.
During a meeting with Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia Irakli Kobakhidze on the sidelines of the 140th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU-140) in Doha, the capital city of Qatar on April 7, NA Chairwoman Ngan said Vietnam always bears in mind the valuable support of international friends, including Georgian people, during the national liberation and reunification.

Congratulating Georgia on its economic achievements over the past years, she wished that Vietnam and Georgia would develop multi-faceted collaboration, especially in economy.

Ngan shared the Georgian Parliament Chairmans view that two-way trade remains modest compared to the two countries potential, and urged that both sides would prioritise developing economic and trade links.

The NA leader said Vietnam exports large volumes of apparel, footwear, coffee, cashew nuts, mobile phones, and electronic spare parts, which are in demand in Georgia. She hoped that the country will make it easier for Vietnamese goods to enter its market.

The top Vietnamese legislator welcomed Georgias plan to open its embassy in Hanoi, expressing her belief that the embassy will help further promote bilateral ties in a wide range of areas.

She suggested that both sides should facilitate the exchange of all-level visits and mutual support at multilateral cooperation forums, especially at the United Nations, maintain political consultation between the two nations, enhance people-to-people exchange to raise mutual understanding and build trust for the development of the region and the world.

Vietnam is ready to serve as a bridge and a gateway for Georgia to enter Southeast Asian countries  a vibrant market with a population of over 600 million people, she said.

Kobakhidze, for his part, said the Georgian embassy opening in Hanoi is scheduled for the late 2019.

He said as a country linking Asia and Europe, Georgia wants to boost economic ties with Vietnam, adding that Georgia is stepping up an open economy on the back of a number of free trade agreements with countries and the region, including the European Union, Turkey, neighbouring countries and China.

He proposed that the two sides enhance trade and continue facilitating exchanges between the two legislatures, their committees, parliamentarians and friendship organisations.

The establishment of friendship parliamentarians groups and promotion of their exchanges will play an important role in bolstering parliamentary ties, he said, adding that Georgia welcomes parliamentary cooperation in all forms with Vietnam.

Noting that the number of Georgian tourists going to Vietnam doubled last year, he said it is a positive signal in people-to-people exchange.

The Chairman suggested making use of multilateral mechanisms to reinforce bilateral ties as well as sharing reform experience to advance mutually-beneficial relations.
West Palm Beach, Florida: A Chinese woman charged with bluffing her way into President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago Florida resort last month, renewing concerns about security at the club, appeared in court on Monday at a hearing to determine whether she will remain in custody, according to US media.

The federal court building stands in West Palm Beach, Florida, US. Credit:Bloomberg

The woman, Yujing Zhang, was arrested after giving conflicting reasons for being at the club during one of Trump's routine weekend visits. According to prosecutors, she was carrying four mobile phones, a laptop computer, an external hard drive and a thumb drive containing what investigators described as "malicious malware."

Prosecutors argued in court that concerns about Zhang's trustworthiness and the fact that a search of her hotel room turned up a device to detect hidden cameras, five mobile phone SIM cards and $US8,000 in cash were reasons to keep her in custody, the Washington Post reported.

"She lies to everyone she encounters," the newspaper quoted Assistant US Attorney Rolando Garcia as saying during the hearing.
"On the IEA blog this week, their Head of Political Economy Dr Kristian Niemietz asks if the young should be blamed for their flirtations with socialism.

"Kristian notes that, with socialism, the range of possible outcomes stretches from quite bad to extremely bad. Its heads, you get sent to the GDR, tails, you get sent to Democratic Kampuchea.

"Millennial Socialists may be opposed to capitalism, he notes, but many take a stance against free markets and free enterprise without actually examining different solutions to domestic problems.

"For example: yes, Britain has a housing crisis. So why not look around whether there are comparable countries that dont have a housing crisis, and ask what they do differently, says Kristian."



Read the full blog here.
Wondering why to become involved with International Yoga Teachers Association (IYTA)? We take a look

In a very crowded market place, it can be hard to work out where to do your yoga teacher training. Why choose to become involved with International Yoga Teachers Association (IYTA)? Here are some reasons why:

Longest running yoga teacher training organisation in Australia

The International Yoga Teachers Association (IYTA) is an international non-profit organisation founded in Australia in 1967 by Roma Blair.

Internationally recognised qualification and network

In additional to teachers and students in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Cairns, Darwin, Melbourne, Hobart and Perth, it has international representatives and members in Austria, France, Canada, Fiji, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Oman, Switzerland, Singapore, South Africa and the United Kingdom. There are also independent affiliates in New Zealand, Brazil, Puerto Rico and Spain.

Well rounded and inclusive approach to yoga  more than just the asana

The IYTA aims to promote the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual benefits of yoga for everybody, regardless of age, sex, ability or disability, ethnicity or religion.

The IYTA promotes yogas many benefits  physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. It aims to increase understanding and application of the principles and philosophy of Yoga.

A teacher organisation whose primary aim is to teach teachers

The IYTAs primary activity is to conduct yoga teacher training (Hatha based) and an Association for yoga teachers internationally. The well-established, highly regarded and extensive IYTA Diploma of Yoga Teaching course has been running for over forty years with thousands of students graduating with the IYTA International Diploma. The IYTA provides excellent Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programmes and offers a Post Graduate Certificate of Pre and Post Natal Yoga, a Yin Teacher Training, Meditation and Pranayama and Yoga for Seniors.

Ethical and safe teaching methods

The Association upholds the highest ethics of Yoga teaching and professional conduct for its members. The IYTA is a registered yoga school with Yoga Alliance (USA) and Yoga Australia.

Ongoing support

IYTA cannot be bought or sold. The organisation is committed to providing ongoing support to its members and graduates across Australia and the globe. Become a part of the IYTA family and join as a student or teacher. Members can volunteer or choose to join the IYTA faculty of lecturers or administration team.

What some of their recent graduates are saying

I have worked as a Midwife with women during pregnancy, childbirth and post-natal for 20 years. I have also been a yogini for many years completing my own Yoga teacher training last year. It has been my dream to share my love of Yoga and the many benefits with women in pregnancy. IYTAs Pre and Post-natal Yoga teacher training is outstanding in its content, broad knowledge base, focus on safety and methods of learning. The recent 4 day residential shared with other students, experienced lecturers and facilitators was a lovely way to live and learn together in a peaceful retreat centre. The variety of weekend workshops, on-line lectures, videos and workbooks are all thoroughly researched and well prepared for self-directed and face to face learning. I recommend IYTA Pre and Post Natal training to anyone who wishes to teach Yoga to women during this most special time of their lives.

 Jane Haverfield  PPN Graduate 2017, Post Graduate Certificate Pre & Post Natal

I am thrilled that I chose the IYTA Yoga Teacher Training Course. The depth of experience in meditation has also given us a huge advantage as teachers  most yoga courses dont require that kind of diligence. Ive made some lifelong friends, I feel Im part of a large, warm, like-minded community, and my whole way of living and relating to myself and others has changed for the better because of this course. I cant recommend it highly enough.

 Alana Smith, International Diploma of Yoga Teaching (460hrs)
NEW CANAAN  The town now has a blight ordinance, but the official charged with enforcing the law expects its use to be limited.

The Town Council gave unanimous approval to the law last Wednesday night after a public hearing, and after Chief Building Officer Brian Platz, who would also be blight officer, said most complaints are voluntarily resolved.

There have already been instances of blight reported, Platz told the Town Council Wednesday, March 27, but often all it takes is a conversation to get the problem resolved.

Most people willfully comply, he said.

Often, Platz said, Human Services is contacted, and volunteers frequently step forward to help those whose properties have become unkempt due to hardships.

Few spoke at the public hearing on March 27, and the vote without dissent followed a short time later when the Town Council convened its regular meeting.

Robert Doran asked whether construction sites could be considered blighted properties if allowed to sit idle.

Platz explained that state statute says no action can be taken unless no work has been done for six months, and work can include interviewing contractors, choosing fixtures, revising design, even I couldnt sleep so I nailed up a couple two-by-fours.

State statute always supersedes a local ordinance, Platz stressed.

The ordinance defines a blighted property as any residential building, structure, or parcel of land on which any of 13 conditions have existed for at least 30 days, visible from the first or second floor of an adjacent home. The original draft stipulated the ground floor, but River Street resident Lori Lawnsbury said conditions can be visible from higher floors, particularly in her area.

Conditions that could constitute blight are:

Missing, broken or boarded-up windows or doors;

 Collapsing or dilapidated roof;

 Collapsing or dilapidated structure;

 Crumbling brick, concrete, or cinderblock walls;

 Seriously damaged, missing or loose siding, gutters, leaders, shingles or roofing;

 Significant fire or water damage;

 Persistent and excessive amounts of garbage, trash or debris;

 Inoperable machinery;

 A structure substantially infested with rodents or other pests;

 Overgrown brush, grass or weeds of at least one foot in height covering a significant portion of the property's front yard, other than (i) ornamental grass which is part of a landscaped area, and (ii) areas identified as inland wetlands;

 Trees, bushes or other vegetation that overhang and significantly hinder the use of a street, sidewalk, or driveway;

 One or more fallen trees, except those that have fallen (i) within the past six months, or (ii) in an area in which trees and brush exist in a natural, unlandscaped state;

 Extensive graffiti.

Late modifications to the ordinance replaced references to Staying Put in New Canaan and Getabout with the Human Services Department.

The ordinance would create the position of blight prevention officer, and call for formation of a Blight Review Board. Membership would have to have representation of the Planning & Zoning Commission and the board of directors of Staying Put in New Canaan. A hearing process would be implemented. Fines could be as much as $100 for each day a violation exists after a remediation deadline. Cost of cleanup would be borne by the property owner. The owner would also be responsible for any civil penalties, which shall include, but shall not be limited to, attorney fees, court costs, mailing costs and filing fees.
TRUMBULL  Teens looking to score tobacco and nicotine products from convenience stores will find it decidedly less convenient under a new ordinance that passed the Town Council last week.

Resolution TC27-163, which raises the age to buy such products from 18 to 21, had bipartisan support on the council, with no members voting against it and only one abstaining.

In addition to the higher age restriction, the resolution also established a $100 retail tobacco license on merchants, and set a series of fines for compliance failures. Hartford and Bridgeport have already enacted similar ordinances. Milfords Board of Aldermen passed a 21-year tobacco ordinance the same night as Trumbull.

Council members, and a number of parents in attendance at the meeting, remarked that the legal age being 18 to buy cigarettes and vaping supplies essentially created a secondary market in the schools.

At Trumbull High School, it (vaping) is rampant, said Diane Severino, a parent of two students. Kids I know are buying for younger kids.

Melissa McGarry, the project coordinator for TPAUD, Trumbulls youth substance abuse prevention program, said her organization had conducted surveys indicating that vaping was common among local teens.

According to our 2017 survey, the rate is 15 percent among students in grades 7 through 12, she said. Among the senior class at Trumbull High, 1-in-3 had vaped within the past 30 days, she said. In addition, 74 percent of Trumbull youths said vaping products were easy to get through the schools black market.

McGarry, who is the mother of three teens, said her daughter had turned 18 recently.

Within 24 hours she was getting texts from younger students pestering her to buy for them, she said.

First Selectman Vicki Tesoro, speaking unofficially as a parent and member of TPAUD, said teens needed protection from potential long-term harm.

We have to change with the times on different issues that come before us, she said. When it comes to vaping, most often (teens) are the guinea pigs for the tobacco companies.

Tesoro said her father, a World War II veteran, received cigarettes as part of his rations.

Back then, we didnt know that it would result in long-term suffering of many people as they got older, she said. That may be what were facing with these children now.

Council member Ashley Gaudiano, who along with Paul Verbitsky and Eric Paulson did the bulk of the research and drafting of the resolution, reassured parents that the enforcement would be directed at retailers, not teens.

The ordinance will be enforced by the health department and the compliance checks will be done by police, she said. The enforcement is for selling. It does not punish children.

One issue brought up by Councilman J.C. Cinelli was whether the town had the right to preempt state law. Councilman Jason Marsh had expressed similar reservations in committee, questioning whether the town could hypothetically allow 15-year-olds to vote or establish 21 as the legal driving age in town. Ultimately, both were persuaded by Town Attorney Daniel Schopick that passing the ordinance posed no risk other than the potential for litigation. If the state passed a 21-year-old law for tobacco sales, it would simply replace the Trumbull ordinance in town.

Councilman David Pia expressed mixed emotions. A smoker for most of his life who once quit for a decade, Pia said he recognized the dangers of such products on youngsters and had hoped his own children would not take up the habit, though two of his six children did.

My concern is with the mixed message of when you are an adult, and when arent you, he said. When youre 16, you can drive a car and get an abortion. When youre 18, you can join the military and serve in combat, but hey, you cant have a cigarette because youre not mature enough.

He also said he was reluctant to add an additional licensing fee on merchants, and worried about the potential revenue loss on small businesses when someone stops for cigarettes but then also buys a cup of coffee, a snack, and fills up their gas tank.

I guess I sound like a politician because Im on both sides, but I just cant picture a soldier in uniform and he cant buy a pack of cigarettes, he said.

In response, Councilman Keith Klain said he had initially looked into creating a special exemption for service members. But he changed his mind after doing some research and learned that the military by-and-large supports efforts to keep tobacco out of soldiers hands.

About 25 percent of people in the military smoke, Klain said. The military has banned smoking during basic training, and they have their own programs to try and drive the numbers down.

Ultimately, the resolution passed 17-0 with Pia abstaining. Council member Ann Marie Evangelista said she hoped more local communities would join Trumbull in enacting higher age limits on tobacco products. She pointed out that there were numerous convenience stores just over the Monroe border that were far more convenient to get to than similar stores in Trumbull.

Kids go into Monroe to get those $0.89 Slurpees, so you know theyll go up there for Juuls, she said.
The International Monetary Fund has expressed concern about rising risk in the Canadian housing market.

The IMFs Global Financial Stability Report says that the risk has grown over the past two years and is near to levels seen during the financial crisis of the last decade.

However, theres a major difference between then and now; the action taken by Canadian regulators to ensure that the financial system is robust and able to withstand another crisis.

While the B-20 mortgage guidelines - and the stress test in particular  has many critics, the IMF says that tougher mortgage policy and measures such as foreign buyers taxes, are the correct ones to protect the financial system from downside risks from the housing market.

Canada up, USA down

While Canadas housing market has become riskier, the report says that the US risk is lower than it was due to declining levels of household debt and prices more in line with income.

But it says that Canadian markets have become riskier, especially Hamilton, Toronto, and Vancouver.
An Oakbank teenager being heralded as the biggest Manitoba music phenom since concert violinist James Ehnes is being courted by two of the most prestigious music schools in North America.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 8/4/2019 (981 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An Oakbank teenager being heralded as the biggest Manitoba music phenom since concert violinist James Ehnes is being courted by two of the most prestigious music schools in North America.

Connor Augusto, 17, of Springfield Collegiate, who plays French horn, is being offered scholarships by top music schools such as the Glenn Gould School in Toronto and the Juilliard School in the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York.

Augusto hopes to be able to accept one of two scholarships despite facing an uphill financial climb. 'It's my dream, man.' SUPPLIED

He recently auditioned at Julliard, which is his first choice. The problem is, even with scholarship assistance, there is still a steep financial hill to climb.

"It's my dream, man," Augusto said.

His music teacher, Ken MacDonald, associate principal horn player in the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and University of Manitoba music instructor, is hard-pressed to recall many Manitobans who attended Julliard.

Brandon's Ehnes went as a violinist and composer Keri-Lynn Wilson, who spent some time in Winnipeg, attended Juilliard in woodwind instruments, he said. WSO concertmaster Gwen Hoebig and her husband, University of Manitoba professor and pianist David Moroz, are Juilliard graduates as is WSO horn player Michiko Singh.

MacDonald said Augusto, as a freshman, "would already be the best horn player" at the U of M, so he'd like to see him study where he would be more challenged.

"It's clear he has the determination and the natural ability... to work at it. All those elements have to be there and he's just steadily progressed and gotten recognition throughout the horn world," MacDonald said.

It would cost Augusto $40,000 for tuition and residency at Julliard, even after a substantial scholarships factored in. The residency is $19,000 alone. He does not qualify for Canadian student loans because he would be studying out of the country, or from the U.S. because he is not a resident.

"You've got this kid from Oakbank. It's sort of like winning the lottery but not being able to claim it," MacDonald said.

The WSO's horn players are rallying behind him and will perform at a fundraiser in Oakbank on Sunday. An online fundraising drive has also been organized.

Augusto gets his musical chops from his grandfather, William Pond, who was a jazz saxophonist in Toronto.

The French horn looks like brass plumbing compressed into a tight circle and coiled by a long funnel  the bell  that faces away from the audience.

"The sound has to go backwards off the back wall and then out to the audience," Augusto said. "(The instrument is) a bit of a character actor in an orchestra because it can be super loud and bold and fit in with the brass, but also beautiful and singing-like and fit with woodwinds."

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca
LONGUEUIL, Que. - Astronaut David Saint-Jacques became the fourth Canadian to complete a spacewalk Monday, accomplishing several tasks alongside NASA astronaut Anne McClain in about six-and-a-half hours before returning inside the International Space Station.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 8/4/2019 (981 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Canadian Space Agency astronaut David Saint-Jacques is seen on a live monitor from the International Space Station during a video conference with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Governor General Julie Payette and a group of students at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Monday, Jan. 14, 2019. Astronaut David Saint-Jacques will become the first Canadian spacewalker in 12 years when he embarks on a roughly seven-hour mission planned for today. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

LONGUEUIL, Que. - Astronaut David Saint-Jacques became the fourth Canadian to complete a spacewalk Monday, accomplishing several tasks alongside NASA astronaut Anne McClain in about six-and-a-half hours before returning inside the International Space Station.

After re-entering the space station, he hailed the mission as "a glimpse of the future as we venture further into space." He said the international effort was an excellent example of collaboration.

Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques takes part in a spacewalk as seen in the livefeed from the Canadian Space Agency headquarters Monday, April 8, 2019 in St. Hubert, Que.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

"Because when we manage to look beyond our differences, we achieve things that seem impossible," said Saint-Jacques, the first Canadian to perform a spacewalk since 2007. "That's how we progress."

During the spacewalk, Saint-Jacques reported that McClain's voice was faint at times. The problem worsened as their excursion drew to a close.

"We know that it's a lot of hard work and a lot of big sighs of relief as soon as this hatch gets closed," McClain said once the pair were inside the airlock.

Within moments, the spacewalkers could barely hear their colleagues over the radio loop. They had to shout and repeat words at times, as did the astronauts on the other side of the hatch.

McClain, meanwhile, reported having a thin layer of moisture inside her helmet. The change to her visor was noticeable in the last 15 minutes of the spacewalk, she noted.

NASA is wary about moisture inside helmets ever since an Italian astronaut almost drowned during a spacewalk nearly six years ago because of a water leak in his suit. McClain insisted she wasn't wet, and that the moisture was minimal. A crewmate later noted perspiration.

Saint-Jacques and McClain began the spacewalk half-an-hour earlier than scheduled.

Retired astronaut Dave Williams said astronauts prefer to have a cushion against the unpredictability of working in space. "We like to get ahead on the timeline and stay ahead, because you never know what's going to happen during a spacewalk," Williams said at the Canadian Space Agency headquarters in suburban Montreal.

Williams holds the Canadian record for the most spacewalks, with three for a total of just under 18 hours outside the space station during a 2007 mission. Those came at a time when there was extensive building going on at the station.

Now, astronauts are transitioning mostly to maintenance tasks, which partly explains the long gap since the last Canadian spacewalk by Williams. The other two Canadian astronauts to have performed the feat are Steve MacLean in 2006 and Chris Hadfield in 2001. Saint-Jacques is on his first posting to the space station, which began on Dec. 3.

The tasks took the pair all over the station and included relocating a battery adaptor plate, upgrading the station's wireless communication system and connecting jumper cables along the midpoint of the station's main truss to give Canadarm2 an alternative power source.

Canadarm2 is a sort of robotic hand that is crucial to maintaining the space station, and the new cables allow the arm to make repairs in case of an outage without requiring a spacewalk.

Williams, who spoke to Saint-Jacques on Saturday, said his countryman was very excited about the mission and proud to wear the Canadian flag, but laser-focused on the tasks ahead.

It was the third spacewalk in just under three weeks for space station occupants, and much of the work involves replacing batteries on the 19-year-old outpost with fresh ones that arrived in December. Canadian Space Agency robotics flight controllers were providing support to the astronauts from mission control in Houston.

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With the manual tasks complete, Canada's robotic contributions to the station will finish installing new lithium ion batteries. "We'll be able to come down with Canadarm2 and Dextre at the tip and robotically finish moving those batteries around," Ken Podwalski, the CSA's space station program manager, said.

Williams said the astronauts' seemingly lumbering pace is necessary to maintain control. "David's doing an incredible job, moving very gracefully, using just fingertip forces to go from one place to another on the space station," Williams said. "That's the mark of a highly experienced spacewalker, already."

The astronauts returned inside just before 2 p.m. EDT, likely exhausted from several physically demanding hours with no food and just one litre of water in a suit pouch.

Williams noted that astronauts spend years training, getting into shape and training underwater to mimic the choreography. "Quite literally, it's years of training for hours of spacewalking, but it's quite an experience getting to do it," he said.

Saint-Jacques, McClain and Oleg Kononenko of the Russian space agency, Roscosmos are scheduled to return to Earth in June.

 With files from The Associated Press
SEOUL, Korea, Republic Of - 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.

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FILE - In this Dec. 12, 2014 file photo, Korean Air chairman Cho Yang-ho, speaks to the media about an apology at its head office in Seoul, South Korea. Korean Air says on Monday, April 8, 2019, its chairman, Cho Yang-ho, has died in the United States because of an unspecified illness. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)

SEOUL, Korea, Republic Of - 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 shareholders voted 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 in a statement that Cho died at a hospital in Los Angeles but did not specify his illness or provide other details. Cho had remained chairman, which is a non-board role, even after shareholders ousted him from the board. He had expressed his intent to continue participating in management.

A senior Korean Air executive said Cho had been receiving treatment for an unspecified lung illness since late last year and that his condition "worsened rapidly" following the shareholder vote, apparently because of shock and stress. The executive didn't want to be named, citing office rules.

Korean Air's corporate flag and the South Korean flag were flown half-staff at the company's headquarters in downtown Seoul.

Cho's eldest daughter, Cho Hyun-ah, who was formerly the head of the airline's cabin service, received worldwide notoriety in 2014 after she ordered a Korean Air passenger plane to return to a terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York because she was angry that the crew served her macadamia nuts in a bag instead of on a plate.

The incident, dubbed "nut rage," generated international headlines and severely tarnished the Cho family's image, while highlighting broader concerns about the sense of entitlement among the moneyed elite in South Korea.

FILE - In this July 5, 2018 file photo, Cho Yang-ho, the chairman of Korean Air Lines Co., arrives for hearing to review the prosecution's request for an arrest warrant on charge of embezzlement at the Seoul Southern District Court in Seoul, South Korea. Korean Air says on Monday, April 8, 2019, its chairman, Cho Yang-ho, has died in the United States because of an unspecified illness. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)

Cho Hyun-ah was sentenced to one year in prison for violating aviation law but was released early when a higher-level court suspended the sentence.

The Cho family also faced intense criticism after company employees alleged they were subjected to mistreatment and tantrums.

Cho's wife was summoned last May by South Korean police to question her about allegations that she abused and assaulted employees. Lee Myung-hee was accused of physically or verbally abusing more than 10 former and current employees of Korean Air's parent company.

Cho's younger daughter, Cho Hyun-min, also was investigated by state prosecutors for potential assault for allegedly hurling a cup of water during a business meeting. No charges were filed.

Before his reputation was hit by scandals, Cho Yang-ho, who led Korean Air since 1992, had been credited for overseeing the company's growth into one of Asia's biggest airlines. Korean Air, which began in 1969 with eight planes, now operates 166 aircraft with international flights to 111 cities in 43 countries.

Cho was also the chairman of the Hanjin Group, a global transportation conglomerate of dozens of companies that includes the airline. He was also was the co-chairman of the Korea-U.S. Business Council and vice chairman of the Federation of Korean Industries.

He was involved in the bidding process and preparations for the 2018 Winter Olympics held in South Korea's ski resort town of Pyeongchang and headed the Olympic organizing committee for two years before stepping down in 2016.

Cho's resignation was initially described as voluntary, but he later said he left the committee under "unjust" pressure from the government of former conservative President Park Geun-hye. The committee had rejected an Olympic construction deal for a Swiss company that reportedly had a business partnership with Choi Soon-sil, a longtime friend and mentor of Park.

Park is now serving a lengthy prison term over multiple corruption charges.

South Korean prosecutors indicted Cho last October on multiple charges, including evading taxes and pocketing tens of millions of dollars through embezzlement and breach of trust. His trial had been expected to begin in the coming weeks.

Cho was previously convicted of tax evasion in 2000, facing charges with his father and brother. The Chos were charged with receiving millions in rebates when they purchased airplanes from Boeing and Airbus and evading taxes on the money. The tax probe came after the country's president criticized Korean Air's poor safety record.

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The Cho family scandals have increased public criticism about South Korea's "chaebol," a privileged group of family-owned conglomerates that have been tied to corruption and exploitive behaviour.

Korean Air shareholders' successful removal of Cho from the company's board was seen as a milestone in a country that has been long criticized for its lax enforcement of corporate-governance rules on large companies.

Analysts also saw the vote's outcome as a positive sign that Korean Air would finally be able to keep its "owner risk" under control after Cho's unchecked reign had damaged the company's value and reputation.

The stock price of Hanjin-KAL, the holding company of the Hanjin Group, rose by more than 20% on Monday. Shares of Korean Air and other Hanjin affiliates, including Jin Air, also rose modestly.

Current South Korean President Moon Jae-in has vowed to curb the excesses of the chaebol. However, bad economic news appears to have softened the government's approach to these companies, which dominate the country's economy and are crucial to Moon's plans for job creation.

Cho is survived by his wife, a son, two daughters and five grandchildren.
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.

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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.

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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.
Two resource centres that assist women who have experienced violence in their lives will receive a total of $176,000 in new funding from the Manitoba government.

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Two resource centres that assist women who have experienced violence in their lives will receive a total of $176,000 in new funding from the Manitoba government.

Status of Women Minister Rochelle Squires and Families Minister Heather Stefanson made the announcement Monday at the West Central Womens Resource Centre in Winnipeg.

The facility, located on Ellice Avenue, will get $118,000 to help hire a program co-ordinator to oversee family violence programming and expand existing programs so more women can access them. The centre serves an average of 100 women each day.

The Womens Resource Centre in Brandon will receive $58,000, allowing it to hire an executive director.

Lorie English, the Winnipeg resource centre's executive director, said gender-based violence "transcends identity boundaries," but some women are more at risk than others.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Diane Plante has used the services of the West Central Women's Resource Centre.

"Manitoba's rate of violence against women is double the national average. Women who are Indigenous, living with disabilities, newcomers or (LGBTTQ*) are disproportionately represented in these statistics," English said.

"This investment from the province of Manitoba will allow us to provide programs that will assist women in their healing of trauma from violence and to begin to regain their confidence and to rebuild their lives."

Diane Plante said she was an alcoholic who was homeless and living on Winnipegs streets. She said she had experienced violence, including sexual abuse, throughout her life.

"A lady told me to come here. I started to ask for help. I never asked for help for most of my life because being Indigenous, being Cree, I used think I was already marginalized, I was already cast away from society, so whats the use? But I was so desperate; I was tired of being an alcoholic. I was tired of living with fears of being hurt again," said Plante, 57.

"This place saved my life. I turned my life around after coming here," she said. "I had a reason to get up in the morning. They made me feel like I belonged. They gave me a lot of compassion and it taught me how to be compassionate with myself and give that back into the community.

"When I hear about this money  coming here was such a vital thing for my dignity  this is going to make it possible for more women and children to have that."

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Lorie English, executive director of the West Central Womens Resource Centre.

Squires said the new funds will be provided annually by the province.

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"This annual funding will ensure that this centre will be able to provide ongoing important and necessary services to women and their families who have experienced violence," the minister said. "We know that when we work toward supporting women, we are supporting their families and building communities."

The West Central Women's Resource Centre offers services such as counselling, training and skill-building, housing and income programs, drop-in access to phones, computers, showers, and child-minding services, among others.

According to its most recent annual report, the Winnipeg facility received $122,000 in funding from the province in 2017-18.

Brandon's Womens Resource Centre offers such services as crisis intervention, advocacy, information and referral, protection planning, individual counselling in both English and Spanish, support groups, outreach and childrens support services.

Funds were disbursed under the province's Family Violence Prevention Program, which includes 10 womens shelters, nine womens resource centres, four second-stage housing programs, and 14 specialized programs that provide counselling, support and training for service providers.

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca
OTTAWA  Environmental economists say the federal Liberals are correct to claim that a majority of Manitobans will receive more from a rebate than what they pay in carbon tax.

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OTTAWA  Environmental economists say the federal Liberals are correct to claim that a majority of Manitobans will receive more from a rebate than what they pay in carbon tax.

The Liberals rolled out their "price on pollution" in Manitoba on April 1, with a $20 levy on each tonne of carbon, which translates to roughly 4.6 cents per litre at the gas pump.

Its accompanied by a cap-and-trade scheme for businesses that are considered heavy emitters.

Each household in Manitoba is set to receive an income-tax rebate based on their family members ages  and not their carbon emissions  to account for the added cost.

The idea is to give people an incentive to make greener choices, with those driving gas-guzzling SUVs spending more than those who take the bus.

In mailouts from Winnipeg MPs, the Liberals claim "eight out of 10 families will get more money back" from the rebate than they pay in carbon taxes this year.

Finance Canada has said that number only counts for direct costs, such as filling a gas tank or buying propane, combined with Statistics Canada data.

The federal Conservatives have framed the carbon levy as a tax on everything, with higher transportation costs driving up the cost of virtually all goods.

Canadas Ecofiscal Commission said its unclear how costs will be handed down to consumers, but academics are crunching the numbers for a report.

In Manitoba, "approximately 70 per cent of households" will get back more than what they contribute, according to Ecofiscal head Dale Beugin.

Dave Sawyer, who runs the consultancy EnviroEconomics, said that figure would account for passed-on costs, such as higher airfares and pricier groceries.

He said Manitobas reliance on hydro means expenses, such as home heating, are taxed less than in provinces that rely on coal.

"Manitobas exposure is actually a lot less than most people in the rest of the country," said Sawyer who crunched the Manitoba numbers for the group Canadians for Clean Prosperity last fall.

Sawyer found that the carbon taxs impact largely falls along income lines, with households making over $100,000 per year the most likely to pay more than they get back.

Thats partially due to rich families having larger homes to heat and more cars to drive  but Sawyer said there will still be some poorer families that will pay more than they get back.

"You could be a lower-income household, and have two cars and commute a long distance, and you might not be better off," he said.

"There are going to be people on the extremes, across all income groups, who may be adversely impacted," he added. "Its hundreds of dollars; its not thousands of dollars."

Sawyer had projected the average household in Manitoba would pay $404 this year. Ottawa is remitting roughly $336 when factoring in a top-up for rural residents and funding diverted to carbon-reduction projects within the province.

The tax rebate is 10 per cent higher for rural residents, which the census defines as all Manitobans living outside the Winnipeg region, which spans Brokenhead to Ritchot.

The Liberal governments budget includes a consultation process to consider "expanded relief of the fuel charge for electricity generation for remote communities."

Sean Fraser, parliamentary secretary to the federal environment minister, told the Free Press the Liberals are "always going to be open to modifying our plan" to make sure it applies fairly.

"Rural residents may have to drive more and we want to ensure were not discriminating against people," he said.

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"Theres no trickery here. Its transparent. Its laid out literally on your tax filings."

Meanwhile, Environment Canada admitted last April that it expects carbon pricing to have "asymmetrical impacts" on Indigenous communities that rely on diesel or food that has to be flown in.

Both the Liberals and the Tories have used the carbon tax to play to their base. The Conservatives claim it will hit peoples pocketbooks with minimal effect on Canadas climate targets, while the Liberals say it proves they take the environment seriously.

The Conservatives have pledged to use regulation to limit carbon emissions, and promised to release a plan almost a year ago.

Premier Brian Pallister announced last week that hed be suing Ottawa over the carbon tax, arguing that the Liberals were lenient to other provinces in implementing the tax, and that the policy was motivated by an anti-conservative bias.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
The overhaul of Manitobas health-care system has been met with repeated calls to slow down from those on the front lines of care. The stories from patients and front-line workers, detailing chaos and upheaval within the system, are consistent and persistent.

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Opinion

The overhaul of Manitobas health-care system has been met with repeated calls to slow down from those on the front lines of care. The stories from patients and front-line workers, detailing chaos and upheaval within the system, are consistent and persistent.

However, the province is going full steam ahead with its overhaul, and is paying little attention to the concerns of workers and Manitobans. The overhaul and newly introduced legislation will continue to erode and worsen health services we all rely on.

Recently, the head of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, Real Cloutier, emailed a letter to 28,000 staff in an attempt to alleviate concerns and the increasingly low morale that plagues the staff of health facilities. He recognized the generally depressed state of health-care workers but told them to hang on, stating that they were experiencing a common feeling referred to in change management as the "valley of despair."

The term refers to the low point people go through when experiencing major workplace changes. They often feel depressed and sense that they have lost control. Cloutier was attempting to calm their fears and boost morale by assuring them that they would eventually pass through the valley, and that hope was on the other side.

On the surface, the letter at least finally acknowledges how staff members are feeling, but it does nothing to address the concerns expressed by many health-care workers across the province. From overworked neonatal nurses at St. Boniface Hospital to those facing increases in mandatory overtime, from inadequate staffing levels to the sudden closure of the Family Medical Centre, and from the closure of the maternity ward in Flin Flon to impending closures of more ERs, the experiences of those caring for our sick, ill and injured must be taken seriously.

Those on the front line know what is and is not working, but despite continued requests to be consulted about changes, they are ignored. Instead they receive Cloutiers letter, which diminishes the importance of their years of experience and ignores their urgent request to slow down on the health-care overhaul.

The "valley of despair" will undoubtedly widen with the recent introduction of Bill 10, legislation that would amend the Regional Health Authorities Act to become the Health System Governance and Accountability Act. Contained within this legislation is the creation of "Shared Health" governance. Imagine a pyramid, with Health Minister Cameron Friesen at the top, followed by Shared Health, then the regional health authorities and CancerCare Manitoba. Addictions Foundation of Manitoba will be absorbed by Shared Health.

The shifts in responsibilities and oversight under this legislation will affect all stakeholders in the health-care system. The consequences of this legislation will be far-reaching, including paving the way for a new super agency and a one-size-fits-all model of health-care service delivery.

We only need to look to Nova Scotia, which in 2015 went straight to a "super agency." The change resulted in a number of detrimental consequences to the delivery of care. Inadequate financial resources, clumsy handling of the amalgamation and the failure of the one-size-fits-all model all had negative effects on Nova Scotians access to quality care. Such a model is not sufficiently responsive to adapt to changing needs and demands in a given region of a province.

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For example, some emergency rooms in Nova Scotia currently issue "pink letters" to patients who will not be seen by a doctor during operational hours. The letter explains they will not be able to see a doctor today because they have been assessed at a low urgency level and they are to come back later.

The inability to staff local hospitals in Nova Scotia is chronic, leading to unexpected closures of ERs and the inability of existing staff to take time off. Some groups contend that the new model of health care is leading to higher levels of political interference in the operation of the system.

The fact that Manitoba is headed in a similar direction is frightening, as it could seriously compromise quality of care. We should be asking, is this really the road we should head down? We think not.

If Manitobas government is serious about improving health care, then why rush through another major change in the administration of service delivery in this province? Is scoring political points worth the consequences to our delivery of quality, considerate access to universal health care?

If this government continues to ignore repeated warnings from our front-line workers, the valley of despair will only grow deeper and longer.

Brianne Goertzen is the provincial director of the non-partisan Manitoba Health Coalition and a Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives  Manitoba steering committee member. She serves as a school trustee for Ward 3, River East Transcona School Division.
You could be forgiven for thinking that, like iconic alt-rockers R.E.M., Quebec is losing its religion.

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This article was published 8/4/2019 (981 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Editorial

You could be forgiven for thinking that, like iconic alt-rockers R.E.M., Quebec is losing its religion.

That provinces Bill 21, if made into law, would forbid a wide range of public employees, including teachers, police officers and judges, from wearing religious symbols on the job. The legislation was promised by the right-wing Coalition Avenir Quebec during its 2018 election campaign, and Premier Francois Legault defends it as a move to support, or enforce, a secular society.

In French, the term "laicite" is used to mean the separation of church and state (often translated into English as "secularism"), and is used throughout Bill 21. Mr. Legault casts prohibiting Quebecers from any outward sign of their faith as defending that separation.

But this argument falls flat. No person working for Quebecs civil service commands their entire department as well as serving as the authority of their particular faith, like Henry VIII declaring he was head of the Church of England.

What this bill does, in effect, is centre the majority experience as the default. Outward signs of Christian faith in modern Canadian society dont usually go further than wearing a cross around ones neck. More visible signs of religious observance, which would be prohibited under this legislation, belong, as it happens, to other faiths.

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Sikhs would likely be barred from wearing kirpans or turbans. Both items have been challenged elsewhere in Canada on different grounds. In 1988, when Baltej Singh Dhillon was accepted into the RCMP, he was forced to choose between being able to wear a turban as an observant Sikh, or conforming to the traditional headgear of the RCMP. He fought for the right to wear the turban, and in 1990, the federal government removed the ban against Sikhs in the RCMP wearing turbans.

Jews wearing yarmulkes would also be affected by the bill, as would Muslims wearing a hijab or niqab. The bill explicitly forbids anyone from providing or receiving services with their face covered.

If the law would only be a minor inconvenience to Christians  who could elect to wear their crosses underneath their clothes  but pose a real problem to those of other religions, its not promoting secularism equally. Its not as though one could use, say, a tuque to cover ones religious head wear. Nor should anyone have to.

It seems to take more aim at Jews, Muslims and Sikhs, at a time when anti-Semitism and Islamophobia are on the rise. Mr. Legault has said he doesnt think Islamophobia is a serious problem in Quebec  a stunning pronouncement when only two years ago, a gunman shot and killed six Muslims at a Quebec City mosque, and that event was referenced by the alleged shooter in the horrifying mass shootings last month at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.

In an added irony, the bill was introduced in Quebecs national assembly, which features a hard-to-miss crucifix as a focal point of the chamber. Mr. Legault says once the bill is passed, that religious icon will come down. But if the issue is important enough to craft legislation around  and use the notwithstanding clause to get around that pesky Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms  why didnt his government move to first remove the iconography in its own house?

The fact is, this bill isnt about secularism at all. Its about exclusion: excluding certain demographics from Quebec public life, while keeping others at the barely inconvenienced forefront.
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Across the Board Game Cafe (211 Bannatyne Ave.) uses its collection of 1,500 games to bring people together, and most recently it held an event to support the Islamic community in light of the tragic shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Across the Board Game Cafe (211 Bannatyne Ave.) uses its collection of 1,500 games to bring people together, and most recently it held an event to support the Islamic community in light of the tragic shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand.

It was a full house at Across the Board on April 1 as dozens of people came in to support the Manitoba Interfaith Immigration Council, which helps recent immigrants integrate into their new life in the province. Shawarma Khan also joined the cafe in its efforts and provided meals to everyone.

In addition to bringing people together, Across the Board also wanted to support a local organization. The minimum donation was $10, and although Across the Board owner Olaf Pyttlik didnt want to specify how much they raised, Kris Olafson, director of development and communications at MIIC said they were pleased with the donation.

"We still have refugee claimants coming across our border every day, and they dont receive support in the same way that other refugees do, the ones that come through government-assisted, or privately-assisted refugees, so we really need the support to help those people as they transition to life in Canada," Olafson said. "They have medical needs, they have the need to shelter, food, all the basics that we take for granted, and the money that was raised at the event will go a long way to help these families as they transition to their life in Canada."

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The goal of the evening, which was called Play for Peace, was to bring the Islamic and non-Islamic communities together to socialize, have fun and build friendships in response to the shootings that took place in Christchurch, New Zealand in March, when a gunman  alleged to be Brenton Harrison Tarrant, 28  killed 50 people at two mosques.

"That was our way to send the message locally, and internationally, to say we need to deal with our differences in a different way," Pyttlik said. "Across the Board is a place for community-building, its a place where we almost in a regular basis see people coming together from different backgrounds  different cultural backgrounds, different lifestyle backgrounds  they find a way to have a dialogue with each other over a good game. We had the ability to get people together."

They anticipated a full house, so the business neighbour, the Winnipeg Folk Festival, spared its space, and both sides were packed, he told The Times.

"Winnipeg is very special," Pyttlik, who is originally from Germany, said. "I found Winnipeg an extremely welcoming place for people that are immigrating to this country. And Canada itself, I think, is pretty unique in the world, because of its multiculturalism."

The event also served as a way for the community to process the tragedy and others like it around the world and in Canada. Olafson said these types of events are not only important because of the monetary donations, but because its during such gatherings that people become aware of the needs of others that are in the community.

"Just getting the word out about the refugee situation in Winnipeg and what kind of help they need and letting them know what Welcome Place does, even just getting the word out there of who these people are  they are your neighbours, your friends  and that our job is to welcome them," she said.
WASHINGTON - The United States on Monday designated Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps a foreign terrorist organization, an unprecedented declaration against a foreign government that may prompt retaliation and make it harder for American diplomats and military officers to work with allies in the region.

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FILE - In this Sept. 21, 2016 file photo, Iran's Revolutionary Guard troops march in a military parade marking the 36th anniversary of Iraq's 1980 invasion of Iran, in front of the shrine of late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, just outside Tehran, Iran. The Trump administration is preparing to designate IranAos Revolutionary Guards Corps a Auforeign terrorist organizationAu in an unprecedented move that could have widespread implications for U.S. personnel and policy. U.S. Officials say an announcement could come as early as Monday, April 8, 2019, following a months-long escalation in the administrationAos rhetoric against Iran. The move would be the first such designation by any U.S. administration of an entire foreign government entity. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)

WASHINGTON - The United States on Monday designated Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps a foreign terrorist organization, an unprecedented declaration against a foreign government that may prompt retaliation and make it harder for American diplomats and military officers to work with allies in the region.

It is the first time that the U.S. has designated an entity of another government as a terrorist organization, placing a group with vast economic resources that answers only to Iran's supreme leader in the same category as al-Qaida and the Islamic State.

"This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a state sponsor of terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft," President Donald Trump said in announcing the measure.

FILE - In this Feb, 11, 2019 file photo, Iranian Revolutionary Guard members arrive for a ceremony celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, at the Azadi, or Freedom, Square, in Tehran, Iran. President Donald Trump's administration is preparing to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a "foreign terrorist organization." It's an unprecedented move that could have widespread implications for U.S. personnel and policy in the Mideast and elsewhere. U.S. officials say an announcement is expected Monday. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the designation is intended to increase pressure on Iran, isolating it further and diverting some of the financial resources it uses to fund terrorism and militant activity in the Middle East and beyond. But, in addition to the potential for Iranian retaliation, it complicates a delicate balance for U.S. personnel in at least two key countries.

The administration went ahead with the designation despite expressions of "serious" concern by senior defence and intelligence officials about the possibility of retaliation, as well as the effectiveness against an organization already subject to sanctions, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the decision.

Pompeo said the move is part of an effort to put "maximum pressure" on Iran to end its support for terrorist plots and militant activity that destabilizes the Middle East. Speaking to reporters, he rattled off a list of attacks dating to the 1980s for which the U.S. holds Iran and the IRGC responsible, beginning with the attacks on the Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, Lebanon in 1983.

No waivers or exceptions to the sanctions were announced, meaning U.S. troops and diplomats could be barred from speaking with Iraqi or Lebanese authorities who have dealings with Guard officials or surrogates. Such contact occurs now between U.S. officials in Iraq who deal with Iranian-affiliated Shiite militias and in Lebanon, where the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement is in parliament and the government.

President Donald Trump walks after stepping off Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Saturday, April 6, 2019, in Washington. Trump is returning from a trip to California and Nevada. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies had raised concerns about the impact of the designation if the move did not allow contact with other 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.

The Justice Department said Monday it would prosecute violations but officials declined to say how broadly they would interpret the provision barring "material support" to the IRGC. A strict interpretation would leave hundreds of European companies and executives at risk for U.S. travel bans or criminal penalties in addition to limiting American officials' ability to deal with foreign counterparts who have links to the guard.

The designation "raises the question of whether a non-U.S. company or individual could be prosecuted for engaging in commercial transactions with an Iranian company controlled by the IRGC," said Anthony Rapa, an international trade and national security attorney with Kirkland and Ellis.

Critics of the hardline policy also see it as a prelude to conflict.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at a news conference to announce the Trump administration's plan to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard a "foreign terrorist organization," Monday, April 8, 2019, at the U.S. State Department in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

"This move closes yet another potential door for peacefully resolving tensions with Iran," said Trita Parsi, the founder of the National Iranian American Council. "Once all doors are closed, and diplomacy is rendered impossible, war will essentially become inevitable."

National Security Action, a group made up of mainly former Obama administration officials, said it would put U.S. troops at risk while jeopardizing the 2015 nuclear accord with which Iran is still complying.

"We need to call out today's move for what it is: another dangerous and self-defeating tactic that endangers our troops and serves nothing but the Trump administration's goal of destroying the Iran deal," it said.

The designation could also open hundreds of foreign companies and business executives to U.S. travel bans and possible prosecution for sanctions violations.

FILE - In this Nov. 25, 2011 file photo, female members of the Iranian paramilitary Basij force, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard stand in formation as a woman photographs them in a rally in front of the former US Embassy in Tehran, Iran. On Monday, April 8, 2019, the Trump administration designated IranAos Revolutionary Guard a Auforeign terrorist organizationAu in an unprecedented move against a national armed force. IranAos Revolutionary Guard Corps went from being a domestic security force with origins in the 1979 Islamic Revolution to a transnational fighting force.(AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

The IRGC is a paramilitary organization formed in the wake of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution to defend the government. The force answers only to Iran's supreme leader, operates independently of the regular military and has vast economic interests across the country. The U.S. estimates it may control or have a significant influence over up to 50% of the Iranian economy, including non-military sectors like banking and shipping.

Iran has long been designated a "state sponsor of terrorism" by the U.S. and the State Department currently designates more than 60 organizations as "foreign terrorist organizations." But none of them is a state-run military.

Iran immediately responded to the designation with its Supreme National Security Council designating the U.S. Central Command, also known as CENTCOM, and all its forces as terrorist, and labeling the U.S. a "supporter of terrorism."

The Council denounced the U.S. decision as "illegal and dangerous" and said the U.S. government would be responsible for all "dangerous repercussions" of its decision. It defended the IRGC, which has fought Islamic State fighters, as being a force against terrorism.

American military commanders were planning to warn U.S. troops remaining in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere in the region of the possibility of retaliation. Aside from Iraq, where some 5,200 American troops are stationed, and Syria, where some U.S. 2,000 troops remain, the U.S. 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.

The U.S. special envoy for Iran, Brian Hook, and the State Department's counterterrorism co-ordinator, Nathan Sales, said the decision was reached after consultation with agencies throughout the government but would not say in a news conference if the military or intelligence concerns had been addressed.

"Doing this will not impede our diplomacy," Hook said, without elaborating. He noted that the U.S. has at various times had contact or even formal negotiations with members of groups that are subject to sanctions.

Reaction from those who favour tougher engagement with Iran was quick and welcoming.

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"Thank you, my dear friend, US President Donald Trump," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a tweet, a day before what could be a close election. "Thank you for answering another of my important requests that serves the interests of our countries and of countries in the region."

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called the action an "overdue" but essential step that should be followed by additional sanctions.

Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the designation "ends the facade that the IRGC is part of a normal military."

And, the Iranian opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, called it "an imperative for Middle East security, peace, and stability, and an urgent and necessary step to end war and terrorism throughout the region and the world."

___

Susannah George in Washington; Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran and Aya Batrawy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates contributed to this report.
LONDON - Prime Minister Theresa May wooed domestic political opponents and European leaders Monday as she sought to break Britain's Brexit impasse and secure a delay to the country's departure from the European Union.

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FILE - In this March 29, 2019, file photo, Pro-Brexit leave the European Union supporters wave flags in Parliament Square at the end of the final leg of the "March to Leave" in London. Britain is set to leave the EU on April 12 without a Brexit agreement in place unless a plan is reached or the EU grants an extension. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)

LONDON - Prime Minister Theresa May wooed domestic political opponents and European leaders Monday as she sought to break Britain's Brexit impasse and secure a delay to the country's departure from the European Union.

May's Conservative government and the main opposition Labour Party were clinging to hope of finding a compromise Brexit deal, two days before EU leaders decide whether to grant an extension to the U.K.'s departure from the bloc. If they refuse, Britain faces a sudden and chaotic departure on Friday, the Brexit deadline previously set by the EU.

May has asked for a new delay until June 30, to give Britain's divided politicians time to agree, approve and implement a withdrawal agreement. The bloc's leaders are due to meet Wednesday in Brussels to consider the request.

FILE - In this April 2, 2019, file photo, Britain's Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn poses for the media with the Political Declaration setting out the framework for the future UK-EU relationship, in his office in his parliamentary office in London. Representatives of Corbyn and Prime Minister Theresa May have been holding talks on a compromised solution that would gain majority support in Parliament. (Stefan Rousseau/Pool Photo via AP, File)

An extension requires unanimous approval from all 27 EU national leaders, some of whom are fed up with Brexit uncertainty and reluctant to prolong it further. French President Emmanuel Macron has been particularly resistant to the idea of further delaying Brexit, saying the EU can't be held "hostage" to Britain's political crisis.

May's office said the prime minister spoke to multiple European leaders by phone Monday and will dash Tuesday to Berlin and Paris for face-to-face talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Macron.

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt urged European leaders to be co-operative, saying May "is totally and utterly determined to deliver Brexit."

"They want Brexit to be resolved as quickly as possible," Hunt said of the other 27 EU leaders. "So do we."

Former Foreign Minister, British lawmaker Boris Johnson wears a bicycle helmet as he arrives at the Houses of Parliament in London, Monday, April 8, 2019.(AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said he was "open to extending the deadline."

"There will be different views, but I am confident that we will reach agreement," he said after meeting chief EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier in Dublin.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, however, said May would have to convince EU leaders that Britain would continue "sincere co-operation" with the bloc if granted a delay. Some pro-Brexit British politicians have suggested the U.K. could try to disrupt EU policymaking if it remains a member much longer.

Almost three years after Britons voted by 52% to 48% to leave the EU, the country remains divided and the political process deadlocked.

A pro EU protestor takes a rest on a bench opposite the Houses of Parliament in London, Monday, April 8, 2019. Britain's government and opposition party are hoping to find an acceptable compromise Brexit deal, ahead of further talks with European Union leaders later this week.(AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

May and the EU agreed late last year on divorce terms, but the agreement has been rejected by Parliament three times. In desperation, May last week sought talks with the left-of-centre Labour Party.

Labour favours a softer Brexit than the government has proposed and seeks a close economic relationship with the bloc through a customs union  a trading area that sets common tariffs on imports while allowing free trade in goods moving between member states.

So far, the cross-party talks have failed to yield a breakthrough, but Labour politicians and government ministers were due to continue negotiations Tuesday.

"The government doesn't seem to be moving off its original red lines," Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said. "We are looking for movement."

Pro EU protestors demonstrate opposite the Houses of Parliament in London, Monday, April 8, 2019. Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May will hold talks with the leaders of Germany and France ahead of a key Brexit summit later this week. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

The EU would welcome a move by Britain to keep close post-Brexit economic ties. Barnier said Monday that the bloc was willing to be "much more ambitious in our future relationship" and would agree to a customs union arrangement.

The alternative of a no-deal Brexit threatens huge disruptions to trade and travel, with tariffs and customs checks causing gridlock at British ports and possible shortages of goods in the U.K.

It would also be tough for Ireland, the only EU member state to share 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.

Barnier said the EU would remain "fully behind Ireland."

EU's Chief Brexit Negotiator Michel Barnier, left, with Ireland's Prime Minister Leo Varadkar during a media conference at Government Buildings in Dublin, Ireland, Monday April 8, 2019. European Chief Brexit Negotiator Barnier is in Ireland for talks ahead of the full European Council meeting upcoming Wednesday. (Niall Carson/PA via AP)

"If the U.K. were to leave the EU without a deal, we would not discuss anything with the U.K. until there is an agreement for Ireland and Northern Ireland," he said.

It was unclear whether the cross-party talks in London would succeed. May's reach for compromise left her caught between angry Conservatives who accused her of throwing away Brexit, and Labour opponents mistrustful of her sudden change of heart.

Suggestions she might back a customs union infuriated pro-Brexit Conservatives, who say Britain must cut ties to the EU in order to forge an independent economic policy.

Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, a leading Brexiteer, said a customs union would "enslave" the U.K. He tweeted that it "cannot, must not and will not happen."

But others say May has little choice but to change her long-held Brexit positions, after lawmakers rejected her deal and also repeatedly ruled out leaving the bloc without an agreement.

Late Monday, Parliament passed a fast-tracked law that compels the government to seek a delay to Brexit rather than leave without a deal. May has already committed to doing that, but many lawmakers don't trust the government and passed the bill as an insurance policy.

While the government still intends for Britain to leave the EU in the next few months, it is also making plans to participate in European Parliament elections taking place across the bloc May 22-26.

The government announced Monday it had taken the legal step required to start preparations and set a May 23 date for the poll. It said the measure "does not make these elections inevitable as leaving the EU before the date of election automatically removes our obligation to take part."

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Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright said both Conservatives and Labour should compromise to make Brexit happen.

"There's some urgency to it, but I do think it's important for everyone to take their responsibilities seriously, whatever party they come from, and try and get to a point where we leave the EU, as people have said they wish to do, and to do it on the best possible terms," he told the BBC. "I think that's achievable."

___

Associated Press writer Jill Lawless reported this story in London and AP writer Raf Casert reported from Brussels. AP writer Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP's full coverage of Brexit at: https://www.apnews.com/Brexit
He made the affirmation at his meeting with Chairwoman of the National Assembly (NA) of Vietnam Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan in Doha, Qatar, on April 8, on the sidelines of the 140th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).

He said Kazakhstan is interested in boosting parliamentary cooperation with the Vietnamese NA, while informing that he plans to make an official visit to Vietnam at the invitation of Chairwoman Ngan at the end of this year.

The two countries conducted dialogues to step up their cooperation over the past time as 2019 marks the 27th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties, he noted.

Congratulating Kazakhstan on its successful election, NA Chairwoman Ngan said she is delighted that the countrys new leaders asserted their viewpoint of enhancing the cooperation with Vietnam.

She briefed the Kazakh leader on Vietnams socio-economic performance in 2018 and the countrys hosting of the second Summit between the US and the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, saying Vietnam and the NA are keen on cooperation priorities with Kazakhstan.

The leaders shared their joy that the bilateral political ties are growing, but pointed out that trade remains modest, failing to explore the respective potential and meet expectations.

As a direct air route between the two countries is still absent, NA Chairwoman Ngan suggested boosting aviation cooperation along with assessing the results of the implementation of Vietnam-Eurasian Economic Union Free Trade Agreement for making the best use of the deal.

She also suggested the organization of a Vietnam-Kazakhstan economic forum, exhibitions and fairs during the upcoming visit by Chairman Nurlan Nigmatulin for businesspeople to seek more cooperation opportunities.

Chairman Nurlan Nigmatulin said he will relay the proposal on aviation cooperation to the Kazakh Government as the cooperation would help create a new momentum for the two countries trade-economic partnership.

He suggested the economic forum be organized in both countries, asserting that the lower house of the Parliament will support the two governments in the issue.

The leader expressed his hope that Kazakhstan and Vietnam would sign a memorandum of understanding or a cooperation agreement to step up parliamentary cooperation during his upcoming Vietnam visit.

At the meeting, he handed over an invitation letter to Chairwoman Ngan inviting her to attend the fourth Meeting of Speakers of Eurasian Parliaments hosted by Kazakhstan.
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Sociedad Securitizadora, Santander Secretariat Services Limited, Santander Securities LLC, Santander Seguros y Reaseguros Compania Aseguradora S.A., Santander Servicios Corporativos S.A. de C.V., Santander Servicios Especializados S.A. de C.V., Santander Technology USA LLC, Santander Tecnologia e Inovacao Ltda., Santander Tecnologia Argentina S.A., Santander Tecnologia Espana S.L.U., Santander Tecnologia Mexico S.A. de C.V., Santander Totta SGPS S.A., Santander Totta Seguros Companhia de Seguros de Vida S.A., Santander Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych S.A., Santander Trade Services Limited, Santander UK Group Holdings plc, Santander UK Investments, Santander UK Operations Limited, Santander UK Plc, Santander UK Technology Limited, Santander Wealth Management International SA, Santander de Titulizacion S.G.F.T. S.A., Santusa Holding S.L., Services and Promotions Delaware Corp., Services and Promotions Miami LLC, Servicio de Alarmas Controladas por Ordenador S.A., Servicios de Cobranza Recuperacion y Seguimiento S.A. De C.V., Sheppards Moneybrokers Limited, Shiloh III Wind Project LLC, Sociedad Integral de Valoraciones Automatizadas S.A., Sociedad Operadora de Tarjetas de Pago Santander Getnet Chile S.A., Socur S.A., Sol Orchard Imperial 1 LLC, Solarlaser Limited, Sovereign Community Development Company, Sovereign Delaware Investment Corporation, Sovereign Lease Holdings LLC, Sovereign REIT Holdings Inc., Sovereign Spirit Limited (f), Sterrebeeck B.V., Suleyado 2003 S.L. Unipersonal, Summer Empreendimentos Ltda., Super Pagamentos e Administracao de Meios Eletronicos S.A., Superdigital Argentina S.A.U., Superdigital Colombia S.A.S., Superdigital Holding Company S.L., Superdigital Peru S.A.C., Suzuki Servicios Financieros S.L., Swesant SA, TIMFin S.p.A., TOPSAM S.A de C.V., Taxagest Sociedade Gestora de Participacoes Sociais S.A., Teatinos Siglo XXI Inversiones S.A., The Alliance & Leicester Corporation Limited, The Best Specialty Coffee S.L. Unipersonal, Time Retail Finance Limited (b), Tonopah Solar I LLC, Toque Fale Servicos de Telemarketing Ltda., Tornquist Asesores de Seguros S.A. (b), Totta (Ireland) PLC, Totta Urbe - Empresa de Administracao e Construcoes S.A., Trabajando.com Mexico S.A. de C.V. en liquidacion (b), Trabajando.com Peru S.A.C., Trans Rotor Limited (b), Transolver Finance EFC S.A., Tresmares Growth Fund Santander SCR S.A., Tresmares Santander Direct Lending SICC S.A., Tuttle and Son Limited, Universia Brasil S.A., Universia Chile S.A., Universia Colombia S.A.S., Universia Espana Red de Universidades S.A., Universia Holding S.L., Universia Mexico S.A. de C.V., Universia Peru S.A., Universia Uruguay S.A., Uro Property Holdings SOCIMI S.A., WIM Servicios Corporativos S.A. de C.V., WTW Shipping Designated Activity Company, Wallcesa S.A., Wave Holdco S.L., Waypoint Insurance Group Inc., and Wirecard (Technological Assets).
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.

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Actor Conner John Gillooly, who plays Dewey Finn in the musical "School of Rock," speaks during a press conference at Westin Chosun Seoul, Monday. Courtesy of S&Co



'School of Rock' to hit Korea in June



By Kwon Mee-yoo



It's time to rock. The recent Broadway hit musical "School of Rock" will embark on its first world tour starting in Seoul in June with energetic rock music and a touching story that everyone can relate to.



Shin Dong-won, producer of Korean production partner S&Co, said he becomes nervous when new shows approach opening even though he starts with confidence each time.



"The show is joyful and hilarious, and will linger on for a long time. I hope Korean audiences will resonate with School of Rock just like I did," Shin said during a press conference in Seoul, Monday.



The musical, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber ("The Phantom of the Opera") and book by "Downton Abbey" creator Julian Fellows, premiered on Broadway in 2015 and opened in London's West End in 2016.





Patrick O'Neill, associate director and choreographer of the musical "School of Rock," speaks during a press conference at Westin Chosun Seoul, Monday. Courtesy of S&Co



Patrick O'Neill, associate director and choreographer, said he is lucky to be able to share the show around the world.



"School of Rock tells a thrilling story about becoming one's true self with the gift you are given and support from parents and teachers," O'Neil. "This show is about tradition, expectation, stress and pressure. And how music can rescue us from all of that."



The 2003 film was a big hit, becoming the highest-grossing music-themed comedy at the time of release; and most notable was the strong impression from Jack Black. Black portrayed Dewey Finn, who becomes a substitute teacher after being kicked out of his rock band, and leads a group of prep school students to discover their musical talent and form their own band.



The musical carries the legacy of the film truthfully, with 14 new numbers written by Webber in addition to the three original songs from the movie.



"The differences are slight as we wanted to create a story of young actors, their parents and Dewey with equal importance. When you sit through the show, you will know that everyone has been made a better human being," O'Neil said. "The biggest difference is that there is a love story in the musical, which is not in the movie. No Andrew Lloyd Webber musical is complete without a great love song."









The current image of Webber, the most successful theater composer of our time who celebrated his 70th birthday last year, might be distant from the strong, bombastic rock music, but "School of Rock" gives a glimpse into the musical diversity of the world-class composer.



"People often forget that Andrew wrote Jesus Christ Superstar and Song and Dance. He is in fact the father of theatrical rock music," O'Neil pointed out. "Then he wrote Phantom and Cats, turning into a more symphonic composer. What is so special about School of Rock is that you will get a bit of everything from Webber from beautiful melodies to powerful rock music."



The actors will play Webber's music live on stage, which is a challenge but adds more liveliness to the show.



"The pressure coming with having to play an instrument on stage for adults is sometimes terrifying. What's so thrilling about young musicians playing on stage is that they don't understand that it is difficult yet. This fabulous group of young musicians will blow the roof of the theater every night," O'Neil said.





Conner John Gillooly will play Dewey Finn in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical "School of Rock" at the Charlotte Theater in Seoul from June. Courtesy of S&Co
Fraport AG operates airports in Germany, rest of Europe, Asia, and the United States. The company primarily focuses on the operation of Frankfurt Main airport. It operates through four segments: Aviation, Retail & Real Estate, Ground Handling, and International Activities & Services. The Aviation segment operates landside and airside infrastructure, which covers the area of airport charges. The Retail & Real Estate segment engages in retail activities, including marketing of real estate properties and land. This segment also manages buildings and facilities, and parking and retail areas; and rents advertising space. The Ground Handling segment provides loading, baggage, and passenger services through airmail and luggage transport to freight handling. The International Activities & Services segment acquires, operates, maintains, develops, and expands airports and infrastructure facilities. This segment also offers integrated facility and corporate infrastructure management, airport expansion south, and information and telecommunication services. Fraport AG was founded in 1924 and is headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

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Direct Line Insurance Group plc provides general insurance products and services in the United Kingdom. It operates through Motor, Home, Rescue and Other Personal Lines, and Commercial segments. The company offers motor, home, rescue, travel, creditor, and pet insurance products, as well as insurance for mid-to-high-net worth customers; and commercial insurance for small and medium-sized enterprises. It also provides management, motor vehicle repair, insurance intermediary, support and operational, legal, and breakdown recovery services. The company sells its insurance products directly through price comparison Websites and phone, as well as through partners and brokers under the Direct Line, Churchill, Green Flag, Direct Line for Business, DLG Partnerships, NIG, Privilege, Shotgun, DLG Legal Services, Darwin, and DLG Auto Services brands. The company was formerly known as RBS Insurance Group Limited and changed its name to Direct Line Insurance Group plc in February 2012. Direct Line Insurance Group plc was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Bromley, the United Kingdom.

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By Park Hyong-ki



The government needs to speed up pension reform as fast as the growth rate of its aging population and national debt, local and foreign analysts say.



The rapidly aging population and falling birthrate will make it harder to financially support the elderly through its existing pension system.



At the same time, the country inevitably needs more welfare and public safety workers, firemen and policemen amid increasing demand to boost security and protection.



The budget for safety has been "extremely low" in proportion to gross domestic product (GDP) over the years.



"Our fiscal position has been very strong, which has been recognized by the IMF and the OECD. What's concerning is the fast increase in the aging population and the debt," said Hong Sung-guk, an independent economist who heads Hyean Economic Research.



"The country does need more public workers in welfare and safety. And this would obviously increase the next generation's tax burden. Thus, we need to push forward pension reform as fast as the debt and the aging population are growing."



This comes as the outstanding debt reached nearly 1,700 trillion won ($1.5 trillion) in 2018.



More than half of the debt incurred from its future obligations to finance pensions for civil servants.



The record sovereign debt has raised concerns over its fiscal soundness and President Moon Jae-in's key pledge to create about 170,000 public jobs.



In a bid to alleviate such concerns and prevent further misinterpretation of the state accounts, the Ministry of Economy and Finance explained that its debt incurred from state bond issuances in proportion to the GDP remained low at 38.2 percent.



This part of the 742.8 trillion won debt burden must be shared by all citizens. And they won't have to cover the costs of financing the pensions for public workers.



Such pension costs will mostly be covered by the public workers' salaries, and the government's reserves will finance any shortfalls without burdening taxpayers, the ministry added.



Also, its annual pension spending has been maintained at less than 1 percent of the GDP over the past years, below the OECD average of 1.5 percent, it noted.



Analysts agreed the country's fiscal soundness and management is "intact."



They added any fears that Korea could end up in a crisis like countries such as Argentina are "totally groundless."



In fact, its debt-to-GDP ratio is so low that it needs to make room for more spending on improving social welfare and safety, including boosting elderly pensions.



"I understand the concerns, but the reality is Korea's public debt is among the lowest in the developed world," said Alicia Garcia-Herrero, chief economist at Natixis Asia Pacific.



"Korea has some space for welfare, and also I think this is needed. I do not fully agree with the minimum wage push, but I would agree to increasing minimum pension further for the elderly."



As part of the reform, the analysts added it would have to increase taxes at least toward the OECD average to finance future obligations.



Korea's tax burden ratio stands at 18.5 percent, below the OECD average of 25 percent.



"It has been very difficult to pursue tax hikes and pension reform because of politics, even though we have been aware of such economic needs for more than a decade," said Sun Dae-in, an independent economist who heads the SDInomics research center.



"We can no longer ignore them because of the aging and the growing demand for safety and welfare. Otherwise, our society will face a conflict in the future."



Prof. Mauro Guillen at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania agreed.



Although Korea does not need to carry out any emergency measures following the debt increase given its fiscal soundness, he said the government will need to make "adjustments" to taxes and spending due to the aging demographics.



"I do see problems with the aging population," said Guillen.



"If the economy grows at 3 or 4 percent, it is possible to reduce debt by not changing taxation and keeping government expenses at current levels, or perhaps cutting a little bit. But it's hard to keep on growing very fast."






A ban on unvaccinated children in public places in Rockland County, New York, was put on hold by a state judge on Friday.

The controversial ban went into effect late last month in an effort to contain an outbreak of measles that began in October. Nearly 170 cases have been confirmed in the county.

Judge Rolf Thorsen scheduled a hearing for April 19 and said the county is temporarily blocked from enforcing the ban.

"And petitioners' children are hereby permitted to return to their respective schools forthwith and otherwise to assemble in public places," he wrote.

The ruling came in response to lawsuits filed by the parents of local school children, with the parents calling the ban arbitrary and capricious and saying the county acted beyond its legal authority. The suits said the declaration caused "children to be denied attendance at nursery programs and schools and has effectively prohibited their movement and denied them the right to congregate and assemble in public places."

The outbreak began when an unvaccinated resident became infected while visiting Israel and returned with the disease. It has mostly affected observant Jewish neighborhoods.

"The county is disappointed that the court did not see this measles outbreak, unprecedented in scope over the past 30 years, as a crisis sufficient to warrant the need for a declaration of a state of emergency," County Attorney Thomas E. Humbach said.

He said the county was evaluating its next possible legal steps.

The judge wrote that the small percentage of cases in Rockland County didn't meet the definition of an epidemic that the law permitting emergency declarations requires.

Rockland County Executive Ed Day said they didn't want to wait for the number of cases to grow quickly.

"It is my view that waiting for a medical catastrophe is ill advised, particularly given the fact that we can see it coming," he said. He urged residents to get a free vacination through the county health department.

New York City has reported nearly 260 cases as of Friday from the outbreak, also in Orthodox Jewish communities, according to the city department of health.

The ban was put in place March 27 "to encourage everyone to do the right thing so we can stop this outbreak," John Lyon, a spokesman for Rockland County Executive Ed Day said at the time. He called the ban "extremely unusual."

Measles is a highly contagious virus that is prevented with the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. The CDC recommends that the two-dose vaccine be given first at 12 to 15 months of age and then between ages 4 and 6.

The outbreak in Rockland County is in its seventh month, according to Lyon, who said it has been the longest in the United States since before measles was declared eliminated in 2000.

Public places include synagogues, churches, schools, restaurants, stores and public buses, according to the county.

Children who are current with the vaccine schedule but not fully vaccinated against measles because they are not old enough are exempt from the order.

The order does not apply to people who are older than 18 so that residents can go to work but unvaccinated adults are also encouraged to get vaccinated, according to county officials.

Nearly 17,000 vaccinations have been administered in the county during the outbreak.

The outbreak has mainly been isolated in a couple of communities within Rockland County, which is just north of New York City, but the whole community is at risk, Day said, noting that there have been complications among patients, including a premature labor and a handful of hospitalizations.

The CDC has reported nearly 387 cases of measles in 15 states this year, as of March 28.
A group representing LGBT rights met in a high-level meeting Friday at the Vatican to ask for Pope Francis' support for the decriminalization of homosexuality.

Approximately 50 international representatives traveled to Rome to share with the Pope their preliminary research on human rights violations in the Caribbean, where the groups did research on LGBT rights in 10 jurisdictions.

The group was met by the Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who said he would pass on the information to Pope Francis, according to the Vatican's spokesman.

In a statement following the meeting, the group said that they called on the Catholic Church to "work for the decriminalization of homosexuality and for the abolition of all forms of punishment for consented intimate sexual acts between adults."

In addition, the group asked the Catholic Church to "call upon all states to declare illegal the application of the so-called conversion 'cure' therapies."

The group includes members of the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights, United Nations Latin American Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders and the International Bar Association.

The Vatican meeting came amid an international outcry over new laws in Brunei that will punish adultery and homosexual sex with death.

In 2008, the Vatican restated its opposition to discrimination against homosexuals, as stated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

"The well-known principles of respect for the fundamental right of the person and the rejection of all unjust discrimination -- recognized clearly by the Catechism of the Catholic Church itself -- evidently exclude not only the death penalty, but all violent or discriminatory penal legislations in relation to homosexuals," a Vatican spokesman said at the time.

In 2016, Pope Francis said the Catholic Church owes LGBT people an apology.

"I repeat what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says: that they must not be discriminated against, that they must be respected and accompanied pastorally," Francis said at a press conference aboard the papal plane.

"The Church must ask forgiveness for not behaving many times -- when I say the Church, I mean Christians! The Church is holy, we are sinners!"

Those comments followed Francis 2013 question -- Who am I to judge gay people? -- which were hailed as a breakthrough for a church that has historically condemned homosexuality, often in harsh terms.

Francis has not changed church doctrine that calls homosexual acts sinful, but he has shown a more merciful approach to people on the margins, including gays and lesbians.

The group representing LGBT rights have asked the Vatican to "issue a public statement in which the official policy of the Holy See is clarified."

According to the group, the meeting was originally scheduled with Pope Francis but changed at the last minute. The Vatican did not respond to a request for clarification on the change.
CLINTON, N.Y. -- Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul visited Hamilton College Monday in an effort to promote Governor Andrew Cuomo's proposed legislation to improve women's rights in New York state.

Hochul spoke to a large panel of women at Hamiltons Levitt Center.

Cuomo's 2019 women's justice agenda is a set of proposals that include the elimination of the statute of limitations for rape claims, and updates New Yorks equal pay law.

Hochul is urging women, and all New Yorkers for that matter, to contact their state legislators to let their voices be heard about passing this set of bills.

"I do believe 100 years ago it was a strong sense that we need it change to make sure that women have the right to vote. And then there was the so-called women's rights movement in the 60s, where women simply were trying to be treated and paid the same as men back then and have equal rights in the workplace. I think the women today are very alert and they're engaged in their impassioned to do something about the status quo, Hochul said.

Hochul hopes the women's justice legislation will be passed by the Legislature during the current legislative session.
Brian Pantola of Clayville is in Miami, Florida this week. He's not on a vacation, but instead is he is reliving the alleged events that lead up to his sister's brutal murder back in 1977.

NEWSChannel two's Gary Liberatore met with two cold-case detectives from Miami three years ago, when they were in town to inform Brian and his family there was an arrest in the murder of his sister, Debra Clark. Clark was killed in her condo in Coral Gables, Florida.

Pantola said he's been waiting 42 years for justice, and that the wait has been excruciating for his entire family.

"Having such an unknown in your life for decade after decade after decade and then all of a sudden we got that phone call almost 3 and a half years ago, and now to experience, it's just surreal it's really happening," Pantola told Liberatore over the phone Sunday morning.

Pantola, his wife, his sister and his nephew willbe in court in Miami until a verdict is reached. He says that could happen later this week.

"It's encouraging. It's scary. You're happy, you're sad, you're feeling all the emotions," Pantola said.

He and his family have gone to the places to see where his sister lived.

"We went and saw where she lived yesterday," he said. "We went and saw where she worked and those kinds of things. After four-plus decades, it's amazing it's really amazing."

Debra is Pantola's older sister. She moved to Florida in 1975.

She was a nurse at Coral Gables Hospital and met an older man in his thirties - a real estate developer named Allen Bregman - who was married.

In court last week, the Miami Herald took video of the prosecution's opening statement. They allowed NEWSChannel 2 to use that video.

In it, we see Prosecutor Lara Penn. Penn said, "The defendant convinced Clark to take out a life insurance policy with the defendant as the beneficiary. The defendant knew he had to deal with the biggest problem and a divorce."

Prosecutors claim Bregman killed Clark after his wife found out about the affair.

Penn said, "He became enraged and he lost control. He became enraged, he shot her. He beat her with his hands and with a gun and he beat her with that gun so hard that the plastic gun grips fell apart in pieces."

The prosecution also says Bregman bought the condo for Clark to live in, and for them to continue their affair in, while he was still living with his wife.

"He goes through that townhouse and he eliminates all traces of himself-- shoes, clothing, photos, it's all gone when the police found her body on August 6, 1977 or so he thought," Penn said. "What he didn't realize was during that vicious beating of Clark he left one hair on her lifeless, dead body."

Defense Attorney Charles White said,"Alan Bregman did not kill the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. Alan Bregman did not kill his girlfriend because his wife wanted to divorce."

Pantola says his sister Debra actually received an engagement ring from Bregman, even though he hadn't left his wife yet, which Pantola says was the plan.

We will follow this trial with communication from Pantola this week.
UTICA, N.Y. -- A Utica teen accused of shooting and killing another Utica teen, last summer, admitted to the crime.

Jorge Campos was originally charged with manslaughter. A new, upgraded charge of murder came in February of this year.

Campos was supposed to be in court for "answer and argument" with the judge Monday, and instead, he entered a guilty plea.

Stefan Medina, 17, was shot and killed on Elizabeth Street.

Campos faces 23 years in prison when he's sentenced May 24.




By Kim Bo-eun







Kyobo Life Insurance put up a banner of portraying pictures of nine activists who fought for Korea's independence during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule, outside its headquarters in central Seoul, Monday.







The banner was put up marking the 100th anniversary of the establishment of Korea's provisional government in Shanghai on April 11, 1919.







The pictures of the nine activists  Kim Koo, Kim Sang-ok, Ahn Chang-ho, Nam Ja-hyun, Ahn Jung-geun, Yoon Bong-gil, Lyuh Woon-hyung, Lee Bong-chang and Yu Gwan-sun  stretch across the banner which is 90 meters in width and 17 meters in length.







The display is a joint project with a government-affiliated committee to commemorate the March 1 Independence Movement and the establishment of the provisional government's 100th anniversary this year.







Kyobo Life is the only private company to take part in the committee's project.







Kyobo Life Insurance Chairman Shin Chang-jae's father and founder Shin Yong-ho, the chairman's grandfather Shin Ye-beom and great uncle Shin Yong-guk joined independence movements.







Marking the 100th anniversary of the March 1 Independence Movement this year, the life insurance company put up a large scale Taegeukgi outside their headquarters on Feb. 27.







"The sacrifices and dedication of independence activists has made the Korea of today," a Kyobo Life official said. "Kyobo Life is gladly taking part in commemorating the 100th anniversary of the provisional government's establishment, as a company founded by an independence activist."







The design of the banner is from graffiti artist Leodav's series on martyrs who dedicated their lives to independence activism. The artist has been creating graffiti work of independence activists since 2013.







Leodav's work was also put up outside the Seoul Government Complex and Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Gwanghwamun.


WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - A former Purdue student is heading to prison for selling drugs from Owen Residence Hall.

Sawyer Doup of Indianapolis was sentenced to two years in the Indiana Department of Corrections, two years on Tippecanoe County Community Corrections and two years on supervised probation. Doup was convicted of Dealing in a Controlled Substance.

As News 18 previously reported, Doup was arrested in December 2017 after police received a report of drug activity in Owen Residence Hall.

Police learned a female student had been taken to the hospital after smoking "dab." It's a wax-like substance extracted from marijuana with high THC.

Prosecutors said the girl's boyfriend told investigators he got the substance from a dealer in Owen Residence Hall. Police said the investigation turned up 125 hits of LSD and 1 gram of "dab."

Prosecutors said Doup admitted he was selling LSD.
MONTICELLO, Ind (WLFI) Nearly 20 fire departments were in Monticello on Sunday, learning how to properly deal with accidents that involve machinery.

"We have a lot of agriculture around here so we always have that possibility of somebody getting caught in an auger or a grinder," said Monticello Fire Chief Galon Logan.

The Monticello Fire Department is in district four, which is made up of nine counties that surround Tippecanoe County. The district's goal is to bring training to all fire departments.

"Today's class is called man versus machine," said Logan. "We have seven instructors from a fire department in New York."

The instructors are a part of PL Vulcan Fire Training Concepts, a group dedicated to training departments all over the country on how to handle someone trapped in machinery.

"We're training firefighters to take tools they may already carry on fire trucks and use them in ways they didn't think about using them," said PL Vulcan Fire Training Instructor Jimmy Adams.

Adams said this information is essential to any fire department.

"Someone gets their hand stuck in a meat grinder, it's not like you can back their hand out," said Adams. "You have to remove the machine from around their hand."

Firefighter Justin Sparrow said he has experienced an accident very similar to Sunday's simulation.

"We had a guy who had his arm rolled up about two times into a shaft," said Sparrow.

He said the information he received today will help create better solutions.

"It's always nice to have a few tricks in your bag to use," said Sparrow.

The seats for this simulation filled within three days. Volunteer Firefighter Doug Corbell said he was happy to have a place in today's training.

"I got all kinds of ideas running through my head now," said Corbell. "With tools and stuff that we could probably use on our rescue truck."

Firefighters rotated through five different stations involving machinery entrapments. Chief Logan said the benefit behind it all will make a difference.

"When the hospital calls us to come into the emergency room and help remove a ring we'll have the tools and the training to do it," said Logan.

Some of the fire departments in attendance were West Lafayette and Crawfordsville.
WHITE COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI) There has been an update from Wildcat Creek Wildlife Center regarding the bald eagle's condition.

Registered vet tech and CEO Carol Blacketer said the eagle was treated for shock this weekend and sedated with a full exam, X-rays, and blood lead testing.

Blacketer said the eagle wasn't struck by a vehicle or injured by a power line.

"This 10.89Ib eagle had been in a fight," said Blacketer. "There are a few puncture wounds and a lot of blood that obviously came from the other bird."

Blacketer said there are no fractures according to the X-rays.

Blacketer also said the X-ray did not express that the eagle was incubating eggs or chicks. Although, the gender of the bird is still unknown.

"The eagle is very stiff and sore, and doesn't want to fly right now," said Blacketer. "All soft tissue injuries will heal."

Below you can read the full story leading up to Wildcat Creek Wildlife Center's rescue:

A bird that people, and especially Americans, are always on the look out for paid a visit to a White County neighborhood. People living in the Lehe Addition neighborhood had an up close encounter.

"We never seen bald eagles or anything like that in this area," said neighbor Randy Jefferies.

A bald eagle was standing in the front lawn of Randy Jefferies' neighbor.

"It was probably two to two and a half feet tall. I mean it was, it was big," said Jefferies.

Neighbors thought the bird was just stopping for a snack but after realizing the bird couldn't stretch its seven foot wings, they knew something was wrong.

"We noticed it had kind of hopped behind the neighbor's house and it was trying to fly and couldn't take off," said Jefferies. "At that point we knew it was injured."

Neighbor Caitlin Hirsch stepped in to help. Rescuing big birds is her forte.

"I'm actually qualified to do that," said Hirsch. "I worked for the Birds of Prey Foundation in Broomfield, Colorado for almost eight years."

She now volunteers for Wildcat Creek Wildlife Center in Carroll County. Since living here, she's rescued plenty of birds but not ones this big.

"An eagle might eat your chihuahua if it was really hungry," said Hirsch. "Eight pounds of eagle is like eight pounds of fury so when you are trying to catch one that doesn't feel very good you're like, oh I forgot those are very long talons that you have."

Although, with help from the neighbors, the bird was captured safely.

"Moving slowly, getting close enough to get a towel over it, once you get a towel over it, you control its head and its wings and we were able to get it into a dog crate," said Hirsch.

Things like cars and power lines could cause a bird this size to be injured. Although once the eagle is found, there are state laws about what the next steps are.

"If a facility has the ability to support a bird and that bird is not releasible because of the nature of its injuries, with a permit they might be able to keep that bird," said Hirsch. "If its temperament is right it would be an animal ambassador."

The bird is now in rehabilitation at the Wildcat Creek Wildlife Center in Carroll County.

Click here to learn more about Wildcat Creek Wildlife Center and how you can donate to this non-profit rescue.
GREATER LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI)  The Jewish community kicked off its Holocaust Remembrance Conference with a ceremony Saturday, Apr. 6.

Community members gathered at Temple Israel in West Lafayette for the memorial candle lighting.

For the next week educators, Jewish leaders and performers will lead activities to honor Holocaust victims. This is something the community has done for nearly 40 years.

Sarah Powley is a local high school educator who's spearheading this year's conference. She said this week's activities aren't just for the Jewish community.

The whole point is to embrace all of mankind and particularly, of course, we're honoring the victims of the Holocaust but that's an occasion to think to about embracing everyone, said Powley.

She hopes conference attendees leave with a better understanding.

We want to foster a sense of community and a sense of the fact that it's everybody's responsibility to join together and make a harmonious community, said Powley.

You can find the schedule here.
Woori Financial Group Chairman Sohn Tae-seung, right, poses with Tongyang Life Insurance CEO Luo Jianrong after agreeing to acquire ABL Global Asset Management and Tongyang Asset Management at a Woori Bank branch in central Seoul, Friday. Courtesy of Woori Financial Group



By Park Hyong-ki



Woori Financial Group has sealed a package deal to acquire two mid-tier nonbanking firms, the holding company said Monday.



The group has signed a share purchase agreement (SPA) with China's Anbang Group to buy the latter's Tongyang Asset Management and ABL Global Asset Management at the same time.



This marks Woori Financial's first deal in the three months since it was launched as a financial holding company



Anbang Asset Management based in Hong Kong wholly owns ABL. Tongyang Life Insurance has a 73 percent stake in Tongyang Asset Management, according to ABL and Tongyang Life's audit filings. Tongyang Life is owned by Anbang Life Insurance and Anbang Group. JP Morgan was Anbang's lead manager.



Woori Financial did not disclose the acquisition price, but it has been reported that the group offered to buy them both for 170 billion won ($167 million).



As soon as it completes the purchase, the group said it will seek to acquire real estate trust management, credit financing, mutual savings bank and brokerage companies.



Its next SPA is expected to involve Kukje Asset Trust, a privately-held real estate management company.



The group has begun due diligence of Kukje following a recent agreement for the two sides to move forward in their negotiations.



Kukje Chairman Yoo Jae-eun and his family and associates hold a combined 65.7 percent stake in the real estate trust. Woori Bank has a 6.5 percent stake in Kukje.



"We cannot disclose the details of ongoing deals. But as Chairman Sohn Tae-seung has said, the company will be further eyeing nonbanks," said a Woori spokesman.



"The business demand for asset management is growing. The group will focus on this area to build its nonbanking portfolio by maximizing synergy among its subsidiaries."



Asset management's profitability measured by return on equity has been standing stably at 10 percent over the years, according to Woori Financial.



Chairman Sohn said in a press release that with ABL, Tongyang and other future nonbank targets, Woori aims to become "a financial group that provides comprehensive financial services."



Other nonbanks Woori could be interested in acquiring include Aju Capital, which owns Aju Savings Bank.



This is because Woori bank has invested in Aju Capital through a special purpose company (SPC), which holds a 74.04 percent stake in the credit financing firm. Woori Bank has a 49.98 percent stake in the SPC, according to Aju Capital's financial statements.



Analysts say Woori Financial's nonbanking diversification will further boost its profitability.



"Its acquisition drive is expected to increase its earnings in the second half," said Kim In, an analyst at Eugene Investment & Securities.



The state-run Korea Deposit Insurance Corp. (KDIC) has an 18.4 percent stake in the group.






At months end, Ken Wagner is wrapping up his tenure as Rhode Islands commissioner of secondary and elementary education.
The Chinese Civil War was a violent armed conflict that took place for the better part of the first half of the 20th century in China. The belligerents involved in the civil war were the Kuomintang party which was supported by the United States and the Communist Party of China which was supported by the Soviet Union. After the confrontations between the two ended in the 1950s, Kuomintang was forced to retreat from Chinas mainland and settle in neighboring Taiwan. The Communist Party of China, which emerged victorious, established the Peoples Republic of China led by Mao Zedong. The two countries are technically still at war with each other as there is yet to be a peace treaty signed by the belligerents. Estimates of the cost of the war during the Chinese Civil War range between 1.8 million to 8 million deaths, earning the civil war a place as one of historys bloodiest armed conflicts.

Background and Start of the Civil War

While the focus is usually on the conflict between 1946 and 1950, the Chinese Civil War started back in 1927. Before the start of the civil war, China had entered the 20th century as a new nation emerging from another bloody civil war in the aftermath of the collapse of the Qing Dynasty. Yuan Shikai, the then president of The Peoples Republic of China, had managed to hold the nation together. Upon Shikais death in 1916, the country was embroiled in a messy succession tussle from which rose two parties, the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Kuomintang. While the two parties would temporarily merge to form the First United Front, disagreements saw the union disintegrate. The Kuomintang held political power in the country but faced resistance from its left-wing movement and the CPC. Backed by the Soviet Union, the CPC would start an armed resistance against the Kuomintang government in 1927. Mao Zedong led the armed resistance against the Kuomintang government.

Result

The fall of Chengdu was the fatal blow that effectively ended military resistance from the ROC. However, fighting would continue in a few regions of mainland China. The ROC retreated to Taiwan where the government of the Republic of China was established, whose seat of power would be domiciled in Taipei, the ROCs new capital city. On his part, Mao Zedong announced in October 1949 the founding of the Peoples Republic of China and moved its seat of power to Beiping. Beiping would later be renamed to its original name, Beijing.

The Taiwan Strait Crisis

However, the military action would persist in the 1950s, culminating in the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis of 1958 when the two warring factions commenced naval engagements against each other, with the islands of Amoy and Quemoy being heavily bombarded. The ROC, which was supplied with fighter jets by the United States, was unsuccessful in its resolve to bomb Chinas mainland. After decades of relative peace on the Taiwan Strait, tensions would again rise between 1995 and 1996 during the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis when mainland China tested missiles near Taiwan in what was seen as an expression of military might.




By Kim Bo-eun







MetLife Korea has launched "360Health," a comprehensive policy to revamp its healthcare service, the insurer said, Monday.







The Korean unit of the U.S.-based insurance giant said that the new policy enables customers to get a comprehensive service that supports them in the prevention of illnesses and offers access to treatment, ongoing care and financial support.







The new policy is MetLife's new health sub-brand launched in countries across Asia including Korea, China, and Japan.







"Through 360Health, MetLife aims to provide end-to-end health policies to help customers prevent, diagnose, treat, and manage illnesses," the company said in a press release.







The firm said that an insurance policyholder whose coverage exceeds 50 million won ($43,718) gets access to the comprehensive healthcare service.







Available services are categorized into healthcare standard, healthcare family and healthcare premium.







"Our customers value their health and quality of life as they value lifespan," MetLife Korea CEO Song Yong-rok said.







"Through 360 Health, we will assist customers in leading a healthy, happy life."







The new service came after the insurer's survey recently found that 71 percent of Korean respondents said they would rather have a shorter, healthy life over a longer life with an illness.







Compared to the figures of Japan (53 percent) and China (65 percent), Koreans are more concerned about their quality of life than about how long they live.


An F-35A stealth fighter jet arrives at an air base in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, March 29. Courtesy of Defense Acquisition Program Administration



By Jung Da-min



North Korea's media criticized the Republic of Korea Air Force's recent deployment of F-35A stealth fighter jets, saying it went against efforts to improve inter-Korean relations.



On March 29, two F-35As arrived at a military air base in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, marking the first delivery of a total of 40 F-35As ordered by the South Korean government from U.S. aerospace and defense giant, Lockheed Martin.



North Korean websites Uriminzokkiri and Arirang-Meari in articles published on Sunday and Monday, respectively, introduced the F-35A as a state-of-the-art weapon. The propaganda outlets also claimed the South's plan to deploy it was a hostile act that heightened military tension on the Korean Peninsula, comparing it to actions taken by the administration of former President Park Geun-hye.



"We pledged to cooperate with the South Korean authorities to open up a new era of peace, and made our stance clear that joint military exercises as well as bringing in war equipment from outside  sources of intensification of military tension in the Korean Peninsula  should be ceased completely," stated Uriminzokkiri.






In a vicious attack on free speech last week, three University of Arizona (UA) students were arrested and charged with criminal offenses for verbally disrupting a career fair featuring US Border Patrol agents.

Denise Moreno Melchor, a 20-year-old University of Arizona student, alongside fellow students Mariel Alexandra Bustamante, 22, and Marianna Ariel Coles-Curtis, 27, have all been charged by the UA Police with a Class 1 misdemeanor for interference with the peaceful conduct of an educational institution. In Arizona, a Class 1 misdemeanor is the most serious misdemeanor offense. It is punishable by up to six months in jail and three years probation, along with a $2,500 fine plus surcharges.

At the career fair event on March 19, a young woman, who took video footage behind a slightly opened door, is heard saying, They allow murderers to be on campus, where I pay to be here. She repeats this statement several times, and adds that these agents are Murder Patrol and an extension of the KKK. She goes on to question these agents with a tone of indignation and anger: How about you talk about slashing water? How about you talk about taking the shoes off migrants, letting them walk through the desert barefoot? How about you talk about all the graves of unidentified folks?

There are in fact mass graves of hundreds of migrants who have died of starvation and exposure in attempts to cross through the border desert. Border agents have also been documented deliberately destroying water caches left in the border region to increase the chances that border crossers would die en route. Immigrants are now also dying in Border Patrol custody, including a 7-year-old boy and 8-year-old girl, both from Guatemala, who died within three weeks of one another in December. The nickname Murder Patrol is an apt one.

The arrest of the three women coincides with an intensification of the Trump administrations attack on immigrants. Since assuming office in 2017, the Trump administration has presided over a large-scale militarization of the border, including through the imposition of an emergency declaration which diverts billions from the Department of Defense to build more than 400 miles of additional border fencing. The president has also deployed troops to the border against the alleged invasion of a caravan of impoverished Central American workers. President Donald Trump himself lamented that the troops could not fire live rounds at the asylum seekers, at least not yet.

The latest repressive activities at the border are only the culmination of a long history of terror and thuggery under Democratic and Republican administrations alike.

The formation of the Border Patrol coincided with the 1924 Immigration Act, which effectively eliminated immigration from Asia and sharply reduced arrivals from Southern and Eastern Europe. Before 1924, the United States had an open border with Mexico. However, a series of supplementary laws, including one that made it a crime to enter the US outside official ports of entry, gave border agents authority to determine on the spot who could enter the country.

Initial recruitment for the US Border Patrol consisted of men who either had prior military experience, were transfers from border-town police departments, or were members of the Texas Rangers. The patrol was initially only a few hundred agents, but as it expanded it began to recruit far-right elements, including from members of the Ku Klux Klan.

From the 1950s on, the Border Patrol began a process of intensified militarization. Senior Border Patrol agent John P. Longan was called to run Operation Wetback, a mass deportation scheme in 1954. The interrogation and military intelligence techniques developed through this operation were used to train foreign police through CIA-linked public safety programs. The Border Patrol had transformed into such a militaristic organization that in the 1970s, the US government used the Border Patrol Academy in Los Fresnos, Texas, to train puppet Latin American security forces.

Investigative journalists like John Crewdson had reported on Border Patrol abuse in the 1980s. He had found that Border Patrol agents regularly engaged in beatings, murder, torture, and rape, including the rape of girls as young as 12. Migrants were handcuffed to cars and made to run alongside the border, agents pushed immigrants off of a cliff so as to make it look like an accident, and other acts of savagery were commonplace.

The trend of militarization continued after the 1993 signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement and years later with the creation of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security after the 9/11 attacks.

Far from bringing civility to this barbaric organization, the Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama ramped up deportations and poured billions into border security. Now the Border Patrol is controlled by openly fascistic elements installed by PTrump, who has further increased border militarization and created torture centers called ICE Detention Facilities, where over a dozen immigrants have died and thousands are subject to excruciating conditions, all in the name of border security.

The three UA protesters have received no support whatsoever from campus administration. In fact, it has been quite the opposite. In a cowardly capitulation, University of Arizona President Robert Robbins came to the defense of UA Police Chief Brian Seastone, saying in an interview with the Arizona Republic that he feels confident that the police chief exercised discretion in making these charges. Robbins went further and said, It was a difficult decision, but I think he weighed all the factors and made the difficult decision to charge these students based on the letter of the law.

Enriched by the increasing costs and debt burdens on students and parents, campus presidents such as Robbins (salary of $1 million per year) have a financial incentive to crack down on student opposition. Trumps signing of an executive order to protect free speech on college campuses on March 25, which ties federal grant money to a universitys subservience to White House dictates, gives college administrators an incentive to criminalize a left-wing students practice of free speech.

The incident at UA is certainly not an isolated one. Last August, the Berkeley Police Department at the University of California-Berkeley posted to its Twitter account the names, ages, photos and residences of 15 anti-fascist protesters. That event followed the announcement that all student activities on campus had to first be reviewed and approved by campus police.

In response to the arrests and the actions of the UA administration, over 300 faculty members have supported a call for the university to protect the accused students. On April 4 dozens of students at Arizona State University protested the presence of immigration enforcement agents in solidarity with the students of UA.

As the rallies held by the Socialist Equality Party and the International Youth and Students for Social Equality in defense of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange and whistleblower Chelsea Manning show, there is great support within the working class and among students for the defense of social protest.

The defense of the UA students and all those opposed to the repressive activities of the Border Patrol and their bosses in the Democratic and Republican parties requires the independent mobilization of the working class and student youth on a socialist and internationalist program.
Over the weekend, the Ecuadorian government issued a statement denying that it was going to imminently expel Julian Assange from its London embassy. This followed mounting opposition to its threats to terminate the WikiLeaks founders political asylum, including from United Nations bodies and other international rights organisations.

The statement was in response to WikiLeaks warning last Friday that it had received information from a high-level source within the Ecuadorian state that the government of President Lenin Moreno would expel Assange from the embassy, where he sought political asylum in 2012, within hours or days.

Julian Assange

Significantly, the Ecuadorian statement did not deny that it had been preparing to evict Assange from the building. Nor did it give any guarantee that he would not be removed and forced into the custody of British police at some point in the future, only that it would not take place imminently. As WikiLeaks supporters have noted, imminent is a vague word that can be interpreted in different ways.

The statement also did not repudiate comments by the countrys foreign minister, Jose Valencia, on Friday, that his government had the right to unilaterally end political asylum, even though such action is in violation of international law.

It twice referenced the fact that WikiLeaks tweeted reports on the INA papers, documents which implicate the Moreno government in corruption, perjury and fraud. The regime has used the papers as a pretext for the stepped-up attacks on Assange, by making unsubstantiated claims that he was responsible for leaking them to an Ecuadorian opposition lawmaker last February.

The ongoing dangers confronting Assange were underscored by the entrance of two armed British police officers into the embassy on Sunday morning. It is not known what they did in the building for the several minutes they were inside.

WikiLeaks supporters who are maintaining a continuous protest in defence of Assange outside the embassy have documented large numbers of British police and what appear to be undercover operatives in the area.

This morning, Cassandra Fairbanks, an online journalist, filmed an unmarked car inexplicably shining a light, attached near one of its wheels, at the embassy. She tweeted that one of the operatives left the vehicle and asked assembled journalists what publications they were from, before calling it in.

The threatening police activities follow WikiLeaks allegation, over the weekend, that the British and Ecuadorian governments had already agreed to a strategy for Assanges eviction.

The document made clear that the WikiLeaks founder would be immediately arrested by British police on trumped-up bail charges. This would facilitate extradition proceedings to the US, which is pursuing Assange for his role in WikiLeaks exposure of American war crimes, mass surveillance and illegal diplomatic intrigues.

More information has come to light about the sordid machinations leading up to the heightened threats to oust Assange from the embassy.

The UNs first Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy, Joseph Cannataci, has published a timeline of his attempts to meet Assange. It suggests that a significant factor in the Ecuadorian governments efforts to terminate the WikiLeaks founders asylum, was that its gagging and surveillance of him were coming under UN and wider international scrutiny.

According to Cannataci, he received an email notice and evidentiary documentation of a complaint by Assange and his legal team on March 29 alleging that the regime had violated his privacy. WikiLeaks lawyers have previously claimed that the Moreno regime was spying on Assange, on behalf of US intelligence agencies.

Cannatacis attempts to meet with Assange on that day were unsuccessful, because the embassy did not answer or return his calls.

On the night of March 31, Cannataci emailed Ecuadorian authorities requesting a meeting with Assange. He did not receive any response throughout April 1.

On April 2, the Ecuadorian ambassador to Britain, Jaime Marchan, replied that the request for a meeting had been relayed to authorities in the capital. Shortly after, Cannataci received a complaint from Moreno, accompanied by a signed letter from the Foreign Minister Valencia, claiming that Assange had violated the Ecuadorian presidents privacy.

The same day, Moreno gave a hysterical interview, claiming that Assange had personally hacked the contents of his iPhone and Gmail accounts, which are among the INA papers, and that the WikiLeaks founder was responsible for the corruption scandal engulfing his government.

Marchan did not explicitly acknowledge or respond to Cannatacis further request for a meeting with Assange on April 3, preventing it from going ahead. Within days, WikiLeaks claimed to have received information that Assange was about to be evicted from the embassy.

The timeline presents a damning picture of a corrupt and crisis-ridden regime, seeking to cover-up its violations of the human rights of a refugee publisher and journalist with lies, evasions and dirty intrigues. It explains why, many weeks after the publication of the INA papers, senior government figures suddenly began claiming Assange was responsible for the leaks. The Moreno regime knows that Assange had nothing to do with the leaking, because it cut off his internet access and communications in March 2018.

There is no doubt that these machinations were conducted in close collaboration with the US government, which has close ties to the Moreno regime.

The Ecuadorian threats coincide with the Trump administrations jailing of Chelsea Manning. The US government has detained the courageous whistleblower, who leaked the US armys Iraq and Afghan war logs and hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks in 2010, for refusing to give perjured testimony against Assange before a Grand Jury.

This indicates that the Trump administration does not have a legal case for Assanges extradition that could withstand judicial scrutiny. The ongoing exposure of the illegal intrigues of the Ecuadorian and British authorities will also complicate their attempts to terminate Assanges asylum.

WikiLeaks determination to defend Assange and defeat the conspiracy against him found powerful expression in an interview with one of his lawyers, Jennifer Robinson, on Channel Sevens Sunrise program in Australia, on Saturday.

Robinson noted that Assange had been granted asylum by the previous Ecuadorian government for publishing information about war crimes, human rights abuses and corruption by governments around the world. She recalled that Assange had received the Sydney Peace Prize and a Walkley Award for outstanding journalism in 2011.

Robinson warned that it was a serious situation that an Australian journalist faces prosecution in the United States, for publishing activities. If it was Egypt, or Turkey, the Australian government would be criticising it and standing up for its citizen, she said, and asked, Why isnt the Australian government doing it in this case?

Robinson stated that Assange had been compelled to seek asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in 2012, because the then Labor government had not protected him. She called for the Australian government to intervene to secure Assanges safe passage to Australia with a guarantee against extradition to the US.

Significantly, one of the hosts of the program stated that the Australian government clearly needs to do more. Her colleague expressed concern over Assanges deteriorating health.

To secure the elementary demand outlined by Robinson requires the building of a mass political movement of workers, students, young people and all defenders of civil liberties, to force the Australian government to fulfil its responsibilities to Assange. This crucial fight is inseparable from the broader struggle against the turn by governments internationally to online censorship and authoritarianism, amid mass hostility to war and inequality, and an upsurge of the class struggle.
In back-to-back interventions this week, the current and former top Democrats in Washington called for the party to move even further to the right. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former President Barack Obama were singing from the same hymn book, disparaging rhetorical calls for Medicare for all and other reform policies in favor of a conservative, pro-business approach.

Pelosi led the way in an interview with the Washington Post, in which she dismissed the Medicare for all proposal pushed by a number of candidates for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination as well as members of her own caucus in the House of Representatives. Accepting the $32 trillion price tag placed on the proposal by a right-wing think tank, Pelsoi said that both the cost and the potential benefits of the plan remained to be explained. Im agnostic, she told the Post. Show me how you think you can get there.

The House speaker said she preferred a plan based on the Affordable Care Actthe reactionary program enacted under the Obama administration in 2010, which aims to cut spending on health care while safeguarding the profits of the drug and health insurance companiesto any new system.

When most people say theyre for Medicare for all, I think they mean health care for all, Pelosi said. Lets see what that means. A lot of people love having their employer-based insurance and the Affordable Care Act gave them better benefits.

Pelosi rejected the notion that the Democratic Party had moved to the left since the Obama presidency, claiming that it was just a few people with high profiles and some of the presidentials. This was clearly a reference to Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders, both self-proclaimed democratic socialists.

The House speaker, married to a multimillionaire real estate developer, has made it clear that she is perfectly willing to tolerate left-talkers like Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders, as long as they dont actually determine the policy of either the Democratic Party or the US government.

Former President Obama sounded the same theme in remarks Saturday to a town hall organized by the Obama Foundation in Berlin, where he discussed the rise of the ultra-right in Europe and internationally and warned against any shift to the left in response to it. He denounced left critics of the Democratic Party leadership for undermining party unity.

One of the things I do worry about sometimes among progressives in the United Statesis a certain kind of rigidity, where we say, Oh, Im sorry, this is how its going to be, he said. And then we start sometimes creating whats called a circular firing squad where you start shooting at your allies because one of them is straying from purity on the issues.

Obama employed a modicum of left rhetoric in his own campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, running against Hillary Clinton, the initial choice of the party establishment. But he quickly abandoned this in the general election campaign, where he presented himself as the more reliable defender of Wall Street in the midst of the 2008 financial crash.

Once in the White House, Obama headed a thoroughly right-wing imperialist government, continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan launched by George W. Bush and launching new wars in Libya and (by proxy) in Syria and Yemen. He protected CIA torturers and NSA surveillance of the American people.

In his domestic policy, Obama presented the Affordable Care Act as a progressive reform, although it actually marked a regressive reinforcement of the domination of private insurance companies and health care providers by forcing millions of impoverished working people to buy insurance, rather than establishing health care as a basic right, regardless of ability to pay.

Obama even advocated conciliation with the racist anti-immigrant policies espoused by Trump and the European fascist movements such as the Alternative for Germany. We cant label everybody who is disturbed by immigration as racist, he said. You know, thats a self-defeating tactic. You push away potential allies, people who maybe just havent thought about it...

Obama and Pelosi have been working together in a joint effort to curb the activities of the lefts in the House Democratic caucus. The House speaker brought in the former president to address a meeting of the caucus last month for that purpose. Pelosis top deputy, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, has frequently underscored the fact that there are 62 new Democratic representatives in the House, not three, a sarcastic reference to the publicity given Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar.

The views expressed by Pelosi and Obama were echoed by the undeclared frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, Obamas former vice president, Joe Biden. Speaking to reporters Friday, Biden sought to clarify his remarks at a Democratic fundraiser in Delaware, where he declared he would be the most progressive candidate in the race.

He emphasized that this referred to issues relating to identity politics and did not refer to the question, Are you a socialist? He argued that the party has not moved in the direction of socialism, and that the vast majority of the members of the Democratic Party are still basically liberal to moderate Democrats in the traditional sense.

Bidens distancing of himself from the Sanders/Ocasio-Cortez wing of the party is an adaptation to the anti-socialist rampage of President Trump and sections of the Republican Party, backed by the ultra-right media. He knows very well that the left Democrats are nothing more than moderate liberals themselves, people who would have been considered middle-of-the-road in the Democratic Party of the 1960s.

Meanwhile, the House Democratic leadership is moving to clip the wings of Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib and a handful of other lefts in the party caucus. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has enacted a new policy barring DCCC funds for any polling or consulting firm that works for a primary challenger to an incumbent Democrat. The goal is to prevent any repetition of the campaigns by Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley, who defeated more conservative incumbent Democrats in safe Democratic seats in New York City and Boston.
Measles took place at two hospitals, with 33 people confirmed to have the infectious disease. / Yonhap



By Kang Seung-woo



Measles is spreading, with at least 33 confirmed cases of the infectious disease, according to the health authorities, Monday.



The infections took place at two hospitals, one in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province, and the other in Daejeon, and health officials are trying to stop the disease from spreading into local communities.



Twenty-five cases have been confirmed at Hallym University Medical Center in Anyang. Twenty-two of these are doctors, nurses and medical students at the hospital, while three are patients.



Fourteen have been placed under mandatory home quarantine as a precaution to stop the virus spreading, and one has been hospitalized. The remaining 10 have been released from quarantine, according to the provincial government.



The local government is keeping close tabs on 4,349 people who came into contact with the 25 patients. Officials also checked all 2,000 workers at the hospital and found 179 did not have measles antibodies. These workers were vaccinated and have been excluded from work for the time being.



In Daejeon, a seven-month-old girl caught measles, which spread to seven more children.



The infant was admitted to hospital at the end of last month with cold-like symptoms after being taken to Vietnam, where measles is also spreading. Doctors suspect she contracted the disease there.



Four more babies aged from nine months to three years old, who shared the hospital ward with the girl, caught measles. They have been isolated at home or in hospital.



Daejeon health authorities have been monitoring more than 170 people who had contact with the babies, including other patients, caregivers and medical staff.



It was believed that measles had been eradicated in Korea thanks to vaccinations, but there have been a growing number of cases recently, mostly involving people infected while overseas.



Measles is very infectious with a long incubation period. It has high chances of spreading because the initial symptoms are similar to those of a cold, making diagnosis difficult. The virus is transmitted through the air by coughing or sneezing.


In late March, the American auto giant Ford declared it would shut down three of its four plants in Russia and stop the production of passenger cars in the country, where its market share has fallen dramatically over the last decade. Ford said an unspecified but significant number of jobs would be cut.

The factories threatened with closure are located in Vsevolozhsk, an industrial city near St. Petersburg; Naberezhnye Chelny, a city in the region of Tatarstan; and Yelaburg, where Ford will close one of its two plants.

Ford will sell off its share of the joint venture established in 2011 with the Russian company Sollers. According to the media, Ford has been in negotiations for months about selling the plants with Korean automaker Hyundai, the most likely buyer. Officials in Leningrad oblast (province), where the Vsevolozhsk plant is located, have also been involved in the negotiations. Ford plans to close the factory, which has been operating at half capacity for a year, by late June, eliminating the jobs of 1,070 workers remaining at the plant.

The closures will mean worsening privation for thousands of autoworkers and their families in areas already suffering from poverty and unemployment. This will be used to further lower autoworkers wages in Russia and internationally.

According to a report by Gazeta.ru in 2016, the average autoworker at Ford-Sollers earned 25-35,000 rubles a month (between US$382 and $536 at the current exchange rate). This is comparable with auto assembly workers in Mexico, where the average monthly wage is 32,798 rubles ($502 at the current exchange rate) and far below the wages of an autoworker in China, who makes 54,229 rubles, or $830. As miserable as wages are at Ford-Sollers, they have been up to twice as much paid to workers at other Russian auto companies.

Fords nearly full withdrawal from Russia is part of a global restructuring of the auto industry and assault on the working class. Industrial analysts expect the company to lay off up to 25,000 workers, mostly in Europe, including in Germany, France and Turkey. Volkswagen and GM are also in the process of destroying thousands of jobs in North America and Europe.

This international onslaught raises critical political questions for the autoworkers.

Among the most important of these is the need to break free from the grip of pro-capitalist and nationalist unions and build new organizations of struggle that assert the rights of workers against the dictates of the transnational corporations. The fate of the Vsevolozhsk plant is of particular significance in this respect. Over the past 15 years, it has been the site of some of the most militant strikes staged by workers in Russia, yet they were sold out again and again by the so-called independent trade union MPRA (Inter-Regional Trade Union Workers Alliance).

The union has been entirely complicit in Fords efforts to prepare the shutting down of the plant in virtual secrecy. Trying to sabotage and demoralize any opposition among workers, it has delayed raising the issue of the closure for months. Workers only learned about the impending shutdown of the Ford plants from the media.

The first statement by the MPRA on the matter dates from February 15. This was well over a month after news media first reported on the possible closures. In that statement, the MPRA announced it would not take up any serious struggle to prevent the closure. The statement mentioned possible protests, but made it clear its main aim was to negotiate a deal with Ford to save the plant by shifting the burden of job and wage cuts onto the shoulder of administrative and managerial staff. The MPRA demanded a seat at the negotiation table to negotiate such a deal, or to get Ford workers the equivalent of two years wages if the company went ahead and closed the plant.

On March 15-16, representatives of the MPRA, its parent organization the Confederation of Labor of Russia (KTR) and a number of other organizations met in St. Petersburg to discuss this bankrupt perspective. Two weeks later, after Ford announced its final decision to shut down the plant, union officials said they would call for strikes and hunger strikes. These were not to be aimed at preventing the closure but getting temporary compensation for laid-off workers. The union made it clear it would not call for joint action with the workers in Naberezhnye Chelny and other locations threatened with closures.

This strategy serves the interests of Ford, not the embattled workers. The main aim of the MPRA is to attract a new buyer for the plant by offering wage and benefit concessions and getting such a sellout deal accepted without an overwhelming explosion of opposition from workers.

A host of pseudo-left organizations have promoted the MPRA, claiming that new independent unions would be a substitute for a political struggle against the Putin government and capitalism.

Founded in 2006 at the Vsevolozhsk plant, the MPRA was promoted by Pabloite organizations and others as the model for new, militant independent unions. The MPRA and similar unions were founded when Russian manufacturing, which had been in devastating decline since the liquidation of the Soviet Union in 1991, experienced a significant upsurge as Ford and other foreign companies flooded in to take advantage of low manufacturing wages.

The official trade union, FNPR (Federation of Independent Trade Unions), was deeply discredited and within ruling circles there were fears that it would be unable to withstand an upsurge of militancy among industrial workers, especially in the growing auto industry. The FNPR had been directly implicated in the restoration of capitalism, privatizing Soviet state assets worth millions, if not billions of dollars. At the factories and workplaces, it openly functioned as a scab organization, working hand-in-glove with the employers and the state.

Under these conditions, the MPRA and other so-called independent unions were created not to defend workers interests, but to prevent them from creating genuinely independent organizations that would challenge the profit interests of the Stalinists-turned-capitalist-oligarchs. These unions were immediately affiliated with and often also co-created by the structures of the Confederation of Labor of Russia (KTR), the main rival organization of the FNPR, which, like the latter, had colluded with and profits from the process of capitalist restoration.

The right-wing orientation of the MPRA has been exemplified by the evolution of its leader, Alexei Etmanov, who, like countless union officials, used his position as a springboard for a political career. Over the past decade, he has run for office for almost every major right-wing opposition party in Russia. A founding member of the Stalinist ROT-FRONT in 2010, he has a run as a Duma (parliament) candidate for the Stalinist Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF), which maintains close ties to both the Kremlin and various far-right organizations. Then he became a member of the judicial council of the Leningrad region as a candidate for Just Russia, a party widely considered a Kremlin front group to divert popular opposition.

Since 2016, Etmanov has been a member of the US-backed liberal party Yabloko, which has been complicit in the preparations of US imperialism for a Color Revolution regime change operation in Moscow.

The MPRA has also been involved in the coalition of Stalinist, pseudo-left and pro-US liberal forces that sought to divert mass anger over the Kremlins raising of the retirement age and thus facilitate its passing without the outbreak of popular opposition. Most recently, the MPRA has openly endorsed Alexei Navalny, the central figure of the US regime-change plans, and his bogus attempts to create a trade union.

The ever more openly right-wing orientation of the MPRA and its enormous fear of any movement by the autoworkers is driven by the resurgence of the class struggle internationally and acute class tensions in Russia that are reaching a boiling point. According to a recent poll, 80 percent of households struggle to buy even basic necessities, and over a fifth of families cannot afford to regularly buy fruit or vegetables. With growing signs of a Russian and the world economic recession, the auto industry has been running below capacity since 2018, with an unknown number of workers receiving only a portion of their already low wages.

Russian workers cannot fight against these attacks without building new, independent organizations of struggle and turning to a socialist, internationalist program. They will find their main allies for this struggle in their class brothers and sisters internationally. In Matamoros, Mexico, auto parts workers have helped launch what has been the biggest strike on the North American continent in two decades. Autoworkers have gone on strike in Hungary and teachers have been striking on multiple continents in recent months, with half a million educators scheduled to strike today.

In a January 15 statement opposing the Ford job cuts, the Socialist Equality Parties in Germany, France and Britain wrote, The critical task confronting workers is to develop an independent political struggle, in opposition to all the parties and organizations that defend capitalism.  The answer is the taking of power by the working class as part of the fight for the United Socialist States of Europe, and the reorganization of economic life by the working class to meet social need, not private profit. This will include turning the giant automotive corporations into public utilities under the democratic control of the workers.
On Friday, April 5, the strike by 1,600 University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) graduate students was called off by the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) Local 6297 after the union reached a tentative contract agreement with UIC administration. The union told grad students to return to work today even before voting on the deal. Grad students are reportedly voting Monday night.

The GEO, which is an affiliate of the Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), called the strike on March 19, six months after the previous contract expired.

The proposed three-year deal increases the campus minimum salary by $2,550 over three years. Grad students will also receive an additional $55 each semester to offset the cost of a $50 increase in the general student fee next year. Grad students in the 2020-2021 school year will receive a one-time $150 raise. The cost of the University provided healthcare dropped slightly from $295 to $240. The university will cover 20 percent of the cost of one dependent and 10 percent of the cost for additional dependents.

The agreement does nothing to address the central demands of grad students to totally waive the fees and increase pay to provide a reasonable standard of living in one of the costliest cities in America. The raise will be swallowed up by the fees that grad students have to pay in full at the beginning of each year. The $18,140 salary is far below the original GEO demand for $24,000 per year, which was below the estimated minimum cost of living in Chicago of $28,000 per year.

The GEO reached the sellout agreement just as the strike was gaining support from different areas of the campus. UICs undergraduate students had planned walkouts and demonstrations in support of the GEO last Friday. In addition, UICs faculty members are voting this week to authorize strike action.

While GEO bears responsibility for the defeat of the strike, the chief onus lies with the IFT and the AFT, which deliberately isolated the grad student struggle. The IFT and the AFT made sure the strike was shut down before faculty members and students could join the struggle and strengthen the grad students.

This follows the same pattern followed by the AFT, the National Education Association (NEA) and their state and local affiliates during the wave of teacher strikes over the last 15 months. Time and time again, the unions shut down one strike before another erupted, rushing to sign agreements that betrayed educators demands for increased pay and school funding.

As soon as the UIC agreement was reached, the GEO declared a victory and even suggested that their repeated climbdowns were part of brilliant tactical maneuver.

Grad students, however, did not think they won any victory. One grad student told the World Socialist Web Site: It is not good that the faculty union and GEO did not work together to prepare simultaneous strikes. Workers should team up to create a stronger front against business and capitalist profit interests. I believe modern unions seek to divide and conquer groups of workers. Striking at different times is essentially a manifestation of this. That is, when workers are separated, they are less powerful. I feel that GEO is in lockstep with higher-up unions, which are in lockstep with politicians, who are in lockstep with profit-driven, at-the-expense-of-workers capitalism.

I am paying $800-$1000 per semester in fees. There is really no fee relief in the proposed contract. Originally, the union spoke of a raise of something like 24 percent, hoping to raise the minimum wage to around $24,000. The administration consistently countered with much lower raises. GEO negotiators kept dropping lower. The new contract calls for a $2,550 raise over three years. This basically sounds like a concession to the administration.

Mainly, I believe the issues faced by graduate workers at UIC, and workers across capitalism, is the same: It is a systemic fight which plays out in a microcosm. Budget cuts and austerity abound. Simply fighting for a raise will not solve the long-term issue facing these workers.

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and other pseudo-left organizations did everything to prevent grad student from rebelling against the unions, which have imposed the Democrats austerity program.

The GEO leadership maintains close ties to Jacobin and the DSA, the supposed left wing of the Democratic Party which also hailed the sellouts in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Los Angeles and Oakland, California, as victories. Jeff Schuhrke, one of the GEOs co-presidents, writes for Jacobin and has followed the playbook of his pseudo-left allies in isolating the UIC strike and subordinating the grad students to their maneuvers with state and local Democrats.

The strike by UIC graduate students thrust them into direct struggle against the Illinois Democratic Party, which oversees UIC. Illinois Democratic Governor J. B. Pritzker manages the University of Illinois Board of Trustees and has appointed several members of its management board, comprising largely corporate figures and investment bankers.

The Democratic Party, under Mayor Rahm Emanuel, has found billions for corporate tax cuts and other subsidies for corporations, real estate developers and vanity projects like the Obama Presidential Center in the South Side, currently estimated to cost about $500 million, $175 million of which is expected to come from public sources. Meanwhile, working-class areas, public schools and higher education are starved of funds and resources.

During the strike, Schuhrke and the other GEO co-presidents wrote a letter to the billionaire governor Pritzker, calling him a champion of workers rights. In a Facebook post before the final bargaining session that led to the tentative agreement, GEO proudly admitted: [I]n addition to the things weve already conceded on, including full fee waivers, the ability to opt out of the CTA U-pass fee, more paid sick days, more paid personal days, more paid parental leave, stronger tuition waiver language, getting compensated for late appointment letters, having an article on academic freedom, and stepping down repeatedly on our wage proposal. They continue, We have made numerous concessions over the past 13 months, illustrating our ongoing willingness to negotiate in good faith.

Grad students should vote no today and form an independent rank-and-file strike committee to resume their fight for the right to a good wage, full healthcare coverage and a full waiver of the university fees while extending their fight to include the abolition of tuition for all students. Grad students, undergraduates and full-time faculty should mount a united struggle to meet their collective demands.

Whatever the outcome of todays vote, UIC graduate workers should draw the necessary lessons from their experiences in the strike. The struggle for the most elemental gains requires the formation of new organizations of struggle, rank-and-file committees, which will fight for the demands that educators and other workers need, not what the Democrats and unions say is affordable. The fight must be carried out in conjunction with a political struggle to secure healthcare, education, a quality standard of living and other social rights through the fight against capitalism and for the socialist reorganization of economic and political life.
Donald Trumps announcement last night that Kirstjen Nielsen will resign as Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary is part of a major reshuffling of the leadership of the US governments mass deportation apparatus. Trump and his fascist advisor Stephen Miller, with the support of the tens of thousands of police and agents who comprise the American anti-immigrant Gestapo, are preparing for a major escalation of the administrations attack on immigrant workers.

The maneuvers come in the wake of the collapse of the Democratic Party-led investigation by Robert Mueller into baseless allegations of Russian meddling in the US election. Strengthened by the investigations hollow findings, Trump has launched a renewed attack on immigrants in an effort to build-up his far-right base of support.

The fact that Trump considered Nielsen insufficiently tough on immigration is a dangerous indication of the administrations plans for further mass round-ups and attacks on democratic rights.

As DHS Secretary, Nielsen oversaw the administrations zero tolerance policy, whereby thousands of immigrant children were separated from their parents, many permanently. Nielsen told the Senate at the time that the policy was justified because the childrens parents chose to do that.

Nielsen was also in charge of the administrations violent police riot at the border between San Ysidro, California and Tijuana in November 2018, when US officials fired teargas and rubber bullets at immigrant families seeking asylum in the US. At the time, Nielsen said that the military and border patrol have the ability of force to defend themselves from the unarmed refugees and that every possible actionis on the table.

In a similar move three days ago, Trump withdrew his nomination of Ron Vitiello as head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Rons a good man, but were going in a tougher direction, Trump announced on Friday. Vitiello, who was an ardent supporter of Trumps proposal to build a wall across the US-Mexico border and called the Democrats a liberalcratic party or NeoKlanist Party in a 2015 Twitter post, was also deemed too liberal to prepare the coming anti-immigrant crackdown.

Because current CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan will now serve as acting DHS Secretary and is expected to be only a temporary placeholder, the reshuffle means the three top spots within the anti-immigrant police apparatusCBP Commissioner, ICE Director and DHS Secretaryare now open. In addition, AP reported earlier this month that Trump is considering appointing an Immigration Czar to coordinate a broad, multi-agency crackdown against immigrants in the coming months.

Trump is reportedly considering former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to oversee the renewed offensive against immigrants. Both are among the most right-wing individuals to win statewide elected office in the last 50 years.

Kobach recently proposed abolishing the rights of Mexican nationals living in the US to send remittance money to their impoverished family members in Mexico. He also called for the government to indefinitely detain entire families together and to create massive amounts of immigrant detention space by purchasing thousands of trailers and mobile homes and create processing centers where you put a fence around a park or a parking lot, you park a hundred of those trailers there and deport immigrants en masse.

Behind the resignation of Nielsen and the rescinding of Vitiellos nomination are the machinations of Stephen Miller, who is directing a silent upsurge of brown shirt immigration officers and border patrolmen.

CNNs Kaitlin Collins reported that Miller was personally responsible for Trumps decision to pull Vitiellos nomination. One unnamed administration official told the Washington Post: Stephen wants to put Attila the Hun as Director of ICE.

A protest letter to Trump signed by three leaders of the union representing ICE officials gives a sense of the powerful moods among rank-and-file officers for unleashing the power of state reaction against immigrants.

On March 11, the head of the National ICE Council and the leaders of Local 1210 and Local 1944 of the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council, an affiliate of the AFL-CIO, addressed Trump:

You frequently speak publicly of the great public safety work ICE is doing under your leadership. To be direct Mr. Presidentthe rhetoric doesnt match reality and we hope that this letter shows you the complete and total nonsense that is really taking place under the Trump Administration on the southern borderPolitical games in Washington, DC have rendered the United States completely incapable of controlling its southern border.

The letter targeted two leading officials: Nielsen and Vitiello, and demanding Trump remove them from office. ICE resources on the border are being grossly mismanaged by DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Acting ICE Director Ronald Vitiello, the letter said. Trumps recent maneuvers indicate that these fascistic forces have won out.

Meanwhile, Trump has made renewed vitriolic denunciations of immigrant workers in recent days. On Friday, Trump mocked asylum seekers during a visit to the US-Mexico border at Calexico, California.

I look at some of these asylum people, theyre gang members, he said. Theyre not afraid of anything. They have lawyers greeting them. They read what lawyers tell them to read. Asylum is a scam. Its a hoax, Trump said. On Saturday, Trump told the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas that asylum seekers housed beneath a highway overpass in El Paso, Texas resembled UFC fighters who fight in chain-link cages.

The vast majority of the US population opposes Trumps attacks on immigrants. A higher number of Americans support immigration than ever before, according to a January 2019 Gallup Poll.

Sixty-two percent of Americans say immigrants strengthen the country versus just 28 percent who say immigrants take jobs and reduce living standards for US natives. In 1994, only 31 percent said immigrants had a positive impact, compared with 63 percent who said immigrants are a popular burden. Among young people, three quarters believe immigrants have a positive impact. Immigrants comprise 14 percent of the US populationsome 45 million people.

The constituency for fascism upon which Trump relies comes not from the working class, but from within the state apparatus itself as the statements of ICE officials reveal.

The efforts by Trump to whip-up anti-immigrant hysteria are in no small part aimed at diverting attention from the growth of the class struggle on both sides of the US-Mexico border and blocking the growth of a unified movement of workers across the Americas. The fight against the rise of the far right must be based on mobilizing the working class on a revolutionary program in a struggle for social equality.

This month, the Socialist Equality Party (US) is hosting six meetings with renowned German Trotskyist and leading anti-fascist Christoph Vandreier, Deputy National Secretary of the Sozialistiche Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party, SGP) and author of the book Why are They Back? Historical Falsification, Political Conspiracy and the Return of Fascism in Germany.

A central theme of the meetings will be to address the historical lessons that must be learned in order to build a mass working-class movement capable of preventing the worst crimes of German Nazism from taking place again today.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared his intention of extending Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank, captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, if he is re-elected prime minister in Tuesdays general election.

In so doing, he has effectively repudiated the entire post-World War II international order and signalled that wars of conquest and territorial aggrandisement are the order of the day. Such annexations were declared illegal under the Geneva Conventions, enacted in the wake of the Second World War to prevent the repetition of similar actions carried out by Germanys Nazi regime, which set the stage for the outbreak of war in 1939.

Netanyahus announcement will give succour to his support base among fascistic layers of the settlers and religious nationalists, driving Israels capitalist political setup ever further toward outright apartheid, fascism and military dictatorship. It is a prelude to intensified Israeli military aggression in the occupied West Bank, Gaza and the broader Middle East.

Netanyahu told a television Channel 12 interviewer on Saturday that he would not evacuate any community. Nor would he divide Jerusalem, a reference to Palestinian demands for East Jerusalem to serve as the capital of a future Palestinian state. He said, I will not divide Jerusalem, I will not evacuate any community and I will make sure we control the territory west of Jordan.

He added, 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.

Netanyahu made it clear that he viewed President Donald Trumps recognition of Israels illegal annexation of Syrias Golan Heights, captured in 1967, as a green light to press on with Likuds long-held expansionist policy of a Greater Israel. He said, 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.

Speaking about the Bedouin community of Khan al-Ahmar, which he has pledged to evacuate despite international outrage, Netanyahu promised that it will happen. He added, I promised, and it will happen at the soonest opportunity.

Netanyahus announcement was aimed at bolstering his position in the election, which he had called ahead of schedule in order to win political backing to ensure his immunity from prosecution on a raft of corruption charges. Facing unexpectedly strong opposition from a slate of generals assembled by the so-called Blue and White coalition, headed by former chief of staff Benny Gantz, he has leveraged Trumps support to appeal to his right-wing support base.

He has brought into his electoral coalition, and a possible share of government power should he win, outright fascist elements linked to the banned Kach Party of the late Meir Kahane, a party that was designated a terrorist organization by the US, Canada, the European Union, Japan and Israel itself.

Trumps naked interference in the Israeli elections is bound up with US imperialisms broader aim of escalating its military intervention in the Middle East to roll back the growth of Iranian influence in the wake of the successive debacles suffered by Washington in Iraq, Libya and Syria.

Netanyahus growing alliance with the House of Saud and the petro-monarchs of the Gulf has served to ensure their acquiescencewith pro forma denunciationsto this latest assault on the Palestinians.

But apart from Netanyahus short-term political calculations, his announcement derives from Zionisms foundation upon exclusivist conceptions of racial, religious and linguistic hegemony to justify the establishment of a Jewish state through the violent dispossession of the indigenous Arab population, who formed the overwhelming majority of the population, making use of the horrors of the Holocaust as a rationale for the oppression of another people.

The political antecedents of Netanyahus Likud Party, Vladimir Jabotinskys Revisionists, who were to remain a minority tendency until the 1970s, articulated this position most clearly. Their aim was the establishment of a Jewish state on the entire land of Biblical Palestine, including Transjordan. With the Jews a minority in Palestine, such a state would necessarily mean expelling the Arab population to ensure its Jewish character.

In 1923, Jabotinsky explained, in an article titled The Iron Wall, that the Zionist project could be achieved only against the wishes of the native population. He envisaged the need for an iron wall to protect the Jews from the native population. He said, A voluntary reconciliation with the Arabs is out of the question either now or in the near future. Without a garrison, Zionist colonization of Palestine would be impossible, and therefore it stands or falls by the question of armed force.

The establishment of a Jewish state was viewed with sympathy by millions of people around the world, who were appalled at the catastrophe that had befallen the Jews. But the major powers excluding Britain, but including the Soviet Union, supported the establishment of a Jewish state as a means of blocking Britains position in the Middle East. As a result, the UN voted in 1947 for the partition of Palestine, hailing the new state as a progressive entity dedicated to building a democratic and egalitarian society for the most cruelly oppressed people of Europe.

As soon as the State of Israel was declared in 1948, war broke out between the Arabs and the Jews, who were able to seize more land than was included in the 1947 partition plan, driving out some 750,000 Palestinians from their homes. Not wanting to pay the price of the concessions demanded by the superpowers, in terms of borders and refugees, Israels Labour government did not try to make peace after the war, instead instituting a policy of striving for peacebut not too fastwhich became the template for future governments. The more Israel got used to the situation of neither peace nor war, the louder grew the voices calling for the maintenance of the status quo.

After the 1967 war, when Israel captured East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan, Gaza and the Sinai peninsula from Egypt and the Golan Heights from Syria, the Labour government moved rapidly to annex East Jerusalem and build settlements in the occupied territories that are now home to some 700,000 Israeli Jews, many of them extreme nationalists and religious zealots who are heavily armed. Labour had, in effect, adopted the Revisionists policy.

The war and the settlement movement spawned the growth of immensely reactionary political and social forces within Israel itself, with Menachem Begins Likud party demanding the territories be brought under Israeli sovereignty on the grounds that they were the Biblical lands of Samaria and Judea, promised by God to the Jewish people.

In 1993, a Labour government signed an illusory peace deal, the Oslo Accords, brokered by the US, with the Palestine Liberation Organization. Ostensibly, the agreement was to usher in a Palestinian statelet. But its real purpose was to prevent the intifada that broke out in 1987 from developing into a revolutionary uprising by the Palestinian masses in the occupied territories, and to subcontract the task of suppressing the masses to the Palestinian bourgeoisie.

Instead of peace and a Palestinian state, the Oslo Accords set the stage for an expansion of the settlements and land seizures to control the access roads to these enclaves and strengthen their connection to Israel itself, with the Palestinian Authority left to police small patches of land, mostly impoverished cities, surrounded and cut off by Israeli troops.

In line with its long-held policy, the Likud Party vehemently opposed any territorial concessions to the Palestinians embodied in the Accords. Its leaders stood by as its angry supporters called Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin a traitor, paving the way for his murder in 1995 by a right-wing fanatic. With none of the mainstream political parties prepared to make any fundamental changes, the fraudulent peace process was all but dead.

Netanyahu has now made explicit what has long been implicit: the incorporation of the West Bank into a Greater Israel. It can be achieved and sustained only through the imposition of military rule. To this end, his government has passed a series of measures, including the openly racist Nation-State Law enshrining Jewish supremacy as the legal foundation of the state, bringing the political and legal system into alignment with the reality of Jabotinskys garrison state, based on the brutal oppression of an entire people, the Palestinians.

The so-called centre-left opposition in the elections, led by Gantz, has not challenged Netanyahus annexation pledge, resorting to verbal obfuscations and calls for a regional conference or secure separation, thereby signifying consent.

This marks the historic bankruptcy and culmination of the entire reactionary Zionist project and all such nationalist programs.
Anger is rippling through Mississippi, with educators threatening their first walkout in that Deep Southern state in more than 38 years.

On March 28, the state legislature passed an insulting $1,500 pay raise for teachers and assistant teachers after decades of deep and sustained cuts to public education. The measure, passed near the conclusion of the recent legislative session, was promptly followed by a $2 million boondoggle for a school privatization program.

Teachers are now discussing the possibility of striking in a state which has seen no such action since 1985 and under conditions where they face draconian penalties for walking out. Its time to put up or shut up wrote one educator on social media, We have nearly 40,000 followers of this page [Pay Raise for Mississippi Teachers]. It is time we discuss what it will take to organize a strike.

This shows no respect for our profession, a Rankin County educator wrote. Without education being a priority, our state will never move from the bottom, referring to the fact that in Mississippi teacher pay is 50th out of 50 states. The raise, which will take effect July 1, will bring assistant teachers from an astoundingly low $12,500 a year to an equally meager $14,000.

The bill apportioning the raise was passed on the second-to-last day of the 2019 legislative session. Commenting on the derisory increase, which amounts to a little over $100 a month, House Education Chairman Rep. Richard Bennett (R-Long Beach) stated, Its not where we want to be, its what we can do.

Repeating the same specious mantra that there is no money to fund public education, House Speaker Philip Gunn (R-Clinton) claimed, We obviously would love to do much more than that. But that is all we could do. That is all the taxpayers could sustain. So we did as much as the taxpayers could afford.

However, on that same day, a bill for the Department of Finance and Administration (DFA) was passed that, purportedly unbeknownst to a majority of the legislators, included a $2 million increase for a private school education program. That amount, a part of $27 million of taxpayer money apportioned by the bill for state projects, is intended to increase the Education Sponsorship Account (ESA) program from $3 million to $5 million.

ESA programs have been adopted in various states as a Trojan Horse to effect the privatization of public education. In Mississippi, the ESA utilizes public education funds to provide scholarships for special needs children to attend private schools. From its inception in 2015, the program has received $9 million and has awarded over 800 scholarships. In other words, special needs children are being used as pawns to transfer public money to private schools and distract attention away from the reality facing public school teachers. Since last December, the ESA program has been repeatedly accused of lack of oversight over the handling of its funds.

The $2 million boost for ESA is one of a raft of measures promoted by the pro-privatization organization Empower Mississippi. The organizations political action committee has donated almost $100,000 to Republican representatives in the promotion of school choice. Among its recipients is Lieutenant Governor Tate Reeves, who presides over the state senate and strongly backed the DFA bill.

The 21-page measure was one of the last items on the sessions agenda and passed in the Senate in one minute. The bill received support from both Democrats and Republicans. It took three votes in the House to finally send it off to Republican Governor Phil Bryants desk. Defending the appropriation of public funds for a private school program in a bill unrelated to the Department of Education, Gunn stated on March 28 that it was the Senates money.

In a state that has 165 operating public school districts, 882 public schools, and where 90 percent of students attend public schools, public school teachers make the lowest salaries in the entire country. The average salary for Mississippi teachers during the 2017-2018 school year was $43,000, almost $20,000 less than the $60,000 national average, and almost $10,000 less than the southeastern average.

Along with other assaults on public education, the abysmal pay rate has created a terrible teacher shortage in Mississippi, especially in the northwestern Delta region. Many teachers wind up leaving the state because they cannot afford to live. Some leave the profession altogether or take on additional jobs.

I dont know a single teacher whos childless who doesnt have at least one roommate, said Kaitlyn Barton, a high school English teacher at Clarksdale High School, and whose salary is less than $37,000. I have a roommate. Some people live in houses of four and five people just to lower rent enough to get by.

Since the late 1990s, teachers, supporting staff, parents, and students have only twice seen the states education budget fully funded by the state Legislature. Some of the states public school districts, such as the second largest, the Jackson Public School District, have suffered millions of dollars in budget cuts, in addition to student enrollment declines following the introduction of charter schools.

In the wake of the developments since March 28, the Facebook group Pay Raise for Mississippi Teachers has attracted 40,000 followers in under a week. As of this writing, the group has not officially advocated any specific action, but published a recent survey by the Mississippi Association of Educators (MAE) which suggests as options: a rally at the state Capitol on a Saturday, after-work picketing, campaigning for candidates, and boycotting business that donate to anti-public education candidates. The survey also asks about a one-day sickout and whether teachers could walk out on a specific day and refuse to return for an indefinite amount of time. No results have been announced.

The state has only had one significant teacher strike, 38 years ago, when more than 9,000 teachers walked off the job, defying the law and the Democratic Governor William Allain. That action won a $4,400 pay raise, but state lawmakers responded with perhaps the most vicious anti-strike legislation in the country.

The 1985 law, which defines strike action extremely broadly to include even a slowdown, calls for terminating striking teachers and permanently barring them from public schools. Additionally, local school boards are prohibited from closing schools during a strike and are required to report the names of strikers to the attorney general. The law calls for $20,000 a day fines to striking teacher groups should they disobey a court order. Moreover, in 2014, the Mississippi legislature made itself the exclusive authority over labor agreements or collective bargaining and illegalized mass picketing or demonstrations. The fine is $500 or up to six months in jail.

Current Attorney General Jim Hood, a Democrat running for governor this year, when asked about his attitude towards these reactionary laws, refused to dissociate himself from the draconian measures, stating, We cant opine on a statute, nor can we speak about something that hasnt taken place.

There is growing anger among educators against the attacks on both public education and democratic rights. One teacher posted, These districts who monitor social media and that fear of retaliation is just not right. That goes against free speech! Teachers in public schools have 1st amendment rights, too.

The response of the 5,000-member MAE, in line with the National Education Association (NEA) with which it is affiliated, is to channel teachers opposition into voting for so-called pro-education Democrats and Republicans. MAE President Joyce Helmick noted, Educators are furious and they have every right to be. She followed up with, to those who chose not to stand with Mississippis educators: Please know we wont forget this betrayal come November.

Remember in November has been used by the teachers unions from West Virginia to Oakland, California, to derail strikes and force through rotten contracts. Above all, this treacherous slogan has been devised to politically emasculate growing struggles and keep them constrained to what the two parties of big business deem to be affordable.

It is a bare-faced lie that there is no money for education. As has been demonstrated once again in the concluding session of the Mississippi legislature, there are millions for privatization policies but nothing for teachers. Such contrasts would have to be increased exponentially to give a glimpse of the trillions which have been funneled from the working class to the wealthy over the past period, with trillions more allocated to the death and destruction in ever-expanding predatory wars.

Enough is enough. Teachers must begin the fight to create democratically elected and operated rank-and-file workplace and neighborhood committees, independent of the trade unions and all Democratic or Republican operatives. The struggle for the full funding and expansion of high-quality public education, the fight to abolish poverty and provide a decent future for the working class requires a socialist and internationalist program. Contact the WSWS Teachers Newsletter to get involved today.
Accused mass murderer Brenton Tarrant made his second court appearance in New Zealand on Friday following the terrorist attack at two Christchurch mosques on March 15. He faces 50 murder charges and 39 counts of attempted murder. A police statement said other charges are still being considered.

The 28-year-old fascist appeared by audio-visual link in the High Court at Christchurch from Aucklands high security Paremoremo prison where he is being held in isolation. Media applications to film, take photos and record the accused in court were declined by Justice Cameron Mander.

Tarrant was not required to enter a plea at last Fridays session, some of which was held in closed chambers. Mander ordered two health assessors reports, which will determine whether he is mentally fit to plead to the charges. Although the accused had initially signalled he would represent himself, two Auckland lawyers have now accepted instructions to act as his counsel. He will reappear in court on June 14.

All aspects of the forthcoming trial will be tightly controlled. Significantly, Tarrant does not yet face any charges relating to terrorism laws. To prove terrorism it is necessary to prove political motivation, which would involve discussion of Tarrants 74-page fascist manifesto and raise many uncomfortable questions.

The Labour-led government, and the political establishment as a whole, is desperately seeking to prevent any discussion of the political motivations for the slaughter. The chief censor, David Shanks last month banned Tarrants document under the Films, Video and Publications Classification Act. Possession of the manifesto carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years and anyone who shares it can be jailed for 14 years.

The document was suppressed as part of the efforts to cover up the role of the state and political parties, in New Zealand and internationally, in creating the political climate for the development of fascism. These include the systematic whipping up of anti-immigrant xenophobia by governments for decades, in particular the vilification of Muslims as part of the bogus US-led war on terror. Many of the views in Tarrants manifesto are not very different from those held by governments and longstanding parliamentary parties throughout the world.

Auckland University of Technology professor Kris Gledhill told Fairfax Media that under the terrorism laws, the prosecution would have to show how the accused was trying to instil terror in the population through the advancement of a political, ideological or religious cause.

A murder charge only seeks to answer the more straightforward question of whether he killed deliberately. The prosecution can make sure they dont bring a charge which implicitly brings a [political] platform into the arena. His ideology is not relevant to whether he committed murder, Gledhill declared. My hope would be they do it fairly speedily, and that the prosecutors make decisions that minimise his soapbox.

From the moment of Tarrants first appearance in court following his arrest, there has been considerable nervousness that he will attempt to use the court as a political platform. Surviving the attack and pleading not guilty was an aim outlined in Tarrants manifesto.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has called for a conversation with the media over coverage of the Christchurch case. I would hope there are ways that [the trial] could be covered without adding to the notoriety that this individual seeks, she said. Arden added, not for the first time: One thing I can assure you, you wont hear me speak his name.

Some commentators have noted that Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik, Tarrants idol, who committed a similar mass murder in 2011, opened his defence by giving a Nazi-style salute to the court. This was broadcast live and appeared on newspaper front pages around the world. The court prohibited any further live broadcasts and also prohibited the media from recording some of the evidence.

Media commentator Gavin Ellis told Newsroom that the court had the power to control the accuseds ability to similarly use the trial. If he starts off on a sort of a dialectic rant, then it's within the power of the court to shut him up because it's not adding to the ability of the court to determine guilt or innocence, Ellis said.

The notion that Tarrants fascist political motivations are not relevant to the crime is patently absurd. The push to dispense with terrorism charges, get the trial over with as quickly as possible, and prevent the fascist gunman from speaking at any length, has nothing to do with denying him notoriety or a soap-box. The aim is to prevent the public from drawing conclusions about the striking resemblance of Tarrants views to those of parties including the National Party, Labour and its ally NZ First, and the trade unions, which have for years fomented anti-immigrant xenophobia.

The government and judiciary are also undoubtedly concerned that Tarrant could voice his strong admiration for the military and police. The gunman estimates that hundreds of thousands of far-right nationalists in Europe are employed in the armed forces. New Zealands state agencies are keen to avoid questions about whether any of their members are involved in, or sympathise with, fascist groups.

The government, corporate media and state apparatus also do not want any discussion of the fascist killers hostility towards Marxism and socialism, which the ruling elite shares. As the economic crisis deepens and countries throughout the world prepare for war, millions of young people are moving to the left and are sympathetic to socialism. It is necessary to understand that fascism is not simply the ideas of a few murderous racists. It is a political tendency deliberately nurtured by the political establishment, and with close connections to the state, that will be used against the working class, especially its most class conscious, socialist elements.
With Julian Assange facing the threat of imminent eviction, a permanent vigil is being maintained outside Ecuadors embassy in London demanding freedom and protection for the WikiLeaks founder under international law.

Members of the Socialist Equality Party took part in Saturdays vigil, alongside organisers of the Defend Assange Campaign. The group has maintained a solid presence outside the embassy for nearly seven years in Assanges defence.

Outside the embassy on Saturday

Amid media reports seeking to downplay the threat to Assange, including claims that Ecuadors government is not moving to revoke Assanges political asylum, his lawyer Jennifer Robinson told the Sunrise program in Australia, This information came from a credible source high up in the Ecuadorian government and that information was given to WikiLeaks. The accusation was that they are going to expel him and there is an agreement with the UK government that his asylum protection would not be respected and that he could be extradited to the United States with an assurance that he wouldnt be sent to the death penalty.

Alongside longstanding members of the Defend Assange Campaign, the London vigil attracted support from far and wide.

Tyler and Andy help maintain the vigil

Tyler, 21, came directly from San Francisco: I was leaving for Europe on a back-packing trip, but while I was on the plane, I saw that Julian Assange is about to get kicked out of the embassy. So that became the one thing that I needed to do in London.

I heard about Assange through his work with WikiLeaks exposing the crimes of the United States government and I think Julian Assange is a hero for everything hes done.

Tyler said that Assanges arbitrary detention in the middle of London shows that this country doesnt have freedom of the press. They only have freedom of the press if its convenient for the people in powerif not, theyll find a way to prosecute you.

I think theres a lot of disinformation in the United States, so sadly a lot of people are uninformed or misinformed. But I do think there are a lot of younger people who are aware of Julian Assange and support him. Its very important that everyone supports Assange and opposes those who are trying to imprison him.

Cristina and Javier

Javier and Cristina, originally from Ecuador, have been regular supporters of the vigil. Javier held a banner in Spanish, Lenin Moreno: hypocrite, traitor. The people in Ecuador and the world are against you. Assange: you are not alone!

Cristina explained, We are against our president Lenin Moreno. We consider him a traitor for giving in on Assange to America. We know that once hes expelled, he will be in danger.

Over the weekend a 48-hour online vigil was held by Unity4J, listened to by thousands throughout the world. Speakers included Daniel Ellsberg, Chris Hedges, Craig Murray, Jimmy Dore and dozens more. A livestream from outside the embassy was featured between 12pm and 1pm on Saturday, hosted by Suzie Dawson, who has played a leading role in the defence of Assange.

Dawson interviewed Emmy Butlin, a leader of the UKs Defend Assange Campaign, Gordon Dimmack, a citizen journalist and filmmaker, and Chris Marsden, national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party. Marsden's interview can be heard here from 2:31:10.

Butlin explained the vigil had been going since June 19, 2012, when Assange sought political asylum at Ecuadors embassy in London, We never expected this to last for such a long period of time. We were drawn out of solidarity for him and the work he has done for WikiLeaks and also in shock at how he was treated.

Butlin said that Assanges place of asylum had effectively been turned into a police cell, emphasising We are extremely concerned about these latest reports from WikiLeaks that his expulsion is imminent. So weve come here today to support Julian to witness and raise the alarm.

Marsden told Dawson, This is quite clearly the first great political crime of the 21st century Julian Assange should be defended by millions of people all over the world but a cordon sanitaire has been placed around him in the official media. Hes been slandered and vilified.

Im looking across the street and see the journalists there. It is the modern-day equivalent of knitting under the gallows. They are here to see a public execution And while this is taking place, no opposition is being expressed in parliament by Jeremy Corbyn or any senior figure in the Labour Party, not by the National Union of Journalists or the countless bodies who should be defending human rights There has got to be an urgent mobilisation of as broad a layer of workers and young people in opposition to this and in defence of Julian Assange. That is what we are trying to do, along with people such as yourself.

Dawson thanked the WSWS for amplifying the voices of people actively supporting Julian Assange in countries such as Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan. Marsden replied:

You tend to forget because of the relentless propaganda, but Julian Assange is seen as a hero by millions around the world, particularly in the oppressed and semi-colonial countries. These are people who have some experience with imperialist crimes, with wars, with brutality, with extraordinary rendition. When we speak through our comrades in Sri Lanka to workers, they are looking for a political lead on these questions.

Dawson noted the mercenary role of the media, whose photographers had lined the street opposite the embassy, waiting to get the photo that they can sell for half a million dollars. Dawson referred to a comment on Twitter that Assange shouldnt be lionised or raised up as an individual, but that the focus should be on the principles involved. Marsden replied:

Principles, like history, move through people If principles are not fought for, they die. Julian Assange doesnt need to be raised up. He has raised himself up by what he has done We are a socialist party and we fight to mobilise the working class as the revolutionary class in society. We see the defence of democratic rights as bound up with the struggle against capitalism and for socialism.

We know that there is a broad mass opposition developing to the situation confronting people all around the world and to millions Julian Assange is a symbol of the alternative This is not about hero worship. This is about someone who is one of our own and played an extraordinary part in the development of a new alternative political movement in the working class and oppressed We dont have political agreement with Julian Assange. We dont pretend to. But we know he is someone who must be defended. This transcends any issues of political differences.

Chris Marsden being interviewed by Unity4J

Dawson noted that Marsden spoke these very true words with two surveillance cameras above your head, which is a very physical reminder of the hardware of oppression.

Marsden replied: Obviously the state has enormous powers. We are aware as you are. Anyone who takes a stand knows full well that they are tackling a beast, but we know something else as well. Despite that power, it rests on very insecure foundations, because the real power in the worldand it was demonstrated in 2003 with the protests against the Iraq Waris that millions of people are opposed to what is taking place. Now if there is a leadership that can mobilise that social force they can have as many surveillance cameras as they like. It wont save them.
Carriers preparations

According to experts, 5G technology will give rise to a revolution of connectivity. If 2G, 3G and 4G connected seven billion people with one another, then 5G is expected to connect trillions of devices, transferring the entire physical world into a virtual world and transforming the life of humanity.That is why 5G is compared to a fundamental step towards the fourth industrial revolution as it will be the most important infrastructure for the Internet of Things. Any country wishing to take the lead in the new revolution must have a 5G network making a step ahead.

In Vietnam, in order to take advantage of the golden opportunities from being a pioneer in implementing this technology, the Ministry of Information and Communications has issued a plan to kick off 5G as soon as 2019.

Vietnams 5G plan is divided into three phases: testing in 2019, frequency band planning in 2019-2020 and commercial licensing in 2020. Viettel is the first carrier to be licensed for 5G trials and the other two big players Vinaphone and Mobifone will also receive their licenses in the near future.

The carriers are taking solid preparatory steps so as to implement 5G effectively. Viettel, for example, has spent US$40 billion on developing their own 5G chipsets, in addition to embarking on researching 5G technology.

After Viettel attended the Mobile World Congress 2019, its Acting Chairman Le Dang Dung stated that the world has already entered the age of 5G and the most important thing now is that Vietnam and Viettel in particular must catch up with that pace.

For now, most countries are still in the phase of 5G testing and official rollout is expected to happen next year. Viettel is working hard so that the company will be able to have its own 5G equipment in the next one to two years when the world has already commercialised 5G.

One to two years is not long but enough for Viettel to learn what is essential about 5G so that it will be able to keep up with the global technological trend. The company is confident that it could manufacture equipment through cooperation with other companies in the world.

Everything ready

With a desire to become one of the trailblazers in offering 5G services, VNPT also began researching the technology as soon as the definition of 5G was provided.

Recently, the group signed an agreement with Nokia to establish a research laboratory for technologies, applications, and solutions for the 5G mobile network. A VNPT representative stated that the company is also making preparations so that it will be able to manufacture 5G network equipment in order to gradually master this field as it once did with 2G, 3G, 4G and broadband Internet.

5G technology is highly important to development because it creates the foundation for digital transformation and IoT applications to build smart cities.

According to international telecommunications organisations, 2019 will be the starting year for 5G and the technology will mature around 2021-2022. The roadmap has been outlined and what was happening at MWC 2019 illustrates this clearly. At the show, most of the booths of leading corporations and countries in telecommunications were reserved to showcase 5G network equipment.

A number of major names such as Huawei, Xiaomi, LG and Samsung even introduced many 5G-capable devices. In order for this technology to become popular, there must be end-user devices, most importantly smartphones under US$100.

With signs in the market, most experts predict that 5G-capable smartphones will be available as soon as 2019 and become popular in 2019, with devices under US$100 available in late 2021 when 5G will truly boom.


By Jung Min-ho







Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrongly called the Czech Republic "Czechoslovakia" on its official Twitter account, Thursday.





On the day President Moon Jae-in arrived in the Czech Republic as part of his eight-day overseas trip, the ministry said: "President Moon @moonriver365 embarks today on visits to Czechoslovakia, Argentina (G20) and New Zealand, on a trip spanning across continents."





Czechoslovakia, or Czecho-Slovakia, was a sovereign state formed in 1918 in Central Europe after the dissolution of Austria-Hungary at the end of the First World War. But due to various issues between Czechs and Slovaks, it split into the two sovereign states  the Czech Republic and Slovakia  in 1993.





The ministry's posting immediately met with ridicule and criticism on social media.





"I took it as a message that Moon is going to Czechoslovakia through the time machine," one person joked.





"Minister Kan(g) Kyung-wha, it is Cxech (sic), not Czechoslovakia. It has been 26 years since it split into Czech Republic and Slovakia. It is a huge mistake for the ministry to use the wrong name. Excuse my spelling. You got it wrong first," another person said on Twitter.





The ministry deleted the posting, but has not issued a statement about the error.




By Jung Min-ho







Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha has apologized in parliament over President Moon Jae-in's diplomatic gaffe during a summit with his Malaysian counterpart last week.





Addressing questions from Rep. Baek Seung-joo of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party at the National Assembly Wednesday, Kang apologized for what she said a "painful mistake."





This came soon after Prime Minister Lee Nak-Yeon acknowledged the error at the Assembly. He said he thought there were "unprofessional" officials at Cheong Wa Dae.





During a press conference with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on March 13, Moon used the expression "Selamat sore," which means "good (mid)day" in Indonesian. He should have said "Selamat petang."





The presidential office or the foreign ministry did not receive any complaint from the Malay government. But the issue came into the spotlight when opposition lawmakers and some media pointed out the mistake and criticized the administration for "incompetence."






By Oh Young-jin



"Until now, the absence of ROK diplomatic missions in the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania and the Republic of Estonia in the Balkan region has caused difficulties in providing consular assistance and services"



You may laugh at this thinking it is a prank, but it is actually the work of professionals  the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.



The extract was part of its press release March 19 until the Latvian Embassy in Seoul protested that its country belonged to the Baltic region, not Balkan, and the ministry changed it.



A foreign diplomat told The Korea Times, "The Latvian ambassador was really mad."



"The ministry needs geography lessons."






Watch Dogs: Legion 'Bloodline' DLC Featuring Aiden Pearce and Wrench Out Now
Some 850 guests will attend the 26th International Book Fair, to be held between April 25 and 28 at Budapests Millenaris Park, the organisers said.

This years guest of honour is Norways Karl Ove Knausgard, best known for his six-volume Min Kamp (My Struggle) series of autobiographical novels.



In 2010, the series broke sales records in Norway, according to Oslo-based publisher Forlaget Oktober. Knausgard will receive the Grand Budapest Prize, founded by the Association of Hungarian Publishers and the city of Budapest.



Holders of the prize include Mario Vargas Llosa, Michel Houellebecq, Gunter Grass and Jonathan Franzen among others.



The country of Norway will also be guest of honour, with writers Klara Hveberg, Vigdis Hjorth and Marta Breen attending.



Opening hours:

25 April 2019 12.00  19.00

26 April 2019 10.00  19.00

27 April 2019 10.00  20.00

28 April 2019 10.00  19.00

The entry is free!

Click here to visit Book Festival online for further info


Pro-government columnists agree with Viktor Orban that the European Parliamentary election will decide whether or not Europe will remain Christian, and whether nation states can preserve their sovereignty. A left-wing commentator calls for more integration so that the EU can compete with the US and China.

In his Friday speech opening the European Parliamentary election campaign, the Prime Minister said that primary aim of Fidesz is to defend Christian and national Europe from immigration and multiculturalism.

He added that he wants to maintain national sovereignty within the EU rather than create a liberal empire  a United States of Europe. PM Orban accused Brussels elites of promoting migration, alongside the Soros network.

He labelled European Commission President Juncker as a Socialist, adding that Fidesz will decide for itself whether to remain a member of the European Peoples Party after the May election.

Magyar Nemzets Ferenc Kis welcomes PM Orbans plan to defend Hungarys national identity and European civilization.

The pro-government commentator agrees with the Prime Ministers analysis that the European Parliamentary election is a competition pitting pro-migration globalist parties, against national-Christian ones.

Kis thinks that liberals want to create a totalitarian global state by weakening traditional social ties including family, church and nation.

In Magyar Hirlap, Sandor Faggyas calls what PM Orban has outlined a European Monroe doctine of national sovereignty.

The pro-government columnist thinks that European stability is threatened by foreign, African and Asian civilizations and an anti-Christian Islam that want to colonize Europe.

Faggyas contends that PM Orban is one of the spiritual leaders of pro-sovereignty groups in Europe that want to defend European Christian and national civilization.

Commenting on the Prime Ministers speech and on a meeting between Laszlo Kover, the speaker of the National Assembly and Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, Nepszavas Robert Friss suspects that Fidesz will decide whether to leave the EPP and join the European far-right parties after the May election.

The left-wing pundit disagrees with PM Orban on the stakes of the European Parliamentary election. Friss believes that in order to compete with the US and China, the European Union needs to integrate further.

Such political integration to create a stronger Europe does not undermine national cultural sovereignty, Friss contends, adding that those countries that reject participation in a more integrated EU will be left on their own.



MTI Photo: Koszticsak Szilard

This opinion does not necessarily represent the views of XpatLoop.com or the publisher. Your opinions are welcome too - for editorial review before possible publication online.

Click here to Share Your Story


By Jung Min-ho





The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has dismissed the official responsible for displaying a crumpled national flag at Korea-Spain bilateral talks last week.





According to the ministry Monday, the director-level official was removed from his post after putting up the taegeukgi for Thursday's meeting between Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and his Spanish counterpart Fernando Valenzuela at the ministry building in Seoul.





The move comes a few days after the ministry promised to take action.





In the past few months, the ministry led by Kang Kyung-wha has been criticized for a series of blunders. Most recently, it wrongly referred to Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia as countries in the Balkan region, instead of Baltic, which drew a protest from the Latvian Embassy in Seoul.


Hungarys opposition parties on Friday slammed Prime Minister Viktor Orbans speech launching his Fidesz partys European parliamentary election campaign, accusing Fidesz of being anti-European and of ignoring Hungary and Europes real problems.

The Socialist Party said that back in 2009, the first time Fidesz had an EP election programme, Fidesz had still been a pro-Europe party, but had since then become anti-European.

Istvan Ujhelyi, the partys MEP, told a press conference that the Socialist-Parbeszed alliance (pictured on top) was offering people a choice between Europe and Orbanistan.

Parbeszeds Bence Tordai said the reason why Orban was focused on the issue of national sovereignty was because he believed certain EU policies, such as the establishment of a European prosecutors office, were against the interests of his party.

He said the prime minister was using the issue of migration as a distraction from the emigration of Hungarians.

Peter Jakab of nationalist Jobbik said Orbans Fidesz was Europes largest immigration-organising group, accusing the party of driving Hungarians out of their country in a bid to replace them with economic migrants from outside the EU.

On May 26, Hungarians will have to decide whether they want to see western wages or eastern immigrant workers in their homeland, he said.

Ferenc Gyurcsany, leader of the leftist Democratic Coalition, said in a Facebook post that out of the challenges facing Europe, Orban was only focused on migration.

One who only sees this is a traitor to his country, Gyurcsany said, adding that the issue of emigration and the problems faced by Hungarys education and health-care sectors could not be solved with fearmongering over the no-longer-existent refugee crisis.

The radical nationalist Mi Hazank Movement party criticised Orban for failing to urge the levelling of wages between the older and newer EU member states.

In a statement, party leader Laszlo Toroczkai said Orban had also failed to mention that Hungarys demographic challenges were further exacerbated by the problem of Hungarian-Gypsy coexistence.



MTI Photo: Bruzak Noemi
The Californian start-up Lime will introduce its electric scooters to Budapest, as reported by forbes.hu.

Innovation and micromobility will offer tangible benefits for Budapests residents  Limes International Communications Director Paloma Castro Martinez told attendees at the Smart X Conference in Budapest.

Limes mission is to provide quick, simple and sustainable alternatives to getting around the city. Their electric scooters alleviate congestion pressures, reduce air pollution, and ease parking difficulties in the cities they operate in.

We will soon join Budapests excellent Cities for the People initiative. As a part of it  on trial for the time being  we will launch our electric scooter service to make the lives of the citys residents easier said Castro Martinez.

At the moment the company is negotiating with city authorities to make sure Lime is compliant with local regulations. Castro Martinez also said at the conference: I hope that this time next year we will see many people using e-scooters to get around Budapest and I wish for our service to be an integral part of this dynamic city.

Limes e-scooters are present in over 100 cities and they are equipped with GPS and an automatic locking system.

Users can download the Lime app from both the Apple Store and Google Play, which can be used to find the closest vacant e-scooter and then unlock them. The biggest advantage of the service is that it does not rely on a docking station, meaning users can pick-up and drop-off the e-scooters wherever they want.

The Lime e-scooters are capable of speeds of up to 25km/h and work with rechargeable batteries.

Lime has a local team to maintain their product  they collect the e-scooters at night and recharge them to be ready for use in the morning.

Since its launch in 2017, Lime has been an integral part of European cities from Warsaw to Vienna and from Zurich to Berlin. So far across 5 continents  including 20 countries in Europe  26 million Lime trips have been made.

The start-ups headquarters is in California and this February it received a $310 million investment. In total it has received $756 million in investments, including from venture capitalist Andreessen Horowitz.

In addition to two electric car services (Greengo, Mol Limo) and a bike initiative (Mol Bubi), Budapest also boasts an electric motorbike service (Blinkee) too.



Source: Daily News Hungary; forbes.hu

Photo: Lime Facebook
Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Friday outlined his Fidesz partys programme aimed at stopping immigration.

The first part of the proposal calls for stripping Brussels bureaucrats of their power to manage the migration issue and giving that competency back to the European Unions member states.

He said no country should be forced to take in migrants against its will and no one should be admitted to the EU without valid documents. The EU should also stop issuing prepaid debit cards and migrant visas to migrants, Orban said.

Neither should the bloc give any more money to organisations linked to US financier George Soros, which the prime minister said promoted immigration. Instead, he said, these groups should pay for member states border protection measures.

Further, no one should face discrimination for identifying as a Christian, Orban said, adding that EU institutions should have anti-migration leaders. The prime minister said these measures were crucial for stopping immigration and preserving Christian culture, and asked voters to back his partys programme.

Our Christian civilisation is at stake in the upcoming European parliamentary election, Orban said.

The election will decide if the EU has pro-migration or anti-migration leaders in future, whether Europe continues to belong to the Europeans or to masses from another civilisation; whether we can save our Christian, European culture or give up the ground for multiculturalism, the prime minister said.

Orban added that discontent with Europes elite is mostly rooted in their treatment of migration. What Europe is facing is not just a migration crisis but a migration of peoples in the historical sense, he suggested. Europe, he went on to say, could stop mass migration but it has not even made an attempt; the European Unions incumbent leaders support and encourage migration.

Orban criticised Brussels for not focusing enough on family policy, pointing out that at the same time the EU regularly emphasises the importance of legal migration. He said the EUs programme of legal migration was actually a front for replacing Europes population with immigrants.

We Hungarians have lived here in the Carpathian Basin for a thousand years  and we want to remain here and preserve our borders for at least another one thousand years, the prime minister said.

We want the next generations, our children and our grandchildren, to be just as free to make decisions about their lives as we are.

Orban also touched upon the relationship between Fidesz and the European Peoples Party, saying that we will decide on our own future, not the European Peoples Party.

Fidesz will wait and see which direction the EPP will move after the elections, he said, adding that right now it appeared to be heading left, in a liberal direction towards liberal European empire-building and in the direction of the Europe of immigrants. If this is the direction the EPP is headed, he said, you can be sure Fidesz wont follow it.

As regards the outgoing European Commission president, Orban called Jean-Claude Juncker an authentic socialist who bore heavy responsibility for Brexit, the migrant invasion and the growing conflict between central and western Europe.

There is an error in the appliance of the Brussels elite, he said, adding that there was a bubble, or virtual world in Brussels that refused to accept reality.

This was why, Orban said, it was possible for EPP group leader and spitzenkandidat Manfred Weber, who he noted was a Roman Catholic Bavarian, to insult the Hungarian people.

He said this was not unusual from a Bavarian from Brussels, adding, however, that a Bavarian from Munich would never do such a thing.

Orban noted that Hungary has been at odds with Brussels on various issues for nine years now, adding that these disputes were always about the Hungarian governments refusal to do as Brussels dictates if it believes that something would be against the interests of the Hungarian people.

The prime minister summed up the achievements of the Juncker commission saying the British are leaving and the immigrants have come in.

Concerning the future of the bloc, Orban criticised the concept of the united states of Europe, which he said was a power ambition of the Brussels elite against nation states.

The European dream is broken, he said, citing a recent study by the Szazadveg Foundation, which found that EU citizens no longer believe that future generations will be better off than the current one.

Orban said western Europeans tended to be more pessimistic about the future of the bloc. The majority of Europeans also believe in preserving the continents Christian culture and traditions, Orban said, pointing out that 80 percent of Hungarians share this view.

Europeans oppose immigration, he said, adding that European Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans, the lead candidate of the European Socialists, on the other hand, was in favour of it. Its understandable that Juncker and Timmermans are together all the time, Orban said.

The only question is how the EPPs Manfred Weber can come together with someone like this.

The prime minister called on voters to show Brussels in the election that it was the European people, and not the Soros-affiliated NGOs and Brussels bureaucrats that had the final say in the EUs affairs.



MTI Photo: Koszticsak Szilard
2 Women Are Found Buried, and Suspects Are ID'd After 1 Survives Suicide Attempt, Then Confesses Man Allegedly Confessed to Murder After Surviving Suicide Attempt

The slain bodies of two South Carolina women were recovered from shallow graves on Friday, and investigators have charged two men with murder after one allegedly confessed following a suicide attempt.

PEOPLE confirms that Jonathan Galligan, 39, and Christian Daniel Hurlburt, 41, were both taken into custody on Saturday and charged with murder in the deaths of Christin Renee Bunner, 27, and Melissa Fairlee Rhymer, 40.

A statement from the Spartanburg County Sheriffs Office alleges that Galligan killed Bunner and Hurlburt killed Rhymer.

The bodies were found beneath a foot and a half of dirt, in the Spartanburg yard of a home Galligan once lived in.

The statement indicates the case began taking shape Wednesday when police responded to reports of a disturbance at a local towing business.

Deputies encountered Hurlburt upon arriving, and he allegedly refused to follow their commands. Instead, according to the statement, he took out a gun and fired it at his head once, but he did not die.

The following morning, Hurlburt summoned investigators to his hospital bed and allegedly told police he saw Galligan kill Bunner, saying the woman was his (Hurlburts) girlfriend.

Christian Daniel Hurlburt and Jonathan Galligan | Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office

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Hurlburt allegedly confessed he helped Galligan bury the body.

He also allegedly confessed to killing Rhymer, according to the statement, and claimed both men buried the corpse in the same yard.

A search of the property Thursday turned up nothing, but the following day, officers returned with cadaver dogs and found both women buried.

The causes of death for the victims have not been released, and motives for the killings has not been discussed publicly.

Both men are being held without bail and have yet to enter pleas. In addition, the two have been charged with being accessories after the fact in the two deaths, respectively.

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Hurlburt is also charged with being a convicted felon in illegal possession of a gun.

It was unclear Monday if they had retained lawyers who could comment on the allegations.

Bunner was reported missing in December.

Rhymer had not been reported missing, but authorities believe she was killed in January.
CANNES  Powering up an enhanced production-distribution axis in Europe, Movistar +, the pay TV unit of Telefonica, Europes second biggest telco, have closed a multi-year distribution-production alliance with Germanys Beta Film, one of the continents biggest independent production-distribution companies.

Beta Film already distributed Movistar + series on a title-by-title basis. Made by Christian Gockel, Beta pre-Mip TV dinner, and Ismael Calleja, Movistar + head of production & business affairs, on Sunday night the new deal allows for far deeper collaboration.

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Deal announcement came as, distributed by Beta Film, Leticia Doleras Movistar + Original Series Perfect Life world premiered on Sunday in Official Competition at Cannes. A further Movistar + title, also sold by Beta Film, Mariano Barrosos What the Future Holds, will receive an international premiere screening at MipTV on Monday.

In essence, the new deal transforms a title-by-title distribution arrangement, where Beta Films involvement sometimes came on finished product, into a partnership which will play through all stages of the value change from early development.

The arrangement will give Beta Film exclusive international distribution rights to about six Movistar + series a year. These will mix shows of blockbuster potential with more challenging titles such as comedies. Movistar + and Beta will also look to finance, develop and co-produce at least one drama series a year.

Betas international rights on titles will exclude Spain and sometimes Latin America, where Movistar + has launched a Movistar Series channel carried by its Movistar TV Pay TV and Movistar Play OTT service, said Sergio Osle, Movistar + president.

Selling Grand Hotel and Velvet worldwide  the original not the format  Beta Film already helped Spanish series break out internationally.

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We want to guarantee content coming from Spain which we have been distributing for many years and have been very successful, Gockel told Variety.

Allowing its partners a deep exchange on Movistar +s development slate, the new deal will also help Movistar expand its brand outside of Spain, he added.

Wed like to ensure that many of our projects have an international partner from inception, so an international market, expertise and makeup from the get-go, added Osle.

The deal rolls off sales on Movistar + series handled by Beta. Launched by Beta Film at Mipcom, Movistar + Original The Pier, from Money Heists Alex Pina and Esther Martinez Lobato, has been snapped up by 70 territories so far. Just before MipTV , Beta Film closed deals with RAI (Italy), ORF (Austria), HBO for the Baltics, SBS (Australia), MBC (Middle East) and U-Next (Japan), among others.

In hefty global sales, La Zona was most recently picked up by Amazon Italy, Canal Plus France, VRT Benelux and throughout Eastern Europe by Canal Plus Poland and others, Yandex Russia/CIS, RTP Portugal.

Undoubtedly Beta is a best-in-class European co-production & distribution player, so we feel very confident that they will help us to enlarge our Originals international partners network, Calleja commented.

Theres a bigger picture, however. The arrangement catches Beta Film as it is moving ever more into production. It will also bring in third-party companies to produce with Movistar +, said Gockel.

Movistar s international model looks to optimize distribution via key distributors or co-production partners, chosen on a best of breed basis, said Osle. Rather than pursuing global platform distribution, Movistar + will seek to distribute territory-by-territory, he added.

For Movistar +, Beta Film joins a burgeoning raft of production/distribution alliances. We want to develop a network of partners, which will allow us to cover the world,

At Natpe, Movistar + and Miami-based Telemundo Intl. Studios unveiled a three-year, three-series production partnership. Movistar+ has begun to co-produce with Arte (Hierro) Studiocanal (Instinto, a MipTV International Premiere Screening; On Death Row.)

At least one more partner will be revealed in the future. Of a release slate of 15 series a year, Movistar + may co-produce around eight titles, 100% financing the remainder.

Its a mixed model which is rapidly gaining favor among the biggest players in the world as they seek to construct lineups which will please all of heir customers some of the time, and some of their family member customers all of the time.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New Jersey Senator Cory Booker raised more than $5 million for his presidential election campaign in February and March, and has more than $6.1 million in cash on hand, his campaign said on Sunday. That is considerably less than others among the more than 15 Democrats who have announced they are running for the party's nomination. U.S. Senator Kamala Harris of California raised $12 million in the first three months of 2019 while Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who recently saw a bump in opinion polls but is still considered a long-shot, announced Monday that he had raised $7 million. Beto O'Rourke, a former U.S congressman from Texas, raised $9.4 million in the first 18 days of his bid for the presidency, his campaign said. U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders raised $5.9 million in the first day after announcing his candidacy, and later disclosed he had raised $10 million in a week. Fundraising has become an early way to prove to donors and potential supporters that a candidate is viable. Donations to Booker averaged about $34, with 82 percent of the donors new supporters of the candidate, spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said on Twitter. Candidates are required by law to report all campaign donations, and cannot accept more than $2,800 from a single donor during the primary race. U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren has said that her campaign would not hold any formal fundraising events and instead rely solely on "small-dollar" donations, or contributions collected online. (Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
Felicity Huffman is one of 13 parents who will be pleading guilty in the college admissions fraud scandal, the actress announced on Monday. According to the Massachusetts Department of Justice, Huffman was one of the defendants who was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud and have []

Felicity Huffman

Felicity Huffman is one of 13 parents who will be pleading guilty in the college admissions fraud scandal, the actress announced on Monday.

According to the Massachusetts Department of Justice, Huffman was one of the defendants who was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud and have agreed to plead guilty pursuant to plea agreements.

A plea hearing has not yet been scheduled.

In a statement, the former Desperate Housewives star said, I am pleading guilty to the charge brought against me by the United States Attorneys Office.

She continued, I am in full acceptance of my guilt, and with deep regret and shame over what I have done, I accept full responsibility for my actions and will accept the consequences that stem from those actions.

Felicity Huffman added, I am ashamed of the pain I have caused my daughter, my family, my friends, my colleagues and the educational community. I want to apologize to them and, especially, I want to apologize to the students who work hard every day to get into college, and to their parents who make tremendous sacrifices to support their children and do so honestly. My daughter knew absolutely nothing about my actions, and in my misguided and profoundly wrong way, I have betrayed her. This transgression toward her and the public I will carry for the rest of my life. My desire to help my daughter is no excuse to break the law or engage in dishonesty.

Lori Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, have not yet said how they plan to plead.

This is a developing story 

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The post Felicity Huffman to Plead Guilty in College Entrance Scandal: I Am in Full Acceptance of My Guilt appeared first on The Blast.
On April 8th, 1988, Columbia Records released Rodney Crowells breakthrough album, Diamonds & Dirt. Having released his debut LP Aint Living Long Like This a full decade earlier for Warner Bros., the former guitarist in Emmylou Harris Hot Band had, in his estimation, finally made a record his father would enjoy. While his earlier efforts veered into rock & roll territory, Diamonds & Dirt was a sharp, focused  but never pandering  stab at widespread commercial acceptance. How widespread was that acceptance? Five consecutive Number One singles. . . a full 50% of the original albums 10 cuts.

Its not that Crowell didnt know how to write and record hits. His debut disc had several that would scale the charts, including Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight and Voila! An American Dream  hits, respectively, for the Oak Ridge Boys and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. He also cut Dallas Fraziers Elvira just prior to the Oaks career-defining cover. But with famed producer (and former Elvis Presley piano player) Tony Brown co-producing, Diamonds & Dirt would reach the Top Ten on Billboards Country Albums chart and earn ACM and CMA nominations for Album of the Year. Beginning with Its Such a Small World, his duet with then-wife Rosanne Cash, then followed by I Couldnt Leave You If I Tried, Shes Crazy for Leavin, After All This Time, and the Buck Owens cover, Above and Beyond, Crowell bested the record of four chart-toppers from a single album that Earl Thomas Conley achieved with Dont Make It Easy for Me in 1984.

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Rodney Crowell first appeared on NBCs Late Night With David Letterman in December 1986, but in October 1988, he returned to perform his albums third single, the wild and wooly Shes Crazy for Leavin, which he co-wrote with Guy Clark. A cut from Clarks 1981 LP South Coast of Texas, which Crowell produced, the turbocharged tune tells the story of a woman who makes her escape from the songs narrator, who remains in hot pursuit until he crashes his truck and has to be extricated from it. Unique to this particular Late Night appearance is that the entire episode was taped inside the International Arrivals building at New Yorks JFK airport. Seen above in its entirety, the episode also includes a guest appearance from Wheel of Fortune host  and former Nashville weatherman, newscaster and DJ  Pat Sajak and a segment in which guests displayed giant homegrown vegetables (sadly, the show missed a golden opportunity by not paying tribute to Clark and his 1983 near-hit, Homegrown Tomatoes).

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Joined by bandleader Paul Shaffer on keyboard, drummer Anton Fig, bassist Will Lee and guitar player Sid McGinnis, with special guest Rick Newman, founder of the famed New York comedy club Catch a Rising Star, on tambourine, this version of Shes Crazy for Leavin might look laid back, with most everyone performing from a seated position, but the priceless clip spotlights a group of high-energy players who would go on to be known as the Worlds Most Dangerous Band. After the segment, which begins around the 40-minute mark, Crowell says its his first time playing in an airport, but notes that he has had experience playing Holiday Inn lounges.

In 2018, a new version of Shes Crazy for Leavin was included on Crowells Acoustic Classics, an album on which he reworked 11 of his much-loved tunes.

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In February, The Good Wife star Julianna Margulies revealed to Deadline that she almost reprised her role as Alicia Floreck on the current third season of the spinoff series The Good Fight on CBS All Access. She said she really wanted to do it but the deal didnt happen.

The Emmy-winning actress is now opening up about the reasons the deal did not come together. CBS wouldnt pay me, Margulies told Deadline on Sunday while attending The Contenders Emmys event to promote her new Nat Geo miniseries The Hot Zone. She had addressed the issue at the Series Mania festival in France last week where she was quoted as saying, The showrunners had found a nice away to reintroduce my character, a story that was to span three episodes. I was really excited about the idea, but CBS refused to pay my (ask).

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She elaborated to Deadline that she had not asked for more than her regular fee, which I hear was in line with what Margulies made on The Good Wife. I hear what she was offered was a Good Fight guest star rate.

Im not a guest star; I started the whole thing with The Good Wife, Margulies told Deadline. I wanted to be paid my worth and stand up for equal pay. if Jon Hamm came back for a Mad Men spinoff or Kiefer Sutherland wanted to do a 24 spinoff, they would be paid.

Margulies, who won two Emmys for her role on The Good Wife, talked to Deadline about discussing a three-episode arc with The Good Fight co-creators/executive producers Robert and Michelle King, who also created and executive produced CBS The Good Wife. Both series are produced by CBS TV Studios.

Back in February, Robert King confirmed that bringing Alicia back was considered, and he shed some light on her potential storyline.

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CBS

We thought maybe about making a big episode where she would be at the resistance, Diane (Christine Baranski) and her face each other, he told reporters. But that would be the end of the story. It felt like an asterisk.

Also back in February, Margulies talked to Deadline about keeping a very close personal connection to Alicia. I think about her all the time, she said. I think about how she would answer a question. I could be in the middle of a conversation and I wonder, How would Alicia answer this? Shes just so much smarter than me. I do think about her. I miss her and I love her.

After the deal fell through, Margulies rules out a possible stint on future seasons of The Good Fight, which she said she loves. She praised the quality of the storytelling and the cast, sharing her regret she would not be able to work again with Baranski and Cush Jumbo, her co-stars on The Good Wife and who are her friends. She also said that she regrets she would not be bringing back Alicia for the fans who had been asking for the characters return to The Good Fight ever since the spinoff was announced.

Margulies today echoed some comments she made last week in France. To be perfectly honest, I was shocked. I was more surprised than hurt. I thought, what are you worth? If you are worthless, if you are not valued for your work, than whats the point?

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.




Ambassador Damir Kusen, right, and Plenipotentiary Minister Igor Prelovsek of the Croatian Embassy in Korea pose with glasses of Croatian wine during the Wine Day event hosted by the embassy in Seoul, April 3. / Korea Times photos by Yi Whan-woo



Premium Croatian wines helpful in drawing Korean tourists



By Yi Whan-woo



A glass of wine, as Croatian Ambassador to Korea Damir Kusen put it, is "a highway to friendship."



And this partly explains why he hosted Wine Day last week, to bolster the bilateral friendship with Korea after the Croatian Embassy in Seoul opened in October 2018.



The event at Insadong Geujip, a traditional Korean restaurant in Insa-dong, central Seoul, April 3, showcased 12 premium Croatian wines before the Korean and international guests. They included Park Joo-sun, a Bareunmirae Party lawmaker who also serves as the president at the National Assembly's Korea-Croatia Friendship Association, diplomats _ both active and retired _ and journalists.



Among the featured wines were Grasevina (welschriesling), Chardonnay, Kaptol Grasevina, Syrah, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, Kaptol Red, Cabernet Sauvignon.



"In Croatia, we used to say a glass of wine is a highway to friendship. And I'm happy to say this [Wine Day] is the best possible way to build a bridge and to bring our two beautiful countries closer together," Ambassador Kusen said.



Calling the wine industry "something that more and more Croatia and Korea have in common," the envoy expressed hope the event, which took a couple of hours, will help inspiring ideas to bolster friendship "in the years to come."



He noted he hosted the event at Insadong Geujip "to make a connection between Croatian wine and a traditional Korean restaurant."



According to the embassy, it brought three ministerial delegations from Croatia to the restaurant.





Bottles of Grasevina (welschriesling) wines, left, are on a display at the Wine Day event.





Bottles of Syrah wines, right, are on a display at the Wine Day event.
Seymour Cassel, the Academy Award-nominated actor who regularly collaborated with Wes Anderson and John Cassavetes, died Sunday following complications from Alzheimers disease at the age of 84, according to multiple media outlets including the Associated Press.Born in Detroit in 1935, Cassels career in film began alongside Cassavetes as he took a role as a crew member on the legendary filmmakers 1959 debut film Shadows, a job which turned into an uncredited onscreen role and then into a credit as associate producer.Also Read: Nadja Regin, 'From Russia With Love' and 'Goldfinger' Actress, Dies at 87Cassel would go on to appear in six more of Cassavetes films, receiving a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his performance as the hippie Chet in the 1968 drama Faces. Other films they worked on together included Minnie and Moskowitz, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie and Opening Night.The 1980s were a rougher period for Cassel, as he fell into substance addition and spent six months in jail for cocaine possession. After going to rehab and getting clean, he found a resurgence in the 90s with Alexandre Rockwells 1992 indie comedy In the Soup, which Cassel starred in alongside Steve Buscemi. It was also through Rockwell that Cassel was introduced to the man who would provide him with more famous roles: Wes Anderson.In 1998, Anderson cast Cassel in his breakthrough film, Rushmore, as Bert Fischer, father of the rebellious teenage protagonist Max, played by a debuting Jason Schwartzman. He would go on to have roles in Andersons next two films, The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou.Also Read: Barry Malkin, Oscar-Nominated Editor and Longtime Francis Ford Coppola Collaborator, Dies at 80Cassel also had an impact on rock history, as he provided the stage name for legendary Guns N Roses guitarist Slash. Slash, born Saul Hudson, was a friend of Cassels son Matt, and regularly met with the actor during his childhood.My best friends dad is an actor named Seymour Cassel, and we used to ditch school and hang out at his house and he used to call me Slash and it was just habitual with him, Slash said in a 2012 interview with Metal Hammer.I was on tour in Europe and I happened to run into him and we went to dinner. He told me that he called me Slash, cause I had to ask him, and he says it was always because I was in a hurry, hustling whatever it was I was hustling at the time and never had time to sit and chat, the musician said. I was always sort of in passing and he just started calling me Slash.Read original story Seymour Cassel, Actor in Numerous Wes Anderson Films, Dies at 84 At TheWrap

Seymour Cassel, the Academy Award-nominated actor who regularly collaborated with Wes Anderson and John Cassavetes, died Sunday following complications from Alzheimers disease at the age of 84, according to multiple media outlets including the Associated Press.

Born in Detroit in 1935, Cassels career in film began alongside Cassavetes as he took a role as a crew member on the legendary filmmakers 1959 debut film Shadows, a job which turned into an uncredited onscreen role and then into a credit as associate producer.

Also Read: Nadja Regin, 'From Russia With Love' and 'Goldfinger' Actress, Dies at 87

Cassel would go on to appear in six more of Cassavetes films, receiving a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his performance as the hippie Chet in the 1968 drama Faces. Other films they worked on together included Minnie and Moskowitz, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie and Opening Night.

The 1980s were a rougher period for Cassel, as he fell into substance addition and spent six months in jail for cocaine possession. After going to rehab and getting clean, he found a resurgence in the 90s with Alexandre Rockwells 1992 indie comedy In the Soup, which Cassel starred in alongside Steve Buscemi. It was also through Rockwell that Cassel was introduced to the man who would provide him with more famous roles: Wes Anderson.

In 1998, Anderson cast Cassel in his breakthrough film, Rushmore, as Bert Fischer, father of the rebellious teenage protagonist Max, played by a debuting Jason Schwartzman. He would go on to have roles in Andersons next two films, The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou.

Also Read: Barry Malkin, Oscar-Nominated Editor and Longtime Francis Ford Coppola Collaborator, Dies at 80

Cassel also had an impact on rock history, as he provided the stage name for legendary Guns N Roses guitarist Slash. Slash, born Saul Hudson, was a friend of Cassels son Matt, and regularly met with the actor during his childhood.

Story continues

My best friends dad is an actor named Seymour Cassel, and we used to ditch school and hang out at his house and he used to call me Slash and it was just habitual with him, Slash said in a 2012 interview with Metal Hammer.

I was on tour in Europe and I happened to run into him and we went to dinner. He told me that he called me Slash, cause I had to ask him, and he says it was always because I was in a hurry, hustling whatever it was I was hustling at the time and never had time to sit and chat, the musician said. I was always sort of in passing and he just started calling me Slash.

Read original story Seymour Cassel, Actor in Numerous Wes Anderson Films, Dies at 84 At TheWrap
An Arizona grandmother is accused of fatally shooting her twin 8-year-old grandsons before trying to kill herself with an apparent overdose, say police.

Dorothy Flood, 55, of Tucson, was arrested Friday, a day after her grandchildren, Jordon and Jaden Webb, were found dead of gunshot wounds in her home, the Pima County Sheriffs Office said in a release.

Flood was charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

She was the twin brothers sole guardian.

She became their caretaker after their mother died by suicide, according to Chandra McCord, Floods former co-worker at the University Medical Center in Tucson, reports KOLD-TV.

Somewhere, something snapped, McCord told the station. My first reaction was of course no, it could not be the same Dorothy we knew.

 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click hereto get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

On Thursday at about 2 p.m., the fire department responded to a 911 call for medical assistance at Floods home, the sheriffs office said in the release.

Upon arrival, first responders discovered an unresponsive adult female inside the residence with symptoms of an apparent overdose, the statement says.

While tending to her, they discovered the two slain children in separate bedrooms.

As one of Floods co-workers for several years, McCord recalls her as being proud of her grandsons, putting up pictures of them at work, KOLD-TV reports.

She loved those grandkids and she loved her family, McCord said, adding that she quit her job so she could care for them full-time.

You could see the fear that she had of the future. said McCord. She was afraid she wasnt going to be able to handle it.

One neighbor told local station WDSU that both boys had special needs.

They were good kids, the neighbor, who wished to remain anonymous, told the station. They didnt talk, but they were good kids.

Flood is being held at the Pima County Adult Detention Complex without bond. She has not yet entered a plea. It is unclear if she has retained a lawyer who can speak on her behalf.
Boston-based private equity firm Great Hill Partners on Monday announced plans to purchase Gizmodo Media Group and The Onion from Univision. The buy caps months of feverish speculation over what would happen to the troubled slate of websites, which include brands like Gizmodo, Lifehacker, Jezebel, Deadspin and Splinter.Neither company offered specifics about the purchase price went for but people familiar with the deal told the Wall Street Journal that the final price was markedly less than the $135 million Univision paid for the websites back in 2016.Great Hill Partners said in a statement that it planned to fold the websites into the newly created G/O Media, which would all come under the editorial leadership of longtime digital veteran James Spanfeller.Also Read: Former CNN Contributor Jason Miller Sues Gizmodo Over Abortion Pill StoryThis opportunity comes at a time when the entire digital media category is beginning to be recognized again for its unique ability to meet the diverse content and delivery needs of consumers and advertisers, Spanfeller said in Great Hills press release. As the largest player in our space, G/O Media is in an ideal position to capitalize on this dynamic, and I am excited to collaborate with a great team that boasts an incredible track record to further expand our reach, add value to our advertisers and enrich our visitors lives.Our aim from the outset of this process was to sell these assets as one, and we are pleased to have found a terrific buyer in Great Hill, Univision CEO Vince Sadusky added in their own release.We are grateful to our colleagues at GMG and The Onion for all of their high-quality journalism and achievements as part of our company and we wish them and Great Hill Partners tremendous success. Purchased out of bankruptcy from the wreckage of Gawker Media, Univisons nine-figure deal for the web properties signaled an aggressive play for them in the digital/millennial media space. Problems began to arise almost immediately as the media company struggled to monetize the websites. Inertia and bureaucratic mismanagement from the top was also documented in detail by their own reporters.Univision fell victim to a disastrous private equity buyout finalized in 2007; an aging audience; a burdensome program-licensing deal with Televisa; competition from Telemundo and Netflix; layers of overpaid and useless middle management; and a general failure to position itself for a digital future, wrote journalists for Gizmodo in an article last May, calling the company a fing mess.The purchase is also a blow to Bryan Goldberg and his Bustle Digital Group, which had been keenly interested in buying the properties. In recent months, Goldberg has been on media shopping spree snapping up troubled websites like Gawker, Mic and The Outline.Read original story Univision Sells Gizmodo Media and The Onion to Private Equity Firm Great Hill Partners At TheWrap

Boston-based private equity firm Great Hill Partners on Monday announced plans to purchase Gizmodo Media Group and The Onion from Univision. The buy caps months of feverish speculation over what would happen to the troubled slate of websites, which include brands like Gizmodo, Lifehacker, Jezebel, Deadspin and Splinter.

Neither company offered specifics about the purchase price went for but people familiar with the deal told the Wall Street Journal that the final price was markedly less than the $135 million Univision paid for the websites back in 2016.

Great Hill Partners said in a statement that it planned to fold the websites into the newly created G/O Media, which would all come under the editorial leadership of longtime digital veteran James Spanfeller.

Also Read: Former CNN Contributor Jason Miller Sues Gizmodo Over Abortion Pill Story

This opportunity comes at a time when the entire digital media category is beginning to be recognized again for its unique ability to meet the diverse content and delivery needs of consumers and advertisers, Spanfeller said in Great Hills press release. As the largest player in our space, G/O Media is in an ideal position to capitalize on this dynamic, and I am excited to collaborate with a great team that boasts an incredible track record to further expand our reach, add value to our advertisers and enrich our visitors lives.

Our aim from the outset of this process was to sell these assets as one, and we are pleased to have found a terrific buyer in Great Hill, Univision CEO Vince Sadusky added in their own release.We are grateful to our colleagues at GMG and The Onion for all of their high-quality journalism and achievements as part of our company and we wish them and Great Hill Partners tremendous success. 

Purchased out of bankruptcy from the wreckage of Gawker Media, Univisons nine-figure deal for the web properties signaled an aggressive play for them in the digital/millennial media space. Problems began to arise almost immediately as the media company struggled to monetize the websites. Inertia and bureaucratic mismanagement from the top was also documented in detail by their own reporters.

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Univision fell victim to a disastrous private equity buyout finalized in 2007; an aging audience; a burdensome program-licensing deal with Televisa; competition from Telemundo and Netflix; layers of overpaid and useless middle management; and a general failure to position itself for a digital future, wrote journalists for Gizmodo in an article last May, calling the company a fing mess.

The purchase is also a blow to Bryan Goldberg and his Bustle Digital Group, which had been keenly interested in buying the properties. In recent months, Goldberg has been on media shopping spree snapping up troubled websites like Gawker, Mic and The Outline.

Read original story Univision Sells Gizmodo Media and The Onion to Private Equity Firm Great Hill Partners At TheWrap
Why Audrey Hepburn Refused to Play Anne Frank in the Hollywood Film Despite Pleas from Anne's Dad

Audrey Hepburn made less than 20 films during her legendary career, but they were so beloved  Roman Holiday, Breakfast at Tiffanys, Sabrina, to name a few  that she became one of Hollywoods most beloved and enduring stars.

But there was one role she was never able to play: that of Anne Frank.

While Hepburn never met Frank, they lived parallel lives. They were the same age, lived just 60 miles apart, and suffered the horror of the German occupation of Holland, notes Robert Matzen in his new book Dutch Girl: Audrey Hepburn and World War II, excerpted exclusively in this weeks PEOPLE. But with one life and death difference: Anne was Jewish.

The actress grew up in Holland during Germanys five-year occupation of the country. She rarely spoke about the darkness of those years, where she was forced to live in a cellar due to the bombing, nearly starved to death due to food shortages, and lost her beloved uncle, Otto van Limburg Stirum. He was a magistrate who did not support the Nazi regime, and was then executed on August 15, 1942.

According to Matzen, when the star read Franks The Diary of a Young Girl, Hepburn was devastated. Ive marked where she said Five hostages shot today, said Hepburn years later. That was the day my uncle was shot. And in this childs words, I was reading what was inside me and still there. This child who was locked up . . . had written a full report of everything Id experienced and felt.

Hepburn met with Annes father, Otto Frank, and his second wife, Elfriede, in 1957 in Switzerland. | Anne Frank House

When producer and director George Stevens turned Franks diary into a movie in 1959, Annes father Otto Frank  the familys sole survivor  asked Hepburn to play his late daughter, who died of typhus fever at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945.

RELATED VIDEO: Inside the Secret Life of Audrey HepburnHer Childhood, Style, & Path to True Love

But Hepburn was so traumatized that she was unable to. I was so destroyed by it again, that I said I couldnt deal with it, Hepburn later said. Its a little bit as if this had happened to my sister . . . in a way she was my soul sister.

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Bantam

For more about Hepburn, pick up this weeks issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.

Newcomer Millie Perkins went on to portray Frank, and The Diary of Anne Frank won three of the eight Oscars it was nominated for in 1960.

Yet in her later years, Hepburn read from Franks diary in a series of concerts to raise money for UNICEF.

Her son, Luca Dotti, who wrote the books forward, says, Because of the war, she took nothing for granted. Everything had value. Once you are a survivor, you are always a survivor.
American tourist kidnapped on safari in Uganda begins journey home originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

U.S. citizen Kimberly Sue Endicott has left Uganda's Queen Elizabeth National Park, after being kidnapped while on a safari there and held hostage for four days.

Endicott was seen Monday morning being transported by helicopter to Uganda's capital, Kampala. She is now under care of the U.S. Embassy, according to a spokesperson for Wild Frontiers Uganda, the Uganda-based tour operator that organized her safari. The Uganda Police Force also confirmed that Endicott was handed over to the U.S. ambassador at the American embassy in Kampala.

It was unclear exactly when Endicott would return home to Southern California.

(MORE: American Kimberly Sue Endicott, guide abducted in Uganda returned safely after ransom paid)

Endicott was on an evening game drive with a Canadian couple and tour guide in the park's southern Ishasha section Tuesday when they were allegedly ambushed by four gunmen in military uniforms. The gunmen apparently held the group at gunpoint before snatching the keys to their safari vehicle and fleeing with Endicott and the guide, identified as Congolese national Jean-Paul Mirenge Remezo, according to the Uganda Police Force.

The Canadian tourists, identified by Wild Frontiers Uganda as Martin and Barbel Jurrius, were left behind and contacted the camp manager, who brought them back safely to the wilderness compound, police said.

The kidnappers used one of the victim's mobile phones to demand a $500,000 ransom, which police said they believe was the motive behind the abduction.

PHOTO: Kimberly Sue Endicott and Jean-Paul Mirenge Remezo return to the Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda on April 7, 2019. (Wild Frontiers Uganda)

After a days-long search operation by Ugandan police, armed forces and wildlife authorities, Endicott and Remezo were "rescued" unharmed from the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo and brought back to Uganda Sunday evening.

But their captors "escaped," and the operation to track them down continued Monday, according to Ugandan government spokesperson Ofwono Opondo.

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Ugandan police said they are working in close coordination with their Congolese counterparts.

(MORE: Search expands for American tourist kidnapped in Uganda's Queen Elizabeth National Park)

Endicott and Remezo were freed in a "negotiated handover, conducted between the Ugandan and U.S. authorities," according to a press statement from Wild Frontiers Uganda, which has been operating safaris since 1996.

"We have provided as much assistance as possible to the authorities and will now continue to provide support to both Kimberly and our guide Jean-Paul as they work toward returning to their homes and families," the company said in the Monday statement. "We also are working with the investigating authorities to ascertain precisely what happened and how this can be prevented in the future."

Uganda Police Force spokesperson Fred Enanga said at a Monday press conference in Kampala he did not believe a ransom was paid. However, a Wild Frontiers Uganda spokesperson told ABC News a ransom was paid. It was unclear who paid or how much was given.

Footage taken by Wild Frontiers Uganda on Sunday showed the moment Endicott and Remezo returned to the company's Ishasha Wildnerness Camp in Queen Elizabeth National Park. Endicott was barefoot and her pants were torn.

The pair, who were said to be in good health and good spirits considering their ordeal, spent the night at the camp's lodge.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State told ABC News Sunday, "We are aware of reports that a U.S. citizen hostage was recovered on April 7 by Ugandan security officials. Privacy considerations prevent us from commenting further at this time.

PHOTO: Kimberly Sue Endicott boards a helicopter at the Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda on April 8, 2019. (Wild Frontiers Uganda)

A U.S. official in Washington familiar with details of the recovery efforts told ABC News earlier that Ugandan police were handling the situation well, with U.S. authorities only providing support as needed.

(MORE: American tourist kidnapped in Uganda's Queen Elizabeth National Park)

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni applauded the rescue on Twitter Monday morning and vowed to "deal with these isolated pockets of criminals."

"However, I want to reassure the country and our tourists that Uganda is safe and we shall continue to improve the security in our parks. Come and enjoy the Pearl of Africa," Museveni tweeted.

U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted a few hours later, "Uganda must find the kidnappers of the American Tourist and guide before people will feel safe in going there. Bring them to justice openly and quickly!"

PHOTO: Jean-Paul Mirenge Remezo and Kimberly Sue Endicott at the Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda on April 8, 2019. (Wild Frontiers Uganda)

Located in southwest Uganda, the Queen Elizabeth National Park is one of the country's most popular tourist destinations and boasts luxury wilderness camps. Tourists are sometimes accompanied by armed rangers to protect against wildlife or poachers, but it is not required.

A spokesperson for Wild Frontiers Uganda told ABC News Endicott's group was not accompanied by an armed ranger at the time.

(MORE: Suspected poacher killed by elephant, body devoured by lions: Officials)

Uganda Wildlife Authority spokesperson Bashir Hangi told ABC News it's possible the kidnappers are poachers who encountered the group by mistake or "rogue militias" from the conflict-torn eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Still, Hangi said his country and its national parks are known for being safe for tourists, and kidnappings are uncommon.

"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 in an interview last Thursday in Kampala. "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," he added. "We are known to be a safe country for all visitors. We are known to be a country that receives 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."

ABC News' Nicky de Blois, Moses Bwayo, Conor Finnegan, Josh Margolin, James Meek and Sohel Uddin contributed to this report.
Amid Turkey's pending Russia defense system purchase, some question Trump's ability to push back: Sources originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

As Turkey moves forward with the controversial purchase of Russia's most sophisticated and advanced air defense systems, some State Department and Department of Defense officials are privately blaming President Donald Trump for failing to issue a tough ultimatum over the proposed sale, sources with knowledge of the matter tell ABC News.

For months, senior officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, have warned Turkey against choosing a Russian missile system that it is incompatible with the NATO defense systems. They expressed concerns that Turkey, a NATO ally, would purchase a Russian system over the U.S.-made Patriot system.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to meet in Moscow on Monday to discuss the sale of the S-400 system, according to Russian state-run press.

PHOTO: President Donald Trump shakes hands with President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Roosevelt Room where they issued a joint statement following their meeting at the White House, May 16, 2017, in Washington, DC. (Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images, FILE)

(MORE: Senior military leaders optimistic Turkey will receive American F-35 fighter jets, despite threats)

Since Erdogan has been personally negotiating the sale, there was hope that pressure from Trump could kill the deal.

But during a Feb. 22 call between the two leaders, Erdogan pushed back against Trump's threat of sanctions, suggesting Congress was infringing on the president's executive power by issuing sanctions against Turkey over the deal, according to three U.S. officials briefed on the conversation.

Erdogan allegedly told Trump that the possibility of sanctions from Congress under Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act or CAATSA, is "unconstitutional" because "it takes away your executive power," according to two officials briefed on the call.

Trump responded that he'd talk to Congress, according to two of the officials who had knowledge of the conversation and then moved on from the topic.

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The president's response "wasn't framed so that Erdogan saw what was at stake," said another official about the call.

It was unclear whether the president could have stopped the deal because it's a sovereign country.

The White House did not respond to ABC News' requests for comment.

PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shake hands after their joint news conference in Sochi, Russia, Sept. 17, 2018. (Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool via AP)

Ahead of Trump's call with Erdogan, sources tell ABC News there was a big effort by both State Department and Pentagon officials to prepare the president for the conversation and the potential ramifications.

(MORE:Trump called for plan to remove all US diplomats from Turkey in frustration over detention of American pastor)

Pompeo and Shanahan also have previously spoken with Erdogan but without any real progress.

"That's why Trump's role in this is so critical, because Erdogan isn't listening to the emissaries that he's met with," said an official involved in the matter.

Military experts worry the system could expose Western defenses to the Russians, since the S-400 potentially could threaten the F-35 fighter jet's stealth technology, in addition to other U.S. and allied aircraft, officials said.

The S-400 is capable of shooting down aircraft, drones and cruise missiles with a range up to 250 miles.

China was sanctioned under the same law for purchasing a Russian S-400 system.

I'm not suggesting that Turkey can't be trusted, but I am saying that you take another risk with your system -- with what is probably our most sensitive technology," said Gen Curtis Scaparrotti, NATO Supreme Allied Commander and the head of U.S. European Command.

Mixed messaging

Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu hinted at the mixed messages coming from the administration on Wednesday when he claimed that during the same phone call, Trump promised Erdogan he "would take care of the issue."

U.S. officials have warned Turkey that they would cancel their order of 100 F-35 U.S. fighter jets, but Cavusoglu said they're not concerned because of assurances from Trump.

"Different statements are coming from different institutions of the United States as well ... different and contradictory statements are coming," Cavusoglu said at an event to celebrate the 70th anniversary of NATO in Washington on Wednesday.

"Trump admitted himself on the phone that the U.S. made the mistake not to sell Patriots to Turkey and he promised Erdogan that he will take care of the issue," Cavusoglu said at the NATO engages event on Wednesday. "And he's the President of the United States. ... He promised that he will do his best to resolve this issue."

The U.S. has offered to sell Turkey the American-made Patriot system, but Cavusoglu said at the Atlantic Council that they couldn't get it for 10 years, according to the Associated Press.

"That's why we had to buy from Russia," he said last week. "And we tried to buy from other allies as well. It didn't work. So it is an urgent need of Turkey. I mean, we need air defense systems urgently in Turkey."

Since the phone call between the two leaders, Erdogan has made it clear that he's pushing through with the sale, telling Turkish TV Haberturk "Nobody should tell us to lick up what we spat."

But publicly, the arms standoff between the countries continues. It's the latest dispute between the U.S. and Turkey amid tension over American support of Kurdish forces in Syria and their refusal to extradite Erdogan's rival Fethullah Gulen.

The Pentagon last week announced it's suspending the delivery of equipment for F-35 jets that Turkey is in the process of procuring.

"The S-400 and the F-35, we've made it clear that those are incompatible systems," Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters on Tuesday, adding, "We haven't given up on trying to work our way through this."
Severe storm threat pushing farther east after tornadoes in Texas, Mississippi originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

The slow-moving system that just generated almost 200 reports of damaging storms produced two tornadoes in Texas and one in Mississippi in addition to flash flooding up through Arkansas, which at one point saw 8 inches of rainfall over a very short time period.

That system today is pushing farther east, with severe storms possibly stretching from the Deep South up into Virginia. Damaging winds, large hail and potential tornadoes remain the key threats. Flash flooding is likely in the South as well.

PHOTO: Severe weather is pushing farther east tonight. (ABC News)

Over the weekend, more than 7 inches of rain fell in southern Oregon and Northern California, where several rivers are coming out of their banks, prompting evacuations near Eugene.

This occurred as another storm is forming over the Pacific Ocean that's likely to deliver more precipitation to the just-saturated West Coast.

PHOTO: Another new storm is forming near the West Coast. (ABC News)

By midweek, this new system will reach the central U.S. and deliver a major snowstorm stretching from the Plains into the Great Lakes, with the South seeing even more heavy rain.
"From Silver Screen to Mainstream: American Fashion in the 1930s and '40s" demonstrates Hollywood's massive influence on fashion in one of America's most tumultuous times.

An image on display at Chicago History Museum's new exhibition, "Silver Screen to Mainstream: American Fashion in the 1930s and '40s." Photo: Courtesy of the Chicago History Museum

The Chicago History Museum's new exhibition, "Silver Screen to Mainstream: American Fashion in the 1930s and '40s" invites visitors to "meet the original influencers." (And, imagine! There's not a selfie in sight.)

Showcasing 30 pieces from the museum's permanent collection, the displayed clothing illustrates how Hollywood replaced Paris as a nucleus of fashion trends during the tumultuous years between the Wall Street crash and World War II.

"I just thought it was a kind of interesting idea to pose the question, and answer the question, about the influence of Hollywood costume designers who often had another foot in the fashion world," says guest curator Virginia Heaven, associate professor of fashion design at Columbia College Chicago. "During the period before [the 1930s]  well, for centuries  Paris had been the center of fashion. And then the movies came about and people's focus was changed. The movies were remarkable in that they went across all social spectrums, from the poorest to the richest. As a consequence, the costume designers in movies were the early influencers."

But first, couture. The exhibition's starting point is a platform labeled "The Allure of Paris." Displaying 1930s pieces like a glittering Chanel evening gown and a silk dress by Madeleine Vionnet, the area provides a peek into what might have been the wardrobe of an upper-class Chicagoan.

"As the major manufacturing center in the country, Chicago had a lot of very wealthy people," Heaven says. "When they wanted their new attire, they whipped off to Paris, and got themselves couture garments."

She's the first to admit that the European dresses are "rather marvelous." But  before turning to a platform that shows off clothing from New York and Chicago  she puts in a plug for American design.

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"I always think that European clothes are very much more about the designer than the wearer, whereas American clothes are very much more about the wearer than the designer. Even though there are distinctive brands, it's much more about the comfort and the movability  the being comfortable and beautiful and elegant. That's what American designers care about."

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Beauty, elegance, flow  there's plenty of that on the next platform, which displays Hollywood-inspired pieces by American designers. It's easy to feel a vicarious getting-ready-for-a-party thrill in this area, where an impeccable 1930's evening gown in burnt orange silk keeps company with a Bergdorf Goodman dress in gold lame. An accessories case holds shoes and sleek clutches.

A dress by Bergdorf Goodman. Photo: Courtesy of the Chicago History Museum

Of course, swell nights covered in silk weren't entirely par for the course during the Great Depression. Before moving on to the next platform, which showcases styles the middle and working classes would have worn, Heaven says, "Where there are people that are very poor there are also people that are still very rich, so this sort of dichotomy exists in the same space. But the thing that sort of joins them is the movies."

A nearby wall displays catalog clippings and dress patterns from the era. Speaking of influencers, the catalog dresses had labels "autographed" by screen sirens of the day, and movie stars' faces were splashed across the packaging for dress patterns.

The more modest pieces shown opposite "have soul," Heaven says, noting how obviously well cared-for the garments  which include floral-printed house dresses  were. "When people were that pushed, part of maintaining some sort of normality was keeping up the appearance that things were okay. When you let everything go, then you've lost control. So it was very important at that time for people to hold onto the little bit of dignity that they had left."

Gesturing to the opposite platform, with its silk and gold lame, Heaven adds: "These are beautiful clothes, I'm not knocking any of that, or the French ones. But I do think these [more modest pieces] bring a dimension to the experience of being in the gallery, because this is the reality check."

The last platform shows clothing from costume designers who also had their own fashion labels. One of these pieces is a 1940 evening dress that Heaven calls the "key piece" of the exhibition. (Its also her favorite in the gallery.)

A dress by Howard Greer. Photo: Courtesy of the Chicago History Museum

Stitched up by Illinois-born designer Howard Greer in 1940, the red and beige evening dress has a striking starburst pattern. Beside the dress is a framed still from the 1940 film "My Favorite Wife," for which Greer designed costumes. In the still, an actress wears a starburst-patterned dress that's remarkably similar to the one on display.

"The same year this movie was released, [Greer] had a piece in his custom line that was almost identical. So that was a perfect example of silver screen to mainstream," Heaven says.

But the exhibition doesn't just aim to demonstrate the influence that Hollywood had on mainstream fashion. Instead, as Heaven has hinted, it's meant as a testament to the influence of American fashion in general.

"The point I guess is to say that hey, wait a minute, American fashion and American style is very distinctive and it's really pretty great," Heaven says. "Even now people look to Paris and a lot of what comes out of America has been very, very influential. When you think of blue jeans and t-shirts, the power suit, this has had an effect all over the world. It's still being felt now."

The exhibition opens on April 8, 2019 and runs through Jan. 20, 2020.

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Last year, 62 CEOs of health-care companies made a combined total of $1.1 billion in compensation. That's according to a new report out from Axios, which coincidentally notes that CEO compensation eclipses what the Centers for Disease Control spent on chronic disease prevention by $157 million. That comparison might make the executive compensation seem galling, but a look at the bigger picture...doesn't make it better.

In 2018, each of those executives made an average of nearly $18 million, before taxes at least. Meanwhile, Americans are borrowing as much as $88 billion annually to pay for medical expenses, which goes a long way toward explaining why an estimated one out of every five Americans is reportedly struggling with either medical bills or debt. One study found that millennials alone made up the largest chunk of people in the U.S. with medical debt, and those numbers are likely to get even worse if the current lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act is upheld in the Supreme Court.

All of this might even be defensible if the health care that Americans were getting was insanely goodif, after all, we were paying more for a demonstrably better system, right? But in 2017, the Commonwealth Fund, a health-care research organization, found that out of 11 wealthy countries surveyed, the U.S. ranked dead last for quality of health care outcomes. And despite all those costs and profits going up, American life expectancy has dropped for a historic third year in a row.

We're paying more and more money for worse care and worse results. But the idea that "more expensive" is the same as "better" is hard to shake. When Bernie Sanders pointed out that it costs 200 times more to have a baby in the U.S. compared to Finland ($12,000 to $60), former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley accused him of wanting to shortchange American women, tweeting, "Youre not the woman having the baby so I wouldnt be out there talking about skimping on a woman when it comes to childbirth. Trust me! Nice try though." Women in the U.S. are more than two times more likely to die of pregnancy complications than women in Finland are.

Bloated executive pay isn't contained to the health-care industry. Today, the average CEO pay is 312 times the average workerthat's a stratospheric jump from 1978 when the ratio of CEO compensation was just 30 times a typical worker's salary. And unlike the rest of the world, American health care is a money-making industry, where the top metric for success is profit instead of patients.
Michelle Pfeiffer has made a career out of being unpredictable. At one time, she was Catwoman, purring unforgettable lines like, Lifes a bitch, now so am I. A decade earlier, she was Elvira Hancock in Scarface  a role so iconic that people recreate it every Halloween. In the past 10 years alone, shes played the ultimate villain in Hairspray and Bernie Madoffs wife.

Now, at 60, shes taking on an entirely new role as the founder of her own fragrance line called Henry Rose, which is launching with five different unisex scents. Even for Pfeiffer, this pivot seems highly unlikely, especially given how she went without wearing a single drop of perfume for 10 years.

Around 2004, I stumbled upon the Environmental Working Groups Skin Deep database, says Pfeiffer, who shares two children, Claudia Rose and John Henry Pfeiffer, with Hollywood producer David E. Kelley. I went down the rabbit hole, and started searching everything I and my children used. What I found is that whenever fragrance came up, it would be flagged as high hazard.' Thats largely due to the lack of transparency around the term fragrance on ingredients lists.

Pfeiffer decided to give up perfume for an entire decade, and start focusing on creating a fragrance she could trust. It was harder than she anticipated. I thought, Maybe I can try to develop one with a cosmetic company, Pfeiffer says. I approached a few, and they were not interested in being transparent in the ingredients. I didnt feel comfortable putting my name or face on something that I wouldnt wear myself. I got discouraged pretty quickly, and shelved it for a while.

Years went by, and as more people started paying attention to what was inside of their personal care products, Pfeiffer decided to give it another shot, approaching International Flavors & Fragrances with the idea of creating the first fine fragrances that are EWG-certified with a completely transparent ingredient list. They bit, and for the last year, Pfeiffer has been involved at every stage  from selecting the perfumers and ingredients to making sure the brand is environmentally conscious. (The bottles themselves are made from NEO-Infinite glass  90% recycled, 100% recyclable  and have soy caps.)

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If youve noticed, despite this being a celebrity fragrance, its not very celebrity fragrance-y. Its not called something like Pfeiffer Perfumes, and she isnt planning on putting herself on much of the marketing materials, either. According to her, theres a reason for that. I really took to heart advice that I got that people have become a little bit suspicious and doubtful of celebrity endorsements, she says. I felt that it was very important that the brand stand alone and that the credibility stands separate from me.

Despite her not planning to star in any kind of ad campaign for Henry Rose, Pfeiffer has clearly left her mark on the line. For one, the line is named after her childrens middle names: Henry and Rose. One scent, called Jakes House, is inspired by a smell that was in her grandparents bathroom in North Carolina. My grandfathers name is Jake, she says. It smells very soap-y and clean. Another scent, Torn, was inspired by the Old Spice her father used to wear, while the scent Fog is inspired by Pfeiffers summers in San Francisco.

Now, given Pfeiffers long list of unforgettable roles, we had to ask: Which Henry Rose scents would her most memorable characters wear? Obviously Catwoman would wear Dark Is Night, Pfeiffer says. Susie Diamond [from The Fabulous Baker Boys] might wear Torn. Sukie [from The Witches of Eastwick] she would wear either Fog or Jakes House. And Last Light they all might wear to lunch.

Check out Henry Rose perfume in the Sustainable Beauty Shop featured in Refinery29s 2019 Beauty Innovator Awards. At Refinery29, were here to help you navigate this overwhelming world of stuff. All of our market picks are independently selected and curated by the editorial team. If you buy something we link to on our site, Refinery29 may earn commission.

Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?

SJP's New Perfume Is Like Lovely's Cool Daughter
Peruvian Ambassador to Korea Daul Matute Mejia speaks during an interview with The Korea Times at his residence in March. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk



By Yi Whan-woo



For Korean tourists, Machu Picchu is the main reason they visit Peru. What often goes unnoticed is its gastronomy. Dating back to the Inca civilization, Peruvian cuisine has as much to offer as its rich history.

For this reason, Peruvian Ambassador to Korea Daul Matute Mejia says he has been stepping up efforts to promote the country's cuisine.

"Peruvian cuisine reflects the country's history, with a variety that is unique in the world," he said in an interview with The Korea Times in March.





Peruvian Ambassador to Korea Daul Matute Mejia smiles before one of his collections of Incan paintings after an interview with The Korea Times at his residence in March. He posed before the drawing to underscore a connection between Peruvian cuisine and the country's history that dates back to the Inca Civilization. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk



He defined the cuisine as "the most mixed cuisine in the world," referring to the countless dishes that vary across regions using corn, potatoes and chili peppers as its main staples.

Among the three, potatoes were believed to be domesticated as early as 10,000 years ago in the High Andes of southeastern Peru and northwestern Bolivia. There are over 3,000 different types of potatoes in Peru.

The cuisine is also a fusion of hundreds of years of culinary traditions from indigenous people as well as immigrants from Africa, China, Italy, Japan and Spain.

For instance, nikkei is a hybrid of Japanese and Peruvian cuisine. Also, chifa is a blend of Chinese dishes using Peruvian ingredients. The name originates from Cantonese words for chi fan (to eat).

"Peruvian cuisine is a source of pride, not just for its unique flavors and aromas, but because it summarizes much of Peru's history," Ambassador Matute said.





Peruvian Ambassador to Korea Daul Matute Mejia, right, demonstrates cooking before Juan David Jacome, the owner and chief of Peruvian restaurant Ceviche 210 in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, during the "Flavors of Peru" event at his residence in February. / Korea Times photo by Yi Whan-woo



For the first time after beginning a term here in April 2018, Matute hosted a "Flavors of Peru" event for bloggers and journalists at his residence in Itaewon, central Seoul. The one-day event in late February was aimed at raising awareness of Peruvian dishes in Korea.

The event included a cooking demonstration by Juan David Jacome, the owner and chief of Peruvian restaurant Ceviche 210 in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.





Ceviche is a traditional Peruvian dish made from raw fish marinated in lime juice with sliced onions, spicy peppers and fresh cilantro. / Korea Times photo by Yi Whan-woo

Lomo saltado, a beef stir-fry served with white rice and French fries, is a popular Peruvian dish that originated as part of chifa, the Chinese cuisine of Peru. / Korea Times photo by Yi Whan-woo



He cooked the two the most popular dishes  ceviche and lomo saltado.

Ceviche is made from raw fish marinated in lime juice with sliced onions, spicy peppers and fresh cilantro. According to Ambassador Matute, a restaurant in Peru offers 30 different types of ceviches.

Lomo saltado, a beef stir-fry served with white rice and French fries, is the most famous chifa cuisine.

On top of tasting the two dishes, the guests also had a chance to drink some of Peru's famous alcoholic beverages, such as pisco, pisco sour and chilcano de pisco.

Pisco is a colorless or yellowish-to-amber colored brandy produced in the winemaking regions of Peru and Chile. It was developed by 16th century Spanish settlers.

Pisco sour is considered the national drink of Peru. It is made from pisco sour, lime juice, simple syrup, Angostura bitters and ice cubes.

Chilcano de pisco is also a pisco cocktail that adds ginger ale.

As part of Lima's food promotion campaign, Peru and Korea have agreed on import of Peruvian Hass avocados. The former is one of the world's top five avocado producers and its customers include the United States, the European Union, China and Japan.

Peruvian cuisine is designated as the cultural heritage of the Americas for the World by the Organization of American States, a group of over 30 countries in North and South America.

The World Travel Awards has named Peru as the world's leading culinary destination for the sixth consecutive year from 2012 to 2018.

Three Peruvian restaurants  Central Restaurante, Maido and Astrid y Gaston  are among the World's 50 Best Restaurants 2018 selected by Business Insider website.

Two of the three  Central Restaurante and Maido  were ranked in the sixth and seventh, respectively and Astrid y Gaston in the 39th.

The following is the full interview script.

Q: What would be the best phrase to describe Peru concerning its cuisine?

A: Peru is known as the best gastronomic destination.

Peruvian cuisine reflects the country's history with a variety that is unique in the world. We find dishes that sweeten our palates in every corner of the country.

The cuisines of Lima, the North Coast, the Amazon, Arequipa, the Andes, and Novo-Andean cuisine are waiting to be served at your table so you can have an unparalleled gastronomic experience.

When you first try Peruvian cuisine, you embark on an "endless journey of amazing flavors" that suits everybody's tastes. For instance, we could define our cuisine as "the most mixed cuisine in the world." Each city boasts its own regional dish with unique flavors.

Peruvian cuisine is a source of pride, not just for its unique flavors and aromas, but because it summarizes much of Peru's history. This has earned it the designation of the cultural heritage of the Americas for the world by the Organization of the American States (OAS).

Q: How would you assess ?Flavors of Peru? event you hosted in February?

A: Everybody in the world is get ting to know Peru for its delicious dishes such as ?ceviche,? ?papa la huancaina? (yellow chili pepper, milk and Peruvian cheese sauce with steamed potato), and others mainly based on fish and seafood.

Throughout my entire diplomatic career, I have never known any foreigners, including Koreans, who have been to Peru and have not fallen in love with the taste of Peruvian cuisine.

Q: Please introduce notable Peruvian dishes influenced by native Peruvians and also each group of immigrants, including Africa, China, Italy, Japan and Spain.

A:As I said before, Peruvian cuisine is an endless journey of flavors.

You can start this journey in the beautiful valley of the Peruvian coast, by the side the ocean, and enjoy "ceviche," "parihuela" (seafood and fish soup), "jalea" (a mix of fried seafood and fish).

Then you can try the Creole cuisine which is the result of our cultural fusion. One of the main representative dishes is the "anticuchos" (beef brochettes), also Green rice with chicken, "cau cau," and others that are prepared with different kinds of beans.

Furthermore, you can go to Peruvian highlands and enjoy a magnificent "pachamanca" (an all-meat barbeque cooked in an underground oven); and a variety of soups to stand the low temperatures.

Also, you can go to the other side of the "Cordillera de Los Andes" (Peruvian highlands) and visit the Peruvian rainforest to enjoy "junes" (an elaborate dish with palm leaves), or "tacacho con cecina" (mashed and fried bananas with dry pork).

Q: What makes Peruvian cuisine prominent over those of other Latin American countries that foodies in the region are willing to visit Peru just to eat?

A: Peruvian cuisine reflects the country?s history, with a variety that is unique in the world. Peru has multi-diverse ingredients. The wealth of its lands and cultural diversity give Peru exquisite and tremendously varied gastronomy.

We have great respect for other Latin-American culinary traditions, but I have to say that those who have not yet tried Peruvian food, will not rest in peace.

In that sense, currently, Peru receives a special kind of tourism, those who aim to explore the national gastronomy. For instance, all our neighbors, around all Peru's frontiers, come to our country during the weekends or holidays to try Peruvian dishes, made by professional Peruvian hands.

Nowadays, in Peru, there is one restaurant that offers 400 different recipes, among them there are 30 different types of ceviches.

Additionally, I would like to mention the Lima International Food Fair, better known as Mistura, created in 2008 with the name "Peru, Mucho Gusto." This culinary arts festival embraces the culture, tradition, diversity, and of course, food. Each year, diners from Peru and beyond flock to this event to taste delicious Peruvian dishes prepared with native ingredients and seasoning handed down through many generations.

Q: Despite its culinary history, why do you think Peruvian foods have been less known in Korea?

A: As I said before, we have great respect for other Latin American culinary traditions.

In the short term, you must be sure that the exigent taste of the Korean population will be very focused in Peruvian food and its richness, variety, freshness, and high standard, as it has happened in so many places around the world.

Q: Please recommend some easy-to-cook Peruvian dishes that Koreans can try at home.

A: I suggest all your readers get one bottle of ?pisco? (a type of brandy) from Peru and prepare a pisco sour. To make this Peruvian cocktail, known as the national drink in Peru, you have to mix pisco, lime juice, simple syrup and egg white in a cocktail shaker, Add ice to fill, and shake vigorously. Alternatively, you can use a blender if you don?t have a shaker. Strain into an old-fashioned glass, and sprinkle the Angostura bitters on top of the foam.

Moreover, with pisco you can also make "chilcano," mixing the pisco and juice of a half of a lime in a tall glass, adding simple syrup if desired and four or more cubes of ice, and topping it off with ginger ale, and finally, adding two drops of Angostura bitters, stir, and garnish with a lime round.

Then, "ceviche" is a fresh and delicious dish; I will give the entire recipe:

First, thoroughly rinse the fish fillets and cut them into small cubes of slightly less than one inch. Place them in a glass container, preferably with ice cubes to keep them fresh. Chop the limo aji peppers or rocoto chili peppers into small pieces, removing the seeds to make them less spicy (if desired). Julienne the onions, cutting them into thin, feather-like strips is imperative. To make the onion flavor milder, we recommend placing them in a glass container with fresh water and adding one tablespoon of refined sugar. Finely chop the four sprigs of cilantro, removing the stems.

Parboil the corn and sweet potatoes (in the microwave for three minutes each). After boiling them, peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into medium-size pieces. Do the same for the corn. Cut the lemons in half and remove the seeds. Juice them into a glass container. Avoid over-squeezing the lemons to keep the bitter flavor of the rind out of the juice. Once the lemon juice is ready, mix it with the minced garlic, MSG, salt and pepper for 20 seconds to combine all the ingredients.

Add the limo aji peppers or rocoto chili peppers and the drained fish (without ice) to the container with the lime juice. Then rinse off the sweet flavor of the sugar the onion was soaking in, and add the onion, followed by the cilantro.

Once all the ingredients are in the container, stir them well using a steel spoon (never a wooden one). Finally, serve it in a small dish with a lettuce leaf, a chunk of sweet potato, and a piece of corn on the cob. It is customary to serve ceviche with some canch serrana (corn nuts), or chifles (thin round slices of fried plantain). The dish is complemented well by a glass of ice cold beer or chicha morada (a traditional corn beverage).

Q: What would be some Korean dishes that go with Peruvian wines and other alcoholic beverages?

A: Well, we could have exquisite kimchi, bulgogi, or bibmbap, accompanied by pisco sour.

The spicy taste of Korean cuisines suits the flavors of Peruvian beverages perfectly.

Q: Please introduce table manners in Peru to help Koreans when they go to Peruvian restaurants.

A: You can always start with appetizers, for example, the Peruvian national drink, "pisco sour," and in summer probably you will prefer a "chilcano" that goes perfect with a good ceviche.

In winter, you can start with a "parihuela" or another delicious soup. Then, I will recommend a "piqueo criollo" (an entree), a dish that comes with a variety of small portions of different Peruvian dishes. You will be impressed by the experience.

Finally, you can try one of our most exceptional deserts such s "mazamorra morada," (sweet purple corn jam), "suspiro a la limena" (sigh of a Lima lady), a combination of sweet milk and tasty egg cream.

Do not forget to have a delicious Peruvian cafe from "chanchamyo," a well-recognized zone of our country that is producing one of the finest coffees in the world.

Q: Please explain why and how you have decided to import avocados to Korea.

A: Peru is the second-largest exporter of avocados in the world. The quality of our avocado is well known as it is recognized as outstanding, as we are selling in the United States, the European Union, China, Japan, and of course, Korea ? developed countries with high standards that are met without any doubt by our Peruvian avocados.

We are sure that in the short term, Korean tastes will be fulfilled by the quality of our exquisite "palta" (avocado).

Q: What more would you like to share with The Korea Times readers?

A: First of all, I want to thank The Korea Times for giving me this opportunity to address its vast [readership], and I invite all Koreans to visit Peru. Enjoy Machu Pichu, Paracas, Nazca Lines, Lord of Spain, and the Amazon River, one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, but accompany your journey with our gastronomy. I can assure you that you won?t be disappointed.
Stairs at a subway station.

In Australia, most discourse around disability inclusion has centred around accessibility and infrastructure. More specifically, around removing stairs and putting in ramps, providing support to students with a disability, making doors wider and ensuring that all social venues, workplaces and community facilities can be accessed by people with a disability. But have we ever stopped to consider that the real issues around exclusion move far beyond matters of physical access and instead involve promoting attitudes of inclusion, nourishment and acceptance for people with disabilities?

As an aspiring university academic with cerebral palsy, attitudes towards disability and all the issues this very concept entails have been at the forefront of my experiences in daily life. Whether its trying to meet people or trying to convince an employer to give me that coveted job, it seems most peoples perception of disability inclusion is to remove a couple of stairs from a building or facility problem solved.

Related: Why Normal Is Relative for Me as a Disabled Job Seeker

From my experience, any attempt to achieve disability inclusion requires far more effort than that. Let me give you an example: Suppose an 18-year-old wheelchair user fresh out of school wants to attend a party. Accessing the venue may not be the primary issue. A ramp is already there, theres an accessible toilet which is easy to use and the dance floor is big enough to bust out some moves and a few burnouts. Something else or rather some others at the event are amiss. A group of people this person knows choose to simply ignore them, smirking and rolling their eyes at them. Their attempts to mingle with these people at the party are suddenly quashed. But why? Is it the shirt or the choice of drink? Or is it because of the sight of that wheelchair?

These questions often permeated my mind as I transitioned from a shy schoolkid into the life of an adult with cerebral palsy. To most observers its the elephant in the room, the thing nobody dares ask or talk about, possibly out of fear of offending the person with the disability or sounding naive, but for me open and honest dialogue about disability is the best way to achieve a truly inclusive society.

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Related: 4 Reasons Why 'Speechless' Deserves to Be Renewed for Season 4

Let me give another example: That same individual is now 21 and a skilled researcher. They apply for a job but as soon as they ask if the venue for the interview is wheelchair accessible, they get cut off. Again it begs the question, is disability inclusion simply about changing infrastructure? Or is it more to do with people making an effort to get to know the person with the disability for who they are and what they want to achieve, and then making that happen by accommodating their needs?

Ive always subscribed to the Australian spirit and mentality of never giving up, being the underdog and fighting my way through adversity or difficulty. It has served me well and continues to serve me well. How did I overcome these obstacles then? Through sheer persistence, stubbornness and a refusal to give up or walk away from a challenge. I applied for several jobs and have found a research role now. Im also on the way to beginning my Ph.D. in social work next year. I also hope that through my writing I get to connect and network with others, because writing and storytelling is a powerful tool that brings people together and has no physical limitations or boundaries.

Related: The Lifelong Process of Accepting My Disability

Through my experiences with cerebral palsy I have realized the importance of learning from the mistakes and shortfalls of others. But most significantly Ive realized that true disability inclusion is about how we accept ourselves for who we are, and accept others no matter what their or our disability is.

Read more stories like this on The Mighty:

Recreating My Dreams as the Father of a Child With Cerebral Palsy

When Children Ask What's 'Wrong' With My Daughter Who Has Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral Palsy Isn't 'One Size Fits All'
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ANKARA, April 8 (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday the margin of votes between Istanbul's top two candidates was too small for the opposition to have claimed victory, as his ruling party seeks a full recount to deal with what he called "organized crime."

Last week's initial results showed a narrow mayoral victory for Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) in the March 31 municipal elections.

Erdogan's AK Party (AKP) had appealed the initial results in all 39 districts of Istanbul, leading to partial or full recounts across Turkey's largest city, which has some 10 million voters. On Sunday AKP said it sought a full recount.

"The citizens are telling us to protect their rights, they are complaining of organized crimes. And we, as political parties, have determined such organized crimes," Erdogan told a press conference in Istanbul.

Erdogan's AKP is reeling from its apparent loss 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.

Erdogan said he would only accept the result when the High Electoral Board (YSK) has processed all the appeals.

"Nobody has the right to get in an election victory mood in a city of 10 million voters with a margin of 13,000-14,000," he said. "When the appeals have been completed, we will accept the result."

So far the initial lead held by Ekrem Imamoglu, mayoral candidate for the secularist CHP, has narrowed from 25,000 immediately after the vote to a little less than 16,000 after more than 90 percent of the recounts were completed.

Main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu warned of election security and called on the YSK to be impartial, saying that Erdogan's request for a full recount lacked a reasonable justification. (Reporting by Ece Toksabay; Additional reporting by Ali Kucukgocmen; Editing by Jonathan Spicer)
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ISTANBUL, April 7 (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party will ask Turkey's top electoral board for a recount of all votes cast in local elections in Istanbul, a senior party official said on Sunday.

Initial results from the March 31 election gave a narrow victory to the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) mayoral candidate in Istanbul. The AKP had already appealed the results, leading to partial recounts in some districts and full recounts in others.

"We chose the path to eliminate numerical mistakes. But it's not over," AK Party deputy chairman Ail Ihsan Yavuz told reporters in televised comments.

The party has appealed for a full recount in the Istanbul district of Beyoglu, one of 39 voting districts across Turkey's largest city, he said, and will ask the High Electoral Board (YSK) to do the same in the others.

"We will apply to the YSK for the recount of all votes in 38 (other) districts," Yavuz said.

Erdogan's AKP, hurt by a slowing economy, is reeling from its apparent loss of Istanbul, Turkey's commercial hub, and the capital Ankara, in the local elections.

The AKP has been in power nationally since 2002, but it and its Islamist predecessors have dominated Turkey's two biggest cities for a quarter of a century. (Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu Editing by Mark Heinrich)
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP)  Dozens of neglected animals were evacuated from a ramshackle Gaza zoo on Sunday in the fourth and largest such rescue mission in the blockaded Palestinian enclave.

Vets and volunteers from Four Paws International transported some 40 animals into Israel from the neglected zoo in the southern town of Rafah. The animals, including lions, foxes, monkeys, pelicans, wolves and ostriches, will be resettled in sanctuaries in Jordan and South Africa.

"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."

Many of the animals were smuggled into Gaza via tunnels beneath the southern border with Egypt, which along with Israel has blockaded the territory since the Hamas militant group seized power there in 2007.

The blockade and three wars between Israel and Hamas have made life miserable for Gaza's 2 million residents. Animals kept in captivity have suffered from a combination of neglect and lack of resources on the part of zookeepers.

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."

In January, four lion cubs died in the Rafah zoo. The owner later released grisly footage showing a lioness being declawed, in an apparent effort to push the organization to speed up the evacuation process. The owner was compensated for the animals, but the amount paid has not been publicized. There are no animals left at the zoo following the evacuation.

Four Paws International has carried out four rescue operations and has sent numerous medical missions to treat animals and birds in Gaza. Two other zoos have closed since Four Paws removed their animals, while animals are still being held in poor conditions at three other zoos.

The latest evacuation was scheduled last month, but a round of cross-border violence between Israel and Gaza militants forced the organization postpone it.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP)  Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has named a sitting Supreme Court justice to head New Zealand's top level investigation into the actions of security agencies and other issues related to the mosque shootings last month in which 50 people were killed.

The Royal Commission of Inquiry will look into the gunman's activities before the attack, including how he obtained a gun license in New Zealand and purchased weapons and ammunition, and his use of social media and possible connections with others in New Zealand or overseas.

"The Government will ensure no stone is left unturned as we examine as quickly as possible how the March 15 attack happened, what could have been done to stop it and how we can keep New Zealanders safe," Ardern said Monday in announcing the terms of the inquiry. "The Royal Commission plays a critical role in our ongoing response to fully understand what happened in the lead-up to the attack and to ensure such an attack never happens again."

The commission led by Sir William Young will have a budget of 8.2 million New Zealand dollars ($5.5 million) and will be expected to report its findings to the government by Dec. 10.

Ardern praised Young as having the extensive experience and skills required to lead the inquiry. "I am confident that in his nearly nine years as a judge on our highest bench, Justice Young has the judgment, clarity and care to do the job, with a sound understanding of intelligence issues and experience working in the public eye."

The commission will examine the actions of agencies including the Security Intelligence Service, Government Communications Security Bureau, New Zealand Police, customs and immigration, including what they knew about the gunman before the attack, what they did in response and what they could have done to prevent the attack.

It will question whether security agencies properly prioritized the use of their counter-terrorism resources. Critics have alleged the agencies focused on possible Islamic extremism but did not give enough priority to white extremism.

An Australian white supremacist, Brenton Harrison Tarrant, livestreamed the shootings and released an online manifesto in which he described planning the attacks at the two mosques in Christchurch. He was charged with 50 counts of murder and 39 of attempted murder and was ordered last week to undergo mental health assessments before his next court appearance in June.

A royal commission is the country's highest form of investigation and is run independently from the government. The commission has the power to compel witnesses to testify and organizations to hand over documents. But it remains up to the courts or government to follow through on any recommendations or findings.
Cotonou (AFP) - Thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets in Benin's biggest city on Monday to accuse President Patrice Talon of seeking to exclude them from forthcoming legislative elections.

An estimated 20,000 protesters took part in the march in Cotonou, where crowds, including politicians, union leaders, women, students and traders, brandished placards reading "Repeal rogue laws" and "Save Beninese democracy in danger".

They also chanted slogans denouncing Talon, who has been accused of authoritarianism since he was elected in March 2016.

Several political opponents have been subjected to legal proceedings in recent months as part of a fight against corruption which critics have described as a witch-hunt.

The latest demonstration follows a controversial decision by the national electoral commission (CENA) preventing five opposition parties from standing at parliamentary elections due on April 28.

More than five million people are expected to vote for all 83 seats in the National Assembly.

CENA last week ruled that only two parties -- which both officially support the president -- had fulfilled the conditions required by the new electoral code adopted last year, tightening the rules governing political parties.

The decision sparked outrage in Benin, leading Talon to call a meeting of representatives from all parties where he proposed finding a solution in parliament to "break the deadlock".

But the main opposition parties boycotted the meeting, instead calling for mass protests which they have said reflect widespread frustration with the president.

Monday's march was organised by the Cowry Forces for an Emerging Benin (FCBE) of former President Thomas Boni Yayi and businessman Sebastien Ajavon's Social Liberal Union (USL).

"The people are out in the streets because they want to tell the president that they are fed up," Donklam Abalo, a USL leader, told AFP.

Parliament needs to act to "let the people express themselves to freely choose their representatives", he added.

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The parliament's deputy leader Eric Houndete, who was at the protest, vowed: "There will be no election without the opposition."

Victor Topanou, the former justice minister of ex-president Boni Yayi, said the CENA decision to ban the opposition from elections was the final straw.

"For three years, there has been a feeling of an almost constant violation of individual and collective freedoms," he said.
Former SpaceX vice president of satellites Rajeev Badyal and couple members of his team are now leading Amazon's Project Kuiper, people say.

Badyal previously ran the "Starlink" division at SpaceX, which launched its first two test satellites last year.

It is apparent that SpaceX has continued to evolve Starlink in the 10 months since Badyal left.

Amazon AMZN 's satellite internet plan is increasingly looking like the one Elon Musk has at SpaceX, with thousands of spacecraft that are compact in size. Among the reasons for the similarities, people tell CNBC, is that Jeff Bezos has hired some of Musk's previous senior management.

Former SpaceX vice president of satellites Rajeev Badyal and a couple members of his team are now leading Amazon's Project Kuiper, people familiar with the situation told CNBC.



Project Kuiper represents Bezos' plan to launch 3,236 small satellites into space to provide high-speed internet to anywhere in the world. The plan puts Amazon in the middle of a race among at least five other companies aiming to launch next-generation satellite networks with global broadband coverage.

Badyal previously ran the "Starlink" division at SpaceX, which launched its first two test satellites last year. SpaceX initially planned for the network to consist of a similar constellation of 4,425 satellites in low Earth orbit. Late last year, the FCC approved an addition of 7,518 satellites to the constellation, bringing Starlink's planned total to 11,943 satellites in orbit.



Amazon has yet to announce where the satellites will be manufactured and given the time it typically takes to get regulatory approval for similar networks, it appears Bezos' project is at least two or three years behind Musk. Badyal's hiring then is a move to bring in talent with the experience of developing this type of satellite internet network.



SpaceX said on Friday the company expects the first full mission of Starlink satellites to launch no earlier than May.

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Musk fired Badyal in June, one of the people said, confirming reports last year that the SpaceX CEO had become frustrated with the pace of Starlink's development. That was about four months after the launch of the first two Starlink test satellites. According to FCC documents, Starlink will become operational once at least 800 satellites are deployed.

"As a matter of company policy we don't comment on personnel. We've brought together an incredibly smart group of experts from across this industry to lead Project Kuiper," Amazon told CNBC in a statement.

SpaceX declined to comment.

SpaceX has continued to develop Starlink in the 10 months since Badyal left, as the company is now readying to launch its first batch of satellites for the full network. While it is apparent that the design of Starlink's satellites has changed in the past year, there are only a handful of indications in what ways.

FCC filings made by SpaceX in the past few months show that the first part of the network will operate at a very low Earth orbit. Additionally in a letter to the FCC last month, SpaceX said the satellites are now designed to be "completely demisable" when they return and burn up in Earth's atmosphere. SpaceX said this means there is "zero" risk any pieces of Starlink will hurt anyone on the ground after the satellites are done being used.

SpaceX also submitted an application this year to operate 1 million "earth stations" in the U.S. These stations are "the ground based-component" of Starlink, essentially how people will be able to connect to SpaceX's high-speed internet.

These ambitious satellite networks will require intensive capital, with some industry officials estimating costs running as high as $5 billion. As one of the world's most valuable companies, there is little doubt Amazon could develop and launch its satellites and SpaceX has been said to have immense funding sources available due to high demand in private markets.

Both Musk and Bezos herald their proposed networks as key to reaching impoverished and unconnected parts of the globe. Starlink and Project Kuiper expect to offer broadband speeds comparable to fiber optic networks, according to federal documents, by essentially creating a blanket connection across the electromagnetic spectrum. The satellites would offer new direct-to-consumer wireless connections, rather than the present system's redistribution of signals.

While Amazon may have been working on Project Kuiper before hiring Badyal, it is worth noting that there are no indications Amazon has filed applications for the satellites with the FCC. For comparison, SpaceX applied for FCC licenses in 2016 and didn't receive approval for two years. Even then, the first FCC license for Starlink last year was experimental.

Finally, it is unclear how Bezos' space venture, Blue Origin, may be involved in Amazon's plans. Blue Origin is private and wholly owned by Bezos. The company is about two years away from the first launch of its New Glenn rocket, which likely will be the primary means that Amazon uses to puts its satellites in space.





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Authorities searching for a missing North Carolina woman believe they may have found her body and say her husband is a person of interest, PEOPLE confirms.

Emergency room nurse Diana Alejandra Keel, 38, was reported missing from her Nashville home by her daughter Saturday, according to a Nash County Sheriffs Office press release.

Her employer told authorities she had not shown up for work the previous few days. Her car is still parked at her home.

On Tuesday, Nash County Sheriff Keith Stone announced that a local Department of Transportation worker found a womans decomposing body in the woods.

Although it remains unclear how the woman died, Stone said, there is definitely foul play involved.

Stone said Keels husband, Rexford Lynn Keel, told investigators he last saw his wife Friday and seemed surprised when he heard that a body was found.

Keel, who was questioned by investigators Tuesday but was not taken into custody, is now a person of interest in the case, Stone said.

 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.

Stone confirmed there had been a domestic issue between the couple a year ago, saying, there had been concerns between the husband at one time and Mrs. Keel but there has been nothing lately that has been reported on that.

Following the discovery Tuesday afternoon, dive crews searched a nearby body of water. Stone said the search for evidence continues.

Were just going to take it step-by-step and take our time with the investigation, he told reporters.

Keel has been married before. On Jan. 1, 2006, authorities conducted a death investigation into the death of his first wife, Elizabeth Edward Keel, according to a Nash County Sheriffs Office press release.

Elizabeths death was ruled accidental. She died of blunt trauma to the head after falling and hitting her forehead on the homes concrete steps. Her husband was home at the time of the incident, which took place at the same home from which Diana Keel was reported missing, a Nash County spokesperson tells PEOPLE.

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On Sunday, Keels daughter tweeted pictures of her and her mother captioned, this is insane you see this happen to everyone else and you dont think its ever going to happen to you.

Keels 10-year-old son is currently with his grandparents while authorities carry out their investigation, Stone said, calling the situation tragic.

No arrests have been made in the case.

Ive heard nobody that knew her had anything negative to say about this woman, he said Tuesday. What a tragic event. Even more tragic we now have a 10-year-old without a mom.

Anyone with information pertaining to the case is urged to call the Nash County Sheriffs Office at 252-459-4121.
A poster of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education shows its project in which people can donate their musical instruments to students. /Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Office Education



By Bahk Eun-ji







Seoul's education authority has started a project to provide second-hand musical instruments to students for free after receiving donations from citizens no longer using them.







The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE) said, Monday, that it is carrying out the project to nurture creativity in young people and encourage the circulation of educational resources.







The donation process will be made in cooperation with 30 Beautiful Store chains, a nonprofit organization and charity shop located in Seoul, and Nakwon Musical Instrument Arcade in Jongno.







People who have musical instruments that they do not use anymore, can send them to the stores or the Nakwon arcade for two months from April 15.







The SMOE will send donated musical instruments to the arcade for repairs and tuning, and then provide them to students and schools. The instruments will be provided first to those who have applied to join music courses offered by local community centers including two Seoul Creativity and Art Education Centers in Eunpyung-gu and Seongdong-gu.







Young people who do not attend school are also eligible to participate in the courses.







Nakwon arcade and SMOE have been working together since 2017 after signing a memorandum of understanding on sharing regional businesses.







"The ultimate goal is to nurture young people to become adults who can play at least one musical instrument," said Cho Hee-yeon, the superintendent of SMOE, said in a statement.







Cho visited Nakwon arcade on Monday and donated his own acoustic guitar as the first donor of the program.






Washington (AFP) - The resignation of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen underscored the failure of President Donald Trump to halt uncontrolled immigration, one of the key promises of his presidency.

More than two years after he took office, tens of thousands of mostly Central Americans travel across the southern US border each month, requesting asylum so that they cannot immediately be sent back home.

Trump wants his officials to take a tougher stance, but is stymied by US laws protecting migrants and a Congress unwilling to change them.

- How big is the problem? -

In the first six months after Trump took office in January 2017, the US border patrol apprehended about 20,000 undocumented migrants each month, the lowest level in years.

Since then the numbers have steadily increased. In the six months to February, apprehensions topped 60,000 a month, and March could have neared 100,000, officials say.

The number of migrants arriving in families, and as unaccompanied children, has also soared, straining facilities to house and process them. Several have died while in US custody.

Most are from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, and they often cross the US border from Mexico in groups numbering more than 100. Once over the border they turn themselves in to US officials and request asylum, citing poverty and violence back home.

- Why can't they be turned back? -

US and international laws guarantee that if a person crosses the border into the country and requests asylum, their case must be reviewed by an immigration judge.

That means the migrants can stay inside the US until their case is heard. Currently the backlog for immigration cases is nearing 900,000 with wait-times around two years. Released inside the United States to wait, most migrants are never seen again.

- What does Trump want to do? -

Trump has sought ways to deter migrants against the strong pull of better jobs and security that the US offers, but he has been frustrated by stiff political and legal barriers, including his own courts.

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A US federal judge on Monday blocked Trump's policy of returning asylum seekers to Mexico to wait out the processing of their cases, saying the Department of Homeland Security had overstepped its authority.

The Republican president has demanded billions of dollars to build a wall along the border, but Congress has refused to fund it. In response he declared a national emergency to divert funds from military projects, but now faces legal challenges to that.

Trump wants Mexico to halt transiting migrants, but action by the Mexican government has been limited.

Last week he threatened to shut down border ports to pressure Mexico economically to act. But US business and politicians from both parties told Trump that would damage the US economy as well.

According to news reports, Nielsen resigned Sunday after opposing Trump's push to restart a former policy to separate migrant children from their families, which he believes was a strong deterrent to crossing the border.

That policy has been ruled illegal in US courts and labelled a human rights violation by US and international rights activities.

- Can aid help stem the flow? -

The migrants from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are often fleeing endemic poverty and violence. The United States has been pumping hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the three countries each year. Most accounts are that the aid helps somewhat; migration from El Salvador in particular plummeted in recent years.

Nielsen and the man Trump named to succeed her, Customs and Border Protection head Kevin McAleenan, both have spoken in favor of aid.

"I don't think we should shy away from investing heavily in Central America," McAleenan said last July.

But illegal immigration has continued to rise. At the end of March an angry Trump cut off aid to the three countries.

"We were paying them tremendous amounts of money. And we're not paying them anymore. Because they haven't done a thing for us."
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Monday he is working with the U.S. government to sow dissent within the Venezuelan Army. Bolsonaro, during an interview with Jovem Pan radio, said that if there is a military invasion in Venezuela, he would ask seek the counsel of Brazil's National Defense Council and Congress on what, if any, action his country should take. "We cannot allow Venezuela to become a new Cuba or North Korea," the right-wing president said. Bolsonaro said that if any military intervention actually deposed Venezuela's president, Nicolas Maduro, it is quite likely that the country would see guerrilla warfare waged by Maduro's diehard backers and whomever took power. (Reporting by Eduardo Simoes)
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP)  California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Sunday his visit to El Salvador serves as a counter-narrative to what he called President Donald Trump's demoralizing and toxic rhetoric about Central American migrants.

"Right now you have a president that talks down to people, talks past them, demoralizing folks living here and their relatives in the United States," Newsom told reporters to close out the first day of his trip. "I think it's important to let folks know that's not our country  that's an individual in our country who happens at this moment to be president."

Newsom, a Democrat who took office in January, chose El Salvador as his first international trip because California is home to both the United States' largest Salvadoran population and its busiest border crossing.

His visit comes as Trump moves to cut millions of dollars in U.S. aid to El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala and demands those three nations and Mexico do more to stop migrants from entering the United States.

There has been a surge of immigrants seeking asylum from the Central American nations. About 3,000 unaccompanied children and 12,000 family members from El Salvador have arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border since October.

Newsom kicked off his trip with a visit to the tomb of Saint Oscar Romero, the Salvadoran priest assassinated in 1980 at the start of the nation's civil war because of his advocacy for human rights and the poor.

The visit served as a symbol of Newsom's desire to learn about the social and economic hardships forcing Salvadorans to leave. After a private tour of the cathedral where Romero preached, Newsom lit a candle near Romero's tomb in the cathedral basement alongside his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and California state Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo.

Newsom's trip includes meetings with President Salvador Sanchez Ceren, U.S. Ambassador Jean Manes and President-elect Nayib Bukele. He'll also tour a reintegration center that processes Salvadorans deported from the United States and Mexico, see a cultural demonstration in a rural town, meet with human rights groups and discuss economic development and gang intervention.

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Newsom said he's figuring out in real time what more California can do to help tackle the root causes of migration, namely deep poverty and gang violence. El Salvador is one of the world's most violent countries, with the gangs MS-13 and Barrio 18 exerting strong control. The minimum wage is just $300 per month.

Mayor Ernesto Muyshondt of San Salvador, the capital city, said he hopes Newsom can use his political influence to halt the cuts to U.S. aid, saying cuts will halt the countries progress and could cause more people to flee.

In Newsom's first three months in office, he has fought the Trump administration on perhaps no issue as much as immigration, suing over the president's emergency declaration to build a southern border wall and pledging $25 million in state money to help asylum seekers.

The Trump administration has not commented on Newsom's trip, but Republicans in California have said the governor should be more focused on poverty back home.

"The tragic circumstances that drive migrants from their homes should remind us that we have people living in crushing poverty in our own communities. Our attention and resources should be focused there," Republican state Assemblyman Devon Mathis said in a statement.

Newsom pushed back on critics, saying immigration is a driving political and policy issue that affects California more than any other state.

"How do you understand California without understanding all the diverse cultures that make it the most diverse state?" he said. "It's fundamental it seems to me to governing a state. That's why I'm here in the first months."

While Newsom hopes to plant a counter-narrative to Trump, he is barely known in El Salvador, a country just over 6 million people.

Before Newsom's visit to the cathedral, people milled about on the Gerardo Barrios Plaza, a public square out front. Only one of a half dozen people who spoke with The Associated Press said they were aware the governor of California was coming to visit, and none knew his name.

Manuel Lara, 52, has family living in Los Angeles and said he learned of Newsom's trip from the news. Lara tried to come to the United States unsuccessfully in the 1980s and now works in construction in El Salvador. He makes $10 per day.

He said Newsom's trip was a good thing given Trump's threats to rescind aid.

Lidia Rosales said she is out of work because there are not enough jobs for teachers. Even if there were, the $125 monthly pay teachers make is not enough to live comfortably, she said. She said she doesn't like how Trump talks about Latinos. But she had not heard of Newsom or why he was visiting.

Newsom said starting the trip at Romero's tomb was an event that brought full circle some of his earliest political awakenings and Catholic upbringing.

"I never thought I'd be kneeling in front of Saint Romero as governor of California," he said.

___

This story has been corrected to say that President Donald Trump is cutting millions in U.S. aid to El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala
TOKYO/PARIS (Reuters) - The wife of former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn has left Japan and flown to Paris to appeal to the French government to do more to help him. Japanese prosecutors arrested Ghosn for a fourth time on Thursday on suspicion he had tried to enrich himself at the automaker's expense, in another dramatic twist that his lawyers said was an attempt to muzzle him. "I think the French government should do more for him. I don't think he's had enough support and he's calling for assistance. As a French citizen, it should be a right," Carole Ghosn told the Financial Times in an interview before boarding a flight out of Japan late on Friday. Carlos Ghosn, who holds French, Lebanese and Brazilian citizenship, has denied charges against him and also called on the French government for help. France, which holds a 15 percent stake in Nissan's alliance partner Renault, said it was monitoring the situation. "We fully exercise consular protection. The French ambassador is in regular contact," an official from French President Emmanuel Macron's office said on Sunday. "The wife of Carlos Ghosn has been received by the (Elysee) Secretary General during his (Ghosn) previous incarceration," the official added. "A DIFFERENT PERSON" Carole Ghosn said her husband's previous 108-day imprisonment had left him "a different person" and that normal life under bail conditions had been impossible. Tokyo prosecutors, Ghosn's lawyer and his spokesperson were not immediately available for comment. Public broadcaster NHK said on Sunday that prosecutors suspected Ghosn siphoned off 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 said. Such a request gives judges the power to question on a mandatory basis witnesses who refuse to testify, according to NHK. Ghosn's lead lawyer, Junichiro Hironaka, said on Thursday prosecutors confiscated Ghosn's mobile phone, documents, notebooks and diaries, along with his wife's passport and mobile phone. The FT said prosecutors had confiscated his wife's Lebanese passport in a dawn raid on their apartment in central Tokyo on Thursday morning, but did not discover her U.S. passport. "I'm all alone here. It's traumatising what happened, she was quoted as saying while awaiting her flight. Under Japanese law, prosecutors will be able to hold 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. 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. Ghosn faces charges of financial misconduct and aggravated breach of trust over allegedly failing to report around $82 million in salary and temporarily transferring personal financial losses on to Nissan's books during the financial crisis. Released on $9 million bail on March 6, the executive says he is the victim of a boardroom coup. The scandal has rocked the global auto industry and shone a harsh light on Japan's judicial system. (Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Additional reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Marine Pennetier, Dominique Vidalon in Paris; Editing by Kim Coghill/Keith Weir)
What happened?

Tory Brexiteers have launched a bid to unseat Theresa May by Wednesday in a bid to force the UK to leave the EU without a deal on Friday. Rebel MP Mark Francois masterminded the plan, demanding a non-binding vote of confidence in Mrs Mays leadership. He said if MPs voted against Mrs May she would be placed under immense pressure to quit. As it stands, the UK is due to leave the EU on 12 April unless another extension is granted.

Will it work?

A successful vote of no confidence in Theresa May would not be legally binding, meaning the PM could chose to ignore it. While this would be highly unusual, Mrs May has so far weathered an extremely rocky premiership without caving to pressure to quit. The PM survived an official vote of no confidence in her leadership in December, meaning the process cannot be triggered for another year.

What does this mean for Brexit?

The latest in a long line of Brexiteer revolts, Mr Francois attempt to push Mrs May out of the door demonstrates the deep unease over her Brexit strategy. The PM has reached out to Labour in an attempt to come up with a plan to break the Brexit deadlock, which Eurosceptics fear will mean a move towards a soft Brexit. Mrs May suggested she might soften her red lines yesterday when she released a video saying that talks will mean compromise on both sides.

The EU will decide on Wednesday whether or not there has been enough progress in the talks to merit another short Brexit extension. If they say no, the UK will leave without a deal on Friday.

Read more:

What is a customs union and why does it matter? (PA)

PM to meet Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel (Sky News)

Tory Brexiteer Mark Francois pens furious letter on pretty much everything (HuffPost)

Should Labour support a second referendum? (The Guardian)





The British publics view of its political system has fallen to a new low, a study has warned. The annual Hansard Society audit of political engagement found that nearly three-quarters of people felt the UKs system of governing needed quite a lot or a great deal of improvement. At 72%, this is the highest level in the 15 years the audits have been published  worse than the previous peak of 69% in the 2010 study taken in the aftermath of MPs expenses scandal and the financial crisis. Do you agree that the UK political system needs improvement? Read the full story and have your say below:

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Girl arrested after newborn baby found dead

A murder probe has been launched after the death of a newborn baby. Police said a 15-year-old girl was arrested on suspicion of murder, but has since been released pending further inquiries. The baby was discovered at around 8.40am at a house in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, on March 24 after concerns for its welfare. The force said the youngsters next of kin and the coroner have been informed. Read the full story here (Yahoo News UK)

Social media companies face new fines

Social media bosses will face being held personally liable for harmful content on their sites under new Government plans. The measures form part of a new government plan to make the UK a world leader in internet safety. Campaigners have been calling for new regulation following the growth of fake news, cyber bullying and terror-related content on the internet. Read the full story here (Sky News).

A woman from New Zealand has gained attention after she was spotted walking 15 dogs in Wellington recently. Dog walker Emma Turley was caught on camera by James Buchan hard at work, and it wasnt long before she and her wolf pack were picked up by local media. Turley said in an interview with Newshub that she has been walking dogs for nine years, but started off on a much smaller scale. She has four dogs of her own and said that she can walk 10-15 pooches depending on the day.

12.50

Motorists may have to pay more to drive into London after a new charge came into force in a bid to combat air pollution. Drivers of older, more polluting vehicles are liable in the move which London Mayor Sadiq Khan said would help clean our air and reduce harmful road transport emissions. The new fee for the ultra-low emission zone is on top of the congestion charge, which is 11.50 between 7am and 6pm on weekdays. Read the full story here. (Evening Standard)
By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. congressional Democrats on Wednesday authorized a powerful committee chairman to subpoena Special Counsel Robert Mueller's full report on Russia's role in the 2016 election, moving closer to a legal clash with President Donald Trump's administration. The Democratic-led House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted to enable its chairman, Jerrold Nadler, to subpoena the Justice Department to obtain Mueller's unredacted report and all underlying evidence as well as documents and testimony from five former Trump aides including political strategist Steve Bannon. Nadler has not yet exercised that authority, with the timing of any such move uncertain. The committee vote was 24-17 along party lines, with Democrats in favor and Trump's fellow Republicans opposed. Attorney General William Barr, a Trump appointee, issued a four-page summary of Mueller's main conclusions last month including that the special counsel did not establish that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia during the election. Barr 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. In addition to Bannon, the committee authorized subpoenas for former White House Counsel Donald McGahn, former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, former White House Communications Director Hope Hicks and former White House deputy counsel Ann Donaldson. They are among 81 people, agencies and entities the panel has sought documents from as part of its obstruction and corruption investigation into Trump and his associates. Nadler's panel shifted its focus to subpoenas to obtain the Mueller report when it became clear Barr would ignore a Democratic demand turn it over unredacted by a Tuesday deadline. Democrats have expressed concern Barr could use redactions to suppress evidence of potential misconduct by Trump and his campaign. Nadler said he would work with Barr "for a short period of time in the hope that he will reveal to us the entire Mueller report and all the underlying materials" and will go to court to get permission to obtain the grand jury material. "But if that doesn't work out in a very short order, we will issue the subpoenas," Nadler added. "... The committee must see everything." The potential battle between the executive and legislative branches over the subpoenas could end up being resolved by the federal government's third branch - the judiciary. Representative Doug Collins, the committee's top Republican, said Democrats are "desperate for dirt on this president." "This is reckless. It's irresponsible. And it's disingenuous," Collins said. "It's also confusing since the attorney general is doing exactly what he said he would be doing: making as much of the report public as possible under federal law and departmental policy." It was not clear how likely the Justice Department would be to hand over subpoenaed documents. It could ignore a subpoena, running the risk of being held in contempt of Congress, and prepare for a potentially lengthy court battle. INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE ACTION In another development, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Democratic-led House Intelligence Committee, led by Trump critic Adam Schiff, is seeking an interview with and documents from a top organizer on Trump's inaugural committee. Citing people familiar with the request, the Journal reported that the effort signaled that Congress is expanding its probe of how the inaugural committee raised and spent more than $100 million. The report could not immediately be confirmed by Reuters. Barr's March 24 letter to lawmakers explaining Mueller's "principal conclusions" 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 has denied collusion with Russia and obstruction of justice. Moscow denied election interference. Mueller and U.S. intelligence agencies concluded Russia used a campaign of hacking and propaganda to harm Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and boost Trump. Democrats have pledged to fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to enforce a subpoena and obtain the full report. "If the department still refuses, then it should be up to a judge - not the president or his political appointee - to decide whether it is appropriate for the committee to review the complete record," Nadler said. Trump ally Lindsey Graham, Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote on Twitter that the House panel's demand for classified information and grand jury testimony was "dangerous and ridiculous." The Justice Department declined comment. Priebus declined to comment. A lawyer for Priebus, Bannon and McGahn, as well as a Bannon spokeswoman, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Justice Department regulations give the attorney general wide latitude on how much to release from special counsel inquiries. Nadler told reporters he would also seek a judge's permission to get access to Mueller's grand jury material, which is protected under federal law. Nadler said Barr has not been willing to seek a court order to release the data so far. Republican Representative Jim Sensenbrenner said he would be willing to join legal action to obtain the grand jury material and predicted other Republicans would as well, noting that the House voted overwhelmingly last month for the full report's release to Congress. (Reporting by David Morgan; Additional reporting by Karen Freifeld, Sarah N. Lynch, Steve Holland and Mark Hosenball; Editing by Alistair Bell and Will Dunham)
By Ece Toksabay ANKARA (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday Turkey's local elections were marred by "organized crime" at ballot boxes in Istanbul, raising the possibility of re-running a March 31 vote that handed a slim majority to the main opposition party. Erdogan's comments, his strongest challenge yet to the election process in Turkey's largest city, briefly drove the lira down and also weighed on Turkish stocks. Erdogan's AK Party has already lost the mayoralty in the capital Ankara to the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), and is has appealed several stages of the count in Istanbul which showed a narrow CHP victory. The Islamist-rooted AKP is reeling from the potential loss of both cities, which the party and its predecessors have governed for a quarter of a century. Erdogan himself rose to prominence as Istanbul mayor in the 1990s before emerging as national leader. Erdogan said the scale of electoral irregularities his party had uncovered meant the margin of votes between Istanbul's top two candidates, less than 20,000 in a city of 10 million voters, was too narrow for the opposition to claim victory. Speaking before departing for talks in Russia with President Vladimir Putin, Erdogan said voting in other countries, including the United States, was often re-run if the margin of victory was below 1 percent. "They believe that such tight margins do not give comfort to the public," he said. He gave no example of an election re-run in those circumstances. The AKP has appealed to the High Election Board (YSK) for a full recount of votes cast in the election across all 39 districts of Istanbul. The YSK is looking into the AKP's challenges but has not commented on Erdogan's accusations. "The citizens are telling us to protect their rights, they are complaining of organized crimes," Erdogan told a press conference in Istanbul. "And we, as political parties, have determined such organized crimes." Ekrem Imamoglu, the CHP's Istanbul mayoral candidate, said on Monday he was still leading with a margin of some 15,500 votes - down from 25,000 - after up to 95 percent of partial recounts had been completed. Erdogan said he would only accept the Istanbul result when the YSK had processed all the appeals. "Nobody has the right to get in an election victory mood in a city of 10 million voters with a margin of 13,000-14,000. When the appeals have been completed, we will accept the result." CALL FOR IMPARTIALITY Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the secularist CHP, warned that the security of the election was in danger and called on the election board to be impartial. He added that Erdogan's request for a full recount lacked a reasonable justification. "Now the High Electoral Board has entered a process that damages the security of the ballot boxes, the security of the election. This is the real danger," Kilicdaroglu told reporters in Ankara. The Turkish lira weakened to as far as 5.7120 against the dollar on Monday after Erdogan's remarks, before recovering to trade at 5.67 at 11.55 GMT. Istanbul's BIST 100 share index was down 1.4 percent. "Will the Istanbul election be repeated? This question has sent the lira down," an Istanbul-based banker said. A resumption of weekly repo auctions by the Central Bank had added to lira weakness, the banker added. The AKP had also sought recounts across Ankara, where initial results showed CHP candidate Mansur Yavas winning by four percentage points. But the YSK upheld the result and on Monday Yavas formally received his mandate as new mayor. (Additional reporting by Ali Kucukgocmen, Editing by Jonathan Spicer and Mark Heinrich)
By Nathan Layne (Reuters) - Attorney General William Barr has provided only a glimpse of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on the inquiry into Russia's role in the 2016 U.S. election, with many details expected to emerge when the document is finally released. Barr on March 24 sent a four-page letter to lawmakers detailing Mueller's "principal conclusions" including that the 22-month probe did not establish that President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign team conspired with Russia. Barr said he found insufficient evidence in Mueller's report to conclude that Trump committed obstruction of justice, though the special counsel did not make a formal finding one way or the other on that. The attorney general has pledged to release the nearly 400-page report by mid-April, but has said portions will be blacked out to protect certain types of sensitive information. Here are five things to look for when the report is issued. OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE: WHY NO EXONERATION? Perhaps the biggest political risk for Trump is the special counsel's supporting evidence behind Mueller's assertion that while the report does not conclude the Republican president committed the crime of obstruction of justice it "also does not exonerate him" on that point. According to Barr's March 24 letter, Mueller has presented evidence on both sides of the question without concluding whether to prosecute. Barr filled that void by asserting there was no prosecutable case. But Barr's statement in the letter that "most" of Trump's actions that had raised questions about obstruction were "the subject of public reporting" suggested that some actions were not publicly known. Democrats in Congress do not believe Barr, a Trump appointee, should have the final say on the matter. While the prospect that the Democratic-led House of Representatives would begin the impeachment process to try to remove Trump from office appears to have receded, the House Judiciary Committee will be looking for any evidence relevant to ongoing probes into obstruction of justice, corruption and abuse of power by the president or others in the administration. Barr's comment that most of what Mueller probed on obstruction has been publicly reported indicates that events like Trump's firing of James Comey as FBI director in May 2017 when the agency was heading the Russia inquiry are likely to be the focus of this section of the report. RUSSIAN 'INFORMATION WARFARE' AND CAMPAIGN CONTACTS The report will detail indictments by Mueller of two Kremlin-backed operations to influence the 2016 election: one against a St. Petersburg-based troll farm called the Internet Research Agency accused of waging "information warfare" over social media; and the other charging Russian intelligence officers with hacking into Democratic Party servers and pilfering emails leaked to hurt Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. With those two indictments already public and bearing no apparent link to the president, the focus may be on what Mueller concluded, if anything, about other incidents that involved contacts between Russians and people in Trump's orbit. That could include the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower in New York in which a Russian lawyer promised "dirt" on Clinton to senior campaign officials, as well as a secret January 2017 meeting in the Seychelles investigated as a possible attempt to set up a back channel between the incoming Trump administration and the Kremlin while Democrat Barack Obama was still president. Any analysis of such contacts could shed light on why Mueller, according to Barr's summary, "did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities." MANAFORT, UKRAINE POLICY AND POLLING DATA In the weeks before Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was sentenced in March to 7-1/2 years in prison mostly for financial crimes related to millions of dollars he was paid by pro-Russia Ukrainian politicians, Mueller's team provided hints about what their pursuit of him was really about. Prosecutor Andrew Weissmann told a judge in February that an Aug. 2, 2016 meeting between Manafort and Konstantin Kilimnik, a consultant Mueller has said has ties to Russian intelligence, "went to the heart of" the special counsel's investigation. The meeting included a discussion about a proposal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine in terms favorable to the Kremlin, an issue that has damaged Russia's relations with the West. Prosecutors also said Manafort shared Trump campaign polling data with Kilimnik, although the significance of that act remains unclear. One focus will be on what Mueller ultimately concluded about Manafort's interactions with Kilimnik and whether a failed attempt to secure cooperation from Manafort, who was found by a judge to have lied to prosecutors in breach of a plea agreement, significantly impeded the special counsel's work. NATIONAL SECURITY CONCERNS While Mueller did not find a criminal conspiracy with Russia, according to Barr, there is a chance the report will detail behavior and financial entanglements that give fodder to critics who have said Trump has shown a pattern of deference to the Kremlin. One example of such an entanglement was the proposal to build a Trump tower in Moscow, a deal potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars that never materialized. Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal lawyer, admitted to lying to Congress about the project to provide cover because Trump on the campaign trail had denied any dealings with Russia. In the absence of criminal charges arising from Mueller's inquiry, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff has shifted his focus to whether Trump is "compromised" by such entanglements, influencing his policy decisions and posing a risk to national security. Some legal experts have said the counterintelligence probe Mueller inherited from Comey may prove more significant than his criminal inquiry, though it is not clear to what degree counterintelligence findings will be included in the report. Barr also has said he planned to redact material related to intelligence-gathering sources and methods. MIDDLE EAST INFLUENCE AND OTHER PROBES Another focus is whether Mueller will disclose anything from his inquiries into Middle Eastern efforts to influence Trump. One mystery is what, if anything, came of the special counsel's questioning of George Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman and consultant to the crown princes of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia who started cooperating with Mueller last year. Nader attended the Seychelles meeting. He also was present at a Trump Tower meeting in August 2016, three months before the election, at which an Israeli social media specialist spoke with the president's son, Donald Trump Jr., about how his firm Psy-Group, which employed several former Israeli intelligence officers, could help the Trump campaign, according to the New York Times. Mueller's interest in Nader suggested the special counsel looked into whether additional countries sought to influence the election and whether they did so in concert with Russia. A lawyer for Nader did not respond to a request for comment. Barr has said he will redact from the Mueller report information on "other ongoing matters," including inquiries referred to other offices in the Justice Department. That makes it unclear if any findings related to the Middle East will appear in the report. (Compiled by Nathan Layne in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)
From left, Suh Wook, new Army chief of staff; Lt. Gen. Won In-choul, new head the Air Force; LT. Gen. Choi Byung-hyuk, deputy commander of the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command; Lt. Gen. Nam Young-sin, head of the Ground Operations Command; and Maj. Gen. Lee Seung-do, Marine Corps commandant. Courtesy of the Ministry of Defense



South Korea on Monday replaced its Army, Air Force and Marine Corps chiefs in a regular reshuffle of top uniformed officers, as the military seeks to maintain robust readiness amid peace efforts with North Korea.



The defense ministry said that LT. Gen. Suh Wook, chief director of operations at the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), was tapped as the new Army chief of staff to replace Gen. Kim Yong-woo, who has led the armed service since August 2017.



Lt. Gen. Won In-choul, the vice JCS chairman, was named to head the Air Force in place of Gen. Lee Wang-keun, who was appointed to the top post also in August 2017.



Maj. Gen. Lee Seung-do, commander of the military readiness inspection group at the JCS, was named the Marine Corps commandant to replace Lt. Gen. Jun Jin-goo, who has served in the post since April 2017.



The government also appointed LT. Gen. Choi Byung-hyuk, the vice Army chief of staff, as the deputy commander of the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command, and Lt. Gen. Nam Young-sin, the chief of the Defense Security Support Command, as the head of the Ground Operations Command. (Yonhap)
By Tim Hepher, Eric M. Johnson and Jamie Freed

PARIS/SEATTLE/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Minutes after take-off, the pilots of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX were caught in a bad situation.

A key sensor had been wrecked, possibly by hitting a foreign object, according to four aviation experts and two U.S. officials who were briefed on the flight data.

As soon as the pilots retracted the flaps and slats, according to flight data, the sensor began to feed faulty information into the 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, the four experts said. 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 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.

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 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.

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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 traveling at 500 knots (575 mph, 926 kph), 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 U.S. officials.

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 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 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 U.S. 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.

'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

As the nose gradually fell, the captain asked the co-pilot to try to trim the plane manually using a 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 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.

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)
Paris (AFP) - Key dates between the US and Iran since 1979 after their exchange Monday in which the US designated Tehran's elite military force a terrorist organization and Iran called the US a "state sponsor of terrorism".

- Rupture -

On November 4, 1979 radical students demanding the extradition of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi take 52 diplomats and employees of the American embassy in Tehran hostage, seven months after the establishment of the Islamic Republic.

The hostages are held for 444 days in a crisis that results in the first US economic sanctions leveraged against the state.

On April 7, 1980 Washington breaks off diplomatic relations with Iran and imposes restrictions on commerce and travel, 10 months before the release of the last hostages.

On November 4, 1986 the Iran-Contra affair becomes public, revealing a secret arrangement in which American arms were sold to Tehran in hopes of helping liberate American hostages in Lebanon, with profits channeled to Nicaraguan Contra rebels.

On July 3, 1988 a US guided missile cruiser shoots down an Iran Air Airbus over the Gulf resulting in 290 deaths, in what the United States calls a mistake.

- 'Axis of evil' -

On April 30, 1995 US president Bill Clinton begins a comprehensive ban on trade and investment with Iran over its seeking nuclear weapons. Sanctions are subsequently extended and expanded.

On January 29, 2002, President George W. Bush puts Iran on his list of countries in the "axis of evil" supporting terrorism.

Iran's new president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on August 8, 2005 starts a new push for uranium enrichment.

- Hints of reconciliation -

On November 6, 2008 Ahmadinejad congratulates then US president-elect Barack Obama on his victory.

The following year, on March 20 Obama says he would "like to speak directly to the people and leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran."

But in June, Obama condemns the violent repression of Iranian demonstrations and says he believes the legitimacy of Ahmadinejad's reelection raises serious questions.

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On June 15, 2013 the US says it is ready to work directly with new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and on September 15 Obama reveals he has exchanged letters with him.

On September 27 Obama and Rouhani speak by phone in a historic first direct communication between leaders of the two nations since 1979.

- Historic nuclear deal -

An accord with world powers on Iran's nuclear programme is reached on July 14, 2015, ending 12 years of crisis and 21 months of negotiations.

It gives Tehran relief from crippling economic sanctions in exchange for limits on its nuclear programme.

- Trump scraps deal -

In January 2017, newly-elected US President Donald Trump bans by decree immigration from seven Muslim countries, including Iran.

Two days later Iran carries out a ballistic missile test, in violation of a UN resolution.

Washington pulls out of the landmark nuclear pact with Iran on May 8, 2018, reinstating Washington's sanctions on Iran and companies with ties to the Islamic republic.

The US on March 7, 2019 accuses Iran of carrying out three missile-related launches in defiance of UN resolutions and urges the Security Council to "bring back tougher international restrictions" against Tehran.

- 'Terrorism' accusations -

On April 8 the US designates Iran's elite military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a terrorist organization, ramping up already far-reaching attempts to undermine the Iranian government.

In response, Iran declares the US a "state sponsor of terrorism" and its forces in the region "terror groups".
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 debate" 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 authorized, 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)
Beersheba (Israel) (AFP) - An Israeli court on Monday sentenced a former French consulate worker to seven years in prison for smuggling guns from the Gaza Strip after a plea bargain.

Romain Franck, who worked as a driver for the consulate, went on trial after being accused of exploiting reduced security checks for diplomats to smuggle 70 pistols and two automatic rifles from the Gaza Strip to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The plea bargain reached convicted Franck for smuggling 29 pistols after he confessed to most of what he was charged with.

He was also given a fine of 30,000 shekels ($8,000, 7,500 euros) and an 18-month suspended sentence.

Franck's lawyer Kenneth Mann said he intended to request that he serve his sentence in France.

Mann said the judge was willing to issue a more lenient sentence than might otherwise have been given because Franck, 24, had shown remorse and was motivated by money, not by solidarity with Palestinian militants.

He had no prior criminal record.

Franck, relying on a court interpreter from Hebrew to French, showed no visible reaction when the sentence was announced.

"This is a very, very difficult thing for the whole family of course, but they understand that this is the law and they hope that their son will be returned to France as quickly as possible," Mann told AFP after Monday's hearing.

Franck was arrested in February 2018 and his trial began the following month at the district court in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.

Israeli officials have said he acted on his own without the consulate's knowledge and that diplomatic relations with France were not affected.

The Shin Bet internal security agency has said he was paid a total of around $5,500 for the guns he smuggled for a network involving several Palestinians.

Travellers between the two Palestinian territories pass through Israel and are subject to Israeli security controls.

Israeli authorities carry out regular operations to seize weapons in the West Bank, which has been under Israeli occupation since 1967.
TOKYO (Reuters) - Prosecutors in Tokyo have asked judges to question Carlos Ghosn's wife in connection with funds allegedly misappropriated by the former Nissan Motor chairman, Japan's public broadcaster NHK said on Sunday.

Prosecutors arrested Ghosn again on Thursday on suspicion he had tried to enrich himself at the Nissan's expense, in another dramatic twist that his lawyers said was an attempt to muzzle him.

NHK said prosecutors suspect that Ghosn siphoned off part of the payments through a company where his wife, Carole, 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 before they open the first hearing on the allegations, the broadcaster said.

Such a request gives judges the power to question on a mandatory basis witnesses who refuse to testify, according to NHK.

Prosecutors were not immediately available for comment on the NHK report.

Ghosn's lead lawyer, Junichiro Hironaka, said on Thursday prosecutors confiscated Ghosn's mobile phone, documents, notebooks and diaries, along with his wife's passport and mobile phone.

Under Japanese law, prosecutors will be able to hold Ghosn for up to 22 days without charge. 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.

(Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Kim Coghill)
Minneapolis (AFP) - Jury selection was completed Monday in the trial of a former police officer who fatally shot an unarmed Australian woman in the US state of Minnesota.

A 12-member jury was picked along with four alternates from an initial pool of 75 people for the trial of Mohamed Noor, who shot Justine Damond in July 2017.

Opening statements were scheduled to begin Tuesday in the closely-watched case, which has provoked outrage nationally and in Damond's home country.

Damond, who had moved to the Midwestern city to marry her American fiancee Don Damond, had called police twice to report a possible rape in the dark alley behind her home.

Noor shot the 40-year-old yoga instructor from inside his police cruiser after she approached the driver's side window.

Noor's partner Matthew Harrity, who was in the driver's seat, told investigators that they had heard a startling noise just moments before Damond approached.

Noor was fired from the police force after the incident and charged with second- and third-degree murder, as well as second-degree manslaughter.

He has pleaded not guilty.

The prosecution has claimed Noor acted unreasonably -- shooting at someone he did not clearly see while his partner was in the line of fire.

Noor's attorneys have indicated they plan to mount a self-defense claim, and to argue that Noor acted as he was trained.

Damond's shooting enraged many of the victim's neighbors, who mounted a campaign for police reforms.

The city's police chief at the time was forced to resign within days.
As of Sunday, after an early evening meeting with Donald Trump at the White House, Kirstjen Nielsen is officially out as secretary for the Department of Homeland Security. She had held the position since December 2017, making her one of the longest-lasting members of the administration without some kind of family tie to the president.

Homeland Security is a massive and broad department, covering cyber security, election security, and disaster relief. Nielsen reportedly had a rocky relationship with Trump, largely because, as The New York Times reports, she pushed back on some of the president's more obviously illegal or ineffective demands, like closing all ports of entry between the U.S. and Mexico or blocking all migrants from seeking asylum. Two officials told The Washington Post that Nielsen "had no intention of quitting when she went to the meeting Sunday with the president and that she was forced to step down."

Nielsen still enacted plenty of Trump's anti-immigrant policies. Trump and his administration often claim that it is dedicated to fighting illegal immigration only, but they've taken many steps targeting documented immigrants, too, like when DHS moved to end Temporary Protected Status for thousands of people from Central America, the Caribbean, and Africa who were living in the U.S. legally, essentially turning them into undocumented immigrants regardless of whether or not they've broken any laws. And Nielsen will no doubt most be remembered for her role overseeing the administration's policy of forcing apart families crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and keeping children, some as young as three months old, in cages.

As recently as March, she argued before Congress that those aren't "cages" but rather "detention spaces" made of chain-link fencing. DHS calculated that nearly 3,000 children were separated from their families before a court ordered them to be reunited, but news since then suggests that thousands more kids were actually swept up than DHS acknowledgedthe department just separated them before Trump's official order. At least 250 parents have been separated from their children since that June 2018 court order, and that number doesn't account for children taken from family members who are not their parents. In the past two years, 22 people have died in DHS custody, including two children. And advocates have reported that toddlers have bruises from sleeping on rocks and concrete in fenced-in spaces under a border bridge.

Of course, none of that cost Nielsen her job. What seems to have ultimately done her in was her failure to cut down a spike in border crossings, which reached 100,000 last month. And for now, part of DHS's solution has been to keep migrants in massive, open-air camps in El Paso, Texas. Nielsen's leaving isn't likely to make the situation better. She'll probably go on to have some lucrative job in the private sector, and Trump no doubt will replace her with someone who is more in line with his rabid anti-immigrant attitudeand who will probably have even fewer moral hang-ups about it.
Ottawa (AFP) - Cyber attackers targeted half the member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that held national elections in 2018, the agency that monitors Canada's telecoms networks said Monday.

"The proportion of elections targeted by cyber threat activity has more than tripled" since 2015, said the Canadian Security Establishment (CSE), which warned of a further spike this year.

"A small number of nation-states have undertaken most cyber threat activity against democratic processes worldwide," the center said, mostly pointing the finger at Russia.

The OECD is a grouping of 36 of the world's richest nations that describe themselves as committed to democracy and the free market, founded in 1961 to promote trade.

The report said voters were now the target of cyber activity rather than political parties, candidates or their staff, accounting for more than half of global activity in 2018.

"This shift seems to have started in 2016, which is likely due in part to the perceived success among cyber threat actors of Russia's cyber interference activity against the 2016 United States presidential election," the report said.

The goals of the cyber attackers was to "manipulate online information... in order to influence voters' opinions and behaviors," the report said.

Foreign interference also aimed in the longer term to "promote foreign economic, ideological, military interests" and to "reduce confidence in democracy [and] create divisions in international alliances."

In Canada, where a general election is due in October, the CSE said it was "very likely" that voters would encounter foreign cyber interference, although not on the scale of Russian meddling in the US.

The cyber interference would not be able to target the election itself, which is largely done using paper ballots at the federal level, it said.

But the report added that foreign state-sponsored media had "disparaged Canadian cabinet ministers."

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week warned of the risk of Russian meddling in the elections.

His minister for democratic institutions, Karina Gould, said Monday she had discussed the issue with the largest social media organizations, but said they were doing too little to address the threat.

"There is a lot left to be desired in terms of how seriously they're taking these issues," she said, although she did note that Facebook had been more cooperative than others.

Facebook said it was banning Faith Goldy, a prominent commentator who has been described as a white nationalist, as well as other far-right activists. The ban also applies to Instagram, which Facebook owns.

"Individuals and organizations who spread hate, attack, or call for the exclusion of others on the basis of who they are, have no place on our services," a Facebook spokesperson told HuffPost.


By Jung Da-min







The Republic of Korea Armed Forces will have new chiefs of the Army, Air Force and Marine Corps as well as a new deputy commander of the ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command and chief of the Ground Operations Command, according to the Ministry of National Defense, Monday.







President Moon Jae-in will name the five new military leaders after a Cabinet meeting scheduled for April 9.







The five include Lt. Gen. Suh Wook, chief director of operations at the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) as new Army chief of staff; Lt. Gen. Won In-choul, vice chairman of the JCS as Air Force chief; and Maj. Gen. Lee Seung-do, commander of the military readiness inspection group at the JCS, as Marine Corps commandant.







The three will replace Gen. Kim Yong-woo, Gen. Lee Wang-keun and Lt. Gen Jun Jin-goo, respectively. Kim Yong-woo and Lee Wang-keun started their terms in August 2017 and Jun Jin-goo in April that year.







Lt. Gen. Choi Byung-hyuk, vice Army chief of staff, will become deputy commander of the ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command and Lt. Gen. Nam Yeong-shin will head the Ground Operations Command.







"The reshuffle decision has been made upon consideration of the ability and expertise to systematically and actively promote defense reform and preparation for the transfer of wartime operational control," the defense ministry said.







"We will do our best to support peace efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula and to implement a strong defense on which the people can rely."




Paris (AFP) - 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 Macron's 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.

"It's not the French population fundamentally, but the political elite that needs to talk about it more. It will take time but it's a new phase," he told AFP.

The genocide has cast a long shadow over Franco-Rwandan relations.

Rwanda's 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 state's archives in a move intended to set the historical record straight.
MEXICO CITY (AP)  Mexican immigration officials plan to issue humanitarian visas on a "limited basis" starting Monday to some of the roughly 2,500 Central American and Caribbean migrants gathered in the southern state of Chiapas.

The National Migration Institute said Sunday it will give priority to women, children and those over the age of 65 "whose situation merits" such visas. The authority said it would also provide bus transportation back to Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras for citizens of those countries, and air transport home to migrants from Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua.

The statement came as President Donald Trump threatens to close U.S. border crossings with Mexico unless the country prevents thousands of Central American migrants from reaching the U.S. border, where they either cross stealthily or request asylum.

U.S. officials say their country's immigration system is overwhelmed. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said last week her agency apprehended more than 75,000 migrants at the U.S. southern border in February, a 12-year high.

U.S. law does not require asylum seekers to present themselves at an official U.S. crossing, though, and many request asylum after having already entered the U.S.

With a backlog of more than 700,000 immigration cases, asylum seekers can wait years for their cases to progress, and are often released in the meantime to live in the U.S.

Mexico appears to be both tiring of the migrant 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 through southern Mexico sometimes no longer allow caravans to spend the night. Fewer private citizens are offering food and rides to the weary travelers.

A U.S.-Mexico border shutdown would be a major blow for commerce.

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.

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Starting in the second half of May, Mexico's immigration institute said Sunday the country will issue humanitarian visas in the capitals of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras_as well as in San Pedro Sula, Honduras_"for cases that merit this condition." Also, from those cities, Mexico will continue to issue temporary work visas for Central Americans wishing to live and work in southern Mexico.

The goal of the visa restrictions, the institute said, is to achieve a more orderly, regulated and safe international movement of people. The largest of last year's migrant caravans through Mexico contained about 7,000 people at its peak.

Migrants have been coming together in caravans to avoid falling prey to kidnappers, thieves and human trafficking networks as they traverse Mexico.
By Syed Raza Hassan KARACHI (Reuters) - Pakistan has "reliable intelligence" that India will attack again this month, its foreign minister said, drawing condemnation from New Delhi which described the claim as irresponsible. Shah Mahmood Qureshi's comments came after tensions over a February standoff between the arch enemies had appeared to ease. He said on Sunday that an attack could take place between April 16 and 20, adding that Pakistan had told the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council of its concerns. "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," a spokesman for India's foreign office said in a statement. "This public gimmick appears to be a call to Pakistan-based terrorists to undertake a terror attack in India." The foreign office said India reserved the right to respond firmly and decisively to any cross border militant attack, accusing Pakistan of being complicit in such attacks on India. A suicide car bombing by Pakistan-based militants in Indian-controlled Kashmir killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police on Feb. 14. The risk of conflict rose dramatically on Feb. 27, when India launched an air strike on what it said was a militant training base inside Pakistan. The following day Pakistan shot down an Indian fighter jet and captured its pilot who was later released. Earlier on Sunday, Pakistan summoned the Indian deputy high commissioner to protest against any "misadventure", Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal said in a tweet. INTELLIGENCE "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 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. Khan blamed India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for "whipping up war hysteria" over claims that India shot down a Pakistani plane during the February standoff. The Indian air force had displayed pieces of a missile that it said was fired by a Pakistani F-16 before it was downed. Satellite images showing little sign of damage have also case doubt on the success of Indian air strikes on a camp of the Jaish-e-Mohammed militant group in northwestern Pakistan. The standoff led Pakistan to close its airspace but most commercial air traffic has since resumed and major airports have opened. As strains between the two neighbors apparently eased, Pakistan said on Friday it would release 360 Indian prisoners this month. The first hundred were released on Sunday. Because relations are so rocky, prisoners who have completed jail terms, many of them fishermen convicted of straying into each other's territory, often languish in prison for months, if not years, afterwards. "These are 100 Indian fishermen released from jail as a goodwill gesture by Pakistan," Saad Edhi, an official with Pakistan's largest charity, the Edhi Foundation, told Reuters at Karachi's Cantonment Railway Station on Sunday. "They are going to Lahore from where they will be released into India across the Wagha border crossing." (Writing by Nick Macfie; Additional reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj in New Delhi; Editing by Kim Coghill and Catherine Evans)
Theres an interesting debate brewing on these pages between former House speaker Newt Gingrich and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) commissioner Brendan Carr on how to make the move to super-fast 5G wireless networks and how to protect America in the process.

By way of background, I founded the House Internet Caucus back when Gingrich was speaker. We didnt see eye-to-eye on very much, but I welcomed his occasional interest in technology.

On this issue, though, he is wrong, and Commissioner Carr is right. The best  really the only  way to ensure the fastest possible deployment of 5G technology and to preserve American leadership in wireless is to follow the path that has driven American leadership in 4G. The private sector, not the government, must take the lead, and the primary government role should be to continue selling 5G spectrum to the private sector at auction.

In January of last year, it was reported that the Trump administration was considering, in effect, nationalizing at least part of the 5G spectrum by having one government-owned network. This poorly considered idea was rejected the very next day by the administrations own FCC chairman, Ajit Pai. We all hoped that the notion had been squelched.

Now, however, Gingrich has revived the controversy, first with a piece widely interpreted as favoring nationalization and then in his response to Commissioner Carr here at NRO. In the latter article, Gingrich calls for a public-private partnership [with] shared spectrum available for a carrier-neutral, wholesale-only, nationwide 5G network.

While he suggests that the government-fostered wholesale network be built with private capital, he doesnt say from where the money would come, and he clearly envisions a broad government role. What would that role be? How would a wholesale network work with multiple companies contributing to its construction and multiple carriers utilizing it for services? Gingrich doesnt say, but if the rules for FCC spectrum auctions are complex and take too long to resolve, one can only imagine how difficult it would be to create rules for one network that multiple providers are supposed to finance and share.

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Gingrich is preoccupied with the notion that Chinese companies will build 5G networks in other countries, arguing that to counter those efforts, we need government involvement in the development of our own 5G network. This leap of logic is particularly hard to comprehend because the major carriers in the U.S., with strong government urging, have already decided not to buy core wireless technology developed by Chinese companies. Our carriers today purchase routers and other hardware from providers outside of the U.S., including Nokia and Erickson, since no U.S. companies currently compete in that market. But the intelligent parts of the networks  the computer chips, software, and back-end operations  are already provided by leading American companies, including QUALCOMM, Juniper, and Cisco. Our government can and seems willing to prevent Chinese equipment providers from expanding into our market, and building a government network in the U.S. will do nothing to blunt Chinese expansion abroad.

Gingrich claims that a government-fostered national 5G network with shared access is necessary to unleash the power of deep liquid financial markets, enable market price discovery, and promote a culture of innovation. Those are exactly the virtues that have underpinned our wireless supremacy to date.

Our liquid financial markets powered the investments that enabled America to lead the world in 4G. As for market price discovery, thats precisely what our spectrum auctions  the very thing Gingrich criticizes  accomplish. We have an unrivaled culture of innovation with a network that is the envy of the world and the platform for Google, Facebook, Amazon, and other edge providers that are among the worlds most innovative companies. Moving to a government-overseen network both is unnecessary and would put that success at risk.

Spectrum-sharing does not address any perceived need, nor would it appear to make the network more resilient or secure, or even offer a better platform on which for edge providers to innovate.

Gingrich is right in pointing to the painful absence of broadband in large swaths of rural America; innovative new approaches may be needed to address this urgent concern. A role for government in providing grants to rural electric and telephone cooperatives and other providers willing to build out may be a partial answer, but Gingrich is not proposing a rural-only solution, and creating a national, government-overseen 5G network doesnt appear to offer obvious improvements, even for rural America.

In short, major American commercial operators have the incentives they need to get to market quickly. They are not sitting on their hands and certainly not willingly ceding global leadership to China. This is not the time for the government to be in the market as a wholesaler to multiple companies whose systems are competing. Thats a recipe for confusion, slow deployments, potential additional points of failure, and the ceding of American leadership.

Commissioner Carr is right: Our current policies, which have established American leadership in 4G, have narrowed the digital divide, raised Internet speeds, and put us on the path to having a far stronger deployment of 5G than Asia will by 2022.

As we say in the mountains, if it aint broke, dont fix it.

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By Andrew Osborn MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia on Monday signed an agreement with a group of international scientists to free nearly 100 whales that have been held for months in cramped pens in Russia's Far East, a scandal that has triggered a wave of criticism. Images of the 10 orcas and 87 beluga whales, kept in enclosures in a bay near the Sea of Japan port of Nakhodka, first appeared after they were caught last summer by firms which planned to sell them to marine parks or aquariums in China. Their plight angered animal rights groups and spurred a petition to release the whales, shared by actor Leonardo DiCaprio on social media, which gathered almost 1.5 million signatures online. Actress Pamela Anderson also posted an open letter to Russian President Putin on her website. The Kremlin intervened and ordered local authorities to act, prompting Russia's FSB security service to bring charges against four companies for breaking fishing laws. But although the Kremlin agreed that the whales were held in cruel conditions, it said it was difficult to release them into the wild without harming them. On Monday, however, international scientists, including Jean-Michel Cousteau, son of French marine expert Jacques Cousteau, signed a joint agreement with Russian scientists, backed by the local authorities, to free the mammals. Their release is likely to be phased. "A decision in principle has been taken to release all the animals into the wild," Oleg Kozhemyako, the governor of Primorsky Region, told reporters after the signing ceremony. "Scientists from Cousteau's team and Russian scientists will decide when and which animals to release." A special rehabilitation facility for whales would be set up under the agreement, with conditions as close as possible to their natural environment. Any whales in the Sea of Japan that were hurt or got into trouble could be treated there, said Kozhemyako. Cousteau told reporters it was a very emotional moment for him and the scientists would do all they could to save the animals. "I know it's a lot of work, but I have no doubt that we are going to succeed," said Cousteau. The scientists promised they would devise a plan to release the whales, some of which were captured as long ago as July, by next month. The Kremlin has said Russia has no direct ban on catching whales, but they can only legally be caught in specific circumstances, for scientific and educational purposes. (Editing by Christian Lowe and Giles Elgood)
By Clement Uwiringiyimana KIGALI (Reuters) - A Rwandan court filed terrorism-related charges against the spokesman for the FDLR rebel group on Monday, two months after his deportation from neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. The FDLR is composed of former Rwandan soldiers and ethnic Hutu militiamen who fled into lawless eastern Congo after the massacre of around 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus during Rwandas genocide in 1994. Nkaka Ignace, who also goes by the alias La Forge Bazeye, and an FDLR co-defendant, Jean-Pierre Nsekanabo, were charged at their first appearance in a Kigali court with six offences including membership of a terrorist group, taking part in terrorist activities and inciting others to commit terrorism. "I confess to some of the charges but deny others," Ignace told Judge Justin Nshimiyimana, adding he had been influenced by superiors in FDLR, whom he did not name, into plotting to topple President Paul Kagame's government. "I apologize for having been given negative information about Rwanda," Ignace told the court. Prosecutors said the two had "played a direct role in attacks", which they did not specify, carried out by FDLR both in Rwanda and Congo. In December, two Rwandan soldiers and an unknown number of rebels were killed when a group of attackers crossed into Rwanda from Congo, Kagame told reporters at the time. Prosecutors said Ignace and Nsekanabo, identified as an intelligence officer in FDLR, had traveled to neighboring Uganda in January to meet representatives of another anti-Kigali rebel group, the Rwanda National Congress (RNC). RNC is led by some of Rwanda's most prominent dissidents including South Africa-based Kayumba Nyamwasa. Rwanda has accused Uganda of supporting its dissidents. Early this year Rwanda closed its border with Uganda, disrupting regional trade and sparking tensions. The two accused asked the court to free them on bail and a ruling on their application will be delivered on Wednesday. (Writing by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Ships were moving inbound and outbound on Monday morning through an area of the Houston Ship Channel that had been contaminated by a March chemical spill, the U.S. Coast Guard said, further loosening restrictions on the waterway.

A total of 49 ships - 28 inbound, 21 outbound - were waiting to transit the 53-mile (85-km) waterway between the busiest U.S. petrochemical port and the Gulf of Mexico on Monday, the Coast Guard said.

Monday's queue of ships is about normal for the channel, but a third of the backlog that built up within days following a March 22 spill of chemicals when a dam failed at Mitsui & Co Intercontinental Terminals Deer Park, Texas, facility, where a massive March 17-20 blaze consumed 11 giant storage tanks.

The spilled chemicals, mostly gasoline-blending components, forced the Coast Guard to shut the channel for three days. After the closure, ships began moving through the upper channel with restrictions on number, timing and direction. They were limited to daylight hours.

Under the restrictions, Royal Dutch Shell Plc's Deer Park refinery became choked for crude oil and was within days of shutting down, while Lyondell Basell Industries was forced to cut production at its Houston refinery.

Both refineries have since raised production.

The Coast Guard has been gradually lifting the restrictions. As of Monday, ships are only limited by a 15-minute spacing requirement and have to be inspected before entering and exiting the contaminated area.

On Sunday, the Coast Guard halted ship traffic through the spill zone while severe thunderstorms lashed the Houston area from mid-morning to late afternoon. Traffic was allowed to resume Sunday evening.

(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and David Gregorio)
Hanjin Group and Korean Air Chairman Cho Yang-ho died from a chronic lung disease, Monday, according to Korean Air. / Courtesy of Korean Air



By Kim Hyun-bin



Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Yang-ho died from a chronic lung disease, according to Korean Air, a Hanjin affiliate, Monday. He was 70.



His death came 13 days after he lost his board seat at Korean Air when shareholders voted down his reappointment amid a slew of scandals haunting him and his family members.



Korean Air did not specify the exact cause of death, saying just that Cho had been receiving treatment at a hospital in Los Angeles since December. It is said his condition worsened rapidly with the extreme stress from a prosecution investigations into the scandals and his ouster from the board.



Cho's wife and younger daughter were with him in Los Angeles  his son and Korean Air President Cho Won-tae and elder daughter hurriedly traveled there over the weekend after his condition deteriorated, according to the carrier.



Cho's body will be returned to Korea for a funeral and interment, the schedule of which will be announced later, the carrier said.



Born in 1949 in Incheon, west of Seoul, Cho entered Korean Air, then-run by his father and company founder Cho Choong-hoon, in 1974. He quickly climbed the corporate ladder to become president in 1992 and chairman of Hanjin Group in 2003.



Many experts believe Cho brought Korea's aviation industry to new heights, improving the nation's first full service carrier to be able to compete with the best from around the world, receiving scores of prestigious global awards in the process.



Cho was also in the forefront of establishing SkyTeam in 2000 which consisted of just four carriers  Korean Air, Delta Air Lines, Air France and Aero Mexico  at the time, but now has expanded to 19 airlines from five continents.






WASHINGTON  The Trump administration announced on Monday that it would officially designate Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization. Officials acknowledged the decision to label a part of a foreign government a terrorist organization was unprecedented but framed it as a necessary response to Iranian aggression.

The Iranian regime is the leading state sponsor of terror. It exports dangerous missiles, fuels conflicts across the Middle East, and supports terrorist proxies, President Trump said in a statement released by the White House.

Critics, including some within the Trump administration, have suggested the step could place U.S. troops or intelligence agents in danger of facing similar designations or other forms of retaliation. Indeed, shortly after the designation was announced, Russian state-owned media reported that the Iranian Foreign Ministry asked the countrys president to brand U.S. Central Command as a terrorist organization. It is also unclear how the move could affect businesses in European countries that still engage with Iran.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is taking the lead on this action, announced the move in a news conference Monday morning. He said the designation would take effect one week from today.

President Trump; Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: AP, Ay-Collection/Sipa/REX/Shutterstock)

The Iranian regimes use of terror as a tool of statecraft makes it fundamentally different from any other government, Pompeo said, adding, This historic step will deprive the worlds leading state sponsor of terror the financial means to spread misery and death around the world.

Pompeo cited several examples of Iran-backed terror incidents including the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing that targeted U.S. Air Force personnel in Saudi Arabia and an alleged 2011 plot to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington D.C. The secretary of state pointed to Irans wrongly detaining U.S. persons including some who remain in custody. Additionally, Pompeo noted Iranian support for other groups that America has labeled as terrorist organizations: Islamic Jihad and Hamas in the Palestinian Territories, and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

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A senior administration official who discussed the terror group designation on a press conference call with reporters described it as a longtime goal for Trump.

President Trump has always believed the threat from the Islamic Republic goes beyond its nuclear and missile programs, as deadly as they are, said the official, who declined to be named.

Both Pompeo and the officials on the press call also described the decision as an extension of Trumps maximum-pressure campaign on Tehran, which has included sanctions and the decision to pull out of the multilateral nuclear accord with Iran.

The Trump administration has been mulling designating the IRGC a terror group for months, with Pompeo a strong supporter of the move while other officials were concerned it could expose U.S. troops to fallout and retaliation. When asked about this concern, the officials on the call emphasized that the move came after an interagency process that included the evaluation of security concerns. They also said curbing the IRGC would benefit U.S. forces abroad.

What endangers American troops, among other things, is an IRGC that operates with impunity and never has its ambitions checked in the Middle East, an official said.

Pompeo also addressed whether the move could lead to financial consequences for European allies.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at a news conference to announce the Trump administration's plan to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard a "foreign terrorist organization." (Photo: Patrick Semansky/AP)

If youre the general counsel for a European financial institution today, there is more risk. It is absolutely the case that the IRGC amounts to a significant piece of the Iranian economy through pure kleptocracy. And it is also the case that it is sometimes difficult to know whether the IRGC is involved, Pompeo said, adding, I think this will require more diligence be done by every business that is considering doing things that are even now second and third orders removed from what you might think of as a traditional connection to the Iranian economy.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has suggested the Trump administration was considering this move to benefit Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a close ally and staunch opponent of Iran who is facing a tight election on Tuesday. The U.S. official emphasized Trump had hoped to make this designation for some time prior to the announcement.

Our willingness ... to give them plausible deniability just came to a close, the official said of Iran. This is something the president has long wanted to enact.

_____

Read more from Yahoo News:
Washington (AFP) - US Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats is leaving his post after a tenure in which he was regularly at odds with President Donald Trump.

Dozens of White House aides -- from attorney general Jeff Sessions to press secretary Sean Spicer and chief of staff Reince Priebus -- have either left or been sacked from their positions since Trump took office on January 20, 2017.

Here is a sampling of senior departures:

- Intelligence chief Dan Coats -

Dan Coats, who previously served in the US Senate and the House of Representatives, was viewed as apolitical and enjoyed bipartisan support, but did not see eye to eye with Trump on a range of issues and at times appears to have been kept in the dark by his administration.

He backed the US intelligence community's conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 election that brought Trump to office -- something the president was long loath to acknowledge -- and also disagreed with his decision to hold a two-hour closed-door meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2018.

Coats also said he does not believe that North Korea is willing to give up its nuclear arsenal, as the president does, and has warned that the Islamic State group -- despite Trump's assertions to the contrary -- was hardly vanquished and could easily rise again.

- Homeland Security chief Kirstjen Nielsen -

Kirstjen Nielsen previously served as a cyber security specialist in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), then as 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 was back at DHS, this time as secretary.

She would become the front-line defender of the administration's immigration policies and the face of its widely condemned practice of separating migrant children from their parents.

Despite remaining steadfast in her loyalty, her ability was long said to have been questioned by Trump and her eventual departure -- coming months after her mentor Kelly's resignation -- was not a shock.

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- Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke -

Ryan Zinke, a former Navy SEAL and ex-member of the House of Representatives, was one of the main executors of Trump's efforts to reduce environmental protections in the United States. He left at the end of 2018.

He managed to hold onto his post for some two years despite a series of scandals over expenditures, including reports that his department was spending nearly $139,000 to upgrade three sets of double doors in his office -- a cost he later said he negotiated down to $75,000.

- Chief of staff John Kelly -

John Kelly, a retired four-star Marine Corps general, has been credited with helping restore a degree of order to the often-chaotic Trump White House before his exit at the end of 2018.

But in the process he clashed with members of the Trump clan, and at times infuriated Democrats with his blunt comments.

Kelly made it known he did not always love the job -- one of the most vital in any White House -- quipping, "God punished me, I guess."

- Attorney General Jeff Sessions -

Jeff Sessions, a Republican senator from Alabama, was the first member of the Senate to back Trump's insurgent bid in 2015 for the Republican presidential nomination.

Trump rewarded Sessions by naming him to head the Department of Justice.

But relations quickly soured after Sessions recused himself from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe into whether the Trump presidential campaign colluded with Russia to get him elected.

Trump personally attacked Sessions on several occasions for failing to protect him from the Mueller probe.

- UN Ambassador Nikki Haley -

Nikki Haley, who left the administration at the end of 2018, was a shining star from the start.

Thrust onto the international stage, she quickly became an astute advocate for Trump's foreign policy, using forceful language against North Korea, Syria and Iran.

The former South Carolina governor was also unafraid to speak her mind, often in fairly undiplomatic language, and built a reputation for standing up to Trump when she felt it was warranted.

Her aggressive criticism of Russia won plaudits, even as she stepped beyond the position held by the White House.

- Environment chief Scott Pruitt -

Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt's tenure was beset by scandal, and Trump pushed him out in July 2018.

A former Oklahoma attorney general with ties to fossil fuel industries, Pruitt was accused of using his position to enrich his family's lifestyle in violation of federal law.

- Secretary of State Rex Tillerson -

Rex Tillerson was fired by Trump in March 2018, ending a rocky tenure for the former Exxon chief executive as the nation's top diplomat.

Tillerson was frequently at odds with the mercurial president. They notably disagreed on the Iran nuclear deal, from which Trump withdrew in May 2018.

During his brief stay at Foggy Bottom, Tillerson frequently found himself out of the loop and caught unawares by policy shifts announced in Trump tweets.

In one of his first public criticisms of the president since stepping down, Tillerson told a gathering in Texas in December 2018 that Trump was undisciplined, did not like to read briefing papers and sometimes asked him to do things that were illegal.

Trump shot back on Twitter that Tillerson was "dumb as a rock."

- Chief strategist Steve Bannon -

The architect of Trump's nationalist-populist campaign and his election victory, White House chief strategist Steve Bannon was nicknamed the Prince of Darkness and the Shadow President.

His economic nationalism became the lynchpin of Trump policies, even as many of Bannon's other ideas were rebuffed by policy rivals.

Bannon's constant clashes with other advisors became untenable, as did his ties to the extreme right. He left in August 2017.

- National Security Advisors Flynn, McMaster -

Michael Flynn, a retired lieutenant general, was being investigated for his contacts with Russians and eventually pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

He lasted only 22 days as national security advisor.

Flynn's replacement, HR McMaster, also a lieutenant general, lasted barely a year.

He never really clicked with the president, who bristled at McMaster echoing the US intelligence establishment consensus that Russia meddled in the 2016 election.
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey's main opposition party said on Saturday its candidate for mayor of Istanbul retained his narrow lead over President Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party candidate after recounts in nearly half of the city's ballot boxes. The AKP, hurt by a slowing economy, is reeling from its apparent loss of Istanbul, Turkey's commercial hub, and the capital Ankara, in Sunday's local elections. It has appealed results across both cities. In power nationally since 2002, the AKP and its Islamist predecessors have dominated Turkey's two biggest cities for a quarter of a century. The mayoral candidate of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), Ekrem Imamoglu, had a lead of 17,919 votes after recounts of around 49 percent of ballot boxes, the party said. That margin remains very slim in an election where both candidates polled over 4 million votes. Imamoglu's AKP rival, former prime minister Binali Yildirim, said on Friday that the margin was narrowing, adding that the outcome of the recount by the High Election Board (YSK) would be different once all recounts were completed. CHP spokesman Faik Oztrak said the party was confident that the initial results, showing victory for Imamoglu, would stand. "We won't let the election, which we have won, be stolen by anyone," he said. The AKP has said there are more than 300,000 invalid votes in Istanbul and just under 110,000 in Ankara. Party spokesman Omer Celik said on Saturday the party would respect the final decision of the High Election Board, which rules on appeals. (Reporting by Ali Kucukgocmen; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
Washington (AFP) - President Donald Trump on Monday announced the United States is designating Iran's elite military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a terrorist organization.

Trump said in a statement that the "unprecedented" move "recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft."

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was formed after the 1979 Islamic revolution with a mission to defend the clerical regime, in contrast to more traditional military units that protect borders.

At home, the Revolutionary Guards have amassed strong power, including with significant economic interests.

The Guards' prized unit is the Quds Force, named for the Arabic word for Jerusalem, which supports forces allied with Iran around the region including Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Lebanon's Hezbollah.

Addressing reporters following Trump's announcement, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned all banks and business of consequences to dealing with the Revolutionary Guards.

"The leaders of Iran are racketeers, not revolutionaries," Pompeo said. "Businesses and banks around the world now have a clear duty to ensure that companies with which they conduct financial transactions are not conducted with the IRGC in any material way."

The Trump administration has already imposed sweeping sanctions on Iran after withdrawing last year from an international agreement under which Tehran drastically scaled back its nuclear program.

A senior Trump administration official said the new measure would criminalize contact with the Guards and "enable our prosecutors to bring charges to those that bring material support to the IRGC."

"The IRGC is interwoven into the Iranian economy. The safest course is to stop doing business with the IRGC. If you do business with the IRGC you run the risk of bankrolling terrorism," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Story continues

Another official said the Guards have "been a principal driver of violence on a vast scale for many decades" in an attempt "to reshape the Middle East in Iran's favor."

The dramatic escalation of Washington's attempt to undermine Iran's influence comes on the eve of Israeli elections where close Trump ally Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to extend his 13 years in office.

Trump, who describes himself as the most pro-Israeli US president ever, has recently recognized Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, as well as previously moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the contested city of Jerusalem.
NA Chairwoman attends 140th IPU Assembly

NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan attended the 140th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU -140) and related meetings in Doha, Qatar, at the invitation of IPU President Gabriela Cuevas Barron and Chairman of the Consultative Assembly of Qatar Ahmad Bin Abdullah Al Mahmoud.

The Vietnamese NA leader made the statement while addressing the plenary session of the IPU-140, stressing that Vietnam is always a responsible member of the IPU and is ready to work with IPU and other member parliaments to implement the IPU resolutions and initiatives, contributing to building peace and sustainable development for the sake of people around the world.

On the sidelines of the IPU-140, she met with Prime Minister of Qatar Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani as well as delegations from participating countries, including Russia, the Federated States of Micronesia, China, Georgia and Sri Lanka.

On the occasion, NA Chairwoman Ngan visited the Vietnamese Embassy in Doha and representatives from the Vietnamese community in Qatar.

NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan pay official visit to France and European Parliament

NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan (L) held talks with President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani in Brussels on April 4. (Photo: VNA)



Chairwoman of Vietnamese National Assembly (NA) Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan paid her official visit to France and the European Parliament (EP) in the capital city of Brussels, Belgium.

During her visit to France, she held talks with President of the National Assembly of France Richard Farrand and received National Secretary of the French Communist Party (PCF) Fabien Rousse as well as met with French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and President of the Senate of France Gerand Larcher.

During her stay in Belgium, NA Chairwoman Ngan held talks with President of the European Parliament (EP) Antonio Tajani as well as received President of the Chamber of Representatives of Belgium Siegfried Bracke.

She also met with Chairman of the European Parliament (EP)s Committee on International Trade (INTA) Bernd Lange, President of the Belgian Senate Jacques Brotchi, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, and Minister-President of Wallonia region Willy Borsus.

Cabinet meeting discusses socio-economic performance for March

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc chaired the Governments regular meeting in Hanoi on April 2, to assess the socio-economic situation in March and the first quarter of the year.

At the meeting, the Government leader asked the agencies and localities to implement urgent measures to promote socio-economic development as well as to handle pressing social issues.

Leaders celebrates Chol Chnam Thmay festival with Khmer people

PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc visits Soc Trang provincial Association for Solidarity of Patriotic Buddhist Monks. (Photo: VGP)



Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc shared the joy of the traditional Chol Chnam Thmay (New Year) festival with Khmer ethnic people as well as Theravada Buddhist dignitaries and followers in Can Tho city and Soc Trang province.

Other leaders, including Deputy PM Truong Hoa Binh and President of Vietnam Fatherland Front Tran Thanh Man, also congratulated the Khmer people on their traditional New Year festival.

Earlier, the PM sent a message of greetings to the Khmer ethnic people on the occasion of their traditional Chol Chnam Thmay (New Year) festival.

State budget revenue reaches VND381 trillion in first quarter

The total state budget revenue reached VND381 trillion (over US$16.4 billion) in the first quarter of this year, up 13.2% over the same period last year.

Specifically, domestic revenue hit VND315.4 trillion, up 13.8% year-on-year and equivalent to 26.9% of the full-year target.

Vietnamese traditional culture festival held in Hanoi

A performance at the festival (Photo: NDO/KT)

The Vietnamese Traditional Culture Festival and International Cultural Exchange is taking place at the Thang Long Imperial Citadel in Hanoi from April 5-9.

The event features numerous performance of folk music as well as reproductions of the space of Vietnamese villages and traditional rituals, among other unique cultural activities.

Vietnam beats Hong Kong (China) at AFC Womens Olympic Qualifying Tournament

Vietnam maintained leadership of Group B in the second round of the 2020 AFC Womens Olympic Qualifying Tournament after easing past Hong Kong (China) 2-1.

Mai Duc Chungs side had three points ahead of Uzbekistan. Meanwhile, Hong Kong (China) and Jordan follow in third and fourth place, respectively, level on only one point.

Vietnam will only have to manage a draw against Jordan in the last encounter, on April 9, to enter the third round of the 2020 Womens Olympic AFC qualifiers.

Vietnams supermarkets use eco-friendly alternatives to plastic bags

Co.op Mart Vietnam, Big C Da Nang and Big C Hanoi have used banana leaves to wrap foods in an effort to slash plastic waste. (Photo: VNA)



Several supermarkets in Vietnam have begun wrapping their products with natural alternatives, contributing to raising public awareness of protecting the environment.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc sent his letter to praise these supermarkets, calling on the business community, supermarkets, restaurants and hotels to join in the efforts to reduce plastic bags and waste.
From left, Park Young-sun, nominee for culture minister and Kim Yeon-chul, nominee for unification minister.



President Moon Jae-in on Monday appointed two new ministers strongly opposed by the opposition, possibly putting his government and ruling party on a collision course with the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP).



The president appointed Park Young-sun, a ruling Democratic Party lawmaker, as the new venture minister in a ceremony held at his office Cheong Wa Dae.



Kim Yeon-chul was appointed the new unification minister. Kim previously headed the state-run Korea Institute for National Unification.



Moon's appointment of the two new ministers came after LKP twice refused to publish reports on the outcome of their confirmation hearings held last month.



Parliamentary approval is not required for the appointment of new government ministers but doing so without the hearing reports often leads to political strife.



"If President Moon Jae-in does not withdraw his nomination for venture firms minister nominee Park Young-sun and unification minister nominee Kim Yeon-chul, our party cannot but resist together with the people," LKP chief Hwang Kyo-ahn said earlier Monday in a rebuttal to the appointment.



Monday's ceremony was attended by three other ministers who were appointed earlier without a formal ceremony.



They are Culture Minister Park Yang-woo, Oceans Minister Moon Seong-hyeok and Interior Minister Chin Young.



The three were appointed shortly after the National Assembly published their hearing reports.



The five new ministers were among seven nominees named early last month. The president was forced to withdraw his nomination for the new science minister nominee, Cho Dong-ho, who was found to have taken part in what is widely considered to be a fake international science conference.



Moon's earlier pick for the new transportation minister stepped down voluntarily after he came under fire over alleged real estate speculation. (Yonhap)
On the eve of Israel's elections, one area of the public  the Arab sector is far less excited about the big day, with predictions saying only 60 percent intending to utilize their democratic right.

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The difficult decisions Israeli Arabs are facing ahead of the Tuesday elections are well represented in the city of Tira in central Israel, close to the West Bank.

A Meretz poster in Tira (Photo: Assaf Kamar)

Tira enjoys a bustling market that draws a vast crowd of Israeli Jews on Saturdays. The bustling cafes, the packed restaurants and broad smiles to help to create a relaxed co-existence atmosphere, despite a dark history of battles that took place here in 1948.

In 2015, during the last elections, the Joint Arab List won a staggering 94.98% of the votes in Tira. Meretz came in second with 2.68%, with all other parties represented by very small numbers  including some rightists parties that got a handful of votes.

But in 2019, residents seem to be disillusioned and apathetic about the elections, after a term characterized by ample anti-Arab sentiment.

Naser Faisel, a Tira resident who went to a Jewish boarding school, is part of the 60% who are going to vote Tuesday.

"There's a competition among Jewish politicians in the right and center regarding who can incite and appear most extreme in the face of the Arab public, " Faisel said.

"I'm an Israeli citizen and I want a decent life and justice for all sectors of the population. I'll probably vote for one of the Joint List branches," he said referring to the predominantly Arab parties that ran together in the 2015 elections and which have now split into two separate entities  Ra'am and Balad in one, and Hadash and Ta'al the other.

Tira's residents protest against the Nation-State Law in August

"It's not so important since there aren't so many differences between them," he said. "I've yet to decide."

Ayman Shabita, a fellow resident, also means to vote for one of the Joint List parties.

"I've voted for Hadash my entire life," he said, referring to the far-left Arab-Jewish party that was once part of the Joint List.

"It's made up of Jews and Arabs who work for co-existence together. The main issue on our agenda is the discrimination against us and the fact that civil rights in this country aren't equal for all citizens."

Mansour Na'im, who owns a well-known hummus restaurant in the city, is also undecided but feels that the current government has treated his community poorly.

"We're 20% of the population but the prime minister ignores us. These aren't democratic elections, this is incitement," he said

Hadil Talawi (Photo: Yaron Sharon)

"Netanyahu makes the hate (for us) greater and creates a rift between the Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel," said Mansour.

Despite the overwhelming support for Arab parties, many still criticized the Arab MKs and said they felt disappointed by their support for the Palestinian cause rather than internal Arab issues.

Lawyer Hadil Talawi, who also expressed her concern about hate speech and anti-Arab incitement, slammed the Arab parties for their involvement in the Palestinian issue, and for what he perceives as the neglect of the burning issues the Israeli-Arab society has on its agenda.

"We care about the Palestinian issue, but we want our representatives to be more active in social sphere," he said.

"The most important thing is to stop the violence in the Arab sector and to invest in education. We want to raise our children in a non-violent society with no corruption, we all want peace," said Talawi.

"Arab politicians need to be replaced," said Ibrahim Beshara, another local resident who said he'll be voting for Meretz on Tuesday.

"They only ever talk about the Palestinians, I want my leaders to take care of my street and my life here in Tira."

Hanan Zebarga, who is considering voting for Netanyahu (Photo: Yaron Sharon)

Samar Azam, who will also be voting for Meretz, agrees.

"None of them (Arab MK's) talks about what's happening inside Israel. All they do is talk and there are no results," he said.

Despite the anger about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's approach towards Israel's Arabs, some of Tira's residents consider voting for him nonetheless, due to his party's record of action in civil matters.

"I'm thinking of voting for Netanyahu," said Hanan Zebarga, a nurse. "The Arab parties just talk and talk, but the Likud Party helped us solve problems in our city. Netanyahu will bring us security."

Zebarga wasn't the only local resident that cited the Likud as force for the better in Tira. Some Likud politicians, who were able to assist residents with getting building permits and prevented home demolitions for illegal properties, enjoy local support despite the heated political atmosphere.

While it's hard to believe, some Arab voters chose to give their vote to parties that are even further to the right of Likud. Muhammed Ata, a coffee house owner, will be voting for Zehut Party, led by a religious Jew who is also a settler  Moshe Feiglin.

Muhammed Ata, who will be voting for Zehut (Photo: Yaron Sharon)

"It's not because of his support for cannabis," said Ata. "I like the way he speaks, and he has an interesting financial plan," he said, referring to his candidate's libertarian-style platform on the Israeli economy.

There is no doubt that Israel's Arabs communities have a lot on the stakes when it comes to the country's future leadership. Where their votes will go remains to be seen on Tuesday.
Israel's firefighters union announced Monday morning that firefighters will go on strike again, claiming that the head of the Fire and Rescue Service, Dedi Simchi, refuses to honor prior agreements regarding working conditions.

The firefighters say they will only provide emergency services and will not conduct training, provide services for public or private events or issue permits.
President Reuven Rivlin spoke at a Bible study event dedicated to the memory of renowned Israeli Author Amos Oz who died last year.

The president expressed his concern at the direction the latest election campaign has taken saying: "too many films and words and reports filled us with a feeling of fear. Fear of each other, fear of the future. I think we can learn from it that, even if we are sovereign, our sense of sovereignty is not absolutely established".

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Rivlin told the gathering that included President of the Supreme Court Esther Hayut, members of the Oz family, leading authors and others: "At this point in time, I would like to say a few words about the difference between sovereignty and the understanding of sovereignty that the existence of sovereignty is not sufficient. When it exists in isolation, we are busy marking out enemies in order to to prove our sovereignty to ourselves, even when there is no need.

President Reuven Rivlin hosts Bible study 929 event (Photo: GPO)

"I hope and believe that on the day after the elections, the new government  whatever its composition  will also work from a sense of sovereignty, from a sense of civic responsibility for our unique Jewish and democratic state.
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.

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What are 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.

Moshe Kahlon recommending Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister to President Reuven Rivlin in 2015 (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

How do the Israeli elections 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, the president asks 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 Central Bureau of Statistics.

Which parties have the best chance of winning Knesset seats?

Likud, headed by incumbent 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 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.

Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo: AP)

Blue and White, headed by former IDF chief Benny Gantz:

Gantz has emerged as a serious rival to Netanyahu. His party is forecast to win 31 seats.

Benny Gantz (Photo: Moti Kimchi)

Gantz is a popular former IDF chief and a political newcomer. He has joined forces with two other former military leaders - hawkish former defense minister Moshe Ya'alon and another political novice Gabi Ashkenazi - 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 signalled he would make territorial concessions toward the Palestinians but has also sidestepped the question of Palestinian statehood.

He has vowed clean government, while at the same time giving mixed signals over whether he would join a Netanyahu-led coalition.

Labor, headed by Avi Gabbay:

Opinion polls have shown left-wing Labor, which governed Israel for decades, plummeting to 10 seats in the election from its current 18.

Avi Gabbay (Photo: Avi Mualem)

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 Bennet and Ayelet Shaked:

Bennett, the outgoing education minister, and Justice Minister Shaked split from the national-religious Jewish Home party to form a new far-right party that would appeal to more secular constituents.

Ayelet Shaked and Naftali Bennet (Photo: Rami Zarnegar)

Polls presently show them winning 6 seats. Bennett calls for annexing most of the West Bank, offering autonomy to Palestinians.

Shaked has vowed to "rein in" the Supreme Court, which she has branded as too liberal and interventionist.

The Union of Right-Wing Parties, 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.

Rabbi Rafi Peretz (Photo: Moti Kimchi)

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 Otzma Yehudit (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:

Predicted to win 7 seats, Israel's national-religious party is the most prominent political representative of Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

Moshe Feiglin (Photo: Yaron Brener)

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.

Feiglin has however dialled back his support for this measure in recent days.

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 the overall cost of living that puts Israel among the most expensive countries in the world.

Moshe Kahlon (Photo: AFP)

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.

Yisrael 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.

Avigdor Lieberman (:  )

Moldovan-born Lieberman is a former defence 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 Yaakov Litzman:

UTJ represents ultra-Orthodox Jews, or Haredim, of European origin and is seen winning about 6-7 seats in the Knesset.

Yaakov Litzman (Photo: Gil Yohanan)

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 Haredi 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:

Aryeh Deri

Allied with UTJ, SHAS (a Hebrew 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-Ta'al, Headed by Ayman Odeh and Ahmad 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.

Ayman Odeh (L) and Ahmad Tibi

It advocates an Arab-Jewish alliance to fight discrimination, racism and social inequality in Israel.

Arab parties have never joined governing coalitions in Israel.

Ra'am-Balad, headed by Mansour Abbas:

Predicted to win 4 seats, Raam-Balad's leaders are a mix of Islamist and Arab nationalists.

Mansour Abbas

It describes itself as a democratic movement opposed to Israel's rule over the West Bank.

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.

Tamar Zandberg (Photo: Avi Mualem)

Popular with liberal middle-class Israelis, the party advocates a two-state solution with the Palestinians.
By Lee Min-hyung





Kim Myong-gil, outgoing North Korean ambassador to Vietnam

North Korea has decided to replace its ambassador to Vietnam, its state-run news agency reported Monday.



"North Korean ambassador to Vietnam Kim Myong-gil made a farewell visit to Vietnamese Vice President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh, Friday," the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.



The KCNA, however, did not say who will succeed Kim, but North Korea watchers here say Kim Jong-un may appoint one of his confidants to spur economic partnership with the Southeast Asian country.



Kim Myong-gil is known as a key envoy to have assisted in the North Korean delegation in February in Hanoi during the second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un.






Ynet's senior anchor Attila Somfalvi has been awarded a certificate of merit by B'nai B'rith International for his coverage of the relationship between Israel and the American Jewish community.

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His series "Near Far," which examined the ties between Israel and US Jews, was published last year on Ynet's Hebrew edition.

Attila Somfalvi

Somfalvi was honored alongside two other Israeli journalists, Antonia Yamin of KAN (Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation) and Zvika Klein of Makor Rishon, who both won the annual Bnai Brith World Center-Jerusalem Award for Journalism Recognizing Excellence in Diaspora Reportage.

Somfalvi, 40, began his career at Ynet almost 20 years ago, as a police correspondent. He was later the political party beat, and since the establishment of the Ynet studio, has been its chief anchor, political commentator and senior writer.

The recipient thanked the jury for his award, and highlighted the importance of ties between Israel and the US Jewish community.

"I am proud and moved to stand beside such professional and profound journalists as Antonia Yemin and Zvika Klein, and I thank the B'nai B'rith judges for mentioning my work on American Jewry," Somfalvi said.

"I write about the Jewish people with great pride and great concern, and will continue to do my best to increase interest in our relationship with our brethren."

Attila Somfalvi and Yon Feder with then-president Shimon Peres in 2014 (Photo: Gil Yohanan)

"I am proud of the tribute that Attila Somfalvi has received from B'nai B'rith," said Yon Feder, editor-in-chief of Ynet. "Attila explores the complex issue of Israeli-American relations with sensitivity and resolution.

"The connection between Israel and the Diaspora has undergone a profound change in recent years, some say a dangerous one, and coverage of this is of primary journalistic importance and a clear manifestation of our responsibility to the public."

Jewish Agency Chairman Isaac Herzog also congratulated Somfalvi on the award for an issue "that is vital to the future of the entire nation. It's important that you put the issue on the agenda of the (Israeli) media."

The chairman of Bnai Brith World Center-Jerusalem, Haim Katz, and its director, Alan Schneider, said: "The interest and insightfulness shown by these fine young journalists in the lives of Diaspora Jewish communities and in their relationship with Israel is heartening and proves once again that this issue continues to fascinate the media and general population in Israel. Through this award, we seek to continue to encourage fine journalism in this field and urge editorial boards to invest more attention and means in it.

The jury for the prize includes Bar Ilan University's Professor Yehudith Auerback; Professor Sergio DellaPergola of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; and Sallai Meridor, international chairman of the Jerusalem Foundation, former Israeli ambassador to the US and former chairman of the Jewish Agency.

The awards ceremony will be held on July 3, and will feature Prof. Deborah Lipstadt as keynote speaker
During the months-long election campaign for the 21st Knesset, Ynet went on a tour of the country, trying to get a sense of what the voters think and for which party do they intend to vote. From north to south - these are some of the voices of the Israeli voter.

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Undecided settlers

Alfei Menashe is a settlement in the West Bank that falls within the borders of the security fence. Despite its location, about 40% of the residents voted for left-wing and central parties in previous elections. One reasons for this apparent discrepancy is that many residents of Alfei Menashe did not choose to live here because of political ideology, but rather because of the standard of living.

Sarit Rosenthal, settler and Meretz voter (Photo: Yaron Sharon)

One such person is Sarit Rosenthal, a mother of four who previously voted for the left-wing Meretz Party and is still unsure of how she will cast her ballot on Tuesday. "I am really undecided between the Labor party and Gantz's party," she says. "Just because I live over the Green Line does not mean I am here for ideological reasons, but rather for economic reasons and the hope of good quality of life."

Fellow resident Shira Sharon also says she is living at the settlement for the standard of living.

Shira Sharon: We are at the settlement for its quality of life (Photo: Yaron Sharon)

"Most of the people wanted improved housing, and are not living here for ideological reasons," she says. "As someone whose parents who moved her here at the age of 12, we came for the quality of life."

Politically, Shira places herself on the right, toward the center - and she does not intend to vote for Netanyahu.

Likudville

In the southern city of Ashdod, there seems to be almost uniform support for the Likud party and its leader Benjamin Netanyahu. Everyone on the promenade, a local cafe, and even in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of the city appears to be a Netanyahu fan.

.

In the cafe, Evelyn Itzik is holding a political debate with close family members.

"They are hunting him," she says of Netanyahu. "His opponents are trying to frame him. Only Bibi! "

Ashdod resident Evelyn Itzik: Just Bibi! (Photo: Nitzan Dror)

Likud member Max Sheetrit says that the judicial system is duplicitious and gunning for the prime minister, who is facing a raft of corruption allegations. "Bribery and corruption are things that every politician does, I don't why they are fixated on Netanyahu, everyone takes bribes," he says.

Political sectarianism is so strong here that a local cafe owner declines to be photographed for the article, apparently fearing that his comments would harm his business.

"All of the people that you have seen here are of Mizrahi origin," he says. "They feel sidelined and it doesn't matter how much money they have, they will always feel deprived. (Blue and White leaders) Gantz and Lapid are Ashkenazis who in their eyes represent (Labor forerunner) Mapai, which historically hurt them. It doesn't matter what happens, they and their children will never vote for the left-wing."

However, the city is home to a large group of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, for whom Yisrael Beiteinu - headed by Moldovan-born Avigdor Lieberman - is the obvious choice.

"Who will look out for me? Only Lieberman," said one elderly resident.

The battle over observing Shabbat that once stirred up tensions in the city appears to be over, with issue of religion and state less of a consideration in the national elections. In the ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods they say they will vote "according to what the rabbis decide."

In one of these neighborhoods, which looks like a replica of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem, dozens of yeshiva students are marching in the streets.

Oren Simchi: Bibi the king (Photo: Nitzan Dror)

In the shop next to the city's largest synagogue, is Oren Simchi, a great supporter of Netanyahu, who will be voting for the ultra-Orthodox Shas party.

"The king deserves cigars, the king deserves champagne, he deserves chocolates, he deserves pistachio ice cream," Simchi says, referring to Netanyahu and his alleged indulgence and corruption.

Rival sons

Some 10km southeast of Ashdod lies Kfar Ahim, the moshav that raised two key figures in the current election - Blue and White leader Benny Gantz and Likud stalwart Yisrael Katz, the transportation minister who still resides here.

Dalia Gobi: Benny Gantz is a great man (Photo: Nitzan Dror)

Determined to keep the peace, the residents of Kfar Ahim decline to publicly declare their political leanings, despite the presence of posters for both parties.

In front of the cameras, the locals compliment both men and even provide some interesting tidbits about them.

"Katz was a good boy," says a local resident of the Likud no. 3. "Gantz was a lot younger than us, they left the moshav after eighth grade."

Dalia Gobi, who grew up with Gantz, has some memories of the family: "Gantz first and foremost came from a family whose parents every Israeli home. He himself is an honest man, a great man."

Druze disappointment

In the Druze town of Isfiya, on the slopes of Mount Carmel, the most common expression is one of disappointment over the Nation-State Law that passed in 2017. The law determines Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people alone.

The residents are angry at the Likud, which leads the government, but also with Kulanu chairman Moshe Kahlon, who supported the Nation-State Law.

Walid Satar: Bibi stabbed us in the back (Photo: Ido Erez )

Walid Satar, an Isfiya resident who served in the IDF, is personally furious at the prime minister. "Bibi stuck a knife in our backs," he says. "We support the State of Israel and Bibi compared us to the Arabs of Umm al-Fahm who carry out terror attacks."

In a local butcher's shop is Mufak Mansour, who also served in the army, in a combat unit. "I previously voted for Moshe Kahlon," Mansour says. "But after the Nation-State Law passed with the help of Kulanu, I am voting for Gantz."

Mufak Mansour: Switched from Kahlon to Gantz (Photo: Ido Erez)

At a cafe in the village, several Likud members tried to convince the residents to vote for the party.

"When Bibi wins, you will hear that the Nation-State Law will be canceled," they claim.

Divided town

Kfar Haroeh, between Hadera and Netanya, is one of the first religious settlements in the country, where the plethora of right-wing parties has caused some tensions.

Opinions here are still divided: There are those who will vote for Naftali Bennett no matter what, while some feel betrayed because they are still loyal to the National Religious Party (the main partner in Jewish Home, which Bennett left to form his New Right party).

Amiram Dermer: A real leader doesn't quit (Photo: Yaron Sharon)

Others defend Netanyahu and some consider voting for far-right Moshe Feiglin - but not because of his pledge to legalize cannabis.

On the porch of his home, Michael Peled looks out over rolling green fields and considers the generational differences in voting in the national-religious community.

Michael Peled: Generational differences (Photo: Assad Kamer)

"The older residents will primarily vote Jewish Home," Peled says. "The youngsters have many views of their own, some are for Gantz and some for Bibi. There are also liberal people here in the village."

Among many residents, anger is mounting against Naftali Bennett, who they claim has hurt the NRP. One of the veteran residents of the moshav, Amiram Dermer, does not hide his contempt.

"Bennett quit and left us and that's not nice," he says. "Maybe he wants to be prime minister, but a real leader does not abscond the moment before the elections."

A surprise in Tira

In the Arab town of Tira, in cental Israel, the politics are far from straightforward. Surveys show that more than 40% of the country's Arabs population have decided not to vote in the elections or are still undecided.

Many of the residents of the city who intend to vote said they would vote for the Arab parties, but others surprisingly said they would vote for the right-wing parties, first and foremost the Likud.

Mansour Naim, the owner of the popular hummus joint opposite city hall, has still not decided how he is casting his vote, but he is not happy with the current state of affairs.

"We are 20 percent of the citizens of State of Israel and the prime minister ignores us. These aren't democratic elections, this is incitement. Bibi is increasing the hate and creating a gulf between Jewish and Arab citizens."

Hadil Talawi, a local lawyer, is also furious at the extremism and slander of the right-wing leaders against the Arab citizens of Israel.

"Personally, the Likud election propaganda is very annoying," she says. "I don't want Bibi to win the elections because I want peace, and Bibi will not make peace."

Hadil Talawi: We all want peace (Photo: Yaron Sharon)

But Talawi also had issues with the Arab lawmakers, whom she said sacrifice social issues in their campaigns for the Palestinians.

"The Palestinian issue is important to us, but it is important to me that our representatives act more on social issues," she says. "The most important thing is to invest in the education of the future generation and to eliminate the violence in the Arab sector because we want to raise the new generation, our children, in a society without violence and institutional corruption. We all want peace."

But Hanan Zebarga, a nurse, has a somewhat surprising political position. "I'm thinking of voting for Bibi," she says. "The Arab parties are all talk, while the Likud helped us solve problems in the municipality, and Bibi will bring us security."

Tira resident Hanan Zebarga: Likud helped us more than the Arab parties (Photo:Yaron Sharon)

Zebarga is not the only one in Tira who sees Likud as a safe pair of hands. Quite a few residents have anecdotes about the help they received from right-wing politicians in solving problems of daily life, especially in navigating the municipal regulations, such as the issue of building permits and preventing house demolitions.

To them, voting Likud and Netanyahu is simply returning the favor.
Some 60,000 Israelis will be out of the country on Election Day on Tuesday, and unlike in some other countries, there is no absentee ballot (save for diplomats stationed in foreign countries). The exodus abroad began at the weekend, stepped up its pace on Sunday and is expected to continue throughout Monday and even into Tuesday.

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Israelis of all stripes - Jews and Arabs, secular and religious, singletons and couples, families and groups  were in evidence Monday at the check-in counters of Ben-Gurion International Airport. Some said that they had booked their tickets before the date of the elections was announced, others said that the outcome as obvious, and some jokingly warned they would decide whether to return to Israel based on the election results.

Travellers at Ben-Gurion Airport (Archive)

Yossi Fogel and Shmulik Zeigan, both aged 19 from Kiryat Malachi, were supposed to vote for the first time in their lives on Tuesday. But on Sunday they were standing at the terminal with a Torah scroll, for they were on a mission.

"We are going to northern India to prepare the Chabad House for Passover," they said. "We have a lot of work there, to clean and ready the place. We will have about 150 guests there for the Pesach holiday. It is important to vote - but we have a mission and we cannot just abandon it. "

Anwar from the town of Tira is traveling with her husband and toddler for a holiday in Bodrum, Turkey, and has no qualms about missing the vote. "Only God decides the elections," she said. "We found a date that worked for a vacation and we decided to travel. It is obvious that Bibi (Benjamin Netanyahu) will win, so what is the point of voting?"

Shai Cohen of Ra'anana, his wife and four children are flying to a wedding in Paris. "The couple are not Israeli," he says. "Now it's wedding season over there and we had no choice."

Also in the queue to check-in are dozens of students from Yokneam, who are heading off on a 10-day trip to China. The students are not yet of voting age, but one of their teachers, 62-year-old Shlomo Kfir, is sorry that he will not be in Israel on decision day. It will be the first time in his life that he will miss a vote.

"It really does bother me," he says. "These elections are very important, but the date for the trip was set before the elections were decided and we simply could not change it."

Next to them is 35-year-old Rotem Cohen, who is traveling to Germany. "It bothers me very much that I will not be voting, but I'm going on a business trip," he says. "I'm tied to a very important project and I could not postpone."

Another traveler is Anan al-Atauna from the Bedouin town of Hura in southern Israel, who has a surprising perspective.

"If I had not been going abroad, I would have voted for Bibi," he says as he and his wife prepare to fly to a vacation in Antalya, Turkey. And why wouldn't he give his vote to one of the Arab parties?

"What exactly are they doing for us?" he asks. "They are always yelling 'Palestine, Palestine' but neglect the Arab public in Israel."
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday hosted his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for talks expected to focus on the situation in Syria and their nations' booming economic ties.

Greeting Erdogan at the start of their talks in the Kremlin, Putin said they will discuss the completion of a pipeline that will carry Russian gas to Turkey, the planned construction of a major electric plant and other economic projects.

Russia and Turkey have closely coordinated moves on Syria, where they struck a deal in September to create a security zone in the northern province of Idlib. The agreement averted the Syrian army offensive that sparked fears of a humanitarian catastrophe.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday defended his partys plans to demand a full recount of votes cast in mayoral elections in Istanbul, claiming that almost all of the voting was marred by irregularities.

Erdogan suffered a major setback in last weeks local elections after the opposition took control of the capital, Ankara, and won a tight race for Istanbul, after 25 years of rule by the ruling party and its Islamist party predecessor.

A partial recount of votes  mostly of ballot papers that were previously deemed invalid  demanded by Erdogans ruling party, is taking place in several Istanbul districts, but the party said it will apply to the countrys top electoral board to demand a recount of all of the ballots.
A 26-year-old woman from Gan HaShomron, a community in central Israel, was arrested Monday after a Palestinian man was found in the trunk of her car when she crossed a check point in the West Bank into Israel.

An unlicensed gun was also found in the car, and both the woman and the man were arrested.
Iran's foreign minister wants to include Middle East-based U.S. military forces the country's "terrorist groups" list.

In a reciprocal move after the U.S. announced it has designated Iran's Revolutionary Guard a "foreign terrorist organization, " Iran's foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made the demand in a letter to President Hassan Rouhani, according to the official IRNA news agency.

Zarif also sent a protest note over the U.S. decision to the Swiss embassy in Tehran, which looks after the U.S. interests in Iran.

The U.S. made the designation Monday to increase international pressure on Iran.
A federal judge has ruled against a neo-Nazi website operator who asked to be excused from returning to the U.S. for questioning in a lawsuit accusing him of orchestrating an anti-Semitic "troll storm" against a Montana real estate agent's family.

The Daily Stormer founder Andrew Anglin claims it's too dangerous for him to travel to the U.S., but Magistrate Judge Jeremiah Lynch ruled Friday that Anglin's personal safety concerns are "factually unsupported" and refused to excuse him.

Anglin, an Ohio native, claims he hasn't been to the U.S. since 2012.

Court records show Anglin suggested meeting in Cuba or Venezuela for his deposition by attorneys for Tanya Gersh, who sued Anglin in 2017. She claims anonymous internet trolls bombarded her family with hateful messages after Anglin published their personal information.
The European Union's foreign policy chief has called on all sides in the escalating Libyan military conflict to stop fighting and start talking.

Federica Mogherini said Monday that European Union foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg were united in their call for a truce.

Mogherini says all sides in the recent surge in fighting should "go back to the negotiating table under the auspices of the U.N. and make sure that the Libyan people get what they really want, which is peace and stability for their country."

The U.N. says that fighting over Libya's capital that erupted last week has already displaced 2,800 people. The death toll has risen to 49, including civilians.
Donald Trump announced Monday that the United States is designating Iran's Revolutionary Guard a "foreign terrorist organization," in an effort to increase pressure on the country that could have significant diplomatic implications in the Middle East.

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It is the first time that the U.S. has designated a part of another government as a terrorist organization.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard soldiers (: AFP)

The designation imposes sanctions that include freezes on assets the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps may have in U.S. jurisdictions and a ban on Americans doing business with it.

"This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft," Trump said in a statement.

In response to Washington's decision, Iran's top security council has designated U.S. military forces a "terrorist organization."

Iran's Revolutionary Guard soldiers (Photo: AFP)

The IRGC is a paramilitary organization formed in the wake of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution to defend its clerically overseen government. The force answers only to Iran's supreme leader, operates independently of the regular military and has vast economic interests across the country.

The designation allows the U.S. to deny entry to people found to have provided the Guard with material support or prosecute them for sanctions violations. That could include European and Asian companies and businesspeople who deal with the Guard's many affiliates.

It will also complicate diplomacy. 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.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard soldiers (Photo: AFP)

The Pentagon and U.S. 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.

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.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un looks at a men's shoe during a recent visit to Taesong Department Store, which is to reopen after renovation, in this photo released by the North's Korean Central News Agency, Monday. Yonhap



By Lee Min-hyung





North Korean leader Kim Jong-un

All eyes are on North Korea to see if it makes a major announcement on its nuclear plans, Thursday, when the regime plans to hold a major parliamentary meeting.



Last month, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui hinted that the regime's leadership would soon make public its "crucial decision" on denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.



Officials from the United States and South Korea view the upcoming session of the regime's top legislative body  the Supreme People's Assembly  as a critical moment for the North to announce its upcoming nuclear strategies.



U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday the U.S. would pay close attention to any possible remarks from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during the first session of the 14th Assembly in Pyongyang.



"It is a big day," Pompeo said. "It's something that's an annual event where the leader of North Korea speaks to his people. We'll watch very closely what he says."



The upcoming session will come amid stalled talks between Washington and Pyongyang after the failure of the Hanoi summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim in February.



With negotiations deadlocked, the regime may announce that it will stop holding peace talks with the U.S. and threaten to resume its nuclear armament.






U.S. Secret Service Director Randolph "Tex" Alles is leaving the Trump administration, the White House said, amid a shake-up in the upper echelon of the Department of Homeland Security.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump has selected career Secret Service official James Murray to lead the agency, saying he will assume the role next month. She added Alles will be "leaving shortly."

Alles' departure stems from a personality conflict within the agency, three officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the personnel matter. The officials said it was unrelated to the resignation of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and a recent security breach at the president's private club in Florida.
A statement by the foreign ministry on Monday supported U.S. President Donald Trumps decision to define Irans Revolutionary Guards as a terror group.

"This significant move is another phase in the American efforts to pressure Iran, said the statement. Iranian terror is a threat that has to be fought.
The Syrian foreign ministry denounced Monday the American decision to define Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a terror group.

"We see this decision as a blunt attack on Iranian sovereignty, said the statement. This is part of an unofficial war the U.S. is fighting against Iran in service of the Israeli occupier, who desires regional control.
GRAND RAPIDS  Federal Department of Justice officials announced the sentences of a downstate Michigan man in a wild fish trafficking case last week.

John Cross and John Cross Fisheries Inc., of Kalamazoo, were sentenced for trafficking in illegally transporting and selling lake trout, according to a department news release, and Cross Fisheries was also sentenced for making false records about whitefish purchases.

Cross was ordered to serve 12 months in prison intermittently over the course of a five-year probation, according to the release, while Cross Fisheries was sentenced to five years of probation.

Both were ordered to pay $1,032,132 in restitution to the National Fish Hatcheries, according to the release, which stock trout in Lake Michigan.

Cross Fisheries also has to create and implement a compliance plan to prevent future violations.

Both defendants have previously pled guilty to one misdemeanor of violating the Lacey Act by selling interstate commerce lake trout when they should have known the fish was possessed and sold in violation of state law.

According to court records, between September 2011 and October 2013 the defendants repeatedly bought lake trout from Fisherman A  a tribal fisherman who fished from a boat had been converted to trap net gear at taxpayers expense and thus could not lawfully harvest lake trout, a DOJ spokesperson said in the release.

The defendants then recorded those purchases as coming from a fisherman who could harvest lake trout.

Purchasing illegally caught fish for interstate sale and then covering up the source of those fish by falsifying records is cheating, plain and simple  and where discovered, the Justice Department will seek to punish such conduct, Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bossert Clark said in the release. For three years, Cross Fisheries harmed law-abiding competitors and the American taxpayers who fund the stocking of Lake Michigan with trout, but that conduct has now come to an end.

According to the Department of Justice, Cross Fisheries made approximately 42 purchases of these illegal lake trout, totaling 48,498 pounds in the two years between 2011 and 2013.

The sentencing is one of the final pending cases that came out of Operation Fishing for Funds  a two-year undercover operation by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, according to a department spokesperson.

The undercover operation primarily focused on the illegal harvest and sale of walleye and trout from the Great Lakes and involved starting a wholesale fish business in Baraga named Upper Peninsula North Fish Company that bought fish wholesale in the region.

The federally funded stocking of fish and the regulations designed to preserve these natural and communal resources were simply treated as an opportunity for extra profit here and in other cases stemming from Operation Fishing for Funds. This was essentially stealing from competitors, the government, and ultimately the future, U.S. Attorney Andrew Birge said in the release.

The operation resulted in 21 convictions and over $1.6 million in restitution ordered to the National Fish Hatcheries and tribal hatcheries  the amount needed to stock enough hatchlings to replace the illegally harvested fish.

Richard Jenkins
DURING A session with state representatives last Saturday at Wakefield VFW Post 9084, Rep. Greg Markkanen, R-Houghton, left, confers with Dick Bolen of Wakefield. In the background, VFW and auxiliary members were preparing a hot meal in honor of the 100th birthday of John M. Pachmayer of Ironwood. After his Q & A session with local residents, Markkanen presented Pachmayer with a state proclamation.

By P.J. GLISSON

[email protected]

WAKEFIELD - State Rep. Greg Markkanen, R-Houghton, and former state senator Tom Casperson were on hand Saturday to address questions from constituents at Wakefield VFW Post 9084.

Markkanen, who was elected to his post last November, told the Globe that one of the main concerns expressed to him Saturday is the area's weak economy, particularly in the wake of Marenisco's Ojibway Correctional Facility closing at the end of last year.

"I put in an appropriation request for an economic development office in Gogebic County," said Markkanen, who added that...
A total of 1,978 homes across the combined capital cities went under the hammer during the first week of April, returning a preliminary auction clearance rate of 57.2%, according to CoreLogic.

Auction volumes were slightly lower than the previous weeks 2,164, which had a final clearance rate of 50.9% making it the third consecutive week where the clearance rate has held above 50%. The week will likely record a similar outcome as remaining results are collected.

Over the same time in 2018, fewer auctions were held  just 1,839. However, the clearance rate was stronger at 62.8%.

Melbourne was one of the busiest auction markets this week in terms of volume, with 899 auctions held across the city. It posted a preliminary auction clearance rate of 58.1% down from last years 68.2%, when the city held 723 auctions.

Over the past week, 978 auctions were held across the city with the final clearance rate of 52.1%.

CoreLogic also reported that 740 homes were taken to auction in Sydney, down from 801 last week. The preliminary clearance rate came in at 61.9% this week up from 54.3% last week. However, this figure will track downwards over the week, according to the data services provider.

The final clearance rate in Sydney has held above 52% for the last five weeks. During the same period last year, a clearance rate of 62.9% was recorded across 795 auctions.

Across the smaller auction markets, Canberra, Perth, and Tasmania registered an increase in the number of homes taken to auction this week, while Adelaide and Brisbane posted lower volumes week on week.
The Real Estate Institute of Western Australia (REIWA) is calling on all political parties competing in the federal election to commit to no blanket changes to national property tax policies, such as negative gearing and capital gains tax.

The industry group said that meddling with one component of a broader tax system could significantly impact everyday Australians and make the condition of Western property market worse.

Changing one component of a broader tax system is irresponsible. History has already shown us that removing negative gearing and capital gains tax for investors has wide-ranging implications. In the 1980s when negative gearing was removed, the impact was so significant across the country that negative gearing was re-introduced just two years after it was removed, REIWA President Damian Collins said.

A total of 330,000 West Australians own at least one investment property, and of those, 215,000 rely on negative gearing to help offset losses incurred through owning a rental, according to data from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

The myth that property investors are wealthy moguls with extensive investment portfolios is simply not true. The vast majority are mum and dad investors with less than two rentals who are utilising property investment to help secure their future. Without such a mechanism available to prospective investors to help them afford the ongoing costs associated with owning a rental, many will reconsider if property is a financially viable investment choice, causing them to withdraw from the private rental market or seek alternative investment options, Collins said.

The value of investor loans has dropped 69% since 2015 due to soft market conditions and moderate consumer-confidence levels. Potential changes to tax policies will only pull investment away from the states property market, according to REIWA.

In addition, the local vacancy rate has slid to 2.3% from a peak of 7.3% in a little over 18 months. If landlords were discouraged from injecting funds into the WA property, tenants would likely face higher prices and reduced affordability because of a shortage of rental supply repeating what happened in the 1980s when negative gearing was removed.
President Moon Jae-in, right, shakes hands with SMEs and startups minister Park Young-sun during a nomination ceremony at Cheong Wa Dae, Monday. Yonhap



By Kim Yoo-chul



President Moon Jae-in named disputed nominees Kim Yeon-chul and Park Young-sun as unification and SMEs ministers, Monday, despite protests from the opposition parties.



Kim and Park were among five newly-appointed Cabinet ministers.



Their appointments came after the National Assembly refused to accept President Moon's calls to adopt confirmation hearing reports  a procedure giving consent to presidential nominations  for them.



The main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) Chairman Hwang Kyo-ahn vowed "an all-out struggle" to stop what he described as Moon's "dictatorship," hinting at boycotting Assembly sessions.



In an appointment ceremony held at Cheong Wa Dae, Moon said, "The Ministry of SMEs and Startups is asked to take a central role in assisting ventures, startups and small business owners attain sustainable growth. As a minister, you are able to push collaborative cross-boundary efforts to keep the country's key ecosystem working."






News

Denver, Colorado - A Bureau of Prisons (BOP) employee pleaded guilty Wednesday to making false statements, announced Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Departments Criminal Division.

Tammy Karasawa, 44, of Pueblo West, Colorado, pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements before U.S. District Judge Christine Arguello of the District of Colorado. Sentencing is scheduled for August 5, 2019.

Karasawa was employed at the BOP U.S. Penitentiary Florence ADX facility as a cook foreman. According to admissions made in connection with her plea, beginning in approximately the summer of 2017, Karasawa began a physical relationship with an inmate under her supervision. On Aug. 18, 2017, while Karasawa and the inmate were engaging in a physical encounter, one of Karasawas coworkers saw the pair, confronted them, and reported the incident to his superiors. The same day, Karasawa was interviewed by agents from the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General regarding this conduct. Karasawa admitted that she made multiple false statements during the course of this interview including denying having any type of physical relationship with the inmate.

The Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General investigated this case. Trial Attorney Nicole Lockhart of the Criminal Divisions Public Integrity Section is prosecuting the case.
News

Houston, Texas - The former Director of Nursing and Administration of two Houston, Texas-based businesses was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison for her role in a $20 million Medicare fraud scheme involving false and fraudulent claims for home health services.

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Departments Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick of the Southern District of Texas, Special Agent in Charge Perrye K. Turner of the FBIs Houston Field Office and Special Agent in Charge C.J. Porter of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services-Office of Inspector Generals (HHS-OIG) Dallas Region made the announcement.

Evelyn Mokwuah, 54, of Pearland, Texas, former Director of Nursing and Administration of Beechwood Home Health (Beechwood) and Criseven Health Management Corporation (Criseven), both located in Houston, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gray H. Miller of the Southern District of Texas. Judge Miller also ordered Mokwuah to pay $20,462,607.21 in restitution to Medicare. On Aug. 10, 2017, following a four-day trial, a jury found Mokwuah guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and four counts of health care fraud.

According to evidence presented at trial, from 2008 to 2016, Mokwuah and others engaged in a scheme to defraud Medicare of approximately $20 million including the submission of fraudulent claims for home health services at Beechwood and Criseven that were not provided, not medically necessary or both. According to the trial evidence, Mokwuah falsely certified and billed for patients who were not homebound or did not qualify for home health services. Along with others, Mokwuah also falsified patient records to show that patients were homebound when they were not; paid patient recruiters to recruit Medicare beneficiaries to Beechwood and Criseven; and paid doctors to certify false plans of care for Medicare beneficiaries so that Beechwood and Criseven could bill Medicare for those services.

The case was investigated by the FBI and HHS-OIG, and was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, under the supervision of the Criminal Divisions Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Texas. The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Scott Armstrong and Kevin Lowell of the Fraud Section.

The Fraud Section leads the Medicare Fraud Strike Force. Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, which maintains 14 strike forces operating in 23 districts, has charged nearly 4,000 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $14 billion. In addition, the HHS Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG, are taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.
Latest News

Houston, Texas - A Houston, Texas, man was sentenced to 360 months in prison for multiple conspiracy and tax charges, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Departments Tax Division.

On November 14, 2018, a jury convicted Kenneth J. Coleman, 52, of nine counts, including conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to structure currency transactions, corporate tax evasion, filing false tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and failing to file tax returns.

The evidence at trial established that Coleman facilitated the fraudulent sale of second-hand prescription medications to Utah-based Green Valley Medical Distributors, LLC (Green Valley). Coleman owned Acacia Pharma Distributors Inc. (Acacia) and Four Corner Suppliers Inc. (Four Corner), which purchased bottles of prescription medications from illegitimate sources and then sold them to Green Valley, which then sold the medications to pharmacies as brand-new.

Federal regulation requires wholesale distributors of prescription medications to provide to a buyer a pedigree  a written statement identifying each prior sale, purchase or trade of the drugs being sold that includes the business name and information of all parties to the prior transactions, starting with the manufacturer. Coleman and others acting at his direction created false pedigrees and provided the fraudulent documents to Green Valley. Evidence at trial showed that Green Valley would withhold payment to Coleman until it received these false pedigrees.

Coleman and his co-defendant, Marcus Weathersby, deposited proceeds from the fraudulent sale of these second-hand prescription drugs into Acacias and Four Corners business bank accounts and used the funds to pay the suppliers of the illicit pharmaceuticals. At trial, the government proved that Weathersby and others acting at Colemans direction laundered more than $41.5 million of illicit funds, including over $2.9 million in more than 230 cash withdrawals made in amounts less than $10,000, in order to evade bank-reporting requirements.

Coleman also evaded the assessment and payment of Acacias and Four Corners income tax liabilities, failed to file an individual tax return for tax year 2011, failed to file corporate income tax returns for tax years 2011 and 2012, and filed false individual income tax returns for the tax years 2012 and 2013. The combined loss of corporate and individual income taxes was more than $700,000.

Colemans co-defendant, Weathersby, formerly of Houston, Texas, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and was sentenced in June 2018 to 58 months in prison. He testified at trial against Coleman.

In addition to the term of imprisonment imposed, U.S. District Court Judge David Hittner ordered Coleman to serve three years of supervised release, imposed a criminal forfeiture money judgment of $20,326,464.17, and ordered Coleman to pay $716,986 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman thanked agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Federal Department of Agriculture, who conducted the investigation, and Trial Attorneys Sean Beaty and Terri-Lei OMalley of the Tax Division, who prosecuted the case. Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman also thanked U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick of the Southern District of Texas and his office for their assistance in this matter.
Latest News

Indianapolis, Indiana - A former Indiana attorney, who also prepared tax returns for Indianapolis-area clients, pleaded guilty Friday to tax evasion, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman and Josh J. Minkler, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana.

Scott C. Cole, 54, of Brownsburg, Indiana, pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion for his multi-year effort to evade the payment of taxes and penalties on income he failed to report on his 2002 tax return.

According to the Superseding Indictment and court filings, Cole was an attorney and preparer of tax returns. As the result of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audits of Coles 2001 and 2002 tax returns, the Tax Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit determined that Cole owed over $1,000,000 in taxes and penalties, stemming from Coles fraudulent omission of over $1.5 million of income from his individual tax returns for those years. From 2011 through 2017, when the IRS sought to collect those taxes, Cole took various steps to evade payment of his tax debt. His efforts included opening bank accounts in the names of nominees, such as family members, directing payment for legal and tax preparation services performed by him be made payable to nominee companies he controlled, paying personal bills from bank accounts maintained in the names of nominees, and dealing extensively in cash and money orders. Cole also prepared tax returns for clients that omitted his name as the paid preparer of those tax returns, a violation of the Internal Revenue Code and related regulations. Because of Coles acts of evasion, the IRS collected less than $3,000 of the total tax debt Cole owed for the 2001 and 2002 tax years.

Cole resigned from the Indiana bar following the filing of a complaint by the Supreme Court of Indiana Disciplinary Commission in 2014, which charged Cole with the filing of fraudulent tax returns with the IRS and the State of Indiana for the 2001 and 2002 tax years.

U.S. District Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson, who presided over Coles guilty plea yesterday, is expected to schedule Coles sentencing for late summer 2019.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman and U.S. Attorney Minkler commended special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, who investigated the case, the IRS Revenue Agents, who conducted the underlying audits, and the prosecutors on the case, Assistant United States Attorney James M. Warden from the Southern District of Indiana, and Assistant Chief Stanley J. Okula, Jr. of the Tax Division.
Latest News

Charlotte, North Carolina - A U.S. citizen who resided in Costa Rica pleaded guilty Friday for his role in a sweepstakes fraud scheme that defrauded hundreds of U.S. residents, many of them elderly.

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Departments Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney R. Andrew Murray Rose of the Western District of North Carolina, Special Agent in Charge John Strong of the FBIs Charlotte Field Office, Inspector in Charge David McGinnis of the U.S. Postal Inspection (USPIS) Service Charlotte Division and Special Agent in Charge Matthew D. Line of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Charlotte Field Office made the announcement.

Thomas Sniffen, 58, pleaded guilty today before U.S. Magistrate Judge David C. Keesler of the Western District of North Carolina to all 31 counts of an indictment charging one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, two counts of mail fraud, 13 counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit international money laundering and 14 counts of international money laundering. Sniffen was charged by indictment in September 2015 and was extradited from Costa Rica in July 2017.

As part of his guilty plea, Sniffen admitted that from approximately September 2010 through May 2014, he worked for a call center in Costa Rica that placed telephone calls to U.S. victims, falsely informing those victims that they had won a substantial cash prize in a sweepstakes. The victims, many of whom were elderly, were told that in order to receive the prize, they had to pay for a purported refundable insurance fee, Sniffen admitted. Sniffen knew that certain factual assertions that he and his co-conspirators made in their pitches to victims were false, he admitted. He also admitted that he and his co-conspirators kept the victims funds; never provided any prizes to victims; and used the victims funds to continue operating the call center for his and his co-conspirators benefit. Once Sniffen and his co-conspirators received the victims money, they allegedly contacted the victims again to tell them that they had to send additional money to pay for new purported fees, duties and insurance to receive the now larger sweepstakes prize. Sniffen and his co-conspirators allegedly continued their attempts to collect additional money from victims until those victims either ran out of money or discovered the fraudulent nature of the scheme.

USPIS, FBI and IRS-CI agents from Charlotte and Toledo, Ohio investigated the case, with support from the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations. Trial Attorneys William Bowne and Jennifer Farer of the Criminal Divisions Fraud Section are prosecuting the case.
Latest News

Washington, DC - It is with great sadness that the FBI announces the line-of-duty death of electronics technician William Homer Lewis of the Finance and Facilities Division. Lewis passed away on April 3, 2019, as a direct result of his work in response to the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

Lewis served in the FBI for more than 28 years. He joined the Bureau in 1990 as an operating engineer in the Training Division and became an electronics technician in 1992. Following the 9/11 attacks, Lewis worked with teams on the night shift for weeks, setting up and maintaining radio communications. He was instrumental in the recovery efforts, keeping FBI team members safe inside the Pentagon and at surrounding evidence-review locations.

His death is a great loss to the extended FBI family and community.
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By Kim Yoo-chul







President Moon Jae-in will visit three Central Asian countries over eight days from April 16, Cheong Wa Dae said, Monday.







"President Moon's eight-day state visit to Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan will start April 16. Among key issues to be discussed during the President's planned summits with the heads of the respective Central Asian countries are potential economic benefits from collaboration in Seoul's New Northern Economic Policy," Cheong Wa Dae vice spokeswoman Ko Min-jung said in a briefing.







This is the first time President Moon will visit the former Soviet bloc countries since he took office in 2017, the presidential office said, adding his trip will start with a three-day state visit to Ashgabat, where a summit with Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, is planned.







Then, Moon will fly to Uzbekistan for a four-day trip and a summit with President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, during which the South Korean leader will focus on "plans to further strengthen bilateral ties and expand their future-oriented cooperation," according to Ko.







President Moon's three-nation tour will end in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan that was recently renamed Nur-Sultan. A summit with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev will explore ways to further promote mutual cooperation between the countries.






- Patapaa's European tour manager has revealed the musician only performed to 16 people in Norway

- The revelation comes after a video Patapaa performing to only three surfaced online

The manager of Patapaa's recent tour in Europe has clarified reports making rounds which suggested the One Corner hitmaker performed to only three people during his concert in Norway.

According to the manager, Nana Amoako, Patapaa did not perform to three people like the video of Patapaa's Norway performance which went viral had portrayed.

Speaking in an interview on Hitz FM on Monday, April 8, 2019, Nana Amoako stated that though he cannot be exact on the number of people at the concert, he at least counted 16 people.

READ ALSO: Ghana's Kofi Kingston defies all odds, beats Daniel Bryan to win the WWE title

Patapaa became a trending topic after a video of him performing to three people in Norway popped up.

The video shared by Patapaa on his Instagram handle saw him onstage performing one of his hit songs with only three people as an audience.

Following the release of the video, social media users couldnt keep mute as they mocked and ridiculed the rapper.

But Patapaa, upon his arrival from the European tour, denied the reports of him performing to three people and has even fallen out with the tour manager over some monetary issues.

READ ALSO: Akrobeto excited after hearing McBrown's baby cry during interview with her on TV

It is in his explanation to what really transpired in Norway that Nana Amoako made the revelation pointing out that immediately he saw the number of people at the concert, he got worried if the organizers will pay them or not.

Upon entering the event hall I saw sixteen people, I counted, I have everything on my phone, I took footages of everything, the people who were there. So when I entered and saw sixteen people, including the promoter, making up to 17, I was like wow, this guy is not going to pay us, Amoako said in the interview watched by YEN.com.gh.

However, Patapaa's manager who joined the conversation via phone could not confirm the numbers saying he was busy ensuring everything is going well for his artiste, therefore, he didnt pay attention to the numbers.

READ ALSO: Yvonne Nelson visits Becca; gifts feeding bottle for her newborn baby (photo)

Ghana News Today: Shatta Wale wins big/19-year-old mother kills 2-year-old baby| #Yencomgh:

PAY ATTENTION: 15 Fascinating Signs That Show You And Your Partner Are Meant For Each Other

Do you have a story to share with us? Inbox us on our Facebook/Instagram page and we could feature your story

Source: Yen.com.gh
New Delhi: The Supreme Court Monday said it cannot pass an order at this stage on a plea seeking stay on the release of a biopic on Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the Censor Board is yet to certify the film.

The apex court said it will hear the matter Tuesday and could possibly pass an order if the petitioner brings on record that what the film depicts is highly objectionable.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi refused the plea of the petitioner, Congress activist Aman Panwar, that the copy of the film should be given to him.

"Why should we direct that individual be given a copy of the film," said the bench, also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna.

"We fail to understand why such a direction be given," the bench said.

At the outset, the CJI said the film is not yet certified and referred to April 4 statement by Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chairperson Prasoon Joshi given to PTI about it.

Joshi had told PTI that the film was undergoing due process of examination and certification.

"Since there are a lot of queries around the certification of the film, (I) would like to give a clear picture: the film is going through the due process of examination and certification according to the requisite guidelines and is yet to be certified as the process is not complete at this point," Joshi had said.

Senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for the Congress activist, said the producer Sandip Ssingh had come out with a statement that the biopic would be released on April 11.

Taking note of his submission, the bench said the producer may have come out with such a statement on release of the biopic on April 11 anticipating that the film would get the certification from the Censor Board.

The bench said as of now there is no cause of action for challenging release of the film.

When Singhvi repeated for further stay on the biopic, the bench said, "How can we stop the release of the film. It is not yet certified. There is only a statement from the producer for its release."

Singhvi submitted that there was no level playing field and allowing the release of the film would be a direct assault on the structure of the Constitution.

However, the bench said it cannot decide on the grievances raised by the petitioner as it did not know what was there in the film.

Singhvi also submitted that the judges themselves can see the film in advance to decide and decide the matter.

He said the lead actor, Vivek Oberoi, has been named as the star campaigner for the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections.

His father, who was also an actor, is a card holder of BJP.

"You have the power to call for the screening of the movie," the senior advocate told the bench.

"The film has considerable ramifications as it would be screened for the coming 40 days across the country," he said.

The plea has sought deferment of release of the biopic till the completion of upcoming Lok Sabha polls alleging that it was designed to "manipulate, influence and impress viewers and voters".

Titled "PM Narendra Modi", the biopic which was slated to be released on April 5, has been postponed till further notice, Ssingh said on Thursday.

The plea has sought direction from the court declaring that advertisement and promotion of the movie during the operation of the Model Code of Conduct violates electoral laws.

It has sought directions to the Centre, CBFC and EC to delay its release till the completion of the General Elections next month.

The Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court had earlier rejected a plea seeking ban on the release. The Bombay High Court had also disposed of a plea seeking deferment of the biopic's release, saying the Election Commission will deal with the issue.

"The movie was driven by no artistic inspiration and was instead designed to manipulate, influence and impress viewers and voters in the upcoming elections," the plea has said.

It said there were several facts which demonstrated that the movie was not an innocuous work of art, despite the repeated statements of the producers, the director and the lead actor to the contrary.

It said that Maharashtra Chief Minister released the first poster of the biopic and BJP president Amit Shah, was also scheduled to release other similar promotional materials.
New York: Zoe Saldana has praised Disney for reinstating James Gunn as the "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3" director but the actor supported the studio in its initial decision terming it as an attempt to make the workplace "more ethical and professional" for both men and women.

Last July, Gunn was fired by Marvel Studios' parent company Disney after his old, offensive tweets resurfaced on social media. In the tweets, Gunn, 52, had cracked crude jokes dealing with paedophilia and rape.

The director's sacking was followed with a severe outcry against Disney from both the fans and the cast of the film. He was rehired by the studio early last month.

Saldana, who plays Gamora in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, said when the #MeToo movement was at an all-time high in the year 2018, the studio set a good precedent in "leaving space for redemption" by bringing the director back.

"I'm really excited, and I'm proud of Bob Iger (CEO) and Alan Horn (chairman) for stepping up and making a decision to reinstate James Gunn.

"I think the theme of redemption is a theme that we weren't ready to discuss in 2018 because it was important for women to also strive to make workplaces more ethical and more professional. Not just for women but for men, as well," she told Variety.

The actor said the studio sent a "strong message" to kids by reversing the decision.

"But leaving that space for redemption, for error, and then coming forward with so much humility and saying, 'We acted impulsively and we're going to rectify this,' Disney is a big entity and they make content for younger audiences. You're sending a strong message to kids, and that, I commend them for it.

"And obviously, I'm happy to have my captain back on board because we were panicking. No other person can be like James Gunn for 'Guardians'," she said.

The actor was speaking at the premiere for her upcoming animated film "Missing Link" here.
Gangtok: The BJP on Monday hit out at the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) for backing out the alliance between the two parties for inexplicable reasons a few days after making a firm commitment on the issue.

"We were ready to accommodate most of the demands by the SKM leadership to sew up an alliance with us for Sikkim Assembly and Lok Sabha polls, but P S Golay led-party chickened out at the last minute without giving any reasons," a senior BJP leader, who was involved in talks with the SKM leadership, told PTI on the condition of anonymity.

He said that the SKM's withdrawal from a pre-poll alliance in Sikkim has embarrassed the BJP no end as it had gone public about it on a commitment given by Golay himself following a meeting with BJP's North-East and Sikkim incharge Ram Madhav in Delhi in the first week of March this year.

The SKM leadership, however, took an about turn after reaching Sikkim and reneged on alliance with the BJP without citing any reason, the BJP leader said.

Ruing at the missed opportunity to oust the 25 year- old Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) from power, he said that the SKM will be held "squarely responsible" if the Pawan Kumar Chamling government returns to power for a sixth term in Sikkim.

The BJP leader said that his party was undaunted with setback to fructify an alliance with the SKM and said that it will aim to make its presence felt in political waters of Sikkim.

He said that the BJP has put up candidates on 12 assembly seats and the lone Lok Sabha seat with an aim to open its accounts at the hustings.

Elections to the 32 Assembly seat as well as the sole Lok Sabha constituency in Sikkim will be held simultaneously on April 11 next.

The SKM and SDF are contesting on all 32 assembly seats.
New Delhi: The Calcutta High Courts division bench ruled in favour of All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Abhishek Banerjees wife Rujira Narula in Kolkata Customs Office case.

Abhishek Banerjee is a nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The court had on Thursday ordered Naroola to present herself before the Customs authority on April 8 as per its summons. However, the division bench today said that she will not have to appear before Customs till July 31. The next hearing in the case has been fixed for June 20.

The division bench, led by Justice IP Mukherjee, questioned the Customs over "why it took so long to register a complaint against Rujira Narula when the incident took place on March 16?" The complaint was registered only after seven days

"Narula will not appear before the Customs till July 31," the Bench added.

The court passed the order after hearing a writ petition Narula in the Calcutta High Court challenging the summon issued by the Customs Office.

Earlier, the Calcutta High Court had stated that the Customs Office cannot take any coercive step against her.

Narula had an argument with the Customs authorities on the intervening night of March 15-16 at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport on her return from Thailand for allegedly carrying gold without declaration and was let off after the police intervention.

Earlier, Abhishek had refuted the allegations of his wife being detained at the airport.

He had said, "False allegations are being made against my wife of her being detained, receiving special assistance and moving out of the airport with 2 kg gold. These are all baseless and defamatory."

(With inputs from agencies)
New Delhi: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram in a series of tweets alleged that Income Tax raids are being planned at his residence to 'cripple the election campaign.' He said that he will 'welcome the search party' and added that the people are watching and will give the government a befitting reply in the election.

"I have been told that the I-T Department has plans to raid my residence in Sivaganga constituency and in Chennai. We will welcome the search party," he first tweeted.

I have been told that the I T department has plans to raid my residence in Sivaganga constituency and in Chennai. We will welcome the search party!  P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) April 7, 2019

"The I-T department knows that we have nothing to hide. They and other agencies have searched our residences before and found nothing. The intention is to cripple the election campaign," the former finance minister added.

The I T department knows that we have nothing to hide. They and other agencies have searched our residences before and found nothing. The intention is to cripple the election campaign.  P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) April 7, 2019

Chidambaram's son Karti is contesting election from the Sivaganga Lok Sabha constituency in Tamil Nadu. He is facing charges of corruption and is currently out on bail.

"The people are watching the excesses of this government and will deliver a fitting lesson in the election," read Chidambaram's next tweet.

The people are watching the excesses of this government and will deliver a fitting lesson in the elections.  P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) April 7, 2019

Chidambaram's tweet comes hours after I-T raids were conducted on Madhya Pradesh's Chief Minister Kamal Nath's close aides at 50 locations in Indore, Delhi and Goa.

Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy had also hit out at the central government after I-T raids were carried out in parts of Karnataka. He termed the raids as "PM Modi's real surgical strike" in a tweet and said:

PM @narendramodi's real surgical strike is out in the open through IT dept raids. The constitutional post offer for IT officer Balakrishna helped the PM in his revenge game. Highly deplorable to use govt machinery, corrupt officials to harrass opponents during election time.  H D Kumaraswamy (@hd_kumaraswamy) March 28, 2019

The I-T Department had carried out coordinated raids at many locations across Bengaluru, Ramanagara, Kanakapura, Mandya, Mysuru, Hassan and Shivamogga.
New Delhi: India's first-ever indigenously designed and developed Dhanush artillery gun system has been handed over to the Indian Army in Jabalpur. Dhanush can be employed in all types of terrains and is the first long-range artillery gun to be produced under the 'Make in India' initiative, the defence ministry earlier said in a statement.

The hitting range of Dhanush, also referred to as 'Desi Bofors,' is around 11 km more than the imported Bofors guns.

The Additional Directorate General of Public Information of Indian Army had on Sunday tweeted that Dhanush 155mm/45 Calibre towed gun system would be soon inducted in the Army by Ordnance Factories Board.

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

The Dhanush gun system is based on the designs of the Bofors howitzer which was inducted in the Army in Eighties. After the K-9 Vajra and the M-777 ultra-light howitzers, Dhanush would be the third type of artillery gun to be inducted into the Army.

"The gun is equipped with inertial navigation-based sighting system, auto-laying facility, on-board ballistic computation and an advanced day and night direct firing system. The self-propulsion unit allows the gun to negotiate and deploy itself in mountainous terrains with ease," the ministry had said.

Dhanush has been mechanically upgraded to fire standard NATO 155 mm ammunition and can accommodate the bi-modular charge system (BMCS) which has resulted in increasing the range.

The performance of the gun has been evaluated under extreme conditions in several phases.

Dhanush was jointly created by a team of experts from the DRDO, DGQA, DPSUs such as Bharat Electronics Limited, PSUs such as SAIL and several private enterprises.


By Kim Myong-hee





The ASEAN-Republic of Korea (ROK) Commemorative Summit will be held in Busan, Korea, from Nov. 25 to 26. This event is to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of ASEAN-ROK Dialogue Relations.



One of the important issues to be discussed at the summit is capacity building programs for enhancing ASEAN women's IT skills and entrepreneurial capacities.



ASEAN is the association of 10 Southeast Asian nations making joint endeavors to create a prosperous and peaceful community under the slogan of "One Vision, One Identity, and One Community."



ASEAN, with a total population of about 650 million and an annual economic growth rate of about 5 percent, has now become the sixth-largest market in the world. Furthermore, due to young and lively population structures whose average age is 30, ASEAN is regarded as a vibrant market with enormous potential for future growth.



Korea has a long established strategic relationship with ASEAN. Recognizing the importance of cooperation with the region, the Korean government has continuously strengthened its diplomatic infrastructure with ASEAN, which includes the establishment of the Mission of ROK to ASEAN and the ASEAN Culture House, as well as a steady increase in financial commitments such as the ASEAN-ROK Cooperation Fund.



In particular, in the framework of the ASEAN-ROK Cooperation Fund, Korea has supported the growth of ASEAN by funding various development programs as part of official development assistance. In order to further deepen relations and better support ASEAN prosperity, the Korean government needs to identify critical local demands and address them properly.



Capacity building programs for enhancing ASEAN women's IT and entrepreneurial competencies address one such set of critical local demands.



Women's economic empowerment is a significant agenda that a number of countries and various international organizations, including ASEAN, the U.N., APEC, and the WTO, are pushing ahead with. This movement has been spurred by a conviction that women's economic empowerment is critical to achieving sustainable, inclusive growth.



The history of international development points to the fact that women's empowerment is beneficial to the development of not only individual women but also their families, communities, and nations. In that sense, the economic empowerment of ASEAN women, who constitute more than half of the ASEAN population, will serve as an effective driving force for the achievement of ASEAN visions.



Currently, ASEAN has been witnessing a dramatic increase in internet use and e-commerce, but, meanwhile, ASEAN women have comparatively less internet access and use.



Internet-based businesses are well known for their potential to benefit women's economic activities because of the relatively low cost of starting a business, direct connectivity with customers, and easy access to the market, as many relevant success stories can attest.



Unfortunately, however, due to the lack of IT skills and knowledge, many ASEAN women cannot afford to integrate IT into business or take full advantage of the business opportunities that the digital economy is creating for women.



In this context, Korea is in a good position to contribute to solving the problem. Korea has long years of experience in IT planning and training, and enjoys a high reputation as an IT country.



Besides, as a part of the ASEAN-ROK cooperation program, capacity building programs for enhancing ASEAN women's IT and e-business skills have been sporadically implemented in some parts of the ASEAN region by Sookmyung Women's University in Korea.



In order for more ASEAN women to benefit from such training programs, ASEAN and Korea should expand their capacity building programs in scope and breadth on the basis of previous experience and insight. This is a timely response to the situation in which ASEAN is preparing for an IT-enabled integrated economy with a single market and free flow of trade.



Fortunately, these capacity building programs for enhancing ASEAN women's IT and IT-based entrepreneurial competencies are well aligned with ASEAN's vision and strategic plans.



First of all, ASEAN highlights the importance of women's economic development through the 2017 Manila Statement on Mainstreaming Women's Economic Empowerment in ASEAN. In addition, the ASEAN Strategic Action Plan for SME Development 2016-2025 announces its focus on supporting human capital development for women entrepreneurs and thereby implementing entrepreneurial education.



In the ASEAN ICT Master Plan 2020, which aims to propel ASEAN towards a digitally-based economy, ASEAN also emphasizes the need to create a dynamic, integrated digital economy and equip ASEAN entrepreneurs with digital skills.



In this regard, capacity building programs for ASEAN women's IT and entrepreneurial skills are exemplary projects that fit well in ASEAN's visions. These programs will help to achieve sustainable, inclusive growth of ASEAN, and at the same time contribute to deepening and consolidating the strategic partnership between Korea and ASEAN.





Kim Myong-hee is professor at the School of English, Sookmyung Women's University in Seoul. She is also vice president of Global Women's ICT Network (GWIN) and adviser to Asia Pacific Women's Information Network Center (APWINC).


New Delhi: Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq appeared before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday in connection with a terror funding case. He left for Delhi from Srinagar this morning.

Jammu & Kashmir: Hurriyat Chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq leaves from his residence in Srinagar for Delhi. He will appear before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with a terror funding case today. pic.twitter.com/IyVomRy2xS  ANI (@ANI) April 8, 2019

Mirwaiz decided to appear before the NIA after the agency issued a third summon to him recently. He had earlier failed to appear before the NIA on March 11 and March 18 and had expressed security concerns regarding his visit to Delhi. He was provided security upon his arrival at Delhi airport.

Hurriyat Conference leaders Abdul Gani Bhat, Bilal Lone and Maulana Abbas Ansari are also accompanying Mirwaiz to the NIA headquarters to express their solidarity, members of the separatist conglomerate said, news agency PTI reports.

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.

"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," read the statement.

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 added.

The NIA had on February 26 carried out searches at premises of several leaders, including Mirwaiz.

The probe agency had questioned two maternal uncles of Mirwaiz, Maulvi Manzoor and Maulvi Shafat, and his close aides last year. Both Manzoor and Shafat are retired senior government officers.

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.

(With PTI inputs)
BHOPAL: The Income Tax raids (IT) raids continued on Monday morning at various locations in Madhya Pradesh, including the residence of Ashwin Sharma, an associate of Praveen Kakkar, who is OSD to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath.

ANI reported that IT officials are still conducting searches at residences of Ashwin Sharma and Praveen Kakkar. Security has also been beefed up at the location of raids.

On Sunday, I-T officials from Delhi carried out raids at the residences of Praveen Kakkar in Indore and former advisor to Kamal Nath, R K Miglani, in Delhi. The raids were conducted at the residences Kakkar and Miglani on charges of alleged tax evasion. Sources said that I-T officials raided at least 50 locations at different places, including Indore, Bhopal, Goa and Delhi.

The pre-dawn raid at Kakkar's home was conducted by a 15-member team of I-T officials on Sunday and it is learnt that around Rs nine crore has been recovered by I-T officials from Kakkar's home so far.

Meanwhile, a heated argument broke out between CRPF and Madhya Pradesh Police officials on Sunday when I-T officials went to raid the home of Ashwin Sharma, who is a close aide of Praveen Kakkar. The heated argument between the two sides lasted for more than 30 minutes and it took place in front of the media. Ashwin Sharma is a businessman by profession.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan slammed the state government, saying what Mamata Banerjee did in West Bengal, the same is happening in Madhya Pradesh under Kamal Nath's watch.

"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," Chouhan said at a press conference.

Chouhan also accused Kamal Nath of trying to save the corrupt by stopping the proceedings of I-T 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.

"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," he added.

(with ANI inputs)
The Indian Air Force on Monday nailed Pakistan's lies by asserting that it has credible information and evidence that the Pakistan Air Force lost one F-16 in the dogfight with Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman's MiG-21 Bison on February 27, 2019. Addressing a press conference, Air Vice Marshal RGK Kapoor said that the IAF will not be sharing the all the details of the aerial battle due to the concerns of security and confidentiality but shared some proof of the MiG-21 shooting down the Pakistani F-16 over the skies of Jammu and Kashmir.

The IAF said that it has irrefutable evidence of not only the fact that the F-16 was used by Pakistan Air Force on February 27 but also that IAF MiG-21 Bison shot down the Pakistani jet. "There is no doubt that two aircraft went down in the aerial engagement on 27 February 2019 one of which was the bison of IAF while the other was F-16 of Pakistan Air Force conclusively identified by its electronic signature and radio transcripts," the IAF said.

Here is the full text of the IAF statement:

1. On the 26 Feb19 in an Intelligence led operation the IAF successfully struck the biggest training camp of JeM in Balakot. The non military preemptive action was specifically targeted at the JeM camp.

2. As a repost, PAF aircraft attempted to target military installations in India. However their attempts were thwarted by IAF aircraft. PAF bombs fell in various Indian Army Formation compounds however they were unable to cause any damage to our military installations. As a result of the interception the primary objective of PAF strike was not achieved. They were intercepted by IAF Su 30 MKI, Mirage 2000 and MiG21 Bison fighter aircraft guided by ground radars and AWACS ( Airborne Early Warning and Control System). All PAF aircraft were identified by electronic signature. as shown on the slide) The IAF aircraft were vectored to shoot down PAF aircraft.

3. PAF aircraft fired multiple AMRAAM missiles which were defeated by use of counter measures and tactical maneuvers. In the aerial combat that followed one Mig 21 Bison of the IAF piloted by Wg Cdr Abhinandan shot down one F-16 of PAF. As shown in radar image on the slide. The F-16 crashed and fell across the LOC in PO J&K. The IAF lost one MiG21 in the aerial engagement and the pilot wg cdr Abhinandan ejected safely but his parachute drifted into PO J&K where he was taken into custody by Pakistan Army.

4. The IAF has irrefutable evidence of not only the fact that F-16 was used by PAF on 27 Feb19 but also that an IAF MiG21 Bison shot down a PAF F-16.

(a) The Indian Army posts in the vicinity of the LoC in the Jhangar (under Nowshera Brigade) have visually sighted two separate parachutes. The first sighting was due West, in general area Sabzkot and the second, was after a few minutes, Southwest, general area Tandar. The two areas are approximately 8-10 Bins apart as shown on the slide (the two sightings were in locations separated in time and space). The 2 parachutes were seen from places at a vantage point. (MAP SLIDE)

(b) This is corroborated by radio communications intercepts of Pakistan Army formations in the area which categorically state the capture of atleast two pilots, one them being Wg Cdr Abhinandan and a second one being admitted to CMH.

(c) Certain official statements made by the DG ISPR further corroborate the IAF stand. In his initial statement on 27 Feb19 DG ISPR categorically said '3 pilots - one in custody, and two in the area'. Subsequently, DG ISPR also stated on camera in a press conference that they had two pilots. One in custody and the other had been admitted to hospital and was being given treatment.

(d) The same was further corroborated by the statement by Pak PM on camera also indicating more than one pilot.

(e) All of these conclusively prove that a total of two aircraft had gone down that day in the same area separated by approximately 1 to 1:30 min of time.

(f) Analysis of electronic emissions have shown that the aircraft picked up by the ELINT intercepts from AWACS and radio transcripts indicated F-16s in the area directly in front of Wg Cdr Abhinandan's aircraft.

5. The IAF has achieved its objectives of a successfully striking the terrorist camp at Balakot and thwarting the PAF attack against our military installations. The PAF was unable to achieve its military objectives.

6. There is no doubt that two aircraft went down in the aerial engagement on 27Feb19 one of which was a Bison of IAF while the other was a F-16 of PAF conclusively identified by its electronic signature and radio transcripts

7. What has been stated here today is sufficient to prove the fact that PAF lost an F-16 on the 27 Feb19.

8. The IAF has more credible information and evidence that is clearly indicative of the fact that PAF has lost one F-16 in the air action on the 27 Feb19. However due to security and confidentiality concerns we are restricting the information being shared in the public domain.

What happened on February 27, 2019?

Pakistani jets including F-16, JF-17 and Mirage-III fighters tried to cross the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir to target Indian military establishments on February 27, a day after the IAF bombed Jaish-e-Mohammad terror camps deep inside Pakistan. IAF's MiG-21 Bisons and Sukhoi Su-30MKI jets intercepted and chased away the Pakistani planes

Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman's MiG-21 chased a Pakistani F-16 and shot it down but his plane too was hit by a Pakistani missile and the IAF pilot had to eject over the skies of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. He was captured after he landed in PoK, almost 7-8 kilometres from the LoC. He remained in Pakistani captivity for almost 60 hours and was released late evening on March 1, 2019.
New Delhi: In a major setback for Vijay Mallya, a UK court on Monday rejected the plea of the embattled liquor baron against extradition to India. Following the development, it is expected that he will be brought back to India soon.

63-year-old Mallya is wanted in India on alleged fraud and money laundering charges amounting to an estimated Rs 9,000 crores.

He had filed an application in the UK High Court and sought permission to appeal against an extradition order passed by Westminster court.

Mallya has been based in the UK since March 2016. He remains on bail on an extradition warrant which was executed by Scotland Yard in April 2017.

India and the UK had in 1992 signed an Extradition Treaty. The treaty has been in force since November 1993.

So far, there has been only one successful extradition from the UK to India under the Extradition Treaty. In 2016, Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel was sent back to India to face trial in connection with his involvement in the post-Godhra riots of 2002.

(With inputs from PTI)
Bhopal: A clash broke out between CRPF and Madhya Pradesh Police officials while a team of Income Tax official conducted raids on close aides of Chief Minister Kamal Nath. Reacting on the same, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that what Mamata Banerjee did in West Bengal, the same is happening in MP.

I-T officials from Delhi on Sunday morning conducted raids at 50 locations including the residence of Praveen Kakkar (former officer on special duty to Nath) in Indore.

"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," Chouhan said at a press conference.

News agency ANI had reported that an argument broke out between CRPF and MP Police officials outside the residence of Ashwin Sharma, an associate of Praveen Kakkar.

#WATCH Bhopal: Argument breaks out between CRPF and Madhya Pradesh Police officials outside the residence of Ashwin Sharma, associate of Praveen Kakkar (OSD to Madhya Pradesh CM, where Income Tax raids are underway. #MadhyaPradesh pic.twitter.com/ltXNnESE3b  ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2019

Chouhan, a former MP CM, also alleged that Nath is trying to save the corrupt by stopping the proceedings of I-T 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.

"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," he added.

Apart from Praveen Kakkar, the I-T officials also carried out pre-dawn raids at the residences of Nath's former advisor R K Miglani in Delhi, on charges of alleged tax evasion. Executives linked to his brother-in-law's firm Moser Bayer and his nephew Ratul Puri's company were also raided.

Searches at Bhopal and Goa were also launched.

(With ANI inputs)
Suchetgarh, Jammu and Kashmir: Shortly after the Bharatiya Janata Party released its manifesto for Lok Sabha 2019 election on Monday, rival parties converged to claw out possible flaws in it. Prominent among them were Mehbooba Mufti of PDP and Omar Abdullah of National Conference, only for them to be rebuked by Rajnath Singh immediately after.

What irked Mufti, Omar and also National Conference President Farooq Abdullah about the BJP manifesto was the promise of abrogation of Article 370 and annulling Article 35A if voted to power. Former CM Mufti, who was previously in alliance with BJP, warned that if the promise was fulfilled, the entire country - along with Jammu and Kashmir - would burn. (Read full report here)

Countering her and the two NC leaders, Rajnath took a rock-solid position on the matter even as he shifted the blame itself on to them. "People who led Jammu and Kashmir as CMs for a really long time say there should be a separate PM for the state. If someone talks of a separate PM for Jammu and Kashmir, then we'll have no option but to abolish Article 370 and 35A," said the Union Home Minister, clearly referring to Omar's previous comment on a separate PM and President for the state.

Article 370 and Article 35A of the Constitution provide special status to Jammu and Kashmir. These are also frictional points between state parties in J&K and the BJP at the Centre. Mufti had previously said that J&K's relation with India will end if terms and conditions of its accession altered.

Meanwhile, the war of words continues unabated between BJP, PDP and NC with even Congress trying to dab into J&K politics by promising in its manifesto that AFSPA - special powers given to armed forces in disturbed states - would be reviewed if the party is voted to power.
New Delhi: BJP President Amit Shah on Monday paid a visit to senior party leaders Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi at their residences in the capital, setting off speculations in the power capital.

The visit assumes significance in the wake of recent political developments.

Delhi: BJP President Amit Shah visits senior BJP leaders Murli Manohar Joshi (pic1) and LK Advani (pic2 and pic 3) at their residence. pic.twitter.com/8MnTfSoUFn  ANI (@ANI) April 8, 2019

Both the leaders have not been fielded by the party in the ensuing Lok Sabha polls. Both the leaders were also conspicuous in their absence at the BJP`s manifesto release event Party president Amit Shah is contesting from Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat this time, a seat which Advani won six times.

Murli Manohar Joshi too has been replaced by Satyadev Pachauri to contest from Kanpur.

Advani on April 4 wrote a blog in which he said, "Right from its inception, the BJP has never regarded those who disagree with us politically as our `enemies`, but only as our adversaries. Similarly, 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 personal as well as political level," the BJP stalwart had said in his recent blog titled `Nation First, Party Next, Self Last`.

The statements were seen as a veiled dig at the current leadership of the BJP.

Several leaders from the opposition parties began to use Advani`s statement to target the top BJP leadership including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi commenting on the blog by the senior party leader tweeted, "Advani Ji 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 LK Advani Ji have strengthened it."

The Lok Sabha polls are scheduled to be conducted in seven phases from April 11 to May 19.

The results will be announced on May 23.
Arakkonam Lok Sabha Constituency is one of the 39 Lok Sabha constituencies of Tamil Nadu. The constituency of Arakkonam was formed in 1977 and currently comprises of six Vidhan Sabha segments.

The Arakkonam Lok Sabha Constituency is numbered 7 in the state and is not reserved for any category, which means it falls in General Category.

The city of Arakkonam is located in the Vellore District about 70 km from Chennai.

The electors in the Arakkonam Lok Sabha Constituency will cast their votes on April 18 in the second phase of 2019 Lok Sabha election.

G Hari of AIADMK is the incumbent Member of Parliament from the Amravati parliamentary constituency.

Arakkonam Lok Sabha Constituency of Tamil Nadu: Full list of candidates, polling dates

In 2014 Lok Sabha election, G Hari was declared a winner from this seat.

G Hari bagged 493,534 votes to defeat NR Elango of the DMK who bagged 252768 votes.

The voter turnout in the 2014 Lok Sabha election in this constituency was 77.74% whereas it was 77.82% in 2009 Parliamentary Election.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, AIADMKs alliance partner PMK will be contesting from the Arakkonam parliamentary constituency.

PMK has fielded former Union Minister for State AK Moorthy from this seat. While BSP has nominated D Doss, the DMK has declared S. Jagathrakshakan as its candidate from the Arakkonam Lok Sabha seat.

All the 39 parliamentary constituencies in Tamil Nadu will go to polls in the second phase on April 18. The counting of votes will take place on May 23.

Lok Sabha election 2019 will take place in seven phases across the country  on April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19.

The results would be declared on May 23.
Beed Lok Sabha Constituency is one of the 48 Lok Sabha parliamentary constituencies of the state of Maharashtra. Beed Parliamentary constituency is numbered 39 in the state. It was formed in the year 1951 and was originally a part of the state of Hyderabad until the creation of Maharashtra in 1960.

It is divided into 6 assembly segments.

The electors in the Beed Lok Sabha Constituency will cast their votes on April 18 in the second phase of 2019 Lok Sabha election.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, BJP stalwart Gopinathrao Pandurang Munde had become the MP from the Beed constituency for the second consecutive term. But, on 3 June 2014, Munde passed away in a road accident in New Delhi.

Gopinathrao Munde had bagged 635,995 votes and decimated Dhas Suresh Ramchandra of the NCP who bagged 499,541 votes in the 2014 polls.

His daughter, Pritam Gopinath Munde, was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) from the Beed Lok Sabh seat in the by-election held after senior's Munde's death.

The Beed parliamentary constituency is likely to witness a high-stakes electoral contest between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

For the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP has re-nominated Dr Pritam Gopinath Munde from the Beed Lok Sabha seat. She will face the NCP candidate and Beed Zilla Parishad member Bajrang Sonwane in this year's election.

In Maharashtra, the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena alliance will face a tough challenge from the Congress-NCP combine. The BJP-Shiv Sena combine bagged 41 of the 48 seats in Maharashtra in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, leaving Congress with two and the NCP four seats.

This time, the BJP and Shiv Sena are contesting on 25 and 23 seats respectively of the total 48 Lok Sabha constituencies in Maharashtra. The Congress and NCP are contesting on 24 seats each across the state. Besides NCP, the Congress also has a tie-up with other regional outfits.

Lok Sabha election 2019 will take place in seven phases across the country  on April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19. The results would be declared on May 23.
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, along with BJP president Amit Shah, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and other senior BJP leaders released the party's 'Sankalp Patra' or manifesto for the upcoming Lok Sabha poll starting on April 11. The BJP has crafted its "Sankalp Patra" on the theme of a "Sankalpit Bharat - Shashakt Bharat" or "determined India, empowered India".

The senior BJP leader said that the party is taking 75 sankalp in order to change india by 2022, 75th year of independence.

"In five years, the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken 50 major decisions for the betterment of the country. From 2014-19, our government has transformed the country," Amit Shah said before the release of Sankalp Patra.

"We took suggestions from six crore people while making the sankalp patra. When we came to power in 2014, our country was ranked as 11th major economy. Today, it stands as 5th major economy," he added.

The BJP president said that Sankalp Patra was prepared after consulting 6 crore people.

"There was a time India did not matter in front of world, in last five years, entire world has taken cognisance of us. There is not a single allegation of corruption against Modi government," noted Shah.

Terming the years between 2014 to 2019 as golden years for India, the BJP president said that a full majority government came to power in country after 30 years but despite majority, we formed NDA government. He stressed that BJP-led government has strengthened national security.

"2014 to 2019 were golden years for India. First time after 30 years that a full majority government came. Despite majority, we formed NDA government. We have strengthened national security," said Shah.


Saying she wanted to "break the logjam" in Parliament over Brexit, British Prime Minister Theresa May last week reached out to the opposition Labour Party and its leader, Jeremy Corbyn. It was a bold move that could mitigate the effect of the blunder British voters made in 2016 when they chose to take the United Kingdom out of the European Union. Ideally, it could even lead to undoing that disastrous decision.



May's stated goal, as she reiterated in a statement last Tuesday, is to "deliver the Brexit the British people voted for"  but in a form that cushions the blow to the British economy and prevents the re-establishment of a "hard border" between British-ruled Northern Ireland and the independent Republic of Ireland. The danger that Brexit would re-divide the island and reignite sectarian tensions in Northern Ireland received scant attention during the original Brexit debate, but has loomed large since.



The problem for May is that the House of Commons has refused three times to approve the deal she negotiated with the EU for a gradual and managed Brexit. Confoundingly, most members also seem to be opposed to a "no-deal" Brexit  a rupture that could occur if Parliament doesn't approve the agreement by the current deadline of April 12. In announcing her overture to the Labour Party, May also said that she would ask the EU to extend the deadline, and Parliament voted for a second time.)



The almost comic inability of Parliament to execute the electorate's wishes in a responsible way is strong evidence that leaving the EU was an ill-conceived idea from the start. The problem is what to do now.



By opening a channel of communication to the Labour Party, May hopes to secure Parliament approval of the deal she negotiated with the EU along with a new formula to govern relations with Europe in the future. After meeting with May on Wednesday, Corbyn said the talks were "useful, but inconclusive," adding that they would continue.



May's willingness to engage Corbyn is encouraging, because it suggests that the Conservative prime minister will no longer have to rely on hard-line members of her own party who oppose or have qualms about the deal she negotiated with the EU. If May and Corbyn can find a basis for cooperation, it might even lead to closer trade ties between Europe and the U.K. than the agreement contemplates, such as a "customs union" between the U.K. and the EU, an idea popular with the Labour Party.



The problem is that the Labour Party is also divided on Brexit. Corbyn has sent mixed signals about his own position  including whether he would support holding a second referendum on whether Britain should leave the EU.



Such a do-over would be the simplest way to deal with the problems created by the previous referendum. Having witnessed the difficulty of disentangling the British economy from that of Europe, many voters who supported the "simple" concept of Brexit in 2016 may now realize that things aren't that simple and change course.



After their meeting, Corbyn said he raised with May the option of "a public vote to prevent 'no deal' or leaving on a bad deal." But if the voters are to be polled, why not also ask them if they support Brexit in any form? That possibility was suggested by Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister of Scotland's government, though many these days think such a repeat of the 2016 vote is still unlikely.



Individuals who make mistakes sometimes change their minds; so do nations. A second referendum on whether to leave the EU would give sadder but wiser voters in the U.K. that opportunity.





The above editorial appeared in the Los Angeles Times. It was distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.




New Delhi: Putting up a spirited defence of the party manifesto for Lok Sabha 2019 election, BJP leaders on Monday blasted Congress' efforts to question the 'sankalp patra.'

Union ministers Piyush Goyal and Nirmala Sitharaman attacked Congress for raising doubts about the contents of the BJP manifesto which was released on Monday. "From the speed with which Congress has reacted on the manifesto, it is very clear that they have not gone through even one of the 75. Congress should spend some time, read the manifesto, then talk," Sitharaman told news agency ANI. Goyal took the attack a step further and said that while Congress' manifesto itself is hollow, its leaders are busy finding faults elsewhere. "Their manifesto doesn't mention as to how to take country towards good governance,how to fight terrorism. It hasn't been able to rise above appeasement and dynasty politics," he said.

The remarks come in the backdrop of Congress calling the BJP manifesto a bluff shortly after it was released. At a press conference, senior party leaders Ahmed Patel and Randeep Surjewala attempted to cast aspersions on promises made by BJP. "They can fool some people some of the time but not all people all the time," Patel had said. "The manifesto is full of jumlas."

Surjewala had added that the manifesto is silent on a number of key issues, including demonetisation and unemployment.

The electoral battle between BJP and Congress is at its peak with the first phase of voting just days away - Thursday (April 11). 90 constituencies across 20 states will vote in the first phase and this would be followed by voting in six more phases till May 19. Counting of votes would take place on May 23.
New Delhi: As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its Sankalp Patra on Monday at their headquarter in New Delhi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, while briefing the media and the audience about the poll manifesto at the event, reiterated the party's stand on abrogation of Article 370 and Article 35A of the Constitution of India.

"We reiterate our position since the time of the Jan Sangh to the abrogation of Article 370. We are committed to annulling Article 35A of the Constitution of India as the provision is discriminatory against non-permanent residents and women of Jammu and Kashmir," Singh said.

Article 370 grants special autonomous status to Jammu and Kashmir while Article 35A, incorporated into the Constitution in 1954, provides special rights and privileges to the citizens of the state.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several top BJP leaders including Arun Jaitley have previously emphasised that the party is committed to abolish Article 370 and Article 35A of the Constitution.

BJP also said that the party will make efforts to ensure the safe return of Kashmiri Pandits to the state.

"In the last five years, we have made all necessary efforts to ensure peace in Jammu and Kashmir through decisive actions and a firm policy. We are committed to overcome all obstacles that come in the way of development and provide adequate financial resources to all the regions of the state," the manifesto said.

"We will take all steps to ensure a safe and peaceful environment for all residents of the state. We will make all efforts to ensure the safe return of Kashmiri Pandits and we will provide financial assistance for the resettlement of refugees from West Pakistan, Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK) and Chhamb," it added.
CHITTOOR: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and BJP leader Yogi Adityanath on Sunday hit out at the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Samajwadi Party (SP) stating that the former will not be able to win even a single seat, while the latter will find it difficult to retain even the five seats it won in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

"BSP is going to be on zero (seats) just like they were in 2014. SP won five seats in 2014. They will find it tough to win even those five seats this time," he told ANI.

Claiming that the Deoband rally of the grand-alliance only showed their panic, the Chief Minister said, "Deoband rally only shows the panic of the parties in the grand alliance which is there because they are finding a threat to their existence."

"Why they did not discuss the anarchic condition during their rule? Why did they not discuss the Muzaffarnagar riots? They don`t have guts to reveal the truth," he added, while asserting that this only showed grand-alliance leaders are not focused on real issues.

Adityanath alleged that for the sake of their survival, grand alliance leaders are resorting to lies and deception."In last two years, our government with the support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi government gave around 23 lakh houses to the poor people in the state. If you look at the two years of SP government, even though the PM Modi government wanted to help yet only 83000 houses were sanctioned," he said.

" We are challenging them to compare 55 years to 55 months," he added.Taking a dig at those fighting to be Prime Ministerial candidates, he said, "Those who are fighting the election on 36-38 seats are dreaming to become the Prime Minister. Nothing could be more laughable than this.

"Reacting to the jibe from the opposition of being drunk on power, the Chief Minister said, " No we are not "high" on power. We work on "sabka sath, sabka vikas". But, what did the SP, BSP government during their term?"

The Chief Minister also recalled how Akhilesh Yadav changed the name of Kanshi Ram medical college in Saharanpur."Dalits should see that how low they (BSP) could go to power," he said while asserting that people of the country want to see Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister of the country again.

Addressing a public rally at Saharanpur district earlier in the day, BSP chief Mayawati had 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.

SP chief and former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav was also present in the rally, the first one jointly addressed by BSP-SP leaders.The Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh is scheduled to be conducted in all the seven phases from April 11 to May 19.The results will be declared on May 23.
Coimbatore Lok Sabha Constituency is one of the 39 parliamentary constituencies of Tamil Nadu. Coimbatore Lok Sabha Constituency (constituency number 20) came into existence in 1952.

It consists of six Vidhan Sabha segments.

The constituency is not reserved for any category, which means it falls into the General Category.

Coimbatore is also the second largest city in the state. It is the sixteenth largest urban agglomeration of the country and is situated in the western region of the state.

Coimbatore Lok Sabha Constituency of Tamil Nadu: Full list of candidates, polling dates

The electors in the Coimbatore Lok Sabha Constituency will cast their votes on April 18 in the second phase of 2019 Lok Sabha election.

P Nagarajan of the AIADMK is the incumbent Member of Parliament from the Coimbatore Lok Sabha Constituency.

In the 2014 polls, P Nagarajan secured 431717 votes to defeat CP Radhakrishnan of the BJP who secured 389701 votes.

In the 2014 polls, the number of electors here was 1,720,211 out of which 1,176,620 cast their votes.

The voter turnout recorded here was 68.40 %.

For the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the Bharatiya Janata Party-AIADMK alliance candidate CP Radhakrishnan has been renominated from this constituency.

Radhakrishnan, a former MP, was also previously the BJPs state chief.

Meanwhile, the CPM has fielded PR Natarajan to contest from this seat.

The BSP has declared P Govindan as its candidate from the Coimbatore Lok Sabha constituency.

All the 39 parliamentary constituencies in Tamil Nadu will go to polls in the second phase on April 18.

Lok Sabha election 2019 will take place in seven phases across the country  on April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19.

The results would be declared on May 23.
The beginning of the 90s was also the beginning of sweeping changes in India that continue to reverberate today. Whether in the economic or in the socio-political sphere, the decade defined how the country approached the turn of the millennium and moved forward from there. Much like around the world, where the prevalent systems were changing  the all-too-recent collapse of Berlin Wall, the collapse of Soviet Union and the end of Cold War and rapid technological advancements had deep-rooted ramifications  India too witnessed dramatic developments with positive as well as negative implications.

India in the first four decades since Independence had grappled with a number of social and economic complexities even as Congress had remained the prime political force. The question of being self-sustainable, of following a non-aligned path on foreign policy and economic development, of even the basic need of feeding its population had been predominant issues of debate and discussion. It was not until the dawn of the 1990s that the country began to see visions  although blurry  of being a power to reckon with on the global stage. True, the menace of poverty, illiteracy, lacking healthcare, etc were still big issues, but Indians at large believed that they could tide over such challenges and dare to dream big. Millennials, in particular, would mostly swear by the explosive changes they witnessed as children which set the tone for bigger, quicker and even more powerful changes in the time to come.

And all of this happened despite the country ushering in the 1990s with massive reservation-related unrest and the tragic news of yet another assassination, this time of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Mandal Commission

The political climate of the country by the turn of the decade was as charged as ever. VP Singh, a Cabinet minister in the Congress government till the late 80s, had not only had a fallout with Rajiv but had managed to upstage him in the 1989 Lok Sabha elections. For only the second time in the countrys history, a non-Congress leader had become the face of India. But it is also a face that launched a thousand protests, metaphorically.

The issue of reservation was definitely the biggest polarising factor in India by the turn of the decade. And front and centre in the heated debate on reservation was the report submitted by the Mandal Commission. Although established a decade earlier  in 1979  to pinpoint socially and educationally backward classes in India, the report was taken up by PM VP Singh, who then tried to implement the recommendations it made.

If only he knew he had stirred a hornets nest.

The Mandal Commissions extensive report, in brief, recommended providing reservation of 27 per cent to people belonging to the OBC category in government jobs and educational institutions. This was in addition to the reservation of 22.5 per cent already in place for people from SC and ST categories. Those in agreement argued that reservation was the only way to right the wrongs done over the centuries to the oppressed. Those vehemently against it argued that merit was being pushed down and opportunities are being given or snatched based on the basis of birth. They also debated that the reservation would end up benefiting only the so-called creamy layer of the oppressed communities and not the intended downtrodden. Then there was the point about how the Mandal Commission had reached its conclusions, with accusations of it being mythical and without an empirical basis.

While it is generally agreed that the unrest that followed was far more prevalent in the northern part of the country than in the south, it was nonetheless severe. Countless clashes erupted in 1990, with students leading the protests. On September 19 of 1990, Rajiv Goswami  a Delhi University student  set himself on fire to protest the implementation of the Mandal Commission recommendations. This was a catalyst for many others to attempt the same and it is estimated that close to 200 students attempted self-immolation in the weeks and months after.

The loud and often violent protests would eventually become not just the biggest challenge for the VP Singh government but also its biggest blemish.

Ram Temple, the BJP and fall of VP Singh as PM

The 1980s had seen the Bharatiya Janata Party go from winning just two seats in the 1984 Lok Sabha election to securing 85 in 1989, and giving outside support to VP Singhs Janata Dal-led National Front government. This would not be the last time the BJP would find itself on the same side as the Left, which also supported the government from outside.

The 1980s had also seen the BJP becoming the face of Ram Janmabhoomi agitation, which wanted a Ram Temple at the sit on which the Babri Masjid stood in Ayodhya. With each passing year, the BJP became even more emboldened in achieving this objective. As BJP president, LK Advani led a tour across a large part of India in 1990, to galvanise people in favour of building the Ram Mandir, and in favour of demolishing the Babri Masjid. En route Ayodhya, Advani was arrested in Samastipur in Bihar on October 30 and this eventually led to BJP pulling the rug from under VP Singh.

VP Singh lost the vote of no-confidence in Parliament and resigned on November 7.

Chandra Shekhar pounced on the opportunity and walked out of Janata Dal with his supporters. He formed Janata Dal (Socialist) and, with the support of Congress, formed the government. He would only remain in the office of Prime Minister for just seven months before Rajiv Gandhi pulled back to support and cleared the way for a fresh election.

The assassination of Rajiv Gandhi

If 1990 was the year of violent voices of protest and cunning political manoeuvrings, 1991 muted the country into shock disbelief. Rajiv Gandhi may have paved the way for fresh election but it was in one of his campaigns for it that he would pay the ultimate price.

Rajiv Gandhi would meet a tragic end due to certain international policies and operations he had undertaken as PM in the 1980s. The decision to send units of the Indian Army as the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to Sri Lankan in 1987  which eventually led to Indian soldiers trying to establish peace by taking on Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)  was the direct and unfortunate trigger.

LTTE had been the biggest of several militant groups in Sri Lanka trying to establish a separate Tamil-majority country carved out of Sri Lanka. A civil war had fractured the island nation while India had to not only handle a refugee crisis but also deal with sentiments of Indian Tamils which were mostly sympathetic towards Sri Lankan Tamils taking on the majority Sinhalese. And while the IPKF was initially dispatched not to take role in direct combat but to broker peace, the ground situation soon became hell hot. The LTTEs anger was compounded by the Rajivs decision to overturn the policy that India had followed till that point. For years, especially under Indira Gandhi, it was the Indian government that had provided training to the LTTE on Indian soil.

While the IPKF would eventually withdraw when VP Singh replaced Rajiv Gandhi as the Indian PM, the LTTE reportedly maintained a deep grudge against Rajiv which culminated in his assassination at an election rally in Sriperumbudur, outside Chennai (Madras at the time). On May 21, Rajiv Gandhi reached Sriperumbudur after a number of campaign-related stops through the day. Here, he was greeted by a well-wishers who garlanded around him. Among them was an LTTE woman suicide bomber  Dhanu  who approached Rajiv and while bending to touch his feet, detonated an RDX belt under her dress. She, Rajiv and 14 others died, leaving India and the world stunned and shattered.

By May 21, the first round of polling had already taken place. The two remaining rounds were postponed to June and a minority government led by Congresss PV Narasimha Rao would take power.

Election 1991  Status of states:

The Lok Sabha 1991 election was conducted across 30 states and union territories. These were:

Andhra Pradesh

Arunachal Pradesh

Assam

Bihar

Goa

Gujarat

Haryana

Himachal and Pradesh

Karnataka

Kerala

Madhya Pradesh

Maharashtra

Manipur

Meghalaya

Mizoram

Nagaland

Orissa

Rajasthan

Sikkim

Tamil Nadu

Tripura

Uttar Pradesh

West Bengal

Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Chandigarh

Dadra and Nagar Haveli

Daman and Diu

National Capital Territory of Delhi

Lakshadweep

Pondicherry

The election was not held in J&K (insurgency-related problems) and in Punjab.

Political parties in the fray:

There were nine national parties and 26 state parties which contested the 1991 Lok Sabha election. There were another 109 registered (unrecognised) parties at the time.

The national parties:

BJP

CPI

CPI(M)

Indian Congress (Socialist-Sarat Chandra Sinha)

Congress

Janata Dal

Janata Dal (Samajwadi)

Janata Party

Lok Dal

The state parties:

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhgam

Asom Gana Parishad

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam

Bahujan Samaj Party

All India Forward Bloc

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha

Jammu and Kashmir Panthers Party

Kerala Congress

Kerala Congress (M)

Maharashtrawadi Gomantak

Mizo National Front

Manipur Peoples Party

Muslim League

Natun Asom Gana Parishad

Nagaland Peoples Party

Nagaland Peoples Council

Pattali Makkal Katchi

Pondicherry Mannila Makkal Munnani

Plains Tribals Council of Assam

Peasants and Workers Party of India

Republican Party of India

Revolutionary Socialist Party

Shiromani Akali Dal (Simaranjit Singh Mann)

Shiv Sena

Sikkim Sangram Parishad

Telegu Desam

United Minorities Front Assam

Election 1991:

The Lok Sabha election of 1991 may well be categorised, assessed and analysed as two sub-elections  one before May 21 and the other after.

Over 500 million eligible voters were once again given the chance to elect their government after Chandra Shekhars shaky stay in the Prime Ministers chair gave way. Of these, 52.6 per cent were men and the remaining 47.4 per cent were women.

Why the election of 1991 can be categorised into two sub-election is because how the country voted before and after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. As mentioned previously, Rajiv was assassinated a day after the first round of polling. Congress had mostly failed to make a deep impact in the first round held on May 20. A swing of votes by 5.7% away from Congress turned into a swing in favour of the party by 1.6% by the second round of voting. Voter turnout also saw a noticeable rise between the first round in May and the second and third round held in June. The difference in voting between the two sub-elections can simplistically be summed up this way: Congress was almost wiped out in the first phase, and rode a massive sympathy wave to sweep the second phase.

Congress made the most of the sympathy wave to secure wins in 244 of the 545 seats. While he had not contested in the election and had nearly retired, PV Narasimha Rao contested in a by-election in Nandyal which he won by a record five lakh votes. The assassination of Rajiv had necessitated the elevation of Rao and he would be the second Congress PM  after Lal Bahadur Shastri - who did not belong to the Gandhi family. He was also the first PM hailing from the southern part of the country.

While it has been reported that there were others within Congress who had been eying a promotion, Raos name was eventually picked to lead a minority government.

Another significant development courtesy the Lok Sabha election of 1991 was the continuing rise of the BJP. The party had chosen to fight the election on its own merit  barring an alliance with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra  and won 119 seats, up from 85 in 1989. The vote share also saw a significant jump to around 20%, from 11% in 1989.

With a fractured opposition and in the aftermath of Rajiv Gandhis assassination, the Indian political system had well and truly set off on the path of coalitions. Regional parties continued to gain in strength but just enough to have a say in the national scheme of things. And in the national scheme of things, vital developments  economic reforms and Babri Masjid demolition to name a few  were to come up shortly after.
With just three days left for the first phase of seven-phase Lok Sabha poll leaders of all political parties are engaged in hectic campaigning.

BJP on Monday released its Sankalp Patra for Lok Sabha poll in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and other senior BJP leaders.

PM Modi will campaign in three states  Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. In Maharashtra, the prime minister will address a rally at Osmanabad and in Karnataka he will address a rally at Chitradurga. After Chitradurga, PM Modi will reach Mysuru. After addressing a rally in Mysuru, Modi will reach Tamil Nadu to address a public meeting.

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 8:

Thank you for joining us. Do come back again on Tuesday (April 9) for live updates of Lok Sabha election.

* Tamil Nadu government will probe M Karunanidhi's death. I've information from senior DMK leaders that he was unable to speak for two years. If he would have been given good treatment, MK Stalin couldn't have become DMK president. So Stalin made his father a house prisoner: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E Palaniswami

* Congress names two candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha election in Jharkhand. The party has fielded Kirti Azad from Dhanbad seat and Kalicharan Munda from Khunti (ST) constituency.

* BJP president Amit Shah visits senior BJP leaders Murli Manohar Joshi and LK Advani at their residence.

Delhi: BJP President Amit Shah visits senior BJP leaders Murli Manohar Joshi (pic1) and LK Advani (pic2 and pic 3) at their residence. pic.twitter.com/8MnTfSoUFn  ANI (@ANI) April 8, 2019

* Speed with which Congress has reacted on the manifesto is very clear that they have not gone through even one of the 75. Congress should spend some time, read the manifesto, then talk: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman hits back at Congress after it calling the 75 resolutions in BJP manifesto a bluff

* Reacting to BJP's scrap Article 370 promise, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti warned the saffron party to not play with fire. "The situation in Jammu and Kashmir is already sensitive. If this happens then not only Kashmir but the entire country will burn. So I appeal to BJP that please stop playing with fire," Mehbooba said.

* Their manifesto doesn't mention as to how to take the country towards good governance, how to fight terrorism. It hasn't been able to rise above appeasement and dynasty politics: Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Congress' remark 'instead of manifesto BJP should have come out with a 'maafinama'

* National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Monday said abrogating Article 370 of the Constitution will pave way for "freedom" for people of Jammu and Kashmir and asked the BJP try joining the hearts and not break them.

* "For now the program (Rahul Gandhi-Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's rallies) has been cancelled at all three places (Shamli, Bijnor, Saharanpur), due to bad weather. We are planning Priyanka ji's roadshow tomorrow," said Imran Masood, Congress' candidate from Saharanpur.

Imran Masood, Congress' candidate from Saharanpur: For now the program (Rahul Gandhi-Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's rallies) has been cancelled at all three places (Shamli, Bijnor, Saharanpur), due to bad weather. We are planning Priyanka ji's road show tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/tGvK4h9Kpj  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 8, 2019

* Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee hits out at the BJP's manifesto promise to implement the contentious Citizenship Amendment Bill. "Don't believe the Citizenship Amendment Bill, I have read it. You will not have a voter card or surety of a job," she said at a rally.

* "To develop India, development has to be made into a mass movement, and a successful result of that is 'swacchta', today 'swachhta' is a mass movement," PM Narendra Modi at BJP manifesto release.

* PM Modi said that the country Indian will build from 2019-2024 will pave way for 100 years of free India.

* "Nationalism is our inspiration, uplifting the marginalised is our vision, good governance is our mantra," said PM Modi.

* "The experience, the success we tasted from 2014 to 2019, helped us create this manifesto," said PM Modi.

* The Prime Minister highlights the manifesto promise for a separate "Jal Shakti Ministry". "Nal se jal (water from taps) will be worked on," he says.

* "We have set 75 well-defined resolutions in our manifesto that we can fulfill in a time bound manner. We are moving forward with 'one mission, one direction'," said PM Modi.

* PM Modi said that Rashtravaad (Nationalism) is our inspiration, Antodyay is our vision and Sushasan (good governance) is out mantra.

* PM Narendra takes the stage and starts his speech by thanking everyone.

* "This is an indication of Modi ji's diplomatic success that when Pakistan threatened to boycott Organisation of Islamic Cooperation(OIC) meeting if India was invited then 56 out of 57 countries said let Pakistan not come," said External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

* "The NDA and the BJP are already a government in power and we hope to go into our second term. We have been a high performing government," said Jaitley.

* BJP manifesto is rooted in Indian reality, said Arun Jaitley, adding the manifesto is not prepared with a tukde-tukde or Ivy League mindset.

* Women's welfare and development will be accorded a high priority at all levels within the government, and the BJP is committed to 33% reservation in parliament and state assemblies through a constitutional amendment," Rajnath Singh said.

BJP Manifesto: Women's welfare and development will be accorded a high priority at all levels within the government, and the BJP is committed to 33% reservation in parliament and state assemblies through a constitutional amendment  ANI (@ANI) April 8, 2019

* "We reiterate our stand on Ram Mandir. We will explore all possibilities within the framework of the Constitution and all necessary expeditious construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya," said Rajnath Singh.

* "We will provide short-term new agriculture loans up to Rs. 1 lakh at a 0% interest rate for 1-5 years on the condition of prompt repayment of the principal amount," said Rajnath Singh.

* "We reiterate our position since the time of the Jan Sangh to the abrogation of Article 370. We are committed to annulling Article 35A of the Constitution of India as the provision is discriminatory against non-permanent residents and women of Jammu and Kashmir," said Rajnath Singh.

* BJP promises to give pension facility to small & marginal farmers after 60 years of age

* Rajnath Singh highlighted the important points of Sankalp Patra, saying the party is committed to pass the Uniform Civil Code, Citizenship Amendment Bill and build Ram Mandir within the framework of the Constitution.

* "We're presenting it as a vision document, not only do draw the satisfaction but also the pride and aspirations of crores of Indians," Singh said.

* "We touched base with crores of people. We carried 300 raths, 4000 maan ki baat events, 110 samvad programme," Singh at BJP's Sankalp Patra launch

* "We had a zero tolerance policy towards terrorism, it will continue till terror is not eliminated completely," Rajnath Singh said.

* "With all our promises, made in this manifesto, we are taking a step towards building a 'New India," Rajnath Singh at party's election manifesto release.

* Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh is addressing the manifesto launch. "We're presenting it as a vision document, not only do draw the satisfaction but also the pride and aspirations of crores of Indians," he said.

* PM Narendra Modi releases BJP's Sankalp Patra for Lok Sabha poll.

* "We are coming up with 75 promises in our Sankalp Patra," said Amit Shah.

* NDA government led foundation for developed India in 2014, says Shah.

* "Our government is an example of transparent govt," says Shah.

* "BJP government met basic needs of poor under PM Modi's leadership," says Amit Shah

* "Last five years were golden years for India under BJP rule," said Amit Shah.

* BJP president Amit Shah highlights the party's 2014 achievements before the release of Sankalp Patra.

* Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives at BJP headquarters to release party's Sankalp Patra. Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Thawarchand Gehlot are also present at the venue.

Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives at BJP headquarters, the party will release their manifesto for #LokSabhaElections2019 shortly. pic.twitter.com/f71GqU58Ly  ANI (@ANI) April 8, 2019

* "Instead of launching a 'Sankalp Patr' (manifesto), BJP should launch a 'Maafi Patr' for injecting a lethal injection of unemployment, farmers suicide, closing of businesses and putting youth towards Pakoda employment," said Congress leader Jaiveer Shergill.

Jaiveer Shergill, Congress: Instead of launching a 'Sankalp Patr' (manifesto), BJP should launch a 'Maafi Patr' for injecting a lethal injection of unemployment, farmers suicide, closing of businesses and putting youth towards Pakoda employment. pic.twitter.com/geJ0vyMq1t  ANI (@ANI) April 8, 2019

* "I am going to file my nomination today. I am feeling excited; The complaint filed against me is baseless and bogus. I believe in and respect Hinduism," Congress MP candidate from Mumbai North Urmila Mataondkar told ANI.

Congress MP candidate from Mumbai North Urmila Mataondkar: I am going to file my nomination today. I am feeling excited; The complaint filed against me is baseless and bogus. I believe in and respect Hinduism. pic.twitter.com/BK0KflqCdh  ANI (@ANI) April 8, 2019

* "Those who hoard people's money, they should be raided, they should be punished. The raids have not taken place just during elections but before also," Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) Chief Kamal Haasan on I-T raids being held at locations of Congress leaders.

Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) Chief Kamal Haasan on I-T raids being held at locations of Congress leaders : Those who hoard people's money, they should be raided, they should be punished. The raids have not taken place just during elections but before also. pic.twitter.com/qNk8MIPr0u  ANI (@ANI) April 8, 2019

* "Incumbent govt in Telangana is doing all it can to buy legislators&pressurise lawmakers, to create environment of fear like Mr Modi is doing in rest of India by using agencies to quieten voices of anybody who questions BJP," Rajasthan Dy CM & Congress leader S Pilot said in Hyderabad.

Rajasthan Dy CM & Congress leader S Pilot, in Hyderabad: Incumbent govt in Telangana is doing all it can to buy legislators&pressurise lawmakers, to create environment of fear like Mr Modi is doing in rest of India by using agencies to quieten voices of anybody who questions BJP. pic.twitter.com/ofOrbXpfw4  ANI (@ANI) April 8, 2019

* BJP president Amit Shah likely to meet veteran leaders L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi before releasing the party's manifesto for Lok Sabha poll.

* Apna Dal names Pakauri Lal Kol as its MP candidate from Robertsganj parliamentary constituency.

Apna Dal names Pakauri Lal Kol as its MP candidate from Robertsganj parliamentary constituency. pic.twitter.com/3Ezjq3zUMe  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 8, 2019

* JDS MP candidate from Mandya, Nikhil Kumaraswamy meets injured JDS workers who were allegedly attacked by supporters of independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh during her rally in Mandya, Karnataka, on Sunday.

Karnataka: JDS MP candidate from Mandya, Nikhil Kumaraswamy meets injured JDS workers who were allegedly attacked by supporters of independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh during her rally in Mandya yesterday. pic.twitter.com/BX72MJ3cQm  ANI (@ANI) April 8, 2019

* RJD promises to implement Mandal Commission in its manifesto.

* RJD to release its manifesto for Lok Sabha poll on Monday at 9:30 AM in Patna.

* "Don't make personal comments at all. When the PM himself has taken the responsibility to make personal comments, why do you need to do it? He's coming to Baramati on 10th,you can watch on TV what he says," Sharad Pawar, NCP chief said while addressing his party workers in Pune.

Sharad Pawar, NCP chief while addressing his party workers in Pune: Don't make personal comments at all. When the PM himself has taken the responsibility to make personal comments, why do you need to do it? He's coming to Baramati on 10th,you can watch on TV what he says. (07.04) pic.twitter.com/DLjhmrKT56  ANI (@ANI) April 8, 2019

* The BJP will release its manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha election on Monday, with issues of development and national security set to be its key highlights.

* "Congress' alliance with DMK is not really United Progressive Alliance (UPA) but unholy preposterous alliance. I'm amazed why DMK allied with a Congress that is a sinking ship and is becoming leaderless," Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said in Madurai, Tamil Nadu.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in Madurai, Tamil Nadu: Congress' alliance with DMK is not really United Progressive Alliance (UPA) but unholy preposterous alliance. I'm amazed why DMK allied with a Congress that is a sinking ship and is becoming leaderless. (7/4/19) pic.twitter.com/kgVr1uVAMq  ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2019

* "What Congress led government could not do for 55 years, scientists of the country under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi did, by conducting a strike in space and establishing India as a superpower in the world," Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath said.

UP CM Yogi Adityanath in Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh: What Congress led government could not do for 55 years, scientists of the country under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi did, by conducting a strike in space and establishing India as a superpower in the world. (7/4/19) pic.twitter.com/HuCpsVMGbw  ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2019

* "If mahagathbandhan comes to power HD Deve Gowda will not be the Prime Minister, he will be advisor to the government and will take care of the interests of the country. Who will be the PM, is secondary," Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy said in Mangaluru.
New Delhi: BJP president Amit Shah met party veterans Murli Manohar Joshi and L K Advani on Monday, hours after launch of party poll manifesto.

Shah's meeting with the two leaders came days after they were not given poll tickets.

The BJP has fielded Shah from Gujarat's Gandhinagar, a seat represented by Advani for many years, while Joshi has been replaced by Satyadev Pachauri in Kanpur.

After being denied ticket, Joshi had issued a statement saying the BJP told him that he would not be nominated by the party in Kanpur.

While Advani has not said anything about being dropped from the party's list of Lok Sabha candidates, he wrote a blog asserting his party never regarded those who disagreed with it politically as "anti-national".

More or less, both Advani and Joshi were sidelined in the party after 2014 general elections, in which the BJP got clear majority under the leadership of Narendra Modi.

After easing them out of key organisational positions, the party leadership brought the curtains down on their electoral innings by not giving them tickets to contest the Lok Sabha polls this time.

The BJP had earlier announced that it will not give tickets to those above 75 years of age.
Madurai Parliamentary Constituency is one of the 39 parliamentary constituencies of the southern state of Tamil Nadu. It was formed in the year 1952 and it is not reserved for any category. It is composed of six Vidhan Sabha segments.

The assembly constituencies that fall in Madurai parliamentary constituency are Madurai North, Madurai West, Madurai Central, Madurai East, Madurai South and Melur.

The electors in the Madurai Lok Sabha Constituency in Tamil Nadu will cast their votes on April 18 in the second phase of 2019 Lok Sabha election.

R Gopalakrishnan of AIADMK is the incumbent Member of Parliament from this constituency.

Madurai Lok Sabha Constituency of Tamil Nadu: Full list of candidates, polling dates

In the 2014 polls, R Gopalakrishnan managed to get 454167 and succeeded in decimating V Velusamy of the DMK who secured 256731 votes.

For the crucial 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the AIADMK has fielded VVR Raj Satyen from the Madurai Lok Sabha seat. The CPI (M) has given the ticket to Su Venkatesan, while the BSP has fielded A Dhavamani from Madurai.

MNM has fielded M Alagar from this seat.

The total number of electorates in the Madurai Lok Sabha Constituency (constituency number 31) according to Election Commission of India 2009 reports are 1,022,421 of which 511,131 are males and 511,290 are females.

In a bid to further expand its presence in this southern state of India, the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah-powered BJP has entered into a pre-poll alliance with the AIADMK and the PMK ahead of the crucial 2019 Lok Sabha election.

It is to be noted that all the 39 parliamentary constituencies in Tamil Nadu will go to polls in the second phase on April 18.

Lok Sabha election 2019 will take place in seven phases across the country  on April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19.

The results would be declared on May 23.
BJP leader Manoj Tiwari's helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing in Uddhamsingh Nagar district's Kiccha (Uttarakhand) on Monday due to bad weather conditions.

The Delhi BJP chief was to reach Dehradun from Khatima but the pilots in command of the helicopter Tiwari was in ran into bad weather due to strong winds and storm. It is reported that keeping the helicopter airborne was not an option and could have put the lives of all on board at risk. As such, a decision was taken to make an emergency landing.

Tiwari has been a prominent face of campaigning for BJP - especially in the state of Uttarakhand. At the Zee News' India Ka DNA conclave recently, he had said that the development of north Indian states is a key requirement for the progress of the entire country. And while most of his political assault is usually reserved for Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and AAP, Tiwari has made a strong pitch for BJP in Uttarakhand as well. At rallies here, he has asked voters to go beyond artificial boundaries and choose development under Narendra Modi.

There are five Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttarakhand and all of them will vote in the first phase - on April 11.
Shamli (Kairana), Meerut: Pushing his election campaign for the Bharatiya Janata Party into top gear, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath launched a barrage of attack on the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party on Monday. Referring to Mayawati's remarks about how Muslims should not split votes, Adityanath also said that he has come here to ensure everyone else votes for BJP.

Mayawati has been in a spot of bother since she appealed to Muslim voters to choose BSP-SP alliance and not split and waster their votes elsewhere. While UP Chief Election Commissioner has sent a report on this to the Election Commission, Adityanath looked to seize the opportunity and flay his political rival. "Mayawati has said the Muslim vote bank is hers. She is saying that Muslims must come together and vote. I am here to say that we should get the votes from all others," he said.

Adityanath was also critical of Congress and said that the party, along with the likes of BSP and SP, are guilty of questioning the sacrifices and martyrdom of soldiers. Addressing a sizeable gathering, he also said that these parties have dacoits as members. "They carry the flag of Lok Dal (people's party) but dance under a flag of dacoits," he said.

The war of words between BJP leaders on the one hand and SP, BSP leaders on the other has been scathing in recent weeks. SP and BSP - traditional rivals in UP - came together with the common objective of halting BJP. So far, they have shown confidence.

BJP, on the other hand, have termed it an unholy alliance and several party leaders have expressed their confidence in people seeing through both parties. They are predicting an even more significant win than the one in 2014 when SP and BSP were virtually wiped out of the state.
Authorities should work out measures to protect ecosystem



Last week the government announced a plan to build walking trails, to be named "Peace Trails," in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas. This plan is part of President Moon Jae-in's ambitious project to transform the area into a peace park in the long run.



Five ministries, including the Ministry of National Defense, got together to work out the plan. However, the government appears to be pushing it through unilaterally without sufficient prior consultations with related public and private groups such as environmental organizations.



The government also made the plan public in a hasty, one-sided way without discussing the safety of people walking the projected trails, scheduled to open in June, with North Korea. Furthermore, the defense ministry has yet to obtain approval from the United Nations Command (UNC) which manages access to the DMZ.



The ministry said that it is in the final stages of consultation with the UNC, waiting for its final decision. But this does not mean that the UNC has approved tourists' access to the DMZ.



With regards to the planned opening of the DMZ, the government should not overlook environmental matters. In fact, the area has been far off the beaten track for more than a half century since the truce that ended the 1950-53 Korean War. It has become an international treasure house of rare species of flora and fauna.



The government should listen to the voices of environmental organizations which have said that opening the DMZ hastily without any plan to preserve its ecosystem may damage its pristine nature. They are also expressing concerns that the peace trails project may lead to reckless development in the region.



The Moon administration is apparently seeking to promote peace on the Korean Peninsula by building the walking trails in the DMZ at an early date. The first thing the government should do is to reach an agreement with North Korea to obtain a guarantee of visitors' personal safety. It must also work out measures for the environmental protection of the DMZ.






BSP supremo Mayawati has landed herself in a major soup for appealing the Muslims to not vote for the Congress during the upcoming Lok Sabha poll.

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister made the controversial remarks at the joint rally of SP-BSP-RLD in Deoband on Sunday. The UP Chief Electoral Officer has taken cognizance of the matter and sought a report from the concerned authorities over Mayawati's speech.

During the rally, Mayawati had urged the Muslims to cast their votes in favour of the SP-BSP-RLD alliance, accusing the Congress of plotting to divide the Muslim vote bank in order to defeat the Mahagathbandhan. Dont 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, Mayawati was quoted as saying by ANI.

She added, The Congress is not capable of defeating the BJP Only the Gathbandhan is capable of doing it. Do not vote for Congress, they dont want the Gathbandhan to win.

ANI reported that the office of Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Lakku Venkateshwarlu has taken cognizance of Mayawatis comments. An official privy to developments told ANI, The CEO has sought a report in this regard from the local administration.

During his speech at the rally, Mayawati had also said that the voters were willing to bid farewell to the BJP and embrace Gathbandhan. 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.

The BSP chief also took a dig at the BJP, claiming that the saffron party is misusing Pulwama issue, GST and demonetisation. She also urged the people to not vote the BJP back to power and added, Removing Modi is not enough, Yogi also needs to be shown the door.

The seven-phase Lok Sabha election is scheduled to begin on April 11 and will go on till May 19. The counting of votes will take place on May 23. The voting in Uttar Pradesh will take place in all seven phases. Uttar Pradesh is the most crucial state electorally because the state sends 80 lawmakers to the Parliament.

(With inputs from ANI)
Mamata Banerjee on Monday borrowed characters from Mahabharata to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah with. Speaking at an election rally in Cooch Behar just a day after PM Modi's Sunday rally here, the Trinamool Congress chief minced no words in targeting him and BJP national president Shah.

While the PM Modi and Shah have both been blistering in their verbal attack against Mamata, the West Bengal CM has been no less fierce. On Monday, she compared the two to Duryodhan and Dushasan - characters in the Hindu epic Mahabharata who fought against the Pandavas. "The two of them are Duryodhan and Dushasan. This is not Bengal election but Lok Sabha election. Why are you (Modi and Shah) asking questions to me when this is your performance review? You have not done even 1 per cent of the work that I have done," she said at a rally with a sizeable turnout.

While PM Modi had targeted Mamata over chit fund scams in the state of West Bengal, she returned fire by asking why the promised money to the poor never came. Predicting that the upcoming Lok Sabha election will show BJP that people at large have seen through their promises, Mamata also refuted allegations of political violence levelled time and again against TMC.

Both BJP and TMC are unwilling to give even an inch to each other in what is expected to be a closely-fought election in West Bengal. In the first phase of voting across the country - on April 11, Cooch Behar and Alipurduars parliamentary constituencies will participate.

(With inputs from Kamalika Sengupta)
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu for poll campaigning on Tuesday. The Lok Sabha election is scheduled to take place in seven phases on April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19. The results will be declared on May 23.

He will address a public meeting in Maharashtra's Latur district and two public meetings in Karnataka - one in Chitradurga and another in Mysore.

The Prime Minister will also address a public gathering Tamil Nadu's Coimbatore.

Here's PM Modi's schedule for April 9 (Tuesday):

* 10 am: Public meeting at Tulajapur Corner, Nilanga Road, Ausa, Latur district (Maharashtra)

* 12 noon: Public meeting at Government Science College Ground, BD Road, Chitradurga district (Karnataka)

* 2:40 pm: Public meeting at Maharaja College Ground, Mysore (Karnataka)

* 4 pm: Public meeting at Codissia Grounds, Avinashi-Peelamedu Road, Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu)
New Delhi: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav released the party's manifesto on Monday for the upcoming national election 2019. The manifesto was released in Patna and Tejashwi was accompanied by Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha and other party leaders.

In its manifesto titled 'Pratibadhata Patra,' RJD has promised to implement remaining recommendations of the Mandal Commission along with reservation for the Dalits, OBCs, EBCs and tribals in the private sectors.

Patna: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) releases their manifesto for #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/fKrq848Bft  ANI (@ANI) April 8, 2019

Tejashwi, while releasing the manifesto, also said that the fight is for food, education and jobs for all. He also added that if his party is voted to power, a helpline for migrant workers from Bihar would be set up to provide them with timely help.

RJD has promised a tax-free toddy and to give relief to millions of daily consumers of it. Tejashwi added that when his father Lalu Prasad Yadav was the chief minister of Bihar, he had made toddy tax-free in the state.

However, in 2016, Nitish Kumar put a blanket-ban on the sale of alcohol and toddy across the state as a result of the poll promise he made during the state election.

Bihar will be voting in all the seven phases of the elections, starting April 11. Voting will end on May 19 and counting will be held on May 23.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also released its poll manifesto for the Lok Sabha election. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and other senior BJP leaders were present during the event.

The Congress released its poll manifesto last week. The manifesto promised a basic minimum income to five crore poor families under the NYAY scheme, government jobs vacancies, a separate budget for farmers among others.
New Delhi: The searches, conducted by Delhi Directorate of Income Tax in Madhya Pradesh, have detected racket of a collection of unaccounted cash of almost Rs 281 crore through various persons in different walks of life including business, politics and public service, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said on Monday.

A part of the cash was also transferred to the headquarters of a major political party in Delhi, including nearly Rs 20 crore which was moved through hawala recently to the headquarters of the political party from the residence of a senior functionary at Tughlak Road in New Delhi, said CBDT. The party was named by CBDT.

The Board added: "Unaccounted cash of Rs 14.6 crore, 252 bottles of liquor, a few arms and hide-skins of tiger found. Searches in Delhi in a group of a close relative of the senior functionary led to the seizure of incriminating evidence including cash book recording unaccounted transactions of Rs 230 crore, syphoning off money through bogus billing of more than Rs 242 crore and evidence of more than 80 companies in Tax havens. Several unaccounted/ Benami properties at posh locations in Delhi have also been detected".
Hyderabad: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee has accused state Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao of misusing the official residence `Pragathi Bhavan` and has written a letter to Telangana CEO Rajat Kumar in this regard.

Stating that the Election Commission had advised the general secretary of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) not to use Pragathi Bhavan for political purposes, it has alleged that the model code was violated by KCR by making politicians join his party at his official residence.

"In spite of EC`s advise to TRS General Secretary for not misusing Pragathi Bhavan official residence of Chief Minister K C Rao for political purposes yesterday KCR invited TDP leader Mandava Venkateshwara Rao and Congress leader Vaddiraju Ravichandra to the party offering them the party scarf at Pragathi Bhavan," the letter read.

Congress has also requested the EC to take action against the Chief Secretary and other officials for releasing a report on April 5 on steps towards achievement of Bangaru Telangana and has alleged that the said report was released `with an intention to exercise undue influence on the voters in favour of TRS party`.

Telangana will go to polls in a single phase for all 17 Lok Sabha seats on April 11. Results will be declared on May 23.
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer on Monday sent a report to the Election Commission on BSP supremo Mayawati's remarks appealing to Muslims to vote for the SP-BSP alliance in the upcoming Lok Sabha election. She further urged them not to allow Congress to split their votes.

The Commission is due to take a decision in the next one or two days on whether the BSP chief's statement falls under a violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) which was in force since March 10.

According to the model code, there shall be no appeal to caste or communal feelings for securing votes.

Mayawati's open appeal to the minority community came during a joint rally of BSP and the Samajwadi Party at Deoband.

Sharing the stage with SP president Akhilesh Yadav and RLD chief Ajit Singh, she had said, "I want to make an open appeal. It is not the Congress but the (SP-BSP-RLD) alliance which is fighting the BJP. The Congress wants to ensure that the alliance does not win. The Congress is trying to help the BJP in this election."
NAGPUR: 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.
New Delhi: Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone is shooting for her upcoming film Chhapaak in New Delhi: The film based on the life of acid attack survivor Laxmi Aggarwal, will feature Deepika in the lead role.

Deepika, who has stepped into the shoes of Laxmi, was spotted in the city. The actress was all smiles with her prosthetic make-up on and it was extremely difficult to recognize her. A fan page has shared the picture on Instagram.

Check it out!

Deepika's transformation has left everyone wanting for more and the people behind her look were lauded by the viewers. From fans to Bollywood stars, everyone praised Deepika for talking up the role of an acid attack survivor.

The acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal was attacked in 2005 at age of 15. The 32-year-old assailant was known to the family and after Laxmi rejected his advances, he attacked her.

Talking about Deepika's role in the film, Meghna had told Mumbai Mirror, It was that organic because its such a moving story. And the decision to co-produce the film with her also happened organically because I wanted to remain close to it through the entire process."

She also revealed that the only actress who came to her mind to play the role was Deepika. The film, which stars Vikrant Massey opposite Deepika, is set to hit the screens on January 10, 2020.
New Delhi: Veteran filmmaker Shekhar Kapur's 1994 release 'Bandit Queen' was a biopic based on the tumultuous life of Phoolan Devi. It was based on Mala Sen's book titled Bandit Queen: The True Story of Phoolan Devi. Actress Seema Biswas played the titular role of the bandit queen and won accolades for her performance.

But did you know, veteran actress Neena Gupta also auditioned for the role? The 'Badhaai Ho' star shared her throwback picture from the time when she auditioned for Phoolan Devi's role. She wrote in the caption: When I auditioned fr phullan devi for shekhar kapoor.

Isn't she looking simply awesome? Well, such throwback pictures often take you back in time and evoke a rush of memories.

Well, Shekhar Kapur's 'Bandit Queen' had created a stir at the time of its release in the country. The movie bagged the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi, Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie and Best Direction that year. It was premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section of the 1994 Cannes Film Festival, and was screened at the Edinburgh Film Festival.

Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan had composed the music of the movie. The lead actress Seema Biswas also won the National Film Award for Best Actress that year for her powerful protrayal of the character.


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).


MIAMI: In a first, scientists have captured a female python that was more than 17-feet-long. The python captured in the US state of Florida weighed 140 pounds and contained 73 developing eggs.

Scientists said that the python is the largest ever removed from Big Cypress National Preserve, located in South Florida. The scientists used new tracking technology to catch the Big Cypress snake, the national preserve said in a social media post. USA Today reported that Radio transmitters are used by scientists at the national preserve to track male pythons and then the locations of the males used to find breeding females.

"The team not only removes the invasive snakes, but collects data for research, develop new removal tools, and learn how the pythons are using the Preserve. The team tracked one of the sentinel males with the transmitter and found this massive female nearby," a social media post about the removal says.

The Big Cypress National Preserve is a 729,000-acre expanse of swampland west of Miami in South Florida. CNN reported that around 100,000 pythons are living in the vast swamps outside Miami and these snakes are considered as serious threats to native wildlife.

Florida holds competitions in order to encourage hunters to remove these snakes and keep a check on their population.

The inaugural Python Challenge was organised in 2013 by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and some 1,600 people had registered for this. The searchers, however, managed to find only 68 snakes.

In 2017, a $175,000 pilot program was launched by the South Florida Water Management District under in which 25 hunters were paid to euthanize pythons.
That Pakistan's economy has been in shambles has long been known. Its currency too is extremely weak in terms of the exchange rate with the US dollar. And while the Imran Khan government has been flayed for being rather inept at handling the situation, the country's finance minister has lashed out at critics for citing a weak exchange rate.

Asad Umar on Monday claimed that the health of an economy cannot be ascertained by the exchange rate of its currency, adding that critics who were highlighting it were ill-informed. "The exchange rate is not a measure of a strong economy. At one point, the Pakistani rupee was stronger than the Japanese yen, even though the latter's per capita income was much higher than ours," he was quoted as saying by Dawn.

As of Monday evening, 1 USD was equal to 145 PNR, as per XE.com. On August 18, when Imran Khan took oath as the PM, 1 USD was equal to 123 PNR which was still much worse than around 115 PNR just months earlier.

According to Umar, however, judging the economy by judging the performance of the Pakistani currency is not correct. "By artificially maintaining the exchange rate, we harm our farmers and exporters and give a free subsidy to foreign traders. In order to end the practice, economic fundamentals need to be strengthened," he said.

Umar, who has been facing the heat from not just political rivals but from the country's media as well, also chose to dish out advice to TV news netowrks in the country. He said that anchors ought to have debates with economists of repute rather than go with myopic views of the economy.

One of the biggest explanations - excuses, according to many, that the PTI government has given for the country's economy is that it was already faring poorly when the party came to power. In fact, Umar has said his government had inherited 'a very sick patient' which is ' now out of the Intensive Care Unit.'

While Imran Khan has visited a number of countries and managed to secure bailout packages, Pakistan is now looking at the International Monetary Fund for a much-needed helping hand. Strained relations with the US is unlikely to make that an easy prospect.
WASHINGTON: In a major trouble for Pakistan, three US lawmakers have urged President Donald Trump to oppose the proposed multi-billion bailout package being sought by Pakistan from International Monetary Fund (IMF) stressing that Islamabad may use the money to repay the Chinese debt.

The bipartisan group of three lawmakers - Ted Yoho, Ami Bera and George Holding - wrote a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying that they were deeply concerned over the likely use of bailout package provided by IMF to Pakistan repay the massive Chinese debt that has been accumulated by Islamabad under China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), PTI reported.

"We write to express our deep concern over attempts made by the Government of Pakistan to seek a bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund to retrieve debts incurred from predatory Chinese infrastructure projects," the Congressmen said in a letter.

According to the three US lawmakers, Beijing is investing as much as USD 62 billion in Pakistan under CPEC. "Its debt repayment and profit repatriation terms are not transparent and have understandably raised concerns inside Pakistan," they said.

"Illustrative of the dangers of China's debt-trap diplomacy, Sri Lanka became unable to make payments on the Chinese debt it had taken for the Hambantota Port development Project," the letter said.

They added that the "heavy pressure" exerted by China forced Sri Lanka to hand over 1,500 acres of land around the port for a 99-year lease, they said.

"The impact of Chinese predatory financing in Pakistan, as already seen in the case of the Hambantota port in Sri Lanka, cannot be ruled out," the letter said.

The Congressmen noted that the time has come for critical need of transparency in projects including loan terms and contractual details and if the terms are not subjected to strict scrutiny then it is quite possible that IMF bailout package would be used by Pakistan to repay its debt obligations to China.

"Another bailout that fails to provide transparency and address issues of balance of payment, high fiscal deficit, and unsustainable debt will again be doomed to fail, instead enriching China," warned the three Congressmen.

(with PTI inputs)
The United States on Monday designated Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organisation.

Here is the full statement of Mike Pompeo, US Secretary of State:

Good morning. Im here to make an important foreign policy announcement concerning the Islamic Republic of Iran. 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 Qods Force, as a foreign terrorist organization in accordance with Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. This designation will take effect one week from today.

This is the first time that the United States has designated a part of another government as an FTO. Were doing because the Iranian regimes use of terrorism as a tool of statecraft makes it fundamentally different from any other government. This historic step will deprive the worlds leading state sponsor of terror the financial means to spread misery and death around the world.

Businesses and banks around the world now have a clear duty to ensure that companies with which they conduct financial transactions are not connected to the IRGC in any material way. It also gives the U.S. Government additional tools to counter Iranian-backed terrorism.

This designation is a direct response to an outlaw regime and surprise no one, and it builds on the more than 970 Iranian individuals and entities that the Trump administration has already sanctioned.

For 40 years, the Islamic Republics Revolutionary Guard Corps has actively engaged in terrorism and created, supported, and directed other terrorist groups. The IRGC masquerades as a legitimate military organization, but none of us should be fooled. It regularly violates the laws of armed conflict; it plans, organizes, and executes terror campaigns all around the world. From the moment it was founded, the IRGCs mandate was to defend and export the regimes revolution by whatever means possible. The IRGC institutionalized terrorism shortly after its inception, directing horrific attacks against the Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 and the U.S. embassy annex in 1984 alongside the terror group it midwifed, Lebanese Hizballah. Its operatives have worked to destabilize the Middle East from Iraq to Lebanon to Syria and to Yemen.

With this designation, the Trump administration is simply recognizing a basic reality. The IRGC will take its rightful place on the same list as terror groups its supports: Lebanese Hizballah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Kataib Hizballah, among others, all of which are already designated as foreign terrorist organizations.

The long list of IRGC backed terrorist incidences is ample justification for todays decision. I want to just give you a handful of examples.

Last September a federal court in the United States found Iran and the IRGC responsible for the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing which killed 19 American service members. In 2011 the United States foiled an IRGC Qods Force plot right here in Washington, D.C. to bomb a restaurant. The attempt was to kill the Saudi ambassador to the United States of America.

Outside of the United States, the IRGCs terror campaign is just as active. In 2012 four Qods Force operatives were apprehended after plotting to attack Israeli targets in Turkey. In that same year, two other Qods Force operatives were arrested in Kenya for planning a bomb attack while the Qods Force also directed a bomb attack that targeted Israeli diplomats. And as recently as January 2018, German authorities uncovered 10 suspected Qods Force operatives active in their country. The IRGC supports Palestinian terror groups that target innocent civilians, and it helped create U.S. designated terror groups both in Lebanon and in Iran. And the IRGC also backs the murderous Assad regime which gasses and slaughters its own people.

Our designation makes clear to the world that Iranian regime not only supports terrorist groups, but engages in terrorism itself. This designation also brings unprecedented pressure on figures who lead the regimes terror campaign, individuals like Qasem Soleimani. He is the commander of the Qods Force and oversees Irans forces deployed to advance the Islamic Revolution through terrorism and other forms of violence. He doles out the regimes profits to terrorist groups across the region and around the world.

The blood of the 603 American soldiers the Iranian regime has found to have killed in Iraq is on his hands and on the hands of the IRGC more broadly. Inexplicably the regime has faced no accountability from the international community for those deaths. Far from being an arbitrary attack on Iran, our pressure campaign imposes just and long overdue consequences for the regimes malign activity.

We should not also forget the IRGCs central role in the nationwide con artistry and corruption of the regimes leaders which they perpetrate against the regimes own people. Other governments and the private sector will now see more clearly how deeply the IRGC has enmeshed itself in the Iranian economy through both licit and illicit means.

In just this past July, the city council of Tehran announced that the IRGC Cooperative Foundation, which manages the IRGCs investments, has embezzled more than $1 billion from the city of Tehran. The next month, a former councilmember accused the long-time mayor of Tehran of steering contracts to the IRGC. Its no coincidence that the mayor also formerly served as an IRGC commander and the chief of Irans police state. Back in 2017, Tehran arrested several IRGC commanders involved with the Cooperative Fund for corruption, including the IRGCs financial architect, Masoud Mehrdadi.

Then theres Mahmoud Ahmedinejads old college pal, Sadeq Mahsouli. They call him the billionaire general. He went from being a low-level IRGC officer to one of Irans richest men, all thanks to scoring construction and oil contracts from companies linked to the IRGC.

The leaders of Iran are racketeers, not revolutionaries. The Iranian people deserve better than to be governed by this cadre of hypocritical and corrupt officials. They are opportunists.

And on a final note, the IRGC is also responsible for wrongly detaining U.S. persons, several of whom remain in captivity in Iran. The American people should know that we are working diligently to bring each of those individuals home.

With this designation, we are sending a clear signal, a clear message to Irans leaders, including Qasem Soleimani and his band of thugs, that the United States is bringing all pressure to bear to stop the regimes outlaw behavior. We ask that our allies and partners around the world do the same. Thank you.
WASHINGTON: US 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.

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.

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.


By Joseph S. Nye





CAMBRIDGE  Chinese President Xi Jinping seems to be on a roll. He has sent a rocket to the dark side of the moon, built artificial islands on contested reefs in the South China Sea, and recently enticed Italy to break ranks with its European partners and sign on to China's Belt and Road Initiative.



Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump's unilateralist posture has reduced America's soft power and influence.



China's economic performance over the past four decades has been truly impressive. It is now the main trading partner for more than 100 countries compared to about half that number for the United States. Its economic growth has slowed, but its official 6 percent annual rate is more than twice the American rate.



Conventional wisdom projects that China's economy will surpass that of the U.S. in size in the coming decade. Perhaps. But it is also possible that Xi has feet of clay.



No one knows what China's future holds, and there is a long history of faulty predictions of systemic collapse or stagnation. While I don't think either is likely, the conventional wisdom exaggerates China's strengths.



Westerners see the divisions and polarization in their democracies, but China's successful efforts to conceal its problems cannot make them go away. Sinologists who know much more than I do describe at least five major long-term problems confronting China.



First, there is the country's unfavorable demographic profile. China's labor force peaked in 2015, and it has passed the point of easy gains from urbanization. The population is aging, and China will face major rising health costs for which it is poorly prepared. This will impose a significant burden on the economy and exacerbate growing inequality.



Second, China needs to change its economic model. In 1978, Deng Xiaoping wisely switched China from Maoist autarky to the East Asian export-led growth model successfully pioneered by Japan and Taiwan.



Today, however, China has outgrown the model and the tolerance of foreign governments that made it possible. For example, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is focusing on the lack of reciprocity, subsidies to state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and coerced intellectual property transfer that have allowed China to tilt the playing field in its favor.



Europeans are also complaining about these issues. Moreover, China's intellectual property policies and rule-of-law deficiencies are discouraging foreign investment and costing it the international political support such investment often brings. And China's high rates of government investment and subsidies to SOEs disguise inefficiency in the allocation of capital.



Third, while China for more than three decades picked the low-hanging fruit of relatively easy reforms, the changes it needs now are much more difficult to introduce: an independent judiciary, rationalization of SOEs, and liberalization or elimination of the hukou system of residential registration, which limits mobility and fuels inequality.



Moreover, Deng's political reforms to separate the party and the state have been reversed by Xi.



That brings us to the fourth problem. Ironically, China has become a victim of its success. The Leninist model imposed by Mao in 1949 fit well with Chinese imperial tradition, but rapid economic development has changed China and its political needs. China has become an urban middle-class society, but its ruling elites remain trapped in circular political reasoning. They believe that only the Communist Party can save China and thus that any reforms must strengthen the party's monopoly on power.



But this is exactly what China does not need. Deep structural reforms that can move China away from reliance on high levels of government investment and SOEs are opposed by party elites who derive tremendous wealth from the existing system. Xi's anti-corruption campaign can't overcome this resistance; instead, it is merely discouraging initiative.



On a recent visit to Beijing, a Chinese economist told me that Xi's campaign cost China 1 percent of GDP per year. A Chinese businessman told me real growth was less than half the official figure. Perhaps this can be countered by the private sector's dynamism, but even there, fear of losing of control is increasing the party's role.



Finally, there is China's soft-power deficit. Xi has proclaimed a "Chinese Dream" of a return to global greatness. As economic growth slows and social problems increase, the party's legitimacy will increasingly rest on such nationalist appeals.



Over the past decade, China has spent billions of dollars to increase its attractiveness to other countries, but international public opinion polls show that China has not gained a good return on its investment.



Repressing troublesome ethnic minorities, jailing human-rights lawyers, creating a surveillance state, and alienating creative members of civil society such as the renowned artist Ai Weiwei undercut China's attraction in Europe, Australia, and the U.S.



Such policies may not hurt China's reputation in some authoritarian states, but modern authoritarianism is not ideologically based the way communism was. Decades ago, young revolutionaries around the world were inspired by Mao's teachings.



Today, although "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics" has been enshrined in the party constitution, few young people in other countries are carrying that banner.



China is a country with great strengths, but also important weaknesses. American strategy should avoid exaggerating either. China will increase in importance, and the U.S.-China relationship will be a cooperative rivalry. We must not forget either part of that description.



No country, including China, is likely to surpass the U.S. in overall power in the next decade or two, but the U.S. will have to learn to share power as China and others gain strength. By maintaining its international alliances and domestic institutions, America will have a comparative advantage.





Joseph S. Nye is a professor at Harvard. His forthcoming book is "Do Morals Matter? Presidents and Foreign Policy from FDR to Trump." Copyright belongs to Project Syndicate (www.project-syndicate.org).


krblokhin/iStock(WASHINGTON) -- Federal authorities have charged a man they believe was plotting to ram a stolen truck into pedestrians at the National Harbor waterfront development in Maryland, just outside the nation's capital, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.



As described by sources, the case did not involve a sting operation -- it was a matter of federal, state and local law enforcement working together to stop someone in the nick of time.



The Justice Department is expected to announce details of the case later Monday.



It's a stark reminder of how the terror threat continues to involve in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, with extremist groups all over the world calling on followers to launch attacks in their homeland -- no matter how simple the attack might be.



In July 2016, a terrorist drove a 19-ton truck into a crowd celebrating a local holiday in Nice, France, killing 86 people and wounding 450 others.



This is a developing story. Please check back updates.



Copyright  2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
* Indonesia will repatriate two nationals who escaped from Abu Sayyaf terrorist group's custody following recent raid against the group's stronghold island in the Philippines' Sulu province, an Indonesian foreign ministry official said on April 6.

* British Prime Minister Theresa May said on April 6 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.

* 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 on April 6. France will host this year's G7 Leaders' Summit in the southwestern town of Biarritz on Aug. 24-26.

* 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 on April 6 report by a local TV channel RTE.

* Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on April 6 called for expanded energy trade and transport routes with Iraq. Rouhani mande the remarks at a joint press conference with visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi in the capital Tehran.

* French President Emmanuel Macron discussed by phone the situation in Libya with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, on April 6, 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" in Libya.

* Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Paris and other French cities on April 6 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.

* Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on April 6 that he would annex settlements in the occupied West Bank if he wins another term in office in an election on Tuesday.

* The Russian Emergencies Ministry said in a statement on April 6 that it had worked with its Armenian counterpart to deliver humanitarian aid to flood-hit Iran.

* North Macedonia's authorities are monitoring the situation at the southern border with Greece and are ready to face with increased pressure, North Macedonia's Defense Minister Radmila Shekerinska said on April 6.

* Hungary and the United States have signed a defense cooperation agreement, according to official sources in Budapest on April 6.

* Voting got underway in the Maldives on April 6 in a crucial parliamentary election which will elect 87 members to the island's Parliament.

* Algeria's parliament on April 9 will elect a new interim president, state news agency APS said on April 6, after veteran ruler Abdelaziz Bouteflika resigned following mass protests.
President Moon Jae-in speaks during an event at the K Art Hall in southern Seoul, Monday, celebrating the successful launch of the world's first mobile 5G services. / Yonhap



Gov't to generate 600,000 new jobs in 5G industries



By Baek Byung-yeul



Korea has gone all out to become a frontrunner in fifth-generation (5G) networks, setting a goal of creating 600,000 jobs and $73 billion worth of exports in related industries by 2026, the government said Monday.



It will do this by fostering an ecosystem of next-generation network-based industries and services.



The Ministry of Science and ICT, which formulates the government's 5G policy, designated 10 industrial sectors and five key services for its "5G Plus Strategic Business" plan.



The 10 include next-generation smartphones, network equipment, information security, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) devices, drones, robots, intelligent closed-circuit television and wearable devices



The government also designated immersive content, smart factories, autonomous driving, smart cities and digital health care as five key services, and vowed to develop them in collaboration with the related industries by 2025.



In the digital health care service, for example, the government will develop a 5G-based emergency medical treatment system by 2021 and plans to apply this to 20 percent of emergency centers nationwide by 2025.



The government said that the 600,000 new jobs will come from nurturing these industrial services and sectors based on 5G networks.






By Kwak Yeon-soo





Philip Morris Korea's director of people and culture Praveen Upadhyay / Courtesy of Philip Morris Korea
Members of Bap Blossom, a team participating in the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs' (MAFRA) food startup incubating project, pose in front of their store in Wanju County, North Jeolla Province, on March 18. Courtesy of the MAFRA



This article is a joint project of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and The Korea Times. _ Ed.



By Nam Hyun-woo



In the wake of Koreans' growing interest in culinary culture and the harsh domestic job market, a growing number of young people are turning their eyes to the food business with dreams of becoming the next Gordon Ramsay or domestic food franchise mogul Baek Jong-won.



Even if those young people have decent cooking skills and a brilliant business idea, not many have come close to following in the celebrity food entrepreneurs' footsteps, due largely to setbacks in rent payment, kitchen facilities, advertising and other practical problems.



For those young food entrepreneur wannabes, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp. (aT) has been running an incubator program, providing financial support and aid for rent, kitchen facilities and even education on how to run a food business.



In its third year, the Culinary Startups Incubator Project provides opportunities and support for culinary startups, comprised of those aged under 40, to test their business by opening a real store for up to three months.



Since 2017, 342 participants in 54 startup teams have joined the project and 38 people of them have started their own businesses, according to the ministry. The ministry will receive applications throughout this year.



For selected food startup teams, the ministry and the aT provide up to 60 million won ($52,700) a year for rent, restaurant decoration costs, kitchen facilities, advertisement fees and other non-cooking aids. Teams shoulder costs for labor, ingredients and other utility fees only.



Twelve teams participated in the program in Seocho-gu, Seoul, in 2017, but the ministry has increased the number of restaurants and food courts available for the businesses to five.



For this year's program, selected teams will open their diners at five places across the country  three in Seoul's Seocho-gu, Eunpyeong-gu and Seodaemun-gu; one in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province; and one in Wanju County, North Jeolla Province. The one in Eunpyeong-gu is a food court which can house multiple teams at the same time.



Culinary business consulting firms, a university and big name food firms, including Ottogi, will run the places and provide consultations and other services for participating teams, with support from local governments, the ministry and the aT.



One of the recent teams participating in the program is "Bap (rice) Blossom," which will showcase bibimbap, cold pasta, pork cutlets and rice with various toppings in Wanju for the next three months.



Opened on March 18 as the second team using the Wanju space this year, the team will serve local ingredients, such as beef and vegetables combined with members' unique interpretation of each dish. Also, the team uses porcelain bowls made by Wanju-based artists to promote the local art community.



"The project is serving as a launch pad for nurturing young food entrepreneurs and promoting the cooperation between local farms, artists and food businesses," Wanju County Governor Park Seong-il said. "The county will continue its support to create jobs in various fields including food businesses."





Officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) and Cheonan city government cut the tape in front of the store of Yeokjeon Pasta, a team participating in the ministry's food startup incubator project, in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, on March 21. Courtesy of MAFRA
Fly Geyser  Not Quite of this World

They look as if they were taken on another planet, or at least on the set of a new and very expensive science fiction movie. Yet these pi...
An interactive scholarly discussion on the significance of the Tripitaka as a world heritage took place at the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) headquarters in Geneva, continuing the week-long celebrations-'Tripitakabivandana'. The event was also intended to raise awareness among States that follow the Buddhist traditions, as well as other States, to join hands with Sri Lanka in realising the initiative taken by President Maithripala Sirisena, to inscribe the Tripitaka on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.

Organized by the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka in Geneva, the event brought together several erudite members of the Maha Sangha, members of the diplomatic community as well as Sri Lankans living in Geneva, to reflect on the spiritual, historical as well as global value of the Tripitaka-the foremost doctrine of Buddhist teaching. A strong call for the recognition of the Tripitaka as a shared heritage of mankind was echoed.

A scholarly presentation on the topic Why the Pali Tripitaka Should Be a World Heritage?: Sri Lanka's Contributions to the Buddha vacana was delivered by Venerable Deegalle Mahinda Thera, Professor in Study of Religions, Philosophies and Ethics, College of Liberal Arts of the University of Bath Spa in the United Kingdom. The eminent scholar monk eloquently elaborated on a number of landmark events and key personalities involved in preserving this intrinsic body of Dhamma through centuries.

Ven. Walpola Kalyanatissa Thera, Spiritual Advisor to the Geneva Buddhist Vihara and the Zurich Buddhist Vihara, and Ven. Halyale Wimalarathana Thera, the President of the International Buddhist Foundation in Geneva and the Chief Incumbent of the Geneva Buddhist Vihara, addressed the audience on the value of the Buddhist doctrine and the significance of the Tripitaka, while Ven. Dr. Thawalama Dhammika Thera, Chief Sanghanayake of Switzerland and Chief Incumbent of the Geneva International Buddhist Centre, moderated the discussion with the participants and speakers. Ven. Keembiela Kassapa thera, the Chief Incumbent of the Toronto Buddhist Vihara also participated in the event. The intellectual contributions made by the members of the Maha Sangha and the interactive dialogue that ensued with Ambassadors and diplomatic representatives of several countries sharing their views and perspectives enabled an incisive and insightful dhamma discourse, appreciated by all participants.

Among Heads of Missions and senior diplomats who graced the event were Ambassadors of Myanmar, Bhutan, Thailand, Laos, Viet Nam, Mongolia, the United Kingdom, India, and Pakistan and the Representative of Nepal.

Addressing the event, Sri Lankas Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Ambassador A.L.A. Azeez underscored the significance of the Tripitaka as the foremost compilation of Buddhist philosophy and as a repository of spiritual knowledge that is close to the hearts and minds of Sri Lankans as well as millions of people over the world. He made these remarks underlining the need for collaboration among all Member States in recognizing it as a world heritage.

For millennia, the Tripitaka has been a shared heritage of the Asian communities, and over the years, there is growing worldwide interest in the study of Buddhism, most notably in Europe, North America and Australia. This is because there is increasing recognition that Buddhism, in essence, is a way of life and a philosophy that could be easily related to and practiced by anyone anywhere, he stated.

Delivering concluding remarks and vote of thanks, Deputy Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka, Samantha Jayasuriya elaborated on the strong inter-linkages existing between the fundamental values of Buddhism such as equality and loving kindness for all living beings, and the modern day discourses on protection and promotion of human rights and non-discrimination, gender equality, for which Geneva serves as the global center. She stressed that the teachings of Lord Buddha, which the Tripitaka reflects with authenticity, enshrined at its core, the values of equality and non-discrimination, that underpin human rights.

The event commenced with the lighting of the traditional oil lamp by the members of the diplomatic corps and the screening of a documentary depicting the historical events pertaining to the Tripitaka, its declaration as a national heritage on 5 January 2019 and the importance of formally recognizing it as a world heritage. It concluded on a spiritual note, with the venerable monks chanting 'seth pirith' and participants were treated to Sri Lankan refreshments arranged by the Mission.

Video Documentary - introduction of Tripitakabhivandana

Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations

Geneva

7 April 2019
The AU chairperson, in a statement issued on April 6, also expressed his deep concern by the heightened tension in the North African country.

"The AU commission chairperson is deeply concerned by the heightened tension currently prevailing in Libya," then pan African bloc said in a statement issued on April 6.

Faki also "called on all parties to respect the lives and safety of civilians, and to resume, without delay, the inclusive political dialogue for the swift resolution of the crisis in the country."

Noting the ongoing growing tension in the war-torn nation, the AU chairperson also "warned against any foreign interference in Libya's internal affairs."

The 55-member continental union also "reaffirmed the full solidarity of the African Union with the Libyan people."

The UN Security Council on April 5 called on all forces in Libya to halt military activity amid escalating tension, stressing "there can be no military solution to the conflict" in the country.
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WASHINGTON, April 6 (Xinhua) -- China and the United States concluded here the ninth round of high-level economic and trade talks which ran from Wednesday to Friday.

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.
Giant panda cub Xiao Liwu (R) and its mother Bai Yun stay together during his first birthday celebration at the San Diego Zoo, California, the United States, July 29, 2013. [Photo/Xinhua]

SAN DIEGO - The San Diego Zoo in the US 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.
TIANJIN - 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.
KINGSTON  A 30-year-old Kentucky man was sentenced to 3  years in state prison to be followed by three years of parole supervision following
HARRISBURG  Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn announced $335,000 in Keystone Recreation, Parks and Conservation Fund grant funding for restoration efforts at Farmstead Park in Upper Moreland Township. This restoration project is key to helping with our efforts to expand recreation opportunities for all Pennsylvanians and we are proud to support Upper Moreland Township...
Staff unload containers from the freight train X8044 after the train from Hamburg of Germany arrived at Wujiashan railway container center station in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Aug. 26, 2018. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu)

BEIJING, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang will travel to Europe on Monday for a series of high-level meetings to consolidate China-Europe cooperation at a time when changes and uncertainties are rattling the European continent.

The visit, which will last till Friday, will take Li to Brussels for an annual gathering with European Union (EU) leaders, and to Croatia for an official visit and a leaders' meeting of China and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs).

This is the first overseas trip to be made by the Chinese premier this year and is set to inject new impetus into the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership.

"We believe that this meeting will take the China-EU dialogue and cooperation to a new level, and strengthen the stability, mutual benefitand strategic significance of our relations," said Zhang Ming, head of the Chinese Mission to the EU.

GLOBAL SIGNIFICANCE

At the time of the visit, Brexit uncertainty is looming large over Europe. EU leaders are scheduled to hold an emergency summit on Wednesday to decide whether to give Britain more time to leave the regional bloc, only two days after Li's arrival.

Li is expected to send a message in support of European integration process, as well as the EU's unity and growth, said Wang Yiwei, a professor with the Institute of International Affairs of Renmin University of China.

China, a consistent supporter of the EU, has always been an advocate for unity, a multi-polar world and multilateralism, he said.

The Chinese premier's trip comes just weeks after Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visits to Italy, Monaco and France in March. The almost back-to-back visits demonstrate the importance China attaches to its relations with Europe.

Leaders of the two sides will exchange views on bilateral ties and major international and regional issues of common concern, and witness the signing of cooperation documents covering energy, competition policies and other areas, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Chao told a press briefing on Wednesday.

China and the EU are enjoying a sound development of ties, close high-level connections, deepening cooperation and robust people-to-people exchanges, the senior diplomat noted.

In the ninth round of the China-EU High-Level Strategic Dialogue last month, China and the EU reached "Ten-point Consensus," which upholds multilateralism and supports an open world economy.

"The global significance of the China-EU relations is becoming prominent," said Zhang.

COOPERATION &COMPETITION

Beijing values its comprehensive strategic partnership with Brussels. Fostering a sound relationship with the EU has long been a priority of its foreign policy.

The EU has been China's largest trading partner for 15 years in a row and China has become the EU's second largest trading partner, according to China's Ministry of Commerce.

Official statistics from the ministry show that two-way trade between China and the EU hit a record high of 682.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, up 10.6 percent year-on-year.

The two sides are also building up consensus and efforts under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, achieving fruitful results.

Cooperation between China and the EU is expecting better opportunities, with China's recently-adopted unified foreign investment law, a landmark legislation that will provide stronger protection and a better business environment for overseas investors.

"Despite mounting uncertainties in global trade, trade between China and Europe continues to enjoy good momentum. It shows that cooperation between China and Europe has a solid footing and great potential," said Cui Hongjian, head of the Department for European Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, a Chinese think tank.

In March, the European Commission defined China simultaneously as a cooperation partner and economic competitor and systemic rival and proposes 10 actions for EU heads of state or government to discuss and endorse, according to the commission's press release.

"With the constant deepening of cooperation, there will be competition in areas such as economy and trade, which is quite normal. Moderate and benign market competition helps stimulate each of us to develop better and makes China-EU cooperation more resilient and vibrant," Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at a joint press conference with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini last month in Brussels.

Admitting competition is "not a bad thing," Zhang said. "Competition and cooperation are two sides of one coin. Competition is not a you-lose-I-win and winner-takes-all game."

Meanwhile, Zhang argued that China and the EU, while adopting different political systems, are not necessarily becoming rivals.

"I think cooperation is the keynote of China-Europe relations. As for competition, the two sides need to work out a better way to deal with it," Cui added.

CHINA-CEEC COOPERATION

This year's China-CEEC leaders' meeting will be held in the Croatian city of Dubrovnik.

Initiated in 2012, the mechanism has gained wide support from the 16 CEEC countries, and has knitted together an all-round and multi-tiered cooperation framework.

In recent years, China-CEEC cooperation has been adapting to the constantly changing environment in Europe, and moving forward productively within the framework of China-EU relations and in accordance with rules of the EU, said Cui.

According to China's Commerce Ministry, Chinese enterprises have so far invested over 10 billion dollars in the 16 CEEC countries. Cooperation in areas like transportation, energy and production capacity has yielded fruitful results.

Statistics from China's General Administration of Customs show that the trade volume between China and the 16 CEEC countries reached 82.23 billion dollars in 2018, marking a 21-percent growth year-on-year.

In addition, China and the CEEC countries focused on closer subnational cooperation last year, and achieved significant progress in such areas as economy and trade, science and technology, education as well as people-to-people exchanges.

The annual gathering is of great significance to promoting steady, long-term development of China-CEEC cooperation as well as China-EU relations, said Wang Chao, the Chinese vice foreign minister.

"Spring is unfolding early in Brussels," said Zhang. "The China-EU relations are also breathing in fresh spring air."
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Digital trade drives future growth

China's digital trade, which has been driven by the country's technological breakthroughs and the rise of its e-commerce giants, is set to contribute more to the nation's economic growth and foreign trade in the future, industry analysts said.

According to a report jointly released by the Hinrich Foundation and Center for China Globalization (CCG) in March, digital trade currently supports up to 3.2 trillion yuan ($466 billion) of economic benefit in China, mainly through supporting the adoption of digital technologies in traditional sectors such as manufacturing and agriculture.

Its potential benefits will spread across all sectors of the Chinese economy in the following years, as by 2030, digital trade will contribute an estimated 37 trillion yuan in economic benefits to the Chinese economy, said the report.

Xu Hongcai, a Beijing-based economist, told the Global Times on Sunday that China's digital trade has developed quickly in the past years, both domestically and globally, greatly driven by the progress in sectors such as cloud computing, big data, mobile, social, artificial intelligence, blockchain, Internet of Things and augmented/virtual reality.

The development of China's digital trade has manifested in the rise of e-commerce and internet giants such as Alibaba Group and technological breakthroughs such as 5G, which will be the key technology for enterprises to achieve the next phase of digital transformation, Liu Dingding, an independent tech analyst, told the Global Times on Sunday.

Pushed by major e-commerce companies such as Alibaba, the CCG report said that China now accounts for more than 40 percent of the global value of e-commerce transactions. And the value of export virtual goods, including physical products enabled by the digital economy, is expected to grow by 207 percent by 2030, worth a total of 5 trillion yuan.

The fast development of digital trade also comes amid the progress in China's digital economy, which is expected to become the main driver of the country's economic growth in the future as China shifts toward a consumption-driven economy.

An industry insider told the Global Times on Sunday that "it's too hard to measure the exact impact of the digital trade and economy currently, but in the future, all industries will be digitalized - especially with the coming of the 5G era, it's inevitable."

Xu noted that challenges still remain. The biggest among them is the lack of a data management framework and a unified digital trade rule, though the country made major progress in this area by enacting a new e-commerce law at the beginning of this year.

The e-commerce law requires e-commerce operators to have business licenses valid for both China and the countries in which they make purchases, and operators should fulfill their tax obligations in accordance with the law.

Industry observers noted that China should play a greater part in improving global governance of the internet sphere and help pave the way to become a trailblazer in setting the rules of global digital trade.

China should also ensure rules governing intellectual property rights and raise its thresholds and customs duties on digital products to boost cross-border digital trade, the CCG report said.

On January 25, China and another 75 WTO members issued a Joint Statement on Electronic Commerce, confirming their intention to begin WTO negotiations on trade-related aspects of electronic commerce.
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)
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.
Sunitha natti By

Express News Service

HYDERABAD: With the Supreme Court (SC) striking down the controversial February, 12 circulars, SBI, the lead banker for troubled Jet Airways, has gone back to the drawing board to devise a plan on converting the air carrier's debt into equity.

It's likely that the government and RBI will step in and give directions allowing SBI to proceed with the previously approved resolution plan. According to bankers, RBI, after consultation with the government, can direct banks on implementing a time-bound resolution plan for specific accounts such as Jet Airways.

"The lead banker is preparing a paper on that, and we will know about it (about converting debt-to-equity)...It's difficult to crystalize anything right now. Because if you recall, two banks said they'll fund it (interim funding), then the consortium said the SC circular has been scrapped, that has also given a new dimension," a senior banker told Express. He added that SBI will likely present the details to consortium lenders before the bidding ends on April, 10.

"The SC judgement doesn't prohibit one-on-one conversions (debt to equity in specific accounts). But we have to follow some compliances," said another banker.

As per the bank-led restructuring plan, approved by Jet's shareholder's last month, lenders were to receive 11.4 lakh shares after converting debt for Rs 1 in lieu of 51 per cent stake in the carrier.

In the absence of the circular, banks must reprice shares in line with Sebi regulations that insist on six months average price.

This, however, could be negated if the government gives directions to the central bank to exercise its powers under Section 35AA of the amended Banking Regulation Act.

Meanwhile, nine banks including public and private lenders will stake ownership claim in the airline if the debt-to-equity conversion plan succeeds.

As per the Expression of Interest, published Monday, the consortium comprises SBI, Punjab National Bank, IDBI Bank, Syndicate Bank, Canara Bank, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and Bank of India.

"As per the norms, only secured creditors can get into a consortium. Operational creditors who have not joined the wills and means of finance, something which is not either working capital or a term loan, and which is secure, aren't part of the consortium," he added.

The proposed additional funding to keep the airline afloat will be borne by these nine lenders.

"Nothing was approved. There are various possibilities and calculations regarding working capital gaps to get some kind of visibility and sustainability of the airline. We haven't chosen a number," he explained.

Banks were to own 51 per cent stake in the airline, while promoter Naresh Goyal and partner Etihad Airways were to hold 24 per cent stake in the airline.
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: The bidding process to find a buyer for the beleaguered Jet Airways, which was to kick start from April 6, will likely commence from April 8 now.

The major reason that led to the postponement is believed to be the lack of clarity on the impact of the Supreme Court order quashing the Reserve Bank of Indias (RBI) February 12, 2018, circular. People aware of the developments said that post the verdict, lenders and bidders had to make significant changes in the bidding documents, which delayed the process.

The SBI-led consortium of lenders, which now holds a majority stake in Jet, said last Thursday that Expression of Interests (EoI) for sale of stakes in the airline will be issued on April 6 and the last date for the submission of bids would be on April 9. It is now believed that the last date will also to be extended by a day to April 10.

Meanwhile, names of domestic and foreign entities, such as investment firms TPG and government-anchored National Investment and Infrastructure Fund, Tata Vistara, Delta Airlines, Etihad Airways and IndiGo Partners are doing the rounds as potential bidders for Jet.

ALSO READ: Crisis averted as IOC resumes fuel supplies to cash-strapped Jet Airways

The lenders consortium has, however, maintained that it would stick to the June 30 deadline for resolution and would initiate bankruptcy proceedings if it fails to attract an investor by that date.

A finance ministry official said that lenders are keeping a close watch to maintain the current fleet size as further grounding might seriously jolt Jets operations. It is expected that the banks would release the first tranche of the promised Rs 1,500 crore interim fund in the next few days, to avoid oil marketing companies stopping supply of fuel or pilots going on strike from April 15 over non-payment of pending salaries.

On Friday, Indian Oil Corp had stopped the supply of fuel to the airline for some hours over non-payment of dues.

Under the debt resolution plan approved by the Jets board on March 25, lenders have taken a majority stake in the airline, committing to pump in Rs 1,500 crore. Jets founder Naresh Goyal and wife Anita had also quit the board. But the banks are yet to reach a consensus on funds.

Devoid of liquidity, the situation at Jet has worsened in the last few weeks with the carrier now left with only 26 planes out of 120. The fleet size is expected to shrink further and aircraft lessors who have approached Director General of Civil Aviation to de-register their planes might take their grounded planes out of the country.
Rajas Kelkar By

Express News Service

Elders in your family would always have thumb rules to share. Of the rupee you earn, keep at least 25 paise for a rainy day or Save first and then spend and so on.

As you grow old, your needs change. There is a cycle that you follow in your lifetime: when young, you borrow; in your working years later, you save; when old, you need money to spend after retirement. As economies grow old, household savings tend to decline.

In India, you can structure your retirement ideas in many ways. There is a defined benefit way and a defined contribution way. The defined benefit schemes are plans like Public Provident Fund or Employees Provident Fund, where the government guarantees a return on investment. If you are salaried, a percentage of your basic salary is deducted for Provident Fund and your employer contributes a similar sum.

In the United States, households use pension plans extensively under the defined contribution scheme. Over the years, their contribution to these plans has enhanced the value of their wealth. Commonly called as 401 (k) plans, these investments are in a combination of equity and debt assets. About 55 million Americans have saved a staggering $5.2 trillion in 401 (k) plans over the years, according to the Investment Company Institute, an American association. That is twice the size of Indias Gross Domestic Product.

The defined contribution scheme in India is the National Pension Scheme or NPS. It was launched in 2004 for government employees. In 2009, the government allowed private sector companies and ordinary people to open NPS accounts. The scheme will enable you to choose how you invest. You can determine your contribution. Tax benefits under Section 80C and many other subsections make it an attractive idea.

As of February 2019, NPS has 24 million subscribers (1.25 crore) with assets under management of close to Rs 3,00,000 crore.

Currently, just about 10 per cent of the money in the NPS is invested in equity assets. However, Morgan Stanley, a global bank, expects this to go up to 25 per cent in a decade. It attributes this to recent regulatory changes aimed at allowing more allocation to equities than before. Private sector company employees can allocate a maximum of 75 per cent of their pension into equities, while for public sector enterprises, it is 50 per cent. The global bank expects Indias young workforce to contribute more towards retirement savings over the next decade.

Why NPS matters

The defined contribution pension works well because returns are market-linked. India is a fast-growing economy. It is likely to stay that way due to the rising, young, consuming middle-class. Companies that ride on Indias economic growth are all set to grow business and profits. Indian planning his or her retirement must allocate more resources to equity assets. The NPS is a perfect way to go about it. It offers you a choice to use the active allocation option or auto allocation option. Most non-finance people struggle to determine factors like risk-appetite or future equity market trend. It is best to pick the auto option as funds are automatically allocated in aggressive (75 per cent equity and 25 per cent debt), moderate (50 per cent equity and debt) and conservative (25 per cent equity and 75 per cent debt) plans.

The NPS scheme could be that nudge you need to secure your finances. It will be a game-changer not only for you but also for Indian financial markets. More long-term pension money allows India to generate savings to fuel growth. At the same time, the defined contribution nature of the scheme means that it does not burden government finances. Other small savings schemes like Public Provident Fund, National Savings Certificate or Employee Provident Fund schemes have a guaranteed return. They put a burden on government finances.

Retirement is the last thing to think about when young. For a small contribution, individuals can nudge themselves to prosperity. It has happened in the US and European countries before. There is no reason why it cannot happen in India, considering the long-term growth potential of the economy.
Manoj Sharma By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: Prakash Raj, who is contesting from Bangalore Central constituency, has now been accused of electoral malpractice. A social activist from Bengaluru has filed a complaint with Election Commissioner of Karnataka, alleging that Prakash has four EPIC cards in three states, which amounts to one year of imprisonment. He has asked the EC to reject the candidature of the actor-turned-politician.

Jagan Kumar, a social activist from Bengaluru, has filed a complaint saying that the actor enrolling voter card at four different places, is a violation under the Representation of Peoples Act. Kumar, in his complaint said, Prakash Raj has filed nomination as an independent candidate from Bangalore Central and has registered his name in the voter list of three places  two in Tamil Nadus Velachery constituency and one in Telanganas Serilinampally constituency  which means his name is active in all these addresses with voter ID records. This is a clear violation of Sections 17, 18 and 31 of the Representation of Peoples Act 1950.

The letter also included the voter card numbers of Prakash. Arun KS, Kumars advocate, said, This is a clear violation of rules by Prakash Raj. Apart from these three addresses, he has one more voter card in the address of Shanthinagar, which he has declared in his elections affidavit.

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There has to be some accountability for these people but it is unfortunate that they have been fooling everyone. Prakash can be fined with Rs 1,000 and sentenced to one year of imprisonment. If the Election Commission does not take any action in the matter, we will file Public Interest Litigation in the High Court, demanding rejection of his candidature, he said.

When TNIE spoke to Prakash, he denied these allegations and said that some elements are trying to derail his path into politics. These people are trying to derail the attempt of an artist and a national star to become a politician. These people have no work other than this and I am very much aware of what I should do. I have filed the nominations and the Election Commission will scrutinise my documents, which is all that matters, he said.
Parvathi Benu By

Express News Service

A Delhi court on Monday granted the Delhi government time till July 23 to decide whether to grant sanctions to prosecute former JNU Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar and others in the 2016 JNU sedition case. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat granted specific time to the Delhi government which had earlier told the court that it will take over a month to decide whether to grant the sanctions to prosecute Kumar and others in the case.

A few days ago. the Delhi government recently informed a Patiala House court that the police had filed the chargesheet in the JNU sedition case in a 'hasty' and secretive way. There was also an ongoing blame game between the AAP government and the police. While the former said that the chargesheet was filed without required sanction, the latter refuted the claim saying that they'd sent a request to the government seeking sanction and that sanction was an administrative action, without which the chargesheet can be filed.

We sought a legal expert's help to find out the procedures while filing a sedition case. Lawyer and political commentator Sanjay Pinto says that, according to the chargesheet which was filed in January 2019, approximately three years after the said incident, ex-JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya and others were slapped with Section 124 A (Sedition), which falls under part VI of the IPC. The prosecution on this case, however, falls under Section 196 of the CrPC.

READ HERE | JNU sedition case: Charge sheet was filed in secrecy, Delhi government tells court

"Proceedings, in this case, are determined by the CrPC section 196. It says that offenses under part 6 of the IPC and for offenses such as 196 A and 295 A, government sanctions are required for prosecution. It doesn't specify sedition specifically, but since it falls underpart VI, 196 applies to it," says Pinto. "Now, the problem arises because, Delhi is a Union Territory and there is a Lieutenant Governor, who can take administrative decisions. Also, the political views of the centre and the ruling AAP are different," he adds.

The Delhi police filed the chargesheet against the JNU students on January 14. But four months down the line, the accused are yet to see the chargesheet. On a previous conversation with us, Umar Khalid, who was slapped with sedition said, "The Delhi police is aware of all the procedures while filing a charge sheet. This is nothing but an attempt to prolong the entire process so that it continues till the elections."

(With PTI Inputs)

(This story originally appeared on edexlive.com)
By Bloomberg

Even as India is consumed by the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the worlds biggest, the country is nearing another milestone: Its set to overtake the U.K. to become the worlds fifth-largest economy. By 2030, its GDP could top $10 trillion. Yet, unusually for such a geographically large and economically vibrant country, India has no states to compare to California in the U.S., Chinas Guangdong province or Japans Kanto prefecture -- all regions with $1 trillion economies. Nor does it have a city on par with New York or Tokyo, both of which boast bigger economies than countries such as Canada and Indonesia, accounting for over a tenth of national GDP apiece.

Indias next leader will have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to change that by transforming the countrys commercial capital, Mumbai. A better one might never come along.

Mumbai is the engine of the prosperous western state of Maharashtra, Indias largest regional economy with a GDP somewhere between $350-400 billion; the city contributes well over half the total. For Maharashtra to become a $1 trillion economy, Mumbai would need to double or triple the size of its economy, on the back of its preeminent role in service industries, especially finance. That means competing with the likes of Singapore and Shanghai to attract global banks and other world-class financial institutions to the humid, traffic-choked city.

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This poses obvious challenges. Itll require regulatory changes, in particular ending the uncertainty and complexity around taxation for financial services firms, which has led to the bulk of the local fund-management industry moving to Singapore. Maharashtra will also have to establish a first-rate system for resolving commercial disputes, involving everything from fast-track courts to international arbitration.

Just as importantly, the chaotic city needs to create an efficient core -- a business district attractive enough for leading global businesses to want to locate there. Dense urban clusters create agglomeration benefits, one of the very few ways available to improve productivity permanently.

This is, to say the least, hard to imagine. However much residents love Mumbais freewheeling, cosmopolitan spirit, the city is an infrastructural mess. Headlong growth has worsened congestion, air pollution and the general quality of life. Urban planning is mostly an afterthought. Haphazard development and an explosion in car ownership has made parts of the cramped city virtually unnavigable during rush hour, when the average commute from the airport to downtown Mumbai can take over 1.5 hours.

However, Mumbai has a unique opportunity to turn its fortunes around. The citys port, which occupies about 900 hectares along the prime eastern waterfront, is slowly vacating the area because shipping and allied activities have moved elsewhere. Redevelopment plans so far have focused on infrastructure, including a cruise ship terminal. The area could be something much bigger: a means to transform Mumbai into a financial powerhouse on par with Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Remember that the City of London occupies only 290 hectares. Canary Wharf, Londons new financial district where most major banks are located, is just over 40 hectares. This tiny area hosts financial services firms that provide 160,000 jobs with an average wage in excess of 100,000, while serving as a magnet for other businesses; those 40 hectares generate economic output of over $50 billion annually. Harvards Ed Glaeser shows that the area in midtown Manhattan between 41st and 59th Streets houses 600,000 workers, earning $100,000 on average. In Asia, the central business district of Singapore is built on 184 hectares and the Dubai International Financial Centre on 45 hectares.

Working with city and state officials, Indias next government should aim to redevelop the port area into an efficient, dense, walkable cluster offering the high quality of life and green spaces lacking in the rest of the city. The experience of reviving the London Docklands shows whats possible. Much like Mumbai, the port of London also suffered the impact of containerized traffic in the 1960s. Soon, the entire port closed, leaving nearly 2,000 hectares of land derelict. Redeveloping the area and building Canary Wharf into a global financial center took a coordinated effort from the government, the transport authority and the property developer.

A dedicated development authority, the London Docklands Development Corporation, provided focus. Priority was placed on creating buildings with large trading floors, a key need for financial services and, in particular, robust public transport links. The latter allowed for density and access to the labor market of greater London, without worsening road congestion. Indeed, there are only 5,000 parking spaces in Canary Wharf and they are rarely full. Strategic communication efforts were designed to withstand changes in political and economic cycles.

The challenge in Mumbai will be greater. Federal structures, overlapping jurisdictions and limited state capacity make change harder. The ghosts of past planning mistakes loom large, while mechanisms to fund infrastructure through the promise of future growth are less mature. The new zone must operate with a plan that emphasizes jobs and economic dynamism, flexibility and mixed use, rather than one that is static and heavily zoned. It will also require greater coordination between government agencies to fully integrate the area with the rest of the city, with dense transportation networks being key.

Nonetheless, a big idea such as transforming the waterfront into the National Financial Capital Region could fire up imaginations among bureaucrats, bankers and citizens. Whats more, Mumbais port is just one of many public sites that are either unutilized or underutilized. Indias railways, ports, defense services and state-owned companies control hundreds of thousands of hectares, a large proportion of which are unproductive relative to their location in the heart of big cities. Success in Mumbai could potentially unlock much larger tracts of land across the country, boosting the economy and dramatically improving the quality of life in Indian cities. Whoever triumphs at the polls next month shouldnt let this opportunity slip.
Express News Service

VIJAYAWADA: Elections in the State have become a megabuck event with candidates pumping money like never before into electioneering. On the ground, reports suggest that a Lok Sabha candidate could end up spending upwards of Rs 100 crore, while the figure is somewhere over Rs 30 crore for an Assembly seat aspirant.

Senior politicians from different parties TNIE spoke to opine that cash and other goodies being seized by the police across the State are just tip of the iceberg and say the last two days before the State goes to polls on April 11 could see the free flow of money and liquor.

The Election Commission has already expressed the fear that Andhra Pradesh could top the charts in terms of money flow this time. From March 10, when the model code came into force, till April 6, a total of Rs 108 crore cash has been seized in different parts of the State.

FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE

A senior politician, on condition of anonymity, explained that election expenditure is seen as an investment by businessmen, contractors and entrepreneurs who have entered the poll fray.

Candidates are selected based on their financial soundness. An MP candidate is also expected to bear a part of the expenses of the MLA contestants under his/her segment and work for their victory too, he said, pointing at the reason for the high expenditure of an MP candidate.

The expenditure would be a little less if it is an urban segment, another politician observed. On record, though, every contestant TNIE contacted maintained that he was spending well within the limits imposed by the Election Commission -- Rs 70 lakh for Lok Sabha segment and Rs 28 lakh for an Assembly constituency.

The actual expenditure differs from constituency to constituency. Take for instance, the Ongole MP seat, which is witnessing a keen contest between a businessman and a Cabinet minister  YSRCs Magunta Srinivas Reddy and the ruling TDPs Siddha Raghava Rao.

According to a conservative estimate and people close to the candidates, the minimum expenditure on each Assembly segment falling in the Parliamentary constituency is a staggering Rs 20 crore.

As the Lok Sabha constituency has seven Assembly seats, the total expenditure comes to nearly Rs 140 crore, a source explained the math. The Assembly candidates, on the other hand, have to spend nearly Rs 30 crore each, it is learnt.

Apart from the money spent by MP candidates, Assembly contestants have to shell out money from his/her pocket, one leader said.

When contacted, Magunta Srinivas Reddy said he was spending money within the limits prescribed by the Election Commission guidelines. Every penny is accounted for in the documents submitted to the officials concerned, he said. His rival Sidda Raghava Rao was not available for his comment as he was busy electioneering.

In the Ongole Assembly segment, the stakes are likely to go up as the D-Day nears. Across the Assembly segments in Prakasam district, the candidates are likely to spend at least Rs 2,000 for a vote. The situation in the Ongole Assembly segment, however, is different. With the two rival candidates taking the election as a prestige issue, they may raise the stakes and spend Rs 3,500 for a vote, another leader observed.

A politico in Visakhapatnam, who did not wish to be named, claimed that the high command of a party agreed to financially support a candidate from the Gajuwaka Assembly constituency. Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan is contesting in Gajuwaka and he faces YSRCs T Nagi Reddy and sitting TDP MLA Palla Srinivasa Rao.

The seat has assumed a lot of significance and the stakes have reached new heights. The election here has become an expensive affair, one of the candidates admitted on condition of anonymity. The candidate had to dispose of his lands in Old Gajuwaka area to fund his election campaign.

The situation is no different in the Rayalaseema region too. For Anantapur MP seat, one of the candidates, it is learnt, is not hesitating to spend more than Rs 100 crore.

Not just the voters, money has to be spent on attracting second-rung leaders of the opposition party as well, a political observer pointed out.

The candidates, who claim they are not pumping money into the election, however, point fingers at their opponents.

YSRC candidate in the Anantapur Lok Sabha fray Talari Rangaiah alleges that his TDP rival JC Pavan Reddy is splurging money and using muscle power to win the election. But he is confident of winning with over one lakh majority.

In East Godavari district, according to a conservative estimate, an MP candidate is reportedly spending over Rs 80 crore.

A candidate spends more than Rs 10 lakh on the nomination day itself for mobilisation of people and related expenses. For the next 20-odd days of the campaign, the expenditure runs into a couple of crores a day at the minimum, a leader from Kakinada said.

The major part is spent just days before elections.

A candidate has to pay cash and spend on liquor and other allurements, he added.

The Mangalagiri Assembly constituency in Guntur district too has been in the news for free flow of cash and goodies. With none other than IT Minister and Nara scion Lokesh in the fray against sitting YSRC MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy, the voters in this Assembly segment are being lured with freebies apart from cash.

In nearby Vijayawada too, money is changing hands. Asked for his comments, YSRCs Vijayawada MP candidate Potluri Vara Prasad, one of the richest politicians in the poll fray, said, As per the guidelines of the ECI, we are carrying on our campaign through digital platforms and campaigning vehicles to highlight our party vision and development activities in the constituency.

PVP maintains that people are no more willing to ruin their future by taking freebies to cast their vote.
By PTI

MUMBAI: Irrfan Khan on Monday said he is happy to be back on a film set and is excited to tell the audience another story.

Irrfan, who is making comeback to the movies with "Angrezi Medium" after recovering from neuroendocrine tumour, will be playing a sweet shop owner in the film, a sequel to his 2017 hit "Hindi Medium".

READ MORE | Irrfan Khan back in action, resumes shooting after battle with rare cancer

The actor shared a picture from the set of the movie, which is currently being shot in Udaipur, Rajasthan.

"GMB (Ghasiteram Mishthan Bhandar) serving since 1900s . It's going to be fun to tell another story #AngreziMedium," Irrfan captioned the picture.

In the photo, the 52-year-old actor can be seen dressed up as his character Champak.

According to the synopsis, Irrfan and Deepak Dobriyal 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.

The film features Radhika Madan as Irrfan's daughter and talks are on for another leading lady.

"Angrezi Medium" is directed by Homi Adjania and produced by Dinesh Vijan.
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 (CEEC), 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 during which 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, Zhang stressed.

Secondly, there are growing common interests between China and the EU, Zhang said, as the EU has been China's largest trading partner and source of imports for 15 consecutive years, whereas China has been the EU's second largest trading partner and the largest source of imports for 14 successive years.

In 2018, trade between China and the EU exceeded a record high of 682 billion U.S. dollars, 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 under 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 under 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 make the China-EU relations embrace another "highlight moment," which will provide an opportunity for the two sides to review the cooperation results of the past five years and plan the direction of cooperation in the coming period, Zhang said.

The occasion will once again send out positive signals from China and the EU in strengthening mutual political trust, promoting pragmatic cooperation and supporting multilateralism, he added.
By PTI

AHMEDABAD: 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.

FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE

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 don't 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 of 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.
By Online Desk

Contrary to Congress' stand on Hurriyat which promised talks with all Jammu and Kashmir stakeholders in its manifesto, the BJP on Monday vowed to ban the Hurriyat Conference if it returns to power.

The BJP, which released its manifesto earlier on the day, also reiterated its demand for abrogation of Article 370 and Article 35A of the Constitution - provisions specific to Jammu and Kashmir.

"In the last five years, we have made all necessary efforts to ensure peace in Jammu and Kashmir through decisive actions and firm policy. We are committed to overcome all obstacles that come in the way of development and provide adequate financial resources to all the regions of the state, We reiterate our position since the time of the Jan Sangh to the abrogation of Article 370," the party manifesto said.

"We are committed to annulling Article 35A of the Constitution of India as the provision is discriminatory against non-permanent residents and women of Jammu and Kashmir. We believe that Article 35A is an obstacle in the development of the state," it added.

FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE

Article 35A was incorporated into the Indian Constitution in 1954. It provides special rights and privileges to the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir, while Article 370 grants special autonomous status to the state.

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 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.

In its manifesto, the BJP also said it will take all steps to ensure a safe and peaceful environment for all residents of the state and make all efforts to ensure the safe return of Kashmiri Pandits, who were forced to leave the valley in 1990s due to eruption of terrorism.

READ HERE | Ram Temple, farmers' income, Article 35A figure in BJP manifesto

The BJP also said its government will provide financial assistance for the resettlement of refugees from West Pakistan, Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK) and Chhamb.

In its manifesto, the BJP also underscored its commitment to enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Bill, on which it was forced to go slow following widespread opposition from North East states.

(With PTI inputs)
Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: Scaling up the pitch of attack on BJP dispensations both at the Centre and state, SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav termed them as anti-farmer while addressing a joint rally along with RLD vice chief Jayant Chaudhury in Baghpat on Monday, with first phase polling being just two days away.

Amid the slogans of --Chowkidar chor hai  the one coined by Congress, the SP chief said: First they became a Chaiwala and now a Chowkidar. The enthusiasm here is telling me that the Chowki of Chowkidar will not be saved this time. They had promised Ache Din, jobs for youngsters but lakhs of jobs were lost. Stray animal are destroying the crops. Farmers are forced to guard their farms, he claimed.

ALSO READ | Why didn't Mahagathbandhan raise issue of lawlessness in western UP during their rule: Yogi

Raking the issue of pending cane dues, the SP chief targeted UP CM Yogi Adityanath. "Apparently the Baba CM would have to go back to his Mutt after the elections, chairs are empty at his rallies," he said.

He continued to attack Yogi by claiming that the CM did not even know how to take a dip at Kumbh. Nobody knows which direction the country is headed for. Unemployment is at alarmingly high rate today. We do not just promise good jobs but also we will ensure good and affordable education to our youth, he added.

FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE

Seeking votes for Jayant, an alliance candidate fighting on his party symbol from Jat dominated Baghpat, the SP chief claimed that the zeal of alliance supporters was reflecting the huge margin RLD leader was set to win with. The enthusiasm that I can see here, is telling me that Jayant Chaudhary is going to win with a huge margin from Baghpat. The SP-BSP-RLD alliance belongs to people and farmers of this state, he said.

ALSO READ | No matter how much BJP shout NaMo NaMo, people chanting 'Jai Bhim' will chase them out: Mayawati

Akhilesh added that the grand alliance in UP would write history with with its poll performance. In a bid to bring narrative back to EVM suspecting it to be a reason behind BJP surge, Akhilesh said: It looks like the machines wont be able to do anything in front of your enthusiasm. Contrary to the slogan coined by them (BJP) this time it should be Abki Bar Kho Di Sarkar (This time they have lost the government).

Meanwhile, Jayant Chaudhary on Monday credited Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav for playing the "biggest role" in stitching up the SP-BSP-RLD alliance.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: 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.

FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE

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 believe in politics of entitlement while the BJP is for politics of empowerment.
By PTI

KATHMANDU: India Monday hailed Begum Hazrat Mahal, who fought against the British colonial rule in 1857, and highlighted her contribution towards the Indian freedom movement.

Recalling Begum's contribution towards the freedom struggle, Indian embassy's Charge de' Affairs Ajay Kumar laid a wreath on the freedom fighter's tomb at Jame Masjid in the heart of Kathmandu city to commemorate her 140th death anniversary.

"The tomb has become a symbol of Nepal-India people-to-people relations," Kumar said. The Indian embassy officials have been visiting the tomb every year on the death anniversary of Begum to pay homage to her.

A function was held at the tomb which was attended by a number of people from the country's Muslim community, journalists and officials from the Indian embassy here. Begum, who was the wife of the ruler of Awadh Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, fought against the British colonial rule in the 1857 rebellion.

The British had attacked Awadh repeatedly and forced her to retreat. She refused to accept any kind of favours and allowances offered by the British rulers.

Born in 1820, Begum finally sought asylum in Nepal where she spent more than two decades and passed away at the age of 60 on April 7, 1879.
Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

BJP candidate for Rampur, Jaya Prada, is all set to take on SP strongman Azam Khan on his home turf. She told Express that people of Rampur will ensure her victory. Excerpts

You are back in Rampur after representing it twice in Lok Sabha. Is it different this time?

I am feeling great to be back in this city which accorded me an opportunity to represent it twice in Parliament. People of Rampur are giving me the same love and respect which they had given me in the past. It is always a matter of honour to be in Rampur.

Your nearest rival is Azam Khan and Rampur is his own turf. How formidable is this challenge for you?

I love to be challenged. I am known to take the challenges head on and my efforts are based on my belief in God, the love of my people, my stamina and the positive energy which I get from the people of Rampur. This is the fight of the people of Rampur and they would win it for me.

In the past, Azam Khan made unpleasant statements about you. What has been his tenor now?

I strongly believe that I was targeted because he thought women are inferior to men. I believe in God. He does justice. There should be no gender bias when we are challenging each other in the battleground. But this happens everywhere because we have a male-dominated society. It is a common thought that women cant handle anything alone be it the corporate sector or the political arena. But in my case, I am not alone. People of my constituency are with me and now no can harm me.

After being with the Samajwadi Party for this long, what made you join the BJP?

I am impressed by the development agenda of Prime Minister Narendra Modiji and the way he is implementing it not only in UP but across the country. His spirit to serve the nation inspired me and I joined this party. I am grateful to the senior leadership of the party to make me a part of this family.

Why should people of Rampur vote for you?

They will vote for me because I have a personal connection with them. I have been an active part of their lives all these years. During festivals  be it Eid, Holi or Diwali  I used to leave my home and be with my people as my family here in Rampur. Moreover, I am aware of the issues of the people here even those living in villages in Rampur.

Do you think Priyanka Gandhi's entry will be a game changer for Congress in UP?

I respect Priyankaji a lot. But she had restricted herself only to two constituenciesRae Bareli of her mother and Amethi of Rahul Gandhi. Otherwise, she had been a homemaker. When she was introduced to active politics and made UP in-charge, elections were already round the corner. So, very little time was there for her to show her magic.

What are the real issues in this election?

Development is the biggest issue. PM Modi stands out as a Vikas Purush who has worked for people of all sections and all ages across the country. He has shown his commitment for Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas. His development model, the decisiveness of his government and better execution are the highlights of his tenure.

Dont you think anti-incumbency of 5 years, unemployment and farmers distress are main challenges for the BJP in the elections?

People are generally happy even in the villages. Modi governments welfare schemes like Ujjawala, toilets, house for all and move of transferring Rs 2000 thrice a year directly to the bank accounts of the farmers have left an impact on people. People feel only Modiji is capable of mitigating their problems.

There has been marked difference in performance of Congress rule and BJP regime on a number of counts. People in villages have very limited needsSadak, Paani and Bijliand NDA government has delivered all that more effectively than the UPA regime. Even the women folk are also happy. They feel more secure now; newer avenues are there for them.

But Opposition is making unemployment as the major issue in this election?

Unemployment has always been an issue in all the elections in India. I think the government led by Modiji has done a lot on this account. The government has created a lot of jobs in government sector and also in private sector. An all round growth of the country, which we have seen under this regime, is not possible without growth in jobs.

BJP comes under Opposition attack for allegedly politicising army after Balakot airstrike?

This government has shown the will to handle terrorism differently which was missing all this long. This is what appeals to the people. National security and nationalism should be an issue for all of us. Why not? Rather the opposition should not question everything every time.

People say the communal divide has widened during Modi regime? Do you feel so while being in Rampur?

No. People are showering their love in abundance. There has been no communal flare up during the last five years. Western UP had witnessed harrowing and unfortunate riots in 2013 which claimed so many lives and pushed so many families out their houses to migrate to other places. Did any such thing happen during last five years?
By Express News Service

On the back of major infrastructure push and people-friendly measures, including the implementation of universal health scheme  Ayushman Bharat  Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat asserted that the BJP would win all five Parliamentary seats with improved vote share, while crediting Prime Minister Narendra Modi for changing the face of the young state. Excerpts of his interview with Manish Anand.

The BJP had bagged all five Lok Sabha seats in 2014. Whats your assessment of the BJPs

prospects this time?

The BJP had polled 55% votes in 2014. We can say the electoral prospect of the party is much better now. People are more vocal in expressing their desire to see Narendra Modi as the PM again. It has been made possible only because we delivered on promises we had made to the electorate in the 2017 Assembly polls. All-weather roads to Char Dham, rail connectivity, roads and bridges being developed under Bharatmala and Sethusamudram project are being executed expeditiously. I can say that even the intelligentsia accepts that development on such a scale had never taken place in the state.

The PM has spoken about the implementation of one rank one pension (OROP) and surgical strikes against terror camps in Pakistan. Do you think people connect with such assertions?

Besides the PM, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and late Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar took it as a priority to implement OROP. The PM has travelled to the border areas of the state and been honoured by the armed forces personnel for implementing OROP. Besides, Indias firm actions against terror camps, following Uri and Pulwama attacks, have made a deep impact on the collective consciousness of the people.

You have counted infrastructure development amongst achievements, but environmentalists claim that ecological concerns have been compromised, including dumping of debris on riverbeds. What do you have to say?

Its not true that debris have been dumped on the riverbeds as they get washed away in natural course. In fact, Uttarakhands green cover is increasing. We have also undertaken projects to rejuvenate two dried up rivers  Rishiprana and Kosi. There is no water in them. Were awaiting the nod of National Green Tribunal (NGT) to be able to revive them in two years.

Alongside Rishiprana 2.5 lakh saplings were planted with peoples participation in a span of two hours, with peoples commitment for five years to monitor their growth. Similarly, 1.67 lakh saplings were planted along the Kosi riverbed in 75 minutes. Besides, one crore holes have been dug to recharge the dry riverbeds.

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Currently, only eight out of 48 water sources of Kosi river is active, while we aim to restore the rest 40 to ensure the flow of water. The Centre has committed Rs 60 crore for the two rejuvenation projects.

Exodus of the youth had been a poll plank during the Assembly elections. How much has your government been able to deliver?

We have constituted the Grameen Vikas Ewam Palayan Aayog to study and suggest remedial measures to check the exodus of the youth from the state. The report has come. Were mapping the population of each village against 2011 census data, besides data for the availability of resources, including drinking water, irrigation facilities, health, education and road infrastructure.

In the case of Pouri Garhwal district, the study has been completed. Besides, were undertaking pilot projects to convert peerul (pine needles) which is a source of bio-oil and also causes forest fire-into bio-fuels and cooking energy with peoples participation.

Were also involving women to prepare temple Prasad (offerings) without the involvement of middlemen to boost the income of rural people. Gram Light is another initiative with an employment potential for the locals, in which pine fruit and local raw materials is used to create decorative lighting as a Swadeshi alternative to Chinese products.

Uttarakhand shares its border with China. Is there improvement in road connectivity to border areas?

Under Bharatmala, Rs 900 crore worth of road projects over 700 km is being implemented in the border areas. Road project for Dharsala in Pithoragarh district had been pending for years but has now been completed. Now, vehicles can reach right up to the China border.

The BJP has effected a generational change in the state leadership by retiring veterans BC Khanduri and BS Koshiari. Khanduris son Manish even joined the Congress. Would that have any bearing on elections?

Both Khanduri and Koshiari had expressed their wish to keep away from polls. Khanduri isnt keeping well. Yet, he has assured us that he will campaign, even if it be for just one day. Koshiari is campaigning across the state. Manish Khanduri wasnt a BJP member. We were not even aware of his political activities. His being in the Congress will make the least impact.

Uttarakhand, like Jharkhand, has seen political instability. Are you confident that you would be able to deliver a stable government as promised?

Uttarakhand has left behind the times when its former chief minister Harish Rawat indulged in tricks to save his government. We have provided a stable, honest and transparent government in the Uttarakhand.


Mayank Singh By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The Indian Air Force (IAF) on Monday presented irrefutable evidence to end the over-a-month-long debate on Pakistan using US made F-16 fighters in February to attempt a hit on Indian military installations during which, one of their jets was shot down by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman.

In a Press conference in the national capital, Air Vice Marshal RGK Kapoor said, The IAF has irrefutable evidence of not only the fact that an F-16 was used by PAF on 27 Feb19, but also that an IAF MiG21 Bison shot down a PAF F-16.

Indian Air Force (IAF) releases AWACS (Airborne Warning And Control System) radar images. pic.twitter.com/axy2uVObWZ  ANI (@ANI) April 8, 2019

On the 26 February, the government claims that the IAF successfully struck the biggest training camp of terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in Balakot, Pakistan. As a repost, PAF aircraft attempted to target military installations in India the next day.

ALSO READ | Pakistan now indicates F-16s might have been used to hit Indian aircraft post-Balakot action

AVM Kapoor cited electronic intelligence and radio intercepts to support his statement.

Analysis of electronic emissions has shown that the aircraft picked up by the ELINT (Electronic Intelligence) intercepts from AWACS and radio transcripts indicated F-16s in the area directly in front of Wg Cdr Abhinandans aircraft.

He displayed radar images and maps of the aerial duel while he was speaking. One of the maps indicated three radar blips (bold points) on the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) side while one point, representing IAFs MiG 21 Bison was spotted inside the LoC. Maps showing the situation were based on visuals taken from an Indian Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS). An image taken 90 seconds after the first one showed the top blip on the Pakistan side and the Indian MiG missing.

There is no doubt that two aircraft went down, he said. One was a Bison of the IAF while the other was an F-16 of the PAF, which was conclusively identified by its electronic signature and radio transcripts, he added.

Moreover, the IAF shared a map of the visual sighting of two deployed parachutes. The aerial force also cited official statements made by Pakistan side after the incident. Certain official statements made by the DG ISPR further corroborate the IAF stand. In his initial statement on 27 Feb19, the DG ISPR categorically said 3 pilots  one in custody, and two in the area... The same was further corroborated by the statement of Pakistans prime minister... concluded AVM Kapoor.

#WATCH: Air Vice Marshal RGK Kapoor in the radar images shows the location of the shooting down of F-16 of Pakistan Air Force (PAF) by Indian Mig piloted by Wing Commander Abhinandan pic.twitter.com/CPuf2qf0nT  ANI (@ANI) April 8, 2019

Top navy man moves tribunal

Commander-in-Chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command, Vice Admiral Bimal Verma, presently the senior-most serving naval officer, on Monday moved the Armed Forces Tribunal claiming that he had been overlooked as a candidate for post of the next navy chief, despite his seniority. The government last month named Vice Admiral Karambir Singh as the successor to Admiral Sunil Lanba who retires on May 30. According to officers privy to developments, the other contenders included Vice Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral G Ashok Kumar, FOC-in-C of Western Naval Command Vice Admiral Ajit Kumar and FOC-in-C of Southern Naval Command Vice Admiral Anil Kumar Chawla.
Abhijit Mulye By

Express News Service

NAGPUR: Shankar Naitams two-acre plantation in Pandharkawda of Yavatmal district once used to bloom with pomegranate crop. This year, the strips are parched. Three years of consecutive drought has left him completely high and dry with no one to turn to and his angry stare answers the queries on benefits received by him from the host of government schemes to combat farm distress in Vidarbha.

Vidarbha in Maharashtra has been the heart of distressed farmers suicides and the situation is far from any comfort to those alive. Politicians, too, shy away from the questions thrown to them by their constituents. There are no easy answers.

Yet, the common voter in rural Vidarbha, who has been facing the wrath of nature and the associated farm distress, is experiencing heavy caste and communal pulls this time. As 7 of the 10 constituencies, won by the BJP-Shiv Sena combine in 2014, go to vote in the first phase on April 11, this confused rural voter is a major concern to the saffron alliance.

It is not just the land that has gone dry. Our hopes, too, have dried up, said Naitam, 43. There are others like Dattu Tajne of Nanduri village in Bhadravati taluka of Chandrapur district who proudly boasts of the benefits of government schemes he has received. The 55-year-old farmer has 6 acres of land. Proximity to a river  though almost dry now  has ensured moisture security to his farm, while dairy business started with Mudra loan has added to his financial security.

I bought two cows with Rs1 lakh of Mudra loan and now I sell 10 litres of milk every day at Rs 50 per litre, he said.

However, if one were to deduce that Naitam would vote for the Congress and Tajne would certainly vote for the BJP, it might be a mistake. Kunbi, Banjara, Mali, Teli, Muslims and Dalits are the communities whose votes could be a decisive factor in all rural constituencies of Vidarbha.

Of these, Teli, Mali, migrants from Hindi belt and OBCs, are by and large with the BJP-Sena combine, while the Kunbi, Muslim, Banjara and Dalit communities are with the Congress. Naitam belongs to OBC community, while Tajne is a Kunbi and both confirmed their preference for community opinion when it comes to voting in the Lok Sabha.

Wardha, Ramtek (SC), Nagpur, Bhandara-Gondiya, Gadchiroli-Chimur (ST), Chandrapur and Yavatmal-Washim are the seven constituencies of Vidarbha that would go to poll on April 11-among which, Nagpur is the only urban constituency.

In Wardha, BJPs sitting MP Ramdas Tadas and state president of Teli community is trying his luck again. He sits comfortably against Congress Charulata Tokas, for Teli votes have a dominant say. PM Modi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi both addressed public rallies in Wardha  in a span of a week. Though Gandhi raised a few vital issues, Modi had the crowd.

The constituency has three Congress MLAs, but the BJP had polled over 55% of votes in 2014 Lok Sabha polls as against only around 31% for the Congress. Prakash Ambedkars VBA and Mayawatis BSP have a major say in the region and come as a worry for the Congress.

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In Chandrapur, Union minister Hansraj Ahir is being challenged by former Shiv Sena MLA and now Congress candidate Suresh aka Bala Dhanorkar. Dhanorkar is a Kunbi and Ahir is an OBC. The constituency has over 4 lakh Kunbi votes, points out Sanjay Tiwari, a young Congress supporter who works in the state-owned coal mines.

However, BJP office-bearer Narendra Jivtode, a Kunbi himself, says and there are many like him who would want to elect Ahir for a consecutive fifth term. Akhtar Siddiqi, a young coal trader from the city blames Modi government for its divisive policies as well as decisions like demonetisation, which, he said, are haunt small traders like him even today.

Ahir had polled 45% votes in 2014 against Congress 26%. Senior PWP leader Wamanrao Chatap had polled around 18% votes back then which the Congress is trying to pull. However, again, the caste-community equations are likely to play a major role. The fact that state finance, planning and forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar hails from Chandrapur, is an added advantage for Ahir.

In neighbouring Gadchiroli-Chimur (ST) constituency, issues of control over Maoist activities is the major issue. Maoist activities are limited only to a small part of three talukas in the district, says Ahir, who, as Union minister of state for home, had taken keen interest in strengthening the Anti Naxalite Operation (ANO) unit of Gadchiroli police.

Here BJPs Ashok Nete (BJP) is pitched against Dr Namdeo Usendi of the Congress. Though Usendi is a senior tribal leader, Nete has obvious advantage of being part of the ruling party in the district which sees a strong presence of security forced due to the Maoist influence.

Another interesting contest from the region is in Yavatmal-Washim, where former state Congress chief Manikrao Thakre has entered the race against four-time MP Bhawna Gawli. In this seat, Vaishali Yede, wife of a farmer who committed suicide, is contesting under the banner of Prahar Party.

This is also the district that suffered the worst pink bull-worm attack on cotton crop last year.

Modi had promised us that our cotton would go directly to mills from our farm. But, the promise remains unfulfilled, said Shankar Nagpure, a cotton farmer in the district.

That Shiv Sena MLAs are not whole-heartedly backing the party candidate in Yavatmal-Washim and BJPs Parshuram Ade has entered the fray as a rebel, are additional concerns for Gavli.